Barfi Movie

When it comes to movie... I prefer lighter ones only. An Adam Sandler or a Ben Stiller's, or chick flicks like Sandra Bullocks, teenage stories like Lindsey Lohan... or on the other hand something like comedy movies of KamalHassan, Arya, Mirchi Siva... etc. I seldom watch hindi movies anymore.. for one they are too hype these days.. all born rich.. all gone to foreign.. all with at least one Punjabi kudi song.. and/or one western style song loaded with noise..  dont tell me am getting older!!!! example I saw one Action Jackson movie.. and then this Singh is Bling, unfortunately both directed to PrabhuDeva. "enna kodumai Saravana...." - that sums up review for both movies.  
At least Akshay and Amy were something worth to watch in the latter movie.
After seeing movies like 'Nam iruvar namakku iruvar' and one Vijayakanth movie, I feel Prabhu could have survived as a comedy hero which suits him very well. May be that was not the trend then that he couldnt shine. and now he is killing us with these kind of Masala movies.

I had heard good about this movie... which I wanted to watch but didnt... even in one interview some famous film personality quoted about this movie... and sometime back, Vijay TV telecasted this movie - BARFI in tamil. In this dubbed version itself.. it is soooooo good... I wonder how it should be in its original verse. waiting to watch it in Hindi!

There are some movies that affects you a lot. It remains in you for a day or two.. whatever you do.. wherever you go.. you will keep carrying the characters and stories with you.. has it happened to you?? eg., Heavy movies like Mahanadi, Moondram pirai, Metti... etc. Recently I had this feeling after seeing Papanasam movie. (Here also I soooooooo wanted to watch Drishyam in Malayalam, but yet to do it). Could empathize the feeling of both parents who have daughter. It haunted me for like two days... For this feeling only I prefer lighter movies that helps me forget my worries and not the add more fuel to the already firing sad thoughts (whatta hype!! :-p)

Barfi on the other hand is not heavy at all. Yet it haunted me for a day. Is it the story telling, direction or location or the characters or the mere actors representing the character??? I dont know..

After seeing the still with Ranbir and Ileana I thought it was a simple romance movie like Ajab Prem ki... I never knew (not have seen the still) that had PC in it.

Though a period movie it doesnt bore you with you bell bottom pants or hippie wigs which the tamil period films are portraying. And though a movie with protagonists as special people (both physically and mentally), it doest carry any solemnity. It doesnt attract any sympathy. Yet your eyes become soggy.

Ranbir... what to say about his acting? He has kept up the names of his folks and family very well. As a mute yet a very normal person, his acting is perfect. He is very bubbly.. let it be a prank played with his friends, or expressing the love for Ileana, or while expressing the anger towards her, or while slowly falling for PC.. wow... the very expression, followed by combing of his hair before turning back to see Jhilmil at the climax is simply superb. When the police is asking him to start from the beginning (referring to speak from how he met Jhilmil), Ranbir starts from how he was born... that brings a smile on your face, admiring the innocence of Barfi!!

PC has proved her acting skills in this movie. With a bitten lower lips, confused expression in eyes, gestures and body language, she brings in the life to the movie. The minute someone says autistic character or mentally challenged character, we all get reminded of Sridevi only (Moondram pirai). PC has broken that ritual. Not a little bit does she brings Sridevi's shade.
The part that I loved the most was her frightened expression initially that turns out to be joyful later on while Ranbir grabs her in the slab that he uses on the train track. After she is gone, Barfi would peep out of the window when he gets a mirror reflection in his shop from near by window only to find that there was no Jhilmil but someone else's window pane that is reflecting. It brought tears in my eyes. But one thing for sure... had that Jhilmil is in current era, she would have been raped by evil men when she is running away from Barfi. or that would have been a choice if this movie was done in tamil. Thank God, the director did not complicate anything like that.

Ileana has little role yet has done it quite neatly. Expressions of an unhappy marriage is evident in her eyes and grave face. Running away from marriage may be very common these days, but is that so during 70-80s??

