Kite Runner

When was the last time i cried reading a book till recently (I know our generation hardly read any books these days!).........i seriously don't remember!!! but today i know the answer.......its KITE RUNNER written by Khaled Hosseini. One word to discribe it is fantabulous!!! The next obvious question is wat is so spl about the book. My answer would be........... Read it to feel it :) ............jokes apart!! Its a story about friendship, cowardice, betrayal n last but not the least REDEMPTION.


Its a tale of two friends in boyhood aamir n hassan, a rich n a poor. Such things matter little to the boys. However, Amir's father, is concerned about his son. He sees in Amir a child who will not stand up for himself or what is right. Hassan, however, will not back down despite his diminutive size. Amir's father's concerns are proven valid when Amir sees an act of violence on Hassan by local bullies, but does not act. Later, he seeks to relieve the guilt not by seeking forgiveness but by acting deceitfully to get Hassan dismissed from his father's service.
Later russian invasion happens in Afghanistan which makes aamir to leave his hometown to flee to US. More than 20 years later, Amir is a newly-minted author living in California with his wife. He receives a call from an old friend, who urges him to return to Afghanistan. Amir is initially reluctant but eventually agrees. What he learns when he arrives not only shakes the steady foundations of his sense of family but forces him to undertake a risky mission as a way of repaying his debt to Hassan, who never once blamed Amir for turning his back.


I must say Kahled is an amazing story teller. Splendid writing!!! A MUST READ!!!

Every child is special!!!

I know I am writing abt TZP after almost a month of its release............but i am still having the effect of the movie on me!!

No doubt I am die hard fan of aamir n was very curious to see his debut direction!! n he never led my (infact whole world's) expectations down!!

The last time the movie inspired me to sit n write the blog was RDB n no doubt the feeling evaporated in few days before i was about to sit n start writing ;)

wats so spl abt TZP ? the answer is quite simple..........it make u feel understand n conclude tat every child is really special irrespective of it is good/bad at
looks, studies, athletcis, painting , dancing, singing etc.

I guess every one(at least indian) cud connect to it....as he/she had tat kind of childhood or had seen it happening to their siblings or friends.Though not every one cried out seeing the movie i can bet tat an emotional chord did strike wen they saw the movie.

Hats off to Aamir!!!

I must say one thing which my spiderman's fav quote "great responsibility comes along with great power!!" so hoping to see his next venture at next level(of course upwards!!)

Theertha Yatre!!!

After coming out of vicious circle between office n home...atlast i got a much needed break..which was spent in touring north india. The fortnight trip allowed me to explore many places across north india, Must say the trip was fantastic..........It educated me lot of things.
The good points :
*The ganga flowing in Rishikesh n haridwar are much better as gaga reaches kashi/varanasi later
*I was amazed looking at dharmshalas in rishikesh n haridwar as they provide food n living for ppl on return of just doing bhajans in temples
*hats off to british who founded mussourie and made a living over there as it is a fatastic place to visit which is 6000 ft above see level !!!
*regarding taj mahal wat i can say apart from "WAH TAJ!!" every indian shud visit once in life time to this beautiful monument wonder wat n all ppl do in luv?????? tat to the king built it with IMPORTED Marbles?? wow........ very rich king n i also go to know tat his son caged him so tat he wont repeat the mistake of building luxurious monuments for the sake of luv....hmm smart son :)
*the palaces,forts, the jewellery, the antics of jaipur is mindblowing...the pink city is more than just beautiful
*the lotus temple in delhi is an amazing example of engineering...one of the visitor next to me was telling his friend tat...lotus mahal is even better compared to Oprah hall in sydney :) tat was a nice compliment

The bad points:
*Indians are growing above their current levels but NOT all.
* my whole country is not living with atleast 1 meal perday(I too fast at office as am lazy to go n get some food to my desk due to pressure of meeting deadlines at work but for some its a daily routine)
*large chunk of ppl stay in slums(I saw it when i travelled in train from varanasi to delhi)
*Never travel in Indian Railways for long distance!!!
*large chunk of ppl still sleep in railway platforms as well as near temples as tat is their home(got to know after visting holy places like haridwar, rishikesh, varanasi)
*paan of banaras is even famous in south of india but visting banras educated me tat ppl from age 10 to age 100 eat paan and dont even think once before spitting ganga :(
*ppl all over india thrive to take a dip in holy river ganges in kashi , but trust me i even hesitated to touch it wen i saw it

Dilli Chalo..

