Thing, one

Actually, one p-uh-thetic thing.

There is very little in this world that is constant. Change eats away the constancy & consistency of this world. But if there is one thing that will remain for a long time, it is that during the Filmfare Awards telecast, every shot of Rekha will be immediately followed by one of Amitabh Bachchan.

It's been 2 decades now. What I'm saying may actually be considered anti-social and unaesthetic in certain circles, but isn't it time the producers of the show moved onto showing Akshay Kumar whenever they show Raveena T/Pooja B/Shilpa S?

Mars Attack

This season's politico-historical-film controversy is likely to emanate from Ketan Mehta's Mangal Pandey a.k.a The Rising when it releases in June this year. I have my reservations about the plot, essentially because it poses a serious question: is this going to be a fair depiction of Mangal Pandey or just a fictional exaggeration?

First, what do we really know of Mangal Pandey? His story has been a important footnote in Indian history textbooks, which portray him as the first revolutionary, a brave man who sparked off the rebellion of 1857 leading to a larger War of Independence rocking the Victorian empire. Now, how much of this are we really certain of? That the biting-the-bullet incident actually took place, there seems to be no dispute. That there was a mutiny, there is no questioning. But did Pandey actually play a central leadership role; what part bravado and what part randomness?

A book called The Proudest Day: India's Long Road to Independence (Anthony Read and David Fisher) questions this claim. Matter-of-factly, the authors state that (and I paraphrase from memory, so this may be a little inaccurate - I merely mention the gist) Mangal Pandey was actually under the influence of bhang when he attacked superior officers and wasn't really in his senses. The principal reason does seem to have been the serious infringement of religious sensitivities by being asked to bite the animal fat coated bullet, but the actual intent comes out as far from noble - merely the act of an greatly disgruntled soldier (like the stories of a CRPF jawan and others like him temporarily losing their heads in extreme frustration).

This incident seems to have coincided with plans among leaders of certain groups to raise the flag of rebellion in opposition to the occupying British. Again, inspite of all the accounts you read, you will discern that some part of this attempt was to regain lost influences and a return to old feudal structures. It becomes more political than nationalistic. Here, I don't doubt the bravery & military prowess of names like Tantia Tope, Nana Saheb of Peshwa, the Kunwar Saab and the Rani of Jhansi (leaving aside the debate on their methods and documented massacres). These people were rulers or generals or leaders of their own little groups and commanded the clout to gather their people together in fighting a common enemy. But I find it hard to believe this of Mangal Pandey, who seems to have been an ordinary sepoy and seems to have merely lit the fuse of the growing resentment against the imperialistic & condescending East India Company by his open flouting of discipline. Perhaps this was used well by leaders to fan the simmering rage among the people.

(Now, do I have to completely believe the account of some Englishmen of whose antecedents I have no idea of? No, I shouldn't swallow the accounts without being sceptical, but I have no grounds to reject this thesis yet. Nehru's Discovery of India indicates that "an outburst" was not part of the larger plan, but says nothing specifically about Mangal Pandey. I wonder what Savarkar's account of the same says about this episode. I would like to know if there are any other accounts of this episode; I could find none on the Web that went beyond a laudatory character sketch.)

There is the issue of the choice of description: "Mutiny" vs "First War of Independence". It seems to me that it was both - there was a well-documented mutiny and there was a genuine attempt to fight the British. What the result would have been if the Indians would have won is left to speculation. But denying that either happened is incorrect, as incorrect as saying that only one of these happened. But where does Mangal Pandey fit in? Was he an inadvertent revolutionary, the spiritual spark of the Mutiny or a true Independence warrior?

Coming back to the film, there is no doubt that we will see Mangal Pandey invested with the best that humanity can offer. Brave and fair, intelligent and forthright with hardly any weaknesses. Partly the problem lies in the choice of lead star. That Aamir Khan is playing will, I think, automatically lead to the above (and I'll be the gladdest if I'm proved wrong). The trouble is that Aamir Khan has never yet exhibited the broad range that people have attributed to him. He is a pseudo-thinking actor and it's tough to say how he got that label. He's a talented actor, but I have never seen his roles characterised differently, only the situations change (read Paanch paise worth on Aamir for some more musings on this topic).

The synopsis of the film is that Mangal Pandey befriends a British officer, romances a young lady and raises the banner of revolt. So we will definitely see an erudite Mangal Pandey, holding his own with and against Toby Stephens and generally being representative of the harried and oppressed Indians of the time who did not surrender their dignity. Hmm... where did we last see this? Let me see... Bhuvan?

