Book Review : 2 States (The story of my marriage)

Love marriages around the world are simple:

Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy.
They get married.  

In India, there are a few more steps:  

Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy. 
Girl’s family has to love boy. Boy’s family has to love girl. 
Girl’s Family has to love Boy’s Family. Boy’s family has to love girl’s family.
Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.

Each of the steps above is more difficult than the previous one. And that is what this book is all about. Many would say step 1 in itself is too difficult, let alone the other steps. The story is that of Krish and Ananaya who meet up at IIMA, fall in love and want to get married. Step 1 is complete. Now all the challenges in their life start. Krish is a Punjabi whereas Ananya is a Tamilian. So there is a hug task in front of them – to gel into the families of their to be in-laws and to unite two culturally different families. The story nicely explains the North Indian – South Indian cultural divide.

 Well the price of the book is Rs.95. The same as that of ‘Five Point Someone’. In the last book ‘The Three mistakes of my life’ Chetan had talked how difficult was it to maintain the same price. Surprisingly the price has remained same even for this book. I really appreciate him for that. It ensures it doesn’t burn a hole in the pockets of a middle class Indian.

 And BTW this book is dedicated to his in-laws, which according to him may be the first time in the history of the books. The statement comes with an asterisk saying ‘which does not mean I am henpecked, under her thumb or not man enough’. Now what is that suppose to mean ?J. Also in initial acknowledgements page Chetan says ‘I would also like to tell all South Indians I love them’ which can be read as ‘be ready, you are the butt of all jokes in this book’

I liked the narration. Its soft and decent. Again like other Chetan Bhagat books, this one will get you glued till the end. I would say this book is better than his previous two. Its enjoyable and practical. If you are working in a MNC, then you would be able to connect well with the Krish’s office life – the way he clears his interview faking himself… hyping team names eg. CSC-Consert Steering Committee… meetings ending with no conclusions… and when the stocks crash and clients lose money instead of admitting the mistake, claiming that the stocks  are in ’self correction mode’. That was too good. There are a few funny lines in the beginnig but as the story moves it gets serious. I am not going to reveal any story. Its worth reading once.

Congrats Sachin.. Well Done India..

sachin

    Sachin has crossed 17K runs in ODI. That’s a remarkable achievement. And the way he played in today’s match against Australia is simply amazing. Hitting 175 off 141 balls was unbelievable! His today’s game reminded me of the Master Blaster I used to watch in my school days. I was a fan of Sachin and loved watch him play in every game. Fours, Sixes, sending balls to every corner of the ground.. It was Sachin’s era then. But wait. He still rules. His era is not over. Remember he scored his 45th hundred today. He is truly a legend! One of the legends of cricket whom the world bestows upon, the legend whom the upcoming cricketers would take ideal as.

    And what do I say about today’s game. Australia set a target of 350. And India lost by 3 runs. Now that’s reaaaaaaaaly close. This is the second match in the series India is losing so closely. India deserved to win today. Aus would have won, but in the whole series India is emerging as a stronger team and dominating team. There are no easy let-offs. Ind – Aus series are fun to watch, especially when finishes are the ones like todays.

Writer’s Block!

Was thinking i was the only one facing it. But no ! Even these people are in the same boat !

These are the blogs which i more or less visit frequently.

http://allirekha.wordpress.com/

http://moregyan4u.wordpress.com/

And thats not all, this guy who used to blog everyday is thinking of deletion.

Whats wrong with ppl ?

http://mirrorcracked.wordpress.com/

Any suggestion to come out of this block ?

Fake IPL player more popular than IPL

The Fake IPL player takes 2nd position in the google trends (india) whereas the ipl live score takes 5th position.

 

Just check out the google trends results. There are more people searching for the fake ipl player than the ipl itself. Check out the posts by the fake ipl player @ www.fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com. This guy has got wits. This mysterious blogger claims to be a player from KKR. Some ppl believe this is a publicity stunt from PR of KKR while others believe its someone with a decent knowledge of cricket faking himself as IPL player. But whoever it is, his posts are real fun.

 

We love mystery.

Delhi 6 : Movie Review

    What was this movie all about? I am confused. For facts, this is a movie directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra of Rang De Basanti fame. Lyrics by Prasoon Joshi and music by A.R. Rahman. The movie stars Abhishek Bachchan & Sonam Kapoor.

 

    I would like to describe the movie in 2 parts, the one before the intermission and one after.

 

First Half -

    Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) returns to India from US of A to with his grandmother so that she can spend her last days in Chandni Chowk, a part of Delhi. He gets familiar with the neighbours, gets to meet Bittu (Sonam Kapoor), spends good amount of time clicking pictures with his Motorola handset and watching Ram Leela innumerable times with his grandmother. The movie goes on with subtle humour here and there. There is one plot where a inspector is seen bullying locals. Amused Roshan demands that the inspector can’t treat people like that and reminds him he is a Public Servant. Inspector replies ‘Kya mein tumhein servant dikta hoon ?” and gives him one tight slap! Roshan slaps back and ends up getting arrested. Ali (Rishi Kapoor) comes to his rescue and gets him out by bribing the inspector. Rumours start spreading about mysterious Monkey Man with several people claiming to have seen it creating menace. The local TV channels keep telecasting the Monkey Man stories.

