Anitya - change is inevitable

Another movie on arranged marriage

2007-11-22T17:29:00.001-05:00

Knock Knock, I'm Looking To Marry!
(click this link to watch it for free, movie will start after 30 seconds' ad)

It's the modern movie in arranged marriage. Everyone is educated; there's the technology, but it's just an illusion if we think that we've become 'modern'. I would say, only our conservativeness has become modernized. The movie is in english, but it's just the translation, nothing has changed.

The movie was entertaining if you like watching movies on arranged marriages. Mostly, girls never see the potential in the next man. We're always looking for the ideals. We see all the imperfections of the closed ones and reject it, and then we regret the whole life for getting married with the distant "the perfect one".

I don't understand why even the debate exists or people discuss whether arranged or love marriage is good. In this movie, a gal is looking for love marriage within arranged marriage.

Spoiler's warning: revealing the suspense, lol
why arranged marriage is no good:

She will never find out the boy she choose was drug addict before the marriage.

Father of the gal will less likely to be that much supportive.

Parents won't change their mind even after six months.

Boy won't be waiting for six months like that, and

the girl she saw at the door will be either his wife or gf as she initially thought.

where the victim gets the lashes

2007-11-21T20:14:00.000-05:00

Saudi rape case

The sentence resulted from an incident in March 2006, when the woman, then aged 18 and engaged to be married, and an unrelated man, were abducted from a mall in Qatif, Saudi Arabia by a group of seven men. She was later raped.

In October, the men were convicted and sentenced to between two and nine years in prison for the assault. She was convicted of violating the kingdom's strict Islamic law by not having a male guardian with her at the mall.

The woman was originally sentenced in October 2006 to 90 lashes -- but when she appealed that sentence, the court more than doubled it to 200 lashes.

A court source told Arab News, an English-language Middle Eastern daily newspaper, that the woman's sentence was increased after the woman spoke to the media about the case.

Under law in Saudi Arabia, women are subject to numerous restrictions, including a strict dress code, a prohibition on driving and a requirement that they get a man's permission to travel or have surgery . Women are also not allowed to testify in court unless it is about a private matter that was not observed by a man, and they are not allowed to vote.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/11/21/saudi.rape.victim/index.html

This is gonna really encourage the other rape victims to come out.

Teachings on Love

2007-11-14T19:08:00.000-05:00

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Followings are the excerpts from the above book. I selected the following so that I can read it again and again to redirect myself into the right path.

The four immeasurable minds

1. Love (Maitri)
The first aspect of true love is maitri, the intention and capacity to offer joy and happiness. To develop that capacity, we have to practice looking and listening deeply so that we know what to do and what not to do to make others happy. If you offer your beloved something she does not need, that is not maitri. You have to see her real situation or what you offer might bring her unhappiness.

Without deep understanding, your love is not true love. You must look deeply in order to see and understand the needs, aspirations, and suffering of the one you love. We all need love. Love brings us joy and well-being. It is as natural as the air. We are loved by the air, we need fresh air to be happy and well. We are loved by trees. We need trees to be healthy. In order to be loved, we have to love, which means we have to understand. For our love to continue, we have to take the appropriate action or non-action to protect the air, the trees, and our beloved.

2. Compassion (Karuna)
The second aspect of true love is karuna, the intention and capacity to relieve and transform suffering and lighten sorrows.

To develop compassion in ourselves, we need to practice mindful breathing, deep listening, and deep looking. The Lotus Sutra describes Avalokiteshvara as the bodhisattva who practices "looking with the eyes of compassion and listening deeply to the cries of the world." Compassion contains deep concern. You know the other person is suffering, so you sit close to her. You look and listen deeply to her to be able to touch her pain. You are in deep communication, deep communion with her, and that alone brings some relief.

When I was a novice, I could not understand why, if the world is filled with suffering, the Buddha has such a beautiful smile. Why isn't he disturbed by all the suffering? Later I discovered that the Buddha has enough understanding, calm, and strength; that is why the suffering does not overwhelm him. He is able to smile to suffering because he knows how to take care of it and to help transform it. We need to be aware of the suffering, but retain our clarity, calmness, and strength so we can help transform the situation. The ocean of tears cannot drown us if karuna is there. That is why the Buddha's smile is possible.

3. Joy (Mudita)
The third element of true love is mudita, joy. True love always brings joy to ourselves and to the one we love. If our love does not bring joy to both of us, it is not true love.

4. Equanimity (Upeksha)
The fouth element of true love is upeksha, which means equanimity, nonattachment, nondisrimination, evenmindedness, or letting go.

The Buddha observed, "The person who suffers most in this world is the person who have many wrong perceptions… And most of our perceptions are erroneous." We see a snake in the dark and we panic, but when our friend shines a light on it, we see that it is only a rope. We have to know which wrong perceptions cause us to suffer.

The practice of mindfulness is the practice of love. It is important to learn the art of mindful living before entering any new relationship, especially the journey of mutual discovery that takes place in a marriage. If you do not come to know yourselves well, practicing looking deeply in order to discover all the flowers and all the garbage that are in you-not just those of your own making but those you received from your ancestors and from society-your marriage will be difficult.

When you enter a relationship, you feel excitement, enthusiasm, and the willingness to explore. But you may not really understand yourself or the other person very well yet. Living together 24 hours a day, you see, hear, and experience many things you have not seen or imagined before. When you fell in love, you constructed a beautiful image that you projected onto your partner, and now you are a little shocked as your illusions disappear and you disocver the reality. Unless you know how to practice mindfulness together, looking deeply into yourself and your partner, you may find it difficult to sustain your love through this period.

If we practice the art of mindful living together, we can do this. We see that the other person, like us, has both flowers and garbage inside, and we accept this. Our practice is to water the flower in her, and not bring her more garbage. We avoid blaming and arguing. When we try to grow flowers, if the flowers do not grow well, we do not blame or argue with them. We blame ourselves for not taking care of them well. Our partner is a flower. If we take care of her well, she will grow beautifully. If we take care of her poorly, she will wither. To help a flower grow well, we must understand her nature. How much water does she need? How much sunshine? We look deeply into ourselves to see our true nature, and we look into the other person to see her nature.

To meditate is to look deeply into the nature of things, including our own nature and the nature of the person in front of us. When we see the true nature of that person, we discover his or her difficulties, aspirations, suffering, and anxieties. We can sit down, hold our partner's hand, look deeply at him, and say, "Darling, do I understand you enough? Do I water your seeds of suffering? Do I water your seeds of joy? Please tell me how I can love you better." If we say this from the bottom of our heart, he may begin to cry, and that is a good sign. It means the door of communication may be opening again.

True love includes the sense of responsibility, accepting the other person as he is, with all his strenghts and weaknesses. If we like only the best things in the person, that is not love. We have to accept his weaknesses and bring our patience, understanding, and energy to help him transform.

Before two people marry, they should practice mindfulness together, and after becoming husband and wife, they should continue to practice the Five Awarenesses as a manifestation of their practice of mindfulness:

We are aware that all generations of our ancestors and all future generations are present in us.
We are aware of the expectations that our ancestors, our children, and their children have of us.
We are aware that our joy, peace, freedom, and harmony are the joy, peace, freedom, and harmony of our ancestors, our children, and their children.
We are aware that understanding is the very foundation of love.
We are aware that blaming and arguing never help us and only create a wider gap between us, that only understanding, trust, and love can help us change and grow.

Everyone knows that blaming and arguing never help, but we forget, That is why we practice the fifth awareness. Conscious breathing helps us develop the ability to stop at that crucial moment, to keep ourselves from blaming and arguing.

All of us need to change for the better. When we marry, we make a promise to change ourselves and to help the other person change himself or herself so we can grow together, sharing the fruit and progress of practice. It is our responsibility to take care of each other. We are the gardener, the one who helps the flowers grow. If we understand, the flowers will grow beautifully.

Every time the other person does something well, something in the direction of change and growth, we should congratulate her or him to show our approval. This is important. We don't take things for granted. If the other person manifests some of her talent and capacity to love and create happiness, we must be aware of it and express our appreciation. This is the way to water the seeds of happiness. We should avoid saying destructive things like, "I don't know whether you can do this" or "I doubt that you can do this." Instead, we say, "This is difficult, darling, but I have faith that you can do it." This kind of talk makes the other person stronger. This is true with children, also. We have to strengthen the self-esteem of our children. We have to appreciate and congratulate every good thing they say and do in order to help our children grow. When we are married, we can love each other in a way that encourages change and growth for the better, all the time.

We have to learn the art of creating happiness. The problem is not one of being wrong or right, but one of being more or less skillful. Living together is an art. Even with a lot of good will, you can still make the other person very unhappy. Good will is not enough. We need to know the art of making the other person happy. Art is the essence of life. Try to be artful in your speech and action. The substance of art is mindfulness. When you are mindful, you are more artful. This is something I have learned from the practice.

Arranged Marriage: Stories

2007-11-11T14:25:00.000-05:00

by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Though the title of book is ‘arranged marriage: stories’, the book puts more empahasis on characters of the husband and wife, and not all the marriages in the stories had arranged marriages, and also not all the couples in the stories were married. In almost all of the stories, one of the spouses was raised or spent most of time in US while the other half was brought from India after marriage. The story is focused on marital relationships and it contains some of the sad realities of the traditional arranged marriages and conservative society. I'd say, the book is very educative, and would leave you feel learned after completing the book. I finished this book about 2-3 months ago, but was procrastinating to write a blog on it.
Spoiler's warning: If you plan to read the book and don't want to know what happens next before reading the book, the following post may not do good.

