I am a Writer Uncle; Flash Fiction

“I am a Writer Uncle”, I said when asked about my profession by a 50 year old man who lives nearby.

He made a face that was expressing so many things;

“What does he mean by a writer”,

 “he is no Chetan Bhagat”,

“he has no published work”,

“I got it, he is jobless.”

“So what exactly you do beta ?” He finally said.

“I am a Writer Uncle.”

A happy ignorant Indian family: Short story

"Husband" was getting ready for Office.

"The Wife" was surfing News Channels on their LCD.

"Kid" just went off for school, its his birthday. 

A surprise party is planned for the evening.

Suddenly a News Flash that says "16 kids died eating mid-day meal"

"Husband" is irritated, he doesn't want all this shit, so early in the morning.

"The Wife" changes the channel. Now its MTV on the screen.

"Make a cool playlist for today's party... there must be all his favorite songs only", "Husband" orders "Wife", while Listening to the songs on MTV.

"Wife" reassures "Don't Worry Honey".

"Husband" kissed her goodbye.

And they lived happily ever after, except for that one time, when there was a blast in their locality.

Never ever did they care to have some stress on other's problems. 

Well, Do you care...?

The Lunchbox: Movie review of a Magnum Opus

The Lunchbox: Magnum Opus

So I have reviewed this beautiful movie, The Lunchbox.. I am re-sharing it on my original blog as my movie blog is just a baby right now...

Please follow the link to read the review... Do bookmark it.

-Amrit Rukhaiyaar

#30WordsTake: 5 soldiers killed In kashmir.

While few Marathi were planning to kill every Bihari in their land and few Bihari were plotting revenge against the Marathi.

Some Bihari and Marathi were mistaken and killed as Indians.     

:(

Image source: www.telegraph.co.uk

-Amritt R

The White Tiger: Book Review

“The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga is narrated by Balram Halwai, the protagonist of the book. He is a successful entrepreneur. He is a self-made man who rose on the back of India’s economic prowess. In a poverty ridden India, he represents future.

Balram narrates the book as a letter to the visiting Chinese premier, which develops over seven days and nights in the city of Bangalore. The story is rather much complicated than it looks at the initial pages.

Balram hails from Bihar, before moving to Bangalore, he was driving for the son of an old-fashioned landlord. One day, he steals a bag containing a huge sum of money from where he worked and left for Bangalore to start his taxi business with the money he stole.

As the story unfolds, it turns out that Balram is not only an entrepreneur but also a criminal with ability for self-justification. As in Balram’s words, he described the life of his family was in “the Darkness”; A life of feudal hardship, where there were brutal landlords hold power, children are put into servitude rather than going to school and elections are a mere buying and selling business.

This Book is far, far away from glamour, where the protagonists aspire to get into Bollywood or becomes the youngest web entrepreneur. No, this book is intense and puts light on the darker, dominating side of India. 

This book is utterly unrealistic to the lives of the rich urban Indians. In plain impassive style, he scrubbed the shine of a self-congratulatory India and showcases a country where the compression by the society has reached a breaking point. 

The White Tiger identifies with the middle-class India. Although, this book talks repeatedly about revolution and removing “the Darkness” which somewhat made it a little monotonous.

The Characters are quite believable; the insensitive upper class landlord and his wife, who are typically cruel to their employees and the ambitious Balram, often smitten by the charm of money and luxury. The parts were he was sent to buy alcohol for his employer; he is dazzled to see all those English liquor or by the smell of perfumes in the air, while he visit a shopping mall.

I find the cruelty by the rich people and the depiction of the nation in this book, a personal vision of the Author, about India rather than just a fiction tale. This book does reveal the darker side of India, but at the same time totally ignores the modern India, which is definitely on the right side of progress. Aravind Adiga won the 40th Man Booker Prize for his debut novel The White Tigerin 2008. 

Recommended.

-Amrit R

"The Day 'Delhi' Stood Still.." @Ambipur Indiblogger Meet..

