You Can Call Me On My Mobile Phone

No wonder they call it the Xtreme Sports Bar. Because we visit that place bar bar (not just because it's a bar) and extreme things happen while we are there. For example, Zee Sports is the channel they were playing on the TV screens the first time we went there. And why not, doesn't that qualify as a sports channel? Yes Sir, it does. While there has been definite improvement now, it is only to the level of playing Ten Sports these days. Yes yes, even that qualifies as a sports channel.

No problems about it at all, because just the act of playing a any sports channel on TV justifies its billing (we'll get to the billing part in a while) as a Sports Bar. Speaking of bills, they have a couple of billiards tables too, and you can snook around as well. Considering how crowded it is, no one really pays any attention to what one does there. Whether or not you pay attention to what others are doing, you have to pay the bill. Ok, T'll stop.

And continue here. Because Kaak had returned from Singapore and we had to make him feel premium, we decided to check the (then) newly opened Xtreme Sports Bar that Friday evening when they also have the karaoke nights.

One got excited about karaoke and decided to give singing a try. And try one did. Confidence stemmed from the fact that except for Kaak and Pole, occasionally only, no one would really take notice of (pay attention to is way too off, not even worth twelve grams of that) my singing and I could sing, scream, blare, be silent (there was the loud karaoke music anyway) and take it out in the name of singing. More importantly, have one thing checked in the list of things I have done. And sing (put voice to words in a rhythm I thought was right) , I did - this one and this one . Sorry Stipebhai and Gallagher bandhu, I hope you will pardon me for this transgression. But then, maybe I made a few people hear your songs for the first time. Hope that's redemption enough.

After all that is said and done written till now, the singing was actually nothing much to write about. Seriously, it was so mediocre (even that's a compliment) that even I don't remember it. The singing apart, the DJ(or the karaoke conductor?) was a very interesting man. One was quite pumped up after the singing (there was some jumping with the singing as well. Mostly because I could not see the screen from where I was standing and there were many people walking in between) and went to the DJ(or the karaoke conductor?) to say Hi and thank him. Here's what happened.

Me: Hey, thanks man. It was good fun.
He : Great! (Nodding his head, like the way a grandfather would to his grandson after the grandson comes running to him after his first cycle ride)
Me: Looks like a good place. Hope to see you here sometime soon.
He: I'm here every Friday, come have a good time.
Me: Nice, see you soon....your good name?
He: Val. My name is Valentine, you can call me Valentine.
Me: My name is Nikhil. You can call me on my mobile phone.

Val was not amused. I don't think it's fair to have expected him to be amused in any way. I still find it amusing though.

And then, the other day while we were there, those girls we vacated our seats for.....

Are You Really That Hot Then? Curious Incidents In The Life Time

Are You Really That Hot Then?

Location: Aboard AI 620, Mumbai to Bangalore.
Time: Between 2:15 and 2:30 am.
Date: January 17, 2009.
Feeling before the incident: One of immense relief having reached the airport only minutes before the departure and miraculously enough, being able to clear the security, customs and the immigration check (Yes, it was a domestic flight. But since it was Air India, the boarding was from the international terminal and hence the customs and the immigration checks). And why not miracle, for I had met God himself just before reaching the Airport. And I am sure that the miracle was only because I had met God and not Cyrus Sahukar. Yes, this gentleman. A gentleman, he indeed is.

Story Before The Story:
Dear God insisted that I visit him in Chembur, fully aware ignorant of the fact that I had reached Bombay at around midnight after a tiring, but very enjoyable trip to Bhopal and that the next flight to Bangalore was only an hour and a half from then. And when Inshah Allah and one suggested that we meet at Hiranandani, we were told by God that Chembur is only 20 minutes from Hiranandani and that we should immediately head to Chembur. And the plan of action from then on was straightforward. Listen to whatever God says - check. Agree to whatever God says - check. Do whatever God asks you to - check. I don't know what means of transport God uses to reach Chembur from Hiranandani in 20 minutes, and please don't tell him this, it took us at least 12 minutes to find an autorickshaw-wallah who would take us at that unGodly hour.

Masha Allah was not able to make it to the meeting with God as he was busy vodka pastry* eating and doing what not-ing with God knows who(oh, God definitely knows everything!) at Theobroma. Anyway, through a Facebook photo comment later, he informed us that he had to go to office early the next morning and hoped that Inshah Allah compensated for volume. Compensate, Inshah Allah did. But what about mass and density, Mashah Allah?

And then God worshipping and receiving blessings happened, which included ending up as the last customers in a restaurant cum bar (zyaada) and eating more than the money we had to pay. The restaurant owner taking pity on us (what else could he take out , not his anger definitely. After all, God was with us) and giving us 30 rupees to be able to pay for the auto.

We returned to heaven, picked up my luggage and headed to the Airport. Inshah Allah got down at Vikhroli leaving me and the auto-wallah to calculate the probability of reaching the airport on time before the flight took off.

Then, with a miracle leaving me feel very blessed for spending that time with God, I was able to board the aircraft.

The Story:

I will not say that the Air India air hostesses are nothing much to write about. There is lots to write about, but then maybe that is not something you would not be interested in. But there is something about all air hostesses I would like to write. Looks like the passengers they hate the most are the male passengers (guests, if you are flying FingKisser) in their early 20s and traveling alone. I feel miserable for making them feel miserable. The worst thing one can do to another person is not acknowledge the other person's presence and I credit the air hostesses for giving me this insight. Sad part though, is that I was and still continue to be at the receiving end. Not receiving perhaps, their attention that is.

