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Kareeb: The amateur love story

While watching one of my favorite show on teevee i.e.’Total Recall’ ‘ on Times Now, I came across images of Booby Deol with long curly hair and it reminded me of my all time favorite love story ‘Kareeb’. I thought I will try to write down why I like that movie so much.

I have mentioned on this blog before that this Vidhu Vinod Chopra creation is lovely little love story between two young adults from a small town and has a special part in my heart.

I think I saw the movie when I was in 8th std on Doordarshan and instantly fell in love with both the characters of Bobby and Neha. The goofy Booby with his amateurish acting skills and Neha with that everlasting smile.

Bobby was new and bit raw at that time. He acted his part so well, a small town boy, from a middle class business family. He is care less, irresponsible and gets his kicks from telling lies. He roam around the town eating hand full of peanuts from his front pocket.

Neha is beautiful girl, with that rare old world charm and her smile is to die for. She is from poor family and lives with her windowed mother.

And I won’t narrate the story here but Bobby makes her fall in love and on weeding day it all goes kaput for the love birds because of a small lie by Bobby.

The movie works for me because the characters are not perfect and very believable. The not so superior acting skills of leading couple adds a charm to the characters they play.
I think same movie with established actor would have failed to impress me.

The movie has lovely mushy moments and a good dose of comical relief. Love, Pain, humor in right amount of mixture.

The remaining cast is superb, from aggressive Saurabh Shukla to
Funny Johney lever. The cinematography is beautiful and every frame is picture perfect.

The music needs a special mention here, Anu Malik has done super job with ‘ha judaai is darta hai dil’ and ‘chori chori’.

I haven’t seen any other movie directed by Mr. Chopra but I think this is his best. I don’t think he will make a better movie than this one.

What is your favorite Bollywood love story and why?

Also…

And you thought I am doomed.

Also I would like to clarify that this is not a book review site but you can see that the challenge has brought me back to my beloved blog. I get random ideas to write new post but if I don’t have computer near me the ideas get lost in between (I don’t really like typing on my phone, you see).

Also the life has been too hectic these days, new job has been consuming all the time and first time ever in my life I am working on few weekends as well, not good I say. Soon I will be completing a year at the new company, may be after that I will be able to fix those things. Wont be able to find first company love again, I guess. :!

Also, you guys don’t visit my blog or you are ashamed to like my fb blog link? If that’s the case then I totally understand.:P because In public even I don’t acknowledge this blog. Anyways taking my chances by putting the link here, just in case if you have been listening to to many bappy da songs!

https://www.facebook.com/allthecrap

Also, for the whole year I forgot to mention that I was in Australia last year for a month long work trip, Its a nice country. Also met an old acquaintance in Melbourne and she really made me feel at home and as a friend. It was heart warming! Couldn’t stop raving about her to our mutual friends when I came back.

Also got to see bit of Australia and it was lovely and met few warm Ozzie people. Let me also mention that every Ozzie guy is at least 6 inch taller and 20 KG heavier than me. Every second guys is east Asian in Melbourne, every third guys is Indian and every taxi driver is a Punjabi. You can always feel at home in that city.

Also they don’t use water jets in Toilet!

iRead : The Krishna Key

This review doesn’t have any spoilers.

I have read Ashwin Sanghi’s Chankya Chant and I liked the book, Ashwin has a neck of mixing Indian mythology/history with the contemporary story, And he is good at that. The story of modern day Chankya really excited me, it was nicely done and it was good to see Indian author attempting something new. So when the next book was up for grabs, I had my eye on the same.

The back cover of his new book says :

“Five thousand years ago, there came to earth a magical being called Krishna, who brought about innumerable miracles for the good of mankind. Humanity despaired of its fate if the Blue God were to die but as reassured that he would return in a fresh avatar when needed in the eventual Dark Age – Kalyug. In modern times, a poor little rich boy grows up believing thst h is that final avatar. Only, he is a serial killer.“

‘The Krishna Key’ is Ashwin’s third book and it revolves around Indian God Krishna and alleged formula/key he has left behind centuries ago and it is supposed to be source of immense power.

