Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic

Last Saturday, we decided to go and watch a movie and have dinner outside. My son suggested a new movie "De Taali", but when I looked at the ticket availability, most of the cinemas are running just one show and everywhere tickets were easily available with most of the cinemas empty. Thanks to the technology, you can judge such minute things in advance and change your plans accordingly. It simply means that the film is not good. So, I decided for "Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic", a Yash Raj film directed by Kunal Kohli.

As we settled in Audi 01 of PVR, Vikaspuri, the movie started after a usual ads and trailers. The movie started with a little boy asking her mother for permission to go and play with a girl, clearly indicating that his luv will desert him shortly as happens in all Bollywood Movies and the same happenned as the girl moved out with her parents to some other city. Next scene showed an ambulance and the boy's mother left him & the boy moved to a Hostel. The pace seemed very fast and good as the director had not consumed much time to build the character of the main hero, devoid of love from the women in his life. Within a short time, the story comes to the actual point, wherein the main hero Saif Ali Khan met with an accident and in the process the occupants of other car dies. Next, during the final hearing of case, Saif arrives with Ameesha Patel at the court. For a change, Ameesha has a short supporting role and the dresses she wore are quite short & sexy. Overall, the role was good and she had done justice to the role. The Judge, for a change, gave an unusual sentence and asked Saif to take care of kids of the deceased till they attain the age of 18, with a condition that in case the kids do not like to stay with Saif, he has to undergo a sentence for 20 yrs.

The kids are of mischievious nature and do not like to live with anyone and also they hate Saif, as he was the killer of their parents. The kids decide to take revenge with Saif by not cooperating with him, so that the judge can force him to undergo the sentence.

Next, God is shown taking the routine meeting and consulting his fairies about the problems faced by the people of earth. Its good to see a change in attitude of the director from the normal routine, as he showed the God in modern day suit with all kind of latest gizmos to access the problems of people on earth instaed of Ramlila style dresses and head gear. Rishi Kapoor in white suit with a short French beard, in the role of God looked quite smart. In between the scenes, when people remarked Oh God!, the God (Rishi Kapoor) actually comes in the form of a sweeper or helper and actually ask the person about the problem, but the person just ignores him. It clearly indicates the message from the director that may be the God comes to us whenever we think of him but we could not recognise him and sometimes rebuke him. A good thought on the part of director. As the kids were not in a mood to cooperate with Saif, the God decides to send one of his fairy "Geeta (Rani Mukherjee) to his rescue and to unite the kids with him. At the start during the casting, the name was shown as Rani Mukerji, may be a change of spellings because of Astrology. Whatever the spellings, Rani also showed the talent of her acting, the role was a bit of comedy and a bit of drama and she did complete justice to the role. The parts where she used her magic to take care of kids first and them help all to get praise added a lot of humour to the film. All the four kids choosen for the roles are good and shown the talent. Initially, along with the kids, a dog and a pet rat is also shown, but surprisingly, both disappeared shortly with absolutely no role in the movie, may be the director editted the scenes later on. Later on, Saif has to go abroad for his business and he has to take the kids along with him as per the court ruling. There the kids as part of the revenge factor, decide to get even with the kids of Saif's partner and so a fight starts off between Saif and his partner. Saif defended the kids in the process and so all the kids forgave him after understanding his genuine feelings towards their safety. In the end, as usual for a Bollywood movie, the Madam fairy "Rani" falls in love with Saif and decides to stay on earth & the God gives his permission to make it a happy ending.

Overall, the movie is a good package for an outing with the complete family, a good movie specially for the kids. In between, some scenes are put in to spread the message of humanity, doing good work and also telling that Sikhs and Hindus are part of a same family. Saif also showed that with age he is growing/maturing as an actor to carry the burden of a Drama film as a solo hero, the role was quite serious with almost no smile on his face. Saif maintained that grim expression throughout the film except the last few scenes. In last few scenes, the way he picked up the little girl clearly showed that as a father, Saif is at home in doing so. Go and watch it and enjoy the outing with your family.

