Welcome

Welcome is not an Akshay Kumar film, it is a Nana Patekar film, he is a revelation in the film. So is Anil Kapoor. First thing first, it is not a great movie, but it is one of those movies which give you what you expect from them. Welcome promised a nonsensical masala movie and it is just that.

A simple plot, a ‘Don’ wants a good gentle guy for his sister and they found one as well. The problem, this gentle guy’s uncle, will never let this guy marry someone whose relatives have criminal background. Then there are sub-plots and characters thrown in to prepare this comic-caper.

Though I enjoyed the movie, Anees Bazmi could have done far better. The house scene at the end of the movie is too stretched and songs are not welcome in this movie. The music is pathetic and probably Mr. Bazmi’s idea of making a big masala movie is quantity not quality. So he got Akshay, Nana, Anil, Paresh, Firoj Khan … as actors.. so many big names, he roped in Himesh Reshamiya, Anand Raj Anand and Sajid-Wajid as music directors. Though the actor somewhat justified their presence and added value, music was a complete disappointment.

All the oneliners and best scenes have gone to Nana and Anil and they are the real heroes of the movie. Paresh Rawal is as usual infallible in making you laugh. Akshay is there, but this time he is more ‘sidha sada’ kind of guy unlike his earlier movies of the year. His look is getting repetitive and he needs to innovate if he really wants to hold this superstardom for long. I don’t know why in all his recent comedy movies, there is not even a single scene where somebody tries to utilize his action /martial art skills. After all, Jackie Chan is doing in all his movies and Akshay’r ‘Return of the Khiladi’ act in Om Shanti Om was one of the best scenes of the movie. If you can put some idiotic songs which do not have any thing to do with storyline, you can always put a fight scene. I think I have to wait till release of Tashan and Chandni Chowk to China to see Akki flexing his muscles.

Though Taran Adarsh for a change has given 4 stars to a non-Shahrukh, non KJo-YashRaj movie, but his review seems to be realization of the fact that Akshay is new Shahrukh. I did not see anything which deserved 4 stars.

It is good time pass movie, where you will enjoy this movie and considering the hype and popularity of Akshay, this is going to make loads of money. Remember Om Shanti Om. Now I am going to see Taare Zameen Par, for just one reason. The debut of Amir Khan as Director. The perfectionist is not only in front of camera, this time he is calling the shots as well.

Orkut Nama -2

After crossing different  orkut phases, my profile has got more than 160 friends and more than 6000 scraps (a prized possession on orkut land). I still remember, when I just played around some javascripts nuggets to flood some friends’ scrap book (those who used to complain that I did not scrap…) and immediately that was most requested thing by my orkut friends.

In between I did some constructive work (I think so.. you might differ…) and created a community for my alma mater and the community attracted almost 60-70% of our elusive alumni on one ‘active’ platform. A byproduct of this effort, I started getting more visits to my profile, more friend requests and more request to be an unofficial PRO for IIFM admissions.

But the best part of Orkut for me was Testimonials I wrote for people and testimonials I received. There are some testimonials which I have written with utmost of sincerity and some ‘template’ testimonials which can be assigned to any one!. But testimonials written about me… OMG. I never realized that they are about me. So ignorant of my own virtues…  These testimonials (or testis as they used to call on orkut.. without wondering what exactly it meant and how the habit of abbreviating everything can produce some really brillieant gems..) can be a replacement for confidence boosting steriods.

Here are gems.. sourced directly from my profile .. talking about some virtues and vices, which I only wished they were right..

“saw a storm coming from North, and then i saw a man walking head on from south..facing the storm bare chested, up front and conquering the devil in its full might“…..  The above lines are about me.. and for those who have not seen me.. If I go bare chested,I think I carry the risk of getting blown by the zephyr, forget about storm.. The weight of my clothes used to  give me some weight…… (This testimonial was written 15 month back… ). I must say this guy (one of my fav juni at campus) had really wild imagination and this was probably  result of some highly ’spiritual’ thinking.

“Was the real Dark Horse in our batch at IIFM whether it b excelling in the Academic Performance or gaining Popularity among the Fairer Sex..” … Here the only thing which goes with me is word ‘DARK’.. nothing else.. . A similar testimonial “ has been admired n loved as well by majority of people in IIFM” .. probably the writer forget my ‘behali’ in GBMs (General Body Meeting).  And this one should be really the best.. “.His list of Girlfriends will leave you in AwE!! (but I ll still say he s not a Casanova a wonderful Friend (truly-in-deeds)” …Hmm.. my list of girlfriends.. I am just looking for the list.. I would love to move from “Havnots” to “Haves” status. (and  those who are moving to comments section after this line.. the definition of ‘Girlfriend’ is key here.. and it is surely not about ALL  THE FRIENDS WHO ARE GIRL.). 

