Anything For You Ma'am by Tushar Raheja

Last weekend was a long one and I had actually made some brilliant plans, but Varun Dev was not in good mood and he foiled it all.

I ended up reading a book called “Anything for you ma’am” by Tushar Raheja. It was marketed as “an IITian love story”, and the strategy tricked the poor souls like me. I went ahead and purchased the book expecting it to be on the similar lines of “Five Point Someone”. Not that I am a great fan of Chetan Bhagat, but his initial work was a good read. Every author gives their best shot in the first novel and seems to take the readers for granted in the next one!

Coming back to “Anything for you ma’am”, love story is passé, too cinematic, an archetypal script for YRF Bollywood masala! “Too many cooks spoil the broth”, similarly too many happenstances in a write can take away the pleasure and the punch of a narrative.


On the positive side, I liked the few lyrics that the author had penned. For a first timer, Tushar has done a good job. Also, getting his work printed at such a young age is an astounding accomplishment too!

Now that you have couple of long weekends ahead and if the rain plays spoilt sport, you can grab a copy (100 bucks for 250 pages) and get engrossed in this tale of coincidental incidents.

Do let me know your take on this IITian “love”ly fiction!

Kochiyude Kochu Kathakal (Short anecdotes of Kochi)

My sister forwarded an email from her school yahoo groups which described about how Kochi has evolved, the city where I had spent twenty years of my life. I had been to Kochi two years back and almost lost the way to my college. Four lanes, tall buildings, shopping malls, Mc Donalds, KFCs, Pizza Corners have almost conquered Kochi. One thing has not changed at all – traffic jam just before the North Bridge!


Earlier, every second Saturday we used to travel to Kochi – I can even recollect the names of the red colored private buses which used to take us there (Ambily, Ansamol) , watching movies at one of the theatres - Savitha/Saritha/Sangeetha complex / Padma / Shenoy / Sridhar, eating out at one of these restaurants - Ceylon Bake House / Dwarka / Woodlands / Bharath Tourist Home, shopping at Jayalakshmi / Seematti / Parthas, prominent areas - M G Road / Kacheripadi / Padma Junction / Marine Drive / Broadway …


During those days, girls if seen in Jeans and Skirts had to face wide stares and obscure comments. Eve teasing and pick pocketing were always on a higher scale. Can you imagine - I had given elucidations to neighbors for my late comings! The city was always ahead of its times but its inmates were always dogmatic and bigoted. May be it explains why my parents didn’t stay back in Kochi after retirement.

“Nothing is permanent but change” – Globalization should do well for the city which gave me sound education, illustrious teachers, good friends, variegated experiences of love, of camaraderie, of tiffs, of treacheries...lifelong moments to cherish and relish!

Queen of Arabian Sea, I'm coming!

Falling in to Fallen out?

Love is thought to be unconditional
Only to discover that it’s ruled by conditions!

Love is believed to be blind
Does it imply to seal the eyes and move ahead?

Love is supposed to be true and pure
Is pain and ache all that it has to offer?

It takes real time and effort to fall in love
And a single moment to fall out!

The power of C

A relationship nurtured with utmost care and attention is nipped before it buds and blossoms. Why?

On analyzing meticulously, the root CAUSE of any problem is expectations. If the expectations are like two sides of coin which never face each other, fall out is bound to happen. CURBing expectations can evade troubles. It requires tons of introspection and retrospection, only a determined person can reach to that stage, a step closer to saintly hood. COMPROMISE is another way to sort out issues. Relationship is comparable to clapping. It requires two hands to clap, similarly giving and taking should happen freely from both sides.

Is there are any other way to avoid altercations? If not, how far one should curb expectations and compromise?

Bad Dangerous Thriller

Yesterday, on VH1, King of Pop “Michael Jackson” songs was played back to back, a kind of tribute to him. It took me down memory lane.

During late 80s, my uncle had got the videos of Michael Jackson, Abba, BeeGees, BoneyM etc. I remember watching them with my cousin S on good old VCR. S, who was much younger to me tried to emulate MJs’ terrific dance moves and magnificent moon walks. Those days were indeed the best days of my life!

MJ,

I have grown up listening to you. You are peerless! A prodigy! Sad but true - We realize the value and worth of a person only when he/she dies. Quoting the lyrics of your song – “All I need to say is that they don't (read nobody) really care about us (read you)!!”

You have died but you continue to live through your music and moon walk. I don’t mind watching you groove to Billie Jean over and over again!



Thanks for entertaining us. May your soul rest in peace!

Just Another Fan

Abort a Detained Flu!

I fail to understand the life of a celebrity. Whatever they do, whatever they say, whatever they see, whatever they touch draw a lot of attention from media and common man alike - being discussed in newspapers, in television shows, in office cubicles, company’s board rooms!!


Mr Senior Bachchan had blogged about his Bahu Rani being bedridden with flu like symptoms. Hoards of people are dying of Swine Flu but media got a new topic to debate - Whether one Ms Rai , rather Mrs Junior Bachchan was suffering from Swine Flu? On the very next day, Mr Senior blogs and blames media for being too meddlesome and misquoting his words! Well, Mr Bachchan, why do you ever blog about your family, if you want too have a “perfect” “personal” life!


One Mr Badshah Khan was detained at an US airport for nearly two hours. Media got a new tale, a new thrill and they discussed about it with much hype and hoopla. Mr Badshah became their cynosure! They came up with an irrational, irrelevant “tit for tat” treatment for Americans when they come down to India for ill treating their favorite superstar! Mr. Badshah even quoted that his religion was one of the reasons for the extensive, extended interrogation. Well, Mr Khan, you are just another commoner and not superstar when it comes to security checks at airports! Remember, even Dr Kalam was not spared! Hope you have not forgotten to apply your tanda tanda cool “tel”!


Mr Perfectionist Khan doesn’t seem to be too perfect when it comes to blogging. Mr Perfectionist blogged about his wifey’s abortion. Media sensationalized it further by mentioning how Mr Perfectionist lost out in being a father, the third time. Well, Mr Khan, you wanted to let your fans know that you are taking a "break" from blogging but you ended up depressing them instead!


Some celebrities does not know to play their cards right - Mr Ahuja, What happened to your case? Are you guilty or being wrongly framed? Well, Mr Ahuja, its time to take lessons from some one named Ms Sawant, oops future Mrs Parujanwala!

Men are from Mars, Women from Venus

Today, "Ladki Kyun" from "Hum Tum" was one of the tracks that were played in FM. Prasoon Joshi had come up with some apt and adept lyrics for this song.



I really loved the final punch lines about men, very well delivered by Rani, which goes as below:-

“Pehle pehle bawarein jaise aas paas mandrai
Phir busy hoon kehkar tumko woh tarkai
Samjha karo darling aaj bahut kaam hai
Door hua to kya dil mein tumhaara naam hai
Jiss chehre par marte hai woh boring ho jaaye
Kuch hi din mein nazrein inki idhar udhar mandrai
Sirf pyaar se zindagi nahin chalti
Tum interior decoration ka course kyun nahin karti”

Men and women are poles apart in their attitudes and actions and is a lifetime enough to know each other?

Ahem!