Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Perhaps the most underrated actor working in Bollywood today... 'nuff said.  It needed to be said.  So there.

Rob Roy, Michael Collins, Qui Gon Jinn, Zeus!

Probably the best thing Liam Neeson has done... at least the funniest.

Watch and weep with amusement!

In The Company of Heroes

I have a Kindle now and I love it.  Best investment I've made since buying gold early last year.  I've already read several books and thanks to the Kindle Owner's Lending Library and Amazon's Daily Deals, I've discovered some great stuff, and also quite a few disappointments.

The Settlers of Catan - seriously, it's a book now!  Rebecca Gable, a German historical writer took the classic board game elements and set it up as the Nordic settlement in Iceland in the 10th century.  As literature it wasn't that great, but I was curious to see how the elements of the game will be woven into the book.  To be honest, it was fairly disappointing.  Not recommended.

Earth Strike: Star Carrier: Book 1 - Famed military sci-fi and space opera writer returns to what made him famous - humans on the brink of obliteration from an all-powerful galactic empire.  This is no Battlestar Gallactica - this is unadulterated space battles with singularity drives and "kinetic-kill" nuclear tipped Krait missle stuff.  Pretty fun stuff, but again, not recommended.

Call for the Dead - John Le Carre - Where it all began, with the introduction of George Smiley - the slovenly looking unassuming spy, whose ex-wife lovingly called him toad becaue he looked like one.  The precursor to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  This is where is starts.  Seems ancient by modern spy standards (What, no GPS tracking devices? It's 1966!)  Brings me back to the classic noir writings of Mickey Spillane and co.  Great stuff if you're interested in clandestine genre.

Finally, In the Company of Heroes - Mike Durant.  Black Hawk Down is one of my favorite war movies of all time.  Nothing else comes close to bringing the science, chaos and horror of modern warfare to cinema and Mike Durant brings alive his tale of being a Somali POW in the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 with amazing candor.  Rivetting read.  I think I'm going to pick up Bowden's Black Hawk Down after I finish this.

What Am I Tripping On Now?

Ok, ever since CJ introduced me to Project Free TV, I've been tripping on NCIS - yes, the TV show.  I was curious.  Why is a crime procedural drama, the most popular prime time TV show in the US.  We have shows that deal with the military (JAG, Combat Hospital), we have shows that deal with forensics (CSI and it's million avatars), we have quirky crime solving team shows (The Mentalist, Castle, Bones), so why is NCIS drawing the crowds?  I've watched six and a half seasons now, and I still can't answer that question.  I just keep watching, though I'm not sure why.  Sure, the plots are relatively mysterious, the forensics are quite hocus-pocus, the characters are endearing and well drawn out, but it's no The Wire, or Battlestar Gallactica, nor is it M*A*S*H.  Yet, I keep watching.  A mystery...

I have, however, discovered an Israeli hip-hop, funk band through NCIS called Hadag Nahash (roughly translates to either The Fish Snake, or A New Direction).  They've been accused of left-leaning politics in their songs (which is true), but they shit out some catchy stuff - much like our "Kolaveri Di" craze.

Check out some of their stuff:

"Shirat Hastikar (The Sticker Song)" - This was written by famed Israeli novelist David Grossman.

"Bella Bellissima" - based on a true story.

And, of course, "Kolaveri Di" - which drove a nation crazy for one fall and produced a dozen offsprings.

I've also been tripping on the writings of A.J. Jacobs - the editor-at-large for Esquire magazine.  I first heard about this fellow when I caught him on a TED talk about the year he spent following every tenant in the Bible.  Since then I've read most of his stuff.  I really identify with his childlike experimental mentality and sense of adventure in writing.  The tendency we have of doing things so that we can write/tell other people about it.  Check out some of his "stunt journalism".  http://www.esquire.com/search/?q=A.J.+Jacobs


New trip: An article by mathematician and teacher Paul Lockhart - "A Mathematician's Lament".  A cry of despair about the way mathematics is taught, and has been taught for the better part of the century - curbing creative instincts and replacing them with rigorous techniques or procedures.  He claims math should be taught as an art, not as a tool for engineers.  While I don't agree with everything he says, I do feel that school curriculum ignores "historical context" and appreciation of mathematics, something, both I, and the author feel very passionate about.  It's a great read:
http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf

Chateau Nicolas Cage, EST. 1964

Welcome to the first installment of "The Fine Wines of Hollywood"

Today we bring you Chateau Nicolas Cage; makers of fine California Reds.

