Sandipan Bollywood Awards 2007

Continuing with the tradition of Sandipan Bollywood Awards from 2006, here we go into our new year.

Disclaimer: Be prepared for a typical Sandipan awards, for there will be plenty of partialities. After all even Oscar and filmfare is not without favoritism. And a close second award will be awarded in some cases. There will be a special category of Razzie awards as well. This year it will be more towards anti feeling towards some than favoritism towards a few. Also, I have not seen many movies this year

Here we go. Let me start with the BollyRazzie awards.

Worst Film: Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. From songs to style to story, everything was pathetic. RGV ki aag doesn’t get this award for 2 starcasts: Urmila and Sushmita

Worst Actor: John Abraham, in Goal.

Worst Actress: Konkona Sen for her various movies. She is terribly overacting nowadays.

Anyway now I come to The mainstream awards.

Best Story: Possibly Taare Zameen Par.(Haven't seen the movie yet though)

Best Song: Sajna di wari wari from Honeymoon travels Pvt Ltd (For the awesome horn effect in the background) and "Om Shanti Om" song with all stars (Esp Juhi and that famous dance step by Rani)

Best Music Director: A.R. Rahman , “Guru”. who else?

Best Singer(Male) : Shankar Mahadevan, Maa from Taare Zameen Par.

Best Singer (Female): Shreya Ghoshal, Barson re megha megha

Best television interview: As an Obituary and posthumous award to Benazir Bhutto in Devil's Advocate especially the way she pronounces "Pakstan" with missing 'i'. The second one goes to Rani in the Madhuri Dikshit KWK interview.

Best Item Song: Mayya Mayya Mallika Sherawat

Lets move on to the main awards now.

Best Comedian: Tabu, Amitabh and Sweeni Khara in Cheeni Kum.(Wittiest movie)

Best Supporting Actor: Mithun Chakrabarty in Guru. Not very sure about this though. Open to better suggestions

Best Supporting Actress: Sweeni Khara for Cheeni Kum.

Best Villain: Shilpa Shukla as Bindiya Nayak in Chak De India

Best Newcomer (male) : Prashant Raj Sachdev in RGV ki aag.(Award given because of lack of better choice)

Best Newcomer (Female) : Sagarika Ghatge (Preeti Sabarwal) in Chak De India.(I hate the eggface Deepika)

Best Actor: Shahrukh Khan for Chak De India (Unanimous).

Best Actress: I don’t want to give this to Cat Eye Kareena (has animosity with Bipasha and dumped Shahid) and neither to Aishwarya (I hate the family of Pati, Patni, Woh(Amar Singh), Beta and Bahu). So the award goes to Soha Ali Khan in 'Khoya Khoya Chaand' for so much looking like her mom.

Best Director: Aamir Khan for 'Taare Zameen Par'

Best Film: Chak De India for creating the enormous impact. The T20WC may be attributed to it.

Comments Welcome!

On Taslima Nasreen

Does it matter? Is everybody supposed to have an opinion on the Taslima issue? Ideally it should not. But somehow I could not stop thinking. I felt the need that I have to have a stance on this issue. But I was confused. Unlike the majority of the blogger society or the news channel projected this to be a violation of artistic freedom, somehow I was never satisfied with the answer.
Another thing is that we should forget the political colors that has been surrounding the entire issue. As for that, there can not be any separate opinion that the political drama was of 3rd grade.

But let's come to the issue of writing something which may hurt the sentiments of certain people. Being an ardent fan of Jane Austen, I feel you need not take the shelter of hot and controversial topics to show off your literary talents. But whenever I think that, the much highlighted term of "Artistic Freedom" keeps poking me. I begin thinking about what would have happened if there were no artistic freedom? Would the world still have been flat? Would the sun still have rotated around the sun and could Archimedes have ever said Eureka? When I think along those lines, I take my view back. This dilema had been haunting me for almost a month now. But suddenly the week before last, I got my answer. And this time it was form Shobhaa Dey in Sunday Times of India 9th Dec.

The gist is this: Let's define the people. If a person is writing controversial thing, it got to have a purpose behind it. Simply writing controversies is a cheap tactics of money making. Noway better than yellow journalism. Let's say Taslima or Rushdie were not yellow journalists. Through their writings, they want to grab the world's attention to the atrocities they thing is a part of their religion with the hope that there will be some kind of action and world wide support which will help in abolishing this problems from the society.

The moment you think on those lines, you are no more an author. You are a human right activist or some rebel or some leader. Authoring becomes just a mean of expanding your net to attract more and more people towards the mission. So the bottomline is, when you write controversies, you should eventually atleast think that what you think will benefit the society and work towards it. Simply writing sensational stuff is a cheap act.

Now what did Taslima do? Agreed, she was in mortal danger in Bangladesh and had to run away. But why did she stop her protests? Why did we never see her in the streets of London/ Kolkata / wherever condemning what she found out in the religion. But I didn't see her fight. Shobhaa just confirms the fact (in case there is some error in my judgement). Taslima should not have been afraid of death. She should have taken her cause to the streets of Bengal. It would have been a test for the cultural capital of India also fr it's reaction to her cause.

Now it falls in line with Galileo/ Leonardo Da Vinci etc. These people were severely punished. But they took their cause to the streets. They believed that the current believes are wrong and people need to change.

I don't think Taslima is brave enough to face the brunt. She is not ready to take her cause to the level when people can actually be benefited. And this is why, I think she is wrong. If you dare, come what may you should go ahead.

Well on a side note, if it were me, I would have chosen the easier way, avoid controversy. NOt the other way round..

Kolkata Headlines ( 2 years from now)

I am tired of the headlines. Ideally I should have been happy because after many many years the news is more about west Bengal than anything else. But it’s all the wrong reasons: Singur, Rizwanur, Nandigram, Moon Das, Taslima and what not. So here I go, a few news items related to West Bengal which I want to be in the Newspapers soon.

Brand Ambassadors Ronaldo and Bipasha at the launch of Rs 1 Lakh Car by TATA in Singur

SMNA, Kolkata: Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and Bollywood reigning queen Bipasha Basu were chosen as the brand ambassadors at the occasion of Launch of the new Rs 1 Lakh car by Tata Motors manufactured at Singur near Kolkata. The event was aattended by who’s who world over including Mr Green Al Gore, Prime Minister of India Arun Jaitley, Hollywood diva Julia Roberts and ofcourse the extended Bachchan family: Amitabh, Jaya, Amar Singh, Abhi, Ash and their twin kids Karina and Vivek.

Buddha inaugurates Google Kolkata

SMNA Kolkata: Yesterday was another notable day for Kolkata as Google Inc. opened their Development center in Kolkata. Notable amongst those who were present at the occasion apart form the Google founders was N.R. Narayana Murthy and T.V. Mohandas Pai of Infosys Technologies limited who have just extended their plans of Kolkata office from 10000 to 20000. It might be noted that for a change Infosys will chnge their plans about horizontal establishmensts. The new building is supposed to be 50 storey with 6 storey of parking, an indoor stadium at the first few floors, and complying to the green policies they apre planning to have a garden every 5^th floor.

