Thanks to Amit Agarwal I got the link of a kool tool to play for a while :)
ASCGen is a Windows app to convert images into ASCII text. The good part is it is a lot hassle free and gives you few options to tinker around.
To install it on your Windows machine you will need a .Net fix for older machines, as they claim comes with it default.
Have a look at my ASCII self.
a: Research has shown that drinking beer can be good for health by improving digestion, hydrations and couple of other 'tions'. [Accompanied with link to a really low quality, run of the mill article by a popular web portal]
b: Yeah right! It suggests test was done on 25 students they didn't even bother to go beyond their department I guess. Aam ke aam aur guthliyon ke daam! Aye boyz lets haav sum beaah and run for the gawd damn sayks, gotta shauw sum vital staatistix. I would say the perfect work life balance
b: A cutting (no bleeding, slashing and decapitating) research has shown that birthdays are good for longevity! The more you have the longer you live
a: Yeah wacko, another research shows 2 comes after one in series of natural numbers.
This lead me to a diversion towards a geek book I had read titled 'Godel, Escher, Bach' by Douglas Hofstader. In it there is a part where he explains what those mathematicians lost in formal theory do when they are not performing compulsory chores of life.
Some guy named Peano (not it is not a misspelled Piano) did some break through work in this field. These blokes do some really ass kicking work using a snazzy sounding words like axiom, premise, intrinsic property. To deconstruct the crap this guy laid the foundation by propounding few axioms like:
Now this is the stuff that would make even Einstein wonder in his grave. His anecdotal genius in his classroom days and Ramanujan's 0 boys with 0 bananas doubt would pale in front of this line of thinking. A genius by the name Mr. M (people from JK, Kanpur esp my colleagues from league of Science with Economics in 11-12 std would know whom I am talking of) had answered simple looking Physics definition question 'What is flux, give its formula?' by something akin to:
ρ = Q /ε
With humility and politeness, traits of a true genius, M walked towards the dreaded teacher's table. On a polite inquiry about the zero tagged to his profound answer, madam told him about about the correct symbol to be used and the 'convention' to associate certain symbols with certain parameters in physics.
Right at that moment our iconoclastic Mr. M gave a beautiful reply in his characteristic mumble:
Madam right hand side to theek hai na
(Madam, at least the right hand side is correct)
The poor lady had an expression of a deer caught in headlight, not knowing how to react she slapped our hero in front of the whole class. (I dont remember she used the 'right' hand or the left one for pseudo poetic justice). I could get a glimpse of great Galileo arguing against the mighty dogmatic church. His ignorant colleagues could not appreciate the mettle of his supreme logic. Rest of his colleagues where an ignorant bunch. All he got was some giggles from the girls and guffaws from brats. Man we have no place for people who dare to challenge the convention.Alas! I think this is why we have such a dismal performance and blatant plagiarism (and this) due to utter desperation and lack of original ideas.
आज इस बात को १५ साल हो गए हैं. क्यूंकि ये मुद्दा लोगों के जेहन मैं फीका पड़ चूका है इसलिए हमारे नेता ( जो दरअसल प्रेता हैं ) कुछ नही कह रहे हैं सिवाय लोकतंत्र का चक्का जाम करने के। ये टोकरी मैं पड़े उन केक्डों कि तरह हैं जो न तो खुद बाहर निकालेंगे न ही किसी और को निकलने देंगे ।
उस समय जब ये बवाल हुआ था मैं काफी छोटा था । हालांकि गुजरात के दंगों के बारे मैं कहा जाता है कि टी वी पर समाचार द्वारा व्यर्थ मैं प्रचार हुआ पर मुझे अछे से याद है इस काण्ड मैं मस्जिद के ढहाने की विडियो कैसेट हर घर में देखे गए थे । इन तस्वीरों मैं से एक तस्वीर मेरे जेहन मैं घर कर गयी, वो ठी दिखने मैं कमज़ोर एक बुजुर्ग आदमी कि जो भीड़ से कहीं आगे आकर पुलिस कि लाठी चार्ज के सामने सीना ताने दौड़ने लगा और पास मैं पड़ा एक बड़ा सा ईट उठा के फेंका । उसके चेहरे मैं एक गज़ब का आक्रोश और पीड़ा नज़र आ रही थी । धर्म के नाम पर आदमी क्या नही कर सकता ये मैंने उस आदमी कि आँखों मैं देखा था ।
हमारी कानून व्यवस्था और पुलिस कि जांच प्रणाली के बारे मैं क्या कहा जा सकता है जब १२ साले बाद आरोपी को न्यायालय मैं लाया जाता है और १५ साल बाद एक साक्षी मिलता है ! जब कुछ ऐसा पड़ता या सुनता हूँ तो फ्रान्ज़ काफ्का कि लिखी ये कहानी 'before the law' याद आती है। आशा करता हूँ इस जन्म में इस मुक़दमे का नतीजा देख सकूं ।
Every one knows the story. Some quarters of society had objections over some words in lyrics related to cobbler and goldsmith. BMW (Bahan MayaWati) slapped a ban later to be revoked and some people accusing Mayawati for double standards (Aren't two better than one?)
