India

Jun 19 2013

Leander Paes Still Plays At 40!

Indian tennis’ veteran star Leander Paes just turned 40 years old and he still wants to keep going and play in his seventh Olympics Games. He still features in the doubles events in the ATP Tour and the Davis Cup tournament, grinding it out with the younger lot. He is the only tennis player in the world who has featured in six consecutive Olympics. But the Indian says he still has a lot of fire in his belly to improve his game and play in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Paes said he would reunite with his Czech partner Radek Stepanek, with whom he won the Australian Open last year to complete his career slam. An injury to Stepanek followed by surgery forced Paes to look for other partners and no partnership succeeded. Paes, whose has dropped out of top-10, said he was looking forward to play with Stepanek again. They will start with a tournament in England, which will be a warm-up for Wimbledon.

Having won seven doubles and six mixed doubles Grand Slam titles and finishing as runner up in numerous other Grand Slam finals, he is considered to be one of the greatest and most respected contemporary doubles and mixed doubles players in the world. He is among the most successful professional Indian tennis players and is also the former captain of the Indian Davis Cup team. He is the recipient of India’s highest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, in 1996–1997; the Arjuna Award in 1990; and the Padma Shri award in 2001 for his outstanding contribution to tennis in India. Paes completed the career grand slam in men’s doubles after winning the Australian Open in 2012.

I remember going to see him play the singles & doubles finals of a short lived tournament at the clay courts tournament held by the Cochin Oil Refireries at Ambalameedu back in 1991! I was15 and I went with a cousin and our uncle to see the singles & doubles finals, both in which he competed and lost. A friend of mine from school was also there and I ditched my uncle & cousin to sit with my buddy as we watched both finals. At the end we stood in line to get autographs and I’m pretty sure I still have his somewhere in my stuff, packed in the store room. Hope you continue to have success until you decide it’s time to retire Leander!

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By Roshan • India, Sports • 0

May 19 2013

Guest Blog Post : What Bollywood Needs To Do

What Does Bollywood Need To Learn From Hollywood?

There are lots of comparisons doing the rounds between Bollywood and Hollywood. While some claim that Bollywood is better than Hollywood, some stand by Hollywood. If you happen to be a Bollywood fan, you might not like to accept the fact that Hollywood is definitely better than Bollywood. It is true that Bollywood movies are now watched around the world and the audience for Bollywood movies is growing by the day. It is equally true that both have their own images. However, Bollywood needs to break from its image if it wants to improve its standards and the movie watching experience of the viewer. There are many areas where Bollywood is way behind Hollywood and where Bollywood needs to make improvisation.

Bollywood Story – Old Vine In New Bottle

Bollywood supporters claim that the story of Bollywood is one of its strongest attractions. The family drama is what interests them the most. Much against their preferences, it needs to be said that this family story has been told a number of times and in number of ways that these stories are now just becoming tiresome to watch. How long would one like to watch a love story however interesting and engaging love stories might be? The stories lack creativity most of the times, as it is the same story present in a different form. Hence, old vine in new bottle.

If Bollywood directors were to say that they give what audience prefers, it is nothing but passing the bucket. Audience are prepared to enjoy better stories, different screen play and no body demands that the hero and heroine dance around the trees singing songs, which practically none does in reality. It is true that even aliens do not attack us in reality as shown by Hollywood movies, at least they show something unique and their presentation of the story keeps you engaged. Their usage of technology in such movies elevates the experience level of the audience and challenges technical brains into surpassing the technological brilliance presented by Hollywood professionals.

Visual Effects And Sound Effects

It is transparent that the quality of visual effects and sound effects produced by Hollywood is beyond the reach of the Bollywood, at least at present. You take one look at the films produced in Hollywood in the 1970s and you will see that Bollywood movies are still to reach the stage. It is not to be understood that Bollywood visual effects are underrated; it is only to state that Hollywood standards are far higher. Bollywood is behind the curve when compared to the visual and sound effects of Hollywood.

Needs To Be More Organized

Except for the films produced by noted Bollywood directors, most of the films are made without sufficient planning. There needs to be a lot of paper work before one packs for a shooting. Hollywood directors are more disciplined and they do not spare any effort to ensure quality of the movie and perfection, be it a period film or a science fiction. When Hollywood takes time to produce a movie it is because it aims at perfection and bringing in the effect that the film needs in visual and sound effects not to forget the setting. Whereas some Bollywood movies take time to get completed owing to lack of preparedness. This is unfortunate but it is the truth.

