PAATHSHALA

yesterday i saw the movie..Paathshala, and I didnt start with any expectation, but found it a good, clean, simple fun, and they have raised a very valid point..today all the parents want to give their children schools with all the facilities,and comfort, whereas schools are not five star hotels,they are not meant for comforts and indulgence,but they are a place to learn, and they shape your personality by hard labour and discipline. And the main emphasis should be on academics but what is happening is that to encash this psychology of parents, people are commercialising a noble profession, they are making glitzy colleges and schools and squeezing the parents with high fees and other things and making money for themselves..its no more a  noble profession but a business.

Earlier there used to be uniform, so that all look the same, today i see that they are creating a divide at a student level only..there are AC and Non AC rooms and different types of even mess for the people who can pay more.colleges are no more a temple of education. Earlier we had gurukul tradition.why? because their discipline and simple life made the children..strong in both, physically and mentally, ingrained in them the value of a disciplined life, simple living and high thoughts.But today we are teaching them that money is the most important thing. and then we complain that today's children are like this, like that....It is the parents who need to change their mindset.

I see so many parents cushioning their children to the extent that they are not able to face the nitty ,gritty of life..they are not doing a favour to their ward, rather making their future life difficult...because tough people always survive, as life is never a bed of roses even for people loaded.

There a few things children learn very early in life and thru parents only, so its the duty of parents to teach them value of hard work, discipline and to live with self respect, never to see the others and desire their luxury, living within their means, never ever enjoy the things parents cant afford, and live a life of dignity.

I have totally digressed from the movie..it has an ensemble cast of Shahid,Ayesha takia and Nana Patekar  and many children and one who used to play Wagle what is his name I am forgetting...the only problem is that they havent treated the subject very clearly, but it is a good attempt and worth a watch for a good idea.
I have seen many more movies, but about them next time.

Festivals

Today is Teej,..first festival which heralds the season of festivals,this is  a festival of fun for women folk and I am missing my daughter and DIl..From my childhood, I used to get a new dress and new bangles and all of us sit together and apply henna on our hands on this day and then we will have get togethers, and enjoy the swing together.But the long working hours of women are making it difficult for them to  celebrate such festivals with full enthu...and I think with our generation, may be all traditional festivals will be gone and their place will be taken by valentines,Bdays,anniversaries etc.

Now is the time for freedom, freedom from family, freedom from restrictions..so everybody likes modern celebrations more than our traditional ones, because in these festivals we dont enjoy by eating out, rather it is considered inauspicious, if we dont cook anything in the house .Then most of the time everything is done in the morning and we eat only after pooja, so another restriction.Whereas everybody wants to do everything at his/her own leisure,.so they find it convenient to celebrate other days. more than our own festivals.
Today I see everyone wanting a family, but without any efforts and same for traditions...nothing comes free..one has to do hard work for everything.

.But sometime some people have a family which makes one wonder.is it really worth it?....there is this person, lets call him S, he always looked after his siblings and family all his life, and so did his wife, today when he is old , and recently he got a fracture, his own son is living abroad, and his brother living in the same city didnt offer him  even to take to his place and look after him for atleast 15 days, S and his wife managed themselves.I can never see this happening with me..my siblings will come even from out of town to give me all the help I need.......apne apne sanskaar hain.......Life is not all about.I ME MYSELF.

Now about a good person..my sis has a maid who is very poor, still she daily sends some food to mosque in the days of ramjaan..now that is a good soul.

Happy teej and happy Ramjaan  !!!

Everything Extra........

Today I was reading someone's blog where she had written how people give all stale and expired food to servants and it touched a chord somewhere in my heart. I have seen that in many families whatever small quantity of daals and veg is left after food is stored in the fridge. Then they will clean the fridge in a week and give it all to  servants, I feel why not give it when it is fresh?..So many people never think of their servants as human beings who have some self respect and dignity.....never serve them properly,we can serve multiple cups of tea to our relatives and even insist them to over eat, but when it comes to servants.....we will give them whatever is just not of any use,nevr give them properly even in a plate and katori...and think of themselves as great who are donating, but I never think of giving discard items as donation or even good deed..its rather opposite,....they are taking care of our garbage. Giving means what they want and need, not what we have in surplus.

Once I read somewhere that we can guess the nature of a person from the way he behaves with a waiter in restaurant, I think we should add it to how we behave with our employess .

In a country like ours where many people go to sleep without food least we can do is.....

