Why was SRK's presence at the final accorded so much importance ? Like all others he just went there (a) To watch the final live (b) Give his son that experience and (c) Promotion and publicity for his new film Om Shanti Om. After the presentation ceremony he went and hugged them. So far so good. Now, Rajdeep Sardesai interviews him and asks a question on these lines - " Shah Rukh , do you think your presence inspired the Indian team ? " What crap! Thankfully, he did not take credit away from the Indian team.
It was free publicity for him and the eternal diplomat and charmer that he is, he perfectly cashed on that. I am happy he did not promote himself . But every news channel , online news sites like cnn-ibn , rediff and even newspapers had a photo and some unnecessary coverage.
So much footage and publicity for just being there !
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
Why CHAK DE is a winner
Enough has been said about this movie . I do not wish to start all over again. Here are some of minute details and a few reasons why I rate it high -
1) The choice of the lead actor- SRK . He suits the role to a T. He was a hockey player during his college days and is a very good athlete. Never in the movie do you get a feel that he is "acting" as a coach. People have said that he has sacrificed his image and his role is kind of subdued. The film started and ended with him , so he is the real hero.
2) SRK is shown going home on a scooter . His house is in a near slum like area. Though I would contest an Indian Hockey captain being depicted as a lower middle class guy , it certainly tells us about the sorry state of the players.
As an aside , to give you a flavour of the facilities and treatment meted out to the players , the Chennai Open -2007 was won by India recently. A couple of weeks ago we had been to Savera , at- the- max -a -4 star hotel. The Indian team, along with the Japanese guys, whom they had beaten in the semis just then, was having dinner there. Though I was elated to have food alongside them , one certainly would not expect the National Team to have food sitting beside him. There was no autograph seeker either. Fittingly , the Ind-Eng final was being aired and people preferred that ! The entry at(to?) the Nungambakkam Stadium ( I think) was free. Too bad, being a part of a sports crazy wing gumbal, we never knew that . Most of them passionately follow cricket, football, tennis , hockey and F1 . Phew !
3) The training sessions , practice, exercise etc are near perfect. Having undergone many similar ones , I can vouch for the authenticity. Once again, I never felt SRK was acting . Full marks on this count.
4) The choice of the girls - Apart from a couple of them, there was no glamour or oomph content.They were pretty much the cliched girl-next-door types. Sensible
5) This is the best part - It is devoid of the Great Indian Film Curse. No songs, duets or love track. Almost all the Indian movies of this genre have had a love track. Lagaan, in fact, had a small triangle element too, with the firangi also putting fight for Aamir. Closer home , Sye in telugu, based on rugby had a full love track with 6 songs. And much closer, Chennai -600028 , based on gully cricket, had duets too.
6) The players are asked to register at the desk before the training for the WC . An AP female , Nethra Reddy, says
Nethra, Andhra Pradesh se .
The clerk says- Oh Madrasi ho kya .
She - Nahi Andhra se hoon.
He - Madrasi ya Andhra, Kya farak hai .
She - Utna hi jitna ek Rajasthani aur Bihari mein.
Perfectly sums up the attitude of the guys above Vindhyas .
7) I am not sure of this one, but there are many who feel Muslims in India support Pakistan in an Indo-Pak match. While I personally know of some classmates in my school who did that , but that is a very minute fraction. As expected , SRK aka Kabir Khan, center forward, and captain, goofs up the shot in the WC final against Pakistan and is branded a traitor. In fact a guy scribbles gaddar on his wall. This needs guts , given the superstar status he enjoys , and also due to the fact that he is also a Muslim.
Readers are welcome to chip in with their views . My personal rating - * * * * (scale of 5)
1) The choice of the lead actor- SRK . He suits the role to a T. He was a hockey player during his college days and is a very good athlete. Never in the movie do you get a feel that he is "acting" as a coach. People have said that he has sacrificed his image and his role is kind of subdued. The film started and ended with him , so he is the real hero.
