This week I thought there was no movie to catch up with. On a busy Thursday afternoon, I just checked bookmyshow.com to find that Do dooni chaar was running to an empty theatre. I immediately booked 2 tickets, praying that we are not disappointed. Do dooni chaar is a story about the Duggal family which has a papa duggal, mama duggal, bhai duggal and behen duggal. It's about a middle middle class family based in Delhi and how they go about their everyday chores. Their mundane lives are also complicated by the lack of money through a salary that Papa Duggal earns as a modest and honest school teacher. The kids in the movie, played by Archit Krishna and Aditi Vasudev are astonishingly refreshing and to the point. At no point in the movie do you get the smell of a star studded movie. The protagonist, Santosh Duggal, played by Rishi Kapoor, who himself was a superstar in the 70s and the 80s, is a lovable character which every normally brought up Indian can relate to. If you were born in the eighties and were middle class, that's probably how your Dad would be! Neetu Singh, playing Kusum Duggal was endearing and had a very earthy character which she did full justice to. All through the film you would never feel that this woman has come back to face the camera after 30 years. The real-life couple also extend their chemistry to this movie which lends it the soul of the movie. Much of the movie can be relished only because it was Rishi and Neetu. Their real life charisma also rubs off on the screen to recreate magic that one would not expect, atleast out of a small budget film like this! Archit who plays the role of Sandeep Duggal is Rishi's son, a typical Delhiite, a guy lost in translation. He loses his way in between and when he finally admits it in front of his family, unlike Indian cinema, his dad takes him out and does an uncharacteristic thing to bring him back on track. Watch out for the scene where the dad-son talk happens on a road side thela eating paranthas. That's as real as it gets. There is simplicity in the scene, yet it is so refreshing that the audience gets transported back in their lives, when their dad must've given them a lesson for doing something wrong. The sister, Payal Duggal, played by Aditi Vasudev is a very well potrayed girl brought up in urban surroundings, but wanting to break away from the mould. She is a typical bubbly, effervescent middle class girl who is a little ashamed of her dad's salary. She has a boyfriend, Micky, who is a son of a gun. But when the time comes to stick by her family, she very clandestinely supports her dad towards the climax. She is definitely better of the two siblings when it came to the role. For a debut role, it was a more than decent performance by her. But, again I would say, that this is a movie meant and written for Rishi and Neetu. The sheer chemistry between them is what makes this film work. They share a lot of witty moments between themselves. Do dooni chaar is a story about a very normal, very earthy, very middle class family who make their ends meet with a lot of difficulties. Yet, what is endearing is the love that they share and the eighties feeling that most born at that time would be aware of. It is not flashy. It is not preachy. It's just a light movie which touches your heart. You will not come out heavy from the cinema theatre because there is no melodrama. Yet, you will be refreshed because it is your story, my story and a story which millions of my countrymen would share. It's like a mirror of your household in the eighties, which would bring a smile to your lips. This movie is right what it was meant to be. A middle class story. A Hrishikesh Mujherjee kind of film, which has a message but said very subtly without preaching. Watch it for Rishi and Neetu. Here I would make a comment and exercise my discretion and say that Neetu Singh is still as beautiful and graceful as she was when she quit acting at the age of 18. Time has only brought more grace to her face and she managed to pull off a very middle class role with aplomb. No wonder Ranbir's good looks come from his mom. Rishi was handsome too, but Ranbir is Neetu's son. The mothers don't get more beautiful than this and he should be glad for that! I would go with 3 out of 5 for this wonderful rendition of a common man's life. Don't miss this movie. If nothing else, then Rishi and Neetu would make your weekend worthwhile.
Also, as an after note, do check out the way, Mr Duggal picks up the phone everytime and says : "Hellooo, Santosh Duggal this side"!
