The World We Live In!

I was in school, and I wrote a small poem in Hindi, on 31st October 1989, 3 years prior to the actual demolition. Those were the days when Ayodhya was main topic, and was every day on the front page of newspapers.  I saw that poem tucked somewhere in my old diary, and thought of sharing this. Its about request from God to all, for not taking the route of violence! But it seems we did not listen to our God, and went ahead with bloodshed of our brothers!

This post is about one of such wild thought. Its about life, and how we don't prepare ourselves for dark days in life! We are so careless and carefree, its like the story The Ant and the Grasshopper, and we all behave like the Grasshopper, hoping that nothing will change, and our good times in life will continue!

After watching Ra.One last night, I was disappointed, not because I am a fan of SRK, but because I am a fan of Sci-Fi, Superhero, Special Effect movies, and wanted this one to be a record breaker, so that more such movies can be made in India! But this movie is nothing except copy of various Hollywood superhero movies. We have seen Terminator 2, which is the main copy for the story of Ra.One, where a villain comes from another dimension (from future in T2 and from game in Ra.One) to kill the boy, and hero also comes from the same dimension to save the kid. Then, we have seen Iron Man with heart, Tron with the costume, Spiderman with the train sequence, and Speed with the train sequence on road. There are more in Ra.One, and I am sure we all have seen these movies, and remember these sequences. So, while disappointed, I thought of writing my own review of this movie, so read on, and don’t worry about spoilers, as there is very little original in the movie, so even if you don’t read...

Anna Hazare is everywhere, you open up any newspaper, any news channel, he is there! The shots from news clippings show you that Anna has support of all India! You will see a lot of people on Ramlila ground in his support! Today is 10 th Day of his fast for Jan Lokpal Bill. People all over holding protest march, candle march, shouting slogans like Vande Mataram, Bharat mata Kee Jai! People have cap or T-shirt written all over – I am Anna! So, it’s all Anna fever for the last 10 days, and not sure how many more days it will continue! But I am not Anna! And I do not want to be Anna! I do not support Anna’s movement! Don’t be surprised by this, as my last post was in April, and it was about Anna, whereas I supported him! So, why am I not supporting him now? Because I have my own eyes, my own mind and I can think, I can decide what is right and what is wrong! When he was right, I supported him, but when he is wrong, I am not supporting him, simple! Isn’t it?

Anna is going to break his 5 day fast today! He finally, got the government to agree on Jan Lokpal bill. I am not here to argue if the bill is perfect or as Government was quoting since Anna started his fast, the bill is not correct in its current form. All I know was that there is a draft, and it was side-lined for some time by our politicians. Anna forced them to get it back in limelight, and discuss, fix, implement it. This is what according to me he wanted, and he got it.

I was there, in 1983, when India won their first ever Cricket World Cup by defeating West Indies. We Indian believed in our heart, that we can do it, but in our mind, we were not 100% sure, if India can defeat two times World Champion, in the final of World Cup! But the underdog did it and lifts the cup! I still remember those days, when there was no live telecast, and radio was the only hope for us. But, it was 1983, so radio also gave you live commentary till midnight, and then goes silent. No, the match continues, and commentary will be transmitted from the ground, but our very own AIR (All India Radio) will just record it, and not transmit it post-midnight. Why? I still don’t know after 28 years. Maybe back then, there was no culture of overnight shift, or it was thought that people will not be awake, even for World Cup Cricket, and India playing in final, post-midnight. So, the arrangement was that the commentary of post-midnight will be recorded, and replayed, as it is,...

The Planning and Ticket It all started when my friend JD called me on Saturday, March 27, about the tickets of this game. All the news channels and newspapers are constantly telling that tickets are sold at very high premium, and not easy to get. I never planned to attend this game in the ground, as it was in Mohali, around 300km away from my place. But just knowing that JD is going, and emotionally, I too was completely attached to this game, decided why not? It took me just 5 seconds to decide about paying Rs 22,000/- for Rs 500/- ticket of this match. It’s not that I bought the ticket from black market on a premium, but ours was a package from official Tour Partner of World Cup, TUI.in, and it includes a T-Shirt, transfer from Chandigarh to Mohali and back, apart from the ticket. I know what you should be thinking after reading this, yes, we paid premium for the ticket, but at least, we did not pay it to some black marketeer selling tickets on high price, illegally. So, thi...

Another tragedy has hit the world yesterday! A massive earthquake of 8.9 scales has hit Japan, followed by TSUNAMI, killing thousands of people. Those who survived will have to struggle to survive! They have lost everything, and have to fight with a devastated life! Some of the survivors may recover with their life, and get back on their feet. But with most of the people in impacted area, it’s not going to be easy getting back with their life! They may have lost close family members, surely have lost everything they build so far in their life, home, job, life’s earnings, savings, everything!  And the images of this incident, it’s going to be there to haunt them for life! I cannot even imagine how they might be feeling right now; let alone how to start again with their life! From thousands of miles away, I can only pray for them, pray to God for giving them strength to recover!

Yes, it’s shocking news for all Comic Fans in India! Uncle Pai is no more with us! He was 81, and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award this month at India's first ever Comic Convention held in New Delhi on February 19-20. He was supposed to be at the event on 20th Feb, but a week before, he was admitted to hospital for treatment of a fracture after he fell from a staircase. Today morning, he suffered a massive heart attack and breathed his last around 5 pm. He is loved by children across nation, but never had any of his own. 

What is Comic Con? It’s a convention about Comics! But its not just limited about Comics! Yes, primarily its about Comics, but as we all know, that Batman, Superman, X-men, Spiderman and all these have already taken over our entertainment in a big way. They are not limited to just Comics, but are in Movies, TV series, Books, Merchandise, games and what not! Comic Con, or Comics Convention, started in San Diego way back in 1970, and still goes one as one of the biggest event every year! But hey, Comics fans are everywhere and no one can stop them to organise their own Comic Con in their cities! So, we have Comic Con happening in New York, Baltimore, London, Emerald City and more.

I got this on mail, and it is hilarious writeup about Gabbar Singh's character! If you don't know who Gabbar Singh is, then stop reading here. If you have seen SHOLAY, chances are you must have seen it multiple times! Still we can't get enough of SHOLAY and its characters! Gabbar Singh, like all other SHOLAY characters, is immortal. This article is based on the fact that if, and I say again, if we teach Sholay in our textbook, there will be teachings on its characters. And considering the new era of movies with anti-hero or main actor playing negative role, there is going to be a different perspective on Gabbar's character. Read on to enjoy:

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011 TO ALL! This is my 50th post on this Blog, and I never thought I can post upto 50 when I started. I wanted to post this in December 2010, as my last post of the year. But somehow, the time taken in research as well as year end holidays delayed it, and now we are with this, my 50th post, about Sholay Special Edition DVD and Alternate Version, as the first post this year. Sholay ! The name is enough! Yes, I am talking about Sholay the movie! The most famous movie of Indian film industry ever! There are so much written about Sholay, that I don't think I can add any new information in the already known knowledge about this movie! It’s a cult movie! Even today, after 35 years of its release, people still remember the characters, not just the main characters, but small guest appearance characters such as Surma Bhopali or Jailor, Sambha, Kalia as well! We still refer Sholay dialogues in day to day conversations! So, if people know so much and remember this much...