Bollywood has its plus points and great in numbers too. Apart from the best numbers produced by music directors and great performance by some actors, Bollywood has other good features too. There is potential but untapped. There are great stories but untold. There are efficient workers but unused and there are great brains that are not stressed enough to produce. Some Bollywood films definitely stand apart from the regular in terms of story, presentation and setting. You will find that some of the best hits in Bollywood in recent times were not just love stories. Hence, Bollywood needs to come out of the family drama image and concentrate to improve its technical strength. Being in the film industry for a century, it is not asking for too much, right?

Author Bio:

Ravi is a movie freak. He likes to watch movies whenever he gets free time. He is currently working at Coupon lava; which offers coupons of online Indian stores such as Pepperfry coupons, Koovs coupon codes etc. He believes that Bollywood should try to be more original and create stories; not copy them.

By Roshan • India, Movies • 0

May 17 2013

Kerala Rocked Hard With Celeb Scandals

The past couple of days has seen Kerala and India (in the second case) rocked by two different scandals. The first one was regarding an actor Kalabhavan Mani allegedly assaulting two forest officers in the night. Mani is a mostly comedic actor who has also donned on a few more serious roles as a hero or villain and won a few state & a national award for his role as a blind street singer. He is known to be more down to earth than most actors and is also known for his charity work. However a couple of days ago he was in the news for all he wrong reasons. Apparently he was traveling with friends in a car when they were stopped by two officials for routine car checking. The actor responded violently when he was asked to open the boot of the car and he & his friend, a doctor, assaulted the two officers. The forest officials said that Mani was inebriated. The officers sustained injuries on the chest, hands, legs and eyes one of them more serious. They were admitted to the Chalakudy Taluk Hospital.

Jaya Gopinath, who was travelling with her husband Maliyekkal Gopinath and Mani, filed a complaint against the officials, complaining that the officials verbally abused her and misbehaved with her.The actor had gotten himself admitted to a hospital in his native Chalakudy. The police have registered cases against both Mani and the injured forest officials. The latest news is that Mani has gone into hiding immediately after the police registered a case against him under non-bailable sections of the IPC. A police team visited Mani’s new and ancestral houses at Chalakudy on Thursday to take him into custody in connection with the case, but he was found missing, said the police. However some friends of his say that he had left for Bangalore on Wednesday night to take part in the shooting of a Tamil Movie.

The second incident which happened a day later when former India Test bowler Sreesanth S. and two other players have been arrested by Delhi police on suspicion of spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League, sports officials said on Thursday. Sreesant is a fellow Keralite and a fellow resident of Cochin. The IPL is kinda like the English Premier League or any of the European leagues for cricket and features Indian & most of the top foreign players from nations like England, Australia, in 9 teams. Sreesant, who has been in controversial situations before, was immediately suspended from an ILP matches along with his Rajasthan Royals team-mates & co-conspirators Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila and will face harsher actions if they are found guilty post a trial. Spot-fixing is the manipulation of individual incidents within a match which may not affect the outcome of the contest, most famously exposed in a London trial and jailing of three Pakistani cricketers in 2011.

Delhi’s police commissioner Neeraj Kumar alleged that the three Indian bowlers took money to concede a pre-determined number of runs in three different IPL matches. For 4m Indian rupees (£48,000) Sreesanth agreed to concede 13 or more runs in his second over of a May 9 match at Mohali, Kumar alleged. Sreesanth tucked a towel in his waistband to signal to a bookie, giving him enough time to “indulge in heavy betting”, the police chief said.

I’m not surprised in either case. The Indian film world has always been associated with corrupt politicians, underworld figures and lots of illegal activities going on. An actor with good connections misbehaving and thinking himself to be above the law is nothing news – Mani has had two other cases against him, both which were settled. Sreesanth is known for being arrogant and hot-headed and his antics have lost him more fans than he can ever know. And cricket & match-fixing is nothing new; this is India after all and corruption & illegal stuff is everyday news. Not surprised in that case either. It’s not the first match fixing scandal to rock cricket and it won’t be the last. And I couldn’t care much since I don’t watch it and I can’t stand the game.

There that’s my two cents worth!

By Roshan • Cochin, India, Kerala, Movies, Sports • 0

Apr 19 2013

The 7Up Ad That Has Some Keralites In A Huff

This is the 7up ad that has Malayalees in a huff. I watched it. It’s not making fun of Kerala or Malayalees. It’s not making fun of Kathakali. It’s not making fun of anything or anybody and you shouldn’t get offended by it for that. What you should get offended by is that it’s a stupid song, it’s a dumb ad, it’s an idiotic dancing and this is the standard that ads in India have lowered themselves too. Be offended as it is a low standard ad. 7up should fire their ad makers for the low quality ad. And untwist your knickers!

