Ranjhana (2013)

This movie feels like Rockstar which came out in 2011. All the elements of the triangle are there - the quietly confident Girl (acting skills not required), the loud and reckless Boy (must be the odd one out) and the stable Man (must speak good English).

The movie shows the same kind of madness for love and the fight between 'stability' and chasing after that half-forgotten dream, as seen in Rockstar. 

In both the movies we see the Boy go from nothing to something chasing after 'love'. That 'love' takes him on a journey, away from his friends and family. Also the success that he achieves along the way means nothing to him because he is pursuing 'love'.

What happens next? In this pursuit of 'love' something has to give. In this case it is predictably the guys in the movie who get hit the hardest.

Overall I liked the movie but it could have been better in terms of continuity (how did Dhanush's family travel from Varanasi to New Delhi in a flash to be at his bed-side before the last scene?). 

Also sometimes it is better to create a compact movie without a meandering story (just to cross the two hour mark) rather than introduce all kinds of complexities.

:)

But still go ahead and watch this. Dhanush fits in perfectly for the role of the common man. At least we don't see SRK acting like a poor junior artist or Salman Khan pretending to be a poor orphan.. 

First Great Western - A disaster waiting to happen

Commuting daily between Bath and Bristol for the last one year has given me a deep insight into how First Great Western (FGW) manage and operate a busy intercity link.

The regular signal faults, jam packed trains, 'late running' services and just plain bad luck always seem to add that extra twist to my daily commute. The unpredictable and expensive FGW buses are almost boring in comparison.

If that was not enough, FGW have no way of monitoring how many cycles are brought on board. The cycle rack allows for 3 cycles on the Portsmouth harbour train for example. But more often than not one can find up to 5 cycles blocking the passage (see photo).

Not only can the extra cycles hurt someone in case of emergency breaking but they can also get dislodged and block the exit.

Keeping all this in mind I am curious to see what FGW can do with the Great Western Line and with the massive upgrade being planned in the Bristol-Bath area.

I guess the only thing they can do is increase the fare and enjoy hefty bonuses.

The S in iPhone 4S

The other day I realized what the 'S' in iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4S stood for.
It stands for 'Stable'.

There were so many issues with 3G version which they solved in 3GS. Similarly there were so many issues (remember the antenna issue) with 4 which were resolved in 4S. ;)

As an ex-3GS user (which was an excellent phone!) would definitely say wait for the S version of iPhone 5 if you want to avoid a lot of anguish... unless they release a 4SS (super-stable) :D

A little bit of everything...

That is what life is about. Not excesses but moderation. Not the edge but the middle.
That is what drives the great engines of our times.
Economically speaking it is not the poor or the rich who make companies like Apple rich. It is the middle class trying to become the edge-case.

Socially speaking we admire the edge-cases. People who give up life in the middle and go out there to the bleeding edge of society to try and make a difference. That may be something like what Gandhi did or it could equally be something like what Steve Jobs did.
But we are afraid of leaving the middle. It is one thing reading Steve Jobs' biography and another to do something that makes writing your biography worth it.

Even animals prefer to be in the middle. Life on the edge is tough and dangerous! The penguins at the edge of the cluster can freeze to death and the dear at the edge of the herd will be pulled down by the tiger first.

Sometimes I think the sole responsibility of those in the middle is to produce the edge-cases.

The same way that old skin is shed for the new layer to emerge.

As long as the soft middle keeps producing edge-cases, it is protected. The same way as long as our body keeps regenerating skin tissue the sensitive inner tissue remains protected.

For this protection the middle is defined by the edge. Controlled by it and dominated by it in certain cases.

What will happen if human society stops producing the edge-cases? Some kind of utopian society where risk taking is not required. This is a much explored theme in the realm of science fiction!

What will happen to the middle? It will be scattered like a pile of ashes, that is what will happen.

So let us give credit to both kinds of people. The middles who go through life with their head down looking up now and then to buy a sports car or a Rolex. Now and then producing an edge-case.
The edge-cases, who take the risks and take the road-less-travelled to provide some semblance of protection for the middle.

:)

RTE: Smoke and Mirrors

People of our generation are getting a masterclass from the politicians on how to stay in power without doing any serious work.

RTE is another episode in the series.
Watching a debate about  25% reservation in all schools for poor children was a revelation on how to take the focus away from something under public scrutiny.
The state has very calmly turned the attention from the dismal condition of Govt. schools to private schools requiring to reserve 25% seats in class 1 for 'poor' students.

The lesson: hide your failings behind a controversy.

