Thumbs up!! The Return of Eklavya...

I am looking above now...I am looking down the very next moment...I see that I rule..But I am made to realise, that my place is in the ashes..If I try to be a Phoenix, my wings will be cut...

I am Eklavya! And I am just about to make fame for myself. I am invincible with my bow and arrow..yet I failed to pierce some apathy from the heart of my Guru Dronacharya..My never-ending devotion to the Art of Archery is now facing a humiliated vindication in the hands of my beloved Guru.

I am asked to pay Gurudakhshina for nothing; I was refused by Guru Dronacharya when I pleaded him to train me in the Art of DHANURVIDYA...a reason which will remain elusive to me..but my devotion for his Great Art still remained within me...I sculptured his statue in the ground I practiced...I looked at his statue and got inspiration...I am a self-made Dhanurdhar...but I pay my all homage to Guru Dronacharya..that if I had not known him, I would not have even think of learning this art of Archery...

I know I am incomplete...I could not learn the sophistication with which Dronacharya's favorite disciple Arjun would hold the bow and shoot an arrow; I did not learn the secret of BRAHMASHTRA....I failed to understand CHAKRABYIUHU and I would never be able to break it....I could not afford a GANDIVA....

But....my beloved Guru has an unspoken fear of me...that I will defeat his most ardent Pupil Arjun in battle...that if I stand up, Arjun would never be crowned with the title of undisputed Lord of Archery...

I failed to comprehend, why can't I be his best disciple? I don't have any aspiration to become a prince of the Kingdom; I don't crave for Wealth and Power; I don't want to demonstrate any supremacy over anyone; All I wanted is to learn the Art of Archery and use it as a self defense...I can vow for NOT to use these weapons of Mass Destruction if required....

My beloved Guru Dronacharya is asking me for Gurudakhshina...that I never use my talents against anyone...no!! he is not contended with this...He wants me to slain my thumb!! Oh my Guru...why do you want me to this? so that it is warranted that I could never shoot an arrow...so that I remain a HERO paralyzed to watch the game being played which I ruled once!!

Now I have to tell him, that do I agree to pay the Guru Dakhshina....I went upto him...Put my eye on his eye..and said, " I am not ready to pay for something I did not learn..." Dronacharya was stunned to a deadly shaking and I continued, " But, as my devotion to you is still intact..I will try to pacify something"...I paused and again looked into his eyes as I continued, " If Arjun can defeat me in a battle of Archery, I will part with my Thumb"...Dronacharya grimaced..Unnerved and humiliated...Agony must be ripping his heart apart; but I wanted to give a complete jolt to his pride and I added, " But if I defeat Arjun, Arjun will have to part with his Thumb"...

Dronacharya fell on the ground..as I have shattered his ego with my arrows...I waited for him to come to his senses.........I shoot an arrow to denounce my guru..(To be continued...)

Will Bodyguard Recover 90 Crores? Thats the Question!!

It is a universal phenomenon that Tsunami wreck havoc in our lives. Well,if you watch Bodyguard you will realise Tsunami Singh did it!!

My question, is when the director already knew that we were going to watch the Bodyguard in the movie, i.e. Salman Khan, why we need a Tsunami...I mean a Tsunami which looked stupid also was a complete disaster.

So if you remove the Tsunami from Bodyguard, it would have been a good movie to enjoy.

Lets first talk about the Bodyguard; as always Salman was impeccable in his charming aura; stunning in his stunts and funny and witty at times. Though he played the tough guy; but his eyes exuberated serene innocence in the entire film. So for die hard fans of Salman, its clear paisa Usool.I loved the scene in the park when Salman put eye to eye to Kareena and expressed his love. Salman proves, he does well in romantic scenes as well.

Theres nothing much to speak about Kareena, except that she excelled in her role. In other words she sleepwalked the role. Shes is the best thing in Body Guard.

The second best thing in Bodyguard is action sequences. It will suddenly bring live to the lifeless script made barren by a lethargic Screenplay.

Third will be the story, which is novel, but the screenplay plays the spoilsport. The climax is though well crafted.

The reason behind the lacklustre screenplay of the movie is the Vision of Director, it came out clearly that Siddique was not sure what mix he wanted in the movie! Does want a Romantic comedy or a Action packed Romance or a Romance-Drama. Lack of clear vision makes his otherwise brevity a spoiled attempt.

I will give Bodyguard a 3-0.2=2.8( 0.2 is deducted because of inclusion of Tsunami Singh in the movie).

Despite this backdrop, the movie has already made 52 crores in 3 days.

Will it recover 90 crore? Unlikely as after Dabaggang and Ready's Success, the expectation of Bodyguard is sky high. Such expectations was clearly not executed in totality by the movie!!

