Cerebral Khichdi
~ random ideas of an eccentric mind ~
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Why the Mum-Ahd bullet train is a bad idea
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Debunking Hindu Tradition Myths
There are a slew of articles recently floating around on the Internet, claiming "Scientific reasons" behind Hindu practices. Here is a link to one of those articles:
http://desinema.com/hindu-traditions-scientific-reasons/
Nothing infuriates me more than someone claim to pass off some quackery as science, hence I got down to analyzing each one of the claim. Here are my findings, to each of the claims in the above link:
1. Joining Both Hands to Greet
While it is surely a more hygenic way of greeting someone that shaking hands, there is no scientific basis for the theory of fingertips being pressure points for eyes, ears and mind. The whole concept of pressure points is derived from the chinese practice of acupressure or acupuncture, which in itself is a pseudoscience.
2. Why Indian women wear Toe Ring
Anyone with a basic knowledge of the peripheral nervous system would know that nerves run various parts of the body to the Central nervous system, and not between two organs/limbs. There is no data to prove the existence of any nerve that connects the toe ring and the uterus.
3. Throwing coins into the river
This could be true, however, during the time of copper coins, cooking vessels were also made of copper. It would have just been simpler to eat out of a copper plate rather than throwing coins into the river.
4. Applying Tilak and Kumkum on the forehead
The explanation given has no scientific reasons in it. Rather it relies on vague terms like "..is believed to..", " ..is said to.." etc.
5. Why temples have bells
This one, apart from again being unscientific, is plain wrong. The best ambience to retain concentration is SILENCE, not the noisy clanging of bells. There are no "seven healing centres of the body". Would like to see atleast one scientific study which proves the existence of seven healing centres. Also the part about creating "unity in the left and right parts of the brain" - is just pure hokum.
However, due to being conditioned as such from childhood, most of us associate the ringing of a bell to a temple/church - it is similar to how adults immediately get a feeling of concern when we hear the sound of a crying baby.
6. Why we start with spice and end with sweet
This one seems quite true, however most Indian meal customs require one to serve a small helping of a sweet as the first dish on the plate. Hence while the logic may be true, it doesn't seem prevalent in most cuisines. Also - the concept of dessert after a meal is a western tradition, no Indian cuisine keeps the sweets at the end.
7. Why we apply mehendi on hands and feet
Nerve endings are present across the entire surface of the body, not just the hands and feet. Mehndi is usually darker than skin, hence it would absorb more heat, thus heating the body instead of cooling it. Also, a wedding, even if considered stressful, should be the same for both bride and groom, then why doesn't the groom wear mehendi? Also, why do the rest of the girls in the function wear mehendi? Surely, they are having a party time! Lastly - mehendi is worn only on weddings - does that mean that a wedding is the most stressful part of a woman's life? Why wouldn't you wear mehendi when someone in your family is sick/dead? Surely that is a more stressful situation!
8.Sitting on the floor and Eating
Again this one uses vague terms like "is believed to" rather than any scientific fact. The body position while eating, depends on what a person is habituated to. Westerners usually struggle to eat comfortably while sitting in this position. Moreover - prolonged sitting in this sukhasan position can lead to numbness in the legs.
9. Why you should not sleep with head towards North
First of all, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease are caused due to nerve degeneration, and has nothing to do with iron in blood moving to the brain.
Moreover, the human body has no magnetic properties. This was a hoax that has been perpetrated by a few tricksters. Read this for more details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_magnetism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_magnetism
10. Why we pierce ear
Yet again, the vague babble of what Indian philosophers "believe", rather than any medical/scientific fact. Enough said. Also, if piercing the ear develops intellect, why is ear piercing done primarily for women, rather than men? Do they think men are born smart?
11. Surya Namaskar
While it is true that exposure to the morning sun is good for the skin, it is utter rubbish that looking at the sun is good for the eyes. In fact, looking at the sun at ANY point of tinme is dangerous for the eyes, due the the ultraviolet rays of the sun.
