A Movie Par Excellence

A classique example of intercaste marriage, very beautifully portrayed in the movie ‘Jodha Akbar’.

Jodha a typical Hindu girl, who only knows Lord Krishna, does all the customs a Hindu girl is supposed to do and dreams of marrying a Rajput and carrying on the traditions of their family.

Akbar, a true Muslim Emperor who prays to Allah to guide him before taking any decision, a fighter in every aspect.

Jodha is a pure vegetarian where as Akbar ate only flesh and meat most of the time.

This was their story. They were opposites in all aspects.

In this movie Akbar made the compromise. Being a Muslim he allowed his wife to follow her own religion, He decided to eat vegetarian food once a week and most importantly gave place for Lord Krishna in his house, which I think no one even in today’s generation would do.

Seeing Akbar’s love even Jodha learnt to adjust and learned Urdu. She stood by her husband throughout her life. And thus their marriage was successful.

This was Jodha-Akbar, one of the best movies that I have seen till date. This movie teaches us to accept all religions and people the way they are.

Jodha-Akbar belongs those olden days. But in thinking they are far better than us. Today if you decide to marry someone from the other caste, they force you to convert even if you don’t know the head and tail of that religion. You are forced to change your name, your entire identity.

I have many of my friends who have converted and are now known by the name their inlaws have chosen for them. They are born Hindus, but completely behave like Muslims. It was very difficult for them to adjust, but in the end the husband had an upper hand. They are still living this new life only for their love. Whether they are happy or not, No one cares. They doing what they are expected to do and keeping everyone around them happy.

Unfortunately there is no Akbar in today’s world who will stand up for his Jodha.

That is why this movie gained a lot of respect from all the castes and communities because we all know that we will never get to see another Jodha-Akbar in our lifetime.

Religion cannot be forced upon anyone. If you change only for the sake of it, you are not only insulting yourself but also you’re God.

Is there anyway that these old customs can be changed?

Is converting more important than protection of a human identity?

Vote For...

I, a citizen of this country and a resident of Mumbai would like to exercise my right to vote. But the difficulty is who will be the right person or the right party?

This year I would like to stay away from those ministers who are on their deathbed or who are in the operation theatre most of the time. I would also not want to vote for the political parties who are ready to do everything to make sure their community members get the jobs in Railways.

There has not been a single party who has become successful in making India a better place to live in. There is absolutely no law and order in our country. The crime rate is increasing every year.

To add to our misery each year a new set of actors and actresses enter the world of politics. After getting the Life Achievement Award they head straight to politics with absolutely no knowledge and understanding of the field.

As a result they only end up earning their share of money without doing justice to their role.

Hence my dear friends this year I would like to caste my vote to a very strong personality who has been in the news since 26/11 terror attacks. He is in the papers almost every day. He is Aamir Ajmal Kasab – the only terrorist who survived and is now in jail.

Before you all think that I have gone mad let me explain why.

I won’t be surprised if whatever I have written comes true and may be after some years even Kasab sitting in jail stands for elections, just like Abu Salem.

Firstly Kasab has done so much harm to us. He killed innocent people, he killed our policemen, our ATS officials, he and his colleagues had all the arms and ammunitions with them and they paralyzed us completely. It was 3 days of hell for everyone including the NSG commandos because of whom all the others were put to death.

Kasab did so much, but he is still alive, resting peacefully in our Arthur Road jail, infact demanding for a T.V. and the newspaper. Also our government has already spent 50 lakh only for the security of a terrorist! You imagine the importance of this person.

He gave us the entire plan of 26/11, the whole story was revealed to the police and even the masterminds have been exposed. But our Govt who has all the facts and figures in place is doing nothing but talking to Pakistan ever since that dreadful incident happened.

Plus point of voting for Kasab is that he can give us a crash course on how to become a terrorist. He can brainwash us, he can teach us how to use the guns, the grenade bombs. Basically he can train us very well so that next time if any other Kasab comes to India we can handle him ourselves. We would not disturb the police.

Our courts take their own sweet time in declaring a punishment for a criminal. May be another decade would go in deciding what should be the punishment for Kasab. In the meanwhile all his expenses would be borne by us.

If Kasab comes to power, this problem will be solved automatically.

His story has inspired many young children of our schools and colleges. Today our children are not scared of killing their friends. All thanks to Kasab who has removed the fear of punishment from their minds. In our country a punishment for a serious offense like murder is only a life imprisonment.

