An Idli brain: Part 1

It was in Kodaikanal that I first thought of making an Orkut community dedicated to Idlis. Perhaps it was the air of Nilgiris which brought out the romantic in me and I decided to give my love for Idlis a name which world could reckon with. I love food and for me the greatest creation of God is the tomato but I am not weird like Gopi who wants to have, er, sex with a watermelon!

As the air of Kodaikanal got replaced by air of Hyderabad, the romance fizzled out and the community was never created, but the love persisted.

In my North Indian life in 90s, any South Indian food was a 'special'. My uncle who was an Airforce Officer (no, he wasn't a pilot!) was posted in Secunderabad and during their stay here, my aunty learnt to prepare most of the common stuff like Idli, Dosa, Wada, Sambhar and Rasam (Note my respect for food, all items start with a capital!).
So when they visited us in Allahabad, at times there was a complete "South Indian lunch" comprising Idlis and Plain and Masala Dosas. (After coming here I found that South Indians eat things other than Idli/Dosa and nobody eats Idlis in lunch!)
I hated Sambhar which my sister (who lived with my uncle) adored. So plain dal was prepared for me which I suspected was Sambhar without vegetables!

Dosas found special liking even while eating out. Once when Ma was not there and we were not in mood of cooking, Pa and I had a dosa in a Civil Lines.

But as I have now started caring about health (means eating different kind of junk!) Dosas were replaced by Idlis on my plate. I don't actually remember when I had a dosa last, whereas Idlis are my normal weekday breakfast. And with thick peanut chutney which makes the soft, warm and fluffy idli melt in mouth... ahh bliss!

(Next:Idli accessories)

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Oscar for petty mindedness: M Karunanidhi

"Six crore Tamils are rejoicing over the pinnacle of achievement of this worthy son of Chennai। I join 100 crore Indians in showering flowers of appreciation with pure minds on this scion from a minority community," Karunanidhi said in a statement said." (courtesy IBNLive.com)

In a single statement Karunanidhi dragged Rahman down to a 'Tamil' and a person from 'Minority Community'! Some people will never ever be able to rise above their petty minds.

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Crap comes to mind quickly!

Thanks to OpenLDAP service of my Hyperion installation which chose this day to get corrupted again, I got time to write something! Waise come to think of it, what would happen if software, I mean the code started thinking. A few days ago I had visions of code coming out of system and floating around.

Imagine a System.out.println lurking below the drawer, an InputStream flowing across the gallery, a horrible looking javascript on the desk. Imagine all that terabyte of code just rushing out of the computers and all the storage devices and flowing out in the open!
How would that look...

Heck. There were so many things on my mind to write about, but all I wrote is this crap!

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A cheapskate called T-Series.

I was admiring the innovative cover of the 'Delhi 6' CD. A shiny mirror like surface which 'reflects' the theme of the movie 'A Journey Within'. Very cool, I said.

And then I opened it. No lyrics? Not possible. Open all the folds properly. No more folds? How can this be possible?

If you thought this was ridiculous, read further.

Now that we have settled this issue of missing lyrics, read further. When I ripped the CD of Slumdog Millionaire, the following appeared in my music library. Apart from wrong information about one of the tracks (See track# 9 in below image. It mentions 'Aaj Ki Raat' from 'Don' and also lists the singers of that song!) , the information about other tracks appears in an order, which is completely different from what is listed on the cover. So though the listed track is 'Ringa Ringa', the associated information mentions 'O... Saya' and so on.


This for a Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominated album.

Shame on India's supposedly largest music company!

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U, Me and DYPC: My first movie :)

This is recession time and so I thought of looking for an alternative career and what can be better than my long cherished dream of being a film director! So here is the grand premiere of my debut movie and too an animated film...

(OK, enough of nonsense. I had been planning to make a small video to promote our venture DonateYourPC.in and here it is!) Please give your feedback about the movie and I would love if you could forward it to your friends/colleagues. Yeah it's not exactly a viral :(

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EXCLUSIVE! Satyam changes name and logo

After the sensational letter of Ramalinga Raju, Satyam board met and quickly changed the name and logo of company. Remember you saw it first on this blog!


(For those who don't know, 'Satya' (from which word 'Satyam' is derived( means 'truth' in Hindi and 'asatya' means 'lie'.)

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OkTataByeBye does a MMT with 'Gajodhar'

If anyone had any doubts of what a cult Aamir Khan's rendition of Surya's original outing in 'Ghajini' is turning out to be, the latest viral from OkTataByeBye.com is here to clear all of them!

