Random Ramblings

My new blog

2006-09-16T00:21:00.000-06:00

So, I've been kind of away, but not from blogging really. I've started off a new blog, All Things Kamal. Check it out, especially if you're a Kamal fan like me. The idea is to get all things about Kamal Haasan in one place, starting with latest news and photos.

I'm hoping that it would grow to be a group-blogging site. If you're interested, drop in a line to the e-mail address on the left pane.

I've moved to WordPress mainly for the lack of categories. Yeah, I can see that Blogger is bringing it up in their new Beta; but I've heard of the problems too. I miss the JavaScript certainly, especially for AdSense. Who knows, I might bring that site to Blogger in the future!

Yeah, Blogger was cool for a beginner. I learnt the ropes here and I figured that people are going to read a blog for the content. I didn't want to write really personal stuff nor am I a gifted writer who can hold the audience spell-bound. So, the best thing was to identify a niche and blog on it. That's what I did. I enjoy keeping track of Kamal and hence hope that it will keep the blog going.

Save the Internet from evil corporations!

2006-06-22T06:41:00.000-06:00

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, is a new and infrequent blogger. Not surprisingly, he writes when he's really serious. So, I had to pay attention when he talked about Net Neutrality twice. I 'Googled' from there and found out what the fuss was about.

SaveTheInternet.com puts it across in a simple way:

Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the Internet's First Amendment -- a principle called Network Neutrality that prevents companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from deciding which Web sites work best for you -- based on what site pays them the most.

Did I hear "Horrendous!"? If you want to understand fully how this affects users of the Net, see these examples.

There needs to be some discipline and ethics in social or business interactions, even on the Net. But business simply should not dictate law.

Handling Islamic terrorism

2006-05-31T15:51:00.000-06:00

Apologies to anyone who has been wondering whether this blog has gone defunct. For anyone who doesn't care, skip to the next para and onto the actual post. The reason for inactivity is simple. I have moved from one place to another and it has taken a while to settle down. Nevertheless, this post has been long coming and it finally has.

"Islamic terrorism" is a buzzword around the world currently. Beyond the buzz, it is a worry for the future. To handle it, I felt we should first understand it rather than tackle it emotionally.

As I mentioned earlier, a prophet seeks to solve some problems and preaches what he thinks people should do. Sujai has a simplistic explanation, though I don't agree 100% with his assessment of Muhammad. But basically, Muhammad's task was to unite a set of war-mongering tribes and he did what he thought was necessary. He operated in the world he knew. Neither did USA exist nor was the world so small at that time.

Further, just as in Christianity or any other religion, the folks who take over after the prophet fight among each other, claiming their version is the correct one. This fighting continues over centuries and the original teachings get distorted. Tribal warfare was common in those parts of the world in the time of Muhammad and that was necessary for survival. If he asked people to fight, it was because that's what they thought was the best way out. Today, we are apparently more civilised and have other better ways of sorting out problems.

It's not as if only recently non-Muslims discovered that there are problems with the way Islam was being practised. Sufism is the example I know of. It was a kind of silent revolution and Sufi saints had to remain hiding fearing Islamic fundamentalists. A good sample of their thoughts is available through a recent pop hit by Rabbi. As I understand, God himself sings:

Nor am I the believer in mosque
Nor am I in the idol-worship
Nor am I in the pure or the impure...

Nor am I in the Vedas
Nor am I in intoxicants...

Nor am I Arabic nor from Lahore
Nor am I the Indian city of Nagaur
Nor a Hindu or a Peshawri Turk

Nor did I create the difference of faith
Nor did I create Adam-Eve
Nor did I name myself...

[Complete lyrics and translation]

Essentially, I see today's Islamic terrorism as based on natural behaviour of that region and as an extension of distorted teachings. Those who quote the Quran, swear by Allah and claim to be part of a jihad are just using their religion as a convenient tool to further their interests. Among the rest of the Muslims, possibly, there are many who understand what's going on and most who are ignorant or don't care.

Read more about:

I don't have a silver bullet of a solution. I don't have an easy way out. Gandhi's ahimsa comes to my mind. Again I have to only repeat. Whether it is the terrorists or ordinary Muslims, all of them have to be embraced as fellow humans. We need to have a conversation of words, not a trading of bullets and missiles.