Leave alone free snacks or meals, except for a few toffees, the air hostesses don't give you any attention on the Mumbai-Bangalore route. (Another matter that it's the same case on all routes!). So I was pleasantly surprised when the AI airhostess woke me up to serve tea and biscuits. I was tired and it took me a while to register what the lady was saying to me. Then, I realised that she was serving tea and was asking me to hold the cup - plastic, with a handle. Used to holding the cup the way I used to, I did not hold the cup by the handle. While I was pleasantly surprised that she was able to tolerate me for that long, I sensed that her patience was wearing thin. 'It is fine, serve me the tea', I said. Still, managing to maintain her calm^, she said, 'Sir, I will burn your fingers with the tea'. Then, in a moment of sheer genius, one said,'Oh, is it? Are you really that hot then?'.

If looks could kill, I would not be writing this post.

I am glad that
- looks don't actually kill.
- she din't have me thrown of the plane mid-air.
- she din't have me arrested after we landed in Bangalore
- I met God in Bombay.


* Mashah Allah, pardon my memory and lack of sophistication and propriety. I know it's name is not exactly the Vodka Pastry. What is it? How is Theobroma doing now? Do you still Page 3 there? Are you alive?
^ She has to maintain her calm because it is her kaam. Work kaam, not desire kaam.

And Then One Voted

What I had to go through to get my voter ID card will take up two and a half blog posts, but after having cast my vote now, I feel it was worth all the effort.

Here's to Indian democracy -







Wrong finger?




















Thank you very much, DNA. Huh.




















Old Airport Road, Bangalore at 6:45 am.
































The Polling Station











List of candidates and alternate ID proofs.
















The polling booth at 7 am. There were problems with the EVM and polling began only by 7:15.






















Heartening to see the queues getting longer!















Do follow our analysis, opinions, agreements, disagreements on these polls on the election blog - http://indiapolls2009.blogspot.com.

Mysore Dasara Trip 2008 Or Why I Can Now Die A Happier Man - I

The Theory of Happening Trips has been proved once again. That the best trips are those which are decided at the spur of the moment with minimum fuss about the planning, stay, travel and the company. And that the ones that are planned and thought over, over and over, never quite happen.

The Mysore Trip for the Dasara celebration started by proving the The Theory of Happening Trips right. Plan Zero was that Ashutosh and I weould leave from Bangalore on his bike either on Wednesday night or on Thursday depending on how fried a day Wednesday would be. Plan Zero never took off as Ashutosh found out that he was the only resource for a project that would save the world from global warming and end poverty. Plan One involved asking Joshi if he could come and turned out that he had to work the next day on a project to bring about world peace. I cannot blame him too, for he'd have only a couple of hours to decide. But then all of us are not like and me, who set out on the Wayanad Trip with just a day's notice. The rest, of course, were too busy with more important things in life. Taking inspiration from them all, I realised even I could not waste more time on trivial things anymore and did a very important thing - start on the trip rightaway. After a quick call to Prasanna (THE man, the selfless friend, philosopher and Mysore guide, gracious and tolerant host, and to be called as SP henceforth ) informing him about my late-night arrival in Mysore, followed by a packing of trip essentials and a quick bath, I found myself jostling for space in the Bangalore City Volvo bus, since 67% of those working in and around Airport Road were heading towards Majestic area to take buses or trains to travel to their homes.





Kempegouda Bus-stand, Bangalore ~ 10:30 P.M














On reaching Majestic, I realised that 73% of Bangalore had arrived there, looking for a bus to travel out of Bangalore. I know 73% is exaggerated as it can get, but looking at the current economic downturn and the threat of massive lay-offs in the IT industry looming large, will there be a day in the near future where we could possibly see such an exodus out of Bangalore? I'm sure the copywriters in the media would be salivating at such a prospect. I can bet my left index finger that at least 38.2% of them would have thought of such a headline - [Insert well-known IT company name] Shuts Down Bangalore Operations, Employees Asked To Log Out. Even that, I think, is a fairly exaggerated scenario. That of a mass exodus of those working in the IT/BPO industry in Bangalore. Definitely not the copy-writers, they have their copies ready I'm sure.

I pushed, shoved, shouted, tripped over, bumped into and apologised my way through an ocean of people and reached the area from which buses depart towards Mysore. Discovered that KSRTC has launched a low-cost version of their popular air-conditioned buses named Sheetal(meaning cold). These buses run at a fairly good frequency and I did not have to wait for too long to find one with a comfortable seat. At Rs. 137 per passenger with comfortable seating and air-conditioning, I'm sure even those at Capitol Hill will have no problems in voting for this deal.

With Radio Indigo giving me good company and a refreshing coffee stop-over at Maddur, the journey was smooth and comfortable.



















Maddur Bus-stand. ~1:30 A.M

On entering Mysore, I called up SP so that he could reach the bus-stand by the time I reached there. And by the time I finished the call, the bus stopped and I realised that we were already at the bus-stand. I was glad that Mysore wasn't like Bangalore that it would take one at least an hour to reach the bus-stand on entering the city, even though it meant that I had to wait for SP for about fifteen minutes to come and pick me up.







