Been a while...once again!

Its not that I don't have stuff to write, its just about getting to it I guess! A lot has happened in the past few months and I don't even know where to start. My parents were visiting me (Mom's still here) and the whole trip was bittersweet for a lot of reasons. Lot's has changed too....I got a new TV, bought a lot of stuff for my apartment, sometimes I look around and I can't believe all this stuff is mine! I used to get that feeling when I was kid....I used to look around my house and say to myself, "Everything in here belongs to dad, every little thing; will I ever get there some day?", its kind of surreal to be in this place in life, of course there's always something missing :)

I'm gonna try and write about some recent thoughts in the next few days, so if anyone's reading....STAY TUNED!

Good deed for the month!

A very dear friend of mine (Shweta Mudgal) is running the Marine Corps marathon in Washington DC on October 29th. She has been training now for almost 30 weeks and even took part in the NYC half marathon. Of course the main reason for part-taking in these events is her social cause of raising money for educating under-privileged children in India on behalf of an institution called ASHA (http://www.ashanet.org/nycnj/); a Non-Profit organization that works towards this cause.

She has pledged to raise $100 for every mile she runs ($2600 in all for the marathon) and I would really appreciate any donations towards this noble and worthy cause. Please donate via the link below. Remember, even $10 is enough (but $50 would be really nice!) to educate a child for one whole month, so please be generous and of course all donations are completely tax-deductible.

Here's the link where you can make your credit card donations:

http://www.ashanet.org/nycnj/lib/marathon/publicmypage.php?1647

Zidane....The Fallen Hero.

In a moment of weakness, this player who is considered as one of the greatest in the history of football, gave up what would have been considered the greatest comeback and the greatest retirement in world football. Zidane who had retired from professional soccer came back into the game to lead his country to a world cup victory, but this man who was considered invincible showed us how human he was when he traded a possible victory plus a memorable retirement for a classless red card exit for a headbutt to his opponent in the final of the world cup 2006. Despite what happened, I still consider Zidane to be a truly great player; this video is in his dedication.......France could have been the champions.


Zidane Video - video powered by Metacafe

Formula 1 Greatest Race Ever

This is an awesome clip of two amazing drivers battling it out. I am not sure who the drivers are and which race this is, but it definitely reminds me of the race where Mika Hakkinen beat Michael Schumacher by accomplishing the greatest and boldest overtake monouver in Formula 1.

Light your stove with the heat of my bosom!

I was as puzzled and humored as you probably are when I read this; of course no woman in her right senses would actually say this, unless the implants have something more than just silicone :), but somehow the people behind the scenes, who did the subtitles of the critically acclaimed film "Omkara", seemed to think differently.

I watched this film in Bergen, NJ about a week ago with some friends. As we stepped out of the theatre, the mood was very sullen due to the very graphic portrayal of tragedy in the protagonist Omkara's life, however after a few minutes when a discussion ensued about the movie and some of its scenes and dialogues, the first thing that came to my mind was the line "Light your stove with the heat of my bosom!" from the song 'Beedi'. Apart from some spectacular acting by Saif Ali Khan, the movie seemed to stand out for its absolutely ridiculous subtitles; makes one wonder how a film which is being screened internationally doesn't go under the microscope for the accuracy of its subtitles. Are the people actually translating this stuff just going by what they hear and not contributing an ounce of imagination to the task at hand? How can you be so blatantly literal to actually put words like these in place of the lyrics of a song?

Apart from these annoyances, I did find the film to be very well made with some great acting, although halfway through the film, I started feeling the length of the film and definitely felt it could have been shortened had some of the songs been “backgrounded” or simply dropped from the film and retained in just the soundtrack.

However, considering the film had been single handedly written, directed, produced I think this was a great effort. Of course, Vishal Bharadwaj also directed the music and he and his wife have even lent their voices to one song each. That is some talent!