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Do not judge a book by it's cover. This is the cover : This is vindicated in the case of Anjaana Anjaani because the book is like this : Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra play Akash and Kiara. We'll come to them a little later on.. there's a lot more to despise! The movie starts through a pathetically shot scene with Ranbir and his business partners planning to take up a loan to buy a dead company and Ranbir eventually losing out the loan of 12 millions dollars because the stock market crashes. The scene is so tragically shot and the camera work is so shoddy that you think even Ramayana and Mahabharata shot in the 90s had better camera techniques. There are unwanted rays of light escaping through the frame and dust spots on the camera lens which become glaring on the big screen. What makes me wonder is how this passed the editing table. So much for Siddharth Anand and his poor cinema. He has directed duds in the past.. but with Anjaana Anjaani he leaps past the limits of moronity and low calibre movie making abilities that he has defined for himself. Coming back to the opening scene, there is a friend of Ranbir Kapoor, played by a small time actor Vishal Malhotra. Now, i don't know why but I think Vishal Malhotra should take off his shoes and hurl them at Siddharth Anand. Both the shoes... ah yes, one by one. The poor guy has only one scene in the movie in which he is made to act like he is some harassed bahu from the torturous Star Plus soaps. Don't forget to check out the first scene of the movie where he accuses Ranbir of losing everything out. There is so much melodrama in the first scene that you are thankful at the end of it that Vishal Malhotra's body didn't burst out of his uncalled for emotions. Ranbir and Priyanka both meet for the first time on a bridge where they want to commit suicide. Initially, when you are not in the know of things, you are intrigued by the situation, but slowly it dawns upon you that both of them lost the golden opportunity to end their lives and end the torture of the audience as well. In a sequence of supposedly comic events which fails to strike a chord with any intelligent movie goer, they attempt suicide through childish sounding attempts many times. But each time they are not successful. The unbelievably stupid Priyanka Chopra likens this to destiny which she thinks has other plans for them. Sadly their destiny was Siddharth Anand and his plans for them were nothing close to grand. Priyanka had had a cheating partner for which she was heart broken and wanted to commit suicide. What I also fail to understand is, that this fact is brought to the audience in bits and pieces unlike Ranbir's grouse. Priyanka's stupid story of her partner's deceit only comes through at the interval. Now, the bonanza.. her partner was played by the lamb-looking Zayed Khan. I have always maintained that if any of Fardeen & Zayed Khan are even a stray character in your film, then the film has to pay. It did royally in this case too, Zayed as usual looked lost and ugly. His pock marked & expressionless face does not evoke any sympathy either when he apologises. Anjaana Anjaani gets so predictable and repetitively boring that at times I just felt I should doze off. But the thought that I have to drive back home after the show kept me awake. The dialogues are cliched and so long.. that sometimes I shot.. "Ok guys.. done.. go ahead.. next dialogue please" The humour is so regressive and low IQ child like, it did not make me smile even once during the 2 and half hour duration of the movie. Scenes like Ranbir and Priyanka in Atlantic ocean with Ranbir's boxers floating around will make people pee on Siddharth Anand. Anjaana Anjaani is a movie shot in exotic locales apparently in the most picturesque locations of the US. But my dear Siddhartha baby.. all these have been done to death zillions of times in Yashraj films when you were a kid. The whole movie looks like an infomercial for 'Cox and Kings' or 'Raj Travels' who are publicizing their US tourist packages. The losers, Ranbir and Priyanka are supposed to be penniless, but they visit a nightclub almost every night, wear flashy dresses & zip around the geography of US in a gas guzzling Cadillac. Siddhartha baby must've borrowed the money from Nadiadwala uncle's grandson to pay for their free trips. Priyanka Chopra definitely has got something wrong with her lips. Siddhartha baby's cameraman too was obsessed with extreme closeups which did not help Priyanka either. I know swollen upper lips are a turn on for many in this world, but Priyanka's looked bee-stung. Plus the extreme closeups also showed that she hadn't got her upper lips done. Now, I am not picking on her.. but if your lips cover 35 mm of the 70 mm... tongues will wag. Piggy chops.. you gotta be present at the editing table next time. Ranbir, the poor guy, the fall guy in this sense.. is also to be blamed. He made the only decent attempt to salvage the movie... but he should be blamed for accepting this movie after a superlative performance in Raajneeti. Ranbir tries hard, but one champion sailor cannot save a sinking ship, just like Sachin Tendulkar alone cannot save India. There is one thing about Ranbir Kapoor which I did not know earlier, but gathered from the extreme closeups from this movie. In one scene where he scares Priyanka up from her sleep, his fingernails and tips occupy 60mm of the 70mm on platter. He also bites his nails and fingers like me. Quite an 'ewwww' habit I must say.. but I do it too... so I felt for him :) Ranbir, the shining star.. you rocked in whatever little scope this pathetic movie could give you. All the best and a belated happy birthday. I would go with a 1 out of 5 for Anjaana Anjaani. 0.5 for the exponentially brilliant "Naina laggeya baarishan" and 0.5 for Ranbir showing his bitten fingernails and tips :) PS : Don't forget to check out the coast guard persons who save the 2 losers a couple of times in this movie.