It was Saturday, 6th of July, when I geared up for the 4th IndiBlogger Meet of my life. The 3rd in New Delhi. I attended meets sponsored by HP, Spice and Vodafone in the past, so it was my first non-technical IndiBlogger meet. 

I reached the Hyatt at the Delhi Bhikaji Cama Place at 1.30PM sharp because you just can't miss even one segment of IndiBlogger meets. There were a dozen bloggers standing right outside one of the gates of Hyatt waiting for entering the "holy place." I greeted a few and introduced myself. 

I made some straight away friend in Saransh and Sameep and came to know that its their first meet. I felt like a mentor there. The feeling was funny. As the ball room was still yet to open... we had some cookies and a cup of coffee outside the ball room. Those were delicious and exotic.

Once we entered the ball room, there was a great atmosphere inside... Everything was just FreshNHappy... all thanks to Ambipur. Saransh, Sameep and I sat together. 

First up, Anoop Johnson showed us the pics mailed to indiblogger by the bloggers. The images were of things that stink and only Ambipur can help get rid of its bad smell. A guy named Jatin Israni took self shots and mailed  to Indiblogger,  he looked very high to Anoop. High as in ecstasy. The winner was of course a pic of "DogShit" captured by a girl, I forgot her name.

The second segment was by Nihaal, he gave us a crash course on headbanging... literally... you must be wondering, what the hell is this headbanging. I wondered too. But after a while, I started enjoying it and was missing my long hairs I used to have 2-3 years ago. When they played the music during the headbanging, I felt like a part of a metal band.

Photo Courtesy: IndiBlogger

After this, there was the intro session, not the usual 30 seconds of fame, but for people, who could never introduce themselves even after 3-4-5 blogger meets. They broke the silence finally. There were many interesting intros and some charming ones as well. And a long one by some Chartered Accountant. 

Some of the intros that I remember were from Gv Sparx, a friend of mine from the blogosphere who spoke of Akanksha Dureja, another friend and an Indiblogger Meets enthusiast and told us how she misses Indiblogger Meets. That was a beautiful gesture. Another Intro I remember was from Jyotsana Verma, she spoke of her blog which makes organ transplants readily available for the needy, she is really doing a fantastic job as a blogger. Another blogger's intro was longer than his own career as a CA, I am not sure what he was talking about, but I guess he started narrating some real events of his life. It was weird.

Just after the intros, we were asked to do lunch and return within 45 minutes to our seats. The food looked divine; Biryani, Chicken, Pasta, and many more made it look so outlandish, added with desserts. It was lovely and made all of us FreshNHappy. During the lunch, I spoke with Sir Arvind Passey and Arvind Mohan about the former's interview with Mr. Arvind Kejriwal. I also met his wife Mrs. Sangeeta Passey, it was lovely meeting the lady. Sir passey even complemented me, by saying that I look more glamorous in real than in my facebook profile picture. I was like whoa.. but honestly, that is a way of a gentleman making others comfortable around him. Later we discussed about interesting blogging contests with Aditya Bhasin and Ankit Chugh. 

During the lunch, I hand shaken some more people, to remember a few, Himadri, Gv Sparx, Priyanka Dey, Tanya Garg and Anubhuti. Anubhuti was a lovely poet and gave her intro in a poetic way. Well that was it. 

Photo Courtesy: IndiBlogger

Photo Courtesy: IndiBlogger

Just before I was entering the ball room, I finally got the chance to speak to the craziest people in the world, "The Viral Fever Guys: College Q-tiyapa". I am a big fan of their gags and when I was talking to him. Some dialogues from their "Gangs of Social Media" Gag were revolving in my head, especially this one; "Facebook ka, Twitter ka, LinkedIn ka, sab ka ID banayega tera faizal..." Click here to go through the video on YouTube. It even featured on YouTube's homepage for a week or so.

