No second chance at life……

Disclaimer: To start with let me make this clear, this is not where you will be able to download the movie for free, not even songs, still interested you can read on.

When title of the movie says “Zindagi Na Melegi Doobara….” which means “You won’t get second chance at life….” one expects movie to be motivational, talk about living life to the fullest, and getting over your fears, all good! It checks out on all points! So here is what I learned from this movie…some I correlated with my experiences.

1.         Do not buy a present for your fiancé on first day of the trip, especially if it can be seen by others labelling you or your friend gay, when you are not so, plus it might get damaged.

2.         If you want to sleep under open sky and watch stars, make sure it is not going to be cloudy (mildly disappointing), rain (disappointing), snow (little health concern) or hail (fatal) that night.

3.          Sleeping under the sky is enjoyable, but at end of it don’t be surprised if you have red stars on your body as many as the sky, from the ants you did not see and mosquitos that dint make noise.

4.           Don’t say things in jest, one of your fiend might do that for you. Like throw away someone’s handset.

5.         Always try things / thoughts out, even if you want to get in bath with that stranger whom you were just introduced to, do knock, it might just happen.

6.          Use good handset, no pink/orange or some other flashy colour like pink (I on't like pink colored gadgets) if you want to look professional (Don’t want to be laughed upon by your interest).

7.           Tomato ketchup must have been made, Tomatina festival way, hoping to create tomato wine, instead got tomato ketchup.

 

8.             Don’t say yes when you do not really mean it, you might end up running in front of charging bulls.

9.           It says “You don’t get second chance at life” still you can throw, drown, or crush your life, as long as you enjoy it.

10.           When you try to change someone, you might end up losing that someone, this is not always true.

.

11.       To enjoy life, last but most important, you need friends that will follow you into your death defying adventures.

There are more interesting take homes from this movie, but @vikaspgoel beat me to watch this movie and also blog about it, here is his blog page: http://vgoel.blogspot.com/2011/07/zindagi-na-milegi-dobara.html

Why you flew to the moon?

Why you flew to the moon?

leaving me all alone

I can’t decide

at these cross roads of life

on these crowded streets

no hand to hold on to

Why you flew to the moon?

not taking me along

I have tears in my eyes

no one there to wipe them out

on these rainy nights

I can’t see you among stars

Why you flew to the moon?

snapping my dreams

in a flash of light

darkness wins

my heart succumbs to fears

forgotten in your arms

Why you flew to the moon?

with cradle at my arm

I can’t fend for myself

who is there?

to protect me

when shadows lurk in dark

Why you flew to the moon?

death could have waited

a bit longer

you dint fight

was I not reason enough?

to live on

Why you flew to the moon?

the child is

still unnamed

who will hold it’s finger?

What shall I tell?

What star shall I point to?

Why you flew to the moon?

I have questions

you left unanswered

what was the hurry?

God!

We had no enemies!

Why you flew to the moon?

We were to

grow old together

I used to love that sound

why did it stop beating?

my ear on your heart

Why you flew to the moon?

What did go wrong?

You were to come back

at end of day

like every other day

by sunset

Why you flew to the moon?

Why is there no sunrise again?

where is my fairy-tale?

Where is my

"And they

lived happily ever after?"

Why an abrupt end?

Why you flew to the moon?

I used to hear your

foot steps

now all I hear

are memories

replaying themselves

Why you flew to the moon?

An inkling!

It started as an inkling

not even a feeling

caught me in the moment

I lost control

I lost my heart

or

was it meant to be

or

just a flitting

flutter off beat

It started as an inkling

not really a feeling

at the corner of my eye

hesitation

for a feeble second

I couldn’t say bye

It started as an inkling

certainly

not a feeling

it grew

had to turn back

retrace my steps

to you

couldn't ignore

not then

itched in memory

it started as an inkling

grew into a feeling

step by step

moment by moment

weakness of heart

or

strength of string

between rings

a lot like love

nothing more than friends

she said

and never said no

a kiss

that sealed

was not a deal

was not a flitting moment

was not a light need

no desperation

it started as an inkling

grew into a feeling

infatuation

attraction

want

&

then

need

it started as an inkling

grew into a feeling

love finally

but

just not another love story

Eloped!

The boy loves girl, girl loves boy, parents disagree, so they elope and live happily ever after! And while they elope, the couples have no tension whatsoever! Here are some points that get dropped from the real to reel scripts.

It takes courage to elope, and once you do you can not go back, this goes double for girls in India.

Some parents may even consider killing the couple up, to save the “Honour” of the family, in process becoming murderers, and how that is honourable is a big question for me.

However, once you have decided to elope, thinking it would be fun to do so, there are few points you should keep in mind, else you will be left very dissatisfied with the adventure.