The old man looks like the dad of a meat shop owner from India. And the writing on the boat says : "US Coast guard". I also thank Siddharth Anand for reaffirming the faith of the world in not judging a book by its cover. Ranbir Kapoor doesn't need any introduction. There is nothing in the Indian film industry which creates as big a buzz as him. He has age on his side, a star lineage and good looks. The country has millions of girls crazy after him. In rudimentary terms, I can say that he is the Robert Pattinson of the east. Both of them are young. Both of them don't have many films to their credit. Both of them are more than decent actors. Both of them have crazy female fan following. Both of them have delivered big hits commercially in their short span of careers. Just like they keep speculating about Pattinson's love life, Ranbir is no stranger to those controversies in India as well. His breakup with Deepika Padukone was so public that India knew about it a month before they officially broke up. More salt on the wound.. my neighbour's dog too knew about it. But I am guy and I am not actually interested in his love life or him. But in the same breath, I would have to admit that he is good looking, is a more than decent actor and a refreshing change from the star kids whose only claim to fame is the beefed up meat shop body that they build. Ranbir has kept it simple and worked only on his strengths. But what I love the most about him is something he also would not be actually aware of. There is a pattern in his limited number of movies that he has done. All the sad and slow songs in his movies keep getting better and better. Most of them have such soothing lyrics and beats that you just merge into them. Have a look : #4 : Saawariya slow version (his first movie) : #3 Gets even better. I did not listen to this song carefully, till recently. Have taken to it since then : #2 This is one of the very best songs ever. Have a look in HD here, tell me if you dont fall in a trance : And finally, #1 on my list. This is the latest song from his unreleased movie : Anjaana Anjaani. I have listened to this song just 4 times, but it has created such an impact that I have been humming it since the last 6 hours. Tip : Put your home music player/headphones on a moderately high volume, close your eyes and just listen. You don't even need to watch the video. Vishal Shekhar have done an astounding job. Hats off. Mohit Chauhan and Shruti Pathak, take a bow... wonderful rendition Life is what happens to you, they say, when you are busy making other plans.
There are many times when you wish you could be the hero and you end up falling with a thud. That time, no matter whoever is with you, the one who picks you up and dusts you up, buys your heart for life. A degree happy, a degree curious, in anticipation I waited to to see.. But the inept heart forgets, sometimes it is never meant to be. Not worried about the consequence, a question it poses in ignorance It is met with a response of insolence A little shocked, a little annoyed.. It wondered how a question could have all the deserved joy denied. Torn, the heart came to the bedroom windowsill The windowsill was its only pill for any ill. He wept and wept cursing himself for prying The cold wind sweeping his face had all the tears drying He asked God, do I have anyone here? There was no reply.. that's when the wind said.. I am here You can tell me all that is there.. Like a lost child who finds his parents.. the heart cried Cried again and cried till his tears dried. The wind, now serious, asked if everything was allright.. The heart nodded, but knew it was night and nothing was bright. The pain was not big, but the heart was bitter That's when he realized that all that's not gold also does glitter But it was late.. And after a while, the tears refused to co-operate. Sad that the tears had also left him alone to fend He looked up again in the skies and asked, is there someone on whom I can depend? No answer again, the heart turned back waiting for the sun to dawn.. But that was a while away, so again he asked.. this time with a resolve.. the voice inside him answered this time, yes, it is your mom.. A smile dawned on his lips with this thought which was not new Yes truly, even when you aren't with me, the only one I can turn to is you. For years, somewhere in the Pakistani psyche, etched deep within is a wound... a wound that brought up such amounts of pent up energy that it attacked it's bigger brother with hostile intentions four times, but fell to the ground all four times. After the third round, the bigger brother too did not take it lying down and freed East Bengal(now Bangladesh) from Pakistan's control. The final of the four, the Kargil conflict was a macabre and treacherous operation by the over ambitious Gen Mussharraf who was later desecrated and thrown off his chair. India, the goliath, each time with it's strange fetish for peace, got up, dusted itself after