my show

Gorgeous you - clippings...Airs - 4 pm, wednesdays and thursdays on Care World TV..Repeat - 11 pm. same days..

i had a small informal presentation at a Rotary Club meeting last weekend on the theme of women empowerment..and though the main attraction for the audience was AN (Adrashya Nari), an hour before the presentation i thought of preparing a small teaser before starting off with the actual highlight. Good that i was carrying my laptop!

Posting it here for my friends who weren't present at the meeting...


(Note - The images used have been taken from the internet, except a few originals from AN.. )

really funny videos..

LONDON DREAMS MOVIE REVIEW

The movie had me all seated in an almost jam-packed theater in PVR yesterday for it had my sightly Salman laughing, frolicking and driving everyone crazy with his signature style on the big screen..and after Wanted, i guess the fans would promise yet again to be faithful to him as long as their Salman-hungry appetite are appeased this way.

Well, apart from Salman the movie had a plot similar to what each one of us might have experienced or might be experiencing at least once..may be not of as huge a magnitude as that, but we'll have it or have had it already to our lives.

Arjun has a dream and believes that God is eliminating the barriers between him and his goal, signaling His special blessing on him. While Arjun (Ajay Devgan) believes that he's destined to succeed and sees a crazy crowd cheering him on in his dreams , he seems to have misread God's omen and unknowingly writes the success story of his friend "Mannu" (Salman) instead, on the pages of history in place of himself where he duly deserves to be present as the protagonist. He sees the morning of his success but not without Mannu's silhouette rising in the way of him and the rising sun and to add more agony to his life, loses his lady love too to his friend. Frustrated, he 's hell-bent to see Mannu out of his way but fails to do so. By the time he realises what he's done, Mannu is already a star.

The movie entertained us but more than that, it indicated in its own small way, the biggest truth of mankind we need to be reminded of again - Even God surrenders before what He has written Himself for us - the blueprint of Destiny!

Food for thought - What if u were at Arjun's place? Would you have reacted deviously in the same way as him? or would have chosen to become a silent spectator of the strange game of destiny? Think over it.

While surfing for the 'how-to' mannuals, i bumped into two interesting sites. Thought to share -

Wikihow - answers to all your 'how-to' queries..click the link, (Wikihow) type the keyword into the search engine and get umpteen 'how-to' manuals related to the keywords...

& Buzzle.com- interesting news stories and articles covering everything from animals to tourism.

International Festival to be held in Indore

Just wanted to share the news with friends and colleagues -

(Courtesy - Hindustan Times)

The commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh, Indore, will host the first 'Global Film Festival' to be organised in the city on the lines of Goa Film Festival from October 8-15.

During the festival, important national and international fame films will be exhibited and the best film, best actors and actresses will also be honoured for their good work, official sources said on Thursday.

The state has number of prominent religious, tourism and natural spots where film making process can be encouraged, the minister said.

The meeting also decided to invite national and international fame film personalities for taking part in the festival.

The Culture Secretary has already held a discussion with cinema halls and hotel owners in Indore in this regard and discussed modalities for showcasing the event, the sources added.

For any further information (hotel bookings, visitor's guide etc.) you can log on to -

http://www.indore360.com/portal/International-Film-Festival-Indore.html

'Wanted' movie review

The reviews were mixed..some said it was yet another cheesy Bollywood masala flick, some thought it to be one of Salman's best! And after watching this full on msala action-comedy, i have no doubts agreeing to the latter of the two extreme opinions..the lovable protagonist of "Hum Apke Hain.." or "Judwa" or "Karan Arjun" has surely aged in his looks but when it comes to being Salman we've cherished ever since, he still does it with the same elan again and again and again..and we love him so much for that..don't we?

yes, the movie was a highly unrealistic-bollywood-ish kinds..a dozen hoodlums being thrashed to the ground by our brave hero in a single stunt, a desi inspector ogling at the heroine with immense devilish thirst in the eyes, a geeky yet international Don, a heroine, depressed in her search for love, still, changing her make-up and nail-paints every now and then in the worst of times..it's funny really..but yet we liked it all..and how! i never knew Prabhu Deva can don the director's hat so well!

