gr'apple with jobs' loss

So Anijo Mathew called on us early this week and over good food, and more good food we started to chat up about life in general, architecture in general, design in general, conferences in general, technology in general, and while at that, Apple in general.

It was September and until Anijo reminded me of it, I forgot it was September. September is when Apple comes up with its babies that send the United States and the rest of the world into a frenzy, no matter how unjustified it seems to the ones who don't care.

I said, "Oh shit! I hope he doesn't come up with something thinner than a MacBook Air this time!"

Anijo replied, "Nah! it is just nanos with video feature this time around."

Anijo hadn't seen this one for sure!

I didn't know I would be alluding, albeit ignorantly, to Steve Jobs himself.

The super thin MacBook Airs can now go take a leak!

Ford Escort

It is really nice to see the in-the-ICU-still-on-ventilator US auto giant endorsing a federal ban on banning texting while driving. Engaging in any activity that takes away your attention from the road is ban-worthy, and why all states, despite the necessity, didn't ban that long ago is really a no-brainer. This isn't to say that I support hands-free, Bluetooth technology for speaking while driving. But while speaking at least doesn't require one to take one's eyes away from the traffic, texting that demands more attention, ignoring the freaks and geeks, could be far more fatal. As a person who has witnessed the stupid acts of girls and boys here while driving, I simply do not understand why states would not budge from their careless stance until they were threatened to be pulled away federal highway funds from!

apostrophe catastrophe

I have been enduring it for years now, in fact more than a decade, but it doesn't seem to wane one bit. It was O.K when I saw school kids do it, when I was one, but it is a pain to see supposedly accomplished people commit it.

Just why the hell can't people not think of apostrophe at all when they mean to pluralize nouns? For the period I have been noticing it for now, I hope it doesn't become one cultural and linguistic phenomenon like the SMS language I have to get used to. Call me outdated and senile, I can take it. You cannot convince me mentioning the flexible and dynamic requirement of language.

I do not want to reconcile to it.

It suck's (sic)

zoom baraabar zoom

I feel the success of any writer, professor, storyteller, lecturer, policymaker, I will include lawyer and doctor in that, depends on how much the person can zoom in to the detail, and pull out when necessary. Pulling out or zooming out at the time appropriate is very essential because no matter how heavenly detail is, and I deify detail, it wouldn't make sense unless it is viewed in the purview of the bigger picture. You cannot be too subtle for you run the risk of being ignored by the less discerning (and the less discerning make the majority), yet you have to come out clean, unscathed by the accusations of insulting the collective intelligence of your potential audience. It is the right balance of how much to elaborate, and how much to leave it to be deciphered between the lines that defines the followership (ergo, success) of any person in any type of profession I have mentioned.

Names Dropped

Let me see how these lists mature. Will they age well?

Best Songs Shot in Slo-Mo

1. "O Saathi Re" (Tassaduq Hussain, Kumar Mangat, Vishal Bhardwaj, Omkara 2006)
2. "Sundari Kannaal Oru Saedhi" (Santosh Sivan, G.Venkateswaran, Mani Ratnam Thalapathy 1991)
3. "Pehla Nasha" (Najeeb Khan, Nasir Hussain, Mansoor Khan Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar 1992)

Best Scenes on Steadicam

1. "Nagarjuna Akkineni and niece chase" (S. Gopal Reddy, Venkat Akkineni, Ram Gopal Varma Shiva 1989)
2. "Bombay cops' clean up" (Gerard Hooper-Mazhar Kamran, Bharat Shah, Ram Gopal Varma Satya 1998)
3. "Imtiaz Ghavate chase" (Natarajan "Nutty" Subramaniam, Arindam Mitra, Anurag Kashyap Black Friday 2007)
4. "O Saaya-cops chase slum kids" (Anthony Dod Mantle, Christian Colson, Danny Boyle Slumdog Millionaire 2008)

Best Depiction of Hospitals, Railway Stations, Places of Worship, People in Uniform/Power

1. Vishal Bhardwaj (assorted)
2. Mani Ratnam (assorted)
3. Farhan Akhtar (assorted)

Best Depiction of Women

1. Ashutosh Gowariker (assorted)
2. Mani Ratnam (assorted)
3. Farhan Akhtar (assorted)

Best Costume Design

1. Loveleen Bains and Arjun Bhasin (Declan Quinn, Caroline Baron, Mira Nair Monsoon Wedding 2001)
2. Anaita Shroff Adajania (Jehangir Chowdhury, assorted, Homi Adajania Being Cyrus 2005)
3. Arjun Bhasin (Ravi K Chandran, Pravin Talreja-Javed Akhtar-Ritesh Sidhwani Dil Chahta Hai 2001)
4. Chaitanya Rao (Ravi K Chandran, G. Srinivasan-Mani Ratnam, Mani Ratnam Kannathil Muthamittal 2002)
5. Dolly Ahluwalia (Tassaduq Hussain, Kumar Mangat, Vishal Bhardwaj, Omkara 2006) Bhanu Athaiyya (Mahesh Aney, Ronnie Screwvala-Ashutosh Gowariker, A.R.Rahman, Ashutosh Gowariker Swades 2004)

Best Production Design

1. Sameer Chanda (Santosh Sivan, G. Srinivasan-Mani Ratnam, Mani Ratnam Iruvar 1997)
2. Sabu Cyril (Ravi K Chandran, G. Srinivasan-Mani Ratnam, Mani Ratnam Kannathil Muthamittal 2002)
3. Nitin Desai (Tassaduq Hussain, Kumar Mangat, Vishal Bhardwaj, Omkara 2006)
4. Suzanne Caplan Merwanji (Ravi K Chandran, Pravin Talreja-Javed Akhtar-Ritesh Sidhwani Dil Chahta Hai 2001)
5. Sabu Cyril (Ravi K Chandran, G.Srinivasan-Mani Ratnam, A.R.Rahman, Mani Ratnam Ayutha Ezhuthu/Yuva 2004)

Best Hair Design

1. Osh Bhabani and Adhuna Bhabani (Jehangir Chowdhury, assorted, Homi Adajania Being Cyrus 2005)
2. Avan Contractor and Adhuna Bhabani Akhtar (Ravi K Chandran, Pravin Talreja-Javed Akhtar-Ritesh Sidhwani Farhan Akhtar Dil Chahta Hai 2001)
3. Madras Talkies (Ravi K Chandran, G. Srinivasan-Mani Ratnam, Mani Ratnam Kannathil Muthamittal 2002)