each war and moved on. But David, prepared for the next war. Decades ahead now, India has clearly moved on, opening it's trade barriers and rubbing shoulders with the mightiest economies in the world. A vibrant democracy with the most impressive growth rate during the recession of 2009, it was the beacon of hope for the rest of the world in terms of sustainability in the banking industry. It taught the world, how the Central banks of the world could play a crucial role in preventing such occurrences. The world sat up and looked in amazement as India posted a 6.8% growth that year when majority of the world posted negative double digit numbers. Pakistan, on the other hand, as some reports suggested was looking down the barrel. It had about $6bn only left in its forex reserves, which could feed the country for a week at most. Militancy and narrow mindedness and the regressive one-point agenda of destroying India had clearly costed Pakistan it's place in the sun. A shining example of the above text is the following video, where the regressive Musharraf was mauled by a true Indian peace loving Muslim and deoband leader, Maulana Madani. Musharraf was dumbfounded and could not even regain his composure! Have a look : But all this to no avail!
Separated at birth like Siamese twins, bitter neighbours for long, Pakistan has always eyed Kashmir from the corner of it's eye. Kashmir is one topic which refuses to die in the Indo-Pakistan affair. Pakistan has and will always tacitly support militancy in Kashmir, support every person, goon and rowdy sheeter politician who wants to separate Kashmir. Behind the scenes, I cannot help but wonder, how the separatists and hardliners like Begum Mehbooba Mufti and Mr. Gilani manage to hold the state to ransom. The government in all its earnestness only pampers the separatists in the name of democracy. Could someone help elaborate, what democracy exists in PoK or the so called 'Azaad Kashmir'? Ask Mr. crazy Gilani to go to PoK and foment his forces there. Ask the mental Madam Mufti to get the separatists to free her if at all and ever at all she gets kidnapped by militants in future. It was the Indian govt which freed her after releasing 2 dreaded terrorists who later planned an attack on the Indian parliament. The kind of peaceful and forgiving nature that India has shown over the years, I can only say that these separatists have only slept on beds of roses built on the pyres of the Kashmiris. They talk of the liberation of Kashmiris. I want to know which normal, common Kashmiri wants to shut his shop down for 50 days at a stretch when his family has nothing to eat. Which normal common Kashmiri wants to stop sending his kids to a school, when elsewhere in India every progressive kid is riding the new wave of Indian economy. Leave the bloody PoK and the China disputed part aside. There is Jammu and Kashmir in India which can enjoy the democracy. A lot has been put at the hands of these back-stabbing separatists who hold the state to ransom. They pay the unemployed youth to throw stones at the forces. India can only watch, because it will not use its military might against its own people. It is a peace loving country whose state J&K has been ravaged by these mobsters. They talk of some bullshit like, this is Kashmiri mindset and the government cannot supress it. Ask them, where did this mindset of the average Kashmiri go during the bygone elections just about an year back when ALL the separatist parties were slapped across their faces? Why were they hiding their muck-ridden faces all through and why only in the last 2 months have they started the stone pelting culture again? They have caused millions of dollars of loss to the ex-chequer and routed the tourism industry in one of the most beautiful places on earth. I want to and sincerely want to know which Kashmiri supports these stone pelting goons? Is this the 'azaadi' that the Kashmiri wants? The following statement is a palindrome of sorts, just that it is a statement and not a word. "The nucleus is considered the boss of a cell". The other way round, "Boss is considered the nucleus of the cell". This is true in many respects, without the boss, the cell(or a business project) cannot function. So a sensible and stable boss is what is the heart of every successful project. But 90 out of 100 instances, the bosses that we get are insensitive, clueless about their team and grossly unreasonable. These are what are defined in the urban dictionary as 'Bosszillas'. A godzilla kind of boss. It's important to understand that the boss is also an individual and hence his ablities are limited like any other mortal. He is no superhero, so in times of distress, he would have to turn to few of his 'trusted beneficiaries'. I have developed the following diagram which illustrates the various attributes of the boss and his team, the pros and cons of being in each spectrum. The innermost part, the nucleus, does not need any description.
