Farhan's scoreline

Farhan - The Good

1. Dil Chahta Hai
2. Lakshya
3. Rock On(Audio)

Farhan - The Bad

1. Don - The chase begins again
2. Rock On(Video)

Farhan - The Ugly(iest)

1. Oye! It's Friday!

The final score reads 3-2-1.

Back with a BANG!

It's been a long long time actually. First, I had my final semester exams, then dissertation susmission, a marriage and then a crisis on the personal front, all of which are either over or have been resolved. A lot has happened since my last long post, attacks on Bombay being the major happening. Amongst all the crap that has been floating in the media(print as well as TV), I saw some very very few articles/columns being able to see reason and talk sense. Some of them are as follows.

1. GreatBong's posts on 26/11 and the press coverage
2. Offstumped and the Acorn are as usual, at their best.
3. M J Akbar's(for whom I have newfound respect now) piece, here and here.
4. Swapan Dasgupta, as usual everywhere.

Amongst the English channels CNN IBN is the worst. Their coverage as well as their anchors as well as their bias against you know who. NDTV was better but then they have Barkha Dutt no. Whenever NDTV tries to do well, she tries equally hard to show how minorities have also suffered.

Madam Barkha, we Indians are not fools. After the Gujarat riots, there have been almost 8-12 terrorist attacks on India and nowhere have Hindu mobs targetted muslims. So puh-lease stop treating us as kids and behaving as the epitome of (pseudo)secularism.We are more mature than you think.

Amongst the good things that happened was India's win against England and Sachin's knock. And now Dravid's knock too. But the best bit of cricketing news came from down under. So you see arrogance is fallible!!! LOL! On the subject of cricket, Harsha's latest is as usual, ORGASMIC!

Wow!!!

2 months and 1 post.....have to get back to regular blogging. Have a lot on my mind - terror attacks, India's win, Sachin's century blah blah blah.

Harsha Bhogle's latest

is a masterpiece. Sample this

On Laxman

"This double hundred was flawless and like a master cutter shaping a diamond, VVS Laxman eroded the Australian bowling. They respect him there far more than we do in India and this innings was an example of why that is so."

"There is something deeply satisfying about a man who doesn’t thump his own chest, doesn’t give the two fingers to the opposition, is in the news for the right reasons and doesn’t know what a brawl means."

"He was treated very shabbily during the IPL, was prevented, in a most bizarre episode, from playing for a month in England and had to witness the swords being sharpened for his execution. Don’t forget this is a man who gave up a million dollars a year so the Deccan Chargers could get better players and help develop cricket in his state. In England they are going crazy over a million dollars per player. Laxman gave up a million a year for three years! At the end of the first season in the IPL, he was sacked when he had been captain for six games and the job was given to a man who had led in the other eight!! And not a thank you for the extra three million!"

My Review - The Insider

You have two great actors, a great director, a great real-life script, seven Oscar nominations and what do you get in the end - a movie which manages to indulge in some foreplay but fails to give you the orgasm. The Insider could have been a gripping drama about corporate fraud, greed and standing up for your beliefs(which is such a common plot in Hollywood) but this two and a half hour film fails to keep up the pace. Al Pacino gives you some fine moments and thats it. Russell Crowe it seems used this film to prepare for 'A Beautiful Mind'.

Maybe because I saw it on DVD. Maybe I had too many expectations. Maybe life is not that fair. Maybe. Try this one of you are a Pacino fan.

Finally its here - Ghajini Promo

Looks good na?

There's something about Dhoni

I agree, finally!

Best of the 70s

Close on the heels of Best of the 60s, comes Rediff's Best of the 70s.

My Review - Patton

My obsession with world war movies continues. Patton is a 1970 Hollywood film which won seven Oscar awards including Best Film, Actor and Director. It is based on George Smith Patton Jr, who was a brilliant but eccentric US military general in world war II. My father used to mention a lot about him along with Rommel(who was a German General). It has been on my to-do list for a long long time. The film documents the general's exploits in the buildup to the second world war. George C Scott, who won the Best Actor Oscar in 1970,(and refused it famously) is brilliant as Patton. The film does not focus on the war as such but more on Patton's personality and his views and opinions on a host of issues like reincarnation, war, honour etc.

Watch it for George C Scott's brilliant performance!

