May Photo A Day Challenge :Day 5 - Paper

The Day 5 prompt for "May Photo A Day Challenge : A challenge that will change your life" is 5. Paper: Is it a bill? Newspaper? A letter or a heartfelt card you received? Find paper around you.

Where ever I see I am finding papers after seeing this prompt :-/. In the trash , in the cup board , at the door step (news paper) , current bill , telephone bill , Aadhaar card , pass port , the most important paper- the currency note and what not. It felt like I am sitting in the stack of papers but the one paper/ poster which caught my attention is below. 

The below paper poster adorns my tv room . I bought it at Connaught place- Delhi from a road side vendor. I love the guy in the poster. Any guesses who it is? I love what ever is written on it. It shows attitude in full bloom which is much needed many a times. I may not be always right but I am never wrong. My wrong has little right left in it even after uttering or doing it. That's how I feel some times. After all wrong is the foundation for right. Wrong gives birth to right the next time you are saying or doing it. O.K. I don't want to make this a lengthy post so here you go with the pic of the day below!

Dont we all think so ?! ;)

So recognized who it is ? I always think that if at all I adopt a pet it should be like Garfield. We have a ferocious cat at my in laws place which is full of attitude. It has its own den and is extremely lazy.It thinks of itself as a tiger which makes it more adorable. I love Jim Davis and I have Garfield books too :)

I am so glad I made this pic my today's post. If interested in Garfield comics go to this site - http://www.garfield.com/ to know more. Here is a comic for you all.

One more paper pic which I feel like uploading is Malaysian currency note - Ringgit. I hastily clicked it before spending and before getting currency exchanged in Singapore. The below one is a 10 ringgit note. Bank Negara means National Bank and they have the King's pic on the note :) 1 Ringgit = 18 rupees (Indian currency) approximately! Have a good day all of you.

May Photo A Day Challenge - Day 4 : In My Cup

The Day 4 prompt for "May Photo A Day Challenge : A challenge that will change your life" is 4. In my cup: What are you drinking today?

A morning is incomplete to me with out a hot steaming cup of tea and biscuits . I have sore throat now and nothing else feels better than the "Ginger tea". My pic for today's prompt - In my cup is below.

Tea by "Me" :) find at Instagram -"In my cup"

I am a born tea lover. I was actually waiting for many years to be qualified to drink tea . At some point my parents felt I was qualified enough and tea became a part of my life since then. My day is dull with out a tea and I am a chai specialist. I make all kinds of tea and I got a bunch of compliments for making "the best" tea. 

Tea time is the best me time to me as so many thoughts simmer in my head while sipping !!

May Photo A Day: DAY 3 -This is really good!

The Day 3 prompt for "May Photo A Day Challenge : A challenge that will change your life" is 3. This is really good!: Find something good in your life and take a photo. 
There are many things which make me feel good ;) but after thinking for long I was able to short list 3 things which make me feel good and happy :) 

Rain for sure makes all of us feel good. The sudden drizzles in the scorching summer heat make me feel goooood ! Even now its cloudy in Bangalore.

Taken few days back. Rain from my kitchen window.
 Find the click at instagram--- "Rain drops"

Early mornings make me feel equally good. The silence when the whole world is refusing to wake up as the sun just starts rising makes me feel its my moment !!

Clicked from the same kitchen window
 early in the morning. At instagram - "Early morning"

Last but not the least as I am new to cooking if some thing I make tastes yummy it is a big achievement to me and makes me feel tooo good . Food is one thing which makes all of us feel good :) Below is a pic of spicy chicken and Andhra style rasam made  by me on a weekend!

Chicken and Rasam. Find at Instagram - "Cullinary"

Ek thi Daayan - An unforgettable witch!

Originally published at Views Paper - http://theviewspaper.net/ek-thi-daayan/

The below one is an unedited version of my review.

Director: Kannan Iyer

Producer: Vishal Bhardwaj , Ekta Kapoor , Shobha Kapoor

Music Director: Vishal Bharadwaj

Lyricst: Gulzar

                                                                                                                        

CAST:

Emraan Hashmi as Magician BoBo 

Konkona Sen Sharma as Lisa Dutt 

 Kalki Koechlin as Lisa Dutt

Huma Qureshi as Bobo’s lover Tamara.