There is no painless way to peace. But let us not engage in war and destroy any chance of an everlasting solution.

IT companies weren't targetted in Bangalore riots?

2006-04-18T14:47:00.000-06:00

'Annavru' (respected elder brother) Dr. Rajkumar, the Kannada movie superstar, passed away on April 12 in Bangalore. The city is known worldwide more as India's IT capital. You might expect an entire state (Karnataka, of which Bangalore is the capital) to mourn, but not exactly what you see in the pictures here. Riots sparked 0ff and went on until the next day.

Rajkumar was seen as a Kannadiga icon. A Rediff.com article descibes how he grew beyond movies, someone with whom the rioters possibly identified with:

Just who are all these young men? They are mostly young fellows who are members of his fan clubs, that have fanned out all over the State.

Interestingly, most of them were probably still children when his last couple of movies were released. So it is really Rajkumar, the icon of Kannada pride, that they revere, not Rajkumar the movie star. The fan clubs grew, long ago, from being typical film fan clubs to an obsessive, cult movement.

There were many arguments that there was no anger vented on IT companies, which have attracted people from all over the country and made Bangalore cosmopolitan. The photographs here (obtained thro' e-mail forwarding) show what happened to one such company, Talisma. This office also happens to be in the same locality as Rajkumar's house.

The pictures speak for themselves and leave my words redundant.

Firefox video promotion

2006-04-12T16:55:00.000-06:00

Firefox has been trying various methods of promotion. The latest is a video contest. The contest is not yet over, but some of the entries are already out.

Check them out on the official site or watch a quick digest on CNet (starting with an ad). One set of submissions has become so popular that it has a site, funnyfox.org to itself.

I found some on YouTube too. Those are possibly other entries. View one of them right here...

PS: The Firefox button is featured on this blog for free; it doesn't generate any money.

Matrubhoomi: a movie that ought to be made and watched

2006-04-11T16:35:00.000-06:00

Let's cut to the bottom-line straight. I don't agree with people who say that Matrubhoomi portrays extremes to garner attention and shows India in a bad light. The writer is entitled to his imagination and in this case, he has visualised a future where there is a dearth of women. Similarly, in this Internet age, we don't need movies to know the good or bad of a country. Rather, as Indians, I feel we take comfort in covering up our misdeeds.

The movie runs for about 90 minutes and is hardly boring. With the focus staying on the search for a bride and the dramatic results of success, it touches upon other aspects too. If anyone of us sits and thinks what would happen if female infanticide drove our society to a state where women become rare, we might possibly come up with most of the situations seen in the movie. Nevertheless, there are surprises -- actually more of shocks. Some scenes are certainly crude. Needless to say, this movie is a 'no-no' for children.

The title (meaning 'motherland') itself is a good piece of paradox to start with. There are quite a few metaphors, but certain (brief) digressions don't make sense. The camera is used intelligently, minimising the use of dialogues and scenes. I am not sure if the end had any significance.

The actors have done well. Sushant Singh, Piyush Jha and Sudhir Pandey stand out. Tulip Joshi impresses in her debut. She portrays the helpless small-town girl very well. Aditya Shrivastava is good, but seems a bit wasted. The background score by Salim-Sulaiman (who made a mark with Bhoot) is superb.

As a creative medium, movies shine best when such powerful message-oriented ones are made. Unfortunately, despite good backing and a widespread multi-lingual release, I wonder whether this movie reached those people who ought to be watching it.

Check out some thoughts of the maker, Manish Jha. If you don't want to know the entire story, skip the synopsis (marked in bold).

Picture courtesy: VeryCD.com

What should Kamal do?

2006-04-06T12:51:00.000-06:00

Kamal is Kamal Haasan, sometimes wrongly spelt as 'Kamal Hassan'. For those of you who don't know, he is a highly rated actor from India. Besides producing, writing and directing many movies, he also dabbles in singing, choreography and lyrics among other things. For more details, check out details on Wikipedia and IMDb.

I'm an ardent fan and have been following him for the most part of my life. This article might reflect that bias, but also attempts to provide some genuine suggestions to a beloved star. The only additional qualification I have is that I'm a movie-buff, but surely not a bigger one than Kamal himself.

