Contemplating an Idea

Its been long since I have updated my blog. I guess since the time my laptop was stolen I never mustered up the zeal to write a blog. ( Yes, there was a robbery at my place and no i do not wish to write about it at all)

My marriage date is nearing its final countdown ... I think I will go cuckoo when the countdown reaches single digits ( No, this blog is not about that either)

For a long time, I have had an avid interest in the advertisement business. I view ads very critically and try and judge the impact of an ad on the consumer market. Even at work I cannot help but interfere with the marketing team, it just excites me. So I have been thinking about it and wondering. Maybe I should have a blog that talks about the various ads in the market (obviously I will write about those ads which are worth a mention). These could be print, tv or even radio.
There is one problem which I am facing when I consider the possibility of this site. I want to put up the ads on the website so that my readers can experience the ad first time. Sourcing material would be real tough. The best option which comes to my mind is TV grabs and online adaptations of successful offline campaigns, but in this process I feel I would be spending more time collecting the ads than commenting on them.

What are your thoughts?

R e q u i e m for a DREAM

Cult movie. Brilliant music. Let me tell you who all have poached music from this film - Joan of Arc - The Messenger, 1 Hour Photos and even Lord of the Rings (they copied the music in a trailer). I have heard this in an album, the song being called - Zoo York. I have always liked this particular song.. I saw the trailer of Joan of Arc a number of times just to listen to the music over and over again.

Think about the title of the movie. Look up what "requiem" means. I am sold on the title itself. Something similar to Trainspotting - another cult movie...

Watch them both.....(this blog was posted when i was watching the movie...)

Now that i have finished watching it..

1. My facts were all wrong - this was released in 2000...that means this does not have an original score.
Second - Do not watch this movie...Too depressing..(end of blog)

About Jay

I should have known Jay from school (BHS) but as fate has it we met at MSR Boys Home in nimma Bangaluru...I very clearly recollect the day when I first met him outside the (no gates in MSR that time) hostel. I think he was moving in with his luggage with a relative's help. I was in one of those chirpy irritating moods, where I would give gyaan for no good cause and then feel good about it. I think I tried the same stunt with Jay as well, telling him which room to take and all..Its funny how best friends meet...

Uske baad, our friendship grew organically...(Not like today's companies, which believe in acquistions of the overseas kind)....Long talks on varied subjects and long walks along different paths...Few things came out pretty quickly...Jay was very well read and had immense compassion about his convictions. An avid reader of India Today, I dont think he has ever missed an issue since may be class 7 or 8....This fact I realised Jay, when you discussed the Shah Bano case with me.

Being in his company has always been a treat...Not to mention you would get to meet all kinds of strange earthlings (that you never knew existed)..He has the uncanny ability to see through people and understand their DNA. Even in a poorly managed college Ramaiah, he formed a circle of friends that till today stand by him. I know how difficult a task this is, knowing how poor
my social skills are (my pathetic attempts at Orkut are not worth a mention..!)..

When he found his life partner, he stood by her and his decision. I know life was not easy for him at his home and his better half's home due to this "arrangement". Not to mention all the people who kept falling all over the place over him. Its not quite difficult to ignore all these people who admire you when you have such a committed relationship, but what is impressive is not letting all that attention get into your head. I really never doubted that Jay cared a damn about them...

Due to lack of time and not lack of content, i have got to wrap it up here.....
Cheers.

All round cricket

Cricket is said to be an allrounder's game. This was perfectly exemplefied in the match between England & Pakistan courtsey Heir.

Hair, out of prejudice slapped on a ball tampering charge on Pakistan. The ball was 18 overs (some papers say 55 overs) old and had begun to reverse swing, which is not very out of the ordinary. He had on very shaky grounds slapped the fine. The number of runs was not really an issue (5, in case u were wondering) but the slander of ball tampering is too great for a team to take sitting down. I dont know what the rule book says, but a 5 run penalty for ball tampering is too small. Its like a 250 rupee fine for 100 crore ghotala. If ball tampering is found, then it should be actioned upon immediately and severely.

