REMEMBERING MY DEAR, BELOVED FATHER ON HIS 81st BIRTHDAY

My Papa didn't preach.

He never needed to. He lived his life as a fine example of how it should be led; with courage, simplicity, humility and grace. He possessed an immense amount of inner strength and iron-clad will power to withstand any kind of adversity. People who knew him will vouch for his courage of conviction and tenacious temperament. His abhorrence for any kind of vulgar display of lucre and power was also well known. 

The life-lessons I have learned by just observing how he led his life are invaluable personally and relevant inter-generationally. His magnanimity touched and enriched a number of lives in his lifetime.

His passion was singing, his prized possession his harmonium. His biggest luxury was his Fiat car (loyalty meter ran high). His sole indulgence was the Benarsi paan. And this when he could have very well afforded a fanciful lifestyle. It takes a rare kind of person to 'choose' simplicity over the extravagant, hedonistic way of living.

Life is harsh, especially when it takes away our loved ones. It's up to our hearts to hold all the memories, our minds to stroll through them intermittently and our souls to bask in their glow. You can't bring back to life the ones gone but you can relive them and feel their presence by virtue of fond remembrances.

As I just did!

Happy birthday to you Papa, in heaven and beyond. 
Proud to be your daughter.

PREM RATAN DHAN PAYO...a dated melodrama

"He has the personality of Gautam Buddha," said Salman Khan about Sooraj Barjatya, the director of his magnum opus, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, who has presented the Diwali fare after a sabbatical of 16 years. 
Undoubtedly, the director's goodness of heart and love for squeaky clean relationships, strong filial bonds and straight-laced humour comes forth emphatically. Lavish sets, magnificently built palaces, ten tuneful songs with ten thousand people gyrating in sync present a stunning visual. The pluses end there. Ek raja, do rani, sautela bhai, sauteli behene, double role (crown prince vs Commoner), mistaken identity, neglected rajkumari, sheesh mahal (and that too by a Niagara like falls) - sounds quite like Amar chitra katha of 1980's, doesn't it? That's how antiquated the wafer thin plot of PRDP is! No layering of characters, no engrossing palace intrigues, no sub-texts to the supporting cast, are some of the loose ends which flounder this marathon of a movie (almost 3 hours long). Salman Khan is endearing but subdued, Sonam is pancaked pretty, Anupam Kher and the rest of the cast are lacklustre infront of the cinematic opulence which overshadows the proceedings especially towards the second half when it becomes a documentary on bhai-dooj !
Barjatya ji, aap is Diwali bahut sara ratan aur dhan payoge (for the trade pundits have predicted it to be a megahit) but hum audience entertainment nahin payo.

Shh....

Talking Toms, Just Chill!
Are we talking too much? Are Indians getting too verbose? Is India on the brink of a verbal volcano? Well, it seems so! Every Tom, Dick or Harry is talking, over each other, sometimes in tandem, but often at cross purposes. Everyone has an opinion on everything! Bizarre. Any stray comment on communalism, religious affiliations, intolerance etc. is turning non-entities into celebrities and celebrities into pariahs. Sad and disturbing. Are things really that bad or are good people talking a lot about the perceived bad stuff, making it appear really ugly? 

An aware and enlightened 'junta' is an asset in any democracy but firing loose cannons at the smallest pretext is stretching things to pitiable limits. Freedom of speech is breeding motor-mouths with ample public platforms to spurt out verbal volleys at an alarming speed. Let's not pay heed to the overactive, hyperbolic social media and channels making mountains out of a molehill.

 Get real, talk real, act real, folks. Pseudo-intelligence is passe'. Talking per se isn't bad as long as it's issue-related and not accusatory and counter-accusatory, setting off unsavoury chain reactions. Every statement by a celebrity or a politician does not merit a full throttle gang-war. Chide, chuckle and move on. It's as simple as that.