12. Choti on the male head
Examples quoted from Indian history and religion with emphasis on religious ideas, rather than any medical proof. Als, the scalp and the brain are separated by a strong layer of bone called the CRANIUM, hence there is no connection between the scalp and the brain.
13. Why do we fast
This is probably the only one which sounds sensible, however, this is still a point of intense medical debate as to whether fasting is beneficial for the body.
14. The scientific explanation of touching feet
More religious theories, rather than any medical science. There is no proof for existence of any such "energy" that can flow only from an old person's foot into a younger person's hand.
15. Why women apply sindoor or vermilion
It is true that vermilion contains mercury, however what is also true is that mercury, is in fact HIGHLY TOXIC to humans. Even inhaling mercury vapour or absorption of mercury through skin can be potentially fatal. In fact, mercury-based thermometers are gradually being phased out due to this reason.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(element)#Toxicity_and_safety
16. Why do we worship the Peepal Tree
No, the peepal tree does not produce oxygen at night! It is true that some plants intake CO2 during the night through a process called Crassulacean acid metabolism, but very few of them actually give out oxygen. A list of plants that do so, are in the link below:
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/bot00/bot00976.htm
The peepal, also known as the sacred fig tree, is not one of them.
17. Why we worship Tulsi plant
Yes, this was an obvious one - Indian Ayurveda makes multiple uses of this plant as a medicine. (Note the stress on AYURVEDA here, not modern medicine)
18. Why we worship idol
Would like to see which researchers said this. I couldn't find a single scientific paper which said this. Moreover, a true worshipper or person practicing meditation would usually close his eyes, hence this logic sounds very dubious to me.
19. Why we wear bangles
Bangles have been wrn since the 6th Century BC. Bio-electricity (concept of electrical signals passing through human nerves) was discovered in 1776. Case Closed.
20. Why we visit temples
For one, copper is non-magnetic. See below:
http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~wbreslyn/chemistry/is-copper-magnetic.html
Also: How can an object both ABSORB magnetic waves AND RADIATE it? Surely that isn't physics, or even science for that matter!
I am not opposed to Hindu traditions and customs. However, I am strongly against the practice of back-fitting bogus scientific claims to religious practices in order to gain credibility. In fact such hoaxes merely serve to even further downgrade the rationale behind these practices, as it gives the indication that those who started these practices had all their concepts wrong.
Cheers,
Vivek.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Raanjhanaa - Quick review
The first half is riddled with clichés, but is watchable if you are a fan of romantic flicks. In fact there is a point just before the interval where it looks like everything has worked out well, the movie can end here. But then there comes a twist which leads to a convoluted second half that is just pure torture. Pivotal characters are conveniently disposed off in abrupt ways, forcing the viewer to switch loyalties back and forth. In fact, each of the four main characters have so many shades of grey, that it fails to make you root for any of them. By the time the end arrives, you are yourself unsure who should end up together. That conundrum is again overcome by a rather convenient ending.
Dhanush is brilliant in his emotional expressions, but dilutes some really great lines due to his accent. A character speaking such profound lines with a heavy Tamil accent comes across as very artificial. Sonam Kapoor fares better than expected. Abhay Deol is charming, but gets limited scope. Swara Bhaskar gives a strong performance, that actually has you rooting for her character. Actor Zeeshan Ayub, as the hero's sidekick is hilarious, and provides for most of the laughter.
Thunbs up to the dialogue writer, he comes up with lines that are profound and witty. Beyond that, the movie just disappoints on multiple levels.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Rationalism vs Emotion.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
The beginner's guide to making an item number.
The star of the show. The one who is going to carry the song (or in some cases, the entire film) on her shoulders. Typically, A-grade dancers do not qualify for this job. It is usually given to dancers of grade C, grade D, or ideally, grade DD. Willingness to shed clothes should be proportional to her lack of dancing skills.
(2) The Lyricist.
This is the easy part - It involves two basic steps:
(a) Come up with a cheesy sobriquet for your item girl. It must be sufficiently obscene, yet amply titillating to ensure curiosity levels. Popular examples include Munni, Sheila, Anarkali, Chikni Chameli, Chhammak Challo, Jalebi Bai and so on.
