Psychological Equality

In the heap of senseless reels that we consume everyday, I saw something really meaningful which said that "when you stop looking down on people, you also stop looking up to them." It was so powerful that I had to write about it, because I do kinda live by that rule, but never really appropriated it, the way the girl in that reel did. 

So, yes, when you stop looking down on people lesser successful than you, you also stop looking up to other people doing better than you in life, the entire top down approach of looking at life and doing comparisons begin to dissolve, and with it, the quiet insecurities and inflated egos that come from placing people above or below you. There’s no hesitation around someone more successful or more talented, because you’re no longer measuring yourself against them, you’re observing them. Insecurity is replaced by curiosity. You begin to study what works in their life, what doesn’t, and what can be meaningfully integrated into your own, without blindly accepting anything at face value. The truth becomes clearer, and the individual slowly fades into the background; you’re no longer reacting to people as personalities, but to the truths they embody and the flaws they carry. At the same time, you don’t deny the existence of roles, some situations require you to lead, decide, negotiate, or direct, but those roles no longer translate into differences in human worth. Hierarchy remains functional, not psychological. You can ask your driver to take a different route or negotiate a price, you can ask your employees for accountability in their work but without ever placing yourself above them. What remains constant is a sense of equality at the human level. You look up to what is true, and look down on what is false: not in people, but in principles. And in doing so, you move through life with a rare balance: clear in your actions, grounded in your values, and free from the need to either elevate or diminish anyone, including yourself.

"The Most Tiresome Day of My Life.."

If I remember my past & predict my future , that day in 2008, which I am going to talk about, was and will be the most tiresome day of my life.

It was 6:30 AM when I woke up in the hotel room in Calcutta. The 1st two minutes were insane, I left the bed and started running like a mad man, from one corner to every possible end of that goddamn hotel room. Then suddenly 'realization struck' and I accepted the fact that I missed my flight to Bangalore which was at 6:15 AM (and I was supposed to report the airport at 4:30 AM)

For the next 15 minutes I cried, for the hopeless teenager I was, and I kept crying until I checked out from the Hotel. I reached Howrah station and called papa (still crying) to tell him how I screwed, thankfully my father stayed calm and told me to take the first train back home.

At the ticket counter, I inquired for the earliest possible train to take me home, The man at the counter advised me to take the Poorva express, I bought a general ticket, given I couldn't get a reservation at that time and reached Parasnath Station in the worst possible way, some 4-5 hours later.

As I reached Parasnath, I wanted to afford a Personal Taxi to give my bum some luxury, but since the day was so fucked up, the universe conspired and I couldn't get one. So, what happened that I took a shared tempo for my 40 kilometers ride home with the local rural people and travelling with them was damn irritating, for there used to be occasional laughters after every speed breaker gave them a bump.  Also I was least interested in living my MOHAN BHARGAV dream after missing a flight, so everything irritated me at the time.

Now, I reached the Barakar Bridge, the one constructed in the 1940s or later, well, as it happened, it collapsed a few weeks earlier and every passenger in the tempo was supposed to carry their luggage and cross the water-less river under the bridge. I did the same, painfully carried my two big bags on my back, took another auto on the other side of the bridge and sat in the same fashion. (fashion..?? did I just say fashion).

At around 2:45, I entered Giridih, [my hometown] and sat on a 'personally hired' three wheeled paddle rickshaw and reached home at 3 PM. Later in the evening, after having a good 3-4 hours sleep, as I was sitting idle on my terrace, I realized, that the most tiresome day of my life also happens to be The International Labor's Day. 

It was May the 1st.

Well, I did celebrate it, I guess.

"Hug"

"Can I get a Hug?" He asked

"No, you won't get anything" replied his angry wife

Husband picks up the phone and fakes a call

"Room service? Yeah, I needed a hug, when can you deliver it?"

Wife Smiled and moved towards him

"Nobody is going to hug you old man, Come here." She said

A Hug Followed. 

Revenge #Flash Fiction

As he was filled with vengeance, 
he forgot to keep a check on love and compassion within him. 

He avenged his father's death,
but he could never love anyone again.

You see, even emotions are revengeful,
when you get carried away with one,
the other makes sure you never attain it ever again. 

He got the Revenge, but he lost the Compassion.

Image Source: barnesandnoble.com

AAP: BJP's never imagined problem

In 2009 BJP lost to Congress, it was a devastating period in the NDA Camp. After all it was their 2nd consecutive defeat at the Lok Sabha Elections. 

