Sunday, December 27, 2009

Future Perfect !

I think I want to be
But I cannot be
Still I desire to be
And I fail to be

Sometimes I could be
Many times I would be
And every time I look at myself
I regret that I should be

Suddenly one fine morning
I feel I have to be
Then I make up my mind
And say I got to be

No matter how you decide
No matter how you behave
You pass through
Discrete phases of life

You tend to be speechless
But you are always bewildered
When you stand in front of
Your ‘would be wife’….

You have a constant fear
Of losing your bachelorhood
While you keep dreaming
What if, what you could....

- aDWAIT

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Rahul Bose's Dream: His Speech at BITS Pilani OASIS 2009 Inauguration



This will touch your heart and if it doesn't then you dont deserve to be an Indian, I daresay. This is the speech by a well known actor Rahul Bose who is the founder of the NGO Foundation which aims to remove all kinds of discrimination is also on the board of Citizens for Justice and Peace, a Global Ambassador for the American India Foundation and a World Youth Ambassador for the World Youth Peace Movement

I have a Dream “That the 26/11 attack on Mumbai will spur civil society to unite and present a force that government will never again ignore.
That in time we will have the maturity to reflect on the mistakes India might have made to incite such hatred.
That our new generation of political leaders will truly look beyond party lines and do what astonishingly few leaders in post-independent India have done – their duty.
That Hemant Karkare’s work on the Malegaon case will not lose momentum or integrity.”

I have a dream “That one day, the next time women are thrashed anywhere in a pub in India, the entire country’s women will march half to Mangalore, stopping the entire city for months, the other half to the Prime Minister’s – stopping the government for months.
That 100 million Indian Children will not go to bed hungry every night. 100 million is two United Kingdoms.
That pregnant women will never again have their wombs slit, their living fetuses torn out and dashed to death while they were set on fire – Gujarat 2002. That there will not be a rape every 23 minutes in this country. Or a dowry death every 33 minutes.”

I have a dream “That small farmers will never again have to apologise to their children and then commit suicide.
That Article 377 making homosexuality a crime will be abolished.
That when a girl goes to her mother and says her uncle or her father has molested her, she will not be asked – Are you sure? And she will not be told – Don’t be silly – you’re imagining things. That Muslims who fled Bombay in 1992, will return to their homes and M F Husain will return to his.”

I have a dream “Of a time when we will cheer a Younis Khan sixer as we cheer a Yuvraj Singh one.
Of a time when no girl child will ever have to walk the 3 KM average to fetch water everyday - instead she will spend that time in a school.
That we will allow people with AIDS to work with us, eat with us, live with us – with dignity. Where God is not a Setu, a pandal blocking the street or the reason for jihad, but is linked with our hopes, our hearts, our homes.”

I have a dream “That one day I will be six inches taller. Have a full head of hair. Look nineteen forever....... And always have the right, witty answer when face to face with a beautiful woman.”

But I also have a dream “That I will never ever be scared to speak the truth.
That one day I will have the means, the time, the heart to gather all the street children in this country, put them on a train and take them to a land where they can heal. Where they can play, laugh, eat, do nothing.
That we realize that – slum dwellers – are not the cockroaches of the world......... They are fathers forced out of their villages through poverty, now struggling to make money pushed and abused by the police.......... They are mothers working as Kaamwalis in three houses a day so that their children can do what they didn’t – go to school......... They are children, who have like all children an equal dose of delight and tears in them, not dirty, lice – ridden creatures shivering in the rain holding today’s papers in a plastic bag.”


I have a dream “Where every Indian plays a sport, any game, for at least an hour a day.
Where no hockey player will ever again have to sell his medals to feed himself.
Where we win twenty Olympic gold medals in London 2012 – [if we do things right, its possible.] Where the Indian Rugby team wins the World Cup – [We are ranked 83 rd now – I will cheer from my wheelchair.”]