L.K Advani at the opening of grand transportation project:

SMNA Kolkata: Home minister L.K Advani, (self proclaimed Kolkata hater) has changed his tunes kicked off the new transportation project in the city. The facilities include the following: Merger of Kolkata Metro and Suburban trains with Kolkata transport. The metro has been extended to Barasat and Barrackpore in the north and Jokha in south. Also it is no longer a single line and instead cris crosses the entire city. The suburban trains comply to the time and frequency has been doubled. The wooden buses have been removed. Instead swanky double decker buses will ply all over the city. As a new initiative of Woman’s liberation and equality, the ‘reserved for ladies’ seats have been removed in all the buses. The circular canal transportation project has finally started and people will find it both very hassle free and scenic to use this water transport facility.

World Fiction Authors meet in Netaji Indoor Stadium:

SMNA Kolkata: The 3-day World’s biggest ever Fiction authors kicks off at the new Book Mall at college street. Almost everyone amongst the living fictional authors has gathered in Kolkata for this grand event. This includes the controversial trio of Salman Rushdie, Dan Brown and Taslima Nasrin. The keynote speaker, the new rising star of fiction, Sandipan Mitra will give a lecture on how great books can be written even without controversial topics with generous references to the Austen books. Each day will have some famous book launches. The first day will be launch of yet untitled book by Khaled Hosseni about the fight back of Afghanistan against both the US troops and the Taliban. The second day will be the launch of Jhumpa Lahiri’s ‘The sky and the Begonia’ which for the first time is not about Indians immigrated to US and instead deals about a forest with talking trees. Sources say that it is a satire on modern world politics. But ofcourse the star attraction has been left for the Last day. It is “Advanced Potion Making by Libatius Borage” actually written by J.K Rowling. This book will be 500 pages long. The copy will resemble the one that belonged to the half blood prince. A record 50 million copies have already been pre-booked all over the world.

Special zones for the lovers

SMNA Kolkata: The Kolkata mayor has finally relented to the wishes of the youth. It has made 40 tall walled parks in and around the city where they can carry on with the stuff they want and leave the beautiful places like Millenium Park, Science city and Swabhoomi for family crowd. However it has also been made sure that the minimum age in these parks is 16. Entry is through ID cards.

PS: SMNA is Sandipan Mitra News Agency

Babban Hajaam

Once upon a time, there was a Raja. The Raja was very nice and people were living happily in his kingdom. Suddenly one fine day, Raja’s barber dies. He was very old and has been with the family for a long long time. So obviously the search began for the next barber who can be the King’s barber. After a lot of search, this post was offered to a young lad called Babban. Babban was conscientious, hardworking and diligent; without coaching or reservations he was selected for the royal snip snip snip. As he did ‘Hajaamat, people used to call him ‘Babban Hajaam’. Babban was very happy. After around a month, came the time when Raja needed a haircut. Till that time, he was busy with cutting hairs of the other members of the royal family.

It was a nice Sunday morning. Babban whistled his way to work and continued humming the newest hit song by the courtesan Billo Chamanbhaar. The Raja too was keeping up the beats by patting with his palm on his thighs. Suddenly Babban paused. The Raja did too. Babban continued but alas, the scissors froze.

Babban baulked again. He rubbed his eyes, pinched himself. But still he couldn’t believe his eyes: Horns on the royal pate? O swami of Hari-ki-Dun! The Raja half-turned and with a straight index finger on a shivering mousatche said – “Sshhhhhhshshsh, if you say another word about this to anybody, that will be the last day of your life.” And thus it wound up, with a scrape scrape and brush brush and talcum powder puff puff, and certainly no mirror.

After this, a peculiar thing started happening. As hours progressed, Babban’s tummy swelled. By late evening, his tummy was of the size of a football. By next day morning, the swelling reached upto his neck and he was looking like a big barrel. By Tuesday, his whole body swelled up and he became like a huge balloon. This was happening because he couldn’t keep the secret for such a long time. At last, the poor lad tried to run but it looked more like he was rolling. He rolled towards the woods. Finally when he was deep inside, he told the secret to a tree. He told the tree – “Raja ke sar pe seeeeeng”. Soon he shrunk back to his normal shape.

But now, the tree started swelling and it swelled well. One fine day, after 6 months or so, a woodcutter was walking though the forest and he saw this tree with a huge trunk. He tapped on the trunk. It gave a nice hollow sound. He thought, “Wow, this makes such a nice sound. This wood will be awesome for musical instruments.” So he cut the tree and gave the trunk to his friend who was a maker of musical instruments. The friend was very happy and gave him a lot of cash in return. The friend made 3 instruments out of it: A violin, a harmonium and a set of Tabla. Soon after he made them, a band of musicians came over and were very impressed by the quality of the instrument and bought them at a very good price.

Soon, one day the singers were called to the durbar of the Raja. It was a great day. It was Raja’s birthday. There were a lot of Durbaris. Nice looking women dressed in the shady kind of clothes that the Apsaras Menka and Rambha generally wear, were serving food and paan to all the durbaris. After a scintillating performance by Raja’s favourite Billo Chamanbahaar, came the turn of these musicians, the rising stars of the kingdom.

People waited with baited breath. The musicians came to the stage and started tuning their instruments. In the middle, while they were checking the sound system, suddenly the violin lifted on its own and started playing by itself:

Raja ke Sar pe Seeeeng.. raja ke sar pe seeeeeeng.

Soon the harmonium also started off:

Kisne Bataya Kisne Bataya

And the tabla started the beats:

Babban Hajaam Ne, Babban Hajaam ne.

All the people in the court fell of the chairs laughing. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, could not put the courtiers back on their chairs again.

Note: I would like to thank Kaushik Ramu for the bare bone structure of the story

Fastest Egg recipe

Let this thanksgiving be about a few recipe posts from me. Like the earlier one, this one is also pretty open ended and may need a few trails before perfecting. Before I go ahead with the recipe, let me thank my friend Nirmal for introducing this recipe to me.
The main advantages of this recipe are:
1) If you want to eat egg, and not the house smell, you eat egg boiled. This takes atleast 20 minutes. So by the time the egg actually is ready, you have lost your appetite. This recipe just takes 3 minutes literally.
2) If you are a stickler like me who believe in not loading the sink with used utensils, this is a boon, u need only 1 vessel to cook and that too easy to wash. Compare this with an omelette vessel where you need two, one to beat and one pan to fry.

OK, now lets go ahead with the recipe:
Ingredients:

1) 2 eggs.
2) one tsp vegetable oil.
3) Mushroom/Peas etc (Optional) if you want to have something inside your omelette.

Procedure:

1) Take a microwavable stone/china bowl. The bigger base, the better.
2) Break the eggs in the bowl, add salt, optional veg and beat it for sometime.
3) Pour oil along the edges. The lesser the better.
4) Microwave for 2 minutes. You can take it out after one minute, scramble it a bit and put it back again.
5) Scrambled egg is ready. No smell, no vessel, you can eat in the same bowl.

