Alag - Zara Hatke

Casting: Akshay Kapoor, Diya Mirza, Mukesh Tiwari, Jayant Kriplani
Rating: 4, rating is high as the concept is good and not Bollywood ishtyle.

I saw this movie called Alag over the weekend. This movie hasn't seem to have done well on the box office, but I was pretty impressed with the non mainstream topic. This sci-fi had a good story line and the acting by Akshay Kapoor is awesome.
The story line is off beat, the kind i appreciate than the conventional movie themes.
The death of a retired professor and the mysterious way in which he was staying at his bungalow was a mystery to the neighbours. The police during thier investigation find a hidden basement and they find the protagonist Tejas (Akshay Kapoor). Tejas is fully bald with not a hair on his body including eye lashes. He has been down in the basement for the last 18 years of his youth.
The Police decide to move him to the rehabilitation center run by Purvi (Diya Mirza). This rehab was opened by Purvi's mother and after she went into a coma was being run over by her father.Diya extends a hand of friendship to tejas and initiates his exposure to the real world. Tejas had some kind of disease which made his eyes very sensitive to the sunlight. This and his near death experience with death due to an electric shock. Post these expeiences, his father decided to home educate him and kept him in the confimes of the home with no social life. Tejas proves to be well read as he had read books on every possible topic and had an excellent memory.
Did all this reading prepare him to face this world? As he joins the rehab, he tries to make friends. People around him start to realize that not only does he looks wierd, but that he also had extra sensory powers that made him very sensitive. This is displayed by some cool production around him being able to attract all the butterflies to him and magnetizing a spoon to attract all the spoon in the mess.
His display of these tricks and display of his knowledge kind of puts in on the wrong page with the boys and the dean (Purvi's father).Purvi becomes his saving grace and they fall in love. They go to a picnic to a park, The security guard shoots a dove . Tejas does not like this agression towards the dove and holds the hand of the guard in one hand and the dove in the other. The guard seems to go in a state of shock and he feels the electicity thr' his body and has a near death experience.
The boys try to take revenge with him and try to give him a electric shock. On the contrary, Tejas stands thr' the high voltage strike and one of thier buddy gets electrocuted in return. This becomes a turning point in the relationship with the group. In the mean time, the guard tells his experience to the dean and mentions that it was more of a spiritual journey for him as he could feel the soul of the dove when he had his experience. Tejas then proceeds to cure Purvi's mom just by spreading his hand over her head.
This miracle seems to excite the medical scientists and they wish to experiement on him. On the other side, a rpgue scientist (Tom Alter) captures him in order to finish his experiment on cloning of the human brain. Tejas survives this with the assistance of Purvi and family, but loses Purvi in the process and returns back to lead his life back in solitude in the confines of his basement.
Overall, a nice movie decently directed and produced with a good story line. There were some stuff done to conventionaliize it by adding a couple of songs and some rugby scenees and stuff. It looked too good to be an original Hindi movie. I had to google around to find that this was a copy of an english movie called Powder produced about a decade back. When will we get the originality in our art!!!
Inspite of these, a movie that's worth a watch for the un-conventional storyline and the awesome acting by the rookie Akshay Kapoor.

Wolfowitz - A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

The Wolfowitz scandal seems to have brought the World Bank into limelight. The board led by the european union wants the current president of the world bank to step down amidst the scandal.
Wolfowitz is accused of giving a promotion and a huge raise to his girl friend Shaha Riza.
Shaha Riza, a Libyan born and brought up in Saudi, is a big advocate of the female rights. As per Time magazine, she shares the American passion in spreading democracy in the Middle-East.
Paul Wolfowitz, an American has been of the opinion of striking and eradicating a threat before it becomes a threat. He was a strong supporter of the War in Iraq. It is speculated that he was made as the President of the World Bank by the White House as an award to his contribution to the War on Terror.
It is also told that the relationship between them pre-dated his joining the World Bank. The world bank has a rule that a couple cannot work in the bank together or people dating each other cannot be in each others chaing of reportee. This would've been a conflict of intrest to Shaha and hence the external assignment.

