Let’s

Let’s chase our dreams- each one of those; and even the wildest
most.

Let’s forge our destiny, till the last, and forget our past.

Let’s cherish our present,-each day; and live it in our own
way.

Let’s salute our life, its each giving; and even its misgivings.

Let’s fight our evils that quietly reside, in our deep
inside.

Let’s kill our fears-By fearing the Greatest Might, and
doing without fear-all that is right.

Let’s love our God-by loving all, and connect with Him-our soul.

Let’s greet our life, smiling brightly, till it smiles back
to us-even slightly.

[7 June 2010]

CHALK - (2 minutes) Cute short film

A beautiful little short film, giving us a beautiful message. See for two minutes, feel your heart melt, and if you're in a position take a positive leap of faith.

The Great Gatsby (2013) Movie Review

The Great Gatsby is a love story. Nick carraway played by Tobey Maguire is narrating the story of J. Gatsby, someone who has stories behind him, who lives in a huge mansion, and stairs at the green light coming from home exactly on the other side of the river bank.

The film is directed by Baz Luhrmann who has earlier made Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet among others and many shorts. Leonardo De Caprio is on a high with some great films behind this one. The film has been made many times before, and the novel it is based on is a classic in itself. Therefore the film carries so huge expectations that it can't sustain itself even being very good.

So excellent it is. The story is the strongest part of the film. And we must F. Scott Fitzgerald for giving us a beautiful novel of Hope and Love.

The story is about Nick Carraway and how Gatsby comes in his life, someone who has big plans in life and some stories floating by. He has acquired amazing wealth from almost nowhere, and he has big plans until he meets a girl. The dialogue 'I knew that when I kiss her I'll be wed to her' is the crux of the story.

Film’s cinematography is amazing, it takes you back to those times, with some black and white effects and grains added to show you the timeline. The sets and the lifestyles shown are great. The direction and editing is top notch.

Tobey Maguire shines as a boy next door again, after Peter Parker (in the Spiderman). Leonardo does a great job as usual, and so does the rest of the cast.

Amitabh bachchan has a cameo, and as an Indian? I wish to write it felt proud to see Amit ji bring life to a character. Even though it was a miniature role, going by his reputation, he'd still have got into the skin of the character, notwithstanding the amount of role.

It’s not a perfect film, it has certain loose ends. But it's beautiful depiction of a perfect novel.

It happened to me-My school days

One of my favourite sections in a children’s magazine Tinkle [famous for its character Supandi], was “it happened to me”, where readers shared some funny experiences of their lives. Well, I have some instances from my school life which will tickle your funny bones. After reading them, you might call me dumb, which wouldn’t be fair: I was not dumb; I just understood and reacted on things a little slower than others.

When I was in first grade, my teacher lined us up in group of two, holding our hands and walking down without any noise. At the very start of my journey, I lost a shoe, but didn't stop to inform anyone. This was out of the fear of getting scolded. I walked to the school exit and informed about the loss only to my sister. I went home in a rickshaw that day.

Another incident of around the same age: my teacher had asked us to bring fifty rupees for some purpose. And my parents, for the sake of safety of the money, gave it to the school maid. Next day when teacher talked of not receiving the money and my classmates asked about it, I replied that it was given to a particular maid. That maid I pointed out, disagreed. And it confused me more than anything else in my life then. She disagreed, I protested. This went on for an hour or two, when another maid came and brought the money.

There is another incident of very stupid age. This one though is not at school. I was at my mother’s place and we were at a temple. I was a kid and used to recognize my family members only by their clothes. My mother and other women were sitting on the staircase of the temple I came out of temple and with no one noticing me; I noticed a woman with black shawl, and I put my hands across her  and said ‘Here is your hanky, mummy.’ She turned and alas! She wasn’t my mother and she was shocked; more so because she was unmarried.

In class three though I remember stepping on my English teacher’s feet, by mistake, and with our PT sir [who was so scary in those days] nearby, I was made to stand in corner for hardly few seconds, when I started crying in fear and escaped a punishment of any sort.

One of my teachers in class four commented on seeing my notebook for the first time, ‘How did you get 90% in class three? Students of my class scoring 40-50% have writing as bad as you.’ After few months, she took my notebook to dictate work from my notebook in another class, and appreciated me for neat handwriting in my examinations. Perhaps then I realized how strange this world was.

In class four only, during examination days, I was made to sit with a girl of class three. I was always so tensed about exams that I didn’t notice that she used to steal my stationery. Even if I realized, I didn’t argue because I was not sure if that pencil or rubber or whatever was actually mine. I bought new pencil colours for my drawing exam, and when I turned back, I knew she stole them and transferred them from my pencil box to hers.. But, I didn’t say a word. I submitted my drawing paper without colouring it, even after being offered colours by the same girl. In the rest of my exams, I stopped bringing a pencil box and put all stationery in my pocket.

There are more memories, and more incidents, but let that be kept for another day.   

A Beautiful Mind: Movie Review

A film based on a mathematician, a real story, is bound to be boring and yawn-inducing. Isn't it?

This film, based on Genius Mathematician and Nobel Prize Winner John Nash's life is actually made from a biography based on him.

The film, instead of being boring, is one of the most inspiration films and is full of intelligent wit and humor.

 

 

The story is about a genius mathematician who's always searching for something original and doesn't buy doing old theorems. He passes Princeton with a brilliant theorem which has many applications and gets appointed at Wheeler's. However, there things take a different turn. He gets appointed by the Big Brother of US Military for Classified Operations. Meanwhile, he falls in love and gets married to one of his students, Alicia.

