The BJP and The Congress

Hostage-takers extend deadline indefinitely

This flip-floping by the kidnappers makes me wonder, are they realted to John Kerry? But seriously, from the looks of it, it seems that the abductors are just drunk on power. They are getting a kick out of the fact that a country like India is appealing to them, through various shekihs and tribal heads. Why doesn't India just use the time it has managed to get to pounce on them, run a military rescue mission?
This situation makes me nostalgic about the time that BJP was in power. Not that they would have done anything about it. When it comes to action, both the parties are the same. But the BJP knew how to manipulate the media. They were pros at that. This hostage drama is already in its third week, I think, and the official statements emerging from the govt seem to be all business. The statements that they make all say that the situation is delicate, and everything possible is being done to secure the release of the hostages. The US is out of the equation as far as securing the release of the hostage is concerned. And there has been no statement from the PM about the situation.
Now, if the BJP had been in power, the leaders would have been making statements over all the media channels. L K Advani would have said that he sees a Pakistani hand in all this. Atalji would have shaken his head dismissively and said that such things should not happen. And the FM (whoever it would have been at that point in time) would have show himself boarding the first flight to US, to secure its help in the entire situation. No need to bother about going to the Gulf for help. Bade bahiya US is there to help us. And then Pakistan would have made noises about US siding with India, and how this is not good for the US-Pakistan relations. The VHP and the Bajrang Dal would have already threatened to go on a strike unless the Indians were not released immediately. Messers Modi, Togadia and Shinghal would have had a field day with this. Its all that predictable, really.
To quote the Riddler from Batman Forever, 'The difference: showmanship'. And, ladies and gentelmen, is the difference between the Congress and the BJP. Ideoligies be damned.
And Spiderman 2 didn't release this week, so no movies this week.

Slow Day

A very, very slow day it is today indeed.

I got my car back today (oh, I forgot to mention that I had given it for servicing in the first place. Silly me). So anyways, the point I am getting to is, I LOVE MY CAR RADIO!! As I was returning, it was playing the usual snappy numbers, but then, the baap of all snappy numbers comes, bringing with it, a flood of memories. And guesses? com'on......com'on....give up? It was...(dance lights strobing, trumpets blowing) 'I am a Disco Dancer'!!! Man, that song made my day.

Moving on,

quote:
keeep up with the stories.its really interesting we see it everyday.
and my the way
you rock!!!
signed
mary-kate and ashley olsen

Woo hoo!! I made it to the celebrity circuit!! Or Bunny just thinks that her mamu is a moron. Tell me bunny, it was you, wasn't it?

And I came to know of another thing yesterday. Apparently, in Jordan there is a saying that there are three things that you should not share with someone else, Your woman, your gun and your car. The person who told me this, a colleague, explained about the gun and the car part, that since both can be used by people to kill, one should not share them. Note to myself: if ever I visit Jordan, I should be on the look out for crazed killer cars. Also, the most dangerous thing in Jordan is a woman driver with a gun.

Point to Ponder: While waiting for an order of a cinnamon roll at Cizzano (a minibakery), I had a look at the drinks available there. Among others, there was an Oregon Chai Tea Latte. The lady at the counter explained that it was a mixture of tea and coffee. This led me to wonder, is this culinary creativity or just plain retardedness? In office once, feeling adventurous, I had made a similar drink, and its taste? Well, I have some very bad memories and this is one of them. I was not at the height of my creativity then. Ergo, the bakery guys are retarded. AND THEY EXPECT PEOPLE TO PAY FOR THAT!!!

Surreal Moment of the Day: On account of not having a car yesterday, I had to take a taxi home. And I swear, the taxi driver was an exact copy of our dearest Chachaji!!! No, I am not making this up, he really was. He even talked like him, in a slow deliberate drawl!! How much more surreal can you get?

I See...

