1. Vijay Chaugule (Shiv Sena – Rampage party #1): (Seat sharing with BJP)
Declared assets: 1.1 Cr
Education: Some schooling
Criminal Record: Yes

2. Dr. Sanjeev Naik (NCP): (Seat sharing with Cong.)
Declared assets: 6.2 Cr
Education: ?
Criminal Record: Yes

Sanjeev calls himself a doctor, but he is neither a medical professional nor a PhD. Apparently there is a case against him as he has falsely declared himself to be a Dr. in his candidature form.

With the seat sharing (BJP + Shiv Sena) and (Cong + NCP), my options have become rather limited. So whats left:

3. Avanindra Tripathi (Bahujan Samaj Party – Mayavati and gang!)
Declared assets: 1.1 Cr
Criminal Record: None (Wow, surprise!)

4. Rajan Raje (MNS – Rampage party #2)

And then some nice ones, parties I have completely unheard of:

5. Kranti Kari Jai Hind Sena

6. Navbharat Nirman Party

7. Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangha

8. Republican Paksha (Khoripa)

Am I left with just 49-O? [1] [2]

1. Lord of the Rings – A special extended edition of the trilogy.

2. Wall-e.  (Esp at a time when I just finished reading Steve Jobs’ iCon). This is a brilliant film.

3. Sous Les Bombes – Philippe Aractingi

4. Amen – Costa Gavras (More suggestions for holocaust films are welcome. I’ve done Schindler’s and Life is beautiful already).

5. Goodby Bafana – Billie August. A film based on the memoirs of Nelson Mandela’s prison guard.

6. The Orphanage – Juan Bayona.

7. 8 1/2 – Federico Fellini.

I wouldn’t know the Bio’s of those filmmakers from each other. I’ve just put the names here for the sake of completeness. But there is enough to make me look forward to the weekends ahead.

DVD Titles

If you want to read about what it takes to build a world-class product idea, read iCon. Beyond the glory and money that comes with it, the book talks about the pain, rejection and failures of a hundred ideas that came before it.

It talks about a man who made a lot of mistakes in the process. Someone who learnt to stand up, dust-off the failures and try again. Conviction and sweat, more than anything else, have made a successful Apple and Pixar.

For those aspiring of startups, the book taught me one thing – “the road is long”. You have to stick-to-it. You have to put all your bets on it. The companies in the limelight today, floundered for years, before they hit the tipping point.

I resisted the urge to watch a pirated rip that landed on my hard drive weeks ago. Saved it all for yesterday evening. Shelling out 180 bucks at PVR.

1. I didn’t find the movie engrossing at all. It had a feel of discontinuity and shallowness. There were a couple of scenes worthy of memory, but that’s it. I was wondering… just another hindi movie?

2. Did I blunder by watching the english version? It seemed *so unreal* to see pot-bellied mumbai police speak impeccable english.

3. The platform dance, just before the credits, was completely unnecessary.

4. JR has already caught the “meet me at VT station” goof up.  Oh don’t worry, just by the Sir Qasab memorial. It’s hard to miss.

Maybe the film appeals to the western audience. But I don’t think it deserves an Oscar. And it doesn’t deserve two hours of your time.

I watched a *far better film* the weekend before: Changeling – starring Angelina Jolie, John Malcovich et al. Brilliant work. How do they portray the Los Angeles of the 1920′s? A really huge movie set? I love the style and tone of the spoken english in those days.

There was a noisy two-year-old sitting right next to me. Couldn’t the parents find him a garden, a park or a mall? Why Changeling? Why center-seats-third-row-from-the-back?

I just sooo hate it when people come to the cinema hall with an agenda other than watching the movie.

If there is a re-run, it would be worth a watch.

I think there are some fairly sensible people editing the Lok Sabha channel. One would expect a government-run channel to carry the same ol’ politically correct, nationalistic stuff.

On the contrary, I often see drastic perspectives from the guests there. The past few weeks I’ve watched open discussions on so-called taboo subjects in the Indian context – gay rights, mercy killings, personal privacy, artistic freedom etc.

“Business Transformation Together”

Yeah! At least you guys got that right. Thank you for burning my money.

Now, the US porn industry is asking for a federal bailout! I mean, c’mon. What are the 693,000 unemployed last december doing at home?

