My Friend Sancho

'Disappointment' is the one word i would describe the book as.I didn't expect much out of it when i had bought it as i picked it up as one of those pacy time pass easy reads.. But while it began as a pacy one it couldn't hold my interest after half of it. it got a bit too mundane and typical eventually.

The Protagonist seemed like he was trying too hard to be this cool character that the readers should identify with but eventually it starts losing you. At least it lost me. it reminded me of a million other indian writers and their books. it didn't seem to give me an original feel. Thought could have been way better but Amit Verma ended up making it look like yet another Bombay journalist dabbling his hands in book writing cuz its the next cool step.

I m guessing for the chetan bhagat kind of fans this book will at least be a one time entertainment even though it didnt satisfy my interest levels and i actually did skip pages.

English August has definitely been my most exciting book as far as the the description or humour with which Upamanyu chatterjee has dealt with the Indian Beaurocracy and systems, Indians in general even though it was more small city, rural and Amit is talking Bombay but i still feel it was a bit too much of a cliche', the writing.

Also the synopsis behind the book says this line "More importantly, can it survive the machinations of the jealous lizard that shares Abir's flat?" the jealous lizard is mentioned exactly twice in the book if i am not wrong and it really added no value to the whole thing because the lizard hardly got any footage in order to create that character conflict which is what it was for in the book in the first place. it's like the editing done by reality shows for promos and before breaks where you think somethings goin to happen but it turns out to be something really lame at the end of it. The book cover has a lizard too.

Must say though i like the Book Cover for sure.. Sorry Mr Amit Verma for being so harsh but i really do think that you didn't do justice to writing in your debut.

MOMENT

Moment. There is a wish to define it. Moment of darkness, moment of happiness, moment of sadness, moment of achievement, moment of failure and of fall, the momentary possibilities are endless. Moment, it’s a small little word. Nano seconds is what maybe it lasts for that’s why it’s a moment. Sometimes it’s just a moment. Sometimes it defines your life for you. Sometimes it decides your life for you, sometimes it means absolutely nothing. How variable, how important and how frivolous is a moment in ones life. Tiny little speck of dust in your life but can create a havoc or change things forever.

It seems like an inconsequential word but how strong is it? How big can it get? How much does it weigh? Smallest of the smallest moments is still the biggest. People wait all their lives for that one moment to happen. How can a nanosecond mean so much to someone?

Status Quo Part II

Had posted a bunch of status msgs here that i had come across people posting online.. How status msgs reflected different aspects of ones personality..some more below..Enjoy!!!

• 'Burping' is it an action or expression of hapiness
• Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet. - Jeremy Bentham
• Killing the past, coming back to life !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Aql ke madarse se uth.. ishq ke maykade mein aa..
• Why is Mumbai so hot yaar!!!!
• OUCH
• sometimes it is better to just keep shut
• sanju, sanju?
• What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise.
• Humne jo dekha tha, suna tha kya bataaye wo kya tha, sapna salona tha khatam to hona tha, hua…
• ♫ dhako bhago
• why do all gud things come to an end
• Blog Update http://gunjanm23.blogspot.com
• will they, won't they?
• is lost in her own world !!
• Go ROYALS!!!
• feeling short of stable.
• ♫ Someday everything will make all perfect sense.So for now laugh at the confusion, smile through your tears and keep reminding yourself that everything happens for a reason !!!!!!!!!!
• Pain never ends.
• Your brain is like a muscle. If you want it to be strong, you got to work it out.

Reality?? Shucks!!

Well Well this is not one of those self pity or oh my god life is too real to handle kinda sob posts.. Its just the overdose of Reality TV ..

