Riots, bomb blasts, train bombings...It seemed Mumbai had seen it all..Future terrorist attacks, which were always on the card, would follow the pattern.....This is what I thought...Until Nov 26 happened...Terrorists evidently have a far greater imagination....Which is not good news...
Like people all over the world , I was glued to the internet, in my case NDTV live with a somewhat hyper-active Barkha Dutt and CNN for the first 20 hours, of the live tv drama that unfolded......Personally, I think it is futile to express condolences or empathize with people who were victims of the attack or who survived the attack..So I wont even try..But like Indians all over, I share that sense of fear, anger and frustration at the events that have unfolded....
Thankfully, its all over today.....But this attack was different......Over the years I have developed a sense of apathy to the terror attacks all over India....What remained was just a sense of gratitude that my family and friends were unaffected.....This event has shattered that apathy.....which is probably a good thing...
But now that the event has passed..Where do we go from here??..How safe is any one in Mumbai or in Bangalore or in Chennai or any other city/town in India? New York had its 9/11 and even though the United States would be the top target in every Islamic fundamentalists radar, there has been no further attacks on NY or any other major US city...Not even after a war in Iraq that increasingly lost support every passing hour and day... So , what are the chances that this is Mumbai's 9/11;not in the audacity or scale of the destruction caused but for the fact that this would galvanize the creation of a security infrastructure that would prevent attacks for the next 7 years...I don't know if I am a pessimist, but I think the chances are slim...
So come Monday morning, life in Mumbai will resume again....Global terror ? Urban warfare? I have no clue....But for all of those people who will walk out from their homes on Monday morning, and I would have been one of them if I was in India, these terms wont matter.....The streets will be as crowded as any other day....The trains will run to their full capacity...And the Mumbai traffic will revel in its glory...The only concession that might be made will probably be in the form of a small prayer before stepping out ..As history has shown us, this is what has happened in every city in the world post the most horrendous of terror strikes...Mumbai is no different....The people here are no different..The major difference, and the most critical one, would be in how the government and the political system react to this attack and the preventive steps taken...We can only hope for the best on that front..;)
Heartingly enough, this time round there is some tiredness in trumpeting the "spirit of Mumbai" and the "resilience of the Mumbaikar"....Which I think is encouraging, because that eliminates any diversion from the not so comfortable questions that an incident of such a magnitude and daring should raise...The men and women who will walk down the streets of Mumbai will show the same spirit that people do across India after their towns and cities have been hit by terrorists...Its a spirit driven by helplessness..A spirit driven by acceptance that things happen......And most importantly a spirit driven by business, commerce and livelihood....We are no different in sharing that spirit with people all over the world...Where we may be different, is that we probably have that sinking feeling that not much is going to change anyways....As I heard RR Patil say live on tv, such small incidents keep happening in big cities...
So looking beyond the carnage, there is only Monday morning to look forward to. And hope against hope that we have some answers from the authorities for all those doubts that the media has sown - 9 hours for NSG operation to galvanize, equipment that is non-elite as much as the NSG is elite, terror warnings ignored,coast guard and Navy cooperation ,the creation of a federal agency , Dawood and so on and so forth......
I saw this survivor on tv who escaped from the Taj the previous night and was on his job the next day, capturing a marriage on a camcorder. Thats what his job was. I can totally empathize with him. Beyond the terror, there is a life to get on with. And unless we are one of the unfortunate ones who are victims of such horrifying situations in the near present and in the future, this is how it will be. With grief in our hearts for the victims and with a prayer for our own safety, we will simply get on with the next mundane task. That is all there is to beyond terror. And I doubt if it will be any different for Mumbai, even though the preceding situation might have transcended all imagination.
Cheers!!
