Parvati Omanakuttan's narrow miss

I am not a follower of the beauty pageants, but chanced upon the Ms World 2008 finals telecast on Zee Cafe on Saturday night. Kept watching it because of the Mallu connection - Parvati Omanakuttan.

She did very well to reach the top 5 and for me she was the winner too. But, she was unfortunate to miss it very narrowly to the girl from Russia. But, I thought she did better than the Russian babe in the final questions.

Was quite disappointed to watch her returning with only the first runner up position when she fully deserved the big crown. Anyways, good job from a girl from Kerala-Mumbai.

Poetic justice awaits Kerala CM

The communist government in Kerala is about to complete exactly the half of its scheduled tenure, but Chief Minister Achyuthanandan has landed himself in trouble, yet again.

The never-ending saga of the Munnar land issue is all set to snowball in to a bigger political issue in the coming days and most probably, this time, it would end only with the resignation of Achyuthanandan.

His detractors within his own party are plotting a better organized and orchestrated effort this time and it looks like the final battle for Achyuthanandan. The coming days would very well decide the fate of the political career of this veteran leader from the land of backwaters .

It is payback time for Achyuthanandan. I personally lost all the respect from this leader from the land of backwaters the moment he insulted the family of late major Sandeep Unnikrishnan.

The sheer thought of coming face to face with the family of a real life martyr might have taken the wits out of the leader, who claims to have fought the British underground. While blurting out those expletives, unthinkable from a leader of his status, Achyuthanandan forgot the simple fact that his own party has thrived on hundreds of martyrs.

He had been reckless (we often misunderstood it as he being brave) throughout his career. And, looking at the way he handled issues in the last couple of weeks, it looks like he is beyond redemption.

Let's have a CEO to run India...

I am very late with my posts on this subject of the Mumbai attacks. I was flabbergasted with the verbal diarrhea that followed and I am sure, it was the same for you too.

But, it was infectious and here I am posting just another.

What I really liked was the anti-government sentiments that followed the tragedy. People have now lost their patience. I had always wanted something different.

So, I am only surprised that, we, the common man, waited so long. The home minister, the chief minister, the defense minister, the prime minister, the finance minister, all have long lost their credibility for the simple fact that, they are incapable of protecting the lives of the people - let's forget their long-proved inability to protect our financial security. They haven’t been able to protect the most important thing - lives of the people.

I just want to suggest one idea. Instead of these aged and inefficient politicians, let's have a corporate method of ruling.

Let's have a CEO instead of prime minister. Let's have a chief financial officer instead of finance minister. Let's have a chairman of the board instead of the president. Let's have executive vice presidents ruling our states. Let the common man be the shareholder of the country. Let this corporate machinery be answerable to the common man in every manner.

Let's have boardroom battles, let's have deadlines, let's have commitments. Let's be clinical in the way our country is run.

Let's make the country profitable, not a carnage of inefficiency.

Let's get into the business as fast as we can. Let's try to save the remaining lives.

Kudos to news channels!

On that weird Wednesday, I was visiting my folks down Kannur in Kerala. I did not even bother to switch on television as my 3-months-old daughter was drawing all my attention.

So, obviously, I was unaware of all the human tragedy that had been unfolding in Mumbai on that night. Next day, I was staring at the newspaper headlines which screamed, "Mumbai attacked". I felt numb.

As I did not have a cable television connection, I was not able to catch the live events. The shock and awe those events created did not fully get conveyed to me until I reached back in Bangalore and methodically went through the archived news on websites, photos and some Youtube videos.

I received forwarded mails bashing news channels for telecasting the events live. The argument was, it would have helped terrorists to prepare counter strategies.

Let’s spare our news channels at least here, I feel, though I am not at all a fan of them. In any country, the same would have happened. I don't think terrorists were also watching those news channels for advance information while fighting Indian commandos in Taj!

Instead I admire those reporters for their guts. They were gutsy for a change. They risked their lives.

Cleaning Up, Big Time!

• Read all the good books and watch all the good movies.
• Travel all the interesting places.
• Click some good photos.
• Start a cookery blog, develop recipes
• First and foremost, break news, do good news stories on the professional .
• Then, progress in life by doing things which I have always wanted to do.
  

Insane it might sound, but I was just listing out certain important things I want to do in my life, apart from raising my family, offering them bread and shelter, and being good to my pals and countrymen.

So, why this sudden outburst? I don't know if it is the same with others, but in my case, I have been harassed by an evil friend called Mr. Laziness since a long time.

So I am now doing some major cleaning-up exercises. I am making my mind strong by writing this blog entry. I am going to take one step at a time.

So, one good early result is, my devoting time for world cinema. I have already watched some good ones. My colleague and friend Kugan is my key supplier of these movies!

So expect my briefs on those good movies I would be watching/already watched in the coming days....

That LOST FOREVER feeling…

I haven’t been updating this blog for quite some time because of the simple reason that I was not getting that drive to write. There was no dearth of topics, but nothing was coming straight from my heart.

