This is why the movie DDLJ sucks

Please do not get me wrong. This is absolutely my opinion, and I would like to express it through the medium of a powerful weapon – Words.

Good things first. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is perhaps one of the most epic movies of Bollywood. The charming chemistry and the imposing presence of Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in the film is hard to miss, and their pairing is considered to be one of the best in this film industry. The upscale locations from Switzerland to Punjab etc. etc. etc. add more beauty along with the powerful performances of most of the characters. BUT, there are certain aspects in the movie which give wrong message, and I absolutely disregard them.

The ugly truth is that Bollywood has a tremendous impact on people. Whatever the audience watch in the reel life, they envisage in their real life or expect something similar to happen. Hence, to a certain extent, this film fraternity should hold some social responsibility as well towards the public. Actually, this is true in Hollywood as well. We all are aware of that gruesome massacre where a masked man dressed as joker, inspired from the Dark Knight’s character, killed 12 people at a movie theatre in Colorado. Hence, you can imagine the immense impact of movies on people.
Let’s discuss the movie now.

Firstly: Remember the epic scene where Shah Rukh Khan meets Kajol for the first time and lends her a hand so that she can board the train? When both of them are stuck in the train’s compartment, the way Shah Rukh Khan hits on Kajol is extremely creepy. In their first meeting, he is trying to come so close to her – physical contact – that she gets agitated. The scene looks so annoying, and if someone does that in real life, we all know what is going to happen. It does not end there. In the song “Ruk ja oh dil deewane”, the creepiness continues where he tries to touch her, and, forcefully, dance with her.

Secondly: So let’s be practical. Kajol grows up by strongly following Indian culture and values where she respects her dad tremendously. She will wear Indian clothes in front of him and will listen to Bollywood oldies; I think we all agree to this. But, the moment Shah Rukh Khan comes to Punjab, she is ready to elope with him irrespective of the fact that it would put her dad into the most humiliating situation.
Boys and girls: Things like running away from home just look good in movies as they never show the “happily ever after” part of life.

Thirdly: Most of the times, our movies show that arrange marriages are not preferred. And in this movie as well, you do not feel good when you see the actual groom a.k.a. Kuljeet Singh. He is presented as a crude, offensive, and a hard hearted person who loves to hunt.

Fourthly: Kajol keeps “Karva Chauth” for Shah Rukh Khan with whom she is not even betrothed legally. The truth is that this custom is meant for married women ONLY, and there is a strong logic behind it. The worst part – lot of spinsters started keeping this fast for their anonymous future husbands so that they get a good partner. On discussing this aspect with one of the girls who also kept this fast for her future better half, she mentioned that Kajol as well keeps it in DDLJ. What????

I have met certain people in my life who believe in the notion that reel life is a part of real life. They further believe that if a guy likes some girl and in case she does not agree initially, she will fall for him eventually as always shown in the movies. Believe me or not, it is scary when you see people connecting these movies with their lives.

In short, the above mentioned scenes give wrong message to children especially teenagers that creepiness is absolutely acceptable, and these young minds fall for these traps. Even though, there was nothing obscene or profane in these scenes, the messages are worrisome.

Some people might think that showing only good things in the movies restrict the creativity. Well, not at all. We all understand that every movie gets a rating such as A for sexually offensive and so on which crystal clear means that only 18 and above are eligible to watch that movie. There is no such restriction to the creativity, and the movie makers are free to make any kind of movie; it’s just that the apt rating govern the audience. Look at The Dirty Picture, absolutely stunning with amazing performances, and it is also one of my favourites. Meant for 18 and above, and I concur.

However, is there any such rating for the creepiness shown in the movies? Unfortunately, NO.

Book review – Simple Plane Love by Priyanka Luthra

Life is great when you have two things: the love of your life and your dream job. We all envisage about the two aforementioned aspects, and the absence of either of them will leave you unhappy – may be not right now but definitely at a later stage of life. It is great to have your love standing next to you throughout your life; however, without an objective to grow, to succeed, and to achieve something, you might feel in limbo at some point of time. What if you have to choose between the two? What if you need to figure out a way to have both – love and a dream career – in your life?

The book “Simple Plane Love” revolves around the aforementioned questions about love and career. It is a blend of facts and fiction by Captain Priyanka Luthra who is a trained commercial pilot. As I am a part of Team Shivangi Reviews, I was invited to cover the launch of this book which happened a couple of weeks ago at “Title Waves book store” in Bandra. It was a proud moment for the perky and jubilant Priyanka to unleash her first book, and the emotions were absolutely evident. Most of her family members including her mother and husband were a part of the event, and the aura of their tremendous support was spectacular. It was a “Dream come true” moment for her, and the benign support of her family, which is rare these days, set this event apart and made an indelible impression. While giving the speech, she expressed enormous gratitude to her mother and gave her special regards. During my brief colloquy with Priyanka about the book launch event, I asked her the question: “what will you choose – love or a dream career?” Diplomatically, she mentioned “As flying a plane involves balancing lot of things, in a similar manner, you need a balance in managing love and a dream career as both are crucial for life.”

