With the pressure of writing quality posts on the blog, I realized I am losing out on the posts itself. As one of the ways to rekindle your writing streak, I was going through some of the old posts of this blog, and I remembered how I wrote so free flowing, without any double thoughts of who is reading, whether the post is useful and all other checkpoints.
After April A to Z challenge, where I had to churn out fiction, I was rather drained to keep up with other blogs. Then, my interest shifted to photography. But the inner devil does cause me problems in that field too. I am like the frog who neither belongs to the water nor to the land. Strange isn’t it, to compare myself on a public blog.
Yeah, that was the original me.
Writing unabashedly about myself thinking that this blog is not that popular, or no one would find about this side of mine.
This August, not much photo-walks happened over the weekends. Rather I was too busy with my health problems like wheezing, which was quite high, and almost asthmatic. I did visit the Lalbagh flower show though, which happens annually.
Here are few photos I took this time. Make sure you view them in fullscreen mode to maximize the viewing experience.
Also, check this post to see how I took photos in 2009 with my point and shoot camera, Canon Powershot A400.
What do you think? Did I improve my photography skills, or still the same?
The young and dashing Rahul Sinha lives in England with his parents, Shyam and Rajni. He is an only son of the rich banker. Rahul is totally attached to his father but does not care for his mother. Read the book to find out why….
Rahul is exulted with his efforts at work paying off and plans a holiday with his best friend Sanjay Srivastav who lives in Mumbai with his wife Reema, kids Sasha and Rehaan and most importantly, his sister, Meghna. Rahul recalls meeting Meghna just before they parted six years ago. Meghna works for a website and also teaches modern dance as she loves it. She’s thrown for a toss when Rahul comes visiting. She had thought he had forgotten them. But how could Rahul do that? Sanjay’s his best friend and Rahul had always treated their home as his own. Sanjay’s mother had been more of a mother to Rahul than his own. Rahul had stayed away after moving to England or so Meghna believes.
Thus begins the story between Rahul and Meghna, the teasing, the flirting, the anger, the tears… …will they find love?
A FRIENDLY WARNING: This book has been written only for the purpose of Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment! If you are looking to learn something or improve your lives after reading this work, then this book is not for you. I am not trying to get into competition with the Author Biggies of this world. I wrote this simply for the fun and joy of it. One thing I can promise the reader though: Well proof-read, perfect language that I feel is very important for every book that’s written in any tongue.
Long back I had got this award from Huma, which is called Quintet Radiance award. Following are the rules of the award.
1. Include the award logo in the post
2. Describe yourself using the alphabets
3. Nominate few other bloggers
Describing myself using alphabets, as written below, was an attempt done by me during one of the free write, which I try to do everyday morning, though I miss most of the days. 🙂
Archana is
Bold and
Coward at the same time who wants to be
Different and
Energetic like many others whom I admire.
Friendly person who is a
Google lover and keeps
Hiding behind
Internet.
Jovial,
Kindly and
Loving being a Libran.
Married for more than 6 years and
Nayana is my three year old daughter.
Open communication is what I prefer. At times I can be
Philosophical and there was a time I resorted to
Questioning on life and
Relationships which are complicated but lasts life long.
Simple and Silly, but
Truthful to many. Started believing in
Universal Spirits and Soul recently… Has
Varied Interests but keeps
Worrying all the time having been subjected to
eXtra mood swings from long time.
Young and Yellow who is overtly
Zealous to live life to the fullest.
Now for passing the awards to fellow bloggers from my blog roll. Anyone who reads this post is tagged. How about that?!
Everyone has fears. One who says he is fearless is lying. They are more brave and willing to take risks.
No, this is not an ad for the green colored bottle of drink. These are just my thoughts. If they are similar to the ad lines, maybe then there is a bit of truth in them.
When Corinne gave this prompt at Everyday Gyaan and Write Tribe, the sound of opening the corkscrew of a bottle was heard in background. The bottle of secrets. A call to my inner soul asking to reveal its fears.
From childhood, my biggest fear was the losing of family. Losing my parents. The fear of being all alone among the crowd in this dangerous world. To some extent, its quite true on a day-to-day basis. Thankfully, I have a happy family, and both sets of parents are alive, but there are moments, when I still feel lonely among the crowd. And though I like it, I do not want to be trapped in further. As Vidya aptly says, interaction does benefits me always.
On retrospection, many a times I have not risen up thinking that I am not brave enough, or I don’t have the skills, say a singing competition. Then I realized its not about the skills, but the fear of public. The fear of what will others think about me. The fear of being judged. We have been conditioned to keep up a good image about ourselves in others minds, but we fail to learn the lesson that however hard we try, we cannot change the perspective of others. We cannot change the way they think and make them accept us the way we are.
And then the fear of doubt, the self-critic, which is a big hindrance to whatever I do. The uncertainness of my life is attributed to that self critic who keeps criticizing whichever activity I do. If I go to parlor, I say myself, I am wasting money, and doing something which I don’t deserve.
