Gangs Of Wasseypur: Movie Review

I've always felt that Anurag Kashyap is one the very few GOOD hindi movie directors of our generation. Granted, his movies aren't exactly mainstream commercial Bollywood flicks with big stars and exotic locations. But that is the beauty of his flicks. Kashyap doesn't cheat audiences with such superficial elements but instead dishes out entertaining phillums with plots boasting tons of substance and characters that are as complex as you and me. Gangs Of Wasseypur is another feather in the hat of this talented filmmaker, echoing all his usual traits and many more.

At the core GOW is a revenge saga. Manoj Bajpai's character (Sardar Khan) has only one ambition in his life, to ruin the man responsible for his father's death Ramadhir Singh, enacted by Tigmanshu Dhulia. Both execute their characters with brilliance but I'd say that Dhulia does manage to outshine Bajpai (only barely) with his portrayal of an intelligent and resourceful capitalist turned politician. Performances by the entire cast is truly superb as they get the diction, body language and look of their characters with great dexterity. Another actor that deserves special mention is Richa Chadda, who plays Bajpai's wife (one of two) and she is an absolute firecracker! Being a city girl, she's managed to get into the skin of the character with such ease, it is truly awesome!

The basic premise sprawls with many additional characters who are either caught in the cross-fire between these two or are aiding the feud. Despite the high count of characters in the movie, each one is given a substantial screen-time (which is more than justified by almost all of them). The prolonged screen-time was possibly the reason the entire movie stretches over five hours and is being released in two parts. 

The revenge saga spans across three generations (at least the first part does) and as such the narrative delves into the lives of players in each generation for a considerable amount of time, with obvious emphasis being present for Manoj Bajpai's character. With the looting of British goods trains during the pre-independence era to the nationalisation of coal mines in the country to open gang-wars of (near) present day Wasseypur, there is a lot of ground covered in this movie! You'll be best served by paying attention to the narrator as he ties the various timelines and characters together in a single string to make sense of what unfolds on screen, cause if you don't you WILL regret it! 

There are a few (mind you VERY few), plot points that seemed a little thin to me, but not completely implausible, so it didn't affect the overall movement of the story. Despite being tagged as a revenge saga, GOW has a very intelligent and thoughtfully complex story seamlessly weaving multiple subplots into the primary tapestry. The aspects of the on-going family feuds, the political and local atmospheres prevalent in the region, the mafioso killings all complement the central plot quite beautifully.

The music and songs of the movie are very much in sync with the tone of the story, the region and the characters and avoids overtly filmy naach-gaana rituals. And the lyrics of some of the songs are indeed quite interesting such as Teri Keh Ke Loonga and Womaniya. They are unique tunes which warrant a listen at least once. In fact I've also bought the soundtrack from an online music store.

If you are like me and enjoy watching movies with a good story and multi-dimensional characters, GOW is definitely worth your hard earned money. With brilliant performances, a substantial plot and great screenplay, GOW is a definite must watch. I'm already counting down to the concluding part in the series.

A solid **** stars!

Wanderlust - Amritsar

Recently I had the opportunity to visit the city of Amrtisar. Having only read about it in text books in a historical context (read the Jallinawallah Baug Massacre) and otherwise in movies, I was quite excited about the trip to this town-city. And sure enough I was not disappointed with my short trip. Although I was there to attend a wedding (of two of my dearest friends), I did manage to experience the major sights and sounds of the city. Here's my account of the said trip.

With no direct flight out of the domestic airport, the best way to get to this city by flight is to take a connecting one from the nation's capital. Flights out of Delhi to Amritsar are quite frequent and take only around 50 minutes of flying time.

Once you land at the airport, a taxi ride to the main city takes less than thirty minutes. The city itself isn't very huge, so getting from one end to the other would ideally not take a lot of time. But then, traffic is an element you need to factor into your travel plans in any city with a bustling automobile traffic, especially one with loads of two and three wheelers.

Since I was on a tight schedule (set forth by the groom and bride *wink*), the number of sights I could visit were limited. But the wedding couple were kind enough to arrange visits to the following prominent ones - 

The Golden Temple

Perhaps the most fabled and famous landmark in the city of Amritsar is the Golden Temple. Suffice to say, that a trip to this spot was on my checklist. Apart from the spiritual significance that the temple holds, the opportunity to capture the brilliance of this structure through my DSLR and brand new HTC One X was hard to pass up on.