It's reserved for the boss! Coterie : This is what I earlier referred to as 'trusted benefciaries'. These are the finite set of people who form the white protein layer, around the yolk. They are super efficient, all of them. Bug busters, efficient machines who work tirelessly to deliver everything to machine level perfection. On a scale of 100, some are 101, some are 90, but still the level of dependency that they create on a boss is totally irreplacable. Pros : 1. Fabulous appraisals 2. Good recognition 3. You become a star at work Cons : 1. You are overworked and overburdened. 2. Boss depends on you, so obviously you pay a price for it and that you do by sacrificing your personal life many times. 3. You get very less leaves. EGOM : This term caught my fancy. This is a realtively new term which is widely used in the Indian democracy these days. It's the new 'in-word' in the corridors of power. Whenever there is a specific 'high profile job to be done, the govt of India finds itself inept because the leaders are poor visionaries. So the best person from the specific industry is picked up and made the head of the project. Such people are called : 'Empowered group of ministers', they are the real set of decision makers, the parliamentary minister merely signs the documents then. Now in a project environment too, you would find many EGOMS, working behind the scenes, if the lower grade of the 'Coterie' works at 90% efficiency, you can find EGOMs delivering 90% efficiency very easily if not more. But like the parliamentary scenario, they lack the political clout, to make it to the 'Coterie'. It's like a situation where the boss cannot do without them(because they are the work horses and are more in number), but does not recognize them enough as well. Pros : 1. Reasonably good appraisals. 2. You are not a star, but you are still looked upon as 'the few white collared people' 3. You get quite a bit of personal time in which you can do what you like. 4. You do not sacrifice your weekends. Cons : 1. There always is a glass ceiling, which stops you from jumping to the 'Coterie'. 2. No matter, what you do, even when you perform better than a few coterie members, your contribution is forgotten pretty quickly. 3. You are sometimes frustrated with the happenings around. The Waywards These are the set of people, sometimes many in number, who come and go without impact. The boss is not duly worried if they leave. The mindset of the boss is pretty rigid about these people, so there would be more cons than pros being in this band. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" they say. Bosses are not very different, multiply the agony by 2, if the boss is a woman! The waywards are mostly the people at the 'bottom-of-the-pyramid' or people who have rubbed him the wrong way sometime or the other. Pros : None Cons : Too many to describe, and will include just about anything that can go wrong with your life. If we equate, the office space with the game of snakes and ladders, the ladders are always taken by the 'coterie' members. the 'EGOMs' generally move step by step because of the glass ceiling, but get a ladder here and there, but they are far in between. 'The waywards' are alwars bitten by the snakes. Either of these 4 bands, the one who calls the shots is the Bosszilla. Love him, loathe him, you just can't ignore him. Ah, it was my birthday and it was technically yesterday!