Mysore Bus-stand ~1:00 A.M




























The warm and thoughtful man that SP is, he had brought a jacket for me in his room-mate's car that he had come in to pick me up. Now this is non-sense and I'd advise you not to read further as the previous sentence made no sense except that I tried to play on the word warm. But yes, it was really thoughtful of SP to have brought that jacket for me.

After straight and few cover drives through the deserted streets of Mysore, which only a few hours from then, would be teeming with people wanting to catch a piece of the Dasara action, we reached SP's home. Again, there was no reason for me to mention to the straight and the cover drives because we were not on a cricket field, but then I plan to go to watch the third and fourth day's play at India-Australia Test match here in Bangalore. That thought was playing on my mind while we were driving and I was hoping that I'd get to watch Dada's cover drives and Sachin's straight drives, Dravid's defences and Laxman's drives and defence. Hence the drives find themselves tossed up into this post. But then before this post goes on to become a post on Dada's retirement, which is definitely coming soon, I better get back on track than queer the pitch. We reached SP's place with out wickets intact(it would be redundant and cliched to say that there were no maidens on the road to bowl us over and hence our wickets were intact) and danced to Koyal Si Teri Boli from Beta. No, we did not do any dancing and I'm writing all non-sense. I'm really exhausted now and will continue writing this post once I've returned to sanity after a good night's sleep. Now, are you really reading till this point? Then there's one more thing I want to tell you and want you to listen. Listen, not to me, but to Mar Jaava from Fashion. I think Shruti Pathak will go places and I should go to bed. I promise to keep the next post relevant and write about what we saw at Mysore the next day. Till then, Mar Jaaava..

Dear Aniruddha Bahal, It's Not Funny

Dear Aniruddha Bahal,

Not a week passes in my life without I mentioning strongly recommending Bunker 13 to people I come across and who seem even remotely interested in reading among those. If I were deeply religious, one would have observed that I go back to Bunker 13 more often that I go to the religious texts. Of course, one needs the kind of madness that made MM the man he was. When I die, I will be glad that I introduced you and your writing to a lot of people around me. While I most eagerly look forward to another Bunker 13 and another MM from you, I really can't understand the need for you to invent Tony M at this moment. Yes, we Indians are starved for quality humour and what we are being served now does no justice to our discerning intellect, but I will remain skeptical of this attempt of yours till I watch the said show and find out if it really deserves you. Tehelka was excellent work and I admire you not only for what you brought to the rot to light, but also how you withstood all the persecution that followed. I really admire Shankar Sharma and Devina Mehra for the same. Please convey my best wishes to them and to Tarun as well. One need not look beyond you guys for inspiration on how to fight back in the face of all odds and come back and come back doubly strong. You started Cobrapost much before those of us in the web 2.0 infected world starting throwing about terms like RSS feeds and news aggregators. For all we know, Cobrapost might just take off and make a strong comeback if you spend more time on it that trying to humour us by being Tony Bhasand. And what is this? Is this what Aniruddha Bahal has become?

Is your absurd sense of humour your forte?

Humour is not the fort. If the truth in the joking then the peoples laughing and spreading all over out from the Naini fort on the river.

I really hope you and your publisher are working on another Bunker 13 and you won't disappoint your followers and readers. Maybe your following is a billionth of that of Sharukh Khan and you are not Arundhati Roy, reading whose work kids think they become intellectuals overnight and go around telling the entire world about it. We are you fans by choice, not by the lack of it. Hope you know that.



Maybe I'm over-reacting just on the ten questions you answered for the Outlook interview. But I hope you understand that you are at your best when you are either stinging or you are writing. And please don't meet Vipul Shah or Akshay Kumar, otherwise we'll soon be watching a movie titled Stingg is Kinng, with the unnecessary extra alphabets and there is also the threat of them wanting you to write the script.

Hope to see you back to writing soon.

Regards,
Nikhil


PS. I must mention here that I immensely enjoyed reading A Case of Exploding Mangoes. Just a note that you now have some competition in fiction writing about military, politicians, war, spying and espionage in the sub-continent.

Image Credit: Outlook

Welcome (to) Ashok Mishra

Just when we thought no one except Gulzaarsaab, Javedsaab, Kirkireji and to a certain extent Neelesh Mishra could write enjoyable songs for Hindi movies, we have a welcome addition to this honoured club. Let's extend a warm welcome to Ashok Mishra. Ashok Mishra debuts as a lyricist with Welcome to Sajjanpur. Forget all this nonsense about how the songs try and put the cool back in the gaon, or how the songs try and show that it's all happening in the hinterland, or even how the album really tries hard to bring out the latent “gaon-waala / gaon-waali” in all of us. Just sit back and take a good listen to the songs and I'm sure you will come round to appreciate the talent that Ashok Mishra is. And it definitely doesn't harm one's chances if he's in the good company of Swananand Kirkire and Shantanu Moitra and moreover for a Shyam Benegal movie. If I were to start writing songs for Hindi movies, this would be my dream team to start working with.



You can listen to the songs here or better still, buy the CD. Or download the songs and make sure you at least ten people around you listen to each song! My picks are Sita Ram, Aadmi Aazad Hai and Ek Meetha Marz De Ke.

PS. Found out that there was no Wikipedia entry for Ashok Mishra. Here's the page I've created. If you more information about this talented lyricist, please go ahead and add it to the page.

