Jalebi - Movie Review

The Movie had me in a whirlwind of emotions. It starts with a low note. the distress the heroine was in was very heart touching and a father who is desperate to see his little girl happy but unable to do anything. The story has all of us believe that the perky girl had it coming for she fell in love with a young man quite different from her and had him believe he was madly in love with her. She is not that bubbly young girl now but an accomplished lady and yet the sorrow deep within her does not let her move along with her life. A chance encounter with her former lover and husband leaves the woman doubting herself and her love. The lady leaves her husband after a tragedy and they let us believe that her ambition got the best of her and took her away from her family. Many would not think twice to blame her for breaking her relationship cause the man was too good to be true. He was shown as a gentle, understanding, true gentleman  and so it must be the girl's fault for the ruining of the relationship. But at the end of the movie the way the boy justifies the breakup was so touching that it got me to tears. This has truly depicted the way of thinking of the millennials who give each other the same kind of respect and the same importance to the hopes and dreams of the other. This kind of thinking was not present a generation back where relations were given more importance than a person and so many of the dreams were crushed which lead to a lot of resentment. But today's generation has a new refreshing view of Life and this movie is a true testimony to that new way thinking and has left me feeling elated. That is a good story and it has been told really well. This I would say is a must see for all.


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Vanity Fair

I read a lot ...
that being evident from my past blogs I would like to add I am also a big fan of period romances.
Big Big Fan...

I watched Vanity Fair starring Reese Witherspoon, it was a lovely movie about a woman Becky Sharp who would do whatever it takes to survive, and that survivor instinct made her lose her love and life. Society, be it at that time or this frowns upon an ambitious women. They could not swallow the fact that a woman could outwit a man, infact several men. I wanted to read the book so I got into it. When I read the book I found out the author has a deep insight into the woman's world which only a few men are privileged to have. He understands woman on a level that normal people don't... he understands smart and ambitious woman and that is rare. Being a woman I myself could say that I have seen several woman who lost all ambition after marriage and I have seen woman fighting for their rights and equality and COMPLETELY lost their peace of mind. But I think that the author knows what a success is for a woman.

Here is a paragraph from the book I find insightful...

'The best of women are hypocrites. We don't know how much they hide from us; how watchful they are when they seem most artless and confidential; how often those frank smiles which they wear so easily, are traps to cajole or elude or disarm - I did not mean in your coquittes, but your domestic models, and paragons of female virtue. Who has not seen a woman hide the dullness of her stupid husband, or coax the fury of a savage one? We accept this amiable slavishness and praise a woman for it: we call this pretty treachery truth.

'
 
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Books

Good book is like a good friend
'Good book is like a good friend' is a quatable quote. Long time ago I read a lesson during my junior school about owning a book, 'sonta pustakam', it was an essay in which the authour brags about his little book collection and jelously guards his treasure from prying neighbours and friendswho want to "borrow" them only never to return. The author is emotionally attached to his books that he finds the thoughtof someone borrowing his books and writing in them as defiling them. 'Never borrow a book when you can buy it' he says for a good book is more like a friend, it keeps us company even in dire of circumstances,keeps us informed, and whenever you read it you will always find something fascinating and new.It appelead to me and my brother in different ways he was always very guarded, his books were preciouseven when I wanted to borrow his books he was always cautious, he had rules which included amoung other things, not to open the book completely so that I would not crease the spine of the book. It was funny really how I acknowledged to his every rule because he used to have so many books that I want to read them all. As long as I kept to his rules he had no problem lending me his books, but I never really understood his precautious behaviour until I got my own set of books. When my cousin started borrowing them and always either "forgot" to return or "misplaced" them. I was so irritated by his behaviour that I started to have a set of rules of my own. No borrrowing indefinately, all books should be returned exactly within a limited period, sounds like what you read in the rules section of the library right? It was something like that. I think those who like their books as much as I did would definately agree to my rule. It is a compulsory precaution to save your books from such reckless readers. I love my books,well that was melodramatic. May be not 'love' my books but I really like them so much they have always been there for me.




I have a little collection of my own as I have mentioned earlier.Now let me brag about my own collection,which is not much but I love them none the less. I love fantasy, and supernatural books, they seem to appel to the child in me.I love imagining those magical worlds around me so its no wonder that I have Tolkin's 'Lord of the Rings'and the whole set of Harry Potter in my collection. Mystery is always interesting the first books I ever read and encouraged me into reading are the Sherlock Holmes adventures. I do have the whole collection. I found out that none of the big budgeted movies have ever owned up to the books. It highly impossible for them to capture every element of the book.When I grew up my brother bought a book called 'Why men don't listen, and why women can't read maps' I should say it helped me a lot in understanding my spouse. Its not a self help book, it was quiet funny and entertaining and quiet educational actually, something everyone should read and understand. And I have read Dan Brown's collection too.And then when the Twilight series came I was all into it. Recently I read 'P.S I love you' and found it too boring for my taste, but the movie made me cry. Then I have this collection of 'Mahabharatam', 'Ramayanam', 'Bhagavatgeeta','Bhaagavatam' and 'Vishnu Puraanam' I like to read as a research into our culture. In my school days I read as manyNancy Drew and Hardyboys books as I could get my hands on. I find Biographys boring and Selfhelp books Irritating.I would like to own Jane Austins 'Pride and Prejudice' someday and 'Emma' too I have watched so many adaptations of these books that I wanted to read them once.

