Showing posts with label Quotes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quotes. Show all posts

Itsy-bitsies

Posted by Anantha | Posted in , , , | Posted on Wednesday, December 21, 2011

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  • Did you guys notice the striking similarity between the teenage sister(?) of Nargis Faqri named Mandy in the movie Rockstar and French actress Audrey Tautou; The female who played the lead role in the movies Amelie and The Da Vinci Code. I was already smitten by Audrey Tautou and now by this Mandy! Talking of Audrey Tautou, the movie I fell for her is neither Amelie nor Da Vinci Code. In fact, I am a ‘Dan Brown Agnostic’, when my friends who had read the novel were enjoying the movie in theatre, I had fallen asleep! The movie that cast the magic on me was Priceless, a French rom-com which I watched in UTV World Movies some time ago. It is a nice little movie with this cute actress in it. I would like to take the name of Priceless in the same breath as that of Pretty Woman and Nottinghill, for its high cuteness quotient. Watch this movie without a miss.
  • Since I mentioned Rockstar, I must say I liked the movie incredibly. Was unable to mention in my blog as the post on it has been the state of draft for quite some time and I am failing miserably to transcend my thoughts about the movie into words.
  • I know it is quite late to comment on the music of Rockstar after many people admiring it and some calling it an average work of A R Rahman. But I will comment about the film’s music anyway as I have taken the name of the movie. Remember the song ‘Masakkali’, the first hit song in Mohit Chauhan ARR combo? I remember watching the interview of ARR during the release of Delhi-6 in one of the news channels. When the interviewer asked who is ARR’s favourite contemporary singer, ARR mentioned the name of Mohit Chauhan and even hummed his favourite song by Mohit Chauhan - ‘tum se hi..’ from Jab We Met. I was not very surprised by what ARR said, because it is very common for celebs to say their most recent work being their best and to take the artist’s name they have last worked with as their best colleague ever, as they would be paid to promote their recent work. With my limited knowledge of music, I do not think Mohit Chauhan is an accomplished singer, although there is a sect of film music to which his distinct voice and style of singing suits perfectly. After all, to score a match winning century in cricket you do not need to be a technically perfect batsman. I was amazed to see almost all the songs in Rockstar being sung by Mohit Chauhan. Not sure if ARR has used the any other singer so extensively in any single movie before. I no more doubt ARR. Mohit Chauhan must be his favourite contemporary singer. I must also say, listen to ‘Naadan parindey..’ carefully. It is sung by both ARR and Mohit Chauhan. In few places, it is difficult to say who is who. In high notes, their voices blend beautifully in unison.
  • I took part in 5th Bangalore Midnight Marathon which was held on 10th December. I finished the half marathon with my personal best timing of 2 Hours 7 mins and 58 secs. It was really an amazing feeling to run in the night with so many of enthusiastic runners. The energy really was infectious.
  • Got to read a quote by Javed Akhthar in TOI recently, which perfectly sums up the debate of who is the master of one’s destiny. “Your life is designed by three important factors – circumstances, coincidences and you. At any given moment, any of the three could be the chief designer”.
  • There is a scene in ZNMD where Farhan insists Hrithik and Katrina to take a stroll after dinner, so that he can share some private time with Nooria. On their long walk, during their conversation about the ‘type’ of guy Katrina prefers, Katrina blames Hrithik that he belongs to the type of guys who considers money as the only important thing in life. To which Hrithik retorts, “don’t judge me, you don’t know me”. I found this statement ‘very much mine’. I have said the same thing in the past many a times to different people under different circumstances. Is it the itch to shout out that I am off the herd, an exception to the generalization.. a craving for distinctness.... Hmmm...
  • The mention of ZNMD makes me write that it is really amazing that Farhan Akhar is associated with all the three best male bonding movies in Bollywood according to me. He forayed into direction with DCH, then he acted in Rock On!!, which was directed by Abhishek Kapoor, lastly he has acted in yet another brilliant movie on male bonding with ZNMD, directed by his sis Zoya.
  • It has been quite some time since amma is staying [vacationing] in my native. This has rekindled my passion for learning cooking. I have been trying out few of the dishes on my own with some useful tips from akka. I am glad that there has not been a disaster till date. I believe any person with good amount of common sense can never be a bad cook, but to be a really good cook, you need to have real talent man...
  • Whenever I prepare some dish which has come out pretty good, I keep it in fridge sticking a small note on the door of the fridge for my cousin to taste it. My cousin who stays in our home works in night shifts. Since I hardly get to speak to him during the weekdays, the sticky notes has been the effective medium of communication between us. These handwritten sticky notes reminded me of amma teaching me to write letters to my aunts and cousins during my school days. I used to be really happy when I used to get the reply for my letters. The advent of email and SMS has killed the communication through postal letters. The joy of seeing those cute handwritten paragraphs, the crossed lines, the corrected misspelt words is certainly irreplaceable. I feel there was warmth in that medium of communication... the emails and SMSs look pale, cold and impersonal in comparison.

