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 remembe...

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 gam...

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 somethi...

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 pri...

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 Vis...

  Thus Spoke Chanakya This book is a pure motivational book focusing on the overall success of an individual. The book is written in a very easy language. When Dr. Radhakrishnan Pillai was approached by his publisher to come up with a new book on Chanakya’s teaching, instead of writing about Chanakya’s teaching, Dr. Pillai thought of writing something, which would go with today’s fast-paced life. The problems faced by people in Chanakya’s time were different than today's. So he simply wrote what he understood from Chanaya’s book “ Arthashastra ” making it relevant for today’s generation. He wanted that more and more people should get access to the timeless teachings of Chanakya. You will find around 300 one-liners in this book, each explained in two paragraphs covering various topics including family, workplace, leadership, conviction, and results. The author has advised the readers to read this book in different ways. You can read the whole book at one time or read one idea...

 As a tribute to Lata Ji, I have listed 10 songs of Lata ji which I love the most.      Suman Sudha This melodious song is from the movie, Man Pasand and is composed by Rajesh Roshan. Very romantic and fresh song and gives a different feel. Brilliant use of dholak and tabla in the background. Amazing lyrics by Amit Khanna.   2)       Tum se mila tha pyaar One more brilliant composition by the great music director Rajesh Roshan, a very versatile music director. The song is duet by Lata ji and Kishore Kumar, from the movie, Khatta-meetha, picturized on Rakesh Roshan and Bindiya Goswami.     3)       Ankho me kajal hai This evergreen romantic song is from the movie, Doosra admi. The song is picturized on the youthful couple, Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh.   Hats off to Rajesh Roshan for composing such a wide range of songs.   4)       Dono ke dil hai: This so...

  Humility: the virtue, we should not forget “We learned about gratitude and humility - that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean... and we were taught to value everyone's contribution and treat everyone with respect” - Michelle Obama What is humility ? It is the quality that keeps us grounded even when we are at the peak of success. Sadly we often forget to be humble with the people surrounding us when we are successful. Whole life we aspire to become successful but we never pray to God for humility. It is the quality which will give you friends and its absence will take away your friends from you. People always love to be associated with the person who is humble. Intelligent people often forget that whatever knowledge they have gathered it is of no use if they are not polite. Rich people often forget that wealth is not permanent. They should help the needy ones when they have enough wealth with ...

when I wrote my father's story I never expected it would be of 5 pages.  One thing I did seriously was pray to God and take my father's blessings before writing anything. I would ask him to give me correct words to describe him. I started writing and it went on and on. My expectation was to touch at least 1 person who would relate to my emotions. The feeling of losing someone especially a parent is very painful. Somewhere I knew in my heart that some people will be touched by my story. I got so many nice and emotional comments from my friends, my brother's friends and sister's friends. It was overwhelming. These comments are not mine but these are for my father whose story was so powerful that anyone would get emotional. I have written all the comments in this post as a small gesture of gratitude towards my friends.  I have copy pasted them as they were written because every single line coming from my friends is precious to me. Comments प्रिय राधा अनेक आशीर्वाद 🙏लेख ...