In 2004, BJP lost in the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and then in 2009, they lost in the leadership of LK Advani. Since both of their senior most leaders lost one by one, BJP went into depression.

In the next couple of years, Congress did big scams and BJP was somehow delighted with this, knowing this will crumble the UPA govt and obviously BJP will be chosen as the new government, a majority of votes finally looked like a possibility.

In April 2011, Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal, though very active social workers but not popular people started India against Corruption. A movement against the numerous corruptions done by the UPA govt; NDA supported this movement as it was their ladder to being at the centre [in spite of the fact that coal scam is running since the time NDA was at centre and Pramod Mahajan is one of the accused of the 2G scam, but let it be and move on with the post]. Arun Jaitley, Baba Ramdev [associated with BJP], all started behaving like revolutionaries. After all this was the ticket to PMO for a BJP leader. 

It was near the end of 2012, when Kejriwal decided to form a party himself as the Janlokpal bill never came into existence and BJP waved off AK’s Aam Aadmi Party as a non dangerous entity to their ambitions. 

In the mid 2013, it became virtually clear that Narendra Modi will be the PM Candidate for BJP. Congress became synonyms with Corruption and BJP were actually the only choice for people. It was that time when suddenly Gujarat became Gujarat Model and Modi was being projected like Barrack Obama. This even went worse and NaMo became a household term. So, that was it, BJP decided that there isn’t a single party that can beat them at the next LS Elections.

Meanwhile AAP was nothing but a wannabe for everyone who holds power, politicians, media, bureaucrats everyone laughed them off but on 8th December 2013, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party won 40 percent of the seats in Delhi. This is when NDA skipped a heartbeat and started to worry even though they had more seats than AAP.

AAP formed a govt in Delhi and started working like Vigilantes, they were active all the time, planning things, working on it and sometimes doing mistakes as well but the bigger picture was that here we got a government that looked different and positive and BJP started worrying more and more every day. AK resigned on 14th February 2014 after 49 day governance, the reason was Janlokpal bill not getting enough support from the opposition. You can debate over it as AK wanted to become the PM and not just a CM; but I don’t like to believe that AK doesn’t have an idea that being a PM is not a possibility for him right now, so I respect his decision for showing least affection to a post as important as a CM.

AAP started their election campaign like a national party. AAP is fighting the 16th general elections from more than 350 seats and what could have been an easy BJP Victory is now spoiled by Aam Aadmi Party. Now once AAP declared that they will fight the LS, suddenly the Hindu BJP became a Secular party and the ease with which they used terms like KAR SEVA vanished. 

No matter who wins, but deep within BJP knows that AAP is a pain in the ass for them and will not let them rob the nation like UPA did all these years. Only 50 people from AAP in the LS and every session at the LS will be a disappointment for both UPA and NDA. No matter who becomes the PM, AAP will make sure that never ever again; a bill gets passed by doing a blackout inside the Lok Sabha.

Congress always knew that they will lose at the 16th LS Election; this was a googly for BJP who were anticipating a clean sweep but is now facing a bigger threat. Since when BJP started talking about corruption; let me tell you, BJP has been in opposition for 34 years [with some experience in the centre] and it doesn't make them less powerful. An opposition can stop the govt at many levels to do corruption and if not anything, they can at least develop their constituencies. Why Varanasi is still not developed even though Murli Manohar Joshi, a prominent BJP figure was the MP there. 

But No, every party wants to be at the centre, constituencies are nothing but a number that adds up to become 272.

One Stop Crisis Centre

If you watched the first episode of the 2nd season of SatyaMev Jayate last Sunday, you must have come across this term. But that was not the first time One Stop Crisis Centre [OSCC] was coined in India. In February 2013, The Justice Usha Mehra Commission recommended the establishment of OSCC after the Nirbhaya Gang Rape that happened on December 16th 2012.

This Centre should ideally have a woman gynaecologist, a police officer of at least the rank of an inspector (preferably a woman police officer), a woman counsellor from an NGO which is concerned about rape victims, a forensic expert, a skilled nurse and an approachable Judicial Magistrate so as to record the statement by the victim and ensure speedy action and justice. 

OSCC should be inside designated hospitals. OSCC should have each of these officials available at one place so that a rape victim can explain her trauma at once and not over and over again. Within this centre, there should be a toilet and shower facility.

