My Mom always says that
"Whatever we do to someone whether good or bad, the same thing comes back to us in this very Life"
So whenever I feel disappointed with someone's action I feel someway I too may have disappointed someone.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Kami dhundta hun....
Teri aankhon mein apni Chhavi dhundta hun,
Teri labzo mein apni Hansi dhundta hun.
Yakeen hai mujhe ki tujhe mujh se pyar nahi,
Bas us yakeen me koi Kami dhundta hun.....
Teri labzo mein apni Hansi dhundta hun.
Yakeen hai mujhe ki tujhe mujh se pyar nahi,
Bas us yakeen me koi Kami dhundta hun.....
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Midnight's Children
Midnight’s Children
I completed this book on April 24th but did not get time to complete this post...so finally decided its time. :)
Well every time I finish a novel (read as a non detective or non adventurous book), I feel like writing or saying “Finally I completed it”, as somehow I had stopped reading that in between or just wasn’t interested in completing but anyways had to. But this time although Midnight’s children took me almost 25-30 days to complete (In my defence :) its 645 page book with some heavy English and I also have other businesses to attend too :)) but the routine of reading it daily from 10.30 to 12 at night and then in the morning while travelling in bus till it starts giving a headache (again in my defence :) its tough to read such small characters in a shaking bus), in short the effort I had put to complete it never made me feel that I am doing it uninterested, although I was under pressure to finish it asap as I had to return it. But nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Most of the people with whom I talked, have dropped it after scrapping through the initial few pages, this gave me the further motivation to read it.
The preface has a write up from Salman Rushdie where he talks about the inspiration behind the various characters and the story, which indeed generates a lot of interest about the book.
Well alike everyone, reading through the initial pages was quite tough owing to the use of language and also the build up that he used, it was difficult to understand what he is trying to say, what relation each incident had with the previous one but once you are done through that you find the story quite intriguing.
Well Midnight’s Children is the story of a person who is born at the stroke of Midnight and that too not an ordinary midnight, it’s the midnight of August 15th, 1947 when India got its independence, a child who is as old as the Indian subcontinent. It’s a story of Saleem Sinai and his family. Its traces his journey starting from that minute of 00:00 of 15th August 1947 till the time this book is written, infact even before that, covering every significant incident that shaped the history of Indian subcontinent in those 30 odd years.
And believe me, for a guy who was not there when all this happened (I was born in the year 1984) to get to know about his country's past and that too a fictional first hand account of those incidents although in an unconventional way was really quite interesting and binding.
It touches the Jalianwala Massacre from a person's point who was not part of the procession but who was there and survived that event, thus making you think about that evil event but at the same time make you think over it from a perspective of a person who was not effected by it. (difficult for me to put in words)
It traces the journey of Saleem Sinhai from the time when he was not even conceived. It talks about the freedom movement of India from a perspective which is so different from the one told in History books, as if giving you a first hand account but at the same time giving you the impression that as if its an event associated with a small bunch of person and not the whole country, how it shaped few individuals life and how their personal events influenced the whole country.
It talks about thousand odd children who were born in that hour of midnight , all of whom had special powers. Powers like reading people's mind, changing form freely from man to woman or vice versa, making things invisible, moving from one place to another through any medium,having a face thats brighter than sun and many more.
But Saleem who had the power to read people's mind was more special as he wanted to use all these midnight's children's power for the betterment of the scoiety, who was special because he was the eldest, born at the stoke of midnight, who received a letter of congratulation from Pandit Nehru, whose photo was published in newspaper. He was the Choosen One but ironically all the prophecy was not at all meant for him.
The story is so full of turns and twists. Incidents which you want to believe and at the same time you think this can't be real.
It talks of the formation of Maharastra and Gujurat and at the same time associated Saleem, the child, with giving the slogan for that. It talks of the biggest extra maritial scandal to hit India in that time when the navy officer who was slated to be the Admiral of Indian Navy found out about his wife's adultery and how he was led to her and her lover's murder again by Saleem Sinhai.
It talks of the first military coup of Pakistan and how Saleem was again associated with that incident, gave a first hand account of all that happened on the eve and again from a very different perspective.