The point of this post is not to run down Mangal Pandey or be critical of Aamir Khan's acting styles. The point is that the film will most probably not be sold as a work of fiction. We would like to see another account of one of our forefathers giving the fira.ngs a generally nasty time, and even better, it would all be quasi-real. Toby Stephens saving Rani Mukherjee Ameesha Patel from Sati? Could have happened. So where are these re-interpretations of history based on? I wish Farrukh Dhondy, the scriptwriter, will elaborate.

For some reason, I'm uncomfortable with such characterisations where there is so much doubt. I perhaps wouldn't be making such a point of a film on the Rani of Jhansi. Of course, historical films have always been errant and highly sympathetic to their protagonists. But especially when Aamir Khan provides a sketch of Mangal Pandey, more people are going to believe him outright than not.

And questioning it will probably invite the wrath of a few people.

[PS(1): BTW (biased opinion): I think the music of the film is going to be special!]
[PS(2): I would like to be corrected/informed about any points made above]

Read Manish Chauhans's pertinet & interesting rejoinder to this post.

Filmfair Awards 2004

The choreographed farce that is the Filmfare Awards will be upon us shortly. Given that it's been over a decade that I lost both faith and interest in them and given that I watched more new Hindi films last year than ever before, here's my own choice of winners. The picks are obviously narrow and mainly restricted to the films I saw, so they will be quite contentious, but definitely more believable than the FF bash. Here goes (* indicates Films I haven't seen):

Best Film: Maqbool (Ab Tak Chappan is second for me)
Best Director: Vishal Bharadwaj, Maqbool (... and likewise Shimit Amin)
Best Actor: Nana Patekar (Ab Tak Chappan) (Hrithik Roshan - Lakshya, a close second)
Best Actress: I invite entries here. I have no idea. Perhaps Zaara Zinta or Rani M for "Hum Tum". Perhaps even Kirron Kher for "Khamosh Paani"*
Best Supporting Actor: Saif Ali Khan (Ek Hasina Thi) (Toss up with Pankaj Kapur for Maqbool, but I thought Saif Ali Khan really deserved applause what for him was a big departure)
Best Supporting Actress: Rani Mukherjee (Yuva) (Revathy in Ab Tak Chappan came close)
Best Story: Maqbool
Best Screenplay: Yuva
Best Dialogues: Vishal Bharadwaj, Abbas Tyrewala (Maqbool)
Best Music: A.R.Rahman (Meenaxi) (Not Veer-Zaara* simply because of Lata M; S-E-L for Lakshya would be closest)
Best Lyrics: Javed Akhtar (Most of his stuff last year - Lakshya, Swades, VZ)
Best Male Singer: Sonu Nigam ("Do Kadam Aur Sahi", Meenaxi)
Best Female Singer: Sadhana Sargam ("Aao Na...", Kyun! Ho Gaya Naa*)
Best Mass Entertainment Film: Main Hoon Na*
Special Mentions: Christopher Popp for his cinematography in "Lakshya", Rajat Kapoor for the Daler Mehndi Doll in "Raghu Romeo", the ever-persevering Anurag Kashyap for his multifarious dialogues in "Yuva", Kunal Vijaykar in "Ab Tak Chappan", Prabhu Deva for "Main Aisa Kyun huun" in "Lakshya" and Farah Khan & Kunal Kohli for their quizzing-friendly "tributes" in their films.

---

BCQC in the Indian Express

Read about The In-Quiz-Itives...

Earlier: The BCQC feature by the Pune Times of India

Bibliotheque

Was just adding to my list of books recently read, and come to think of it, I did get hold of quite a few interesting ones. A sample:

The English Patient

Wait! What is this doing in a list of interesting books? I found this book utterly bogus. I couldn't understand what was so special about this book and the plot. To compound matters, I had also got hold of the film's DVD (which I waited to finish the book before watching it). I hoped it would be less tangled but this was a effort in vain. For starters, you are told the true identity of the English Patient so early in the film that it robs you of that suspense. Plus the general d-r-a-g that is translated from the book to the screen. Apart from the gorgeous sights of desert filming and Kristin Scott-Thomas (not strictly in that order), I couldn't wait to get rid of it.

I will let Elaine Benes sum it up as she exclaims (in a Seinfeld episode titled The English Patient) after having to watch it again with her boss (who loves it):

ELAINE: (quiet vehemence) Oh. No. I can't do this any more. I can't. It's too long. (to the screen) Quit telling your stupid story, about the stupid desert, and just die already! (louder) Die!!

