N.I.B.

Don't Call it a comeback!

2010-10-18T13:58:00.002+05:30

The best ever Yankees comebacks since 2006. I'd add Game 1 of the 98 world series which turned on 2 pitches to Tino. The first was ruled a ball, the next was a grand salami.

In search of meaning.

2009-08-08T12:33:00.002+05:30

About Nothing

2009-08-08T12:31:00.002+05:30

How many episodes can you name in the picture?

Victory

2009-07-07T16:48:00.002+05:30

The government lost. The parents of the students from 'other' boards won. Justice prevailed. Viva Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice S C Dharmadhikari!

I can walk English, I can talk English etc

2009-07-01T16:31:00.003+05:30

So said, Amitabh in Namak Halal way back in 1982. We've come a long way as a country since then, and more people are walking and talking English than ever before.

But with the spread of the language, satellite television, remix culture and perhaps bad teachers, the English language spoken in India is not the language the Brits left behind in 1947....a few examples of uniquely Indian English nuggets:

How many times has someone introduced themselves to you with the 'concept' of 'Myself Happy/ Lucky/Bubbly'?
What about when someone calls you, on the phone and says...'Amrit this side'.
Why do our restaurants/ pubs get pluralized? There is only one Olive, one Del Italia and one Trishna. Or rather, you can only visit one restaurant at a time no?
Why do people say he has/ hasn't reverted BACK?
What about 'I don't think SO, I can make it to your party'....
Anti social as i was taught, implies someone who's either a vandal or a someone who incites riots- not someone who wants to hang in a corner at a party solo.
In the Mumbai Times, which is the paper of the new and the modern India, and largely responsible for the dumbing down of our younger citizenry, somehow everyone is invariably 'grooving' along to the 'peppy tunes' played by DJ (fill in the blank). I take it the BT reporters have never ever been to a dull party.

AND THE ALL TIME CLASSIC:

What about 'Have you taken your meals?' (I never took them anywhere, I sat on the table and ate).

Le Roi est Mort. Vive Le Roi!

2009-06-26T12:48:00.004+05:30

Michael Jackson is gone. I will admit that I am/ was never a big fan of his. This is due to the fact that I grew up in America when Thriller happened and as an 11 (going on 18)year old kid, it was simply uncool to be a fan of the same music as extra terrestrials, 5 year olds and geriatrics. However that's not to say I wasn't a fan of his music. Billie Jean, Don't Stop til you get Enough, I Just Can't Stop Loving You are songs I will never tire of.

But what must be said is that the guy fundamentally changed music, the music business and impacted culture at a worldwide level like nobody else did. And nobody else ever will. Tommy Motolla's quote -'he was the cornerstone of the music business' is absolutely bang on.

He took R&B and funk to the masses and made it pop. He paved the way for other Black (that was the term used in the 80s) singers and performers around the world. Nobody knew what to do with music videos in the early 80s. Only he had the vision to make pop music visual. Rightly so, MTV's ultimate honour for excellence in the field of music video is called the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.

Thanks for the music MJ. Thanks for my livelihood.

No matter what.

Blogging in Iran

2009-06-25T18:31:00.003+05:30

Thanks be to the dude who uploaded it onto FlickR and to the guy who actually drew it.
No thanks to the Iranian government for making this possible.

The Mid-Education of Maharashtra

2009-06-23T14:31:00.003+05:30

I am sometimes flabbergasted as to how these things (still) happen in our country. In question now is the Maharashtra state government's decision to implement the 90% reservation for 'State students'- i.e. SSC in Jr. colleges.

There are 2 issues here- whether the reservation is constitutional (which under Article 14, it isn't), and even if it is, whether it is right, or fair to announce this at the Nth hour, given the fact that the same stunt was tried last year.

This is clearly another one of those initiatives that stinks of the government playing the sons of the soil game. Why they decided to do it now? I guess because they couldn't do it earlier, especially post 26/11, because it wasn't a big enough issue to raise pre the LS elections. Which brings us to now. Which is quite simple.
If they don't do it now they'll have to wait for another year. (And all the files might get lost)

According to me, it's not just that. These crooks have clearly got a mapped out strategy. They clearly want the (SSC) public on their side, which is why it makes sense to have a debate in the court of public opinion. To engineer this, you need to make a newspaper editor salivate. Which means you do it at the start if the academic year vis a vis Diwali vacation/ Xmas vacation etc.

What zapped me more than anything else was a minister being quoted by saying that this reservation is actually in favour of Non SSC students. Because Non SSC students only make up 5% of the student base at a Class X level. By reserving only 90% for SSC students, there is in fact a 10% reservation for only 5% of the students.

Thanks dude. But no thanks. We (ICSE types) aren't easily fooled.

The 'reverse reservation' argument makes sense from a mathematical point of view. (I am relieved that these guys know how to use a calculator). But not from a geographical one. Most non SSC schools would be concentrated in the larger cities like Mumbai and Pune. So the 'reverse reservation' argument goes out the window. Secondly, there's a greater chance of a SSC candidate from Srirampur or Malegaon migrating to a Pune or Mumbai for his college education vis a vis the reverse. Which I suspect skews things further. Thirdly, I'm quite sure not all SSC students or 'SSC pass' apply to colleges...so it's in fact wrong to base the reservation on the number of SSC students. It should be based on applicants to Jr Colleges for Class XI.

So from all aspects this stinks and is wrong. If the government feels that its students are suffering; (strange that one hasn't heard any such statements/ PIL/ agitation or a movement from a body comprising of students or teachers or parents)then there are other ways to go about it. If they feel that 'students from other boards score higher marks', they in turn should be more generous with their own grading system. Fight fire with fire as they say.

Eventually, what it boils down to is that the SSC system needs a drastic upgrade. I haven't till date met an SSC grad who found 6 years studying the Glory of Shivaji worthwhile. Or the practical application of knowing how to differentiate between a simple from a compound sentence.

To quote Suhas Pednekar, principal of Ramnarain Ruia College, Matunga, "the government needs to improve the standard of education offered in the state so that SSC students can compete on an equal footing with other boards."

Hope it happens soon. Or else we are doomed to live in a state where we are looking for someone to 'remove our tickets' as we discuss the glory of Chhatrapati Shivaji(at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus).

Social Networks to the Rescue

2009-06-21T06:01:00.003+05:30

The power of social networks has been felt this week like never before. Thanks to a ban on 'conventional' media by the Irani government, news and the protest movement has spread thru postings on facebook and twitter. For there to be a Mousavi facebook page where people including myself have been checking for updates, is something Mr. Zuckerberg should be truly proud of.

Scam

2009-06-17T15:19:00.002+05:30

Click on the title to get transported to the story from the Huffington Post. It explains the situation wonderfully.

Flash!

2009-06-17T15:04:00.002+05:30

The coolest flash drives ever! click link to be transported to the article from Hardware Insight. Here's a sneak peek at one of my faves.

Complaint

2009-06-15T13:10:00.003+05:30

The last couple of weeks have been rather important for the world from a political perspective. North Korea is threatening to do all sorts of things, we paused in silence to commemorate 20 years of the events at Tienanmen Square, Barrack Obama made his maiden address to the 'Islamic World', and Iran got ready for an election.

The various homages to Tienanmen Square, and what's happening over the last 3 days in Tehran has got me thinking. And be appreciative.

It's very easy to complain about how inept our leaders are, how bridges get delayed by years, how our national security sucks, and so on and so forth.

I indulge in the above too. How can one not, when it's expected, accepted and almost a part of life.

However, once in a while, it's necessary to step back and do some thinking as to how lucky we actually are.

How lucky we are to actually be living in a democracy. A democracy that (for the most part) works. Where protesters are not run over by tanks. Where google is not censored. Where mobile networks are not 'cut' during and after elections (like they are currently in Iran).
Where approx 450 Million people voted, and gave the finger to self serving, casteist and hate based parties and their leaders. And this mammoth exercise happened safely without any large scale violence to speak of.

Of course, we aren't Switzerland or Taiwan or Singapore or Hong Kong. But we aren't Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, or Iran either.

And while you're here, check out the following links:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/14/iran.protests.twitter/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/14/iran.eyewitness/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/15/iran.elections.protests/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Thank You

2009-06-11T15:26:00.002+05:30

This is a big Thank You. Thank You to the better half. For being there. For being you. For one of the best birthday presents I received ever. For 'allowing' me to go for a boys holiday even if it was 19 years after I achieved major status.For being understanding. For being firm. For using a shampoo which makes her hair smell like heaven. For wanting to do her own thing. For letting me do my own thing. For listening to daily updates whether the Yankees won or lost. For listening to these updates with some level of interest. For being a beach lover who tolerates someone who says 'Now what?' 10 minutes after settling into a deck chair on the beach, and wants to move to a sports bar to watch test cricket not even involving India. For looking amazingly hot in an awesome dress and heels on her birthday. For being understanding about my propensity to buy sneakers in odd colours. For letting me be grumpy.
For discovering a site where I could get a Yankees template for this blog.

For letting me be me. (largely)

Boss Poster History

2009-02-20T19:32:00.001+05:30

Click the Headline to see all the posters...

The Credit Crisis Explained

2009-02-20T19:10:00.001+05:30

2008: A listing of year end Top Ten Lists

2009-01-02T14:06:00.001+05:30

Click headline to be transported. You will never feel listless again.

2008: The Year in brief. AKA If only Bernake, Paulson, Greenspan had read this.

2008-12-29T18:54:00.003+05:30

2008 in Music (according to me)

2008-12-29T16:26:00.012+05:30

Hello,

These are my 13 favorite songs of the year. Why 13? Because I wanted a Top 10, but couldn’t decide on which 3 to leave out.

I’ve limited the list to largely music that’s overground…i.e. I’ve left out the electro/ house and progressive tracks from this list.

1 (TIE) Time to Pretend- MGMT.
1 (TIE) Sex on Fire- Kings of Leon
1 (TIE) Chinese Democracy- Guns N Roses

These 3 for me are the songs of the year, and very difficult to decide which I like best. MGMT is the coolest band to come out since God Knows when, and their album is possibly what rockn’roll is all about!! When this song came on in whilst I was 'chilling' in a coffee shop in Amsterdam, it was like whipped cream and cherry on the cake (served by a waitress from Hooters).

Sex on Fire is a song I liked on the 1st go, and reinforces the fact that the best rock n roll is always found in its most simplest and basic form. Almost a throwback to another era- possibly the indie- 70s, its unsophisticated sound is what makes it stands out.

Chinese Democracy is a song that is almost worth waiting 17 years for. A signature G'N'R track, it presents the best elements of Appetite and Illusion in a ‘nu millennium’ kinda way. The guitars are insane and so is Axl with the different avatars of his voice layered one on top of each other.

4. Pork & Beans- Weezer
A throwback to their Buddy Holly days, a perfect pop/ rock song which also takes the piss out of the record company and songs which are designed (by record companies) to be sung along to! The line referencing uber-producer Timbaland is priceless.

5. The Ghost of Tom Joad (LIVE) - Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band with Tom Morello (from the Magic Tour Highlights avail exclusively on iTunes US)
I’ve never been a fan of this song really- not the original one by the boss on the LP of the same name, nor do I fancy much the version done by RATM on the Renegades LP. However this version with the new arrangement is the kind of song that makes your goose flesh rise. The 2 solos by Mr. Morello rank amongst his best work forever.

6. Mercy- Duffy
A wonderful throwback to 50s pop in the vein of Amy Winehouse. Sadly the rest of the album didn’t have a track that came anywhere close to this.

7. Human- The Killers
New Order with guitars. Johnny Cash meets the Pet Shop Boys. These guys are possibly the coolest band to come out in this decade. I hope the guy @ UNI that signed this band got a promotion, a Maserati and his own island.

8. Electric Feel- MGMT
The only band to have 2 tracks on this list. I somehow get reminded of the Kate Bush track ‘Running Up that Hill’ every time I hear the bassline. A great song that’s very pop in its arrangement but sounds like the song Pink Floyd never made.

9. Love Lockdown- Kanye West
Definitely the most gifted and talented recording artist on the planet. Nobody in hip hop is as smart and as innovative as Mr. West. The drums at the end make this great song a classic. I hope sometime soon this guy gets the Grammys this genius deserves.
Food for thought: A collaboration btwn Kanye and (mid 80s) Prince.

10. Hustler- Simian Mobile Discotheque
No words can describe this song. The best use of MIDI ever. The video is yet another example of how the electronica guys make the most watchable videos with the least cash. (e.g. Benny Binnassi, Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx)
Watch the video here. Trust me; you’ve not seen anything like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHwlP0oEaF8

11. Paper Planes- MIA
Ever since she burst onto the scene I’ve been fond of saying “if only MIA’s record sales could keep pace with her press coverage…” Thanks to the trailer to Pineapple Express, people for the 1st time sang along to the sound of gunshots and Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska now know who MIA (and maybe where Sri Lanka) is!

12. Soul Mate- Natasha Bedingfield
I feel really bad for this song and this artist. This is a truly awesome song that nobody heard either because it wasn’t promoted enough or radio programmers developed an aversion to NB post the edsel/ new coke like reception to ‘I Wanna Have Your Babies’.

Check out the track here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEzbkGj7EaQ

13. Low- FLO-rida feat T Pain
2008’s guilty pleasure song. If this song were to come on in a club, I’d definitely wanna start throwin some dolla bills in the air, slap some apple bottomed booties, and get me the same Reeboks I had when I was 14.

Tracks to watch for in 2009
1. The Show- Lenka (The new standard by which pop songs will be defined)
2. Use Somebody- Kings of Leon (already a monster UK hit)
3. Sober- P!nk (Quite simply her best song ever)
4. Run- Leona Lewis (already a monster UK hit, this song is on its way to becoming a classic.)
5. Ulysses- Franz Ferdinand (The one song that promises to get English Lit grads on the dancefloor)

New old songs

Old songs I (re-)fell in love with this year, and thus played on repeat.

