Vishal Kohli: Wanna be phillim maker: Will you listen to me?

Why was I forced to be a prisoner? To be a spectacle to the visitor! This world was meant to be a stage, Then why am I in this cage? I was born here and so was my child, Together we could never see the wild. They then took away my child and my mate, Is this all really fate? Even this child’s smile doesn’t bring relief anymore, There was a time when it meant everything in the world! My cries fall on deaf ears, As they keep clicking my graying beard. If one day I woke up to see this cage disappear, Will anyone embrace me and let me come near?

How I wish I could Fly, How I wish things would never Die. How I wish the world would never Cry, How I wish some moments would never Pass-by. Just a few things that came to my mind. Hope you Enjoyed my photography. I had been wanting to do a photo-blog for a long time now. Good Night and Good Luck

So after my short trip to Rajasthan I finally reach Gurgaon and took an auto-rickshaw to visit my mom at AIIMS, New Delhi . As soon as we got on the road, construction sites could be seen spread as far as my eye-site could go. Delhi metro, flyovers, road widening, buildings, malls and what not! Common Wealth Games 2010 are approaching, so I can see all the hustle-bustle to project an image of what we are not. Standards have been set by our neighbor at the not-so-recently concluded Olympics . I am familiar with Delhi and NCR region for the past 15 years. And I have seen Delhi transform from a traffic congested smoky city to a clean breathable city where roads were widened, flyovers constructed and now back to a congested city where constructions are under way for another better tomorrow. When will this tomorrow come and how long will that last? Any clue! Anyone! Delhi metro sure has provided relief to a large population with its excellent services. Today I see the Airport Ex...

A filmmaker would say “Jo bikta hai, wo banta hai”. A film maker like Dibakar Benarjee says, “The audience mind has been corrupted to what I called Emotional pornography. Porno has that comeshotand you are building up to it. Similarly ye Emotional pornography hai. Ke BH**C**D har wakt kuch na kuch hona chaiya.” Moving further with the discourse on films, a question what do films do? They reflect the societal realities , they entertain etc are the most generic answers you will get. No one will ever say, and I am talking about the people in this business, that films make money. Big Money !! So, the question how they make money? It makes money through distribution channels like cinema hall releases, music sale, overseas collection etc. But who pays that money? It’s the audience. And why will they pay money to see which someone else has made? To be entertained! So far so good! But let’s try to see another aspect for films, especially in context of commercial films. Talking about main ...

“ Aay hay, itna pyar dikhaye ga tow affa hee marr jayuga ” is probably the best dialogue of the movie. Not in terms of the language but in terms of its placement amidst a tense situation, tickling everyone. The movie revolved around two hook points: a guitar and politics (particularly of Maharashtra ). Wonder what a guitar is doing in such a flick. It’s required by “Tashi”, because it has to be traded for two diamonds, which he calls “My twins”. Diamonds for a guitar! Ya, inside it lie 100 packets of cocaine. So, by now you get the feel of the movie and if I tell you there are two brothers, who don’t talk to each other, and get involved in the guitar-diamond game, I don’t need to write this blog any further. But still I will carry on, this is a project dude, I need to complete 24 blogs !! On a serious note there is too much to tell. So, after all the fine movies I have seen from Vishal Bhardwaj, I was in for a shock, though the movie has all elements to be a silver screen HIT!! The...

Cinema, we all know is a medium of expression, story telling, entertainment, and at the same time an art. Today let’s see it in a different light, which we all know but seldom acknowledge, and in the process unravel a few of its attributes: It all began with the invention of “ Kinetoscope ” by Thomas Edison in 1888 (mind it I am not talking about the bulb!!). Kinetoscope was a device which could record motion* on a photosensitive film. But it was too bulky to be carried to a location. Hence the performers (dancers, musicians or magicians) had to come in front of it to get shot on film. Quite contrary to what happens today, when the cameras have become so lightweight and small that they can be accommodated in a ladies purse. Another drawback of the Kinetoscope was that it couldn’t project the very film it had shot. So, a different device had to be used for that purpose and hence addition cost. Edison gave up on his invention too soon, not knowing what he had invented. With the inve...