The movie reminds us of the fact that at the end of the film when the audience come out of the movie-theater, they are least interested in carrying with them an emotional baggage of a heavy-duty drama or suspense..they sometimes want to feel lighter too. Cinema is all about entertainment for the general masses at least, may be not for the so-called "elite" or for the more serious ones..

i particularly liked the fact that the cut-away scenes were not the usual prolonged ones..they were short, funny, sweet and gave a sense of correlation of the happenings and the timing of their occurrences ..the introductory part of "Radhe" (the hero of the film) was a bit boring but then as the film proceeded with its mirch-masala and cheeni-thoda-sa-kum style, it went on to surge the adrenaline of the audience well glued-up in their seats..

the scene where the villain (Ghani Bhai) with a typical south-Indian accent, was taken captive by the police is hilarious..screenplay writer Shiraz Ahmed's job is surely commendable as even the dialogues, especially Salman's when he says - "jab main ek baar commitment kar deta hu toh uske baad main apne-aap ki bhi nahi sunta" (which is also the concluding line of the film), and the ones delivered by Vinod Khanna before he's shot by the "Gunda" in the film ,are extremely well constructed..

i couldn't believe that the guy who seemed to be so shy whenever he was asked to comment on a performance or give some suggestions or even introduce a guest on the small screen when i saw him judging the popular show "Boogie-Woogie" can be such a good director! Bravo to him and to the crew!

A productive week

The week gone by reminded me of the Mumbai locals what with the time running at parallel speeds. By the time you realize you've just entered or rather been helplessly pushed by the swarm of people into your compartment, you're already at your destination; all tired and lost!..

My office work, people i met, decisions i made, everything was indeed a whirlpool of sorts!!

The most interesting part was when i met the most precious brand the creative world has gifted us - not "Liril" or "Lalitaji" or "Humara Bajaj", (the Bajaj campaign still gives us goose-bumps filling us with the feeling of pride and national integration!) but the creator of the legendary ads - Mr. Alyque Padamsee! His wit and child-like enthusiasm was unmatchable! I think this is the sign of all the creative geniuses - No matter how much the dusk clouds the colour of their eye, their heart still feels the bloom..

While addressing the students of a business school here in Indore, with ingenuity he spoke about entrepreneurship, "brandvertising" (an innovative nomenclature coined by him for the clever marketing of brands..where he explains that simply put, a great ad is the one which generates great sales..), about the history of the now national ad-anthems like "Liril", "humara Bajaj", "marzi hai aapki aakhit sir hai aapka", our very own "lalitaji" ..the ones which we associate our childhood with, about conducting FGDs (Focus Group Discussions) and much much more!!

Trust me, the next five hours with Mr. Padamsee were engagingly informative and thoughtfully insightful!! On a rathar informal note, after his speech i took his advice on my documentary film - "Adrashya Nari" and discussed how can it be better platformed, about the ethics of his "Fair and Handsome" ad campaign and the sensibilities of promoting the product in the Indian market and on our way to his destination - the indore airport, we discussed everything from women empowerment to Indian marriage system to his personal life experiences and so many other issues..and as we'd guessed he knew about almost everything under the sun!

Hid inspirational talks on Mahatma Gandhi, the young India and the advices on building brands and positioning was indeed contentful and detailed..his humourous narratives had us all rolling in the aisles! While seeing him off to the airport he handed me a boquet of flowers and wished us all good luck..

the experience was amazing and that of a lifetime! it was such a pleasure to meet the blue-eyed boy of the adworld! We love him for the everlasting impacts his cerative formations have left on us..they'll always remind us of our childhoods and will remain in our hreats forever.

