Hrishikesh Mukherjee, R.I.P.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee , who directed more than 45 Hindi movies, passed away last Sunday, August 27. May his soul rest in peace.

Hrishida was one of my favourite directors. His films were always good and clean entertainment. And yes, his movies usually had good songs. Most of the movies directed by Hrishida had music by either S.D. Burman or R.D. Burman. Two movies which had made me cry were directed by Hrishda -- in Satyakam, its hero, played by Dharmendra who gave his life's best performance, played an idealist man who never lied come what may, and Ashirwad, for which Ashok Kumar got national award for the best actor. In Ashirwad, Ashok Kumar's wife who was a rich women, always used to nag him and he leaves home and his daughter. In the most memorable scene of the movie, the daughter is giving alms to poor men and beggars who had come to her wedding, one hand is shown palm down, instead of palm up, and the daughter realises that it is her father who have come to give her Ashirwad (blessings) as she had been promised by him long time ago. That once scene showed the tremendous power of the cinema, and I just could not hold my tears. Hrishda was truly a great craftsman.

I read somewhere that Hrishda used to shoot his movies in a peculiar manner by shooting the portion of the movie first sans its songs. He believed that songs are unreal, but necessary part of the movie. When someone used to ask him how is shooting of your movie going, he used to reply that the `real' part of the movie is shot, and the `unreal' portion is yet to be shot. Hrishda has left this unreal world for the real world. His films will continue to give us many hours of enjoyment and fun.

Weekend Diary

This is my weekend diary for Weekend August 26 and 27, 2006.

Last Friday, I purchased a Titan watch for myself. In fact it is gift from my wife to me, on the occasion of our Marriage anniversary, which was on Monday, August 28. I always worn a Casio digital watch till now. For a change, I thought I will have an analog watch. This Titan watch is an analog one, with day and date display.

Last Friday night an interesting bit of conversation took place at dinner time. I, my wife and our daughter, Namrata (Noona), who is 9 years old, were having dinner at 9:00 p.m. Our son Sachin, was away as he was attending his classes. As we have cut off the cable network few days ago, nowadays we usually talk while having dinner. My wife was saying that she is quite worried about Sachin, about his studies, about his future and said that Sachin is main, and said I am not worried much about Noona. Noona who we thought was not listening, suddenly said, `oh Sachin is main, aur main kiya hoon. Main kiya Sachin ke cousin hoon. Aagar Sachin main hai to main be main hoon'. I and my wife were taken a bit by her outpouring. Of course what Noon was saying was absolutely correct. My wife and I hugged Noona and said yes, you too are main. Children are becoming quite smart and sharp at young age.

Last Saturday, we went to shop for a shirt for myself, which my wife wanted to gift to me, in addition to the watch. And I wanted to buy her a nice dress for her. After selecting a shirt for myself, which was chosen by Noona, we went to look for a dress for my wife. We were shown many dresses by the shop assistant, but none were of liking to my wife. Suddenly, Noona pulled out a dress from a pile, and whispered to me `Yeh dress lo, pappa, yeh aap ke shirt se match hogi'. She was right, the dress did had the same shade of colour as my shirt's colour. So both Noona and I pursuaded my wife to take that dress. She got it stitched quickly for wearing on Monday.

Last Sunday, we met to meet Poonam, my wife's niece, who has done B.E. in software engineering and had a good job at Pune. She had come down from Pune, where she lives, to Ulhasnagar to meet all of us. Poonam now has got an offer from a company in Helsinki, Finland, and will be joining them this week. It is very brave of Poonam to leave a good job and take up a job in distant foreign country. All the best to her. Sunday was also Ganesh Chaturthi.

