Neo Imaginations

               I was a school boy when the milestone movie DDLJ released in the year Oct 1995. Born in a family where theatre release did not mean a word and only TV could feed hunger for movies. But TV was 20 years behind the then present era of 1995 when it came to telecasting movies. So DDLJ was more than impossible against the phony lines I M POSSIBLE. I was one of the earliest SRK fans right from his Circus days. So all I could manage was Rs 35/- audio cassette to be played on my BPL stereo.  Then came a time when slam books became a trend in our school. Being a student of Central School aka KV we used to change schools as frequent as our fathers got posted. So we used to circulate our slam books within the classroom as a memoir. The slam book had questions like nick name, favorite actor, favorite movies, songs, idea of a perfect date and such cheesy questions. Some questions were bouncers and everybody used to write the sam...

       Social media is flooded with film stars, industrialists, politicians and sportsmen posing with a broom encircled by their body guards. A ritual started after Honorable PM started the maverick trend. The site and garbage often well chosen, the Safaiwala given unexpected off the previous day for accumulation of filth to be showcased on the day of campaign. The broom reminds me of Harry Potter. AAP used a smaller domestic broom of average size a year back. As a common man I failed to understand the sense behind this social gesture appearing every hour on my social networking site. Sick of watching celebrities and want to be celebrities types with meticulous update of snapshots to continue the trend further. The PM sir wished more than mere upload of pictures and once in a lifetime broom holding. He meant to instill the importance and inculcate a habit of cleanliness to extend beyond the walls of ones house and to reach vastness of locality, city and country...

            Travelling without ticket is an offence and a social embarrassment too. But meet the superstar of WT world (Without Ticket), Arun Sharma. He is a serial WT traveller. Not that he has a problem buying tickets but he does it for sheer passion. He can be seen very often swinging between Delhi and Jhansi his native place on weekends. The moment he reaches Railway Station his eyes start beaming with enthusiasm to display his talent of ticketless travelling.  He has conquered all big brands  like Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi, Sampark Kranti and so on. To my surprise he has travelled all classes ranging from 2 AC to General Compartment without the least fear of being caught and assaulted publicly. He is impeccably dressed and a complete business class looking guy. His confidence is more dominant than a person holding a confirmed ticket for that matter. On few occasions when he travels on officially issued tickets he feels unea...

          Nothing can be as soothing as a platter of Hot garnished Chicken Biriyani. No matter how sad or broken you are, Chicken Biriyani can rob you off all your sorrows and pains.  For a gourmet like me it is the Ultimate salvation.  The aroma of Basmati rice with aesthetic spices like cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and saffron can help any ordinary soul to attain Nirvana. The length of steamed  Basmati rice and multiple flavours of the spices is the most magical ecstasy that a foodie has ever known. Biriyani is as delicious to see as to savour. It is a lethal combination of colour, aroma, taste and texture. The roasted chicken pieces when artistically placed over Basmati rice and garnished with Mint leaves is a luscious treat in itself. Mint and chopped onions have another secret affair with Biriyani. The squeezed lemon is the right catalyst to challenge your taste buds and draw lines of over eating. The sneeky bay leaves with whole cloves ...

Neoimaginations I ran and ran, when tired I walked and walked but kept going ahead. I never stopped. I never reposed. A meanwhile halt would have corrupted the tempo. Moving was a trend and trend is life. But then I turned my head sideways. Sideways to share my joy of moving ahead, sideways to see my people my folk with whom I started. But I was alone. I was running in solitude. No one to cheer, no one to smile in cohesion. Suddenly the joy of tempo punctured like an inflated tire. The destination no longer lingered on my mind. The hollowness sustained, persisted. Now I was running but halfheartedly. Suddenly the lights, the glitters on my way were flickering and then diminishing. Deep in my heart I knew I was walking in dark. The lights so far were all my illusion, I was in a hallucination. The realization of truth was coming now. Sometimes we see things better in dark. Light always don’t help us. Darkness sometimes does. So now I know; I can either run ahead in...

Chasing happiness is like chasing your own damn shadow. The faster you run to chase it, the farther it runs away from you. The whole world is raking upon the word happiness. Happiness is sold in different forms of dreams. It is a million dollar project of minting money and creating vicarious illusions. Somewhere we all are running behind acquiring happiness. But happiness is like ' Tomorrow'. It never comes. You know it exists but it is always ahead of your reach. It always updates before you get updated.                       May be we all are under the wrong impression of the word happiness. May be we all are illusioned by the very meaning of the word ' Happiness'. May be our calculations to true happiness have been intelligently and implicitly deceived as something materialistic. Not that we have not heard enough about happiness as a state of mind but when it comes to practice we always associate it with physical ...