(b) Use the keywords - Jawaani, Kamariya etc to form the base of your song. Further, you can use the following optional add-on language packs:
- 'Chak de', 'Soni', 'kudi', 'Shava Shava' etc to make it a bhangra-style item number
- 'Maula', 'Ya allah' etc to make it a sufi-style item number
- Chyayla, Aila and AiGa to make a Lavani (Marathi) Style
- "Baby", "Chill", "I wanna..", "love" to make a Western-style item number
(3) The Musician
This one requires some luck. If you get a good director and a good item girl, then your job is purely ornamental. Just bang a few utensils together, insert a few grunting and moaning sounds at strategic positions, and your task's more or less finished.
Later, add monotonous thumping rhythms and some alien sounds (Call it a "dubstep" to sound fancy). Get someone to mumble "Yo babay", "Oh Baby", "You baby" like a black rapper and you can convert the song into a "Club Mix", a "Lounge Mix", a "Dhol Mix", a "Rock Mix" and so on.
(4) The choreographer/cameraman
When you have a girl whose movements are worse than a stampeding buffalo, these jobs become slightly challenging. So here are a few thumb rules:
- The worse the dancer, the more the need for skinshow.
- The shot angle change should happen along with the beat, to provide the illusion of rhythmic body movement
- No shot should last more than three seconds. The objective is to expose the girl, not her dancing skills.
- To make the girl look enticing, surround her with a dozen ugly male extras who sniff hungrily around her body to simulate passion.
And with that, your item number is ready to be stuffed into a movie. For best results, stuff it in just after the interval, to keep the audiences from running away after the first half.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Top 10 ways to look busy at work.
(10) Create random reminders on Outlook and set them to flash every now and then. (This works especially well if you frequently use your laptop to give powerpoint presentations)
(9) Set your office chat client status to "Do not Disturb" every now and then.
(8) Always hold a pen between your fingers wherever you go, as if about to write something down
(7) Keep a notepad handy with some business jargon written on it. When you scoot off for coffee/cigarettes, leave this open notepad on your desk for anyone walking by, to see.
(6) Walk around in office wearing your phone's bluetooth headset all the time. When talking into it, gently press your fingers against it, like the cool blokes in Hollywood movies.
(5) Walk up and down inside the washroom, talking loudly on the phone.
(4) Add the line "Sent from my Blackberry/Mobile device" to your Outlook email signature on your computer as well.
(3) *ALWAYS* keep a complicated Excel sheet open in minimized mode at your PC. when someone walks by, Hit Alt-tab and press random buttons on the Excel ribbon.
(2) Conclude telephonic conversations with clients/co-workers by saying "Can you drop me a mail on this?"
(1) When in the midst of an uninteresting conversation, whip out your smartphone and stare intently at it. Press the Menu key, scroll around to each icon, then press the Home key. Repeat.
Friday, April 6, 2012
The Tirunelveli Life
Early to bed and Early to rise.
Bucketfuls of Sambhar and tubfuls of rice.
Idlis and dosas for breakfast and lunch
Murukkus and Seevals for that occasional munch
"Tirunelveli Halwa" that's softer than butter,
A cup of Filter kaapi never tasted better!
Veshti-clad Annas and baniyan-clad Thambis
Racing on Pulsars wearing nothing but lungis
Pedantic maamaas and gigantic maamis
Well-suited Ayyaas and ill-suited Swamys
Memories that send my mind into raptures
Images so vivid, no camera ever captures
Where life always seems to crawl in second gear..
Can't believe I've already spent eight whole months here!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Microsoft Office 2010 Review
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Who the heck is Confucius?
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Riding the Wave...
Monday, November 23, 2009
Hit Wicket
Friday, September 11, 2009
Learning Consumer (Mis)behaviour
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Chennai Chicken..
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Bollywood truths...
Friday, April 24, 2009
Chennai Chapter...
