Readathon – 2012…

Yes. I have introduced a new word to English. And that is “Readathon“.

Jokes apart.

I came across a blog post of Musings of a Bookshop Girl and then and there only I decided to take part in the readin marathon which she has proposed. (For more details about the Mix It Up Challenge she has thrown at you, visit her blog post HERE)

There are in all 16 categories which you can explore to take part in this marathon. According to your acumen, you can choose your level of participation. I will be trying Mixing Bowl (9-12 categories) as my level of participation.

1. Classics

2. Biography

3.  History

4. Crime and Mystery

5. Romance

6. Science Fiction and Fantasy

7. Travel

8. Poetry/Drama

9. Social Science and Philosophy

10. Journalism and Humor.

I will try fulfilling the challenge I have taken. And you will shortly see my reviews about the books I read.

Her Hands…

तेरा हाथ हाथोंमें आते ही,

कायनात जैसे रुक गयी,

धड़कने तेज़ हो गयी और,

ज़ुबान जैसे बीच में ही अटक गयी.

तेरा हाथ हाथोंमें आते ही,

तूफान भी जैसे हवा का झोंका लगता है,

सदिया बीत जाती है लेकिन,

एक लम्हा भर सा लगता है.

— प्रसाद

Like Crazy (2011) – Movie Review…

As the name suggests, it’s a crazy movie. It successfully portrays the emotional turmoil between the mind when in relationship (before and after marriage, both).

Love is imperfection’s another angle. I mean love is never perfect. Love beholds both, the feeling of hatred, betrayal and feeling of affection. The occurrence and emphasis on these two points decides whether your love is sweet of sour. This point has been portrayed nicely in this movie.

A British girl, studying in US, falls in love with American guy. The love flourishes and she overstays the Student Visa, thus violating the visa and bringing on the ban to visit US. The love birds didn’t want to separate but the time making them stay apart. The “need”, both emotional as well as physical, makes both of them be with people, other than each others.

The betrayal,

The affection

These are the two main forces guiding the couple. Every time they take refuge of one force, the other one gets stronger, thus making it a see-saw of emotions. But as they say, a glass and a trust, once broken cannot be mended perfectly. It cannot be brought back to its original form.

I hope the message the director wants to give from this movie is, always weigh your options and don’t give up easily to temptations. The real character will always yield favorable conditions and will bring happiness ultimately, though a bit late.

Nothing much to talk about in the movie, It’s a slow paced movie but the actress Felicity Jones is beautiful though. She looks very cute. The English accent really brings a nice touch to the dialogue delivery. It’s a soothing touch. The background scores are perfectly composed to complement the situation.

My Rating – 3/5 ( ♥ ♥ ♥ )

If you are interested in seeing romantic movie, this one is, I won’t say a Must watch, but a one time watch for sure.

Who Am I???

I have ten heads,

But I am not Ravana,

I have ten thinking hats,

But I cannot think

 Ω Ω Ω

I go wherever you take me,

No questions asked,

I don’t seek for destination,

I don’t check the path

 Ω Ω Ω

They say its eyes which,

Remember the treaded path,

But it’s lesser known fact,

That only I keep the track

 Ω Ω Ω

Dragged most of the times,

Ignored by most of the lot,

But the most important part,

If you are a globe trotter

 Ω Ω Ω

I eat most of the dust,

Not that I am complaining,

But keep me clean, otherwise,

You’ll find your body ailing

 Ω Ω Ω

The more you keep using me,

The more your body will be fit,

I am that oil in the machine,

Which you should always have in kit

 Ω Ω Ω

I hope you have figured,

Who I am, by now,

And if you have guessed,

Drop a comment now…

 Ω Ω Ω

PS: *Ravana – Indian Mythological King of Sri Lanka who kidnapped Seeta, wife of Lord Rama.

Day And Life…

Every day brings,

A morning,

An afternoon,

An evening

And a night

 ♥ ♥ ♥

With every morning,

Comes delicate sunshine,

Slowly making you ready,

To the rough and hot sun rays,

Those are to follow

 ♥ ♥ ♥

An afternoon slowly,

Takes you on roller coaster,

Making you jump and tumble,

With excitements and shocks,

Giving you the right mix

 ♥ ♥ ♥

An evening brings to you,

Setting Sun and soothing hues in sky,

Making your mind retrospect the day,

Do balancing of debit and credit,

And figure what went wrong

 ♥ ♥ ♥

And a night is the crux,

Makes you forget the tears,

Brings some smile on your face,

Relaxes the flexed muscles and,

Prepares your mind for dreams

 ♥ ♥ ♥

Doesn’t our life run on same path?

All the fun and enjoyment in early life,

Responsible, beating and learning adulthood,

Retrospective and experience rich old age,

And death that prepares you for next life.

♥ ♥ ♥

We Are Immigrants…

We are all immigrants who,

live on alien thoughts,

of what others endorse,

leaving behind our Own

>-< >-< >-<

We always find it fascinating,

things others get indulged in,

just for the sake of,

fitting in the social scene

>-< >-< >-<

Or else we feel rejected,

by the so called socialites,

in fact they do reject,

on grounds of social inequality

>-< >-< >-<

But I refuse to bend,

to such social pressure,

I like to live my life,

as a citizen and not immigrant.

>-< >-< >-<

Veg Guava… (Recipe)

This is very simple and yet yummy vegetable one can prepare. Besides that it gets prepared quickly, hence a time saver too. Those who have not at all tasted this vegetable should try and taste it.