Overall I would highly recommend the film and of course watch it without any bias in case you happen to be reading this piece before actually watching the film.

Supercars.....

Just wanted to share with this whoever reads my spot!


TopGear 2004 SuperCar - video powered by Metacafe

A crazy weekend....Whew!

Wow....this weekend has just been unbelievably crazy, I never could have thought I could cram so much into a single weekend. The pace was building up since last week, I had so many things lined up I wasn't even sure how I would be a part of everything.

Thursday, July 13th: was one of my best friend's birthdays. Not only were we taking him for happy hour, but we were also planning a surprise dinner party for him on Saturday. The plan was to use the happy hour as a decoy and convince him that a cheap happy hour is all we could afford. The setting for the happy hour was this quaint little bar called "The boxcar lounge" which was located on the lower east side, and was pretty much a one man show. This was probably the only bar I have or will ever see that was set in the backyard of a building, so they actually had signs which asked all patrons to keep their voice down! The drinks were great nevertheless and the oily fries were quite good :) The happy hour quickly transitioned into dinner and quite a late night; only consolation being the next day was Friday.

Friday, July 14th: My friend from India has flown into NY from NC, and as if that wasn’t exciting enough I receive a phone call from a friend in Dubai that he is flying in that same evening! I could see a long overdue colony re-union and we were all very excited. Phone calls were made, plans were coordinated and soon enough it was decided we would all be meeting up at "The Delancey", a cool and hip bar located at the foot of the Williamsburg bridge; we were all set to meet at about 11pm. From work I head to another friend's place for a few drinks and Samosas at the upper west side. We had a great time with some gin and pizza! After I was done there, I took the train to "The Delancey" were I found my friends who had already downed a few; I had some catching up to do. It was great to meet up with my buddies and be together after so long. More friends were headed in from NJ, DC and Baltimore! We all rendezvous at around 1.30am and the feeling was just amazing. Felt so much like the old times and it was unbelievable to all of us that we friends who once donned the bench at our colony gate were actually partying in the Big Apple! After many drinks and bar hopping we decide to call it a night at 5am.

Saturday, July 15th: my friends from out of town head into the city for some sightseeing; I stayed back as I had to help a friend move his stuff into his new apartment, he was driving in from Delaware. Although he drove in real late (about 6.30pm) I managed to help him out and get ready in time for the dinner party. All dressed up my other set of friends and I head to a restaurant called "L'Orange Bleu" on Broome street. This was a great restaurant with some off-the-hook waiters, belly dancers and of course very excitable young women!

This place was a cross between a restaurant and night club and was definitely unlike any other place we had been to. Soon enough my friend arrives unsuspectingly at the restaurant is surprised to find us all there, he was very surprised and happy to see us all there. We had a great evening with some good food, plenty of sangria and some great Moroccan and African tunes. As we finish with dinner my second set of friends meet us and we all head to a place called "Plan B". This was a small bar at the cross of Avenue B and 10th street. The drinks were strong and the night was still young; soon enough all of us were drunk and of course tired as hell from all the dancing. Once again we decide to call it a night at 5am!

Sunday, July 16th: I wake up late, still exhausted from the two days of relentless partying, and all I could say was....Yayy, I pulled it off! Managed to have a reunion with some old friends, attend another good friend's happy hour plus dinner and also managed to help another friend with his moving amidst all this excitement!

This was such a great weekend; I hope I have more, just not too soon :)

Gore or truth, a tough choice

The Times of India is one of the largest newspapers in circulation in India, and is also one of the most respected. I have been a reader since I was a kid and over the years have seen this newspaper go through many changes. The one thing I have always admired this newspaper for is its boldness; the way this newspaper has always been able to depict the truth without hesitation for the reaction and consequences. However, I was a little surprised today to read a note from the editor which said that TOI has chosen to block any gory images of the Mumbai blasts from the public as they were concerned that this may only further increase the grief and anguish that Bombayites have already been through. For some reason, this just doesn't seem right to me.

