Nano and Mamo

Tata introduced Nano at an Auto Expo recently and ever since Nano has become the talk of the town.
In this huge heap of Nano-news, one news caught my attention.

This one.

Mamta asking Tatas to give away free Nanos to people of Singur !!!

If you read India's political news regularly, such items should surprise you no more. Freebies are India's political way of life. "Free Colored TVs, Free electricity, Free college seats..." is what a typical politician talks of.

But i think Mamta Banerjee has just raised the bar here. She is unabashed and totally oblivious to rationale. Now i don't care too much for Tatas or Mamta's opponents the Leftists either; but Mamta sure does not get any sympathies from the rest of the country who *so* want to see West Bengal come out of the Leftist clutches.
But it's a national tragedy that West Bengal could only produce a Mamta Banerjee to fight the communists. It's so difficult to support her.

West Bengal, once India's premier state, is heading south each passing year. On many parameters it is worse than Bihar. The Leftists have already squeezed out everything in last 30 years of their rule and are not stopping. A formidable opposition is the need of the hour to save Bengal. But all we could produce was a Mamta.

Rest of the states will move on irrespective. Yet its important that in a Nation, every state grows at nearly the same rate, else disparities creep in. This leads to massive inter state migration and imbalance in society. This leads to frustration and violence.

Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab,Tamil Nadu and even Chattisgarh is moving at a fast pace. If the more populace states of India like UP, Bihar, Bengal lag behind, it would create a disturbing situation and India won't be able to deal with in long run.

Soon Migration would become a hot topic in Maharashtra and Gujarat which take most of this migration brunt. Karnatak is facing a similar situation in Bangalore and Mysore.There is bound to be a backlash from local population and it won't be a surprise if more Shiv Senas take shape in coming years.

Hope Bengal wakes up soon.

Moments-2007

2007 CE came to an end a few days back. There was no Tsunami, Katrina or a Mumbai deluge in 2007 but it was not without its share of moments; both good and bad.

Al'Gore won a "Noble" peace price for going green !! Wonder what the connection really was? Anyway he made his bit of news and got sidelined later in the year as focus shifted to other democratic presidential hopefuls.

Other than that the GOP lost its control over the Senate majority and Nancy Pelosi became the queen of the chair. Bush Jr's popularity touched a nadir in 2007 and kept going southwards way beyond his Texan shores.Chavez and Ahmadnibejad continued to "finger" Bush and USA and got away with it.
Iraq remained chaotic as ever but the "surge" apparently "worked" somewhat.

Paris voted for a conservative regime and so did South Korea. In other world news as India continued clocking 9% GDP growth rate, in neighboring Pakistan, General,President,whatever-Musharraf continued to preside over chaos and more chaos that ultimately culminated in death of Benazir Bhutto.
In all this "Time" magazine found it apt to name Russian Putin as their MAN of the YEAR !!

Narendra Modi fighting all odds stacked against him won a 2/3rd majority in the Gujarat state elections keeping BJP's hope alive. That was my "political moment" of 2007. A "V" from Modi thumbing down national mainstream media of India to its collective shame.

In other Indian political news the Pinky-Pinky-Didi Mayawati dislodged Mulayam Singh's government and became media's darling for a while till Mr.Modi dethroned her.

Also the Indo-US nuclear deal more or less was dumped into dustbin by Karat and co.
Mammohan Singh the "alleged" PM of India remained timid, slow and as impotent to deal with anything as possible. His Guru, Mr Narsimha Rao must surely be turning in his grave.

On terror front there was no letup in India as jihadis continued their free ride all over India. Train from Pakistan was bombed and then a Masjid in Hyderbad was followed by a brutal and sickening strike at a eating joint in Hyderabad. While the soft under belly of the Indian state continued to be exposed after each blast, it continued the tradition of appeasing Muslims, first by bringing about the communal Sachar Report and then playing hide and seek on Taslima issue.

On positive front the greatest moment of 2007 was provided by the Indian Cricket team. The young tigers beat Pakistan in the 20/20 World Cup. A picture of flag waving crowd on west Nagpur's busy road was my personal "signature moment" of 2007

Payton Manning brought glory to Colts finally but start of the new season Tom Brady continued with his upper hand cakewalking to the playoff for 2008 super bowl with record 16-0.

On the Entertainment side Helen Mirren walked all over the Oscars while Madhuri Dixit's "comeback" movie in Bollywood flopped. SRK gave a "Chak De" performance and iced the cake with an OSO.
Ash-Abhishek wedding had the Indian media eating out hands and making the Bachchan's life and TV audiences life miserable with irrelevant details about the wedding.

In TV "The Sopranos" ended their sitcom journey that left a lot of viewers confused and unsatisfied.