Now back to the scandal, after Wolfowitz became the president of the world bank, Shaha was put on an external assignement with the US State Department with a huge raise and promotion and was routed thr' the ethics committe. The then chairman however says that the committee was not aware of her previous salary and the extent of raise.
This is also backed by the employees of the bank who seem to have been averse to Wolfowitz style of management.
American backed journalism however advocates that the middle management is percepting a threat from some of the new initiatives started by Wolf including anti-corruption drives. The White House is backing Wolfowitz. This couldn't have been more ill timed as the US President is also being crushed on the War on Iraq and the time table to bring back the Amrican troops. The African continent seems to be supporting Wolfowitz, for his keeness to help Africa (or maybe driven by the White House), while the European Union and the Nordic countries which are promoters of the bank want him to step down.
The White House is also seeing this as a threat to the US. As the biggest share holder, the president of the United States has been always been choosing the president of the World bank and it now seems that they might want to bring in a non US president to cool down the storm. The EU is also showing it's dominance and is being percieved as a hostile behavior by the US.
Wolfowitz has hired a lawyer with international reputation to take him out of this hell hole. The coming weeks should give more clarity into the issue as the board of directors would be deciding on the fate of Wolfowitz.

Quota - The death knell for meritocracy

The quota system has been a boon for the politicians to capture the vote banks and with UP having a huge number of SC/ST/OBC, this decision might help them prove a point.

Professional education should be run on merit and not on caste, class or economic stature.

Let's look at the objective behind this. If the real objective is to ensure that backward caste needs to get equal opportunity, then they can get into colleges run by the Govt. It need not be the IIT's, IIM's, AIIM's and the REC's.

If the candidate is capable, provide them free education, i don't mind that but keeping a certain percentage reserved for them will not solve the objective.

The objective is not to have a sub standard Dr, engg or a manager. The objective is to provide them equal opportunity to have the education, provided they have the capability.

If they are so desperate to get the IIM title, they can open a IIM-jumhritalaya and only admit candidates of thier choice. We can then see how the institute works and whether or not they get placements.

If India wants to become a world power, then we need to increase the standard of living and provide equal opportunity. This is not by reserving seats for diff caste; it would be by rewarding the capable people and providing incentives for people to improve and display thier capabilties, else we would end up as yet another commie nation run by beaurocracy and red tapism.

We are in a point of time where Indians who had migrated to other countries are coming back or promoting India. We do not want more brain drain.... we want to attract them and let them promote the entreprial spirit.

You Tube - The Web 2.0 world

One of my favorite past times has been you tube. The yet another networking site is house to video blogs, snippets, ads and much more. Quite a lot of people have been enthu enough to upload desi movies. I've happened to see quite a few movies though on the small screen.
I've seen a few movies which aint worth seeing in the theater on you tube. This has become by replacement for the cable tv back home. More intresting has been availability of some of the old serials online. This includes the desi sherlock holmes Byomkesh Bakshi from the old DD days as well as Jaspal Bhatti's Flop Show. you can also find a lot of episodes from the Great Indian Laughter challenge.
Apart from this I have been able to get a great deal of videos on travel, funky inventions, Indian history as well as religionism. Overall, if you have the right bandwidth, there are tons of things that can be explored on You tube which has become my replacement to the regular tube- my Idiot Box.

Delhi Heights - The heights of movie making

Delhi Heights seems to be a pathetic effort at making a Delhi production. The only good part about the movie was the theme which revovles around how the corporate lifestyle affects family life and how compromise needs to happen from both sides to make it happen.
The protagonist starred by Jimmy Shergil is an creative director in an advertising form. He is in love with Neha Dupia who is also a creative director at a rival form working on the same product line.
An intro to the other residents at the Delhi Heights:
Right next door is Bobby who flirts with every woman he can lay his hands on, which his wife abhors. Om Puri is a reeal estate agent and a father of a young daughter. He is friends with a bookie and has a peculiar laughter. Then there are some college going kids who like to have fun.
The marriage of the ad gurus soon turn sour as the work life starts affecting the family life. This includes business development dinners and last minute travel plans affecting thier original plans. The apex of this relation happens when Neha Dupia happens to approach the same star for the campaign as Jimmy. Jimmy misunderstands this as a sabotage and turns away from the relation without listening to what she has to offer.
Then comes the drive for happy ending where bobby realises that he needs to be faithful to his wife and he comes back to life. Jimmy then patches up with <> to make a happy ending.
The songs have the Rabbi Shergil's sufi influence except for some punjabi numbers. overall an ok story with pathetic movie production. Dilli waloon .. leave the movie direction to the mumbaiya dons...

