An Ode To Beer

Beer.

The very mention of it makes you roll your tongue. Thirst suddenly hits you.

Beer was the first alcoholic drink that I ever had. The thrill of breaking the "good boy's code" who don't drink was first broken when we had a swig from a glassful of beer.

We were in school then, and in our innocence, even a single glass of beer was equivalent to more than just a drink... it was an expression of freedom; of breaking the rules... of setting off and taking our very first steps towards manhood (something we'd seen our dads do) and that was... to have an drink. "That's how you know you're now a grown up... you can drink !!"

Ever since then, you've had the most amazing of memories associated with that magical drink. Of course, some other friends have joined mid-way; there's the rum & coke, there's the ill-fated "too many vodkas in one night", there's the whisky which you hated the taste of initially...

But there's always been beer... and thank goodness for that!!

Of your most special memories (since you turned 18, that is), quite a few are those when you held a tinted bottle of beer in your hand. There was that late Friday evening when you wished to greet the beginning of a weekend with a couple of pints at the local watering hole with your closest buddies, there was the fine silent night when you wished to drown the pain of being separated from your loved one with a bottle of the finest brewed and then there was the night when you celebrated with ordering for a bottle of beer for each of your friends.

There's also nationality involved here. On my recent trip to Goa, it was an Australian I met up with who loved his cricket and his "Foster's" (completely different matter that he was showering more heaps of praise on Bishen Singh Bedi than Shane Warne before we were through). And that is how we made friends...out of our love for beer. He loved his Foster's and I just would NOT give up praising my beloved Kingfisher.

You might love all the different types of liquor my friend, but if what you're looking for is a good ol' friend from your college times... someone like the first love you ever had... it's a bottle of beer that you're looking for.

Main Khush Hun Aaj... Kha-ma-kha

Yes. I know it has been long since I've blogged.

Also, it has been ages when I've woken up in the morning...and smiled at the ceiling wall.

Why?

Just like that. I felt like it. No particular reason.

Go on... do it. You owe it to yourself. Just... smile... for absolutely no reason at all. You deserve it.

Be a rock

I came across this astounding bit while reading 'Siddhartha' by Herman Hesse.

When you throw a rock into the water, it will speed on the fastest course to the bottom of the water. This is how it is when Siddhartha has a goal, a resolution. Siddhartha does nothing, he waits, he thinks, he fasts, but he passes through the things of the world like a rock through water, without doing anything, without stirring; he is drawn, he lets himself fall. His goal attracts him, because he doesn't let anything enter his soul which might oppose the goal... This is what fools call magic and which they think is effected by demons. Nothing is effected by demons, there are no demons. Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast.

Aila !!

Hataa saawan ki ghata, yeh raha Aila !! Rafi Ahmed Kidwai road on Monday afternoon.

In your dreams

The moment my eyes opened today morning, I shut them tightly so that I might grasp at the last bits of the dream that I was having. However, as is the norm, the moment was gone and so was the dream.... ~sigh~

Reluctantly, I stepped out of bed, stretched, looked at the sleepy world coming to life... and smiled a broad smile to myself. I couldn't stop gushing...

Why??

Well, what else do you do when you realise that you were dating somebody who looks like this...

Morning image

How is this for a sight first thing in the morning everyday when you wake up? :)))

To the forbidden land

You've seen stuff like this on TV and you've always wondered "How I wish..."

How I wish I was on a bike...

How I wish I was on a cross-country trip...

How I wish I would be riding along with a gang who shared my passion...

Wake Up !!!

Get off that chair... and get onto a bike. Turn the ignition on and set off on a journey.

Click here.

Long before...

Part 1: Long before a buck-toothed Darsheel did a 'Taare Zameen Par' at the behest of an actor-turned-director Aamir Khan, Master Raju had done a film titled 'Kitaab' at the behest of a brilliant writer/director Gulzar.

And though there was no Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy around at the time, there still was the brilliance of R.D.Burman who made background music out of banging wooden school-tables together. The result? "A-aa-e-ee... a-aa-e-ee... master-ji ki aa gayi chitthi".