Explicitly single out poor students and thrust them into the middle of a 'rich' private school. The RTE hopes this will lead to 'sensitisation' and a 'dialog' between children. Maybe this will also lead to world peace and an end to war!
What this is likely to lead to is resentment and a high pressure atmosphere for all the children. I am worried especially for the children of the weaker segment as this can lead to creation of deep rooted complexes.

Instead of forcing all schools to have 25% reservation the Government should open new or upgrade existing Government schools and make the centers of excellence. A school with facilities at par with a mid level private school, concentrating on education, providing a conflict free atmosphere for children to learn. In such a school all the seats should be reserved for children from the weaker segment.
Centers of excellence at the school level, reserved for the weaker segment.
What I would like to see is everyone else demanding that this 100% reservation is reduced and normal segment students can come in as well.
:)

Cardiff 536

Firstly its a train. To be precise the 5.36 pm First Great Western service to Cardiff from Bath Spa.

I take this train back home everyday and as luck would have it, in my humble opinion, it is also the worst performing rail service in the Western world (I joke not!)

Statistics won't allow me to say it is late 10/10 times but I will still say it, if only to release some of the anger. ;)

Often the train has tiptoe room only (great if you are a ballerina) because First Great Western are facing 'an acute shortage of rolling stock' in these 'difficult economic times' (sob sob).

I don't know whether this is a problem of privatization or a simple case of some manager in FGW not doing his/her job.

:D

Rahul Dravid - a cricketer and an idea...

Rahul Dravid in his final 50 over match, against England, at Cardiff (September 2011). Photo (c) Azahar Machwe

It is said that a man may pass on but his ideas live forever.

Rahul Dravid, the man, ended his cricketing career today (9th of March 2012). Rahul Dravid, the idea will live on. The idea is embodied by four words: commitment, professionalism, class and willpower.

In this day and age of T20s and IPL it is very difficult to find these four qualities in any one new player. Don't get me wrong, it is not because the players do not have talent. It is just that the shortest version of the game does not require these four qualities, in the same measure as the longest version, for a successful career.

As a player he had a slow start to his career. When he entered the international arena the Indian cricket team was going through a post-World Cup shakeup. The world of cricket itself was changing and the game was becoming faster. Jayasurya was giving a master-class on rapid-fire run making and all of a sudden 300 was no longer an impossible target to chase.

Rahul Dravid stepped into the middle of this whirlwind. He found it tough going in the one-day format where he was quickly labelled as a 'slow and defensive' batsman. Being solid in his defense, which accounted for his success on bowler friendly pitches outside India, also earned him the nickname of 'The Wall'. The nickname was not all positive, it was also a reference to his slow and defensive style of play; that is why he was never happy about it.

But his style of batting paid off in the five day format of the game where he quickly racked up the runs and ended his career as the second highest run-scorer of all time.

Later in his career the nickname 'The Wall' also stood for his fielding in the slips and his stint as the wicket keeper. His fielding ability is highlighted by his world record for the most catches in Test cricket. Imagine the commitment to fielding over a five day period!

Even a quick glance at Dravids' statistics for the period before December 2009 shows how he, along with Tendulkar and Laxman, took up the responsibilities of a senior player. This payed dividends as the cricket team, running on all cylinders, reached the number 1 rank in Test cricket.

Being a part of the 'general public' what I learnt from Dravid is that you loose only when you give up, if you have the willpower and the commitment to carry on in the face of tough opposition, then you can never loose.

I don't want to make this a long winded piece about Dravid, his achievements are already known to all who enjoy cricket. I will just end this with something a friend of mine said (which I happen to agree with):

'Now when India looses one of the openers we won't be able to comfort ourselves by thinking we still have Dravid to follow'

:)

The Con of Don and Randomness of Ra-One

"Apne aap ko hamare hawale kar do!"

This dialog has been ringing in our ears from Mumbai, 1978 (original Don) to Berlin 2011 (Don 2). But something that added to the suspense yesterday, only made the audience laugh today.

Unfortunately the same has happened to good old Shah Rukh Khan.

Both the movies were over-hyped under-prepared offerings, much like a cake that is burnt from the outside and still raw from the inside.

Both were about Shah Rukh Khan the actor and the ego, definitely not about the story. One had super-glamour of Kareena Kapoor and the needless magic of special effects (some of them really good!). The other had Priyanka Chopra trying her best to give her best in a bit role, playing second fiddle to 'Don' SRK.

Finally both were seeking to bring in a new style of film-making into Bollywood.