Pakistan on the other hand is a different story altogether. In the spirit of the game they should have continued to play and put up a show for the paid public. They did manage to make a show of the whole affair. I am not against protesting, but drastic steps taken to prove an unnecessary point are not needed. They could have worn black armbands - worn their t-shirts inside out, I dont know something, but not this. From their action on television it seems they were not sure of their decision. When the umpires and the batsman came out, they didnt go....Why did they have to go out later ? Do they expect the umpires to tow their line on field? This is not done...

The following is a little sensitive and people are advised to read it with a pinch of salt.
I am forced to consider the idea - Would any other team, say India have done the same thing if faced with a similar situation? I would think not. I think Pakistan had to prove their point and the only way they thought they could do so if they made a lot of unnecessary noise about it. Could this be because they feel they were targetted and had to umm..."strike" back harder ? I know this blog reeks of racism, but I could not help putting it up...

My Musical Genome

Ok Rohan,
Admit it..This blog title has you interested..

I have found a source of endless music on the Internet - tripleW.pandora.com. This site was introduced to me by a colleague of mine - Neel. ( as in neal and nikki...).

Very interesting concept.

Often you like a piece of music and listen to it like two hundred times..but then what .. ? Dont you feel the need to listen to something like what you have just heard? Sure you could buy the album or ask your friends around who will help you out with their limited knowledge on more of such kind...

Now figure this, can you tell me one reason why the radio is so popular? My personal opinion is that because the radio plays music on an endless shuffle mode. The surprise of randomness is what makes the radio so popular - though the chances of listening to himesh chamiya ..sorry!..typo...re-shame-iya...in every second song is very very high......

The only problem with radio is that it caters to a very large audience and is forced to play popular music - imagine in a city like mumbai with 6 active radio stations only one of them plays angrezi geet, AIR (so dont go blowing up All India Radio base stations just yet, pls)..So you are forced to listen to sub standard stuff in the hope that something good trots along..

Pandora.com is a project intitiated by musicians. Here you specify a song / artist which u like a lot. Based on the analysis of the first song played by Pandora, the next song is automatically selected from a huge pool of songs...this goes on....each song that Pandora selects, you get to vote if the song is to your liking or not...based on your input, the next song is selected. Very interesting.

Do not treat this as a station which plays your requests online. It strives to play your kind of music and retains the random nature of the radio. Take my advice and give it a shot.

Cheers

Travelling First Class

I dont know what to write on the bomb blasts.

Should I mention the inhuman targetting of packed locals or should I laud the spirit of Mumbai for getting back on its Tracks the very next day. ( I know i took the first class compartment on 12th July 2006).

Should I talk about the intelligence failure or the bravado of the people living in chawls and slums near the station area who helped the injured risking their own lives?

Should I mention the fact that the two minute silence observed in mumbai at 6.34pm (along with the PM) was actually incorrect as I remember receiving the first information of the blast at 6.20 pm?

May be I should mention how comfortable travel was for a week in the 1st class compartment after the bomb blasts.

I am sure that the newspapers did a lot of selling and airtime on news channels would have been on a premium.

Targetting only first class compartments - what am i to make of it ? Is it a sign that the "upper" class is being targetted or should I take solace in the fact that it is probably easier to plant a bomb and escape more easily in a first class compartment ?

I really do not know what to write. May be a lot of time has passed since the blasts and this post. I guess this also goes to show something about the nature of distant past and the strength of public memory.

Issues are abundant...

Dilli ka haal behaal

I read this article on Rediff. Man, Delhi is the pits right now. Read on...and comment.