Recipe: ShimlaMirch-Aaloo Ambajhari (Indian gravy based Capsicum and Potato)

After a long long time, I did something I really wanted to do. I cooked the way I wanted. It was nothing like slight variation. But definitely a mix and match of many different recipes. Lets call it ShimlaMirch-Aaloo Ambajhari , a Capsicum and Potato Recipe. If there exists Hyderabadi Biryani and Veg Kolhapuri, why not this. BTW Ambajhari is a place near Nagpur where I was born and brought up)

Ingreditents:

For the gravy:

1) Onion

2) Tomato in any form (paste, chopped, chunks)

3) Groundnut powder (1-2tbsp)

4) Grated Coconut (Only if you like it)

5) Yoghurt (Optional)

6) Chilli Powder/ Green Chillies (Depending on ur palate)

7) Garlic and/or ginger

8) Anything you find interesting to put in a paste form (Cashew, Raisins etc)

For the curry:

1) Capsicum (cut into 0.5 square inch pieces approx)

2) Potato (boiled and cut into small pieces, again around 0.5 cubc inches)

3) Salt (to taste)

4) Any Indian masala ( I tried tava fry masala) 1 tsp (Just for flavor)

Procedure:

As you have already noticed, the quantity is not specified in any of the main ingreditents because I feel it strictly depends on your taste. For example, my onion ratio was a bt on the higher side resulting in a ‘Jhanjhalo’ ( a Bengali word, basically the adjective for reason why onion makes u cry).

1) Put all the ingredients in the ‘For the Gravy’ section in a blender and blend it well.

2) Heat oil in a pan. Add the usual cumin and mustard seeds if you want to, else leave)

3) Pour the contents of the blender in the pan and fry till oil separates. This will take a long time. So you can put salt, turmeric (optional) in between.

4) Add the masala of your wish towards the end stages of oil separating.

5) Put the capsicum and some water. Allow it to boil depending on how crunchy you like your capsicum.

6) Towards the end, add the boiled potatoes, mix well and remove from heat.

It tastes the way you want it to taste, because you have decided the quantities and the products too.

You can do this with any vegetables. Some suggestions:

1) Only Cauliflower (Boil the cauliflower first. You don’t want this raw)

2) Peas and Potato

3) Only Potato

4) Paneer

5) Mushrooms

Dada

Well dada means a lot of things. To me, it means my elder brother Sambaran. To many of the people, in a typical work/society the elder Bengali will be called a Dada. In the roads of Bengal, till sometime back, it was the same as Anna of Chennai or Swami of mangalore. But ofcourse, most likely if you ask anybody, who is Dada, the answer will be: Who else but Sourav Ganguly.

It took some time for me to accept his popularity. I always thought it’s only West Bengal, and seems the truth is not very different. I have even seen many people getting jealous. ( but pretending to be either angry or disgusted or as a big shot of cricket and denounce him). But this is the truth, the way Ganguly is adored in West Bengal, no body will ever be adored in any part of India.

As they say, you have to be there to feel it. I don’t get many chances to go to Kolkata and which coincides with some cricket match, but it is a sight to watch. The whole time Dada is on crease (which thankfully is generally not much), is like some last moments of world cup final. People observe every movement of his, will do ‘ishhh’ on his misses and jump on his fours and sixes. It’s just amazing being with all of these. You can’t dislike him anymore.

Ofcourse then, it’s quite obvious, that Chapell will be considered villain. No way can people forgive him when he did something that bad to their won dada. But it was poor Dravid who also got the wrath of the people for no good reason, simply because he was the one who replaced dada. When I tried to discuss any cricket in these lines with any common person (not some very jaankar kind of), it seemed I am a fool if I think otherwise that Chapell may be right, dravid may be good.

The guy who comes out clean in this case and for that matter any controversy, is Sachin. At a position, when he can command anything he wants, they way he never shows his temper and maintains his image is simply amazing. No wonder people refer him as the God.

Anyway, coming back to Ganguly, I now realize, that the reason for his popularity is that he has been the only achiever for Bengal for a long long time. Amartya Sen, though a Bengali has been too long outside to be considered a son of soil, and so are Arundhati, Jhumpa, Rani, Sushmita or Bipasha. Though you see almost half of the reporters in the news channels as Bengalis (leading the pack ofcourse is Sagarika Ghosh) they are all what we call “Probashi Bangali”s. To add to it, the Bengal politics is in a mess, the govt is in the hands of people whos average age is 70+ and the opposition is a lady who has left her brains somewhere long ago. The recent situations in Nandigram makes matter even worse. In all this, the only good thing that has happened to West Bengal in last 15 years is just Dada. No wonder then why Bengalis react to him this way.

Before I end, just as an unrelated note, have any of you read the recent reports of peaceful demonstrations in Kolkata, which was described as a march by the intelligentsia, the writers, the film personalities and the socialites. I just wonder who constitute the intelligentsia :)

Gujarat riots, Tehelka Expose

I feel so sad, and to a certain extent guilty, about the Gujarat riots. Tehelka has exposed the fact that Mr. Narendra Modi was behind the riots. But didn’t we all know about that? People may have had doubts about the extent of his involvements but rumors never spread out of thin air, and especially rumors this big (not Rani marrying Aditya, for that matter even the initially debunked rumors about aish and abhishek had some base in it). So Narendra Modi is guilty and in this case, less or more doesn’t matter.

People always tend to think the wrong directions or biased opinions in this case. The learned Muslims know the lesser said the better. The illiterate Muslims do what the Qazis tell them to, who in turn are politically inclined. What depresses me is the opinions that the Hindus have. There are fanatic Hindus who went on describing about the barbaric deaths of the people who were burnt in the train. And they tend to justify the riots based on this presumption. There are a bunch of Anti-Hindu hindus (Yes, there are lot of them), who think that the Godhra Train massacre was also self created by the Hindus just as an opportunity to kill the people. In either of these, people are moving from the depth and gravity of the situation to petty finger pointing.

I have simple views. I believe the first reactions of the people are always true. The fast reactions can generally never be painted. So I do believe that something bad happened in the train. But what I DO believe is no matter what happens anywhere, killing people is never a solution. Even though it is in retaliation of something really disgusting. So I condemn the entire Gujarat riots. I know people will agree with me up to this point. Now I will go further and say that though Modi and a few others who may be responsible for the riots, I will, as a human being, consider it as barbaric as the riots if somebody kills these people. Let the justice take its action. (I firmly believe capital punishment should be banished. There are ways to let people live their entire life in repentance and guilt of a terrible crime than just kill them).

I would like to mention the Grahams Staines death. This may be true that the means Graham Staines adopted to spread the word of Christianity were really of the third degree. But that doesn’t qualify somebody to kill him and his children. Again, I tend to believe it’s not Dara Singh who is alone responsible for this. It must be some rich educated hindu fanatic who brainwashed his mind and made hi commit the murder.

The root of all these become very apparent. Lack of good education which should promote clarity of unbiased thoughts. And as my Mom and Dad say, Rabindranath Tagore has written something about every situation, which appears to be true in this case, I end my blog with some lines which I consider very relevant:

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee

into ever-widening thought and action--

Into that heaven of freedom,

My Father, let my country awake.

A look at Current Affairs

Let's begin with me. I have shifted my base to Natick, a suburb of Boston to be precise. For a living, I work with a software company, but strangely, it's not the typical software company (Oh so Cliché, but it is. ) And I am happy so far and guess that's important.
It's fall and you can see it best here. People go to other states nearby to see the fall colors. This year I am content with whats happening around me . Trees from all shades of green to Red with orange, yellow in the middle stages. Its too good. And what makes it more wonderful is its not same for all trees. So U just see colored trees at random. Its too good.