But I think they failed badly. In case of Ra-One we were unable to find the common ground between a Hindi family drama about a woman loosing her husband and a sci-fi thriller about the fight between good and evil. Maybe such a common point exists, but definitely finding it would not be aided by all the attention going on a super-star actor playing the lead role.

In Don 2 things are bit more different. There the movie is about one person and everyone else plays second fiddle. There is a lot of forced style injection, most of it at the wrong place. All the 'action' sequences are old by about 3 years (even for Bollywood).

We can go on bashing both the movies but one common factor responsible for the failure of these movies is Shah Rukh Khan. He has grown too large for any role.

So what he needs is to destroy his own reputation and do some meaningful cinema. Which means (to put it simply) stop hyping his movies, concentrate more on the script and NOT his part in it. Something similar to how we cut a rose plant to encourage growth.

Maybe the first thing he needs to do is watch some of his older and more 'honest' works like Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, Darr and Chak-de India.

Good luck SRK! Hope to see you back at your best in 2012!

:)

Istanbul Diary

Date of visit: 12th June 2011 - 19th June 2011

Istanbul may not be the capital of Turkey (the capital is Ankara) but it is surely one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We found the city to be an amazing mix of the old and the new. It is also a city where the new infrastructure supports the old monuments. The transport system is excellent especially the tram system.

Let us talk about one thing at a time:

1) Transport:

Probably the most important thing of all. Being able to move around Istanbul is absolutely critical as each part of the city has its own flavour. Even though most of the must-do places are clustered in the Sultanahmet area you will need to negotiate the local transport system if you want a fuller experience.

Looking towards Sultanahmet Square - on Yeniceriler Street

- Get down to the IETT office in Karkoy Square (in the Karkoy Funicular Station) or the IETT travel shop east of Galatta Bridge and get an IstanbulKart (Oyster card like travel card). Akbil system is finished and you will have to buy an IstanbulKart. Each card costs 10YTL (non-refundable) and then you can top-up at machines or kiosks (lots of them around). Remember one IstanbulKart can be used by more than one person but you will get the discounted rates only once per use (it is a strange system!).

Looking towards Karkoy Square and the Galatta Bridge

- Otherwise you can get yourself some Jeton tokens. Each token is valid for a single entry and exit and costs 1.78YTL. Jetonmatik machines are there at almost every station.

- Another option is a mavi (blue) travel-card which is like a normal unlimited-travel, fixed-period card. It is available at the IETT travelshop in Karkoy Square.

The ferry for the Asian shore at Eminou - heading for Harem

Crossing the Bosphorous on the ferry

- Trams are amazing for travelling around and they connect to all major sights including Dolmabache Palace and Sultanahmet (which includes the big 3 of Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya). The only problem is they are usually very crowded but the service is frequent and the trams tend to travel in pairs. Therefore many times the tram in front is jam packed but if you wait 5 minutes the tram behind it will come and it will be a lot less crowded.

- Take the local ferries to cross the Bosphorous, you can use your IstanbulKart on them.

- Try and avoid taking taxis. They are expensive and most will not want to take you by the meter.

- One easy (and cheap) way of getting to the airport for your return flight is to book yourself on a bus. If you give your hotel address they will pick you up from the hotel itself. The ticket costs 11YTL per head and the coaches leave quite frequently. You can buy the ticket from a kiosk in front of the AyaSofya (near the Exit).

2) Being a Tourist:

Being a tourist in Istanbul you will need to relay on bottled water, soft-drinks and eateries (unless you have the option to cook your own food!). One good thing about Istanbul is that water is cheaper than coke. 1.5 ltr of water costs 1YTL and a 300ml can of coke costs 1.5YTL. In fact the good thing is that coke and other soft drinks can be insanely expensive which encourages you to drink water. Which is good because my first tip is about water.

- Drink lots of water! You will be doing a lot of walking around in the city and it can get very hot and humid there. Keep a big bottle of water with you and keep yourself hydrated. Drink only bottled water.

- The main touristy areas are VERY safe. Police personnel are seen everywhere and there are regular police patrols, especially in the core areas. Just take the basic precautions and all should be well.

- It is better to take the excellent audio guides at Aya Sofya and Topkapi palace than a guide as both these places are quite big and should be done at your own pace. The audio guides give good coverage of the building and are very cheap. Remember to take a photo-id (any card with a photograph of yourself will do) as they will require you to deposit it before they give you the audio guide. Prices: Aya Sofya - 10YTL, Topkapi - 10YTL for Harem OR Palace, 20 YTL for both.

