Follow your heart,not mind

Many people in life do things because it is meant to do that way and that’s the safest way to do so.They do things after various estimations in their mind,filter it and come to a decision.Here the monetary aspect is only considered.Where’s the most important factor,the heart ?Where does this find its place?Can it become a part of our life?

                                   Passion for a field and doing well in a field are completely different aspects.Often we think its the same.What is it that separates them?Take an example,I am a student weak at math,I work on it for a month and solve problems aplenty and be perfect in it and after the exam I forget it.Passion is an entirely different facet,its the one that makes you believe you’re going to do well in that for the rest of your life.Basically we wont feel taxed doing it and we rather live in and enjoy that forgetting time and surroundings.But often life puts us in a fix to test our countenance in balancing both of them.What do we do?Passion and survival hanging in the balance equally.Often the choices we make in life are influenced by many “people”.The people here don’t know how well balanced their life is,but are ready to give advice.Advice and constructive criticism is always required,agreed but to a limit because we all get to live once and have to enjoy the journey to the fullest.Its useless to think sitting in the dying ages wishing that had I taken the bold step come what may,my life would have been more fruitful and very significantly satisfying.Remember life never gives a second chance.A person can never know the joy of life until his heart goes into an aspect and  his soul is put into it.Success and failure are a part but at least the work was challenging enough to try out.Every great person had choices to make,the tried and tested path and a challenging path.They often chose the latter as nothing would be as fulfilling as winning a challenge..Its an often quoted example but a true one,Tendulkar had ups and down in his 20 long career but never he thought he has lost the love for the game for, life is nothing without cricket for Sachin.

                              Life is a short,puzzling ,testing journey.Its a short one too.Don’t involve unnecessary calculations.Make best of the opportunities you have around and work hard until you get your best.Childhood,first love,life,marriage all happen only once,they don't come knocking your door very often.Be sure,firm,passionate of your interest for it’ll never let you down.Follow your heart and not mind….

“Aim for excellence and success will follow you”

Teacher,an everlasting influence…….

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.-Henry Brooks Adams

The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate "apparently ordinary" people to unusual effort.  The tough problem is not in identifying winners:  it is in making winners out of ordinary people.  -K. Patricia Cross

Teaching is  a rare profession of complete selflessness and the one that provides ample satisfaction.Teachers are probably the angels who guide us,instruct us,scold us but only for our good and they indeed have an impact on our entire existence in this universe.Every student has a favorite among his/her teachers who remain in their hearts and understand their feelings like a friend and there’s no exception in my case too.They’ll be etched in my memories as the golden times of my life which i may not revisit again.

                                     What do we expect of a teacher?Keep us in good check of our behaviour,habits,carve out a wonderful personality and most importantly impart enough knowledge in their subject.Each of them have their own methods in expressing themselves.Coming to my teacher,he’s the one who’s endowed with unbelievable simplicity and  a personality that’s redoubtable.His encouragement and will towards my overall improvement is unquestionable.The passion with which he teaches wows me.His patience is nearly enviable and the interest he  takes in making the student perfect is praise worthy.He works for 10 hours a day but the energy and the enthusiasm will be the same to each student of his,such is the conviction to his job.He definitely earns well,but believe me he deserves every penny he gets.

             A man born in a simple middle class Brahmin family,grew up with many difficulties yet his never give up attitude kept him always going.Personally too he was crushed many a time, but he never was bogged down and instead moved on in life which resulted in him getting to a position of strength.To add more feathers to his cap, here’s a real life example.His father in law on his deathbed once told “I do not have a son.I never regretted it.You have been a wonderful husband to my daughter and a formidable son in law,in fact a son.This is enough for me to die peacefully.”

            The time I spent with him as a student in 4 years was a dream and days with his company moved on in a flash.More than a teacher,he was a friend to me,there were many things which I couldn’t share with my parents, but I did so with him.My foundation for Math went on from average to a top notch level under his supervision.I probably didn’t achieve as much as he expected of me,but his ethics,principles,basics will stay on with me until my last breath..To limit myself in describing him in words would do complete injustice.Hope he continues to enlighten more students and shape wonderful careers and hope he enjoys his work like never before.

 WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIR!!

Good to the ears,but not eyes….