Next let's go to the Nobel Peace Prize. Well deserved for Al Gore I would say. He did real good work in creating awareness. The movie which I have not seen and the 07-07-07 world wide concert which I have not been to are just a few good moves. It did put the word in everybody's mind, especially in America who just never think of these kind of consequences. In addition, IPCC was the co-winner. IPCC headed by Rajendra K. Pachauri. I don't know to what extent we Indians need to be proud of that fact? Am not very sure! We may congratulate Rajendra K. Pachauri for ths fact, but it can't be a national pride. The worst of this came out in a Hindustan Times disussion panel where Shahrukh was speaking about rising India and what needs to be done for Globalizing Hindi movies. It was quite natural taht he mentions Oscars/Chak De etc. Suddenly this Nalini Singh jumps and asks why didn't you mention Mr. Pachauri. It seems we are ignoring the achievement. Shahrukh Khan was dumbstruck. Apologized and named Pachauri. But I think nalini Singh proved that she is dumb. But I liked her DD shows and thought she wasa good journalist. 1 heartbreak.

Moving on to Harry Potter and Hogwarts Pandal in Salt Lake, Kolkata. Get what happened from the news. I think what happened was good. Indian should know the extent to which copying is OK. I guess JKR would have herself come down and inaugurated the Pandal if she had been asked to. But these people never thought of that. I think lawsuit was an accident, but the court ruling was the best. Go ahead this time, but be cautious from next time. It is very important.
What I didn't like about the whole episode is the reactions of non-potter lover indians. They think JKR is evil. Greatbong is one of them. He has gone way too much with renaming Hogwarts as HagooWarts. I thought he was a good blogger. Another heartbreak.

Lastly, lets discuss the Rizwanur case. As with most of the murders this one too, though a love story murder failed to catch my eyes which generally go to the right side movie section of rediff, first thing in the morning. I read all about it after going through the Jhumur Bose blog on CNN IBN. My views went for one extreme to the other as I first read the blog and then read the comments. What my views stand is this: Whatever happened (murder/suicide) was sad. The guilty should be punished (I am anti capital punishment though). But now let's move on to the Mom-Dad-Daughter and Rizwanur angle. Its perfectly right for the daughter to fall in love with Rizwan and vice versa. They may decide to marry and nobody should stop them. But it's also perfectly valid for Mom and Dad to oppose the marriage. If one can love somebody for no good reason (which is generally true, love looses its meaning if it is with some motive) there is no rule that nobody can hate him. So it's also perfectly alright that they express their displeasure to their daughter. But it should have stopped at that and the parents laying the condition that if you go ahead, we disinherit you. At this point, the girl should decide what to do, to go with heart or brain . In this case because Rizwanur has good earnings as an animation expert, its not a bad idea to go with love and promptly get out of her family. This may be very hard but had to be done. I guess this is what would have happened in the west. But I don't know why we Indians always go for a compromise. The father thought of talking to the police. Who knows if he hired gundas. This is what is going beyond what is needed. On the other hand, the people would have felt bad even if he just disinherited his daughter. This is bullshit because he can do whatever he wants if daughter goes against his wishes and is over 18. he can have cast/money bias. Can't be helped. All in all, the matter should have been left with just the mom,dad daughter and riz.


Anyway enuf of my views. Eid Mubarak. Happy Navaratri and Durga Puja.

The Bunty and Babli age

Rightly depicted in the movie "Bunty aur Babli", this is the age of the small town people as rightly depicted in this article. Dhoni, Pathan, Sreesanth, Amit Paul , Prashant Tamang and most of the Indian Cricket team as well as Indian Idol finalists just strengthen this belief. The IITians are coming from small towns . Mallika Sherawat and Priyanka Chopra are the examples in the tinseltown.

And why am I happy? Because I am a small town guy. And like most of the others I feel a great aversion to the Big City people. The Mumbaikars, the Delhites and the Kolkatans. I do not count Chennai as I haven't seen many Chennites who fall into this hated category. I exclude Bangalore because though there are a lot of people in Bangalore who belong to this category for some particular characteristics of theirs, they are not the "Original Bangalorites", they are migrated.

By the way, what are the characteristics that make me or may be many others averse to these people?

• These people think that that particular City is THE city and life hardly exists beyond that.
• Fashion and looks are foremost in their minds and being non trendy is considered a big sin.
• They expect you to know "Ghatkopar ka CCD", "Sector 18 mall" and "Puja@Maddox Square", but won't even CARE to know any facts about any small town.
• They showoff. They invent their own lingos and expect you to know that.
  
• The girls are most confused. The vague notion that they are being modern by changing a few cosmetic things but in essence they never develop the modern outlook of the west as well as they loose the calm composure nature of the natives.

Ok, enough of this big city bashing. I hate them somehow and I can go on and on about it. But I do see many exceptions. It may also be true that the people on whom I based my opinion does not truely represent the local middleclass/poor population which sadly enough accounts for the major population of any Metro. But then they never make a fuss about Big City/ Small City.

Here are the exceptions. There are ofcourse people in the upper middle class also who behave down to earth/normal according to my yardstick. These exceptions are most welcome when it is this way but I just loose my cool when it is the other way. And this is what happens in Bangalore. The nice, good and simple Kannadigas of Bangalore, they have been in Bangalore all their life beautifying it. And in comes about 1-2 lakh people a year, mostly from small towns but suddenly feeling all high class. These people will tend to act pricey, go for the foreign brands, wear unnecessary sunglass, put all kinds of perfume, deos even if they are just going down Sabji Shopping and then hog around the pubs on weekends.

Frankly speaking even I have been through this mode but soon realized that though i may be a part of it, I do not like it. And now I realize, there is absolutely no harm in staying simple.

Though not very relevant, but I have seen this trend here in US. Guys drink only beer rather prefer beer. I don't understand though I sometimes do the same myself just trying not to different, what is so great about a drink which 1) Doesn't taste good. 2) Doesn't get you high easily. 3)Stinks more than any other and 4) Makes you feel so pissy. :D

Ragging

The recent reports of how a student from Lucknow was ragged and was in hospital compels me to get started on the topic.

Being a hostelite, and surely like every other hostelite I do feel that “Those were the best days of my life…blah blah blah” but I don’t agree with most of them on another cliché statement “Ragging as long as it is not physical, is good for personality development.” I am also surprised that many of the fraternity people here in US where ragging is called hazing also defend the culture.

Though most of my friends laugh back at those first year days, and I can also laugh aloud if I really want to, but I am still not able to forget those days. Just the fear of going to college from high school was so prominent that I failed to recognize the biggest change in my life – leaving parents. There, my mom stood in the balcony suppressing her tears, my friends encircling me waiting for me to break down, and me like an idiot, more afraid of the future, just couldn’t feel the gravity of the situation, I didn't shed a single drop of tear and neither was i sad. Though I think my dad and to some extent my bro are of the braver kind, still I don’t understand how the fear got into me.

On landing in Surathkal, the fear was gone as I realized that any form of physical abuse was not going to happen, but soon the feeling of disgust. This was even worse. I had to go to the ground everyday, just sit or play, but for a person, who doesn’t like to play it was a burden. There were also many restrictions. Don’t go to the beach; don’t go to Surathkal/Mangalore alone etc. etc. It was all done for good so that people don’t get carried away and for their own safety. But I feel, for a person of 17, he better be the master of his own will or of his parents who can contact through phone. We are a democratic country and to curb ones independence is a violation of Fundamental Rights.

