Fake News, NaPoWriMo, Day 1

30 days. 30 poems is the target. This poem is inspired by the lowering standard of media and Donald Trump. :D

... 

Fake news 

What a welcome change,

This information age 

Ignorance will vaporize 

Awareness will rise. 

Guess what? 

Fake news. 

Those who hold the pen, 

Won't set narrative as back then.

Truth will be one and nude, 

No voices will be subdued. 

Guess what? 

Fake news. 

With advanced satellite, 

Everything will be reported live. 

No information will be concealed, 

All conspiracies will be revealed. 

Guess what? 

Fake news. 

In reality, we are less informed than before, 

Troubled sea is portrayed as a calm shore. 

Money controls everything, 

Ethics worth a shilling.

All the promises of free and fair information, 

Fake news. 

#MeToo

#MeToo

I do not understand why there are more jokes and memes in India's MeToo Movement  than sensitive discussions.

The movement has barely started and is receiving more criticism than support. The arguments put forward by critics are weak and baseless too. The two major arguments are:
1. Why the women are coming up with these confessions so many years later?
2. Why are they not going for it the legal way?

The answer to both is the same :because you ask questions like these. There was lack of social acceptance to these confessions yeaes ago (there is a lack of it even now). Just imagine those piercing eyes of the policemen as they would narrate their stories.
Also they need time to assess their emotions after experiencing inhuman behaviour like these.

Another thing I do not understand is why we pass our judgement on the genuineness of the cases depending on the person's body of work.
Why is it easier to believe that Sajid Khan was a perpitartor and not Nana Patekar? Yes, Nana Patekar is more senior, more respectable and a better artist, but is that all It takes? Charlie Chaplain was the greatest entertainer of all time and he indulged in sexual abuse and exploitation of girls many years his junior.
I am not saying Nana Patekar is guilty or Sajid Khan is not.
How would I know? It is not easy to prove anyone guilty or innocent in these cases anyway. What holds importance is that people come out and talk about it fearlessly.
Maybe it is not easy to pin down these influenfial celebrities but two things can be taken from them which they will cherish most :their professional life and their respect. And even if this does not happen, Atleast more women (potential victims) would be wary around Nana Patekar or Sajid Khan, if they are indeed guilty. Atleast they can be saved from the trauma.

Lastly I would say  that it is terribly wrong to criticisise a movement because some people are doing it wrong. No movement is perfect. Even the freedom movement had people who were opportunists and selfish, did we condemn the whole movement?

Movie Recommendation: Manmarziyan

Manmarziyan is an Anurag Kashyap film in which the only thing dark was the theatre. It is an age old love triangle with fresh characters and music. The characters are rather realistic and relatable and in many ways an honest representation of the youth, who is really fucked up when it comes to relationships. The growth of the characters is quite linear and the ending makes sense. This is the kind of film that Imtiaz Ali would have easily fucked up but Anurag Kashyap is a fine film maker.

Vicky Kaushal is mesmerising. In less than half a decade he has shown more variations in his acting than many Bollywood superstars have not displayed in 3 or 4 decades. He becomes the character he plays. Taapsee Pannu has done exceedingly well and proved that she is an actress to watch  out. She has perhaps the most beautiful smile among all current Bollywood actresses.
Abhishek Bachchan acted as well as Abhishek Bachchan can. The supporting actors did phenomenonally well. Excellent casting.

Amit Trivedi has put in some amazing  compositions once again. While  most songs are situational. A couple of romantic songs can last longer in our collections.

Watch this film for amazing performances of Vicky and Taapsee, Amit Trivedi's music and a mature treatment by Anurag Kashyap.

Choices (A write up)

It can be a curse to have choices.  When we accept failure as an option, we head forth for one  It is those who taste success, who never programme their taste buds for anything else.They have set goals and they can channelize all of their energy to realize it.  While those who have the misfortune of having many choices in life,  are chasing multiple goals and eventually not reaching anywhere. Suppose Gandhi telling himself that he would take this freedom fighter thing for sometime and see how it goes. Or BR Ambedkar telling himself that if the constitution would not go well , he would take up rapping as a back up option. I think you got my point without these examples.

How to cut down choices? This is where a person should sit down and try to find his inner voice.  The counselor can tell you what is the ideal thing to do, but he may not tell you whether it is ideal for you. You have to figure it out yourself. To achieve any goal,  incredible amount of hard work is required, whether it is writing the constitution or successful rap songs. Only if you are convinced about your goal can you put in the serious efforts required 

Ask yourself what is it that you can't stand failing at. What will give you the most joy in not just in its accomplishment but also in its process.  When you figure it out,  you would be sorted of sorts. There will be a lot of hard Work and voices against you,  but atleast you would be preparing yourself to become a matter at something and not  a jack at many things.  So don't be a jackass  be jhakkas! (See what I did there? I shouldn't have done it.  I had a choice to keep it or delete it,  and I messed up.)

A 2 minute ride to your childhood days

The Kahaani Studio produced its first music video ''Bachpana Gaya Nahi'' on the eve of the Children's Day. It is a 2 minute ride to your childhood days.

