Where is the dream?

Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan. They never ask if that plan is theirs or of it was created by another person. They accumulate experiences, memories, things, other people's ideas,and it is more that they can can possibly cope with. And that is why they forget their dreams Paulo Coelho

At some point in our lives, we all begin to own a dream inside our head. It gets all the nourishment it needs in the beginning but as time passes, the dream begins to fade away being replaced by another dream which doesn't belong to us. Instead, we begin living a dream which somebody else, be it, a parent, a spouse or a friend saw it. Living another person's dream isn't a bad thing, because there are people who go on to do great things following another person's dream. In the process, the dream that was made for you loses it's purpose.

When you live your dream, you live your life. When you live another person's dream, you live that person's life. So, do not let go off your dream because each dream is special.

What “Captain Philips” talks about?

Not being a big fan of English movies, I usually miss out on watching fine and creative movies. This also means that I end up watching really dumb movies rather than exploring new stuff. So when my husband decided to play a movie called “Captain Philips”, I decided to sit it out and watch through it. I was told once by a friend that “Anything good has to be appreciated”. I totally agree with him but I would add – “and has to be shared”. We live in the era of sharing tiniest bit of news and information.

Anyway, there are some movies which you simply cannot watch through, some that you immediately forget, and some that linger on your minds for a long time. Captain Philips is one such movie that opened my mind to a whole new arena of excitement and thrill. The Tom hanks starrer is a gripping movie that speaks about fear-laden courage and a strong presence of mind.

Based on a true story – A container ship sailing through a port get hijacked by Somali pirates who threaten the captain of the ship with weapons. As the crew and the captain try their best to outwit the pirates, the coin somehow overturns and the captain ends up being kidnapped by the pirates into a lifeboat. The rest of the story is about how the captain is rescued when the SEAL team steps in. Eventually, they succeed in rescuing the captain who showed his wise presence of mind in times when needed the most.

Of course, the story might sound simple and unimpressive. What is impressive here is the gripping force which splashes from the movie right from the beginning till the climax. The actors have given their best of efforts which makes the movie stand out. With amazing background and visuals, I would vote it as the most creative and inspiring movie of the year.

Bottom-line: Go for it if you like thrillers. Captain Philips is all about courage, determination and striking at the right time.

The “J’ feeling that creeps from nowhere….

Oh, the mixture of endless feelings that stir up a human heart. With a heart that beats constantly, we humans have been gifted with a constant free-flow of feelings as well. Deny as you might, at every second, you are “feeling” something or the other. And yes, you have choices out here as you can choose from a different variety of feelings.

Even when you decide to choose a feeling, most of the times a feeling just springs up and tugs at your heart even before you could be warned of it. So does the feeling of being ‘J’ that rents a space in your mind and heart when you least need it. While some feelings make you feel heavenly good, there are some which are designed to make you feel miserable and wretched. Yeah, blame the wonders of the man above!

There is more. There are some feelings that make you feel evil, spiteful, devilish, wicked, sinful, vicious…oh, the dictionary has a number of words for a feeling. But yeah, I know you are denying feeling any of those because we all want to feel saintly. Yet, the mother of all these feelings – jealousy has definitely crept into your head at least once like an uninvited, uncalled guest.

When you see that friend of yours marrying an attractive hot female whom you have only dreamt off, when your neighbor ends up owning the latest Mercedes, when your colleague grabs the latest I-phone model…omg, you say, it’s going to be hard ignoring the ‘J’ feeling if such people exist around you who somehow meddle with life’s challenges and end up being on the receiving end unlike you, who is still strolling on the wishing end.

Welcome to the ways of life. Now is the time to invite the grandmother of all feelings, Good. Yeah, as simple as it sounds, feeling “good” will come to your rescue when you tangle your heart and mind into the web of ‘J’ feeling. When you try to apply the feeling of goodness, you will see the difference that calms your peace of mind.

Next time, if your driver wears a Rado watch, you will triumphantly crush the ‘J’ feeling and replace it will the good feeling because you will also get what you need. Someday. Somewhere. For now, you can float in your dreams.

