कधीकधी काही ओळी उगाच मनाच्या गाभार्यात पिंगा घालतात नाही? कारण तसं काहीच नसतं पण पुन्हापुन्हा आठवत रहातात.....

खुशिया और गम सहती है

फिरभी ये चुप रहती है

अब तक किसीने ना जाना

जिंदगी क्या कहती है

जगे रहो मुन्नाभाई!

I stared in disbelief when I read how Sanjay Dutt believes that a woman should start using her husband’s last name after getting married because it’s our tradition। It’s pretty rich of him to talk about what is and isn’t our tradition, I say।

Whether to use her husband’s last name or not should be a woman’s choice entirely। Personally, I believe it’s cruel to ask her to wipe out the identity that was hers for 20 or odd years before she got married. And on the more practical side, in this day and age when many women have significant investments before their marriage, it isn’t easy to cope with the amount of paperwork necessary to effect the change – not to mention the running from pillar to post.

So Sanjubaba, please wake up and smell the coffee. What you want your latest wife to use as her last name is none of our concern but don’t you dare advise the rest of us what to do with our last names.

I am not going to watch Slumdog Millionaire – because I don’t like the idea of a foreigner coming to India to make a film on the slums here! Nope, I am not trying to sweep the problem under the carpet. I agree that we have a problem and the authorirties are doing precious little to solve it. Sometimes I एवें wonder if there’s any solution to it because the causes are so many – votebank politics, illegal immigrants, lure of the city life and little or no opportunities to earn livelihood in the villages – to cite just a few of them।

But my point is that every country on the face of this earth has a dark side। There is something not right about using problems in foreign countries to make films and mint money – even if you set up funds to try to solve these problems. The idea of a foreigner doing this sounds something like a stranger beaming an unkempt room of my home on primetime television!

Having said this, I am glad that AR Rehman and Gulzar have bagged Oscar nominations for this movie. I must admit though that I didn’t much like “Jay Ho” when I heard it on FM yesterday evening. My best wishes to them!

A few days back, a friend forwarded this SMS:

तुफानोमे कष्टिको किनारे भी मिलते है
जहाँ में लोगों को सहारे भी मिलते है
दुनिया में सबसे प्यारी है ज़िन्दगी
लेकिन कुछ लोग ज़िन्दगी से भी प्यारे मिलते है
Just like of course ME यार…..

I had great fun in sending this one back to him:

तुफानोमे कष्टिको भवर भी मिलते है
जहाँ में लोगों से सहारे भी छिनते है
दुनिया में सबसे भयानक है मौत
लेकिन कुछ लोग मौत से भी भयानक मिलते है
Just like of course YOU यार…..

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (Spoiler)

The more I read through “The Deathly Hallows” the more convinced I am getting that I have purchased some twisted copy of the original। Rowling’s plot cannot be this horrible. How can Ron leave Harry’s side? How can Harry’s wand snap in two? How can he and Hermione be still searching for the glimmer of knowledge when I am through almost a third of the book?

An unnecessary fear is welling up in the pit of my stomach – maybe the book ends with Harry’s death। Maybe the good hasn’t triumphed over evil this time. I had avoided visiting any news websites when this last book was published for the fear that I might unwittingly come across the ending. But surely if Harry was killed in the last novel the uproar from the fans would have been hard to ignore.

I also keep telling myself that since Ron and Hermione are in love with each other neither of them could die, isn’t it? But then again, this isn’t a typical Bollywood potboiler either to make such safe assumptions. I now have to battle this crazy impulse to check out the last few pages of the book to reassure myself that it does have a happy ending.

At this rate, I guess it will get harder and harder to keep the book down and go about my daily chores. :-(

Three world famous magicians were in the bar drinking and boasting about their achievements।

The first one said," During my latest show, I made three women from the audience disappear, it was so convincing that their relatives started panicking, no one could find the trick।"

The second one said, " Hey, that is nothing, during one of my open air shows I made the Municipality building disappear and the entire town was searching for it।"

The third one sighed and said," Both of you are so local, I went to Paris and made the Eiffel Tower disappear for a full one hour, it was live on the TV, entire France was searching for the building & no one had a clue।"

Just then an Indian walked into the bar and the three magicians suddenly turned quiet, gave each other fugitive glances and started to slip towards the door।

A Bartender watching this got curious and asked one of the magicians, "Hey what happened? Who is that guy?"

One of the magicians whispered, " He is the World's greatest magician, he has done the biggest disappearing trick of all times, we are all mere amateurs compared to what he has done. His name is Ramalinga Raju. He has made USD 1.5 billion disappear from his company's balance sheet in front of everyone's eyes, and the entire world is still looking for it."

काल एका मित्राने एक एसएमएस पाठवला:

ज्यांची ह्रदयं झाडांची त्यानाच फक्त फुलं येतात

तेच फक्त गुच्छासारखा पावसाला हूँगून घेतात

जून महिना यायला अद्याप ४-५ महिने आहेत पण आत्ताच खिड़कीबाहेर पाउस दिसला आणि पाठोपाठ गुलजारचं निवेदन असलेल्या माझ्या एका आवडत्या सीडीमधले त्यांचे शब्द आठवले:

दूर जब उस पहाडका टिला बादलोंसे ढक जाता था तब एक आवाज सुनाई देती थी

फ़िरसे आइओ बदरा बिदेसी तेरे पंखोपे मोती जडुगी

आजचा दिवस पावसाचा :-)

BTW....I forgot to bring this up in my last entry about "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". When Harry lands up at Tonks' parents' place, how is Ted Tonks able to mend his ribs, tooth and arm? He has been described as a muggle :-)