Shiv Visvanathan goes on and on and on...

My four years in college were nothing without the presence of my favourite profs, one of the most influential members of that list being Prof. Shiv Visvanthan. Seeing him on Headlines Today 2-3 days back, when Shiv had his Way on Sex and Single Men brought back memories of the amazingly stupendous discussions and lectures we went through in college along with the countless afternoons we spent with him in his room sipping coffee and glaring at his amazing collection of Chocolate and Cookie boxes.

I suppose we were the only Engineering College let alone a college in India discussing Playboy Posters and pornography in classroom. Add to that the amazing series of lecture we went through in the Cinema and Modernity course ripping apart Picasso and Duchamp and then going through lengthy discussions on Apocalypse Now, Citizen Kane, German movies of Leni Riefenstahl, the Indian Anti-Hero from Amitabh to Shahrukh and lots of it. No one would ever forget the lecture given by him on Urban Planning in one of the sessions on Environment Science.

Recently with his articles on Gandhi as a Management Guru neither has he once again echoed his thoughts on me but connected me back to my college that I miss so much. He is one person of whom I will tell my Grandchildren about, don't know whether they will be able to connect to a person of such a different epoch, but then Shiv is much much ahead of our times.

Check this by enginerd If you have missed it,

Sex and Single Men

Last few Days...Tough Ones

Coming Back from Home, SpiceJet, Good Air Hostess, No Food, Good biscuits, Landing, Bangalore Traffic, Coming to Office, Back to Work, JHATKA in the EVENING sitting with Prashant, Talk to Pabari, Talk to Dad, Go to IIMB, Get all disappointed and comeback, Back to Office, Back to Work, Go again to IIMB, Meet the Officer with Pabari, Get all disappointed and comeback, Call Daily to IIMB, Drink Beer with Sandy and Vaibhav and Nihar, Call at IIMB, All Disappointed, Go to Siva’s Party, Drink Beer and White Rum AGAIN!!!, Go to IIMB, Get all disappointed and comeback, Final talk at IIMB…Its Over, Lots of Work, Lots of it again, But It’s over, It is Over, Another Party Yesterday, Lots of Phone Calls during these two weeks, Lots of Explanation again and again making me feel done with, Its Over, I can’t help it can’t get over it, Lots of discussion on adhesive technology and how by making the back side of a photograph rough it sticks better, How the Probability figure of 10 in 2 lakh 25 thousand was reached, How the Bands effected this and made this happen, 2^nd Oct-5^th Oct was almost holiday they say, but its over, no use going over it again and again and again and again and maybe again, I am tired of listening to people, maybe I am tired of Bangalore, but then I can’t do anything, its over, everything gone, just another year to look forward to, maybe I am unlucky, what maybe I am unlucky, but can’t help it can’t take it, it’s over, leave it behind they say, but I took nothing so what to leave behind, this whole thing is so different, 1000’s of thoughts lingering on your mind, 3-4 parties in a week, alcohol tasting good as never before, its changing, its confusing as ever but its another year, is it worth that much I think or is it just the weak Y-Chromosome, let me try to leave everything, let me, allow me, its not about faith they say, its about lack of it, its about mistakes its about forgetting and looking forward, its over.

In short me not giving CAT anymore.

ULULACIÓN! Real Madrid ganada

Wow Real Won.

3rd Minute Raul scored.

Sometime in the early minutes of Second half NistelRooy scored.

And that was it. 2-0. Which could have been 4-2 or something. It was a fantabolous game as both sides got n number of chances but failed to get many more goals. Ronaldinho was as expected quite thanda but his Brazilian counterparts Emerson, Roberto Carlos and Robinho had a great game. Complete team effort which closes the gap now to two point. Even if they don't win the league this time Real fans would be OK with another victory when they go back to Catalan later in the season. That victory would really do a bit in toning down the humiliation faced by Real last time they were beaten 3-0 at home by Barca and Ronaldinho given a standing ovation.

Check out few of the classic encounters here.

Do you think Madrid will win the League this Season. Comments???

