Fan-atics

For the last one-and-a-half years, Orkut has been my prime source of timepass, through which I got in touch with a number of my school mates, with whom I had lost contact after leaving school. It has fetched me some new friends as well, and browsing through the numerous communities present there, I have learnt a lot of new things, and many unknown information about various incidents, institutions and celebrities of our society.

Well, the purpose of this post is not to highlight the positive aspects of those communities, although there are some good positive aspects. On the contrary, I would like to make a few comments on certain communities and their members. In most of the cases where the community is about a person (eg, Kishore Kumar, Mohd Rafi, Uttam Kumar, Soumitra Chatterjee, Sachin Tendulkar... in short, about those stalwarts who have exceled themselves in their respective fields), I have noticed a strange aspect about their members.

It is quite obvious that if I am a member of a community which is about a person, it means that I respect that person, admire him and would propagate his positive aspects if there is a debate on a certain issue. As a fan, I have the right to do this. But problem comes when I, in order to champion the superiority of my favored person, defame another person of the same field with the same calibre. Being a fan of one person does not mean you have to disrespect every other person of the same field.

A couple of examples will make the point clearer. Rahul Dravid is a very good batsman, probably one of the few greats who have appeared in the cricket arena in the last decade. Admiring Rahul is fine. But in order to do so, defaming Sourav Ganguly is not quite right. The vice-versa case is also quite common. The thing is, if you are a real lover of the game of cricket, you will respect both of them with slight difference in the degree of likeness, but you will never disrespect one in order to project another.

Recently, I am stopping by the communities of Kishore Kumar and Md Rafi quite frequently, and have learnt a lot regarding Hindi film music. But the sad part is, here also, the story is the same. I am a fan of Kishore Kumar, but when someone says that Rafi "could not at all sing", then question arises about his sanity. It is a known fact that R D Burman has worked more with Kishore than Rafi, although the handful compositions of RD-Rafi have created history and are uncomparable. But keeping this in picture, if somebody says that RD did not like Rafi, He was just a mediocre music director or Rafi did not possess enough talent to match with RD, then according to me, that person does not have any right to speak about music. He is not a fan, just a fanatic.

Before finishing, I am unable to control myself to quote a post of a KK fanatic in one of the communities:

Rafi sang a number of patriotic and devotional songs, so what? I mean, what is the difference between the two genres? Just replace Watan by Bhagwan, then patriotic becomes devotional!! Whats the big deal??

I dont think any comment is required to defend this.

Wow, Wiki.....

A few days ago, in one of our usual daily telephone conference, the topics of discussion twisted and turned and finally, we started talking about Indian History, more precisely, about the Mughal dynasty!! It is not unusual, because when we talk, the wide range of topics sometimes fall short before our enthusiasm. So that day, we decided to refresh our long-forgotten History knowledge.

One of my friends told the list of Mughal emperors starting from Babur and ending at Aurangzeb. Then, I asked, "Okay, tell me the name of Babur's father"!! Well, this was an unusual question for them, and honestly, for me too. In general, we never felt the urge to look upon Babur's forefathers, as if, the Mughal dynasty started with Babur himself!! So, quite naturally, my friends were stumped!! Then, after a few seconds, I jubiliantly told them, "Guys, you don't even know this?? Babur was the eldest son of Omar Seyh Mirza. This is class VIII stuff, everybody should know this!!" Relishing their silence, I told them about the battles of Panipat, when they were fought, their consequences - in short, a brief background of Babur's life, and also a brief history of the Mughal period.

Then, one of my friends exclaimed, " Byata fer Wiki khulechhe!!!"

Yes, I honestly admit that Wikipedia is the secret of my information. Films or actors, history or geography, mathematics or physics- Wiki knows everything about everything. I have to type the appropriate keyword in Google, and the rest is evident. If you are patient enough, you will be able to learn a variety of things in a very short time. Whenever I have some doubt about some facts, I can double check with Wiki. I rely so much on Wiki that instead of opening books for definitions, I first read them from Wikipedia. I would like to use the old adjective Unputdownable to describe this site in one word.

So via this post, I decided to thank my dear Wikipedia, saying

Wikipedia, tomarey selaam !!

Sunday

No, this post is not about the latest movie Sunday, but I must admit that after watching the movie, I felt an urge of writing something about the most auspicious day of the week, at least for me, and may be for others as well.

Sunday has some salient features, which makes it so special than the rest of the week. The following are the unique aspects of this day which I admire the most:

• Sunday is the official "no-study day" unless an exam is scheduled on Monday.
• Start the day with a delicious breakfast comprising of Luchi, Aloor dam and Jalebi. Thats Sunday.
• Spending the entire morning at the playground till noon, playing football or cricket(depends on the season) .
  
• Returning home around noon fully tired and exhausted, your nose gets the heavenly smell of cooked mutton, as the pressure cooker whistles for the third time. All tiredness goes away in a flash. Thats the flavor of Sunday.
• Having a tight lunch and getting some sleep afterwards.
  