Amongst other interesting things, lost my job. Another startup close to going bust. No grudge taken. Going by the thumb-rule, 2 in every 10 succeed; so I have plenty more to go statistically.

Working on a couple of consulting assignments now; freelancing a bit and working on a few other ideas. It is fun,  but riskier to live with. My folks think I’m jobless. But actually, it’s enough to pay the bills and buy some beer right now.

For once in my life I have enough time to keep a regular workout reigm in mornings, and enough time to indulge in an ever growing stack of books.

One of them is relevant today – Adam Smith’s “The Weath of Nations”. The original treatise is titled much longer than the terse title I’ve quoted.

From the father of modern policital economics, I’m trying to understand what does money really mean? What is the inherent value of money? And I’m hoping it was not invented just to keep us amused as we track our portfolios for hours every morning..

“Kalpana was killed”.

Huh?

Perhaps morally uptight India could not take:
“XXXX raped and killed my wife”.

(Substitute XXXX with some typical hindi-movie-villain name. I can’t actually think of any right now. Help?)

—-
Addendum: Thanks to my past memories of buddies JR and Jatin, here is the new version:

“Samba raped and killed my wife.”

“Raj insisted on using a western loo in jail instead of an Indian one”.

I mean WTF! Snippets and articles about such a major, major technological achievement by our country were lost in hoards of poop news. I know I’ve cribbed too often about the media, on this blog.

Have you ever seen the kind of coverage, glamour and frenzy that similar events in the wester world receive? They celebrate their scientific achievements with much pride. How many people in this city would know the name of the ISRO chief or the name of a few leading indian space scientists?

F*ck marathi manoos. It’s time to get our priorities right. Today morning, I just couldn’t let go off this feeling. Here is my hypothesis:

India will continue to remain f*cking backward for another century, due to our attitude and poor management skills. Sorry Abdul, 2020 won’t happen.

(I’m not talking about the 5% urban elite here. I’m talking about the quality of life, healthcare, education, human rights of the 95% sweaty, filthy, wretched, malnourished population our ours. )

Anyways, speaking of priorities. I see our scientists and politicos talk about future manned missions to the moon. My pea-sized brain cannot grasp the real benefits of much expensive manned missions versus relatively cheaper unmanned missions. In a situation where 2/3rds of our children are malnourished, 60% of women are illiterate, are we planning to colonize the moon?

Well, if the scientific objectives are to map, measure, record various aspects of the moon, high-precision equipments could do it. Vehicles or robotic arms could collect any samples to be bought back. I mean why do you need a man to go out there? Well, at lest right now, like in the next 20 years…

My skepticism is not intended to undermine the awesome technological achievements by ISRO. You guys have done a fantastic job!

In that startled moment of disorientation and fear, one glance in the rear-view-mirror and I knew this it. Huddled behind, clutching a knife. I can never forget the look in his psychotic eyes… having located his next victim, he was relishing the moment.. How could I be so absent minded!

My options were running out. It was a four lane highway and I was speeding at 80 kmph. I considered the possibility of throwing the door open and jumping out. The 4×4 behind would run me over. I figured it would be too late by the time I wriggle off my seat belt; his reflexes too quick, tuned for moments like these.

Could I just ram into a lamp post? The collateral damage could kill us both, averting a throat slitting moment. You know, its not true what they say… Your entire life doesn’t flash when you look at death in the eye.

It’s amazing what watching too many movies can do to you!

I pulled over 20 meters ahead and turned around. A pair of yellow-green eyes starring back. Scratching, purring, this poor kitty was trapped as I drove away. From the black-white fur, I figured it was the same ol’ kitty from the neighborhood who troubled the //macchi-walli// every Wednesday. Boy, I must’ve given her some ride of her life.

Drove back home, as I was about a kilometer away. I opened the rear door and out she pounced. Standing there, staring back at me… Later I heard, cats are able to find their way back.

Aaj Tak and the gang, were too preoccupied filming SRK at Dhrona’s red carpet while all this unfolded. I mean c’mon, is that supposed to even be a headline?

‘Times Now’ and ‘DD News’ seem to be the only sensible ones left around. Any opinions?

These and more random thoughts in my two hour drive to work everyday. I’m building up a huge carbon deficit and the 4×6 car cabin is my only defining personal space left these days.