- If you don't like to get into needless conversations with shopkeepers trying to get your custom (especially in the Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar) then learn how to say 'No, Thank you' in Turkish or just quickly give them a smile and a wave. A common way to start a conversation is by asking you which country are you from, if you tell them they will say something nice about the country which will be swiftly followed by a 'special country price' for you.

- A note about currency. Even though the official currency of Turkey is the New Turkish Lira (YTL) almost all the main places in Istanbul (including shops in Grand Bazaar) will accept (and often give out the price) in Euros. Dollar and Pounds are equally well received. My advice would be to stick to YTL (makes sure you are not dependent on the shopkeeper's ad-hoc exchange rate).

ATM machines in the touristy areas give out money in YTL, Euro and Dollars.

- In our opinion (me and Mrs.) Topkapi Palace is a must do (both Harem and Administrative area). Dolmabache palace do the main area but the Harem can be skipped as you get a good flavor of the decor while visiting the main area. Also the main area guided tour passes through the Harem so you can take a quick look around.

3) Food:

Istanbul is a city famous for its kebabs (or kebaps) and obviously the world famous 'Turkish Delights'. The variety, cost and quality of food is quite variable. A simple chicken doner wrap (really tasty) in the Sultanahmet area (the touristy part of the city) can cost around 5YTL. But head about 2 kms west-wards towards Beyazit - Istanbul University the cost goes down to 3.5YTL.

- Remember, in the restaurants and 'self-serve' cafeterias, ALWAYS ask the price before you order anything. While in most restaurants and cafes the price along with a photograph of the main dishes are displayed clearly, some places can be really sneaky about it. Especially in the Sultanahmet area. Prices tend to change with the weather and the face of the person buying.

- Also many times in the self-serve cafeterias the person serving at the food counter may try and force items on your plate (especially if you are buying a salad platter). Also the restaurant owners are found standing outside trying to get customers. Most are good natured and will indulge in harmless banter but some can really get aggressive.

- When buying a kebab, if it says 'meat' always find out what kind of meat it is. There meat usually means a mix of lamb and beef. If you are not a beef-eater make sure you order a dish that says lamb or chicken. Most eating joints in the core areas will understand if you tell them that you want no beef or if you want only vegetarian food.

- Eat at Simit Sarayi. It is the Turkish version of Starbucks and the food is EXCELLENT and the staff understand English. Simit Sarayi shops are everywhere and the baked stuff they sell is quite tasty. I would recommend the spinach rose puff and the cheese puff. Turkish coffee they serve here is quite good as well. It is not cheap but it is also not expensive. In other words it is a good place to stop, whether it is for an evening snack and coffee or a heavy breakfast.

- The local Turkish chai (tea) and Apple tea are really good as well for giving you that kick at the end of the day.

4) Bosphorous Cruise:

There are several options here. Many operators offer a short 1.5 hours cruise but I would suggest doing the longer 5 hour tour. It costs 25YTL and it is well worth every Lira. The full cruise takes you almost to the Black Sea (double the distance of the shorter cruise) and has an added benefit of giving you a two hour stopover at Anadolu Kavagi (Asian shore), which is towards the northern end of the Bosphorous.

There is a very picturesque castle there. The castle is about 1.5 kms away from where the boat docks. The climb up to the castle is a bit stiff but can be easily done in the 2 hour window with enough time left for a quick lunch by the dockside once you are back (don't eat before setting out for the castle!). There are excellent views of the Black Sea and both the Asian and European sides as well as the Bosphorous, from the castle. The road up to the castle also gives good views of the village and the city of Istanbul in the distance.

5) Leander's Tower (Maiden's Tower):

Leander's Tower is a must-do attraction. Boats go from both the Asian as well as the European side and cost 5YTL per head. On the Asian side take the boat from the landing near the Harem ferry station. On the European side take the boat from the landing near Dolmabache Palace.

I would recommend having a coffee at the coffee-shop on top of Leander's tower.

Activia Yogurt: Not suitable for vegetarians?

When I was in 5th standard we had a story in our English reader titled 'Look before you eat'.
The moral of the story was, you guessed it, to always look before you eat.

But in this modern age of packaged processed food there is no knowing what you might find if you do look at the printed stuff on the packaging before you eat it. It could be something funny or something scary.

So here goes my personal 'look before you eat' story. The other day while shopping I saw a rhubarb yogurt from Activia. Now we have all seen the yummy looking ads they show on TV, so I said to myself (being a good little consumer), why not try it!
Later that evening, after finishing dinner, I sat down with my Activia rhubarb yogurt in front of the TV. Maybe I was getting bored with what was on the telly or it was god guiding my hands, but I happened to look down at the yogurt pot in my hand (as yet unopened) and saw loads of stuff written in fine print.
That got me curious so I decided to read what it said.. and the funny thing was the first thing that caught my eye was a warning: Not suitable for vegetarians (see pic).

