Whats your LIQ??

Woooooooooooooooowwwwwwwww!!!

Thats how I started my conversation with one of my very good friend. We had a long conversation over telephone. I felt good. Since ages I did not have a lengthy discussion about so many things. She was doing well and was telling me all the stories of her office, which I have left almost a year back. She told me she found someone and she was quite serious about him. I was happy for her, and I know the guy she has chosen must be nice. "Kyunki, uski choice galat ho hi nahi sakti" :P

I started thinking how do people come to know that they are in love? or when do they decide that its not "liking", but "love"? or how do they start imagining the person/friend to be their life partner?

Come to think about this, when you decide that you love someone, probably at that time you might be suffering from "take-wrong-decision" syndrome. When you think you love a person, might be the time when you actually in need of "just-a-good-friend".

For me the bollywood movie's "love" is mere bullshit, coz Life is not a movie. I really feel ridiculous for those who elope from house or marry against the will of their parents. I guess these people suffer from Life-is-Bollywood diesease. You can't kill past relationships to make new ones. That too, those which were pre-decided before your birth.

I think LOVE is more about PRIORITY, MATURITY & RESPONSIBILITY. Shhhhhh..if my sister reads this post, she will blame for proposing a LOVE Model :P So according to me, the Love Guru Mata, definition and understanding of love changes with age. It has various stages. At each stage the one of the above factor strongly plays its role.

"Teenage love" is not at all mature and neither it should be placed high in ones priority list. Ones priority is not to get settled in life with someone, but to make a standing for themselves. I consider teenage love as mere distraction. This is the time when a person is not mature and must concentrate on his/her PRIORITIES.

Till in our late 20s and early 30s, we become mature enough to recognize our priorities. Mostly, by this time we make a standing for ourselves. Atleast, we make our selves well equipped to earn our own bread & butter. When you know about your priorities and find someone of real mental, emotional & social match, you act maturely. Before jumping onto any conclusion, you weigh all the pros-n-cons. You decide based on your MATURITY.

The last stage that lasts forever. It does not matter whether the love between two people culminates into marriage. Those involved in relationship of husband-wife or ex-lovers, have to bear responsibility of their decision for rest of their lives. It does not matter if they are far or together, they cannot escape from the responsibility they bear for the other people around them. Thats the stage, when one is ready to keep aside ones own happiness, coz the happiness of others is also his RESPONSIBILITY.

All the three factors do not exist in absolute sense. They go hand in hand and influence each other a lot. There is no bench mark for what should be the minimum level of MATURITY?? List of PRIORITIES that a person must have? What all RESPONSIBILITY one should carry?

It takes a life time to know how mature you have been in deciding your priorities and carrying out your own set of responsibilities. By the time you come to know about your maturity level, about your right-wrong decisions, about  your unfulfilled responsibilities, about your "Love-Intelligence-Quotient"....... one life time has already finished.

Alas!! your time is up.

Dost-(j)ana

Friendship is precious and I consider it as one of the best thing God has given to me. I bet, you had the most naughty, mischievous, funny and unforgettable moments with your friends. No relative, no cousin shares that warmth and understanding, which you & your true friend shares. Life seems to be joyless without those special moments which you and your friends have together created. I am sure most of you belong to the generation where asking for help from a friend is much more easy than your relatives. 

I was totally stumbled when I saw "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara'. Awesome movie, awesome acting, awesome dialogues, awesome cinematography, & cherry on the top, Abhay Deol's awesome singing style :P Ok, ok...I understand you didnt appreciate his singing. Its ok, but come on, think of it, he was not as bad  as we get at times.

But there are few things which I must mention here:

1) It took me some time to pronounce the name correctly. I mean I always said "Zindagi milegi na dobara". If you remember the song from "Rock On" Did it happen with you also??

2) Farhan's husky voice has totally totally stolen my heart. This guy, sings well, acts well, dance well, directs well,  and has got awesome sense of humor. A complete package.

3) I loved "Bagvati" :P

4) Tell me whose idea was to pair Katrina opposite to Hritik Roshan. I love the pair. They look so good. ( now, dont get too much emotional, read next point)

5) The kissing scene of Katrina and Hritik was totally not required and fraud. In short, that was a "dhakkan" scene.

