2008: A Year Not To Forget

I could see the breeze and can feel the cold in air, this soil is far far away from where I spent my last 31st. In last five years I have spent all my new years in different places mostly on my choice but this year, it's different. This year I am here in Bangalore, the ride life has given me this year would be something I won't forget any sooner: a ride of lifetime, a ride that would always remind me that how helpless you can become while destiny plays. I started this year with positive note and was expecting life to become more pleasant but with the turns I saw in the entire year made me sit back and think over with sorrow on the events that came by this entire year. The most unforgattable of all is the departure of my family head, my father. If I could find appropriate words to express my feeling of this greatest grief then it won't be my sorrow but utter most anger on the odious destiny. Family is always the most important part of my life but I know that even being with them would not fullfil the loss of lifetime. This feeling of being cast away and living life on someone elses' term makes me feel hostile and this feeling just gets worst when the events around embarkes the atrocity within. I am angry, sorry, depressed and the mood is somber, this year I have lost a part of me which was free from any of these attributes, sometimes I feel disguised when I see myself and find someone else at my place; standing there to face the music it is not willing to listen, waiting for a change so desparately that even a small spark of hope could burn an entire mountain of sorrow.

Is this the mutual feeling I am sharing with someone or am I lost in the ocean of life, clueless where to be headed.

While keeping the personal loses off the shelf I still couldn't believe that life has not given a single moment otherwise to cherish. Constant beating from all around has really proved that you can't make a choice but to accept the facts. I knew truth is always stranger than fiction but this isn't strange but bizarre and unprecedented. I saw world around me fuming and burning when the fleshes of human bodies were brought out of Taj and Trident, I heard the weeping of family members who lost their loved one, it was grusome and ugly to the core of its extent. An event that embarked a sense of protest which I hope will serve in betterment of humanity. The cross borded tension is on its peak waiting for a war to be broken out, the ultimate step either side might take to break free the hostile environment. I know people around are angry, sorry, depressed and the mood is somber, isn't that the same feeling I went through this year?

While climbing to the acme of a mountain gives you a feeling of pride, to stay there and survive is a challange to withstand the wind of change. The only constant in the world is change and yes when Obama said "Change has come to America", I heard it and the people of America also listen to the music of change and in a historic event America found it's first Afro-Amrican President, a matter of pride for the man and his supporters. This lights hope for an alien on the soil that one fateful day he can expect his descendants to run the country he has served his entire lifetime being called a slave from third world country. But the path on which Obama has commenced his stardom is full of nails, the country as well as the world is getting into deep trouble and the epi-center is America, the first and far most important task ahead for him is to handle the Atlus shrugged and to any streach of imagination this is not going to be a walk on the cake. This will prove his iron if he comes as a winner and glides his country and world to a safer cohesive environment, until then the people around are angry, sorry, depressed and the mood is somber, isn't that the same feeling I went through this year?

While the wind of changes and unprecendented events was on it's peak how can it not crush anything coming on its way and the crash witnessed in stock market around the world is the living example of how choppy things can go. As cancer, the entire world economy collapsed and the virus is still spreading. A time has come when the world doesn't give improtance to anything but to save their own existance. The identity crisis has arrived where the theory of Darwin suits the most "Survival of the fittest". Where is the end for this crisis is a question which no one can answer but surely I can guarantee you that the pain is only going to intensify going forward. While most of the sectors still barred with the downfall are not going to be pardened next year. The beating people around the world are going to get will be really unimaginable to the extent that the very existance of happyness will be questioned. We are surely heading toward this fate until a miracle comes to rescue. Everyone knows this facts but they are afraid to visualise the future which is dark and terrible. A common man out there is angry, sorry, depressed and the mood is somber, isn't that the same feeling I went through this year?

I guess I am in consensus with quite lot of people around the world. 2008 would be never forgotten and with no effort it will be imprinted in my memory with the darkest color, a year of losing hope, faith and happyness. I wished there would be a shop which sell happiness, I would have bought happiness from there and distributed around. But I know that you can't buy happiness, I just wish I could. Amidst all the downfalls I saw a small spark, a spark of life that rejuvenated my lost part and my rendezvous with happyness, her name is "Avaani". My faith on life has strengthen when I saw how amidst all adverse conditions a new life finds it's way to show route to happiness and proves that happy days are bound to come here again.

Outlook For Next Year Market

Exactly a year back on the same day I was calculating my profit from my portfolio, it was hugh...very hugh. Things can turn around quicky, I knew but the plunge I took this year has opened my eyes, mind and squeezed my pocket as well.