1. Tweeter and the Monkey Man- Travelling Wilburys
2. Hallowed be thy Name- Iron Maiden
3. Born to Run- Bruce Springsteen
4. Soul Stripper- Ac/DC
5. Learn to Fly- Foo Fighters
6. Misty Mountain Hop- Led Zeppelin
7. The Downeaster Alexa- Billy Joel
8. Red Rain- Peter Gabriel
9. Sour Girl- Stone Temple Pilots
10. Train in Vain- The Clash

26/11

2008-12-07T16:53:00.006+05:30

The Mumbai Terror attacks took place 11 days ago. Since then a lot has been written, a lot said, the gateway has become a national shrine and volumes of paraffin and midnight oil have been burnt in equal measure. I have been meaning to write about the attacks, so here it is, my random ramblings re what happened, what was said, what was felt and possibly what will happen.

What Happened:
The attacks, their scale, the preparation and training- both mental and physical of the attackers, the targets and timing definitely suggest that these attacks have a vision that is above and beyond any past attack has seen. This was a very high level operation, with elite personnel training handpicked 'commandos', with state of the art weapons, planning and tactics.

The intent or vision here other than to cause senseless death is to create a flashpoint in Indo-Pak relations such that troops are redeployed from the FATA areas where the Taliban wants (and needs) troops and the general (US) army presence reduced.

Enough is Enough
I will address this is 2 halves-
Why is it that this is the tipping point all of us feel- why not Godhra, why not 26/7, why not the Train blasts, why not Malegaon, Gujarat etc.?
I think this is because of the way it happened. Rahul Gandhi summed it up best- this is like someone breaks into your living room and slaps you in full view of your family, neighbours, friends etc. The others have been instances of the slap being more of a sucker punch...the blow being landed when and where one had no reason to expect. I think the 'living room slap' as it were, has been the tipping point.
Secondly since this 'enough is enough' rage has been fueled by the power of sms and the internet...there has been an outpouring of texts, blogposts, social cause groups and discussion on the internet. In fact the 20K strong candlelight vigil owes huge credit to FB and Orkut. Its one thing to get a social cause related sms, On Facebook its at another level- you see the Indian flag, and the fact that the group already has 1000 members, 100 of whom are your friends or people whom you could have a beer with.

Sure South Bombay finally has a voice because it's own were targeted. But that voice has itself being amplified because of (south mumbai's or 'rich india's access to) the internet and technology- not necessarily because of the proximity in South Mumbai to those high and mighty.

What (I think and hope) Will Happen:
I don't think we will go to war. For 2 reasons:
1. Pak troops on the Indo pak border would mean less Pak troops in the FATA. Which means more US/ UN troops would be needed to fill in the gaps caused by the deployment of troops from the FATA. Which ain't happening as the US simply cannot afford to tell it's people that they need additional time or troops in faraway lands called Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. At least in the short term. Even though Pakistan's credibility is shot amongst the global intelligentsia, the US govt.after the Bush regime's debacles in the M.E. needs time to build up a case to convince Joe Plumber/ Mechanic/ Painter etc that Pak harbours terrorists (that can and will harm the US) assuming it is serious about going after these (I think now it is).

2. I don't think we can afford a war- i.e. we could have blown away pak in 2001 or anytime since then. However, a war would allow China to gallop away with growth and increase the 'financial gap' btwn the 2 of us. pls keep in mind that a rich China means a more armed China and given our history with them we can't afford the top geo-political cards in Asia be held by China or a Chinese alliance that includes our 'neighbours'...we will be screwed.

Which ties in well with our immediate needs...the government needs to show its citizenry that it's taking steps on the matters of security, counter-terrorism, intelligence, law enforcement etc. And this is where we will co-operate with the US. Much like what happened in Indonesia after the Bali bombings, the Indian government will co-operate with the US and become a customer of training and equipment needed for the above listed initiatives. Once we make the US (and its defense contractors) dependent on our ca$h, our access to training and arms is a given.

The Media

The media reached new depths during their coverage of this- they thought it was completely okay to cover the seige blow by blow (without any delay of any sort), give away vital information to the other side, and ask the most insensitive questions. I and many others (as I realised during the week on Facebook)were so disgusted with Barkha Dutt- her choices, her questions, her insensitivity, her fake about to break into tears any second whiny monotone, that the various Barkha Dutt hategroups quicky proliferated on FB. Your's truly is the proud member and campaigned vociferously for the group 'Barkha Dutt for worst senior journalist on the planet'.

Our leaders
Insensitive Inhuman assholes.

2008 has been a year to remember. There have already been life-defining or history defining moments. Moments compared to the assassination of JFK mind you...First the Lehmann Bros and banking crash. Second the election of Obama to the White House. Now this.

Fingers Crossed. There are still 24 days to go.

From the 'Really?' Department.

2008-11-18T02:23:00.004+05:30

Click the headline (as usual) to read the article from CrunchGear. The 2 logos are pasted not only for decorative effect, but also to give you an idea as to what the article is about.

Awesome Article on Guerilla Affilaite Marketing

2008-11-07T14:58:00.001+05:30

Click the headline to be taken to the original article

Vienna

2008-10-25T22:31:00.002+05:30

As can be ascertained from the title I'm in Vienna. As usual, I haven't spent my own money to make it here and have come here on a 'work' trip. By work I mean, accompanying a prominent musician who is here to rehearse with a Viennese orchestra for a performance in Mumbai on 16th November. To elaborate further, a grand total of 1 hour of rehearsal spread over 3 days. Go figure. I guess that explains why i have the time to blog.

Got here yesterday, at 6 am, made it to the plush Meridien by 7 and generally hung about in the coffee shop (couldn't check in til noon- why?- too long to explain) drinking coffee & hot chocolate til about 9 or 930 by which time it was daylight, and I couldn't take hanging in the coffee shop any longer. Headed out for a walk for about an hour, being extremely careful so as not to lose my bearings. Was hungry, and found a McDonald's...yes my 1st meal in Wien was @ McDonalds...that too a burger, fries and coke for breakfast. If you think that's weird, and sad, I suppose you're right. Found a museum (forgot the name since its all German) and took some nice pictures. Also wandered into a park with statues of Goethe and Mozart, and a huge mansion/ palace type thing. Took more pix. Went to a Tabac (tobacco) shop and added to my collection of rolling papers. Finally it was 11 or 1130-ish, and I went back to the hotel, hung about for 30 minutes or so, this time in the lobby. At last it was noon, and I got my Eu170 room. Took shower etc, then headed out. Walked to the St Stephen's Cathedral which is on a pedestrian street called the Kartnerstrasse, which is filled with shops. If window shopping were a literal term, I'd have bought the highest amount of windows ever. I must have gone into at least 30 odd shops- Zara, H&M, Benneton, Espirit and some more local ones whose (German) names I forget, and bought essentially nothing. Maybe a few years ago, I might have said fcuk it & 'dekha jaayega', and weilded my credit card but I guess old age and the rapidly falling rupee have added to my frugality. That and flashes of Clothesrack every time I see a pair of GStar jeans for Eu129, Adidas Superstars for Eu 90 (which in Sq are S$110 max...you know the math)and shirts and T shirts for Eu40- Eu 60. I don't get it...this is possibly the most expensive city I have ever visited. I did find an a comics store where I got a cool Homer Simpson battery operated beer bottle opener which says 'HmmmBeer' in Homer's voice (for AVP), an R2D2 mug (for KWB)and 2 Snoopy figurines (for the self and the sister) and mints housed in a can of Duff beer. I also got a few things for the better/prettier half, which I'm not revealing here, since she (is the only person who actually) reads this blog.

Back to the Cathedral...it's being restored, but I still think it's one of the most awesome gothic structures I have ever seen. Got out my cybershot and took some more pics which will add a few MB to facebook's servers.

Today after the rehearsal, had a cup of coffee over some business chit-chat with LS & KS, then headed to the MQ...i.e. the Museum Quarter. A good 20 minute walk..checked out some stuff and decided I'm not a museum person...at least not alone anyway. So then headed off to the shopping district...Vienna's 'Orchard Street'...i forgot the name of the (German) street which is very close to the MQ. Went into another 50 or so cool shops. Almost bought a pair of (on sale) Vans for Eu 60 but got visions of InR 3500 flying away for a pair which I'll wear maybe 20 times in a year, so I just added to my collection of windows.

All that invisible excess baggage is going to kill me!

Looking forward to tomorrow...post rehearsal, have been invited to join LS & KS to join them visiting a friend of theirs who has a house in the countryside.

Understanding Sarah Pailin

2008-10-04T17:38:00.001+05:30

From dailykos.com. Click link to go to the article

MLB Awards picks

2008-10-02T22:09:00.002+05:30

MVP AL- Pedroia
MVP NL- Pujols

Cy AL- Cliff lee
Cy NL- Tim Lincecum

So there you have it....the MVPs are 2 Ps, and the Cy Youngs are 2Ls.

Baseball is a funny game.

AC/ DC Vs iTunes

2008-10-02T18:15:00.002+05:30

Click link. Read awesome article from the Telegraph.
Kid Rock has already proved this year with 'all summer long' that you can tune out from iTunes...now it's the turn of my 1st ever fave band to take another bite out of Apple!!

As much as I like apple, their products (i can't live without my iPod and plan to buy a MacBook in 2009), I do not appreciate nor understand Job's absolute rigidity on pricing (he wants everything to be at 99c,) and on locking albums.

LONG LIVE ROCK N ROLL.

Too Cool!!!

2008-10-02T14:21:00.002+05:30

A humourous look at 2 issues facing America

2008-10-02T13:30:00.002+05:30

Michael Moore's Bailout Plan

2008-10-02T13:23:00.003+05:30

Worth Reading. He makes some interesting points. I suggest he make it into a movie so that the fcuking rednecks can understand it.

Visit his site by clicking on the headline. If you're too lazy, I've pasted it verbatim below. I'm sure he doesn't mind.

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
Here's How to Fix the Wall Street Mess ...from Michael Moore

Friends,

The richest 400 Americans -- that's right, just four hundred people -- own MORE than the bottom 150 million Americans combined. 400 rich Americans have got more stashed away than half the entire country! Their combined net worth is $1.6 trillion. During the eight years of the Bush Administration, their wealth has increased by nearly $700 billion -- the same amount that they are now demanding we give to them for the "bailout." Why don't they just spend the money they made under Bush to bail themselves out? They'd still have nearly a trillion dollars left over to spread amongst themselves!

Of course, they are not going to do that -- at least not voluntarily. George W. Bush was handed a $127 billion surplus when Bill Clinton left office. Because that money was OUR money and not his, he did what the rich prefer to do -- spend it and never look back. Now we have a $9.5 trillion debt. Why on earth would we even think of giving these robber barons any more of our money?

I would like to propose my own bailout plan. My suggestions, listed below, are predicated on the singular and simple belief that the rich must pull themselves up by their own platinum bootstraps. Sorry, fellows, but you drilled it into our heads one too many times: There... is... no... free... lunch. And thank you for encouraging us to hate people on welfare! So, there will be no handouts from us to you. The Senate, tonight, is going to try to rush their version of a "bailout" bill to a vote. They must be stopped. We did it on Monday with the House, and we can do it again today with the Senate.

It is clear, though, that we cannot simply keep protesting without proposing exactly what it is we think Congress should do. So, after consulting with a number of people smarter than Phil Gramm, here is my proposal, now known as "Mike's Rescue Plan." It has 10 simple, straightforward points. They are:

1. APPOINT A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO CRIMINALLY INDICT ANYONE ON WALL STREET WHO KNOWINGLY CONTRIBUTED TO THIS COLLAPSE. Before any new money is expended, Congress must commit, by resolution, to criminally prosecute anyone who had anything to do with the attempted sacking of our economy. This means that anyone who committed insider trading, securities fraud or any action that helped bring about this collapse must go to jail. This Congress must call for a Special Prosecutor who will vigorously go after everyone who created the mess, and anyone else who attempts to scam the public in the future.

2. THE RICH MUST PAY FOR THEIR OWN BAILOUT. They may have to live in 5 houses instead of 7. They may have to drive 9 cars instead of 13. The chef for their mini-terriers may have to be reassigned. But there is no way in hell, after forcing family incomes to go down more than $2,000 dollars during the Bush years, that working people and the middle class are going to fork over one dime to underwrite the next yacht purchase.

If they truly need the $700 billion they say they need, well, here is an easy way they can raise it:

a) Every couple who makes over a million dollars a year and every single taxpayer who makes over $500,000 a year will pay a 10% surcharge tax for five years. (It's the Senator Sanders plan. He's like Colonel Sanders, only he's out to fry the right chickens.) That means the rich will still be paying less income tax than when Carter was president. This will raise a total of $300 billion.

b) Like nearly every other democracy, charge a 0.25% tax on every stock transaction. This will raise more than $200 billion in a year.

c) Because every stockholder is a patriotic American, stockholders will forgo receiving a dividend check for one quarter and instead this money will go the treasury to help pay for the bailout.

d) 25% of major U.S. corporations currently pay NO federal income tax. Federal corporate tax revenues currently amount to 1.7% of the GDP compared to 5% in the 1950s. If we raise the corporate income tax back to the level of the 1950s, that gives us an extra $500 billion.

All of this combined should be enough to end the calamity. The rich will get to keep their mansions and their servants, and our United States government ("COUNTRY FIRST!") will have a little leftover to repair some roads, bridges and schools.

3. BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE LOSING THEIR HOMES, NOT THE PEOPLE WHO WILL BUILD AN EIGHTH HOME. There are 1.3 million homes in foreclosure right now. That is what is at the heart of this problem. So instead of giving the money to the banks as a gift, pay down each of these mortgages by $100,000. Force the banks to renegotiate the mortgage so the homeowner can pay on its current value. To insure that this help does not go to speculators and those who have tried to make money by flipping houses, this bailout is only for people's primary residence. And in return for the $100K paydown on the existing mortgage, the government gets to share in the holding of the mortgage so that it can get some of its money back. Thus, the total initial cost of fixing the mortgage crisis at its roots (instead of with the greedy lenders) is $150 billion, not $700 billion.

And let's set the record straight. People who have defaulted on their mortgages are not "bad risks." They are our fellow Americans, and all they wanted was what we all want and most of us still get: a home to call their own. But during the Bush years, millions of them lost the decent paying jobs they had. Six million fell into poverty. Seven million lost their health insurance. And every one of them saw their real wages go down by $2,000. Those who dare to look down on these Americans who got hit with one bad break after another should be ashamed. We are a better, stronger, safer and happier society when all of our citizens can afford to live in a home that they own.

