Lament

शिकायत है, शिकायत है,
मुझको दिल से यही शिकायत है,
जो उसको मिल नहीं सकता,
क्यों उसकी चाहत है?

A movie a day: The way to live

I've vowed to watch one movie a (working) day till the day I leave Bangalore (That day is fixed BTW, I'm flying out on 4th June. So, now my days are numbered.. har har har). This week, I've watched four movies till now and I'm set to watch another this night. I don't think I can add more to the tally during weekend as we are planning to visit Ooty during the three day weekend. Anyway, I'm putting up my comments about the movies I watched this week. Check out - Water, Grave of the Fireflies, Pyaare Mohan and Memoirs of a Geisha. Warning: Spoilers ahead.

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Water: Water for me is a movie of what-ifs and could-have-beens. As her reputation goes, Mira Nair Deepa Mehta has taken up a strong script and made a thought-provoking film out of it.

Lisa and John: The Weakest Links?

The story, set in late 1930s, is clearly the best part of the film. The film starts with excerpts from Laws of Manu, according to which a widow must lead a life devoid of all worldly pleasures. The film makes a good case against the treatment of widows in the traditional hindu society of 1930s. The hypocritical dysfunctional society, where the dominant males used to interpret the scriptures according to their likes. In one scene, an old decadent Seth says,"Brahmin kisi ke bhi saath so sakta hai. Is mein bhala us aurat ka hi hai." (A Brahmin can sleep with anyone he likes. Its better for that woman too.) The film covers many such iniquities prevalent in the society that time. Of course, many still are, and that makes the film relevent in today's times too.

Now some shortcomings of the movie, had Mira Nair Mehta gave the casting a more serious thought, it could have been a masterpiece. Acting is probably weakest part of otherwise a very good film. Seema Biswas is one seasoned actress and its very difficult to find any fault in her work, but other than her, their are not many strong performances to carry the film. Lisa Ray has shed some weight after "Bollywood-Hollywood" and is looking absolutely ravishing, but she just can't act! John Abraham tries, but even after that he can't create the charm Saif Ali Khan created in Parineeta. John simply could not convince me as a nationalist in the turbulent 30s. Perhaps his image was a hinderence, but I'm not sure if he was the best choice for the role. The hindi dialogs too are banal at times. With such a strong script, equally sharp dialogs could have added much more. Not the mention the poor delivery by Lisa Ray!

The film has many heart-touching scenes. When the old Bua, pining for sweets but not getting any, lets out the final breath after Chuiya gets her a laddu. Or when the Pundit, stuck between the pity for Seema Biswas & the religious diktat, asks her if she feels close to moksha (salvation) and she says if moksha means vairagya (insularism), then not. Another one, when Biswas and John are mourning Ray's death and Biswas asks him why are they (widows) forced to live there (ashram), to which John replies,"Ek bistar bach jata hai, khane wala ek munh kam ho jata hai.. aur koi kaaran nahi hai." (It saves an extra bed, reduces the number of eaters .. there is no other reason.)

The irony with the movie is, it tells a story with which not many among the multiplex crowd would be able to relate. And this movie is not going to be released outside the multiplexes, if at all it arrives in India. I guess, its an insulting movie to our great Indian culture, hah!

Get a DVD. Watch the movie.

Rating: 3/5

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"The best film you would never want to watch again."

Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no haka): Some user has described this movie at IMDB as "the best war movie you would never want to watch again." I don't think anything more profound can be said about the movie. As the tradition of Hollywood war movies go, they are more concerned with the heroics and the win. What about the price which has to be paid, by both winning and the losing sides? This film captures the plight of two small children, Seita & Setsuko, stuck in the second World War Japan. Their father is already fighting for the navy & they lose their mother to an air-raid. To survive in the war torn Japan, with rationed food and scarcity & fear spread all over, is one challange the children fail to tackle. Despite every possible effort by the brother, he could not save the little sister. For Japanese people, their pride means a lot, but in those miserable times, the brother had to steal food for both of them. It's never enough for them anyway. He even risks his life by running to the city under bombing, to steal whatever food or valuables he can find in the deserted houses.

The story is as simple and as heartbreaking as any real life story can be. This film is based on the novel with the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka. Nosaka lost his younger sister during the war to malnutrition and blamed himself for her death. I had reservations about the movie since it's an anime movie. But that doesn't holds the movie back in any way. The emotions and the predicament of the characters, be it the siblings or their grumpy aunt or the hopeless farmers, come out very well.

