This Black has more colour......

"Black" is one of my favourite films. And this is one of the best scenes of the film. Of course there is no doubt in the fact that one of the factors that makes this scene very memorable is the tremendous acting skills exhibited by Rani Mukherjee. But more than that what touched me was the manner in which Sanjay Leela Bhansali portrayed the relationship between the teacher and student. The apprehension on Amitabh Bachchan's face while his student goes through the interview symbolises the anxiety which every teacher feels when his/her student passes out from the institution, the anxiety to see them well placed in life. It also beautifully captures the emotion of a student for whom a teacher is not just somebody who imparts education but a person who becomes a guiding light in his/her life.
Since I have enjoyed the company of a teacher who is quite like Mr Sahai, there is all the more reason for me to enjoy this scene. I get chocked with emotion each time Rani Mukherjee says "T...." in the film.
Shalini teacher, this one's for you........

Light A Million Candles

http://www.lightamillioncandles.com/

'Light A Million Candles' is a campaign to raise awareness of the problem of online child pornography. Their goal is to gather as many signatures in a virtual petition to challenge financial institutions, governments, payment organisations, Internet service providers, technology companies and law enforcement agencies to work together to eradicate the problem. The more candles lit, the more powerful the voice against child pornography becomes.

'Light A Million Candles' is an awareness campaign developed by a group of volunteers in Singapore led by Standard Chartered Bank, in support of the work of the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography.

So its my humble request to all of u, please do visit the website and light a candle today

PS. For more details about the initiative you can visit the following website

http://www.lightamillioncandles.com/faq.html

Life Mein Kabhi Kabhi........

Sometimes in life, unexpected people and names remind you of old wounds which lay buried deep inside the heart.............

It was a saturday evening when Pooja called me. Pooja who is my collegue and good friend since the last year and a half, was bred in Mumbai and much to her dislike had to relocate to Chennai because of her job. She didnt have many friends here (like myself) but we vibed really well.

Me: "Hey Pooch, What’s up buddy?"
Pooja: "Guess what? I’ ve good news"
Me: "Dont tell me that you are getting married!!!!!!!! he he he!!!!!"
Pooja: "YUP, Prachi I am getting married!!!!!!!! Can u believe it?????"
Me: "WHAT!!!!! OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! Pooch, you kidding me!!!!!!"
Pooja: "No Prachi, this is true and I want you to meet him. He's come down from Bangalore. Can we all meet up tomorrow? He's leaving next week."
Me: "Sure dear, but at least tell me his name and what does he do?. Pooja, you can’t simply expect me to let you off without divulging anything about him. You have to give me all his details so that I can prepare to interrogate him tomorrow, he he he he he.... after all this is my future jeeju you are talking about."
Pooja: "Okie, will tell you the details. First decide the place coz I’ ve to inform him. How about Espahani Centre?
Me: " Poochhhhh, no not that place, please. You know how much I dislike the place right?. I feel very uncomfortable there"
Pooja: "Ya, I know but he loves the place. He has a lot of memories attached to it. He grew up in Chennai. Please Prachi, don't say no. Its the first time he's told me his preference and I don't want to disappoint him. Prachuuuuuuuuu"
Me: "Ok Ok, Dont sulk now. Fine, lets meet up there but don't blame me if I am not myself. Gosh, just look what love does to people!!!! (Pooja giggles)
You still have not given me the details dumbo."
Pooja: "Ok listen. His name is Raj, a Company Secretary working in Bangalore. He was born and brought up in Chennai.........."

I was not listening to the rest of the things Pooja said. I could’nt listen. I was trembling instead. That was the effect the word "RAJ" still had on me. I did’nt want to go down memory lane. I wish Pooch had not called me, I wish I had not asked her fiance's name. I wish I had left Chennai then, three years back.