In between I wrote an entry on a couple of movies I watched, but deleted them after about a month. I thought the entry I wrote did not make any logic.

However, today it is different. Anil Kumble has retired from international cricket. Now, how does it matter to me in such way it left me very sad and stunned? Why did his departure scenes on television leave me teary eyed? Why did I have this strange urge to sob uncontrollably?

This was something similar to what happened when I watched Abhinav Bindra winning India’s first individual Olympics gold.

Now I believe, we are deeply attached to certain elements around us, but we are never conscious of that fact until some change happens to that pattern.

On a normal day, in normal circumstances, seeing that person in action, or having a word with him, or sharing the work with him would all look very ordinary for us. He may be part of your family, a colleague, a politician you had been watching for years, a film star, or now here, a member of the Indian cricket team.

Now, suddenly, the awareness dawns that, you won’t be able to see that person the manner in which you had been watching him for years. That single thought itself is so powerful that, it would leave you numb. Then you slowly go back to all those years you had been watching/seeing him and you would feel sorry for having neglected the true value of being with that person, or watching that person.

All these years, you had been taking him for granted that, he would be there forever. And suddenly you releases, it is not the case and that hurts!

Only on the day Bindra won gold, I realized I am a patriotic in nature!

Now, in this case of Anil, I would be lying if I say I did not care for him as a cricket follower. To tell you the truth, Kumble and Venkatesh Prasad are the only two International cricketers whom I watched in action on the field. (I met Sehwag during an ad shoot, and Azhar and Manjrekar at a party).

So when I got the news that Kumble is hanging up his boots, obviously 1995-96 came to mind, when I watched him playing Ranji Trophy against Kerala in Thalasseri. I was in college and bunked classes to watch him. So, now this awareness that I admired Kumble has come to light when it is all over!

Another experience: On the day I became a father, someone told me the veteran Congressman K Karunakaran was no more. The news did hurt me so much and I even felt like, the news took away a portion of the joy the day gave me with the birth of my daughter. Now, why should I be so concerned to that extent? I am in no way personally related to Karunakaran. I am not even an ardent fan of him.

Then why? Now here, is that strange connectivity element comes into play. I had been watching him all these years and I realized on that day that, how difficult it would be to imagine Kerala politics without K Karunakaran! Later, I tried to confirm the development and, when the news turned out to be a hoax, you can imagine how relieved I was!

So, appreciating those people as if there is no tomorrow would definitely make a difference, I feel.


(pic courtesy: Cricinfo.com)

Some evil thoughts on today's journalism

The worst enemy of today’s journalism is neither governments nor an anti-governmental scenario. It is the journalists themselves, the way they operate.

I can’t remember the last time we had a real strong breaking news, whether it is politics, business, crime, science or sports.

Just a sample, latest from sports: How many of my creed knew that India still held a chance to win a bronze medal in wrestling, after Sushil Kumar got beaten in the first round? The media cried: Disappointing day for India in wrestling, Sushil defeated.

Then when he actually won a bronze medal through this system called repechage, I watched in amazement, how television news welcomed it. They did never show even a tinge of embarrassment for having ignored the medal possibility, and were gleefully explaining the technicalities of repechage instead.

What more can we expect from a machinery which calls every news an exclusive or breaking news? And what more can we expect from this world of journalism, owned, ruled and abused by corporates?

Speaking about Olympics, I felt the Indian media never did really bother to look at the potential medal hopes ahead of the Olympics and obviously, Abhinav Bindra was a surprise.

And look at the coverage received by the sleepy Haryana village called Bhiwani. Did anyone know there existed such a village? Don’t get me wrong here. Realization dawned overnight: this hamlet was called the Mecca of Indian boxing! Now we can have all kinds of documentaries shot around this village!

Instead, in those pre-Olympics days, the media went the clichéd way of celebrating the kinds of Sania Mirza and Anju Bobby George, who could not even give a match to their opponents (literally), leave alone the medal possibility.

So, our media is in a helpless position. They can’t unearth conspiracies that threaten the national security, they can’t foresee gigantic deals in Indian business, they can’t predict a politician’s next move.

They just talk about things that happened and then do some follow up to earn that daily bread and when the next issue happens, conveniently forgets the prior issue.

What happened to the Arushi murder case? Nobody seems interested now. The issues that followed swallowed it.

I think the only way to break this monotony called commoditized journalism is to do path-breaking stories – once in a while at least.

And shamefully I accept, I am no different. To a deadly extent, it is all about that thing called convenient, armchair, wire n wireless, googled journalism.

I am not talking about certain enthusiastic reporters who actually take the trouble of visiting the 'site' and cajole people to enact in front of the camera.

One day we will cherish all in our lifetime....

India wins its first solo olympics Gold in the 28 year old Olympics history. And I thought of grabbing the above image, as this day and this win would be etched in not just Indian sports history, but the history of India, forever and ever....To tell you the truth, tears rolled up in my eyes as Abhinav Bindra got on the podium to receive the gold medal and when the Indian national anthem followed.....Another important feature of the image, apart from the story, is the medal tally. India in third position.....can you believe that????

