A Thousand Splendid Suns- By Khaled Hosseini

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a chronicle of three decades of Afghanistan’s Modern history (1964-2003) that bases itself on eternal love, surprising friendship, tales of time and an astounding triumph. It is a very simply written story with well chosen metaphors that draws us close to the lives of two women who are the prime characters of this book.

Mariam is an illegitimate child from Herat is married off to a much older man in Kabul. Kabul is shown through Mariam’s eyes as a cosmopolitan city with women having due recognition in society. Mariam though is ill treated throughout the book as she could not conceive a child, a son to be precise.  Laila, a child living in the same neighbourhood, belongs to a liberal family and is well exposed education.

Political situation transforms itself from the Soviet occupation to growing strength of the mujahideen. Laila at the age of fifteen hopelessly in love with her neighbor Tariq, who has moved out of Kabul to Pakistan, loses her family when a rocket hits her home. She ends up at home of Mariam and eventually marries her husband as she is pregnant with Tariq’s child. During the reign of Taliban, time moves with the unlikely friendship between the two women their attempts to escape, their sharing of - household chores, love towards Laila’s children and brutality from their husband.

In due course Mariam gives up her life for Laila, her children and for her union with her lover Tariq. The story ends with depiction of removal of Taliban and Laila and Tariq’s return to Kabul with their children. Hosseini in this novel spanning across 380 pages very beautifully narrates the tale of two generations, brought together by dreadful war, their struggle towards survival and their hopes of finding love and happiness.

The Ticketless

One of those usual days I left at 7:10 from my office with the hope of my THE bus. While coming out of my office I meet two of my colleagues who were probably going for a smoke outside.... and suddenly one of them says don't wait for us you must be getting late and here I remember ohh yeah my 7:20 AC bus .

Yeah yeah I am a public transport pro and I still travel by Bus, which if I find an AC one is way more comfortable than metro and yes cheaper too.As some of you don't know FYI my office is in ISBT premises.  And there is this nice bus which drops me quite close to my home and yes I do get a seat to sit too.

So anyways coming back to my story  I rush to the place where my Bus comes. and there were two men standing at that place one would be somewhere 30ish and another probably close to 40 both of them lean, looked tired and sweating badly because of the weather. They together came to me and asked if there is a bus to Meerut they can take up. I had to tell sorry the UP and Uttarakhand buses aren't plying from here anymore you both will have to go to Anand Vihar.

And I showed them my beloved red bus which was just parking itself, you can go by this... it seemed they already knew everything and they were just looking for reassurance in whatever they had already heard.

So here we board on the bus I take my usual seat, and one of them, the 40ish sits in the seat front of me. The other one goes to the rear end of the bus.

The bus starts pretty soon unlike other days and since buses have now reduced in ISBT it finds its way out very easily with a very small halt at the check point where the check point guy gives the bus an exit slip. The conductor  half hearted looks into every body's seat and gives a ticket to those who gave the money. the man in front of me was then searching something in his luggage. 

Another guy gets into the bus and starts selling table covers in the top of his voice, I put my earphones and started surfing through the radio channels.

And here the bus takes a round at the cloverleaf of ISBT bridge I see the time on the clock tower it was 7:25 and I think I should be home by 8:10 today 10 mins early than my usual. The bus is now moving in quite high speed, suddenly few passengers ask them to stop at a bus stop and it halts and they get down.

Its not been a whole minute that suddenly it was stopped by  few DTC gentlemen, they were Ticket checkers, every time a bus is stopped by ticket checkers my school time memories get refreshed. Anyways they come to everyone check their tickets, they come to my seat I took off my earphone from one ear and hand them my ticket, and next they ask the man in the front seat for tickets. He very naively takes out a hundred rupee note and asks for a ticket to  Anand Vihar  and wow the checker says OK give another hundred and here is your fine for today you can travel in any bus today with this fine slip. He says I did not notice when the tickets were sold but all in vain the checkers had found their bakra and they were least interested in checking anyone else's ticket.

