Trouble- Drenched in and out

As always the week had been on the dull side. I ‘ll blame it on the cold damp weather. You never feel like getting up from bed. Still you drag yourself to office- shirt drenched, smelly socks, a damaged leather shoes and hair going messy.
You start sulking only to see everyone typing away furiously, scheduling meetings, rolling out big stuff and seeming important and busy. In the meantime you browse away listlessly wondering where you are going to end up.
To make matters worse I am trying to forget someone desperately. It seems she has etched herself somewhere deep inside me. And I keep running into her almost everyday. It isn’t helping.
But this the week I found some guys fighting resolutely in spite of their troubles and hardships. Wait for the story of the two.

Idiot

Two weeks back me and my office buddies went for a small trip to a waterfall.
We were greeted by a pecuilar scene. Some middle aged guys bathing in the pencil thin fall were throwing up their towel. And a drunk, old, idiot was climbing up the rocks to retrieve it back.
All were waiting expectantly for him to fall down and break his head ...while my camera happily snapped
You can watch for the strange encounter in my picture blog

Movie of the week- Striker

Anyone heard of the movie ‘Striker’? This is not a Hollywood movie. It happened in our India and our own Bollywood. Surprisingly, the movie is just months old.

The biggest lesson this movie brings with it is: You needn’t be a Khan, Kapoor, Roshan or Bachan to do a good movie. B-wood is churning out bad film after bad film. Still the big names find takers, theatres and audience. But sadly for the second rung B-wood life is a struggle.

The only two areas the film fails are trailers and marketing. Creating a trailer is an art in itself .In near future we would be seeing technicians specialized in trailers. People form their first opinion based on the trailer. Sadly, ‘Striker’ couldn’t impress with its trailers. People would have gotten the wrong ideas. Preview/review is one of the unspoken, powerful tools of marketing. Paid review is another synonym for review. Not a single review I read had the true story. The reviewers came up with stories of their own. The movie was reduced to a caricature of stereotyped love story cum carom game championship.

The movie is made in the likes of ‘City of God’. The bad man’s evil grows in him as the good man struggles on with his life until the bad man is vanquished.

The only blemish would be the editing. The finesse is lost at times. The Director of Photography in B-wood has become very skilled in depicting the claustrophobic atmosphere of Mumbai slums. Slick shots have helped the pace of movie. The casting is a real coup. There is not much heard of names but the performance deserves full marks.

Siddharth is top class as usual so he is sidekick, Zaid. I was quite surprised to see Padmapriya as the loud bartender. She is the best one down here in South. Since she doesn’t have much of what men yearn for she doesn’t get the superstar flicks. The sidekick of Sid has also done commendable performance. Aditya Pancholi dons the paint of the evil man. One can’t forget the fact that he was supposed to conquer the heights with his good looks. But life doesn’t be necessarily fair especially in the cine world.

The focal point of the movie is the ghetto, Malvane, in the suburbs of Mumbai. We see the growth of Malvane through the growing stages of Sid. Thankfully film doesn’t dwell on the poverty of a typical Mumbai ghetto. The writer has simply produced a gem out of his pocket. The dark side of Malvane is portrayed through the carom board. The evil dons, gambling, bad policemen, communal riots, dreams of a common man all revolve around the carom board.

Please do not mistake that it’s a movie where hero gets glory through carom game (where he has to win the last game). The director has purposefully avoided focusing on the carom board so as to capture the emotions and helplessness of characters.

Sid grows through three stages of his life- childhood, rebellious youth and married man settled down happily. Each time the evil don takes away something from his life causing a tumultuous turnaround.

In his childhood Sid watches his brother, an expert carom player, beaten up by the don. This result in his elder brother giving up on the game and Sid takes it up,

In his youth egged on by his childhood friend, Zaid, Sid plays carom for bet. He wins the money and gets involved in more games to get back his money he lost for the dream to migrate. Ironically it is the don himself who stole it and Sid has to win it through the caroms. He borrows money for his sister’s wedding which is stolen by the villain and Sid is drawn more and more into the gambling world to get back his money. In the end of second stage Zaid is murdered putting an end to the life of gambling.