This is absolutely hilarious stuff and brings back memories (after Ghajini this word has acquired a completely new meaning, isn't it?) of brilliant virals from MakeMyTrip.com and Airtel. And if you are not suffering from any kind of amnesia ('anterograde' or whatever!) you will remember that it was MMT only (another travel and tour related site) which started this trend of virals in India.

Incidentally the OTBB viral has been done by WebChutney.com who had done all the MMT and many other virals.

Watch ALL the WebChutney virals here: http://www.webchutney.com/virals/

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Meet the Super Sleuth: A R A

It's difficult to control my emotions. Afterall finally God has answered our collective prayers and sent us the saviour. The man who will take our intelligence (I am talking about sleuthing, you idiot!) to a whole new level and become the role model of all the CIAs,Mossads,MI6s and RAWs and the nightmare of the likes of CSIS (Chinese Secret Intelligence Service) and ISI!

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the super detective A R Antulay!

The sleuthing prowess of ARA (As the legends speak of the legendary detective) is not attributed to just his natural genius but also to his affluent political career. Being former Chief Minister of Maharashtra and cabinet minister in various Governments has given him a unique perspective.

And this unique perspective is what sets ARA apart from others. I can just admire his ability to think from terrorists' mind: "Superficially speaking they (terrorists) had no reason to kill Karkare". Now only a cynic will ask them the reasons for killing hundreds others but not the great ARA. He has his guns (pun intended) targetted in right direction.

Greatness of great minds lies in the fact that they don't accept the facts and that they don't 'ignore the facts'. So even though the whole world 'believes' that Karkare died by terrorists' bullets, our mastermind knows better and subtly (he is undercover as a cabinet minister after all!) hints about Karkare's work in Malegaon blasts probe. Only cynics call it a conspiracy theory. You see all the urdu press is talking about same. "It's in media!!!"

And those of you who doubt his secular credentials, shame on you. He has been in Congress all his life, the party that hosts stalwarts like Sajjan Kumar and Arjun Singh. How can he be communal and at his age, don't even say 'Vote Bank Politics'. He is above all this and anyways now that he should be heading towards his new post as IB/RAW chief (to give India much needed intelligence boost!) he doesn't need all this.

Or does He?

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This blog just got an award!

So, I finally decided to 'resiliently' move on. (I guess 'resilience' is the only word more ridiculed than 'dandy' in context of Shivraj Patil!)

On the morning of 27th November (the first morning of the nightmare) I commented on Kanupriya's blog "Thanks ... Not just for the award, but for bringing first and only thing to cheer on this morning!"

Thanks so much Kanupriya :) This is my first and only award for any blog (sniff! sniff!) And coming from my first 'blogger' friend makes it even more special!

Ok, now the rules of the award:

• Put the logo on your blog. (Yeh bhi koi kahne waali baat hai yaar!)
• Link the person who awarded it to you (same as above: Yeh bhi koi...)
• Link the bloggers you are about to honor (hmm.. yeh to kahne waali baat hai :)

And I am very happy to announce my favorite blogs:

Mixed Expressions/Marketing Chit Chat by Kanupriya : (No you cynic, it's not mandatory to give it back to the person who gave you the award!) Kanupriya's both blogs are actually lot of fun. (Specially the second one!)

Overated Outcast: Absolutely cool and funky blog.. one of the funniest stuff on my blogroll and off it!

Manyuscripts: Stamp of professionalism all over it, yet very cool stuff. I love the 'Brants' specially.

Everyday Gyaan by Corinne Rodrigues: The most serene place in text!

Serendipity! Is It? by Priyanshu: He is my former collegemate and flatmate and knowing him personally, I find it amazing that his blog reflects his personality completely :)

Congratulations.. ladies and gentlemen. (You can thank me personally by buying me a Veg. burger. Ok..even bhelpuri would do!)

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Be Votebank. Be Heard

From past 3-4 days, I have sensed anger. Everywhere. Anger which is coupled and matched with helplessness. A feeling of being betrayed and failed by the state.

But everyone is also afraid that all these anger may be diminished in next few months and we will start living in the wait of another attack.

But now is the time, when we must resolve to make our voice heard. Make ourselves counted. In AP, everyone loves Loksatta party but it doesn't win a single seat. Because we, the members of 'civil society' don't go out to vote. In this world's largest democracy, only votebanks are counted, heard and considered. And if we have to be counted and our lives and our views respected we will have to become vote banks.

We will have to go out and vote in coming assembly and then general elections.

