Why I won't have children, and you shouldn't either

For a moment

• Lets forget that all kinds of pollution has reached their zenith: air, water, noise and many others.
• Lets forget the greedy consumption of agricultural and forest lands to make malls, apartments and bars/casinos, thus leading to death/extinction of many animal/plant species and tribes. And in recent times, floods!
• Lets forget that these days one consumes more medicine than ever before, perhaps making it a part of our staple diet.
• Lets also forget that everyone is running this "rat race" to reach that bigger and better stage in life, when in most cases, bigger and better is actually worse because in many cases it ruins our health and relationships, leaving us with superficial relationships and life on medicines.
• Let us also forget the ever increasing gap between the rich and poor, leading to wasteful habits of rich and the starving children of the poor.

Once you've successfully forgotten all this, you can go ahead and produce as many babies as you like. But if you can't forget even one of the points I've mentioned above, think the kind of world you're planning to bring your baby in. Your own child is someone you'd end up loving more than your life and your dreams. Will you be able to bear the suffering this child might undergo while growing up in this world? If he's a good person you'll feel pity for him, if he's shrewd you'll hate him for being so mean and selfish. Moreover, you'll also worry about his job and career, most of which are artificially created and add no meaning to this world or one's life.

So we're left with two choices. Either we begin to fix this world or not produce any more babies, let the human race become extinct and then allow our planet enough thousands of years to recuperate the damage done to it.
Since we're busy in our daily lives, and trapped in this "rat race" chasing a dream life, I have a suggestion for you, in case you're interested in fixing this world.

Stop Wasting:

• Order/cook based on hunger.
• Buy only what you need instead of getting carried away by monthly Sale offers. Why not try meditation/yoga/exercise instead of shopping as therapy?
• Use public transport but if you need personal commutation use two-wheeler and wear a helmet. Help reduce traffic on the road.
• Grow trees in your neighborhood. Only trees can save us now.
• And please, no more startups on same services that already exist!

Following the above will reduce your monthly expenditure and will give you the option to stop overworking yourself and spend some time with family, friends and hobbies.
Once we've achieved a balanced life and reduced pollution to a large extent, then you can think of bringing a new life into this world. Don't give them a chance to curse you for this condition of earth because they'll anyways be cursing you for many other things!

Jabra Fan

“Kehte Hai Agar Kisi Cheez Ko Dil Se Chaaho Toh Poori Kaynath Tumhein Usse Milane Ki Koshish Mein Lag Jaati Hai!” - Om Shanti Om.

 

Perhaps someday few years back I might have wished that the superstar and one of the most talented actors of Bollywood, start doing good movies again. The answer to my prayers seem to have been answered in the movie Fan.

In Fan, Shahrukh Khan does what he does best. And the movie has enough thrill and substance to keep you engaged. I watched it yesterday on the big screen and was pleasantly surprised, and relieved. Shahrukh Khan is back!

 

Since we’ve been going to cinema halls in hordes for movies like Dilwale, Happy New Year and Ra.One, I was expecting similar reaction for Fan, and I feel it deserved it. But NO! Fan is a decent movie to hit the screens but even with a superstar in all the lead roles, it fails to have a big box office collection. That’s ridiculous. Have we really become so ridiculous? Is the movie failing to succeed at the box office because it doesn’t have songs/item songs or a love story?

 

Fan isn’t flawless, but it is MUCH better than Shahrukh’s recent films. His last decent film was My Name is Khan (2010), which suffered the same fate at the box office in India. This makes me urge everyone to re-evaluate the kind of movies we choose to watch.

 

In a nation filled with passionate movie-goers, one would expect world-class high quality movies being made. Sadly most of our movies are trash. Once in a while some decent movie comes along, from a giant production house with enough star power, yet it fails to attract enough audience.

 

I have witnessed your comeback Shahrukh, and I hope it gets better. I hope others witness it too. Lets not give him or other stars and producers make another Dilwale, or Happy New Year or Ra.One. Let us watch Fan to show our support for good movies and encourage Shahrukh Khan to continue doing good movies and good roles.

Why we shouldn't make movies like Neerja

She really didn’t have to do it. But she did. She led her team to comfort the passengers, and at the right time initiated their evacuation. At one point of time, she even convinces the hijacker of her intentions by this simple statement: “I am just doing my duty, just like you’re doing your duty.” I salute her, for rarely such acts of bravery happen and rarer are the instances that they’re noticed.

