If you think numerology is bunkum,sample this: the number 4 works for us. I was born on the 4th. of July. Chua, my wife, was born on the 13th of the same month.3 and 1 makes 4.July has 4 letters. So does Uday and Chua ! We live in flat no.4. Our pincode ends with 4. Our car registration no.(4514) begins and ends with 4.
We were about to buy a 4 cylinder car before we settled for a 3 cylinder one. Our bedroom has 4 walls. So does our kitchen and toilet, and, would you believe it, all our tablels and chairs have 4 legs! Our car has 4 wheels and 4 gears. Between us we have 4 parents, 4 legs,( our dog also has 4 legs) 4 hands, 4 eyes and 4 ears. Our son Anok was born at 30 minutes past 4. He has a 4 letter name too. He was in class 4 for one full year before he was promoted to class 5. And, dare I add, he was in class 3 before he was sent up to class 4? He was 4 ft. tall a couple of years back. There is one 4 in my cell no and one 4 in Chua's cell no. My mother got a 4 poster bed for her wedding and our desktop has a Pentium 4 processeor. We were married on the 3rd. of Aug, which is the day precedding the 4th of Aug. The civil marriage was on the 25th of July, which, if you care to note, is 4 days before the 29th of that month.I was born in 1960, Chua was born in 1964, our son was born in 1995 and we were married in 1992. If you notice all 4 dates have 4 numerals. Is it only a coincidence or the manifestation of some unexplained astrophysical, super/supra natural phenononmenon? My wife and I met at a place called Gateway 2000, which again has 4 numerals in its name.
It is hard to believe that there are people who brush off 'numerology' as hogwash, inspite of all the evidence before their myopic eyes! Well I've given you all this data from our very own lives and none of it is concocted. So.... draw your own conclusions but please don't make an absolute ass of yourself by claiming that numerolgy sucks.
uday
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
RAIMA
I have this very disgusting habit of dividing the people of this world into those who have read and liked J.D.Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and those who haven’t. Obviously I hold the former group in sky- high esteem (I could have kissed them on both cheeks!) and pity the latter. (I could have written here that I have complete disdain and unmitigated hatred for them but stopped short of such extremes because all is not lost - the book is still in print, they can read it and redeem themselves!) So, I was relieved, and pleasantly reassured, when I read in a recent interview of Raima Sen that ‘Catcher’ is her favourite book. Yeah! That made my day, because Raima Sen happens to be one of the few people from the world of entertainment I genuinely like. For her sultry good looks, sure, but mainly for what she can do on screen. The 3 individuals (barring Rabindranath Thakur) Bengalis unabashedly adulate has to be Subhas Chandra Bose, Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen. A freedom-fighter and 2 matinee idols! Sourabh Ganguly is fast closing in on them but as of now Bengalis are not wholly convinced of his greatness (besides he is stinking rich and we Bongs simply hate the stinking rich. It’s got nothing to do with the stink though!) But since I am into Raima Sen today I’ll stick to Suchitra Sen. Ask any Bengali to name the most beautiful woman of all time, and 7 out of 10 will still vote for Suchitra Sen. In the 60s innumerable impressionable Bengali girls got stiff necks trying to clone her famous head-turned-to-one-side-and eyes- to- the- other look. It was a class act. Coyness, standoffishness, Presidency or Lady Brabourne educated Bengaliness personified. Then one fine day she just turned away from the cameras reducing Bengalis to heart-broken rudalis whose only refrain was After Suchitra the deluge! Until….Raima came along. When her photos were splashed across the pages of glossies many a Bong heart skipped a few beats. Raima was Suchitra Sen re- incarnated! Well not quite. She gave Tollygunge what it deserved - a short shrift. (Take out Rituporno Ghosh and Aparna Sen from Tolly and you’re left with a huge yawn! Anjan Dutta and Sandip Ray do have their fans but I am not one of them, sorry.)