On that note I’m gonna drink a 7up!

By Roshan • India, Kerala, Television, Video Clip • 0

Apr 14 2013

A Kerala Power & Weather Rant

Time for a climate related & government & Kerala rant. I hate this weather. We are so screwed. Let me start by reminding you that in my part of the world we have just two seasons : monsoon and heat. Call it summer, call it whatever; it’s just heat & fucking humidity. When it rains it can rain a lot and I kind of like that. Then there’s a brief period in January early February when it’s a little bit more pleasant with the early mornings and late evenings being a bit cooler but then bang we come to the end of Feb and March and it’s fucking hot. Energy sapping, sweat inducing, moisture robbing heat & humidity. That’s what we have now and it’s annoying as hell.

Kerala depends on Hydo-Electric plants for the majority of the electricity with the dams and the water level in Iddukki being a constant topic of discussion for all Keralites. We depend on the rains for providing that water and usually we have a heavy monsoon that takes care of the supply of water needed for the power demands of the state. Last year the monsoon was weak and we didn’t get much water. Whenever this happens we have scheduled power cuts in weekly rotation timings each evening to save electricity usually for 30 minutes a day and between the peak hours of 6pm and 10pm. With that scheduled power cuts they also sometimes have unscheduled power cuts during the day in certain areas depending on the whims & fancies of the deranged assholes working at the controls – or so it seems! This past year it has been bad. 1 hour power cut a day, 30 minutes in the morning and 30 in the evening. Starts from 6am to 10am and 6pm to 10pm. And now we have unscheduled power cuts during the day as well.

And for the past few days we have 2 hour power cuts a day – scheduled! Yes 2 hours a day. This week my area has been having the power cuts for 30 minutes each at 7am, 9am, 1pm and 8pm. And yesterday the motherfuckers cut the power to my area 3 extra times in the evening for who knows what reasons. It just kept going off and coming back on – looks like like someone at the controls at KSEB was either having fits or rolling around on the controls having sex! Man, woman or animal – I’m not sure! KSEB is run by incompetent shemales who can’t distinguish between power sockets their own assholes! Plugs might go in anywhere, in any hole!

I have no idea when the state is going to have it’s power issues and their shit back together. I know some other states have it really bad but the problem is that this state is so complacent with a bunch of old, uneducated & corrupt men who are just interested in filling their pockets and don’t care about progress. We should have gone to solar power a long time ago and not depend on the rains as much as we have. Imagine if we had both options and Kerala could actually move forward. But no! Screw your parties, screw your politicians, fuck the Kochi metro talks and all that shit!

By Roshan • Cochin, India, Kerala, Ramblings • 2

Apr 12 2013

“Why I Am An Atheist”

One of of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement who was martyred, Bhagat Singh wrote a pamphlet titled ‘Why I Am An Atheist‘ while in jail, awaiting his death sentence.

“As regard the origin of God, my thought is that man created God in his imagination when he realised his weaknesses, limitations and shortcomings. In this way he got the courage to face all the trying circumstances and to meet all dangers that might occur in his life and also to restrain his outbursts in prosperity and affluence. God, with his whimsical laws and parental generosity was painted with variegated colours of imagination. He was used as a deterrent factor when his fury and his laws were repeatedly propagated so that man might not become a danger to society. He was the cry of the distressed soul for he was believed to stand as father and mother, sister and brother, brother and friend when in time of distress a man was left alone and helpless. He was Almighty and could do anything. The idea of God is helpful to a man in distress.”

Towards the end he wrote “Let us see how steadfast I am. One of my friends asked me to pray. When informed of my atheism, he said, “When your last days come, you will begin to believe.” I said, “No, dear sir, Never shall it happen. I consider it to be an act of degradation and demoralisation. For such petty selfish motives, I shall never pray.” Reader and friends, is it vanity? If it is, I stand for it.”

Bhagat Singh (28 September 1907 – 23 March 1931)

By Roshan • Atheism, India • 3

Apr 5 2013

ICICI Bank’s Service Sucks

I am wondering how low can bank service go in India and the King of them all ICICI Bank shows me that they are definitely deserving of their status – as the worst in how to deal with customers. They are utter useless and pathetic. They don’t have the decency to call back a customer who has sent them several emails asking for an explanation or clarification and their managers cannot be bothered to call you back unless you have called them several times asking for a status update.

