Rating: 1.5/5.0

After a really long time, I’ve been forced by a movie to vent out my views about it. Mausam, a movie that I’d been waiting for so long, was released last weekend and claimed to have already made worldwide collections of Rs 41 crores. Pankaj Kapoor’s directorial debut had set my hopes high and expectations tall. And with that Top Gun look, Shahid had left no stone unturned to make his father proud. But I must say that both of them couldn’t put in a collective effort to save the movie from being an intolerable script with no logic. If you are really short of time and want to make a quick decision, I’d say ‘Do not watch it. It’s not worth it.’

The movie begins with Harry (Shahid Kapoor) mentioning about Operation Bluestar. And subsequently, Kashmir happened which uprooted the heroine Aayat (Sonam Kapoor) and brought her to Harry’s village – Mallukot. A few days later, Ayodhya happened and God knows why Aayat’s family decided to move to Mumbai where the bomb blasts took place. After seeing no option left for them in India, they decide to go away to Scotland. It was here that Harry and Aayat met each other after a long span of 7 years. At this point, Harry had already turned into a Squadron Leader in Indian Air Force and a real handsome hunk with no hint of his lost village personality. But as the luck had it, Kargil war began, forcing Harry to come back and fight for his country. Just when we thought that this will be the end of it, the writer had something else in his mind to give us some of the worst shocks of the day. All this while when Harry and Aayat were looking for each other across the world, somehow those crazy planes went and crashed into Twin Towers, creating further trouble for Aayat’s family. At this point, we got pretty sure that this movie will show us all the tragedies of the world that have happened till now and the story will end in front of Delhi High Court with Harry helping out the wounded people. But to our surprise, the story ended just at the Godhra riots of 2002 where Harry saved three lives from the mad crowds – Aayat, a baby girl and a stallion. And the movie ends with a cliché dialogue, ‘Kuchh tumne khoya hai, kuchh maine khoya hai aur kuchh isne khoya hai. Chalo hum milke ek nayi zindagi shuru karein.’ Or something as rubbish as that.

With all respect to the acting skills of Pankaj Kapoor, I must say that he has to learn a lot before getting full time into direction. As is said that a camera is just as good as its photographer and a movie is just as good as its director. I know the line sucks, but the meaning doesn’t.

Looking forward to watch Force and Rockstar. RA-One will surely surpass all the previous SRK records, but the movie will definitely not be even half as good as it’s been hyped. Movies like Rascals, Aazan, Damadamm and Mujhse Fraandship Karoge will not even be noticed at the box office. But I have some hope from Tere Mere Phere, another satire starring Vinay Pathak.

-AS

My perception about Jordan, before actually reaching there, was that it’s one of those Arab countries that have a lot of oil and there will be number of usual looking Arabs on the streets with the expat Indians and Pakistanis driving all the cabs. Somewhere in the sub-conscious, I also presumed that the weather would also be much similar to what it was in Dubai. Most of these perceptions were torn apart the very moment I landed at Queen Alia International Airport. I had not noticed earlier that it is probably the only country in the Arab world whose airport is not named after the King, but the Queen. My second notion about a large number of expats also got hit hard when a local Jordanian driver was standing at the airport with my name-board, to receive me.

The moment I landed out of the airport, my third notion about the weather got hit very hard by the heavy rain and high-speed winds blowing at nothing lesser than 30kmph. Dressed overly by Dubai standards, with a sweat-shirt on top of a shirt, seemed to be scanty by Jordanian standards. Somehow I got into the car and reached the room. Though the hotel wasn’t something that I’d appreciate much, but I badly needed a blanket to get into. As if this wasn’t enough to prove me wrong, it actually snowed a couple of days after my arrival adding further to my misery.

