Mind u Read

Our world is split into two – those who LOVE Modi, and those who HATE him. You know who you are. There’s hardly anyone left in the neutral zone anymore. I never had any serious opinion about him in the past. Was no fan of his ever, but I went ahead and voted for the BJP in 2014 in the hope that something good was coming our way. It didn’t take me too long to realize that I made a mistake. I wouldn’t say I hate him, but I just don’t like him anymore. My grouse with Modi arises from a very basic human level of consciousness and it’s different from most of the stories you read about the economy or other communal matters. A laundry list of complaints against Modi is a vast subject to cover but I will be narrowing my focus in this post to only what I feel most passionate about. The rest you are anyways hearing from the opposition parties, and I hope you’ll share some stories in the comments section too. Before I speak further, it is important to first understan...

"Oh no…one more Padmaavat article. That too so many days after the movie’s release" - I can practically hear you say that aloud. Maybe I am crazy, but I have no option other than to share my story with you before I go completely mad. I might also end up driving you crazy in the last section of this post. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. My story involves a bizarre paradox - a moral dilemma of sorts. It all started when I watched the film Padmaavat on the second day of its release. I loved the film. The climax choked me emotionally and this was the only time in my life where I wished I had seen a movie in 3D because those glasses could’ve hidden my tears at the end. That’s how much I loved the film. Putting aside the discussions about gender politics, Jauhar or the Hindu VS Muslim trope that’s been doing the rounds, the film and the climax appealed to me at a very basic level as a triumph in tragedy – where you feel sad that the good guys die at the end but als...

I have a confession to make. This is not the Baahubali blog post I originally planned to write. The real one is still lying in my drafts folder...since July 2015. It still remains there because of a strange phenomenon with the first Baahubali movie. After every viewing of ‘Baahubali: The Beginning’ it seemed exponentially better than the previous viewing (yes, I watched the movie a lot of times). By the sixth viewing or so I started feeling like  Neo from the Matrix – seeing details, patterns and threads that weren’t easily visible earlier. At one point of time I started maintaining an excel sheet to capture the complexity and intensity of thoughts that started hitting my mind. My blog post started looking like a PhD thesis, and I somehow never managed to publish it till date. Fast forward to 2017 and we already have the second part ‘Baahubali: The Conclusion’ out. Things are a bit different this time though. I don’t intend to write a thesis on the secon...

I watched the much talked about Malayalam movie Premam earlier this year, almost a year after its theatrical release. Though I didn’t understand a word of the language, I instantly fell in love with the film. Maybe it was the music, the locations, visuals, acting, chemistry, love, pimples, Java, or god knows what… the film was pure magic! Later, I came to know it was being remade in Telugu, my native language. I felt it was a bold move, maybe a stupid one too...Premam is a piece of ART, and ART is sacrosanct, not to be tampered with. Were the makers committing blasphemy? To find the answers, I waited with bated breath for the Telugu release. Caught the film during the first weekend, and then the unexpected happened. I walked in expecting to see a ‘copy paste remake’ but what I instead got was an ‘upgraded version’ of the original. It felt as if the original Premam was put on a treadmill and made to lose all the flab, in place of which it grew muscles – muscles calle...

Over the last few weeks Facebook has been bombarding me with notifications that my friends support the Free Basics platform. Then started the circus about how bad this is for all of us, with most people showing their concern on various platforms, by sharing videos and articles mushrooming by the minute, all trashing the Free Basics platform. In their opinion, internet is a democracy that shouldn’t be tampered with. They say Facebook is acting as a gatekeeper, a dictator, building an internet that is a silo of the larger internet, furthering its business interests in the garb of doing social good for an unsuspecting audience. According to them, Facebook is nothing short of an evil imperial emperor. I find most of their arguments very cute…they remind me of this line from the movie Seven Samurai: “What's the use of worrying about your beard when your head's about to be taken?” Forget the ‘about to be taken’ bit; in our case not many realize that the ...

I love Maggi noodles. Government says it’s harmful. Nestle's been saying it’s safe. Who do I believe? I was home alone, and hungry one night. A pack of Maggi stared at me from the kitchen shelf. Not knowing what to do, like a new age selfie kid (am I really one? maybe) I asked folks on Facebook to help me decide – to eat, or not to eat.  You can view that post here - click to read The answers were many. Some serious, many in a lighter vein, but all of them set to certain patterns. Patterns dictated by how seriously they took the threat of Maggi having an impact on my, or for that matter anyone else’s health. If I were to classify the answers into 4 broad categories, this is how they would seem. Pattern 1: Risky for your health. Don’t eat it. Pattern 2: You’ve been eating this for ages, nothing happened till now. Eat it. Pattern 3: You’ve been having worse. For instance Delhi air pollution. You are doomed anyways. Pattern 4: It is all...