Now that made me even more curious, I mean what could be there in rhubarb yogurt that made it not suitable for vegetarians?
So I went through the list of ingredients and one word leaped out (see pic): Cochineal.

Now that didn't sound chemical, didn't sound fruity, didn't sound meaty. The word cochineal sounded just plain alien. Something about it set of my 'research instincts' and I opened up Google on my phone (Google is our friend!) to find out what exactly is this cochineal stuff.

The result was anything but boring!
As per Wikipedia: "The cochineal (/kɒtʃɨˈniːl/ koch-i-neel or /ˈkɒtʃɨniːl/ KOCH-i-neel; Dactylopius coccus) is a scale insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha, from which the crimson-coloured dye carmine is derived"

In other words the Activia rhubarb yogurt contains a dye that is extracted from insects. Thus making it unsuitable for vegetarians (?) where as us non-veggies are not expected to be bothered by insect-origin ingredients. Hell, isn't a chicken a really really large and feathered insect?

;)

P.S.: Not all Activia stuff is 'not suitable for vegetarians'. Their strawberry one is 'suitable for vegetraians'. From now on those three words are going to be my guide whenver I try new products.

Source Code

Guys will know what reaction one can get when you suggest a sci-fi movie to our girlfriends/wives/sisters/female friends. The amount of bribing, begging and pleading required to convince females to watch a sci-fi movie is sometimes amazing. But Source Code is a movie for the masses. It is not a heavy machinegun fire filled sci-fi romp that it sounds like. In fact it is a very smooth movie with both a romantic twist as well as an intelligent storyline (girls how many rom-coms can boast of both?). At the same time, believe it or not, it explores the nature and meaning of 'death' and the quantum nature of reality. So it is a sci-fi rom-com thriller with an intelligent base for the story. The movie starts of at the deep end (like all thrillers should) and the plot is laid out bit by bit in every scene. Watching this movie is kind of like peeling an onion and many people will find it simlar to Vantage point but a whole lot less confusing. The basic storyline is simple: a bomb on the train, hero has to locate the bomb and the bomber. Then comes the first big twist: the hero has just 8 minutes to achieve that. From there on it is just one layer after another. Go watch this movie even if the trailor or the title made you think yaawn not another time-travel sci-fi thriller with explosions and stupid twists. The only complaint I have about this movie is that short-cuts are taken with the location of the bomb and the bomber. This has been done, obviously, to fit the timescale. It would be impossible for the hero to search a double decker commuter train with around 400 passengers in 8 minutes. Thus the reason for taking a short-cut! But all that aside, the movie is quite good and I rate it as a must see! :)

My pilgrimage to the Jet Airways Office..

Jet Airways are really good at customer service. So good in fact, that they want you to come to their office and sample their customer service first hand, where as other ‘stupid’ airlines believe in getting the work done over the phone!

This was when we had to postpone the return leg of our journey (as we had one change free). So we called them up and got the booking changed (which was rather efficient, I must admit!).

Then came the surprise. They asked us to come to their city office (in Rajiv Chowk, New Delhi) or the one at the International Airport (a good 1 hrs. drive one way) to physically get the e-ticket changed.

Not only that they also asked us to bring the old e-ticket and a copy of the passports (for identification purposes, as if our identities had changed somehow!). I asked the person that why can’t you e-mail us a copy of the new e-ticket (duh! E-mail  -  E-ticket!) but he said sorry that cannot be done.

So thus began the great pilgrimage to the Jet Airways office.

As we had LOADS of time for random forced journeys (I mean we ARE on our holiday!), we chose the city office thinking it would be easier to get it done there.

So there we presented ourselves at 4pm (by the way office closes SHARP at 5.30pm) only to find the small office (for a BIG airline the front office was the size of a small cozy coffee-shop) full of people. At the desk were two partially trained office staff handling a queue of about twenty-five people.

Let me digress and describe their business process (or the lack thereof).

So the agent sitting on the front desk will physically get-up to give certain documents to the cashier (and a normal transaction would require couple of such trips). Then there would be a small conference at the credit card machine where they would discuss the best way of processing a particular credit card (while people were standing – including me and thinking DAMN this is slower than a government office!).

Then out of the back office there appeared two more agents and the processing got a little quicker (thank god at least they had a token system for the waiting people!). After about 40 minutes of standing around our turn finally came.

