RK Laxman, who in earlier days fought a lone battle against the establishment (which included some really formidable Nehru and Fake Gandhis) for the common man passed away today. 

My early exposure to caricature was through Thuglak's covers and his cartoons. I missed his early contributions as ToI was not nationally well known then and we were all happy with THE (anti)HINDU. When I started studying in Bangalore was when I really experienced his genius in the library which also had the newspapers. Particularly three of them are still vivid in my memory.

1. A serpantine Q in the railway station to book for trains the common man says "Where do I plan to spend my Vacation ? In this Q of course...."
2. A team of shocked MUMBAI CIVIC officials asking others "How come this street is in Good Shape ? No Development work has happened ?"
3. A housewife looking at a small handkerchief sized cloud in the Horizon and saying to her hubby "There goes my electricity & Water...."

It is to the credit of Congress that his cartoons are still relevant today. The biggest tribute we all could pay to him would be to elect a government that makes his cartoons irrelevant.

RIP RKL. You have given me really funny and thought provoking Memories, which is the best gift a human can give to another. Wishing you the best in heaven.....

I - movie review...

Watched I, it is a very good movie. Way better than Lingaa. Shankar picks good themes and weaves a good mix of technology and emotions around that, plus good songs great heroines and he usually has a winning formula. This movie is also based on an obscure science fact and he has built his story well. 

The move could have been much shorter, I would have shaved easily an hour off and made it much faster paced that would leave the audience breathless in the end. But that shouldn't take away much from this movie.

I really don't want to write too much into the story line, as I want folks experiencing its unfolding in the first half. An unfair deal to a hero and a very clever revenge form the thrust of it.
Amy Jackson, is good looking and definitely not a heart tugging beauty like trisha etc. She is adequate for the part of a model, as our ad world is obsessed with white skin anyways, in that you can agree that shankar has picked a perfect choice.

Santhanam is there from beginning to end, with very intelligent comedy, probably from shankar, as on his own he finds it very hard to do anything other than "Akkaavum, Kakkavum" kinda third rate humor.

Hats off to Vikram for the dedication and even the physical deformities he probably went through to play the roles to perfection.

Special effects should be used to bring out the ugly truth or wow the audience by being apt, I can't help but feel that the pre-determined need for special effects in Shankar's mind have led to unnecessary sequences and songs.

ARR's music is way below average and is a non-factor.

That minor flaw apart, it is a very good clean movie, enjoy with the family.

BABY Movie Review: ***********************

Watched Baby today with family. Loved every second of it. Neeraj Pandey's incredible talent shows through after "A Wednesday" & "Special 26". This is movie is in a completely new genre. The director captures the apsirations of the average Indian, who has been though a depressing time with impotent UPA government compromising whatever defensive as well as offensive capabilities. In that sense, this movie heralds the arrival of "Acche Din" amongst the Bollywood fraternity, which has dared to call a spade a spade without fear or favour for the first time in my memory. The tone that Neeraj set forth in "a Wednesday" (which was buried by seculars) is louder and more pronounced in this movie. 

The director makes no bones about acknowledging that "Islamic Terrorism" is a serious issue. He even ponders why Educated Muslims fall victim to propaganda and take up cudgels on behalf of Mad religious lunatics. The punch line in the movie actually is "More than the act of terrorism itself, why the average Indian Muslim indulges in it ?" - a Q posed by the main protagonist of the anti-terrorism effort to the politicos. It is actually a Q to all those that preach crackdown to the tolerant and tolerance to the intolerant in our intelligentsia and media.

That serious message aside, this movie is an "Edge of the seat" thriller from beginning to End. No melodrama, no unnecessary sci-fi, hi-tech etc. but plain hardwork of individuals in our intelligence establishment. How certain unconventional techniques and methods need to be adopted etc. are all shown brilliantly, without any iota of fluff. The brilliance of the movie is in the fact that not frame is a waste...