What is this Dancing Car? That was one question my son was repeatedly asking while we were watching the movie ‘PK’.  Though old enough to grasp basics of the world around him, the concept of a dancing car in ‘PK’ was alien to him. No wonder, the child’s curiosity kicked in and the above question followed. There was no convincing answer to give him. Similar is the state of PK, our alien from outer space. His childlike curiosity constantly questioning the world around him; learning answers the hard way – much to his bewilderment and our amusement. PK questions many aspects of our world, but there is one thing I am particularly keen to explore further - the conclusions he arrives at during his quest to reach god. God exists, but a medium (religion & rituals) and messenger (god men) to reach god are unnecessary. Is PK right in saying so? Maybe…but his childlike innocence can’t be a good enough reason to completely believe him. How can ...

Kids laugh 300 times a day. Adults laugh only 5 times a day! There is no scientific data to prove it, but everyone seems to believe the above numbers. Kids indeed laugh a lot, are happier and seem to have more fun than us adults. Thanks to the pressures of growing up, we often end up losing the kid inside us. The reason I speak about kids and adults in this post is because I find it very amusing to see the extreme reactions to the latest Farah Khan movie Happy New Year. Happy New Year seems to invoke a strange phenomenon - a battle between the kid and the adult within us. By now, I am assuming you already know who you are – the one who laughed out loud while enjoying the movie, or the one who laughed reading the spoofs and reviews of critics who trashed this movie. One is the kid inside you reacting, and the other is the adult. Through this post I would like to explore this phenomenon further. It will probably help explain why I like this film and why you mi...

He won’t stop – that’s the literal translation of ’Aagadu’, the title of a Telugu movie that released last weekend. True to its name, the movie was unstoppable at the box office, netting close to a million dollars on the day of its release in the US. An unprecedented number for an Indian film, leave alone a Telugu film. I was constantly bombarded by Whatsapp updates from my friends in the US who flocked to the screens in droves as if their lives depended on this movie. Closer home, the story was no different - despite negative reviews from critics and 140 character experts on Twitter, the film marched on triumphantly. I watched the movie in a Delhi NCR multiplex which was packed to the brim - a rarity in this part of the country. Craze for the movie wasn’t surprising. Aagadu is after-all a big budget movie made by a popular director with a successful track record starring one of the most charismatic heroes of South India - Mahesh Babu - the central reason for the...

Ever since I watched the film “The Matrix” in the late 90s, I've often wondered if what was shown in the film could become a reality someday. It is highly unlikely, but for those who don't know what the Matrix is all about, here is a brief Wikipedia entry about the film: "The Matrix depicts a dystopian future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality called "the Matrix", created by sentient machines to subdue the human population, while their bodies' heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source." The Internet of today seems like a nascent version of the Matrix. We humans constantly look for validation and information online. We not only consume but also generate all of the data online via social networks and other means which are powered by corporations that now wield immense power over our lives – think Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. The Apple Watch seems like the next big logical s...

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." - Ernest Hemingway While I punch the keys on my laptop to write about the Telugu film Manam, my feelings are similar - instead of blood, I have tears in my eyes. Tears that refuse to stop long after the show got over. Tears that seem to emanate from a complex set of emotions triggered by nostalgia, sadness and joy - all at the same time. It is as if the movie has done some kind of black magic on me. The only way for me to make sense of all those tears is to write this blog post. Who knows, you might be feeling the same way too after watching the film. One basic assumption before watching Manam is that this is a film about glorifying the decades old ANR legacy which starts with Akkineni Nageswara Rao in the 1940s to his son Nagarjuna starting in the 80s and then onto his grandson Naga Chaitanya starting in the new millennium – all of whom star in this film. It is an easy temptation fo...

It will be a big mistake to underestimate Arvind Kejriwal's impact on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections! Ever since he started his political campaign,  Arvind Kejriwal has been two steps ahead of his competition.  Be it his innovative use of social media to reach young voters, banners on autos across Delhi city or the incessant radio campaign amongst other things - his political rivals were always playing catch-up and it showed in the results of the Delhi elections. Forty nine days after assuming power as the Chief Minister of Delhi, after creating one ruckus after the other, being labeled as an anarchist where everyday governance turned into a prime time reality show, Arvind Kejriwal finally resigned from his post. Fallout of this:  A major part of Arvind Kejriwal's educated fan base has deserted him but he still magically manages to find new admirers and fanatic followers. Free from the burden of the CM's chair, Arvind Kejriwal now seems to be in a h...