I got it into my head that I finally needed a credit card and applied for one for the first time in my life. Unfortunately my current bank, Federal Bank, does not have credit card services and hence I had to apply elsewhere. So I did to ICICI, HDFC & Citibank which are the three major ones and to some others as well. The other banks have terrible online services and I am still to get a call back from several of them despite registering for a card back in February. Citibank rejected me while I applied online. That left me with HDFC and ICICI and I applied to them both. Frustrated with the online option for ICICI, I went down to their office in MG Road and asked to speak to someone regarding credit cards. I was guided to a manager and I told her all my details and showed her the documents I had with me for the card. She looked it over and said that I would need a signature on my bank statement (from Federal bank) and that once I get it she would send an agent over to my office to collect the details and to help me fill the form. When I told her that I had already filled the online form and that I got a call back from a girl who said that an agent would come to meet me, she said that the online format was not reliable and that she would send me someone.

OK, so the next day the agent came to my office and I gave him all the documents and filled out all the forms. Since my current company does not provide Pay Slips to employees I got a Salary Certificate from the HR department and gave that to him. Now both he, the agent, and the lady manager said that this would be enough. So I signed everything, filled in everything and he took the form and went back to the office. I was told that I would have to wait for a month. Ok not a problem! About 10 days later I got an email from ICICI’s credit card section saying that:

Dear Roshan Gopal Krishnan,

We thank you for your interest in ICICI Bank Credit Card.

We have processed your application ID 6089359969 using the information and documents submitted by you and additional criteria as applicable, which includes the following:

1. Eligibility criteria of ICICI Bank
2. The viability of the proposed purposes of the credit facility
3. Past borrowings by you (if any)
4. An existing Credit Card application under process (if any)
5. Your prior experience in respect of the proposed purpose and
6. The regulatory and statutory provisions governing ICICI Bank.

Based on the above, we regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you the credit facility at this point in time. However, this is not a reflection of your credit worthiness.

For any clarification or more information regarding this matter, please e-mail us at creditcard@Loans.ICICIBank.com.

Sincerely,
ICICI Bank Credit Cards Team

Not understanding why I was rejected I called the agent. It took him 5 days to answer me – I called him once he said he would get back. I called him the next day, he said he would call back. I waited two more days and he finally tells me “I forgot to check”! Then he said he would get back to me, which he finally did – “Sir, there is no issue. We just need additional documents”. What documents? He did not know. Frustrated I called this lady manager – it took me 10 days of calling her to finally get through. She was on leave due to health issues or something and she said she would call back – she didn’t for several days. Finally I called back “I forgot your number”. Finally she said she had checked and it was because I don’t have a salary slip and since my salary is in a non-ICICI account they have kept the application on hold. But she said that usually a salary certificate would be ok and she said she will check and call me back. 2 weeks pass by and I get no call from her. I sent her an email – she does not reply back!

Finally I called her but she was on another call and she called me back. The status is the same – my application is on hold as there is no salary slip. Did she not know this would be the case when I applied? Did the agent not know this? They work for the same bank and yet she tells me “from Chennai it is the decision!” like she isn’t part of the company. What’s more the email id that the bank gave me to send for any clarifications “creditcard@Loans.ICICIBank.com” is useless. I have sent 6 emails to them asking for a clarification but no reply back till date.

Do they treat all prospective customers this shabbily or did I win some fucking contest that they ran?

By Roshan • Cochin, India, Ramblings • 1

Apr 4 2013

Techie Swamy

Apple comes out with two new products : iFraud which gives out iBullshit!

By Roshan • Images, India • 1

Mar 26 2013

RIP Sukumari

Malayalam cinema lost an iconic figure and an extremel talented and beloved actress as Sukumari passed away today. The 74 year old versatile character & comedic actress passed away at a private hospital in Chennai following a heart attack. The veteran star of Tamil and Malayalam cinema was admitted to the hospital for burn injuries that she suffered a month ago.

Sukumari has acted in Malayalam and Tamil films mainly since she was 10 years old. She was born in Nagercoil, Tamilnadu in 1940. Sukumari is a first cousin of the Travancore Sisters, Lalitha, Padmini and Ragini (their mothers are sisters). The total number of her films is presumed to be about 2500. She has also done movies in Telugu as well. In 2003, she was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India for her contributions towards the arts. In 2010, she won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Namma Gramam (2010), a bilingual in Tamil and Malayalam.

She has donned the role of mother, grandmother, aunt and many other to various actors in the stardom. My first memory and fondest is of her in the Anglo-Indian and oddly named Miss Dick called Dickammayi by the other characters in Boeing Boeing, a moody chef whose ex-military husband eloped and married her sister. Similarly my next favourite character that she portrayed was as Maggie Aunty in Vandanam.

She will be sorely missed for her acting talent and her comedic presence. RIP Dickammayee!