Though there was hectic work schedule on weekends (after looooooooong time am working on weekdays & weekends!!!) I managed to go out to see a place which I was longing to. Its RAJGHAT....Gandhi samadhi. I remember this place was shown in television on every 2nd of october as well as when foreign dignitaries across the world visited India as this is a must visit venue for them.It was quite emotional to go there......I felt I was connected to that place....The reason is, my grandpa was a great Gandhi follower. He was a teacher and freedom fighter who went couple of times to JAIL during British rule!! Interestingly my granndma use to get extra pension as grandpa fought for freedom and had gone to jail. And whenever I visited my granny's place and saw the copper plate hung on wall which is a recognition given by Gandhi to my grandpa I felt proud about it. So I felt I too am connected to Gandhi :)

The second place I visited is India Gate and Rashtrapathi bhavan. Until I visited the India Gate I never knew the importance of the place!! It is situated on Rajpath. It was orginally called as "All India War Memorial". It was built by Edwin Lutyens to commemorate the Indian soldiers who died in the World War I and the Afghan Wars.The most interesting thing about India gate is, it has the names of the soldiers who died in these wars inscribed on the walls. Amar Jawan Jyoti (The flame of the immortal warrior) is burning under it since 1971, which marks the Unknown Soldier's Tomb.

On the top of the Gate the following line is inscribed:

To the dead of the Indian armies who fell honoured in France and Flanders Mesopotamia and Persia East Africa Gallipoli and elsewhere in the near and the far-east and in sacred memory also of those whose names are recorded and who fell in India or the north-west frontier and during the Third Afgan War

I also walked in the hot scorching sun from India Gate to Rashtrapathi Bhavan which made me feel proud as this is the place where great Indian leaders stood/walked/gave speeches :)

The third interesting place i visited is "Andra bhavan", a hotel near India Gate which is rated as one of the best quality/price hotel in India!! 65 Rs per delicious meal was much better than paying 60 + tax for a masala dosa with chutney (which is really unique!!) @ food court in my workplace :)

There is no caste in blood, but it is ....

Let us accept it that our nation is ruled by caste right from politics to education to govt jobs to temples...The world will definitely think that the India is the nation where at one end we are boosting about modernization and on the other end people thrive to be born in lower caste.Its the 60th year of independent India and I can still sense the country's every nook n corner ruled by caste right from Kerala to Rajasthan.

Look at India's famous temple in Kerala Guruvayur which didn't allow Sonia Gandhi during Rajiv Gandhi's era to enter temple as she is non-Hindu. Recently when one of the union of minister's family visited the temple, it was purified as his wife was non-Hindu. In fact the temple has a board outside saying tat "ENTRY OF NON-HINDU IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED!!!!" My question is, can't Guruvayur god bless non-Hindu's? does he really has problem? I wish I cud communicate with him!!! I still remember my neighbour of upper caste in the past who was not allowing the maid to enter her kitchen just bcoz god's photos n idols are kept there and the maid is lower caste lady!!! I wish I cud communicate with those photos n idols as do they hav a problem? This is one face of the nation.

Lets come to Rajasthan to see other face of nation where Gurjar's are fighting to an extent that military is called to control the situation..Reason is they are put in to OBC quota...but they want to be in ST!!!! Wooow this is Independent India post 60 years. I feel today lower caste ppl are the most powerful ones as the country thinks twice to touch him/her. They are vote bank for politicians. Look at how a regional party in UP sweeped the seat n formed a govt without coaliting with other parties which is filled with lower caste. 2006 witnessed a major activity by students from all the parts of nation for/against fighting for OBC quota seats in education system!!!!

I wonder if Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar were alive ... wat wud hav been their reaction...

Sir Edwin Arnold once quoted "There is no caste in blood"...but it is in my nation's nook n corner

Who is the heroine?

