My Movie List -I

I really wanted to talk about movies that I had liked in past six months or more but never got time. These also include movies that were made ages ago but I never saw them. Most of them merit an individual post. Don't know if that will happen in this lifetime. And you can blame that on hours that I spend watching movies.

Anyways, these are the movies that I would recommend, in no particular order.

1. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

2. Gone Baby Gone

3. There will be Blood

4. No country for Old men

5. The Constant Gardener

6. Sin City

7. V for Vendetta

8. Freedom Writers

9. Wall.E

10. Ratatouille 

11. Iron Man

12. City of God

13. The Motorcyles Diaries

14. The Inside Man

15. Aamir

16. A Wednesday

17. Haasil

18. Cindrella Man

19. The Dark Knight

20. Get Smart

21. 21

22. Cars

23. Little Miss Sunshine

24. Rock On!

25. Welcome to Sajjanpur !

26. Jaane tu ya Jaane na..

27. Wall Street

28. The Untouchables

29. Heat

30. The Bourne Ultimatum

Mera Joota Hain...

Iraaqi.

Its a plane, Its a bird, No, its a shoe!  

The pen is mightier than the sword. But the shoe is mightier than a pen.

A journalist in Iraq did not beat around the bush but beat the Bush with his Hush Puppies. 

I hope this act is contagious and like bird flu flies into our country.  

Hazaaro neta aise, har neta pe yeh joote nikle,

Bahut nikle yeh joote, magar phir bhi unka na dum nikle!

As they say to begin a journey of thousands miles, you need your shoes.

The greatest job on this earth...

For you, what is THE job on this earth? 

In Google ? Intel ? Microsoft? IAS officer?  

Doctor? Lawyer? Filmstar? Politician?

The one that pays well ? Lot of perks, recognitions? Job satisfaction, travelling aroun the world etc?  You may find answers in unexpected places.

On 26th November, also working were the hotel staff at Taj or Oberoi,  the measly paid Railway Policemen or almost at minimum wage paid train annoucners at CST.

Michael Pollack describes his experience with hospitality of Taj on that day. Do read it just in case you happen to visit Taj any time in future.

And if you happen to catch a local train at CST,  Vishnu Zende and Jillu Yadav may also help you.

Now coming back to your job, there is only person who can make it the greatest job on this earth. You. Don't tell me you were suprised with the answer. Oh c'mon.

Animal farm of India.

After terror, it was followed by horror which bordered on ridicule and insanity. Its like bander ke haath mein talwaar! The only difference is there are 540+ monkeys and a stray dog. 

RR Patil saab feels that he is SRK and he pays a price for his delusion. Bade desh mein ek aur chhota haadsa ho gaya!

Vilas Rao goes a step further and says "Wah Taj" with his filmi-son and RGV. RGV ki Aag burnt him too.

Naqvi can only see the powder and lipstick. When will he be shown the stick?

While Achutanandan picks up a dog fight. I think the Dhobi just found his new kutta.

Modi bashes up Karkare when he was alive and then Modi-fies his stand to pay his respect and 1 crore to Karkare's widow. 

Sharmila Thackeray sends SMSes that all the martyrs were Marathi Manoos. I guess she must have been tempted to blame the Northies this time too.

Last heard, there is infighting now after new CM of Maharashtra is chosen.

But don't worry, Shivraj Patil was changing his bandhgala when all of these happened. Luckily, his mouth is bandh too. For good now.

Funny, these are our leaders. Funnier, we chose them. Funniest, most of us didn't, we did not vote, right.

United in '03

I had written the draft around first week of August, 2008. Thought would add more to it. But don't feel like doing anymore. So I let it be. The only question is whether we will be united in '08 to fight our war?

7th August, 2008

The end credits start rolling. I continue staring at the screen. No one survived the crash on that day. United 93 flight "terminates" on HBO. In the other room, its another world. Mom and Dad share a joke. He chuckles, she laughs. The world is back to normal.