My Review - Out of Africa

Casually surfing through Wikipedia, I stumbled upon this movie and I got to know that this real-life romantic drama got a Best Oscar for Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay among others in 1985. I saw this movie last Sunday. If you are the one who has Discovery and Nat Geo as their favourite channels and Big Cat Diary as one of your favourite shows, you are bound to love this movie. The pace is slow and boring at times but it tells of a much simpler time and very simple people(African tribals). Meryl Streep is brilliant with her Dutch accent, Robert Redford is sexy and the cinematography is mindblowing. Some of the supporting cast also does well in their tiny but significant parts. A perfect watch for a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon!

Bush floors India

How can any Indian not like this guy?

Absolute bliss

How would you feel when you saw the director of the last decade's best comedy giving an interview almost two years after the release of the film?
The answer is bliss!

My Review - A Wednesday

A lot of people recommended this film to me, including some of my dear friends and I have to say ‘A Wednesday’ is THE best film of the year. Ten minutes into the movie and you are hooked; anticipating what's going to happen next. Anupam Kher(after a long long time) gives an excellent performance as the Bombay Police Commissioner. Jimmey Shergill hardly has five lines, enough to make an impact. Amir Bashir is cute as usual. But the role of the film is with the nameless character(the common man) played by Naseeruddin Shah, who gives an inspiring 10 minutes speech at the end after which you cannot help but stand up and clap. Continuously!

Must Watch for every Indian!

My Review - Apocalypto

I read a lot of great reviews and went for this one. Got the DVD and saw it with my better half. I am thankful I am still married! Depiction of Mayas and the Maya Civilization is nice and the cinematography is excellent. The first half has a lot of brutal violence(Be ready to see human sacrifice with hearts being ripped out) which is pointless cause it does not lead anywhere.

The actual fun is in the last 50 minutes when the chase begins. Its like you want him(Jaguar Paw) to run run and run faster. This would have been a top of the line film had the chase started 30 mins into the movie. Great idea, bad execution. One time watch strictly!

How could you

Goldie Behl....how could you?

Top 10

Hollywood films about politics

My Review - Rock On

Finally I saw Rock On. And I have to say that Rajeev Masand's review is spot on. The film has its moments but its not a cult film(which I am guessing most of us thought it will be right?!!). First the bad things. Some of the dialogues and scenes are very awkward - the one where the band members fight or the scene where Aditya(Farhan's character) leaves his girlfriend overnight etc. The first half is painfully slow and Aditya's attitude seems irritating. The second half has its moments(when Prachi watches her husband in a new role and the channel V performance) but the cliches are hard to miss.


About the cast, Purab is the funniest. Farhan, sadly, is a better singer than actor. Shahana Goswami(plays Arjun's girlfriend and wife) is a revelation(she is sexy, dusky and can act). Arjun Rampal has given a nice understated performance. But the real scene stealer is Prachi Desai(sooooooooo cute) who looks so damn fresh and so elegant. Also, I have to add that the songs make much more sense once you see the movie. You can't help but admire Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for their mindblowing music. Pichle saat dinon main and Yeh tumhaari meri baatein are the best songs.

I would conclude by saying what Rajeev Masand said - Watch the film Cause at least it tries to be different. Three out of five stars is what the film deserves.

Rock on gets four

out of five.

Bloody Americans are good!

And the reason is below.

American television has consistently pursued creativity in the form of a Lost, a Prison Break, an Apprentice, a Beauty and the Geek and/or the latest offering - The Moment of Truth. A show in which one can make a lot of money and at the same time, make you loose all your loved ones. I loved this episode especially the segment where he hugs his mother after answering a question concerning her.

And another one on a little naughtier note...!

Whom do you believe?

India's most secular 24 hour English News Channel or India's number 1 website.

My Review - Bachna Ae Haseeno

Once again I got swept away by good...sorry excellent marketing by none other than my better half to see this latest Yash Raj offering. And because of financial constraints, I had to bloody well go at 08:50 AM to catch an early morning show. Since I TOOK the pain, here is the review.

BAH is one of those typical Yash Raj romantic comedies which is good only in parts. Most of us know the story by now. One confused guy gets three girlsat different stages in life, two of whom he rejects himself and the third girl rejects him and blah blah blah... The first track with Minissha Lamba aka Mahi is irritatingly slow and has a DDLJ hangover. Its actually in the second track with Bipasha aka Radhika where the movie lifts itself. The third track with Deepika is also good. Deepika's introduction is quite cool.

