Top 10 Romantic Movies

Just saw "Valentine's day" movie on Valentine's Day and it got me thinking which were those movies that really made me ache for love or made teary eyed but with a smile. Those simple yet touching movies that made me forget all the sad and gloomy things around. So in answer to that I came up with these ten movies. Rank them as you may like, because all are my favourites so here is my favourite top ten romantic movies.

1.) Titanic
Rose: I love you Jack.
Jack: Don't you do that, don't say your good-byes.
Rose: I'm so cold.
Jack: I don't know about you, but I intend on writing a strongly worded letter to the White Star Line about all of this. You're gonna go on, and make lots of babies, and watch them grow. You're gonna die an old lady, warm in her bed. Not here, not this night. Do you understand me? Winning that ticket, Rose, was the best thing that ever happened to me... it brought me to you. And I'm thankful for that, Rose. I'm thankful. You must do me this honor, Rose. Promise me you'll survive. That you won't give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless. Promise me now, Rose, and never let go of that promise.
Rose: I promise.
Jack: Never let go.
Rose: I'll never let go. I'll never let go, Jack.


2.) Sense and Sensibility (1995)
I do not have anything to tell because I don't conceal anything. You have nothing to tell because you do not communicate anything.





3.) Notebook
Noah: I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived: I've loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough.


4.) Ghost
Molly Jensen: I love you.
Sam Wheat: Ditto.





5.) The Holiday
I have found almost everything ever written about love to be true. Shakespeare said, "Journeys end in lovers meeting." What an extraordinary thought





6.) Notting hill
William: I live in Notting Hill. You live in Beverly Hills. Everyone in the world knows who you are, my mother has trouble remembering my name.
Anna Scott: I'm also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.


7.) Roman holiday
Ann: At midnight, I'll turn into a pumpkin and drive away in my glass slipper.
Joe: And that will be the end of the fairy tale.






8.) Pretty woman
Vivian: "I want the fairy tale"





9.) Pearl Harbour
Evelyn Johnson: I'm giving my heart to Danny. But I'll never look at another sunset without thinking of you.






10.) A walk to remember
Landon: Jamie saved my life. She taught me everything. About life, hope and the long journey ahead. I'll always miss her. But our love is like the wind. I can't see it, but I can feel it.

Its so cute...

The other day while watching the TV I saw the "save our tiger" campaign ad of a tiger cub lost in the jungle and we are left with the echoing sound of a bullet and "Uski Ma lautegi bhi ya nahi" dialog. Seeing the tiger cub I said "Its so cute" To which my husband replies "It looks cute from far".

True, they are one of the most ferocious animals roaming on the face of the earth but can anybody deny the fact that they are just absolutely beautiful and majestic. The last time I saw a real tiger up close was at Bannerghetta National Park, Bangalore. They were just happily posing for the shutterbugs like trained models. Showing off their beauty and strength by trying to climb trees, roaring, circling the van carrying us.

Coming back to that comment, it made me voice my cute tiger cub's thoughts. We say they are ferocious and dangerous but what are we to them. They never kill human beings for fun or as game. Few tigers become man-eater and that too may be because they are too sick or old or wounded to hunt. Otherwise in general they avoid human beings. And mostly the situation is created by man himself by encroaching the tiger's territory for his own purposes.

How many times have we not retaliated angrily when someone stamps us or pushes us in a rush. Then why wouldn't a speechless animal react when we threaten its very existence. It doesn't come into our habitat, we encroach its territory for agricultural or residential purposes. Thereby forcing it to come in contact with the humans.

Tigers are carnivorous animal, they have to kill their prey for their survival. That is how God made them. But why do we kill them... We, who are blessed with the most advanced brain of all species, kill them for pure fun or to adorn the house with their skin or stuffed version or for some other brutal purposes.

Once Mahatma Gandhi said, "The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated." Well the count of our National Animal has dwindled down to 1411, gradually moving towards extinction. Some food for thought.

Do you know in poll conducted by the Animal Planet tigers emerged as the World's favourite animal edging out man's best friend dog.....

