as I see it

He loved riding and was gushing through on his Electric Blue Yamaha R15 from his workplace at IFFCO Chowk, back home. Steering through the road filled with Santros, Pulsars, Wagon Rs, Accents, Passions and what not, he was enjoying riding under the cloudy sky. Though he knew he would get drenched, but still he periodically looked up to see the clouds, to see if it could pour. Riding his bike was this one thing that for the duration of the trip, took away all the worries of his life and filled his inner self with a feeling of joy.

Not soon after, he noticed a Ravishing Red New Karizma ZMR right next to him, possibly just out of Ambience Mall or one of the various MNCs near Shankar Chowk. No words exchanged, the two riders just exchanged glances, at each other and at the bikes. It didn't take much time when the two seemed to be experiencing an adrenaline pump, intensity of which was being made vocal through their bike's engine sounds.

What happened next is easy to guess. Steering through the roads, you see the R15 just behind the Karizma and in the time that passed by when you blinked, the R15 stood ahead with the Karizma not far behind. Signal after signal, the two seemed to be tied with a rope or maybe the bikes experienced some magnetic force of attraction.

What appeared a bit unusual was the act by the Karizma rider, who was trying to pull out his phone from his left pocket and at the same time signaled in the air, seemingly to everybody, but directed to the R15, that he has a call and would halt. Why? What was the intention and what was the need? Nonetheless, the R15 acknowledged the signal and counter-signaled that he would go for a fuel refill at the Petrol Pump 50m ahead. Fuel filling was done and the R15 rider smiled to himself, thinking about the short trip that was over.

But it wasn't. As soon as he came out of the pump, he saw the same Karizma waiting out for him. The two started again, but this time together, with no thought of staying ahead of the other. Enjoying their ride, moving past the heavy after office traffic they were joined by another teammate. A CBZ Extreme. What unseen force was bringing them altogether? And though they were on their super than usual bikes, they weren't even over speeding. In fact, with the roads densely populated with vehicles and the inner thought of riding safe and responsibly, they didn't even cross 60 km/hr.

They continued their ride, together, one signal to another, being separated by cars, buses due to space constraints and coming out ahead, back again, together. All this continued for another 30-40 minutes when at the Jhandewalan Hanuman Temple, the CBZ slowed down and signaled that he would go right. The R15 and Karizma were to go to the left. But this wasn't the first junction they were crossing. All this while they kept moving, one after the other and together, crossing signals, small turning lanes and intersections. Then what suddenly made the CBZ feel that it was NOW that their paths split. Here, on this junction. Strange.

Through their helmets they exchanged smiles, a thumbs up gesture and they continued. CBZ on its way to the right and the other two on the left. Another 15 minutes and at the Karampura Chowk the Karizma signaled its intention to take right and slowed down to halt before the turn. What again got this sense of different direction? They had crossed another few junctions after the departure of their third team mate but the thought of possibility of different paths didn't pass by their minds. Why?

Again an exchange of smiles, a tap of fists, the Karizma steered right while the R15 continued straight. An unsaid, unplanned bond or a sense of belongingness did exist here. A sense of understanding when it came to different directions was on display here. When humans try hard to sail through relationships, maintain a level of understanding, talk out unwanted problems and knowingly make efforts to scrap out rough patches amongst them, even in blood relations, what created the unplanned link between the three strangers? Where did the understanding creep in from? What constructed, transformed and developed 'The Connexion', the connexion between strangers, between strangers who didn't even exchange their names?

To start with, let me declare that this is not a April Fool's Day Joke. This is something I saw today and found weird.

So how many of us have heard of the brand Tasty Treat? And how many of us know that it is actually a brand introduced by Food Bazaar itself?

I just went to Food Bazaar today and was surprised to see this:

Its their own brand. Why do they have to show it like this? MRP was set by them and "Our Price" is again them. Where from the savings of Rs. 20? I am not really aware if the Tasty Treat brand products are available outside Food Bazaar but even if they are, this display is weird. Both "MRP" and "Our Price" are indeed Food Bazaar's price. Are they trying to fool customers?

In any case, outlets like Food Bazaar and Star Bazaar are coming up with their own in-house brands for almost every category now (especially food) and in some cases the packaging is so similar to the other popular product in the category to easily deceive someone to actually be the 'popular' brand.

Now, on top of that, doesn't a display like this make the consumer feel that it actually is something which is otherwise expensive and on discount here? Nice tactic, but is it right, given that both prices are their own. They could have easily written 500 instead of that 75 also then. What do you think?

Suddenly, the computer fever is back. Its all back again as during my engineering days. Lot of time being spent with my computer :)

All of a sudden, there is too much of Internet Internet around me. Never before have I received so many comments on my blog posts as now. Mostly SPAM. So many, that I was compelled to turn on Comment Moderation (I didn't really want CAPTCHA).

