"Please do the needful"

Its an Indian term, its an all-encompassing Indian term; its used when you know specifically what you need done (or need to do) and still say, "do the needful"; its also used when you don't really know what needs to be done, but leave it to the better judgement of the other person, and say, "do the needful". I find myself very tempted to use the term at the end of business emails and somehow manage to rephrase.

To satiate my nostalgia and home-sickness, this is a post about my hometown, Bangalore**. Bangalore is now the Showpiece of the Indian Economy. When the Premier of China visited India few months back, he didn't go to the capital Delhi first, or even the finance hub Bombay, he was most intrigued by the goings-on in Bangalore, the IT Capital of India. B'lore is where most of the IT work going to India gets outsourced; where multinationals are setting up shop at a phenomenal rate; where most of the outsourced calls get answered from; the land of the IT giants, Infosys and Wipro; the city that Tom Friedman of the nytimes spent a few months in last year and got the inspiration for his book, "The World is Flat"; the Indian city with the highest hotel rates; the fastest growing city in Asia (and if there's a city growing faster anywhere else in the world, I dont know about it)...but that's not the B'lore I know..

In spite of being born in Madras (now, Chennai), since I grew up in B'lore, I consider myself a Bangalorean. B'lore then was the Garden City of India. A relaxed, laidback town, boasting of very good infrastructure and planning (ironic, eh?), great weather all year through, clean air, and a great bunch of people. It was the land of "solpa adjust madi" (loosely translated, "please adjust") - it would take a lot to hassle a B'lorean. A typical Bangalorean was a simple straight-forward soul, without the slyness associated with the neighboring Tamilian or the Malayali, a happy-go-lucky character enjoying his city. Sadly(?), Bangalore today has more people from other parts of the country and the world than actual Bangaloreans.

Hard to say why the IT boom exploded in B'lore - we don't claim to have the best Engineering institutes in the country, there is no shortage of talented people alright, but its not like we had all the talented people in India concentrated there...then what was the reason? I think it was because of some right political/diplomatic moves by the local/central governments and Messrs. Narayana Murthy & Asim Premi starting up Infosys & Wipro in Bangalore.

Bangalore finds itself at a very crucial juncture now - the way things go for the next 2-3 years could decide where the city is going to head in the long run. Bangalore wasn't planned for this many people, period! The city is choking under the IT boom. It was a case of too much, too fast. It doesn't yet have an International airport and hopes to have one in 2-3 years, public transport is inadequate, roads were not meant to handle the traffic volumes it has to contend with now. I was very impressed with the collaboration between the local govt and the IT biggies, Infosys and Wipro, to come together, and work together, to improve the city. Rarely have I seen the industry be such an active participant in the development of a city. But the local and the central govt have to get their act together in the next 2-3 years. If they miss the chance now, it will just turn into this one big mess!

Infrastructure apart, Bangalore shouldn't forget the softer aspects of a community. It shouldn't go about cutting down trees and forests at a maniacal rate to expand horizontally. Its time for skyscrapers in B'lore - the city needs to grow vertically now..and maintain the greenery that B'lore was once famous for - we don't need another concrete jungle, if we can avoid it. Its amazing to see the greenery in Gotham, for instance. Back then, B'lore was cutting edge with music in India - the indie scene, the big concerts - that hasn't changed, and that's great. I saw a decent interest in theater in India, not to the extent seen in Bombay, but there is potential. Bangalore has never been much of a movie-city - the standard of their local movies suck to be honest and Bangaloreans would rather listen to good rock in a bar, drink some beer, or sip coffee in one of their coffee lounges, than watch a movie in a theater, most afternoons. For a movie buff like me, I would be quite keen to see how this changes in the next 2-3 yrs. I think there is *great* potential for an indie movie market in Bangalore (smart, socially-conscious, very large middle class), both Indian and world films. I would be keen to see if someone really taps into that in the near future.

I want to go back "home" eventually and "home" for me will always be B'lore. But sadly, the Bangalore I have in my mind is but an image, its a thing of the past. B'lore has the best chance for imbibing the best of the west with their inherent goodness; to provide state-of-the-art western lifestyles with the "solpa adjust madi" culture - that would be something great to back to. I will keenly be following from afar how B'lore "progresses" over the next 2-3-4-5 years. Till then, all I have to say is, "please do the needful"

** - A line I liked recently, the Quote of the Day - "when you are unsure where you are going, go back to your roots."

Indian George Clooney

Under severe pressure to post an entry, I couldn't do any better :)
This is what a certain lady said I looked like, "under the light" (and "influence", if I may add..:)), an Indian George Clooney.

Of late, have become a fan of the guy (no, not because I am supposed to look like him) - I like how he mixes his commercial flicks (Ocean's XI, XII, etc.) with his more creative, challenging, meaningful ventures (Traffic, Good Night and Good Luck, most recently Syriana, etc.)

Good Night and Good Luck was very nicely done - I didn't know much about McCarthy-ism before the movie and was insightful. His latest, Syriana - in one word, demanding! Full of plots, sub-plots, multiple stories in multiple threads (like Traffic, Crash), linked together by what they call, the earth's greatest natural resource, OIL. I was very keen to watch the movie as soon as it released because of its relevance in today's world - the middle-east and oil is at the center of the 'developed world's' foreign policy. There were 4 major threads - Clooney as a CIA agent who gets screwed over by his bosses, Matt Damon as an analyst working with a Saudi prince, Jeffrey Wright as a merger advisor, and 2 naive, simple, decent pakistani kids. Of them all, the merger story was the one that really drove the point home for me - only can only imagine the kind of corruption ("Corruption is our protection. Corruption keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why we win" screams a character in the movie) and under-the-table nonsense that goes in some of these major mergers and acquisitions. Mergers are not always a good thing - competition keeps people honest, with mergers and monopoly can sometimes come a slackness in standards and ethics.

A similar movie that I saw about the dirty collusion of corporation and government was Constant Gardener (it had Rachel Weisz in it - to me, one of the most beautiful women - the looks, accent..) - this one was about the other big corporation that people find easy to hate, the pharmaceuticals. It deals with the issue of pharmaceuticals using Africa to test out their meds on. The "justification" is that these people don't have any meds anyway, how does it matter if pharmaceuticals dump their past-expiry-date meds to write off tax benefits or *test* a new cure for TB on these people. Am not in a position to comment on the legitimacy of these claims, but the movie offers a great view of Africa - cinematography was excellent - great shots of the continent. On another level, it also made me realize (and revisit) the futility of trying to completely understand someone, a significant other, or a closed one. Ironically, all this *testing* that these Western pharamceuticals supposedly do and we still have to put through boring medicine ads on tv that finish in a flurry with, "Side-effects may include drowsiness, dizziness, nausea, loss of appetite, loss of sleep, constipation...and anything that we have not yet tested for on African kids"

You get as you deserve..

..or do you really? What is my motivation to do any good? Isn't it just easier to slack, not do any good, or even just be bad (can I be corny and quote the great 21st century philosopher, Brian Adams, and say "if you wanna be bad, you gotta be good" :))? Why do any good? Are better things going to happen to me then? But, is that always the case? Haven't we all seen those people who get dealt a terrible hand "undeservedly", the guy whose family was blown in a bomb blast somewhere in the world for no fault of theirs? Why??

The much-abused Indian philosophical concept of Karma says that things we do now dictate our further lives and our behavior in previous lives dictate our lives right now (this is my understanding and interpretation of the concept, if you beg to disagree, would like to know your take on it). So, do good now so your next life will be a good one, but you are helpless about things that happen to you now because that's been pre-ordained already. As far as a convincing, complete theory goes, this is right up there, but I don't want to believe it - I think its defeatist! To just sit back and say, things this life are pre-determined for me already has brutal helplessness written all over it. But the Bhagvad Gita also says, "do good, without expecting results" - I think that approach requires greater amount of nobility than I may be capable of :)

My philosophy as I go through my mundane existence is, "life is a great leveller" - helps keep me stable. When things don't go well, its comforting to think a better day might be around soon, and lifewise, when you are having a top day, keeps you on the ground to think that it won't always be this way, and might as well enjoy it while it lasts. Its all relative right, even a crippled beggar has a "better day" when he earns more money, gets better food, etc - sounds harsh I know, but you see the drift..

But then, is any attempt to assign any justification or symmetry to the ways of life just plain futile?! I don't know - whatever - my dabble at some philosphy here..

New laptop :)

Got it day-before - luvin it! Check it out - Toshiba Satellite - click on Product Tour and see the Features. Went crazy customizing it! Haven't tilted it yet into a tablet (because Toshiba haven't shipped my pens yet), that should be even better!

But anyway, now I don't have an excuse for my sporadic blogging - hope to be more regular.

