Raaaamu...Organic Aalu wala samosa lao :)

Snob value or healthier option - Organic Food comes with a truckload of perceptions and biases. My latest article on Rediff debates both sides of the story and gives options on how one can incorporate Organic Food into one's daily diet (if you should choose to).

Read the story here. 

The Ramzan Food Trail

I personally believe I have a lot of will power. But when it comes to food, I just can not stay away. Thus, except for one day in the entire year, I can not even miss a meal, let alone fast for the entire day. I find it an extraordinary show of personal will when people fast for long periods of time like in Ramzan.

The stunning and massive Jama Masjid, Delhi

Ramadan is the holiest month of the Islamic Calendar. Fasting from dawn till dusk, Iftar is the meal that breaks the fast in the night. Thus, if you have delicious and lipsmacking food on your mind, joining in on these revelries is highly recommended.

My fav. at Karim's - The Korma!

My latest article on Rediff is a Food Trail that guides the discerning foodie through the best Iftar options in Delhi. Don't miss this one!

Read the article by clicking here.

Lootera - An oldie but a goldie

Lootera doesn't have too much to pull the crowds in. Let's face it, there is only so much Sonakshi Sinha can claim to her name besides having a popular father and starring with the biggies. Or so I thought. To be fair, the only thing that pulled me to the movie was Ranveer Singh, the cheeky underdog whose endearing acting in Band Baaja Baaraat entertained thoroughly. I was to be proven wrong.

Lootera is set in the 1950s in newly independent India. The movie traces the unlikely love story of a Zamindar's daughter. The couple meet in her village but fates do not favour them. Until many years later when their paths chance to cross again.

The movie is nostalgic, the vintage cars beautiful and the entire feel of the film is something like a softly (and slowly) sung ballad. The only hitch is that it is predictable. Very predictable. There are 2 twists in the film and I found myself waiting for them to be revealed, rather than be surprised by them. Perhaps having read the story by O'Henry (that the film is inspired by), this was to be expected.

Having said that, there wasn't a moment in the film that I was bored. Agreeably, it was a slow screenplay. But one that you don't mind witnessing.

Ranveer Singh, unfortunately disappoints. Its not so much that he didn't act well as much as he held himself back too much. He was broody, non descript and often unnecessary. Only in some scenes did he break through the mould and be the effortless actor that he can be. Thus it is no surprise that his friend Dev seemed so much more interesting than him. So much so that at one point one is forced to wonder why Sonakshi didn't fall for him instead!

Which brings me to the best part of the movie. Sonakshi Sinha has never struck a chord with me. I find her unattractive, loud and an unneccesary accessory in movies. None of this is true for this film. She finally proved that she can act. Pakhi is soft and pretty when she needs to be and a fireball when required. She keeps the film together and she keeps it real. I am forced to eat my words!

All in all, not a blockbuster but definitely a film one should watch.

Rating: 3 on 5

Paisa wasool moment: An unlikely choice but the scene where they both battle for him to give her an injection. Simple scene but screams of passion and selfless love.

posted from Bloggeroid

If thou must love me

If thou must love me, let it be for nought 

Except for love's sake only. Do not say, 

"I love her for her smile—her look—her way 

Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought 

That falls in well with mine, and certes brought 

A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"— 

For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may 

Be changed, or change for thee—and love, so wrought, 

May be unwrought so. Neither love me for 

Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry: 

A creature might forget to weep, who bore 

Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby! 

But love me for love's sake, that evermore 

Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 

Letting go

I believe in Euthanasia.

Just reading the sentence above, you are probably shaking your head already. That is how controversial the topic is. Some call it playing god, some messing with nature. But doesn't medical science already do that? Play god? Decide who should live, how long and in what condition?

I am talking about cases where there is no hope of a recovery. About cases where the person is dying a slow painful death. Where god has already set the person's path to him but we with our medical interventions keep postponing the inevitable. We have the capacity to make the organs run artificially, for the heart to beat, the lungs to breathe. But this is not life. This is not how he designed it. It is not meant to be this way. Life is when you are conscious, aware of your whereabouts. When you have control over your faculties. Life is justifiable when you can maintain your dignity and your pride.

The rest is our personal selfishness. We hold on to those we love, not letting them go. More for ourselves than for them. We do not know how we will cope without them or how we can bear the burden of playing god for them. But sometimes we need to be strong. And show them the love and respect that they have shown us all their lives while they were alive. We need to say our goodbyes. And we need to let them go. Hoping that there is a happier place waiting for them. Away from the disinfectant smell of the hospital, away from the humming of the life support machines. Away from hanging on the cliff. We need to let them fall. So that they may soar.

I know that those who love me may not like this. But I would not like to live like that. I would like to go suddenly...without prolonged suffering. I would like to die when I am healthy. When I can speak my opinions and run a mile. If that is when I am 70 or 75 or whatever age, I would like to say my goodbyes and walk into the sunset. Because that is how I would like to be remembered. As a person who lived...who smiled...who thought.

  

An open letter to the Curious Mind

Dear Curious Mind,

I understand where you are coming from. Atleast I try to. I understand the need in you to know. To connect the dots. So I do not take offence when you, a person who barely knows me, asks me personal questions like whether I am married, how old my daughter is or where I live. Though I do not enjoy them, I can also understand your need to relate to my career decisions and explore the reasons on why I quit my job to write.     Or where my sister lives...since when...how many dogs she has etc etc.

The problem is that you do not just want to gather information. You want to plot a graph. And perhaps a character sketch. I so know when you ask me what school I am from, what the next response is going to be. Let me say it outright. 'Everyone' knows someone who passed out from DPS RK Puram. No, I do not know so and so. There were 2000 kids in my batch and I did not know 98% of them. Some I did not know by chance, some I chose not to! Similarly, there are more than 60,000 people who work in HCL and I think I knew around 50 of them. So the probability of me knowing so and so's friend's husband is as remote as a flying muggle.

I understand that these are the ways and means of polite(!!) conversation, an art that I fail miserably at. But if you really want to know me better, ask my opinions. Ask me how I feel about things or instances. Explore my mind and not my bio data! And perhaps, just perhaps I may choose to open my thoughts and myself to you. But if plotting the dots is all you need to do, I warn you, I'm not going to be a fun conversationalist!

Kind regards