Akshay is there in each frame, ably supported by Danny, Anupam, Taapsee and Rana. How he is unconventional and his obsession to finding and eliminating threat. The candid conversations he has with his wife are an eye opener as well as Danny's lament about how the system treats such agents. Taapsee is truly beautiful, lithe and has pulled of the athletic stunt scenes with remarkable ease. Rana is just an eye candy (for gym aficionados). Anupam lights up the movie after his arrival. In the midst of thrilling strategy and action there is sarcasm and comedy in situations and dialog. If you thought that the first half itself is a roller coaster ride, pause catch your breath the second half is a space blast off.. Unexpected twists strategy and intelligent counter ops are all there.

 Neeraj Pandey is a gem whose brilliance and most importantly his ability to take an objective and clinical look at our society has to be encouraged. Ignore the secular reviewers, go see it with the family. Such efforts certainly deserve all the encouragement we can give...

Dayanidhi Maran signed up as Brand Ambassador… by BSNL for $1Billion !!!

Dateline: Delhi, 23rd January 2015: 

In a stunning move, completely baffling Brand Gurus the state owned and heavily loss making BSNL, known for shafting its customers with poor service, signed up Dayanidhi Maran as their brand Ambassador for $1billion with a onetime payment with immediate effect and for life, by beating out several rivals including a combined bid of $500 million by all other private telecom operators….

When asked, the CMD of BSNL said, “We and Maran have long standing relationship, dating back several decades with a high point being in 2007 when Maran had 323 high-speed ISDN lines installed totally impressed with our service. In fact, BSNL had given an extraordinarily deep discount by agreeing to bill him for only one line’s usage”. He also added that “This super human being managed to make 41 lakh calls in a month in a single line that too in a single month !!!! Someone must have loved us so absolutely and so unconditionally to make this many calls. Considering the fact that he was making frequent trips to Delhi as minister it is even more remarkable…. Who better to personify the great value that we bring to customers than Mr. Dayanidhi Maran ? He quipped….”

When asked why the hurry he with a smug smile he said “With CBI tightening its noose around us and Maran -- both of us may not be around as free men to make this deal in the future !!”

Tiger Shroff appointed Congress vice president...

Thoroughly shocking the political establishment and in a move widely hailed by NDTV as a game changer the congress president today announced that Tiger Shroff will be appointed as a new vice president of the century old party. This led to a protest “Shok Sabha” organized by Renuka Chowdhry and Ambika Soni who appealed to Sonia Gandhi with tears rolling down their cheeks “not to appoint a non-family” member for any position of importance in the party.. “MadamG they thundered, do you recall what happened when Sitaram Kesari was there…”.

Former CM and now a rootless wonder, PigVijaySingh in a hurriedly called press conference at Azamgarh declared, how he had spoken to Tiger Shroff when he was three years old onwards and latest after his movie “Hero Panti” thoroughly bombed at the boxoffice. He said that he consoled a crying and upset Tiger on the phone…

The CWC member who didn’t want to be identified spoke to NDTV’s group Editor, “Burqa Dud”, through an intermediary Mira Radia, said “What to do, RahulG turned out to be a total waste. Now, with both SoniaG and RahulG tied up on National Herald case and answering NatwarSingh and others who are writing books, we desperately needed a leader who is youthful and from the family. Alas, we were totally devastated when Priyanka VadraG issued a statement that she is not coming to politics. Rehan Vadra, even by our low standards of obedience to the family, is young, come on even we have some dignity…”. When asked why Tiger Shroff, they proudly claimed “Have you seen the picture of Tiger with Priyanka side by side in the media? Man, it was a god sent opportunity for us.. Of course, it was a secular God and not a communal one….”. 

With the sense of relief immense relief the congressmen said that "Now RahulG can finalize his plans to have a child, keeping the future leadership of congress in mind, once his kid is 10 years old, we can think about a leadership change. Till then, with his movie career already dead where else can tiger shroff go ?...."

