vodka shots

i read today that circus elephants in russia are being given gallons of vodka to keep warm. now that's an interesting thought. the report did not mention if it went to their heads... what would it be like encountering a pachyderm with a drunk trunk?

see; see

it's no small wonder what J K Rowlings can do with just one tree. it can morph into a monster, it can look angelic, it can turn into a cave, it can exhibit fangs. what makes imagination run this wild?
i find most people around me have stopped reading completely. they are all watching moving pictures. but watching moving pictures does not help you hone your visualization skills.
people who read more are always the ones who visualize better. and being able to form mental pictures effectively helps you in any field of work.
like many people i know cannot get through a gabriel garcia marquez book. they find it tedious, too many words, and too many images to form in the mind. but imagine if you were to spend an hour daily connecting far flung images together.
one hundred years of solitude is one heavy load of imagery, and imagining ants, soldiers, lilies, and gunshots all in a span of 5 minutes is exhausting.
but you kind of get used to it, and are able to rationalize better the next time you are confronted with one of life's tricky problems. that's the power of visualization. it's what today's corporates refer to as the "global picture".
and getting it is what keeps you at the top of the heap. it's also why "well-read" is still used to sum up an interesting personality... or is it "well-googled" now?

not my own...

Hello kindred spirit brother!
Have you traveled far today?
"Far enough" I know you'd say!
And when again we meet,
"We may have fun or we may have grief;
whatever it is, we'll dare it.
and we may go broke and we may get rich;
whichever it is, we'll share it."
You know, kindred spirit brother,
this is always the best way;
I can never believe in any other.
Cause in the vagabond's house they say,
"Theres time and stories for all to share!"
Theres not enough miles to seperate smiles,
and time is too free, not to dare!
Have you traveled far today?
I was hoping you'd ask!
"Far enough" brother, "for today!"
But theres always tomorrow;
and stories for today!

word of 2005

editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have selected "podcast" as the Word of the Year for 2005. Podcast is defined as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player".
ways to use it:
so are you a podcaster? have you podcasted? stop podcastinating...

disco top 25

here's a master list of all-time hot disco songs that i chanced upon for those of you/us who like disco... it's reportedly an eclectic collection for the highly discerning disco fan.
i have heard all of five/seven i think.

The Undisputed Truth: "Ball of Confusion," "Higher Than High"

Eddie Kendricks: "Goin' up in Smoke," "Keep on Truckin'"

Gloria Gaynor: "Never Can Say Goodbye"

Silver Convention: "Fly Robin Fly"

Pierre Bachelet: soundtrack from "Histoire D'O (Story of O)"

ABBA: "SOS," "Knowing Me, Knowing You," "Voulez-Vous," "Fernando"

Diana Ross: "Love Hangover"

The Trammps: "Disco Inferno," "I Feel Like I've Been Living (on the Dark Side of the Moon)"

Marvin Gaye: "Got to Give It Up"

The Isley Brothers: "Go for Your Guns"

Sylvester: "Stars," "Body Strong," "You Make Me Feel Mighty Real," "Do Ya Wanna Funk"

Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder: "Four Seasons of Love (four-part album)"

Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder, from "Once Upon a Time": "Now I Need You," "Working the Midnight Shift," "Queen for a Day," "Rumour Has It"

Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder, from "Bad Girls": "Hot Stuff," "Bad Girls," "Walk Away," "Lucky," "Sunset People"

Irene Cara and Giorgio Moroder: "Cue Me Up," "Flashdance (What a Feeling)"

Giorgio Moroder: soundtrack from "Midnight Express"

Yvonne Elliman: "If I Can't Have You"

Bee Gees: "Stayin' Alive," "Night Fever," "You Should be Dancing"

Evelyn "Champagne" King: "Shame"

Saint Tropez: "Violation"

Cerrone: "Je Suis Music," "Supernature"

Vicky Sue Robinson: "Turn the Beat Around"

The Michael Zager Band: "Let's All Chant"

Karen Young: "Hot Shot"

Cheryl Lynn: "Star Love"

Pattie Brooks: "After Dark"

Rick James: "You and I," "Super Freak," "Give It to Me, Baby"

Teena Marie and Rick James: "Behind the Groove," "Lover Girl"

Ashford and Simpson: "Found a Cure," "Don't Cost you Nothing'"

Jackie Moore: "This Time, Baby"

Machine: "There But for the Grace of God"

Gino Soccio: "Love Is," "S-Beat"

Jackson Five: "Can You Feel It?"