The turnmoil which whiped out eventually every big dream this year is going to be termed as "The first recession" for the 21st century. Everyday came with a new surpise which was bizarre and unprecedented than it's previous one. No prediction, no furmula not even any strategy can be formulated to overpower this catastrophe. While US wind up it's year at all time low, there is lot more blood to be shaded which is eventually going to comeout next year first quater onwards. There is lot of pain left and it will grow as cancer next year capturing eventually everyone and the hostality surrounding would be so engrossing that even the bravest soilders would be afraid to face the music. Not long while ago, Ex-CEO Citi group Price quoted "Everyone Dances to the music". While making this comment he forgot to add "On dirty tune". Rise and fall debacle of investment banking is the best example of how greed can corrupt you to the core where you are even ready to endanger yourself for making money. My personal feeling and understanding is the crisis world is currently facing is largely due to investment banks and the real estate bubble blast in US market. Investment banks traded the most toxic assets as a lucrative instrument for making quick money to a layman that eventually intoxicated entire economy. Although the era of investment banks is finally over and big bulls like Bear Strean and Lehman Brothers have lost their existance but what is left there behind are numerous unanswered question from the investors who lost their money, faith and everything.

Everytime when government comes to rescue, 'intelligent people' quote..."It's too late and too little", the question here to be asked to this elite class is: what were they doing when the curtains on the happy days were falling, didn't they see it coming? Wasn't that the right time to come and raise voice against the things which were ethically wrong. These smart people who are given the freedom to speak are nothing but small time jugglers who dances to the flow of wind. Criticism is the easiest way to pass-on blame on someone else but taking up a step and withstand the opposite force takes high moral values and ethics which unfortunately no one posses. These unfortunate times in which we are living is due to the power is given in hands of people who are morally and ethically corrupted. A corrupted mind can only dig grave for others but they always forget that at the end of the day they are living on the edge of same grave which would surely going to become their eternity, their last resort for hideout. Unfortunate but a naked truth!

Finally the question arises amidst all this what's the outlook for next year, is it going to get to the great recession of 1929 or even worst? The answer lies in the retrospect of the wrong steps and action taken in past. If the lesson learnt from this one are not imparted in the measure taking process for future then we are going deeper and deeper into trouble. The time has come when everyone needs to start being ethical and have some moral values, the onlyway to fight against this beast. one thing is for sure that next year we are going to see many surpises which surely are going to jitter a common man. It's crystal clear that there is going to be a big shift of power and it is going to shake everyone who is directly or indirectly related to US. Be ready to face the music and dance on the dirty tune.

Ghajini - Amir's Hysterical Performance

Atrocity is not bound to a sick mind but it can be for avenge of the purest part of you which is love. How could a person with a stature of our protagonist can became so brutely insane that he literally butchers people who come in the way of his path of revenge but most importantly of all is the answer to question for justification of this gruesome act. The mind bobbling find-and-kill tail of a nerve wracking, high pulsating and ferocious sequence of violence embedded with adorable sequence of serene soft romantic moments makes Ghajani the most talked about movie even before it was released and surely the movie live up to the hype and hysteria which was created earlier.

Inspired by a holliwood cracker "Momento" not even a single sequence in this movie falls anywhere down to the era created by the earlier blockbuster. In totality it actually put Ghajini on top thanks to the animosity and ferocity displayed by ace actor Amir Khan . He has created a cult for society by playing Sanjay Singhnia and surely it will wipe off all the earlier images he built. I am sure the gray shaded role he has played in this movie will become the most liked gray shaded role performed in recent times. He is a gem and just polishing the shine further with every single movie he is making, absolutely impacable.

The story line is also altered from it's original tamil version (Of course from it's holliwood version as well) and for good only. There are actually two parallel stories which run through first half and the pace on which it runs really gives you a feeling of saturating enjoyment well within the halfway. Second half starts having a rendezvous with Ghajini and the closing bell will left you dumbstruck with the raw action and the intensity Amir has displayed in his pursuit of Ghajini, highly spirited performance. The only flaw one could derive from Ghajini is the role of Ghajini himself and the motive on which the lead actress gets killed, it should have been more convincing or in other words the grandeur performance of Amir Khan will underrate anything underlying.

From the performance point of view Amir is a standout. The intensity, the build-for-kill attitude, the raw wrath and agony which was required for his character; he did full justice to that. I don't think anyone in Bolliwood could have taken up the role and would have done even half of the delusion Amir did. Asin is surely going to make a great mark with this movie, she was outstanding in her role and her charm of caring a girl-next-door look is going to knock many hearts and doors to get opened going forward. She is going long way in Bolliwood for sure, her presence would ease off the tensions and would give you a chance to blissfully smile and adore the couple (Asin-Amir). Although she need to work on the intensity part especially in the last scene of hers' where she wasn't convincing while getting killed or may be Amir set the bar so high that no one could reach to his mark and would leave you to comment.


Background score and music are apt to the situations and would definitely give you a breather which will be a must while things around get highly intense as the movie progresses, direction and especially the raw action sequences of the movie are outstanding. It gives you a feeling that it's a genuine storyline not a Bond story where flying bullets never hit the target as long as it's Bond who is facing them. Our hero in the movie is vulnerable and he makes mistakes often. Needless to say not his fault, he can only retain memory for 15 minutes. Although the theme is copied from elsewhere but the projection is brillient and surely this will be the best movie for the year from Bolliwood.