Another good thing about the movie is that it doesn't take any side and doesn't point fingers to anyone. It doesn't say that those kids are suffering because of Americans. It doesn't waste time in establishing good & bad sides and heros & villians. I'd keep this along all time best war movies, along with "Life is Beautiful".

Rating: 3.5/5

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Pyaare-Mohan: Avoid.

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Too alien a story for me.

Memoirs of a Geisha: My understanding of the Japanese culture of early last century is very limited. Samurais are perhaps the only funda I know. Hence, Geisha.. was an eye-opener of sorts. The movie is based on a novel which covers the life on a small girl, who grows up to be a hugely popular Giesha, in the pre-war Japan.

The movie is well made and definitely worth watching. But I could not relate well with the Giesha concept. They are escorts, trained in music, dance and the art of conversation. They aren't prostitutes, still they'd auction their virginity. It gets a bit confusing.

The story is good. It starts with a father selling his two daughters, for medication of his ailing wife. The two sisters are seperated at the okiya and follow their destinies to become Gieshas. Chiyo, the younger one fails to join her sister in their plan to run away. Now she is doomed to live as a slave. That is until an celebrated Giesha, Mameha, takes her under her wings to train and make her the most celebrated Giesha. Chiyo turns into Sayuri, a bundle of mystery & charm, and enticing the rich & successful in Japanese society. But in the deepest part of her heart, she desires to be with no one but the Chairman. She has been in love with the chairman since she was 9 and accidently bumped in to him and he bought her an ice-cream.

This angle about a precocious girl in love with a man, thrice her age and the chairman loving her back, is a bit too much to digest for me. The chairman asked Mameha to take Chiyo under her and train her to be a Geisha, so that he can be with her .. uggh!

The presentation and the execution of the movie are brilliant, though. The acting is flawless and utmost care has been taken to get the era presented rightly. Just that I couldn't relate much with the story.

Rating: 3/5

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Chernobyl: 20 years of disaster

26th April 2006 marked 20 years of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident, which remains world's worst nuclear disaster.

On 26 April 1986, at 1:23:44, reactor no. 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded. One hundred times more radiation was released than by the atom bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The sequence of events according to Chernobyl.info:

The accident in reactor no. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station took place in the night of 25 to 26 April 1986, during a test. The operating crew planned to test whether the turbines could produce sufficient energy to keep the coolant pumps running in the event of a loss of power until the emergency diesel generator was activated.

In order to prevent the test run of the reactor being interrupted, the safety systems were deliberately switched off. For the test, the reactor had to be powered down to 25 per cent of its capacity. This procedure did not go according to plan: for unknown reasons, the reactor power level fell to less than 1 per cent. The power therefore had to be slowly increased. But 30 seconds after the start of the test, there was a sudden and unexpected power surge. The reactor's emergency shutdown (which should have halted the chain reaction) failed.

Within fractions of a second, the power level and temperature rose many times over. The reactor went out of control. There was a violent explosion. The 1000-tonne sealing cap on the reactor building was blown off. At temperatures of over 2000°C, the fuel rods melted. The graphite covering of the reactor then ignited. In the ensuing inferno, the radioactive fission products released during the core meltdown were sucked up into the atmosphere.

For more, go to National Geographic's documentary and an excellent photo-essay by Pixel Press. The accident is very well covered on the Green Peace website too.

Inevitability

अंजाम अवश्यम्भावी

ज्यों कोई ताज़ा कली किसी मज़ार पर,
अधखिली, कोरी, कुँवारी,

ज्यों फैले हुए ओस के आखरी मोती,
सिमटते हुए पुराने पत्तों पर,

ज्यों कोई नाउम्मीद सी आवारा सुगंध,
फैली हो बयार में,

युँही सब खत्म होना है,
और पीने की प्यास में,
झुलसाती इस धूप में,
तमतमाती गर्म हवा से टकरा कर.

Hindi unicode doesn't get rendered well in FireFox. If you're having problem with the text (garbled text, obscure symbols) read the poem in this image file.

Anchalia's Death Covered In The Media.