What a day it was... unlike any of my previous ones... It had everything which I would normally curse, but then there were so many bright spots through it, that I feel humbled, overjoyed and satisfied at the end of it. I am sitting alone at the RGI airport Hyderabad, all steel and glass glitzy structure, but the emotions that passed yesterday are hard to ignore. Suddenly the vastness of the airport seems hollow and I feel that a relationship is worth millions of squarefeet. A small human emotion is something which can make you forego some of the biggest joys on earth! Waiting for my flight, I realize how empty the last 3 hours of my life have been. Absolutely none to look at, to talk to, even though there are so many people around me. All waiting for the same flight, but none familiar. This is when I realize that all I have earned in my lifetime is a handful of people, not money. These handful of people make me laugh, make me sad, make me weep at times. These handful of people make me jealous, give me heartache and headache, but if it weren't for them, my life would be anything but liveable. I sit by the side of an elderly couple right now, but I look at my screen dazed. They stare at me, like I am an alien typing away gibberish on my laptop. Right now, I miss everything that is mine, that I consider my space. I am not thinking, but just writing.. the words do not stop flowing from my mind. And do you know when this happens? When you miss someone badly or are in complete control of yourself. I can safely say that it's nothing related to control.. so it has to be the former. When I look back at the last day, a gentle smile dawns upon my lips. As I smile, I remember, that I got up to wishes from my mom, dad, brother and Tina. These are people who mean the most to me, to an extent that I take them for granted so many times.. The smile widens when I remember that my wifey gifted me a TH watch.. she had actually bought it without me knowing anything when i actually dropped her at the mall! I found out from the date on the warranty card! Astounded! The smile widens further when I recall the 100 odd mails and messages that I received through the day. It's a rewarding feeling to know that a hundred people atleast remember you! :) Then came the zapper... my sweetest sweetest SIL Divi put up a note on her communicator : To my superhero!! HAPPY BDAY.. You are THE BEST! This made my day. I didn't care if it sounded over the top, I didn't care if people were reading it and what they thought. I just felt happy that she too didn't care :) Thanks a lot Divi, will always remember the 'quote'. I had a bad day at office running pillar to post, for my tickets, forex, laptop etc, answering the queries which my colleagues had in between. But all this is vanished. Vanished when my mom and dad made me a special dinner and cut a cake. My brother cut his training short by a couple of hrs and came to join me for dinner! It was just 5 of us, but it seemed no lesser than the joy a party would give! I would do myself an injustice if I forgot to mention the cream on the cake.. Tina packed up my entire stuff in a matter of 2 hours. Now I really don't know where she gets the energy and grit to do it. Nor do I know how she manages to do it so meticulously. My life would have been a lot messier and very accident prone, if there was no Tina. Like I always keep saying, Tina means'There Is No Alternative'. Always like this, she never ceases to amaze me! Thank God for her :) All this drama in a day! and here I am in a completely contrasting evironment now... everything so dull, so empty. I just feel I can live my next year in the memory of the joy that all the small things gave me this birthday! Thanks everyone for making it special. And yes, you are hearing all this from me! Sigh, most people never thought that I too could have an emotion! But then, however hard from the outside, a coconut is the most tender and vulnerable when its born! PS : In the background, a song plays : "Thoda hai thode ki zaroorat hai" (I have a little, I need a little more), pretty much sums up everything I am writing! Facebook is 'the' most popular application in the social networking space today. It's a hit and people are loving it! Like all other applications, this too has pitfalls! The modus operandi is all too simple. All of us have heard of such things before, but some people just don't care. An external link is posted on a profile which is rather enticing in nature. Gone are the days when a porn inspired quote got the attention of the users. These days, the quotes are more sublime, docile and a bit funny. The probability of people clicking on such links is very high. For example, "This boy fell straight on his face after this girl slapped him" You have to 'like' this post to view the video. Here comes the trick. The like button is a new feature of FB which allows a developer to build a plugin. Then the users profile details are accessed (ofcourse with permission, nobody's complaining!) The code on the button click can be customized to show a thumbnail of a page, a picture and title of the page. This makes the trick more authentic. Before you know, you are transported to a rogue page with malicious content which hooks the trojans on to your machine! And to rub more salt on the wound, since you like it, it gets posted on your wall for other to see. And one by one everyone 'likes' it! This is like a virus which spreads systematically and nobody suspects because so many people 'like' it! One way to tell the 'malicious like' from the 'normal like' could be that the malicious ones always appear like a button on mouse-over. Something like this : The normal ones are generally just like a hyper-link.
All I can say is... just be aware and do not let unknown rogue applications access your profile data. Forget the people you are spreading you to, you are also, in the process risking your own laptop/desktop. Some more example pictures(now this post obviously points to malicious content because of the tag line:-) ) : Britney Spears has always been a teen icon! Back when I was a teen, I followed Brian Adams and boy bands like Backstreet boys and Boyzone.. they were a rage back then. But most people dished out similar things... As guys.. me and my friends always wanted some young lady take the lead! The answer came in the form of Britney Spears. I remember, Jan 1999, when her "Baby, one more time" debuted, it became a rage in the US and the ripples were felt the world over! She looked cute, a girl next door.. who was a great performer.. Apart from that her first song had a video where she was dressed as a new college goer! So it struck the chord immediately with us.. who were also just getting over with school. (School in India is till grade 10). Thereafter its college. The SONY BMG music cassette costed Rupees 180... which was about 4 and half dollars then. It was big money for me, I got about 50 rupees as pocket money then for my personal expenses. I saved up for a couple of months, pooled in my past savings, and got the cassette finally! I was the first among my peers.. immediately my cassette got booked for a few days.. all my friends wanted to take it home and record the songs on a blank cassette!! That was back then... when Britney was cute.. she was our age.. Then over albums and years, she became a cult figure... I started losing interest in her albums and songs which became more pub friendly. Too much of mixing and beats made her voice obscure. The times of "hit me baby one more time" and "U drive me crazy" were clearly over. She had become like the rest of the generation and lost her youthful next-door charm. :( Years later, I came across a song 'Toxic' The video was fun, but she had lost the charm by then.. she had grown up to be just like one of those American singers. She did crazy things like having the shortest marriage which lasted only 55 hours.