The Real Hero of Rock On !!

None of the following are the real heroes of Rock On!!

Farhan Akhtar

Arjun Rampal

Shahana Goswami

Prachi Desai

Javed Akhtar(Only he can write both - Zehreeley Zehreely Kaale Neele Peele and Jo Tum Ho Toh Hawa Mein Bhi Mohabbaton Ka Rang Hai with equal ease. Yes he wrote Dard-e-Disco.)

Jason West (He's the cinematographer)

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (As Ehsaan mentioned, it was just another jam session for them. Western music comes naturally to Ehsaan and Loy and I'm sure if ever there's a Rock On!! 2, they'l do much much much better.)

Ritesh Sidhwani (He does remain a hero for me, not only for this movie but also for the way he and Farhan have carried their friendship and passion to this level)

And not Purab Kohli, Luke Kenny or even Chakravyuh!

To me, the hero of Rock On!! is Anu Malik. Why, you ask? Because it takes something to play yourself in a role in which you know you are being ridiculed. Well, almost. Some of us know it as the ability to laugh at oneself. Perhaps that's Anu Malik's idea of laughing at himself. Hats off to you Anubhai!



PS. Hats off definitely, but I don't know about the wig inside the hat/cap!

Image Credit: www.radiosargam.com

Koel - Kahaan Gayi Teri Boli?

[Promise to myself - This is the first and last time that a post is entirely about a celebrity]

Maybe this post was supposed to be about Rock On!! Or it was supposed to be about my our music story or about Vajra, our college band comprising of Mrinabh, Joji, Chinsi and Shubam which I briefly managed during our final year. No, it's about none of them. Instead, turns out that it's about Koel Purie. I'm no style or fashion expert for I still don't understand all the brouhaha over Vidya Balan's sense of dressing or even the apparent lack of it and surely will never understand it. But I can definitely see how worn down Keol appears now, compared to her Everybody Says I'm Fine days.

Dear Koel,

Congratulations on your new TV show - On the Couch with Koel. Definitely helps when you have a father like him,, doesn't it?. If you are listening, can you please clarify this for us? Were you drunk or high on drugs while interviewing Salman Khan on your show? And what's with that forlorn look in Rock On!!? For God's, discerning viewers', your followers and my sake, you looked like Purab's mother in the movie! Did Niharika Khan have some evil designs for you?! Please take care of yourself and your appearances in forthcoming TV shows and movies. We are watching you. Hope you are listening to us.

Regards,
Nikhil

PS. Rock On!! is good. And sorry guys, I downloaded the songs. But then I have the lyrics of all songs except Zehreelay by heart and have made at least ten people around me listen to at least two songs each from the movie. Hope that makes it up for downloading the songs. I'd have been really glad if you guys made the album available for free download and recovered the money on the music by touring across the country and performing with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. That perhaps wouldn't be BIG money, but you'd have done more than your bit to promote good music in India and encouraged other musicians to try and work towards a better solution to end piracy.

PPS. Technically, this post still remains about Koel, right? Post scripts aren't considered a part of the main post, are they?

Hazaaron Khwahishein Nahin, Bas Ek Khwahish

Dear Kirkireji,

I hope you, like I do, believe that this is your best song till date. I do not say best song ever because I believe, hopefully you also do, that there are many more such gems to come from you, both as a writer and a singer. It hurts me no end when I see such a beautiful composition being trivialised by being used in a television commercial*. I understand that perhaps you did not have as much say as folks at Virgin Records or at PNC, but this is still something we find hard to digest. Not music to our ears, if I may say.

I earnestly request you not to hurt your fans henceforth by letting your songs, either sung or written, be used for purposes other than for reaching musical ecstasy. Yes, there's an odd aberration like this one, but we know you're back in tune after this. Your songs, like this one, are music lovers' secrets, and only those in the know of it really understand how valuable they are. Please let them remain that way.

Please convey my regards to Jhingranji, Shantanuda and Mishraji.

Regards,
Nikhil

* The television commercial in question is the new Airtel+Nokia ad featuring Abhay Deol and Raima Sen. Glad that it's not up on YouTube yet. Glad that I'm not linking to it from my blog.

Happy Independence Day

So it will be a Happy Independence Day after all. The Box Office is keeping producers of this movie happy and that the lead character's name is Happy is only, well, a happy co-incidence.

Abhinav Bindra's win at Beijing has exhausted all possible phrases with the word gold in it. With so many (more) news channels and newspapers(and some more) around, no wonder everything looks and sounds the same. So this Independence Day, all of India, which, to the news channels consists of everyone in their air-conditioned, glass-walled news studios and those whose who overwhelm them with text messages and emails will celebrate the arrival of India on the world scene (Have you already forgotten the nuclear deal?) and the emergence of a confident, self-assured youth here in India. Thank you Abhinav, if not for you, we'd have had a very gloomy Independence Day celebration or so our newsmen and women would have liked us to believe. Left with nothing but the increasing inflation and rising costs, they would have perhaps shed a tear or two(damn, it's already raining, why add to people's misery?) about the floods down South or would've gone on about how freedom is not all that happy as a certain government is making others dance to its tunes, rather not to dance to any tunes.