Moving to the desk I discovered to my horror that out of the three female staff members two had French manicured nails and were typing with just two fingers! Only one staff member had her nails down to normal length and using both hands to touch type.

So imagine the frustration of watching the lady input the passport details for both me and my wife using just two fingers.

The typing took so long that I almost got hypnotized watching those two manicured fingers click-clacking on the keyboard.

Then she looked up, smiled and said ‘You can collect the tickets from the cashier’. I went to the cashier expecting old fashioned tickets (you know the ones with that red carbon coating and all those magical codes).

But the cashier just handed me two printouts of the new e-tickets. That is what you call ‘irony’.

The Airtel Re-activation Saga

The Appeal:


This is the story of how one man, with the help of a woman, managed to rescue his Airtel mobile connection from the menace of Permanent Disconnect.

The story starts when our hero lands in his hometown. Between struggling with hand luggage and observing the new airport terminal, he juggles with his cellphone, trying to get it working.
Soon the Immigration desks fell far behind and the phone was still refusing to connect to the Airtel network.
After the baggage collection was a distant memory, with the cell phone showing the dreaded words 'Limited Service', our hero resigned himself to a long journey home without his cellphone. Already the fear of a protracted struggle to get it restarted was growing within him as he sighted his home.
All the while our hero was struggling with the reason for the failure of the cell phone connection. He knew the cell connection had enough credit and it had been working 2-3 weeks ago when he had tested it.


Our hero was fully confused and disconnected. He could not tell anyone he was home! After several hours of struggling with the cell phone the hero decided to consult the Facebook Oracle to resolve the mystery of 'Limited Service'.
The Facebook Oracle advised our hero that he had not proven himself to Airtel. That is why his cell connection might have been 'temporarily disconnected'.


The very next day the hero with his fairy queen wife by his side strode into the local Airtel office to prove himself. He carried with him the papers of the land bearing the seals of Ruler.
The office was a hotbed of lethargy and every worker there was infused with the singular desire to do nothing. Using his Shield of Patience the hero managed to obtain the information from the staff about his connection. The Oracle was right. He would have to prove himself.
The office staff told him that he would have to prove himself not to them but to the Airtel high office in the deepest and darkest dungeons of the land, otherwise known as 'Nehru Place'.


The Application:
A new day dawned and the hero again set out with his fairy queen wife towards the Airtel high office. But minutes after entering 'Nehru Place' the hero and his fairy queen wife were lost. But the hero was lucky to find a Dungeon Troll, also known as a Delhi Police Constable, harassing the local population. The Dungeon Troll pointed the hero towards a different, smaller Airtel office instead of the one that the hero was seeking.


So the hero and his wife arrive at the small Airtel office. As the hero opens the door to the office waves of hot, stale air as if from a dragon's mouth assaults him. Luckily the hero is wearing his Aura of Armani. The fairy queen uses her magical hands to keep the door open to get rid of the hot air while the hero ventures forth into the office.


Within the office the hero finds two staff members flirting with each other. A sister seeking 'Activation' for her brother and father. A bored-to-death clerk busy counting bank notes. And between this quagmire of human emotions the hero manages to get his application accepted. While he is waiting the fairy queen, angered by the apparent suffering of the sister, unleashes a fireball of complaints at the zombie-like staff. They wither in front of her onslaught and quickly hide.


By then the hero receives the word that his proving has been successful but it will take 7 circles of the sun to get the connection restored.


Now what will our hero do. Will he wait 7 days or will he activate his magical powers?


The Wait:
But our hero is very resourceful and blessed with great friends. He approaches his friend who is a High Priest at Airtel. The High Priest promises to see what can be done to speed up the process. As the documents have already been submitted the hero sees no reason for the re-activation to take 7 days!


One day turns into two and then three days. On the third day he receives a happy message from Airtel saying 'All izzz well'. The hero swings into action and tries to make his first call to his fairy queen but the Airtel witch intercepts the call and informs the hero that he has 'insufficient balance to complete the call'.
Which is surprising because the office staff at Airtel had promised him that he would get all his balance from the previous re-charge sent to his connection after re-activation. Sure enough after using the magical spell of *123# the hero found that he had no credit!


But the hero knew that he better get a small recharge done so that at least he had a working cell connection.


Thus ends the Airtel Re-activation Saga, with the hero already preparing himself for the great Airtel Battle for Balance Transfer!

A Perfect Double Bill... Do Dooni Char and Aashayien

It is rarely that I watch two new movies one after another. It is even rarer for me to enjoy both of them. So last week we sat down to watch Do Dooni Char (DDC) not planning to follow it up with any other movie. But the energy of DDC kindled this deep hunger within us to feast on another yummy movie. The movie we selected was Aashayien which lived up to its potential.

