Itoldjya!

2006-03-01T04:43:00.000-08:00

Today I read a column by friedman on the new york times entitled "Empty pockets, Angry minds".
I would say this is one the most agressive articles written by him that i have read, he attributes the rage, against the cartoons which has warranted a higher degree of protests(more than required) by relegious fanatics around the world.He draws a clear line on the fact that the 2nd most popular religion in the world parted ways with science and modernity years back and the ever decreasing levels of productivity in the middle east is a proof of the same.(though their annual GDP may be on a growth track!), ofcourse the reason for the latter is obvious, the 3 most important alphabets in an economists dictionary!
I am not against any relegion per say, but what friedman is saying seems to be based on a certain logic driven system.

Facts like...
-8 patents for pakistan in 57 years!
-500000 people in the arab world unemployed year on year!
-Middleeast and north africa stand out with the highest unemployment percentage in the world with 13.2%!!!

...only strengthen my agreement on what friendman says.

Excerpts which are very interesting in this article is :

"India is the second-largest Muslim country in the world, but the cartoon protests here, unlike those in Pakistan, have been largely peaceful. One reason for the difference is surely that Indian Muslims are empowered and live in a flourishing democracy. India's richest man is a Muslim software entrepreneur. But so many young Arabs and Muslims live in nations that have deprived them of any chance to realize their full potential"

and

''[Today] you seldom encounter a Muslim name in scientific journals. Muslim contributions to pure and applied science -- measured in terms of discoveries, publications, patents and processes -- are marginal. The harsh truth is that science and Islam parted ways many centuries ago. In a nutshell, the Muslim experience consists of a golden age of science from the ninth to the 14th centuries, subsequent collapse, modest rebirth in the 19th century, and a profound reversal from science and modernity, beginning in the last decades of the 20th century. This reversal appears, if anything, to be gaining speed.''
No wonder so many young people in this part of the world are unprepared, and therefore easily enraged, as they encounter modernity. And no wonder backward religious leaders and dictators in places like Syria and Iran -- who have miserably failed their youth -- are so quick to turn their young people's anger against an insulting cartoon and away from themselves and the rot they have wrought. "

"Today's world has become so wired together, so flattened, that you can't avoid seeing just where you stand on the planet -- just where the caravan is and just how far ahead or behind you are. In this flat world you get your humiliation fiber-optically, at 56K or via broadband, whether you're in the Muslim suburbs of Paris or Kabul. Today, Muslim youth are enraged by cartoons in Denmark. Earlier, it was a Newsweek story about a desecrated Koran. Why? When you're already feeling left behind, even the tiniest insult from afar goes to the very core of your being -- because your skin is so thin"

2006-02-27T05:45:00.000-08:00

Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone home?
Come on, now.I hear you're feeling down.
Well I can ease your pain,
Get you on your feet again!!

The "gods of rock"'s all time greatest number. David jon Gilmour wrote it for his solo album but never released it, untill pink floyd made it famous!
It remains by all time fav hit, the one song i can hear for a million times and want to hear it once more after that!!

There is another awesome number whose guitar work has just a single word description - GODLY!!

Where were you when I was burned and broken
While the days slipped by from my window watching
Where were you when I was hurt and helpless
Because the things you say and the things you do surround me
While you were hanging yourself on someone else's words
Dying to believe in what you heard
I was staring straight into the shining sun

Lost in thought and lost in time
While the seeds of lifeand the seeds of change were planted
Outside the rain fell dark and slow
While I pondered on this dangerous but irresistible pastime
I took a heavenly ride through our silence
I knew the moment had arrived
For killing the past and coming back to life

I sometimes wonder, if i can play these on a bose speaker set at volume louder than the live concert! :), well the day will come!!...one day i am gonna blast these song thorough the roof! :)
well till then, it will continue to play on my pod connected to samsung multimedia speakers :) on my desk!

Its sad that pink floyd will never play live again!,thats one shattered dream for me!

Flyod can do wonders to the energy levels at the end of a tiring day like today!