On Economic front, the sub-prime issue (some may call it a scandal) continued to ruffle many a feathers. Dollar plunged to record lows. Indian economy grew stronger and was reflected in its booming stocks which touched dizzying heights. Also just another feather in Indian-expat's cap was added when Mr.Pandit became Citi Groups top guy.

The real estate took a real dip in some regions of USA and fears of similar bubble burst in India started doing rounds.

All in all it was a mixed bag.

Friends and Seinfeld [FNS]

Of course they both are relatively old and well past the public space of discussions.But what the heck- they merit a mention even today.
No two sitcoms in recent past have hijacked the pop-culture space as much as Friends and Seinfeld.
I don't see any harm in saluting entities which till a few years back became part of every day American and to some extent European and Asian urban middle class lives.

I wonder what really ticked for both? How was "Friends" equally popular in the same demography of NYC as it was in Mumbai's? Check Orkut forums to see how Indians flood the "Friends" forums/groups. They literally dominate the forums.

Same with Seinfeld. Four unhinged, unidimensional characters, often crass and outrageous people connecting with world wide audience. Something strange about it, you'd think?There are only a few shows that had such a reach. Lucy show comes to mind, in terms of universal appeal. But i cannot think of many. The universal appeal of both these shows make them unique.

I have seen several reruns of both. I don't miss an opportunity to see George's stupid antics and Chandler's wisecracks. These names - Ross, Elane, Krammer, Phoebe...all became part of us at some point. You would meet them every day after work. Sometimes on weekends on DVRs. Their antics just clicked.

Friends was smooth. Also it was consistent (except towards the last season). It started getting a grip, i feel somewhere around 3rd Season. Confidence was showing on its characters as they started becoming more and more popular. Clearly they were improvising more and it showed. Seinfeld had patches of brilliance. It was not consistent. Larry David going off and coming back might have made the difference.

But yet both clicked at some levels.Both became sitcom classics. I thought Friends picked up great topics to connect. It was sleek in marketing itself. Seinfeld was more upfront and in-your-face. If Friends picked topics like all guys stranded owing to someone forgetting to pick the keys of the apartment, Seinfeld chose loosing car in the parking lot. So universal, so very connect able topics. These things can happen in Mumbai and London as it can happen in Beijing and Tokyo as much as it can happen in NYC.

To click, a sitcom should connect to the audience. To connect it should have humour that is easy,quick, digestible and at the same time contemporary. Very few jokes transcend age and demography. It's safe to say that lot of us won't find "Three's Company" and "Who's the Boss" funny today. But they were big hits in late 70s and early 80s. Same is true for FNS. Both won't be funny in 2010. Or they already are not?

I somehow feel Friends and Seinfeld humour is still catchy and even contemporary. But i woudn't bet on it. My latest favourite is "The Office"- i find it refreshingly different.But F-S did transcend age, race, Geographical regions as well. And therein lied their success.

Friends had a certain group dynamics which very few shows had. It was about six people in exact same age group. It is safe to assume that the audience for Friends was primarily an age group of -10 to +10 years of the Friends characters age group. So lets say 20 to 40. Now this is pretty much the most targeted age group for any sitcom.
The topics in Friends like - Ross's multiple divorces, Chandler's coming of age after many failures in relationship, Monica's affair with a man of her father's age, Ross and Rachael's off and on relation etc was relate able. The age group of 20-40 could be easily be appealed by such stuff. And it was a marketing master stroke of Friends to have brought in such topics.

Seinfeld on the other hand used humour to sweeten sometimes the dark side of human nature. Like people making politically correct noises about an ugly baby, or taking a death causally (After George's fiancee' dies they all go for a coffee, instead of mourning), etc

Seinfeld was not that sleek and appealing to lets say a very sensitive hamptons slash suburban crowd. But Friends was. Seinfeld though struck a chord with what i would call the humorists. People who can find humour in darker shades.

Seinfeld was very New Yorkish and very Jewish. Friends was New Yorkish alright, but also very urbane and soft.

I have already compared the two unintentionally, though i shouldn't have. I loved them both, and i may say equally. They were awesome.

We all need humour don't we? Humour is the positive side of life. It makes you forget and sometimes forgive. Humour can be addictive and infectious at the same time.
FNS, were additive and infectious.

I still feel that the vacuum post Friends/Seinfeld is hard to fill. TBS still runs reruns of these every day, and TBS people are not fools. They know people are still hooked to those jokes. There's still a very loyal audience for both, even after years of them going off air. These two raised the bar many times over. We are talking of 50-60 million watchers. NOt sure any from the current crop commands that kind of following.

As a tribute to two of my favourite shows here's a partial list of quotes that cracked me up -

1] "Joey, for one last time, it's not named after every individual"

2] "So exactly how many cameras were there on you?"

3] "I am speechless. I am without speech"

4] "I am still a cool guy. I am still neat"

5] "I invented the Its-not-you-its-me-routine"

6] "It was not a pick. It was a scratch"

7] "That was one magic spit"

8] "Can you sense anything now?"

Infinitesimally small

Please click this youtube link. Check that small documentary. Think for a second. Does this make you feel too small? Very very small? Infinitesimally small?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mcBV-cXVWFw

Of Ticket Checkers, Make up and Bears

The Make up lady:

Why does it bother me?

There's this women who takes the 8:30 metra (Suburban rail) that i take. Now just to clarify right away, i don't keep observing women on my train. But this woman is different. The moment she takes the seat she starts doing her make up. She has a huge make up kit (proportionate to her huge self being). Also she is clearly over the hill and must be in her late 40s if not early 50s.

Apparently her vanity box is "full of it". Like her.

It takes me around 35 minutes to reach downtown. For that entire period, i repeat, entire period, she is busy "making her self" up. To be fair to her, she minds her own business, like everyone else. She is not a chatter box or something. Yet her demeanor bothers me. Her constant and relentless "making up" bothers me. I just want to tell her "STOP IT" !!!! Please STOP IT.

While on the train I usually open my laptop and either write some crap (like this) or just check my emails. But once in a while when i look around, more often than not, i catch this women painting her face away to glory. Now there are others ladies too who "make up" (no pun intended) in the train. But this women is different. She is passionate about her make up. She just "rubs it in" (pun totally intended) continuously.

And i know i should not be bothered by this and mind my own freaking business. But it still does bother me.

The Ticket Checkers:

All Ticket checkers have different styles. Metra has two tiers ( double decker train); the bottom level has more seats. The upper level is mostly a single line of seats. Some ticket checkers check the bottom level first and make a come back to check the upper level. While some TC's simply check both levels at same time as they move between the aisles.

Now if you are reading a newspaper or are sitting on your laptop it's hard to judge when your ticket will be checked. So you keep waiting depending on the TC. Not that it affects anything as you are already royally seated. Yet you got to be alert as you don't want poor chap to come near you and ask for ticket. Most people just plug their passes in the slot of the seat and get on with reading or whatever they are doing and the TC just swoops past them observing the passes. Some people though, stop his normal flow by taking a ticket on the train itself. Thats a serious NO-NO for TC and i have seen them upset. But it's their job.


People :

During weekdays it's 99% office going crowd. All professionals. Well dressed and uptight. There's generally no verbal communication. Everyone is either reading newspaper or doing office work. Some are doing their "make up" as mentioned earlier. But it's very quiet. During weekends its totally different. There are large families and groups with children who raise quite a cacophony. Weekends on train you want to stay away from families with too many kids. They would usually be throwing things around or just plain screaming.
I have been traveling on this line (the NorthWest line as it's called) for last 2 years. Many faces have become familiar now. Also TC's. Their faces are known. But i have not made many friends on this train line. It's very typical here. People acknowledge each other but keep a distance. We don't become train buddies. Of course if it's some one from your work place who happens to sit next to you then it's a different scene.

Cell Phones:

Call it a Murphy's law- but anytime you on the phone during the travel, invariably there are tons of announcements. Either about safety or about asking patrons to take ticket from the station instead of taking it inside or some sundry message. It ensures difficulty to talk and listen. These messages are broad casted by the Ticket Checkers themselves. Of course there the automated ones as well adding more to the irritation. Some TCs are over enthusiastic or plain simple sadists. They probably do not like people talking on cell in train and make sure their lives become difficult for some time at least by constant announcements / messages.

Beers and Bears:

You can take food and beer on the train. We occasionally see boisterous Bears or Cubs fans on the train. This season Bears has done miserably in NFL. They won't be making to the playoffs. Last season they were the runners up and NFC champions. So this time trains won't be full with people coming over from the Soldier fields.
In Chicago people actually enjoy drinking beer during the winters. That's a strange combination. Winters and Beer. But so be it.

Madhuri's Day out

I haven't still given up on Bollywood movies. I still go out to see the odd Dhooms and Swadeses. Although i see Bollywood movies few and far (in the theater i mean), last weekend was special. Both me and my wife are Madhuri Dixit fans. We belong to a generation that has seen Madam Dixit in her prime; when she had a spell over the masses and to some extent the classes. (Although the snooty classes won't agree to liking the Ghati, Dadar babe)



Point is she was the reigning queen of bollywood who royally displaced Sridevi from the pedestal and held her own against so called competition for quite a while. This was long before Manish-Malhotra-Ritu-Beri tailor-made cosmetic and plastic model-actresses, became a bollywood norm. Madhuri ruled Bollywood when Bollywood was still an un-professional messy self (Some will argue it still is).