Apart from the location, actors and characters the one that took my heart was the music. Very poetic... very neatly done to go along and express the mood of the frame. Pritam has not done any unfitting piece at all and is not disturbing the flow of the movie. For a movie that has both the leading protagonists unspoken, music is the one that should speak. And yes it does!

Overall I simply loved the movie... but not the cliche climax.

Amritsar - I love it - 3

Now I realize why I am always mocked at work place. For a visit done in may month, am writing a review in November!!

So the concluding part is the visit to Jallianwala Bagh. Every Indian knows this place by the very name itself. Every patriotic Indian can relate it to the Independence struggle and empathize this place.

We have a garden here that houses a memorial and has preserved spots of the tragic incident. The entrance to the garden is too narrow to be a perfect spot for the British to perform its action. Several had died in stampede itself.
The bullet marks in the wall is not a picnic spot to cherish! While we get tempted to take pictures of this historical wall, it hurts to see people posing against it in happy note.. playing with the holes.. standing for selife... Is that just me... to go around with heavy heart and get hurt looking at these kids???

The Martyrs well... pity!! in this one only the hapless people who tried to escape jumped into. More like from frying pan to fire. History records over 100 people to have died in this one. The well is now protected with gates. People have paid homage and respect (?) by putting in coins and money inside this haunted well.

There is a small room which posts the various newspaper clipping about the massacre, the after reaction, heroes of the land, etc. are posted. It took hours to read through each and every picture. But Dittu was screaming becoz of crowd and it was too damn hot that we kind of left without reading through in detail.

Thats it. We started back to Chandigarh. We returned back only to stop at the Haveli hotel in Ambala where we had excellent relaxation and delicious food. 

Going faceless without Facebook

I have deactivated by Facebook account! That sums up this blog! :)

There are multiple reasons for my action. Top 10 being -

1) Too little friends circle
2) More family members than friends (duh!)
3) Got mixed up career guys and family guys thus anything that I post gets misinterpreted in various manner ! :(
4) Dont know what to write :-/
5) The minute I put photos of kids, they fall sick (Jinx??)
6) Even if I put a post too little people look, like or comment back! :-((
7) It hurts to see people happy around me when I am sad (haan? Whatta sadist I am)
8) Instigates jealousy of people who go around the world (Ambaani nahin... sirf bhambani hai, bhambaani...!!)
9) Reminds me of some bitter incident in the past when I see people in FB - mostly me hurting them than the other way
10) Got into Whatsapp actively - anyway it is family members naa... finding this easier than FB

But ... am being mocked by Chinni that I have become too old to use FB thats why deactivated it!! Podi! (go girl in Tamil but in a scolding manner)

Here is an interesting analysis here that shows the reasons for not using social medias -
Top reason being "Not relevant to my business" at 29% and surprisingly "Not familiar how it works" at 24% (Yeah no wonder the top notch CEO are still the 1990 guyz, not the millennials). But the response did not have "Jealousy" as a reason??!! May be am the only one and thus doesnt fit the graph.

Anybody wanting to deactivate theirs... here is a link to help you achieve it - https://www.facebook.com/help/214376678584711

Join the club!!

Image courtesy - http://startupmeme.com/omg-you-dont-use-facebook/ Nice post BTW, but am NOT reactivating my account.

While pondering about this, something struck in my mind. The language is getting improvised day by day based on the current trend and youngsters taste. So why all the way say... Deactivated and Reactivated instead of just making it 'Dactivate' and 'Ractivate'?? duh!

Amritsar, I love it! - 2

Just realized that I have left the first post with a "-to be continued", so here is the completion for that part.

