... and life goes on...

Yup... you missed the new episodes of your daily soaps but made up for it by watching the live telecast of the terror attach show... from different angles on different news channels for a continuous 60 hours and then the re-runs that followed with the post mortem of the story itself!

Doesn't get better! or does it?

The over kill of an event however big or small takes away the story and the real facts... sensationalised to get people's attention. I switch channels!

Media got Obama to become the President of the US of A... showed his story and the voting and counting for 3 days! As if he was becoming the President of US of World! (Thinking of it... it could be a solution to a lot of our issues... no not him becoming the President of the world but the thought of US of W! Guess I will leave it for another day to go into that). The latest reports say that Indian's were the least interested lot in that elections overkill (over 18 months now!) in US but had to endure the longest torture!

Media branded Arushi's dad as her killer! Even before facts came out. Media made a pimp out of that innocent teacher doing her job! Control the media and you control the way the world thinks!

Can we just cap this stuff at a level that is more tolerable? Can media not be so biased... and call a party like BJP Non Secular, though they have people from all religions in top positions but call a Muslim League a secular party where the name itself is so religiously biased! Can the media for once be responsible enough to understand what the viewers want to see and not sensationalise every accident that happens!

If we expect our politicians to clean their act and become responsible why not the media? After all "ये दूध के धुले नहीं हैं !" (They are not completely clean themselves!)

But.. yeah India hai! Anything is possible... If a person like Netaji can be sidelined from our history books... but still an academician like Dr Kalam can become our president... This country has possibilities!

My heart goes out to the families that lost their loved ones in the terror attack. My respects to the soldiers who fought with their lives to make it safer for the rest of us.

Cheers!

So how have you been...

Been a while since I wrote anything here... so here I am.. back!

It has been a lot of work and very little time to meself! To the extent that a friend of mine from Florida was in town for 3 weeks and I got to meet her for only an hour! Yeah I did get cursed a lot for that. Even my friends at work are complaining about it...

Why work so much.. don't ask me. Just one of those phases where you go about doing what you must... and when shit breaks loose, you just start cleaning it up!

I too missed being online... so the feeling is mutual. Catch you you more regularly from now :)

Cheers!

What a month ... sep 08!

No wonder it's taken me a month since my last post!

Busy would be an under statement. From crazy clients to burnt bike... From passing Six Sigma Black Belt certification to failing to remember birthdays! I've seen it all!

And at this point finding it difficult to keep my eyes open any longer... so wait for a few more hours before I update this blog.. Properly.

Cheers!

Once more... Rock on!

Well, there is little for me to say about this movie. It works!

Not a new storyline. Nothing new about the climax. But it works. Enough to make me want to watch it again.

Dil Chahta Hai gave us Farhan Akhtar the Director. Rock gives us Farhan Akhtar the Actor. His voice is not the best of it... far from being a singer but it still works. He has an amazing screen presence!

All actors have done a brilliant job of playing their parts well.

Go watch it in the theaters or get a surround sound theater speakers to enjoy the movie at home. SEL have done a brilliant job with the music. Javed sir's words are different. Not off the record beaten movie songs.

I guess nothing special about the movie made it special.

I hope other directors can take a cue from this and keep their movies simple. It works with the audience.

Rock on... Rocks!

Cheers!

Phoo... Phoo.. Phoonk

No, that is not the SRK's famous stutter...

No, that is not mine either!

That's exactly what you do to a movie like Phoonk. Phoo... Phoo it from all comparisons. It would be considered an insult to the other movie.

So what was wrong? Too many things for me to type here. Don't have that kind of patience. So it's easier to say what was right. Right? Wrong. Cos there was nothing right about it at all!

So I guess I have no choice but to tell the wrongs. RGV I am sure you would like to read this... though it is not a complete list but it would help you in the next movie.

