Deprivation does weird things to people

Growing up in India, I was your average cricket fan, playing cricket every evening as a kid, watching the odd match, the odd cricket debate just for conversation's sake..I was normal. When I came to this country 6 yrs back, for the 1st 2-3 yrs, I couldn't get to watch cricket, leave alone play any. This sudden deprivation messed me up big time; it has rendered me a diseased cricket fanatic now! I follow cricket like a man possessed now.

My sources:
Home of cricket on the net
Home of Indian cricket on the net
The best Indian newspaper coverage of cricket on-the-net
A standard on the net where I can also take a peep at soccer news
A cricket columnist's blog
..yes, *everyday*!
I have serious issues: I honestly believe that I should be on the national selection panel!

I was asked why I don't write that much about cricket here, since I clearly think about it a lot. Its because I am afraid I won't be able to stop writing! I could write about the state of test cricket; disgust at 900 runs in a ODI; stronger disgust at 20-20's; new talents in Indian cricket; India's Truman (reference to the movie, Truman Show), Sachin Tendulkar; getting Americans to understand cricket; come up with a theory on why cricket is a craze in certain countries; my irritation when someone says, 'I don't know how you stay up all night and watch cricket'; I could go on and on..

And I do go on and on..with my daily emails to a select few (you know who you are - to think that you actually top my word-count, some of you..God bless YOU! :))

Rest assured, all's well, I haven't sold my soul and shifted my loyalty to any american sport, the madness hasn't abated in anyway. Regular readers of my blog (ahem!) know I play cricket for a team here in NY. The season is just getting started now. This summer, with me being as fit as I have ever been, I am waiting to send the ball scorching through the covers and also to come in running and 'let it rip'!

I am not a desi!

I don't like the term "desi" - its got several negative connotations associated with it, for me to be comfortable calling myself a "desi". Its a self-inflicted demeaning word used for all members of South Asian origin here in the US, both 1st and 2nd generations. Call me Indian, south Asian if you will, even "brown", but not "desi". Btw, a more stylized version is pronounced "daisy" - aaghh!

P.S: If that makes no sense to you, just dismiss it as one of my quirks (to those-who-know-me: who would've thought I had this many quirks about me?!)

Any 24 fans?

Am not hardcore, but will watch it - *hilarious* Jack Bauer link!
My favorites:
In 96 hours, Jack Bauer has killed 93 people and saved the world 4 times. What the *$#& have you done with your life?
AND
Tony was once shot in the neck, rushed to the hospital, underwent emergency surgery and was back on the job in just a few hours. Jack Bauer still can't believe that pussy went to the hospital first.

"Retire early and pursue your passions" - what bs!

When I told a 19-yr old not to fall for network-marketing and that it reduces him to a salesman, he goes, “it equips you to take charge and become a leader” - this is everything thats wrong about network marketing for me. To each his/her own, but it makes my blood boil whenever I hear about this concept.

Maybe its because I was abused as a kid :). I have been hit by these scums thrice in my life when I was a gullible 20-yr old. When someone said they wanted to help me, I thought they were sincere; little did I know they wanted me to sell shampoo so they could be richer. For those not in the know, this is how network marketing (aka pyramid marketing) works. You subscribe to buy stuff from a company. You sell the products to others. You make your commission for all sales. Further, you subscribe other members to do the same stuff (this is the “pyramid” about pyramid marketing and to me, the most disgusting part of it) and for all sales that everyone you introduce make, you get a cut of the commission. So that way, the guy who started it all, makes money everytime someone sells something this company makes – it could be soaps, shampoo, cleaning solution, credit cards, the next Viagra, you name it..

The 1^st time it happened was probably when it hit me the most – I was working behind the bar at an Indian party (yes, yours truly has been a bartender once in his life), when this Indian guy approached me and said he runs an “ecommerce company” and he was looking for smart, enterprising young men like me to join him to make this “dream come true”. I thought I was getting a job even before finishing my degree! The next day he drove to my place in a BMW to tell me how Corporate America doesn't reward hard work and I was better off selling soaps for him, to make my money soon, retire before I was 30, and pursue my other passions. The next time, my then neighbor said he wanted to take me to a “conference”, which would be a great networking opportunity. Everyone there had a well-rehearsed schpeel – how I looked like a bright/smart/enterprising young man and ending with, “remember, there is no such thing called a free lunch”. It was like a cult, the guy on stage would say “hello everybody” and everyone in the hall would say, “hello”! #3 was in Macys – I was checking out shades when this dude stopped to say Macys had great shades and I must be a grad student in the area and he was looking to hire someone to help with his “ecommerce setup” - aaah, by now I had finally smartened to the ways of these bastards!