Just For Fun - The story of an accidental revolutionary

Featuring the life and philosophies of Linus Torvalds. A very interesting book about a nerdy guy who suddenly finds himself in the middle of the spotlight and his efforts to cope. It also details, first hand, the story of Linux which is described with a benign parental gaze without getting too involved. His life has essentially been about doing what he wanted to (and it helped that he was so good at it).

An absolutely delightful read. Oh, and as everyone expects a lot of gyaan from Torvalds, he supplies his one personal take on L, the U & E: that the human life progresses from survival to social standing to entertainment, and that almost everything stems from the succession of these phases.

Death Is Now My Neighbour

This was my second Inspector Morse book. I've watched quite a few episodes of the famous TV show recently and have officially become a fan. Colin Dexter's detective cop is somewhere in between the sanitised Agatha Christie settings and the seedy & noir ambience of American crime writers like Raymond Chandler. You get a liberal dose of literary references, snatches of Western Classical music, crossword puzzles, beer and depressed cynicism in Oxford - all in all, much more believable & likeable.

Incidentally, I also watched a TV version of this story days before I saw the book at the library. Inspite of knowing the plot, I checked the book out simply because there's a lot in the book that is of great merit such as the detailed character development and literary allusions that speaks of careful construction. The denouements are usually satisfying too. Can't ask for more in detective fiction. It turned out that the TV version was slightly different and omitted some of the elements, but the quality of the adaptation was so good that it hadn't mattered at all.

Once Was Bombay

Pinky Virani wrote this book in 1999. It was considered to be one of the earliest "faction" books in India, another notable predecessor being Virani's "Aruna's story". I also encountered the book then, but for different reasons. The film Satya which had released about 6 months before had already become a landmark in the history of Indian cinema, as had the performance of Manoj Bajpai. So it was hard to pass on the chance of seeing this newest acting sensation which a reading of this book at Pune's Crossword Store provided as bait.

Of course, I saw Manoj Bajpai in the flesh (he seemed a completely unassuming man and no, I didn't pick up an autograph) and heard Virani & him read out passages from the book, in particular, the passages where the gangster Pakya asks Virani to help get in contact with "Bhiku Mhatre", "aise hi".

Back to the book. The biggest emotion that hits the reader is of anger. Pinky Virani ko gussaa aata hai jab woh Bambai kaa haal dekhti hai. The book is in segments. In the one with her thinly-veiled autobiographical account of life in a Mazagaon house with her father & sisters, she is the "Loud One" that the father is both infuriated with and scared of. "Who killed Bombay?" she asks. And dedicates it to those journalists who still care about the megapolis. Gangsters and dons like Karim Lala, anonymous actors, Veeru & Ajay Devgan, a traditional Azhar, an airy Shobha De & a miffed Simi Garewal are to be found in the no-holds barred look at the state of the city. And of course the politicians.

Transmission

The storyline as read from the blurbs & gists was compelling - an account of virus attacks, Bollywood filmstars and paranoid Westerners. Hari Kunzru weaves a global tale, but the tale ends up short of promise. There are great moments of course - Asperger's syndrome obsessed programmers, cliche-spouting Chief.*.Officers and throwaway lines. But on the flip sides, there are the usual stereotypical caricatures of Indian families and film production units. You need to suspend some of your scepticism to believe the pivotal plot element of a virus cooked up at short notice with original internals defying both detection and solution and spreading/mutating at such colossal speeds. It is a little short on believable detail, so unless you look at it as a comedy, you'll be held back.

Still, there's enough to keep one occupied for a while.

Foucault's Pendulum

I didn't think I'd pick up another Umberto Eco so soon after the laborious effort of finishing "The Name of the Rose", but I did. I'm saving up comments for the Lit Blog that can explain why I couldn't join the rest for last month's Book of the Month.

And as it turned out, despite wanting to stay off Eco for a while, have now with me his "Baudolino" which I only heard about a couple of hours before I saw it staring from the rack at the library.

"Left" turns

I remember reading this article that one of top reasons why people leave organisations is because they don't get along with their managers. Of course, this is a sweeping generalisation and masks a variety of complex factors underneath, but there is a large strain of truth in this.

A major factor comes out of this important question: Is your superior willing to go bat for you, sometimes even on a sticky wicket, given legitimate situations where you need his support? Most times, a person responsible for leading people has to fulfil two functions: to carry his team with him and to be responsible to his own superiors in order to achieve larger goals. Ideally, you want to be able to do both properly. But on many occasions, it's a trade-off, mostly because of perceptions of slant towards either end and due to genuine conflicts.