Need to Adapt

Yesterday, while browsing through the open Questions, I came across a Question which simply asked to suggest two things which are developed independently without the second thing in mind, but later on both the things are combined to get a new thing, which is very useful and now they are inseparable.

Below is the Q & A -

What is a good example of two things that are 'meant to be together'?
Asked by John Rooney 3 days ago in Advertising, Computers and Software Open
Your public answer:
“Sales and Support, both teams work to achieve their goals but the moment they compliment each other, its a win win situation for all. Obama and Hillary are the two persons that fit perfectly, as they are leaders in their individual capacity but they have to join their efforts to win the presidential race against John Mccain..”

There are many such things which fit in the answer like camera & phone are combined to make a cell phone with camera and nowadays, almost no one wants to buy cellphone without a camera. But, individually, think of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, both were fighting for the presedential nomination to be a Democratic candidate for US presidential race. They were accussing each other like anything, digging out their gory past and writing off each other at every opportunity. But, now within few months, when it is clear that Barack Obama will fight to be the US President, both Obama and Hillary Clinton are praising each other in front of the crowds, and efforts are ON to make Hillary Clinton to be the candidate for Vice President. The main motive is to beat the Republican candidate, Jon McCain. So, look at the level of adaptability shown by both the groups, in understanding their standing against the rival and they all joined hands to be a one party to take on the other party rather than remaining a group against the second group and allowing the other party to win easily because of inter party rivallary.

So, in Life, everything is possible, one has to understand the facts of today, forsee the events of future and plan according to same. Do not remain rigid and try to stick to the words you may had uttered in some different circumstances, always be prepared to say sorry and change the course of Life, to be successful. Those who get success are counted and remembered. The success stories are told and retold for generations, no one remembers the unlimited failed candidates, who worked hard to reach the goal but failed to attain success.

Be Adaptable, attain success and be counted..enjoy the game of Life!!!

Luck plays an Important role in Life

The famous Bhagvadgita says

फल की इच्छा न कर, बस कर्म कीये जा

It means that as a human you should just do the good work and leave the rest to the almighty God to give you the desired result. Most of us will not agree that we should not worry about the result. In this cruel world, the end result is the most important factor for which we all slug it out and then how can we leave the result in the hands of the destiny. But, ultimately the destiny or Luck do matters. Recently, I had started spending my free time in answering some of the questions on the Linkedin network without caring about the subject or my expertise. I just answer the questions which creates a flutter in my mind and is related more to Life's Philosophy or Self Descipline or to the Basics of Life. While doing so, a few days back, I received a mail confirming that my answer is choosen as the Best answer for the question posted and so I become an expert in "Advertising, Freelancing & Contracting". I was really surprised. I quickly browsed back to Linkedin to find the question and the answer given by all the other respondants and I found out the reason for my success. I like to share the Q & A, after which I will share the basic aspect because of which my answer was selected as the Best among all.

What 3 features of a brochure advertising the provision of services makes you respond positively?
Asked by Nicos Sarantis (nicossarantis@googlemail.com) 20 days ago in Advertising, Freelancing and Contracting Closed
Your answer was selected as Best Answer
Your public answer:
“1. Clarity of USP & Price.

2. Comparison with similar competetor's products.

3. Reviews of major (acknowledged) users”
When I checked the other answers, I found out that only two people responded to the question put up and among those two, mine was selected as the best answer. So, its the limitation of respondants which makes me the expert in the category. So, its the luck which factors in to give you success many a times even when you don't deserve it or you even don't desire it in your dreams. There are many instances in our life where we do face such situations and we should be able to understand the luck factor and always try to give our 100% to the work without worrying about the outcome. The outcome is important but you may not get the best desired result even if some one better than you is there to compete on that particular day and you may win even after a disastarous peformance if the others perform worse than you.

So, take the chances and always work hard without looking at the oponents and back your heart and chip in with 100% of the effort and leave the rest to the almighty. You can win in any situation..thats Life..enjoy the chances...options can be turned into oppurtunities.