Worthless politicians being traded at a premium; Useless government given a lease of life

Last Friday, we had Bangalore making its dismal entry into the list of world’s terror cities, with Ahmedabad providing the moral support the very next day. More than the shock and awe that these blasts created, what struck me most was the disappointing attitude of our politicians and the government machineries concerned.

First, there were some glaring mistakes committed by the intelligence bureau. Terrorists have already warned you with a blast in Rajastan a couple of months back and the state is ruled by BJP. Rajastan was never in the terrorist list and a blast in the pink city would have put out intelligence agencies and the police on high alert and they should have anticipated blasts in the other BJP-ruling states as well.

It might sound an idea that is a little bit far-fetched. But, then why they are called Intelligence agencies? Where is the intelligence and where do they use it? How can the central agencies wash their hands off saying, they had warned the state governments? Where is the responsibility taken?

Then the Bangalore blast followed and that provided a clear pattern: The BJP-ruling states are under threat. Government took great security initiatives in cities like Delhi and Mumbai, but leaving out Ahmedabad proved to b a costly lapse and terror mocked right on the faces of our security and intelligence establishments with some more intensive blasts.

Clearly, they were caught napping and then the blame game began.

Secondly, our politicians continue to flow crocodile tears when they hear about a blast and they are least concerned for the safety of the common man. In all the news channels, they were eager to “strongly condemn the blasts”. But that is not surprising. In a country, where the politics has turned a big business with people’s representatives being bought over by green bucks, what else can you expect from the political mafia?

I would say, our politicians are, in fact, dangerous than these terrorists!

PC FM presents: Friday Fury!

On a regular basis, now we have our Finance Minister P Chidambaram expressing his ‘Friday Fury’, I am talking about those Northward-bound inflation numbers.

For the media and the opposition, the government has become an easy target, thanks this issue.

But, what is the feedback from the ordinary man? I have seen very few reports on this interesting human side of the issue.

As per my experience, I have not seen any slump in that weekend shopping rush in departmental stores or malls. Have people reduced on their spending? Are they more cautious now? How’s the business doing for these stores and the malls?

Does it have anything to do with the recent string of box office failures?

Do these so-called upper middle class care a damn?

I think, I don’t have that complete picture yet, except those dreadful weekly numbers.

One last question also: Do prices fall when inflation is brought under control?

...and I get nervous..

This week, I have been following two murder cases that shook us for their gruesome nature; The Neeraj Grover case from Mumbai and the Arushi Talwar case of Noida. The police was frantically trying to solve the mysteries. And by week-end, they solved either the cases, or at least one of them.

While the Neeraj case now seems to be a open and shut one, I still can't digest the police version on the Arushi case. The deceased girl's father has been arrested by the police, but I still want to wait and watch for some more dramatic revelations in the days to come.

Honour Killing and Passion Killings are the buzzwords. It is all about the survival of the fittest mind and body for all of us, as the conscience levels of our society is fast moving to the negative zones.

We are talking about inflation and the rising fuel prices, what about the rising levels of crimes by quantity and 'quality'? When I think about the future, try to foresee the living conditions of my kids, the world ahead of me… thoughts of this nature depress me and I get nervous.

It might sound very foolish; but is it foolish to think ahead as all kinds of evil minds are lurking out there in the darkness?

A Vanity Affair

Aamir Khan pondering on his dog called Shahrukh, sitting in the remote hillside of Panchgani.

Amitabh Bachchan, in short and crisp paragraphs, musing away in his hotel room.

These blogs from the two supershots of bollywood have caught the fancy of fans, media and the industry alike. And they had been creating great waves as well, for their sheer intensity, simplicity, honest approach and above all..for some of those blunt comments...surely intended to stir the scandal-crazy minds a bit.

Look at the latest Aamir blog entry that had been making the whole world sit up and take notice. In this blog, Aamir reveals he has a pup named Shahrukh in his Panchgani house. And he did not name it, he says. It was named by the ex-caretakers of that house and the dog came along with the purchase.

We can choose to believe him or not. But, the point is, the way he has written the blog.

Contrary to the argument and the criticism, nowhere in the blog, he has blurted out anything harsh against his archrival. And, still the mockery stands out. That is what makes this particular blog entry very very cute, I believe.

Subtle. This is what Aamir does. (As you know, Shahrukh is busy teaching his IPL team the ABCD of business management in cricket.)

Celebrity blogs, if given a honest and real life treatment would always stand out. It is like a real life show you get to watch...a peek in the real life incidents of these stars. But, forget those fancy brainless blogs come in the name of certain stars. The blogging tool manipulated or rather exploited by their PR for sheer plugging.

And then, here we are, the aam janta, jotting down our good for nothing musings, and most of the time, nobody reads it!

We are not popular…we matter to only our close friends and relatives.

Still, we write about what we ate today for breakfast, what did we gift Mom for birthday, the plans for the next weekend, how ugly we felt the last hotel food we had, how we rate the last movie we watched etc etc....