Best Title Design/Music

1. Dil Se (Santosh Sivan, Shekhar Kapur-Ram Gopal Varma-Mani Ratnam, A.R.Rahman, Mani Ratnam 1998)
2. Guru (Rajeev Menon, G. Srinivasan-Mani Ratnam, A.R.Rahman, Mani Ratnam 2007)
3. Rang De Basanti (Binod Pradhan, Ronnie Screwvala-Rakeysh Mehra, A.R.Rahman, Rakeysh Mehra 2006)
4. Dil Chahta Hai (Ravi K Chandran, Pravin Talreja-Javed Akhtar-Ritesh Sidhwani, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Farhan Akhtar 2001)
5. Swades (Mahesh Aney, Ronnie Screwvala-Ashutosh Gowariker, A.R.Rahman, Ashutosh Gowariker 2004)

Best Original Movie Theme

1. Soul of Jungle/Racing the Jungle (Sandeep Chowta, Jungle 2000)
2. Aayo Re (A.R.Rahman, Swades 2004)
3. Latika's Theme (A.R.Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire 2008)
4. Dil Chahta Hai (Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Dil Chahta Hai 2001)
5. Bombay Theme (A.R.Rahman, Bombay 1995)

Best Action Choreography

1. Vikram Dharma (Ravi K Chandran, G. Srinivasan-Mani Ratnam, Mani Ratnam Kannathil Muthamittal 2002)
2. Amin Ghani (Vijay Arora, Bharat Shah, Ram Gopal Varma Jungle 2000)
3. Shyam Kaushal (Anthony Dod Mantle, Christian Colson, Danny Boyle Slumdog Millionaire 2008)

Best Lyrics

1. "Radha Kaise Na Jale" (Javed Akhtar, Anil Mehta, Aamir Khan-Jhamu Sughand, A.R. Rahman, Ashutosh Gowariker Lagaan 2001)
2. "Kaminey" (Gulzar, Tassaduq Hussain, Ronnie Screwvala, Vishal Bhardwaj, Vishal Bhardwaj Kaminey 2009)
3. "Do Kadam Aur Sahi" ( Javed Akhtar, Santosh Sivan, Reima Husain, A.R.Rahman, M.F. Hussain Meenaxi 2004)
4. "Beedi Jalailey" (Gulzar, Tassaduq Hussain, Kumar Mangat, Vishal Bhardwaj, Vishal Bhardwaj, Omkara 2006)
5. "Lukka Chuppi, Ru-Ba-Ru" (Prasoon Joshi, Binod Pradhan, Ronnie Screwvala-Rakeysh Mehra, A.R.Rahman, Rakeysh Mehra Rang De Basanti 2006)

Best Train Scenes

1. "Killing of Indore Singh" (Tassaduq Hussain, Kumar Mangat, Vishal Bhardwaj, Vishal Bhardwaj, Omkara 2006)
2. "Duniya Ki Sabse Chhoti Prem Kahaani" (Santosh Sivan, Shekhar Kapur-Ram Gopal Varma-Mani Ratnam, Mani Ratnam Dil Se 1998)
3. "Chaiyya Chaiyya" (Santosh Sivan, Shekhar Kapur-Ram Gopal Varma-Mani Ratnam, Mani Ratnam Dil Se 1998)
4. "Train Robbery" (P.C. Sreeram, G.Srinivasan-Mani Ratnam, Mani Ratnam Thiruda Thiruda 1993)
5. "Pre-climax and Climax" (S. Gopal Reddy, K.L.Narayana-S. Gopal Reddy, Ram Gopal Varma Kshana Kshanam 1991)

Best Screenplay

1. Sarfarosh (Vikas Sivaraman, John Mathew Matthan, Jatin Lalit, John Mathew Matthan 1999)
2. Satya (Gerard Hooper-Mazhar Kamran, Bharat Shah, Ram Gopal Varma 1998)
3. Alaipayuthey (P.C.Sreeram, G.Srinivasan-Mani Ratnam, A.R.Rahman, Mani Ratnam 2000)
4. Rang De Basanti (Binod Pradhan, Ronnie Screwvala-Rakeysh Mehra, A.R.Rahman, Rakeysh Mehra 2006)
5. Ayutha Ezhuthu/Yuva (Ravi K Chandran, G.Srinivasan-Mani Ratnam, A.R.Rahman, Mani Ratnam 2004)

Best Production Houses

1. Yash Chopra-Aditya Chopra (Yash Raj Films)
2. Ronnie Screwvala-Deven Khote-Zarine Mehta (UTV)
3. Ritesh Sidhwani-Farhan Akhtar (Excel Entertainment)
4. G. Srinivasan-Mani Ratnam (Madras Talkies)
5. Ashutosh Gowariker (AGPPL) Aamir Khan (Aamir Khan Productions)

Best Background Music Score

1. Ilaiyaraja (S. Gopal Reddy, Venkat Akkineni, Ram Gopal Varma Shiva 1989)
2. A.R.Rahman (Santosh Sivan, Shekhar Kapur-Ram Gopal Varma-Mani Ratnam, Mani Ratnam Dil Se 1998)
3. Shantanu Moitra (Natarajan "Nutty" Subramaniam, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Vidhu Vinod Chopra Ekalavya 2007)
4. Sandeep Chowta (Gerard Hooper-Mazhar Kamran, Bharat Shah, Ram Gopal Varma Satya 1998)
5. A.R.Rahman (Mahesh Aney, Ronnie Screwvala-Ashutosh Gowariker, A.R.Rahman, Ashutosh Gowariker Swades 2004)

Best Short Films

1. Blood Brothers (Vishal Bhardwaj, Mira Nair 2007)
2. Positive (Farhan Akhtar, Mira Nair 2007)
3. Prarambha (Santosh Sivan, Mira Nair 2007)

Best Directorial Debuts

1. Nikhil Advani (Anil Mehta, Yash Johar-Karan Johar, Nikhil Advani Kal Ho Naa Ho 2003)
2. Farhan Akhtar (Ravi K Chandran, Pravin Talreja-Javed Akhtar-Ritesh Sidhwani Dil Chahta Hai 2001)
3. Farah Khan (Manikandan, Shahrukh Khan-Gauri Khan, Farah Khan Main Hoon Na 2004)

Best Music Director-Singers

1. Himeish Reshammiya (assorted)
2. Shankar Mahadevan (assorted)
3. A.R.Rahman (assorted)

Best Movies - Coolness Factor

1. Ab Tak Chhappan (Vishal Sinha, Ram Gopal Varma, Shimit Amin 2004)
2. Company (Hemant Chaturvedi, Ashwini Dutt-Boney Kapoor, Ram Gopal Varma 2002)
3. Hyderabad Blues (Madhu Ambat/Vijay Kumar, Nagesh Kukunoor, Nagesh Kukunoor 1998)
4. Maqbool (Hemant Chaturvedi, Bobby Bedi, Vishal Bhardwaj 2003)
5. Swades (Mahesh Aney, Ronnie Screwvala-Ashutosh Gowariker, Ashutosh Gowariker 2004)

Best Punch-in-the-Solar-Plexus Movies

1. Shiva (S. Gopal Reddy, Venkat Akkineni, Ram Gopal Varma Shiva 1989)
2. A Wednesday (Fuwad Khan, Ronnie Screwvala, Neeraj Pandey 2008)
3. Ab Tak Chhappan (Vishal Sinha, Ram Gopal Varma, Shimit Amin 2004)

Best Original Tracks - Coolness Factor

1. "Bol Na Halke Halke" (Ayananka Bose, Yash Chopra-Aditya Chopra, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Shaad Ali Jhoom Barabar Jhoom 2007)
2. "Ya Rabba" (Piyush Shah, Mukesh Talreja, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Nikhil Advani Salaam-E-Ishq 2007)
3. "Ek Lau" (Alphonse Roy, Ronnie Screwvala, Amit Trivedi Aamir 2008)
4. "Tanhayee" (Ravi K Chandran, Pravin Talreja-Javed Akhtar-Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar Dil Chahta Hai 2001)

Landmark Movies

1. Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (Virendra Saini, Vikram Mehrotra, Jatin-Lalit, Kundan Shah 1993)
2. Lagaan (Anil Mehta, Aamir Khan-Jhamu Sughand, A.R. Rahman, Ashutosh Gowariker 2001)
3. Satya (Gerard Hooper-Mazhar Kamran, Bharat Shah, Vishal Bhardwaj, Ram Gopal Varma 1998)
4. Kuruthhipunal/Drohi (P.C.Sreeram, Charu Haasan-Kamal Haasan, Mahesh, P.C.Sreeram 1995)
5. Thevar Magan (P.C.Sreeram, Kamal Haasan, Ilaiyaraja, Bharathan 1992)
6. Kal Ho Naa Ho (Anil Mehta, Yash Johar-Karan Johar, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Nikhil Advani 2003)
7. Dil Chahta Hai (Ravi K Chandran, Pravin Talreja-Javed Akhtar-Ritesh Sidhwani, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Farhan Akhtar 2001)
8. Lage Raho Munnabhai (C.K.Muraleedharan, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Shantanu Moitra, Rajkumar Hirani 2006)
9. Rang De Basanti (Binod Pradhan, Ronnie Screwvala-Rakeysh Mehra, A.R.Rahman, Rakeysh Mehra 2006)
10. Sarfarosh (Vikas Sivaraman, John Mathew Matthan, Jatin Lalit, John Mathew Matthan 1999)

moon moon seen

Alright, if I could get past that initial glob of cheese, I could safely declare that I fulfilled a childhood dream of mine last week courtesy a conference away from home. Apart from the wonderful opportunities it threw, and what I gained, it also let me meet up with Lakshman, one of my close buddies here in the US.

He had a 1996 Celestron on him gifted by his professor! We enthusiastically brought it out in the front yard and voila, he was up there in all his complete, full glory. After some initial hiccups in the form of poor focus, and excess light, what we saw was truly mesmerising.

He was literally trapped and reduced to a heavenly sphere of bright white. Ah, his craters were meant to be seen, something I had only heard of while in school. It felt almost as if we were mocking and making fun of his celestial status. Thank god, I didn't behave behave like one gawk in a topless bar. We wanted to capture this glimpse for posterity but the set up we had couldn't support camera connectivity, too bad. But what is heartwarming is that the current Meades and Celestrons can be rigged to a camera, or better, a dSLR :)

My fascination dates back to those days in the 90s when I would walk/cycle past the India Hobby Centre, Hyderabad. Those guys stocked apart from everything else, some cool telescopes for amateurs. It was tempting but it was expensive too. But S.P.Road never seemed more relevant to me, with I.H.C at one end and Sangeet at the other. The amount of reading I did on astronomy, and the follow up I practised made my one of my uncles wonder if I would earn my bread from this. But that is a story for another day.

I don't know how many times I have dragged total acquaintances to B.M. Birla Science Centre, Adarsh Nagar, and I swear I haven't kept a count. That was truly some place.

I know I am one big lazy goose but if I can combine two of the biggest fascinations of my life, photography and sky gazing, into a single entity and derive immense pleasure from it what more could I ask for! Pleasure that simply cannot be put in words. Suits lazy bums like me.

maaki kirkiri

dreams galore

All of us dream, and for that we needn't be dreamers which is used in a sort of pejorative sense. I have noticed most of us do remember and recall our year old dreams that are of no significance actually. But we still do, and that says something. Upon racking my brains, may be these would be my dream leitmotifs.


1) I am flying high in the air and almost when I am about to hit the roof I go plummeting in an instant glide, then out of fear of hitting the electric wires, I go up again.

2) I am on this huge huge elevator(lift) that is of the size of an entire floor. I step onto it in the last moment and then it goes down, a scary scary free falling lift. Remember, it is of the size of an entire floor.

3) I am on a platform and running hard to catch a fast moving train never to hop onto it.


The sheer regularity of these amazes me.

Golden Lotus

For sometime now I have been harboring a character sketch in my mind, of course for now painted only in superficial strokes. The finality, and consequently with it, the actual beauty, would ironically surface, only when I go deep. But for now here are the broad strokes.

He is a synonym for Genius in all lexicons. He is an iconoclast. He is a giver. He is selfless. He is enigmatic. He is everyday. He is sublime. He is beyond compare. He is charismatic. He is solo. He is among the crowd. He is a geek. He speaks Greek. He is a luddite. He is a techno guru. He is a charmer. He is royal. He is loyal. He is a rebel. He is an erudite. He speaks simple. He speaks hard. He is a free bird. He is an Archer. When he rises, people around him rise.

He is a vegetarian.

He is at ease with Carnatic Classical, as much as he is with Jazz or Hindustani Classical. He can quote The Vedas and P G Wodehouse with the same elan with he can shake a leg to a Hyderabadi teenmar. He can hold forth on M.S.Subbulakshmi, French porn, Clive Lloyd, Mohammed Azharuddin, and Sicilian defense in chess and you will be craving more. His cartoon features are to die for, and you don't mind skipping your morning coffee to his creations. He is a Marriott man and yet his heart truly longs for the early morning street cart food. The letters that he writes could put the SMS kids to shame. His handwriting can make Nizam pearls squirm.

He is an erstwhile I.A.S officer, highly adorned diplomat who has tried and truly tried and given up on the system. He has moved on to better, bigger, larger, deeper aspects of his existence he is so proud of. He is a family man, very devoted at that and yet he is aloof. He is a visiting professor, and yet a student, to put it clichedly, of life. He is a nomad. He is mad.

Upon being broached the women in his life maintain a dignified, respectful silence about him smacking of pure love. Their pupils dilate.

At times he has his hair pulled back to a pony. He wears plain kurtas with The North Face jackets. Yes. The soles would take Quovadis sandals and Timberland boots. It is only Levi's 501 for him. His backpack and his glares are respectively Jansport (black) and Ray-Ban only. He rides either an Enfield Bullet or a Yamaha RD-350. He has a Parker/MontBlanc for a weapon. He is a Nehruvian Bandhgala man. His radio is a Bose. When he sports a white half sleeved shirt angels almost drool. He is a Raymonds man. Yet he does all this with such elegance and class of a different order that it all seems so inadvertent, and not thought of. He doesn't care.

His thoughts and commensurate actions and not him put wannabes and pseudos in their place. He shows why men are men and where kids belong.

He looks somewhat like this. God sure lies in detail. He is detail.

Meet my Ali

From 4 to 54, for all you have done in these 50 glorious years, many thanks Kamal Haasan.

motley madness

"a week too late but the spirit is permanent"

Current Contraceptive

In all probability he was jesting, but then his portfolio (health ministry) and the fact that Ghulam Nabi Azad was speaking at a conference with apparent serious intentions make me doubt my own assumptions.

If there is electricity in every village then people will watch TV till late night and then fall asleep. They won't get a chance to produce children. When there is no electricity there is nothing else to do but produce babies.

Damn, I could do with some cut in my monthly bills.

Nah, he was still probably jesting.

fake identity or identity crisis or surreal identity?

........

. ....... jiska bhi chehra cheela, andar se aur nikla

.........masoom sa kabootar naacha toh mor* nikla

* peacock

Kambakkht Gulzar, Kambakkht Vishal

They read my mind, and then they judged.

poetically, and sardonically!

..............................................Meri aarzoo kaminee

..............................................Mere khwaab bhi kaminey

..............................................Ek dil se dosti thi

..............................................Yeh huzoor bhi kaminey

Bucket List

Talking of going to my grave happy, I'd sport at least a smile if I were to learn/make/achieve/attain/fulfil or if

a significant piece of work in the United Nations Organization

pen something as simple and as elegant as Javed Akhtar's Radha Kaise Na Jale away from all metres and verbosity

my PhD thesis contributes a little more to us humans, albeit in a small way, than just remaining confined to libraries

one stringed instrument; Santoor, Mandolin, or well, a Guitar

come at least close to knowing why we were here

contribute personally and directly to at least one child's growth/primary education

a management degree from ISB, Hyderabad

one picture with my D60 that will remain immortal

one composition that will move people to tears

one epiphanous journey to a far away place that proves all the life before was one truly fucked up dream

Tamizh, or Urdu, or French

watch Wimbledon finals in London, live, with my sister Usha

one small video that will be my slice of eternity

fly

An incorrigibly and horribly romantic that I am, I often look back in time particularly the phase I grew up in, the '80s. All those idyllic thoughts that I associate with the '80s come to the fore, some culled from personal experiences, some media and cinema, and some imagination. Where it is perfectly possible to blend your personal objectives with something that you cannot shy away from, responsibilities. Where sunny Sunday afternoons are sunny Sunday afternoons, where sartorial sense doesn't have to be in an Abercrombie & Fitch or an Aeropostale but also in the simple elegance and class of a homely kurta, where an event or an occasion is bigger than the tools that contribute to it.

My naive self also comes to the fore and I conveniently begin to wonder if it is possible to lead a normal, relaxed, honest to oneself, simple, serene life. It makes me crave a life (I know the word "life" has complex connotations) at my pace, in no race with nobody to achieve that invisible and intangible nothing, satisfy myself, respect all the enormity that nature has to offer, honor minimal societal requirements and really try being true to myself. Where communication with people is very organic, very harmonious sans any ulterior motive quite unlike the restless, matter-of-factly, objective banter characteristic of the times I inhabit. Even if it is the order of the day, I want the blend to be so seamless that it leaves you in awe, or ideally go unnoticed. Where success is not how the society qualifies and quantifies your achievements but is what it means to your personally. As much I respect the comforts and conveniences that modern science and engineering have to offer, I do not want to be ensnared and enslaved by materialism. When I cry "materialism" it extends way beyond the usual physical and tangible entities. I do not want these tools to complete me, and if it did, that would be a personal disaster. I want to lessen the dependency on the social circuses called social networks to feel "in" at the risk of being termed, well, a social outcaste. I so want to move away from these social, cultural, technological phenomena that come oh so periodically and stare you in your face daring you not to ride the wave. For a firm believer in predetermined design, or destiny, may be I shouldn't be cribbing for probably this is the way it is/was meant to be. Yet I will try. At least I will go to my grave happy.

Andy, Slammed Grand

Or is it

Roddick Rogered?!

Anyway, Federer! Take a bow.

Alliterative Imtiaz!

"... ghatni hi thi yeh bhi ghatna, ghat'the ghat'the lo yeh ghat gayi..."

Alluding to destiny in these lines, this groovy, funky, lively, catchy Imtiaz Ali/Pritam Chakraborty number with a slight touch of South Indian rhythm ("taane tandane") is a breeze, moreso with Sunidhi Chauhan's amazing vocals on her introductory lines, very lively strings pervading throughout.

...................................Chor Bazaari Love Aaj Kal (2009)

Star Bucking trend

No, I am not declaring my love for the bean beverage here. When we grew up watching English movies in Sangeet theatre, Hyderabad, as an impressionable kid I placed the stars in some distant la la land, if not a better land (in hindsight). English movies in Sangeet theatre, Hyderabad almost always translated into Hollywood fare. Minimal exposure, minimal knowledge almost fought with each other for the top spots among many barriers that separated us from the stars. The stars that delightfully adorned the silver screen when the lights were dimmed. These barriers worked only fine as the stars remained where they should and the cinematic orgies where they should, and it only made the concept of looking-forward-to more enjoyable.

So when movie channels started airing "making-of" videos in the mid to late 90s, cinema, in a small way,was slowly but surely ripped of its sheen. Everything was laid bare and naked, to its minimum and darn, nothing was left to imagination. It made a good fodder for the cynics who smugly declared "ah, we said so." A Batman of the early 90s was so different from its recent sibling, The Dark Knight of '08 which many reckon has been the best to have happened to man since sliced bread. Why? Apart from every other aspect, the recent installment has been one people have had most access to, and everything that has to be known has already been damning the very notion of mystery, and damning the idea that stars should remain where they are.

Cut to present and on a slightly different note, this place looks so Indianized, at least to levels that are perceptible, that nothing is a fantasy land anymore. You name a place here, and even before you spell its name, an Indian restaurant would have opened somewhere, or someone would have clicked a snap in front of New York Stock Exchange, or Golden Gate Bridge. May be the overfamiliarity with this place; the system, the pattern, the roads, the exits is the spoilsport. So I shudder at the thought of bumping into a Hanks or a Depp the next time I drive out of that swanky eat-out in downtown L.A., find a Carrey when I turn my head sideways in anticipation of a green light at a traffic island or worse, a Jolie on that famililar trip to Memphis! No exaggeration, I wouldn't want to be caught dead discussing pappu, pulusu, licking my fingers to glory all the while having Spielberg in the vicinity, if not the next table on my next visit to California.


Somewhere you start wondering if this is the same place that lodged the stars that adorned the silver screen when the lights were dimmed in Sangeet theatre, Hyderabad.

an apple of one's eye,

is sore to another!


(Readers' discretion advised; Unsuitable for minors, and couth, may contain North Indian familial expletives)

What do you call an Apple's version of an Apple fanboy?

Mac-ka-lal


What do you call a Microsoft's version of an Apple fanboy?

Mac-ka-lowda

david littered, man!

Always knew, realized, and acknowledged that a joke is always at someone else's expense, and the line that demarcates a good joke from its ugly sibling is very nebulous. Unsuspecting, young ones should never be made a butt of your inanities when they are not ripe enough to fathom the mischief, no matter how supposedly innocuous it is. But it's a shame when a celebrity who has been on air for good three decades forgets his elementary geometry about circles and lines.

social circus

If orkut seemed like a big, showy, never-ending, maddening, stifling jamboree open to all with everything on display, facebook resembles an after-event, after-madness, "by-invitation-only" private party; holding its own mystique, its own little secrets a far cry from the far-from-truth deception of the main event.

As yet, at least.

Saraswati Putra, Bhala!

It is foolish to expect an industry that feeds on stereotype for breakfast, that chokes when it runs out of cliche cylinders, to treat playback singing, its critical entity, any different.

So when you want

zesty, feisty quality in your life, you have Sunidhi Chauhan.

faux sexy wailing, haazir hai Kunal Ganjawalla

the male, higher-higher-pitched version of Sunidhi Chauhan with added diamond-like quality that just cuts through... Krishna Kumar Menon (KK)

a star like quality that will put galaxies to shame, take Sonu Nigam

sincerity, energy, honesty, so what if RAW, please meet A R Rahman

to communicate pathos, sincerity, again so what if RAW, make way for Ilayaraja

saccharine sweet to the point of inducing diabetes, there is always Chitra

someone to traverse the spectrum from an infant to a girl all the way to a woman, welcome S. Janaki

someone to traverse the spectrum from an infant to a girl all the way to a woman, north of Vindhyas, welcome Asha Bhonsle

invoke Gods, mountains, call only Anuradha Paudwal

devotional, call Anuradha Paudwal and Gulshan Kumar

divine, Lata Mangeshkar

saucy, sassy, cheeky, chicken-tikka masala, croaky & froggy, irreverent, arrogant (so what if it makes you want donate truck loads of lozenges), don't do anything; just close your eyes, and pronto! Anu Malik

to revisit the all the good things of your childhood, say "Sadhna Sargam"

fun, frolic added to romantic numbers, go to Mahalaxmi Iyer

somebody, when you find none, think of Alka Yagnik

to touch a chord of the masses faster than the speed of light, send an SMS to Himesh Reshammiya

to insult your enemies, love guilt pleasures, R. P. Patnaik door nahin

to "hear" a smile, please call Udit Narayan

to test the speaker quality of your avante-garde music set up, particularly Bass, head straight to Amitabh Bachchan

to drink without getting drunk, pesh hai Hariharan

to be literally jolted of blues, slumber, so what if transient, go to Sukhwinder Singh

seriousness, sincerity, character go to Kavita Krishnamurthy nee Subramaniam

to learn Malayalam through Hindi, go down south to Yesudas.

to feel good about yourself, about everything around, C/O Rekha Bhardwaj & Vishal Bhardwaj

most of the qualities mentioned above, dial 9823156147/ 9842351706 to reach Shankar Mahadevan






because for all the above and everything else there is an

S P Balasubrahmanyam


(May he live longer than is destined to)

in camera

Do me a favor, promise me you will. Okay? If no, you may skip this. Yes?! OK, now read on. Remember I shall hold you to your word.


1) Next time when you click a good looking snap, please don't touch it, retouch it, touch it up, Photoshop it. Don't let the moment get eclipsed by tech tools. I know to each his own but still try! Remember you promised!

2) It gets a little serious here. Promise me if you come across a very beautiful picture clicked by someone, you will not, repeat after me, you will not ask the photographer, "what camera is it?" "which model?", "no wonder, it is good!". Okay? Mummy promise. This is applicable even when the picture is not up to your standards. Either way you are insulting the photographer.

bing'o !

Just yesterday when I finished watching the official preview of the Microsoft search engine Bing, my first thought was "would this make God (also known as Google) look complacent?." Part of this thought process could be credited to my craving status quo in all spheres.


Rafe Needleman echoes the same thought in the last few lines of his gush post, well almost.

Manly Frame

Mohanlal's Anandan calls on Nasser's Anna Durai at the latter's residence when he is down with fever.

Anandan inquires about Anna's condition, and they exchange pleasantries. Prakash Raj's Tamizhchelvan can now be seen in the frame.



Anna politely rejects Anandan's monetary token to the party at this stage.

"The party doesn't need your money; Reach the common man. Votes will pile up automatically."

Apart from the conceptual brilliance giving us a peep into the characters' psyche, so what if evil and grey, what stands out is the beauty in the framing. Now it is strange that I talk of beauty in a frame where there is not a sight of a single woman. But the beauty that comes out of the mesmerizing whites, the unshakeable blacks, the rich contrasts is beyond words. Particularly in the last frame, filled with nondescript faces of nondescript men barring Lal, the orientation and placement of all the men whether intentional or not is truly outstanding.

When was the last time a picture (full of raw looking men) looked so ethereal almost making mockery of an entire battery of breathtaking women present otherwise in the film; Revathy Menon, Gautami Tadimalla, Madhoo Ranganathan, Aishwarya Rai, and Tabu?

:)


Iruvar (1997)


film grab courtesy: madras talkies

classified!

As if the existence of stereotypes (make that negative) around us in our societies isn't unfortunate enough, the fact that some communities, groups actually live up to that image is far more worrisome. I remember this was exactly a part of conversation between Lakshmi and I just the other day. It is almost as if the target groups have reconciled to the fact nothing can be done, or rather generations of conditioned thinking cannot be undone, and armed with this worldly knowledge they feel it is their right to behave the way they do, almost. In their not being able to do anything about it, the actions and lifestyles are justified in retrospect. I have not travelled far across this planet, at least not as yet, but I can safely say no society is free from this.

Why does a particular community act super frugal to the point of being stingy? Why does one race listen to only a particular type of music, or endorse a certain clothing fashion? Why does one group have to always act and sound intellectual, almost warranting pseudo-intellectual masturbations? Why is one group always loud mouths while the other is fool infested? When behaviors, attitudes become social tags or ID cards without a word being spoken, you know there is a room for worry. If you take any group/community/entity/strata and I hate to say this, its behavior will not be far from the image it has created, or that has been attributed. 99 out of 100 times. My heart goes out to all those who inspite of being a mole minority are consciously or unconsciously a part of a silent movement to break these stereotypes.


John Cloud in the latest issue of the Time (June 1, 2009) addresses a slightly related topic with more insight and well, cushions it with some research findings.

The following piece of work is credited to John Cloud and Time magazine, and I have only scanned the article for the sake of more readership. The copyright is duly acknowledged.


(click on the image for a bigger view)


As for me, I belong to all those demographics to which not-so-friendly qualities are ascribed, and on my part I try to be away from them. As Cloud would have liked it, I have not internalized them! :)

But I am also increasingly forced to believe in the adage that not without a reason do stereotypes exist, and that indeed is a scary thought.

Picture...Perfect

courtesy: Columbia Pictures, Phedon Papamichael

Will Smith's Christopher Gardner walks out of the firm after being told of his appointment as a new broker. But this moment arrives not until after a series of mind-sickening, confidence-numbing harrowing moments in his life. So this only makes what follows special; the bursts of joy, of the pent up tears.

Gardner with his teary eyed face, erupting in absolute joy in a sea of undulating faces, and with his self worth intact, stands tall


literally and figuratively.

Meet the Gods

Now contrary to what the scriptures have had us believe, King Raavana has also been acknowledged for better things, credited to be an erudite, and apart from everything else a staunch Siva bhakta.

We have been told Raavana owed it to Lord Siva for his name, for his powers.

Raavana needed Siva. May be history repeats itself.


If the grapevine is to be believed, Santosh Sivan would soon join Madras Talkies' Raavana after the original cinematographer walks out on the team.


No regrets, this shall only be one holy communion. Sure the Gods must be crazy.


:)

Chew this Beatle (sic)

courtesy: UTV Spotboy


Ronnie sure Screws the rest.


Welcome back Tigmanshu Dhulia.


Dil Se...

Congress Grass or Gross Congress?

The result of the victorious Indian National Congress?




"Rahul... naam to suna hoga!"

Angles (sic) & Demons (within)

One of the tracks on my Pod right after a viewing of Ron Howard's latest,

"Do aur do ka jod hameshaa chaar kahaan hota hai
Soch samajh waalon ko thodi naadani de maula"

..................................................................... Jagjit Singh


:)

Political Swearing In Ceremony

DMK, DMKD, AIADMK, DVK, DTMK, DMC, DMDK, DP, DPK, AIAMK, AIMMK, AK M.G.R DMP, A M.G.R K, ATMK


For you, the ever uninitiated, who thought the above were the choicest of Telugu cuss words, they are political parties in Tamilnadu.

Promiscuity and Incest

thy name is Andhra Politics

fuck democracy... fuck democratic thinking... hail autocracy... fuck equality... fuck respect... fuck dignity... fuck decency... fuck courtesy... fuck manners... fuck maturity... fuck "grown-up"... fuck nicety... fuck "point-of-view"... fuck "others'-points-of-view"...

let there be only one point... let there be only one view...

fuck "in-others' -shoes"... let there be only shoe; yours with the sharpest of spikes that are going to trample others who don't listen to you


let there be absolute dictatorship... abide, survive.; rebel, have your organ chopped off.

one rule, one life

The Loss of Independents

"...If more than 90 per cent of distant Nagaland’s people come out to vote when less than half as many do in South Bombay it shows how parts of the country where real democracy was denied for long are so much more enthusiastic about it..."

..............................................................................................Shekhar Gupta, Indian Express



Subjective to the core, cynical to the core,nevertheless, this Shekhar here is a mover.

debo'nair millio'nair

No, that's not a new movie I am producing but that perfectly sums up what this gentleman Shashi Tharoor is for he commands attention from my mother-in-law and a little more, worse, from my wife.


UNequivocally!!!

Good News

The answer to jaane kahaan gaye woh log is as follows


1) Shivendra Kundra is one half of Kundra & Bansal, an international law firm. Whatever happened to his moustache!

2) Usha Albuquerque is a Delhi based career counsellor.

3) Sunit Tandon is into theatre and is a big shot at National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) whose movies we used to despise before any masala behemoth started on big screens.

4) Shammi Narang, I saw of him last in Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool (2003)

5) Tejeshwar "roar" Singh is a big publisher.

6) Neethi Ravindran, who I have also encountered on recorded messages on telephones and service providers, is a big voice expert and offers professional voice services.

7) Rini Khanna and Sukanya Balakrishnan are on Facebook :P ;)

If there was a mini celebrity who could make me drink wine at 8 or 9 it was Sukanya Balakrishnan ("in aankhon se mujhe peene do" hai hai! ;))

8) Ved Prakash is a journalist, and with a media school; the last I met him was in 1996 at Kendriya Vidyalaya Gole Market, New Delhi.

9) Bhaskar Bhattacharji has had to honor an early appointment with God.



God bless these souls!

Jayant Kripalani

When I chanced upon this trove full of erstwhile gems, I was delighted to see this very likable gem which featured one of my favorite television stars of all time.




I have admired this gentleman for his frame, his mane, his persona, that naughty glint in his eyes and more than anything else that sugar-salt-pepper coated grainy voice of his with such fantastic voice character.

Then he chewed up the scenery when he teamed up with Farooque Sheikh, another favorite of mine, on Ji Mantriji (2002) for Star Plus; a series that ranks high high on my lists for being synonymous with class and sheer class. Now it looks like he is in the company of good men at Exper.




Gosh! nostalgia is so injurious to one's mental health.

Shoe'd Away

George "W" Bush, P. Chidambaram, Naveen Jindal (Congress MP), and now L.K. Advani

From the trend this list doesn't seem to be exhaustive.



Last heard Bata was running out of stock!!

ten tena ten ten tena!

First twin-metal ten rupee coins issued by the RBI.




Age can do nothing to some childhood fascinations

Rubious Distinction?

I hope it is not, for there goes an urban legend in the U.S that red cars get pulled over more by cops, and horrors of horrors, command higher insurance rates.

Obviously this is not what I want after months of research (beating my own academic research ;)), agony, pain, frustration, desperation, irritation, endless wait to acquire a brand new


'09 Barcelona Red Toyota Corolla Sedan


:-)


recorded for posterity!

separated at birth?

Sourav Ganguly.......................................Jaideep Sahni

separated at birth?

Sirivennela S'sastri...................Parakala Prabhakar



courtesy: Google images

e N T R a p p e d ??

Of late I have been catching up on some political developments in Andhra Pradesh. Whether the party in power has a direct influence on me or not, it has interested me for long. But make no mistake they can be more engaging than your regular Friday matinee. I never believe in the political hearsay, or hearsay in general by principle. But somewhere I also believe in there being no smoke without a fire. Anyway I have never respected or admired Chandrababu Naidu only from what I have seen or read about him. He has always carried the tag of being a manipulator, a veritable Chanakya of modern day political scenario.

Again though I have never had to say anything big about Jr. NTR ( Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao), I admire the brat's guts, his readiness at such a tender age, his ability to make his age defying high-voltage histrionics very believable. As a guilt pleasure, oh I have many, I have always followed his interviews. Make for nice read, listen.

But when I saw this young chap's face smeared in blood courtesy an accident while returning from a political campaign all in service of C'babu Naidu, I really felt bad. After all he is a kiddo. There has always been this perception/opinion that Jr. NTR was/is never considered a part of the prestigious Nandamuri family, and that he has always made efforts to get closer only in vain. Also, it is said that Naidu would "dump" the kid once he has pulped his popularity, his charisma, his pull among the masses on the basis of region, and caste. Whether the Nostradamuses of Andhra are true or not, I really don't care, I want the kid to get back to medical normalcy, and return to be doing what he does best.

Add to my guilt pleasure, my little happiness and as they say, be a total paisa vasool.

truck loads

Nothing beats the sight of beastly, giant, intimidating transportation trucks on the U.S. freeways/Interstates that is if you care to look away from natural wonders; mountains, hillocks, pools, ponds, rivers, grasslands, pines, plains, amazing traffic islands that line these amazing roads, simply the best of the U.S. infrastructure.

One could be on either side; facing these trucks coming from the opposite direction, or better have them pass you on your left. Each possibility can leave you with your senses overwhelmed for sure. My heart goes for the drivers who handle these beasts with such fine precision, discipline and self control that you are in awe in minutes. It must be so difficult to change lanes, stick to lanes, maintain speeds, be aware of their limits and the physical, spatial limits these trucks throw, and yet race against time to finish job at hand. Doff my hats off!

I thought I was crazy developing a fascination for rail engines, heavy duty trucks with respect to their nose shapes, and the aerodynamics. I forgot there was YouTube.

Whenever close to these 18-20 wheelers in motion or at rest, I have wanted to capture them from unusual angles like say the dutch tilt, for these angles add to their machoness, their larger-than-life quality and their ugliness.


In this ugliness lies their actual beauty.

boy with pizzazz

what a personality!!!

Canada Dry

"Make no mistake: The flight may have been Air India's, it may have taken place off the coast of Ireland, but this is a Canadian tragedy."

Paul Martin, Canadian Prime Minister




courtesy: AirIndia 182, and YouTube


Waiting to watch this chilling account of a far more chilling scar, an example of those innumerable instances when humanity was killed



...religiously

Zip Code

Apparently Akshay Kumar doesn't have one, or so claims Anil Nair, one society conscious, well meaning, social activist leading to the Mumbai Police registering a case against the actor.

Akshay Kumar, supposedly, had his actress wife play with his fly, in jest, on his ramp walk.


Where? Lakme India Fashion Week. Not the Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi during the civilian honors.

What sort of people attend that? The glitterati who, I presume, don't give a flying fuck to some jobless arsehole's sense of propriety, and have a good laugh, good time.



Again, who cares? But for this jobless arsehole, none.


Not the least, Twinkle Khanna. Not a flying fuck

dis parity

As we meet and interact with people holding different passports on them, we realize that because of various constraints in language, in culture, in backgrounds ideas do not get communicated well. At least as much as we intend to. People often either wince or draw blank faces, they cannot help but stare at you as if looking into black holes not knowing where you could be coming from. Then we realize how different we are, how much diversity there exists in all aspects and move on.

Yet,

I have noticed that there are a few phenomena that are, to put in the simplest form, universal. No matter how different we are, there are a few things at random experiencing which you either sigh, or smile, or wince as the case may be thinking no matter where we go things are the same. Here are such non-exhaustive random things I have noticed.

• education, craving grades, craving GPAs and CGPAs
• higher education
• brands
• Sex
• interest in the opposite sex
• vanity
• avarice
• fear of law, not necessarily respect for law
• freedom hot spots

Predictable?

That would be an understatement.


Stuff which is getting more predictable than breaking news on national TV, surprises and walkouts in reality shows is, surprisingly, Google/Gmail's April Fool gags.

Now they have been doing this over years, and in the initial years they were smart, creative as is apparent in Ramanand's chronicles. But with this year's Autopilot have they stretched it too far now? It looks so obvious, so lame and so silly, and more of a ritual to be scored off their to do lists.

Sad, I have to say this about Google.

destined terror?

The courts, the system will want to believe

Uparwaale, kasab (ka) haath hai

I want to believe

Uparwaale ka sab haath hai

youth, innocence, faith, trust gone haywire?

All Time Merry

I have been crying for this for so long and Jesus, it had to happen!

In a landmark order, the RBI mandates all the banks in the country not to charge non-home account holders any service/penalty fee for withdrawing money from their machines. The service/penalty fee, though petty, is substantial from an Indian standpoint. The serpentine queues in front of some select high volume banks will be a sight of the past, and having spent close to two and half years in Bangalore, I relate to it and I should know


All The More

it is already tomorrow in australia

:-)


god bless all those souls who were involved in the conceptualization, the execution, and the realization of the dream.


should have been a real dream come true and what a tribute to the man who was the first to reach god before everybody else, all in the service of god.



Margazhi Raagam ('08, '09)

Caste Iron

Breakfast that has nurtured the American maamis and maamas!





(courtesy: Google images)

consummation

...నిన్నటి దాక నేనొక హల్లుని
నువ్వొచ్చాక అక్షరమైతిని...

...ninnati daaka nenoka halluni
nuvvochhaka aksharamaithini...

hallu : consonant
aksharam : letter


There aren't many sweeter, nicer, poetic, grammatic ways of expressing one's gratitude and love, I guess.

fame

When do you think one has really arrived in a place like India? How do you quantify someone's fame in a country like India? Arundhati Roy and Shashi Tharoor are famous, and so are Hrithik Roshan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. But are they all on an equal footing? The answer, I reckon, is a big no! Do the needles point to same values on popularity scales in their case? no.


One of my long held ideas is that you are really famous when your photos appear in small time magazines in really small scale towns. You are found at really obscure places like chocolate wrappers of locally made chocolates, you appear on those shiny gaudy plastic sheets that cover various food items. You appear on labels, stickers, you are found on those transparent cheap plastic sheets that wrap that cheap plastic toy gun, or the water game your little one craves in a town mela. You appear as a model for those Z grade beedis and cement brands on those rickety walls in those rickety towns. You appear as generic line diagrams standing for those qualities you are known for in primary school text books. Your picture stands next to the word cricket, consciously or unconsciously, in those text books.

You are famous when the miyas of old Hyderabad decide to honor you by having you adorn their display boards. Where? The ubiquitous bone setting centers.

But you as an entity or a concept have really arrived when the firework companies in Sivakasi decide to have a firecracker preferably of the noise variety named after you. You appear on the cartons that contain "hydrogen/laxmi bombs" or on the display sheets in those "parachute rockets".

e.g. Ghajini Rockets, or Ghajini Bombs.


There, I truly believe, the Roys and the Tharoors don't stand a speck of a chance.

madras digest

TOIng with madras

For the kind of change it apparently wanted to bring about, the The Times of India's entry in Madras is definitely a shocker. In retrospect, one could justify the paper's presence in cities like Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, and of course Bombay. Madras was always thought to be The Hindu's bastion and now with the TOI's entry it remains to be seen what The Hindu's strategy would be. A sign of changing times, may be.

The Times, London makes this note

"...It is read not only as a distant and authoritative voice on national affairs but as an expression of the most liberal - and least provincial - southern attitudes..."

also,

"It might fairly be described as a national voice with a southern accent" :)



Young Turks

If you are to ever capture gobsmackingly gorgeous portrait pictures of little ones, say aged between 3 and 5, look no further than those from Iran, Turkey, Israel. They with their combination of tones, features, textures, innocence of another order take beauty to a different level. Try this if you are close to any. I should know, trust me. God promise.


Seeti of Joy

A Bengali's cry of late (and you wouldn't mind this ;) )

"Joy! Ho"

Kodak Moment

12:15 PM cheri: celebrating Rehman :)

??

12:17 PM me: since 1992!

12:18 PM cheri: :)

correct

I liked that reply


courtesy: Cheri Abraham

Yes, I too liked that Cheri. It was honest, and not "moment-inspired".


PS: Good music or good art in general should motivate you, make you look at, appreciate other facets of life. Oh, there is so much! I shall take a break from this Rahman-Chalisa for a while.

H Sridhar

What does it take for a man of an ilk so mercilessly relegated to background to elicit such warmth, words of highest appreciation, and feeling of gratitude from men who usually hog the limelight? Mere talent doesn't get you that, and that is an understatement.

When do people miss you the most? Is it when they stand to gain from you both materially and otherwise? Is it when you apart from all the things said make their life richer by your mere association?

When was the last time a behind the screen man given such due and on such a scale? How do you judge his work as an end user who would rather be swaying to the tunes and the accompanying lyrics? How do you qualify to be a judge on a reality show where in the TRPs and glamour dictate who it is that should be facing the camera? He is so nice to listen to when he starts off at 3.13 here and my absolute favorite is the period between 3.51 and 4.08! Between 5.18 and 6.12 here.

When was the last time people posted videos saying "Sir, we miss you"? To a sound engineer! here

Labelling Sridhar who has added immense amount of richness to ethereal quality scores a mere Sound Engineer or a Mixing Engineer would be so disrespectful.

Rajeev Menon probably says it the best when he and A R Rahman pay their tributes here and here to a man who I had first heard about a decade ago, and who in his salt & pepper beard and that gracious talk reminds me of some arbit professor from IISc who is always buried in his grants, proposals and publications.

I wish I had known of him more. I wish there were more interviews and more literature available on this erstwhile guitarist and keyboard player.

courtesy: YouTube and various other sources


Probably to the people who were close to him and who have gained so much from him, his absence and the resulting silence roar in dolby.


crystal clear.

a p p a r e n t l y !!!

He has been an inspiration for a long time now. It has been like that for ages, and funnily I have been only conscious about it in recent times. Funny because I always knew it without actually knowing it; who my pillar of support was, who was behind me, beside me at all times. May be it is a right mix of acknowledgment and realization now. Whatever, it is heartening.

For the background he came from, for the milieu he grew up in, for the upbringing he claims he has had, his tastes always reflected a certain amount of class. Probably this was one of those examples of the fact that environment, no matter how influential, cannot take away you from you. Thanks to him for being his true self. His ear for good sound and consequently good music is near legendary in immediate family circles as was his collection of those HMV plastic marvels. The sheer range of books, the company he has kept and still reads is close to boggling. He could and can quote from memory almost verbatim. I will not disrespect him by saying all this ran in the family, the blood being the same. Yes, it was the case but he still was what others were not. The most delightful aspect is how he has kept pace with changing times, tuning himself accordingly showing immense respect to the new wave, and never in the process losing out on his old world self. This balancing act of his was never surprising for the pattern has been the same across all walks of life. How could one person do it with so much dignity, class, maturity, and cool very well respecting his limitations is beyond my comprehension. His pace has been remarkable, at times beating me to the acquisition of many a material aspiration! He was there when Philips offered its best tape recorders; he was there when Dyanora had a small array of color televisions then. When I, sorry we, wanted to migrate to bigger ones he was looking at nothing less than a Panasonic, when all I was looking was for a Philips multi CD-VCD changers. He understood the need for a big screen with the same ease with which he said yes it’s time for a DVD console. Knowing all this my wish is to set up a small media room for him which will let him stock his collection of books and house a near state of the art home theater system.

This is not meant to be a vulgar display of affluence of any kind, but a gentle reminder to myself as to how he read the pulse sans any contempt, and without being a Luddite. All these actually pale before the tremendous amounts of spiritual, emotional, intellectual maturity he has shown. Why am I even comparing! Make no mistake the times he and I have lived in lend themselves to a classic case of generation gap, a wide one at that. But he never made that chasm look wide, all the while retaining his self.


Kudos!


Yet with all this there was a constant desire from my side to know what went on in his mind. How he felt about things I was giving apparent and obvious importance to. What were his two cents on subjects, and matters I held close to my heart? With all the open communication we have practiced, ironically there was that inexplicable gap. Was he feeling burdened? What hid behind those diplomatic veneers? Or simply was he playing roles? What baffled me was how he could encounter all events, phenomena with such a straight cucumber face almost all the time. I could only mull over.


For all he has done for me, given me, taught me I have never been able to return the favor in any form. The sheer magnitude makes me think it’s even futile giving it a thought. However, after much persistence from my side, and due to a modicum of his own interest, he has relented. I will always feel good about myself for having brought about this change. I hope this is a fantastic beginning or rather a restart if he ever had stopped.


Funnily, to see what the future holds for us I have to now delve into his past. He is letting me peep. I hope we take the journey together.


Mistakes be pardoned, typos be overlooked, punctuation be damned.



appa is blogging.