A task for angels - Paulo Coelho

Many years ago lived a man who was able to love and forgive everyone he met.
Because of this, God sent an angel to talk to him.
“God asked me to come and visit you and to tell you that He wants to reward you for your goodness,” said the angel.
“Any favor that you desire will be granted. Would you like to have the gift of curing?”
“By no means,” answered the man. “I prefer that God Himself choose those to be cured.”
“And what about bringing sinners to the path of the Truth?”
“That is a task for angels like you. I don’t want to be venerated by anyone and serve as an example all my life.”
“I can’t go back to heaven without granting you a miracle. If you don’t pick one, you’ll be obliged to accept one.”
The man reflected a little before answering: “Then I want Good to be done through me, but without anyone noticing – not even myself, so that I don’t commit the sin of vanity.”
And the angel gave to that man’s shadow the power to cure, but only when the sun was shining on his face.
In that way, wherever he went, the sick were cured, the earth became fertile again, and sad people regained their joy.
The man traveled many years over the Earth without noticimg the miracles he worked, because when he was facing the sun, his shadow was always at his back.
In that way he could live and die without being aware of his own sanctity.

Two girls eloped- Did you know that?

I am kind of not happy with the news bits which newspaper TOI posts because some of the news items seem to be a mockery of Indian public, or I would rather say too revealing about a person’s intimate details. Of course, the tag “the citizens have the right to know everything” must be their motto. Damn that. Who I am to care anyway? I’ll just come to my point.

I just read this bit “Two girls elope, marry each other in Bihar” a couple of days back in a cornered section of TOI. And the comment section seemed to be more interesting. I picked a few of them and posted them below. You should see how concerned some people are.

“Times are changing! live with it people!” – Yeah, we should learn to accept the changing times. Whoever didn’t say that!

“When the two fight, which one of them is going to use the WOMEN FRIENDLY LAWS of India?”- Wow, this one does seem concerned about one hilarious problem.

“It's their life and let them decide their ways to happiness? Who are we to determine their rightness or wrongness? Request to media to follow the story as to protect them from social butchery.”- The voice of reason which we have heard a dozen times before. Yawn, pass on.

“It seems lesbianism is fast catching up with Indian women as they have lost all faiths with their male counterparts who always have exploited them.”- Gee, now the males finally have a real issue they have to wonder about.

So, you see the “Gay” concept no longer raises eyebrows because we are seeing gays and lesbians being portrayed in movies and just about everywhere. They are now a part of our lives. Yeah, I know a thousand people over there are denying it. Some people find it challenging the laws of nature, some find it disgusting, some have accepted, some want to ignore it, some detest it, some want to keep analyzing it….phew, people do have a hundred points of view for a topic. May be that’s why we are called humans.

Even as we try and argue passing our judgments, one thing is clear and obvious. Our generation is changing, be it for good or bad. The last time I read a news, it was about a boy eloping with a girl. And now, it’s a girl eloping with a girl. I guess, we better get used to the ways of life until we get new subjects for our arguments.

Meanwhile, we are gonna be like this for a decade – husssh, did you hear that? A girl ran away with a girl. My grandma nearly had a heart attack. What’s gonna happen to this world?

A time to protect...A time to realize...

“When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.”
― Paulo Coelho, Brida

Did you know that finding a path which is your life's destiny doesn't happen by chance? Did you know that being passionate about a dream doesn't happen to most of us? Yeah, not everybody has a dream. Reality check!!! You have known people of having dreams but not pursuing them but what about who do not have a dream at all? Imagine how plain and boring their lives must be. So, if you have a dream and yet are still not able to pursue it, just pat yourself on the back because it takes courage to have a dream.

Now that you realize that you are one of those fortunate ones who have chanced to treasure a dream, do not let life's battles ignore your dream and dump it away in some box of mess. It definitely takes a considerable amount of will power and willingness to realize a dream, of course the challenges depend on the kind of dream that you want to achieve.

