Pani Pani Re

I have resolved to consciously drink more water in a day, meaning I'll keep a count of how much water I have consumed in a day. Before I was not doing this counting stuff, so just could not realize how less water I was drinking. Recently for a week I did that and found out that on an average I just used to have 2.5 bottles of water a day, a tad lesser than 3 lt. :O

Which, I announce, before Maharashtra Government hears and assuming that I am not getting enough water, plans for some new kind of ban against Bangalore authorities, is entirely my fault, and I am trying hard to improve.

Now in case you are wondering that Maharashtra Government can really do something like this for you, I hear from the insiders that it can. Just that you need to be working against some dance bar for that privilege.

signing off,

Yesterday

My day so far is reminding me of the famous Beatles lyrics ... :-(

Yesterday

- The Beatles

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they're here to stay
Oh, I believe in yesterday

Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be
There's a shadow hanging over me
Oh, yesterday came suddenly

signing off,

Bloodshed of Two Different Kinds

Today has not been a good day. At least not for the Indian stock markets and for the Indian cricket team. Both have been slaughtered by enemies called Q4 results and Shahid Afridi.

Of course this is a time of Q4 results and people (read all tv business experts) were expecting this to be a little bearish period on markets. But no body did think it yesterday that it would hit it so hard. Sample this: Sensex down by some 220 points, Nifty down by 70 odd. Infosys itself is down by 145 points! Indeed quite harsh.

Speaking of harsh reality, Rahul Dravid would now realize it much better. He himself played well with Kaif and batting first we managed 250 on a wicket which has a record of low scores. At lunch he would have thought it was a fighting score. Unfortunately he did not account for Afridi. He blasted everyone on field without showing mercy. 100 of 46 balls usually means it is a piece of cake for rest of Pakistani team to achieve the target. And indeed it turned out to be child's play for them.

Now all I can do is to hope that the market and the team recover soon to come back strongly.

Amen!

signing off,

Dubbing

There have been movies made in India since eternity. And given so many languages we have, it comes as no surprise that no one wants to miss out on a opportunity to cash on a successful commercial movie made in some other language. Quite logical? It is.

Pardon me for such a boring start. But they say only way to get rid of bad mood is to spread it! :-)

Ok, back to the thing that has been bothering me for some time now. That is, why these people go ahead and "translate" even the songs from the original. Like the one I was hearing today from the movie Yuva. It was "Jana Gana Mana" from "Aayitha Ezhuthu" originally in Tamil, now sounding suspiciously like "Dhakka Lakka Bukka". Is this some kind of cryptic language, Mr. Mehboob? Or are they phoren language words? I may never know. Given that my Hindi or Urdu knowledge is quite poor, I even tried to look up these words in the dictionary. The dictionary hanged at my attempt.

There are some people specialized in this area it seems. This guy Mehmood leads the pack who has names like Bombay, Thakshak (Remember Jumbalaka?) and some more on his belt. There is one P K Mishra who had written the lyrics for Roja in Hindi. After that quite good effort, his subsequent works (like Hindustani) seemed that he was indeed writing them PK. I am tempted to divert to Srivastav PK after this, but first thing first.

In my opinion, one of the best dubbed lyrics have come in the movie Saathiya. Penned by the master Gulzar, one may never had found out that the songs were originally written in Tamil for Alai Payuthey unless he/she happened to know it. Writing lyrics for the music is never easy I hear. Gulzar saab has done it with panache. Just listen to the gem "Saathiya" sung by "Sonu Nigam"; music given by "A R Rahman". And you'd know what I mean. Some lyrics go like this:

kabhi neele aasmaan pe chalo ghumne chale hum
koi abhra mil gaya to jameen pe baras le hum
teri baali hil gayee hai
kabhi shab (=raat) chamak uthi hai
kabhi shaam khil gayee hai

tere baalon ki panah mein isi yaah raat gujare
teri kaali kaali aankhen koi ujli baat utare
teri ek haseen ke badle
meri yeh jameen le le
mera aasmaan le le

No wonder the combination got most of the accolades in music industry that year. Beautiful, beautiful song!