I am thousand of miles away today. That day, I was few hundred miles away.  A sense of grief, triumph, and relief interject each other. I may never know what made the passengers do the inevitable. I may never know how would I respond to such situation.

Change. Its time.

"How did it come to this?"

"So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?"

- Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

"We should bomb Pakistan"

" We need a dictator"

"We should encounter all the so-called politicians and leaders"

"India is not safe, me off to some other better country"

These were all knee-jerk reactions. Reactions and not responses. Its been more than a week since the attack on Bombay. The anger has been given words, the hate against hate been expressed. Now, the real ordeal begins. 

I have been introspecting. I want things to change, for better.  I want to be an agent of change (not a Ray-ban wearing Agent Change, Mr Anderson!). Lighting candles, taking out protest march and voicing the angst is good. I am not denying that. It shows solidarity, it shows I care. 

Then what? How do I make myself accountable for the change? I want to internalize the process of this change. 

I have decided on 2-point steps that I want to follow now in my daily dealings.

1. F**k Mediocrity. The M word should not be my way of life.

2. Stay above board every time.

If I can get these right, I think it will be a good start. Rest, they will say in future, is history.

Reminds me of a sher that sums up my thoughts.

Khudi ko kar buland itna, 

ki har taqdeer likhne se pehle,

Khuda khud bande se yeh puche,

bata teri raza kya hain!

Doing

When was the last time you did something for the first time?
Today. Last week. Last year.

What are you waiting for?
Next day or next life.

Carter Coaching Classes

I teach Jholi Gola aka Basket Ball for you Hindi impaired imbeciles. I make you sign contracts (in triplicate, if you are in India). I also make you quote poetry and force you to have a high GPA. For this I get nothing, no Oscar, no award, in my Jholi. Not even Angelina Jolie. Next movie or next life, Amen.

I am Samuel son of Jack and though I am father of one of the players in the movie, thats no feather in my topi. Cos I don't wear any. The birds of same feather flock together in pubs, streets and do drugs. I am here to stop them so that they don't die of bandook ki goli. No Homicide, only suicides. Play gola. Run with Lola. Run you will for I will make you run for the entire running length of the film. Its a moving picture, you idiot.

Because the players are bursting with hormones, I teach them the moves of the game and codeword them after my non-existent sisters. The scum bags, they let run their fantasies wild courting the gola and yell for my sisters during the game. So much for winning. No Sir, its not only about winning. You gotta have a good GPA, remember. All play, no classes and lo, Jack (not my father) is benched till he has good grades. Fair trade, no. This Pappu has to pass his tests before he passes the ball.

Y'all dogs, if you wanna learn from me, you go watch Coach Carter. I bet you if you are disappointed then its 100 suicides for me.

Before I call it quits, I leave you with "Our deepest fear"

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Cinema Paradiso

Trust Ambani to think BIG. After BIG Entertainment, BIG Music, they come up with BIG FLIX. Those who have tasted blood in celluloid with Blockbuster stores know what I am talking about. A DVD/VCD rental service, with an online, phone and SMS feature to order for free pick-up and drop facilities with no due dates. Matra rupaye 299 mein ! I can avail original DVDs rather than pirated ones available at the local DVD store. Whoopee !!!!

"A small step by Ambani, A giant leap for my kind"
I know this was bad. But its way better than Ravi "Lalit Modi is Moses" Shastri. For a movie buff like me this is God sent. For that I will definitely watch Bhakta Prahlada in orignal as my obeisance.

As far as my experience, it has been satisfying apart from a little clunky website. That's nitpicking, I know. If you are residing in any of the cities that has BIG FLIX stores, I strong recommend that you go for it. Its show time, folks.

The seamstress

A veil of the beauty, the cloth had hubris,
With the cursed wind the fortress breached,
Scarred by the evil eye, the beauty laid,
She took respite in the raging blade,
One drop at a time, the shine is replaced.
One tear at a time, the cloth disgraced.