1...food items shouldnt be wasted..buy only as much as you need or may be less,never more.
2..we must neither over eat ourselves, nor insist our guests to do the same..it will be good for our health also.
3.try to give one meal to your maid...food what you eat,not somesthing substandard prepared for her...this is the best way of sharing.

I am trying to do all this..lets see......

Planning

Planning is an integral part of today's generation..They plan everything..marriage, career ,children, retirement everything, so much unlike us..people of our generation never thought much about anything..got married when parents decided,got children when god intervened and life went on. But recently on TV I saw the extremes of planning..there was this very big advertisement about funeral planning...I cant even imagine..I mean who plans for death and rituals and then they recommend it saying..so that your loved ones are saved the financial problems....I would say that if my loved ones are unable to do even my last rites, are they really my loved ones,then what about life insurance money? where that money will go..I would say..solicit life insurance policy, not this death planning.

Whenever we go to a restaurant here,the receptionist will always tell us more waiting time then actual,whereas in India, even if it will take one hour they will tell us..just 10 minutes sir, and then..please sir just a minute..and like this time passes and customers feels so irritated, whereas here she tells us 30 minutes and calls us in 15 and we feel happy..I started thinking why........and i realised here they are so confident that if someone comes to them for their service .food or ambiance he will no go anywhere else, but in India they are not sure of that and secondly they dont want to loose any customer..the difference of being in a developed country and a developing one.

Tagged by Amrita

Amrita  tagged me with a real special one. This is totally a different one, let me see whether I am able to do justice to this one......

1.A writeup on a kind gesture that someone had done for you which left you speechless
I am the sort of person who feels touched by little little gestures,I never think of big things.I am specially touched when they are done by strangers...So that way there are many incidents in my life..
Once  i was waiting at a bus stop in NOida and many buses came and went and I couldnt get in, then a young boy who was coming after playing badminton, stopped a bus and waited behind me till I boarded..that is one incidence I can never forget.
I ran a shop in Noida and there was this boy Shailesh who worked with me, and after leaving Noida , I got a letter from him (he couldnt even write well)..telling me to call him as he couldnt work with anyone else...I dont know why but most of my maids and servants have loved me so much that at times I feel overwhelmed.


2.Indebted to someone lifelong..who??

I am indebted to God for giving me so wonderful people in my life, as through them I have experienced all shades of life..love and hurt both, as without getting hurt, one cant value love..Whenever I have made some strong assumptions that I will do like this in my life(..some idealistic aproach to life)..god has made me fall flat on my face, just to tell me how small I am to make such  assumptions.And then he only helps me in standing on my feet.
3.Want to say "sorry" to someone..who???
There may be many:)...as I am a typical saggi..blunt and truthful to the core BUT without any malicious bone in me....And thats the reason that most of the time I am misunderstood so much so that, I cant say that there is even one person in this world who understands me well.My feelings, my intentions are always misconstrued..but thru this post I would like to say sorry to each and everyone who felt hurt  as I never wanted anyone to be hurt.
I am just a righteous person without any ambiguity.I cant stand the wrongs.

4.Want to say "thank you" to someone ..who??
Now this is going to be a list like those in filmfare awards:)..I for one nevr forget any kind deed or actions so I am indebted to many, have patience to see the list:)
My grand parents...dada daadi..through them I leant the meaning of pampering,and unlimited love, and they only instilled in me the values of honesty and integrity thru their religious and mythological literature which I read with them.
My dad...he is the one who made me confident, thru him I learnt that..family is more important than money and kindness is biggest virtue..and your deeds are your security and safety in your life ..as god alsways repays you for them.
My mom...because of her only I knew that mothers love their children unconditionally and take all the crap children give them.
My sis..for being a friend and counseller both, for being my soundboard for everything, for just being there for me......
My BIL..for loving and respecting me like a sister..
My Bro..He has given my immense support in all spheres of life..stood like a rock..whenevr I have a problem, I go to him and he always assures me that he would take care of it and Thank my SIl for supporting him.
My husband..for being what he is..so supporting and liberated and having immense faith and confidence in me.
My son..:..for loving me , looking after me and making me feel loved, for being always there for me.
My daughter:...for loving me , looking after me and making me feel loved, for being always there for me.
MY DIl......for loving me.
MY SIL....for making my daughter happy.
blog friends..for giving a new dimension to my life.





5.And whats your most cherished possession till date??