For most of the stay at Amman, I couldn’t find anyone with a burqa or an abbaya except at the airport, which was very strange for me. But then I read through Amman’s history in one of the Jordan Tourism Board’s booklets which said that Jordan has been home to ancient Roman civilizations and that Christ himself was baptized in Jordan. That’s when I realized that Jordan is very unlike the other Arab countries and has a much diverse history than most of the Arab world. The people there are much friendlier than the Arabs that I’ve seen and heard about.

During this short trip, I could visit only a few places namely Abdoun Circle and Abdoun Mall. I found a couple of nice eating joints at Abdoun Circle and would really like to try the places that I could not. Abdoun Mall wasn’t a mall by any standards, atleast after you’ve seen the malls in Dubai. I’ve heard that there’s a food joint by the name of Jammu Kashmir that serves authentic Indian cousins. Next time, I’ll make it a point to check how authentic are the dishes there.

The most amazing part about the trip that I noticed was that the only thing that seemed to be a common thread among Jordan and the rest of the Arab world are the Hindi movies. Everyone seemed to know Amitabh Bachchan and seemed to be fond of watching Hindi movies every now and then. The moment a local would know that you are an Indian, the reference to Amitabh Bachchan would come in at most second dialogue. That was an unusual discovery to make.

I look forward to my next visit to Jordan, that’s planned in January, when I’ll get a chance to see places like Dead Sea, Baptism Site, Petra and other places in or near Amman.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Aah! Just finished with just another book by just another IIM graduate. But the story this time was not just another story that we listen to or read every other day. This story was of none other than that of Lord Shiva who has been portrayed as not the God but a superhuman who earned that status of Lord Shiva through his righteous fight against the evil.

The story is of Shiva, the tribal leader of a Tibetan tribe who’s invited by Nandi to his kingdom of Meluha in the lands of Sapt Sindhu. The people of this land are blessed young-forever because of the treasure called somras that they drink. This civilization is an extremely advanced one where everything seems to be perfect and everyone seems to be rational. They have the most advanced scientific tools at disposal with most intelligent people to develop them further. Everything seems to be fine with them, except one thing. They are Suryavanshis – descendants of Lord Surya and followers of Lord Ram – and they are faced by continuous attacks from their ‘enemies’ – Chandravanshis, descendants of Lord Chandra. This is where the story begins, but it ends with the defeat of Chandravanshis by the Suryavanshis under the guidance of Lord Shiva. To know how and why, you have to read the novel.

The story has been greatly put together. The research has been fantastic. It doesn’t look like the debutant novel by Amish, I thought he’s written atleast half a dozen novels before penning this down. If you are interested in mythology and fiction, this is the best book that you can read where mythology meets fiction and creates a great story. I’m waiting for the next two novels in the Shiva trilogy by Amish.

AS

Rating: 1.5/5.0

Operation Karakoram is the debut novel by Arvind Nayar. Though Chetan Bhagat has written a testimony that it’s a nice novel to begin with, but I don’t think it comes even closer to what Chetan’s debut novel was.

Anyways, the story is about another fictional Indo-Pak tussle where Pakistan wins, for a change. There is an Indian politician who is about to become the Prime Minister, but is dreaded by Pakistan because of his hard stand on Pakistan. So, the most secret body of ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, hires a professional assassin to kill this politician. Then the novel is all about irrelevant things like this assassin’s Spanish mission and a murder in Oman, which bear no relevance to the story, but just showcase that Arvind has been to these places. A lot of loopholes are obvious in the story. For instance, Pakistani intelligence hires an assassin to kill the Indian Prime Minister, without knowing that he’s an Indian, even after they met him in person. But nevertheless, the guy was professional and completed his task of killing the to-be Prime Minister.

I would say that the concept was fine, but the articulation was extremely poor. Boy, you need to work a lot more for your new piece. If I had to rate it on a 5-point scale, I’d rate it at 1.5.

AS

Rating: 3.5/5.0

I’ve heard a lot of people making fuss on the slow pace and boring plot of the movie. It has been ridiculed on various platforms and has been given lower than 2-star rating by many critics. But my experience from the movie was entirely opposite to this.