Moonmoon Sen, her mother, in spite of her many talents, couldn’t make much headway in Bengali films because she couldn’t act! She should have tried her hand at making films, instead. She is an accomplished photographer, a trained painter and for many years was one of the moving forces behind Chitrabani, Father Gaston Roberge’s film school. I’ve heard innumerable Bengalis refer to her as ‘makal phal’ (loosely translated it would mean beauty without brains/talent). How wrong they could be! But then can you blame them really? She was famous only for being her mother’s daughter then and now all indications are that she’ll be known only for being her daughters’ mother! Aishwarya Rai underestimated Raima, in Chokher Bali,( why wouldn’t she? Afterall she was the reigning queen then, and Raima, a greenhorn.) and paid a heavy price for it. Raima stole scene after scene from right under Asihwarya’s snub nose! It was an early indication of the kind of stuff she was capable of delivering given the right script and the right director. It’s a long road ahead, but keep walking Raima…………….’cause you have places to go.
uday
Ps: the beautiful photograph I've uploaded is by Ronny Sequierra. Ronny, please don't sue me for copyright infringement. Nobody reads my blog anyway!
Monday, December 15, 2008
Sir Paul Goes To War!
This is the kind of news that makes the page 3 these days.
'War' is in! Everyone wants to show how anti-war they are, or always were.
The word is out that it is not John Lennon, who, we had been led to believe all along, was the most anti-establishment among the 'fab four' ( for us folks born in the 60s and brought up on EPs and LPs they are still the one and only fab four and certainly not Messers Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman!) but it was actually Sir Paul who was the first to get off the block!
A meeting with the great Bertrand Russell made him realise that a very 'bad' war( the Vietnam war) was being fought somewhere in a corner of Asia. I had no idea that war can be quantified as either 'bad' or 'good'! Trust Sir Paul to sound childishly naive even at this age.
A meeting with the great Bertrand Russell made him realise that a very 'bad' war( the Vietnam war) was being fought somewhere in a corner of Asia. I had no idea that war can be quantified as either 'bad' or 'good'! Trust Sir Paul to sound childishly naive even at this age.
History tells us that the Beatles burnt quite a few guiter strumming fingers making outlandish comments on things that were way beyond their understanding. Most infamous being John's 'Jesus' comment that almost put paid to their carrer. Their dalliances ( and subsequent disenchantment) with Indian mysticism and Indian classical music is well documented. Bottom line is - the Beatles were good at only one thing - making music. And we love them for it. As for their pretentious little misadventures in other areas? There's a French word for it- merd !
uday
uday
Friday, November 7, 2008
WHY I AM NOT RELIGIOUS
While channel surfing on TV I have often paused, like most of you I am sure, at one of those
channels where a very driven (for lack of a better expression) kind of a man, a Hindu guru or a
Christian evangelist, is delivering a fiery discourse.
Sometimes screaming at high pitch, sometimes whispering in falsetto, sometimes weeping, sometimes laughing, pausing for effect......like an actor trained by Lee Strasberg, these people really know how to work the audience. They are masters of their craft. They really know how to manipulate the emotions of their followers. And I mean this as a compliment.
The popular evangelists( and Hindu gurus, and Muslim mullahs, least I forget!) can take thousands of decent men and women on a collective emotional roller-coaster ride, crying and laughing, as if caught in a spell.
History tells us that Hitler, with his impassioned oratory, could make women swoon and faint! But ofcourse he had his own agenda and he was a nasty little rogue. Whereas the television messiahs are only trying to spread their faith, and in the process cleansing society of the evils of the other religions.
Ah ha, that is where they are being just a wee bit naughty! Caught you! I know your dad is nice, sweet-smelling and sauve. But whoever told you that my dad stinks like a swine? Even if he did he is still my dad and you have no business asking me to junk him.
Don't try to pin your god on me. The only god is the sum of all gods.
If you don't know that, you are not only ignorant and uneducated but you are also mean, biased, illogical, boorish, childish, arrogant, egotistical, unreasonable and blind. You are a SOB and a fool and you are the reason why the world is in tatters today. You may be a Hindu, a Christian, a Muslim or a Zoroastrian it makes no difference. You have not out-grown your childhood when you fought with your best friend claiming your father was better than his father! That mindset still rules. You make me sick. I wish the worst nightmare on you!
