Happy Diwali

Diwali has always been a favourite festival....Not just for the firework part...but in general...

Be it-

the hot oil bath, before sunrise;
the occasional paaya from Shivaji Nagar;
the trade-mark Masala Dosa/Jamoon combination for breakfast;
the single fire-cracker that must be lit for the saasthram purpose;
or the diyas which beautifully light up the house...

Must of us have matured from an age, where we would envy the neighbour for an extra load of fireworks that he has, to the touch cracker not age

In school and College, Diwali would be a season of pranks; be it the dots which were carefully placed below the chairs...Or the agarbatti bombs which were planted in the loo. The must dificult part was smuggling in the crackers.

@Work, Diwali would just be a reason for us to flaunt our traditional clothes and wait in queue to pick up the yearly mithai. Following this would be a poor dance performance in the roof.

This year many preferred to celebrate a Green Diwali, and vowed not to touch fireworks...But Diwali is far from Green for me....I would prefer more colours, for a rather yucky green!! (Forgive me for the bad humour)

So all of you out there....Have a Happy and SAFE Diwali!!!

Googled Helpline for Diwali related Accidents

To Sir, with Love

We all have had teachers, helping us pave a perfect path to the future that we decide. With time, we do forget them, unless reminded by one reason or another.

One of them, who I remember is Mr. Padmanabhaiah, a retired Math professor, in pre-university.

The man had long retired from College, but continued to teach at a private tutorial institute. On first encounter, I remember seeing a bald man, with a goNicheela for a bag, and riding on a single-seater Luna.

On strong advice from friends and all, I had decided to attend his CET classes. I should say: those 12 classes that I had attended of his, were unbelievable. My approach towards numbers had taken a turn for the good. It eventually helped in cracking Maths @ CET which was quite a challenge, for most people like me.

His offline help was the best. All the other regular lots were unapproachable post the sessions. So much so for his approachability, some of us had regular visits to his place, to clear the sea of doubts we used to have. All of this, with sumptuous breakfast and hot steaming filter coffee.

As it would happen, post pre-university, college and now in Work, memoirs of him and his unique teaching style, faded away.

Then, one day, I heard from a college friend, that he was no more. In the 2 minutes of mourning, post this news I heard, my mind raced behind in time, remembering all he was, A True teacher...A True Guru.

A Wednesday

When I heard the title of this movie, I brushed it aside, as just another one. But Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher in the main cast did catch my attention.

When I did manage to watch it a month later, realised that the movie is a neat little surprise package. "Little" here is in the literal sense, cos the movie doesn't stretch beyond 1.5 hours. Think both Shah and Kher, must have had a mind battle, in proving their excellence in acting. Ofcourse, they can be easily dubbed them as the finest actors in contemporary cinema.

The film starts with Prakash Rathod (played by Kher), a retired policeman, narrating an incident which occurred on a Wednesday, during his stint as the Commissioner.

The next scene, cuts to a post middle-aged man (Shah), who is placing bags all over Mumbai; Railway Terminus, Police station et al. The movie gathers steam, when he calls Rathod and says that he has placed bombs all over Mumbai, and will set them off, if 4 deadly terrorists are not released.

After much dabbling and realizing the seriousness of the situation, Rathod obliges. But he gets his best officers, Arif Khan (Jimmy Shergill) and Jai (Amir Bashir), to track the unknown caller. The caller, also informs a TV reporter, Naina Roy (Deepal Shaw) about this, but not providing her the full details. The news hungry Media team implicitly helps him in keeping a track of the situation.

The movie follows through as any other regular thriller, with a predictable twist towards the end.

There are some glitches, like the justification given by Shah, for his act, which seems unreal. The RDX being easily planted in the police station (like he was not frisked) etc etc.

But overall, the plot is pretty tight, with no drag-around (or songs rather). Also, the sorry state of the Indian Media, is exhibited in a very subtle manner.

The dialogue delivery by both Shah and Kher with the camera focused on the face is awesome (Sorry Sarkar, this was much better). Jimmy looks better with less dialogues and being more of a gum chewing, no-nonsense cop.

Something which was rather hard to believe, was the technology used by the Mumbai Police. The scenes where they try to track down the caller, seems a bit Bourneish. Really hope, that they do use such cutting-edge technology, in real life.

Reco: Should watch, if you’re bored of the regular Bollywood flicks. This is a fresh one.

And all you critics who are trying to rip this movie apart, try the other ones around; they are more crappy, according to me.

Best line: "Main apko us aadmi ka naam nahi bataunga…kyunko aadmi, naam mein mazab doond leta hain" (By Rathod in the background)