Main Samay Hoon

No Comments

2010-04-26T17:20:00.005+05:30

I doubt if anyone even reads this blog anymore but in case you do, you might be wondering what happened to all the comments.

When I started this blog, Blogger's commenting system was really horrible and therefore like many other bloggers at that time I too installed Haloscan. Bad idea.

Now, Haloscan is no more, Blogger is okay-ish in the way it handles comments, and well I've switched back primarily because I had no other option. Which means, the old comments that people left using Haloscan are no more. I do have them all backed up on an XML file and once Blogger somehow allows me to import them I shall do so. However, for now as things stand, we've lost hundreds of comments.

Not that anyone cares. Sigh!

Love and Hate

2010-04-24T05:52:00.005+05:30

More panels from Y - The Last Man

Whimper

2010-04-21T08:52:00.003+05:30

- From Y - The Last Man

Co-Branding

2009-11-19T09:59:00.002+05:30

Came across this Super Commando Dhruv Comic some time back. Haven't read it but it must be kick-ass, after all you can't go wrong with a name like that :)

Overheard in Indore - IV

2009-11-13T03:12:00.003+05:30

Drunk Guy: Yaar, life mein saari buri aadatein ek hi cheez se lagti hain.
Sober Guy: Achcha. Kis se?
Drunk Guy: Exams. Banda sochta hai, exams mein cheating to kar hi raha hoon, daaru bhi pee leta hoon.
Sober Guy: Sahi baat hai.

- Two IIM participants

Overheard in Indore - III

2009-10-15T16:33:00.002+05:30

"Is mein koi adult scenes hain kya?"

- College Student at a screening of Chocolat at the Global Cinema Festival, Indore.

All that you touch, All that you see

2009-07-22T05:16:00.003+05:30

I'll be watching the skies this morning for the longest solar eclipse of the 21st Century. Hope you would too, if you're lucky enough to be in the path of the eclipse. If not you could try checking it out online here.
Link courtesy: Wired Science

Overheard in Indore - II

2009-07-16T23:54:00.003+05:30

Girl #1: ...and then she told me that he slapped her.
Girl #2: Really? No way.
Girl #1: Yeah! Imagine that, I mean... how could he hit a girl.
Girl #2: Shit, that's bad, I tell you. But why?
Girl #1: She... umm... err... kicked him in the nuts.
Girl #3: So... are they dating?

- Little Italy, Treasure Island Mall

Overheard in Indore

2009-06-24T10:35:00.002+05:30

Guy #1: I think I'm becoming too romantic these days.
Guy #2: Really?
Guy #1: Yeah... I think I will see 1-2 psycho movies now.

Overheard in Bangalore - II

2009-06-24T03:08:00.001+05:30

Namkeen-seller on Sampark Kranti Express:

Namkeen wala idhar hai,
aapka dhyaan kidhar hai?

Overheard in Bangalore

2009-06-23T02:56:00.001+05:30

Bereft of ideas, I have been 'inspired' by Overheard in New York.

Overheard in Bangalore [well, actually somewhere between Delhi and Bangalore]

Boy #1: Eminem se zyaada smart lagta hai Enrique.
Boy #2: Bon Jovi dekha hai? Akon bhi sahi hai, kaala hai bas.

- Two 17 year old kids on Sampark Kranti Express

Making Money from the Recession

2009-06-22T02:41:00.003+05:30

Saw both in Bangalore. It is interesting how even the recession can be used to make money.

Why So Serious? - II

2009-01-22T00:56:00.003+05:30

Some time back I had put up an Amul Icecream ad that hinted at the Joker perhaps only inadvertently and subliminally. Here the Amul Ads are more direct. I must admit this is one campaign that has not only lasted so long but has also managed to remain fresh all this while.

You can see all of Amul's ads here.

Her Husband is a Long Jumper

2009-01-18T22:03:00.011+05:30

I got to know of this through someone's status message on gtalk. I was immediately reminded of something I had written about some time back. Again, there are so many things that are disturbing. Here, we have minor girls marrying frogs - so the brides as well as the grooms were minors. But why frogs of all creatures? What have they ever done?

Apparently, it is done to, "prevent the outbreak of mysterious diseases" and is an annual feature. So it perhaps is entirely possible that the same frogs are getting married year after year. Possibly polygam-ic pipidae. I'm sure soon India Today will come out with one of their surveys. Outlook will play me-too [or maybe the other way round] and will proudly claim that 34% of girls below 10 like frogs that are athletic. And then, Danny Boyle will make a movie about the real-India called, Slumfrog L'Affaire. [Hat tip: Aditya]

The ceremonies had all the usual elements of a traditional marriage including a sumptuous feast.

No mention again of what the frogs ate.

The frog princes were tied to long sticks decorated with garlands for the marriage ceremonies.

Well that's kind of understandable with the groom being a long-jumper and being forced into an illegal marriage.

As for the terrified frogs, they are thrown back into the temple ponds after the ceremony.

Tsk. Tsk. They weren't even given a chance to transform into princes.

Also, what is perhaps even more hilarious is the way TOI reports it.

The villagers threw themselves into the ceremonies with gusto.

I can almost imagine the frogs getting bored of the whole thing and hopping away [alongwith their sticks like tiny little stilt-walkers] and the 'relatives' throwing themselves at the frogs with "gusto".

Previous posts on TOI - [1, 2].

Breakonomics!

2008-12-02T01:34:00.009+05:30

It has been a long time since this blog saw any activity. Who is to blame? I could blame the paucity of time in an MBA student's life. I could blame my own ennui. But it's just that... do you even care?

Anyway, enough with the yes-i-am-back-to-blogging statements for now. The whole point of this rather bleak post is - I thought of this really bad joke after reading this article by Paul Krugman.

If only love were this easy. Imagine a guy telling his friend -

"Oh! So you guys broke up huh? Don't worry dude. Just remember, in times of depression an expansionary monetary policy won't work. Don't try to give her lots of gifts and money to buy her back. Instead, try an expansionary fiscal policy, take more 'interest' in her and you will reach your true potential!"

To which a fellow MBA student replied... [Needless to mention, she happens to be a girl]

"To reap benefits, you said fiscal policy is best. Right? Then increase the autonomous investment expenditure. Splurge on her! Then only the IS curve would shift and you'll reach equilibrium."

Somehow geeky humour doesn't have the same punch when the geeks happen to be economists.

Statutory Warning: We might be wrong on the economics.

Why So Serious?

2008-09-03T13:21:00.005+05:30

I wonder what Amul's target market is? Are they trying to appeal to the latent Joker-esque tendencies in all of us? Heh.

I Never Liked Garfield

2008-08-08T00:49:00.007+05:30

Before I begin, a few confessions need to be made.

1. I don't hate Mondays. I just hate waking up in the morning. Period.
2. I don't hate cats. I have had quite a few cats, and I've liked all of them.
3. I love comics.

Yet, I have always hated Garfield. Not the cat or the over-exposed brand that Garfield became but the strip itself. Simply put, I never found it funny. Storylines were pretty much the same, the characters never did anything new. Odie kept getting kicked, Garfield was lazy, Jon was socially inept and the same things happened again and again. I could pick up any two comic strips years apart and the panels could actually be saying the same thing.
Which is why, when I found out about Garfield minus Garfield, I was intrigued. Essentially, it is the same comic strip but all other characters except Jon are removed [photoshopped, maybe] from the panels. Such a sweet innovation and it changes the whole strip all together. It transforms from being a dreary, boring, non-happening comic strip to a dark, disturbing, weird, funny piece. You start thinking about Jon and his life. How empty and dreary his life actually is. Poor guy, keeps getting dumped or strikes out.

He talks to himself. Wonders out loud. Ponders about life in general. Has surreal experiences. Is completely disconnected socially. Yet, Jon manages to smile at times.

Some are profound.While some may not seem as funny at first, but when you take a second look at it, and you can't help but smile.

I wonder, what if Jim Davis or other cartoonists knowingly started doing this. Take all but one character out of the strip and it takes a whole new meaning. Imagine the possibilities, the layers of depth that can be hidden in something as harmless as a comic strip. I also wonder, if now I compare two Garfield minus Garfield strips from years apart, would it seem the same?

Sorry for not posting regularly. Don't expect things to change either. I'll try though.

The Devil Wears... Suits

2008-05-04T21:31:00.003+05:30

I'm joining IIM Indore.

Somewhere between Desire and Engineering lies Stupidity

2008-01-19T23:41:00.000+05:30

My Strategy for the CAT

2008-01-13T04:09:00.002+05:30

CAT is officially my favorite entrance exam now. Not that I'm an entrance exam veteran or anything but, I have had my share of exams. It all started with the IIT-JEE, CEE and AIEEE. I got an IIT rank of 1983 which might have been good for many but personally, I just couldn't spend four years of my life doing something I didn't want to, just to be in an IIT. That was what I thought then. I had a slightly more respectable rank of 197 in CEE and ended up with Electronics at NSIT. A decision that I still regret a bit since I always wanted to do Computers but after much discussion and dilly-dallying I decided on Electronics. And thus, I ended up doing something I didn't like too much for four years, anyway.

Where was I now? Yes, CAT. The first thing that's so amazing about the CAT has got to be the name. It lends itself so easily to so many puns. Some might complain that it's really irritating and resort to catcalls, but not me. I say, bring on the - media favorite Bell the CAT, and the IMS (or Career Launcher) sponsored quizzes with rounds such as CATechism, CATharsis and CATastrophe (I'm not kidding here). On the other hand, JEE sounds too sarkari and AIEEE sounds more like Tarzan fell off a cliff.

On a more serious note, I like the CAT because no matter what the coaching institutes would have you believe, it is not necessary to spend months and years preparing for it. You can just walk in without too much preparation and still manage to give a decent attempt. Perhaps you won't crack the exam, but that's not what I'm trying to get across here. I mean unlike the JEE or any of the other Engineering entrances the CAT doesn't really test you on complex concepts of Rotational Mechanics or require you to mug up boring reactions of Inorganic Chemistry. Instead it tests you on English, Logic and Quantitative Ability. Of these, with the probable exception of Quantitative Ability I don't think the rest are areas that can be improved upon by learning up concepts or formulae.

Why am I giving all this gyaan? Frankly, lots of people have been asking for it. Therefore, here I am setting the record straight.

How did I prepare for the CAT?
I didn't. I did not join any of the money-guzzling coaching Institutes. I took a grand total of two sample tests. At home. The first one took me three days to complete. [Those serious about the CAT should be looking at a time frame of about 150 minutes.] The second sample test I got bored with [because I couldn't solve about 4-5 questions in a row] and slept. I woke up next morning and went to the examination center.

What was my strategy during the exam?
I had none. I started with the Verbal section. Now, I had given the GRE and TOEFL about a month back and in those exams the next question doesn't come up until one answers the current one, so even though I knew it wasn't a compulsion but if I spent time reading a question I ended up marking an answer. I attempted quite a few.
60 minutes gone. 90 minutes left for DI and Quant. I moved onto DI which took about 55-60 minutes. I attempted quite a few here too.
30 minutes to go. 25 Quant questions to do. Quant was a little tough I felt. Tougher than the one sample test I had attempted (properly). I started picking and choosing questions. Used my bag of tricks and shortcuts. Used the elimination of options technique in atleast 3-4 questions.
5 minutes to go and 12 questions unread. I started panicking. Scanned the paper to look for the easy ones. Picked up a couple of good ones. I asked the invigilator how much time was left. One minute. I took one final look at at my OMR sheet and the squiggly circles. The Verbal Ability and Data Interpretation sections were all filled in but the Quant section looked really empty. Too many blank spaces. Asymmetry irritates me, so as the invigilator picked up the answer sheet of the girl in front of me, (in case you are reading this, I thought you were kinda cute) I sweared, and quickly marked three randomly chosen questions without even reading them, with the same option.

How did I perform?
I got an overall percentile of 99.58 and calls from four of the IIMs – Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Indore and Kozhikode. Not bad I think, for someone who walked in without (much) preparation. Of course, it's not something I would recommend to people who are serious about an MBA but one must applaud an exam that’s structured in such a way that tests you and not your ability to cheat from memory.

Final words of advice
Don't join any coaching institute. They'll just take your money, and keep it. They won't really do much value addition. Read up on books, actually you should be doing this anyway. Those of you who start reading as part of their MBA preparation clearly have the wrong idea. Though, from what people tell me joining a test series may not be such a bad idea. It will give you good practice, shall help you remember formulae for the quantitative ability section, familiarize you with the pattern, and help you manage your time better. But I don't think you'll benefit much in Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning as mostly no difficult formulae are involved and every question is a fresh one.

Future?
I'm not very keen on doing an MBA and I don't know how seriously I'm gonna give the interviews.

Just in case you were wondering, of my randomly chosen questions I got one right and two wrong. So, that's a net profit of 2 marks. I don't know how much difference that made but if you are an MBA-aspirant you might want to work on your luck too.

His Wife is a Real Bitch!

2007-11-14T22:19:00.000+05:30

I read this piece of news yesterday.

A man has married a dog to atone for his 'sin' of killing two dogs 15 years ago.

At first it only sounds mildly amusing but if you think about it, it's just disturbing on so many levels. Doesn't anyone else see anything wrong with this? I mean, in India, where marriages between two humans is considered illegal. If they happen to be of the same sex, that is. By the way the last to last line is a perfect example of some really bad punctuation. Heh.
But getting back to the story. Is the fact that it's a bitch that the dude got married to, enough? Sure, it's not a gay marriage but what about the bitch's age? Since, it's a stray bitch and in all likelihood without any proof of age, can the dude in question get away with marrying a minor? Should he be allowed to? Especially since no one actually got express approval from the bitch if she really wants to marry a human. Minors can be easily misled after all.
How come no Animal Rights agencies protested against this?

Apparently, the marriage is to atone for sins he had committed some 15 years ago. When the groom in question (P Selvakumar) was a red-blooded 18 year old, he saw two dogs mating. And proceeded to kill them and hang them from a tree. So, we have history of violence too here.
Also, how a marriage to some random bitch (I'm loving this!) can atone for murdering a couple in-coitus in a sadistic, sick manner is beyond me. What if criminals started doing this? It's like saying, "Hmmm... Yes, your honour, I did do that double murder but see, since then I got married... um... you see... to this girl I rounded up at the traffic light, the other day. So, let's call it even."

One last bit of injustice.

While the bridegroom and his relatives had a sumptuous meal the bridal dog was given a bun.

Seriously, where are the Animal Rights people?

Things I Hate addendum: People who marry dogs.

Things I Hate

2007-11-13T03:51:00.000+05:30

This list is somewhat on the lines of I am like this only. Only that was about stuff I liked.

The word 'moi' when 'me' would do just as well.
The ':P' smiley.
Outdated Posters for events done with long ago but still pasted on walls.
Half-torn posters.
The 'Just Married' cars with flowers stuck on them with cellotape… especially if it happens to be a White Maruti Esteem.
Real Estate commercials on Radio.
Guys with John Abraham hair… including John Abraham himself.
People talking to dogs.
Getting fish bones stuck in my throat.
Cliched vandalism. You know, the blackened teeth and penciled-on moustaches kinds.
Anything to do with the 18th century. All other centuries are fine, except the 18th. I just can't stand it.

Johnny Gaddar

2007-10-12T00:53:00.000+05:30

Ever since the trailer of Johnny Gaddar was released on Passion For Cinema I have been wanting to see it and once I did, I wasn't disappointed at all. Right from the opening credits sequence, to the music and the in-film references Johnny Gaddar is one big Tarantino-esque tribute to the movies of the 70s, to Dev Anand, to Amitabh Bachchan, and to the novels of James Hadley Chase.
The last movie I remember which had touches of James Hadley Chase was Aar Ya Paar, based on The Sucker Punch. By the way, those of you who haven't seen Aar Ya Paar try to get hold of a copy and watch it. You might have written it off as a almost-B-grade flick but it's a really brilliant movie. Anyway, getting back to Johnny Gaddar. It is not a who-dun-it thriller and unlike Kaante, we know the identity of the Gaddar right from the start.
Even though I thoroughly enjoyed the movie I must say there is a mildly irritating problem that I face while watching a movie which, I know is littered with subtle references. Namely, missing out on even one of those subtle references irks me. I hate it if I can't identify all of them, even if it's just a little tune playing in the background or Rimi Sen reading RK Narayan's The Guide a book that became a movie directed by Vijay Anand. Then there are the not-so-subtle references with a major plot device being the lead character getting the idea of cheating his fellow 'businessmen' from Amitabh Bachchan's Parwaana. Not to forget the Hitchcockian MacGuffin - the 'French furniture' that was to be bought for 2.5 crores.
The music of the film is absolutely perfect and gels really well with the tone of the film. The Johnny Gaddar Title Track with its catchy main hook is pretty hummable, although the lyrics are a little weird - "Choti si zindagi, gehri si jeb hai; Baaki to jaaneman baaton ke seb hain."
Doob Ja Mere Pyaar Mein/Move Your Body sung in a nasal KL Saigal/Kya Aap Close-Up Karte Hain style is another track that really stands out. The rest of the tracks are just bit-pieces that pop up in the bar sequences but thankfully are too short to break the flow of the narrative.
The acting by the supporting cast is top-notch especially Govind Namdeo (Inspector Kalyan). Neil Nitin Mukesh is satisfactory but there is so much more that he could have done with this role. Of course, the main hero of the movie is the taut script, and the dialogues.

Akram, Jis par upar wale ka haath ho usko unglee nahin karte.

And the absolutely amazing -

It's not the age, it's the mileage.