Life's never so bad that...

Posted by Anantha | Posted in , , | Posted on Friday, October 30, 2009

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A dear friend of mine called me up from UK last night to say that he is returning to India this weekend, as Doctors treating his mother have told that she is having breast cancer. It was evident from his tone that he was broken by that. I tried to fill in some hope and courage in that conversation.
After hanging up the phone, pondering over, I thought that was another whiplash this time for another friend's family from the BOSS above. I say this as another family because; all my buddies have received at least one each in the recent past. A friend's father is suffering from recurring slip-discs, another one's father is living on anti-depressants after some feud with his siblings over some realty, another friend's father is a cancer survivor, a colleague's mother underwent knee cap replacement surgery recently.... And as you know my father is not well from past 2 years. Sorry to say, I am not able to find a single happy and healthy family around.
They say Life is not just about chasing happiness and being happy.. Happiness and sorrow are two sides of the same coin blah blah.. This is all best said and heard in some Satsang. But for a person dealing with all this every day, it is nothing but misery and only misery.
So at this point of time, I can't agree more on the saying, "Life's Never So Bad That It Can't Get Worse..."

Shantaram - quotes 2

Posted by Anantha | Posted in , , , | Posted on Saturday, October 17, 2009

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Any Indian man will tell you that although love might not have been invented in India, it was certainly perfected there- pg 393
Mistakes are like bad loves, the more you learn from them, the more you wish they'd never happened - pg 402

Prisons are the temples where devils learn to pray - pg 404

Hate strangles a man, that's why hate has no great literature - pg 414

The only victory that really counts in prison is survival. Survival is not just about being alive. It's not just the body that must survive a jail; the spirit and will and the heart have to make it through as well - pg 415

People say that money is the root of all evil, but it's the other way round... Evil is the root of all money - pg 444

Pumping iron is Zen for violent men - pg 452

It isn't a secret, unless keeping it hurts - pg 454

Wherever you go in the world, in any society, it is always the same when it comes to questions of justice, We concentrate our laws, investigations, prosecutions and punishments on how much crime is in the sin rather than how much sin is in the crime - pg 472

People haven't stopped believing in love. They haven't stopped wanting to be in love. They just don't believe in a happy ending anymore - pg 504

There's nothing so depressing as a good advice - pg 545

Depression happens only to the people who don't know how to be sad - pg 546

It's better to have a weapon and not need it, than need it and not have it - pg 585

If we envy someone for all the right reasons, we're half way to wisdom - pg 607

A good man is as strong as the right woman needs him to be - pg 645

When the student is ready, teacher appears - pg 708

Wars can't change things. It's peace that makes the deepest cuts - pg 728

The best revenge, like the best sex, is performed slowly and with the eyes open - pg 805

Fate always gives you two choices, the one you should take and the one you do - pg 858

Old habits die hard, lie harder - pg 918

It is always a fool's mistake, to be alone with someone you shouldn't have loved - pg 921

Every human heartbeat is a universe of possibilities - pg 932

Following are the lines with which Shantaram ends:
I'd always thought that fate was something unchangeable; fixed for every one of us at birth, and as constant as the circuit of stars. But I suddenly realized that life is stranger and more beauitful than that. The truth is that, no matter what kind of game you find yourself in, no matter how good or bad the luck, you can change your life completely with a single thought or a single act of love - pg 933


Though I love each and every one of the quotes from Shantaram, following three are my personal favorites.