Films are made for many purposes,in fact its purpose has changed many a time over the years.Its used for social messages,traditional values and most significantly entertainment.Music forms an integral part of any film as it has the power of enhancing one’s moods.Some filmmakers invest a large chunk of their interest in music rather than the script.The success though can never be predictable and we now peep into the failures of such flicks….

JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM

A YashRaj movie with an A-1 star cast and exotic locations couldn’t save the film of its delirious fate.The one aspect that stood out was music.Excellent compositions from Shankar Ehsaan Loy with tracks such as the title track,Bol Na Halke with wonderful lyrics from Gulzar was a real treat to music lovers.The magic to the ears couldn’t convert on screen with a flawed script and poor performances.This should have done far better than what it had got.

AAJA NACHLE

Another movie from the Chopra banner,the come back of Madhuri Dixit,a dance centric movie,national award winner Konkana Sen didn’t even do  average business.Added to it all,the music of Salim Sulaiman was rock solid and created the much required hype among the masses.The story was too clichéd and the lack of soul in the movie was clearly visible.The audience rejected it instantly and taught the film makers that script is the head, no gloss can substitute it.

YUVVRAAJ

Subhash Ghai with Sallu,Kat,Anil Kapoor!A film centered on music!The most important of all maestro A.R.Rahman’s compositions will tempt any film buff.The excitement and the aura about the movie ended immediately after it’s release.An old wine in a new bottle kind of a concept,poor direction,dialogues added to make the movie the biggest of duds.Despite that,the music earned much appreciation from crowds.Ghai couldn’t translate the genius’s tunes in a picturesque form.

DELHI 6

Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra after his magnum opus Rang De Basanti  came out with Delhi 6 with the likes of Junior Bachchan,Sonam Kapoor,Rishi Kapoor and an ensemble supporting cast.Rahman was back with a classy album which consisted of rock,folk,melody,duet,classical music that was a perfect mix and the movie only could have been better.To much disappointment,the movie lacked any pace and hardly enthused the viewers.The weird monkey man concept irked the viewer testing his patience incredibly.The heartfelt compositions were utterly wasted by the director.

So when you hear great music around,be wary of your expectations because its not as good as it sounds.

The idiocrasies of the marks system……

 

 

Marks indicate the potential of the student.It shows the rank of a student.It points out the understanding abilities of a student”

These are the words uttered by every parent who wishes the best for his/her child?After all who doesn’t?Marks are serving as an estimate to the world about a student.But of late,marks have been the sole reason for killing the joy of education.People have lost their senses on what purpose does it serve and ..Ultimately are they benefitted by it?Oh God! What are we upto?Can true talent come out through a written exam?Just spare a thought and a few moments and we would not refuse to say no but it’s the system we have been following and probably will in the future too,so why go against it?Going into it’s grass roots,it has a danger of destroying the intellectual abilities of a student.Never can he enjoy the depth and application of the subject.Just force!force!Put on memory caps before an exam overnight,mug up the text and omit out in the exam.Then its dead and dusted!This is a regular pattern followed by a 1st class student to probably an engineering graduate.That's why in practical exposure,India has to climb big steps.Never can this happen without major changes in the evaluation structure of an exam.Students are indeed made to forget the essence of the subject just for the sake of marks.Perfection is never achieved,forget that the meaning of academics is entirely lost.Even if there’s enough passion in a student to excel,he always falls as a prey to this ridiculous system.

                 Many education forums,films,associations have often highlighted this issue but for no avail.Films like Taare Zameen Par,3 Idiots keep coming but people have failed to follow it beyond the cinema halls.A testing method is needed,sure,but not such that it affects the morality of a student.The system should be able to highlight the strengths of a student as the capabilities vary from person to person.A education must highlight the exact direction i.e. a particular field in which a student is going to show his aptitude whole through his life.The unduly stress and torture really doesn’t do any good which would mentally destroy a student.

This is not said in anger.It’s said in complete in complete sadness and disappointment.This is in fact an appeal.Never can we go along this tried and tested route ,lest Follow the heart,not mind always.This is for a developing nation which has enough depth and can raise the bars of education.Think big!Students are stepping stones of a nation.Dont crush their tender hearts!!

A fitting end :-) !!

