With the advent of the new government at the centre there were many debates and discussions on the 'acche din' promise of Mr Narendra Modi. Although our new PM just came to power, the expectations were sky-rocketing from the very beginning. This was all a result of the extensive marketing done by BJP for their brand Modi and also the dismal performance of the scam-infested UPA government. Mr Modi has been indefinitely burning mid-night oils from the commencement of his office to improve the economic, foreign, defence and human resource affairs of our country. His development work is evident everyday on the social media. From the clean Ganga initiative to the extempore independence day speech which prompted the two corporate giants, TCS and Bharthi to give 200 crore for the developement of sanitation facilities. Yesterday I was delighted at the petrol pump to realise that the petroleum ministry has again reduced the petrol price and this time by almost double than before. All this is the result of good governance of a man who actually wants to selflessly work for the people of this country.

Its been only three months and there is a long list of the achievements made by the NDA government. Here are a few of them that we generally overlook:

• Brought back all the nurses and other Indians stuck in Iraq due to the ISIS.
• Brought back the 6 citizens from the Dubai jail after 5 years.
• Brought back the 2000 crore lost by the UPA from the Augusta Westland scam.
• Initiated a plan to turn Varanasi into a hub with help from corporates.
• Invited foreign delegations for the swearing-in ceremony.
• Improved relations with countries like Nepal and Bhutan.
• Commissioning of the INS Kolkata, the largest warship for Indian Navy so far.
• Winner in BRICS summit over China on the chairmanship and bank's name.
• Focussing on cleanliness in schools specially for the girl child. 
• Making a pro-industry and pro-saving bugdet for the citizens of the country.
• Political will to increase railway fares to improve the condition of the Indian railways.
• Brought back the Indians stuck in Libya due to political unrest.
• Reduction in petrol prices twice by more than Rs 3.00.
• Introducing acceptance of self-attested documents in order to reduce the hassle for the commoners.
• Introducing new railway lines for north-east and other less connected areas of the country.
• Agreements on improving the defence capabilties ignored by the last government.
• Making a tough stand on the Pakistan envoy meeting separatists leaders by cancelling secretary level talks with Pakistan.
• Taking a strong stand infront of the so-called big and developed nations like US and China.

Am sure these are only a few good steps taken by the government that I could think of at the back of my mind. This government with a visionary leader like Mr Modi has a lot in its potential to take our country ahead and make it a global leader. So let us all support the good initiatives taken by Mr Modi and work towards a better future for us and our next generation.
 

So, here it comes. The lesser-known superheroes of marvel comics finally launched on the big screen. I must say IMDB has been pretty generous in giving Guardians of the Galaxy 8.7. Although it is an action packed and humorous movie it does lack the spark usually visible in marvel movies. I watched this movie a few days back and enjoyed all dialogues and acts full of sattire and sarcasm. Especially the voice over by Bradley Cooper for Rocket 'the racoon'. The story-line is however simple with less of drama and emotions. The guardians are a pack of thieves who come together for a common cause i.e to save the universe from this movie's dark lord Ronan 'the accuser'. All of them have different  powers and profession. Star Lord is a thief who loses his mother at a very young age. Gamora is a great fighter of the dark lord who shifts her loyalty for the sake of the universe. Drax 'the destroyer' is revengeful of his wife's and daughter's death by the dark lord and Rocket and Groot are a gang with Rocket leading charge on fights and kidnapping for ransom.

There are a number of eye-catchy scenes in the movie. One of them is in the beginning, when the guardians Star Lord, Gamora, Groot and Rocket fight in their quest to capture one another. Another awesome scene that I loved was when Groot stretches himself to the extreme to light up the dark warship of Ronan while the others get ready for a battle to save the Earth. Groot is the most magnetic character of the movie. He has powers like no other and can stretch limitlessly. He can live on wood.  You are meant to fall in love with this extra-ordinary character created by Stan lee and played by the action-hero Vin Diesel. The only dialogue he delivers is 'I am Groot'. He touches my heart when he gives his life to save his friends because of the crashing warship and when his best friend Rocket asks him to stop or else he would die, he says 'We are Groot'. Although ignorant, Groot does all in his might to save his loved ones. I read in wikipedia that Groot has been killed on three occasions but he has come back to life even from the smallest strand of his bark and we see a small Groot in the hands of Rocket towards the end of this movie as well.