Espahani Centre - 3 years back

Raj and I always met up at Espahani Centre. I don't remember how we ended up choosing the place but it was almost as if it was meant to be.
Raj and I had been staying in the same colony since childhood. We had been friends, rather we had a lot of common friends. But it was when his family shifted to another residential area that we realised that our feelings for each other had blossomed into love. We started meeting often. First we met up at movies and later graduated to Espahani Centre. Espahani was witness to all our celebrations be it birthdays, or anniverseries for the whole of four years we were together.
One day we met up at Espahani, only this time the reason was completely different from the rest. Raj was moving to Bangalore because his father had got a transfer and wanted to meet me before he left. Little did I know then that it would be the last time we would meet. We felt very sad to part but Raj promised that once he completed his Company Secretaryship he would speak to our parents about us. But as time passed the telephone conversations reduced to sms's which then reduced to mails and then finally it was just silence....... I was desperate to hear from him but neither did he answer my calls nor did he reply to my mails or sms's. I took his silence in the begining as the aftermath of some mishap in his life but later on was informed by a mutual friend that he was very much in touch with them. After a while I was forced to give up but not before feeling completely used up and emotionally drained. Why did he do this to me? Did he ever love me at all? Was I just a time pass for him? These were questions for which I would never find an answer.

Pooch was still talking. I collected myself and promised her that I would make it tomorrow.

It was finally when I got dressed on Sunday morning that it struck me like a bolt of lightning. Did Pooja say her fiance was Raj, a Company Secretery based in Bangalore???????? That's impossible. How can it be? God could’n t be so rude to me. How would I face him? What would I tell him? What would I tell Pooja - Glad to meet your fiance who also happens to be my ex-lover/ditcher? I had to make an excuse to not go but Pooja would be heart broken..........

I reached Espahani at sharp 12. I wanted to register the place well in my mind before I finally confronted Raj with all the questions that had given me sleepless nights for so long. Pooja would be here with Raj at 12.30.
How did Raj react when Pooja told him about Prachi, her best friend? Did he remember the name atleast?
At last after what seemed like a lifetime, I saw Pooja come with a very tall guy. As they came closer, I saw their faces, which were glowing in each others presence. Wait....... the guy with her, that's not Raj!!!!!!!!!!! Not the Raj I wanted to confront, warn Pooja against. For a moment I stood there, thanking God for making "RAJ", such a common name and "Company Secreteryship", a popular profession.
Pooja gave me what was probably the warmest hug I have ever got from her. As we sat talking, I could’nt help thinking......

Sometimes in life, unexpected people and names remind you of old wounds which lay buried deep inside the heart............. :)

A beautiful thought

"Its madness to hate all roses because you got scratched by a thorn, to give up all your dreams because one didn't come true, to lose faith in prayers because one didn't get answered, to give up on your efforts because one of them failed, to condemn all your friends because one betrayed you, to not believe in love because someone was unfaithful.... Remember that another chance will come up, a new friend, a new love, a new life, so never give up.... because,
LIFE'S INDEED BEAUTIFUL!!!!!"

Amit Paul's performance at Indian idol 3

this is the video of Amit Paul, a contestant of Indian Idol 3. this song was performed by him at the third gala of Indian Idol 3. i must admit here that though i'm an avid hindi film music buff i have never paid much attention to this song, "Nasha Yeh Pyaar Ka Nasha" from the movie "Mann". to me it didn sound like a romantic song or for that matter a gud song but after seeing this performance its almost impossible to not like the song. now, i have downloaded the original version of the song, sung by the great Udit Narayan and here comes the video of Amit's performance. in my opinion this has been the best performance by any person in any music competition. Amit is one of the very few singers who matches the emotional quotient of the like of Udit Narayan. Way to go, Amit. :)

Dr Kalam

Today is Dr Kalam’s last day in office as the President of India. As he completes his stint in office it is with a heavy heart that most Indians bid him farewell. This is because Dr Kalam changed the whole perceptive of the office of President. He made Indians realise what our country’s strength are and how we can capitalize on the same. To the senior Indians he was the medium of reinstating hope that the India envisaged by our great freedom fighters was indeed not far away. To the youth he was a motivation – a motivation to work harder, to follow one’s dreams and to make India a better place to live in. but what I liked the most about our President was the fact that he emphasized time and again that there is a need to groom the children because they are the future of the nation. Of all his interactions with different sects of people, the most interesting of them have the ones with the children. He interacted with them in manner which made the children think and develop into better human beings.