British journalist, Onnik is keeping a close eye on the issue along with his Armenian colleague, Hasmik. Please visit Onnik's blog for detailed coverage on this issue. I quote from his latest report, Indian Students Carry On Protesting:

On Saturday the students walked to Republic square to hold a peaceful demonstration there. The Police and Red Berets were again there and looked pretty much tired. They were really surprised by the persistence of the Indians and other international students in attendance.

Indians say they will stay here until evening and will be back tomorrow, the day after that and every day until the rector resigns although they were less confident than two days ago, slightly confused and disorganized. Now, on the question of what they will do then if it doesn’t work, their response is that they don’t know. “We’ll see,” is the most frequent reply.

However, many students prefered to stay in their rooms instead of coming out to protest. Perhaps they had lost hope.

I must admit I'm very proud by the way those students have protested. It was through Onnik's blog that I got to know that The Telegraph has covered this issue.

The Indian embassy in Armenia had called up the family on Church Road here last evening to give them the news, said Pankaj, Prashant’s elder brother. “They said it was suicide, but we don’t believe it. We suspect he was murdered.”

“No official intimation has as yet come from the university even 24 hours after the incident,” he added.

[...]

Pankaj and his family suspect that Prashant’s roommate in Armenia could have had a hand in his death.

“He (the roommate) had borrowed a few hundred dollars from my brother and did not return it. It’s quite likely that Prashant had an altercation with him over this. My brother was not the type to commit suicide,” Pankaj said.

[...]

Prashant’s father Parasmal said his family has written to the President, the Prime Minister and the Lok Sabha Speaker asking them to intervene.

Let's hope this would work. Perhaps if more of the mainstream media players would cover up this news in details, the increasing awareness would pressurize the government to take some steps.

(Plea For Help From Indian Students In Armenia, Indian Students Protest In Yerevan, Armenia)

Plea For Help From Indian Students In Armenia

Reproducing the statement from Nanyaar's blog, Does it concern you??:

To Whomsoever It May Concern

This is to hereby inform that a tragic incidence of an Indian national’s death has taken place on April 20, 2006 at 1:00 pm in Yerevan Armenia .Which to eyewitnesses appears to be due to medical negligence. There were 4 eyewitnesses of Indian nationality and six witnesses of Armenian nationality and three witnesses of Syrian nationality. According to all Indian and Syrian national witnesses, the demised was alive and communicating, requesting help for at least 45 minutes and breathing his last. All the witnesses affirm that the ambulatory service arrived too late to help him in any form whatsoever. Following this unfortunate incident all Indian students demanded clarification for the Rector (equivalent to Vice Chancellor) but were given no satisfactory explanation. Students who were agitated by this act decided to go to Armenian parliament. During the protest march, when all Indians were moving towards the parliament there was no Indian official present from the Indian embassy in Armenia. It is more than 48 hours now as this application is being written and there is no official statement from the Indian embassy in Armenia yet on the sad incidence. We nationals of India studying in Armenia demand from the Indian embassy to give an official statement on the incidence and the results of the investigations which have taken place , who is in charge of the investigations and what are the requests which the embassy has made to the government of the republic to Armenia to avoid occurrence of such incidences in future. We Indian students in Yerevan state medical university, Yerevan, Armenia request the authorities to protect our civil rights as Indian nationals and enlighten us .Being the largest Indian population living on the Armenian land we hope that our pleas would be considered. Oblige us by acting, we all are Son’s and Daughters of India.

Requesting help
All Indian students
Yerevan State Medical University
Yerevan, Armenia

To say the least, I'm very disappointed by the way the Indian Embassy has dealt with this issue. The least they could have done was to back these students. Young boys & girls, living in an alien culture, don't deserve this kind of cold treatment by the official representatives of their own community.

This is my sincere request to all, if you have some contacts in the Indian media, we need to pick this issue up with them. It doesn't look like a big issue from our comfortable lives here in India, but please spare a thought for those kids stuck in that horrible situation. We atleast need to support them if nothing else!

(Anchalia's Death Covered In The Media, Indian Students Protest In Yerevan, Armenia)

Prakash Jha, showing the way.

According to this report, film-maker Prakash Jha has offered to build a four-lane super express-way between Hajipur and Muzaffarpur.

Filmmaker Prakash Jha, known for his bold allegorical films, has offered to construct a four-lane highway in Bihar - a project no private company wants to execute due to the prevailing poor law and order condition.

[...]