Yes, I agree that I didn’t like the heroine much, especially because she was more fitting to perform the role of John Ibrahim’s elder sister with 2 children – a 5- year old boy and 7-year old girl. But, she was nowhere suitable to be casted opposite John. And the choreography was also a notch below the average performance. Dance sequences seemed to be forcefitted into the story.

But, all said and done, I think the plot was very good. John, a partner in a bookstore, is forced into volunteering for an NGO that has this novel idea of speaking with people who want to commit suicide and convince them not to commit suicide. On one such call, he comes across the heroine, whom I didn’t like from the first scene. But somehow they get along very well over phone where he convinces the lady that he’s some kind of a superman. As the fate has it, she visits his bookstore and Sid(John) falls into love with Mishka (heroine) at first site. Then as an unknown voice over phone, he convinces Mishka to fall in love with Sid and on their way they face usual small hiccups. What happens in the end is for you to watch.

But John’s performance and looks are very nice. Other characters in the story are just supporting roles and don’t have much of an impact on the main theme, other than just being around. And yes, the soundtracks were fabulous. I liked two songs the most – Do Nishaniyan and Cry Cry. The lyrics and music are superb.

All-in-all, the movie was nicely created and was a nice watch this weekend when I had just 2 other options at hand – Hiss and Rakht Charitra – both of which are not even at No. 20 on my list of ‘5 movie I want to watch this weekend.’

-AS

Rating: 3.5/5.0

I know it’s been quite a while since the book was out, but I read it just now and thought it’ll be great to give you guys a head start on it, in case you plan to read it.

If I rate Dan Brown’s other fictions, namely The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons at 5, I’ll rate The Lost Symbol at 4, or maybe even 3.5 due to some reasons. The Lost Symbol is another Robert Langdon stunner with the usual Dan Brown beginning that he wakes up in the morning not knowing where he’s going to end up in the evening. This plot has been followed in all his novels without exception. And I think Dan Brown is obsessed with three things – Europe, America and Christianity.

The plot of the story rotates about a mad man trying to find a Masonic Pyramid which is believed to be hiding the secret of some secret Word that leads to apotheosis of the man. And obviously, there’s only one man on earth who can find and decipher this pyramid and this word – Dr Robert Langdon. And out of nowhere, he finds himself trying to save his mentor and his own life from this madman who’s also being followed by none other than the CIA chief. The end, of course, you’ll have to find it yourself.

Though the story is intriguing and the thought process has been great, but I think Dan Brown is getting caught into his own web. During most of the novel, it looks like he has written it just to show-off his intellect and knowledge. He has gone into so detail about the specification of events, even the ones that don’t have any impact on the story, that it starts getting boring and sometimes irritating. The description of Italian marble and 16^th century bible etc etc were some parts which were not at all required, but were there in the story. Such parts were enough to distract the attention away from the main plot.

Apart from this, I think the novel has been written very well and is a usual Dan Brown thriller with unexpected turns and twists. Though I’ve rated it below his other masterpieces, it’s definitely way above some of the other well-known authors.

AS

 To begin with, there are long queues that I had to stand in a long queue to check-in, which is ok. But when I reached the counter, the guy sent me back to some machine asking me to get my Boarding Pass from there before coming to the counter. Surprised at this, I went to the machine and got the boarding pass and finally checked-in my luggage. I must say the T-3 has been built as a grand airport with a huge Duty Free section enough to compete with a shopping mall. That was the only nice part of the entire trip, though. I was told that T-3 doesn’t have any security checks whatsoever and no passenger harassment in that sense, but I clearly remember that I had to show my boarding pass to the highest number of people at this airport than ever. Once into the flight, the seats were so close to each other that I could barely fit inside. To my bad luck, I’d got an aisle seat and everyone had to pass through me to get in or get out which was impossible without me getting off my seat every time. Given all this exercise, I felt a lot thirsty and hence, called for the air hostess. To my surprise, nobody notices that the light above my head was popped up. The air hostesses just passed by and took no notice of the light. It was good 10 minutes before I decided to call one of them, standing nearby to get me a glass of water or fresh lime juice. Nobody came back. After another 5 minutes, I requested another lady to get me a glass of water which was responded by an assurance, but no action. Finally, it was the third air hostess whom I got hold of, after another 5 minutes of the second one and she finally got me a glass of water. That’s the Emirates experience for you, I thought.

