Root of the chatterSaturday, February 27, 2010,12:25:21 AM
The national budget usually flies over my head. The ‘economese’ that experts use to discuss the budget (and a budget comes with gadzillion pros and cons, depending on your political leaning, and the argument never ends), turns me into a confused body of tissues and cholesterol. That is the reason why I decided to visit the root of the word ‘budget’, in order to rationalise my stupidity. I was not surprised at all when I found the word has a Latin ....
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Big boom is a big lossFriday, February 19, 2010,11:05:53 PM
While ruminating over the blast at German Bakery, I had many thoughts. One thing I paid particular attention to was the concept of ‘moving on’. What do we mean by ‘moving on’? If ‘moving on’ were a sheep, and you sheared it, you would get wool and a bald herbivore. Not a bird. So then, would you choose the wool to keep warm, or would you slaughter the sheep for its meat? ....
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Of chaddis and genesSaturday, February 13, 2010,12:41:58 AM
It was amusing to see Pramod Muthalik gush with anger and say that he would punish those who blackened his face, because what they did “was undemocratic”. Mr M, good morning! His parasites beat up women who were in a bar legally, not very long back. Now that he is hurt and everything, I have a feeling he actually wears pink chaddis and has been wearing them much before the Pink ....
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Why we need dialogueSunday, February 07, 2010,12:16:36 AM
In 1985 I went for a matinee screening of Jean-Luc Godard’s Hail Mary in Beverly Hills. Pope John Paul II had denounced the movie and a crazy protester threw a shaving cream pie on the director at the Cannes Film Festival. But outside the theater there was a quiet protest — a group of tiny nuns standing with their rosaries. No words were spoken, no slogans shouted. Their mere presence ....
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Thesis what it is, Chiddu!Friday, February 05, 2010,11:35:35 PM
Here’s some humble advice from a powerless man living in a democracy, for our Harvard-educated Home Minister P Chidambaram. Sir, next time you want to trash the Shiv Sena or MNS on its Marathi manoos and Mumbai-for-Marathis stand, you should keep in mind that the rudimentary saffron mind does not carry a dictionary around (because the lathi and the flag occupy the ....
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Best and the bountifulSunday, January 31, 2010,12:52:22 AM
Marathi films now occupy a large, vividly coloured spot on the map of Indian cinema. "Shwas" went to the Oscars four years ago; Harishchandrachi Factory had gone this year. When it was screened at the NCPA recently as the opening film of a Marathi film festival, there was such a scrunch, that they had to hold a second screening after the first. A similar scramble is on right now for ....
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Catcher and a goodbyeSaturday, January 30, 2010,12:16:39 AM
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like... all that David Copperfield kind of crap. I don’t want to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or anything, but I have to tell you that J D Salinger was the writer I read 30 hours a day when I was in my goddam late teens, and I still read it on rainy days, now when ....
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Let’s see them soon!Thursday, January 28, 2010,12:28:15 AM
I have my pet passions. One of them is collection of stones. Not just any sort of course, but ones that look interesting, picked up from the most unexpected places… the jungles of Madhya Pradesh and the Nilgiris, Galway and Kilkenny in Ireland, Bali and central Java, from the slopes of the volcano Mount Merapi, sub-Himalayan rivers, Plovdiv in Bulgaria… and a host of other places, ....
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Right to oppose viewsMonday, January 25, 2010,12:27:38 AM
Our irrepressible Minister of State for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor, got into hot water recently after he made a remark about the foreign policies of Jawaharlal Nehru. According to press reports he had said, “I agree with Bhiku Parekh’s opinion on Nehru and (Mahatma) Gandhi’s foreign policies. It was more like a moralistic running commentary.” Parekh is a British Labour Party ....
