Oh the joy

Oh the joy when you find a soul who loves the same book/ movie/ place/ moment as much as you do.

So on our way back home with a office friend, the topic moves to the kind of movies we watch.

And she remarked ‘I readlly loved that movie of Milind Somen’.

My eyes sparkled with joy. “Oh the one with the curly-haired girl’.

“Yes-yes. It is my favourite movie. The only Milind Somen movie worth watching. He is looking so delish.”

“Oh how much I loved that movie. That movie has such good songs. Oh God, we spent beautiful college days listening to those songs and dancing away in them”

“All its songs were nice. Even the slower version of few songs.”

“I am unable to recall the name of the movie..But it was so ahead of its time. The narration style, yada yada..”

“Even Tanuja as Dadi was a good cast. Name of the movie ?? hmmm.."

And talking about the movie and humming the songs we parted ways to our homes.

Back home, when I connected my phone to wi-fi, there was a deluge of messages in the Whatsapp group of my college friends. These are the same friends with whom I have spent the joyous years of college hostel. I asked them the name of the Milind Somen movie with the song “Aise Pyaar ke naam”. Why google when you can connect to the friends who have the answer and the nostalgic tit-bit information about things. Same happened and friend A replied “Pyaar ka Superhit Formula” and this is the same song in which you used to dance in our hostel room. Sheesh! Friend M quipped “Rules”. And I got the name of the movie. “Rules-Pyaar Ka Superhit Formula”.

So many happy afternoons and evenings may be nights or mornings have been spent listening to these songs and dancing to its tunes.

I searched the songs on the internet next day and listened to it. To my amazement, I still
remembered almost complete lyrics of two of my favourite songs.

Here is to old time's sake.


Pic courtesy: Google images

my kind of weather

7:30ish in the evening
sky was blue
partly overcast with orange clouds
away from me.
my part of sky was clear
and I saw stars above.
The moon played hide and seek
 with the clouds
in the cool breeze.
I sat down in the roof
and gazed for long at the sky above.


Today after many weeks, I stepped in my roof terrace and the weather was so nice. Clicked some photos with my phone.

construction around

one is star, another light from passing plane

moon above, star below:p

Bullets of my March

• ·         I noticed the “100 Day Happy Challenge” in some blog where one has to post Happy things/ quotes/ pictures in their blog/ facebook etc for 100 days. I got interested as I thought it would be a great way to you know, smell the roses along the busy rushing life. But knowing myself, I know it would be hard as no matter how much I admire happy people like my mother but I know that I am not a one. You know the kind of people who are always positive, cheerful in their disposition and don’t panic/ overthink a situation and just go with the flow, I am not the one. I have my days where I sulk over something which is not actually there and get miffed over petty issues. Thank God I have a husband not like me, or else some days would surely be very hard. Then I came across this very happy song by Phharell Williams and watched the  Oscar performance. I downloaded and this song has been a part of my playlist since then. I was informed that United Nations and Phharell Williams have organized this competition where people have to post “Happy” video of their city. I watched some videos of the entries in youtube.  Lovely thought. Enjoy the song:
• 
  
• As I was washing my hands in office washroom today, I realized what my problem is. The problem is of “ACCEPTANCE”. Hmmm, this got me thinking for like a minute but then other important things came up like watching Arjun Kapoor in "Locha-e-ulfat" song from his upcoming movie for the fifth-time of the day. What a nice song and choreography. Benny Dayal is awesome and well I could keep my eyes off Arjun Kapoor. He is looking so nerdy and handsome. Here's the video of the song:

• ·         I love reading but have not subscribed or opened account in any reading website. Bust many days back, I finally succumbed and opened my account in Goodreads. I consider myself a good reader but was appalled to notice that even after forcing my memory to remember the names of books I have read, I was not able to cross the 100 books that I have read mark. I tried to be very honest with my list and mentioned only those books of which I have clarity that I have read them. Today is an important day. As per Goodreads, I have read over 100 books and I am actually pretty elated. Last few months I have done some serious reading  and I hope to continue it this year.
• 
  
• ·         Watched “Queen”. My first movie of 2014 that I watched in movie hall. Went ahead to watch it after reading some rave reviews in FB and blogs. Thoroughly enjoyed the movie.
• 
  
• ·         Half-watched “Highway’ at home. That means I have not yet seen the pretty mountainous drive of the Himalayan towns. Definitely going to finish it today.
• 
  
• ·          Whenever I have to travel a new place, I prefer researching online about it. And one of the sources that I search specifically are blogs as the blogs give a personalized perspective and nitty-gritty info which major websites fail to give. I was in a hill state for a vacation and there I saw women laborers working side by side with men clearing and building the road at height more than 12000 feet above sea-level. That day happens to be Women's Day. I saluted those women. Border Roads Organisation, which works for the maintenance and building of roads in the border areas of the country is doing such a tough job. Really, if making roads in those mountaineous terrain is not a difficult work, maintaining those roads in between umpteen landslides, rains, continuous traffic, tourist influx is sucha large part of their jobs. Whenever I travel in these roads, a sincere thanks goes to the people and this organisation responsible for the connectivity to the nature's beauty.
• 
  
• ·         I have never mentioned but I have received free gifts through my blog. Three times. Shampoos and conditioners sponsored by Sunsilk on participating in Indiblogger contests. No I did not win any position/ prize on my writing , it’s just that they hand out gifts to every participant and this is where I get lucky;).
• 
  
•     There have been many times that I have purchased a book based on the review/ feedback I read on some blog and downloaded and watched movies based on recommendations in blogs. April Snow, a Korean movie tops the list on my mind which I watched after reading rave reviews in one of my favourite blogger’s post. And I was not disappointed.