The cloth is weary and torn in grief
The blood, sharpened by knife, is relieved
One stain at a time she washes
One sin at a time she cleanses

One stitch at a time, the seamstress weaves
One wound at a time, she heals

Statue-tory warning

Mayawati wants it big. Yes, its statue time in Mayan civilization. Mayawati wants her bigger than Kanshi Ram. In a fleeting moment of englightenment, she did not like herself and her expressions molded in metal.




And maya-nagari Mumbai wants Shivaji's statue bigger than that one in Chennai for the other Shivaji "Mind-it" Rajnikanth. Sorry, it wants bigger than that of Statue of Liberty. What difference does it make.

The pigeons are one happy lot, though. At least somebody will benefit. But what if they complain: Bhala mera putla uske putle se chhota kaise ?



In other story, petrol goes high by Rs 5 and diesel by Rs 3. That still does not explain low traffic on my blog. It crawls.

IPL notes

Now that IPL is getting over with only knock-out matches remaining, I had few things to talk about.

1. After more than dozen league matches where each team plays against all the other teams, it does not make sense to have semi-finals.

Imagine, in a freak game today, Rajasthan Royals loses to Delhi Daredevils in the first semi-final. They have won convincingly against all the other teams barring 3 loses. It would be a real let-down if they don't play in finals.

Yes, semi-final knock-outs add that extra drama and spice to the tournament. It seems very unfair if the best team of the league loses out because of a bad day.

2. The finals should be best of three matches instead of one. One at home, one away and third at a neutral ground. Sort of a level playing field. Again the same theory applies that the team should get a chance to claw back in. One bad day should not be a decider for such tournament.

3. With no semi-final rounds and each league match is important. There should be spare days for matches that were abandoned because of Lord Indra's whim. I am not saying that the next day should be kept free which may be improbable with such a busy schedule. After every leg of the league, there can be a week or half off where those matches that were abandoned can be played.

Look what happened with Mumbai Indians (14 points), Delhi Daredevils (15 points) and Kolkata Knight riders (13 points). If KKR vs DD matched had not washed out and if KKR had won, there would have been a 3-way tie between above teams ! So much fun.

All in all, it has been a satisfactory tournament. Going with the performance, Rajasthan Royals should win. But its not over till the last ball is bowled. Cricket is suppose to be a game of uncertainties. So expect some surprise.

Chala Murari Hero Banne!

So what's happens when Om Prakash Makhija gets a chance to be Om Kapoor[1] ?
He overacts to the hilt as if there is no tomorrow.

That's what I did when I was part of a TV quiz show based on Bollywood aptly titled Bollywood Ka Boss. It's hosted by Boman Irani.

Did I win and was the hero or I just ended up being the guy in a suit in fourth row behind the star ? You will know in the 12th part of the following video. To use a cliche, it does not matter. I used 39 seconds of fame out of my quota of 15 minutes.

Watch out in this video where Boman introduces all of us.




All the parts are available at following links.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12


[1] - Om Prakash is a junior artiste (also known as bhai log in slang) and Om Kapoor is a super star in Om Shanti Om.

Tale of Indian cities

Paul Graham in his latest essay begins with "Great cities attract ambitious people".

You always need a tipping point for anything to get effective, be a philosophy, a style statement or a revolution. Cities help in building a critical mass of people. and that critical mass acts as a tipping point.

Do Indian cities attract ambitious people. Do they have the right critical mass.

I am sure Bombay used to do. People coming from UP, Bihar, Punjab, from everywhere to become Bollywood stars. Or more enterprising lot from Gujarat or Marwar riding their luck on Dalal street. Sadly, Mumbai attracts hooligans. Holy Guns! From Maximum city to minimum tolerance.

Bangalore attracts cheer leadars. Yeah, it still has a high influx of every one and anyone who wants to ride the IT wave. Does it really attract the most ambitious technologists.

Ahmedabad, my home town, attracts all the Schumachers and Raikkonnens with license to kill. Of course,you have to drive on the wrong side (i.e. the correct side in US) to really reach your final destination. Lan(e)s are for computer networks. You see, Ahmedabad is closer to Amrika than anywhere else.