;)
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
The feudal days are over
so its finally come to pass....The Maharajah had to take his final bow....and for all his fans, it could not have unfolded better.....I am not a die hard fan of indian cricket...just about an average fan...i cannot tell the difference between one Tendulkar cover drive from another...or remember to a painful detail, all those overs bowled in a Test match as some people I know can..but I guess, like most Indians, I have been following cricket to whatever extent is possible....and the memories I retain on top of my mind in all these years of watching cricket is Kapil Dev falling to Eddie Hemmings caught on the boundary by Gatting and Saurav Ganguly waving his shirt at the Lords balcony.....one image dashed hopes, the other provided visions of something new...and as I have read all the farewell scripts written for Dada, I think the common thread is around the Lords incident ...which I think is truly interesting...
for all his statistics, when we think about Ganguly, we think about the shirt waving, the Steve Waugh toss, the Greg Chappell saga, the falling out of favor and the comeback......the off side elegeance and the huge sixes are more of an afterthought...I think few cricketers would had so many off field incidents that kept so many people interested.....but I think the reason I am a Ganguly fan is because he split opinions about himself in such extreme ways....you are either a Ganguly fan or you are not..you can take the middle road with Tendulkar , Dravid, Kumble, Laxman or Sehwag....but not with Ganguly.....
Here was a man...you liked him or hated him...but you could never ignore him.... and thats why this is the end of something special....cricket is at the end of the day entertainment...and with Ganguly, there was no shortage of it...
There will be Gods and Champions...but it will take some time to find another maharajah...someone who can blend elegance and disdain in one smooth package...somone who can lead India like its a hereditary privilege ...unfortunately, theres no yuvraj in the waiting....The feudal days are over
cheers!!
for all his statistics, when we think about Ganguly, we think about the shirt waving, the Steve Waugh toss, the Greg Chappell saga, the falling out of favor and the comeback......the off side elegeance and the huge sixes are more of an afterthought...I think few cricketers would had so many off field incidents that kept so many people interested.....but I think the reason I am a Ganguly fan is because he split opinions about himself in such extreme ways....you are either a Ganguly fan or you are not..you can take the middle road with Tendulkar , Dravid, Kumble, Laxman or Sehwag....but not with Ganguly.....
Here was a man...you liked him or hated him...but you could never ignore him.... and thats why this is the end of something special....cricket is at the end of the day entertainment...and with Ganguly, there was no shortage of it...
There will be Gods and Champions...but it will take some time to find another maharajah...someone who can blend elegance and disdain in one smooth package...somone who can lead India like its a hereditary privilege ...unfortunately, theres no yuvraj in the waiting....The feudal days are over
cheers!!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Planning for travel
so its supposed to be easy...the internet has simplified things and brought the world closer..i can book flights and hotels anywhere in the world.....read reviews from other fellow travellers..and even subscribe to sites which charge $1 a week for info on that perfect travel/vacation....
but 3 week since starting to plan for my vacation/travel, I have not been able to click on the "confirm" button yet....lack of choice is not a problem...its the abundance of choice..when I click the "confirm" button i should have the satisaction of having secured the best deal..thats what 3 hours of searching on the internet does to me.....its like the stock market..when do you buy? when do you sell??
so for 3 weeks i have observed....and inputted imaginary travel dates into countless company owned and aggregator websites and tried to make sense of things...but unfortunately without success....a trip from MUM..SIN..PHUKET...SIN..MUM was 38k INR at the end of week 2...but at the end of week 3 it was 85k INR.....however, when i split the travel between different carriers , the cost is 38K at the end of week 3.....at the end of week 2, the same split with different carriers was 40K.....
the 2 k does not matter...the increase from 38k to 85k does..but more importantly, its in the lack of a pattern of how rates vary that is interesting....of course theres a certain opaqueness as to how these sites price.....and intuitively I guess, the pattern should be simple...prices should be cheap for early bookings....gradually increase as the date of flight approaches..and fall back a couple of days before the actual date if bookings are available.....unfortunately, the theory does not work...or at least I have not seen it work....
so i have booked my flights today....that is my stake on the ground...over the next 7 weeks I will be monitoring if i could have possibly got a better deal...and i am pretty sure I will find more than a couple of better dals than what i have signed up for today.....the interesting thing is if I can figure out why I could not get the best deal....chances are pretty slim for that one...But if i can, i will start a hedge fund....:))
Cheers!!
