Some poetry from the movie Udaan

हर बाल की खाल की यह छाल भी खा जाए|
इसके हाथ पड़े तो महीने साल भी खा जाए|

किसी बेहाल का बचा जो हाल भी हाल खा जाए|
बेमौत मरते मन का ये मलाल खा जाए|

लालू का लाल खा जाए नक्सलबारी की नाल खा जाए|
बचपन का धमाल खा जाए, बुढापे की शाल खा जाये |

हया तो छोडो बहाया की छल भी खा जाए|
और अगर परोसा जा सके तो ख़याल भी खा जाए|

____________________________________________________

छोटी छोटी चित्रायी यादें
बिछी हुई है लम्हों की लौ पर
नंगे पैर उनपर चलते चलते
इतनी दूर चले आये
कि अब भूल गए है -
जूते कहाँ उतारे थे

एडी कोमल थी, जब आये थे
थोड़ी सी नाजुक है अभी भी
और नाजुक ही रहेगी
इन खट्टी-मीठी यादों कि शरारत
जब तक इनहे गुदगुदाती रहे

सच, भूल गए है
कि जूते कहाँ उतारे थे
पर लगता है,
अब उनकी ज़रुरत नहीं...
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जो लहरों के आगे तुम देख पाते तो तुम जान लेते मैं क्या सोचता हूँ,
वो आवाज़ तुमको जो भिड जाती तो तुम जान लेते मैं क्या सोचता हूँ,
जिद का तुम्हारा जो पर्दा सरकता तो खिडकियों से आगे भी तुम देख पाते,
आँखों से आदतों की पलकें हटाते तोह तुम जान लेते मैं क्या सोचता हूँ.

मेरी तरह खुद पर होता जरा भरोसा तो कुछ दूर तुम भी साथ-साथ आते,
रंग मेरी आँखों का बनते थे जरा सा तो कुछ दूर तुम भी साथ-साथ आते,
नशा आसमान का जो चूमता तुम्हे भी, हसरतें तुम्हारी नया जनम पाती,
खुद दुसरे जनम में मेरी उड़ान छूने कुछ दूर तुम भी साथ-साथ आते.

Microsoft annual party..Phbbbbt :P

When I joined Microsoft 5 months back, the only "fun" thing that was talked around by masses used to be Microsoft annual party. E-mails were sent month in advance for the event. The placards and posters were put up a week in advance. And subsequent e-mails were sent requesting entry passes/drink coupons among pals as pre-cursor to the event. Finally, the D-day arrived.
The typical somber mood in office made it very difficult to believe that "the" party on tonight. The first few moments at the event venue did set the tone for the event. But the delay in beginning of the celebrity show  coupled with lack of "single" junta to hang around with, left me wandering around alone at the venue for almost half an hour. Only bright spot being an IITK batch mate innocently asking a question "Akele aaye ho?" and the slogan "Hail IITK!" when I replied in affirmative. Finally just before the show began, entire gang managed to assemble in one place closest to the stage.And we all said let the party begin!
We welcomed Mr. Kunal Ganjawala with a very innocent question "Late kyo aaye?".  This was followed by chanting of "Hare Rama Hare Krishna" and "Jai Maharashtra" in response to his initial two damn boring songs. All our best efforts including lifting a friend in the air some 10 times did not help in keeping the party tempo up.  He did manage to salvage some pride by singing some Kishore Kumar songs and then "Bheege honth" twice at the end of the show. But overall he sucked so much that Newton might have withdrawn his gravity theory after listening his performance tonight. Even some unknown female singer ended up outshining him by chanting the holy names of "Sheila" and "Munni". 
Finally with the celebrity out of the picture, the super-cool awesome DJ gave us a chance to rock the dance floor and have some fun! And we left after having dinner at midnight and saying good night to some dumb-asses who wanted the party hall empty before 1 AM!

A casual weekday!