So who does your city attracts ?

On a side note, the more I travel the more I see that cities in India are losing their individuality. All the buildings look the same wherever I go. The clothes that people wear or their life style is not very different from city to city. There is no differentiation left. I don't know if that is something to worry or cheer about that finally India is becoming a homogeneous country.

Chak De! revisited

When you are the brand ambassador for mobile services company as well as company that makes handsets, the benefits are many including a very very long text messaging service feature available to you for free.

And what do you do with it is send a very very long text message.
So that the rest of us can read that very very long text message.

Read SRK's SMS to his Kolkata Knight Riders team after all the controversies and losses.

"Story time boys... I told you if you keep losing you have to bear with my long, boring msgs.... This is your punishment.... Many times I have made movies which don’t do well.... When I’m doing them, of course, I don’t know they won’t do well.... The story is written by somebody else and I just do my bit as an actor. But I have a way of dealing with flop stories..., I try my best to keep my character in the film at a level that it makes a failed story also special for me...."

“I enjoy the work.... I make jokes about the failure.... And, of course, feel awful about it too.... So, right now, all of us have become part of a failed script... A bad IPL script.... Let’s try and keep our characters worthy of still looking back at this story and remembering it as a special story becos we all worked very hard at this....

“So, chin up and don’t spoil yr character in the next two games.... Let’s go out with a bang and not a whimper.... In films, we say u r only as good as yr last film.... So let’s make the whole world know how good we r in the last (maybe not) two games...

“Also, do ignore all this bit about Dada, me and John having issues.... It’s a normal thing in the world.... People like to hit you when u r down.... So, we will be hit.... No stress.... It will make us stronger.... The only way to avoid this is to win.... That’s one of the reasons why everybody likes to be a winner....

“On the other hand, the beauty of failure is that it brings people together.... So, let’s stick this out together.... You know me well enuff to know I am not the kind of owner who has issues with the team ’cos of losses... I am too much of a sport myself to get beaten by defeats.... Like you guys are.... Like Dada and John....

“I am still trying to understand the code of conduct expected of me at the matches of the IPL.... ICC... Etc.... After I understand it, I will decide whether to accept it or not.... Till such time, I will be with you guys at the hotel... in the meetings etc., but won’t come for the matches.... So, please don’t ever feel it is anything to do with us as a team....

“I am as dedicated to my Knights as I am to my kids.... Only, I won’t be coming to the class room till the headmaster’s rules are understood by me.... I am a bit anti-Establishment kind of a guy, so I apologise for this quirk to u all.... So, head’s up.... Have a good match and let’s make 200 runs tomorrow.... This 150 seems to not work any more....

“We have nothing to lose now, except our character.... Let’s not lose that.... Lov... SRK.

A prayer

Nasrun min Allahi wa fathun qareeb
Help from God and victory is close!

- As Saff Sura 61:13, Quran

The Insignificant period

Eons ago SUN systems proclaimed that "We are the dot in .com" which has got nothing to do with this post. Except for the fact this post talks about the dots in Gmail.

As per this entry @ Gmail Blog, the dots are insignificant in Google's grand scheme of user ids. For this periodic loss, Google gets benevolent and allows extra pluses in your identity. It all evens out in Googlic form of justice. World is not fair, they are +f.a.i.r. And lovely, no!

For some body like Mallika Sherawat has ID say google.mallika@gmail.com, it can also be represented as go.ogle.mallika+just+dont+tell+your+girlfriend@gmail.com

So much fun this is.

Making of a Prophet

by Bertrand Russell.

"Ignore fact and reason, live entirely in the world of your own fantastic and myth-producing passions; do this whole-heartedly and with conviction, and you will become one of the prophets of your age."

Did Raj Thackeray read it, I wonder.

I found the essay via PickTheBrain blog. Do visit the site. It has got some real good articles on self-improvement. No, I am not kidding, really.

Cricket De Grace!

