See you in 007

This will be the last post of the year. We're off to Panchgani. For three days of rest, rejuvenation and rumination. 9 of us. And a few others like Mr Daniels, Comrade Smirnoff and Monsieur Sula. See you next year.

Wah!

Thoroughly enjoyed the superb lecture by Jawed Akhtar at SGF, last night.

Pertinent Question

Are pigeon-holes actually inter-galactic wormholes that transports you to another universe? And in that case, are pigeons actually messengers who ply the multiverse?

Mumbai

And just when you thought you had reconciled with it, the city strikes you down and puts you in your place. The love-hate relationship continues.

Naughty, naughty

Top ten Ashes sledges

Danny Huston

I think one of most under-rated actors of Hollywood is Danny Huston. I suppose the reason behind this is the combined weight of his parentage and the kind of movies he works in. If you want to know what I am talking about, check out The Proposition. A brilliant film set in the Australian Outback. (Which also has an awesome performance from our man from The Departed, Ray Winstone.) Also see this and this.

My Nation

This is my nation. For yours, visit www.cybernations.net. 

Neat

Lovely post on Kolkata.

It happens only in India!

She did it, man! What say, Dhoomk2?

Darn!

The verdict is out. The new Don stinks. Forget comparing it to the original. The remake is an insipid, cold, hammy and flawed piece of work by a director who demonstrated so much promise with his first film. The film is and looks like the spoiled creation of the son of an over-indulgent father. The plot twists do not make sense and are quite heavy-handedly executed. Why the hell does Boman Irani suddenly start monologing in the sequence before Interval? And he looks quite unfit for a top cop. Not to mention, too cute for a super-villain. Actually, you actually feel sorry for the guy as he gets beaten up in the last scene.

FA tries a Ang Lee-like scene-in-scene treatment in some of the sequences. For what? Only he knows. (Ang Lee's treatment was a reverse homage to the original medium of Hulk. Comic Books.)

As for SRK, he gives a brilliant performance as SRK. Not Don.

FA, stick to your South Bombay tomes. Tales like Don are best left to indulgent dads.

Why?

Most blogs have the words "random", "musings", "ruminations", "haphazard", "arbitrary", "deliberate", in their names.

Shundi, on the other hand, is a carefully cultivated exercise in laziness.

Rain, rain, go away!

The answer to India's age-old affliction with droughts, is here. It's the Indian cricket team. Everytime they start playing, it rains. They rained out an entire tournament in Colombo. They rained out and lost a match they had half won, against West Indies in KL. Now they are playing the Aussies today and guess what? The covers are out. Divine comedy, I must say, once put it in context of the plot of the movie 'Lagaan'. An team of Indian villagers play cricket 'coz it hasn't rained for four years!

It all comes back, it all comes back.

The Apple Product Cycle

This is hilarious!

Hungry Tide

Amitabha Ghosh's "Hungry Tide" is being made into a film. Suman Mukhopadhyay, the director of "Herbert has taken up the project. Names like Zuleikha Robinson (of The Namesake fame, of course, otherwise who the hell has heard of Zueikha Robinson!), Rahul Bose, Abhishek Bachchan, Prosenjit and Jaya Bhadhuri are being bandied about. Now are these 'expression of interest' by the director in a public forum or actual actors who have been contacted?
Needless to mention, "Hungry Tide" is the one of the best novels to come out Amitabha Ghosh's pen. Set in the Sunderbans, spanning two generations, it is a human document par excellence. It was also probably the start of Ghosh's love affair with the delta, the outcome of which was a tirade against the Sahara group's efforts for a resoert in Sunderbans. Our kudos for the man for raising the issue, although one doesn't know what is the current status of the project. Hopefully, good sense prevailed on the Left Front government or perhaps the Sahara Parivar had other demons to fight.
So we will all wait till Pia comes to Canning. Of course, there will be others with reasons, different.

Which states in India have you been to?

I have been to these ones!




Which states in India have you been to?

Swing bowling

Swing bowling is now a scientific study. NASA scientist Dr Rabindra Mehta explains.

Shundi

Rajkumar Hirani thinks he can change the world by making a movie. Just like John Sculley thought he would change the world by selling PCs. (Well, Sculley changed somewhat). What are we talking about? A movie called Lage Raho Munnabhai.

Which brings us to the latest trend in movie-marketing. The 'cause' movie. Aamir Khan did it to fantastic effect with RDB. The movie as a cause. Sounds wonderfully novel. Big-hearted. Inspirational, really. But tell me really, do you think in these days of cross-promotional marketing, media partnerships and brand integration, is it believeable?

And when the hype is over and the DVD has been launched, the 'cause' is notch on the bed-post of these cause-pimps. In the mid-90s, a popular way to ensure repeat viewing was to add a song and then re-release the movie 6 months after the initial hoopla is over. I guess 'causes' are the new additional songs.

You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things. It's just another way of selling tickets, dammit. And you fell for it.

Wake up

Some people host blogs and then keep quiet about. Others start a blog. And then stop.

A blog is not an end. Make it one of the means to an end. Let it out into the world. Let it grow. Let it get dirty. Let it live.

Gems I StumbledUpon

Human stupidity is now a serious study.

But have you ever wondered how Google manages to serve up the best possible search results? In compliance with SEC guidlines, last April the guys at Mountain View disclosed a few details about their technology. Amazing, isn't it?

And as a parting shot, if you are cribbing about your job as you read this, thank god that you are not of these guys!

Order! Order!

It's quarter to twelve in the morning and greater forces are hard at work to make me hungry. What should I order for lunch? This? This? Or this?