national pride

human grouping and the inevitable ensuing xenophobia are disturbing phenomena. whether the group be based on race, language, religion, nationality or length of one's nose, once people start huddling or even drifting towards people more like themselves, the basic tenets of civilization start faltering.

living beings have some unspoken rules they follow when they live in the proximity of each other. for instance "we will not deliberately hurt each other" or "we will not steal from each other, openly". you take these tenets for granted and rarely ever expect to be stabbed by random strangers while walking down the footpath. these considerations of yours are rewarded by social acceptance ( which allows for trade and shared resources, higher security... and further down the line, government, public transport etc ). if however you decide to follow the rules only with people from your own nationality ( or nose length ) and give less respect / consideration to a foreigner, you probably will continue to get the requisite social acceptance ( from the majority of your neighbours. you don't care about what the minority thinks of you anyway ). this only becomes a problem when you are in a foreign land and the people there start following this ideology.

xenophobia seems to be abundant and common despite the advance of communication and trade [ some would say, advancement of civilization, but i would laugh at them. "civilization, bah!" ]. you'd think it'd be easy now [ even necessary ] for people to interact with people outside "their group". now telugu people write software in new jersey and australians run bars in phuket, and yet this "global village" hasn't changed our attitudes towards the people who live on the next street.

in this atmosphere, it's scary that educated, level-headed people would show a strong nationalist leaning. being a nationalist is a strong group tendency for people belonging to the same politically demarcated country. in mumbai, for instance, it is necessary for movie halls to play the national anthem before every movie ( the indian national anthem, not the russian, which sounds cool ). everybody stands up in respect, when the anthem is played. inside a movie hall. with buckets of popcorn and coke in their hands. some even try to sing ( so much for pride and respect, punctuating cheap entertainment with a national anthem ). there seems to be a lot of this "pride" thing around. talking to people shows how much public hatred can be generated by drawing a political boundary ( angry indians after a terrorist incident, for instance. the line being the mcmahon line ).

what seems to be so incredible is the fact that so much emotion ( whether pride or hatred ) can be based on something as trivial as an imaginary line drawn by an otherwise inconsequential set of politicians ( who we love to loathe on every other instance ). look around you, this madness is all over. i know good friends, family even, who have a natural antipathy towards pakistan. an entire country, they have never visited. with a few hundred million diverse inhabitants, otherwise identical to themselves ( save for that line and maybe the name of a non-existent god ).

fear, mistrust, anger and hatred towards a group ( however well defined the group ) can be a dangerous thing for human society. stop playing that anthem in movie halls and for the sake of sanity, please learn to be tolerant. if somebody chooses to remain seated while the anthem is played, please, give him the liberty to do so. you do not have the right to be offended by his choice. maybe he isn't feeling very patriotic today, and that might just be a good thing.

national highway 17 - the ride

i will be riding down the nh17 in september, 2009. exact dates depend on the monsoons, the ride will be timed with the receding showers.

basics of the trip:

1. route : mumbai-chiplun-goa-karwar-mangalore-cochin
2. it will not be hectic, max 300km per day
3. people are allowed to join for any of the legs of the journey ( mumbai-goa or mangalore-cochin etc ), so you have the flexibility of doing a 2 day, 3 day or 5 day trip as you find it convenient. or do the whole 13 day jingbang.
4. bring your own bike or rent one or drive a car. bring friends. try to avoid pillion riders on bikes for long stretches.

if you're interested, comment below or send me an email. i'll keep you updated as the itinerary firms up.

nitte 7

went back to nitte in november, 2008.

went to celebrate a wedding, ended up doing many of the little things that made life so interesting, those four years in the jungle. missed the wedding, though. sorry candy.



the "egg-shack": menu includes hard boiled eggs, omelettes, sunny sides up and more



"mada lime", a pretty cool local beverage



nmam institute of technology - the bus was too small to write the expansion of "nmam"



"forever bar", the only bar in that village, obviously well patronized by us folk. formerly known by a shadier name: "tb - tulsi bar" and before that as "ab - anand bar"



the basketball court, a favourite place for late night star gazing, beer drunk



the mango orchard, a favourite ... err ... relief spot ?



the football field, an elevated flat bit of land ringed by trees. has the most amazing view of the night-sky. particularly when there is a power outage.



the walk to padubidri beach



unload beer carton on beach, start the chilling



trip ends at "pallavi", another shady bar. home to the most tender squid chilli and the sweetest sand dunes.


more pics at facebook - hard rock cafe, nitte & day out at mangalore

movie review - barah aana

genre - dark comedy
rating - must watch

chakpak widgets

raja menon has delivered a tight film in his second attempt. lasting barely 97 minutes, this film has no unnecessary scene or prolonged sequence. kudos to hemanti sarkar. vibrant visuals of mumbai, a simple, straight-forward story and strong performances by vijay raaz, violante placido and tannishtha chatterjee. this movie has got it right. the focus is steady throughout, not the visuals, not the music, just the story.

vijay raaz, as yadav, is the soul of this film. the role does justice to the abilities and versatility of this actor, and vijay fully exploits the opportunity at hand. one scene at the railway station, in particular, takes you into the heart of character, the sheer frustration and gloom on yadav's face are enough to make this film worth watching. violante and tannishtha shine within their roles. naseeruddin shah has a large role in terms of screen time but with almost no dialogue. he does not fail to impress, playing the role of the silent but intense shukla. arjun mathur's performance is over-shadowed by the sheer skill of the actors he shares the screen with.