In all of us, I feel, there is an urge to emulate the lifestyles of those celebrities we see all around us. But, we are not able to do that....so what should we do?

One ego-cushion is these blogs.

We write our blogs and circulate among friends.....add the url as a sign-off to our mails...expecting even those hapless strangers - who receive our tasteless forward mails - read it and admire our creativity....

It is just one method....everyone can't do it....you should know how to write....

But, talking about the public, there are various games people play to get noticed....grab eyeballs....their endless thirst for admiration.

We have often heard about kids with rare skills..........some of them can drive even before learning how to walk by themselves....some of them can solve any maths problem......some of them can get you the names of country capitals in a flash...

But, I wonder...why these parents are so much publicity-crazy. Let their little ones have a life....Keep the skill to yourself and use it for better things......I don't know what happen to all these kids later....we never get to see any update......they end up in the capsule programmes coming at the end of a news telecast...bringing their parents some instant stardom in their locality.

I hate vanity.

So, me hating vanity, how does it matter to others....?

What makes me writing down this piece of blog....and rather forcefully conveying my ideas about vanity? Answer is simple. I want the reader to read this blog, and appreciate and admire my hatred for vanity.

So, who is the biggest fraud here?

an IPL lover is born

I did some IPL bashing in my last post. I repent.

After closely following its fortunes throughout the just concluded first half of the series, I want to concede that the property is a hit.

And you don't need me to tell that either!

But I want to admit that, my first impressions on the tourney were wrong to an extent. These are some of the elements I thought stood out in this T20 edition so far.

In which other format of the game, would you get to see the South African ace batsman-stumper Mark Boucher and our new-found pace sensation Praveen Kumar sharing the crease, and that too in the death overs of a game that was turning out to be a cliff-hanger?

In which other format of the game, would you get to see Sri Lankan spin doctor Muthaiah Murlidharan injecting venom to his Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's plans of slow poisoning?

By bringing all these world class players together, irrespective of their nationalities, IPL has demonstrated a great truth to the cricketing world: The truth of unity in criketity.

Our cricketing youngsters have been making the most of their careers by rubbing shoulders with players such as Mathew Heyden, Ricky Ponting, Jayasurya and the likes!

And more importantly our youngsters like Badrinath, Gony and Yo Mahesh, who had been knocking on the doors of the Indian team, are suddenly finding themselves exposed to international cricket, and making the most out of it as well.

But Vijay Mallya is a disappointed man. He gets setbacks in life very rarely and this time it has happened from a very unlikely field – cricket!

I could not see any logic in him firing his Bangalore team CEO Charu Sharma. And that also makes me wonder, what exactly is the job role of a CEO in an IPL franchise!

Whoever said 'cricket is a great leveller', I want to salute that guy. Look at the experience of Harbhajan Singh. Australians are the happiest in this amusing context, no doubt about it.

Another great leveller is the failure of our superstars such as Dravid and Ganguly to deliver for their respective teams. The grapevine says many teams want to disown their non- performing assets in the next season! Man, this should happen in international cricket also. The term ‘non-performing assets’ - I am loving it.

And finally, Sachin! I wonder if he ever had plans to play in IPL!

Ambani won't mind if their team win or loose! He has better things to do, such as building billion dollar houses.

Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta might get affected by the kind of overexposure they had been subjecting to themselves to promote their teams.

Next time, when someone come to you and say Shah Rukh and him peed together in the stadium loo, please don’t utter any expletives of disbelief. IPL rocks and you don’t need me to discover that.

IPL: The Indian Picnic League?

Watching the recently launched Indian Premiere League, I felt it lacked something, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Then I realized that, it was that much-needed feeling of patriotism that was missing.

It is not that I have an aversion for this shortest version of the game. I had thoroughly enjoyed the recently-concluded T20 tournament, which India won. But, in the case of IPL, I feel that sense of supporting one nation is really missing. It is like you watching some domestic cricket series though star-participation and money differentiate IPL from any comparison.

But, what is there for the spectator in IPL?

OK, he can watch a big-hit game in two hours and sit mesmerized by those sixes and boundaries. But, what else?

Does, big stars and industrialists splurging on these teams and stars bring the spectator any kind of excitement?

No.

I live in Bangalore, but it never occurred to me that I should be supporting that team while watching the inaugural match of the tournament.

Would I feel like supporting Mumbai, just because Sachin is playing in the team? Would I root for the Chennai team, inspired by the presence of Dhoni in it? I am not sure, probably No.

I would call IPL as Indian Picnic League, it is like a picnic for the players and also the spectators. Just a time pass. It is and will always be handicapped by that true spirit of watching an international cricket game involving your country.

So, all these factors fail to bring in that excitement of supporting our nation in an international game. And, I think, the success of any sports depends on that sheer feeling of OUR COUNTRY.

I don’t know how many of us seriously followed the fortunes of the IPL rebel league Indian Cricket League, sponsored by Zee. Would IPL follow the sad example of ICL? Would the theory of ‘stars drive the game’ really hold its ground? Let’s wait and see.

