Abhay Deol and Ali Zafar

I think both of them are the underdogs who would finish off big.

Abhay Deol to me is one of the best actors among the younger lot. I especially like the way he is comfortable in front of the camera. The ease and smoothness though not evident when he is dancing shows when he acts.

Ali Zafar, kya awaaz hain bhai. Even though I have supported Atif Aslam from the days when he just started and much much before anything big in bollywood happened. Ali Zafar has the voice and talent.

Moi Chacha-Jaan Ban Gaya

Comrades it gives me extreme pleasure to share with you all that I have become chacha-jaan last week :) Bonnie and Bhabhi had a baby boy....hee haw!!

canoeing

 

I finally got my canoeing pictures from the recent Hawaii trip. There is a small story behind these pictures. The people who owned the canoe were also taking pictures of us and were charging $20 for one picture and $40 for the entire CD. Bloody expensive I must say!

So Ron sitting up front was purchasing one picture for his kid and I know you all know what I did next. I offered him $20 on face value and gave him my business card and asked him to get the entire CD. Ron finally mailed me the CD this week. I like my look in this picture :)

Hawaii ho aaye bhai log

Bhai log, so I surprized Ishmeet with a trip to Hawaii for our first anniversary. The place is simply awesome, you got to go there. Overall, an expensive but worth it trip.

I am watching Filmfare Awards as I am making this post. Being a kid we used to love watching these awards and no matter what I say, I still do enjoy watching Filmfare Awards. The award made me remember Sanjeev Kumar for his performance in Aandhi. Interestingly Sanjeev Kumar Aandhi's performance had edged out Amitabh's Deewar peformance for a best actor award.

Delhi Heights

The music of "Delhi Heights" is catching up on me....especially the songs "Kitne Der", "Aaja Nachle" and "Ey Gori". Rabbi Shergill has impressed me though the songs took a while to get in my head.

Another cool thing I noticed that finally there is a romantic song for sikh guys...hehe. I am not talking about the Bhangra ones or the Mika one, in which he answers Rakhi Sawant on why he took her puppy.

I am talking about a song from the album "Ustad and Divas". The song has been sung beautifully by Sunidhi Chauhan and goes like "Moore piyaa ke lambe lambe kes, bhaiyye jiya ko, bhola bhala bhes". I am sure a lot of my friends will like it.

Bay Area Spinning Wheel Festival

I attended the Bay Area Spinning Wheel Festival today. Like the previous one it was an amazing experience as the festival showcased some of the best movies related to sikh issues. I would like to showcase two of them here.

First one: Amu
This film starring Konkona Sensharma and Ankur Khanna (from Yun Hota to Kya Hota) raises a lot of questions which are still unanswered after the 1984 massacre. A must watch, very well directed and truly amazing.

Second one: The Gold Bracelet
Written, Directed and Produced by Kavi Raz is another very well made movie on how the lives of thousands of sikhs changed in the USA post 9/11. I later had a chance to meet Kavi Razji and it was a pleasure talking to him.

denial

I am sure about only one thing right now. That one thing is that I am leading a life of denial. I miss India too much but still do not put in a effort to go back, how weak is that. India is where my heart is, I miss the rickshaw's, the smoke and talking to every damn stranger on the street. I miss sitting with parents and having a cup of tea. I miss talking to my brother and fighting with him. I want to take Ishmeet to powai and show her all the places. I pray to God to help me here.

Lately, a lot of things have been going in my head. I want to do so many things and yet I cannot do anything. All I am doing right now is finishing every damn project that comes my way, be it work or personal life. I want to be a better sikh, I want to be a better Indian, I want to be a better human being, I want to be a better engineer, I want to be a better husband, I want to be a better son, I want to be a better brother, I want to be a better friend. There are so many "I want" in my head. I guess I should stop thinking about myself and look at the bigger picture, sort of like Gandhiji's Talisman which used to be there on the first left hand paper of every NCERT textbook. It read something like this:

"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?
Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."

Alright mates.....lets wake up tomorrow and try to do something good for someone else with no expecations. This word "sewa" as I am writing it, is soothing me so much I cannot express it in words. It feels like I got all my answers.

My absolute favorite hindi movies

DDLJ
DCH
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro
Andaz Apna Apna
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander
Angoor
Chashme Baddoor
Ghayal
Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na
Golmaal

so I watched Guru

Overall 3.5 stars for the movie. It is a good movie but I felt Mani Ratnam had to put 2-3 songs at places where they could have been avoided. Aishwarya like always is out of place and looks better only when she gets old. Abhishek fubext hain and Gulzar should stop challenging Rehman by giving him ultra-strange lyrics. Nonetheless, Rehman is awesome.

Ishmeet and I had randomly decided to go for the movie today since we have something planned for tomorrow night. So we reach the theatre and within the next 5 minutes I see three familiar faces Mulki, Sumo and Anu. There were other junta affiliated to these guys and the crowd today was in a freakoo mood. Overall, mazaa aaya.

Before this, earlier today in the evening I cooked Biryani start to finish in a record time of 1 hour. Anyways, Guru is a good weekend watch, enjoy it.

So I read a book after a long time

Yaar ekdum hi senti kar diya...I will just put my version of the last lines in this wonderful book.

"You know it is strange, I might have passed out of IIT, but in some ways, my soul is still there. Maybe in hostel 2 corridors, TV room, MB, meta department or at chinko's.