The second part of Amritsar is about the Golden Temple visit and Jallianwala Bagh. Before that let me give a word about the hotels. (When you google for some best hotels in particular place, you always end up with links like tripadvisor or cleartrip, etc. which just offers range of packages. The reviews are often confusing and misleading. So I always go by googling blogs where the authors like me (ahem!) will give genuine feedbacks. But gasp! even blogs have advertising motives. Anyway here is a genuine feedback that you can consider!! :) )

Our budget was nominal - around 2500 to 3000 per night. Anyway it was only one night right, so why go for packages that offer breakfast when we have planned to skip it for the sake of visiting Golden Temple? That was the thought we had. But you DO NOT get nice hotels for that range, I warn you. We stopped by several hotels near Golden Temple, and also on the Amritsar Model town - Golden tulip, Best Western, etc. There is no Lemon Tree to our disappointment. Then we decided to take Golden Tulip for Rs. 3500 per night with breakfast. But before checkin we thought of having coffee at Coffee Day. Our GPS kept on taking us here and there in the Shopping Complex area. Then finally we got down at a Baskin Robbins joint that had coffee and also Pizza. We then enroute wanted to look for some other decent hotel for lesser amount. We settled with one "KK Continental" in Albert Road which was pretty close to the main road that takes us to Golden Temple. We spent too little time to write about any review here. The room that we took was small with a comfortable AC. The bathroom was clean but not so great. But I must definitely thank the hospitality that they showed. I was sick that night! Was it because of the karaabi lunch? or was it because of the journey? or the heat? or the pizzas? i dont know... but had severe stomach ache. DH hurried down at that mid night to see for any pharma. Luckily the person at the reception gave a over the counter medicine that helped my twitching tummy some relief. Was able to sleep that night. And then just took bath and left for the day. Didnt have coffee maker, had to ask for hot water to prepare. But definitely a good hotel for moderate budget.

Our day dawned in Golden Temple. The streets are well designed to reach the temple without any

problem. A big fly over took us straight into the parking lot which was a bit away from the temple. An entire 4 floored building is provided for car parking. We made there by like 7:30 AM yet found it difficult to get a parking spot. We got down in the 4th floor while DH hunted for a spot in the terrace. There are PLENTY of battery operated tuk tuks which help us by taking to the temple for like Rs. 100. While we were waiting for DH in one vehicle, an elderly person was selling the turban cloths. Simple cloth for Rs. 10 that can be used for covering the head. It is MANDATORY to cover our heads here irrespective of the religion that you may belong. Inside the temple, people literally were pouncing on those who do not cover their head. (I used my dupatta itself). Chinni and Dittu were looking cute with this head cover!! :)

Is it really very far... or did the tuk tuk guy took us through, we dont know but it was quite a long route to the temple. We reached there to see the lovely temple. It was very much crowded even at that early hour. Huge fans with supported spout that kept sprinkling water was very reviving for the scorching may month. It took at least 2 hours for us to enter and come out. They do respect kids and older people and ask them to go ahead in the crowd. Thats very kind of the Sikh community. In fact we later realised that separate

lines for women, women and children and old aged people were being kept. We kind of moved in faster at the end thanks to Dittu and her huge cry. We didnt know how to offer prayers and thus put our hands like pranaam and came out. We must be the only people to have come out of the shrine so quick!! The shrine had four entrances, all loaded with people. Devotees were sitting inside the shrine, outside, in the path way, everywhere. Songs were being sung by priests from inside as well as outside the shrine.

They kept offering the Langar but we didnt go there. The "prasadam" sweet that they offered was too good. Forgot the name of it... was like our Thiruvadhirai Kali (halwa like sweet) with lot of ghee. We were too tired to visit the other chambers of the temple. Spotted huge fish in the pond outside which is believed to be the nectar of the temple. And people taking dips.

Then we went to take our breakfast in "Shuddh Dhaba". Alas! we didnt get any food, nor proper coffee. The pooris and parathas came after what was like ever! Then the tuk tuk guy took us to some shopping. The textile warehouse shop was loaded with people.... from south! Can hear majority Tamil and Telugu languages there with lack of Hindi knowledge. I over heard a huge uncle talking to the shop keeper "This piece... this churidhar... 1000 rupees in Saravana Stores" I dont know how much did  the shop keeper offered, but sure couldnt understand the "sasta"(low price) that his customer is talking about. Another family... only the son could speak some english. Dad and mom were talking in tamil and this guy was the mediator between them. Unlike Delhi, the Punjab province have good amount of English speaking population. With my broken Hindi... I too bargained to buy nothing though :) Then we stopped by to buy some papads. Yet to try them out to see how they taste...!!