For the past few years, frankly, Kamal has been struggling. Towards the end of the previous millenium, he launched his dream project, Marudhanayagam with much fanfare. After canning thirty minutes of the final product, he was stuck for finances and the movie was shelved. After years of proxy direction, he finally came out with Hey Ram. Save for a bit of indulgence, it was a perfect movie with a superb message. Alas, it went above the heads of most and flopped miserably. Faced with heavy financial losses, it was time to go back to the world of commercial movies. He has had moderate success from then on, except for the debacle of Aalavandhaan / Abhay.

But "running around trees" even at the age of 51 is both funny and sad. He seems to be in a constant state of 'Catch-22' between the movies he wants to make and the movies he's having to be in.

In my opinion, Kamal's days as a leading man are pretty much over. As merciless as Indian movies might be towards old actors, it is time to break the shackles once more and act only in roles that suit his age. Kamal has a recent example in Amitaabh Bachchan, the biggest star of them all, who learnt it the hard way. Supporting roles aren't bad at all, if they're going to stay in public memory forever.

Acting was, after all, something he got into by accident, as he himself has said many times. He can remain with his first love of making movies till the end of his life. His ever-increasing knowledge of movies is matched by very few and that's something that can be put to use always. Yes, if you want to make movies your own way, you need to produce it too most of the time and that requires loads of money. The "Amitaabh way" might be more than enough though. Also, movies with relatively low budget (few crores of rupees) aren't a bad option, maybe once in a while.

Kamal tasted success as a child star, struggled as a teenager doing choreography, got picked up by Balachander and rose to superstar status, moved onto meaningful movies starting with Nayagan and then hit the not-so-good times starting with Marudhanayagam. To use cricket terminology, it's time for Kamal to begin his sixth innings. (Or is it the seventh or the eighth?)

Picture courtesy: The Telegraph

Making sense of economy

2006-04-04T14:23:00.000-06:00

Nimesh Kampani -- I've never heard of the name before. When I saw the title on Rediff.com proclaiming "India doesn't need FDI", I was interested. As I read along and checked out an old cover story on him, I understood what the man was all about.

His answers in the 3-part interview are simple and make sense even to a person like me who's scared of financial terms. In addition to his thoughts on the Indian economy, a few of his observations / ideas were interesting:

...Japan has saved money for years. Investors there get zero or negligible interest. At some places, bank charges them for keeping deposits. In our banks, on the contrary, we get four per cent, at least. The Japanese are tired of dead investment. So they are looking out.

A friend of mine was in China recently. He was travelling along a road lined with houses on both sides. After 15 days, when he returned along the same road, he saw those homes had disappeared and a bigger road was being built. That is China. There the government can evacuate you in no time.

...investment is like a chappati on a gas stove. If you don't keep moving, it will get burnt.

I believe a situation will be created when an Asian currency on the lines of euro will be created which in turn will strengthen Asian economies.

Check out the three parts:

PS: For once, I didn't mind Rediff.com's sensational headlines...

California trip diary: Day 5

2006-04-03T15:35:00.000-06:00

Hollywood -- a town that is known more figuratively than in reality. The biggest movie-making machine of the world operates in and around here. We reached around the middle of the day and couldn't take a package tour. Ultimately that was a good thing though.

The world-renowned sign resides on a small hill. Though we didn't get to see it from close quarters, we caught it from a bridge in the Hollywood & Highland Center, on a gloomy day. [Just a couple of days ago, we watched the sign being smashed by a tornado in The Day After Tomorrow!]

Now, if "Hollywood & Highland Center" doesn't ring a bell, does "Kodak Theatre"? The venue of the Oscars ceremony is part of this complex.

As we enter, there are pillars featuring Best Picture winners (with room for future expansion, of course). You get a feel of the place -- how the stars descend every year and how grand it would be at the time of the Academy Awards. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go inside the theatre as we were late.

Just outside is Hollywood Boulevard, which boasts of almost all things Hollywood. I guess the 'street' (as compared to regular roads in the US) started buzzing with activity about a century ago.

Along one side is the Walk of Fame side-walk / foot-path. In addition to movies, it also honours music and TV personalities.