Miss Teen USA 2007 - South Carolina

2007-09-02T22:15:00.000+05:30

I personally believe that US americans
are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation
don’t have maps and I believe that our education
like such as south africa and the Iraq.
everywhere like such as.
And I believe that they should
our education over here in the US
should help the US
or should help the south africa
and should help the iraq
and the asian countries
so we will be able to build up
our future.

Shamelessly filched from Imagination Dead Imagine

A Thousand Desires Such As These...

2007-09-02T01:53:00.001+05:30

A thousand desires such as these
A thousand moments to set this night on fire
Reach out and you can touch them
You can touch them with your silences
You can reach them with your lust
Rivers mountains rain
Rain against a torrid hill’s cape
A thousand
A thousand desires such as these

I loved rain as a child
As a lost young man
Empty landscapes
Bleached by a tired sun
And then
And then suddenly it came
Like a dark unknown woman
Her eyes scorched my silences
Her body wrapped itself around me
Like a summer without end

Pause me hold me reach me
Where no man has gone
Crossing the seven seas
With the wings of fire
I fly towards nowhere
And you
Rivers mountains rain
Rain against a scorched landscape of pain

- From the Hazaaron Khwaishien Aisi Soundtrack

Call Ho Na Ho

2007-09-01T01:44:00.000+05:30

A couple of days back I got a call.

[high-pitched female Himesh Reshammiya impersonator]: Sirrr, this is Preeti from Proodenshial ICICI. Could I talk to you for a minute about our Critical Illness Medical Insurance program?
[Now I usually just say a quick I'm not interested and hang up but that day I was in one of my moods…]
Me: Yeah sure. Go ahead.

Preeti: Sirrr, under our Critical Illness Medical Insurance program we provide you medical cover for 35 critical illnesses like Heart Attack, Alzheimer's, Cancer, …[she mentioned a few more]… and Sirrr, we would aaalso cover all your medical expenses once…
Me: Wait, Wait, Wait. You said 35 illnesses. Could you please name all 35.

Preeti: Sir! I just named 7 for you. Now, you want me to name all of them?
Me: [deadpan] Yes.

Preeti: Heart Attack,…, Brain Tumour, Breast Cancer, Lung Cancer, Paralysis, Parkinson's Disease…
[I can actually hear someone prompting her. Poor thing. She is clearly on the verge of losing it when she suddenly goes silent and an officious sounding gruff male voice comes on.]

Gruff Voice: Sir, I believe there was some problem.
Me: [Dead Serious] Yes, I want to know the names of all 35 illnesses covered by your Insurance Policy.

Gruff Voice: Sir, may I know your name? And why do you need the names of all the illnesses?
Me: I'm the person whom you've called up and I don’t want to reveal my medical history so I need to know the names of all the diseases that you cover.
[I thought he would realize that I was just wasting his time and he would hang up soon. But this guy was determined to make the sale…]

Gruff Voice: Okay. I'll name all 35 for you but please don’t ask me what they mean because I don't know.
Me: That's alright.

Gruff Voice: Heart Attack, Brain Tumour, Alzheimer's, Multiple Sclerosis, …
[He goes ahead and names all 35. One disease that I found really interesting was – 'Loss of Independent Existence'. I wonder what that one's about? Homesickness? Anyway, he clearly had a lot of trouble pronouncing all of them the right way but 2-3 minutes later he finishes and sighs.]
Gruff Voice: Sir, that's the whole list. Can I have your name now?
[Even most evil-minded people would've stopped after this, but as I said I was in one of my moods…]

Me: You didn't mention diabetes?
Gruff Voice: [exasperated] No Sir. We cover only critical illnesses. Diabetes isn't on the list.

Me: Can you include Diabetes in this list? What about Lymphocercoma of the intestine?
Gruff Voice: No, Sir. We cover only critical illnesses. Can I have your name now?

Me: No. I'm not interested in your program.
[He finally hung up.]

I have been annoyed far too many times by call-centre people trying to sell credit cards, prepaid mobile connections, personal loans to be polite to them anymore. Thankfully, the National Do Not Call Registry seems like it shall be operational soon. Though the time it takes for a number to be registered is about 10 + 45 days which is a little too long yet atleast its a step in the right direction.

The NDNC Registry will be a data base having the list of all telephone numbers of the subscribers who do not want to receive UCC (Unsolicited Commercial Calls). After the establishment of NDNC registry, Telephone subscriber (Landline or mobile) who does not wish to receive UCC, can register their telephone number with their telecom service provider for inclusion in the NDNC. Telecom Service Provider shall upload the telephone number to the NDNC within 45 days of receipt. The Telemarketer will have to verify their calling telephone numbers list with the NDNC registry before making a call. An amount of Rs 500/- per call/message has been prescribed to discourage telemarketers who make calls to numbers registered in Do Not Call list. The defaulter telemarketer will face disconnection of telecom service.
- From the NDNC Website

By the way I would like to apologise for the really bad pun that the title of this post is but I just couldn't resist.

Hamara Bajaj

2007-07-02T17:55:00.000+05:30

I saw the new Bajaj Pulsar 220 ad. It has the same jingle as the old Bajaj ads but Bajaj has ditched the old feel-good middle class values in favour of show-casing the raw power of the Pulsar 220. The jingle goes "Naye Bharat Ki Nayee Raftar..." in place of "Buland Bharat Ki Buland Tasveer".
Check out the new ad.

I didn't like the new ad at all. Perhaps Bajaj is looking at different markets now, but I still believe cool graphics cannot be a replacement for sentiment. Bajaj did get it right some years ago. with an absolutely amazing ad with the jingle going... "Badal Rahe Hain Hum Yahaan..." Which was a beautiful way of saying how Bajaj was moving with the times without compromising on the values it stood for.

Of course there is the original Bajaj ad that gave the Hamara Bajaj tagline and jingle.

Love Me If You Dare

2007-06-29T10:19:00.000+05:30

I find that when I'm watching foreign language (non-Hindi, non-English) cinema I'm more forgiving. I don't mind if the story moves along slowly, or if events appear too surreal or far-fetched, or if the direction is a bit shoddy. I wonder why am I not as demanding when it comes to foreign movies. Perhaps it's because I feel their sensibilities are different so I should be a bit more tolerant.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Love Me If You Dare (Jeux d'enfants in French). It is the story of two kids, Julien and Sophie who meet in school and become best friends. Their friendship is cemented in this game that they play - they pass around a tin box and anyone in possesion of it must act out a dare.
As they grow older the dares grow darker. Ranging from Julien having to pee in the Principal's room to a college-going Sophie having to give a Maths exam wearing her undergarments outside. They even dare each other to not talk to each other for 10 years.
Love Me If You Dare reminded me of Amelie. Primarily because of the colours and filters used and the surreal, whimsical tone of the movie. But I didn't like it half as much as I enjoyed Amelie. I did find the premise of the movie quite good but somehow the characters seemed too irrational, and far-fetched to appeal to me.
Though I must say the ending of the movie is very different from any ending I have seen in a movie of the romantic comedy(?) genre. Even though the director does seem to take the easy way out and gives us a double-ending. Disguising one as a dream sequence maybe, we never know. A sort of choose-whichever-you-want.

Times of India does it again!

2007-05-12T22:20:00.000+05:30

One of the blogs I've just started reading is Passion For Cinema. That's where I came across this piece. Which was about this conversation Srinivas a short-film-maker had with Quentin Tarantino at the Indian Film Festival at LA. Tarantino was talking about how he actually liked his City on Fire rip-off's (Reservoir Dogs) rip-off Kaante.
Then I read this piece about how Srinivas' article on PFC was passed off as an 'interview' by film journalist(?) Subhas K Jha on the Times of India owned tabloid Mumbai Mirror. PFC is covered by the Creative Commons' License and therefore copy-pasting is illegal. But undeterred the TOI group went ahead and printed the same article again in yesterday's Delhi Times. When will the TOI group learn to behave in a more responsible fashion?
Also, TOI and other newspapers have a useless register-to-read-news requirement which is quite irritating. Bug Me Not is pretty useful in this regard to get by the useless compulsory registration process.

Film Noir News

2007-05-06T23:02:00.000+05:30

Imagine. It's a warm summer night and the flies buzzing around the the lone street light only remind you of how dreary your life has been. There you are seated on the scratchy seats of your PCR Van discussing Rakhi Sawant's Bathroom Buddha or Richard Gere's Shall We Dance peck-a-boo-boo and the threat to your job from the moral-shoral police-wolice with your fellow misunderstood, unappreciated khaki pals having a free(?) cuppa of chai when you get a call about the Gangs of Mewat.
[jump cut]
Alarm blaring! There you are chasing the tempos of the Mewat Gangs, dodging boulder missiles! through the dusty, screechy roads of Nangloi. Your eyes are intense, collar half-turned up, hair still slickly oiled. The chase is on - and a COW comes crashing down on your windshield!

This was a feeble attempt at a Sin City version of this News item I read in Saturday's (5th May 2007) Hindu.

...some gangs from the Mewat region are engaged in stealing stray cattle. They sneak into Delhi in tempos late at night, pick up stray cattle, and dispose them of in their villages. The miscreants keep huge boulders in their tempos, using them as missiles in case the police try to chase them. In one case reported at Nangloi a couple of years ago, the cattle thieves even threw a cow at a Police Control Room van.

Transliteration Feature Test

2007-05-03T14:19:00.000+05:30

गिरते हैं शेह-सवार ही, मैदान-ए-जंग में,
वो तिफ्ल क्या गिरेगा जो घुटनों के बल चले।
- अज़ीम देहलवी

Girte hain sheh-sawaar hi maidaan-e-jang mein
woh tifl kya girega jo ghutnon ke bal chale
- Azeem Dehlavi

Rough Translation
Those who ride gallantly into battle are the ones who fall,
The handicapped who crawl on their knees don't.

I think tifl means handicapped but I'm not very sure.
Anyway, I had heard this Urdu couplet long time ago in Monsoon Wedding and liked it, hence I'm using it now to check out Blogger's Transliteration feature. I was having a little trouble with the rendering of the choti ee ki matra at first but that was a problem with my Language Settings. This helped me fix it.

And They Say It's Just a Game...

2007-04-25T17:24:00.000+05:30

I was yet to be born when this happened.

Did not even know about this.

I was barely one year old when this happened.

I remember this but didn't see it Live.

But how can I ever forget this? I jumped up and roared when I saw this Live.

Good Morning Class...

2007-04-08T17:46:00.000+05:30

When my Professors speak, I usually listen. Yes, I sincerely do. I feel it is so much simpler to just pay attention in class, understand stuff the first time round and then study only a couple of days before exams. As compared to say, whiling away time in class thinking about how much better your life would've been if you hadn't taken up Engineering. How you would've been in one of the swanky colleges of North Campus with a much favourable sex ratio – of course the stream of consciousness may meander at this point to greener pastures but if it doesn't your dream continues – how you would've taken the rickshaw from the Metro Station to your college, how you would've been hanging out (chillaxing, eating G-Jams and C-Bats and whatever other abbreviations the Delhi Times people keep coming up with) all the time, and life would've been one helluva long party instead of being wasted on grappling with Bessel's functions, Chebyshev polynomials and Programmable Peripheral Interfaces.
And since the poets cry and lovers dream during class, they end up having to really slug it out with never-before-seen symbols and equations. Kinda reminiscent of the plight of hapless little Abhimanyu stuck in the Chakravyuha surrounded by the devious Kauravas.
Anyway, this post wasn't supposed to be about approaches to studying at all. You see when one is earnestly hanging on to every word uttered by the Professors one comes across some truly mind blowing stuff. No amount of lounging about at the college fountain or the admin steps can bring the joy these little pearls can.

"When I'm decent. I'm decent. When I'm angry. I'm the MOST DANE-JURRUSSS MAN ON THIS PLANET!"

"You see Debasish, delay... is a bitch!"
"What's a million or two, between friends?"
"Every rule has an exception. Including this one… Because it doesn't."

"My name is _________. As you can see, I'm from village and my father is 98 years old."
"In Germany they have anti-children society. I was in Germany in 1987."

"Why are you laughing? What is it about my pants? I could be wearing no pants at all and it should make no difference!"

"As you already idea… don't think that way type. You get confused and make mistake. Think this way."

"Deeep taley andheraaaa…?"
"Eee tumhara Ringmaster hai?"

[Ma'am… Why is there a beta there?]… "Because it's beta!"

[This program isn't working]… "Give another space."

"Bag mein koi billi laya hai kya?"
"Electrons are released in-ten-ten-sely."
[Sir, What?] He proceeds to spell it out for us and writes In-ten-tensely on the board! [Oye! Ye to instantaneously hai!]

"Runge-Kutta. Aap sab ko hasi aa rahi hogi."

This one's from the Librarian:
"Main bhi South India se hoon." [Kahan se?] "Assam." [Hmmm… poker-faced nod]

The Wonder Years

2007-03-24T03:41:00.000+05:30

When I was a kid there used to be this sitcom that used to be a part of Star Plus' evening line-up - The Wonder Years. This was back when Star Plus hadn't gone full-Hindi and in the process sold their soul to Ekta Kapoor.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t catch too many episodes of it as the telecast timings would clash with the time of the day I would go out to play - cricket mostly. Kids used to go out and play in the evenings back then. Also, who in their right mind would schedule shows aimed at kids, during the hours they shouldn't be at home slouching in front of the television? And no matter how much I wanted to watch it I would still choose sports over television. Sadly it isn’t so anymore. I play almost no sports these days except for the odd Table Tennis match. Anyway, some time back thanks to the hostel LAN I came across Wonder Years again. Even though I'm glad I chose to dive around in the field instead of watching a sitcom I still wish I had seen it back then.
Wonder Years is the coming-of-age story of Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) narrated by an older and wiser Kevin. It's about his relationship with his annoying brother Wayne, his childhood crush – Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar), and his best friend Paul (Josh Saviano). Kevin is an average kid, and by average I mean he is average in almost everything – studies, sports, music, theatre… everything. Seldom does he end up being the hero who saves the day. Nor does he win always but, it is his imperfectness, and sometimes irrationality which makes him believable. It is not the funniest of sitcoms. But it has a nostalgic feel to it. There is just something about it that makes you miss the innocence of being a kid and how simple things used to be. This nice, warm feeling is what makes it worth watching, something that is so missing in the new-age wisecrack-a-minute sitcoms we see on the glass teat these days. Of course, by far the best thing about Wonder Years has to be the voice-over of the older Kevin done by Daniel Stern (he played the role of one of the burglars in Home Alone). Apart from the narration, the music on the show is also quite good especially the title track - Joe Cocker's cover of the Beatles song - With a Little Help from My Friends.
Unfortunately like all sitcoms the first few seasons are quite good but by the time we get to the final season it seems to lose its way a bit. No wonder the makers decided to call it a day when Kevin finishes High School. And yes, I hated the last episode.

Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers, the next day you're gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a place, a town, a house like a lot of other houses, a yard like a lot of other yards, on a street like a lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years, I still look back, with wonder.
— Daniel Stern as the narrator, The Wonder Years

Number One Exporter of Potassium

2007-01-28T03:16:00.000+05:30

Kazakhstan greatest country in the world
All other countries are run by little girls
Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium
Other countries have inferior potassium
Kazakhstan home of Tinshein swimming pool
Its length thirty metre and width six metre
Filtration system a marvel to behold
It remove 80 percent
Of human solid waste
Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place
From plains of Tarashenk
To northern fence of Jewtown
Kazakhstan friend of all except Uzbekistan
They very nosey people with bone in their brain
Kazakhstan industry best in world
We invented toffee and the trouser belt
Kazakhstan's prostitutes cleanest in the region
Except of course for Turkmenistan's
Kazakastan, Kazakastan, you very nice place
From plains of Tarashenk
To northern fence of Jewtown
Come grasp the mighty phenis of our leader
From junction with the testes to tip of its face

Book Buying at Daryaganj

2006-12-28T13:03:00.000+05:30

Every Sunday at Old Delhi's Daryaganj a book-lover's paradise is set up. Or so I had heard. So I decided to pay a little visit to this magical land where one can go fishing into a sea of books and come out only a few rupees dry. Initially I was a bit disappointed as the first few shops I went to were all selling text books for Engineering, Medical, Entrance Examinations, GRE, GMAT, CAT etc. Also I had heard that the book sellers almost always over price the books so a great deal of bargaining can be done. So to get into the feel of things I asked for Coreman's Introduction to Algorithms (cover price 350). The shopkeeper's first offer was Rs. 240 which he brought down to 220 almost instantaneously. I tried stretching my luck and quoted a price of 100 bucks. He smiled and replaced the book in its stack. I smiled and walked away. The game was afoot.

A few shops on I came across a guy selling comic books. 10 bucks a comic. With a little bargaining he came down to 10 bucks for two. Unfortunately only later did I realize that he did not have anything that I was interested in so I just moved on. Wonder Woman is not really my superhero of choice. Moving on I came across a sight that was to become commonplace – a huge pile of novels, all thrown together as if there's gonna be a bonfire of the vanities soon, and one can pick up any novel for 20 bucks. So I went fishing only to realize that most of the stuff deserved to be burnt anyway, but in one of these stacks I found Michael Crichton's – The Terminal Man. Not his best work by far but it was the only book of his that I hadn't read so I picked it up. At 20 bucks it was a steal. So was Jeff Gomez's Our Noise – a book I picked up only coz I liked the cover. Two hours on I had picked up quite a few books and was running out of both cash and patience so I decided to announce the closure of my book-buying excursion and went on to have lunch at the famed Karim's Hotel. The culinary experience at Karim's shall be taken up in another post. More than half of the market had been left unexplored and there was a feeling that probably I still hadn't got the best deal possible.