Just as H1N1 started taking its toll, the media frenzy has created a panic. Why is Swine flu such a big deal? Let’s see. Swine Flu is highly contagious; a person can catch it with just a sneeze from another. A person, who is not infected with H1N1, can still be a carrier of the same. If not treated, before a certain spread in the body, it’s a quick killer. In order to, spread awareness so as to contain the disease, the media has been a potent weapon - Hats Off to it. But, what lies on the surface is not always the only reason. So let’s remove the dust and try to dig inside. We all love to accuse the media of over hyping things by sensationalizing them; hence we can say the media played on the commercial value of such news. But has it not been of any help? The media, and by that I don’t mean newspaper or TV channels only but also SMS’s, emails, blogs etc, have spread a sense of urgency for understanding the disease. We can just GOOGLE H1N1 or Swine flu and with in seconds we get...

This is a true story: It might happen to anyone Reading horoscope!! Some, like me, read for the fun of it but others, like Sanjally, to know the future. A day, week or month which has yet not begun, but predicted!! Where is our free will? I think we always have a choice, but thats not the point. Funny and coincidental as it is, that day both of us read our respective sign predictions, hor(ror)oscope It was getting dark. The road was wet and slippery. Driving back towards the city seemed a never ending journey. With this task at hand we couldn’t have proceed anywhere else. Finally, we reached the building. Took it out of the car and went inside. It was cold and quite. Now, they wanted us to put it in a bag. It was taken to an underground dungeon, where it was covered in a white cloth. With red stains gleaming all around the body we careful took it outside, lest something breaks. My mobile phone rang constantly, trying to know our where abouts and what was happening? A bit irr...

Freedom is like Virginity , either you have it or not. The famous line “I have a bit of …” doesn’t go with either. I recently moved to Pune for my higher studies and in my view Pune endow you with virginity, oh I mean freedom. A student dominated city, who come from all corners of the country and also from places which are not so much in the corner. Good from far, far from good. The place is a real paradise for the youth of the country. With its Modern - Western Culture and availability of Booze, Grass, Hash etc., it provides ample opportunities, in addition to the educational and employment prospects. Let me tell you being a stranger in a stranger land is a real BLISS . As it is correctly said, “If anything can go wrong it will.” But here nothing can, you don’t know anyone and no one knows you (I mean in most cases), so put on your dance shoes, loosen yourself up and be live your wildest dreams. Love means a score of ZERO , so if your score of being in love (or having a girlfriend or ...

In respect of the stuff going on at our college, I had stopped writing. But it seems someone up there (or down here) doesn’t want to let me forget or even get distant from the art of writing, lest I loose my knack. I hope all my creative writing abilities are not lost in writing the exams. Some analysis: WARNING: Bear with me I might have lost it. 13 EXAMS, 6 DAYS, 200 STUDENTS DOWN. 23 BEHIND ENEMY LINES, they will be found haunted by our ghosts and brought down. And there will be “ NO WHITE FLAG ” Day 1: I loved the exams. I didn’t study a thing, still wrote all questions. ( who told you to write the question, we were supposed to write answers ) Day 2: I really am creative, just couldn’t stop writing. Day 3: I can really think out of the box. Wow!! Day 4: Disillusioned!! Are they trying to make me a writer. Day 5: My creativity is getting exhausted. Day 6: My box is on fire. ( Don’t worry you won’t need it for another 5 months ) My favorite questions: Q. When we communicate we...

Today was our last working day for this semester. After 3 months of hard( ly ) work, we stand face to face with a cruel, I mean crucial, phase of student life cycle – Final Examinations. With syllabus still trying to climb the ladder, one of our paper got preponed today (to be politically correct rescheduled). We all (or may be a lot of us) are gearing up to spend a lot of nights, burning midnight oil . Those who are nocturnal or insomniac would definitely be advantaged, as most of the studying happens at night, others might just get insomnia reading about 1500 pages of notes which we have got (just 4-5 days before exams) plus the slides which from various lecturer taught us plus the class notes we made. Already, as reported by secret sources, “this week there have been a lots of emotional break downs, across the institute. Loads of pressure of classes, studies, presentations, assignments, bad food, home sickness, real sickness etc etc.” Anyways, let’s try to be a bit optimistic today...