On May 18th 2010, at 6:30 AM  in the  morning, an alarming incident happened. The alarm went up. I woke up, got ready and casually reached office at 7:30 AM. As usual, I logged into my machine. And to emphasize on the casual aspect of the day, I submitted a casual leave application!! This form was casually approved by my manager who was also in the office in the early hours of the morning along with couple of other team members. Other members took it even more casually and finally the whole team was in office at 8:30 AM. And we embarked on our one day fun trip to Anandhamama, a place 80 kms off Bangalore.
To make sure that the driver does not sleep, we sang regional songs, rap music and made whole lot of noise till we reached Kanakapura, a village 60 kms off Bangalore.   As told by the office authorities who had booked the resort, we called up the resort people who were very glad to inform us that there is NO advance booking as per their records and they can't arrange for it now. And so emerged the need for plan B. The suggestions of movie and lunch surfaced but the idea of returning back to cement jungles sounded really boring. And so the rescue team decided to look what lied ahead on the road.
As the wise men say "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted". During my last trip to Bheemeshwari, I had encountered a Jungle lodges resort there who were very glad to offer a daily visit package on a weekend without an advance booking.  Since Bheemeshwari was on our way, we called them up and thankfully they gave the same positive response. So off we went ahead, singing songs and playing dumb charades until we reached the nature and fishing camp at Jungle Lodges, Bheemeshwari.

We hit the large rope nets before our welcome drinks arrived to indicate the resort authorities that they had caught their fish for the day :P. Then we trekked down a steep hill to be mesmerized by the breathtaking and serene view from the top. This was followed by the most important part of any weekday: Lunch :P. We idled on the river banks after lunch raising the water level by throwing rocks into the river.Then, we were given bright pink life jackets to add some excitement to a dull coracle ride. The large rope nets unleashed the spider man out of most of us who spent the next hour sleeping/jumping/climbing trees/posing like spiderman for the sake of pictures. Some decided to give the swing the swing of its lifetime, while others just stuck to their usual weekday afternoon nap in hammocks. The sight of snacks and tea was enough motivation to put our feet back on the ground.
 As the sun set on the day, we headed back to the civilization to tell the tale of our impromptu adventure on a casual weekday!

EPL 2009-10

Over a period of 10 months, the football was physically intense and grueling,  some off-field drama with Portsmouth and many nail-bitting matches with goals in the last minutes deciding the verdict. To top it all, the fight for the championship went on till the last day of the calendar. And arguably, the most deserving team won it. This EPL season had it all!
Chelsea who were the favorites to win the title,  were the deserving winners with perhaps the most balanced side in the league. They had firepower at the front with Drogba and Anelka, aggressive midfielders like Lampard and Molouda, the experience of Ballack in the midfield and a stopper like Peter chez with his nonchalant "Thou shall not pass" approach towards goalkeeping. Twice this season, they ran away from their competition at the top of the table only to falter subsequently and finally settled the deal on the last Super sunday of the calendar.
Last summer selling of Christiano Ronaldo brought in lots of money for Manchester United. But without his goal-scoring and play-making ability, they looked a pretty ordinary side. Only the brilliance of Wayne Rooney, the player of the league, got them the second place.
The Arabs of Manchester City poured in money to buy lots of quality players like Adebayor, Tevez, et. all. But it will take more than a season before all of them play as a team and pose a serious challenge for a top 4 finish in the league. Because of the indifferent form  of Liverpool, the 4th spot and the opportunity to play in Champion's league was up for grabs. And Peter Crouch's single goal against Manchester City earned that reward for Tottenhum Hotspurs. As an article on espnstar.com defined it: "A goal worth 50 million. And the dream has been realized". The celebrations at the end of the match defined how much this achievement meant for the club. They are a team without any top stars but they have a squad which plays as a collective unit which matters a whole lot more in football.
And I savor my darling team for the last. Let me digress from the current season to explain why Arsenal are so heavily romanticized in English football. English football has always been known to be intensely physical. That means physically strong players looking for tackling(bullying) the opponents all the time. And in this league, Arsenal (under Arsene Wenger ) have created and mastered their own brand of football. The kind of football that can inspire a poet to write poetry about. They pass the ball around so beautifully that before an opponent decides to tackle a player, he has already passed the ball to someone else. Along with Barcelona, Arsenal are the best team to watch on this planet.
Back to this season. With the spending spree at Manchester city, Arsenal were expected to struggle to keep their position in top 4 of the league when the season began. Not many Pundits thought that they will pose a serious challenge to win the trophy. But Arsene Wenger and his youth brigade knew no fear. They started the season with a 6-1 thumping of Everton. They even found them at the top of the table on more than one occasion( i guess). But injuries to Van Persie and other critical members exposed the the lack of depth and experience in the squad which is essential to win the league. The ease with which Chelsea brushed them apart on both occasions in the season shows that they have some catching up to do if they aim to win the league. But this dark cloud has a silver lining. The manner in which the young generation of Arsenal collected points by winning comfortably against the lesser quality teams in the league kept them in the hunt for the title race almost till the end.  And that is something which had not happened for the previous two seasons. But even Wenger knows he needs to add quality to the side if they aim to go the full distance next year. And he is out in the market to capture the talent before the football world cup bloats the price tags associated with players. And here is my wish list for Mr. Wenger in the descending order of priority:
1. A goalkeeper- With all due respects, Almunia is more of a clown in front of the goal and he is easily costing the club 8-10 points each season with his blunders.
2. A defensive minded strong midfielder - We have quality playmakers like Fabregas, Arshavin and Nasri. But this team is physically too light to challenge the likes of Chelsea and Bolton. There needs to be someone in the midfield/defense to win the ball back and pass it to these playmakers so that they can weave their magic. The job which Patrick Viera used to do amazingly in  glory days of Arsenal (2003-04).
3. Defender - Vermalen is rock-solid! But he needs a good partner at the heart of the defense. Gallas/Campbell/Silvester won't be of any use against strikers like Drogba and Torres.
4. A Striker who plays more in the 6 yard box - As of now Bendtner fits the bill. But his poor conversion ratio does not make him a candidate to be in the starting 11. There needs to be a striker who is physically strong (like Drogba/Torres) and is good in the air  so that there are more goals from headers which is a serious disadvantage for Arsenal as of now.

