धीरे धीरे रे मना

धीरे धीरे रे मना धीरे सब कुछ होय माली सींचे सौ घड़ा ऋतू आये फल होय 

चाहे कितने ही घड़े पानी के डाल लो फल तभी होगा जब उसकी ऋतू आएगी। फल धीरे धीरे पकता है..

मैं तो कहता हूँ ज़िन्दगी में अच्छी चीज़ें धीरे धीरे ही होती हैं. सुनी है वो ग़ज़ल "रफ्ता रफ्ता वो मेरी  हस्ती का सामां हो गए..."? रफ्ता रफ्ताा यानी धीरे धीरे, क्या समझे?

फिर जगजीत सिंह जी ने भी तो गयी है वो ग़ज़ल अमीर मीनाई की -
सरकती जाए है रुख से नक़ाब आहिस्ता आहिस्ता 
निकलता आ रहा है आफ़ताब आहिस्ता आहिस्ता 

आफ़ताब यानी सूरज। जो  पूरी दुनिया को रोशन करता है. धीरे धीरे ही निकलता है न?

और शेर अर्ज़ किया है कि ...
जवां होने लगे  जब वो तो हम से कर लिया पर्दा 
हया यक-लख्त आयी और शबाब आहिस्ता आहिस्ता 

तो शबाब यानी जवानी और खूबसूरती वो तो धीरे धीरे आया और हया यानी शर्म जिसने हमारे हीरो पे इतना गज़ब ढाया वो खटाक से आ गयी।

धीरे धीरे का हमारे जीवन में बहुत महत्व है
दोस्ती धीरे धीरे गहरी होती है
प्यार धीरे धीरे परवान चढ़ता है

और दुश्मनी एक सेकंड में हो जाती है.
मुसीबत फटाक से  आती है
दुर्घटना एक पल में घट जाती है और बहुत बार जल्दी की वजह से घटती है

अंग्रेजी में कहते हैं
Haste makes waste.

और हिंदी में कहते हैं -  जल्दी का काम शैतान का

तो जल्दी और जल्दबाज़ी से तौबा कीजिये और इस शायर की बात पर गौर कीजिये जिसने धीरे धीरे के  सिद्धांत को न सिर्फ समझा है बल्कि पूरी तरह से आत्मसात कर लिया है

लगा लाये तो हैं उन्हें राह पर बातों बातों में 
और खुल जाएंगे दो-चार मुलाकातों में 

My Thesis on Laziness

People pick on me for being lazy. And I let them. Fighting with everybody is too much effort.

Hmm, maybe I am lazy?

But then who isn't?

I propose that laziness is a human being's native, stable state. Being lazy is what we aspire to. We strive for laziness all our lives.

You don't believe me?

Okay, consider this. Non-lazy people work, right?

What do they work for... Retirement.

That's the end goal, isn't it?

And what do people do after they retire?

• They sleep till late. 
• They read the newspaper. 
• They lounge around. 
• They have a drink at noon. 
• They eat. 
• They sleep. 

Sounds pretty lazy to me. 

Okay, I can see you are not convinced. I will give you another example.

What is it that you must do at least once a year or you'll go mad? Take vacations.

Everybody takes vacations as much as they can afford. Once a year, twice a year, once every month...whatever they can afford.

And what do people do on vacation?

• They sleep till 10. 
• Order breakfast from room service. 
• Lounge around the pool. 
• Have a mojito by the pool. 
• Take a lazy swim in the pool. 
• Lounge some more. 
• Have another drink. 

What does this sound like? I will give you a hint...it starts with an L and rhymes with "hazy". 

Yes, LAZY!
It's lazy behaviour.

I think I have made my point though I had many more examples but you know...I am feeling lazy!

If you are not feeling lazy, leave a comment. 

Movie Review - Shandaar - Salvage Operation

This was a flop, it was a train wreck. It has already been ridiculed in news stories and award functions so let's take that as granted.

You know this word - salvage? From a wreck, from the scene of a total loss what can be gathered or saved, that's salvage.

Considering that Shandaar is already a spectacular wreck let's see what we can salvage from it. It does have some pretty long animation sequences which are like its cardinal sins and some actor choices that I am sure the director regretted pretty quickly. But what does it do right?

The story. It does actually have basic story with some sub-plots. Most Hindi films only have basic story (lots of Hollywood ones too),  so that's at part with the industry. Two families coming together for a destination wedding that's also a business deal. The bride is fat, the groom is an asshole who doesn't appreciate her and the family is oppressive. This is the backdrop against which the love story of Shahid and Alia is played out. Shahid is the wedding planner and Alia is the bride's adopted orphan sister.

Characters. The cast of characters is good and varied, many of them are caricaturish but chalk that up to its mistakes. There are 4 main characters though that I really liked - 1. Vipin or Beeps (Pankaj Kapoor), Jagjinder Joginder or Tent House (Shahid Kapoor), Alia (Alia Bhatt), Isha (Sanah Kapoor).

That leads us to the actors. The performances by these 4 are excellent and watchable. The director has tried to leverage the Pankaj Kapoor-Shahid Kapoor real life relationship for comedy, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but they both perform well.

Alia looks lovely, I do like her as an actress but Sanah Kapoor as the chubby bride-to-be Isha is what took my heart and the reason I decided to write this review. She's a sweet, warm-hearted person and has an adorable smile. Her genuine love for her adopted sister Alia, actually I should say the love shared between the two step-sisters, leads to a few nice, sweet scenes in the film.

I maintain that even a terrible film usually has a few scenes, or at least one that can be salvaged from it. Or maybe a quote, or a message, or a visual. Like Justice League. The movie was so bad I called it a bitter disappointment and was really angry with Zack Snyder for this crap. But it had many Wonder Woman scenes that were worth watching. Shandaar has many nice, worth-watching scenes.

There is some comedy in Shandaar which makes you smile and maybe a few moments which make laugh out loud.

Music is okay. Not great, but the Gulaabo song became popular when the movie first came out.

One of my tests for a film is - does it make you care about the characters and what happens to them? Shandaar does. The situation in the story is like - an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Something's gotta give. You want to know how it gets resolved. On that topic, the climax was also alright, entertaining and open-ended enough to make it a good ending.

Conclusion: Watch it with low expectations and you may be pleasantly surprised.