Now after writing this, I think, my Urdu and Hindi have definitely improved a bit :-)

signing off,

Men in Blue or Blues?

I am quite disappointed by our team's performance on the last day of the test match at Bangalore.

I was reading an article on rediff and couldn't have agreed more with the author when he said,

Had this Indian team gone out and played to win, it would have won the hearts of all those watching, even if it eventually succumbed to defeat. The greatest test of courage is to bear defeat without losing heart.

Today, on the cricket field, Ganguly's team lost heart.

And if there is anything in the world that hurts the team's fans more than losing, it is losing without putting up a decent fight.

I am not expecting a win every time you go out. But at least you can try it, or at least show that you are trying for god's sake. Hard to imagine that this is the same Indian team which was winning against Australia and Pakistan some seasons ago.

I had sent a mail to my friends when Sehwag got out: "Sehwag is out: the guy who could have won us the match. Now according to me Indians would go into the "save match" mode. And this might be "the" chance for pak to win!". And the Indian team proved themselves just like an overtly predictable bollywood flick. Pakistan would have been too foolish to let go the chance. I heard Inzy saying in an interview that "Woh log defensive khelte rahe. Maine socha main hi kyon naa attack karoon?". Luckily it did not rain yesterday, while today in Banglaore it's all cloudy. Come to think of it, the future looks more cloudy for the one-day series from here.

Too many negatives and no positive make a dull day anywhere in the world.

signing off,

Chhota

That's me. I mean, that's one of my nicks over the years.

Btw, even "niks" is my nick.

So is "nku".

Sometimes I was even "bachcha" and "kiddo".

For some, I am "shonu".

For some other hostile types, I am "dukkar", "shembdya", "khadoos" or "kanjoos".

At times, I am "stupid". And yes, "kuska" too.

For one of the classmates, I was "kuls" (or "kulks", I couldn't tell the way he pronounced).

In short stints, I was even "tau", "backbencher", "ghatotkatch" and "Pentium II (after sunset)".

signing off,

If you have some new one in mind for me, please let me know :-)

रिस्क

too much!

दारू पिताना मी कधी रिस्क घेत नाही.

मी संध्याकाळी घरी येतो,
तेव्हा बायको स्वयंपाक करत असते,
शेल्फमधील भांडयांचा आवाज येत असतो.
मी चोरपावलाने घरी येतो,
माझ्या काळ्या कपाटातून बाटली काढतो,
शिवाजीमहाराज फोटोतून बघत असतात
तरी या कानाचा त्या कानाला पत्ता लागत नाही.
कारण मी कसलीच रिस्क घेत नाही. ||१||

वापरात नसलेल्या मोरीतल्या फळीवरून मी ग्लास काढतो.
चटकन एक पेग भरून आस्वाद घेतो.
ग्लास धुवून पुन्हा फळीवर ठेवतो.
अर्थात बाटलीही काळ्या कपाटात ठेवतो
शिवाजीमहाराज मंद हसत असतात.
स्वयंपाकघरात डोकावून बघतो
बायको कणीकच मळत असते
या कानाचा त्या कानाला पत्ता लागत नाही.
कारण मी कसलीच रिस्क घेत नाही. ||२||

मी: "जाधवांच्या मुलीच्या लग्नाचं जमलं का गं?"
ती: "छे! दानत असेल तर मिळेल ना चांगलं स्थळ!"

मी परत बाहेर येतो.
काळ्या कपाटाच्या दाराचा आवाज होतो.
बाटली मात्र मी हळूच काढतो.
वापरात नसलेल्या फळीच्या मोरीवरून ग्लास काढतो.
पटकन पेगचा आस्वाद घेतो.
बाटली धुवून मोरीत ठेवतो.
काळा ग्लासपण कपाटात ठेवतो.
तरी या कानाचा त्या कानाला पत्ता लागत नाही.
कारण मी कसलीच रिस्क घेत नाही. ||३||

मी : "अर्थात जाधवांच्या मुलीचं अजून काही लग्नाचं वय झालं नाही."
ती: "नाही काऽऽय! अठ्ठावीस वर्षाची घोडी झालीय म्हणे!"
मी : (आठवून जीभ चावतो) "अच्छा .. अच्छा .."

