Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Reading Record

Finished reading `Joy in the Morning' by P.G. Wodehouse. It was good read. Wodehouse seldom disappoints. He shouldn't! Reading this book was indeed joy in the morning for me, as I read this book in the mornings while commuting to work. The action in this book takes places in Steeple Bumpleigh (is there such a place in England, I wonder). Jeeves, as usual rescues Bertie in the end. One of the most funny characters in this book is Edwin, who is a Boy Scout -- "as pestilential a stripling as ever wore khaki shorts and went spooring, or whatever it is that these Boy Scouts do". Edwin happens to be brother of Florence Craye, ex-fiancee of Bertie. In one of the hilarious scences in the book, Jeeves advises Bertie to kick Edwin in the pants and Bertie do manage to kick Edwin in the presence of Florence, but with the unexpected results --- in Bertie's words it `produced a bountiful harvest'.

The next book on my reading list is: My Side of the Matter by Truman Capote. It has four short stories. In May 2005 Penguin had publish 70 unique titles to celebrate the company's 70th birthday, this book is one of them.

Calvin writes to himself

Spotted the following Calvin and Hobbes strip in a newspaper yesterday. Could not resisit it posting it. In this Calvin writes to himself! Click to enlarge it.


Very relevant to blogger like me, who seems to writing to himself, almost everyday.

Monday, February 27, 2006

I have been tagged

Well, I have been tagged by by Kusum Rohra . Kusum has written about various 7 things she likes.

As I have been tagged by her, it is my (painfull) duty to tell the whole world about my likes and dislikes. Here it goes:

7 things to do before I die:
  1. Visit England with my family
  2. Watch a cricket match at the Lords
  3. To see Ulhasnagar as clean and beautiful city, with all the buildings, legal
  4. To see honest politicians
  5. To see a page-3 type convicted of a crime committed by him/her
  6. To see India win World Cup, in cricket and Football
  7. To see Linux an all the desktops, everywhere

7 things I can't do:
  1. Lie, without blushing
  2. Drive (bike, car, etc.)
  3. To shout at people
  4. To be friendly with people, at first sight
  5. Swim
  6. Blog
  7. Design a web page

7 things I always say:
  1. Yeah yeah
  2. You are right
  3. Is that so
  4. It cannot be true
  5. Oh My God
  6. What could be done
  7. Hari Om, to my wife, first thing in the morning, and whenever she calls

7 books I have loved:
  1. Great Expectations
  2. Crime and Punishment
  3. Brothers Karamazov
  4. The Middlemarch
  5. books by P.G. Wodehouse
  6. books by Oscar Wilde
  7. The Grapes of Wrath

7 things I get attracted to:
  1. Honest people
  2. Humility
  3. People with sense of humour
  4. Smell of Coffee
  5. Smell of new book
  6. Good looking people
  7. Mozilla Firefox for browsing and Mozilla Thunderbird for emails
7 movies I love to watch over and over:
  1. Sholay
  2. Padosan
  3. Angoor
  4. Abhiman
  5. Golmaal
  6. Arjun
  7. Masoom

Friday, February 24, 2006

Jessica case: HC shows ray of justice

Some more hope ... Jessica case: HC shows ray of justice

There is hope still

The juddgement in the Best Bakery case has come. Out of 21 accused, nine have been convicted and eight have been acquitted. Zahira, who had turned hostile during the court proceedings, will be charged with a show-cause notice. There is hope still that justice is alive in our country.

Link to the News Story

Goodbye Sourov

So Sourav Ganguly has not been selected for the first test against England. Is it curtains for him? Will we never see Sourva Dada again in tests? May be yes, or maybe not. I think Sourov should now announce the sanyas from the international cricket instead of being in and out from the Indian team. It is now obvivous that Greg Chappell does not want him in the team. It will be honourable thing for Sourv to retire rather than face the humiliation of being overlooked.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Chicken cartoon


I received the above cartoon by email today, from one of my friends. I know the bird flu, is a serious issue. But the cartoon is funny.

