The Agneepath Coincidence !!!

A remake of Agneepath is on the cards, to be released later this year ... got me reflecting that I'd not seen the orginal as yet ...

The late 80s / early 90s were not the best of times for the big B ... he had a string of flops ... Toofan, Krodh, Ajooba etc ... none of which I've ever seen either.

Movies from this period which fared better were Shahenshah ( Rishte me hum tumhare baap lagete hain ... ) and Hum ( Jumma chumma de de ... ) both of which I'd seen and of course Agneepath ( Vijay Dinanath Chauhan ... poora naam ... ) which had somehow eluded me over the years ... cant fathom why though !!!

Anyway decided to rent the DVD over the weekend and realized that Agneepath is such a treasure trove of Big-B dialogue gems !!! Had it realeased in the Bachchan heydays of mid 70s it could have potentially dethroned Deewar ( Mere paas XYZ hai ... tumhare paas kya hai ... ) for sheer dialogue recall if not Sholay !!!

( paused the movie to click this !!! )

While watching the movie I was casually checking for facebook updates and found an old friend (

Shashi don - who loves his single malts these days ) of mine half way across the world was also watching Agneepath at the same time ... some coincidence !!!

Thought I'd post our facebook chat text on my blog for posterity ... also whats a blog on Mumbai without a smattering of Bollywood !!!

Kandivali Durga Puja - Thakur Village Bangiya Pratisthan

By far the best of the 3 Durga Pujas we checked out @ Kandivali ... This one is in Thakur Village on the right side of the Western Express highway as you approach Kandivali from Andheri.

Chandrabindu one of the more well known bengali rock bands was the attraction for the evening and we stayed on for a few numbers and also gorged on some neat egg-chicken rolls from the snack stalls.

However the rockstar of the evening was one of the committee members who was the stand-in master of ceremonies, though a stand-up comedian would be a more accurate description. Check out what he had to say while announcing the winners of the children's painting context which probably had been organized earlier in the day, "Abhi hum us bacchon ka naam bulayega jo bade hokar bada bada artist aur painter banega. Yeh bachcha sab humara bada dada se upohar lega. Hum aap logo ko anurodh karta hai ki jaise jaise mai bachcha ka naam bolega aap sab jor jor se taali dekar us bachcha ko protsahit karega !!! **" Needless to say the audience was in splits by then ...

**Loose translation for folks who dont know bong+hindi ( we need to have a name for this lingo ... just like "hinglish" is the unique combo of hindi+english ) ... unfortunately the humour is always lost in translation, "Now I will announce the names of the kids who will grow up to become famous artists and painters. The kids will collect their awards from our big brother ( refering to the president of the committee ). When I announce the names I request you to clap loudly to encourage the kids".

Raju & Satyam

Here's a Facebook exchange I had with Ambale :-)

Vivek is laughing over: "Raju, Raju - Yes Baba; Cheating us - No baba; Telling lies - No baba; Open the balance sheet - HA HA HA!" 8:49am - Comment

Udayan Dasgupta at 11:57am January 10

here i lose money on moronic raju and someone tinkers with nursery rhymes for a laugh ... sheer poetic injustice :-(

Vivek Subramanyam at 2:08pm January 10

@UD: Ouch.. hope the damage on Raju was not too bad. Anyways, tinker with a nursery rhyme and I assure you - you will feel better!

Udayan Dasgupta at 8:34pm January 10

hmmmm ... lets give it a shot ...

Raju with intentions very ill
Cooked Satyam books and stock prices went up Banjara Hill
Then he tried to buy Maytas with money only on paper
The deal broke down
Raju lost his crown
And Satyam came tumbling after

nope i dont feel any better ...

Cabbages & Condoms, Sukhumvit Soi12, Bangkok

Before your thoughts go astray ... Cabbages & Condoms is a restaurant ... and there is nothing sleazy about this place !!! 

For folks more trivia inclined ... the name was coined by owner Mechai Viravidya who envisioned condoms to become as ubiquitous as cabbages ( ! ) ... and they are, at least in this establishment. Apart from being on display all over ... you are also presented with free condoms along with your dinner bill instead of the usual mint :-)

 

 

 

The restaurant has a great ambience with both indoor and outdoor seating. The food is delectable and the calamari we ordered was not at all rubbery :-))

Dining here helps you contribute to a social cause ... all proceeds go to the Population and Community Development Association dedicated to AIDS prevention, promotion of safe-sex and family planning in Thailand. 

Directions : If you are taking the Sky Train get down at Asok and walk to Soi 12, Sukhumvit. The restaurant is about 500m into the lane to your right.

Would a concept like this work in India ( that is if our myriad fundamentalist groups allowed the restaurant to survive in the first place ) ??? What do you think ???

