Fun Friday with Speechless Classic “Pushpak”!!!

In our office we usually have fun Friday, once in every month. This time our HR thought a unique idea of showing a movie in office premises.  On Thursday, all the posters were set up saying that do not miss the movie with cold drinks and popcorns. We all got excited not only for movie but also for the free snacks which we will be getting during the movie.

On Friday, we informed our UK bosses that we will be offline for whole afternoon. Being in research firm, it’s all always advantage of getting such off without worrying about the deadlines. Everybody was curious to know which movie they are going to play. We all have started guessing with names like Khahani, Housefull2, Inception.  Sharply at 2 PM we were at auditorium to catch the best plce. It was like a college environment where everyone was chitchatting and ready for enjoyment.

So now the suspense was over and it was quite a shock for me. They were showing some 70s or 80s movie called “Pushpak”. It was starring Kamal Hassan and few unknown actors. All my excitement turned it to shock.  Any way I continued watching the movie with a disinterest. After 10 minutes of movie I realized that there is no dialogue in the movie but movie was looking quite funny.

Slowly I started enjoying this silent movie. Movie  amazed me with is simplicity and depth. The movie is silent, with no dialogue whatsoever, yet it deals with a complex and realistic plot. It manages to pull this off, thanks to the acting genius of Kamal Hassan. . Kamal Hassan was at its best. His on screen presence was supereb in the movie. I think some people born to do some specific things. You can’t imagine them in any other engagements, I feel same about him. 

Movie’s plot is humorous with very deep message. The plot deals with the adventures of a struggling, unemployed young man in Bangalore, who is able to step into the shoes of an extremely rich man by chance. In this guise, he finds love and material happiness, but discovers the other unpleasant aspects of being in that position. Finally, he realizes his folly, gives up his masquerade and returns to his old life.
The movie was such a masterpiece that I didn’t even bother to take snacks from office boy as I do not want to remove my eyeballs from the screen. I don’t remember when I had seen such a good comedy movie in recent times. Very rarely you come across the old movies which not only are timeless but also entertaining in its own way defying the current trend of fast paced movies which sometime lacks the central essence and other times , the purpose.
Thanks to my HR that she has selected such a good movie for our fun Friday. Pushpak is definitely  unmissable, admirable and classical with the finest piece of acting. It’s all time speechless classic movie. You really wouldn’t want to miss watching this movie on a relatively boring Sunday afternoon.

Wordless Wednesday - 2



Havelock Islands in Andman & Nicobar Islands



My Husband's Birthday Gift

I always love to get gifts and especially surprise gifts. Unfortunately, my hubby is very boring in giving me gifts as he can never decide what to give. In fact, it’s impossible for him to give gift to anyone without my suggestion.  So it’s always me, who keep giving surprise gifts to him on my wedding anniversary and his birthdays. This time when my hubby’s birthday was coming, it was a really tough for me to give something unique and unusual which he can never think of it.
After 2 weeks of brainstorming and internet search, I got the idea of giving customized birthday chronicle/newspaper to him. 
It was like a “bingo” expression for me when I zeroed down on birthday chronicle but there were many challenges also to create a customized birthday chronicle. So, like a project, I have divided the segments of the newspaper.
I contacted my hubby’s friends to send some birthday wishes for him and their most memorable stories. I have pen down our lovestory for one of the segment. I listed down his likes, dislikes and his irritating habits for the column. I also created a funny horoscope for his coming year and written an introductory message just like a celeb.
Then I created “Times of India” logo in word and arranged all the write-up in a newspaper format. It took me almost 2 nights to arrange everything. It was the most tiring job as I also need to hide it from my hubby. Finally I took a printout of A1 size and was ready to give surprise.  Here is the picture of birthday newspaper.

On his birthday, I got up early in the morning and was waiting for the newspaper. Oh God!!! The wait was killing me, never in my life have I ever waited for a newspaper. As soon as I got the newspaper, I removed the front page and put my customized birthday newspaper.  Since my hubby has taken a leave on his birthday, so he was sleeping till late. I was really getting impatient to show my surprise to him. Finally my hubby got up and as his usual habit went to the door and picked up the newspaper.
He got the shock of his life. Without glasses, he just saw his name in the newspaper and loudly he said, “OMG!! My name is on the front page.”.  I couldn’t stop laughing seeing his face.  He was stumped with my surprise and than seeing me he realized, it was my way of saying happy birthday to him. From his facial expression, I knew it he loved my surprise birthday gift.