I have dream “That one day we will all stop what we’re doing.......... working on laptops, tending to hundreds of patients, sweating it out at cricket practice, running our homeopathy clinic, trying to balance the books at your non-profit organization, begging our child to have buus one more bite, commuting in a local train, closing that complex merger .….....
We will stop everything what we’re doing and suddenly realize, all of us together, at the same, precise moment,.......... that we are all Indians and that there is no one like us on this planet – we are unique.
Because we fight with words all the time, with fists sometimes, we talk loudly on our phones, laugh loudest at our own jokes, we are sexist, smelly, love sweets, swear we will exercise tomorrow and don’t believe in queues.
But that we are also moved by tears by a sad film song, we fight to pay the bill in a restaurant, you cannot leave our home without at least a cup of tea (and thepla and vadai and shingada and matthi ….),
.........we feel guilty when we don’t stand up if someone elderly walks into the room, we don’t shake hands – we hug, we are all first cricket selectors, then bankers, lawyers, bad actors ….,
we stand up and cheer during the climax of Chak De, we all watch terrible soaps on television and swear we don’t and we all love Sachin Tendulkar.

And at that moment,........ that moment when we realize we are all the same, the choice will be ours – to turn to the stranger on our side and say – we are 1.2 Billion. The world is six billion. That’s one Indian for every four non-Indians. Sounds Good - Let’s do it.”

Friday, October 2, 2009

Amish Technology

Adwait Paranjpe

Engineering ethics cannot emphasize enough on colonization and contextualization. By studying various engineering practices, one has to balance his/her life so as to follow Platonic and Aristotelian virtue ethics. Similarly, Amish people believe in following a primary method called ‘Ordnung’ which has peace, love, contentment, equality and unity as its governing aspects. A group of anti-technology rural farmers, who has banned machines, is how Amish people have been portrayed. But according to the Amish president, it is not the individual technology that affects Amish but it is the total chain. Banned use of electricity and automobiles is not meant for just the fear of fire or keeping them un-automated, but it is their careful regulation of technology so as to preserve their culture. The choice of horses as the means of transport, over vehicles, might reduce the speed, but it is of utmost prudence when one thinks of questions like why, how, when and which technologies are to be used. Amish are social constructionists who voluntarily choose the technologies that are different in order to maintain their unique culture. ‘Rumspringa’ (Running about) - a phase of Amish youth to be non-Amish, helps them understand humility, patience and dedication required to be a respected ordnung. Today when the world is connected by internet, Amish have restricted the use of telephone since they believe in accepting technology on their own terms and not as distracting value-laden tools. A society that lives in a group of 30-50 families called district is always cautious while dealing with technology and is likely to prohibit it, due to the fear of disruption of their religion, tradition and families. Amish, whose key industries are ‘Carpentry’ and ‘Farming’, who keep Sunday as their rest day and day for church services; place a celebrated significance on humility, equality, simplicity and community.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Change - my Latest Expedition

"I have to accept what I cannot change" - a pessimist thought one day.

"I will change what I cannot accept" - an optimist's obsolete pompous expression.

"I want some change in life" - an Average Joe said.

"To hell with the change, lets first save myself....." - a worried change-maker behaved.

"Thank GOD.......!" says me........


----aDWAIT

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Invincible........

When you are Invisible you are fearless........

except for one thing.......

you never know when they can be able see you....... again.......

Saturday, September 5, 2009

A Three Point Review

1. I have a habit of watching loads and loads of movies and giving away reviews to everyone. Since last few years what I had noticed that it is difficult to review a bad movie rather than a good one. Usually people know how a good movie goes best at. From its actors, from its directors, from its album, from its marketing, and the likes.
BUT....when there is a bad movie then the enthusiastic audience expects to hear, certainly a review, but in very few precised words and to the point description.

2. Therefore, I am starting a section which will review a movie in 3 points. The highlight of this section is that it will only consist movies with BAD reviews. So it will be like a BAD movie itself. You can easily let go the section, still when you expect certain movies to be good you might get an idea about why the movie is not meant for clever audience.

3. Please ask for questions about this section if you have or consider this as the last point to read and not to think of.

Adwait

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Blogging..............

Once upon a time my friend asked me..........,
"Hey! What the hell are you doing ?"...........
...........and I said, "I am blogging ?"
"What on earth does that mean......?"
"Nothing".......was my prompt reply......
He was irritated and literally dragged me off my notebook screen to see what was I doing.......and I was smiling shrewd to see the change off his facial talents......

He was more irritated to know what I literally meant by blogging.....
I was pouring my thoughts on my computer screen in a notepad.......

"R u out of ur mind......?" He screamed....
"What do you mean? jotting down thoughts in a sequential manner is going out o mind?",........an innocent cold feet......
"No way... but this is not even wat you think......this is just how you think what you would think....."

But this is what you think.......
And now I was amazed......