The first half is really enjoyable and I would rate it 4/5.

 

Second Half -                                                

     Roshan falls in trouble with one of the episodes of monkey man. He decides to go back to America, but finds out that something is stopping him. He realizes that he has fallen in love with Bittu. Meanwhile riots breaks out between Hindus and Muslims over the issue of Monkey Man. Thereafter the movie completely loses the plot. Sigh! It was sort of torture to watch the second half. I would rate it -1 / 5. (Minus one on Five)

 

    The best aspect of the movie is its Music. Nice work  by Rahaman. Also the bylanes of Chandi Chowk are shot nicely. Sonam Kapoor is decent. So if you want to enjoy the movie, then watch it till the intermission. That’s my advice. The movie is nowhere near RDB.

 

Image courtesy : www.wallpaperspecial.com

Happy Birthday Blog!

This blog was started on this day exactly a year ago!

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOG! It had been a wonderful experience here. You opened me up to a totally different world. You gave me company when i was bored. You gave me info on varied subjects. You ROCK!

Moral ? Immoral ?

     While media and consortium of pub-going, loose and forward women are belting Sri Rama Sene left, right and centre, I try to present a slightly different picture. Honestly I feel the issue is blown out of proportion by the media. There was absolutely no necessity to make it a national issue. Even Sri Ram Sene wouldn’t have imagined in their wildest dreams that they would become household names overnight! Thanks to Indian media where any event is presented as breaking news, and when there is breaking news I don’t need to tell how it is reported. I have written about the disgusting media culture before.

     Lets forget media for the time being and shift the focus back on Sri Rama Sene. Instantly it reminds me of the mangalore pub attacks. And remark of Pramod Mutalik as custodian of Indian culture. Though the whole episode is not taken down well by the media, there is a brighter side to it. And now Mutaliks eye is on Valentine’s Day celebration. Its no wonder that every year on pretext of valentine’s day, several young women get cheated. More often the ones who are regular to pubs, bars, discos etc the so called places of entertainment for the forward women. By imposing constraints on the women entering pubs, Sri Rama Sene is/has tried to save future of several women, saved several women from falling into trap by cheap men who look at them as mere entertainment commodities. When your parents object you to visit some place keeping your safety in mind, do you protest against it saying it violates your fundamental rights ? Do you send them pink chaddis ? Duh!

     Nowadays TOI is carrying an article everyday opposing the moral police. They are hell bent on lifting the curbs on nightlife. There were days when TOI initiated campaigns like Lead India, Teach India etc. I felt really proud and had hoped there was someone who can bring change in the society. But now after more than a year of Lead India Campaign what has changed? Where is the Lead India winner R.K. Mishra ? Recently I read in one corner of TOI that he will be starting a project for community development and will get 30 lakhs aid from TOI. But is 30 lakhs enough ? That too after he has worked on the project preparation for a year. And why there is no noice about Teach India ? Did TOI do all these just for its publicity ?

     At the end of it, I see no point in cribbing about moral police. We have bigger problems on our hands. There are rumours of terrorist plots everyday. The country is suffering due to economic slowdown. Lets stop fighting among ourselves. Lets focus on solving the real problems!

P.S. : I am not a member of Sri Rama Sene or associated to it in anyway. This was an attempt to provide a different perspective of the incident, a totally different one than the one which we read in newspaper everyday. Ofcourse i do condemn the attack on girls.

Will a bailout help US Automakers ?

 

Since past few weeks, the Detroit’s Big 3 are pleading with congress for a bailout . But will a bailout really help an ailing automotive industry? The US govt. is skeptical. With falling sales month on month, and with the US economy in recession for almost a year now, US automotive industry is going through a tough time.

 

Where did the US automakers fail? There seems to be several reasons. First and foremost GM, Ford and Chrysler did huge investment in producing SUV and likes, which consumes fuel in larger quantities. When the oil prices shot up, naturally the demand for SUV’s were down. Consumers started buying more and more fuel efficient vehicles, and the Big 3 failed to respond to this. Meanwhile Japanese and German automakers entered the market with compact fuel efficient cars and US automakers failed to compete. Also US automakers couldn’t match the quality of Japanese and German cars, and this further led the consumers drift away from the domestic carmakers.

 

Another important factor is labour cost. US automakers have their plant located in places where labour costs are pretty high as compared to their foreign counterparts. And on top of it GM still pays for the health care costs of its retired workers, which is bigger than its current workforce. Coupled with it the strict labor laws are definite drawbacks. All these started eating into the profits of GM.

