झूठी मुस्कुराहटें

सोचकर हर पल इन ही ख़्यालों में
गुम रहता है हर दम मन मेरा,
काश तुम देख पाती,
इन झूठी मुस्कुराहटो के पार

काश तुम जान पाती,
इन आँखों के अक़्स के पीछे का दर्द।
काश तुम महसूस करती,
इन तनहाइयों में कैसा लगता है
काश तुम समझ पाती,
इन दूरियों की चुभन

आलम-ए-ज़िंदगी के इस कशमकश में,
शायद तुम्हें ये एहसास होता,
की सच में आग का दरिया कैसा लगता है,
की सच में विश्वास का समुन्दर कितना गहरा होता है,
सच में इश्क़ की डगर यूँ आसान नहीं होती
सच में रिश्तों की परछाइयाँ इतनी मद्धम नहीं होती

पर अफ़सोस सिर्फ़ इतना है,
की पास तुम इतना पहुँच न सके,
की इस जुनून की आँच को महसूस कर सको
लफ़्ज़ों में छिपे जज़्बातों की व्याख्या कर सको
दर्द में लिपटे शब्दों का इशारा समझ सको

शायद इस बात से मुझे सुकून मिले,
की ख़ुशी में तुम्हारी ख़ुश रहूँगा मैं हमेशा
साये में तुम्हारे छिपा रहूँगा मैं हमेशा
मुस्कान तुम्हारी देखकर हरदम

 

ये बंदिशें

ये क्यूँ हैं इतनी बंदिशें,

मेरी राहों में खड़ी हुई,

ये क्यूँ हैं इतनी बंदिशें,

मेरे पांव को जकड़ी हुई

ना बातों से, ना व्यंग से,

ना हरकतों के ढंग से,

नहीं मानती ये बंदिशें,

मेरे स्वर मेरी उमंग से,

कितना भी मैं प्रयत्न करूँ,

मैं इनसे जूझ पाऊं ना,

मेरी कोशिश गर सफल हुई,

फिर भी मैं आगे जाऊं ना

ये बंदिशें मेरी सांसों की,

जीवन भर साथ जायेगी,

मेरी आत्मा को भी ये फिर,

बंदिशें कैदी बनायेंगी

मैं पुकारता चलता हूँ अब,

आज़ादियों की आस में,

ये बेड़ियाँ ही दोस्त हैं,

रहती हैं जो आस-पास में

Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises

Firstly, a note to everybody who’s watched it or planning to watch it soon, PLEASE DO NOT compare The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR) with The Dark Knight. The fact is that however epic TDK was, TDKR is quite different in terms of treatment and flavor. When Christopher Nolan announces that he’s going to make an ‘epic’ ending to his Batman series, one can’t help but raise hopes from the third and last installment. And Nolan has really lived upto his words.

TDKR is an epic in many ways, and a different kind of epic than TDK. Right from the superb opening sequence where we get to witness the gruesomeness in Bane’s character, TDKR lets you right in to the story, scene by scene, (sometimes) rushing through various new characters as well as some old ones.

In terms of story development, there’s not a stone left unturned to take a good v/s evil storyline to such astounding level. The film does justification in every form to the comic book as well.

Christian Bale is too good as the dark crusader of Gotham city. He plays Batman with certain smugness that George Clooney (Batman & Robin) and Val Kilmer (Batman Forever) could not when they had their chance in Tim Burton versions. Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon is in perfect form. Anne Hathaway is competent as Catwoman and has a character worth looking for. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are top notch as Lucius Fox and Alfred respectively, and they add some emotional quotient to the film. Joseph Gordon Levitt has an important role, which one could guess from the trailers itself! Marion Cottilard as Miranda Tate (a new character) has a role to watch out for. Lastly, Bane is not the best villain so far, but has been earnestly played by Tom Hardy. Bane’s presence is quite menacing throughout the movie. He may not be as smart as Joker, or may not have quirky dialogues like him, but is definitely scary enough. Liam Neeson as Ra’s Al Ghul and Cillian Murphy as Dr. Crane have short and important roles.

