My Podcast Space

Hey All,

I have started a podcast as well. You can listen to it here. Happy Listening!!!

Read More

My Podcast Space

Hey All,

I have started a podcast as well. You can listen to it here. Happy Listening!!!

Read More

Recent Reads ...

My Podcast Space

മനുഷ്യന് ഒരു ആമുഖം – സുഭാഷ് ചന്ദ്രൻ

കഴിഞ്ഞ birthday-ക്ക് എന്റെ ഓഫീസ് ഫ്രണ്ട്സാണ് ‘മനുഷ്യന് ഒരു ആമുഖം’ എനിക്ക് gift ചെയ്തത്. 400-ൽ അധികം പേജുള്ള  പുസ്തകത്തിനെ , നാല് ഭാഗങ്ങളായി  തിരിച്ചാണ് മനുഷ്യജീവിതത്തെക്കുറിച്ച് കഥാകാരൻ എഴുതിയിരിക്കുന്നത് എന്ന് കേട്ടിരുന്നു. പക്ഷേ കുറച്ച് പേജുകളിൽ, കുറച്ച്     വാക്കുകളിൽ നിസ്സാരമായി കുറിക്കാവുന്ന ഒന്നാണോ ജീവിതം?. 


സംശയങ്ങളൊക്കെ മാറ്റി വച്ച് വായിച്ചു തുടങ്ങി. ജിതേന്ദ്രൻ എന്ന മനുഷ്യനെ കേന്ദ്രീകരിച്ച് മനുഷ്യനെയും അവന്റെ മറച്ചുപിടിക്കാനാവാത്ത സമാനതകളെയും,വികാര വിചാരങ്ങളെയും കഥാകാരൻ വരച്ചുകാട്ടുന്നു.ഒരേ സമയം അത് ജിതേന്ദ്രന്റെയും മനുഷ്യന്റെയും ആ കാലഘട്ടത്തിന്റെയും കഥയായിത്തീരുന്നു. തുറന്നുപറച്ചലിന്റെ ഒരു കുമ്പസാരകൂട്ടിലെന്ന പോലെ മനുഷ്യന്റെ വ്യർത്ഥാഭിമാനങ്ങളെയും, പൊള്ളത്തരങ്ങളെയും, സ്വഭാവവൈകല്യങ്ങളെയും അതിന്റെ തിളങ്ങുന്ന പുറം കീറി കഥാകാരൻ  പുറത്ത് കൊണ്ടു വരുന്നു. ഒടുവിൽ, പൂർത്തിയാക്കാനാവാതെ ശ്യൂനത സംവഹിച്ച് മരിച്ചുപോയ ഒരാത്മാവ് ബാക്കി വച്ചതിന് കാലങ്ങൾക്കപ്പുറം ഉയിർപ്പിന്റെ ഒരു മൂന്നാം നാൾ ഉണ്ടാവും എന്ന  പ്രത്യാശയിലാണ് നോവൽ അവസാനിക്കുന്നത്. എന്നെ സംബന്ധിച്ചിടത്തോളം ഒരു പാട് ചോദ്യങ്ങളും ഉത്തരങ്ങളും അതിലേറെ തിരിച്ചറിവുകളും നല്കി ഒരു മനുഷ്യന്റെ ജീവിതത്തിന് പൂർണ്ണമെന്നോ അപുർണ്ണമെന്നോ വിധിക്കാനാവാത്ത ഒരാമുഖം തന്നെയാണ് ഈ നോവൽ.


 ഇതിനപ്പുറം ഭാഷാഭംഗിയും detailing -ഉം വളരെ മനോഹരമായി തോന്നി. ഒരാളുടെ ജനനം മുതലുള്ള കാര്യങ്ങൾ ജീവിതാനുഭവങ്ങൾ ആണെങ്കിലും അല്ലെങ്കിലും ഇത്രയും വിശദമായി പകർത്താൻ കഴിയുക എന്നത് സുഭാഷ് ചന്ദ്രൻ എന്ന് എഴുത്തുകാരന്റെ വൈഭവവും സമർപ്പണബോധവുമാണ് എനിക്ക് കാണിച്ചു തന്നത്.


ആസ്വാദനം വായനക്കാരന്റെ സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം ആയതിനാൽ അതിൽ കൈകടത്തുന്നില്ല. നിങ്ങളുടെ അഭിപ്രായങ്ങൾ വ്യത്യസ്തമായിരിക്കാം. ഞാനെന്ന വായനക്കാരി പൂർണ്ണ സന്തുഷ്ടയാണ്.അതു കൊണ്ടുതന്നെ വായിക്കാത്തവർക്ക് ഉറപ്പായും  list ചെയ്യാവുന്നതാണ്.   

