First visit to Delhi & the Mastermind adventure beckons. More in 9 days time...

Article:
Dunno how I missed this piece from Ms. Varsha Bhosle (Enterprising trivia-mongers will instantly see connections with "Miss Shakalaka Baby" Ayesha Dharker and "today" (it is Rahul Dev Burman's anniversary) at the mention of her name): This is on the Presidential nominee, A.P.J.Abdul Kalam. As always, this link has an interesting p.o.v.

And while on the subject:
Interesting how reputations are built: Before Bombay Dreams, Ayesha Dharker is the arty actress from The Terrorist and now she is as commercial as Bollywood. Good work!

A mail from a classmate from ol' COEP Comp, Rupali, now In Arizona State Univ., mentions the hottest news (no pun intended) around in that part of the world: Huge forest fires are running amok, with large damage to the surrounding area and causing some evacuations.
Ironically, the capital of Arizona is Phoenix. Phoenix is of course the legendary bird that was burnt and rose from its own ashes.

Today was the 1st day of the really, really rainy season: the day where one sees the typical Puneri weather back in form. I even coined an alliterative phrase for it: Persistent Puneri Pitter-Patter Pavus (aka Paus/Pawus- Marathi for rain). Pathetic, wasn't it? The rain too.

The one good thing about Anu Malik is that he is God's gift to polemics. Any public appearance and his foot goes back into his mouth, though he is scarcely bothered about it.
This quality was again amply demonstrated in his interview yesterday on Star News, where he described his feelings when he starts composing ("It's like leaping into space, I do not know if I will land on my feet or float" (sic)) and thought he was the best among the best (no surprise there).
But what always takes the cake is the way he describes how his songs get made. One gets the feeling that he slakes his entire ego on being able to compose songs spontaneously, i.e in his words "naturally". He proceeded to create two tunes for "Jack and Jill" which was followed by a "didn't I tell u?" expression. The point, I have, Mr Malik, is that many people would be able to get different tunes made. But don't they have to be good to hear? That's the kind of verbiage that's gets you brickbats and you go about blaming most of humanity.

I hope (and I know ) that there is more to my life than coding. Whatever it is, it is not here ... now...

New look
I muffed up while editing the HTML on the other template, so I went around looking for alternates. I didn't want this one, as George already has this, but I couldn't find one with the right look. So sorry George for getting "inspired". But you as a RDB fan will forgive me no doubt (tongue-hidden-in-cheek of course!).
While on the subject, Anu Malik will be on Star Talk with Vir Sanghvi today.

2.45 pm on a Sunday and I am in the office. Sad!!!

Last Week was tough. I had loads to do (I am scrambling to get my work done before leaving for Shimla for the Mastermind jig which has set my schedule awry) and that meant a couple of late nighters. I, not being among those who can work pretty late, missed a lot of sleep rendezvous as a result.

TV Programming
Considering the amount of television I watch, it is no surprise that I rather fancy myself as a keen media watcher and TV pundit. And some of the TV programming of late on Indian channels have caught my eye.
I had always wondered why films telecast on TV were not serialized. This way, you have decent ad revenues and people who cannot watch (or are not allowed b'cos others in the family want to watch something else) 3 hours at a stretch do not have to look for a rerun. Well, STAR PLUS (who, to their credit, have always experimented with different kinds of ideas, though not all of them would be considered kindly) telecast the film Asoka (dir: Santosh Sivan, *ing Shah Rukh Khan) in a serialized fashion. It could have been a full-length telecast, but that they chose to do it this way is commendable. But that didn't mean I watched it completely. Just took in the 1st 30 minutes of the film.

And so moving on to Beyond the Boundary on BBC World, which took the Mastermind India slot on Thursday nights. It showcases memorable cricket matches featuring India (losses included unlike DD Sports who play it safe by showing matches India won!), with uncommon off-the-field footage (No surprises, considering the producers are TWI, who always shoot such things during series, for use in various vignette specials). But somehow, they manage to render the tale flaccid, even in cases where the situation is inherently dramatic. Bravely, they chose to begin with the Pakistan victory over India at Madras in 1999 (the one with the Tendulkar back subplot).