The man looked poor (he did not look very poor though) and when he took out money from his pocket it must have been around 500 only and its seemed that's all he carried for his journey to Meerut. He looked genuine and when he said he was unaware of when the tickets were sold he looked truthful . He also looked conscious about people looking at him so his paying off fine was rather quick than a long pleading, but he wasn't left on humanitarian grounds. Poor guy I thought first so much of hassle of not finding a bus here and then a 200/- fine . His fare to Meerut wont be 200 rupees probably

 The checkers then moved to the guy selling table covers and he kept on digging into his bag saying I am searching for the ticket, however the checkers just laughed gave a pat on his shoulder and alighted from the the bus, they way they exchanged smiles it seemed they have come across him many a times during their regular schedule. Yes he was poor too and was spared on humanitarian grounds.

But somewhere somethings work, the first guy probably looked not a regular, an easy prey whom they are not going to meet again, whereas the second one was a familiar face. I did not understand the distinction much neither I see any justification in the double standards.

Fact remains those who can be suppressed are suppressed by all.

Besharmi Morcha... Slutwalk indianized....

So some Canadian cop made some sexist comment ....and women all over the world have started slut walk to show the men the can do what they want and they can wear what they want....and we Indians are following it happily by giving it a name Bhesharmi Morcha... what is that we are trying to achieve out of it... Protection of Rights of Sex Workers or...Violence against women...

Some people really think that a slut walk like this would change the mindset of men around then they are grossly wrong but if they think that gonna give them enough publicity ....some in first page and some in page 3 then they are rightly focused

The right of today's women how they want to dress is pretty evident in malls, bars and even in streets... and this comes from me who is largely making her comment based on the Delhi streets....

The fact is violence against women has nothing to do with the way they dress.. and the men who understand it would do pre and post besharmi morcha in the same way and those who doesn't for them it wouldn't make a difference at all...

If today I can question what is wrong with overly exposing dresses at my workplace for women ...and say its not women friendly work atmosphere... tomorrow some of my male colleagues may actually come topless and in shorts.. I am sure there would be many women offended enough to file a complaint....

Appropriate dressing has no definition...its defiant of time, fashion, circumstances, age, location yet there is something that defines it....

The fact is slutwalking isn't going to solve the issues or even give a direction........

Its like publicity ke liye saala kuch bhi karega!!!!

Bollywood Makeover- Delhi Belly

Aamir's much hyped Delhi Belly has released.. Before the movie release I was wondering what does Delhi Belly means n after using the most common tool of Google I came to know its a slang at it means "diarrhoea experienced by travelers in a foreign country, who are not accustomed to the local food and water"After so much of a hype around,  I couldn't really wait and went on the day of its release..

Delhi Belly isn't for everybody .... its for a very specific crowd.. and that specific is 18+ to 40, English speaking, city, urbane middle class to elites.. If you are thinking of taking your parents to it ...then forget about it .. they are not gonna like it...  

The movie is packed with rude, dark, filthy and shameless humour which has been smartly packed in a fast paced story... In this sheer brilliance of 96 minutes you nowhere feel there is a lack of story or lack of pace... there is no left right centre it is too focused a movie...

Its a story of three flatmates, friends and partner in crime Tashi (Imran Khan) Nitin (Kunal Roy Kapoor) and  Arup ( Vir Das). The story is how Tashi gets entangled in the mess of two women in his life Sonia (Shenaz) and Menaka. The story comes from a series of coincidences and accidental exchanges.. Sonia is supposed to drop a packet containing diamonds and that gets exchanged with a stool sample of Nitin who is struck with Delhi Belly.

The madness comes in the movie with a stoic gangster who is after the diamonds and Menaka's crazy ex / not so ex husband. What results from all this a strong storytelling which is no way synonymous to anything complicated... and doesn't let you sit without laugh for even for a minute.. This thriller comedy is one of its kind and never been experimented in Bollywood before.... coming with this kind of a movie is a major makeover..

The movie borrows its Tagline "Shit Happens" from one of my favs Forrest Gump .. but thats the only thing I believe has been borrowed...

Its not one of those Golmaal n Dhamal genre movie which you watch and forget
Its a must watch and a movie to remember...you may find it gross but still you'd say you liked it...