A few minor quirks

We've all got those. Here is my disclaimer, my Lewis Black tirade:
1. Don't call me and ask me directions to the last place we went together because now you want to go with *someone else* and you cant seem to find the place again and you are lost! When I put my annoyance aside and try to help you, you could get on my nerves further by giving me totally unhelpful co-ordinates - "I am outside THE Starbucks" (the only co-ordinate worse than that would be "I am at the intersection of Cross and Don't Cross"). Don't do that - please

2. To strike an "Indian connection" don't talk about elephants or cows on roads - please...don't do that..(all those "crossover" Indian movie makers who make movies about India (like Bride & Prejudice) showing elephants and cows - just pray you are not my first celebrity sighting in NY)

3. When you find out I am from Bangalore and I work in IT in NYC, in a disgusting display of global know-how and wit, dont say, "then what are you doing here?" I don't claim to know where I am going and what I am doing here, but I sure as hell don't need you to bring it up!

4. If you are hanging out with me on a Sat night and you arrive without an ID, I will enter that bar and leave you behind! What were you thinking?!

5. I like ironing, I believe its quality alone time. But when I tell you that in an attempt to show off how everything about me is not normal, dont give me that "wise-crack", "haha, maybe I should give you my shirts/blouses too". Let me just say I like to smell my shirts before/after I iron them. Do you still want me to lay hands on your clothes (with or without you? :))?

Lights, Camera...umm..wait a min..

The War Within is a movie that should not have been made!

I saw 2 movies last week based on suicide bombers - The War Within is about a terrorist from Pakistan blowing up Grand Central and Paradise Now (my visit to the NY Film Festival this year) is about a terrorist from Palestine blowing himself up in Tel Aviv, Israel. While The War Within presented the hard facts without any sugar coating (or subtlety), I was impressed with how Paradise Now (mainstream Warner Bros released this movie in the US btw!) managed to incorporate a fair dose of humor into such a dark topic and delved more into the terrorist's psyche. Was lucky to sit through for a Q&A session with the director and lead cast of Paradise Now and to hear about the director's extensive research, including reading the Bible (which he claimed cited the 1st suicide attempt in religious texts, that of Samson...I wouldn't know..).

I don't think we are ready for movies like this. With fear being instilled very strongly in most of this country (and NY specifically), with taglines like, "When you see something, say something" doing the rounds, when an abandoned dark bottle or suitcase causes subway evacuations, when a "suspicisous" man with a long trenchcoat makes people call the cops without legitimate reasons for fear, we do not need movies like this presenting us with hard facts on how and why people turn to terrorism and how they could go about blowing places up. But then, freedom of speech says an artist must be able to express whatever he wants to. This, to me, is the 1st signs of suicide bombers and terrorism featuring in movies, post 9/11. Just like the Cold War provoked decades of spy thrillers and such in movies and writing, we may be coming up for a few years of terrorism-themed books and movies (exciting pursuits in Tora-Bora, Arab royalty, you can imagine the kind of stories this theme presents to artists), but are we ready for it? It makes me cringe and feel uncomfortable, I am not!

While on the topic, these terror alerts (thank God they did away with those color codes - that was an insult to human intelligence!) every now & then and warnings of potential subway attacks on a Sunday (!!!) - are these just politicians screaming "wolf!" to use fear as a tool as and when they need, is it anything more than a disclaimer to cover their behinds, can we do anything about it, should they be informing (scaring) the public about these things or handling it efficiently on their own?!

Writing..

Re-discovered the joys of reading over the last month or so. Just put down the latest book by Shashi Tharoor called Bookless in Baghdad - it's a collection of essays about writing and (Indian) writers. Am a big Shashi Tharoor fan, having read 2 of his earlier works. I read India - From Midnight to the Millenium first, was mighty impressed, and then The Great Indian Novel was even better. The Great Indian Novel superimposes characters from the Mahabharatha on the Indian freedom struggle and beyond (Gandhi is Bhishma, Karna is Jinnah..you get the point..) - it's a great way to retell a myth, fusing it with history. His writing really speaks to people like me - he was born in London, brought up completely in urban India and now lives in NY and works for the UN. All his books and writing so far is about India and emphasises how one can be Indian, at heart, living outside of India. He has this line in Bookless.. which goes, "one has to get out of the frame to see the whole picture" (which is debatable, but very comforting and redeeming nevertheless for someone like me).

In his review of different writers in Bookless.., I completely agree with his take on R.K. Narayan (too simplified, made me wonder if I was missing something that everyone was loving about his books, much like what I feel about New Yorker now - come on, isn't most of the stuff there plain pretentious cra*?), V.S. Naipaul (I like a conclusion in a novel, that's just me - once I finished his book, it left me thinking that maybe he didn't really incorporate that thing called "conclusion" in the structure of his book; I'd like to read Father & Son though), & Salman Rusdhie (sheer admiration - excited about reading, Shalimar the Clown, his latest, next).

Indian writers in English have a flair and a fascination for the language, its like a kid being all excited about a newly acquired skill. It was the best Colonial influence that the Britishers left us back with. We have a fascination for long sentences, packing a lot in a single sentence, going on and on, comma after comma, making the reader crave that full-stop (like this :) - someone I spoke to about this believed it was because we fear that we may lose the thought if we didn't get it down asap in one BIG sentence - not sure if I subscribe to that theory, but anyway..). We fill our writing with convoluted, arcane words and imagination - most Indian writers would prefer to take the prettier, scenic, curvy, convoluted path to get an idea across rather than a crisp short-cut.

In that respect my writing (this thing that I do here :)) is all Indian (my pathetic attempt to put myself in the same bracket as Salman Rushdie :)) - brevity is not really my strength (if you've made it this far into this posting, you definitely have realized that by now), humor is subtle (at best!). I like having a main train of thought with a parallel, related line within ( ) (I think I sometimes put more within ( ) than out of it (and the programmer in me wants to have mulitple levels of nesting of ( ))).

I should bring my indulgence to a close now - last, but definitely not the least (trite, trite!!), thanks for spending your time here - I mean there is so much else you could be doing, even if you decide to read/browse, there is so much out there for you to choose from, the fact that you chose to come here and read through a posting like this means a lot to me.

1st year Report Card

Over a yr in NY now - submitted below, my take on "The City (..so nice, its spelt twice; New York, New York" - in case, you missed the 1st time I threw that quote out - Al Pacino in Devil's Advocate):

What amazes me: subways have beeen around for 101 yrs? They haven't changed much since, have they? :) If you get a chance, check out the obsolete switching mechanism at the W4 station, F line, platform end - whoaaa..

What still amazes me: forgive me for being trite - the diversity - more than being a melting pot, its a place where you can maintain your own identity, without trying too hard to fit in.

What amuses me: the number of grumbling single people living in a City culture which encourages being single (people stay single in NY only because they *want* to). NY claims to have 1.8 million single women to 1.4 million single men. As I like to extrapolate, if I was the last single guy in the City.. :) ..I'd have 400,001 women to choose from!

What I'd wish was different: cleaner? NY is the 2nd dirtiest city in the US..behind Chicago..

What I admire most: parks in NY - for an island so small, supporting that many people, with such a high density, to make the effort to make sure there are enough parks and greenery around talks volumes about planning. I'd love it if powers-to-be in Bangalore keeps like this in mind as it goes about merrily expanding at a maniacal pace right now.

What I've enjoyed most culturally: Indie movies* - have gone berserk in the last year. Top pick would definitely have to be Born Into Brothels, with Old Boy, Black Friday, & I Heart Huckabees right up there.

What I want to do more of: Off-broadway theater and indie music concerts - nothing like the live thing. Any day, prefer theater to movies - should get plugged into this a lot more - looking for like-minded people.

Favorite NY spot: Union Square - to stand there in the middle and look around, gives me the goose bumps - its my "can you believe you are actually in NY" spot.

Top did-you-know about NY: the breadth of Manhattan is just 2 miles - 2 miles!! That's it! And the length is 13 mi - still not much..

Favorite quote: NY is like a yarn of wool - one wonders how something that is wound up in so many different ways stays put as one ball. Think I read this in some Park Slope newsletter. I can also think of so many things that are so wrong about Gotham City, infrastructurally and otherwise, but it keeps sprinting along somehow..

Favorite Personal Quote: (which I often emplot to annoy people in other parts of the country) Every city is a wannabe (and gonnabe) New York; the latter gonnabe bit - when any city "advances" this much, I believe it will look something like this.

What next: move from wonderful Park Slope, Brooklyn to New York, New York

* - to digress, what qualifies for "indie movies" - anything that includes people doing lots of drugs, tons of sex, brooding a lot qualifies for decent indie movie; unless of course, its foreign. If its foreign, its got to be great, no questions :)

Google destroys everything it can't index

That was an Onion article a while back - not true, don't worry. But it bothers me that google now searches through blogs. Not me, but many maintain blogs to establish an unknown identity online - they'll just have to out-think the google PhD's now to stay anonymous.

I don't trust gmail - it scares me that my emails are being "read through" to drop ads on the side, meeting my "preferences". I read somewhere (as always, forgot *where* I read it, no it wasn't onion :)) that google is the new Microsoft - the company everyone loves to hate in silicon valley - google didn't endear themselves to me by making my blog accessible to anyone who searches for "bernoulli ashes" (don't ask me why anyone would do that :))

"Oh, so what did you think?"

Have succumbed twice to this fad of reading the most popular book doing the rounds - the last time it was Da Vinci Code, now it is Freakonomics - everyone either just read it, has an opinion on it, is meaning to read it, saw someone reading it - no exaggeration, last wkend, traveling with it in hand, I had 4 strangers make conversation with me about the book (and considering 3 of them were women and 2 of them good looking at that, gimme more of these books! :)).