Dil Bechara

Dil Bechara is a Hindi movie based on John Green’s ‘Fault in Our Stars’. This is also actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s last Film. Noting down, how I liked it. A short review, perhaps.

Million Yen Women

100 million yen women is a Japanese series based on a Manga by Shunju Aono and is currently available on Netflix. This is my first ever Japanese drama and I decided to watch it because of the description given. Looking back, there are still some …

Million Yen Women

Million Yen Women

100 million yen women is a Japanese series based on a Manga by Shunju Aono and is currently available on Netflix. This is my first ever Japanese drama and I decided to watch it because of the description given. Looking back, there are still some questions left unanswered and chances for doubt, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching this and the show really got me curious on ‘What Next’. This is a really short series and if you have 6 hours to kill, I say, It’s worth a watch. Still, liking or not liking it would entirely depend on your taste, so no comments on that.

It’s impossible to give a review on this series without giving out spoilers, so decided just to give out a setting of the series and the questions that come with it.

So here goes…

The story revolves around Shin Michima and 5 mysterious women. All of them claim to have received an invitation and comes to stay with the writer in his huge house. However, The invitation was not send out by the house owner Shin. Nothing about the invitation is revealed except 4 rules to be followed while staying together

  • Questioning the women is prohibited.
  • Entrance to women’s room is prohibited.
  • Everyone must eat dinner together
  • The writer should look after all the women.
  • Each of the tenants have to pay a million yen as the rent at the end of each month.

In addition, every morning the writer receives a threatening message through fax. From the first few minutes of the episodes, we are flooded with a lot of questions and left curious.

It’s hard to tell where the story is heading , each episode and the flow of the story line takes you by surprise. It begins of in a ‘Slice of Life’ narration style and familiarizes us with the protagonist and his current life style. At some points, we are often left the judge of many of the writer’s internal conflicts. So basically, instead of forcing you to believe something, the drama leaves you with the power to decide for yourself the right or wrong.

It also throws light on how external appearances has nothing to do with character, how something not familiar with the society is often thought useless and takes immense amount of work, dedication and somebody who believes in you to finally get the recognition that it deserves.

So winding up, this is not your regular ‘Easy To Figure Out’ drama. It’s calm and loud , warm and cold at the same time. For me, the ending part (last few minutes) was a bit boring, but that was the healing part as well. May be, it is easy to be happy. All we need to do is not to bother about other people’s success, but to be happy with your own, to be satisfied with our own pace.

Bonus Image:

Note: The chemistry between the 6 is real good :D. Even though the writer doesn’t know anything about their personal lives, the writer feels like the girls could see right through him.

Reply 1994 and How it teaches Life…

I have been hearing splendid reviews about the reply series ever since I entered the K-drama world. It sure took me long to sit down to watch one and I regret not watching it earlier. The story revolves around the life of a few students in their 20’s, most of them from the countryside moving to Seoul for college and living together in a boarding house in Sincheon. The story is about friendship, love, family and about the generation that passed by while they were living together.

There might be a lot of reviews giving you spoilers as well as the main plot online, so I am just noting down how the drama relates to and answers many of our questions and confusions we face in twenties…

1. A Place to Belong

An unfamiliar city and it’s people could be the worst of fears for people coming from the countryside. The drama tells us how a place where we could feel home is important in our hard times, a place that could make us feel safe, a place that you could always turn to.

2. ” The reason your heart skip is still love”

The drama tells you even for a generation undergoing drastic changes, from analog to digital, from pagers to cellphones, from trends and to new trends, the reason the heart skips a beat is still love. It says even amidst all chaos and confusion. youth is awkward and simple and that one person could still bring butterflies.

3. A Love taken for granted

Sometimes we get used to a person that everything they do seems to be a given. As time passes by, we take them for granted and become less thankful and sorry every day. The drama teaches us even with such people love should be expressed, apologies and appreciations to be made before it’s too late. After all, Only love can repay love, only sincerity can move hearts.

4. Of All the Choices Made

Life is all about making choices and we are made to choose every moment. Each moment is the result of the countless choices made in the past and all those choices together make us who we are today. There is no choice without regrets and the drama consoles us pointing out there were no right answers to begin with. And further lets us on the key to living life happily without regrets; To believe all our choices were right.

5. “It’s Okay to take your time”

With the world rushing forward, many times, we get dragged along the crowd, not knowing what to do. You feel like you are the only one lagging behind, not knowing the direction you should take but the drama tells us it’s okay to not know, it’s okay to take your time to figure out what you really want. It asks us to listen to our shy delicate heart that hide deeps within, silencing our words and thoughts until it pops out on it’s own.

