"Tare Zameen Par" Zameen Par?

In the din of A.R. Rahman's music, I think we are forgetting that "Tare Jameen Par" is not selected as India's entry to Oscar. I am sad today.
Lets not forget that Slumdog Millionaire is NOT an Indian movie. It is a British movie, directed by a British dude and it caters to British sensibilities. It is a poverty porn no matter how much Danny Boyle denies it.
It is also not Rahman's best work. If he gets an Oscar for this movie, what about Roja and Bombay? What about the combo of Guljar and Rahman for the Chhaiya Chhaiya song in Dil se?

Ads mimic life

One more intance of advertisements mimicing life. See this ad first - Motoyuva and look at the guy drawing a picture of his teacher. Then this ad for center fresh shows the same person telling his father that he flunked again.
Pretty cool, right? If the guy was busy making merry in class, he had to flunk, isn't it :-)

Who elected this guy?

It was very interesting to read this article in WashingtonPost.com - The Bush Verdict Is In. It is funny to see all these journalists outdoing each other through news articles, editorials and blogs in trying to vilify this outgoing President Bush. While I have no sympathy for Bush, I would like to ask a very simple question - who elected this guy to run America? You did, right? All of you are therefore as wrong as Mr. Bush. Clearly, the voters in America screwed up big time, and that too not once - twice... twice.
People in western world should no longer call India a flawed democracy, because this title should now go to the USA. When our leaders screw up, there is a Bofors scandal, chara ghotala, Din Dayal Upadhyaya Trust case etc. This is minuscule compared to Iraq wars, trillion dollar deficit, world wide economic depression etc.

Should mercinaries be hired?

It is very obvious that leaders/politicians in this country will not allow any police reforms to take place. And, it is very obvious that all other steps like creating a national agency to fight terror will be forever forever bogged down under babu-dom in this country. 

It is clear that the terrorists who attacked Bombay were poor people from Pakistan who agreed for this task only for money. Therefore, I have an idea. Indian government should announce a fund where such terrorists can come, confess, take more money and go back and attack Pakistan/Taliban/Lashkar/al-Qaeda and whever other god-forsaken organisation they initially belonged to. These guys are anyway trained well. They are motivated and this motivation can then be put to good use!

What say you?

Prasoon Joshi's Poem

This needs to reach as many people as possible...

इस बार नहीं

इस बार जब वो छोटी सी बच्ची मेरे पास अपनी खरोंच ले कर आएगी
मैं उसे फू फू कर नहीं बहलाऊँगा
पनपने दूँगा उसकी टीस को

इस बार नहीं

इस बार जब मैं चेहरों पर दर्द लिखा देखूँगा
नहीं गाऊँगा गीत पीड़ा भुला देने वाले दर्द को रिसने दूँगा,
उतरने दूँगा अन्दर गहरे
इस बार नहीं

इस बार मैं न मरहम लगाऊँगा
न ही उठाऊँगा रुई के फाहे
और न ही कहूँगा कि तुम आँखें बंद कर लो, गर्दन उधर कर लो मैं दवा लगाता हूँ
देखने दूँगा सबको हम सबको खुले नंगे घाव

इस बार नहीं

इस बार जब उलझने देखूँगा,छटपटाहट देखूँगा
नहीं दौडूंगा उलझी डोर लपेटने
उलझने दूँगा जब तक उलझ सके

इस बार नहीं

इस बार कर्म का हवाला दे कर नहीं उठाऊँगा औजार
नहीं करूंगा फिर से एक नयी शुरुआत
नहीं बनूँगा मिसाल एक कर्मयोगी की
नहीं आने दूँगा ज़िन्दगी को आसानी से पटरी पर
उतरने दूँगा उसे कीचड में,
टेढे मेढे रास्तों पे

नहीं सूखने दूँगा दीवारों पर लगा खून
हल्का नहीं पड़ने दूँगा उसका रंग
इस बार नहीं बनने दूँगा उसे इतना लाचार
कि पान की पीक और खून का फर्क ही ख़त्म हो जाए

इस बार नहीं

इस बार घावों को देखना है
गौर से थोड़ा लंबे वक्त तक
कुछ फैसले और उसके बाद हौसले
कहीं तो शुरुआत करनी ही होगी
इस बार यही तय किया है

- प्रसून जोशी

Prevention of Cruelty

According to this Times of India story, Animal welfare board has accused Vodafone of indulging in cruelty against animals in the ongoing ads involving the pug.
I say, what the hell... what about cruelty against humans who are subjected to these ads after every over and sometimes after just 5 balls in an IPL match?

Yellow Colour

It is my theory that the Chennai Super Kings is winning only because of the yellow colour jersey. If you have not noticed, it is a good colour to have. The world champion Australian cricket team left it in favour of the baggy green and promptly lost the series to India.

The tag and dress colour of "Men in Blue" must change if we have to become the world champions and rule the world of cricket.

Budhdhu, Mamta and Despite Mamta

"Budhdhu", "Mamta" and "Despite Mamta" where three names in consideration for naming the Lakh rupee car from Tata. Finally they decided to play it cool and small and called it Nano.