An interesting part is how the Media analyzes an event and goes meta:
- Film gets banned
- Freedom of Speech
- Finer nuances of traditional professions and caste system in India
then in a separate thread:
- Madhuri's comeback (With oft repeated line: She never went away)
- Madhuri not fit for a comeback
- Theories for comebacks with data samples of Rekha, Kajol, Juhi etc.
- Controversy used to boost box office sale of the movie
- Controversy couldn't boost box office sale of the movie
- Theories of controversies increasing sales
With arguments, facts and theories buzzing around our head like a swarm of deadly bees, we missed a small point. Every day since past week I have listened to the song on Radio and not even a single byte from its lyrics are clipped. If representatives of people are so careful of popular sentiments then they should know a little bit of maths. Number of people listening to the words via Radio has to be much higher than cinema audience then why ban only on screening!
PS: A classic case of the meta nature of media is when media cribs about media!
देवनागरी लिपि पड़े हुए हमे अरसा हो गया । अब जबकि ब्लॉगर ने अपने एडिटर मैं यह सुविधा उपलब्ध कि है कि आप रोमन अक्षरों मैं हिन्दी शब्द लिखें और वह देवनागरी लिपि मैं प्रतिवार्तित हो जायेंगे तो बड़ा अच्छा लगा .किन्तु खेद सिर्फ इस बात का है कि हमारा प्रिय ब्राउज़र फायरफौक्स यह लिपि ठीक से प्रस्तुत नही कर पता। अतः हमे माइक्रोसोफ्ट के इंटरनेट एक्सप्लोरर का उपयोग करना पड़ता है :(
बाक़ी सब तो ठीक है किन्तु हिन्दी की दो मात्राएँ : बड़ी ई छोटी इ जब किसी व्यंजन के साथ मिलती हैं तो गड़बड़ हो जाती है। थोड़ा गूगल करने पर पता चला कि यह बाधा इसलिए आती है क्योंकि ये मात्रा जिस व्यंजन से जुड़ती हैं उसके बाहिने ऑर रखना पड़ता है अर्थात यदि आपको मंदिर लिखना हो तो रोमन लिपि मैं आप : m a n d i r लिखते हैं किन्तु हिन्दी मैं इ कि मात्रा द के पहले आती है। इस का ध्यान माइक्रोसोफ्ट ने तो रख लिया किन्तु हमारा प्रिय ब्राउज़र मात खा गया :(। यदि कोई भला मानुष (या मानुषी) इसका उपाय जानता है तो हमे ज़रूर बताए
हिन्दी लिपि के वैसे तो अनेक फॉण्ट आते हैं पर यदि ये UTF format मैं लिखी जाये तो फॉण्ट फ़ाइल इंस्टाल करने की कोई ज़रूरत नही है।
(If the text is not comprehensible at all: in your browser window click View --> Character Encoding --> UTF 8)
In the societal sub consciousness (I lauv these heavy words) of Hindi Cinema (not Bollywood as I consider it denigrating epithet) many a leading ladies have left ever lasting impressions, those "sunehre parde ke chamakte sitare" and "lakhon ke dilon ki dhadkans". Like a neat NCERT history book the eons of Hindi cinema are divided amongst divas: Sridevi, Madhuri, Hema and other beautiful etceteras. Those were the days when a mangal sootra was a full stop in actress' reel life and one had to be politically correct in media. Some of the laydeej stood out without getting trapped in heroine-vamp cleave all the while exploring the twilight zone of amorality in principle and practice.
