Bajirao Mastani - Stunning movie!!

Bajirao Mastani is one of the very few good Hindi movies that released in 2015. It is a Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie and has fully lived up to my expectations. I went in expecting grandeur, romance, beauty, rich dialogues, a little bit of historical touch and the movie delivered. You can call me an ignorant soul but I had no idea who Bajirao was before I saw the movie.

I learned about the importance of this larger than life person in Indian history through this movie. History books don't actually have a lesson on him. So thanks to Sanjay Leela Bhansali, a lot of other people like me got to know about Bajirao and about Mastani as well. 

Now for the past few days, my Facebook wall has seen consistent outrage about the movie from a certain section of people who happen to know Maratha history really well. All I hear from them is that the movie didn't do justice to Bajirao's role in Indian history. My question to them is:

Anne Frank - A young girl in the times of war!!

I recently finished reading the Diary of Anne Frank. It is a compilation of letters written by a girl to her diary during the second world war. She was from a Jewish family and the entire family lived in a secret annex for about two years to hide from Nazi atrocities. She started writing this diary when she was 13 until the age of 15 after which the family was captured and sent to concentration camps. This book has touched me so deeply for a lot of reasons.

Festive Season !!

Like the final minutes of a YashRaj movie, last quarter of every year is filled with emotions, enthusiasm, hopefulness and lots of family time. It is my favorite time of the year. All the other months exist just to set the stage to welcome these final months. No, wait, not all the other months!! Holi month is important and my b'day month and my anniversary month and my husband's b'day month and family members' b'day month..... alright I guess the other months are important too!! But they aren't festive enough :P

Growing up !! Isn't it fun??

A lot of times, I hear people say, "Oh I wish I could go back to school !!" It's the same emotion each one of these people have; unless they were bullied really bad in school, in which case they wanna go back to some other part of their life. Some just wanna live the toddler life forever. Special mention to the married people who can't get over the time they were bachelors and "free to do whatever they want."

Every time I am having such a conversation, I wonder "Hey you!! Didn't you do it right the first time? Or Did you forget to live the moment when you were there?"

When was the last time you saw him?

"When was the last time you saw him?" Shelly asked her.

There was a look of longing in her eyes when she replied "It has been three days".
"That's not a long time at all, you need to cheer up. 3 days ago is almost like yesterday. People don't get to see each other for decades and they survive"

"Yes, I know but I miss him already. It will be a whole month before I see him again. I don't know if I can wait that long. The last time I saw him he seemed aloof. He was happy but engrossed in his own world. I wonder what he was thinking about.
I asked him what was on his busy mind, but he didn't tell me. This month, I plan on calling him more than I did last month. I want to be more involved in his daily life. Last month I got too busy to talk to him daily and then last week when we met,  I felt like I wasn't a part of his life anymore."

Shelly tried to shake her out of her monologue "I think you are thinking too much. It doesn't matter if you couldn't call him enough last month. He has been so supportive all this while. He is the smartest guy I have met so far. I am sure if you pester him a lot, you will invite more trouble to the relationship than anything else."

She wasn't listening to Shelly at all. Lost in her own thoughts, she was weaving the beautiful dream date for when they meet the next time. She has so much to say to him and so much to ask. "I will call him tonight and we will talk all night" she thought.

Life and lessons learnt :)

In my life I am yet to meet a person who thinks that textbooks can actually teach you more, than life can teach you. If you are that kind of person, don't tell me coz I will judge you!! I am not even talking about the really profound life altering lessons here. Just the small important ones that you learn on a normal work day or even a beautiful Sunday brunch. You just need to take a moment to stop, think and absorb that right. For example, lessons that you want to learn - like a tip from a good friend on 'where to buy that perfect jacket that goes with every skirt?'; or lessons you need to learn - like a survivor's guide from a co-worker on a really bad work day;  or lessons that you didn't even know you need to learn. I wanna share a story about a lesson of the latter kind.

Sachchi Advice :)

Parents are a child's first teachers and for me they are my best teachers coz they gave me the best advice ever! Needless to say, when I was young I didn't like hearing their advice but am extremely thankful for all of it today. However, there are some particular pieces of advice that shaped the course of my life for good.

The first one came from my dear mother. My parents (like all good Indian parents from their generation) wanted me to either be a doctor or an engineer. And I (like all bad teenagers from my generation) didn't wanna do what they wanted me to do. In 11th standard, I chose non-medical stream but did all I could to not be an engineer like not enrolling for any preparatory classes for engineering entrance exams. 

Much to my surprise, my parents were betting on their intelligent genes and not on the prep courses so much!! So they made me sit for all the entrance exams anyway and in parallel I started applying to all English and Chemistry Honors graduate courses (the only two subjects I liked). I started attending my Chemistry Honors course feeling quite confident about the failure in the other exams :) However, I passed each of the engineering entrance exams. On the day of first counseling I attended, my mother very subtly told me to select 'IT' in the counselling form for a college near our home (not ECE or CSE which were really popular but IT). I got selected to the college she suggested and in the course she suggested. Till date, I have no idea where all this confidence my parents have in their kids comes from!! But that subtle piece of advice didn't just shape my career but everything else in my life as well. I met my dear husband in that college in IT stream. :D Could a choice of graduate course 'BE ANY BETTER'? (big Chandler Bing fan ;) )

The second advice came from my superhero father. He gave me the same subtle piece of advice at two instances in my life. I was in my first job clocking endless hours in a week and was exhausted. I was feeling incompetent having to work so hard at something I am supposed to be good at. I did IT engineering and got selected on campus for this job after all. So I called my father at 2 AM one night from my office and said - 'I can't do this anymore, I am quitting'. Very calmly, he said - 'Sure, quit, come home, we are here for you'. And the next instant he asked me - 'Will you be happy sitting at home?' 

He knows me too well to know that I can't be happy sitting at home all day doing nothing or doing household stuff. So he threw this curveball at me and I decided to stay and fight it out at that job. I did well thereafter, not just at the first one but at all the ones following it :) The second time, he said the same two lines to me but in a different context. I had one big fight with my husband and called my father to say - 'I can't do this, marriage is too hard, I am coming back'. Same two sentences in the same calm manner - 'Sure, quit, come home, we are here for you. Will you be happy sitting at home?' He knew I loved my husband too much to be at my father's home!! So I stayed with my husband - 'Happily ever after'. After all, sachchi advice apne hi dete hain :)

I am participating in the #SachchiAdvice Contest by MaxLife in Association with BlogAdda.