By Roshan • India, Kerala, Movies • 0

Mar 4 2013

India’s Biggest Shopping Mall 2B Opened

Lulu Shopping Mall is a shopping mall that is to opened on the 10th of March in the Cochin neighbourhood of Edapally. It will be one of the largest malls in Asia and is built on an area of 16, 98,261 sq ft, with total area for mall alone at 300,000 square metres (3,200,000 sq ft) and the remaining portion for a premium five-star hotel managed by JW Marriott Hotels. It is anticipated to be the largest mall in India with 1.6 million square feet of Gross Leasable Area, beating the Phoenix mall of Mumbai which has a GLA of 1.34 million square feet. More than 360 outlets including food courts, restaurants, family entertainment zones and a seven-screen multiplex will all come together to make Lulu Shopping. The estimated cost for this project is more than 1500 crore rupees. The mall is run, managed and set up by the EMKE group, a business group with interests in Middle East, Africa and Asia and who’s staff have strong ties to Kerala.

As many as 320 international and national brands have a presence in the mall, out of which 46 are coming to the state for the first time. According to officials, about 30 new brands including Walt Disney and Barbie (Mattel) will come to the mall soon. The first Mac Donald Restaurant in Kerala will be opened at Lulu Mall. The mall will have an indoor ice-skating rink, a 5-D cinema hall, bowling alleys, water rides and electronic games. The mall provides a parking area for over 3,000 vehicles. As soon as it opens Lulu Mall is expected to have huge crowds of people thronging to it’s many stores and facilities and be a landmark for the city & suburb. he mall expects about 50,000 visitors a day and the expected monthly revenue is `80-`100 crore, said the officials.

The complex will house, among many others:

Lulu Hyper Market (2 Levels)
a 3500-seated Food Court that has 18 multi-cuisine kitchens and three fine restaurants
71,000 sq ft, 8-screen multiplex with fabulous computer games, bowling alleys, rides, and amusement
Expansively spread check-out counters
Ample parking space that can easily accommodate up to 3000 vehicles
Money exchange centres
Bank counters & ATMs
16 pairs of escalators, travelators, elevators, and lifts
Spacious corridors
Large glass central atrium with translucent roof
Facilities for the disabled
Easy access and exit

Lulu Hypermarket on the ground floor having an area of 25,800 square metres (278,000 sq ft) selling fresh, frozen, canned food, fruits and vegetables, along with butchery, bakery, hot food counters etc. Lulu Department Store on the First floor with 13,500 square metres (145,000 sq ft) of shop floor selling non food items like garments, footwear, luggage, white goods, cosmetics, electronic goods etc. International home furnishing store of area 49,500 square metres (533,000 sq ft). Gross leasable retail space over 19,800 square metres (213,000 sq ft).

I know that you westerns in the US, UK, Canada, Germany etc etc are used to big malls but for us here this is the biggest deal ever! We have smaller malls that are mostly wannabes and they don’t have much in the form of entertainment – except for shopping and some dinning. We are all excited for the international brands as well.

By Roshan • Cochin, India, Kerala • 4

Feb 19 2013

India To Go On 2 Day Bandh

For the first time that I can remember India is to go on a 48 hour strike (called a bandh locally) as 11 trade unions and national federations of various professionals.cutting across party lines decided to go ahead with the 48-hour strike on February 20 and 21, which was declared a while back. The labour unions who have called the stir on issues of price rise issue and violation of labour laws, which they see as a failure of the current government. The strike has been called jointly by Bhartiya Majdoor Sangh (BMS), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India United Trade Union Centre ( AIUTUC) and other such organizations. The Independent Federation of Workers and Employees too has joined the protests.

So taxis, autos, public buses will stay off the roads during these two days. State Transport Corporations (STC) are gearing up to ensure normalcy of bus operations in Tamil Nadu. Any college & university level examinations have been postponed. Schools will remain closed and some exams have been postponed. Milk is exempted from the bandh call. So there will not be any disruption in the milk supply, said an officer from the KMF. Petrol pumps could also run out of gas for those two days, as oil and gas supplies will be hit. Road transport, telecom sector, coal production and supply, oil and gas supply, power sector defence production, are going to participate in a big way in the 48-hour strike, the trade union leaders said, while addressing a joint press conference last Saturday.

In Kerala, my home state which is no stranger to strikes & harthals (almost every month we get atleast 1) the two-day strike is going to give the public a tough time as all services — excluding drinking water supply, milk, newspaper and hospital – will come to a standstill. All public transport vehicles, including autorickshaws and taxis, will keep off the roads and all services, including banks, will be non-functional.