Watch it, if you have not. It has crossed 2k+ views on Youtube as I write this.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PkmUOnPKRuM

The lyrics are written by Neeraj Upadhayay and the somg is sing by Archana Chauhan.

Being involved on this project was a great experience.

But it was not supposed to go on like this right frok the beginning. It was NOT supposed to be a music video right from the beginning. We had two shoot days for the video and the  song was recorded after the shoots. So it was ij the editing that we had to coordinate the song and the shots...which is not the ideal way of doing it. The song comes first and the video is done later.

But, I guess thats how this Youtube video production goes. We have a pkenty of ideas but not the necesary resources at our disposal at all times. We have to make our way with whatever is available.

Video making is not an easy thing, everyone imvolved in this ondustry will tell you. So yes, when you see good content anywhere, do appreciate it. It is mostly what we want.

A wannabe singer - poetry

My theme was:  A woman who wants to be a singer but precisely has zero talent
...

There lived a girl in a small Indian town,
At every social gathering, she wore a long gown,
She smiled at everyone whom she met ,
For this reason, she was older folks' pet.
How nice and lovable, cultured and sweet.
Were the remarks embedded at her feet.
There was though something else she'd do,
Thought of herself a Cuckoo and go ku-oh-ku-oh,
Those who were not deaf could figure it out,
The identity crisis that had sprout,
Like everything on your shirt collar is not a bow,
Her voice resembled not a cuckoo but a crow.
A mute shrug and a loud sneer,
People tried everything to make it clear.
The girl still wanted to become a rockstar,
But her music made everybody go away far.
In search of an audiance, she walked out of the town
Her singing made even the blossoms frown.
Dejected but not disheartened, she kept moving on,
And so went her singing, awn and awn and awn.
Eventually she landed near a small house
Where lived a lonely old man without a spouse.
He gave her some cookies, milk and toast,
But there was something else that she liked the most.
He enjoyed what the world considered as noise;
He let her sing at the top of her voice,
As the man danced off beat to her off tune songs,
Something right was made out of two wrongs.

Horoscope: a short story

I was given two writing prompts: horoscope and a missing diamond ring. This is my story on the same.
...
The thing with horoscopes is that even if you completely disapprove of them , you would have a glance at yours if you come across them. That is what happened with Ravi as he was skimming through the morning newspaper. Not an avid reader, Ravi, who was a copywriter for a small daily in Noida, read newspapers just to study the new fads in advertising. He stopped presently to read his horoscope. ''Librans would have a tryst with destiny  Fortune would favour you. Chances of money, promotion or success at work. You have to be proactive and grab your chance.''

Ravi was late, but not unusually late. There was an unwritten rule that allowed those who travelled to the Noida office from Delhi to be fifteen minutes late. Ravi had just seated himself in his chair when he was called in by his boss.  It was unsettling and inauspicious to see the boss's face early in the morning, reflected a man who did not believe in horoscopes and astrology.

''We would have to let you go,'' the boss had not exchanged much pleasantries before coming to  the focul point of the message he wanted to deliver. ''Out of 425 working days, you have been late by atleast 15 minutes on about 300 occassions, which sums up to be 4500 minutes or 75 hours or aboiut 10 working days...''

Ravi knew that the reason for his gettong fired was not what was put in front of him. He was a victim of office politics. Abhimanyu, the Shakuni Maama in their office, had from time to time influenced the boss to get rid of few employees and got his people in their position. Ravi was not listening to his boss but he could figure out when he had stopped, and without a word, he left his cabin, grabbed his bag and left the office. A peon had called his name from behind, asking him to collect his dues before leaving. But Ravi did not give a damn.

Smoking a cigaratte, Ravi sucked in tobacco and the reality of the situation. His fingers read 'Activa' imscribed on the backseat of his scooty,, for which he had three EMIs due. How was he going to survive without a job affected him, but he was not dejected. He liked his work but not passionately, but passionately did he loathe people. He felt a feverish anger at the thought of his colleagues at the office.  Encountering your boss early in the morning is indeed inauspicious, he reflected again. He thoight of the damned horroscope and felt the afternoon sun even more severely. He looked for some shade.

He found himself alongside the luxary car his boss owned.  He could have been hallucinating but the car was mocking him. He used his cigarette to scribe a heartfelt farewell message for its owner. ""Fuck ya''

Ravi who was normally morally upright, felt that it was alright to sometimes drop your high moral values, especially when it is the matter of your self confidence. You need defence mechanism to get you going.

He had almost finished scribing when his cigaratte felt and as he bent down to get it, he found something else. it was something shiny that struck to his hand. Ravi's fingers ploughed through the sand and the next instant he had a diamond ring in his hand. He ensured that he was alone in his discovery and hid the ring in his pocket.

Riding his scooty, he thought, ''425 working days, 3 hours of travelling everyday, working for atleast 4 hours every weekend at home, working up well after midnight atleast twice a week and undocumented personal sacrifices. Yes, I deserve this momento.'