Friends I really hope that nothing mentioned above comes true. However if the Government does not do anything for the common man, it wont take much time for a him to loose his temper and do something which he is not supposed to do. This post is not to provoke anybody, neither is it to defend anyone, its just a common man’s frustration.

Everyone affected by the 26/11 attacks and everyone who are not affected are waiting for justice to happen …..This time it has to be done quickly.

As I walk thru life....

As I walk thru another year of my life I look back to find that my life has not been normal like everyone around. You can say I m destiny’s child .It keeps throwing cards at me but I somehow failed to play the game properly.

Life has given me a lot of surprises few good and maximum bad. It gave me parents but did not to give me their support, it gave me education but failed to support it with a good job, it gave me money but not one chance to save it, it gave me lots of friends but missed to give me a sibling with whom I could share my insecurities and worries, it gave me love but did not give me the understanding and maturity to take care of it. It gave me freedom to take decisions but proved them all wrong.

This has been my life with fewer ups and more downs. It is unexpected that in spite of being a slowest in the race, I still have people around me to pick me up when I fall. .God has gifted me with some very tolerant people who patiently listen to me when I go all depressed cribbing about my sad life.

As I walk thru life… I have realized that I am not moving ahead. While people around me are climbing the ladder towards success; my ladder seems to be missing and I m still searching for it…

As I walk thru life…I realized that I have not maintained relations. But I’m happy they were really not worth it. I always believe in having a pure and fair relation. There is no place for ego and attitude here.

As I walk thru life… I realized that I took all decisions from my heart and not from my brain. I listened to my heart most of the time and maybe that’s why I m still left behind.

As I walk thru life… I realized that I am very weak and end up displaying my emotions. And that it’s high time I learn to take control of them.

As I walk thru life. I realized that when it’s my turn to get some gift I m always the last one in the queue. And the best has always gone to the people ahead of me.

As I walk thru life… I thank God for playing his role very well as there have been many instances where I have fought with him and refused to talk to him for days together. But he’s still there somewhere looking at me and may be even he is very helpless as he has too many people to attend to.

As I walk thru life… I realized that the day to day happiness is more special than a big reward from life.

As I walk thru life… I cannot promise anything to myself but only make sure that I don’t end up hurting anyone. I promise to give everyone around me the best of what I have and what I can afford which I have been doing since so many years.

As I walk thru life…I’m happy that I learnt to cry alone. And that one by one I need to learn to deal with everything else mentioned above.

As I walk thru life …A loved one asked me “What have you achieved in life?” And I still seem to be searching for that answer.

And as you all read thru this post, I just want to tell u that, Don’t think about the Past or the future. Just concentrate on the Present as the name says it’s a gift. Try to make it beautiful and special….

God has decided a certain percentage of joys and sorrows in everyone’s life.
Neither it can go 1% higher nor can it come 1% lower. It’s fixed.

And only when I understand this equation of life may be half my problems will end there.

As I end this post I would just like to say:

Miracles happen… And even if they don’t its ok. It’s not necessary that God should give you everything you ask for.

Arranged Marriage

Marriages are made in Heaven !

But we meet our partner only on this earth.

Marriage whether love or arranged is a compromise in itself .. Where arranged marriage is all about the boy and his family,their whims and fancies , love marriage is a struggle to marry that person and adjust to his family throughout your life.

Let me take you through this journey of Arranged Marriage....

Arranged marriage- Our parents arrange and then we agree for it. The girl has to go through the entire process right from registering in Shaadi.com to clicking snaps in different dresses and making a portfolio. The parents try to spread the word among all the relatives that we have a girl who is of marriageable age-Need a groom for her!

Then starts the process of selection and rejection. Some meet up in malls, some in hotels, and some meet up at home. And if the conference is at the girl's house, the girl's side start the preparation 2 weeks in advance. The house gets a cleanup, curtains are changed, a new set of crockery is opened,a new bunch of artificial flowers is picked up from Crawford Market. Basically the whole house gets a makeover! The girl is forced to wear a saree even though she is more comortable in a salwar kameez.She undergoes a training how to walk, how serve tea to the guy, how to feel shy etc.

The bride's mother will make a variety of dishes or may even order it from the caterers;like sabudana vada, kande pohe, dahi vada, samosa,gajjar halwa, gulab jamun...(yummy). But when these things are served to the boy and his family every dish is introduced by saying "Have this, Its made by daughter".