The good news is that, no matter how hard or impossible your dream seems to be, there have been people in the past and in the present too who have achieved great heights which you thought were impossible. And guess what, they are simple human beings just like you and me. Whoa, you have heard that one before and you say, yes, I know that. So what?

Well, two things are clear. Your dream is not impossible and it can be realized because crores of other people have made it happen. Of course, you will be warned beforehand that the path is not going to be easy so that you are mentally prepared for the obstacles. But with profound faith and hope, you actually can make it happen. I keep telling this to myself daily because now and then, my faith shakes as well but end of the day, I usually come around to it and restore it again.

So, treasure your dreams because they are yours and they need you the most to realize them.

Does life really go on?

There are sometimes when you don't want to write or talk about a few topics. And there can be a number of reasons why you may not want to do so.

Even as I write this blog post, I wonder if it will make any significance at all. Yet, I cannot let go of the nagging feeling that tugs at my heart when I read the news about a juveline ( the accused from the dec 2012 rape incident) being released of a punishment he rightly deserved.

As I read the mother's plight who is clearly unhappy with the verdict, I can only imagine the pain she has to undergo as she waits for her daughter's rapists to be punished. 

I wonder why her daughter was chosen to have embraced death in the most brutal way. I wonder why her mother was chosen to fight for her dead daughter's injustice. I wonder why we are chosen to undergo situations in life of which we don't interpret to be of any meaning at all.

As usual, there are simply no answers to the questions we pose to nature or the Gods. Yet, "LIFE GOES ON" seems to be the only truth man has ever known. 

Does life really go on for the mother of the girl who patiently waits for justice fighting against the odds?

Rest in Peace dear TELEGRAM

Over the recent years, we have noticed the leap of evolution that has occurred in the communication industry. Since the advent of mobile phones and e-mails, we are now living in the era of skype and whatsapp (which are currently the mostly used forms of communication modes added with a number of other apps that support only FREE video chatting and messaging).

Even as we move ahead leaving behind the paper mode of communication and switch to the feel of an instrument in our hands to receive a message, the good old telegram has served its purpose for the best. Invented in the nineteenth century, the telegram was once the only mode of communication to deliver messages.

In fact, I recently learned that the news of my birth was delivered to my relatives through a telegram. I laughed when I heard that they had sent only two words in the message. “BABY BORN”. It is understandable given the fact that the cost was calculated from the size of the message.

It is funny that we are able to write long texts and pages of information now for free of cost. All we have to own is a computer or a latest smartphone and communicating becomes that easy. In fact, we are exchanging information so much that the instrument has become a part of our lives without which we can no longer think of existing. (At least, until the next invention takes over the current modes of communication).

Before the mobile phones and e-mails become extinct, let’s make the most of it so that we live long enough to tell stories to our future generation about the “first smart phone I used” or “the days when we used to e-mail”. I know it’s funny to think of someday when e-mails and mobiles become extinct. Not that it will occur right away but it will, someday, centuries ahead.
For now, let’s just put the good old Telegram to rest.

A flowered Lamp Post

A little over a month ago, this lamp post is where a young man met his death in a road accident in Providence Rd, Charlotte. I just happened to cross by when I clicked the picture of the post covered in flowers. Until now, the flowers seem fresh which indicates that they are being replaced by the beloved ones of the young man.

The lamp post which has only served its purpose to spread light in the dark has now become an epitome of memory. The young man breathed his last at this lamp post, where his soul departed to the heaven. The lamp post which was an ordinary negligible post will forever be a remembrance for his beloved ones.

The Art of "WAITING"

I have always observed that most of the times we spend our lives in waiting. At any point of time, we are waiting for something to happen - waiting for the call interview, waiting for the perfect soul mate, waiting for approvals, waiting for a promotion, waiting for the next big event that will, according to us, bring our life to a proper path.

Sometimes, the waiting times can be frustrating and annoying when things do not seem to happen no matter how hard you try. Most of the times, there is no trying involved - all you can do is just 'wait'. Some people give up and go about their lives making compromises and assumptions with a change of heart but there are those who are determined to wait no matter how endless it seems.

