Best of Nazia Hassan

If you grew up in the 80s or 90s, Nazia Hassan songs were just brilliant masterstrokes that ruled the hearts of the music lovers. Its been 36 years since she jolted the music world with her first-of-many-super-hits song “Aap Jaisa Koi” and gave every new aashiq in the block an anthem to express their love! Since I came across her songs very late (I’m a 90s born child), still they were love at first hear! I can still remember rolling my hands together and shaking to her songs, the best I could, singing with lyrics all wrong (we didn’t have internet to google the lyrics), but who cared!

On her fifty first birth anniversary (3rd April, 1965), I would like to share my playlist of all time my favourites of Nazia Hassan.

1. Aap Jaisa Koi

2. Disco Deewane

3. Lekin Mera Dil Ro Raha Hai

4. Boom Boom

5. Dil Mera Ye Kehta Hai

6. Aankhein Milane Wale

7. Dum Dum Dee Dee

8. Telephone Pyar

9. Aao Na

10. Tere Qadmon Ko 

She still lives through her immortal melodies. Rest in peace.

2015 in review

2015 was indeed a memorable year! I promise to be a little more active the coming year! Thanks for all the love and support. Cheers to all! Have a wonderful New Year! 🙂

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,000 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 50 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

The Bengali cuisine

Its been a while I have posted anything, and what is better than to start again with some food by your side. Since being a bengali, I have been getting a little nostalgic now that Durga puja is around (Oh! I so miss the smell of Shiuli flowers). Here I am, posting the recipes of the dishes I made the other day to commence the start of Durga pujo (throw in some dhaaks and shiuli in here!)

Copyright © DeekshaSarkar

Clockwise: Doi Begun (Yogurt aubergine); Chingri Paturi (Prawns cooked in banana leaf); Pineapple Chutney 

Doi Begun recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

• Aubergine (round ones, thin slices)
• Yougurt
• Chilies (as per your requirements)
• Ginger (paste)
• Salt (for taste)
• Cumin powder
• Turmeric powder
• Coriander powder
• Oil
• Fresh coriander leaves

METHOD:

Cut the aubergine (one) into thin slices and marinate it with turmeric and salt and keep it aside. In a deep bottom dish, heat the oil, fry the aubergines. In the same oil left in the vessel, add the ginger paste. Put 2 teaspoon of cumin powder, 2 teaspoon of coriander powder, 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder. When the spices are mixed, add beaten yogurt (500gms) to the spices. Adjust the salt. Cover it and let it cook in low flame. After its been cooked, add the fried aubergines and fresh coriander leaves. Ready to savour.

Chingri paturi recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

• Small prawns (cleaned and washed)
• Coconut (grated)
• Green chilies
• Mustard paste
• Turmeric powder
• Salt (for taste)
• Banana leaves
• Mustard Oil (compulsory)

METHOD:

Blend coconut, mustard paste, green chilies (2 nos.), turmeric powder (1 teaspoon) together. Note that 3 parts of coconut and 1 part of mustard paste should be mixed. Also add little water so that there is consistency and it doesn’t dilute. The mixture should be dry and textured. Add this mixture to the prawns with 2 tablespoon of mustard oil. Marinate the prawns and keep it for 20 minutes. Take a microwave dish, brush some mustard oil on the glossy side of the leaf and place it in the dish. Put the marinated prawns with the mixture in the dish. Add chilies. Close the banana leaf and microwave it for 10 minutes, full power. Serve hot.

Pineapple chutney recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

• Pineapple
• Sugar
• Dry red chilies
• Cumin seeds
• Salt (for taste)
• Oil

METHOD:

Take a deep vessel, heat the oil and add dry red chilies (2 nos.) and cumin seeds. Add a pinch of salt. Take half the pineapple and blend it in the juicer and add it to the vessel. Let it boil. Add sugar (5 tablespoons or as per your sweet tooth). Chop the other half of the pineapple into thin pieces and add it. Let everything boil. Serve hot or cold, whichever way you like!

Paint me…

Picture courtesy : http://progressiverenewal.org/

Paint me a yellow wall,

pretty nice and tall

Paint me your dreams,

how difficult it may seem

Let the water from the clouds flow,

paint me over the moon that glows

Paint me the skies crimson red,

let alone sing the songs of when we first met

Paint me a memory, bleak through the past,

moments of quagmire that were meant to last

I’ve been lost again into the night,

paint me a way, show me some light

As the sands of time slips through those fists,

the land of sea lay covered by the waves that rest

Beyond the ocean, the sky and the distant colors seen,

paint me the horizon and everything in between.