NC has consistently produced some of the best so-bad-it's-awesome wines. The pungency of NC's wines work on multiple levels. On the first swig you're hit with awful, but as you drink deep, you taste the myriad giddy flavors of mind-fuck with an after stink that possesses you and forces you to drink every NC wine, including *shudder* "G-Force".

Perhaps, this vineyard's finest production till date is 2010's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" - light on the mind but very, very heavy on the soul. Although they did not hit the high arse-gravy standards of "TSA", there have been other equally unabashed, unappreciated gems such as 2008's "Bangkok Dangerous", and 2005's "National Treasure".

Of course, one of Chateau NC's crowning achievement was "Knowing" in 2009. When I first drank "Knowing", I thought to myself, "wait a minute, I've tasted this wine before!" - this is the same heart wrenching feeling I had drinking "Next" in 2007! Nick C is the only vinyard I know who's remade his own wine within a year of its release. First they made "Knowing", then they made "Next", or maybe it's the other way around, I can never tell.

2011 promises to be NC's finest vintage yet, although there are rumors of the vineyards impending financial difficulties. Us avid drinkers, who grew up on NC's spew from yesteryear are waiting with bated breath for the two most anticipated releases of the new year - the aptly named "The Season of the Witch", and "Drive Angry 3D" - which is essentially "Ghost Rider" with cars.

A word of caution - NC's wines will get you bat-shit drunk, and you'll love it!

"Udaan"

Great, great movie. Indian indie flicks' finest...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1639426/

I loved the poem in the opening:

"Chhoti-chhoti chhitrayi yaadein
Bichhi hui hain lamhon ki lawn par.
Nange pair unpar chalte-chalte
Itni door chale aaye
Ki ab bhool gaye hain –
Joote kahan utaare the.

Aedi komal thi, jab aaye the.
Thodi si naazuk hai abhi bhi.
Aur nazuk hi rahegi
In khatti-meethi yaadon ki shararat
Jab tak inhe gudgudati rahe.

Sach, bhool gaye hain
Ki joote kahan utaare the.
Par lagta hai,
Ab unki zaroorat nahin."

Maity's Poor Translation:

Bits and pieces of scattered memories
Are laid out on the lawns of moments.
Bare feet, we've walked on them
Today we've come so far,
We don't remember,
Where we took off our shoes.

When we first came, our heels were soft,
Even today they are a little soft
And they will remain soft
As long as our bittersweet memories
Tickle them mischievously.

True, we have forgotten,
Where we took off our shoes,
But, I feel now,
That we don't need them anymore.

Growing Up...

Things that made me grow up...

1. "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" - Salman Rushdie

~ My old English teacher gave me this book for my 13th birthday and I've read it every year since then, each time finding something new to relate to, a joke I had missed, a subtle reference that was too clever previously... a story about family that I appreciated at the times I needed it most.  Above all, it put a smile on my face.

2. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" - Robert M. Pirsig

~ Helped my get over my cynical days... a period where I thought the world owed me happiness, that I was entitled to it simply being alive.  Although this book has nothing to do with Zen and little to do with motorcycles for that matter, it is what got me interested in contemporary Japanese literature.

3. "The Romantics" - Pankaj Mishra

I hated his first book, "Butter Chicken in Ludhiana".  It was a wannabe Khushwant Singh and it failed miserably.  Then I met Pankaj Mishra.  He was roommates with my old literature teacher at JNU and I saw a lot of myself in his experiences.  So I gave his second novel a shot and I felt I shed a lifetime of naivete.  No one I have recommended the book to has ever loved it, perhaps you wont too, but to me it was a watershed moment.  My autographed copy of the book was stolen on a train in 2007... I haven't read it since then, but its lessons are etched in where they matter.

4. "The Catcher in the Rye" - J.D. Salinger

~ Perhaps the most famous coming of age story.  I never understood it the first time I read it in high school, perhaps in A form.  But now when I see it on my book shelf, much thumbed and dog eared, it reminds me of an old friend who is always there with a warm hug and sage advice... I don't need to read it again.  It taught me it's okay not to know what to do and to be scared.  That's more than I could ask for.

5. The Poems of Pablo Neruda

~ What can I say, the man understood love and socks.

6. "Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids" - Oe Kenzaburo

~ Scared me.  Put my world in perspective.  Made me realize how often humanity is missing from humans, yet how quickly we learn to laugh and love again; and how much brighter little specks of happiness shine the darker the backdrop.  Oe wrote this at my age... how little I understand.  Can the fear of impending destruction be made poetic?  Can violence be poetic?  Sadat Hasan Manto did so with "Black Margins"... now Oe has done so with this.