Final Scorecard
The Terminal Man – Michael Crichton for Rs. 20 [Cover Price Rs. 150]
Sholay – The Making of a Classic – Anupama Chopra Rs. 50 [Cover Price Rs. 250]
Complications – Atul Gawande Rs. 75 [Cover Price Rs. 250]
Our Noise – Jeff Gomez Rs. 20 [Cover Price $12]
The Emperor's New Mind – Roger Penrose Rs. 125 [Cover Price Rs. 345]

The Babe Wore Red

2006-12-08T13:46:00.000+05:30

Does God Exist?

2006-12-02T13:39:00.000+05:30

Does God exist? I have been thinking about this for quite some time now and haven't been able to reach a definite answer yet. In fact I haven't even understood my stand on the issue. Let me first look at my own beliefs about the existence of God. I don't pray to God everyday. But everytime I pass by the temple I fold my hands and bow my head in prayer. Sometimes I say – "Happiness is what I ask for". Sometimes it's something more topical. I haven't actually gone to a temple and made any sort of offering to God in a long time. I do turn to God when I am distressed, depressed or find myself helpless in a particular situation. It usually takes the form of – "Why did this have to happen with me, God? What have I done to deserve this?" Often I have found myself to be quite lucky in a particular situation and believed that God is on my side and made it possible. Many times I have prayed to Him with pleas that He increase my marks. But yet I believe or rather know deep down that God doesn't really shape my destiny. It lies solely in my hands.

What then is the role of God? Is he only an observer of our lives? It is said that God is omnipotent. If He is omnipotent and sees everything then the usual clichéd questions arise -Why does He choose not to intervene when He feels that someone is being wronged? Why does He let millions of people die of hunger, starvation, or even if it is at the hands of some madman wielding a knife or an army? Is it that all these people are really being punished for sins that they might have committed knowingly or unknowingly? If that is so then why were they allowed to commit those sins in the first place? If God is going to punish them for their actions anyway, why allow them to sin at all?

So, I ask myself again, what is the role of God? Suppose God is only meant to be a creator. He created the world – the oceans, the rivers, the mountains, the trees, the plants, the bacteria, the animals, and us. Then he let us create more of ourselves so he wouldn't have to do so Himself. In fact, maybe he went one better. He just created the Big Bang and laid down some simple rules which we call the laws of nature, physics etc. then he rested leaving everything else to successive iterations. So we got our clouds of gases that came together to make planets. In our case, we got an atmosphere not because he had decided that Earth should get life but because he decided that such and such conditions shall lead to life and given enough number of iterations one planet or the other shall get life. Then lightning struck some organic matter and life was born which painstakingly evolved and got us to where we are today so we could finally ask the question – Does God exist?

Of course it is entirely possible that the whole concept of God came about because man needed something to explain phenomenon that he could not in any other rational way. So we had a Rain God, a God of the Seas, a Sun God etc. Then slowly as we could explain a lot of the phenomenon happening around us we realised that the monsoons are not really the work of a God but come about due to certain conditions of air pressure, temperature etc. So is Science going to be our next God? Or shall Science prove that since all that goes on in this world has a scientific explanation hence God being an anomaly - doesn't exist. But if God has set the rules for us, what keeps him from changing them every now or then – just to prove the fallibility of Science which is trying to usurp His position. Perhaps this has already happened.

Another way of looking at it is – God is a creation of Man (or 'Woman') and not vice versa. This concept of God is not very different from the previous 'unexplained phenomenon = God' concept. We might think of God as a means of making people lead a better life. It’s the fear that someone is watching over them and judging over their sins all the time that might lead people to be relatively vice less. Perhaps God or the concept thereof is meant to just give people hope when they are faced with despair, helplessness or as in my case – a sinking feeling that I should have probably studied a bit more for my exams.

"If absolute power corrupts absolutely, where does that leave God?"

"God... invented the giraffe, the elephant, the cat... He has no real style. He just goes on trying things." - Pablo Picasso

Diary by Chuck Palahniuk

2006-07-08T17:53:00.000+05:30

Okay, so I wasn't really expecting anything like Fight Club when I started reading Diary and true to my expectations I didn't get anything like it either. The basic story is – Diary is the diary of Misty Wilmot, who is writing it for the sake of her husband, Peter, who unfortunately went into a coma after a failed suicide attempt. She is doing this so that when he wakes up he would know what his family has been through all this while when he was out of order. So through her diary we go about finding out about Misty’s weird and twisted little life. She was a promising artist but gave up painting when she got married and settled down with Peter in this small place called Waytansea Island which used to be quite quaint but is over-run by tourists now. Her mother-in-law, Grace wishes Misty to start painting once again and goes to great lengths to get her to do so. Not only her mother-in-law but the whole of Waytansea Island wants her to start painting again. It’s like something big is going on and she has absolutely no idea what. For that matter neither do we because we can only find out what Misty writes in her diary. What happens when she actually starts painting and the secret that everyone on Waytansea Island except Misty knows is what the rest of the novel is all about.
My complaints with the novel are that Palahniuk takes too long to set up the story and the final revelation, the twist in the tale isn't as dramatic as the one in Fight Club. Though, there are certain portions that I did like. For example, lines such as – "Just for the record, the weather today is calm and sunny, but the air is full of bullshit" are interesting to read but can't act as a substitute for real substance in the storyline. The premise of the novel was quite good and very different but the pacing of the novel is all too wrong and nothing much really happens in the first half. A big dissapointment. Expected much better stuff from you, Chuck.

Darna Zaroori Hai

2006-05-06T11:02:00.000+05:30

Darna Zaroori Hai makes Darna Mana Hai look like a masterpiece. DZH is filled with pretty ordinary acting, badly written storylines and absolutely no thrills at all. I am not against the concept of having a string of stories but to pull off a movie like that one needs very taut editing and strong scripts. Both of which DZH lacks. The only enjoyable part of the movie is the opening sequence in which a fat guy (Manoj Pahwa) goes to watch 'Darna Mana Hai'. That part is really funny which is weird for a movie that aims to 'scare' you. The excuse for the six stories is that some children run into a haveli while on a school picnic. It starts raining (surprise, surprise!) and they have to stay there at the haveli, where they meet an old woman who promises to scare them by telling them stories. Not just the rain, the movie is filled with cliches - a seemingly abandoned haveli, seance, Mysterious visitor claiming his car has had an accident, a Hitch Hiker, and possession by a ghost.

Story 1: Directed by Ram Gopal Varma, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Ritesh Deshmukh. Amitabh is a professor who feels there is some entity in his house.

Story 2: Arjun Rampal, Bipasha Basu, and Makarand Deshpande story. You can see the twist from one mile away. Hence crap. And Bipasha is still in Jism mode.

Story 3: Suniel Shetty, Sonali Kulkarni and Rajpal Yadav one. The worst story of the lot.

Story 4: Directed by Jiji Philips (of My Wife's Murder fame). Mallika Sherawat and Anil Kapoor one. The best of the lot. Especially because of the constant references to Karan Johar. Anil Kapoor's character is called Karan Chopra, has a production assistant called Dharma and his latest movie is called Kabhi Apne Kabhi Paraye. Tired of making NRI family dramas he wants to move onto the horror genre (ala Kaal). This is not the first time that RGV is lampooning Karan Johar though case in point Company. Also this was the only story in which I couldn't out-guess the twist.

Story 5: Randeep Hooda possessed story. This one also wasn't that bad. Primarily because this story doesn't depend on a twist in the end. Kinda reminiscent of Sony's Aahat. I mean the earlier episodes not the later crap that Aahat turned into.

Story 6: Kid's Story. Predictable ending to the most predictable twist in the tale movie.

I hope the next time RGV tries making a sequel to this he better garner some better stories and try not to add a twist to every story. It becomes too predictably painful.

Comments
Hey,
U r absolutely right abt the movie! Absolute crap! Waste of time!
RGV seemed to be in two minds..couldn't decide on the genre, whether he wanted a horror movie or a comedy!
I don't usually watch such movies... and this one has made it pretty certain that i won't go for such movies ever again!
kavi | 05.20.06 - 12:15 am |

hi ,it is total bullshit
killler | 06.15.06 - 5:22 pm |

Ditto.
And while you're at it you might wanna watch phir hera pheri that makes Darna Zaroori hai look like a masterpiece.
anjul | 06.21.06 - 6:12 pm |

Sabse Peeche Hum Khade...

2006-05-03T11:00:00.000+05:30

Lyrics of Sabse Peeche Hum Khade from Let's Enjoy.

Zaara naazar uthake dekho
Baithe hai hum yahi
Bekhabar mujhse kyon ho?
Itne boore bhi hum nahin

Zamane ki baaton mein uljho na
Hai yeh aasaan janana
Khud se jo agar tum poocho
Hai hum tumhare ke nahi
Teri aankhon ka jaadu
Poori duniya pe hai
Duniya ki iss bheed main
Sabse peeche hum khade

Mehfile aayi aur gayi
Log aaye aur gaye
Tum jo aaj aaye ho
Dil mein ho bas gaye

Muskurake baat taalo na
Phir miloge jo kahin
Dekhana yahi kahoge
Itne boore the hum nahi

Teri aankhon ka jaadu
poori duniya pe hai
Duniya ki is bheed mein
sabse peeche hum khade

Comments
hey, its a nice song that suits me.
killler | 06.15.06 - 5:33 pm

Siddhartha

2006-04-13T00:40:00.000+05:30

I found this book gathering dust on my bookshelf. So I did what I usually end up doing when faced with a book I haven’t read and have ample time on my hands. Now, the first thing that strikes you about this book is the really simple language and the light hearted way of telling a story. Since I read the English translation of this Herman Hesse work I don’t know if it’s the skill of the translator or that of Herman Hesse that so many varied emotions and deep thoughts are expressed in so few words.

This book is about the life of Siddhartha and his search for happiness and the meaning of life. Siddhartha is the son of a Brahmin priest and even though he is learned and wise yet he feels that there is something missing in his life. He feels unhappy and dissatisfied and hence leaves his home and embarks on a long journey along with his childhood pal Govinda to find contentment. They join a group of samanas who teach them how to go for days without food. How to separate ones body and soul. Siddhartha learns that anyone who can Think, Wait and Fast can achieve anything. But again Siddhartha feels that these are just cheap tricks and cannot really lead to true enlightenment. Dissatisfied with samana life, they move on to become followers of the Buddha. Yet again Siddhartha feels that the Buddha did not achieve enlightenment through teachings and hence leaves the Buddha too. The short dialogue between Siddhartha and Buddha just before Siddhartha’s departure is really brilliant wherein the Buddha agrees his teachings won’t lead to enlightenment but are meant to have people lead a decent life without deceit, despair or desire. Moving on, Siddhartha befriends Kamala a courtesan and slowly becomes a worldly man full of greed and desire. So he leaves this life too and becomes a ferryman wherein he befriends a Vasudeva a old ferryman who teaches him the true meaning of life and how to lead a simple content life. Thus, Siddhartha finally finds peace within himself. All in all a nice short book that deals with heavy subjects such as the meaning of life, the source of happiness and contentment without getting too preachy.

In every truth the opposite is equally true

Comments
i never came across that cover of the book...interesting pic.
dude! this book was gathering dust?!!
tch. tch...
teki | 04.13.06 - 9:15 pm |

Counter Struck

2006-04-03T22:49:00.000+05:30

All my Counter Strike sessions over the Hostel Lan end in similar tragedies. It's not just that I am bad at CS (which I am!) I just like to try out too many things, work on too many strategies instead of keeping things simple - jump, strafe, crouch, strafe, shoot. How tough can that be? Yeah Right! Anyway check out this link for more comics on the Gaming World.

Old Boy

2006-04-03T01:01:00.000+05:30

Now I know why I did not like the first ten minutes of Zinda. That was the bit that was original in Zinda. Everything else is a almost frame by frame copy of Old Boy. Did I say, almost. Scratch that. It's an exact copy of Chan Woo Park's Old Boy. Not a bad one at that though I must add. In fact there are certain scenes which have actually been treated better than they are in the original. But still Zinda can't match up to Old Boy for the simple reason that it just isn't the real thing. Sanjay Gupta tried to desi-fy Old Boy by removing some of the more squemish parts of Old Boy. Old Boy has a incest theme that maybe Sanjay Gupta felt won't work with Indian audiences and hence made a hash of things in the last 15 minutes of Zinda. Now I can understand why I didn't like the ending of Zinda. Though Zinda does actually score over Old Boy in the music department. The haunting songs and background score of Zinda is missing in Old Boy. I guess that's something that Bollywood is actually good at. Having seen both Old Boy and Zinda which one would I say is better? Undoubtedly, Old Boy but Zinda has better music.

Comments
so, uv seen oldboy too!
i definitely liked it more than zinda, on which i spent 125 bucks!!! so unlike me!! the story of oldboy was more concrete n all things made more sense towards the end...
p.s. sign up at blogrolling.com to handle ur links more conveniently...
teki | Homepage | 04.08.06 - 9:10 am |

whoopsie! where did my 'eye' go?
guess the lack of quizzing in DU has made me a tad rusted...
u already employ blogrolling's features!
atta boy!
teki | Homepage | 04.08.06 - 9:12 am |

its not so good
sohit | 04.21.06 - 7:36 pm |

Fuc-it-ol

2006-03-31T23:54:00.000+05:30

The name of this innocuous looking compound is Fuc-it-ol. I'd like to believe some guy exasperated with organic chemistry came across a new molecule and vented his frustration thus. Why didn't they teach me such stuff when I was grappling with Organic Chemistry. Would've certainly made Chemistry class more fun. Learn more about molecules with silly or unusual names here. I believe there's one compound called Arsole too.

The Dilbert Google Doodle

2006-03-29T00:46:00.000+05:30

Check out the whole series here.

Fight Club

2006-03-25T11:17:00.000+05:30

For those who have already seen the movie and know the ending reading this book does not pack the same punch as the movie but nevertheless it is a pretty engaging read. Plus the ending in the book is slightly different from that in the movie.

Quotes from Fight Club
On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero.

I was the little warm center that the life of the world crowded around.

...all of a sudden even death and dying rank right down there with plastic flowers on video as a non-event.

The first full frontal movie anyone can remember had the naked actress Angie Dickinson.

One minute was enough, Tyler said, a person had to work hard for it, but a minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection.

Oh, the proof that one day you're thinking and hauling yourself around, and the next, you're cold fertilizer, worm buffet. This is the amazing miracle of death, and it should be so sweet if it weren't for, oh, that one.
Marla.

Tyler and I, we met and drank a lot of beer, and Tyler said, yes, I could move in with him, but I would have to do him a favor. There, drunk in a bar where no one was watching and no one would care, I asked Tyler what he wanted me to do. Tyler said, "I want you to hit me as hard as you can."

After you've been to fight club, watching football on television is watching pornography when you could be having great sex.

At the time, my life just seemed too complete, and maybe we have to break everything to make something better out of ourselves.

I get up to take a leak, and there against the sort of cave paintings of dirt in the toilet bowl is this. You have to wonder, what do sperm think. This? This is the vaginal vault? What's happening here?

The color of Marla's brown eyes is like an animal that's been heated in a furnace and dropped into cold water. They call that vulcanized or galvanized or tempered.

My boss, at work, he asked me what I was doing about the hole through my cheek that never heals. When I drink coffee, I told him, I put two fingers over the hole so it won't leak.

I really wanted to put a bullet between the eyes every endangered panda that wouldn't screw to save its species and every whale or dolphin that gave up and ran itself aground. Don't think of this as extinction. Think of this as downsizing.

...and it's not clear if reality slipped into my dream or if my dream is slopping over into reality.

That old saying, about how you always kill the thing you love, well, it works both ways.

Clues in the Novel (Spoiler Alert!)
Tyler could only work night jobs. Some people are night people. Some people are day people. I could only work a day job.
I know this because Tyler knows this.
I don't know how long Tyler had been working on all those nights I couldn't sleep.
I had to know what Tyler was doing while I was asleep.
If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?
The first rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club. I tell Walter I fell. I did this to myself. Sometimes, Tyler speaks for me. I did this to myself.
Lying on our backs in the parking lot, staring up at the one star that came through the streetlights, I asked Tyler what he'd been fighting. Tyler said, his father.
All night long, I dreamed I was humping Marla Singer. Marla Singer smoking her cigarette. Marla Singer rolling her eyes. I wake up alone in my own bed, and the door to Tyler's room is closed.
Tyler and Marla are never in the same room. I never see them together.
Tyler just doesn't come out when Marla's around.
Marla looks at me as if I'm the one humping her and says, "I can't win with you, can I?"
If you ever mention me to her, you'll never see me again.
Marla yells, "Tyler. Can I come in? Are you home?" I yell, Tyler's not home. Marla yells, "Don't be mean."
And without flinching, still looking at the manager, I roundhouse the fist at the centrifugal force end of my arm and slam fresh blood out of the cracked scabs in my nose.
For no reason at all, I remember the night Tyler and I had our first fight. I want you to hit me as hard as you can.
I said I felt like crap and not relaxed at all. I didn't get any kind of buzz. Maybe I'd developed a Jones. You can build up a tolerance to fighting, and maybe I needed to move on to something bigger. It was that morning, Tyler invented Project Mayhem.
I'm still asleep. Here, I'm not sure if Tyler is my dream. Or if I am Tyler's dream.
This is what Tyler wants me to do. These are Tyler's words coming out of my mouth. I am Tyler's mouth. I am Tyler's hands.