Government employees in India have a tendency to ignore issues which makes them uncomfortable or if it is a task where there is no money to earn, so the officials recruited for this centre should have a full time job at the One Stop Crisis Centre and they should be paid well.

Apart from Rapes, the OSCC should also handle cases of Sexual Abuse and Child Abuse. In abroad, these centres handle Domestic Violence cases as well, but given the large number of rape cases and domestic violence cases, we need individual centres for each.

Although the recommendation by the Justice Usha Mehra Commission is done more than a year ago, no substantive development has taken place. We as a blogger need to raise our voice in a sophisticated way so I want others to write about this issue and share this article if you can.

Thanks to WriteTribe for making me ask myself, how I am going to contribute to make our country a better place for Woman. 

This article about OSCC awareness is my little contribution.

Happy International Women’s Day

-Amrit Rukhaiyaar

Death

She always fascinated death.

And that night, when those men ran after her, she had a thrilling smile on her face.

They cornered her and stabbed her.

She was dying.

There was blood.

Yet she carried a satisfactory smile all along.

She experienced death after all.

And she knew it’s just a dream.

-----------------------

This post is part of the Write Tribe Festivals of Words-3 and today's prompt is 55 fiction.

"A Walk To Remember"

This post is part of the Write Tribe Festivals of Words-3 and today's prompt is Inspiring Stories.

I am going to talk about an important event of my life which happened in September 1990, when I was only 11 months old. Yes, you can figure out my date of birth now. When I was a child, sometimes my mother used to tell me this incident whenever I asked her to narrate a story.

So, it was a summer night; my brother recently watched a Naseeruddin Shah’s film. This film had a scene where an infant kid walked when he was only 8 months old. So my ambitious 8 year’s old elder brother thought why can’t his real brother walk, when he is already 11 months old.

He decided he will make me walk the next morning. He slept well that night and woke up with the determination that today my little brother will be walking like that kid in the movie. 

It was 5AM; everyone was still sleeping when my brother was all set to launch me just like a space scientist is all set to launch his Satellite Vehicle. He took me with him and worked hard with me for an hour or two, failed many times to make me learn the way to walk and then he did it. 

I was walking for the first time and he was the first one to witness that moment. Every time my mother used to tell me that story, I used to be so fascinated. Not only with the story, but by the determination with which my brother accomplishes everything, he always had a strong way with life. 

Once he failed in a terminal examination [mathematics, I guess] when he was in standard 8th and he took it to heart so much that he never ever failed in his life again and in the process, he became an IITian, got a job, resigned, then became an MBA from National University of Singapore and got a big shot job at some big shot MNC. I am not bragging about his achievements but trying to explain his point, which is not to lose again ever because failing was a sour experience and he made up his mind that it’s something he will never ever taste again.

Now I am not sure, whether this story is inspiring or not, but yes, this is special, this is real close to my heart.

-Amritt

Director's Cut by MK Raghavendra: Book Review

This post is part of the Write Tribe Festivals of Words-3 and today's prompt is Book Review.

I love films, not only watching it but also reading and knowing it. I can read anything that has Cinema as the background. This is what attracted me to MK Raghavendra's "Director's Cut: 50 Major Filmmakers of the Modern Era."

Director's Cut is a take on the film making styles of the greatest directors of the modern era. The book starts with an introduction section,which explains the pattern using which Mr. Raghavendra chose the best 50 directors among all the great filmmakers we have ever watched. 

The Pattern is actually very intelligent, he chose 1960 as a cut-off date as he believes the french new wave, which is one of the most influential movements in cinema commenced around this time and cinema became Modern only during this era. 

Since the title of the book contains the term Modern Era; we shouldn't have any grudges with the Author for not including legendary filmmakers like Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, Charles Chaplin and Orson Welles as their greatest works was witnessed before the 1960s. Instead he put the spotlight on directors like Luis Buñuel, Werner Herzog and Béla Tarr. 

There are 50 chapters in this book, each dedicated to a director. Beneath the name of the director, there is a tagline defining the basic theme they have followed in almost all of their films. For example, below Steven Spielberg, you will see the words "Family Matters." 

Spielberg always portrayed family as a valuable entity in most of his films like there was a family that struggled together in "Jurassic Park", hundreds of Polish families were saved in "Schindler's List", a mother and son was reunited in "Saving Private Ryan". A Mecha [Robot] was given the love of a mother in "Artificial Intelligence" and a man returns to his family in The "Terminal." 