Rabbi's second album is out and Bilqis(Jinhe Naaz Hai) perhaps captures my sentiments best. I still remember talking about the short public memory with Sap while the Satyendra Dubey episode was making the headlines and I now wonder if any of us still remembers him. What I did not know was about Navleen Kumar. A social worker fighting for the land rights of tribals in Nallasopara, Thane District, she died on receiving 19 stabs on June 19, 2000. She was fighting against the powerful Thakur family which has built nothing less than an empire in those parts of the Mumbai suburbs. Strange enough that I did not come across this earlier, as Nallasopara is very close to Boisar which I (used to) visit quite often. Rabbi remembers her in Bilqis(Jinhe Naaz Hai) along with Shanmugan Manjunath and Bilqis Bano. Here's the video -




We're still a young country and have a long way to go. And long way in the life time of a country usually means centuries. Neither are we going to rule the world tomorrow nor will we cease to exist as a country the day after. Someone please go tell that to our media persons. Or am I asking for too much from them? What the hell, I'm free to think and wish in this country and that remains my wish for this Independence Day. That we try and nip this obsessive celebrity following and excessive consumerism in the bud or we'll end up as something else. Now, that's for another post. Enjoy the extended weekend. Did someone say Independence Day? What's that? Isn't that on July 4?

The 3 Mistakes Of My Life

Reading the book, though, was not one of them. Liked the fact that it is set in Ahmedabad and to a fair extent captures the essence of life in the city. The book is not so much about bringing about the ethos and isolation of an entire generation to the fore as the blurb says. But we know these marketing types, don't we? Read the book if you have nothing better to do for a couple of hours.

Earlier posts about Ahmedabad on this blog.

Viva la Vida and Brian Eno

Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends sees the coming together of two brilliant brains, Coldplay and Brian Eno. Having briefly worked with Coldplay on their last album X&Y, Brian Eno has gone on to produce Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends for them. And by the looks and the listens of it, and as Guy Berryman mentions in the interview to Rolling Stones, they've gone into exploring newer territories and they've come up trumps. It might take a while for the music to be digested, but once it is, it just gets into the system smoothly.

Coldplay performing Viva la Vida at the MTV Movie Awards 2008



Rolling Stones India



It needs another blog post to do justice to the genius that Brian Eno is, but I was introduced to him through this song from The Son's Room. I can not remember a more perfect use of a song in a movie.

Here's the song -

Good Will Hunting Fucking Short Version

Ok, I'm not able to decide which one is better of the two - the movie Good Will Hunting or the following Fucking Short Version. Can you please help me decide?




The movie is excellent no doubt, and I was pleasantly surprised to know that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote the screenplay and went on to win the Academy and the Golden Globe Awards for the Best Original Screenplay. That's some really good talent, and I'm glad they've gone on to do much better with their movie careers following Good Will Hunting. Have been following movie soundtracks more closely these days and a very poignant Miss Misery by Elliot Smith comes on as the credits roll in the end. Sad to know that it lost to My Heart Will Go Yawn On from Titanic for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Even sadder that like many other gifted musicians, Elliot Smith ended his life at 34 under what else, mysterious circumstances. Hope you're doing well wherever you are Mr. Smith, there will be a lot of listens to songs in your whispery, spiderweb-thin delivery style in the coming days.

While we're on the movie, lucky are those of who have Chuckies, Seans and Prof. Lambeaus in believe in ourselves more that we believe ourselves. Sonofabitch, he stole our line, the producers of the movie would say. No wonder since the tag line of the movie goes - Some people can never believe in themselves, until someone believes in them. That's perhaps the best line of the movie - Sonofabitch, he stole my line. No, wait. There's something that tops it - I gotta go see about a girl!

The Truth About India

Now, after traveling some eight thousand miles around the country, I know approximately as little as I did on my first arrival. However I've seen a lot of people and places, and at least somewhat more detailed and precise idea of my ignorance than I did in the beginnning.

Paul Bowles in Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue, an excerpt from which is carried in India In Mind, edited by Pankaj Mishra.




Not surprising at all, an opinion like this coming foreign traveler. But it holds equally true for an Indian traveler like me. The more one discovers India, more is the feeling of having known nothing at all about this magnificent place.

PS. The book is put together well. It is a collection of pieces from books by foreign authors and travelers about India. Also, LibraryThing doesn't seem to be working. Anyone fans of the website and missing it as much as I am now?

Earth Day Barkings

And one was under the impression that today is Tuesday. With each day being gobbled up for such causes, one wonders if 365 days are enough. So while Google does very dull logo change, the message is gotten across by our good friend Hutch. Such a gentleman he is. Tough, and very hard for him to resist it must be in a place like Bangkok. Every possible pun intended, in a very earthly way. His status message on GTalk -

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.
~Cree Indian Proverb
Happy Earth Day!!!

Well done, my boy. But that's not enough. One needs a more powerful message from an even more powerful messenger, our Boss. No wonder he has the veto power, the power to say yes while everyone else is in opposition and the result is still in his favour. Such is his power and that of his veto. Power, by the way happens to be another creature who doesn't have anything to say on this. Here's Boss's message on World Earth Day through his GTalk addressing system-

♫

today is earth day lets piss on the plants and shit in the fields...give back to mother earth

Short, actionable and powerful. Your words are our orders, Boss. Come, let's hit the fields right away.

Learning For The Day - Rukmini Devi Arundale

Till today, in fact a few hours before this post, I was unaware of the existence of Rukmini Devi Arundale.

