Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact

Expanding The Horizons

  • Paatal Lok – not a review

    May 16th, 2020

    When was the last time you remember being uncomfortable while watching a fictional story. It happened to me twice while watching the series, “Paatal Lok.” released on Amazon Prime on the 14th of this month.

    Before you proceed further, let me tell you I’m not attempting to write a review. Also, My review doesn’t matter. I just want to talk about something else.

    Like several others I’m also at the mercy of OTT platforms to get some good entertainment. I log in, I watch something, I either appreciate or crib depending on the situation and then I sleep. I have been blogging since last eleven years now. During these years I rarely asked someone to watch something or read something. I have mostly tried to strike a conversation. Its my basic nature.

    But dude… this social media has slapped me with the opinions of another. At times I  have replied out of curiosity but mostly it has gone in vain. So slowly I’ve even stopped commenting on anything.

    But you know what has still not stopped, fucking information/opinion/gibberish videos/other’s opinion about those gibberish videos and what not.

    This evening I was minding my own business and Bam! Comes a whatsapp forward, wrapped in a twitter screenshot, telling me Paatal lok is hindu-phobic series and one must not watch it. I deleted the message and proceeded to do nothing in this lockdown.

    It happens every single day. I know what has been happening in Big Boss or Roadies and trust me, I haven’t even wanted to know about that information. A couple days ago Carryminati roasted someone from Tik-tok, I left the video somewhere around the three minute mark. Exactly five minutes later I received it’s link in a group from a cousin who apparently has seen, “the most epic shit of life” and this followed a war. Not that fucking Youtube v. Tiktok war, what does that even mean. It was status war. A bhaiya I know is a tiktok enthusiast who if I can predict accurately,  has put only thousand small clips telling people to not listen to a 12th fail guy and on the other hand, I had wonderful people exclaiming how tiktokers are “hijda”, “Beti”, and what not. All those meme making Carryminati the Prime Minister we haven’t even known we needed. Meme. The meme has become the biggest Scam I’m telling you.

    Man! how I used to laugh on memes. I loved memes. but then people happened. they fucking dragged it to a level which became annoying. Anything became a meme. Fake News started getting propagated through memes. Political memes,Dank memes became a tool of a narrative. A single picture has become the source of many. People agree or disagree depending that stupid picture. Kapil Sharma’s cartoon-ish caricature has started appearing under these memes which in my opinion is meme equivalent of that annoying laugh track and no-no-no-no-no sound which comes in tiktok videos. You know what I’m talking about. And guess what I didn’t even want to know about either of them.

    Paatal lok is a brilliant series. I binged watched it. Damn! does this count as a review?

    I saw a scene involving what a pedophile does. I was fucking disgusted to the core. I saw a woman vomiting because someone explicitly from the other religion opened his food container. I saw a Muslim character being told time and again about his community in the series as if he is on a constant trial.  And don’t you fucking dare to ask me what I was doing during Kashmiri Pandits exodus. I wasn’t born.

    But now here I’m, practicing the ancient teaching of minding my own fucking business. Just don’t throw your fucking ignorance on my face like a slap. If you are not prudent enough to differentiate between truth, lie, propaganda, fandom, then you should also not be eligible to slap everyone with those.

    And. Not just that. It’s about everything. If your heart goes out for a certain thing/people/incidence but not for the other people/thing/incidence then I’m sorry to say but your prejudice has blinded you.

    Follow the simple principle of live and let live.

    See You Later, Alligator

    JD

    P.S.  Now when I have said this much about the series then allow me to also tell you that Jaideep Ahlawat, Neeraj Kabi, Swastika Mukherjee, Abhihsek Benerjee and Bodhisattva Sharma  are my favorites from the series. However, Everyone has done a phenomenal job.

  • Stranded on a pale blue dot

    April 24th, 2020

    Everything around us is crumbling. Information is coming through technologies and nullius in verba is just a line written somewhere on a board in a Victorian building.

    A virus has challenged all the beliefs and the unending stupidity has defeated it(the virus) to grow exponentially.

    All the chaos that has been happening is dramatically occurring here, on our pale blue dot. And we have left no stone unturned to just blow up its pieces.

    Art has found a new synonym in “content” and so has the political propaganda. Religion has made its way in each recipe and is being served to the believers without any question. The always chatting, always online subject feels empty and those who feel happy must influence others to pursue happiness. Influence.