4. IF YOUR BANK OR COMPANY GETS ANY OF OUR MONEY IN A "BAILOUT," THEN WE OWN YOU. Sorry, that's how it's done. If the bank gives me money so I can buy a house, the bank "owns" that house until I pay it all back -- with interest. Same deal for Wall Street. Whatever money you need to stay afloat, if our government considers you a safe risk -- and necessary for the good of the country -- then you can get a loan, but we will own you. If you default, we will sell you. This is how the Swedish government did it and it worked.

5. ALL REGULATIONS MUST BE RESTORED. THE REAGAN REVOLUTION IS DEAD. This catastrophe happened because we let the fox have the keys to the henhouse. In 1999, Phil Gramm authored a bill to remove all the regulations that governed Wall Street and our banking system. The bill passed and Clinton signed it. Here's what Sen. Phil Gramm, McCain's chief economic advisor, said at the bill signing:

"In the 1930s ... it was believed that government was the answer. It was believed that stability and growth came from government overriding the functioning of free markets.

"We are here today to repeal [that] because we have learned that government is not the answer. We have learned that freedom and competition are the answers. We have learned that we promote economic growth and we promote stability by having competition and freedom.

"I am proud to be here because this is an important bill; it is a deregulatory bill. I believe that that is the wave of the future, and I am awfully proud to have been a part of making it a reality."

This bill must be repealed. Bill Clinton can help by leading the effort for the repeal of the Gramm bill and the reinstating of even tougher regulations regarding our financial institutions. And when they're done with that, they can restore the regulations for the airlines, the inspection of our food, the oil industry, OSHA, and every other entity that affects our daily lives. All oversight provisions for any "bailout" must have enforcement monies attached to them and criminal penalties for all offenders.

6. IF IT'S TOO BIG TO FAIL, THEN THAT MEANS IT'S TOO BIG TO EXIST. Allowing the creation of these mega-mergers and not enforcing the monopoly and anti-trust laws has allowed a number of financial institutions and corporations to become so large, the very thought of their collapse means an even bigger collapse across the entire economy. No one or two companies should have this kind of power. The so-called "economic Pearl Harbor" can't happen when you have hundreds -- thousands -- of institutions where people have their money. When you have a dozen auto companies, if one goes belly-up, we don't face a national disaster. If you have three separately-owned daily newspapers in your town, then one media company can't call all the shots (I know... What am I thinking?! Who reads a paper anymore? Sure glad all those mergers and buyouts left us with a strong and free press!). Laws must be enacted to prevent companies from being so large and dominant that with one slingshot to the eye, the giant falls and dies. And no institution should be allowed to set up money schemes that no one can understand. If you can't explain it in two sentences, you shouldn't be taking anyone's money.

7. NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD BE PAID MORE THAN 40 TIMES THEIR AVERAGE EMPLOYEE, AND NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD RECEIVE ANY KIND OF "PARACHUTE" OTHER THAN THE VERY GENEROUS SALARY HE OR SHE MADE WHILE WORKING FOR THE COMPANY. In 1980, the average American CEO made 45 times what their employees made. By 2003, they were making 254 times what their workers made. After 8 years of Bush, they now make over 400 times what their average employee makes. How this can happen at publicly held companies is beyond reason. In Britain, the average CEO makes 28 times what their average employee makes. In Japan, it's only 17 times! The last I heard, the CEO of Toyota was living the high life in Tokyo. How does he do it on so little money? Seriously, this is an outrage. We have created the mess we're in by letting the people at the top become bloated beyond belief with millions of dollars. This has to stop. Not only should no executive who receives help out of this mess profit from it, but any executive who was in charge of running his company into the ground should be fired before the company receives any help.

8. STRENGTHEN THE FDIC AND MAKE IT A MODEL FOR PROTECTING NOT ONLY PEOPLE'S SAVINGS, BUT ALSO THEIR PENSIONS AND THEIR HOMES. Obama was correct yesterday to propose expanding FDIC protection of people's savings in their banks to $250,000. But this same sort of government insurance must be given to our nation's pension funds. People should never have to worry about whether or not the money they've put away for their old age will be there. This will mean strict government oversight of companies who manage their employees' funds -- or perhaps it means that the companies will have to turn over those funds and their management to the government. People's private retirement funds must also be protected, but perhaps it's time to consider not having one's retirement invested in the casino known as the stock market. Our government should have a solemn duty to guarantee that no one who grows old in this country has to worry about ending up destitute.

9. EVERYBODY NEEDS TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH, CALM DOWN, AND NOT LET FEAR RULE THE DAY. Turn off the TV! We are not in the Second Great Depression. The sky is not falling. Pundits and politicians are lying to us so fast and furious it's hard not to be affected by all the fear mongering. Even I, yesterday, wrote to you and repeated what I heard on the news, that the Dow had the biggest one day drop in its history. Well, that's true in terms of points, but its 7% drop came nowhere close to Black Monday in 1987 when the stock market in one day lost 23% of its value. In the '80s, 3,000 banks closed, but America didn't go out of business. These institutions have always had their ups and downs and eventually it works out. It has to, because the rich do not like their wealth being disrupted! They have a vested interest in calming things down and getting back into the Jacuzzi.

As crazy as things are right now, tens of thousands of people got a car loan this week. Thousands went to the bank and got a mortgage to buy a home. Students just back to college found banks more than happy to put them into hock for the next 15 years with a student loan. Life has gone on. Not a single person has lost any of their money if it's in a bank or a treasury note or a CD. And the most amazing thing is that the American public hasn't bought the scare campaign. The citizens didn't blink, and instead told Congress to take that bailout and shove it. THAT was impressive. Why didn't the population succumb to the fright-filled warnings from their president and his cronies? Well, you can only say 'Saddam has da bomb' so many times before the people realize you're a lying sack of shite. After eight long years, the nation is worn out and simply can't take it any longer.

10. CREATE A NATIONAL BANK, A "PEOPLE'S BANK." If we really are itching to print up a trillion dollars, instead of giving it to a few rich people, why don't we give it to ourselves? Now that we own Freddie and Fannie, why not set up a people's bank? One that can provide low-interest loans for all sorts of people who want to own a home, start a small business, go to school, come up with the cure for cancer or create the next great invention. And now that we own AIG, the country's largest insurance company, let's take the next step and provide health insurance for everyone. Medicare for all. It will save us so much money in the long run. And we won't be 12th on the life expectancy list. We'll be able to have a longer life, enjoying our government-protected pension, and living to see the day when the corporate criminals who caused so much misery are let out of prison so that we can help reacclimate them to civilian life -- a life with one nice home and a gas-free car that was invented with help from the People's Bank.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

Sarah Pailin/ Katie Couric Interview

2008-10-02T13:02:00.003+05:30

Seriously, for the life of me, I do not know what the republicans were thinking. If the republicans take this election, the Americans will have done themselves a great injustice. I can already see Putin, Ahmedinejad and co. salivating in anticipation.

Sarah Pailin's Facebook Page

2008-10-02T12:49:00.003+05:30

Thanks to holytaco.com

Dissapointment?

2008-09-29T20:41:00.002+05:30

Well the baseball season is over- for my beloved Yankees at least. It feels extremely strange not to have baseball in the montn of October. This is the 1st time since the 1995 season that the Yanks aren't even in the playoffs. 13 years. That's a long time. Anyway, as dissapointed as I am, I think 89 wins is still extremely commendable and actually 4th or 5th best in the league, and good enough to make the playoffs in certain divisions. Which brings us to the what if's- the biggest one being Wang. If he didn't get hurt could we have squeaked through? Even if A Rod, Jeter, and Cano all had sub par seasons?
Alternatively, If Moose didn't have the renaissance, would we have been worse?

Anyways, I'm already looking forward to next year...I think the following players have definitely played their last Yankee Game:
Giambi
Abreau
Melky
Ponson
Betemit

I think the following guys are treading thin ice and could get traded if the right deal comes along:
Cano
Damon
Giambi
Kennedy
Hughes

and these 2 are gonna retire
Moose
Pettitte

So thats a lot of changes...I hope we don't go nuts and spend on really long term contracts...theo epstien has got it right.

Analyse This!

2008-09-23T00:25:00.004+05:30

(CLICK THE HEADLINE FOR)...Another eulogy from another great Yankee who happens to be a celebrity. In fact Billy Crystal is such a fanatical fan, that he even got the Yankees to 'sign' him for a day, so that he could work out with them and get an at bat in an 'official' mlb (spring training) game.

Just so he could say- 'I played for the Yankees'.

Good bye Stadium.

Everyone has been narrating their favourite memorIes from the stadium...so here's my top 5 (or 6)

1. My 1st visit there in 1981...It was a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, and I and my then best friend Tony were taken for a game by his father. Not sure whom we played against- think it was the O's and we won. I remember the white fence above the Manufactuer's Hanover Trust sign in right field, and found that to be something unique. The stadium didn't strike me much as a cathedral then because I was more impressed with how far the ball actually travelled and how fast theb players actually ran. I also remember spending more than half my time there at the souvenir stand and coming back home sleeping in the car tired with a bucketload of Yankees stuff. (I was only 9)

2. Chuck Knoblauch's 3 run HR in the 7th inning of the 98 WS vs the Padres, followed by the close 2-2 call agaisnt Tino and then BOOM! Grand Slam. The series turned in that inning, and was effectively sealed the next night when Knobby worked an 8 pitch leadoff walk against Ashby. It was then won by Brosius against Hoffman, but that happened in San Diego so...

3. May 98. Yanks vs O's. 8th inning? Bernie Williams hits a game tying 3 run HR against Benitez. Next pitch- Benitez beans Tino Martinez betweeen the 2 & the 4 of his uniform. Bedlam ensues...the dirtiest fight I have EVER seen in baseball (yes even worse than the infamous Pedro vs Zimmer brawl in the '03 ALCS). I still remember Strawberry coming from nowhere and (sucker) punching Benitez. (He totally deserved it)
Peace is restored. Tino on 1st. Next batter Raines vs Benitez. Boom Home Run. That wasn I think when the 98 season, became the '98 season.
The post game comments made by big Stein were priceless. Still remember the postgame comment on Sportscenter where they showed Stein challenging Angelos to a boxing match: "Where's Costanza?!?"

4. Charlie Hayes catching the final out of the 96 WS, Boggs on the horsie, Torre and George in tears...

5. '03 World Series. Games 4 & 5. The back to back nights of 9th inning 2 out game tying homers against BY Kim and the D'Backs. It's a wonder Kim kept his sanity after those 2 nights. Also, Game 5 Top of 9th inning, the way the fans serenaded Paul O'Neill and refused to quiet down until he waved.

6. Today- the ovation Bernie received. He is possibly my favourite 'Dynasty Yankee'.

Fave sign carried by a fan at the stadium:

03 WS Game 5: 'MYSTIQUE AND AURA. APPEARING NIGHTLY'.

You Can Call me a Yankee Fan

2008-09-20T12:44:00.004+05:30

It seeems I'm not the only one paying homage to Yankee Stadium this weekend. Click the headline to see what Paul Simon (of Simon & Garfunkel)wrote about the stadium in the New York Times.

Hell with it- I'm pasting the whole thing here. (Thanks NYT. & I hope you don't mind)

September 21, 2008
Yankee Stadium, Going the Way of Joe DiMaggio
By PAUL SIMON

I was sitting on my father’s lap listening to a Yankee game on our old Philco radio. It was 1948 and I suddenly realized I was a Yankee fan. The team was headed for a dismal third-place finish. I was 7, and there was nothing to do but wait for 1949 and the new Yankee manager, Casey Stengel.

I was standing in a subway car, holding my dad’s hand when the train emerged from the tunnel, climbed the elevated tracks , and I saw Yankee Stadium for the first time. How beautiful! The emerald green grass, the old-fashioned white facade and the dots of color that were the fans in their seats. We were in the left-field bleachers and the colors seemed even more intense, the grass a bluer green, the pinstripes dazzling and the ball a white rocket that shot from the hands of the outfielders playing long toss.

We were playing the Indians and DiMaggio was returning to the lineup after an injury. As he approached the plate, the crowd was thumping. At the crack of the bat everyone around me stood to watch the ball’s trajectory. I couldn’t see a thing. It was a home run. I stood on my seat as Joe rounded third. I’d like to play in Yankee Stadium , I thought.

•

“Just lay it in there,” I told Artie. “I want to see how far I can hit it.” It was 1968, the year Mickey Mantle retired and “Mrs. Robinson” was nominated for a Grammy. Simon and Garfunkel had gotten permission to make a video at Yankee Stadium. As an ex-high school baseball player (all-Queens second team), I was eager to test my left-handed swing against the fabled “short porch” in right field. After fouling off a couple of pitches I finally hit one on the screws, as they say. The ball arced gracefully and landed in what could be charitably called medium right field, about 250 feet from home. Porch not short enough. Stickball was really my game anyway.

•

1988. Would Mickey Mantle be willing to play stickball in a music video of “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”? Calls were made. Feelers put out. Yes! The Mick would do it but was demanding $1,500 and a limo from his hotel. We met at a playground at 46th and 10th, and for a good hour I got to play stickball with Mickey Mantle. Did I thank him as he eased his aching knees into the limo? Profusely. Did I mention that I spent countless hours imitating his style of running? No, I was too embarrassed, but the photo of the two of us is one of my treasures.

•

A month after DiMaggio’s death I was standing in center field with Bernie Williams. It was a few hours before the unveiling of the Yankee Clipper’s monument before 53,000 fans. I asked Williams, the Yankee center fielder, how it felt to view the three-tiered majesty of the Stadium from his vantage point. He replied, “It’s a little like looking at the Grand Canyon.”

Two hours later I heard Bob Sheppard announce my name, and I walked from the old bullpen to center field and began to sing, “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?” but the roar of the crowd was muted in my earpiece and I was far away thinking of my father and that subway ride. After the ceremonies we were invited up to the Steinbrenner suite. I sat at a table with Phil Rizzuto, who introduced me to his wife, Cora. This was becoming a Yankee-dream-come-true afternoon. After an appropriate amount of time, I thought I ought leave, but Rizzuto said: “You can’t leave yet. You didn’t eat any of Steinbrenner’s chicken.” I said I had to pick up my son at a birthday party and, besides, I was a vegetarian. “A vegetarian?” Rizzuto said. “A vegetarian. Holy cow!”

