Wake up.......

“I love you too, Aish!”

“I love you, Sid!”

It’s heavily raining in Mumbai since the last 2-3 days. These rains reminded me the climax of the movie ‘Wake up Sid’. Fortunately, my cable operators also made me happy by showcasing the movie some days ago.

I don’t know why the movie is so special to me. Maybe, the fact that it was the first movie I watched with my best friends, shelling out Rs. 280 for the ticket. Or maybe, because the story-line, the characters, just struck the cord of my heart.

Sid! The lazy, ignorant and rich guy, with a tender heart! The opening shot where he’s preparing for his last exam always manages to make me grin. His frantic efforts to keep himself awake through the night all goes in vain as our Sid sleeps in his childish shorts and even childish socks! Eventually, he fails! The way he bargains with his father, CEO of ‘Flower Showers’, to spend a month in his office for a Lamborghini, is hilarious. He lands up in office in T-shirt and jeans and sleeps through his work hours. Confined to a chair with a group of people who are not ‘him’, he runs away later escaping the bathroom furnishers! But later, his destiny makes him leave his mansion to join Aisha in her one room sea-facing apartment.

Aisha! The talented, ambitious and determined girl, with big dreams! She comes to Mumbai (I corrected myself, RT) in search of a job, a home and even more important, Independence. Her goals are clear. Writer. Her interview for her dream job also turns out to be from her dream man. The way she manages to blurt out to him about his ‘hotness’ always makes me chuckle. Her love for independence and simplicity is undaunted.

Sid moves in with Aisha, celebrates her birthday with bread and jam with a match-stick in place of a candle. Sid turns her clean swanky room into a messy place, but experiences euphoria when he finds his egg under edible standards. His credit cards are cut, but his foe saves him by paying for his bill. His foe’s character represents one thing that money and influence can get someone to a high, but only hard work can get you to the top. Slowly and steadily the sleepy Sid understands his responsibilities; need to do something in life. He discovers his passion for photography. He joins Aisha in her firm as an intern.

Sid starts to grow. Or rather Sid re-invents himself. Sid starts working, experiencing the little aspects and moreover, living life newly! Unknowingly it’s Aisha who makes him realize all this. And Aisha starts to find her joy in the little childish things with Sid. Sid was exactly the opposite of her Mr. Right, but still he manages to reach her heart by unknowingly doing everything that makes her smile.

Sid gets his pay-check. The highlight of the movie is the scene with his father. The manner in which he convinces his father that he has found something to do in his life satiates you emotionally. And Sid returns home for both Sid and Aisha to realize that they are in love. Sid looks handsome in Aisha’s kurta. Sid posts Aisha’s photograph as his work and Aisha writes about Sid in her article. And like every Bollywood movie, they meet at Marine Drives, totally wet and confess their love.

Like I said, I don’t have a particular reason to love this movie. But I love Sid and even more I love Aisha. I feel every one of us have a little bit of Sid and Aisha within us. We all have our dreams like Aisha and we all go through a transition to make our lives like Sid. All of us fall in love. And when I say love, I don’t only mean the special him or her (or both nowadays). I mean every little thing, every little aspect in your life now; our parents, our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues, everyone. All of us learn to love our lives irrespective of whatever it has, whoever it has and wherever it is going! Wake up to that….

Independence........

At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will rise to life and freedom……

15/08/2011. Today’s the sixty fifth independence day. I am sure everyone must have woken up with patriotic songs being played in their respective building terraces. Most of us must have witnessed the Indian flag being unfurled at every colony. But has India really achieved Independence? Does every citizen of this grossly populated country experience freedom?