It's a quick page-turner, easy-to-read, interesting book. The authors accumulate huge amount of statistics, plough through the data aloud with the reader, and arrive at an often-unexpected conclusion that leaves me raising an eyebrow sometimes. My favorite pieces were the one on the clinical dismantling of the Ku Klux Klan and the "audit report" (and such functioning financials) of the Black Gangster Disciple Nation accumulated by a very brave, certain, Sudhir Venkatesh. The analysis to prove teachers cheat too was nicely done. The pieces on abortion (being a never-before-cited reason for crime rates falling in the late 90's..yes! - most quotable piece from the book though..) and parenting left me a tad unconvinced.

Its also one of those great cocktail party books - picture this - wine in hand, art in the background, impeccably dressed in black, exhausted talking about weather, war, Katrina, and the President, now what?..Freakonomics; eliciting the response, "oh, so what did you think?"

Random indeed...

Over the last few hours some quotes/lines that stayed stuck in my head..

The highest tree catches the strongest winds - Peter Roebuck, Ashes 5th test preview
Emotion is the absolute enemy of rational thinking - Stephen Levitt, Freakonomics
Cancel my subscription to the Resurrection - Jim Morrison, The End
They share a drink called loneliness, but its better than drinking alone - Billy Joel, Piano Man

OverHeardInNY

Homeboy #1: Yeah, ever since he got that raise, he been livin' all grand and shit.
Homeboy #2: Oh yeah?
Homeboy #1: Yeah, yo! Nigga got 3-ply toilet paper an' shit!

--Q46 bus

Girl: Why are you so upset? You told me to try new things.
Guy: I didn't mean ecstasy!

--Times Square

OverHeardInNY - Check this out!

There is only so much..

..oil on this planet! Will people come to terms with it and move on? We can find ways to send man to the moon and beyond, we can't find alternate sources of energy? Or even if we have alternate sources of energy, why don't we deploy them? What is Detroit and the rest of the automobile industry waiting for? How many more wars is this oil greed going to ignite? Will the stock market think maturely about rising oil prices, accept it, and move on?

When I went to the Automobile Fair in NY few months back, I was very keen to see the alternative fuel options out in the market by the major car makers - they weren't bad - there are options out there. What we need is incentives. People will start moving to alternate sources soon (as oil prices inch higher), but an incentive like - "drive a fuel efficient car and you get to use the car-pool lane" or "you pay lesser tolls, lesser for parking" - might get the middle-class thinking and give the process a much-needed boost.

A top commodities analyst at a major investment bank made the prediction a few months back that oil prices would reach 105$ a barrel. At a time when the prices were hovering just under 50$ a barrel, it seemed a bold/nonsensical prediction. The price has only gone up since then and registered an all-time high of 68$ this week.

Cricket - Ashes

One of the most hyped up series in recent memory (BBC ran a countdown on its sports page 'xxx days to go for the Ashes', counting down from 100!), lives up after all. 3 tests down, 1-1, England show they can give Aussies a fight and more (a scare!). A series right up there with the Aussie tour to India in 2001. The new Botham, Freddie Flintoff leading the English charge. English bowling as a unit proving to be superior to Aussie bowling (who have the 2 best bowlers in the world, McGrath & Warne), courtesy an art they once cried foul about - reverse swing (interestingly, a certain Waqar Younis taught Simon Jones how to bowl reverse swing when they played together for Glamorgan - the guy picked it up quite well, didn't he - Jones now teaches Reverse Swing 101 for the other English bowlers. Brett Lee peeps into the class to see if he can pick up something too).

A 10-day break gives the Aussies a chance to get back to the press and claim moral victories in a draw (not saying draws cant be moral victories, just surprised the mighty Aussies are saying it). It comes down to England denying Aussies any further wins in the remaining 2 matches, and pulling off at least one win themselves - am clearly an English supporter here, but I think its going to be very hard. I think England are one batsman short and their bowlers have been making up for it - am scared the strategy will fall apart if the Aussie batting grinds it out to a big score. Any bowler is better than a struggling Gillespie for Aus and Shaun Tait might give them additional firepower to attack the somewhat-short English batting lineup.

Some of the greatest Test cricket in recent memory - hope the remaining 2 matches live up to it as well..

To tip or not to tip, thats the question

Extrapolating on an op-ed piece by a certain Steven A. Shaw in the nytimes (for those who want to/can read the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/10/opinion/10shaw.html), tipping to me seems European, elitist - it is something you give when you feel nice about your service (generally, when you feel nice - period!). Seems to a customer that it provides a waiter/waitress an incentive to work harder, impress you. Now, I have at some point in my life worked as a waiter also - I have tried to impress the customer to make a few bucks over my pathetic hourly. The system works; but, its not capitalistic!

When you order food from the menu, with the prices next to the items, it gives you at best, a ballpark figure of what your bill could be - there is the money for the food, then the tax, then a possible service charge (aka gratuity..?), or a suggested tip, or a tip-from-the-heart - I don't know - its hard! What if you had a figure next to a bottle of wine, which you know is all you were gonna pay for the last drop in there - tax, tip, all added. Wouldn't it make both the customer's life AND the waiter's life easier and more straightforward? The downside to that (the customer thinks), what happens to the waiter's incentive to perform well now, to impress you - can he/she spit in your food (in front of you!), safe in the knowledge that a portion of what you pay is gonna land up in his/her pocket anyway? Hmm..

My take having seen both sides of the tipping divide (pun'ny) (finally!) - the tip being added to the menu prices is better for the waiter - permit me to explain - in almost all restaurants, all your tip money goes into a pool, which is split up between the waiters, chefs, cleaners, etc. at the end of the day. Further, (from personal experience), the higher in the hierarchy you are in the "food chain" (ooh..in form here), the bigger your slice of the pie (irrespective of your contribution to the pool). Not surprising really! So that waiter who impressed you with his/her finest behavior, touching you as she spoke, giggling, filling up your glass promptly, she/he ain't getting what you thought they deserved. Also, I believe there are more bad tippers out there than good ones - so by standardizing the tip amount and adding it to the price, the waiters stand to gain - their pool will *definitely* become bigger.

On the contrary, having a tipping practice is good for the customer - makes going to a restaurant and dining a more interesting, talk-able experience (my favorite talking point as I sign the cheque and draw the chair out for the lady), makes you feel like the waiters are out to impress you. Adding it to the menu would deprive the customer of a chance to impress his co-diners of his/her generosity/largesse.

In conclusion, there are always going to be places that make you tip, some that force it on you - just laying out both sides for you..

Home-grown terrorists? Oh really?

The British media and administration seemed surprised to learn the bombers of 7/11 were home-grown muslims. Oh really? You didn't see that one coming?!

The sense of alienation that an immigrant community may face in a country can drive the members of the immigrant community to drastic measures like this. It's a pity I cant post nytimes links here (requires registration and articles older than 2 weeks are archived for a pay-only service), but Tom Friedman had a couple of very good articles analysing this scenario (now, who isn't analyzing this scenario these days, even *I am*!) which resonated with my thoughts on it too.

Suketu Mehta (who, if I may show off, I met during a film-festival, where he introduced the movie, Bombay, and stayed on to speak with some of us after the show), an Indian author, had a real good op-ed piece where he said the US could use the Indian immigrant community here help them understand the psyche of the Indian commuity in India (with reference to why American jobs are going overseas to India and what we have to do better/differently here in the US) and similarly, the muslim immigrant community could help us understant the psyche of the muslim communities all over. To stereotype and typecast may be one of the most dangerous things at this point.

Every muslim doesn't wanna blow up people - the greatest majority are god-fearing, simple people like you and I who would rather take a subway without the fear of getting blown up. I sincerely believe that a solution lies in not just searching through bags in the subway, but striking the problem at its root, and understanding why someone would wanna do what they do, and addressing that issue. Wonder if it'll happen though..

In the same ballpark of immigrant communities, a great movie I saw recently, Crash - big cast; good acting; strong, powerful dialogues and punch-lines. It beautifully explores the typecasting and stereo-typing that happens in societies all over and without being preachy, very subtly gets the point through.

Passion

Was watching this girl play the violin in a small band in a neighborhood bar near my place - eyes closed, in deepest concentration and focus, completely enjoying what she was doing, totally lost in the music she was creating - made me wonder, is there I would do with that much passion (passing the notable exception of, of course..you know...)??

This summer, I have found love-unknown in fast bowling - always been a batter in school who chips in with slow-medium and attempted leg-spinners now and then. But, playing for the East Meadow Cricket Club in Manhattan, inspired by my captain's faith in my fast bowling abilities, have turned into a hostile opening bowler. Have realized that once I hit a rhythm, I thoroughly enjoy running in, and letting it rip! Cricket has got to be about the only thing that I would exhibit anywhere near as much passion for as that girl-playing-the-violin-that-night.

Watch out for the follow-up to this posting - the-girl-who-played-the-violin-and-stole-my-heart-that-night! :)

Bernoulli be damned!