Wordless Wednesday - 1




Hogenakkal Waterfall in Karnataka

 


 

Arranged Marriage or a Blind Date Set up

Arrange marriage which means the marriage is arranged by family members of the boy and girl who are to be wed. I am not against arranged marriage. Many of my friends and relatives are happy after getting hooked in an arranged manner. It’s just that I can’t help looking at the funny side of the whole process of an arranged marriage and how this process has evolved in course of time.

In good olden days (I am talking about 40’s and 50’s), when my grandparents got married, there was a strong belief in Kundllis and Gotras, almost every family belonging to the older generation had a family Purohit (priest). Besides their regular prayers and havens, the main task of these priests was to suggest prospective matches for the children when they reached marriageable age (at that time it was 16 -17 years was the perfect marriage bale age). As the Purohits had a wide base in a number of families, they fixed a meet between the prospective in-law families, after pronouncing the kundlis satisfactory. Another way through which marriages were fixed up was through the Nai and Nain (erstwhile beauticians), who also acted as mediators. Bride and bridegroom hardly use to meet or see each other. The consent of boy & girl involved was not at all taken into account.

In 21st Century, from parent’s perspective arrange marriage is like a market research project. While arranged marriages have become more of a dating thing from boys and girls perspective. Before starting their search for a suitable match, both the boy and the girl have their list of likes and dislikes for their future partner. Just like the way we think before shopping as to which brand of jeans we would like and which we wouldn’t, which pattern and color for the top, type of footwear we would like to have, etc.

Must have lists of Girl & boy looks more like a menu card:
• Job- Must be in MNCs so that girl can move to aboard.
• Salary- A good 6 figure salary, so that they can afford luxurious honeymoon trip in Europe or  Australia.
• Educational qualifications- Must be B.Tech or MBA from IIT or IIM. MBA should not be done in HR as they don't move higher in career ladder. 
• Appearance – Boys should be clone of either Ranbir kapoor, Shaihd Kapoor or Imran Khan no matter how girl looks like. Similarly in boy’s case, girl should be copy of either Kareena or Katrina.
• Family background- In girl case, it’s preferred if they do not have any MIL or SIL.

After getting the must have lists from children, parents do the primary search on bride and grooms through matrimonial advertisements in newspapers and sites. First of all, pre-filtration is done based on must have lists like religion, caste, family background, number of siblings, number of degrees, education of parents, family wealth etc. Than parents shows the Gantt chart of the selected potentials profiles to boys and girls to do the first screening. After first screening, potential bride and groom are set into an artificial setting of a date wherein they are supposed to ask each other questions like in an interview to decide whether they can be good marital partners or not.  The scenario is more like a shopping when the girl and the boy’s family meet each other. The party which starts asking questions first is the buyer while the other is the seller.

For example, the boy’s family will start listing all good qualities of the boy just like a salesman tries to portray his product in a must-buy manner. On the other hand, the girl’s family will try to figure out the percent of truth in their claims, just like the buyers do to make sure the salesman isn’t lying. After the first round, the tables are turned. Buyers become sellers and vice-versa. Now, the girl’s family will start proving how perfect to-be bahu she is while the boy’s family will have some brain-work to do to guess the authenticity in their claims. Most importantly, both of them (girl and boy) check mentally whether the list of qualities in the opposite person matches with their list of shopping!

If the answers are satisfactory, first interviews are quickly followed up by a second round of interviews.  Once those interviews are cleared as well, there might be a third final interview. After the final interview, date for the wedding is set and the interviewer and the interviewee officially become ‘lovebirds’ for 3-4 months before they are made to live with each other and produce children.

In my words - the deal is finalized with both parties getting benefit both as a buyer as well as a seller. In this way, a total stranger becomes the most important person of your life. Wow!

But wait a minute! Where the heck does love figure in this which is the most important ingredient for marriage?