Funny earlier and it's a life fact now that, as one discovers and comes across more things unknown, it appears one knows a lot lesser than what was thought earlier. That's the joy of discovery and learning.

Came across her profile in the India Today's special issue of 60 Greatest Indians. An interesting fact - she was offered the Presidency by Morarji Desai which she declined. Would've been good to have a danseuse as our President. Unlike the present one, who doesn't quite do justice to her more illustrious lineage . Hope there's no dent to the President's honourable chair during this term. So far so good, Smt. Patil-Shekhawat has been. No action is also good action. And as the elections draw close, I feel India is terribly missing Mr. Pramod Mahajan. That will be another post, but Mr. Mahajan, India needed you and one moment of insanity took us away from you. You were the best Prime Minister our nation never had. Rest In Peace, Pramodji.

BlogCamp 2006

How do I feel now? Great!. If you were at the BlogCamp, you'd know what I'm talking about.


BlogCamp un-happened. The success of this meet was no mean feat considering the novel nature of this event. The fact that it was an unconference and attracted around 200 participants from all over India speaks volumes about the passion bloggers share towards blogging. Before I forget to mention and later commit sucide, only to be sent back to earth by Yamraj that I didn't blog enough in my lifetime, hats off to Kiruba. This man made just about everything possible and with such ease. You are the man. Peter, Dina, Neha, Jace, Syed handled just about everything with wiki-ease. Now, I do not know what wiki-ease is. Do not ask me. And I am not stoned, Nehaji!




[Nehaji talking to students from ASJ and I listening to it, while passing off as recording the conversation]




To me,quality conversations and discussions were the biggest gains out of the unconference. Opportunities to learn, contribute and experience were plenty be it the technical sessions by the Bothack junta or the open sessions on Blogs and freedom of expresson,Are comments important?. The best conversations of course happened over coffee or over lunch. Meeting and sharing ideas, experiences with people- geeks, journalists, consultants, journalists, analysts was a great experience.

Personally, I was there to understand and explore the reasons behind people's passion for blogging. And it was definitely heart-warming to meet in person people who take their blogging seriously. Amit Agarwal, for example. Commanding a readership running into millions and retaining it is not an easy job. But then blogging is his job. Amit writes about the interesting people he met at the BlogCamp here. Thanks for the mention and it was a fantastic experience spending time with you, Amit. BeachCamp by the night was great fun!


Talking of the BeachCamp, which was wonderful, for the fact that we had the entire beach for us, the bloggers. So many things happened with bloggers in high spirits that I'm now thinking of making a movie on bloggers to be titled 'Bloggers' Beach' on the lines of Joggers' park. Sad, Perizaad Zorabian doesn't blog. But Bipasha Basu does blog here.And did I mention the free food and the booze at the BeachCamp?!;)


On a more serious note, the high-spirited discussion with
Rahul about media, technology, business, retail and just about everything will definitely hold me in good stead for a long time to come. Thanks Rahul for all the encouragement. There was a nice little discussion brewing between Rahul, Amit and Om[ from Page Traffic] of which I enjoyed every bit. Awesome time with Karan, Vikram and Nidhi from
WebChutney. More on Nidhi(to be referred to a Chutney henceforth) in the following posts. She accompanied me to Pondicherry and spent two days here. Vikram, the chaos in your head right now is definitely leading to something big! Work on it.

Wonderful was the time spent at the BeachCamp with what I'd like to call the Tam geek gang. No offence meant, but somehow I find the name funny and interesting. These guys were the backbone of the BlogCamp and they deserve every bit of the credit and appreciation. Ganesh, Ganesh[ Rupya], Aswin, Arpit, Bhargav, Satish and the rest of the junta's energy and zeal was infectious. The long drawn discussion with Arpit, lasting till 3:00 a.m. gave some shape to a few ideas brewing in my mind. These hopefully should see the light of the day soon. We saw the light of day really early at 6:30 in the morning. Sleep, I did though yesterday. Straight for 17 hours. Thanks to the energy I invested at the BlogCamp and in the next two days following that, taking Chutney around Pondicherry.




[Sunil Gavaskar at the BlogCamp.]


On day 2, it was a wonderful experience meeting with Shailaja Neelakanthan of GigaOm, with GigaOm being one of my favourite sources for news on technology and start-ups. At the stalls set up at the venue, it was interesting exchanging ideas with people from merinews and Zoho. Great to see activities happening in India in the media scene. But there's still a long way to go in community formation and delivering to their needs, and in return getting the community to work for you. Rajesh from Zoho, writes about my organization PlanetRead on his blog here. It was good meeting interesting people doing some really cool work like you, Rajesh.

Osama Manzar of the Digital Empowerment Foundation and the Manthan Award was at the unconference with his son Abner. Our venture
BookBox won a special mention at last year's Manthan awards and Osama was happy to see me and know about BookBox's progress.

Also met Garima from Watblog, Preetam Rai from Global Voices Online and Jammy over coffee, lunch and IRC, not respectively. Prayas and Ashwan from pinstorm were there too.

But as Subhash Rai of India Online Journalism mentions in his post here, the best conversation happened in the smokers' corner with Dr. Subho Ray of IAMAI, Mr. Sukumar of eZeeBags.com, Samrat Choudhary from Hindustan Times and Rajesh from The Week. Though I listened for most of the time , it was truly an enlightening and enriching experience. The wote of thanks
by Babloojee was interesting.

