Aditya Pranav: The official webpage.

It's a rather sad morning today because of the reports of the brave young girl passing away in Singapore hospital. Perhaps she didn't want to come back to this world. But she does leave us all with a choice. Are we going to be continually held hold hostage to the rampaging callousness of this world or we are taking a stand and uniting towards making it better and safer for life to prosper holistically?? While her leaving us is truly heart-breaking, we ought to make sure that it does not let the fire die out. The efforts to restore sanity has to gain even more momentum so that the insanity and its perpetrators are kept at bay. The country awaits justice. And are we ready to restore a new world order?? RIP brave young soul :( Prayers...

Do you remember the ad in which a very well dressed and hurried office executive doesn’t bother to stop the lift on an elderly couple’s far-cry and then doesn’t even de-board at destination because he sees a beautiful young lady entering? A nice Ghazal plays in the background (good one indeed as some people are desperately searching for a full version online) while the executive fellow admires her beauty and tries to strike a conversation before the lift goes back to where it began--elderly couple still waiting. The executive is apparently embarrassed. “Men will be men”, the ad sums up and ends after showing Seagram’s Imperial Blue Superhits Music CD logo with the announcement. I searched for the music CD online and found that there are two volumes of dance mixes collection compiled as “Seagram's Imperial Blue Superhits” that came out under record label of Sony Music. Needless to mention that the music CD thing is just a gimmick to dodge the legal tangles. Hashtag “#adswedonotbu...

Mr. Ajay Maken (Minister of State for Sports) has definitely brought up some truly vital points. Let us have a look at some of the things he’s suggesting (You may also read the Hindu article http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/article3427055.ece ): BCCI should de-link itself from the IPL management board that should ideally consist of deserving people who have served the game of cricket and have been its true torch bearers. They are apparently more qualified to run the show. Moreover, it will also take care of the issue relating to the conflict of interest.  Politicians should not hold prominent positions in sports federations. BCCI and IPL should be brought under RTI (Right to Information) Act in order to bring in more transparency. In my opinion, all the above mentioned points are very significant and should be immediately paid attention to. IPL has been in the news for the wrongs reasons recently and is currently being d...

The perennial critics need to get a life it seems. Their philosophy has always been based upon ‘could’ve been’, ‘should’ve been’, ‘should be’ & ‘could be’ etc. They remain so engrossed in dealing with these trivial things that they fail to notice the glorious moment of NOW and this by far has been the reason for most of the miseries of this world. Why then they still do not understand it? Why would some of the people only look at the bottom side of things? Why are they generally not able to celebrate the precious moments? Have we all not noticed that the cribbing never stops for some of us? What could have possibly gone wrong with such people? Some people on the other hand are able to see the beacon light even in the darkest of the hour and never let their hope die. They exemplify patience and perseverance. I think of Late Victor E. Frankl who sustained most torturous circumstances in a Nazi concentration camp during Second World War and came out alive even though the o...

Atlas Shrugged from Ayn Rand continues to be my favorite piece of fiction. According to a report 445,000 copies of the novel (english editions) were sold in 2011. This speaks volumes about the popularity, influence and relevance it has even today. This 55 year old novel is still widely celebrated and I think it'll continue to do so because of its glory and grandeur. My post below relates to my favorite character Francisco D' Anconia and the sacrifices he made to accomplish his mission. Why did he have to portray himself as a playboy? It looked odd to begin with until the story unfolded and presented the grand picture. Please read on: Francisco D’ Anconia’s character in “Atlas Shrugged”, I think, is a perfect example of a man on a mission. The venerable author Ayn Rand would have termed it as an ideal and spirited man’s mission and very rightly so. Francisco turns out to be the most important warrior in John Galt’s army against the destroyers of laissez-faire capitalism and...

Agneepath is a brilliant piece of cinema and exemplifies a full-blown Bollywood Hindi movie. It turned out to be better than expectation for me. Hrithik Rocks (so endearing in this Macho & serious avtar too, definitely in the league of his best cinema outings) and Sanjay Dutt delivers an epic performance. Thanks to Karan Johar and the entire crew for giving us this visual and emotional ride. ***This film is certified UA. We advise parental guidance due to violence in the film*** Karan Johar's attempt in putting this little explanatory note regarding U/A certification on the posters has been appreciated by the Censor Board. It's a nice move indeed. I really loved following lines from Harivansh Rai Bachchan: वृक्ष हों भले खड़े, हों घने हों बड़े, एक पत्र छांह भी, मांग मत, मांग मत, मांग मत, अग्निपथ अग्निपथ अग्निपथ तू न थकेगा कभी, तू न रुकेगा कभी, तू न मुड़ेगा कभी, कर शपथ, कर शपथ, कर शपथ, अग्निपथ अग्निपथ अग्निपथ यह महान दृश्य है, चल रहा मनुष्य है...

This has been on my mind since yesterday (09.01.2012) and I could not have let it go like that. For me, it was definitely not a good start to this chilly morning in New Delhi and the onus goes to TOI (Times of India) and its cartoonists. For those who have not had a chance to look at it please see below (TOI, Edit page, Monday, 09.01.2012): It is not very funny. Is it? Their dig on world’s most prolific batsmen is completely preposterous and unjustified. I respect their freedom of expression and their opinion; however, I am provoked enough to exercise mine too and that’s because of such an inconsiderate and ridiculous cartoon feature they have come up with.  Should TOI have allowed it to be printed at the first place?? This piece of mine is an open letter to them and any other cricket enthusiasts who have similar views on Tendulkar. In fact I just want to add some figures to what Abhishek Nandwani wrote in his column on cricketnext.com ( http://tinyurl.com/6qbg9yv ) . ...