After some deliberation, I decided to watch Wake up Sid the past weekend. What follows is basically my reasons to why I fell asleep watching the movie and considered my Saturday afternoon a criminal waste!
Firstly, the plot, or well…what to say, the incident/the happening…coz, I couldn’t see any plot, whatsoever it may be!
Ok, it’s the story of this stinkingly rich and spoilt brat, Sid, who flunks his graduation, but still manages to continue his exceptionally rich lifestyle, and in the end even manages to ‘win’ an independent, self-made woman’s heart! That’s all it is to the movie! He having his heart broken because of flunking his exams, walking out of his home and straight into another, and then finding a job are all merely fillers!
This movie is solely for those people who go/went to college driving their own cars, start/ed boozing in swanky pubs even before the legally permissible age, wear/wore branded clothes, and shop/shopped by using credit cards that don’t have any spending limit! Even today, I am unable to afford this lifestyle despite being a corporate employee, and it’s several years since I passed out of college! I am now genuinely interested to know how many young people in India go to the college like this! Just a word for Karan Johar: the majority of college going students use government concessions and take the public transport, wear ordinary clothes (and they don’t own anything more that 5 to 10 pairs of clothes, and mind you they are hardly branded!), and don’t simply walk out of their homes!
Then, the woman, who travels all the way from Calcutta to make her own destiny, who does nothing big than find a flat, get a job, and fall in love with a rich guy! And that’s her definition of liberation/independence and perhaps Karan Johar’s ode to feminism (sic!)
What is it in this movie that makes the young people of this country go gaga over it? There are orkut scraps that say this movie is best, best and bestest! sigh, sigh, sigh! Does everyone want to ape the lifestyle of the protogonist of this movie? How vacuous and silly is this generation then? What can one expect from this crowd then? It's a quite a sinister trend for the young people to like movies as this and even A Wednesday!
I dunno from which angle I should trash this movie…the flat plot, lack of characterization, silly pace, or the utter ignorance of the reality of this country? The movie failed, failed, and failed to entertain, make one think, or even live up to the money we paid for the tickets!
Ps: Sorry folks, it’s not a review review, just an outpouring of my messed mind, thanks to the 2.5 hours spent inside a movie hall watching (actually sleeping) Wake up Sid!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Memories
Like the last few labored breaths
Of a dying flower
Whose scent may travel far
With the wind
Comes to me the scent
Of your last words
As they resound in the
The fine sands of history
Of a dying flower
Whose scent may travel far
With the wind
Comes to me the scent
Of your last words
As they resound in the
The fine sands of history
Thursday, October 15, 2009
This too shall pass
As the dark clouds gather
Amidst a bright day
Dispelling the crude reality of life
Quenching the incessant thirst
For a while
And pass on
Like it never was
As the weeds that grow
Over a freshly made grave
Lush, green, and new
Flowering on the death beneath
Few more days
It shall be no more
Like the heart that burns underneath
Amidst a bright day
Dispelling the crude reality of life
Quenching the incessant thirst
For a while
And pass on
Like it never was
As the weeds that grow
Over a freshly made grave
Lush, green, and new
Flowering on the death beneath
Few more days
It shall be no more
Like the heart that burns underneath
Saturday, October 10, 2009
A date with…
Since my boss at home (a.k.a sister) and a friend had ordered me to make a mutton biriyani, I thought it was important to juggle some office work and be back home on time with mutton in hand! So, yesterday, my plan was to take one of the long-distance buses to Koyambedu (which is as close a bus can reach me to my house), do some inane things around, and take an auto to the nearest meat shops (which are like 4-5 km away!) So much for my planning! But, the evening had completely other things in store! Now, don’t imagine anything interesting or romantic; those are only in the storybooks we stole and read at school (the title deliberately misleads)!
Now, back to my evening date. First, the buses…they were late; I use the plural pronoun because these buses come in bunches of 3 or 4, and then, there’s none for at least 30 minutes, which are really precious moments when you are working under a biriyani deadline! Anyway, a video coach arrived, and I tried to will myself to watch some nondescript old Tamil movies, none of which were least bit soft on the ears! As if that wasn’t enough to irritate me, a tall, dark, handsome, (sic!) 40-something tried a couple of romantic nudges only to be gawked at by a daggers-drawn-self-defense-trained tigress (and, that’s me!).
Then, it was time to be unceremoniously herded and dumped at the Koyambedu bus stop! So, time to do the inane things (what are those? Content suppressed!)! There, I try to pay my bill, but my always-loyal debit card behaves badly! So, paying off with the last penny in hand, I trudge to the nearest mutton shop to check if they have any mutton; and as expected, no mutton! Then, started the ordeal of finding an ATM! The first one identified me by name (usually, they don’t, and I tell myself that since my account is still in Delhi…some tech problem, but I was surprised by this one!), but declined to part with any money only to me! And, again, another irritant in the ATM is almost volunteering to give cash, just because one’s alone and is female (Grr! I could have killed him, but just carried on!).