Beedi jalai le by IITD guys

Bumped into this video on youtube. Somehow cannot make it to work directly. Enjoy the video...I wish we had camcorders available during our days.

Click here to see the video

Ya Rabba

One of those days when you wake up with a song in your head. Kailash Kher as Topi puts it so nicely has a earthy raw feel in his voice.

Ya Rabba De De koi Jaan bhi Agar..
Dilbar Pe Ho Na Koi Asar...

This song carries the crux of the movie Salaam-E-Ishq. I will give Sameer a pass grade on the lyrics and he has been given an exit seat on the Bus. This has significantly increased his chances of survival.

I am in the process of watching the movie Vivaah. I tried watching the movie yesterday but could only manage half of it. Went to Gurdwara Sahib Fremont last night and got my hands of this interesting book "Essays on Guru Nanak". I will try to write if I read something interesting.

Konkona Sen Sharma

She is the finest actress India will see in a long time to come.

She is fubext!!!

Konkona's Filmography

Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth"

Just finished watching this documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore (the almost President of US). I recommend all my friends to watch this one. Even though we all strongly feel about applying and taking initiatives to reduce global warming. After watching all the graphics and data in the documentary which clearly presented the impact of global warming over the last 30 years, I must say, I was shocked and to some extent terrified.

Please visit this website to learn more the movie and science behind it.
http://www.climatecrisis.net/

Spend some time on the website and probably take a print out of the 10 simple tips (link below) and paste it on your office/school noticeboard.
http://www.climatecrisis.net/pdf/10things.pdf

I came back from Atlanta yesterday. I was with Harpreet for 4 days, it was a very pleasant holiday. We relaxed during the first 1.5 days and played Wii for the next 2.5 days. Its amazing how much fun you can have with these advanced video games. Harpreet and I were at our all time lukha best during the trip. Infact, I even got a taana from Ishmeet that I seem to be so happy with Harpreet..hehe. Will upload some pictures from our trip to a german town called Helen pretty soon.

Music recommendation for you all from the movie Anwar. Awesome music, I am telling you this young music director Mithoon is going to go a long way. For those who do not know him, he gave you "Tere Bin" recently.

shore ka shor

I yearn for the sound of waves striking continuously on the shore. This is one sound that surpasses any other sound with its presence. It even surpasses the sound of you heart and mind and all you can feel, hear and think about is the noise of the sea.

That will be all.

I am begining to like Guru's music

This song "Ay Hairathe" will be loved by a lot and some will just listen to this thinking lyricist is "so funny only naa". But as soon as Alka Yagnik comes into the picture, you will realize that this is a lovely song. I love Hariharan's voice and his voice according to me just keeps getting better. A.R. Rehman led chorus make the song more interesting. Overall it is not an amazing song but listen to it for Alka Yagnik and Hariharan's voice.

Other good songs are tere bina (mazedaar song) and jaage hain, but this is an A.R. Rehman album so the songs which are your personal favorite change with time.

Its about to happen

Michigan Vs. Ohio

This Saturday

Its almost like India versus Pakistan cricket match.

Go Blue!!

Go Wolverines!!!

Gooo Michigan!!!!!!!

I am planning to wear my maize Michigan T-shirt to work on Friday. I know it is difficult to beat OSU because of Pittman but you need a HeART to beat them and we have it.

recommendation

More dead matter recommendations for you all:

Watch this movie "Khosla ka Ghosla" with 3-4 friends/family. Bahut mazaa aayega.

old pictures

I cannot sleep, I am watching Pink Floyd play in my living room. Seems like their music penetrates inside you and flows in your blood. I was just browsing through some old pictures and would like to share a few of them. The one on the left is from our Kurta Day. You have Nishant, Sumit, Amrish, Prateek, Me, Alvi, Soham, Vivek, Manish, Prashant in this picture.

Next one is an even amazing one. This one was taken during our fourth year corrosion lab. We did learn a lot during this lab class but it was more than the just oxidation and reduction. I remember Bhandari and Somani used to take off in the middle of the lab for other more important stuff. Look at Sidharth Bammi cleaning his ear at the back...hahahaha. You can see Harpreet, Parle, Ajay, Me and Sandeep in this picture. In addition you can see Sidharth, Rdot and Raghav Pradeep on the back. This picture perfectly shows what exactly we used to do in this class...

yeh hain meri kahaani

Major senti maarne ka mood kar raha hain but nahi maaronga because each one of you who reads this blog would be like "boss apni life mein koi kum tension, pain ya boriyat nahi hain"..hehe

So Mr and Mrs. Ranade are in town shopping for furniture. Actually I wanted to meet them for lunch but Ishmeet called me at the last moment and since "I am afraid of my wife" I did not go to meet them. Ishmeet padh le quotes wala part. She had a bet with me that I cannot publicly say this. Anyways, I am meeting them for a coffee later in the eveninng.

My current mood is like so dull...I am sitting on my bed with no lights in the room and as I am looking outside through my window, it is so sullen. The old chinese man is standing in the parking lot next to my favorite parking spot and is smoking as usual. He must be on his second packet already. I always think about talking with him about this life and sharing mine with him. But, he always has this local smoky layer of protection surrounding him. This smoke layer is very thick and I never dared to penetrate it or come close to it. Therefore, I changed my parking spot.

Parle has started actively blogging these days and Topi is happy that I am writing too. Between I got my car washed today, she needed it and had been telling me ever so sweetly that she needed to get the facial, manicure and pedicure. So there you go...yeh thi meri kahaani (abhi tak)