This book is a story about dreams, friendship, and love. It is a journey of Captain Meera Khanna – the protagonist – who is extremely passionate about her career and perhaps has no time for love until she finds THE ONE. Her endearing friend Diana – who does not believe in love – is her best buddy and both share a relationship of soul sisters. Meera stays in Philippines whereas Diana stays in Mumbai, and both of them are engrossed in their careers until an incident forces them to meet with each other. During that time something extraordinary happens, and their lives change forever. Whether the girls make the right choice between their love and careers is something I would like the readers to find out. Of course, the book has a happy ending like a fairy tale, and it does leave you with a smile.

As it is a blend of facts and fiction, at some instances, the book does sound too good to be true; however, there are some moments which I could relate with my life. Some beautiful scenarios does leave the readers in awe. The book is a kind of short story or a happy fairy tale more precisely without any dragons, cruel step moms or any severe tragic incidents. Like any other fairy tale, it does bind you to some extent where you wonder whether the princess will get her prince charming. A very simple written book and avid readers can finish it up in a day or two max.

According to me, it is a happy short story, and if you have lot of time to kill, go ahead and read this one.

Steve Jobs – The Good Bad and Ugly

The biography of Steve Jobs left me in a state of flux where I forcefully pondered about his two traits: a**hole and visionary. Is it possible to despise and admire the same person? Can a person be both – a ruthless jerk and a genius? May be not, but I believe that Steve Jobs made an exception, and, indeed, he had both the aforementioned traits where people hated him – mostly – and respected him at the same time.

I had an amazing journey with the book where I came to know many traits of Steve Jobs, and also, I learnt so much about running a company. The terms Apple and Steve Jobs are glued with each other. In other words, they are inseparable, and the use of either of them will force you to think about both of these terms. Apple was Steve Jobs’s dream, vision, life and a way to change the world. And yes, he did change the world in terms of technology and gadgets. Apple products are far more than a brand for people. The aesthetic look and feel of the devices make their owners extremely proud for owning something extraordinary which marvels in all the aspects of beauty and design. All my Apple gadgets – iPod, iPhone, and iPad – have become my endearing eccentricities which, of course, is not a sane fact. Through the medium of this article, I would like to share some of his thoughts, good side and bad side.

Abandoned by his biological parents, Steve Jobs directly or indirectly was affected from this trauma. Albeit, he had great foster parents, the thought of forsaken did bother him for most of his life. He was a complex person who suffered from tempestuous mood swings. He believed a lot in innovation, and he knew that it was the key to success. He had a soft corner and an enormous respect for creative people. Perfectionism was not something he learnt from someone; I think he was born with it. He knew that even a tiniest detail makes a difference, and for something to be perfect, all the elements have to come together in an impeccable manner. He was an honest person – and by that I mean brutally honest – where he never refrained from using the most derogatory and obnoxious language in case he does not like something. This was his style, and when he was asked to deal with people in a respectful manner, he said that he does not want to be fake. He would like to stick to his personality rather than being someone who he is not. And this is how Apple products are. All the products reflect his personality where his aim was to make people feel that the products not only have great looks, but they are also great in terms of functionality – no sham. Some people say that give the customers what they want; however, Steve Jobs said that people do not know what they want until you show it to them. And this is what he did. He created gadgets that looked so magical and extraordinary in their appearance that everybody used to dream about their possession. He was a great impresario where his every presentation on the launch of his products is remarkable. He used to leave the audience in awe, and the crowd used to go berserk at his appearance and speech. His amazing aura was beyond measure. He had an emotional touch with his products, and one great thing which he used to mention was “When you are creating something, think that you are creating it for yourself rather than your customers.”

After reading the book, I realized that everything happened for a reason in his life. Apple was born on April 1, 1976, and Steve Jobs was one of the founders along with his best friend Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. He was always difficult to deal with, and when his contentious behavior crossed a limit, he was asked to leave the company in 1985. He was devastated, and I believe that was the most difficult and excruciating phase of his life. However, he invented another company known as NeXT, and after sometime, he became the CEO of one of the greatest animation companies known as Pixar. The history was created again when he returned to Apple in 1997 to reclaim his throne, and Apple changed the entire gadget industry since then. They revolutionized the music industry by creating iPod and iTunes store. They introduced the concept of Apple stores where Steve Jobs spent great deal of effort in designing the strategy, but the historic moment came when Apple launched the most remarkable product known as iPhone. That moment completely changed the preferences and tastes of the people where everybody started looking forward to something which just has a screen and a button. Steve Jobs was absolutely correct in mentioning that people do not know what they want until you show it to them.