Yesterday someone really got pissed off with the “so called” my point of view (because I had put it in words), so no more controversy today and back by popular demand… Characters… Imagine you are traveling in a Tavera ( cab ) and the back seat is filled with luggage. No place to put even a single suitcase, then who (a person) can still fit in. Socho Socho… Mr “Naam to Suna he Hoga”. Actually that’s how we met for the first time, traveling from Viman Nagar Campus to Lavale campus. Half way through when we stopped for a snack, this guy appeared out of no where (actually from the back door of the car). Anyways, the acting and mimicry master from the land of confluence of Ganga and Yamuna. The dancing “Casanova” of our batch (atleast he thinks so), joined SIMC for all the wrong reasons (I mean in the wrong specialization, Advertising Management). Also let me remind you that he is afraid of drawings, especially the ones made on the floor. Moving further to Ms Kashmir: With two strands of ...

Yesterday the crack down was on the system. Today I will give some insight of the constituents of the system, no humor dose even today. xxxxxx is a cool place, not because it’s always raining and at the nights we need to almost switch off our fans or because of the scenic beauty around, but because the culture is so cool – informal, casual, relaxed. Let us explore some of the major elements necessary to make a person “COOL”: Swear: F - - K, nearly everyone uses this 4 letter word (as a pro-noun, verb, adverb, adjective). Fcuker, Fcuking good / bad / teacher, Fcuk you dude, Fcuk off. Assh - -e, Bitch, MC, BC, GM and the list goes onnnnn… I my view when because people fall short of words they use these helping words (Lets buy a dictionary) Smoke: You might not even know how to hold a cigarette but ya it makes you cool so do smoke. Let me tell you its not allowed on to smoke in our campus, but it makes people super cool (even more if you can break a rule) so “COOL DUDE” Drink: Actuall...

Today I decided to bunk the first lecture, of Mr. Aaaaaa… and decided to sleep till late (I guess it was God’s sign to save me from more humiliation). But my sleep I was busted by the earthquake epicenter-ed at the Academic Block in SIMC. People running haywire saying “Sky is falling and earth swollowing people, but selectively, only those who cannot prove their identity” . I am not joking, “The One Who Must Not be Named” caught hold of people who were late for class and asked for the Identity cards. Those students who didn’t have an identity card were kicked out of the academic block. Anyways that’s not the point here. The issue is CAN A SYSTEM WHICH IS BEYOND REPAIR, CHALLENGE THE STUDENT AND MAKE THEM BEAR THE BRUNT AGAIN AND AGAIN AND STILL AGAIN. I believe there are a lot of reasons these things happen but are only the students responsible. It’s like saying “Kill the terrorists to finish the terrorism, where as the solution is the other way round”. In the past less than 3 months ...

From the very first day that I noticed them, I could see a spark in those eyes searching for each other in the crowd. Just a glimpse of each other would bring a subtle smile across their faces. The glow on Mr’s face and the blushing of Ms was the conformation that “Do dil mil rahe hai magar chupke chupke” Mr Dev met me one day in Centra Mall accompanied by Ms Night, he couldn’t stop without giving an explanation how they both met by chance and hence are together not be choice. You know just like the initial romance, where you don’t want anyone to know / think you are going around. Anyways now we see them together all the time and they do look sweet together. Mr Bihar was sighted first time with Ms Prayer during the fresher party, where he had to be constantly persuaded by Ms Prayer to sit in a secluded place so they can talk or even to dance with her. Mr Bihar was a bit reluctant initially but now he has become comfortable with the fact that he also likes Ms Prayer ( Women Power ). Mr ...

“ I am employed, I am employed” were the first words uttered by me, when I got campus placement for my first job. “ Thank God I am free ” were the words that I spoke when I quit my job after 2years. Rest assured, I worked with one of the top software firm in India and what happened in-between is history. My first three months in the firm were training time. I studied and made projects in languages like: C/C++, UNIX, Java, MS-SQL etc. It was necessary to get a minimum of 50% marks in each subject and an overall of 60% to clear the training. Only I know how I could complete the humongous task. Expectation after completion: The gates to the fantasy world of I.T. Industry would open up, rolling out the red carpet for me. On the contrary: I had to sit idle (on bench as they say) for 1 month before some dumb ass would give a damn. I went to office everyday with the hope that “today someone will introduce me to the enigmatic world”, but the world is a busy place (busy being idle) and I was...