total timepass...

My father was in the Army in the Sikh Li regiment. As most of you would know, the Indian Army is the offspring of the British Indian Army which is part of our colonial history. So the old British officers who were part of the army in India and are now in UK have formed as association which meets yearly for a reunion lunch. When I heard about the association last year, I joined it and this year finally got a chance to attend the lunch in 2016. To be honest, in the beginning I was not so sure about how I would feel about it - the British ruled our country for so long, we don't really look at that part of our history with a lot of positivity. And then attending a lunch which in a way celebrates that history would be awkward. But surprisingly, it wasn't. The lunch this year was held at the Bombay Brasserie in Gloucester Road. There were only 3 officers attending who had actually served in India (apparently there had been a lot more 10 years ago but I did not know about the as...

The book 'Sapiens' is a must read for people curious about the human race's history and development. The author traces Homo Sapiens' history from when they were monkeys and isolates some of the major reasons (in his opinion) which affected how they developed and how today's world as we know it came about. The book is written in a very light manner, is easy to read and very gripping. Even if you may not agree with what is said, you will be interested to know more about what the author says and why. Below are some of the highlights of the book which I found worth mentioning: When humans started appearing on earth, there were 6 different types of human species in different parts of the world, of which only us (the Homo Sapiens) have survived. While Sapiens from East Africa still have strains in them of the Neanderthal and Denisovans species, the ones in Europe and Asia have none of it - they had completely wiped out the other human species. So even in ancient hist...

A lot of us assume what we know about the world to be true. And when new findings comes out in the open, the world as we know it changes. There are sometimes small new truths that change our view like ' daily flossing doesn't really help ' or the bigger ones like 'Pluto is no longer a planet'. I recently read a book which describes how much more we have learnt about old American civilisations and how it has changed our view of the Americas. In the same vein, I recently saw a show talking about the map of the world as we know it and the reality which is different. I had read about this difference many times before - how the relative size of the continents is not really accurate, and how that played into the hands of the imperialist powers. But somehow. I had never looked at the alternate 'more accurate' maps ever. Till I did! It felt creepy and unnatural! Its not the same world view as we have seen and known for years, what we were taught at school and ...

1491 is a non-fiction book on the history of the Americas before Columbus arrived there. The focus is not as much on providing a comprehensive history as on debunking a lot of myths propagated about the Americas by the colonists. These myths have been proved wrong by latest archaeological findings but not accepted as much as they should have been. There is a clear bias visible in the book against the so called white intellectuals. And while reading it, you also realise how much archaeologists are still finding about the Americas. Its still not as well known as we all assume and it may be that whatever was known till now may be absolutely wrong! There are three major myths that the author disproves, citing latest findings over the years and across the continent. The review below is not a comprehensive review, just a couple of interesting tidbits I found interesting. P.s. I use Indians below instead of Red Indians in keeping with the terminology in the book Myth : there were very...

(I was to write this blogpost 4 months ago, but think it has become more relevant now given the recent ‘floods’ in Gurugram:) ) I don’t think this article is going to come as a surprise to anyone. In fact most reactions would be something like - ‘ yeh to hota hi hai ’ or ‘this is how it happens’. But still given that I have been living out of India for quite some time and before that lived a sheltered live in army cantonments, it is still a surprise to me and I don’t think that’s how it should happen! My parents recently moved to a new place in Gurgaon (as it was called then!) and they realised during monsoons one of the side road gets flooded. It has been happening for years with the other residents, but as usual no one bothered to do anything about it. My father went to the local administration office to complain a couple of times. Accordingly the next year they sanctioned couple of crores to build a rain drain next to the road, and elevate the road so that water does not colle...

I generally write movie reviews only on films I see in the theatre. But I think I am going to make an exception for Aligarh. I saw it yesterday and am still so affected by it, that I had to put my thoughts on paper. Though it would be very difficult to describe what I felt and am still feeling - all the helplessness and the sadness. Aligarh is a masterpiece, and an understated one at that. It takes a very sensitive topic and presents it to us without any melodrama. Just as it is. And it touches you. When you finish watching it, you are affected, you are sad. And not because the movie showed sadness. But because it didn’t. Aligarh is based on the true story of an AMU professor, who was suspended after being unlawfully filmed as being a homosexual. He was treated unfairly by the University and society. He fights for himself and wins but is found dead before he can take up his job at the University again. In the movie, this is shown through the eyes of a journalist who wants to brin...

I recently attended two Indian singer's musical concerts in London - Shreya Ghoshal and Arijit Singh's. This was my second time attending musical concerts (first was Jagjit Singh) because I always assumed that if you are not musically inclined, you might find them boring. And I am happy to have been proven wrong:). For a start, they were Bollywood singers, so the fact that I have grown up singing these songs ensured that I didn't get bored:). If you relate to Bollywood and its movies and music et al, there is no way you will not totally enjoy such concerts. The loud cheers and electric energy that went up in the crowd everytime a popular song was sung is testimony to that. Given my experience this time, I am looking forward to attending many more such concerts in the future. I also realised a couple of things, the first of which was that your experience can be widely different based on a lot of things, other than the quality of the singers. I will share some of the di...

A Salman movie on Eid, what can you expect:). 100 crores? 200 crores? The sky is definitely the limit here! After watching (and actually enjoying), most of Salman's movies in theatres, this time I was planning to give Sultan a miss. But rave reviews by friends on facebook tempted me and I finally went and saw it. My honest review - it was a very average movie. There have been tons of movies made like this and forgotten. But given the general level of Salman movies, this was very very good by his standards. One of those rare movies of his where you dont go 'Come on, really??!!' every 5 mins! And that is really an achievement. About the movie, it had a story line which was great. Acting was bearable except Salman's. But a star like him doesn't need to act anyways, correct? Or dance for that matter. Anushka was good, star cast good, music enjoyable. All in all, definitely a watchable movie. But my issue with not watching it was beyond that. Salman is a pa...

