Mandira Bedi - Wooing housewives or Booing housewives?

Indian Media is damn crazy. Well I can give many instances of the media's craziness, wild acts, wrong and excess coverages etc. Well, check the latest one.
An article in the MSN India caught my fancy few minutes back.

"Mandira to again woo housewives during champions"!
New Delhi, April 30: Actor Mandira Bedi, who successfully lured housewives into watching the 2003 cricket World Cup, will again do the honours during the Champions Trophy in India October-November.

Check out the whole story at the link:-
http://autofeed.msn.co.in/pandorav3/output/Cinema/29523e5f-9aed-4eb4-8d4d-0e5d0661029a.aspx

Media fools, what are you talking about? Do you really think that Mandira Bedi LURED indian women into watching World Cup Cricket. Holy Crap! Its the contrary, you fools. The few women in India who used to watch cricket stopped watching the game thanks to this lady.

Do I need to tell the reasons? Let me list a few...(the list is actually endless)

1. Her so called Noodle Strap blouses revealed almost everything which lured both the Old and Young Men alike. So women who used to watch cricket until then, while watching the Extra Innings aired between World Cup matches with family, friends and colleagues wriggled, felt uncomfortable and left the room in haste muttering "Arey saalee, is kambakth kee vajay se, mujhe yeh match miss karna padrahaa hai"(I am missing the match thanks to this bitch)
2. She did not know a damn thing about cricket. I remember her babblings about the Mid-On, Mid-Off, Gully...Ellaam Crap!
3. Krish Srikanth who used to get out soon in his heydays just to have a fag sacrificed his fag time just to stare at her!

The media might argue that the TRP ratings went high thanks to the increased no of women watching the game...Holy Cow...TRP ratings went high as the lot who were used to watching Midnight Masala started watching Extra Innings for a change...

God knows, what she gonna attire herself in for the Champions Trophy...Noodle Strap or Noodleless Strap Blouses!

Bollywood or Copywood???

I happened to watch "Bluffmaster" sometime back. Its a good movie. I feel that it must have been a copy of an english flick...afterall, Bollywood cannot make good original movies. Abhishek Bachchan has managed to give a decent performance. I liked him better in Yuva in which he had really ACTED. Well tis post is not about that. There's a dialogue in the movie which goes between Abhishek and Priyanka.

Abhishek: Kyaa woh tumhe hasaatha hai? (Does he make you laugh?)
Priyanka: Woh mujhe rulatha nahin hai (He does not make me cry)

Does the english translation strike a bell? Yep, its taken from Ocean's Eleven and specifically from Clooney's and Julia Robert's Conversation. The only difference was that that Clooney and Roberts conversed in English (the same dialogues posted within the brackets above)

Last week, I watched "Dhoom". Rented the DVD to watch Tata Young's song but decided to watch the movie too afterall. Prior to watching this movie, I thought this would be a copy of an American flick too, the flick proved me wrong. Well, tis was not a copy of ANY SINGLE english flick. Surprised, huh? Tis was a copy of several flicks - Fast and Furious, Ocean's Eleven etc.

Hmm...Bollywood cant make original flicks. Occasionally few original flicks do make good business like Main Hoon Na, DDLJ, HAHK but those had good music. Wait a minute...Isn't Main Hoon Na a copy of "Back to School" or an Adam Sandler movie? Hmm...

Today watched Zinda. To be honest I liked the movie but read on Raja Sen's blog sometme back (Raja Sen is a movie critic who writes for rediff.com)that its a copy of OldBoy - a Korean Flick. Raja Sen has posted a link which lead to an interesting short story. Too good...do read it...
The link is
http://www.greatbong.net/2006/02/05/zinda-buddha-beta-old-boy-is-alive/

Catching up with old friends...