       It was just break of the day, a dawn i mean. The sun had not shown full on the horizon. Just a sneak and peek look. A woman comes in a jiffy to pluck yellow flowers from  a bush that only had those two blossoms for the day. She stole its magic and left secretly. Another woman entered the scene in a hurry but with confusion. She felt guilty of being two minutes late and walked away with a hanging face. Minutes later an old man just after his morning bath came up to the bush but only plucked some leaves in absence of flowers.  This is the drama I enjoy every morning from my balcony. The devotees struggling to please God every morning. But more than the ritual of their actual prayers, I think the God enjoys the flower drill more.The bush also supports the drama by never giving more than four to five flowers a day to end the struggle of innocent worshipers. When these people come out for post dinner walk on the street they secretly scan the bud...

The onset of winters make weather and overhead tank water a natural freezer. This is when India becomes a land of water savers. A season when water is treated either like the auspicious Gangajal or like the dangerous concentrated sulphuric acid.   I have my own experience with a colleague. Those were our bachelor days and we were staying together to share bundles of joy, sorrows and many more on the list. James was his name. A real hardworking guy and gem of a person. James loved winters for many reasons. Through out the year he would curse Delhi but  in winters he would say ' Delhi rocks man !'  As the average temperature touched 20 degree Celsius he would ask me to join for his traditional winter shopping.  A black inner and a jacket was all that he needed to smile in the winters. He never thought of buying two black inners.  "Just one will do" , he would say when I used to insist him for buying another one. This one black inner vest would stick...

For a nation that breathes Cricket, talking anything against would be considered sacrilegious. But it is not about having hard feelings for this game or the Dhoni s XI. It is about respecting other games too. It is about providing basic infrastructure and training for the aspirants of other games too. We have been pampering Cricket as the only sport known to mankind. But it is high time we change our outlook towards other sports and sportsperson alike. There is a village called Dhupguri in West Begal. This place has a women football team " Dooars XI " and the club is run by Bhabani Munda, their coach. A stereotype village where women are considered only apt to get married these village girls have faced objection and disapproval from both family and villagers. Poverty is another challenge to fight and pursue their passion for the game of Football. In the absence of funds and sponsors these girls sell tea and rotis to realize their dream. They do not even have basic...

With Lok Sabha Polls just around the corner, Major Political Parties are leaving no stone unturned to give people a mouthful laugh before they again take them for a five year ride. First came the Youngress Advertisement with Flyover kaha gaya and Metro Kaha gaya hullabaloo. Then came another trump card about rural housing plan and Employment Scheme Advertisement, where people were singing in symphony for the prosperity of food,shelter and modernization in Youngress Raj. Youngress glorified their past so emphatically that even Kalmadi was taken aback. People were happy for Youngress atleast gave a final respite through these funny videos running randomly between Behenji serials and Cricket matches alike. Considerable amount of rocket science was applied to make these ads win people s heart. But all they won was people s laughter and anger. These Ads again reminded the poor Janta what they have been denied all these years.                 ...

This book is unbelievably awesome. A breach of dogmatic political fiction is what makes it a book to hold for. A book that will make you  walk the classrooms and campus of Harvard University and at the same time leap frog to 7 Race Course Road ( 7 RCR) New Delhi. From Prime Ministerial Office to the piano sessions of Mozart and Tansen, this book is an eccentric insight into the life of a man who swaps between himself and being PM of the largest democracy. When facts meet the unbelievable the cross-road is called "Prisoner Jailor Prime Minister".  Author Tabrik C has written a wonderful book and timed its release when the country is breathing politics right from the bed tea to the last fag at night. The conflicts and threats that the protagonist Siddhartha Tagore as a Prime Minister   has to handle is in tandem with the present scenario. The book is an insight into Indian Politics, Diplomacy, Challenges and the tough decisions to be taken to run the wheel of power...

Nothing fascinates me more than traveling. Making journeys is all that keeps me going. If i don't travel i start complaining. The Shamans knew the magic of making journeys all through their life.The pleasure they derived out of it was so eccentric that even people with very opulent lifestyle chose to mimic that art of being secretly nomads in disguise to have sips of the euphoric pleasure Shamans derived. Whenever I am under stress or clueless about life, I take it as an excuse to pack bags and travel to places i have only heard about. And on those boulevard of unknown streets I find the most apt answers of my life. I get the clarity of virtual vision. I think when you stick to a place for too long the problems of the place becomes a problem with in yourself. Travelling solves a lot of issues pertaining to psychological origin. It is meditative for me and for many on the sphere. But this approach to travelling only suits me and a very few like minded friends of mine. I ca...