The temple compound is colosal and houses multiple facilities apart from the main temple. These include free filtered drinking water, a library of Sikh religious texts and a free kitchen for all devotees. The main tempe building  I have to admit for someone who isn't too easily impressed with temples, the Golden temple did offer something unique. 

A Panoramic view of the temple complex

The Wagah Border

The other major tourist attraction that tops the charts is the India-Pakistan Wagah Border. More specifically, the border ceremony that takes place every evening at 5:30 pm. The entire objective of the ceremony, in my view, was to one up the Pakistanis with louder and more vehement patriotic chants. I'll admit, i quite enjoyed the whole mexican wavesque manner in which we kept chanting and raising our hands in pride to shout out Bharat Mata Ki Jai (Praise the motherland).

One of the most memorable aspects of the ceremony is the manner in which the leader of the squad (pardon my lack of knowledge of official army terms in these matters) shouted out the orders to his troops. Its a testament to the lung power that these men posses.
Here's a sample -  

But all the cacophony and histrionics and patriotic chants take a backseat when the ceremony comes to a close with the ceremonial flag de-hoisting. It is a sombre moment where both nations  show a sense of camaraderie with a simple salute. 

The flags of the two bordering nations - India and Pakistan as seen from the Indian side of the Wagah Border.

The Food Joints

Of course no trip to the heartland of Punjab can be complete without a visit to one of the many famous dhabas. 

The first stop was at a place aptly called Kulcha Land. The location is very unassuming and so is the ambience. But don't let the simplicity of this place fool you. The food was absolutely delish! I am not joking when I say that there was more butter on the kulcha than there was chole next to it! The Punjabis sure do LOVE their food. But I must admit, the extra fat gives the food that delicious flavor.

Our second (and most delicious) stop was at the famous Kesar Da Dhaba renowned for preparing its food in pure desi ghee (clarified butter). Although our stomachs weren't trained for the pure richness and heaviness of the food, the authentic taste and tantalizing flavors ensured that we gorged on the food till our belts needed unbuckling! I am quite sure we gained a good five pounds after the meal.

The city of Amritsar is an absolutely delightful place to visit and should be on every shutterbug's list of places to visit (Not to mention on every foodie's list as well!) Apart from the various photog opportunities, the small town charm of the city will leave you with a very warm feeling that you will cherish for years to come. 

You can check out these other shots I was able to capture during my short stay in the city  of Amritsar,

Picasa Album

Flickr stream

Kahaani - A Story Worth Watching

When I learnt that Sujoy Ghosh was the director of this flick, I admit I was a little skeptical whether the movie would be worth the trip to the movie hall. After all, his last two directorial ventures were, shall we say, complete failures. But one person changed my mind; Vidya Balan. She is undoubtedly this generation's most talented female actor to grace the big screen. The fact that she was this "story's" protagonist was reason enough for me to catch the phillum as soon as possible in the theaters.

Kahaani is the story (pun intended) of Vidya (or Bidya if you're a stauch Bengali) Bagchi, who has flown from London to Kolkota in search for her missing husband who it seems doesn't exist! The premise takes off into a further complicated nexus as her quest soon gets entangled in a much larger web of government conspiracy, national security, mistaken identity and treason. Vidya's search leads her into many precarious and life threatening situations while dealing with all sorts of characters in the city of joy during it's most vibrant and chaotic period of the year, the Durga Puja.

Ghosh seems to have learned from his previous follies and perfected his craft as the narration of the movie is absolutely brilliant. There is no element shown to the viewer that does not play a part in the overall development of the plot (Not even the simple one liners spoken at certain junctures!) The pace of the story and the suspense keep you hooked on from start to finish. And the climax is one that will surely get you to go "What the F**k!". After a long long (long) time has a director managed to pull off a good thriller movie in Bollywood. And the absence of the usual naach-gaana during the movie, makes this so much better to watch!