The movie has too many songs in the second half. The balle-balle and luckyboy songs was not all required. A lot of reviewers gave the second half thumbs down. I felt that the second half was much better than the first. About the cast

Minissha: Badly written character. I pray to God that there are no girls of that species in our country. And those green harem pants need to be thrown away fast.

Bipasha : Does what she is supposed to do. Show cleavage, play the 'fast' girl and smooch Ranbir. Smooch as in smooch. Not a peck. A smooch! Saif should be angry!!!

Deepika: The lady looks like a million bucks in this film, much better than OSO, but for Gawd's sake she can't act. Has to improve her dialogue delivery, A LOT. Seems that she did the role only for Ranbir given that her role is the shortest.

Ranbir : Best of the lot. Looks great. Does well in the comedy scenes though falters badly in the scene where he proposes to Deepika. Will have the girls drooling over him including the one who marketed this movie to me.

All in all, okay for a young college group but for serious cine lovers.....TRASH!

My Review - Platoon

Last to last Monday, I saw Platoon, the supposedly iconic 1986 film by Oliver Stone. I was pleasantly surprised to see 'some' negative portrayal of Americans as Hollywood generally has a legacy of hyping up all things American. I found it to be an average film maybe because I have seen so many war movies of the 90s and 2000s and now I am going backwards. Watching Charlie Sheen in a serious role was a bit awkward as I am used to watching him in stuff like Scary Movie and Hot Shots. I quite liked the character of Willem Dafoe, the Officer with morals. All in all, a one time watch.

Kashmir Vs Democracy

I got to know this from my brother. India's best blogger is asking - "Is Kashmir more important than democracy?" and also providing links to Swaminathan Aiyar's latest as well as Vir Sanghvi's latest.

Well, I seem to agree with all three of them. We should 'gift' away Kashmir to democracy. Similarly, we should conduct plebiscites in parts of western UP, parts of Assam, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Ahmedabad etc etc. We should also ask Shabana Azmi to take part.

And after all this is done, we can kiss India goodbye.

P.S. - Fortunately for us fundamentalists and nationalist elements, there are individuals who have other ideas.

Congratulations

Abhinav Bindra.

Buttering gets

an american twist. Some like to call it diplomacy. LOL!

Mid-Terms are over

And I am back to blogging. So what's new? Jammu is still burning, Kashmir(is) are still lying, The Dark Knight is still rocking, Shivraj Patil is still sucking, BJP is still hamming, Katrina is still denying and so on and so forth. Life hasn't changed much except that Harsha Bhogle is still mindblowing.

And that is why I like Viru...

Some champions work on a very simple principle. If a ball is to be hit, hit it. Sometimes it works better than the walls, little masters and gods of the off side.

My Review - The Dark Knight

Finally I saw The Dark Knight today. Just a couple of hours back. I am still stunned. Heath Ledger is not around. I mean when you like a cinematic performance, you want to listen to the person concerned(actor/director) bask in its glory and live the moment. It could be anybody - Farhan Akhtar after Dil Chahta Hai, Ashutosh after Lagaan, Aamir after TZP etc etc. Unfortunately Heath is not around. So I will put it in these words which were sent to me by a certain Mr "Lost-in-his-own-world" from Chicago. Verbatim.

"Ok So we believe that the days where we "live" the characters of the movie are gone. I did. I thought I had grown up. "Acting" like a movie character after watching it was a thing of the past. It had to be either really smart or really artistic. Something has to be really "convincing" or "captivating" to make me do that..The Joker did.Very few things live up to the hype that surrounds them these days.. Joker's potrayal by Ledger is one of them. I was "acting" like him after the movie. Really well supported by the "eerie" music whenever he comes on the screen .. no overwhelming-orchestra-music here.. normal superhero movie.. has its moments.. 2.5 hrs long.. watch it for heath...! Javier Bardem, make way for the new bad man!"

The Ultimate Bad Guys list

An impressive list which has The Joker(Heath Ledger), Hannibal Lecter(Anthony Hopkins), Jack Nicholson(The Shining), Kathy Bates(Misery) and the recent Mr Chigurh from No Country for Old Men.

Harsha Bhogle

on England's 20-20 league, Toyota Prius and the economics of cricket. As usual, brilliant!

Digging its own fuckin hole....