1. Bats: This is not uncommon in Indian or Nepali society. This story doesn’t involve the US life. It is a sad story of a drunk husband beating his wife, and the conservative society who doesn’t let the women live alone.
2. Clothes: Clothes started happily, but the end was very sad. Husband was very good and was one of the co-owner of the store at the gas station.
3. Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs: In this story, an Indian girl comes to US not on a dependent visa, but for the education, and comes to live with her aunt. She had only heard good things about the aunt and USA, and now she comes to learn about the sad realities. She had heard that they were having a good quality of life with large house and they had their own store. But now, she sees all the realities. They were living in a bad neighborhood and were even chased by kids, who used “N-words” to them when they went for a walk in a neighborhood. It explains that the life is not that easy in US as people think in back home.
4. Word Love: A couple of this story was not married. The woman was from India and a man from America were living together. Her mom was very conservative and didn’t have a clue that her daughter was living together with another woman without getting married. She was looking for her daughter to get married with another Indian man in a traditional way. I give all the blame to her mother in this story; she is a selfish woman and thinks more about herself and the society than her own daughter’s happiness. I know, you may disagree with me.
5. The Perfect Life: In this story, the couple were unmarried and were also not living together. The boyfriend was very understanding and wanted to get married and have children, but she never wanted the children until one day, which then changed her view and life.
6. The Maid Servant’s story: If I remember correctly, this is the longest story and it also doesn’t involved the life in US. I guess, a bollywood movie can be made on this story.
7. The Disappearance: A wife disappears suddenly from the home leaving her son. A husband never realized what he was doing until his wife left him. It’s another sad story though may not be uncommon in marriages.
8. The Doors: It is an excellent example how the simple incident or the simple thing can interfere so much in a marital relationship. This is the example, why the partners should work together and make an attempt to understand each other to make a marriage succeed. I enjoyed reading this story.
9. The Ultrasound: The title of the story explains all. This is another horrible story of a traditional Indian society. I feel sorry for the woman. I wonder when the people will start to change.
10. The Affair: This story talks about two couples that are of an opposite nature. In one couple, husband is modern, but the wife is conservative, and in another, wife is modern but the husband is conservative and not outgoing. Two couples had friendship with each other. One of the wife leaves her husband for “love”, and another leaves for identity.
11. Meeting Mrinal: In this story, the husband left the wife for the secretary. Unlike in some of other stories, the husband was not that bad though he left the wife. They also had a son and moreover she had a friend back in India, whom she had been competing with, and had to hide all the details when she came to visit her town.

Other reviews may be more helpful to you and I also saw the first story online.

There was a story of arranged marriage published on msn.com this morning, ‘I Married a Total Stranger’.

I also read a similar story titled ‘Is Arranged Marriage Really Any Worse Than Craigslist?', which you may find interesting too. A couple of sentence from this article:
My father saw my mother once before they got married. He loves to shock Americans by recounting how he lost sight of her at a bazaar the day after their wedding and lamented to himself that he would never find her again, as he’d forgotten what she looked like.

All of these stories are based on Indian experiences. Most of the marriages in Nepal are also arranged marriages, but I’ve not found any stories on Nepali experiences.

Documentaries

2007-11-04T16:00:00.000-05:00

It's unimaginable what a nation can do to its own citizens. After watching the clip on sterilization of certain tribes to eradicate them, it reminded me of the novel, I read few months ago - 'A Fine Balance', where impoverished indians were mass sterilized.

Following is the link for youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVp4KxYfg2g

Some pictures of mass sterilization camps in India:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickrainimages/399702435/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickrainimages/398919406/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickrainimages/398919404/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickrainimages/398919404/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickrainimages/398919404/

Change

2007-11-03T14:17:00.000-05:00

Tracy Chapman's songs are very meaningful and I like all of her songs. This one is one of my favorites.

Tracy Chapman - Change

If you knew that you would die today,
Saw the face of god and love,
Would you change?
Would you change?

If you knew that love can break your heart
When you're down so low you cannot fall
Would you change?
Would you change?

How bad, how good does it need to get?
How many losses? How much regret?
What chain reaction would cause an effect?
Makes you turn around,
Makes you try to explain,
Makes you forgive and forget,
Makes you change?
Makes you change?

If you knew that you would be alone,
Knowing right, being wrong,
Would you change?
Would you change?

If you knew that you would find a truth
That brings up pain that can't be soothed
Would you change?
Would you change?

How bad, how good does it need to get?
How many losses? How much regret?
What chain reaction would cause an effect?
Makes you turn around,
Makes you try to explain,
Makes you forgive and forget,
Makes you change?
Makes you change?

Are you so upright you can't be bent?
If it comes to blows are you so sure you won't be crawling?
If not for the good, why risk falling?
Why risk falling?

If everything you think you know,
Makes your life unbearable,
Would you change?
Would you change?

If you'd broken every rule and vow,
And hard times come to bring you down,
Would you change?
Would you change?

If you knew that you would die today,
If you saw the face of God and love,
Would you change?
Would you change?
Would you change?
Would you change?

If you saw the face of God and love
If you saw the face of God and love
Would you change?
Would you change?

3 Movies on Marriage

2007-10-24T20:57:00.000-05:00

I like the happy-ending movies these days. Following are the movies with such endings:

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna
I liked this movie and didn't know, the movie was a hit. There were 2 married couples, Shah Rukh with Preity Zinta, and Abhisek with Rani Mukherjee. Preity and Abhisek happened to be successful in their careers. Shah Rukh had a son, while Abhisek and Rani had a daughter. Shah Rukh's mom and Abhisek's father also happened to be friends, to which all some family members later misunderstood as more than a platonic relationship. Shah Rukh had an affair with Rani before she got married to Abhisek. Shah Rukh and Rani met with each other by an accident one day and lands up in hospital for few days, but both pretend not to know each other among other people. They start to meet regularly after this incident, and realized the happiness of sharing moments with each other, and the scenes are shown for having the problems in their respective marital relationships. Preity and Shah Rukh was not shown to be made for each other, and had a big problem in understanding each other, while Rani and Abhisek were shown more to have problems in bed (if I remember the movie correctly). So, all of them were not happy. I like the movie for happy ending though it's like in any other typical bollywood movies, and despite the movie having typical old filmy formulas.

Mixed Doubles
As the name says, the movie is about swapping wife. It is not a family movie, and husband and wife will definitely enjoy watching this movie together. The first half of the movie was much entertaining than the rest of it. The movie shows the boring sex life after few years in marriage, and the dumb husband wants to try new thing to spice up the sex life i.e. by swapping wife. I call him a dumb in the sense that he's too gullible and don't think much about the consequences of his actions, and doesn't care about other's feelings. Poor Konkana sen, actress of the movie finally gives up by being submissive after her husband fakes being in a hospital. So, she's doing it only for the wellness of her beloved husband. The first half of movie was quite interesting, and after the intermission, it's little boring, but you'll be curious to know how the swapping will go.

Main, meri patni, aur woh
I enjoyed this movie thoroughly. I'd say this movie fits into a genre of comedies though all the movie scenes are shown as real (real in the sense that they were not joking). It is also a romantic nice family movie. You won't lose your smile while watching this movie with frequent giggles. The actor of movie has played many comedy roles, but he's a short guy. In this movie, he is working as a librarian in Lucknow University. He is unmarried and is in 30s. Finally he agrees to go to see one girl at Bareili for arranged marriage after much insistence from his mother and uncle. He confessed that he never ever had a female friend and he wants to have a friendship with a girl in the date. The whole environment and the process of arranged marriage is very odd. They get to talk with each other for only few minutes at the veranda (a kind of porch) while the whole family was having an eye at them. Finally, they get married and then actually, the real problem starts. The husband started to feel insecure of being much shorter than the wife, and tried to fix the seats of the scooter so that he doesn't look short on it. He also had a problem of jealousy, and the movie kinda shows that men may actually have more problems of jealousy than women. When he introduced his wife to his best friend, he couldn't enjoy the chit-chats between them at all. He also get jealous with a vendor when he tried to sell tomatoes to his wife without even bargaining at price. He doesn't also enjoy when the local tempo-drivers offer them a ride without asking for any fare. He thinks that everyone is lending a favor because of his beautiful wife. He gets into fight with local guys when they were staring at sky for kites; husband thinks the guys were staring at the window of their apartment to steal the glances of his beautiful wife. The real trouble starts when the wife's long-lost male friend from college comes to stay at close to their apartment.

missing sixth dashain

2007-10-22T21:45:00.000-05:00

This is the sixth time, I missed Dashain. This is the sixth time, I didn't get 'tika' on my forehead. I don't miss dashain that much, but I do miss the food. I don't miss meat because I had meat only once during dashain in last 10-15 years. But it's just my family who miss me during all these festivals, and perhaps more every year.

Dashain is the biggest festival in Nepal; it is the longest holiday season (for about 7-10 days); civil employees get double of their salary; everyone cleans their house, buy new clothes, and make the best feast of the year. New paintings on the house, kites on the sky, reunion of friends and relatives, new clothes, playing cards, drinking and eating (actually gluttoning) are all the parts of the festival. But there is also a sad part to it. Many animals get slaughtered in the name of pleasing gods during this festival. It's really ridiculous that people are so much convinced of pleasing gods by killing poor innocent animals. At least, if you really want to sacrifice these animals, please keep the god out from it, and please do not say that you're doing it for god, and please admit that you're making a sin, and please do not try to justify bringing a story of food chain and balancing ecosystem to justify your actions. We always like to justify for our deeds, whether for good or wrong reasons. You're doing it for your own, neither for culture nor for god. You can see the pool of blood inside the temples during this biggest festival. Vehicle owners also sacrifice the animals to their respective vehicles. This is really the sad part of dashain. Hopefully, people will realize and understand one day, and will stop sacrificing animals. Among many things that I dream of Nepal, dashain without animal sacrifice is one of them.