For all my posts, it is evidnet to all that I lead a very humdrum life, harldly interacting with anyone, just observing the happenings around me. Well, heres the observation for the day. In the evening, I was feeling very hungry, and went to the City Center to buy a pizza, While waiting for my order, I look around and what do I see? A young couple, the Arab guy wearing jeans and a grey sando ganji and the girl wearing a tight black top, a tight white trouser, and her hair had was in three colors, if I am right, dark brown, blonde and silver. They were going to the theater and talking animatedly. Seeing them, I suddenly had the urge to shout DUUUUUDDE but held back. But I still needed a release, so I started walkig aruond the food court, mutering DUUUUUDE to my self. Must have been a crazy sight there!!

No News Day

Nothing to blog today....its been a no-day today. And Jiji, I am not going to go sleuthing to find out what the fight was all about. I'd rather dig my way to the center of the world than ask Srivastav aunty what the fight was all about!!!
Moving on, the hostage drama in Iraq seems to be taking newer twists and turns. Now, Indian FM says that the abductors are motivated by money. Its seems there is an open season out there. People are doing it for money, people are doing it for God. No one seems to be doing it for love, though.
Music-wise, I have listened to the Pet Shop Boys album and am happy to report that it too is quite good. No, really. Promise. I am now listening to Coldplay again.

I Rock!!

An anonymous comment today mentions that I am having having a great time here, and that in my Arab dress, I look like I am ready to launch a coup myself. Rest assured, that coup has already been launched, and is very successful, and now I am the KING OF DOHA!! Yeah, baby, I'm a livin' la vida loca!!
And let me make this clear, I like to think that the anonymous comment is not from my family, but from someone outside, who happened upon my blog and was impressed by it.
As for the 'fulaawar ki sabzi' (dang! Now I know its someone from my family!!), I always forget to mention how good a cook I have become. Now I can make killer dals, and sabzis. Right now, I am eating chauri ki sabzi and dal and khaboos, and I just can't resist praising myself on my cooking. I ROCK!!
Moving on, yesterday, I saw Shrek 2. Its an ok movie. Make no doubt, it is funny as hell, but then, having seen the first film, the second seems a little jaded. In the first movie, the emphasis was on story telling, while here, the major effort seems to have gone into generating laughs. And speaking of laughs, the funniest parts are the ones that belong to Puss 'N Boots. The animation is good, no doubt, but the freshness of the first film is lacking in this one. I think I laughed more spontaneously in Buffalo Soldiers than in Shrek 2. The movie spoofed to much, right from the Hollywood celebrity culture, to the Farbucks coffee, to the Burger Prince and the Versarchery shops, to the Mission Impossible soundtrack. More of these here. The previous movie largely contained itself to spoofing the fairytale characters, and largely, Disney movies.
This movie completes my movie watching spree for the week. Maybe next week, Spiderman 2 will be releasing. I will go and watch that.

Mehmood Passes Away.....

Film comedian Mehmood is dead

Goodbye, and thanks for all the laughs.

Surreal Moment of the Day: So yesterday, I am driving my car and the radio is playing. I decide to concentrate on the song, to find out which one is it, and I find that the lyrics go, 'Aaja mahiya, lets do balle balle'. I nearly flipped!! Guys(and in this case, gals), do you have any idea what you are singing??? You are asking your sweetheart to point to the skies and hop on on leg, fercrissakes!! This is not how sweethearts celebrate love. You guys are the reason the word moron is there in the dictionary.

An Observation: Doesn't Tereza Heinz Kerry resemble Rachna?

Blogs Returns to its glory

Ah!! My blog has been restored to its previous glory!! Bless the blogger guys and gals.
Moving on, yesterday I saw Buffalo Soldiers *ing Joaquin Pheonix. An ok movie, really. They tried to make a satire in the vein of Catch-22 and M*A*S*H, but in the end, it jsut fails. Some good moments in the film. Eg, when a bunch of stoned soldiers driving an armoured tank through a city run over a Beetle, the soldier says, 'I squashed a Beetle'. Very funny. Anna Pauqin too was good. Does she lisp?