Real Madrid vs Barcelona

Just today I saw a vintage Arsenal performance after so so many days. It was the same one touch football that Wegner had promoted all these years which was back in action. Fabre, Persie, Hleb, Rosicky, Gallas and obviously HENRY producing some great entertainment. Though whenever I see Arsenal matches I fell nostalgic about college and stuff. It was great fun watching between all Arsenal fans there. Also there was Liverpool ManUtd match which Liverpool lost. My favourite player Gerrad just keeps on playing for that stupid club and I know he would never leave it.

Anyway after this in half an hour its Real vs Barca. Hope it goes well and without much trouble. But if there is bashing and trouble I will sure enjoy that.

Though Barcelona may have been the better team over a time in Spanish football the Power shifts between the two sides once in 3-4 years. I don’t know whether it will happen this year but Madrid sure have an upper hand to win today at the Santiago Bernebau arena named after there prolific President in 50’s and 60’s who set the first era of Galacticos including Alberto de Stefano from Argentina and Puskas from Hungary.

There rivalry has been nothing short of Army interventions, World War II, Spanish Civil War (incidentally Cataln Barca’s home ground was base for one army and Bernebau for another during Civil War). I saw a nice enough documentary on their rivalry courtesy History Channel. Wish I could see it again. Though nothing has brought it up to notice of World anything like Football.

I support Real today much more because I don’t quite like Barca. Especially Ronaldinhio and their stupid kit. But I like Rjjkard, quite simply because when I was watching my first ever football tournament. (I became crazy around 99 ManUtd season but Euro 2000 was it) he was coaching the then good Dutch side. So I quite liked the fellow and his team that time. They lost in semis though.

Anyway today it’s going to be fun. Home for Diwali and relaxing and seeing the matches. Why one should work. Work is Crap.

Lets hope Real wins tonight.

Don Mast Hai...!!!

Not the Nayi one but the Purani one...

Just saw it, was coming on some Hindi Movie channel. Was just wondering can Priyanka be as good as Zeenat. I hope she can be. Helen's role quite small but Kareena getting loads of attention as Kamini.

Pran was great as JJ, Arjun Rampal quite a thanda choice for the role. I mean the Voice just too much for him to do over. Though I fully agree with role of Anita. Isha Koppikar is as Thandi as the girl who came in the first Don.

Boman will be cool as DSP though, Iftikar though earned his bread-butter doing that role adding even Jam to it after toasting it. Malik is Om Puri. First it was Om Shiv Puri.

“ab to bhagwaan ne bhi apna naam khich liya”

Hehe...Arre is sab main whereas Shahrukh. No point in talking about Amitabh vs him. He can't do the "Khaike Pan" number even 1% like him. It's impossible. They can't find the bhangwaala’s as they were in the original. Priyanaka cant be as sexy as Zeenat. Songs don’t have that Orchestra stuff classic 70’s format me pointing too.

OMG Why have they made the movie?

Good that I can't see it this week.

Next week after back to Bangalore in my fav 35 Rs waala hall maybe.

Anyone reading this plz tell me the name of the actress who played Anita though, real pathetic actress she.

P.S.-Post edited after Naresh reminding me of something. Thnq Naresh.

Bollywood Celebrates With Don And Jaan-e-Mann

Like every year holiday season is back. Other than the country celebrating Diwali and Eid nowadays it’s about the big movies releasing on this weekend, and this year its Don and Jaan-e-Mann.

The Diwali/Eid release syndrome can be traced back to “Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994)” A movie that brought back the Family audiences back to theatres after more than a decade long of overdoses of Action or silly college style romances. From then the last few years have created a long list of movies releasing and getting successful on Diwali/Eid weekend.

It’s more than being auspicious for the release. Like some good lessons learnt by Bollywood in marketing movies, this is another thing that they have executed to some perfection. Last year saw average enough movies like Garam Masala and Shaadi no.1 doing well. Obviously with the sheer numbers involved it’s always a safe bet.

Anyway coming back to releases this time. It’s a Khan tussle at the box office but surely both have their territories and fan groups earmarked out. And with everyone running off to see the movies surely both can be declared hits before hand. On one hand NRI audience, City going Multiplex audience and Families tend to bend towards Sharukh movies, Salman rocks at small cities and obviously with the big city audiences too.