Kill the person who gave the sound effects. Atrocious is a nice word for it. Why? cos that man (or RGV) alone knows why an insane dog bark would come when a man is shown dead under rubble. With nothing related in sight. When all the while the only animal/bird shown is a crow! RGV's school curriculum would teach... the sound that a crow makes is "bow bow"! Not that it was even close to being a scary score. But by making it loud and jarring it only hurts a person's ear drums and not the courage to sit through a horror movie.

What's with the camera blur? With most of the scenes of the movie blurred up I actually thought it was time to give my optometrist a visit!! And yes, I do want my money back for not showing even one full sequence of scenes without a blur! Darn, what did I pay for??? RGV's school's eye testing would make it mandatory for pupil to admit they can see only with a blur or they would be given a TC! Next time he should just increase the budget and get a proper cameraman... hell I will do it for half the price!

Oh... RGV get a better set designer too (especially with the money you save hiring me). After the first 15 mins I knew there would be an eye sore all through. Every scene had an inanimate object standing in the right or left of the screen taking up up to one third of the place. So a blur plus the object... what did I actually see in the movie? Where were the actors? In the blur!

The Mohinican idols both black and white, the Giraffe (every other scene had it!), the smiley ball (on the hospital floor)... the list is endless (but my memory fails with so many mistakes to remember you can excuse an innocent soul). But for 'god only knows why' reasons RGV thinks they are better than humans on the screen!

Did I forget the monkey that had the cordless phone in his hands? It was always there... so how did it ever get charged? I know... RGV took it home after the shoot everyday :-P

And what was it with the shaking granny? Parkinson’s? Cos she was more scary than the movie itself! I am sure you have read enough about the actors so I will spare you the misery!

All in all... 115 mins of comedy show! Kids can watch it. The last 5 mins gave the movie an A certificate. More from the concept and violence point of view. With the theater filled with laughter all through, what else can I say!

BTW did RGV loose the 5 Lakh bet for people seeing it alone in the theater? I am sure he is 25 L lighter on the pocket as even a kid would have laughed his way to the bank!

Wasted money? Yes. Wasted time? Yes. Waste of a movie... you decide!

Cheers!

Addicted? No... Read on...

So you think you are not an addict... such a lie!

While growing up in the 80's there was enough on TV to tell us not to smoke or do drugs! Rather, the only few things that came on TV then, were with the message! Like every good child (so I presumed) I managed to stay away from both through my college and in the last few years of working life! Only to realise in the last week that I am actually an addict! And so are you!

In the last two weeks that I did not have internet connection, it dawned on me how addicted I am. Internet is just one of the things. What were you thinking of? Drugs and smokes...! Ha!

We are living in the world, where we are so dependent on "helpful tools" to make it easier for us to just get through our day, that it is unbelievable! Computers make our work faster. MS Windows makes it even faster (or is at least suppose to). MS Word makes it easier to format. And the help in it even corrects your spelling… so you can remember other important things in life... no I am not talking about the Birthdays and Anniversaries... your MS Outlook calendar takes care of that.

Cars and planes make your travel faster, ball point pens make your writing easier, keyboard (not the musical one) make your typing faster, ACs and fans make it possible to survive the Chennai heat, switches ensure you live after connecting two live wires, scissors help.... Oh yes you and I can go on listing things now... you are getting the hang of it!

Hey... but you will say, these are necessities not addiction. Think again.

Would you have said refrigerators were a necessity 50 years ago? or are, in the rural areas of the country even today? Did I forget the African countries..? But today we can't live without it! But they can. SO it is not a necessity just a tool of convenience and your addiction to it.

You and I are so addicted to electricity that we can't survive a week without it. Yeah... you might get through a few days.

The TV that told us not to get addicted has become an addiction by itself! And does not talk about the original message anymore... cos it runs from the money the tobacco companies give as revenue.

You and I are addicted and living in a world where you can't de-addict. Wish there was an EA - Electricity Anonymous!

Cheers!

Another day...?!!!