In nutsell, the testimonials were as true depiction of personality as Musharraf’s poll stats  about his popularity in pakistan. But anyone you love reading/receiving  them….

(The post is getting long.. so rest in next posts… or whenever I am free to do some BC..).

Orkut-Nama

Recently I removed a lot of information and pictures from my Orkut profile and unjoined many communities, though this was done only to curtail my online presence on different sites, but this invoked many responses from my always ‘holier than thou’, omniscient and caring friends. None of them near the truth. I was trying to end some speculations which resulted in some more speculations.

But that led me to think over the whole issue. I joined Orkut two years back when all the social networking sites were still in infancy in India. I joined just for the curiosity and my desire to be abreast with all the latest happening in tech arena.

For the early two-three months, there were no friends, apart from the one who invited me (at that time you needed to be invited from someone who is already on Orkut to be there and there were not many, in fact techies were proud that they were on orkut.). But Orkut created huge userbase in just one year. And some of my friends came on Orkut and the chain reaction started.

Soon I realized that my ‘FAN’ list is attracting names, who would never say a single nice thing about me (probably they do not know a nice things about me..), I was surprised why people are becoming my fans. I am not a star. But, surprized vanished very soon. The scrapbook (place on your orkut profile where you can put publicly displayed private messages) explained. “S**e, main tera fan ban gaya hun, tu bhi ban ja.. “(I just became ur fan, now you too get in my fan list) . Unabashed self–glorification.

Soon people were comparing and how many ‘FANs’ they have in their list and who has got the most number of ‘FANs’ and who is yet to be included. Dumbass like me were having fans..

Then came the testimonials. A lady whose profile profile name will ‘hit you hard’ wrote the first cutie cutie all goodie kind of testimonials and then I was writing the same for a couple of my good buddies trying my best to do jutice with what to be written and what not to be written. Ofcourse, my ‘ Writing Orkut
Testimonials’  book contained the following sacrosanct rules

• You shall write only good things.
• You should try to fill the limit of 1024 words.
• You must reciprocate the testimonial gesture.

Though I can write a book on Art of Writing Orkut Testimonials, but I am keeping it for my coming posts…. I think the post is getting stretched like Indian inning on flat cricket pitch, so declared. 

Next post: Orkut Nama Second Part

Technorati Tags: Orkut

Visit to my provenience

After 5 years, I got time and opportunity to visit my ancestral place and my provenience. I have spent my early years in this place, which is located 9 kms from GT Road, near UP-Bihar border in Bihar. It is so close to UP that my Hutch SIM was not on roaming though I was in Bihar, it was still communicating through a tower in UP.

The occasion of visit or principal reason for visit was my sister’s (cousin) marriage. First marriage in my family in last 20 years. And also, probably first time in last 10 years I saw all member of my extended family together.

Since my last visit (which was for one day at time of my grandmother funeral), the village has changed substantially. Though still not properly accessible by road (You cant reach this place by small cars as the roads are glaring example of corruptions and fund embezzlement.), but the work for new road is going on, hopefully next time I would visit this place it would be a pleasant journey from GT Road to my native village.

I had planned to move around my village (which I had not done since I left the village way back when I was studying in Class 3.) and first thing I wanted to see was my school. It used to be a two room building with no sitting arrangement for students as all the furniture we had was a couple of chairs for teachers. We had to carry empty Cement bags, which we used to spread on ground and study on that. The school was surrounded by mango orchard where in lunch break everyone used to visit if it is mango season to try one’s luck, if one can find one delicacy from the orchard.

The school has changed as it has a new building ( but of two rooms only, they built the new building in place of the old rooms, see the picture) and I heard that they have got bench and desks for the students. But the attendance is thin, due to a new private school a couple of kilometers from my village (which charges Rs. 50 per month) and most of the upper caste people (only those who think that education can be of any use, and believe me they are in minority) are now sending their wards to this private school. I enquired about the old teachers, none of them are currently there, the school is manned by recruitment done under Shiksha Mitras (who get Rs. 4000 per month as salary).

 In evening, when we were sitting with fellow villagers and guests who had come to attend my sis marriage, my father told us that there is some fight going on in the village. He told us that there was some noise coming from the nearby mohalla. We were still speculating what is the reason, then one of my cousin came and told that that was not a fight but the policemen were beating a lady. I asked why? It was not very surprising for me, I have witness the policemen’s atrocities and attitude when they visit villages. He told me that somebody has filed complaints against the lady’s husband and they came to arrest the husband and the lady protested and started abusing the policemen.  It was disgusting. I have seen these policewala, they act as if they are god when they visit villages and take undue advantage of illiteracy and ignorance of these simpleton villagers. They are not aware of their rights and safeguards available, and even if they are aware of them, they fear the retaliatory action from the other policemen.