So do you want to have your troops swear by your fidelity to them, or do you want to be "recognised" by the generals as a tough go-getter who can even trample on toes to get things done?

As time goes by, different people end up having different experiences. The ones who get a raw deal from either side end up looking out for themselves wherever they go, probably spelling the word (as the cliche would suggest) as "tiim". For it's tough to find a team that really gels together.

Marple and the concept of human similarity

Like every fictional detective, Miss Marple has her own characteristic modus operandi applied to the solving of cases. This happens to be the slotting of people by their resemblance (in behaviour) to others previously known to the old spinster. Since there is a strong autobiographical influence in almost all Agatha Christie's stories, it is fair to assume that the Dame believed strongly in this theory and applied it herself.

Essentially, the premise is that someone's temperament or behaviour reminds you of another from your experience and you then predict the unknown sides of this new person based on what you know of the original. Miss Marple of course has a high rate of success at this, and probably that's why her stories are quite boring or monotonous.

Anyway, can this theory be practised in real life? Sometimes, it does seem possible. Sometimes, I meet people who remind me of others in their mannerisms, speech patterns and reactions. Though I don't remember if this is true of all cases, but there are a few startling "coincidences" where predictions of behaviour based on previous empirical data matched future actions of these fellows. Wonder if the world is indeed partitioned into such sets.

P.S for BC junta: any T&T comments on this post will be mercilessly censored :-)

Red Riding Hoods

Ever since most traffic signals in Pune started to count down to seconds left for the green signal, I've found myself playing a little game. Invariably, one will find people who cannot wait till the count goes down to zero and will set off 10 seconds early. The object of the game is to guess which of my fellow riders will jump the gun (should I call them sons-of-guns)?

My predictions are usually wrong and have at best uncovered a lot of my inherent biases. Pony tailed rider in leather biking gear on a jazzy bike? Highly likely to jump the signal. Result: Highly conscientious. Demure girl with typical bandit queen getup on Scooty? Looks like the obedient type with poor road confidence. Result: zooms off leaving us in smoke. Auto driver spitting on road - prediction: will fly off the handle. Result: of course he doesn't.

Further evidence that I have no idea how my race really functions. Of course, I'm battling my little devil (remember cartoons where you have a twin pair of a mini-Satan and a little cherubic angel debating such issues on either side?) which tells me to push off myself and follow their worthy example. Somehow it takes a lot of courage to stay back for 135 seconds and endure the honking of the irate truck driver behind. In such cases, I'm glad for the implied moral support of the dude with the pony tail on his bike.

Crease, na

Harish points out a typo (one of my many) in this post where I write "PIET-quizzing warrier". Perhaps I was a little influenced by the purported Malayali influence on the film Kisna.

Still, the ad in the newspaper advertising the show had the film as Kisna - the Worrier Poet. Guess Vivek O didn't know the film wasn't going be this bad, eh?

Aakhir Q?

Indians cannot queue. Fundamentally. A line is a mere collection of points for us, and something whose ultimate appearance is so nebulous as to be a wriggly shape unconquerable by mathematical definitions. Somewhere along the way, in evolving our survival skills at the village market, the neighbourhood grocer and even upmarket coffee counters, we've dropped the gene for the orderly queue.

This is irrespective of class hierarchies. I wonder how Indian comp. sci. students pick up the concept of the queue in their Data Structures class (except for the priority version) and imbibe sub-optimal FCFS algorithms. Salim-Javed only articulated a cultural trait when they got their man to equate the beginning of the line with the self.

This has been a simmering peeve of mine which first vocalised itself loudly at COEPian fee counters and now recurs at petrol pumps and cinema theatres. Most intensely at last year's PIFF given the mad rush for free seats leading to commotion and even accidents. Miraculously for the last show, some of us managed to whip a serpentine mass into some shape. The immediate provocation for this post was when a smart middle-aged lady cut in at the coffee counter where I stood patiently after yesterday's cinema show. That emboldened another chap to try and attempt the same, puncturing my dam of sabr. When cautioned, he drew back sheepishly. Chuffed at this minor victory, I grew courageous enough to tell the lady off too - she apologised profusely. While this was happening, yet another lady tried to sneak through!

I have a feeling that we Indians think queuing is something to do only while vacationing in Doha.