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Movie Review: Kambakkht Ishq




Movie: Kambakkht Ishq

Director: Dont care about it

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor and so many side-kicks....

Cameo: Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards, Brandon Routh, Boman Irani.

Music: Better don't worry about it


There are two things about movies: 1. If there is actual material in a movie it does not need unnecessary publicity and 2. If a movie lacks substance (I mean story not the cast), then it requires a lot of wasted publicity. You, smart audience, must have understood from the above two points that this movie comes in the 2nd category. There were mixed reviews about the movie so far but it is easier to count the good ones. Movie fails overall. Few months back I happened to see ( my luck ) Chandani Chowk to China and believe me I would have been happy if the movie would have been made in chinese – Mandarin or Cantonese to be precise - ( at least I would knew why I cant understand it ). I realized one thing about Akshay Kumar, he is wasting his talent. And he proved with this one.

The movie starts with HOLLYWOOD. People in India might not know the place well. But when you see the way they have shown the overall Hollywood and thereby the American culture in this movie, I feel 'IGNORANCE IS BLISS'. The director, writer, producer don't even care about the story. I believe they must have discussed it while having a drink or something. It does not matter if you have who's who in the film. What matters is the care for the story. Ask yourself one thing, if there would have been no cameos by the above stated people, there would have been nothing at all to discuss about the movie and trust me the Cameo stars are totally wasted. All of them. Why any blond would overlook Brandon Routh and go to Akshay Kumar? And why on earth would Brandon accept that? Why Sylvester Stallon roams around in LA streets with a hood on his head? Why the hell a Bond Girl (Denise Richards) want to marry and have kids with Akshay? After watching this movie I found it not suitable for watching along with family members even in America. There are multiple screenplay writers for this movie. I believe they used the same language that they must be using to overpower each other while writing the dialogs of the movie.

Anu Malik, (I dare say) the songs composer, has done his job once again. He has not composed but he has given 'COMPOSTED' tunes. Please see the dictionary meaning of 'compost' you will have the exact idea. One would rather be happy being deaf than to hear to his tunes. He thinks he is creating magic but its like a kid performing an old well known magic trick or telling an old cliched joke and people around him are praising him. No need to listen to the lyrics since they are written as an ode to Anu's music and dances are with a lot of wastage on new locations and wardrobes.

Few flaws are MUAF. But few are beyond repair. Kareena forgets her watch in Akshay's stomach while a surgery which is supposed to sound Shaadi Mantras as an hourly reminder and he could listen to those but cannot figure out where they are coming from???? Initially just to make a “FUN PART” and to add a song, the mantras sound every hour but after a while the sound stops until Kareena gets the watch out of his stomach. Forget about USA but nowhere in the world doctors are allowed to have anything on their body while operating. In another created song situation, BEBO mixes a heavy dose of some drug in juice for Akshay to get unconscious so that she could drag him all the way from the hotel to her Operation Table in order to get the watch out of his stomach. But by mistake she drinks that juice and instead of getting unconscious she starts singing & acting like a drunkard??? Another thing, when she finds that there is a watch in Akshay's stomach x-ray she tells this secret only to her doctor friend, when she removes the watch from Akki's stomach there is nobody else except this friend of her in the Operation Theater???? Mind it, Kareena is supposed to play a novice surgeon and all the surgeries are performed under a senior doctor's observation in USA. But if the story demands, actresses are ready to wear bikinis and Actors are ready to expose their butts then why not demand for a senior to ignore serious stomach operations??? or demand not to be present for one????

Akshay, as I always have believed, has a huge potential. He has shown in movies like Hera Pheri, Dhadkan (2000), Ek Rishta: The Bond of Love(2001), Aankhen (2002), Khakee, Aitraaz (2004), Waqt (2005), namaste London (2007) and so many of them. But why is he not reading scripts these days? Kareena again has played a variety of characters right from Chameli (2003), Yuva, Dev (2004), to Aitraaz (2004), Omkara (2006) and the All time hit Jab We Met (2007), then why is she not looking even at the story? Kareena, Akshay, Aftab Shivdasani, Amrita Arora....all of them have worked in movies with the same story, at least twice. Then what were they thinking while signing on the dotted line?