Monday was my 16th marriage anniversary. It was on August 28, 1990 that I had got married. Sarita has been good wife to me over the years. I trust I have been a good husband to her. On Monday I had decided to take a day off from work, so has Sarita. We wanted to have some good quality time together on our important day. I read somewhere recently that marriage is the biggest comedy of life, but for the women. For men, marriage is the life's biggest tragedy. Well, everyone had their own experience about marriage. Mine had been good overall. In the evening, we and children went out to have dinner. Since it was Monday and days of Ganesh Chaturthi, so non-vegetarian fare was out of question. So we had Pizzas, Pav Bhaji followed by yummy Falooda. Since we both were wearing same shades, we decided to have a photograph of us taken at a photo studio, to make the day memorable.

Cross-posted from my other blog Raju's world.

Sachin, 15

My son, Sachin, turned 15 today. Sachin is named after great music composer Sachin Dev Burman.

When I had been enaged to be married, one saturday, we usually used to meet on saturdays, I and my would be wife were sitting on a bench in the local park. I suddenly said to her that after marriage we will have a son and we will name him Sachin. I looked at her after saying this expecting her to say something in return, but she just shyly nodded her head in consent, and of course blushed. I had bored her to death with my priase for songs of Sachinda and Panchamda and had played for her numerous songs of Sachinda and Panchamda, as she too has liking for Hindi film songs. She had said what if it is a girl. I am sure, it will be boy, I had said. If it is a girl, you can choose the name for her, I had said, after a few moments pause.

True to my prophecy, Sachin was born to us next year, on August 23, 1991. When mine and her relatives come to meet my wife and our newborn in the hospital, their first question, as in most such cases usualy is, what name you will be giving it to the baby. We readily told them it will be Sachin and nothing else.

Well, Sachin has turned 15 today. And he is getting taller day by day. He has inherited my shyness and smile and good manners.

Cross-posted from my other Blog Raju's world .

Wittiest play

I am presently reading The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. It is generally considered as wittiest play in english language. I had read it numerous times and every time it is an enjoyable read. It is one of my wish to see this play on stage. If you have not heard about this play, which is unlikely, or have not read this play, which is likely, it is available online. Please do read it.

Here is a funny excerpt from the play:

CECILY. I keep a diary in order to enter the wonderful secrets of my life. If I didn’t write them down, I should probably forget all about them.

MISS PRISM. Memory, my dear Cecily, is the diary that we all carry about with us.

CECILY. Yes, but it usually chronicles the things that have never happened, and couldn’t possibly have happened. I believe that Memory is responsible for nearly all the three-volume novels that Mudie sends us.

Substitute diary with its modern version Blog, and it still make sense.

Cross-posted from my other blog Raju's world.

Ustad Bismillah Khan

Ustad Bismillah Khan (March 21, 1916 - August 21, 2006)

Ustad Bismillah Khan, who popularised and brought shehnai to the centrestage of classical music, died of cardiac arrest at a Varanasi hospital yesterday. Shehnai is traditionally played on weedings and other auspicious occasions in India. Ustadji brought it to the concert level and almost single-handedly made it popular. May his soul rest in peace.

When I was in my teens, I had seen an old movie Goonj Uthi Shehnai on Doordarshan. In the movie Rajendra Kumar had played a shehnai player. The recital of shehnai in the movie was very very good. I was mesmerised by it. It was the highlight of the movie. Later on I came to know that the shehnai in the movie was actually played by Ustad Bismillah Khan. This fact remained in my memory for quite some time.

When I had got married on August 28, 1990, I purhcased few casettees of shehnai recitals by Ustad Bismillah Khan and requested the manager of the marriage hall, where I got married, to play these casettes while the marriage ceremony was being performed and also at the reception. I felt at that time as Ustadji is blessing us with his magical shehnai. Next Monday, I will be completing 16 years of married bliss, and as a tribute to Ustadji, I will play those casettes.

Weekend Diary

This is my weekend diary for Weekend August 19 and 20.

Last Friday was quite good for me. I left office for home at my usual time, instead of staying late or visiting bookshops to browse or buy books or CDs. I must first clear the pending credit card bills, and then think of buying new books and CDs. Anyway, the Books and CDs just accumulate and I have been on buying spree over the past few months. I must stop buying new books and CDs for few months.