The movie does a great job of depicting the city as a silent character and cast member of the story as several scenes and camera shots encompass the life and size of the bustling metropolis. The backdrop of the Durga Puja celebrations suits the thematic nature of the central plot very well and is explained beautifully at the end vide a cool voice over by the Great Amitabh Bachchan himself.

The presence of actors, as compared to "stars" in the movie alleviated the acting quotient of the cast by a couple of levels and the performances from EVERY single cast member are top notch. There is no doubt in my mind that Balan has safely secured her first nomination for this year at all the major awards. But credit is also due to the other actors who should, in my view, also be considered for recognition as stellar supporting cast members. Parambrata Chatterjee as the upright local police officer helping Vidya and Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the arrogant honest and a rather prick of an Intelligence agent are TOTALLY praiseworthy.

Kahaani is indeed a great and absolutely well thought and brilliantly executed movie which deserves your hard earned money and invaluable time at the movie halls. Seldom do you come across a hindi movie that challenges your intellect and delivers an entertaining story in return. The fact that this review was written at 5:30 in the morning the day after I watched the movie should speak volumes of how wildly amazing the flick is! Without batting an eyelid, this one is a sure shot ***** stars!

3:10 to CST

A warning! This post was meant to be posted almost 3 years ago! I dug it out of my list of incomplete drafts. I really don't know how come I missed this one. Anyways, here's to being better late than never. Happy Reading.


The other day at the railway station at Vashi (Navi Mumbai/New Bombay), I witnessed a rather bizarre incident. An argument was taking place between two prospective local train commuters (I say this because they were both standing near the ticket window meant for local trains). The argument itself was not a novel scene; let's face it, you are bound to find at least one tiff, argument, name-calling, fist-fight or at least a "Tere Maa Ki!" look at any major local train station in Mumbai (and even Navi Mumbai). What was in fact interesting was the topic of the heated word-fest. It seems one of the contestants in this fight-night (I presume the one with a laptop messenger bag flung around his shoulder), was purchasing a First Class Ticket, and the other commuter was waiting in queue to claim his Second Class ticket.


Now it seems the second fellow was irate since the techie had very coolly stepped up to the ticketing window and procured the FC ticket, while our Second Class friend had been waiting in queue for almost quarter of an hour (Oh did I not mention that this was around peak time and the queues were phenomenally long!). Obviously the SC commuter considered this callous on part of the techie commuter and demanded that he get back in queue and wait for his turn like everyone else.


Our techie, obviously not new to the local train commute scene, argued back stating that FC passengers have a separate queue and that he was not cutting in, merely following the rules and paying extra for the comfort of not standing in queues. To this the SC commuter replied with full rage and started claiming that such a rule was a farce and inane when so many people were waiting in queue for their tickets.


Obviously, the argument was not going to be settled any time soon, so the other prospective commuters in the queue, beginning to get agitated themselves, demanded that the two settle their score elsewhere and so the railway police were called in to act as referees.


I don't know what happened next or how the argument was settled, but the debate got me thinking; Is the rule for First Class passengers, purchasing tickets at the ticketing counter, to essentially cut-in ahead of the rest a valid one? Think about it, if you have been waiting in an agonizingly long queue for several minutes and you see someone just waltz in ahead of you simply because he has the money to do so, wouldn't you be pissed?


But hey, isn't that the way the world works? After all Money Talks! Restaurants, movie halls, airlines, hotels, cars, cabs and almost anywhere else more money gets you a better product and/or service! So why should the ticketing window at your local train station be any different? 


The bottom line is that if you can cough up the dough, you can walk away with the cookies! Don't get me wrong, I am not stating that being rich means you can get away with murder (although some people do manage to that as well!), but being financially well endowed has its benefits.

"Have Money, Will Spend!"

PS: In case you're wondering about the strange title, it's kinda inspired by the Russell Crowe, Christian Bale starrer -3:10 to Yuma. A fine movie with a rather tragic end.

Yet Another Rom Com reviewed - Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya

In 2003, Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia D'Souza made their debut in Bollywood with the same movie playing a lovey dovey couple (I presume!) Soon rumor-mills were churning news of their off screen relationship and sure enough it turned out to be true. Fast forward to 2012 now when they are about to tie the knot, they have another phillum starring them as the lead pair (after having shared screen space with numerous others). The result? A pretty decent rom-com which is bound to appeal to masses, if not the classes.