The Rules of Fight Club
The first rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club.
The second rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club.
That's the third rule in fight club, when someone says stop, or goes limp, even if he's just faking it, the fight is over.
Only two guys to a fight. One fight at a time.
They fight without shirts or shoes.
The fights go on as long as they have to.
"And the seventh rule," Tyler yells, "is if this is your first night at fight club, you have to fight."
Fight Club will always be free.

This was better than real life.

Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance

2006-03-25T11:09:00.000+05:30

Was reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance sometime back. It starts off quite decently with lectures on philosophy called chautauquas and nifty tips on Motorcycle Maintenance. Pirsig talks about the difference between the artistic way of thinking and the technical way of thinking. How a motorcycle is both a piece of art as well as hunky piece of machinery. He also explores the relationship between the narrator and his son Chris. But primarily dwells on philosophy. But somewhere down the line it tends to get just too heavy. The author just seems to go on and on about the Metaphysics of Quality and its various definitions or rather the problem one faces when one tries to define Quality. Too little Motorcycle Maintenance. Too much Zen.

Here are a couple of quotes I found intriguing enough to put up here.

It was a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling.

You always suppress momentary anger at something you deeply and permanently hate.

The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha... which is to demean oneself.

If someone's ungrateful and you tell him he's ungrateful, okay, you've called him a name. You haven't solved anything.

"The number of rational hypotheses that can explain any given phenomenon is infinite."

I feel happy to be here, and still a little sad to be here too. Sometimes it's a little better to travel than to arrive.

The best students always are flunking. Every good teacher knows that.

"Quality is a characteristic of thought and statement that is recognized by a nonthinking process. Because definitions are a product of rigid, formal thinking, quality cannot be defined. But even though Quality cannot be defined, you know what Quality is!"

If you can't distinguish between good and bad in the arts they disappear. There's no point in hanging a painting on the wall when the bare wall looks just as good. There's no point to symphonies, when scratches from the record or hum from the record player sound just as good.

The whole point of this post is to please my friend Aditude who swears by this book and insisted I put up something on the Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance. His logic was if you can be shameless enough to put up the lyrics of Sutta Na Mila on your blog just to drive in traffic then you can surely post something about Zen. Well anyway, hopefully he has been satiated for now.

Comments
i agree with the one thatsaya the best students are always flunking, how true,just that there are no good teachers around to know that.
shashti | 06.29.06 - 10:15 pm | #

Zinda

2006-02-02T00:55:00.000+05:30

The first ten minutes of Zinda is absolute crap. There is some really bad acting all around. In fact I was left feeling if I had made a mistake in going for this movie. But once Sanjay Gupta launches into the actual storyline it really gets better. And how! Until the ending… which I believe lacked the punch so ably delivered throughout the rest of the movie.

Zinda is the story of Bala (Sanjay Dutt) who was a software engineer till one fine day he is kidnapped and put in isolation for 14 years. He has absolutely no idea who his tormentor is and why he has been imprisoned like this. His wife (Celina Jaitley) is then murdered and the blame is put on Bala. Just as well for we are spared her bad acting henceforth.

Then inexplicably Bala is released after fourteen years of imprisonment.
The only clues Bala has to who his tormentor was is the smell of the fried wontons (did I get that right? Well basically they look like momos) that he is made to eat day in and day out. Apart from that there is a tune that plays whenever Valium is released into his cell. Once out he is helped by Jenny Singh (Lara Dutta) in his quest. Now, Lara Dutta isn’t bad at all and manages to come up with a couple of witty lines. Of course the surprise package is John Abraham. I thought he was only good enough for Jism type movies but I am glad to be proved wrong.

Zinda is quite a gruesome movie with lots of blood and gore. Just the way I like it. There is a scene in which Sanjay Dutt pulls out Raj Zutshi’s (Oh yes! He is there too and does a brilliant job) teeth with the nail pulling end of a hammer.

The music matches the feel of the movie really well and is quite well done. In fact it’s what I listen to most of the time these days. Also shooting most of the movie in what can only be described as a chilly blue filter really adds to the effect.
All in all a brilliantly directed movie with some awesome acting by almost everyone except Celina Jaitley.

It is said in Buddhism that when two people are destined to meet, the place where they finally meet is called the red circle.

Sahab aap to jaante hi hain kele aur tragedy kabhi single mein nahin aate. – Jenny Singh

Comments
lolz. searched for sutta na mila n got to ur blog... :D
Gemini Girl | Homepage | 02.07.06 - 9:55 pm |

Bad starting...
Good Photography !
Good Direction !
Ending could be better....
Good Story !
Rachit | 02.11.06 - 7:41 pm |

Not Pron

2006-01-14T06:30:00.000+05:30

Not Pron is the hardest puzzle I have ever come across. Not that I am a big time puzzle fanatic or anything. All I have ever done is the odd crossword (sometimes cryptic) and loads and loads of Sudokus. But Not Pron is a whole different ball game. It is by far the toughest riddle ever and according to the website only 0.0011% of the people who began it have ever finished it. I myself am currently on level 20 out of the 138 levels in the game.

Each successive page of the riddle features an image and various other clues and hints. To move forward one may need to solve anagrams, play around with music files and basically have a general idea about pop-culture. Many levels need you to google around to move ahead.

Just remember that when playing try not to look at any spoilers. It's not much fun that way though it does get a little frustrating at times to be stuck at a level for too long. In which case one can always look at the forums for some hints.

Statutory Warning: It tends to get really addictive and you stand a mighty chance of losing your job, or suffer from failing grades if you keep at it too long.

Oh! and by the way thanks Sridhar for introducing me to the coolest game ever.

Comments
sounds really interesting. am checking it out. it reminds me of the "davinci code" game that was released on the internet for publicity of the book.
Kunal Goel | Homepage | 01.16.06 - 2:41 am |

it is impossible to solve for indians (unless we cheat) I decided this at level 7 when I had to find the name of the chocolate wrapper. better to play klueless which is the indian version
Kunal Goel | Homepage | 01.16.06 - 10:53 pm |

I tried klueLESS was started by the IIM indore guys for their fest IRIS. My only complaint is that though it is quite good too but after notpron it just seems to be too easy.
Debasish | 01.17.06 - 3:13 am |

wow! this is a really addictive game. I am on level 14, and cant wait to get back home and continue "working" on it. The problem is this takes up too much time!! anyhoo, thanks for introducing me to this!
ankit | Homepage | 03.19.06 - 8:14 am |

fantastic
ankit | 03.23.06 - 11:09 pm |

Sutta Na Mila by Zeest

2006-01-10T02:41:00.000+05:30

First of all I should have posted really long time back when this absolutely amazing song was the craze everywhere. But then I guess this is a direct result of not posting as regularly as I should be. Anyway, at one point of time Sutta Na Mila by Zeest was on everyone's lips. Popularity of Sutta... is a classic case study of viral marketing.

Zeest is a Karachi based Pakistani band. Learn more about them at http://www.thezeest.tk/. Apparently they plan to come out with a Studio Recorded Version of Sutta... too as opposed to the Jamming Session clip we have all heard. Can't Wait.

The Sutta Team
Lyrics: Skip and Adeel
Composition: Skip
Vocals: Skip
Supporting Vocals: Anas, Abeer, Zeeshan
Guitar: Skip
Bass Guitar: Skip
Congo: Zeeshan

The lyrics go as follows...

Sutta Na Mila by Zeest

This song is dedicated to all the smokers and dopers by Zeest the band so let’s hit it.
Doston mein baitha main sutta pi raha

Abba ne mujhe sutta peete dekh liya

Ghar jab pahuncha to danda ho gaya

BC sutta, sutta na mila.

BC sutta, mujhe sutta na mila.

BC sutta, sutta na mila.

BC sutta, mujhe sutta na mila.

BC sutta, sutta na mila.

College mein gaya mujhe pyar ho gaya,

Usne bhi mujhse mera sutta cheen liya

Sadkon pe ghooma main tanha reh gaya

BC sutta, sutta na mila.

BC sutta, mujhe sutta na mila.

BC sutta, sutta na mila.

BC sutta, mujhe sutta na mila.

BC sutta, sutta na mila.

Shaadi hui main husband ban gaya

Raat bhar thoka main thak ke gir gaya

Khushiyon ki khatir mera sutta chin gaya

BC sutta.
BC sutta, mujhe sutta na mila.

BC sutta, sutta na mila.

BC sutta, mujhe sutta na mila.

BC sutta, sutta na mila.

BC MC, BC MC BC MC.

Those who liked Sutta... may want to check out some of the songs by bodhiTree particularly GMD.

Comments
I understand how you feel bud...But don't worry...at times of pain, all it takes is a lighter and Rs. 5 to take it all away..I'm a Davidoff man..
ER@sUrf3R | 01.12.06 - 2:52 am |

boss ....soota is now off season..kuch new stuff...
kalajadoo | 01.20.06 - 10:25 pm |

This is am amazing song guys... Keep up the good work and don't forget the sutta... Make some more music... I love this type of music...
Keegan Pinto | 01.24.06 - 9:20 pm |

sutta...a hit man...the point is that we4 cannot sing it aloud....
tillu | 01.26.06 - 6:36 pm |

just worried man......... that should not come out of my mouth when i am with my parents.....lol
yash | 01.26.06 - 6:38 pm |

Hey Kalajadoo... for new stuff turn to bodhitree's songs sabka katega and gmd.
Debasish | 01.27.06 - 11:40 pm |

cool song dude zeest u ppl rock! skip u play guitars like a slash man!
raaja | 01.30.06 - 6:56 pm |

VERY VERY COOl SONG!!
muffaz | 01.30.06 - 7:01 pm |

hey how do we download this song??????
dilasha | 02.01.06 - 6:51 pm |

yeah! this song reminds me my childhood memories... its just like my story i love its melody very touchy~
dosto mai baitha sutta pee raha,
coll mai gaya mujhay pyaar hogaya,
shadi hoi mai husband bun gaya,
khusio ki khatir mera sutta chin gaya
Bc.sutta mujhay sutta na milla~lovely song.... zeest!!
keep going!
nishaat | 02.04.06 - 5:27 pm |

=))
Gemini Girl | 02.07.06 - 9:54 pm |

ben chod...sutte ki yaad aa gayi
Challi | 02.12.06 - 5:53 pm |

hey very very dashign song..
its a story of smoker..
Nice Gitar playd in song...
jeetu | 02.12.06 - 7:24 pm |

One of the most coolest song of the year...gettin real popular these days...should have been nominated for grammy's
Gaurav | 02.22.06 - 12:32 am |

Download B.c Sutta From here
http://fahadsmart.multiply.com/m...m/music/item/ 27
Fahad | 02.24.06 - 3:03 pm |

can anybdy post d URL for just d instrumntal part of d sng
ankit | 03.23.06 - 11:12 pm |

lots of ppl are turning up here looking for the lyrics to sabka katega. Not that I mind. Now I am not going to create another post for the same. So just putting it up in the comments.
din kate na raat kate na subah kate na shaam
dhoop kate na chaon hate na gham hate naa jaam
dekho sabka katega
sabka katega raam yuhin kat ta rahega
sabka katega raammmmm
teri yaadon mein kal ki rain bitayi thi
meri aankhon mein fir se aas bhar aayi thi
shakhon se phool toote rahon mein jiske
dil dooba num hua pyaar mein uske
pyaar ghate na yaad badhe yeh yaad badhe har saans
pyaas mein teri jaane kitne kaat chuka main jaam
dekho sabka katega
sabka katega raam yuhin kat ta rahega
sabka katega rammmm

phir se subah hogi, kabhi toh tere dar par
phir se tere mann mein hum rahein har pal
phir se subah hogi, kabhi toh tere dar par
phir se tere mann mein hum rahein har pal
kyaa hua jo jooth kaha ki mujhe naa tumse pyaar
maan bhi jao kat jayega pyaar mein jeevan yaar
jaise sabka katega
sabka katega yaar yuhin kat ta rahega
sabka katega raam yuhin katta rahega
sabka katega rammmm
Debasish| 06.05.06|

Indian Comic Books

2005-11-08T15:45:00.000+05:30

Just the other day I was reading about Spiderman 3 and it got me thinking how long would it take for Bollywood to come up with a comic-book superhero movie. I mean a real superhero movie with stupendous action, a G-rated love interest and pure unadulterated entertainment that can if not compete atleast hold its own against the thrills and spins of Spidey. And no, Spiderman India – Pavitr Prabhakar doesn't count. In fact, what it really got me thinking was about the time I used to read comic books. Not the Superman, Batman variety but the Indian comic books with Indian superheroes, Indian scenarios, powers, vulnerabilities and obviously the arch-nemesis.

When it comes to Indian comic books the first name that instantly comes to mind is Chacha Chaudhary and Sabu. Chacha Chaudhary is a very unconventional comic book character in the sense that he is just a normal old guy blessed with a brain sharper than a needle and faster than a supercomputer. His sidekick Sabu is a giant of superhuman strength and a native of the planet Jupiter. An interesting quirk is that every time Sabu gets angry (which happens quite a lot) a volcano erupts on Jupiter. Then there is Chacha Chaudhary's dog – Rocket and the arch enemy – Raaka who could not be killed and in true comic-book fashion would turn up in sequel after sequel. Then there was another Pran creation Billoo and Pinki – the little naughty kids next door and the crime-solving duo of Chacha-Bhatija.

But somehow this is not what I was exactly talking about when I think of a mega movie.

Nagraj, a superhero having snake-like powers and immunity to bullets is what I thought of next. Nagraj or The Walking Snake-Pit as he is called could transform into a snake as he willed. He also contained many micro-snakes within himself, which would automatically heal his wounds and could perform various other tasks – such as shoot off like bullets or coil into ropes... Nagraj had a poisonous breath and could hypnotise with his eyes. I remember the arch-enemy of Nagraj was Nagdant, his equal in every respect and had powers the same as Nagraj except that Nagdant was kept under mind control by some evil doctor (Dr. Nagmani?) or something like that. I also remember reading a couple of Doga comics, in which Doga is a half man-half dog superhero who relies on guns and heavy-duty weaponry to carry out his vigilante activities. Now, Doga was really a dumb concept and no wonder I gave up on Doga. Much better was Super Commando Dhruv, a character quite reminiscent of the character of Robin (from Batman). Dhruv was a member of Jupiter Circus, had swift reflexes and was well versed with martial arts. He could communicate with animals and would call for their assistance when required. Come to think of it Super Commando Dhruv would make a pretty good movie if the moviemakers don't turn the whole thing into a goddamn costume drama. Then there was Parmanu – the only thing I can remember about him is the atomic nucleus emblazoned on his chest. Other names that I can remember are Shakti, Agniputra Abhay, Mahabali Shaka (a Tarzan type character), Inspector Steel (a RoboCop rip-off), Bheria, Fighter Toads. Unfortunately apart from their names I don't remember much about their abilities.

Previous attempts that I can recall about Indian superheroes on film are – the hugely successful TV series Shaktiman starring Mukesh Khanna. Now it got so popular that little kids started jumping off roofs in the hope that Shaktiman would swoop in to save them. Chacha Chaudhary does come on TV these days but I don't know anyone who watches it. I remember a short series on Doordarshan called 'Stone Boy'. Though not really in the mould of a superhero but it was a brilliant story and was well made.

Comments
Hi Debashish,
I used to think along the same lines before i gave up hope of any Indian director coming up with an Indian superhero movie at par with all supermen and spidermen ones.
Think i'll have to direct and produce one myself! My superhero would be Dhruv. Why? Because he is the cutest of the lot. His way of solving problems is very realistic. Plus, he has a sense of humour which few others posess. Nagraj is also passable. But the problem is: Who shud i cast as Dhruv? Any suggestions??!!!
kavi | Homepage | 11.22.05 - 2:14 pm |

hi debashish...
a friend of mine is a an ardent fan of super commando dhruv and i was foolish enuf to accept a challenge on super commando dhruv...can u tell me if uve read the comics..what was the real identity of this chap called super killer or champion killer..and who was dhruvs first crush..??
help!
padma
padma | 03.06.06 - 2:50 pm |

Types of Girls

2005-09-26T10:14:00.000+05:30

There are many types and assorted sub-categories of the weird species we know as girls. In fact each girl is unique but they can still be slotted into one or more of the following categories.

The Girl Next Door: This is the sort of girl most guys would like to end up with. The operative word being end up with but not necessarily go around with. She is a sweet, good-natured, helpful, kind and non-deceitful. She would be good-looking without trying to and would most probably have a face that betrays her innocence. In fact she can be very good-looking if she tries. But she doesn't. This is what's most endearing about her. She might be god-fearing and religious. She isn't into watching action flicks. Absolutely not. She is more into the simple Bollywood family entertainers. Her taste of music is also simple – Pop, Indipop and Hindi film music. She doesn't listen to Punjabi Pop at all. She might listen to English music too but mostly of the Bryan Adams variety. She might even be into playing some musical instrument or singing. She has a very protective family. Also she can light up anyone's face with a simple Hi! But she wouldn't normally speak to too many people. She is usually very selective about her friends. Almost on the shy side.

The Smoking Babe: This is the sort of girl every guy wants to have as his girlfriend but dreads getting married to. She is by far the best looking girl in her college/locality/in most places. She has already had a string of unsuccessful relationships. And most probably has never been without atleast one boyfriend. She is not the most scrupulous or ethical person around and in fact doesn't mind flirting around with guys at all. Sometimes even to get them to help her out. She knows when to play the damsel in distress or the drama queen. She would most probably go out with only good looking guys but deep inside she has always felt the need for a true friend who likes her for what she is and not what she looks like. Her problem is that with the sort of personality she has built around herself she doesn't care much for that one guy who really cares for her. Eventhough she has lots of friends but they are mostly fair-weather friends and she knows it. In fact she might even be sad and lonely inside but is so used to hiding it and replacing emotional happiness with material ones that she has fooled herself too. She is more into the mushy Hollywood date flicks (after all she has been asked out to many of them). Music she doesn't really have a penchant for. She most probably doesn't have many interests or hobbies. But may be into painting, secretly. Eventhough I have almost turned her into a victim she is far from being one.