• 
  

Condition Serious Hain (in a non-serious way)

Seriousness is a very serious disease. And when I checked that Indiblogger.in have brought out this contest with Cadburys India to blog about your encounter with people jinki #conditionserioushain, how can I be left behind. This is my entry for this contest. 

If you have encountered such people, then this post is right for you. You can also head out to the Facebook Page of Cadburys 5 Star which is made for people like us and people jinki #conditionserioushain.

I am a woman. Brought up in a world where emphasis is given to your education and career and well, also marriage. At every phase of life one meets such people who nag, poke their nose in our personal affairs and blurt out without thinking and feeling about other person's feelings and emotions. Through this medium I have tried to share my encounters with such people at every stage of life.

जब हम छोटे थे तब वो पूछा करते थे

"बड़े हो के क्या बनोगे"

पढ़ लिख कर जब बाहर निकले फिर बोले

"तुम नौकरी कब करोगे"

उफ ये जालिम दुनिया सच में कितनी curious हैं

बच ले बेटा इनसे, इनकी #conditionserioushain

जब नौकरी मिली तो हम खुश हुए

की अब हैं दुनिया कदमो में

पर माता-पिता से ये पूछ के

उन्होने फिर हमे डाल दिया सदमे में

"चलो नौकरी अच्छी मिल गयी, बच्चा ambitious हैं

शादी कब करोगे इन्ही, ये उमर बड़ी precious हैं"

पर हम शान से चले

बेफिक्री से नौजवानी जिये

और फिर कुछ सालो के बाद

हम भी शादीशुदा हुए

पर क्या काहे उनके बारे में जिनकी #conditionserioushain

एक महीने बाद ही पूछ बैठे "बेटा गुड न्यूज़ कब हैं"

हम समझ गये हम जान गये

इनके सवालो का अंत नहीं हैं-

गुड न्यूज़ इनको दे भी दे तो फिर ये पूछेंगे

बेटा पेहला तो हो गया, दूसरा कब हैं

अगर हम मोटे हैं तो पूछेंगे

"तुम पतले क्यू नहीं होते"

और जो हम पतले हो तो कहेंगे

"घर वाले खाने को कुछ नहीं देते"

सच में इनके सवालो से हम भी थोड़े furious हैं

भगवान बचाये इनसे, उफ इनकी #conditionserioushain

An excerpt from Siddhartha

"When someone is searching," said Siddhartha, "then it might easily

happen that the only thing his eyes still see is that what he searches for,

that he is unable to find anything, to let anything enter his mind, because

he always thinks of nothing but the object of his search, because he has a

goal, because he is obsessed by the goal. Searching means: having a goal.

But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal. You, oh venerable

one, are perhaps indeed a searcher, because, striving for your

goal, there are many things you don't see, which are directly in front of

your eyes."




Hmmm. Makes sense.

Realization series continues

On rush days like Valentines Day, ALWAYS book your table in advance in your preferred restaurants.

(Ran in the rain from the restaurant to the parking with ZZ. 10 seconds of happiness:))

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Knowledge is Great

       

       Like every other child in middle-class home in India in 1990s, the only professions that I aspired were Medicine/ Engineering. If the child is good in life sciences, medicine was the way to go and if Maths is the subject one loves, Engineering was the aim. Those who did not have any inclination towards any subject were not considered bright. Today things have changed. We are living in interesting times. With exposure of the world and job opportunities, a child is exposed to different subjects and branches and is channeling one's studies in new directions.

        When I was a child I used to write diary. The description below my name used to be something like this:

                 Noble Prize Winner- Mathematics  (This was my favorite Subject then and I didnt know Mathematics is not any category for Nobel Prize)
                  Noble Prize Winner- Peace  (Oh that must be the Miss India in me speaking)
                  Noble Prize Winner- Literature  (The wish of the writer)
                  Oscar Award for Best Actress (uhmm the girl  sure had dreams. She still has.)

          I grew up to become an Engineer with an heart for all things Art and Humanities. If I could study/ specialize in my subject, it would be Sociology (Humanities) from the second oldest university in the English-speaking world, and the world's third-oldest surviving university.As per this website, University of Cambridge is the 6th best educational institution in the field of Humanities and the best in UK.I have always been interested in the psychology of man , psychology of society and what better way to channelize my interest by studying the subject and that from this renowned institute. The study of Sociology would help me in understanding of the public policy and social beliefs and the parities that exist among different societies.Sociology provides the rich picture of how the social world works.
          I read about the Cambridge university in some English story-book (I reckon it was part of the biography of Jawahar Lal Nehru of his young years- a part of our English textbook curriculum) in my childhood and being the dreamy person I used to be and I am, I have imagined many a times of myself studying in the prestigious institution.
            To me, Cambridge University is the ultimate university. The university where each stone speaks of history, where every path was taken by the intelligentia who influenced the world,where the classrooms and laboratories are filled with legends, where the air is enriched with the lives of its great students- from Srinivasa Ramanujan to Stephen Hawking, from Charles Darwin to Amartya Sen, from Charles Babbage to Salman Rushdie. Be it any field, the alumni of Cambrige have made their mark.

           And if the history itself is not enough, look at the view of one of the colleges of Cambridge University

The panoramic view of King's College, Cambridge

           It would be such a dream-come-true moment for me if this happens. And if its academia, architecture  and heritage is not enough, the current Duke and Duchess of Cambridge elevate the charm of Cambridge in itself.
          Knowledge is Great is a great initiative by British Council. Please click on the link http://knowledgeisgreat.in/ for more information.

        This post is my entry for the indiblogger contest "Knowledge is Great".

Pic courtesy: Google Imges & wikipedia