Many years back I was at a massive gathering of Muslims on the Red Road, in Kolkata, and was stunned to hear a mullah deriding Hindus and Hindustan over the public address system for one full hour. I was there to take photographs. I turned to the people around me, all Mulims, and asked what this was all about. This was many years back but I recall clearly that to their immense credit all of them said, "usko chillaney do, usko baat kown sunta hai!"( let him shout, who listens to him anyway). I guess times have changed. Now I guess, we do listen to the mullahs, the gurus and the priests. And look where we have landed ourselves. Look what the career-religious leaders have done to us. We are all rearing to go for another man's throat.
channels where a very driven (for lack of a better expression) kind of a man, a Hindu guru or a
Christian evangelist, is delivering a fiery discourse.
Sometimes screaming at high pitch, sometimes whispering in falsetto, sometimes weeping, sometimes laughing, pausing for effect......like an actor trained by Lee Strasberg, these people really know how to work the audience. They are masters of their craft. They really know how to manipulate the emotions of their followers. And I mean this as a compliment.
The popular evangelists( and Hindu gurus, and Muslim mullahs, least I forget!) can take thousands of decent men and women on a collective emotional roller-coaster ride, crying and laughing, as if caught in a spell.
History tells us that Hitler, with his impassioned oratory, could make women swoon and faint! But ofcourse he had his own agenda and he was a nasty little rogue. Whereas the television messiahs are only trying to spread their faith, and in the process cleansing society of the evils of the other religions.
Ah ha, that is where they are being just a wee bit naughty! Caught you! I know your dad is nice, sweet-smelling and sauve. But whoever told you that my dad stinks like a swine? Even if he did he is still my dad and you have no business asking me to junk him.
Don't try to pin your god on me. The only god is the sum of all gods.
If you don't know that, you are not only ignorant and uneducated but you are also mean, biased, illogical, boorish, childish, arrogant, egotistical, unreasonable and blind. You are a SOB and a fool and you are the reason why the world is in tatters today. You may be a Hindu, a Christian, a Muslim or a Zoroastrian it makes no difference. You have not out-grown your childhood when you fought with your best friend claiming your father was better than his father! That mindset still rules. You make me sick. I wish the worst nightmare on you!
Many years back I was at a massive gathering of Muslims on the Red Road, in Kolkata, and was stunned to hear a mullah deriding Hindus and Hindustan over the public address system for one full hour. I was there to take photographs. I turned to the people around me, all Mulims, and asked what this was all about. This was many years back but I recall clearly that to their immense credit all of them said, "usko chillaney do, usko baat kown sunta hai!"( let him shout, who listens to him anyway). I guess times have changed. Now I guess, we do listen to the mullahs, the gurus and the priests. And look where we have landed ourselves. Look what the career-religious leaders have done to us. We are all rearing to go for another man's throat.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Nano-logy 3 or gujubhais kick bong ass!
Mamata was jumping the gun when she claimed that the CPIM and Ratan Tata were hand in glove to keep her out of contention in the next assembly polls. Now it seems Narendra Modi, the craftiest Guju post Mohandas Karamchand, was hand in glove with Ratan Tata to fell both Mamata Banerjee AND Budhhadev Bhattachraya,in one fell stroke, for playing truant for too long with the mighty Nano! Otherwise how do you explain the alacrity with which Mr.Tata grabbed Mr.Modi's offer? All it took was 4 days between the bye to Singur and the hi to Sanand. Is this how big timers work? Mr.Tata certainly seems to be a man in a tearing hurry. But he also seems to be a man out to make a point. Have we missed something Mr.Tata? I think you are trying to tell us, the people of Bengal, that you cannot play around with a man of your stature. Point taken, Mr.Tata. You are vindictive. You show it when you are angry. Like you are showing the Greenpeace people because you are angry with them for not letting you build a port at Dhamra, Orissa. A port is development whereas the Olive Ridleys have been around for ages - they belong to history, pre-history infact. The choice is clear, they are expendable.
Quite the epitome of naivete, Mr.Tata even wrote an open letter to the people of our beleagured state asking us to choose between Buddhadev and Mamata. Wallowing in his new found role as the champion of the CPIM govt. Mr.Tata seems to have forgotten that we have chosen, repeatedly, for 30 long years, 'Buddhadev' over 'Mamta', to no avail. Industry still wont touch Bengal. And when giants like the Tatas run away,tail firmly tucked between rear wheels, scared by a few country made bombs, and a 'mad woman', to quote the Left leaders, there is no hope in hell for the 'unemployed youth' of Bengal, who were all hoping to get a job, and a life, in the wake of the Nano. High hopes, but that's another story! Jamshedpur has not changed Jharkhand and Singur would not have changed Bengal. But clever marketing can effectively derail logic. Even revered academics were filling coloumns, rooting for the Nano, as if it was the best thing to have happened to Bengal after Tagore!