3. Fate gives all of us three teachers, three friends, three enemies and three great loves in our lives. But these twelve are always disguised and we can never know which one is which until we've loved them, left them or fought with them - pg 632

2. Personality and personal identity are in some ways like co-ordinates on the street map drawn by our intersecting relationships - pg 632

1. We know who we are and define what we are by reference to the people we love and our reasons for loving them - pg 632

Shantaram - quotes 1

Posted by Anantha | Posted in , , , | Posted on Wednesday, October 14, 2009

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I finished reading Shantaram! This mammoth autobiographical fiction is penned by an Australian born writer cum armed robber cum heroin addict cum prisoner cum Jihadi soldier cum slum dweller cum doctor in slum cum Mumbai mafia member cum charity organizer cum screenplay writer, Gregory David Roberts!! Yes, you read it right; all these roles/professions (?) are of a single person in the very same incarnation. Shantaram is a rechristened name for Lin (which again is his name in fake passport) or Linbaba, as fondly called by most of the people in slum of Mumbai. This novel was written over a period of 13 years!, literally in blood and sweat as Gregory Roberts himself says. Twice the manuscript was destroyed by the police when he was being tortured in jail.

After escaping from high security Australian prison in broad day light, Lin travels to few countries holding fake passports and lands in Mumbai. From there begins this inspiring and vivid tale of Shanataram. This book brims with one liners and quotes. I am sharing a few with you guys... Hope this inspires you to take up this must-read-book.

The simple and the astonishing truth about India and Indian people is that when you go there, and deal with them, your heart always guides you more wisely than your head. There's nowhere in the world where that's quite so true. - pg 35

The only force more ruthless and cynical than the business of big politics is the politics of big business - pg 52

The truth is a bully we all pretend to like - pg 62

It is the mark of the age in which we live that the style becomes the attitude, instead of the attitude becoming the style - pg 91

The real trick in life is to want nothing and to succeed in getting it. pg 96

Sometimes you have to surrender..., to win! - pg 115

It's a fact of life-on-the-run that you often love more people than you trust - pg 156

We can compel men not to be bad, but we can not compel them to be good - pg 184

The worst thing about corruption as a system of governance is, that it works so well! - pg 186

There is no believing in God, we either know God, or we do not - pg 194

Suffering is the way we test our love, especially our love for God - pg 214

I think it is a part of growing up, learning to control our suffering. I think, when we grow up and learn happiness is rare and passes quickly, we become disillusioned and hurt. And how much we suffer is a mark of how much we have been hurt by this realization - pg 294

Like most things and most people, slum is not as bad as it seems - pg 329

I dont know what frightens me more, the power that crushes us, or our endless ability to endure it. - pg 336

You are not a man until you give your love, truly and freely, to a child. And you are not a good man until you earn the love, truly and freely, of a child in return - pg 353

The contours of all our virtues are shaped by adversity - pg 379

One of the ironies of courage, and the reasons why we prize it so highly is that we find it easier to be brave for some one else than for ourselves alone - pg 381

Im tagged..

Posted by Anantha | Posted in | Posted on Monday, October 05, 2009

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Sum tagged me..
Below is a list of things that irritate me... that tests my boiling point:
  1. Untidiness and untidy people
  2. Lazy bums
  3. Loud TV volume of my neighbor
  4. Public festivals
  5. The Pop-up ads in websites. They irritate me more when they keep the Close Window button on top left corner. They irritate me to the most when there would be no Close Button for the window and I am just told to wait by a count down timer, stating Ill be redirected to the site in N seconds. What makes those guys think that I visit their news website and get impressed by their forced-upon-ad and will end up buying an Audi!
  6. Poor interpersonal skills
  7. Poor listening skills
  8. Egoistic people
  9. Half baked pots boasting themselves as next Einsteins
  10. Bullies
  11. Plastic smiles
  12. Guys who try to impress any and every girl/female they come across
  13. Reality TV shows and all the daily soaps
  14. Auto drivers
  15. BMTC bus conductors
"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves"
Carl Gustav Jung
This was mentioned as the GTalk status msg by my friend Suksy. I could not agree more with this saying, as all the above things listed and lot many which I've not listed here, have helped/have been helping me in understanding myself better.

