Ouch.. That Hurt !

Criticism always hurts. There is no such thing called positive or negative criticism. When it comes it comes with an arrow to pierce right through. No matter how calm or composed you are its gona prick you at some moment. Who likes brick bats anyway? Everyone likes to be praised and appreciated and talked about in good words.

Now take me for example..

I've been this guy who's never had a fight with anyone. Not even with my closest buddies. Its just in my nature to keep people happy. Take them the way they are. I dont like to crib about people everyone has their own nature. I am being called diplomatic or manipulative for that but it doesnt change me. I am a people's person and I like it. I like it when i have a thousand people to greet and shake hands with when I enter my college.

But then all of a sudden I had this really interesting conversation which ended up as an argument with one of my oldest and closest friends and got to know so many flaws about me which i thought i never had.

This is the thing about friends.. "A good friend will tell you whats the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem to be such a good friend after telling."

another thing about friends " Never explain - your friends dont need it and your enemies wont believe you anyway"

Thats the problem with criticism. Till the time he/she tells you the sugar coated words he's ur best friend but one bad thing about you and he's no more your best friend.

So criticism is often very difficult to take in your stride.

Specially for someone who's never had it before and specially from someone who's never ever told anything against you.

It hurts. It makes you think. It disturbs you like crazy. But again my favorite quote comes handy in stress situations "Whatever happens, happens for a reason"

So may be this might strengthen the bond or it might make me look at myself and think where am i going wrong but it was a good change. You need to hear something like that to do some introspection but not very often.

So criticize all you want but make sure you dont hurt the person. Tell him whats wrong but give him a reason why is it wrong. Tell him the bad points but also tell him why he is good enough to have a discussion. After all you are harsh and you are sensitive both with people you care the most. So its never too late to criticize and its never too late to change for GOOD.

Breaking Up. Simplified.

Breaking up is such a headache isnt it. Whether you are too desperate to break up with someone or you are so close to the person that breaking up is gona hurt you even more but then you got to do what you got to do.

Breaking up in the correct way is always difficult. The right words to choose, the correct tone, waiting for the perfect situation , forcing that situation to arrive so you land up in some petty fight and swoop in with your break up line the same way you swooped in with your pick up line the first time you met that person.

It has to be taken care that you are not mean, you dont hurt your gf/bf and also make sure at the same time that he/she was the reason of the break up and not you and you were only forced into it.

Keeping all this aside i just came across a cool advertisement which shows the new age break up.

Its such a tension free no load no stress chilled out break up ever seen.

Have a look.

I cant help but watch the ad everytime it comes during those IPL breaks and smile everytime and wonder if only life would have been so simple. The couple are so into each other a few seconds before and immediately after that comes the break up line " You dont love me anymore"

I love the acting by the cute girl in the advertisement. The initial innocent surprise and then the self realization expression after giving the break up line a lil thought and then deciding to be "freinds" only to "move on" in split second.

The Universe loves speed so dont second doubt when in doubt. So much time is wasted in breaking up and the moving on. If only universally this could be the norm acceptable by every couple half the emotinal atyachaar is already woosh and gone!!

Some Standard Break Up lines

1.The Reversal - " Its not you, Its me. You are just the best person anyone can get. I dont deserve you."

2.The Forced Fight- " You know what pisses me off the most about you. This fuckin attitude of yours. You think I cant survive without you."

3.The Self Sacrifice Suicidal - "Well if you're so mad at me why dont you just dump me"

4.The Destiny's Storeroom - "If it is meant to be we will find each other again SOMEDAY. But for now lets call it off"

5.The Trade-Off - " Our relationship hasnt been good for a while now. I think we shall take a break and see other people"

6.The Boredom Syndrome - "There is no spark, no spice no connection left between us. I guess what we had between us was just plain infatuation"

MOVE ON Man..!!

No LOVE No SEX Just DHOKHA!!

After experimenting several times with his kid bro , Ekta Kapoor finally tried something out of the box. Dibakar Banerjee of "Khosla and Ghosla" and national award winner "Oye Lucky,Lucky Oye" came up with a new concept of reality cinema.

And what came out with this new age experiment gone bad was an utterly rubbish, senseless movie called Love Sex Aur Dhokha.

