Pop Quiz Hot Shot

Where does one find Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Sanjay Dutt, Salman Khan, a weird WWF star, may be Sachin Tendulkar all together or in some incestuous combination, at a single place?

("Visual" Hint: White patches, arms at perfect right angles to shoulder joints, same with other limbs too)


ans: Hyderabadi Bone Setting Centres...

this Reader cannot Digest

the fact that the one publication I have looked up to, and in whose association my family has felt immense joy and pride, can commit such a blunder. Of late "alphabets" has become a common occurrence across all forms of media; not to forget "the alphabet A", "the alphabet Z" etc etc.

DeWitt Wallace might squirm in his grave.

tch

night in gale

I have realized I have never respected nights per se. Not that it has been a source of nuisance to others but personally speaking I have cared two hoots for the clock when my stuff was in question. I have drawn flack for it when body gave up at times. If things had to be done, they had to be done. Period.

So I should not be complaining of jet lags or body clocks going haywire!

I should not be.

Aayo Re

Cool breeze... Air of familiarity... Hyderabadi/Deccani... Rajiv Gandhi... Marredpally West... CCMB... Sahara States... Warm home... Warmer room... Cosy surroundings... Homely food... Home food... Calls of concern... Courtesies... People... Rascals (Sreenidhi, Aatreya, Sukruthi) "when are you getting married mama?"... Jolts from unexpected quarters... Concern... Health... Airport again... Farewell... Unnikrishnan, Bombay Jayasri on "Narumugaye"... Departures... Pals... Relations... "American dream at the cost of relations and occasions" (Ashish Narain)... Planning... White wonders... mails from Vijay Marur and Rama... Home theatre... Australia vs New Zealand... Chappell-Hadlee... ESPN-Channel 9... Olive Green score cards... The Da Vinci Code... HBO... LSU disaster...

Chicago Hope

12th December '07; O'Hare International, Chicago, US

Connecting to Frankfurt, Germany : ~ 30 minutes

Listless.

Out came the cell phone and quickly were punched in ten digits with equal listlessness.

"Hey! Hi T K"

"Are you travelling?"

"Yes"

"Where are you?"

"Chicago"

"Terminal?"

"C 12"

"OK! See you there. I am in C 16"

Yes, I did know I would meet him at all costs this time around, my choc-a-bloc schedule notwithstanding.

Never did I know it would be this soon at a place less anticipated.

Destiny?

Chicago to Frankfurt seemed smoother, and full.

Listless no more.

I still don't believe it.

Fourteen years!

B +ve

Cipher... Dignity... Hope... Truth... Trust... Courage... Frustration... Class... Hemant Chaturvedi... Faith... Love... Hate... Inevitable... Poise... Loyalty... Role Play... Shabana Azmi... Poignance... Boman Irani... Life... Cipher

Farhan Akhtar

Red Light Area

Of prudes, of prunes, of peons, of paeans, of pines, of pine...


It is trim time!

Just Within Me

I can't just recall when in recent times I would have campaigned for a movie so wholeheartedly. I surprise myself. My reaction and my response surprises me going by the cast, and I think it stops at that. Nothing done by the duo barring her mind blowing Dolly Mishra and mysterious Meera had prepared me in anyway that the movie could find so much favour from me. Would I count this movie in my picks? Negative. Would I label this path breaking? Negative. But somewhere the honesty surfaces amidst all the familiar flourishes we so want, and we so are used to. It is precisely where a right mix of predictability and unpredictability takes you by delightful surprise. It is where city merges with town so seamlessly that I am already in awe. Or wait! is it because of the true to life depiction of train episodes and railway stations? I don't know and my word shouldn't be taken for it for I have natural fetish for trains and trains in movies. No I am not even going there.

Imtiaz's work doesn't do without the customary songs and dance numbers set to them. It has them and has them in abundance. But where a "Mauja hi Mauja" alternates with Mohit Chauhan's "Tum Se Hi", you give it to them. You give it to them when Nataraj "Nutty" Subramanian reins himself well. You also give it to them when you have forgotten mathematically the number of twists and turns in the tale because you are so engrossed in the fare that you couldn't care less. When pages of dialogue are replaced by conversational gems, you feel good. When blues and yellows and blues and oranges alternate, you feel happy. You feel good when you write something about it just from the recall value and read nothing about it in abundance probably; and also when you have not looked forward to it because it is not worth your time and space.

You feel good penning about something which self admittedly isn't up there actually yet leaves a mark so utterly indelible. You feel good when Ms.Kapoor blows you away with her on screen persona making you crave more.

When Mr.Kapur pitches in such a restrained antithetical show, you are relieved because somewhere you want Ms.Kapoor to hog the limelight. Limelight she does hog, for this is truly hers. She does well in reminding me of my own imaginary muse.



aaah! that flute piece in Ustad Rashid Khan's "aaoge jab tum"...

f 5

I silently hope there were a titular button on our heads. Whenever banality, mediocrity threaten to put us down how I wish I could lunge to hit the button. Better, I could gift to some close pals too.

Days in our lives are like those webpages; when in good state they get loaded at a pace that would make everyone happy. Otherwise they are like those duds wherein one knows what the ultimate view of the page would look like to the actual potential, but are too slow to even show half the view. In the latter the status bar resembles those hose pipes which do not let the full flow of water gushing in, courtesy some junk blocking it.

Precisely that is where I propose a recharge, a refresh

...an f 5

Aqua Culture

I like curves

I like straight lines, little

I don't like much of sharpness

I like things smooth

I like European

I like Telugu

I like the sound of Telugu

I like neutral accents

I like furniture simple

I like abstract

I like functional

I like fluids

I like wet grass

I like fluidity

I like organic

Organic describes me the best

I like subjectivity

I like smooth turns

I like grace

I like lazy elegance

I like Azzha, VVS

I like a little crispiness

I like a little nonchalance

I like vast skies

I like being by huge water bodies

I like sedans, I dislike sports cars

I like a little of gloss

I like matte

I like motion

I like still

I like ellipses

I like circles

I like smooth, unobtrusive angles

I like slow panning of the camera

I like infinity

I like space

I like snug fits

I like sharp cuts

I like the comfort of cuffs

I like arrhythmic music

I like music that is beyond pallavi and anupallavi

I like rhythmic music

I like crisp poetry

I like fluid poetry

I like perfection, if it exists

I like imperfection, it exists

I like sanity

I like a little mayhem

I like raw

I like finesse

I like class

I like naughty

I like corduroy

I like green

I like olive green

I like cover drive

I like cotton

I like customs

I like practicality

I like to like that I like God

I like trains

I like trains in sheds and yards

I like sympathizing with trains in sheds and yards

I like trains in motion

I like dilapidated moss laden junctions, cabins, signal rooms

I like trains running on an imaginary track snaking through woods

I like long platforms

I like abandoned trains

I like abandoned stations

I like abandoned railway tracks

I like imaginary railway tracks leading to nothing

I like train cuisine

I like breakfast wrapped in banana leaves and paper on trains

I like wood

I like rains

I like scientific temperament

I like to wonder

I like scientific temperament, not at all times

I like sound

I like visual

I like normal

I like paranormal

I like surreal

I like curd

I like cows

I like folklore

I like fusion

I like to dislike remix

I like alloys

I like standalone

I like the sound of pure Urdu

I like wet roofs

I like indoor plants

I like khus khus screens

I like cane

I like mosaic

I like crooked, broken, uneven slabs

I like it low

I like it high

I like a merc

I like mystery

I like history

I like an imaginary cave with inexplicable light from an equally inexplicable source

I like carnatic

I like spice

I like white

I like rooms, spaces, junctions in homes which cannot be slotted

I like tall trees

I like old watches

I like mechanically wound watches

I like the seconds hand in a watch move smooth

I like order

I like disarray

I like detailed

I like brevity

I like it sensual

I like it physical

I like distance

I like proximity

I like macro

I like micro

I like children

I like the child in Gulzar

I like the man in Gulzar

I like Amol Palekar

I like it hot

I like to absolutely dislike lukewarm

I like optimism

I like effort

I like straight

I like purity

I like a little madness