Ta-Ra-Rum-Phat

Yikes.

What a lousy movie.

Down with rediff reviews.

These were my reactions after seeing the much hyped Ta-Ra-Rum-Pum. Music was noway close to be melodious. The concept was far too weirdly depicted. In a nutshell, the movie sucked. The only saving grace was Javed Jaffery. A brief review (Movie is set in NY)

Boy meets girl and taxi driver. Boy falls for girl. Taxi Driver falls for Boy. Hitherto unknown, high school drop out, Racing car-wheel changer Boy catapults into NASCAR driving fame with just a little bit of help from Taxi-Driver. Boy is short sighted and lives on instalments. Overspends. Has 2 kids in the meanwhile with Girl. Has Accident. Loses nerve. Loses house, car and job. Moves into dirty neighbourhood. But decides to keep kids in posh NY school paying $2k for fees. Boy Drives taxi. Girl plays piano where possible for money. Keeps kids in the dark abt real situation. Kids find out. Skip lunch to save money. One kid rummages in dustbin to eat lunch. Eats shit. Falls sick. No insurance. Need $65k for operation. Prior mentioned taxi driver rides back to rescue. Enters NASCAR race. Wins. All happy. Boy reforms to careful man. And they all lived happily ever after


Yikes. WHat happened to unemployment benefits? Who ever needed a college degree to sell cars and become a concert pianist. And why the hell wud i keep a kid in a private school when i live in an area where there is no ventilation. And then there is the title song, with Four animated bears. A concept far too late, when rajnikanth did it 20 years ago in a Tam movie!!!
Music by Vishal-Shekar SUCKED. No other words for it. Songs suddenly appear. Rani 's costumes were good. So was Javed.

Add to it the fact that movie started 45 minutes late. Isnt exactly a good omen. I guess the screening guys needed the time to recover from their experience in the last show.

Its all about clear buckets

I had a conversation with someone today who is confused if he should be looking for a job. This isnt unusual coz i have this conversation with him every other week. But today the conversation was different coz i finally lost it with him and told him that i would not take what he says seriously because in my mind he is under that category which only talks and does nothing. This lead to my thoughts wandering about how all of can be easily categorized. Mind you, that is not to say that i am stereotyping a person, but that people can be clearly bucketed. They may be in different buckets at different times,but the buckets remain the same. So here goes some typical buckets in different categories...

• Politics @ the workplace: The idealist, the cynic and the suck-up
• Attitude (towards anything) : The talkers, The triers and The Doers
• More attitude: The nose pickers, the ignorers, the scolders
• Salespeople: The pursuaders, The brute-forcers, The whiners and the failures
• Managers: The good, the bad and the ugly:)
• Colleagues: The liked and respected, The liked but not respected, The disliked yet respected, The disliked and disrespected and The indifferent. You can add a passive and active facet to each of that!!!
• Managing professional and personal conflicts: The clearly professional , The confused/ conflicted, The distant professional, The completely personal, The selectively pro/personal
• Gullibility: The "Aa Bail Mujhe Maar", The Bails, and the smart ones!!!

I know i have been in different buckets for the same category at different points of time. But this is one list and logic i believe will help me understand this irrational creature called man

Impossible scenarios

A list of top 10 near-impossible occurences. Inspired, by among other things, the good intentions of my friends to match-make
10. Me being fascinated by anyone, thing or place beyond a period of 24 months

9. A tam-bram boy who will agree to marriage w/o horroscope matching and w/o the usual vedic rites

8. Me blogging everyday

7. Immigrating to Tahiti (or is it emigrating)

6. Giving up corn

5. Saying no to people who are or have at some point of time been in my "respect" radar

4. A mallu who doesn't know of someone in the Gulf

3. An eligible good looking tam-bram doctor, single ready to mingle, based out of India!

2. Me saying no to loafing around

1. Me being consistent on the issue which should be no.1 on the list.

On the note of item #1, maybe i shud revisit this list tomorrow!!!

A restless soul

Of late i find myself wondering if i have not limited my life by a self imposed rule of "no settling down abroad". And more and more, am tempted to break that rule. My initial reasoning for staying away from the temptation of "a more convenient" life abroad was that everything i hold familiar and dear is here. As things changed, i reasoned my rule to be a fallout of the "if you dont want to succumb, dont be tempted" logic. I often tell friends of mine who live abroad and ask me to consider emigrating, that i am scared to do so, as i dread becoming one of those AICD (Abroad immigrated confused desis) or more importantly i will not want to return home.

