Monthly Archive for January, 2006

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A Few Phone Calls

Published on January 14, 2006 in Blogs, Bollywood and Comedy. 63 Comments

Saturday morning. I wake up to see that Shahid Afridi has blasted the Indian attack to smithereens. Younis Khan, another mediocre player whose career India has made, came as close to a double century as possible. As a result, we are now battling to save the Test.

And I had lost the Indibloggies Indiblog of the year to Amit Varma (225 to 159 votes).

Not surprised at either result, I was however taken aback when my phone started ringing.

Me: “Hello”

Voice at other end: ” Aieeeeeeee salaaaaaaaa. Tu haar gaya. Amit Varma ne tujhe lamba kar diya, maachish ki tili ko khamba kar diya.” ( English translation: You lost? …rest is quite untranslatable)

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Powerplay

Published on January 12, 2006 in India and Society. 48 Comments

I cant tell you how depressed this picture made me feel. (from Indiauncut).

So what’s going on in this picture to the left?

Let’s see what Amit who took this picture says.

“At one point, Raj Singh Dungarpur, the team’s manager, got Wasim Jaffer’s attention and pushed his glass towards him. He wanted Jaffer to pour water into it. Jaffer politely obliged.”

Am I depressed on account of Raj Singh Dungarpur’s imperious regal air, the fact that he does not even acknowledge Jaffer’s action with a glance—instead staring straight on like a Sultan watching a mujra while his wine goblet is refilled by an underling?

No I am not.

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IndiBloggies—Campaign Poster

Published on January 6, 2006 in Blogs and Comedy. 53 Comments


Ladies and Lads,

The Indibloggies, the Indian blog oscars or should I say Manikchand Gutkha Filmfare Awards are here. “Random Thoughts of a Demented Mind” has snagged a nomination in the Indiblog of the year category. Yes I am shamelessly canvassing for votes. After all, an aspiring politician has to start somewhere. So here is the link:

http://poll.indibloggies.org/index.php?sid=1 [Update: The poll has closed and hence the link is no longer valid]

You don’t need to have a blog site to vote. Leave the field blank if you do not have a blog.

Again the name of the blog is “Random Thoughts of a Demented Mind“. It is nominated in the first category (Indiblog of the year 2005) .

Deadline for voting: Jan 10, 2005. [Update: Okay this should be 2006 but after turning thirty, I have been in a state of denial with respect to the passage of time. I hope that explains this slip.]

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The Great Indian Humor Challenge

Published on January 4, 2006 in Comedy, India, Pop Culture and Society. 57 Comments


Watching the moronic Shekhar Suman rolling his eyes and cracking the worst kind of PJs in the pathetic Jay Leno-ripoff “Movers and Shakers” and wallowing in the verbal diarrhea-afflicted Sidhu’s infantile attempts at forced laughter on “The Great Indian Comedy Show” and manfully enduring the physical humor that passes off for “comedy” in Indian movies I cannot help but wonder—-what happened to the great comic tradition of India?

Where are the Birbals and the Tenali Rams and the Gopal Bhaands of today?

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Reserving My Table

Published on January 2, 2006 in India and Politics. 29 Comments

So now the government, in its full mafia glory, has made an offer industry cannot refuse.

Either the private sector voluntarily puts quotas for backward classes in place or the government will enact legislation which will force them to do the same thing.

Some industry bigwigs had put up a proposal to train backward classes at company cost in order to make them competitive in the job market—-but the government is not concerned about training, it wants their vote banks to have jobs—training and competency be damned.

In a way, extension of reservations to private sectors was inevitable —-after all Ram Vilas Paswan’s son may have been satisfied with a job in SAIL or ONGC but his grandson considers governmental jobs passe. He wants to work at Infosys and Wipro and its upto Ram Vilas Paswan to ensure that his grandson has the same sinecure that his son held.

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