Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Back...!! Not with a bang tho..!! :)

Welcome back. Well that's to me..not for u. After sometime of inactivity on my blog, I m back. Though, I dont have too much to write in this. Well, at this moment, what's there to write? The World cup of,course. Pakistan's loss, India's no show in the first match, Bob Woolmer's death or murder or whatever..Raikonnen's winning the first race in the F1 calendar this year, the heat in Chennai, MP's coming to blows in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi's statement on the Congress Party and the Babri demolition. Well!! Too many things happening. Too much to write and I m lazy to comment on all these.!! So there it goes. Everybody who has taken the time to read this post..Thanks for wasting your time reading this!! Go back to doing whatever you were doing.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Water

First things first about this topic. Deepa Mehta's Water should go down in Indian cinema history as a classic. Forget all the controversies that the film ran into and is at present also. Empty vessels make more noise..so all those empty vessels who have been trying to stop the film from being screened in some parts of the country..here's my advice. Go Watch the film. It is actually..in a sense controversial, set during the independence struggle, dealing about the freedom struggle that widows are going through. It's a struggle between traditions set down by the society and trying to live..yes trying to live one's own life.
In fact as Deepa Mehta has pointed out in a recent interview, why are we Indians afraid of showing and seeing the truth? It is a film that delves into what existed and we shouldn't be ashamed of it. It is a culture that existed during the independence era and still exists.
One scene in the movie should as a matter of fact, stand out. The scene where Gandhiji says we all believe that God is truth, but in reality Truth is God (Satya hi ishwar hai).
Just one suggestion to Deepa Mehta, stop naming your films like Water, Earth, Fire, which doesn't go down well with our people...try something like A,B,C,D,E, G stuff (well they name tamil movies like it, you might as well try something like that!!)
All said and done..controversies may come and go..but very good attempt at showing such a subtle concept.
Kudos to you,Mehta.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Smaaallll World

Well...I have been thinking about this for sometime now. The world is too small. Recent incidents have proved it to me and add to that technology and online communities like Orkut and Facebox where you run into people, who you might never again would have wanted to meet in your life and you end up scrapping them!! you run into friends of your friends who had met you at some point of time in their life and still manage to remember you at quite the most inopportune moment!!
Globalisation has also ensured that people and places are not actually that very far off.
Imagine what will happen if a telecaller for some product or service rings up when you are busy or sleeping (much to your obvious irritation and mental agony) is or was your friend in school or college or at present or is your son or daughter or niece or nephew or your neighbour who you love to hate from the bottom of your heart and where each call is monitored!!
Technological disasters(!!) like the cell phone can make one feel secure...but when you want to be left alone and need some privacy and some silence, (god forbade the person who calls or messages), can make one go wild with anger or irritation or even pity.
To make matters worse, the worst possible invention by mankind(oops!! i can explain....:) ) ..the internet has ensured that people are connected easily, but also terrorists and other anti-social people use the medium to create havoc and torture. While the world has become small (smmaalll worldd...should rhyme when you say it..like Kamal Hasan in the movie..i forgot the name...will get back on that), divorces, break ups and marriages also are happening technologically. Marriages happen through the telephone and internet.Certain countries allow divorces through telephone. So in case, you are thinking of a divorce, just make a search of the country that allows telephone divorce, go there and get it done, free from all the legal hassles that are there. You will atleast get to see a foreign country than go and sit in one dull, drab courtroom and hear orders being read out and seeing people being herded in and out like a pack of sheep!!
As you meet people in your life everyday through some medium...directly (eye to eye), telephone(ear to ear), internet, telephathy... elepathy,sympathy, empathy(just to rhyme with telepathy!!, your world starts to shrink in size. Each one brings in new thoughts, new ideas, new experiences(there are no good or bad experiences..i read in a book somewhere..don remember the name tho).The world starts to shrink, but experiences grow.
Soon, the world will be one big democracy. And the internet with its unrestricted capabilities will show the way to it.

Everything happens for a reason

Everything happens for a reason. Those who believe in destiny think so..Paulo Coelho says so in most of his books and it does seem true. Paulo Coelho says go with the natural flow of things..everything happens as it has to. May be I am writing this post because I am supposed to? Well I do not know. But then, the Alchemist is one damn good book that I have read in my life.
Coelho's theory does seem to be true, atleast to me.
And there is this email doing the rounds that says..some people come into ur life for a reason, some for a season and some for a lifetime.
Isn't that true? Because, each person and each situation is so perfectly placed for us to learn something or unlearn something, do or not to do something, fight or let go, become strong and face our fears or just succumb to pressure, reassess ourselves and see if we are heading in the right direction.
Well ...see the theory works out properly. Because, if somebody had not invented the internet, someone wouldn't have invented the blog and I wouldn't be spending my time jotting down my thoughts on the topic here rather than be sleeping.
I actually cannot figure out a reason for my blogging this..but then everything happens for a reason and may be I will get to know what that is!!