The Chinese Theater, also in the same complex as the Kodak Theatre, boasts of hand and foot prints of stars in its front. I clicked a some of my favourites.

The setting inside the theatre goes with the name. I was just wondering how interesting it would be to watch movies in such theatres in Hollywood itself.

We walked along and hit the Hollywood Entertainment Museum. Though it wasn't as exciting as I had imagined, the place had a few interesting items.

There was a Star Trek room featuring props from the original and the new shows. It was cool to sit in one of the seats which once had Captain James Kirk on it!

As we were waiting for the tour inside to begin, we came across some cut-outs -- check out Hitchcok and Spielberg above on the right side -- and old movie cameras, among other things.

Whew, that was a quick tour of Hollywood! We drove through Beverly Hills. Though we couldn't see much, as it was becoming dark, we noticed the huge houses buried in gardens.

Finally, we reached Rodeo Drive -- where Hollywood stars shop. A calm and cosy place to live and a glittering place to shop -- wow!

We walked almost the entire stretch and were amazed by the stuff sold there. The illuminated palm trees and the classy lights painted a pretty picture.

What a starry day!

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 & 4 | Day 5 [To be continued]

Apple & Macintosh

2006-04-01T09:34:00.000-07:00

Apple is one of the companies I've long admired, though I've never really used their products. While in school / college, I've heard stories about how Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started the company, how a trip to Xerox PARC set the stage for the first commercial GUI-based computer, how Apple competed with IBM, how Bill Gates sat with a Macintosh and copied feature by feature into Windows and so on. Some may be false; but those are the kind of legends surrounding the company.

I don't really care about the iPod, though I feel tempted to go for it once in a while. I was enamoured more by the Macintosh. I've just tried it a couple of times and loved it.

Here's an interesting series of photographs which trace its evolution, if you don't mind a little geekiness.

Maybe, some day, I'll have a Mac as my home computer. Till then...happy birthday, Apple!

Picture courtesy: http://www.avalanchejournal.com

Baaton Baaton Mein: nostalgic romcom

2006-03-30T01:08:00.000-07:00

Amidst all the new releases and missed old ones in Hollywood and Bollywood, I chanced upon this old gem. I prefer to call it a 'gem' even though it may not be a masterpiece in the world of movies. It's a good old romantic comedy with no real masala to spoil the taste.

The story and screenplay are simple. The lack of embellishments make the movie more realistic. Having Christian characters introduces credibility and also gives an interesting peek into their culture. The scenes involving parents and other relatives are quite funny. Some songs are more famous than the movie itself -- "Na bole tum..." and "Uthe sabke kadam...".

There are a few minor problems though. The budget constraints become obvious in some places. You can observe people wearing the same combination of clothes in multiple scenes in the same location, making it clear that those were all shot together. Atleast one song is not plugged in very well. Basu Chatterjee's direction, if better, could have lifted the movie a couple of notches upwards.

Amol Palekar could be called the superstar of small movies of those times. He shows off his lighter side here. He seems a bit old for this role though. Tina (Munim, now Ambani) is good eye-candy, in more ways than one. At times, she struggles to act; but in the context of the whole movie, it doesn't matter really. Pearl Padamsee is delightful. Ranjit Chowdhry, recently seen in Western movies like Bollywood / Hollywood and Last Holiday, plays a small comic role here. More nostalgia: Mazhar Khan, better known as Zeenat Aman's husband, has a small part too.

On a lazy weekend, if you just want to have a good two hours, without having to subject yourself to the latest masala misery, go for Baaton Baaton Mein.

While (re)searching on the Net, I chanced upon a "gorilla lamenting" about the same movie. A different outlook -- you might enjoy it.

Picture courtesy: http://www.webmallindia.com

California trip diary: Day 3 & 4

2006-03-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

Day Three was spent in Sea World while Day Four was for chilling out without really going to any special place.

Sea World is an aquatic zoo combined with an amusement park. The Shamu show is the highlight of this place. Before we get onto that, I thought I'd show you this cute picture of a little girl we saw there, with her face painted (as a cat or is that a something else?).

Shamu is a whale! It's trained to perform stunts like dolphins. Actually, the show features Shamu and a few other of his mates. The show is fantastic, complete with the whales jumping out of the water and also splashing water on the audience.