Although TDKR isn’t completely devoid of loopholes too, but we can surely overlook those as a cinematic liberty. The film is paced so fast that even at a runtime of 2 hours 42 minutes, one feels as if he’s been rushed through scenes and there should have been a little more character development (specially a little more attention could’ve been given to Catwoman). At some places Bane’s voice isn’t quite audible and same can be said for Batman too (or it may be the faulty sound systems at the theatre in which I was watching it).

The movie finally brings to full circle the Batman legend, and tries to tie up all loose ends. The unexpected twist in the end seemed really surprising and disappointing to some extent.

TDK’s epicness lied in its solid characters, splendid acting and befitting dialogues, whereas TDKR’s epicness is defined by its breathtaking scenes and action sequences, remarkable camerawork and cinematography, spectacular special effects and CGI and most of all an honest intention to give complete justice to the legend of Batman! My rating 4.5/5

A piece of advice – Do watch Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight back to back before watching TDKR and chances are you’ll enjoy this movie more!

The Fourth Eye “ON” Nir-Mal Baba

I write the following piece of article without any kind of insight or much research done on this so-called God-man called Nirmal Baba who’s a rage here nowadays, but nevertheless I pen this down because it opened my eyes to observe that we’re living among a society full of nincompoops. Call them morons, fools, idiots or plain blind commoners who believe in a phenomenon such as Nirmal Baba.

What/Who is this Baba?

(If you’re jobless like me: Go read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirmal_Baba )

According to the wiki:

Nirmaljeet Singh Narula or Nirmal Baba is a self-proclaimed godman and spiritual leader known for his public discourses and is followed in some parts of India.

Nirmal Baba, former name Nirmaljit Singh Nirula, was born in 1952 in Samana, India, near Patiala Punjab. Nirmaljit Singh moved to Daltonganj, Jharkhand in 1970.

Nirmaljit Singh began his brick kiln business in 1981. However, he suffered losses and following this, he started a cloth shop but again he failed in his venture. He married Sushma, a resident of Daltonganj. He has a son and a daughter. Narula, a father of two, was a failed business man in the 1970s and disappeared from the scene in the early 1980s. He is supposed to have acquired his so-called “divine powers” then.

Nirmal Darbar is the name of the paid televised show corresponding to each public meeting of Baba. This show is currently broadcast by approximately 40 different channels including AXN, TV Asia, Star News, SAB TV and more. During these Darbars, he makes public appearances and converses with aggrieved devotees who usually narrate their personal, social or financial worries to him. A Mumbai based junior artist has recently claimed that baba pays money to his people for asking questions who sit in the crowd as his followers during the “Nirmal Darbars”. He then, advises them on those issues publicly and suggests solutions. All the Samagam meetings have tickets starting from 2,000 (US$39.9).

One would now argue whether what’s wrong in doing all this? But wait…let’s hear the suggestions that Baba gives to his devotees:

(Heard on TV during the one episode I saw, which made me write this shit)

“Drink soup and your financial troubles will be over”

“Donate Rs. 50 in instalments or Rs. 500 in a go at some Shiv temple”

“Have panipuri to get promotion at work”

“Feed rabdi to a beggar sitting outside some specific temple”

and the craziness goes on.

My question to myself is that has misery over-grown to such levels that the business of such babas have flourished so nicely within a few years. I remember talking to my friends regarding the ‘origin’ of such babas and how to become one. I would like to enunciate stepwise as to how you make yourself a successful Baba