 As if this wasn’t enough, the flight had a technical problem – its water pressure refused to work at the last moment and the passengers were told that the engineers were working on it. And here we are, blaming and bashing India to have been working at the last moment to finish the CWG venues. It was amazing to find that the airlines with its own dedicated airport can have delays in the flight by as much as an hour. And that too, when the airlines boasts of its on-time take-offs and uses it as a factor to charge a premium from its customers. And I must clarify that even after this 1-hour delay, the bathrooms were not fixed and the washrooms didn’t have any water to wash hands when you need to.

 That’s not the end. The quality of food was another factor on which I rate Emirates at 1 on a scale of 5. The rajmah chawal served on board was the most pathetic one I’ve had in ages. The chapattis were half baked. Only saving grace was the lime juice and green salad.

 Once I landed in India, I thought maybe it’s just a one-time thing that might happen with anyone. So, I reassured myself that I won’t face a similar situation on my way back to Dubai a few days on. But to my surprise, the experience was no different. The flight took off atleast 40 minutes after the right time. Customer Service was as poor and food was as pathetic as on my last trip. That proved that my initial experience wasn’t a one-time event, it’s a regular feature of ‘The Emirates Experience’.

I must point out here, in the end that I rate Jet Airways as much better airlines than Emirates, especially on this route (Dubai-Delhi). Never again am I going to travel by Emirates, atleast not till the time they have something really worthy to offer.

Random Shot

Greener on the other side

And there begins my Photographic Journey…

Anyways, coming straight to the point, my journey to India this time was also as exciting for me as it always had been. I wanted to have as much fun as I could. Visiting Delhi gives me the opportunity to meet up with my most beloved cousin, my brother and my girlfriend (What more can you ask for?) But this time was different. It was an official visit and I was supposed to fly back to Dubai on 8^th May. I attended the trainings, had loads of fun at Naukuchiatal on the Out-Bound Training part and made many new friends during the journey. But when I reached airport on 8^th to catch my flight back to Dubai, I was not allowed to board the flight. Why? Just like that. The Sardar flight official didn’t like my face, I think.

Actually, the thing was that I didn’t have something called ECNR (Emigration Check Not Required) stamp on my passport. For those who don’t know, you need to have this stamp on your passport if you want to travel on Employment Visa, especially to the Middle East. Even after having travelled abroad for three times in last one year, I wasn’t aware about this and nobody even asked me about that. So, obviously I didn’t know. Now, when I was just about to fly, I was being made aware of my passport requirements.  I looked up and down, left and right and wondered what I could do. I couldn’t afford to lose my job just because of this stupid stamp, though that was a very far-fetched thought running in my mind. I called up everyone I knew to check if the ECNR stamp was really so important and so powerful that it can stop me from travelling abroad on employment visa and bringing more foreign currency into the country. Everyone had the same answer – I don’t know. I was asked to head back to the hotel, because in any case it was a Saturday and Indian passport officers have chosen not to work on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the year, though the flights take off even on those days and people like me could face passport issues on public holidays as well.