School days will always have lotz of funfilled memories.........tats true with anybody i guess............I was studying in a residential school when i was doing my middle n high schooling. My school had a student exchange program in class IX. So when I was studying in class IX, in the student exchange program few students from Madyapradesh joined us. Among which one guy was there (i forgot his name...so lets me name him as Mr. X) whom actually my batch gals didn't like (one of the reason was he was not good looking). There were actually 2 sections in my batch in which Mr. X was studying in section B and I was in section A. One sunny afternoon i finished my lunch n was going bak to my class along with my friends in section B. Wel, by nature i chat a lot..........so we were into a deep discussion of wild ambitions which finally ended up me declaring, that I will direct a movie one day. So my pals popped up a question as whom will I casting as hero n heroine in my movie..........I gave a thought for a moment n decided something seriously which went on like this.......I knew that Section B had post lunch class was English, so I said the hero of the movie will be the person who enters last after the entry of english ma'am (English ma'am use to give really tough time to students as she use to ask lot of questions in the class..........So purposely guys use to enter late in the class.......Girls being punctual use prepare well n come on time to class). The heroine of my movie will be the person who answer's madam's question first. By the time i finished my statement we reached our respective class rooms. Post lunch in my class, the teacher was on leave. so we were made to sit in the corridor to study(which actually means keep the story book between the text books n study hard u know..... :-)) Once the first class post lunch got over i was abt get up to get into my class..........but suddenly to my horror, all gals from section B came running to hit me.........i didn't know wat to do.............i just ran out of fear........after running 4 rounds of whole class area....they caught me and started punching me...........The reason was........In section B it was a normal class for boys n english ma'am ......boys as usual came late to class...........n on that day the late latif is Mr. X(the most ugly looking guy)!!!....n as usual english madam started her class...after few minutes of teaching she started asking question.........n as usual any of the boys didn't hav answer to questions..........later she started with gals from first bench............first my frd sindhu got up (the shortest in our batch so first bench student) n started giggling.........then second benchers with similar kind of behaviour..then third..then fourth.......then it went on till last bench.........In last bench there was this gal by name Latha(the most studious, quite, don't bother for world kind of attitude gal)....she answered the question. Other gals got nice scolding from ma'am as they were not answering the question n upon that they were giggling............The reason was they really didn't wanted to become heroine of my movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me myself n gurgaon part II

U must b wondering as y hav I kept this blog's name as Me myself n gurgaon part II......wel the answer is simple aaj kal sequel ka zamana chal raha hai :-)
I finally landed in a city where u get masala dosa@ 60 Rupees. Its a new city, new home, new workplace, new ppl.... I am sure one will be unsure of many things in an alien place. A bit scared, a bit confused, a bit hesitant............but i guess adaptation is human nature according to Charles Darwin so life goes on. But one interesting point what i felt was..when i was in bangalore the percentage of non kannadigas in bangalore really irritated me and the major portion of non kannadigas were tamil n telgu ppl. But now in gurgaon listening ppl who speak tamil n telgu i felt "feel at home" factor:-) strange but true. Since I hav started a living here i can find lot more +ves n -ves of the city. The funniest but strange -ve thing is ppl drive cars n even trucks on foot path similar to 2-wheelers in bangalore!!!!

I remember the two line of good old kannada movie chinnarimuttha's song at this point "esthond jana illi yaru nannoru? eshthond mane illil yelli nammane? yelli yelli nammane? :-)"

One of the reason to shift to gurgaon was to explore the beauty of north india. To accomplish the mission i started my journey by visting akshar dham which is near nizamuddin railway station delhi on mathura road. One word to describe it is SPECTACULAR!!!!!! When i was kid my dad use to take me to tourist places like ajanta ellora, madrai rameshwaram etc....n when ever i visted them i had only one question in my mind .....In the history of my country ppl have come up with superb art n architecture which are 100's n 1000's of year old but y is our generation ppl only intersted in buiding concrete forest? visiting akshardham answered my question as our generation ppl do hav architects who can match up to ancient indian architects. The main temple of swami narayan is worth watch....Its marvelous. The architecture is simply superb, the mantaps..... the pillars.... the tomb its a must watch. Also there is a small presentation of indian history right from the age of vedas to current one in which it says "u name the field n the ppl of our country in the past has done it right from democracy to rocket science n plastic surgery " and at the end of the presentation it gave a message asking our generation to carry the rich heritage in every sense to forward with dignity!!!!