What do I have against this – for one, it makes scums of these people, they look at everything / everyone as a chance to get them introduced to this “dream opportunity”. You can't simply socialize with these people. Two, there is something terrible about making money out of someone else's work – yeah, it happens all over, but never so blatantly. Three, for someone who chooses to get an education, there is nothing terribly honorable about being a soap salesman! Strong words I know, but my thoughts..

Primary targets – housewives who think they can make money just sitting at home, and struggling students who would do anything to make a buck and supplement their income.

I wish I could shake some sense into that 19-yr old and ask him to focus on his school instead of selling soaps, but I think they have him sold. He just subscribed his dad and best friend too..and I think the reason he wanted to meet me was to get one more subscription out of me..

Fountainhead - a late realization

For me, the joy in reading a good book or watching an excellent movie is ephemeral and transient. A really good book (like Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAMM), Lila, Death of Vishnu, Fury, Catcher in the Rye) leaves me with a few lines/ideas to think about, but ask me about the story or the names of the characters, and I will have NO idea few weeks after I finish the book. They are the lesser details for me - names, events, sometimes even plot. But chances are, I will remember the names and characters in Fountainhead for a while!

Clearly defined, yet leaving enough space for the reader to extrapolate, imagine, and understand on their own. Re-reading important sections of a book is not something I have done before. ZAMM goes down as the only book I have read twice. But after finishing Fountainhead, there were a few sections I wanted to re-visit - Ellsworth Toohey's talk to Peter Keating when he insults him for his lack of originality; Henry Cameron's parting words to Howard Roark; Howard Roark's conversation about second-handers in the cruise with Gail Wynand; Howard Roark's testimony in court in the end; but the line that made me pause, ponder, and smile, was - "Why should any living creature exist in pain? By what conceivable right can anyone demand that a human being exist for anything but his own joy?"

I don't agree with everything that the author claims - I believe there is some 'virtue' in socialism; capitalism is not the panacea that she claims it is (in hindsight, has not proven to be the cure-all that the author perceived it to be in the 40's). There is some happiness in giving - the gumption that YOU receive in making life better for someone else, purely for your own selfish reasons, YOUR gumption.

Spoiler (dont read further if you haven't read the book yet and plan to): Roark blowing the Cortlandt project up - that was drastic. If it was his (or the author's) means to an end, where he could present his reasoning and thoughts to a larger audience in the court and try to get them to see the light, it might be justified. But could he have made his point without blowing up money spent (albeit, not well spent) - maybe..

But yes, goes right up there, among the best books I have ever read. I ask myself - how much of a Howard Roark can I dare to be? This is a great book to read in your college days, before you start your career, most people read it then. I didn't, am glad I finally caught up to it..

Rang De Basanti

They should make more Indian movies like this! No bullshit, no convoluted happy ending, somewhat idealistic, maybe impractical in parts, but gets the message across. "Swades of this year", said some online reviews. I was deeply affected by Swades too last year. Some would choose to dismiss it as idealistic, but whats wrong in being idealistic? Swades hit the spot for those who dared to 'go with their heart', the rest dismissed it as 'idealistic and impractical'.

Everytime I hear the song, "Yeh jo des hai tera" from Swades, it brings a stinging feeling of guilt (the use of shehnai to produce the desired effect, a stroke of genius by the music director, A.R. Rahman). Rang De Basanti had several good songs, but the rendering of "Luka Chupee" was beautiful - rarely do I concentrate on the lyrics in a song (the tune is supreme for me), but this song had it all down.

Won't delve into the plot and such, but every youngster in India should watch this movie..and yes, I feel terrible saying so, sitting in the US!

Will jump off a bridge to break the monotony!