Then we proceeded to Jallianwala Bagh...

To be continued

Book Review - Majestic Elephants by Lion A. Selvaraj

I am on vacation now to Chennai for at least a month. There are several interesting stuff happened that I can blog about, like Dittu's pranks, visit to Madurai, anniversary celebration with DH, etc. Was quite lazy enof to write about these but this book made me to write about it.

We had been to Thekkady with our extended family. It was sooooo much fun. I always love going to Kerala.. it is definitely the Gods own place. So fresh, so much green, so mushy... hmmm... what else can relax us than visiting one Kerala hilly place like Munnar, Wayanad, etc. I prefer hilly areas over backwaters like Alleppey. May be I will had I been consuming fish in my food. By birth and by choice me and my DH are vegetarians. anyway Thekkady was very tranquil. especially the boating ride in the Periyar lake. The cuddly, chilly breeze and lazy afternoon post lunch definitely made all of us doze for a short while. After that we went on elephant ride. Us on one elephant and my BIL family on another. Our elephant Latha was a bit naughty. She seldom listened to her mahout. She kept stopping every now and then naughtily. She started putting up with a cat that was sitting on a compound wall without paying any attention to her mahout's call to move. Though now laughable it was a bit frightening then. What if she becomes crazy.. or what if the cat jumps up on us.. etc. As we were discussing these with our BIL that is when he introduced me to this book - "Majestic Elephant" by Mr. Lion A. Selvaraj.

Selvaraj uncle is a family friend to my co-sister. He is quietly running a medical stores, that is all I know about him. But was surprised to learn that he has been a forest officer and is experienced hand in the field of elephants for over 20 years. He is known as "Yaanai Vathiyar" meaning "Teacher of elephants" in Tamil.With so much eagerness am reading this book. Am not yet done but is so good that I am immediately writing this particular post!

The language is as moderate as my blog that it can be enjoyed by anyone. The book is more like riding down his memory lane that is very interesting and makes a page turner. The book speaks about the features of elephants, both bull and cow elephants, gestation and maternity, birth, behaviour of baby and mom, tiger vs elephants, men vs elephants, etc. It is interesting to know about the naughtiness of baby elephants, the care of not just the mother but also the aunt elephants for baby, etc. It is amazing to know about the intelligence of  the elephants like how it tricks the forest men, how they get in pet-fight with human beings, the help that they do to human beings, etc. At the same time it is equally amazing to learn about the encounter between tigers, panthers and elephants. One particular incident about the cow elephant "Rathi" against the bull elephants who come for mating, brought a BIG smile !! :-D Proves that elephants also do have feminists in them!!

I read out certain interesting facts to Chinni. She too thoroughly enjoyed the pranks and wondered about the intelligence of these mighty ones. She laughed out loud when she learnt that one of the elephant was teasing a baby elephant by 'pinching' it with her(big elephant's) trunk. Quotes about "Kumki" elephants did not quizzes us, thanks to the movie! :) It is interesting to know about training these lord of the jungles like doing pooja, ringing the bell, dance, etc. It is hair raising to learn about the ferociousness of wild elephants like 'Nanjan' against human especially while protecting the young ones.

The flow of the book reveals the love that the author possess on the elephants. Who would not use any soaps or detergents just for the sake of these animals??? That shows the dedication of the author in his work and for the nature. He has sprinkled tips here and there but is not making it exclusive. It just goes with the incidents, more like hidden messages but not that difficult to find. How much of it will we remember when we encounter one huge animal in front of us, is doubtful.
He doesnt forget to point out the mistakes that we humans do when it comes to the nature. Really humans have LOT to learn from these animals who do not have the so called sixth sense.

Not sure if this is available online and all (tried googling it but none exist. May be I will ask my co-sister to talk to him about it). The publication is done by "Nivethitha Publications", West Tambaram, Chennai. It is magnanimous of the author to dedicate this book not just to his fellow colleagues or acquaintances but to the Late Ceaser Elephant the Great!!!