Thats for the BJP - the stupid and arrogant "Hindu Nationalist Party". For the six years they were in power they built a strategic relationship with the US, they initiated an agreement and when it came to partnering with the Italian National Congress and passing the very same-but-improved agreement(and in the process, making the Left and Amar Singhs look like non-entities), they put their respective foots in the mouth and did this. In the process, they gave an alternative to all the other Laawaris parties aka UNPA in the form of "Bahen Mayawati".

Manmohan Singh has won and I am happy. For my country and my country alone!

I still don't like Manmohan Singh - he's weak, he's incomprehensible, his record as PM is worse than Kishan Kumar's stint in movies and he does not even have a Lok Sabha seat to back him up. But on this issue, I am with him, behind him, totally.

The things to do List

That I like the Travel and Living channel(TLC) is no big secret, what is not known about me is that I have a huge fascination for adventure. I might not have the stamina or a previous skydiving/mountain biking/bungee jumping record or the money(LOL! for now that is) but I have always had a huge inclination to go for a (mo)bike ride across Ladakh or take the Jism(Ahem the film!) route from Chennai to Pondicherry and the biggest of them all - the Trans-Siberian Railway. I dont know when did I read about it, I guess it was in some travel magazine - maybe Outlook Traveller. But its hung up on me. The very thought. 7 days of a train journey acoss Russia, the landscape, the experience, the people, the culture shock. The kind of stuff you tell your grandchildren about. Right?!!

But yesterday I saw something even more exciting on the TLC channel. The name of the show is Long Way Round. Its a documentary of a 31,000 km journey of Evan Mcgregor(acted in Moulin Rouge and Black Hawk Down) and his friend Charley Boorman from London to New York on BMW bikes in 2004. In between they pass through Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, SIberia and then via Alaska, Canada to New York. I saw one episode yesterday and it was actually mindblowing, something which could better the Trans-Siberian Railway. What do you think?!!

Hancock Vs Harman

A run of the mill comment from Bollywood makes up for a dissapointment from Hollywood. I saw Hancock today. After Spidey 3 and Hulk remake, this also comes as a dissapointment(I haven't seen Iron Man). The movie has an excellent first half with Will Smith clearly at his best. Just when you expected the momentum would carry forward(along with chicken nuggets and a cuppa coffee)....BAM...bollywood comes in with a superwoman, a centuries old love story and a hospital ending. Gawd!!!

As for Harman, how do you expect the junta to like you when even your girlfriend won't kiss you? LOL. Note the lines guys - "That's exactly why she didn't do the kiss. She couldn't make a concession with me because then other filmmakers would've accused her of preferential treatment. So we simply scrapped the smooch." Great!

Hit SMS

What did one Congress MP say to the other after SP decided to extend support to the UPA?
Pehle Lal Salaam, ab Dalal Salaam!

Source : Swapan Dasgupta's article in today's Sunday Times

Bol na halke halke

Listened to this song from Jhoom Barabar Jhoom almost seventeen times tonight. Pata nahi kya baat hai is gaane main. I get addicted to it especially when I am all alone.

P.S. : I know the singer is a paki but the music directors are Indian!

My Review - Dus Kahaniyaan

Last Sunday I managed to catch Dus Kahaniyaan on Sony. Most of the stories in the film are good but what lets you down is the direction. Also, the film moves at a very fast pace. Arre Gupta Saheb kisne kaha tha Dus Kahaniyaan dikhaane ko. Saat dikha dete! Anyway, the stories which I liked are Zahir(*ing Manoj Bajpai and Diya Mirza), Gubbare(*ing Rohit Roy and Nana Patekar) and Rise and Fall(*ing Sunju Baba and Sunil Shetty). Rice plate starring Naseer and Shabana was also good but I am not comfortable with pseudo-secularism so I let that pass.

Obama condoles Maneckshaw's death

I am pleasantly surprised.

Greatest General Ever

Rest in peace!

Reviews - Aamir & The Incredible Hulk

I saw two films over the last four days. Different Worlds. Different Genres. Different Industries. One is a superhero trying to live upto his name and a weird first outing. And the other is by a debutant trying to make his mark in a star obsessed industry.




THE INCREDIBLE HULK
I felt TIH was not upto the mark. There seems to be no story, casting is terrible, the Abomination comes in way too late, chemistry is missing between the lead pair and kanu dear, yes, Liv Tyler "HAS" grown old. In the Univerisity fight scene it seems for a moment that The Hulk is the bad guy and Emil Blonsky is the good guy. The long fight scene at the end will remind you of the boring Spiderman 3 scene at the end - too dark and too 'difficult to make out'. Really dissapointed. Was waiting for it for a long time!

