Rock On - the movie

Watched the movie "Rock On" this evening, after a visiting friend got tickets and called. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by Farhan Akhtars singing. He doesn't particularly have a great voice, but he can sing really well for sure. He can direct and act too. Well, with genes like that who'd doubt the talent.

Quite a good flick, even if some performance scenes look overcooked or deadpan. I wonder how these 'metros-only' films make money, considering that they are most certainly restricted in terms of viewership. Wonder what the economics are. Are they trying to create a platform for other businesses that satellite them?


Should watch "wanted" over the weekend ... the trailers were just awesome.

Come home after spending 7.4KM on my feet .... 4.8 jogging and 2.4 walking. Two missed calls and a message from a strange number ... the message says something like "long time, no see ... etc."
I try calling the number back and some girl picks up .... I've never heard the voice before, says something like 'Shilpa' gave her the number and that its supposed to belong to this 'Shilpa' person!

I tell her I've had this number for a long time and hang up.

A few minutes later, this girl calls again and says that Shilpa insists that this is her number! I ask her why she kept reaching me if Shilpa was so convinced. Im in the middle of doing some pushups so I keep it short.

A few minutes later I get another message from her and I quote ... "I am really sori. My mistake. N once again sori 4 the trouble 4m my end. Tk care. Nice talking to you Bye . You have a nice name".


What ???!!!!??

Saw this last weekend .... I have to say it is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. Heath Ledger as the 'Joker' just steals the show, from the first frame to the last, and I find it hard to believe that living and creating the character for as long as he did, coupled with the multiple romances in his life had nothing to do with his suicide.

The performance is so chilling, and so spectacular in a gut wrenching, stomach turning, fear-inspiring and despicable kind of way, and you end up admiring the actor who leaves you with the same feeling that you ascribe to the restrained frenzy of a torrential rain.

A word on the Nolan brothers who directed the movie... gosh, the same guys did that other thriller "Memento" .... these guys really are the darkest Tim Burton on steroids.

Another Coldplay Cover

Its been so long since I've posted a song ... so many things swimming in my head that its hard to even pick up a guitar these days.

However, for whats its worth, here's another one of my favourite Coldplay songs.

This one's off their X&Y album. Its called "A Message" and is quite a noisy song actually ... played with at least 2 guitars, piano, drums. I damped the strings throughout for effect. Let me know what you think


A Message (Coldplay Cover) at Muziboo.com

TWO MORE!!!!







Just awesome isn't it?
I'm so pleased for these guys..... they come from the smallest of towns with little else but dreams and guts and they make sure they throw those punches when it counts

Quotes of the day from igoogle ... really cool ones, all of 'em

I can't understand why a person will take a year to write a novel when he can easily buy one for a few dollars.
- Fred Allen

A nation is a society united by delusions about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbors.
- William Ralph Inge

Men who never get carried away should be.
- Malcolm Forbes

Forward thinking

Came across this while reading something on ValueResearchOnline ..... have a look at this gentleman's question ... I have so many reactions to this that I won't even start :) .... for the interested, it is a mix of sympathy and fear mixed with admiration and good wishes.


http://www.valueresearchonline.com/story/h2_storyView.asp?str=11754

Aquariums and everything after :)

I used to keep fish for a number of years .... eight to be precise. I began by creating aquariums in small plastic containers and then had a bigger 4' by 2' glass aquarium complete with 4 inches of river sand, Amazonian water plants, Valliseneria, etc. and finally a much larger concrete tank outdoors which was home to several small varieties, totalling 25 pairs in all. Yes, I was pretty serious about it all back them.

I kept commonly available fish ... everything from Gouramis, Black Moors, Goldfish, Black, Silver, & White Mollies, Siamese Fighters, Angelfish, Tiger Barbs and several others. Given how beautiful they are, its not difficult to see why its a hobby that can consume you.

Blue Gourami

Common Gold fish

Black Molly (one of the hardiest freshwater species)

I have to say it was a very rewarding hobby ... creating an ecosystem was one thing and maintaining it was quite another. Those were school days, and I did have enough time nevertheless which made it all possible. Also, the peace that ornamental aquatic life forms, both plants and fish exude is simply inexplicable. No wonder they are such a huge Feng Sheui draw.


I mentioned that I also had a concrete tank I had built which housed most of these wonders for several years. To my utter surprise and elation, I once found that my Guppies had even bred in captivity ... I can't quite compare it to anything ... but for those of you who invest in equities, this was the equivalent of buying a fund or a stock for a small amount, forgetting all about it and realizing a few years later that the investment had turned a tidy profit of 45% or so ... the market value may still be quite small, but it constituted a pleasant surprise nevertheless.


However, despite my best efforts, I was unable to prolong the lives of most of the fish that I kept ... some did better than others, but despite my acquired skills of giving them antibiotic washes and curing their fins of fungal diseases with salt water immersions, it just didn't work very well. As with most things in life, there is an expiry date to interest, and it finally waned, causing me to give up on the hobby as I began my Engineering studies.