Not my joke, Ratan Tata's... Heard on TV just now. Pretty funny.

Loser Ponting

Ponting has proved to be the biggest loser in history of cricket. Just because he was not able to negotiate Bhajji's bowling on the field, he spins this web to get him banned from the next two test matches.

Incredible India?

So much for the incredible India campaign by the ministry of tourism. No tourist spot in India appears in "53 places to visit in 2008" by the New York times. I can not believe it, but Iran makes it to the list...

WTF?!?

For people who stood in the queue at 4:30 AM for the latest HP book, a huge and rude shock was awaiting them at home - the news channels promptly reporting the fate of Harry and Voldemort as "breaking news". The news channel like Times Now, NDTV and CNN-IBN were cool but some of the others like Zee News, Star News and that sabse-tez Aajtak did all they can to frustrate everyone. I have only one thing to say to them... A-holes, if you do not understand abc of journalism, shut shop and get lost. I hope I become a death eater and administor Cruciatus curse on you till you lose your mind...

Deathly Leakage

Yeah, HP-7 is indeed leaked. Someone has taken pictures of each and every page and posted them on the internet.
I have had a look at it and trust me, it is not worth it. You can make out only a few pages coz they are such low resolution pictures. If you have reached this page trying to find a copy to download, I suggest you stand in the queue in front of bookstores at 5:00 in the morning on 21st and purchase your copy.

Thinking

Saw that Hero Honda CBZ motorcycle's ad has a tag line "Thinking is such a waste of time...". This ad was being telecast on National Geographic, whose ad line is "Think again."
What do you think?

Moving nightmares

I recently shifted my house from one part of Bangalore to another. Mine is a typical two BHK house with basic furniture - sofa, bed, fridge, tv, washing machine, dining table etc. After talking to a few movers and packers, I decided to go with Kaiser Packers (P) Ltd. (http://www.kaiserpackers.com/) because they were one of the first to send a representative to my house to inspect and give me a quote. They claim to be an ISO9001 certified company and the first impression was good. I was very particular about the date and time of the move and had told them more than 10 days in advance. The representative agreed and promised that 5 packers would come to my house by 8:30 AM on the day and that entire process would be over by 4:30 PM.

Two days before the day of move, I get a call from the representative asking me if we could prepone the move to Friday. I refused.

On the agreed upon day, I get a call that the packers would come at 10:30 instead of 8:30. Finally, after umpteen phone calls, only 3 packers instead of 5 turned up at 12:30 PM and started packing. The material that they brought was not sufficient and a few items could not be packed. They had to be transported just like that. Instead of usual 2 hours, it took 4.5 hours for packing and then 2.5 hours for loading . During loading, we figured that the truck sent to transport the items was smaller and I had to carry a few things in my car. After reaching the destination, it took another 2 hours for unloading and that too after begging the driver of the truck to help out.

The move finally ended at 11:30 at night and I was left with a hole in my pocket, a badly hurting back and a broken washing machine.

नहीं, यह Deathly Hallows नहीं है

मुझे मेरे एक मित्र ने एक pdf फाईल भेजी जो की इन्टरनेट पर हैरी पॉटर की असली कॉपी की तरह बाँटी जा रही है। Times Now न्यूज़ चैनल ने भी इसी कॉपी को ले कर एक खबर दिखायी थी। पर जैसा की भारत में अक्सर होता है, मीडिया कभी भी कोई भी खबर दिखने के पहले जरूरी शोध करना तो उचित समझता ही नहीं और अपने दर्शकों को बेवक़ूफ़ भी समझता है। एक बार अगर यह वेबसाइट देख ली होती तो अच्छा होता।

Airport Tourism

This photograph is of the runway of Bangalore airport from Wind Tunnel Road. There was a lot of crowd was gathered there to look at the planes landing and taking off. Good to see that people in India find avenues of entertainment where there aren't any...

Ministry of Aviation should seriously collaborate with the Ministry of Tourism and consider developing tourism hot spots in and around the airports in India. The money charged for this display could as well be used for developing the much needed infrastructure in and around the airports in the country.

Sunrise

The Sun has finally risen. Aruba Networks debuted on NASDAQ - ARUN and got a warm reception.

Hutch Ad, anyone?

Is it time to run the ridiculous Hutch ad featuring Rahul Dravid again? Please see my earlier post on Rahul and the Hutch ad for clarification...

Amitabh's UP ads

Those who have seen Amitabh's ads on Uttar Pradesh will understand what I am trying to say to him:

सजन रे झूठ मत बोलो,
खुदा के पास जाना है.
वहाँ न बैंट्‌ली है न रौयस है,
वहाँ पैदल ही जाना है...

Oh dear, please don't lie. Afterall you have to go to His place one day. There is no Bentley or Royce to take you there. The only option is to walk.

Disclaimer...

Saw this at Mysore Lancers Pump House near RT Nagar on Thursday. One of the best disclaimer messages I have seen in recent times. Couple of guys from inside the office saw me taking this picture, but I was on my scooter and managed to quickly pull away.

:-)