:))
but 3 week since starting to plan for my vacation/travel, I have not been able to click on the "confirm" button yet....lack of choice is not a problem...its the abundance of choice..when I click the "confirm" button i should have the satisaction of having secured the best deal..thats what 3 hours of searching on the internet does to me.....its like the stock market..when do you buy? when do you sell??
so for 3 weeks i have observed....and inputted imaginary travel dates into countless company owned and aggregator websites and tried to make sense of things...but unfortunately without success....a trip from MUM..SIN..PHUKET...SIN..MUM was 38k INR at the end of week 2...but at the end of week 3 it was 85k INR.....however, when i split the travel between different carriers , the cost is 38K at the end of week 3.....at the end of week 2, the same split with different carriers was 40K.....
the 2 k does not matter...the increase from 38k to 85k does..but more importantly, its in the lack of a pattern of how rates vary that is interesting....of course theres a certain opaqueness as to how these sites price.....and intuitively I guess, the pattern should be simple...prices should be cheap for early bookings....gradually increase as the date of flight approaches..and fall back a couple of days before the actual date if bookings are available.....unfortunately, the theory does not work...or at least I have not seen it work....
so i have booked my flights today....that is my stake on the ground...over the next 7 weeks I will be monitoring if i could have possibly got a better deal...and i am pretty sure I will find more than a couple of better dals than what i have signed up for today.....the interesting thing is if I can figure out why I could not get the best deal....chances are pretty slim for that one...But if i can, i will start a hedge fund....:))
Cheers!!
:))
Saturday, September 6, 2008
A Wednesday To Rock On
so i watched the movies.."A Wednesday" and "Rock ON'....great watching...both beautiful sunday night movies..But I had made that one big mistake of reading the reviews before I wacthed those movies...So i had read the critics assessment and had twisted their words and ascribed some sense to them to form my own opinions of those movies without watching them...
And then I did...'A Wednesday" first because of Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah ...Familiarity breeds comfortableness (is that a word) and also contempt ( this is)...And I think 'A Wednesday" was a disappointment...I have been watching trailers of a new Pacino Versus De Niro movie on tv...And I had hoped for something like that..Or at least something like Naseeruddin and Om Puri in that Vishal Bhardwaj film whose name I now forget...But 'A Wednesday" was disappointing for me...The beginning was gripping...But somehow I lost connection with the story mid way.....Did not help that I had just watched "Bank Job" a day earlier..And you would expect a kind of raciness (is that a word again) in a thriller.. A Wednesday did not have it in the later stages...And the ending was as lame as it could have been...Cinema should have a message..I get it..But I think it should be delivered subtly and it should be discounted when compared to entertainment....So Naseeruddin Shah must have been great when he delivered that soliloquy about the common man...I dont know..But all throughout I was thinking about R.K.Laxman....And if I was a critic, I would have torn to shreds the lady who was playing the tv reporter for UTV news....
The next day it was "Rock On"...I knew, from the critics, that it had a DCH hangover....But Farhan Akhtar in front of the camera is perhaps not as grand as behind the camera...The DCH connection did seem apparent to me but maybe more so because I had read the reviews.....The storyline obviously has similarities...But then so does the Illiad and the Mahabharata....I think the more pertinent question is whether the execution provided entertainment?.. My verdict, irrespective of however immaterial it is, would be that it did....Rock On will probably not rock as DCH....It lacks the star power of DCH and because I was watching a pre dvd release (I know piracy nd stuff!!..),I could not tell if it was also lacking the budget...And midway through , I also remebered that other movie featuring a rock band whose songs pay tribute to RD Burman (the movie with that wonderful song in the church)..But still, I thought, Rock On was good..More so may be because at some level I connected with the movie's core theme of drifting away and coming together again....That we all had dreams that we compromised in some way or another...If I was a critic, I would only opine, that the dandiya rendition of the Aashiqi song was shocking....Not knowing anything about music, I thought the original was soothing and they could have probably picked on another song...The best actor was obviously Anu Malik playing himself....And Farhan Akhtar , I think, was better than the Baweja kid..Even though they both bear an uncanny resemblance to Hrithik..
So Rock On I will....Not on a Wednesday...But a Saturday (actuallly Sunday morning)...Till the next movie...
Cheers!!!