I wouldnt be surprised if i start questioning the unfairness of facing reality after all the tear jerking indian population on television along with tear jerking celebrity anchors..be it bahu smriti irani, or malaika arora.. u name it u got them all teared up..

i have reached the point and beyond of saturation level and i dont think there is any level higher up then that.. where does one go now? Its inane.. the creative leaps being taken on indian television as of these days in creating and discovering and copying new shows is beyond imagination..you surf channels specially during the weekend and u would think the battery of your remote is gone whoop cuz it feels like the channels are not flipping at all.. the same freaking set of people in 10 different reality shows at a time...

concepts ki kami ho gayi to..winners of various musical reality shows now compete against each other on one channel.. then the other channel supercedes and makes a show where the winners of different genres of reality shows from singing to dancing to comedy compete against each other...metro kids against small towni kids..

from copy's of international formats like panchi paas to indian idol, etc.. to desi versions of shows.. u name it u got it.. the entire bollywood seems to be coming down to being reality tv anchors from amitabh to shahrukh to salman to akshay and now even his wife twinkle.. its a new found platform of talent altogether for the entire film, television and modeling industry to showcase their talents in all possible genres like drama, thriller, comedy, et all..

and of course how can i not mention the ever famous judges who pride themselves in becoming celebrities by becoming judges.. yesteryears stars coming back to limelight with reality show judging as their claim to fame platforms in the present day and age.. they bicker , they bitch , they fight with each other, sweet sarcasm.. with due respect mentioned in sugar free dozes.. they all think that have all changed the world and they are the baaps in said fields and there is no other like them.. some famous examples i can think of are javed akhtar.. shekhar suman who is always ever too smart for his own pants these days what with him thinking he is 20 again..ha ha..cant sing to save his life but of course will judge like he is the Tansen of this world.. ha ha..

All these reality shows bring all genres together under one roof.. wat with the drama of the participants,their families, anchors and judges.. the thrill of taking 15 minutes and 3 breaks to announce each paritipants scored marks or elimination.. bucket full of emotions what with all the tear jerking (no wonder there is scarcity of water in various parts of this country :P) and the comedy of all the participants being bitchy and judges making fun of each other along with the participants..

Well Wish Indian channels would stop copying or getting into this whole TRP game where one thing works then everyone does that same shit.. give us variety man.. show us your real creative talents which would stll get u your trp's.. do something.. i am sick and tired now..

P.S. - Mtv Roadies 5.0 , Mtv Teen Divas, Channel V campus star must get special mention here.. Roadies for being the bitchiest show which has the capability of turning the simplest village girl into a swearing spagetti strapped Beep Beep Beep!..Teen Divas yet again even more scary as at least roadies has people who are Adults as defined by Law.. to see 15 yr olds behaving bitchier than ever and behaving 10 yrs older than their age is scarier and u only thank your parents for letting u go out and play gali cricket , chain chain, lock and key, ice spice (like we used to call it.. oh i am getting senti now).... Channel V campus star for being the most boring and uninteresting and non innovative show amongst all the creative leaped reality shows on television.. Channel V VJ's seriously need a reality check... they suck..Anyways until next time..

Wasssupp Youngistan!!!!

Pepsi and their youngistan promotions. A few promotions that i happen to come across..