मी पुन्हा काळ्या कपाटातून कणीक काढतो
मात्र कपाटाची जागा आपोआप बदललेली असते.
फळीवरून बाटली काढून पटकन मोरीत एक पेग मारतो
शिवाजीमहाराज मोठ्ठयाने हसतात
फळी कणकेवर ठेवून शिवाजींचा फोटो धुवून
मी काळ्या कपाटात ठेवतो
बायको गॅसवर मोरीच ठेवत असते
या बाटलीचा त्या बाटलीला पत्ता लागत नाही.
कारण मी कधीच .... ||४||

मी (चिडून) : "जाधवांना घोडा म्हणतेस? पुन्हा बोललीस तर जिभच कापून टाकीन तुझी ... "
ती: "उगीच कटकट करू नका.. बाहेर जाऊन गप पडा."

मी कणकेतून बाटली काढतो
काळ्या कपाटात जाऊन एक पेग मळतो
मोरी धुवून फळीवर ठेवतो
बायको माझ्याकडे बघत हसत असते.
शिवाजीमहाराजांचा स्वयंपाक चालूच असतो
पण या जाधवांचा त्या जाधवांना पत्ता नाही.
कारण मी .... ||५||

मी (हसत हसत): "जाधवांनी घोडीशी लग्न ठरवलं म्हणे!"
ती (ओरडून): "तोंडावर पाणी मारा ऽऽऽ "

मी परत स्वयंपाकघरात जातो.
हळूच फळीवर जाऊन बसतो
गॅसही फळीवरच होता.
बाहेरच्या खोलीतून बाटल्यांचा आवाज येतो.
मी डोकावून बघतो.
बायको मोरीत दारूचा आस्वाद घेत असते.
या घोडीचा .. त्या घोडीला पत्ता लागत नाही.
अर्थात शिवाजीमहाराज कधीच रिस्क घेत नाहीत.
जाधवांचा स्वयंपाक होईपर्यंत
मी फोटोतून बायकोकडे बघत हसत असतो
कारण पण मी कधीच रिस्क ... ||६||

signing off,

Go India Go!

Great weekend this was for the Indian sports lovers. What more could have they asked for?

First it was team India coming back very strongly to beat Pakistan quite convincingly (so much so that my friend here is tempted to term it as crushing). But it was never a one sided game. In fact had it not been Dravid and Kaarthik in second innings, Pakistan had a fair chance of winning. Again if Afridi hadn't given away his wicket, who knows? Once again it proves how much we underestimate Kumble as a match winner, when he has delivered time and again with his relentless efforts on the field.

Second, Narain Karthikeyan finished 11th in Malaysian grand prix. Mind you, to go from 15th to 11th in only second race is by no means easy. It's a feat which would give the young man immense self confidence and recognition on the f1 circuit. As I said earlier, he would grow only better from here.

Keep it up men! You are making us proud.

signing off,

A Day in the Life of ...

A day in the life of me, that is. Without any earphones.

Imagine, from the morning I haven't got a chance to listen to any of the songs I got from friends yesterday. As it is I am not in a particularly good mood since -
- my report is not working out to be *exactly* same as the users want,
- my stomach has finally given up to my eating habits and is on non-cooperating terms since couple of days,
- Pakistan have a bit of upper hand in the second test match at the Eden gardens. (I'd say they can win the test match too!)

And I don't have my earphones to listen to "Do Naina" to take my mind off all these.

Goddamn dis, why didn't you tell me it earlier?

signing off,

She's Gone!

Well, she was not mine anyways. So why should I be unhappy that the bike I was driving for some time is not with me anymore?

But frankly this bike was starting to grow on me. In fact, she already had, I think. She had taken me for a ride all over Bangalore. Well, not literally though! Alone, sometimes with friends, sometimes with strangers. People changed, but the bike was always there. It was quite an old bike and the age was starting to show. The gearbox and clutch and brakes were giving some trouble. Hopefully now that she's in the owner's hand, she can hope a better treatment for herself. :-) Bless you.