AAMIR
I expected Aamir to be a typical secular rant but it's actually a smashing debut by Rajkumar Gupta and a sensible one by Rajeev Khandelwaal. I was made to see the film by my friends on a 'pirated' CD which I don't normally do but eventually it turned out to be a pleasure. A typically good muslim vs bad muslim story. I like the scene especially where he tells the guy on the phone - "I was not lucky. I studied in govt schools and colleges, worked hard, got a scholarship and made my destiny on my own". Brilliant line! The 'checking of luggage four times' scene at the start was unnecessary. Best film of the year?!! We will see! :-)

A much simpler time

The iPhone 3G is here!

Big One in the IPL

So its Chennai Vs Rajasthan, finally. I have to admit, before the IPL started, I wasn't a die hard fan of Shane Warne. I loved the fact that he never could actually do well against India. Although I did like the fact he turned the ball by 45 degrees, I did not know what he did with New Hampshire. I did not know that as one day captain in 10 matches, he won nine out of them. Thank you, Mr Chappell for that bit. And I also did not know about this whole "the best captain Australia never had" bit.

But watching him in the IPL has made me fall in love with him. While watching the Indian fab four(Dada, Sachin, Laxman, Dravid) fail miserably in this version of the game, its been total paisa vasool watching Warnie execute his plans with ruthlessness. He had the cheapest team consisting of nobodys and yet he is at the top. It seems he is out to prove a point or two. And I pray to god he does.

Shekhar Gupta, as usual

bang on target. On why the Italian National Congress lost in Karnataka. He makes some excellent observations and lashes out at the usual Rajya Sabha coterie around Sonia.

"This has subsequently reflected in its actions as well, and in its desperation to find favour for its rural schemes it has strangled the urban voter with a panoply of new taxes and cesses on goods, services, and most importantly salaries. Then to squeeze out liquidity to contain headline inflation, it has brutally increased interest rates. Most ordinary folks in cities, most of them not at all rich but low/lower middle class, are now paying up to 500 basis points more even on small loans for two-wheelers and essential white goods and for their children’s education. They curse the UPA every month as they pay their increased EMI. It’s only a party that refuses to understand this new sociology of Indian politics that overlooks the killer impact of EMI inflation on its voters. It is these follies that have lost it so many elections since 2004."

IPL Dairy - May 31st

Glenn Mcgrath is a competitor, a great bowler, accurate, this, that etc etc. But Glenn Mcgrath is also someone who never kept his mouth shut whenever he was bowling. His sledging of Sachin is well known. His run-in with Sarwan is well known and documented. And in the match vs Rajasthan Royals yesterday, he once again demonstrated why he is at the top of my hatelist.

After Graeme Smith(who was limping as a result of a hamstring injury) had hit him for three consecutive fours, Mcgrath did the worst possible. He mocked Smith and tried to walk with a limp. Smith, needless to say, did not respond. The funny thing is that no newspaper or website has found worthy of putting this in their respective columns. Shame on you, Mcgrath!

Fainted....

The least politicians can do for the people of this unlucky country is to have ministers who do not faint when the finest young officers of the Indian Army are passing out!

Atif Aslam can't sing

says Sunidhi Chauhan. Yeah right! Try telling that to my wife!

IPL Dairy - May 27th

Common sense. In the post-match interview, Sachin mentioned this word at least 4 times. Yep common sense! Which is

• Mr Dilhara "Godzilla" Fernando, that you take a sitter of a catch,
• bowl straight, especially if the opposition needs just 3 of the last bowl,
• Field well aka collect well Mr Jayasurya.

It was more like Mumbai loosing(their cool and the match) than Rajasthan winning.

Laloo Jee feels "Dhoni style zyada maarta hai!" and GreatBong's excellent IPL roundup.

Karnataka Election Results - Addendum

In extension to my post about English Psephologists and News Presenter's funny-expression-when-the-BJP-wins, wish to present Offstumped's take on the very soft spoken and very very gay Yogendra Yadav and the CNN IBN exit poll in Karnataka which had predicted the Italian National Congress to victory.

Elsewhere, praise for Modi from India's current Finance Minister.

Mystery Indian Analyst spooks

world economy.

