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I have been writing online since 2003. Never did I want to make money of my writing. It was just for my own happiness or satisfaction. Never did I even want an audience for it. I was just throwing my thoughts, frustrations out into the void of internet in the form of words. In fact having an audience made me uncomfortable. Conscious. I shared my writings with only few selected trusted set of friends. I have been blogging under a different name a few years back.

But well, what the heck? Who cares about me? Who would follow me or my life? So I thought I would go public and so I did.  Around 5 years back. Few of my posts have been featured, had great audience, and have been reviewed. To be honest, one of the reasons for not going public was that I did not like critics. I hated any comments - good or bad. It was as if I was writing to meet some one's expectations. And the need for my writing was exactly the opposite. Something that I did for myself. Yeah I for sure cannot explain this complicated reasoning. I know!

Anyways, today is the first time my writing earned me money. My post - How Much Of Your Life Is By Chance got featured and MouthShut paid me 1000/-. Well, my post on Chance did give me a lucky Chance to pursue writing. Now am dreaming about writing and lately I realized am good in non-fiction than fiction. But I like fiction. Lets see! Party Time.

Life Of Pi - Movie Review

Which story do you prefer?

Also posted on MouthShut.

I picked this novel few years back, more for my book collection rather with intentions of reading it actually.This book fell in the list of "some other day". Till date I have not read the book. I heard all the reviews talking about religion and philosophy and in my life then I had least interest in these.

Last year when this movie was released, I did wanted to watch it. Just because I love movies made from books. But surprisingly I read bad reviews about this film and eventually this fell of my list of movies to watch.This year it got back on my list, simply cause I have been reading a lot about the director Ang Lee which are floating around the social networks and I decided to see his work.

I really loved the movie( I would have loved the book even more if I had gotten myself to read it).

A story of survival, religion, imagination, beliefs and most importantly how much a human wants to stay connected to something, anything a living or non-living. If you were to compare the movie with "Cast Away" I would say they two are unique in their own ways. I loved the ordeals of surviving a ship wreck, and stranded alone in the Cast Away movie more than Life of Pi. In both the movies protagonists connect with something they think is their own reflection. Something that keeps them alive. In Cast Away its a football and in Life of Pi, its a Bengal Tiger. They have conversations with these, they bond with these. Thinking of which, how much a human needs to be connected? How much a conversation with the other keeps you sane? I myself at times( ah who am I kidding
with, most of the times), talk with my pet or with myself when am alone. These very "HUMAN" aspects are brilliantly portrayed in this movie.

"***Words are all I have left to hang onto. Everything's all mixed up, fragmented, can't tell daydreams, night dreams from reality anymore***."


And does a human stop there. They form a relationship. They show their emotions, tantrums, just to feel alive. And then goes way beyond to expectations. At the end of their journey when the protagonist and tiger survive and reach an island, he cries out loud not cause he is alive, but cause the tiger left him without saying a goodbye. The entire movie runs on this theme of "never getting a chance to goodbye". This scene is the best of all.

"***I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye.***"

The ending is what makes the movie stand apart. Pi narrates two stories of what actually happened. One is what we see in the movie and the other is a more realistic story that everybody especially people who are way too logical can believe in. This puts both the stories in question as to which is true. Director/ author did not leave the choice to us to decide which story is true. Rather the question is which story do you prefer to believe in? Both are stories of survival, and at the end Pi survives, after losing his entire family and past in a ship wreckage.

"***Without Richard Parker, I would have died by now. My fear of him keeps me alert. Tending to his needs gives my life purpose.***"


At the end our belief system, religion are all stories. Stories that came out of imagination or mostly from real-life experiences. How you narrate it to yourself or others, is what makes the story or the experience interesting, the trauma(if any) bearable and most importantly having all of this memorable. I need to dig my collection to read the book now!



My Ratings: 4 Star

How much of your life is by Chance?

Also posted on MouthShut.