Riteish plays Viren (aka Chotu, during the second half of the flick)  a simple lad who enjoys his simple life and plans on opening his own travel agency business with the money he has saved over a course of six years driving an autorickshaw for his rather sardar owner, played by Tinu Anand (a rather hammed up sardar). Genelia is Minnie, the Canadian born free spirited bubbly daughter of Tinu Anand's character , who is going through the arduous and mundane task of selecting a groom for herself, obviously due to the pressure from her histrionic pappa. She has a desire to embark on some more adventurous rides before she settles down with a partner of her choice.

Events take place and it turns out that our protagonist's savings (which he very "cleverly" hid under the seat of the rickshaw he drove) have been lost thanks to Bhatti's move to sell off his auto-rickshaws and buy cars to open his own travel agency (borrowing from Viren's dream which he very innocently blurts out to the groggy eyed Bhatti). An inebriated Viren crashes at Bhatti's residence and starts threatening Bhatti just as Minnie is getting engaged to a rather stereotyped Delhi boy. Our spunky lass hits on the brilliant idea of taking advantage of the rather clumsy and drunk simpleton by pretending to be kidnaped by him. What ensues is a fun-on-the-run kinda mild comedy (mild because I didn't find my self holding my belly while giggling at the lame one liners) during the first half of the movie. And of course the free spirited lass and the timid simpleton begin to fall in love with each other during these antics.

However the second half takes on a completely fresh take on the plot when it is revealed that our rickshaw driving simpleton is in fact the son of a Jat named Chaudhary (brilliantly portrayed by Om Puri) who is the patriarch of an infamous household that perpetrates ransom kidnapping in broad daylight. Turns out Viren did not want to live off his father's ill-gotten money and decided to run away six years ago to make an honest living. Chaudhary however still hopes to pass on the torch to his only son and has him tracked and brought back in hopes of knocking some sense into him. Along the way he also decides to demand ransom money for Minnie (after all money is the main aim here!) from her pappa, but promises that she will be treated as one of the family during her stay at his mansion. The story, now follows the various colorful characters at this "Agva House" and how our bubbly free-spirited Minnie leaves an endearing impression on all of them.


As expected, a hinderacne (a rather lame one at that!) in the love story of the two budding romantics, threatens to tear them apart forever and add a little tension to the plot. How our protagonists overcome this and what happens to their romance is what the climax is all about (Duh!)


As far as performances go, from the lead pair, Genelia stole the show on multiple occasions whereas Ritesh seemed a little lost at times, but managed to match his real life beau's mettle. All the characters at the "Agva House" are funny in their own right (watch out for the South Indian brethren of our protagonist). But kudos to the veteran Om Puri, who gets you ROTFL with his unique style and knack for  getting into the skin of the character. I would watch the movie once again JUST for him! But all said and done, don't expect ground breaking performances, after all the movie is not really aimed at impressing the critics, is it.


The music of the phillum is also quite good, although I doubt people will recollect them a few months down the line. None the less, the songs are quite catchy and foot tapping. Although the overuse of Atif Aslam seems unnecessary. Oh and did I metion that Riteish isn't much of a dancer :P Very stiff and apes Sharukh's open arms move way too often!


Let me be honest. I was not at all inclined at catching this flick for a multitude of reasons. Firsty, it stars Deshmukh, who IMHO is not a very great actor to begin with. Sure he pulls off the chocolate boy image quite well, but doesn't really have a style or panache that serves as a differentiator from those of other such calorific coca indulgences. Secondly, the premise of the fun-on-the-run seemed a little too old (however I was pleasantly proved wrong on this front). Having said that, the flick is not a bad investment of your time, even at the movie hall. From what I could gauge in the movie hall, the antics and one liners were a hit with most of the audience members. 


So like I said, the movie overall is a decent entertainer and worth your hard earned money, but only if you are into the genre of Rom-Coms that don't use too much of logic and are simply meant to tickle your funny bone and give you a feel-good sentiment at the end. My rating - *** stars (Btw that's three stars out of five!)

