Daughter Rap

Do take a look at Soven's webpage. Looks like she is truly a Web 2.0 product. Also posting her recent photoshop creation. Here she is experimenting with merging 2 pictures. Cool, eh!
So, Shilpa has won Big Brother, and I am happy for her, and India. Isn't it strange that though it's only a game show win, it's assumed such a huge proportion (in Indian media) in a hero-starved country? We need to keep our perspective right. Take care all of you.

Web vs. TV: No contest

For some time now, I have believed that the Web will be bigger than the idiot box in the coming years. Bigger because it will be more pervasive, is more democratic and equalising, is more interactive, has better depth and content (and real-time context), is truly multimedia enabled, can harness communities better and is far more cost-effective. Today, when I read this report about Bill Gates comment on the same subject at Davos, I do feel sort of vindicated. I am increasingly becoming a sucker for Web 2.0.
On another subject, it’s springtime, metaphorically speaking, in India, and we are gonna rock.
Check out how the prelude to Appassionata is faring at Caferati. Take care…

Why Guru Rocks

The film could have been a classic had it not degenerated into a hagiography in the latter part. Yet one tends to empathise with the law breaker corporate czar protagonist because the law is an ass and is always an impediment to business than a facilitator.

Here are ten, short and quick, reasons why I think Guru rocks:

1. Abhishek: It’s a tour de force film for the Junior B. He comes of age and delivers an outstanding performance, one that made his father spout his father’s lines: “When a father loses to his son, that’s his greatest triumph.” See the film for Abhishek’s stylishly languorous and cavalier, oily, confident portrayal of a polyester man with a big vision out to make it at any cost. His drooping shoulders and pot belly are not the only things that are impressive.
2. Ash: There is a dignified chutzpah about her. And the way she comes into her own near the end pulsates with an inner confidence that springs from being one with the character. A very different performance, raw and vintage at the same time.
3. Mithun: He is the surprise package in the film. Never thought he was capable of the kind of gravitas he imparted to his character, though his campaign seemed terribly one-sided. That’s a weakness of the script.
4. Rajiv Menon: The film is beautifully shot and has a wonderful period feel to it. Some frames are frozen in time. Don’t know but for some unknown reason it reminded me of the cinematic tapestry of Gangs of New York.
5. Mallika: That one riveting bootylicious dance number in Istanbul is the reason enough to see the film. The lady has oomph and, take it or leave it, is out and out a professional.
6. Story: The script is taut and goes well with the ‘Can Do’ ethos of India Poised.
7. Direction: Except one (superfluous) song, I thought the direction had the stamp of dexterity that one associates with a Mani Ratnam film.
8. Music: It’s Rahman all the way: lilting, earthy and unexpected.
9. Vidya Balan: Though one wonders what she was doing in the film, she brought the necessary aplomb to her character. Can’t help feeling that the lass is a ticking time bomb and is going to explode on the Bollywood firmament.
10. Abhishek: Needs to be mentioned again. I almost began to doubt the invincibility of his Dad after this performance. Maybe, just maybe, the Big B is fallible and the son is set to grab the mantle. See the film, I reiterate, for Abhishek’s coup and you will know what I mean.
    

Do check out my poem on Jellyfish. I wrote this for a four year old son of a Caferati member. Also posting Soven’s another creation on Photoshop. (Went to NP and got her a book on how to master Photoshop 7.) The quote, btw, is her own. Take care all of you out there…

Placeblogger, ahoy!

Do take a look at Placeblogger.com, truly a Web 2.0 product. "Placeblogs are sometimes called "hyperlocal sites" because some of them focus on news events and items that cover a particular neighborhood in great detail -- and in particular, places that might be too physically small or sparsely populated to attract much traditional media coverage. Because of this, many people have associated them with the term "citizen journalism," or journalism done by non-journalists.

Placeblogs, however, are about something broader than news alone. They're about the lived experience of a place. That experience may be news, or it may simply be about that part of our lives that isn't news but creates the texture of our daily lives: our commute, where we eat, conversations with our neighbors, the irritations and delights of living in a particular place among particular people. However, when news happens in a community, placeblogs often cover those events in unique and nontraditional ways, and provide a community watercooler to discuss those events.”

India Poised

"There are two Indias in this country.
One India is straining at the leash, eager to spring forth and live up to all the adjectives that the world has been showering recently upon us. The other India is the leash.
One India says give me a chance and I'll prove myself. The other India says prove yourself first and maybe then you'll have a chance.
One India lives in the optimism of our hearts. The other India lurks in the skepticism of our minds.
One India wants. The other India hopes. One India leads. The other India follows.
But conversions are on the rise. With each passing day more and more people from the other India have been coming over to this side. And quietly, while the world is not looking, a pulsating, dynamic new India is emerging.

An India whose faith in success is far greater than its fear of failure. An India that no longer boycotts foreign-made goods but buys out the companies that make them instead.
History, they say, is a bad motorist. It rarely ever signals its intentions when it's taking a turn.
This is that rarely-ever moment. History is turning a page.
For over half a century, our nation has sprung, stumbled, run, fallen, rolled over, got up and dusted herself and cantered, sometimes lurched on. But today, as we begin our 60th year as a free nation, the ride has brought us to the edge of time's great precipice.
And one India - a tiny little voice at the back of the head - is looking down at the bottom of the ravine and hesitating.

The other India is looking up at the sky and saying it's time to fly.

INDIA POISED
Our time is now"