– Deeksha and Srinath

‘Piku’ – MyView

Piku theatrical poster

“Insan ka emotion uska motion ke saath judaa hua hai“, (A person’s emotions are connected to his bowel movement) aptly said by Mr. Bhaskor Banerjee (Amitabh Banerjee) which I guess every Bengali will agree to. This movie is so simple and intricately appropriate which everyone could connect to. Myself, a bengali away from home past 6 years, this movie was an escape in disguise (and should I mention, I watched it for two consecutive days!). Hats off Shoojit Sircar!

The movie revolves around a father – daughter relationship who takes shit seriously! I mean it, the movie is all about excretion. We all do it, its vital but nobody ever speaks of it. Well, except the bengalis who can vividly cast their imagination describing every little detail of it. Shitty, eh? We take pride. 😛

As described by her father (Amitabh Bachchan) to every potential suitor, Piku Banerjee (Deepika Padukone) is a financially, emotionally and sexually independent, non-virgin architect who lives with her father in C.R. Park, Delhi. Everything in her life borders with the dysfunctional bowel movement of her father which gets her irritated and exhausted but nevertheless, her life revolves around “Did baba go? How did it go? When did he go?” Torn between responsibilities and her love for her father, she finally agrees to the road trip to Kolkata.

Rana (Irrfan Khan), the cab company owner, ditched by his own drivers decides to take the father, daughter and the “chair” to Kolkata. The road trip is absorbed by the episodes of hissing sound which makes baba pee, the amazing graphical representation of how excretion happens, the Piku – Rana bonding, the mesmerising banaras ghats and the various remedies to constipation!

Another refreshing thing about this movie was the subtle romance angle. Piku and Rana have taken romance all together to a new level, like seriously, no melodramas, no bling songs, just simple and realistic.

The other characters Chobbi maashi (Moushumi Chatterjee), Syed (Jisshu Sengupta) have well justified their roles on screen. A special mention to the singer-songwriter-composer Anupam Roy’s music which is so subtle and blends perfectly with the movie.

The story of Piku does not hold much weight but it stands out because of its brilliant narrative and distinguished performances.

 

‘Alone’ – MyView

Alone Theatrical Poster

Well, first of all, do not watch this movie alone, nope, not because you are gonna shit your pants but because this is such a shitty movie you surely want someone to smell it with you!

This is a ditto remake of the movie Alone (2007) but fails to recreate the spine chilling horror which most of the horror loving fans might have come to see. But, people who came to watch Bipasha in skimpy clothes sure had a gala time!

The story revolves around the conjoined twins – Sanjana and Anjana (Bipasha Basu and Bipasha Basu) who promises to stay attached forever but decides to split out of jealousy and insecurity of loving the same man, Kabir (Karan Singh Grover) and one of them dies and haunts the other; you will know if you have seen the trailer itself. But if you have seen the trailer, then that’s pretty much to it! All the horror scenes are already revealed in the trailer then why would spend your 2 hours and 13 minutes that you will never get back! why? Why? WHY? Yes, that haunts me!

Not to repeatedly point out, the same kinda make up, the same kinda haunted house, the same kinda ghastly housekeeper, the kala jaadu and typical hindi horror movie scenes.

So Sanjana receives a phone call the exact same moment she delivers her dialogue that she doesn’t want to go to Kerela; irony much or deja vu? Anyways, they go to Kerala, the ghost (Anjana) is not pleased, of course and haunts her sister, gets in her body, romances the hot-bod Kabir, exorcism occurs, revelation of plot twists – that Sanjana is Anjana and bleh, both the sisters are dead, end of story!

Furthur classifying, the first half of the movie deals with the ghost sister juggling her twin sister and I will not be exaggerating but the entire theater laughed whenever there was a ghost on the screen. “Oh look! the ghost sister, bwaaaaaaaahahahaha!”. And the second half of the movie just deals with the flashing of the hot bodies unnecessarily! I know it will not be the first time with Bollywood, but the songs were abrupt and forcefully squeezed in the scenes!

Oh! the acting, please don’t get me started on that! I strongly feel that Bipasha should not jump into the horror genre just because she has Raaz in her pocket! Karan Singh Grover needs to brush up on his acting skills as well. The chemistry was pathetic between the duo, I mean two sugar cubes in my tea have a better chemistry than them!

So altogether, if you wanna see a horror movie this week, I would suggest please stick to your own movie list. You ain’t getting any horror strokes outta this one!

A Letter to myself

Picture Credits: Paydayloansonline

Dear 24 year old me,

First of all, a very Happy  Birthday to you! I know your birthday was yesterday, but people are still celebrating it in some parts of the world. So, Happy Birthday. Now that you are about to start a whole new year, I would like to part some knowledge to you.

Make memories.
Say Yes. Take chances. Act weird. Do random shit. Make memories. There should be a whole set of new stories to narrate!

Love the people back.
There would always be people who will love you no matter what. Love them back. Don’t take their love for granted because sometimes that’s all you got.