The story starts with murder of a scientist who is working on The Krishna key and his friend a history professor Ravi Mohan Saini gets arrested for the murder. Ravi has limited resource and a helpful doctoral student to find out the original killer to prove his innocence. Its a long and cryptic journey to find the killer and the secret of The Krishna Key. The story of God Krishna moves in parallel with the murder mystery, although disconnected.

The story has many characters and each character has his/her on back story. The characters are nicely sketched and has depth. Ashwin has invested in each of these characters.I only have issue with character of Sir Khan, how on the earth he has so much knowledge of histoy and science? Its never explained. The plot is very solid but in middle of the book it goes bit off the track and it never comes back to original pace. It doesn’t arouse the same level of curiosity which you have while reading the first half.

The book has big mixture of history, culture and science. Its pretty evident that Ashwin has put in lot of research in this book but the disclaimer says that its a work of fiction. The problem with such books is you cant trust the fact stated in the book, you have that ‘fiction’ tag in back of your mind. The book try to establish that India was the center of almost everything from rich civilization to origin of maths. The books mention that even India invader Mohm. Gazni was Krishna’s decedent, quite scandalous.

Ashwin loads us with so much of research data that it gets difficult to digest all in one book.I think this book could have been trimmer by some 100 pages, Its page turner till the middle but after that it loses its steam and and for last 50 pages you just want it to end. And the end doesn’t justify the means.

My verdict : 3/5

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

iRead : The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I read a thriller/mystery book after a long time and a ‘real’ one for the first time. ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ is a novel written by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson as first part of Millennium series. The author was dead by the time these books got published and couldn’t see the acclaimed it got.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Plot :

Mikael Blomkvist is financial journalist and is part owner of a Magazine. Mikael life hits a roadblock when he gets sued by one of the biggest industrialist for writing a story without any evidence and gets convicted. Seizing the opportunity another retired industrialist Henrik Vanger pursue him to investigate the case of his missing niece, Harriet. Harriet went missing 40 year ago and case has been closed. Mikael reluctantly takes up the case and start investigating the with pretext of writing a autobiography of Henrik Vanger so he can interview Hanger’s family members. Mid-way through the investigation he is assisted by girl named Lisbeth Salander. Lisbeth Salander is young girl with her own past and is a social misfit. They get along and start unearthing the case step by step. They both connect the missing dots and how.

She

One of the fondest memory of my childhood is when all the cousins used to sit on the floor of our lawn semi circling her and she used to give each one of us a small vessel/glass of different size and shapes filled with green substance and we used to drink the Neem ka Kadha with one hand, as other was busy holding the breath; eyes closed. That was the bad part, the good part used to come after we finish the whole thing, the sugar cubes. We loved fighting for the bigger cubes. Seeing all of us around having fun used to make her day.

She was old traditional Rajasthani lady. She had no teeth as far as I can recollect but she used to tell me proudly that when I was young and toothless she used to chew the food and feed me, She lost all her teeth pretty early. She had more wrinkles than females of her age would have had. She was fair, thin and beautiful.

I lost my Grandma (Dadi, we used to call her Bai) around Ganesh Chaturthi in 2003. She was in bad shape in last months of her life. I think she lost the zeal to live when her partner for so many years left her, My grandpa (used to call him Ba) passed away few year back. My grandpa had memory problem in his last years and hence he used to argue a lot with my Dadi but they were inseparable. My dadi never stayed without him, wherever they stayed, her other son/daughters house or our place. They stayed together.

Shatak

Its a special day as I complete my 100th post on this blog. I wanted to write this down around last year but as luck would have it I am writing towards end of the new year. I had great time writing this blog, At times out of compulsion , at times to kill the time, at times to grab the attention, Mostly to grab the attention I would say.

I would like to thank some of the on and off readers/commenters of this blog.

Mukta : She has been really kind in posting comments on my blog and I think she is the first regular reader I had for my blog. Also she is a no non-sense blogger, Thanks Mukta.