 Who does not like everything to be under control? Not left for chance or luck? Okay, I hear you. Let me rephrase that, I am not a person who like things left for chance, I like almost everything to be under control. Not necessarily under my control. But knowing that something can be controlled is what keeps me calm, sane and wise. The moment I know that its not in my hands nor in anyones hands( which I can reach) and is left to fate, destiny, luck and blah blah blah I loose my cool. And I am the most unpredictable person that can be. Now that can be dangerous, for all I know dangerous to myself.

Does that make me boring? Not taking any risks at all? No. As long as I can avoid risk I like my life to be on a steady boat( is there such a thing? For the boat to be steady it has to be on the ground not on the water). But when there is really nothing I can do about it, there cannot be a better fighter than I am. Bold to face anything and ready to make lemonades. And I believe almost all of us are born survivors. We somehow figure out a way. Humans are the most adaptive species of all, I believe. Then why is that whenever we have to face a real situation that decides the rest of your life solely based on your luck we freak out?

Today in our apartments there was a parking lot draw. All of us were asked to meet in the basement to pick their parking slots. And this was based on a draw. And first time I was way too worried about what slot I might get with which I will have to live woth for the rest of my life( yeah that may not be totally correct). In fact they had taken off 7 slots which were not good slots. And rest of all were equally good or equally bad. And the allotment was block wise. So what was there to be worried? I could see almost all other people there were also tensed. Few had loser faces already, as if they know their luck better and were already grateful to even get a parking slot. And few were hyper that they were constantly jibber-jabbering to overcome it.

Once each of us got our slots almost everyone was happy. At least I did not hear anyone whining about their pick. So what was all the hungama before the draw? I guess what everyone wanted was to get the BEST slot. Especially in my apartment there is no BEST slot. What is BEST for someone was not the same for other. Eventually everyone was happy with what they got. If one was asked which slot in particular they wanted no one could pinpoint one single slot. All of them said "one of those slots". So choice. Power to choose. We all had the power to choose but what is chosen is left to luck.

This is just an instance, but each day everything actually happens by chance. No matter how much I fool myself thinking I have it under control. From the moment you step out of your bed to the moment when you can go back to sleep hoping for another new day, everything is run by many things that are not under your control. Yet, as long as everything goes well, we think all is under control.

So, I am trying to give up on my compulsion to know everything, to be sure of everything and to be assured of everything. But I would not give up totally, that "Chance" gets to be the star of my life. It has to be me. Of course always thankful to Chance for her role in my life!

Stuffed Capsicum

Ingredients :-

1. 4 capsicum
2. curry leaves
3. mustard seeds
4. chopped onion (1)
5. chopped green chillies (3)
6. turmeric
7. coriander leaves
8. salt to taste

For the Stuffing :-

1. 4 Potatoes
2. 6-8 dry red chillies
3. Coriander seeds ( 1tbsp )
4. Chana Dal ( 1 tbsp)
5. Cumin seeds ( 1 tbsp )
6. Urad Dal ( 1 tbsp)
7. Grated dry cocounut ( 1 tbsp )
8. Tamaraind pulp ( 1 tbsp )
9. Groundnuts ( 4 tbsp )

Preperation :-

1. Pressure cook potatoes with salt. Cool them off, and mash them.

2. Fry dry red chillie, corainder seeds, chana dal, urad dal, cumin seeds and grind all of them to powder

3. Fry groundnuts and grind them to powder as well.

4. Mix all the powders with coconut powder and tamarind pulp.

5. Add turmeric and the above mix to mashed potatoe. 

6. Heat 2-3 tbsps of oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, greeen chillies, onions and fry them. Add turmeric before you take it off the heat.
Add coriander leaves to this mix. Now the stuffing is ready.

7. Cut capsicum at the top horizontally. Remove the seeds inside and fill these with the stuffing. Sprinkle little salt on top of the
capsicums. Apply oil and microwave these for 4-5 mins.