Note, this was also long before 'Pass-Pass mouth freshener' appeared in Subhash Ghai's 'Yaadein'. Although un-intended, 'VIP underwear-baniyaan' got a free in-product placement in the song. Enjoy.




Part 2: Long before one particular Mr. Shahrukh Khan showed us the dancing styles of actors of yesteryears while swaying to 'Hum hain raahi pyaar ke... phir milenge chalte chalte', there was a Kishore Kumar (or Swami Kishoreanandam, if he had his way) who went "Guni jano...bhakt jano". Have some patience and watch the clip post the 3:40 mark where, in his words, Kishore Kumar "chal-chitram ki katha sunaaye".

Note: There isn't even a mention of Amitabh in the song, 'coz of course, its only 1970, 3 years before 'Zanjeer' hits the big screen. :D





Hat-tip: Diptakirti's blog for the video links.

I am a Gujju-Bong

Yeah yeah, I know what you're thinking. "Here he goes again, the Gujju chokro who often disguises himself as a self-confessed Bengali bhadralok."

No, but I'm serious. I actually identified with most of the bullet points in these "You must be a Gujju/Bong if..." lists. Have a look (and a laugh), the lists are actually pretty well compiled.

If you're a Bong, click here.

If you're a Gujju, click here.

And if you're neither...well, what the heck; click both the links anyway.

Who goes there?

An innocent looking "kya haal" scrap from a friend on Orkut led to this as a reply from me...

I roam the forest
I know not what I'm looking for
And along my journey
I meet fairies and demons
Friends and foe..
Halt!! Who goes there??

~shrugs~ Don't ask me what inspired me to write that.... It just happened. ~grins~

A really cool Hindi film trailer

Apologies for not posting anything here for a while. Have been terribly caught up. I had come up with a few posts but they, unfortunately, remain as drafts on my dashboard.

In the meantime, here's one kicka*** trailer of 'Dev D'.

The marketplace

I know the last couple of posts have become dedicated either to quotes or couplets, but trust me, it is not so by design.

Take for example this post. All I want to do is to share what happened yesterday.

I was walking back home yesterday evening when, from absolutely nowhere, a doha (couplet) of Sant Kabir (Saint Kabir) came back to me from my school-going days and just repeated itself over and over in my mind. The doha goes:

Kabira khada bazaar mein, maange sabki khair
Na kahu se dosti, na kahu se bair

Sayesha translates it well on her blog in this post:

Kabir stands in the marketplace, and wishes for everyone's well-being. He doesn't seek anyone's friendship, nor anyone's enmity.

[P.S. Ok, so I did make a mistake and message the doha to a couple of close friends saying that it was a doha by Rahim instead of Kabir. But so what, cool doha nonetheless.]

Discipline

Read this somewhere a long time ago:

Make discipline your friend, not your enemy.

A long delayed post

For the last couple of days, the mind has been in a state of turmoil. It can be guessed by this post that I'd written on the 15th of last month but has been in my 'drafts' folder till now. Trust me, the thoughts running through my head are still more or less the same.

---------------------------

My mind is full of so many thoughts right now that I feel it might be a good idea to jot some things down before I hit the sack.

I have just come back from Horse's reception. Feels nice to know that friends and family are now slowly settling down to the humdrum of "family-life". We as a generation are rapidly advancing towards the end of our bachelorhood days and life ahead seems both, exciting and challenging.

Work-wise I think we're quickly entering into the most productive phases of our careers. We're young, have a lot of energy and can introduce new ideas to the workplace. A decade or two down the line, where we end up (professionally speaking) will depend a lot on today's learnings.

Socially, this is one of the trickiest periods of our lives. Our parents still treat us as little children (do they ever stop?) and yet expect us to behave like adults. Work-life permits little or no time for any kind of a social life (I've just learnt that the more you try and make space for your work-life, it just expands itself and dumps a little more work on you). And souls like me who from time to time need to spend time with friends just so that I can hear myself speak and get some clarity of thought keep getting frustrated at the apparent lack of personal time.

Here...We.....GO !!

"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain"

Baap(u) of all ironies

Maheep puts the idea across succinctly in 26 words:

It takes a flamboyant liquor baron to buy the memorials of the man who believed in simplicity, and in whose name liquor is prohibited in India.