MK Raghavendra also included legendary directors Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, David Lean, Satyajit Ray and many other legends. It's good to see inclusion of acclaimed regional film directors from India such as Adoor Gopalakrishnan from the Malayalam Cinema and Ritwik Ghatak from the Bengali Film Industry.

Some disappointment you may have because it leaves modern directors Christopher Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson and Alfonso Cuaron. This book also ignores legends like Francis Ford Coppola and Roman Polanski but still the 50 that it talks about are legends and you will love understanding the approach with which they make films.

-Amrit Rukhaiyaar

This review is also associated with Indiblogger and HarperCollins.

Freedom

As a part of Write Tribe festival of words-3, the prompt for today is Free Write. As Evident with the name itself, you need to be free without worrying too much about the words and how it may look and write about anything that comes to your heart. 

The word free or freedom reminds me of many things; I will just write it one by one without caring about how it may sound.

1. childhood:, the time when "free" has its original meaning in your life. As a kid you don't have to do "this" to avoid "that", or any shit like that, a kid just lives and sleeps when he is tired. Being a kid is being free and nothing can be more free like that.

2. Free to spend: Money is not evil, trust me. only you need to spend it. Spend it for good, buy some food and share it with a poor child without worrying about the herd he/she will bring with him/her. Money has a weird rule and it really works, the more you give, the more it will come to you. 

3. Freedom of Speech: We live in a country where freedom of speech is a right. you know the importance of it, don't you? Enjoy it, but do not exploit it. Use it for good, bring a revolution if you see evil things happening around you, what ever you do, do not make a fool of yourself. Let everyone respect you for a speech you make, at least once in life.

4. Freedom also reminds me of Jonathan Livingston Seagull: that bird who chose to learn great levels of flying and wanted to 'live' instead of surviving by finding food with the flock. He chose freedom and solitude for living his dreams. It's a book everyone of you should read. 

Image by Google

Okay, I am gonna stop now and post it like that only. After all you don't get to be free everyday.

-Amritt 

"A Potpourri of Vestiges" #BlogLove

This post is a part of Write Tribe Festival of Words-3 and the prompt for Day 2 is Blog Love. 

Since I am asked to write about a blog I love, the first blog that comes to my mind is A Potpourri of Vestiges.

Image Courtesy: A Potpourri of Vestiges

A potpourri of vestiges is the home to the Avant-Garde, Auteur-Driven, Thought Provoking Cinema, that's how Murtaza likes to define his movie blog. Murtaza follows the best of cinema, that is, from Nosferatu [1922] to Dedh Ishqiya [2014].

As you open this blog, you come across a carousel panel where you find pictures from La Strada, Harakiri, Pyaasa, Citizen Kane or some other classical film by some legendary filmmaker. The reason why I like his blog is because Murtaza is not the regular movie reviewer type but he only chooses the greatest of cinema to review on his blog.

The first time I came across his blog when I was searching about Akira Kurosawa and Google landed me on to his blog. you won't find much of popular cinema on his blog but the critically acclaimed works that has international recognition. Murtaza's Top 100 movies is an authentic list that every movie enthusiast will love. I, being a movie blogger as well, look up to "a potpourri of vestiges" and try to learn anything I can learn about Movie Writing.

About Murtaza [in his own words]

"Murtaza Ali is an independent film critic, sports writer, and blogger based out of Delhi, India. He is the Founder/Editor of the movie blog, A Potpourri of Vestiges. He has been writing movie reviews at IMDB for over five years. He has been associated with F1 India as a content editor. He is also on the panel of reviewers at UltimateReviews, CinemaChronciles, FrontierWeekly, and PaGaLGuY. His education spans science, technology, and management. Cinema is not only his passion but also his greatest obsession. His all-time favorite movie-makers are Akira Kurosawa, Stanley Kubrick, Luis Bunuel, Andrei Tarkovsky, Charles Chaplin, Orson Welles, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Satyajit Ray, Fritz Lang, Sergio Leonne, Francis Ford Cuppola, Martin Scorsese, and Lars von Trier." 

-Amritt Rukhaiyaar

"buying" the happiness

"that's the one" his 17 years old son pointed at the Yamaha Electric Guitar in the mall.

"you sure, you want that thing, that's more expensive than our lifestyle" Dad remarked.