The Great Equalizer

I haven't worked much in the past few day. The work coming to me has been quite sporadic. While I may thank heaven for that, I have also developed a theory for this phenomenon.
See, I truly believe in equality. And by that, I don't mean the Right to Equality as prescribed by the law. I mean that nature has a way of balancing out things, so that none gets nore than he/she asked for, nor less. The end sum of happniess and sorrow, love and hate, work and rest for each us balances out in the end. Nature/Life/Destiny, whatever you may choose to call it, is a great equalizer.
so, going by that theory, I was working 16 hrs a day for nearly one and a half months, so thats the reason I have it easy now. But this will change soon, when things near the state of equality. As an example, for the last few days, I had absolutely zero work, but only today, I am working overtime, doing three stories. So more or less, things are balancing out for me.
On to the Indian political scene, Indians are held hostage in Iraq, and the politicians are worried where Shibu Soren is? I suggest a hostage swap with the kidnappers. We exchange the three hostages with our minister. Then we ask them to go ahead and execute him. The way I see it, its a win-win situation.
'We can do it in 24 hours' says the military personnel. Sir, we have absolutely no doubt in your capabilities. But we its the politicians we are angry at.

Heavy Read

This is a very heavy read, but its nice.

Also, I suddenly have a craving for momos, but have to watch my weight, since I am getting zero exercise.

The Great Game Part Deux

Journalist Hamid Mir has written some very interesting and highly disturbing articles about the role of Iran in the Great Game that is the Middle East and Central Asia. A must read.

They are here, here and here.

Like I said before, a must read.

I am curious how India is preparing for the Great Game?

Woo Hoo!!

Woo hoo!!! Today morning, I witnessed (or at least over heard a fight from my room). At around 9 in the morning, there were people in the Srivastav household (probably neighbours). I couldn't make out what they were saying, but then I heard Mrs. Srivastav saying rather loudly and forcefully about 'izzat' and something about coming to other people's house to anohter lady, followed by a loud band of the door. After thant, all morning, Mrs. Srivastav was shouting in jubilation, all over the house. I think she even call up Americas to tell this to her son and daughter-in-law. I did ont dare venture out, lest I come face to face with her.

I am listening to Coldplay quite a lot nowadays. They are quite good. In between, I switched to Simon & Garfunkle, and was in pure heaven. Now THAT'S what I call music.

A scene I witnessed in A'bad keeps coming back quite regularly for the past few days. It was at Ankur Char Rasta in the evening, right at the turning. A scooter had hit a laari, and I was clear that there was no damage to the scooter or he driver or his wife who was travelling with him.. But the laariwala was clearly dazed from the impact. The driver, on the other hand, was dragging him around, yelling that he had damaged his scooter and hitting him. The wife, on her part, kept telling the crowd that had gathered that the laariwala had hit her. The crowd just watched the scene pathetically. I couldn't watch it, so I just drove off. The scene came back to me, when I was listening to the song 'seene main jalan' from Gaman. That song put the entire scene in perspective, for me. The hapless laariwala, the obviously guilty but defiant scootrist, his wife trying to put her 'feminity' in front to score more brownie points, and last but no the least, the crowd that had gathered around, viewing and nodding their heads to all that the woman was saying. It seemed so pathetic and so surreal...and the song just brought thoase memories back.

I Feel So Bad....

I feel so ashamed.... today, I went to the City Center to buy a packet of biscuits. They cost 2.25 I paid the teller 10 bucks, expecting 7.75 in return. Instead, she gave me a 25 dirham discount. But I didn't notice it, and went back to demand the 75 dirhams. She too seemed confused, and just gave me the receipt, which she thought I had come to collect. I realized my mistake, and as I was walking back, I couldn't help feeling cheap and miserly...I feel really rotten right now.

Dedh Shaana

9/11 villians traced to Iran, Not Iraq, says TOI. First, they manage to supply America with faulty intel through their double agent Ahmed Chalabi, and now it is revealed that they actively supported the Al Qaeda  terrorists. Methinks that for a state that is under sanctions, they are really a dedh shaana.

Over at the Straight Dope message board, there was a thread about rain versus snow. This brought back memories of all the rain showers that I had enjoyed in India. This feeling was further accentuated by the searing heat here. Also, an urge to listen to the song 'Bridge over troubled water' by Simon and Garfunkle. Unfortunately, I cannot find it online. Too bad.