The officials think they do a good job. Nothing really drastic happens in our college anymore. But instead, the first years are never allowed out of their hostels at any time. They have to keep a log of their times. All this, for their safety. But what about the independence?With all this though I got the security, there was still the mental fear that I went through, I will never forget though I may forgive. Though I began to like all my seniors, the TRUST never came and neither did any respect for the wardens.

When I came to second year, it became our responsibility. I wanted to make sure that atleast my juniors can trust me and then I can show them the path to freedom. I could show them the towns, the good food places, the most beautiful beaches. But that was not to be. Taking a junior outside was considered a big violation of rules.

Anyway, on the whole, I feel any form of restrictions either imposed by the university or the seniors of the college is a violation of fundamental rights. Instead, people should work on to maintain the independence of freshers and help them in a SMOOTH transition.

Absolutely Random

Call it joblessness or urge to increase post count. I just want to write something. But didn't get many ideas and the ones which I got are too colored or too regional. So i stop it that. Let's see, even at this point of time, I don't know what I will write. It's just that I will ask myself 10 questions which will be like Top 3. ie. Top 3 places etc etc. and they will be my own views of course coz its my own blog. I will try to keep the questions as distinct as possible. Also the best one will have a picture.
Ok Start:



1) Top 3 women Authors:
Jane Austen, Enid Blyton, J.K. Rowling










2) Top 3 places I would love to work:
UNICEF, Infosys Facilities Department,
Keep it simple: Mathworks :)











3) Top 3 beaches I have seen (Haven't seen Many):
Beach next to Cabo De Rama, Palolem, Puri










4) Top 3 songs that come to my mind:
Shanti Ashantagi, Banke Tera Jogi,
Aamaar shokol Niye boshe aachi









5) Top 3 Smells:
Earth after first rain, Nail Polish, Cigarette







6) Top 3 states of India (Based on people):
Karnataka, Kerala, Goa







7) Top 3 places at Texas A&M:
MSC, Bonfire Memorial, Sterling C Evans Library











8) Top 3 topics I like to talk:
NITK life, Harry Potter, Indian films







9) Top 3 things about India's Struggle for freedom:
Quit India Movement, 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, Formation of Indian National Congress








10) Top 3 sportsmen I like:
Christiano Ronaldo, Pete Samprass, Kapil Dev

Tapur Tupur Brishti

It can surely be called one of the bold and selfish decisions I took in past few months and I have done many big things. I got a job, defended my thesis, got a degree completion etc. But it was more like I had to get a job and I had to finish my studies. One thing followed another and it was all done.

It was a simple thing. I got wet in rain. And it was a fully conscious decision. I was in Zachry (My department) and was feeling very sleepy. So I decided to go back home. As soon as I was nearing the exit, I saw it was all dark outside and raining too. But I had made up my mind. I will go in the rain. I did have a 900$ laptop in my backpack but still didn’t feel like waiting. The backpack claimed to be waterproof.

I started cycling. Rain drops falling on my face and everywhere. It was so much fun. Thanks to my mom, I have gone out in rain very less. She just won’t let me. Anyway when you go from home to somewhere, you always have access to umbrellas. The problem is only when u forget to bring umbrella and u have to go back home. So this was the same case.

The rain was very pleasant. It was neither too heavy nor just drizzle, just the right kind. I felt so independent and so happy doing this lil act of bravery.

Lots of songs and jingles came to my mind:

Peter Pater rain drops, go away, go away

Barson re megha megha

Pehli barish bheege honth , nagare nagare nagira oooo

Dekho baarsish ho rahi hai, its raining its raining its raining.

Chai Chappa Chai, Chapak chai, paniyon ke cheente udati hui ladki

Tip Tip Barsa paani.

Me 60 years back

Well, the thought came to me as I read Advay’s blog. He said he would have been a “Garampanthi” freedom fighter if he would have been born in pre independence era. Made me think what I would have been. First thought was: Might be one of the followers of Gandhiji, not that I agree with all his views but I think the path he showed is much better than any of the other leaders. The feeling of national unity which I think was more important than even national independence could not have come out of these garampanthi people.

But when I analyzed a bit more, with more brains than heart, I guessed if I just go by what I have done so far, I would have gone to the queen’s land to get a law degree and came back and appeared for ICS as it was called that time. I know I am not ICS/IAS material but then who says I am engineering material now. But as that would have been the most lucrative profession that time, I would have definitely attempted for that. After that, I would be happily serving the British Indian government. Don’t get me wrong here, I would not have been one of the “Ingrej er paa chata kukur” (Meaning the dog who licks Englishmen’s feet, used in these typical freedom based serials like yug), but would have been a typical serviceman. Let’s say I was a district collector of some suburb of Calcutta. Don’t even know what that means but from what I hear from people, he is the government’s representative for the district and the welfare of the district is in hands. With this in mind, let’s see what I could have done.

I would have been extremely helpful to the poor people, listening to their woes and establishing free schools for poor children. I would have made sure that none in my district are dying of hunger. I would put my best efforts in bringing industries to my district and for that I would have done my bit of “Maska” to the angrez. I would have been a regular to their parties, drinking socially as I do now and as I am near Calcutta, I would have been pretty much in the center of politics. I would have supported Gandhiji’s ideologies as would have been the fashion by then but not sporting a Gandhi Topi. Pretty much westernized in terms of clothes. Overall, I would be a serviceman to the nation as a representative of the government and would have done my part in development of the people of the country. Independence at the cost of anything could never have been my priority. On the day of Independence I would have been extremely happy, would have hoisted a flag in my office building but never failing to give a sendoff party to the Angrez who were my bosses or colleagues.

Does it sound bad? Does it sound like a traitor? Most importantly, what do you think you would have been say in 1946? And if our paths crossed how would have reacted to me? I do need some comments on this one unlike the previous one.

New Fav: Katrina Kaif

A quickie here! Will do proper research later and come up with something better. But I saw this Episode of Koffee with Karan (as usual at its best), and it had Lara and Katrina. Whoooooo, both looked stunning and though Lara does looks a bit better than the horseface, Katrina just makes up for all with her accent. A mixture of my two favourites, Emma Watson and Kiera, its just so british. She has Kieras looks and hermione's brains. Simply awesome. Just a small hitch though. she is not in good terms with Bips :(
Sounds strange, and that too just 3 days before the 60th year of Indias independence form the british, I am just in awe with everything british. Don't know when it started. I just like som many british things. Harry Potter, Kiera Knightley, ManU, Hamilton, James Bond, and everything British. am just dying to see "Beoming Jane", the only reason:its based on my fav writer:Jane Austen and the movie is so english!

Random views, II3, KWK

I don’t know what should be the title of this post. Just finished seeing the results of Indian Idol 3, Gala 5 results. I don’t know what impressed me. But I was. Whether all the reality shows are like this, I know not. I have been out of touch with TV for a long long time, ever since I left home in 2000. It’s only coming back here that I have started watching TV shows on the internet.