Then there are the fears of unknown. Not the real unknown, but things like,
fear of driving the car, though I have the license, because I don’t know, what is going to happen if I lose control…
fear of wearing western clothes, because I could imagine the stares from the local people and I don’t know how I would feel if I get groped…
fear of the dark and traveling alone, because of which I do not venture out in the evenings, as I fear someone is going to attack us…
The fear of being branded a house wife. The fear of my precious time being wasted. The fear of not being a good mom, wife or daughter…
The fear of not being the best…
The fear of uncertainty in life…
The trench of fear is bottomless…
I would rather not go deeper, because I fear the thread to the top will get cut in the process, and I will be trapped in the darkness.
Snap it now!
Its not worth brooding over the fears…
When the event for Candle light March at Freedom Park, popped up in my Facebook events, I noticed that the timing is at 7pm. And my smile vanished.I had been told by the photography club Light Trails, that its a good event to attempt photo journalism, but the timing was a hindrance to me.
The first thought was whether it would be safe for me to venture out late into the night on Bangalore roads. How am I going to come back after the march. Will the buses be safer? Was it safe to walk to my home from the bus stop? What if it gets more late, and I don’t get any bus.
These thoughts then started igniting another fire in me supporting the cause, and tempting me to become part of it. The sole purpose of the protest was to showcase the same safety issues troubling women during the after hours and the same questions asked above… The battle was raged inside me between the real woman and the coward inside. And finally the real one won. And I am thankful that I went to the event. I held the candle only for few minutes, as I had the camera with me, but I am glad that I was part of the march.
This event started off, when the rape of a six-year-old girl in a well known school premises, came to light in mid July. The school authorities tried to hide the crime and did not accept the responsibility of the safety of the children. This led to widespread campaign by various organizations in the city. This candle march was organized by YWCA, Bangalore.
In search of inspiration, I always end up either reading books or watching movies. Last week, I saw 2states and Highway. These were pending in my list from long time. Among the two, Highway swept away my heart to a dreamland, and I have never come back since.
2 States
I started watching 2 states online, though not in HD quality. Since I had read the book, I knew the story, the characters and the ending. I had not much expectations anyway. Hence any watchable quality was enough.
A couple of things did not went well me. I mean, how could they film a Tamil Brahmin “pennu kaanal”(meeting the girl) without even a single necklace on the girl’s neck! It never happens. And how can a tamilian speak Hindi so fast! The song of the character was pitched on an entirely wrong note. The “besura“(absurd) voice was heard again, when the male character, the protagonist, who was painted all shy and “seedha saadha” started dancing for the cousin’s wedding… There was also a clichéd south Indian dance during that song. I wondered whether the screenplay would bring in any changes for the hero to fight off a newly introduced villain at the end, like in the yesteryear films. Thankfully it did not happen. The main crux of the film, being the father-son chemistry and how it got reconciled, was never shown clearly. I missed a long sentimental dialogue from the father. I missed the fiery amazing performance by Ronit Roy which he was capable of, as if his role was wasted.
I loved Amrita Singh. She was the total Punjabi mother everyone would love. Arjun and Alia needed some more polishing in their acting skills. There was some amazing photography stills towards the end. The song Chandaniya and Mast Magan kept ringing in your head, even after I finished watching movie. The songs are the only plus point I found in this film.
Highway
The film blurb is very short. Its the journey of how Veera, the rich girl transforms personally when she travels with her kidnapper, Mahabir Bhati, through the roads of Delhi, Rajasthan, Punjab and Kashmir.
The visuals are simply great. I miss watching them in the big theatre. They reminded me of my trips to North India, Rajasthan and Badrinath.
Along with the music of A.R.Rahman, the film journey becomes a virtual long drive for the viewers itself along with the main characters. The character sketch of both Veera and Mahabir did confuse me. Though I have heard of Stockholm syndrome, the portrayal was more meant for movie rather than realistic. The film makers have always enjoyed showing the positive side of the villains and this is just one of them. Of how poverty and social status can turn pure hearts into cold blooded criminals. There is also the weaving of dreams, getting out of comfort zones, and emotional personal events fitted during the pitstops.
Randeep Hooda fared much better in his acting and dialogues. The character of Mahabir Bhati is more interesting than Veera, as it has several shades, and the actor portrays them all beautifully. As expected, this has been Alia Bhatt’s best performance till date. The character was portrayed as clumsy and quirky, compared to other people in captivity, but that maybe exactly what the director, Imtiaz Ali envisioned of Veera.
The songs, Maahi Ve from Rahman and Sooha Sooha are the key takeaways of the film. I have noticed that, the songs of A.R Rahman merge into your soul, only if you watch it along the film, and not separately. And it also grows on you. There are many songs of his, which I never liked in one hearing, but which has grown on me after hearing multiple times.
Which are the recent films you saw? Share it in the comments..