The real craziness started only after the lunch. When I went back to the ball room, I found that the seats are changed and it was hard to find a vacant seat. Anyway, I found Saransh and Sameep and joined them in some of the central areas of the ball room. A lady, from the Ambipur Team grabbed the mic and asked the bloggers about different kinds of bad smell. We were provided an Ambipur Room Freshner, during the time she spoke. I got a "Blossoms and Breeze."

Photo Courtesy: IndiBlogger

Distinguished by different fragrances, we were divided into teams, each team had a different fragrance as a symbol. Ambipur Room Freshner comes in many fragrances, so we had a good number of teams. Even there were two teams within a team. The teams were to perform and make a little act, kind of a commerical for the Ambipur Freshners. Even there were Project Managers for each of the team, my team's Project Manager [yeah.. literally] were Ashish and Jasmeet. 

So our act was a bit illogical, actually it made no sense at all.. :p, our act was to sing a romantic song and change a few words and stuff Ambipur in it.. haha... I know it sounds weird.. So I did the playback singing for Gaurav Agarwalla, Himangi Bhardawaj and Cheena Chopra, who performed on the song I sung; jaadu teri nazar.. Well there were some other segments of our act as well, but its better not to talk about the weird act anymore. I had a little chat about random things and became friends with Jeffrey, Gaurav,  Vikram and Mahima. Mahima was a facebook friend already, but I haven't met her till then. Among other team members I remember were Aditya Nath Jha, Pulkit Juneja, Ashwani Kumar, Rakesh Narang, Rohit Chugh and Vivek Chamolli. 

Speaking of performances, there were some really fantastic ones. The one in which zombies were killed using AmbiPur fresheners. A blogger gave a 'never to forget' expression after turning into a zombie in the act. I loved that act.

Photo Courtesy: IndiBlogger

Another act were smelly cats [the anti hero/heroine] was shot down by AmbiMan [the superhero] was cool. When Ironman, Batman, Superman and even HanuMan failed. AmbiMan did what must be done. This act won.

Anyways, after that, the defining moment came... the one my title is all about. Anoop asked us to define our blogs in a pose, and there was some really interesting poses. It was the best moment of the meet. A lady with arms widespread and head towards the sky [ceiling] was selected as the one with the best pose. Although, I had a similar pose too, but they certainly didn't notice my pose. [And I have no grudges with IndiBlogger Team for this..]But I am really happy that IndiBlogger asked all of us to define our blogs in a pose, it made me love blogging even more. It was so simple yet so tough to express your blog in one body posture. I just loved every single pose. In a way, they all made sense.

 Photo Courtesy: Ankit Chugh

Photo Courtesy: Ankit Chugh

Just minutes before I was leaving Hyatt after grabbing my t-shirt, [the 5th one by Indi], I saw Priyanka Dey with Garima Obrah and had a minute long chat with her, and I saw Tiku Di coming with her son. It was a wonderful feeling when she recognized me. I could not resist to capture a photograph of the three beautiful ladies.

IndiBlogger Meet is one event, where nothing is non-sense. All your crazy ideas are appreciated by the other bloggers. People respect you for the idea you made. Nothing is crap, when you are an artist. 

If you aren't a blogger yet, just be. Find your skill and make a blog out of it. 

P.S: I have mentioned so many names in my post, as an expression that it is really nice to go out and socialize. It is good to have so many like minded friends who understands your passion for something. It took me 4 blogger meets [3 in Delhi, 1 in Mumbai] to really come out of my shell and talk to other people. But when I did, I was more than happy, people are nice, they are ready to accept and listen to you. Life is beautiful.

The Ultimate Payback [Short Fiction]

He was 24 years old, A School dropout, alcoholic, Eve-teaser and a name people hated in the neighbourhood.

He was a greedy soul. He was so greedy that he could even kill a person for money. One day he saw people coming out of a big 5 star hotel with gift hampers in their hands. He went to ask about the hampers and found out that there was a bloggers meet going on at the 5 star hotel, which was organized by IndiBlogger, a website which has recently achieved the “1 Crore venture” milestone. His eyes sparkled, when he imagined one followed by seven zeros. 

He wanted those hampers too. Although he could snatch one of those hampers from some not-so-strong person, but he thought let’s get it the right way this time and let’s be a part of this website, which will give him unlimited golden eggs every now and then.

But there was one big issue, He had no idea, what is a blog and what one is supposed to do after being a blogger. But free gift hampers kept him alive and he started learning about blogs. He understood that blogging is about writing your point of views any personal or public issues and sometimes about yourself as well.

As he hardly cared about the society, he made a useless blog and wrote about random useless stuffs of his life. He wrote about his favourite cigarette and about the hottest girls in his School. I tell you, he was one evil mind who everyone hated. But that doesn’t changed him. He posted photos of his latest Tees, which had some cheesy slogan written about girls. People hated him for his existence.

So after a good 30-40 blog posts, he signed up for Indiblogger and they approved his blog. He attended bloggers meet in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and everywhere else only for free goodies, flash drives, cell phones and free food. He didn’t socialize. He was stalking other female bloggers.

But, he could never win big prizes. Only because he was not a true blogger, who blogs from his heart. His greed paid him nothing big. He participated in contests as well. But hardly won gifts apart from consolation prizes.

There was one thing he desired from the core of his Heart. A Sony Experia Z, he wanted that phone. He demanded for that to his dad, but instead, his dad scolded him for his expenses and for the shame he has been for the family. He was so desperate for material things, that at times he went sick, if he couldn’t get some“thing”. Even his family hated him.

His bad habits like smoking and chewing tobacco caused him serious injury in his gums, and at times, blood came out of his gums, but he continued to smoke and chew tobacco and attended Indiblogger meets for free flash drives instead of visiting a good doctor.

And then, one day the bleeding became unstoppable. He finally went to a dentist and was told for an operation for his gums. He was admitted, operated and was bed ridden for the next 10 days.

When he returned home, he opened the Indiblogger website to check if there is any new contest or any opportunity to get anything “FREE”.

And he found that he lost a big opportunity to win the cell phone he always desired for. The Sony Experia Z. That was an ultimate payback for ignoring gum problems. For all your bad deeds, one day you have to pay for it all.

This post is a part of the contest by Colgate and IndiBlogger. Read the My Healthy Speak Blog to understand more about it.

-Amrit Rukhaiyaar 

[Images were found through Google search]

My mother's 2nd life

It was April 2011, I was still an engineering grad. I lived in Indore, I still do, only now I work as well. 

Didi called me one afternoon and said that our mom was hospitalized in Ranchi that morning only.

What? When did she get sick? She was pretty good, some 100 hours ago. I was stunned. I cursed myself for not talking to mom, everyday. I thought, I was a bad son. I wanted to get to mom ASAP.

But as you know, there is always a rush for tickets especially on the UP-Bihar-Jharkhand-West Bengal route. 

I booked a flight to delhi and reached Ranchi from Delhi with Di, Jiju and their son. Although we rushed to reach to mom, we anticipated it as a usual dehydration thing and were pretty assured that Mummy will be home in a day or two.

But the revelation was shocking. Only after we reached RIMS [Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences], which is a renowned institution of India for medical sciences in Ranchi, we saw the real picture. 

My mother was not good at all. She was thin, pale and somehow looked totally a different person, which I never saw. When I was in train, I was thinking of saying nice things to my mom, to make her feel good and make her laugh or smile. Laughter is still the best medicine.  

But that thought was suppressed by the fact that my mom was in no state to speak or listen to anybody talking to her. She was being treated in a cottage, which RIMS provide to patients who are important enough on their list.

My father managed to get a cottage and the treatment was like home there. Convenient. A night or two passed and things went from bad to worse. My mother was diagnosed and was advised treatment at the ICU only.

We transferred mom to the ICU one afternoon and that's when we realized that we are not at one of India's renowned medical institutions but just another govt. hospital. 

The Intensive Care Unit was dirty, had an uncomfortable bed and had uncountable Rats running around all over the place. My father was unaware of all this circumstances when he alone took her to RIMS, he was in a panic situation and all he could think of is getting my mother treated as soon as possible. 

The fact is that every patient in RIMS is another medical project for their students and they do not care, however they are being treated, all they do is observation and prepare a report out of it.

We were in a catch-22 situation, my mother's condition was being worse every new day and we couldn't take the risk of making her travel, neither by air nor by rail not even road. And one morning, mummy couldn't even breathe properly, thats when we had to take a firm decision.

We knew that firstly, she need to feel strong, then only we will be able to go to Delhi and have a better and specialized treatment.

And the next two days were magical, my mother pushed hard to get up from that long slumber and looked somehow better than weeks that passed. She was determined to get her life back, so she injected confidence in us and said "yes, I can travel" [she started talking a little bit by then].

We took the most comfortable 1st AC in Rajdhani Express and admitted mummy to the "Max Super Speciality Hospital" in Saket, New Delhi within the 2-3 days. 

In a week, my mom could ask for things by saying and not by gesturing. That was so comforting, listening to her. I missed those words for a good 2 to 3 weeks. 

Although there used to be some complications every now and then, but the modern healthcare at Max Hospital had a positive atmosphere, which somehow inspired Mummy to get better every new day.

However, it still took 40 days to reach the day, when my mother could finally say goodbye to hospital. But honestly, this number could have been close to 300 days, had we treated her in Ranchi only.

My mother came home [in delhi] in the first week of June and lived with Di and her family for the next 4 months. She started speaking well, after some weeks, she was able to walk without support and I almost had tears in my eyes, when one day in late 2011, I saw her cooking. 

I felt like a parent, whose infant kid is growing everyday.

I missed my mother, all those 7-8 months, the mother, who doesn't depend on us. But the mother who takes care of every little thing we need. 

In the whole process, one thing changed for sure. My life. I am no longer an irresponsible youngest child of my parents, but a caring son. I call my parents almost every day now. 

This post was pending for a long time. It only came true, when Apollo Hospitals in association with IndiBlogger prompted us to write about our lives touched by Modern Healthcare.

-Amritt Rukhaiyaar

Special 26: Reviews

With great actors like Jimmy Shergill, Manoj Bajpai and Anupam Kher and not Akshay Kumar. I was very sure that Special Chhabis will at least be a good watch. But this film proved be to far better than just good, this film is definitely special. It is not as great as Paan Singh Tomar or Gangs of Wasseypur, but definitely better than many 100 crore club film.

Special Chhabis will not let you leave your seat at any moment. It definitely has the masala of a bollywood film but notably only the masala we like. And it has one of the best climax till date.

This film is based on real life incident about a heist happened in 1987, where a group of conmen raided a jewellery store by posing as CBI officers. The characters are a little bit larger-than-life, which I will consider as a flaw in "Special Chhabis".

I won't talk about the plot much, you gotta see this one yourself. 

Acting is good by the whole cast, and surprisingly Akshay Kumar was somehow one of the best actor in special chhabbis. He may get  a best actor nomination next year. The Scenes were Manoj Bajpai and Akshay Kumar both clashes are actually the best ones according to me.

The Actions are not typical ones but tricky ones, that you will like for sure. Kajal Agarwal, is just useless in the whole film.

Manoj Bajpai, once again stolen the show as Waseem Khan. With every new film, he is establishing as the greatest actor in Indian Cinema.

Neeraj Pandey have raised the bar with his last film "A Wednesday" and special chhabis is definitely lived up to his creator's name.

My Ratings: 7.5/10

-Amrit Rukhaiyaar

Race 2: Reviews

Abbas Mastan is not the duo we look forward to, especially after the disastrous “Players”. But Considering the success of “Race”, you can fall for the trap called “Race 2”.

The film begins with great action scenes, and just when you will anticipate what this movie is all about, you will be punched in the face with a twist, and then more twists, some of the twists were actually great. That is why I am not totally thrashing this film in my review. This film has surely managed to be called a thriller. But the disaster is the result of too much unwanted style and typical use of Bollywood punches.

You may attract to the huge star cast, but beware; I am going to reveal their performances now, Saif is the best though, John is trying hard to be a bad guy, he fails miserably according to me, the ladies, too cute, and acting too dumb, no one can digest them as killers. Anil Kapoor was most irritating of the lot; all his witty jokes were not witty at all, and Amisha Patel, God knows, what is she doing in this film?

Although, there is nothing much wrong with the direction and screenplay, but the plot of the film is directionless, I must remark. Good music is forcefully wasted into a bad film. Had they made a good story, we hardly needed any song.

Race-2 is not a movie you should waste money going to expensive multiplexes, if you are so desperate to watch it, go to a single screen. It is not better than both “Matru ki bijlee ka Mandola” and “Table No. 21” among other 2013 releases.

If you watch movie with noticing details of it rather carefully, you will not like “Race-2” at all. But may be some scenes are likeable, I am not sure with that either. Race-2 is the film, which everyone will talk different of, I wonder how many of them will praise it. You can go for it, if you are looking for a good day out with friends.

My Ratings: 2/5

-Amritt R

Why Shawshank Redemption is one of the best story ever told.

“There must be a con like me in every prison in America. I am the guy who can get it for you, cigarettes, a bag of reefer, if that’s your thing… …bottle of brandy to celebrate your kid’s high school graduation, damn near anything within reason, yes sir ! I am a regular Sears and Roebuck.”

-Morgan Freeman in his ever gentle enigmatic voice…

The film starts with a man, angry enough to shot his wife and her lover, then a scene at his trial at some court, he was sent to a prison for being guilty of killing his wife and her lover for two back to back life imprisonments and then the rest… the rest was called THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION.

Tim Robbins? I never knew him before Shaw shank, nor I have seen his another film after that either But I believe, nobody could have been as good as him as Andy Dufresne, and honestly speaking after I saw The Shaw shank Redemption in 2008, after 14 years of its release and it’s been 5 years and I can’t agree more to say that it is the “BEST STORY” ever told in history.

On the other hand, Ah yes, there is always another hand, a counterpart. Every great thing has at least two ingredients that make it a great substance. The Shaw shank Redemption had Morgan Freeman to fill that gap. The Chemistry between these two men was wiser than any other men pair ever made.

There are several emotions of human nature depicted in this film, but the one that made its mark was HOPE. I have never been hopeless in life after “The Shaw shank Redemption”. “TSR” is a story of friendship, decency and believing in hope. There were many beautiful events in this film that collectively made it become the best film ever made.

Remember the scene, when Red while watching a 1950s classic in the prison’s theater waits for Rita Hayworth to shake her hairs and when she does that, Morgan Freeman creates a magical expression on his face, which showed the helplessness of a common poor man desiring a Hollywood actress almost impossibly.

And when Andy tells Red where Red must go, after being free from prison, and he tells only once and when Red reaches the certain place to find some cash and a letter from Andy. Andy wrote in that letter: “You remember the name of the town, don’t you?” and Red speaks to himself: “Zihuatanejo.” I loved that scene, it actually meant that “if you don’t remember the name of the city, you actually didn't care to listen."

Here is what he wrote in that letter:

“Andy Dufresne: Dear Red. If you're reading this, you've gotten out. And if you've come this far, maybe you're willing to come a little further. You remember the name of the town, don't you?

Red: Zihuatanejo.

Andy Dufresne: I could use a good man to help me get my project on wheels. I'll keep an eye out for you and the chessboard ready. Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. I will be hoping that this letter finds you, and finds you well. your friend. Andy.”

Shaw shank Redemption is story of the bonding of 2 men around 2 decades and the wisdom surrounding them. With the film moved its course, you will start feeling the wiser air.

Hats off to Stephen King and Frank Darabont.

Amritt