Preventing Cancer

2007-10-20T11:58:00.000-05:00

I somehow feel that I may die from cancer. But if I do so, then I'd a person with a lot of sins because I believe that the good ones get easier death than the bad ones. It may sound ridiculous to think in this way, but that's how I think. Actually, the rate of fatality from cancer has been reducing in US, but still the total number of deaths are huge.

I don't smoke and drink only occassionally, that way I'm preventing lung and liver disease. I'm not trying to escape death, but just a painful death. Ok, all the deaths are painful too. Let's say then preparing for a less painful death.

I've saved few articles from msn and cnn on diets and the ways to prevent cancer. Following is the summary from an article on msn - what to eat and what to avoid to cut cancer risk:

Three foods to feast on frequently
1. Cruciferous veggies - Broccoli, bruseels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and kale helps to prevent colorectal, lung, stomach, and breast cancer.
2. High-fiber anything - high-fiber cereal, beans, whole-grain breads with added fiber, fruit and veggies helps to prevent colon and breast cancer.
3. Foods rich in vitamin D and calcium - Milk, orange juice helps to prevent colorectal and breast cancer. (women needs more calcium than men)

Two foods to enjoy often
Tomatoes and berries reduce the risk for gastric, ovarian, pancreatic and prostate cancers.

I've noticed that meat and meat products are never considered for reducing the cancer. In fact, some of them actually add to the risks.

Three foods to cut back on
Red and processed meat - increases the risk of developing colon, rectal, and breast cancer

Alcohol - increases the risk of developing breast, colon, esophagus, mouth and throat cancers. Little bit of alcohol actually helps to reduce risk of cardiovascular disease.

Fats - Try to get it from avocados, fish, nuts and olive oils.

questioning expectations

2007-07-19T21:21:00.000-05:00

Why do we expect something from others if/when we do? When we give/love/like/miss/befriend with someone, do we really need to expect something in return? Is the answer 'yes' or 'no'?

'yes' scenario:
If it is 'yes', do one expect the return also in terms of quantity? does one expect more or less in return? when one gives ..., does one always expect something? Is one gonna expect something with interest in return? If one doesn't get anything in return, does one regret or need to regret for giving/loving/liking/missing/befriending with someone? Does one think it's gone wasted then? Since this is a 'yes' scenario, the assumption of its being is that of mundane quality or behavior. Thus, the traits like selfishness and other impurities need not be addressed as it is inbuilt onto it. Rather, the intensity of hurt would come into play when the expectations are not met. And that'll link and invite all other forms/sources of unhappiness.

'no' scenario:
Ironically, this can rather become a complex problem than the earlier scenario. Even if the expectations are being met, admitting of having no expectations could cause the suffering to others. There's one word called 'unconditional'; it was so entertaining to talk about it. How easy it was to read and dicuss about it without even understanding the meaning of it, and how hard it is to to accept and transform oneself onto it; ah, how beautiful the word 'unconditional' is, how pure the word does sound, and how good it would be to give unconditionally.

untitled

2007-07-09T22:28:00.000-05:00

Having inspired from Samrina's blog, I'm making this post.

Patience: Patience is told be to the key of success, but it is not easy to be patient when one is on the verge of waiting game. The most impatient ones sometimes have to wait for the longest.
Jumping happiness: When we project the happiness, it rarely comes true. It jumps; it keeps on shifting. I'd say that I'll be happy when I get this or become that, but the time I get or become that, I'd no longer hold that happiness or get satisfied with what I achieved. It jumps and I'd have needed something else or something more or become something else. That's why, perhaps there exists the vicious circle or the wheel of karma.
Paths: I had read there're mainly two paths: one where the destination is important and the other where the path is more important. In the earlier path, one can bear any kinds of pains and sufferings to reach the destination, and it is the foremost important thing for him/her. It is a different fact whether one gets to reach that destination or not. In the second path, the path and the way one travels is more important than the destination. Who knows about what the destination is and whether it even exists. So, one should get all the joy while travelling well than suffer dreaming about reaching the destination. And I believe in the second path.

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

2007-07-08T12:24:00.000-05:00

Finally, I finished reading this book last night. For me, it was kind of average story. I didn't get impressed much by reading award winning books, be it this or Arundhati roy's the god of small things. The judge patel is the worst guy. I think that it holds some truth regarding patels, they're everywhere (that's what I heard and was also mentioned in the movie - hattrick). I don't want to get into all the political details of the revolution as I know very less of what actually happened there, and I want to refrain the blog from politics. I like to talk about politics and I have my own opinions. I wished till the end that the story will have a happy ending with Sai and Gyan. It is true when people go to say 'sorry' or go to meet dear ones, they get bombarded in the way that the person may not get a chance to say 'sorry' and it may get even worse than before. We like to suffer in a way very deliberately; no one forced them to separate, and it was their decision to do so. They could have been together. One can always blame thousands of things, but when has the world been perfect? I'd rather blame both Sai and Gyan than the situation. Gyan is more guilty than Sai. Though I didn't like Patel, I liked the way it is written about him. Many people may indeed be living a lifestyle of him. I felt really sorry for his wife; a great tragedy. I hope the story is not being repeated somewhere.

five movies from bollywood

2007-07-04T16:21:00.001-05:00

Malamaal weekly
I liked Paresh Rawal in comedy roles; so one of the reason that I watched this movie was because Paresh Rawal was in it, and I saw the ad of this while watching Phir Hera Pheri. Though the story is not the sort of comedy, but it has a message. I liked the movie with the messages and inspirations, and I hope that my subconscious or unconscious mind is getting the message. The story is from one typical poor village of India, where one jamindarni through her loans had owned much of the village's land and property. Almost all of the villagers owed the money to her. There was one character (Paresh Rawal), who was making a living by selling lotteries. One day, he found out that one of the lotteries he sold had won the grand prize of one crore rupees. Since most of the villagers didn't have the tvs, he thought that the one who got the lottery might not have known about this result. So, through his cunning mind, he made a plot of getting the winning ticket he sold. He planned to give a grand party to all his customers at the villagers and to get the tickets in return. But he won't be able to get the ticket and finally he spotted the guy whom he sold the winning ticket. When he reached the home, the guy was already dead. The story is about the plot to receive that grand prize and share among other folks who also become the part of the plot.

Bheja fry
It was a comedy movie. Though I didn't like the story much, I'd say that the movie was amusing and worth watching it. There was one rich guy who was having fun by inviting dumb weird guys (are they?) for the dinner and getting entertained by making fun of them while other party being unaware of the mischievous plot. It was one funny movie. Actually, the guy fell into his own trap. Because of the success of this movie, the movie crew were already planning to make the second part of this movie.

Hattrick
This movie had three stories; of Nana Patekar, Paresh Rawal, and one other actor. Nana Patekar was working as a doctor in a government hospital. He never smiled and was very strict with his kid and wife and patients and other colleagues at the hospital. He looked unhappy but was living with an illusion that he was enjoying his life. Then he met Daini Denzonpa, a patient suffering from kidney disease. He slowly started to bring change in Patekar's life and made him realize the way he were living was not righteous living. Patekar despised cricket but later on, Denzopa made him change his mind.

Paresh Rawal was another miserable guy who was working as a low-level laborer at the UK airport but claimed and boasted about his position as 'immigration officer' among his friends. He was desperately trying to get the citizenship of UK and was also looking forward to visit India and meet with his mother, brothers and other relatives whom he hadn't made for years. But he was telling himself he wouldn't go back to India till he get the citizenship despite having the valid visa to return to UK. He had a problem with his daughter. It also showed the hypocrisy. On one hand, he was feeling victimized of being brown skinned by while he himself despised the black people and didn't allow his daughter to have an affair with a black guy. This story made much more sense to me than any others. What was the relationship of going back to India and getting UK's citizenship? He could go anytime and can return safely back to UK. But his ego or whatever it was, was preventing him to return to his motherland. Meanwhile, he was living unhappily and making other's lives unhappy as well.

The third story in this movie was of a sikh couple. The husband was just crazy about cricket and was obsessed with cricket. Wife feeling neglected and being cheated because of the cricket, made a plot so that her husband could get out of this obsession. But when does the life go as it's planned? The reality is much different and things rarely happens as the way it's planned. But it's never later to reconcile and there is always a solution and an opportunity to save anything; one just needs an eye to be able to see it.

Phir Hera Pheri
I watched the first part in Nepal and watched the second part also many months ago. But I just wanted to tell that I enjoyed this movie. It was one funny movie; one should watch it. Two great comedians of Bollywood, Paresh Rawal and Johnny Lever are in the movie.

Khosla Ka Ghosla
I got scared of watching this movie about the life in India. One can get cheated so easily while there's almost no law and order. Anupam Kher bought a piece of land from his life's savings. But he got cheated. He owned the land in papers but not really. While he was planning to build the dream house in the plot he bought, others had captured his land and made a compound walls in it. Others had invaded his property and he couldn't do much. The broker, the police, all were the parts of the conspiracy. The invader asked more money to leave his land. Anupam Kher was also not having a good relation with his elder son, who was then trying to go to america. Finally, the eldest son with his girls friend and others made a plot to trap the invader and save his father's land, Khosla ka Ghosla. The movie is really filmy with typical taste of bollywood. But in a way, it was entertaining.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

2007-06-21T18:10:00.000-05:00

I finished reading it last week. As I don't intend to write book reviews and have no clue about writing reviews, this is just my opinions and thoughts that passed through while reading it. I might be completely wrong. I also don't remember all of the major scenes by now.

It is a nice book. There was also few twists in the story which make it look like a bollywood movie, where one knows what exactly is going to happen next. This is the only criticism. But probably, it is necessary to make the book interesting. A very interesting movie can be made on this story.