And, the traffic had to also put in its bit; it jammed for a good 20 minutes, which were punctuated by calls from the boss! Finally, found my own bank’s ATMs, which were all uniformly out of service! Even then, my brain didn’t tick that it may not be my account’s problem, but the bank’s, and have saved myself some angst about technology being a conspiracy against me and funnel out all my hard-earned money from my account!
To cut a long story short, I reached home penniless and mutton-less and had to borrow money even to pay the auto! As if this wasn’t enough, a friend tries to be funny and smses, great! Now you can save money! And when I don’t reply, he gets more ‘funny’ and says, it’s not a savings account, but a forced savings account, hahaha!
Now, aren’t you guys jealous of my life?????????
Now, for those you, more interested in whatever happened to the biriyani, yes! It was made this morning. Here’s the recipe for the cooking-inclined and some pics for the graphics-inclined.
Ingredients
1 kg mutton and Basmati rice
150 gm ginger garlic paste
50 gm curd
1 bunch of mint
2 tablespoons chilli powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 green chillies
½ kg onions
250 gm tomatoes
Method
Marinate the mutton with some curd, ginger garlic paste (only a bit), tumeric, salt, and couple of green chillies. Leave it aside
Put the cooker on your stove and fry onions followed by ginger garlic paste and mint leaves. When the flavors are released, dunk the mutton with the remaining chilli powder and fry a little before you shut the cooker for 1 whistle. Then, open the cooker, put in the tomatoes and pour adequate water (if you take about 4 cups of rice, use about 6.5 cups of water) and check the salt (it must tasty salty). Then, put in the washed rice and shut the cooker. Keep it on high fire for 5 minutes and in sim for 5 minutes.
This is how it should appear when you open the cooker after 15-20 minutes.
Now, back to my evening date. First, the buses…they were late; I use the plural pronoun because these buses come in bunches of 3 or 4, and then, there’s none for at least 30 minutes, which are really precious moments when you are working under a biriyani deadline! Anyway, a video coach arrived, and I tried to will myself to watch some nondescript old Tamil movies, none of which were least bit soft on the ears! As if that wasn’t enough to irritate me, a tall, dark, handsome, (sic!) 40-something tried a couple of romantic nudges only to be gawked at by a daggers-drawn-self-defense-trained tigress (and, that’s me!).
Then, it was time to be unceremoniously herded and dumped at the Koyambedu bus stop! So, time to do the inane things (what are those? Content suppressed!)! There, I try to pay my bill, but my always-loyal debit card behaves badly! So, paying off with the last penny in hand, I trudge to the nearest mutton shop to check if they have any mutton; and as expected, no mutton! Then, started the ordeal of finding an ATM! The first one identified me by name (usually, they don’t, and I tell myself that since my account is still in Delhi…some tech problem, but I was surprised by this one!), but declined to part with any money only to me! And, again, another irritant in the ATM is almost volunteering to give cash, just because one’s alone and is female (Grr! I could have killed him, but just carried on!).
And, the traffic had to also put in its bit; it jammed for a good 20 minutes, which were punctuated by calls from the boss! Finally, found my own bank’s ATMs, which were all uniformly out of service! Even then, my brain didn’t tick that it may not be my account’s problem, but the bank’s, and have saved myself some angst about technology being a conspiracy against me and funnel out all my hard-earned money from my account!
To cut a long story short, I reached home penniless and mutton-less and had to borrow money even to pay the auto! As if this wasn’t enough, a friend tries to be funny and smses, great! Now you can save money! And when I don’t reply, he gets more ‘funny’ and says, it’s not a savings account, but a forced savings account, hahaha!
Now, aren’t you guys jealous of my life?????????
Now, for those you, more interested in whatever happened to the biriyani, yes! It was made this morning. Here’s the recipe for the cooking-inclined and some pics for the graphics-inclined.
Ingredients
1 kg mutton and Basmati rice
150 gm ginger garlic paste
50 gm curd
1 bunch of mint
2 tablespoons chilli powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 green chillies
½ kg onions
250 gm tomatoes
Method
Marinate the mutton with some curd, ginger garlic paste (only a bit), tumeric, salt, and couple of green chillies. Leave it aside
Put the cooker on your stove and fry onions followed by ginger garlic paste and mint leaves. When the flavors are released, dunk the mutton with the remaining chilli powder and fry a little before you shut the cooker for 1 whistle. Then, open the cooker, put in the tomatoes and pour adequate water (if you take about 4 cups of rice, use about 6.5 cups of water) and check the salt (it must tasty salty). Then, put in the washed rice and shut the cooker. Keep it on high fire for 5 minutes and in sim for 5 minutes.
