The Ponytail Story

For those who know me or have seen me or my picture, They are aware that I sport a ponytail. For some, it adds to my personality. For others, I look awful. The later category mostly includes my parents and family. But for me, It is the most favourite part of my body. Ummmm.. Maybe second favorite.

Today, I lost a part of me. I killed my ponytail.

After committing this murder, I am going through an emotional turbulence. It’s just hair, Some will say. But they weren’t. That ponytail was part of me for half a decade and it defined me. And today, I am going to tell you the story of my ponytail.

Once upon a time, There was a lean guy with no sense of hair styling. And to hide this weakness of his, He used to get cropped haircut once in every one and half month. While he was in college, The days when guys experimented with hairstyle, He secretly wished to sport a ponytail. But “What will others say?” and “Everyone will make fun of me” stopped him from doing it. Once the experimentation time period was over, He buried his desire.

A couple of years into his professional life, He got fed-up of the moral compromises he had to make, The abuse of his simple nature and the unexpected twists in his personal life. So he decides to take a break. A break from everything and start afresh. While doing so, His long buried desired to sport a ponytail, resurfaced. “What will others say?” and “Everyone will make fun of me” knocked on his door. Gathering all the courage, He kicked them out of his world. Thus begins the birth of ponytail.

The initial criticism faded over the time. “People” were frustrated and fed-up of repeating the same episodes. The guy, who was disturbed by the criticism at first, Adjusted and adapted to the critical environment. After almost nine months without haircut, His dream became reality. He finally could tie his hair and turn them into ponytail.

Now people noticed the guy. Because he was different. Well.. At least he looked different. He could be easily identified in a crowd. Now he was a known person who was difficult to forget. His ponytail made this possible. The connections he made were fruitful in his professional life. He struggled but he was happy doing so.

But every good thing, comes to an end sometime.

The evil called “marriage” entered his life. In spite of being open minded, The guy had pledged to marry within his community to make his parents happy. He had hurt them enough in past. And he knew this one decision will make up for all. But now the same ponytail created problem. This particular species from Venus in his community, Apparently hated the ponytail. He waited and waited for that one exception. His wait wasn’t fruitful. Finally, with a heavy heart, he decided to do the unthinkable. He decided to murder the ponytail just to make his parents happy.

This is the saddest day in his life. The recovery from this murder will be difficult for him. He expects no one to understand his trauma and support him.

THE END

I hope so…

गुढीपाडव्याच्या हार्दिक शुभेच्छा

gudhipadawa  2015

गुढीपाडवा…
या दिवशी… शकांनी हुणांचा पराभव केला. शालिवाहनाने शत्रुवर विजय मिळवला व या दिवसापासुन “शालिवाहन शक” सुरु झाले.
असं म्हणतात की याच दिवशी ब्रम्हदेवाने सॄष्टीची निर्मिती केली.

अशा या मंगलदिनी, मंगल कामना करु.
चांगल्या विचारांसाठी, मनाची दारे उघडी करु.
चिंतन करण्यासाठी वेळ काढु.
संघर्षापासुन पळुन न जाता, संघर्षाशी हातात हात मिळवुन पुढे जाऊ.

जाणत्या व्यक्तिंशी संवाद करा,
लहानांच्या चुका माफ करा,
नवीन गोष्टी शिकण्याचा प्रयत्न करा.

तुमच्यासाठी येणारे नवीन वर्ष सुखाचे, समॄध्दीचे जावो हिच ईच्छा.

गुढीपाडव्याच्या हार्दिक शुभेच्छा..

I (2015) Review

The second movie I watched this weekend was one I have been waiting for last 15 days. That is since the day I watched the trailer of the movie. The movie is “I“. There was a scene where the hero bears the look of someone from Planet of the apes. That caught my attention. Though I was disappointed that the look is only limited to one song.

I Vikram movie

Our hero, Lingesan who later gets a fancy name Lee, is a huge fan of Arnold and runs a gym with his name and photo. He is also a huge fan of Diya, an ad model. He is so crazy about her that he collects every photo of her wherever his eyes catch one. He even buys every product for which she is modeling. Even bras(which his mother uses for cooking idlis. Whattay jugad!!) . And sanitary napkins. These Tamil guys are crazy fans. I love this about them.

“Coincidentally”, Our hero gets an opportunity to get close to her as her security guard for a shoot. Diya.. Mannnn.. She is one damn hot chick. I bet you’ll be romancing with her in your dreams at least the night you watch this film. (Focus man. Focus on review.) So Diya is “Not that type of girl”. And her humility flatters our hero. Now he sees her everywhere. His Nokia phone, Royal Enfield bike, Dumbells and even his sprouts. Just imagine Diya dressed like above. Crazy huh..

Then comes the villain. John, who is coupled with Diya in most of the ads, wants to have dinner with her followed by some “fun”. But since Diya is “Not that type of girl”, she refuses. This is when John uses his influence and replaces her with a model who agrees to have “fun” with him. Devastated Diya falls into depression until “coincidentally” she finds an ad on a local newspaper featuring our hero for a local product. (This is why my friend, You should read local newspaper. It may provide you with much needed solution.) Then Diya and Lee go to the land of Bruce Lee for an ad shoot.

<insert romantic scenes between Diya and Lee>
<insert romantic scenes between Lee and his gay makeup guy>
<insert a song>
<insert scenes which are results of John’s jealousy>
<insert revenge scenes by Lee>
<insert Happy ending>

The Good
Diya, I mean Amy Jackson. She is SUPER HOTTT! She is stunning in every costume she wears. She looks beautiful when she is wearing Indian dresses. Secondly, Vikram. He’s got the body of Arnold with impeccable acting skills. Third, Locations and Camera work. The scenic China has been captured in such a way that it pleases the viewer. You won’t let your eyes off the screen because of this. (And because of Amy Jackson). Fourth, Special effects. Do I have to mention this? It’s a Shankar’s film. It will have special effects using latest tech to blend with the movie.

The Bad
The ads. Though they are innovatively used in the film, they irritate you because of the screen time they consume. Secondly, songs. A couple of unnecessary tracks as usual in any Indian movie. Third, duration. Refer one and two.

The Ugly
Lingesan with that “bubbly” look. And then later in second half, his victims. They are UGLY. You want them out of  your sight. That says about the skills of the makeup artists.

Conclusion: This movie is total entertainer. Action, romance, Drama, Special effects, Hot chicks. It has everything. It’s worth every penny.  8/10

Home Sweet Home

My weekends for last couple of months are turning out to be delightful. There’s a party, a movie night, Get together or be it a book. There’s always some new experience. And as McDonald says, I’m lovin’ it.
So this weekend started with two movies. Home Sweet Home, a Konkani movie and I, a Tamil movie.
First it was Home Sweet Home. The movie was released during Christmas time and I was yet to watch it. Twice I made plans and they failed at the last moment. But today, Maybe luck was on my side. I maybe the last person in Goa to watch this movie. But I watched it. (#AchievementUnlocked)

The movie revolves around John and Raj. (Chuck it yaar. You can’t even get creative at names? Same typical names from Hindi movies? Duh.) Moving on.. John is an NRI(like most of the Goan youth who don’t get past matriculation) who returns to Goa. Correction. Deported to Goa. He now wants to go back to his house (named Home Sweet Home), marry a girl and live happily ever after. Sounds like typical Goan. But his plans vanish in air when he discovers that his house has been replaced by a three storied building. It’s a magic trick, Courtesy of a builder named Shah. The rest of the movie is about how John puts up a fight with the builder to punish him for destroying his house and his dreams.

home sweet home
The problem with local movies is that they don’t get enough funding and they turn out to be movies made on handycam. This one is different. Decent amount has been spent on making this movie on par with mainstream cinema. Well.. Other than the cheap name for production house. Go Goa Gollywood. Really?? Are you effing kidding me? Why did you borrow a name from some cheap movie? (Go Goa Gone. If you fail to recall)

What I liked about the movie was a fresh cast. Most of the faces were new. At least for me. The story  is “hutke”. It deals with the problems of common Goans. When was the last time you saw someone make a film on this? (Oh right. Rakhtayug). Opening song is catchy. I need to grab it somehow. Just that song. The camera work is good apart from repetitive shots towards climax.
What I didn’t like about the movie was a rather dull second half. Throughout the movie, there are monotonous conversations. Long pauses where you want to stand up from your seat and scream “Kitem tari ulay mare C#$&$#%=&a”. And that reminds me of another thing I didn’t like. The swearing. Sometimes it’s muted and sometimes it isn’t. What the heck?? And on top of it is the ending. I’ll rather not talk about it.

But said so, I liked this attempt. Commendable effort by the whole team. I wish them good luck for the sequel (Oops! Does that count as spoiler?) May that film turn out to be better than this.  8/10 for Home sweet home.

Resolutions 2015

We have to make new year resolutions. You know why? Assume you are a shooter. Not the Olympic Gold medal shooter. But the one who learned to shoot at the wild boar heading towards you. Now, You’ll have to aim at the boar and shoot. You may miss a couple of shots but eventually, You’ll end up shooting the boar. But if you shoot without aiming, In no time the wild boar will send you flying. And that’s why my friend, You need to aim. You must have certain goals or else the wild boar (Read Life) will send you flying.

Duh.. Two repeated sentences. But I’ll keep it that way.

So here are my resolutions for this year. I am not sure if I’ll succeed in it but I’ll make an honest attempt.
1) Take at two trips traveling alone.
I already find it hard to organize a trip with multiple variable. Most of those variable would produce an erroneous result. So it’s best to be the only variable in the equation.

2) Read more. 24 books this year.
I am not a voracious reader. But I love to read. Last year I set a target of 12 books and achieved it. (Yayyy!!!)  This year, I am going to double that. I am pretty confident that I can achieve this.

3) Make new friends.
Not just Facebook friends. But those with whom I can hang out. In real life. The problem is, Most of my friends are now married and inaccessible. That makes me really uncomfortable as I always had company of my friends whenever I wanted. I am selfish here and I think I have to.

4) Start giving back
It’s high time I start giving back to the “society”. And while doing that, I need to make sure I don’t bloat about it.

That’s it. Four is enough. And for all the concerned and non concerned,  Sorry.. But marriage is not on the list.