When we contacted Tiger Shroff, he seemed upbeat about his prospects, even for the elections which are scheduled within a few days in Bihar and shortly in Maharashtra.. When asked how can he be so sure, he quipped “Come on, how can you do worse than RahulG ?”……

In a Stunning move government simplifies the UPSC CSAT to just a few questions, in all languages

In a masterstroke, the government totally junked existing proposals and expert committees and instead went with 7 employees from government service itself to reform the UPSC examinations.

This "panel of experts" (secretary, under secretary, their peons, section officer, clerk, pwd engineer) assembled at 9am in UPSC HQ and by 9:01am came up with detailed proposal including a permanent question paper that can be translated and conducted in all languages.

They were particularly proud of the fact that even those that have never even set foot inside schools can crack it and actually had an equal shot at success !! They said that "Irrespective of your educational qualifications, if you had set foot inside a government office to get even a simple application form you would have learnt all that is necessary to crack this paper !!".

Details: from now onwards UPSC exams will just ask the following questions to all prospective aspirants...

1. Can you be rude to the public ?
2. Can you guard all the procedures to get things done from government as a Military Secret ?
3. Can you ask for that all important "one more residence proof" even after a million others have been provided ?
4. Can you knit more than 100 sweaters in a year at work ?
5. Can you drink a cup of tea/coffee for more than hour and a small tiffin box lunch for more than 3 hours ?
6. Do you "Inflation index" bribes every three months ?
7. Are you aware of the exact bribes you need to pay to get selected/promoted ?

For promotion into IAS cadre, they unanimously concluded that proficiency in "How rude and inaccessible one is to the public will be the singular criteria for selection and promotion".

After this was announced at 9:01, the agitationists immediately ended their protest at 9:02am with their leader "Coaching Yadav" saying in a press conference "That is it, why your UPSC exam needs to be anything more than this escapes me !! Any candidate who answers Yes to these already has that "innate talent" to work in our government and public sector undertakings isn't it ? People should be allowed to take this exam in all Indian languages... This will really ease the pressure on folks who want to join government service".

The IAS (Indian Arrogant Service) officers association at 9:03 released a press note saying 'We cautiously welcome this move, the dangers of allowing more non-children of existing IAS officers has to be studied carefully and acted upon down the line.....".

SP/BSP/JD(u) released a joint statement saying that their parties will stop attending the lok sabha as the only issue important to the people of their states has been dealt with...

Time to privatise trains...

Railways, is a perfect example of what will happen when you focus only on lowest common denominator, you will end up with a society/club of LCDs alone....

"Be lucky that we got you alright, no matter how late, who else occupies your reserved space, how shitty the food is etc..." was the guiding mantra and no wonder we ended up with just another government department.. Instead of a corporation that wants to improve. No profits to invest back in infrastructure is the singular reason for this mess.

Expect, lot of noise in the media tonight as to how the common man is ignored. As if the common man doesn't want timely, safe and secure journey... If that costs money so be it.... For the first time in 67 years, the focus is on increasing the average speed of the journey... E.g. the charminar Express from hyd to chennai is actually 5 minutes slower now than when it was started decades ago, with steam engines.. !! That my friends, is how railways has been run...

Glad that Air India is headed towards bankruptcy... Similarly, government should operate only tracks/stations get out of this business of running trains, which has resulted only in fiefdoms. Let private parties compete with trains/fares/services... Let us see...

Why can't a palace on wheels run from Hyderabad to Chennai/Delhi/Wherever, if people are willing to pay and parties in interested in running it on existing tracks with their own trains, why should the government be in the way ? This is exactly how aviation is run.. Roads are managed...But them I am being logical, which is not the way Indian Governments have functioned all along... Isn't it ?

In 1993 when I was travelling with my wife in A/C chair car in Vaigai Express from Madurai to Chennai, we were the only two passengers with paid tickets, everyone else was in "Pass", with railway employees cornering it all... Things have slightly improved but not enough....

In 2010, I had written the following about railway budgets, it is still true... today. Hoping that things will change in the next 5 years... Hell, we waited for 67 years, why not 5 more... ?

http://baskarkothandaraman.blogspot.in/2010/04/arrogance-of-railway-budgeting.html