•

My youngest son always says that his favorite moment is when you’re just coming out from under the stands and you see the players and the field. I know that pleasure will still be there in the new Stadium, but for those of us lucky enough to have known the House That Ruth Built, something special has passed

So, so long, Scooter, so long, Joe, so long, Mick, and since I never got the chance to say it, so long, Dad.

Paul Simon is a singer and songwriter.

The Sun Sets on the Cathedral in the Bronx

2008-09-19T23:11:00.004+05:30

Sunday night will mark the last game that will ever be played at Yankee Stadium. Sports Illustrated has put together a nice slide show of memoirs from baseballs most loved, most hated, most famous venue. (click headline)

It's been a sub par season and not being in the playoffs for the first time in 13 years bites, but I think it's been made easier with the emotions that surround the winding down of the stadium. Myself and (I think) the bulk of the die hards are already quite pumped about the off season and April 16, 2009, when the Yanks will be back in a brand spanking new Yankee Stadium built across the street.

This ain't a Scene...

2008-09-14T22:01:00.002+05:30

Click Link to make sense of what I'm saying.

Going Underground at 35,000 ft.

2008-09-14T09:57:00.003+05:30

A very interesting story about flight attendants from the NYT. (Click the link!!). A reporter went 'underground, at 35K ft' and actually posed as a flight attendant for this story.

A good read that presents the other side of air travel...you'd have to admit the only side we hear are how the flight was late, they ran out of blankets and the hostess forgot to serve 3rd can of coke you had asked for.

Indian flight attendants- particularly those on LCCs, would well empathize with this article and have many stories of their own to add. Imagine the diversity in people, dress and languages encountered in a day on the Srinagar-Delhi-Baroda-Mumbai-Bangalore-Hyderabad sector of Go Air!

For the record, I'm always nice to them and try to make their jobs as easy as possible.

And yes, I always make it a point to go the loo before they start the food & drinks service.

Quantum of Solace- The New Trailer

2008-09-13T15:25:00.001+05:30

Dark Knight vs Titanic

2008-09-08T10:35:00.000+05:30

Ok. Have not kept with the self imposed s=cease and desist on the dark knight blogging. But, gave in due to my theory that once it reached 450, 460, Million, 600 was going to happen. It’s currently at 512 Mil Domestic and clicking the headline will lead you to the story on slashfilm that talks about the Re-release strategy (IMax included) that will propel the gross 600ward.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to bring up the stories that have cropped up trivializing TDK's achievements at the box off ice by discussing the gross, but bringing up the 'adjusted for inflation' aspect in which TDK is not even in the Top 40.

Granted the above is true. Obviously, tickets cost more today than they did 70 years ago when Gone with the Wind was packing houses. Which is why I'm in favour of a more real count like the music biz- one which'd count tickets sold (units) as opposed to gross (turnover). But having accepted the ‘gross measurement’, I'd like to point out the following.

No movie has made as much money or simply been as popular or as much a worldwide pop culture phenomenon as TDK since The Titanic. No, not even Spidey, Frodo and Harry Potter.
Secondly, I'd like to point out that the golden road to a mammoth gross is repeat views. You'd agree that today, given so much competition for the entertainment eyeball and piracy, its more difficult to get repeat views in a paid environment like the multiplex, given the rise of technology, DVDs releasing 4 months from Box office, TV broadcasts, and of course, the torrent phenomenon.

So there.

A Nation of Dudes

2008-09-06T10:58:00.004+05:30

http://www.newsweek.com/id/156372/page/2

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/soundboard/2008/09/i-regret-not-ma.html

Basis the 2 articles, what you essentially surmise is that the television has bred a nation of dudes, modeled on my 2 friends in the pic. It's funny when society becomes a caricature of itself.

Hollywood Trailers Left Voiceless

2008-09-06T10:37:00.002+05:30

Full story available on clicking the link.

REAL(ity) TV

2008-08-31T22:11:00.001+05:30

We knew that Americans love reality tv. However, nobody expected this. Click the headline to see what I'm talking about.

If I were a tree I'd leave

2008-08-31T21:31:00.003+05:30

Essentially whats happening is this. Ganpati is around the corner. So at every 10 ft there is a sarvajanik ganpati mandal. Nothing wrong in that. Now whats begun to happen is that Ganpati has gone corporate. Every SGM is sponsored by Manikchand Mineral Water (which is actually 300% More Oxygen, but is somehow still h20), Karrz with Himesh and 2 R's, and other respected marketeers from the chaddi- banyan, and guthka industry.

Nothing wrong in that either...You could argue that sponsorship of GSMs is no different from that of college festivals. As a savvy marketeer, you engage with the youth or whatever your target audience is through events on the ground in which they are likely to participate.

However, what I noticed today as I was driving towards Bandra is something the tree huggers and/ or the anti-hoarding (print) lobby should take offense to. As in all other aspects of Indian society, and aided by politics, goons, corporatism and free enterprise, a standardization of sorts has come into play in the erstwhile ad-hoc Ganpati decoration.

This year, a lot of it in Mumbai is horizontal and hugging the pavement. To achieve this a scaffolding of sorts that rises from the foot of the curb and goes up to the level of about about a floor have been erected everywhere upon which the horizontal vinyls are then mounted.

On Mahim Causeway, there is no issue with doing that. At its worst, it's makng a terribly ugly stretch look even more an eyesore. However, in the Worli Naka & Shivaji Park areas, pesky trees which come in the way of the scaffolding are being 'modified'.

So this morninh I saw poor trees crying in anguish (the tree huggers were asleep) as a bunch of guys with machetes and axes went around ruthlessly chopping off their limbs...all so that we can be reminded about the refreshing qualities of a mineral water which magically has 300% more oxygen, while in reality the air will have less.

Dark Knight To Sink Titanic? Pt 3

2008-08-06T01:43:00.003+05:30

Click the title for the full article from boxofficemojo.com- but in a nutshell, DK has just crossed the 400 Mil mark in 18 days only. 18 days is what it took POTC DMC to reach 300 Mil. The picture tells the story.

Not Cutting English Class May Have Helped

2008-08-04T01:02:00.002+05:30

Calvin And Jobs

2008-08-04T00:49:00.001+05:30

Reef Stash Sandles

2008-08-02T12:26:00.001+05:30

Stash sandals are comfortable enough to wear on the beach, but their real utility is as a mobile safe. The secret tray in the sole slides out to hold personal items and slides back in to make sure no one knows they're there. It's something Q might have cooked up if Bond ever decided to take up surfing. From Time Magazine.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1827576_1827591_1828237,00.html

1 Way: Thats the Ticket

2008-08-02T12:02:00.004+05:30

Click the headline. Read the article.

All I can say is that at last they are making goods and services for the likes of me.

The Outfield

2008-07-30T23:50:00.004+05:30

Listening to Yankee game on the internet- just heard the Outfield's 'Your Love' playing on the PA in between innings.

I thought only the band and self still knew the song existed let alone had it at easy access!

Yankee Stadium rocks!

Mash-Up City

2008-07-29T23:10:00.001+05:30

Haven't found the Ganesa connection though.

Use the Force, Luke

2008-07-29T22:35:00.002+05:30

....and you could be having fruit salad in 5 minutes.

True Geeks

2008-07-29T22:25:00.009+05:30

Click the title for scenes/ characters etc from this year's just concluded Comic Con.

Father of the Year for sure...

And as you can see Hello Kitty seems to have fallen in with the wrong crowd.

And to think I actually know the guy in photo #60!!

Also, wired.com ha an awesome photo gallery on the coolest toys at the CC
http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews

The Beastlies get my vote.

No Riots? You Sure About That?

2008-07-28T19:42:00.002+05:30

....I mean do you just wanna look out the window for a second? Possibly turn on the TV?

This is what I felt whilst chatting with my masi on Sunday (27/7) evening who was calling from St. Louis Mo. I did think I should turn on the TV- the habit of 'hermitizing' all weekend in one's room with Seinfeld DVDs and the internet doesn't help much keeping up with whats on aajtak.

My masi and masa were naturally extremely worried (distance makes the heart grow fonder and distance plus the modren media makes it more paranoid). Zigackly 24 hours later, with the added benefit of hindsight, after what happened, they were utterly right to go by trend and predict riots.

Until then the thought of riots never crossed my mind. By way of explanation, I in fact told my aunt that 'we're' quite de-sensitised by these things (they happen rather often), and that there were/ are no riots because 'nobody' can 'afford' them.

If one were to read btwn the lines, by 'we' I meant 'us'- i.e. the common man- the 'laxmanian' variety if you will, and by 'nobody' i meant the 'invisible hand' that seems to always 'show' itself in areas of riots/ death/ suffering etc.

Today I came across this article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7528437.stm) on the bbc's website.

Don't know if I should feel happy or sad...both for the same reason.

Think I'll watch some more Seinfeld.

Heroes Season 3 Episode 1

2008-07-27T23:19:00.004+05:30

Seems it was screened at the Comic Con. Click the Title to be transported to a synopsis of the 1st ep. Spoilers through and through!

It airs in the US on Sept 15. Lets hope its here asap!

DarkNight to Sink Titanic ? Pt 2

2008-07-27T22:56:00.004+05:30

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/amazing-dark-knight-run-continues-stepbrothers-big-x-files-bombs/
http://boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/

SUNDAY AM: Warner Bros' The Dark Knight continues to power drive the North American box office and grossed a whopping $23 million Friday and $28 million Saturday from 4,366 theaters. That's down only 65% and 45% respectively from its record-smashing debut a week ago. With a $75.6 million weekend, down only 52% from the best-ever Fri-Sat-Sun, the Christian Bale-Heath Ledger actioner directed by Chris Nolan broke the record not just for the best first week of all time, but also the biggest 2nd weekend of all time. It's done 314.8 Min just 10 days, the fastest ever (beating Pirates Of The Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest which did it is 16 days). All anybody can do at the studios is keep repeating the word, "Amazing"....

click the title to read the full article...The Titanic story is gathering momentum.

Pakoda Weather

2008-07-27T13:50:00.005+05:30

And it's raining. Our first 'serious' rain of this monsoon. It is really pissing down. Which is great for me. I love sitting at my window and looking at the green of the trees. The rain and the mistyness of the air makes the leaves appear a darker green.

As you can see I seem to have found buckets of time and or alone-ness. It's both. The better prettier half has been in HK/ Nam for the last 15 days now, and I seem to have fallen into a groove of room/ ac/ laptop/ net/ blog/ seinfeld/ frasier/ friends/ jfk/ bond/ star wars repeats.

Anyway to get back to the topic at hand which is the rain, and the fact that its of the cats and dogs intensity.

How did this whole pakoda thing come about anyway?

Erm?

2008-07-26T22:51:00.002+05:30

http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&safe=off&q=Natalie%20Portman%20Devendra%20Banhart&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv#

and that's natalie portman by the way.

i'd really like to know what this dude's been smoking.

Dark Knight to sink Titanic?

2008-07-26T21:47:00.006+05:30

Couldn't resist the obvious title. As you may have read The Dark Knight is the #1 weekend grosser of all time with $ 158.4 Million which it raked in btwn 18-20 July. Its then gone on to do another 80 odd from Mon-Thursday, going on to slaughter POTC Dead Mans Chest for the fastest to $200 Million mark (just 5 days). When it hit 200 M it crossed what Batman Begins did in its entire 6 week run.

http://boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/

By the time this weeks money is counted (another 70 M is projected by the Hollywood experts) it will have reached 300 M in 10 days, (308 to be precise) beating the record of POTC DMC took 18 days, and for some more perspectove, this summers frontrunners, INDIANA JONES 39 full days and IRON MAN 48 days.

Will this movie reach the 600M figure of The Titanic? If any movie could do it, its this one. It's playing very wide- men and women of all ages. Plus, its summer and a lot of people are lining up to see it for a 2nd, 3rd and 4th time. (you'rs truly among them).

What do you think?

Simpsons Goodies

2008-07-26T16:32:00.003+05:30

First there's a limited edition of 2000 iPods- classic, nanos and shuffle with The Simpsons engraved on the back.

Then there's this super cool line of figureines done in collaboration with KidRobot.

I want!!

Completely Batty.

2008-07-20T22:09:00.003+05:30

Ok, I hereby promise to stop gushing about The Dark Knight on the blog.

Overwhelmed

2008-07-20T21:11:00.006+05:30

Its been almost 48 hours since I saw the Dark Knight and thats still the best adjective to describe how I feel when I recount the film and the experience.
Its strange when a movie not only lives up to the trailers, the hype the speculation but goes miles beyond all that, to quite simply, 'hit the ball out of the park'. There is no movie like this.

At its most basic level its a thrill ride from start to finish. By about the 8th minute you're already in 4th gear which steps up into overdrive rather quickly with our old friend The Scarecrow making a quick cameo. The story then is set up quickly with the Joker cutting a deal with the mob, whilst Bruce heads off to Hk where Nolan & Co. show off their chops with the most awesome camera work and editing work ever seen.

From then on, the film belongs to The Joker/ Heath Ledger- quite literally. Once the Joker takes over, the script essentially follows him and his next move, and by now you would have heard all the cries for giving Heath Ledger the Best Actor Oscar now. I agree. Let's get it over with. With apologies to every actor and actress who has ever won an Oscar, this is quite simply the best performance EVER. Sorry Mr Nicholson, that's just the way I feel. You get mesmerised by the acting and just find yourself staring at his face, at times blocking out all else, to catch the remotest subtlety of emotion. Look at it this way- this is a brilliant acting performance and you never get to see the guy's face.

Comparing this performance to Nicholson's- Nicholson's acting was great, no doubt, but I always associate that with a very vocal script- i.e. the acting had a lot to do with a bunch of droll & over the top lines delivered by Jack ('town deserves an enema' etc). This movie is strangely silent in that sense. There are stretches with no dialogue at all, some of which are carried only by the camerawork, editing and Ledger's expressions.

Which gives me a good opportunity to segue to the rest of the cast. When I say that this film belongs to Ledger, it is with a hint of exaggeration. The overall quality of acting in this movie is superb. Bale is superb in a subdued and pensive performance, Freeman and Caine are the consummate pros, and Eckhardt is almost tailor ,ade for the role. The quintissential good looking, wasp, Great American Hope. And Oldman- he's got this uncanny knack of delivering these kickass performances of really humble characters. This performance reminds me in some ways of his awesome performance in JFK.