all in all, a film which must be watched. both for the sheer artistry of it as well as for the strong message it puts forward.

the song remains the same

winamp v2.95

26318 tracks : 1873 hours 27 minutes 26 seconds

shuffle morph rate : fast

joy!

food guide - poison [ mumbai ]

intro & location |
this appears to be a "happening" club, so there are a lot of people who seem to be here to see and be seen. i'm not familiar with the bombay page3-set so i didn't recognize most of the creepily dressed characters ( you'll find lady-boys with more class, working the streets of pattaya ). off linking road at bandra.

ambiance & hygiene |
clean, cool and almost post-modern, with a dramatic broken-glass-encrusted spiral stairway bringing you to this basement level club. high roof, several large lcd display's and a prominent central dj console. whoever was responsible for the layout and interiors did a passable job of it. rest-rooms are clean and don't get crowded ( this is important in a night-club, beer-drinking can lead to very uncomfortable queues outside the loo ). however, getting across the floor to the loo involves wrestling, shoving and stepping on feet. there is a smoking section with house-r&b music and less crowded bar. the sheer number of bouncers in this club is intimidating. and they aren't all that friendly when you're entering. maybe it's meant to go with the icy-cool theme ( not kidding about the theme, the air-conditioning must have been set to 12 degrees and the smoke machines pump dry-ice from the roof-vents ). the bartenders are relatively warm, but curt still.

drink |
the alcohol is at about 350 bucks for a small drink/pint. they do not serve anything cheaper than smirnoff black ( but the cheapsters use smirnoff "red" in the cocktails ). their beers are "premium" too ( tiger, carlsberg and fosters pints only ). this is a snooty place, so do not expect to find kingfisher or old monk rum. just for the record, carlsberg and fosters are made by the same guys who make the "not-so-premium" haywards 5000 in india and tiger is made by the guys who make the decidedly-shady cannon 10000. the only thing "premium" here is the packaging and price-tag.

music |
the music is genuinely distressing. they claim to play hip-hop, r&b, electronic, house, rock & bollywood. but in reality, it's a mix of 20% electronic and 80% bollywood ( take that with a pinch of salt, i don't recognize either ). they have a cover charge of 2000 per couple and 2500 per stag, so you can't escape with no loss.
dj shaqeel ( or whatever ), once-in-the-news-for-drug-possession( "i was framed, somebody put 0.4 grams in my wallet!!!" ) kishore-remixing, shake-it-daddy dj plays at poison. you've been warned. you'd still come away alive if he stuck to playing music. but for some reason they let him have a microphone, so he even talks between tracks ( apparently under the impression that he is egging the crowds on to greater enjoyment. excuse me while i go drown in my own vomit ).
whoever "framed" the fart, please try 4kg this time, so he's charged with trafficking and not possession. please. i don't know what kinda dim-wit walks about uae airports with banned substances, but it is apparently a popular extreme-sport with indian page3 types ( i'm not exaggerating! click on 1 2 3 4 ).

verdict |
all in all, if you're looking for a few drinks and some good music ( without being pushed around ), poison is a terrible waste of money. if you're obliged to go there, i would suggest you drink your cover-charge's worth of smirnoff black ( about two drinks ) and pretend you need to step outside for a phone call. head straight to hawaiian shack or toto's for a few peaceful drinks. with the kind of crowd at poison, nobody'll notice you're gone. don't try to get to the tavern at fariya's, it'll be shut by the time you get there.

movie review - oye lucky, lucky oye!

genre - comedy
rating - must watch



if you've watched khosla ka ghosla, you probably don't need to read this review. you'd watch every movie dibakar banerjee makes. i would.

if you haven't watched khosla ka ghosla, try and get hold of the dvd. it's a "must watch". his work is vaguely similar to the style of guy ritchie. fast paced, rooted and high-on-style entertainers.

getting back to oye lucky! lucky oye!, this film is another incredible entertainer. the story seems to be loosely based on the exploits of a real life super chor and what a way to tell an incredible story!

this film is like nothing you'll see on indian screens. and this is probably why it will not do too well commercially. for starters, this film understands it's characters and environment. while pushing the boundaries of coincidence, it displays an astonishing connect to reality.

it is characters like lucky's lousy father ( paresh rawal ), the gangster-cum-bhajan-singer gogi bhai ( paresh rawal again ) and dolly-the-wedding-dancer ( richa chadda ) that flesh out this film. the packed but realistic visuals ( kartik vijay ), truly entertaining music ( sneha khanwalkar ), superlative acting performances ( manu rishi, paresh rawal, richa chadda, manjot singh and neetu chandra) and dibakar banerjee's delhi ( also seen in khosla... ) are what make this film both refreshing and engrossing.

on the surface, the protagonist, lucky's character is nothing new. the charming petty-thief has been played over and over by the leading men of indian cinema ( most memorably by amitabh bachchan as anthony gonsalves ). lucky, however, is built with more detail, more background substantiation. this otherwise light-hearted caper doesn't shy away from the the uglier reality that is lucky's life. he progresses from a teenager in a troubled family to an insecure adult craving a regular family. like i said, astonishing connect to reality.

the film is fast paced throughout except for a bit in the second-half, where lucky seems to get more introspective and less happy-go-lucky. the script itself is very basic, it doesn't have the depth of story to engage the audience ( not like khosla ka ghosla did ). so you come back from the movie hall feeling like you just went through an empty experience, except probably for some lucky-style introspection of your own. but while you're in the movie hall, the experience is complete.