Non-Bhai fan on Bhai and his fans.

Infy multiplex ditched Hollywood fans this weekend and I had to watch Sultan today. Still trying to remember the last Salman movie I watched in a movie hall. No luck till now. I remember I gave up on him when he started THE masala movie trend in Bollywood with Dabbang. Everyone else followed the suit and screwed up our moviegoing experience. That's a whole different topic for discussion anyway.


So what is it that appeals to Bhai fans so much? The plain story, okayish music, the timely punchlines, the familiarity with the characters?


It all seems like a PR stunt to me. He always plays these characters such as Sultan and Bajrangi, who are the opposite of what he is in real life. For all these years the only thing he is trying to do is image makeover, be it with his movies or his brand Being Human.


So why does he still have such a huge fan base? I understand the UP bhaiyyas and Bihari babus fangirling over Bhai. Because they ARE the target audience. Why on earth would he play an illiterate villager in every fucking movie otherwise! It is to connect with the mass audience. But what I don't understand is the behavior of educated and mature audience. There may be a difference of opinion here. People look at cinema in different ways. For me cinema or storytelling is an art. For others it may be just a source of entertainment. (That's why we have movies like Houseful!)


Coming back to Sultan, it has a mediocre storyline with a love story, a tragedy and then a happily-ever-after. No chemistry between so called hero & heroine. And off course, Bhai can't act or dance!


But I'm sure it'll be a huge hit and the producers will earn Crores of Rupees inspite of putting such a little effort.


After abusing girlfriends, killing innocents (animals as well as humans), misogynist comments and taking his father's help to get away with it, he is still a star in India and the joke is on all of us!

Confessions of a Game of thrones fan.

Confessions of a Game of thrones fan.

2016. The year when Game of thrones, the TV show drifted from the books and started to appear like a spin-off.

While we are nine episodes deep into Season 6, I want tackle a question every honest Game of thrones fan in the world must be having right now.

What happened to the good old Game of thrones?

We watched Season 1 and we were awestruck. We watched Season 2 and we were even more drawn to the epic fantasy. Season 3, we cried our eyes out at the Red Wedding. Most of us have watched them back to back I assume.

Then came season 4, with sudden change in behavior of many characters like Cersie (smiling a lot!) in Purple Wedding. ( I had to check if GRR Martin approved of it or not. And I was surprised to see his name in the credits as Executive Producer.)

So if we divide the show in two parts - Before Red Wedding and After Red Wedding, we all will choose the former.

The creators have raised the bar for themselves over the years & that's why they fail to fulfill the unrealistic expectations of the fans. I wish these guys don't ruin it like George Lucas did by releasing Star Wars episodes 1, 2, 3. (He made up for it with Star Wars episode 7 - The force awakens, but just saying.)

I am fed up with these media posts that I see everyday - If Game of thrones had bollywood actors, which character from Game of thrones are you and blah blah blah. From flipkart to snapdeal and from AIB to TVF, even scoopwhoop, storypick and Vagabomb, nobody fails to cash on the cult that is Game of thrones.

My friends who discarded the show after watching the first episode, saying it's too depressing, are the ones posting social media statuses (or is it stati?) about the show now. The conclusion being everybody watches Game of thrones now. I even received one WhatsApp forward with a picture of a panipuri thela, named Game of thrones panipuri.(Seriously?)

My take on character development and abandoned storylines :

Gendry was last seen in season 3 and whatever the fuck happened to him, we have no idea.

Hound came into picture out of nowhere. One speech from Ian McShane and he's a changed man. (Really?)

The brotherhood disappeared in season 3 and reappeared only to join forces with Hound, the changed man.

Bran kept chasing the three eyed raven all this time and he got Hodor killed.

Danny is her usual self, giving too many TED talks and showing off her dragons and friendzoning Jorah Mormont.

Arya finally realized she was wasting her time while trying to become no one. The change of mind may have occurred after she saw her father portrayed as a pervert in that play she watched. (This was the 'it' moment for me when she takes out needle from under the rocks. Many faced god can suck it.)

Sansa was a side character till now. But just like in real life, one becomes a different person after going through tough times. She has evolved and we root for her.

Nothing can beat Tyrion and he will continue to be just as awesome as he is, let's hope.

Nobody gives a damn about Cersie anymore, except Jamie off course. She even takes insults from old hags like Olenna Tyrell. (Episode 10 is yet to air.)

Melisandre lost her confidence this season. After the shocker about her age in episode 1, the only important thing she did was bringing Jon back. We hate her anyway. (She burnt Shireen alive!)

They brought Jon back, thank god.

Ramsay was beating Joffrey in terms of evilness. After feeding his hounds with ex girlfriend, stepmother and new born half brother, he became what he deserved to become - dog meat.

While there are many fan theories going around on social media, the one thing I don't want to happen is Sansa being pregnant. There must be a way to abort a baby in Westeros, there has to be.

Episode 9 was spectacular, in terms of the battle scenes and VFX dragons. Don't even remember what happened in episode 9 of last two seasons. (because it was nothing like Bailor, Blackwater or Red Wedding.) And I didn't cry when Rickon was arrowed.

So whatever happens in episode 10, they'll keep us hanging for a good ten months and we'll forgive them for not living up to the expectations, because we are going to watch Season 7 no matter what.

Chapter #2

It was her first day at work. New office. New people. She even felt like the air she was breathing in was fresh and new. 

After the formal round of introduction, she had finally settled down at her work-station.

'I am at day one all over again', She thought.

'Hello, umm, Trisha?' a voice interrupted the chain of thoughts.

 She looked up and smiled, 'Yes?'

