The Pensive

It was not just the free pop corn , coke or the mouth watering chocolates distributed just before the show started or the red carpet adorned by many bubbling enthusiasts, pretty damsels that made the day special. "The croods" premiere show was special as the experience of watching the movie along with those who actually were a part of the team responsible for the excellent output was new and pretty exciting. My husband works with "Dreamworks" and among the benefits of working at a creative place with creative folks one is getting free passes for the premiere show of "The Croods" in India. I was more excited as my mom ,dad and bro visited us at the right time and were able to make it to the show! We all geared up to reach  the "Urvashi"  theater  at Lal Bagh on time. We were invited with many warm smiles , a bunch of chocolates , hot pop corn and coke! The  theater  was jam packed with all the employees , their kids , friends, relatives and...

This is my signature dish as it is majorly made during the festival month of Ramadan at home and I love it and learnt  how to make it for the first time from my husband and the below is a detailed procedure of how he makes it. Hyderabadi Haleem is a world famous delicacy which is mostly made in the Ramzan month when Muslims observe fasting. The taste is heavenly and this is the best food to break the fast. After the nawaabi Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani, this is the delicacy which is craved by all. One can see the haleem out lets like Pista House or Sarvi in Hyderabad crowded during Ramzan month. Lot of hard work goes in its making . The below is a recipe of haleem where you can try it at home and the effort will not go waste  as the outcome would be brilliant if cooked precisely. The below Haleem recipe is by my husband who is a great cook  .  We used Fortune Rice bran oil to make this ! Please read on. Ingredients : ·      ...

Title:  F?@K Knows. Author:  Shailendra Singh. Publisher: Rupa Publication India. Price:  Rs 195/- If you are from south you might be knowing about a festival by name  "Ugadi" which is also called "Gudipadwa" in Maharashtra or may be "Bisakhi" in Punjab. I have tasted the special Ugadi pickle and it’s a different feeling when you taste it. It has 6 different tastes like sour, bitter, salty , sweet so on. Symbolically it marks the beginning of the new-year and a new age with all flavors of life blended in one pickle! Reading Shailendra Singh's F?@KKnows gave me the same feeling :) The title intrigued me and the introductory note seemed attractive. Finally I clicked that button to review and have no regrets at all as I enjoyed reading it !! Subtle lesson for life & a humorous take on all the shit load we bear!  An excerpt from the book- " You can only make fun of something which is popular - otherwise the joke ain't funny ...

Sophie and Meena are friends from school . Meena came back to India after school as her father's work-tenure in Newyork was over. Till date Sophie and Meena stay in touch through facebook , emails and phone calls but they never actually get time to talk for long . One fine day after watching Sophie's pics Meena randomly writes a poem for her which goes like below. Dear Meena, After ages I returned home from office very early today and with a hot cup of tea by my side thought to write a poem for you as I was thinking about you. Hope you like it :) "To Sophie!" The first day at the school in the U.S.A. I entered the class and was placed beside you. I was tensed and became mute and froze as I had no clue. You broke the ice and introduced yourself with a sweet smile and a hand shake. There was no looking back after that as we spoke everything and did not fake! You were my role model and my best friend in school. It’s not just your looks or ...

Happy women's day to all the women. Happy women's day to all the men who are with women to get rid of the bad o"men". A happy women's day is to not  to just brag about the day. A happy women's day is not just some thing to show off and say! The real happy women's day is the day when she is actually happy and not in fray. The real happy women's day is when there is no looming cloud which is grey. Let's take a small oath today that tomorrow should be better in every possible way. Let's just join our hands with the hope of a better society and let's get together and pray ! Hope the day comes when she eventually gains respect from all. Hope to make her point she always doesn't need a brawl. Hope both the genders stand on the same plank and there would neither be rise nor fall. Hope a woman will not be objectified and treated only like a pal! The woman is your mother who thinks you are her best creation. Even Go...

Originally published at     "The Views Paper"   A person goes to a two hour movie to get refreshed and no one can steal those two hours of virtual happiness and imagination from him, provided the movie is good enough. Similarly a person creates an online profile with variety of names ranging from “Neo-The one” to “Being Human” reflecting his thoughts, desires and favourites. Like Neo from the movie  Matrix  learns that Trinity and Morpheus dwell on human bio-electricity and have the ability to plug and unplug humans, we all have learnt to find virtual reality in the online world. No one wants to show their real face to the masked people in the online world of blogs, messengers and social networks. I  read  somewhere that “Facebook is all about projecting your mediocre moments as awesome ones.” It is so true. Now, that almost everybody is addicted to the internet and social networks, it suddenly becomes a necessity to flaunt your happy and ...