The movie has two versions.. Hindi and Hinglish ...if you really wanna have a feel go for the Hinglish one.. also if you think there is any relevance of it being shot in Delhi... then you are going to be disappointed.. this story could have been based anywhere..

At the end seriously SHIT HAPPENS....

Enjoy!!

Hungry Kya?? ....Yes I am ...... So What ??

Its Saturday and my friend Y2C like every other Indian is just awaiting THE MATCH .. yes the finals....and like every other Indian praying for India to win. It was a big day indeed with a super smashing success in the Semis and with a billion hopes of repeating history..

But arghhh the life beyond World Cup doesnt let him enjoy that ONE DAY when he would have liked to lazy around at home and just get glued to the TV and enjoy that emotional turmoil that every Indian experienced on that day. Poor guy came to office with few plans in mind..I would work methodically, no distractions, eat somewhere nearby so that I save on time and go back asap to enjoy the match.

The day started with the plan and followed it till good half of the day till the time he decided to find a cure for his hunger.. being in a place like ISBT we are hardly left with much options of food Domino's is one such place where we go for three reasons- one when we want to think beyond burgers two when we are short of time and three when we have good reasons to shell out that good amount of money that the pizza chain charges.......Incidentally all reasons got checked that it was world cup finals and he was already high on it.... He checked his watch in was 1.25 pm and he realized that if he goes now then probably he can be back around 2 ish and enjoy the 'toss' after all domino's is just few flights away from our office...

And 'aaj to Cheese Burst pizza banta hai'  Here he goes to the counter orders his fav veg cheese burst and garlic bread and sprite at exact 1.33pm from where his back counting to toss starts.... and like those 1000 times we have been there gets the sprite first .......with the usual thing in mind would Dhoni win the toss or not ... he better wins the toss whosoever has lost the toss in finals have lost the game too.... Suddenly his eyes go to the clock and whoosh its close to 2 ..... so here he goes and asks in the counter.. whether his pizza is ready or not.... and to his surprise he gets an answer ' You havent been served yet ?' The clear answer is obviously no else why the hell m I asking this question......and after checking the records the dominos guy says sorry we have mistakenly forgotten your order....

Surprisingly its the same food chain that claims its numbers as hunger helpline and has a punch line "Hungry Kya".... Yes he was very much hungry waiting for the food.. and missing the match what else could go wrong... Wait theres more to come.. to top it he is asked what all have you got till now ... poor boy surviving on sprite had finished his whole bottle by now.... the domino guy says sir you please take your seat start having garlic bread and we will make the pizza... Y2C with so much of work on head and match in mind said you give it to me in few minutes I can wait and have garlic bread .... but no came the answer it would take more time sir after all its cheese burst....So he gave his visiting card and said you deliver in my office in any case you are supposed to deliver in half an hour so you can deliver in the time left.....which was exactly 3 minutes he also insisted that you write on the bill why it got delayed........ but no again came the answer along with the same response that you have garlic bread till then and sorry we cant write ( it came after much discussion amongst them)....By now he was too irritated and said forget about delivering in 3 mins you take 10 mins give it to my office but no again came the answer  By now the coin was already tossed twice and India had already lost the toss and SL has decided to bat....and Y2C had already lost so much of time ......

So now he said I have finished the sprite , you return my money deduct the sprite price I would now like to go back I cant waste my time. And Dominos here gave the quickest of the service they have ever given and reurned the money in no time. But he atleast wanted to speak to manager but some fellow came back and said manager is really busy and cant speak to you now ...  Has the funda of 'customer is king' become old  well it seems so....anyways he still insisted on it somebody came and introduced himself as manager. who just apologized for the delay and asked him to start with garlic bread.... Garlic bread in all his life would never have irritated him the way it did today.

Poor, Hungry, irritated, angry boy went back to office and decided to shoot a mail to domino's complaint email address. with the whole story... an autogenerated reply of getting back in 48 hours also came.... after all these Multinational chains are supposed to be very efficient in all these things.... It was already 2.20 and he had decided to get back to work without wasting any more time on food.........So with an empty stomach he started working on two windows parallely one with scores of the match and one with his work.....he did not want his remaining day to go bad... and all he was looking forward to reach home as soon as possible.