And one word on our media coverage on IPL. The media is been firing all cylinders to hype up this series. The print space devoted reminds you of the kind of coverage Olympics get!

It is as if giving the same importance to Republic Day and a Shah Rukh Khan movie release!

Just getting Crazy

The Ram Sampath version according to Times of India:

‘I’m not going to do any mudslinging!’ Like a lot of people, I don’t watch much TV as my work keeps me busy. It was only on March 18 that someone asked me if I had composed the music for Krazzy 4 . I called up the Sony Ericsson guys, I called up the Roshans, but they all kept avoiding me. Then I filed a case of plagiarism against them. They had enough time to react to that. They were sent a notice and they kept saying, ‘Our lawyer will get in touch with you’. Only when they got the legal notice on April 2, that they woke up and took me seriously. After this, they tried to dangle a lot of carrots in front of me. I got SMSes from Hrithik Roshan saying that they have an NOC and even they have been cheated. But my fight was for the truth. The Roshans wanted me to compromise. From Hrithik’s SMSes, I figured out that he was ignorant of most of the story and was just trying to help his father. But it does not help to be ignorant. There was absolutely no honesty from their side. I got justice and I am happy. As far as Rakesh Roshan calling me a man with no morals is concerned, well I am not going to be a part of any mudslinging. I have now been given the title of composer of the tune by the High Court. But honestly, the song sounds so terrible that I don’t want to be called its composer!

Krrazy 4 - The Rakesh Roshan version

Since I wrote against the Roshans in my yesterday's piece, I thought I should recreate this DNA story, which explains his version of the incident, for objectivity. Kudos to DNA for this interview.

‘Ram Sampat has no morals!’
Shubha Shetty-Saha - DNA
Friday, April 11, 2008 23:59 IST
Rakesh and Hrithik Roshan are upset with the way they were arm-twisted at the last moment by the musician and say they would have fought back to save their reputation, if they had enough time .

Rakesh Roshan is seething with anger over reports of being a song thief of sorts. For those uninitiated, a till now a little known musician Ram Sampath sued the Roshans for plagiarising his music for an item number in Krrazy 4 and managed to get Rs 2 crore from them in an out of court settlement.


The senior Roshan says, “Our intentions were never dishonorable. We liked the song, took permission from Sony Ericsson (the copy of which is printed alongside), then suddenly we come to know that someone is taking legal action against us for using the music.
At that moment, Ericsson tells us that they are not the legal owners of the tune! I was in a Catch 22 situation. There was no time to take any action because my movie was getting released the next day.


How could we even hire a lawyer and plan within three days? We had too much at stake because we couldn’t possibly let down our distributors and buyers by postponing the release. All these years our dealings have been honest. How can anyone even say that we have done dirty dealings?”


Roshan is also upset that they have been accused of being immoral. He says, “Ram Sampat has no morals! He knew about this in February since we started playing the promos of the SRK version.


He could have come and met me and sorted this out. Contrary to his claims, he never ever even approached us. In fact, when Hrithik came to know about it, he sent a clean message to Sampath and this was just about three days back when we were still under the impression that Sony Ericsson were the owners of the tune.”


When asked if Rajesh Roshan’s claim that it was his original work that did them in, Rakesh says, “ It is a five-minute song which Rajesh has composed, out of which just about 24 seconds is being taken from the ad, for which we had taken the permission. So what is wrong if Rajesh claimed it as his song?”


Finally, he says ruefully, “I would have continued fighting only if I had some time!”

Why is Bollywood so reckless and insincere?

Bollywood is known for its wayward ways of copying Hollywood themes so recklessly. It has now become kind of a standard to copy the non-desi themes and even our well-informed critics have resigned to this fate. They also need movies to review, it is their daily bread, and unless Bollywood doesn’t produce stuff, what would they do?

But, now the Roshans have made headways in this space by copying a desi music for their upcoming movie Krazzy4! Remember that the Roshans camp has a well-acclaimed music composer in Rajesh Roshan and still they had to stand the shame of the court ruling against them. There is a very nice story on this topic in DNA.

The original composer of the music, Ram Sampath, has won a whopping Rs. 2 crore through an out-of-court-settlement with the Roshans. That is quite a fortune.

Democracy Up for Auction

The tried and tested formula of wooing the voters with television and rice (food for thought and for stomache) is here again. The South Indian states, except Kerala, have been witnessing such gimmicks by politicians since a long time.

The last Tamil Nadu elections saw Chief Minister M Karunanidhi successfully experimenting it by pulling the crowd showing his dangling carrot – a colour TV. Now, the latest is from Karnataka Congress party, and the major attraction here is, yet again, television sets!

Free colour TVs and 25 kg of rice at Rs 2 for families living below the poverty line - that is what the Congress manifesto promises before the assembly elections in Karnataka, reports Rediff.com. (Don’t miss the comments on the message board also!)

(Any hidden marketing pact with our television set manufacturers, cable companies and DTH operators??)