The cast and crew of  Ek thi Daayan tempted me to go watch it asap.  Emran Hashmi who proved in recent past that he is not just the kissing king , Konkana sen who came back after a long hiatus , Huma Qureshi the Gangs of Wasseypur fame and needless to say a good actress like Kalki Koechlin pulled me towards the theatre.  Ek thi Daayan in English means there was once a witch. The terms like Witch or Dracula fill a sense of fear in heart. Konkana Sen as the Daayan or Diana made me jump off my seat a couple of times in the first half. I closed my eyes while watching Konkana’s eerie entry where she is not shown vividly like in any other horror movie! The story starts with our great magician Bobo (Emran hashmi) performing harmful magical tricks in Kingdom of dreams. Everyone looked promising and apt for their roles. Tamara played by Huma is a perfect partner to Bobo who tries to end his fear and hallucinations but they never stop. Bobo’s childhood and her sister’s mysterious death haunt him all the years and the wicked daayan doesn’t come back as she actually never left his side.

Konkana looks so evil and stole the show in the first half. I actually checked if the elevator in my apartment had the “6” button in it. Thankfully we had no sixth floor. To know more you should watch the movie and know the significance of “666.” Visesh Tiwari performed brilliantly as the kid Bobo and his innocent sister and the horrible end to the first half makes one squirm! First time director Kannan Iyer, writer Mukul Sharma and the writer/producer Vishal Bharadwaj excellently managed the story till interval and succeeded in scaring the shit out of viewers. Post intermission Kalki enters as Lisa dutt confusing the already confused Bobo little more. Kalki’s role and the dialogues were not up to the mark and the sudden twist diluted the spook quotient and turned the movie to a humorous watch. I shouted in the first half and laughed loud in the last scene. I wish I was transfixed to my seat till the end. The only fault of horror movies in India is analyzing each and every aspect and frame leading to a haywire end. Few things should be left unsolved!

Needless to say the ending was disappointing. All in all the performances of actors and actresses were top notch and raised the bar of quality level horror movies in India. Pawan Malhotra was natural as Bobo’s bewitched dad in the first half and Rajtava Dutta as the puzzled hypnotist was perfect for the script! Saurabh Goswami's cinematography is worth applause. Music by Gulzar is good. I am tuned to yaaram song from the day I watched the movie . Tote Ud gaye is fun to watch. . All the ladies are seductive but Konkana for sure ruled. I now watch behind my back in a lift! She is one hell of a witch whom you will remember for years

The elevator, lizard and all the subtle hints of diabolism made me sleep deprived for two days. I was actually scared when power went off in the mid of the night. As a final verdict I can say the movie is better than many horror movies made in India in the past. If only the ending was as good as the beginning I would have stated that this is the best horror movie so far!

My rating : 3/5

Below is a glimpse of the movie and  my favorite song Yaaram !

May Photo A Day: DAY 2 - Morning ritual

The Day 2 prompt for "May Photo A Day Challenge : A challenge that will change your life" is 2 . Morning ritual: What’s something you do most morning. Shoot and share it. My early morning ritual these days is gymming but as I forgot to shoot it ;) I want to display what I do most of the morning. With so many challenges I am glued to my blog and others blogs these days hence my morning ritual is browsing through blogs with a bowl of oats !

Find my click at Instagram - http://instagram.com/p/YzJj5BqF2k/

May Photo A Day: DAY 1 - I bought this :)

I am just out of the hectic A to Z challenge and I guess my KRAZY nerves are tickled like never before. I was informed about this challenge by my blogger friend "Shilpa" and I thought I would also take it up. This is my first post for "May Photo A Day Challenge : A challenge that will change your life"

Today's prompt is - 1. I bought this!: Share a photo of something you purchased, whether it be today, recent or something long ago.

Today I have two brand new things to show off. First one is a pair of daily wear sandals I bought just today. Black Bata sandals which are very comfortable and pretty . Below is a snap shot.

Second one is some thing "we bought" not just me ;) I cant afford a car yet ! The below brand new TOYOTA "Etios" in red is brought by my dad and we are still amused by its beauty

Lets meet with a new pic tomorrow ;)
Also find my pics on Instagram at : http://instagram.com/p/Yxo529KF6q/ and http://instagram.com/p/YxuL7QKFxa/

"Z" for "Ze end" and "Zillions of Thanks!" - My A to Z reflections post : The April Experience

Before I embarked on this journey of  "A to Z" I was skeptical , conscious and little scared as I felt I would never be able to make it to "Z". I have been blogging from nearly 5-6 years. Initially it was just a once in a blue moon blogging which started with my first poem "here" . I started with poems and slowly progressed to short stories , articles and much more. I still remember that amazing evening when a fellow team mate encouraged me by saying that I should move all the poems from email drafts and rusted folder with title "personal" on my office desktop to a personal blog :) Those were initial days of corporate life and I had my doubts. My language was bad and my skills were minimal and who will read it on my blog ?