Technorati tags: villages, police, rural life, rural education

Blog-Sutra

• To blog humane, to comment divine.

• Thou shall link your ‘visitors’.

• A blog-post a day, keeps visitors coming your way.

• Once a blogger, always a blogger.

• Every successful bloggers, has hundreds of visitor behind him/her.

• Thou shall respect Copyrights and IPR.

• Thou shall not beg link-backs.

Technorati tags: blogs, blogging

Managing Blog, Time and Myself

So, I have been very irregular with my posts, comments and presence on my blogs as well as with my first love, reading books. Many books are left half-read, posts half written and many personal tasks neglected, fortunately I have been quite good with professional assignments (I don’t compromise on that as they provide you bread and butter.)
So it was clear I was unproductive/underproductive considering total input (time and resources) and output and capability installed (talent and knowledge, oh.. I do have some.. some people say that and they never want to be hear that they are wrong!), now solution. Santosh, do something. You are quite good at suggesting others, now dont preach practice.
One of my strategy to achieve some goal have been to declare it in advance, I am going to do this. Doing this, I push myself to the limit to save my face and do that stuff as I have already proclaimed, second people keep on reminding what happened to the thing you were working on. So following the same strategy, here is what I am going to working on.
Blog
Hmm. I am not regular and most of the time I am handicapped by Blogger’s block (just like Writer’s Block). So I am going to have a weekly post ..Sunday Seven. So what is this? This is a list of seven things related to particular theme, topic, seven tips, hate list, love list.. etc. This will ensure that at least I am regular. And surely I am going to continue with whatever I am writing. So from now onwards, check every Sunday for Santosh’s Sunday Sevens (hmm.. nice marketing..some time you need to pat your own back.. people dont like to do this for others..)
Some other blog resolutions as well … comment regularly and encourage others and revive old links.
Books
So I love books then why I am not able finish these numerous half read books. First, Problem of Plenty, no fix timing.
So here is what I think would be quite useful for me… and its working already.

• Prepare a list of books in priority of reading, so that you know which book you are going to read.
• Assign a fixed time for reading book, at the moment I am reading them just before going to bed.

Lets see how many I am able to finish with this strategy.
Time Management
I am going to apply some tried and tested (by others) time management tips and techniques, so watch out this space, I would be sharing them here as well.

welcome to blogosphere

Let me welcome some friends entering blogosphere. It is great pleasure to interact in real world and it is really fascinating to have them on blogospher. So visit their blogs, comment and explore some really wonderful persons

Samvadiya by Bhaskar Lakshakar

My batchmate at IIFM and a person with impeccable Hindi, deep insight on a number of issues and this is his second coming to blogosphere and this time it seems that Hindi Blogosphere is going to be blessed with his regular contribution. If you are thinking I am going ga ga over him because he is my friend, have a look at some of the posts from his earlier blog and let me know.

Brown Men’s Burden by Santosh Anagol

Another Santosh , here is an Yale PhD student ( mark my word, a brilliant Development and Behavorial economist in making) sharing his insight on different issues. We spent around 3 months exploring Cattle Markets and villages to study different aspects of dairy farmers and their behavior.

Invectives of Development Practitioner by Vineet Abhishek

Vineet my senior at IIFM who started his career with PRADAN and now a full fledged development practitioner. He is quite regular with his post and you will surely notice his knack for creative writing…

So enjoy .. and do not forget to leave your comments when you visit their blogs..

Some Pics

I have been travelling a lot these days. And whenever, I found my camera, time and a good object to shoot, I did some clicking.

 

I love Palash from my childhood, probably one of the reason for this is I spent a lot of time in Palamu (Jharkhand) which is full of Palash (Butea monosperma) trees and I have loads of happy memories attached to that place and these trees. Its really beatiful sight to see these tree flowering, they turn whole forest red.

This picture I took near Itaujha (Small village about 25 kms from Lucknow) in Uttar Pradesh. It reminds the old song..’mere desh ki dharti sona ugle…‘

Fight for Your Rights

A milkman was asking 50 paise more than the MRP of a milk packet, and woman protested. No, not that she cannot pay 50 paise extra, but she was just exercising her rights as knowledgable customer and inform the milkman what he was doing was not right. And what followed this!! A sheer act of goondagardi, which thrives on our inactivity and ‘why get into trouble..”.

She was abused, threatened by the milkman in public and no one came for her rescue. Read this Blog by an IIM B grad whose wife went through this and how he took on the issue.