One such person who is waiting, yet for a different reason, is Amol Dalvi. This 30 year old is waiting for a glimpse of his parents who are in the missing people list formed from the Uttarakhand floods that have devastated numerous lives. Ever since he heard the news of the floods, he has made Rishikesh his temporary house.

At the crack of dawn, he wakes up and patiently waits at the bus station. As he observes every passing bus that arrives loaded with people, his eyes hungrily search for the faces of his parents. When he doesn't find them, he does the same thing all over again the next day. As he continues waiting for his parents, his faith keeps the ray of hope alive in his heart that he will meet them someday.

I know we all wait for different reasons because we all want different things from life. Each one of us knows the agony of waiting when we are waiting for something that is important to us. But somehow, I feel that Amol's wait is more different from most of us. Even as we lose patience while waiting and tend to take decisions to beat the agony of waiting, let's remember Amol who is also a victim of the endless wait.

Sometimes, a little more waiting is all that is needed. So let's learn the art of waiting as we pray for Amol.

Why you should fall in love IMMEDIATELY….

Life is already so complicated that we, humans, make it even more worse with our thought process. One of the thoughts that make our lives miserable is the word ‘COMPARE’. Endless comparison with our neighbor, our friend, our colleague, our family and our spouse also!!!

There are two sides to a coin and also comparison. You can either feel good or bad about comparison.

Scene 1: Imagine you’re walking down the road. A poor man shabbily dressed wearing his brightest smile passes you. Immediately, you bless yourself because you have the comforts of being fully clothed and you obviously ignore his smile.

Scene 2: Imagine you’re walking down the same road. A rich man dressed in one of his best blazers crosses you in his black royal Mercedes wearing a glum look. You’re disappointed because you don’t own a car or a blazer but you obviously ignore the glum look because you don’t care. All you care is about what you don’t have.

So you see how comparison makes you feel bad and good, of course, it’s only temporary. These good and bad feelings keep fluctuating throughout the day when you mentally keep comparing yourself with every other person you meet.

“Oh, she doesn’t have enough money. I am lucky.”
“Man, I wonder how he bought that smartphone. I wish I had the money.”
“Gosh, I can’t believe she lost so much weight. Being beside her makes me feel huge.”
“Looks like she is gaining color on her face. I should start doing something as well.”

These are just some random thoughts which pops into our heads when we ‘COMPARE’ ourselves with every other person you meet. Imagine if you do this all day. Wouldn’t your head burst with these crazy thoughts? Guess what, even if you’re not aware of it, you are doing it throughout the day without thinking.

And for the better part, if you decide to stop shuttling your heart and mind between these seemingly unreal temporary good and bad feelings, there is actually a way to feel good about yourself ALL THE TIME. Yes, you heard it right. All the bloody time!!!

It’s a really simple mantra. You just have to fall in love with….YOURSELF. And when you do that, you don’t bother yourself about levelling yourself with another person because you know that you are the best and that nobody can be like you.

Even after reading his, you are whining under your skin, thinking how is it possible to feel good about oneself all the time. Yes, you have to feel good ALL THE TIME. It’s hard, because we all want to be different people so you will need practice to fall in love with yourself.

“But, I am so fat. These skinny looking girls make me feel inferior.” – Tell yourself, “Screw them. There are many fat people who have been famous. Moreover, there are better problems in life to think about than worrying all the time about being fat.”

“She makes more money than I do.” – Tell yourself, “Am I not happy with what I have? If not, I should be working harder. If yes, then I should ignore others and start being happy.”

“He is luckier than me. He got all things easily in life.”- Tell yourself, “I am in this situation because God thought I would learn something. I can be equally lucky if I start treating myself lucky.”

Phew! I can give endless examples but I guess you get the idea. There is really is no time for fretting and brooding with the limited time that we have on earth. You may as well learn to accept for what you are by simply falling in love because every human being is EXTRAORDINARY.

You are SPECIAL.

