My Mother's Smile

A Smile Better than Mine 

A smile better than mine, that’s my mother's smile;

A smile that's true, pure and unconditional.

A smile that shows that you can be invictus through the hardest times of life;

A smile that instantly put you on a high and forget the world.

A smile that could light up the sky, that can melt the coldest of hearts;

A smile that brings unity and togetherness.

A smile that shows the happiness seeing the joy and laughter of other people;

A smile that shines when I succeed, a smile that warms me when I'm in need.

My mother's smile is the best smile in the world, 

And trust me, it hurts me when I say someone smiles better than me because I have a good smile.

But I have to admit no smile in the world is better than my mother's smile.

A smile that shows her struggles and pain, a smile that raise 4 boys as a single mother.

Her smile shows the leftover wounds when her marriage broke down, 

A smile so strong it has carried her through rings of fire, shelter her through the turmoil’s of life.

My mother smile shows the appreciation of Life, it shows love in all its forms;

It shows heartbreak and happiness,  it is an emblem of contentment.

A status, a status of loving who you are, loving all that you know;

A smile that doesn’t categorize your caste, religion, sex, status, human or an animal.

A smile that puts on a show through the hardest of times.

A smile that can make everyone  around you stand stall when everything else falls;

A smile that says no matter what happens around us, we will try and go on.

P.S : This is a note I wrote as an office assignment on "A Smile Better than Mine'  and it is one of my proudest yet..... I love you Mom XOXO

Sam Smith - I'm Not the Only One

The talented crooner is here to stay

"I'm Not the Only One" is the fourth single taken off from the #1 platinum selling debut album 'In the Lonely Hour' by Sam Smith. The song was written by Sam Smith and Jimmy Napes, produced by the latter and Steve Fitzmaurice, it is a pop track influenced by R&B and Soul. It is my personal favorite track  from Sam, a song I can relate to and this blog post is going to be the most personal blog I have written yet.
To be honest, I didn't give much attention to Sam Smith until one of my best friends Caleb from Delhi forced me to listen to the #1 smash 'Stay with Me'. I did know he was dubbed as the biggest thing in 2014 by BBC Sound of 2014 poll and he already had a string of hits under his belt including the collaboration with Naughty Boy and Disclosure with the songs 'La La' and 'Latch' respectively. Then I started listening to his songs and I fell in love with the smooth vocals, the way he emotionally connects with the songs he sings and how he gets you into his songs which can only be done by a few artists.

"I'm Not the Only One" is very close to my heart, a very personal song because it is a song which my mom would have written while she was married to my dad who is up in heaven now, every lines connects the emotions that my mom went through in this phase of her life. My dad was a wonderful husband and a great father but he just cannot be faithful to my mom which eventually lead to their divorce leaving us kids in jeopardy. My mom is a supermom who stood firm and she raised four boys by herself, I love her more than my life. When I first heard this song, it was so real that it was unreal, I was on the verge of breaking down and it made me love my mom more imagining what she had gone through.
Sam Smith's vocals is as smooth as it can be, we can feel every word he sings, the emotions and the pain and I am sure that he wrote "I'm Not the Only One" when he was in a very dark place. It tells a story of a person who loves him so much, called him baby  but still went out with someone else. He knew what is going on which was hidden by his partner, he knew he wasn't the only one but he just can't stop loving the person. The end of the song is heartfelt because it shows that the relationship they had was torn up and the person he loved the most had broken down everything he had and went away with Sam's heart leaving him alone.

The music video of the song featured Dianna Agron from Glee and Chris Messina from the Mindy Project, it featured Dianna Agron as the faithful wife in their home who took care of everything while her husband was out with another woman. It showed her drinking away the pain she suffered, burning down her husband's clothes and belongings but in the end welcomed her husband with an open arms smiling at the door. The video brought out the emotions of the song, the pain, the torture and sufferings, the feeling you have when you have an unrequited love, a great video to watch and it suited the song perfectly.
I am in love with this beautiful song, I know "I'm Not the Only One" will not be as big as 'Stay with Me' but it will be in my heart for a long long time to come.

MTV Video Music Awards 2014

Homeless Miley stole the show

MTV Video Music Awards 2014 was held at The Forum in Inglewood, California and the stars lined up for the music video event of the year. As usual, it was a fun filled event, a little less controversial this time (apart from an almost wardrobe malfunction from Nicki Minaj), a few lukewarm performances and some of them rose above the rest. Like every other year, girl power ruled the award show winning all the major awards apart from Best Hip Hop Video (won by Drake) and Best Male Video which doesn't count as far as I know.

The main award 'Video of the year' was won by Miley Cyrus for her record breaking video 'Wrecking Ball' which is a fantastic achievement for a young artist growing up in Disney. Best Female Video went to Katy Perry for 'Dark Horse', Artist to watch which is equivalent to Best New Artist went to Fifth Harmony for 'Miss Movin On', Best Pop Video which is gender mixed went to Ariana Grande for 'Problem' and another gender mixed male oriented category Best Rock Video went to a girl Lorde for 'Royals'. The Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award which is almost equivalent to Lifetime Achievment Award went to Beyonce and she nailed it with a 15 minutes performance, and I left the best for last Ed Sheeran won the Best Male Video for 'Sing'. Ed is someone I have been following before he broke out in the music scene, it made me so happy to see him winning the award considering the other nominees are more prominent figure and all of their songs charted higher than him in the charts.