:))
| Powered by: Chakpak.com | A Wednesday ! |
And then I did...'A Wednesday" first because of Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah ...Familiarity breeds comfortableness (is that a word) and also contempt ( this is)...And I think 'A Wednesday" was a disappointment...I have been watching trailers of a new Pacino Versus De Niro movie on tv...And I had hoped for something like that..Or at least something like Naseeruddin and Om Puri in that Vishal Bhardwaj film whose name I now forget...But 'A Wednesday" was disappointing for me...The beginning was gripping...But somehow I lost connection with the story mid way.....Did not help that I had just watched "Bank Job" a day earlier..And you would expect a kind of raciness (is that a word again) in a thriller.. A Wednesday did not have it in the later stages...And the ending was as lame as it could have been...Cinema should have a message..I get it..But I think it should be delivered subtly and it should be discounted when compared to entertainment....So Naseeruddin Shah must have been great when he delivered that soliloquy about the common man...I dont know..But all throughout I was thinking about R.K.Laxman....And if I was a critic, I would have torn to shreds the lady who was playing the tv reporter for UTV news....
| Powered by: Chakpak.com | Rock On |
The next day it was "Rock On"...I knew, from the critics, that it had a DCH hangover....But Farhan Akhtar in front of the camera is perhaps not as grand as behind the camera...The DCH connection did seem apparent to me but maybe more so because I had read the reviews.....The storyline obviously has similarities...But then so does the Illiad and the Mahabharata....I think the more pertinent question is whether the execution provided entertainment?.. My verdict, irrespective of however immaterial it is, would be that it did....Rock On will probably not rock as DCH....It lacks the star power of DCH and because I was watching a pre dvd release (I know piracy nd stuff!!..),I could not tell if it was also lacking the budget...And midway through , I also remebered that other movie featuring a rock band whose songs pay tribute to RD Burman (the movie with that wonderful song in the church)..But still, I thought, Rock On was good..More so may be because at some level I connected with the movie's core theme of drifting away and coming together again....That we all had dreams that we compromised in some way or another...If I was a critic, I would only opine, that the dandiya rendition of the Aashiqi song was shocking....Not knowing anything about music, I thought the original was soothing and they could have probably picked on another song...The best actor was obviously Anu Malik playing himself....And Farhan Akhtar , I think, was better than the Baweja kid..Even though they both bear an uncanny resemblance to Hrithik..
So Rock On I will....Not on a Wednesday...But a Saturday (actuallly Sunday morning)...Till the next movie...
Cheers!!!
:))
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Sense And Sensibilities
so why should I title my blog with Jane Austen's signature line.. I have no intention of writing about romance and happiness..and I dont intend to write an ending that would convey a choice between "sense" or "sensibility"..But I opened the blog and this was the title that struck me....So I will go with it..
Yes...Its about sense and sensibilities though...and I have been thinking about it the past couple of days....It all started when I asked one of my colleagues whether she was a Obama or a Hillary supporter...Evidently thats taboo in the States...Political affilitations cannot be discussed so openly.....
I think that is pretty interesting ..And inspite of working in a global economy and taking a couple of mandatory courses on "respecting diversity", this one really intrigues me..Not the "respect" bit..But the "diversity" bit....
So i thought I understood "diversity"....That I had made sense out of it....That I was sensible enough to recognize, acknowledge and adjust acccording to it....Evidently I had not...
This is definitely one of the more subtle socio-cultural difference that I have been exposed to till date (3 years) in the US....To me this is a difference in the thought process...A full stop where you would expect a comma or a semi colon.........A deviation from what I thought was a "culturally & socially accepted behavior" and a chasm where I had expected a praire grassland (do these exist???)....
Of course, my assumptions about "expected behavior" are not right....But where did I go wrong???...The answer that I was given to the "taboo" question was, in many ways, very simple..People take political affilitations seriously in the US....People get personal with issues and those discussions can become ugly...So best avoid them..Makes perfect sense to me....But why did I not see it??..Why could not I put sense and sensibility together in the first place??..Especially since the reasoning is so universal and should apply across societies...Yeah, I know I am not a socio-politial expert, but as Descartes said - "I think"..(How do you know he did not say that??)...
So I continue my thinking...How would people in India react to the same question? Not "Obama" versus "Hillary"..but maybe "Vajpayee versus Advani" or "Sonia versus Manmohan" (this one has other connotations)..So i wil replace it with "Maya versus Mamta"...Or to make it simpler "Congress versus BJP"...
Yes, the discussions might still go personal...People might still be uncomfortable answering it...But I think it wont be tabboo..Or may be it is..May be I have met/worked with poeple who are not afraid to voice their opinions..I dont know...