The slide continued, with another failed marriage, Kevin Federline was at the other end this time. She had kids, I wonder what they think of their mom! These guys, if they go to school, must be having an equally hard time there with all the kids around knowing of all the stupid things that keep happening with their mother. She later allegedly hooked up with some driver or something called Adnan Ghalib. Can it get any worse?? Now, when I look back, I cringe to think of what the icon of millions of teens back then has done to herself. She must be close to 30, but already looks too tired of life. She gets most of her pictures air-brushed when appearing on covers of magazines. I guess this is what happens when someone can't handle the fame and adulation which comes too early. She is only a sad shadow of her past now.. I feel sad, but considering her middle class upbringing, expected her to be stronger. There are lots of such cases out there... rehab is their second home. But alas, that's what we have come to be. For years, we yearn to succeed, we work hard to succeed, but when we achieve something quantifiable, we go into the self-destruct mode! The latest I heard today, Madame Spears, plans to get married again by the end of this year. to Jason Trawick who was her manager! Phew! My memory goes back to sometime when I was just 5. That was 1987. My mom must have made me milkshakes even before that, but that's only how long back I can remember. My mom always told me that they are a good substitute for breakfast and evening snacks, she said that they will give me enough energy to play cricket for 3 hours. She told me they had lots of proteins and other nutrients. I used to gulp down the tasty shakes in a matter of seconds. Back then, in homes, the shakes were pretty plain, simpler and totally not exotic. It was a banana shake or a mango shake or a strawberry shake! Milkshakes were loved by kids and elders alike, because they were smooth, creamy and colourful and totally yummy! I loved the legacy of milkshakes till I was a teen. Not that I started hating them, but just that I had been out of home for a long while... for higher studies. Years passed, I hadn't had milkshakes in ages. One fine day on television, I see an attention seeking Indian actress making her own milkshake on television. At first I thought it was some cookery show gone glam. Then it struck that it was for 'Millions of milkshakes' at Hollywood. Wow, the weird and bizarre trend of naming recipes around celebrities had reached the Indian shores as well! In amazement I looked on... milkshakes were never 'oh-so-sexy'! Have a look : 1. Taste the raspberries, unhygienic, but the populace doesn't care, when it's Mallika hissing.. oops kissing the berries. 2. Maximum eyeballs, because it's a banana! 3. Some milk finally.. 4.Yup, almost done 5.Some cream to top it up! 6.And here you go!! The shake is not the centre of attraction here, probably the girl in the frame on the back tasted it already, even her eyes are puking! This photo shoot became a huge hit in India! Catching the hint, another wannabe Bollywood actress, Koena Mitra who's out of work back home astonishingly got herself a milkshake! Relatively, some uninspiring pics of the disaster and her milkshake here : This trend has caught on.. from the wannabes in Hollywood, Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan, Pamela Anderson, and the preposterous Kardarshian sisters : Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian & Kourtney Kardashian. Pamela notably, looked the ugliest of them all at her milkshake photo-op. Have a look : The poor milkshake is a sidekick here Had my mum showed me the last picture of the milkshake in 1987, probably I would never have tasted milk ever nor would I shake my cough syrups before drinking!! The journey of milkshakes has just begun in the eastern world.. The other day, I saw a school kid, waiting for his school bus with google search on his iPhone, the search string was : Could anyone of you post the recipe of this milkshake? I don't still consider myself too old for it!
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