7. "In My Life" - The Beatles

~ My favorite Beatles song that was the soundtrack of my life during the cold walks across the Thames from Bankside to LSE.

8. "Big Fish" - Dir. Tim Burton

~ When this movie came out Nikhat Kazmi wrote R.I.P Tim Burton in her review for the film.  I have never trusted reviews since then.  I watched this film on my own in an empty theater in Satyam in Delhi at 10 am during the middle of Jan tests at Stephens'.  The film made me appreciate stories and the joy of hearing and sharing stories.  It made me want to tell stories, to make people laugh at the oddities of life, to weave together the real with the fantastic, to pay attention to the details, to fill in the gaps with tall tales...

9. "Ikiru" - Dir. Akira Kurosawa
~ (trans. "To Live")  This lesser known movie by Kurosawa is perhaps one of his best, I mean apart from "Rashomon" of course, but "Rashomon" did not shake my understanding of life like "Ikiru" did.  I watched this movie when I was reading Leo Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Illych" for Professor Ceballes' Philosophy 115 class at Hamilton and I remember my paper on "Death" got an A+... it was all raw emotion evoked by "Ikiru".

(To be continued...)

"Where There Is Faith, There Is No Fear!"

These words have been immortalized in the annals of movie lore as the tag line of perhaps the most monumental movie of our times, "Aap Ka Suroor".

Regular Karma

Yesterday sucked.

I first found out that my planned trip to Spain, Portugal and Morocco were down the drain, because the earliest visa appointment date I could get was the 16th of April, when my trip was actually supposed to end. Not to mention I'm going to lose all my flight bookings... now there's a hundred quid well spent. And it was Holy Week too... For the first time I realised how much it sucked to have an Indian passport.

Later in the evening my friend called and since she too was depressed for her own reasons, we decided to watch a movie to cheer up... and I got ice-cream too!

"The Last King of Scotland" is undoubtedly one of the best "historical" movie I've seen since "Motorcycle Diaries". Forest Whitaker was brilliantly gruesome as Idi Amin. True, one might draw parallels to "Hotel Rwanda", but it's still a bloody good movie. Watch it. The movie was great but it was as much fun as playing with asbestos and did nothing to improve my mood.

Being a student of economics I'm waiting for the trade-off for my run of shit luck.

For The Mother's Pride

It seems like I am the only remnant active member of this blog, but no matter, I shall continue to spew my genius on this site, albeit seldom. This sudden surge was sparked off by certain events: the new Hritik Roshan ad "Cock uthale, dhoom machale", sequel to the disastrous "Find me with cock", in the early 00s; the death of one of the legends of the animation industry, Joseph Barbera; the entire Mamta Banderjee-Singur-Tata episode etcetra etcetra. Not to mention India's first man and lady, the cute couple of Laloo and Rabri are off the hook after swindling the government of $2.8m. And what's the buzz about these days? Abhishek Bacchan angry about Hritik kissing Ash in Dhoom 2, now ain't that fitting. It seems like India has finally realized that sex sells. By the way, the new Motorolla flip phone ad has to be one of the best ads I've seen in recent times.

Well on a brighter note at least the Jessica Lall murder case is over with... yeah take that Ram Jethmalani! The Indian cricket team cruise to a 123 run win over the Proteus claiming our first win in South Africa... I didn't really care, watching Sreesanth dancing after hitting Nel for a six was worth my time. And the dada is back, silencing his critics with a gritty half century. Of course as one bong rises, another must fall, so we bid adieu to Jagmohan Dalmia. Of course, things haven't been so peachy for the Indian Hockey Team failing miserably at the Asian Games in Doha this year, looks like Gagan Ajeet Singh's two cell phone strategy wasn't so bright after all. By the way, anyone seen the video of "One Love" from the movie "Rakht" with Little B and Bips, good god, I don't know what to make of it - "...for the mother's pride"?. Brilliant like Guinness!

Oh, for the non-believers (read: Jae and Pragyan), the Kolkata Tornadoes were kicking ass in the IFA Shield till they were beaten by some second rate Chinese Club called Shenzen in a freak match... well sometimes the best can falter. The Deep Purple performance in Bangalore was great, but these guys look so old, none of that old spark that rock bands of the 70s had. I was afraid someone was going to have a heart attack on stage. These guys looked so fragile.