It is really nice catching up with old friends. Whether its over phone or in person, the joy is unlimited. One tends to talk about what each of the lot is upto, how the work is going(if studying, how its going, the approaching quarter, when one is expected to graduate, career plans etc), whats up on personal front, topics on wedding, married life etc etc...The list could go on...We also tend to inquire about common friends, what they are upto etc. Its a nice feeling. It makes one so happy when one gets to know that his/her old school/college friend got recently married, has a baby, settled down etc. Whenever I talk to my friends, our conversations typically involve all the above. If its a school friend, the conversation would go back to our pranks on new joinees, school teachers, imitating the teachers, bunking hindi classes to enjoy a snack at the canteen, dancing for "choli ke peeche kya hai" on stage to the embarassment of teachers and fury of the principal. I remember the slogans we used to have too "East or West, Adarsh is the best", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, AV is a Super Star" etc...When I talk to my college friends, we talk about the pranks which our classmates used to play on one another, the comments each of the sexes used to pass at the other, the fights we used to have, the silly jokes we used to laugh at, the "ottals" we used to do, how the boys used to jeer at Maddy movies like Minnale/Alaipayuthey just because of the very fact that gals used to like him.Hmm...

pasumai niraindha ninaivugaLE
paadith thrindha paravaigaLE
pazhagi kaLiththa thozhargaLE
parandhu selginrOm

Captain Padangalukku JJ aappu...

Sarathy showed me a blog http://hotmachihot.blogspot.com/on Indian Politics and Upcoming elections today. It was really funny to read that. Though it was written in tamil, I managed to understand the subtle humour.

We could not help laughing at one line. The blogger had written that he would vote for JJ just for one reason. She would put an end to WORTHLESS AND FUNNY MOVIES like Narasimha, Thavasi, Sudesi :) lol :)ie she would ban such movies which are a nuisance to the public. I could not agree more. There have been instances when TN makkal have had bad dreams after watching Gaptun movies earlier in the day. Couple of them have said that after watching those flicks, they could not distinguish between wild boars/elephants and Gabtun anymore and the Gaptun looked more frightening than the wild animals !!!

JJ vandha, Gaptun kku aappu...

Crap in the name of freedom of speech...

A fellow blogger Deepa http://lordlabak.blogspot.com/2006/04/matrimonial.html had wrote about matrimonial ads sometime back. There was this one particular blogger who posted a comment "Arranged marriage is an euphemism for pimped marriages. Indian parents take great pride in acting as pimps for their kids". I was taken back with such a comment and a few like me lashed out at the comment. It sounded really weird that someone could think and write something like that. When questioned as to what made him write something like that, pat came the answer " freedom of speech, expression, blah, blah".

I remember a scene from movie "The American President" in which Michael Douglas (who acted as President in the flick) while addressing the Press would say that if we say/claim that this country is a liberal country, then we should not condemn a citizen incase the citizen resorts to burning the American Flag. Well, if we draw a parallel between the above two arguments, yes, maybe the guy who wrote these crappy comments can do what he wants afterall thats what Free Speech and Expression is all about. Well, that has been his argument/justification. Our friend seems to be misusing the concept of freedom of speech. Freedom of speech should be used for raising concerns about justifiable causes not for passing rude comments. What he seems to have forgotten that though he may not be punishable by any LAW or something, he falls in the eyes of people. Such fellows would argue that they give a damn about other's opinions and they would like to live life the way they want. What these kinda fellows dont realise is that eventually people would give a DAMN about their comments or give a DAMN about them as they would have already branded him insensitive/rude.

Gone are the days when one is forced to listen to all this crap. Its high time that one gives it back then and there afterall thats what freedom of expression is about, isn't it friends? :) Since couple of us did not like it, we expressed it then.

If one has freedom of speech, the other has freedom of expression too!!!

It intrigues me as to what such a person would do, if someone passes derisive comments at their family, friends etc. There's a saying in tamil "Erumai maadumela saani vizhunda, adhu kandukaadhu". Maybe this person would turn a deaf ear to such comments...

Reservation in IITs/IIMs - A new perspective

Got this as a forward...


ET has opened a debate on "Is Premji right to go against job quotas in Wipro?"
As expected most of the posts agree with him... here is someone who put this in a very different way... :-)

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I think we should have job reservations in all the fields. I completely support the PM and all the politicians for promoting this. Let's start the reservation with our cricket team. We should have 10 percent reservation for Muslims. 30 percent for OBC, SC/ST like that. Cricket rules should be modified accordingly. The boundary circle should be reduced for an SC/ST player. The four hit by an OBC player should be considered as a six and a six hit by a OBC player should be counted as 8 runs. An OBC player scoring 60 runs should be declared as a century.

We should influence ICC and make rules so that the pace bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar should not bowl fast balls to our OBC player. Bowlers should bowl maximum speed of 80 kilometer per hour to an OBC player. Any delivery above this speed should be made illegal.