Do we spread butter like Joy!!

Lifestyle is a blessing as well as a bane!!

It is the result of lifestyle that we have the pleasure of living in comforts; or due to less time to live life we take refuge of a Lifestyle...that involves working till late, often dinning out, enormous stress, so on and so forth.

Thats where we fail to spread butter on bread properly; the fear of gaining some pounds keep us grounded; like giant corporations falling prey to paradox of thrift due to a probable slowdown in the economy..Or an agile deer in the jungle stopping its mind for a free Willey in the neighborhood of a tiger.

Spreading butter like joy is becoming extinct. Or perhaps living life has become a myth and leading life in the mechanistic way has taken over.

It is pity we fail to go on a vacation due to hardened project deadlines and hence no leaves from our work; or miss a family wedding or a long awaited ceremony. "Sacrifices needs to be made", as one friend observes, "If you want to give away to the demands of today's life". Typical is the case of a working woman-turned mother, who has to make a choice between "climbing the ladder" and " Giving more time" to the 1 year old boy. Life can be tough; it demands much more than one can imagine.

So we resort to innovative ways of balancing life-work; but in that fashion, we neither remain loyal to work nor we justify our ways of living life. Because by doing so, we just accomplish everything like a job or a project, but do we derive pleasure out of it? Or in other words, do we enjoy eating a brown bread, without butter? Do we spread butter like Joy?

I have some friends though, who have charted for them a path that gives them the satisfaction of living life. One of them quit a high paying MNC job and started blogging. "The huge pressures of job did not allow me to travel", says the friend who started a taking up a course in wild life photography. After the course, he goes travelling to places he has never seen before, does photography and runs his blog. "And the best part is", he remarks " I live my life!".

One of this friend i know was into Film-Editing and Media. He quit and launched a music album. The album did average, but what he wanted to achieve in life was achieved; "Working on the album helped me meeting many new people, studying, travelling and much more, which would not have been possible with a regular job".

It is one's utmost desire to live life that can only translate the wish to do it. People need to undergo the risk of success; choosing an alternative career option does not guarantee success. It is upto those taking the plunge, needs to decide what they want out of life.

And deciding to spread butter like joy is not easy at all.

I am still trying to decide and yet to reach a decision;-)

Not All Great Ideas Come from IIM-A!!

So Harsha Bhogle carved a niche for him in the Sporting Commentary arena, despite being a successful alumnus of IIM-A. Or a Chetan Bhagat becoming a successful Author in recent times of the masses( Of course, whether he belong to the classes, is doubtful). Thats uber cool by design and of course a stroke of destiny. Albeit such facts though, they deserve an applaud(or you may consider giving an apple applause) for taking the unconventional route where people less travel by!!

But how many great creations or ideas comes out IIM-A or an IIT Delhi(Without challenging the sanctity and credibility of the Glorious Institutions of Indian Academia); despite paying high homage and giving creme-De-la-creme stature to these institutions that creates High profile bright minds in the country, we however do not see great ideas created by the beneficiaries of such excellent education. And thats, in my view is abysmally sad!!

When we see, innovation in recent times by an Indian entrepreneur, we generally talk about Tata Nano or how Future Group changing the retail space in India!! I am sorry but we have examples, few and far between (though Bollywood may consider prying for Including Aamir Khan, who emerges as an intellect, atleast trying to make some experiments on the way the films are made and promoted).

Now consider the education of these people; Ratan Tata who had a degree in Architecture from Cornell University and finally, and I believe for the heck of it he got a Management Degree from Harvard Business School. His entire life revolved around changing the Indian Automobile arena and in fact under his leadership, Tatas rejuvenated Jaguar and Land Rover.

Look at Kishore Biyani, the brain behind the super brand "Big Bazar" and the one that revolutionized Indian retail space has just got a Bachelor degree from HR College of Commerce, Bombay. No IIT no IIM.

Even the illustrious MR NarayanMurthy, who pioneered Infosys did his engineering from National Institute of Eng, University of Mysore(though later on he did his masters from IIT Kanpur).

Or, the man who reengineered BPO in India, Mr Pramod Bhasin, had a Bachelor Degree in Commerce from Delhi University and a CA qualification.

There will be many examples (yes Bombay Dubbawallas; where did they get education from? IIM..Na!! IIT...NAH..:p) of people coming up with great Ideas, and not having a high-flying education from the creams.

Reasons can be many; I believe an IIM or an IIT can teach technicals/or systems and procedures..but very less emphasis is being laid upon thinking beyond those systems or thinking out of box as one popularly says. Or in other words, the capacity to think can never be trained; it remains in the minds of the person. I wonder when IIM/IIT will stimulate an alumnus to dream!!

