30.4.08

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

That’s what I like about life. The unplanned. I just came upon this clip. Reminded me of what someone had once written to me…

I don’t know you, but I just found you, just like that. Not that I was looking, you know how it is, you aren’t really looking, but then you find something. You don’t know what it is, but you like what you just found…

What I found is a precious piece of memorabilia because one has heard so much about it – the breathless tone, the beginning of something…beginnings are nice.

Yes, it is fraught with so many risks, but as JFK once said, “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters – one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.”

We get stuck in grooves. To which I again quote him, “The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain.”

So, here is Marilyn Monroe singing for John F Kennedy…"Happy Birthday, Mr. President”



Quote uncoat - 12

“…and you are a frustrated fart as well”

Much as I’d like to accept the compliment (this comment has been posted in response to my views on someone going all sugar and marshmallow on Amitabh Bachchan), I do have a problem with the inherent dispute between the two terms.

To fart is to break wind, which conveys release; by that token, it is a successful attempt. Frustration is to hold back or be denied; whatever has been attempted is thwarted. Therefore, technically, you cannot be both.

Even metaphorically the image it conjures up does not work. Like a still windmill, it is pretty harmless.

However, since somebody has taken the trouble to pen his thoughts in a flush, I shall happily send across this:

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Regarding Mr. Bachchan, I have already said I do not agree with Raj Thackeray’s point of view about immigrants. But on the MNS assertion that he has done little for Mumbai, Mr. B comes up with a ridiculous one:

“I do not hold any public office, I am not a minister, not a government servant. You cannot question me...I am not answerable to anybody.”

What does this mean? A minister or a government servant has equal right to stay in another city. And as a celebrity who uses public space, who is the ambassador of Uttar Pradesh, whose wife is a Rajya Sabha member, he is answerable.

As a public figure, he is being asked why he is doing more for the place of his origin rather than the city that gave him so much. It is a fair query. Just being a legend is not enough.

29.4.08

The Deceivers



Oh, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive!


Sir Walter Scott
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Image of top panel of my montage is a portion of Gustav Klimt's The Kiss.

28.4.08

Why open Antony & Cleopatra’s tomb?

Rome:Archaeologists are set to test the theory about whether or not Cleopatra and her lover Mark Antony are buried together by opening their 2,000-year-old tomb later this year. The remains of Cleopatra and Antony are said to be inside a temple called Tabusiris Magna, which lies 30km from the port city of Alexandria in northern Egypt.

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I would prefer they did not conduct any such tests. I like my fiction. I like the story of power, of love, of destruction, of defeat, of deceit…and then a greater love…

Cleopatra: If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

Mark Antony: There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.

Cleopatra: I'll set a bourn how far to be beloved.

Mark Antony: Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.

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Quotes: From Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra.

Image: From the film Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar.

27.4.08

Master Madan...Ji mein aata hai yaheen mar jaaiye

He recorded eight songs of which only two are available. He died at 14.

Such power and ease. Listen to him intone, “Tum ne bana diya hai kya mohabbat mein mujhe…”. Such longing, the tadap and complete control over loss, if I may say so, has rarely been expressed so effectively.

I get gooseflesh everytime I hear these and yet they uplift the soul…the way sharing one’s innermost turmoils with someone close can.

Yun Na Reh Reh Kar



Hairat Se Tak Raha Hai Zamana



26.4.08

Should Amitabh Bachchan retire?

...Who cares? But it is fun watching the slaves...


Okay, so Anurag Basu (Life in a Metro) a film director says it is time for Amitabh Bachchan to retire. I get to read a hilarious rejoinder by another film director, R. Balki (Cheeni Kum).

For his views in full and my comments look here.

Dis n dat

Sarabjit may not be hanged – and we all knew it.

If indications given by Pakistan’s ex-human rights minister Ansar Burney are anything to go by, there is a strong possibility that Pakistan would commute the convicts’ capital punishment into life term.

“I have come to know from top political sources of Pakistan that the death sentences of all convicts could be commuted to life imprisonment,’’ said Burney, while talking to TOI over phone from Karachi on Friday. However, he refused to disclose his sources.

This is a good move, simply because I am not for capital punishment. But think about it: It means that Sarabjit has not proved to be innocent. Then, what happens to his family that got the visa to appeal for clemency? He is still a criminal, and Pakistan has virtually sponsored and pampered the family of a criminal. What does this mean?

I have already shown the loopholes in the Sarabjit case and am not moving an inch on it. I am glad though to see his daughters and wife; his sister was hogging (and continues to do so) the limelight, including that huge suicide drama after all these years.

The problem is that everyone, including the ‘humane’ Mr. Burney is caught in the drama after Kashmir Singh admitted to being an Indian spy. Both the countries are looking foolish. I hope Kashmir Singh does twist a few more tails.

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I wanted to watch Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain? It does not matter that it is a rip-off of the American reality game show. Nothing could keep me riveted. The contestant seemed to have been told to behave like an airhead and she kept making faces like a schoolgirl. She was a PhD, incidentally, who took several minutes to give the answer for the largest planet.

The kids are smart, and smarmy. I wanted to smack them across the cheek. What is being proved here? That children are intelligent and we cannot take knowledge for granted?

Fine. If the kids are so bright then they should refuse to become little lambs and follow their parents’ advice and participate in game shows, to begin with. This is all about money and these children too are learning that knowledge can get you big bucks. It isn’t knowledge for the sake of knowledge.

And the Help segment is called ‘cheats’. What does this mean? Again it is legitimate. Oh sure, the adult participant has to tell us that they are cheating. This is so very juvenile.

As regards, the anchor, Shahrukh Khan, I must say he is not going over-the-top, just yet. But, but…one day he will.

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When I wrote about the IPL, I did not anticipate that there would be protests about the cheer leaders. Mine was and is not a moral position. Anyway, it is fun to watch the TV channels. The usual suspects. Ad man Alyque Padamsee drawling like he is going to stretch a vowel forever holding forth on how this is all about entertainment; Mandira Bedi behaving like she is the only woman in the country who understands cricket; she makes it a point to wear low-cut clothes to show empathy with the cheer-leaders. I saw this hilarious picture of cheer-leaders practising on the pitch!

The cricketers are truly feeling left out. I had posted an update on how they are being treated. No wonder Harbhajan tries some tame dishum-dishum with Sreesanth, who should really hurry and get the hell out of the game and start shooting for that Telugu film in which he is to play the hero opposite four women. (I even read a report that says Bollywood’s loss is their gain!) He was always a good one for playing to the gallery with his impromptu dancing on the field; now there are tears too…

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Wear your bum-wiper!

A model displays a creation made of toilet paper and paper towels during a fashion show organized by a paper company in Lima