Monday, November 24, 2008
Windows XP Genuine Disadvantage
Hmmm.. It's been nearly five months since I last posted on this blog, primarily because i'm getting too lazy, and secondly because I am (actually) quite busy with college life. Most of my time goes in looking around for an opportunity when I can scurry back to Mumbai and spend an evening at home :)
And when I reach home, the very first task that I do is to switch on my PC and troubleshoot all the problems that the enterprising members of my family have either found, or created on my PC. I'm like the hardware engineer that you call every month to your house to fix your PC if its broken. Normally the problems that I need to fix are rather simple, requiring only a few minutes of thinking. But this time, I got something new. My dad had unknowingly tried to auto-update Windows XP, and the sneaky bastard that Microsoft is, it managed to detect that my version was a pirated one. Since then, it had started throwing up nasty warning messages about me being a "victim of software counterfeiting"
Pretty normal, you would say. Everyone knows how to turn off the Genuine Windows Advantage notification. Not so fast. This time, the error messages was accompanied by an inky black desktop with a notification on it. Everytime you change the wallpaper, it reverts back to the same irritating black desktop, with the same stupid message again. On googling, I found that this is the result of Microsoft's recent drive against piracy - an update released on 20th October 2008, which has caused a lot of controversy. Read an article about about this here : http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=76
I found a solution on the net. The solution was to kill the WgaTray.exe process using the task manager, and then delete the WgaLogon.dll and WgaTray.exe files from the System32 folder in Windows. However, there was a problem here. The moment I kill the process, it automatically restarts immediately. And since it is not possible to delete a file when it is running, I was unable to delete the files. What do I do?
Then I had a brainwave. This is what I did :
1. Insert a Windows XP bootable disk into the drive (Ha! Using the venom as the antidote!!)
2. Restart the PC and boot from the CD.
3. Wait for the program to do its mandatory loading processes, to initialize Windows installation
4. In the screen where it asks you whether to install a fresh copy of Windows XP or to repair an existing installation, select Repair. A command prompt screen opens.
5. Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32 folder.
6. Use the commands "del WgaTray.exe" and "del Wgalogon.dll" to delete the two culprits
I guess one could use any bootable disk to do this, but I derived a special pleasure doing it using Microsoft's own CD.
Computer back to normal.The human intellect triumphs over the computer! Muhahahahaha!!!!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Living the MBA Dream
So, college's started, and I'm back to being a student after two years in the corporate world. A strange feeling, to sit and listen to four-hour long lectures, and experience that familiar drowsy feeling after lunch, when the lecturer's rhythmic cadence gradually puts you to sleep. A weird feeling, when I have to pay for tea and coffee (I am so used to drinking several cups of coffee during the day, from the coffee machine at my office). A realization that I'm no longer earning money, but instead spending it!
So here starts a new phase in my life.. new challenges, new opportunities, new avenues... and my career is now (hopefully) traversing through a warp zone..
Sunday, May 4, 2008
And Words are all I have...
Right from our childhood, we constantly hear new words. And then, as we progress on in our education/work/daily life, we learn words specific to our education/work domain, and these words start making a conspicuous appearance in our normal conversations. Hence, if you are a software techie, you would find nothing abnormal about this conversation:
“Hey, look at the message written on that birthday greeting card.”
“Yeah, that's such a beautiful font!”
“The font is nice but the font size is too large.”
As an engineer, my vocabulary is largely influenced by technical and software jargon, and I frequently use terms like “writing in caps lock” to imply using block letters, try to “undo” pencil marks with an eraser, and use “default” modes to refer to normal settings for gadgets.
Lately, I'm finding that technical words apart, a new class of words is creeping into my vocabulary - CORPORATE jargon! And at times it irritates me when I myself end up using bombastic words where simple, terse words would have been enough. So the loo (I just love the simplicity of this word) becomes the formal-sounding washroom, the canteen becomes the cafeteria, the watchman becomes a security personnel, the guy who mops the floor becomes a housekeeping staff, a customer complaint becomes an escalation, problems become issues or concerns, meetings become conferences, and so on. And the more senior you are in an organization, the more imperative it is for you to be aware of such heavy-sounding words, and use them liberally in your everyday speech (even if they sound utterly fake).
