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Devika Johri's invitation is awaiting your response

Devika Johri would like to connect on LinkedIn. How would you like to respond? Devika Johri Senior Manager at Star India Confirm you know Devika You received an invitation to connect. LinkedIn will use your email address to make suggestions to our members in features like People You May Know. Unsubscribe If you need assistance or have questions, please contact LinkedIn Customer Service. © 2014, LinkedIn Corporation. 2029 Stierlin Ct. Mountain View, CA 94043, USA

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I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. - Devika Confirm that you know Devika Devika Johri Senior Manager at Star India India You received an invitation to connect. LinkedIn will use your email address to make suggestions to our members in features like People You May Know. Unsubscribe Learn why we included this. If you need assistance or have questions, please contact LinkedIn Customer Service. © 2014, LinkedIn Corporation. 2029 Stierlin Ct. Mountain View, CA 94043, USA

The Buck stops here.

Enough of passing the buck….!

It took a tragedy of huge proportions to truly unite India, sadly though only for a brief while. Hardly had the immediate danger passed, that the ‘blame game’ started. From the opposition who blamed the ruling party, to the ruling party who blamed some of their own, media who blamed the intelligence, who in turn pointed fingers at the Navy… It seems as if India has adopted the mindset “Everyone thought someone else would do it”. And the biggest shirker of responsibility is the Indian populace itself. We are equally culpable.

I don’t mean this in the clichéd sense of ‘we don’t vote for the right people’ and the other trite phrases often used. I mean it in the sense of taking responsibility of the things that happen to us. Have we ever stopped to think just how big a force would be required to protect a sixth of the world’s entire population every minute each day, given that this population doesn’t make matters easy? How many times have we got irritated because security guards at malls were frisking us and checking our bags? Have any of us ever wondered that the perfunctory way in which our bags get checked would also be the way gun-toting strangers’ bags get checked? Do we deem fit to inform authorities when we come across broken metal detectors or do we think someone else will do it? At a much deeper level, how many of us have used ‘shortcuts’ to get our driving licenses and other basic identity proofs? What makes us think that only people like us can duck the system to our advantage?

I am not pontificating here, just thinking of ways in which I can make my life more secure. Without getting into another ‘blame game’ myself, I want us to realize that we cannot always blame ‘others’ for our plight. People might ask what chance we stand against AK-47s and grenedes, but the larger point here is not that. The point is that we, along with the Government, our forces, our media et. al. are equally responsible for creating a country of passive zombies, which provides anonymity as an ideal cover for those who seek it. People over here feel emboldened to carry out any nefarious activities without fear of impunity.

All of us have got into the habit of ‘pop-protests’ wherein we write to papers expressing our solidarity, light candles at the Gateway of India – basically do things that make us feel good but do nothing concrete to actually improve our lot. And sooner or later, even this enthusiasm dies out…

Enough of ducking responsibility… I don’t want to repeat the trauma of those 48 hours and constantly live in the shadow of fear if I can help it. Imagine entrusting my everyday life to ‘others’ who don’t even know of my existence except on paper. I have a few ideas about what I can do, does anyone out there have any suggestions?

The buck stops here.

O SO done, but OK!

Kudos to SRK, FK, OK and whichever other Ks were there in the film 'Om Shanti Om'! They have managed to pull off a very average idea, script, story…and how!

The film doesn't really contribute anything new to Bollywood in any sense, it only derives its stuff from a score of stories, dialogues, acting styles, dresses that people have grown up with and therefore identify with. Clichés, spoofs, some chronologically incorrect settings, a standard Bollywood plot of the 70s, typical dresses – Farah Khan has used every trick in the trade to make it an out and out Bollywood Masala movie.

It is the typical 3 hour 'time-pass' movie that people go to the hall to enjoy, leaving their minds behind and disbelief suspended. As the heroine puts it beautifully 'Jab tum 50 maale ki building se koodte ho, tab main vishwas karti hoon; jab tum 100 gundon se akele ladte ho, tab main vishwas karti hoon!!!' ('I believe you when you jump off a 50 storied building, I believe you when you fight 100 goons singlehandedly')   

However the plot, dialogues and a good performance by debutante Deepika notwithstanding, I don't think anyone else could have pulled off the thing besides SRK. And that is because he has practically the entire industry supporting him. The scale would be grand if nothing else. Take out the 31 stars song, the Filmfare awards scene, guest appearances by practically anyone who's someone in the industry, 'that 70s show' and the much touted 6/8 pack (whatever) of SRK, and you would be left with nothing much to write home about.

So ultimately it boils down to scale, masala, a li'l bit o'everything for everyone, SRK the entertainer, time pass and the quintessentially Bollywood HAPPY ENDING!!

(PS: By the way, possibly the last point is the reason why Saawaria failed, especially as the somber ending might not have gone with the festive Diwali mood)

Food Fantasies - Part 1!!

Sheets of lasagna covered with Bolognese
Layers of white sauce with oodles of thick cheese
Herbed chicken cooked with a dash of seasoning
These are a few of my favourite things!   

Warm, creamy, melted cheese in the fondue pot
Crisp breadsticks, fried potato wedges served hot
Forkfuls of hot wedges with cheese dripping
These are a few of my favourite things!  

The Blogger's eye!

“What is the big deal about blogging?”

I find I have no real answers to this question, frequently posed to me by the uninitiated (a.k.a. non-bloggers)! I am unable to explain to them why exactly a blog works, especially for me.

I could give them the quintessential ‘consumer speak’ answers that I have picked up during the course of my job…

“It’s your public diary”, “It’s your personal space”, “It helps you express yourself”

[er…perhaps it might just help if I mention at this point that part of my job is to understand those poor dissected, partially dehumanized and totally un-individualized souls labeled ‘consumers’ my marketers! The answers mentioned above are some culled out from a research!]

…but, jokes apart, I think somewhere these statements seem to be missing the point.

A blog does all of this, is all of these but somewhere it does something more for me, something which is difficult to explain.

How do I explain that as a person, I am myopic (both literally and metaphorically!), but as a blogger I am vision magnified? That no small incident in my life goes unnoticed?

How do I explain a blog allows me to revel in and review my life at the same time? That while part of me is experiencing the event, part of me is observing it?

How do I explain the fact that at times I become a bystander in my own life? That at times, when I am watching a movie, I am forming a blog entry in my mind rather than an opinion?

How do I explain that a blog introduces an observer in my life who sometimes helps me put things in perspective?

Hmmm…actually not bad, maybe I am getting there. Maybe I could now explain some things to the non-bloggers.

About how, for me, the blog started out as something that helped me express my opinion and has now become something that helps form my opinion.

Yes. That is it.

Ok non-bloggers, if you happen to stray to this site, I have my answers ready!!