It was a sunny saturday last week. I got up quite late and had a good breakfast and lunch. Since my wife has taken leave for few days and it exam time for the children, I stayed most of the time with them and helped childen in their studies for the exam. After many many days I went to the local park for my evening walk and felt good. I had read long time ago in a newspaper that, in Ulhasangar, the city where I live, there is shop which sells Bengali sweets. While strolling in park, I for no reason, remember that, and afterwards went to that shop to buy rasgullas for my family. Children were happy to have them, after dinner.

Sunday also was mostly sunny, though it rained lightly few times. I spent Sunday morning reading my favourte newspaper, which is Hindustan Times, then went out to buy mutton, as children had insisted that they want to eat it for the lunch. So we all at home at quite good time.

Since my son, Sachin, is in Standard X, and will be giving board exams in March next year, I and my wife and decided to cut off the cable connection. So since August 10, there has been no satellite television for us. At first it seems quite strange as we are use to watch silly serials as we had dinner everyday. But, we are slowly getting use to it.

Cross-posted from my other blog Raju's World.

KANK -- Kuch Nahi Hota Hai

I saw Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (KANK), last Saturday. I disliked the movie. It just did not connect. It did not made much sense to me. It is supposed to be a look at marriage from the point of a view of director (Karan Johar), who at 34 is unmarried.

The plotline/storyline of the movie is at this link .

What you read below is mostly fictional.

Since the screenplay of the movie is co-written by my (imaginary) cousin Shibani Bathija, I decided to call Shibani about many things which annoyed me in the movie:

Hello, is this Shibani?

Yes, it is her. Who is this?

This is Raju, your cousin

Oh, cousin Raju. How do you do? Have you seen KANK?

I am good. Yes I saw it and did not liked it.

Why why why?

Oh, it was just rubbing salt on the wounds of a married man. I did not liked it. I wanted to talk to you about it, since you have co-written the screenplay.

[seems quite annoyed] Then talk to Karan Johar, the director of the movie. Nowdays he is eager to establish communication with anyone about KANK.

Communication? Oh, you mean, he is willing to talk to anyone about his movie.

Yes, I mean that. I have been reading P.G. Wodehouse recently. Ok. I will call you after I have fixed the time with K. Jo.

Arre you writing a script based on PGW book?

Keep guessing.

After few days, cousin Shibani very kindly set up a meeting with Karan Johar at a local Coffee Shop. This is what I recall from our conversation. [My questions are in regular text and replies by K. Jo, sorry Karan Johar are in italics.]

Karan, you look dashing in Pink shirt.

Thanks Raju. Inside I am bundle of nerves. I am wearning Pink shirt so that I can be in Pink of Health.

Oh. I see. Good. Tell me how do you got the idea to make KANK.

I was having lunch in a small place at London, where the tables were placed quite closely. I happen to overhear a couple talking. And they seems to be talking about going their separate way as their marriage has not worked out. What striked me that they were talking about it in a amicable way, even joking about it. I thought I have to tell their story to the world. I thought I will make a picture on this phenomenon.

And you made it?

Yes, I did. Tell me are you married?

Yes, I am, since last 15 years.

15 years is a lot of time. Did you ever think that you married a wrong person?

Sometime, but I let the feeling pass. Thankfully I saw KANK alone. For some strange reasons, my wife did not want to see this movie.

I wanted to tell the married persons that if they ae not happy with their marriages, they should go their separate ways.

Don't you think it may break-up many marraiges that way. Are not you advociating adultery among married persons?

No, no I am not. I am saying if they are not happy with their marriage, there is a way out.

What if they are not able to find their soulmate? Do you know why I am happily married? Do you want to know the secret.

Yes, yes, I do. Please pray tell me.

It is in this small poem `A word to Husbands' by Ogden Nash:

To keep your marriage brimming
with the love in the loving cup,
whenever you are wrong, admit it:
whenevery you are right, shut up.