But to hazard a guess... The approach to politics and the public reaction to the political system is probably different in the US and India..I think, being a two party system and with the process of primaries, poeple in the US are more likely to be more vocal and sensitive about individuals (maybe this year is an exception and this hypothesis is wrong)...On the other hand, as an Indian, I am more sensitive (in a manner of speaking) to which party I would support rather than individuals within the party.....
Probably because there are so many colorful characters in Indian politics that we can do nothing better than ignore them...But the lesson, I think, for me is simple...It is still about "sense and sensibilities"...And what is sensible and what makes sense is not dictated by reason or logic alone.....It is about the collective thought process and the conformance to that collective thought process......
Amen...!!!
and Cheers!!
:))
Yes...Its about sense and sensibilities though...and I have been thinking about it the past couple of days....It all started when I asked one of my colleagues whether she was a Obama or a Hillary supporter...Evidently thats taboo in the States...Political affilitations cannot be discussed so openly.....
I think that is pretty interesting ..And inspite of working in a global economy and taking a couple of mandatory courses on "respecting diversity", this one really intrigues me..Not the "respect" bit..But the "diversity" bit....
So i thought I understood "diversity"....That I had made sense out of it....That I was sensible enough to recognize, acknowledge and adjust acccording to it....Evidently I had not...
This is definitely one of the more subtle socio-cultural difference that I have been exposed to till date (3 years) in the US....To me this is a difference in the thought process...A full stop where you would expect a comma or a semi colon.........A deviation from what I thought was a "culturally & socially accepted behavior" and a chasm where I had expected a praire grassland (do these exist???)....
Of course, my assumptions about "expected behavior" are not right....But where did I go wrong???...The answer that I was given to the "taboo" question was, in many ways, very simple..People take political affilitations seriously in the US....People get personal with issues and those discussions can become ugly...So best avoid them..Makes perfect sense to me....But why did I not see it??..Why could not I put sense and sensibility together in the first place??..Especially since the reasoning is so universal and should apply across societies...Yeah, I know I am not a socio-politial expert, but as Descartes said - "I think"..(How do you know he did not say that??)...
So I continue my thinking...How would people in India react to the same question? Not "Obama" versus "Hillary"..but maybe "Vajpayee versus Advani" or "Sonia versus Manmohan" (this one has other connotations)..So i wil replace it with "Maya versus Mamta"...Or to make it simpler "Congress versus BJP"...
Yes, the discussions might still go personal...People might still be uncomfortable answering it...But I think it wont be tabboo..Or may be it is..May be I have met/worked with poeple who are not afraid to voice their opinions..I dont know...
But to hazard a guess... The approach to politics and the public reaction to the political system is probably different in the US and India..I think, being a two party system and with the process of primaries, poeple in the US are more likely to be more vocal and sensitive about individuals (maybe this year is an exception and this hypothesis is wrong)...On the other hand, as an Indian, I am more sensitive (in a manner of speaking) to which party I would support rather than individuals within the party.....
Probably because there are so many colorful characters in Indian politics that we can do nothing better than ignore them...But the lesson, I think, for me is simple...It is still about "sense and sensibilities"...And what is sensible and what makes sense is not dictated by reason or logic alone.....It is about the collective thought process and the conformance to that collective thought process......
Amen...!!!
and Cheers!!
:))
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Maan Gaye Mughal E Azam
so u watch a film on a sunday night expecting to be entertained.....especially if u ve watched the cast nd crew create some magic b4..well not the crew..but the cast at least..so i was expecting somethin like a sequel to "Pyaar ke side effcts"...somethin which woud not probably be a smash hit at the Box Office but be perfect for a sunday night viewing .....nd i simply love my hindi films.....from rajnikanth to amitabh and mithun in between, i simply love them...
but when somethin lets u down so much...especially on a sunday night when I cud ve been watchin scorpion king 2...ur bound to become a critic...
so we all watched "Janne Bhi Do Yaaron"..nd loved it.....just like so many other films of tht era....But it does not seem a great idea to think that 1 scene from JBDY can sustain a full movie....so I get it..its that tribute thing......but clearly the "tribute thing" is not working in this movie.....
back to being a critic...Have seen paresh rawal do everythin before in priyadarshan movies. so I guess he is fine..even made me smile on a couple of occassions...but Kay Kay is a waste...nd so is Pawan Malhotra (who is BTW not featured in the cast in IMDB)..but it is Rahul Bose tht kills me....I will now not struggle to remember a movie, few though may be, where RB was awful.....But I have to end up luvin Mallika.....She is so convincing as a married indian woman attracted to a paraya male and juggling between both of them with both of those guys staring at each other..