Ashes 2005 1st Test (between Eng and Aus) - day 3 - Australia trying everything to stamp their control of the match, England as defiant as can be, Shane Warne marking his run-up - from there on, any doubt of which the side in control was, was dispelled! After watching several very ordinary games of cricket involving the Indians last season, to see cricket of such high quality made it worth the time and effort.

Have always been a wannabe leg-spinner - to see Warne plan his wickets out was beautiful. He bowled some square turners well outside off-stump to young Ian Bell (who was playing Warne for the 1st time in test cricket!), to let him get a good sighter of how much turn he was capable of extracting. Ian Bell responded by coming down the wicket and driving Warne through covers a couple of times, confident that he had gotten a measure of the turn. The Master then bowled one just a little shorter and let it rip straight - Bell was caught with his hand and bat up in the air, and pathetically found lbw in front of the stumps. And then one ball to G. Jones that pitched on the rough well outside leg, cut across the batsman, missed off stump, and Gilchrist collected it near his neck - Bernoulli did his best to describe the dynamics of air resistance on a moving substance, but even he may have been stumped by that one - wow! (actually it was Magnus G., but heck, the title doesn't sound that good without Bernoulli!)

I still am supporting England for the Ashes, but may just be one more case of heart-says-England-mind-says-Australia..hope not..come on, England

Seinfeld

By far, my favorite sitcom! Thank god there are enough people around me who have watched enough episodes, who can relate to all my Seinfeld context wisecracks (yaadi-yaadi-yaada, John Boyd's car, hot tea at NYC marathon, etc. etc.). Climbing up the ladder to the 2nd spot on my sitcom list, Curb Your Enthusiasm by Larry David (creator of Seinfeld) - based in the other coast, sometimes makes you cringe in your seat with some of the uncomfortable humor, but the man's hilarious! And then there are all the talk-shows - Letterman, John Stewart, Bill Maher, Jay Leno, Ali G (HOW does this guy manage to con a UN Sec General, Bhutrous Bhutrous Ghali to give him an interview and ask him if the French are funny, I don't know). Put all that together and you get 5 weekday evenings of mindless, mind-numbing, end-of-day-television-viewing of comedies!

Spread my name..

Last Saturday, I was involved in one more of those days of community service. The company I work for (for those who don't know me, I work in a music recording studio in the East Village, Manhattan; for those who know me, oh well, you know..) fielded a team of volunteers to help organize a dance event under the Brooklyn/Manhattan Bridge - bringing modern dance out in the community. Among more noble things that I could have done with my time in community service, I chose this as a fun opportunity to check out this area called DUMBO (Downpass Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass) and hang out with artsy people in the area. Was a great day out! The organizers & performers had us hand out fliers/brochures in the neighborhood and they were nice enough to include the volunteering team captains' names in the fliers (one of two of the captains was yours truly - probably cost 'em few bucks extra to include ALL of my name in there :) - again, inside joke to those who know me and ALL of my last name - sorry!). Felt good being involved in that event and got some free publicity in the DUMBO area (fliers with my name in it, I mean..) - gives me enough opening lines if I were to ever hang out in the bars in the area again! :)

Got to get me a pinstripe!

Alright this is the movie review for the new hindi movie, Sarkar, but those were my thoughts as I exited the theater :)! Its one more take-off on The Godfather, but when a classic script which is a proven success is re-set in a setting closer to home, its just so much easier to relate to.

Apart from just The Godfather, its got shades of Mani Rathnam's Nayakan and Kamal Hassan's Thevar Magan (both Tamil movies that are in my Top 5 all-time Tamil movies list). Am a huge fan of Ram Gopal Varma (aka RGV, the director), Amitabh Bacchan (essaying Marlon Brando's role), and recently, Abhishek Bacchan (Amitabh's son in real-life, playing Al Pacino's role in The Original), and when they all come together, its a must watch for me. Crisply shot in 2 hours, without any songs, RGV employs many close-up shots to permit the Bacchans (and Kaykay, playing the elder son) to show-off their emoting abilities.

On a personal note, this goes down as the first movie I watched alone! A couple of my friends talk about how watching a movie alone can be a great experience; I *had to* see this movie, didn't care if anyone else wanted to, didn't want to bother convincing/coercing anyone else to do this with me, decided to try watching it alone - was awesome!

I like movies that I can relate to, movies that are realistically shot. A movie like Batman Begins is alright, but just doesn't quite cut it for me (have nothing against them, I know people on whom movies like Batman have the greatest effect on). Not the greatest fan of sci-fi or animations either. Am keepin it real! :)

P.S: And why the title? - you got to watch the movie to get that one..

Cinderella Man

"SeaBiscuit with gloves", said NYTimes about Cinderella Man (quote further reiterated by a friend's friend, when invited to the movie). I liked Sea Biscuit and I liked Cinderella Man even more! Fine direction, finest acting by Russell Crowe & Paul Giamatti.

You know the story, you know the ending - its a boxer's fall from grace and then re-establishing himself and rising to the top again, defying all odds - there.. But, when you put yourself in the protagonist's shoes, imagine how life must've been during the Great Depression (see Central Park looking like a slum), that's when the movie takes you to a whole new level. There are some movies, which are far removed from reality, but are enjoyable nevertheless; this is an attempt to get the audience to ride the lows and highs with Crowe's character, rooting for him at the edge of your seat in the final match-up. Crowe delivers a beautifully understated, classy acting performance - no other actor could've pulled this role off any better!

A mentor once told me - "The human body can endure an unbelievable amount of strain and effort, its all about pushing yourself. Its all in the mind.". The thought kept popping up in my mind throughout the movie. Its true - there are times when I have stretched myself to limits that I didn't know I was capable of. Hopefully, I can do that more often, going forward..

Watch it!

Way under-age

Thats how I felt at the Santana gig last night at the MSG. Me and my friend were the only 2 on the favorable side of 30 in our section of the crowd! Most of them were right out of Woodstock; they had just taken 30 years off to age some. Where were the young'uns?? Has Carlos Santana lost out on favor with them? Don't too many of us youngsters appreciate that kind of music?

The concert itself was phenomenal! The opening act by Los Lonely Boys set the stage (they were really good!) for The Master to thrill the audience with some of his popular numbers (Jingo, Smooth, Maria, Black Magic Woman, etc.) interspersed with some not-too-well known Spanish numbers (which were just as good too). The vocalist, Andy Vargas did a great job and the rest of the ensemble..wow! 3 percussionists, a sax player, trumpet, bass, another guitarist, keyboard, piano - super stuff! Hardly realised 4 hrs passing through - wonderful music!

Song of the night: hmm..Oye Como Va

Been over 4 weeks since..

..my parents and sister came to visit me in the US
..I have been spending quality time with family - travelling, shopping, and all that good stuff.
..I have been eating delightful mum-cooked food
..I last had to clean my room, wash any dishes, do any cooking, iron any clothes
..wake up to the annoying sound of the alarm
..I was elevated to be AmericanExpress' customer of the month for most swipes on a credit card in one calendar month
..I walked at a pace anything more than an amble, leave alone run
..lifted anything apart from heavy suitcases, leave alone weights
..I let any alcohol slip past my lips
..I watched any movie (Star Wars, Crash - all relegated to DVD at some point down the line)
..I spent any time wondering where my life is heading
..I submitted my worthy thoughts and actions for your kind attention here

The self-imposed hiatus is over. Back to blogging irregularly..

BRB

Will be out of action for a couple more weeks - parents and sister visiting me right now. Having a *wonderful* time and more importantly, they are having a great time in NY so far. Will continue reading your blogs in this interim period and be back to active blogging in about 2 weeks.

Play the media!

So the tabloid Star accepted that the much-publicized picture of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in a beach together was doctored - they supposedly even have a 'disclaimer' tucked away in some corner saying that the picture is not a legitimate one in the issue featuring the pic on the front page!. Previously, the cost of these pics was put at 9 million!

A point about the Indian media, it is amazing how they constructed the aura around Sachin Tendulkar for all these years and have suddenly turned to other stars now and never lose a single chance to bring down a player of his stature - he is now accused even when he does well (in the recent match against the Pakis where he scored 123 runs, took a catch or 2, bowled 6 tight overs, and even when he made a match of a last-over-4-runs-to-win situation with Inzamam on strike and brought it down to the final delivery (we lost!), Times of India (TOI) worded the report as if Sachin was the reason we lost!). Other cricket celebs - Dhoni is the panacea to all our cricketing problems, courtesy his single century, "India's answer to Gilchrist" screams TOI! Pathan may have made enough money in endorsements in a year to not care about the inswing anymore. Ganguly...I won't even go there. They are all a victim/product of the media, a lot more than the time they spent in the middle!

Back to the US media - you notice how ALL the channels get fixated/obsessed with ONE event all day, every day - it's the story of some bride-to-be missing (who 3 days later comes back saying she had cold feet about her marriage and faked a kidnapping, she'd wouldn't have thought that CNN would 1/2-hr updates on her status), or some husband killing his wife, or for days together, Dear Miss Schiavo. Don't mean to belittle the loss of a life or any single person, but don't we have other things that are more 'reportable'?! I prefer watching talk shows and reading op-ed pieces a lot more than listening to the news - debating, discussing someone's opinion seems a lot better than reading doctored 'news' or obsessing over a missing German-Shepherd!