When a tender was floated for the Rs.4 billion project in 2004, no private bidder applied for it. Government officials admitted that private construction companies were not willing to take up the project due to a perception that Bihar was India's most lawless state.

I have always loved the way Jha's films depict the rustic India. But with this, respect for him, as a person, has gone many notches up.

Jha campaigned for Nitish Kumar in the last elections. What good this pair can do for Bihar, will be known in some more time. I just hope they stay sincere & keep up the good work.

Indian Students Protest In Yerevan, Armenia

Sometime in 90's the trend to go to Eastern European countries for Medical degrees started. How useful this practice has been to the students, is yet to be seen, but the trend hasn't slowed down. Armenia is one such Eurasian country, bordered by Turkey to the west. At present, about 800 Indian students are studying in their Medical Colleges. On April 20, one Indian student, 21- year-old Prashant Anchalia, fell down from his hostel's sixth floor window (He was a student at Yerevan State Medical University, which is the recommended university according to the website of the Indian Embassy in Armenia). The reasons to that are yet to be known. What followed can only be described as criminal apathy, from the university's dean - Anna Sargsayn, even after being a Doctor, refused any first aid to the student and warned any other student against helping him. Although, it happened in a medical college, the ambulance arrived about 45 minutes late, that too without any basic life saving equipments. Anchalia succumbed to his wounds on the way to hospital. The students, mostly Indians, enraged after this shameful display of indifference, gathered in the dean's office demanding an explanation. The newly appointed Rector Gohar Kjalyan, responded in totally outrageously manner. Without any context, she referred to Indian girls as prostitutes, and showed the students the middle fingers of both her hands!

One Indian student from Armenia, Nanyaar, has blogged about this incident (Its bye, We protest for justice). I was skeptic that he might get a bit too much biased about the incident. But then I found some articles by one Armenian journo, Hasmik Hovhannisian & his her British colleague, Onnik Krikorian, adding credibility to the news. I quote from We Protest for Justice, Nanyaar first hand account of the events :

We could see that he (Anchalia) was finding it hard to breathe and had to put him in the recovery position, against the hostel warden’s shouting. His breathing became better, the pulse steady but he was fighting for his life. His legs were broken, a deep cut in the forehead from which a pool of blood was forming, and also occipital bone seemed to be cracked. He definitely had to have fallen in a sitting position.

The dean for foreign student arrived, a doctor herself, and did nothing but watch his helpless bodies fight against pain.

The ambulance arrived; 40 minutes later, by now a crowd had been formed. I was told later; that 3 minutes after the ambulance departed he had passed away.

[…]

He was a quiet guy. Never spoke much, confided to his room, small circle of friends and I remember the bargain he had got on an old yellow Armenian guitar on which he used to practice. Just today’s back he had asked me if I was going to sing this time at the Garoon (spring) festival, and that he was planning to. The media had portrayed him as a drug addict and a psychologically affected person which he definitely was not.

[…]

The death comes in as a surprise and the news of the ambulance reaching there after 40 long minutes and the negligence of the hostel warden and dean makes the Indian student body to meet the Rector, Gohar Kjalyan. Students refuse to meet her in the Red hall and demanded for an answer to be given right there, she walks away and then seconds later walks back, abuses the Indian girls to be prostitutes and shows both her middle fingers.

[…]

Finally at 10pm it was decided that they will be meeting in the University Red hall. Questions were raised which only resulted in diplomatic answer by the Vice chairman of the NA. The education ministry tried to come on stage and give a politician’s speech by quoting “don’t you want to know what really happened to your friend?” But all we needed tonight was for her the rector to resign and actions to be taken on the dean who as a doctor did nothing to see her student dying in front of her.

The Rector apologized at 12 midnight, and she still could not understand what we wanted, while she thought she could just walk away. All Madam Ambassador did was to sit next to the VC and give him tips on what to talk.

What is the Indian Embassy doing to help the students. Apparently nothing. I quote from Hasmik Hovhannisian's report:

The Embassy representative, Mr. Bali, advised the students to disperse and let them settle the matter the diplomatic way.

The Embassy told the parents of the dead boy that he had committed suicide, without even waiting for the investigation to be concluded.

The students do not believe it was suicide.

“He was a balanced person. He had many plans for the future. He could not have killed himself,” they said.