The Best Friend: As the category suggests this is the sort of girl who ends up being a guy's best friend. She is a good listener. After all she has to put herself through all his problems and usually provides valuable advice. She most probably doesn't have a boyfriend right now but may have had boyfriends before. She probably has a crush on someone, though. Might even be the guy she is best friend to. Either way she understands relationships well and provides useful insights into the female pysche. She is the one a guy would turn to when he needs support – emotional or sometimes even monetary. She un-demandingly helps him out in every situation. Girlfriends are usually jealous of her but know that her boyfriend can't do without her. She has lots of hobbies most of which match the sort of stuff guys like. She is most probably not into mushy stuff but one can never be sure.

The Attitude Girl: This is the sort who has loads and loads of attitude. She may have a boyfriend but doesn't really give too much of a damn about them. She loves to be different from other girls. And she has lots and lots of friends who are guys but very few who are not. She loves pulling their leg and usually has a good sense of humour. She is one of the few girls who would get almost all of the jokes made around her. Believe me, it is a much bigger achievement than it sounds. She does know a lot about pop-culture. In fact she knows a lot about a lot of stuff. She is more into action flicks and wouldn't be even seen dead near places showing romantic movies. Her taste of music is more on the Heavy Metal and Rock side. In fact she is a regular fixture at most rock shows. And she does not give a damn about Hindi music. She is not the sort of girl who would make a good girlfriend or wife or anything at all. But guys like to have her around as she is almost like one of the guys.

The Feminist: This is the rebel without a cause. She is almost always dressed in plain jane clothes. A typical example would be a Salwar-Kameez and Jhola combo. Her hair is tied in a not too attractive yet immaculate manner. She tries to find issues to fight upon where there are none. She has never had a boyfriend and doesn't want one. Obviously with her man-hating stance it is difficult for her to imagine herself as someone's girlfriend. She most probably comes from a family with a history of trouble-makers. What I mean (no offence meant) is that most probably her dad's a journalist or one-time student activist. She only watches the sort of movies that make it to film festivals. She has the capability to pick fights with almost anyone. In fact the lesser she knows the person the better. Most of her sentences start with... – "You guys are so..."

I am sure there are plenty of other categories but right now I am too tired to think up of more stuff. Also most girls might just fall into more than one category. Sometimes they even switch categories, as they grow older.

Comments
That is such a stereotyped mentality!!!! Let me assure u, girls are too complex beings to be categorized under just 5 headings.
U guys are sooo.....
kavi | 10.06.05 - 11:43 am |

Kavi's right. I think there should be one more category... "The non-entities".
Anonymous | 10.09.05 - 4:32 pm |

Wow, you have come out with a great list and I can even fit girls into each of the categories. Seems you have experience much beyond 20 years to come out with such an excellent list. good blog, nice read.
Greensatya | 10.20.05 - 7:29 pm |

Hope the fairer sex things you have been fair to them. Beware, my freind.
Hiren Shah | 10.30.05 - 12:44 pm |

I thought there was only one type -- insecure bitches.
Kunal Goel | 01.11.06 - 2:56 am |

@Kunal Goel: Sour Grapes and All That Jazz.
DJK | 02.04.06 - 12:06 am |

hmmm. nice list. though a bit confusing as i seem to fit a little bit into each category. a very nice blog. even i like to hear dry leaves crunch below my feet.
bianca b | 02.15.06 - 3:20 pm |

Well, i wont say you dont make sense coz hell!.. you do...but dere are various other categories :appearance-crazy girls, push-over girls, as kunal said- insecure bitches, emotional girls, smart girls etc. etc.
Pallavi Kulshrestha | 06.21.06 - 6:54 pm |

hmm...
nicely written buddy. and pretty sharp observation.
to the person_talking_abt_5_types in the 1st comment > cmon, this is just an attempt to make better sense of things...and i feel it does meet its objective
and this is not the last word (if ur emotional security depends on knowing this)...lol
mohit Vaish | 07.25.06 - 3:16 am | #

I am like this only

2005-09-26T10:11:00.000+05:30

This is a list of stuff that I like. I shall try to make this list as esoteric as possible. This list is far from complete and I might be adding to this.

The crunchy noise that dry leaves make when they are crushed beneath your feet.
The light halo sort of thing that one gets by reflecting the sunlight off watch dials. I love the way it bounces around.
Advising people.
Thinking up stuff that I would ask for if I got three wishes.
Doing something good for someone I dislike. Thinking probably my act of goodness would bring out the good inside that person.
Being nice to people who hate me. So they find it harder to do so.
Nailing a question that has been nagging me for a very long time.
Getting wet in the rain.
Daydreaming.
Sharpening a pencil using a blade rather than a simple sharpener. I love the way the wooden shrapnels fly away on improbable trajectories.
When a girl falls asleep on my shoulder.

Comments
Hey Debashish,
We do have some similar interests after all. I also like all the stuff u mentioned, though with the exception of the last one!
kavi | 10.06.05 - 11:40 am |

who are you kidding?? stop the "being romantic" shit. you need to tell us a bit about your dirty side too
Anonymous | 10.09.05 - 4:36 pm |

Sure, I would... believe me there is a lot of that too... Another one for the coming soon folder...
Debasish | 10.12.05 - 2:30 pm |

Well...goin in similar direction...in addition to all dat u said, i like..
-watching an ant and tracing its path all around d house.
-goin to a library to find a course book and finding myself in a section not even remotely close to my course!
-thinkin suppose its my last day, wat do i realy wana do?
-finding weird reasons to procrastinate.
-dis i don do often but, watchin d sputtering of oil, or gradual mixing of everythin into one homogenous thn wen mom's cookin...its utterly amusing at times.
-imagining how my world wud be, wen i totally invert personalities of d ppl around.

I think all dats weird enough
Pallavi Kulshrestha | 06.21.06 - 6:48 pm |

The Motorcycle Diaries

2005-09-26T10:10:00.000+05:30

To be frank before watching The Motorcycle Diaries I had very little knowledge about who Che Guevara was. All I knew was that he was some revolutionary who helped Fidel Castro in his revolution in Cuba. And that lots of guys love to wear T-shirts with his face emblazoned on them.

Anyway, coming back to The Motorcycle Diaries. It is about the early life of Che Guevara. How, when Che was only one semester away from becoming a doctor he decided to go on a road trip with his friend Granado covering the length and breadth of the South American continent. This movie is about the making of a revolutionary – how he is affected by the plight of the indigenous people and finally decides to do something about it. The movie starts of in an almost amateurish way with the misadventures of the Ernesto (Che) and Granado on their trusted Norton 500 (La Pederosa), but as the movie and their trip progresses, the characters mature, get more philosophical and the seeds of the ideas that shall change their lives forever are sown. The Motorcycle Diaries does not go into Che Guevara's life as a revolutionary. Instead it seeks to explain the incidents that lead to the making of one. In fact while watching the movie I felt that some of the incidents seemed a little apocryphal but the photo-montage in the credit sequence erased all such doubts. A nice touch to a brilliantly made movie with some awesome acting by the lead characters.

How can I feel nostalgia for a world I do not know of?

Comments
I like che guevara.And wanted to see this movie for a long time , so ur giving it to me .
anilesh | 04.04.06 - 4:40 pm |

The "world" cannot be "known".It can only be lived in and experienced, which we all do in our small ways.it is an illusion to think the whole earth and the peope on it have to be known for having memorable times
Anonymous | 10.09.05 - 4:40 pm |

The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook

2005-09-25T10:06:00.000+05:30

This short little book is a pretty decent timepass for a lazy Saturday afternoon. This is a guide to surviving in the worst-case scenario type situations. There is an underlying humour in this book which comes from the absolute serious manner in which the authors take upon dispensing survival tips in really improbable though not impossible situations one might find oneself in. The scenarios discussed range from probable situations such as – Breaking Down a Door, Taking a Punch the right way, treating a leg fracture, surviving earthquakes etc. to one-off occurrences like – Delivering a baby in a Taxicab, Treating bullet or knife wounds and Landing a Plane. Then there are the really impossible yet interesting ones like Wrestling an Alligator, Performing a fast 180-degree turn with your car, Fending off a Shark, Jumping from a Motorcycle to a Car and Surviving if your parachute fails to open! Would it really help me in a dangerous situation? I don't know about that but I what I do know now is - How to break into a car and hot-wire it!

If anything can go wrong, it will – Murphy's Law

Be Prepared – Boy Scout motto

Don't Panic! – The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Q and A

2005-06-28T11:43:00.000+05:30

Actually I had read this novel by Vikas Swarup quite some time back. It's just that only now have I had the time to write about it.
Q and A is the story of Ram Mohammad Thomas a penniless waiter who is arrested because he was able to answer all the questions on a television quiz show - Who Wants to Win a Billion? He is able to pull this off because all the questions were somehow related to his life. There were little incidents that had occurred in his life that enabled him to know the answer to each and every question asked on the quiz show. This in a nutshell is the plot the book revolves around. But the story of Ram Mohammad Thomas' life itself is multi-hued much like his name. He was dumped in a dustbin and then adopted by a Christian priest, then moved to a juvenile home, lives in Dharavi for some time, is almost converted into a crippled beggar, is a servant to an aging actress and later also to a retired army colonel, becomes a a guide at the Taj Mahal... and I have not even scratched the surface.
The book is presented in twelve chapters corresponding to the twelve questions that were asked during the quiz show. This ingeniously used literary device and the non-linear storyline is the USP of the book. The story unfolds like a typical Bollywood masala potboiler and yes, the movie rights of Q and A have already been sold. There are so many little things that point towards a filmi storyline – Ram making his choices in life with a toss of a coin, tiny little twists and surprises, re-unification with lost friends, there is a romantic angle too and an overall feel-good factor in the end.
Pretty decent time-pass.

Ender's Game

2005-06-28T11:26:00.000+05:30

Just finished reading this brilliantly written sci-fi novel by Orson Scott Card. Ender's Game is the story of Andrew Wiggin (who likes to call himself Ender) – a child who is groomed to be the saviour of the human race in their fight against an alien race the Buggers. The best portions of the book are the parts where Ender undergoes battle training at the Battle School. His own mental turmoil and the agony he goes through are brought out quite effectively by the author. One thing that really strikes you is that the lead characters in the novel are really small children. Ender is three years old when he starts off. It was sort of unnerving to read of children thinking the way they do in Ender's Game but I believe that is where the beauty of Ender's Game lies.
Another thing that crossed my mind while reading the Battle School parts was – this book should be made into a movie. And yes, it is being made into a movie. I believe the script and screenplay are ready. I hope the movie lives up to my expectations.
The last chapter, which also sets up the groundwork for the sequel Speaker for the Dead, is quite different from the rest of the book. It gets all philosophical and a bit too mushy-mushy for me. Yet definitely must read for all sci-fi fans.

Comments
Hey ! I just read this book, and I completely agree with you! Like it a lot !
Ritesh | 07.19.05 - 3:19 pm |

What is Love?

2005-06-23T11:47:00.000+05:30

The Oxford Dictionary has 10 different meanings for the word – 'love'. The first and the eighth one I have reproduced below.

1. That state of feeling with regard to a person which manifests itself in concern for the person's welfare, pleasure in his or her presence, and often also desire for his or her approval; deep affection, strong emotional attachment

8. A game of chance

It is remarkable how similar the pattern of love is to the pattern of insanity. - The Merovingian, from The Matrix Revolutions

I shall not attempt to define love. I find it impossible to do so though The Merovingian seems to be pretty close to the mark. What do you think love is?

Comments
Well, Love is unexplainable. It defies every logic of ours. That's why it never loses its charm.
kavi | Homepage | 07.09.05 - 6:04 pm |

Well, as they say - Pyar Dosti Hai
Rahul | 08.01.05 - 7:05 pm |

for those who stay on the surface of this feeling - love is what Merovingian said. But those who dig deeper, they discover what it really means !
rks | 08.15.05 - 9:57 pm |

Love....to be true it is a chain reaction of myriad probablities, situations, prejudices and of course, hormones..
Pallavi Kulshrestha | 06.21.06 - 6:57 pm |

Main Samay Hoon = Sine Curve

2005-06-23T11:42:00.000+05:30

My Blog has become like the sine curve. Crests where I blog quite a bit and then troughs when I stop blogging altogether for long periods of time. Of late, I realise that the troughs have become longer than the crests. But it is mostly due to paucity of time and partly due to lack of interest on my part. Anyway I shall try to be more regular but once college starts again I am afraid Main Samay Hoon shall be facing yet another trough.

Comments
In case u haven't noticed, in a sine curve, a trough is equal to the crest ...in magnitude, at least.
kavi | 07.09.05 - 6:06 pm |

yes yaar i have, my sine curves have always been a little warped. you see i was never too good at trigonometry anyway
Debasish | 07.16.05 - 9:54 am |

Playground

2005-06-23T11:03:00.000+05:30

This is a poem by one of my closest friends – Mihir. To be frank, at the first reading I did not understand what it was about. Let's see if any of you fare better. Just leave a comment on what you think this poem is all about.

Playground

Shimmering knives behind backs,
Rusted guns in side-pockets;
Cocaine to take for a ride,
To the sacrosanct necklace, confide.

For these daredevils this is a playground,
Where love is lost and death found;
Murders in the narrow daylight,
And cruel death-bleeding fights.

Lay trust in only yourself,
Holy Bible dust-clad on the shelf;
Spick-and-span suits shown off,
Spitting blood when the body coughs.

To their heart’s fill they are drunk,
In sinful money they are sunk;
Forever searching relief in woe,
Always the seeds of hate they’ve sown.

Mihir Bhattacharya
Economics (H) IIIrd Year
SRCC

This poem was one of the five poems recited on All India Radio's Yuv-Vani programme by Mihir.

Comments
great job mihir but mujhe kuch khas samajh nahi aaya
robin | 09.02.05 - 2:26 pm |

hi... debashish, i think it is a very deep thought... good stuff... oh and nice work by u... keep it up. tc.
Akshati | 04.09.06 - 12:20 am |

Thanx... But i would like to state here that this poem is by Mihir so all bouquets and brickbats to him...
Debasish | 04.10.06 - 11:17 am |

Henrietta Lacks' Life

2005-06-23T10:58:00.000+05:30

When Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer in 1951, cells from her body were taken for research by John Hopkins University. Apparently they proved vital in development of the polio vaccine and in testing the effects of nuclear radiation. Their ability to multiply was spectacularly successful. Almost too successful since they have the tendency to contaminate other cell cultures causing problems in research laboratories all over the world. Indeed in terms of bio-mass there is said to be more of her now than when she was breathing, walking and talking.
Scientists call Henrietta's cells the HeLa Line. They are nurtured in a solution of placenta and hen bone marrow. Placentas aren't considered to be part of mother or child, and hospitals sell them on to laboratories and the cosmetic industry.
In the 1960s a test compared 17 cultures of ostensibly different tissue types and found that they were all HeLa. The American Type Culture Collection, a cell bank I imagine, tested its store of human cells and found that out of their 34 cell lines, 24 were HeLa. In 1972 the Russians supplied American scientists with six different cancer from different parts of the Soviet Union – all turned out to be Hela. When in the 1970s her family learnt that bits of her mother were still living – and in several places at once – they were understandably shocked. I guess the issue is this: at what point are you not you.

Abridged from an article by Anna Enright. London Review of Books 13 April 2000

'D'

2005-06-23T10:52:00.000+05:30

I expected 'D' to be the prequel to 'Company'. Sadly, it is not. Instead it is a combination of Ram Gopal Varma's earlier movies 'Satya' and 'Company'. This is exactly where the movie fails. As a stand-alone movie it is quite good. But we have seen it all before.

'D' is the story of Deshu (Randeep Hooda) the son of a constable who decides he has had enough with his mediocre life and therefore, joins the underworld. He is not a guy who is innocently led into the grimy gangster world of shootouts, extortion etc. He wants to be a gangster simply because he wants to be one. He therefore joins the gang of Hashim Chand and makes his way up the gangster hierarchy. The movie charts the rise of Deshu – who alongwith his trusted friend Raghav (Chunky Pandey) takes over the entire Mumbai underworld. But not without a few hiccups. Envious of his growing influence are the two sons of Hashim Chand played by Sushant Singh and Yashpal Sharma who try their best to curb Deshu's power.
Then there are the gangster's molls Bhakti (Rukhsaar) and Isha Koppikar - who have tiny little inconsequential roles. Though I must say Rukhsaar bears some resemblance to the original D's moll – Monica Bedi. Also, Chunky Pandey does not do a bad job as Raghav. Even though there are his trademark histrionics but he has been restrained well in this movie.
The music by Nitin Raikwar is pretty ordinary – except for 'Zinda Hai...' I did not like anything else. 'Khud ko Maar Dala Re' and 'Dhokebaaz' are to put it plainly - irritating. The movie could have done quite well without any songs at all.
There are certain scenes in the movie that are reminiscent of 'Company' – for example, the scene where Deshu recruits new members reminded me of Malik recruiting Chandu in Company. Then there is the recurring reference to Hashim bhai's bad back and the scene where Deshu tells Hashim bhai that his company now belongs to Deshu is quite similar to the one between Malik and Aslam Ali.
But 'D' is not as gripping in its narrative as 'Satya' was and Deshu is nowhere as suave as Malik (Ajay Devgan) was in 'Company'. If 'Satya' was a micro look at the Mumbai underworld and 'Company' the macro view – 'D' is like a movie that's out of focus.