2) SRK is shown going home on a scooter . His house is in a near slum like area. Though I would contest an Indian Hockey captain being depicted as a lower middle class guy , it certainly tells us about the sorry state of the players.
As an aside , to give you a flavour of the facilities and treatment meted out to the players , the Chennai Open -2007 was won by India recently. A couple of weeks ago we had been to Savera , at- the- max -a -4 star hotel. The Indian team, along with the Japanese guys, whom they had beaten in the semis just then, was having dinner there. Though I was elated to have food alongside them , one certainly would not expect the National Team to have food sitting beside him. There was no autograph seeker either. Fittingly , the Ind-Eng final was being aired and people preferred that ! The entry at(to?) the Nungambakkam Stadium ( I think) was free. Too bad, being a part of a sports crazy wing gumbal, we never knew that . Most of them passionately follow cricket, football, tennis , hockey and F1 . Phew !
3) The training sessions , practice, exercise etc are near perfect. Having undergone many similar ones , I can vouch for the authenticity. Once again, I never felt SRK was acting . Full marks on this count.
4) The choice of the girls - Apart from a couple of them, there was no glamour or oomph content.They were pretty much the cliched girl-next-door types. Sensible
5) This is the best part - It is devoid of the Great Indian Film Curse. No songs, duets or love track. Almost all the Indian movies of this genre have had a love track. Lagaan, in fact, had a small triangle element too, with the firangi also putting fight for Aamir. Closer home , Sye in telugu, based on rugby had a full love track with 6 songs. And much closer, Chennai -600028 , based on gully cricket, had duets too.
6) The players are asked to register at the desk before the training for the WC . An AP female , Nethra Reddy, says
Nethra, Andhra Pradesh se .
The clerk says- Oh Madrasi ho kya .
She - Nahi Andhra se hoon.
He - Madrasi ya Andhra, Kya farak hai .
She - Utna hi jitna ek Rajasthani aur Bihari mein.
Perfectly sums up the attitude of the guys above Vindhyas .
7) I am not sure of this one, but there are many who feel Muslims in India support Pakistan in an Indo-Pak match. While I personally know of some classmates in my school who did that , but that is a very minute fraction. As expected , SRK aka Kabir Khan, center forward, and captain, goofs up the shot in the WC final against Pakistan and is branded a traitor. In fact a guy scribbles gaddar on his wall. This needs guts , given the superstar status he enjoys , and also due to the fact that he is also a Muslim.
Readers are welcome to chip in with their views . My personal rating - * * * * (scale of 5)
Thursday, September 06, 2007
UTI - I don't TRUST U
Recently , I went to the SBI ATM in the campus to draw about 500 bucks to get a track at a shop near Velachery. In fact , it is just below the TIME coaching class and for some inexplicable reasons is named Sperm . Without going on a tangent , the issue was that the ATM had cupped and I borrowed my friend's UTI bank ATM-cum-debit card. The guy at the shop accepted the debit card and he swiped it at the counter. To my amazement and horror it did not ask the PIN . I asked the guy and he said that the machine did not ask for any PIN. My friend and I just left without much delay and then this question surfaced - What if he loses the card and the finder swipes at it at will, since PIN is anyway not being asked ? Assume that he takes a few hours to discover the loss and block it. Those few hours could spell disaster. I later came to know that even ICICI cards do not need PIN . In my experience with SBI , I have always been requested to punch in the PIN .
I wish to know 3 things -
1) Is it absolutely mandatory to punch in the PIN everywhere ( for UTI/ ICICI ) and that this was a one-off incident ?
2) Is the requesting of PIN machine specific ?
3) In the unfortunate and foolish case of PIN not being asked , how do you safeguard against losses in the wake of a lost card ?
I wish to know 3 things -
1) Is it absolutely mandatory to punch in the PIN everywhere ( for UTI/ ICICI ) and that this was a one-off incident ?
2) Is the requesting of PIN machine specific ?
3) In the unfortunate and foolish case of PIN not being asked , how do you safeguard against losses in the wake of a lost card ?