The story is mainly about the friendship and betrayal between Amir, a son of wealthy Afghan and a Hassan, a meagre Hazara, a servant's son - a servant. They grew up together, and their fathers, Amir's father, Baba, and Hassan's father, Ali also grew up together. 'Amir' was the first word Hassan spoke.

The book gave me the impression that all the chaos of the present Afghanistan was rooted back much before Russian's or Taliban's takeover. I agree that there was not the bloodshed like now. But I didn't enjoy the suppression of Hazaras by the groups called as Pashtuns.

I also didn't like the way women were treated back too. They didn't even change and learn much even after coming to settle in US. That's sad. Women deserve more than that. I also didn't like the way Afhans were portryaed for gossiping and other stuffs even after settlement in US.

There are many beautiful sentences in the book. I like the message of the book, "There is a way to be good again". Instead of trying to forget and avoid the memories of past mistakes, one must learn from it and should try to rectify it, and there're the ways to do it.

I don't understand why there is so much division of man kinds everywhere either because of geographical boundaries or religion or gender or race or color. In all these divisions, man has no choice because he was born as such. It is so wrong. All these divisions have been the real cause of hatreds that prevent two beautiful persons from meeting with each other. One should take all these classifications as different varieties of flowers in a garden. There's no higher or lower flower and the argument of the beauty of this one versus others depend on the perception of an individual, and it doesn't affect the beauty of that particular flower.

I watched 'Kabul Express' as well, but I'd say that it was a biased story. I didn't also like the way Hazaras were shown especially after reading 'the kite runner'. May be there're some looters as such but it only leaves the bad impression and if I were 'hazaras', it would only add more fuel to my hatred.

'The kite runner' was the second book I read about Afghanistan. I couldn't remember the name of first book. It was written by then 16-year old girl, who managed to give intereview to CNN during taliban and could succesfully fled to France, and was living there since then. She was also featured in 'Elle' magazine. It was about the story how women suffered and all those horror stories during Taliban.

Seven movies

2007-06-10T17:33:00.000-05:00

Jean De Florette
I watched this movie about five years ago, and was very impressed by the story, but I couldn't go to watch the second part and it was hard to remember the name to find it out later. But it was always in my mind. It was a story of a farmer, who was working very hard to grow his crops and raise some rabbits. He inherited it from his mother and after her death, he moved to the village leaving his job. It had a source of water but the neighbors had an eye on that piece of land and they blocked the source of water. The farmer tried tirelessly to grow his crops; there was not enough rain and having no spring water source, he had to walk back and forth to transport the water. You've to watch the movie to see what happens next. By the way, this movie is french.

I was very curious what the story is in the second part. But I didn't know the name. So I tried googling couple of weeks back using some keywords like french movie, farmers and drought. There were not many results and I could easily track the name. So I watched this first part and second part again.

Manon des Sources
This is the second part. In this movie, Manon, a daughter of the farmer takes a revenge on the neighbors. Many secrets were revealed in this movie. The movie also showed what extent a man can go to feed his greeds.

Hero
This is the chinese movie and the original name is Ying Xiong. This is the story of the unification of chinese states about two thousand years ago. An emperor was trying to unite China during that time. So he was going on attacking neigboring states. But the wars are never good. There were three great warriors, who were trying to assasinate the king. But one man (Jet Li) killed them all and got awarded by the king. So, he got to meet with king at a distance of ten yards and the whole movie is about different versions of stories of how he killed those warriors. Well, I didn't like the ending as in many so-called good movies.

Munich
Last year, I watched one boring movie about war of underground gangs, vampires against wolves. I regret for not watching munich instead of it. I felt so sleepy at the theater while watching this. After watching the movie, I realized I actually watched the first part of this movie too. Needless to say, I didn't like both parts of it. Well, coming back to Munich, the story started with the assasination of Israeles athletes in Munich Olympics. Then, the whole movie was about the revenge of Israeles on those behind it. The movie depicts how futile is this game of revenge and hatreds. Hatred can never be won by hatred. I will never forget one quote by Gandhi that says 'AN EYE FOR AN EYE MAKES WHOLE WORLD BLIND'. This is so true, isn't it?

The Way Home
This is the south korean movie. It was the story of developing relationship between mute and deaf grandmother and her grandson. It showed the harsh reality of modern city life in south korea. I watched this movie about couple of years back but I still rememeber this movie very clearly. Seven-year old boy was left by his mother for few days at the village. But the village life was very different with no electricity or fast-foods or other city life's attractions. He hated his grandmother, but he was left alone with her. So the story is about the boy's most important lessons of life. Very beautiful movie! I would say this is the movie you shouldn't miss to match and is the best among these five movies.

I watched two movies from bollywood in this weekend, 'Cheeni Kum' and 'Life in Metro'. In 'Cheeni kum', the story starts with the scenes of indian restaurant in London, which claimed as the finest restaurant of the town. Amitabh Bachhan was the owner of the restaurant and was very strict with his employees. One day, Tabu came to eat some special biryani and found it to be sweeter (biryanis were not supposed to be sweeter). So she returned the food but Amitabh with his arrogance and overconfidence refused to believe it and instead gave lectures to her about the biryanis and how it should be made. Next day, She came to the restaurant and gave 'the biryanis' made by her. Then, Amitabh realized his employee's mistakes and followed Tabu to say sorry. Instead of saying sorry, he fell in love with her. I find this movie unusual in the sense that he was 64 years old and unmarried while Tabbu was only 35 years old. Amitabh happened to be even six years older than Tabu's father in the movie. I don't really understand how they did actually fell in love with each other so easily. So finally Amitabh and his mother went to India to ask for her hand from her father. You've to watch the movie to see whether he'll accept this proposal or not. There is one more character named 'sexy', a very young girl suffering from cancer and she was the best friend of Amitabh in this movie. She was shown to be very intelligent, smart, and with a good sense of humor. Nevertheless, Amitabh's mother also had a good sense of humor, and I really praise the acting of this old grandma.

'Life in Metro' was all the mess about relationship and career development in a metropolitan city. Needless to say again, I didn't like the ending at all.

(updated on 07/04):There were three plots as far as I could remember. One girl, konkonea 'sen', the same actress from page 3 and mr. and mrs. iyer. She's very lovely lady and I liked her acting, her appearance, and everything :p. Back to this movie, she was a loner in this movie, and was looking for a groom/lover; she was shown to be having a date with one prospective groom, but he just keep on staring at her breasts and was even loner; he talks alot and was shown to be being weird. Obviously, sen didn't like him. She goes on to look for more matches and one guy she was trying to hook up with then happens to be a gay. I liked the way it was shown about her and the way it ended for her.

Then, there was a plot of one girl (sen's roommate), who was having an affair with her boss. But there was one another guy at her office, who was in love with her. The boss happens to be the sen's brother-in-law who was having extramarital relationship with this lady. I also liked the way it ended with this girl.

There's one more story of Shilpa Shetty. She's the sister of Sen. Obviously, their marriage was going through a crisis and she didn't know about his extramarital affairs. She also then got attracted with a new guy, and then goes to make love with each other (got to watch the movie to see whether they made it or not). I didn't like the way it ended the story with this lady. I praise the movie for exposing the city's nakedness and showing the modern part of it but it ended as usual for this lady without being able to cross so-called laxman rekha. You must have guessed by now that I didn't like the ending of Mr. and Mrs. Iyer too.

A Suitable Boy

2007-06-05T16:32:00.000-05:00

It was very long with 1349 pages. But I enjoyed reading it. It was a story from the period of 1950s, only few years (about 2-3 years) after India's independence. The story started from the marriage of eldest daughter of Mrs. Rupa Mehra, Savita, who got married to Pran Kapoor, son of revenue minister. Revenue minister, Mr. Mahesh Kapoor had a good friendship with one wealthy muslim, Nawab sahib. Their sons, Maan Kapoor and Firoz were also best friends. After Savita's marriage ceremonies are over, Mrs. Rupa Mehra started looking for 'a suitable boy' for her youngest daughter, Lata. According to the story, she must be very beautiful and very understanding. Lata fell in love in Brahmapur with one muslim boy named Kabir, whose father Dr. Durriani was a professor of mathematics at the university in Bramhapur. The plots of story were mostly in this city of Brahmapur, where Lata was studying, and Savita got married. Savita's husband, Pran was a assistant lecturer of english at the Brahmapur university, who despite his asthma is struggling to get promoted to be a reader. But he did not have a good relation with his head of department Prof. Misra. Savita did not get a chance to know Pran before getting married. Mrs. Mehera's eldest son, Arun was at the managerial position, and he seemed to be very arrogant and strong opinionated. He had a love cum arranged marriage with Minakshi Chattergi. Chattergi families and Arun were staying at calcutta.

It was a story of upper class families. It talked about the politics, had the speech in parliaments, the letters exchanged between Lata and ..., many poems, indians struggling to get the jobs in their own country, the story of untouchables, the story of clash between hindus and muslims, the story of different classes: hindu castes, economic classes, job positions, skin colors. It was during the time when India was trying to abolish zamindari system. The story had many interesting characters such as Bhaskar, Maan and Pran's nephew, 9 year old gifted boy with great interest in mathematics. It also had the stories of the so-called rajas, and so-called babas, spiritual leaders. It had the story of rivalry between two politicians. It also introduced one character, Saeeda Bai, a singer, who never got off the story after then because of her connections with many characters in the story. It had many beautiful lines; I should have noted it down. This book is worth reading if someone is interested to learn about india. After reading this book, I'm very optimistic about other top books that I listed earlier.

I heard that a movie is going to be made based on this story. But the movie won't be able to replace the book, and include all those important characters.