Crime and No Punishment

The more I am reading or seeing in the media about verdict of Jessica Lal, the more shocking and scandalous the whole thing appears to me. A former model, who works as a bartender at a party, is shot dead in cold murder in the presence of 400 persons, just because she refuses to serve drink to Manu Sharma. Manu Sharma and other accused surrenders to the police after few days, eye witnesses to the murder name Manu Sharma in the FIR, case drags on for seven long years, in the meantime the accused destroys the weapon, the witness turn hostile in the court and all the accused walk free due to want of evidence. Absurd and shocking. All the accused are rich and famous, and `well connected' and thus run away with the murder. Are there two sets of laws --- one for the common people, and other for the rich and famous and `well connected'!

All the crimes should follow punishment. But in this case crime has been committed but there is no punishment. If Manu Sharma has not not murdered Jessica, then who has?

Manu Sharma has run away with the murder, but can he run away from himself. I wonder if he is able to sleep at nights.

My the soul of Jessica rest in peace. My sympatheis to father and sisster of Jessica Lal.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Article by Tariq Ali

I read a fine article by Mr Tariq Ali about the current cartoon controversy in the Guardian Ulimited . To quote him from his article:
I am an atheist and do not know the meaning of the "religious pain" that is felt by believers of every cast when what they believe in is insulted. I am not insulted by billions of Christians, Muslims and Jews believing there is a God and praying to this nonexistent deity on a regular basis.
Being a atheist myself, I can relate to what Mr Tariq Ali is saying.

Link to article

Thar Express

The rail link between Munabao (Rajasthan, India) and Khokhrapar (Sindh, Pakistan) has been restored after 41 year. This is step in the right direction. I wish I could visit Sindh where my parents were born. We do have some relatives still in Shikarpur, Sindh.

Link to the news story

Real RD

Asha Bhonsle had recently released an album `Asha Reveals Real RD'. It was released on January 26 at a concert `Memories' held by Asha Bhonsle. It had songs which were personal favourites of R.D. Burman.

In an interview given to Times of India this is what Ashaji had to say:The lyrics and music are the same, the instruments and rhythms have been changed. There's more of a Latino and Carribean feel to it.

Yesterday, while travelling, I happen to catch snatches of her interview which she gave to a local FM Radio Station, and also some songs played from the album (Dum Maro Dum, Piya Tu Aab To Aaja and One Two Cha Cha Cha). My god, she sounded jaded and tired. The songs were nowhere near the original. I do not understand why attempt is made to re-create the the songs of RD, which in my opinion, are doomed to fail. Hear any song of R.D. Burman, and hear remixed or re-created song, and one feel the difference.

I wish Ashaji had released this album with the original songs of R.D. Burman.

What a shame

After seven long years of protracted legal battle, a Patiala House court on Tuesday acquitted all the nine accused in the sensational Jessica Lal murder case.

Jessica, a model, was shot dead at Tamarind Court Bar, owned by socialite Bina Ramani, in the Capital on April 29, 1999.

This is what the defence lawyer had to say: We are very happy with the court's decision. This was a case of no evidence as the weapon of offence was never found.

It is disgusting and ridiculous. I hang my head in shame.

It is really sad case of miscarriage of justice. There were many witness (about 100) to this murder case, but all of them turned hostile in the court. Also Delhi Police has made a weak case of it and the accussed in this case were sons of influential people, who have got away with murder, literally.

Lini to the News story

Chicken dishes banned in Parliament canteen

A case of our politicians not practising what they preach!

Link to the News Story

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Haves and Have-Nots of the Blogging Boom

An interesting article about Bloggers, A, B, and C list bloggers and also, like me, obscure bloggers.

... a blog is like a shark: If it stops moving, it dies. Without fresh postings every day—hell, every few minutes—even the most well-linked blog will quickly lose its audience. The A-listers cannot rest on their laurels.

Oh really! I am happy being a obscure blogger, without an audience, of course. But happy.