Why Dravid is not held equally responsible ?
Those who are following IPL know what I am talking about.

I don't think any body is following Bangalore Royal Challengers. Nobody is after them even in the points table.

Mallya sacked Charu Sharma for the poor performance of BRC. Dravid and Sharma chose the right people albeit for a wrong occasion. He could not sack the best looking guy in his team as the team plays like they are modeling for the Kingfisher calendar. Sunil Joshi was found doshi of being incapable to do that either.

Same goes for Ganguly. You cannot touch Ganguly in Kolkata Knight Riders who pisses off the other team by coming late on the pitch. And pisses off his players by not able to bat, field or bowl. Some would wish that he would be late enough to skip the game

Moving to our very own Re-Lax-Man. As per the grapevine, some body in his team went a la Bhajji and hit him hard so that he sits out for the rest of the matches. Everyone claimed it to be an accident including Bhajji. The same day Deccan Chargers won against Chennai Superkings.

The Master Blaster is in pain. He is hit where it hurts the most. Silly, he is losing out on the moolah of 40 million rupees. Though he was lucky that he was spared the wrath and with the Sardar gone, the team is now a-sardar (effective) and on a remarkable turnaround course.

That IPL is a ring circus camouflaged as war zone is a foregone conclusion. Now who concluded that, you may say. Yo Einstein, it's me! Koi Shaque.

The collateral damage has been the best four Indian batsmen. Its no surprise that their respective teams are in the bottom half of the points table. More importantly, in a way it was not entirely of their own making or was it. Being an Icon has its price, sometimes it brings the end quicker. Just like a T20 match.

Q and its A

What should I do with my life ?
Most of the time, it ends up being a rhetoric.

Po Bronson in his book tries to make the question accountable and appealing. I am mid-way reading it. I strongly recommend it.

There is no (f)art of living pravachan or self-madad techniques. It is definitely not a Chicken Soup for Soul where alls-well-that-ends-well. Mere dost, picture is always baaki in most of the stories in the book.

The stories vary from poignant to mundane to inspirational. It is not a step-by-step guide to find yourself. It is more of a snapshot of a phase in life of people who really asked the question. Many are still searching for an answer.

The answer is somewhere within. Sometimes, it takes a lifetime to search over there.
That, mere yaar, is the gist of life. To ask the question for which you can spend your entire life looking for an answer.

Winning colors

My friend, Umang, tells me the success behind Chennai Super Kings uninterrupted winning run in IPL. Its the color of their kit and attire.

Any team that wears similar colors as Australian cricket team, wins. Different hue is acceptable :-)



I think it is substantiated by the fact that Mumbai Indians wear blue, what Indian national team wears (though not the same shade of blue). They have lost all their four matches.

The start-up

Life is like a start-up. You start off with something in mind but end up doing something totally different as the market (read life) dictates.

I had a plan, a perfect model for my life which was suppose to reveal on its own. As a kid, wanted to be in army and then wanted to be an electronics engineer with a short spell in the middle where I wanted to be a chemical engineer and eventually ended up doing electrical engineering. Then wanted to study but worked for some time. But then I did study computer engineering with seed funding from my family.

Followed my heart to do nothing and did precisely just that. Finally started working for reasons best known to me (or not) and then went on to join a start-up for again the same reasons as above.

I am slowly inching my way from red to black. The RoI is still to be recovered and break even is far off. When will I make it to getting listed in the history remains to be seen. Because it was never a question of whether I will but when.

Cheer-Haran

It was expected. So it happened. Nobody is surprised.

The cheerleaders in IPL were seen by one and all. Some wanted to see them again. Some said it was enough. They wanted newer cheerleaders. Mumbai Moral Sena raised a pertinent question "With Mumbai males not performing when it matters most (on the cricket field, I mean), who needs cheerleaders anyways?"

They got support from unexpected quarters. Shaheed Afridi and Shotgun Sinha. Though Afridi loves to play with the ball, of cricket obviously, he feels that he is distracted by the other balls...oops..balle balle dance of the cheerleaders. He comes early and then gets off..err..gets out sooner.