Btw I am doing my annual appraisal today. If I finish it today, I can write a book, "Appraisal for Dummies in 21 hours". And I am sure no one is going to buy it.

signing off,

Busy

I am quite busy these days. And missed Mark Knopfler too on Monday. It's no less than a criminal damage! Why he had to come on 7th when on the very day I had an important release?

Life ain't no fair maan!

Btw, before leaving for the day, I thought I'd just listen to some retro songs, and I stumbled on Def Leppard's Vault in my collection. They say each song can make you forget of present and takes you somewhere in past. It is indeed true. Vault was one of the first 5 cassettes I had purchased from my own earnings long back in Feb 2002. Those were quite happening days really. And every time I listen to Photograph or Let's get Rocked or Love Bites or Pour Some Sugar on Me or Hysteria, my initial days in corporate world come back to mind. It's like your first crush, isn't it? Magical.

But this is not to say today was not magical. :-)

signing off,

The Greatest Country of the World?

Last week sometime, I was watching Derek O'Brian's quiz show on some channel. The participants were young kids from India, China and Korea. After all of them introduced themselves, Derek came back to the Indian kids' desk, and called upon the other kids. What he said exactly I don't quite recollect, but the gist of it was that he was calling the other kids to the desk of the greatest country in the world.

I found this quite arrogant. Come on Derek, those were just kids of probably 8-10 years of age and do you want to enforce your feelings that India is greatest country of them all, on these kids? I doubt what prompted him to do so. Clearly if he had been quizzing older people, he would not have pulled the stunt, would he? China and Korea are two beautiful countries themselves and he had no business belittling them. I wonder what would his reaction might have been, if one of the Chinese or Korean kid had argued with him on this.

Call me preachy, but like Mohan Bhargava (Swades hero, in case you have forgotten), even I don't think we are the greatest country in the world. And with such people having an illusion at large, we have light years to go.

signing off,

A Mimic and a Siddhuism

The other day I was watching NDTV's some programme featuring Navjyot Singh Siddhu and a mimic artist. Not surprisingly, in recent years, position of commentators has changed and they too have become glamorous like cricketers. So it seems, a person who can imitate one of those has same glamor value as an entertainer for these TV shows. This guy was indeed good at his skill. He started by imitating Geoffery Boycott and then came back to Imran Khan and Siddhu's conversation last year, which is why I am writing this stuff.

The incident goes: Imran Khan was saying something about Pakistan's chances in the series when Siddhu broke him, "Wait, Imran bhai, wait. Optimist is one who thinks bullshit is a fertilizer!"

You can imagine the scene after this, my rolling on the floor laughing hysterically.

signing off,

Who Is Indian Idol?

What do you need to do to watch Indian Idol on Sony? Go home, switch on the tv, [optional:] get yourself some cotton to stuff in your ears and enjoy!

Indian Idol is clearly a case of bias over talent. What ranked Ravinder Ravi in the top five while denying same for some more talented people? Why people are urging me to bulk SMS for Amit Sana, while I think Abhijeet has better evolved as a singer and performer over all the ten rounds? What makes Aman and Mini to boast whatever Amit does but shun Abhijeet's exploits? What makes the judges to be in favor of Amit clearly sidelining Abhijeet?

It is bias my friend. Even I am biased towards Abhijeet. :-)

But alas, just my thinking is not going to make Abhijeet win this. Amit Sana is going to be first Indian Idol, you like it or not. I do hope that all three toppers work hard on their singing and get ahead, rather than just being Indian Idles, oops Idols.

signing off,

Best Singer

One award at least, I could not have argued over in Saturday's Filmfare awards list was the Best Singer award given to Kunal Ganjawala for the gem Bheege Hont he sang for the movie Murder. It could not been sung better by any other singer, and I mean any. For a moment I feared that the award company would stick to Udit Narayan for the not-so-phenomenal Aisa Des Hai Mera, but thankfully they broke shackles.

Surprisingly enough, as I wrote in my previous post, they have not been able to do it in other categories.

But for the moment, let me forget that and offer my bow to Mr Ganjawala.

signing off,

Best Movie?

Trivia: What made Veer-Zaara the best movie of the last year?

I think the answer is Yash Raj Banners.