She brought to his notice that overcharging is illegal under the Packaged Commodities Rules (PCR), which state that any trader charging more than the MRP mentioned on the package can be prosecuted. Upon hearing this, he turned extremely abusive and verbally assaulted her. He insulted her, threatened her with physical and sexual harm and physically intimidated her. A crowd gathered but nary a person came to her rescue and to restrain the milkman. Like I said, pansies.
I came home later in the evening to find my wife in a heavily distressed condition. Took me a long time to get her to tell me what had happened, after which I went to accost the milkman. He was still abusive, pushed and shoved me around, and asked me to complain to whoever I would and that he would see what I would do……. read more

Updates One , Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight
Technorati tags: fight, harassment

I wanted to kill…

I always wondered why people turn violent, why they want to kill somebody, knowing very well that it is going to ruin their life as well. Life gave me a first hand experience to explore the answer or should I say that enlightened me with answer.

As usual,  I went to my home town on weekends and after spending weekend I was returning by Gwalior Mail (From Barauni to Gwalior). The train was already 10 hours late, when I boarded it. But since I had reservation in it and could not manage to get reservations in other trains, I was helpless and had to wait for this delayed train. Though most of the trains were running full, this train was empty (at least the AC coaches). Probably due to its history of late running, for me it was always an option  when I dont have any pre-reservation made and have to go home, as I easily get place in this train.

So we were only 3 persons in whole AC three tier coach. We reached a small station called Bhatparrani, a station near Gorakhapur. Though the train was not scheduled to stop there, it stopped and seemed stopped for eternity. Hours went by but the train did not move. I asked my coach attendant, what’s wrong?

He replied ” There is some problem at the next station, so train will go once the problem is cleared. Actually, people are burning train at Gorakhpur Station in protest of arrest of Jogi jee.”

My heart sank. How can people do this?

I asked ” what happened to the passengers?”

“They were asked to vacate.”

My conversation with attendant was going on and we heard loud voices near by which were coming to us filtered by closed doors of coach. We looked out of window. A crowd of around 40 people was coming armed with sticks, swords and what not. Mostly in the age group of 12-30 years, but the biggest section was of 12-20 years old.  They were shouting something, which we could not figure out. Hurriedly I put the curtains on the window and even before I could finish putting on the curtains a big stone crashed on the other window of our coach. Then come another.

We three just made our self safe from these stones by putting ourself away from window. We looked at each other.  We three only. Me, a student of Scindia School who was going to attend his school at Gwalior after vacation, and a person accompanying him.  They started knocking the doors. Luckily the attendant has locked the doors. They tried unsuccessfully. We gathered our luggage and decided to move to AC 2 tier coach, where we had around  6 more passengers. We moved to AC 2 tier. A six-eight month old baby was crying endlessly, probably sensing his mothers uncomfort and panic.

The mob went on crashing windows of the standing train. It went on for around 30 minutes. After that there was a pause, for ten minutes. But we could not muster the strength to come out of train and look for something for drink or eat (the train was standing there for more than 4 hours and it didnot have any pantry car.)

Then again the noise began. Same people returned and starting banging our doors again. Probably passengers traveling in AC coaches were easy meat as our windows had no protection only glasses and that too were broken, shattered by them.  We were standing in one of the corners. All together. Praying. Suddenly a sword came through the window. Looking for something. Now voices were coming clearly to us after the glasses were gone.

“Arre phunk dente hain salon ko.. darwaja nahi kholte hain to..” (Lets burn them, if they dont open the door.) Somehow I managed to get a glimpse of this brave man who wanted to burn us alive. A boy of 13-14 years old. With a big stone in one hand and a flag in another. His opinion was supported by many.

I badly wanted to have a gun, one shot and you are dead. To make tomorrow morning headline. An innocent kid shot by an irritated passenger. Innocent!! I was becoming restless. No future, no ideology, no compassion everything was taken over by this pang of hatred. Suddenly I  saw a person (around 30 years old, dressed in Khadi, I wondered if Gandhi could see his Khadi being donned by these maniacs). Here in the coach, the baby was crying endlessly. And his parents could do just nothing. Probably he needed some milk or water.

While the person was talking to the mob, stones were coming to the train.. suddenly some men in Khaki appeared and crowd started to move hither and thither. Shouting slogans. We got some relief.

After 30 minutes, the people were no where to seen. I looked at a tea seller on platform. Invited him in the coach, as we were too afraid to step out of the train. He came in and we got some tea for us and lots of question for them. We came to know that the idea to burn the train was dropped as some politician ask them not to burn the train.

I was shocked, so they were being controlled!! Controlled by some politician. The guy who wanted to bomb our parliament, should have been successful.

Now look at the picture published in Dainik Jagaran, one of the leading dailies of India. The caption given is “ People protesting ….” Look who are the people. We should be proud how our kids have become mature, the have developed strong sense of political and social scenario and now actively participating. If you look carefully, you can figure out who are the people at front and equipped with stick and stones. Invariable in mobs the theory of “Leading from the back” applies.

Consider if police tries to control the crowd and in order to control them if they have to resort to laathi charge (they have to, if not to control the crowd then to protect themselves). What could be the morning headline is anyone’s guess.