                   It is always relaxing to watch the sunset. Had one such evening at Fateh Sagar Lake in Udaipur . This is one such place where you can spend the whole day with friends and family. There is an adjacent restaurant on the other side of the lake called Curry leaf  where you can have sumptuous food to satisfy your taste buds .

Just Married, Please Excuse, being a best seller, Yashodhara Lal has done good justice to her second book "Sorting Out Sid" too. The book is an insight into the life of a 30 plus guy Sid and his breaking marriage.  It is a modern day story and most of the readers would instantly connect with it. The story revolves around Sid and Neha. But it is Sid s lonesome Beer sessions on his favorite bean Bag "Brownie" that takes you through the best reading experiences of life. It is insightful, intellectual, emotional and humorous all at the same time. While reading this novel I used to look forward to Sid s beer evenings more than Sid himself. That is the charm of the book. The book depicts the journey of a married man to being happily single again.  Highlights: 1. The sense of humour that Sid's character imbibes is depicted to the depth of his thought level. 2. The monologues of Sid with his Brownie the bean bag purely hilarious and smart writing...

Parking his bike under the shade he walked the remaining steps murmuring in frustration.  It was early morning of  first day of the week at office. So i was wondering  the reason for his early morning frustration. With due concern i asked him, " Ambuja Sir ! you look little disurbed." "These Tyre companies are simply looting us. Yesterday i bought a new tyre for my bike because the previous one did not last long." replied Ambuja Sir. Why?  How much did it last ? I inquired curiously. "Just 10 years old and it lost all the grip." ( Bus dus saal mein hi pura ghis gaya )   replied Ambuja Sir . Unable to control my laughter i left the place instantly and laughed my guts out inside the washroom. One decade of  rigorous use and he expected his tyre to serve him even more. That was Ambuja sir for you. He is the man who never laughed. Being serious and stressed out was his innate art. He perspired more than his daily intake of water...

I am a born lottery winner. As if the whole world is suddenly conspiring to make me the richest breathing man on earth. Everyday the delight of finding e mails conveying my million million dollar lottery wins has crossed all limits of euphoria. Why I am still working in the first place ? Never bought a single lottery ticket in my life and here I am flooded with solicitation requests to claim my winning amounts in dollars. I am randomly the luckiest  soul on earth . Every lottery Kingpin has a moral obligation to make me one of their winners. There is a stiff competition in the international market to shower dollars on me. I wonder if my bank would ever have the space to accommodate my dollar goodies.  But i am a lazy soul so I don't furnish my details and skip the mails. But my lottery patrons never get annoyed or demoralized. They either send me reminder mails to claim the prize money or proliferate even more lotteries on my name. The motive is to make me rich and ...

  Utopia ( Meaning- an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect. ) Often we pass the best days of our lives craving for something called Utopia. For us the perfect world never exist, We are always in short of small and big things. We are always in short of time, occasion, opportunities, money, love and all that we can afford not to have. And over the time the addiction for this hope goes so insane that we feel at peace with this feeling of longingness for something we don't have. We love to imagine ourselves in short of n number of things, until "One day''.                                       Until one day something goes wrong with the things we already had. Until the equilibrium we were living with gets disturbed, until we lose something we always had but never valued. That is when we pray almighty for normalcy. Normalcy with which we were living t...

Nights have always fascinated me more than days. Days restrict my ambit of thought and nights makes every ambit a very thought. There is no harm in being little nocturnal. A repose on your bed can actually transport you to different times and situations. Nights are introspective treats, giving you a chance to know yourself a little better, a little more. I don't have a count of the nights I have spent talking on phone sitting on the porch. All I remember is the various phases of the night that ultimately transforms into a dawn. From howling of dogs to chirping of birds in the dark mornings, I have seen it all. For me Nights are like drugs..... Sleepless Night

Movies are an integral part of our lives and society. Movies are all around in our life. Right from festivals to love at first sight, marriages to agonies, we always have a movie or a song to associate with. My first infatuation in school life is book marked with Hum Apke Hain Kaun Songs. Even today when I happen to listen to those melodies I instantly laugh out at those times of stupidity. As a school boy I only admired movies with high star cast and action pack scenes. But as i grew up I started developing fondness for Offbeat Cinema. My first ever encounter with Offbeat Cinema was Masoom (1983) by Shekar Kapur. And to this date I have not seen a movie of that stature. That was my first affair with off beat Cinema and to be honest it was a very serious one. In the past one decade that followed I have made at least 100 more like me. And the good news is that the community of offbeat cinema makers and viewers both are on a spinning high like never before. We have some very tal...