This is how it should appear when you open the cooker after 15-20 minutes.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
A Response to the Times (Now)!
Yesterday, I had the misfortune of tuning into TimesNow, which I believe is definitely sponsored by some right-wing, casteistic, anti-people, anti-woman party. It’s one channel, besides of course CNN and NDTV, that strives consistently to remain true to upper-class aspirations. Be it Australian attacks, the Indian cricket team’s deplorable behavior in other countries, or naxalism (latest in their kitty), TimesNow and its journalist Arnab Goswani have shown to the world where their real interests lie, what they want to promote, and whose shoes they lick! All that they care about is just money! And, they go no holds barred to achieve their sinister goals by spreading lies, lies, and lies!
Yesterday’s debate (well, that’s what the channel called it) on naxalism (the new threat to internal security) left me hopping mad! Not only because of the hollowness or the stupidity of the debate, but also in the manner in which a TV channel, claiming to be the media, conducted itself! They just sunk to levels lower than what can be comprehended as the behavior of a demented and deranged mind! It seemed like a circus in which a drunken, illiterate monkey was doing a salsa with its own reflection! Of course, for some funny reason, there were the most radical of the dissendent voices on the debate, but what was undeniable is how the entire debate seemed just like a farce! I couldn’t quite put my finger on what I was seeing; why should a clearly pro-establishment, highly regressive news channel appear to have a free and fair debate!
The following quote of Chomsky came to my mind as the actual reason for this farce:
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate."
Now to the event that triggered off this great, informed debate that this demented psycho kicked off. Even before the debate can take off, he looks all sad and deep into the camera and clears his throat and goes on and on about how naxals are terrorists and that they have resorted to Taliban style killing; well, I didn’t know the channel hired people who were experts on Taliban; it makes me wonder if Taliban actually trained these people! The point here is a TV channel seems to declare ‘truths’, even without proper investigation of proof! Of course, you can always resort to a tame apology the following day when the world has already been poisoned enough! This brings me to the next question: what does the channel and its monkey actually want! A country that is intolerant to any kind of dissent and people who condone extra judicial killings in cold blood. Isn’t it incumbent upon the media to play the role of a devil’s advocate? Why do the hell do we need a media like this? They are even worse than the state itself! They are already pronouncing judgments even when the cases on people are sub-judice! What do we, as sane people, do? I couldn’t find a more fitting call for all of us; interestingly the call has been sounding for over a century!
Only through the people's highest intellectual maturity and inexhaustible idealism can it (society) be brought safely through all storms and find its way to port.
Rosa Luxemborg.
Yesterday’s debate (well, that’s what the channel called it) on naxalism (the new threat to internal security) left me hopping mad! Not only because of the hollowness or the stupidity of the debate, but also in the manner in which a TV channel, claiming to be the media, conducted itself! They just sunk to levels lower than what can be comprehended as the behavior of a demented and deranged mind! It seemed like a circus in which a drunken, illiterate monkey was doing a salsa with its own reflection! Of course, for some funny reason, there were the most radical of the dissendent voices on the debate, but what was undeniable is how the entire debate seemed just like a farce! I couldn’t quite put my finger on what I was seeing; why should a clearly pro-establishment, highly regressive news channel appear to have a free and fair debate!
The following quote of Chomsky came to my mind as the actual reason for this farce:
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate."
Now to the event that triggered off this great, informed debate that this demented psycho kicked off. Even before the debate can take off, he looks all sad and deep into the camera and clears his throat and goes on and on about how naxals are terrorists and that they have resorted to Taliban style killing; well, I didn’t know the channel hired people who were experts on Taliban; it makes me wonder if Taliban actually trained these people! The point here is a TV channel seems to declare ‘truths’, even without proper investigation of proof! Of course, you can always resort to a tame apology the following day when the world has already been poisoned enough! This brings me to the next question: what does the channel and its monkey actually want! A country that is intolerant to any kind of dissent and people who condone extra judicial killings in cold blood. Isn’t it incumbent upon the media to play the role of a devil’s advocate? Why do the hell do we need a media like this? They are even worse than the state itself! They are already pronouncing judgments even when the cases on people are sub-judice! What do we, as sane people, do? I couldn’t find a more fitting call for all of us; interestingly the call has been sounding for over a century!
Only through the people's highest intellectual maturity and inexhaustible idealism can it (society) be brought safely through all storms and find its way to port.
Rosa Luxemborg.
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