Michael Jackson: "Billie Jean," "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough," "Rock With You," "Shake Your Body"

Olivia Newton-John: "Physical"

Grace Jones: "Pull Up to the Bumper," "Demolition Man," "Slave to the Rhythm"

The Gap Band: "You Dropped a Bomb on Me"

Slave: "Slide"

Aretha Franklin and Luther Vandross: "Jump to It"

Prince: "Delirious," "1999," "Let's Go Crazy," "U Got the Look"

Lime: "Angel Eyes"

Chaka Khan: "Ain't Nobody"

Stephanie Mills: "Pilot Error"

C-Bank: "One More Shot"

Up Fron: "Infatuation"

Madonna: "Burnin' Up," "Into the Groove," "Lucky Star," "Dress You Up," "Open Your Heart," "Causing a Commotion," "Who's That Girl," "La Isla Bonita," "Vogue," "Deeper and Deeper"

Evelyn Thomas: "High Energy"

Laura Branigan: "Self-Control"

Pamala Stanley: "Coming out of Hiding"

Bronski Beat: "Smalltown Boy"

Bananarama: "Cruel Summer"

Alisha: "All Night Passion," "Into My Secret"

Patti Austin: "Gettin' Away With Murder"

E.G. Daily: "Love in the Shadows" (45 RPM Special Remix), "Mind Over Matter"

Dead or Alive with Pete Best: "You Spin Me Round"

Taste-T-Lips: "Hypnotize"

Inner City: "Good Life"

Adele Bertei and Jellybean Benitez: "Just a Mirage"

Pretty Poison with Jade Starling: "Nightime"

Jody Watley: "Don't You Want Me"

Real Life: "Send Me an Angel"

Isaac Hayes: "Shaft"

Curtis Mayfield: "Move on Up," "Superfly," "Freddie's Dead"

lincoln?

i feel good when i do something good,
i feel bad when i do something bad,
this is my religion.

pick up

watched The 40-year-old virgin, the other day, chart-topper supposedly. the film had its moments with a colourful, actually extremely colourful script, and some fairly graphic viusals. it's about any other loser male, except in this case, he is a virgin AND 40. enough to form the premise of a film that has got rave reviews. so here you have a completely simple, bicep driven, long-nosed, all american guy who is trying to get a piece of the action. interesting to see how the script unfolds. nice pick if you're looking for some mid-week laughs. not for a weeekend though. (but this is purely a female perspective.)

city of god

there are consistently two kinds of answers one gets upon enquiring after people in mumbai --
dead. divorced.

icons of our time

just something i came across.
"...If you were to draw a graph of innovation and Microsoft's wherewithal in terms of people, capacity, recruitment, training and salaries, you would find that the more Microsoft hired the best minds at the highest salaries, and so forth, the less innovation it got. For a user, there are no substantial changes whatsoever between the various versions of Microsoft Windows. For anybody who's used a 1990 version, a '96, '98, 2000 or XP version, it just seems like the color of the icons changes. Does it take 5,000 engineers with postgraduate degrees to change the color of icons...?"

two much

"...the creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: one is the sexy creative kind, second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task in hand covers both bases, but not often. this tense duality always plays centrestage. it will never be transcended..."

virus alert

why do men handle viruses so haphazardly? am not referring to the computer ones which are axed with proper fanfare, but the ones that attack the immune system. men get wide-eyed at a body malfunction since they cannot download a software that will solve the problem. they stare forlornly at themselves wondering why there never was a virus alert... why couldn't it be a plain and simple pop-up that stated in its display bar: "virus detected". crocin was never as effective as symantec anti-virus...hell it could not even be counted in the same league! men make for bad patients... ask any self-respecting nurse. they turn curt, self-piteous, and make for ungracious hosts.

beauty is the beast

says my bong colleague: there are more beautiful women per square mile in calcutta, yet, men don't want to go within an inch of them coz they are dominating, irritating, and completely obsessed with not becoming doormats. So Beauty be damned, the men turn their backs on the doe eyes, and just check out the other communities.
Which means that there are loads of bong beauties, all single, many even divorced, unable to find someone who would take the chance and date them in culture rich Cal...
maybe they should all just move to mumbai, where they can carry out relationships without ever making conversation!! no doubt, that might solve the problem?

imagine a world without one-liners

long ago, a man walked into my office telling me he was the best thing that happened to mumbai. i looked at him quizzically and he returned the glare with a brilliant one-liner. later found out he was ash chandler, at that time, one of the few stand up comedians around. my first question to him was why only a handful of people in the city took up humour as a career choice. why would stand up comedy clubs never take off in mumbai? he gave me a limmerick i think in exchange, and whatever it was, it really made me laugh.
today when i see the great indian laughter show on star, i think that maybe the time is near when you can drop by your neighbourhood adda read laughter club and chill over one-liners and a few drinks. isn't that an incredibly easy way to unwind... i mean think about it, the people you veer towards most when it comes to spending an evening out are the ones who can make just a lil fun of themselves...
has the concept of a comedy club finally arrived in mumbai?
on another note, everyone today is interspersing business communication with something geeky, just to fan out the flames. should effective one-liners become part of college curriculums?