In the third stage a communal riots spreads through the ghetto. His sister is killed by the don who has turned into a menace bent upon burning up the place.

The three women portray the dilemma and struggles of Sid himself. The characters had done a powerful portrayal and no character is given more than necessary focus.

Friends, if you seek a masala entertainment, this is not the one for you. Else, pick the DVD right now.

I am Cool

There would have been a no better time for an award. I was facing a relationship dilemma, totally confused with the way my career was shaping up and needed a motivational boost as a blogger when Karan came up with a big surprise. Thanks a lot man. A virtual consolation in these troubled times.

I would like to clarify again on why I maintain this blog ‘Think’. Well there are these thoughts that spark in every man at a particular moment. These thoughts needn’t shape itself into a well formed structure. They can be partial, uni-dimensional and controversial. But it comes straight from heart

Personally, I am not a great fan of ‘Think’. I put in more time and hard work to do a ‘My Times’ post. ‘My Times’ is my first blog and is a kind of official and formal one. It will be boring and people get turned off on seeing the boring template and length.

So the name of award is the ‘Cool Blogger’. And since no rules were mentioned I am passing on the awards to a few friends of mine.

Rohini
ButterCup
SimplyMe

Thanks a lot guys again for your encouragement. You all mean a world to me.

Hiked

Happy and pleasant friends are a pleasure to keep. Mr. Poor Guy was one of those. I am just happy and proud of him. He is handsome, has a big smile pasted to his face always and unlike the rest of us is very sincere with his work.

Any girl would have fallen for him but at a tender age he gave his life for a Swamiji and it seems he no longer cares for the worldly pleasures.

I met him yesterday morning. The three areas of discussion when two IT pros meet are:
1. How is your project going on? Is your manager still the bitch/son of a bitch?
2. The hot girl in your team
3. Any luck with the pay hike?

PG was pissed off that day. It seems he worked day and night to get his deliverables on time. He even planned to shift his beddings to the office. The situation was that he was put in the role of a senior guy. Still he managed to meet his deadline. But his sweet manager gave him the bottom most grades and he ended up with a small raise.
I wanted to ask him if he had finally realized that he couldn’t live without worldly pleasures. But it’s no good to piss off a good friend for no big reason.

The stark truth is money is the only factor that motivates people. No one is amused by the idea of his colleague/friend earning more than him. No one cares if his company benefits from his work.
The earlier school of thought was that it is ‘lust’ that motivates people. It’s too outdated for the moment.

The terrorists in Kashmir Valley have been given a 100% hike to attract more terrorists to enlist. ‘To hell with Jihad, we need our money’. You can read it here.

Reality

Years ago tear-jerker sops were part of regular diet for a middle class Indian family. They always started with the name ‘K’ and they ran along for years until all the problems of sop family were solved and all the estranged re-united. It was humorous to see the saas-bahu team in designer Saris and jewellery even when they went to bed.

Then came the era of reality shows. The famous, marathon running sops gave way to reality shows. ‘Influenced’ by the western counterparts they gained popularity thanks to real tears, metro-sexuality, bitching, eliminating, back biting and the novel ideas.

Many stars have been born out of these shows and it gave a platform for many people even from the remotest part of India.

Recently we started watching a dance show to lighten our dinner time. There was no age restriction in the show and small kids were put in the arena by the organizers to boost the ratings.

You won’t believe it. The kids were ready to go to any lengths to put up a hard fight. We got to see little girls in skimpy outfits beating out sensuous numbers. The lil’ ones shook and wagged their lil’ assets to squeeze the maximum out of the judges

One day an ‘exceptionally’ talented girl was doing a folk dance. She missed out a few steps in between and she finished the rest weeping. It was heart rending to see the little girl shedding bucket loads of tears because she was going to miss the finals. The channels just capitalized on the tears when they showed the clippings in slow motion.