And that's why we have started a new online campaign: Be Votebank. Be Heard

Download any of the logos/banners on this blog: http://shabdaarth.blogspot.com/2008/11/blog-post_30.html and put in your blog/site and spread the word. Not only this slogan spread the word about voting but also is a sarcasm on the votebank politics in this country.

You can download the images logos from these links as well:

http://iabhishek.googlepages.com/bvbh1.jpg

http://iabhishek.googlepages.com/bvbh2.jpg

http://iabhishek.googlepages.com/bvbh3.jpg

http://iabhishek.googlepages.com/bvbh_banner.jpg

http://iabhishek.googlepages.com/bvbh_small1.gif

http://iabhishek.googlepages.com/bvbh_small2.png

Let's have more say in this country is governed and let's show these politicians that they can't have us taken for granted and that our lives matter!

Remember: Army and NSG killed those who came by boat. We will have to take care of those who come by Vote!

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Shaken and Stirred

(@Kanupriya I really wanted to write about your wonderful gesture but these dementors are sucking out all my happy memories and feelings.)

It seems like a bad 80s Bollywood movie. Villain's goons smuggle arms and ammunition in Mumbai from one of the shores or docks, in the darkness of night, using torches for signals. And then while he is shown on screen laughing out (villanously!) loud, his henchmen go on a carnage in the city. Killing honest cops, shooting people in crowded places and bombing the landmarks of the city.

Only, it is not.

Just when we thought that we have tired out terrorists with our indifference ('resilience' as media calls it!) to bomb blasts and killings everywhere around us, they shock us with their audacity to wage a war against us. More open and more direct and inflicting a damage that is much more than number of dead bodies. I really can't explain the fear that I felt when I saw the visuals on TV and read TOI headline ('It's war on Mumbai') yesterday morning. All those bomb blasts merely created a sense of disbelief and hopelessness with the Government. This was different.

I don't want to talk anything about politics and politicians (yes, not even Shivraj Patil!) and how the warnings were ignored and how media will forget this after a month. I am really very much tired and shaken to talk about all that now.

How I wish this was a bad movie. At least one could be sure that there is an end to it.

(My deepest tributes to the cops and soldiers who sacrificed their lives, empathy with the families of the victims of this terror strike and heartfelt thanks to all those brave policemen, soldiers and commandos who put their life in line of fire.)

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SCOOP: ICICI and ABN-Amro shake hands?

Yesterday I had a most unusual call. (No, it wasn't from God, since my life is not a page of 'One Night @ Call Center') It started pretty casually.

"Sir, I am calling from ICICI. Do you want a credit card?"

"I already have three ICICI cards. I don't want another!"

"ABN-Amro card?"

"Whaaat?"

"Do you want an ABN-Amro card?"

"Wait a sec. You said you are calling from ICICI."

"Yes. ICICI+ABN-Amro."

I am confused and wary. "No. I don't want any card."

She was equally disinterested. "OK." Click. Call disconnected.

Now what was this? Are ICICI and ABN-Amro doing a Jet Airways-Kingfisher type alliance in their business?

Maybe good for us. Instead of having two bugging calls, we will get just one!

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My Quarter-Life Crisis just got worse!

I remember, it was a mail from Neha, when I first heard this term. I mentioned every single feeling that I was having and I thought 'Wow. It happens to others also. I am not the only jerk out there!'

But then knowing that many others are thinking the same doesn't make any difference to what I am feeling. Right!

In a previous post I told about the quagmire of marriages in which I am caught. It doesn't seem to end. My roomy is going to get engaged on 12th Dec. (No he is not the same flatmate who is going to get married on 6th Dec. He is Ravindra.) Crook, he didn't tell me till eleventh hour. Ankur says that I am idiot that I couldn't read the signs.

And just now I come to know that another close friend (am under 'Oath of Confidentiality' so won't mention her name!) is going to get married on same day!

It seems my worst nightmare is coming true. A perfectly lonely life with all friends either busy with their spouse or out of India and nobody to call to. Already I can hardly call anyone in this city and with she also getting married I am thinking I should switch to an STD only plan (to call home). Worse, sharing a flat with someone I don't know. This may sound childish to you but for me this uncertainty is unnerving.

Wikipedia article on 'Quarter Life Crisis' says "Nobody wants to admit to feeling like a 'loser'; this secrecy may intensify the problem." WTF, I admit. I AM feeling like a loser. There have been days when I kept on asking myself what I am doing with my life, what is my goal, what have I achieved till today (this was easiest to answer: Nothing!).