As I said am not yet done but already am engrossed with the book and there by with Elephants. We fall in love with the mighty one, we learn to respect them. Thats the success of this book.

Amritsar, I love it!

It was all because of my cousin B. He came all the way from Chennai to visit North India (yet again, it is true that ALL that is above the 4 sister states is North India for us, including Orissa!!) and was soooo fascinated to visit Amritsar. Well, he couldnt make it but that ignited us to pay a visit. It is vacation time for kids too after all.

Actually it was a week long vacation for me and kids. It is always wonderful to ride on the car with DH from Delhi to Chandigarh, but this time we detoured first to Haridwar-Rishikesh (will write a post later....) and then from there it was set to Chandigarh as DH has got work. We three were literally 'vetti' (couch potato in tamil) eating, sleeping, watching TV in the hotel room and did nothing else. The minute I step out, I will go shopping. Shopping = waste of money. So DH was fine with me not stepping out this time. Also the Shukna lake and rock and rose gardens have been visited by us many times! And boy it was SOOO HOT. Comes the next saturday we set from Chandigarh to Amritsar.

We were joined by Mr. K, DH's dotted boss. He is also from Chennai and is on official visit so we stuck him with us for this journey. Chinni was well prepared to behave, and I too practised to shut my mouth tight. It was all only for few hours of journey. Soon we realised him to be a very good jolly fellow so it was all fun from then on!!

As we were approaching Mohali, a traffic police looked down at our number plate bearing 'HR' and then inside us. Not matching!! balle balle... he must have thot. He stopped us and then we had to show the proofs and come off. This is probably the first ticket that our Duster is getting for NO REASON! anyway it feels good to remember this incident.

My DH took a break and Mr. K started driving. DH promised that he would drive only until lunch but the lunch hour kept coming. Finally after Jalandhar we stopped by a 'dabba' (very low quality) dhaba shop with fans pouring very hot air here and there. That too the power went off in few minutes. As we settled down to a lovely spicey Dal Makhini, Kadai Paneer and Aloo Gobi (which he brought as we were discussing if we had to buy it and decided not to!!) with rubbery roti. Chinni was pretty upset with the dhaba's ambience -- didnt I tell you, she is a delicate darling!! and the spicey food. So we ordered her Maggi without spicey. But he gave Maggi without masala to add more wrath to Chinni. She half heartedly munched on something while Dittu was pretty happy to chew on the roti. Then the kids settled on Haldirams Pudina chips.
Point to be noted - when we parked our Duster outside, there was absolutely NO vehicle outside, nobody inside except two policemen and two other people who appeared like the captivators  that the policemen brought along (no I dont know... just thinking :)). After us there came pompous people in various cars... so we were about to ask discount to the old Sardarji who was very humble to us. The moral of the story is whether you run a high class or low class hotel, park a vehicle outside!!

The car started but Mr. K insisted on holding the steering wheel. We kept rushing as we wanted to go to Wagah border through Amritsar before 3:30 PM to view the flag ceremony by 5:30 PM. We had one full golden hour, but!!! got struck in Amritsar traffic and it became 4 there itself. That too there were lot of Sardarjis giving away free drinks to all the ongoing vehicles and those cars were stopping insensibly in the middle of streets causing traffic jam. I like the service and their good heart but not in the cost of our time! Then we drove through to reach Wagah border by 5 PM!!!! It was too full to get inside. We have to park our vehicles 1 KM away and walk all the way. By the time we went we didnt have any breathing space. There is a huge screen outside, we all trusted it to be showing the event live but no! It became almost 6 pm yet no ceremony was shown. That is when my tall DH peeped in through the crowd and said the screen is NOT showing the live program! How mean and how cheated I felt!