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Get social with the starsSaturday, January 23, 2010,11:49:09 PM
Priyanka Chopra loves New York, especially the sun setting in the backdrop of the city’s bridges, and Shahrukh Khan has asked Karan Johar to get Barkha Dutt a t-shirt of My Name is Khan. Abhishek Bachchan was recently shooting across from Preity Zinta’s apartment building and so perhaps they may have connected. These valuable pieces of information I have learnt as I ....
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The best sleep quotesFriday, January 22, 2010,11:48:17 PM
Who is the world’s most interesting person? While a vote on the internet might throw up surprises like Osama bin Laden, I beg to disagree. Of course, I know he is interesting, overall. Just imagine Osama telling his crew: “I have selected the Twin Towers. Now you little boys take the plane. You guys will then enjoy the virgins in heaven, and I’ll be on the run so that the goggled spies of the CIA ....
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When democracy bites into developmentFriday, January 22, 2010,12:32:25 AM
Christopher C Benninger, senior architect and town planner told this paper a while back, “Growing large does not make you a sumo wrestler! Pune has a much larger population than Amsterdam or Copenhagen. But Pune is not a metro in the sense these two examples are.” It would be of immense academic interest to research the promises, execution and delivery of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). ....
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Chillout havensWednesday, January 20, 2010,11:56:56 PM
Just the other night I was over at my favourite jazz café soaking in the atmosphere that was alive with great music and togetherness. Glasses clinked, people swayed, cheered, clapped, whistled. And it seemed like the very ground beneath our feet was moving. And above us,beyond the tastefully decorated rooftop, the winter sky was crisp with stars. It was one of those very special moments when one sighs to oneself, ‘If there is bliss, ....
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Browser bluesTuesday, January 19, 2010,10:41:36 PM
Someone recently told me that the British Council Library has not just moved to Lower Parel but changed its character completely. You don’t have to go to the library any more. You merely order books online, and they will be sent to you and also picked up when you have finished with them.There is no time limit for the books, though the librarians may remind you from time to time that there ....
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Dying to ask a questionMonday, January 18, 2010,10:45:28 PM
The Delhi High Court has again given a historic verdict. It declared that the assets of all judges, including the Chief Justice of India are under the purview of the Right to Information Act. It was this court, back in November 2000, that declared that assets, liabilities, education and pending criminal cases of all Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha candidates be disclosed to voters. All political parties initially opposed that historic judgment, and challenged it in the ....
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Corporate governance 2.0Sunday, January 17, 2010,10:26:20 PM
January 7, 2010 marked the first anniversary of the most striking corporate scandal in the post-liberalisation era. It was on January 7, 2009 that Ramalinga Raju, the visionary leader of Satyam Computers — an iconic company in the glamorous information technology (IT) sector — made a five-page confession about the Rs 7,000-plus-crore fraud he had committed over a period of six years. Ironically, this was the period when Satyam ....
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Like stars on earthSaturday, January 16, 2010,09:57:07 PM
Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par opened in the US in Indian theaters in December 2007. The film had a decent run, grossing under $1.3 million and then UTV released the film on DVD — again for the Indian market. That is a respectable life for a Bollywood film, critically acclaimed for its sensitivity and the mature manner in which it dealt with a difficult topic. Later, the film — a moving story ....
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Truth, Murphy, murderFriday, January 15, 2010,10:40:50 PM
Osho sometimes used the inimitable Murphy to illustrate the truth. In fact, he even said he could forget the Buddhas, the Krishnas, the Christs and the Prophets, but he would never forget dear old Murphy. Consider these Murphy’s laws he picked out, and our world will make sense: 1. No matter what they are telling you, they aren’t telling you the whole truth. 2. No matter what they are talking ....
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When I saw Gajagamini, I realised M F Husain was too far out for the humble neurones in my little brain. They didn’t pulsate like quasars when I watched the film. But I instinctively understood the meaning of Madhuri Dixit’s curves, though I found MF’s celluloid exercise droll. It is amusing in an odd way, when you try to imagine MF’s word bubble while directing. “Yes stand like the 12th century ....
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