    Diseases have cure, Cures face questions, and questions die at a nascent stage.  Bullets are in a race with grains, and grains are out of reach of those who are stranded here on this fading pale blue dot.

    images (6)

    Carl Sagan writes in one of his book,
    “You’re an interesting species. An interesting mix. You’re capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you’re not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.”

    But who’s listening? We are just idiots drifting in an empty space, enjoying our over stay.

    Love barely transcends anymore.

    May we (can also be read as I) find hope again.  To love, to breathe, to believe.

    See You Guys Soon,

    Jd

     

  • Being Married

    March 3rd, 2020

    Guys, there’s no easy way to say this, but I have been quite married since last one year. Family, Friends and anyone awake has been wishing us since last night. It has been quite a journey.

    We traveled a lot during this year, attended uncountable functions and weddings and events, watched horrible movies, witnessed other close people biting the dust, ate uncountable Momos and Nachos, gained weight, cringed about TikTok and faught only like a bazillion times.

    So, after one year of being married, all I can say is that sometimes you wake up next to a steaming cup of tea and sometimes to an empty bed space because she couldn’t bear your snoring. And one thing that I can say for sure is that we, read I/me, haven’t matured a bit. We are still figuring out this puzzle called Marriage.

    Do I see anything special about this day you ask? Maybe. I’ll have to ask the missus.

    Thanks for the wishes, NEFT some of it.

    See ya.

     

  • Failures

    February 25th, 2020

    Do you fail when you realise that the thing you wanted in your favour has gone south from your expectations or you fail when you realise you have been failing since so long that you now want to make truce with whatever is easiest for you now.

    I read this quote where they do not want you to lose courage because it is what make you sail through the hard times or when easy times pack its bags and leave your house.

    If you’ve somehow miraculously reached here through Google or simply because I have a left a mysterious link somewhere announcing, “What to do when you fail?” And you really want to know from a random dude about your course of action then read on.

    Failure is an amazing thing to look and think upon. It differentiates you from those who haven’t even tried what you have failed in. You can read the last line again to console yourself. You can lie down, maybe masturbate, or just watch the LOTR trilogy take your mind off the failures and rejuvenate yourself so you can focus again on “trying”.

    Surround yourself with people who understand your goals. Try to be more positive. Share your plans with your confidants, intact whisper it directly into their ears. Don’t tell your plans for world. Don’t fall in love. Be with someone who understands where do you want to be.

    And at this point if you’re wondering why are you still reading it because you were a failure because of love, then just accept the “not love” of the person you liked. People are different. Just accept the differences and move on.

    See, if you’re surrounded with people, then understand they are very important because they have energies. Their energy can bring you down. And it becomes more important when your energy is down because it would be them who would gloriously pick you up and throw you again at your tryst with destiny.

    And in case if you are not surrounded by the people, then consider yourself lucky and surround yourself with surround sound speakers and dance to the tunes of Bon Jovi. It’s my life.

    Just hold on. Breathe. Good will happen.

    P.S. Okay, maybe don’t masturbate much, it’s not as healthy as it has been shown by researchers. It’s addictive.

  • Jawani Janeman

    February 11th, 2020

    So, we went to see this movie, which could have been released on YouTube with the title, “what if the daughter Barney had was from Phoebe.”
    So, why do I want to write about this movie? Because it was boring. It had its moment, but It was boring. Story was just, well, Meh.

    Something which could have been a treat to watch was made unbearable because the Barney, sorry eh, Saif Ali Khan’s character felt very caricaturish, he looked unbelievably handsome but couldn’t make me feel anything. Maybe girls felt something for him but I asked them and they were bored too.
    Barney’s daughter, Er…, Bedi’s Daughter is very pretty and I’m sorry I am not going to Google her name because I’m lazy. I’ll pick it up on the go, her name. My wife told me she is Pooja Bedi’s Daughter. She could be wrong but one thing is sure that I’m old.

    And how much I would have hated friends if Phoebe was anything like Tabu. No offense to her, I’m one her normal fans who enjoys watching her movie. But not this one. Nah… Just No. It was boring.
    I wanted to see more of Farida Jalal Ji. She was underused.

    And just fuck you guys for ruining Ole Ole. Rest is just boring.

  • Happy Same Old New Year 2020

    December 30th, 2019

    Guys what’s all this new year Ka pressure Yaar?