A movie with perfect flaws: Ayalum Njanum Thammil

Ayalum Njanum Thammil

I have no idea what the above words mean. All I know is that it’s the name of a Malayalam movie. Nor do I understand the language as well. Yet, I do watch movies from other languages (thanks to sub-titles) because it’s nice to discover the good stuff what other languages offer.

This recent 2012 Prithviraj starrer caught my attention when I happened to watch it on a rainy evening. Where movies are made with heroes being depicted as perfect gentlemen, in this movie the hero is flawed and makes mistakes one can only imagine. It’s a story about how an MBBS student who cares nothing for other people learns the real value of his profession through a guide or let’s say, well-wisher.

In a couple of instances, when Prithviraj performs an operation on a child which eventually leads to death and in another instance, when he refuses to treat a child because he has been rebuked by the child’s father, it only makes you wonder if the director is making a fool out of the hero. It makes you wonder if the director didn't know what qualities the hero should possess. From decades, we have been worshiping heroes. We cannot tolerate the hero committing mistakes for he is assumed to be perfect in every way. Yet, the director Lal Jose goes beyond the usual movies and allows the hero to commit mistakes which every common man would do.

Though the story revolves mostly around Prithviraj about his experiences as a doctor, other characters have contributed to the story majorly. Pratap Pothen, who plays the role of a senior doctor guides the young Prithviraj when he decides to kick the profession and focus on his dissolving love life. At some point in life, we all yearn for a guide or a teacher or just some person who throws light into our path.

A beautiful movie made in the recent times, it displays the other side of doctors which we usually never look beyond. A story about love, compassion, teaching and realization clearly depicted.

You need courage to kill....

It seems to be the week of bad news. One of the highest rated bad news is always death. Death of any kind has always been the topic of discussion. First, the death of director Rituparna Ghosh, then the death of actor Abir Goswami followed by the apparent suicide of Jiah Khan.

Death, whether it is untimely or accidental or staged, turns down to just one emotion – sadness. Accidental untimely deaths come with a package of their own pain and sadness which becomes hard to accept. But when death is chosen, it becomes an altogether different scenario.

Yesterday, I glanced through the Times of India edition. First, I read the suicide of Jiah Khan who hanged herself at the age of 25 after suffering from trauma and depression. I read it first because it was a highlighted news, given that she was an actress.
The other two news articles that put me off were these:

Girl kills herself after mother scolds for breaking a mobile phone.

Teenage girl kills herself when refused to attend pal’s wedding.

These news articles made me wonder if the teenage of our generation are turning out to be a weaker pillar of the nation. Apparently, it seems that of all the options, suicide seems to be an easier outage for these children. And let me tell you this – while you need a certain amount of courage to achieve great heights in life, you need double the courage to actually kill yourself.

Looks like the teenagers as young as 12 or 14 seem to have the courage to kill themselves over a mobile phone or the refusal of not being able to attend pal’s wedding or an exam failure or a love proposal or just plain depression. Emotionally, these children are not stable as they lack acceptance to the situation. Yet, they had the necessary mental preparation to take their own lives.

They say its weakness to commit suicide because those who run away from problems are the cowards. I refuse to agree with this because I believe deep down, you need an extra nerve to actually pull the noose around your neck. For normal people, the very thought itself can send shivers. I shudder at the thought myself.

These children, who are courageous enough to kill themselves, if for a moment, had they thought about applying the same courage to the situation they faced, life would have turned out differently for them. It’s not just about having courage to do something big in life. But it’s about applying the courage in the proper direction.

The late gratitude

Very often we find that strangers help us in the most strangest way possible.  Most of the the times we are not able to pass our thanks to them because life changes every single day with people moving on as well. Which is why I think there should be no delay in thanking someone.

Three years ago, when I first sent out my first script to a dozen publishers, I got more rejections than expected.  But there was this one publisher who accepted my story but it never took off with him as he demanded a huge investment.  I had just started working so putting up front so much money was impossible. So I refused and forgot about him.

Today morning, when I browsed through a publishing website, I came across his profile which stated his experience.  Further down, the article stated that he had died a couple of years ago due to a cardiac arrest.