In the local quizzing circuit, we have a rule of thumb that says The better the prizes at a quiz, the worse the quality of the questions. And more often than not, this heuristic is borne out, especially when you look at the morass that is TV quizzing. But there are exceptions, and none better than the ESPN SCHOOL QUIZ, a sports quiz for school kids. The host is the well known cricket commentator, Harsha Bhogle, and he is very good at the whole thing. He obviously knows his sports trivia, has the rules and the loopholes figured out and is very spontaneous without resorting to gimmickry. The technical angles are impressive and the sets are good. And the questions have depth and don't insult the knowledge of the participants, young as they may be. And the participants: they are quite classy! Pune has two good teams, Abhinav & Bishop's doing well. The prizes are fantastic, which makes me rue the fact that no such stuff was around when I was in school. The quiz is coming into its finals stages, and is a must watch. All this praise despite the fact that I do not like quizzing techniques like rapid-fire, buzzers, anagrams and the final round where only one team member can answer (I hate the notion that there can be no consultation, people tend to forget that quizzing is a team game - ask a bowler to run in without a keeper! )
And to round it off, National Geographic have their own quiz called National Geo-Genius, all about (you guessed it) Geography. Rounds are timed, with a mix of rapid-fire and buzzer (sigh!) techniques and the participants are from Britain. The scoring is done in miles and the game consists of circumnavigating the globe scorecard. One is asked questions depending on the country one is currently in, and moves ahead by the point-miles on the globe. But I have a peeve: Ms. Juliet Morris, the hostess, takes these huge pauses and even clarifies answers, eating up valuable time. And they drop the straggler, the person in the last position, as they move to the next round. The questions are quite decent though.

Meera Syal's Article

In the wake of the high exposure that Bollywood is getting in Britain of late, here's Meera Syal (who wrote & acted in Goodness Gracious Me, a pioneering TV comedy of the last few years, and now associated with Bombay Dreams) on the whole Bollywood thing:
Prepare for planet Bollywood

Theories and Jinxes

We all love to have favourite theories: usually coincidences that have happened more than once. We all know they are bound to fail at some point, but we enjoy them while they last.
I was thinking about the following theories:

• Why P.C.Alexander didn't make it as President:
  We've heard the political reasons. Here's a weird theory. He didn't go there b'cos my family wasn't ready to! Confused? Actually, my family has been following the erudite Doctor in the last 13 years. He moved to Madras as Governor, so did we. He then came over to Maharashtra, and within a year, we followed suit. Obviously, the theory fails pre-1988 and will probably do so soon. But when he seemed to be the frontrunner, we were wondering how and when we would move to the capital! Not anymore though.
• Why Brazil will win the 2002 Football World Cup:
  A posting on a local newsgroup explains an interesting observation:
  Brazil last won the world cup in 1994. Before that they won it in 1970. Add 1970 and 1994, it equals 3964.
  Argentina last won the world cup in 1986. Before that they won it in 1978. Add 1978 and 1986, it equals 3964.
  Germany last won in 1990. Before that they won in 1974. Add 1990 and 1974, it equals 3964.
  So going by this logic, the winner of the 2002 world cup is the same as the 3964 - 2002 = 1962 world cup. The 1962 world cup was won by Brazil.
  Indian fans too have reason to rejoice :India has never won the world cup so we'll probably win it...in the year 3964.
  Just a joke as you can see: Doesn't quite come up to scratch in explaining the one time victories of England, Uruguay etc.
• And the Indian cricket team:
  Seems to do well in years ending with "83". The World Cup was won in 1983 & The Hero Cup in 1993. No idea if the years 1973, 1963 etc. bear this theory out. But eternal optimists that we are, the World Cup in 2003 has a fortunate ring to it. Too much work even for a theory to get our team to win?

Forced Sabbatical: Apologies to the audience of this blog, both of you :). Work of the proportions of the Mt.Kilimanjaro descended upon me and my various preparations have caused this prolonged absence of blogging activity.
But I did keenly follow the blogs of George & Gaurav. They are in some sort of vacation time and have the time to spare for thought and composition, thus making me very envious.
Gaurav will be facing his viva voce on the 17th of June (Here's wishing him success at that) before heading off to the land of Nawaabi Thaat, Lucknow (Where hopefully, uski gaadi "pahle aap, pahle aap" mein nahi chutegi).
George, on the other hand, seems to be enjoying his summer with a couple of movies each day, followed by lip-smacking trivia about them and lots of blogging.