DDC is an amazing movie. I rate it a MUST WATCH especially for people who have lived for any length of time in Delhi. The movie feels like a Sunday brunch of aloo parantha and yoghurt (or a dinner of butter chicken and naan). Somehow they have managed to get the best out of Rishi Kapoor - Nitu Singh team and it is amazing to see how you start flowing with them in their day to day life.
It is a movie which combines the engaging story line of a serial like Nukkad with slick Bollywood production values.

Aashayien is another amazing movie. Completely different from the ordinary life of DDC. That is what makes the combination perfect. Imagine a Sunday brunch at home followed by a dinner at your favourite Italian place. Aashayien takes you far far away from the normalcy of daily life shown in DDC to a strange and difficult confrontation with death.
From challenges of daily life to challenges of a different magnitude.
Aashayein does take a bit of an open mind to go along with but it makes it all worth it. The movie tries not to dwell to much on the obvious and shows a new dimension in the struggle between life and death.

Go watch!

Then we saw Guzaarish two days later.
So from Sunday brunch to your favourite Italian to most exotic Central African cuisine.

Guzaarish: watch it at the theatre or forget about it. The story needs to be absorbed at all levels. The visuals/sets, music, atmosphere, acting, expressions are all very well put together. It does get a bit heavy in parts but these are thankfully short. Also you can say certain elements in the story stick out and prevent me from calling the movie a work of art. Kind of like putting up a cell phone tower on top of Taj Mahal.

Aakrosh (2010): Component-based Film Development At Its Best!

What is the most important element in a movie? There are several candidates to choose from including the story, the script, the editing and the acting.
For me it is the story. If the story is entertaining enough it will keep people talking about the film.
I think that Bollywood is either running out of this magic ingredient or is becoming very smart and seeking stories from outside the usual settings we find (e.g. gangsters, young love, family sagas etc.). Such stories promote 're-use' and 'adaptation' and lead to creative new cinema. Kind of like mixing ingredients from different cuisines to come up with exotic flavours. One such example is We Are Family.
Another thing to appreciate is that we have started acknowledging the source of the story and declaring openly when stories have been lifted from other movies/sources instead of just copying and claiming credit for originality.
But there are times when this re-use is stretched beyond reason. It is ok to to re-use or adapt stories but certainly not lift it scene for scene even if you repackage story elements to give it an Indian feel.
Aakrosh is guilty of doing just this. They have lifted Mississippi Burning (1988) scene for scene.
They have cleverly re-packaged story elements to use news-worthy issues which makes the final product easier to sell.
So FBI from Mississippi Burning is the Special Investigation Team of the CBI, segregation in southern state of Mississippi in the 1960s is repackaged as honour killings in Haryana, race issue is repackaged as a religious issue, sheriff of a small town is converted to the local inspector in a small town and so on... I could write a new blog post just to map out the massive repackaging effort that is Aakrosh.
But that is not the end of it. They have actually lifted full scenes from Mississippi Burning (MB) including the camera angles, dialogs and situations. I have not even seen Aakrosh (as it has not been released yet) but I can tell you, from the trailor, what each scene means and what is the general flow of conversation.
Two examples:
1) Bips being beaten by her husband and landing in hospital - the whole scene that follows with the fight between Akshay Khanna and Ajay Devgn which ends in Akshay Khanna pulling out a revolver on Ajay Devgn.
2) The whole sequence where a witness is taken in with his identity hidden using a cardboard box.

So all in all Aakrosh is looking like a pasta dish with 'desi-laal mirch ka tadka'. If they have done it well then the movie would be more than watchable. Trust me I have had pasta dish with desi-tadka. It tastes yummy! But if they have just lifted MB then it is a movie best left unseen.

Oh and Mr Priyadarshan... at least acknowledge the fact that you have lifted the whole concept and entire scenes from MB!

;)

Finally the Capital gets an ENZYME!

It may or may not be something to be proud of... today I found out that New Delhi, the capital of India has a enzyme named after it!
It is called the New Delhi-Metallo-1. The only problem is that this enzyme is not all that good for humans as it gives drug-resistance to bacteria!

It is causing a lot of worry (as usual) in UK and other European countries as the drug-resistance brought about by the enzyme means there are just 2 anti-biotics that are left for doctors to try and control the bacteria!

More here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1302035/NDM-1-Alert-unbeatable-superbug-spread-worldwide.html

I think it is our corrupt politicians and babus who probably have loads of this enzyme which makes them resistant to all forms of checks and balances. Also probably the bacteria bribed them to get the enzyme.