I dont understand why other critics are going out of the way and praising this movie out and out.The movie has zero entertainment value. The only novelty factor of the movie is there are no actors. Its like watching a secret footage of never seen before videos.

The protagonist is the camera itself which they introduce as the star of the movie. It just says that how camera has become such an integral important and dangerous part of ur day to day lives where people are just willing to do anything to shove it up in our butts to get some unseen uncut footage of someone else's personal life.

Going by this theme it shows three different stories one personally shot , one supermarket footage and another a sting operation.The are three stories linked together and shot with 3 different cameras. a security cam, a video camera, and a secret sting camera. No written dialogues , the stories are believable but not entertaining at all. You get so bored that you want to pull your hair. Even the novelty of shooting with personal cameras wears you out after a little time.

As the title says the first story in the movie is about love.. then its all about SEX and then the DHOKHA..

However when you go to see love you'll find a lot of love in the movie but just when you start expecting SEX you are in for a big DHOKHA.. i guess the censor board has chopped and kept for their personal viewing. The movie isnt bold at all.

But i will tell you why the movie will rake in moolah at the box office.

Exceptional Marketing.

Totally Different Concept. So curiosity.

Catchy Title Track.

Ekta Kapoor has done enough publicity to create a buzz amongst media and youngsters about the movie. The appearance, the title, the market value of the movie is enough to attract audience to watch it once atleast.

On top of that the title track of the movie is just brilliant. Kailesh Kher gives his rustic feel to the song which makes you hum all day.

But the movie is just worthless.

Love Sex aur Dhokha Darling. Pass.

Ratings : 1.5/5

Is this LOuVE or Is it Infatuation?

Is this love or is it Infatuation?

This being a Valentines week I am trying to stick to the theme.

But i dont have and never had anything mushy to say about when it comes to LOuVE.

The very reason I am mentioning "love" AS "LOuVE" shows my lack of seriousness towards the underrated or for that matter over rated word.

Probably because I am too practical or too rational to the extent of being cynical when it comes to love.

So I am writing this basically to clear the misconception of most of you out there who think that

Love, Infatuation and Attraction are 3 different things.

One of these always gives birth to another.

I mean I have heard people falling in "love at first sight" and actually completing their quest for true love and on the other hand I have seen people taking their time to know each other and that time runs into years and years of unconditional commitment only to finally realize that it was just an INFATUATION. Ironic.

Why is there a confusion between these two highly over used and misinterpreted words?

I think everything starts with an infatuation.

Infatuation basically means "temporary" love of adolescent a foolish and usually extravagant passion love or admiration.

But that is what love is all about right? Foolish,immature

Many temporary infatuations make one long lasting love.

The very reason that draws you to a person makes you call, text, think, imagine, fantasize is because you are attracted to him or her due to some kind of infatuation.

You may be infatuated by looks, money, personality, kindness, humour.

So if you are not sure whether what you have between you and your partner is infatuation or love you will be wondering all your life.

And the only way you will come to know about it is if you eventually end up with him/her for the rest of your life and then you can tell the world with a sense of pride " oh! well it was unconditional pure love from the very start"

and god forbid if you break up tomorrow you will tell yourself " oh! well it was nothing but infatuation"

So if its infatuation there is nothing wrong it is meant to be like that.

And if its LOuVE trust me.. it is still a higher degree of INFATUATION.

What's In Store?

Who knows the answer to this question?

"Whats in Store?"

But what if you desperately want to find out "Whats in Store?" so that you can make some decisions based on that what do you do?.. just wait and watch till something magically appears and says this was in store or just take a risk go with the flow and discover what it was.

What will happen if you become impulsive and take a decision then and there and regret it later.. or what will happen if you try the safest road sit back watch and realized that you should have taken a decision long back. After all most of the troubles in life are because of saying "No" too soon or "Yes" too late.. or the other way round.

In the entire process of "worrying" about the future and thinking whats in store we are nothing but just stressing ourselves out.

Thinking seriously complicate things.

One thing that i learnt from THE SECRET or for that matter from movies like RANG DE BASANTI ,KAL HO NA HO .. or the PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS.. was live for the moment you never know if this second might come back or no.There is no time like present.

People say take every day as it comes , I say take every fraction of a second as it comes.

I mean what do you mean when you say " I cant really see a future in this line or in this relationship or in this career"

You are not supposed to see the FUTURE because then you will be GOD.