Don is one of the movies in a long list of wanna-be remakes of classics from 70’s. This is will be a acid test and some good lesson for other movies following suit. The trailers point towards quite slick and stylish version of the original Amitabh starrer. Though I must say the “Khaike Pan Banaras” number seems to be a let down. Though Shahrukh traditionally not made for such kind of roles and he looking somewhat similar to the bad guy in Duplicate (remember it was a Mahesh Bhatt directed disaster) but I personally am a big fan of Farhan Akhtar and obviously Sharukh. Add to that Kareena and Priyanka and the movie wont be a let down for sure. Kareena in “Yeh Mera Dil” is something to watch out for.

Jaan-e-Mann on the look of it looks to be a love triangle. For figuring that out you definitely don’t need to be a Pythagoras. Whatever is the hatke thing in movie the look of Preity and New York is sadly quite repetitive. But good enough music, presence of Anupam Kher as a dwarf (something which hasn’t happened after Kamal Hasan’s classic Appu-Raja) and Salman-Akshay makes the movie promising. Akshay Kumar the most successful non-Khan actor in Bollywood definitely adds value to the movie in an effort to continue on his string of successes.

But it’s festive season so most of times it doesn’t even matter what you see, but still this Diwali and Eid should be lots of fun for movie-buffs like me.

Vicious Circle of Social Reforms

I came across this strange Geometrical figure in secondary school through an Ogden Nash poem on Visit to Dentist. These are the lines from the poem “It’s going to hurt just a little bit.”

And this, O Fate, is I think the most vicious circle that thou ever sentest,
That Man has to go continually to the dentist to keep his teeth in good
condition when the chief reason he wants his teeth in good condition
is so that he won't have to go to the dentist.

-OGDEN NASH.

The then figure became a reality for me when I visited one. Now my social ecosystem teaches me more about this bizarre figure.

Mostly Geometrical objects vary as a function of Space. This figure evolves around both space and time certainly being n-dimensional in nature. And it maps itself to everything it could this time for instance mapping itself to social reforms.

Child Labour ban couldn’t have come at a more appropriate place. The ban in hospitality and domestic work means 12 million kids between the age group of 5-14 get affected. No one can argue that the decision is wrong but India is prone to make decisions hastily and without thinking.

Ok so the boy at nearby Chai Gulla or the girl working at your home will get released from the perils of child labour, but where do they go? Boy gets into drug peddling or goes join some small pick pocketing gang. Girl gets sold to join world’s oldest profession. And what happens to their families many of whom depend on the kids directly or indirectly for support. For some sections of the society still producing kids is a means of survival for the family. So another small circle lies there. What we get is Ring whose sphere of evil is not less than anything which was being practiced. This is a circle which pushes them from one profession into another defeating the cause of removing them from a profession in the first place.

What happened last year when the so called immoral Bar Girl dancers in Mumbai (75,000) of them lost jobs? Most of them got into World’s Oldest Profession. Does that mean that the city became more MORAL? Everything good to remove the bad has loads of ugly to go with it. So what’s needed sometimes is to go along with the bad also as to suppress the ugly.

So what do we do, let’s keep the kids working is what I am saying? Definitely not. As we all know rehabilitation package for a small bomb blast take years to get distributed so what are we expecting in case of 1.2 million kids involved. This is a circle of solving one problem and then not following up with the problem and taking it to the end. Something similar to distributing BT cotton and then keep the farmers dieing in Vidarbha due to production cost increase due to supplements involved and in turns losses- Of money and most of times LIFE.

We as a society can’t expect to change so quickly everything. We should realize that in India still we are producing kids at a rate which is much handsome than BRIC countries growth prospects. Human Resources (uff that word reminds me of a person who syncs with nonsense, someone heading it) is something which can be nurtured for something better in future. So rather than imposing a country wide ban chucking states from child labour one by one and then carrying the model on a larger level would have helped.

Anyway no Child Labour is near to impossible, just imagine someone saying you to go off your job one day and say that you are not allowed to work. It’s a job for them and if they don’t work who works? Social reforms leading to cutting down of working population…hmm. Then price of everything goes up and our circle takes a new path of inflation there. Already I and everyone sane enough are quite sick of growing prices.

Finally I think I am just moving in a circle, usually I say a statement X and then follow it with negation of X. So let’s wiggle our heads to cut the circle and find the path out of this maze.

As of now though we will keep orbiting…