 

Will a bailout solve the problem? Looking at the above factors, a bailout will only give a temporary solution. It can only delay the fall. So the best option would be to file for bankruptcy, restructure and invest more in producing fuel efficient cars. Listen to the market and invest more in producing electric, hybrid cars.

 

Photo courtesy : news.bbc.co.uk

Harbhajan caught on wrong foot, again !

 

 

Harbhajan Singh has embarrassed me again. This time not on the field, but with his off field antics. After embarrassing the whole nation with the slapping episode, Bhajji seems to have learnt no lesson. I guess some people never learn. The reason for my angst? The reality show “Ek Khiladi, Ek Hasina”, where Harbhajan was seen dancing enacting Ravan with Mona Singh representing Sita. And the song? ‘Jane ja you are my love’ from the movie Partner. Ravan and Sita dancing together! WTH ?

 

What a disgusting concept. This shows religious obliviousness. And sorry, this can’t be tolerated on the name of creativity. I know Bhajji didn’t come up with the concept, but he should at least have thought once before doing it. The Sikh community is rightly upset with him and is demanding an apology.

 

Dear Bhajji, try to respect people and religion! In India people worship cricket. That doesn’t mean you are God and whatever you do is acceptable. Remember that you are only making a fool out of yourself by involving in such controversies. At least learn something now!

 

Photo courtesy : www.ndtv.com

5 in 1!

I am back to blogging after a short break. There were several topics on which I intended to write, but couldn’t due to lack of time or interest. In this post I have compiled my reviews/opinions about a few movies which I watched in the recent past.

 

The Dark Knight

A blockbuster of this year. The sequel to Batman begins, went on breaking a few records in terms of box office collections. The highlight of the movie is the Psycho villain, Joker played by Heath Ledger. The Joker was so impressive that I could see quite a few friends updating to his pics in their social networking sites, frequently using the phrase “Why so serious?” etc etc. The movie is not a typical superhero movie type, where the superhero emerges out of no where and saves the people. Here the focus is on the mind games played by the Joker and the Batman! Complicated huh! The movie has some very good action scenes, especially the one in which the Batman uses Batpod. The movie runs very fast and I had to watch it twice to get the flow J . The back ground music when the joker emerges was quite irritating I must say. But it was adding to the effect. I would give it a rating of 3.5 out of 5.

 

Bachna Ae Haseeno

This is the second movie of Ranbir Kapoor, a new found Hero of Bollywood. After hopelessly failing to impress audience in his first movie, RK is back on the screen romancing three hotties this time. In the movie RK is a flirt who is interested only in Live in relationships. When the topic of marriage comes, he runs off. In the process he breaks hearts of Minissha Lamba and Bipasha Basu. Later he falls in true love with Deepika Padukone and when she rejects him, he realizes the similar mistakes he has done with other girls. Now his journey for repentance starts. I must admit that Deepika looks awesome in the movie. So if not for anything, it’s worth watching the movie for her. I would rate the movie 2.5 + 0.5 (for Deepika) out of 5.

 

 

  A Wednesday

This one is a suspense thriller. A new genre of movies of Bollywood which does not cast a conventional Hero, Heroine nor includes any songs. I guess this should be a relief for people who are fed up of Bollywood prototype movies. The movie has Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah in lead roles and runs for 90 minutes. I am not going to reveal any story because this movie is worth watching atleast once. And trust me this movie has got one of the best endings! This movie reminded me of ‘Amir’, which too is of similar types.

I would rate it 4 on 5.

 

 

Rock On

After reading numerous positive reviews about the movie, naturally my expections were quite high. But I was disappointed. I guess the movie has got more hype than what it actually deserved. The story is that of four friends who form a band called ‘Magik’. Arjun Rampal and Farhan Akhtar are in lead roles. The magik group strives hard to make it big and in the process ego clashes comes up between Arjun Rampal and Farhan Akhtar. The group splits and 4 friends get busy in their own lives. After about 10 years, Farhan’s wife Prachi Desai learns about the band and tries to re unite them. That’s all. I would rate the movie 3 out of 5.

 

 

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

This one is my favourite of the lots. And the best I have watched this year. The debutant Imran Khan and Telugu actress Genelia D’Souza have done excellent job. The movie is that of a group of college friends. Jai (Imran Khan) and Aditi (Genelia) are very close friends, but everyone else expects they are in love. After graduation Aditi’s parents ask Jai to marry her. But both Jai and Adiit get shocked and clarify that they are not in love and are just good friends. Then a new girl enters Jai’s life. Slowly Aditi feels left out. A new guy enters Aditi’s life. Finally both realize that they cant live without each other. The movie also includes Arbaaz Khan, Sohail Khan, Naseeruddin Shah in comic roles. I would rate it 4 on 5.