And the Buddhist chanting fad, wonder how long that will last? Yoga shoga, even pilates was fine, but Buddhist chanting, really? We only pick that up once the west has huh, just like everything else. Seriously, it's high-time we got over our inferiority complex and our post-colonial hangover.

This evening I went shopping in my local market. Apparently the police is going to demolish the entire joint and is moving everyone to a newly made concrete fish market. While I understand that this is probably a good thing in terms of hygiene and all those things we care about, I'm really going to miss tip-toeing my way through the various vendors, dodging the odd cart and coolie carrying a jhori of chicken. Who knows, in a few years this is probably going to be replaced by a Wal-Mart and Tesco - they've already started making cracks in the Indian grocery market scene. Woe the day when even in Kolkata, full blooded bongs will have to buy packaged fish. Heresy I say.

And then there was the trip to Amsterdam. The Last Samurai and other friends with Nepal and bright Northern Lights. For those who want to know, Absinth tastes like Pastis, not cool at all. Before I leave, I have to recount a rather interesting story. Another little adventure that took place on the eve of my departure from London.

A couple of nights before I left for Kolkata, I went to watch "The Woman in Black" with Elena. The play was excellent, although there were a bunch of school girls in the theater screaming at random moments... bimbos. Anyway, after the play I went to Elena's place and chilled over some wine and cheese. By the time I left it was rather late and the tube was no longer running. I asked Elena for directions and tried to navigate my way back to my part of town but got hopelessly lost. I asked a rickshaw-walla for directions but he just pointed me in the wrong direction... diplodocus. For a while I was worried, then I said, oh fuck it and just walked around...

So I was wandering about the streets of north London (Grover St. et al) when I met this really drunk girl at a bus station who claimed she knew the way to Kingsway and since she was in a good mood, she would show me the way. At first I insisted she just show me the way but she would not be swayed, so we went walking, singing (nah we didn't sing) and enjoying the night air although I was aware I'm supposed to talk to strangers. I wasn't even sure we were walking in the right direction. I don't think she knew which direction we were walking in at all.

Suddenly she says that she needs to pee. At my wits end I say ok there's a phone booth, use that I'll keep watch. She does that but then as she walks out of the booth she passes out. Now I don't know her name or where she lives. I only gather she's from UCL from her chic hat. so I try to slap her awake. Hey, wakey, wakey. A brown guy slapping a white woman in the middle of the night in a deserted street...something's gotta give.

Along comes a cop car. I shuddered. It was "thank you god" moment along with "I hope they don't shoot me" kind. Lucky for me they understood what was going on. Apparently there are a lot of drunk students scattered about London on a given Thursday night. They checked her creds and mine and gave us both a ride to our respective dorms. An interesting turn of events. A normal 40 minute walk turned into a 3 hour odyssey. I ended up reaching home at 4:30 or thereabouts.

Hope this keeps you all occupied for a while.

The World’s Worst Job

Playing an unnamed goon in a John Woo Hong Kong action flick has to be the worst job in the world. You have to wear a suit to work, the pay is terrible, no health benefits, and no pension plan - otherwise, I Bankers would be running to John Woo for a job, those blood suckers will do anything for a quick buck (and a chance to wear a suit). And things are not made any easier when Chow Yun-Fat never has to reload his gun and can use a 12 guage shotgun with surgical precision. I guess the only upside is that laundry costs are not too high since goons die off one shot to any part of the body.

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if Rajnikanth, Chuck Norris, and Chow Yun-Fat faced off – end of the world? Do goons have nightmares about these people? Do they check for Van Damme under the bed when they go to bed at night? Questions such as these have kept me up since I watched The Killer, Hard Boiled, God of Gamblers, and the A Better Tomorrow trilogies.

Moreover, how does one become a goon? Do you just walk into a Triad office and hand in your resume? Do you need job experience or a degree from MSG [1]? After all for most of these goons, it looks like this is the first time they have held a gun/driven a motorbike/car/helicopter/tricycle/auto etc. Seriously, I cannot think of anything worse than being a goon in a John Woo movie, except for maybe lawyers (no offence Nisha).

[1] MSG: Ming School of Goons, Hong Kong – the main bad guys usually graduates of this place.

"Only God Knows Everything, And He Works For Mossad"

Continuing with my absolute lack of motivation to do some serious work, I've been watching a lot of movies lately.

I really didn't want to post anything, I just found the title funny, and after watching "Raid on Entebbe" quite true. (Albeit, the Entebbe rescue operation was conducted by Aman and the Sayeret Matkal, you know what I mean.)