It talks about the war of 1971, when Bangladesh came into existence and how again Saleem was there at the time of its creation, fighting on behalf of Pakistan.
Then I guess the boldest part was the account of Emergency that hit India when Indira Gandhi goverened everything with an iron hand plunging India into emergency. OMG, wish I was there to see the reactions of Indira Gandhi when this book was published. In the preface Salman says that Mrs Gandhi only objected to one para where he talks about Sanjay Gandhi blaming Indira Gandhi for her father's death apart from that she din't object to anything else, thats pretty hard to digest. This book really showed her as a very dark character.
This book again talks about how Saleem was there when Sanjay Gandhi did all that he did i.e. the cleaning of all the slums.
In all when the book finished, it made me wish that how good it had been had Salman Rushdie continued it to the present year, covering every incident that happened from 1984 till date, so that I can also participate in them. How I should have exclaimed at knowing, Oh so this is the inside story....
Hats off to Salman Rushdie..He is indeed a bold and quite an intelligent and knowledgable writer.... Wish I could take out time to read Satanic Verses (I have many other books to read, I have already completed Love Story by Eric Segal, Godfather by Mario Puzo and Angels & Demons by Dan Brown..will write about those in other posts) which got him the fatwa..I have a pdf version which is difficult to read and the book is banned from being sold/published in Indian sub continent.
I wanted to write a lot about this book Midnight's Children but I guess it has so many twists and secrets that I don't want to give away anything..so do read it...I won't say it deserves the Best of Booker Prize or not before I happen to read all the other Booker Prize winners but its indeed a must read book.
I completed this book on April 24th but did not get time to complete this post...so finally decided its time. :)
Well every time I finish a novel (read as a non detective or non adventurous book), I feel like writing or saying “Finally I completed it”, as somehow I had stopped reading that in between or just wasn’t interested in completing but anyways had to. But this time although Midnight’s children took me almost 25-30 days to complete (In my defence :) its 645 page book with some heavy English and I also have other businesses to attend too :)) but the routine of reading it daily from 10.30 to 12 at night and then in the morning while travelling in bus till it starts giving a headache (again in my defence :) its tough to read such small characters in a shaking bus), in short the effort I had put to complete it never made me feel that I am doing it uninterested, although I was under pressure to finish it asap as I had to return it. But nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Most of the people with whom I talked, have dropped it after scrapping through the initial few pages, this gave me the further motivation to read it.
The preface has a write up from Salman Rushdie where he talks about the inspiration behind the various characters and the story, which indeed generates a lot of interest about the book.
Well alike everyone, reading through the initial pages was quite tough owing to the use of language and also the build up that he used, it was difficult to understand what he is trying to say, what relation each incident had with the previous one but once you are done through that you find the story quite intriguing.
Well Midnight’s Children is the story of a person who is born at the stroke of Midnight and that too not an ordinary midnight, it’s the midnight of August 15th, 1947 when India got its independence, a child who is as old as the Indian subcontinent. It’s a story of Saleem Sinai and his family. Its traces his journey starting from that minute of 00:00 of 15th August 1947 till the time this book is written, infact even before that, covering every significant incident that shaped the history of Indian subcontinent in those 30 odd years.
And believe me, for a guy who was not there when all this happened (I was born in the year 1984) to get to know about his country's past and that too a fictional first hand account of those incidents although in an unconventional way was really quite interesting and binding.
It touches the Jalianwala Massacre from a person's point who was not part of the procession but who was there and survived that event, thus making you think about that evil event but at the same time make you think over it from a perspective of a person who was not effected by it. (difficult for me to put in words)
It traces the journey of Saleem Sinhai from the time when he was not even conceived. It talks about the freedom movement of India from a perspective which is so different from the one told in History books, as if giving you a first hand account but at the same time giving you the impression that as if its an event associated with a small bunch of person and not the whole country, how it shaped few individuals life and how their personal events influenced the whole country.