Ive already said that this is a movie like no other. So obviously its a superhero movie like no other superhero movie. You can't put this and Spiderman on the same shelf. Ironman, maybe, in some ways. What sets this movie apart in that sense is the script and it's complexity. Bruce's innner conflict, the Love Triangle, Wayne's playboy front, Gordon's agenda, the mob, and of course Dent, and Dent vs wayne.
This movie is one of those movies that is 2 things at the same time- a cool, cult movie like Kill Bill and a pop culture juggernaut like Star Wars. I think that cane be said of the franchise overall, and I suppose all credit in that regard should go only to Mr Nolan.

So thank you- Mr. Nolan, Mr Ledger & cast.

Full of Batman Posters

2008-07-20T18:22:00.002+05:30

http://abduzeedo.com/batman-movies-posters

Batman Chasing Spiderman

2008-07-20T18:14:00.002+05:30

http://boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?sortdate=2008-07-18&p=.htm

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/the-dark-knight-box-office-60-million-down-two-days-left.php

Who Wants to Marry a Billionaire?

2008-07-19T20:02:00.000+05:30

http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/19/zimbabwe-issues-100-billion-notes/

How the heck did this happen?

2008-07-19T19:59:00.002+05:30

Cant wait for Heroes Season 3..It premieres Sept 15 in the US.

Check this pic of Sylar & Cheerleader's dad.

Overwhelming

2008-07-19T03:33:00.003+05:30

Just got back from watching The Dark Knight (yet another 'NO GIRLS ALLOWED' movie night with the boys from the office). Right now, 'overwhelming' is all I can say. More later when I've (hopefully) stopped reeling over the weekend.

PS Heath Ledger Lives.

They're saying awfully good things about this film.

2008-07-17T23:16:00.002+05:30

http://www.cinemablend.com/reviews/The-Dark-Knight-IMAX-3238.html

The End Begins.

2008-07-17T23:08:00.001+05:30

Click on the title to view the teaser trailer of Terminator: Salvation, scheduled for release on May 22, 2009. It's pretty cool.

From the 'Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" / Holy Rejection! Dept.

2008-07-13T23:12:00.002+05:30

Yet Another Article about cows and gas.

2008-07-13T22:54:00.001+05:30

For Some Extremely Cool Anime, Click Here

2008-07-13T22:46:00.001+05:30

Thank You, Bobby Murcer

2008-07-13T10:42:00.002+05:30

A great baseball player, but more importantly a great person and great Yankee lost his battle with brain cancer yesterday and passed away. Bobby was 62. I don't normally write obituaries, but Bobby was a special Yankee. A Yankee as a player for 15 years and a broadcaster for the last 25.

I actually met Bobby Murcer once. I think it was the spring of 1982. I was 9, and we were living in North Bergen. Bobby and Rick Cerone were signing autographs as a part of a local bank opening on a beautiful Sunday morning. I remember waking at 7, wearing my Yankee T shirt (carefully selected the night before) and waiting in the line that stretched for 3 blocks. My turn came...all I could do was smile like crazy and blurt out 'Hi Bobby!'. He was nice enough to smile and give me a big Hi! back while he signed my piece of paper.

Thanks for being a lifetime Yankee. Thanks for the memories.

There Goes the Ozone Layer

2008-07-12T14:33:00.001+05:30

Cattle on 40 pints a day of beer

A Cornish farmer is believed to be the first in the county to experiment with breeding cattle on beer.

The Limousin herd at Woodland Farm in Fentonadle get through up to 40 pints of local brew a day as part of their enviable diet.

And they even get a massage to help produce the speciality Kobe-style beef, based on traditional Japanese production methods.

Farmer Darren Pluess says the cattle are not harmed by the diet.

"They are completely happy and they do like drinking beer," he said.

"Beer is basically, hops, water and barley which is consistent with their diet anyway.

"We have problems digesting it, but they are ruminants and it suits them better."

In Japan, Kobe beef is produced only by the expensive Wagyu cattle, but outside the country it can be sold as Kobe-style beef.

At Woodland Farm the beer, which is kept in 1,000 litre vats, is tapped into the sheds of the five Limousin cattle.

Two of the recipients, Olly and George, named after actor Oliver Reed and footballer George Best respectively, appear to be enjoying the diet which is complemented by regular massages to encourage tenderness.

'Run riot'

Mr Pluess's wife Katy said Saturday night could get a bit rowdy.

"If they don't have enough and they run out, when we bring the beer in they get incredibly excited and run riot.

"I don't think they're alcoholics because they do have water as well if they want, but they certainly do enjoy it."

The result is fatty well-marbled beef with burgers from the herd fetching up to £40 each in London restaurants.

"You can't really taste the beer, it just tastes like really, really good beef," said Mr Pluess.

This was long overdue

2008-07-12T14:17:00.001+05:30

Court: Wisconsin law bans sex with dead bodies

By RYAN J. FOLEY | Associated Press Writer
2:18 PM CDT, July 9, 2008

MADISON, Wis. - Wisconsin law bans sex with dead bodies, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in reinstating charges against three men accused of digging up a corpse so one of them could have sex with it.

The court waded into the grisly case after lower court judges ruled nothing in state law banned necrophilia. Those decisions prompted public outrage and a push by a state lawmaker to make sex with a corpse a crime.

In Wednesday's 5-2 decision, the high court said Wisconsin law makes sex acts with dead people illegal because they are unable to give consent.

The ruling reinstates the attempted sexual assault charges against twin brothers Nicholas and Alexander Grunke and Dustin Radke, all 22. The charges carry a punishment of up to 10 years in prison.

When You're Grumpy and You KNow It

2008-07-12T14:05:00.003+05:30

Devices & Gimmicks

2008-07-12T12:19:00.003+05:30

This post is about Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. I saw it with my better (and prettier)half last Sunday and simply loved it. It has removed the bad taste that the last few Hindi movies had left behind- i.e. OSO. It is one of the few movies I have seen in my life that I find flawless- i.e. did not have an issue with a single frame!

This movie is so good because it does what only few Hindi (or Indian?) movies are allowed to do- give the rest of the cast adequate face time, so as to enable their characters to come out. Sholay is what it is because of the characters, so too, Rang De Basanti...Friends, Sex & The City, Seinfeld and the like were all awesome because of this. Unfortunately in India, the male still dominates which in Bollywood is accentuated by the 'I am bigger than you' phenomenon, which is why SRK etc is in almost every frame of every one of his movies...I even said last year, that SRK came in the way of Chak De being what it could have actually been. Which naturally leads me to Aamir Khan.

I don't know him. I have never met him. From this distance I have great respect for the man. Just because he makes good movies, doesn't follow the herd, has an intelligent opinion and voices it. (He also speaks great English.)All in all, I think he's a guy who does the right thing...

He is also an awesome PR strategist...Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, was everywhere, but never seemed overbearing...2 cute people in the lead, and the fact that Papu Cant Dance rocks helps I guess.

Back to the movie- every bit about the movie was great- specifically:

the casting
If YRF were have casted this film- the 'group' as we know them would have all been the north indian male/ female stereotype, all buffed (at a celeb gym), coiffed (at Juice/ Blunt) and dressed (by Rocky S) in DKNY, D&G, Prada etc, straight off the ramp. This film is so good because its real. DCH comes to mind. This is exactly like what a group of teens I see every day at National College or at Cafe Coffee Day Carter Rd. (not Lokhandwala :-))they are normal looking people, some have tattoos, and piercings, some wear cargos, some streak their hair gold and wear oakleys and make their innova look like a pontiac firebird gone wrong. This is real. What I thought was a great and obvious device (why doesn't anyone do it) was the nick names which established characters e.g. Rotlu/ Cats etc.

the dialogues
Just like the group at CCD speaks...the slang and the one liners were well crafted- especially the one about the slightly dimwitted girl's plane 'taking some time to take off'.
the best line in the movie? when jiggy invites cats for his own 'surprise birthday party'.

the acting
i think this goes hand in hand with the casting...i just thought the kids were being themselves. genelia was awesome. (i like the curly hair on her more than the straight). imran in some frames was aamir redux...but thats a good thing. if you're gonna be accused of copying someone, copy the best.
the cameos by the pros were brilliant. arbaaz and sohail have won a new fan in me for their over the top 'rajput cowboy brokeback mountain' hilarity. Naseer- I bow down to you...the little jig you do when Rats goes to jail is priceless. Pareshbhai...you've done it again with Waghmare.

abbas
this is one of the specifics in itself. he's a smart guy- met him once 5-7 years ago and seemed well read etc. he's also written the dialogous to Munnabhai so he has obviously 'got it'. but what i would like to point out here is how he used filmy cliches as a device...this is what sets it apart from dil chahta hain- like jtyjn, dch is/ was also very modern, progressive etc in terms of its values, but the last 20 mins of DCH were very traditionally filmy in the clichetic sense of the term. JTYJN does this thru some very intelligent devices- like the Rajasthani 3 point funda, the sheer over the top-ness of the Manmohan Desai style long lost brothers reunited in jail, leading to Asiatic Library to Sahar Airport on horseback in 25 minutes. further, there is a difference to the way the cliches are used here vis a vis Farah Khan. IN MHN & OSO, as compared to JTYJN, the usage was excessive and at times not essential...just a gimmick.

I think that's what sums it up. In JTYJN, there are 'devices'. Everything else had 'gimmicks'.

Random Musings July 6, 2008

2008-07-06T02:30:00.003+05:30

Its 2.20 am on July 6. I'm awake at this hour listening to the Yankees- Sox game. So whilst I hope like hell that the Yankees win (and put together a streak of sorts), I decided to put some stuff down.

Mugabe
The guy is 82 years old and has re written the book on elections. Makes our indigenous methods of vote fixing juvenile to say the least. Unfortunately Zimbabwe has no known reserves of oli or anything else that the US wants. Therefore he is not declared a terrorist with links to Al Qaeda and essentially ignored.

Wimbledon
The officials and TV networks must have been suicidal this week. The Womens seeds falling like 9 pins day after day and the men's draw lacking even a single match one could classify as memorable. Now its Federer vs Nadal...should make for interesting viewing.

The US Elections
Its rather strange. Nobody seems to care about Obama v McCain...after Obama vs Hillary, i think it will be a while before people will be mentally prepared for the same thing all over again. Also, now they're more busy wondering where all the money went,why their house is worth less today than it was 12 months ago, and how the hell they're going to pay for that 56" plasma tv, the lazy boy chair and the electric barbeque kit.

Indian politics/ the Nuke deal/ leaving the left out
Lol!!! the Samajwadi party was good for something after all...the left was pissing me off big time. Now let them go sulk and or jump off the Howrah Bridge.

Thoda Pyar, Thoda Magic, Bahut Flop
Yet another flop for the mighty YRF...I'm happy. I think they'll finally understand that foreign locales, DKNY & D&G doesn't always cut it.

Meltdown
It's begun to happen folks...the economic meltdown. Its going to be like nothing the world has ever seen. Save now...12 months from now will be a good timeto pick up big ticket items like yachts, islands etc.

Mumbai/ Monsoon/ Roads/ Civic authorities etc
It rained all night last Monday night/ Tuesday. Few areas woke up to flooding. Schools were declared closed. Drenched News Channel reporters spoke in high pitched voices with the crashing waves of the sea in the background. Comparisons to 26/7 were made. Experts were consulted. The result...I got to spend a day eating pizza, surf the net and watch seinfeld and drink beer!!

Fast forward to Friday. Made a trip to Andheri- Veera Desai Rd. The worst roads ever- how do people go to that area on a daily basis- the roads are completely pot-holed, its icky, there are flies and mosquitos everywhere. No wonder Firangi paani is almost packed at 7 pm.

Adios.

This week's sign that the apocalypse is upon us

2008-06-30T13:06:00.002+05:30

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/world/africa/01zimbabwe.html?hp

Waiting for the movie about Mugabe's life which should be out in the next 20 years or so. One dialogue from Blood Diamond comes to mind: '"T.I.A". (This is Africa) Maybe we need a special one with regards to Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

10 Songs You Should Never Play in a Bar

2008-06-21T23:35:00.003+05:30

Haven't been writing much as can be seen by the terrible frequency of posts. I have now reached the state where I find myself finding a topic to write about only to forget and or dismiss it within ten minutes. Perhaps there's an idea there- a shrink of sorts who helps self styled authors like myself overcome writer's block.

Anyway to cut to the chase, found this article whilst digg-ing, and thought i''d come up with my own list...

http://www.holytaco.com/2008/06/17/14-songs-you-should-never-play-in-a-bar/

These songs are so overplayed it's outrageous- if you want to induce nausea, head to the Hawaiian Shack any Saturday night to see a bunch of sweaty drunk yuppy types make complete asses of themeselves, singing and playing air guitar to these songs. Most of the time, they're singing along to their own lyrics.

And this time I'm not merely ranting...As a gesture to all bar DJs around the world, I suggest alternatives (known as MCA's) by the same singer/ group, alongside. Sometimes even a couple!

1. Summer of '69- Bryan Adams. MCA- Run To You
2. Roadhouse Blues- The Doors. MCA- 20th Century Fox, The End
3. Pour Some Sugar on Me- Def Leppard- MCA- Foolin', Too Late For Love
4. Smells Like Teen Spirit- Niravna....I actually like this song, but when is anyone ever going to start playing the even more brilliant 'Come As You Are'?
5. Cocaine- Eric Clapton...Once again a good song, but seriously not Clapton's best track for sure...not even his own in fact. 'Sunshine of Your Love'.
6. The Happiest Days of Our Lives/ Another Brick in the Wall Pt 2- A great song and a classic, but my vote always goes to 'Run Like Hell'.
7. Hotel California- Same goes here- I love this song, but how about 'Take It Easy', or perhaps even 'One of These Nights'?
8. Money For Nothing- Dire Straits. And Walk of Life too...the MCA is the brilliant 'Sultans of Swing'.
9. Sweet Child of Mine- Guns N Roses. I absolutely love this song...but in my humble opinion, 'Estranged' is possibly the most under-rated GNR track EVER.
10. Alive- Pearl Jam. One of my all time faves too, but Pearl Jam has more than one great song...'Last Kiss', and 'Once'...and 'Black' as a closing time track if you're being mellow.
11. Smoke on the Water/ Highway Star- Deep Purple. Woman from Tokyo.
12. Stairway to Heaven- Led Zeppelin. DENIED!! Kashmir Unledded, Trampled Underfoot, Misty Mountain Hop and the awesome Heartbreaker.
13. We Didn't Start the Fire- Billy Joel. The Stranger, Allentown and The Entertainer.
14. Nothing Else Matters- Metallica. This is NOT Metallica folks. 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' is real Metallica.
15. I'm too Sexy- Right Said Fred. Time to get the heck out of the bar before anyone you know sees you there.