Best Way to Relax

Yesterday, around 11 am in office, one of my colleague entered and sarcastically commented " Bhupinder, I heard that you reach office by 8 in the morning?". I fully understood the meaning by his tone and a gentle smile on his face. I simply replied that I consider office as my home so I have the liberty to come and go at any time, it does not matter. So, I just avoided the conflicting situation with a little bit of homour. But in real terms, only I know the advantage of coming early. Also, I know the stress the people who come late, take while driving on busy streets and then finding the parking slot and then making excuses to their supervisers, ..only God knows why....In the evening, I found an interesting question, similar to the situation described above and I answered the same. I like to share the Q & A below, read, understand n try to grasp, if possible..

WHAT SHOULD I DO TO TAKE SOME REST ????
Asked by Nitin Jain 19 hours ago in Mentoring Open
Your public answer:
“The best way to take rest is to finish ur work ontime. Not Easy.... Try this.....Instead of a office cab, drive to your office in ur vehicle, try to reach office at least one hr prior to the start time. By doing this, u r in control from minute 1. After reaching office, ask for a good refreshing cup of coffee, enjoy it while ur laptop boots up. First thing is to finish reading all ur mails in the inbox, do not answer any, just keep the mails to be answered open and rest all can be read and closed. Then, open ur organiser and list out the work pending with u including scheduled meetings, mark the priorities and then make out what max u can finish today. Make a target for work and a target for time to leave for Home. Start answering open mails and try to finish work one by one while browsing the new mails recd during the day. Try not to indulge in gossip sessions, cut down on smoking time, lunch time, etc. Try to leave office after spending 8 hrs. Do not try to reach for ur laptop at home. In my opinion, u can relax at home after going through this regularly in the sweet company of ur family. Learn to set priorities and able to achieve those priorities within set time frame. Enjoying the Life with ur family also should be one of the priority..Enjoy the Day.”

Life without a Laptop

I talked about the best ways to respond to the mails received in my last post, basically it was to prevent undue stress. As with the advent of technology, people stay connected even at odd hours and the moment they get to see some mail asking for info, they get stressed because of the unavailability of data or the people holding that info. It is always better to divide the official hrs and personal hrs and try to take rest, so that one can rejuvenate and work more harder, once he is back on official task.

Yesterday, on Sunday, my wife was busy doing the usual morning chores of preparing food, dusting the house and doing the laundry, my son is away at his maternal grandmother's house spending his vacations, I had some free time. First, I browsed through the newspaper and read some articles, after that I wanted to check my emails but I avoided my laptop and instead picked up the TV Remote. Usually, with my son at home, remote is his forte, he has to watch all kinds of cartoons and wrestling matches and he really does not allow me even to watch News for good amount of time. So, here I am with Remote and no one to disturb me. I browsed through some of the news channels and finally settled for Sony which was showing Boogie Woogie. I know this is a program running for last 8 or 9 yrs and actually this is the program which started the trend of song and dance competetions on TV. Javed Jaffery is the centre of attraction besides good dance sequences. I really love the dance routines shown by some young participants, so I settled for it. It was a very good show and during elimination time Javed read out two names of the candidates which could not succeed to match and should be left out for furthur competetion, but suddenly one of other successful candidates came forward and told everyone that he works at a school as a dance teacher and his principal strictly told him to either report back to school or lose the job, as they can not wait any furthur for the dance teacher. So, he wanted to drop out of the competetion, as he had no other means of livlihood and does not want to lose his job. Everyone was surprised, but thats the reality of this India, where no one wants to support an artiste even when he is winning and can make a name for the school, which may help the school to attract more children. Ultimately, his request was accepted and one of the losing candidate was allowed to join again. Such a pity...

After that, they showed repeat telecast of the new laughter challenge - IV, which is judged by Shatrughan Sinha along with Navjot Singh Sidhu, it was just introduction round where the old winners introduced the new candidates and some acts thrown in here and there, even the young lady hosting the show is new, nothing special only the teeths are visible and the smile seems to be fake. Lets see how it shapes up...

