Memory

The music pours out almost effortlessly and transports you
to another place, another time, another you, another them.
and you smile.
The fondness of the people,
the gestures, expressions, events.
You smile at the possibility of the memory.
Its yours, in the way you perceived it and no one can take that away from you.
Something that is innately yours, your perspective.
Your version
Your point of view.
Yours.

It's sort of your identity
and you guard it.

You guard it with your life,
sharing it with only a few deserving ones,
and then regretting it later as they brushed it away with a small smile,
and not total acknowledgement.
Almost as if shunning you, and the privacy that you exposed to share.

Bling Singh Vs Switzerland Swinger

Singh is Kinng vs. Bachna ae Haseeno seems a rather silly article and review to
be even writing.But please bear with me and read on. I promise I have a point.

Any young, urban city dweller reading this would probably say- Yuck? You actually went for Singh is Kinng?I know I would.For sure.

To those people I say Yes! I did go for the movie and wondered about how I would ever be able to make up those three hours of my life which would be lost to me forever. So yes, I thought the same way when I was dragged for the movie as part of a family bonding session.
How a family can bond while watching Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif in blinding yet matching fluorescent clothes is beyond me, but I digress.

After watching the two movies over that gloriously long weekend, I was able to draw a few (and in my mind interesting) conclusions.
We love to be dazzled. The pomp,splendour and jazz of Bollywood cannot be parallelled and we love it for that very reason. That's the reason why so many 'mindless' movies do so well.

That being said, we also have brains and something called memory.
Therefore, Yash Raj Studios might want to come up with some new formulae. Yes, the songs, beautiful locations,nice clothes and great bodies formula is great, but you know how its going to end eventually and who's going to end up with whom.And how many times have we seen variations of the same equation?
My memory fails.

Singh is Kinng wasn't an exceptionally unique nail biter or anything,it had all of the above.But at least you're is entertained by the silly jokes (sometimes politically incorrect),puns and typical plight of the Indian situation abroad.
Read:Akshay Kumar and toilet paper, cornflakes and milk referred to as chiwda aur doodh: angrezi breakfast.
Also,since the songs from that movie have been playing on BEST buses across the city, you've gotten so used to the sound that by the time you're at the theatre the melody has you tapping your foot!

Another conclusion was that people haven't heard of a Thesaurus. Attempt to count the number of times Ranbir Kapoor says 'killer'. You'll probably lose count(and your mind) within the first ten minutes of the movie.

In spite of the progressive nature of both these films,the women are still portrayed in ridiculously archaic roles. Neha Dhupia is the silly secretary who spouts dialogues from a host of Bollywood films.Minnisha Lamba , Bipasha Basu and Deepika Padukone are no match for Ranbir's "killer" looks and charm.(Deepika is for a while, but eventually falls for him and Bipasha attributes her stardom to Ranbir and their breakup). 2008 or 1758? You decide.

Some movies blind us. Some entice us, and some movies dazzle us.Both films seem to do all of the above.
Singh is Kinng, though silly and stupid,does this exceptionally well, with humour!
Bachna ae Haseeno is definitely more urbane with its characters, story and clothes.(Deepika studies for an MBA, Bipasha and Ranbir have a live-in relationship Ranbir makes zillions of dollars with his gaming business) The target audience of the film is even probably the young city dweller. But in my book,Singh is definitely Kinng.

Scoring point: While there is a fascination for the 'foreign land',wind mills,sky scrapers and white skin in both movies, Singh is Kinng perfectly underlines that no matter where we go and what we do,how we dress and what we eat,
we're all still Dil se Desi.

Can you pull the chain please? I want to jump onto the bandwagon

Why is it , that when something 'good' happens,
everyone wants to take credit for it, everyone wants to write about it
and pretty much the whole world wants to be associated with it?
But the minute there's something wrong, it's someone else’s
problem, and 'we' had nothing to do with it.

Take our very own star boy-Abhinav Bindra.
Not to take away from what he's achieved from the country or anything, it’s fantastic that its happened, and I'm very proud, as an Indian.
While you're busy dreaming up how many golds the country can achieve, what this means for us and what strengths must lie in our population, just take a minute.

Take a minute, to think about how , the minute he won, he was catapulted to stardom- in just seconds. Every news channel carried his story , his name was all over websites, forwards were being sent, via sms.

He was pretty much everywhere
Half an hour after his victory was announced, one news channel even flashed
a promo ad for an ''Achiever Special- The Story of Abhinav Bindra- Tonight at 8 pm.''
Graphics on channels continuously flashed that sweet, school boy face and anchors rambled on...

Hold it! Just one second!

Up until then, did anyone know:
Who was Abhinav Bindra?
Which city was he from?
When did he start training?
How many competitions has he won before the gold?

Where was all this information before the Olympics? Who made up India's contingent? How many sports are we taking part in? For how long did these people train? Where did they train? Did they receive anything from the government?
Why was India's contingent not up there, with the Bollywood stars? Corny as it might sound, aren't they the Shahrukh Khans and Kareena Kapoors of shooting, boxing and athletics?

If a news channel is able to create a story, within a few hours of Bindra winning the gold then why didn't they do it before?
Why does everyone want to jump on the bandwagon only if its gold plated and has cushioned seats? Doesn't anyone see any prospects before that? Maybe they are busy on another wagon (It must have air conditioning)
Why is it a story only when there's a positive connotation? Whatever happened to plain ol' information?

Everyone wanted to cash in on the action while it was going on. The next day, papers were full of ads that read -'Congratulations Bindra, you have done us all proud.. .’

It’s been a few days since the gold now, and the hype seems to have died down.
Headlines are back to' Misfired again' and 'Knockout for India'.
Stories have gone back to the staid, 'India has no infrastructure and therefore no winners', 'So many people , so few medals' and, my personal favourite, ' The Government's attitude to sports...'
The minute the success stories stop , the advertisers pull out, the 'Specials at 8' cover something else and brands associate themselves with India's newest and latest .

In a country of 1.13 billion, what does it take to be recognised and splashed across the papers?
Why does everyone want to jump onto the same bandwagon, at the same time?

Hold that thought while I catch the latest bandwagon.
Here it comes,
It's called Indian Independence.

----

Will the real mourner please stand up?

A few days ago, I attended a peace talk , in honour of the victims of the recent bomb blasts across the country.
Who where these people?Is it for Ahemdabad or Bangalore? Will their families be present? What kind of resolve will citizens take?Is this the start of a new beginning?These were just some of the questions running through my mind on that damp and rainy Thursday evening.....


It was a beautiful evening of poetry readings -
There were readings from the works of Tagore,the Dohas of Kabir ,the holy texts and even something from a Polish poet.
It was a beautiful evening of song-
Deep and soulful renditions of powerful songs.
It was a beautiful evening of beautiful people,
with expensive perfume, beautiful silver & diamond jewellery
and even more expensive clothes.
It was a beautiful evening-
Except for the fact that hundreds of people had died a couple of days ago,
and even more were succumbing to their injuries in understaffed state run hospitals.
Children were orphaned and families shattered.
And the criminals are still on the loose,somewhere....

All this while poems were read, songs were sung, flashbulbs flashed and the papers printed about the beautiful that teared up, "in honour" of them.