Cheers!!

Ironman

2008-05-02T19:23:00.000+05:30

Saw ironman last night. If you like your films to entertain you, pls avoid this one.

What I Want For My Birthday

2008-05-02T19:12:00.000+05:30

http://www.nikkoamerica.com/nhe/dvd_projector_video.html

Slap Happy

2008-04-27T11:34:00.002+05:30

This time he's really done it! And this time with mummy, pua, mausi, dadi and millions of Indians watching! This will occupy the headlines for the next few days and doubtless give the news channel a reason to live.
The Aussie media and Australia in general seems to be saying 'We told you so'.

I wonder if a news channel or maybe the aussie media can get Symmo's views on the matter. Or Ponting's/ Hayden's/ Warne's. If they do, bravo...if the aussies keep quiet, it will truly show the strength of the Indian almighty $$.

I wonder what this does for ShreeShanth's marriage prospects...

I wonder what the overall impact will be on the national team...surely with the IPL matches being played in the true competitive spirit, we can possibly expect more such encounters....Dhoni v Pathan. Irfan v Ishant and so on. I guarantee we are losing the first few matches of the next tour.

Random Musings April 2008

2008-04-25T20:46:00.000+05:30

25-04-08

Haven’t written in a while- don’t know why- possible reasons are below:

1. Not getting pissed off as much as I used to
2. Stuff that would piss me off isn’t happening
3. I’m so disconnected that I’m unaware of stuff that’d piss me off.
4. Have a TV in my newly redesigned room now and
5. Also don’t have a little chair on which to sit so that I can type without scoliosis setting in. (Typing this at the office at 745 on a Friday night)

If I were to honestly pin point the reasons, I’d think it’d be a combination of all, but I essentially think its points 4 & 5.

But now that I am here, I’ll randomly muse…so here we go:

Bangkok

Went to Bangkok for a business trip March 16- March 20. It was one of the usual business meets I attend- 3-4 odd people from each affiliate around the region being presented new music, being exhorted that we need to do and be “bigger better faster more” (all at the same time), whilst being presented a bunch of new music and acts all of which are a priority and all of which we are supposed to ‘break’ provided we put our thinking caps on, show passion (which is supposedly missing), get creative, and think out of the box. The meeting was quite draining, I’m quite geeky like that and wont say the meeting is draining and or boring for the sake of it- but this meeting was really draining. Don’t know why…maybe because there was no real stand out piece of new music that really stuck or got me excited.

Whilst at the meeting, ‘the India story’ and the impact it’s having on the world really hit me. 5 or 6 years ago, the ‘developed’ Asian markets like HK, Singapore etc were the real heavyweights and all eyes and ears were on them. Today the situation is totally changed. All eyes and ears were on us- or of the eyes and ears bit, we had significant market share.

It’s easy to say it’s because of our economy, the GDP growth- all of which you read in the papers everyday. But I think and felt it was beyond that. Not to sound egotistical or pompous, at this meeting, I felt smarter and more capable than my fellow colleagues. I could be biased because most of them aren’t as fluent in English as we are, but I think it’s more than that. I think that in a way, it’s as basic as necessity being the mother of invention.

These same ‘developed’ markets are going through hell right now because the market changed faster than they could do anything about, and the gravy train they were riding all these years- i.e. Brit expats buying a Jamiroquai album in droves is history- the expats are now downloading stuff for free, and our friends are without a Plan B.

Now its one thing not to have a Plan B then, but frankly I didn’t see any real creativity or ideas to sort the situation out today either. I couldn’t even spot a direction I their thinking so to speak….i.e. what is the demographic, what is their buying behavior, what do they like to do on weekends, how often they are likely to go to a music store etc.

I think in India, I/ we (we= people my age), have actually been lucky that it’s been so tough on us. The only way for us to get success (for ourselves and our products) is to be creative, innovative, knowledgeable and actually think out of the proverbial box!

Re Bangkok, it’s still pretty much the same; everything is a soi, sukhumvit or a ‘Rama’, the traffic jams are terrible, and the shopping is still about 3 years ahead of India. The new airport is quite kickass though. But coming back to Bangkok, what bothers me about it is the way they look at sex- I just think it’s ‘icky’. What’s even ickier is to see a 19 year old Thai hooker making out, tongue and all, with a middle aged drunk wrinkly American who had to go half way around the world to get lucky.
The other thing that bothers me about Bkk, is the smells (the smells in HK in certain areas bother me too)- a unique combination of sweat, fish oil and God knows what else. The cab rides are the toughest…I don’t know how often those dudes bathe man, but seriously, give me a smelly Mumbai driver any day. These dudes don’t even get the hint when you slide down the back seat window to let in some air. It goes straight back up because the driver has got the magic master switch. So every cab ride in Bangkok is an exercise in holding your breath. Two words for you: tuk tuk.

Baseball

Baseball season has started, so life has meaning again. This year for the Yanks it does look tough, they are indeed taking on a huge gamble on the pitching staff. Thus far, the 2 kids Hughes and Kennedy haven’t really delivered at all- they are both sporting ERAs around 9.00 at the time of writing. Lets hope the Wanger (4-0), Dandy Andy and Moose can get around 75-80 quality starts between them, and Damon and Cano pick up the pace. I don’t expect another year like 2007 from Jorge, so Damon is going to have to compensate assuming JoPo has a normal year- i.e. 22; 80; 270. Giambi should simply be cut…there is no point spending $23 Million to have a guy who is hitting .109, and is a liability on the base paths and the field.

IPL

Haven’t been zealously watching the games, but have managed to watch more than I had planned to because I’ve been at bars or establishments where its been on. Frankly, I don’t think its that bad…yes, teams are scoring @ 11 runs per over, Sehwag did score 90 odd in 40 balls, but my prediction that it’d be a whole bunch of slogging and hacking seems to be a bit off for now. From what I see, the quality is pretty good, with shots being cricketing shots, being played around the ground, piercing fielders etc. Lets hope the quality stays at this level, and the IPL introduces the innovations I have been recommending for a while now (I’ll post those some other time). The IPL, could actually be the turning point in India becoming a 2 TV household, as the matches are competing with the Ksoaps. I can imagine a typical household in Amdavad…Ba, Bahu and Beti vs. the men. Interesting.

Movies
The summer season is already upon us and I haven’t even seen the winter’s movies!!! Can’t stand this multiplex culture where you’re supposed to see every movie in the 1st weekend or miss it all together. I’m a little old school that way, I typically wait for a movie to build some word of mouth, get some recommendations and then buy tickets and go watch the movie. By the time this happens, the movie is gone, and Im waiting to make a trip abroad to spend 800 odd bucks to buy it.

Movies I need to see are:
Michael Clayton
The Blood of Others
Sweeny Todd
Juno
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
Iron Man
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
The Hulk

Ok, I think that’s it for now. I think I’ll be writing more soon. Need to practice being a writer without being angry.
Wish me luck!!

Bye

Chak De

2007-08-31T14:48:00.000+05:30

Everyone has been raving about Chak De for the last 3 weeks, even people I know, so we went to see it. Its a simple enough story that's been done 1000s of times, but in spite of that if so many people were going gush gush I guess it was worth the risk.

I liked the movie enough to give it a 6 or 6.5 on 10. I'll first deal with why/ what of the movie I didn't like.

1. SRK. Seriously, this guy has got to stop sleep walking through his roles. I never thought he's the world's greatest actor, but he is definitely not the worst either. He is capable of good performances. In Main Hoon Na, he was awesome. After Don, KANK & Chak De, I'm convinced he doesn't care, unless its his own production company's film.

2. YashRaj-isms. The movie was spoilt by the usual over the top moments that YRF would have insisted on, keeping the Indians in Southhall in mind more than the Indians in India. The instances are as follows- before the big finals when the white guy is hoisting the flags, you knew Kabir was gonna say something about how proud he is that a white guy was hoisting the tri-colour. Firstly, I think we as a nation need to stop feeling persecuted. Its been 60 years folks, and we have 10% GDP growth now and the US$ is only (artificially) 40 bucks.
Another was at the end when the triumphant Indian team returns but Kabir is nowhere to be seen. That was because he had gone back to his 'rightful' home with his scooter and mother both in tow. When this happened, you knew that the camera would slowly pan to the small kid who was busily scratching out the words 'gaddar' that were written 7 years ago.
The hockey game. You knew it would come be Rocky-esque where the Indian team would come back against the odds to bring the game down to a penalty shootout. But why the need to miss the 1st 2 shots? So unneccesary.

Now coming to what I did like.
Taking the piss out of cricket. There are at least 8 instances I can remember where they completely destroy cricket. The best 2 were as follows- in the McDonalds when one man is trying to come from behind and hit one of the girls with a cricket bat, kabir catches the offender, takes the bat, and says 'hockey mein cricket ki tarah chhakey nahin hotey hain'. The other was when the Yuvraj-esque vice captain of the cricket team gets turned down on national television by Preeti.

The haryanvi girl & the Punjabi girl.
These 2 completely stole the show. I still cant decide which one I like more. They were the movie. More power to them.

India.
I'm not too sure if everyone got the point the director was trying to make, but whilst SRK was trying to instill a funda of 'now you're playing for your country', what the directors successfully managed to actually tell us through the girls and the movie that we mistrust people from other states more out of ignorance & fear of the unknown rather than anything else. Which is why we will never be united, and only an aggregation of 35 odd countries unified only by currency notes and a flag instead of patriotism.

The system- being exposed
I've seen it at close access when I went to a cycling competition once back in the 90s. How everyone is completely disinterested in winning. How the beauraucrats want the phirang trips. How the players want a government flat, a scooter and a bank job. The state-based partisan-ism. The quota system. The exploitation of those that come from the poorer states like Mizoram, Jharkhand etc. The coterie that exists between the players and the association. How sports funds are misused. How sports grounds are used for Ram Lila shenanigans.

These are as usual my 2 bits. I hope more people watch this movie, but more importantly do some thinking and go beyond the fact that we beat australians in hockey.

Else India will stay an aggregation of 35 countries that overvalues cricket and its cricketers.

Mostly About Music

2007-08-26T14:54:00.000+05:30

I got to thinking recently, when somebody asked me 'what I'm listening to these days'.

Now in my case this isn't a simple listing of songs I happen to listen on the radio on the way to work. It's slightly more serious, given the role music plays in my life first as a serious fan/ collector/ authority type thing, and second obviously as a music exec for the world's 2nd largest music company.

The question adequately subtitled and translated actually is 'anything new that you've discovered that truly moves you?'. To be even more precise, 'have you heard anything that is truly innovative, and would be willing to recommend, and hope to see becoming more popular?'

Last year (2006) there was lots of such stuff...The Pearl Jam album, Dixie Chicks, Justin, Continuum, Modern Times, Raconteurs, Gnarls, The Fray, Corinne Bailey Rae,
Stadium Arcadium....2006 was a year of great music.

This year not quite the same...nothing truly new, innovative and breakout as such. The Timbaland album is great but it pretty much templates FS/LS and Nelly F's 'Loose'; both of which were produced by him. Linkin Park's new album is good, but not necessarily 'new'. Bon Jovi has done something new in the sense that they have changed genres and gone country, but the country they're singing isn't necessarily a country you haven't been to.

I can list only 4 or 5 albums/ singers that Ive heard this year that are truly and remarkably 'new' and 'good'.
They are (not in any order as such)

Mark Ronson- Version- This is possibly the most innovative album, and its an album of covers!!! So now can you IMAGINE how innovative it is? Remember Moby's Play and how ubiquitously cool it became? The same should happen here.

Amy Winehouse- Produced by Mr Ronson (yes the same dude), but what works here is her voice, and the lyrics in perfect cohesion with Mr Ronson's expertise in the knob twiddling department.

Icky Thump- How the hell do the White Stripes keep outdoing themselves every time?

HelloGoodbye- Just heard one single (Here in my arms) but I have gotten quite addicted to it. Its a happy happy song that can be best described as "Emo goes to a New Order concert".

Foo Fighters- The Pretender- Their to be released album- Echoes/ Patience/ Silence/ Grace is tipped to be their big mainstream splash...their 'American Idiot' or 'BloodSugar' of sorts.
The premiere single, 'The Pretender' is possibly their best track since 'I'll Stick Around'. I've heard one more track from the album just once- the BIG ballad whose name I forget. But trust me, if the planets are in order and the stars align, that song can be huge...I'm talking Under The Bridge-esque impact here.

Eddie Vedder-
Eddie Vedder and Sean Penn, are quite thick. And one could conjecture, also quite similar in personality...which explains why Eddie Vedder's debut solo offering is 'Music FOR (not 'from', or 'inspired by')the motion picture Into The Wild'- (check it out on wikipedia), which is produced and/ or directed by Mr. Penn.
Mr. Vedder really doesn't push any obvious sonic ground, but the songwriting and singing (especially if you get the plot of the movie) is just brilliant...nay, poetic. Hard Sun, the 1st single, is beautiful...and a bit depressing...but in a 'nice' way, (if there ever was one.)

Honorable Mentions:
Its Too Late (Dirty South vs Evermore)- The 'Missing' of the new millennium.
Umbrella- Rhianna- At least this year's 'You're Beautiful, didn't sound like 'You're Beautiful'.
Velvet Revolver- 'She Builds Quick Machines' and 'The Last Fight'- Slash is the #1 rock guitarist of this era for sure.
How To Save A Life- The Fray
What I've Done- Linkin Park
LP doing what they do best, which is singing about how depressed they (always) are because some chick dumped them (after all that he's done/ suffered/ sacrificed blah blah)...but somehow the 15 year old in heat in me comes out whenever I hear this song...or Numb, or Crawling, or In The End.

Thats all folks...feel free to tell me what you think (thats why they invented the comments thingummy), and if there is anything you think I should give a listen to.

Bye.

D-oh!, Woo-Hoo!, etc

2007-08-16T23:03:00.000+05:30

I simply could have titled this post 'The Simpsons Movie', but that wouldn't necessarily be me right?