I am thankful I’m not a lawyer, for I am told that legal jargon, has some even more scary words! I’ll sign off with this old one :
One day in Law class, Professor Jepson asked one of his better students, "Now if you were to give someone an orange, how would you go about it?" The student replied, "Here's an orange."
The professor was livid. "No! No! Think like a lawyer!"
The student then recited, "Okay, I'd tell him, 'I hereby give and convey to you all and singular, my estate and interests, rights, claim, title, claim and advantages of and in, said orange, together with all its rind, juice, pulp, and seeds, and all rights and advantages with full power to bite, cut, freeze and otherwise eat, the same, or give the same away with and without the pulp, juice, rind and seeds, anything herein before or hereinafter or in any deed, or deeds, instruments of whatever nature or kind whatsoever to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding..."
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Gunda Ka Funda
So, when curiosity got the better of me, I decided to hunt for a DVD. After searching for several days, I finally managed to get a DVD from a roadside vendor.
There are several unqiue things about this movie. For starters, the main characters have some really innovative names - “Lambu Atta”, “Lucky Chikna”, “KafanChor Neta”,“Ibu Hatela”, “Bulla”, “Potey” and “Chutiya” (Yup, you read right). Compare these with the hackneyed names that Karan Johar dishes out in his movies – Raj Chopra, Rahul Singhania, Pooja Malhotra… how boring!!!
Further, each character has a unique introductory line (‘Mera Naam Hai Bulla, Mai rakhta hoon Khulla!!’, ‘Mera Naam Hai Ibu Hatela, Maa Meri Chudail ki Beti, Baap Shaitaan ka Chelaa. Khayega Kela?’, etc etc)
Almost every character speaks in rhyming verses, that (supposedly) adds to the drama. Most of the verses are unabashedly double-meaning, which adds to the fun if you are watching it with your friends. I bet you and your friends will be repeating all the lines for several days after watching the movie! Sample some literary gems from this movie :
And then, there is the one and only Mithun. This is a movie that simply underlines the sheer magic called Mithun Chakraborty. It makes you realize why even Rajnikanth pales in comparison with this deity. As the Coolie Shankar who works at an airport(!), he is the undoubted star of the show Check out the scene where he blows up a politician’s Ambassador car, with a single shot from a tiny pistol. The car is thrown as if it was hit by a tank rather than a bullet. Equally memorable is the scene where he destroys a hundred autorickshaws (the producer probably couldn’t afford cars, so he settled for autorickshaws instead) with a hand-held rocket launcher (I guess rocket-launchers are easily accessible in Mithun’s world – you could probably buy one at the local hardware store). Yet another gem of a scene is one where Mithun kills some goons at a brothel which has got cots hanging in from the roof. Sure gives a new meaning to the term ‘love in the air’. Spooky, but innovative!
The movie is currently rated 8.3 on IMDB. That’s a phenomenal rating, considering that even Titanic is rated 7.2. Watch it! You’ll know what innovative cinema is all about. And you’ll become a Mithun fan for sure :)
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Music Phone vs MP3 player
A recent trend that has caught up with today's generation is music. It is nowadays the 'in' thing to have musical inclinations, and such people are frequently the centre of all attraction in peer groups. No surprise then, that we see most people spending a large amount of their time listening to music. With the advent of the MP3 format, the good old casette player is out, and what we have today are smart, sleek MP3 players that are as small as matchboxes, and can store songs equivalent to hundreds of casettes.
Evidently, the mobile industry has noticed this and come up with its riposte to music players - music phones. And I must admit, they have actually done a great job! In fact, today many of us contemplate having a personal music player, and are unable to decide whether to go for a dedicated MP3 player or buy a phone that can play MP3 songs.
So, how does one decide? Let's look a few aspects regarding music players.