In preparation for the release of Clerks II, I sat and watched the entire Kevin Smith collection in chronological order: "Clerks", "Mallrats", "Chasing Amy", "Dogma" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back". All of these are nerd movies. Not the "Revenge of the Nerds" kind of nerd movie, but more like "Real Genius" type. The movies are littered with "Star Wars", "Jaws", John Hughes' movies and comic book references, not to mention references to the other movies in the Smith collection.

I can't stand these yuppy joints. Some bozo went through the bathroom correcting all the grammar in the graffiti with a red pen.

The title of this post is a passing quote from the movie "The Constant Gardener". Nothing more to say at the moment.

Have An Adequate Day

This semester I was hit with the Marx Brothers fever, but this is not about that. This weekend amidst World Cup fever, Ntokozo's birthday and a good-bye party for Claire, I went to New York City to bid adieu to Shraddha.

I had a chance to visit the 24/7 underground Apple store on 58th Street. Fondly known as "The Cube", this is a Mac-paradise, a real fun place.

On the walk back to Shraddha's appartment, we saw 2 Ferrari F430s, a Mercedes SL500, a Bentley Continental, an Aston Martin Vanquish, and a Porsche 911GT in that order in a span of five minutes. A Lambourghini would have wrapped up the day nicely.

I've been trying to catch up on my reading for the past couple of weeks. So far I've re-read The Chronicles of Narnia, a lot of Feynman, Brave New World and am presently cruising along an annotated version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I also have American Bartending on the side (thanks Shraddha!).

As for the World Cup, so far there hasn't been anything of note, except for the last three Australian goals against Japan in the last eight minutes...

Dattebayo!

Recently an old friend from high school who was recently accepted to University of Southern California told me that he was getting interested in anime. To save him from bad anime, and generally to give a brief overview of the industry, here is my anime special:

Anime specifically refers to Japanese animation, a booming multi billion dollar industry in Japan that markets all over the world, with France and the United States as two of the largest external consumers. Animated movies like Shrek and Ice Age are not considered anime since they are created by Pixar and DreamWorks, which are US studios.

Anime falls into various categories like shounen, which literaly translates to "for boys", involving big explosions, mecha and action. Seinen is a more mature genre dealing with psychological and sophisticated plots aimed at the college market. There's shoujo, anime aimed at girls with plenty of cutely drawn characters. Kodomo targets little kids - Pokemon and other crap would fall into this category. And lastly there's hentai which is pretty much animated pornography. No offense meant, but the Japanese are crazy people. For a country with the lowest sex rate in the world, they sure produce a lot of perversive material, and it's not just with anime...

Anime is also not to be confused with Manga which is a black and white Japanese comic book. Manga is extremely popular in Japan and for some reason, France. In Japan it's not surprising to find forty-year old businessmen in suits reading manga on the subway. There's manga for everyone, from housewives to ninjas, they cover and extremely diverse range. In fact, most anime are actually based on pre-existing manga and more often than not, the quality of the manga is considerably better. Example: The famous Dragonball series was based of manga, however, unlike the manga where the plot is pacy and bold (blood and language), the anime converted each chapter into five episodes, slowing down the plot so much that it almost felt as if the characters were staring at each other for whole episodes.

So for those interested here is my top picks in the anime and manga industry:

Ghost in the Shell
First released in 1995, the movie based on Shirow Masamune's manga was a psychological thriller set in the near future where the line between man and machine has been blurred and ergonomics has taken on a completely new definition. The Wachowski Brothers admitted that the Matrix was heavily influenced by this movie and asked the creators, Production I.G. Studios, to make the Animatrix. The movie spawned an excellent television series in 2003, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. With superb music by the legendary Yoko Kanno, this is perhaps the best animated series in the market. The show ran an even better second season and is now planning a third season to be relesed in 2007. The movie too had a sequel in 2005, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence which shames the animation quality of every other anime, including Final Fantasy: Advent Children.

Cowboy Bebop
An American favourite, Cowboy Bebop follows the tale of two space age bounty hunters each with a shady past and their attempts to correct their wrongs. With plenty of humor and action based on Bruce Lee's Jeet Kun Do and John Woo style gun play and a riveting plot this is a really entertaining watch. Once again Yoko Kanno delivers excellent music. The movie Cowboy Bebop: Knocking on Heaven's Door is also worth a watch but not noteworthy.
Naruto
Heir to the Dragonball franchise, Naruto is now a 200 odd episode series based off the manga by the same name. Popular is an understatement, creater Masashi Kishimoto is now the third highest tax payer in Japan! Unlike DB, Naruto is racy, funny, smart and of all things holistic. It's a ninja version of Aesop's Tales. The music, ninja fight sequences and exceptionally good character development makes this show addictive. My friend here at Hamilton watched 98 episodes during exam week because he just had to find out how it was going to end, because unlike DB where the good guys always win, Naruto is unpredictable.

