Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Television back then...

Some of us have grown up with many TV channels around us. Those around the twenties probably wouldnt recollect the stuff im writing about. However those around the 30s or so would recollect (if grown up in India or Bombay to be more specific).

I remember those days when we had a Black and White television in the house. I can sort of remember it probably had 4 knobs. 1 must have been on and off (with volume function). 2nd maybe brightness, 3rd contrast and 4th tuning or something. Anyone else remembers the B/W television set of theirs? I even recollect the brand, it was an NEC.

The next television was probably a HITACHI - a colour one. That was with a bit more fancier than its predecessor. I remember queing up in the evening in front of the television to watch Chayageet and Chitrahaar (music videos of old hindi films). The 6pm or so started with that traditional introduction of the Doordarshan logo. The earlier days also showed us some cartoon in the form of Fireball XL5 (dont know if anyone recollects that one). It used to be in Black and white but i remember watching every single of it.

Over the next few years I remember serials like Buniyaad, Hum Log, Ramayan, Mahabharat, Vikram aur betaal, amongst stuff for kids - i remember HE-MAN and the masters of the Universe. Does anyone remember that one. Skeletor, Man at arms, Evelyn, Orko, etc. Loved those days. We were so contect with watching just one channel. Demands were far and few. This day today - i was trying to look for something that my kids could watch - skimmed through atleast 6-8 kiddie channels but couldnt find anything that interesting. Spoilt for choice i guess.

When Ramayan was on television - i remember the roads being empty. The effect it had on the masses was huge. Same was with the Mahabharat serial that followed.

I also recollect my masis used to record stuff on demand in singapore. We used to get Video casettes full of cartoons. I loved PEANUTS cartoons, especially the 30 minute ones during christmas. I recollect something called Playback 86 or something - 2 hrs special on music videos that topped the chart. Those cassettes were valued at the price of Gold. We must have watched them atleast 15 times over. Hey did i forget to mention WWF - now known as WWE, we were hooked on to it since we were kids. We means me and my brother. From the days of the Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Perfect Warrier, Machoman Randy Savage and tons more. Anyone watched those guys or were we the only dumb ones.

I guess in around 1990s, or 1991s, thanks to Rajiv Gandhi, the economy was opened up and the first foreign broadcast by STAR TELEVISION was allowed. It was 1 hrs a day to begin with. Remember Bart simpson cartoons, Music videos that was beamed on it. I loved the MTV when it started. Those who watched it then would think that V and MTV are a bunch of crap. VJ's like NONIE, Woo Man were awsome. gone are those days. NO HINDI MUSIC was there on it. Enuff of this now.

Just felt like sharing this with you people. Dont know if i made sense. But am i supposed to?

Sunday, October 26, 2008

The week gone by

The last week or so was full of travelling, more travelling and more travelling. This was on my trip to Italy and Germany. However interesting it may sound, let me tell you it was all 90% work and maybe a 10% play.

It began with a horribly timed flight from Mumbai to Venice via Dubai. So obviously youve guessed it was Emirates. It was a flight at 430 am. sucks. cos you obviously dont get to sleep that nite. For all free bee lovers - this is 1 flight always over booked esp. on Sunday departure. ur guess is as good as mine on the reasons for it. The free bee on this flight that ive missed for the second time is - they will ask you if you can take the 9.00am flight. If you oblige they will give u one return ticket to dubai valid for a year on Emirates.

The food is awful on Emirates (atleast the Asian veg meal is). However what covered up for it was the ICE Entertainment System. 600 channels to choose from. WOW. tons of movies to see. I picked GET SMART.

Quite a crappy one. silly comedy - if you like the spoof type movies you mite like this one. watch it if nothing better to watch.

Got into dubai at 6am - took another one at 930am to Venice. How the italians are greatly romatic was proven before i got on the plane itself. PDA was way too much for my conservative self. anyways that was that. No ICE Entertainment system on the flight. Had decided to cover up on my sleep and so i did. The white wine was an australian yellow label (wolf blass or jacobs creek) chardonnay. Relatively decent. Not something to run home bout. In between the sleep and food i did manage to see another movie. This time it was AWAKE. must watch for all.

It was bout this guy (multi millionaire) who had fallen in love with an employee (jessica alba). His Mom didnt like it. He had a heart condition. And needed a transplant. One fine day he got a call for it, married the chick and went straight for the hospital. FACT - as it was indicated in the movie - 1 out of something like 700 ppl are actually awake during their surgery. This had to happen to him as well. After the anesthesia, he was still awake. Eyes closed. knocked out cold. but could still hear every word discussed by doctors. During this surgery he actually hears things go wrong. The doctors are conspiring. bout what? against whom? does he die? does he live? wat happens to Jessica alba? what role does his mom play?