Off late, my favorite has been KWK (Koffee wit Karan). He makes stupid movies but his show is really great. I like the way he is not ashamed of his antiques and style. That day I was telling somebody that Rituparno Ghosh is another Karan Johar. Well, it’s a great thing to be the definition of some characteristics. Anyway, what I like most about the show is seeing the interviewing skills of the various people. While even new ones like Lara, Bipasha and John are such smart in their replies, Hema Malini and Madhuri Dixit, being so much better and famous actors than these people, are so artificial in their interviews. Infact, I ardently follow all Hema malini interviews just for seeing that how such a beautiful and talented actress acts so comically before the camera.

Uff, somebody should stop me now. When I get started about KWK, I can’t stop. This post started with Indian Idol results episode. I know these people try to get too much real at times that it looks bad. For example, I forgot which, but one contestant has birth parents and growing up parents. So they made up a show out of it. But 2 things that happened today really moved me. One was Ankita’s legs were shaking uncontrollably. When it didn’t stop, Hussain suddenly said, Ankita, tum theek ho na, nahi tho tum andar ja sakti ho. It was quite personal. I liked it a lot. The other one was in the end when Parleen was leaving. It was natural that Puja cries, some other contestants cry, even the judges make sad faces. What surprised me the most was Mini Mathur crying uncontrollably. Whatever might be the reason, an anchor of a show crying for some contestant is unheard of. Whether this is good or bad I don’t know but I would say Mini just started a welcome trend.

Coming to Mini, a little has to be said about her too. I have been following her for a long time. It was around 96-97 I think when she started coming in Namaste India. Travel shows then were quite rare and she was just exceptional. Despite being so famous, she started from scratch and won the MTV VJ Hunt contest and undoubtedly was one of the best VJs for that too. And now she is into Indian Idol. And what she did yesterday was simply superb.

Expelliarmus

I have so many things to write about. My trip to NYC, Bipasha-Ronaldo kiss or the comparison between a celebrity show like Koffee with Karan and one involving Congress patented Aam aadmi types Indian Idol. (My friends say its better to watch a show involving common people than watching the Kareenas bitching about others and the Hemas talking about good upbringing of Eshas but I beg to differ).But everything takes a backseat. And the reason is obvious. Deathly Hallows.
As I have it in another Deathly hallows post of mine, I am expecting Rowling to do something surprising which none of us would ever have guessed and from all the snapshots of the book leaking through the internet one shocked me. I can't find the link now.
Spoiler Warning (may or may not be):
That particular link had out of the many deaths, death of Fred and Hedwig. Now that seems Rowlingish. Is it not? We all are expecting it to be Harry or Hagrid, Ron or Hermione but if it is tears that Rowling wants from us, I think this is her best. Hedwig, the innocent owl is the only character who has never disagreed with Harry ever. We can say that after the death (was it?) of Sirius, the closest to Potter is Hedwig.
Next is Fred. Can we ever imagine George without Fred? It would have been one thing to let both die. But just the thought of George staying alive to suffer the agony makes me sad already.
Also we all somehow love the people of 'The Burrows'. But Ron and Ginny somehow have much more than just being the people of Burrows. One is the love and one is the best friend. Just imagine what Mrs Weasley will think when she has to scold only George instead of both.
Spoiler Warning Ends

By the way, let's play this game. Which character do you want to be in Harry Potter. Somehow i don't want to be Harry. Its Ron I like the most. Suits me. Imagine you really don't have to do anything on your own. There is constantly a Hermione who will do your homework, friends like Harry and Hermione who will tell you what to do and never really think anything innovative (except playing good chess). A nice mom cooking wonderful food. A brother who works with dragons. A Fleur as Bhabhi. All he does is being loyal to Harry which is very very important but guess I can do it :). And he gets a Hermione. If I were Ron, All I will do is say thank you to hermy all day so that she says that mesmerizing "Pleasure" in the all british accent.



Oops forgot to write why expelliarmus. I don't want the things that happen as per the spoiler i said. Hope i am hidden in a corner to say "expelliarmus" if anybody tries to attack these people. Join me if you can. Wiki says, its more powerful if multiple people do it.

Fashion Faux Pas

Well, generally those people who are generally fashionable, are always the ones targeted for fashion Faux Pas. And it's such a universal phenomenon and true also. You will comment on those people who are concerned with it. Like there is no point in telling Einstein that you look ugly or telling Ganguly-"Wow you are such a good football player".
But today I beg to differ. I will publish 3 of my photos which I think are Fashion Faux Pas, and simply put, To Whomsoever It may Concern. If John Abraham and Aishwarya Rai can, why can't I?
Why did I choose this topic? Well, it's just the name. I just realize I never use difficult words in my blogs. So then suddenly this word came to my mind. Its not difficult, but yes different.
Anyway, enough of preambles. Let's get to the point.

The first one, was in year 2003-2004 I guess, at Poonja International Restaurant in Mangalore. Well, nobody wears a TENT and goes to a "bar counter" (Phisssss, thought at least will figure out the correct word for this)The next one was a very funny incident. This was during my bro's marriage. For the first time, I thought I could do whatever I want. So though not my style, nor my league, I used style gel on my hair. And somehow I didn't realize that it was this bad. So I went around telling everybody,"Look at my hairs, I have put style gels". People either said wow, or gave genuine smiles and i thought they really liked it. Not unless I saw the photos did I realize what I had done.
And this one is the best. Well, I have got this 1 set of Suit, (Frankly I feel like a clown when I wear one, or rather am wearing a blanket ) so I thought why not get a picture with that. Dressed up I pose for the pic. The photographer, my roomie says nothing. But did u guys notice my feet?

Deathly Hallows (What I want)

Its just a few days away. I have already put a counter on my blog. I will pre-order my copy at the local bookstore which promises to have a pre-release party on 20th July. I had even started reading the fake book that came out a few weeks ago. It was so UnRowlingish..
But now I suddenly feel that am I expecting too much. Somehow I am not afraid of any of the deaths. Let Harry die and so be it Hermione or Hagrid, at this stage, I don't think I will be heartbroken. All I am concerned about is Dumbledore should not be wrong. He has to be the right one. And that means Snape is good. I have never liked Snape myself. It will be really great if JKR can prove that Snape is good but still fail to raise any sympathies in our hearts for him. Yeah that's what she is best at. She can totally play with our feelings. In HBP, the death of Dumbledore didn't upset me. It was the feelings that Harry went through that made me feel sad. Also the beautiful description of the last rites of his death. I always thought that this is one wasteful thing to do. Call so many people for a death. But the way she wrote about it and through the eyes of Harry, it was really fabulous. Its her style that I am looking out for in DH and not the plot.
And why is that? Well, I have been reading a lot of magic books. Bartimaeus trilogy, Inheritance Trilogy (eragon fame) . Well, and guess what, they are all good. The plots are excellent, the dialogues are excellent and witty and you do get your quota of learning good things as well. The win of good over evil, the soft corner that even bad people have etc. etc. And all the unexpected things that happen at the unexpected times.
Therefore I think the plot won't amaze me even a bibt. Whether harry dies or not, hermione breaks up with ron and dates malfoy, Hagrid turns out to be a death eater.
What I look forward to is how far will Aunt Petunia go to save Harry and most importantly the last chapter. JKR has said that the last chapter will contain details of what happens to each surviving character. this becomes very important as this can really make the book and the entire series just another series or a Masterpiece. I feel its very difficult to write anything like that. Most people don't venture into this at all. And even if they do, it is always very very tame. Either happily ever after or mostly, the routine life continues.
But I am very confident of JKR, she is not going to do something that routine in the last chapter of the series. What she does is what I am looking forward the most...