Seize opportunities.
Don’t just lay back and look at the ceiling. Spot an opportunity, grab it, sit on it and never let it go. It’s quite possible you might regret it but it’s always better to regret it than never experience it at all!

Take selfies.
While you make those memories, take selfies. Let people judge you. Alone selfies, selfies with friends, selfies with building, be creative! The entire world is your stage, pose with every goddamn thing!

You are deeper than your clothes.
People will judge. They will always do and you are not what you wear! You are much much deeper than that. Find yourself. Stick to it.

Remember your old friends.
They are still a part of your amazing stories. Remember them.

Make new friends.
Get new stories.

Get drunk.
It’s fine to get sloshed once in a while! Get drunk.

Listen.
Not just sound, music and words. Listen what’s inside you. The wordless speech. They call it a gut feeling for a reason.

Comfort zone.
Well, get out of it! Feels crazy? Do it!

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Keep this in the active spot of your head.

Smile.
That curve sets everything straight! Smile more often. Let this one contagious thing spread.

Call home.
They wait for it impatiently, you know that. Call them more often.

Vacations.
Go around the world. Get as many Emigration stamps you can get. Everybody needs a blue sky holiday, so do you. Choose different destinations.

I hope this year be a one awesome year of awesomeness! Happy New Year 🙂

Lots of Love,
23 year old me

‘Interstellar’ – MyView

Interstellar theatrical poster

Judge me all you can but I did not see the trailer of this movie before I actually went and watched it (which is totally unlike me). I did not even have the slightest idea if this movie existed! But now I can’t even stop thinking about it. It has jolted me left, right and center!

Christopher Nolan has left his audience speechless, yet again but this time I guess we are gonna be awestruck for a much much longer period till he hits us again! It is a long movie but every ounce of the movie seemed logical. What is still in the theories, this man wove it so intricately that it just bangs your head with “OMG! wow!” scene after scene.

The beginning was a little tricky but as the movie paces, things fall into places and makes perfect sense. The movie starts with an old lady narrating the story about her father and how there was a scarcity of resources on Earth. Her father, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a former NASA test pilot-turned-farmer still enthusiastic about controlling flying drones, decoding binary codes made by dust, almost crashing NASA headquarters and well, piloting Endurance (the spacecraft), and not to forget flying into the worm hole in search of the potential habitable planets to save the mankind. But! the glitch being that he was never meant to save the world, he was instead a sort of catalyst to help his daughter save the people! Just when you thought the story was getting predictable, Nolan smacks you with his theory of extra-dimensional where time is physical! WOAAH!

The journey is detailed and I hope this timeline designed by Dogan Can Gundogdu helps.

Interstellar timeline by Dogan Can Gundogdu

P.S. I think its a typo where black hole should actually be a worm hole as Gargantua is the only black hole with the tesseract in it.

The cast includes amazing performances delivered by Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Casey Affleck, Mackenzie Foy and of course the voice of TARS (another sidekick after Dobby I am in love with) by Bill Irwin.

This movie is a must watch and I am awestruck by it so much that I have started rating movies as “bad”, “okay”, “good” and “interstellar” ! 😛

P.S. – Unlike me, please watch the trailer before you go to the theaters!

“Mankind was born on Earth. It was never meant to die here.”

Dirty Little Secret

Copyright © DeekshaSarkar

We all have that atleast one dirty little secret, no matter what, we can’t part with it! Well, I have many. 😀

Nevertheless, “you” are my dirty little secret, and I think I’ll keep you”.

… and this song is on repeat for the last couple of days so much that I think I can breathe The All American Rejects!!

Janmashtmi Tales

Copyright © DeekshaSarkar

“Haathi Ghoda Paalki, Jai Kanhaiya Laal Ki“, we would scream as the day would start with the room filled with flowers and mom would make garlands and the smell of sweets would blend perfectly with the fragrance already present. Schools used to give us the privilege to sleep a little extra that day but who wanted to! Janmashtami, it used to be!

The evening was the most awaited part of the day. In Delhi, scenes from Krishna’s life were enacted and portrayed on streets. Children would dress up as Krishna and Radha and as other various characters. Scenes from Mahabharata would adorn the street. Such colours and vibrance put altogether for Krishna’s birthday! Too much fun! Icecreams, Chole Bhature, Gol Gappe, Balloons; your every minute delighted with something or the other. Krishna sitting with Ray Ban while Radha would be sipping her Coco Cola. Gathered crowd only to swing the cradle of baby Krishna idol (that’s where I actually understood the phrase “never give up”)…

…and here I am sitting in my office, deadlines to kill; face resting on the palm; looking at the clock ticking and gazing outside the window (I have a huge ass window) … I wish I could have been a part of the parade back at home.

Nonetheless, Happy Birthday Gopala! 🙂

Butter treats tonight.