In bollywood, there are good movies, there are bad movies and then there are very stereotyped , and hence mediocre and unintuitive movies. In the last category, we can blindly put any recent movie of these two gentlemen, Yash Chopraji and Karan Johar. Yash Chopra (who was brilliant in his early movies like Waqt and Kabhi Kabhi to name a few) has clearly given up on the pressure these days. I don't say making love stories is not good. But why same thing over and over? And don't tell me that Veer Zaara was any different just because it had old SRK.

Karan Johar is one pampered baby, who according to statistics is yet to see a flop. In my diary, he is yet to see a decent movie. What made Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, a story of a boy who is out to seek two girls and helped by his own girl child, a hit, frankly I would never know. If in real world, assume I, after my wife dies 6 years hence, try to woo a old girl friend, who probably has settled in life in her own way. I'd be clearly out of my mind to do so. Then Kal Ho Naa Ho was ditto Anand. And I'd watch Baghbaan thrice a day, if I have that as a choice over Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. Totally unimaginative, I say.

I think the only reason why Yash Chopra succeeds is his music and KJ because of his lavish star cast. But pardon me in saying, Veer Zaara cannot be ranked as Yashji's better efforts, even considering it had music by Madan Mohan and Times of India had given it better stars (I don't know how many). And people would not have watched K3G if it had not been those Shah Rukh Khans, Amitabh Bachchans, Hritik Roshans and so on. But if you ask me, I'd prefer SRK in Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, Baazigar; AB in any of his 80s movie and Roshan Jr in any other less sillier movie.

Again, this is not to say that the experimental movie would always be good. Take a look at Gayab and you'd know what I mean.

But at least spare me from the obscene display of your wealth and your idea of 'good life', people. Get a life yourself and move on.

For the precise reason I admire Hrishikesh Mukherjee or Sai Paranjpe a lot. They don't make those kind of movies any more. On second thoughts, I seem to be repeating this line quite often, I am stereotyped myself! :D

signing off,

Google Movie Search

Goto Google.com and type "movie: blue pill red pill" and see all Matrix related movie searches coming up. Impressive, huh? It is!

The humorous side of Google's technicians does show up at the end, when they say,

No movie critics were harmed or even used in the making of this page.

ha ha ha ha!

signing off,

Mark Knopfler in India!

Read this.

Man I am thrilled! Can't wait to see the man! Dire Straits have remained one of my favorite rock bands all along.

More on them later, busy right now!

signing off,

Black

Having watched Black last weekend, a few stray things come to mind. (Busybee styled? Probably!) Here they are:

1. It is a superlative cinema making experience, rarely seen in bollywood. People claim maybe SLB was targeting Oscar, which might explain the movie's short length, no songs and so on. But this trend is not new to us, is it Ramu?

2. The performances SLB achieves out of each one of his cast is simply marvelous. The last time I saw an awesomely portrayed child artist was Anjali. Ayesha Kapoor is the most impressive in the movie.

3. AB, thankfully, is not playing a police officer or an army chief. Last year saw him in uniforms for an obscenely large number of times. But not anymore. He essays Debraj Sahay with panache.

5. Another highlight would be Rani Mukherji, who, I think has a lot of potential still untapped. Some people think she has reached her highest with Michelle, but don't get surprised if she manages to surpass even her.

6. We can say our movie making are state-or-the-art affair too. Forget clumsy editing, patchy cameraworks. Bollywood cinema has really evolved.

7. Thanks SLB for making such a movie. Even if Black's collection at box office may not mark it as a hit or something similar, it is really a gem of an art.

signing off,

My Birthday Treat Invitation

I was preparing my birthday treat invitation on Friday. First I thought of sending a simple email to everyone. But because of a friend's suggestion, I thought this would look good. (The link does not work anymore, I've removed it because of many spam emails received!)

The best part was when we published that blog, in a matter of few seconds there was a comment on the blog! By Katie (Forgot her blog URL), which mentioned that 'She should be there at the precise time and can't wait to see us guys.' I prompty disabled comments on the blog so that I didn't end up broke instead of generous in case more people accepted the invite, but that was something very amusing! :-)

Katie: if we meet anywhere, the treat is due from my side!

signing off,