Ingredients:

1. 2 Medium sized Guavas. (The Guava should be neither too raw nor too ripe. The quantity depends on how much you want to serve. 2 Guavas are sufficient for one person)
2. Salt (according to your taste)
3. Turmeric Powder (Just to give yellowish tinge to the veggie)
4. Red Chili powder – 2 tb spoons
5. Oil – 3 -4 tb spoons
6. Onions (If required)

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in the pan. Give tadka with finely chopped onions.
2. Then add red chili powder, turmeric powder and salt according to your taste.
3. Then add chopped guava in the tadka and keep stirring it for 2-3 minutes till the mixture is homogenous.
4. There is no need to adding water as that will change the taste of vegetable completely.
5. Now cover the pan and keep it heating on slow flame for 5 minutes
6. If you like you can add finely chopped onions as toppings. Otherwise plain vegetable also tastes well.
7. And the vegetable is ready to serve.

X X X

Lost…

I am lost amidst the crowd,

So homogenous that no one notices,

Black in the night,

Golden in the morning,

And Incognito the whole day

 >< >< ><

I feel like a pamphlet,

Lying on the roadside,

Waiting to get attention,

Trying to get the dust off,

Somehow holding the ink

 >< >< ><

My availability, mistaken,

My attention, taken for granted,

My requirements, ignored,

My views, judged and

My absence, desired.

 >< >< ><

I am that beat on the drum,

Which got subdued in bass,

That horn of a scooter,

Which drained in truck’s honk

Present but still absent.

>< >< ><

Tragedies, Human and God…

Remember last time you said “Why this pain?”

Yea, sounds like you thought about this just some time before, right?

We have this knack of questioning God’s existence. Accepted that you can’t prove his existence, but then you can’t deny it too. Also, man has this habit of writing off all the credit of his success to his name and all the failures to God’s.

Some question, why there is pain if God is there. And I smile at their childish question. Well is it like if God is there your life is supposed to be all fairy tales? Let me ask you a corollary to it. If God is not there, then why isn’t your life complete hell then? Isn’t your life a balance of beauty and hell? Don’t you get happy moments along with those sad ones?

I have one rational theory behind the tragedies or pain that befalls on us.

Tragedies bring people together, who otherwise wouldn’t have come together.

Consider various live examples in front of us. There have been numerous tragedies in Mumbai (or Bombay, whatever you call it). And you see people flocking in and pooling their efforts to save the victims of the tragedy.

Many a times I have seen it on Twitter, when it rains in Mumbai and roads are water logged, people tweet saying “I am travelling by so and so road. If anyone wants a ride home, hop in”.

Hadn’t it been for tragedy, would you have considered tweeting that? Would you ask someone, besides your friends, to hop in while on way home?

It’s another thing that soon after the meet, we forget about the person who helped you and whom you helped. That was an opportunity to be a human being to another human, and you lose it by not keeping in contact.

Coming back to the point, what I mean is, pain or tragedy comes in our life intermittently just for reminding us that your life cannot be all hunky dory all the time. You lose someone close to you, to learn how to live a life independently. Yea, this is a harsh way to teach things to us, but then that’s the way it is handled.

Because we don’t listen to a lecture if it is free of cost. But when we pay for it, we try to grab every word spoken by the orator.

And as far as God’s reference in this post is concerned, I strongly believe in God. Not the way a priest might believe in, but in more rational way. His presence has simply been brought into existence because we wanted some point, whereto we could stare and find the calmness we want in those anxious moments.

And the pain you suffer is bound to be that way. You are bound to suffer because of your deeds. God neither bring the pain to your life nor does he take it away from your life.

Middle Class…

It’s always a rat race, with middle class. You finish one and get involved in second and the cycle continues.

You grow up in a middle class family where you see your parents just able to bring two ends together. That time you can’t have any luxurious thing for yourself. You definitely think of buying something, but at the back of your mind, Financial Constraint always looms and makes you conscious. You forget about the cravings, because you know they are touch too far from reality. You start to enjoy whatever you have.

You start earning yourself and dream of buying things which you always wanted, a high end mobile, laptop, some household stuff or car. You start enjoying first few months and then are suddenly made to realize that you need to save for your future. You think, “I need to save money for my marriage, some house hold responsibility or something more important”. You think now the responsibility is mine and I need to save for my home. Anything ranging from marriage (yes, marriages these days are very costly affairs) to other necessities bear huge price tags. You cut down on your expenses and you again reach the same starting line.

Now, at this point, you start thinking “Why am I not rich”?

But then there are various aspects to being rich, as they are for being middle class. If you are born in rich family, you don’t value the money they way one is supposed to. Especially not when rich parents consider only responsibility of theirs is to provide money to their kids. And if you are born in middle class and become rich, two things can happen.

1. Either you understand your background and treat the bountiful a little more vigilantly
2. Or you get into the wrong stream and start flowing the wrong way. The power of having the money at your disposal corrupts the once rational and vigilant mind of yours.

And who said there isn’t any rat race in rich classes?

It’s a different rat race, obviously, but it is a rat race. The rat race to prove they are amongst the TOP rich classes. That they can do whatever they want. That they can buy anything and everything they want. That they still can have a sound sleep, despite all the thoughts of “How to avoid tax? How to hide those extra bucks?”

Somehow I am partly happy with my middle class background and partly sad. I guess that’s the case with everyone in middle class. Though I would like to be rich, I would like to be so in first category. Earn those extra bucks but be vigilant. You might call it “Lower Rich Class” but I don’t care.