The four-person delegation came back from the meeting with Tigran Torosyan and said that Torosyan had asked them for two days to get acquainted with the matter and decide what to do.

After that, Torosyan met with the Indian ambassador, Rina Pandei.

Meanwhile, Anchalia's body was flown back to India on 21st April.

(Plea For Help From Indian Students In Armenia, Anchalia's Death Covered In The Media)
(Thanks Namit, for the tip. Cross-posted at DesiCritics.)

Important: I see loads of traffic coming to this particular post through some mail (various email-clients). Could some one please forward me the email at vasingh[@]gmail[.]com, please?

Imran Pakoda on JAM Mag

Quite some time ago, I wrote one farcical post on equally farcical dude, Imran "Gobhi Pakoda" Hashmi. Much water has flown under the bridge & Hashmi has kissed many more babes since then. Today I found out the link to the article on the JAM Mag site. Actually their editor, Rashmi, wanted to publish it in their Valentine's Day issue (for reasons unknown to me). Later, I got to know through a friend that it was published. It just skipped my mind. Today, I finally googled it out.

Though my article is quite openly mean & jealous towards Hashmi's tryst with luck & his lips' tryst with ... anyway, I should thank this dude, however grudgingly. That post brings maximum traffic to my blog via google. Numerous people from various places (India, Pakistan, Malaysia, USA, UAE, Venus, Pluto, Kryptonite, et cetera) google him out and many of them land up on my post, expecting news/accolades for their idol. I do feel a tinge of sadness for them, majorly because Hashmi is their idol (how pathetic can one get?).

Meanwhile, Hashmi dude would be least bothered. He is into the big league finally. The news channels were showing that he is getting about 80 lakhs per movie nowadays. This sudden raise is due to the rumours that the kissing scenes in Brokeback Mountain were performed by Hashmi, acting as a "lip double". He is supposed to lick the Hollywood soon! However, the Brokeback Mountain adventure has got his folks a tad worried. Just after he got back from Hollywood, they got him engaged, even before he could put on his lip-gloss. Of course, this doesn't hold him back from screen kissing, till it's just plain hetro stuff. His parents' worries are quite justified, when you see that his forthcoming movies are mainly multi-hero stories. And one of them is named "Good Boy, Bad Boy" (How gay can you get!). Looks like simple ladayi-shadayi pyaar-vyaar eshtory, with apna lemur faced Tusshar Kapoor. Hashmi has set the bar reaaaal low or what? They are also planning a hindi remake of Brokeback Mountain - "Chalo Pahad Ke Us Paar", with Hashmi and Ashmit "Wooden" Patel. Hindi version will have many more kissing scenes than the original, mainly because Hashmi can't do anything else and director doesn't want Patel to open his mouth. Just like the original story, two heroes would get stuck together and Patel would be talking in his stones-talk-with-more-emotions mode, and Hashmi would have to kiss him just to stop the verbal diarrhea. .. Aur Pyar Ho Gaya.

There, got what you were searching about Hashmi?

Absurd are the ways of our government.

Last time when I was waiting in the queue for security check at the Delhi Airport, out of curiosity, I checked out the list of VIPs/VVIPs who are exempted from security checks at all the domestic airports in India. All of the entries were posts and not individuals, like President, Vice-President, Prime Minister, former PMs, Speaker, CJI, Leaders of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, CMs, Ambassadors, et cetera, but for the last two entries. At number 22, the list had Nobel Laureate, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The last name on the list surprized me - Shri Robert Vadra. The entry added, almost apologetically, “while travelling with SPG (Special Protection Group) protectees.”

Why O' whay O' whaay O' why? No one's got a damn clue. I googled for the list of VIP who don’t have to go through a security check, but the Indian government hasn't put any such list on the net. But I did find an Indian Express report about this issue (link, dated November 13, 2005). I quote from the report:

Son-in-law of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Vadra’s name was added to the list on September 28 in a circular issued nationwide by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) under the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
...
As husband of Priyanka Gandhi, who is an SPG protectee like her mother and brother Rahul, Vadra does get SPG protection when he travels with either of them. But no other spouse or family member of any SPG protectee has been so named in the list.
...
Why is he the only spouse named in the list? BCAS Commissioner S R Mehra declined to comment despite a faxed questionnaire sent five days ago. On November 10, when The Sunday Express contacted his office, Deputy Commissioner R D Gupta said: “We have no official reply. BCAS just took out the order as advised by the Ministry. Please talk to MCA Under Secretary L Haokip for clarification,” he said. When contacted by this newspaper Haokip refused to comment.

