MSD(Dhoni) connection

You would wonder what connection would I possibly have with Dhoni, not much except may be for the fact that we both lived in the same city (Ranchi) within a distance of one km for a period of 2 years(2001-2003). Actually the connection would have been more deeper had fate not intervened, and I missed the cutoff of DAV JVM ,Shyamali ( the Alma mater of MSD ) by a mere 4 marks. The miss rankled me for some time though for a different reason. At that time about 40 students of DAV Shyamali would get into IITs as compared to around 20 students of DPS (where I eventually got admitted). It was another matter that DAV JVM had twice the number of students in comparison to DPS. But it had a better reputation for outside students and as later I got to know that its schedule was much more relaxed. Though I had a lot of smaller consolations . Firstly the hostel in which I lived, had a lot of guys from DAV JVM. So I came to know a lot of things about it like brilliant guys who were tipped to be IIT toppers from city (an unknown guy from DPS actually became the city IIT topper with AIR 40) , hot and not so hot gals who were the cynosure of boys' eyes and different teachers along with their peculiar mannerisms. Then I gave a lot of FIITJEE tests there. Lastly my boards were held in DAV JVM. I almost felt at home there and began to believe that it was my second school (analogous to second home).
Now coming to Dhoni, the first time (actually the only time) I saw him was way back in December 2002. that time Bihar was playing Karnataka in a Ranji trophy match in Mecon stadium. That day i had my first round of Physics olympiad and after my test I stopped to watch the game. Bihar was following on and ultimately lost the match but a young batsman blasted the karnataka attack to a quickfire 93. That day I failed to qualify for the second round of Olympiad however that young man started his journey to become one of the most iconic man in Indian cricket. His name was Mahinder Singh Dhoni. I guess in life someone's loss turns out to be someone else's gain. Jokes apart, I feel really proud of whatever he has achieved since being a keen cricket follower from Bihar, it used to trouble me that no one from this region has made it big in Indian team. But I just hope that his success at big stage would inspire others to follow suit.
( PS: MS Dhoni is the captain of Chennai IPL team and is reported to purchase a house there in near future. Now i got one more reason to relocate to Chennai (if it comes to that) to have the connection deeper.)

Dev D: emosanal attyachar

Last Friday morning when I flipped over the pages of Times of India, I saw something that was unprecedented and therefore jolted me out of my slumber. In that edition Dev D had been reviewed and been given a rating of five star.Now that is something I haven't seen before in the last twelve years as a reader of TOI. That really set the expectations from the movie very high. That night I got to see the movie. When I came out of the multiplex I was kind of a confused person. Previously whenever I watched a movie, I either liked it or disliked it. Dev D elicited highly ambivalent reactions from me.I could not bring myself to either like or dislike it out rightly. However certain things were crystal clear. One of them was that the movie was clearly ahead of time,in terms of bold dialogues and female sexuality. I mean how many movies show a traditional Indian woman carrying a mattress to the field for her man. It really left a lot of viewers squirming in their seats. Secondly this movie has been given a different and radical treatment that defies all conventions and breaks all moulds. It tries to rewrite the technique of artistic medium with its unusual cinematography, dizzy editing, non-linear plot narration and breathtakingly bizarre audio track. Thirdly the performances are just okay without being too good or too bad. When I was coming out of the multiplex the "Emosanal Attyachar" was being played out in the background with the credits rolling. It stood out for two reasons. Firstly
this song was one of the highlights of the movie with its quirky music,lyrics and picturisation. Secondly and more importantly, I thought it captured the essence of the movie. One of the biggest problem with this movie is that it lacks the soul and fails to connect with
the audience. RDB, Lagaan, TZP and Black were some of the movies which apart from being different, managed to have a connect with the audience so that people loved watching them again and again. Besides, you don't feel for any character. So in a way, this movie was an emotional torture for the viewer.
If pronounced sexuality and sexual emancipation of the female protagonist was the chief criterion for judging a movie then i guess even a rating of five star is not enough for this movie.
otherwise a rating of three star would have done more than justice to this movie for its attempt to be different.
(PS : the tag line of the movie should be; its all about moving on. In the movie, Paro moved on with her husband and his children, Chanda moved on with her job as an escort girl and Finally even Dev D moved on with Chanda unlike the original Devdas where Dev met a tragic end. I guess the message which Anurag Kashyap wanted to send to viewers was have a "move on" after watching this movie and not take this movie too seriously.)

beginning on a sombre note

The advent of internet has provided a completely novel and effective mode for people to express themselves. A lot of people from diverse background are utilizing this medium to express themselves and are jumping on to "Blogging" bandwagon. Actually I have been thinking to start blogging since a long time since a lot of thoughts cross my mind on diverse topics and writing gives you the freedom to structure your thoughts and express them in the best possible way.But as people close to me would strongly and readily vouch for the fact that I am a master of procrastination (it is the first word I learnt in my professional life and and more importantly, it is an euphemism for being "lazy" which unfortunately i am). May be I was waiting for the right moment or perhaps waiting for something to happen. It did actually happen though I really would not have preferred it to be the immediate reason to start blogging. Unfortunately 'it" refers to theft of Tanmay's car from the outside of office building in Noida.Ironically it was the third instance of car theft from the same place in a month though the concerned authorities failed to bring this to light.which brings me to an important topic that of deteriorating law and order in Noida and Ghaziabad.The electronic and print media dishes out news of theft,murder and rape from this region on a regular basis yet the enormity of grim law and order situation had not sunk in until it directly affected us. The alarming regularity of these crimes can be gauged from the fact that within six months of joining three of our colleagues have been victimized. Besides, the response of the police was appalling to say the least.Because of contacts of Tanmay, we were able to get an FIR lodged but not before going to police station for three days. Having lived in Bihar during 1990-2005, it didn't totally surprise me,though Tanmay was justifiably exasperated having come from peaceful Himachal Pradesh. However I can safely say that the law and order scenario here has surpassed the "jungle raj"scenario of Bihar during 1990-2005, which is quite surprising and ironic, especially when Noida and Ghaziabad is supposedly part of the prestigious "NCR" .This region is home to so many private firms, industries and large apartments and brings substantial revenues to state exchequer yet the government has failed to provide security,a basic prerequisite for living. The apathy of the state government can be borne by the fact that five SSPs have been transferred in Ghaziabad in the last five months.If the police chief can't be guaranteed a fixed term, how is he going to maintain law and order? It is really unfortunate that the chief minister of the state has aspirations to become the next prime minister but cannot ensure security in her state.
Being a positive and an optimistic person,I would have definitely preferred to start my blogs on a more positive note.But sometimes you cannot be oblivious to the situation around you and you need to sit up and take notice.However some of the coming posts would be livelier and more interesting.
( PS : It took three days for this post to move from notepad to this blog. So you can see that I am not much efficient as compared to UP Police. But at least I am trying to get better and just hoping that blogging help me in my pursuit.)