Sinha with neither age nor power and not even Pawar on his side has been reduced from Shotgun to firing blanks. He claimed that T20 and cheerleaders will eventually reduce the game to "Toss Toss". Regretfully, he did not mention what is being tossed around. The prospects do look inviting, if he spoke about his own fantasy and of other guys.

All this outbursts took place in the middle of bowling change when the zealous Set MAX instead of showing cheerleaders switched to Vodafone ka kutta running after the bus. What an anti-climax, yaar, causing utmost pain and trauma to many. No hard feelings there, buddy and yeah, it's a dog's life at the end of it.

Yeh IPL ka cricket hain bhidu

Crowds booing "Sreesanth Hai Hai". This could have happened anywhere but in India. Till last Monday.

Then it happened in Jaipur. The reason: Sreesanth gave that stare to a batsman and tried to sledge. The batsmen was Kamran Akmal! See in another context, the Jaipur crowd jeering an Indian bowler cos he took panga with a Pakistani batsman. What would have been unimaginable, just occurred. Akmal plays for Rajasthan Royals in IPL and Sreesanth for Kings XI Punjab.

It has happened before too.
The Eden crowd erupts in joy when Laxman, who made magnificent 281 on the same ground years ago, gets out.
Ponting rushing to Ishant Sharma, when the latter is walking back to his run-up, to advise how to bowl against Symonds.

As Dravid said "It's really unusual to come to Bombay, hit a four and see nobody clapping for you." The Mumbai spectators went "Sanath, Sanath" ala "Sachin, Sachin" style.

So barriers are breaking at international level and new divisions are being made at regional level. As long as those divisions confine to cricket, no harm in celebrating the sixes of Hussey off Pathan or the fall of Dravid.

I am hoping that we start taking pride in our local teams as much as we take "pride" in our national team. IPL may just be that catalyst.

Nayar say Nehra Again

On Wednesday 23rd April in Chennai, Abhishek Nayar came into bat when 99 runs were required of 42 balls. He came, he saw, he played. He brought the score to 8 runs in 2 balls with able support from Harbhajan.
Still Mumbai Indians lost to Chennai Superkings with 6 runs. A great nail-biting finish (though I personally did not indulge in that activity). Such fun.

Joginder Sharma gets all the accolades but I say, he is one helluva lucky chap. In T20 final, Misbah played that audacious shot off Sharma and gave a simple catch to Aakashwani-listening-Sreesanth. Last night, Nayar took a single run on a no-ball and gave strike to Nehra. Nehra who? Aashish Nehra whose claim to fame is that six wicket haul against England in 2003 World Cup and series of injuries later on. That strike ruined all the chances Mumbai Indians had of winning the match.

McCullumed!

Long after your hi-tech jobs got Banglored, Bangalore Royal Challengers got McCullumed in the first league match against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Brendon McCullum scored 158 runs in 73 balls laced with 10 fours and 13 sixes. He is already famous in India with his heroics and another such innings from him will make him a superstar in India. Otherwise, he may end up just one innings wonder (as far as India & IPL is concerned).

There is always a difference between a Kumar Gaurav and Hrithik Roshan.

SRK vs SRK

This is not a remake of Kramer vs Kramer. SRK's new game "Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez hain ?" show begins in the middle of the successful IPL.

The show is an Indianized version of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? I have seen few episodes on YouTube of the Fox Show and it does seem very very interesting. I think the success of the show depends a lot on the contestant. I don't know if the Indian contestant will open so easily in front of the camera.

With IPL hogging all the TRPs and especially the Kolkata Knight Riders matches leading from the front, will SRK's new show give fight to IPL?

The quiz show begins on Friday 25th April 8 PM Star Plus.
Catch the teaser below

Making of the stars

Ashoke Dindha, Wriddhiman Saha, Karan Goel, Salunkhe, Jadeja, Shikhar Dhawan etc
I am not talking about my friend list on Orkut. Neither it is the reunion list of my college.