Karnataka Election Results

It's very interesting and gratifying to watch our "English" Psephologists, News Presenters and Analysts whenever the BJP is winning. They can be divided in three broad categories

1. Visibly Happy - Arnab Goswami, Swapan Dasgupta, Rajdeep Sardesai(Surprisingly, may I add) & Prannoy Roy
2. Visibly Unhappy - Sagarika Ghose, Srinivasan Jain
3. Unhappy but trying really hard not to show aka Frustrated - Barkha Dutt, Vinod Mehta

All in all it is a big step for a party which was called "a party of the cow-belt states" but I don't think they should tom-tom much about it. Later this year they are certain to loose Rajasthan, MP and Chattisgarh, two of which they should.

Good News and Bad News - May 26th

The good news is that both the matches in the IPL yesterday were down to the wire. Chennai's loss means they are still in the hunt. And Delhi's win means that they(Delhi) as well as Mumbai are in the hunt which makes the next few matches very very interesting. The bad news is that Deccan and Bangalore will fight out today for (not) being in the last place.

Good news is that the BJP is leading in Karnataka. The bad news is that they might just be 4-8 MLAs short of simple majority.

Elsewhere : a top sports journalist butters King Khan, Shobha De comments on blogging and Vir Sanghvi writes on the IPL, the best line of which is this

"Thanks to the IPL, cricket is about to undergo a globalised blurring of loyalties in the same way that football has. It’s not that new a phenomenon, of course. There have always been foreign players in county cricket (I assume Shoaib Akhtar picked up that semi-intelligible accent while playing for Glamorgan). But the money that the IPL pays is so huge that county cricket cannot compete."

Kuldeep Dubey

I saw this today after a long long time...laughed so so hard. This guy is really awsome.

Gowariker's next is a romantic comedy

with Harman and Priyanka.

Iraq Debate - Letterman Vs O'Reilly

Excellent!

Worst top 10 films

By Rediff readers.

IPL Dairy - May 23rd

Lalit Modi must be a very happy man. Not only the IPL is raking in the moolah, it is also having a controversy every now and then. And our country's hype creating-newsbyte obsessed 24 hour News Channels have been lapping it up.

The latest comes from CNN IBN. King Khan will boycott all remaining matches going forward. As far as I can remember, this issue laid to rest two days back when SRK was given permission to visit the team dug-out. So why this new stand all of a sudden? Now that his team is out of the IPL, is he trying to divert the issue and become the wronged one?

Also, this cheerleader controversy refuses to die. I don't understand. Wizcraft and Kings XI Punjab should own up to it. We, as a country are obsessed with fair skin. Remember those Fair and Lovely Ads 2 years back. So what's the problem is saying that yeah, we asked those cheerleaders to come of the stage.

Lastly, why is this a big deal? Note the language - "...difficulties refuse to go away...". You get contracts. You loose contracts. Has the media not heard of churning, change and competition? And to all these people who talk about Dravid's adaptation to 20-20 cricket, could I please request them to visit Harsha Bhogle's latest?

India's best PM is

Manmohan, according to an NDTV GFK MODE poll.

As per the poll, 27% think Manmohan is the best PM.
22% think Vajpayee is the best PM.
19% think Sonia is the best PM.
But 62% also feel that Sonia is the 'real' PM.
Therefore, 35.74% think that Sonia is the best PM.
Hail NDTV!

Sack the Home Minister

Says The Acorn, rightly.

"Mr Patil’s failings though are not merely in the area of competence. His greater failing, arguably, is in the domain of values. Now it is acceptable—though highly objectionable—for someone to see moral equivalence between the death sentence of an Indian citizen guilty of terrorism in India by the Supreme Court of India and the death sentence handed out to an Indian citizen pronounced guilty of espionage and terrorism in Pakistan by the Pakistani judiciary. But that someone cannot be a member of the Cabinet. There are such things as values: constitutionalism, due process, transparency, independence of institutions and rule of law. If Mr Patil can’t see the difference in the processes that led to the similar result—the death sentence—he reveals a lack of basic values that disqualify him from any position of constitutional office."

Globalization/Outsourcing/Job Creation

A very very relevant example!

IPL Diary - May 21st

Crunch match today for SRK, Knight Riders and Ganguly, in that order. Warne has already started the mind games - having talked about knocking the riders "out of the tournament". Promises to be a blockbuster.

LOL - Amar Singh at Cannes

There is no better paradox than this! I still can't help laughing.

Celebrate rising divorce rates

says Amit Varma. Makes for an interesting argument!

Don't go to the dressing room

ICC Anti-Corruption units tells SRK. I don't get it. How can you ban the team owner from visiting his team in the dressing room or the dug-out for that matter? If the match is to be fixed, it can be fixed in the hotel the previous day itself. What was the ICC doing when Mark Waugh and Shane Warne were providing pitch information to bookies? LOL!

The ICC should definitely ban him for jumping and showing his jockeys.

King Khan having a bad hair day

On CNN IBN's special with Rajdeep Sardesai and Sourav Ganguly. Check at SRK's hairstyle. ROFL.

Real liberalization is the ICL

and not the IPL, writes Gaurav Sabnis. He has a point. But the question is, after the mega-success of the IPL, where does the ICL stand? I guess maybe shifting the telecast to ten Sports might help.

Ping Pong

Matrix Style! Must see...

IPL Dairy - May 17th

The Mumbai Indians are on a roll. The only hitch being that Tendulkar flopped yet again trying a Sehwagesque shot.

Somewhere else, the king of good times' hangover gets over, finally.

Two big ones coming up today. Rajasthan Vs Bangalore. Delhi Vs Punjab. I am putting my money on Rajasthan and Delhi. Would be very interesting to watch Smith vs Steyn. McGrath Vs S Marsh.

Big One today in the IPL

Mumbai Indians Vs Kolkata Knight Riders.

Will Shoeb fire? Will Sachin blast? Will Dada Rock? Will Jayasurya shock? Three hours from now, we will know.

Immigrant crackdown

intensifies in Italy as per the International Herald Tribune.

"Underscoring the new Italian government's determination to crack down on illegal immigration and crime, the authorities this week arrested hundreds of people in a massive sweep of shantytowns in major urban areas across the country. The widely publicized raids were a signal from Italy's new rightist government, which includes the anti-immigrant Northern League Party, that it planned to pursue tougher policies toward immigrants. "

When will India start acting tough on illegal immigrants?

Soha Ali Khan

turns on the heat.

GreatBong hits the nail

...in his own unique way, on the Jaipur blasts!

Why I hated the IPL ...and then started liking it...

I am sure that my wife lost count of the gaalis which I used to hurl at the DLF IPL ad. The one which went – tu laga daaav….tu laga daanv...tu dikha josh.

My reasoning was pretty simple –

The BCCI is only interested in making money. The cricket calendar is already jampacked or upar se yeh saala IPL. Won’t the players burnout?

Secondly the way the BCCI went about treating players who joined the ICL – the Zee backed rebel leage. The players were banned, some of them starring in a movie lost their roles and believe it or not, the banned players were even banned from entering the stadium i.e. Reetinder Singh Sodhi was banned from entering PCA stadium at Mohali.

Even Harsha Bhogle’s and Amit Varma’s sensible words did not budge me.

And when SRK said in a press conference that he is not getting good response from Calcutta crowd, I thought wow, this seems like a recipe for disaster.

But the facts are different.

The IPL has proved to be a BLOCKBUSTER – giving competition to not only SRK’s Paanchvi Paas but also saas bahu serials – which is great. And watching the local lads like Shikhar Dhawan, Manpreet Gony, Badrinath, Dinda etc do well also proves Amit Varma ‘s point.

Which is - The IPL puts a price on performance and since the teams are owned by private parties, performance shall and will be the key for selection as well as bidding. So no bribing the selector anymore.

Point 2 : Local lads, mind you these are Indian local lads, shall be playing with likes of Mcgrath, Warne, Smith, Pollock. So the experience they stand to gain is tremendous.

Point 3 : The only players that made money previously were the fab four(Sachin, Sourav, Dravid, Laxman) and some youngsters(Yuvraj, Dhoni, Bhajji etc). When the IPL goes into its second season and when there shall be no Rs 20 Crore cap on the team, you might see a Dinda being sold for 6 crores while Bhajji being sold for 1.5 crores. In Economics we call it the equitable distribution of wealth. Isn’t that what Karl Marx set out to achieve?

Some people will still say that its not cricket??? Well did yu ever imagine that a day will come when yu will wear T-shirts over formal shirts like they wear today. The point which Harsha also makes is that sport to spread has to evolve or change or adapt etc etc etc. Also, I feel that in these days of fast life, fast food and fast cars, no one has the time or energy to watch a Test or a one day match.

For that, you can check the highlights.