My attempt is to shift the limelight towards the not-so-politically-correct and in your face laydeej. Scandals, statements, hookups and sleaze are what they are associated with by popular perception and now so ubiquitous media. I won't backtrack too much down the memory lane. Few such laydeej come to my mind right now. Mamta Kulkarni, Pooja Bhatt, Mallika Sherawat and last but not least Rakhi Savant who gave her iconic statement at KJo's: "Jo bhagwaan nahi de sakta wo doctor deta hai". Surely there have been laydeej before this who had sizzled the screen with a lot of oomph (and aahs and ouches also) but to my mind these come to the fore.
Mamta Kulkarni started it all by kicking some [NSFW*] dirt in star dust [NSFW] cover. She drew the naree kalyan samaaj wommans towards entertainment industry. Antics off the stage were aplenty. Allegedly (not by vishwaniya sutr but allegedly) she was swimming in two piece bikini in a hotel's pool. When informed by manager that only single piece attires where allowed the laydee came up with an innovative solution. Which one of them should I take off Mr. Manager! (flutter flutter, wink wink). I miss this laydee for the entire hullabaloo she could raked up at the drop of a hat or other pieces of clothing. Be it 'zeher hai ki pyar hai tera chumma' with Akshay jhatka Kumar or checking her anatomy in mirror (Karan Arjun, remember Rakhi crying hoarse - 'Mere bete ayenge' in an infinite loop) she was considered archetype of debauchery in popular media. In a private function of
Pooja Bhatt had it all, looks to kill and cheap thrills plus a big daddy for home made videos (err movies). She made libertine out of women liberation. Her [NSFW] lip lock with daddy was not taken in the right taste by the righteous junta. No one could appreciate her penchant for . Somewhere she went out of all the attention to resurface for directorial debut in an erotica aptly named Jism. Though she was much derided for her 'bold' image she was never an outcast or denigrated like Mallika or Rakhi. The image of a wild child was brilliantly portrayed until Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility took over. The other Pooza, Bedi Bebi that is had her fair share of eyeballs with Kamasutra's nirodh condom. Who can forget the bubble gum popping femme fatale as Amir Khan's juvenile fantasy in Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikandar.
The void created by their departure seemed to be partially filled by few babes who fizzled out, became leading ladies or the cliched sex symbols. They could not manage the art of shock and awe. After Rangeela, all that we had of Urmila kapde-mat-od-kar were nervous twitches and horrendous facial contortions in intense scenes. Bipasha with her husky voice and dusky complexion took up the cause of fairer but not so fair sex. Her non committal statements with John and Dino Morea (is he the evolutionary march of Dino saurs? He too shall get eliminated in natural selection) has become common place and has found no takers. Caress-Mah Kapoor made tectonic shift from frilly skirts to minis. Her innings with Chhi-Chhi was shortlived.but she took her bow at the pinnacle of her career not before becoming too arty, farty. Malaikha Arora Khan with her lustrous thighs seems she invented the idea of item girls. Limiting her appearance she is smug with her hubby. Surely there were controversies, hookups, cat fights, breakups but they where all rumors by some arbit birdie twittering in tinsel town. No one endorsed the birdie so it became extinct.
Not until dare devil laydee from tau's Haryana - Mallika Sherawat came to foray with a bang, seventeen kisses and call-spade-a-spade attitude (Khwahish, I went to watch that despite being down with fever, pop goes the pill) and enough of sound bytes for every one to gorge. She took the horny bull of audience by the horns. No doubt news channels should give her some token of appreciation for all the business she generated. I distinctively remember Star News (which has become schizophrenic after NDTV left them) was showing arrival of a mysterious burqa clad woman amongst a bunch of stars in Mumbai airport. And the sheer brilliance of the correspondent who solved unveiled the secret. It was Mallika Sherawat, Voila! All of this on prime time slot amongst stories of cricket, terrorism, Soniye and Manmoniye.
Studio Pravakta: Kya kaaran thaa jo unko burqa pehen ke ana pada, jaisa ki aap humari footage main dekh sakte hain ki mallika ko ruphale parde pe anga pradarshan karne se koi parhej nahi hai phir wo kya waja thee jiske kaaran unko aisa kadam uthana pada.
(Screen shows umpteen shots of her in itsy bitsy teeny weeny clothes repeated ad nauseam). Aaj humare saath studio main Satpaal ji maujood hain.
Satpaal ji kya maanana hai apka
Iske peechee kiska haath ho sakta hai.