A complete stranger, he was the first person to actually let me know that my story was fit to be published. He instilled the faith in me which has helped me stir the stories of my heart into paper. 

As I learnt the news of his death after two years, I wished I had thanked him for that small encouragement that has changed my life.

I guess that's what life is - encounter with strangers who restore our faith and walk away blissfully unaware of thier act. I have resolved to send thanks to all those strangers who have touched my life because gratitude should never wait until death.

How the Internet killed her....

The world is made of two parts- the bright places where the sun is always shining of happiness, laughter, well-being and prosperity where most of us always want to live. The world is also made up of dark places where the demons are always there to catch you alive and beat you to despair and miseries making you pay to be at the wrong places at the wrong times. Apparently, it so happens that despite the bright places there are more dark corners in our world which are always lurking around the corner when we are not looking.

Amanda Todd, a teenage girl from Canada never supposed that a topless picture of her when shared with a man who claimed that she was pretty and beautiful on the other end of the world would stalk her making her life miserable. She was 12 when she first got introduced to the massive world of chatting where strangers open up easily without having to share the truth. When the man asked for a flash of her, she posed for him without a second thought.

A year later, the man hunted down all her details and stalked her threatening to make the picture public if she didn’t flash again. When she didn't budge, he posed as a classmate on Facebook and shared the picture with all her friends who began to bully her by sending insensitive messages and calling her names. Amanda’s life turned miserable when she switched schools and cities to wipe away the past and yet it came following her like an eternal curse.

After a suicide attempt, she tried hard to live on anti-depressants to move on with her life despite the past hunting her down each time she decided to take a fresh start. Towards the end, unable to take it any longer she hanged herself to death in October 2012 at the age of 15. Before her death, she left a video on YouTube letting the world know about her misery. The video

Everybody makes mistakes. Some are admissible and some are corrected and some are hidden in the deepest corners of our heart. Yet, we often pay for our mistakes, sometimes heavily. Amanda Todd made a grave mistake for which she paid with her life at the age of 15 after seeing that world wanted her to die.

You can either blame Amanda Todd for being stupid enough to send a bare picture of herself to some stranger and then taking it too seriously to kill herself. You can also blame all those people out there who poked fun and enjoyed tormenting her by creating hate pages all over the internet and drove her to death. You can also blame the parents who don’t monitor what their children are doing in the virtual world on the internet as they are turning into evil and sinful monsters.

A death had occurred which will be forgotten with time and people will move on after being tired of the blame game. But let this incident be a warning to all those people out there making friends with strangers over the internet sharing intimate details. The internet is filled with darker places where people with malicious intentions are prowling all over waiting for their next victim. Let’s not allow the technology to kill us instead of serving us.

Unfamiliarity breeds conversations

Have you ever found yourself straying in a crowd or a party where you knew absolutely nobody? Have you ever ended up being in a place where there are a dozen faces around you have never seen before? This happens to most of us, let’s admit it. And most of the times, it’s really not a nice feeling to be in the company of strangers who have no idea about who you are. And if you’re lucky, really lucky, you might actually make new friends by getting to know the strangers.

Let me brief you about my recent experience at a birthday party where I knew nobody except my husband who was supposedly busy with his group of familiar people abandoning me like a lost animal. (Lol! Not that he didn’t care but he simply couldn’t stick around with all his friends pulling his side). Anyway, it so happened that twenty minutes passed after my arrival and I had found not a single soul to talk with. I stared, gaped, gawked, ogled, watched, scrutinized and examined at everything I could; the kids running around, the food being displayed, the ladies watching over the kids, the men cracking jokes and a few more ladies sitting like clueless aliens (Like me!)