Tulsi's death in KSBKBT

Well, June 6 2007 marks the death of Tulsi Virani, the lead character of the most popular soap in Indian history.
How does it matter to me? Well, I have never followed the serial in the 7 years of its running. Then why am I blogging about it? Well for a simple reason because this serial dates back to a time when I was poised for the most crucial jump of my career. Somehow as ibnlive flashed the news, all the old memories came back. It was summer of 2000. Most of my exams were over. Don't remember exactly as my last exam was June 15, so whether it started before or after that.
Whatever, it was summer in Nagpur and i need not mention that the temperatures were close to 48 degree celcius in the afternoons. Needless to say going out was out of question. It was the time after the exams and the end of 2 years hardwork, so there was no questions of studies also. The mornings were spent at friends' places and the evenings and nights roaming around. But afternoon was a strict no-no.
Dad came home for lunch at 1:30 and went back around 2:15pm. Then it was some time chatting with mom before she headed off for the afternoon siesta. The time 3 o'clock. Soon things will start form 3:30 which kept me hooked till 6 pm when I went out to play. 3:30 was time for MTV Loveline by malaika arora. Well, all there was to see were her dresses which never went below her thighs. The love suggestions she gave were absolutely crappy. The only thing that made me see that serial was herself and the songs they played. They were really cool.
4:oo to 5:00 was MTV select wit Nikhil Chinappa. It was where people called up and he played their requests. It was funny the way he talked and also nice songs.
5:00 to 6:00 was my favourite serial. MTV Most wanted. I had a constant fight with many as to who was a better VJ. This show was earlier done by Rahul Khanna and was replaced by Shenaz Treasurywala when I started watching. The oldies claimed that nobody can beat Rahul Khanna but I really liked Shenaz's way. Just a footnote to prove how much I liked this show is that when I left home for college, and mom was in the house all alone, she started watching it coz it reminded of me :)

Anyway ofcourse after 6, I was not at home. As u might have noticed, the time 3:00 to 3:30 remains unaccounted for. I used to get terribly bored. Even the sports channels showed golf at that time. (Am I justifying myself?). So it was this time that KSBKBT started and of course the first episodes of all soaps are always good. The result: It provided me teh timepass for the empty 30 minute slot. Mushkil dino ka saathi. Thats what it was.
So when I heard about the news of her death, I felt sad. And got reminded of those days. The days of tension, the days of depression, the days of rejection, and finally the days of celebrations. In that sort duration of 3 months form June to August, I went through a lot of emotions and learned a lot about life. And this serial helped in shedding the tension off for sometime.
Should I or should I not say "THANK YOU TULSI"

Jee ka Janjaal

Anshu recently uploaded this picture in her album.
Of course, most of u have guessed right. I am at bottom left. With the face made like that,
many feel I haven't changed over the years. Even i don't feel so. The only ting that changes in me is sometimes my cheeks are semi-chubby and sometimes they are fallen. I guess my worst look was 2004-2005, and thankfully not many pictures were clicked that year. Hehhehe, this is fun, narcissism as nobody ever reads this stuff.

Anyway more about the picture in question. Its taken in 1985, annual function of Shishu Niketan, my KG school. I was in KG 1, around 3 years old. It still surprises me that I remember so many things about it. The song was "Jee ka Janjaal mora bajra layo re". I can actually go on singing quite a bit but i don't remember a word or 2 in every line.
Envy was something i had developed form that time only. I still remember, the dance was like each pair of boy and girl are standing in a 'C' shape in the stage and one pair was in the center. That was the girl in red and white and Kunal (top right). I think i envied them.
Also I was very proud of the headgear. It was a flower made of stick and paper. Of course, I did have an eye on the girls headset also, a bunch of bangles, done like a buddha type knot. Wonder how our teachers got such wierd ideas.
I used to dance well till I was 5-6. Dad n mom tell me, I was so impressed in the Tanjavur or Madurai temple complex that I had actually started dancing much to the embarrassment of my bro, who was 8 then and I was 3.
It also makes me sad now as to what I have made of me. I had been a good dancer, I sang for a winning group song team (Nanha Munna Rahi hoon), I have done numerous plays, won many prizes in poem recitations. I even did well in athletics till 3rd 4th standard. There has been a steady decrease in my interests in pursuing them, much like an RC circuit discharging graph, or is it just y=1-x. God, what remains in my life is justa bunch of mathematics :(




Ooops, i thought i would end the blog on a sad note, but then I really don't like to end things badly. So here we go, I promise i will do some creative stuff in future. (Not writing more blogs and reading more books) because this is what is left in the hobbies field for me .

UP Elections

Haah. Finally I may be one of the first ones to voice my opinion about the UP elections. Well not exactly the first, because I guess the best one is Sagarika Ghosh's. I hope my other favourite, Bachi Karkaria also comes up with something equally witty.
But here is what I think. I observed this in National elctions 2004 as well and now here. Isn't exit polls really messing up with the mindset of people? Showing early leads in the first rounds of eletions surely affects the minds of the voters. Who will want to vote for a loser. So the end may be either they vote whoever is gaining, or they just don't vote, both way hampering the performance of the losing party.
Well does not mean that I am an SP or BJP supporter. Absolutely not, on the other hand, a party who's second in command get himself busy over a wedding, don't deserve to win. Worse was the way elections were won, religion and castes. I mean even elections in Northeast, orissa and West bengal (well ofcourse the 3 geographies have their own meaning, North east or their virtual disconnectivity form the rest of India(sadly though), Orissa for their backward west region and west bengal for teh reason that they dont need to fight there, it is a one party state) are fought fo developement. In Karnataka, AP, they fought it for agriculture and all. In gujrat, they fought for developement, didnt even try to appease the minority. Even Bihar fought for developement. But the UP one, really disgusting.
Anyway, better spend more time on teh Sagarika blog than this :)

This and that

Something terrible is happening. It has been 4 times since I attempted writing a blog but all 4 times I stopped halfway. I thought of writing about some incidents during my brother’s marriage, thought it was personal. I thought of writing about the Abhi-Ash wedding, but then everybody was writing about it. I thought of writing about koffee with karan, but the rakhi sawant episode really put me off. Finally I thought about just writing some random things coming to my mind, but really nothing came to my mind.

Seriously this time also, I really have nothing to write, and am not a person who keeps on writing just for the sake of it, but still I felt better write some crap than be totally out of touch.

Anyway let’s see what things have kept me engaged at least a tiny part of it, which are not academic or professional. Past few months my mind is full of academic and professional worries which I of course don’t want to discuss here.

The world cup was a disaster and me no connoisseur of quality cricket, India being out was the end of the cup. I liked all that happened thereafter. The god-like perfect Sachin finally made a mistake. ( I won’t call it a wrong doing, because talking against Chappell can’t be wrong) But this was not expected out of the man who has mastered the art of PR more than the art of cricket over the years. This just showed that even gods commit mistakes.

