?

Is it just me, or Barney does look like Takezo Kensei??

Irony

And the Pakistan captain comes to the dias and says..

"I want to thank all the players, the supporters, and the Muslim religion people of the world for their support.."

And then, two minutes later, Irfan Pathan comes to the dias to claim the Man of the Match award for India.

Cricket is such a beautiful game, when you try to mix religion with sport, only funny situations result.

Do we like the same books?

I just noticed something about social networking sites recently.

I've been receiving all these "Shelfari" invitation emails from my acquaintances. The first ones to send the invis were all girls. Now this is new, since it's generally guys who go on to invite and add girls to their lists. Next in line were the people who.. well.. live on the edge. They've been hanging around with girls for so long that they've developed a noticeable femininity of character. Yes you got it.. the Karan Johar types. And finally came the real men. Now I've been trying to guess what kept them from going on their usual invi-spree for this yet another social network.

So finally I came to the conclusion that girls are more eager to build friendship networks, but they do need a solid premise to do that. Discussion on books is one of such premises, and how they've pounced on it! I'm sure if Orkut gave you such a reason, apart from the cliched "Here for: 1) Friends 2)Activity partners 3) Dating men/women/children/blah blah.. ", it'd be a much bigger hit in terms of girls taking the initiative.

Am I right, or am I right?

Sarkar | The Godfather

I'd been wanting to highlight the similarities between the Bollywood flick Sarkar (Director: Ram Gopal Varma) and the original Hollywood movie The Godfather (Director: Francis Ford Coppola), but was lazy enough not to do it.

I just came across a news article on indiatimes.com (dated 21 August 2007) which does the same and is surely an interesting and informative read for the layman. Here I'm producing the same for interested readers:



“… While there is little information on the back story of Sarkar (Amitabh Bachchan) he has a similar reputation as Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). Both of them are perceived to be kind and generous individuals who strongly believe in staying honorable even though they indulge in illegal activities. Both of them also survive an attack on their life when they refuse to make a deal on moral grounds. Sarkar and The Godfather refused to use their power for a drug deal.

The son Shankar (Abhishek Bachchan) undergoes a similar transformation like Michael Corleone (Al Pacino). While Michael returns to his family from the military service following the end of World War II, Shankar comes home from studying in the United States. Shankar and Michael go from being unlikely candidates to mob bosses of the respective families. Neither of them plan on getting into the ‘family business’ but are forced to due to the prevailing circumstances.

Both families also have a Judas among them as Vishnu (Kay Kay Menon) is similar to Fredo the elder brother of Michael. Both of them betray the trust of the household simply to attain more power. Vishnu takes on the personality of the hotheaded Sonny Corleone since Fredo was shown to be the weak-willed one. Both of them are killed on the orders of their younger brother (Shankar and Michael) when it is found that they betrayed the family. “Never go against the family”, says Michael Corleone.

The gangs of Sarkar and the Godfather share an uneasy relationship with the other gangs of the city. The other gangs refuse to abide by their ideals and want to overthrow the family’s rule. This causes a gang war to erupt with the destruction of all opposing gangs. Both films show the deaths of other gang bosses towards the end of the film. Interestingly both films end with the patriarchs playing their grandson while this is the scene where Vito Corleone gets a heart attack and dies the Sarkar is shown to survive. ...”


Hmm! So this pretty much sums up what I intended to highlight.

Talk Spirituality, Talk Olympics

I am back from a trip to Vaishno Devi and I have a suggestion for the Indian Olympic Association.

Though the purpose of the trip was not the least to promote the (futile?) cause of India winning medals, flowers and stuffed toys at the Olympics, but far from that to clear my Balance Sheet with Almighty and begin afresh with my sins.


To the uninitiated, Vaishno Devi is a holy shrine for the Hindus, located in the Himalayan zone of Jammu and Kashmir. Reaching to the shrine doors takes a considerable amount of character and fitness - not everyone can walk 14 kilometers on the tough mountainous terrain, take a bath, say prayers, and walk the 14 kilometers back to earth.

But everyone can fancy the spiritual satisfaction of attempting to experience the Divine. Which is why several people find employment in facilitating these people’s wishes. And which is where my suggestion for the Olympics originates.

I talk about the porters who make a living by carrying just about anything on their backs - from luggage to the children of pilgrims to the pilgrims themselves. Those who find it difficult to walk the distance, happily mount the palkis carried by these porters on their shoulders, all the way up to the Divine doors. And because this is their source of bread and butter, the exercise has gelled into their lifestyle and a bare-foot climb, leave alone walk, is no big (or)deal.

Now for my suggestion – if, once in four years, we relieve the porters of their “holy duty” and send them over to the Olympics, we have more than a fair chance of striking it rich there. Come on now, think of all the Kenyans winning the marathons – the poor people are accustomed to walking miles for basic amenities out there.

So now you see, I am good at coming up with answers from scratch. However, I find myself at a loss when I ask myself -

“If just one arduous trip in a lifetime to such shrines is believed to change one’s fortunes, then why are these children of lesser Gods doomed to a life of hardship and misery even after making countless such trips?”

Amen.