We also saw white wales. They weren't upto any of the above antics and were swimming peacefully in a simulated environment.

The most-loved dolphins were there, of course. Some were in a pool where you could interact closely with them. The one below seems to be lovingly asking for food.

Of course, there was a show featuring dolphins, similar to the one with Shamu and company. There was some drama here, with a woman set up to fall into the water as part of the proceedings.

Another spectacular portion of Sea World was the penguin section. About 300 small penguins were kept in artificially created Polar settings, with one side open to public viewing through glass. The penguins and ice were a bit dirty.

In one of the aquariums, I saw some embryos. Though the photo is not of great quality, you can still see organisms forming inside.

One unique animal we saw was the manatee, an endangered mammal rescued by Sea World. They were funny in their movement and excessive consumption of lettuce.

The food at Sea World was quite bad for our taste. While coming out of the eatery, we were amused to see beef being cooked in the open.

As a whole, Sea World is a really enjoyable place to visit, if you don't mind shelling out quite a few bucks.

During our San Diego leg of our trip, we actually stayed in Carlsbad, an affluent suburb. The roads were practically empty and the superb houses made a pretty sight.

We went to a couple of beaches nearby. There too, we used the Pacific Coast Highway.
Next stop: Los Angeles / Hollywood!

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 & 4 | Day 5 [Updated: 3 April 2006]

California trip diary: Day 2

2006-03-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

For Day Two, we decided to drive along Highway 1 and experience the famed California coast-line. I remembered seeing it in movies like Basic Instinct and Pacific Heights and was excited to really be there.

The highway is mostly narrow and not always along the coast. Sometimes, you can't see the water, as resorts and restaurants spring up and block your view. It was thrilling to be riding along the world's largest ocean that stretches from the Americas to Australia and Asia.

Where there is something that humans would love, commercialisation can't be far behind. This coast / highway is lined with numerous houses at several places. Though it's a pretty sight in some ways, you don't feel happy when you imagine how the place would be without them. Another aspect that irritated me was that some portions of the beaches were private and completely out of bounds for everyone else except the owners. Hollywood stars and billionaires would flaunt residences in these towns, I guess.

There was some decent sun during the San Diego leg of this trip. People were out, surfing in the water or shooting hoops or even playing beach volleyball.

I got adventurous during the end of this drive and we drove upto Long Beach. That's near Los Angeles, the next stop of our trip. Misty conditions made the drive unpleasant and we also got lost there briefly.

As we drove back, we stopped at South Coast Plaza in Orange County. The mall was decked up for Christmas and was buzzing with activity. We were tired and in no real mood to look around. Still, we crossed the 'bridge' and dined at Bangkok Four.

Overall, we got a better taste of the San Diego area and California as compared to Day One.

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 & 4 | Day 5 [Updated: 3 April 2006]

'Brokeback'

2006-03-25T13:43:00.000-07:00

Picture courtesy: http://www.moviewallpaper.net

Possibly the most talked about Hollywood movie of last year, the story is certainly path-breaking. The actors, the writers and the director have put in their best to let the common audience relate to homosexuality.

The movie is a bit arty, but not so much as to put you to sleep or make you crave for it to get over. Slightly longer than the average Hollywood movie, sustaining interest is an achievement. More than the story, the emotions involved create a beautiful experience. The scenic locale lets you open your mind and be in touch with nature.

The only real complaint I have with the movie is the constant accented mumbling of Heath Ledger. That made it very difficult to catch dialogues, just being able to roughly follow the happenings. That didn't matter ultimately; but still I yearn to get hold of the DVD to watch with subtitles.

Ledger, Gyllenhaal and Williams were all good. I've watched only Ledger before and I can say that he did deserve the Oscar nomination. Being an Australian, he has had to put that extra bit in to play an all-out American cowboy, with feminity too.

The other person from a foreign country, Ang Lee, was even more impressive. He won the award rightfully. Take that with a pinch of salt now -- I've watched only two of the five nominated movies. I hate Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon still; but Lee made me love him this time around.

Yet another foreigner, Gustavo Santaolalla pitched in with some Oscar-winning background score. I didn't pay so much attention to it though.

Yes, I'd say Crash was a better movie overall. So what? This movie made a difference in some other way. It even topped the list of Hollywood words of 2005.