STEPS TO BECOME A SUCCESFUL BABA

1. Find a place where no one recognises you or knows about your past at all.
2. Find some local trustworthy people (who won’t bitch you out later) to carry out the propaganda about your arrival and promise them a cut of your profits!
3. DO NOT start charging huge amounts from the initial customers. Make sure your break-even point is at least 5-10 years long.
4. Initially make the customers pay according to their own free will. Make them pay with sugar coated words like, “Aapki iccha/shraddha se…”, “Jo bhi aap theek samjhein”, “bhagwan ki kripa se jo bhi dein”, etc etc etc.
5. Keep the law by your side by being in even terms with the Police and politicians, to avoid those ‘few’ haywire cases where the devotees may file cases against you.
6. Make sure you have a good money laundering network, so that the “Bhagwan ki shradha” and “kripa” may be invested into Real Estate, Stocks, and Gold.
7. Finally, keep yourself limited to an area. Never interfere into other Baba’s territories (Follow the Baba Code of Conduct). Also there’s a huge risk of identification involved if you travel much.

Follow the above steps with caution and there’s a very high chance that you may succeed to the ranks of Nirmal Baba or even higher!

Coming back to where I’d started this article. Also do check out the official website of Nirmal Baba (http://www.nirmalbaba.com/). Here the Godman has given out the process of getting a pass to attend one of the Samagams that he holds. Even children over 2 years of age (who are not charged even by the Indian Railways) are charged with Rs. 2000 for attending the Samagam, where all he does is giving shitty advice about eating shit and drinking piss (Yeah he even does that!)

Will India ever grow up to a standard where we can thwart such nonsensical superstitious douchebaggery? I don’t know the answer to that, all I know is that “Bullshitting” as a business has a name, and it’s not doing MBA and giving shit as a manager to some over-frustrated employee, it is Nirmal Baba ( or any other douchebag that gives shit on National Television and we lap it up like sugar syrup)

Rantings of a Frustrated wannabe entrepreneur @NITC

To,

Dean (Students Welfare),

National Institute of Technology Calicut,

Calicut -673601

Kerala.

Subject: Demand for reason in delaying the process of BICC being setup.

Respected Sir,

It was March 2011, when the ‘officialization’ of a new club being called “Entrepreneurship Cell” was started. Even though, the proposal was not signed then and there, but a promise was made that it would be made an official club of NIT Calicut in the Monsoon Semester 2011. The fact to be noted here is that, even though the club was not official by that time, but had already conducted two talks by personalities like Mr. Mahesh Bhave (Prof., IIM-K) and Mr. Leepesh Parat (CEO, Zesty Beanz) in the previous semester itself.

Now came the new semester, and the work for the club getting official started along with the activities we were planning to hold and organize. Since there was no permanent Director of the institute at that time, our proposal was stalled for about a month. We understood that, and kept on waiting for a new and permanent Director to come. Also thrown in between was the new Senate being setup. All’s done and said, the following things happened in the months of August-September:

• A new and permanent Director was appointed for the institute.
• The position of Dean (Students Welfare) was transferred to your hands.
• The already pre-approved proposal about BICC was passed onto your hands.

6 months have passed since then, and NOT an ounce of work has been done from your side to support/aggravate in making this club a reality in our college.

As all of us know that the college rankings are not pretty impressive and are likely to come up looking at the efforts the administration is taking in the interests of the students. Placements are at an all-time low, and who’s to be blamed for it?? Students (That’s what I would expect to hear from you) NO Sir. I can very well vouch that if not the brightest, but certainly the shinier grey matter comes to this college, hoping to improve and make an impact in their lives through learning. And please I shouldn’t get started on placements, because our club is aimed at making engineers self-dependent and job creators rather than job-seekers, but its and irony that the same person responsible for placements, is the one behind all the delays and non-existence of our club. Yes, I forgot to add about the fateful day we became Business Innovation & Consulting Club from Entrepreneurship Cell. Why? Well, because we were told that using the words ‘Cell’ and ‘Centre’ in an association makes it equivalent to some ‘high-profile’ bodies ay NIT Calicut, and using such word for a student body will hurt the ego and sentiments of some specific persons. What are we? Some high school gang of school going kids, who fight for some imbecile reason such as this, but we Sir, didn’t. We gave up our identity so that egos could be gratified; we gave up on the name that defines us so that unending pride and arrogance be maintained high and satisfied.