I think most of the husbands all over follow it. What keep a woman happy or unhappy after marriage, science or poets have still to find out.

You did not liked my movie, then?

No, I did not. I tried to sympathise with the characters of SRK, Priety, Rani and Abhishek, but could not connect. I tried very very hard to figure out why Rani was unhappy with Abhishek, who played such a good husband to her, or what was wrong with their marriage, but could not. I only liked Amitabh in the movie. He made me smile and happy. Tell me, why was Shah Rukh Khan looked so bitter, cynical and unhappy in the movie?

Oh that was simple. He looked bitter, cynical and unhappy in the movie because he felt that way. Actually I made him drink Coca-Cola, instead of Pepsi, which he endorse, to get this effect. I had banned Pepsi throughout the shooting of the movie.

And Abhishek looked crestfallen because you told him to use Nokia mobile phone, instead of Motorola, which he endores.

Lucky guess.

Last question, why was your movie so long -- it was 3 hours 10 minutes 48 seconds long?

Well, I love long movies. I think a movie should never end !

Do you know what Alfred Hitchcock had said about the length of a movie: ``The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder''. Make your next movie 120 minutes long. Thank you.

Two Blogs

I have decided now to keep this blog, Anything Goes, as well as my other blog Raju's world.

In this blog, I will post about things which does not directly affect me. While in my other blog, Raju's world, I will post about things which affect me directly, and will also post more personal posts. I will, of course, cross-post between these two blogs sometime.

I choose WordPress for my other blog as it is a part of a Open Source community. Since I use most of the Open Source community programmes, like Linux , Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, amaroK, etc. for my office. WordPress is cool. If you thinking of starting a blog your own, give WordPress a consideration.

I am happy to arrive at a decision. Being a typical Libran, I alwlays feel happy when I arrive at a decision.

My new Blog

I have created a new Blog Raju's World at WordPress.

I have also copied all my posts from this blog to my new blog. I am thinking seriously of moving to WordPress.

Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola Matlab Pesticides

The Telepgraph, Kolkata, reports :

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) today said soft drinks continue to hold cocktails of pesticides and charged the health ministry with stalling efforts to set limits.

Releasing the findings of a new study, it said the levels of pesticide residues in some samples tested this year are higher than those observed in samples three years ago.

Centre for Science and Environment's report is here, and its Press Release is here.

The CSE has given a wake-up call to the Indian government to notify the regulatory limits for pesticide residues and caffeine in soft drinks. This has still not been done. This important matter is hanging between various committees. Strange are indeed the ways governments functions.

What I really find ridiculous, personally, are the endorsement by top Indian movie stars from Amitabh Bachchan to Shah Rukh Khan to Rani Mukherjee, of various brands of soft drinks, for money. Even if one of them came forward and says that he or she will stop endorsement of the soft drinks, as presence of pesticides have been proved in them, it will be great. But I know, it will not happen.

Will at least government instruct the soft drinks manufacturers in India to put a statutory warning on all bottles that Drinking soft drinks may be injurious to health. Maybe that is like asking for moon.

Cross-posted to my other blog Raju's World

Indian Bloggers in a spot -- again?

It seems the ban/block on www.blogspot.com is back again. I am not able to view (though I am able to edit my posts) my blog on blogspot. But I am able to view my blog using www.inblogs.net.

A few weeks ago (in fact on July 13), Indian Government had ordered Internet Service Providers in India to ban/block 17 websites, which included 4 blogspot blogs. At that time, the ISPs have bloced the blogspot.domain, so that people who were accessing internet from India were not able to access their own or any other blogs hosted on blogspot.

Are the Indian bloggers in a spot again?

If yes, then it is ridiculous and deplorable. It is yet another attack on the freedom of speech.

Update: It seems the block was due to (maybe) some technical problem at ISPs end. I am able to view mine and other blogs on blogspot.com. More about this is here.

Leave it to Psmith

Finished reading Leave it to Psmith. I read it for the third time time. It is too good. I will write my review of the book later.

