Arbit Scratchpad

Sanjay Leela Bhansali is unduly criticized ... His movies are very theatrical and that doesn't suit everyone's taste. Also in projecting scale he ends up missing out on depth (an exception perhaps was 'Black' with stellar performances by Rani Mukherjee and Amitabh Bachhan) The movie 'Ram-Leela' wasn't a bad movie at all, with spirited performances from the entire cast - Supriya Pathak stood out, with the feel of her character quite 'Shakespearean'! The beginning is straight out of 'the absurd'. The Indian kitsch was quite stylized.  With focus entirely on Gujarat I could see overtly covert political messages in the movie.  Few songs were memorable, choreography was top notch. Although some places the pace of narration was so high as to feel artificial, overly-dramatized and flawed. The ending could have been different.  Nonetheless, overall a vivid, colorful and creative entertainment package especially worth watching once,...

Does what happen in life depend a lot on chance or randomness? Many connections between incidents in our life will be random. Random or chance events can often decide or trigger what we come across and what we follow or choose to do or don’t do. Life is a combination of events some well planned some chance occurrences that can lead to a particular life-state based on the corresponding transition followed – ‘wave collapse’ as stated in quantum physics. Causality is connected to chance or the other way around? Does the causal link actually sever or is it a figment of our imagination given the probability associated with possible outcomes in every case? We try to associate meaning to an event or a non-event based on our state of mind trying to justify what happened! For example a book is often a cause for many important decisions in our lives; at least that has been the case or so I perceive, with me - so I’ll vouch for it. Sometimes we are forced into a situation as we are not actin...

May 25th - Left Bangalore reached Delhi by GoAir flight May 25th - Reached Haridwar by Jan Shatabdi May 26th - Haridwar stay at Rajasthan Guest House May 27th - Leave for Yamunotri (via Dehradun, Mussorie) May 27th - Night stay at Sayanachatti May 28th - Yamunotri trek (8:45 AM to 7:15 PM) May 28th - Night stay at Kharadi May 29th - Travel to/night stay Uttar Kashi May 30th - Travel to Gangotri via Harsil May 30th - Return to Uttar Kashi May 31st - Travel to / Night stay at Tilwara June 1st - Travel to Ukhimath (at 7:30 AM) - Visit Omkareshwar Temple June 1st - Visit Chopta - Reached around 9:30 AM June 1st - Chopta-Tunganath Trek (12:40 PM to 7:30 PM) June 1st - Night Stay in hut at Chopta June 2nd - Return to / Night stay at Devparayag June 3rd - Return to Haridwar June 3rd - Stay at Haridwar June 4th - Whole day stay at Haridwar June 5th - Haridwar to Delhi by Jan Shatabdi June 5th - GoAir flight - Delhi to Bangalore

We all feign, act and portray certain behaviors at some point in time in our lives, even if we are not truly what we are portraying ourselves to be. What is true (especially mental states) and what is not is again subjective, it depends on your inner state of things. Say you are nervous and feel low in confidence - is it really so or is it that your mind is auto-suggesting itself that you are low on confidence when you are actually confident (could be the opposite too). Pretension and faking/falsehood are not really positive aspects of any personality especially if the motive is ulterior, as in the case of professional swindlers. However at times we have to 'act' in order to get something done! Act pricey, act polite, act hurt - acts that we play out everyday. The movie ‘Nautanki Saala’ seems to have this underlying thread of fake it till you make it within the movie along with several aspects of the acting that we do. Act righteous, act nasty, act good and act bad to ...

All this noise Leaves us numb! I’d rather be Deaf and dumb! Sometimes it all sounds like laughter, Sometimes like a loud blast of shrieks! The cacophony distorts the real. As some solitary confine we seek. Am I being too pessimistic? Sound often gets masked out by visual delights. Listen for those moments of lows and highs! And wait. Just sit still, now. That heavy, creaking iron door, Makes sounds, Like some distant child Wailing, hurt! Ah! The vegetable-vendor hawking Booming sounds - like from some scuffle. Not cries of despair in a riot actually, But perhaps excitement over his greens! What do they speak, shout, bad-mouth about? Gossip or some pressing, important debate? Adda over coffee, on cricket and gang-rape. No maybe a social movement taking shape! Sparkling sounds of stainless steel kitchen utensils Sounding like drums - rock and roll. And then there is Music; That sounds like the Universe, whole!