Chakravyuuh

I have to re-enter the circle (or spiral?) again. Was on leave for the last couple of days and my brain just feels a great deal lighter again. Effingly awful to go back!

I'm also shuddering at the thought of piles of email in my mailboxes, all the unread blog posts and the general cyberspace-catching up.

Chiaroscuro

I watched the movie making all the news i.e. Black along with Nikhil this evening and truth be told, I found it ok-to-good rather than great. I expected to feel this way despite some glowing reviews from friends whose opinions I trust. Black is, fittingly, a palette of shades and we're going to differ in the ones we prefer.

So a note of dissonance from my side - primarily because of the level at which the film operates. This incidentally is my first Sanjay Leela Bhansali film, having never completely seen any of his previous works. I've seen fairly representative samples of them so for me this film is still distinctive of his style, different (paler?) though it may seem in comparison to the earlier films.

How do you express the plane at which the dialogues work, the actors play "it" and how the director offers his compositions? Perhaps a cinematic decibel scale of sorts with "loud" and "muted" thresholds. These levels are a huge factor in determining one's reception to the film (more than any other visual medium) - films appeal personally when they match your amplitudes, but some of them can even get you to temporarily leap on to theirs. Black and all the audience reactions to it essentially revolve about this aspect.

Black wasn't "loud" like I think Devdas must have been, but it still operated at a level or two above what appeals to me. I don't have significant first hand knowledge of how challenged people behave, but inherently I'm sceptical of cinematic interpretations which present such characters as para-normal and so completely different. Ayesha Kapur as the young Michelle plays it with head askew and lost eyes which I found unreasonable. I can understand untamed displays of behaviour and confused, unintelligible expressions of emotions, but not such physical bearing. This is something that the director obviously shapes, so I can't see eye to eye on that. My mind invariably goes to Naseeruddin Shah in Sparsh or Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot. Of course, those films didn't have "intensity" leaping out of the screen, so maybe Bhansali is in keeping with his film's tones. It also recalled Anjali where again I wasn't too impressed with the portrayal.

Of course, I have the same issues with the older Michelle; however Rani Mukherjee showed great agility in some scenes that require her to emote despondency and resolve and inner struggle. I thought Amitabh Bachchan got it more or less right - the character's eccentricity and capriciousness has been established and he does little that jars, except in a couple of places. Especially so in his descent into the maw of Alzheimer's.

The "look-I'm-making-a-different-film" aim is furthered by the cast of good but unfamiliar to audiences actors. I thought Shernaz Patel was good as ever, and it was pleasant to see Dhritiman Chatterjee back, but I thought he was disappointing. The adequately miffed Nandana Sen completed a family for which the casting director must be applauded - if you look at the trio of women and the young girl, the facial resemblance is better than in most films. The reds, ochres, saffrons, yellows are replaced by lots of black, white (nice ending shot contrasting the earlier mood) and grey with streaks of red. You can trust Bhansali to get these things consistent.

I read an article in this week's Outlook on the film where the core Bollywood cliques go ga-ga over the film. The article begins by asking if this is a "new idiom in mainstream cinema" and claims that it provides a "redefining moment in commercial Hindi cinema, pushing its frontiers of narration and style". I beg to differ. The redefinition has been happening for quite a while. But the fact remains that the Bollywood setup and indeed most of the Hindi film watching audience still view the people behind these new dialects (such as Ram Gopal Varma and his Factory, Mani Ratnam, Vishal Bharadwaj, Anurag Kashyap) as "outsiders" and do not embrace them fully. However, Bhansali is from a mindspace that these guys can relate to and such a deviation from him is naturally hailed as pathbreaking, for it strikes home much closer. Indeed, one of the dissenting notes in the Outlook article is from Kashyap who says that "They've seen it all in the West. There's nothing new it offers".

This debate is like the one that accompanied Shwaas. We hardly see themes like these being explored locally, so such efforts can be explosive and grabbing. The next logical step is Oscar talk (which has already begun in this case as well), but from an objective view, this is not the best effort yet. Bhansali says that this is a "small" film for him, and in essence, a vacation from his usual higher register scale. On the other hand, as a viewer, I'd rather that films are made tending towards these alternative themes and settings, not just be summer projects. There's much to behold in Black despite my scepticism but let's not do a Shwaas on it. If like Shwaas, it can offer its parent industry the guts and hope to explore other ranges, I'd consider it a landmark. Right now I'm afraid it's (to use a quizzing analogy) as if Derek O' Brien said "right, let me stop my glitz-oriented Brand Equity style performances and do a quiz with 50% workable questions and with Infinite Rebounds". But if it's just a one-off, then fine - I'm going to stop this crazy analogy right here!