CAKE RECIPE

Many of my friends, (especially the "nudge-nudge-wink-wink" college spinsters to newly transformed adorable housewives) had been asking me about the recipe of the scrumptious chocolate cake i prepared last week at mom's place for a hen party, to share it with my "Framily" (Frenz and Family). So quite simply, i gave them the link of this page and at the same time thought of sharing this simple and time-saving recipe with my; as Amitabh Bacchhan popularly calls them in his blog, the "EFs" or Extended Family..:)..

There you go -

Ingredients -

2.25 bowls Wheat Flour
1 bowl Sugar
1 bowl Milk
1.5 bowl Curd
1.5 teaspoon of Baking Soda
1 teaspoon of Baking powder (Sodium Bi-carbonate, different from baking soda)
a pinch of salt
one-fourth slice of butter.
Flavour - chocolate syrup, vanilla or any other

Preparation -

Mix the ingredients n keep it for five minutes in the microwave..n Tada!! You have the recipe selling like hot cakes!!..:)

it's the last Monday of the "Sawan Somvars" and the temple near our house is scintillating with colourful lights and lamps..and in fact it's not just the lights but the sound too seems to travel at equal speeds..the sound billowing out of loudspeakers, lashing out at unimaginable decibels actually seems to reach God quite conviniently, screeching the ordinary ears of human beings..interestingly the only thing to laugh off was the tunes on which the bhajans were being played..the famous tunes of "Pankh hote toh udd aati re..." from the movy Sehra and "tutak tutak..." picturised on i guess Neelam?? a movy buff like me can only think of Sandhya in her famous dance moves when i hear the tune..anyways, but i seriously think we really need to do something about the relentless rise in noise pollution..

kids, who come to play in the nearby garden even during the exams, are giving a scared expression on their faces..maybe they're wondering why the people from the surrounding residential area haven't turned up to shoo away the people (like they always do with them) making these screeching sounds at such ungodly hours....probably the kids are seeing the same people adding to the racket... n so they have turned to some peaceful place to frolic around..hopefully the noise would disappear when they return home...

बातों से बातों तक

बातों से बिखरती कुछ नई बातें, उनमे से उल्हज्ती और उलझनों को सुलझाती हुई और बातें, अंगडाइयां लेती हुई सुबह-सी बातें, रात की गहराई नापती धुंधलाती बातें... युहीं बातों से बातों तक, उन सभी लम्हों को समेट कर मेरी आंखों ने इस झील के किनारे रख छोडा है..इन बातों को किनारों से उमड़ कर झील के शांत पानी पर लहराते देख रही हूँ ..उसी बातों के पानी से अपना चेहरा छूकर जब मैंने झील में झाँका तोः एक नही, दो चेहरे देखे, एक मेरा, एक तुम्हारा...

my previous post and the responses it gathered, egged me on to post some insights regarding the facts of being balanced and at the same time being creative..

our creative geniuses like Eienstien, Shakespear and others were highly balanced individuals!!

Eienstien himself stated once -

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”..and it was this attitude of his of always being on the move to keep his BALANCE working, that made him what he's known for..

in a management training program called "a balanced mind" that i was a part of, it was taught that a fully active and balanced brain adds energy and creativity to the individual, which is a necessary ingridient of a successful leader and that only a balanced mind can think of some creative or rational solution to a given problem.

Got to meet Mr. Shyam Benegal in a recent inaugural ceremony of Cinevision Film Club in Indore. in spite of so many questions being asked, .some sensible, some tacky, he was very patient in fielding all of them with great maturity..

i fortunately got a chance to raise a query. ..i asked him how he managed to arrange for the finances for the art films he has devoted most of his career to...he said that though after toiling with the initial phase and so many years later in the film industry, it is now not a big issue for him to manage for the finances..

later in the evening i managed to catch him in a rather informal mode and asked for his blessings for our new company and took his autograph/photograph on one of my favorite books on poetry, which includes some of my compositions too...:)

Beware or you might fall!