Anyway, to come back to the point, The Simpsons Movie excels. Why? Because it is quite simply ' The Simpsons'. I mean that in 2 ways- firstly it is The Simpsons, so it can't possibly suck, but the larger point I'm making is that it does an awesome job of being 'The Simpsons'. In other words, if you are a Simpsons fan, it's the best episode EVER, which is 4x the legnth of a usual 23 minuter....

From the beginning its a laugh a minute, and if you thought the jokes are good, the dry sarcasm and satire is at a whole other level. The writer's grasp of the psyche of the audience and probably hence pop culture, (or vice-versa) and the Simpsons own place in it is so strong, you really do wonder what the hell it is that they're smoking...Right from the start- where per Simpsonian tradition Bart is in class writing his umpteenth punishment- "I will not illegally download this movie' to the whole Itchy v Scratchy nuclear political war, the movie just never stops....there is a (social)comment in almost every frame...how Americans view the elderly, Homer's lack of parenting skills, Homer's lack of 'husbanding' skills, and pretty much Homers lack of well...everything, Marge's perennial love and acceptance of Homer which caricatures the (cliched) female 'prototype' (to nurture and protect the home and the hearth) to the ineptitude of authority and authority figures, to our cynicism, laziness and utter denial of looming crises (global warming/ toxicity), etc. And this is what makes it rock. The scene that spoofed An Incovenient Truth was priceless, as was Schwazenegger (I'm not even going to try to spell it), and the Spiderpig sequence, and the sequence where Flanders gives Bart hot cocoa, and the sequence with the Irish dude saying, yes I'm Irish and a musician and I care about the world, but MY NAME IS NOT BONO!!!.

Fave scenes from the movie

Opening sequence- Itchy/ Scratchy
Green Day concert
Lisa meets 'Bono'
Spiderpig, Spiderpig
Bart spoofing Austin Powers
Lisa as Al Gore- An Irritating Truth
'I Am Paid to Lead, Not to Read'
Maggie and Lisa and Marge giving Homer a good talking to
Ross Kargil and Arnie- Meeting 2...'Pick a Number'
Tom Hanks
Duff Hoarding at Green Day concert 'Binge Responsibly'
Bart and Homers incredible Roller Coaster ride

Trust me...Go and watch this movie. Then when the DVD comes out, buy it. And get set for a lifetime of thought provoking fun.

Random Musings: The Aug 2007 Version

2007-08-12T13:23:00.000+05:30

Ok, as can be seen I haven't written anything for over 2 months now. Which has some of you (ok only one) wondering and possibly questioning why. Well it's not like I forgot to write, or don't care to write anymore...I do, however one big reason I wrote so much way back in the day was anger. I guess I'm in a happier place than I was 12-18 months ago, so somehow that’s translated into less content being uploaded onto nativityinblog. To make a bad play on words, the more content I am, the less content gets generated. Not to say, things that made me angry then, don’t make me angry now...they still do, but somehow, instead of getting all riled about it, I kind of give an inner smug smile, and say to myself one of two things.
1. They'll get it at some point...i.e. One day the error of their ways will dawn upon them.
2. They are too dumb or stubborn to get it...i.e. I hope one day the error of their ways comes back and bites them in their ass.

Anyway coming back to the point which is the reason for this post...i.e. to muse randomly- here goes.

Global Warming:
I don’t think we as a race can ignore it anymore. Every month something happens that is evidence. Two days ago there was a level 8 warning of a typhoon in Hong Kong. The big apple was shut down by rain 4 days before that. The tragedies in UP and Bihar were severe. The writing is on the wall my friends. I have a four step plan.
The first step is to see 'an inconvenient truth'. The second would be to actually do something about it, however small...squeezing 6 to a car of it’s a small distance, shutting the light off, not have the car come and fetch you at the airport (a cab will do), and the 3rd thing would be to tell your friends what you’re doing and acting slightly smug about it (that way they do it).
The 4th thing would be to spread some kind of awareness on the politics of global warming. Asking why the dirt keeps getting swept up under the rug. That very simply has to do with the likes of exxonmobil etc, which control the propaganda that comes out of DC on this topic. To quote Cheney on global warming: "What we know today is not enough to just sort of run out and try to slap together some policy that’s going to 'solve' the problem.” As long ago as 2001, then White House Press secretary on responding to a question whether Bush would ask Americans to curb their energy consumption was quoted as saying; 'that’s a big no. The president believes that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one'. Dude the American way of life is also one where America consumes 40% of the world’s resources.

Rolling Stone magazine:
There is no better music magazine in the world. Period. Sure it’s had its ups and downs...Britney on the cover etc, but in terms proper music journalism there is none superior. Summer 2007 marks the 40th anniversary of the magazine, and all I can say is Thank God for Rolling Stone. Imagine the clout it had in the 70s & 80s...when music was the youth culture mouthpiece...i.e. before the internet and mobile phones and video games and what have you. I’ve now been reading the magazine for 24 years, and all I can say is that its taught me lots about music but more importantly about journalism, policy and philosophy. I'm glad I’ve preserved some classic issues....the two 25th anniversary issues, the one after Live Aid, the one when Cobain died, the 1st Axl Rose interview...

Singapore:
Had a work conference in Langkawi, post which took a right turn and spent the weekend in Singapore, with the man form Thunder Road and his lovely wife. For a sheer good time in a big city, Singapore ranks up there with the best. Shopping is the national pastime; there are restaurants and bars of every kind, and just lots to do. Hit the ground running on Saturday at the malls and one can say by the end of it contributed significantly to the economy...2 pairs of shoes (adidas superstars and puma clydes), 6 dvds, 15 cds, 3 books and 1 digicam worth. Along the way introduced friends to Samuel Adams at Dan Ryan’s on a Saturday afternoon. I also bought a killer pair of sennheiser headphones. DVD wise bought Little Miss Sunshine, Inconvenient Truth, Hustle and Flow, The US Vs John Lennon and because they were going at 9.97 ea. Training Day, The Untouchables. Notable Cd purchases include Rihanna (can't escape Umbrella, ella, ella, ay ay), Mika, The new Stripes album (killa), Wolfmother (had to see what the hype was about), Illusion 1 & 2 (again), a limited edition enhanced etc version of Fleetwood Mac Rumors, and at long last- The Best of Tesla!!! In books, got a book on Slash (more suited to the mind of an 18 year old), The Assault on Reason (Gore) and Devil's Game- a book on how US Foreign Policy in effect gave rise to Islamic Fundamentalism.

Reading
A big reason why I’ve been writing less is because I’ve been reading more. More is an understatement. I’ve been reading. A lot. This brings me to my discovery of digg.com...the most kickass website in the world. If you don’t know what digg is, its a social news network, where news stories make it to the digg server democratically. I.e. When stories are 'dugg' or uploaded (link) to the digg server by people who want to share them. So you get to read all sorts of stuff and discover websites you would never have in the normal course of your own web surfing habits. Reddit, stumbledupon, and slashdot are also good sites of this ilk.

Facebook
I think its killer. I never quite liked orkut and myspace that much because i didn’t find them simple enough or relevant enough to use or in the case of orkut, just too icky and immature. Facebook is something that talks to me. Its clean, its fun, and u can throw food at people!!

Budweiser
In India baby!!! And its good....waiting for
Mallya to call me when he sees sales of KF flagging at a certain wine merchant in Khar...

Later.

Link 182

2007-06-05T14:33:00.000+05:30

Hello,

As you can see I have been not writing of late but instead linking...I will link stuff I think is interesting and stuff that should be read and or seen.

I will continue to write as well from time to time, but til then and henceforth you can think of me as your personal news filter/ aggregator.

Peace

BowenArrow

i wants

2007-06-05T13:51:00.000+05:30

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PQLTjiAfdLY

the most awesome thing you've ever seen

2007-05-31T22:31:00.000+05:30

http://brian.shaler.name/pages/blog/hey-ya-typography-animation/

now that i've got your attention, i will admit that i'm exaggerating a mite. but it's really good.

technology rules

2007-05-31T21:58:00.000+05:30

http://www.google.com/maps?q=970+OFarrell+St,+San+Francisco,+CA+94109,+USA&ie=UTF8&ll=37.7889,-122.417489&spn=0.006774,0.013561&z=17&om=0&layer=c&cbll=37.785489,-122.417975&cbp=2,438.82277544807,0.667036460163099,2

yeah, but not for this guy

Ultimate Gadget

2007-05-30T18:30:00.000+05:30

http://geektechnique.org/projectlab/781/slurpr-the-mother-of-all-wardrive-boxes

How Low They Could Go

2007-05-30T18:25:00.000+05:30

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=92662

an interesting article about my favourite topic, and it even quotes my favourite movie.

Sound Familiar?

2007-05-20T12:08:00.000+05:30

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1622015,00.html

An excerpt from Al Gore's latest. Very Interesting.

I think I touched upon a few points he makes here:

http://nativityinblog.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2006-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=42

The Fat Lady Sang

2007-03-25T14:13:00.000+05:30

By that I mean, yes, it is indeed over. The World Cup that is. India have lost to Sri Lanka. The media is in post mortem mode. Ex cricketers have been transformed into 'experts' in the shortest time.

To zoom out a bit and look at the world cup per se, this is not the best advertisement for cricket, in the context of its quest for the global popularization of the game. The 2 most high profile teams ousted, the murder of a white man in a black country with browns being the suspects. Match fixing, betting mafias. And of course, all those unsold cans of pepsi and reebok shoes.

Kabbaddi anyone?

The Shortest World Cup?

2007-03-18T19:22:00.000+05:30

The Indians have done it again...our illustrious boys in blue that is. Lost to Bangladesh in the world cup, a match that they were 'supposed' to win. Now it gets interesting. They have to beat Bermuda in the next match, that too by a significant margin, then beat Sri Lanka on the 23rd. If they lose to Sri Lanka then its over anyway. But if they do manage to beat Bermuda (by a lot) and Sri Lanka, they still have to hope that the Bermudans put on their best shorts, and not lose to Bangaldesh by much in their match. As an aside, the Pakis are already on their way home, or to a hiding place previously used by Osama. Picture this...India and Pakistan both eliminated from the world cup by the 23rd of March. making it in efect, a 10 day world cup.
Awesome.

I mean that.

I hope that this will serve as the final lesson to industry in this country...the kind that has made this silly sport the ridiculous monopoly that it is. Sports Channels will invest in other content/ sports, or at least not bid irrational sums of cash for telecast rights. Pepsi will have to find some other way of blowing up their cash. Imagine how tough Mandira's job has just become!!! Will the diaphonous saree make a comeback?? Or will they fire Mandira and replace her with Rakhee Sawant?

Tomorrow is going to be a lot of fun my friends. Filled with the sound of thousands of release orders being torn up and the screeching sound of trucks laden with Pepsi taking u turns to go back to the factory.

Woo-hoo!!

The OTHER Arun Nair Wedding

2007-03-12T16:33:00.000+05:30

The Nair Hurley nuptials happened on the 9th of March. If this is the first you've heard about it, I envy you. But more importantly (since he is my friend, a nice person, and has good taste in music and beer), the man from thunder road Arun Nair & the charming Renu Nair got married in Singapore on Saturday 10th March.

Here's wishing them all the best and a house full of Nairettes.

Using 'Rage' to stay sane in Mumbai a.k.a. Random Musings Part 2

2007-02-25T21:12:00.000+05:30

Its one of 3 things.
Option 1- Im getting older, crankier and more impatient.
Option 2- Things are actually worse.
Option 3- Option 1 + Option 2

Lets agree on Option 3, while we focus the discussion on Option 2. What I mean by worse is in the travelling through traffic by car experience. Its a freaking nightmare, and I know it because I spend on the average 2 hours everyday travelling 17 kilometers from my Gamdevi to Santacruz and back.

Things are at a low point on the roads these days and soon we will be making Kolkata comparisons.

Why things suck like they never have.

Eager beaver 20 year old cab drivers fresh out of UP who are not very confident behind the wheel, take u turns where they are not supposed to in the 4th gear, and have an assinine, God saved me look on their face when they go through another near death experience involving themselves, their passengers and about 8-10 other cars that hapepn to be in a 30 feet radius.

Stop on the side please-
This is the fault of both the passenger and the cabbie. Picture this: cab in extreme roght lane, passenger yapping on phone. passenger last minute realises that left turn must happen now. Taxi driver shifts down a gear, raises his right hand out of the right hand side window and boldly does a diagonal while 3 other cars deftly manouever around him. Guys, this is not a video game.

'The I'm/ someone else is sitting in the car excuse'-
The above is amazingly versatile. It covers all sorts of transgressions whilst having parked where one is not supposed to.
Every day, I pass 2 schools on my way to work. Villa Teresa at 915 or so and Bombay Scottish half an hour later. Peak time. Entering Pedder Road from underneath Kemps Corner is a bit of a logjam anyway, but the parents, drivers and authorities at VTS dont seem to realise that. You have cars with drivers in them parked all the way back til Vama stressing out the bottleneck further. Add to this, cars who have (illegaly) parked, getting out of their parking spots and re-entering traffic. Same story at Bombay Scottish where as an added treat the Bombay Scottish guys also put on a very entertaining show involving triple parked cars everyday between 930 and 10.

Because I got sick of the triple parking show everyday, I have changed my travel route to work. I take Tardeo road to haji ali, then the race course to mahalaxmi then connecting to Tulsipipe Road. While I do save 15 to 20 minutes having not had to navigate through VTS & BS (how apt!), Tulsipipe Road has its own delights viz:
Contract Buses which take a U turn just after Famous Studio, just before the incline towards Mahalaxmi station starts.
Hajaar Construction activity on T'pipe Road- DLF Property, Ruby Mills etc etc. The result: slow moving lorries, packed with dirt, debris etc which take up the whole road and travel at the speed of 30. Shouldnt these be retired? They are over 50 years old!!

Nakabandi on entering Bandra
Whats the deal with this? This has been going on for a year now at least. Are there no gangsters before Bandra? (Yet another reson for South Mumbai to rejoice). If you as a man on the run, knew there was a nakabandi at Bandra since its there everyday, wouldn't you take a difefrent route?
Other than being stupid, this nakabandi adds about 5 and at times 10 minutes to the drive because you rapidly convert 6 lanes into 1.