Speaking of music, Coldplay are good. Now to try and understand what they are singing. :-)

Surreal Moment of the Day

well, not today, actually. Its yesterday. To understand why I went mad and purchased the things I did, you have to understand the psychology of the shopping festivals. You enter a mall, and are bombarded by all the sale signs. One is bound to go crazy. Just imagine me in the City Center, going all crazy at the sale signs. To better suit the occasion, sing along the song 'bhaage re man kahin' from Chameli and that was me. Still, it could have been worse. I nearly purchased a discman, the Kill Bill vol 1 CD AND a Sony Playstation 2!!

Moving on, the Birla story unfolding is really intriguing. It has everything in it, money, power, fame, so why doesn't someone jump at it and make a desi Dynasty? The title could simply be Birla. Ekta Kapoor would give it a shot, but she will have to change the title to Kirla.

A little Adventure

For the past few days, I have been continously eating outside, lunch as well as dinner (I have ignored breakfast, because I wake up late in the mornings, and skip it just to work up an apetite for lunch). So yesterday after office, I decided to splurge a bit. My car in dire need of a wash, so I purchased a car sponge at the City Center. But what with the shopping festival going on, I got more into the spirit of things, and went ahead and purchased Coldplay album (pretty good), a Pet Shop Boys album (will be good, I hope) and a small remote control car (yeah, another childhood dream fulfilled!!).

Later, I was in a mood for Thai food, but the restaurants were closed, so I made way for Applebee's Neighborhood restaurant, where they are having a Far East food festival. The food (I had a Chinese chicken sizzler), was pretty good. In addition, I had the strawberry margerita, and a bottle of water. The final bill? 70 BUCKS!!! 70 riyals for a plate of chicken, a juice and a bottle of water.

What can I say, I learnt my lesson. Today, I ate at home. And I am enjoying the car. Vroooommmm!!!!

Fahrenheit 9/11

Yesterday, I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 after office. The show was scheduled for midnight, and I made it just in time at the cinema in City Center. Reaching there, I was drowned in a sea of white!! The multiplex was flowing with Qataris (why am I not surprised?). The sea of white was tempting me to shout, ’Safedi ki chamak, zyada!! ’. If only there was a way I could get a lightning sound effect!!
On to the documentary, I think it is a misnomer to call it a documentary. The more apt term would be Michael Moore’s rant against Bush. Moore had a lot to say against Bush, but it looks like the time was not sufficient (do a Hindi movie, you get three hours here!!).
The documentary starts out well enough, with Moore showing how Bush stole the elections in Florida, and then later showing him how he was a total nitwit in the office. Bush was on vacation while in the office for 40% of the time during the first eight months. I wanna be the president of America!!
The movie later shifts to the post 9/11 events, and it is here that Michael Moore spews out all his venom, running around, connecting the dots that lead to nowhere, case in point being, the Bush-bin Laden-Saud family links. What is he trying to say here? He again goes on to highlight how Bush was a nincompoop here as well. Also, Michael Moore making fun of the countries of the American coalition was not in good taste. He was using sarcasm there, but it misfired, IMO.
All in all, the documentary does not have anything new to say. It’s just a collection of facts known all along.
But there are a few fine touches in the documentary. Like the part, towards the end, where the woman of a soldier who had died, Lila goes to Washington and meets an Iraqi woman protesting outside. The accusations that the Iraqi woman hurls at her, and silent anger, that was a really touching part. Also, when she later breaks down and cries. Another good point was the part where Moore goes around the American Congress, trying to get them to enlist their sons to the armed forces. The way most of the people ran away from him was both funny and touching. Another fine moment was when Lila reads a letter she received from her son after he had died in Iraq in which he says that he hopes that people won’t elect the fool Bush again.
On seeing the large local turnout for the documentary, I was expecting an emotionally charged show during the film, lots of hooting and all. But the only during time people showed any emotion was when the Osama and Saddam were showed for the first time. Lots of hooting and cheering then. As the documentary progressed, people were going out of the theater. Maybe they didn’t the documentary wasn’t what they had expected (less vitriol). There was no reaction even to the carnage in Iraq, or to the footage of the American contractors being burnt and dragged behind a car in Iraq.
After the documentary, as I was coming out of the theater, I had a surreal moment. Imagine the City Center, all empty (it was 2:15 in the morning), and then imagine a crowd of men wearing the dishdashas coming down the escalator. It was like something out of a Sam Raimi horror movie, with the men in shapeless white dress descending down an escalator in an empty mall!! And the moment they reach down, they pick up axes, and start to take over the world!! This will certainly make a nice movie one day.
 