DI : Again she started reading my blog recently. She has been a regular one. I wouldn’t say she writes like me ( It would be an insult) but just like me she can also write a post out of nothing and make it readable ( At this point the difference comes between her and mine writing, My writing remains pathetic ). Thanks DI.

BB : I had a blogspot blog when I started blogging but I never really wrote much there and one day I landed on BB’s blog and since then I am hooked to her blog. I would say more-or-less she has been the inspiration for starting this blog. I think her about me page is the best. Thanks BB.

Pooja : Totally forgot her name, She has been quite frank in giving her feedback which she used to give (Mostly offline). Thanks Poo.

I would also like to thank some people like thesalpit, lilbrain, anjugandhi, priyanka, vikram for reading this blog every time I sent the links.

Thanks again. Should be back with a bang.

This and That

I am was reading ‘Maximum City’ by Suketu mehta and this book is suppose to be THE book about Mumbai but I disagree I think Its pretty biased take on city and boring. I am on page 140 and it still feels like I am reading the forward. I will put down a review if I somehow finish the book, Which I doubt seriously. I wrote this a while back and I couldn’t finish the book. Now I am reading ‘Last Man In The Tower’ and it doesn’t look promising either.

Life has been bit rough lately with some health issues with me (Not Major thing) but who wants to pop those pills? I think it will phase out. Appraisal is in and its so not happening. Hence I decided to move on in life. That’s switching the job and I am already serving the notice period. Let’s see how it goes, wish me luck.

I remember on my first day of joining I was bit nervous, more excited. It took me 2.5 hour to reach the office and 30 minutes to locate it. I sat in the room full of oldies with 4 of us freshers trying to figure out what the presenter with Salman’s accent was trying to convey. Anyhow the long day ended and It took me more than 2 hour to commute back. I resigned the next day. yup, thats true and then I joined my current company. It has been good to me and I had a nice experience but Its the time to move.

Long time No See

Married life is going good and almost completed 10 months, Cant believe that!! So I wanted to plan something around the anniversary, some small 4-5 day trip but you know I am not single anymore and I am not the one who wears pants in the house (I like my 3/4th), So wife has different plans and she is taking me with her for 15 days trip with all my in laws (Almost entire village), They have booked a whole train and they are going for …wait for it…pilgrimage..Yes, Yes you heard it right in my twenties I will be going to different temples to wash away my sins.. :( Are Bhai..Budhape me kya krunga fir? Anyway trip is final unless something changes at the last minute.

iRead : Dork: The Incredible Adventures Of Robin ‘Einstein’ Varghese

After a long time I finished a book. I tried ‘Girls from Libya’ , ‘May I hebb Your Attension pliss’ and ‘Three Men on a boat’ but left all of them mid way. MIHYAP was so bad I couldn’t read more than 10 pages and Greatbong is suppose to be a pro-blogger. Still I switched to another pro-blogger ie Sidin.

Its pity that I discovered Sidin’s blog so late. He has a funny bone and it reflects in his blog, tweets and book. Its his first attempt at writing and he has already decided to write trilogy.

Dork

The book documents the journey of Robin from his placement day till he completes an eventful year in his first company. Its documented in diary format from Robins point of view.

Long time…

I don’t like dead blogs. And also hate the fact that I have one. I almost forgot about the blog till I got a new comment on an old post, and got a notification in my mail box. Its interesting, No matter how many times I say I don’t care about the number of people who read my blog and comment on the post, It always brings a smile on my face when I receive a new comment on the blog.

Its like pretending to give no shit for the cutest gal in the class when everyone around has hots for her? eh? Just because you know you cant get her. But you will still remember the question she asked to you in 1st sem at the bus stop “Bhaisaab, chinchpokli ki bus yaha se jayegi?” Obviously minus the Bhaisaab part. So every time I see a new comment it makes me feel good.

I am not a great blogger or for that matter not even capable of writing 2 coherent sentence without using auto correct. Still I have 685 comments (Not to mention 80% of them selling Viagra) on this blog and thats an achievement for a bull shit talker like me.