Chill out by watching one of the many spoofs floating around on the Net.....

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi

2006-03-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

One of my many thousand desires was to catch Hazaaron Kwaishein Aisi; I accomplished it recently. Though it wasn't a big hit even in the multiplexes, this movie was talked about, especially for the performances of its lead actors.

Kay Kay is fairly established, seen in other movies like Sarkar, Mein Meri Patni Aur Woh and Black Friday. Industry folks raved about Chitrangada Singh, while she went out of bounds. Shiny (Roshan?) Ahuja is more known for his appearance in Sins.

Firstly, don't get misled by the poster above. As is the norm, it's just meant to look cool. The story is about three people over many years -- no-cliche triangular love with the backdrop of Emergency. The protagonists also represent three different outlooks of people at that time. The support characters complete the other kinds of people in that environment. All characters are perfectly grey.

The story is solid and original. Never mind the disclaimer that it isn't based on real people and events; we know what it really means. The screenplay isn't bad too. But I felt there was a compromise on the editing table to cut down the length of the movie. Scenes rush past quickly before you can absorb them fully.

Songs are mostly used in the background and complement the narration well. The limit of the budget is evident in the technical aspects of the movie; but that creates no problems. The English used in the movie seems a lot out of place in many instances.

Shiny Ahuja walks away with top acting honours, almost at the end. Chitrangada makes an impressive debut.

Sudhir Mishra didn't create much impact with Chameli, which I guess was burdened with Kareena's non-commercial attempt. Here, he makes you take notice of him quite well.

Overall, this is one of the Indian movies that is worth watching in the past few years.

Check out the movie's Web-site while it lasts.

Boiling Iran

2006-03-11T07:18:00.000-07:00

US tension with Iran is only increasing day by day. US has stepped up the rhetoric, making it clear that they are looking beyond the nuclear programme issue. Iran's involvement in the Mohammad cartoon controversy made that obvious already. Read about the strategy of the United States to understand what's going on underneath the surface.

Russia and China are still hoping to defuse the tension. Of course, it's not all well-intentioned. Check out the Chinese reasoning. This article even talks about Sino-US confrontation in Middle East -- reminds me of the Cold War! As if we didn't have enough trouble in the world already, we have one more irritant in the form of North Korea.

Vaettaiyadu Vilaiyaadu troubles still not over

2006-03-09T13:11:00.000-07:00

Kamal Haasan's next movie is complete and ready for release on April 14, Tamil New Year's Day. Oops, not yet! Here comes a stay based on complaint from a financier...

Check out the history of troubles, if you care. Hope Vaettiyaadu Vilaiyaadu releases soon, if not on the set date, and not rot away...

Post-Oscar musings

2006-03-07T07:02:00.000-07:00

Oscar night is long over and I'm late to blog about it. Sorry, I've been busy.

The show was lacklustre, I felt. I'm thrilled to see small movies sweep the Oscars, but you need stars and blockbusters to work the magic. Unfortunately, that's what TV audience have come to expect of award shows.
In the past, when I didn't have the opportunity to watch the show live fully, I used to keep re-loading the Oscar.com page as if I'm watching cricket over the Web.
George Clooney won something! Also, I liked his acceptance speech, though it wasn't fully extempore. Pleased that it was for a movie that I had watched and loved. He had 'deglamourised' himself for the role and also suffered back injury. Regarding other contenders for this award, I don't think Dillon was as good while Hurt was a joke in my opinion; I didn't watch the other two movies.
Crash, having demonstrated the power of story-telling, won the right awards.
I watched Walk The Line just before the Oscars and I thought Joaquin Phoenix was terrific. It was definitely a performance of a life-time. Maybe, Hoffman too came up with his in the same year unfortunately.
I was impressed by none of the "original songs" that were performed. None had the impact of say "My heart will go on" of Titanic. Anyway, I have watched only one of those movies and I can't judge the impact of those songs in their movies.

PS: If you come across a post on a fellow blogger's site with the same title, please be informed that neither of us copied it from the other. It was truly pure coincidence.

The Ganguly soap-opera

2006-03-03T17:01:00.000-07:00

Just when we thought that the Ganguly saga is going to end with a whimper, it refuses to die.