On to other news: 
 The TOI says that BPO fuels live-in relationships. Come off it guys, these guys (and gals) would be in a live in relationship even if  they were selling vada pavs. In college, the chai wala chacha near our college was not married, and was in a live in relationship with the chai wali chachi. They just wanna be close to eac hother, and so blame their current state of affairs on their jobs.

Also, one of my current favourite actors, Boman Irani speaks. I love this guy. Hope Bollywood finds good material for him.

Posts on the Indian political scene

Its been a long time since I did a political post, and theres a reason for that. Ever since I had to do the work on the website, I totally lost touch with the Indian political scene. However, over the past few days, I am trying to get a hang of it once again. Will comment on it soon.

And wheres my GMail?? I have been posting regualrly for such a long time now!!!

Cool animations and books

This, this and this are awesone check these out.
Also, I have been trawling the internet a lot, and have downloaded a lot of books, like A Clockwaork Orange, Paradise Lost, The Fountainhead. This in addition to the various sites I have bookmarked where I can read the classics for free, and all the movies scripts for the classic American movies. So what next?? I must read them, yeah, I gotta read them.

Change of plans

Just today, I was thinking to myself,'I love my job!!' cos all through the day, I hjsut had to file in one story of three paragraphs. But now, an hour to go before my shift ends, a new story comes up...boo hoo.

Passing Thoughts: The Qatar Summer Wonders are going on, and most oteh local population has left for cooler places for the month. Talk about enjoying hte summer wonders!!! Common' guys, show some solidarity here. Come back, come back.

I'm losin' it

The trouble with bolgging is that once you miss to post, you lose your momentum. And its really hard to get it back. Must try hard. Concentrate. Breath in, Breath out. Wax on, wax off.

Budget blues

The railway and the national budgets led to an interesting observation. Who would have thought that Laloo (Lalu now) would be more liked by the markets than P Chidambram?? The market zoomed 5000 point when the railways budget was announced, and dropped when PC announced the national budget!! Even when hte FM declared Main Hoon Na to the assembly!!

Lakshya: Mission Accomplished

I finally got to watch Lakshya yesterday! All in all, an ok film. Farhan Alhtar shows flashes of brilliance there, but the script is bogged down by the upper middle class attitude (whatever that means). I mean, Hritik is supposed to be clueless about life, but he comes of more life he is a wide eyed doe, what with the expression on his face. He is more like someone who does not know anything about life, rather than one who does not know what to do with it. Preity Zinta's character is too sparse to be made anything of. Considering the kind of girl that she is, the protesting, standing up for what's right kind of a girl, how can she even take an interest in a guy like Hritik? And whats more, in her effort to seem the serious kind, she comes off as a bore. The chemistry between the two is completely lacking. One is Bambi, and the other is dpoey. You decide who is who.
The IMA sequence, thuogh small is ok. I however missed out the part where he runs away from IMA, and his GF/Matron leaves him. Bad VCD.
The war sequences are good. They are quite well executed. But Preity's character again disappoints. She is meant to be a war reporter, and the only time she is shown reporting is by the side of a Bofors gun. But then, I may have missed out some portions of this move, as it seemed edited and the Pakistani portions were cut. The best portion of hte movies is defiantely the mountain climging partion. Did Hritik really do all the climbing? It was fantstic!!
Also, the other paisa vasool elements were the song 'Main Aisa Kyon Hoon'. Hritik was fantastic in the song. I saw it more than seven times in a row!! And also, the character of Boman Irani in the movies was great. Thuogh it was small, it was powerful. After Main Hoon Na, I half expected him to put up a goofy act. But his detached portryal of a dad was a fine touch in the movie. He is not supposed to be a major influence in Hritik's life, and he showed it amply. Espically moving was the part where Hritik calls him up to talk to him. Also touching was the part where the engagedd solder puts the engagement ring in an envelope before a suicide mission. It was more moving than when he bids farewell to Preity.
a special note about Om Puri, though he has only a few scenes, he manages to convince us that he is someone who has seen action. The look in his eyes, they way he keeps smiling at eveyone, they convinced me. And lets just pretend the Amitabh was not in the film.
So, in the final verdict, I would give a movie six out of ten. While Taran Adarsh in TOI says that it is a flop, rediff says that it is a semi-hit. I hope that it is a hit. forgodssake, even Girlfriend managed to recover its money and be declared a hit!! This movie is surely more deserving to be a hit than that movie.