1. Sound quality : Till recently, the most important edge that an MP3 player had over a music-enabled phone was the sound quality. The sound quality of an MP3 phone never came even close to a dedicated MP3 player like an iPod. However, today, with the advent of music-branded phones like the Walkman series by Sony Ericsson and XpressMusic by Nokia, this gap is rapidly closing. Most music-enabled phones in the market today can be a decent substitue for a music player, and in some cases like Walkman or MotoRokr, can actually rival an iPod in terms of sound quality. No doubt, most audiophiles would swear by their iPod - undoubtedly the best music player currently available. But that's why they are called audiophiles - they are so obsessed with technical terms like acoustics and sound clarity, that they fail to really appreciate music. They tend to forget that the objective of buying a music player is to listen to music, and not to get tangled in acoustic jargon.
While I certainly do accept that an iPod does give a (slightly) better listening experience than a phone, the sound quality of most phones today is fairly acceptable, and in some cases excellent. Hence, I conclude that this advantage that an MP3 player had over a phone is now nullified.
Score : MP3 Player - 0, Music phone - 0
2. Screen : Many of the MP3 players in the market (Read iPod Shuffle) lack a screen for viewing the song list. The only way is to manually scroll through the songs one by one, till you reach the song of your choice. What is the point if you can store several hundred songs in your player, but can't play one specific song of your choice at any point of time? In comparison, even the cheapest music phone has a screen where one can see a list of all the songs, and select the one that he wants to listen to. MP3 players with screens are available, but most of them are slightly on the expensive side - the iPod Nano costs nearly 7000 bucks.
An additional advantage of a screen is that it enables you to create new playlists, sorting playlists by album/singer/title, changing equalizer setting. Thus the phone wins here as well. Score : MP3 Player - 0, Music phone - 1
3. Charging : This is a point that is frequently missed by most buyers before buying a music player - most music players need to be charged via the PC USB port, so the only way you can charge the player is by connecting it to a PC. A mobile phone can be charged anytime by connecting it to a electric point - and you charge your mobile phone regularly anyway, so charging is not a concern for phones. Score : MP3 Player 0, Music phone - 2.
4. Memory capacity : Okay here's a point where MP3 players win by a huge margin - the 2GB or 4 GB available in music phones is peanuts compared to the 80GB monster called iPod Classic. However, a word of caution here : 80GB is actually overkill. A player with a capacity of 80 GB can actually store 16000 songs at good quality (128Kbps), and I bet you don't have so many songs to fill up the player. A phone with a 2GB card is sufficient for storing around 400 songs - a decent count. 400 songs, assuming each song to be of around 5 minutes, would mean a listening time of around 2000 minutes. That's more than sufficient, unless you have absolutely no work to do from morning till evening. Moreover, technology is fast working on building larger memory cards, and it won't be uncommon to see 8GB memory cards by the end of this year. Anyway, I'll grudgingly give the MP3 players a point here. Score : MP3 Player - 1, Music phone - 2.
6. Cost: This is surely an important issue - Will buying a music phone be cheaper than having a phone and a MP3 player? Doubtful. But the difference in price is going to be very less - An entry-level music phone would cost under 5000, and with a 2GB memory card, will end up costing around 5500. An iPod Nano with a video screen costs Rs. 6900. Decide for yourself.
**Final Score : MP3 Player 1, Music phone - 4.**
So what do we see? If you are a person who is particular about avoiding unnecessary expenses, it makes a lot of sense to buy a entry-level music phone like a Sony Ericsson W200i or a Nokia 3110 Classic or even the upcoming MotoYuva W230, rather than a dedicated MP3 player. On the other hand if you are Mr. Moneybags with tons of cash to spend, you may look at mid-range music phones like the SE W810i or Nokia N70 music edition. Either way, the music phones defeat the MP3 players by a HUGE margin.. So
Musically yours,Vivek.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Aaj ka GundaRAJ
There was a movie by this name, released sometime in the 90s. Somehow this title aptly sums up the current political situation in Maharashtra. The recent attacks by the MNS on the North Indians, followed by the retaliations by the Samajwadi Party, coupled with a spineless government that is scared to hell about taking strong action against the offenders, have made a complete mockery of the world's largest democracy.