• Sipping the evening tea and getting out for a walk or visit friend's or relatives and spend the evening gossiping. Otherwise, keep relaxing at home with parents accompanied by some music or movies or just adda.
• After dinner , heart gets gloomy again as Monday is about to arrive in a few hours.
  

That was my usual Sunday routine back home, for about 24 years. Here, of course I miss some of the features (specially second, third and fourth), but still, Sunday brings the freshness I seek and rejuvenates me which makes the next six days bearable.

(In)justice of Nature

Tomorrow its going to be Wintry Mix!! By virtue of remakes and remixes, we are aware of various types of mixes like Club Mix, Party Mix, Dance Mix and so on. But this Wintry mix has nothing to do with songs, its a whim of Nature, where the raindrops, before reaching the surface, turns into ice. So it becomes very difficult to walk on the roads,and driving also gets risky.

My officemate, a very good friend of mine, gave me this information today afternoon as I was idling in the office. Then he asked, "What is your schedule for tomorrow?" "Nothing", I replied, "I have an off day tomorrow"!! "Ohhh man, I have to teach tomorrow at 11, when the chance of precipitaion is 80%. Lucky you!!!" Since it is winter, snow and precipitation are quite common,and we have to adapt even if we don't like it.

So when I told him this, he exclaimed,"Why me??????? Why everytime me??????" Then I understood his frustration. Last week also, it snowed on Tuesday and Thursday, and both are my off days and his teaching days!! So I offered him a chuckle, patted him and was about to leave the office, when he told, "See you tomorrow".

I replied, "I don't think so, I'll work from home". Hearing this, the reaction in his face was worth-seeing, a mixture of frustration, disappointment and bewilderment. As I stepped out, I heard him saying, "Its just wintry mix man!!! Nothing much serious." I was about to burst into laughter, so I quickly closed the door behind me and continued laughing till I came down. Later, I realised that till now, it hasn't snowed on my working days, but who knows??? So I stopped laughing and came back home. But even after a couple of hours, I am unable to forget my friend's facial expression, neither can I control my laughter whenever i am thinking of it !!

Bollywood in 2007

In recent years, Bollywood has produced some excellent movies which has given the viewers ample scope to ponder over the subject addressed in the movie.Drifting away from the usual Masala-type films, the directors are showing the courage to experiment in different ways, and the emergence of a bunch of good actors is helping them to achieve their goals.

I am not at all a film expert, but I like to watch movies. So in this post, I have decided to list some of my favorite movies released in 2007.

• Tare Zameen Par, released towards the very end of last year(Dec 21) will top the list. Being Aamir Khan's directorial debut, this film is unique in many aspects. The topic is new here, the treatment and presentation is excellent and above all,the performance of young Darsheel Safari as a dyslexic child Ishaan Awasthi is superb. Tisca Chopra, in the role of the child's mother and Sachet Engineer in the role of Ishaan's brother are worth-watching. Regarding Aamir, there is nothing much to say. Being the most versatile actor of the present generation, he excels himself both in acting (yet again) and direction. Some of the scenes of the movie bring tears to the eyes. The song Maa, penned by Prasoon Joshi and sung by Shankar Mahadevan, is one of the finest songs of the year.

• Shahrukh Khan's Chak De India takes the second position in my list. Directed by Shimit Ameen, this film brings out the best of SRK as an actor. He gives his best performance after Swades as the coach of the national women's hockey team of India. “Mujhe na to states ke naam sunai de te hai, na dikhai de te hai, mujhe srif apne mulk ka naam dikhai de te hai “ is one of the various dialogs which takes the film to a separate level. Each of the 15 girls of the team performed brilliantly, and it was difficult to believe that this was the first film for all of them.

• Mani Ratnam has been one of the very few acclaimed directors of the country at present, and his film Guru takes the third spot in my list. A brilliant performance by Abhishek Bachchan, and able support from Aiswarya Rai, Mithun Chakraborty and Vidya Balan makes the film a very special one. Loosely based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani, Abhishek portrays his character superbly starting from the youth till the old age. He succeeded in bringing out the various shades of his character effortlessly and undoubtedly, this is his best performance of the year.

• I am an ardent fan of Amitabh since childhood, and the way he came back in the 2000's can be compared only with any fairy tale. The film Cheeni Kum, featuring Mr Bachchan and Tabu gave me an immense pleasure to watch. An unconventional love story between two people aged 64 and 32 respectively, this film depicts one of the finest performances of Mr Bachchan and Tabu. Zohra Sehgal as Bachhan's mother and the cute little Swini Khere simply excels themselves. Paresh Rawal is superb as usual in his small role.

• The film Dus Kahaniyan, directed by six directors, and consisting of ten short films, is already unique in its structure. Some of the stories were simply superb, and the top three stories according to me were Puranmashi, Zahir and Strangers in the night, directed respectively by Meghna Gulzar and Sanjay Gupta (the last two). They brought out the best performances from actors like Manoj Bajpai, Neha Dhupia, Minnisha Lamba, Amrita Singh, Dia Mirza and Mahesh Manjrekar. This type of anthology films is certainly a bit of fresh air in recent Bollywood industry.