2010 - A Bollywood Odyssey

This post is certainly one for the history books. Why, you ask? Well, for one, its the first one for the new decade, but more importntly, it is a guest post. Yes, my blog DOES have readers (avid ones!) and one of the many followers has graciously contributed his time and talent in penning a post for my humble blog. The author of this post is my friend and former manager, Umesh Kelkar. Umesh lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife and son.


Keeping in tone with the previous post, this post lists the top 10 Bollywood movies of 2010. In fact it was at Umesh's insistence, that the previous post was penned by yours truly. Since I did not have the opportunity to watch many Bollywood flicks, Umesh, the film aficionado that he is, was kind enough to give his two cents on the subject.


So here it is, the guest post (with minimal editing by yours truly) -

Though I rate the quality of films that came out in 2010 as simply average, I do see an increasing trend in experimentation with format and presentation of the movies released.


Here is my pick of the top 10 movies for 2010 in order in which they were released -


1]Ishiqiya
This flick made its mark for use of rustic locations and rough language. It is essentially the story of two crooks (Naseerudin Shah and Arshad Warsi) and how they are ultimately lured into a trap by a woman (Vidya Balan). The fillum, by a new director at the helm under the guidance of Vishal Bharadwaj, made for some good viewing. Vidya Balan continued her form from Paa and the other players in small roles were also good . Naseer needs a special movie to make him act, so this was it. Good music.


2]My Name is Khan
I had grown bored of the watching US bashing movies and movies showcasing US tyranny on Muslims. So MNIK was a fresh take on the Issue and kudos to Karan for doing it. So instead of the Hate route taken by moviee like Kurbaan and New York, MNIK showed us how to win over US with love. As Usual, an excellent act by SRK. Good music by Shankar Eshsaan and Loy


3]Love Sex aur Dokha
Now this is what I call something different. Dipankar comes out with another winner back to back after last year's Oye Lucky Lucky Oye. Great presentation, shot totally with a hand-held video camera. It tells 3 stories on each component of the title - Love, Sex and Dokha and the stories are connected beautifully at the end.


4]Badmash Company
This was certainly an intelligent movie . Taking the pre 1992 era (The notorious Trade barriers) as a backdrop a story is woved out and told. Attempt is made to include the Usual masala that a Hindi movie needs. But overall a good movie.


5]Once upon a time in Mumbai
Good old Milind Luthria comes on the fore front after many years and he delivers a winner. The story is the same, Haji Mastan and Dawood but it is given a different treatment. Good music by Preetam. The retro era is well captured. Ajay does a smashing Don act and Emraan supports well. This movie is going to take the award for the best Dialogue. Consider this gem "Maine apne jeene ka tarika badla hai, Tevar nahi".


6]Peepli Live
This one has been sent to Oscars and I think it deserves it. It is a Satircal take on commercialisation of our media. Excellent performances by many new and seasoned actors. This movie is in fact the most profitable movie for 2010 since the production budget was very low.


7]Dabangg
Now this is what is called a blockbuster. 200 croes and counting. Phew! Salmaan is back in form. Some one said that in India there are only two true superstars. Definition of a super star is "no matter what is happening outside in their personal life, no matter how poor the script is a superstar carries the movie on his own and makes it a hit." right now there are only two such superstar. One is Rajnikanth and the second is Salmaan. If you don't believe then go and
watch Dabangg and watch how salmaan single handely and some times even rudely carries out the Dabaang act.


8]Robot
This made my list on the sheer strenght of its special effects. Its a Shankar movie and I like his movies. This movie can stand in front of any Hollywood Special effects movies. Good one Shankar


9]Do doni Char
Another gem from another new director. Its a story of middle class family trying to a buy a car. excellent performances by everyone lead by Rishi Kapoor . Rishi might bag a nomination for this.


10]Band Baaja Baarat
Yash Raj should be given a phd on love and relatiosnhip . Following their Shaadi act in the Teleserial Rishta.com, YR comes up with a sweet romatic tale of two college pass-outs and their trials and tribulations in setting up a wedding planner business. Good Music.


