Kharagpur Open

Ok .. first of all.. yesss.. my blog has been dead .. (stop sniggering shaunak! ) .. will try to revive it..

Tennis craze has suddenly gripped my entire batch here at VGSOM. There are hordes.. n i literally mean it.. hordes of ppl seen strolling around in shorts, sports shoes (and a tee…. idiot!) with a tennis racket casually slung over their shoulders. They are always either on the way to the tennis grounds (which by the way are awesome here!!! ) or just getting back from there.

Now.. with such a widespread interest in a particular game, is it really possible that I dont look into the reason behind the fire?

So today, after fixing up a “coaching” appointment (coz i;ve never played tennis in my life before!) with Shaunak, a couple of us landed up at the tennis courts .. (our first trip here by the way!). After the inital warm-ups and 101s of tennis, we started practicing the game. Though i;ve never been an ardent fan of tennis, just a few minutes into the practice time, i was hooked….!!

wat an experience!! (though my arms dont necessarily subscribe to that sentiment).. the sheer energy required to play the game brought about a new found respect for tennis players — especially women!

n though muscles i didnt know existed in my arm hurt ….must say im looking fwd to the next training session.

P.S. — while teaching us tennis, our coach, the honourable Mr. Shaunak made a comment which just has to be documented here —- said the learned one “Tennis is like marketing strategy… the basic elements of mktg strategy are STP - Segmentation, Targetting n Positioning …. similarly.. in tennis, (leave segmentation aside), its important for u to position yourself (wrt the ball) n target the opposite side of the net” …!!!!!!

LOL!

daag achche nahi hote!

come the navratri season, theatres get flooded with new releases-by-the-dozen… the latest to hit the silver screen were akki baby’s bhool bhulaiiya and rani’s laga chunari main daag…

like most ppl, i was more kicked abt the former… but lack of tickets and a “half-start” better rating that both the tabloids that come home gave Laga, pushed us into the wide comfy chairs at one of the plush cineplexes in bbay to watch…. hold ur breath — Laga Chunari Mein Daag —! {y? u ask… well.. to be frank.. i’m asking that question to myself too… }

but… coming back to the daag … in my personal opinion the movie in a few short words is “waste of time money effort” to watch on the big screen that is… rani’s superb performance would actually offset the DVD rental charge…

the cinematography though is excellent… and in that aspect, one can actually believe that it is a Pradeep Sarkar film… the same guy who gave us Parineeta..

the story however, and i must say this was a little expected, dragged at a lot of places… the first half of the film especially.. the second half does pick up for a while that kunal kapoor is on the screen.. (errrm.. u mite hv a call an impartial judge for that one..) but.. yeah.. the tempo falls back straight down..

i was actually amazed at the climax… i had expected quite a lot of drama shama… rona dhona was ther…but not tooo much drama… (i mean considering what extent is possible in the realm of the given topic) …

all in all.. an ok watch… maybe one time.. that too on DVD… though frankly, I’d rather have Ameya’s AJAD version of the film please…. any directors listening??

bangalore–aaaaarggh!

wonder y ppl make so much of a fuss about the water logging in bbay… the last few days in blore, it has been raining.. not pouring, mind you.. just a lil bit of rain.. the kind that will make a paddy field just abt wet — but, yet, the blore roads say a different story all-together!! thers atleast an inch of water on the roads — every road .. and in parts where the pot-holes lurk underneath.. obviously more!!

and… on closer inspection — i cudnt find a single drain opening… whether storm water, or regular water — nope.. no drains at all!!!

hmmmmm… here’s what ppl living in glass houses shouldnt do!

Blah La!

My colleague and co-lover of terry pratchet and other such fascinating and out of this world books has constantly been praising me for my ‘consulting services’ — constantly meaning whenever he needed fresh ideas for that blog of his..

coming back to the point.. Mr. Bala, the afore-mentioned blogger, has written many-a-times on topics suggested by moi…. and the sweet soul that he is, never forgets to mention and credit me everytime he does..

but that.. again.. is not the topic of this post… the real topic of this post is why i let my mind wander and come back with topics that mr. bala then converts into a info-post…… for that.. u;ve gotta read this

now.. i think, anyone who shows this type of admirable talent of converting any topic, deserves some divisions of your TDMed brain just so u can read it later on and have a hearty laugh..

cheers bala! and u know where to ask for the next topic..

BMC’s new toy..

For some time now, the BMC — the god of small things (well, actually everything) in b’bay — has been saying that they are taking the cleaning up of b’bay very seriously … err.. something a lot of people are willing to contest — but i’m going off-track…

yesterday, i saw actual proof that the BMC is really trying to clean up b’bay… i saw this tiny little robot-like apparatus — which looked like it was a manned version of R2D2, cleaning the road, with rather fancy looking bristles — a big-brother u can say of the tile polisher that makes the horrible noise when the neighbours are “doing” their house yet another time…

very impressive i must say… though, wonder when the BMC will realise that the time to use this new toy is in the wee hours of the morning or late at nite, when not too many cars want to use the road…. definitely not at noon when your “toy” causes a massive traffic jam!!!!

I’ve learnt…

kind suggestions from a certain Mr. Bala have prompted me to move this post to a whole new page… from where “life’s little instruction book III” my best selling guidebook will be developed….

thanks for the insight Bala …..

Touché!

An article in today;s Mumbai Mirror….. hits the nail bang on the head!!

Cheers Mr. Thakraney!

Is this justice?
Our news channels have gone into a tizzy on the 1993 blasts death sentences. But before you rejoice at the capital punishment awarded to three of the many terrorists, do consider these points: It’s taken over 14 years to get there… what sort of justice is that to all those dead, maimed and bereaved during the blasts? The world turned over many times on its head in that period, as the survivors kept waiting for the agony to end. I am quite sure at this point, most of them don’t give a damn one way or another. Next: Okay, so we got the foot soldiers, but the masterminds are out of our reach, and even as you read this, the D dude may well be enjoying a Jacuzzi at his palace in Karachi. To me, this is nothing more than shooting the messenger, even if he knew what was inside the mail. And lastly, it’s not over yet. The criminals can file a petition in the Supreme Court, and even if the apex court seconds the death sentence, it’s still not over. The mercy petitions will reach the Rashtrapati Bhavan, and there’s already a long queue out there. And that President will, in all likelihood, be Pratibhatai, and I can assure you she will sit on the petitions for as long as she can. Her boss, her benefactor, the Super PM, doesn’t like juniors tinkering with her party’s already thinning vote bank. You call this justice?