One Tight Slacks!

There is no problem with title. I had no intention to write “One Tight Slap”. No reference to what happened between Harbhajan and SreeSanth. That was a bad episode and the sooner we get over it, the better.

I want to write about few of the interesting things happening in IPL.

One of the best things that happened two days back when, one of my favorite team won their first match. Gilly scored a brilliant century in 42 balls, fastest in IPL. His final score was 109 runs in 48 balls with 9 fours and 10 sixes. That was DC’s first win and hope this good work will continue. One sad part is Andrew will not be with team for rest of IPL.

Yesterday, Mumabi also won their first match in IPL. I did not see the first part, i.e. Calcutta’s inning. Got to see the second inning and that brilliant wicket Sharma took. For whatever reason, Mumbai managed to open the account and its’ always good to see the (my) home team winning.

One more special victory caught eye of many (hopefully). And that was victory of The Great Indian Hypocrisy! Cheerleaders of many teams started wearing slacks!!!

We Indians are very much focused race. In one of the episode of Mahabhart, Arjun could see only the eye of the target bird. In our case, our eye is always on the birds ;-). We get offended when someone wears miniskirt, but we are ok to be world’s second most populated country. To keep our emotions in check, we force others to control.

Grow up guys! Its time we all have to understand this. Rather than presenting One Tight Slacks to cheerleaders, we should learn what to see and where to concentrate.

Change

My father bought his first bicycle from his first salary. After many years he moved to moped. My sister got bicycle when she was in 8th standard. She got her moped when she was doing her graduation. I got my bicycle when I was in 5th and got the moped when I went to 11th.

This is one type of change. This change was an indication of many things, one being, availability coupled with many few others and other was need of time.

The second aspect, need of time, has always created debates. There are always contradicting opinions about it. Sometimes, it’s artificially created. But I feel that, forced changes do not last long. And it is not necessary that a change will eliminate the old completely. It may reduce the percentage, but if it is good, it will survive through change as well. And today, after graduating to car, I once again want to use my bicycle. And slowly, many folks are turning to this option. May be, everyone has their own reason, but then, no two people can think alike. For that matter, I still love to take long walks.

We can’t say car is bad because bicycle was good. Everything has its own advantages and disadvantages. And sooner or later, natural selection criteria will make you choose what is best for you at that time. But, good things withstand change.

So my point is what is good will remain! Change can not destroy it!

This topic came to mind when one of my young friends sent me this link.

He was very excited after reading the article. He was angry and sad. He did not like the way cricket’s popularity is used to make money. He did not like the indulgence of non-cricket playing stars in IPL. He thinks that, these guys are trying to sell something else on the name of cricket for their own benefit. And because of this, CRICKET in cricket will die, test cricket will die.

And my point was it won’t as it is THE classical form of cricket. And it will continue and flourish with time. IPL and glamour surrounding it can’t and won’t destroy test cricket.

You can’t stop Asha Bhosle from performing with Boy George or Sonu Nigam from dancing in those big stage shows, just because they got fame, success because of something else. You can’t stop them from experimenting, exploring new dimensions. Or for that matter, you should not stop some media manager or TV channel from making money because of these personalities’ talent.

In fact, these types of changes give you a chance to witness something new, which you may not have dreamed. And if it is good it will survive. That does not mean it kills the original.

PS: To me, this topic sounds similar to: “If teaching in mother tongue should be made compulsory?"

Opps they did it again!

IPL started its first season with a BANG. First few games are played really well. Amazing show put together by the cricketers. Many things are new for Indian Cricket, foreign players, cheerleaders, 40+ days of really packed schedule. It’s fun to watch these matches.

But, BCCI made one BIG mistake. They gave broadcasting rights to SET-Max. They spell SET as “Sony Entertainment Television”. Oh come on!!! Agreed, T20 is entertainment, but still, it’s different from that ‘E’ of ‘SET-MAX’. They have a proven track record of BBC, Bad Broadcasting of Cricket.

And if you do not believe me, read this:

Other than commentators, everyone else doing the talking is new in the business (cricket) and they make it a point to prove it! They announce one thing and the director puts some other item for broadcast.

Today, during one match, they put a banner for “Sixes” (i.e. they will show all the Sixes hit during the match) and they put Symond’s penultimate over for broadcast.

Ads are put in between an over. They do not wait for the over to finish and start the ad. May be they do not understand difference between a legal ball and a no or wide ball. Feels like its not IPL but, AdPL ;-)

Today, at Eden Garden, one of the light systems developed some problem, during that break when channel’s reporter caught hold of one umpire; Ajay Jadeja called him “Aleem Dar”. Immediately the director put that name on air. Actually he was “Asaad Rauf”. Somehow, no one recognized him, not even the director of the show.