Globally(well I dont want to speak here more, we have enough examples), if we take the case of just retired CEO Steve Jobs; we will be surprised how much he had created and how little formal education he had. He dropped out of Reed College and for a living he used to return coke bottles for money and got weekly free meals from Local Hare Krishna Temple!!

Surely, creation of an IPAD does not require magnificent education, but requires boundless thinking and dreams channelized into workable solutions.

I remember one of my friend commenting about the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 as" Arrey, saare employees IIM or Harvard se Uthaoge toh company dubegaahi! If everyone makes strategy, kaam kaun kadega?"

Jokes apart..we will eagerly wait a great idea that comes out of the brain of an IITian/IIMian!!

R&D.....Will Bollywood ever Bother?

This came to my mind, when I had heard a story about a thief; that how carefully did his necessary fact finding about a neighborhood; about its populace; their behavior, their activities and most importantly how many families keep more cash and ornaments at home and goes dining out in the night, keeping thy home deserted with minimal protection, forget about insurance against Burglary; and after all his facts on board, the thief will circle up the house nos that comes up as the potential targets..Well, he ventures out a successful ambush and runs Scot-free, at-least till the time he enjoys his new found possession!!

I wonder, if ever Bollywood learn from this incident; today, the biggest Film Industry in the world with one of the most talented ensemble of great Stars, Directors,Composers, Writers, Choreographers, and whole host of technology available; all you will here: "Karan Johar remaking Agnipath"...xyz remaking "Khel Khel Main"..Farhan Akhtar not content with the remake of Don, making "Don 2"......Phew..

Come on...When will Bollywood MAKE movies...

Bollywood is running out of ideas...Not only movie-makers, but composers as well; Pritam in Once upon a time in Mumbai with " Duniya main" and worse still, turning the golden "Dum Maro Dum" in a piece of garbage is what the result of dying out of ideas. Or the Latest "Oye Oye" in Dhamaal 2..Even 'Jalebi Bi' looked superior to it!!

This is heartening; because Bollywood has great muscle and prowess to invest in Research, either for a Great script or a great Song; but they won't do it. They would like to race ahead of time. Or Perhaps, everyone wants to play safe; the fear of failure or to potential loss in the box office collections!!

For example, excel entertainment which made "Luck by Chance", "Lakshya or a "Kartik Calling Kartik", which were closely original scirpts(though could have distant semblance to oldies) could not set the box office on fire. Though these were great scripts with superb direction and memorable music, since they failed to create any magic in the minds of viewers, they decided to turn the easy way out..ZINDEGI NA MILEGI DOBARA..its a clear and unambiguous charter of the continuation of earlier Box office Hero DIL CHAHTA HAIN..and the result, the movie is a Blockbuster now.

Karan Johar for example, made a bold attempt "Kabhie alvida Na Kehna" and it was a box office dud. Then he decided to ride on the wave of the 9*11 rampage and made "My Name is Khan"..and became somewhat successful.

Some laudable attempts went bizarre in box-office. One of them is "Patiala House", which was supposed to be based on ace English spin wizard Monty Panesar. It had everything, great star-cast, great music and a good biography inspired story. But it was blamed due to loose screenplay and Akshay's eroding fortunes in recent times.

"Udaan" walked away with many awards; but the biggest award, that of the box office haunted it. Some of the movie-goers did not even know when it came and went.

Now, let's talk about someone who "thinks' that he really does R&D for stories and screenplays. Mr Aamir Khan, the self-proclaimed perfectionist. For starters, "Ghulam" was a commendable effort; followed by ultra-fast "Sarfarosh"..then "Lagaan" as they say, rest is history. Aamir Khan's attempts at history is not all high all the time. For example, "Mangal Pandey", the actor took close to 3 years to come up with the epic saga, but it bombed in box office like a balloon. But this was a great effort that viewers gave least attention too.

But shocking for a man who can recreate a Mangal Pandey, how can he create a D.K.Bose? No matter how much Aamir presses about his diversity and versality, but I would deeply condone it as an attempt at cheap publicity and way of attracting the youth.

When a doyen of the industry takes the short cut to success, what can one expect from others?

Well, not entirely correct that statement is!! SJB....one director/producer who can be still seen an act Original..Guzarish was a fantastic attempt or a bold attempt in recent times..but people did not care much.

The why does Bollywood, not care for what viewers like; as in the case of a FMCG or a consumer durable or a Pharmaceutical company invests half of their wealth in R&D and consumer research.

Bollywood has the muscle..All its need the will.