But little did we know that this was just the start to an interminable nerve wrecking patience test (which is in fact going on till date). Firstly we were told to wait for the proposal to be passed onto from the Advisor to you. Then we were told to wait for the Student Body elections to happen. We did. After that we were told to wait till the elected people take their oaths. We waited. Then we were told that our Faculty-in-Charge is not a permanent employee of the college. We convinced another ‘permanent employee’ to willingly become our faculty-in-charge, and we did it in just one day after your objection. Then we were told that let this proposal be passed by the body in one of the SAC meetings (I’d also like to add that the above mentioned elected members had already gone through the proposal and had signed on it). Then after we present it in the meeting, no one had any objections to it, but still you postpone it saying that we should wait. We waited. Then you told us that the proposal be presented in some Deans and HOD’s meeting, (Firstly, why should the existence of a club related to entrepreneurship be discussed in the Deans and HOD’s meeting? But we kept mum, because we are trained to keep silent) When we asked about when will the meeting be, your answer was, “I don’t know!”. When we asked to whether who raises/might raise an objection to our proposal, your answer was, “I don’t know!”. When we asked about the reason for the objection, your reply was, “I don’t know!”. Well Sir, as a Dean (Student Welfare), you’re supposed to KNOW things instead of being (pretending to be) unaware about it.

During these crucial 6 months, me and my team have faced countless problems, some of which I would surely want to mention:

• When I started, I had more than 20 people who were enthusiastic about such an opportunity being provided in the college. Now I’m left with just a team of 5-6 people who are there, because hope still lingers in their minds about their dreams becoming a reality.
• Having made endless rounds to your office, it has been a nerve-shattering experience.
• It is me who’s being blamed for this club not seeing the light of day, because to the outside world (specially 1^st and 2^nd years), it is OUR lack of motivation, it is OUR incompetency, it is OUR mis-management because of which BICC is still not a club, its still not official.

Sir, I do respect you, but the kind of interactions we’ve had and the kind of attitude shown towards an inspiring venture has mislead me about the image I once had about you. It has also put me in deep thoughts about the future of this institute.

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.  -Victor Frankl”

This is exactly what we might end up doing because there’s nothing we can do about almost anything in this institute which we might call ‘ours’.

But before that all I want are my doubts to be cleared, and doubts be cleared in everybody’s mind, who thought/is thinking our efforts failed. Here’s a short and quick list of them:

• WHY? The biggest question of it all. What exactly is the objection behind the non-commencement of this club? Who has the objection and on what grounds?
• Is there anything at all that will make this club exist in this institute without much interference?
• Do you actually support this venture of ours?
• Why does other clubs and bodies get approved and we don’t even though we HAVE NOT asked for any financial assistance from the college(which is the major reason for many clubs and proposals being rejected)?

I shall be moving out in a few months from now on, but all I would say is that if this club fails, it shall not be my head (or any of the students associated with it) that is to be blamed for it. You may very well blame Lady Luck for that, I shall remain silent as I am now.

Yours sincerely,

Shashank Anand Mishra

On Medium Tides!

What started amazingly with The Curse of the Black Pearl, was carried forward remarkably by Dead Man’s Chest and ended astoundingly by At World’s End (though many people may beg to differ), staggers a lot with On Stranger Tides. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides rests solely on Captain Jack Sparrows’ shoulders, because its other characters are hazy enough and do not let their presence being felt. A huge disappointment being Blackbeard (Ian McShane) who fails to deliver as the feared pirate he’s supposed to be.

Thou shalt fear me....eleventh commandment

The movie opens with a map being found, and then we directly jump to London, where Gibbs has been imprisoned by the British. A major distress over here was Captain Jack Sparrows’ entry, unlike previous movies, where Jack’s entry oozed awesomeness, here it lacks big time. After it, for around 30-40 minutes, it’s just swords clashing, people escaping, witty fight dialogues, and everything you had already witnessed in the previous movies.

Escape Number......"Oh I forgot mate!"

