Uzeb and Zuber

so one sad saturday morning i had to be on shoot at 7 am in the morning. First a weekend and then reporting for a shoot that early in the morning is like mid night for me. So well all groggy i reach the shoot and it all begins. While i am sitting and watching the first shot being taken i see 2 very cute little boys sitting next to me and enjoying the shoot... and that was the beginning of a day long friend ship with two super smart and super cute kids..

Uzeb and Zuber were two kid models for my shoot. Zuber was the earlier choice for the lead kid model and then at the shoot we realise he is not fitting the bill so his younger brother Uzeb is the one we go with. While Uzeb is happy and doing his kiddy running around, Zuber is visibly upset that he is not a part of the shoot anymore.. I feel extremely upset seeing him upset. trying to find ways to talk to him but he is not talking to anyone. goes away to one corner and sits on the steps ... I with slow and steady determination inch towards him and finally manage to crack him open.. and then from using my Deo to telling me about his dream to buy a cycle to how upset he was to who all he had in his family continued and then a day long chitter chatter with both the boys and my groggy day turned into a fun little session of sorts with them..Both the boys extremely intelligent..

Sometime in the day their parents also come to the shoot. Zuber comes and points at them and tells me - there my Ammi and Abbu. I look at them and see them busy having their lunch so I turn away.. Eventually in the evening his dad gets talking to me.. They are this humble couple who are there to support their kids and just anxious about not leaving them alone for their first such shoot.. So i get talking with them. Thier dad is a Taxi driver and mum a house wife. He tells me about his three kids.. so both the boys have an elder brother as well who they tell me has just gotten selected to meet Irfan Pathan and few others from the Indian cricket team and has been selected to play at the state level. But that requires for the parents to shell out about Rs 1 lakh and he says thats not something he can afford. He tells me that he would really get annoyed with his son for going and playing cricket because somewhere that worry of not being able to support this hobby of his son eventually would always bother him, But the son went ahead and followed his dreams and reached to a point where the father is left with no option. So he has left every thing to 'Malik' and says he will figure some way out for sure.. I find this man for the humble background that he comes from, to be extremely modern and broadminded in thoughts. He believes his kids can do every thing and they are intelligent enough and all he can do is support them in the right ways and teach them to be humble and all the right disciplines of life..

Zuber he tells me is suffering from acute asthama and so looks 8yrs old when he is actually 13. I am shocked because he really doesn't look that old. An amount of Rs 90,000 has been spent in his treatment from various hospitals like Lilawati to Tata memorial.. every possible good big hospital one can think of.. but nothing much has come out of it..So in True style his father leaves every thing to " allah" .. "I am doing every thing i can and i think my prayers have been answered to some extent as you can today see him walking around in this shoot when 2 months back he was bed ridden and i had left all hopes in him even surviving this ordeal".. I Smile.. i feel happy that i get to see Zuber in this happy state..

Uzeb..is the naughty super intelligent child who the father thinks is going to make him very very proud. He says to run a family of 3 kids with his humble salary of taxi driving is not easy but i don't complain.. All i know is that my aim is to do every thing that i can to make my children's life better in this world and i think my job is done.. From there on God will take over and what the almighty has decided for them they have to live through that and make their own world.

The end of the day makes me feel so good to meet such great parents and the 2 little vibrant happy kids. I pray for them before i leave. thank the 2 kids and bid good bye's but the 4 faces - Uzeb, Zuber and his parents don't leave me.. i have not stopped thinking about them and every time i think about them it brings a smile on my face.. to meet such warm and positive people only makes you feel life is so much more worth all the things that we think are trouble.. :)

Image Source: Google

Udaan - A Joy Ride!!

Much has been written about Udaan..

I finally got down to writing about the movie but more from a sense of a known that it makes me feel.. the soundtrack of the movie, it’s lyrics brilliantly weave in a whole lot of emotions.. a varied range of emotions from the adolescent qualms that on goes through, the disconnect one feels with parents at times, the bond that one has with their friends in school.. the relationships that you try to keep at while you are at your rebellious best..the lyrics just create magic.. Simple but says so much..