It is a must watch for all Marvel fans so enjoy this 3-Dimensional contrasting new adventure movie from Marvel studios at a theatre near you.

At last, God has had some mercy on us and let the monsoon wet our entire nation. Its been a bit late this time but still we welcome the most beautiful season with open arms to get rid of the intolerable summer. The rain deficit has reduced from a whopping 60-65% to a mere 5% as per the latest information from The India Meteorological Department (IMD). The coastal areas were blessed way before however the northern and the western part of the country needed this much awaited monsoon. Famine and price rise are directly proportional to each other so am sure the poor as well as rich farmers must have heaved a sigh of relief along with the newly elected government which will get some respite and reduce the inflation burden on the common man. Monsoon has been my most favourite season because of the life it brings in the plants, trees and animals. Everything seems alive and attractive with rain droplets on them and the petrichor(scent of rain on dry earth) is uncomparable to even the most expensive perfume in the world.

But we in our fast and selfish approach towards life have been insensitive to the needs of nature. Global warming, drying up of rivers, melting of glaciers, increase in the duration of summers, reduction in rains and winter season are all a result of our foul play with nature. It is an apt statement that ' What goes around comes back around'. We gave pollution, dirt, dust, pain and destruction to the Earth and today all that we did is coming back to us in different forms. Even a superpower like China every year goes through earthquake, flood, famine and no matter how much it tries to fight back human loss is inevitable. The Earth does take revenge in some form or the other. Nature gave us beautiful environment, animals, food and endless love by being a provider for us. And we have been so greedy that we could never stop asking and even snatching by force more and more from her. We call it mother nature but is this how we treat our mother? She nurtured us without any discrimination and we failed to live up to her expectations. No matter how much we progress technically or economically we still are and will remain very much dependent on nature and it is our duty to not let the natural resources whither away in vain rather we should make each and every effort in bringing it to the optimum use for the society as a whole. Some tactics that we can use would be solar energy, rain-water harvesting, mix and match in sowing the crops on seasonal basis, interlinking of rivers and most importantly reducing the pollution that we pass on to the rivers including Ganga, Yamuna, Narmada etc.

Let us all pledge to take care of our Mother Earth and stop all this anti-natural wastage. Do not forget, that without nature there will be no planet, no country, no religion and no people. 

After ages I saw a Hindi movie in a movie hall. Thanks to my colleagues who pre- booked the tickets without informing me. We managed to reach the multiplex way before time and collected the physical tickets from the counter. Being a weekend, the seats were almost full and although we had online booking we could only grab seats in the first few rows right in front of the screen. After a few advertisements, the movie finally started.

From a very young age, I have been fond of unfolding secrets. I have followed authors like Enid Blyton, the Famous Five and adventure stories writer, and who can forget the great Arthur Conan Doyle of the Sherlock Holmes. Although there have been various TV shows and movies based on Sherlock but the latest from Sherlock on BBC has been ranked one of the most watched TV series. It is an excellent adaptation of the book in modern times. Both the actors, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman have done a superb job specifically to mention the last episode of season 3 which showcased the criminal Charles Augustus Magnussen. There have been a few wonderful Indian mystery story writers as well, like the Oscar winner Satyajit Ray, who filmed Shonar Kella and many other movies of Feluda, Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay who created the famous bengali detective Byomkesh Bakshi. I still happen to watch the TV series online at times which exhibited intelligence in a simple attire by actor Rajat Kapoor and hum its casting tune.

Recently, I developed a new addiction to the best mystery game ever played by me on my phone. It is called
'Crime Scene-mystery games'. I was going through the app store on my apple for a hidden objects game and found this very interesting and intriguing game with excellent reviews. So here I go without giving it anymore thought, I downloaded this game via wi-fi at home. I would say the best part about this mystery game is that the detective showcased is a girl, whom I can relate to and keep myself occupied looking for clues left behind by the criminals. I have solved around five cases so far and the game is still as gripping as it was in the first case. In my opinion it is a great game to play for all the riddle solving young girls who enjoy laying back and unfolding chapters. The game has more than 12 cases which unlock only once the previous ones are solved. It is an amazing experience on each win that comes across with stars for you. Also the game keeps you engaged since not only you look for hidden clues but also solve them with you wit, word power and speed. At first, it might be difficult for you to keep up with the pace and the timer in the game but as the game progresses, you tend to catch up with the allotted time.

So, enjoy solving mysteries and a big thumps up to this new game by team lava from my side. Will keep all of you posted about other games I come across in the future.

Hemanta Mukherjee or Hemanta Kumar as we all know him, was the most soulful of all the singers in Indian music industry. He was a composer, singer, producer, story-writer of ardent talent which gave life to our entertainment industry.  We were in the era of black and white movies when he stepped in and brought some of the best compositions both in Bengali and classical bollywood movies. I happened to sing one of my favorite songs ' Yeh nayan dare dare' from the movie Kohra today, which was beautifully picturized on Waheeda Rehman and the then chocolaty actor Biswajeet. This song is a perfect blend of romance and love with a serene and subtle backdrop. His other hits included songs like ' Bekarar karke', 'Na tum humhe jaano', 'Ya dil ki suno' to name a few. I would also like to mention one of the songs which was filmed on the evergreen actor of our film industry, Dev Anand  'Yaad kiya dil ne kahan ho tum' from the film Patita which is described as the best romantic song ever by one his fans on you tube.


My personal favorite which I think is a masterpiece from Hemanta da for the film industry is ' Tum Pukar Lo' from Khamoshi, starring our Dharam paji and Waheeda Rehman. I would urge you all to watch this video I uploaded specially for my readers.



He was a born legend who proved himself in the Hindi film industry as well as in the Bengali film fraternity. He is still the most sought after for "Mahalaya songs" and "Rabindra Sangeet". His versatility is clearly visible by listening to the different types of moods he was able to express with his golden voice. He may be one of the least talked about singers today, but for me he is par excellence and his presence in the Indian film industry has been a landmark achievement in those times when technology, media and opportunity had very little role to play in ones success. I salute and bow before him as a tribute to one of the legends who paved the way for the Hindi film industry.

Where are we heading to? This is the first thought that came to my mind today. Murder, rape, terrorism, war, it is inhumanity all over the world. I mean, a human's life has no value. Is this what we dreamed of? People are beaten to death by each other everyday. A soldier killing to protect his nation is a matter of pride but humans killing humans over religion, power, money is insanity. We are fast becoming the most savage of all the creatures that God created and today he must also have distanced Himself from us. We call the tiger, lion a beast but in reality we are the fiercest ones. Any animal unless for food, does not kill another one like us who kills without a reason, for pleasure for power. For centuries, we tried to rule over the giant creatures who once dominated our planet. We killed them for their skin, bones and we continue doing the same even today. The only difference is that we added another creature to our strike-off list humans.

Today, Iraq, Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Africa, Palestine are all having a show down of their power in front of their respective communities. They are killing, mutilating thousands and thousands just to climb up their ladder of greed and selfish virtues. It is a terrible state of affairs in each country. Even the self-proclaimed philanthropist country US, took a step back and did not for once come to the rescue of any of the innocent victims of the unwanted wars. Why don't all the so-called peace loving nations come forward and the UN be strong enough to oppose the barbaric act of terrorism that faces humanity today? I fail to understand that where is the willingness of doing something good and if not atleast to stop or raise a voice against inhumanity. 

I wrote about the horrors of UP in one of my previous blogs but today I was in tears and heart broken to hear about another incident that took place in this Hindi heartland of India. A 32 year-old mother of two was killed brutally on the 16th of this month for no fault of hers and the police along with the government of UP is mute. No action has been taken against the culprits so far although it was a planned murder. The woman was left to die in a school compound in the middle of the night. Are people like these worthy enough to live in our society? Why can't they be punished in such a way that they feel the same pain of brutality that the victim went through? That would set an example for the other beastly humans and these unworthy politicians who quote" boys will be boys they make mistake."

I appeal to all the humanity left in the world, let us come together not for our community or religion but for the society as a whole, for peace, for love and say no to crimes.

Yesterday, was a glowing sun directing our path. What lies today, is darkness and madness. Shame on you humans! ~ Ankhi Bhattacharya

It's been over 8 years that I visited the holy shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi in Katra, Jammu and Kashmir.I
along with my family and friends planned a journey for the month of April to avoid the cold winter breeze. My dad hired an Innova for our journey till Katra. It took us more than 7 hours to reach our destination, post which we marched on foot after a bit of rest in a nearby hotel. I must admit the walk took a toll on us as we started for the 14 km never ending steep steps towards the temple. Whenever we reached a turn, like a mirage, it seemed the temple was just a few minutes away but it took us good 2-3 hours to reach the gate of one of the most worshiped pilgrimages of the country on foot. On our way we took a bit of rest here and there since we had a few old aged people with us. I saw many devotees literally crawling and walking on foot without any shoes on the rocky path shouting 'Jai Mata Di' on top of their voice. I was both amazed and touched to see their devotion towards the Mother Goddess. As we reached the temple premises, we saw a long queue outside the gate of the temple mounting to thousands of darshanarthi (devout). Luckily, my dad had VVIP passes for the entry and within a few minutes we were escorted towards another entry for a holistic view of the Devi. After
paying homage to the mother we started back for Katra. The journey back was more tiring since we had not rested or eaten anything for almost a day but our inner strength by God's grace kept rising and nothing could stop us. We stopped feeling the cold breeze, hunger, thirst, body pain, all the vices, all the agony seemed to have vanished after witnessing the holy Pind of Mata Vaishno Devi. Somehow we managed our way back to the hotel and immediately headed towards home since we had no time to rest because of professional leaves crunch for most of the companions in the trip.

Pangot is a very small village 15 km away from Nainital into the wilderness of nature. It is home to about 150-200 species of birds and is a beautiful destination for all the jungle and hill lovers. I would rather consider myself lucky to have been able to discover and visit this beatific place in 'Dev Bhoomi'. It was an unforgettable experience with the best of nature from the 370 km Himalayan range to the variety of bird species to the amazing rainy season of the hills of Uttarakhand. I spend 3 nights and 4 days in Pangot and I am all excited to share my everyday experience with you.

Recently, we had an office event organised at the J-One Levels club and lounge. The organisers I must say surprisingly managed to crack a good deal this time. There was endless supply of good food, music and snacks which kept the party goers busy throughout the event. This is a fairly new club in the city and it managed to leave a good impression on me. I am not a party animal and do not enjoy pubs and discotheques to be precise however the service and quality of food in this lounge made me change my view. I was extremely delighted by the quick service and variety of snacks available which left a good taste in my mouth. I tried almost all the snacks from chilli chicken to thin crust pizza to malai tikka and the veggies too. As far as drinks were concerned, the majority of the crowd was enjoying the alcoholic beverages and I fixed myself to the virgin mojito which was perfectly blended with lime juice, mint leaves and ice.

After a bit of munching, the crowd moved to the dance floor with the DJ mixing hollywood and bollywood tracks on the stage. The whole management team from leaders to the analysts all were dancing to the tunes of different songs being played at the club. Few of them even went ahead requesting "Yo Yo Honey Singh" on priority. The club had a red theme with the lights and sitting area glowing in red light. Although it was very dark, but the red color gave a nice feel to the entire affair. I also managed to click a few selfies of mine in red which came out really nice. At around 10:30 pm there was an announcement made that the dinner was being served and I was pleasantly surprised to realise that there was a seperate diner section in the lounge. My stomach was more than full because of the snacks and mojitos I had gulped but I did enjoy the calm and peaceful sumptuous three course meal with my colleagues. My favourites were the thai curry and the chocolate fudge ice-cream. All in all, it was nice first hand evening experience with my co-workers.

I am of the opinion that no matter what the situation, it is important to find something worthwhile and enjoy that moment to the fullest. Wisemen say, If you cannot change the situation, change yourself while keeping your morals and principles intact.

It is wise to flow with the tide, but it is foolish to let your guards down and slide in the wrong direction.~Ankhi Bhattacharya