To end what I began, I think the majority of Indian audiences resonate to the range of expression planes that Bhansali works within - probably just it's that I'm not part of that range. I felt the same with Koi Mil Gaya in which most people liked Hrithik Roshan's performance. (To this day no interview of his is complete without a crib about missing the National Award last year which everyone in the insular Bollywood world assumes was superior to the rest.) Black certainly didn't hit me as it seems to have done others. Perhaps there's a little cynical crust developing on the old heart or it was just a little too affected for me...

Asides

* A moment of unintentional irony when the lights went out during the show plunging us into blackness

* Got to see the early teaser for Mangal Pandey a.k.a "The Rising" with Kailash Kher going "Mangal Mangal..."

Kisme kitna hai dum-dum?

Bullet - Ek Dhamaka is the first instance that I know of where the usual <Hindi title> - <English transl(iter)ation> has been reversed. Who says moviemakers are not being creative?

Apparently, the movie is gaining fame for tangentially influencing the Bihar elections.

Blog article in the Indian Express

Nikhil and self got quoted in an Indian Express article on blogging in Pune. Read it here.

Though technically I must clarify that I wasn't covering PIFF this year except for stray remarks (for reasons of work) unlike Salil, Kunal T, Nikhil K, Siddharth and the rest of the BC gang, I did do so last year.

The article also mentions the Quiz blog which is about an year old now. I now wonder if the journalist would have been interested in the Pune Times fan blog ? :-)

It's back!

Update - feb 4 2005

Lone PIET-quizzing warrier Abhishek clarifies with a 2nd-hand views in the comment boxes that the CM merely said something about the name ought to go back to COEP. In fact, I read the Indian Express coverage from yesterday's paper (I get to read it a day later) in which they report that Mr. Deshmukh says that the govt. has no objection to the name going back to COEP. (IE's edition on Tuesday had a good report about the whole issue and what the bureaucratic problems really are.) So there still is a lot of fog on what has been achieved post the merry announcements.

But hopefully, like in the case Narain K, speculation will be followed by concrete news.

Original post - feb 2 2005

Yesterday, at the valedictory function of the sesquicentenary celebrations of COEP, it was announced that PIET will be renamed back to COEP. Yippee!! That's a big victory for the alumni.

As has been lamented in detail in the past, the name was one of the few assets of the college, which hardly needed to be diluted. This turnaround is more than welcome. Now please turn to making the institution more effective.

Now Mistah Shakespeyah, that's what's in a name.

Kaali ghoDi dwaar khaDi

Last Friday was a black day for all ticket scalpers in India. They had expected Black, Black Friday and Blackmail to release simultaneously, giving the black marketing industry a big boost.

But Mr. Bhansali postponed his film's release and the Bombay High Court extended the same courtesy to Mr. Kashyap. Leaving these guys miffed. Now the money's on Black Magic.

Yo! (gawd!)

There are so many programmes on so many channels about fitness, exercise and yoga that it is impossible to not start burning calories just on switching on the telly. But as most stuff on it, they can be inadvertently funny. This is especially so on interactive shows where 50% of the time is spent in host, guest and phone-in participant hollering at each other 180 degrees out of phase, usually over echoing of the conversation through the caller's TV.

DD's Tamil channel Podhigai is the local answer to Saturday Night Live, only it is not made up. This morning, I chanced to see one caller phone-in to ask a remedy for her tendency to feel sleepy all the time, especially (and this is what caught the ear) before interviews.

You will be happy to hear that the yogacharya was upto the task and prescribed certain exercises to be done before sleep and after getting up.

Do we have enough trees?

In some perverse way, it is good that no Indian tennis player has made it all the way in a Singles Grand Slam - after the TOI gave Ms. Mirza an entire Sunday Times to guest-edit and set the threshold for a third round place, how do you reward a seventh-round finish?

Kahaa.n se aaye badaraa

Looks like Sir August de Wynter has been playing with the meteorological dials again. For Pune's gone icy cold over the last couple of days.

When you thought the pleasant Puneri winter was making a graciously exit, a spell of rain has hit us leading to a cold spell that hangs all through the day. Winters normally hit you hardest during the night, but this cloak has been shrouding us even at 12:00 p.m.

All caps a strange year weatherwise for Punekars - we had so much rain this time and a longish winter with this as its valediction. What next, hail in summer?