Pairon ki bediyan khwabon ko baandhe nahi re, kabhi nahi re
Mitti ki parton ko nanne se ankur bhi cheeray, dheere dheere

The every new and next stage in life that we enter into, the lyrics below exactly define the anxiety, dilemma that we go through at the beginning of each of these stages:

Kahani khatam hai ya shuruwaat hone ko hai
Subha nayi hai yeh ya phir raat hone ko hai

Aane wala waqt dega panha hai
Ya phir se milenge do raahein
Khabar kya, kya pataa

I feel you make your best friends while you are in school.. whether you eventually end up keeping in touch with them or not due to life that strikes you in your 20’s but the fact is that the memory of those friendship’s will always bring a smile to your face.. you explore relationships in that age with complete purity of heart and innocent conflicts.. you grow together to face the newer challenges everyday.. it’s all about being there for each other and hopefully if you do manage to be in touch with them then you sure have a bunch of friends for life.. Rohan’s friendship with his 3 other buddies who together get thrown out of the school is one for keeps.. I love the relationship specially that he shares with his friend Maninder in the film.. They seem to perfectly well understand each other in their own way..

The charm of living in a small town is a world apart from the concrete jungle.. the movie made me nostalgic because it reminded me of my childhood in Digboi and it reminds me of my winter trips with my college friends to Jamshedpur..you live life in these towns.. have time to do everything that you possibly can include in a day of 24 hrs..

Arjun, Rohan’s stepbrother is the most natural kid on the block that I have seen in my long run of Hindi movies.. I have never seen a kid who seamlessly fits in to the character in the age that he is in..he probably was the star for me in the movie..

All in all Udaan was a brilliant, quiet, sensitive, fun, nice, feel good, soothing experience, one which I thoroughly enjoyed..

Week Ends!!

Weekend is here.. Waiting for Friday already.. Oh finally.. tonight’s gonna be a good good night..What is it that makes weekend and working population best friends..

With Increasing work pressure and no life culture specially in India where the more you work the better you are at your job is the IN THING.. Weekend ought to be that one thing that everyone looks forward to. Be it going for a short trip out of town or mostly just sleeping for hours on end through Saturday and Sunday or going bonkers with the drinking session with friends.. or watching loads of movies.. or line up outside restaurants for hours to just have that one meal with family..It’s THE WEEKEND that we look forward to..

I guess for the over worked population this is the time to finally breath.. GOD FORBID if you are working the weekend then you are doomed for 2 week long straight up no break stint.. and that one sucks for sure..

Today at 5:40 on a Friday evening I can’t wait to get out, get out of office, get out of town.. get out to forget I exist in this life even and lead another life altogether even if it’s for a tiny 2 days J

So Weekend here I come and mine this time is going to be the garfeild slump Lump Kinds.. Oh so perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love Story

Happened to read Love Story finally.. and what a timing.. Just read in the news yesterday that Erich Segal passed away at the age of 72.

The first book that i read of Erich Segal's was THE CLASS. I had really enjoyed it at the time..Since i was so late in reading Love story.. I did feel that i had heard the story umpteen number of times while i was reading it. But for the fact that it was written when it was it still seems as fresh in writing as if written today. It's the most amazing rapport that both Oliver and Jenny share.. It's best of friends who are sooo in love... Love Story is always talked about as a tragic love story.. But i'd beg to differ from that point of view as to me there is nothing tragic about falling in love so beautifully because it's then about how awesome every moment that you spent with your loved one and not about how less time you had with him or her.It's a rare phenomenon to find such great relationships which lives with its imperfections but still is perfect in its own way.

The book is a very short and crisp read but manages to clog your throat in the last page. At least it did to me.I read somewhere that Erich Segal had written this story as a screenplay but when no body bought into it then a publisher asked him to turn it into a novel and it became a multi million best seller as we know of it today. And then the Movie followed. Maybe the reason why the book is also a short and precise point making novel but at the same time does complete justice to the story in every way.

Would definitely recommend this book along with The Class, because they are master pieces in their own right because of the simplicity with which they manage to capture lives of people.

2 States!!

While the 3 Idiots and the Chetan Bhagat Fiasco just died its natural death..I did happen to end up reading this book in the midst of all this.. Perfect companion for my 24 hr train journey. PEOPLE magazine along with Chetan Bhagat.. Just like tea accompanied with chakhna...

I had read 5 Point Someone... then never really picked up his next 2 books.. This one i ended up picking cuz of the Mills and Boons side to me.. LOL .. when desperate anything will do to satisfy my Gooooo appetite..

It wasn't that bad.. pretty relatable in terms of typical Indian mentalities , thinking of parents to mixed marriages, inter state inaccepatability.. each state, each clan, each community in our country thinks they are better than the rest.. he has managed to showcase that pretty well in there..

Of course it has its complete insane Bollywood moments, and a complete Filmy father son relationship..

All in all it's a complete Trash Read..don't think its a man's read though..