The enthralling wave or rather the 'keeda' of having my own domain name got me www.prateekkhurana.in just before my final exams and yes I spent more time with it than studying! And what about it? The 'keeda' to put up an 'Under Construction' Page. The 'keeda' to use SEO and get it on the first page of Google Search. And tada! 15 days since I bought the domain and its up there - Page 1, Result Number 3 (I hope it stays there or rises even up by the time you click it)

So, anyways, not much of Twitter happening, but am playing a lot with Photoshop, once again and experimenting with a lot of softwares (as I used to) and they do some fantabulous jobs. Moreso, connecting the phone with the laptop and playing around. An old, almost dead phone with some jazzy software.

I am loving it all over again. Yes, I am. :)

But right now, what I have to do is work on my website and get rid of the under construction page before the countdown ends :)

The title of this post is a very disappointing attempt at expanding the acronym NEWS but then I guess it is better than what is being delivered to us in the name of NEWS. As me and a lot many have seen it from their very own eyes, heard it using their very own ears, news items like "Commisioner Sahab ka kutta khoya/mila" or the "Chajje pe billo rani", we very well understand and often ridicule the horrendous use of a medium (TV Channels) to showcase ridicule! Maybe, it makes commercial sense, maybe a large set of people love such items for the entertainment quotient or anything else, but weren't you supposed to be a NEWS Channel, a channel that I assumed will give in important happenings around the world or was it that I made baseless assumptions.
Anyhow, as if the 'Vishesh's and the 'Breaking News's and more such unintentional humor wasn't enough we enter another era. As we all very well know the virus like spreading infection of joining Twitter, especially amongst the celebrities and well-known public figures. No, I have no qualms against this, absolutely not and I myself follow quite a few of them including Shahrukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Pritish Nandy, Gul Panag, Shashi Tharoor, Barkha Dutt, Riteish Deshmukh and some more. Now they are here for whatever reasons, its there business, I can choose to follow them or not.
Now a point here. Undoubtedly the small list of the much larger pool I gave above have huge fan following, love, respect from people on or not on Twitter. Of them, those who actually are on Twitter are likely to follow them so they are expected to have a large following. And as it was, it perhaps is a very big thing (a dream come true for many of us) if a celeb actually replies you and addresses you with your twitter alias in his tweet. It was big even for someone like Barkha Dutt who re tweeted (forwarded) someone else's tweet mentioning that she was the first one whom Shah Rukh Khan himself replied on twitter.
It is Barkha Dutt's personal account, she felt like and she did it. Fair Enough. But there are news channels on Twitter as well including CNN IBN, which I duly respect and liked. A recent update on CNN IBN has the headline "SRK tweets in support of 'unpaid' hockey player".
Now this is just too much, these channels are now following whatever celebrities write on twitter and are making news items out of them. There just doesn't exist any other news or what? Is it the most interesting and most important thing. An opinion by SRK, though well respected, but should it become a NEWS ITEM? And its not for the first time, I remember news items about celebrities joining Twitter, one update after the other.
Even if I try to justify the news story on Shashi Tharoor's 'cattle-class' tweet or the Chetan Bhagat's FPS-3Idiots opinions, which in itself was lame, I don't think I can justify this SRK one. How can you just make news stories out of ANYTHING, EVERYTHING or rather NOTHING!
I just don't understand where we are heading. As if the Kutta Billi stories weren't enough that now a less than 140 character tweet from a celebrity is molded into a full fledged news story. Ridiculous.

I have never written movie reviews on this blog before. In fact, I have never written movie reviews before, but this movie is just brilliant and so I feel compelled to write about it, to try and convince you to watch it, to have a great time and to laugh like never before. Yes, I am talking about 'De Dana Dan'. Have seen many Priyadarshan movies, but this one was amazing. So many characters, so many and all adding to their bit to have made tears flow out of my eyes laughing. Like all other movies, the central theme to this movie is also CONFUSION but its different. It is different in the way it has been executed, scripted, the way one event has been connected to other, the way one character is linked to other. Sheer brilliance.

The first 45 minutes or so are drape, I would now say, setting the foundation for a laughter hurricane, but by the time we enter the second half, you just can't stop but LAUGH and burst out more, LAUGHING. So much so, that you miss many dialogues, amidst the 'surround sound' and echoes of laughter! This movie is based around cash, characterssss and confusion and hats off to everyone for making it the way they have. I remember laughing as much (or less) last in some scenes during Garam Masala.

A movie which has Akshay Kumar, didn't bore you even when Akshay Kumar was locked in a cupboard for appreciable amount of time. In fact, you didn't even realize that he was there. They have made people laugh in otherwise seemingly very ordinary scenes. Comedy out of nothing! And that was just the start, as I have said before, moving in to the second half, you may just slip out of your chair and actually experience 'LMAO'

I just loved the movie and would not mind watching it again and maybe again and then probably again and then give it the stature of 'Hera Pheri'. I think it deserves a 4/5 (being conservative), provided you leave your brains at home or maybe that is not required. There isn't enough time to try and use your brains, too many funny scenes lined one after the other.

I hope you do go and watch the movie and enjoy it as well. Good Night!

as I see it

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