Friday, February 16, 2007

To B or Not to B

About 5 months left for the hot seat. The man who is occupying it now says he wants to go back to teaching and ignite the young minds. Rocket science is better and easier than the hot seat, he feels. So wat do u do next...put the man who quizzed other ppl on the hot seat sometime back as a candidate for the real hot seat..ya we are talking about the race for the post of the President of India..the hot seat at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The so-called third front(SP,TDP and AIADMK plus other fringe parties...as if the country has already not been destroyed by these ppl...atleast the states they have ruled) says they ll put up the Big B or rather Amitabh Bachchan as a candidate for the post.

So currently the Big A is keen to go back to teaching. Since the A(Dr Abdul Kalam, by the way, in case I have confused you) is leaving ..its only logical for the B to follow(alphabetical order!!). But then he has got both the first two alphabets in his name Amitabh Bachchan ( A and B). Numerologists might be able to give an answer to this while astrologers might have a different point of view and what about asking vaastu shastra experts?

By the way Mr Amar Singh, can you explain wat happened to that poor souls at Nithari and why the Police force and ur government do not take responsibility for the incidents? Or how and why did ur govt give away arms to people? (This ain't America Mr Amar Singh)

With due credits to Amitabh, I believe he is better off acting and entertaining people than put in a cage of presidency and hear mercy pleas, arguments on quota, women's reservation bill apart from other political idiocy. He would surely make a wonderful 'role' model for people.

However, Amar Singh must be credited for making the media go ga-ga over this announcement. They got two days of wonderful bytes from people, smses, calls over whether he should contest for the post or not. Well, Amitabh himself 'dumbed' them down saying he was not worthy of such a post.

Well said, Mr Bachchan. I think people would like to see you on the silver screen almost every month, entertaining them than reading out vision statements on the eve of Independence Day and Republic Day, which nobody ever bothers to watch, thanks to the entertainment revolution.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

My own funeral!!

Well this happened quite some time ago..sadly one of my colleagues committed suicide.hearing the news at about 11 pm in the night..we were spreading word to those who knew him..well..to my surprise one of my former colleagues called me up on my number and asked me if i had committed suicide..(he was extremely serious!!) probably he was mistaken cos both our names had sort of rhymed to this person and eventually he was shocked nevertheless.
Talk about arranging your own funeral!!

Friday, January 19, 2007

AXN Ban!! Hehehe

Hmmm...Well the Centre's ban on AXN till March seems to be a well thought out one as it will help Indians do more work, be productive and contribute to the PM's goal of achieving a GDP of 10 per cent.

After all, a show which has a name that runs like 'The World's sexiest Commercial' is condescending on the image of the country and the minds of the people of a country so steeped in tradition that shows like this can corrupt people's thoughts and actions. Terrorists and convicts will stop their maniacally driven actions. Politicians will stop being corrupt and insensitive.

People will stop having children, those who have extramarital affairs will begin to think for the good of the nation, actors like Shilpa Shetty will stop taking part in shows like 'Big Brother' where Indians will be called 'Pakis' by fellow 'housemates', beggars will stop begging, governance in the country will reach a new high. Even indifference among the Indian public will come to nil, everyone will become good natured,Bollywood will stop making movies like Corporate, there will be no prostitutes in the country, no rape, no moral policing, no husband and wife abuses.

There will be no border disputes with Pakistan and China, Tatas will return the land in Singur to farmers and drop their projects, everyone displaced in the Sardar Sarovar Dam project will be rehabilitated, there will be no communal riots in the country.

In fact, you wont find books like Kamasutra nor even the 'Mills and Boon' stuff. Newspapers will stop writing about dating, whether a first date will lead to a second and eventually marriage, and such stuff. A magazine called 'Maxim' will stop carrying pictures of 'sexy' women and even Malikka Sherawat clad very skimpily.

All this will happen because a show telecast at 11 pm in the night shows commercials which are supposed to be sexy and will affect the majority of the Indian population.

Serials that portray extra marital affairs, scheming, plotting another person's downfall, cricket shows where Mandira Bedi chatters away in an absolutely nonsensical manner, putting the even well knowledged cricket fan to shame with her 'expert commentary', movies that drip of vendetta, gore, violence, are supposed to educate the public, even children as most of it is in the local language and can easily be understood by everyone.

Kudos to Priyaranjan Das Munshi and his colleagues for saving the nation from disaster and poverty and helping the Prime Minister's goal of reaching 10 per cent GDP with a very small gesture of banning a channel.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Of Sonia, Spits and Hygiene Talk

Just imagine, the Lord himself had to wait for the UPA Chairperson...one of the famous temples in the world.. Tirumala. High security, may be even Lord Venkateswara might have very little security (the God doesn't actually need one) .
Before Sonia left for Tirumala, she attended a function at Tirupathi, and said that hygiene was something we had to work on..
May be she should have walked the streets of the place..Ppl spitting all the time, u never no when you wud actually step on somebody's spit in case ur eyes weren't on the road...
yet another pathetic sight was the Tirupathi station, ppl sleeping on the floor surrounded by spit and pawn...
If this is the state of one small little town in the country, where visitors frm across the world throng..then its gonna be one sorry tale of promoting tourism...leave alone that...it's gonna be one tale of how unhygienic Indians are.