6) What was the need of Kalki?? I mean she didn't have a major role to play. Her haistyle? ufff, horrible.

7) Why, why, why, on earth Naseeruddin shah plays father of illegitimate child. Main Hun Na, Masoom, Rajneeti? Naseer sahab, are you really running out of good offers? 

8) I loved the way Farhan Akhtar speaks english, when he orders " the reds the wines" or "the mentally the sick"

9)I loved the underwater shooting, it was cool. The sky diving, am not sure if these guys did it or their look-a-likes. The bull race, ufff!!! As it happens in most of the hindi films, everybody gets hurt except the hero(s). Infact, in the last scene, they were the only people running. Huhahahaha!! kamal ke BOOAYYZZ hain :)    

Dilon mein tum apni betaabiyan leke chal rahe ho, toh zinda ho tum,
Nazar mein khwaabon ki bijliyan leke chal rahe ho, toh zinda ho tum,

Jo apni aankhon mein hayraniyan leke chal rahe ho, toh zinda ho tum!!

Piya Bhaag Rahi Meri Sakhiyaan!!!

Hahaha!!! Is this me?? Yeah, that exactly was my reaction, when I saw my video of B2RUN. It was one minute clipping, but worth treasuring. Me, the half-dead, half-embarrassed soul, was trying to touch the finish line.

This run was of 6 Kilometer and if you complete it in 30 min, its worth being proud of. Run started from Olympia park and finished inside stadium. I completed the run in 55 min, I know, I know, its hard for me also to believe that I actually finished 6km so soon?? Proud me!!!

The "Run was Fun"
So many, children and old people standing on the side of track, and cheering runners. Some people were offering water to the participants. Few runners had funny costumes. So, with my tortoise pace,  I overtook two runners during the whole run. Pretty good hah?? An old fat guy, and an orange. Yes, a guy in a costume having shape of orange was running.

When I was 200 meters away from the goal, those were actually the "goose-bumpy" moments, when I was entering the Olympic stadium, it was full of crowd, lots of flood lights on, so many people cheering you up to finish the run. Ah!!! At that moment I wanted to be P.T.Usha. Now, I don't blame  my knees for complaining such a bad try.

Among my office mates, I was the last one, but never mind, I was not the last person to finish the run among 35, 000 fellow runners. I finished the run, and enjoyed it a lot.

 
I remember, this was written on the T-shirt of a lady

Some things may change, but spirit runs!!!

Its middle of the night, raining heavily outside and I have made a hot cup of "adrak ki chai", a perfect setup to write post and also to listen to my favourite singer.

For all the "pankhaasss" & "pankisss" of Shafaqat Amanat Ali Khan, please listen to this song. The relevance of the title with the song is hidden in the lyrics. Find it out yourself & happy listening!!!

Prickly Prickly Pickle

What do you do when a co-passenger opens his lunch box and you get the fragrance of home made pickle? What do you do when you see a small kid having a paratha roll in his hand and from head to heel, smells of aam ka achaar?

Yeah yeah!! I agree with you, it takes you back to your childhood. I belong to a generation when the only thing that never changed was your "school lunchbox menu". Paratha had a special place in the lunch box and there use to be turns of each kind of achaar for 6 days a week. Of course!! Saturday used to be half day, but still lunch box is the only unforgettable thing in school bag.

It used to be summer vacations of complete two months. The hot summer days would be perfect time to get ready for the stock for whole year. One fine day, mom and dad would go to the wholesale vegetable market and bring kilos of raw mango. The next day, all the shiny green, oval shaped mangoes were chopped into infinite pieces. It was then mixed with all sorts of masala. The life of pickle and taste of it, both in my Mom's hands. The perfect measure of every spice, fineness in the work used to be rewarded for whole year. During summer vacations, we used to get ready for the next class, by wrapping our notebooks with brown paper, putting colorful nameslips to each book and notebook. I guess, it was my mom's way of getting ready for the new academic session.

Now that the humid, hot, damp month of July is going to end, and pickle is almost ready to be part of our lunch boxes :)

Time has changed, no more school, hence no more lunch boxes, but the fragrance of achaar is still somewhere locked inside. I miss those days, I miss you mummy, papa, I miss you dear sisters.

This achaar took me back to memory lane.... "Achaar nahi Atyaachaar hai ye to!!!"