I had pinned so many hopes on my planned start-up LiveHead.in. I saw that as a goal but don't know what happened I lost faith in it midway and this start-up dream has been stop-down. Don't know if I will ever be able to revive this dream, who knows. (Perhaps that's the reason I want so badly for DYPC to succeed.)

Almost everyone I know is in US, either studying or onsite (some are in Europe also) and I would be lying if I say that I don't want to be there. But I am in this product company and these people had already told me that there would be no onsites, so I can't even hope of going abroad. My relatives ask me when I am going US to which I give them a lame answer 'hamari company nahin bhejti' to which they reply by giving ten examples of son/daughter of some neighbour/relative who was sent onsite twice/thrice/zillion times.

And whenever I go home, my father would say something about my job which would really piss me off. I know he is concerned about me but why the hell can't he appreciate once, what ever I have done. (I know I have done nothing but world doesn't know that yet!) This time it was a tip that I should do MBA. I know everyone does it these days and people say I should do MBA but I don't want to work on excel and powerpoint every single day of my life. I don't want to do MBA and I can't do MS now so what can I do? Nothing! My job doesn't suck and as a matter of fact these days I am doing what I had always wanted to do. But something is lacking somewhere.

It seems I am an emergency case!

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Who will steal my heart?

You come to office and open your mailbox. The first unread mail has a subject: Who will win 's heart? John or Priyanka? Tell me what will your reaction be?

Now, it's not my fault that I share my first name with one of the biggest Bollywood stars these days.

Trust me, for a split nano-second I was like 'WTF! what IS this?'

And then I saw the sender's name.

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Donate Your Old PC For A Good Cause

Would love to see you on the site. Post in your comments/feedback/questions/brickbats here or mail us at contact@donateyourpc.in

(We would we grateful if you spread the word about DYPC. Feel free to copy the image and put on your blog or link to this post!)

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The Circle Of Life.

On 6th Nov, my ex-TCS colleague Prasanna married Ravindra. 

On 6th Dec, my friend and flatmate Ravindra is going to marry Padma.

Padma is name of my recently-married colleague Raghavendra's wife!

(I don't know what happened to me, that I left writing almost completely. Hopefully this short post will break the block!)

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A Tale Of Two Movies (And A Journalistic Test!)

I was curious to hear Rajeev Masand's review of 'Singh is Kinng' on CNN-IBN. Not because I adore Rajeev but because that movie was co-produced by Studio 18 and distributed by Indian Film Company, both Network 18 companies and sister concerns of CNN-IBN. 

In other words it was a test of Network 18's editorial integrity that whether they keep commerce above journalism or vice-versa. I am happy that they passed the test and whatever else the channel might have done to promote the movie (which is routine stuff nowdays) they didn't use Rajeev Masand to cheat the viewers.

This weekend Times group was taking the test. 'Hari Puttar - A comedy of terrors' produced by Mirchi Movies, a Times Group Company was released and I was eager to read Nikhat Kazmi's review. 

Now I must admit that I have not watched the movie so I can't condemn/corroborate Ms Kazmi's opinion of the movie. As a matter of fact by looking at the trailer itself I had anticipated that this is a blatant copy of 'Home Alone' and had decided to miss this movie (and the promos also!). 

However the TOI rating of 'Hari Puttar' is astounding 3.5 stars! And that keeps it in the league of 'Mumbai Meri Jaan'!!! Can you believe that?

(To put things in proper context this film ('Hari Puttar') has got 0/5 from Rajeev Masand (CNN-IBN), 1/5 from Taran Adarsh (IndiaFM.com) and 1/5 from Khalid Mohammad (Hindustan Times). NDTV's Anupama Chopra doesn't give ratings but she says for this movie "Steer clear and Rent Home Alone instead.")

Surely Ms. Kazmi has a different taste from her counterparts. And she has every right to stand apart from others undoubtedly. However I wanted to mention another 'news article' titled "Hari Puttar casts a spell' that appeared in Hyderabad Times on friday. It was about an 'exclusive premier' of the film. (I am not saying what T.N. Ninan had said!)

Ummm... ahh... well what is your verdict about Times Group's performance in aforementioned test? 

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Anil sues Mukesh for ?

10,000? or 10,000 crores! IBN Live should be a little more careful. Don't you think so?

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My Crime. Your Crime.

This must be the only sane thing that the state convenor of Karnataka Bajrang Dal, Mahendra Kumar must have done in his entire life. He had held a press conference and claimed that his gang (Bajrang Dal) was responsible for responsible for attacks on churches in several districts of Karnataka.

