Chronicles of Elizia

1. Some things never change : Like the smile on your face upon nearing your hometown and the heaviness of heart when you have to leave it.
2. Home alone : After having a year of rocking time with roomies Sampada, Meghana, Deepa and Vaishali it's time for everyone else to move to their respective lives. Nevertheless I'd cherish the moments of non-stop boisterous laughter on the silliest possible jokes, the marathi speaking training, the movies on laptops, the marriage preparations and discussions, the Ayn Rand fan club, the elaborate mehendi sessions and the typical women talk that all men are alike they squander money they are least bothered and they are uber cool and care a damn when they should.
3. I love gyming : Weighloss or no weightloss I am in love with the office gym. It enlivens me after a hectic day.
4. Sabke baaratein aayi : Close friends around me are beginning to move to the second phase of one's life.
5. I have a dream : Someday I want to construct an old-age home for the aged people. When a person falls sick at a young age he generally has his family to fall back upon and to take care of him but the old people are abandoned to deal with their decrepitude on their own. It baffles me sometimes how people dump their very own parents. I dream to provide a shelter to such senile people.
6. Who is John Galt ? Yes, I am deep into Ayn Rand's another magnum opus 'The Atlas Shrugged'. I share a love hate relationship with her protagonists. I loathe them as I fail to fathom their whims and fancies - I cant apprehend why a lady should annihilate the professional path of the very man she loves and sleep with his rivals, a la The Fountainhead. But I secretly love her characters for what they are. Dagny Taggart is my latest obsession.

K(c)rrrri(a)ssshhhh

So after reading all those rave reviews of Krish being phenomenal and unprecedental, I decided to check it out myself. And how did I find it ? Umm..ahh err the mask was indeed sexy and Hrithik did manage to look Adonis the greek hunk God in some of the scenes and the swashbuckling jumps did bring out the kid inside me and made me clap! But I dint want my superman to be wussy. I would have relished some more earth-saving histrionics from the macho man rather than see him wasted delivering mushy dialogues and leaving his hometown for the heck of a girl who dint even love him .. arghh .. bollywood will be bollywood afterall!

We the living

I have finally completed it. It ended on a sombre note but there are several insuperable moments in it. It is the story of a young girl Kira and the people around her on the backdrop of the communist wave that swept Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. One thing that evinces clearly from this novel is Ayn Rand's strong disapproval of Communism. Through Kira she tells us ' dont you know there are things in the best of us which no outside hand should dare to touch. ' The conversation between Andrei Taganov and Kira when they meet at the university is classic and so is the one when she finally confronts him about the 'truth'. The description of Kira attempting to cross the border is another acme of the narrative. The scene when she calls out for her lover Leo that would have been had he been there is quite poignant. Irina's talk to Kira when the last time she meets her is also beautifully knitted. Irina says '..There's your life you begin it feeling that its something so precious and rare so beautiful that its like a sacred treasure and now it's over it doesnt make a difference to anyone, and its not they they are indifferent its just that they dont know, they dont know what it means the treasure of mine ...' In the end Ayn Rand makes one point clear - we the living, the life, the individual, the self-esteem, the values are much above anything else.
While reading the novel I couldnt help but underline one thing about the strife ridden Russia. In Russia, the czar's atrocities led to the communist thinking and his subsequent dethroning. This was not wrong. But what was wrong was the fiendishness in dealing with wealth owners of yesterday - the factory owners, the aristocrats and the counter revolutionaries. Two wrongs dont make a right. Something similar has been brewing up back home too.

Wo / man of substance

Two things. Both very different but moved me in the past few days. First I am reading Ayn Rand's We the living these days. Although I dint quite like her more famous novel Fountainhead, there is something that I cannot deny - her very strong potrayal of characters. I just love the way her characters are so strong and determined in their lives. Be it Howard Roark or Kira Argounova they have an indepedent spirit and an unwavering determination and they both refuse to be cast into moulds and follow their own unbeaten path.
Second. I watched Fanaa yday. The script was pathetic and the movie ludicrous. But Kajol was looking fresh. Her smile still remains as 100 watts as it was a few years ago. I have always surreptitiously admired the way Kajol has carried herself vis-a-vis her relationship with Ajay Devgun. She was the queen of tinsel town when she decided to call it quits give it all for a marriage and a family. Ajay Devgun then was a mere struggling actor. (I believe he has proved himself after his marriage throgh his superlative performaces in movies like Shaheed Bhagat Singh and the like.) It really takes gumption to shy away fame and fortune at the peak of your career and take hard-headed decisions. She took one and it in a way bode well for her. Hats off to the lady!

Pallavi's quote

In Kanpur Pallavi had a poster of Swami Vivekananda on her desk in the lab with a message -
'Great minds discuss ideas, mediocre minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.
Somehow I just remembered it today and felt like reiterating it.