I have reached that stage in my life where I dont cherish things but people..I have lost that feeling of possesions.
6.A special moment in life which brings along a smile every time you think of it.

There are many but I would like to share one..When I got married, we were in Ranchi and one day while walking through college road I saw a torquoise purse in a shop and said ..accha lag raha ha.na.....when on 30th my husband got his salary, he bought that purse and brought home:).I still have vivid memories of that purse.and till today whenever my husband and son are there, I never tell them what I like, because they will get it for me.:)

and now I would like to Tag..-

Deeps    Madhu   Starry   Chanz   PinsNashes  Nancy  Shrutz

RAJNEETI

I saw Rajneeti last week...Its a story of feuding families, dirty politics and betrayal. I read somewhere that characters are derived from mahabaharat, but I dont think so, because Arjun was nowhere like Ranbir and same can be said for Ajay devgan(karn) and comparing the Character of Arjun Rampal with Yudhisthira would be blasphemy..they are so opposite, and Nana patekar as Krishna, totally wrong. Krishna cooperated for righteous, not for a family.

Ranbir kapoor has done a negative character with elan, whereas Katrina is effective in her looks,not acting.Arjun Rampal is shown as a very cruel person who can do anything in the politics in a most gory style..its disgusting to see this family.

Manoj Bajpeyi( Duryodhan) doesnt come off any worse that Ranbir's family, so one feels sympathy for him and Ajay Devgan.

Movie is very fast and one is lost among so many characters,trying to identify the relations.Since it is fast paced, one doesnt get bored, but I liked Praksh jha's Apharan and Gangajal more than this one.

The song..Piya mosey ....is very sweet I liked it.

Then I saw Phone Booth and Micky Blue Eyes.....Both of them were just ok, nothing special, just time pass.

and lastly I saw a master piece..SIKANDER..this is a movie about an orphan being brought up by an affectionate family in terrorist affected kashmir.Once he finds a pistol on the road and picks up and it changes his whole life.The scenery is beautiful. And Madhavan as a colonel in Army is exceptional.Ayesha as girl friend of parzad(sikander) and Sanjay soori as a terrorist turned politican..all suit the role...This movie is very interesting and frightening also in the sense that how one could be implicated in some sinister plots inspite of being innocent.

FROM US

Sometimes i find the atmosphere here so tranquil.like now I am sitting here with total silence except a few birds chirping outside, its so soothing to the mind instead of hearing the noise of horns,shouts and specially the noise produced by maids working in the house. On the other side sometimes I find living in a carpeted house total pain, as one has to all the time worry about not spilling anything.....home should be a place where one can relax..even in attitude:)
And then Indian cooking...I always sound the smoke alarm,here I came to know an interesting thing that since here the walls are made of wood, they absorb the strong aromas of spices in Asian cuisine and so the homes get a different smell forever, and are down traded.
This time I travelled by Lufthansa and for the first time business class..I realised that in the long journey seat comfort is the only thing I look for,food part one can neglect, because nobody can provide Indian food better or even equal to air India and the same I can say for the service. I have seen many airlines..BA,AA, but nothing beats our maharaja.At Frankfurt they were doing some renovation and there were complete chaos with nobody to tell us where to go and no signs, still none was complaining......It pains me to see that we can take so much of everything abroad with such calm, but go overboard in criticising when in India.Here also sometimes they dont start AC in Delta till plane is taking off, here also flights are delayed a lot.But here they never assist you much in anything, even if you are getting delayed due to the crowd, none comes forward to hurry, they are least bothered about you missing the flight, but in India there is always a call for you, an executive looking for you.
But one thing I like here is that at every counter everywhere be it market or office one is greeted with a smile and a friendly person, never with a grouchy and irritating behaviour.,,this we need to learn..etiquette's. Secondly they know how to make money..they have marketed everything they have.be it natural beauty or industry, whereas we never bother to commercialise our spots..no souvenirs,nothing.Here every city has a top station tower, city tour, boat trips, sunday markets and a few theme parks and everywhere plenty of souvenirs.
Its quite surprising for me that here nobody goes to anybody's home without invitation, and suppose if I go to them , even to give them some invitation, they wouldnt call me in, will accept it from the door only..but then sometimes this happens in Chennai also, but I like our Indian hospitality and sensibilities, even if it may be at the cost of some inconvenience, but I like everyone to come inside my home and I like to offer something.If we always keep thinking of our own comfort, inconvenience all the time we stop being a social animal which a human should be..........