I got my birthday gift

like a morning breeze

after a sleepless night

soothing to the soul

and pinching to the eyes

Two books and a letter

which says nothing

I read you all over

and understood nothing......

ज़िन्दगी सहेज ली

ज़िन्दगी ताक पर रक्खी हुई थी
महीनों से
आज धूल झाड़ते नज़र पड़ी

सोचा फेंक दूँ
फ़िर उठाया
ज़रा सा साफ़ किया
और रख लिया
कुछ पुराने सामन की तरह
क्या पता जाने कभी कुछ काम आए .........

Wake Up Sid

Wake up Sid is a story of stereotypes told with a fresh flavour.

Siddharth Mehra aka Sid (ranbeer kapoor) is an aimless, good for nothing, spoiled son of a rich man who just doesn't want to take the responsibility of his own life. His father Ram Mehra (Anupam Kher) is a self made businessman who rose from rags to riches and wants his son to be responsible and help in his business. But Sid flees from office to spend time with his new friend Aisha Banerjee(Konkona Sensharma). She is a strong, confident, independent woman from Kolkata who has come to Mumbai chasing her dream to be a successful journalist.

Troubled by his son, Ram Mehra throws Sid out of his house to teach him a lesson and Sid takes refuge in Aisha's flat. Living with her changes him a lot. He returns home and this is when they realize that they are in love. In the climax they come together and Live happily ever after :P

Ranbeer Kapoor is becoming synonymous to good for nothing, spoilt brat. Konkana is brilliant as usual. Anupam Kher had nothing much to do as his role was like a repeat performance of many of his earlier movies. In fact all these actors have played these characters so many times that it seems dull on first look but the way these characters have been handled makes this a story well told.

The best part is direction. Thumbs up for Ayan Mukherjee who debuts with this movie. He handles the emotions in a very delicate manner. Konkona is a director's darling. I just love her. She has handled the complex scenes in a simple and elegant way.

Despite the Raj Thakre drama, every mumbaikar will love this movie for it explores the best parts of life in Mumbai. Well I have at least one thing in common with Ayan, both of us love marine drive !!!

Now the downside. This movie, like most of bollywood flicks, is far from the harsh realities of life. Everything here seems so easy. Javed Akhtar disappoints with average quality. And the last one : They keep promoting Nikon and I am from canon gharana ;)

All in all a nice weekend passtime

Rating 3/5

Mythos Vs Logos

When you love mathematics, your fascination with ancient Greeks never ends. When you start exploring Greece, what surprises you is India. She has always been a land of mysteries. Perhaps mystery is a part of life here, interwoven with facts and reason, so much so that it seems that zero could have never been invented elsewhere. It just belongs here.

On the surface everything here seems so similar to Greece; the religion, mathematics, astronomy... But no. On a deeper look you start feeling the difference. It's so fine that it misses your attention on first look: the difference between what you think and what you feel.

While myth of present times definitely has its roots somewhere in the knowledge in past, what creates the trouble is the separation. A separation of flow of human quest into parallel streams, completely disjoint. One stream lead by pure reason, flexible and creative. This stream keeps the flow going although there is something missing. Something that is above reason.

The other stream comes to the dead end of belief and completeness. This is where the flow slows down and starts to rot.

When man created the first god, it was very reasonable. The form he gave to the gods then came from his perception of world (mythos following logos). Then he created another god and kept creating more and more, upgrading from the present form. God 8.0, God 9.0, God 9.1,9.12.... and so on. While some gods were open source (Christianity), some were strictly proprietary (Hinduism). The problem really lies in the complacency created by aggressive marketing by the different sources selling the ultimate truth. Rigidity replaced flexibility and the flow was gone.

This created two parallel streams with people trapped in between. Largely responsible for the division of science and arts. This rot created the para-sciences like astrology (see the logos still sticks!!! ). There are believers, non believers and agnostics but no developers, no seekers.

The life today is split, influenced by these two worlds. You believe in Darvin and you believe in Genesis. You believe in black holes and you believe in rahu-kalam. I do not have a problem with Christ or Rahu till they don't interfere with what I do (I agree it's a Newtonian approach but we are still in dark age! ) . The problem really starts when the stagnancy tries to take over the flow and restricts the ETERNAL TRAVELLER.

PS: mythos and logos are Greek words from which the English words myth (story) and logic or logy (study as in biology) are derived.