Snooze starts: 6:30am
Wake up: good day - 7:06am (snooze 4 times), lazy day - 7:15am (5 snoozes), Friday - 7:24am (6 snoozes)
Bkfst: cereals, soy milk, fruit
Into work: between 8:30-9am
Lunch: 12:30 - soup & salad
Gym: 6:45pm
Dinner: 6" veggie patty sub - Subway on 10th Street & 5th Ave, Bklyn
Back home: 9pm
Aah my 'free time' - can be spent hanging out, watching tv, reading, surfing, sometimes working, ironing (yes, of course :)), chatting
12 - EOD (End-of-Day)

And like this it goes, EOD to EOD...and then EOW! One wkend to the next..pressure to do something - coz you know they are gonna ask you on Monday in the elevator and at the water cooler! Am not the most convincing liar abt 'this friend's birthday party, which went crazy'. This, that, and the other...and then Sunday evening arrives! Just as I wonder why am I doing this..a paycheck arrives! And then life makes sense...for a day..

Thank God Americans take more vacations than any other country in the world (a 'fact' I just made up, go with the flow..) - that's the respite from everything we do, our vindication, a chance to break the monotony, do crazy cool stuff..like bungee jumping from a bridge (see, I wanted to impress upon you that I tried bungee jumping in Whistler, Canada recently. And I just didn't want to throw it out there, its all in the journey..walk you through my daily humdrum and then finally, arrive at the bungee jumping! No, I dont have any serious mental issues yet where I want to jump off a bridge *without* a rope around me :))

Look fwd to my next vacation..

You finally *see* it?

Does this happen to you too - you hear about something the 1st time and then you see its all around you and wonder how you missed not noticing it for so long? I have a theory - there is no shortage of information today, its all over, its overwhelming! What there is a shortage for, is attention. We have become selective on what we suck in and think about, our information filters have become highly refined. That's the only reason we don't *see* it. And when someone talks to you about it or somehow you learn of it the 1st time, you look around and realize it was always there, but you couldn't care about it before..
Deep..yeah...

You stay classy!

Thats my message to you all for the new yr! Had a great vacation to British Columbia, Canada (Vancouver, Whistler, Victoria) and Vegas towards the end of last year. Will be more regular with my blog in the new yr! :)

"You stay classy, San Diego" is Ron Burgundy's line from the movie, Anchorman. Everyone has their favorites, but who would your funniest man alive, be? There are all the late night show hosts, Dave Chappell, Seinfeld, Larry David, Billy Crystal, Bill Murray, etc.; for me, its Robin Williams. His creativity, the stuff he comes up with on the fly, most of all, the speed at which the guy thinks is amazing! Robin Williams, Live on Broadway and his 2-hr special on James Lipton's Inside the Actors Studio are absolute classics!

But my latest favorite comedian is Will Ferrell! He is the guy who is annoyingly funny. The way he uses sarcasm is awesome, and considering I would top most of my friends' most-sarcastic-bastard list, I absolutely dig his comic style. And to me, his top movie was Anchorman, the Legend of Ron Burgundy. Its got all these quotable, easy, gimme lines. The 1st time you watch the movie, you might find it good (yes, its always weird the 1st time :)), but I assure you..no....I *guarantee* you, the 2nd time will be way funnier than the 1st, and it only gets better from there on (God bless HBO for showing it every other day)

Some of my personal favorites from the movie - sex panther ("60% of the time it works everytime"), jogging ("Veronica and I are trying this new fad called jogging, or maybe, its 'yogging' with a soft-j. Apparently, you just run aimlessly for miles, supposed to be wild"), "Am kind of a big deal you know. I have many leather bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.", "I am in a glass cage of emotions", "the only way to bag a classy lady is to give her 2 tickets to the gun show", "Discovered by the Germans, they named it San Diego, which in German means whale's vagina", etc, etc.- IMDB lists the whole bunch here - search for the quote about Octagon on that page..another funny one.

The problem is many women haven't and don't see the movie, the dudes recognize an Anchorman reference, but it'd be cool if the ladies got the 'joke' when we scream, "smelly pirate hooker from whore island"! Classy indeed.. :)

"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