To know the answers - watch it.

Back to Venice. did manage a short tour for 2 hrs or so. Really beautiful. Wished ERJA was here as well. Maybe next time. Next couple of days were WORK WORK WORK - Tours all around, 6 course meals, and lots of wine. I hate the Europeans for their plugs and sockets. How silly to have different plugs and sockets all over the world. Would it not be easier to just have one style. Sucks. Anyone seconds this opinon.
from Italy it was Hannover that was the next stop. nice weather 10 deg thru the day. min at 4 deg. awsome. I was still without a sweater or jacket or any over coat. Loved it every bit. The exhibition - felt like it would take 10 days to cover. It was that big. Since it was my second time. knew how to do it in 2 days. did just that. Met a whole bunch of characters there. Gave them silly names as well. All of these were from the industry i work in. So all elder to me. One was named as FC (financial controller) knew his figures well. would start calcualting break even etc even before we entered the customer premises for visits. Next was Singh is King. From Chandigarh. Typically Singh. Next was S3. from bangalore. Funny and spent 240 Euros on a jacket just cause he had forgotten one. He surely must have felt warm after spending all that money on a jacket probably not worth more than 1000rs (20 euros). Couple of days and it was time to head back. Again an ordeal.

From Hannover to Hamburg on train (1.5 hrs). Hamburg Dubai (6hrs) dubai airport (4 hrs waiting) Dubai bombay (2.5hrs) again the thought of losing the nite sleep sucked.

Something bout hindi music.
Dont know what it is but i love listening to Hindi music while on a trip abroad. Dont know y. But its true. Same was with the trip to Malaysia. I was esp. listening a lot to Khuda Jaane....... (from bahcna ae haseeno) I think Vykers mite agree with this one. What say dude. Hindi music did the trick for us on the way back as well.

Another flight - another movie.
Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging.
If you have seen bend it like beckham - gurinder chadda directed and youve liked it. Chances are that you will like this one as well. Very cute. About 14 year old girls. Bout how they wanna grow up, want parties, boyfriends and how they feel that their parent are from the stone age as well. It was fun to watch it. cute at time. funny at times. Must watch this one.

88 Minutes
Must watch as well. Al Pacino is the successful forensic psychiatrist and college professor whose testimony in a specific case ensures the accused gets a death sentence. Sometime later - another serial killer is out there. So if there is another similar one out there, does that mean this guy was innocent. Al pacino is give 88 minutes to live. Does he die, does he survive, was the 1st accused really the serial killer or was he innocent. Who was the 2nd serial killer? Watch it and find out. Or if you wanna spoil the suspense - email me.


The some hrs at the dubai airport. dinner at 2am. some duty free shopping and next flight was ready to leave 4.00 am. got to bombay. then to nasik. crashed out at nite. didnt get up or even moved the whole nite i guess.

Finally ive got tons of more movies to watch now. Will keep you people posted.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Weekend in Singapore : FRIDAY

Its been almost a week since ive been back to work. However the memories of the amazing weekend still are fresh in my mind. It all began with a last minute decision to go to Singapore just before departing from KL. I had been trying to figure out a way to get to Singapore from KL and had been contemplating air and ground options.

However my dear brother presented me with an option of tagging along with a friend of his who was gonna get to Singapore by road. I jumped on the option and confirmed the same with him. On a friday - I had called Vikas Rathi and comfirmed that I would meet up with him at bout 2.30pm. and then depart for Singapore.

As usual i was late in leaving the hotel and was wondering how I was to get to this place called Subang Jaya. The hotel guys did me a favour (id love to think otherwise) and called in a cabbie. Little did i realise that since this was a 5 star hotel - they had called in a LIMO TAXI (no guys it wasnt a LIMO). I thought to myself - 2 days back i had travelled to this place further than Subang jaya and i got there in 35 RM so this should be lesser distance but slightly more expensive to 35 RM should be fine but I paid that freakin cabbie 60 RM. This guy drove like a maniac. Or were the roads so good to drive like that. Zipping out of KL was quite a breeze given the traffic that i had seen in the last 3 days or so. The road seemed longer and longer. It never seemed to end. However I got there only at 3pm. Looking for this guy wasnt as hard. I had told Vikas - look out for a guy with luggage. Didnt think there would be others with luggage around. Bingo - Found our man in 5 minutes. The usual introductions took place. Vikas and Devasheesh (D'singh) introduced themselves. Luggage stuffed in the boot and there we were ready to hit the road.