Top 10 romantic novels

Let me get this straight in the beginning itself that this my personal top 10 favourite romantic novels of all time. These books are out of the limited books I have read. Any suggestions and recommendations are welcome. The idea is just to enlist some books which would help a beginner to start off somewhere.

1.) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I read this one for the first time when I was in school and since then I have read it umpteen times and still its my favourite. It has numerous adaptations and have inspired number of other works directly or indirectly. It was written and set in the 19th century but still is one the most sought after and loved books even today.

2.) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

I saw the screen adaptation of this first and then read the book. And believe me it was better than the screen adaptation anytime.

Jane Eyre is an orphan who lives with her aunt but doesn't find herself fitting in that family. Emotionally abused by her aunt and banned from the company of her cousins, she finds job to get away from her loneliness where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester.

3.) Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

The movies is good but as always book is better.

4.) Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

Who hasn't heard these characters!!! Its a romantic tragedy about two star-crossed lovers. It has been adapted numerous times for stage, film, musical and opera.

5.) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

The story revolves around Elinor and Marianne, two daughters of Mr.Dashwood by his second wife. When their father dies, the estate passes to John (an older half brother), and the Dashwood women are left in reduced circumstances. The novel follows the Dashwood sisters to thier new home, thier romances and heartbreak. Through the events in the novel, Elinor and Marianne find a balance between sense (or pure logic) and sensibility (or pure emotion) in life and love.

6.) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Its the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and around them.

7.) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

It is one of the greatest books ever written in my belief. The book is really about two stories interlaced with each other. One concerns Levin, a small time farmer trying to win over a rich Moscow society lady, while the other story, the main story, concerns Anna, a woman who has an affair with an army officer.

8.) Love Story by Erich Segal

This one is for all those who adore lovey-dovey, mushy romance. Its a romantic story between a Harward and a Radcliff student.

9.) Gone with the wind Margaret Mitchell

I read this novel first time when I was in school and I really couldn't digest the fact that Scarlett just goes around marrying people whome she doesnt love at all. And I hated the book. But recently I saw the movie and read it again. And may be the timing was right this time and I could appreciate it much better. So here it is on my top ten list, the hate at first sight and then falling in love gradually book.

10.) Twilight by Stepheni Meyer

This is the only mordern love stories that I felt like including because it just made me feel a teen once again and I felt like falling in love once again. I just fell in love with the Edward character. :)

Its a story about a mere mortal girl, Bella Swan, falling in love with a vampire, Edward Cullen. There is one dialog which summarizes it

Edward - And so the lion fell in love with the lamb

Bella - What a stupid lamb

Edward - What a sick, masochistic lion

The Power of Music

Finally I downloaded some songs on my iPod after three long months of possession. Now you must be wondering what the heck was I doing with it for three months.. Long story cut short is that I didn’t get a hold of a system to download the songs.

Anyways, finally after a long struggle I downloaded some songs. There are fast disc types, some retro music, some sad songs, some philosophical songs, different kinds. The point is there was a song for all sorts of moods.

I was listening to this fast pace number and automatically my feet were tapping, my head shaking and I was totally having a feel like am in some pub. Well its none other that latest “Dhan Ta Nan” from “Kaminey”. And right next number was very introspective kind of song “Tujhse Naraaz Nahi Zindagi Hairaan Hoon Main” from Masoom. The song just shook me out of the blast mood and made me just sit up and relax and listen it with all my heart. It took me through memory lanes of my life and made me feel that the writer of the song has put words to my feelings and poured them in those lyrics.

Wow I mean, few minutes before I was shaking my head and tapping my feet to this amazing number and in the very next few minutes I was introspecting my life. I immediately sent a text of this incident to my friend, and he simply texted back saying that’s “The Power of Music”. Its really amazing.

Most difficult relation

Who decides what’s best for us?

When we are born into this big bad world, we are provided natural guardians in form of our parents. Right from feeding us to cleaning our poop, they do everything for us. And along with that they try their level best to instill good thoughts and manners. They teach us (or rather try to) what is good and bad. But ultimately what you do when you grow up is totally your will and wish.