I realized back then that the odds were always stacked against a home aquarium, and against captive life in general. Fish are extremely temperamental and will not survive unless they have acres of space and sufficient change, not to mention regular changes in food types. Hobbyists may create change with new foliage and by the introduction of friendly fish, not to mention landscaping (or waterscaping) the aquarium with more light, plenty of hiding places and eventually much much larger tanks, but boredom catches on in a contained environment. In that sense, fish are no different from humans... lock someone up, mentally or physically, and they will lose the will to be happy and to live. Indeed, the will to live and be happy is an organism in itself.


Nevertheless, pigments of those fishkeeping memories remained and I never missed the opportunity to stare that these beautiful wonders at aquarium stores where I could find them. I spend hours at the Koi pond at Changi when I am in transit and wonder at the beautiful healthy Koi, and also hope that the caretakers take them out to larger ponds from time to time.


The economics of the industry in India are not very encouraging. Given the amount of effort involved, aquariums never catch on, and aquarium stores therefore are few and do not thrive.

I was therefore intrigued when I noticed that someone had setup a small aquarium store selling freshwater fish close to my house. Oddly, I never went into this one .... it was small, did not sell plants or clean sand or filters and pumps, communicating an immaturity about the business itself.


It was quite clear that this guy would go out of business. One only wondered what he would sell there instead.


This evening, I took a walk and happened to go past the same store... and yes, there was a new store there ..... he was no longer selling live beautiful aquarium fish .... he was selling large dead ones to end up in someone kitchen and not the living room.


I guess the business had found its depth .... literally! The prospects of this business are definitely more promising, the fish may be dead, but the business will live :)

"If there's anything unsettling to the stomach, it's watching actors on television talk about their personal lives."
- Marlon Brando

Arunachala, the home of Sri Ramana Maharishi and Ramanashram

'Nan Yar'


'Nan Yar' (eng. "Who am I") is the title of the original Tamil masterpiece written by Ramana Maharishi. I came across an English translation that I downloaded several months ago, but beseiged by life as I usually am, and have been, I never found my way towards it.

Cometh the hour, and cometh the words.

Here's the translation
http://www.arunachala-ramana.org/downloads/who_am_I_english.zip

Something about Ramana and why he exudes more veracity than many others who represent spirituality and teach the same.

-Those that recount spritual experiences always had them seemingly by themselves, seated in the presence of the Maharishi.
- The saint preached individual intellectual inquiry as the means for realization, available to all and attainable individually.
- Famously, he seldom spoke or gave discourses. Most people simply 'experienced' divinity in his presence.
- He never demonstrated anything that was obviously miraculous, although there are several miracles attributed to him by common people who apprised him of their travails.

GOLD and everything after

India has its first individual gold medal at the Olympics. Wow!
Watched Abhinav Bindra's interview on NDTV .... never will there be a more phlegmatic gold medal winner! Quite astonishing really, to see someone so disinclined to dwell on the event. Apparently he hates interviews for their "stupid questions" and values his privacy above all. What a welcome change from celebrity culture.

Hats off to a fantastic achievement.

Sport is a great leveller though. Its four years since Athens, and the past hero and current flag bearer, Rajavardhan Singh Rathore, showed up after doing a bunch of commercials ... replete, this time around with a new look, a french beard and a swagger to boot, but finished 15th out of 19th contestants. Sad to see such an anti-climax. That's what sport does I guess.

Today seems an important day, nevertheless, with Saina Nehwal and the tennis boys and girls matching up against fairly decent opposition at Beijing. Saina is well on her way to winning the first game of her Qtr final it seems.

And lastly, Badrinath's outburst seems to have paid off. I have heard of this TN player for a while now, from people who have played alongside him for the state, and from all accounts he is a terrific batsman and a genuinely sincere and honest individual. He expressed his anguish at being sidelined in favour of someone with far fewer credentials (Virat Kohli) for the one-day squad to Sri Lanka. Tendulkar's injury means that Badrinath finds his way in.

The 'Expression' of a Bacardised Soul

These days there's one of those oh so important discussions on TV, and in the papers .... a bunch of Bangalore yuppies and their children are complaining, crying and shrieking that they cannot drink and dance in pubs .... I am not being facetious here ..... that's exactly their complaint! A few days ago, they wanted to be able to drink and dance all night. Poor guys.... how painful their situation must be....painful enough for them to get together, find the luminaries among them who share their view and thrust them on TV, make a few placards and hold them up after calling cable TV stations. Brings a tear to my eye and tugs the abyss of my soul like Mother Teresa's actions once did.

Here is my tuppence.

Bangalore has over 10M people, terribly poor infrastructure, rising crime rates and terrible zoning violations.