By Roshan • India • 0

Feb 16 2013

She Rides A Bike & Beats Up Eve-Teasers

As a part of One Billion Rising Campaign, which creates awareness about violence on women, Shangumugham beach was witness to a gathering of women and girls at 6 pm on Thursday. One Billion Rising began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than one billion women and girls. College student Amrutha Mohan led a bike rally. And on a day that saw a celebration & declaration for women all over to stand up for themselves, an incident occurred later that day that solidified that event.

At 10:30 pm at night in Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram, the four men who accosted a group of women to pass lewd comments about them must have thought they would get home scot free. Unfortunately, they didn’t gamble on one aspect, one of the women Amrita happened to be a trained practitioner of ancient martial art Kalaripayayuttu. Amruta described how she had gone out for snack to a local eatery with her parents and some family friends when a government vehicle stopped near them and the four men inside the vehicle made some comments about the women present there. Since her father and his friend had stepped away to get food, a bold Amruta confronted them and after a brief exchange of words the vehicle sped away leaving her shouting after them to return and face her if they had courage. After some time the men in the vehicle reportedly returned and got into a scuffle with Amruta’s father at which point it became too much for the martial arts expert and she stepped in and took on the men, in the manner she knew best.

It was only when she took on the men that others present there came to assist them, Amruta said. On the basis of her complaint, one Manoj, 32, a Nedumangad resident, was nabbed and presented before the court. Though there were reports that the abusers were travelling in a government department car, police are yet to confirm it. On a day when the ‘One Billion Rising’ campaign sought to highlight the plight of women in India and improve their condition, Amruta perhaps stands out for her courage and standing up for herself. From her childhood itself, Amrutha has been learning Kalaripayattu and Karate. She is also a passionate bike rider and had used the Harley Davidson owned by her uncle for some time and now owns a Bajaj Avenger.

By Roshan • India, Kerala • 2

Feb 9 2013

Celebrity Cricket League AKA Me, Me, Me

Watched a bit of CCL stuff while at a bar. Self-indulgent, ego-maniacs, actors posing as sportsmen and squeezing as much more tv time as possible. It is so fake that silicon boobs & porn stars look genuine by comparison. Each time a player hits a 4 or a 6, cameras pan to some chicks who jump up & down, bouncing their only useful assets and then do a typical, stupid dance routine when they know that the cameras are on them. Hugging & kissing. Even more dumber blond women cheerleaders with their un-choreographed dance routines so out of step with each other. And the stupidest names for the teams!

Imagine if you are a sportsman in any of the other sports – football, hockey, athletics, table tennis, tennis etc – you would be pissed off at all this unnecessary show off stuff happening in Indian television. Look at the sponsorships happening. Look at the money spent. Look at the tv coverage. Now imagine you have toiled all your life trying to achieve a certain level of excellence in your field of sport. Indian is a huge country, with the second largest population in the world (over 1.21 billion as per numbers from 2011) and with making babies not diminishing, we are projected to overtake China in less than 30 years or so. Surely there are enough people to support several sports and bring in viewership and money – oh no, cricket takes precedence over anything else. With all the matches that India plays, then then have state level and then IPL and now CCL. Where will the other sports be? Sidelined with occasional bouts of headlines!

So yes pretty women with glamorous looks and bodacious bodies bouncing about, hugging & kissing whenever a 4 or a 6 is scored, making a spectacle of themselves – and the channels don’t try to hide it, even putting these scenes in slow motion replays – is good for gathering viewers. Cricket is by far the main sport in India and hence it’s natural that these actors who want to keep hogging the limelight will look for ways to add themselves into the mix. Team owners as team captains, Face of the team, glam doll actresses as brand ambassadors (yes only in India people) and interviews with these actors on the pitch, off the pitch, before the game, during the game, after the game. Women checking to see if the camera is on them and then instantly becoming the most passionate fan that this short lived team and league could ever hope to have. Oh the humanity! The worst thing to happen to India is Indian cable tv channels!

By Roshan • India, Ramblings • 0

Feb 5 2013

Japanese-Indian Connection

What there is an international football game being played in Cochin tomorrow and I didn’t get to know about it till today? So I was reading about the build up and previews; India is playing Palestine who doesn’t even have a proper nation to define. I read about the difficulties that the players & that which the Palestinian coach faces – unable to get all players together most of the time, difficulties in getting visas for some of the players, travel being banned between West Bank & Gaza, some players based in Jordan or Lebanon etc etc. Compared to that Indian football faces just bureaucracy, stupidity, lack of funds, advertising & sponsorship as cricket gets all the money, low public expectation and thereby nonchalance attitude over the national team’s performances. And then I found out about this guy:

Arata Izumi will be making his international debut for India when the match kicks off. The Pune FC player is usually a roving second striker and will be the first foreign national to play for India. The Japanese born Izumi has an Indian father and a Japanese mother. After his early years in Japan, he started his professional football career with Albirex Niigata Singapore of the S.League.