A whining about this Wagah border -
Why o why should there be such a disorder... cant the Army do something about this??? The crowd was too much to control. First come first serve basis is fine as long as the gallery is getting filled. People are waiting from 1 PM it seems in this hot summer... they definitely deserve a better view. Post that it is all like people standing and pushing each other trying to get a view inside. Tall, young fellows are lucky enough. But short and old people, children are the worst sufferers. Dittu was screaming in my arms that I had to step out to get fresh air which otherwise was too suffocating to be inside the crowd. Though I had a fair chance of viewing the event by standing outside, thanks to Dittu, and I couldnt spot my DH in that crowd... had to step out!!
I overheard a madam talking to a Army Jawan complaining this issue, he coolly replied her "Aap PM ko liko memsaab" (You write to the PM, madam). Her suggestion was good though. All she said was to make the people in the front to sit down so that everyone can get a view. Just like how being done in temples during 'Abhishekam' or special poojas. Yeah that is a really good suggestion.
Or at least you can have separate places for men and women. The checking post, walking area from parking place is all having separate queues for men and women, so why not here? At least we can get rid of unwanted groping!! grrr... and men are comparatively too tall to be in the front hiding all the views.
Or we can give 'tickets' to everyone for the gallery and stop the rest of the crowd from even entering, but that would make this a commercial event rather than a patriotic event. They kept on announcing that this event is free of cost and if anyone is bribing, let the army know. But the very next day we saw at least two people outside Jallianwala Bagh selling tickets for "Wagah Border" event guaranteeing a seat. That too in front of policemen without any fear. We were absolutely dumbfounded.
Worst was when I saw a group of young school children brought for field trip. Poor kids... if I myself got so perplexed and claustrophobic, am sure at least two kids would have fallen down. Cant they reserve seats for these school children?
They can also reserve seats for people coming from far away places like East or South. The localites knowing the ritual can fill up very easily... unlike us tourists. If they can reserve seat for foreigners why not fellow Indians who are not localites?
And frustrating part was the live video. Puleeese... they could have shown what is happening in that at least. We would have been more than happy to watch it than live. It was totally a disappointment. Every time the "Barath mata ki jai" was being shouted, tears came down my eyes.
God knows if we will get another chance to visit there. That too wait in the hot summer afternoon or freeze in the winter afternoon is too much to think. Reality coming true here for every Indian!

Arnab Goswami on one hand is shouting about VIP reservations and all. Will he look at this too?? It is very evident that things have NOT changed anywhere. If you know anybody in Army of high rank, you are allowed into the special dias. If you pay money to the Jawan, you are allowed. If you are smart enough and/or single and/or young enough, you can sneak in.
Well, now will I write to the PM just like the Jawan asked me?? I dont know if I will... but at least I wanted to jot down my frustration and suggestions and that is why venting this out in this blogspot. May be I MUST write to the PM who is of course pretty reachable these days.

At least got some picture clicked outside...

-- to be continued

A first one, perhaps!

So it all started when I came across so many people writing about their life onto these blog posts. I write every now and then in Indusladies website but of late have stopped due to various reasons (read bored!). But these women... they write about their kids, their life and their travelogues. I also have kids.. I also travel a lot... I also have a life (really!!), so why not record them. That was the idea to have this blog getting started
But there is noone to read... thats ok.. one day me and my kids will surely need to rewind our life and this may help.
But there is no time to write.. wrong! If I can find time to play games in mobile, I can definitely find time to write too
But you do not know writing!! well thats really a problem. But never mind, there had been readers for my posts in IL website, and moreover this is more of my family members being targeted right. unlike the high brainy person like my brother, we are good with this simple Desi ingleesh.
But...
ok let go!!

So where do I start... I would LOVE to explain the pregnancies but it is tooooooooooooo late now to rewind that part. May be some other day. I think Chinni has also grown up so no point in rewinding her childhood days. Moreover I have recorded them elsewhere. Yes I have wasted the two precious years of Dittu. I dont have any recording about her growth or naughtiness or anything. The photos also have gone with my earlier cell phone and laptop. So poor Dittu. May be I can write about her. But my poor memory power may not allow me that at all. I can write about recipes. hmm.. may be later.

Fantastic. So much enthusiasm for the very first post itself. While am thinking about this... Dittu's turn to attend her loo time. Bye for now!