    Past one week has been all about overdose of positivity. Dude, what if someone wants to sulk in. I hate peer pressure. What if I want to sit with people I know, people I’m comfortable with, in a Rajai, drinking hot chocolate, telling them interesting facts about alien abduction. Why do I have to be somewhere in the cold, dancing to the songs I have never heard and taking selfies. As if it is not already a hard pill to swallow that, first of January is a working day.

    Take all your jolly-ness and shove it up in the back pocket of your jeans. Let me be miserable.

    Also, I’m changing my name to, “Hello, my name is…” Just to shake hands with people and shake head joyously and say this again and again to annoy them.

    However I wish the best for you. May you be interested in what you need till the end. Happy New Year.

    See you soon
    Hello, My Name is…

     

     

    images (6)

     

  • Protests

    December 16th, 2019

    I wish I had that wrath in my words, you know, like Nana Patekar, which could generate emotions of solidarity among religious people. I wish I could read a couplet at a gathering after which mob throws their weapon and embrace the differences among them.

    I know it may sound like that my idea of unity comes from a dramatic scene of a Bollywood movie, but trust me I have read enough to build up on that.

    When I read constitution for the first time it was just a subject in which I had to score well to sail comfortably through the year. It wasn’t that time or the next time when I watched a series on how it was made or also when I read it to clear competitive examinations. But my bad that I couldn’t clear any. And then it happened… I read it again. I felt the emotions which ran through this book. I read people who cheered for the Sovereign and the Democratic Republic. And how socialism and secularism runs through like a blood in this body of the constitution. I wish I had the courage that the makers of this constitution possessed. I wish to have that hero in me who could come out tearing his shirt and change the entire scenario.

    But I guess I have nothing like that in me. So, what I can do is that I can offer my legal knowledge and whatever little expertise that I have in this field. I don’t know what else to do, I feel equally helpless and I have no idea how can I help other than this. May we all find peace.

  • F.R.I.E.N.D.S

    December 13th, 2019

    tenor (3)

    My (now) wife cum roommate cum ex girlfriend cum friend, always ignored many like me when we asked her to watch friends like a boss lady, but this year, after we got married, she succumbed to the monotony of married life and started watching friends a month ago. (Peer pressure no, living at a place where everything is dead after 8 pm, Yes.)

    tenor (5)

    Now like everyone she laughed, almost broke my left arm (unlike others), fell in love with the characters and last night experienced the withdrawal symptoms that millions of fans have been facing since friends finale, originally aired 6th May 2004. That day my friend was celebrating his fourteenth birthday with me and thirty others.

    tenor (6)

    So, she began crying and continued for a good amount of time. Then I lied to her about there being a season 11 and then cried myself. Why this has not happened with any other show? When HIMYM ended I was more sad because of the original ending or when earlier this when I felt extremely angry at Jon Snow for not wanting it. Man I need to do something constructive in my life.

    tenor (2)

    So point being, what is this special connection that people feel with these two hundred and thirty six episodes. I must consult a psychologist.

    tenor (7)

    So I consulted my psychologist Mr.Google who referred me to a psychotherapy group currently working under the name of Quora. Apparently people here come to know if only they are the mad ones or there are other are too who wants to come out of the closet.
    From this collective conscience I realized there are other people who felt sad or cried watching The last one part – 2.

    tenor

    So meanwhile I’m writing this my wife has dropped me a message that she won’t watch anything with me ever again because how I’m talking about her crying.

    So this seems to be a tragic end to my wondering why everyone is so sad.

    tenor (4)

    Dasvidaniya Doston.
    Jd

  • Do’s

    December 10th, 2019

    images

    You know someday, like several others, your kids will ask you this too. Where were you when the voices that should have been heard were being systematically choked down. Where were you when once again mob saw no issue in fees hike, when education funds were being cut and history was being re-written, when an entire lobby was against those who were supposed to have a time of their life in college and your, “I was gullible AF kid.” won’t create any difference.

    But there’ll be some who’ll tell the kids that their courage was tested and bruised and buried, not by those who attacked them, but by those who thought the man with sticks had a right plan.