Hey! How's College?

2005-06-22T10:39:00.000+05:30

Guest Column by Aditude
"Hey! How's College?" Oh! The complete sense of ease that follows is remarkable. You know perfectly well the routes the conversation shall be taking and are familiar with the by-lanes as well.
The reason that this very pick-up line is in use so widely among young undergraduates is that complete strangers can become near soul mates within just a few minutes of dialogue after using it.
What usually follows is a series of innovative adjectives - that get better with each successive retelling - describing the college, its campus, the crowd, its grandeur and resplendent glory. Hostellers can brag about their vibrant night-life while day-scholars rant about the enjoyable trips back and forth. For one practiced in this art, appropriate metaphors also flow with ease, captivating the listener.
Of course, well-timed interjections and queries by the other side regarding some specific details punctuate all this, adding to speaker's confidence. The "really?", "Hmmm...", "Is that so?", "What about…", etc are all vital and show the level of enthusiasm of the listener.
All of them are, after all, just baits to spur you on towards a quick wrap-up. Then the role-reversal takes place. Now you are the one nodding along while the opposite number unleashes his/her eloquence.
The next stage is about your grievances with respective colleges. This usually is cautiously introduced in the conversation and if some of the fallacies match, you've hit jackpot! The smiles just get broader.
After exhausting all the facts possible about each college, you get to the real interesting part: The Anecdotes. The excitement in each camp is palpable as both recount story after story of their respective college lives. Truth often takes a beating as the game of one-upmanship reaches a climax.
If the parties involved have some big egos, then this friendly game can turn into a no-holds-barred boasting match invariably ending in one of them saying "Wow, That's amazing! See you later". Only it is sure to mean the later the better.
Of course, mostly it does not end this way and a general air of bonhomie is a common result.
If the level of understanding reaches extreme highs, or, if both are old partners in this game, one can broach the relatively sensitive issue of the opposite sex in the discussion. Of course, if its two boys together, then usually dialogue quickly comes round to exchanging notes on the sex ratio in class, quality standard, The Top Five and their vital statistics. Girls, I cannot comment on, as I have not been fortunate enough of being invited as an observer to a discussion of their observations…
So, if you are feeling left out in a party or gathering, all you have to do is say – "Hi! How's college?" And you'll be on course to a nice evening.

Swades

2005-01-07T13:44:00.000+05:30

I had high expectations from Swades – Ashutosh Gowariker’s next directorial venture after the absolutely entertaining Lagaan and he did not disappoint me at all. Swades is the story of Mohan Bhargava (Shah Rukh Khan) who is a project manager at NASA working on a satellite project for Global Precipitation Measurement. He returns to India to take Kaveri Amma, who is like a mother to him, back to America. But, he falls in love with Geeta (Gayatri Joshi), and is taken in by the poverty in India’s villages and the problems facing the villagers of Charanpur, where Kaveri Amma lives alongwith Geeta who is a teacher in the village school.

Unlike Lagaan, Swades is not an out and out entertainer - the humour is subtle, the characters are real, and none of the scenes are too melodramatic. Just the way I like it. The only problem I felt was that the movie was a little long and some bits are a tad documentaryish.
The music by A.R.Rehman is, as always, amazing and totally suits the feel of the movie. I particularly liked Yuhi Chala... and Yeh Tara... All in all, an amazing movie and definitely worth watching.

Trivia: Ashutosh Gowariker’s all three movies as director - Baazi, Lagaan, and Swades have Aamir Khan in them. I know, I know Swades has Shah Rukh Khan in the leading role but Aamir Khan does make a fleeting appearance. In the scene, where the villagers are watching Yaadon Ki Baraat Aamir Khan is seen as a child artiste. Actually, Yaadon Ki Baraat was Aamir Khan’s first appearance on celluloid. Now, I don’t know if Ashutosh Gowariker intentionally picked Yaadon Ki Baraat as a good luck charm or this is just a coincidence.
Ashutosh Gowariker was the voice of Ravana in the song "Pal Pal Hai Bhari." – from IMDB

Apne hi paani mein pighal jaana barf ki takdir mein hota hain.

Comments
Hi Debashish,
I don't completely agree with u this time around. I had great expectations from Swadesh too. But the movie just fell flat in every respect. Apart from the song "Yuhin chala.." there was hardly anything worth rooting for. The whole movie was about "oh-poor-backward-snake charmers'-land" which is exactly i don't like. It really gets on my nerves. May be Ashutosh didn't want another disappointment at Oscars, so he came out with a portrait of India exactly the way West likes it. Swadesh could have been such a nice return to Lagaan kind of classics but unfortunately that was not to be!
kavi | Homepage | 01.30.05 - 5:08 pm | #

You may be right. But let's face it - india of the villages is vastly different from india of the cities. There are real problems in our basic infrastructure that need to addressed. And we cannot always hide behind the rhetoric that we have a great culture and hence we are on top of the world.

Would this movie invoke patriotism? No.
But was it good entertainment - better than the average hindi movie - Yes.
Debasish | 01.31.05 - 10:29 am | #

Gravatar I loved the movie for the reason that it had no senseless tangents. It sticks to its story line. I think the movie was more about a person coming to terms with the reality of his motherland. It need not be a person at NASA, It could be a person Living in Delhi or Bombay also, who are far away from the other side of India.
Ritesh | Homepage | 02.26.05 - 6:34 pm | #

The movies showed us the real side of india,but really failed to even suggest a practical way out of it.For last 50 years we have known our problems ,and we all educated city dwellers have read it in our social study subject .And even so in todays time we have numerous 24hrs news channels,so we are more clear about the situation.
Therefore the movie seemed so deppresing .I liked lagan because it suggested a way out of the problem in terms will,detrmination ,resource alloction etc,Because if clearly viewed the problems of lagan and swades were same despite the difrence in time .
anilesh | Homepage | 04.13.05 - 2:21 pm | #

Gravatar Hey Debashish,
What's up?
It's been ages since u last posted.
Been keeping busy?
Hoping to hear from u..
kavi | Homepage | 05.15.05 - 1:21 pm | #

Gravatar Hello there? when are you planning to update?!
Aditya | Homepage | 05.16.05 - 11:24 am | #

Gravatar HEEELLLOOOOOO......
Knock knock
R U There???
kavi | Homepage | 05.30.05 - 12:21 pm | #

I know. I know. I had taken a long sabbatical and now i'm back. Though go through the MSH = sine curve post.
Debasish | 06.27.05 - 4:03 pm | #

Engineering Drawing

2004-12-15T13:39:00.001+05:30

One thing I want to be perfectly clear about is - I hate Engineering Drawing.

One of the subjects I have as part of my Electronics Engineering course is Engineering Drawing (ED). It is basically those weird drawings used to represent three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface and frankly speaking, I have had enough of it. Top Views; Front Views; Isometric projections; True Length; Apparent Length; True Angles; Sections; Development – these terms alone are enough to ‘make a grown man cry’. Only a person who has gone through the torture of having to prepare an ED sheet replete with weird diagrams of even weirder contraptions can understand what a pain it is.

Though i must confess that some of the topics can be interesting – I particularly enjoyed making Isometric Projections but apart from that most of ED is really irritating. The only other enjoyable part of ED is reading the graffiti that has been etched on the desks in the ED Classroom.

I wonder what is it that turns on the creative circuits of the human brain once it enters the realm of the ED class. How is it that ED is capable of unleashing hidden talent and unending reservoirs of sarcasm; poetry; witty one-liners and crude insults (usually directed towards the Profs)?

God, I wish I pass ED otherwise I’ll have to give the exam once again – and the only thing worse than studying ED is - having to study it twice.
All visitors are hereby requested to say a little prayer requesting Him to help me pass in ED.
Note: ED makes a reappearance as Machine Drawing in one my later semesters. God help me!

Comments
Your prejudice against ED seems to be rather fictitious and false. As an engineer, you are trained in ED to help you to simplify complex 3-d structures which is a pre requisite in any stream. I cannot imagine, being in electronics myself, which subject you liked best for its novelty in the 1st sem if not ED!
Aditya | 12.17.04 - 12:48 pm | #

ED gets full marks on the novelty front. But it is so painful to make all those ED sheets that frankly speaking life would be so much simpler without ED.
Sure! it does simplify complex 3D structures but I must say it is of no use to an Electronics engineer - as far as I know at IIT, electronics and electrical engineers do not have to study ED at all.
Another thing I missed out on in my post was to thank my friend, Sunanda who helped me out by making a couple of ED sheets for me. Thanks!
Debasish | 12.20.04 - 4:13 pm | #

Hahhaha, every stream of study has one such subject.
rks | 12.28.04 - 6:20 pm | #

electronics engineers do indeed need ED fro developments used in sheet metal work for the pupose of PCBs.
But let me put an end to the arguement by admitting its tremendous workload. I'm glad its not there in 2nd sem
Aditya | 01.05.05 - 12:16 pm | #

nice blog dood, i'm a senior,final year.much like u i was horrible at ED and hated it...scored 40 in ED and 51 in MD...newyz as far as utility of subjects go...u'll realise in the final year that nothing that u've done in the 4 years is useful..
rohit(aka cracker) | 01.19.05 - 11:48 am | #

All good things come in a package ,
so do all bad ones.
sorry, am a bit late . By now you must be knowing your results (if it isn't the 'DCE/NSIT pending results' thing) & my prayers won't help, but I'll still say one for you .
Even I had a tough time with E.D (though It gave me a c.g of 9), but it was only first semester. Now I am left with nothing but a score of used E.D sheets and painfull memories of it (gave me a stiff back).
At least 5 of the IITs have this as a common course in their first year curriculum . But later in the following sems it's your computer toiling for you . A you have CADs & solidedge' to take care of it .
antriksh | Homepage | 04.17.05 - 6:24 am | #

fuck off
eww | 10.04.05 - 5:54 pm | #

Musafir

2004-12-15T13:39:00.000+05:30

It has been a really long time since I posted anything here. I was really busy with college and exams that I just did not have any free time at all. Anyway, I’m back and now since the exams are over I’ll be posting a whole lot more now.
One of the movies I managed to catch in-between my exams was Musafir. I had high expectations from this one – after all its directed by Sanjay Gupta the director of Kaante. Sure, it’s got the same attitude and loads of spunk but there’s a total lack of substance.
Lucky(Anil Kapoor) is a crook who plans to pull off one last con-job and does manage to do so only to have his girlfriend(Koena Mitra) run away with the money. The money belongs to Billa(Sanjay Dutt) who obviously wants it back. So, Lucky is sent to Goa to carry out a job for Billa and save his skin. Lucky succeeds but manages to lose the money in a really bizarre way. Then there is Luka(Mahesh Manjrekar) who offers him money to bump off his wife Sam(Sameera Reddy). But Lucky falls in love with Sam and ... the rest is too muddled up to go into.
The storyline really falls flat – with a stronger storyline Musafir would have been a much better movie. Especially, since Sanjay Gupta gets all the other ingredients right – Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor and Mahesh Manjrekar all come with pretty good performances, especially Anil Kapoor. There is a lot of attitude and chutzpah all throughout and some of the dialogues are really good. The sepia tinted shots; camera angles and the whole look of the film is noteworthy.
Milap Zaveri, the same guy who did the dialogues for Kaante and Jhankar Beats does a really good job with the ‘gutter-speak’ here too, but too much of it can get a little annoying.
The songs are ALL item-numbers and I would have liked it if they were a little shorter. Tez Dhar, Rabba and Saki are the only ones I liked.
All in all, Musafir is better than most Bollywood flicks in terms of technical brilliance but then again who watches a movie just to check out the camerawork and the sepia tint. Only if the script was treated a little better...
Trivia: I heard that the story idea is lifted from Oliver Stone’s - U Turn. I haven’t seen U Turn so I don’t know for sure.

Carnivore Bound Wachowski

2004-09-02T11:13:00.000+05:30

I recently read Carnivore, the first (?) movie script to be written by Larry and Andy Wachowski. It was horrible. Quite different from any other movie script I’ve read but also quite reminiscent of B-grade horror flicks that have names like Night of the Man-eating Zombies.

Okay, so maybe I’m being a little too critical here but it surely doesn’t quite measure up to the originality of the Matrix. But then again, can anything?

Anyway, here’s some stuff I found out on what the Wachowski Brothers did before they made The Matrix Trilogy. Most of the following stuff has been plagiarised from an article I read in Wired Magazine.
Andy went to Emerson College in Boston and Larry went to Bard in New York. Both dropped out after two years and returned to Chicago, eventually setting up a house-painting and construction business and writing for Marvel Comics. They decided to give up house-painting and get into some serious filmmaking after reading a book by B-movie maker Roger Corman - How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime. This book led them to write the script for Carnivore, - which was about wealthy people being eaten by cannibals. That movie hasn't been made (yet), but the script did get them noticed.
In 1995, Warner Bros. bought a script from them called Assassins. Mel Gibson said he was interested in directing it, but he opted to make Braveheart instead. Director Richard Donner signed on and ordered extensive rewrites into the script. Larry likened the process to an abortion and tried unsuccessfully to have their names removed from the credits. Inspite of the fact that the Wachowski brothers disowned the movie, I really liked the movie a lot. But I always feel what a stellar product it could have been had it been directed by the Wachowski Bros.
Anyway, while the Wachowskis were battling Warner Bros. over Assassins, they showed Joel Silver, its producer, the script they'd written for a sci-fi serial set inside a computer. But this time around, they insisted on directing it too. Instead of green-lighting the movie, Silver gave his blessing to a small, independent film they had written, Bound, a noirish crime drama about two lesbians stealing from the mob. In essence, it was a $6 million test to see whether they could write and direct. They could.
Now, I haven’t seen Bound (I doubt I’ll ever get to see it) but I have read the movie script and I really loved it. I believe Bound is the movie where the Wachowski Bros. finally found their touch, their movie-making style. Even after Bound, the pinstripe suits at Warner Bros. weren’t that convinced so the Wachowskis hired underground comic book artists Geof Darrow and Steve Skroce to draw a 600-page, shot-by-shot storyboard of what would be later known as The Matrix.

It is hunger that drives us, hunger
for power, for love, for money, for
beauty. It is hunger that shapes
us, that gives our lives purpose,
and in the end, it is hunger that
separates the world into the only
two distinctions that matter: that
of predator and that of prey.
- From Carnivore

Comments
Hi Debashish,
The whole idea of "Carnivore" seems so ....dreadful! I mean, people eating people, yuck!! It's hard to believe that the same pair of minds penned the classic matrix triology.
kavi | Homepage | 09.18.04 - 12:16 pm | #

hey.
I havent been here in long time. whatever those brothers did, they have paid back the world. By writing such a beautiful piece called Matrix. I will pardon all Carnivore etc stuff.
what is Real? Is it the Air you are breathing? Thats spkeas volumes of the class that the Matrix script belogs to.
Ritesh | Homepage | 09.25.04 - 6:09 pm | #

There is no spoon. Hence, there is no blog or this comment either.
There's a splinter in my mind and i like it.
I hope you people actually read the script for Carnivore - you might just like it. Don't just blindly follow my word. Also you MUST read/see Bound. It's a masterpiece.
Debasish | 09.27.04 - 3:00 pm | #

hey.. i kinda liked the carnivore script.But its got a major flaw."The not explaining stuff" worked wonders for the matrix script. But here it just falls flat.
Anyways the dream like sequences in the script are reminisent of the matrix one..
Also they have a script called the "plastic man"(superhero,marvel comic days) its really cool and funny. Any idea on wht they are working on next...?
Sridhar | 09.29.04 - 2:08 pm | #

hey sridhar
please tell me the link to get the plastic man script. No, what do you think they are working on next. I'm dying to know. Another thing hey guys why dont you post your favorite dialogues/comments from the Matrix trilogy my favourite one is: "Because I choose to."
Debasish | 09.29.04 - 3:01 pm | #

bonjour misra,
you definitly sound '...a little too critical...'
you made it easy for me to choose from a few trillions of books-1...
leave Larry & Andy aside > it could be Antriksh & debasish next time.. chemistry reports-convertible-potty...$23.45 each ,
place your orders at my box,
adiuos
antriksh singh | 10.01.04 - 7:39 pm | #

for the uninitiated antriksh singh is doing mechanical engg at iit guwahati - as is clearly evident it wreaks havoc on a guys sense of humour. after all a male:female ratio of 228:10 can drive a guy insane.
Debasish | 10.05.04 - 1:15 pm | #

save me lord !
this misra-man is stripping me off...
antriksh | 10.05.04 - 6:29 pm | #

228:10 male:female ratio? well, that's new!
Now i know why IITians find 'figuring out women harder than topping a ManPro quiz'!!
kavi | 10.12.04 - 6:46 pm | #

Hey Debashish, just thought I'd let you know about the Delhi Bloggers Meet @ Flames (GK 2, M-Block ) on the 21st. link - http://delhiblogmeet.rediffblogs.com
Nikhil | 10.19.04 - 12:39 pm | #

Damn it! I missed the Bloggers meet.
See you guys next time. Do keep me posted.
Debasish | 10.30.04 - 1:54 pm | #

hi Debashish,
Seems like ages since u last posted.
Not out of the festive mood yet?
Anyways, Happy Diwali, by the way!
kavi | 11.14.04 - 1:09 pm | #

Hi there, just dropped in to your blog from google. You write good. Guess I am going to read this often now. you can check out my blog too. Keep up the good work.
aditya | 12.01.04 - 12:58 pm | #

Hi there, just dropped in to your blog from google. You write good. Guess I am going to read this often now. you can check out my blog too. Keep up the good work.
aditya | 12.01.04 - 12:58 pm | #

Hi,
Can I have your email address. Or you email me. There is something I want to talk about the "Times of India- Exposed" Column you have written.
Regards
AK
aditya | 12.06.04 - 3:50 pm | #

Hi,
Can I have your email address. Or you email me. There is something I want to talk about the "Times of India- Exposed" Column you have written.
Regards
AK
aditya | 12.06.04 - 3:50 pm | #

Time Travel

2004-09-01T11:13:00.001+05:30

Guest Column by Aditude. Time Travel is not an unfamiliar term. In fact, many times everyday we wish that we had the ability to travel through Time either to put something right in our past or when curious about the future. But it is indeed amazing that practically none of us thinks of the ways to make possible and their respective implications and consequences for all our lives – past, present and in the future.