A blog post about Psmith is here.

Have been very busy with work and work.

Shakespearewalla

Last weekend I saw Omkara. I liked the movie. It is an adoption of Shakespeare's Othello. The movie is directed by Vishal Bharadwaj, who ealier had adopted Shakespeare's Macbeth as Maqbool, which was released in 2003. Two earlier pictures directed by Vishal are Chatri Chor which was based on Ruskin Bond's The Blue Umbrella, and Makdee. Vishal had started his career as music composer of Gulzar's Maachis. He had said in an interview, in a lighter vein, that he became film director so that he could compose music for the films. Music composing remains his first love.

Coming to the movie Omkara, the story is based in a small town in Western Uttar Pradesh. It is story of Omkara Shukla (Othello) played by Ajay Devgan, Langda Tyagi (Iago) played by Saif Ali Khan, Kesu Firangi (Cassio) played by Vivek Oberoi, who are part of a political mafia gang, which is headed by Bhaisaab (Duke of Venice) played by Naseeruddin Shah. Kareena Kapoor playes Dolly Mishra (Desdemona), Konkona Sen Sharma plays Indu (Emilia), and Bipasha Basu plays Billo Chamanbahar (Bianca). Omkara alias Omi has been chosen by Bhaisaab to run for the Assembly elections, due to which vacancy of gang-leader arises. Omi selected Kesu over Langda Tyagi, which displeases the latter. Langda sows the seeds of jealousy and infidelity in the mind of Omkara against his would be wife, Dolly. The rest of the story is quite faithful to what happens in the play of which it is an adoption.

The strength of the film are performances by all lead actors. All of them have performed very well, especially Ajay Devgan and Saif Ali Khan. Ajay in the title of Omkara is effortless and conveys much with his eyes and minimal movement. I try not to miss any of his movies. Saif Ali Khan had to shave the hair of his head for the role of Langda. I had read the reports in the media that he was reluctant to do so, but in the end had agreed to the Director's wishes. He has performed quite well in this picture. I won't be surprised if he wins an award or two for this performance.

The director is quite successful in creating the milieu of the film. The langauge of the film, is of dialect spoken in the western U.P., and quite a few foul words are spoken by the characters. In fact, the film begins with one such foul word. I was amused to read the reports in the paper that due to bad language used in the film, many people are keeping away from the film, and the movie is not doing well at many places. Well, one do hear these words spoken in life and the characters of the movie are of such types that one expects them to mouth such words. Maybe some people have difficult in digesting the reality in the movies.

Personally, I liked the movie. Though, I had some problem in following some of the dialogues because of the dialect. But it was worth seeing. I loved the scene when Langda poisens mind of Omi about Dolly once again and Omi arrives home unexpectedely, and Dolly, who has been learning `I just called to say I love you' (which is a wonderful Stevie Wonder song) from Kesu, sings this song while strumming a guiter and a big smile. The scene was worth the price of the ticket. The movie had an unintentional funny scene, when Billo Chamanbahan sings `Bedi Jaalae Lee, Jigar Main Aag Lagi Hai', and when a person ignites a cigarette at the end of song, Billo starts coughing. I found that scene quite hilarious.

I also like the movie as it shows fallibility of a supposedly strong person.

I have never read Shakespear's plays before, now I am tempted to read them.

Links:

Official Website,

Reviews of the movies: here and here.

Cross posted to my other blog Raju's World.

Quotes for the Weekend

When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional
cheese dip. -- Ignatius Reilly

---

Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other. -- Ann Landers

---

Don't worry about avoiding temptation -- as you grow older, it starts
avoiding you. -- The Old Farmer's Almanac

Remembeing July 26, 2005

It had rained 944 mm in the suburbs of Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra last year on July 26, 2005. Today is the unhappy anniversary of that day, which is commonly referred to as Terrible Tuesday. More than 500 people had died and 53 are still missing, due to landslides, drowning in gutters and suffocation in the cars in which they were stuck. Lakhs of people were stranded in various parts of Mumbai city, who commute every day from their home to place of work. I was one of those who got stranded.

