BRB

Every time I go home, there is a nagging fear of losing something behind that haunts me. They are not just a figment of my imagination. Some of them have proven to be true. A costly truth, to say the least.
Still, it can not deter me from taking a break from it all and go back to where I came from. This is one more such chance.

Yipppppeeeeeeee
I am going home.

Miss you all.

And I will be back with loads of Indori namkeens and stories. :)

gyarah kahaniyan

Summarizing my last two evenings in a simple mathemagical equation:
gyarah kahaniyan = dus kahaniyan + aaja nachle

Dus Kahaniyan is a brave attempt to say the least. Frankly speaking it did not live up to my expectations. I imagined it a Indian attempt of love actually or babel. Though the stories are some of the best you have heard [and watched] in recent times, no linking amongst them is bit of a uneasy factor. Box office has tagged this movie as a flop. It was bound to be. No masala to sell here. I feel this movie is a link between out-and-out commercial crap and over-the-head crossover cinema. And that makes it special. Content and execution are top notch and that surely makes it stand out in the lot.
Good work guys. Keep it up.

Aaja Nachle is another proof of Madhuri's brilliance. She rocks and she dances. And nobody can do it better than her. Watch if for Madhuri. Storyline is loose. At end of three hours you will realize that there is nothing that you did not expect. Swades meets Chak De India. There are light moments throughout the movie. Time pass assured. Laila Majnoo show is something you have never seen in your life. It's enjoyable to core. Madhuri's dance is the icing on cake. She has grace and persona that none of the current heroins in bollywood can boast of. Would love to see more of you Madhuri. Keep dancing.
And to those of you who tagged it as woman oriented movies, fish off. Just that lead actor is a girl does not make a woman oriented movie.

the good game has begin...

The good game has begin.

I was browsing through some of my old posts and this one caught my attention: To win all, you need to risk all.

This is what I needed at this moment. Last few days have been mixed bag in terms of experience. The pursuit gave me an indication of things to come. I second it after spending my last few days doing nothing. I have had my lows and highs. For no reason at all. Or were they indeed the reasons. I will never know. It's just impulse of the moment. And I know that I have to let it pass by.

One thing I have learnt from it all is that risk is unavoidable. If you dream, you need to dare of breaking the mould. I am doing what I think is right. I may be wrong, but I want to learn it firsthand. To cut above the rest needs risk. Mediocrity leads you nowhere.

programming maxims

Rob Pike offers the following "rules" in Notes on Programming in C as programming maxims, though they can be easily viewed as points of a Unix philosophy:^{[citation needed]}

• Rule 1: You cannot tell where a program is going to spend its time. Bottlenecks occur in surprising places, so do not try to second guess and put in a speed hack until you've proven that's where the bottleneck is.
• Rule 2: Measure. Do not tune for speed until you have measured, and even then don't unless one part of the code overwhelms the rest.
• Rule 3: Fancy algorithms are slow when n is small, and n is usually small. Fancy algorithms have big constants. Until you know that n is frequently going to be big, don't get fancy. (Even if n does get big, use Rule 2 first.)
• Rule 4: Fancy algorithms are buggier than simple ones, and they are much harder to implement. Use simple algorithms as well as simple data structures.
• Rule 5: Data dominates. If you have chosen the right data structures and organized things well, the algorithms will almost always be self-evident. Data structures, not algorithms, are central to programming.
• Rule 6: There is no Rule 6.

Pike's rules 1 and 2 restate C. A. R. Hoare's famous maxim "Premature optimization is the root of all evil." Ken Thompson rephrased Pike's rules 3 and 4 as "When in doubt, use brute force." Rules 3 and 4 are instances of the design philosophy KISS. Rule 5 was previously stated by Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month. Jon Bentley's Programming Pearls also has a chapter on the same design principle. Rule 5 is often shortened to "write stupid code that uses smart data", and is an instance of the guideline "If your datastructures are good enough, the algorithm to manipulate them should be trivial." Rule 6 is merely a humorous reference to Monty Python's Bruces sketch. In C strings, the last byte of the string is null, thus indicating the length of the string.

ps: Taken from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy

fri sat sun mon

Fri: Not much work as usual. Was thinking of leaving early from office and try my luck at attending any Bangalore Habba event. But as it turned out to be, I ended up being at home. This year, somehow, I did not go to even a single event in Bangalore Habba. Strange and sad, but that's the way it is. :)

Sat: Lazy morning followed by a visit to Spar. First hypermarket of it's kind in Bangalore. And it impressed me. Lot of variety and competitive prices. Not much crowded like Big Bazaars. And to top it all - nice and fresh vegetables and fruits. You should try it out at least once if you are in Bangalore. Chitchatting post lunch and then evening at a friend's place. Nice homely food enjoyed with nice homely people.