Love and Hate

Love and Hate are synonomous with each other. You cannot hate someone you haven't loved at some point of time. Because hating someone is not easy, it takes lot of energy and lot of knowledge of the other person to not to forgive then for what they have done. Yes to dislike someone, to strongly dislike someone is not even close to hating someone. When you dislike someone it gets easy for us after sometime to forgive them, but if you love someone and they hurt you then it leaves a mark, a hole in your heart that stays forever and that hole reminds us of their betrayal so much that to hate them feels natural. No the opposite of Loving something cannot be hate.

Show your True Colours

The problem with teenagers now-a-days is that they are trying to look like and be like someone else. No one, not just teenagers, no one should be like someone else. God made us different for a reason. Everyone is unique and everyone is beautiful and everyone is like a thread in a tapestry. Each have a unique destiny. Lives may intertwine like the threads of a tapestry but every thread has to follow its own path and find its own destination, thats how the beautiful tapestries are made. Fine yourself, find out your true colour and shine 'cause your color is as beautiful as the rest.

There is this tree in front of our apartment, a big gorgeous tree with pink flowers which blossom every other month. I love to watch this tree grow, grow right into my balcony where I could easily touch it. I love the way it sways when the wind blows, how its leaves wave at me in the morning when i wake up, how after a rain when I go out into my balcony the leaves shiver and I am showered with a perfect drizzel. I love the feel of fresh oxygen rushing into my lungs when I sit out with my book. Trees are special save them, this one infront of my house is my friend make one yourself. Plant a tree, watch it grow, feel its love, Save the planet...

You never fully dressed without a SMILE

A smile is something beautiful, something special, something warm, something caring, and is the mirror of your heart.

A person who smiles pleasantly is the best person to spend time with. We see many people smiling artificially, officially, mechanically and ofcource periodically but what good is it? A smile should be true and you get that true smile when you have a beautiful and careing heart. Keeping your mind clean of all unnecessary thoughts brings you closer to that smile. A smile is all a baby needs to make her the most lovable thing in your life. That innocent and beautiful is the only thing that is true in this world, a warm feeling that touches everyone who feels it coming at them. All the make-up you put on yourself could not attract someone as with a sweet smile, you cannot practice a sweet smile, we cannot immitate a capturing smile, That smile that radiates in everyone comes when we radiate ourself. Feel good about yourself, never feel bad about yourself cause everyone is special, - I knoe people hear it all the time but its true now as it was true the first time it was said. The uniqueness you have is the thing that makes you different from others and that is the ONLY thing that makes you special. Knowing you are special makes you happy and that would allow you to glow from inside and brings out the smile that you wear as the most bright, beautiful, and sparkling ornament. So remember you are never fully dressed without a beautiful and heartful smile.

Happiness is a choice

Happiness is a choice, its your choice.

You decide if you wanna be happy or not. People tend to blame others for their sorrows or tend to curse fate for their bad luck. But does anyone know that happiness what within you. It is not something that can be obtained from any outside source, it's always within you. People may give you gifts to make you happy but the choice to be happy is a gift you give yourself. The feeling of happiness is a blessing you don't need expensive gifts for that all you need is a positive mind. Stop thinking negative of everything around you, stop thinking the world is out to get you (like it has nothing better to do), stop thinking of yourself and think of others, when something sad happens find your happy place. Everyone has a happy place, a happiest moment in their lives that makes them all fuzzy and warm inside. Find that place and always try to make more of those.

There are two kinds of people in the world, people who go on a vacation and fuss about bad weather, bad hotel service, long distances of walk but there are those kind of people who think of this weather to be their special fortune, a bad hotel does not deter them cause they are going to enjoy the outdoors, and long walks means to be able to spend time and talk with their loved one. All you have to do is make yourself happy witht the situation and you definately be happy. Oh! and forgetting the bad memories will help a lot. Some times it's okay to forget.;-)

Romantic love is an illusion. Most of us discover this truth at the end of a love affair or else when the sweet emotions of love lead us into marriage and then turn down their flames.

When we were kids, we couldn't wait to grow up n fall in luv. Now that we are grown up, we realise that wounded knees were easier to heal than broken hearts.

Find arms that will hold u at ur weakest, eyes that will c u at ur ugliest, heart that will luv at ur worst, if u hv found it, u've found luv.

Loving is not how u forget but how u forgive, not how u listen but how u understand, not what u see but how u feel & not how u let go but how u hold on.

Movies now-a-days

What is the point of watching telugu movies anymore, such a waste of time and money.
I have stopped watching movies long time back... I wish I could say that but now and then I watch some stupid movie just to give my family and friends some company, and I regret my choice every time for I find more wrongs in them than any things else. Why does a person watch movies, I remember once writing an essay on movies when I was a kid ... Movies offer entertainment and a relief from our routine lives and responsibilities. They offer information of the world around and help us understand emotions. They give us knowledge while offering amusement... wow did I really write that because movies now-a-days doesn't have any of those. They make movies purely for entertainment purpose and not even a bit of it could be considered real. I don't know about you but the violence in movies now-a-days is so visually gruesome that anyone who considers that entertainment or fun is suffering with serious mental illness. To consider them informative would be like trying to teach people look this is how you could do it.

There are two kinds of movies one for the students and the other for the masses. Movies where children make fun of everyone respectful, parents, teachers and elders, call them names and make it sound like fun are for those impressionable students who think if 'Hero' does it then that must be something good right 'cause at the end a 'Hero' is the good guy right. So they find nothing wrong in calling their parents and teachers with nicknames, after all that's what heroes do. Do you agree? Then let me tell you ... what can I tell you you agree with all this... you must be a student or a movie producer. (they only think about money you know). These movies teach students
1. To make fun of people is the only way to be popular
2. To tease and make fun of girls is the only way to attract them (by the way if the villain does it its baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad, but if the hero does it it's ooookay, Now who decides who the hero is and who the villain is. ask them to dance who dances best is the hero and the other one is the villain, because there is no other difference between them really)
3. Not to learn anything, we are coming to college just to have fun and 'fall in love'. Any way if you are cunning enough you could cheat other people of of their hard earned money right.
4. The girl's parents are always the villains 'cause they do not want their girl to marry an idiot(with no formal education that's what u will become), a cheat('cause that's how you will be earning with out a good degree, if you earn anything), a lier ( who is to say now-a-days when even heroes are lying, you can never be safe) etc.
5. And girls, My God! I have to say girls, because they most definitely are not heroins they are nothing but props for some guy to fall in love, dress pretty, do nothing and dance when asked to.
I thought we were entering a new age where girls are liberated, but these movies show girls to be slaves, yes slaves to vanity. Use your head girls, not not your hair to stump boys because there comes another girl with much prettier hair than yours then where would be.

Have some dignity girls I need to write a separate blog about saving the dignity of girls everywhere 'cause this is not going to fit here.

6. A fight is the only solution. (no wonder students are destroying public property)


And the movie for the masses well they would believe anything almost anything if they have an item song and a few killings and dialogs like 'kanti cheeputoa champaestaa' like it is humanly possible.
Last time a watched a movie where the hero is upset because the film industry is hit hard, piracy is ruining the life of film producers, well all those who make movies like these deserve to be ruined, after all you are the one's who have robbed morality in people's minds. These movies have no morals, they do not differentiate between right and wrong, the mix the two up so much that anyone could draw their own conclusion now can you really blame someone who thinks instead of paying Rs.50 each for everyone in the family to watch violence, vulgarity and really loud noises(cannot bring myself to say music) it is quiet right to pay 30-40 for a DVD which offers 3 movies which the whole family could um....... watch or forward anytime we dislike something. I am not saying that is right, but you are producing films that make quiet an impression on people, so make something good or ultimately you too will suffer.

Movies should have good clean fun, there were times when a doctor, an engineer, an IAS or someone like that is a hero. Show that and make a better future. I won't say movies are the real evil 'cause only people can decide which is right for them, but can surely help them make a good decision by showing what is right and not what they want to see.

Gandhi - A great soul

Gandhi created a peaceful nation, we can hardly keep peace in our own family, but he made a country of suffering and downtrodden people, be patient and non-violent. who can do that? He had influenced the lives of so many people in a way no one can. People's actions can be controlled by sheer authority, but to have influence on their mind is a feet in itself. It is one thing to ask people not to be violent and it is another to create a sense of security in them that they themselves act in patience even in dire circumstances. Gandhi was not everywhere at the same time but his presence was felt. His words were in every one's heart urging them to be peaceful in their endeavors, he asked them to urge for freedom but never abuse the little they had by violence. He was never a politician he was a man of action. He never wanted authority to influence people. "Where ever there is injustice it should be fought, but not in a way that would disturb the peace" he said. Most have considered it to be impossible, but he was the one who showed the way of doing it, proving that his were no empty words. The words 'Satyagraham' and 'Nirahardiksha' could only be a political stunt now-a-days but they meant something back then. People were true to there word and died trying that way, because they believed in the cause and the path shown for them by Gandhi. He dressed the way a common man did because he wanted to be one of them, and he wanted the people to feel the same about him, he wanted them to accept him as their own and share their problems as they share them with each other.