Meanwhile, I was impressed by this recent article that appeared after he was dropped from the Test team yet again. It is written by a journalist who is also a fan of Ganguly. It has little bias and also gives a peek into the man's mind.

I'm no fan of Ganguly. But I do believe that the treatment meted out to him is unfair, considering his achievements especially as a captain and in one-dayers. Like the proverb goes, "he who lives by politics shall die by politics".

Abortion brouhaha

2006-02-28T16:10:00.000-07:00

For an outsider like me, a debate in US about abortion itself was quite suprising. So, last week's passage of a bill in South Dakota was only shocking. This is seen as a step towards banning abortion throughout the country!

Read more about how things went in South Dakota. Even female legislators are divided. There is quite a bit of noise from the "pro-life" group too. Also, as usual, politics gets involved.

I don't want to argue whether IVF embryos are living things or if God creates humans. I would say that atleast the mother of the child needs to have the choice.

Is population explosion a problem we are willing to live with? Do mothers / couples have to suffer due to unplanned / unwanted pregnancies?

The South Dakota bill goes to the extent of disallowing even victims of rape or incest from aborting the foetuses! Do they want to protect one 'life' at the cost of torturing another?

I have no more words.....

6 months after Katrina: on the spot

2006-02-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

As the virtual hurricane (named 'Tammy') of the past few days dies down, it's time to move on.

It's around six months now since The Hurricane of 2005 struck. New Orleans was the worst affected. What better place to go and see how things are now? Last weekend, I was there.

The city is slowly recovering from the mighty blow of Nature. In several places, you can still see rubble and other effects of Katrina.

Seemingly unaffected houses, like the one below, are everywhere. But if you look closely, you'll see two things. The first one is the horizontal brownish mark left by the stagnated water. The other one is gruesome: a mark left by the authorities that denotes that this house has been checked for dead bodies.

All these houses stand lifeless, with a whole lot of rubbish in front of them. The roads look deserted except for a few passing cars.

The Lakeshore Drive was a beautiful place; but we saw hardly anyone there. You know why it's unattractive presently when you see fallen buildings.

Another battered building was possibly a buzzing crab shack before disaster occurred.

It's not just the small places. You can see loss of business even in malls. Look closely in the below picture for the removed letters of the name of a big store that's no longer there.

Numerous abandoned cars can be seen under overpasses everywhere. I guess most of them are in unusable condition. But are some just unclaimed?

If you thought all is lost, you are underestimating the resilience of New Orleans folks. They turn sorrow into fun and even business -- on the (in)famous Bourbon Street especially.

You can see "hurricane" drinks and loads of crazy T-shirts!

Meanwhile, the Red Cross is possibly still at work, apparent from the notices for volunteers still up in the airport. Not all hospitals are open yet.

Reconstruction is underway at many places, starting with roads. Construction means more workers needed and in this case, a lot of "Mexicans" have come in. There are complaints that some of them are even making the city unsafe for women.

Also, it is believed that the traffic has increased in the past few months. That's because more people now live in Baton Rouge (capital of Louisiana state) and commute to New Orleans. Some of those who are in New Orleans have no homes and have to make do with trailers and even boats (meant for cruises)!

Businesses are re-opening and they are in dire need for people. One of the restaurants we visited was operating on a reduced menu.

Below set of pictures shows various McDonalds joints. One of them is closed while another one cries out loud for recruitment. They go to the extent of displaying a list of employee benefits!

While basic necessities are up and running or are being done, can fun and sport be far behind? Strip clubs were said to be the businesses to re-open first! Now, the Superdome is being repaired. [See picture in Wikipedia for damaged state.] It bears an announcement of the re-opening date.

Casinos are opening back too. Harrah's hoardings combine hope and festivity.

When I say 'festivity', I mean Mardi Gras, of course. The annual carnival was announced to be held for only the last week of February this year, but it has started already.

With tragedy being part of their lives for a while now, people of New Orleans need to chill out a bit for sure.

