Ashwini's blog

There are very few actors who leave an impact on us. Shridevi was amongst them. I am sure there are innumerable fans of her. I am one of them. Credit goes to my elder sister. I was introduced to Shridevi's movies by my sister. She would made me watch every single movie of Shridevi. She being a diehard fan of Shridevi never missed any of her movies. Right from the hit movies like Majal, Mawali, Chalbaaz, Chandani, to the not-so-hit movies like Judai, Army, chand ka tukada, Chandramukhi, Mr. Becahra, we have watched all these movies in theatres. I remember, how I would come back from school, then eat my lunch in hurry and get ready for the afternoon show. Sometimes we would go with her friends and sometimes just two of us. In those days, my only driving force for going with her was the hot  samosas  and roasted peanuts that we used to get during the interval. Later on I started enjoying watching movies. Initially, what I admired the most was Shridevi's dancing skills. I remember

In this post, I will be sharing my ideas on my favorite movie  “Lamhe” which is also regarded as one of the most remarkable films in Shridevi's career.  Lamhe (1991): Lamhe   is remembered as a classic cult amongst various Bollywood movies till today. It is said that the subject of the movie was ahead of time and so the movie couldn’t impress the audience at that time. I feel, it is the best romantic movie I have ever seen in Bollywood. I have watched this movie numerous times and I can still watch it again and again.  Yash Chopra had mentioned in his interviews how he got the idea of making Lamhe . While making Silsila in the year 80-81, he thought of making a film with a new subject (which was indeed lamhe) but everybody was scaring him saying that the movie was very dangerous to make. So he decided he’d make Lamhe only when he would have a hit movie with him. After the success of Chandni, he decided to make only Lamhe and nothing else. He said, Lamhe was a gamble for him. Ma

I started Dr. Dixit Diet in the month of July and since then I followed it without break. Initially, I aimed to lose weight so I started with 2 meals a day. I found amazing results after following this diet. Then somewhere I came across one amazing video of Dr. Pradip Jamnadas who is a cardiologist by profession.  His lecture was an eyeopener for me.   I  was so impressed by his lecture that I kept 24hours water fast. I had already left sugar and was having 2 meals a day daily, so it was not a big problem for me to stay hungry for 24hours a day. When I got more confident, I started keeping fast on "Ekadashi" twice a month. On Ekadashi, I keep water fast for 40 hours. That means, if I have dinner tonight at 8pm, I'll directly eat at 12noon, during my lunch which will be the day after tomorrow.  Keeping water fast on Ekadashi helped me a lot in many aspects. I was able to lose weight without much efforts. In these 8 months, I have lost 13 kg. Also, I have found something am

Today I finished reading “Becoming” by Michelle Obama. I enjoyed reading this book. Becoming is about the chronicle of experiences of  Michelle Obama’s  life’s journey right from her childhood to her days in the White House. It feels that you are entering into her world through this book.  This book cannot be finished quickly as there are about 426 pages to read, with 24 chapters and three sections named, Becoming me, becoming us, and becoming more. You can also go for the audio version of this book which is about 20 hours long. It took almost 15 days for me to complete "Becoming". The book is not an easy read because there are so many things that will compel you to ponder. You will smile and cry along with the author. The preface starts with a beautiful message that becoming is limitless. As per the author, “what do you want to be after growing up?” is the most useless question asked by adults to any child. She feels growing up is infinite and she followed the same princip

I have listed my favorite ghazals of Jagjit Singh. So many times I have listened to these ghazals, but every time I fall in love with them. These ghazals are so fresh that every time I listen to them, they sound new. Hats off to Jagjit Singh and the lyricists of these songs. My most favorite amongst these are " Jeevan kya hai " because it explains the philosophy of life.  These ghazals and the "shayari" in them teaches you a lot. The line "jo ashak na chalke aankho" se from the ghazal " gulshan ki fakat" is so motivating. "Ankhari hichki tere zano pe aaye"  from the song, "apne hoton par sajana" brings tears in eyes. Every ghazal touches the heart. Some are romantic, some are sad and some are philosophical. I have been listening to these ghazals since my childhood and there are so many sweet memories associated with them.  If you try to understand the meaning of every line of these ghazals, you will enjoy them more. Sham se

There are so many hits given by great music director Khayyam. I have listed some of my favorite songs composed by him. Gapoochi gapoochi gam gam (Trishul) Mausam Mausam Lovely Mausam (Thodisi Bewafaii) Pyar ka Dard Hai (Dard) Aapki mehki hui zulf ko kehte hai ghata (Trishul) Hazar rahe mud ke dekhi (Thodisi bewafaii) Zindagi jab bhi teri bazm mein lati hai hume (Umrao Jaan) Sham-e Gham ki Qasam (Footpath) Janeman tum kamal karti ho (Trishul)

1)     Monta re (Lootera) Bengali songs have special place in my heart. This song from the movie Lotera is truly brilliant.  All songs from this movie are awesome. My favorite numbers are Zinda and Monta re. This song is sung by Swanand Kirkire and Amitabh Bhattacharya. Composed by Amit Trivedi, this song gives a vibe of Bengali folk music. https://youtu.be/vge5JTkRGLQ   2)        Gungunati hai (Satta) A soft romantic song from the movie Satta, directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. The song is picturized on Raveena Tondon and Atul Kulkarni. One of the best songs of Sonu Nigam but quite underrated. The female version of this song, sung by Asha Bhonsle is shown in the movie. This song is written by Javed Akhtar and composed by Raju Singh. https://youtu.be/LOICHARfT74  (Male) https://youtu.be/awhnZFFKT7g  (Female)   3)        O sathi re din dube na (Omkara) A very soulful song by Shreya Ghoshal and Vishal Bharadwaj. When Gulzar and Vishal come together they create magic. This song is proof of t