If newspaper reports are to be believed the Tatas are being forced to pay through the nose for the land at Sanand. Serves them right. Why shouldn't they pay a fair price for the land? The Bengali bhadralok was bending backwards - as far back as his dhuti kurta would allow - to accomodate the Tatas. They have found their match in the willy Narendra Modi. He has shown that a patient beggar can be a chooser, at the oppurtune moment. He has also shown that business is done on equal terms, not when one party is genuflecting before the other
Enough about the Nano! Just two points before I sign off -
1)Whose hare-brained idea was it to build a cheap car? With depleting oil reserves and irreparably polluted cities who needs a cheap car anyway? Car prices should be hiked up and the money thus generated should be invested to build efficient and eco-friendly public transport systems. Mr.RaviKant said in any interview that the Tatas should not be expected to build roads. True Mr.Ravikant - you are only expected to expolit the roads built with public money. I know you pay taxes but no civilized person's responsibilities end with paying taxes.
2)My relative, who works and lives in Gujrat, narrated this little parable to explain what makes a Gujrati different from a Bengali. If he is to be believed if a Gujrati girl comes home one evening and says that she has been raped, her family,father mother et al,are most likely to say,"Wash up and sit down for dinner". No one will bat an eyelid and the matter will be completely forgotten by next morning! In a similar situation a Bengali girl will certainly contemplate suicide, her family will not know where to hide, how to react. Father will probably have a mild heart attack and mother will be on alpazolam, for days. Brother will blame the girl and promise to break every bone in her body if she steps out of the house ever again.
Quite the epitome of naivete, Mr.Tata even wrote an open letter to the people of our beleagured state asking us to choose between Buddhadev and Mamata. Wallowing in his new found role as the champion of the CPIM govt. Mr.Tata seems to have forgotten that we have chosen, repeatedly, for 30 long years, 'Buddhadev' over 'Mamta', to no avail. Industry still wont touch Bengal. And when giants like the Tatas run away,tail firmly tucked between rear wheels, scared by a few country made bombs, and a 'mad woman', to quote the Left leaders, there is no hope in hell for the 'unemployed youth' of Bengal, who were all hoping to get a job, and a life, in the wake of the Nano. High hopes, but that's another story! Jamshedpur has not changed Jharkhand and Singur would not have changed Bengal. But clever marketing can effectively derail logic. Even revered academics were filling coloumns, rooting for the Nano, as if it was the best thing to have happened to Bengal after Tagore!
If newspaper reports are to be believed the Tatas are being forced to pay through the nose for the land at Sanand. Serves them right. Why shouldn't they pay a fair price for the land? The Bengali bhadralok was bending backwards - as far back as his dhuti kurta would allow - to accomodate the Tatas. They have found their match in the willy Narendra Modi. He has shown that a patient beggar can be a chooser, at the oppurtune moment. He has also shown that business is done on equal terms, not when one party is genuflecting before the other
Enough about the Nano! Just two points before I sign off -
1)Whose hare-brained idea was it to build a cheap car? With depleting oil reserves and irreparably polluted cities who needs a cheap car anyway? Car prices should be hiked up and the money thus generated should be invested to build efficient and eco-friendly public transport systems. Mr.RaviKant said in any interview that the Tatas should not be expected to build roads. True Mr.Ravikant - you are only expected to expolit the roads built with public money. I know you pay taxes but no civilized person's responsibilities end with paying taxes.
2)My relative, who works and lives in Gujrat, narrated this little parable to explain what makes a Gujrati different from a Bengali. If he is to be believed if a Gujrati girl comes home one evening and says that she has been raped, her family,father mother et al,are most likely to say,"Wash up and sit down for dinner". No one will bat an eyelid and the matter will be completely forgotten by next morning! In a similar situation a Bengali girl will certainly contemplate suicide, her family will not know where to hide, how to react. Father will probably have a mild heart attack and mother will be on alpazolam, for days. Brother will blame the girl and promise to break every bone in her body if she steps out of the house ever again.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Nano-logy 2 or Give Us This Day Our Daily Issue!