Life makes us encounter many crossroads, all bevy with carrots dangling to attract the traveller. And overloaded with extreme emotions, we might choose the wrong way. But there's a saviour, a solution which disentangles the confusion of choosing the right path.. and that according to me is BALANCE. It is what we lose to gain nothing and what we gain to lose nothing..We all are leading our lives in different ways but one thing is shaping our lives consistently in a particularly distructive manner; and that is IMBALANCE..

We all must strive to maintain an equilibrium..because it is actually the elixir of our lives, the guru-mantra for dematerialising all our pains..

Some, like my husband Sanskar, have it by birth...he has the capability to keep his cool in even extreme situations and doesn't let the situation hang his head in sorrow...I am learning this art from him...as most of the time in life we need to shed our egos, deal with our anger and project a calm and composed self to the society..It's bad to lose our temper and suffer drastic consequences. .It's better to deal with it and choose a greener life instead..

आज यू लगा कि जैसे सर के बल खड़े होकर दुनिया देख रही हू...इतने दिनों से जो तेज़ धूप ने कमरे की खिड़कियाँ बंद करने को मजबूर कर रखा था आज उसी धूप ने मानो दुनिया देखने का नजरिया बदलने की ठान रखी हो...सूखी ज़मीं पर बूंदे पहले भी गिरी है, मगर आज बूंदे गिरते ही ज़मीं नहीं मुस्कुरायी...पहले एक, फिर दो, फिर कई सारी बूंदों ने मिलकर ज़मीं को मनाने कि बहुत कोशिश की..पर ज़मीन थी की मुस्कुराई तक नहीं...शायद इस बार तेज़ धूप ने जो तबाही मचाई थी, उन चंद बूंदों की मनुहार से धरती कहाँ मानने वाली थी....धूप भी क्या करती, उपर से आये हुक्म की तामील जो करनी थी...

वो खुशबू आज भी मन में समाई है, जो पहली बारीश की बूंदे मेरे कमरे की खिड़की पर दस्तक देकर बिखेर जाती थी....फिर मानो इशारे से छत पर बुलाया करती ...माँ की रसोई के लिए बिखरे पापड़ जो छत पर सूखा करते थे, वो तक जलने के बजाय, भीगना ज्यादा पसंद करते ...इसीलिए मैं उन्हें समेटती नहीं... युही रखे रहने देती...माँ जल्दी-जल्दी सीढियां चढ़ती, चिल्लाते हुए की "अरे पापड़ समेटे या नहीं?? कपडे फिर गीले हो जाएँगे...सब समेट कर नीचे ले आ"...नीचे तोः मैं ले आती सब समेट कर, मगर उस समेटे हुए सामान में, पहली बारिश की ख़ुशी और माँ की प्यारी सी डांट को न मानने की शरारत छुपी होती थी...

आज माँ से फ़ोन पर बात करुँगी, कहूँगी की माँ मैं जल्दी तुझसे मिलने आउंगी, तोः शायद प्यासी धरती मान जाये और फिर उसी खुश्बू के साथ सबको महका दे....

my birthday present...

There are a few things money can't buy and for every such thing there's love, dedication and hard work! My this year's birthday present was an amalgamation of all these...My sister sketched in a lovely collage of sorts, me in my different states of childhood and youth...a simple white piece of cloth was transformed into a metaphor for the days i spent in my maiden home, with mom, dad, cha n sonia...the time frozen on this piece is a special one for me...



the wrapper doodled by her with a lovely piece of thought...


hand-made accessories again gifted by Sonia...


a sweet greeting card telling me how grilling and torturing it was for her to be in the Que of the shop to buy the card for me n funnily she says in the end that she had to steal it...:)

Thanks sis for the cutest gift ever!

me with my Grandmother-in-law....

