MY ENCOUNTER WITH MY FIRST NOVEL..........THE FIRST ONE I READ

I was sitting squeezed in an auto rickshaw,wid my mum and my brother on my either side. As we were crossing Panchsheel I looked at the smooth roads and took pride in being a Delhiite. A little further our auto stopped at the red light. Ssome beggars rushed towards us .I felt my pride flush down the toilet.They passed us one by one giving us a go-to-hell look,as we were in no mood to promote beggary.They went on to try their luck with others,especially female drivers who are comparatively more emotional and give in to their requests. the last one coming to us was a kid selling pirated copies of novels.we shook our heads gesturing him to move on.......but he stood there. I looked at him and somehow my eyes fell on one of the books he was holding......THE DA VINCI CODE.
I had heard about it a lot, a rather controversial international bestseller. I whispered into my brother's ears that i wanted it.my mum heard me and asked the kid its price.She bargained......bargained........bargained and bargained.And finally mu mum and the kid agreed to rs40.As soon as my brother paid him ,the lights turned green and the auto moved on........and i held THE DA VINCI CODE in my hands.
Yes it was my first,blame it to my school library's poor collection. I was never fond of reading though.i seldom issued books,that to reference books,.......from that average library of ours......which mainly had books meant for kids......i didnt read them when i was a kid though.......i never felt like reading them....i didnt even care to look at the books we had .Still i know it was a poor collection .......my instinct told me.
forget my school library....i was holding my first novel ....THE DA VINCI CODE......the critically acclaimed international bestseller......a pirated copy though.....who cares? It was my first novel!
I was very excited about it........so excited that i didnt read it for a few days. I kept staring at the brown cover and said to myself that it was my first novel, as if my 'self' didnt know that.
one fine day i started reading it.it talked about paintings,codes,symbolism,cryptography,pagan culture,christianity,priory of sion,secrets ..........beyond my imagination and beyond my comprehension. I had my pocket dictionary accompanyiong me me all the time through through my journey of completing my first novel.We walked hand in hand through the entire treacherous path ,like soulmates. my parents almost abandoned me for keeping my eyes glued to my first novel...THE DA VINCI CODE. But my dictionary was there with me through thick and thin.
One day i finally finished it.......yes i finished it. I was excited,surprised and proud of myself! It was an inexplicable feeling.I finished it and i understood it and i could tell the world that i loved it! Hats off to Dan Brown! But somewhere deep inside my heart i was sad.....sad because i had finished it! The exhiliratingly brainy thriller ended! What the hell! I didnt intend to stop my pulse racing like a F1 car. I felt sad, dejected.It was an inexplicable feeling,again. What should i do to stop feeling this inexplicable feeling. Suddenly a brilliant idea knocked at the closed and doublelocked door of my mind.Yes.........brilliant.....superb.......And the idea worth a million dollars was ..........i'll read another book! Another brain teasing story. How about Dan Brown's DECEPTION POINT???? Afterall he's the best! How did i know that?? Valid question. As i just finished reading my first novel,and Dan Brown was the only author whose work i read, it was too early for me to rate him the best. But i knew he was the best........my instinct told me!

The "HE" Box Office....

Congratulations!Finally a bollywood actress is being paid a whopping Rs 3.5 crores per film, and the honour goes to Kareena Kapoor.It calls for a celebration, for a woman just got empowered with a hiking income.This is the highest an actress has recived in the history of Indian Film Industry.
However, the female actors still have to go a long way that to very speedily, to stand shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts,When it comes to earning moolah.Amir Khan recently turned down a three film deal worth sixty crores.Not too far behind, is Akshay Kumar who is currently being paid seventeen crores per film and not to forget, Hrithik Roshan's three film deal worth thirty five crores, with adlabs, which had been the talk of the town earlier this year. In the midst of these towering figures, a three film deal worth four to five crores for Priyanka Chopra appears miniscule.
As far as artisitic abilities worth grabbing a couple of awards ar concerned,actresses maybe at power with the actors or even ahead of them, but when it comes to being paid for their work, male actors laugh their way to the banks.While, the actresses are left hoping for the better.
Where did the principle for equal pay for equal work go?Is this general disparity or the female actors actually dont deserve more than that.According to the trade analysts the name of the actor makes a film run at the box office and not that of the actress.Calling a spade a spade, it has to be a SRK or Akshay Kumar starer and not a Tabu Or Konkona Starer to make it's presence felt @ the B.O.To an extent the analysts are correct, as dancing around the trees at exotic locations, drapping a shiffon saree (which is sometime replaced by a mini-skirt) doesnt really contribute to the story which is generally male oriented.What else an actress has to do in the unaltered nonsense of brain dead comedies and essentially old ridiculous re-incarnation stories, which hit ti really well at the B.O.
It makes sense if actresses are no paid more than what they are in these genres of film.Sadly, when actresses try their luck in different genres (read women oriented films like Astitiva, Chandani Bar, Dor, Provoked) they fail to grab the audiences' attention( since the male dominated workd prefers to see male dominated cinema) and eventually -fail at the Box office.Again, actresses donot get what they deserve that is a high payment.

I guess, we will have to wait for a change to happen.Till then...kudos to Kareena Kapoor!

I have a leash that hates leashes....she just breaks free everytime she is tied.....so have decided will tie it in this unque metaphorical way....no rompy ropes for it ....i will tie it in this boundless bondage of emotions on my blog.......unleash the leash today!