It talks about thousand odd children who were born in that hour of midnight , all of whom had special powers. Powers like reading people's mind, changing form freely from man to woman or vice versa, making things invisible, moving from one place to another through any medium,having a face thats brighter than sun and many more.
But Saleem who had the power to read people's mind was more special as he wanted to use all these midnight's children's power for the betterment of the scoiety, who was special because he was the eldest, born at the stoke of midnight, who received a letter of congratulation from Pandit Nehru, whose photo was published in newspaper. He was the Choosen One but ironically all the prophecy was not at all meant for him.
The story is so full of turns and twists. Incidents which you want to believe and at the same time you think this can't be real.
It talks of the formation of Maharastra and Gujurat and at the same time associated Saleem, the child, with giving the slogan for that. It talks of the biggest extra maritial scandal to hit India in that time when the navy officer who was slated to be the Admiral of Indian Navy found out about his wife's adultery and how he was led to her and her lover's murder again by Saleem Sinhai.
It talks of the first military coup of Pakistan and how Saleem was again associated with that incident, gave a first hand account of all that happened on the eve and again from a very different perspective.
It talks about the war of 1971, when Bangladesh came into existence and how again Saleem was there at the time of its creation, fighting on behalf of Pakistan.
Then I guess the boldest part was the account of Emergency that hit India when Indira Gandhi goverened everything with an iron hand plunging India into emergency. OMG, wish I was there to see the reactions of Indira Gandhi when this book was published. In the preface Salman says that Mrs Gandhi only objected to one para where he talks about Sanjay Gandhi blaming Indira Gandhi for her father's death apart from that she din't object to anything else, thats pretty hard to digest. This book really showed her as a very dark character.
This book again talks about how Saleem was there when Sanjay Gandhi did all that he did i.e. the cleaning of all the slums.
In all when the book finished, it made me wish that how good it had been had Salman Rushdie continued it to the present year, covering every incident that happened from 1984 till date, so that I can also participate in them. How I should have exclaimed at knowing, Oh so this is the inside story....
Hats off to Salman Rushdie..He is indeed a bold and quite an intelligent and knowledgable writer.... Wish I could take out time to read Satanic Verses (I have many other books to read, I have already completed Love Story by Eric Segal, Godfather by Mario Puzo and Angels & Demons by Dan Brown..will write about those in other posts) which got him the fatwa..I have a pdf version which is difficult to read and the book is banned from being sold/published in Indian sub continent.
I wanted to write a lot about this book Midnight's Children but I guess it has so many twists and secrets that I don't want to give away anything..so do read it...I won't say it deserves the Best of Booker Prize or not before I happen to read all the other Booker Prize winners but its indeed a must read book.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Hate is also a form of Love ???
Read these lines somewhere.... and feel everyone who loved someone, male or female must have at one point of time gone through the same feeling..may be just for a fraction of second....
"I've never felt like this before, I'm overwhelmed by an unbelievably amount of hatred for her, yet, I couldn't be more in love. it's like I want to throw her out into traffic, then risk my life to save her"
Hating someone or loving someone require same amount of effort....but hating someone you love is not the same kind of hate that you have for some criminal or someone who has been bad to you or your loved ones...saying that you feel hatred for someone you love is more of a kind of love....its just a word you use for the negativity you feel when in love...In general hatred is one of the worst feeling that one can have for anyone....and its solely should be reserved for people who cause harm to innocent people.
PS: One more of my crappy posts..I started writing just the quote and then don't know what I was writing :-P
"I've never felt like this before, I'm overwhelmed by an unbelievably amount of hatred for her, yet, I couldn't be more in love. it's like I want to throw her out into traffic, then risk my life to save her"
Hating someone or loving someone require same amount of effort....but hating someone you love is not the same kind of hate that you have for some criminal or someone who has been bad to you or your loved ones...saying that you feel hatred for someone you love is more of a kind of love....its just a word you use for the negativity you feel when in love...In general hatred is one of the worst feeling that one can have for anyone....and its solely should be reserved for people who cause harm to innocent people.
PS: One more of my crappy posts..I started writing just the quote and then don't know what I was writing :-P
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Random Thought - XX
The problem with spending so much time alone is that you start being like yourself.
Momma.....
It was Mother's day on Sunday ..
Although dreamt about spending it beautifully, but I did not get to spend it as dreamt but I spent it by being at her side the whole day, listened to all that she had to say, watched cricket match with her, was quite amusing seeing her get all excited watching her favorite KKR play , although she was disappointed to see them lose again. The way she abused McCullum for being such a cold guy and he infuriated her more by getting out after just playing 3 balls managing a paltry six. Seeing her get so frustrated with the way KKR were performing that I could imagine how the other typical Bengali's must be feeling. When KKR lost 3 wickets, she was all pumped up as next in was Shah and since he had performed well last year at IPL, she was quite excited about his prospects this year but that guy has something else in his mind and he played a shot which not only disappointed my Mom but would have disappointed his own too. He was out first ball. Although the next batsman too dint last longer but she had hope since Dada was still there. But he also perished and according to her I was the culprit this time. Actually before the ball he got out, I commented that 44 runs of 44 balls, he is playing really well and she warned that don't say that he will get out and unfortunately he got out the next ball and I have to get that stern look from her which quickly turned into one full of disappointment. And such was her disappointment that she even believed when Ajit Agarkar walked down to the middle and I sarcastically said that "Oh what a great batsman has come now" and she with her innocence asked me "Oh, you think he will get some runs" and I looked back "Are you serious?" but may be God dint want to disappoint her and Ajit Agarkar did play well and ultimately KKR crawled to some total, so it was only McCullum (for everything he did and din't do), Ganguly (for missing his fifty) and Shah (for disappointing her) were the one who were still getting the scolding.
Parallely we were watching a Bengali Movie. She got me out of the other room where I was watching Red Devils beat Manchester City, by shouting that a great Mithun Chakraborty movie is being shown. Just come an watch how good is the movie and the acting. I am also a big fan of Mithun owing to his great down to earth attitude and helpful nature , so I sat with her watching the movie. In the movie , Mithun had a gang of his college students with whom he used to kill all the corrupt people and there were some good police people infact only one who was looking for Mithun and his gang, so she continuously kept telling me that the police is good but the gang is not bad, the all are good people who are doing good deeds. I was just quite amused to see the childish way she was trying to make me understand that point, repeating it every now and then. So finally I said , ya but they have no right to kill anyone no matter how bad those people are, so police is also right.
But then came the moment that I loved the most....The gang of Mithun was caught by the Police and they were getting some severe beating from the cops, so in order to force them to confess Mithun's name the cops brought Mother of one of those guys to the police station. There even after seeing her battered son , she told him "Don't tell them his name"..Hearing this the cop got bewildered and shouted (I have to write this in Bengali) "Apni Janeen apni kake bachachen? Apni oke kono din dekheche o?" (Do you know whom are you saving? Do you have ever seen that guy?). All he meant was that you are saving someone whom you have not even seen or know even though your son is dying. Before that guys Mother could answer my Mother said "Apni kokhono Bhagwan ke dekhe chen?" (Have you ever seen God?) and just then in the movie too that lady repeated the same line and My Mom just jumped from her seat and said to me "I swear I haven't seen this movie before but that was bang on target".....It was so good to see her jump like a kid and I just couldn't stop smiling.
It was a typical Mithun Movie, full of his typical dialogues, back ground music of Tiger...Tiger.. and with some lousy bunch of villains.
Anyways it was great fun to watch the movie and match with her..it always is.
She always tell me whenever I stop her from getting hyper that when people get old they should be let to speak whatever they want ....and I completely agree with her..it definitely helps irrespective of age.
Of all the things she has taught me both directly and indirectly... I feel this one is which I cherish the most nowadays "All people want is someone to talk"..although the original quote is "All people want is someone to listen" but I improvised it learning from my and her experience that you want the other person to say too...so its more of a talk or conversation that we want instead of just a listening ear.
Although dreamt about spending it beautifully, but I did not get to spend it as dreamt but I spent it by being at her side the whole day, listened to all that she had to say, watched cricket match with her, was quite amusing seeing her get all excited watching her favorite KKR play , although she was disappointed to see them lose again. The way she abused McCullum for being such a cold guy and he infuriated her more by getting out after just playing 3 balls managing a paltry six. Seeing her get so frustrated with the way KKR were performing that I could imagine how the other typical Bengali's must be feeling. When KKR lost 3 wickets, she was all pumped up as next in was Shah and since he had performed well last year at IPL, she was quite excited about his prospects this year but that guy has something else in his mind and he played a shot which not only disappointed my Mom but would have disappointed his own too. He was out first ball. Although the next batsman too dint last longer but she had hope since Dada was still there. But he also perished and according to her I was the culprit this time. Actually before the ball he got out, I commented that 44 runs of 44 balls, he is playing really well and she warned that don't say that he will get out and unfortunately he got out the next ball and I have to get that stern look from her which quickly turned into one full of disappointment. And such was her disappointment that she even believed when Ajit Agarkar walked down to the middle and I sarcastically said that "Oh what a great batsman has come now" and she with her innocence asked me "Oh, you think he will get some runs" and I looked back "Are you serious?" but may be God dint want to disappoint her and Ajit Agarkar did play well and ultimately KKR crawled to some total, so it was only McCullum (for everything he did and din't do), Ganguly (for missing his fifty) and Shah (for disappointing her) were the one who were still getting the scolding.
Parallely we were watching a Bengali Movie. She got me out of the other room where I was watching Red Devils beat Manchester City, by shouting that a great Mithun Chakraborty movie is being shown. Just come an watch how good is the movie and the acting. I am also a big fan of Mithun owing to his great down to earth attitude and helpful nature , so I sat with her watching the movie. In the movie , Mithun had a gang of his college students with whom he used to kill all the corrupt people and there were some good police people infact only one who was looking for Mithun and his gang, so she continuously kept telling me that the police is good but the gang is not bad, the all are good people who are doing good deeds. I was just quite amused to see the childish way she was trying to make me understand that point, repeating it every now and then. So finally I said , ya but they have no right to kill anyone no matter how bad those people are, so police is also right.
But then came the moment that I loved the most....The gang of Mithun was caught by the Police and they were getting some severe beating from the cops, so in order to force them to confess Mithun's name the cops brought Mother of one of those guys to the police station. There even after seeing her battered son , she told him "Don't tell them his name"..Hearing this the cop got bewildered and shouted (I have to write this in Bengali) "Apni Janeen apni kake bachachen? Apni oke kono din dekheche o?" (Do you know whom are you saving? Do you have ever seen that guy?). All he meant was that you are saving someone whom you have not even seen or know even though your son is dying. Before that guys Mother could answer my Mother said "Apni kokhono Bhagwan ke dekhe chen?" (Have you ever seen God?) and just then in the movie too that lady repeated the same line and My Mom just jumped from her seat and said to me "I swear I haven't seen this movie before but that was bang on target".....It was so good to see her jump like a kid and I just couldn't stop smiling.
It was a typical Mithun Movie, full of his typical dialogues, back ground music of Tiger...Tiger.. and with some lousy bunch of villains.
Anyways it was great fun to watch the movie and match with her..it always is.
She always tell me whenever I stop her from getting hyper that when people get old they should be let to speak whatever they want ....and I completely agree with her..it definitely helps irrespective of age.
Of all the things she has taught me both directly and indirectly... I feel this one is which I cherish the most nowadays "All people want is someone to talk"..although the original quote is "All people want is someone to listen" but I improvised it learning from my and her experience that you want the other person to say too...so its more of a talk or conversation that we want instead of just a listening ear.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Random Thought -XIX
Status on one of my contact's GTalk was "May the BEST Man wins..."
So it made me wonder thats not always true, otherwise why would they call the person who assists the Bridegroom in the wedding the Best Man ? :-P
So it made me wonder thats not always true, otherwise why would they call the person who assists the Bridegroom in the wedding the Best Man ? :-P
Nice Quote - II
Don't throw away the old bucket until you know whether the new one holds water.
-- Swedish Proverb
Quite true....
-- Swedish Proverb
Quite true....
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