Just taking out the orders, aren't we. Incidentally this issue has been discussed in the Supreme court too, according to this Hindu report (link, dated January 23, 2006).

The Bench, therefore, asked Mr. Vahanvati to find out "why Mr. Vadra has been granted this exemption. Tell us which other spouse is given this exemption."

In its SLP, the Centre said exemption from pre embarkation security checks was not only based on the Warrant of Precedence but also based on compelling factors such as level of government security coverage on the dignitary which would virtually preclude the possibility of any prohibited/dangerous items from being introduced on board an aircraft through dignitary, his or her baggage.

Whatever that means! Some serious bullshit being thrown around here. I've very little doubt that this exemption would create a serious security threat, but 1) why should this favour be extended to Vadra, and 2) Why only Vadra? Is he really what Congress-wallahs love to think - Damaad of the nation? Why not give such immunities to people who deserve it many times more, like Amrtya Sen? Didn't the Sarkaari airlines give golden pass to Amrtya sen?

Absurd are the ways of our government!

P.S: I so badly want the photograph of that notice. If anyone of you is going to fly soon & has a camera-phone, do me a favor and get me a photo. Ye ehsaan main marte dum tak nahi bhoolunga :-)

English, August

I'm reading Upamanyu Chatterjee's profoundly absurd book, English, August. Chatterjee's writing style is totally engrossing; his grip on the language impeccable & his descriptions brilliant. If you liked The Catcher in The Rye, you'd like this one too. Some would find some similarities with Catch-22 too. The blurb of the book says - "Agastya Sen is a young civil servant whose imagination is dominated by women, literature and soft drugs. As the novel opens, he has been posted to the small town of Madna. English August is a funny, wryly observed account of Agastya Sen's year in the sticks."

I could relate very well with the confused soul, Agastya. Though he does get a bit condescending at times towards almost everyone around him, which gets irritating & seems snooty, most of the time he just can't get less interested. He is really bored with his life and doesn't really know what he wants to do. He has made it to IAS, which is of course dream of millions, still he can't really fit into the life style, however hard his father and peers try. I'm yet to finish the book, perhaps I'd write a detailed review, perhaps I won't. Meanwhile, following is one extremely profound excerpt from the book; I really feel like this some time! Do get hold of the book, ASAP.

In his state of mind marriage was awfully remote - like a death in a road accident, it was something that happened to other people. It was inconceivable, sharing his room in Madna with someone unknown - perhaps a twenty-year-old girl with an MA in English, and getting stoned in front of her to read Marcus Aurelius. While Manik chatted with Pultukaku and elicited from him a few misanthropic monosyllables, the familiar feeling of the absurd, as much a part of him as his names, overwhelmed Agastya, and he wondered whether, when married, he would be able to exercise in front of his wife, and what he would do if, just when he was lunging for a push-up she were to say, For someone who exercises so much you're in awful shape. And suppose she stole his money? And the all-important subject of kinky sex - she might not like sharing each other's used underwear, then?

Eventually, he knew, he would marry, perhaps not out of passion, but out of convention, which was probably a safer thing. And then in either case, in a few months or years they would tire of disagreeing with each other, or what was more or less the same thing, would be inured to each other's odd and perhaps disgusting ways, the way she squeezed the tube of toothpaste and the way he drank from a glass and didn'’t rinse it, and they would slide into a placid and comfortable unhappiness, and maybe unseeingly watch TV every evening, each still a cocoon, but perhaps it would be unwise to be otherwise. And his once-secret life would be entombed in a mind half-dead to an incarcerating world, and he would remember, with a sense of bemused embarrassment, and in epiphanies flashes, brought on by uncontrollable jolts to his memory through a smell of some unexpected sight (perhaps the view from a train or an ad on TV), his this experience of Madna, that once the restlessness of his mind had seemed the most important thing in this universe, and that he had once been shaken by the profundity of an ancient Hindu poem.

Incidentally, this would be my second book by an bureaucrat, after We Weren't Lovers Like That by Navtej Sarna. Upamanyu Chatterjee, born in 1959 at Patna, Bihar, joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1983. In 1998, he was appointed Director (Languages) in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

Geeky love!

