4. New York.

What is terrorism? This is something which I believe each one of us would know. Why does it happen? This is also something which more or less each one of do judge and understand.

Kabir Khan goes one step ahead and does some Root Cause Analysis on ‘making of a terrorist out of a common man’. How a frivolous university dude is detained by FBI and persecuted for nine long months with absolutely no fault on his part and going further, this engulfed guy decides to come back with a vengeance by spreading terror and as a result of that he makes a brutal plan. This is all about Aditya Chopra produced intense fare titled New York.

Although Kabul Express was a better flick in my opinion, this one doesn’t stand far either. The casting would have required a profound thinking. John is not that bad but either he could have done better or some one else could have given better justice as a protagonist. He is redundantly loud in some scenes. Neil, who is a potentially sound artiste, somehow fails here – mainly because of the weak portrayal. Katrina has acted well but her on-screen contribution is relatively less. Irrfan who takes the maximum footage, excels in the role of a suavely diplomatic FBI officer. He certainly deserves applaud for his performance. Nawazzudin shines is his small but significant role as Zilgai.

The music and background score by Pritam Chakraborty, Pankaj Awasthi and Julius Packiam is not-too-bad. “Yaaron” is nice, while “Mere sang” (minus appalling lyrics) is also decent. Aseem Mishra has handled the cinematography department quite well but still he deserves 8 on 10. Rameshwar Bhagat should have used more sharp scissors on the editing front which seems to be a bit overlooked. Kabir, as quoted above has handled the subject in a matured manner.

Overall, an excellent but not-so-exceptional fare. My verdict 7/10.

PS: Kabir, just in case if you are reading this - After making movies on terrorism with Afgan and USA backdrop, please do attempt a movie on desi terrorism aka politics in India. You may want to choose name of any city you like (as you have done with both your flicks).

3. Purpose.

All my life, I have strived
to turn in pink, that was blue
First, I tore my life apart
And then I attempted to sew

In the midst of all, I failed
To live those moments few
Which were rare and precious
Couldn’t be bargained in Lieu

Time to live up will come later,
That will be way different & new
All that mattered was running hard
dreaming of pink & making it true

Alas! Running came to an end
The only conclusion I then drew
blue or pink didn’t matter
until I realized Why did I live?

2. Money.

Paise ki daud mein zindagi khatam ho jaayegi and before you realize ki zindagi khatam ho jaayegi, zindagi already khatam ho chuki hogi

The above line quoted by a very dear friend of mine literally mean – During the money-race, life will come to an end and before you realized that life is coming to an end, it would have already ended.

Probably or rather most definitely, each one of us know this. What is the thing that makes me run after money? This is a very clichéd question I would have asked myself and others umpteen times.

The only 3 words that come to my mind are Love, Longing and Belonging. I feel these are the 3 precise things which make me run after anything and everything. It’s not always that I don’t want to live life or I forget to live life. If the feeling of Love, Longing and Belonging is more inclined towards living life, then that is it.

I don’t say that I need not long for money but of course my focus should be on longing towards the reason for which I am making money. Also, to live a “quality” life, I need to have money i.e. there should be some amount of money that belongs to me. Rather than money belonging to me, I start belonging to money and just love and long for it till the close of play.

Sincere gratitude towards Jimit who made such a pragmatic statement which put me in shatters but on the other hand rejoiced me too thinking I have still a long way to go even if I start living life today. :)

1. Opportunity.

Opportunity is a noun defined in dictionary as a possibility due to a favorable combination of circumstances.

I want to ask myself – What if the circumstances are not favorable. Does the possibility diminish? Is there no opportunity left?

Can I not create one albeit the circumstances are unfavorable or less favorable? The immediate answer would be – It’s difficult. I mean, it’s difficult to turn the adverse conditions into constructive.

Having said that, I would also simultaneously focus on the quote – Opportunities don’t just always happen. They are created. If I need to create something, at the first stance, I should refrain from judging it to be easy or hard.

The key is to consider the current situation as zero – rather than positive or negative and start orchestrating the way forward steps and come up with a Project Plan for any sort of opportunity I need to explore. Further, there are a lot of more steps involved towards research and implementation which is not the intention of writing this composition.

The purpose is to think about creating an opportunity and not waiting for the opportunity to arrive; neither waiting for the circumstances to be favorable.

Since almost 3 weeks, I was waiting for an opportunity and it was - "A very strong topic need to click my mind for composing the century blog of my life"