Despite his growing reputation in Singapore, he was never called up for the parent club in Japan. In 2006 he moved back to Japan and signed for Mitsubishi Motors Mizushima F.C. of the Japan Football League, where he worked at the Mitzubishi plant for 10 hours and then practiced for 2 in the evening. Late in the year he signed with East Bengal FC in India and played with them for a season. In 2007 he signed with Mahindra United and from 2009 he has been playing with Pune FC, where last year in August it was announced that he has recieved Indian citizenship. Reading up on him, reminded me of this fellow:

Dan Nainan is an American standup comic born in Indiana to an Indian Malayalee father & a Japanese mother. Before becoming a comedian, Nainan worked at Intel Corporation as a senior engineer, before being promoted to Strategic Relations Manager! During presentations at high profile events Dan found it experienced tremendous stage fright. To fight he fear he took classes and eventually joined a comedy group. His Intel coworkers, upon viewing a videotape of his, invited him to perform at a team dinner for 200 employees at a high tech convention in Las Vegas. Upon seeing that performance, the organizers of Intel’s annual sales conference asked Nainan to perform for 2,500 salespeople from around the world. Restless at his stationary new job and anxious to use his creative talents, he left Intel to pursue stand up comedy full time in 2007. He opened his 300 seater club to promote clean comedy in the DC area. Nainan’s book about standup comedy, titled How to Become a Full-Time Standup Comedian, was published by HyperInk Press on April 18, 2012.

By Roshan • Cochin, Football, Humour, India, Video Clip • 0

Jan 26 2013

Banning Movies Due To Religious Sentiments

The idiots are at it again. The religious righteousness with their holier than thou attitude and their fragile egos & sensibilities in India have filed cases against two movies in India, both from the South. They have their knickers in a twist!

Romans a Malayalam comedy & thriller movie that was released less than 10 days ago and is about two jailbirds, con artists and thieves, who escape while being transported to a jail. They end up in a village at the Kerala – Tamil Nadu border, where they are mistaken for a pair of priests expected at the local monastery. The duo masquerade as priests, and reopen a church which has been closed for years, thereby winning over the villagers who mistake them to be priest sent from Roman (hence the title). A series of events that take place after their arrival bring about a change in their outlook towards life and society. For those of you who have seen the 1989 Robert De Niro & Sean Penn movie We’re No Angels – it’s basically the same plot. Even as the movie is running successfully and getting mostly positive reviews, a court case has been made against the duo by the First Class magistrate of the Changanassery for showing the Catholic priesthood under bad light. The court has asked the police to register a case against these lead actors , the movie director Boban Samuel , producer Arun Ghosh and Bijoy Chandran and script writer Y V Rajesh and investigate whether the writ presented by Adv Boban Thekkel complaining about the movie holds any ground.

Across the border into Tamil Nadu, megastar Indian actor/producer/director for the past few decades & noted atheist Kamal Hassan, who has in the past made movies that were anti-theist in nature, has drawn flack from the muslim community for the content of his latest movie Vishwaroopam. due to persistent allegations made by Islamic organizations including the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazagham have protested against the film, which they say ‘shows Islam and muslims in a bad light’. The release of the movie in Tamil Nadu has been pushed back to after January 28th, during which the ruling high court judge will have a special screening and then rule on the basis of the case against it. Some other places have delayed the screening of the film. However the film continues to run in theatres in Kerala despite protests from a section of Muslim organisations and there were some disruptions in certain parts of the state. This just makes me want to see this film and I just might break my 17 year fast of not having watched a single Tamil language movie from end to end!

By Roshan • India, Movies, Religion • 0

Dec 20 2012

Who Do You Blame?

Indians have been shocked & enraged at the recent gang rape that took place in the nation’s capital of New Delhi. Last Sunday night a medical student and her friend had finished watching a film and boarded the bus to go home. They boarded a bus – which had tinted windows and curtains, banned in Delhi but it was not stopped as it moved through a series of police check points – which is the sort of chartered bus that is often used as public transport in Delhi. The police says the brothers and four of their friends decided to go “on a joyride” in their off-duty hours. They allegedly taunted the woman, asking her why she was out late with a man. Her friend, who works for a software firm, intervened. The men turned on him with an iron rod. The girl then tried to protect her friend, infuriating the assaulter who decided to punish her. First, they hit her. Then they raped her as the bus kept driving before she & her friend were dumped on the road side.