This confession and his subsequent arrest put an end to all those speculations and conspiracy theories which claimed that center was trying to falsely implicate this Hindu extremist group in order to strike a balance between its tough stance against the Muslim extremists SIMI. Raghav actually asked a vaild question, why is Bajrang Dal always suspected whenever there is an attack on churches. Well now we have the answer! Not only these thugs do attack the churches but also have the guts to boast about that.

But now a bigger debate is brewing up. Should Bajrang Dal be banned?

Why not? After all Bajrang Dal is involved in communal violence and they have a history of attacks on churches in Orissa, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand and Karnataka. This is apart from their outings on Valentine's Day when they go out ransacking gift shops and restaurants claiming to be saviours of Indian culture. And ofcourse attacks on cinema halls when they feel Indian culture is at stake.

But what complicates the matter is the issue of Minority Appeasement. Is this just a balancing act to protect muslim vote bank? A sinister move to neutralize the ban on SIMI and excesses against Muslims by banning a powerful Hindu organization? This may sound a conspiracy theory but has its roots in the statements made by senior leaders like Laloo Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav when they had first raised the demand of ban on Bajrang Dal during court case for continuation of ban on SIMI. It was a shameful display of vote bank politics that was enough to tarnish entire Government.

So should the Bajrang Dal be banned? I would say yes and here's why.

I don't think any self respecting Hindu will try to justify their acts. They may be protesting against conversions of tribal hindus by christians but attacking churches and killing people is not the way to protest. Moreover who says that they can't go ahead and try to convert christians to hindus if they want to! I think the best way to stop conversions is to eradicate the reasons (like poverty, untouchability and other social ills) due to which tribals are lured by the missionaries to cross over to Christianity. With the kind of resources available to them Bajrang Dal could have done this.

I don't want them to be made the martyrs but a stern action against them would give clear message to all these politically aligned outfits who tend to consider themselves above law just because their political masters may be in power. (I remember a few years ago some members of Samajwadi Party had stoned a tourist bus in Agra. I don't know if any action was taken against them.) Bajrang Dal have a history of crime and they must pay for it.

A stern message must go out to everyone that India is a secular country and neither would minorities be pampered nor would majority Hindus be treated above law. Whoever messes with law must be dealt with severely irrespective of what flag he carries: green or saffron.

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Breaking News: Indian Home Minister is a Eunuch

Move over Shabnam Mausi and Suraiya Nayak the eunuchs who were content just being mayor or MLA. Indian home minister Shivraj Patil has done eunuchs proud by reaching to topmost echelons of Indian politics.

But eunuchs have all reasons to be upset with him since he has not revealed the fact publically till date. It is very difficult to find about sexuality of people in India and that too of a senior minister, it were his actions which gave away the secret.

However many experts on this matter do not agree to this report as they say whatever may be the personality traits of eunuchs they are assertive and not undecisive as the minister. They are deeply pained by their community members and take any act of violence against them very seriously, whereas Mr. Patil doesn't do anything except lipservice by condemning the blasts that take place regularly. If he was even a little bit concerned about lives of his countrymen there would not be serial blasts all over the country.

Few other experts say that Mr. Patil could be physically and mentally handicapped person since there is no hint of any action in whatever he does. (These experts went on to add that the fact that a mentally disabled person has reached such a top post shows that India is a disabled-friendly country.)

Whatever be the sexuality of Shivraj Patil he has won many 'nationalist' friends who call themselves fondly as 'Indian Mujahideen'. Their messages expressing love and respect for Mr. Patil can't be published here due to space constraint.

And not everyone is concerned with his sexuality as reporters in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Delhi tell us that when they asked people about their opinion on this, they got same reply: "Shivraj Patil, fuck off!"

Eunuch Speak

This is what Shivraj Patil spoke about Delhi blasts:
1) "Whether it is Rajasthan or Gujarat, we always have intelligence information about such attacks, but we never know where and at what time the attacks may take place. We always try to stop such things."
What he meant: India is a big country and anyone can attack anywhere. I CAN'T DO ANYTHING!

2) "Let us not play politics over this issue. I am not aware of what Advani has said. He is a responsible person. We are all responsible people and should behave responsibly."
What he meant: OK, he was a better home minister. So what I will speak some gobbledygook!

3) "We should not jump to conclusions. Stringent punishment would be given to whoever is responsible for this."
What he meant: We should not jump to silly conclusions like anybody will ever be caught!

(This post was written on the night of Delhi blasts. My deepest condolences with bereaved families.)

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