6. “It ain’t over till it’s over”

They say, “To succeed, you must endure pain for more than 10,000 hrs”. Instead of waiting for a good fortune, one must put in endless efforts and go through hardship, even for relationships and love.Ha..What is love if not the effort we put in?. It ain’t over till it’s over.

7. “A Dream is just a Dream”

Chasing your dreams triumphing over given circumstances is a truly fabulous thing to do but the drama teaches not to beat yourself over a lost dream, not to lose confidence over some dramatic success stories. It points out how it is not easy to step over someone we love, that giving up means those people were important as much as your dreams.

8. To the Last of things

Finally. the drama talks about how goodbyes are sad even with people we just met, how every last time leaves us in tears. It reminds the importance of cherishing every moment like it is the last, because we never recognize the last of things and regret letting it pass by without notice.

This drama successfully takes us back to the X-generation, their friendship, love, hardships and many more. And may be, human’s irrespective of the time zone, are all so similar beyond doubt. That’s it.

Annyeongaseyo😁

BONUS IMAGE :

Thappad – Not Just A Slap!

I can’t remember the last time my chest felt this heavy after watching a movie and I sit down, trying to note down the scenes that moved me and I can’t narrow it down to scenes. It’s much more.

Just how amrita says, it’s not just a slap, I think this movie is not just about a slap. It is about numerous things that we not just see but notice everyday, but purposefully ignore for our own convenience, peace of mind. For me, it was not about how a man treats a women, but also about how women treat one another, the beliefs that grow up and grow with us, the idea of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ , implanted and nourished within. And by the end of the movie, I am left with a whole lot of questions, flooded with a whole lot of emotions and above all, I am drowned in guilt.

All through the movie, I kept on seeing women around me, how everybody including me, keep on taking advantages of their choices or the choices they think they had or made. I question the definition of happiness, I wonder if the definition was ever theirs to begin with. I feel sad at the hopelessness, how at some point of their life they were brainwashed to believe their happiness lie in somebody else’s happiness.I feel bad that now even they don’t understand what they need, how they have been programmed to be somebody they never were. And I realise, I too occasionally, nop.. frequently is making use of some weird label somebody have given them. And I feel guilty and i remain guilty changing nothing, because somewhere deep inside, even I find it convenient to believe that it was their choice and to an extent, I feel right. May be that’s what everyone of us think. May be that’s what Vikram thought.

And that’s when Amrita tells us, it’s not okay. Amrita tells us you too deserve respect and happiness, that no matter the gender, everybody do. Amidst the silence, even a small voice could be loud enough to knock people back to their senses, to let people around you know that everyone else and you deserve better. And for me, Amrita was that voice.
Thanking the whole team for the wonderful experience!!!

Chhapaak – Lesson’s Learnt

Watching a movie could take you through a roller coaster of emotions which may or may not be real . So making it clear I am not here to showcase my sympathy on how hard Malti’s life had become on a fine morning so unexpectedly. I believe I am in no place to feel with her and honestly I might never know how it feels to be her. We are two different people , living very different lives and it amuses me that there is still so many things me and many others could learn from her. Many instances in the movie had made wonder, think and I am here to talk about them

1. Acid attacks or any such brutality has nothing to do with gender, so does humanity. There is parveen who helps Babbu to throw acid on Malti’s face and life, who is a woman and then there is amol, fighting for a cause with all his might for something he has or never will go through. So basically, there is no point on pinning this on gender.

2. Evil people and corroded hearts could scar your faces, shame your body, attack you physically, but they would never be able to touch your soul, scar your spirit or break you down unless you let them.

3. Beauty has nothing to do with faces. It never had. Beauty is, was and will always be something more ethereal. And once you find that beauty of yours, once you find that beauty within, there is no looking back. There would be nothing pulling you back.

4. Nobody can take away your right to be happy. You decide the hours to be happy, you decide the things to celebrate. Things might have gone wrong, there might still be a long way to go, but nothing should stop you from enjoying the present. When Malti stands up to Amol and says, ” Why are you doing all the drama when I who was attacked decides to celebrate” literally gave me goosebumps.

5. And Last but not the least, Love. Malti’s courage to love again when she was let down by love in a courtroom. Her honesty in her emotions, her confidence in expression has literally shook me. But the scenes also made me think that someday, love that is meant to be would somehow find its way.We could make mistakes, we could stumble upon the wrong person, but then no matter what happens, we will end up with the right person. ( I exist to be a hopeless romanticist).
Dear Deepika,
Thank you for giving life to yet another wonderful character. From the way you shiver when your mother applies medicine on you, the way you scream on seeing your face on the mirror the first time, to the time you stood strong in face of adversities, life and love, you took my heart. And You are a wonderful artist.
Dear Laxmi and many others,
I just want to tell you , ” I LOVE YOU”

Parasite

Somebody once told me that no stories are new. It’s just we write it different.That’s the thing with Korean movies and dramas. No matter how cliche the story sounds, how old the idea seems there would always be something that makes you think, something that feels fresh or a dialogue, a sentence or a scene that manages to stay. And Parasite is no exception.