But I'm going to read two other books, which were not in that list. I'll read 'The Kite Runner' and 'The inheritance of Loss'. But this time, I won't hurry to complete the book.

Arranged marriages

2007-05-23T18:32:00.000-05:00

There are few clips on this topic in youtube, but I found this one to be the best and afterall it is the girl's perspective.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilmZ2NEMwPc

I see more cons than pros in 'Arranged marriages'. There should be a clear distinction between 'arranged marriage' and 'forced marriage'. What we call 'arranged marriage' in our society is often the 'forced marriage' because it's more of parent's will than the kids'. Mostly the daughter doesn't want to get married at an early age and wants to complete studies or start a career before the marriage. Yet, there is always a more demand for the younger brides and their parent's fear and warnings for their daughter becoming a spinster. But they can't do much against their parents' wish and sacrifice their entire life in the name of parent's love and their dedication and care for them. It doesn't work out always. Though arranged marriage claim to have less divorce rates, it's not really the measure for success of marriages. Many may be living with the great compromisations, and living unhappily. No matter what happens, the divorce can never come into mind of those conservative minds.

I finished reading 'the broken nest' by Tagore yesterday and was thinking:

why do we chose to live the way we do?
are we really waiting for someone to make changes in our lives and guide us to the right path?

Here, I remember the lines from Bhupi's poem:

We cannot get along of our own accord
There must be someone to bring us together,
We cannot be divided of our own accord
there must be someone to separate us,
We are unable to go ahead of our own accord
There must be someone to drive us forward,
There must be someone to lead us along,
we are the old pieces for the table-top game of 'ricochet'
Splintered, broken, whose colors have worn away,
we are mere the materials for a good game,
We depend upon a player, having lost our own ability to move,
We require a 'striker',
Yes, we are less like human beings and more like pawns.

In bengali society, husband couldn't even dare to spend time with his wife and there used to be the separate area for the women to live. He would spend time with his wife at only during lunch hours and night because he had to be afraid that the society would say that he was spending too much time with his wife. What kind of society is this? One couldn't even live on own and had to live to please others. This story is well written, and enjoyed reading it. I learned some lessons from this book.

We do have the power to make the change. But yet, we live the way we do with all our sufferings. Perhaps, we've already become attached to our sufferings, and don't dare to make the changes.

Same is the story in 'a suitable boy'. I've only finished a first chapter, and I know things haven't changed much except for the technology. A girl is afraid to fall in love with a boy that she meets, and misses all best matches of the world because she knows that she won't be able to get married with him because her parent's definition of 'a suitable boy' would be different, and no matter what, parents will come into the way.

Guru of Love

2007-05-21T21:26:00.000-05:00

I liked this book and enjoyed reading it and I'd like to read more books of Samrat Upadhyay. This book was also 'New York Times Notable Book of the Year 2003'. The problems of money and moving to a house of their own is what typical middle class family in kathmandu is dreaming for. With increasing inflation, it is very hard to meet all those needs. Salary hardly increases while all those needs and their prices would get doubled or tripled. I'd also like to write some critics regarding this book as I'm unconvinced that whether we can ever have such a woman as 'Goma'. I think that such good hearted woman rarely exists. I had seen those kind of scenes in one Iranian movie named 'Leila', but in that movie she went mute after that. I also felt like crying after watching 'Leila'. It was a good movie; I saw it about 4 years ago. But 'Guru of Love' is different, it shows us about a new cast system based on economic status. Besides finding 'Goma' to be real, my other criticism is that very little is mentioned about Goma's thoughts while she went through all those crisis. Similarly 'Ramchandra' was described as a honest man with great self-dignity and high morals. He didn't want to take any help from his in-laws. But the contradiction was what he did afterwards; and how he dreamed of his laws being dead and inheriting all those money. Did he lose all these in the process? Was that the same guy who's now seeking to use his connections with his in-laws to help his son. Probably, anything is possible. I liked the character of 'Malati' and I really praised the boldness and braveness of 'Goma' for helping 'Malati'. You would enjoy reading this book, and afterall it is not a sad story.

I got the book 'a suitable boy' but it is a big book with more than 1300 pages. I don't know when I'll be able to finish this. But I do want to read this. The story is about 1950s but I know things haven't changed much even now. It is sad.

Books and movies again

2007-05-20T16:53:00.001-05:00

I learned from today's kantipur about Waterstone's top 25 books.

Top 25 Books of the Past 25 years, as voted for by Waterstone's customers:
1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
2. Time Traveler's Wife
3. Northern Lights
4. Birdsong
5. The Da Vinci Code
6. The Shadow of the Wind
7. Memoirs of a Geisha
8. The Secret History
9. Captain Corelli's Mandolin
10. The Curious Incident of the Dog
11. Handmaid's Tale
12. The Kite Runner
13. The Lovely Bones
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany
15. Colour of Magic
16. The Five People You Meet in Heaven
17. Magician
18. Life of Pi
19. Wild Swans
20. The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic
21. The Name of the Rose
22. Angela's Ashes
23. A Suitable Boy
24. Notes from a Small Island
25. Labyrinth
Source: http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/retail/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003586621

I've not read any of those books yet. I've heard about the book 'a suitable boy', and fortunately it's available in our library, and I'm going to borrow it on tomorrow. But I've to finish the books that I checked out earlier so that I can start reading this book. There're also other books from that list available in our library, but I'll worry about them only later. From the above list, I had watched two movies based on those books, 'Da Vinci Code' and 'Memoirs of a Geisha'. I'd rather not comment on any of those.

While googling, I saw that there're also 100 books of the century, listed by Waterstone. I'm glad to say that at least I've read four of them: 'Grapes of Wrath', 'The Great Gatsby', and 'Brave New World'. I watched the movie 'Lolita' and had listened few episodes of its audio version on HBC FM. I did also watch indian version of the movie 'Nisabda'. I'd just say that original movie is much better than the indian version. I did also watch the movie 'The Lord of the Rings'. Books that I'd be interested to read from this list are: 'Catch-22', 'One hundred years of Solitude', 'The Outsider', 'The Heart of Darkness', 'A Suitable Boy','The Unbearable Lightness of Being', and 'American Psycho'. The movies that I had thought of watching but never been able to watch were also in the list. So I'm going to watch it very soon. But few of them I've already watched. Movies that I was familiar with based on those books are:
A Room with a View
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
To kill a mocking bird
The Diary of Anne Frank
Jurassic Park
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Lolita
Catch-22

Namesake
I watched this movie yesterday. It was a good movie. But I knew the story. I mean, nothing was new for me. May be I expected more from the movie. But it's good to see this movie for at least those who've planned to stay in US. Probably, the book has more details of it. Reading the book might be better than watching the movie. But I'm not going to read the book either.

Books for the summer break

2007-05-16T17:18:00.000-05:00

The spring semester is formally over, and today I made a list of books that I hope to finish reading in this summer. So, I went to get three books from library but end up getting six. But all of these are very thin, and I hope to finish it within two weeks. Here goes my list:

Kabir

The Kabir Book. Forty-Four of the Ecstatic Poems of Kabir. Versions by Robert Bly. I'll post some of poems from this book on my 'favorite poems'.

Kahlil Gibran

Gibran: A Self-Portrait. Translated from the Arabic & edited by Anthony R. Ferris.

Rabindranath Tagore

The Diary of a Westward Voyage. Translated by Indu Dutt
The Housewarming and other selected writings. Translated by Mary Lago and Tarun Gupta
The Broken Nest. Translated by Mary Lago and Supriya Sen

Samrat Upadhyay

Guru of Love

I want to read all the creations of Kahlil Gibran and Tagore because I believe these are the people with connections to insight, and there's a mysticism in their creations. Needless to mention anything about Kabir but I've not read any of his works, and this is going to the first ever book for me. I've also not read any of Samrat's works either, and this is also going to be the first book for me though I still want to read his 'arresting god in kathmandu' if I get a chance to.

Solitude

2007-05-10T17:30:00.000-05:00

Followings are not a single word of mine:

Definition: the quality or state of being alone or remote from society.

Meditate in Solitude

This solitude comes when the mind is freed from thought. When there are influences of desire or of the things that the mind is pursuing, either in the future or in the past, there is no solitude. Only in the immensity of the present this aloneness comes. And then, in quiet secrecy in which all communication has come to an end, in which there is no observer with his anxieties, with his stupid appetites and problems – only then, in that quiet aloneness, meditation becomes something that cannot be put into words. Then meditation is an eternal movement.

I don’t know if you have ever meditated, if you have ever been alone, by yourself, far away from everything, from every person, from every thought and pursuit, if you have ever been completely alone, not isolated, not withdrawn into some fanciful dream or vision, but far away, so that in yourself there is nothing recognizable, nothing that you touch by thought or feeling, so far away that in this full solitude the very silence becomes the only flower, the only light, and the timeless quality that is not measurable by thought. Only in such meditation love has its being. Don’t bother to express it; it will express itself. Don’t use it. Don’t try to put it into action; it will act, and when it acts, in that action there is no regret, no contradiction, none of the misery and travail of man.

So mediate alone. Get lost. And don’t try to remember where you have been. If you try to remember it, then it will be something that is dead. And if you hold on to the memory of it, then you will never be alone again. So meditate in that endless solitude, in the beauty of that love, in that innocency, in the new. Then there is the bliss that is imperishable.

The sky is very blue, the blue that comes after the rain, and these rains have come after many months of drought. After the rain the skies are washed clean and the hills are rejoicing, and the earth is still. And every leaf has the light of the sun on it, and the feeling of the earth is very close to you. So meditate in the very secret recesses of your heart and mind, where you have never been before.

---- Krishnamurti

Krishnamurti on Solitude

Solitude helps the mind to see itself clearly, as in a mirror, and to free itself from the vain endeavor of ambition with all its complexities, fears, and frustrations, which are the outcome of self-centered activity.

