# include(sneha.h)

An unlikely post, after being off the writing scene for 600 plus days. Unlikely, also because this is not what I personally “expected” to be my “comeback” post. Mitwa - this film will be special for the reason that it was the first ever movie that I watched on ,my new cell phone that has a wide 5.5’’ screen with AMOLED display. I must say, a good picture print and added sound quality made my viewing experience a happy one. Just my 5 th ever Marathi movie, third one with the same lead actor, I approached this romantic film with no prejudices.  Because it was a Friday night, and I have been longing to see a film for quite sometime now and watching it on my new phone was a fun way to do it. From the three times, this is the first time, that I actually got to like the lead actor – I never really connected much with the artist in the first two movies. Now diving into the movie itself – my take is that it lived upto what it portrayed while being promoted - a love story....

“Be to her virtues very kind, Be to her faults a little blind.” ~Matthew Prior On most days when I take the C-52 Express bus to college, I often find myself to be the only woman on the bus. And my mind goes, “It’s a man’s World”. Sigh. Wo(e)men. In a disclaimer sort of a sense, I’d like to clarify, I am not a feminist. I’m not the one to go form those women's groups & wear pixie hair with no makeup & no jewellery. I’m your minimal jewelry & make up types. Like a bit of length & volume in my hair. Prefer being the change than protesting about one. So this post comes from an urban girl who loves being one and has big dreams for the women kind -for the nation. There is a necessary, almost –obvious- in -the -21-st –century- hyphen between those words in the preceding sentence. Because No, they are not two separate things. Anyone who thinks otherwise isn’t ever going to be sharing a coffee with me. And I think this bluntness is the strength of femin...

They make us write essays in schools and colleges about Vision India 2020 but … We are less than one decade away from making those dreams turn to reality, but just opening the newspapers daily in the morning makes you want to go back to sleep again because the dreams we dream seem a far cry from what we perceive our future to look like. The Commonwealth Games scam, the 2g scam the 3G scam, the cash-for-votes scam, the F1 scam the F2 scam..F11 (God HELP us)scam…..p3,q9,..z ^infinity scam. Soon you won’t be able to count them off your fingers. And they say “India is a poor country”. What-evah. How could you possibly be showing adverts and be reporting that political parties are giving out food grains, cattle and electronic items and cash to woo voters? The regional channels air adverts glorifying these parties to be doing “philanthropic” work for the people of their state. How can someone choose such shameless people to lead you? It’s simply disgusting. Isn’t this reason enough f...

Like how majestic things have always attracted me, the waves called out to me, loud. Water, as we already knew, has been a glorious reason which never failed to lift my spirits. And I had never learnt to say “No” to what could easily destroy me. It was the time and place we had always longed to be. The perfectness of our union, our esprit de corps was enviable. And as you sat there looking loved, I paid no heed to the concern in your tone. Alas, I was the kid and you were grown. I knew that mirth on your face is something I would never live without. I drifted merrily, enjoying the pull as you were trying to balance us out. Your caution was trivial for me before the alluring sea. And horrifically, my destiny called with forceful glee.. As I got swallowed in bits, the ashen look on your face was something I feared seeing because that meant your grip was loosening. I was slowly disappearing into the wicked wrath of that ill-fated destiny.. I knew I deserved abyss. But wasn’t I too young t...

Acres of newsprint have and are still being devoted to the Tiger Woods story even in India. What is appalling is that when our country is facing an even graver threat of the possible extinction of its national animal, it is indeed heartbreaking that the wrong ‘Tiger’ gets wider coverage. The 'real' tiger’s missing stripes,sadly, get lesser attention. At the turn of the 20th century, according to sources, India had an estimated 40,000 tigers in the wild. Tigers are threatened by a combination of poaching, habitat loss from development. In 2002, based on pug mark census, this number was 3,642. As per the monitoring exercise by Wildlife Institute of India in association with National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Government of India using camera traps, in 2008 we were left with only 1,411 tigers. There are more tigers in wildlife parks and zoos today than there are in the wild, which goes to prove how much support zoological parks provide for endangered species of the world...

One night at a Call Centre was Chetan Bhagat’s second book and the first among his works that I read. It was probably well-received by the readers and got Bhagat his now-huge fan-base as he was one of the few Indian writers who made his story so effortlessly believable as he took on reality through fiction. That definitely went down well with the readers, as this was the first time where an author spoke from the heart through his characters, about the things the youth connected with. From the lucid language used to the associable daily-life descriptions in his debut novel, Bhagat struck the right chord with Young India. The “call from God” at the end of the book dint provide for a strong and appreciable close, but he had already done enough to win the hearts of several thousand young, modern Indians. His first book (and by far his best book) was Five Point Someone. Because it wasn’t about some regular love story or a depressing suicide attempt. It was realistic, a unique concept in te...