Tweet or Text

One of my friends commented on facebook, “this is most shared video amongst my friends”. I congratulated her on this feat and suggested to put it on resume. Before I begin, personally I don’t have anything against the social networking world/arena/sphere/geography. Really don’t know how anybody wants to define it. It is a great way to connect. I have found schoolmates, friends, love, lost love, found love, have done and used it for all the practical and not so practical things (actually more for it).

Aamir Khan is not normally found in news too much. Except around the release of his movie, he virtually pastes his name, his movie’s name on every wall, street, road, lips of India. But for the past some time, he has been in news for joining twitter. The news reads, Aamir Khan decides to join twitter.

The media frenzy has little or no job, hence they try to make a BREAKING NEWS of any monkey climbing the wall or even falling from it. Aamir Khan’s twitter joining/commencement/launch date was even more anticipated than any of his movies. People lose jobs/stature due to twitter. Big B was the most busy actor till recent and now he is persuading his community (Bollywood) people to join Twitter. As long as Big B is concerned, he never uses a product is he is not endorsing it. He is endorsing all the things that are required in daily life.

Media stays on job for following Twitter of celebrities. The name, profile pic, mahurat of first tweet, every silly aspect, which Aamir otherwise may not have thought for movies even. “Twitter ka baadshah kaun”, we will hear this news and analysis, few months down the line.

Aamir Khan got 37,500 followers on his first day of tweeting.

This morning he joined Twitter officially and said in his first message: "Bhala gardish falak ki chain deti hai kise Insha, ganimat hai ke hum surat yahan do-chaar baithey hain. Esp for you sir. Love. Thanks for the warm welcome guys. Love. Aamir."

Amitabh welcomed him saying, "Thank you Aamir... You give more due than I deserve ... Happy Tweeting ...."

In this narrow world, where SMSes have replaced letters. Tweets are replacing the real touch of a human being.

Raavan – Why and How of it?

I know it’s too late to actually discuss about the movie, “Raavan”, especially these days when the highly anticipated are doomed in three days (maybe first date or during pre-release even) and the much celebrated last 10 days. But still its better to let out the autopsy report after all the dust has settled.

As the saying goes, an exceptional filmmaker is granted pardon for one exceptional blunder of his career. But its still hard to digest, when you name, Mani Ratnam.

Honestly I was not so bored as everybody was while watching Raavan. Not because I have spent money and we should try to enjoy the movie. Every movie has something or the other to offer. In case of Raavan, it was Santosh Sivan’s work. The way he has shot the visuals of the movie even if Abhishiek sliding down the mountain goes out of the frame is worth it. Just enjoy, we only dream about such visuals and places. When you visit, it’s never so enchanting or out of the world, so definitely a high point of the movie.

So the big question is, Why was Raavan made at the first instance? Everybody said before the release, it’s the career defining film for the first couple of Bollywood. It’s definitely career defining movie, I hope they make more sensible choices in future.

Yesterday watching a repeat telecast of IIFA awards and Amitabh was receiving award for Best Actor for his role in PAA. How many great actors in Bollywood have won a Best Actor award without a trophy like actress in their arms in movie? Leave aside SRK, Aamir, none. Actually barring the two, hardly others get a chance. Amitabh Bachchan out of his magnanimity in 1991 or 1992 gave his Best Actor award to the other nominees in Best Actor category and told the baton should be handed over to the next generation. Not that he is less magnanimous or his craving for awards has increased. Its perhaps the first family of Bollywood should only get such awards, since the next generation is not taking the responsibility (the son), hence the elderly has to take the charge (the father). In Bollywood, its not your work or the character you have played, but rather you and your out of the movies personality should exhibit that yes I do deserve an award. The big award winners are always in media circles for most of the things which are not related to movies.

I can bet on it, the best villain award for 2010 goes to Abhishiek Bachchan husband of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (former Miss World) and yes he is still son of Amitabh Bachchan, the lead actor of Bollywood.

Couple of years back, Abhishiek said, paa got an award, maa got an award, I was nominated; I would have been good had I got an award even. I truly and with whole heart sympathize with you Abhishiek. When you are brought up in the setup where only receiving awards and adding honours is the need and purpose of your existence. It definitely feels bad. Even I am undergoing similar type of circumstances, my brother and sister always agree with my father and I am the one, who is always arguing and add to the fact, they always scored good in academics and I was always floundering.

Everybody in the Bachcan family has been awarded Padma Shri, except Abhishiek Bachchan. Going by the profile of the family, isn’t it justified and time for the junior AB to be awarded few or most of the stupid Bollywood awards and followed by the big Padma Shri award in 2011 or maximum by 2012.

Some people have already started crying for what?
For his stupid, uniconic and very useless and superficial act of Beera. The most boring and disturbing element of Beera was his trademark bur-bur-bur-bur or bak-bak-bak while shaking his head, which is like a necessity to be provided to any villain in a Bollywood movie. Gone are the days, when Mogambo would say, “mogambo khush hua”, everybody would get sad on hearing about his khushi. Children living in villages, towns and cities actually feared the Gabbar of Sholay. That was where Mr. Mani failed, casting the Bachchan scion as the villain, a villain never deserves a sympathy. Even if he deserves, it is for his situations and not for his way and means. Beera got it all. Ram and Sita were like unfit blocks disturbing the Raavan. Even the actress was convinced with the villain. The hero, the quintessential good man of Bollywood movies was lost looking for his place in the script. Perhaps that’s the reason it was named RAAVAN and not Ramayana. For the audience, the real RAAVAN still is Mr. Mani Ratnam.

IT’S OFFICIAL NOW: Shopping makes men impotent

Shopping is really bad for men's health and fertility, scientists are now saying after new research.

I definitely knew about the health part but I still doubt the fertility point. Men get weak, bored to death while women love to shop. Women enjoy shopping, while the man goes through the process of heart-aches and numbness. For women it is stress reliever, while for men it is biggest source of stress.

The way women spend, definitely affects the man’s health. Losing his hard-earned money, when men know they have little option, then can only save to undergo heart surgery. A man cannot defend his own territory against a woman.

The study says, “In the long term, this leads to less sexual drive, encourages the belly instead of the muscles to grow and has a bad effect on erection and potency”.

I doubt the fact actually losing the battle perhaps bring with it few brownie points, for which men are ready to undergo suffering. If it leads to the point mentioned in the study, then perhaps the world will become a sad and bad place to live. Most of the women will turn violent and abusive and forget about themselves as woman. Think about it, men stop going to shopping with women. They’ll believe most of the problems have been capped. But still the problem aggravates, because it will make them less manly.

Contrary to all the theories, practices, if a man takes his woman for shopping, then his heart ache, it means trouble, if he doesn’t, he feels less manly, may risk the chances of losing self-confidence and thus perhaps maybe, fertility.

But still this topic is open for debate and suggestions. Women are not going to change or improve and men never even try to be the change they want to see.

Mukesh on Broadband via Wireless

3G and BWA auctions are over. After all the important, not so important commented on the lack of Indian Govt. to license and allow to launch 3G at par on time with the developed nations. Here comes the time, when 3G (Third Generation Wireless Services) or BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) is/will be reality in India in few month’s time. 3G or BWA has the speed that you can make babies on net. You can watch your favourite TV show, movie even on mobile.

PM (Pranab Mukherjee, though it hints more at Manmohan Singh) is laughing his way to the bank. Govt.’s (all over the World) make money by giving us the license to live (Income Tax), grow (Wealth Tax) and do business (too many to list). But derisking the whole nation by licensing to source/monetize waves is the masterstroke. Rupees One Lakh Six Thousand Crore Only, it was difficult to count the zeros. Telecom Ministry has become the Jewel in the Crown, especially after Mr. Raja became a big embarrassment for the UPA Govt. in their previous term due to telecom licenses. His name could make the new Govt. fall. He definitely needs to be given a bonus for the monies that the Govt. has earned. The money could easily help the Govt. to reduce the Fiscal Deficit by 100 basis points, after reaching the alarming levels in 2009-10. I fear it may not amount to mere electronic entries for the Govt. of India, wherein, telcos. approach the PSU banks to help them in financing their license fee, as happened in previous PSU market issues (listing on stock market). SBI and LIC filled up the issue numbers of NMDC and NTPC as market (investors) expected little from the Govt.

Let us take a peekaboo at the build up and the outcome of the auctions.

Before the build up, let’s look at the outcome. Mukesh Ambani is back in telecom space. That’s the bigger news in the industry than the money to be parked with Govt. coffers. Mukesh Ambani is famous/known for disrupting the markets with his ambitious and audacious plans. Market players are forced to change their strategies, thinking to stay in business.

People are guffawing for the fact that why BWA has managed to collect double the revenues for the Govt. than 3G. In 3G, only Reliance, Bharti, Vodafone, Tata and Aircel participated. There are whole bunch of players in Internet business. RCOM, Tata and Idea have already backed out of the bids, referring it as too steep prices for broadband business.

Mukesh Ambani has done the trick, bid and bagged all the 22 circles in BWA auction. Mukesh Ambani builds assets at the price at which it is difficult to think even. 22 circles at Rs. 128.48 billion when most others have coughed upto Rs. 6,000 Crore for 5,6 or 8 odd circles. Mukesh Ambani’s in his trademark style has taken the assets at the heavy discount as compared to other players in the industry.

Further to be anticipated, how he moves front and back in the telecom and digital telephony space with BWA license. Listen and just try to interpret, “A single 20 MHz TDD spectrum when used with LTE (Long Term Evolution) has the potential of providing greater capacity when compared to existing communication infrastructure in the country”. Another strange thing, when perhaps it was said, that some of the bigger groups were ready to offer their license to RIL at throwaway prices. Infotel Broadband Services (P) Ltd., I doubt if they anything relating to broadband besides the word in the Company Name. Mr. Nahata is still to pay Rs. 500 odd crores to the bank. Still recording losses at breakneck speed, I really adore their commitment to the Company.

Biggest uproar is the fact, Mukesh Ambani is back into his dream industry days after scraping the non-compete agreement with his litloo (younger brother). Reliance Infocomm set up by Mukesh Ambani now known as Reliance Communications is now in the hands of Anil Ambani in family division. Did that Non-Compete Agreement possess any importance?, when they had fought tooth and nail for the dead gas floating in sea bed of Krishna Godavari basin.

As for the customers, they are going to rake the moolah with the pricing strategy and product development of Mukesh Ambani.
Last time it was Roti, kapda aur mobile.
This time it will be less than that even but still sufficient.

Real life vs. Virtual Life

“I am working on my autobiography”, reads my Orkut profile. Some other random different words for my Facebook profile. The question to be asked, how real our virtual world is, especially in comparison to the time we are dedicating to it these days. There are people who have transported themselves to the virtual world and isolated from the real world. Real world is scrawny, bad and real, it tells and reflects about the real you. But the virtual world is all about the good things about you and in this world. Virtual world comes with no caveat. No bars hold/held, you can do anything you wish to do, they way you wish too. Remain anonymous, even if it is hidden, who is going to find out.

We can do anything with words and with the picture pasted on the computer but not to real life people. At times, it does help us in identifying with ourselves but more or less, it may not be the case for the most. We may not like few people, which is human nature, so we stop interacting with them or perhaps ignore them. But in virtual world, even if somebody is irritating or real boring, we know its just the picture. I had a friend, who was always discussing about his blog and the opinions that his followers framed for his post. We should take and respect opinions about yourself, whether good or bad (most of the times, its good in virtual world) but without ignoring the real opinions. He was concerned about their opinions and not mine to stop living in the dream.

With the advent of Twitter, things are getting more out of hand. Priyanka, Shahrukh, every other celebrity in the world to connect to their fans. But in real life, if any of their fond fan turned friend via Twitter turns up at their door, he/she will be labeled stalker and handed over to the police. Amitabh’s FMxt is always welcome, everyday he is thanking and praying for somebody or the other. A real, noble gesture from the face of Indian Bollywood, albeit on a virtual world. FMxt exists on internet. Is it perhaps the disconnect only, which connects people? On the contrary, in IPL, the ones who twitter have lost their jobs. The seemingly disconnect between real and virtual world is diminishing. People are writing ‘WILLs’ for their digital assets.

The whole online game is very infectious and contagious. I know, we have stopped remembering or memorizing things, want to find some information, Google it. When were you born? I need to Google and check. Online diaries, reminder notes, digital birthday calendar, birthday reminder, online wishes, the world is corresponding through waves and not through emotions or feelings.

And if you don’t have an online presence, you are dumb, stupid and ostracized from this world. People frown at you. There was a time, when people dialed everybody’s number and could write our phonebook front to back. We actually remember the other person’s voice, sounds and now, the cellphone beeps the person’s name. Simple, we don’t remember our home number even or surprised at times, when our parents call from PCO (one in million times) or from their colleague’s/ friend’s and we ask, who is it?

There are certain boons or perhaps the reason for its popularity. The speed with which this medium carries information to one and all. One of the mobile phone companies, is advertising, yesterday was so 317 Updates ago?

I’d suggest to everybody, stop dreaming, start LIVING.

Until then, BrB.

Smile Please

Family gatherings are so much fun. Especially in today’s fast pace world, when everybody is neck deep in their worldly affairs. So an occasion for the family to allow them to come together is the moment to cherish. I was meeting my family, extended family for my elder brother’s engagement ceremony. I meet my elder aunt (mausi), you are getting better with age. Perhaps she found a new world after becoming grandmother. No there’s something with her teeth, her brown pouty teeth were now replaced with white structured dentist’s teeth. She possessed a completely new kind of smile. I somehow found it too fake. But her smile made me remember of somebody, my mother’s aunt (chachi). My mausi’s smile completely resembled her aunt’s smile and pout. I realized we all can sport the same smile with the dentist’s teeth. Imagine the whole world posing with the artificial smile. The smile, the most inherent element of any person’s outside personality and charisma.

MS Dhoni is on the verge of losing his status in his job. Being part of Indian cricket team and leading the Indian cricket team are the most sought after and toughest jobs to hold in India. Everybody thought its difficult for Dhoni to lost the job considering his stature and the maturity he possessed and depicted on and off the field. In india, its more important to control things off the field than managing the game on the field. This is where Dhoni faltered. Dhoni should have given a better reason for losing the game. Its not bad to lose, but the way Indian team does not even fight or make the other team struggle to win. To top it all, we have our media, it deviates us from the whole issue. It was over the dismal Indian team performance. But the stretched the Dhoni remark on IPL parties. I seriously doubt if IPL is good for cricket.

Getting back to the IPL parties, Mehr Jesia, wife of Arjun Rampal, who is good friend (offering all the services) of Shah Rukh Khan, franchise owner of IPL, a strong ally of Lalit Modi. Mehr Jesia organized IPL post match parties. She defends the IPL parties by saying, nobody forced them to attend the parties. Anybody put in the cricketer shoes, cannot say NO to such party. Such party not because of free booze, smokes, butt shaking, breast ogling babes and last of all the music.

Lets say its just a normal office party, your boss invites you for it, who does one say for it. Just a normal business networking session over a couple of drinks, what do you tell your boss? I’ll be there, even if you hate drinks and socializing, you try to be part of the party wholesome to score some brownie points with your boss and develop some contacts for your job, business or perhaps be offered a new job. On top of it, your colleagues tell you that the most beautiful and sexy Cindrella is gorging on you, that party may be the place to hit the SIX. No matter how screwed you are during the day.

I am sure, the glamour and the itsy-bitsy cheerleaders, so called glam dolls hanging as a trophy in the arms of the cricketer, who would say NO to such a party. Just in case, you don’t show any interest to Cindrella, you are questioned about your sexuality (in the legalized homosexual world) or whatever.

Now comes, the most silly or stupid reason from Ms. Jesia. She could have consulted Shah Rukh Khan for his maturity and wittiness. These parties help cricketers get close to their fans. If she means fans are the glam dolls and they want to sleep with their favorite cricketer and that too of dozen different nationalities. I’d surely say, yes, fans really got close to their stars. But otherwise, how many of the fans were invited or allowed to mingle with the cricketers from the stands ticket costing Rs. 100 or Rs. 500 or even Rs. 1000. Cricket is not Bollywood, where you spend a night with your director/producer and you can take a day off or get hold off your day. A sportsperson mind and body requires a certain level of discipline. They don’t have second or ‘n’ number of chances like actors.

Anybody, who is not related to cricket, has the right to say anything he or she wishes to say about cricket, except the playing team. Its even worse than America talking terrorism. But if Dhoni or Tendulkar, wishes to say something, it’s a crime.

Cricket is no longer a sport but a tamasha run by buffoons. Its not your on field performance that matters, whether you hit a SIX or bold out on DUCK. Just watch your tongue and that too, off the field.

And Dhoni did teach us a lesson, no matter how good or bad you are, whether you are performing or not. Never/ever question the antics/methodologies of your boss/organization.