With the advent of change in Indian Economy in early nineties, it was not just the economy that was opened up for other countries... from the looks of it, the doors were opened for cultural exchange as well!

With this cultural exchange came the idea of celebrating days... mothers day, fathers day, sisters day, grandma day and today was friendship day!

American's must be wondering, how did we show our appreciation to all these people before they updated our cultural file with their new version. Well we didn't need a day to show our love to our family, cos that was designed in our culture in a way where these people are special to us everyday and not just one day.

I don't blame them for thinking of having a special day for each person, that's the way their society is. Each one for themselves... the concept of family living together seems to be far and few in between and simply not enough for them to drive the message of giving respect to their loved ones.

If you notice you were not aware of any of these days, nor did you care about them... it's all the advertisement to increase the sales of cards and gifts that enlightened you! Oh BTW these are the same American companies (Archies and Hallmark to name a few) that were allowed to do business in India when we opened our economy... and not knowing how to sell in a market like ours.. they decided to help update our cultural file by creating a demand of something that was never wanted.

We are such suckers to have eaten the bait!

I would like to take this opportunity and say a rare thank you to god for giving me a heritage that I am proud of and can say is the best I could have ever asked for.

And a big Thank you to Ma and Pa for making me who I am.

Let's see if we can update their cultural file with Karva Chauth, Ganesh Chaturthi, Pongal and Vijay Dasmi (to start with) before they start the doggy day, cat fight day, bitch slap thy neighbour day... ... ...

Cheers!

Dasavatharam... Disappointment... 10 times over!!!??

After reading enough and more raving reviews of Dasa... I finally went to see the movie, not that it was my first choice but that was the only ticket I could get!

Knowing the premise (thanks to the reviews) I was expecting chaste tamil in the start of the movie and so it was. Tamil not being my native language, I knew it was going to be a lot of effort on me just to follow the details of the plot. To top it all, I was accompanied by a friend of mine, who knows Tamil to the extent that the knowledge can be counted on fingers, needed me to translate almost the entire movie!

The storyline has nothing to really boast of neither was the way it was treated... nor did they try doing that (thank god for small mercies)! The movie was made only for the "Universal Hero" to be showcased and the marketing was all around his 10 roles! And they did just that.

Songs and music has already been written off! Mr. Reshamia does a very average job of it! I am sure Rahul Vaidya would have done better.

So why do I say I am disappointed? Especially when I am only repeating what others have said so far... it's the production value this movie brings to the screen. Tacky at best.

From the start to the end the movie has so many scenes with computer graphics (CG) that the animator lost interest in finishing his work and gave the draft version for production! And as the movie was running behind schedule Mr. Hasan just decided to go with what he had in hand. Or did Mr. Hasan decide to cut cost due to that and did not make the promised payment... still needs to investigated into!

What? You didn't see the CG effect? You thought it was all real sets? Real people? and Real temples? and real waves? If so, then either you are blind, a huge fan of Mr. Hasan or plain out right technologically challenged!

The temples in that era were very colourful and the only colour I saw on the Gopuram as the camera went up and down the length of it (throwing it in your face to see the tackyness) was grey; The walk down the river left a lot to be desired to convince that it was an actual river... the boats moved fast in the water but the scenery around it seemed unchanged... and not one person's clothing got wet!!!

The make up that is much touted for the 10 roles and the success of the movie was average at best and shabby in parts. When Mr. Avtar (the pop singer) is coming out of the airport, you can see his beard also coming off from the left side! The face of Mr. Fletcher looks out of proportion and makes him look like a dwarf (reminds me of another movie made without any of this technology and much better executed).

Asin does a fantastic cry baby job who understands nothing (and takes no effort either) of what is happening around her, except run behind "Her Perumal" and crib when being connected with Govind! Kudos to her for making me cringe in my seat and wanting to go home even before the interval!