Which brings me to my last point - I saw this very interesting, speculative, sensationalized video sometime back (courtesy: HeShoots-andScores) about how in 2014, nytimes ceases to exist and *everyone* contributes to "news" (blogs ver. 2014), get paid for it, and so on - http://www.broom.org/epic/ . Plausible..

My not-so-great experience @ Tribeca Film Festival

I was *overwhelmed* by the number of people who had turned up at the Tribeca Film Festival last Saturday. I thought it would be one more of those festivals where I could walk in to watch any movie I wanted, with loads of empty seats in a theater that should have been packed, for an indie movie as delightful as some of the ones I have watched lately. Wanted to watch this one called Power of Nightmares, about Islamic fundamentalism, but so did 500 others - sold out! Then moved to the line for Devil's Miner - 15 mins later sold out! Then stood in line for Rikers High - 30 mins later....yes, sold out!

Looked around for the shortest line and waited for this one called "13 Lakes" (bad move, driven by impatience and chilly winds!). 15 mins later....got in this time! The movie was about that - 13 Lakes - this dude had traveled all around US, camera in hand, and filmed 13 Lakes. Hmm..this I knew before walking in, but I was disgusted by what I saw. No characters, no audio, no background music even, just the sound of gurgling water.. He didn't even move the camera around the lake to give us a "view", it was placed in the SAME place for 10 mins, focusing on water, sound of gurgling water.. Supposed to have a meditative, visually captivating effect - my a$$! I gave him his time, 6 lakes - that's all I could take. I have a fascination for still water, but it was still too much for me, had to get out of there before I lost my fascination!

The next Apprentice

This is the ONLY reality show I have ever followed (yes and the papal elections recently :)). I thought the first one was very entertaining, the last one was alright at best, but hardly watched any of the 3rd season. Down to the last 4 and maybe I will now..if all else fails me the next 3 Thurs nights, I have the Apprentice to look forward to..

So, we have 2 women, a white guy, and a black guy in the last four - this is dead easy - we know already that Trump is going to hire the white guy. I say call the winner right away and move on to the next season, which is supposed to have Donald Trump AND Martha Stewart together (that’s right!) - spending time in jail did more good for Martha Stewart's image and stock value than all the time spent on her afternoon TV shows..

Magic Malik

Magic Malik Orchestra was the name of the French band, whose concert I saw at the Knitting Factory. The lead performer in the band, Magic Malik was your absolute radical (even by French standards!). In a finger-showing gesture to convention, he had hair on his head only along where most people would have a parting - can you imagine - just a line of hair sticking up in an otherwise bald head..? His music seemed to defy convention further (it may have fallen in the ballpark of jazz, but had very little structure about it), but it was superb!

Malik primarily played the flute, but he also took jabs at the other instruments on stage. The saxophone added a great sound to the ensemble. The percussionists were superb - the drummer and this other, guest percussionist who seemed to almost be playing a speaker or a stool - still don’t know what instrument he was playing. The band would pick up a very simple tune, improvise over and over on it, build up to a frenzy, and then slow down again.

Hate to admit, but to throroughly enjoy certain kinds of music, its necessary to be somewhat intoxicated. Couple of glasses of wine down, the music seemed to do some very good things to me :) - during some of the slow, soothing pieces, just had to close my eyes to have visions of people/places/events from my past that the music brought with it..(trust me it was ONLY wine! :))

The band left back to France the same evening, don’t know if anyone reading this would ever get a chance to listen to them, but if you ever do, go for it! (*after* a couple of drinks mind you :))

Drinking my way to good health

..and spirits (needless to say..) - was able to get rid of an annoying cold (at the outset of Spring) by drinking beer...lots of it! No am not gonna get into the medical uses of beer..

Brewtopia - Craft's Beer Festival last weekend was an evening very well spent - breweries from all over showing off their stuff. I had subjected myself to Pavlovian experiments by beer-starving myself for 3 weeks straight and then letting myself loose at the beer fest (yes, there was some salivating involved). Tasting glass in hand, the beer connoiseur in me was in fine form from 6pm to 10pm - through 25-30 glasses of fine beer! Favorites? Best beer of the night was this one called Mojo (India Pale Ale) - had a slight citrus flavor about it that I absolutely loved! Another non-beer drink was honey-wine - that's right - aka 'nectar of the Gods' - made not from grapes, but by fermenting honey - I thought it was awesome (but again, beyond a point that evening most things were AWESOME) - check out LIMeadery.

The place was packed initially with the white frat-boy crowd (never losing a single chance to let out a scream YAAAAAY, in an overt, albeit unwarranted, show of masculinity), but it thinned down after 8pm (considering the first glass broke in the hall at 7pm, not everyone can drink for 4 hours straight like yours truly - modesy be damned!), the live music was quite good, the women only got better as the evening progressed - good times..

Movie Reviews

Watched quite a few of them in the last week. Here goes:

Sin City - in one word, *perverse*! We all have that perverse streak in us, but takes one sick, freakish, brilliant mind to bring it out on the screen in such a stylish way. As you watch the movie, you think ahead, and think that something disgusting just might happen, and then something worse than you can imagine happens! Not many movies have left me transfixed in my seat even after the credits are half-way through, wondering what the hell that was - this did it. Highly recommended watching, but be warned about what you are getting into...

Sideways - Ironical that I *finally* saw it in the theaters a day before it released on DVD - expecting to be the only stupid soul spending 6$ more than I needed to, to watch it a day before it released on DVD, but was a packed theater. One word (again) - "delightful". I don’t know if anyone else noticed the background score, but I loved it - soft, relaxing, apt! Had a few cheesy moments (think Virginia Madsen talking about how she likes to think about the rain and the sun shining on the grapes before the wine is made), but on the whole, a *beautiful* movie. If you waited as long as I did to see it, wait no more - catch it on DVD for sure!

Melinda & Melinda - my first Woody Allen movie (yeah, really!) - loved it! Its awesome how he straight-shoots philosophy at you, so matter-of-factly, in normal conversation between the characters. Laugh-out-loud funny at times, but subtle humor straight through. And those dream, palatial apartments in NYC - where are they?! One word? - hmm.."revealing" - opened me up to the wonderful world of Woody Allen movies - looking forward to watching more.

Maria, Full of Grace - Catalina Sandino Moreno looked stunning at the Oscars in a white gown (well, I didn’t know her name then) and her acting in this one is awesome too. But the Spanish movie is slow in parts and as much as the acting was brilliant (and, she looked spectacular), it wouldn’t rate it too highly in my books. But yes, the female lead has acted very well and looks simply superb! (did I say that before?)

New blogs on the left

Been following these blogs for the last few weeks and am convinced enough about their content to link them from mine.
Shadow Warrior = Rajeev Srinivasan, a rediff.com writer
Dave Barry = Miami Herald writer = usually tends to be a bunch of funny links (not all of which are suitable for viewing at work)
Newyork intern = this blog has really impressed me with its humorous content.

Enjoy..

The Da Vinci Code

So the Church *finally* came out to call The Da Vindi Code blasphemy (as Maureen Dowd said in her nytimes op-ed, its relatively soon, considering it took them a few centuries to change their stance on Galileo)!

I tend to be quite skeptical about books/movies/music that become a rage only because everyone else has read/seen/heard it and is uncool to not be part of the wave. But, this was a good read, a good page-turner. The ending was a bit of a letdown, but what was I expecting anyway?

There is the oft-repeated phrase, "history is written by winners". While some of the stuff in the novel may have some legitimacy about it, to go all the way to claim that a sangreal exists would be going a bit too far, I would think. Its interesting that the bible was written decades after the events actually happened - so, its what those saints WANTED to tell everyone else. Is the bible a bestseller at best (did quite well didn't it?), and no religious text? What about the other religious texts then? But then is religion anything more than faith in something meant to comfort & strengthen (debatable in itself..)?

I liked how the ideas in the novel seem truer, the farther back in history & time the writer goes..as in, the Mary Magdalene stories seem most plausible to me, the more recent stories in the novel abt all those sects seem on shaky ground. This also a noble attempt to redefine the position of the woman in christianity (which is what Maureen Dowd would harp about - was a great fan of her stinging humor, but of late she is increasingly just serving up the op-ed version of sex-in-the-city).

Greatest credit to the guy for his superb research. Look forward to the movie..
Dan Brown's FAQ - very interesting

Whoa!

Check this out
Some people DO have too much time on their hands..

Walking to the Rhythm

Bruce 'The Boss' Springsteen at the Annual Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony - "its *embarassing* how much we expect of music, and the amazing thing is that it comes through sometimes!" Not been too much of a Boss fan really, but he spoke real well, inducting U2 into the Hall of Fame this year - U2 performed brilliantly of course (Btw, would anyone be willing to sell me U2 tickets for this summer in the NY/NJ area? Please!! Worth a shot...).

When I asked a friend why he hadn't joined the ear-phones bandwagon and gotten himself a mp3 /cd player, he said it would take too much out of the day-to-day experience of life. Hmm..