The Virginia Massacre

In the last 3 days, The TV news channel haven't shown anything but the virginia massacre. The tech school turned to a slaughter house with the Cho killing 33 students including a desi. Cho went thr' a series of shooting in one side of the dorms and then in the classrooms in Noris hall.
What seemed at that time like a fit in rage turned out to be a well planned out suicide killing. The killer cho had well planned this. he shot 2 people in a dorm, he then recorded his diatribe to this world and mailed his manifesto to MSNBC. The interviews were recorded in snippets and the diatribe written as a PDF.
Here's a piece of his suicide note

You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy’s life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people.

• Do you know what it feels to be spit on your face and to have trash shoved down your throat? Do you know what it feels like to dig your own grave?
Do you know what it feels like to have throat slashed from ear to ear? Do you know what it feels like to be torched alive?
Do you know what it feels like to be humiliated and be impaled upon on a cross? And left to bleed to death for your amusement? You have never felt a single ounce of pain your whole life. Did you want to inject as much misery in our lives as you can just because you can?

• You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn’t enough, you brats. Your golden necklaces weren’t enough, you snobs. Your trust fund wasn’t enough. Your vodka and Cognac weren’t enough. All your debaucheries weren’t enough. Those weren’t enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything.

In retrospection, it turns out that the killer had a history of mental illness and was known to have gone through psycholical problems. This opens up big questions on Campus security, Gun Control rights at the time when the presidential elections are on the heells.


Is the world becoming more voilent. There have been a dozen of killings reported in schools lately. A lot of it seems to have been simulated from TV, movies and voilent video games. Are these mis-directing our kids. Are people taking off thier frustration by voilence!!

At a time when the world seems to be in distress with all the voilence and terrorism; I guess it's time for mass therapy. It's time to spread the message of love and peace around the world.

One of the professors heroic effort saved a dozen of students by sacrificing his life. He was awarded as the star of Romania posthumously.

May thier soul rest in peace as Cho rots in hell

Shine on You Crazy Diamond - A Tribute to Pink Floyd

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom, blown on the
steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger, you legend,
you martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision, rode on the
steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions, come on you painter, you piper,
you prisoner, and shine!
- Shine on you Crazy Diamond, Wish You Were Here (19975), Pink Floyd

No other band has influenced me so much as the Pink Floyd. I stand as a Die-hard fan of the Floyd. I dedicate this as a series of blogs as we go thr' thier history and lyrics and discussions.

While most people (read non-fans) know and love Another Brick in the Wall; with the controversial lyrics "Hey Teachers, Live those Kids Alone".... for the fans there are qute a few numbers which take the top slots.

I first heard Pink Floyd when our college band played Comfortably Numb at our college Rock Show. I loved it so much that I borowed the tape from a friend that night and then went on to become a floydian.


Pink Floyd are an English rock band that earned recognition for their psychedelic rock music, and, as they evolved into a progressive rock music. They are known for philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative cover art, and elaborate live shows.

Unlike traditional boy/gal bands that dis-integrate at the slight sign of misunderstanding between the team members, the Floydians have survived thr' the era under the leadership of different lead singers.
The era can be broken into
- The Barett Era (65-68)
- Experimentation (68-71)
- Breakthr' (71-75)
- Waters Era (76-85)
- Gilmour's Era (86-95)


Barett Era
Syd Barett is the official founder of the Pink Floyd Sound, when Bassist Roger Waters, Drummer Nick Mason and wind instrument player Rick wright joined him from sigma 6. Syd started writing psychdelic lyrics that was poular as the underground music and got them into fame with psychdelic numbers like 'Interstellar Overdrive', 'Arnold Layne' and 'See Emily Play'.
Life on road and heavy dozes of drugs soon made Barett unstable and he ruined a few live shows. This was the time, the band decided to move him out of the group.

This bought the group into the Experimentation Era. Waters and Gilmour now started writing lyrics and composing music. They made albums like 'A saucerfull of secrets', ' ummagumma' and 'More'.