Satpal (A studio rat whose only exposure to sun is by gawking at weather forecast lady): Jee footage main to nazar nahi aa raha hai
par meri tammana to yahee hai ki inke peechhe mera haath hota!
Aap mallika ji ka ye gana dekhiye, milte hain break ke us paar.
And then there was Rakhi Savant. From court cases of indecency to stereotypical jokes by K-Jo’s pretentious fairy friends she had it all until she made the debut. People say she is not intelligent even when she has dual core silicone processors custom made for her (Did she get rid of it? What gigahertz was it running on?). Daring to speak her mind and raring to displaying her body of work (or work of body) she epitomizes chutzpah. The politically correct, convent bred brats and babes get flustered by her persona. Starting with item numbers she became a brand and industry. Mika (who claims Himass baba swept the nasal twang from under his nose) had a taste of limelight and an album all because of this laydee. Sony’s Bigg Boss had a blast because her jo-mere-man-main-hai-wahi-mere-moonh-main-hai attitude. Not to talk of dumb witted Great Indian Laughter Challenge contestants who have a human touch to canned laughter named Siddhu.
Parvez the Prez has spoken after Amrikka's Negroponte came knock knock knocking on Mushy's door (errrr where is the Rice cooking?). His plan to take his style statement from Multan to Milano is quashed. (them angrez perverts want me to take off my uniform, such kinky rascals! ok ok just this one time, can we make it fast). So people are again chained to seats. Will Mushy babe solve the su do coup?
Mushy gave an apt gift on the eve of Children's day. (Come on kiddoze an educational trip to jail for you. Who wants the third degree?) And the good sportsman he is, the hide and seek between him and Imran Khan ended in a Gotcha moment a lot of home videos made by the cricket stal-wart (surprisingly there was no ads of Chintoo Candy prevalent in pirated movie CDs from Karachi).
We have to see whether the mandook(frog) can come out of his koop(well) that he has created for himself. He is giving typical signs of a despot-in-decline by identifying himself with the country and vice versa. Purrvez's relation with Uncle Shyam (Got this phrase from Hari) are getting more obvious, not that we didn't know. Musharraf is giving a nifty potboiler with a lot of emotions and action packed drame with babe (Bhutto), stud (Imran) and buffoon (Shareef). Ek anar, chaar bimaar.
Probably he can come to India to make a movie with Mahesh Butt with some random chick and a pseudo random hunk (read Emran Hashmi not to be confused with Hasmi dawakhana) on an inspired plot 'ek fool teen mali'. A love quadrangle starring Bhutto, Shareef, Imran and Musharraf, but at the end it would be Suuny Paa-ji who would solve the problem by a hand pump.
Kya hota hai jaanane ke liye aaj hi jaye apne paas ke CDwallah ke paas
Now that mush has gone mushy mushy with his little toy land we have to know what does Bushy think! Instead it was Condolezza Rice who gave a neutral and aloof answer to the whole drama. (Some one joked that Rice would turn to a big Dosa in her grave due to fermentation)
Some people had an cynical smirk (errr dude wasn't Mush doing that stuff already? What did he do now?). It made me realize 8 [/9] years ago I was sitting in a barber's shop going to grab the Filmfare (whatever glitzy film mag he kept, I love these barber visits because all of them keep one such mag and it pisses me off to wait without them they are kind of equivalent of free peanuts in American flights) that some obscure General in a bollywoodesque thriller has grabbed the toy land from Nawaz not-so-Shareef. I thought kool man, some serious ass kicking going on (I am still wondering no one takes this as a movie script idea). It also made me realize just like Hindi cinema potboilers this stuff is going on and on. Audience is bored of item numbers , revenge story and dhishum-dhishum fight scenes. Even the frequent trips to the loo are not helping yet the movie promises to have a great climax so they are clinging on to the tickets.
As the puntastic title of the blog suggests managing army, jihadis, Bush, judiciary, pet, political opponents and at last the public is like a su do ku problem. All the numbers have to be placed at the right place under constraints. If at the start you place a number at random out of free will or folly it becomes hard to backtrack later when you know you did a mistake (Mushy: Yikes what will Bushy think of me, and these unkempt pyjama-chhaps don't know anything about style statements, they dont have any dressing sense, I should be strutting my stuff in Lycra Style awards) Will Mushy babe solve the su do coup? Will he make it to Time Su Do Coup challenge or will he follow his elder dictators? For now "milte hain is break ke us paar"
In a Kafkaesque moment for Lakshmana the innocent techie was put under bars for defaming Shivaji. 'Shivaji who?' was the question he asked and pat came the reply 'Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj you bozo!'. ('I never met him! What is his email id? Is he available on orkut?'. 'Orkut ya thats what those chircut's said, you are under arrest').