Bleach
Based on the manga by Kubo Tite, like Naruto, Bleach is another hevy weight in the marathon anime industry. Bleach deals with Shinigami, a class of spirits responsible for destroying evil spirits called Hollows and maintaining order in the spirit world. With brilliant plot twists this anime is always surprising you. Presently running at 80 odd episodes, this one promises to be a long runner.

Neon Genesis Evangalion
Although not my personal favorite, this show has far too many loyal fans to be ignored. I describe it as "giant robots and angsty teenagers" but that's just me. I asked my sophomore year roommate Alex Stamoulis, a hardcore Eva fan to write up a brief review:
"Evangelion was a transcendental anime in a variety of ways. It helped introduce and popularize the concept of an imperfect hero in the mecha genre previously dominated by macho protagonists as three-dimensional as cardboard cut-outs. Eva's characters are troubled, imperfected and often hide deep psychological issues. Adding giant bio-mechanical mecha and monstronsities titled 'Angels' to the mix only serve to make Evangelion's appeal even greater. Produced in 1995-6 by a director who was clinically depressed and off his meds, Evangelion and it's two films, "Death and Rebirth" and "End of Evangelion" has become an icon in the Anime community. Also Rei Ayanami is hot.
Fanboys agree."

Other notable mentions are Samurai Champloo, Full Metal Alchemist, Rouruni Kenshin, Trigun, Spiral and Hellsing. Among others, Ninja Scroll, Akira, Princess Mononoke are classic animated movies and Miyazaki's Spirited Away is the only anime to have won an Academy Award.

I feel like a geek...

Playing Footsie

I’m always up for a good old revolution but what’s happening back home is a sitcom like Curb Your Enthusiasm. Everyday I keep getting these emails, some from Tawakley, some from others with subjects like: Rang De Basanti in Delhi and I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Che Guevara had the internet… Call me cynical, but isn’t everyone just playing footsie?

I read some of the comments on the articles about the strike. I quote one here. I do not understand what it means.

“Hi, SC Judges,
R U afraid of reserved category doctors? They are also working and ask patients to go to them. Perhaps they will treat the patients Oops i...hope. I Feel SC Judges R very much afraid of reseved category doctors as they would have passed out with 35% marks. Why do u need only the merit students for treating the patients. What a shame?” [sic.]

I thought the Supreme Court gave the striking doctors and students an ultimatum to end the strike, so what is this dude (fireworks was his call sign) complaining about?

But enough of that what else is happening? George Bush plans to kick out the illegal immigrants for singing the Star Spangled Banner in Spanish. Saddam defense claims that the prosecutions arguments are built on bribes and that the many accused are still alive. Pranab and Wen hit it off at the India-China Friendship Year celebrations. EU contemplates listing the LTTE as a terrorist organization.

Hollywood is making a remake of Munnabhai MBBS with Chris Tucker. Fine. Cannes awards Best Actress to the entire cast of Volver. Good. Then Monica Belluci is cast to play Sonia Gandhi in a movie! WTF?

Mac, Windows and Intel – The Devil’s marriage. Google buys Facebook for $2.1bn now Microsoft wants to buy eBay. Bacchan buys a pair of shades for $6000 in NYC. All this money in the air makes me feel rich, and then I find out oil prices have reached $70 a barrel…

On another note, I watched X-Men 3: The Last Stand this weekend and I’m not surprised that I came out of the theatre disappointed.

“If we’re such a blessed country, why did god put all our oil under the people who hate us the most?” Jon Stewart, The Daily Show.

"Wandafuru Raifu"

I don't mean to be airy, but once in a while something happens that makes you rethink, for a lack of a better word, life. For instance, the day before yesterday, I had an amazing dream and in a long, long time I woke uo feeling really, really happy.

Like the movie says, if there was only one memory that you could take with you, what would that be?

Because It's Overcrowded...

Question:
The average life expectancy in India is 62 years, the average life expectancy in Sweeden is 79 years. So if a person moves from India to Sweeden is he expected to live longer?

Favourite answer:
Yes, he would live longer, considering India is really overcrowded and there is not enough fresh air for everyone, so people die faster.