Today on the occasion of Gangaur, i tried designing a mehandi on my left hand as the professional designers were busy with overwhelming appointments in their parlour....everyone in the family liked what i decorated my hand with.... i stole the moment of completion of my design to pride myslef on my instinctive creativity inherited by my Grandmom and Mom and the contagious talent droped religuously on me by the presence of my super-creative sis...i just said to myslef - "itana toh mere khoon main hi hain..."..and i stuck my nose up in the air...:)


my right hand flaunted the innocent doodling of my sweet li'l sister-in-law Sakshi...she very fondly wrote "S8" and "SA" for the first alphabets of the members of the family and "SA" for "Sonia and Abhinav"...how thoughtful and cute!

me before the pooja...

Super Saas!!

Hails to my Super-Saas, the Saas of all Saasus, who in spite of being bed-ridden, still manages to sway generations with the commandment in her voice..with an oxygen cylinder always beside her bed, no body can dare to loaf around her or else he or she is in for a good rebuke...

i sincerely salute her efforts in keeping a home the way it should be...it's a rare view to see joint families in the society these days and making the people residing in it stick together is even more arduous..But my Daadi-Saas is the glue that has kept the people of the family together..and the sceret behind her energy and alertness is the very strong will that resides in her 24 X 7, to see her people together..she uses her experiences to solve problems, not only of the family but even of the outiders..

in most of the houses these days we see old people vying for attention but her authority is such that she's never alone..people want to be with her, look after her, because everyone, including the kids understand that she's the wizard, the centripetal-force that attracts discipline and togetherness in the family..

i hope this force exists in all the families, joint or nulclear...

पीला मकान

मुझे याद है बचपन में जब नानी के यहाँ हमारी बच्चा पार्टी मामाजी के आम के खेत जाया करती थी, उनकी एक बैलगाडी में बैठ क़र .. तो बड़ा मज़ा आया करता था..मामाजी सारे बच्चो को धूप से बचाने के लिए सफ़ेद कपडे के स्कार्फ बच्चो के सरो पर बाँध दिया करते थे..रूहफ्ज़ा की एक बोतल हम अपने पास रख लेते थे और रास्ते भर अन्ताक्षरी खेलते हुए खेत पहुंचते थे..वहा पहुँचते ही नज़ारा देखने लायक होता था..ढेर सारे आम के पेड़ ही पेड़..दोपहर की उजली धूप, और आम के रंग से ऐसा मालूम होता था की पूरे खेत पर किसीने पीला कलर ढोल दिया हो..ऐसे मैं जब हम किसी आम के पेड़ के नीचे जाकर अपना घर से पैक किया हुआ पाँच खनो वाला खाने का डब्बा खोलते थे तो टीफ़ीन में रखी सब्जी में भी आम की खुशबूं समां जाया करती थी..घर पर आने के बाद ऐसा लगता था मानों सारे बच्चो ने कोई आम की खुशबू का परफ्यूम अपने उपर लगा लिया हो॥


अब समय का चक्र घूमा है..नानी के यहाँ ज़्यादा आना-जाना नही हो पाता...ओंर वैसे भी आज आम के स्वाद में वो रस नही आता जितना नानी के गाँव में हुआ करता था..क्यूंकि उन फलो में नानी का प्यार, मामाजी की देख-रेख और मामी के हाथों की आत्मीयता हुआ करती थी..शायद इसीलिए इतने आम बच्चे आसानी से हजम भी कर लेते थे॥ :)..


बचपन की उसी याद को ताज़ा करने के लिए हमने इस बार अपने घर को पीला कलर दिया..जिससे देख एक बार तोह हमारे घर के पडोस में रहने वाले सिन्धी अंकल भो सोच में पड़ गए..की इस कलर की तारीफ़ की जाए या चुप-चाप हस के अंदर चला जाए..लोग घर का रंग देख अलग-अलग तरह की बातें करते है..लेकिन ये पीला मकान अब कभी भी नानी के उस दुलार की कमी महसूस नही होने देगा..हम सब को..:)