On days like today, all i can say is

When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse,
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone.
I cannot put my finger on it now.
The child has grown and the dream is gone.
....
....
I have become comfortably numb!!

2006-02-24T08:50:00.000-08:00

Event : Premiere of Taxi no 9211!
Venue : IMAX - Wadala.
Thanks to my cuz mohit, who works with UTV, i was at this star studded evening with sameera reddy, ramesh sippy, john abarahm,abhishek,mini mathur, sonali kulkarni,nana patekar and a few others whose names i cannot recall, but have seen them on screen/tv etc...
the whole cast and crew of taxi no 9211!, the movie starts at 10:15 since the "guests" were still coming in, it was supposed to be at 9PM.
dint really bother to judge the movie, cos i had all these people sitting in seats next to us,and right behind me was this guy called atul kulkarni from rang de, i mean i was awed by the whole experience...luckily i had this camera of mine with me, which i put to good use...
well, an indian movie hall will be an indian movie hall, whether its the celebreties watching it or the masses, people still had their cellphones ringing in the middle(whats with people,why cant people put their mobile phones on vibrator mode?!!#$%%^&*anyways forget it!), in the interval, people will still fight over who is in the line first and snatch someone else's coke and popcorn whch leads to a few brawlsat the counter!and things to finally get sold out by the time you get to the counter!(though the only exception being that you neednt have to pay for anything while you are for a premiere show!)
but still, the attitude of the people still remains the same!what a shame!
on the whole its amazing experience to be at premiere of a bollywood movie...with a red carpet laid out and photographers clicking away pictures of every entrant, including yours truly! :)
everyone thinks everyone entering is a star, though some of them might just be related to the someone at a company just releasing it! :)
all i can say...probably the movie was good, but it dint matter to me which movie it was frankly!, all i experienced is what it feels to walk the red carpet!

2006-02-13T08:33:00.000-08:00

Was reading a viewpoint written by vir sanghvi in TIME on my flight back from delhi last night -
why is that indians are more sucessful outside of India than at home?actually come to think of it, it might not be so true !
he says from zubin mehta, amartya sen to lakshmi mittal to sabeer bhatia to salman rushdie!they all have made it big, but the common string tying them all is , they all NRI's!, but my view is that, we are a billion of us in this country,and the stars that vir has counted is only a micro fraction of it!,i think they are a lot many more stars in this country about whom less is written, thats all!
Inspite of the mindset of the Indian bureaucracy and the hangover of the old-license raj, with all its petty meddling, we do have a fair chunk of sanias, sachins , sushmitas ,shekhar kapoors( whats with me and the letter S), ofcourse there are more with other alphabets as well! :)
coming back - so it isnt about NRI's , its more about being Indians i think!

2006-01-30T09:21:00.000-08:00

"kuch aisa karke dikha,ki kush hojaye khud khuda"

The song Aasheyein from Iqbal, vocals by KK is one my fav songs these days...excellent string work backed up by a some mind blowing lyrics!

keeps you motivated to keep the courage and determination to reach for the stars!!

Some of the lines that keep you going....

gujre aaisi har raat raat, ho khwaahisho se baat baat
lekar suraj se aag aag , gaaye ja apne raag raag
aashaayen khile dil ki
ummeedein hase dil ki
ab mushkil nahi kutch bhi
nahi kutch bhi

"Let the nights pass, keep talking to your dreams
take the fire from the sun, and sing your song
there is nothing that is difficult now,
nothing at all!"

Its fun translating...i just realised...

kutch aaisa karke dikha
khud khush ho jaaye khuda

"Do something that even the almighty himself would be pleased to see!!"
this ofcourse is the most powerful line in the song...
couldnt have been said better!

More later....keep reading this space for some inspiring song reveiws!

may be the boxer from simon and garfunkel is a good one too...
i particularly like the lines

"In the clearing stands a boxer,
and a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down or cut him
’til he cried out in his anger and his shame
I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains
Yes he still remains"

2006-01-16T07:14:00.000-08:00

; 13 Jan 2006 - Mini and Bipu's wedding...a mini renunion thingie for a bunch of us from college...sometimes we try hard to get everyone together and meet up , but sometimes unplanned success happens...! :)
we had a blast, though some of us could feel the hangover till the weekend...cos we dint get any sleep the night before and the night after..ofcourse a lot of fluids kept flowing all night long...
quite of us got updated on each others lives and careers...missed a few more people here...though they couldnt make it cos of diatance issues...US and India...diametrically opp ends!
a great evening...and an even better night that followed! :)
cheers..hic hic...