 

What I really admired about Neerja is that she continued to do her duty while she was playing the role of head air-hostess, even in dire situation. At that time she didn’t bargain for lives of Indians (I mean, come on, nationalism is the in-thing these days isn’t it!), instead she tried to saved the Americans that were the main target of hijackers. Was she anti-national because of this?! OMG !! A movie on an anti-national person who was even awarded Ashoka Chakra, highest bravery award for a civilian!! That wasn’t my thought but isn’t that how the mob thinks these days?

 

A 23 year old girl keeps the hijackers stalled and negotiates with them at every step. Will our so called “leaders”, with years, even decades of experience in people management, have the guts to do this, or will they wait for “help” to arrive? Our brigade of politicians, business tycoons and other powerful and wealthy people must hang their head in shame, for rarely someone from this “prestigious” lot does something brave or worth inspiring.

 

Fine, what she did was great, she was a great person, but was it worth making a movie on? Yes, so that we learn about such people and their courage under fire. But nothing changes, does it? Nope. I watched movie, shed few tears then came back home, “liked” the movie on Facebook, added an update praising the movie and performances, and went on with my life (which includes believing and arguing on every bullshit posted on social media).

 

Making a movie on her is an embarrassment to her. And to all the other brave people who do their duty and fight against any wrongdoing, because we are all well aware of what happens in the end. In India, they either die (are killed) or are posted. We don’t care. We just want a reason to get angry at someone, hate someone and blame someone.

 

That reminds me, have to rush back to Facebook, got a new notification, must be about that JNU student’s case. I’m fighting for him and supporting him by arguing with others who want him punished. My efforts will not go in vain. My hours of toil on Facebook will certainly get him justice and get the culprits the punishment they deserve!

Out of the blurred world

This is my first post in the long (hopefully) series of posts concerning objects in daily use as the theme. Each post will specifically and exclusively talk about that one particular object, which will serve as the main focus in that episode of my memoir.
Today I'll begin by talking about something that I use everyday, and sometimes forget that I'm using it and end up searching for it while wearing it: my spectacles.

My sister had a habit of incessantly watching TV everyday and my parents had started to get upset and worried by it. One day she began to complain of her eyes watering. Even after washing her eyes with cold water and limiting her TV viewing didn't help, my father decided to get her eyes checked despite her insistence that she could see clearly. My mother, not surprisingly, supported my father. She does that when it comes to the matters of health (where you must fail the test) and education (where you must pass the test). While my sister got a clean slip, I got a number, - 0.5, after what happened the next day.
At the hospital the next day, I discovered that I couldn't read the last two lines on the eye testing board. That reminded me of a famous idiom in hindi, "Kaala akshar bhains baraabar". This is in reference to the illiterate population living in villages for whom black is synonymous with the color of a buffalo. And alphabets written in a book are generally black in color. Since they are illiterate, they can't differentiate between the two blacks. Hence the idiom translates to, "black alphabets are equivalent to buffaloes." Hence, I felt as helpless as the illiterate people while reading those last two lines.
That day at home my parents made me wear their spectacles to make things clear (pun intended) which it certainly did. The result of this realization was that one week later I was wearing my first new pair of spectacles.
At the optician, I felt odd. I had seen my fellow classmates and friends wearing spectacles but never thought I'd be wearing one too, that too at the age of 15 (seems similar to how guys feel about marriage). The optician tried to cheer me up by saying that many boys and girls these days wear spectacles so it wasn't a new phenomenon and I had no threat of being labeled a pariah, or teased as a chashmish. I soon got comfortable about wearing spectacles because I was already a socially awkward kid and a pair of spectacles couldn't really make it any worse.
The day after the hospital visit my father asked me, again with the same surprise in his tone, how I didn't realize I need a pair of spectacles to see clearly. At his insistence I could recall and hence confess that I often tried to squish my eyes to read from the green board at my coaching classes for Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, while sitting in the first row. On that I also remembered my best friend Himanshu's comment with giggles, "Abe ye kya kar rahaa hai buddhe ki tarah?" (What the heck are you doing like an old man?)
Honestly, I wasn't jealous of my younger sister. I was happy for her, she could now watch TV guilt free, or so I thought. Now that I joined the club of people with four eyes, my parents had a living example to scare my sister away from TV. She, however, has a mind of her own and tends to ignore things she knows are not important for her at that time. Despite everything, she did watch TV guilt free as she always does.
I felt odd to have this frame sitting on my nose and its arms firmly holding on to my ears. I twitched my nose to readjust the frame or adjusted it with my hands to ensure it is correctly aligned horizontally. The world through spectacles looked sharper and clearer. However while sitting at my study table at home, I realized that I couldn't glance sideways that I often enjoyed doing, since my vision went beyond the frame and into the blurred world. In the last few months I had got so used to my blurred world (gradually of course) that I never realized that a clearer world existed. The feeling of ecstasy to see everything so clearly (just like Blu Ray print of a movie) during the morning bicycle ride to school while wearing the spectacles for the first time, was surprisingly new and unmatchable. Nothing that day could dampen my spirits; I was out of the blurred world!