"To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple."
Arudhuti Roy
With the Rizwanur issue put on the back burner, the chatterati of Kolkata were starved of issues, when lo and behold, the very dependable Mamata Banerjee has lobbed one right in their court – Singur! They were dying to put their signature, with permanent ink markers, in support of a ‘cause’, stand up for something, be an activist and amply demonstrate, 'We think not, therefore we are!'
Sweet somethings in tank-tops and low-rise jeans on a signing spree at tech-town Sector V of Salt Lake, Kolkata , where every second address is a hangout joint, cheering for industry, pleading infact, ‘Plz didi, don’t stop development of West Bengal’!.
With the Rizwanur issue put on the back burner, the chatterati of Kolkata were starved of issues, when lo and behold, the very dependable Mamata Banerjee has lobbed one right in their court – Singur! They were dying to put their signature, with permanent ink markers, in support of a ‘cause’, stand up for something, be an activist and amply demonstrate, 'We think not, therefore we are!'
Sweet somethings in tank-tops and low-rise jeans on a signing spree at tech-town Sector V of Salt Lake, Kolkata , where every second address is a hangout joint, cheering for industry, pleading infact, ‘Plz didi, don’t stop development of West Bengal’!.
My my, so touching! You could have knocked me down with a feather! Are they for real? Translated, all it really means is Plz didi lay off, so that papa can buy me that ooooooh so cute canary yellow Nano real quick!
Mamata Banerjee’s modus operandi may be wrong and it is also true that her heart doesn’t exactly bleed for the peasants (it certainly bleeds more than the techies from Sector V though). But there is substance in her stance. Agricultural land, especially in a small and densely populated state like West Bengal should not be taken over by industry. It does not happen even in advanced industrial nations. Good agricultural land is always left alone because once lost, it cannot be recovered. Hoogly is not Chotanagpur. What was Jamshedpur before the Tatas? A god-forsaken place of laterite soil with no vegetation, leave alone agriculture. They could have picked such a place in W.Bengal - in West Midnapur, Purulia, Bankura or Birbhum. Why Hoogly? The district with perhaps the richest soil in the state? The answer is simple enough- the Tatas are planning to build a cheap car and it is only natural that they’ll pick a site with existing infrastructure, such as, proximity to highways, airports, railheads and ports, to keep the overheads low. Singur has all these. Reason enough to set up shop there.
Mr. Ratan Tata was complaining that the factory was water-logged for many months last year, derailing work. What did he expect? If paddy fields are walled in where does the water go? If water-logging bugs him he should have picked a dry and arid place. Unless the ground level inside the factory complex is raised this problem will come back repeatedly to haunt them. The Tatas want everything on a platter. Did they get everything on a platter when they went to build Jamshedpur?
Mamata Banerjee’s modus operandi may be wrong and it is also true that her heart doesn’t exactly bleed for the peasants (it certainly bleeds more than the techies from Sector V though). But there is substance in her stance. Agricultural land, especially in a small and densely populated state like West Bengal should not be taken over by industry. It does not happen even in advanced industrial nations. Good agricultural land is always left alone because once lost, it cannot be recovered. Hoogly is not Chotanagpur. What was Jamshedpur before the Tatas? A god-forsaken place of laterite soil with no vegetation, leave alone agriculture. They could have picked such a place in W.Bengal - in West Midnapur, Purulia, Bankura or Birbhum. Why Hoogly? The district with perhaps the richest soil in the state? The answer is simple enough- the Tatas are planning to build a cheap car and it is only natural that they’ll pick a site with existing infrastructure, such as, proximity to highways, airports, railheads and ports, to keep the overheads low. Singur has all these. Reason enough to set up shop there.
Mr. Ratan Tata was complaining that the factory was water-logged for many months last year, derailing work. What did he expect? If paddy fields are walled in where does the water go? If water-logging bugs him he should have picked a dry and arid place. Unless the ground level inside the factory complex is raised this problem will come back repeatedly to haunt them. The Tatas want everything on a platter. Did they get everything on a platter when they went to build Jamshedpur?
PS: I have nothing against industry but please read Arundhuti Roy's qoute once more.
uday
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