I love people:
  1. Who trust me..
  2. Who have helped in my bad times..
  3. Who are intelligent..
  4. Who understand me
"If you judge people, you have no time to love them"
Mother Teresa
This is another gem of a quote that I admire the most. I have experienced this thing literally happening with all the withering relationships I’ve had in the case of some of my friends, acquaintances and some special people. I make my decisions by mind and not by heart. I am a ‘mind guy’ and not a ‘heart guy’. I wish I could change this virtue of mine… :(
Though these are the things that surface my mind at this point of time, but to see only four entries in the second list against the 15 in the first is surely disheartening. That says I have more things around to hate than to love... :((

I tag Shashi, Saravanan, Suksy n Anonymous aka Deva :)

90% of eveything is.....

Posted by Anantha | Posted in , , | Posted on Monday, June 15, 2009

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Happened to read this quote by this wise man named Theodore Sturgeon, a science fiction writer.
"Ninety percent of everything is crap"
That's stunningly true isn't it...?
Doing a bit of Googling, found out some interesting facts about this so called Sturgeon's law. Though he quoted this aiming at the Science fiction published all over the world, but later argues that 90% of film, literature, consumer goods, etc. are crap. 
PS: Though, I personally feel ninety percent is an exaggeration, or may be the things I consider which are not crap now might actually turn out to be crap at later point of time. So there are chances that I might totally agree to this quote some time in future..

Ohh dear...

Posted by Anantha | Posted in , | Posted on Saturday, May 24, 2008

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The question is not how I lost it. Nor it is where did I lose it. Its a fact that I lost it with my utter carelessness. Its unfortunate that I lost my cell [Nokia 7610] which was of worth Rs. 12800/- when I bought it 2 yrs back. Im not the kinda of guy who throws around his cell and searches for it all the time, nor Im of the kinds who throws away his cell to vent his anger. I had hardly dropped it 5-6 times (!!!!!!) in past 2 years, had hardly a scratch on the screen. That must have given you an idea of how much I used to love my cell. Now its in the hands of some unknown, lucky, dishonest bastard.

To give you some more glimpses of my love story with my cell, that was THE BEST high end cell phone that matched my requirements for the best price. It had a large screen, bluetooth, 1 MP camera, 32 MB phone memory and 64 MB MMC. More over I can claim 7610 was the best look- wise also. Some of the new phones are loaded with features but can never come closer to the design of 7610. U can imagine a sense of achievement I had felt buying it in my own hard earned money 2 yrs back.

I had utilized the phone to the extent that I could call I almost exploited the phone. I had un/installed myriad of games/applications/utilities, It was a handy camera tempting me to click each and every thing I came across [statistics say i had clicked nearly 1500 pics using it, not to forget I even had won a photography contest]. It was a personal diary, it was a database of quotations, it was a personal expense manager, rarely used for surfing the net also... it was basically everything for me. Now its all like a sweet dream. Its all gone. I have lost a dear of mine.

Have to add the story of me going to the police station to register the complaint about the loss of cell phone. I entered the police station and went to SI sitting there jobless, 'My cell phone got lost and I wanna register a complaint'. SI asked me, 'u wanna give the complaint as...?'. I repeated politely, 'my cell phone got lost'. SI corrected me, 'cell phone got lost or you lost it?!?!'. Ohh MG! I got irritated for SI letting me know the 'accountability' factor of losing my cell. NO.. actually he was right in saying it. It is right to say, 'I lost it'. If any one has to be blamed it is only me.

After registering the complaint, I casually asked the SI, 'cell phone sigo chances eshTu Sir?'. He reluctantly said, '1000s of people keep losing mobile sir..' and grinned. I said, 'isnt it possible to track using IMEI number?'. I found him perplexed digesting the concept of there is some thing called IMEI for a cell phone, using which one can track where the lost cell phone is and take appropriate action. Psssttt... Such is our police dept..

Currently using my cousin's old cell phone. Guess the model.... it is Nokia 3315 :-/ The once famous, now primitive Nokia model. Im not gonna buy a new cell for next few weeks, umm months may be. I wanna punish my self using Nokia 3315. Every time it rings err better to say beeps, it should remind me that Im the whole and sole responsible person for losing my dearest 7610.

"Things are there to be used, people are there to be loved. But unfortunately we love things and use people" :-/

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