Its just something else to be able to listen to a song whenever you want to (as opposed to have it stuck in your head and haunt you!) - I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience over the last 3-4 months of having an mp3 player. You have to make the judgement call on when *not* to listen to it (3am Sunday morning, me - a) sleepy b) tired c) drunk d) all of the above. R subway is having its PMS, acts all moody, and decides to go express all of a sudden, am plugged on to my music, haven't heard the announcement, end up closer to Coney Island than I would've liked - not fun!) and make sure it doesn't take too much out of your day-to-day experience of life, but some moments are accentutated and enhanced to surreal levels thanks to music-on-demand.

Bright morning, "Beautiful Day" playing as I walk in to work; after an amazing workout session, the most soothing tune in my ears as I walk to the subway; coding, debugging, in the "zone" and some Oriental Trance keeping me as focussed as can be...had to acknowledge those moments that I have begin to take for granted now.

If you're as crazy about music as I am, get yourself one of those mp3 players (if you also are anti-monopoly like I am, stay away from those white cords and the Ipod, there actually ARE other choices out there - am quite happy with my iRiver). So next time you see me walking to a Rhythm almost, you know its because of a Bob Marley song playing on my player.

Last song I was listening to: Rare 24-min jamming between Carlos Santana & Eric Clapton

The World's Largest Democracy

Narendra Modi's (Chief Minister, Gujarat, India) denial of a diplomatic visa to the US on the grounds that he mis-managed the state during the terrible riots in 2002 between the Hindus and the Muslims has sparked enormous debate and controversy. Here is my humble take on it -

I watched this documentary called Final Solution sometime back - it was a collection of interviews with the survivors of the riots. The filmmaker made a very strong point in the first hour and then beat his point over and over again for the next hour - by then the point was definitely taken! :) I liked the saying they ended the documentary with - "An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world will be blind", by Mahatma Gandhi. This documentary paints a very negative image of Narendra Modi, which I guess is the opinion shared by the majority. His whole Gaurav Yatra thing was utter crap! In my opinion, he was responsible for instigating, encouraging, and turning a blind eye on the violence against the Muslims by the Hindus.

That said, he is still the leader of a state, a democratically elected leader of India, the world's largest democracy. India, to me, represents, democracy-in-progress - I don’t think we have it all sorted out yet and it may be a while before we have it down, but we're heading in the right direction. One must understand that its extremely challenging to uphold the true virtues of democracy in a country like India, with a billion people. But we're doing a fairly decent job of it right now and I only see things getting better hereon (am a very optimistic Congress supporter).

So, was it right for the US to deny him a visa when he was only suspected, and not accused of any wrong-doings? On paper, clearly no. But from a moral standpoint, I am going to go ahead and say, yes! He would have come here, held rallies in NJ, spoken utter trash, and instigated the Hindu gujaratis here also. That man exacerbates his position with his oratory "skills" - shit like, "the last time a gujarati was thrown out a train, it led to the freedom struggle and India's independence (the gujarati in question being Mahatma Gandhi), this time wonder what the Americans shunning a gujarati is going to do" - the audaucity to even put himself on the same sentence as Gandhi..

Enough said - good call on putting that man in place, someone had to, and our governments' hands were tied by "democracy".

Corporate Conversations

..in an elevator!
Whatever you are talking about with anyone else, you have to stop when you come in to the elevator, because what you are talking might not be suitable for 'public consumption'.

At this stage you can either look up at the floor numbers as they go up/down, the lighting, the ceiling, the floor; or if you're feeling terribly brave you make eye contact and smile. Now, this could be someone you remotely know, are acquainted with - yes, now you have to say something!

Its one of 2 things you can talk about - the weather (always a safe bet) or the day of the week. The latter makes for exciting conversation (by elevator standards) - you can talk about the wkend on Monday, say "I can't believe its only Tuesday/Wednesday" on..you guessed right, Tuesday or Wednesday; on Thursday, you can't go wrong with "feels like a Friday", and of course, "so glad its Friday" or TGIF (for the younger and hipper) on…yes Friday.

I wonder what a few years in corporate America will do to me..

Cafe Wha?

Can't believe it was *right there* and I didn’t see it all this time (this is becoming too frequent now - things/people/words that are all around you and you don’t *see* it and then something triggers off an initial recognition and then you suddenly start *seeing* it all around you and wonder how you managed to miss it all along).

The W Village is the place I end up hanging out in the City most often - love the area - the food (the trio for me - Mamouns, Katti Roll, Indian Bread Co., and then Brunos for dessert), Comedy Cellar (their in-house performers feature quite frequently on VH1 and such - awesome, friendly place), the bars, more importantly the music in the bars - like how you can actually find places that don’t necessarily play hip-hop after midnight (one more of my rants that anyone who has been to a bar with me has heard - irrespective of what a bar/lounge plays before midnight, come midnight and the Ushers and Nellys storm the place. Nothing against them, but have just had too much of it).

Literally stumbled into Café Wha? last night - walked in to the band playing Strange Kinda Woman (Deep Purple) and I already knew I was gonna love this place. The Café Wha? band dished out some sensational stuff for the next 2-3 hours that I was there - classic rock (ooh yeah!), 80's pop (Michael Jackson stuff, with the dance too! Always wanted to watch a Jackson concert live, probably never gonna happen again sadly.), Latino (sounded great, no idea what the songs were, but hot Latino women flooded the dance floor coming out of nooks and corners and cracks in the wall..really!), Reggae (Bob Marley in da house!!) - was very very impressed.

Here it comes - till I discover otherwise, Café Wha? has the distinction of being my favorite bar in NYC!

Ladder Theory

If you already haven't heard about it, don't miss this chance to check it out! Its a hilarious, meaningful, "scientific" look at the purpose of life (which, you guessed right, is to move up the ladder). Its a very noble attempt by a certain Dalas Lynn to explain sexual attraction and the way its different for men and women.

Ladder Theory explainedor This one

The crux of it is this - men - we place women we know on the ladder. On top are the women we would give anything to make it with, then the women we have a chance of making it with, then the women we would mess around intoxicated and admit to it, and then the women we would mess around when drunk and not admit to it. The motive is to simply move up the ladder.

For women, its not that straighforward ( of course!). They have not one, but TWO ladders - the ladder of sexual interest (like men) and then the ladder of friends. The trouble for men is that its not easy to guess which ladder you are on. In between the 2 ladders is a dark, deep abyss. If you make a move and you turn out to be on the right ladder and things work out, great! If you are on the friends ladder, don't realize that, and make a move - you fall deep into the abyss (which isn't so bad for most men anyway - there is a short period of embarassment and awkwardness, then we dust ourselves, and move on our merry ways..).

And then there is the idea of an "intellectual whore" - "oh, you are so funny! oh, it was so nice spending time with you! oh, its always so interesting to talk to you!", while all along she is saying, "but sorry hun, you ain't gettin none!!" Admit it guys, how often have you found yourself to be the intellectual whore? With me? - shamefully admit, way too often! You know whats the most annoying tag - "nice guy"!!

Interesting Blogging Stats

27% of the US reads blogs and 7% of the US maintains one (thats it??).

Yahoo is releasing its blog at the end of the month - so all my avid readers, don't be too surprised if I request you to point to a different address in about a month. In the portal-war between Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo - my loyalty lies with Yahoo (Google wouldn't hire me, their recruiter left me disgraced! :), MSN - hotmail I get way too much spam!). Its also an effort to NOT do what everyone else is doing (which is the only possible reasoning for my iRiver stance against the Ipod too!), which is lapping up whatever Goog is throwing their way. Interesting times in the portal-war..

Lake of the Ozarks

This was my 1st visit to the Midwest, Lake of the Ozarks - it was a small pretty town of about 10,000 people, mostly families, over by a man-made lake.

When I told people I was from NY, the immediate response was - "what the f you doin out here?!" *I was* diversity :)! What struck me about the area as soon as I drove into Missouri was the size of the vehicles there - every alternate vehicle was an SUV or a pick-up truck, with "Save Our Soldiers" and "God Bless America" stickers. Lake of the Ozarks would make for an amazing spot in the summer, but right now for me it was a welcome change from NY.

Met friends in Chicago, drove down to Central Missouri (nice 8hr drive!), and checked into a beautiful cabin on the lake - huge 4-bedroom condo with a deck facing the lake. We stocked ourselves with enough alcohol, just in case aliens struck or something, barbequed food Friday night, and chilled out at the cabin.

Woke up early on Sat morn only to see the sunrise over the lake - that was among the most beautiful sights - to see colors you would never expect to find on the sky during sunrise and sunset over the lake. The weather was a wonderful 70F - after a prolonged winter in NY this was much appreciated. Every trip I have a personal Song of the Trip (Nauleans - Wonderful World, Louis Armstrong, on a cruise on the Mississippi; Paris - Buddha Bar Oriental Trance @ the Buddha Bar) - this time it was a Shaggy song - sitting on the deck, sun beating down my neck, sipping beers, hanging out with friends, talking about how a Shaggy song would complete the picture, and the local RJ hears our request - good times!

The town had a St. Patrick's Day parade and celebrations on Sat - with the other activities we had in our minds (boat ride, go carting, horse ride) becoming increasingly impossible with the whole town out on the streets, we just walked in and out of local bars to indulge in St. Patrick's Day festivities - was a good call. Spoke to some locals, played chess, listened some great live music (rock n' roll), drank some, danced some..nice.. Came back to our condo, freshened up, and headed out for Sat Nite out in that town - hit a bar by the lake, umm..drank some more :), and stuttered and stumbled our ways to the end of a day very well spent in Ozark-land.

Had a 7pm flight to catch on Sunday from Chicago - had to leave quite early Sunday morn - drive back was smooth and eventless - empty, wide roads with a 70mph speed limit.

What I was hoping to achieve at this trip - some quality alone time (check), catch up with an old friend (check), good weather (check), check out the Midwest to get some idea of the place (check), unwind, relax, meet ppl (check, check, check) - very good way to spend my 1st vacation day since I started work!

Bunch of Bullshit!

Jim Morrison's rant after rendering Light My Fire to a live audience in NY - "I don’t believe in astrology, I think it’s a bunch of bullshit!"

Do I check my horoscope everyday - yes. For me, it’s a daily game I play with my moods, emotions, and state of mind. My horoscope this morning said I could do with some rest, relieve myself of stress, and only thing on my mind today should be where to have dinner - wonderful! This could have been my horoscope today, yesterday, the week before, it would have concurred with what I wanted to do, I would've done as my horoscope said, and yes, my horoscope today came true! On the flip side, if my horoscope had something negative about it, then it’s a fight to try and defy it - sometimes I succeed and hey, "astrology is a bunch of bullshit" anyway; on some other days, my best efforts don’t succeed in leaving me with a good feeling at the end of the day and then I throw my hands up in the air in resignation because my horoscope said it'd be a bad day anyway!

My point is this (get used to it - I beat around the bush a lot before hitting the spot! Its my style! Like..like..Quentin Tarantino's) - when something/someone predicts events in the future, human tendency is to sometimes take that for granted and subconsciously work towards that outcome. Reading my daily horoscope messes with my mind enough, I *do not* want to know things in my long-term future - whether there was any science/logic/magic about someone predicting things for me, I am scared that my mind will unwillingly follow the path leading to that prediction. I will sing along that astrology IS a bunch of bullshit, but don’t even bother telling me and trying that shit on me - I don’t even wanna know..!

Quality and Values

These are the premises of Robert M. Pirsig's two "timeless classics", Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAMM) and Lila.

I don't often read books (or watch movies) more than once - I have read ZAMM 3 times already. Everytime you read that book, it speaks differently to you. I guess the beauty of both these books is that based on where are you in your life, you can interpret ideas in the book differently. Another amazing thing about these books (for me) was the generous dose of Hindu philosophy (the author spent some time at Banares).

To clarify, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is NOT about Zen or about Motorcycles. Its about Quality with a capital Q. Quality if the primary reality, the source of everything. Value, he says, is the direct experience, independent of and preceding intellectual recognition.

In Lila, the author goes through some great ideas - his views on the culture of the United States, the way the times have moved from the Victorian Age to the WW's, to the Hippies era. The author spends most of his time on a boat on the Hudson in the company of Lila, a woman bordering on mental "instability". His views on NY in this book make for some very interesting reading.

Both books are great attempts to bridge the gap between science, metaphysics, and mysticism. They sometimes are far from easy reading and require you to occasionally pause to digest the philosophy the author is trying to get at, but very satisfying nevertheless. 2 of the best books I have ever read!

The Downfall

When I first visited the Film Forum, I read a sign saying it was voted NewYork's best theater for the last x yrs - I thought "best theater" was about the plush seats, legroom, and popcorn! A couple of movies there and the epiphany dawned on me that it wasn't the popcorn, but the kind of movies shown there, that made it the best theater in the City.

When I stepped into NY, there were 2 things that I particularly wanted to exploit out of this place - indie movies and theater. Theater - have had enough of B'way plays - I really want to see some good off-beat, off-B'way plays. Indie flicks - have watched some great movies in the last few months and every movie that I have watched so far at Film Forum has been awesome.

The Downfall - I was hoping it'd be a history class in 2 hrs. It seemed a fairly accurate portrayal of events towards the end of WW II. Bruno Ganz who acted as The Fuehrer (name makes no sense to most, but I got to find out his name and give him his due) did a great job - desperately screaming with denial, talking about his legacy and what could've been. It was interesting to see the way everyone reacts not just to imminent defeat, but imminent death along with it. The con - if only they had been more stringent while editing. It was about 1/2 hr longer than it should have been and lost the viewer towards the end, post-Hitler's death. That apart, a highly-recommended, good watch.

So, this far in the City I have watched some good movies at the Film Forum and Angelica Film Center - would be very keen to find out more such theaters around the City. The best indie movie I have watched this far - without a doubt, Born Into Brothels, with I Heart Huckabees coming second..

When I met an Oscar winner!

I had seen Clint Eastwood, Laura Linney, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Susan Sarandon, and Sean Penn when I went to the red-carpet premiere of Mystic River, but that was not my *meeting* with an Oscar winner. The person I am talking about is Zana Briski (and Ross Kauffman), the winner for the Best Documentary at the 77th Oscars last night.

I was *lucky* to have watched this documentary at Film Forum a couple of months back - Born Into Brothels. I was luckier to have gone a few minutes late and end up on the first row. After the brilliant movie, we had a chance to meet the directors for a Q&A session. Truly fortunate to have met and spoken to Zana. This documentary was the beginning of my "life-changing weekend" (sensationalize it even more.. :)); it deeply impacted me!

Its truly a pity that the makers of the documentary do not plan to release it in India. The Oscar win last night might help the documentary gross over $4 million and one would assume, most of that money would be pumped back to a noble cause in Calcutta or elsewhere.

Greatest respect and admiration for that lady, Zana Briski!

Self-acknowledged Wannabe NuYokker

I read today that to really live up the New York experience, you must want to be lucky. Notice, not just be lucky, but *want* to be lucky! Its a dynamic place where its very hard to hold on to your static, rigid beliefs and values, you must be open to change...I am!

I acknowledge that The City has the ability to change me in a bigger way than any other city that I have lived in so far. I consider this a transient phase in my life; I don't see myself living here for too long. I want to make the most of it during my stay here. Am willing to embrace, appreciate, recognize anything and everything that is thrown at me here in NY. Its the place where you can go, "ah, that is good!" without turning over your shoulder to see if your thoughts are resonated/approved by anyone else. You can be whoever you want to be in NuYok and have a good time. In the next year or so, I want The City to mold my identity and make a lasting impression on me for life.

Truly acknowledge - very fortunate to be living in The City, totally smitten by it, and admittedly, a Wannabe NuYokker..

Gud ol' times

Yes its here! The time in my life when I look back at "gud ol' times" - kinda early one would think, but at least am not living in denial in this case :)

Have always looked back at certain times in my life and thought about some people in my life (who may not play such a great role in my day-to-day existence like they used to..), but then previoulsy there was always that hope that I could re-live some of those times with some of those people. Now, I finally have to acknowledge that such times are consigned to reminiscing about, and thats it!

Did you have a phase in ur life which u call ur "glory days"? For me, it was the final year of high school, my 12th grade - as I look back, that was probably one of the best phases in my life so far. If I was blogging incognito, I would elaborate more about that phase..

In my room today is a cricket bat that I haven't used in more than 2 years, but its there anyway. It reminds me every now and then about them 'gud ol' days' of "kutti ground" cricket! Now, this was a fairly large piece of empty, unused land in Malleswaram, Bangalore, which we made our own ("kutti" translated into Tamil = small) - this was our Lords, our mecca of cricket, in that little world, we ruled! Every so often, we would dare to step out of our kutti ground into the bigger grounds where the "others" played, get walloped so bad and be relegated back to our kutti ground. If there is one long-lasting memory of most of "us" who played there, it would be Aliou's annoying run-up to bowl; Button's cross-batted slog straight down the ground with the power that theatened to make a brick loose in Venkatappa's wall; Yambar's stay at the crease, missing every other ball, but still nudging one here and there, and driving the bowler to sheer frustration; Impo's ability to hit a four of just *any* ball bowled when he wanted to; OiceMan charging down the pitch and glaring at Apaan and attempting to sledge him; Marshall's sheer pace... I could go on and on. I *hope* that the lasting memory that I have left the people above about me is a flowing, elegant, textbook cover-drive, head perfectly over the ball, feet to the pitch, elbow high up.. Truly, those gud ol' days..

Art is..

..something that makes me go, wow!

Art has a different interpretation for every individual, art to me is NOT seeing a block of wood, a tubelight, or a blank sheet of paper on a wall - some 'artist' actually passed those off as pieces of art at the Guggenheim Museum sometime back. The architecture of the Guggenheim is remarkable, but the abstract art that I saw there sometime back, umm..I dunno about that. May appeal to some others, not me..

The Gates (blog below) was amazing for the effect it had on me and the effort that had gone into creating something as elaborate and large-scale as this.

Maureen Dowd (of nytimes) in this editorial talks about what art means to her - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/06/opinion/6dowd.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists%2fMaureen%20Dowd
I liked the point about how art does NOT have to conform to standards set by anyone or enjoy consensus with a vast majority (politics has to) - art is just someone's opinion - its upto the recipient to interpretate it any way he/she wants to.