These are the performers of IPL who were unknown till last week and budding stars this week. Who says IPL is about only money and razzle dazzle, the cheer leaders and Bollywood?

Its exciting to watch the keeper Saha take a dive for a catch on his wrong side or Virat Kohli pouncing on the ball with an eye of a tiger. Ravindra Jadeja hitting boundaries to Brett Lee in a cliff hanger of a match.

Imagine the exposure the young promising talent will get just by being in the same dressing room with the likes of Lee, Symonds, McCullum, Warne and vice versa. May be next time, Symmo will know exactly what Bhajji said! Ek bandar, IPL ke andar. Alrite, this monkey business is no more p(h)unny. So I will stop right here.

The Maa and The Baap

So it has begun. Its almost a week since it started. Its huge if the reports and feedback has to be believed.

Yeah, I am talking about the Manoranjan ka Baap and the Mother of all Reality TV in India.
Indian Premier League.

So far the matches have been exciting barring one or two of them. Expect lot many posts on IPL in the coming weeks.

I am leaving you with few videos for promotion of IPL.
The first one is "inspired" from NBA promotional video but I like the lyrics of the former so its cool with me.



The second one is Bollywood-ish promo which is howlarious !!!!

A curious incident of the dog in the night time

A dog is man's best friend but not when he is in an aircraft ready for take-off.

According to CNN-IBN, an aircraft came to halt because of a dog.
With a "spiritual" co-incidence, the Kingfisher plan hit a Black Dog.

It seems the dog took fancy to the aircraft and wanted to relieve himself.
Why nobody mentions about the fate of the dog. Where is Maneka Gandhi?

Train the pilots for Indian conditions, will you ? They should take a cue from US Air force which is devising a Flight Simulator using traffic data from Indian roads. Alrite, I made this one up. But think about it.

As Forrest Grrrrump would say life is a dog! You never know which aircraft will come and hit you.
That's all I have to say about that.

Treadmill

Life feels like a treadmill.
I keep running faster and faster to stay where I am.
I need to find the stop button to slow down, step back and re-assess.

Have you felt like that ever? Do you know where your stop button is?

Amar Akbar Anthony

Manmohan Desai will be proud of Friday the 21st.
Its Idd, Good Friday and Holi on the same day.

School and college students will be cussing. They lost out on 2 holidays.

Idd Mubarak and Happy Holi !!!!!!!
Amen.

A Letter

He will have to learn, I know, that all men are not just and are not true.

But teach him if you can, the wonder of books.. but also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun and flowers on a green hillside.

In school, teach him it is far more honorable to fall than to cheat.....

Teach to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him he is wrong.

Teach him to be gentle with gentlepeople and tough with the tough.

Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone getting on the bandwagon...

Teach him to listen to all men; but teach him also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth, and take only the good that comes through.

Teach him, if you can, how to laugh when he is sad...

Teach him there is no shame in tears.

Teach him to scoff at cynics and to be beware of too much sweetness..

Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to highest bidders, but never to put a price on his heart and soul.

Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob.. and stand and fight if thinks he is right.

Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him, because only the test of fire makes fine steel.

Let him have the courage to be impatient..

Let him have the patience to be brave.

Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will have faith in humankind.

This is a big order, but see what you can do. . He is such a fine little fellow my son!

- Abe Lincoln in a letter to his son's teacher

Rules of Innovation

No surprise that innovation rules coming from Google.
What surprises me that I found this on Rediff !

My favourite bit:

After September 11, one of our researchers, Krishna Bharat, would go to 10 or 15 news sites each day looking for information about the case. And he thought, Why don't I write a program to do this? So Krishna, who's an expert in artificial intelligence, used a Web crawler to cluster articles." "He later emailed it around the company. My office mate and I got it, and we were like, 'This isn't just a cool little tool for Krishna. We could add more sources and build this into a great product.' That's how Google News came about.

India Calling

Why nobody in India is really listening....