When he was asked to leave Bihar, he did not leave because he felt that no one can deny him from going anywhere in his own country. He gained the attention of the poor, the rich, the educated and the illiterate, and people of all religions. A single man moved across the dirty roads of India with nothing but a stick had shook the roots of the British government and challenged their rule in this country. Being an advocate he knew, every legal move that the government could not compel them into doing. He wanted to change the point-of-view of the British, he wanted to see the people of India not as their slaves or servants but as intellectually equals. He proposed the 'Non-Cooperation Movement', suggesting to spend the time fasting and meditating. It was not religious but it was Nationalistic. His imprisonment had created violent behavior among his followers, but Gandhi used the same principles he used against the government, over his own people who took the path of violence for him. It was the respect for him, and nothing else that made a lot of people quit violence. The incident of Jalianwalabagh was the single most horrific incident that shook the entire nation, and held it in a grip of utter hatred for the British. The carnage that took place here would drive even the saints to vow vengeance. Even the British were utter horrified by this incident. Gandhi commanded that the British should leave the nation, which was when the British used the card they always did, divide-and-rule. They have started the war between the Hindus and Muslims which would allow an internal war among our leaders which might gain them some more time in India. But the days of British rule in India were numbered. Gandhi was not going to give in that easily, and he certainly would not allow his country to be divided. He pleaded for religious tolerance, he wanted every Indian to be on the same side and stop differentiating among each other. He preached that violence in not the way to grab attention, but it was our determination that would grab the attention of the British. He then suggested the 'Swadesi Movement' which would decrease the cost of living for the average Indian. "An-eye-for-an-eye is the way the world will end" Gandhi admitted, when violence erupted in Bengal. When British police were killed by an angry mob in Bengal and the violence that followed could not be controlled he took to fasting and refused to eat anything until everyone in Bengal stopped fighting. He stood by his principles that only Love and Truth were the ultimate reality. Whenever we are in doubt as to which path to take they should always stick to truth and love and they will never be wrong. To oppose injustice is every human right and British rule over India is an injustice that he could not tolerate.

Gandhi was not born great, he achieved greatness by walking through India and walking straight into every one's heart. Where ever he went thousands of people followed him. When he walked across the country to make salt, objecting the taxing of something as basic as salt. 'Salt Satyagraha' was started on the anniversary of Jalianwalabagh incident. He kept challenging the British government at every chance. The British government tried to imprison all his followers, the jails ran full but the people kept pouring in. When the British government could not provoke violence among the people, they tried to imprison Gandhi himself. The people of endured every punishment they received for supporting Gandhi without resistance, this forced the world see how shameful were the actions of the British government. Gandhi was the only representative from India to speak in the round table conference in London. When Britain was in the brink of war, he did not see it fit to think of taking advantage of the situation, he considered it backstabbing. After all said and done he always wanted to part with the British as friends. He was always worried about the increasing unrest between the Hindus and Muslims. He always suggested to take pride in one's profession. He always opposed the two slavery that plagued the Indians, slavery of women and slavery of the untouchables. Mohammad Ali Jinnah request for a free nation for the Muslims tore his heart. Jinnah feared the rule of Hindus over Muslims, but India has never been that Nation, not then not now. When Gandhi agreed for the partition of India it was not because he feared that such differentiation would happen, but because he did not want Muslims to feel that they were being ruled. Freedom should mean to be freedom of mind. He even suggested that Hindus would step down from any government positions,but that created quiet unrest from the people, they thought he was bending over backwards to accommodate Jinnah. When the time came for him to choose between two independent nations or an independent nation with constant civil unrest, the choice was obvious. He did not want his brothers to be constantly in conflict with each other. He assured that there will not be any difference among the people of India, but if anyone felt they have to leave, they could. But he could hardly have predicted the bloody exodus of people that followed. Hindus in Pakistan were forced to leave their houses and land, while Muslims in India feared the angry mobs of Hindus. Gandhi once again took to fasting until the unrest was settled. Even though his body was strong enough, he was not ready to see his principles die. This took quiet a toll on his health which was deteriorating every minute. He was shot dead while leaving for his daily prayer. A tragic end to a great life. His life has always been an open book. All he ever wanted was a peaceful nation.

We could only hope that his dreams would one day come true...