Link to article.

Why Rang de Basanti is a scary movie (update)

Sagarika Ghose, who is Features Editor of CNN-IBN, News Channel, and also author of a novel, The Gin Drinkers, has written an article about Rang De Basanti in last Friday's (Feb. 17) Hindustan Times.

An excerpt from her article:

Why is Rang de Basanti a scary film? Because it is a film that is unable to distinguish between media and reality. It is the ultimate made-in-media-India film. It is not rooted in any kind of reality, does not explore the position of the politician in our society, nor does it tell any kind of tale of heroism and ideals, nor does it bother to find real believable people in a real believable situation.

Link to the article

Sagarika Ghose's article with comments is at her Blog at CNN-IBN .

Friday, February 17, 2006

About the Firefox memory leak

`Firefox Lead Engineer Ben Goodger has written a weblog post explaining higher memory usage in Firefox 1.5 as compared to Firefox 1.0. While acknowledging that all versions of Firefox have memory leaks, Ben points out that many people are confusing increased memory usage with a memory leak.'

I am confused. Hope they do something to fix memory leak oops increasing memory usage. Thunderbird version 1.5 also has the similar problem.

The link to post is here

Half smoked cigar

Found the following article in yesterday's Hindustan Times:

A HALF smoked cigar of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is the most precious memento that Judy, wife of Indian team coach Greg Chappell, is carrying from her Pakistan visit. “I picked up the cigar with a tissue paper and am carrying it with me to India,” the affable Judy said. “I have a scrapbook in Bangalore that I have been maintaining since arriving in India (with Chappell in May last year). I am going to put the cigar in my scrapbook,” she said looking visibly thrilled.

No wonder these things are called scrapebooks.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Roses on St. Valentine's Day

"Consumers buy about 180 million roses for Valentine's Day. Last year, 74 percent of rose purchases for Valentine's Day were made by men, according to the Society of American Florists." Read the news story here.

I am reminded of a poem `One Perfect Rose' by Dorothy Parker :

One Perfect Rose

A single flower he sent me, since we met.
All tenderly his messenger he chose;
Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet--
One perfect rose.

I knew the language of the floweret;
"My fragile leaves," it said, "his heart enclose."
Love long has taken for his amulet
One perfect rose.

Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it's always just my luck to get
One perfect rose.

My Two Cents about last book I read ...

Here are my two cents about `How To Be Good' by Nick Hornby.

First, why I had purchased this book: sometime ago I had read a small article by Nick Hornby about and in support of pop songs, which I liked and had made a mental note to read books written by him. During my visit to Strand Book Festival last month, I came across this book and purchased it.

This book was published in 2001. This is what Nick Hornby had to say about the title of book in an interview given before publication of the book "I remember Alain de Botton once saying that the 'How' at the beginning of his title [How Proust Can Change Your Life] had added a few thousand on to his sales figures. The title's ironic. Everybody's in a state of moral confusion throughout.'' Well, Mr Hornby can count me among those few thousand!

The book is narrated in first person by Katie Carr, who is female and G.P. with NHS in London. Here is the gist of story: The book opens with Katie, who is married to David for fifteen years, calls from Leeds to her husband in London telling him that she do not want to be married to him any more. She had an affair with a person with whom Katie had meet in the medical conference in Leeds and suddently decides to call her husband from a car park. Later on reaching London, she realizes that she does not want to divorce David for the sake of her children Tom and Molly. David is a columinst with a local paper and writes articles in which he rants about many things. Katie tells David and children about her affair. Later on, David happens to meet D.J. GoodNews who is a spirtual heaer, at a local newstand. GoodNews has some magic in his hands and he cures David of his backache, and he also cures Molly of eczema. David is now completely enamoured with GoodNews and offers to shelter him at their home. GoodNews draws from David's heart cynicism and replaces it with an unquestioning, all-embracing love of mankind. The trouble starts for Katie from there onwards: David gives away spare toys and one computer to charity. David and GoodNews initiate a scheme to encourage everyone in the street to take a homeless person into their spare room and they make plans to eradicate world debt at the kitchen table. In short, they make life of Katie a hell. Their son, Tom, is indifferent to all these while their daughter, Molly, sympathies with his father. Many times Katie thinks of leaving David, but does not for the sake of children. In the end Katie decides that she cannot change David and all she want is a Discman and some CDs and half a dozen novels. She does not want anyone else to hear what she is hearing on her Discman and want to block out every last trace of world she inhabit, even if it is just for half an hour a day.