Amongst the performances, Sam Smith soared above the rest with his rendition of 'Stay With Me', it moved the whole theatre and the voice just silenced everyone. Taylor Swift gave a mediocre performance of 'Shake It Off', Ariana Grande, Jessie J and Nicki Minaj gave a heart pumping performance for their respective singles 'Break Free', 'Anaconda' and 'Bang Bang', Iggy Azalea and Rita Ora turned up the heat with 'Black Widow', Maroon 5 sang a medley of 'Maps' and 'One More Night', 5SOS sang 'Amnesia' and Usher premiered 'She came to give it to you' with Nicki Minaj. The show ended with Beyonce who sang a medley from her last album before receiving the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award from Jay Z and Blue Ivy. One thing I don't understand about Beyonce's performances is that it always looks so organised and planned, it misses on the connection it is suppose to have with the audience, overall Queen Bee still got it after all these years!!

The real winner of the night was Miley Cyrus who sent Jesse, a homeless guy in the streets of LA to collect her Video of the Year Award to raise awareness for My Friends Place who is helping the homeless people who all go to LA for fame and fortune but end up less fortunate. Miley was the talk of VMA last year for all the wrong reasons but this year she turned it upside down with a good deeds which shows her true heart, all I can say is this girl knows how to steal a show more than anyone in the business.

P.S - The best dressed award goes to Jennifer Lopez who looked stunning in a shimmering gold gown.

Taylor Swift - Shake it off

Country princess goes pop and it's sweet as ever!!

Am sure most of my friends who know me will know that I won't write even a single negative word about her and they are damn right on this one. And yes, after the record breaking 'Red Tour', Taylor Swift is back and she doesn't disappoint, the song is called 'Shake it off' which she co-wrote with Max Martin and Shellback who were behind her #1 hit 'We are never ever getting back together', '22' and 'I knew you were trouble' from her last album. The song is released as the lead single from her upcoming album aptly titled '1989' (her birth year) and it has all the ingredients to be a big hit once again for her, it channels 'Mean' and she sings about people who can't stop saying bad things about her.

Taylor Swift is pulling a Beyonce on this one, she gave us 2 hints on her Instagram account about the release of this song and announced it via Yahoo! live stream and premiere the video on sunday night. The song is produced by her co-writers, it is not really her signature sound but she herself stated that '1989' will be her first documented official pop album and it is clear that she is moving towards the pop direction. She sings about the haters and  critics who found everything wrong about her, what they say about her and she expresses what she really feels, she states that there is music in her heart that everything will be alright so she shake it off. Taylor's vocals sounds better than ever, we can sense that it has grown a lot from the Tim McGraw days, she also rap on the hook which I called her best friend and my idol, the Ed Sheeran effect. It is a pop song that will be big in the radio,every kid across the world will love it, it will be in everyone's lip especially after she performs it this Sunday at the VMA's.

The video showed Taylor in different avatars, she recruited her musicians, dancers and her very own swifties, it is a refreshing video and we see a different side of her. It has its criticism that she is a racist in this video which she can just shake, shake , shake it off and we all know she is not even close to being a racist. I just can't wait for the full album when it gets released on October 27, 2014 and billboard has reported the song is likely to debut at #1 next week with a record breaking sales. I've said this before and will say it again, it's good to be a #swiftie

Hilary Duff - Chasing the sun

Lizzie McGuire is back and we are smiling!!

Hilary Duff is back with a new single after five long years, she sounds sweet as sin and the song is surprisingly addictive. Hilary is the pioneer for the Disney kids, she is the one who started it all, from being a child star on the telly to becoming a bonafide superstar. She is the one who started from being a star in a Disney show and went on to star in big budget movies, selling out arenas and selling tons of records, we can say that she paved the way for the upcoming superstars like Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande, even the Jonas Brothers and a whole lot more.

Anyone who knows me or read my blog will know that I love Ed Sheeran, when I saw the picture of him and Hilary inside a studio, I know something good is in store and shortly after that Hilary stated that she signed a new record deal with RCA records and will be releasing a new single shortly and an album after. I was curious about the music she will release because I know she has mixed up a lot in the noughties, her debut 'Metamorphosis' sounds very different comparing to her last album 'Dignity'. I bought it straightaway on Itunes as soon as the song got released earlier this week, let me tell you, I wasn't disapppointed at all, I was enjoying the song right from the first line to the very end and the video is equally amazing, funny, humorous and something I do all the time at work myself (daydreaming).

The song 'Chasing the sun' was written by Colbie Caillat, Jason Reeves and Toby Gad, it was produced by the latter whose work I adore including 'Who you are' by Jessie J and recently 'All of me' by John Legend. Hilary sounds breezy, easy to the ears and this song shows the mature side of her without abandoning her roots as a peppy pop singer she was at the early 2000's. There is not much of a vocal on the song but then she was never known for her vocals, it is easy to listen to and the more you listen to it, you will love, it is a song that you would love to hear in a car singing along with your best friends. As much as I love the song, I honestly don't think it is an ideal comeback song but its Hilary and she knows how to make it work all the time. I do hope it makes a much needed impact on the charts for her and looking forward to the second single before the album gets release this fall especially the song she wrote with Ed.