Couple of wrong turns, Vikas (pronounced as Vykers (R is silent)) didnt think so and we lost something like 15 minutes in the traffic. D'Singh however enlightened Vykers on the short cuts he never knew of. So there we were enroute to Singapore. I was told this journey was bout 375 kms. and i was saying to myself - atleast 4 hrs or more. I had carried my left over WALKERS COOKIES (Really gooey and full of chocolate) and not to forget my packet of Chocolate milk. The initial discussion revolved around the usual - whose doing what - who studied where - whose married - whose not - whose got kids - how old etc etc. Every now and then reference was being made to GANJI (my brothers nic from the IIM days i presume). How GANJI's record (of about 3hrs 19 mins door to door) from KL to Spore was there for the taking. (I sincerely hope moms not reading this post or - NITIN - uve had it).

We were all deprived of good hindi music on the way in to Spore. We managed with a bit of Micheal Jackson CD and a bit of MIX FM on the radio (which by the way is one of the best radio stations ive heard in a long time). I pretty much dozed through the first 1 hr of the drive and woke up during a routine pit stop. PIT STOP - generally considered to be for loading the tanks, we stopped to empty out tanks. Dont know if everyone who has been to the IIM smokes, but i think its true. They all smoke. D'singh and Vykers had their share of Cigarettes during this pitstop. We also bought some chips (Pringles - Cos they are made by P&G), some twisties some coated fried peanuts and some Cashews. By this time we had wiped out the stock of the amazing cookies. While D'singh had water, Vykers had Coke and I my packet of chocolate milk.

Driving through the next hour and half was fast and furious. Ive noticed one thing. No one honks in Malaysia and Singapore. As Vykers put it - if you want someone to give you way - all you gotta go is get right up their ass. So typically we would zoom until the guy in front notices us (right up his ass) and then gives way. So far i dont recall a single car overtaking us on this ride. I had just said it and there was someone whose car was right up our ass. It was to be a BMW 5 series. Ah we had no chance - had to give way. We used the power of the BMW to great effect. He was ahead clearing the way for us and we were right behind him.

One racing incident - KIDS DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME OR ANYHWERE
Kimi (BMW) was being obstructed by a back marker (Some silly Proton - Force India), Lewis (Vykers) was right behind Kimi. Kimi takes instructions from the pit wall and dives to the left to overtake. Ron Denis (Hiren) passes message to Lewis to stay put. Kimi dives to the left - So does the Force India car, Kimi is stuck. Go - Go - Go is the message to Lewis from the pits and Lewis drives straight on and takes the race lead. May sound a bit silly but there was lotsa cheer in the car on this smooth overtaking manouvre.

After passing through bout 4-5 toll plazas we were just about to hit JB (not Johnny Bravo) but Johar Bahru and the crossover point to Singapore. After a relatively smooth crossover we were in Singapore. Ah it felt so nice. So nostalgic. Obviously Nitin hadnt called in to check if we were on time or where we had reached. This could lead to two possibilities - He had too much faith in Vykers (that he would bring his bro to singapore safely) or he knew his elder brother would get anywhere with or without help. We were heading to this place called Serangoon Ave 3, as there was too much traffic and we would never make it in time for the F1 - friday practice session. We had to drop D'singh to this guy's (Nandi) place. I tried to make sense of a map that was from Woodlands to Serangoon ave 3 whereas we had taken the route via Tuas to Serangoon Ave 3.

Thanks to the excellent road signs that exist in Singapore, we got there. Mostly cos of an excellent navigator in the car. (and it wasnt D'singh or Vykers). I was talking as if i was brought up in Singapore and knew the roads well. The exit from the PIE on to the CTE and then an exit on to Lorong Chuan and then the left for Serangoon Ave 3. The moment we all got off the car, cigarettes were out, puffing started. A couple of drinks down at Nandi's house for all we finally get a call to meet the gang at Clarke Quay. Got there in 15 mins. Usual grettings. The long lost brothers hugged. The gang decided to party late nite. I opted out. Got dropped home. since my luggage was in Vykers car - I had to make do with my Bros' pyjamas (10 sizes bigger - sorry - just exaggerating). Dozed in a flash. ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

(by the way - we made it to the toll plaza in something like 3hrs - 24 mins)

Day 2 to be continued.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Chatty people

chat·ty (cht)
adj. chat·ti·er, chat·ti·est
1. Inclined to chat; friendly and talkative.
2. Full of or in the style of light informal talk: a chatty letter.