His work was at peak around 4 o clock and reaching back home and enjoying the TV did not seem too far...when our office gate guard came looking for him and asked did you have a pizza problem? he asked as in ? the Guard says there are people from Domino's waiting for you downstairs...

He goes downstairs and two men introduced themselves as the manager and the shift incharge and to his surprise the manager he met before wasnt one of them.......When he questioned the same that I wanted to meet you and you sent somebody else .... very smoothly came the reply  I was busy  and  we apologize for this  how can we make you happy ? ....This seemed the most irritating question then..... to which he said whats done is done I havent had my food and I would not like to waste my time further.... to which they said we can give you a complimentary pizza for all this mess....  A complimentary pizza  he did not create all this mess for that, all he wanted was to eat on time and save time......He turned down the offer saying he did not do it for a free pizza..... and nor a free pizza can erase what they did....The faces of both the guys on other side suddenly went pale ..... probably it wasnt expected that in a country where people do not mind going that extra mile to save on few bucks somebody will turn down a free pizza!!!.......

Anyways he accepted their apology and said he would not like to waste his time further......and the episode ended there..... unlike promised to revert back in 48 hours, its been 3 days... India has won the Cup! celebrations are On! all the players are back home! and a reply is still awaited from Domino's side......

This whole episode made me write this post and pose certain questions.. has this brand game actually improved the standards..... Competitive market leads to better delivery but this kind of attitude clearly shows that the idea is yet to sink in to each and everybody serving........Has anyone ever noticed how madly these delivery guys race their bikes to ensure that it is delivered on time.......If these shallow ideas of delivery time etc is removed probably they can ensure something that we would like to cherish and that is quality and taste.... Have we as consumers forgotten that quality in service and food is what matters having my dinner at 9.27 or  9.34 would not make much of a difference....  And leave apart the fact that all these do make a big hole in our pockets.... and if you are dining in then it makes the hole even before had the first bite of your food

Next Time I would rather say  No I am not Hungry!!!

Confessions of an FB Addict

Another week goes by and here I write about another important part of our lives lately 'social networking' which is synonymous to FB these days used to be Hi5 orkut My space once upon a time. One day as usual was hooked to FB and was following some activities of some of my super juniors of college and I realized that this bunch of youngsters live out FB. I wonder how much they would be missing if they did not login to FB at all.  Btw this post was to come earlier but really didnt get time away from FB to write about it :P.

I did not know that there existed a term called FB addict. But when I googled I found FB addict as defined by Urban Dictionary, is often used on forums and facebook itself. Someone who, instead of "does other stuff then occasionally goes on Facebook" choses to "go on facebook then occasionally do other stuff.

FAD is Facebook Addiction Disorder ......And even WikiHow comes up with ways to overcome FAD...

So to start with I believe you get into FB for four reasons

1. To find old friends
2. To interact at a different platform with the people you interact daily... as if meeting them all through the day wasnt enough...
3. Just for the heck of it or to know what is this FB business....since all the people around are doing it how can I not be part of the crowd
4. You have heard on of these...Oh so u dont know what FB is how lame? U are not on FB wow? How do u  connect with ur friends if ur not on FB ? ( as if phones have stopped existing)

And soon here are you posting photographs sharing links, videos and notes, play games, using its various applications  putting "Likes" and "Comments"

Life has become so easy and complicated at the same time, once upon a time when a person had to show his or her attitude would show in her behaviour and clothing, I had a T which I loved and many times used to wear the days I wanted to wear my attitude... it had a message " You can either agree with me or be wrong". Today when you want to show it you just put on your status message "Your not liking me is not my problem,figure it out baby,I don't live to please you"  and there are 7 likes and 2 comments on it till now.

Notifications or updates are something that actually tell you what new going on in your friends' lives. One day I got a message from a friend saying she has bought new shoes. I wanted to see them and in any case it was a nice idea to catch her up for a drink, but later I realized that before me receiving that SMS it was already there on FB and there were already 14 likes to it.... wow....I wonder on the kind of reach it has....