Now, this would have been a perfectly laughable answer if the student was in grade school, unfortunately this answer was one of the gems I discovered while grading Intro. to Macroeconomics papers at college. That scares me to a certain extent.

I love grading papers, regular source of entertainment!

On another note, I was accepted to the London School of Economics, so I'll be in London next year studying Operations Research, Game Theory, International and Developmental Economics. I'm still waiting to hear from Oxford, but I think I'll go to LSE anyway.

As some of you know, I was accepted into a fellowship program offered by Wharton, Fletcher, Sloan, Columbia, Tuck, Yale and NYU... basically all the big business schools in the Greater New York-Massachusetts region, so I've been traveling quite frequently to attend seminars and work on presentations and case-studies. I was at Wharton last week, and I felt really stupid there. This was the first time all 120 fellows from all across the country (and one student from LSE) were together. Most of these kids were from big name schools and no one had even heard of Hamilton, except this one girl, Jee. The following is the transcript of our converstation:

Jee: So where are you from?
Maity: Hamilton College, you've probably never heard of it's in upstate New York...
Jee: No, I know where Hamilton is. I applied there and didn't get in.
Maity: Really?
Jee: ...yeah...
Maity: YES!!! (aside: finally...)
Jee: Sorry?
Maity: No, nothing. So which school do you go to now?
Jee: Bryn Mawr.

Apart from that I met kids who have been running their own businesses since they were 19. Some NGOs, some own their own clothing line. One kid had a thriving Socially Responsible Company called, damn I forget the name, running in 27 different countries, including India, selling reading glasses...bottomline, most of these kids are really, really smart. Take my case study group for instance: Three girls from Columbia, one from Harvard, one guy from Duke and our team mentor is a manager of SRI at Citibank. Needless to say they're really hardcore about all this and that just cramps my style...

On the upside, I met a bunch of people who were also accepted to LSE, so I'll know some people beforehand, hehehehe. The fellows were given accomodation at the Philadelphia Marriott, unforunately I got kicked out of the hotel for all the wrong reasons on the second day, but that's a different story. On another note, a huge, African-American hooligan (must have been at least 200 kgs!), stole my burger at the bus station at 5 in the morning. That too is another story.

An interesting thing about my fellows were that although most of these kids are highly accomplished and very very smart, they're very keen on NGOs, CSR and SRIs which makes me feel good...

College has been rough. There's always work to be done, grade this, grade that, exams, tests, lab reports, research, editing my professor's book on Financial Market Theory, tax returns, organizing events as social/cultural chair of Asian Cultural Society...the list just goes on.

Speaking of which, ACS celebrated the Lunar New Year last night, slightly belated, but it was great. We had a professional lion dance troop come and perform, there was a martial arts demonstration and of course good ol' Chinese food.

This weekend is going to be rough too, it's becoming a habit now. I still need to find a job for the summer...time is running out and then there is abstract algebra homework to finish.

I need to takesome time off and went frolicking in the Adirondacks, a local mountain range and an awesome hiking trail, just the stress buster I need... I'm way behind on my work.

Sayonara.

PS: If you haven't already seen them, I thoroughly recommend "Munich", "Good Luck and Good Night", "Why We Fight" and "Thank You For Smoking". I'm planning to catch Rang De Basanti in New Jersey when I go to Columbia next weekend.

Russian Roulette

I think it's a fascinating phrase. Just like that. For some reason, however, I don't think it's exactly fair to the Russians either. Why are they always the bad guys. Even in non-political movies like Ronin, the Russians have to mess things up. And if the Russians are as bad as Russian Roulette suggests, why the hell don't they ever win? It's almost as irritating as those new "Pay Your Sales Tax" ads on TV.

The Indian government's come up with a brilliant strategy, shame parents into paying tax by targetting kids through television ads and asking them to ask their parents if they pay taxes. So, what. I can see some little maaru kid [no offense to maarus, just an example] going to his dad and saying "papa, papa, you always say honesty is the best policy, so why are you not paying the government tax? who will make the roads and bridges papa?" and the dad says "ye sab phokat me ata hai popat!" ["it's all for free silly parrot"]... A real brainstorm the Indian government has hit upon, sheer genius!

Ping Pong. The Japs actually made a movie on ping-pong. Well, it’s actually not that surprising considering they also made a very famous movie on noodles, or ramen as they call it. It wasn’t a bad movie actually. Not a typical sports movie. The end especially is particularly really well done. The movie builds in such a way that in the end, the ending becomes irrelevant. With beautiful hyperboles and smart ass dialogues and wickedly crazy characters this movie was a great watch. I wonder if they’ll ever make a movie like this on the Indian cricket team. God knows, with this entire Raj Singh Dungarpur and Saurav Ganguly episode, Indian cricket has become a freaking soap opera complete with the saas, bahu characters! I’ll leave you to decide who’s who.