The Breakthrough came with albums like 'Dark Side of the Moon' and 'Wish You were Here'. Dark Side of the Moon has the record to be on the billboard chart for 741 weeks .

Water took reign for the next decade as they grew on fame. The group saw albums like 'The Wall' and 'The Final Cut'. The Wall made big on the billboard with the numbers like 'Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)' and 'Comfortably numb'.

Waters decided to get out of the band and Gilmour took over and produced albums like 'The Division Bell' and 'Momentary lapse of Reason'. The band released PULSE as thier live album as they did thier world tour and won fame.

PULSE stands as my personal favorite as a album with amazing video collection. I can still remember the days we spent watching this show at Movie Dome back in my college Town Manipal.


As parting lines to this blog....... here goes another favorite number

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell, blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail? A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts? Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze? Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground. What have you found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here

- Wish You were Here,(1975), Pink Floyd

Sin City

Las Vegas, the Sin City, is a city where the lights shine all night long. Casino's are so well lit and crowded that you never realise whether it is night or day. Most of the poular one's are based on unique concepts and are pretty well made. I was quite impressed with the Venittian (my personal favorite) and Paris Paris.




The venittian needless to say is based on Venice and has a river that runs thr' the casino and you can even have a boat ride in here... pretty cool eh..



While you can spend time here gambling, you could spend a week without gambling just visitng the various free shows and broadway shows.
However, the main reason why people flock here is to gamble and addictive it certainly is. While, I've played black jack and craps before, i kinda got better insight into the game this time as I was able to spend more time on it (or should I say more money)...LOL. As one of my friend says play by the book and you can't go down too steep. One certainly needs to put some limits as one could keep going on this roller coaster ride or wins n losses. This is where craps becomes more intresting. If you have a great shooter you could go for 10-20 minutes and make more money than most other games.
For high rollers there are table with 100$ starting limits while people like us flock in search of the $5 tables.
In my mumbaiya lingo all I can say is Black Jack can make u feel Jakaas or make u feel Jack Ass...... Keep on dreaming

Tracing my roots

India is a country with a blend of many religions and communities. The country is divided by languages, casts and sects. India has 23 official languages; hundreds of casts and sects divide us; but the spirit of India unites us all. This blog is to give a flavor of the history of my community, the Goud Saraswat Brahmins (GSB) whose population is about 0.3 Million.

Saraswats are people of Aryan descent who had settled down on the banks of the Saraswati River and were the followers of the Saraswat Muni. The river Saraswati eventually dried up (1000 BC) and this led to the migration of the Saraswats to the plains of northern India. Though the exact dates of this migration are unknown, the Rig Veda eulogies the river Saraswati was huge.

During this exodus, the brahmins spread in 3 directions. One group moved to the North and East into Punjab and Kashmir. The second group moved to the East towards Bihar while the third group went down south west towards Gujrat. Our ancestors were with the group that moved over to Bihar.

Around 1000 AD, they moved again this time to Goa, where the land was fertile and trading was begining. It is believed that Lord Parshuram, a Brahmin, also counted as an avatar of Lord Vishnu brought the Saraswats from the northern Indian plains to Goa for the purpose of religious functions.

Between 10th and 13th century the trading community spread across through the sea ports and established bases in Bombay, Thane, Kalyan, Honnavar, Mangalore, Cochin etc.. while the muslim rulers attacked Goa (then Gomantak), some people started migrating to Kudal desh (Ratnagiri) to the north; the Vijayanagar kingdom in Dharwad/ Belgaum to the East; The Kanara to the South; and some down to Travancore in Kerala.

As narrated over the history; Those who migrated to Kashmir called themselves as Kashmiri Pandits, Sind-Sind Saraswats, Kutch-Kutchi Saraswats, Rajapur-Rajapur Saraswats, Punjab-Punjab Saraswats, Rajasthan-Rajasthan Saraswats and Chitrapur-Chitrapur Saraswats.

This in a nutshell is the mythological and historical background of the Gowda Saraswat Brahmins popularly known as GSBs.


References
http://www.gsbkonkani.net
Wikipedia
Kamath.com
http://www.gsbkerala.com/gsbhistory.htm