[Forgot that it is Saurabh's Bday]

Sun: Again a lazy morning. Bachche log exam ke liye chale gaye. Arpit came home and told that it was Saurabh's Bday today. shucks... Checked on orkut. Went straight to cake shop. Bought cake. Bachche came home. Wished Saurabh then had lunch. Movie with a friend. Ice-cream and pani-puri followed. Bought yoyo for Sarthak. Came home and left for Saurabh's dinner treat. China Pearl again. Hogged like anything. Reach home at 10:30, ChakDe on cable. Watched ChakDe. Had Cake cutting and Happy Bday singing program at 11:15. Ate cake and then directly off to my bed.
What a day!!!

Mon: OMG. It's lazy morning again. Got up late. Was in two minds about taking my bike. Somehow decided against it. Was late for the bus so took an auto to catch the bus. No issues. Came to work. Breakfast. Some work.
Going for lunch now...

That's all....

i miss you kiddo...

I really do...

Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal - Avoidable

Let me try to keep it very objective:

What works:
1. Title song. Nice catchy tune and good lyrics.
2. ManUnited dressing room and views from Old Trafford stadium.
3. N/A

What does not work:
1. Story (or the absence of it).
2. Shoddy camera work (it's slow and dull. Frames do not have continuity. Watch anyone play FIFA 2005, you will get to see better action)
3. Obsessively chauvinistic south Asian references. (Mr Chocolate man - there is more to game than racism.)
4. No characters. A football movie can not be made with just 2 players. I would like to ask the directory if he actually thought even name of the 16 players. They are just no-one.
5. Side stories. Bipasha-john romance, Arshad-wife's fights, Sardar's wife, John's mom - too many untold stories. They pop up from nowhere and just make it worse.
6. Songs - Pathetic pathetic pathetic...

It is more boring that watching a goal less draw in Durand Cup.
I really don't think this movie was made to bask on glory of Chak De India. Aug 10th to Nov 23rd is too less a time to make a movie in bollywood. But may be it is the case, the product has no quality.

Avoid yaar.

ps: My worst disappointment with this movie is the fact that AK has written dialogue for it. It's disappointing stuff AK. You certainly can do much better than this.

tee jee eye eff

Thank God...
It's been a dull Friday so far. No different from the week that went. It was the usual stuff throughout the week.

Post-it on my PC monitor reads thus "The trouble with a rat race is that even if you win you're still a rat." These words keep inspiring me to do things which I would not have done but for my compulsions. Giving up and giving in - they make a world of difference. I guess I would stick to give-in for now. I need my fingers. That's all I care.

Looking forward to a fun filled weekend. And hopefully a better week ahead.

FYI,
Bangalore Habba is back... Check out the schedule http://www.bengalooruhabba.com/home.html
Any of you reading it in Bangalore, contact me if you are game for the plays at Chowdiah Memorial.

wat u doing tonite? v need a hero for dis country.

NDTV is having an opinion poll to decide the Indian of the Year award. Votes can be casted through sms, mail or phone calls. Here is the link to the website: Indian of the Year

Now here are the nominations:

CATEGORY: LEADER

• Mayawati (Ab Dilli Door Nahi)
• Prakash Karat (Mr Unflappable)
• Manmohan Singh (The Visionary)
• LK Advani (The eternal no 2)
• A P J Abdul Kalam (People's President)

CATEGORY: SPORTS

• Viswanathan Anand (Tiger of Chennai)
• Mahendra Singh Dhoni (India's T20 Glory)
• Baichung Bhutia (Bending it like Bhutia)
• Sania Mirza (Climbing The Tennis Ranking)

CATEGORY: CINEMA

• Shahrukh Khan (Chak de India)
• Rajnikanth (The Boss)
• Shilpa Shetty (Celebrity sister)
• CHAK DE GIRLS (Women Power)
• Himesh Reshammiya (Rockstar Reshammiya)

CATEGORY: GLOBAL INDIAN

• Indira Nooyi (Fizz kid)
• Arun Sarin (Hello India)
• R K Pachauri (Weatherwise)
• Mira Nair (The Elementary Director)

CATEGORY: BUSINESS

• Tulsi Tanti (Creating Wealth out of Wind)
• Kumaramangalam Birla (Showing his Metal)
• K P Singh (Building homes for millions)
• Azim Premji (Putting innovation into IT)
• Mukesh Ambani (Fuelling growth)

CATEGORY: MUSIC

• Vishal & Shekhar (Hit pe Hit)
• Sukhwinder Singh (Chak De India)
• Pritam & Metro band (Metro)
• Sunidhi Chauhan (Mindblowing Mahiya and Sajna pe vaari jao)
• A R Rehman (Guru" of music)

CATEGORY: UNSUNG HEROES

• Irom Sharmila (Mission Manipur)
• Auto Raja (Bangalore's angel)
• Indian Soldiers (Super Heroes)

I happen to attend one of their talk show in Bangalore. From the time I saw the nominations I knew it was going to be a waste of time to attend that show. I attended that nonetheless. And it turned out to be a great experience in terms of seeing how a program (specially a talk show or a discussion) is conducted.

My votes:
Leader: [This category should be called Political Leader] Manmohan Singh (For keeping the Indian economy floating.). I strongly oppose Advani's nomination in this category.

Sports: Vishy of course. If Dhoni and Baichung can make it to this list then there should be a place for Prabodh Tirkey too. And then there is Pankaj Advani too.

Cinema: None of this. You must be kidding by giving nominations to Reshamiya and Shilpa.

Global Indian: Mr Pachauri. He has got a bigger distinction anyways.

Business: I need to go and refresh my GK to find out the special contribution of all the nominees in last year. As I see Mr DLF man has built the biggest construction company in world (Indian share market sher). So for now my vote for Mr KP Singh.

Music: You must be kidding again. Music as a category. And then too all nomination from Hindi Cinema. Grow up... There is more to music than just bollywood shit... I am really happy they did not have Mika's nomination here.

Unsung Heroes: I have my reservations against nomination for Indian Soldiers. They certainly deserve this award but then there are hundreds others who need to come in limelight too. Irom Sharmila is my choice for this award.

OSO - it's me myself and my ego

SRK, you rock.
You really do.
You have shown that you really are the King of this film industry. A song with 30 odd of bollywood's who's who really shows that you rule this world of Hindi cinema. You spoof them but still they don't say a word. It's all taken in good spirit. Only some old mad fellow showed some guts to stand up against him. And guess what!! SRK wins over his heart too. That too in full public view. It's my way or the highway.

You cheered India coz there can not be a bigger stage than a cricket match between India and Pakistan. While corporates pay millions to showcase their logos and merchandises during those matches, you did it without even paying a single penny. And guess what!!! They termed you the lucky charm for team India. Why not? if they can wear the same (lucky) underwear in each match, they can easily afford to have you there in the stadium. They can always doubt their talent and capabilities, but luck? No... Luck always plays a bigger role.

You know how to handle, or should I say manipulate, the media. They need news, they need God and you can be both. "I am a dog," rightly you said some days back. You really are a big one. And mean too. Everything is fair in love and war.

You and your friends make lovely movies. If bollywood is about dream cinema, you provide it its character. We Indian's can not do without masala, be it our food or the films we watch. Just like the dhabewala on outskirts of every town, you know how to add masala. Thoda sa suspense, thodi comedy and lots of emotions - taiyaar hai ek perfect masala picture. Par bhaiya, khane ka asli swad to tabhi aata hai jab vo aankho ko bhi acha lage. And there comes your showmanship. Make news if there is none, generate controversy if you are not in spotlight. OSO became a super hit even before it hit the theatre. If paisa was the success criteria, this one might become the biggest hit we ever had in hindi cinema. Kudos to you.

But then...
Isn't this movie more about you than any damn thing in world? It's SRK from beginning till end. OM is lost somewhere. Same thing happened with Shanti also. Just because it was her debut in Hindi cinema does not mean she can become larger than the character. I guess in your world of larger than life cinema, this is the way things work. The audience pays from their khun pasine ki mehnat to see you enjoy your life the way you want to. It's indulgent cinema. You made what you wanted to. "Nobody tells me what to do," you seem to say every moment you come on screen. When AK makes No Smoking, he is doing it for himself. And you do the same. You all are same. Self-indulgent SOAB.

We, the people, are here just to see you indulging yourselves in your ego. That too on our experience. We pay to be mind-fished. We pay to befool. We love you coz you joke on us and make us laugh at the same time. You make us feel something. Good or Bad - does not matter.

I really loved watching OSO. Why? Coz it served me exactly the same dish that I had imagined it to be. A masala flick sans any sense. I wanted to see SRK telling me again and again - you fool, again you are here. You will always come back. Look at this bunch of jokers all around you. You all will come back...
Kyunki..
Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost...


Keeping everything aside: my ranking for OSO - 3/5
Watch it if you like Hindi Cinema.

the pursuit

Got this comment from Rout on my last blog day minus 1

"wish you all the best! from personal experience: although I've experienced such burdenless mornings, somehow I rue the loss of the pursuit. Because now there won't be any chasing of a goal, at least not immediately. A little vacuous and mundane life will be until you're hot in pursuit of the next thing."

I could not expected this one to come from anyone else. I always wonder how he sees these subtleties in any situation. It's the experience - one thing for sure. But then there is more than just a feeling of knowing it all. It's the keenness to look beyond the apparent. Each and every moment/event has multiple meanings. And Rout has got this brilliant ability to interpret the meaning other than the obvious.

Hats off to you dude. I am really happy that I met you and have you as my friend.

day minus 1

Its 6am and I am wide awake.
You may ask me - Usme naya kya hai. Ye bimari to tujhe bachpan se hi hai.
I respect your emotions.
But today I am awake coz I had a sleepless night.
na na na, don't even think on those lines of pyar-vyar. Not yet...

Just that a burden is off my shoulder. And for the first time I am feeling relaxed.
I want to sleep now. And dream for sometime.

So here I am signing off. Will try to sleep.

ground zero

First there was confidence...
and the spirit to conquer the world.
It's my time - I announced to the world.

And now?
There is only hope...
I don't say I have lost. I haven't.
I just hope.

Amen.

numero uno

Yes. It's the time.

Two roads diverged in a wood...

94, 99, 93, 99 and now 97
Only he can tell us how does it feel to be "Almost there".


"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference."