Give me Yellow!!

I went to see Rang De Basanti on 28/1, and I came out as a different person! A perfect combination of DCH and Swades, it was undoubtedly the best movie I had seen after Parineeta. A must watch for every indian, this movie brings out the patriotic feelings in one which have been crushed under the pressure of the modern society.

Is RDB a different film ? Yes !
Is RDB a preachy film ? No !

Is it paisa vasool ?! Most definitely

I am not going to waste blog space by writing the review of the movie; you can go to sites like www.indiafm.com or www.rediff.com and read the 'expert' views about this film. I am just a lay person, just another youth of india talking about this movie.

Studying in Canada and having studied for most of my life outside Indian, often I had to hear subtle comments from my relatives back home saying about how much wrong I have done by not going back to India to study. The feel that I have also joined the band that promote brain drain. For many years, I heard this from one ear and took it out of the other... Until 28th Jan 2006 - Until i saw RDB.

After coming back from the movie, for 10 minutes, I couldn't speak... I was speechless, this movie had opened my eyes to something that I guess I was scared to see. The movie touched those emotions of mine which weren't felt for a long time.

For the first time in many years, I felt like what it is to be Indian - a true Indian. Its not whether you live in India or if you still hold an Indian passport or not, its about feeling the Indian feeling in your blood and the pride gushing as you hear the national anthem. Thats the pride of a true Indian.

If the movie could be summed up in one line, it would be this quote I read online (and also said in the movie):

There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them .

I think it lies in our hands, totally in our hands and the choices we make. Often we Indians comment about the sad state of affairs in India especially how corrupt the politicians are and how none of them are making a sincere attempt to improve the conditions in India, but does any body do anything ?

How many teenagers want to become IAS or Police Officers? People are picking the easy way out and sadly, I feel like I am one of them.

I don't think your feelings of patriotism is about where you are living now, but where you will live in the future and how wil that affect your country matter more. Thats what the movie strives to tell, about how today's youth have forgotten their way and its about their awakening from a long sleep of complacency.

After watching this movie, I felt like I had let down my country just like the millions of confused indian youth in and outside india, and felt that it is my responsibility to do something for my motherland..

But will my voice be hear ??

Thats a question for which I seek the answer.....

The Year gone by...

In a very introspective mood, I look back at the year 2005, a year of definite highs and lows both globally and in my personal life, it has definitely been one more enlightening year. So, as a beginning to my ranting, thought I would go by the past year and see what happened..

January: Not a bad start to the new year, as I went back to toronto and the basic fact that i passed CIV 101 - structures and material design... man undoubtedly this comes a close 3rd on the list of worst courses i've taken so far (there have been only 15!) here in 3 semesters at U of T... BAD BAD BAD and i think its the prof that made it 10 times worse! Passing thing was the best thing to happen this month... and ummm maybe the pool on republic day at New College, that was fun too!

February: Midterm season for second semester started with some ok-ok midterms and some lousy ones, however it was a good month. First with the Havana Lounge party, probably first time we all went out clubbing, who cares it was a lousy club and who cares if we were stuck downstairs doing nothing, but it was a fun night... esp at chestnut with saurabh and his wonderful 'comments' about all of us and the whole vikram sharma's expression and I think my first all nighter at uni!!! then the reading week, it flew so fast that it was before it started, best part of the week being me colouring my hair (ya..thts how sad it got!) but the best part of the whole month had to be going to windsor to see Sandeep and Lyz and meeting Prashant there who had taken all the trouble to come from UMich just to meet us...It was fun at windsor, us 4 and Meher. We gals sure had fun kicking the guy's ass at poker!!

March: Started B A D, what with prashant leaving and me getting results of MIE100 Dynamics midterm and my first and second APS103 (i forgot the name of the course now!) back.. it was worse than bad, it was a disaster !! Dynamics or Mechanics was such a bad course that I am glad its over, it comes 2nd in the worst courses... it is also reputed at u of t for being one of the most flunked course, boy I know why... That course made me hate newton with a burning passion! and as for APS103, it was such a bad course that it tops the list...I still dont get the point of that course.. it begins by saying that engineering is useless and then concludes saying that world is useless without engineers!!! We were lucky that we got Karimi inplace of Vanderburg, who had a great reputation for flunking half his class... and the best part fo this course were classes in con hall, atleast we can sleep in peace!! Month ended on a great note

April: Exams and more exams... have nothing more to say about this month!! Oh, the highlight was the ping pong ball tournament between Raihan and Poornima vs Gaurav and Me.. Killer game!!

May: Hmm... so many things in this one month..went to US.. West Virginia.. beautiful place.. felt like I was on heaven... trip to the US was uneventful.. and then with in 24 hrs, made a 24 hr journey back to Dubai!! It was great to be back home after 4 months especially after meeting every1 at sandeep's place and then at BITs.. I still remember sandeep's pulao !! May was a good month...

June - August: Had to group them together, coz they were holidays and pretty boring as they were long... not to mention that I was ridiculously busy with Work at City Times first and then at Oceanic, and ofcourse my driving debacle...but then...there were moments of fun... Anju's b'day... sleep over at Nandi's place... and ofcourse the 'party of the year' at Anju's house before every1 left was awesome...the summer break was a great way to get back into the 2nd year groove... Love u guys for making the summer break SO special!

Sept: Back to toronto, for Second year... more on that in future blogs !!!

Oopss!

My post date showed as June 2005, but the post has been posted on Jan 1, 2006.