Solitude gives to the mind a stability, a constancy, which is not to be measured in terms of time. Such clarity of mind is character. The lack of character is the state of self-contradiction.

Quotations

"This great misfortune--to be incapable of solitude."--Jean De La Bruyère, 1645-1696

"How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude!"--Jean De La Bruyère, 1645-1696

"Solitude is the place of purification."--Martin Buber, 1878-1965

"The departure from the world is regarded not as a fault, but as the first step into that noble path at the remotest turn of which illumination is to be won."--Joseph Campbell, 1904-1987

"I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity."--Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

"I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity."--Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

"Great decisions in the realm of thought and momentous discoveries and solutions of problems are only possible to an individual working in solitude."--Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939

"Solitude either develops the mental power, or renders men dull and vicious."--Victor Hugo

"And for this you must have quiet and solitude. But society does not allow you to have them. You must be with people, outwardly active at all costs. If you are alone you are considered antisocial or peculiar, or you are afraid of your own loneliness."--J. Krishnamurti, The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti, Volume III,
page 216

"Give up the dark side and be in the light. Seek happiness in solitude and not in material pleasures."--Dhammapada: The Wise Person, verse 87

"One man runs to his neighbor because he is looking for himself, and another because he wants to loose himself. Your bad love of yourselves makes solitude a prison for you."--Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900

"That inward eye/ Which is the bliss of solitude."--William Wordsworth, 1770-1850

"Sit alone. Sleep alone. Travel alone. Do your practice alone. Enjoy your seclusion without desire."--Dhammapada: Other Things, verse 305

Solitude vs Loneliness

Loneliness is marked by a sense of isolation. Solitude, on the other hand, is a state of being alone without being lonely and can lead to self-awareness.
-----by Hara Estroff Marano

7 movies

2007-05-09T20:39:00.000-05:00

These are the movies from Hollywood but with stories to tell from different countries, I've watched all of them except the last one, but I had watched different documentary on Cambodia. Most of them are based on atrocities carried out in the respective countries. These are sad stories, but you've to watch to find out whether they'll have any happy endings or not. It's not only sad stories and movies that I read and watch, I've watched many happy movies with happy endings too, I'll try to recall those movies and will post it here later.

Tears of Sun - Nigeria
Rabbit-proof Fence - Australia
Hotel Rwanda - Rwanda
Piano - Poland
7 years in Tibet - Tibet
Schindler's List - Germany
The Killing Fields - Cambodia

A Fine Balance (contd.)

2007-05-08T21:42:00.000-05:00

Finally, I finished reading this book. I don't have right words to write more about this book; all I can say is that I felt really really sad and just feel like crying after reading this book. The story exposes the realities much beyond our nakedness. It tells us how much our society is corrupted, and moreover it drags us into it. We simply can not escape from it; we all are responsible for this mess. There's a serious flaw in the system, in the way of our thinking, and there's definitely a cause for our all sufferings, and the only thing is that we don't realize it and either we failed to see it or we deny/delay/avoid seeing the nakedness and its sad realities. The world where everyone is engrossed in their crimes and instead see it as their duties/excuses.

10 movies

2007-05-07T22:33:00.000-05:00

I was trying to remember ten movies, which was of strange in its own, and was hard to understand. I still couldn't remember few names despite recalling the plots in the movies. However, here is the list for ten movies for this post. In this list, there's one movie, which I didn't like it in particular. So, it's a good idea to read reviews before watching it as some found that movie disturbing and/or disgusting. If you've watched all these movies, you can easily spot the one that I'm talking about. However, I'm not going to mention the one, as it would be like telling to watch that one first.

You may like some while you may hate some; at the same time you may find some quite depressing, and others just very boring. But the plots in these movies are not made up of very typical stories. I find them unique as far as I can remember watching them. I also plan to post more on movies after being able to recall the names of some other interesting and unique movies that I've watched.

Here goes my list:

Fight Club
Amelie
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
V for Vendetta
The Piano Teacher
Fried Green Tomatoes
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Memento
Lucky Number Slevin
Pulp Fiction

A New Blog

2007-05-04T22:05:00.000-05:00

I've decided to start a new blog, and this has been possible only with my extraordinary skills of 'Copy and Paste':

http://bestpoets.blogspot.com/

I've started it with my most favorite poem "WE", written by the greatest poet ever born in Nepal i.e. Bhupi Sherchan. I've read most of his poems and I better not try describing it here. When I read this poem, I actually sat down to start translating it with my limited knowledge of english vocabulary. Fortunately, it has already been translated in english, and nobody had to go through my poor english. He was very gifted, and I feel sad to write that I never ever heard of him despite me being a good student of 'nepali' all those years.

The source, where I copied that poem from, had minor typos, and I corrected it while pasting it. I hope that you'll enjoy reading all those beautiful poems. I'll be posting more of my favorite poems in this blog.

A Fine Balance

2007-05-03T20:53:00.000-05:00

As per the recommendation of shai(Thanks for letting me know about this book), I'm starting to read a book named 'A Fine Balance' by Rohinton Mistry. The book was told to be depressing, but I'm not hesitant of reading depressing stories. There's a paragraph about a book that says:

"Holding this book in your hand, sinking back in your soft armchair, you will say to yourself: perhaps it will amuse me. And after you have read this story of great misfortunes, you will no doubt dine well, blaming the author for your own insensitivity, accusing him of wild exaggeration and flights of fancy. But rest assured: this tragedy is not a fiction. All is true."

So far, I've finished reading only 21 pages, and I hope to finish reading this book within this month. The location of characters are in India, and it seems to have some deep meaning in the characters and the dialogues, and hopefully I'll be able to understand it. There's a family with a father (a medical doctor), a mother, a daughter (Dina Dalal, which I believe is going to be the central character), and a son. The father was a medical doctor, who loved to go to remote villages for helping people rather than limiting himself in cities. Daughter seemed to understand her father the most, and she loved him the most too. Their luxurious life-style goes away slowly with the demise of the father. I've just started to go into the characters. If I can understand some take home or key messages from it, I'll post it later. It takes some time for me to understand the meanings.

I actually have made a list of about 40-50 books to read (and I hope that the list is not lost yet), and I don't know if I'll ever be able to finish any of those anytime soon when I've so much to read from my own field. I made the list based on frequent recommendations by nepali intellects and they're often mentioned as favorite books in nepali magazines. There is a new e-magazine called 'Read', and till now they've only two issues, and it's published by 'FinePrint Book Club', based in Nepal. I rather not add any to my list from 'read' till I finish my old list.

Runaway bride and Drunk groom

2007-05-02T20:48:00.000-05:00

I was reading one blog in this afternoon, where there was one news about the drunk groom. In one marriage ceremony in India, a groom was too drunk and reportedly to have misbehaved, so the villagers decided to let the bride marry the drunk groom's brother instead of him.

Do you take this drunk guy’s brother ...

So the question the blogger was asking was if the parents and anyone ever cared to have the opinion of the bride. How she might have felt at the moment. Well, I don't have answer for it. But then, I found the similar story this evening, and I'd say it's even worse than the earlier story. In one village of Nepal, a bride ran away just before the marriage ceremony. Now, the groom's family did not want to go empty-handed, and as the news mentioned, it was their custom not to go without taking a bride with them (what the hell?). Then, they spotted the bride's little sister sitting around; she was studying in grade seven. She cried and insisted that she didn't want to get married; but all in vain. The villagers also tried to convince both parents not to let her marry. But the poor kid was forced to marry at such a young age (less than 15 years old).

बेहुली भागेपछि बहिनीसँग जबर्जस्ती बालविवाह (in Nepali)

So our problems are not always the political. It is much deeper and subtle than that. We killed one young girl's dream. It reminded me of the teleserial 'Ujeli', and all the hardships she goes through after child marriage. This film is UNICEF's production, and is also on sale. Ujeli: A Child Bride in Nepal. But the cover picture seems to be wrong.

If you really want to see the gross details of it, watch 'bandit queen'.

There is one more news from Nepal about child marriage this week:
शहीद पतिको मस्ती (in Nepali)

That is not only happening in Nepal and India. Girls and women are suffering around the world because of these superstitions, and the conservative society, be it Pakistan's honor killings or Turkey's honor suicides or Cameroon's breast ironings.

J. Krishnamurti

2007-05-01T20:05:00.000-05:00

To have good brain is not to have conflicts.
If he hurts you deeply what will you do?
What is it that gets hurt?
He calls you 'fool' and you get hurt.
Somebody calls you a fool and somebody calls you a great man; both are same, aren't they?
Thinking brings fear; then what is thinking?

