Ghajini soundtrack...a masterpiece

Imagine you are listening to a song ... then you just get up and go outside for some work..but your mind can't stop humming the song..During whole time, the song keeps on playing in your head. As soon as you reach back home, you connect to internet and start listening to song again. Thats when you know you are addicted!!! Same thing happened to me when I heard the songs of Ghajini... and nowadays, I'm hooked.

5 songs + 1 instrumental - guzarish, kaise kahoon(song+instru), lattoo, oye bacchu & behka - all 0f them are captivating courtsey A R Rehman. He has dared to experiment and yes, you do need a different music for a movie like Ghajini which promises to be so much unlike the run of the mill bollywood flicks that we have seen over years. Though Ghajini is a remake of a hit malyalam movie(which was also titled Ghajini), I keep on hearing that it is actually based on Christopher Nolan's Memento. I have seen Memento and admittedly, I couldn't understand what was going on in the movie for most part of it but in the end, the director's way of story telling simply blew me away. It is an awesome creative masterpiece. I did felt that Memento's narration was somewhat inspired from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction but frankly, I don't want to take any credit away from Nolan. Having said this, movies like these come once in a couple of years and they are the trendsetters for others to copy..err follow.

Okay...back to Ghajini music now!!! Actually when I heard the album for the very first time, I didn't like it(except Guzarish ofcoz)...I thought that Rehman has experimented once too many and may be this time, couple of songs from album will be chartbusters. But then Rehman's music has always been like that. It keeps on haunting you unless you fall in love with it and I am no exception. His music is like nasha...dheere dheere chadta hai.. and then you can't do without daily dose of it :)

Chanda Mama is all smiles :)

1st Dec 2008

As soon as I came out of office building, I ran into couple of friends. While talking to them, I suddenly realized that something was smiling on us from Heavens. I looked upwards towards the sky..and lo and behold, to my utter surprise, it was moon. Two sparkling stars combined with moon's crescent were putting a dazzling smile on show in the night sky. I kept gazing at it for some time, trying to take a picture in my mind .. for you don't see a smiling moon daily.


Next day, the incident was reported in the newspapers and over internet. Apparently, Heavens had decided to skycast the show across the world. Later on, I came to know that those eyes were actually planets Venus and Jupiter.The brighter one was Venus while the other one was Jupiter. The planets can still be seen in the night sky with naked eye, though that particular smile is not to be seen anymore...it is only to be cherished in memories and photographs.

My 2MP mobile phone camera was not good enough for such occasions...so I found this image over internet...have a look.

BBQ hungry

Sometime back, I went to Barbeque Nation for dinner. I had heard a lot about the place ..especially their grills and fine service...and thankfully, I was not disappointed. The starters were delicious, the food buffet was sumptuous and the desserts were simply from out of this world(especially Gulab Jamun :). Overall, a delightful experience!!!

After this, I was craving for another BBQ dinner and an opportunity came last week when I went to Chhattees for a team dinner. This place is quite close to office and hence we thought we could save some travel time and also, enjoy another BBQ dinner. But hell, the food was ridiculously bad(though Chhattees costs nearly the same as Barbeque Nation). Alas..it is tough to find good restaurants. This restaurant is certainly off my list now as far as BBQ is concerned.

Ganpati Celebrations...

At last, the festive season has started. I feel like I've been waiting since eternity for this. Janamashtmi and Ganesh Chaturthi are already over.. Ramazan is in progress, and then Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali will arrive to lighten up our spirits.

I simply love the way in which all these festivals are celebrated across the length and breadth of country. There is an air of joy around...streets and shops are decorated...there is a stride in everyone's steps and life looks much more colourful (and yesss, it is the "Sale season" in malls too. Great time for shopping indeed!!!)

In India, a number of festivals are region-centric. For example, Baisakhi in Punjab, Bihu in Assam, Chhat Pooja in Bihar and Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtara and AP. There are no grand scale celebrations for Ganesh Chaturthi in the part of country from where I come and frankly speaking, I didn't knew much about this festival. I've seen these celebrations in TV only. But being in Hyderabad nowadays, I can enjoy this festival too.

This year, Ganpati idols were brought to various pandals on Sep 3rd, Ganesh Chaturthi. I could see good number of people thronging the pandals ..particularly at the time of pooja. I was quite surprised to see the number of people who brought Ganpati idols into their premises for the festival. I thought that such large scale celebrations for Ganesh Pooja can happen only in Maharashtra but pleasantly, I was wrong. Infact, I came to know later on that Hyderabad has 2nd largest number of Ganpati idols after Mumbai . Later on, I also came to know that Hyderabad has the tallest Ganpati statue in the country. This statue was 47 feet tall. But unfortunately, I couldn't visit that particular pandal. 'twas in Khairatabad. Nevertheless, I'll get another opportunity next year :)

Lot of poojas happen at pandals during the celebrations. After the celebrations, the idols are immersed in water bodies. Hyderabad has lot of lakes viz Hussainsagar, Osmansagar, Durgam Chervu etc. Immersion starts after 5 days from Ganesh Chaturthi and all idols are immersed by end of 10th day.

There were couple of big Ganpati idols very close to my house. On the D-day, these idols were moved to large trucks so that they can be transported to lake for immersion. As expected, a large crowd moved alongside the deity. People were dancing and playing with gulal. Thats how we bade goodbye to the Ganpati, requesting HIM to come early next year.

Finally, it starts

Welcome All, to my very first blog entry. It is indeed a pleasure to have you here.

This post is titled as "Finally, it starts" and the best thing is that I didn't had to think even once before naming the post like this. As you must have guessed from the name, this blog took a painfully long time coming and I am certainly mighty relieved now that the first step is taken. I have been thinking about unleashing my thoughts on the world for ages now (C'mon, why should only I suffer? :) ), but as they say, just like good food, all good things take time!!!

Hmm... The next question that is staring me: What should I write about? I thought about envionmental issues, stock markets, bollywood movies, sports, restaurants etc etc etc? But considering the fact that I'm not one of those "experts" who come on TV to give their useless point of view, I think that the best option for me will be to make a khichdi of all these topics and write about things that I see, the way I see. This can be my way of contributing to the society. Who knows, the big idea of tomorrow might come from one of these posts (hehe, now you know that I've really very high regards for myself).

Gr8 then. We have a location(this blog) and an idea...So letz get started. I'll soon start posting about anything and everything of my life. So just stay tuned for more. And yes, a hearty thanks for reading all through this.

Cheers


P.S: To all those people, who are being "forced" to read this (just coz I'm standing next to them), you need to post a comment saying "Great Post Mohit"!!! :)