;)

Chuski - Freedom at Midnight!

A common, after dinner plan, during the summer months, for people of Delhi is to have a cold and refreshing 'chuski' at India Gate.
Chuski is a lump of ice on a stick with flavoured syrup poured on top.


At India Gate every night, especially during the summer months, the air comes alive with the calls of chuski salesmen trying to attract customers.
The whole process of buying a chuski is very straight forward. Go pay (approx. 35/- per chuski as of June 2010) and get a token. Exchange token for the chuski.
The various flavours of syrup include:
- Kala Khatta (very famous flavour)
- Meetha (sweet)
- Khatta Meetha (sweet and sour)

You can get more syrup if you run out.

It was very good to see the people of India enjoying the warm weather and cold ice at the same spot where more than 60 years ago India gained its independence in the middle of the night.
It was good fun to see the place brimming with energy and life inspite of it being a weekday. Maybe it was the warm weather or something else that drives people to converge in the center of the city. Take a look around and you will find all kinds of people from all walks of life. Kids, teenagers, young couples, shouting policemen (trying to clear the VIP area of parked cars - after taking bribes), entire families stepping out of their brand new SUVs.

All in all being there are the middle of the night made me realise the power of India and the energy of its people. It is not a city which believes in switching off at 10pm!

Chuski Area:

Raajneeti - How to copy a classic and how to make babies..

The movie is a straight through adaptation of the Mahabharata. That said I found Shyam Benegal's Kalyug to be a better adaptation.

It has some stellar acting by the masters (Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpai and Ajay Devgn) leading to certain very powerful scenes (I am not talking about the steamy sex scenes which have been chopped off by the censor board). Overall the movie is a mix of brilliant and B-grade moments. Just that the brilliant moments are really 'brilliant' making this movie worth watching.

But as usual our movie makers keep forgetting the two cardinal rules of film making:

1) Use an interesting concept don't abuse it! Just because the idea is good doesn't mean it needs to be used over and over again.

2) Some questions are good! Not all threads in the story need to be tied up neatly before the movies end. Just make sure the questions are logical and not the resultant of bad editing or story.

The concept of Mahabharata has been used over and over again till the movies becomes predictable, especially for people who have seen the TV series.
In trying to weave a complex tapestry of a story they end up with a lot of knotted threads.
The movie should have been shorter and the editing definitely could have been better.
For example
- just before the interval we find that Prithvi (Arjun Rampal) has been released from the prison. Now that would have been a good point for the intermission. But no.. we see another short scene where the party leader in hospital throws throws Pritvi out of the party.
- out of nowhere Katrina Kaif suddenly finds a load of loving for Arjun Rampal. So from putting blanket over a sleeping Arjun Rampal, Katrina makes the leap to full blown sex with him in the span of a few scenes. I don't think even a Ferrari can do a 0-100kmph that fast!

There are also some really funny dialogs lifted right out of the Mahabharata TV series ('tum mere jeshth putra ho').

This is one of those movies which you can neither recommend nor ask people to stay away.
My advice: wait for the DVD or at least wait for the public interest to die, instead of sitting through it in a housefull theatre.

The Economics of Iced Tea...

Location: Select City Walk, New Delhi

I had gone to Select City Walk (Saket) to do some shopping.
Since I love iced tea I thought I would treat myself to one from Barista. I went in and ordered the drink at the till. The guy replied '105 rupees sir'. My mouth dried up when I heard the cost!

Since I was on vacation I decided to shell out the money. But I went and stood near their counter as I wanted to observe what magical process they use to make a Rs. 105iced tea.

Well the process was dead easy:
- Take a cheap plastic 'glass'.
- Squeeze a bit of lemon juice from a plastic bottle.
- Squeeze a bit of sugar syrup from a plastic bottle.
- Fill the glass ALL the way up with ice (yeah! ice is cheap and takes up a lot of room!).
- Add some black tea.

I can bet the whole thing didn't cost Barista more than 10 rupees.

What I did end up paying for was the staff which didn't serve me all that much, the cool furniture which I didn't sit on, the air-conditioning which I did not take any advantage off and some board games which I had no one to play with! Oh and let us not forget: the Barista logo on that cheap plastic glass.

Photographed by Google!

In 2008 I posted a few pictures of the Google car taking pictures for the 'street view' feature.
Yesterday I checked the street view (on Google Maps) for the area where I had photographed the car and I was surprised to find my picture taken by the Google car!

Here is me walking down the road as the Google car takes my pic: