Monday, February 27, 2006
250 years....
You hear it in calling bells; you hear it being played in shops and malls. You hear it on the T.V and the radio, songs and advertisements inspired by or blatantly drawing from the rich collection of his works. You may not even recognize it or realize it but you cannot deny the influence of Mozart in your life.
Though Mozart didn't live long enough (passed away at the age of 35), his influence would live on forever.
Monday, February 20, 2006
Cartoon Hungama
Much has been said and written about the controversial 'prophet' cartoons. If freedom of expression is everyone’s right in Europe, would someone in Denmark publishing a cartoon depicting a mob beating up the Danish Prime Minister be let scot-free? Well after all he is just stating his point of view using his European birthright - freedom of expression.
In the entire infamous 'clash of civilizations' debate a couple of arguments stood out.
- On one of the panels an excitable American journalist accused the Arab world of 'overreacting' by boycotting Danish products. An Arab on the panel calmly replied, 'And the Americans were patriotic when they boycotted French Fries (in the aftermath of the French decision of not joining the war in Iraq)
- This one was a stunner - The chief cultural editor of the now famous/infamous Danish daily was on this panel. A religious Muslim in the panel asked him if his paper had ever published any cartoon making fun of Christians or Jews. The response was - "Yes, sometime ago we did publish a cartoon depicting Ariel Sharon killing Palestinian babies". The person who raised the question was infuriated and commented - "It’s not the same thing, Sharon is a human being. It’s not the same as drawing a cartoon of the prophet". The editor replied, seemingly with all the conviction in the world - "In our culture it is considered a bigger insult if someone makes fun of a living or existing being". Needless to say, the panel and the audience were speechless for a couple of minutes.
The age old quote which states that 'Every right comes with a degree of responsibility' holds, with regards to this controversy atleast.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Charity ?
I happened to notice a van of a prominent organization (cult?, some people consider it to be one) involved in a mid-day meals distribution program for underprivileged school children. The promo line for the donation scheme displayed on the van read, "Feeding a hungry child is not charity, its your social responsibility".
Can't help but agree with that line.
Can't help but agree with that line.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Great Escape...
A weekend spent far away from the troubles of the real world. The weekend trip to Devbagh was peaceful and refreshing indeed.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Advertisements...
Swapnasundari wearing maxi,
Getting out of a yellow taxi.
She enters a club,
Pagal ho gaye sab.
Surprisingly she chooses me...
Is that a pen in your pocket Mister?
blah blah ..(some incorrigible stuff)
I am very very sorry sexy,
Now every pocket in the city has got a lexi.
Oh No !! Oh No !!
Now every pocket in the city has got a lexi.
Oh No !! Oh No !!
And, if the lines mentioned above ain't make any sense to you, don't worry. It simply means that you have spared from listening to FM. Its a pen advert. which torments FM listeners (both the enthusiastic ones as well as those who have no choice) every 15-20 mins. The advert is as lengthy as some of the tracks played on the station itself !!
If the sole idea of advertising is simply to ensure that the audience remember the name of the product without any concern as to whether they would associate anything positive about the product after listening to the advertisement, then this and a few others, notably Airtel's Paaji-Kyaji nonsense have succeeded in their endeavor.
Monday, February 06, 2006
10,000+
Sensex goes past the 10,000 mark and the bull run continues. Infact the bull has not even paused to catch some breath in the last six months. Sehr Gut !!!
Bracelona's winning streak finally comes to an end. This gives Valencia and Real Madrid who are 9 and 10 points respectively behind the leaders atleast a chance to catch up. Situation in La Liga is better than EPL in which the battle is only for the (remaining) Champions League spots, the title race is all but over.
Our new CM has declared that he would inspect Bangalore roads and infrastructure even at night. People, gear up to face traffic jams in the middle of the night too !!
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Movies and a football match...
Saw a couple of movies over the weekend. Started the weekend with 'The French Connection'. Great movie. The best part in the movie is the sequence in which Gene Hackman tries to tail the French drug dealer and every time that guy somehow manages to give him the slip. The climax is simply superb.
And the weekend ended with Rang De Basanti. Good movie by its own standing and a great movie if you compare it to the likes of those churned out by the Yash Chopra's and Karan Johar's of the industry. In terms of technical aspects - camera work etc, it is one of the best that I have ever seen in a Bollywood movie. However, they could have done away with some of the typical 'national integration' kind of scenes in the movie e.g. Aslam and Lakshman holding hands while dying. More on the movie later.
And in the midst of all this, happened to watch Chelsea beat Liverpool. The scoreline was 2-0. Could have well been 4-0, had the legimate Crespo goal not been ruled offside and if the 'never say die' Steven Gerrard hadn't made the last minute tackle to stop a brilliant Robben run. Chelsea firmly on course to yet another EPL title.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
What NOW ?
Was peacefully dozing away in the shuttle yesterday evening. Suddenly, the noise of glass being smashed and something breaking abruptly ended my sleep and brought me back to the real world. It took me a moment or two to realize that the sound was from the speakers blaring out radio city. Then, there was this deep voice that announced 'when was the last time a news channel had this effect on you?'. I wondered if the sounds that preceded the announcement symbolized the frustration of the poor TV viewer, assuming ofcourse that the news broadcast in this channel would be as meaningless as the news that they print everyday. I don't think there is anything to assume in that, I guess.