The genre completely missing from my list is comedy. This genre has degraded in Bollywood in last few years as our comedy movies have turned into silly tom and jerry cartoons where tom and jerry are replaced by Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgan. So be it the Housefull, Golmaal 3 or the below the belt Tees Maar Khan, they make you laugh in bits and pieces, but so do Tom and Jerry cartoons!


Some films which did not make the list but still I found them to be ok are -


Rajneeti
Udaan 
Rann
City of Gold
Guzarish
Anajana Anjani


I could not catch the below but heard they were good


Phas Gaye Re Obama
Khelenge Hum Ji Jaan Se



So there you have it. The top Bollywood picks from 2010 as seen by Umesh Kelkar.


Thanks for the post Umesh!

All About Eve

The Book of Genesis of The Bible, states that the first man and woman created by God, were Adam & Eve. Blessed were these immortal creations and they led a happy and free life in the garden of Eden. Their only restriction, never to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. But the couple succumbed to temptation.

The temptation came first to Eve, the woman, who managed to persuade her male companion. For their sin, the two were banished from the Heavens and cursed with hard labor and pain. Some believe, that the punishment for this Original Sin should be borne by all of Eve's daughters and her daughter's daughters and so on. Meaning, the woman is to be given no importance and should be subjected to all kinds of hardships.

Ask any woman and you're bound to get a long list of the various physical traumas they endure throughout their mortal lives. But the sons of Adam, i.e. the men decided that was not enough punishment for the women folk. So it came to be that the woman in almost every civilization was to be given no post of any importance and be subjected to humiliation and inferiority complex time and again. Thus began the mental trauma that every daughter of Eve has been enduring since times immemorial.

Some of you may argue that this is all in the past. After all, today's woman walks shoulder to shoulder with her fellow man, excels in almost every profession, industry, endeavor as much as any man and has thus come a long way since the days of the Bible. Are you certain?

Take something as trivial as arranged marriages in the Indian society. Although now a crime, the groom's family still insists on some form of 'dowry' from the bride to be and her family. Why? Well after all, the groom is a man, the bread-winner, the king of the castle. This despite the fact that the bride in question is as educated, well-read and probably has the same salary as the groom in question. But still, her gender has already decided her importance in her in-laws house-hold.

India and many other nations in this part of the hemisphere consider the birth of a girl-child a liability. To the extent that until recently female infanticide was an epidemic and governments were forced to take drastic actions to curb this practice. And if you're thinking this is a belief in rural parts, you'd be surprised! Most urban families staunchly believe that a male child is a must to carry on the family name.

For the longest time, the Catholic churches shunned the very idea of a woman priest. The same is true for the temples, mosques, synagogues of other religions. Although today women priests are becoming more common. But even with all the progress and acceptance I doubt I'll ever see a female pope in my lifetime.

Even the entertainment industry is no exception to this practice. Compare the price tags of male and female actors and a stark difference is obvious. The same is true for the life of either gender of actors. You won't find too many forty something female actors romancing young hunks, but the opposite is almost always common! As recent as last week, when the Oscars were announced, in the 82 year history of the Academy awards, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman director to win the coveted award!

Closer home, a battle is raging to pass a bill that would guarantee the reservation of seats in the Parliament and State legislatures for women. Opponents of this have valid justifications but the fact remain that of the 539 seats in the Lok Sabha, a paltry 44 are occupied by the fairer sex. Obviously somewhere we aren't taking the steps to ensure equal opportunity.

So what is that I wish to say. Well in a nutshell, women are still treated a second-class citizens in our society. Whether or not that is correct and should anything be done is a choice I leave to you, the reader.
But just remember this the next time you try to snub a woman - the individual who carried you nine months in her womb, gave birth to you, fed you, let her personal life take a back-seat and treated you as if you were the most important person in the world, was a woman. Would you like it if she was treated as a nobody? Answer this truthfully and you'll have made your choice!

Wishing all the Eves around the world, a Happy Woman's Day!

Why Newspapers Will Become Dinosaurs!

Be it a city slicker or a small town simpleton, most of us receive our newspapers at our doorstep. Some young lad employed by the "newspaperwallah" cycles into your building compound or society or "gully" and hastily makes the rounds of all the neighborhood doors, smacking them with the requested daily. Now this young lad, bloke, simpleton, "chokra" obviously isn't living his dream by running around every morning at the crack of dawn.  But until he wins the lottery, this is his bread and butter.