Monday, September 03, 2007
FUSSY NIGHT
Disclaimer - Extremely objectionable language and content
Yesterday, on the way to the mess I found a whole bunch of guys in "Superman" attire i.e the briefs (to be more crude undys) worn on the pants ,heading to Students Activity Centre (SAC) . Another gumbal had bedsheets as dhotis . Our hostel guys had their pants worn on the heads like caps . All these guys , under the able supervision of their second yr seniors and hostel secretaries were on their way to Freshie Night at SAC. Btw this is the same place where the convocation takes place .
A Freshers Night is supposedly to break the ice between the juniors and seniors , the end of the ragging sessions and is mainly to pave the way for their smooth transition from the spoon feeding of schools to independence here and finally for a peaceful integration into the campus atmosphere. And how do the guys do it ? Firstly, every hostel has a dress code like the ones mentioned above . I won't be surprised if the freshie junta come partly naked or in objectionable attire sometime next year. Next , every hostel has a space earmarked and you are not supposed to trespass or intrude in other territories. After some stupid lecture the culturals start . All you have to do is boo majorly , mouth choicest expletives at the guys (God save the girl who has mustered enough courage to sing on the stage there) and discourage the participants. Next , under the able supervision of your seniors you have to take turns to scold other hostel junta . It is a no-holds barred abusing session . Then form a chain and run around the SAC . If you are centred or cornered in any area , you get bumps .
The culturals invariably have a skit , a couple of dance numbers -most often some country max gult song , some mimicry session by talented guys and the usual singing sessions. What do you have in the skit ? Dialogues and jokes with only one meaning- double meaning and blatant ,explicit references to porn, sex, shag, etc. The first year courses are like CY 101 - Chemistry, PH-101 - Phy. In our first year the play was called PY 101 - Pondy , which is lingo for porn here. If you thought I enjoyed it then and decided to be preachy now , well I never enjoyed the freshie nights . As a matter of fact even the hostel night plays. People are much more sensible now , thankfully , and there have not been any such plays in the recent times. Most of us, me included, do enjoy double meaning jokes and stuff, as long as it is subtle and not crass. This certainly is not enjoyable. If you are obsessed with porn go and watch it in your room . Under the pretext of entertainment , do not spoil the atmosphere. And if you think I am dead against watching porn , ping me in person, my blog is too decent to answer that :P
Finally for the most important thing of the day - Mr and Miss Freshie . After the usual catwalk or whatever is the questions session. The so called oxymoronic "beauty and brains" . Do I need to give you a flavour of the questions ?
Will all this ensure peaceful integration of the freshers ? Will this ensure developing a great rapport with the seniors ? IIT s have always prided themselves in their irreverence to established tradition - the credit system , informal classes, facilities, quizzes, 3 months of summer hols etc are some of the things found exclusively in the IITs and to some extent other colleges. As my friend said , it is this irreverence that has taken us this far. I beg and plead the organisers to follow established tradition atleast on this front . You need not go to expensive pubs and book dance floors (Like every coll in Hyd does ), Whatever happened to innocuous intro sessions , leg pulling and decent fun sessions . In fact I prefer stuff like paper dance to this, not for the obvious reason of being close with females, atleast it is not disgusting .
All said and done , I would prefer doing away with this night . At any cost you are bound to get ragged and very soon will develop a great rapport with the seniors. our batch had a great rapport with the 4th yr junta in our 1st yar and most of us remember every 2nd, 3rd and 4th year guy even now. We didn't need any fussy nights for that . If a guy is talented in dance or singing , it will come to the fore in the hostel surely. You don't need to get booed by 500 guys for that . And how do you call curtains ?? Without a drop to drink ( I mean water) and without a morsel of food. They can't even think of having a dinner !! Don't even think of asking about departmnet freshers party . They are better , atleast we got tea and cakes and unfairly more than one !!!
This is the 3rd crib post about IIT after the Himalaya thing and the monkey menace. I always maintain that but for some of these things , not all of which are trivial , I have had the best stay of my life here .
Yesterday, on the way to the mess I found a whole bunch of guys in "Superman" attire i.e the briefs (to be more crude undys) worn on the pants ,heading to Students Activity Centre (SAC) . Another gumbal had bedsheets as dhotis . Our hostel guys had their pants worn on the heads like caps . All these guys , under the able supervision of their second yr seniors and hostel secretaries were on their way to Freshie Night at SAC. Btw this is the same place where the convocation takes place .
A Freshers Night is supposedly to break the ice between the juniors and seniors , the end of the ragging sessions and is mainly to pave the way for their smooth transition from the spoon feeding of schools to independence here and finally for a peaceful integration into the campus atmosphere. And how do the guys do it ? Firstly, every hostel has a dress code like the ones mentioned above . I won't be surprised if the freshie junta come partly naked or in objectionable attire sometime next year. Next , every hostel has a space earmarked and you are not supposed to trespass or intrude in other territories. After some stupid lecture the culturals start . All you have to do is boo majorly , mouth choicest expletives at the guys (God save the girl who has mustered enough courage to sing on the stage there) and discourage the participants. Next , under the able supervision of your seniors you have to take turns to scold other hostel junta . It is a no-holds barred abusing session . Then form a chain and run around the SAC . If you are centred or cornered in any area , you get bumps .
The culturals invariably have a skit , a couple of dance numbers -most often some country max gult song , some mimicry session by talented guys and the usual singing sessions. What do you have in the skit ? Dialogues and jokes with only one meaning- double meaning and blatant ,explicit references to porn, sex, shag, etc. The first year courses are like CY 101 - Chemistry, PH-101 - Phy. In our first year the play was called PY 101 - Pondy , which is lingo for porn here. If you thought I enjoyed it then and decided to be preachy now , well I never enjoyed the freshie nights . As a matter of fact even the hostel night plays. People are much more sensible now , thankfully , and there have not been any such plays in the recent times. Most of us, me included, do enjoy double meaning jokes and stuff, as long as it is subtle and not crass. This certainly is not enjoyable. If you are obsessed with porn go and watch it in your room . Under the pretext of entertainment , do not spoil the atmosphere. And if you think I am dead against watching porn , ping me in person, my blog is too decent to answer that :P
Finally for the most important thing of the day - Mr and Miss Freshie . After the usual catwalk or whatever is the questions session. The so called oxymoronic "beauty and brains" . Do I need to give you a flavour of the questions ?
Will all this ensure peaceful integration of the freshers ? Will this ensure developing a great rapport with the seniors ? IIT s have always prided themselves in their irreverence to established tradition - the credit system , informal classes, facilities, quizzes, 3 months of summer hols etc are some of the things found exclusively in the IITs and to some extent other colleges. As my friend said , it is this irreverence that has taken us this far. I beg and plead the organisers to follow established tradition atleast on this front . You need not go to expensive pubs and book dance floors (Like every coll in Hyd does ), Whatever happened to innocuous intro sessions , leg pulling and decent fun sessions . In fact I prefer stuff like paper dance to this, not for the obvious reason of being close with females, atleast it is not disgusting .
All said and done , I would prefer doing away with this night . At any cost you are bound to get ragged and very soon will develop a great rapport with the seniors. our batch had a great rapport with the 4th yr junta in our 1st yar and most of us remember every 2nd, 3rd and 4th year guy even now. We didn't need any fussy nights for that . If a guy is talented in dance or singing , it will come to the fore in the hostel surely. You don't need to get booed by 500 guys for that . And how do you call curtains ?? Without a drop to drink ( I mean water) and without a morsel of food. They can't even think of having a dinner !! Don't even think of asking about departmnet freshers party . They are better , atleast we got tea and cakes and unfairly more than one !!!
This is the 3rd crib post about IIT after the Himalaya thing and the monkey menace. I always maintain that but for some of these things , not all of which are trivial , I have had the best stay of my life here .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)