In this context I read an article by Mr Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN IBN. He has very accurately summed up the 5 year term of Dr Kalam. The link to the article is given below. Please do read the same when u find time. cya :)

http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/rajdeepsardesai/1/2167/kalam-a-man-for-all-reasons.html

Quote......

i received this message as an sms fwd. the message conveyed is quite true. so i thought of putting it up here.

"Relations which require effort to be maintained are never true and if relations are true, then they never require any effort to be maintained"

Devout Devotees......

last month i had been to kerala and mumbai on a holiday. during the visit my parents and i visited various temples. some among them were guruvayur and shirdi at nasik. first of all, i am not someone who believes in going to temples to get the blessings of God. i feel that if u have the faith and belief then one's home is the best temple. anyway, i didn want to offend my parents so obediently went with them. interestingly i noticed that irrespective of whichever the place, the rules were the same and so were the attitude of the devout devotees!!!!!
v had to endure long queues in both the places before v could actually step into the main sanctum. while in the queue i observed that many of them were cribbing, either about the heat or about the co worshipers pushing them or scolding their small children for being 'naughty '(well, according to them). i thought, if this is the attitude of the worshipers, then how different is this queue from a queue outside an amusement park. the idea of visiting a temple is to seek God's blessings but instead of concentrating on the purpose of the visit, the devotees, barring a few, seemed to be bothered about all the other facts except the main one. there were some ladies who were scrutinizing their neighbour's sari and jewelery!!!!!! HEIGHTS!!!!!! and to add to that, there were some very smart devotees who managed to break the queue and got in. this only added to the frustration of the already disturbed worshipers. well, my mother was one of the disturbed devout devotee. i asked her, "amma, haven't u come to the temple to see the Lord and to seek his blessings, does not cribbing about what ur neighbour is doing diminish the whole purpose of your visit? if he (the neighbour) is doing anything wrong, then he is in front of God, and He knows how to treat him, why are you so disturbed?" she replied,"yes you are right, but it is irritating to see someone break the queue like this" to this i thought, "we are already inside the temple and only a few steps away from the sanctum, then what difference does it make if v get late by a few minutes?"
don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to justify the people who break the queues but what i cant stop thinking is the fact that both the set of people are so intolerant and impatient. another question which came to my mind is, "does visiting temples and praying to God and giving him offerings absolve a person of all his wrong doings?" wrong doings - the wrong acts done by a person consciously. and mind u, the worshipers i met there were not villagers or illiterate, they were all aware of what is the right way to behave and the right way of doing things.
what very often people don't realise is that religion is not just about having faith in God but it is about a way of life, it is about showing concern as an individual to the larger section of the society. anyway, at the end of my temple visits i was left a happier person. no not because my endurance levels were high but because i was happy that i saw enough reason for continuing to believe what i did before my visit to the temple. see ya. :)

Life's about living it.......

when i decided to start a blog, i was thinking of a suitable name for it. i didnt want to name it after me. i wanted a name which depicted my belief and at the same time send across a msg. so i asked a few close frds to help me with the name and after a lot of thinking and breaking of heads i decided on kuch khatti kuch meethi. but somehw i didn seem too happy with the title. it sounded more like a chaat name than a depiction of me or my personality. anyway, havin registered my blog wit the title i made various attempts to write my first post. but everytime i would get stuck half way through and would end up deleting the post. then one day during casual conversation with a frd i said, "see life's about living it and not sulking around like this" and then it struck me - WOW, this would b the name of my blog. and so here it is, my blog and also my first post.
phew, i almost thought i would never write anything at all but finally managed some crap. (",)
signing off for now. byeeee.