6 Degrees - Game of Blogs Book Review

6 Degrees - Game of Blogs by BlogAdda.com

This interesting book is also available at Amazon, Flipkart and GoodReads!! 

Madaari

Movie Review (Hindi)

Irrfan Khan is one of my favourite actors and I wanted to watch this movie only because he stars in it. As usual, he did not let me down. But the movie did. I was impressed with the opening and the jump cuts and the montage effect. Each of the actors played their parts so well but the story just lost its grip. I certainly did not expect it to end the way it did. All the effort, the buildup and then nothing. I know it is nice to reveal that our politicians fleece us and make false promises, but what's new? Also, could the director not come up with a PM who did not look like our own Prime Minister? 

The movie reminded me of A Wednesday starring Naseeruddin Shah, the common man, who like Irrfan, takes on the system and demands justice. Comparing the two, Madaari loses. 

Such scope to let the actors carry the film forward and such mishandling in telling the story!! On the whole, please watch but do not blame me if you get bored at times!!

My Dreams and Passion

I am blogging about my dreams and passions for the Club Mahindra#DreamTrails activity at BlogAdda. You can get a Club Mahindra Membership to own your holidays!

I am a History buff and from this love emerges the love for travel, art and culture. If I could just travel to all the places rich in history (which is almost the entire world!!) I think I would be the happiest person. I know I would barely be able to cover all the places I would want to visit in my lifetime, but the journey is so full of wonder that I don’t mind leaving it incomplete.

This is all about time travel, only going backwards. As I enter monuments frozen in time, I cannot resist caressing the walls or the pillars. I shut my eyes trying to recreate a moment from the past. I feel a deep sense of longing for that era. Every image in an ancient place of worship, a boudoir in a palace, a palace garden, each of these has a story to tell and I really would love to have been a part of all that.

Imagine being a part of the bustling Meena bazaar during Shahjahan’s time in the Red Fort premises which is now like any other flea market. Imagine Fatehpur Sikri where Akbar held council with the navratnas of his darbar, or his discussions on Deen-e-Ilahi at the Ibadat Khana. Old Forts and underground tunnels almost resound with gunfire.

While in Kurukshetra in Haryana, I stand under the huge peepal tree where Lord Krishna delivered the Bhagwad Gita to Arjuna before the Kurukshetra war, trying to imagine the scenario. A little ahead lies the Bheeshma Kund , a water body created by Arjuna’s arrow to quench Bheeshma’s thirst and as I dip my fingers in it I love to feel that I am a part of that story. Whether it is mythology or history, it is a part of our past and it grips me.

As I tour the Ajanta caves I try to look into the lives of monks and their daily routine. I try to see how the artists went about painting the walls in darkness filling them up with exquisite scenes or sculpting a majestic profile of the Buddha.

It is really an exciting and enticing moment to be sharing history going back hundreds or thousands of years.

History for me is not gone, it is close at hand. One needs to feel it and make a connection. As I travel, I love to interact with people asking them about their past and the changes in their environment in the past few decades. I am attracted to  art that each place speaks of which varies from the way houses are made, to the dress they wear, moving on to their culture including language and food.

It is a never ending romance that I share with travel, art and culture and with the time I have I hope my passion makes my life rich and meaningful.