Although I have been in NY for 4 years now, I have been born and brought up in Bombay and I pride myself in being a Bombayite to the core. TOI has taken a noble stance in not portraying the gore associated with such atrocities, but in doing so it may leave out the crux of the message, which is, death and destruction occur when senseless violence strikes. Over the years our city has not only transitioned from Bombay to Mumbai, but has also turned into a city which heals too quickly and forgets too fast. Keeping that in perspective it is essential to embed this unfortunate incident in the mind of every Bombayite and it can be done only by showing the truth and not hiding it. As an editor it would be a tough call to make, but in my opinion it would also be wise to balance what is portrayed. Although sensitive, it would be unwise to completely obscure what has really happened. A balance needs to be struck in how much gore is portrayed, as the goal is to sensitize the people and not numb or anger them towards what has happened.

A sad day for Mumbai

07/11, the way we shall always remember this day, when senseless and heartless people decided to take away the lives of a 190 innocent people in Mumbai.

It seemed like just another day to me here in New York; I reached work and entered a meeting at 9.30 am. The meeting went on till about 2 pm and that's when I had a moment to check some calls I had missed since morning. Strangely, all the calls were from my girlfriend, I immediately called her back and that's when I learnt what was going on in Mumbai. As soon as I heard the news I had a sick feeling in my gut, as though someone had just punched the wind out of me, I didn't even know how to react. I rushed to my desk and was horrified by the images I saw online. I called my parents and was relieved to find out they were OK. I couldn't help but imagine what could have gone wrong had this been a day sooner. Until Monday my father used to take the train to Churchgate (he is an occasional train commuter, usually drives to work), on Tuesday he drove to his other office in Vikhroli.....that very evening the blasts happened. I had bad thoughts all day and some bad dreams that night, it was hard to fathom what had transpired, and it was even harder to be so far away from home.

God bless Bombay and its people.....I love my city for whatever she is and I know she will come through.

Raw Materials......

.....is the name of this "group" whose performance I went so see with a few friends on Friday. For starters, the two musicians, namely Vijay Iyer & Rudresh Mahanthappa are of south Indian heritage, but are very American, which actually helps them to bring a lot of versatility to their music. Honestly, before I entered the auditorium I was expecting the music to be more of fusion than jazz, which happens to be true for most jazz musicians of south Asian origin. It’s not a stereotype, just very natural I think to fuse what you already know with whatever you have learnt. This duo however, was anything but stereotypical. The show began very atypically, with no monologue of sorts from the musicians; instead they simply walked onto the stage, glanced at each other and immediately set off.....hallmark of serious and great musicians in my opinion. The show lasted for all of 90 minutes with a 10 minute recess in between.

The first half of the show was very introductory but quite interesting. Some of the pieces the duo played seemed very rudimentary for someone of their aptitude and experience, but overall it all seemed to mesh well. The highlight however was the second half; the duo played some powerful short tunes which had the audience gripped and this half really showed the versatility and the "co-ordination" the two musicians shared.

Overall the duo put on a great performance and even a newbie jazz aficionado would have felt he got his $20 worth. I would definitely recommend this duo's music and would encourage anyone who is reading this to try and catch one of their performances.

http://www.vijay-iyer.com
http://www.rawmaterialsduo.com
http://www.rudreshm.com

Vijay Iyer & Rudresh Mahanthappa

Strings concert in New York

So, I had been to the Strings concert in NY a couple of weeks back. The concert was in an auditorium, which didn’t really give one a “concert” feeling, and the band didn’t really play to a packed audience, but the show was pretty good nevertheless. As a spectator I felt the band lacked the ability to keep the audience captivated long enough. The additional interruptions caused by the charity organization which had invited the band didn't help as well. Impromptu announcements urging donations, coupled with a bidding game to see if they could raise money spoilt the atmosphere of a "concert" altogether. The high point of the evening however; was when the band played "Yeh hai meri kahani" from Zinda. Apart from the performance itself being great, this also happens to be a current favorite of mine, and I felt the band did an absolutely great job performing this track. I was lucky enough to capture the whole song on my digital camera, so the sound and video quality isn’t that great, but I wanted to share it regardless for those that might be interested.