Oh, where have i been for so long? dunno...
can't remember a thing of the past month, so makes it difficult to write.
the most exciting thing that happened was that i got rejected for my US visa the second time.
why exciting?
the conversation followed the same flow:
why do you wanna go?
how long will you stay?
how long have you been with your present company?
your visa says you've been to canada? (eyebrows raised)
how long did you stay?
aha
sorry/really sorry.

so now i am wondering if a trip to canada has made me ineligible to enter the united states for good.
oh the price of toronto:(

on the flip side, why do americans name all their hurricanes after women?

heroes

Kitne Guevara the?
Che, Sarkar.

if you're a che guevera fan, check out the motorcycle diaries. it's a slow film but a better bet than the other hero tribute mangal pandey...

the old fold

mumbai has become a great place to retire, it seems... i realised that on my last trip there. riding on the roads is like a space odyssey since you're mostly getting tossed about courtesy some rocking craters, the papers that reach you every morning are fatter than the da vinci code, the news is inundated with so many unnecessary tidbits that you can spend the whole day deciphering it, the over-60 citizens are all wearing Tommy Hilfiger and Reeboks, the film stars are now all on the streets, in some form or the other, and the cacophony is become so commonplace that it is now referred to as piece and serenity... what more could you ask for in your golden years? no wonder everywhere you look, its the 60 plus generation that's making the most of it. the 16 year olds meanwhile are busy trying to gatecrash mocha or coffee day...

pots and pants

i finally discovered the one big difference between a man in a kitchen, and a woman in a kitchen.
man: to make one sabzi, 10 dishes will be used, 4 spoons, many lids, 5 powders, and all will be accomplished in stages. by the end of the 35 minute hot flush episode, there will be a colourful sabzi, matched by a colourful amount of dirty dishes, all strewn around for the bhai to handle the next morning.

woman: to make one sabzi, a small pan will be taken, which will see the sabzi through from tadka to dining table, all in the span of 5 minutes. bhai next morning will have one dish and one serving spoon to contend with...

so which is the better output? am still working out that one.

kiss and yell

so many people i know kiss ass to get ahead. and get ahead they do. if they're the butt of jokes, they don't care, coz in the end they are climbing faster than the neighbouring geek. so here's a personality profile i have drawn up of people most likely to ass kiss on their way to the top:
1. 5%intellect + 95% hot air
2. exaggerated sense of self
3. wannabes of the highest order
4. if you ask them a pointed question, which they are supposed to know, they will reply with a question, and then flee
it's not that i am against ass kissers, it's just that you require a skill set to pull it off, and most of the ass kissers i know, and they are omnipresent, just don't have it!
5. freaky humour
6. inability to enjoy the money they make

boxing day

i don't like boxing movies... blood spilling over the audience as teeth shatter and ribs smash ain't my cup of tea. but i chanced to watch the latest ron howard film cinderella man. it had russel crowe in it, and once again in beautiful mind mode, he gave a breath taking performance. in lots of ways, he reminds me of aamir khan. you don't get to watch him often, his films are few and far between, but when he does do a film, it stays with you for a long time to come.
coming back to cinderella man, its the story of a man who reaches his pinnacle only to fall face down... but he gets up again, and goes on to become the darling of the masses. true story of course! must watch... if you are into all of the above.

phobic

Girls and boys start out at comparable levels of interest and abilities in math, science and technology during lower elementary grades... Research has shown that perceptions begin to slowly change in upper elementary grades when girls tend to view the computer as a tool to complete a task, while boys begin playing games and establishing a "friendship" with their computers.
(Research has shown that girls prefer problem-solving and strategy computer games over shoot-to-kill scenarios.)
Perhaps if girls in elementary school experience technology as fun and enriching they will make the choice in high school to enroll in advanced math and science courses. In this way, opportunities will remain open to them that previously would be closed. Teaching girls the benefits of being tech-savvy requires the collaboration of parents, teachers, and designers.