Patriotic movies during Republic week

This has been a patriotic week for me. I watched the following three totally different kinds of patriotic movies. Interestingly all there were about significant transformation in the character of the protagonist(s). Apart from details on Wikipedia and IMDB, I'd like to share few of my thoughts on them:

1. Lakshya:

(Watched on Saturday, 23rd Jan 2016)
This movie is about a college kid looking for 'lakshya' in his life. He finally finds his lakshya in winning back his country's land taken over through deceit by Pakistani army. So this movie is about protecting one's country from outside invasion.

2. Rang De Basanti:

(Watched on Sunday, 24rd Jan 2016)
This movie is about a group of college kids who're just drifting with time, aimlessly. But a personal tragedy agitates their soul and their conscience awakens and they decide to bring the truth to light. So this movie is about protecting our country from corrupt officials within our country.

3. Airlift:

(Watched on Tuesday, 26th Jan 2016, India's Republic Day!)
This movie is about a shrewd businessman who's only parameter for success in life is profits. However, forced by circumstances he identifies his humane side and helps rescue lakhs of Indians from a war torn zone. So this movie is about protecting our people outside our country.

Such diversity in flavors of patriotism was purely coincidental (first two movies were available in my sister's hard disk drive who'd come home this weekend). And Airlift had released last weekend.
My only desire is that all lessons learned and emotions felt while watching these movies stay with me and I realize my responsibility towards my family, friends and my countrymen.

Fun fact: All actors in three movies form mutually exclusive set.

Filmfare awards are dead (to me)

My last hope, Filmfare awards have also disappointed me. For the following reasons:
 
1. Nawazuddin Siddiqui got no awards.
He was nominated for best supporting actor for two good movies, "Badlapur" and "Bajrangi Bhaijaan" both popular and his performance, as always, top notch. However the award went to Anil Kapoor for Dil Dhadakne Do, again a movie I enjoyed and I liked his role too but he was not the best, Nawazuddin was.

2. Kalki didn't get the award for best actress.
Her performance in Margarita With a Straw made me believe she was actually suffering from cerebral palsy. It was so authentic. Yet the award went to Deepika for Piku, a fine movie and a good performance but not the best. Deepika could have got an award for best entertainer but not the best actor. Was this because Margarita with a straw wasn't a family movie and had some explicit scenes?

3. Sooraj Pancholi got award for best debut actor.
Reminds me of the day when Fardeen Khan got the award for best debut actor for Prem Agan. When I read that Sooraj had got this award, I thought he had no competition but I was wrong. Vicky Kaushal from Masaan and Shashank Arora from Titli were his competition and better than him. Then again, who cares!

Are we really giving 'best actor' awards or 'best entertainer' awards? Even in the latter category these awards don't make much sense!

Biggest shocker of the Filmfare awards was that Shah Rukh Khan was nominated for best actor for Dilwale (because you know, he has done a film so he must be nominated) and Salman Khan was nominated for Bajrangi Bhaijaan (because you know, he was a lead actor in a good movie after so many years, last one being Dabangg). BUT Nawazuddin Siddiqui was NOT even nominated for Manjhi! Had it not been for Ranveer Singh winning the award for Bajirao Mastani, one of these two Khans would have got it. Thank you Ranveer.

The cherry on top goes to none other than nominations for best actress: Kajol (Dilwale) and Sonam Kapoor (Dolly Ki Doli).

From now on, just like Aamir Khan, I'm also going to boycott these award functions (on TV) !!