Delhi power crisis: Shops to shut before 1930
May 05, 2006
Faced with the growing power crisis in the national capital, the Delhi government on Friday issued a slew of guidelines directing commercial and residential consumers to cut down electricity consumption during peak hours. Government offices in the capital have been directed not to use their air conditioners after 1830 hrs while shops and business establishments will have to shut down before 1930 hrs, as per the new guidelines issued by the power ministry.
The city has been reeling under severe power crisis for the last few days because of shortfall in supply due to "over-drawing from the northern grid by neighbouring states", resulting in rotational loadshedding in several areas. Industrial units have been barred from functioning between 1830 hrs and 2300 hrs and shops across the city will have to remain closed for a day in a week apart from the normal market holidays. Advertisement hoardings will not be allowed to draw power for illumination, Electricity Minister Haroon Yusuf told reporters in New Delhi after a high-power meeting reviewed the power situation in the city. "We are appealing to the citizens of Delhi not to use air conditioners before 2100 hrs. All these efforts would lead to conservation of 250-300 MW of power. Presently the city is facing a shortage of 400 MW," he said.
He said Himachal Pradesh has agreed to provide 200 MW of power from next week in addition to the 190 MW supplied by the state. The Dadri plant will start functioning from May 15 and will generate 210 MW of power. The instructions to the shop owners and industrial units will remain in force till July 15, he said.

Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts

First I read A Suitable Boy and then I read Shantaram. Well one thing is for sure I do not have any fear of fat books any more. Shantaram was a cool 900+ pages which I read with relative ease and a lot of dedication.

These were my thoughts when I picked up the book as a birthday gift from my sister. Thanks Sis! I was thinking, hmm interesting topic ( Escaped convict, mumbai slums and a lot of crazy things in between), fat book - so there should be a lot of snob value attached in reading the book! You can say anything you like, but seeing a fat book in the hand does evoke a lot of questions...!

Anyway, enough about why I bought the book....This book is fascinating. There are a number of reasons why I loved it and I am going to list it point wise

1. I have always had a fascination for the Mumbai slums. This book gets me as close as possible to them without getting my hands dirty ( you know what i mean ).
2. Through out the book, Gregory talks about the various restaurants in Mumbai which actually exist.I mean in a regular novel one does not need to mention actual restaurants but here it has got me all the more interested. I am keen to check out Leopold's and Mocambo after reading about them. I have already seen Shamiana. These restaurants make the story just the more believable and helps the reader to identify with Shantaram and his world.
3. There is a good amount of philosophy involved in the book which does not go over the head. It has been presented to the reader in a digestable manner.
4. There are some incidents and places mentioned on Mumbai which sound utterly crazy and unbelievable, for instance the Standing Babas!

There are hundreds of more reasons hidden in the book to make it interesting. I suggest go explore!

Read it!!

Munich - Much munch more

Saw a late night show of Munich yesterday. There were two factors that had made a positive impact on me even before I stepped into the theatre
1. My friend, Rohan had passed a very important test successfully and he is now well on his way to become a PhD! Yeah!
2. Rohan's blog on Munich, had sort of derated the movie for me.

So as you guessed it, with my expectations lowered and my spirits high, I ended up quite liking the movie. The fact that it deals with the events after the killings did not matter too much. The presentation was nice and through out the movie there was a desirable effect due to the absence of a constant background score. Well made and well accepted.

Couple of observations.
The movie was made around an international event that must have been well publicised inciting a lot of emotions. This some how was missing in the movie. Do not get me wrong, I would put the movie down in the genre of Drama / Action / Thriller and that too a top one. Films like Schindler's List how ever have a category of their own, and I had expected it to be in that league. I believe given the sensitivity of the event, the theme had the potential of moving emotions in people and be critically acclaimed. So now I am not surprised of its treatment at the Oscars (though I have come to believe now that Oscars are no longer a yardstick to rate films effectively).

I was pleasantly surprised to see Eric Bana in the lead role. I liked his acting and association with the character. As a whole his performance was appealing. I saw him in Hulk and was much impressed. It could have been because I liked Hulk a lot, but the actor finds himself in my favour.

The only spoiler in the movie were the explicit scenes (which were not really explicit really). The desparation show in Evner's mind could have been displayed on a much better platform than the nocturnal bed.

Good movie, glad I watched it. Lets put at it this way, I cannot affored to scoff at a Spielberg movie with out experiencing it first hand.

Chao

Sermons over a cut

Ever since I moved from SPJIMR, I have not had a decent haircut. I like this slope on the back which is short and neat. The barbers in my area dont have a clue about it. Some have come close but even a 50 buck "Hazel" haircut did not meet my expectations.

So as evident from where I am coming from, I went back to the same barber near my college in Mumbai. Light of Asia. Manned and operated by a muslim family. Situated next to the mosque, you can say it is pretty much a muslim "dominated" area. For me dominated means that in the event of riots who emerges less brutalized. Anyway, I had gone to this salon with happy memories of college and in hope of a good trim.

The man (owner) seemed to recognise me vaguely until I introduced myself as a former student. It did not really matter but he was very pleasant anyway.

I told him the kind of cut I desired and he started on with his craft. Very artistic, polite and delicate in his movements. I do not know how it started, what was the seed that initiated the conversation which followed for the next 1 hour over a haircut..

I asked him if he knew the price of a flat next door. ( Some swanky place where flats are available for 70-80 lacs a piece)....He was genuinely astonished by the price and commented that if men were wiser they would group together and erect a building for themselves in the collective capital. Logical yes but feasible no....I guess this was how co-operatives came up in mumbai...anyways...

We spoke at length and then the topic veered towards religion. Here was a devout muslim who even used to read the Aazan in the adjoining mosque. His view was very simple. There is one and only one way to reach God. It is either Hindu, Christianity, Muslim or any other religion. But there is exactly one religion. There cannot be multiple paths. Only one path is the true one and the others are a quagmire. He was not saying his religion is the right one but there can only be one religion. I on the other hand believe that religion or no religion God can be reached. There was bashing of idol worshippers where as I supported idol worshipping. A lot was discussed.

One of the questions I raised was "Why has God sent us to earth?" Prompt came the reply, to worship Him. My response - so basically He has sent us here to praise Him and laud Him. If this is what was all that we were to do, then why didnt we stay where we came from and praise Him from there? Why would God choose to have people follow Him? Does He have a point to prove to the Devil? Anyway......This and many other things were spoken and debated.

I didnt oppose him vehemently on every point ( not advisble to argue with a man having both your neck and a razor blade in his hands). The reason why I thought a lot about this conversation was because I had assumed he had knowledge of his religion and I believe that all religions preach peace and advocate tolerance towards other religions. This I hope forms the basis of all religions....It didnt seem so at the Light of Asia......I am also not too sure what does Kaballah preach....

The poor man had a terrible head ache coz of the high involvement talk we had. He infact had to lie down after giving me the haircut....Well, at least I have something to write about.

The Unthinkable - 21 grams

No baba...not the movie...I have done something unthinkable
Rather the unthinkable has happened to me...( umm well, happened to me again...). I was watching 21 grams on Star Movies. The flick started at 11.00pm (as a part of Oscar mania) and despite my initial disinterest I watched it. This was mainly because I wanted to see what was in the movie. I kept on till 12.30pm and I knew about half an hour was left when I decided enough, I need to go to sleep....This maybe ok with some normal people, but not me. I chose to sleep over an unfinished movie ????
I have seen as many as 7 full length feature films in one day ( on vcd ) and Insha Allah I will better this record in days to come...( Ah...a blissful thought). But this attitude of mine has come as a surprise. Was it that the movie had become just too boring ?
Help...I do not want my interest in movies to wane!!!

Googled!

It seems Google can not seem to decide what it should do about indexing blogs. Some time back when I typed my name and googled, my blogspot profile used to show up in the first 5 results. In the recent past I did a search again , this time how ever there was no information on the blog. Today the Blog information is back on again. What is happening...? Similar thing happening with my bank's site. The cache information of google is not consistent. Some time back it was showing the updated pages, but today it is displaying a much older cache ?

Can some one throw some light or is this a googly after all ?

The Eye

The most captivating part of the movie for me was the start when the cast was shown. White screen, eerie music and hands groping about on the white screen. It totally hooked me on to the movie..

Sadly, I did not watch it alone at 2.00 am in the night with all lights off.

In my opinion I dont think The Eye was made with a view to scare people. It is chilling but not scary. Ya, there are ghosts and some gory scenes but it is not scary....(I think the scariest movies I have ever seen are The Shining and Dog Soldiers ). I had a friend, Avishek who watched the movie with me and going by his word, Naina is an exact copy of The Eye. The 22.2.7777.8.2.777.3.7777. !

Well made and I am glad I watched it. The music needs special mention. Not too present to interfere with the movie but yet strong enough to enhance the effect..

I was just thinking, three blogs in a day ( in an hour..), am I going overboard?

O s a m a : The Movie

This is a very depressing movie. Not a moment of happiness..Constant drudgery, leachery and pain.

While watching it, I sincerely wanted to believe that she will get a lot of strength, something good would happen to her, she will stand up and face the world like a brave girl, overpower her tormentors by grief and evoke sympathy and love.

Instead what was shown was reality. Am not too happy posting this one on my blog but I have made a commitment, so it is here......

V for Vendetta

I am totally hooked onto this one...There is only one person to thank...Thank you Tamal...( I think I have left enough links which connect me and Tamal and Rohan, so if there is ever a piracy raid....!!!) Anyway

This 380 page saga is captivating. After office I get down to reading this and go on till as much as 12.00 - 2.00 am, inspite of having office the next day. The art work is dark and graceful. The concept of a villainous hero though common it has a brilliant groundwork. It fascinates me.

I was trying to analyse my liking in comic books. I love Batman and I have a luke warm liking to Superman, Wolverine etc etc..I do not even remember the names...I think, I like heroes who become heroes. When the story involves a tragedy as the source of strength it seems to introduce a never ending tragic effort to achieve and set things right. The struggle to remedy the past along with the regular bad guy bashing probably add my oregano to the feast. This could be one reason why I might be liking V for Vendetta. Hmm....

I can only think of one exception to this, "Calvin & Hobbes"! Oh my God! Sometimes I do not believe how fortunate I am to have the entire collection in hard copy...! It is all safely kept in Calcutta...Nicely covered and all..ahhh...

Next blog coming very soon...

Superman - For Tomorrow

Lately, I have hooked on to the Online comics given by Tamal. These are high quality reproductions of the originals which he mooched off from the net somewhere. They are irrestible , like you just cannot stop at one.
How ever when it comes to comics, a lot of times I feel handicapped. The comic world is wrapped in a lot of history and background. To appreciate it fully small nuances have to be remembered....

When I was reading Supermans's - For Tomorrow series I read all the volumes in one sitting. My problem was that I rushed through the pages and a lot of the story slipped by me. So expectedly there were a lot of times when I was groping in the dark to understand what is going on...
I guess this is the reason why people say - Too much of a good thing is bad. This has to be the reason why DC comes out with them one at a time.
Never the less it was an evening well spent. Some of the art work was awesome. Thanks Tamal.

Zatoichi

Out of the films that Tamal has given me this is one film which I recall as a favourite. I think this film is more like a Japanese mainstream movie ( masala movie, in Bollywood terms ). Very smooth swordsmanship and it just excites me. I know some people will bash me up for making this comparison but this movie reminds me of Bruce Lee's perfection in martial arts.

I do not care who the director is or the actors are, I believe the film should stand by itself with out any big names backing it. Anyway, the theme of the movie reminds me another well made movie on similar lines - Blind Fury. If I am supposed to compare them, I would say Zatoichi is the better of the two. Maybe it is because a sword looks better in a Japanese flick. Do I hear some one say "The Last Samurai"? You were saying.....?

Moi

This is me from my camera in Mumbai at a restaurant called stomach...More animals to follow soon.