Facts n Fiction

My long wait to watch a good movie in this year finally ended when I saw 'Metro' in this week. Undoubtedly, the finest movie of the year so far. The movie is adequately packed with right quantities of emotions, practical approach, stress, romance, passion, and humour. However, its not the usual ‘masala’ movie. The stories of different couples are neatly interwoven. I had also seen ‘Salaam-E-Ishq’ and I did find that both the movies run on similar themes – extra marital affairs, heart breaks, deeply in love, and so on. However, ‘Metro’ is a much bolder film with lays down things with more practicality. The actors have portrayed the characters exceptionally well, and Irfan-Konkona pair takes a major chunk of the praise. The Dharmendra-Nafisa couple seemed a little out of place but was required to justify that few good things are happening amidst all the negative impressions around. ‘Metro’ puts you through all sorts of pressurizing situations that can be witnessed in stre...

As a normal daily routine, I switched on the television to browse through the day’s news. Watching CNN-IBN has become a ritual and I usually prefer going through the news on that channel. Today I saw the news about the so called ‘Babas’ , ‘Sadhus’ or the ‘Godmen’ involved in money laundering and other such scams. These saffron clad and heavy beard grown personalities were actually criminals in disguise. While the sting operation is still to be authenticated, the thoughts about the need for such ‘Babas’ to come into existence stormed my mind. The sudden uprising of these ‘Godmen’ and their acceptance into the society is a big quandary. I have always wondered what makes people flock to such babas whom they fondly call gurus. I don’t completely disagree with the idea of having a guru. However, it is difficult for me to understand why these babas need to be worshipped, they can just remain content with the respect they receive incase they feel that they are doing some good. I have seen m...

Newspapers, News channels these days are flooded with postmortem, analysis, evaluation, and speculation of Indian team’s recent performance at the World Cup 2007. I read and heard a lot of cross fires between the experts, the selection committee, cricket board, coach, and needless to say backed by the opinions of the general public. The team’s failure was supported with many excuses and stained with a lot of blames. While many feel that our cricketers should stop doing ads, there are others who suggest that we should have specialized teams to play different types of matches – 20/20, 50 over match, test match, and so on. Going through all this tittle-tattle I ended up confused with “yes”, “no” or “may be” type of outcomes. However, a little later I was reminded of a hearty laugh that I had had with a friend of mine last week. We were watching the India – Sri Lanka match last Friday on a “BIG SCREEN” and we were frustrated looking at the way our team was taking the game. Agitated and fru...

If we look closely everything that we do or intend to do is a decision. Even deciding not to do anything is a decision. And what I have observed is decisions are governed either by determination (I have to do it assertively) or by desperation (I have to do it, there is no other option). Decision by either way is fine as long as you have scored a goal. However, I have observed (even through my personal experience) that desperate decisions are not fruitful in long term and often tend to bring in frustration. The pay-offs of these decisions are short-lived. While determined decisions reap benefits in a slow manner but are permanent. Decisions taken with desperation as a premise take longer to achieve your ultimate goals. These decisions look good short term and console you with initial offerings. However, getting back on track to achieve what you wanted becomes more and more difficult. Similar thing happened with me in 1999 when I had to decide on something out of desperation to survive a...

India Growing, Shining, Rising! All this indeed makes me happy and feel proud about my country. IT and ITES is the choicest sector for the private equity investments, retail industry booming, Indian companies acquiring foreign firms, young entrepreneurs venturing into small & medium sized enterprises, and so on are proof of India’s accelerated growth path. However, amongst all these goodies there was something that was bitter, something that was hitting back very hard – the SEZ chaos and its effects on rural India. Yes, the rural India – significant part of our country which is often neglected on the roadmap to growth or remembered only during union budgets or at time of calamities. I agree and accept that I also thought of rural India (or the farmlands) when I was going through all the SEZ chaos that has caught up the entire country. It is saddening to know about the farmers committing suicide to protest against the acquisition of agricultural land to convert it into SEZ and gover...

The Cricket World Cup 2007 fever is scaling rapidly on the excitement thermometer as we are almost at the end of the elimination rounds. And I guess India and Indians top the list of excitement, anxiety, speculation, and enjoyment when it comes to World Cup Cricket or any form of cricket for that matter. Yes, we have all blends of cricket fans, fanatics, critics, and mere spectators. It is rightly said that cricket is a religion in India. India stands at a crucial stage of entering the “Super 8” round currently, with many “ifs” that will decide India’s fate. Let the experts handle those speculations. I am certainly not going to give you a pre or post match analysis here. To summarize in a single line, what I would like to convey is that its time we get emotionally detached to cricket and take it as just a game. I am referring to incidents that happened after India lost to Bangladesh last week. Posters burnt, players bad named, slogans were shouted and I even saw (on some news channel)...

In past few weeks I have come across some peculiar things between married couples. I have read, observed and even witnessed things in certain cases. And I keep thinking why and how can a person have some confidante outside a marriage. I don’t know if it is correct, proper, required or so important and I am still wondering. By someone outside marriage I surely don’t mean any ill relationship but just someone who is sought to discuss issues, solve problems, or just to share things. I have seen many who are doing it; prefer talking to someone at their workplace or one time close college buddy. I am not making things specific to any gender. Everybody irrespective of the gender is doing it. A husband discusses things with his female colleague at the workplace or his college pal. And there are instances where a wife has found someone with whom she feels comfortable discussing most of the things. Few of my married friends have approached me just to talk, share things, express worries, get res...