One more for the diary....

Once in a while you need to be reminded that it could be you! Day after day we notice things around us, or hear about someone to whom something bad happened; and although we react adversely at times to what we may see or hear, somewhere deep inside we all are a little smug about the fact that it dind't happen to us! Yes, we all feel invincible until the inevitable.......my inevitable came last weekend.

Usually I am very careful about my car, where I park it, how I drive it, the whole 9 yards, but somehow last week I was a little aloof about the fact that my car had been parked on unchartered territory by a good friend who had borrowed it and decided to park it there as no other spot was available. Normally I would have been high strung about this, but the luxury of not having to move it until the following Monday caught me a little off-guard and temptation got the better of me (Alternate side parking CAN be very frustrating!). Anyways, on saturday I was all set to drive to Fire Island with some friends and as we walked to the car, I unlocked it only to hear 3 beeps, which meant something was wrong. I immediately peeped in and saw broken glass; as I ran to the other side I noticed the dashboard had been ripped open and the stereo had been stolen. An uneasy feeling sunk into my stomach and gut,as I was trying to come to terms with what had just happened!

Eventually after all the knitty gritties were sorted out, I did come to terms with what had happened, but learnt a valuable lesson.....because nothing has happened to you in a long time, don't get careless; it always pays to be careful and alert about what's going on around you!

Rang De Basanti...All or Nothing!

Saw the movie a couple of weeks back, had to find out if it lived up to its hype, and honestly, I wasn't too disappointed. Opinions however have been very polarized for this movie; people have either loved it or just hated it, haven't met too many people who have an opinion in the "in between". I for one, am the "in between" guy! I loved the concept of the film and what it tried to drive home, however I seriously feel the implementation could have been better.

The fim maker seems to have spent a lot of time in the first half, rather 3/4th of the film just delving too deep into the lives of the characters, which left him very less time for the important part of the film, which actually formed its crux. As a result, scenes like the lathi charge incident by the Rapid Action Force at India Gate didn't seem appropriate, especially when the protest was a silent one, that too in the capital. Additionally Madhavan never figured in the bunch of the main characters, I feel he needed to have more coverage. Somehow, all of a sudden the movie seemed to detach itself from being realistic, just because there wasn't enough time to drive home the point the fim maker was trying to make.

Hindi films can either be a bollywood flick, or a realistic, well-made film (Black, Mangal Pandey etc.), however when a film falls in the grey zone, it leaves much to be desired. Unfortunately, Rang De Basanti fell in that zone. Although the concept, along with some scenes in the film were very moving and provocative, I wish the implementation could have been thorough.

My favorite scene in the film is when Aamir Khan comes back home with the English Girl and just as they are starting to eat he breaks down; now that is great acting! That scene definitely shows why Aamir today is a cut above the rest!

Lastly, I think I get what the fim maker wants to show us. He is very successful in showing how an English girl, an outsider who really needn't take so much interest, could not only see where our people were going wrong, but also show that to us. He successfully portrays how we are so used to things like corruption and the everyday filth, that these things are just mundane and we don't notice them anymore. In fact, they are so mundane that its just tea-room chat and nothing else for most people. If we want to make a difference, it cannot be done by sheer criticism, or even abuse of democracy for that matter. We definitely need more goal-oriented young minds in our political system who aren't in it for the money.

I sincerely hope we have more thought provoking films like this, we defintely need them! And of course, for the people who didn't like the film, there will always be another one :) for the time being you can just take back the fim maker's thoughts and see what you can make of them!