Now let us wait and see how Congress’ main competitor in the state, BJP, betters the offer! I have ideas for BJP to wipe out Congress, but the proposition is bit costly. Tie up with the Tatas and offer a Nano....Congress will sink without a trace! Will that day (of the Nano) ever come?

The bargaining ground is open for players. Voters deserve a pat on their back for tolerating such ridicules on democracy.

The curses of being an entertainment-crazy region!

Will the blind-folded voters ever realise that they should actually be demanding an efficient running of the government machinery, and the well-being of the state and the country would naturally arrest our rising inflation levels?

Plain Truth?

The de-boarding of a Kerala MP from an Air India aircraft and the MP lashing out against the pilot in question, calling him a 'glorified driver' had all the ingredients that could make a superhit Suresh Gopi - Ranji Panikker thriller.

In the above-mentioned rediff report, I happened to go through the readers' comments in the message board as well. The agitated readers have unleashed an onslaught of comments against the MP in these posts, you can see. But, what is the truth....? will it ever come out?

Some of the comments:
Why this Muslim League MP entered cockpit?by Tathagata Mukherjee on Apr 08, 2008 11:39 PM Hide repliesThere is no rule of law in India. Nothing will happen to this person- he will claim being minority, he is being victimised.Same thing happened with Haaj passengers- they are now allowed special 10 KG baggage to bring Zamzam water. Another discrimination by psuedos.

De-boarding of Kerala MP turns into a major rowby Kundil Kumar Chiring on Apr 08, 2008 11:34 PM Hide repliesThe IA Pilot should got honour/Reward who had the guts to order the rogue MP out of the plane , MP and All political party leader alway's think that they are above law/rule's

Good job pilot and crew.by ananth K on Apr 08, 2008 11:31 PM Hide repliesYou should have thrown him in the mid air for this junk's act.

Muslip Parliamentby Imam Bux on Apr 08, 2008 11:19 PM Hide repliesIt is really pathetic to know when a person who has stayed out of INDIA for 32 years is able to enjoy the Rajya Sabha MP status. It clearly indicates how bad our political system has gone.

(read more comments after opening the page link given above.)

The Day Sambar Got Hammered

On Saturday, I went to one of the popular restaurants in Madiwala (A Malayalai hub of Bangalore). The restaurant, just a stone's throw away from the famous Ayyappa temple there, is named after the 'masses'; but it attracts both the masses and the classes alike.

It was my first visit and I was alone. The restaurant was full of the Saturday crowd, mostly 'soft' and 'hard' (software and hardware engineers) mallus, splurging on the typical Kerala delicacies they had been missing.

Being a kitchen-friendly person, I can prepare any of those delicacies at home. But, not fish biryani. The dish always beats me. So, I ordered Fish Biryani and, yes, I got what I ordered. No complaints there.

But, what they forgot was to pack a hammer also with the dish to break the fish in question. While eating the fish, I even worndered if it was chicken or beef. That fish had lost its individuality and personality long time back, may be in a refrigerator, I guess.

In the Priyadarshan-directed Mohanlal hit 'Kilukkam', the character played by Thilakan gives a dialogue, when his cook (played by Innocent) serves him chicken.

"Could you get me a stick as well?"

"Why sir?" asks the cook.

"I want to kill it first before eating," retorts the master.

I found myself in a similar situation.

Then the fishy tale continues...

Today, I spotted a boy selling fish on the street. I ordered some and he was doing the cutting and the cleaning for me. I told him, I didn't need the fish-head. He objected.

"Sir, this is very tasty, just eat and see. Ok, what dish are you going to prepare, sambar or fry?"

Sambar!! Why in the world sambar is related to the fish. If a brahmin listens to this, he would kill both of us, I thought.

Then, just out of curiosity, I told him it was fry.

"Ok sir, then don't take the head. It is not good for fry. But, if you are making sambar, then it is good."

Then only I realised that, for him, a fish curry or anything with gravy is a sambar.

See the depth sambar has reached… that too in South India!

Music channel: Youtube.com

Youtube.com is the ultimate

goldmine when someone wants to

dig for a sweet song he hasn't enjoyed

for years.

I know, the above statement

is an open advertisement that this

writer is a ‘tube light’.

People had been doing it since ages.

I knew people have got hooked to this website for music as much as for videos. But I realised the true potential of this website as a music-mine only when I logged into this site and searched for some of the songs which I had been really missing. Example: the songs of 1990s.

[Our superstars were full of youth then. Our writers and directors were closer to life than formulas and star-packages then.]

It is really amazing that we can turn nostalgic on the web. I am a late entrant on Youtube.

Meow: Cat prices to go up!

If you don't own a Cat yet, please rush to the nearest breeding location!

As per a study, led by Professor Adnan Qureshi at the University of Minnesota, cat owners have a 40% lower risk of suffering a fatal heart attack.

Read the full BBC story under this weblink

Cat investors warning: The prices are going to shoot up. Collect as many cats you can.

New investor tip: Don't get your loved ones a heart attack by purchasing cats at obscene amounts.

