Goa here we come for the Rider Mania. Last year we had missed it and am i glad that will be there with bikers fromall over in Goa... Arambol..This time it just had to happen... he he. Finally we have got the bike from the mechanic. Today we are fitting new boxes to the bike so that the extra fixed luggage can go in along with the bike accessories and I do not need to carry an extra bag and i can take photos at leisure... yipeee !!
Anyway am looking forward to this trip. We will be 12 bikes in all to go on the 8th to the Rider Mania. Had
missed it last time and hope to have good fun this time. I for one am very excited since this is the first time for me in Goa.
I used to always dream of honeymooning in Goa in my school days when it was a very exotic place and well if notnot honeymoon, its better than that riding towards the beach on our bike... LOL...
I feel sometimes that I am the last one to have not gone to Goa... LOL.
The travelling bug has really bitten me this time and hope to do more. And I am dancing with joy. Oh I wish I could always travel .....
Planning Pondicherry, Kerela, Hampi, Mumbai sometime soon this year... yes this is one of my new years
resolution... travel travel travel and travel some more... explore all the places little known to the tourists...
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LoC Kargil.... a disturbing moment...
Last Sunday watched LoC Kargil. Even with all the confusion in the screen and all the editing by the cinema
wallah, it was an emotional movie. More so since my brother also was there in the war capturing Pakistani
posts with his jawans when the war was on. And all the stories came back to life.
I had heard about many stories from my cousin Major Tushar Pratim Boruah, Naga Regiment who has been posted back to that area now. War does a lot to the mental makeup of the soldier. Despite the tough conditions high up somewhere in the mountians, disillusionment, despair, frustation, my bro says that our soldiers are the best in comparison to any army organization and are willing to fight anytime for the country without batting an eyelid or caring for their life. He proudly says that our officers as shown in the movie go forward before endangering the lives of the jawans unlike the other party where the officers are at the last and are the first to retreat.
I have heard how my bro lost his buddy to a mine blast while walking side by side in the war zone and how that mine scraped his tooth. I have heard how the enemy soldiers were nothing but poor people who were promised with lot of money to their families after their death... so for the enemy it was a catch 22 situation... damned if we do damned if we dont.
I still remember the satellite phone calls where my bro used to tell me how lucky I was to sleep when he was already awake and on the move before dawn and how he had to survive on tin food.
The movie maybe showed us just a fraction of what goes on up there and yet it might leave the patriot shaken.I wish the country would do more for the jawans instead of eating away at the taxes that we pay.
Though according to my bro, inspite of the enemy having the best of the best equipment (each enemy soldier is provided with a GPS, insulated tents, sophisticated guns and weaponry while our army supposedly has one GPS for some hundred jawans and the general weapons... beat that)... our army is the best in organization when it comes to fighting a battle and winning through skill and strategy. And each life is valued here...
Then I read about the officers like Captain Vikram Batra, Anuj Nayyar,Manoj Pandey etc who were shaheed in "Operation Vijay" and it moved me to tears on reading about such young dare devils sacrificing their life willingly for their country. I remember watching Vikram Batra on the news with Barkha Dutt and the just the day after he was shaheed..
I salute you all who have fought for our country and are still fighting in the terrible conditions which one can only imagine... and also I am very proud of you my bro...
Personal thoughts aside, this movie is no great shakes if you are expecting lot of song and dance and the usual masala. It is a tribute to the 12 war heroes among the many who fought and most who attained martyrdom for our country.
Like some other war movies it is not pretty. The director has tried his level best to handle a vast topic well and keep the story as real as possible thereby maybe losing out on the commercial aspect of it.... but then this time I was more concerned with the facts and how it was portrayed rather than the frills which come with the movie.... there are some scenes which might have been manipulated but well one cannot tell... Many have said that how can one soldier heroically kill 3 to four of our enemies but thats what exactly happened in some cases.
Sometimes the scenes may seem to intense and repetitive but I think for people who can relate to the scene, it might make a difference. It did to me. Many of my friends were bored of the same old location and the same scene being enacted with little difference but what I had to say to them was that war is nothing funny but its a serious game of losing lives and managing lives and well it might not be just everybody's cup of tea. War movies are never pretty and there is nothing to smile about in the movie except for the realistic and sardonic humor which the soldiers share...
And typical of hindi movies please expect some mushy stuff happening there but hey its a Hindi movie. For a change its based on true heroes. I can handle that.
I thought that the song and dance was not needed but I guess the director was trying to appease the general audience too. The script was good the research well done.
Anyways check it out in the DVD if you are interested in the movie. That way you could fastforward the songs and get on with the story.
Mixed feelings is what I have when I think about the movie.. story wise its good but movie wise it could have been better but then again one must apprecite the effort of Mr J P Dutta who went out of the way and made this movie at least at the cost of his two of his crew's lives and in conditions which was less than favourable at the icy heights of Leh Ladakh.
The actors have done a great job is depicting the roles so much so that on seeing Saif, Capt Anuj Nayyar's friend thought he had played the role to the hilt.
Manoj Paney had me rooting for him. I loved Ashutosh Rana and Manoj Bajpai's role ( as the two Yadav friends) in this movie and they made me laugh as well as cry with their enactment... Rifleman Sanjay Kumar played by Suniel Shetty was also very genuine and well it could be well believed that real life heroes do exist big time. Vikram Batra gave a new meaning to Yeh Dil Mange More !!! I am sure there are many who deserve mention in this long list of heroics (about 450 soldiers who lost their lives in the 4 months long war) but it is enough to at least make the layman who was more interested in the cricket match going on during that time aware of what the soldiers were going through at the same time....
I rest my thoughts here !!!!