But for how long? Economies rise, purchasing powers expand and standards of living improve across the populous. There will be a time when the ubiquitous "chokras" will be no more since they would have climbed up the socio-economic ladder and established themselves as bona-fide white collar employees. Who then will bring your daily dose of news at your doorstep? And if not delivered in the morning for your reading pleasure, where will you go to get that "reading material" for those early morning rituals? Think about it for a minute. How many of us are willing to go to the neighborhood newsstand just so that we can buy something which is already available to us for free (in a manner of speaking of course!) on a 24x7 basis.

Where is it available on a constant basis you ask? Well silly, through the electronic media of course! Yes that idiot box of yours has roughly about a a news channel in virtually every regional language of this country, the AIR (All India Radio), broadcasts news bulletin on a daily basis throughout various time slots in the day and the internet probably has a gazillion odd sites dedicated to reporting current affairs and breaking headlines. A new entrant in this list is the mobile phone. With GPRS, EDGE and 3G, a variety of news-related content is readily available for the average cell-phone user.

Television has been around for some decades now and we all have witnessed the power of moving images when it comes to news. How many cringed when they saw the towering landmarks of New York succumb to terrorist attacks and turn into dust? The war reports brought Kargil, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka to our living rooms. Watching Yuvraj Singh's six-sixes over and over on every sports channels was electric! There is no denying the fact that television has revolutionized the way we perceive news.

Now consider the web for instance. type in news on google and you'll get 26,000,000 results listing prominent names such as BBC, NDTV,CNN and also inane ones like Tundra, Sun and The Onion! But the fact remains that news sites are dime a dozen. Many sites focus on special segments of news, i.e. sport (http://www.cricinfo.com), weather (http://www.weather.com), finance (http://www.bloomberg.com), etc, offering a more in-depth and detailed analysis of the affairs.

Apart from the obvious contenders, the web also has it's share of amateur reporters and paparazzi. Whiz through the status updates of your friends on twitter, facebook or orkut and you're bound to come across some bit of  local and international (depending on the reach of your friend-circle) news. Sports fans will let you know which football club won the previous night with great regale or whether the pole position was claimed by champion Hamilton or underdog Sutil. Financial pundits will keep twitting about the next big bull-run or at least the best performing stocks for the day. Even this year's Central Government Election results were on facebook before they were in newsprint! The most compelling factor about the web as a source of news is its ability to be absolutely instantaneous! News from any part of the world is available at your fingertips (with web browsing phones that is a pretty literal statement!).

Now I know that most of you feel that all the technology in the world cannot replace "that" feel that a newspaper provides. Paradigm shifts are often met with such weak criticism. People said the same thing about digital watches when they were introduced in the analog era. But today, digital clocks are everywhere! Newspaper barons and conglomerates are aware that this shift is taking place slowly but surely. That is the reason why they have begun foraying into the digital media to capture the escaping demographic. Think of any major news daily and they are bound to have a presence on the web, mobile content and in  many cases even the television and radio!

Let's not forget, that a paperless medium is also beneficial to the environment. With seven trees being cut to make a sheet of paper, your gossip section alone is responsible for deforestation of small forests! So environmentalists would definitely be tooting for the online and other non-paper based media to ensure the survival of the environment.

Are you beginning to sense the next big wave? A few years (maybe 10, maybe 20, maybe more!) from now, newspapers will cease to be the de-facto source of your daily dose of current affairs. Coupled with factors such as a rising economy, abundance of content and reduction in charges, online and digital media will be the choice of millions across the nation and, of course, the world.

If you've been reading carefully (and I hope you have!), you're probably wondering why did I even mention the little tid-bit about the newspaper-boy. How does that fit into this piece about the phasing out of newspapers? Especially when other compelling factors have been presented simultaneously. Simple, because that is the one factor which will ultimately cause the shift in our country. History is witness to the laid back approach that most of our nation prides itself upon. Unless, the balance of things is not upset, when it comes to our convenience and comfort, we do not tend to take things seriously. In the absence of that "somebody", who does the work, we feel the pinch and it is only then that we wake up and smell the coffee! So i don't foresee any amount of technology, availability or resources causing our chai drinking and newspaper reading nation to evolve and explore new options. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a generalization but an observation of the attitudes of many old-timers. The younger generation is willing to indulge their senses, try different ideas and accept new paradigms. They will be leading this shift voluntarily; the others would be joining the band-wagon out of compulsion.