Life is too short so dont second guess dont doubt the universe loves SPEED.

This quote from Grey's Anatomy defines life

"At some point of time you have to make a decision. Boundaries dont keep others out they fence you in. Life is messy thats how we're made. So you can WASTE your life drawing lines or you can live your life crossing them. If you are willing to take a CHANCE the view from the other side is SPECTACULAR."

So do what makes you HAPPY now. Do what makes you feel at peace with yourself now. Just Do it Now!!

Easier said than done right because what will make me really happy right now is a good trip to goa with friends but what i want to do is study for my exam which is in the FUTURE. So never works all the time but you have to learn how to make it work.

And to end all this I would again like to quote Benjamin Franklin " One today is worth two tomorrows."

After all if it is meant to be it will be. True.

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara..

26th January, just another holiday right. Well, I woke up thinking that because the fact is even if you ask yourself right now what exactly happened on 26th January 1950 many will be clueless.

So we are celebrating our 60th day of being a republic nation when we decided that the public matter and not just a few handfuls and we finally announced that India is "to the people for the people and by the people".

SO i switched on our good old doordarshan channel to see some r-day parade just to find out that there is no visibility and the entire ground is full of sudden fog cloud cover. So to pass time they showed this 22 year old song "Mile sur mera tumhara toh sur bane humaara."

And it felt so nostalgic because there were times some 5-10 years ago when I used to wait for "mowgli" to start on doordarshan and always these songs used to come up.

the song THEN shot in 1988

That time I used to get irritated because i had to wait 5 mins more for my cartoon to start.

When i heard it today it felt awesome. After listening to the doordarshan i channel surfed and landed myself on ZOOM where it was playing the ZOOM version called "Phir mile sur"

Part 1 of today's version

Part 2 of 2010 "Phir mile Sur"

Oh the 5 minute doordarshan version is now a 18 minute ZOOM version and its bigger than ever.I absolutely loved the positive energy in the video.It is so well made with so many national icons coming together in one video which shows India's unity in diversity with so many dance and music forms and 28 states and even more number of languages singing in one tune and one line and yet everytime it sounds so different.

" Mile Sur mera tumhara toh sur bane humaara" my english translation would be..

" You Sing, I sing and we both have a SONG".. lol...

The best part of the video which got me goose bumps was when Salman Khan is there with a group of children with speaking and hearing disability where they convey the message of the song with sign language. Beautiful.

The song is peaceful and makes you feel so good and i bet once you listen to it.. you cant stop humming the tune all day.

Cheers to Tonight's Entertainment

Well, it’s been one year since I started blogging and it has been a wonderful experience. The very reason I started blogging was that when I look back at the things I’ve written 10 years down the line I feel good about it. It’s like a personal log on public domain. I liked the idea of blogging because I just couldn’t maintain a personal diary and blog was the thing for me which will keep me computer hooked and at the same time do something productive rather than updating statuses of facebook.

The inspiration came from some of my friends who used to maintain a blog and I really liked the idea behind it. You get motivated to rant even more when you get comments and people appreciate your writing.

My favorite area of writing was undoubtedly hindi movie reviews. I always wanted to write about movies and give them stars and my criticism like the newspapers.

So one year gone and 39 posts in 2009 some of them really silly some immature some debatable and some nice.

I had great pleasure in writing every single post and looking forward to people commenting on it , tracking how many people visit my blog every day gives me a new high but when I see my fellow bloggers they write actual quality matter.

So I still have a long way to go and lot to learn.Thank you for reading and keeping me motivated.

Some of my best picks of 2009 would be..

1.There is a sense of pleasure in mediocrity?
2.Ethical Rap
3.Zoadies!!
4.Freedom to me!!
5.3 Idiots
6.Pursuit of Happyness
7.Gibberish
8.Sea Link
9.I am 21 years old
10.Have you ever cross dressed?
11.Zoadies,Roadies.. same difference

Guilty as Charged.

THE SECRET says that you can categorize your feelings into two: Good and Bad.

Good feelings consist of happiness, excitement, love, forgiveness, passion, sympathy.

Bad feelings consist of fear, envy, frustration, anger, jealousy, irritation and so on.