Other than the above Mumbai is filled with general anarchy as far as traffic is concerned. Its absolutely common for people to cross in the middle of traffic, and expecting cars to slow doen simply because they made the 'slow down i'm crossing' sign. This is a city guys.

Anyway, I've doiscovered a novel way to deal with the above. Metal to relax your nerves. And the song thats currently working the best is below.

Sleep now in the fire! by Rage Against the Machine

The world is my expense
The cost of my desire
Jesus blessed me with its future
And I protect it with fire
So raise your fists and march around
Dont dare take what you need
I'll jail and bury those committed
And smother the rest in greed
Crawl with me into tomorrow
Or i'll drag you to your grave
I'm deep inside your children
They'll betray you in my name

[Hey! Hey! Sleep now in the fire]x2

The lie is my expense
The scope with my desire
The party blessed me with its future
And i protect it with fire
I am the nina, the pinta, the santa maria
The noose and the rapist, the fields overseer
The agents of orange
The priests of hiroshima
The cost of my desire
Sleep now in the fire

For it's the end of history
It's caged and frozen still
There is no other pill to take
So swallow the one
That makes you ill
The nina, the pinta, the santa maria
The noose and the rapist, the fields' overseer
The agents of orange
The priests of hiroshima
The cost of my desire
Sleep now in the fire

YEAAAH!
Sleep now in the fire! x4

Happiness

2007-02-25T20:54:00.000+05:30

Hello, forgot to report that I have kind of moved to the big league. A post from THIS VERY blog, ie the one on the safari suit made it to the December issue of Mans World Magazine. Mans World isnt the 'New Yorker' I'm aware, but it's still nice to see your article and name in print.
Secondly, I was egged on and then agreed to write an article about Gamdevi for the HT Cafe (Thanks LI), and lo and behold one Tuesday morning in January it was published, and they even sent me money (Rs 2000) for it!
Not saying that this is the start of a journey that will lead to the Pulitzer but heck it does feel nice to be recognised (and thus have reason to feel one up over all the other 'mere' bloggers!)
Back to the Gamdevi article, the one that appeared in the paper was somewhat edited, but since you have taken the trouble to come here, here it is in all its 916 word glory.

Get Lifted.

Five schools, one college, two nursery schools/ play groups, three hostels, one (rapidly shrinking) self enclosed slum area, one of Bombay’s oldest police stations, Anil Ambani’s favourite dosa, one large-ish park, and the origin of The Quit India Movement.

What I’m actually referring to is a residential area in Bombay, in fact, the same residential area in which Ive made my home for the last 34 years, and the kinda place that you can check out of, but never quite erm…leave. Heck, even the great Mahatma Gandhi kept a pad here.

Obviously this isn’t about any hotel in California, but rather the Laburnum lined neighborhood that is Gamdevi.

Having lived in Gamdevi for so long, one has obviously been witness to lots many changes, the most obvious been the steady proliferation of buildings that require lifts and watchmen, the difficulty in finding a parking spot, now that every family has three cars. and the felling of some of the older citizens of said Laburnum family every monsoon either through natural or un-natural means.

That said, Gamdevi was and is a great place to live. Community-wise a well balanced mix of middle and upper middle class Parsees, Maharashtrians and Gujaratis. To give you a money perspective, the kind of place where everyone had a nice Fiat and a nice house, but not the kind of families to have a Benz and a house with wall to wall marble and granite and a garish door that looked like it was stolen from a fake temple.
On your way to the bus stop you’d have to say hello to at least 3 uncles/ aunties who wouldn’t leave you until you gave them the full report on your parent’s health or whether the shared domestic reported to work that morning. Once I made the mistake of saying my mom was running a temperature and wound up missing my school bus!

The best way to sum up and succinctly describe 1970’s Gamdevi is through the sounds.

At home, there was Bhimsen Joshi (or Abba if my elder sister was visiting from NID), in the garages behind my bedroom window there would be Amar Akbar Anthony. French Opera and Western Classical in the living rooms of the Parsee families across the street, the national anthem, prayers, and band practice in Fellowship School just down the road, a koyal who was so loud you’d think she’s soliciting prospects from St Louis, the stifled burp-like sound made by the ‘kalai-walah’, the twanging noise made by the raffoo-walah, the amplified directness of the kanda-batata wala and on Sundays, a special treat, the drum roll that accompanied the bunder-wala. Now of course, all the bunders have moved on to bigger and better things like hotels, museums and multiplexes, but at one time you could set your clock to these sounds. Who needs the Swiss train system anyway!

Though the sounds have been somewhat stifled and taken over by the cacophony of car horns, the one thing that hasn’t changed about Gamdevi for me is its character. Maybe I’m in denial or my line of vision when I’m walking doesn’t see the kind of buildings that require lifts. Or maybe I see them but don’t acknowledge them, which you’d appreciate is kind of hard when there is a 22 storey monster outside your bedroom window. But coming back to the point, I think Gamdevi has done a commendable job of holding on to its character. We do have our fair share of embarrassments, but when I mention Gamdevi, those that are familiar with the area still talk about the trees, and it’s cultured ethos, not about a red and green made of plexi-glass peacock that resides in the lobby of one of the newer buildings down the road (yes, the building has a lift).

Strangely enough, the one question that perplexed me growing up was the relative ignorance of people regards this great Shangri-la of South Bombay. Ever since college, where my friends lived in more obvious locales like Breach Candy, Walkeshwar, Malabar Hill, Churchgate, Colaba and the like I’ve always had to ‘explain’ where Gamdevi is. Having done it a few thousand times, I’ve since honed it to a fine art. And having the advantage of a post graduate degree in communications, I learnt to tailor the message for the audience.

For those who have a western railway orientation of Bombay, ‘it’s a ten minute walk from Grant Road station towards Chowpatty’. For others ‘it’s the area between Kemps Corner and Babulnath. If I was speaking to a bawa-ji, it was ‘Khareghat ane RTI ni baaju ma’. For a jazzercise enthusiast in 1992, it was ‘where Shiamak’s classes are held’. Sometimes when I was lazy and wanted to impress someone of the fairer sex, I’d simply say ‘Kemps Corner’. Unfortunately, I never met Anil Ambani, or I would have said ‘3 buildings from your favourite dosa wala’.

Today it’s somewhat simpler with the advent of 2 new age landmarks, i.e. Juice/ B Blunt & Westside. Recently I told a pyt page 3 wannabe model type from Versova (my favorite kind) - ‘Erm, you know Juice in town? It’s five minutes from there…’

Come to think of it, somebody a hundred or so years ago could have had it right. Like in that Night Shyamalan film set in rural Pennsylvania. The idea being to keep Gamdevi a secret to and keep others out. You know- the kind that like to live in buildings with lifts.

Random Musings 1

2007-02-24T16:21:00.000+05:30

Hello,

Aplogies for not having posted anything in a month and a half. Since I havent written for so long, there are a whole bunch of thougts that are just waiting to get out, so here they are, in no particular order.

Cannes
I had the privelage of going to Cannes in the 3rd week of January for a week, and it was great. I love little European towns with narrow winding roads, old churches, cafes with outdoor seating, old architecture etc. Cannes is like that. It's lovely, and its 'a cote d'azur'. That's 'by the sea' for you folks who dont even understand un peu de French.
The thing with Cannes is that our perceptions of it are very much to do with the whole film festival, Madonna, Aishwarya Rai, fancy yachts & rich mans playground kind of thing. But that's not all there is, nor is that what Cannes is actually about. The small town, small cafes, and nice people aspect is what makes Cannes lovely.
The economy or the way the town functions is awesome. Some dude was once siting under a tree I suppose, when an apple fell on him. He then got the idea to make the Palais des Festivals. i.e the Convention Center. It's awesome with every possible facility a convention center needs to have. And the entire economy revolves around this. I'd suspect on the average there would be a convention in town 10 days in a month. The entire city comes alive then with the addition of 10000 people half of which are on expense accounts. Cafes and bars are full. There are always people on the streets. There is a city- like, all pervasive, 'lets make a deal' buzz.

The day the convention is over the city then slides back to a town...more languid, fewer people. You can tell by the changed expression on the waiters face. Heck you'd even see HIM having a cup of coffee and reading the paper.

The guys in Goa need to go and study Cannes if they are serious about realising their vision of Goa being the 'Cannes of the East'. Especially after the debacle that was the last film festival in December.

The Grammys

Its widely been regarded as the vindication of the Dixie Chicks and a big show of the middle finger to the 'establishment'.
But hey, and allow me to gloat a bit here, its also been a big vindication of your's truly. EVERY album self worked on and tried to promote to the Indian press won a Grammy. Most of which went to the aforementioned Dixie Chicks.
The next day i got a few text messages...when's the big Grammy party? I replied 'when every journalist sends me a wriiten apology saying they were wrong in 'preferring' not to write about the Dixie Chicks. Or The Seeger Sessions album. Or Continuum. Justin. John Legend. The list goes on. Idiots. They are still obsessing over what John Abraham is going to wear at the Oscars and who's doing the clothes for the LizArun wedding.

Concerts
A sincere than you to DNA and the promoter faculty for Alan Parsons. Walter Trout. Buddy Guy (Pls no more). Roger Waters. Russel Peters. Shakira. Aerosmith. And Maiden!!!!!!
But first i'll cover the Waters show. I went in not expecting much. Having seen the Bangalore show in 02, I wasnt particularly looking forward to this. But it rocked. The sound was kickass. The bass was heavenly and thats what counts the most. The show was insane. I was so happy to see him smile and talk to the audience. I guess The Wall can come down after all!! The visuals were nice. The song selection was awesome. Not that much of his own stuff, but even within the Floyd stuff, it was very political!!!! The Beirut song was very moving and the way he took Dubya's ass and gave it a spanking was to be seen to be believed!! The highlight of course, being the pink piggy. I love piggies, and a Pink Floyd piggy is piggy royalty.

Maiden
March 17th. Bangalore.
This is going to be awesome, and also the largest black T shirt convention ever in India. The EddFest is going to be Killer....
Ok, now that Ive done my screaming, Maiden is like this part of my adolescent years (in America) that will never go away. I remember buying the Number of the Beast album and Piece of Mind on vinyl (I still have them), and staring at the cover before even opening it! Reading the lyrics as the songs played on my player. When I first heard 'reveleations'- i.e. the part before 'The Number of the Beast' I felt so cool.I can still recite it by heart...woe to you o earth and sea for the devil sends his beast with wrath 'cos he knows time is short. Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the veast, For it is a human number....
Maiden is a metal band unlike any other metal band. In the sense that if you really get into them, you'll wind up with a PhD of sorts in medievel history, the occult, possibly some stuff on the crusades, Alexander the Great and the templars etc. If ever I was invited to Bruce Dickinson's house (or castle!!), the first thing I'd wanna see is his book collection. I hope they open the concert with Moonchild...

Ok, more later. 'The Trooper' is calling me...

Monopoly

2007-01-07T16:00:00.000+05:30

Oh well. They've done it again. Snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Or in this case at least from the jaws of a draw. The Indian cricket team will now come back to India, get a few days 'break' to rejuvenate/ shoot commercials, cut ribbons, be spotted at various page 3 events etc. Till then the media and the public will go nuts on the following topics in various degrees depending on where you're from and or what papers/ channels you read/ watch.
1. Whats wrong with Sachin/ Sachin must perform better/ Sachin must use a lighter bat.
2. Drop Sehwag. His batting average has receded alongwith his hairline./ Is hair weaving the solution to India's opening woes?
3. Shreeshanth is the best thing we've had since Kapil Dev/ Shrinath/ Chetan Sharma
4. Dada is back/ Dada should never have been dropped in the first place.
5. VVS Laxman is back/ VVS Laxman should never have been dropped in the first place.
6. We're screwed in the world cup./ Steps to be taken to perform better in the World Cup.

Before you know it the world cup will be around the corner, the selection committe will drop a few, pardon a few and there will be the usual surprise selection or dropping, and the obligatory stupid quote from a member of the BCCI- 'We chose him because he had kept wickets for his school Under 15 team'. People will buy a bunch of LCDs and Plasma TVs, Pepsi and a bunch of others will shoot and launch new TV commercials, and all of us will get lost in the frenzy of the media juggernaut that is the world cup. Burrrrp.

On the surface whats unfortunate is the sheer inevitability of this exercise, whats worse is that it can make us a nation of losers...ie ever accepting, always forgetting, eternally hopeful.

I'm stretching the point here a bit, but it could be true. If it can be argued that the nations mood can hinge on the performance of the cricket team or if nothing, turn things around if we as a nation are feeling a little low, it could then be argued that, through cricket we have been building a loser psyche over the last 10 years.

Taking just the last ten years into account, there have possibly been 30 cricket series of varying shapes and sizes- the largest being the world cups, the smallest being the tri nation jamborees in Malysia or wherever.

So there have been 30 instances of intense hype building, inspirational commercials, 'lets do it india' songs, all leading up to the collective consciousness beleiving that there is a slight chance that something magical can happen, and we will win. The inflation of the morale balloon if you will.
Of these 30 instances, I'd say our success rate is 15%...I don't mean to say that we have only won 15% of the matches, but only managed to come out on top (winning a series/ or semi final or better in a tourney) 15% of the time.

When we as a (cricketing) nation are disappointed 85% of the time, it could be argued that it breeds a culture of forget and forgive, instead of a culture of 'you'd better get your act together'. AKA The Chalta Hain attitude.
This in the case of cricket is compounded by the fact of TINA...ie There is No Alternative.

What we as a country need is a second sport.

Cricketers are posisbly the only REAL heros we have- for me growing up it was, Amitabh/ Superman/ Spiderman/ Gavaskar/ Kapil/ Indiana Jones/ Reggie Jackson/ Dave Winfield/ Luke Skywalker/ Rocky/ etc. Today for a 8 year old it'd be Hrithik/ Krrish/ Sachin/ Dada/ Spiderman/ Neo/ Harry Potter/ etc.

Therefore if I as an 8 year old am seeing my only REAL heros fail 85% the time, and still be forgiven, loved and even rewarded, what does it tell me as an 8 year old?

I dont know where its going to come from, I don't know how it will happen, but what we need is for the consumers to have an alternative. Once consumers want the alternative, advertisers will naturally follow and the economics of the situation will automatically foster better sporting ability all round. It could also potentially solve the balance of payments situation.