Geeks are quite infamous to be aloof towards the softer emotions in life. But there are some really buttkicking geeky ways to confess your love. Take a look at this amazing thing! Apparently, some dude (possibly some dudette) painted this on some roof in Queens, NY. Quite possibly, when it was covered by Google Maps (see link), he/she would have mailed the link to the lucky one. Alternatively, he/she would've rented a plane/baloon to surprize the love interest. Seriously, how can someone say no to this :-)

Hail the geeks because the geek shall inherit the Earth :-)

LICK-ed

Hold your dirty minds! The IIM results were out on 12th. I was in a train from Mumbai to Kota, Jha called me up to tell me that I made it into IIM Lucknow, Calcutta, Indore & Kozhikode (LICK ;-). Right now I'm at Jaipur. Will reach Bangalore on 16th night. Details later.

chalo then,
- Varun

The Times They Surely Are Changin'

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
- "The times they are a-changin'", Bob Dylan

Friends getting married. Friends fathering babies. Of course, this is all very good and all that, but along with all the excitement & joy, it makes me feel old. Rather older than my mental image of myself. You know, you would think its just a few years ago I got out of school and one fine day, while filling some form, you see that you completed class 10th nine years ago. Nine years?! Yeah, that sinking feeling. The sand of time slipping out of the fist, and all those clichés. ".. And accept it that soon/You'll be drenched to the bone."

Another one of the torchbearers of bachelorhood (no pun intended) has bitten the dust. Close friend & wingmate from hostel days, Amit Jain, is getting married in Kota on 13th. I shall be there to see the stone sink. Should be back to Bangalore (and blogging) on 16th. By then, IIMs results are expected to be out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

..Main Hoon Kaun?

I'm positively bored with "Lies, Damned Lies & Blogs". Its funny (punny) in someways, but not really related to me in anyway. When I chose it, I didn't want to keep blogging suspended just for a name, so I chose this one. Just like that.

I'm not really narcissist kinds, so there go all the "Mogambo's Den", "Dr. No's Lair" and likes. This blog is not deeply related with any topic, like Bollywood or cricket or politics; the name should reflect that too. Above all the name should represent me well.

I'm hunting for some thing more quirky, more appropriate. Any suggestions? Do drop in a line or two.

Update: Some very interesting suggestions -

• War-un Xing: I used to sign emails with this name for a while in college. Incidently, this is also the name of the central character of Vivek's best-seller coming out on Diwali. Which year, I don't know.
• Blogivision / Prime Time Blogivision: Pun on television
• Don Blogsco: Punny, very punny :-)
• The Boy Who Cried Wolf: The title I earned in college

I got few other suggestions too. Thanks a lot bhai log, for your suggestions. I'm feeling kinda ashamed, but I still haven't found the best fit. :-( May be I'll leave it as it is, what's in a name anyway.

The DNA Article.

Regulars here would remember that I talked about DNA publishing my photos, in my IIM Calcutta interview. Actually, their editor had contacted me asking for some photos and some inputs on the changing face of Jaipur. Apparently, he got to my blog via Google. So, I provided him with some photos & a write up. I was under the impression that they are interested mainly in the photos.

The article was published on Friday, March 3 (Page 14, DNA Mumbai), but I got hold of the article just now. As it came out, they have published just one of my images, but have given my write up an entire column. Excelente! Here's the article -

Here's the entire page -

PicSquare - Upload, Share, Print.

Now that digital photography is attracting many more yuppies than the old film photography, storing & sharing of digital images has turned into an important aspect of it. Not that there is any dearth of online webspaces to store the pictures - Sony's ImageStation, Yahoo's Flickr and many more. Most of them provide the facility to get the printed copies on your doorstep by mail. But, sadly, that's limited to just US & Europe. While the demand of such a service in India has raisen considerably in recent times, we are yet to see any such service take off.

PicSquare is one such service introduced very recently in India. The brainchild of two young entreprenuers, it is still taking baby steps, but promises a lot more. The two masterminds behind this venture - Manish & Kartik - are undergraduates from IIT Bombay. Manish graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2002 and went on to pursue his MS from Purdue University. After completion, he worked for a while and later on gave it up to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. Kartik completed his Bachelors in Chemical Engineering in the year 2004. He was working for about 1.5 years before joining Manish in this venture.