Chutney and I teamed up for the quiz and missed qualifying for the finals by a couple of answers. A decent quiz that was, with a couple of T-shirts flying our way for the audience questions. Felt great coming back to quizzing after a long time.I then headed to my relatives' place and Chutney to her relatives'. Finding that place wasn't all that difficult for me, but identifying me was definitely difficult for them. Yes it was. They were seeing me after 12 years!

The next day, Chutney and I headed to Pondicherry carrying wonderful memories of the BlogCamp, with some questions answered and a lot more popping out in our heads. Coming posts to talk about the time we had in Pondicherry!

Photos conveniently flick(r)ed from Jace, Neha and dream.chaser. Thanks. Some more BlogCamp photos on Flickr here

Tag :BlogCamp

It's a great feeling to be back 2 blogging. Hence this list begins with 2 and not 1.

2. Damn. So many things happening in such less time. I wish a day had 28.45 hours so that I could get more time to blog.
3. I have a confession to make. As much as I hate to admit it, I miss The Times of India when I am in Pondicherry, where all I have to feed on is The Hindu. I would rather wake up to see Rakhi Sawant's bosom than M/s. Karat and Co every morning! Reading The Hindu end to end is no enjoyment as compared to The Times of Indiam which appeals to all your senses. I source my information from various sources, and The Hindu doesn't really help me with its so-very-righteous espousal of the Left.
4. It has been an amazing journey, a true Discovery of India with spending time in the villages in the lush green sugar-cane fields to meeting really influential and powerful people in posh hotels.
5. There is nothing like the spirit of Mumbai. People just go by their routine work, are truly heartless do nt bother to even mourn after the blasts. They are truly citizens of the rudest city in the world.

But, wait a minute. Isn't Mumbai the city which has something for everyone? Isn't Mumbai the city where millions have had their dreams come true? Of course an equal number or even more have had their lives come crashing down. Isn't this the city which rises from every disaster and is back to normal in a flash? Isn't Mumbai the city where most shop-keepers and pedestrians go that extra mile, literally and make sure you reach the address you wanted to? Isn't Mumbai the city where you make friends with people when you actually say b$#&n%%od and m@!#$$%od?!

Maximum City and Shantaram apart, Mumbai is an amazing city and no number of bomb blasts can stop Mumbaikars from being citizens of the best city in the world. Cheers Mumbaikars. Give it back to the terrorists. Resilience is what the bloody terrorists do not like.
I do not necessarily agree with Bal Thakrey, but he is true to a great extent when he says, and I am not quoting him because I don't remember the exact phrase! It was something on the lines of. Mumbai is a prostitute whom everybody uses to fulfil their needs, but the same people do not even turn back once to thank her!

For all that Mumbai was, is and will be, I love Mumbai!

6. The UPA government is heading nowhere. First it was the whole reservation ruckus and then the blog ban. It is indeed foolish on my part to place the blame on the whole establishment for some goof-up committed by an imbecile babu in the Sanchar Bhavan or an over-zealous official of the ISPs, but the fact remains that the government which claimed to work for the ,aam aadmi, has done nothing for the aam, leave alone the aadmi. Resign and get to the World Bank, Dr. Singh. You can actually do something good there!

7. The more I visit malls and places these modern Indian yuppie kids hang out or chill, the more I see India heading towards a disaster. For all the talk of India becoming a knowledge economy, it is my belief that the more these PYTs feast on costly junk food and the more they think it's cool to ape Eminem or closer home, Emraan Hashmi, my belief gets re-affirmed. I know I have to substantiate with more elucidation, but a longer separate post or that planned documentary with Komal would clearly explain my thoughts.

8. It was great to be back to my first love - quizzing. Scott and I represented PlanetRead at the Tata Crucible regional round at Chennai. The quiz was an immensely enjoyable experience and we thought we performed pretty well. My knowledge of the Indian corporate scene together with Scott's economics background helped us do well in the quiz. On a good quizzing day, we wouldn't have made those silly errors and for all we know we could have been on the stage for the finals! But we did know that even if we qualified for the finals, we knew we could not stay there for the entire duration of the quiz. Pappu's new found sense of urgency together with fears of longer security checks because of the blasts led us to leave the quiz very early. I'd have preferred to stay a little longer at the quiz.

Scott and I proved to be great partners even though it was our first time as quiz partners. So while I had no idea who David Ricardo was, and Scott did not know that the author of The Fortune at the bottom of the Pyramid was C K Prahlad, we trusted each other's instincts and got the answers right!

9. It's like a SpiceJet, Then I came to know it was a boy, Oh, you are also shuffling shuffling?!, Can you move, I want to smoke!, In Chennai, we used to roam around like anything, Arrey Baba, who is using Mac machine?, This tripod is quite light and good I think so ,You are taking pill before food?!, You go to Brown University and release Chikun Gunya, find a cure and send it back!. I shall never forget these hilarious and immensely memorable quotes. Scott, Pappu and I are laughing our arses off, and it is not without no reason that we are doing so! What's the story behind each one of these? Answers in the posts to follow.

10. It was great watching the World Cup in Pondicherry with actual French and German citizens. Felt really sorry Jonathan on Germany's heart-breaking loss. Head-Butt I think he was more than happy to see France losing to the Italians. And I think I was equally happy!

