Thursday, November 11, 2004

Diwali is corrupt, Sitting year, Maar dollar and much more!

I missed blogging for the past few days, but work, laziness of my fingers and Arafat's flip-flopping condition (any excuse works, doesn't it) kept me off it. Now that the uncertaintly has been laid to rest, I am back with a bang(you know, the one that goes off on those e-cards people send you wishing you a Happy Diwali with 'Jai Jagadish hare' playing in the background).

Maybe other bloggers can share their infinite wisdom on this matter. Have you ever encountered a situation where you thought of a really good title for your blog entry, but had nothing substantial to write? It happens to me all the time. I love little word-plays, smart references that make me go 'That was good, wasn't it?', puns that I conceive at the drop of a proverbial hat (I always top off a good pun in a conversation by collecting the compliments and then saying, 'After all, apnapun hai' .... That WAS good, wasn't it? :-) )

Today, I am going to list different blog entry titles that came across my mind in the past three-four days. I wanted to write on each of these topics, but they didn't excite me enough.

1. Chucker Bali or Chuck de phatte
Now that we know that 99% bowlers chuck, I wonder who the remaining 1% are. Maybe they should be called for non-chucking. Murali stands vindicated and I am very happy for him.

2. Maar dollar
Patriotism aside, sending money to India has never been costlier. The dollar just keeps getting weaker and the rupee stronger. Go India (but buck up USA)

3. Assi-mov, tussi great ho! or Russian Rule-it
Terrific writer this Isaac Asimov. I read 'The best science fiction of Isaac Asimov' and was completely bowled over by it. Science fiction has never held much appeal for me because of its unidimensional nature. Asimov explores it from the human angle, the sociological impact, the metaphysical aspect ... he is just brilliant. I also thoroughly enjoyed the short stories, which I think are very difficult to write.

4. Diwali is corrupt
Well, not really. Diwali is a corruption of the Sanskrit word 'Deepavali', which when literally translated means an array of lights. Why not a linked list? Sorry, sad Computer Science joke. Anyway, wish you all a very happy Diwali.

5. Sitting year
Literally translated from the Gujarati phrase 'Bestu varas'. It basically refers to the new year that dawns this Saturday. Happy new year to all concerned as well.

6. V-desis
I think there is a show by this name now, but I thought of this when I was in college. When Javed Jaffrey was ruling the waves in a channel 'V' show, I would think that they should have a program for NRIs titled 'V'-desis (for those who may be unfamiliar, Videsi in Hindi means foreigner)

Oh well, that's about it from me right now. Y'all (in keeping up with the elected American president) be happy.

8 comments:

Akruti said...

Parth, A HAPPY DEEPAVALI TO U{IN SOUTH INDIA ITS ALWAYS DEEPAWALI}. have loads of fun and play safe. and good and a long title to u r post here:)

SM said...

Hi there
A happy deepawali and sitting year to you too :-)) Me taking one big break from my blogmania simply coz in addition to not having anything blogworthy, don't even have any smart alecy titles like u do :-)

phucker said...

Hey Parth,
a very happy diwali to you!
Tarun

RTD2 said...

That's a real smartass trick..to write a blog about not writing blogs! I don't have much to write about either..but when i do, I usually manage to fall back on song titles or lyrics to help me out! So if u want anything written on one of your creative titles, A'pun'ka 'Pun'ditji, outsource the writing job to me and I'll do it! Except if it is about cricket or computers..no can do! Btw..going to see Veer Zaara only on Sunday, so let me know if it's worth a trip to Cleveland and $8 before that. I am sure there'll be a blog post about it!

Parth said...

Thanks all for your wishes. Wish you all the same. Unfortunately, the only theatre screening Hindi movies in Seattle isn't releasing Veer-Zaara today. Its going to show up next Friday. I was pretty depressed yesterday because of that, was looking forward to it. Based on reviews and other research and wast knowledge of such movies (Oh behave!!), I'd say, if you don't like SRK and/or Yash Chopra movies, don't go for this one. Avinash, if you are reading this, I can blindly tell you to skip this. Will save you time, money and future energy on rants.

phucker said...

Question: Are they releasing the restored + colourised Mughal-e-Azam anytime soon? It's just released here this Friday (It's Saturday morning now). I have never seen the original black & white movie in any form, so am quite excited to see this movie. From whatever they've shown in trailers, it's looking really cool. Apparently the story behind its restoration and colourisation is that they approached Hollywood in 1996/1997 to try and add colour to it, and at the time hollywood didn't have the technology to do that - so they got people in India to come up with software that would digitally enhance and colour it - go India!

Parth said...

They aren't releasing the movie in Seattle for sure. In any case, I am ambivalent about watching this movie in a theatre. Let me explain. I have seen the original Mughal-E-Azam 10+ number of times. It is among my all time favorites and in my opinion among the best that Hindi cinema has ever produced.

I am worried if this experience will be spoiled for me. I don't believe our generation of movie-goers has the ability to appreciate the granduer, the epic-ness, the dialogues, performance, music of this movie. I don't want to go to a theatre, have a sick-ass make a comment that infuriates me, and make me jump over a few rows of chairs to pound him :-)

I am very sensitive to any criticism on this movie. If you have never seen it, then you should. It will make you proud.

phucker said...

Hehe, I get pissed off like you do when anybody dares criticize Star Wars (Episodes 4-6 ONLY) or Lord of the Rings (The BOOK). Ah well, to each his/her own, I guess. I think you should still go see it, but try and pretend you're watching a different movie for the first time. From everything I have seen, they have done a really good job! Besides, K. Asif wanted his movie to be in full colour, but he was ahead of his time. Maybe you should view it just so you can see what he intended you to see, but I can understand the different feel that you get, and the pleasant memories associated with the 'Original' version. I guess in this day and age people demand more 'visual'/'eye-candy' and leave less to their imaginations...

Ah well, "those who do not adapt shall perish!" - Darwin

:-p