Dada rosogolla khaben ???

Saurav Ganguly has done it yet again ... just when everyone thought he'd been booted out for good ( after all he was left out of the Irani trophy by Vengsarkar ) ... he's back with a bang into the Indian squad for the Australia series ( at least the first 2 tests ).

Of course he's had a bit of luck ... Srikanth took over from Vengsarkar as the chariman of the selection committee just at the nick of time. If Vengsarkar was still around I'm sure he'd have found a way to keep Ganguly out.

So Dada can now celebrate by eating rosogollas to his heart's content ... only beware of scoring them !!!

Photo courtesy : Mumbai Mirror 

Will Uncle Paulson save America ???

Check out the uncanny resemblance US Treasury Secy Paulson ( minus the goatee and toupee ) has to the true blue Uncle Sam and he also strikes the same pose !!! 

Paulson is on a sticky wicket though ... with the US senate yesterday refusing him the $700 Billion he'd asked for to save the US and by domino effect Global financial system. While the sanity of injecting billions of dollars to buy out mortgage based junk assets from US Banks is debateable ... it does seem like the only way to quickly stop an immediate meltdown - So much for capitalism, Milton Friedman and free market economics !!!

If he fails he'll be "Sach"ed unceremoniouly else he'll surely become an iconic Uncle Paulson !!! 

Photos courtesy : Rediff.com & Wikipedia ... stitched together on MS Paint

Zardari Palin Sin(gh)drome

 

To be recited in the tune of the nursery rhyme "Pussy cat, Pussy cat where have you been ?"

Zardari and Singh

Where have you been ?

"We've been to Washington"

To chat with the queen Palin

Zardari, Zardari tremendously tharki

What did you do there ?

"I went all Mushy, forgot protocols, flirted shamelessly"

And desperately tried to hug her !!!

Singh, Singh wanna be King

What did you do there ?

"I coached Palin on Economics 101 and Nuke 123"

Till I was assured she had her concepts clear !!!

In chorus by Indo-Pak diplomatic aides

Zardari and Singh

What did they do together ?

Zardari sucked up to Singh, called him King

And named him father of modern India !!!

Then they opened bottles of whiskey, got drunk ...

And decided to postpone the Kashmir discussions to next year !!!

Those quirky Iranis and their Bakeries !!!

The Iranis I know are not particularly disciplinarian, mostly easy going i'd say ... but when it comes to running their Cafes and Bakeries in Mumbai they do an about turn. You cant miss a list of No-Nos which they invariably put up at the entrance ( often on slate written with chalk ... makes you wonder if they flicked it from a neighbourhood primary school ) and they abide by these written rules to the letter ... 

Nissim Ezekiel, the dark and somber poet ( remember "Night of the Scorpion" anyone ??? ), immortalised this strange Irani phenomenon in a quirky compilation of Irani No-No's : 

“No talking to cashier / No smoking / No fighting / No credit / No outside food/ No sitting long/ No talking loud / No spitting / No bargaining / No water to outsiders/ No change / No telephone/ No match sticks / No discussing gambling / No newspaper/ No combing / No beef / No leg on chair / No hard liquor allowed / No address enquiry ... by Order"

There is this tiny bakery down the road where I live, named impressively "Choice - The Irani Bakery" ... the Irani owner clearly influenced by recent Bollywood naming conventions eg. Daag - The Fire. Ok not a great example but top of mind right now ... by the way anyone on why the suffixed tagline is almost always in english ???

Yesterday on the way back from work I decided to stop by and pick up some "Shrewsbury" and "Cashew Walnut" cookies. Piya loves them ... "No Plastic bags / No Credit" was the abridged version of the No-No list, on a computer printout, which greeted me at the entrance.

This was clearly a Bollywood loving, Environmentally conscious, Tech savvy, Fiscally prudent Irani owner !!!

Purchases made, parcelled in paper bags and paid for with hard cash, I decided to take some snaps of the bakery, fished out my mobile phone and started clicking. Yes I upgraded to a mobile camera phone couple months back ... thanks to repeated snide remarks from friends ... specially one who works in Nokia and complained that I was clearly not the target audience for the Nokia 1100 with a B&W display ... I took the feedback but instead of a Nokia N series upgraded to a windows mobile Dopod ...

My Irani friend realised what I was upto and shouted "No Photography", an unwritten rule which I'm sure will be an addition to the revised No-No list when I visit next !!!

 

I'd taken a couple of shots of my favourite cookies by then though  !!!

Eating toothpaste : no papa !

Toothpaste is for brushing teeth right ? Not always !

Piya's moods

Expressions are worth a 1000 words :-)

Nebula Sarmariski

This is a snap of the Nebula Sarmariski taken on my xiol telescope camera ! 

Also check the date dude ...