Oh… not to mention the much raved about Tsunami scene was technically so flawed that I just couldn't digest. The water just rises and falls. Anybody who has read even a little about Tsunamis… knows that water first recedes before coming like that huge wave! Hell even the serial (Surface) I was watching the other day on Star World had its facts right and did a much better job of showing the Tsunami with much lesser CG!

Yes, I did not need to know Tamil to understand the plot or any of the flaws I am pointing out here but the Butterfly theory... try throwing a pebble in a pond and wait for a few centuries for the Tsunami... Sounds like there might be more holes that I did not see.. Lucky Mr. Hasan... must be thanking his stars for that!

All in all... money well wasted if you went to the theater and saw it!

I could go on and on telling you why not to see the movie... but I am sure I have passed that point of boring you to death with my thoughts on the movie. So if you are still reading it, either it's because you like my style of writing and me or you just don’t have anything better to do!

Cheers... till the next time!

The whining wife of the world... US of A

I am sure you all would be pretty amused with why I am calling US of A the WIFE, when everyone seems to be calling them the BIG BROTHER or UNCLE SAM!

For starters, it wants to control every action any other country makes/takes and whines when she can't control it! Goes ranting about it in every forum and then starts attacking it with available resources at hand's grasp!

Have you seen a cat fight? Well it does not get bigger than this in the international arena... USA vs. any oil producing country not on their side and wants to make/take their own business decisions!

Like an ever complaining wife, she is never satisfied with how much ever she is served by the world, she still wants more. A country ridden with debt trodden people and living on debt all their life, where does all the money, they get to spend, come from? Let me answer, it is the husbands' (sic) duty to provide for her, so like dutiful husbands the rest of the world keeps giving her the money in hope it will come back to them (exports to USA)!

Like a typical attention seeking wife, she screams when she sees a problem coming towards her, point in case the recession. Though it's all her fault for going into a recession… what else do you expect a debt ridden country to go through... it now becomes the husbands' (sic) problem, as they are courting her and don't want her to suffer... so they take the tantrum... and there goes the oil prices soaring through the roof!

Don't see the connection... oil billing is done in US Dollar! Iraq wanted to switch to Euro billing! Raising oil prices through futures trading by the big 4 investment Banks (all US based Banks).... generates money for them! Both, by transactions and speculation!

Connect the dots between politics, money and power (no Russia as superpower) and you will see the whining wife of the world!

And yes, it's never the wife's fault, be it Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam or North Korea.

The only trait that makes her stand out unlike a wife is, that a wife is at least ready to forgive her husband when it's her fault!

Cheers!

P.S. - I am not an MCP or sexist nor do I have anything against Americans. It’s just the policies of their government that does not go down well with me!

Finally.... the first one!

All right.... first things first... Welcome to my blog!

You are here because either I asked you to or someone I know asked you to! As an extreme case you got lucky with a search engine and landed here! Either ways... Welcome!

Didn't know where to start so asked a few friends what I should write about and got some ideas... but nothing that hit home. It was only when I was trying to search for a decent picture for the profile did I realise (apart from realising that I had very few to choose from) that this is going to be my topic… choices we make!

We all complain that we would like to have a better control of our lives. Hell the amount of choices we make every day... don't believe me... hang on... defies the fact if someone says that they don't control their lives. Like me finally launching my blog! You deciding to read it... and continue to read it even a this point when you had a choice not to log in (even though I asked you to) or the search engine gave you other links!

We make choices at every stage from getting up and taking a particular route to work... even deciding if you want to go or call in sick! People complain they don't have the time to socialize due to the hectic work they have... and who suggested these awkward work timings of more than 12-14 hours every day... not your boss, not your company policy, not your colleagues... you choose the direction which lead to it. They merely influenced. Just the way after certain age your family is influences your decisions, but they don't make them for you... you still control your life.

I could go on to drive the point but you are smart and get the point I am trying to convey. Moreover anything longer and you will choose to sleep in front of the computer or close this window!

Cheers!