I have used PicSquare to get some of my photos printed. I guess it doesn't make much sense for me as a person living in India, ordering prints to be delivered locally, but if you think about Indians living abroad & wishing to share their memories with people back home, this service does make a lot of sense. E-Mail the pictures, you'd say, but then the internet penetration in India is still as low as a meagre 5%. Even for someone like me, living in a different city from my parents, it makes sense to get the printed photos delivered directly to my parents in Jaipur (They don't access the net, of course). Its also quite hassle-free for both the parties. One point I'd like to make it here is, the service as such is expansive if we compare to the local GK Vale printing (It costed me ~ Rs.90 for 11 4x6 prints, including delivery).

The print quality is very satisfactory. I guess they process the images a bit before printing them. Hence the richer colors & sharp images. No complaints here.

Their website is rather simplistic. I personally like to-the-point websites, without all flashy mumbo-jumbo & the cluster of buttons & links. The navigation is also quite intutive. They have implemented the functionality to upload multiple images in one go, which is utmost important for such a site. You can edit attributes for multiple images together, which is again an important desirable. They have borrowed the idea of tags from Flickr, which is another nice-to-have feature. They claim to provide unlimited image storing space, but my experience with them doesn't give me any chance to support or deny that. I can't say how gracefully their system will handle it once the bulk uploads start to happen.

You can select photos from the uploaded ones and put them in the shopping cart and order prints; quite standard process as far as online shopping websites go. Presently, they are charging Rs 4.50 ($0.10) per 4x6 photo, Rs 13.50 ($0.30) per 5x7 & Rs 67.50 ($1.50) per 8x10 photos (On a local printing shop, they charge about Rs 3.50-Rs 4.00 for one 4x6 print). One problem I found in their payment module is that it refused to work with my Visa card. Manish & Kartik later acknowledged the problem and hopefully they'll iron out such issues soon.

For the future, they have quite a lot planned. Personalized greeting cards, photo-printed T-shirts, customized coffee mugs, photo frames, calendars, etc. If we go by the testimonials on their site, they have already made many patrons. Hopefully, they'd make many more in coming times.

Keep up the good work, fellas!

Raat se samvaad.

रात से संवाद

ये जो ठहरा-ठहरा चाँद है, चाँदनी सोई-सोई,
रात की जो राख है, दूर तलक बिखरी हुई,
कुछ तो है ये कह रही, या शायद कुछ भी नहीं,
अलसाई सी एक फुसफुसाहट, गले ही में दबी-दबी,
मुझे है ये बुला रही, नाम मेरा पुकारती,
"अबे मेरे बाप, तुझे नींद क्यों ना आ रही!"

Its hindi unicode font, doesn't work well with FireFox. If you see just garbled characters, you can see the text in this image.

V For Vendetta

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
gunpowder, treason and plot,
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.

This Guy Fawkes rhyme plays a part of central importance in this superb film.

Wachowski brothers are back and back with a bang. "V For Vendetta" is their first film after the Matrix trilogy & the movie justifies the wait totally. The idea is borrowed from the 80's Alan Moore comic book. This would make it my all time best comic book adaptations, long with the Spiderman series.

Not really unlike the Matrix trilogy, the film is set in another time-line, in a dystopian future United Kingdom, ruled by a facist government. The government maintains control of the country through food shortages, government-controlled media, secret police, a planned economy, and concentration camps for racial, political, and sexual minorities. The protagonist of the movie, "V", is the result of one such concentration camp. V is a self-proclaimed freedom-fighter, a terrorist for some. Incomparably charismatic and ferociously skilled in the art of combat and deception, V urges his fellow citizens to rise up against tyranny and oppression. Just like Guy Fawkes' failed plan, he blows up the parliament building in the end, a symbol of the facist government.

The storyline is fairly complex and subtle. Thankfully, they haven't tried to dilute it for the audience. The dialogues are more delightful! V is portrayed as a man of fine tastes & immaculate language. Some memorables quotes -

Evey Hammond: Who--who are you?
V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what... and what I am is a man in a mask.
Evey Hammond: I can see that.
V: Of course you can. I'm not questioning your powers of observation, I'm merely remarking on the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.

---

V: Would you like to dance?
Evey Hammond: It's the eve of your revolution and you want to dance?
V: A revolution without dancing, is a revolution not worth having!

---

V: Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate.This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.