Let me start with the first feeling I had after seeing Udta Punjab - I have hope for the Hindi film industry! After a period of Dark Ages (the 80s and 90s), the last few years have been relatively better. We see a regular (again relatively) stream of good movies releasing once or twice a month. And that’s making me hope again:). Once in a while, you get to see a movie by a serious film maker, who believes in the art and not just the moolah . It may still be a masala  enough movie like Kahaani, but at least its different and enjoyable. And I love watching these movies! Udta Punjab falls in this category - it is not a typical Hindi movie. There is a background of the Punjab drug problem, and then there are the characters in the movie through which the problem is delved into further. The flow of the story is good, keeping you involved the whole time. The acting is superb - Alia Bhatt needs no words and Diljit Dosanjh is a natural. Kareena felt a little over the top, playing Preet ...

The day I read this article was a day of deep brooding for me. This is a life I or people around me can never even understand - not being able to feed your cattle, not having water for yourself, not having food for your family, not being able to work and earn, losing your land and crops, and in the end having to give up your life. All this is beyond our comprehension - for the 10% middle class in India who lead a " relatively " comfortable life. This article is not about the story of this farmer (and of so many farmers and other poor people of my country). There is nothing I can say about him. Its sad. Its deplorable that such events happen almost everyday in India. And I don’t know what the governments have done in the last 68 years to change this. None of them have focussed on our villages enough and therefore we are where we are. But my article is not about that. It is about what happened that day after I read this article and how it has changed my perspective on my...

Uber has changed a lot of lives. It's brought in convenience, affordability, familiarity and feeling of safety in a new country, and a lot more to all of us. But then its not all positives for it, which you might already know from articles that have been coming in the media for quite some time now. Recently, I rode in an Uber which was being driven by someone who owned his own cab company earlier! He was an immigrant in London and had built a successful business for years. And then Uber killed it! After Uber, there are only two cab options left for commuters in London. Either the black cabs, or Ubers. And so the mini-cabs which used to provide conveninence and affordability are no more. The opportunity for small-time businesses that it provided to many is not there anymore. As per the driver, Uber currently offers the cheapest prices which are constantly falling. And this cut is always taken from the driver's share, never from Uber's. And once the small players are wi...

The badshah is back! Just when I was ready to give up on Shahrukh after years of being a fan (having watched Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, RaOne, Don 2, Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Diwale on screen!), I think I won't give up yet. And what an irony, it happened after watching the movie 'Fan':). Every year on Diwali, we would go and see the first day show of the latest Shahrukh release. Just because it was the thing to do - of course we had to see his movie in the theatre! After Dilwale I had vowed that this had to stop. I would not go for his movie, just because it was his movie. And so even after seeing the trailers of Fan, I did not plan to go for it at all. I did not even check the reviews online as I had no hope. But when I got reviews from a friend that it was worth going (online reviews don't count for much here as they are not really honest and dependable;-)), after a lot of debate and thought, I decided to go for it. (Btw it might be true for a lot of other people - S...

Let me start with what's top of my mind about this book, it's not easy to read. Its quite a philosophical and "big words" book, that makes reading it strenuous and needs your full attention. So it's definitely not your typical read-to-relax book. Its a book which takes a look at a very difficult question and tries to share all the philosophies available on the topic to help you decide for yourself what you believe in. And gives you loads of examples on the way to understand the drawbacks of these existing philosophies. The basic question the author is trying to answer is - What is justice? What is the right thing to do? As simple as this sounds, its one of the toughest questions to answer in an airtight manner. Lets start with a very simple example - you are the driver on a train and you see three workers working on the tracks. You have the option to divert to another track where there is only one worker working. You will end up killing the workers and can...

Recently on Facebook, I read one of those 'You know you are from xyz if...' articles. It was about belonging to the Indian middle class of the 80s and the 90s. One of the statements stuck in my mind -'You know you belong to the Indian middle class if you still save plastic bags for future use'. And the surprising part is, even though I have been out of India for so long, I can still never throw away plastic bags from a trip to the grocery store. They are stored away for future use, always! So I definitely am still middle class:). But reading that article made me think about a lot of other things I do which are very alien to the western world I live in. I always always switch off extra lights in the house, only the one in my room is the one on. I save wrapping paper for future use:). And so on.. All this is middle class too, right? We all grew up in the times of Doordarshan where social ads dominated TV time and talked about conserving energy and water. I remember...

I finally saw a Hindi movie in a theatre after suchhh a long time, and thankfully I wasn't disappointed (surprisingly too!). Fitoor is based on Great Expectations, stars Tabu, Katrina, Aditya Roy Kapur and is shot primarily in Kashmir, with some parts in London and Delhi. When I went for the movie, I had no clue what it was about. But just before the show started, I glanced at one of the reviews and wish I hadn't. It would have been fun to see how much time it took for me to figure out its 'inspiration':). As I said above, I enjoyed the movie. Given that Great Expectations has been one of my favourite books since I was young, that might have something to do with that;-). Anyways, first things first - Fitoor is an artist's canvas. So pretty, so perfect - whether its Kashmir or Katrina. The snow and chinar and lakes and havelis of Kashmir; the paintings of an artist; or the beauty of its lead characters. Highlighting beauty everywhere was one of the goals of the...