EXHALE

Lie low...stay calm,

Get slow....rest your palm,

Find peace....apply balm,

Choose serenity.... Reject the ruckus,

 The stampede for success is self destructive.

 EXHALE.!!! 

Flush out fears...demolish the demons, 

Cleanse the soul.....become whole,

Abandon mirages.....discover yourself, 

The clamour for glamour is frivolous;

EXHALE !!! 

Embrace life...expect the frailties,

 Face challenges. ...accept the follies,

Learn from mistakes. ..welcome the outcome,

 The discord in God's accord is for a reason. .....

 EXHALE !!! 

Let go......of negativity, 

Cut loose....your losses,

Don't weep....over the bygones,

Don't give up .....scope for hope, 

The tower of inner power is invincible. ..!

 EXHALE. ..!!!

We've got to deal with it

My article in Good housekeeping magazine October 2015 issue..

COLOURS OF INDIA

Red tapes,

Yellow Journalism,

Saffron Supremacy,

Green Crisis,

Blue Laws,

Purple Protests,

Grey markets,

White Lies,

Black Bans….!
That’s the palette of INDIA, filling its canvas with,

A Streak of Despair,

A Ray of Hope,

A Splash of Sorrows,

A Rainbow of Joys,

A Smidgen of Gloom,

And,

A full Spectrum of unbridled joie-de-vivre !

BROTHERS IN ARMS

Before you could react from astonishment to disgust and despair, controversy's favourite child, our very own megastar bhaijaan, does a volte-face over his series of scandalous tweets (sympathetic towards Yakub Menon) ostensibly made under the influence of a midnight stupor. Pertinent point is, is he ever in his senses? 

After an extraordinary image makeover from a hotheaded, muscle-rippling, don't-give-a-damn dude in previous money-spinners to a golden-hearted simpleton without a deceitful bone in body in his latest blockbuster, Salman Khan must be having the last laugh all the way to the bank. He has successfully dodged a stay at cells (at least for the time being) to stay bindaas at the celluloid, mocking his detractors and naysayers. 
He does have his saviours though, from 'badnaam' munni to an angelic munni...! If one was the ultimate fantasy queen,the latest is quite like a fairy princess, pristine and beatific. The former resurrected his erratic, down-swinging career graph while the younger Munni has aided in cementing his supremacy at the superstardom ladder. Lady Luck smiles at him while Destiny Dear has him under its folds. No wonder, this nearly fifty years old guy is developing fifty shades of megalomania.

Like millions of Hindi cinema lovers, I've been his fan since 'Hum aapke hain Kaun' days, loving his onscreen supercool projections and dismissing all his off-screen inanities and news of shenanigans with just a frown. Popular opinions have him as a lovable rogue, a generous and helpful guy with his heart at the right place while his head does all the wrong. The fact that at times he crosses the the limits of civilised behaviour, takes people for granted, flouts the judiciary and the laws of the land, is all forgiven and forgotten repeatedly. 

When an aging neo-nabob needs his father (Salim Khan)to come up to his defence and coverup his indiscretions, it reveals the stunted mental growth of big guys like Sunjay Dutt and Salman Khan. Big guys with little brains and even lesser common sense trying hard to hoodwink the public by becoming this 'bade dil wala' human being and diverting attention from their majorly flawed personalities.  But the biggest sucker is the idolising junta which lets a celebrity get away with all his asinine utterances. Either you believe in what you say or shut up. If you take a stand, stick to it, face the cacophony, but at least show some integrity by holding onto your beliefs and viewpoints firmly. Or maybe you DO have a stand, presumably not favourable to the country, but which can't be talked about for obvious reasons ?In which case it doesn't bode well for you, or for us, the zillions who like (a gross understatement) your movies and enable you to earn gazillions.

Paper Tigers (pun intented) never did any good. Bhaijaan won't benefit at all by extending 'bhaichaara' towards an established terrorist. Being human is good but being soft towards hardcore anti-nationals isn't cool. Bajrangbali ki Kasam !