Disclosure: This writer doesn't own any cat presently. But, if forced by situations, he might also buy one.

pic courtesy: my.opera.com

CODE RED

I have one question. Why have all the frontline cellular companies displayed a craze for red while designing their logos?

Look at Airtel, Vodafone or the latest entrant Virgin Mobile: what is striking in all these logos is overt passion for RED. Can someone answer this question?

Those who are concerned with more complicated issues in life can ignore this one.

Alarm (not wedding) bells for S. Sreesanth

Shanthakumaran Sreesanth is a Keralite, and being a Keralite myself, he is my sole reason for pride when it comes to the regional sentiments connected to the Indian cricket team.

However, Sreesanth is disappointing his fans. He is running towards the wrong end of the crease, I feel.


The player is clearly on a lean patch currently, and his concentration on the on/off field antics rather than the game itself is actually making things worse for this otherwise promising cricketer.

Also, giving him sleepless nights would be competition from the likes of Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar.

This duo is now the first choice for the management whenever the final-eleven is picked up and the sooner Sreesanth realises his faults and learn from the mistakes, the better for him.

This can be dealt with only by improving the game. But, when somebody feels he is bigger than the game, there sounds an alarm bell.

It is not just Sreesanth's mistake. The blame should also go to his non-cricketing managers. To be in the limelight, it has become necessary for Sreesanth to do something different in the middle.

And, naturally, a struggling bowler would attempt some non-cricketing 'shots' to remain in the limelight. That is what happening here.

Just the other day, I was shocked to see a news channel 'exclusive', connecting the boy with Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra. The reporter even gleefully played a recorded conversation between the two, in which Sreesanth is heard ‘appealing’ for the actress' attention.

I couldn't believe it! Sreesanth and Priyanka Chopra!!! It must be some PR plug, I thought.

Then I listened on, and heaved a sigh of relief when the reporter started questioning the player's endorsement manager on the chances of a hype being created to boost a possible advertisement starring both the stars.

But the point I want to make here, Sreesanth is finding himself in the news for all the wrong reasons nowadays. Consciously or otherwise. Indian cricket is not at all in shortage of talented players. It is Sreesanth's good fortune that he is still in the team these days.

And then the player is advised rest by the outgoing team physiotherapist, I heard. A talented cricketing crowd is waiting outside the doors and a mere absence due to injury would be enough for Sreesanth to find himself relegated into oblivion when he returns.

He might be able to change his hairstyles on a regular basis, but would never be able to change the present course of his career, unless for a timely intervention.

So, instead of focusing on the run-up to the gosssip columns and endorsement deals, Sreesanth should actually be concentrating on his run-up to the bowling crease.

“This borewell is so boring bhai”

I have lived for about seven years in Mumbai and now completed one year and three months in Bangalore. .

It was not difficult to adapt myself to Bangalore, though, at times, I found it extremely difficult to understand the city.

For example, people in Bangalore are extremely patient and tolerant. If they have some problem, they would wait till it gets resolved by itself.

On the other hand, a Mumbaikar would fight vehemently anything that upsets his daily life.

Last week, some private entity was drilling a borewell in my locality and our road looked like a pool of mud.

We had to find alternative routes to venture out, making life very difficult for those office-goers who fight with time on a daily basis.

Still people were so patiently tolerating the whole nonsense, something that took me by surprise. The borewell was built and whoever built it never did bother to clean up the mess they created.

If it was in Mumbai, the whole situation would have gone for a toss. The people would have never let the drilling machine career to leave the location without cleaning the dirt.

Now the whole dirt has turned dry and we are eating mud on a daily basis.

There are some more on both the cities, but in my next post.

The 'Weak' End

Once, a friend asked me which day of the week I liked the most.

"Sunday", was my instant reply.

"No, it should be Saturday", he tried to correct me.

"Why?”

"Because, throughout Saturday, the thought of a Sunday at the doorstep would be so refreshing," he explained. "Though, you might be enjoying your Sunday, at times you would also be complaining about the next-in-line Monday.”

I knew he was right.

That was quite some time back, when I was working in an Indian start-up. Now, it is the five-day a week corporate culture that I follow and hence there is a change in the preferences.

The most-preferred day is Friday now.

It brings in all the excitement of the weekend ahead. Plans are made, resolutions are taken.

Then, again, the same thing.

The day starts very late. Take breakfast at the lunch time and that obviously delays the lunch by another two hours. Then comes the afternoon nap in the evening and by the time it is over, the day is over too.

Then there is Sunday. Though there is an attempt to improve things a little bit by adhering to strict deadlines for daily chores including getting up, the day is melancholically poised and ends like a long yawn.

So, there goes the two-day weekend.

Then, the wait starts for the next weekend.

This may go on and on I feel, till the day of my retirement. Things won't improve even if I get a three-day weekend.

When chocolates replace Indian Rupee…

The ‘much-appreciated’ Indian Rupee has become a thorn in the flesh for the ‘much-depreciated’ US Dollar – a fact.