Other thing was of course THE WEDDING, but then channels overdid and the people found pleasure in saying “I don’t care about the wedding”, but secretly seeing all the yellow dress pictures of the wedding.

Also started following the European football a bit, thanks to my roommates. Its fun watching the game, mostly because of the time it takes (just 90 minutes) and the fact that Man U is in good form, though sadly lost in Champions league. Don’t know why I support this team but it feels so authentic English.

But the thing that really shook me was Nandigram. I am speechless. I still don’t understand who is right and who is wrong. Rather now I don’t care. But the quality of people I saw in a video gave me such a grim picture. All the dead were covered in cloths saying which party killed them, and the other party made an issue out of it. I had always thought death is something beyond all worldly things, but this just shattered me. This even the uneducated nomadic tribes won’t do. Unless they have been brainwashed over generations. And that can’t be a single party.

Anyway on this slightly sad note, I stop writing.

Bachi Karkaria

This is a tribute to the woman whose writing style I like the most. The best is her line of thinking on which her articles are based.

Well before writing about her, I was so confused about so many things. Firstly it was contradictions to the sole idea of my blog. It was supposed to be a musing. But here it’s hardly one. It’s just keeping on blabbering about a person about who already so much is written. And second was the fact that I have to be so much correct in my grammar and word usage because I am writing about someone who is excellent in this department. I even checked whether we can call it a “tribute” if the person is still living.

The person I am talking about is of course “Bachi Karkaria”.

Long time in my 9^th -10^th standards, I thought that she is the Bunny Jug Suraiya always mentions about as his wife, because bunny is also a humorous character. And I think I am not alone in thinking this. I have found 2-3 more people who also thought the same.

It so turns out that its quite the different. She is a totally different person on her own and more importantly she is not just a writer, which I think is still the best thing about her. What I like about her writing is the simplicity of the topics and which are so relevant and almost 80% of the times exactly what I want to think about. Like her latest article in Erratica about what she thinks is actually happening but which people may think is a part of the April fool day.

Just googling about her, I came across another wonderful article of her in BBC about the neo-Hinduism. For a moment I thought is she turning anti-Hindu etc only to revert back my views. It was again as always exactly what I thought of it. The Neo-Hinduism is same as it was 30 years back, accepting Hinduism from the west.

She is I guess the mother of what we now call – Blogging. Her articles are so so natural that it always falls in the musing category, which half the bloggers always claim to do and mostly giving away their strong views about a person or event. But throughout her articles which I have always made a point to read since standard 10^th, never did she take any sides.

Anyway here are a few links.

1) Her Page “Erratica” on ToI website.

2) Her biography on ASHA page.

A few notable things from her bio which appealed to me.

· Graduating with Honours in English Literature from Loreto College, Calcutta, Bachi then received a diploma in journalism from Calcutta University, ranking first and being awarded a gold medal.

· Prior to her present assignment at The Times of India, Bachi was Resident Editor of the paper’s largest and prestigious New Delhi edition.

· In 2003, she was invited to join the high-profile Board of the India AIDS Initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

· Earlier, as Senior Editor of The Times of India, Bachi edited the Sunday Times of India, turned around the Bangalore edition, making it rise from No.4 to No. 1 within the year, and, before that, conceptualised and edited the path-breaking Bombay Times.

Hoo Haaa

And now, I can see many gtalk status messages of similar nature as the title above, I realized the fact that I have nicely kept out of this whole world cup syndrome. I wanted to act different from the regular bloggers about how india is featuring, the usual sad for pak etc etc. And I did it.
I know its not a big achievement or something but I like to derive small pleasures form least expected quaters. The one below is just one more like that.
If any of u disheartened, see this wonderful cartoon (courtesy:London times) and copyrighted by them. (Hell, how do u get thru these legalities?).

Of restrooms

Warning: The post below may not be upto your taste. So please refrain from readinig further if you are uncomfortable with these kind of discussions.

Somebody recently said I observe things too apart from just observing human behavior, and hence the post. I know it’s a very disgusting topic but then off late I have been reading many famous bloggies and if people like amit verma and greatbong can write, why can’t I?

Let’s start this with a nice kiddo joke. Somehow I always felt why are kids so obsessed with restroom kind of jokes, but its good to see the genuine laughter they have after the joke. So here it goes, it’s a marathi joke. “Pata hai Japanese eat ‘Soo Shee’”. Hahhahhahah. I don’t know, people may raise eyebrows saying “was that a joke?”, but I too laughed a lot when I first heard this.

Earlier I thought I will do a detailed analysis of restrooms in India and US , pros and cons and analyze about how in India you really don’t have to bother about a restroom in the middle of a jungle but here in US you have to, but then, I am not doing a PhD on restrooms. So here are a few restrooms worth mentioning.

Firstly the ones in the NITK hostels. It was stinking would be an understatement. You can imagine what happens to the stink if people are fed gobhi 10 times in 14 meals a week. But as we had no other option, chalo woh bhi chalta hai. I did have a picture with me with a toilet broom in one hand mixed with the picture of a dirty pot. That was a good picture to make people run away from my room. But sadly that picture is lost.

Continuing further, I would mention the Sultan Battery toilet in Mangalore. When I had gone, it was full to the brim. I ran out immediately. Wonder how did the cleaner go about it later. And more so, how could it be so full until multiple people went to the same dirty one. Eeeiks.

Next is not a toilet in particular but an action which me n my friends did. We had a handicam and were making a movie (good old college days kind of) and we went to a posh rooftop restaurant called Kadal in Mangalore. There we shot the toilet which was empty(thankfully, and yes, dont get any wierd ideas about what we shot, it was plain tiles and gadgets and no human) and then we were showing it to other friends in the dining table. All shrieked. I don’t know I get a great pleasure in talking this kind of dirty in dining table and like the way people literally shriek and run away.

Mangalore won’t be complete without mentioning this special restroom in Surathkal College ka shiva temple restroom. It’s behind the temple which is on a rock, there is this cemented Indian style pot which is entirely open on all sides. Nobody uses it and don’t think anybody used it ever. Makes me wonder, was it made for Gods? Kudos to the person who made it and especially the location he chose for that.

Now moving to Bangalore, the weirdest restroom is in the heart of the city, MG-Residency road crossing. Near the bus stand, opposite Bangalore Central. Well this was courtesy Sudha Murthy and her foundation desperate in making Bangalore a cleaner place. Thanks Mrs Murthy for such a thrilling experience. As can be expected, its half Americanized and half Indian. Anybody would think it’s the best of both worlds. But no, it’s the worst of both. Generally in India, people would prefer peeing with wall on 3 sides. But this one is ulta. It faces the road and the heavy traffic of Residency road and has wall end at shoulder height, so people on the road can actually see who is inside. To add to the nightmare, instead of having it dry, they have a constant flow of water. It feels like u r on a river. Readers are left to imagine what you would feel like there.

Lastly I would like to mention about the portable restrooms of US. Should I say I had the privilege of bumping into one during my South padre trip last weekend. Anyway, that is a unique way of having absolutely no smell in a waterless restroom. They have some chemicals below which constantly degrades anything that falls in there and there is strong disinfectant smell. So you really don’t feel smelly there ever.

Well that ends my analysis sufficient for ME final project. If you do want an MS thesis or a PhD, do let me know. :)