There is a time for everything. May be reality show is not the platform for little ones to shine. Don’t you agree?

Survival

Money:

My colleagues jump from one company to another, doubling their pay cheques in the process. They persuade me to do the same. It’s no longer cool to work in the same place for more than 3 years.

Then there are people who take a peak at the share market graphs in between their heavy work schedules. There are people who animatedly discuss the prospects of investing in real estates.

It causes me to panic. It’s time for me to find the means to sow a little and reap rich rewards. But surprisingly money is no longer a motivation. Why should I put my time and energy into something that I find no purpose in?

Career:

One hard lesson I have been learning for the past one year- It’s not necessary that career can only grow through honesty and hard work. If you have the capability to push the right button at the right time, you are a winner.

I heard about a simple and petite girl who got transferred to the dream location of every Indian- USA. It was supposed to be a short term transfer that happens cyclically for everyone in her team. Team mates waited eagerly for their turn. All they got was a photograph with the simple girl in simple, tight, low neck T-shirt. She was made a permanent fixture.

Then there are people who work real hard for their career advancement. They dress well, speak corporate language, wear good perfumes, go out for breaks with the right people. They keep themselves updated and learn new things every day.

As for me I find all these exercises a big hypocrisy. Ultimately a screw driver ends up as your manager and you get screwed all day (and night) along. The only thing you can do is to bend yourself a bit to make the screw-process easier.

So I utilize my office hours for recreational activities. I do not button my cuffs, never perfumes, never bother to comb and doesn’t bother to befriend the almighty ones. To make it worse, I never study too. I will have to live with fact of seeing my old friends climb the corporate ladder higher and higher.

A few interesting scenarios in career building:

A few weeks back my sugar-manager lured me to do a task, which was supposed to bring us lots of accolades. I warned him of the consequences of doing it without any proper study. Needless to say all the task brought me was brickbats. Accolades has to be shared, brickbats are to be accepted without any grumble.

There are a few friends of mine working for a prestigious US Compan. The poor outsourced Indians are lured to work on Saturday, Sunday, Easter, Christmas, etc. in return of compensatory leaves. But the only sad thing is they never get to enjoy these compensatory leave. It expires by itself.

But there are guys who outsmart the clever foxes. My friend was asked to come on weekends in return of compensatory leaves. He did come on weekends and took leave for the next Monday and Tuesday without prior warning. On Tuesday, he calls up his manager and laments about his weak health and requests him to reduce the leaves from his compensatory leaves. Howzzat!

Vehicle:

Almost all my old friends own a vehicle of their own. These are not the cheap, second hand ones but the luxury variants of the latest releases on the road. The banks happily help them in their cause. They proudly drive around dropping good looking ladies to their offices, home, tea, lunch, cinemas, beaches, etc. Then there are school kids in swanky bikes with school girls clinging on to their backs.

My lil’ brother has startled me with revelation that he has learned to drive.

I have decided to do my own contribution to the planet earth and the traffic snarls. I have decided to stick on with the public transport buses, bicycle and my legs.

Love:

Every day I see every other guy going out with someone, dating a girl, falling in love, breaking up and ultimately marrying.

As for me, on the fear of re-buff I silently fall in love with everyone I meet.

’By detachment you enjoy everything without possessing anything in particular’- City of Joy.

Friends, after enduring my ramblings do you feel I am fit for survival?

Any help, Sir

Beggars are one integral part in the landscape of India. They live on the sympathies of the ‘well-to-do’. Giving alms boosts the egos of the ‘well-to-do’ and hence begging is tolerated to an extent.

But on the process of attracting foreigners, the beggars are being systematically eliminated from the major cities.

There is a famous restaurant down here. The restaurant is run by Muslims and hence famous for the non-vegetarian dishes. Any day you will find a group of young hip crowd outside the restaurant waiting for a seat inside or the parcel they ordered.