I dont even worry about the other cast including Aftab, Amrita Arora, Vindu Dara Singh and Kirron Kher, Javed Jaffery. Since they dont 'hammmmmm' but they do their jobs very well. People are expected to see good scripts with good actors. But kya kare saala kum pad hi jaata hai. Its like this: You intend to eat a home made Paav Bhaji and you bring every fresh vegetable available in market. You put sincere efforts while cooking and you dont care if the GAS is ON.......and finally you dont worry about the salt but while cooking you dont forget to shout about your soon to be cooked food.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Innocent Criminal

"I was arrested for the crime I did not commit"

Only few people can realize the importance of these words:
  1. A prisoner who is set up.......
  2. A hooker who never was willing to be one......
  3. An unborn embryo who is the result of an extramarital affair or an unprotected intercourse....
  4. A millionaire who was a billionaire before marriage......
  5. a student who comes to US to graduate...........

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Short Story.........

I have been reading short stories since I was short.......
had a short memory........had short concentration...... had a short temper.
Short stories are meant to make you feel you can write one day (the chances are very less that you would write in a day). But the important thing is I actually thought one day I could write too. So I summoned all my thoughts and went on and on and on.....
........all the memories that I could think of...all the mesmerizing dreams that I could remember.......all tensions that I could bear.....all people those I could fear even thinking. Then I realized I was in a mess.......a serious mess of thoughts which were hard to set a story. And I went back to the basics of story writing.....(“you should always stick to the basics”, they say).......and I think I thought of starting with the style of writing first and then the subject.
Since it was my first & I din't want people to make it my last, I decided to try writing something serious........a crime story.......a thriller........a mystery......a love story........difficult choices.......
Crime can never be short.....its like thinking of a bank robbery and writing about a pickpocketing......
Thriller......??? I was thrilled to write a short story....thats the end...........
A mystery........boy it was becoming tougher.......
A love story is a good choice......but I would have to portray characters that aren't real........but believe me every love story does take place......some way or the other.......so taking into consideration a struggling lover i thought of a scene.....but
'A boy proposed a girl......she says NO
and he lived happily ever after'
was the shortest I had received in an email.......so love stories are done.
Whats left???? a comedy may be......and I thought 'YES! this is it'. I can write humor. How funny am I. So think of an incident......tough......took time but......recollected
then think of characters that are close to real characters.........done
then think of a day to day situation.......yes.....I was going great........
finally think of a funny climax........superb....
I was ready.....but I always kept in mind to keep it short and funny.........
So I took some pages to scribble down my funny thoughts.....my first short story.......
I started well and with the flow I wrote a fabulous story......
I was determined to become famous one day.......I think that was the day.....so I sent it to a local newspaper office where they encourage newcomers.....Amateur writers......Neophytes....
The only morning I woke up with a smile was when one of my neighbors came crying at the very hour that my name was in that day's newspaper......finally.....I was the man.......I blushed......
Mom came and congratulated me.....I was glad and on the 4th seat of cloud 11......(since India being the 2nd largest population, cloud 9 and 10 were full......)
I acted like I know nothing....and asked mom whats that for?....'You are in today's newspaper my boy....good work!'.......
I tried hard not to show that I am grabbing the newspaper but failing to do so.....excitement seeping over the sleepy eyes......and I was ready to read my own story in the newspaper......
aaarrrrrrrrgh.......it was in the Joke of the Day section...........
I was disappointed........dejected......and feeling sleepy again......
It dint matter it had my name under it........it dint matter it won the first prize.........it dint matter I received a cheque of Rs. 500 in three weeks as the prize money.........I never told anyone I had written a short story which the cruel editor made a JOKE of......
The print media prints in a very small fonts I believe.......next time when I write, I have decided to write using a keyboard.........

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Quest Expedition

In the search of GOD, random I went ......

I feared, a faith will cover me for a temporary event.....

I met so many, new but same.......

O my GOD !......then I exclaim...!!!


In the search of Courage, random I left......

I dared many thoughts, those came in a heft.....

I tried so many, new and insane........

now OR never.....then I feign.....!!!


In the search of Light, random I moved......

There was always a tiny ray, Hope it proved.......

I climbed some ways, new or bane.....

bloody cliched..!.........here I drain.....


In the search of Freedom, random I flew....

I believed in directions of limited sky that showed some hue.....

I cut quite air, mild and grain....

theres the Horizon..!........where I refrain


In the search of Love, random I drifted.....

I cared for so many, but not one really was gifted.....

I found the one, one and ane....

This is the heart........there I remain.......!!!