Also we should have reservation in Olympics. In the 100 meters race, an OBC player should be given a gold medal if he runs 80 meters.

There can be reservation in Government jobs also. Let's recruit SC/ST and OBC pilots for aircrafts which are carrying the ministers and politicians (that can really help the country...)

Ensure that only SC/ST and OBC doctors do the operations for the ministers and other politicians. (Another way of saving the country...)

Let's be creative and think of ways and means to guide INDIA forward...
Let's show the world that INDIA is a GREAT country. Let's be proud of being an INDIAN..

May the good breed of politicians like ARJUN SINGH long live...

Travel Dreams...

There has been a sudden urge in me to visit India on a 2 week spree. Despite the fact that I realise that I cant go now as it would clash with my UCLA classes and exams, I am just not able to resist myself from not thinking about it. My cousin's wedding is around the corner and another cousin's sacred thread ceremony (Upanayanam) gonna happen too. Sarathy had asked me whether I want to visit India for the wedding long back but being the she-indecisive, I had declared that I dont want to go to India especially to chennai during summer...Uff...what arrogance! Anu pooh, pooh!!!

Hmm...enna panradhunnu yosichundrukken! If I have to go then I got to start end of next week. And there are chances that it might clash with the Texas Vacation Sarathy and I are planning to have end of this week...God, help me out. Do some miracle so that when I wake up next saturday morning, I should be in Chennai!!!

Sensitive Me...

I have been feeling restless of late. Something has been seriously troubling me. Oflate I have become very sensitive to comments and criticism (not that I was not before). But earlier, I used to take them in my stride and laugh at those comments too if I had really been funny or stupid. I remember the discussion when couple of my friends at Dell were having about the then impending Good Friday. Without thinking twice and engrossed in sipping the juice, I asked what day of the coming week was Good Friday? Oh boy, how they mocked at me. After that incident, they used to call out to me as Ms Good Friday!

I have always been the one who have argued that joke/comments/constructive criticism should be taken in the right spirit and one should not feel offended by that (Since it came from one of the sensitive sillies in the group, my friends used to say its probably right). These days it has become an altogether different story. I feel that I have become too vulnerable to comments/criticism. While I was in India, I used to take the criticism at work from my team lead/manager, criticism from appa, comments from friends in my stride. Maybe now that I am far away from home and my mom that I sense a feeling of weakness within. Sigh!

Happy New Year...

Back to school

I am back to slogging...The Spring Quarter at UCLA has begun...Hmm...The next 10-12 weeks gonna drive me to nuts...Sigh!

I am a celebrity...

I AM A CELEBRITY...

I want name, I want fame
I cant do without the same
I dont care much about shame
As I know its all a game

I get to attend umpteen parties
And try to show that I am very hearty
I get featured in every page three
With wine in hand to show my spirits are free

I endorse products for a price
Especially if it features me sweet and nice
I try to inaugurate every damn shop in the mall
Knowing people will catch a glimpse of me in the great hall

I make it a point to forget the appointment date
To ensure my delayed arrival makes the function start late
It gives me a chance to show I am under tension
So that it makes people give me a great deal of attention

I shy away from media saying I am in distress
While asking my friend to leak it to the press
I pretend to people that I dont like publicity
While I secretly desire to be forever a celebrity!

What inspired me to write the above poem:-

I am a big fan of the Harry Potter books. I am currently devouring the "The Half Blood Prince" - the sixth book in the series 1-7 and am eagerly awaiting the final and conclusive book which J K Rowling is currently working on. Though I had got the sixth book the week it got released, I postponed reading the same to the Spring Vacation thanks to some pre-course work and my Winter Quarter stint at UCLA.

I was very intrigued by one of the speeches made by one Gilderoy Lockhart (Harry Potter fans would know who he is)He was Harry, Ron and Hermione's Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher in their 2nd year at Hogwarts.

He used to say "A celebrity is what a celebrity does". I realised how true those words were. Unfortunately these days people are considered to be top notch celebrities only if they are seen to be flaunting at parties, giving press meet, drawing unnecessary media attention etc... Well, there are deserving and undeserving celebrities but I guess this world is a mix of good and evil and so our society has a mix of both kinds of celebrities.

PS: The above is still from the talk show "Kahani with Karan" oops "Koffee with Karan"