And one fine evening I was at this place, meeting up with my old college pals. We were joking about the old college days, our state of penury etc. when a man came in his wheel chair. He was very well dressed and had a lean figure. He was carrying a laminated piece of what was supposedly a photostat of a newspaper clipping. He held the clipping in his outstretched hands, asking for ’Any small help, sir’.(Help stands for money)

One among us took out the laminated clipping. It had the news about an injured guy. Surprisingly, the clipping carried no photos.

The friend turned around and jokingly said, ‘Have you guys got a change for thousand rupee note?’

We were about to joke back when the beggar suddenly replied, ‘Don’t worry sir, I have got the change for any sum’.

We were astounded. This guy was richer than any of us. We silently cleared the scene.

Staying H

Indian boys have a certain special trait. Most of them will be pencil thin throughout their teens. But as soon as they graduate they start gaining width rather than length. This is helped by the popular notion ‘Junk food is cool’.

Then as soon as the thought of getting married comes into mind, he hits the gym. But guys it’s easy to get fat, it’s impossible to burn it. I know people who wake up as early as 4 in the morning and work out into 7 and then goes to the office. And hitting gym doesn’t give you the license to eat anything you lay your hands on. Believe me, 99% are too lazy for the routine.
So the best way to stay healthy is not to get unhealthy.

The case of Indian women is different. They don’t mind being a little bit on the chubby side. And no matter how cool or forward or western the guys seem to be, most of them get turned on by chubby ones.

But the Indian women have a special ability to shed weight whenever they want to. I know a few ladies who sculpted themselves to hour glass figures within a few weeks of their engagement. No explanations!

Moment of Glory

It had been ga long time since I had gone for a movie. Someone recommended a not-so-famous movie running in the theatres. It was supposedly a different one (of which I would blog about later).
The pace was a bit slow and I was lazily watching it when I was suddenly jolted. I was seeing my friend on the screen. I rubbed my eyes and looked again. Yes, it was him. I waited for the end credits to roll out. His name appeared against ‘A local man’. He appeared for a single shot and had two sentences of dialogue. It was a kind of eve-teaser dialogue.
The guy was employed in the government and it was his dream to act in a movie. May be, one of his friend was there in the crew and he recommended a small role for him.

People attain satisfaction through different means. Many guys in India would love to show their face in TV, films or newspapers. It’s a huge morale booster for them. I wish the very best for him.

Yet some people attain satisfaction through getting a lot of fan following through blogging. They don’t mind tweaking things a bit to get the maximum number of comments for their posts. I have done that many a times to draw attention to my posts.
Recently a quite famous blogger got a mail from Mr. X. It seems that he was desperate to drag any woman for an alleged sexual affair.

Well guys the alleged Mr. X is me and you can read the post here. And I am giving the woman enough publicity from my part too.




I would give the readers freedom to arrive at any sort of conclusions they wish. As for me I will put my version of the story later at a time I choose
Enjoy!!!

Movie of the week- Quantum of Solace

One question Daniel Craig would be asking himself daily- was it a wise decision to do the Bond? He is unfortunate to be one of the most shouted down star despite being handsome and talented. The reason being he is supposed to play a character different from what the fans expects.

Brosnan, arguable the best loved Bond, built a brand around the Bond movies. Before he could immortalize himself, the Warner Bros. put Craig on the hot seat.
The present Bond movies are not slick and stylish, but raw and powerful. He is on a personal mission of vengeance and Craig does exactly what the script asks him to. Eventually he would be building his own set of admirers. Until then he will have to hold on.

I am a great fan of Craig and loved the movie from Scene 1. I admit, it resembled Bourne in a lot of aspects. But there is no style when killing is done for personal vengeance.

The locations are perfect, the editing is good and pacy. The screenplay is good enough for an action movie. The female leads didn’t have much work to do and there is a shirtless scene of Bond for the ladies to go ga-ga.
The Bond villains were always influenced by the social and political circumstances of the times. Thankfully, the Islamic terrorists are left alone and Bond chases an evil business man who tries to buy out the natural resources of a poor country.

Thank God the liberals on their way to conquer H-Wood