Check your age.

There is no use in eloping, even if one of you is underage, for you won’t be able to marry anyway, till you attend the maturity age, which is 18 for Girls and 21 for boys.

Be familiar with law.

The better you know register marriage law, better are your chances of planning your steps, there are different laws for different types of marriages, inter-caste, inter-religion, and even for different religions (where bride and groom are of same religion).

This might help: http://lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/reports/report211.pdf

Plan your exit from the city.

Where do you think it would be safe for you to go, how much time will you have on your hand before complain is filled with police, and how are you going to travel.

Don’t use your current vehicle.

If using a bike/car as a gate away vehicle, you will be easily traced and caught by your number plate, same goes for your best friends vehicle. Easy way out, selloff your current bike, that will lead police on a wild goose chase, while you buy a second hand bike, with all papers, owners signature et all, but don’t transfer it on your name immediately.

Use cash, and have cash.

Don’t even think of using plastic money, use cash and only cash, even though you are using cash, police will still know how much cash you are carrying, if you have only one source. So its better to pool your resources, let your friends use your credit card and debit card while you take cash from them. A large debit from your own account can arouse suspicion, so manage using alternate means. Also if your friends go off to some place and use your card, it will lead police to that place, which can serve as a warning to you.

Drop your smart phones, drop your old sim cards.

Get new numbers, not on your own name for both and new phones, no frill phones. Stay off the social networking sites, do not even login into your email accounts, drop of the radar, the modern underground.

Don’t stay anywhere more than 24 hours.

You can stay with your friends from other cities, or people you know, but not for long, don’t let people other than your friends get to know more about you.

Don’t leave a trail.

After, changing vehicle, handsets, not logging in, not showing your face to many people, still word of mouth trail can be caught by tracers. Don’t tell your host, where will you be heading next. The easiest way of doing this is not knowing where you will be going next, yourself.

Witness to testify for the knot.

Witness, of marriageable age should be ready to sign on the registration, and you have to consider their safety too.

First & Last but not the least, be sure you both want to elope.

There should not be a change of mind, of any of the two, and marriage should be the aim for both, for in case anyone backs out the other is left high and dry to be hanged. Girl will have no place to go, while boy will be in jail for abducting a girl and trying to force her to marry her, along with witness, plus a caution for witnesses, if the girl breaks up her marriage with the boy by saying she was forced too, even after some months, the law will put you in jail too as co-conspirators. So it is important that witness also be sure that pair are perfect for each other.

Have a plan.

Have a plan, or a source of income in the new adopted home city, to start a family, be ready for a worse case scenario, that is, you may never be able to go back.

And last point for the witness, pray they live happily ever after.

PS: The author is co-conspirator of 2 eloped marriages, and had planed his own, but fortunately didn’t had to elope, and now every morning prays the other 2 couple live happily ever after.

Running Circles!

7" Commercial Polar White Dripping Falling LED Icicle Christmas Light Bulb

Running circles.....

Running in circles

all my life

never realized

my dream

was not 

there in the field

it was with you

I have been

running circles

around my life

around you

around me

I never stopped

I never realized

Where was?

my heart

What was? 

I searching

coming back 

to you

and moving on

again

& 

again

never realized

the pain

you felt

the pain

I felt

running circles 

all my life

day after day

night after night

Was I ?

living or dead

blinded by

the glitter of fame

In this palace

of material dreams

I have everything

everyone

still lonely

I am

without you

running circles

running in circles 

all my life

turning again

& 

again

hoping

this to be 

the last one

Oh! 

please!

may this be a spiral!

bringing us

together

for forever!

Running Circles! 

Night life: Mumbai!

When you start your day, most people do not expect anything different from what they have been doing for years, months or at least days, such is routine. Why change things up, when everything is working fine and you are happy to live the way you do? Unless, the change is definitely going to be for the better, like a pay rise, a promotion etc, one may never hug a situation that brings about change. Be it professional life, moving to a new city, changing jobs, or getting married, history can easily prove me right. 

And now I am part of such change, for last few months, got married, changed jobs, moved to new city and now I am looking for a new place that I can call home. Home is where Heart is, and there should be at least 1 loved one be it a friend then, to meet after days work and cool your head, get rid off that stress, may be by a can of beer, a stroll on near by street, or a good movie. Each one, his/her own thing.

Living with one of my best friend, and watching Mumbai's night life on weekends has become high light of my stay here. Juhu PVR is my chill out place now and Novotel, even later in night. Till I came here, I had seen celebrities perform on screen or on stage, but never as normal people walking, having fun time with friends and watching a movie.