I get it..its a comedy...and i am not even a critic.....i ve not acted, know nothing about direction and Mallika wont look at me even once...
but I have to mourn my sunday evening/night that is lost.....scorpion king 2 has to wait for another 7 days...SK2 wont mind....but i will miss that entertainment....MGME or SK2...I guess both are mindless entertainment....the least we can expect is to be entertained......
cheers!!!
:))
| Powered by: Chakpak.com | Maan Gaye Mughal-E-Azam |
but when somethin lets u down so much...especially on a sunday night when I cud ve been watchin scorpion king 2...ur bound to become a critic...
so we all watched "Janne Bhi Do Yaaron"..nd loved it.....just like so many other films of tht era....But it does not seem a great idea to think that 1 scene from JBDY can sustain a full movie....so I get it..its that tribute thing......but clearly the "tribute thing" is not working in this movie.....
back to being a critic...Have seen paresh rawal do everythin before in priyadarshan movies. so I guess he is fine..even made me smile on a couple of occassions...but Kay Kay is a waste...nd so is Pawan Malhotra (who is BTW not featured in the cast in IMDB)..but it is Rahul Bose tht kills me....I will now not struggle to remember a movie, few though may be, where RB was awful.....But I have to end up luvin Mallika.....She is so convincing as a married indian woman attracted to a paraya male and juggling between both of them with both of those guys staring at each other..
I get it..its a comedy...and i am not even a critic.....i ve not acted, know nothing about direction and Mallika wont look at me even once...
but I have to mourn my sunday evening/night that is lost.....scorpion king 2 has to wait for another 7 days...SK2 wont mind....but i will miss that entertainment....MGME or SK2...I guess both are mindless entertainment....the least we can expect is to be entertained......
cheers!!!
:))
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Bolt from the Blue!!
so its olympics time...and post the hysteria of AB followed by the diasppointment of Saina and Lee-hesh, i was very excited by the most hyped event of the Beijing Olympics....the mens 100 m dash...Bolt Vs Powell vs the american sprinter whose name I forget (Tyson Gay, followin a google search )..the fastest human being on the planet title...it was already assumed that the woman who would win the 100 m would run it slower than the man/men..and I agree this is probably true for this olympics.....but I guess we may yet live to see the day when in another Olympics the fastest human being on the planet wont be a descendant of Bolt....
But amazing as Bolt was (and there r comments already of doping and arrogance, this story I think will last sometime like Ben Johnson's),the bolt from the blue was not from him...it was kind of expected.....Powell or Bolt.....and inspite doubts of his injury he was always the either or option for comon folks and experts alike.....
the bolt was from NBC....so i missed the race......and when iGoogle tells you that Bolt had won..it is but natural that you would fidget on your keypads to try and retrieve the images which you could not witness live..and what better way than to use youtube..
However,the generally dead-on search of youtube seemed to falter at first..i got the results...but they were more images than the actual race......a few clicks down the line, i did manage to find the video...the entire 100 m mens final......9.69 secs and the video was ony 1.15 mins....
Brought up on the tv analysis/paralysis cricket broadcasts in India, I was left asking
for more...the slow motion replays...the analyis..the perrfect start...the burst in the middle...the powell riddle....but searched and googled as hard as I could, I found nothing..except for the images..the music and the nostalgic videos celebrating Bolt...which was fine.....
The surprise came later though........3 hours later, I decided to watch those 1:15 minutes yet again.....but the video was no longer there..NBC had claimed copyright to it..and whatever else you can find on youtube ( nd I ve never been disappointed in finding anything from the exotic to the erotic), as of 24 hours after one of the greatest performance in the Olympics, you wont find that video on you tube...
Which is kind of like a bolt from the blue......Copyright is a legal issue, I get it...and NBC is surely within its right to pull off that video...but why???..its a 1:15 mins piece......people who search and watch it on the net(highyly likely it will be on you tube and then on torrents) will all likelihood have an attention span that wont allow them to stay glued to NBC......others who watch it fwded in their e-mails, dont care much about that event anyways whether its on NBC or youtube....but I guess NBC thinks this 1:15 mins have potential....I could find Federrers last game in the doubles match where he won gold...No copy right on that video.....probably not that much potential for NBC...