The book started promisingly, but ends abruptly. It seems either the author does not know how to end it or he is planning a sequel -- How to be better! It has some funny incidents, but that is it. People are generally good, but to change the world and or one's local area is difficult task.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Lift kara de

Spotted this funny sign at a marriage reception last week. I had gone with my office friends to a marriage reception last Friday, of a young scientist. Dr K. Narayan, who is a TamBrahm (Tamil Brahaman). The marriage was at Sri Subramania Samaj Temple Hall, Chembur. The reception was good, and food was excellent ... coconut rice was sublime. As we were leaving, I noticed this funny sign near the left and pointed out to my friends, it was instnatly clicked by one of them.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Jhuk Gayi Ankhen

On January 4 I had purchased a 3-CD pack called `Memoires - Music and Beyond' by Universal. Needless to say it had songs of R.D. Burman which were released under Music India/Universal label. On the 2nd CD, it has a most amazing song `Jhuk Gayi Ankhen' from 1978 film `Bhola Bhala'. The movie starred Rajesh Khanna, Rekha and Moushami Chatterjee. The song is very very good. I do not know why I keep listening to this song again and again, at least once in a day. The song has beautiful tune and good lyrics by Anand Bakshi. It is sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar. In a way this song is like `Tere Bina Zindagi Se' that the first two antaras are sung by Lata and the last antara is by Kishore, who like Tere Bina songs, make chutti of Lata :) singing-wise.

One pleasure of listening R.D. Burman is that one come across gem-of-song like this. Though I consider myself great fan of RDB, I have not come across this song before. There must be many such songs of RDB ...

The Lyrics of the song is:

Jhuk Gayi Ankhen Tere Rahon Pe
Ruk Gaye Saanse Tere Hooton Pe
Phir Bhi Na Jaana Piya Anjana
Mere Dil Ke Dil Ke Baaten

Jhuk Gayi Ankhen ...

Thoda Sa Bhola Bhaala Hoona Acha Hota Hai
Aisa Kiya Jaage Hue Bhi Tu Jaise Soota Hai - 2
Din Guzree Tere Aise Jaise Raatan

Jhuk Gayi Ankhen ...

Mushkil Se Din Main Mujhe Do Paal Detta Hai
Jaab Bhi Dil Aata Hai Piya Too Chaal Deeta Hai - 2
Yeh Kitnei Chootee Hain Mulakatain

Aisa To Deewana Main Nahin Jaise Lagta Hoon
Samjho To Baaten Mutlab Ke Main Samajta Hoo - 2
Rahene Do Jaane Do Yeh Ghatein

Jhuk Gai Ankhen Tere Rahon Pe
Ruk Gaye Saanse Tere Hooton Pe
Phir Bhi Na Jaanee Prem Diwanee
Mere Dil Ke Dil Ke Baaten

Reading reading

Finished reading `How To Be Good' by Nick Hornby over the weekend. Will write mine review of book later. It had a promosing start, with had a disappointing ending ...

The book I am reading presently is vintage P.G. Wodehouse `Joy in the Morning', which is full of lines like "We exchanged two meaningful glances. He gave me one, and I gave him another'. As usual, Bertie is out to save his pals, with help of Jeeves, from the clutches of the marriage.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Rang De Basanti

Though I have not seen Rang De Basanti, nor intend to see it, I found the review of Rang De Basanti , which I found in Blog The Middle Stage amusing and insightful.