(Zi)Dane (Zi)Dane pe likha hota hai head-butt karne waale ka naam?! :D

11. People I met - I

KSA - Scope, Pong, Sap, Pole, Raghuram, Ram and Kaak. Bastards all.
College - Pragnya, Dhir, Amit Gupta, Jaideep, Abhinand and Ankur.
Bloggers - Arjun, Sidin and Komal
Rest - Pragnya's sister!

12.People I met - II

Hebballi, Karnataka - Dr. Deshpande, Mahesh, Mr. K.G Patil, The Guru, Santosh, who's joined the Guru leaving the software job in the US, the famous boy in the "Then I cane to know it was boy" episode, the manager at the Guru's cattle house.

Ashwi, Pune - my favourite man - Sarjerao, Gauri Warudi, Mr. Kokje, the kids at the school, the dude at the health club gym!, the advocate, the old farmer full of wisdom.

13. Trip 1



I am too tired right now to write the details of each of these trips. I have already committed semi-suicide 3.43224 times for not having written about these trips previously. And because I have not done that, some details might escape which I think is a shame on my part. And because we are traveling to different parts of the country and traveling is a part and parcel of our work, parting with regular blogging is something which I have to cope up with. But I shall make sure I participate in as many blog sessions as possible and enjoy them as most kiddo yupiies would enjoy in a party. Damn. I am indeed sleepy.

I am leaving with photographs of our journey. A journey spanning from the rural villages of India to the malls and multiplexes in the cities! A truly memorable, enjoyable and a enriching journey. After all, isn't it fun to try and make the whole world literate?!


Jet, set, Go or Jet, SpiceJet and Go?!

a Kit-Kat break

I am completely lost for words. The earlier enthu for writing is longer there. Need to get serious on certain things, and even if i don't want to,am having to spend less time of some things quite close to my heart(enough of listening to my heart, my mind tells me), blogging for example. I seriously don't know why has this numb feeling overpowered me and I know I'll overcome it and be 'normal' again cracking pathetic PJs, rubbing people the wrong way with my stupid posts, coming up with those silly poems and stories written sitting in the last bench with some sensible posts interspersed here and there.

Thankfully Bharath has a digicam and Mrinabh, a mobile cam. That means my photoblog will be updated regularly. Keep visiting that. But I just can't conjure up enough energy and brains to write though there is no dearth of subjects that I can write on. The photoblog will be running though.

No time to search the world around
Cause you know where I'll be found
When I come around
When I come around

-When I Come Around(Green Day)

In the meanwhile discovered some more bloggers, want to add their blog links in the links section, make my blog look nicer..but just can't..the numb feeling you see..

Shayon- my-labyrinth.blogspot.com

Komal- meriawazuno.blogspot.com-do visit her blog for her story of the deluge in mumbai.

A fellow quizzer, UC participant-Almost useless!- lifesucz.blogspot.com

and page 3 of blogging...meet rahul bose, deepak chopra, mallika chopra, rahul khanna, nandita das,shekhar kapur, anupam kher, milind deora, vandana shiva,kanika chopra and many more on intentblog.com

till my next post
nikhil

'Design's for my vacations!!

So, here I am at Ray and Keshavan in Bangalore. And I am here as a 'trainee'. What is an engineering student doing here??. That's one question that I've faced something like 2,354 times and unlike each time I've been patient enough to answer this question. I've been interested in media,TV,newspapers, advertising and related fields. So, I thought it'd be good for me to pick up something new and interesting during these vacations. This is in no way related to #include or MOV A,B or compilers or the stuff that we are taught in the class, the knowledge of what goes on here would do me no harm. So, is R&K an ad agency?. NO, it is not an ad agency, it is a DESIGN agency. Now that I'm going to spend some time here, in my subsequent posts, I'll write about how design is different from advertising and the interesting people here starting from today.

Sitting beside me here is Vikrant(Vikivix). Vijay(about whom another long post is waiting to be written) tells me Vikrant's a genius. I couldn't agree more(As I write this Vikrant's so immersed, he's not aware that I'm writing about him!). He's got a blog too. Here and His Homepage. He's also 'The Computer Person' at R&K fixing everything from the network problems to maintaining the websites of clients. I just now asked him for an 'interview' and he's busy!!.Will keep nagging him and will know more about him and post.

Though I've never spent so much time in an 'office'.(The last thing I remember is going to my father's office as a kid and 'spending time there' when his colleagues would get me lots of chocolates!), R&K is unlike any other 'office',it doesn't even look like one from outside!! The atmosphere is very informal, no 'Sir' or 'madam', sharing each other's lunch and with music in the background, one couldn't have asked for a better 'workplace'!!But, with all the 'informality', it is serious work that goes on here. Guru has travelled a lot doing research on a major confectionery company which has come to R&K to help them with newer design to boost their flagging sales. Am currently with Guru doing a bit of research, a bit of searching,a bit of surfing and a bit of chatting!! But am getting to learn so many things here. How will all this help me?? Only time will tell. But as now am enjoying it.

Plans to watch Sarkar(We have a girl Sarkar though in our college!!) with Ram and the rest of our group today.

So, it's Nikhil (de)signing off from R&K with Guru,Vikivix,Vijay, Anjali and Kirti in the 'happening' room!. More on others in the 'serious' room in subsequent posts.

P.S. I have plans to go for higher studies- Final Year of Computer Engineering at NIT.Surat!!