Monday, January 28, 2008
Movies over the weekend …
Taare Zameen Per …
A beautifully directed movie (you can feel the ‘Amir Khan’ stuff) … the selection of cast creating anonymity and neighborhood feeling … slapping the thoughts and expectations of parents on their child … (even for the elder bro – who’s champ on almost everything – fails to convert the finals – the ugly emotions demolishes the spirit of playing and participating for the child – as of being runners up is worst thing in life) … exposing the current teaching / teacher’s standards (which is very true is most of the circumstances) …
Yes the movie is little heavy … and emotional … but not the typical bollywood emotions (k series types) … it lets you think for a moment … lets you be the child for that period
A must watch for every parent … and every parent to be … very relevant to the current socio-cultural competitive environment …
Welcome …
A David Dhawan style slapstick comedy … sometimes stretching a bit too long in between … too noisy and too many songs (for me at least; and none I can remember) … none of the actors were at their best (esp. Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar, Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar … you expect much more from them when you see consistent performance from them …) … Katrina was beautiful … (as always… good that she didn’t speak too much) …
Keep your brains off when you see this flick … better get a DVD from neighborhood video rentals …)
Hulla Bol …
Little loose direction – lack of impact from Pankaj Kapur and Ajay Devgan (they can deliver much better) … reality left bollywood way …
It’s just another brick in the wall of India Rising phenomenon – a loose one on that … this flick had the potential of creating revolution – failed …
Worth watch – but not worth multiplex …
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Who says (the Big Blue) Elephants can’t dance …
Caution: the post is biased and based upon media / TV / news reports which publish half baked facts covered with fantasies of the reporters covering the issue and added some masala of my own!
No I am not talking about IBM – the big blue or the ‘elephant’ of the book …
Yes … this is about the current UP CM Mayawati (my prev post) … who turned 52 y’day and the entire state was colored blue … (elephant is her party/ electoral symbol) …
My views on the extravaganza (of course biased) …
· She made a mockery of the current affairs of system … she RULES the state (like queen); so either you are with her or against her … and if you are not with her … even God can’t save you from the long running harassments … (only one escape – she’s thrown out of ministry – unlikely to happen in next few months at least)
· An easy way to get the money into the individual pocket – demands if not met - would result in severe consequences. I am not too sure if all the dalits are getting liberated, she (as dalit) is sure getting out of the blues …
· Self proclaimed popularity – launching an autobiography and stating ‘if ppl call me super CM – what can I do’ seems extremely crafted way attaining salvation! … road to nationalized recognition and last but not least the chair of PM (there too she converts the Qs of desire very intelligently by saying ‘if ppl want me to be the PM – I don’t see why not’ … )
· So the Tax collected is going into re-building the Ambedkar Park (she built it in the first place) in Lucknow … and the new venture of Ganga Express Way … I wish she would have spent even some amount to salvage the poverty of the state by creating better and progressive job opportunities and to improve the existing infrastructure (read state-road network and state transport system) and may be little on the side of tourism …
There is a saying in hindi – sher ko sava sher chahiye … meaning a bully can be controlled by another bully only … she controlled mulayam … who will control her!!!
From Jets to Nano …
TATA’s have done it …
Airplanes – Trucks – SUVs – Indica – Nano …
I wouldn’t be entirely wrong if I said that Tata’s were responsible in bringing passenger air services in India … and this year they have created another benchmark by bringing in Nano … in fact they are one of the bests (if not the best) in whatever field they are in … whether it is manufacturing or services (telecom/ IT/ Consulting/ …) they have provided India (read the mass of India – middle class) as affordable means of accessing what is known as luxury in a lot of aspects … especially in telecom and auto …
I think Nano is full of small innovation (let me call it Nano-vations) which will lead to new set of standards … a car meant for a small family who can have safer transportation … considering today its extremely unsafe to travel on scooter with a kid in front and wife hold younger one behind … we call female riders – crazy – I think its much safer for them now … at least they won’t tumble down and their scarf won’t get stuck in the rear wheel … with the growing affordability of the middle class – it’s a truly remarkable product …
Now, some of our environmentalists are claiming that bringing such inexpensive medium to the roads would create a havoc and chaos … there are too many cars anyway … and with nano on road, another million would be there in 2 yrs time frame … what would happen to pollution levels … global warming is anyway rising and nano has added fuel to the fire …
But I think little differently … I think innovation is child of necessity … there was a necessity to safe-inexpensive mode of private transportation – and you got that … so if you need to reduce the traffic to the road … you need to improve on the alternatives … look at Delhi and Kolkata – they have brought in Metro as alternate means of mass transport … people actually use them and avoid their own vehicles … this proves that if we have a proper (safe secure and affordable) and multiple means of mass transit … people would actually prefer to use them rather than own vehicles … after all buying is one thing … running costs petrol!!!
What we need today is a differentiated strategies to deal with it … differentiated based on the tier of the city (Metros (Delhi/Mumbai) / Rapid rising cities (B’lore/Pune/Hyd) / tier 2 and 3 cities (
Most of them need to have:
a) Proper roads – with dividers and street lights (which lights during night)
b) Road based transport – aka buses – run in PPP mode which should run based on ‘time factor’ and not the number of passengers factor … (Mumbai’s BEST is the best). Most of the bigger cities do have it but a person like me would want to travel in those overly crowded – unreliable in terms of time it reaches the destinations … and of course the kind of public who gets in … not that I hate them for any personal reason but the overall experience is not so great (neither is expected) … which triggers the need of multiple level of buses (like B’lore started with AC – Volvos … a nice initiative – but needs more buses and to be deployed in more routes with more frequency)
c) Rail based – Metro / Local (in case the distance is larger) – we have well laid out railway network – what we need is a good system (again Mumbai Local is an example but needs a lot of improvement there) … for instance I found that Delhi and NCR region are connected with EMU (locals) to some extent and similarly in Kolkata and Chennai too – but needs little more facilitated … Delhi’s and Kolkata’s Metro Rails are the best examples of how successful these modes can be … (debate can be there for type of Metro!)
d) Autos/ Taxis – should have proper stands – can be availed by hailing (Kolkata and Mumbai has this service and is fairly good) … Delhi has – but not properly regulated – and that is why people do not prefer to a great extent … though Radio Taxis have brought in some relief … still a log way to go … similarly three wheel auto rickshaws … needs a little more regularization and strict monitoring … (Mumbai autos are relatively better)
I think I am asking for too many things from the gov … as of course it takes time to develop such infrastructure … and by the time one gov decides to go for an alternative the other gov (post elections) uproots the entire plan and restarts again … and this process continues and we remain where we are … left hassled …
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Lead India - the continued story ...
One of the participant was very focused for making things BIG in his life, suddenly was at difficult situation when asked to do a menial task … though he did complete his task, the attitude to do that task was not inner … it was more to finish this task as this it was not meant for him. This shows his attitude towards smaller tasks and people (though he does a lot of activities which do result in larger benefit of the public) …
Another candidate, though was appreciated by the jury, in my opinion, didn’t deserve that many marks (or votes). Using the current authority she was holding, she actually just managed her task, there was nothing special about her organizational skill, capability to handle different people, etc. – and which was also not so tough compared to some of the other participants … I was not convinced about the over all word done by her …
In my opinion, whether they passed the test or failed, this acid test (and hope that a similar stuff continues) will really prove the worth of candidates …
On the other hand, we have leaders like Modi, Maya, Yadav(s), … the list is long … no doubt they are leaders … but again … I am not too sure if would like to have them as those who would lead the country …
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