People hibernate and hibernate for various reasons.... there was a time when if I did not get any message or call from a friend for a long time, I would get worried and call her/him up. Today am assured by FB updates that she/he is fine. Also if I just wanna see a friend is ok or not I Poke. I did not understand this poking business until I had poked a friend 36 times and was poked by him 38 times. Tired of it I googled and asked 'AA'  from that bunch whats this poking business is. Finally understood and stopped poking.

We all love to play computer games but FB has taken it to a new level, where you actually get a chance to play actively alongwith your friends. Farmville one of the most addictive games of FB kept people hooked into it till they reached the penultimate level. They would put alarms so that when their crops are ready to harvest they dont even waste a minute. One day miss 'SS' stopped talking to 'AA' poor guy tried all means to understand what was wrong with her, and to his surprise he came to know that since he didnt fertilize her farm and did not gift her, her much desired pig. She doesnt want to talk to him anymore. Wow we had so fewer reasons amongst our friends for those little sweet feuds.

One of the most funniest thing on FB is its applications.....Who will murder you? Wow wish such apps were designed by CIDs and CBIs and FBIs... solving cases would be so much easier.  Profile picture analyzer which gives percentages and adds up to somewhat 200-300% wish my professors gave me marks on the scale of that.  Or "Who loved you most in year 2010' Do really need an app to tell you that??? Those irritating Fortune Cookies or Daily horoscopes of people on your homepage someone tell them that I dont even read my horoscope daily least interested in knowing ur arghhhh!!!!

I havent yet mentioned the most attention drawing aspect of FB which is Relationship status gives you an option of Single, in a relationship, open relationship and the most used one 'its complicated' Somebody tell me whose life is simple these days and which relationship doesnt have its own flip flops but it sounds good when you say it on FB.

Likes and Commenting are the two most powerful tool of FB. You comment when you have time else you just put a like. Lately I have discovered that you can also put a like on the comment.  You put 'wtf' half people reading it would put a like rest half would ask whats wrong buddy. Itni chinta hai to ek phone ghumalo yaar

Close second to Like and Comment is Tag you put any thing and Tag ur friends so that they can 'like' and comment'..... oooops this is getting too 'complicated'

FB has taken our inquisitiveness regarding other people's lives to a new level. And all the more FB has taken our eagerness of sharing our lives to a new level.

When I am writing this blog... my FB window is open parallely and I am reading comments and counting likes on the latest profile pic I have uploaded... :)

Back To Back

A week after my last blog of NOJK I wanted to write something else, started it also but  wasnt really able to complete ... so I am coming back to something I have already done --a movie review but this time two movies rather, which I saw rather back to back. Infact my first one was so serious a matter that we decided to go for something which was a little on a lighter note but while making that choice I did not know that at the end of it we would be left with stomach aches due to laughter but thats how it went. Neways I would put my review in the sequence I saw them, so that readers (if any) are also leaving this page on a lighter mood.

Dhobi Ghat(DG)

Aamir Khan's movies are always overhyped one of my FB friends said. Well I couldnt agree more. His publicity stunts, promos, and obviously the past record to pull the audience do make it awaited or over awaited. But whats wrong in that who wants his/her movies to flop and if that requires that extra why not.

I am a Aamir fan, and he has rarely disappointed me, his previous movies Taare Zameen Par, 3 Idiots, Peepli had their own genres and were able to pull that crowd. But this time hats off to him for making a movie which is not going to be a crowd puller atleast in all over India.  And I am sure I am just reiterating what the makers and the actors already knew. Probably the urban or that global audience would like it but cant say the same for rest of the India.

The genre of this movie is art cum documentary I would say. There are no larger than life characters in this movie, all of them are one of us. None of them are special people like chulbul pandey of Dabangg or Khan of MNIK  nor it is a success story or Shruti or Bunty of Band Baja Barat. Still all of them are special in their own ways......