Forty minutes passed. My vocal chords seemed to scream, I have to talk with somebody pleaseeeee. I noticed a young girl of twenty something to the right of me and an aunty (I’ll call her aunty cos she had a kid and she looked forty something) to my left. I didn’t know either of them; I had never seen either of them. In fact, I didn’t even know why they were there (for the cake of course). The point is, even though I didn’t know them, I did strike a conversation with them to pass the rest of the time until my husband gave the relief signal of leaving the place. I chattered, I ranted and I listened to them to the same.
It was a forgettable party which taught me a lesson about striking a conversation with strangers just to pass the time. Sometimes, you just can’t sit doing nothing when there is a frenzy going on around you. You just can’t walk away from the party even though you are bored to death. What should you do if you find yourself stuck in a place with strangers for a long time when you simply can’t stare into their faces forever?

a. Just find someone who is equally unoccupied and bored like you.
b. Talk and chatter all the while. If you are a talker, then talk about anything that comes up – the climate, the movies, the latest car, etc.
c. Remember, you don’t have to see them again. So go ahead and share your darkest secret if you want to and if it will help you pass the time.
d. Age no bar, don’t look for people of your age which will only minimize your chances of being around a chatty person.

If you can think of any more ideas to kill time at a place with unknown people, do write below..

Freshly pressed entertainment: Jolly LLB

Very rarely does a movie makes us think. In fact, movies that are thought provoking have become extinct. Once in a while, once in a blue moon, some director happens to strike gold and ends up making a movie that really charms the audience.

Jolly LLB, a Subhash Kapoor movie has opened up the floors for good movies to set footprints in the cinema industry. The mix of comedy and drama on different levels has raised the bar of cinema to a higher level. Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani, who portray the character of lawyers, have clearly depicted the various aspects and faces of a lawyer. Honesty and greed go hand in hand but what remains towards the end wins depending on what one chooses.

Arshad Warsi’s intense performance of how a man can change his life and the life of others by following his dream with indomitable courage sets the movie’s pace. The corrupt lawyer, Boman Irani plays the role of a greedy lawyer who believes that he can win any case with money and can change the angle of any situation to his favor. Arshad’s love interest played by Amrita Rao is a short but strong role where she delivers a brilliant show.

The court room humor adds an icing to the cake which will make you tumble in laughter at regular intervals. A well-crafted movie with well written dialogues is what Jolly LLB delivers. An entertainer with the message that courage and truth triumphs no matter how powerful the negative allies work to win their way. Jolly LLB is one of the recent movies with finest dialogues and storyline that ends with a strong note that nothing is impossible.

Threat to God’s form

One simply doesn't like to read the newspapers these days. After all, what’s so good in the papers anyway? The news items only make us worry and curl into our houses until we forget and move on. One such news item that caught my attention was the recent Delhi murders in which two siblings aged 5 and 7 were killed by their maternal uncle who was aged 22.

Now here is the case described by the media: The siblings were picked up from school by their maternal uncle. How the school authorities let his happen is beyond anybody’s knowledge. The uncle and his friends locked their mother inside her house preventing her to reach the school. After kidnapping the children, the uncle made a ransom call for 30 lakhs.

The parents, however, approached the police who traced the kidnappers through their cell phone records. Meanwhile, the kidnappers started getting itsy when the children wailed and asked for their parents. For some reason, this ticked them off and they decided to kill the children and dump their bodies.

The police have nabbed the uncle and his friends who have confessed to the crime. The case is solved which has now left a trail of sadness for the parents who lost their children to some madman for a few lakh rupees. I am not sure if sadness can be compared with any other form of sadness when it involves the loss of a person. Is the loss of a child deeper than the loss of a husband or a father? I guess loss is a loss no matter what.

They say that children are a form of God who stroll on earth spreading their innocence and happiness. When such a living being is snatched away, it is not only a loss for the parents but this is the loss for the entire human kind.

With such incidents happening, one has to become extremely cautious when it comes to dealing with children because not all places of the world are safer anymore.

Afraid to change

Source: Paulo Coelho's blog

We are afraid to change because we think that, after much effort and sacrifice, we know our present world.

And even though that world might not be the best of all worlds and even though we may not be entirely satisfied with it, at least it won’t give us any nasty surprises.
We won’t go wrong.
When necessary, we will make a few minor adjustments so that everything continues the same.