Without going into the details, other films which I liked were Life in a Metro, Bhool Bhulaiya, Jab We Met, Blue Umbrella and Shootout at Lokhandwala, where each of them is different from the other.

I hope to see the same trend in 2008 also, the making of films which will not only entertain the viewers, but will also leave an impact on them.

Morning does not always show the day

Days of happiness pass away very quickly. My vacation of one month at home went away so quickly that I could not figure out what I did in the last 32 days as I was sitting on the bed surrounded by half-packed suitcases on the evening of my departure (The departing flight was scheduled at 2:50 AM). It occurred to me that a little while ago, sitting on the same bed, I was having a delicious breakfast consisting on hot kachuris and jalebis (that was on the first morning , a month ago !!) , and now, here I am, ready to stay away from home for at least one year living a dull and solitary life.

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, I have a typical relationship with aeroplanes, irrespective of the airlines. According to my opinion, there are very few people on earth other than me who are (un)fortunate enough to pass through the series of mishappenings as I did in a very consistent manner. This time, probably, fate decided to reward me in a very unexpected way.

In long-duration flights, I always prefer the aisle seat. As it happens, whenever I got a window seat, the person sitting next to me turned out to be a very good sleeper. Normally, I cannot sleep while on board, and so, when everybody else within the plane snores, I continuously shift positions and postures to make myself more confortable so that I can get at least some sleep in order to kill the time. Staying awake for a longer period has its own setbacks, I feel like going to the bathroom once in a while, and for that, I am forced to wake up the sleeping person which I dont like to. So, nowadays, I select my own seat while booking the ticket.

This time, when I finally boarded the connecting flight from Frankfurt to Chicago, I was surprised to see a person occupying my seat . He , very politely, stated that he wants to change his seat with myself so that he can sit with his family. Since it was an aisle seat, I told him that I can do so if his seat is also of the same type. At this moment, came the unexpected statement. The person announced that he has a business seat!!!

I was completely taken aback. I have never heard of an exchange like this before. So, not quite sure about what I heard, I double-checked with him, and also verified with the air-hostess, and when she confirmed that the exchange depends only on the respective persons and has nothing to do with the class, I retreated back, and occupied my seat in the business class.

It was a very fine experience........the seat was extremely luxurious, and it can be adjusted at will - upright, half-inclined, full-inclined, fully flat - and it took me quite some time to understand the features of the chair completely. As the plane took off, an air-hostess gave all of us a Menu card to choose our meal, which had a starter and dessert as well!!! Time and again, they were offering beverages.

For my part, I was able to sleep for the first time on board. It was a solid slumber of nearly 5 hours, which thoroughly refreshed me. It also helped me in another way. As I had less than two hours of time for my next flight, I was able to get out of the plane sooner and reach the immigration desk much earlier than I expected.

The immigration, customs clearence, luggage collection............everything went so smoothly that I was really surprised. Then came the second wonder! As I was about to tranfer my luggage, I learnt that the Wichita flight has been cancelled and the next flight is after 4 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do the erudite label this type of event as poetic justice?????????? I am not sure!

Activities in the last two months

It is always easy to start something new, but the hard part is to maintain it. I have been away from blogging since the last two months, although there were nothing unusual or special during this time interval. These two months went away in a mundane fashion, following the same routines, with the same familiar faces. However I thought of mentioning a few things which I did since July, and here goes the list:

• I watched Mithun classic Bengali movie Judhdho, where the opening dialogues of Mithun goes like this:

Amaar naam DSP Agniswar Roy, ami jekhane jai, se jaygata prothome gorom hoy, tarpor agun jwole, sesh hoy chhai diye! I think this one piece is enough to name this film as a classic, but there are lots of these types of "classic" dialogues throughout the film. Highly recommended for movie watchers.

• I upgraded myself from Blended Scotch Whiskey to Single-Malt Scotch Whiskey.

• Durga puja in Wichita will be on the 13th of this month, and due to lack of enough members, I have been included in the core committee of planning and advising. I have attended both the meetings being held so far, because the Eating in both the cases was simply mind-blowing. When the part of talking comes, I manage the job with frequent "Er s", "Oh yes", " Looks good", "Not a bad idea" type of phrases. The plannings are still going on, and I hope earnestly that the execution will be done before 13th.

• Initially very much reluctant about Harry Potter, now I am just swallowing the novels at a rapid pace. At the beginning, I thought of reading only the first book of the series, but after reading the first, I could not restrain myself from reading the second, third and fourth. Presently, I'm on the fifth book, and am confident to finish the entire series by the end of this year. I must admit now that if I would not have read these, it would have been a great mistake. JK Rowling simply rocks! Along with the books, I have watched the four movies also. The movies are good in their own way, the performances are really worth-watching.
  

• I have started "official research work" and hope to burn the face of my country soon.

• I am going home on the 11th of December.....................WHOOO AAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know it is always good to read from the top of a list, but sometimes, the other way round helps. This list, at least, has been intended for that way.