On a more crass note, there is this poster I wanted to buy - a metal statue of a nude woman (imagine one of those trophies for them film awards) with an old, homeless, tramp in a long overcoat standing in front of her and unbuttoning the coat to the statue - the caption reads, "Expose yourself to art"! :)

The Gates

Art for everyman - that would be the theme for this populist spectacle in Central Park, opening today. Just got back from witnessing a couple of miles of this 23 mile "piece of art" by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. To get a better understanding of what is "art" about this. what this is really, who the artists are, etc. check this - http://www.the-gates-at-central-park.com/index.php?cont=some_artw

This couple has been responsible for several such works of art all over the world for the last 35-40 years almost - using huge amounts of cloth to create an effect in a certain place for a short period of time (their more famous works include wrapping Paris' Pont Neuf in golden cloth and islands in Miami in pink cloth).

So The Gates is 7500 steel frames, draped with orange cloth along the 23 miles of walkway in the Central Park (the $20 million expense borne completely by the artists). The choice of color is awesome - on a dull, windy, chilly, typical grey February day in NY, to have streaks of orange criss-crossing across the huge expanse of Central Park creates a superb effect. Its a reason to get people out to celebrate and socialize - thousands of people witnessed this exhibition in Central Park today - everyone doing their bit to add to the festivities - clicking away with their digicams, out with friends, family and significant others, chipping in with the odd splash of orange in their clothing or accessories.

I couldn't find much literature in the form of brochures or the likes, elaborating further on the art or the artists, giving the feeling that it was left to every individual to experience as is. Btw, the idea is as old as I am (the significant year being 1979)..

Its on for 16 days, starting today - make sure you check it out - its free, its "out there", and may just be able to lift up your spirits on a grey February day in NYC..

Black

Was quite looking forward to seeing this Bollywood movie - and I was thoroughly impressed!

Its about a deaf and blind girl who is taught to live independently by this teacher. And then when the teacher suffers from Alzheimers, the girl helps him recollect some of their past memories. A subject of this nature requires some big names to bring crowds to the theaters and at this point, it doesn't get too much bigger in Bollywood than Amitabh Bacchan and Rani Mukherji as the teacher and the blind and deaf girl - both of them have given in superlative acting efforts and Rani, whose character can't speak has carried the movie completely on her emotive abilities.

The suffering that a girl who can't hear or see has been potrayed poignantly. A fair amount of research has gone into the storytelling and that clearly shows. The British-raj sets are grand and there is a touch of style and grandeur in the director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's deliverance.

Its very encouraging to see topics of this nature being explored by Bollywood, in an effort to make more "meaningful" cinema and break out of the song-and-dance stereo-type (and then you have the Mira Nairs of India reaching out to the world with mind-numbing movies like Bride and Prejudice and the likes).

I loved the delicate handling of the issue of sex in this movie - the only man that the deaf/blind girl knows is her teacher, for him to get her to understand that she may never experience physical love was well-crafted. Again, to see hints of physicality between a teacher and his blind/deaf student may not be easily digested by a vast majority.

Yes, its got its overt displays of dramatizations, but no there are no songs, no running around trees, its "offbeat Bollywood" with a couple of fantastic performances, great direction, elaborate sets and details - 2 hrs well spent!

Groundhog Day

News from the "weather capital of the world", Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania - Phil, the groundhog has spoken and the news ain't good! He did see his shadow this morning, which indicates six more weeks of winter. He has supposedly been predicting the weather for 118 years (the Inner Circle claim its the *same* groundhog all these years - www.groundhog.org) - for the record, he has seen his shadow 94 times and not seen it only 18 times.

Also finally got around to seeing the "American classic", Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray earlier last year - very good movie, recommended watching.

With this not being such a severe winter this far, I was hoping for early Spring (and with Spring comes a wave of optimism), but oh well..

Evolution is just a theory

..says the President of the United States. Its alarming - only 45% of Americans accept the Theory of Evolution (in contrast, 75% of a very Catholic country like Poland accepts it and so does 96% of Japan).

While Evolution maybe a few pages of a chapter in High School textbooks in the US, teachers often shy away from teaching the contents themseleves - evolution is often relegated to self-learning, which may not be discussed in class (fearing protests from fundamentalists and such).

Its one thing to be on the far-right (or far West, a reference to my previous blog), but the number above is alarming! Other countries in the West and the rest of the world struggle to fathom how a country which can lay claims to being the most technologically advanced country in the world, would reject (or not accept) a fundamental theory (Theory of Evolution), which is based on strong scientific evidence, in favor of a theory (of Creationism) which has very little scientific legitimacy (comes down to natural causation vs. supernatural causation). Go figure!

Evolution is not just a theory, it IS fact - and the Bible Belt better come to terms with it! I like that term, "Bible Belt"(read it on SundayTimes, UK) - the blue states in the coasts with the Bible Belt in the middle.

The only decent movie in a long time, Kinsey

That's coz every other movie I have seen of late have been simply super (Million $ Baby, Hotel Rwanda, Monster, even liked Love Song for Bobby Long). Kinsey was not bad, but I probably was a little disappointed that my run of picking the very best movies had finally come to a stop.

Very good acting my Liam Neeson, but there were parts of the movie, which were disturbing - sure was the effect the movie-maker intended for the audience, but not sure if I was upto it. It would make for an interesting debate though - the purpose and role that scientists and funded scientific studies play in society.

While Alfred Kinsey is credited for starting up what ended up being the sexual revolution of the 60's and there was definitely a need for someone to shake things up and bring some taboo topics out in the open, I am not sure his means justified his targetted end.

I liked the way the movie ended - the sexology professor is asked about "love" and he says he is still working on that problem :)

King Andre

Andre Agassi[8] vs. Roger Federer[1] - Australian Open, Quarterfinal, 7:30pm AEST, Jan 25th
Andre - "This is what I prepare for - to play the best in the biggest of situations. It's why I do this." - came just as I was beginning to wonder what the hell Andre was still doing in the game. Does he seriously think he has Grand Slam #9 in him at the unforgiving age of 34?

While Andre Agassi adds great value to every tournament he participates in, while he will consistently thrill the crowds with quality tennis and attitude, pushing the younger stars all the time, reach Quarter/SemiFinals in great style, does he have it in him to go all the way and beat the young'uns to win a title? A Grand slam? I think not..

BUT, the optimist and the romantic that I am, I want Da King to bow out in style. I want Andre to win a major and call it quits, like his best rival, Pistol Pete did couple of years back.

Federer is an *extremely* talented, well-mannered player who lets his tennis do most of the talking (and frankly, someone who may not been challenged sufficiently by his contemporaries this far). His statements today about Andre seemed quite unlike him -
"I think I've proven myself in the past, and I know my game's good enough. Also on my day where I'm not playing perfect, I know I can beat him. He's not as good as he was when he was at the top of the ranking, otherwise he would be there. Fortunately, I'm there... he has to raise his game, not me."

Hmm..Federer is my favorite player on the men's circuit, but tomorrow, I will be rooting for King Andre!

Moooov me!

So I saw the Broadway plan Rent on Friday night. This is my 6th B'way play after Chicago, Aida, Bombay Dreams, Wicked, and Phantom of the Opera.

Why do they always do their contrived best to numb your senses and sensibilities? Am not an authority on the subject (yet), but why doesn't good, serious, realistic theater never make it into Broadway and stay relegated to Off-Broadway?

When I spend all that money, I go in there expecting to be moooooved! That's the effect I expect from a play, movie. While I think I have been choosier at the movies I pick to watch and have had very good experiences with movies over the last few months, I can't say the same of B'way theater.

So, what was the blog-about factor about all these B'way plays?
Chicago - the dance (but having seen the movie before the play, I didn't enjoy it as much, sets leave much to be desired)
Aida - I continue to rate this my best B'way musical so far. Great color, settings, music..the works.
Bombay Dreams - I have a *huge* A.R. Rahman bias (the Indian music director for the musical). I bought the soundtrack the day it hit the stores, loved it, and knew what to expect even before I went to watch it. I liked the 2 percussionists on either side of the stage - one with the tabla and the other on the drums producing some phenomenal sounds.
Wicked - great effects, but they tried the hardest to finish with a happy-ending.
Phantom of the Opera - the best sets, over-rated music (anyone seen the movie?)
Rent - hmm..sets were ok, performances ok, singing was superb, music decent..

So, in the last act of Rent, you have the heroine dying!...well almost...just when I thought I had seen a B'way musical with not such an happy ending...she comes springing back to life after having seen the "warm, white, light" and "Angel was there" (a character in the play who dies of aids) - WHY??!

P.S: For anyone else who has seen the musical, the "moooooov" me is a reference to one of the songs in the musical and the bit where Maureen gets the audience to "moooow" with her...

P.S again: New Brunswick is the theater capital of New Jersey (dont laugh!) - I used to volunteer for the George Street Playhouse and some of the performances there last year were sensational! Gimme some serious, strong performances anyday to witches flying around in mid-air over the audience (Wicked)!