On the left is a picture taken at Kalyan station, which shows how terrible, the rain and the flooding that followed, was on that day. You can see the train is half merged in the water. [Click on the picture to enlarge it.] More such pictures are here.

Today, many NGOs have appealed to citizen to wear white in memory of those who have died. I am wearing white shirt today.

I have some memories of Terrible Tuesday. I had come to office as my usual train, which departs at 7:20 a.m. was right on time, insptite of heavy rain at that time and I had reached office at my normal time. Afterwards sometime in the afternoon I came to know that it is raining very heavily in suburbs and trains had stopped. And quite strangely in Colaba, where my office is situated, there was light to mderate rain. By evening it was confirmed that all the trains have stopped due to water logging on the tracks and it is also impossible to use roads due to flodding. Well, I and my office colleagues spent overnight at our dear friend's home, who live near our office. We had good time at his home. My dear friend, who is an excellent cook, had made corn and mushroom soup, which was just excllent. We had nothing to do but watch the news on the telly and to hope that rains will stop. Except for Airtel, all moible connections and landline connections were either erratic or down. As I use Airtel, I was able to contact my wife and children through neighour's mobile, who uses the similar service provider. Next day our office had arranged a bus from Colaba to Thane for the stranded persons in our office. Our bus had started off at around 4:00 p.m. and had reached Sion Circle at about 6:30 p.m. and got stuck for two and half hours, due to flodding and heavy traffic on the road. We had to come back from Sion to our office as there was no chance of going further for next few hours. So, I had spent another night at my dear friend's place. Next day, that is Thursday, train services had been restored from V.T. to Thane as rains had stopped. I took a train, along with few friends, upto Thane. After reaching Thane, there was abolute choas on the roads, as no trains were going beyond Thane. We had walked upto next station, that is Kalwa, on the railway track and luckily from there we had got an autorickshaw to Kalayan. Once reaching Kalyan, it was quite easy to reach Ulhasnagar, the city were I live. So I was able to see my wife and children at last on Thursday at 4:00 p.m., after leaving for office in the early morning of Tuesday. I felt happy to to be alive. My children had insisted that I should not go to office for next few days. It tooks few weeks for the trains services to be back on normal.

The full coverage of July 25, 2005, immortalized now as Terrible Tuessday is here.

A Majhi Song

Below is video of a Majhi (boatman) song sung by great S.D. Burman in his own voice, from the movie Bandini, released in 1963. The plot summary of the movie is here .

According to folklore of Bengal, bhatiyali are the songs sung by East Bengal boatmen on river so broad that one loses sight of the shore. When sung in less isolated surroundings, Bhatiyali changes its musical character by adding accompaniment and meter. This song is a good example of a bhatiyali song. It has been sung with such a feelings by Burman Dada, and it is an eternal favourite of mine.

Goal Mall

Last Sunday saw the movie Golmall. The film has similar title as Gol Maal, which was relased in 1979 and is a classic comedy. Thankfully the makers of Golmall (2006) have only borrowed the title, and not the plot. Gol Mall (1979) was very very funny movie. I have seen it when I was quite young and had enjoyed the movie. Its humour was Wodehousian, clean and good. And yes, it had music by great R.D. Burman and had one immortal song by Kishore Kumar `Aane Waala Paal Jaane Waala Hai'.