Why is the government dithering so much about prosecuting Raj Thackeray? It is scared that this will turn him into a 'hero'. And how was he granted bail so easily? The whole drama is just an eyewash. The government is under pressure from both ends - the MNS supporters who threaten violent consequences if Raj is arrested, and the prospect of it losing its credibility in front of the general public if it doesn't go ahead with the arrest. So it finds an easy way out - arrest him temporarily to "show off" its courage, and then release him on the same day to avoid any violent aftermath. It is an attempt to fool the gullible public.
Taking a holistic view of the entire situation, it becomes disturbingly clear that each and every political party involved in this issue has it's own political agenda. The actions taken by each political party reeks of votebank politics. The MNS obviously wants to get noticed among the "Marathi Manoos" and is resorting to this extreme political stunt which seems to have failed miserably, as Raj has been made out to be a villain, by a large part of the media as well as the general public. The Samajwadi party is trying to cash in on this situation, trying to get the support of the substantial North Indian population in the city. The Shiv Sena has been taken by surprise by this sudden aggressive development, and is trying to work out a strategy to get the support of the North Indians, while at the same time trying not to lose the support of it's loyal Marathi-speaking populace. The Congress government is the one that looks completely clueless - right now it resembles a lamb caught in a rhino stampede.
Ultimately, the people who suffer are the general public - The exodus of people from Nashik has let to a drastic increase in the prices of fruits, vegetables and other such commodities. Damage to public transport vehicles will ultimately be borne by the common man in the form of increased taxes and cesses. And will the offenders be made to pay for this? No. They go away scot-free, their mission accomplished. That's the dirty game called politics.
After the 1993 riots, people indulged in bouts of self-praise, claiming that Mumbai has now become more sensible, it is now unaffected by trivial issues like caste-based or mothertongue-based politics. But the recent events have only reconfirmed that Mumbai has learnt nothing from its past experiences. It is still like the Diwali bomb that needs a single spark like Raj Thackeray to explode.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Words Worth
Sample these lines from a song in the recent movie 'Race' :
Teri baaton se mila Temptation (!),
Tere pyaar ne diya Vibration (!!),
Ye mere dil ne kiya Confession (!!!),
Chori Chori akhiyaa ne dil tera le jaana (somebody save me)
Now that's what I call absolutely uninspiring, emotionless lyrics. Probably the lyric writers ran out of words that rhyme in Hindi, so they had to go overseas searching for words.
A popular romantic song from Boyzone goes -
"You think that I don't even mean
A single word I say
It's only words, and words are all I have
To take your heart away!"
Well, if words were anything to go by, the hero in the movie Race has scant chances of taking away someone's heart with lyrics like that.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Music Review: Taare Zameen Par :: A heart-tugging album
The bonus here is the beautiful lyrics penned by Prasoon Joshi. I have always been a diehard fan of Javed Akhtar and his Urdu poetry, and have never found anybody else even remotely close. But I have to admit that this time, Prasoon has come up with lyrics comparable to Akhtar's standards.
Two songs stand out in the movie. One of of course, the title track - Kho Na Jaye Ye Taare Zameen Par. The subtle likening of little children with dewdrops, that forms the opening lines of the song, is simply breathtaking. Each line of the song draws beautiful analogies. My favourite lines are at the end of the song
Mohalle ki raunak, galiyaan hain jaise
Khilne ki zid par, kaliyaan hain jaise
Mutthi Me Mausam ki jaise hawaayein,
Ye hain Buzurgon ki Dil ki Duaayein!
The second song is again another emotional ride, this one simply titled "Maa". If you can listen to this song without a single tear coming to your eyes, you've got to have one of the hardest hearts ever. Lyrics that are amazingly simple, yet so stirring. True music lovers will surely find their eyes wet when they hear this one.
The importance of the singer's voice in soft songs can never be understated. The tenderness in Shankar's voice does ample justice to both the above songs, as he sings them soulfully. What you get in the end is a treat to the ears - Two emotion-filled songs with melodious music, touching lyrics and top-notch singing.
The rest of the songs (Bheja Kum, Bum Bum Bhole, Kholo Kholo) are mainly meant for little kids, and sound reasonably okay. But it's "Maa" and "Kho na Jaaye" that are the life of the album. Enjoy!