DG is about four different stories, of four different lives, what is worth appreciating about the DG is how their lives crisscross in this journey and how they cope with yearning, solitude, affection, friendship and loss. The storytelling is quite pragmatic in its own way and I cant help applauding that all of it has been comprehended in just 95 minutes. The DG also calls itself Mumbai Diaries but still Mumbai is just another story or character of the movie or rather is the fifth story. Mumbai has been shown in the light it has already been shown for 1000 times in 1000 different movies.. dying, decaying, living, coping, the city of dreams, the city that never sleeps, its alive and it watches over you, but still its done in a very different way in DG and best part is its not loud at all.

Aamir Khan - Arun is a painter who is usually absent from his own painting exhibitions, who speaks in monosyllables and is someone who speaks sparsely. He has a one night stand with  Monica Dogra-Shai, a kid of rich parents settled abroad and an investment banker from America and an amateur photographer, who obsesses over him.

Prateik Babbar-Munna is the common Dhobi of Arun and Shai (what a coincidence), who gives his heart away to Shai, who aspires to be an actor and believes that going in the wrong path is not the right way to success.

Shai is trying to sketch the city through her camera with the help of Munna by capturing marginalized professions and thats why the movie is called Dhobi Ghat, where she does most of her shoots. 

I liked the dialogue when Munna says America is so advanced and clean that people from there actually like to see the filth of Indian cities. ( Iam just wondering was that the reason Slumdog was a hit)

The fourth and the most interesting character of the movie is Kirti-Yasmin who is there in the movie all through without being there at all. Arun discoveres few tapes in his flat of previous tenant and Yasmin comes alive through these tapes. Another thing that is worth noticing is that each character is trying to find his / her love in the other-Munna in Shai, Shai in Arun, Arun in Yasmin and probably Yasmin in Mumbai. 

Prateik in his own raw form, Kirti in her subtle and submissive voice and look, and Monica in her NRI accent and plain yet noticeable look give extremely natural performances. The only one who looked a little odd in all of them is Aamir Khan probably we have become used to watching him outshining and eclipsing his co actors but this time its different. By the end though he manages to be one of them.

The movie doesnt leave pace anywhere, it gives you those moments of little laughs through Munna, those little sympathy moments through Yasmin, those little tears through Shai and those moments of disgust through Arun. The idea of keeping the movie to 95 minutes is brilliant.  The Black and White photographs all through the movie is worth noticing. And if you have that habit of attention to details and you like them being there, DG is a complete delight.

Nothing is obvious in the movie, the old lady, the neighbour of Aamir can be interpreted as Mumbai City who is always blankly watching you and never responds back. Shai sheds tears at the end of the movie I interprete it as her realization of Munna's unsaid love for her. You either like or love Dhobi Ghat or you dont like Dhobi Ghat there is absolutely no space for O.K or average. DG isnt designed to please everyone.Its not a movie for people expecting Masala... or those who do not want to lagao that dimag. DG is more for those who can accept that the purpose of a movie is not just to make you laugh or cry, a movie can just be a storytelling that leaves you with mixed feelings. At the end DG is all about interpretations!!!! 

Little Fockers

They are back and back with a bang. The movie lives up to its prequels of Meet the parents and Meet the Fockers. If your purpose of going to the movie is clear i.e. to lighten your mood and to laugh your heart out, you should not be bothered about the ways and means to do it. The ways and means rather can be defined here as the same old turf between Jack Byrne( Robert De Niro) and Gaylord Focker ( Ben Stiller), vomits, the sex jokes and all other factors that were there in the previous versions.

Though the movie is called Little Fockers it is still not about Pam and Greg/Gaylord's Kids. Pam and Greg have two twins now, Henry and Samantha and the movie story is based on them, though I thought that the movie would be revolving around them but that is not the case, the movie just uses the kids to build the base and goes back to its old set of weapons to make you laugh. Jack's mistrust on Greg and at the end Greg winning it back, Kevin's ( Owen Wilson) affection for Pam ,misunderstandings and spyings.

If you are looking at a fresh perspective towards the whole story and is expecting something new from the story and the characters and especially from the new characters then you are going to be thoroughly disappointed.

However if you just wanted a revisit to that same old lane of laughter then you gotta love it as you did the previous two.

I loved it!