After that, they showed Ek Shaam Mastaani See, hosted by Mini Mathur, same old Chulbulee, ever smiling & gracious. She used to host music programs at MTV. The singer was Shankar Mahadevan, known for his song breathless. He started well with a tapping number which was picturised on Salman Khan. In between they even showed some recordings of messages from the people associated with the Bollywood. First message was from Karan Johar, who apart from telling good things told that now Amitabh Bachchan always wants the voice of Shankar Mahadevan for his shots, thats incredible and speaks about the quality of singing talent this person holds, as Amitabh is known for his singing abilities also apart from acting. Shankar was accompanied by his wife and two sons. He even sang the song Maa from Tarre Zameen Par along with his son. It was a good hour spent, just pure enjoyment...

After it , again one more episode of Ek Shaam Mastanee See, this time the singer was Sunidhi Chauhan. Another hr passed by without even blinking. its just pure enjoyment with songs like Crazy Kiya re, Tuk Tuk Dekta Hai Kya, and many more. The best was Lakad from Omkara, the song really showed the depth in Sunidhi's voice and the control of emotions a singer can fill in the words of the songs for all of us to feel and enjoy. Even the song from Krazy 4, the famous item song picturised on Rakhi Sawant, Dekhta Hai Kya, this song is known for the dance moves of Rakhi Sawant, but after listening the song from Sunidhi without any dancer at the background I can assure that the song became famous because of the voice and the way it was sung and lastly Rakhi Sawant added just the Glamour. Even without Rakhi Sawant, this song could have reached the same heights.

By the time, this program ended, it was lunch time and time to savour the delicious Bitter Gaurds deep fried in oil on low simmered heat, so I closed the TV session.

But really, I enjoyed the time without being connected to the network, which most of the people can not do nowadays, try staying away from the network and live the life which is essential to rejuvenate for the NBD ( Next Business Day) and enjoy the moments...

Communication & Public Speaking

This week while browsing through the open questions on Linkedin, I came across a question which is quite simple but while answering, it gave the feeling of self discipline, etiquettes reqd to showcase oneself in public life. My Answer was choosen as the best answer in the category. The question and the answer is shared below -

Q-How do you manage your email?
Asked by Mike Edwards 5 days ago in Communication and Public Speaking Closed
Your answer was selected as Best Answer
Your public answer:
“In my opinion, its simple. All the mails are directed to me and so I am responsible for answering them. I receive almost 120 mails in a single day, with almost 60% as just the updates. But, I do read all the mails including updates seriously as I know no one other than me can make out the action to be taken in case something is missing in a particular update. I do keep a scrap text window open to keep on writing the subjects/mails to be replied later on. In case u think someone else should be reading and replying most of ur mails then what value addition u r doing by receiving those mails, better ask the senders to send the mails to that person only. He can come and take ur advice if needed anytime. Regarding the time to reply, keep it simple, don't read mails when in a meeting, when on a dinner table and when spending time with ur family at a baseball game. Once u don't read them, the urge to respond will not be there. But never delay the response once u have read the mail and u know the data to be sent, for mails u do not have data, simply forward the same to person who holds the data with a cc to the sender, so that the data can flow easily between the person holding it and the person requiring the same, without ur intervention. The technology of email is an addition to the ways u express ur feeling to anyone, so don't be bogged down by the etiquetes of email transmission, whatever u can say to a person on his or her face should be sent by emails also, be it simple exchange of data, dirty jokes or the snaps u enjoyed during ur growing years. Just do not send all these stuff to the persons u do not know very well, it should not be a spam circulated to all n sundry, just keep it to ur very personal group and enjoy all the little amount of excitement u r entitled to..in this Life...enjoy the game!!!”

Summary of Indian premier League T20 Cricket

• Great Script for any Bollywood Masala Movie.
• The best Kind of strategy.
• Execution - better than expected by the planner - Lalit Modi.
• Leadership Skills - Shane Warne.
• Self belief - Jaipur's team - Rajasthan Royals - started as 8th and finished as 1st.
• Enduring the pressure - all the newcomers playing n excelling in front of dignified International superstars.
• Game is to be played as a Game only, someone has to lose at the end of the day - ShahRukh Khan partied and splashed gifts on his players even after defeats.
• Luck - Always pray for the best - Rain can play spoilsport in the best of the plans.
• Now is the time to say cheers ...without the cheerleaders... Try to inculcate the Basics of Life in any project & Enjoy the Game of Life!!!