Thought Shots

Today's blog is about a character that I have simply fallen in love with. The character is a girl named Diya from Karan Johar's latest flick 'Gori Tere Pyaar Mein' (Translation: My Fair Lady, In Your Love). Diya is a diehard social activist who wants to change the world whatever the cost. Opposite her is a shallow little man called Sriram who couldn't care less just about anything important: be it relationships, life, family, friend or the country. He is anything but like Diya. But before I get into the chemistry of their relationship, let me tell you something about what makes Diya one most lovable character. Firstly, we need more like her especially in a country like ours. Someone who can come up with unique ideas to fight the grind this bloody system we work under puts us in. So, you see Diya getting rid of the traffic jam caused by a soon to arrive chief minister on the road by acting pregnant having borrowed Sriram's jacket (which is how they meet the firs

You know that moment when you see something that gives you a fresh perspective and a new take on things? I had that moment in the morning when I saw the David Fincher directed Fight Club . Now, the film has a lot of violence, fighting and bloodshed but it also has something serious to tell us about the lives we lead or at least think we lead. The movie has this unnamed narrator who befriends a soap salesman named Tyler Durden on a flight. They later start a fight club where people come to fight recreationally. I was fascinated by Tyler's take on life and things. What was remarkable was just how relevant his outlook is to the contemporary world we live in. A world where we have all become simply consumers. A target for companies to buy things we don't need to impress people we don't like. And yes, the line originates from this movie only. So why a fight club? The director says, "We're designed to be hunters and we're in a society of shopping. There's noth

It was about a year before that I had thought of writing this blog but I couldn't get around to it. The blog is about the Vaishno Devi trip that I made last year with my family. Throughout the trip I couldn't help but feel that I was searching for the Goddess that was said to be residing in the middle of the mountains that could only be climbed after a painstaking journey (if of course, you chose to walk on foot which by the way, we did). I was with my mother, brother and a family friend called Navjot Singh Sidhu (a very young acquaintance, not to be confused with the hyperbolic indian commentator). The trip took about four days to complete. We braved an exhausting train journey, a bumpy bus ride across the foothills, strange monkey gazes coming from what were real monkeys (no racism intended), smell of horse-dung and she horse-dung and most remarkable of all a walk up and down the mountains (thinking of Sissyphus here...) that lasted for no less than about fourteen hours. I