The performances are spot-on. Nash (Russel Crowe) is different, and it looks here. He fits into the role of a genius mathematician who is a little different from others.  He also has ailments and there, the performance takes an even more believable turn. Alicia (Jennifer Conelly) is charming and lovable. And she does her part of being in love with a mad genius quite amazingly. Charles (Paul Bettany) as his friend is infectious in his attitude. Parcher (Ed Harris) is one of the stand-outs. He makes his character simply stand out.

Above all, I’d put the film's main heroes as cinematographer, editor and direction. Direction and Editing carry the suspense element throughout the film, and cinematography is realistic and brilliant.

The Lunchbox Film Review, directed by Ritesh Batra

The Lunchbox

Director: Ritesh Batra

Starring Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Yashvi Puneet Nagar

The Lunchbox is a first of its kind film, an Indo-French German production with a production from US also involved. The film is directed by Ritesh Batra, and stars Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead. The lead cast, though doesn’t boast of superstars, but has a backing of quality in them.

When Ila (Nimrat Kaur) prepares dinner for her husband, hoping to impress him and catch his attention, it reaches to a wrong person. Instead of Rajiv (Nakul Vaid), her husband; it reaches Sajan Fernandes, a widower who’s just taken early retirement and is in office for the last month. Through the lunchbox, they start delivering letters. In between comes Shaikh (Nawazuddin), an orphan and the successor to Sajan’s post.

The plot is simple, but sounds fresh. What captures the viewer’s attention is the attention to the minor details. From the performances to the technical finesse to the emotional angles, along with bringing the day to day problems of people to the fore; the film has come out as an unconventional take on realistic cinema.

Cinematography is beautiful. There’s not a spot you can point where the cinematographer didn’t embed the film with realism. The editing is powerful. The job of an editor is to present the story in the best possible way. The editor has achieved that. The writing is strong, the script is awe-inspiring. They’ve taken the nitty-gritties of the life and created a beautiful atmosphere where the film breaths, lives, and makes the viewer live the little tale. Direction is spot-on, and since Ritesh has both written and directed it, he deserves a double credit for this masterpiece.

Irrfan Khan has grown with every performance of his, and here too, he proves his mettle in another unconventional role. His timing is just perfect, and the little details he adds to his character show how much he prepares and leans into the character. Nimrat Kaur is beautiful, and has acted brilliantly. Her character is a little complex, being torn at various ends. And she does justice to this complex character. Nawazuddin brings energy to the scene. The film might have done without his character, arguably. But without his character, the nuances he brings to the table, the film would have been incomplete. Yashvi as Ila’s daughter is sweet.

All in all, it’s a film packed with visual delights of day to day life, of Mumbai local trains, of buses, of lunchboxes, of food, of Mumbai's famous dabbawallahs, of children, of adults, many minor things adding to an originally fresh concept. Also, it highlights the dabba-culture of Mumbai, the largest in India.

Spoorthi Meaning What?

I understand that many people would've found it difficult. That is why, I chose to blog about it. Spoorthi, which could be spelled as Spoorthy, for me, means fulfillment.Some people might call it 'positive fulfillment', others might call it 'abundant life', many might just equate it to 'inspiration'. Spoorthi meaning, ultimately, remains same in each of the versions or definitions.

The word Spoorthi comes from Sanskrit. Spoorthi meaning is usually poetical inspiration, blooming, display or manifestation according to the Sanskrit language. It's same as the aforesaid meanings, either way.

Spoorthi is not to be confused with sphoorti. Often, I've come across people telling that it's sphoorti, and not spoorthi. But spoorthi is about inspiration, sphoorti is about energy. I like to tell them that spoorthi can include sphoorti, but sphoorti is mostly about physical prowess.

Also, poorthi might mean almost the same. Poorthi means supply, or satisfaction. Spoorthi and poorthi, then are very similar. But in Sanskrit, if we had a half sound of 's' before a name, it usually enhances the meaning in a positive way.

Personally, I didn't know about the word poorthi, but after knowing more, asking more, I just realized the word exists. However, spoorthi sounds a lot more positive to me. It has a different sound that attracts me. Also, the meaning from Sanskrit, poetical inspiration, is beautiful.

Soon, we'll have someone else talking about the name, hopefully.

Couple of Yogis

The crime lies in the mind.
A couple of yogis were there on a river side. One girl came and asked them to carry her to the other side of the door.
The first yogi replied "we can't even look at women, forget touching and carrying them in arms".
The second yogi carried her in his arms and took her to the other side.
A few days later, the first yogi questioned "don't you think you did wrong that day by carrying that girl in your arms? Aren't you ashamed?"
The second yogi replied thus "I left her at the other side of the riverbed. You are still carrying her"
The truth is we do need an open mind and a free perspective.
Not my story, but someone else's, don't know whose.

Happy Birthday to the Wonder Poet

He's our main member, the picture of enthusiasm and energy (despite noting but bones being able to make it inside him, energy did). He's the poet who'll make you wonder wish these lines were written by him. My first blog for Spoorthi is for Aman Arora.

Hope we go along great lengths to make Spoorthi a huge success.
And yes, I'll make sure I see every girl carefully becauce you've given me responsibility to find a girl for you.

Stay Positive, Stay Inspired, Stay Fulfilled
Raghav

Your Daily Dose of Inspiration

Hello all
While we put special effort for producing monthly magazine and making it high on positive and rich content, we've introduced this space for your casual reading. We're starting with a couple of authors, the stories here might be very small, might be big. The core theme, however, is to stay true to the spirit of Spoorthi.

I hope we can make your lives, as well as our lives, a little more fulfilled.

Positivity is the key.

Spoorthi Team