Amidst all these emotions we always forget one very important aspect of our emotional build up that is GUILT. Probably because you don’t know what it makes you feel.

It makes you feel good when you get rid of it and makes you feel bad when you can get rid off your guilt.

This G – factor is directly related to your conscience I guess that is how the term guilty conscience or guilty conscious was coined.

Why is guilt that important an emotion or feeling to discuss?

Because when it comes to guilt everything else fails..

Guilt pierces your heart and pricks your conscience.

Guilt tests your confidence if you can come with the truth.

It shows how big a coward you are to hide the truth.

Guilt questions your self-respect.

Guilt defines your character.

Guilt gives you the strength to face the reality.

At the same time it breaks you completely when the reality is too harsh to be faced.

Guilt makes you think and rethink and forces you to forget whatever that is you are thinking.

It forces you to look into the mirror and see more than just the 3 dimensional appearance.

You know it is guilt when you can lie easily to others but fail to lie to yourself.

Guilt hurts your ego as it makes you realize that you are WRONG.

It also gives you sleepless nights.

Guilt changes you as a person as Akshay says “ It is when you fake a smile but its only you who knows what lies beneath that ***kin smile”

Guilt is when you have convinced others but didn’t convince yourself.Guilt arrives when you know that you want to say "yes" to something and you end up saying no and vice versa.

And there is a thin line between guilt and regret . One begets the other.

It hurts the most when its because you’ve betrayed your best friend or when you’ve ditched your partner or when you have lied to your parents.

Keeping everything aside all this can be overcome by just three magical words which may sound repetitive or fake but works wonder when you say it straight from the heart.

They are “I am sorry”.

I am sorry doesn't mean that you are wrong and the other person is write it means that you just value the relationship more than each other’s ego .

My parents used to tell me “Nobody becomes smaller by saying sorry but by not saying it you do give a boost to your ego to become bigger and bigger”.

So next time to release the burden of guilt of your shoulders never think twice before saying the three magical words “I am sorry”.

Forgive and Forget should be the way to live.

Tell Me Something About Yourself !

Throughout the 4 years of my engineering I've been waiting for this day.

When i'll be sitting all dressed in formals, hair neatly combed, going through my resume and waiting for my turn when someone will call ”Prateek Malpani you are next."

That day finally arrived. I entered with a confident smile hiding my nervousness. Half my nervousness and anxiety disappeared when the interviewer at least 4 decades older than me stood up from his seat and greeted me. He looked excited for the 15 minute talk that was going to happen between us. The look on his face was calm and peaceful. After scanning my RESUME for few minutes finally the most awaited question arrived...

"Hmm ok, so tell me something about yourself?" I have been asked this question a decent number of times before but every time there was someone cute sitting opposite me asking this question.

Although I was expecting this question I was still was feeling at a loss of words when it was finally asked. Give it a thought, you can speak volumes on your friends, your crush, and your family but when it comes to telling something about yourself you become tongue-tied.

This question followed a horde of other questions.

“What are your future plans?”

“What are your interests?”

“Why this and Why not that?”

And on…

I read somewhere that always look into the eye of the interviewer and answer the question, it shows confidence but I was doing it with so much commitment that I thought I might scare him.

Finally he gave me an opportunity to ask something if I wanted to and I came up with

“Thank You Sir.”

The first ever interview of my life was smooth sailing and I can say a cake walk.

Many more to come I guess so I better figure out something to say about MYSELF.

3 I.D.I.O.T.S - Much Needed Sunshine..

Hey, I am back and to do what i do best write about movies. I am not going to crib and whine about why i was out of blogosphere for so long because i learnt how to put my hand on my heart and say "Aaall izz Well" in the toughest of the situation.

I've always seen movies with an intent to learn something from it. To relate myself and try and fit in myself in the scenes of movie.

3 I.D.I.O.T.S is one movie in which i could put myself from the very second it started.

The movie is mind blowing that writing a review will be insulting it.It is always said that a bestseller book or for that matter any book when made into a movie will never do justice to it. But 3 I.D.I.O.T.S does more than just justice.

I wont be surprised if people would want to run to the book stores and buy the original masterpiece FIVE POINT SOMEONE itself. In fact i would be more surprised to know about people who havent already read the book.3 I.D.I.O.T.S is not actually a page by page adaption of 5 point someone. The body is different but the soul is the same.