So the season ends and gives me a serious issue to deal with. What to do on weekends with my weekend dose of football off air for 3 months. But nothing to worry about. The mother of all world cups starts on June 11th! And I am already waving!

Money and Happiness!

Mukesh Ambani, the person who is among the top 10 billionaires in the world currently, bought Karen Pollard for his IPL team "Mumbai Indians" for around 4 crores. And watching him jumping with joy in the stands today when Pollard was smashing the ball all over the stadium was a sight equivalent to watching all the best cheer leaders in the world put together.  Now who said Money can't buy you happiness! What you need to do is have tons of it :-).

Modern day cricket news!

Who would have thought we will experience this kind of change!

Innovation and IPL?

This people must be kidding!

Innovation is defined as "The act of starting something for the first time; introducing something new". And how did IPL start? IPL was just the answer of BCCI to the rebel ICL league. Calling IPL innovative or the brainchild of mastermind Mr. Lalit Modi is just a gigantic DLF maximum joke! And ICL itself was not innovative. The first cricket league was organized by Kerry Packer way back in 1977. ICL followed the same concept but BCCI used it's muscle power to ban them and in the process started their own league named IPL. They did not even think of an innovative name and just called it after the (arguably) best football league in the world (English Premier league). As Harsha Bhogle said on TV in some news channel event, selling cricket in india is very easy because it has 1 billion consumers. So calling Lalit modi a marketing whiz for selling IPL cricket is another big joke.
Yes, IPL is entertaining in patches. But most of the times, it's just mediocre cricket. They have taken advertising to a new level of irritation by selling every aspect of game to a sponsor e.g. each six is DLF maximum, each catch is a Karbon Kamal catch, every other minute there is a citi moment is success, etc. As a result, IPL is making more money than EPL or other football leagues. But when it comes to the quality of sport, IPL is lagging way far behind! I hope innovative Mr. Lalit Modi does something about this primary aspect rather than thinking about finding more places on the player's uniforms to put additional logos ;)

A comment which even programmers will like to make :)

"Anu Malik on screen. It's the right time to steal the single" - made by the cricinfo commentator during the ongoing IPL match between Mumbai and Chennai. A.W.E.S.O.M.E =))

Striker!

This movie does strike perfect chords! This movie is based in slums. But the focus is on the aspirations of slum dwellers to do something big in their lives. And although the slum dog does not become a millionaire this time, he does strike gold :). The little moments in their lives are beautifully directed. Siddhartha steals the show and remaining cast also has done full justice to their characters. IMHO, first good hindi movie of this year!

Happy Gudi padva!

Gudi Padwa marks the beginning of spring season. Here's wishing that life blooms instead of being a mere lemon tree in the coming new year.

"Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten"
- Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield

Happy Marathi new year!

Amazing grace and Anything else

Amazing grace
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454776/
A very powerful and inspiring film. It's a biographical story of a man having a kind of impossible dream and never-say-die attitude for it. Loved it! (esp. the practical solution to the slavery issue in climax)
Memorable quote: "It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else and still unknown to himself."

Anything else
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0313792/
A typical Woody Allen movie shot in Manhattan and focuses on weird/crazy relationship drama. Woody Allen shines in his character and screenplay writing. Otherwise it's quite mediocre.
Rating: 2.5/5 (Watch it only if you are a huge fan of Woody Allen!)

The sound of music!

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059742/
Some movies are not made to be reviewed. They just have to be loved! I know the above statement is a pathetic cliche statement. But it does hold true for this movie. A very "sweet" movie with melodious songs, beautiful characters(esp. the youngest kid) and awesome cinematography.

Karthik calling Karthik

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1373156/
Review: It is so refreshing to see an innovative concept being turned into a movie in Bollywood. First half is geeky and mildly romantic. The movie loses the plot in the middle for 20 odd minutes.. esp. the 1000+ e-mail drafts episode sucks! But after that, it picks up the plot and leads towards an enthralling and happy-ending climax. Farhan fits in perfectly in his geeky character. And Deepika looks stunning as expected :). Good songs too!

Overall rating 3.5/5.

Bollycat!

This is the movie setting for an 1957 classic "An affair to remember" A cruise, a casanova, a charming heroine. Both are already engaged but they are embarking on this journey alone. Sounds a lot familiar to the hindi movie "Mann". And a google search proved the fact too..Meanwhile I came across this term "bollycat" used to denote this usual practice of shameless plagiarism by bollywood. The urban dictionary defines it as: "An Indian Bollywood movies that has either been directly copied from a Hollywood movie or is heavily inspired by one."
Is there a corresponding term for music copying too?

Movie: Crazy heart

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1263670/
Plot: A faded country music musician is forced to reassess his dysfunctional life during a doomed romance that also inspires him

Review: A musical that stuck a perfect chord with my heart. First half was really good, second half was a total drag and the climax was a bit predictable. Jeff bridges rocks! No wonder he is winning all the prestigious best actor awards across the world. The soundtrack which is obviously country music is A.W.E.S.O.M.E!
Overall rating : 3.5/5..only because the second half was kinda lengthy.

Movie/Documentary reviews!

1. Barbarians at the Gate
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106356/
Plot: The president of a major tobacco company decides to buy the company himself, but a bidding war ensues as other companies make their own offers.

Review: A good movie/documentary about the various market forces that come into picture whenever a company buyout happens. Loved it!
Direction : 5/5 ..does not get boring even for a single minute.
Screenplay: 5/5
Music: NA
Acting: 5/5
Visual effects: NA
Editing: 5/5

2. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1016268/
Plot: A documentary about the Enron corporation, its faulty and corrupt business practices, and how they led to its fall.
Review: A great documentary! 5/5 again on all aspects :)

3. Wallstreet
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094291/
Plot: A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider whom takes the youth under his wing

Review: A good blend of common and illegal practices followed in stock market along with the movie-like masala stuff.
Direction : 4/5 ..a bit long!
Screenplay: 4/5...some dialogues sound plain preachy.
Music: NA
Acting: 4/5..again no extra-ordinary performances..everybody just fits in.
Visual effects: NA
Editing: 4/5..a bit of drag towards the end.
Overall : 4/5

Arsene knows?

In the recent Arsenal vs Liverpool match last week; Arsene Wenger, the manager of Arsenal handed out a 3 page document to the media summing up his philosophy of the sport. Instead, he could have spent that time looking at the past few matches Arsenal have lost. And within 3 minutes, he would have realized why they are 6 points apart from the current league leaders Chelsea. After the long term injury to Van Persie in early October, they don't have a striker! And you don't win football matches without a quality striker who can hold the ball up in opponent's box. It has been painful to watch all the beautiful passing football break into pieces whenever the ball reached near the opponent's box. Arsenal continued to find it difficult to score goals in the next 3 months. But Mr. Wenger continues to be adamant on his "promoting young kids" philosophy and refused to buy a good striker in the January transfer window. And Manchester united and Chelsea took full advantage of it. Both the teams defeated Arsenal in February leaving a big dent in Arsenal's silverware mission this year. Baring a miracle, Arsenal look for another year without any trophies, which will make it 6 years in a row. Stop living in the glory of the past....Wake up Mr. Wenger!

Dream job!

IMHO, the only job that seems to fit this term is being a member of Indian cricket team selection committee. Why? For the following reasons:
1. You are not expected to disclose the thought procedure behind any selection decision. So you can drop an icon like Rahul Dravid from the team even when he was your second best batsman in the last series (Champions trophy) and you easily get away with it! That kind of non-accountability seems to good to be true right?
2. You pick a back-up wicketkeeper for a test match. The poor fellow (WP Saha) becomes a thorn in the eyes of the full country for using his batsman gloves only and is dropped for the next test match. He did not even get a chance to put his wicket-keeping gloves on! Instead, you draft in another wicket-keeper(Dinesh Karthik) in the squad who was just dropped in favor of WP Saha before the first test match!
3. You can drop a fast bowler(Abhimanyu Mithun) without even giving him a chance to play coz a senior fast bowler(Sreesanth) is fit again! Even worse, none of them get into the playing 11 because the team management wants to play Ishant sharma, a bowler who has been out of form for almost an year.

So basically, you get to play dice with the future generation of Indian cricket, along with the perks of fame, free travel etc. Now isn't that a dream job?

The science of fast bowling!

During a test match commentary, Michael Holding said that you must be able to bowl any batting side out for less than 350 runs on any test wicket.A statement which did not seem to hold true on the subcontinent pitches. Even if Michael Holding along with the legendary quartet of fast bowlers of the greatest West Indies generation were bowling on subcontinent pitches....Until yesterday!
On a fine Monday morning at my hometown; Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Wayne Parnell put on a display of fast bowling which left the cricketing world in awe. The pitch was placid. The fact that SA scored 550 odd runs in their first innings is a testimony. But SA had the trio of fast bowlers who could bowl at 140+ kph consistently. And 140 kph is 140 kph whether it's Perth or Nagpur. If you hit the right areas and swing the ball at that pace, even the best batsmen are bound to struggle. The pace along with the conventional swing with the new ball took care of the first half of India's batting line-up. And before the batsmen could figure out where their off-stump was, Dale Steyn got the reverse swing going with the old ball. Steyn's fire melted the cool team india within no time.
SA went on to win the test match. And between me and Mr. Holding, Mr. Holding had the last laugh!

Hello world again!

Finally! Here I am with my new blog! This event continued to be postponed primarily because of laziness and partly because of the desire to find a "cool" name for it. Finally I settled on this name for 2 reasons:
1. Since I could not think of anything cool, I decided to go with the coolest name my parents could come up approximately 27 years back :P
2. Having been working on a product which enhances searchability of swf files for couple of months now, I now realize the importance of my blog coming up within top 10 sites when my name is searched on google next time! [I know that me only will search for that query string :P]

Why a new blog? A valid question considering the scarcity of posts on my old one. As the title suggests, this one will be more chaotic! This will mostly contain my expert comments (gulp) on the events that happen in my small world comprising of movies, music, sports, and internet browsing. Also, this blog will be more frequently updated than the previous one (I hope :P).

As they say, the journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step. So let me start it of with a single post. And now.....I am off to sleep! :P