2006-01-01T02:59:00.000-08:00

wish you all a very happy new year!
i am writing this after reaching home at 1400hrs from a new years party at a cuz's place...there was pimm's and pimm's and more pimm's...somte brit stuff(a kind of ginnish cognac!...to be as close to its genre)...was supposed to be mixed with 3 parts of lemondae with every part...but we dint read that till we guzzled a few glasses...so it was 1/2 part of diet pepsi with every part of pimm's! :)
so now you can imagine why i am back at 1400 hrs?!!! :)
anyways, we hoped to see some revellers on carter road...but they too seemed to be waiting for us!...though not really dissapointed...we did some of the over enthusiased new year celebrants!
ofcourse there was loadsa food waiting to be eaten...but pimm's was taking all the attention :)
anyways,all we could sing then was "bure bure ham ham ham shaitaan zara zara bachna re hamse"...as you can see an overdose of bollywood music can do this to me!
btw talking about bluffmaster..seems to be ripped off a english movie called confidence...a trickster wanting to con people all the time...i havent seen either of it...but was just reading about it...
the last movie i saw was "Excorsim of Emily Rose"...was enough to keep me away from the movie halls for almost 3-4 weeks... :)
was supposed to be based on a true story...
anyways...the last 30 days been very eventful...
a wedding in the family,a lot of travelling at work, getting stuck on blr road during the night the shooting happenned..choclates at home from an anynomous stranger..(get one bar everyday..interesting huh?!)..but scary as well,
a wild new year party, complications at work ;),
life is rocking every single bone in my body..what esle can anyone as for in life!
more later...

2005-08-02T23:22:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered what the song hotel california was all about?
Its about drugs and its abuse! - we had a college yahoo group discussing this for a long time, and drugs seem to be a widely popular thought...
though some say - there was actually this hotel called "the hotel california" and this song was written to make this hotel more popular :)

Well did a litte googling at this time while i write this...i thought i could paste something interesting here for all you to read, its from a website called bluerodeo.com - a bands online music community.

As for "Hotel California," you realize a lot of people aren't troubled so much by colitas as by the meaning of the whole damn song. Figuring that we should start with the general and move to the particular, I provide the following commonly heard theories:

(1) The Hotel California is a real hotel located in (pick one) Baja California on the coastal highway between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz or else near Santa Barbara. In other words, the song is a hard look at the modern hospitality industry, which is plagued by guests who "check out any time [they] like" but then "never leave."

(2) The Hotel California is a mental hospital. I see one guy on the Web has identified it as "Camarillo State Hospital in Ventura County between LA and Santa Barbara."

(3) It's about satanism. Isn't everything?

(4) Hotel California is a metaphor for cocaine addiction. See "You can check out any time you like but you can never leave." This comes from the published comments of Glenn Frey, one of the coauthors.

(5) It's about the pitfalls of living in southern California in the 1970s, my interpretation since first listen. Makes perfect sense, and goddammit, who you going to believe, some ignorant rock star or me?

(6) My fave, posted to the Usenet by Thomas Dzubin of Vancouver, British Columbia: "There was this fireworks factory just three blocks from the Hotel California . . . and it blew up! Big tragedy. One of the workers was named Wurn Snell and he was from the town of Colitas in Greece. One of the workers who escaped the explosion talked to another guy . . . I think it was probably Don Henley . . . and Don asked what the guy saw. The worker said, "Wurn Snell of Colitas . . . rising up through the air."

He's also got this bit about "on a dark dessert highway, Cool Whip in my hair." Well, I thought it was funny.

Interesting things people make of it!
But all in all - a great number and i would love to sing along if someone can play the background for me! :)