1. Youngistan one liners doing the rounds in the newspapers.. mostly next to some news item or the sports page.. where you give a youngistan world one liner comment on the mentioned news..small splash ads next to particular articles..
2. went to PVR 2 weeks back.. they had this branded standees saying Youngistan meri jaan put up and ofcource camera men waiting there with really dead looking chicks and guys who would be the interviewers.a set of college students doing the geting paid for a day kinda stuff.. they were trying to catch hold of people to stand infront of the branded standees and answer questions like who and what according to you is youngistan? and how would you define the youngistan spirit? (for starters youth today think that standing in front of the the camera for some promotion stuff is so uncool!!!anyways..) they managed to catch hold of some.. who very enthusiastically stood there infront of the camera giving their gyaan.. ok so they thought they were going to be on tv or something.. come interval.. and whuallllllllah.. you are on the big screen right there.. your 10 minutes of interval fame.. the four people caught on camera.. they are suddenly seen on screen.. a 1 minute capsule played on loop for the entire 10 minutes by the end of which everyone sitting in the theatre started hooting and using the F word and geting mighty irritated by it. Did pepsi think it would work?? Excess of anything is bad i believe and thats the reason i feel that the particular promo fell flat on their face.. it just created an irritation factor on everyones face and sheer embarrasement on the faces of the people who were there on the screen answering those silly questions because 1 minute fame is better than the loopy 10 minute fame in the said case :D
3. Pepsi and MTV WASSSUPPP.. i m not sure about the number of s's and p's.. in anycase.. i quiet like this idea.. so its got 2 ex roadies to become VJ's .. Aayushman and Bani.. True to the so called Youngistan Image.. and according to me its just a bunch of young people in age particulary.. a capsule show of 10 minutes everyday on MTV.. with defined different slots in it each of a minute or so.. talking of youth related issues or young achievers or some new age stuff.. or just plain simple reactions of young people on general news items from anything to politics to bollywood, hollywood et all.. its pacy, short and sweet and can be informative at times..i like the over all package.. something that for once was right in the youngistan land i feel.
4. Pepsizone - the Pepsi Youngistaan created online in association with Yahoo.. the home page opens on a town where you can see the below mentioned features - (and ofcourse the Youngistan anthem playing in the background which you are mostlikely to switch off like i did)

• MTV building maybe cuz they are promo partners
• Pizza hut - download pepsi youngistan card on your mobile for cool benefits at Pizza hut
• PVR - download screen savers of the Pepsi brand ambassadors namely shahrukh, ranbir and deepika.
• An i phone - cool youngistan tones to download there
• the canteen zone with some youngistan fundaa which one of us can give.. like the one i read said 'BE BINDAS'.. of the day and grafitti zone and a tv in the canteen where you can play the latest pepsi ad (who would want to watch that anyways?)
• Youngistaan pathshaala building where on clicking you can read the 10 commandments of youngistan
• Pepsi through the ages - stroll down memory lane - on clicking.. Pepsi goes Desi - all ads from 'Yehi hai right choice baby' to now made in india can be seen there..Pepsi imported - you can watch all the international pepsi ads here...Pepsi Unrealeased - never before seen pepsi commercials here.. frankly this was the only good part about the entire website..but even that takes forever to load.... but its fun to watch it nonetheless

Anthing else anyone notice?

Technology and entertainment

I have really admired offlate the marketing strategies that some of the big companies have owned in order to market their movies.. Yash Raj always comes to my mind first.. They go the whole hog to get the eyeballs popping..

Happened to come across Aamir Khan's Blog a few months back. Don't know any other actor who actually maintains a personal blog..but he does.. his posts are far and in between but he still manages to post them none the less.. mostly about what he is upto and always about his movies.. It seems this trend started from his Film Lagaan and has continued. Presently he talks about Taare Zameen Par to the the developments with his film shoot of Ghajjini..to his new hairstyle.. He even proposed the idea of meeting 10, 15 bloggers in his trip to Toronto if he had the time and asked people to leave their numbers and email ids.. though he didnt manage to but he says that he will try and manage it as often as possible while he is travelling different places.. He even chats on his website.. he gives a time when he is online and memebers can log in at that time and chat with him... he has over 1000 odd coments atleast on each of his posts and he even replied to some 10,15 of the people in one of his posts.. Its like dream come true for his fans am sure.. he becomes the most down to earth, humble actor who knows his stuff and therefore an even bigger fan base and numbers to watch his movies.. very subtle but nice way of advertising himself cuz i have realised that he keeps it strictly to work related topics and nothing personal..