I wanted to see Golmall because it was Ajay Devgan's movie, and Ajay happens to be my favourite actor. This is his first movie of 2006, Aapaharan was released way back in December 2005. So I was eagerly awaiting to see this movie. I had decided to see it in the night show on last Saturday. Just as I announced to my wife and children, after dinner, that I was leaving to watch Golmall, my daughter, who is 9 years old, said I will also come with you as I too want to see this movie. I was surprised and said do you know who is in this movie, she said yes, it has your favourite Ajay Devgan and it is a comedy. How much children know nowadyas. I said okay, if you also want to see it, we will go tomorrow, which is Sunday, in the evening show, as it is not good to take children for the night show. So, next day we went to a cinema, which is quite close to our home, where it was being shown. We have started half an hour earlier, but on reaching at the theatre we saw House Full board at the ticket counter. It seems there were many Ajay Devgan's fans, who had come with their families or with their daughters. So we were wondering what to do. I and my daughter were obviously disappointed. My daughter said oh you can see the movie today in the night show, but mummy will not permit me to see it in that show. Suddenly I saw a man with some tickets in hand and he wishepered to me `DC sau ruppiah'. Oh, he was selling tickets in black. I was pleasantly surprised. It had been ages since I saw a person selling cinema tickets in black. I approached him and ask him in which row the seats are. He said `oh they are in row A, seat number 1 and 2, but are for family or ladies. I pointed out to him I had a young lady with me so give me two tickets. He did so similingly. In a way it was not a bad bargain, as normal balcony ticket was 100 rupees and Dress Circle ticket was 60. So I and my daughter were quite happy to obtain tickets for th movie. The smile on my daughter's face was worth the extra money. It was quite funny how these funny things happen in real life. It was our little golmall beore the movie.

Now about the movie. The movie was very very good. It was better than I had expected. The movie is an adoption of a Gujarati play `Aflatoon'. It is story of four friends Gopal (Ajay Devgan), Madhav (Arshad Warsi), Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor) and Laxman (Shriman Joshi). All four of them live in the hostel room of Laxman, who is still studying, but every year his friends see to it that either he dos not sit for exam or fails in the exam. The other three have been expelled from college 10 years ago and have no place to stay so they live with Laxman, without knowledge of college principal. The principal finds all four of them together in Laxman's room and after lots of shouting and screming throws all four of them out of the college hostel.

The foursome then land in a bunglow, which belong to blind couple (Paresh Rawal and Shushmita Mukherjee), and they overhear the blind couple that they are waiting for arrival of their grandson, Sameer, from America. So one of them, Laxman (against his wishes) impersonates as their grandson, Gopal is his voice and other two acts as Chinese cats. There are some funny some not verry funny episodes in the movie. And yes, there is a girl, how can any movie be complete without a heroine, called Niralee (Rimi Sen), who lives nearby and all four of them try to get her attention. Also the movie has bad men, which also act funny like the rest of characters. One bad man is called Vasooli and he is a big fan of Sanjay Dutt and tries to act like him. And there is a don who is hard of hearing and has several goofy sidekicks. All in all, it is great time-pass movie and has some good one liners.

The film is directed by Rohit Shetty who is son of Shetty who used to be villian of hindi movie and always appered completely bald in the movies. The performance are good, I particularly liked Ajay and Arshad Warsi's performance. Warsi's mimicking of Rani Mukherjee, from Black, is very hillarious. If you get a chance to see this movie, grab that chance. It will make you laugh. And maybe happy.

Block Lifted

The block on blogspot.com seeme to have lifted. I just now checked and I was able to view mine and other blogs on blogspot.com the normal way. Viva Indian Bloggers.

The following post was written earlier in the day.

I have not been able to view my blog last Tuesday (July 11). Initially I thought blogspot may be down for some maintenance or there may be some technical problem. Through a blogging friend I came to now that all the blogs on blogspot.com have been blocked. My initial reaction was of absolute dismay. How could that be, and why.

It seem that the Indian Government had instructed Internet Service Providers in India to block 17 websites, including 4 blogspot.com blogs on July 13, on the grounds of national security. The ISP provides in India seems to have blocked the blogspot.com from viewing from India, instead of blocking 4 blogs hosted on blogspot. According to some report it is likely that this block on blogs in India may be lifted soon. There are various ways to circumvent this ban to view the banned sites, more on how to bypass the ban is here.

I have been using www.pkblogs.com to access my blog. I have also been using Bloglines to view and read my favourite blogspot.com blogs.

