This is the start of my blogging…pouring random thoughts and rants. Working for the first time in my life….after a lifetime in the hallowed halls of academia. Never thought of blogging before and I dont even know if I will be regular in maintaing this blog.
Getting up early in the morning is a practice I dumped when I was in school…high school that is. Now at this old age I have to wake up at the crack of dawn, get attired in formals and come to work. Thats the bummer. The good thing is that I enjoy someone else fixing out work for me…do this do that…I kind of like that. As opposed to being a graduate student where you just sit and think of what to do and whether what you think you should do will lead to a publication [the only currency for gauging relevance]. Here the worth and relevance of what you do is fixed beforehand and so thats one less thing to think about.
Another thing I have noticed in me…I wasnt a car person before…but now having settled down in Warren I am beginning to get caught up in this car culture.
Went to an absolutely atrocious indian buffet lunch today…it was totally vegetarian. As it is I am not a great fan of vegetarian food (Indian food= tandoori chicken) and even accepting that the food was vegetarian, the choice on offer was barely appetizing.
Wife coming tomorrow….have to clean my house. Or at the very least my computer…well I will just clean the computer..if you know what I mean.
Watched the Hindi movie Deewar yesterday……the new one with Amitabh Bacchan…..and India’s own bald headed eagle Akshay Khanna. Having been a great fan of “Aankhen”, Gaurang Doshi’s first movie, I came with high expectations.
First things first. How long is Amitabh Bacchan going to go on doing the angry old man routine? Here he is at it again…now I am a big B fan to the hilt but he is getting very very repititive. Of course the fact that his movies release every Friday isnt helping matters any. And to top it all off he has no good lines to deliver…net effect it all falls flat. None of the mephistophelian charm he exuded in “Aankhen” here.
Now I am no peace pigeon but why oh why are all the Pakistanis in this movie cartoonishly evil? They seem to be straight out of the Nazi flicks of the 50s and 60s..they even carry a hunting crop ala the classical German camp commandant. All the Pakistanis without fail are shown to be treacherous sadists and cardboard caricatures…which besides being politically incorrect in this time of crossborder bonhomie is just bad filmmaking.
And there was a Pakistani Hindu in this movie who was shown to be a collaborator with India..now is that meant to be a complimentary portrait of Pakistani Hindus? I am sure and would hope that the Hindus who stay in Pakistan are 100% patriotic to Pakistan… or is it the point of the filmmaker that all Pakistanis are traitors. In all the inability to recognize the basic humanity of the Pakistani adversary dilutes the movie to a great extent.
And whose idea was it to cast Akshay Khanna as an action hero ? And the love angle in the story and the crazy rain dance? Wonder how the “Great Escape” would have been with Steve Mcqueen singing as he bounced his baseball………
The Greatbong Blog & Podcast 
So this is where the Greatbong began. Used to watch Pakistani movies on PTV long time ago, the Hindu bania was always the evil one. Was always hilarious to watch. Thinking of it, the Indian film industry is perhaps the most secular of anything that is Indian (if secularism means excluding the minority communities from the typical villanious roles). Ever seen a gray shaded maulvi or a white robed priest? I haven’t.
YOURFAN writes:
@Soumyadip: Thank you for finding this. How did you manage to find it- just sheer chance or perseverance?
@GB: So this is the birthday of Greatbong. You wrote: “Wife coming tomorrow….have to clean my house. Or at the very least my computer…well I will just clean the computer. if you know what I mean†– hilarious. So you admit of being “naughty†while wife was away! Al though you were humorous back then, yet I must say that you have reached a super duper height of humor now.
You also wrote: “Never thought of blogging before and I don’t even know if I will be regular in maintaining this blog.†My God, you had doubts about writing? You write fantastic satires and that too so frequently and you had doubts? Thanks for your blog – I enjoy it immensely.
🙂
The beginings eh? So eventually did you clean the house or the computer hehe
Suyog
Greatbong –
Congratulations on your 2nd (for the lack of a better word) bloggiversary .. and do continue writing .. am a regular reader.
A journey of a thousand posts must begin with one!!
I must say GB, I only started reading your blog some months back but now I anxiously wait for the next post. Keep the good work.
Ouch! Akshaye not Akshay.
I am probably his only fan in this world… Over the years, I have kept up my hopes that he’ll do one decent role, one good movie… But he keeps going from Hungama to Shaadi Se Pehle! *sigh*
Oops! This post was not about him… Happy anniversary – Keep entertaining! 🙂
ahh! good to know SOMEONE liked aankhen!
i cant believe it went past unnoticed. Weird are the ways of bollywood and its tinkering media, cos, Aankhen came much before the whole -artsy mainstream, parallellocommercial trend began. Where every bollywood director shadily dumped the *formula* and aimed at film festivals and multiplex audiences even before the script was written!
And aankhen i thought had better music than most other movies of its time. If only, it hadnt looked soooo B grade and if it could have been publicized better, it woulf have been better.
i havent watched deewar but well, i dont understand the mechanisms that cast amrita rao who has this asthmatic touch to most of her dialogues.
cheers
Hi Arnab,
I have been reading your stuff now for a year odd … one of thousands — I am sure — who read, and decide to say you are great, but wait for another day. But this, your first post, kinda caught my imagination. Everything that has ever existed started one fine day. And this was how you started. Great journey.
I have been blogging for a while too, but have been most irregular at it. Lemme see if I can change that!
Wish me luck dude … and please drop by my blog! ‘Will mean a lot to me!
Rakesh.
Hey GB,
Good to see where it all began. What looks like a page out of Dear Diary has, over the years, evolved into great commentary.
And now, after nearly three years of blogging, accumulating thousands of fans, and winning the indiblog of the year award later, it must be a good feeling to look back at that first post in random thoughts…
I hope you keep them coming for a long time to come. All the best for the future.
Jumped in here to satiate my curiosity. Just as someone else said, though your first posts are good, you peaked sometime in late 2005 – 2006.
Your 1983 WC post is a classic. Keep going! 🙂
is it possible that you will ever review Shivaji, the Boss?
hey dude,
ur blog is awesomw and ur comments on everthing is real life…
I really like reading you topic…
Keep it up…
Where’s Warren? Pl tell me! Are you still there these days? I’m in West Lafayette, IN. I’m straight, and would like to meet the sensation behind this awesome blog.
@Shashwat: I have no problems if you are not straight ! Warren is a suburb of Detroit, MI. However I no longer stay there and am now in Maryland in the suburbs of Washington DC.
a) I said I am straight! I mentioned that so that you don’t get any ideas when I request you to let me see you sometime in the other half of the same line.
b) I’ll let you know when I visit the area you live in!
c) Your blog is the funniest I know!
Wonder why you want to make sure that GB understands you are straight !
Hi Arnab,
If I had seen these tentative early steps, I would never have imagined that you would grow into such a giant as you are today. The mature brilliance and the scintillating humor which you displayed much later was carefully hidden in this first blog of yours, I guess. Don’t let this encourage any fool who can type to imagine that brilliant blogging grows on one with time. One should already have a dashing wit, a dash of sarcasm, a flair for language, & an incisive mind before ONLY.
Of course, all this is an indirect way of praising you, if your eagle eye has not noticed & your chest hasn’t yet filled up with pride…
Keep blogging, some mere mortals look forward to it…daily
Care
very interesting and cute; you were so restrained…
you may be straight, but i am rotund.
will u do fransip with me?
Arent we already frans and scrapping merrily?
a ‘fransip’ ….the yearning of a small towner for a ..er, an ingliss spicking fran……….
i HAD TO write out such an appeal.
wow, took me two months to reach your first post…:-)…nice…:-)
So, this where it all started. Keep writing more and more. Also keep publishing more and more books.
Best wishes.
Saurav
Now that I have read MIHYAP and you have my attention, I am starting from the beginning of the beginning.
Need your help for finding another job if I get fired for reading this during work 🙂
I finally read it..Was curious about your very first Post..Will keep reading more and more of old posts as each one is a class in itself 🙂
Way to Go GB :)……
Found this blog today while looking for bong blogs 😊 and definitely enjoying reading….
Btw, in one of your posts, durga puja post u have posted some pics of ur friend group, i guess i know one of the girls, is it Shilpi Das? I might be wrong but looked like her in the pic, if so then she used to be my neighbour in JU campus 🙂
Well I might be wrong, but if its her then its quite a coincidence and definitely the world IS small 😊
Yes.I went to school with her.
I was introduced to the world of post meal madness(as i call it, because i read your blog post my lunch) by a bengali colleague here at my research lab( yes we do everything apart from research).Since then i have become a regular. Must admit i really enjoy reading thoughts of a demented mind.Very humbly you have named your blog as a piece of art from the demented.
I keep looking forward to newer blogs after reading the existing ones.Despite the tender age(old as you put) try maintaining the blog for readers like us. Your blogs are equivalent to our ”paisa vasool” bollywood movies(in a very good sense)