It is ironical that even though i claim to be a Madhuri fan i actually disliked two of her greatest hits - "Hum aapke..." and "Dil to pagal hai". In fact i could not sit through both these movies. "Hum aapke.." i saw only 10 years too late.

So i am not sure what Madhuri movie really struck the chord for me. I will leave it for later and not bother figuring out now. I am not a great fan of dancer-actresses either. And that Mrs Nene has dance all over her resume and yet she appeals me is strange. She was the worst dressed women in the industry during that time as far as i remember reading. And with a little ghati accent some might say she wasn't the most polished of 'em all.

So let's regroup - We are talking of the worst dressed women, non-polished,non-north indian (meaning non-Kapoor,Oberoi,Khanna etc), supposedly good dancer, whose biggest hits i considered embarrassment to my common sense? Am I for real? How could I even like her, leave aside being a fan !!!

What appealed to me probably and to most others i guess was, what i would call the "Dil Se" factor. Dixit had that. Dixit did everything "Dil Se", because of the honesty she had to her self. You can easily make out a fake from a real. And that "Dil Se" thingy i have never seen in lets say an Aishwarya Rai or a Sushmita Sen. If left to herself she could lighten the entire stadium. Her expressions came from inside. She did not hold her self back. She just "DID IT".
And that probably what appealed to most people. Her total commitment to her moment. Whatever moment she chose. Whether to make titillatingly silly expressions while dancing or just appealing to the saas bahu audience of "Hum Aap ke..." She did everything "Dil Se".

And last weekend i went to see Aaja Nachle to find if she still "had it" in her. I did not go to see and analyze if this could be her comeback. Frankly I don't believe "come back" is even a valid notion. Barring Dimple Kapadia i am not sure if we have seen come backs as such. And who is she going to compete with? Aishwarya Rai? Zinta and Ranis of this world? I thought she was one or two generations ahead.Doesn't make sense. I don't think she was even looking to do that.

Meaningful cinema was never Bollywood’s forte. One can argue that since Dixit has already achieved a lot and is way beyond competition and rat race she should have selected a role of “substance”. That's a fair comment. And it’s not that she has not done such efforts earlier. But where is the motivation to do such stuff at least in India? She (from what it seems) was going to come to India, shoot some frames and go back to her cozy life in the Americas.

Point is, she would have to wait for another decade to have that meaty role come her way. That’s how sad Bollywood’s scene is. You got to face the reality.
And “Nachle” wasn’t all that unreal, looking at the abysmal standards of “reality” set by Bollywood, it was as believable as say a Bunty-Babli.

Dixit had fun.And that’s what she came for. And that’s what came out on the screen too. Dance, sing and have fun and take a sabbatical from her homemaker routine. It almost feels like the Chopra camp and Dixit got together and came up with this fun/picnic idea. If along the way they could ask her loyal fans to join her, all the better.
Madhuri surely loves dancing and singing and going over-the-top on the stage performance. And Aditya Chopra provided her with that perfect platform in Nachle.I guess we can grant her that after all the years. She has a right to her own fun without caring for box-office outcome. I am of the view that since her aim was not to make a comeback and make a “Mother India” it’s only fair that she does the way she enjoys.
And I think we all enjoyed. All - as in all those who were sitting in that deserted theater. No one left the movie half way or even before the end. Till the last credits were shown people were still waiting. Considering the kind of movies fished out these days that was quite an achievement. For Madhuri fans that was good enough.

In the end it was Madhuri’s day out. And I’ll tell you what – at least one fan wasn’t complaining.


P.S : Another review from Outlook

Addresses

* One of my mailing addresses in USA -
34B, Camelot Drive,
Pittsburgh,
PA - 15222.

* One of my mailing addresses in India -
5B, "G" Wing,
Godavari Annexe,
Shri Krishna Nagar,
Borivali (E),
Mumbai,
Maharashtra - 400096

As you can tell the Indian address is 2X longer and bigger than the USA address.
Mumbai (Bombay) being a Metro, it still has a cleaner and efficient system of Address. It gets worse when a letter is mailed to a remote village of the country.
You have to mention the district, taluka, panchayat etc. Sometimes the space provided on the post card is not sufficient and i remember in old days people would write smaller and squeeze in as many letters as possible on the three black lines provided for Address.

Sometimes the Address would be bigger than the content of the post card itself.

Point is, can there an efficient way to describe an Address? One that is simple and neat yet effective?

Can't we make Zip code / Pin Code the primary identifier. Like for example there can be 1,00,000 Ram-nagars in India but there can only be one Ram-nagar per Pin code.
Wouldn't that change everything?

Like in above example i can only have a plot number instead of Godavari Annexe and Sri Krishna Nagar. Wouldn't that be simple 3 line address?

So it could read - 5B-G Wing, 9999, Borivali(E), Mumbai.

Just a random thought