The whole family sorrounds the couple, making them feel uncomfortable . After a long session of question and answers they somehow manage to rob sometime under the pretext of the girl showing the boy her house or her room and may be some kind of creative stuff which she may have made in 04th or 05th standard.

After this meeting if both the parties say 'yes' then the couple is allowed to meet and hangout together. In the meanwhile both the families start their work by getting ready for a "Chat mangani and Paat shaadi".

Booking of hall, arranging for the caterers, invitation list, buying of gold, shopping for the groom and his family, checking out kanchivaram sarrees, accomadation for the relatives who are coming from the native place, Sangeet, Mehndi, Shaadi, Bidaai...phew. Everyone gets involved in this entire activity wholeheartedly.

Finally the D-Day arrives, the bride and the groom take vows of protecting their marriage and taking care of each other throughout their life. They go through the Saath Pheras, the groom puts sindoor and the mangalsutra to the bride and from Miss she becomes Mrs......

Tears of joy and sorrow is seen in the eyes of the bride's family.

They bid a heartfelt goodbye to her as she steps into her new role of a wife and of a daughter in law and goes to her new house.

All the preparations that were done over a period of almost a year, the dream that everyone dreamed together, finally comes true on that one day.....

(This post is dedicated to everyone who are going through this process and are at some stage or the other. For now Namrata its for you...We will all miss you a lot .. )

Lots of Luv

From all of us from 8.44 Vasai local.

Life an experience in itself...!

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...

It's about learning to dance in the rain

Life consists of a lot of emotions, up and downs, good and bad days. It is full of twists and turns. The road is never straight. While walking down this road you will see the seasons changing, the flowers and trees blooming and then dying off.

You‘ll see animals loving and fighting with each other.
It is basically a complete package of love, hatred, care, trust, betrayal, happiness, sadness, problems, jealously, etc.

Some important parts of our life:
Dreams : They hold a very special place in our lives. It is only because we dream that we get the motivation to do things in life. It is only dream that drives us to do the things which we never thought we would do. When we sleep at night we dream and they help us begin a new day. But then what happens when dreams break. They don’t make any sound but it hurts a lot. At times we stop to think are we dreaming the right dream?

For some people dreams come true, for others dreams remain dreams.

People: One part of our life which we can never ignore . We laugh with them, cry with them, experience our whole life with them in short we live with them. They are never constant. When some people move out of your life some others walk in. Everyone affect our life in some way or the other. Some leave behind good memories while going and some come and destroy your world completely making you feel empty. But inspite of all this we can’t live alone. We need people and in order to keep them we should maintain relations.

Sometimes we have to sacrifice our principles and self respect in the bargain.

Problems: They are our best friends. Some of us are just not used to living without them. We are so used to them that when aren’t around our life doesn’t seem complete. They say when you face a series of problems God is testing you. But what do you if you are only giving tests and examinations and keep failing in them again and again? What does one do if he/she doesn’t pass in it and go to the next level?
“Hope .. Believe.. Trust…”
We often say these words to each other when one is going through a major crisis in their life. We motivate our friends and loved ones by showing them that there is a future and how they need to stay as positive as possible even if they are completely crushed by life.

We talk about life and the challenges that life throws at us.

But then how many of us actually believe in all this?

Destiny : The creator and destroyer of everything that happens in our lives.Most of the times instead of us it’s our destiny which controls our life. This is something which is written by God. Everything is well planned. And as time passes one by one the life goes on opening its pages. There are many people who are fighting against their destiny. Everyday they are constantly trying their best to win the game. But little do they know that they can never win against something that is already decided.
I have always seen that destiny has been kind to some people and harsh to some. One set of people just get everything in their plate without even asking for it. Another set of people get everything that they point out to.

The 3rd set do the hard work, keep a positive attitude and finally get their stuff.

And the last set of people dream a lot, try their best to have people around them, fight and fight through their problems, stay as positive as they can in spite of life giving them only tears and bad luck, still manage to keep a small hope in the corner of their heart that things will be fine, with a belief that one day destiny will smile at them!

To everyone reading this post, it is dedicated to the last set.

Peace Rally @ Gateway

I was very frustrated, especially after the Taj incident and the terror attack. It was so difficult for me to actually come back to normal. I had made myself completely negative and arrogant. Smses were being circulated about the Peace March on 03rd Dec. I decided to take part in it. I wanted to be a part of this event.