Many authors and moviemakers have used this very theme or something similar to make lots of money. But none of them has gone very deeply into the subject. Rather, they prefer happy endings and so do the general public. Thus for the logical (read daydreamer/crazy/mad – take your pick) brain like mine they are not satisfactory at all.
Here is one possible situation for you to consider. If somehow I could travel through time, to the world when I was not yet conceived and I see my Dad across the road and wave. He does not recognise me, for obvious reasons. At the same moment, a truck comes (which he does not see due to the distraction that I caused) and hits him and he is dead before anyone can reach him. This puts a huge question mark on my existence.
Does this rule out Time Travel in principle because of its far-reaching consequences?
Here are a few interesting ideas of my own:
Going by the earlier example I cited, it is obvious that you cannot change history without changing the present as a result of it. Let us conveniently assume that it is not possible to change history. But this would mean our present, which is the past for someone in the future, is also unchangeable, thus implying that all our lives are pre-ordained and our future will not change whatever we do in the present, inspite of our sincere efforts. Hardly a comforting thought for most of us.
In applied Sciences there is a theory called “Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle”. It gives a degree, though small, of randomness to our lives. Though it is a bit complicated, what it implies in simple terms is that knowing the present state of the Universe we cannot directly or with any sort of confidence or "certainty” can we predict what it will be like at a future point of time. Thus, in theory at least there are infinite ways in which you can spend the next second, all having equal probability. As a result, the odds of my father dying in the motor accident are one in a zillion, i.e. almost none. So the paradoxical situation can be averted. But the fact remains that a chance of that happening remains and cannot be eliminated.
Some theoretical scientists studying the Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (including Stephen Hawking) have made a hypothetical suggestion in this respect. They say that the existence of an infinite number of these probabilities might be pointing to a situation where our universe is not solitary. Rather there are an infinite number of them, each having evolved differently and for each particular way of evolving possible there are again infinite number of universes in different points in Time. For example we may have a universe where Dinosaurs were not wiped off Earth or Germany might have won World War 2 or the hijacked Alliance Air craft that crashed in Pennsylvania went on and hit White House and eliminated the US leadership as we know it today.
These ideas do catch the fancy of our imagination. But one must remember that there is also the fact that the odds of intelligent beings evolving in any given Universe is one in a trillion for all I know!
This gives a new way of Time Travel or in truth moving from one universe to another through the Multiverse- the name given by some theorists. But this may never be proved considering we have never been able to reach beyond our solar system. So going beyond our Universe looks way out of our capabilities.
An interesting idea that I have come across that counters our paradox very effectively was in an Indian Science Fiction Short Story. It suggests that even if the person does manage to go into the Past, he/she cannot influence it in any way. They will be merely spectators watching the Drama of Life in Nature’s Theatre. They cannot be heard, felt, seen or sensed in any manner. But what about Breathing? If they breathe in an environment of the past, they can give their presence away. Looks like we have dead ends everywhere.

Comments
Hmm.. it seems that you have your theories mixed up...
Obviously you have been reading more of SF or watching more of SF movies than reading "applied Sciences ".The whole "u see ur dad routine" is totally borrowed and you dont even justify it completly.You used uncertainty principle to conclude that their are infinite ways to spend the next second.Last i checked my brain wasnt governed by dx.dp
Anonymous | 09.04.04 - 7:51 pm | #

damn it not more than 1000 words allowed i wanted to write so much more..
Anonymous | 09.04.04 - 7:53 pm | #

continued form above,,
Last i checked my brain wasnt governed by dx.dp
Anonymous | 09.04.04 - 7:58 pm | #

hey addy u r thinking deep which is good but i think u have deviated from the real theories...
going into the past and the future is only done in movies but according to the real theory u cannot go back or forward in time but rather u can decrease or increase the speed of time for urself,i.e. the world may move faster than u if u move at high speeds but u cantmove back,got it...
And as far as different universe are concerned its not necessary that they have an america or even hum,ans its just a minor possibility so dont be too specific...
Kanishk | 09.06.04 - 11:55 am | #

Hi adi, ur write-up was really thought provoking. I have thought about it myself for so many times. But always thoguht it to be a too exaggerated notion to debate. I mean, if there hadn't been any H.G. Well's classic, had we ever gone into this idea. The "Time Machine" gave us a belief combined with our relief that may be sometime in future we would be able to undone all those things we want to.
My take on all this is that - there is just one me, just one Kavi, If i've crossed a road, i've crossed the road! There isn't any past 'kavi' who would be crossing the road after me.
What do u think?
kavi | 09.07.04 - 7:12 pm | #

Hi,
In the column above, you say:
"But one must remember that there is also the fact that the odds of intelligent beings evolving in any given Universe is one in a trillion for all I know!"
I really am skeptical about this statement. The probability is much much more. In fact if your statement were true, agencies like SETI and NASA wont be looking out for extra terrestrial intelligence with so much enthusiasm. But overall, a nicely written column.
aditya | 12.06.04 - 3:41 pm | #

Five Point Someone – What not to do at IIT

2004-08-28T14:24:00.000+05:30

Just finished reading this awesome novel by Chetan Bhagat.

Five Point Someone is the story of three teenagers Hari, Alok, and Ryan who have got into IIT.
Ryan is the chilled out guy, armed with a body frame that resembles the human body shown in biology textbooks, a deep husky voice and an endless wardrobe of branded clothes. But behind his fun exterior, there is a lot of angst against his parents for sending him to boarding school and not being there for him when he needed them. He loves his friends more than anything else in the world. He is a really brilliant student who values creativity and practical thinking over mugging up books and has nothing but contempt for the grueling IIT system, which requires him to do so.
Hari, is the typical average teenager – clueless about his future, struggling to understand the female psyche and wanting to be like cool-dude Ryan.
Alok is the simple studious guy, whose sole goal in life is to get a job that pays well so that he can marry off his sister and pay for his paralysed father’s treatment. He is a sort of social misfit who has never had any real friends and that is why he sticks with Ryan and Hari – because he has never had any real fun. The bond shared between the three pals in this book is reminiscent of that shared between the protagonists of Dil Chahta Hai.
The trio led (or rather misled) by Ryan somehow manage to mess up their first test and before they know it they are saddled with really low five-point-something [out of ten] GPA’s (Grade Point Averages). To mess up things even more Hari is smitten with Neha who happens to be Professor Cherian’s daughter. Prof Cherian is the Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department, a strict disciplinarian and every student’s nightmare. The exact opposite of Prof Cherian is - Prof Veera, who encourages new ideas and doesn’t judge his students by their marks alone. No wonder, he is Ryan’s favourite teacher.

Chetan Bhagat deals with a lot of issues – the pressure cooker atmosphere of college life in India; parent child relationships; friendship; and most importantly – there is life beyond marks and GPA’s. How a system that reduces a student’s identity into a simple number must have some real flaws somewhere.

All said and done, some of the events in the novel though really funny, seem a little exaggerated. But still, the witty and humourous tone of the narrator really makes it worth reading. And at Rs. 95 – it’s a steal.

Update: The movie rights of Five Point Someone have recently been sold to Ten Films.

It is hard enough to say no to pretty girls or to ice-cream but when it’s offered together, it is well nigh impossible.
”I like chivalrous men”, said Neha. [Hari’s thoughts]: I did not know if it meant something. I mean, did she want me to know what sort of men she liked, or did she want me to be like the men she liked, or did she like me. Who knows? Figuring out women is harder than topping a ManPro quiz.
You know the thing about Floyd? Not only are they damn good, they sound better with every drink, like the singers designed them for alcohol. Like samosas-chutney, idli-sambhar or rajma-chawal, Floyd and Vodka are in a combo-class of their own.

Well, that is life. It screws you right when you think you have it figured out.

Comments
no comments
arjun | 09.02.04 - 2:38 pm | #

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzz i fell asleep reading it zzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzz | 09.02.04 - 2:42 pm | #

Havent read the book. Its tough to find any Indian book out here.
I guess this is a story that has been used many times in many forms. Hope the treament is better in this one.
Ritesh | 09.09.04 - 8:21 am | #

IT IS A REALLY GRIPPING BOOK & IS A BIG HIT HERE AT DCE HOSTEL (AMONG THE FRUSTRATED SOULS LIKE US WHO COULD NOT MAKE IT TO IIT) TO SUCH AN EXTENT THAT THERE ARE LINES TO READ IT FOR AS LONG AS TWO WEEKS.
robin | 09.16.04 - 1:44 pm | #

couldn't agree with you more. all engg students must read this book i think it tells us a lot about what we SHOULD do.
Debasish | 09.29.04 - 3:03 pm | #

agree with misra !
a must read for all , it has more than 'a engg. student's' screwed up life...
in the end it's your wish >'what not to do...'
antriksh | 10.14.04 - 7:21 pm | #

sorry!
a=an
Anonymous | 10.14.04 - 7:22 pm | #

well, i was in iit bombay and i faced wratch of DAC (in delhi its called DISCO, I guess)and i even duplicated the key and did the same thing with my prof. but we were nt caught and there was no Neha...one more thing, i was five pointer..u ppl read it all..i lived it !
-bluemoon
bluemoon | 02.03.05 - 12:51 am | #

Mailinator

2004-07-22T13:34:00.000+05:30

You know how annoying it is when websites won’t allow you to register unless you hand over a valid email address so that, they can mail you your login details, activation code, password etc. etc. We all know how it is just a ruse to get our email address so that they can send us spam and/or sell our email address to someone else who would then do the same. Now, there is a solution - Mailinator.
Whenever you need to give out your email address just make up something on-the-spot – such as billgates@mailinator.com or jrrtolkien@mailinator.com [first part of the address must be less than 15 characters long]. Then, just go to Mailinator and type in the email address you used to check your mail.
That’s it! No signup or passwords are needed because, Mailinator addresses are automatically created when mail arrives. Your mail is kept at mailinator for a few hours.
The only problem I foresee is that since there is no password needed, anyone can check your mail if they have your email address. Which is not much of a problem, if you use Mailinator only for a one-off use-and-forget occasion.

History isn’t what it used to be...

2004-07-21T12:06:00.000+05:30

This is some of the stuff found in the History textbooks (Sanskrit Gyan, Itihaas Gaa Raha Hai and Gaurav Gatha ) used in 20,000 or more Vidya Bharati schools and Shishu Mandirs.
Jesus Christ roamed the Himalayas and drew his ideas from Hinduism.
Iran was first settled by Indians (Aryans).
Homer adapted Valmiki’s Ramayana into an epic called Iliad.
The language of the Native American Indians evolved from ancient Indian languages.
The cow is the mother of us all, in whose body Gods are believed to reside.
The map of India is shown as including not only Pakistan and Bangladesh but also the entire region of Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet and even parts of Myanmar.
Alexander's army was defeated at the hands of Puru and Alexander himself had to seek forgiveness.
Pushyamitra destroyed the Greeks. After this the people of Greece could not attack Bharat. Later they came only as refugees.
As beggars they begged for their lives but never dared to look with proud eyes.
Islam spread in India solely by way of the sword. The Muslims came to India ‘with the sword in one hand and the Qoran in the other’.
Samundragupta constructed the Qutab Minar, and its original name was Vushnu Sthambha.
Child marriage, jauhar, sati, purdah, jadu-tona and superstition were all due to the fear of the muslims.
The RSS as an organisation was central to the Freedom Movement. Dr. Keshavrao B. Hegdewar is one of the tallest leaders of the freedom struggle.
Asoka advocated Ahimsa. Every kind of violence came to be considered a crime. Even hunting, sacrifices in yajnas and use of arms began to be considered bad. It had a bad effect on the army. Cowardice slowly spread throughout the kingdom. The state bore the burden of providing food to the Buddhist monks. Therefore people began to become monks. Victory through arms began to be viewed as bad, Soldiers guarding the borders became demoralised.

This is why detoxification of textbooks is necessary.

'Who controls the past, controls the future;
who controls the present, controls the past.' – 1984, George Orwell

Comments
Hi Debashish,
I agree there are some drastic changes that should be made in our history books. No doubt. Though some of the things written may be true, there must be some logic to support them.
e.g. we all know that Sushrut could do surgery way before this techno. set its foot in the west. But fact is that so many precious discoveries made in India never reached the world. Because it wasn't allowed to . The knowledge was supposed to be Brahmanas' monopoly. So, it wasn't imparted to the other castes.
kavi |09.07.04 - 7:21 pm | #

Holmes Vs. Poirot

2004-07-15T14:22:00.000+05:30

I have recently started reading a collection of Agatha Christie’s short stories featuring Hercule Poirot. The very first thing that struck me was how closely Poirot is emulated on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes - Poirot too has a Dr. Watson in Captain Hastings and a Lestrade-type Scotland Yard detective in Inspector Japp.

The next thing that struck me was how Poirot stories fall way behind those of Holmes in many respects. First and foremost is the character itself. Holmes is more imperfect (and therefore more interesting) – he has a messy apartment, sleeps till late in the morning, and resorts to drug use when without a case. Poirot is more aristocratic, a little too meticulous and tidy.
Secondly Poirot sees very little action, most of the crimes are solved in his head, and sometimes he doesn’t even visit the crime scene! Holmes is a more of an on the field sort of detective – always ready to jump on to the next train.

I know I’m biased towards Holmes as I’ve been reading his stories since I started reading and by now have read all Holmes stories, novels etc. and have only recently started on Poirot. Let’s see if I change my mind.

Not exactly related to this post but something I want to talk about are the Indian detectives I’ve come across. Of course, there is Satyajit Ray’s Feluda and his sidekick Topshe. Feluda is a very well created detective but since his adventures are primarily aimed at children they lose their appeal after some time.

The other desi-detective I know is Byomkesh Bakshi. Now, BB is one amazing creation. Though the original stories are in Bengali and I haven’t come across an English translation yet, but I have seen the televised version and it was brilliantly done. Rajat Kapoor who plays Byomkesh Bakshi is an excellent actor and does full justice to his character. The stories themselves are very exciting and each crime is committed in a very unusual and complex way that makes it so much more interesting. My favorite detective of all time, after Sherlock Holmes of course.

Trivia:By the way, the character of Sherlock Holmes is based on Dr. Joseph Bell an eminent surgeon at Edinburgh University. Conan Doyle was one of his students. Also the names initially chosen were Sherrinford Holmes and Ormond Sacker.
P.S. Where can I get some Inspector Morse stuff?

Comments
Your analysis seems too shallow to interest anyone. Try to give at least an impression of deep research and effort that you put in each Article. Remember I am always a critic.
Adi | 08.25.04 - 4:00 pm | #

I dont put in any amount of "deep research" or "thought" into any of my posts. These are mostly random thoughts of a deranged mind.
Debasish | 08.31.04 - 3:53 pm | #

Kill Bill Volume 2

2004-06-19T18:08:00.001+05:30

Vol. 2 does not start off where Vol. 1 ended. Instead, it starts off where Vol. 1 started off. The El-Paso Wedding Chapel massacre.

Vol. 2 is totally unlike Vol. 1 - no complex fight sequences and no blood fountains. It is more Tarantino-style, more dialogue-oriented.The whole look and feel of the movie is like it was made in the 80s. The music, long-drawn scenes and lack of jump-cuts all add to the 80s effect.

In Vol. 2 we find out more about The Bride’s earlier life. Bill tries to explain why he tried to kill her. We also find out about The Bride’s training under Pai Mei – who by the way, looks like a character straight out of some B-Grade Mithun movie especially when he flicks back his long white beard with a stupid grin on his face.

The other characters are Budd (Michael Madsen), Elle (Daryl Hannah), and of course Bill (David Carradine). All confrontations between them and The Bride are a bit of a letdown with the only marginally enjoyable fight sequence being the one between Elle and The Bride.

Maybe, the reason I did not enjoy the movie much was because I saw the pirated (bootleg) version, and the inaccurate subtitles were really distracting. For example, remember how every time The Bride’s real name is said it was bleeped out in Vol. 1. In Vol. 2 when her real name is finally revealed it is wrongly subtitled as – Future Kittie, and later even more wrongly subtitled as Patrick Kittles.

I found the original script for both Kill Bill Volume 1 and 2 on the net and I thought it was really much better than the final product. Maybe, if Tarantino had stuck to the original script Kill Bill would have turned out a much better movie. Yes, it would have turned out a bit longer, but nothing some smart editor cannot handle.

Sleep With Me

2004-06-19T18:08:00.000+05:30

I found this on God Among Directors. I am giving a slightly edited version. Check the original site for the whole article.

Bad language alert.