But this one was obviously special.....strangely though, NBCs official site did not feature the Bolt race prominently....I would have thought it would have been right out there...but 4 clicks later ( olympics->videos->track and field->next page ) i still did not see the Bolt video..
In the coming days, I guess we will see it replayed and analyzed innumerbale times on NBC...and personally i wil love those slo mos and expert analysis ...but it is with some disappointment that I reconcile to the fact that I cannot watch Bolt now when I want to....NBC might have just upstaged Bolt by delivering a bolt from the blue in a time when the net is increasingly gaining focus (e.g.,Comcast and P2P traffic, all the talk about net neutrality), at least in the US.....
In a couple of hours I think this might well change........Bolt might still well rule youtube and the net...with or without NBCs copyright issues.....tht will be a bolt expected and well delivered....
cheers!!..:))
But amazing as Bolt was (and there r comments already of doping and arrogance, this story I think will last sometime like Ben Johnson's),the bolt from the blue was not from him...it was kind of expected.....Powell or Bolt.....and inspite doubts of his injury he was always the either or option for comon folks and experts alike.....
the bolt was from NBC....so i missed the race......and when iGoogle tells you that Bolt had won..it is but natural that you would fidget on your keypads to try and retrieve the images which you could not witness live..and what better way than to use youtube..
However,the generally dead-on search of youtube seemed to falter at first..i got the results...but they were more images than the actual race......a few clicks down the line, i did manage to find the video...the entire 100 m mens final......9.69 secs and the video was ony 1.15 mins....
Brought up on the tv analysis/paralysis cricket broadcasts in India, I was left asking
for more...the slow motion replays...the analyis..the perrfect start...the burst in the middle...the powell riddle....but searched and googled as hard as I could, I found nothing..except for the images..the music and the nostalgic videos celebrating Bolt...which was fine.....
The surprise came later though........3 hours later, I decided to watch those 1:15 minutes yet again.....but the video was no longer there..NBC had claimed copyright to it..and whatever else you can find on youtube ( nd I ve never been disappointed in finding anything from the exotic to the erotic), as of 24 hours after one of the greatest performance in the Olympics, you wont find that video on you tube...
Which is kind of like a bolt from the blue......Copyright is a legal issue, I get it...and NBC is surely within its right to pull off that video...but why???..its a 1:15 mins piece......people who search and watch it on the net(highyly likely it will be on you tube and then on torrents) will all likelihood have an attention span that wont allow them to stay glued to NBC......others who watch it fwded in their e-mails, dont care much about that event anyways whether its on NBC or youtube....but I guess NBC thinks this 1:15 mins have potential....I could find Federrers last game in the doubles match where he won gold...No copy right on that video.....probably not that much potential for NBC...
But this one was obviously special.....strangely though, NBCs official site did not feature the Bolt race prominently....I would have thought it would have been right out there...but 4 clicks later ( olympics->videos->track and field->next page ) i still did not see the Bolt video..
In the coming days, I guess we will see it replayed and analyzed innumerbale times on NBC...and personally i wil love those slo mos and expert analysis ...but it is with some disappointment that I reconcile to the fact that I cannot watch Bolt now when I want to....NBC might have just upstaged Bolt by delivering a bolt from the blue in a time when the net is increasingly gaining focus (e.g.,Comcast and P2P traffic, all the talk about net neutrality), at least in the US.....
In a couple of hours I think this might well change........Bolt might still well rule youtube and the net...with or without NBCs copyright issues.....tht will be a bolt expected and well delivered....
cheers!!..:))
Monday, August 11, 2008
Dreaming of winning gold
so it took us more than 100 years....but today we have an individual gold in the Olympics...and history will bear testimony to that...Abhinav Bindra will forever be a GK question and answer from now on, replacing KD Jadhav I guess......and suprised and happy as I am like so many others....this is not about AB....there will be countless others who will write about him and I will gladly read those.....and there will be others who have already started writing about how AB succeeded inspite of the system and lament that we have had to wait 100 years for a gold.. I will read those too.....