The Good Guy:
Steve Jobs was a genius and a great visionary. His uttermost passion to make great products was the biggest motivation factor for him. He never cared regarding what others perceive of him. He was so focused in creating great products that his harshness on people never bothered him about his reputation. He used to envisage unfeasible requirements which, at first instance, always looked impossible to the team, and if someone dared enough to say “it’s impossible”, he used to fire that person most of the times. However, he used to motivate his team to such a great extent that those imaginary requirements were achieved most of the times. He started his company at the age of 20, got it registered at the age of 22, and by the age of 25, he was worth $256 million. But his top priority was to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products; everything else was secondary. Of course, it was great to make profits because that’s what allowed him to make great products; however, the products, and not the profits, were the motivation for him. He was a perfectionist who believed in making perfect products in terms of their design and usability. And, in order to achieve this perfectionism, his mantra was to simplify things as much as possible. Steve Jobs gave lot of importance to simplicity, and he simplified every product to the tiniest detail. One of his quotes: “Simplicity is the ultimate perfection” is my favourite, and this is something I diligently follow where I keep things very simple in my professional and personal life.

Steve jobs strongly believed in the integration of hardware and software, and that is why, Apple has its own hardware which is very well integrated with the software. Unlike Microsoft where you can install the OS on any vendor’s machine, Steve Jobs never licensed its OS. He had the obsession for control; hence, he always preferred controlling the entire machine from top to bottom rather than licensing a part of it. He knew that Microsoft dominated the world of operating systems because of their open approach, and they were declared the winner in the personal computer realm, but Job’s concern was that if they follow the same approach, the system will be easy to hack which will destroy the simple user experience. In all honesty, I simply love this approach. That is why, it is more easy to hack Android because it is an open platform.

The Bad Guy:
Steve Jobs was never good at keeping good relations, and he did hurt a plethora of people in his life. He impregnated his girlfriend when he was 23, and he did not handle this situation well. He was not ready to accept the child as he did not want to take the responsibility. He took credit of lot of people, for instance, Steve Wozniak was the real brain behind Apple I as he was a technical genius; however, he felt that Jobs was very harsh on people and Woznaik never liked this fact. Lot of differences arose between two Steves, and after sometime, Wozniak moved on with other endeavors. Most importantly, Jobs never invented anything. He took the idea of Graphical User Interface (GUI) from Xerox PARC or you can say stole it; however, it is an irrefutable fact that the aforementioned company could have never achieved something which Steve Jobs did with the GUI. He once said, “Picasso has a saying – ‘good artists copy and great artists steal’ – and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
He was rude, discourteous, and disrespectful while criticizing people, and he never changed throughout his life. He was diagnosed with Pancreas cancer, and this made him suffer a lot. The excruciating pains made him difficult to survive, and even after coming back from his medical leave where he went through physical and mental trauma, his personality was still the same, and his harshness did not dissipate.

Steve Jobs had a roller-coaster life, and his intense personality of a creative entrepreneur revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. Of course, he left a great legacy and became one of the greatest business executives, the one most certain to be remembered from a century from now.

Woman – A beautiful creation and inspiration

A woman is god’s one of the most beautiful creations, and they make this world a much better place to live for. International women’s day is a celebration of respect, appreciation, and love towards women. To be honest, women don’t need a special day to celebrate their greatness and versatility; however, there is a strong reason behind the celebrations of international women’s day. I understand that we don’t say it every day, but we do value and respect every woman for her contributions in all the aspects of her life.

Over the past three decades, there is a significant improvement in the ratio of men and women in the workforce. Women have started working on their dreams and career, and they have expanded their horizons. They have understood that their role is not only limited to care, compassion, love, upbringing etc., but they also have huge caliber to demonstrate their skills in other domains. It is so amazing to see a woman playing different roles and characters in her life. I would like to mention few examples where the role of women has made me feel extremely proud.

Near my locality, there is a big sugarcane juice shop which is entirely controlled and managed by women and all of them work diligently throughout the day. They manage everything in such a great manner that all the orders are on time, customers are happy with the service, and the place is absolutely clean and hygienic. They share a great camaraderie and work in a collaborative manner; however, the most astonishing fact is that the owner is a man, and I was always under the impression that the shop is owned by one of these women. When I met with that person, he shared great thoughts about women, and he mentioned that he completely trust all these women over here and has given them the complete authority of the shop. 

The other example is women bus conductors in Hyderabad. In 2008, I left Delhi and came to Hyderabad for work, and I was shocked to see women bus conductors over here. I could never imagine a woman playing the role of bus conductor, and honestly, it was a great feeling. This was a perfect example of women working in horizons which society says are meant for men.