Then only we hope, we will see more of "A wednesday" or a "Raincoat" or "No one killed Jessica"or a "TZP"

Till then we are waiting to see some changes. Or someone needs to become an Anna Hazare and come to a fast to make Bollywood think seriously about making "Original" Movies.

Freedom: Is it always great?

Irrespective of its good or bad, we want it. Everyone wants to break free, the Queen way!

A teen who is debarred from entering a bar till hes/shes 18, or a director who's movie is banned from screening due to some controversy; everyone wants to feel the fresh air.

Consider the case of a ruling party: it acts its own whims and fancies. No matter how far it cross the realm of corruption, let alone the country go hay wire in all aspects of life. Such freedom creates the so called Anna, the modern Gandhi to resist such freedom. It is however remains to see, how far the freedom given to such Anna's to stall, is effective.

Freedom of expression: the worst case scenario, this is I would call CREATIVITY by opportunity...we got a BHAG D K Bose. Why can't we get a Subhash Chandra Bose with " Give me blood, I will get give you freedom"?

The areas where we really need Freedom or in other words Innovation, we will always lag behind: Steve Jobs will create the IPhone 4 and we will just buy it. Larry page will devise Google and we will just search it.

Freedom must be replaced by Responsible Freedom Immediately.

That's should be the resolve of 64th Independence day.

The Roman Settlement!!

I wanted to have the last laugh, but it is always fortune that smiles. I believed in destiny,but the question was if destiny believed in me?

I was reeling under serious thoughts while I was waiting for my turn for a meeting with the public relations manager of ASTHETICS,the famous youth magazine. This was in connection with the launch of my collection of songs DUPORHEA. I wanted a coverage by the magazine during and post launch of my album.

' Impressive', I never realised when I was called in and it took me some time to come to terms of the fact that I already briefed about my agenda to the PR Manager who gave that response to my quandary. After giving a welcome gaze to the lady in front of me with long hair, dark eyes and a mysterious smile I wanted to return the same word, but I summoned all my excitement to a composed thanks to her.

' It looks like the album is about romantic songs!' More than enquiry it appeared to be statement she deduced. I was enticed to elaborate then.

'Perhaps you got carried away by the mention of Rhea' I just sipped the warm coffee offered to me when I noticed her eyes showed glimpses of curiosity. I continued again, ' It is close to breaking the stereo-type, yet it is very common! It is far from popular verse yet it is the symbol of your neighbourhood.It is a novel concept but arouses everyday regularity' I was non stop.

'But what is the significance of DupoRhea?' She did not seem to be convinced and bending towards me she posed this question.

I looked at her desk and the tiny dashboard she maintained. There were few pictures of great people, arranged in a peculiar manner which I failed to comprehend. In one of the pictures Vladimir Putin was depicted shaking hands with Jawaharlal Nehru!

I asked her what made her morfed a Putin in the realms of a Nehru. And I myself replied to her that it is an example of DupoRhea. Aligning past to the present.

The more than irregular conversation concluded in her assuring him of taking my plea to the VP Communications.

I was happy about the outcome of the visit. The informal conversation with the PRM was fruitful too. It was true that my excitement was fully linked to the release of my new album over the last six months, but meeting with the PRM prompted me to shift a gear! Kimaya Baruah. At length I decided to google the meaning in web, it means pious. Now I am biased towards this pious girl. Is it a reward for a dream that I have launched some months ago? Or this is just a break from the dream!

Suddenly I drew a similarity between myself and sage Vishwamitra. Both had a mission to pursue; both encountered oomph of beauties during their mission. While his thinking was on, track 3 of the album was being played on his system........ SONGHATOR SONDHIYA DEKHA PUA ROMOK JOMOKOR MAJOT DHUSOR PORINOTI E PUAR DUKMUKALIK SUORI OSINAKI RENDEZVOUS KHELE!

In the meanwhile the day of my album launch finally arrived.

'Still no news of the coverage came', I almost disdained it as a futile excercise.But the curiosity inside me was never settled and I dialled her cell,' Is this Sagorika?' I tried to be sure.There was a pause and then came the reply ' I know why you have called!' she giggled and continued ' In fact I am at the venue with my colleague to cover your opening. So relax now!'

I saw her from a distance; more than her colleague she seems to have brought in her elegance. At length after the launch I approached her and thanked her for arranging all this.

' Don't thank me' she gave a careless smile and looking at her left said' This Reema who has arranged everything. The day I met you was my last day at ASTHETCS. I briefed her about the project and she handled everything.' While I acknowledged the help of Reema, my eyes were looking for my clarifications. Understanding my anxiety she chiped in again ' Reema is new and that's why I accompanied her for this event and wanted to wish you.'

I watched them leave.

My fulfilment was shallow and ended in a surprise.