He insisted and after too many thoughts I went ahead and created my blog on "Infyblogs" (blogs of Infosys where I worked.) I was surprised to see the response. Slowly my network increased and as every one suffers due to mundane working hours there was an instant connection and a "feel good" factor when ever I read the blogs. It was my respite in office and I can't narrate in words how much I miss that space now !  I made many friends and also enemies via blogs but all in all the roller coaster ride was a life time memory. I am still in touch with them via few groups on FB.

As part of the A2 Z challenge "Corinne" the best cheer leader ever came up with this brilliant idea of creating a group "A2Zers" which motivated me in every possible way. I loved all the Pablo tales and the rest of the posts too :). There were sunny days , balmy days and also rainy days but no complaints and no regrets as I am about to end this journey. Zillions of thanks to all those thoughtful people who bothered to read my lengthy posts till the last full stop and traveled that extra mile to comment. It definitely boosted me. I came across many bloggers out side India. I really enjoyed reading Deecoded by Dee (http://deecoded.blogspot.in/) and Kristen's blog (http://kristenhead.blogspot.in/) which were a mix of all emotions. Commenting for sure was challenging and I couldn't cover many blogs which I wanted to due to difference in timezones and due to lack of time. I did what all I could and made it sure that I atleast visit those who visited me. All in all it was a great journey and I would love to travel through the same path again next year. Have to see how it goes. I am both happy and sad that the journey is ending. Happy as I can give more attention to my husband and sleep little more :P  Sad as there won't be something entertaining and exciting to look forward to from tomorrow!

Anyway I want to keep this post as short as possible so that many read it :)   Lastly a big thanks to Corinne and also a special thanks to "laxmi" for her unfathomable support and appraisal and needless to say I love the way she weaves magic around words!

I simply loved the every day tid bits by Cynthia (http://cynthology.blogspot.in) . Will for sure be missing them. Liked Preeti's posts and her thoughtfulness to read and acknowledge back (http://mywhitewindow.blogspot.in/). Enjoyed Roshni's Kiddo's tales. Revived my own childhood ( http://www.bigaandlittlea.com/) . Got tempted by Ruchira's travelogues (http://nirjharani.blogspot.in/) . Loved the out of the box thinking of Shilpa (http://shilpaagarg.blogspot.in/) and thoroughly enjoyed her comments too :). If Sridevi's (http://sridevi-datta.blogspot.in/) poetry made me thoughtful Vidya Sury's every day posts and ideas (http://vidyasury.com) increased my knowledge! Missed her comments due to her vacation :-/.  Had fun interacting with Priya and reading her .( http://iwrite-myblog.blogspot.in/). Vinita 's posts made me laugh and also think (www.blogwatig.com). Janaki's poems were warm (http://www.janakinagaraj.com/). Few of Meera Srilakshmi's posts (http://meeraah.blogspot.in/) were my favorites! I used to wait for a thoughtful and straight from the heart post by Naina Madan (http://whilethecoffeebrews.blogspot.in/) even if it was posted late some times :) . Nandana's (http://cheerfultornado.blogspot.in/) posts are always enjoyable . Loved Shail's clicks at http://shutterbuglady.wordpress.com/- and needless to say Lucy stole the show.  Bhavya's story idea is great and am still waiting to see how it ends today i.e. the "Z" day (http://ursilence.blogspot.in) .Some day Some where's Suzy Que (http://suzysomedaysomewhere.blogspot.co.nz/) took me every day to some where  !

There are few more blogs and many more unique people whom I read as part of the challenge. The response I got back was overwhelming and inspiring. I sincerely hope this camaraderie doesnt fade . "Ze" in french means "The" ! Some native french speakers pronounce English article "the" as "Ze". Ze end always marks ze new beginning. Till then aurevoir !! ( I wish to learn french soon ;) ) and once again zillions of thanks to all the readers! Lastly two images made by me to represent the group effort we had put through out this April month!

That Pooh is definitely you Corinne:)

Miss you all !

I felt this reflects what ever I felt during the month of April hence this is my reflections post too! I will surely be taking this challenge again in April 2014 provided I have no major obstacles.

Thanks to Arlee bird and the whole  "A to Z"  family once again.
Love
Afshan.