Lekha, their ground reporter (call her ground attraction), is hot, but that does not give her right to ask an umpire as who he thinks will win the match. Come on, umpires SHOULD not have or rather should not form these opinions. And that is exactly what umpire “Asaad Rauf” told her, “I am umpire, I am not (here) to give opinion, am (here) to give decisions”. Trust me, with Lekha, its always fun. If I am not exaggerating too much, she can be new Mandira in making ;-) (NANA where r u? We need one article on Lekha soon.)

Before the match between RC and Indians, they had fire-show. It was good. The bad part was, after players came on the ground, they discovered remains of those firecrackers on ground scattered all over. And all of them, including few local boys and umpires, spent next 10-15 minutes in cleaning the ground.

And the WORST of all, they just do not show the cheerleaders :(

Its’ all happening guys. All the errors again and again, oops they did it again and again and again :-)

Beautiful girls

I was very much tired that day. And it was already one and a half month since I was away from home. I was feeling very bored.

There was not a single good program on TV and it was just 7:00 pm :(

Started searching for on-demand movies, but they were expensive for my budget. :(

Finally, I started browsing the “free movies” section. There were lots of old movies. But one name caught my attention. The name was very interesting: “Beautiful Girls”. Hmmm ;-) Immediately pressed the PLAY button!

And trust me, the decision was indeed beautiful!!!!!!!

Though, the initial expectations were a bit different, the movie turned out to be really, really good. It was about a confused old (around 23+) guy and an innocent girl (she was 13). The situation is like: this guy recently got a bad experienced in his relationship and this girl has just entered into her teens. The interesting part is to see the way things develop between them. The story line is very much realistic. The dialogues are amazing. There are few other dimensions to this movie. Along with this main story line, many parallel stories go hand in hand. And all the dialogues are amazing. It’s a dialogue based movie, so I you don’t like to listen, better keep away from this movie.

But trust me, you will enjoy every bit of this movie. This movie will make you think about many things. You will be able to relate yourself to one or the other episodes.

I won’t write the whole story here. But it’s a real “must watch” for all those with heart :-) and those who are ready to admit, it all happened in their life, at least once!!!!!!!!!!

One thing for sure, I could not understand the reason behind selecting such a strange name for such a cute movie. But I enjoyed every bit of the movie.

I have few clips of this movie. Basically, all of Winnona Ryder’s frames. If you want it, send me a mail :-) These clips cover almost 60-70% of movie’s story. But there are lots of dialogues that are not in this clip, that you should not miss. So better see the whole movie.

PS: This movie is very much dialogue based movie so be attentive when you watch it. That may be one of the reasons for this movie not doing commercially well.

PPS: This is the IMDB link for this movie. I hope you will enjoy this movie. Do let me know your reactions at (shreenivas@gmail.com).

Welcome!

Nikaaloo naa be naquab, jamaana kharaab haai

That is Pankaj Udhas’ famous gazal. Yesterday got to see the latest video on channel V. They wanted to show a long story and managed to do it. Though I felt that, they could have done a better job. Still, the video was interesting. The hero in that video was a member of FOSLA (V.R.C.E. folks know the meaning) gang. And as a rule, was frustrated till end. This ghazal starts with an interesting sheer:

Bee paarda nazaar aayi jo kal chand bibiyan
Akbaar jamin mein gairaate koumi se gaadaa gaya
Puchaa jo maine aapka paarda wooh kya huvaa
Kaheene laagi ki aakla pee maardon kee paada gaya

And in this video, the hero behaved the same way, when it came to inferring about the other person’s likings. This happens too often in everyday life. Like they say,

Sawaan ke aandhe ko sirf haariyaali dikthi haai!

This takes me to an episode that happened around 5-6 years back.

Place: Indraprastha (Marriage Hall)
Time: Evening (around 8pm)
Occasion: Marriage reception party.
Actors: Ashu, me and few others.

I was late for the party. Actually I was busy completing few of the tasks allocated to my friends (one of them was the host of that party). I reached there when most of the function was already over and many people were already on their way home. As both bride and groom were my friends, I managed to find lots of friends there. After all that usual hi-bye sequence, I met almost all of my friends. Finally met Ashu and one more friend and had my food with them. The conversation with them was somewhat like this:

A: So you were LATE.
M: Oh really!
T: Yup!
M: Ok, no probs.
T: Still there is some crowd.
A: Not much.
M: Who is that?
A: Hmmm, she is (also) engaged!
T: Same old story.
M: Welcome!!!

(A: Ashu, M: Me, T:Third friend)

Hmmmm. Same old story! Welcome!!!