The family consists of four- A father, mother, daughter and a son.Their life is just as damp as the basement they live in, the views just as blurred through the dusty window and still life kept pissing to it’s heart’s content at the door just like the lousy drunken neighbor. They had no particular plan. The first question was of survival and they did the best they could.
But then a sudden ray of ambition smashes it’s way through Min ( Son’s friend)and the stone that is supposed to bring materialistic wealth.From there they see a light, and the light paves way to plans, bigger dreams, goals, comfort , ambition and more and eventually the so called light makes their life even darker.


In between, there is so many thing that grabs your heart – for instance, how the girl reminds how they don’t have the luxury to worry about others, how the simple minded, nice looking employers of theirs hated the way they smell. The scene where the father, daughter and son is hiding under the table is a reality check on how some people were desperately holding on to their lives to get through one more day, doing all they could, whereas there was people, simple, may be nice but fake, peacefully lying on the coach enjoying all pleasures of life taking life too easy. And the question arises, Do they both deserve what they have?. They get cruel as they have something to lose, they toss people like them into the basement in hope of preserving something that was never theirs to begin with and in return, they end up losing everything that was theirs. Their home gone, confidence washed away and peace shattered. Still the stone, the burden of ambition clings on to him.

The conversation the father and the son have, lying among many others of their kind
brings out whole lot of emotions, life lessons and finally self doubt and the question of existence. And that’s when the real distinction comes clear. The answer that no matter how hard you try to climb up the social ladder, there would always be things pulling you back, stamping you down. There would be inner voices of doubt, fitting in and the strange comradeship you feel with people of your kind you never knew . Because the core you are made of is very different. Just like the way you smell different, just like the way you see things different, you feel different as well. May be that’s why , in a moment’s time and in the turmoil of emotions, the father stabs the employer at his heart and flees. May be the last ounce of self respect he had for him and his kind has got him real bad.
The movie leaves us with a lot of doubts and questions. It left us with choice on what is right or wrong. And may be a little hope as well. It left us with a man sending out the Morse code without fail each night and the son who brings up a new plan on how he will buy the house and his father could just walk out one day.

While You Were Sleeping – The Best Emotional Points !! Love , Pain, Righteousness or whatnot

1. Prosecutor Son – Organ Donation / Autopsy

To a mother, her child would always be the first priority. It’s more than just a simple conflict when a mother has to choose between her child and another. In this particular scene between the prosecutors, prosecutor son shook our hearts with, “Not as a prosecutor, but as a parent”

2. Cry of The Father – Dilemma

It’s never easy for a parent to let go of his child when there is even a slight sign of life.  He might act tough, but the pain he has to go through is unimaginable. Leaving his son to death is nothing less than giving up his hopes and dreams about his son that he had till date. Giving up hope for giving hope to many is not an easy thing to do. And the scene and the actor brilliantly conveyed those both.

3. When choices are to be made

To bestow your only hope and dream for people you love is not simple. It’s even harder when those people themselves want you to run away. Han Woo Tak, a police officer who considers death better than quitting his job, gives up his job for the truth to be revealed. He teaches us that even though it’s never easy to follow the path that is right, there is pleasure and goodness waiting out there to surprise you. The dilemma of choosing between friendship and truth over his dream is wonderfully portrayed.

4. Happiness even in death

Death is not something to be afraid sounds so plain in words. But being able to smile at your last moment is truly difficult. Inspector Choi has taught not to cry too much, not to beat yourself for a long time, but to never forget what happened. Living in debt of something that was not even his fault, living his life making up for his brother’s sin, he showed us that love is something to be accountable for.

5. Love that expects no returns

When most K-dramas were filled with pitiful second leads who cried and begged for the love of the female lead, this drama depicts the beauty of love unsaid, Love that expects the happiness of the person you love. The purity and innocence of Woo Tak’s love for Nam Hong Joo are depicted in the scene.

6.  Being Alone Together

There would always be times when you wish to be alone but not alone either. All you need is a person to sit by your side and do nothing. A person to lean on always gives us the will to move on and to believe that this too shall pass. The scene at the funerals made us feel the warmth of love and at the same time injects the longing to find that special somebody. Painful yet so comforting!!.

Here is something extra for you for going through all those sad moments. This will surely make you watch this drama.

PS: My personal opinion is not to take such handsome, cute people in the police department. There is much probability in the increase of female criminals!!!!

THAT’S ALL FOR MY FIRST POST…THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!!!!