No matter how much they try to tell us and teach us that fire will burn and send a sharp pain through you, you still wanna touch it and experience it before you actually believe, ya it really does hurt. (How many times have I tried to catch the burning candle wick. I can still hear my mom's scolding.)

Kids are like an investment parents make. But the profit and returns and risks associated are very different from your Reliance and TATA AIG investments. Here risks are very high. Their kid’s life is at risk if they do not take proper care of their investments. Whereas returns are almost negligible coz no matter how good they might have been we still manage to find faults with them somehow (amazing na). The only profit is seeing their kids live a happy and settled life.


Somehow the concept of "Parents be Child's best friend" doesn't convince me. A child's best friend should be one among his peer, with whom he can relate to easily. Whereas parents should be someone whom he looks upto while growing up and enriching his life with the anecdotes and learnings of life. Parents need to be at authority to make us understand at times the right from wrong. They love us unconditionally and make us feel special each and every moment of our life. We need their tough love and discipline at times to make us a better person. How else can life be transpired through an insignificant wood and make it a wonderful piece of art. And the best part is that even if this piece of art becomes a distorted figure they still love it as if there is nothing more beautiful than that distorted figure.
At the same time close relationship and open communication is most important for this relationship to stay connected life long. They should respect the child's individuality and help him make right choices but not force their choices on the kid. They should say "Enough is enough" at the same time let the kids follow their dreams and passions.

It sounds so tough, I wonder how our parents did it without even showing a strain to us.
How can such a relationship be defined.

Hue and cry over nothing....

Yes thats what India is all about. We just like jump to conclusions and start an argument without even thinking twice that there can be another view point. The world can be seen from a different pair of eyes apart from your own.

Yes I do agree that everybody has a right to his/her own opinion and we can say it out aloud but why should we condemn and belittle something just because we dont like it or agree with it.

Everyday "Slumdog Millionare" is there in news for good or for worse. Some are condemning it and some are praising it to the glory.

Traffic Signal also a tale of street children goes on to win National Award. Wasn't it showcasing a poor India? Just because it was made by an Indian and it was a more sanitized version, the director was praised to glory for making hard realistic movies. He is regarded as one of the best directors we have now.

May be being a westner Boyle depicts the story with harsh realities raher than a softer approach like Bhandarkar. But isn't this poverty and slum life a reality to be dealt with? Every couple of months the BMC demolishes those shacks. Those shacks which are home for thousands of people. They too have dreams to send their kids to good schools, to feed them 3 times a meal, to provide a strong shelter from rain and sun. But its just that they are born in wrong part of the world, where everyday of life is a struggle. Struggle to find food, to keep the children away from wrong path of drugs, underworld etc....

The biggest and best known slum in Mumbai is Dharavi. It spreads across 600 acres of land and has approximately 90,000 families living there. Isn't that a harsh reality that we have to deal with. There are public toilets and water taps but poor sanitation and open sewers. The director has shown all that about these slums without sanitizing it.

I am not trying to justify that the movie is perfect and it is the best made ever. But lets give it to the director for a well edited and fast moving film. Let the creative people bask in the glory of their hard work. Lets not try to politicize a movie, after all movies are just an extension of somebody's imagination and creativity.

India my country...

Analysts predict that Indian economy will overtake US by 2050. Debates are on, with lot of pessimism and optimism in the air. It is definitely a good news that Indian economy is doing so well. But i wonder how much are we ready to take this daunting challenge.

Indian population is one sixth of the world's population. Close to 30% of the population is living below the poverty line. Thats more than 300 million people, almost the population of US.

The benefits of these economic rise is reaching only the few urban areas. Whereas the majority of the Indian population is in the villages. There are villages, where even the basic necessities like drinking water, electricity is not there. People walk 10-20 km and fetch water for their daily use.

There have been incidences when people out of sheer necessity come out of these villages for some livelihood. And some coldblooded people suck their blood out by paying them peanuts. There have been incidences when these labours are tied and kept in captivity.

We are currently concentrating only on one side of the coin, thats glorious future which the industrialists and politicians are showing. If we really want India to be a developed country and one of the super powers, I guess we need to do more than just geting more FDIs....