Now, how many of us know our good old Fifty paise / One Rupee coins have fallen victim to a certain kind of modern-day barter system?

The Fifty Paise/One Rupee coins are being fast replaced by certain chocolate or mouth-freshner brands. You know the names.

This has happened to most of us: Shoppers, with a quick pretended look of apology, hand those brands over to you as a consolation for the money. I can’t imagine a smarter sales method that that.

The profit-taking happens out of the blue for you and it totally stumps you. There is no time to react.

Still, I have protested against this barbarian barter system. And in return, I have received not the money, but some cruel and funny looks.

Now I have a vision. Why only the shoppers are allowed to do this barter system? I would carry some chocolates next time I step out of my house for shopping and I would try to exchange it for the coins.

For example, if the bill is Rupees 101 and I would hand over one chocolate along with the 100 Rupees note to the salesman. Understand me, I don’t have the change and this is the same chocolate you had given it to me last week since you didn’t have the change. You can very well accept it and push it out again through your next customer.

Would they accept it ever? You tell me.

It is not just a matter of money. It is the ethics. It is the decency that should be kept in any trade. But what is happening is an insult to the customer community.

Indifferent winter upsets Bangalore's cold-cream merchants

My Mumbai friends tell me the city is shivering presently and the temperature even hit the 4 degrees mark last week.

Sitting in an unusually hot Bangalore, which received a cold shoulder from the winter goddess this season, I start thinking about global warming.

The symptoms of utmost cold, like shivering, were alien to this city this year.

Still, some of my colleagues wear sweaters to office, and I admire their optimism.

They must be hoping against hope that the cold wave would hit them any time!

It was last winter that I migrated to Bangalore from Mumbai and I still remember my office cabby finding it difficult to navigate the cab in the thick fumes of snow at 1 am.

Also, last year, I helplessly watched my wife splurging on creams and allergy medicines. Dry skin, you know?

But this year, no such difficulties.

Bangalore is no more the techy's Ooty I guess.

“Whaaat an IPO saabji…!”

I hate to come back with another posting on stocks, but the topic looks very tempting today.

The day started with watching Anil Ambani getting vocal about the trust shown by retail investors in his Reliance Power IPO and how auspicious the day is for him. The mood looked upbeat.

Then it was 9:55 am, he rings the BSE opening bell marking the debut of Reliance Power in bourses, the stock, with a listing price of 450 opened at about 550, touched about 600 and then it plunged to the 380s.

All these happened in mere 60 seconds!

Anil and his bankers had already fled the scene, avoiding the media and it looked like even the media was too stunned to react and catch him.

Then, for me, it was a painful exercise of tracking the stock on a minute-by-minute rate.
All day long, I have been witnessing its pathetic fall to the 350 levels.

Reliance Power IPO story would be etched in the memory of most of us for a long time to come. In the long run, the stock may even reach past the 1000 mark. But, for the hype it created, the mad rush it generated and above all, for disappointing investors on the first day itself, the stock has made it into the history books.

a choppy day

'Choppy'.....isn't it a nice word? Not one for those stock exchange players when they hear business channels keep screaming "The market remained extremely volatile and choppy trade brought the sensex down by xxxxxxx points".

The same is happening today at the Bombay Stock Exchange and I have never seen a day as volatile as today in my recently-launched 'retail investor avatar'.

My stocks are deep in the red and I curse and swore for having held on to some of my costly gems when they were doing good just the day before yesterday. I was chanting the 'long term mantra' then.

Now I have realized one thing: When the water is rising, pick up your belongings and run and when the sun start shining, field them again .......NOOOOOO

It should be like this: When the water is rising and you feel like now it won't rise further....jump into it......fish for better returns...buys stocks at cheaper rates......and when the sun starts shining and you feel like it wont shine further.....pick up your catches and withdraw from the scene until the water starts rising again.

Now the trick is in deciding the utmost points of the water level as well as the sun shine.

I wont agree with all the talk going around on global economy impacting the Indian stock exchange much. It had been happening all the time and now why this sudden setback? I think someone is playing out there.....might be another Harshad Mehta or (without naming anyone) I would guess there is a sibling-rivalry impacting our poor lives.

Whatever.....the Indian market has turned very dirty after all those indications of a rosy future.

People like me r still holding on because.......we are addicted to it and this addiction makes us think that there would be a better tomorrow.

Reliance Power IPO is launching Monday and I am keeping my fingers crossed....I have my humble share of 17 ....sweet 17 I would call it......let's see how it survives these market-teasers..

*******now that you have inaugurated it*******

After considering n number of blog names, I have finally zeroed in on this one. There were an amazing number of unique blog names I had thought over, but unfortunately all of them were already taken. And I found 99 percent of those blogs complete inactive after an initial posting. Blogspot should do something about it, I guess. After a period, these inactive blogs should be deleted so that other interested people can go for those names. What say?

Now, I sincerely hope, I won't be among those idle human beings. Here, let me serve you, my knowledge, ignorance, thoughts, ideas, blunders, experiences, recipes and photographs.....

welcome...!