The 23-year-old woman, who was gangraped by half-a-dozen men, is battling for life in Safdarjung Hospital. Multiple surgeries later – the last of which was performed yesterday – she is determined not to give up, said doctors attending to the woman who has galvanized India into protests and rallies, demanding expeditious justice for her, and an over-hauling of the protection offered to women in cities everywhere. In different parts of Delhi, large groups of people protested, demanding a swift trial in this case, harsher punishment for sexual crimes, and more police patrolling on the streets at night, the different demands coalesced around the agreement that things must change. I can see a bunch of protest messages on Twitter & Facebook and on blog posts. Question are being asked as to why and how and what our nation has become as this is just the latest of several bad incidents / attacks against women. And I see people trying to point blame at so many other things along with the men who committed the disgusting crime. And some of these people are getting ridiculous and are lacking the sense in seeing the obvious.

Indians are the best blamer makers in the world. They are ready to find fault and blame everybody & everything else in the world for the atrocities & crimes that Indians themselves commit! Rape is caused by – Western culture, books, movies, internet, Facebook, Twitter, jeans, t shirts, shorts, coats, the wrong kind of perfumes, underwear, handbags, shoes, watches, glasses, cigarettes, even Chow mein, noodles, sandwiches, burgers, pizzas, colas, foreign liquor, call center jobs, etc etc. What they fail to realize that there are a lot of assholes, criminals & rapists in this country! Fix the problem and look inwards! Parents should set examples. The schools should teach you manners & respect, places of worship should be teaching decency to your fellow human beings and not asslicking some deity!

By Roshan • India • 2

Dec 15 2012

Suicide-Murder In Alappuzha

One of the worst stories you can read about in this state happened this week. A middle-aged father allegedly hacked to death the mother of his daughter’s lover at Punapra near coastal district Alappuzha in south Indian state Kerala within hours of the girl committing suicide after he rejected the young man’s plea to marry her.

This is how the story goes as reported – 21 year old mason was in love with this 17 year old girl and they wanted to get married. He approached the girl’s parents for her hand in marriage and apparently went over to her house with a mangal sutra in his hand. The parents would not give their daughter to him in marriage now; they said that the two lovers should wait for a year until the girl turns 18 and then they could get married.

The boy insisted that they get married immediately and refused to take no for an answer much to the anger of the girl’s father. The father forbade the two to meet and chased the boy away and locked his daughter in her room. Later when the parents went to check on the girl they found that she had hanged herself from a ceiling fan and was declared dead at a hospital where she was rushed to. The distraught father went to the boys house and only finding his mother there, hacked the lady to death. He was arrested the next evening after locals alerted them on seeing him coming out of the house with a blood stained knife.

What a messy story? How stupid of the boy & the girl – what was the hurry in marrying at the ages of 21 & 17? And if the father of the girl says to wait for a year how idiotic can their reactions be? Not nearly mature enough to get married, it ended in tragedy.

By Roshan • India, Kerala • 1

Dec 12 2012

RIP Pandit Ravi Shanker

Indian musical legend, sitar maestro and cultural icon Pandit Ravi Shanker has passed away at the age of 92. On 6 December 2012, Shankar was admitted to Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego after complaining of breathing difficulties. He died on 11 December at around 4:30pm PST.

Shankar was born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury on 7 April 1920 in Varanasi to a Bengali Brahmin family as the youngest of seven brothers. At the age of ten, after spending his first decade in Varanasi, Shankar went to Paris with the dance group of his brother, choreographer Uday Shankar. By the age of 13 he had become a member of the group, accompanied its members on tour and learned to dance and play various Indian instruments.

Having toured with them in Europe and America in the early to mid-1930s and Shankar learned French, discovered Western classical music, jazz, and cinema, and became acquainted with Western customs. He then trained under Allaoudin Khan and had training on sitar and surbahar, learned ragas and the musical styles dhrupad, dhamar, and khyal, and was taught the techniques of the instruments rudra veena, rubab, and sursingar.

For nearly three decades, ever since his first solo tour of the United States and Europe in the 1956-57 season, Ravi Shankar has served as India’s unofficial ambassador for music.

The music doyen was awarded India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna in 1999. He also received three Grammy Awards and was competing against his daughter Anoushka Shankar, also a sitar player, for another Grammy in 2013. An affair with Sue Jones, a New York concert producer, led to the birth of Norah Jones in 1979.

Ravi Shankar (7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012)