A R Rahman

quote:
I think his score for Yuva is highly predictable. I like the songs but am sure will not like them after, say, a year or so...
:unquote

How very true, roopesh. Even I don't like his work in Yuva. In fact, I was planning to do a rant about it, espically the song, 'O yuva yuva, O yuva yuva', but words failed me, honestly, when I had to write. But frankly, 'Uski marzi' is catchy, though the appeal in the song is more for Adnan Sami's lazy vocals than for anything else.

quote:
Listen to Meenaxi instead. He sounds fresh there
:unquote

Bingo!! Exactly my thoughts. I have purchased the audio cassette of Meenaxi exactly for that reason. He seems to have found melody again there. Especially Noor-ul-allah. But I still reserve my judgement on the music pieces that he has done.

And 'sun le on janam' is one of the nightmare of me adolescence.

Moving on, something strange happened today. As I was getting into the elevator to my office, I ran into an old Qatari man I usually see here. By misteke, I uttered 'namaskar' instead of 'assalam alaykum'. But I suspect, the Qatari answered me with 'aamaa' (think mallu style)!! I am still dazed about it right now!!

The Master Politician Strikes Again

Nehru conspiracy led to Shyama Prasad's death: Atal

Pfft. Can't you guys see that he is just an old attention starved man?? Its been nearly two months since BJP's defeat, and he still makes news for analyzing and then refuting the reasons for that defeat. Maybe the media can offer his a column of his own in a newspaper. Or maybe he could even host a show of his own...Kaun Banega.....15 seconds pause...Crorepati

Song Appreciation

Today was a special treat on the radio today. The rj played the songe 'Raah mein rehte hain' from the film namkeen. Just yesterday, I was thinking how long it has been since I listened to this song, and how it was in many way superior to 'Musafir hoon yaaron'. And lo behold, the song plays on the radio today! I am a great believer in what Jiji says, that everyday, one of our wishes comes true, no matter how small. And I came to the conclusion that 'Musafir..' is a superior song, if only for its sheer simplicity of lyrics and music. 'Raah..' tends to be a little too complex, when Gulzar talks about 'aisa ujde aashiyaane, tinke ud gaye' and 'chal pade jo dhoop mein to, saaya ho gaye, aasma ke koi kona, odha so gaye'
Talking about music, a few days back, I was listening to 'Yeh Haseen Vaadiyan', but I didn't experience the swaying enthusiasm for it like I did when I heard it the first time around. I thought that the song had aged, that it was a victim of over exposure, that since Rahman was now capable of being non-musical at times (sun le, o jaaman/ mein hoon, paramshivam comes to mind), some of the awe that we had for him has vanished. But after listening to the entire song, my opinion was changed. No, the song is melodious as ever, for the eternity to hear and appreciate. Its I who has changed, and matured (?), become more inhibitive about my appretiations than when I was in XII th std. Now hows that for a measure- gauging your maturity or passage of time using song appretiation as an index? I think it is more accurate than using a prominent event, since a song is more personal.

My rant about NDTV

I have been watching NDTV for a few months now, and I have formed some opinions about it. First off, it is, hands down, the most glamorous news channel of India (I haven’t seen Aaj Tak or DD to make comparisons). Having watched it for about three months now, the initial excitement has worn off, and I am beginning to see why. Because it is a total rip off of all the successful foreign shows! Firstly, there is the satire gap filler featuring the muppet Prem Tarneja, Double Take. That is a straight life from a German satire show, only less funny. Then there is the show, Walk the Talk. Hello, Simpson’s World! Unfortunately, the anchor Shekhar Gupta get tongue tied very easily, and starts stammering.
And then there is the talk show, featuring Barkha Dutt, We, the people. That can be any talk show in the US, or more specifically, Oprah. Unfortunately, Barkha is no Oprah.
Where NDTV shines, are the political specials that it does, like the election coverage and now, the budget coverage, which are second ot none on the Indian scene. Messers Pranoy Roy and Rajdeep Sardesai manage to bring a virtual who’s who of political and corporate world into their studios and ask them the right questions. There daily coverage of news is pretty ok, and the foreign news coverage completely sucks. Also, the company of Roy, Sardesai and Dutt present a buddy-buddy relationship with the guests.
Another rant about them is that they are too opinionated themselves to actually ask pointed questions. Notice Barkha on We, the people. Half the opinions/comments/observations presented on the show are usually hers. And she struggles to lead conversations in a particular direction. Covering news may be her forte, but presenting talk shows is not.
And why does Rajdeep have to talk in such a high tone? It always seems like he is shouting, even inside a studio.
The general thrust of the channel is clearly centrist with a slight tilt to left. And they do manage to remain neutral, in spite of all the opinions that they dole out!
Note: Is Vikram Chandra being sidelined in the organization?

Came to office today, only to be told that our site launch was today itself, and not tomorrow as was told earlier. So had to rush to bring hte site up to date. And jsut as I finished it, I was told that it might happend tomorrow afterall. What the hell!!??!! But anyways, the site became up to date as a consequence.
But I wonder how hte site can be launched, since our Director has left for vacation, and he is the one who is supposed ot launch the site.

Working Hard

I am now officially working seven days a week, till another Hindi language writer is found, which will be after my bosses have had their vacation. That means, working week long for a month and a half. Not that I was not working in htis manner for the past one and a half month. But now, it seems, I will be comepensated by more holidays. Lets hope so.

Pure Treat Under The Moonlight

What is the most important recent innovation? Apart from the internet, it has to be the car radio, even though it is not so recent. The reason I am saying that is cos yesterday, as I returned from the office, I stayed back in my car, listening to some music-in-stereo. First off, there was ‘kiska rasta dekhe, ai dil ai saudai’ from the movie ‘Joshilaa’. I never paid attention to the lyrics before, but yesterday, sitting in the car, I heard the lyrics out. These are magnificent lyrics, so dark, so brooding. And add to that, the dark, lonely road that lay before me and the full moon night. This song was followed by the Hemant Kumar gem ‘Bekaraar karke humen’ and then followed by another classic ‘khoya khoya chand’. So, in a matter of 15 minutes, I was treated to the brooding to the joyful to pure romance. Add to that, the sheer odds of those playing one after another in a playlist, and the treat just becomes sweeter. And all this under the full moonlight. Pure treat.

Main Aisa Kyon Hoon?

I never had a stable bowel. At the most inappropriate time, I would have to rush to find loos all over the place where I was at. But lately, I had been suffering from an opposite ailment- I was not having enough roughage, it seems. But all this changed radically today. As I was headed towards the office in the morning (I had some extra work to be done), I began feeling uneasy. Now, I was already on the road, so I could do the deed in office as well. But the feeling was too strong. So I did an about turn, and headed home again. An the radio started playing 'Main aisa kyon hoon'. Javedsaab, I know this is not what you had in mind when you wrote this song, but you have no idea how apt it was as I rushed back home!

As Usual

My life after the day-night shifts seems to be coming back to normal. I still have to start jogging again, but will do so soon.
And yes, the next Harry Potter book will be called 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince'

ps.: There is a very bad smell drifting in the office. Who farted?