Now that we have the defination of Chatty out of the way, its time to begin. I would generally classify people in two categories (one that chat and the other that think its a waste of time). I fall in the former of the two categories. I wonder where a reader like you, falls in? Anyways lets carry on....

Given a chance I'd surely chat, be it a co passenger on train, flight, driver of a cab, so on and so forth. Im about to share some interesting conversations that ive had recently on my trip to KL and Singapore, some of these conversations throw great light on the aspirations of people, what they consider good or bad, an insight into their lives and how they choose to live it.

INCIDENT 1
My journey started off from home to the airport (obviously), had a flight at about 11.45pm and decided to leave the house at 8pm (in all the traffic headed to the suburbs). The adventureous side of me (according to someone - needs to be discouraged sometimes, rightly so this time) was contemplating getting there by train - getting to Andheri in 22 mins was too much of a bait, the not so adventureous side of me overruled and i simply took a cab to the airport.

Dont know what got the driver started or me started, but we talked about numerous subjects, few of which i shall touch upon. Firstly politics and how the so called "netas" have been screwing the country, people like Raj Thakrey, Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati etc. figured in the conversation.

Part of the discussion wandered around the days of the B&W Televisions, how big mobiles were when they were launched and how he chauffered this guy in Nariman point who was the fist to own a mobile in the whole area. How his ex SETH (mumbaikars get the point) has grown from owning a Fiat in something like 1980 to having 5 cars now in Nepeansea road.

This cabbie was very inquisitive on what was happening in Switzerland with the BIG BANG experiment, I had quite a hard time explaining him on what was happening in HINDI. What does one call planets in hindi, how does one name the planets in hindi... that was quite tough. Finally the dearest conversation to the cabbie was about the fact that "whether GOD exists or not, if it is to be believed or not" This all came from the BIG BANG discussion, and his opinion was that it was Lord Shankar or someone who made the planet earth and strongly believed in it. I didnt realise that 1.5 hrs ride to the airport passed by so quickly, finally this cabbie thanked me for the talk, saying that he learnt so much etc. etc. so much so for INCIDENT 1 - now lets move on

INCIDENT 2
Flight boarded. Im sitting next to this "WOMAN" who looked a bit Indian and a bit Malaysian. There was one part of me saying she is an Indian and another one saying no this is woman is not Indian. I was tempted to ask. I was looking for give away signs like mannerisms, shoes, bags and what she would read etc. No breakthru yet and the flight took off. Like my usual self - during take off i had my reading light on
and was reading "The Straits Times" (malaysian newspapaer)in english, thats where her inquisitiveness took over and she enquired if I was Malaysian or Indian. There was the ice breaker. I then discovered she was half Malaysian and half Srilankan. During the course of the flight our discussion moved in several directions - from Malaysian people to Facebook to Shahrukh Khan to Snooty airhostesses etc. I learnt a bit later that she was a TV Show - hostess and an aspiring actor. I dunno if this is a Malaysian trait or what but the actor in her was showing through the conversation with expressive gestures, movement of hands and eyes. Must say - big chance that this woman will make it to the movies. The very fact that she was returning home from India while her parents thought (or made to believe) she was in Singapore said a lot about this bold woman. I was impressed with her confidence.

INCIDENT 3
On the return flight to Mumbai. Got the emergency exit seat. Legs stretched and comfy. This guy next to me was totally a STUD. Looked Pakistani to begin with. Picture this - longish hair , ITALY - football tshirt, neat looking jeans, PUMA - FERRARI shoes. Dont know what broke the ice but we introduced ourselves and much to my surprise i found out that hes a SINDHI. So we talked bout business and how much clubbing our MAN had done in KL and Singapore - To all the SINGAPORE gang - this guy was also part of AMBER LOUNGE - Johnny Walker party - where he said he saw - Priti zinta, Shilpa shetty, Vijay Mallya, Ness Wadia among host of other celebs. Finally food was served and we were eating so there was silence for a while. Our man had asked my opinion on what movie he should watch - so i suggested "THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM" and to that he responded on how he was so into martial arts etc etc. When we landed our man was still perplexed on how he was going to get his imported SOUND SYSTEM for his CAR out of customs. For the record - this was designed by some consultant in Singapore and some parts came from Germany - Hand assembled in UK etc etc. That was it. I was done. Ready to head home.

So ill end now with a few questions

1) If people are chatty - what characteristics does it give away of the nature of the person?

2) Are you chatty or not chatty - how does it feel being not chatty and surrounded by chatty people?

Confusing eh....