These days, many organizations are committed to force gender inclusivity where they try their best to have an equal ratio for both the genders. I work for Deloitte, and I am so proud to say that it is one of those organizations which constantly work through several leadership sessions and programs to make Inclusion a part of our DNA where women are also given equal opportunities as compared to men. However, we all still need to work a lot to improve the conditions for women. There are many places in our country where women are not allowed to do lot of things. They stay in a very restricted environment which hampers their thinking, growth, development, and life.

A woman’s success depends a lot on the support and assistance of her family. She cannot pursue her dreams and career unless she gets a support from her loved ones. Her growth and development depends a lot on the love, assistance, and support which she gets from her family and without their support, she can never grow and pursue her dreams. In simple words, a woman’s family plays a very important role in her advancement towards her career and dreams. One of my mentors told me once that the most important decision in a women’s career is choosing a right partner. I was astonished to hear this statement as it was absolutely true, and I never thought about it. The family needs to support women in pursuing her dreams and career; hence, I request everyone to support women wherever you can.

I would also like to wish women’s international day to all the men who have shown great respect and have always supported women. There are many great men who have helped women to the pinnacle of success; hence, I would like to acknowledge the support of those great men as well. I wish that these gestures become a part of our culture which will help every woman to grow and pursue her dreams.

Wish you all a very wonderful and happy women’s day.

“Thin is always beautiful” – Are you sure?

First of all, let’s see the definition of the word “thin”. Now a days, it simply means that you should – the word MUST is more appropriate here – look slim in whatever dress you wear. It does not matter if you are not eating or if you are following unhealthy practices to get fit in to that small dress. Thin also means that whenever you go out for shopping, you should always get the size of your favorite outfits, no matter how small they are. If you fail to fulfill any of the above two conditions then you are FAT.

Unfortunately, this is the story everywhere. Most of the girls just want to be thin but not healthy. They are more concerned about losing weight as quickly as possible by following all the practices such as unhealthy dieting; however, they do not consider the fact that all these practices are actually making them unhealthy and weak from inside. It does not matter what they feel about themselves – thin or fat – but for others, they must look thin. The irony is that most of us live the life which is good in other people’s perspective. We don’t live it in the way we want to be. We feel that if we are not thin, we are not beautiful.

Everybody wants to be thin because they feel that only slim people are the good looking ones. Sometimes, I believe that these people don t understand the difference between thin and fit because these terms are identical to them. Being thin is everything so that they can fit in to any dress. Also, everybody believes in quick results; hence, they prefer all kinds of unhealthy dieting styles rather than losing weight in a healthier way.

The fact is that being thin does not mean you are fit. I have seen so many people who are slim but don t have any strength. When people follow dieting methods – such as eating once in a day, skipping meals, skipping nutrition – they become weak and lose their strength as well. It is not at all difficult to lose weight by following different styles of unhealthy dieting which I mentioned above; however, it becomes a challenge when you eat normally – healthy diet with proper nutrition – and lose weight by exercising. For obvious reasons, it will take more time for you to lose in the latter case because the weight will start coming down after 2 – 3 months. Yes, it takes time; however, better late than losing weight in an unhealthy way.

It is good to stay fit rather than being thin. Weight machine is not always the right measure; we also need to check our BMI. When we lose weight through exercise, muscles take place of fat, and as a result, our body gets toned. In this case, you become fit and gain strength; however, you gain weight as well because muscles take more place than fat in the body but gaining weight is healthy in this case. We must exercise in such a manner that our fat is replaced by muscles in the body.
If you really want to diet, maintain a healthy lifestyle, leave junk food, soft drinks and adopt a healthy mechanism where you take all the nutritious elements. It is always good to have five small and nutritious meals in a day rather than having two big and unhealthy meals.

The only healthier way to lose weight is to exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle. I understand that exercise is a challenge for lot of people as it is very difficult for them to spare some time from their busy schedules. Well, I never believe in the phrase “I don t have time” because we all have time, and we just need to set our priorities. When people say that they don t have time to exercise, it simply means that it is not their priority right now. It becomes their priority only when their health reports show bad results. Why do we have to wait for such instances? Rather, we should pay lot of importance to our body and health because if these things are fine, we can do all the other things and enjoy our life. If you really want to be fit and healthy, take out some time for exercise and go for it.

My personal experience: I go to gym five times a week and have lost 1.5 kgs in the last six months. The number looks small; however, it mattered a lot to me because I gained muscles instead of fat, and as I already mentioned, muscles are heavier than fat in the body.

Always remember that everybody is beautiful in their own way. Live your life in a healthy way as this is the only one you got…………..