Most establishments that serve booze and a good time are located in residential areas, but what the hell, the residents better suck it up if the yuppies want to shake a leg after downing a few pints. So what if cars block driveways, right? The yuppie has to be parked close enough to the gate of the pub so he should be able to crawl into his 4WD SUV if he cant be up on his feet, right? Fair? Sure!

What of the numerous cases of drunken driving and resulting accidents ? Well, the passer by on the road had no business being there in the middle of the night, especially when the yuppies in their fast cars were burning rubber around that hairpin bend, right? Sure!

And last but not the least .... the big complaint on TV is that the yuppies claim that their "expressions" are being killed.

Ooooookkkkkkk just hold it there mister. I understand that drinking is a great accomplishment to most young people .... and I've never been able to fathom that but I respect it anyway... considering so many people tell me how proud they are of their ability to gulp something down, regardless of the roof on their heads or the position of good ole sun in the sky, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. They speak of being able to drink so lovingly, it brings tears to my eyes. It must be a brave and courageous act, not to mention socially adorning thing to do....you drink ..... you must be awesome! I get it! Also, driving like a maniac testing the limits of your car and your reflexes.... ok, your pathetic adrenaline gives you a high, and so yeah, you would benefit from that!!!I get that too.

But .... "expression" ... excuse me .... do these guys even know how to spell it? Whats expression? The stuff that you drank or ate over 4 hours regurgitated onto the floor 'cos your pathetic puny Indian frame couldn't hold it?

What's your expression? Some stupid Bollywood move that you learnt from another drunk driver Khan guy (Salman, was it?) who ran over a bunch of daily wage labourers in the middle of the night with his Hummer?

Oh no... this must mean something else that I don't understand .... let the camera pan onto the people crying out loud ... Prasad Bidappa .... the model maker who is accused of pretty much everything, and was more recently detained for possession of drugs in Dubai ... or his son who was too drunk to tell a police constable from a stray dog and kicked out anyway, only to spend the next few weeks in prison going over his bacardi stained memories. Or Girish Karnad, who is the most overrated literateur I have ever come across... who perpetually has the expression of having a laxmi pataki (one of those firecrackers) stuffed up his bum, which might go off if he lost his gravitas.

Give me a break!!!

My point here is... drink by all means... Im sure you could use it .... you probably can't do much with your time anyway ... hell, who can anyway?... but for heavens sake do it in your home. Better still dig a nice square hole, put on one of those shiny disco balls, call your friends over and do your awful Bollywood shit till you fall on your rear-end ... at least someone who walks by will smell you in your urine in the ditch and call an ambulance or a priest to send you upstairs. With all that alcohol in your blood, you wont even need too many logs of wood.... save the forest, I say.... global warming and all that.


So have your party ... in fact do it everyday, or even twice a day for all I care....But for heavens sake don't demand to drive all the way across town to a residential area of law abiding citizens and say that your "expression" will only come forth in the region of those exact co-ordinates.


Once more....Bangalore has over 10M people, terribly poor infrastructure, rising crime rates and terrible zoning violations ... forget about my opinion. Apply statistics .... take a bloomin' normal distribution and apply it to the revelling population... most of the population to be specific (95%) of it is going to be drunk and from there on, just read the papers or stay up past midnight and listen to the revs on the road. ... If people are going somplace to get drunk (dancing doesn't exactly sober you or make you more acute), they are going to lose control. Put 4 wheels under them and do the math. Cars zooming past in the middle of the night and landing up in gutters is not new. These are not law abiding, responsible sip a few drinks, smell the night air kind of angels.


All this laissez faire of society allowing people to feel drunk anywhere they want is great where you can enforce the law, catch the drunk senseless yuppie and throw him in jail until he wakes up. Which is what the Western world does pretty well. And therefore, people are at least conscious of the risks of consequences. One drunk driving violation, and it will come up in your next job interview, forcing you to flip burgers for a lot longer than you bargained for. But in a country like ours, creaking under all its other problems, not least of them law enforcement, dont you dare tell me that the biggest scorpion tail stuck in your throat is that you cant drink and dance beyond midnight in Bangalore.

For once, I salute the Police Commissioner who simply said that in the bigger picture, these problems are just not important enough, and that he's fine with shutting these jackasses down.


Tally ho!
or should I say Cheers!!!

Life truths


The stock always goes up after you have sold your options ... ' market efficiency' is super when it comes to rogering you.

Poor Inventor Guy!

Bizzare... Thomas Midgley, invented both tetra ethyl lead (TEL) as an anti-knocking agent for petrol AND CFCs for refrigerators. One causes deadly lead poisoning and the other depletes the Ozone layer.
He also invented an apparatus that allowed him to move his limbs while he was bed-ridden by polio towards the end of his life ... the apparatus malfunctioned and killed him by strangulation.

One of the more bizzare facts from 'A Short History of Nearly Everything'