For the time being, your daily "akhbaar" is safe and you can indulge in your "garam chai and tez khabar" routine. But remember, "Nothing is permanent but change!”

Twitter Critter

Yet another social networking web-site to invade our lives - Twitter!

What began with Orkut, Hi5, myspace and reached a dizzying frenzy with facebook, has now seen the emergence of multiple social networking sites. So powerful is the force of online networking that it prompted companies to begin specialized networking sites, focussing on professional and technological (and god knows what else!) interests.

So what's so special about twitter? It offers nothing new, in fact, in terms of functionality, it is clearly akin to the ubiquitous "status" update feature on facebook. No special applications, no photo-albums, no info page! All it has is a little text box which can cram a maximum of 140 characters and a question on top which reads "What are you doing?"! I mean what was the big idea about dedicating an entire site to status updates!!!

But after using the micro-blogging site, quite fervently, I have done a 180! Twitter is absolutely wonderful! I am addicted, hooked and completely enamoured by this latest web offering! I also have an application, Tweets60! for my symbian phone. I keep updating my status, even post my thoughts and generally shout out my comments on what ever grabs my attention (hmmm does this mean my blog's gonna get jealous of twitter!). But seriously, I can't help myself as i keep refreshing my mobile device's twitter application seeking out new tweets to retweet and tweet some of my own! Now I am a complete twitter-critter!

Twitter, although not brand new, is relatively fresh for Indian audiences (I say this coz most of my facebook friends are not using twitter yet!). But am sure after a certain minister's faux pas, the nation witnessed a flurry of desis twittering away!
However it's sure to pick up and is also poised to give competition to the current hot social-networking site, facebook. Although primarily designed to post simple updates, thoughts, comments, twitter also offers, albeit through third-party applications, options to upload pics, songs and videos. There are plenty of apps that can empower your twitter presence, (some even as inane as finding out if the International Space Station is above your city!).

Whether or not twitter becomes the next facebook or has an app list to put the itunes app store to shame, this bloke is happy to be part of the twitterati!

PS: You can follow my tweets @ http://twitter.com/Aaragorn1984

let he who is without sin, cast the first stone...

The recent Racial Attacks on Indian students in Australia have been making headlines for almost a month now. And reports of fresh attacks just keep coming in every week.
The outrage of Indians close to the attacks and here at home has been predictable and understandable. Diplomatic ties between India and the land down under are being tested as Protesters are marching in both countries. The situation is obviously one which has caused much grief to the Australian authorities.

But before we get into any more details,let us pause for a minute and ask ourselves, Is racial abuse prevalent only in the western world? India has its own share of racist or at least discriminatory acts of violence. The most prominent one being the immolation of the Australian Graham Stewart Steins, and his two sons by an irate mob in Orissa. The Christian Missionary along with his children was burnt alive in the night while sleeping in his station wagon.

Such acts of discrimination have not been limited to foreigners. In the Indian province of Rajasthan, between the years 1999 and 2002, crimes against Dalits average at about 5024 a year, with 46 killings and 138 cases of rape. Incidents of the lower caste populous being tormented and victimised by the upper caste "elite" are so common that they have stopped becoming newsworthy.
Can we truly point fingers at a another when we ourselves are incapable of demonstrating anti-discriminatory behavior?

What makes the recent attacks so significant as to overshadow our own violent past? Economic conditions are worsening globally. Recession has caused many companies in the west are being forced to execute layoff procedures and find cheaper alternatives. India has been one of the prime destinations for outsourcing jobs at very low costs. Indians are therefore perceived by many victims of the aforementioned layoffs as the cause of their financial disparity.

This article is in no way intended to be an argument to defend the actions of those Australians who committed the attacks against our fellow Indians. Rather a call for introspection and action. Justice is required for those who have been wronged by racists, outside our nation and also within.