So till now the list of people I have seen are:

Anushka Sharma     Band Baaja Baaraat (New Comedy Hindi Film / Bollywood Movie / Indian Cinema DVD)

Bani

Tushar Kapoor (I did not identify him, for he looked too fare, compared to his screen image.)

Arunoday Singh

Sameer (1 from Big Boss)

Various TV stars and few models too.

This apart, I overheard a conversation between 2 models, and....

Model1: (Unable to balance on pencil hills, while getting on escalator flicks her hair on gaining balance.) 

Model2: "Oh! WoW! Where did u get those hair extensions from? They are looking good!"

Model1: "X place" 

Yes! She shared her secret. But point is, she took that as a compliment and the other model was actually complementing her, and my 1st thought was, "This might get bitchy!" but it did not. 

I guess, different circles in society do react differently to certain questions.

P.S.: No, I did not click any pics, or get autographs, but few smiles and my friend got stunned by flawless skin of Anushka.

Band Baaja Baraat (2 Disc Set) Bollywood DVD With English Subtitles

Mumbai!

Mumbai Fables

Life can take you anywhere, and most times it tends to change course, when it is least expected. And past one month have had similar kind of experience, changing base to Mumbai. However, once something changes in your life, you should be ready to see some beliefs turn into myths, and get dispelled. 

Bombay is the financial capital of India, everyone here talks about money, get into a local and you will find people discussing monetary transactions. And thats a fact, people here would know everything about money. However; on first day, I missed 2 locals trains, for the shear number of people getting in and out of them in mere seconds overwhelmed me, at peak hours. So I chose to take taxi.

I get into a Sardarji's taxi, after all they are said to be most honest, he takes me to my destination ( Dadar to Worli ) and charges INR 130, I complete my work, take another taxi to get back to Dadar and this time it is not a Sardarji, and he charges me INR 90, same route. Next day I drop the idea of using local train and end up on taxi again. This time it is another Sardarji, much older one though, we use same route and he charges INR 60. I cant make this stuff up! I was totally taken, for a ride, that is.

From next day I was able to catch those locals trains, without fail.

Next day I went sight seeing, BSE, Fort, RBI buildings, Fountain and all. After all I am a Finance guy, and then I visit a friend in Andheri, take an auto to his place, on way to airport, fare is normal, INR 10, so I take out a 10 Rupee coin and give it to him, and this is what I get a reply as:

"Sahab, ye rang berangi sikke yahan nahi chalte, ye India hai Amrica ya Europe nahi!" 

"Sir, this is India, such colorful coins are not legal tender here, this is not Europe or USA!" 

I have no other option, but to get my hundred rupee note changed! So Mumbai has not warmed up to new 10  Rupee coin as yet. And I had just admired RBI building!

I was looking for a place to live and I get many offers, some as low as 2,500 Rupees a month but what puts them under not affordable category, was the deposit they asked, anywhere between INR 1 Lakh to 3 Lakh! 

And then it was time to start working and hence a schedule began for me, I started taking same local, same times, and started seeing same people, most times. And soon realized how we Indians start trusting people, only because we see them again and again, and are so intrusive! One week and fellow commuters started asking me name, where I work, who is there in my family, and before that telling me things about themselves.

And some how, having me in there, with them made them nostalgic, like for how many years they have been commuting between these stations and how long they have known each other and how was there 1st job, 1st day. Man! I never felt so young, since being a baby! And this one is not even my 1st job! 

And then it struck me, seating at CST looking at a police Labrador retriever, keeping a silent watch, as if he is not surrounded by hordes of people; these must have been the guys who had witnessed Kasab, who must have lost someone or must have experienced, or must have seen a bomb go off on one off these local train. And still none of them, seemed to be afraid, remembering all the happy times, talking about 20-25 years since they have been catching the same local, not a mention of any sad history, just happy moments. So there really is a Spirit of Mumbai!

I had no idea Mumbai was so hot, literally, no I am not speaking of glamor, well I would say, I got to see more mini-skirts in Pune than in Mumbai, but amount of money I spend on buying liquids to drink-lassi, chass, cold drinks, sugar cane juice! And what not; easily amounted to 3 or 4 times the amount I spent in travelling! Humid, it was always, but hot! 

Then it happened to be the week of world cup, company allowing commentary on AIR, on floor, and we were upto minute of what was happening in the match, dint miss a ball, till we were working. also walking from station to work, I started seeing aliens, more an more of them, most Australians, speaking of being optimistic, bad case, is it not! Well, they atleast got to suck in Indian culture, local trains were a huge attraction, and so was old British buildings, and  Taxi rides! Well they were taking pictures with Taxi.

All in all, I had a good time.

Megacity Diaries: Mumbai
Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries) (Aamir Khan Productions - New Hindi Film / Bollywood Movie / Indian Cinema DVD)