But the more i think about it now, the more convinced i am that a restless soul like me would not get tied down to a place just because it is convenient. So maybe i should look beyond geographical constraints, most of which are in my own mind. If i think about it, Singapore is only 3 hours away. Australia maybe eight. And living where i do currently is anyway akin to being shrouded in anonymity. What is the difference if i choose to get lost in the legions of rat-race participants in India, Australia or USA? Its globally the same stupid race anyway. The same type of people - The good, the bad and the ugly. Or to corporatize it: The idealists, The Cynics and the suck-ups. Its a matter of learning to disregard those people who are irrelevant to my life. This will probably be easier in an environment abroad. Coz i will have minimum connectivity beyond work - like language or culture , and so i can stay pretty detached.

So maybe, who knows, Sydney, Here i come???

Of anniversaries...

Its almost a year since Egypt. And im not planning my vacation. Could be a. because i already have had a vacation since then in Bali b. I dont know anyone to vacation with c. One takes a vacation from work, not a vacation from being idle...

Its a combination of all three factors i guess. But i do know my next vacation is going to be in either Malaysia, Lakshadweep, USA or OzzieLand. Talk about diverse choices!!!

On those lines, some places i would like to visit...

• Scotland and Ireland-The highlands and County Clare to be specific
• Greece
• Spain
• Peru - Nazca and Machu Pichu
• Ecuador
• Shillong
• China...

Awesome links

http://tcc.itc.it/people/rocchi/fun/europe.html

www.mentoshelpline.com

www.shrek.com

www.mousebreaker.com

The charge of the light brigade...

Everyday i learn something new.

Till a few days ago, i thought that the words "Ours is not to question who or why, ours is but to do or die" was the motto of the gladitors. Funny, because i cannot recollect for the life of me why i thought it was so. Except for the fact that it sounds sort of a follow-up to "Hail Caeser, those who are about to die, salute you"

The original words from Tennyson's poem is far more depressing (words used by a friend of mine who took it upon herself to educate me". It reads

"Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do & die"

Now that ive read the entire poem, im indeed depressed. Because it illustrates my thoughts in a far better manner than i imagined. The reason why i use these lines so often is because, i feel like i am breaking my head on a brick wall at times, and the end result is simply the same. Just give in, and do as you are told to. Because its your higher-up who told you to do so. Note: I use the word higher-up , not superior, because im no way inferior to the other person.

To illustrate why i use these words as my "anti-establishment" motto, here goes

Me: I dont understand why we need to do it this way. There is a far easier way to do this, which will save us a lot of trouble

The other: I am tired of doing things because they are easy

Me: Err...you do realise we are getting paid to do work. if we do it your way, it means additional effort for which we wont be paid

The other: If thats your only reason, i dont think we should do it. I am tired of taking the easy way out.

Me: to myself, as noone else is listening: Its not like you will do the additional work. Thats going to come to me. You can sit on your high and mighty horse and insist that things be done in your way because u want it done that way. Whats the logic ? Why do i even question u? After all u are the boss...

I change my status on google to "Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do & die" Think to myself: Do and die makes better sense than my version. No wonder tennyson is immortal

Would'nt it be nice, if i go with the complicated things, dont reason why, and quit before i get around to doing it? Wishful thinking... but thats what happens when ur head hits a brick wall. You see stars.

Btw, my new motto on google talk..."For Yesterday is but a Dream, And To-morrow is only a Vision"...why, that's another story.

Semantics, The importance of

Cynical or disillusioned?

Flashy tie or obscene tie?

Jobless or in between projects

Unassigned or jobless

Innocent or naïve

Bored or frustrated

Some of these have been running through my mind of late. Funny how the same thing can be conveyed in different ways by the speaker, but interpreted differently by the listener. Some are words which ive used, and some are words which I have interpreted. Having been on both sides of the table, I figure iIt’s a word-jungle out there, and am now aware (as I have never been before) of how I need to pick and choose what I say.

Then I figure that silence is the best defence. But uh-huh…Being silent gets interpreted as being too snobbish, not wanting to talk beyond a certain cirlcle of people.

Yet another case of damned if I do, and damned if I don’t.

So the next time someone says “Its all semantics”…remember, it’s a jungle out there!!!