The policewallahs tracked the ipaddress to his home tipped off by Lakshmana's Internet Service Provider (ISP) of defamation in orkut community. I can imagine these state sponsored goons come into action when political masters say 'shoo, get fetch him boy, aaaaah good boy' or 'go nab someone for me instead of a fetching newspaper today' Reading through the article at his point I thought they might be trying to find street address, pincode and all in the ipaddress let alone the cryptic 'crosses' and 'mains' popular in Namma-Bengaluroo so might have landed at the wrong place.
The gruesome ordeal Lakshmana K. had to go through was shrugged off by these cyber-illiterate cops through an irritating, irresponsible, condemnable comment: "We made a mistake, so what" that too coming from a senior police officer. Meaning "We had just put some guy behind bars for 50 days, look we played fair, it was just a random thing it would have been your next door neighbour or even you, you see. It is our duty to put people behind bars, there are so many of them, it is good to keep the cells engaged you know. A little bit of jail boosts your moral and our appraisal too"
Halfway through I made uncanny resemblance of Mr. Lakshmana K's plight to that of Joseph K protagonist of Franz Kafka's dark story 'The Trial'
Though we are becoming cyber-aware but the people sitting high a top don't know a thing about computers, probably checking emails thats it. It is this same ignorance and a systemic stupidity we had a blanket ban on all blogs throughout the country! ('Its for those IT kids to know, to do computers, God knows what do they do sitting in front of monitors, in our good old days the typewrite was enough')
The interesting part to look for is will the ISP concerned give a verbal/written apology in person or public or provide some compensation ('Probably an offer/scheme! Pay some insane amount of money and we won't tell them what and whom you did last summer') or just another automated kasht-mar care reply ('welcome to rambharose ISP service, press 1 to get behind bars, press 2 to contact your friendly neighborhood cop,')?
He knew it, the hunch , the gut feeling (ewww not the bowel movement). All the things he heard near vending machine. Logs, messages and all the jargon spouted over by the rookie sysadmins over a cup of hot coffee spouted by the machines as intelligent as them (talk of natural stupidity not artificial
intelligence).
Straining at the terminal pieces of code presented themselves to him in indented glory. The sudden glow and warmth ran across his body like a spotlight. He could visualize invisible vision of unseen orb in silence and the voyeur behind it. "It is for your own safety!" "Yes big brother as you say"
"Did I just pick my nose" "Sorry Big Brother" "Think hard.... concentrate .... close that Gmail window, firefox icon can be recognized from miles" "Oh come on, keep a window of source code open .... at least the one with tons of ugly text" "Yes kool, fingers near Alt-TAB ..... switch the windows as soon as the undead comes, swallow that you.....".
He tried hard to put a Murphy blind over himself. "Don't peer over the cubicle there are a bunch of semi androids there also ...". The stifling humidity as if it is void that you are sucking in as air, still even though it is void it scratches the walls of trachea the tongue just feels a dull sensation". "He could feel some one breathing down his neck, the stench, the hot humid masala laden air giving blows of disgust in him"
And
Burrrrrrrrrrp
Arrrrghhhhh
EWWWWWWWWWW
"Grosss, that was hell lot of sambhar for a breakfast MAN, get a life and go back
to your monitor"
"Our studies have shown drinking tea reduces the chances of heart diseases by 11.3%"
"A recent research has shown results that drinking tea with a lesser amount of milk leads to 16.8% chances of damage to the liver"
"Research has shown that people with pets have more chances of living longer"
Such obscure and confusing research where there is no mention of samples, methodology, reports etc leave readers in a quandary. Imagine people like me who are so weak in probability [The probability of a probability coming out more than 1 was quite high in my case].
Things get messier when statistics move from food to lifestyle. The results are not conclusive, often misleading and do not declare that they have been recommended by a professional doctor/practitioner. Increasingly the print media is moving towards such aimless pseudo-scientific banter ranging from health to even dating and etc. Giving tips on housekeeping and recipes was great but to giving an opinion regardless of the person whom it is intended for, her/his situation etc. is according to me unethical
My research has shown that having more birthdays is good for you, the more you have the longer you live!
Now this was outrageously cheesy, campy and tending towards kitsch. People must have seen the latest promos of Farah Khan's film Om Shanti Om, her ode to bygone cinema era. I really can't believe Javed Akhtar has written these lines for the song - Dard-e-Disco.
Now what is that supposed to mean. SRK worked out so much for his abs and puny torso that he broke a bone or two while disco-ing? The initial lines are the stuff usual words and constructs Hindi cinema lyrics (not Bollywood it is a denegrating word) are made of. And there are some good Urdu words thrown in. The hackneyed lines make me remember the brilliantly humorous movie Chashme-Buddoor (starring suave Farukh Sheikh, girl next door - Deepti Naval and a host of other likable characters). It had a great take on the typical song and dance routine in Hindi cinema. The song went like: Chham chham Payal, kaise ho paagal and all the inane stuff that rhymes.
Coming back to Om Shanti Om. The song took me by surprise after listening to lyrics the recent dud movie - Cash where a despo Shilpa Shetty look alike (errr or is she her sis) cries out for her MindBlowing Mahia! (Aaj Tak watchers was there any hidden connection between her and Mahendra Mahia Singh Dhoni?). She did a hell of Job to Blow [Blowing Minds you dirty minds!]
I never expected this from Javed Akhtar. Probably it was some else who screwed and made the singers sing it, probably it was some underworld don who made them do it instead of extortion to get pure kicks out of the whole meaninglessness of it.
Or does he suffer from multiple lyricist disorder! He has a Sameer residing in him! Or just like Aks (Amitabh Bachchan, Manoj Bajpai, Nandita Das) Sameer enters his body and makes him write these lines to vamoose into thin air leaving even him agape.
Well the much hailed fruits of Artificial Intelligence are not bearing for the market I think looking at Artificial Personality can be a good option. Prof. Alan Turing gave Turing Test as a benchmark of AI where a human judge has to converse with a human and a machine through a natural language. The machine passes the test if the judge is not able to conclusively say it is a machine with which (s)he was conversing. Quite a subjective parameter but gives a complete picture.
Further developments lead to much hailed poster boy of AI: Expert systems. After this came less 'glamorous' (readd stuff from which sci-fi is made of) more nerdy interpretations and implementations but the core remains the same. There is something such as 'intellectual' tasks that a human can do and we should strive towards making machines do it. So there is a notion of a problem or a question and its resolution.
Where as if we go back to Mr. Turing and see his test in a different light essentially he is talking of creating an Artificial Personality. Surely the judge can test the person on the other side by giving 'intellectual' task/problem/question but overall if you want to see it is a case of personality that we are looking at and not 'intelligence' per se.
BTW this article triggered the dormant thought in me
LOL is the word
Aishwarya Rai, the much touted queen bee of Hindi Cinema, the crossover dream of India and latest addendum to Bachchan parivar had her wax doll displayed at Tussads, New York
Is the wax model an exact replica of the lady? I think it is the other way round! The lady with frigid expressions is an abberated replica of the doll! Aberrated because she can flutter her eyelid. Somehow the virtual overwhelms the real. Case of simulacrum turned on itself! A reflexive hyperreality?
I still believe it might have been a hoax, she might have stood there herself and people would have believed it ;)
Or it can be about fooling your prof (who is anyways teaching law of addition i.e. it is associative) , thereby taking you to newer forms of intelligence. Elevating you from your aam zindagi to a new kewl mentos zindagi.
Chlormint: The first ad with the paanwallah showed Indians are deeply involved in philosophy that the ultimate revelation and the truths can be known on a nukkad. The existential dillema's of western trained mind of rationales, reasones and cause and effect analysis are eliminated by quasi-Zen like unquestioning the question. The whole question of 'Hum Chlormint kyun khaate hain' is answered by a paanwallah.
On the other front the still-in-70s Pappi gets to know dimensions of other kinds while musing over kissing habits of SouthAmerican fresh fishes (yes Saiyyan more Guppy, dete nahi pappi). The latest one is about the eternal and timelessness of the world and specifically of chlormint. It is so subtly put by a paying homage to the India's best sport (no procreation doode but kabaddi)
Orbit White: Orbit has consistently used gaay mata (holy cow!) as its symbol the great animal specialist with English deeply rooted (and routed) in India. Dr. Dhurandar Bhatawadekar shows the sheer power of Orbit.
Doc in a subtle and sublime manner teaches us that after all man is a social animal. A brilliant mix of entertainment, education and advertisement - enterducads!! Coincidently Utpal Dutt played the role of ace detective Dhurandar Bhatawadekar in Hindi Move Rang Birangi (1983). The ad captures way globalization will make a new Indi-English where Orbit is needed by all bachelor-men and bachelor-women. The ad always ends up with Mr. Butt-of-a-wader giving a Eureka moment. Its working!
Minto-Fresh: Now this is the ultimate social leveller. The ad creates a unique blend from Laila-Majnu tragedy (albeit this is not), rural amorous aspirations and the forward looking lad from mera gaon mera desh. The message is not hidden behind incoherent syllogism but a simple message: 'Laila ko jab karna thha impress majnu ne khayi minto fresh, bole to ekdum fresh'. The end shows reversal of the fairytale of Frog Prince with the villain turning back to his frog-dom. But there are literalist people who can't read between the frames
Polo: For the diehard mint fans for whom life is what happens between fag, Polo is the still the Dalda of Ghee! Offlate it has bear the brunt of punk ads but the image of old man dancing away to young tunes (unfortunately I am unable get the video/image of the really old ad) still lingers in my otherwise cluttered mind. The tagline still holds strong: 'Mint with a whole' which has sustained many reactionary ads and tomfoolery. The latest one shows a granny finding 'kiss ka hint' from Polo power mint.Hindi Cinema or should I say Bollywood has further crystallized the already stark abyss between the so called class, mass and kitsch!
I used to relish Zee Cinema and (late entrant) Star Gold for movies like Zakhmi Aurat, Red Rose and a host of other movies which could not get the recognition from masses (and the sneering critics sitting smugly atop the ivory tower).
The lost gems and voice of hundreds of hungry (and whistling) junta a race loosing out to multiplexed, perplexed crowd (seriously its been a while since I have gone in a multiplex).
The last hope for kitsch is also dying, have a look at Star Gold's movie schedule for today (13th Aug)
02:25 V Trailers - Star Gold
02:30 Jawani Diwani
04:35 Main Meri Patni Aur Woh
08:10 V Trailers - Star Gold
08:15 TELE VIEW MALL
08:30 Jhankar Beats
09:00 23rd March 1931 Shaheed
13:30 Khakee
17:00 Sarfarosh
20:30 Swades.... We The People
Now this post is awesome: Passion for Cinema
[Note it is in Hindi]
Actually I found Tej Sapru an interesting character actor and my mom had told me that he is a veteran actor named Sapru's son. So after writing String of characters I was trying to do some manual web mining (how bout making Amitabh the new generation web miner in High tech Kala Pathhar?!?, no no please no brickbats for this crass semi-tech PJ even I couldnt digest it so barfed it out) and got hold of the link - awesome piece of work, just need to touch up the language a little bit.
Well the concert did take place, but the overall experience was a tad disappointing the last solo from Jagjit Singh at Ambedkar Bhavan, Bangalore. There was something missing with the whole arrangement. A ghazal concert where sound and proper acoustic setup is utmost importance the organizers missed the whole point.
To start off there was a lot of problem Jagjit Singh had to face because of audio and repeated howling because of feedback. He had to point that time and again. He also seemed to be in a hurry to finish it off. Personally I prefer still the old school ways of harmonium, tabla to accompany a crooning voice rather than violin, keyboard and flute. Somewhere the sounds didn't blend to create magic.
Ustad Ghulam Ali was a pleasant surprise, all the while he seemed so enthusiastic and cheerful even amongst his instrumentalists. Jokes and अठखेलियां where a plenty as was some serious facts about ghazal, nazm, raag in a light manner to inform audience. His attitude was great that people should not only hear the stuff but also understand it well and get to know a little bit of nuances also
One thing that I liked about Ustad Ghulam Ali was he could not stand improper behaviour from the audience be it howling, whistling or clapping in between shers and he handled the audience in firm yet polite manner with a touch of class. All the while it seemed he has taken us to a ride in the world of ghazals where we are sailing in a vast ocean of emotions with him enjoying the twists and turns with the audience. An extremely humble and yet humorous person.
The overall setup was not that good an experience but it was great listening to the great Ustad whom I had till now met only through digitally embossed circular disks
