You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2010.
Within the last 24 hours:
BJP activists attack Arundhati Roy’s house (and broke a flower pot belonging to Ms. Roy).
BJP threatens actor who plays gay lover (by entering his residence).
The BJP scares me. I’m not so scared by political outsiders like Ram Sene as I am by BJP. It is the second largest national party in India, and has no respect for property rights. It is expected that party minions don’t know what property rights are, but with BJP, I doubt if its leaders know and respect it either.
I’ll take a socialist dynasty and debate it on issues of governance any day, instead of a fundamentalist party and debate it on whether Ram was born in a 15 sq. ft. area in Ayodhya.
Links via Overrated.
A clip featuring an alleged time traveller in Charlie Chaplin’s 1928 film The Circus is doing rounds this week. It is trending on Twitter, the video has a couple million hits, and everyone is excited about it. Watch it:
The video makes for great water-cooler conversation between people who don’t know about time travel (neither do I). Time travel — the concept in itself — has some paradoxes (such as this). Let’s forget those for a moment.
I totally get that a time traveller would want to show off his/her brand new smartphone in 1928. Here’s what I don’t get: How is she able to use the mobile phone in 1928?
****
Someone says it might have been a banana.
****
I was (and still am) on a break from many things, blogging being one.
It’ll take me a few more days to get back to regular blogging, but I couldn’t let this video pass.
Namaste.
Link via Nikhil A.
C-4 Explosives Found in Historic New York Cemetery.
Who the eff wants to kill those buried in a cemetery?
Condoms clog CWG athletes’ village toilets
Now we could analyze what this means from a socio-sporting perspective, or have a conversation on biology, testosterone and athletics, or simply laugh at it — as we do with everything CWG ..
OR
We could go read what Rediff commenters have to say about it.
*****
You are considered an amateur philosopher if there isn’t an “Experience Is” quote attributed to you. Here’s my contribution:
Experience lies not in combs, bald heads or wisdom. Experience is in knowing exactly what news articles one must read at Rediff — for the comments.
For instance, it does’t matter if CNN or BBC has the best coverage on the planet for this hypothetical news:
Muslim Congress youth leader reveals he is homosexual; U.S. sympathizes with him.
You’ve got to read it at Rediff. It’s just the right thing to do.
It’s been a while since I did a music post. Here it goes:
My friend, who is absolutely brilliant at finding similarities in music pieces spotted this one (I can’t jump to the precise time in embedded videos. Hence, linking.)
1. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan singing Sochta Hoon Woh Kitne Masoon The: Hear the bit from 3:30 to 3:52.
2. Background music of Roja by A.R. Rahman: Hear from 4:22.
I don’t think it’s a rip-off. In fact, I think I hear Nusrat saab’s voice in the Roja score.
*****
I came across this video of Nusrat saab singing a qawwali. Watch the sargam bit beginning at 2:15. He ends the sargam on a Ga, but sings a Re. It’s a classic race between his thinking and singing.
*****
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan sings one of my favourite qawwalis Na To Caravan Ki Talash Hai on some television show:
He sings a Pakistani variation Na To Butkade Ki Talab. I also found a version of the same by Nusrat saab.
The first few notes show Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s calibre. I’m saddened by some of his recent Bollywood songs. All sound similar to his first couple of hits. I hope he stops singing for Vishal-Shekhar and Pritam and is as selective as Shaqfat Amanat Ali Khan in the future.
Link via PigeonLadyX.
*****
Raghu Dixit’s first album had a fresh sound and arrangements. He is back with a Kannada movie album Just Math Mathalli. I quite liked the album.
I’m told Sonu Nigam sings a fair bit in Sandalwood (Yes, that is what the Kannada film industry is called. Really.) I might have to start following Kannada music seriously. The sound is modern, but the focus on melody is unmistakable. Plus Kannada sounds really nice and easy on the ears.
I trust all of us have seen the grand opening for the Commonwealth Games.
Act two begins as I expected. Tulika Ojha articulating what most news anchors felt while reporting about the opening event — speechless:
Opening gala a ‘bolti band’ moment for CWG cynics.
Anyone with some sense will point out that the grandeur is a non-sequitur to allegations of corruption and bloated budgets. But none of those are in the media.
Hindustan Times publishes an ANI report:
A New Zealand television station has suspended its breakfast show host Paul Henry for mispronouncing Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s name several times in a crude manner.
“The dip shit woman. God, what’s her name? Dick Shit. Is it Dick Shit … it looks like ‘Dick Shit’. It’s so appropriate, because she’s Indian, so she’d be dick-in-shit wouldn’t she, do you know what I mean? Walking along the street … it’s just so funny,” Henry said.
In a few hours, you will see other Indian news sources publishing the same.
*****
Meanwhile, at the TVNZ website:
TVNZ has today suspended Breakfast host Paul Henry over remarks he made about Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand. Henry has been under fire since the comments on TVNZ’s Breakfast programme yesterday, and TVNZ has received around 600 formal complaints. In an interview with Prime Minister John Key, Henry asked if Sir Anand was “even a New Zealander”
*****
By a tiny margin, Paul Henry beats ANI at being a bigger dick.
Update: ToI picks it up. The video is up.
There are goof-ups and then there are goof-ups:
Kalmadi thanks Princess Diana for attending CWG opening.
*****
If I were Pratibha Patil, I’d be pretty annoyed with kal-ka-launda Kalmadi making bogus claims about seeing dead people.
I’m looking for some suggestions here. If you have an answer, please answer. Namaste.
*****
If you had to go on a vacation, where would it be? I’m not looking for the place where you wish you to go. I’m looking for what you think are plausible locations that you might actually go to.
Think of it as: What is the place you’d go to if you were given a couple of weeks off job/study?
Go ..
P.S.: It would be better if within a 4000 mile radius of America, but that’s not binding.