The "Tammy Nyp" phenomenon

2006-02-23T15:44:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard about "Tammy Nyp" till now, you really aren't into blogs. This "sex scandal" has been triggered by a raw MMS clip that emerged. It features a girl supposedly named Tammy, studying in Nanyang Polytechnic ('Nyp') of Singapore and a guy. Here's what I've observed on the Blogosphere:

All kinds of stories are doing the rounds, including the identity of the guy and that this video is a preview meant to generate hype for a soon-to-be-available 90-minute porn movie.
Bloggers are using the opportunity to get hits, as this story has dominated Technorati Top 10 for two days or more now. There are folks putting up fake downloads just to get their blogs viewed! There is also debate going on the right and wrong.
Till a day or so, there was no sign of it on Google or the news. Now, we can see a whole lot. The first one (Tammy Nyp domain name!) itself gives you an indication of the kind of craze spreading.

Things are so overboard that nothing can really be believed. Guess we'll have to wait for the dust to settle down to dig up the truth.....

Coming up tomorrow... reporting on the effects of a real storm...6 months after Katrina: on the spot

Pakistan, Bush & Derek O'Brien

2006-02-22T15:41:00.000-07:00

No, that title has no real meaning other than referring to this post that is going to talk about them disconnectedly. Surely, we'd want to see O' Brien on the quiz stage rather than in the midst of some high-level politics!

The rise of China and India is inevitably leading to changes in the political landscape. Though Pakistan and China have been long-time allies because of you-know-which-country, things are moving up several notches. Get oil from Middle East, offload it at Pakistani port and transport to China over land -- "trade-energy corridor", anyone?
Bush's visit to India is generating a lot of news. One side story talks about the level of security arrangements that are having the Indian folks spell-bound!
Finally, to poor Derek. Many of us might know that he has a company of his own. But you would be surprised to see its size and how they are expanding.

Break the law, be happy

2006-02-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

So what if Salman Khan has been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment? His buddy, Sanjay Dutt spent time in jail under TADA after being linked to the Bombay blasts. But he came out on bail, gave big hits and now has a decent career. Though neither really made it to the very top, did it really matter?

Are politicians, movie stars and celebrities ever really punished?

California trip diary: Day 1

2006-02-16T15:57:00.000-07:00

Finally after almost two months, I manage to start this series. Unlike the Australia trip, I'm going to try to write more and put less pictures. Hope you'll like it.

I had been waiting to visit the land of Hollywood and Silicon Valley, and it finally happened towards the end of last year. One of the first things I remember about California is the economic strength. Quoting from Wikipedia:

If California were an independent nation, it would have the sixth largest economy in the world...after the rest of the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain and China

In this trip, I started off at San Diego. This buzzing city is located quite close to the border with Mexico.

Day One was Balboa Park and San Diego Zoo.

Now, I'm no big animal-lover. I rarely halt at Animal Planet or Discovery channel while channel-surfing. But somehow, I like zoos. No evil pleasure in seeing animals caged here! The San Diego Zoo however was a cut above. Like most places in US, there was opportunity for people to do it in their own pace and also to get a quick tour if they wanted. We visited a few spots by the shuttle and walked to some.

Almost at the entrance, you are welcomed by magnificient flamingoes. I guess this is the first time I'm seeing them other than on TV or photos. What can you say -- a picture is worth a thousand words!

We also got to see some more unique animals. That itself was worth the price of the (expensive) ticket actually. The Panda below was trying to sleep on the tree branch and was falling off. Her brother was loitering nearby while the mother was resting inside, away from spectators. These kids are locally-bred ones, with help from the Chinese government.

Same family, different location -- cousins, shall we say? Unfortunately, when we visited the Polar bears, they were enjoying their siesta. Despite their much bigger size, they had rocks here and hence didn't have any problem of balancing while sleeping!

In addition to animals that we had heard of, we also got introduced to some new ones. Check out the Malaysian tapir. It is kind of like a pig in black-and-white!

Sure, we also got to see some more common animals. The giraffe was impressive. There was a whole family out there and they seemed to be relaxing...

We also saw some animals in unfamiliar circumstances. Here's a swimming hippo! It seemed quite docile, enjoying the dip in the water -- lapping its small legs cutely. But it came out of another end and opened its mouth wide for eager people to click away!

We had a good time in the zoo, though it was quite tiring to walk around. More of California will follow.....

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 & 4 | Day 5 [Updated: 3 April 2006]