'I am Harsh, as you might remember,' Harsh said.

‘Yeah!’

‘Let's go for the knowledge transfer session.’

She got up picking a copy and pen and followed him to the conference room.

This was how Trisha met Harsh, when she joined the same company which Harsh had been working for. At first it was just a casual affair. The KT sessions, meetings and discussions. Then it started to become more informal and personal. They went for lunch together and left for home in the same company bus. And as days went by, they became good friends.

Wait. Let me first introduce Trisha properly.

Trisha was a smart, independent girl. She insisted on working while her family was planning for her marriage. She had asked for two more years to her parents and had promised them that she will get married after two years.

As a little girl, she had always dreamed about falling in love and getting married, like a classic tale of love. A fairy tale, happily-ever-after types. By the time she was in mid-twenties, her prince charming was nowhere in sight. She had started to believe that this was the end of the dream, that she would have to get married like her parents did. Arrange marriage. And she was fine with it now that she was left with no choice. 

Most of the guys felt intimidated by her intelligence and wit. So none even dared to come close. When she was in college, a couple of her friends had told her about a boy or two being interested in her. But she used be so engrossed in her studies that she thought a time would come when she would be free to do all this too. She got a job in campus placements and she was busy again, with work. So she never had 'free' time to do luv-shuv stuff. 

She still believed that there was 'Mr. Special' and that he will find her one day.

Chapter #1

‘This is a tough decision, but you have to make it,’ said Aalok infuriating, while Harsh stared at the floor.

‘You can’t just dwell in the past,' he spoke again as he saw that Harsh was not saying a word. Harsh looked up at him and sighed.

‘What you are saying is right, but I cannot forget her,' he said with tears gathering in his eyes.

Aalok sat down and patted his arm, ‘You have to move on.’

He felt sorry for Harsh and cursed himself for being of no use for his best friend. He missed the old Harsh, the pulse of their group, the one who used to cheer them up no matter what happened. And looking at the depressed soul sitting beside himself, he wondered if he could become the same person again.



‘Come on guys, it’s poha time,' Harsh yelled from the road below. Aalok peeped down through window of his room and yelled back, ‘Have you gone mad?’

‘Now I have to come upstairs to drag you from there!’ Harsh said cursing under his breath.

Hearing the loud thumping on the stairs, Pankaj got up and ran to the door of their room.

Sumeet said climbing down his bed, ’Man we are going to fail in DIC, I tell you.’

Harsh entered the room panting. Pankaj held him there by elbow and asked, ‘Are you crazy? It’s DIC tomorrow, I did not even take bath and you want to have Anna’s poha?’

Sumeet joined Pankaj,  ‘I don’t want to go, it’s a question of life and death to me, I already screwed up in DSP!’

Harsh raised both his hands in the air and then signed them to be silent by putting a finger on his mouth.

‘I will pay attention to no excuses, it’s better if you follow me rather than arguing with me.’ He said.

Aalok opened his mouth to protest but Harsh grabbed him by arm and pulled him off his chair and started towards the stairs. The remaining two occupants of the room followed their suit too, firing abuses at the two in lead.

‘Anna is lucky for us, Aalok. I am not going to write exams if I don’t see his face today!’ Harsh said in a mock sincere voice and both of them burst into laughter.



The banging of door broke Aalok’s trance. He looked up to find out that Harsh had left.

A New Beginning!

This is what I expected it to be, stepping up into the new year in silence, solitude and peace. I wish I could spend the whole twelve months ahead the same. The last year has taught me many things, gave me enough food for thought and made me familiar with my own self. I am glad I am actually doing what I intend to do every day in the next year – writing, yes.

The world is celebrating in its own ways. I can hear loud music outside. I wonder can peace be found amidst the noise, and solitude amidst the crowd. May be yes, may be no, I don’t know. May be contradiction works for everyone. So when we are alone we want to be with people, when surrounded by many we crave to be left alone. Tell yourself to concentrate and your mind would wander through time and space. And when you try to distract it from something, it would come back and focus on the same thing. It’s always like this, it’s always had been.

I am glad with myself that I kept the promise and wrote a few lines on the first day of 2012. Here I hope I could write more this year and find new dimensions of the skill. Wishing myself luck at that and ending this monologue. Sweet Dreams!!

The opposite: u need to keep alive the child within RT @richa_k_me @paulocoelho Sir, do i need to grow up to understand your novels?? -- richa_k_me (@richa_k_me)

'Fictitiously' Maiden !!!

It was a windy night. I was crossing the road, carrying the bags of food I had just bought from the supermarket. For a fraction of seconds, I thought the hooded figure was watching me, I denied the voice in my mind, making it believe that the man was on his way. Going to the roadside parking, I ignited the car engine. It roared to life in seconds.
..
..
..
No, this is not what happened. I have been trying to write fiction for the last few days. So this is just a beginning of a supposedly fictitious story. Apart from that no news!!

Will probably add that -

The hooded man was actually following me. (Assasinating me. Stalking me. Which one seems good? Ummm.. Whatever!)
He was behind me in a van, following my car. I stepped out in front of my garage and looked behind. Nobody was there. May be it was just my imagination. Unlocking the door, I entered the house. Switched on the lights. Just clicking of switches and no light. Oops, power cut. 'what do I do now?', I thought, scared. There was a man or possibly a woman out there somewhere who was on my trail and the darkness-filled house. My body went numb. I just sat where I was standing. Thinking what could be done if he entered the house somehow. Well, it could be just my mind games, 'but why take chances', echoed my own voice.
..
..

Good going till now. Hmm.. Happy with myself!!