Krishnamurti is talking with children and answering their queries and teaching them to get interested in questioning. He's talking about the difference between concentration and meditation; he's talking about attention. He tells them not to use the word 'distractions'. He tells them to ask what they want. When they're trying to focus, what hinders them to do so, and tells them to look for what they want and do what they want. An example of looking at a lizard at a wall inside a class, and K mentions them to look for lizard if that's what they want, and says if he were a teacher, he will watch the lizard on the wall together with the students. Looking at boys' way of questioning, he even makes remark that the school is making them really clever and seem not to be happy the way K-school is being operated. He's talking about the careers the students decide to chose. He even discusses about corruption, and tells that it begins with self-interest. He tells us that the real cause of corruption is inside our heart, and further says that corruption is when we're angry, jealous, hate people, and feel lazy. He doesn't like when people asks him 'how', and he never answers them. At the beginning, I didn't like it. But now, I've come to realize it slowly after few years, and he was right, we're not looking for answers. In this talk also, he tells kids "don't ever ask how". We ask 'how' and the other person answers, and then we're lost. Exactly, that's what has happened to me. I love asking 'how', perhaps that's why I've never understood 'K' after so many years. It's been almost a year I've not read any K's book except occasional going through the foundation's newsletters. I tried listening to his audio downloaded from the web, and tried listening while walking, but I couldn't continue, and never finished it completely. I really needed to understand a lot of things. Though, he tells not to use word 'distractions' but that's what I'm suffering from. I get distracted so often and so much. I need so many 'breaks', and I can't focus at all. I'm being spoiled by myself. Coming back to 'how' question, he mentioned in this talk that when we're in danger, we never ask 'how to run away'. It just comes itself. I always remember him in other texts, where he mentions that 'when we see the snake near our foot', we don't ask how to take my foot away. So perhaps there're only few possibilities that I see with myself, either I don't see the snake, or my into the illusion that it is just a rope, or I'm procrastinating as usual to take my foot away, or I think that it won't bite me, or I think that it's a non-poisonous snake, or I simply don't care. But the truth is that I'm sad for not making enough efforts to understand and give 'complete attention' into anything. I think of starting to read something 'spiritual' again once the semester is over. At least few pages every day, I say few pages, and then either I tend to finish it in two or three days or never finish it. In either of case, I'd not understand the meaning of it, and it'd just remain as a burden of knowledge. Yes, the knowledge can be a 'burden' too, and 'K' has discussed about an interesting relation about it, which I'll be writing later on. Meanwhile, here are the videos:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Child Labor and Trafficking

2007-04-29T17:38:00.000-05:00

When I watched the following clip, I realized how worse the situation was; the numbers reported were so huge. It says that half of the population in Nepal are under age of 13, and about half of them are child labors. It is really sad. There was a small clip of it on CNN about a year ago, and I was amazed to see some nepalese abroad defending child labor at their houses in Nepal. Their take of stand was like keeping orangutans as pets in the name of saving their lives. It is no surprise as many of the wealthiest people have some village children working at their houses. We can see them working in the house of political leaders, top bureaucrats, business man, and other educated people. Our sins get increased to many folds when we do it knowingly and consciously. That's why planned murder and crimes commited consciously have more severe punishment. These educated people can write a paper against 'child labor' but it's hard to see them acting responsibly inside their houses. We always want the others to do because we know more. So we should tell others what to do. Our responsibility is just to educate others because they don't know it. It doesn't apply to me because I know it; so I don't have to start 'the change', and it doesn't apply to me. I only need to tell others what to do.

Child Labor in Nepal

Child Labor In Nepal - The best bloopers are here

Few months ago, I watched a trailer on a documentary of 'the day my god died'. Someone posted the complete film in youtube about a week ago. Though the picture quality is not good, it's worth watching it for those with no access to the original copy of it. It is really sad. But we all should be proud of 'Maiti Nepal'. They are doing a great job. Thanks to those german couple, who donated crores of rupees for the construction of building there.

The Day My God Died Part 1

The Day My God Died Part 2

The Day My God Died Part 3

The Day My God Died Part 4

There's also a film named 'born into brothels'. I wanted to watch it since I read about it on the paper. Fortunately, it was in our library. So I got a chance to watch it few months ago. It was another sad story. It's about children born in red light area, and their fate of continuing the legacy of prostitution. So Zana Briski got interested in them, and went to live with children for few years and taught them about photography. She got a brilliant idea of organizing a photo exhibition from the photographs of these kids and to use those money for sponsoring the kids in school. It was amazing as one kid even got an opportunity to participate in a conference in Netherlands. Zana had to struggle even to obtain the passport for the kid; for getting admission for those kids in schools; and the main challenge was to convince their parents to send the kids to the boarding school. So the story surrounds in all these. You can also read it Alive and Kickin's blog

There is also an interesting piece writted by Amazing's experience with his kanchha.

Ashu also questions, with humor: "Think, for example, if you don't hire the child, what will his parents eat?" in course, "ETHICS 175: The Brighter Side of Child Labor" from 'future Nepali MBA program'.

I remember watching one more movie about child labor and prostitution, Mira Nair's 'Salaam Bombay'. It was so depressing that when I asked about this movie to some indian friends, they told me that they could not watch it all. I remember one more plot of Nana Patekar in the movie, but I can't remember exactly if it is in 'Salaam Bombay' or a different movie.

There is also a video posted on youtube about two weeks ago on 'child soldiers of Nepal' though all the pictures in it was not from Nepal. It is really sad to see that maoists are still using children in their wings. Rebel groups are notorious in the world for misusing children and forcing them into their groups. We all saw them live in Nepal just before the UN started counting maoist soldiers.

Child Soldiers of Nepal

New article on kantipur about Children at war, for nothing

Virginia Tech and Mass Killings

2007-04-22T20:56:00.000-05:00

I didn't know much about mass killings and the suicide until I watched the 'Bowling for Columbine' about 4-5 years ago. I didn't know that it even happened in columbine until I watched that movie. Only after watching that movie, I came to know about the politics of gun, and the issue of mass killings. Michael Moore with his humor and satire sought to find the reasons of the shootings at Columbine. The name of the movie actually tells and Moore gave the satire that these kids actually went for bowling in the morning, that's why they did the shooting. So, the reason was bowling. He put that theory because people were coming up with lots of other reasons like blaming one particular singer and all sorts of it. He showed that it was actually the gun culture; I never knew that it was so easy to own the gun in US. I was shocked and didn't understand at the beginning what was going on. I watched this in the theater, and the theater was full at that time. At the beginning, it showed that Michael Moore went to open an account in the bank where he got one gun free for opening a bank account, and he even got to choose the gun that he wanted; and that was just for opening an account (If I remember it correctly). I didn't know what the NRA stands for at that time. That was about three years before my arrival in US.

Just in this one week, since last monday, there has been three mass killings and then the suicide: in Virginia Tech, in NASA, and then again in Houston today. I've not heard of such mass killings and then the suicide in Nepal until June 2001. We've also not heard of it since then too. But I've read one bizzarre story in Nepal magazine, where a mother and three kids did suicide and the police could never get a clue why it happened. Anyway, coming back to Virginia Tech, there has been many debate about what was the exact motive of the shooter and what actually clicked him to execute it finally. Could it have been prevented? It sure did leave a scar to many people and the wounds that would never be healed. There has been many theories flying around to find the motive and the mind of the shooter. Some say that he was a loner, and so the isolation could be the reason. Others say that he was actually bullied in high school, and probably at other places too. But then, everyone gets bullied at the school. But minorities are often prone to such bullies, and I read that he was bullied with by the kids saying 'go back to china'. In fact, he was a korean. It reminded me the award winning joke I read in Planejane's blog, where americans generalize every mongolean face as asians. The other cause have been told to be as his bizzare behaviors like stalkings, writing songs on the walls of the room, taking pictures of girls below the desk from the mobile camera. They also mentioned that he repeatedly listened to one particular song, and later on the singer has to deny about the possibility of any links between them. The other reason mentioned in the news was about his bizzare writings, which you can read at AOL News: Richard mcbeef and Brownstone; WARNING: The plays contain profanity and scenes with disturbing content. I read only the first one. But later again, Stephen King came with his own explanation and tried to defend in an article of 'on predicting violence' by saying that it might be more than just his bizzaree writing. The other reason was sorted from one picture he sent to NBC, where he was posed with a hammer. That picture matches exactly with the cover poster of one video game. I watched it in news clip posted on CNN, and was shocked to know about it. In these kinds of games, the player gets more score for shooting and killing people. So, the violent video games might have relation with that as well. Regarding violence, I'd read about one controversial video game, where the player gets the score for shooting every illegal mexican immrigrants crossing the border. I couldn't find this link. The other reason was explained as his behavior from his childhood, where his aunt explained that how he didn't speak much even from his childhood, and how his mother was worried about him all the time. So, some psychologists came up saying that it might actually be the genetic. Some suggested it might be due to violent movies and came up the link with one korean movie. I saw people blaming on movies like 'hostel', 'saw', and 'texas chainsaw massacre'. The movie saw was very gross and I regret for watching it. I don't know why people need to make such a violent and disturbing movie. I didn't like 'texas chain-saw massacre either. The other movie 'Hills have eyes' is also violent, but it might have some hidden message about the extent of impacts from nuclear tests and nuclear dump sites at nearby people. The shooting sparked the hot debate on 'gun culture' in US and gun loophole.

So, the explanations could be many. However, it might not just be the one single reason and the articles I read said that even if he might be having the mental disorders, there must be something that drove him to execute it at the end, and the shooter mentioned himself as well; there could be the billion opportunities where he could have been prevented.

So, it's gonna be discussed for long and people won't forget it soon. Many people would do research on it. I was actually suprised when I read about earlier shootings that happened in schools. One chinese grad student went on shooting rampage before killing himself for not getting the award that he thought that he deserved. In another bizzare shooting, another student kills three professors during his thesis defense.

I can't imagine what people went through on that day. I'm glad that people showed maturity and I didn't read any single sentence against south koreans. South Korean foreign ministry had to release press statement and it sent some officials to Virigina Tech according to the news. There was video posted describing the shocks of south korea and concerns in india too. Many international students must have worried about it as well; 'chhauri' wrote his worry after hearing it.

Arrange marriage

2007-04-21T21:31:00.000-05:00

I've few more movie reviews to write. But I would like to post some of the links for the articles on arrange marriages first. I've come across few of these articles earlier, but I lost it. I could trace only few of them, which are as follows:

Arrange marriage? One moment please
In this article, Arati Gurung came with a conclusion that arranged marriages are more complicated than love marriages, and I do agree with her. She has some good points and some of the tips from her for those seeking arrange marriages:

Tip 1: Do not get ‘talked into’ marriage
Tip 2: Going out more than once does not mean it’s a ‘Yes’
Tip 3: Go on dates that take the focus off of the topic
Tip 4: Leave the question answering for the final date
Tip 5: If you are rejected, don’t take it personally
Tip 6: If you reject the relationship, steer away from pointing out his weaknesses

The above link is quite slow, that's why I just copied the above lines from there.