All about Wendy Williams!!

Why do I love Wendy??

I have heard about Wendy Williams for a long time, I have never really paid attention to her as much even though I love watching talk shows and reality TV. I got to know her late last year watching the previous episodes of the Wendy Williams Show and when season 5 kicked in, I was in full swing, I can honestly say that I watched each and every single episode through her Youtube channel as her show is yet to be broadcasted in India. Wendy turned 50 last friday and Season 5 wrapped up yesterday so here I am paying tribute to my favorite female talk show host and at the same time waiting for September when season 6 will return.

My blog is not a hate blog but I might have to strike a few shades in today's update which is not surprising because we are going to talk about Wendy, why I love her and what make her stand out? If I have to describe Wendy in one word, I would definitely say 'Unfiltered', this is one of the reason why I watch the show everyday. When I compare her with her peers on daytime TV, I love Ellen but she is so nice to everyone and their mother, I know for a fact that a normal person cannot be in love with everyone. I find the Queen Latifah's show super boring and I can barely watch it for 10 minutes, Bethenney Frankel is equally unfiltered but she is unfiltered sexually and in a very nasty way which can come across as completely gross. Watching a grown woman holding a sex toy or talking about sexual positions on daytime TV is not really entertaining and her show did get cancelled. I can go from Dr.Phil to Dr. Drew, the View to the Talk but when it comes to Wendy, none of them come close to her, she is beautiful, talented and she knows how to work a crowd.

Wendy is a true example of rags to riches story, she never hides the fact that she had a substance abuse issue growing up, she started from the bottom and she made herself where she is right now. The Wendy Williams shows has celebrity guest, chefs coming to her show, designers talking about fashion, she giveaway holidays and she does makeover for her Wendy watchers. There are three popular segments, first is 'Ask Wendy' where the studio audience randomly asks her questions which she answers them at the spot, then 'Hot Talk' where she and her panel discuss about celebrities, current events, politics, all the what nots and then come the most popular part of the show 'Hot Topics'. In 'Hot Topics', Wendy dishes about celebrities and their lives, she voices her opinion like no other and give her audience an unfiltered view on what she thinks, and this segment takes normally 20 minutes of her show. For a show that runs normally between 40-45 minutes without advertisements, its clear that "Hot Topics' is the heart of the show.

I love Wendy for all she is, unfiltered, she shows her emotions and she cries when she has her period, she shares her life and what show she watches,she calls her audience her co-host, she loves us for watching her show and thank us everyday. I am looking forward to season 6 when it arrives in September and here is the last #hottopics from season 5 and thank you all for reading.

A Homeboy's Life!!

Where have I been??

I haven't updated my blog for a long time, am asking myself why am I not updating my blog which is very close to my heart, for a long time? I have been all over the place really, I was going through a rough patch in my life which I am still facing but now I am picking up the pieces for a new beginning. Everything in life is not perfect and at some point, we have to face it whether we like it or not, the promotion I got from my workplace got cancelled abruptly, I need to switch jobs (pic. courtesy of my farewell) and have to start all over again, I had a fallout with one of my best friends, I didn't get a pay and I was actually in a dark place with sleepless nights. But now it's time to talk about the good stuff and life is not always bad and sometimes we need to go through pain to experience joy.

During my absence, I watched a few movies and the movie that I really loved was The Fault in our Stars, I cried a river the day I watched it, in fact, the whole audience was in tears, I remember staring at the girl who was crying so hard even after the movie ended and she was consoled by her friends. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes took me by surprise and it was surprisingly a wonderful movie not because of the actions and the cinematography which was expected but the story, the story of the movie was incredible and it touched me with the love based on family and friends. And also referring to the picture above which I took with my best friend Jane on the day we watched Transformers 4: Age of Extinction. That was really entertaining and Jane enjoyed it more than everyone else in the theater.

I can't forget the music part, most importantly because my blog is a music blog and I know there are lots of new singles and albums that I love but I am going to talk only about my hero Ed Sheeran. Ed Sheeran's X is the best album that have come out this year and I am sure there will be no better album this year, at least, according to me. All the songs are great starting from 'One' till the end of the bonus track 'I See Fire', my personal favorite has to be 'Thinking Out Loud' which is the most touching song on the album. All in all, Ed Sheeran is more aggressive on this album than he was in his debut album and he sounds amazing as ever, no songs to skip and am glad and thankful for Itunes , I got the album ten minutes after it got released three and half weeks ago. It is still #1 in the UK and this album is his first #1 in the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart. It is a must have for everyone and I just love Ed Sheeran for his artistry and his musical talent and I wish him well on his upcoming singles and  his upcoming tour.

Am back in my blog, cheers to life and I love each one of you who reads my blog with all its perfect imperfections, it means a lot to me everytime.