"But Dad, I don't wanna learn music on a cheaper one" His son demanded.

"Okay we will work on it some other time" The single parent said.

"Can't you work on buying me some happiness ever?" the motherless son complained for their poverty.

Three weeks later on his birthday, his son woke up to see the same guitar in his bed room.

His son loved the surprise, "thanks dad, you did work on it"

"Yes, Indeed" he replied.

Only it cost him his own kidney.

*************************************************

This Post is a part of the Write Tribe Festival of Words-3 and today's prompt was a "9 sentence fiction"

Winning is not a result, Winning is a philosophy.

I believe I am a right-brained person. No, I am not claiming I am the next Pablo Picasso or the Modern Shakespeare, but yes I am a writer. I have this dominant creative side and a less dominant logical side that makes me feel that winning is not creative, winning is too logical and mainstream, winning is overrated. Now, that goes for anyone who believes winning is largely claiming the first position. 

If you have a more profound definition of winning, than just merely reaching the top slot, you are in for a wise conversation about Winning.

I have my own beliefs about winning which I want to achieve as I grow old.

I am 24 years old, sometimes I have this conversation with my best friend about the stupid things I did when I was 16 or 17. I regret some personal or academic decisions I made at that age. Sometimes even worse, I desire to go back in time and change the set of events that happened. I hate myself when I don't appreciate my present, but then I recollect the last time somebody appreciated my work, how they gave a couple of precious hours of their lives thinking about what I wrote, it is that moment of appraisal when I feel that I won something. Respect, may be.

When I didn't care whether I should wear this White shirt or the Grey shirt for my paper presentation in the College Auditorium and I was more worried about the points I could make in that presentation, I felt I won. I won some wisdom as I grew old because when I was a teenager, the color of the shirt did matter. 

When I finish singing my favorite song in the shower or when I dance within the closed doors of my living room without being interrupted, I win. I win the pleasure of being at my craziest Avatar.

When I beat my personal best score in the maths test, yet not making the Top 10 in the class. I win comfort. The comfort of knowing the improvement I made without wasting my time on being jealous for the guy who topped, because for me the race has only one competitor and that's me.

So, I will win when I will be at a Bar watching a game of cricket with my best friends at 60. I will win when the greatest link to my past would be my siblings and not some photo album on Facebook. I will win when I will be 80 years old and have my children and grandchildren around me without anything to offer but time. 

When I will have a thousand stories to narrate to my grandchildren about my parents because I will win respect for the fact that I had time for my parents and the urge to know and understand them.

I wrote this article on winning as I desire to meet the greatest winners of the society we live in at the India Today Conclave 2014. 

IndiBlogger is providing another golden opportunity to the Indian Bloggers to feel good about Blogging.

So JANTA, what exactly do you want.

After the Nirbhaya Rape Case, people were so outraged, they had desires to be a vigilante themselves, they wanted to shoot the rapists in the head and they wanted instant justice for any crime, they even demanded that the govt should cut sexual organs of these Rapists, but the government [including Police] said THERE ARE PROCEDURES TO EVERY PUNISHMENT, WE MUST NOT VIOLATE IT and these procedures took almost an year to serve justice, so people were obviously not happy with this laid back attitude, basically they wanted a government that will be go out of the way to do whats necessary. They wanted heroism. So what they did, they ditched that government.

We almost believed that the Stupid common man have grown wiser and now understands what's right for the benefit of the nation, so they ditched the most corrupt party.

In comes a new Government, who has to take external support from that old government, because there was no other way they could start serving the same frustrated people, but they had a different ideology, totally different from that last government. The moment they get a complain, they come out of their house and jump directly into the people, offering help. Now there was a complain and evidence for a crime, but this time, not the government but only police [run by the same party, people ditched] are resistant to take an action, so this new young government becomes outraged and wants the criminals to be punished so this time the people says THERE ARE PROCEDURES TO EVERY PUNISHMENT, WE MUST NOT VIOLATE IT.

You first want a govt to go out of the way and do whats right and then you condemn the same govt for going out of the way for doing the right thing... you may argue with me on this and I know you will because deep within you are the STUPID COMMON MAN.

Aam Aadmi Party has been doing the finest effort to make a change to the society, they commit mistake but they want to do good for the people, but nobody praises their intentions but points out the little flaws they may have shown in the process. 

-Amrit Rukhaiyaar

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.