And I will continue to dream about winning gold.....I dont know the event....I dont know the venue...but thats why we dream I guess....
Where is my opportunity to win gold........I dont want to find a pot of gold....I want to win gold...Lottery tickets???..Gold exchange???....I dont think those will do.....The question I think is not just about winning...The Chinese guy who won silver will probably go home the most dejected, I guess...Even though he won silver...The question is about winning gold...
So i have to define my event.....and i have to define my Olympics...i have to identify the venue..plan the opening ceremony....sketch my opponents...visualize the qualifiers....script the come from behind storyline..fake the composure and graciously accept a gold medal from someone eminent....Tough ask ...so i have to think of alternatives.....the obvious being stop dreaming about winning gold......
at least for tonight.....yes....but I am sure this dream will come back....and some other night I will dream it to completion.....The greatest difficulty I think is imagining the eminent personality who will present me with the gold medal..that depends on so many factors....venue, event, current affairs, availability........tht is the greatest mental block that will ever keep me from winning gold I guess.....but i will keep trying...with the Old Monk as my guide....
I hate all those silvers and bronzes that I have won.....Its time I win gold......at least in my dreams....
Cheers!!
:))
And I will continue to dream about winning gold.....I dont know the event....I dont know the venue...but thats why we dream I guess....
Where is my opportunity to win gold........I dont want to find a pot of gold....I want to win gold...Lottery tickets???..Gold exchange???....I dont think those will do.....The question I think is not just about winning...The Chinese guy who won silver will probably go home the most dejected, I guess...Even though he won silver...The question is about winning gold...
So i have to define my event.....and i have to define my Olympics...i have to identify the venue..plan the opening ceremony....sketch my opponents...visualize the qualifiers....script the come from behind storyline..fake the composure and graciously accept a gold medal from someone eminent....Tough ask ...so i have to think of alternatives.....the obvious being stop dreaming about winning gold......
at least for tonight.....yes....but I am sure this dream will come back....and some other night I will dream it to completion.....The greatest difficulty I think is imagining the eminent personality who will present me with the gold medal..that depends on so many factors....venue, event, current affairs, availability........tht is the greatest mental block that will ever keep me from winning gold I guess.....but i will keep trying...with the Old Monk as my guide....
I hate all those silvers and bronzes that I have won.....Its time I win gold......at least in my dreams....
Cheers!!
:))
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Why did i chose that name???
So I m searching "whole numbers" on google....and I land up on this blog called "7 minutes to 7th heaven"..I click on the link..and since i am logged on to gmail..I am viewing my own profile... A bog i created i dont know when..but to which I have written nothing...so i think i should rectify the fault...
for whom should i write??? what should I write?? tough questions...unless you are drunk...then these questions become obnoxiously simple....if simple things could be that.....
7 minutes to 7th heaven...i like the title..i have no clue right now why i would title my blog that way...but i can safely hazard a guess that i was probably on marijuana that night....but i like the title ..so i m not going to change it...
i will have to figure out what i am going to write in here....in all probabilities its going to be something that wont make sense to anybody....tht answers my first question that i raised earlier....i ve got to write something and hope google misleads someone else searching for "whole numbers" into this blog....
In time i guess i will find out if there is anyone reading this...but 20 years down from now, when i may be searching for "whole numbers" in google yet again, and I stumble on thise site, hopefully i will make some sense out of these words....
with this hope in mind....Amen!!!
Let the blogging, late as it has come to me, begin..
Cheers!!!
:))
for whom should i write??? what should I write?? tough questions...unless you are drunk...then these questions become obnoxiously simple....if simple things could be that.....
7 minutes to 7th heaven...i like the title..i have no clue right now why i would title my blog that way...but i can safely hazard a guess that i was probably on marijuana that night....but i like the title ..so i m not going to change it...
i will have to figure out what i am going to write in here....in all probabilities its going to be something that wont make sense to anybody....tht answers my first question that i raised earlier....i ve got to write something and hope google misleads someone else searching for "whole numbers" into this blog....
In time i guess i will find out if there is anyone reading this...but 20 years down from now, when i may be searching for "whole numbers" in google yet again, and I stumble on thise site, hopefully i will make some sense out of these words....
with this hope in mind....Amen!!!
Let the blogging, late as it has come to me, begin..
Cheers!!!
:))
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