Love Is All Around!!!

I had sensed her staring at me and still felt strangely calm about being observed. I looked at her and felt an instant spark of connection which I had never felt before. I walked slowly towards her and we held the gaze for sometime. Passing through the corridors of life, I came across many people whom I instantly found attractive but this time it was different, this time it felt like meeting a long lost friend.

The beginning of the conversation was instantaneous - First pleasantries, our origins, accommodations, weather, the quality of the food and friendliness of the locals. I was not sure earlier whether she is new to the town but after this brisk conversation I knew we sailed the same ship reaching this city. Onlookers, however, would have detected the subtle flirtation as we spoke directly into each other's eyes. We walked together taking turns in talking and giving the gaze. The sky seemed bluer, color Red brighter and noise appeared as Music. Every time while I took a glimpse of her, I could feel that she was getting cold shivers. Love was in the air.

We were destined to be together and so we are right here right now. Sometimes I wonder how can people quatify their love? I feel amuzed that the same people who spent thousands of hour talking to each other without seeing question each other to quantify love? Compare themselfs with others and feel low when finding they are not as happy as others. I wonder whether that's love or trading of emotions. We have gathered numerous memories of affection, enjoyment, passion, disagreement and grief. There isn’t a single day spent without a drop of word from either side. She is an inseparable part of my life and an integral part of ME. This relationship has grown and so have we as individuals. We have reached a stage where the goose bumps haven’t survived. We give space and we need some too, this is required in every maturing relationship.

The sky doesn’t seem bluer anymore and the color Red is no more important. But I can still sense love. I can feel the magic existing every time I see her in pain when I am suffering, every time I am gloomy when she is unhappy, every time I can be me when with her, every time she holds my hand, I feel touched by an angel - Every time in her presence, I feel being complete. Life without a friend is like the sky without sun and nothing could be more treasurable than finding a friend in your soulmate. If I be a love doctor and people come to me for advice then I would always suggest them Love being the best medicine of all, I understand that after a period of time with shifting responsibilities and up & downs in life love tends to shade it's color but the only prescription for the question "What if it doesn't work?" would be to double the dose.
I am assured that she is the only person I can be happy with. And I want to be with even if I am not. I have realized over this course of time that Love has managed to be in the air when she is around, we are now inseparable souls. The time has come , we're not two people now we are one second to none.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi -- Review

Identity crisis, this is what happened throughout the movie where the most unconventional aspect was how a wife can't identify her husband being in his vicinity all the time?

Apart from this flaw the movie seems to create some magic though is far away from the era created by DDLJ. The story traverse around a mid-aged gentleman Surinder Sahni and his subtle lifestyle which portrays any common man in the country. The movie is themed to show his quest to conquer his spouse's heart with his simple yet sober living style which he finally achieves with keeping his values and dignity intact, the end of movie definitely going to remind the melodramatic end of Dil To Pagal Hai's. What movie lacks is the strong projection and theme based character, apart from Surinder Sahni none will remain on top of your mind once you leave the theater.


Shahrukh undoubtably works the way to top by his protrayal of character Surinder Sahni. He looks so genuine and real as the character that one wouldn't give a second thought but by putting himself in his shoes, very realistic. What kills the movie's class is his second role as Raj, he must understand now that such flamboyant roles are not characteristic to his age and image now and he should avoid clinching such roles. Apart from this he steals the screen anytime as soft spoken Surinder. New girl in the block Anushka Sharma plays a good part. She looks good, matured and shares the screen with Shahrukh with ease. She never looked as a new bee in the movie and played her role convincingly. She is definitely going to get some big projects after this one. She has elan, grace and perfect weapons in her arsenal to cruise the way into audience heart, way to go girl.

Entire movie is shot in Amritsar, a contrast from any Yash Raj camp movie which are mandate to shoot in Switzerland, if not all then at least a song. Surely now they are realizing that it's not the location but the theme and performance that matter more to make a movie success. Music of the movie definitely is melodious, all the songs are well timed and helps to move the movie ahead, not just simple fillers. The track "Dance pe chance mar le" would definitely let you make some moves when you listen and see it on screen. The important point where movie lacks is the element of surpise within it,the storyline also is not new. Viewers are always aware of what would be next which drops the level of excitment a viewer should have while watching the movie. The role of Raj is not at all convincing and it's more an irritating one than anything else, a role which should have been thought in better way. It's only the individual performance that lifts the movie from falling in the category of an average movie.

In a nutshell if you are an SRK fan then it's a must watch for his role of Surinder Sahni, if you like good family oriented musical then this can be a good watch for a family.
All in all I recommand this movie, at least you won't be disappointed after leaving the theater.