    So, next time when you see a person telling his/her problem, lend your ears to them for a while and understand how life and society could be heterogeneous. Try to understand how important it is to keep the spirit of education alive. Tell others how important it is for humanity to fix every problem ranging from individuals to groups, and how important it is to stand behind the rationality and keep the empathy alive in people along with logic.Or else remember the golden words by the great Javed Akhtar Saab in Swades, “Fir na kehna nirbal hai Kyun hara” #YeTaraWoTaraHarTara

    It’s just a small note while I finish my coffee and see if I can contribute more in nation building.

    Signing off for today.

    JD

  • Sculpturist

    July 13th, 2019

    Is sculpturist even a word? because if it is then why there’s a red line under it. Fuck it. I’m not going to change it. Here’s a small idea that I had and I thought was cool so wrote a short two-pages story about it. I have also updated it on wattpad. if you guys want you can read it there but here’s a catch why should wattpad have all the fun? I’m copy pasting the same story here. Let me know what you guys think in the comments. newtemplate_1_original

    Never in his voyage had he thought about death. The desert he was crossing mostlykept him hungry but his determination fueled his body. He felt chills even whenthe sun burnt the sand around him. Sometimes he felt so cold that after fillinghis flask, he kept moving forward without bathing and those oases just keptappearing miraculously to remind him of the task that the almighty had givenhim. Hisbelief that he would succeed grew stronger with every chill he felt during scorchingheat and those brief breathlessness that he felt during the night.

    *The world must be fixed*

    From the time he was a kid, he had known no one and till the time of awakening, he had a hazy memory of only one accident which he called the last embrace. He remembered roaming in an empty building. That building was his learning place. He learnt random things about that place.And most importantly, he remembered being taught by the almighty himself.

    The almighty wore white robes that were endless. The almighty’s voice was firm while teaching, but during supper that voice used to become more generous. Almighty taught him how to eat and behave. He asked almighty, why he is alone and almighty always said, ‘only time will tell.’ When he turned fourteen he was given a book titled ‘The End & the Genesis’ from which he gained his firs consciousness. From that book he learnt that when his inferior forefathers turned greedy they exploited the soil that he walked on and polluted to water that he drank. When the destruction went beyond any repair he was raised from the clay by founding forefathers of the new soil and water. When he finished the book he again asked for his purpose and he was again told nothing by the almighty.

    Itwas funny the way his body reacted when he turned sixteen. He started feelingsensations he had never experienced. Rage arose from his nescience. And when hebecame self-destructive the almighty gave him access to a part of building henever had been to. He came to know about the genders. There were beings thatwere not like him. They were attractive and their body looked more appealing. He started craving the sensation of touch. And one day temptation took control of his solitude and he committed what almighty called his first sin, the sin of touching himself, the sin of giving himself the forbidden pleasure.

    He was thrown in a cell by almighty where the void ate whatever the little light and knowledge he had of the past world. What remained was a hazy memory of those endless white robes and of a skin that he could not have. It was two years later, after his second consciousness that he started receiving scrolls. Almighty communicated to him through those scrolls. Through first scroll almighty asked what he remembered. Through second he asked if he knew the purpose of his life. He never had any answers. He asked the same questions in return, but the almighty never answered. The last order was given by almighty to him. This order sent him on this voyage. The order was to find the clay from which he was born and to make more obedient people like him so that they can make this world a place where the almighty can come to live again.

    *PROJECT New World 4.2 initiated*

    He had never heard from almighty since then. The scrolls, through which he was taught how he would raise more people like from clay, were his only companion. This desert was the place where the clay was last seen by the new founding fathers. He shouted on almighty at times, but the almighty never answered. He committed sin time and again, but the almighty never cared. Almighty had given a purpose and that purpose was all that gave him energy to drag his skin around.

    One day he reached an oasis which felt denser to him. The water tasted salty yet life giving. He felt vibrations that he never had after drinking from that source. He examined the oasis carefully and found shiny reflective balls at the bottom of the water source. He dived inside and bought all those balls on the surface. It was indeed the clay of life.

    *day becomes little brighter*

    He started putting those balls on top of one another and made a figure which resembled a being he had seen in a book called, “the beings of life”. It had long tusks. He made many more like these so that balls can be carried back to the building he was born in. And once those beings started carrying clay balls to his building he made more people like his skin. They followed his orders. They gathered logs; they dug canals to make a building which was bigger than the size of the building where the first ‘he’ was born. “The building will have all the resources for almighty so that when the almighty comes he’ll have all the luxuries.” he thought to himself.