My colleagues and I boarded a cab from my office to Gateway. The roads were packed. The traffic was moving very slowly. It was 20 mins that we were in the cab and we had reached only Fountain. While we were on our way I got a call from one of my colleagues from office informing me about the RDX being found at V.T. station. I thought for while, and then took a decision to go ahead with the march. Our taxi somehow crawled near Regal cinema. I could see people walking towards Gateway, with boards in their hands. We got down and started walking with the crowd. The road to go to Gateway was packed with people. People were screaming and shouting slogans like ‘Vande Mataram’, ‘Bristish Rule, Come back’. I could actually see how angry and frustrated the common man was with the system. We held on to each other as there were chances of getting lost in the crowd and not meeting again. Mobile networks were down. More and more people were joining in. Everyone knew about the bomb which was found at CST station but this time people were too busy to be bothered. They kept saying that ‘We would rather die here in the march than die while dining with our family…;

I finally reached my destination. The Taj which I had only been watching on television. We were not allowed to go close to the Taj. There was a rope which was like the LOC which we were not supposed to cross. I held on to the rope and looked at the TAJ .

One side of the rope was me and the mad crowd behind me and on the other side was the TAJ, the policemen, the NSG commandos and silence. It was terrible. As I stood there with tears in my eyes, I could feel someone crying.. It was the TAJ. It was crying bitterly, Saying “See what they did to me,. they burnt me, they broke my windows, my dome is damaged completely, they killed my children , there’s only blood everywhere…’
I was speechless. I just could not stop my tears. I could not do anything to save my Taj.

I was interrupted by the crowd who had now started shouting,
“ Hemant Karkare Zindabad,
Vijay Salaskar Zindabad,
Unnikrishna Zindabad,
Ashok Kamte Zindabad”


I looked up at the sky. I could feel them. They were listening to us. They were all there, in that silence. As I walked alongside the rope to return the crowd started screaming “Police force Zindabad, NSG commandos Zindabad” I shook hands with the NSG commando standing there and gave him a salute and thanked him for being there.

For the first time I was a part of such a big event .They predicted 10,000 people and a crowd of 5 lakh turned up! Everyone was only talking ill against the politicians. They were so agitated, so angry. Everyone had only one question “What is the use of the govt?”

Why should we vote when we know that which ever party will come to power will not able to fight against terrorism?

Reconstruction has started at the TAJ, and the Oberoi, stations have been beefed up with high security, peace march is over, life is slowly coming back to normal.

- The politicians may forget 26Nov 2008, but we will never allow them to forget.

Letter to Mr. Raj Thackrey

Dear Sir,

Since childhood, I always admired you as a strong human being, as a politician who’ll stand by what he said, as a perfect leader, The persona and the style that you carried is something which I thought all the politicians should have. It had set in me that after Mr. Bal Thackrey you are the next person who will lead the Shiv Sena. You were always my favourite, I always admired your frankness.

I felt very bitter when you were not given the right to lead the Shivesena, but then felt better after hearing that you have started with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). I was very proud of you, as there were a lot of the youth who joined you, I believed that you will do something for us and MNS will make a difference.


But one by one the incidents that happened made me realize that I was wrong.
As I grew up, I started realizing that I was living under a illusion. MNS was not all that perfect as much as I thought it would be.

The North Indians were beaten up miserably. The verbal fights was changed to physical and mental torture. These small small issues started becoming a ‘breaking news’ in every news channels.
The issue was not that big. It could have been dealt with more maturity.

You were the 01st one to point fingers at and yell out that we have outsiders in our Mumbai, But Sir, these outsiders never killed anyone, they never did any harm to anyone. Infact they were ready to do the jobs which you and me probably would refuse to do.


On 26th Nov, another set of ‘outsiders’ came in. They destroyed our very own Mumbai. They ruthlessly killed everyone around them, they did not have mercy on anybody, These outsiders have weakened our police force. They went on killing all the people which included a lot of Maharashtrains. There was only blood, bullets, grenade bombs, dead bodies and tears, everywhere in Mumbai.


This time why didn’t you come forward and help the NSG commandos to destroy them? I asked you this question because you always claim that Mumbai belongs to you and the Maharashtrains deserve all the jobs here. You were against everyone who migrated to Mumbai.

85% of the police force is Maharashtrains. Then why didn’t you do anything for them.

The reason I have written this letter to you is only to understand that if you could do so much against the North Indians who come here only to earn a living, then where were you when these terrorists were going on eliminating your people?

Why did you make such a difference?

-by a stupid common man