Orange juice, butter milk and mango icecream

TGIF and I'm already in the mood. I suddenly realized that for quite some time I have been following this schedule - orange juice and idlis in the morning, butter milk in the afternoon, egg patis in the evening, khichdi at night, Veg crunchie pizaa whenever I go to Pizza Corner, mango icecream when I go to Corner House, PVR whenever I want to watch a movie, poha whenever we roomies prepare breakfast at home, papad whenever I prepare dinner, the same playlist whenever I switch on my headphones, 12 to 8 sleep on the weekdays, the same hush rush to catch the cab in the morn at 8.30, calling up parents every night talking the same things, the same old orkut whenever I want to pass some time online, the same set of friends whenever I want of freak out, the same leg pullings (esp in the VRCE gang) whenever we meet, the same questions kaam kaisa chal raha hai shaadi kab kar rahi/raha hai whenever I speak to a distant friend, the same rush at 10 p.m to get back home, and so on. Not that I am complaining but let me try change the mango icecream with cool casatta sometime!

After life

I had a dream last night in which I died. After that I was taken to room full of fleecy silvery clouds. From a huge magnificent doorway God appeared and He asked me to choose one defining moment out of my entire life in which I would like to be frozen till eternity. And I patly replied that I want to be frozen in the moment in which I was surrounded by loved ones people whom I love and people who love me. And then I could see heart shaped red balloons and my loved ones. And then even in my sleep I felt so blessed and so happy that it felt like a paradise within paradise. I know it was a dream and I also do not beleive in after life. But when I woke up I knew one thing - the exhilaration of being surrounded by love was not a dream, it was real. Life is too short to requite and bestow love upon your near and dear ones, your friends, your family, your relationships. And you would never get a chance to be frozen till eternity after life with them. Hence always remember to tell them that you love them, care for them, do things for them, forgive them and try never hurt them.

Humesha tumko chaha

So when you have lots of work to be done but are dependent upon others before the thing gets wrapped up what do you expect to do - yeah blog!
So after a long time I grabbed some hindi songs to be played on my headphones notably from movies of recent past. I'm listening to 2 songs of Devdas in infinite loop right now - Humesha Tumko chaha and Silsila ye chahat ka. Talking of Devdas, I detest it downrightly. I didnt watch the movie in theatre but was forced to watch it once while traveling from Pune to Nagpur by bus. I hate the loser attitude so shamelessly glorified in the movie in the name of love. I beleive that love is much more than simply make a fool out of yourself. I also hate the mountain like ego the two had and the circumstances which led to Paro's marriage. And more than that I hate bacchanalia that Devdas indulges into after losing Paro. Jeez..Grow up! Imagine a 30 yr old strapping man overnight turns boozehound and debilitates himself and finally loses his life for what he thinks is love. I need a break! Nevertheless the songs of the movie are quite refreshing. I especially like Humesha tumko chaha. Shreya Ghoshal has done complete justice to the number. It smells of guileless, unconditional love that refuses to die down in your soul despite all odds for which you are ready to abdicate all worldly pleasures. Listen to the lines woh har ek pal mein dil mein samaye mein le jaa rahi hun and the haunting lines aur chaha chaha chaha bus chaha chaha chaha. They come as a stark contrast to the one night stands and the dumping of bfs/gfs for 'better' prospects that happens so rampantly these days. The love in the song so austere and so immaculate that it moves my heart. The lines O preetam o preetam bina tere mere is jivan mein kuch bhi nahi mean so much. Oh wait..now this is what you call double standards ;)!

Shades of wisdom

There are 2 kinds of people on this earth - those who only talk about their problems create a rumpus and ho hallah to gain sympathy and those who never talk about their problems cogitate over resolving them silently and work on them. I want to be a part of the latter.

Sleight of hand

The best thing that I like about weekends is the small 'walk to remember' that I have in the park nearby. If in Blore you just want to spend your time sitting back relaxed in the bosom of the soil watching the sun and the stars then you need to do a reality check. The malls are so disgustingly overcrowded that the air becomes fraught the whiff of your neighbor's sweat. Add to that the traffic is so maddening for the poor roads to withstand that you sometimes wish you had wings! Nevertheless there is a small park near my abode which brings me closer to nature and give me time to relax and indulge in some pschyobabble. During one such walks last weekend I was ruminating over the key to happiness in a person's life. After a few sessions of deliberations in my mind I came to the conclusion that the secret lies in your hand - literally! Many a times in life we cling upon people, desires, thoughts, dreams, relationships, friendships for our survival and hang onto them as our liberator and hold them tight with our fists closed. Failure or separation from our so called liberators is very difficult to come to terms with when our fists are closed. I see it as a rope in our hand which we think would end in bliss and if the rope is stretched a bit too far or is pulled away from us and we tightly cling upon it, it would only result in bleeding of our hands. I'm not advocating not having dreams, desires, relationships, friendships for they form an important part of our existance and distinguish us from machines. But hold the rope lightly in your hand. Enjoy the time when you have the rope in your hand as a blessing. Remember nothing lasts forever. Let go of things. The key to happiness lies in the sleight of your hands.