We see that the mountains always stay in the same place. We see that fully-grown trees, when transplanted, usually die.
And we say: ‘We want to be like the mountains and the trees. Solid and respectable.’

Even though, during the night, we wake up thinking:
‘I wish I was like the birds, who can visit Damascus and Baghdad and come back whenever they want to.’

Or: ‘I wish I was like the wind, for no one knows where it comes from nor where it goes, and it can change direction without ever having to explain why.’

The next day, however, we remember that the birds are always fleeing from hunters and other larger birds, and that the wind sometimes gets caught up in a whirlwind and destroys everything around it.

It’s nice to dream that we will have plenty of time in the future to do our travelling and that, one day, we will. It cheers us up because we know that we are capable of doing more than we do.
Dreaming carries no risks. The dangerous thing is trying to transform your dreams into reality.

Wrong!

The Importance of NOW

When I thought about posting a post today, I didn't have anything in mind, no interesting news article to write about or any incident to talk about. But there are a few interesting things about life that I would like share. I found this below passage from one of my fellow blogger's post which is very thought provoking. I liked it so much that I became tempted to borrow it from his blog.


"Within you is a stillness that is bursting with energy, a moment of silence full of potential. Within you is a place which knows fear is an illusion and therefore anything is possible. Beneath all the stories of this world is the universal story, the realization of how we are each connected to all existence. This is not an idea, a moment, a place or even a feeling; it simply is. It is the Now."


When I read this I realized that most of us worry about out past or the future than the present. Of course, this isn't a new mantra to us cos we have been hearing since ages that humans should give importance to the present circumstances. I partially agree with this because it's practically impossible not to linger on the past moments or not think about what the future will bring. I do believe that one cannot move ahead if he lives completely in the past or the future for NOW is very important.

The moment NOW is very divine and sacred for it in this moment that you can decide what it is you want to become and turn it into action, it is in this moment that you can tell your loved ones how much you love them, it is in this moment that you can give your dream the shape it deserves and it is in this moment you can ask for forgiveness.

NOW is something which is common between all of us. We all share the same NOW, the only difference is how each one of us makes use of that NOW. You can either ignore the NOW and become a loser or understand NOW and change your life. The choice is always and always yours.

Book Review: Not Without My Daughter

Non-fiction: Not without my daughter by Betty Mahmoody

When I first bought the book “Not without my daughter”, I wasn't really expecting to read a great story. But I was proved wrong; this book is a bundle of surprise. More than the story, the book taught me a great deal about life which all of us need to know.

Basic storyline: Betty Mahmoody, an American lady falls in love with an Iranian doctor who works in America and gets married to him for the sake of love. This story proves that love, with time changes and is not permanent. The two week vacation which Betty and their five year old daughter, Mahtob make to Iran along with her husband, Mahmoody turns out to a trap. Mahmoody captures his wife and daughter denying them the freedom to fly back to America, their hometown. He develops feelings for his country, Iran and forces his wife and daughter to follow the Iranian culture. Betty is trapped and separated from her daughter while she is held captive in a house. She is tortured, beaten and is threatened to kill if she went against her husband’s will.

The story takes an interesting turn when Betty makes use of every situation, however disappointing and hopeless it seemed. She follows the Iranian culture which she detested and she allows the man, who broke her heart, whom she detested, to touch her in an attempt to devise her plan to escape from Iran. More than often, she was offered help from strangers to escape to America but without her daughter. Betty stays firm that she wouldn't leave without her daughter.

The struggle and courage of one woman’s undying love for her daughter and the courage to escape from the clutches of a barbarian husband fills the reader’s heart with utmost respect for Betty Mahmoody. Though it seemed impossible to escape, after a long wait of 18 months, Betty manages to escape along with her daughter in the most perilous conditions which are beyond human endurance.

In the book, Betty has documented her experiences in the most detailed manner which explains how her every move was taken and also the people she met in her 18 month stay in Iran, some who helped her and some who betrayed her. It’s definitely a book which teaches that with profound faith and confidence, one can create his own destiny.