Early last week, the Mumbai-Pune expressway was closed for a few days. But how many of us know the reason behind this? Police firing in the Maval region, located between Mumbai and Pune, resulted in the death of three protesters. Reason of protest? The government decided that all the water from the Pavana dam would get diverted to the industrial township of
Pimpri-Chinchwad instead of facilitating farming in the nearby villages like Maval. The government gave priority to the industrial development (which I doubt happens!) in the town of Pimpri-Chinchwad, thus, allowing the paddy and sugarcane fields in the nearby villages to turn barren. The government, to meet the extra needs of the urban areas, kicked into the only livelihood of the people in the rural areas nearby. These fields would be without any source of water till next monsoons. The government has not met up with any consolation for the farmers. They are left with no other alternative except selling their land and migrating to some other region. Three deaths. Three grieving families. These didn’t even have the freedom to protest.

Sadly, this aspect is very common with the farmers and other working class people. 95% of farmers in India have lost large parts of their lands to some project in the name of development, without any compensation. These farmers have no choice. Either to suffer and then commit suicide or fight and then get killed in the hands of people who misunderstand their authority!

Is this the Life and Freedom India was going to rise to?

Numerous people sacrificed their lives for Independent India. Numerous people still do. Several soldiers guard the boundaries of our country day and night to safeguard our independence. Many commandos stay on high alert to fight every terrorist activity so that people like you and me can experience freedom.

But think about this. Read the newspapers. Roam through streets. Have we really become INDEPENDENT? Has India reached the pinnacle where all the martyrs dreamt it to reach? Did Mahatma Gandhi march for miles only to see that India now is hoping on an Anna Hazare to break the handcuffs of corruption? Did Sardar Patel bring together an unified India just to see it again being tangled on the grounds of religion and race? Did Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru die to again see the death of every revolutionary who stood for his rights? Did Jhansi ki Rani Laxmibai exhibit unseen bravery only to see that even now, girls aren’t safe in her country?

There are numerous questions. What has so drastically changed in the last sixty five years of independence?

Still I would not belittle India. I am proud to be an Indian. Because this is my identity.

Our independence, our freedom is in our hands. Safeguard it well.

Feelings.......

Just a while ago, a friend of mine coaxed me to restart my blog. Writing has always been my passion, my ambition. So this is my effort, my bit in personifying all the sentiments I have for writing.

For several minutes, I wondered how and what topic to start, and many more WH-questions. It is rightly said “It’s the first step in any direction that matters!” In the end, I settled with the last incident that brought me, again, the feeling to “WRITE” and the source that further convinced me to restart my blog.

Yesterday I happened to go through my friend’s sister’s blog. Her writing, the feelings she shared through her blog reminded me of my own. Though she stays nautical miles away in the US, currently roaming in Philadelphia (according to my source. Read, my friend), I felt an abstract connect with her. Something which cannot be explained.

I am sure everyone must have had this “abstract” feeling at some point of time in life. God has created all of us diverse and unique from one another. But still, in the path of life, we feel a bond towards many individuals. A bond of ‘oneness’! Look at this. A girl whose only name I knew till yesterday became my inspiration to restart my blog. Who was just a stranger till yesterday; her writings made me know her a little better and feel a bond.

THAT’S LIFE!!! Full of aspects which makes you gasp in wonder and awe!

Life is so full of feelings you make towards people and towards things. After all, everyone feels!!! You share a feeling with every person or thing in your life.

There are some people you like or dislike for no particular reason. There are people who are close to you because they can read your mind aptly and whose frequency of thoughts matches up with yours. There are people who unknowingly made an impact in your life while some knowingly couldn’t produce any effect. There are also people you wish you could hate but couldn’t as also people you wish you could love but couldn’t. There are people who possess the same amount of stupidity/weirdness as yours. There are people who taught you hate when you wanted to love and also people who taught you love when you wanted to hate.

There are also times when a protagonist in a movie or serial convinced you to do something. A character you imagined your life to be modeled like. A song which can change the course of your mood. A book that taught you your life’s biggest lesson. A place which gave you a sentiment which was never arose. A hobby or an interest that provided you new solitude and a sense of independence.

Life is all about this… FEELINGS!!! These feelings mark your own destiny. If you open your eyes to notice it, these can even cause miracles.

Some choose to suppress these while some exaggerate these. Feelings are complicated. Never analyze them. But the best is to let it come and accept it the way it is. Go on with your life. Live your feelings!!!!!