Rani Mukherji, Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bacchan .. they all seemed to have gone the blog way at some point or the other to promote their films..Tv channels having blogs.. making things interactive.. and therefore moulding themselves according to viewer response eventually.. its all staged and finally to the taste of the public they are catering.. no more a risk but mostly what people want.. i have become a regular viewer of MTV Roadies 5.0.. infact watched it since Roadies 1.0.. Its an inane show.. but i think 5.0 has crossed all limits of surprising.. Raghu the EP of the show has become a master at creating the twists and turns which would just about keep eveyone hooked on to it.. was reading the sms that people have sent to Raghu flashing at the bottom of the screen during the repeats.. hating his moves on the show and how they hate what just happened in the episode.. Raghu sucks and all of that.. and just one msg flashin in the midst of it all saying msg from Raghu - "wait till the next episode". Another msg saying uncensored footage of Roadies stolen from the MTV office and uploaded on Youtube.. everyone under suspect.. i mean its all staged but it will all get people going at it at once..

Everyday there is some new way treaded upon and everytime it manages to surprise me:)

Boss ya No Boss

Ok my ever riding confusion.. What is it that is better? A good Boss or a Bad Boss? I know most of you would say obviously a good boss.. But this post is about a little more than that..

I dnt know how many of you have had the earth shattering priviledge of having a Good Boss.. Well i havent had none.. at all except for a 2 week boss who i learnt things that help me till now..so thats the kind of power i am talking about. And no this is not a frustration venting post but infact a questioning or rather wondering would be a better word to use..Just a question i have been asking for a while now..and this specifically is from the mindset of a start up in the working population. Start up meaning anything from 1 day to your entire working career..

speaking of the broader picture there are namely two kinds of bad bosses (there are many more types if you go into detailing) you would encounter.. and i would like to tag these types as BAD..

1. Knows absolutely nothing about the job, is least interested, wants to keep shirking off the responsibilities..basically you are in a soup most of the time..


2. the kinds who know loads.. but are the bitchy or b**t***d political types who just want to show off their power.. one can appreciate their knowledge but only wonder why they wouldnt pass it on to you.. and besides whatever little you try on your own is spat upon by them.. they are the noisy kinds who step into everything that you do and have a judgement about it.. at the end of it all you just wonder.. am i even worth an ounce..

from my personal experience with the above two types..

No.1 .. Well for the first 1 month you think .. dude i am in a soup or what and then you eventually after crying buckets and having sleepless nights.. tell yourself.. Dude care a fuck man.. i got the opportunity to just be the king in the situation.. not that i have a choice to be any lesser.. but why not make the most of it.. It works but you got to ensure you let the super seniors know that dude u r really working under a dud..Downside of such situation.. you're not sure what you learnt is the right way to go.. its all guesstimation of solving work related problems..you become a topper in Crisis management but maybe not really sure to guide others how and what it is.. so you go and tell the next entrant.. swim child.. dnt know how else to teach you the basics..

No.2... Man you really question your capabilities by the end of it.. its like someones just trying to encroach your space.. what the F*** ..you are psyched out more and lose all the so called King qualities all of a sudden because you are suddenly questioned every second and you suddenly remember the song by STING -

every breath you take, every move you make,every bond you break, every step you take, i'll be watching you..

Whoaaaaaa now thats a little Psychotic but that becomes your way of life..When you ask for help.. how can you ask for help?.. thats a crime..basically its a catch 22 situation and the final result is DUDE GET OUT OF THAT PLACE MAN..lol.. thats the only solution i could think of..

Reminds me of the Naukri.com Hari Sadu ad.. because yes that ad has cracked the most importnat aspect of our lives.. common think of it.. 80 out of 100 of us would leave our jobs ultimately because of our great bosses.. renumerations, career questions they all stand right but they will always somehow be there and you can manage to find a way out.. but the ultimate desperation which none of these other two issues can create is our dear Own BOSS.

Its a bit unnerving.. but keeping my fingers crossed.. Soon to be working again after my LONGGG breakk.. this time i hit the jackpot for a change..