It captures the moments that come in engineering life which will make engineers weep like a baby just how I was (no matter how tough a guy you are its very difficult to control that drop of tear when you see your life on big screen).I would plead AAMIR KHAN to hold a special screening of this movie to MUMBAI UNIVERSITY they desperately need to watch it or at least my college professors.

This movie is not a "laugh your ass out" movie.. nor it is a "cry your heart out" movie.. but it is what you call a more cliched term used more often called as "feel good wholesome entertainer".For some 170 odd minutes you just sit back, relax and enjoy the rollercoaster ride.I call it a roller coaster because there is not one fraction of a second in the movie where you feel its getting monotonous and neither is there a single frame where you feel that its not required in the movie.

You rope in the father of feel good cinema Raju Hirani and then get yourself 3 class actors, adapt an outstanding and popular book you have hit the bull's eye.

Aamir Khan , just when i thought Lagaan is his best work, he came up with Rang De Basanti and when i thought RDB was the best bollywood movie ever made he comes up with TAARE ZAMEEN PAR.. and when i though TZP is the movie that has touched my heart the most he comes up with 3 I.D.I.O.T.S. Hats off man!.. kudos!..

Sharman Joshi matches up and has proved himself time and again that he is also a big fish in Bollywood.

Madhavan and Boman Irani play their parts flawlessly. Even though the innumerable times that Boman Irani has played a control freak insane professor each time it fresh and different.

Kareena Kapoor is beautiful and gets noticed

in the movie dominated by 3 I.D.I.O.T.S

Let me give a special mention to the music director and lyricist. Shantanu Moitra's music is soothing and songs go with the flow of the movie in fact they help taking the movie forward.

Give a good nice ear to "Give Me Some Sunshine" beautiful, beautiful song.

All in All.. All izz Well .. i would say.. and leave you with the only one line in my head..

"Give me Some Sunshine,

Give me some Rain..

Give me another chance..

I wanna grow up once Again"

RATINGS : 6/5 (yes 6 on 5 :p )

2 States - The Story Of My Marriage

Disclaimer : This is not a book review

Let me start by saying that Chetan Bhagat is the person behind me reading books in the first place. If it wasnt for his books i would have remained a non-reader all my life.

Chetan Bhagat the youth writer image that he has got has tried something different yet so similar this time. He decided to go one notch ahead and write a book on one of the most important and after reading the book adventurous event of his life.

I dont know the degree of adventure in the actual sense because he's mentioned to consider this book as a part of fiction.

The book that I am talking about is 2- States.

Its a book on love cum "please arrange" marriage in general in India , how it was a decade ago. Things have changed now obviously. Most importantly it has 2 states playing a very important part in the book,

Tamil Nadu and Punjab. Different like chalk and cheese isnt it?

If i tell you what the book is about it will sound very cliched but i wont be surprised if some tom dick or harry would want to make a movie on this book too cos it is surely entertaining.

Now the problematic part with Chetan Bhagat is that he raised his standards so high with the classic FIVE POINT SOMEONE that everyone expects him to churn out something like that everytime he pens down.

'5 point someone' was rocking cant put down till i finish type book.

'1 night at the call center' was okayish ( mixed response but personally I loved the book)

'3 mistakes of my life' was a disaster ( personally i hated it too)

after 3 mistakes of my life everyone started terming him as a one book wonder. Immature writer.

I always felt that he is an amazing story teller with a great humour element but not that great a writer that is why all his books are made into movies.

But again because he became so famous after his first two books which targetted the youth of india it became like a reflex action to read chetan bhagat if its a new book on the stands.

Just like people have to go and watch a Shahrukh Khan movie no matter how bad it is.. or how bad the reviews are.

But with 2- States Chetan Bhagat will manage to win the confidence of old readers and get some new ones.

The ones who are not okay with colloquial style of writing will still keep on disliking him probably because they are too sophisticated for his books or they have too much of Jeffrey Archer or John Grisham in their minds.

Although the typical Chetan Bhagat elements are there in the book like the over use of the sentence " and we made love" and overuse of sarcasm but that somehow keeps the grip and keeps you smiling.

Do not be too judgemental and read it with an open mind only then you will not find the writing too monotonous and relate to the character and eventually end up enjoying the book.