Bombay Dreams, a musical featuring the talents of A.R.Rahman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black, Meera Syal among others, opens on June 19. The cast also features some actors from India include Dalip Tahil, Ayesha Dharker and Sophiya Haque. Some anticipation as to how desi music will be received and if it can revive the flagging fortunes of both Andrew Lloyd Webber & the "musical" scene in general. The songs, however, will be remade from old Rahman numbers including "Shakalaka" from "Mudhalvan" and "Ishq Bina" from "Taal". Here's an interesting article from the Guardian on the subject: Bombay nights and West End dreams

And now it's Rushdie...
Does it involve India and Pakistan? and Kashmir too? Couldn't expect Salman Rushdie to keep away.And this is what he had to say. Excerpt:
Is it really likely, however, that Pakistan would, so to speak, strap a nuclear weapon to its belly, walk into the crowded bazaar that is India and turn itself into the biggest suicide bomber in history?

Soccer and Brazil are synonymous, right? May not be anymore, going by the widespread discontent among Brazilians where a lot of indifference is the result of corruption, poor results and the rest. For more, read this. Interestingly, this may be the way to go for Indian cricket fans. All of the above happened here, but we continue to pursue cricket fanatically, and so the Board doesn't need to do much. Time for a similar kick on the backside?

Occupational Hazards Just looking at the list of participants for this year's Mastermind, and their various occupations, was surprised to see one person list it as "Unemployed graduate". And so in a twist of Whose-Line-Is-It-Anyway meets Mastermind, I was thinking of the different occupations that could guarantee non-selections. (Without any malice:) Like:

• Witch doctor
• Bajrang Dal activist
• Kleptomaniac
• Hindi/Tamil language chauvinist
• Mongolian warlord

...And more on Mastermind A word that the series for 2001 was won by Archana Garodia Gupta who blazed to one of the most impressive victories ever: a full 41 points (23+18), joining Dayita Dutta, Ajoy Banerjee and Priyamvada to lift the sphere they hand out as the trophy.
Linux & GUI GUIs on Linux are getting really good and sleek, so much so that it has been rumoured that the Times of India will feature snapshots each day on all their pages :). Actually, I made a move to RH 7.2 recently and was impressed by the stuff that KDE had on display. And the good thing is the amount of choice: imagine around 10 themes, including Windows & Mac displays. Should go a long way in convincing the critics of the Linux usability model that there's now an attractive face in front of an impressive backend.
Rahmania A little on my fav. composer, A.R.Rahman. Just been listening to some of his offerings from Rhythm, Sangamam, Duet, Puthiya Mugam etc. and cannot still figure out why some of the pundits frown down upon him for his lack of melody, over-percussioning (Note that my musical illiteracy prevents me using the right terms) etc. There are some amazing songs in his oeuvre, and the variety is too good to overlook. Will continue puzzle me. More on this on another occasion.
Power outages continue to plague Maharashtra, though it hasn't reached the epic proportions it could. On a hedonistic note, one ought to be lucky to live near one's cable operator, unlike me. It is a tad irritating after you suffer 3 hours of a cut, switching on the telly tells you that the cable operator's area will go under the shadow for the next 3 hours, leaving you to fiddle with the radio. And despite what some people and the complete Times of India news machinery tells you, Radio Mirchi isn't hot unless you like to hear the same new songs (most are screechy at best). Yes, they do have shows featuring old Music, both desi and videsi, but that's 10% of the programming. And the RJs still have a lot to learn. We need some shows with alternate programming ideas, not an MTV on radio (that too sans Cyrus!)
Being John Malkovich is one of the maddest movies I've seen. The movie, about a porthole into the head of John Malkovich that's lets one be him, did answer my question: what happens when John M. enters the porthole to his own head?

The Greatness of Sachin Tendulkar... ... or the lack of it, depending on which side of the cricketing divide you stand. I am a big fan, so not much doubt as to where my sentiments lie. I guess it's fair to say that most people would put the man in the category of greats. But it's when it comes to adding the 3 letters "est" that the loyal fan starts fighting off the flak.
A batsman with 8000 Test runs, a glut of tons, multiple records, the best one-day batting record et al has to be one of the greats. But that's part of the problem - when you are in stratospheric heights, the terms of enumeration change. All the minor flaws are subject to microscopic examination. And the loyalists have to fend off accusations that yes, he's good, but not good enough. And tell you what, we are running out of convincing arguments to defend our position and haven't got much to attack with, except weak comparisons. He lost yet another chance to prove his greatness yesterday (or is it that the cricketing gods would not have it yet?). Whatever our positions, we have to grant this - that the place of Sachin Tendulkar among the greatest is not assured. And by the greatest, I mean the Bradmans, Sobers & the Richards of the cricketing worlds, against whom very little criticism can be lobbed. Right now, he'd be alongside the Greg Chappells of history. I think and hope Tendulkar's better than that at least.
I guess this isn't something he must be oblivious to. I hope it's gonna be like the tons he didn't score in the first 4 years of his one-day career. There's still things like scoring a double hundred abroad, winning a test series abroad, a triple ton - but we do ask too much of him? Ravi Shastri remarked that he'd been sent down from the heavens to play cricket. He hasn't fulfilled his destiny if that is true. Most of the greatest players of all time have won the World Cup (except for the English greats). Will he be the greatest of the one-day era not to? Or will India grab the xxx3 charm ('83: World Cup, '93: Hero Cup)?
Whatever. Time's not sticking around for ever.

IMDB's top 250
Just skimming through IMDB's top 250 films (does it ever change? it seems the same since I last saw it) and had the following observations:
* "The Godfather" tops, not Citizen Kane (which comes in at 5) which probably is indicative that this is more a popular vote. Most lists by critics seem to have Citizen Kane up there.
* Amelie is at No. 10 !
* And LOTR is at No. 3. That might surprise a few people.
* And it's a great list to keep (never mind the rankings) to check what films you still need to watch
* And Spiderman is at 107 :)
Still not a bad effort, it's got almost all the big names.
BTW, Being John Malkovich is on air this Friday night on Star Movies.

Two (at times, subversive) icons meet this week. Here's a clipping of a partnership between Google and Scott Adams this week:

-------- If you haven't been to Google yet today, come check out our homepage: It's all about Dilbert. Starting today, Scott Adams -- known to cube-dwellers everywhere as Dilbert's creator -- will have his way with our logo for an entire week, submitting our brand to the tender mercies of his crack team of management consultants. Cartoonist, MBA, and certified hypnotist Adams has made his mark mocking bosses, marketing plans, performance reviews, and other workplace afflictions in 2,000 newspapers, 65 countries, and 25 languages. We're sure he'll meet or exceed his goals at Google too. -------

Is that certified hypnotist or certified hypnotist :) ?

The weather out here in Pune has been quite good in the last few days, with breezes begging to be called zephyrs floating about. And I have this to say: Get out there and enjoy it! And to think I miss it everyday, with Mr. Sedentary for company from morn to night.

Is a blog just an indulgent projection of oneself? I do all the talking, almost broadcasting in good old SETI fashion, hoping that the Ford Prefects of the cyberworld would alight for a while. But nothing beats self-trumpeting and all I ask of my fellow bloggers is a link back for a link.

Boy Scout deed of the day: Free publicity for Wordsmith. Some of the better things in life start of and remain as hobbies and Anu Garg (that's male, btw :) hosts a great example of it. Unlike other, almost conveyor-belt mailing lists of daily words, the Word a Day from the Wordsmith takes on interesting topics each weeks and sends out words related to them. People could use it! And they do, it seems. Wordsmith claims to be one of the largest (if not the largest) communities in the world with about 500,000 members.

For some reason, it has been quite a struggle to board the wagon, what with countless darogas shaped as "Microsoft VB Runtime Errors" not letting me pass. I actually am over-represented in blog-dom-mania thanks to panic clicking. But like a blue, blistering barnacle, will cling on for all its worth. Interestingly, I sneaked under the tent and joined 63 other hopefuls for this year's BBC MasterMind India. I have been asked (from my choices) to take on the "Recipients of the Bharat Ratna". Good, no?

And must drop in a word, if not the entire arsenal, on the new look (cough, splutter) Times of India. If anyone is the Trishanku of Indian newspapers, it is this no-longer-venerable spread. Caught between hoping for the broadsheet respect and the tabloid whistle. Interesting fonts no doubt, but caught trying to overdo the "it's lesser, but that's more" mantra. And the Sunday Review has become: "Men and Women". Actually, it should be: A Man & a half and 2 women from beneath the Ads. Way to go ... STOI ... down