Half way into the movie, you wish it were less of fighting and more on content, but the clashing goes on and on. Except for a few sequences like the Mermaid Hunt, which is brilliantly executed, rest all somehow feels a repetition of the earlier movies in the merchandise.  The movie does deliver on the story premise too, but only in the later portions, where you can actually guess (if you’re a Pirate’s fan like me) what is going to happen. The climax is somewhat anticipated, but not from far. And as always it leaves scope for another sequel.

Such scenes pop out so many times.......I wonder if its a Priyadarsan movie!

The witty one-liners of Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) are quite few, which might bring chuckles to your faces, but still being compared to what we’ve seen earlier, one would be disappointed to a large extent. Angelica (Penelope Cruz) is a character which could’ve been explored further, but amidst all the gunshots she comes across just as another coat of gloss added to shine. Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) makes impression and does deliver up to his wicked reputation. Blackbeard (Ian McShane) as I’d mentioned earlier fails to make you shiver as the evil pirate, whom all pirates fear. Comparing his image with what Barbossa had in The Curse of the Black Pearl, or what Davy Jones had in Dead Man’s Chest, he does not seem someone who is even remotely feared.  Philip (Sam Claflin) and Syrena (Astrid Berges-Frisbey), who are a part of a small sub-plot are okay and don’t have much to offer. The only character which has been utilised to full extent seems to be Jack Sparrow, who is the only reason this film needs to be seen. He’s excellent, in the escape sequences (which I believe were a little far-fetched) and does bring that quirky smile on your faces with his antics and his sharp lines. The romance between the lead pair is cold and one gets really confused whether Jack ‘actually’ loves Angelica or not.

Davy Jones: "LOL!!!! Shame on you Blackbeard!!"

Overall the movie falters as it’s got glossy action sequences but a weak plot and average performances. All it needed was a little character improvisation and crisp script, and it could easily have at least lived upto the movies prior in this series. Though I watched it in 2D, I doubt whether 3D actually does any good. There are very few scenes which portray good use of 3D technology.

Now this would've looked cool in 3D!!

Director Rob Marshall clearly, bombed as compared to Gore Verbinski (Director of previous 3 Pirate movies). Even if one does not compare it with the previous three movies, this one is just an average masala gun-trotting fare. I would give it 3 out of 5, simply because it’s a Pirates of the Caribbean movie and Johnny Depp deserves it, none the less!

Is there a 5th Part coming up???

मेरे नए जूते

फूलों से सजी वो सेज थी,
बागों सा हसीन था समां,
बहती हवाओं में वो कशिश थी,
उसकी महक में घुल गया था सारा जहाँ,

निकल पड़ा था मैं, उसी अनजानी राह पर,
सधे हुए कदम थे, प्रफुल्लित थी भावना,
चलता रहा मुसाफिर, जाने किस मंजिल की ओर,
बढ़ते रहे कदम, न थी कोई आशा, न थी कोई कामना.

चलते चलते यूँही ये ख़याल आया,
कि अपने नए जूते उतारकर कहीं सहेज दूँ,
सजी हुई उन वादियों में, फूलों कि उस नर्म सेज को,
अपने नंगे पाँव से कोमलता को महसूस करूँ.

चलता रहा मैं, बढ़ता रहा,
न थी कोई परवाह, न थी कोई फिकर,
चलकर पहुँच गया मैं, यात्रा के उस शिखर पर,
हुआ मुझे आभास जहाँ, अपने पाँव तले देखकर.

फूलों कि मखमली चादर थी जहाँ,
वहां अब काँटे और पत्थर थे,
पीछे जब मुडकर देखा, तो हुआ एहसास,
कि रास्ते वो कितने दुर्गम व दुश्वर थे.

मंजिलों में उलझकर, खुद को पाया है शायद,
मुक्त हुआ मैं, टूट गए हैं बंधन सारे,
एक अंत हुआ, एक शुरुआत हुई,
क्योंकि भूल गया हूँ मैं कि मैंने जूते कहाँ उतारे….

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