     

 

Music ka Maha Muqabla has been a wonderful experience for any music lover.It showed how good a platform television for development of budding talent.With the addition of the stars such as Shankar,Mika Singh,Shreya Ghoshal,Himesh,Mohit Chauhan,Shaan this show has raised the bars for any reality.The concept of dividing them into teams and giving young singers like Aabhas,Rahul Trivedi,Rehman,Anvesha and many more talented singers to groom with music and enhance their knowledge in able company of the giants in the field is an intelligent one.Surely ,when talent of this sort comes on the same stage,temperatures escalate and differences tend to exist.That is where creativity increases to its best level and people get to know the beauty and necessities of music.

                  The show as known was divided to various rounds the first one being a round to experiment,the second being a duet,the third being a DJ round and the fourth being the medley.This sort of a structure helps an artist to experiment his own talent and versatility.The telecast of the show in the weekends ensured the program reaches more audiences.The entry of movie stars to promote their movies helped it grab the eyeballs of the nation.Though the program faced stiff competition from Colors telecasting Junior Big B’s Bingo,its class and simplicity balanced the viewership ratings.With regular differences between Shaan and Mika,the scenes honestly looked ugly at times.But when it comes to quality competition,this show truly stood out from others.If to pick a favorite,mine would be surely Shreya Ghoshal whose voice just makes me bow to her.A true follow up to yesteryears Lata Mangeshkar,Asha Bhonsle and a gifted gem.The show took the responses of the audiences through a rating of 10.If any 2 of the teams were participating,the other 4 singers would be judging.There was also an award presented to the Best Singer of the day which was earned by Anvesha 6 of the 7 times she performed who later even robbed the Singer of the series award.The response of the show reached its top when the show neared the final stages.The final four teams were of lead by Shaan,Shreya,Shankar,Himesh.After a hard fought battle in the semi finals,the teams reaching the final were Shaan and Shankar.

                                       The grand finale was visually excellent and the two teams were ready to fight it out for the ultimate crown of being loved by the majority of the nation.The special guests in the function were Ustad Amjad Ali Khan with his sons Aman Ali and Ayan Ali.With great performances from both the sides,it was so engrossing for the spectator to chose one between the two.But they had to,they did so,it was SHANKAR’s team that romped the crown home and received the 50 lakh rupees prize money with the Shaan’s team receiving 25 lakh.Filled with a wonderful mix of all types of artists,they were definitely the favorites and they didn’t disappoint.Its wonderful to see such great talent coming out and I hope the channels put more thought in bringing the best out of the contestants.Hats off to this show!

Dilon ki Rani ka visesh Janm Din!

The heart beat of a million,the epitome of sensible acting Rani Mukherji celebrates her 32nd year of her eventful life.What a gift is she to the Indian film industry?!Born in a family with a film background she debuted into movies with the commercially unsuccessful Raja Ki Aayegi Baarat despite earning reasonable critical acclaim.The icing on the cake was her opportunity that knocked her doors to act with the present stalwarts of the movie industry,SRK and Aamir in the year 1998 in Kuch Kuch Hota Hain and Ghulam respectively setting up a foothold for her for the years to come for Rani.She has never looked back since then grabbing her chances with both hands and experimenting with various genres of movies.She poured her heart out in movies such as Yuva,Saathiya,Chori Chori Chupke Chupke,Har Dil Jo Pyaar Karega with directors like Mani Rathnam,Abbas Mustan and anything she touched turned into gold.

 

                           Her real giant step towards great acting was the inspiring “Black” by Sanjay Leela Bhansali essaying the role of a deaf,dumb,blind girl along with the likes of Amitabh Bachchan and this flick will act as a learning manual for aspiring actors to know what it takes to be a great actor.Chalte Chalte,the musical hit too added feathers to her cap with simple and sensible acting.As failures don't spare even the greatest,she also had to face quite a few of them.Commercial failures of Chalo Ishq Ladaye,Mujhse Dosti Karoge,Calcutta Mail,LOC Kargil did affect her growth as an actor .But she turned the tide in her own style with the releases of situational comedy like Hum Tum,heart warming Veer Zaara portraying a role of an honest lawyer,Bunty aur Babli as a girl with high aspirations.She began to experiment with her roles with the likes of critically acclaimed movies like Paheli,Mangal Pandey,Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna.While the first two were epic films,the latter one KANK surrounded the basic topic of treatment of delicate relationships.She pulled out a marvellous performance as a vulnerable wife who is yet to find the true love of her life.2004-2005 captured her real abilities of being a versatile actress.But life had other ideas for her...she did too many films for the Yashraj banner with poor selection of roles and started to seem a pale shadow of her old self.Baabul was the start of her career threatening downfall.Following it up with movies of ill sensibilities like Lagaa Chunari Mein Daag,Saawariya,Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic didn’t help her cause.Then she took a long and a much needed break in hope of better luck.

                                                  Yashraj films again became the saviour or in fact the destructor with Dil Bole Hadippa along with a seemingly young Shahid Kapoor.The unconventional pairing raised a lot of interest.That interest couldn’t return as a reality on screen with hardly any magic felt.The film was a disaster at the Box Office and Rani was at an all time low despite receiving appreciation for her acting but with a flawed story.With oodles of talent at her disposal,she probably followed a path of self destruction with wrong choice of movies.

She however,remains a Rani to a million hearts for its difficult to find a powerhouse of talent like her.We as fans,request her to choose her roles with caution and come back with a bang.Wishing success in all her career moves and endeavours,here’s wishing a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RANI!

Life in a nutshell…..Is it hell?

Life is a ride,

an unbearable tide,

Still we shall sail through,

to fulfill our desires,

to earn,but never learn

for it can cause concern in the present

changing our pattern from the past…..

 

Life is a walk,walk in the right way until it runs you out,

You sometimes rock or fall down like a rock,

with a sudden shock

putting you in a dead lock..

 

Life is strange,

We can never predict its range,

For we don’t know when will it change,

and even if  known,won’t be in a position to arrange..

A sweet movie with a big heart……

Movies these days have exotic locations,costumes, but lack soul.Here’s where Athithi cashes in as a movie.It’s made with a humanitarian intention and with a touch of class,this one wins your heart instantly.The movie despite the existence of any big stars has good actors who perform their roles with superb conviction.Its like revisiting an old 1970 classic of Hrishikesh Mukherjee who told the simplest of stories in the most simplistic manner.

Inspired from a short story in a Hindi novel”Tum Kab Jaoge Athithi”,the movie is involved in a fast paced Mumbai where people have no time to spend for themselves,save alone relatives.Puneet(Ajay Devgn) is an enthusiastic script writer who works on his laptop continuously churning out sentimental flicks.His wife Mun Mun(Konkana Sen) is an architect who works under an always confused boss.They have a playful son who enjoys his school life and is barely good at academics.The colleagues of both the members of the couple tend to explain how disturbing is it if a guest stays in at their place.They simply laugh it off as hardly any person has entered their house since a decade.This sees an entry of Lambodar Chacha(Paresh Rawal) an old fashioned,aged man who comes to Puneet’s place.He has very strong principles and forces others to stick by it.He wins the warmth of all the residents of their apartment.His weird habits tend to irritate Mun Mun and disturbs her daily schedule irreparably.The guest slowly becomes a burden on the head for the family.Moreover,his lengthy stay at the place tests their patience.The film starts with a depiction of Athithi Devo Bhava, but slowly and cleverly deviates from it and shows how today’s generation have their lives changed with the entry of guests.

When Chacha in an unfortunate incident becomes a matter of ridicule,Puneet stands up to him.The child starts to like the uninvited guest with the latter teaching him the ethical values,traditions through wonderful stories.Suddenly there’s an incredible change, a positive one in the child’s life which start reflecting in his school life too.Though Puneet’s life starts getting dimmer day by day,the guest’s values are slowly transforming him to a better person.Few comic situations,some heart-felt scenes,life like situations keep the viewers engrossed in this family flick meant simply to entertain.Straight and smartly told.

First and foremost,the film could have gone entirely wrong without good acting.Ajay,Konkana and Paresh Rawal weave magic with their subtle acting skills.Though the first 15 minutes of the movie doesn’t give a good impression,the latter parts drool in, the senses of the viewer.The music is just par with the exception of the title song.To name a few,the characters of Satish Kaushik,Sanjay Mishra are beautifully interpreted.The naturalistic nature the film bears is heartening.The movie connects well to our mundane routine life situations.It’s difficult to predict the commercial success of the because the opinions will be mixed.If you want something practical,this one’s not a good pick for you.Surely will be well approved by family audiences and with strong word of mouth might take off well .Ashwani Dhar,the director does a commendable  job in conveying a good story.

RATING:3.25/5