Fools rush in green card matrimony
In this article, Garima Bastola writes that only the fools rush in green card matrimony. She seems to be aware of the lives in US and her first sentence actually caught me to read the article that says "I hear the marriage market in Nepal is very much in demand for an America return or a green card holder".

A suitable girl
The last article is quite humorous, and the "ashu" writes with his impressive style. I liked this article the most. I found this article so good that I forwarded this article to some friends last year. He goes on dating with four different girls, Miss BOOK REVIEW, Miss AMERICA-OBSESSED, Miss HINDI FILMI, and Miss NGO ACTIVIST, in search of a suitable girl and he writes about what happened with his meetings with these prospective brides.

I'll add more now on when I come across interesting articles.

Impact of global warming on Nepal

2007-04-20T13:21:00.000-05:00

It's a documentary made by AlJazzeraEnglish on the impact of global warming on himalayan regions of Nepal. They went to study the impacts of it on the khumbu region of Nepal. The title mentions 'Norbu Sherpa's village is suffering from global warming's devastating effects'. It shows the intensity of climate change and the impact it's having on a delicate lifestyle of people like Norbu Sherpa. It talks about the threats from about twenty glacial lakes, impacts from not having any rain during winter, the flooding, and change of seasons. Sherpa metnions that they're worried and he's already rebuilt his house once and now they fear of the migration and the suffering they'll have to go through, so he calls for responsible actions from all the concerned national and international agencies and personnels.

Witness - Meltdown Nepal - Part One

Witness - Meltdown Nepal - Part Two

Movies

2007-04-15T21:41:00.000-05:00

This weekend, I watched few more movies again. I watched two hindi movies Kunwara and Delhi Heights. Kunwara was not even funny despite having Govinda.

Then, I watched 'Delhi Heights'. At least, this movie didn't have that typical masalas like in Kunwara. The story was focused on the couple who happen to work on rival companies. It also has few more characters living on the Delhi Heights. It also talks about the marital relationships. Overall, it was good but not that great.

Then, I also watched half of the documentary named 'The Final Solution'. I read that it was banned in India; I don't know how much truth was in it. It shows about the atrocities carried out mainly by BJP and its allies on muslims. Most of the culprits didn't get punisheded. At least US did recognized it and didn't grant visa to Modi earlier. I just hope that the seeds the same kind of indians are spreading in Nepal won't come true. We've the culture of not punishing the culprits, and that's what makes us the failed nation. In India as well, they get away easily from the law if they happen to have a connection. Overall, it was very very sad incident that happened in Gujrat, India.

The Final Solution

Cricket

2007-04-15T21:33:00.000-05:00

I got addicted to cricket again since I watched the first game in this worldcup when India lost to Bangladesh. While watching the game, I didn't know that it was going to be such an important game that eliminated India from the world cup, and on the same day, Pakis were also having bad time. I watched Bengalese playing against World No. 1 - South Africa, and won them too. But today, Bengalese couldn't have enough patience and lost early wickets and then lost all the wickets, and could not even play all the overs. So, the game of cricket showed the importance of having patience. At the end, Bengalese and Irish are both going to be eliminated from super-8 with two points each. I want to watch tomorrow's game again. But I'll just read the scores in cricinfo.com instead of watching it. I hope that SL can win or else, Aussies will be the only one to claim for the cup again.

Movies on Marriage:

2007-04-05T09:49:00.000-05:00

Four movies from Bollywood:
1. Vivah:
I watched this movie a couple of months ago. It was a kind of a typical bollywood movie. But still, I liked it and enjoyed watching it despite knowing what's going to happen next in the movie while watching it. It was just a story of typical arranged marriage but the only difference was the boy was rich and the girl comes from a middle class family. I think that the movie tried to educate the people (specially Indians) about the meaning of that special bond of marriage.

I watched following three movies in the last weekend.
2. Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.
This movie was filled with fun. It was not just one story but a combination of many stories. I can't remember exactly the number; but I think there were about 5-6 couples. So these couples were going for a honeymoon, and all of them were travelling by the same agency "Honeymoon Travels Ptv. Ltd" in the same bus, and staying at the same hotel. Not all of them were new couples; some were new but some were not. So all of them had their own stories to share, and like in most of hindi movies, the first half was filled with fun and the second half was introduced with seriousness. The couples had their own different stories. They also tried to put masala like a fight, parents who forced their kids to marriage, man with super power. I think that if they'd tried to make it more realistic rather than trying to gain more audience by putting all sorts of stories, it could have been a much better movie. But it was still worth watching it.

3. Just Married
The story matches somewhat with the earlier movie. Though there was a hero and an heroine unlike the earlier movie, the similarity is that the movie shows the stories of 5-6 other couples who're in honeymoon and are also staying in the same hotel. Out of all movies, I liked this the most. The movie starts with the setting of an arranged marriage, who didn't get a chance to talk with each other (except hi and hello) before the marriage and now are faced with the huge task of accomplishing honeymoon (I'm not making it; if you watch it, you'll see; how hard it was for them). I find this movie more interesting than others. The actors played a great role, and their acting was superb. I'd say that the girl was lucky to have the husband like him who really worked hard to understand her, and didn't just push her into this new relationship. But he rather took it out slowly to approach and win her heart, and gained the trust. I think this should be the way for those who was unfortunate enough to know each other before marriage, and who couldn't find the match on their own. Some might argue that it is a hypocrisy as they're already into relationship, so what is the use of going through all this. But it really matters. I loved the way they portrayed the story of a couple. I really enjoyed watching it.

4. Namastey London
This is just a story of an indian family who were staying in London. There were actually two families. So the parents wanted their daughter to get married with an Indian guy (not necessarily Indian citizen but at least of Indian origin). But their daughter had other idea, and was dreaming about getting married with a white guy. So finally the daughter also found her dream guy, who was white, and the father also found a prospective Indian groom from India, whom he though is ideal and most suited for her daughter. So this movie was just the story of their struggle to fight the conflicts of their interest. Like in some Indian movies, again it has one speech of how great the India is and was. This movie also runs in a periphery of marriage. The movie had some exact scenes like the ones I watched in few hollywood movies (the ending scenes). Overall, the movie was good, and I enjoyed watching it too. The actress was gorgeous as well.

There are tons of other movies based on marriage. Some with the names like mein, meri patni aur woh kind of stories. So it's not worth of mention. But there are still many others worth of mention, the one I can remember now is "Aabhiman". It was also a good movie.

I can't remember many Hollywood movies that focuses on the story of marriage. Obviously, two worlds are different. But I think that they base their stories more on "Love". The only movie I can remember was 'The Notebook', and 'An indecent proposal'. The Notebook is the movie of two lovers where the boy was poor and the girl was rich. Like in hindi movies, the girl's parents opposed the poor boy and did everything to prevent their union. At the end, it showed what the true love does. There are some suspenses in all these movies. So I'm deliberately not writing them all to spoil the movies in case you happen to read this blog and got interested to watch these movies.

In 'An indecent proposal', the couple is happily married but they were from middle class, and they were going through a sort of financial crisis. So they happen to meet a rich guy, who offers one million dollar for sleeping with the man's wife. The couple couldn't decide what to do. So the story runs with their struggle to save marriage. I won't bet, and I wonder how many husbands in our countries will agree to sell their wives for such a grand prize. Actually, I read news from India few months back, some husbands there are already sending their wives to some rich guys in order to get some extra monthly incomes. It was just not one case, many people in that particular city or village was doing that. Weird, isn't it?

Village Documentaries

2007-03-12T17:23:00.000-05:00

This video shows the nepali village, where Jimi Sir, a volunteer from an American Peace Corps in Nepal is living. It shows the daily life of people there, houses, hardships, cultures, education, health facilities. So, let's take a journey to the nepali village.

World's dirtiest city

2007-01-18T11:53:00.000-05:00

CNN reports Linfen, a city in China as the world's dirtiest city. In the video below, you can see how dirty the city is. I saw it on CNN earlier. Clearly, China doesn't seem to be doing much to help environmental problems. We all know that air has no geographic boundary, so all these pollutants are going to travel to many other countries, and therefore it should also be a concern for countries across the continent too.

Air pollution monitors seemed to be there for the sake of formality as you can see that it hasn't been operated for weeks, and we can guess about the reliability of monitoring data from these stations. It is shameful.

Linfen-World's dirtiest city -CNN

Diaries

2007-01-16T13:09:00.000-05:00

I finally finished reading two books. It contains mostly equations, and I just screened through it as I may need to read it again and again to understand it. It's just hard for me to make sense of all these equations. I did get headache later probably because of too much browsing on the net. I'm spending less and less time on net every day; but still I spend major part of my time on net.

I was thinking of what to post in my blog. I don't have a camera yet to take pictures, and post it, and I don't travel either. It's not because I don't like but just because of a lack of opportunity.

Favorite youtube videos

2007-01-12T14:34:00.000-05:00

It's a beautiful song by people from Finland. Though, I don't understand the original song, the subtitles and the music and the voice is great. I hope that you'll like it too.

First post

2007-01-12T13:48:00.000-05:00

This is my first post. It was hard to find the name for blog. Finally, I decided to go with this name.

I'm starting to write this to get rid of my utter loneliness, and to improve my writing skills. I read it once a while, and have to read the materials for the field I'm in. But I'm not writing that often. So this will motivate me to write more, and hopefully I will be regular in posting.

Here comes the following sad video that the people abroad must see: