Outsiders in Mumbai

Posted by AJ on September 14, 2008

Mumbai is awake. Atleast some of the people here think they are. That’s why few sons of soil have taken it upon themselves to protect “Marathi Asmita”. How will they do it?? By ensuring that every person staying in Mumbai should speak marathi, by beating the north Indian taxi drivers, by forcing McDonald to write its name in Marathi, by halting the movie releases of A Bachhan.

I won’t discard the whole idea as there are some arguments for it. Still it’s unreasonable from all the other angles. Let’s talk about some of the good aspects of this fight.

1. Going just by the fact that Mumbai is in Maharashtra, Marathi people should get bigger pie of its success. They have all the right to be respected here, same with their language too.

2. Marathi people should get the major chunk of the employment opportunities first.

2 books and 3 idiots

Watched "3 idiots" few days back and thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the best movies this year, I'd say. Considering that it is based on the book "Five point someone" and the media rounds about the ugly spat between the author and the lead actor from the movie; my verdict is that the movie has done full justice to the spirit of the book, not sure about the credit/compensation given to the author. This movie has few over-the-board moments ( will be appreciated only by the guys who have not been to a college like ICE) which have been over-shadowed by the numerous fantabulous scenes.

I have never considered it practical for a movie director to show all the things at the screen , which have been imagined/written by the story teller. Many movies  based on the bestseller books have done quite well in the past and 3 idiots is one more addition to them. However, you ask the one who has read the book before watching the movie. Chances of his replying in favour of the book are much more. The ready examples are "Jurrasic Park" and the "Da-vinci Code". Even though,   these movies were fantasic, but can never be compared to the book. Simply put, they were not able to depict the detailed imagination of author on the screen. Having said all that, I did enjoy the movies too.

I have also bought two books, "अँधेरे  बंद  कमरे" by Mohan Rakesh and "राग  दरबारी " by S.Lal, hoping that

ho0h0ohidshrp'hwrepegwljbsdk...

... and that was why there are no entries made on this blog for this long. I am back, like so many other times. 2010 is just on the brink and will come with lots of promises. The next week will be the one where many resolutions at personal front will be made. Some would like to loose 6 kg, some would like to stop procrastinating, some would like to learn swimming and some others will take a resolution to hit the gym regularly. There is no dearth of ideas, resolutions. The more you try to find out , the more amused you will get. Personally, I'll try to pursue some of them :P.

Now that, I am in the midst of a quarter-life-crisis and struggling with the increasing waistline and decreasing hairline, it appears a time for thinking, thinking and some more thinking. The mantra for new year will be not only to think, rather to bring some of the ideas to reality. Not that I am planning to make a nuke, but whatever you plan, needs some amount of action. So that's the resolution for new year. Nothing specific.

Now that the new year resolution is almost set, its time to say about other things. The last "the movie" which I saw, was AVATAR. Watching it in 3D was just great experience, that too in a heritage theater (Of course, it

Allergy advice

Allergy advise written on some buscuit wrap. "मुझे तो समझ में नहीं आया; आपको समझ आवे, तो हमें भी समझावें...". Please explain if you understand the advice.

Different takes

Just to show, how people on two opposite sides of war perceive the history of war. I clicked this picture at Trafalgar square in London. This shows the british take on the 1857 sepoy mutiny. Remember the history lessons, you attended in school; they never suggested that somebody will ever commemorate the heroes/villains from other side. Found one interesting one line British description of the mutiny, which goes like..

" To live in India, now, was like standing on the verge of a volcanic crater, the sides of which were fast crumbling away from our feet, while the boiling lava was ready to erupt and consume us...The infanticide Rajput, the bigoted Brahmin, the fanatic Mussalman, had joined together in the cause; cow-killer and the cow-worshipper, the pig-hater and the pig-eater... had revolted together." - Thomas Lowe, British Chronicler, 1860

Some thoughts to ponder upon..

Sultry days

Trying to make an attempt to come out of the realm of inconsistency, here it goes. Things were happening over last few months and are still continued. There were distribution of pink slips, abundance of green masks all around you, dancing of sensex on some unfamiliar tune, people confronting the truths (sach ka samna) and then people trying to save themselves from some jungle in sony world and so many other things.

Amongst all this, as always, I read few books. Mentioning books here is the easiest of ways to fill some space in this phreaking thought's portal. So there was "Sultry day" by Sobha De. I felt that this book had an ok story, but was unnecessarily painted a sultry look. Also, I never had any penchant for this type of writing. Nevertheless some people may like it.

Another was “If God was a banker” by Ravi Subramaniam. The best way to describe is like you are reading another Sobha De piece with some MBA jargon thrown in between” – comment made by anonymous. Personally I liked it. It will be a good read for anybody interested in an MBA roadmap.

Next in the line are:

“I bought the Monk’s Ferrari”

“Those small lil things”

“How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life”

Indian memsaab

Sorry for the long abscence. Now, there can be plethora of views why I am so irregular about things. Some things in particular, this blog being one of them.

It's not that I didn't have anything to write. Infact, so many things happened inbetween that I cant keep track of them. But come on, its only me...

Will try to be a bit more regular.

Today I read a fantastic Novel "Indian Memshab" by Suchita malik. It narrates the whole world of a beaurocrat's life through his wife's eyes, a fascinating world.

Will leave on that note..

Books

This week, it will be books. My last read was "Hotel" by Arthur Halley. It was unique in terms of it's fantastic  detailed description of a  Hotel.

Schedule for next week is,

"You are here" by Meenakshi Reddy

"The Google Story" by David Vise

"Sign of the Cross" by Chris Kuzneski

If possible I'll also try to understand some of the theories behind the demography of the world by reading "Human Geaography" by Majjid Hussain.

Definitely Maybe -N- Yuvraj

Movies seen over last six days,

Yuvraj :  Went all the way to Inorbit to watch this gem. Six other people in the group expressed their dislike, in and out of theatre, in low to medium voices. Don't know why, but I did not dislike it. I wont say that it was a great movie, but it was okay to watch. I liked it's esthetics. Though somebody suggested that its a movie for people who like the art of filmmaking, not the film necessarily :P

What happened in Vegas : So-so types.

Roadside Romeo

Just returned after watching “Roadside Romeo”. It was an OKAY experience, if not great. Earlier, we reached Oberoi with no hopes of getting the tickets for this movie, today being Saturday evening. To our surprise, we got the tickets and soon realized that you can count the number of people on your fingertip, again not expected for a Yashraj movie. The animation was excellent and there is no denial this movie will initiate high quality animation import to Bollywood and very soon we can expect “Finding Nemo” and “Ratatouille” in Hindi, made in India though. Considering that it was first of its kind, I tried to overlook the overdone Clichés and its straight line plot.

It has the best animation seen in Indian cinema so far. If the plot had been as good, the film would have been world class. I liked the repeated telecast of Big Boss on Colors though.