What the this silly block of blogs seems to achieve? Absolutely nothing in my opinion. It only gives some free publicity to the blocked sites. No one may have bothered to visit these sites, now thanks to this stupid block, many people may. When will our government learn that all bans or blocks are counterproductive. They acheive nothing. The blocks seems to have been prompted by the recent terrorists attacks in Mumbai.

The ISP provides have goofed up the government's order, by putting blanket block on blogspot.com, instead of blocking 4 blogs which government wanted to block from viewing. This shows their incompetence.

Posts about block or ban are here and here, here, and here.

Blogspot blocked by Indian Government

Indian Government have blocked blogspot.com for from Indian ISP sites. More about this is here. This is outlandlishly silly ban. Hope the good sense prevails and the ban is lifted.

Use www.pkblogs.com to view any any blogs on blogspot, if you happen to view them from India, until the ban is lifted.

May I Help You, Sir

May I Help You, Sir. This is what the Salesgirl said, as I was looking at watches on display at a Titan World showroom.

I was at the showroom to buy the gift of a watch for my wife, whose Birthday was on Fri, July 7. I have been giving a gift of her choice evey year to her, of her choice. This year she wanted a good watch, for everyday use. A few years ago I had gifted her a watch, which she had chosen herself, but that did not turned out to be a good watch. Since she wanted a watch, I suggested that it should be a Tittan watch, which are supposed to be the Indian's best watches. So I had gone to the Titan World Shorrom which is near my office to hunt for a good everyday watch for my wife. There were any many good watches and I was puzzled which one to get for her. I had a certain budget in mind and was wondering which one to choose. Suddenly a salesgirl appeared out of nowhere and said May I Hepl You, Sir. The following is the interesting bit of conversation between her (salesgirl) and Me. What she said is in italics and what I said is in the regular text.

May I help you, sir.

Oh sure. I am looking at a watch, I mean I am looking for watch.

For whom, sir.

Oh, for my wife. It happens to be her birthday today.

(grinning) Oh, I see. I will be glad to help you, sir.

I have certain budget in mind I ...

(still grinning) You had come at the right time and at the right place, sir.

Oh, have I.

(still grinning) Yes, we have a scheme under which you will get fabulous discsount [blah blah], free csometics, but the price of the watch has to be above Rs. 1,500/-. And today is the last day of the scheme.

Well, my budget is just about that.

Let me show you some watches.

[Shows me some, but I like none of them]

How is your wife, I mean is she tall?

No, medium height.

Is she fair?

Yes, quite. She is somewhat like Rani Mukherjee over there.

[The showroom had a big poster of Rani Mukherjee with Titan Raga Watches]

Oh, then I will show the perfect watch for your wife.

[disappears for few seconds and appears with two watches]

Is it not beautiful [shows me the watch (Titan Raga) pictured left].

Yes, yes, it is quite beautiful, but how much is the price?

Today is her birthday, so you should give her something for which she will remember you always.

But this gold plated thing always wear away after few months.

Then takes this platinuium plated, but take either of them. You said you wife looks like Rani, than it is the perfect gift for her on her birthday.

But the price ...

Well Sir, the watch is beautiful, your wife will love it.

Well, I was happy that she has taken the decision for me. Being a typical Libran, I find it very difficult to make a choice if presented with two options. This time I took about 3 minutes and 45 seconds to arrive at a decision! As by that time, I had selected another watch (with leather strip) which was within my budget. But the watch suggested by her (gold plated, the plantenium coated was even costlier) was really beautiful. So I purchased the watch and she got it packed nicely and give all sorts of discoutnts, free cosmetics etc.

I presented the watch to my wife later in the day after reaching home. Well, the expression on her face on seeing the watch was really well wroth the price of the watch. She said she really loved the watch and I got a big hug from her. She now wears the watch everyday to her work. Now, my childdren also want Titan watch for their birthday. My daughter, Namrata, has threatened that she wants the similar watch and also the similar cosmetics!

BTW, this is my 250th post.