Quentin Tarantino’s Monologue from 'Sleep With Me'
Originally written by Roger Avary

What's a film about, what's it really about? What genre does it take?

[Duane: What, like the spine? Like one sentence?]

No, I don't. Fucking boy meets girl, I don't give a shit about that. Fuck boy meets girl, fuck motorcycle movie. No, what is really being said? What's really being said, that's what you're talking about. 'Cause the whole idea, man, is subversion. You want subversion on a massive level. You know what one of the greatest fucking scripts ever written in the history of Hollywood is? Top Gun.

[Duane: Oh, come on.]

Top Gun is fucking great. What is Top Gun? You think it's a story about a bunch of fighter pilots.
[Duane: It's about a bunch of guys waving their dicks around.] It is a story about a man's struggle with his own homosexuality. It is! That is what Top Gun is about, man.

You've got Maverick, all right? He's on the edge, man. He's right on the fucking line, all right? And you've got Iceman, and all his crew. They're gay, they represent the gay man, all right? And they're saying, go, go the gay way, go the gay way. He could go both ways.

[Duane: What about Kelly McGillis?]

Kelly McGillis, she's heterosexuality. She's saying: no, no, no, no, no, no, go the normal way, play by the rules, go the normal way. They're saying no, go the gay way, be the gay way, go for the gay way, all right? That is what's going on throughout that whole movie...

He goes to her house, all right? It looks like they're going to have sex, you know, they're just kind of sitting back, he's takin' a shower and everything. They don't have sex. He gets on the motorcycle, drives away. She's like, "What the fuck, what the fuck is going on here?" Next scene, next scene you see her, she's in the elevator, she is dressed like a guy. She's got the cap on, she's got the aviator glasses, she's wearing the same jacket that the Iceman wears. She is,
okay, this is how I gotta get this guy, this guy's going towards the gay way, I gotta bring him back, I gotta bring him back from the gay way, so I'm do that through subterfuge, I'm gonna dress like a man. All right? That is how she approaches it.

All right, but the REAL ending of the movie is when they fight the MIGs at the end, all right? Because he has passed over into the gay way. They are this gay fighting fucking force, all right? And they're beating the Russians, the gays are beating the Russians. And it's over, and they fucking land, and Iceman's been trying to get Maverick the entire time, and finally, he's got him, all right? And what is the last fucking line that they have together? They're all hugging and
kissing and happy with each other, and Ice comes up to Maverick, and he says, "Man, you can ride my tail, anytime!" And what does Maverick say? "You can ride mine!" Swordfight! Swordfight! Fuckin' A, man!

Comments
Hi Debashish,
I believe "U see the world the way u are."
That just about sums it up!
kavi |09.07.04 - 7:28 pm | #

Hi Kavi,
Nice to know that people are atleast reading my blog. and HEY! this piece wasn't written by me - OKAY!
Debasish | 09.16.04 - 1:28 pm | #

LOL, hell, i wasn't talking about U!
I was refering to Tarantino. I loathe this man.
kavi | 09.20.04 - 1:06 pm | #

Girlfriend

2004-06-17T13:54:00.000+05:30

All lesbians are psychopaths, proficient in kick-boxing and turn to lesbianism because they have all had a traumatic childhood. Or so, Karan Razdan maker of the movie Girlfriend would have us believe. Girlfriend may turn out to be the only movie made on a homosexual theme to be criticized by both pro-gay and anti-gay groups.

This post is not a review of Girlfriend (I have much better things to do than watching stupid movies, for example, I maintain a blog that nobody reads). This post is about the controversy surrounding the so-called sensitive subject matter of the movie and my views on it.

First the facts, Varanasi’s Kranti Shiv Sena and Mumbai’s Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena (a break-away faction of the Shiv Sena) vandalised cinema halls and tore apart posters and other paraphernalia featuring the ‘morally offensive’ film Girlfriend. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) leader, K S Sudarshan too spoke out against the movie during a public meeting, condemning in very strong words the depiction of a same-sex relationship on screen.

These groups (the KSS, BVS and the RSS) proclaim that they are the protectors of Indian culture and hence consider it necessary to deface cinema halls to ‘save’ our culture. I believe, they are nothing but publicity hungry stuntmen who don’t care two hoots about Indian culture or morality. All they care about is their fifteen minutes. To be in the news is essential for their survival and helps build their support base. I understand that for them to become popular with the masses they must demonstrate that they are the sole upholders of tradition and morality.

I remember a similar furore when Deepa Mehta’s Fire which dealt with the same issue, was released. But I also remember that there was no protest, no defaced movie theatres and no sloganeering when a relatively low-budget movie Mango Souffle (also dealing with homosexuality) was released. Maybe, it so happened that since the movie did not boast of big stars, the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena and the rest of the ‘culture police’ thought that they would not get much attention and hence deemed it best not to interfere.

One of the arguments for banning Girlfriend that I have heard is, it depicts ‘sex against the order of nature’ which is against the Indian Penal Code (pun very much intended). By this reasoning every movie showing murder, drug use, rape or even petty theft should be banned.

Shekar Suman(stand-up comedian): The activists are saying that they will stop people outside the theatres showing Girlfriend from entering. What’s the big deal in that? Try keeping them inside for more than ten minutes – Now that would be something!

Comments
Hi debashish,
These so called 'culture cops' have nothing to do so they end up burning and looting theatres , shops etc to attract the attention.
"Sex against the order of the nature" is very much against our culture, so they say, justifying there ridiculous animal behaviour. But when a girl is raped in a Auditorium or in a hospital, that's very much part of our culture, as no one cares to come out to protest such henious acts!
kavi |09.07.04 - 7:34 pm | #

The Da Vinci Code

2004-06-07T15:50:00.000+05:30

I recently finished reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.
Minor Spoiler Alert.
It starts off with the murder of the curator of the Louvre in Paris - Jacques Sauniere. Before dying Jacques Sauniere strips himself and positions his body like Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Vitruvian Man (see pic) with a cryptic clue scrawled on his chest. The message read:

13-3-2-21-1-1-8-5
O, Draconian Devil!
Oh, lame saint!

Harvard Professor of Symbology Robert Langdon is called in to investigate. Langdon alongwith a French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu work on the clues – moving from riddle to riddle ranging from the Fibonacci series, to the works of Da Vinci, anagrams, codes, cryptograms to modern day stuff we are familiar yet ignorant about. Other characters in the story are Beze Fauche Captain of the Central Directorate Judicial Police (DCPJ), Silas – a fanatic assassin, Bishop Aringarosa member of the ultra-Catholic society Opus Dei, and Sir Leigh Teabing – Grail historian.
What Langdon and Sophie’s search leads them to is the Holy Grail which has been safeguarded by a secret society since 1099 – the Priory of Sion at a secret undisclosed location. But, according to the Priory the Holy Grail may not be the cup that Jesus last drank from, instead it is a person – Mary Magdalene. Magdalene, - the Priory feel - was painted as a prostitute by the Catholic Church to defame Mary and thus preserve the divinity of Jesus - that he was a divine messiah and not a mere mortal who consorted with women. The Priory of Sion believe that Jesus not only married Mary Magdalene but even had a child. They claim that Christ’s line grew quietly under cover in France and married with French royal blood in the fifth century and created a lineage known as the Merovingian bloodline. (Fans of the Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions – please note. Also - Monica Belluci who plays the Merovingian’s wife in Reloaded and Revolutions also plays the role of Mary Magdalene in The Passion of Christ.)

Anyway, it is revelations/facts/conjectures like these that make the book interesting to read. The chance that there might be a history of Jesus and Christianity different from the one told by the Catholic Church is really intriguing.
Another thing I really liked is the idea of a hidden code in the works of Leonardo Da Vinci (member of the Priory of Sion at one time) – that in The Last Supper the person sitting next to Jesus is actually a woman - Mary Magdalene; The Vitruvian Man is about Male and Female harmonyThe Mona Lisa is actually a self-potrait of Leonardo Da Vinci in drag (eewwww...).
Or did you now that 1.618 (a.k.a PHI The Divine Proportion) is known as the most beautiful number – measure your height from head to toe, divide it be height from belly-button to toe you get PHI. Ditto for Hip to floor divided by knee to floor. In a bee colony female bees always outnumber the male ones (lucky guys...) and the ratio is – PHI... the list just goes on and on.

The problems with Da Vinci Code are few it doesn’t move at breakneck speed like a Ludlum (I’m really tired of them now!) - it has a more easy pace but swift nonetheless, also there’s not much physical action, it is more of an intellectual thriller cum conspiracy theory. Eventhough I immensely enjoyed reading it I believe Dan Brown could have worked in a better ending – the one we get is more of an anti-climax.

”I’m trapped in a Salvador Dali painting” – Robert Langdon

Comments
Have u read " To Kill a Mocking bird"?
If not, do it today! this isn't one to be missed.
kavi |09.07.04 - 7:35 pm | #

Yes kavi, i have. it's one of my favorite books too! haven't seen the movie though...
Debasish | 09.16.04 - 1:42 pm | #

Aan - Men At Work

2004-06-05T20:19:00.000+05:30

Amazing action. Stylish slick flick. One of the best things about going for a movie with no expectations at all is that you cannot be disappointed – only pleasantly surprised. Ten minutes into the movie and I am faced with a stupid Item Number(see pic). Ten minutes later there’s another one. Thankfully, once they were out of the way, the movie starts evolving and keeps getting better and better, only I spoke too fast – coz’ there’s another song that springs up like a nasty jack-in-the-box. Can we get on with the story please?
Anyway, there are a plethora of characters whose introductions and where they fit in the story take up quite some time.
Irfan Khan (Pathan) plays his part really well as the thoughtful, cool, calm, collected bhai. Yeda (Rahul Dev) plays Pathan’s brother is the hotheaded loose cannon.
Jackie Shroff is the suave industrialist embroiled in dirty deals, black money... and provides campaign money for Home Minister, Manikrao (played by Manoj Joshi whom I last saw in Hungama as the inspector).
The oppostion to the Manikrao camp is – Pradhan (chemical industrialist played by Milind Gunaji), Raghu Shetty(bhai) and the opposition party of Gaekwad(never shown) and others.
DCP Hari Om Patnaik (Akshay Kumar) is the righteous cop who evolves as the movie progresses from an idealist to a realist – a transition that he pulls of quite well. Suniel Shetty is also quite good with his portrayal of the hotheaded encounter specialist Appa. Head Constable Khaled (Paresh Rawal) is the comic cop who has really stale jokes but PR pulls it off with ease. Om Puri as Commisioner of Police is as always impeccable. Shatrughan Sinha (eh... yeh kahan se aaya re?) is Vikram Singh – a one time top shot Crime Branch officer now disillusioned with the system is actually Patnaik’s junior. He is well... vintage Shatru – e.g. he enters the frame with what else ”Abey Khamosh! Telgi ki chatti aulad!”. The supporting cast Rajpal Yadav and the Monsoon Wedding tentwallah are also quite good though kinda wasted.
Now if everyone does their job well – where does the film fail? The same place it succeeds – the action. Eventhough it is very well done, in their zeal Madhur Bhandarkar (of Chandni Bar fame) has overdone it. At some point it is actually funny – Akshay Kumar spinning around and battling semi-automatic toting helmet-wearing guys who surround him in a circle with the butts of his now-empty revolvers manages to kill them all yet escapes unscratched – it looks really amazing but is utterly unbelievable. Nevertheless the cinematography, effective use of slow motion, gushing blood, bolt-action guns, the sound mixing, and editing is done really really well. Technically brilliant.
Oh I almost forgot – the girls. Well, in this movie they have been given very little – Kiran (Lara Dutta) is Patnaik’s girlfriend, Preeti Jhangiani is Appa’s wife, Raveena Tandon is forgettable as Walia’s arm-candy. They are all part of the constraints of making a commercial film after all masala nahin to front-benchers nahin.
Feroze Nadiadwala’s (producer) influence was crystal clear – once I saw the two item numbers and the slick action. I do remember similar action work in the movie Kartoos. Watch it for the action and go buy popcorn during the songs.

Trivia: To crack down on Manikrao and Walia the cops catch their accountant (hawala guy) Hirachand similar to the way Al Capone was caught after his accountant was arrested and provided vital evidence on Capone's doings.

Swami and Friends

2004-06-04T16:02:00.000+05:30

Childhood. That is what R.K.Narayan’s Swami and Friends is about. It is a story about a nine-year old boy – Swaminathan and his friends Rajam, Mani, Somu, Sankar, and Pea (Matar in the Hindi version). The story revolves around the innocent and simple Swami and his numerous escapades in the small village-town Malgudi, a fictional place R.K.Narayan created as a setting for all of his literary works.
Swami, an endearing character is fearful by nature, having really simple desires, the kind all of us have had when we were nine years old. Swami dreams of owning an ex-cycle wheel to roll around with a stick. He even sets up a cricket team – called the M.C.C. for Malgudi Cricket Club with his friends. This cricket team and their upcoming match against another team is what the later half of the book deals with. But I don’t want to go too much into the plot, as most Narayan stories sound over-simple if ruthlessly summarized since it is his magical storytelling that turns it into an experience for the reader.
Like almost all of RKN’s novels Swami and Friends also has a -let’s say not so happy ending. I was so affected by the touching ending that I almost got down to writing a sequel Swami and Friends: The Reunion. Maybe I should mention that I was 13 or 14 when I read Swami and Friends.

Note: It is widely said that RKN’s “The Bachelor of Arts” whose hero is Chandran is really Swami grown-up. It is also said that RKN’s The English Teacher is also about Chandran/Swami and is the third in this series.
Lastly, I must thank Keshav, who lent it to me and introduced me to the enchanting, sweet, small yet honest world of Malgudi.

P.S. Rasipuram Krishnaswami Ayyar Narayanswamy passed away in May 2001 the same day as Douglas Adams – about whom I shall be writing some other day.

Trivia: Swami and Friends was rejected by several British publishers before Graham Greene got hold of the manuscript and was so impressed that he recommended it to Hamish Hamilton who published it in 1935.

RKN’s books are now being printed by Indian Thought Publications, Mysore.

"At the sight of the familiar face Swaminathan lost control of himself and cried: 'Oh Rajam, Rajam you are going away. When will you come back? Rajam kept looking at him without a word and then (as it seems to Swaminathan) opened his mouth to say something, when everything was disturbed by the guard's blast and the hoarse whistle of the engine.……Rajam's face with the words still unuttered on his lips, receded"

Hum Tum

2004-06-04T15:29:00.000+05:30

I usually stay away from bubble-gum romances / boy meets girl / feel-good movies that can be best described as date-flicks. This is why I haven’t yet seen Kal Ho Na Ho eventhough lots of people I know have said that its very good atleast the first half. (Maybe I’ll catch it some other time).

Anyway, I just saw Hum Tum starring Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherjee and I was pleasantly surprised only to be horribly disappointed.
Karan Kapoor (Saif) is a cartoonist for the Times of India and Riya Prakash (Rani M) is a fashion designer who meet at the Delhi airport, roam about in Amsterdam and part their ways in New York. So far so good. Saif’s comic timing, his womanising nature and Rani’s repartees make their encounters fun. After this the movie messes it up or should I say the scriptwriters mess it up. It takes on a very predictable path eventhough Saif and Rani give their best and put in pretty decent performances.
Director Kunal Kohli too tries out a lot of different things – animation, a timeline spanning 10 years (and atleast 3 different hairstyles for Saif), a storyline spanning Delhi, Mumbai, New York, Amsterdam, Paris, yet he fails in one major aspect – it is all so predictable. Useless misunderstandings, the typical Shaadi song, thoda rona dhona and they lived happily ever after ending. Oddly after their – as Karan calls it Ding-Dong - Riya is the one who is fine with it while Karan is the one who gets the guilty pangs.
The special appearances are plenty - Kiron Kher as the loud Punjabi mom of Riya is quite good. Rishi Kapoor who plays Saif’s photographer-for-Vogue dad is a pleasant surprise too. Abhishek Bachchan barely has a dialogue (a stupid one at that), Isha Koppikar is irritating when she does her drunken act, Jimmy Shergill on the other hand plays his tiny part well.
Something has to be done about Bollywood actors acting drunk – they really mess it up. First Isha does it really badly then Saif too (though slightly better than Isha) messes it up with his exaggerated unsteady walk et al.
Another thing that needs to be addressed is songs – take any Hindi movie; remove all songs; I bet the finished product is atleast 50% better. I know it is difficult to make a romantic Hindi movie without songs but the least that can be done is to make them shorter – no longer than a minute or play them in the background ala “Sab gandha hai par dandha hai” in Company. Hum Tum also would have been so much better without songs; except maybe ‘Ladki Kyon’ which is passed only because most of it is in conversational mode anyway.
The cartoon characters though a little juvenile are funny and a nice innovation. The only other Hindi movie I can remember having animation is Kamal Hasan’s “Abhay” though it was used in a vastly different context – as a window into Abhay’s mind.
All in all Hum Tum is as I said in the beginning a date-flick watchable only for Saif’s one liners and the subtle humour.

Attendant on a Train: Bonjour Sir, Coffee or Tea.
Karan Kapoor: Or You? (hopefully)

If you don’t get the joke don’t fret it is a little too subtle, but that’s how I like my humor.

Birth is such a beautiful thing

2004-06-02T11:22:00.000+05:30

Hello Netizens....
Here's another tiny little inkspot in the vast ocean of bloggers.

I shall be blogging my views on life, universe and everything else.

I hope I can sustain the interest of people who do read this blog. I'm just bubbling with ideas and excitement and as soon as I'm able to turn them into something coherent I'll keep you posted.