And the amazing part was that I couldn’t get this stamp done from anywhere else than the place where my passport was issued from which happens to be Amritsar in my case. That was going to be another dreadful experience that I never thought about. I decided to travel home (Faridkot) the same day, pick up my address proof and other certificate copies and leave for Amritsar, early in the morning (4:00 am is too early). My plan was to get the stamping done and the catch the early morning flight (2:40 am is too late to be called too early) to Dubai. But as I said, that was not my fate. After standing in long queue for almost an hour outside the office, in scorching heat of Amritsar, I was allowed to enter the office where again there was a long queue and amazingly, the counter had not yet started working, though it was way past 9:00 am. There I realized for the first time, why people didn’t want to have Indian Passports at all, or even if they had the bad luck to have one, why didn’t they want to get it renewed and instead chose to be citizens of some other country.

Finally, after two and a half hours, when I got to see the face of the person behind the counter, she turned down my application saying that she needs original 10^th std. certificate to verify my Date of Birth. I was perplexed by her statement. All through these years, I was told that Passport is the ultimate proof of my identity. Nothing held above this proof. And now this aunty, in her early 50s, was telling me that 10^th standard certificate was more authentic than the passport. I tried explaining it to her, showed her my original Employment Visa and my original appointment letter as a Business Consultant (which certainly can’t be given to a person who isn’t 10^th standard pass) but my arguments fell on deaf ears. The worst part was that all my original certificates were kept in Dubai and there was no way that I could get them before 3-4 days. But due to pressure by the people standing behind me, I had to leave the queue – sad, disheartened and worried. I reached everyone I could – PA to Passport Officer, Relationship Manager, agents – everyone, but of no use.

In that state of mind, I decided to come back to Delhi and try some other options. I called in the scanned copies of my Income Tax Returns, passbook pages etc etc. I travelled overnight sitting straight on the last seat of PRTC bus, couldn’t sleep for the whole night and reached Gurgaon office early in the morning. The travel desk at my company told me the next day that they’d talked to some agent and he’ll guide me to get a PoE (Protector of Emigrants) stamp which is a temporary provision if you want to fly abroad. And I was happy that this could be done from Delhi itself, because, I don’t know why, I believed that the Delhi Passport Office would be in better condition than Amritsar. After all, Delhi is a metropolitan city and is the capital of our country. So, I went to the PoE office in Jaisalmer House, Man Singh Road, armed with all the copies of my documents, original visa and original appointment letter. But still, fate had something else written for me. PoE office told me that they needed original appointment letter attested by the Indian Embassy in Dubai. And he specifically mentioned that a “fax will not do, we need it in original.” I was angry and worried at the same time. I called up my Dubai office and they asked me to wait till the next day when they’d go and confirm it from Indian Embassy in Dubai. As the luck had it, the India Embassy needed original Employment Visa to attest the appointment letter and the process would’ve taken 4-5 working days which meant I’d b stuck in India for atleast one and a half more weeks. So, it was a complete deadlock.

Finally, it was agreed that my office drawer in Dubai would be broken, my certificates would be taken out and couriered and I’d get the ECNR done from Amritsar. And there I was – on next Saturday (exactly one week later), in the same train, traversing the same route to Faridkot, getting up again early in the morning on Monday with a hope to get things done, standing in the same queue at Amritsar Passport Office. But this time, they didn’t have an excuse to reject my application. But what made me even angrier was that the person on the counter didn’t even look at the certificate carefully. He just glanced over it and that’s it. I was too exhausted to react to this. Now, I was happy that I’ll get the stamped passport by evening and will catch the morning flight to Dubai. But…

But the tickets on Air India Express (only flight from Amritsar to Dubai) had to be booked atleast 24 hours before flying which I did not, because I didn’t trust Indian bureaucracy  and wasn’t sure whether the stamping will be done or not. So, when one govt system finally worked, the other had me in its jaws. Anyways, I again took the same PRTC bus back to Delhi, got my tickets done for next day on the same Jet Airways flight that I was supposed to catch 10 days back. And I finally reached Dubai. Safely.

The trip, with so much of turns and twists and new discoveries, will be afresh in my memory for long long time. I’m worried now about getting my passport renewed from the same authorities, though there’s still 5 years to go.

AS