I was watching Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal about a week ago. Typical Tom Hanks feel good movie, but there were some very funny subtleties thrown in there. The last line of the movie is particularly memorable. Tom Hanks gets into a cab outside JFK airport and asks the driver to take him to downtown NYC. The driver asks Hanks where he’s from and Hanks says “Krakotzia”. The driver smiles and says “Ah, Krakotzia, I’m from Albania”. So Hanks asks him, “So when did you get here?” The driver thinks for a while and then says, “Umm…Tuesday.”

If At First You Fail, Destroy All Evidence You Tried

Friday. Diwali was successful. People enjoyed the skit. People enjoyed the dance performances. In general people had fun. I had fun too. I deserved it... the rest of the week had been super stressful. As Christina said, my procrastination curve had peaked on Friday and exploded later that evening - with a plastic katana et al.
Priya said that it was a proven fact that hangovers enhance sporting performances. She was wrong. The next morning on Saturday, I lost both my matches to mediocre players at an inter-college table-tennis tournament.
The rest of Saturday, however, progressed rather well. After a long time James and I spent some time cleaning the brain and playing chess, lazing in his suite listening to Talking Heads and Tom Waits and later admiring natural fractals on our monumental expedition to the observatory.
Feeling rather energetic, I borrowed James' iPod and went for a long walk with 'Light My Fire', 'Heard it Through the Grapevine' and 'Crosseyed and Painless' on repeat. Dropped into a random freshman's room and 'borrowed' a can of beef ravioli and chilli noodles. I decided to stop by Pragyan's room and pick up my chocolate brownie fudge ice-cream which had been lying in his fridge for days now... Unfortunately someone had neglected to turn the fridge on, so I found my beloved iced with a crust of fungi.
Dejected, I decided to eat at the diner... the rest of the evening is slightly hazy, except that the three above mentioned songs had been looping in my ears and head for the past few hours. We played hangman in the diner for an uncomfortable length of time. I was pissed I couldn't guess Judge Dredd.
Fearing that the stale warm convection currents of the radiators were messing with my head, I convinced a motley crew of friends and acquaintences to join me for a walk to the dark netherlands of Rogers' Estate, entertaining them with horror stories of naked, psycotic serial killers.
I discovered I'm not the only insane movie buff and that there are people who've probably seen many more movies than me (read: Aglae and Elena), but it's always nice to discuss obscure Chinese and Korean movies with people.
Tired from the day's hurricane, I declined to participate in any further activity and retire. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. At some inhuman hour an irritating buzz fills my head. It was my phone, not Alex. Don't know which is the lesser evil. Amit says that they (rest of the motley crew) had managed to lock their keys inside the car. If it was a 1985 Maruti Suzuki 800, I would understand how that could happen. But armed with an state of the art automatic, I imagine it would take some skill to find yourself in that situation. Unable to process their request to give them a five minute crash course on how to pick car locks over the telephone, I fell back asleep and had a lovely dream where the Maity name was no longer associated with delinquency. At four thirty in the morning the buzz returned. This time I hoped it was Alex passing gas in his machine gun manner, but it was the phone again.
A very incoherent voice was saying that they had been kidnapped by the Slovakian mafia and were being carted off to Sylvan Beach to be sold as pets to rich Arabian sheiks. My first thought was that the Slovakian mafia was very inefficient. How can you kidnap someone and not pat them down and take their cell phones away... albeit T-Mobile never works anywhere, but someone could have had a Verizon...
Shraddha was freaking out on the phone. I kept mumbling non-commital responses. The phone makes its round around the motley crew. I hear crackling background laughter and a few what the fucks. I almost fall back asleep before someone talks to me again. I think it was either Pragyan or Amit, perhaps it was both, or maybe they are the same person, or perhaps I imagined it all, I am not sure, but someone spoke to me and said that they were fine and that they were driving back to college and started laughing with a hic. I assumed that the coversation was over and fell back asleep. The next morning my neck was sore as I had slept on the phone.
I need a holiday.

Backstroke of the West

Funnier than flushing Pickachu down the toilet in an aeroplane...

http://www.winterson.com.nyud.net:8090/2005/06/episode-iii-backstroke-of-west.html