    He then created the skin he craved for years. She had hair like clouds and breasts as tender as ripe fruits. He feared the almighty would throw him again in cell for this, but the almighty never answered to his voice. He had her. He kept her with him all the time and she, with all the dedication, pleased him.

    The third born from the clay worked day and night and the first temple for almighty was created. But almighty never came, never answered. He kept creating every being from the same book. Soon his creations were all around. They all followed him. He was a father to them that he wanted for himself. He told them the story of almighty. They never disbelieved him, but for them he was nothing short of almighty.

    When he started growing weak, he realized, he needed someone like him who can keep creating the third generation of clay. He made a skin like no other, soft yet strong. He called him the Dreamer.

    Dreamer exceeded his expectations. He not only created beings never mentioned before, he excelled the architecture. He created palaces which made the first temple look small. Years pass by. Dreamer called the first-he his almighty and called him God. It pleased him, but who in the creation has not fallen for the power. But this power he enjoyed didn’t last long, because what dreamer couldn’t create for himself, was possessed by the god he admired.

    Dreamer didn’t come out of his castle for days and when the doors opened, a mighty army of first daemons roared and ran towards the palace of God. God knew dreamer was more skilled and powerful than him. War cry grew louder and louder. He goes into her room and kills her. He kills what he lusted the most.

    It took the dreamer less than hour to destroy what God and he created in years. And now the two creations faced each other. Dreamer runs towards God with blood in his eyes and suddenly it goes dark for both of them. Entire world shuts down.

    *Simulation Fails*

    “Fuck… Fuck… Fuck.” Steve slams his computer in anger.

    “This is fourth fucking time…” spilled coffee from the desk makes a stream towards his notes. He picks it up as the team of engineers in project ‘New World’ looks more disheartened. “Arrange a meeting tonight itself. I want to brief and discuss it with Doctor Hari.” Steve says to his secretary as other people from the group starts stretching to get ready for the next session. 

    *21st September 2122, 7.04 PM*

    “Welcome Steve.” Doctor Hari smiles as Steve walks into his well lit cabin.

    “Doctor another simulation failed. I don’t know if…”

    “It’s alright Steve. You look disheartened. ” Doctor Hari says before Steve could finish his sentence.

    “Doctor this has happened for the fourth time in a row. I don’t know if my team is ready to go at it again” Steve looks pale.

    “This doesn’t mean that you should feel defeated.” Dr Hari says, smiling on Steve’s low energy. “We have funds flowing; I suppose every family associated with the project is getting better education, health care”

    “Doctor, I’m an engineer my job is to make sure that the world created in the simulation runs smoothly. And frankly speaking the world is running just fine, it’s just that I’m not happy with the work of the team associated with anthropology”

    “Why?” Dr. Hari looks puzzled.

    “Sir, before starting every simulation, as per suggestion of other professors, we make sure that it is up to first cookie to nourish and nurture that world so that they can have a simple hierarchy of commands, but every single time cookies have come up with a way to destroy each other.” Steve looks more annoyed and picks up a glass of water from the desk.

    “Isn’t it a good thing? We humans are like that too.” Dr. Hari says smiling.

    “Yeah! We sort of are.” Steve says, exhaling air as he stretches his body.

    “You think God created us or was it our boredom and inquisitiveness that we feared, created the God” Dr. Hari continues, “We humans always feared that we don’t have enough answers so we created god. We men, at least the majority of us for centuries considered women inferior to us and treated them as objects. We created our own demons. We created weapons of mass destruction. We have exploited this planet to a point where we have almost destroyed the only home we have.” Dr. Hari smiles as he says the last line. “You say your cookies are like that, I say, they are like that because it’s us who have made them so.”

    Steve nods to what Dr. Hari said to him. He was tired of all the work.

     He keeps the glass on the table again and wipes his mouth clear from a tissue. “What if they remain same on Exo-Earth 2?” Steve asks, looking directly into the doctor’s eyes.

    *Choose next answer carefully*

    “Then it’ll be us who would have given them this power of destruction and not some god” Doctor says as he looks outside the window.

    *Human Steve has accepted the task you gave him*

    The End?

←Previous Page
1 … 9 10 11 12 13 14
Next Page→

Blog at WordPress.com.

Loading Comments...
  • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Expanding The Horizons
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Expanding The Horizons
    • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar