doom barabar doom

but for the title track this movie is one big flop show..

mr. director,
do u think that making the big B sway his hips donning johny depp's costume .. draws the audience..? no way.. guess u are forgetting the fact that movies evolved from theatre/drama which is an art.. marketing the movie comes later, i.e after you have crafted a good product..
One good thing that you have done - using the track ' jhoom barabar jhoom' frequently.. that was the only thing most of us enjoyed, or did u realise after seeing the rushes that the song is the only noteworthy part.. ;)


and dear AB senior,
no doubt its ur son's movie, no doubt the crowds cheered when they saw u in the first shot .. but did u know that ppl started yawning later when u came again and again.. like subhash ghai does in his movies..
those of us who cudnt yawn went to answer nature calls though the nature wasnt calling.. but wait, somebody was happy with ur frequent interventions..
yeah, the tobacco guys cos .. the smoking audience among us burnt a few more sticks..

ahaa Bobby deol,
ur entrance - saving zinta from the superman effigy.. followed by your expression gazing at the audience for a couple of minutes.. with the camera going round and round around u ..while u kept gazing at us.. oh my god..

lara,
nice to see you after quite some time.. though u put on some weight.. u look great..

AB jr,
hmm.. u r ok but.. u look cooler in the moto ads.. and hey dude.. when u mentioned about the various waxworks at Madame Tussauds did you forget about the king khan.. ? Uve mentioned the name of every other indian celebrety at Tussauds.. come on brother.. grow up..

Zinta,
have read ur rediff interviews.. before the movie hit the screens.. that u are playin the role of a cool dudette.. who knows what she wants ..independent.. blah blah.. But does bold & independent mean showing off a tattoo and declaring that u made love .. well.. u look like uve forgotten ur roles in 'kya kehna' & 'Lakshya' ..
well u mite say... this ones a different movie.. different setting, commercial crap etc.. but wud u want to be remembered wid this movie.. i dont think u wud say yes..

Yash&Co,
good that you have promoted 'Chak de India' promo along with the movie.. looking forward to watch it..

Nishabd

'spellbound' would have been my choice for the title of the movie.. cos i was in awe for two hours .. live life on your own terms.. is the spirit of the leading protagonists in the movie.. which I believe is the attitude of the director as well.. An artist, says Amitab in the movie need not please the world with his work.. if a couple of like minded people can appreciate it, u can take light about the rest of the world.. Cant stop from thinking that RGV is telling the world that.. he would produce the movies he likes to make and gives a rats ass to people who don’t like his movies..;)


at the first level,the director of a movie can captivate the audience with content that is pleasing to the senses..eyes - with good camera work, ears - with good music. The camera man and the music director chosen by Mr varma have done a wonderful job.. kerala, tea estates, hills, lakes simply wonderful.. these coupled with a wonderful score in the background makes you accept that kerala indeed is gods own land..

at the second level, the director can show his creativity and intelligence in the making of a movie that clearly sends across the intended message.. Vijay (AB) checks out his face and hair in the mirror in the bathroom after he was appreciated by the young Gia and then when he casually opens the door ..u see Revathy(the wife) sleeping on the bed.. now theres a pause for a second which conveys the thoughts, fears, reality that are storming Mr Bachan's brain.. its amazing to realise that a pause on the screen can do the trick.

or when Gia tells him that she loves him and asks him if he loves her as well.. vijay answers in the affirmative ... all through this shot theres a photograph of Revathy on the wall in the background that sends a strong reminder signal that Vijay is responding to the love of Gia inspite of his marriage and family with Amrita..

Dear Mr. Varma.. hats off to you..

At the third level, the director can make the viewer empathize with the characters of the movie there by touching the audience emotionally.. not forgetting that it is the actors who have to strike chord with the emotions of the audience.. and god.. I cant stop applauding Revathy for that..

what feelings would Amrita, a lady in the late fifties would have when she discovers that her 60 yr old husband is in love with a 18 yr girl who is a friend of her daughter .. simply put the feelings would be a combo of sadness and disgust .. one can see the movie again for the look on her face that captures these feelings.. when she tells Vijay that he isnt even worth respecting any other human being.

Dear Mrs. Revathy hats off to you too..

After Gia moves out of the house of Bachan, I wondered that it should be tough for the director to take the movie forward from here with out boring the audience.. the smart director wraps up the movie in 15 minutes.. after letting the audience realize that Gia is still in the heart of Bachan and that he is not a hypocrite, who does not live life on his own terms as blamed by Gia.

Oh.. just remembered that at the first level, in pleasing the audience’s senses the leading lady in the movie can be used..:) and showing her in a sensuous way is RGV’s forte.. isn’t it..? Gia is another great find by RGV who is a hot gorgeous dusky beauty with a pair of amazing legs..

Dear Nafisa aka Gia, my lil brother salutes you ;)

the biker and bhagat

happy new year.. whats new and whats happy ?

time is continuous so wtf is a new year ? & wtf do we celebrate on dec 31st ?
Do we move to a new world in the new year ? or does the earth start moving around another star in the new year?
Its the same life again, the same 365 days, same months, same seasons,so why are we excited about the new year or the new millenium?

may be its all in the mind. If i look at all the mundane facts ive listed above I realise they are because my mind says they are.

Its so surprising that a 'new year' which is just a mental concept is accepted with such gay all over the world. Its so difficult to know whats in the thoughts of people around us, we talk about misunderstandings, but everyone happily accepts a non existent happy new year..

or may be its the beauty of change. We need different numbers for different years to locate discrete periods of time in the past. while the world is still the same, the same seasons, the same months, its 2007 and not 2006 & yeah 2007 is diff frm 2006 atleast in the number. hmm..so may be its the change that excites all of us atleast in representation if not real. cos our minds can make our representation real.

the last supper - 1000 words attempting to replace a pic

lets begin....

the table begins>>

one end of the old wooden table.. which could have been made from the woods from ottignies itself... covered by a brown plastic cover..or may it was yellow when it was new..and notwith the holes it now has... sitting on this table is a bowl of spinach boiled with cream bought from a turkish grocery in ottignies itself .. adjacent to the spinach dish was the 'ragout' made with turkey and lot of cheese, the ragout was made two days ago.. it came out of the refrigerator a few minutes ago though.. on one of the points of circumference of the ragout dish was an empty blanc wine of italy... also next to the hagu dish was the 'avial' - a typical keralite dish... and next to it was the 'rasam' made of some dal and tomatoes..next to the rasam was the typical belgian dish made with some shrilled ham and some legumes and vegetables and some cheese.. to two of the both points on the circumference of the dish exactly opposite to each other are two rouges which are actually red wines but at the table they call it rouge for red.. belgians are lucky to have wine at the table so frequently.. arent they... ? so next to the typical belgian dish ends the table
<< and the men begin

So when table ends with the belgian dish begins the biggest man inthe group called 'arnoud' sitting as the host though he was the guest..he is now watching the champions league match between AC Milan and the belgian team Andheileit ..the second leg of the match in Milan ..after Andheileit lost at home. Andheileit trying its best being 1 -3 down ..at 64 min, to the right of achnau was stefan to whom we got introduced only today.. tall fair guy with sharp looks sits cool and is known for growing *i*t* at home..next to this stefan was a guy who looks like a journalist .. with spectacles, some grey hair and a 'searching' look.. we knew him for quite some time and he is the guy who loves the spicy indian dishes (made by prashant) most among our belgian pals .. next to him was Mary talking something and having a cigaret in her right hand .. Facing mary was her boyfriend Francious..who is my home mate.. the happiest guy in the lot.. next to him is the 'spicy boy' prashant..i guess he is already out by now.. all i can see is that his eyes are lost into the TV .. i dont know what his eyes are coveying to his brain .. probably shots of *h*t* ..lol
next to him is the haymaker ..next to the haymaker is Gilles, the guy whom i like the most.. he is currently showin some funny pics to the group.. those are really funny.. as i am righting as i glanc over the monitor at the other end of the room i see them.. havin met after quite some time the group is reminiscing their time at this house a few months ago.. andheiliet still fighting 1-3 down and its the 79th minute.. oops whazzup ..the prashanth is up making fun of the pics Gilles is showing.. so save this once to save..

one liners

hey bro, what do you think about love ?
No love, just shove

dude, she is the right one for you.. i think you should go ahead and propose
No bro, just because the water in the well is sweet would u jump into it ?

babel.. Countries fight but people love each other..

the feeling that I have after watching the movie .. is something that I would want to retain.. because it makes me think a lot abt 'whats happening around the world today'

the feeling puts u at shame, in the sense that u are oblivious of the problems in the world .. it questions me piercingly "wtf did u do today? wtf will u do now ? go home, have dinner, sleep and get lost tomorrow into a world thats very different from the world uve seen in BABEL..

why do people love each other so much .. and yet countries hate and fight each other so much..
The governments bent upon catching the guys who shot the tourists even at the cost of saving the injured tourists.. it just doesnt stop there.. the episode of brad pitt dying to find an ambulance only makes u think about the thousands of people living in the village for centuries .. they never had an ambulance ..

the plight of the governess who takes the two kids of brad to her sons wedding.. is worth living to understand the meaning of losing what u built for 16 years.. lost in the border along with the kids to evade the mexico sandiago border she tries her best to take them back home.. she ends up in the police jeep on the suspicion of immigrating illegally..

we do come across people on the road from various organisations that aim to provide aid to immigrants or orphans or the old aged.. we only try to evade them.. may be its time to atleast understand what they are donig and if possible help them.. i am afraid this feeling that I have will be lost before tomorrow morning ..

we have done a lot to put ourselves into trouble .. we invented technology , weapons only to move so fast that we realise we dont know the next person or the next family around.. may be its time to slow down...

i just realised that me living happily doesnt imply that the world is living happily .. happiness is something that can be shared with any number of people with out reducing it at all..

why is it shameful to be naked ?

Why does a normal person feel uncomfortable when he or she is naked before a lot of ppl ?

why do human beings consider exposing genitals bad and why do they always cover them ?


Well ... man was first on four limbs like all other animals in the forest, he was a social animal then too. They hunted other animals and some time other animals hunted them down. With time, as part of evolution, man's brain grew larger and he became intelligent. Other changes in the body allowed him to stand on two feet and he used the two hands for a variety of activities.

Now when he was hunting animals, he realised that if he was attacked from the front, with a great probability the claws of the animal would land on his genitals causing him a great pain compared to the wounds on his legs, thighs or chest. Furthermore when he was attempting to run fast, the continous swaying of the genitals caused him a problem. Consequently man started covering his genitals and it has become a part of life and then it became a social norm. One might wonder that the head of the human being is another part of the body that when attacked causes fatal injury to man. True, but he needed eyes to see the prey, nose to smell, ears to hear, and mouth to call others. All these four sensory organs are in the head and are important while hunting so he couldnt cover the head while hunting.. so he left the head open and covered his genitals which are not required while hunting other animals.


Alternative theory: As man became a part of the society he leant that to be socially accepted he has to hide his emotions very frequently. though face is the index of the mind.. man grew intelligent enough to hide his emotions, giving a pleasant smile to others around him though he was very sad or angry or jealous.. but one emotion that the face could not cover was lust, as it got exposed between his legs (read between shoulders for women). so there evolved the process of hiding his genitals.

young Vs old

2 mushrooms down... matheur and I started discussing abt capitalist society, communist society, socialist and altermondealism.. mathuer born and brought up in belgium believes capitalism is not the right economy.. he says its full of flaws.. its more abt money than people..

2 reasons given by matheur that I liked the most .. he first defined economy as a process of production, distributing and selling things with the objective of improving the society.. but capitalism he says doesnt improve the society .. it makes rich richer and poor poorer.. and secondly he gave simple example ... u and i put money inthe bank becos it is safe and we earn some interest .. but the money deposited in the bank could be loaned to ppl who invest in defence companies that do make weapons like land mines which kill other ppl.. what fking sort of an economy is this .. questioned matheur.. well he was right...

i on the other hand being born and brought up in India and on account of my learning at a business school cant stop appreciating capitalism.. india was a socialist democracy for around 40 years since its independence .. and I knew how terrible our productivity was and how inferior our products were... when capitalism started spreading its wings rapidly since 1992.. ive seen and lived in the wonders of the outputs of capitalism... be it the dirt cheap airfares in india now or the amazing penetration of mobile telephones.. i felt and i still feel it does wonders for our society... secondly capitalism encourages or stimulates innovation to increase productivity and develop new technology..

and then it dawned ... most of the countries in western europe have lived in capitalism for more than a century .. they have seen it all .. its goods its bads ... they are like grand fathers who have seen a lot of life and it doesnt excite them a lot..

i and india are kids wrt capitalism .. we have seen it work for say at max 15 years in our society.. its like being a teenager who was just given a lot of freedom by his parents.. he only sees the good things in the world around .. so i believe that i am still looking at the wonders that capitalism can create .. and matheur who is over a 100 yr old in terms of living in capitalism is seeing the other side of it ...

well ... when u have very different perspectives .. mushrooms work well to make u understand why u have diff perspectives..

Chocolate Vs Vanilla

"but I still love the chocolate flavor.. its my all time favorite" said the girl. "but once you have said you love the chocolate .. shouldnt u stick to it at all times ?" questioned the boy..

" Oh come on its fine.. I eat the chocolate daily but once in a while when I feel like trying something different .. going for Vanilla or Strawberry is not a big deal" said the girl..

" I dont accept this reasoning .. gimme a better one" requested the boy...

" hmm... its only when I try other flavors that I realise how much I love chocolate is" quipped the girl and continued " I grew up eating the chocolate flavor, when I was happy it made me happier, when I was sad it cheered me up .. I do love it ... but still .. isnt variety the spice of life so one night if I eat Vanilla the worlds not gonna change.. does it? "

the boy began to think.. and is still thinking when the world around him has changed into a desert after Vanillas intrusion into her dessert..

Paris N Amsterdam

They say that in Paris 'love is in the air'
They also agree that in Amsterdam 'Sex is in the air'

For those living in Europe, Paris and Amsterdam are pretty far from each other. For them they are pretty different, each with its unique beauty -- right from weather to architecture.

For those living in India these cities look pretty close to each other. The cultures and the life styles of the two cities seem so interrelated to each other.

So how interrelated are these two cities ?

Dirtying my hands in GDP, Inflation, Interest rates, Unemployment

Macro Economics course has just begun ... found it very interesting

this is a raw attempt to explain the relationships between the terms mentioned in the title.

Why am i writing this stuff?
- to make my understanding clearer.. mom used to say writing down once is equivalent to reading it 10 times..
- the article is in simple terms.. so may be u would enjoy reading it and tomorrow morning u might appreciate the Economic Times more..

THE TITLES
inflation - rise in prices of goods
Interest rates - cost of borrowing money from banks or the rates that we earn by depositing money in banks
Unemployment - a state of not having any work ... my state right now
GDP - gross domestic product - the total value of goods and services produced with in the geographical boundaries of a country

BACKDROP

• During periods of high inflation there would be low unemployment and during periods of low inflation there would be higher levels of umemployment. ( basic premise of keynesian economics or philip's curve.. dont bother ). However this inverse relation failed to explain stagflation during the 1970's. However we shall deal with stagflation in another article.
• When we talk abt GDP we always talk in terms in growth rate of GDP. So growth rate of GDP is the rate at which the total value of goods and services produced in a country is growing. Same is the case with inflation, we talk in terms of inflation rates

THE MOVIE BEGINS

Prices are rising fast that means inflation is on a rise , unemployment levels are very low.
Lot of people are employed but the high prices are not letting them buy stuff in the market. So the Central bank rises interest rates. So wtf would happen ?

Rising interest rates .. hmm banks give me good interest so I might want to put my money in the bank. ( thats the family man in me responding)
Rising interst rates .. hmm fk... its so costly to borrow money from bank, I cant expand my factory to produce more goods. ( thats me ..the owner of a soap factory)

the family guys not caring to buy stuff in the market .. so demand going down so prices are falling .. inflation rate is falling ...

• So interest rates followed inflation .. there by bringing inflation down

the factory owners not getting cheap money .. so no expansion .. so no new employment .. no increase in goods produced.

• SoGDP growth rate fell down, unemployment increased

So high inflation forces interest rates to rise .. reducing GDP, increasing unemployment and thereby moderating inflation. We may say that low prices for a lot of people is at the cost of some unemployment in the country..So RBI is very cautious dealing with interest rates as they have to balance inflation and unemployment.. both important for the ppl of the country.

• Simlarly during periods of high unemployment .. banks reduce interest rates, enabling companies to borrow more , which expand creating more employment , more gdp. On the other hand ppl find no point saving money in banks start spending money on goods causing a rise in inflation.

_________________________INTERVAL__________________________________

Some more points of view of the same relationships

• when the bank observes that GDP is very much above the normal rate .. it feels that this is a precursor to inflation so it cools of the economy by slightly rising interest rates .. reducing GDP growth as well as curbing inflation .. but some of our friends would be unemployed now..
• Similarly when the bank observes that GDP is very much below normal rate.. it stimulates the economy by lowering interest rates , enabling easy borrowing , leading to higher GDP, lesser unemployment. PPL would now splurge money on goods causing rise in inflation... and the cycle goes on.. :)

Now do u understand why

Chidamabaram parrots " we need to grow at a rate > 8% consistently to eradicate unemployment"

YV reddy says " inflation is still not very high.. so we wont rise interest rates in the near term"

think over..

136 years ago

As I wonder what to type in my first blog, i realise that 136 years ago on this day of the year , in a village quite far from here, a baby boy came into this world.

the boy grew up into a shy guy, who hated sport cos he was thin. His friends would have called him "muggu" - one who does nothing but study text books. They would have thought that this leany, fraily guy is chicken at heart as well, but boy, he was a lion at heart. He had the guts to keep his cool when all around him copied in a 'spell the word - test' in high School. Our guy didnt know how to spell the word 'Kettle'. He made a fool of himself before the entire class but he refused to copy the right spelling even when his teacher ordered him to. May be he saw no point copying stuff..

to know more abt the boy and what happened to him and what happened to our country during his lifetime go thru his autobiography ' my experiments with truth'