A nice man to know

(image courtesy: www.wildmind.org)

Like a friend once told me: Sometimes, just sometimes, it isn't a bad idea to read testimonials people wrote for you on Orkut.

Childish? Impractical?

Maybe, but I guess from time to time we all need to remind ourselves that we're more or less decent folks.

Dev D

(image courtesy: www.glamsham.com)

Last night, I was asked what exactly it was about Dev D that I liked so much.

The answer is difficult to put into words, but I'll try nonetheless.

First, I really liked the concept of the film. The film has captured the essence of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's classic novel 'Devdas' and has yet managed to introduce a freshness to the storyline. At no point do you feel that this is an antiquated love story. The presentation made you feel that this could even be your next-door neighbour's story.

Second, I loved the fact that Dev wasn't portrayed as a "loser". Previous versions somehow gave me the feeling that Devdas was a spineless lover who relied on alcohol just because he needed support. Here, however, Dev drinks and dopes not because it is an outlet of his anger and frustration but because it is a part of his regular life... just that he does it a little more often now given the 'emotional attyachar' being meted out to him by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Third, a lot of credit goes to the way in which Anurag Kashyap directed the movie and how Abhay Deol acts. They have made the Dev on screen so much more believable and identifiable. Like I said, Dev's story pans out so smoothly that it could have been your neighbour's story, or heck, even your own. Dev doesn't haunt pubs and bars because he wants to "drink, dope and forget" but because he wants to spend time somewhere where he wouldn't remember her.

Finally, I loved the film because Abhay Deol rocks!!! If films like "Manorama Six Feet Under" and "Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!" told us about the promise in this actor, "Dev D" brings forth, I dare say, the best in him. He proves that you don't need six/eight-pack abs to give a brilliant performance.

Sample this:

*spoiler* This deleted scene is just after Dev has been told that Paro is nothing more than a loose village girl who sleeps around with anybody who cares to share her bed. Throughout the one and a half minutes of the scene above, Abhay DOESN'T SPEAK A WORD but emotes his anger and frustration just through his eyes and his body language.

The movie, my friend, is awesome. I can barely wait to get my hands on the DVD of this film. If you have missed it, I recommend you buy tickets for the next show available or wait for the DVD like me.

East meets West videos

Today evening, I saw this short film by Siddharth Sikand filmed on Dido's song "Let's do the things we normally do". Really liked the film. Here it is.

An East meets West concept for a music video reminded me of a video "The Whale" had shown me in Nirma. The song is "Afterglow" by INXS featuring the Indian singer Sona. Not much to speak of in terms of the video here, but really love the way the song plays out.

Enjoy.

Slumdog? So what ??

Okay. The world is raving like mad about "Slumdog Millionaire", the Oscar panel of elite film reviewers definitely think it is the best thing to happen since sliced bread or, as Great Bong reminds us, since "Gandhi" trumped "E.T." at the 1982 Oscars (ironic that the Best Picture award this year was announced by Steven Spielberg? Did he go "Damn," as he opened the envelope, "Kingsley then, Boyle now... why the hell do the Brits have to be so fascinated by their former colony?")

Anyway, I haven't seen the film in its entirety, but whatever little I saw on Sunday gave me a headache. Sorry guys, there are more chances I'm gonna agree with the "Slumdog is poverty porn" brigade rather than "Oh! What a great uplifting film this is". Agreed, Frieda Pinto is gorgeous (hey, I'm still a 26-year old bachelor :D ) but I don't consider this to be India's greatest moment under the Oscar sun. That would be (fingers crossed) when an Indian director directs a film on an Indian subject and shoots the film in India using Indian artists and that wins an Oscar (just so that I leave out space for confusion for a Shekhar Kapur or Deepa Mehta film based abroad to win an Oscar).

Of course, Danny Boyle must feel proud. He has every right to. But as an individual who's fairly patriotic (and not in a jingoistic, "uproot hand-pump and bash up scores of Pakistanis" way), I am more excited about the two Oscars that A. R. Rahman won and the Oscar that Resul Pookutty won.