I used to have a professor in college. He used to says "Orey, asalu jeevitamlo #enjoyment# anTe aemiTo telusaa? saayam sandhya vaela, krishnaa nadi teeraana, maaanchi #cigarette# veliginchi, #Krishna Sastry# PaaTalu vinatamu. ade raa #enjoyment# anTe!"
:) This picture is to honor him as I truly believe that what he said is 100% true. Will I ever have that freedom of thought and expression?? Can I enjoy life like that? I hope someday I can tell that I did enjoy life as it should have been. :)

WHAT IF................................

There was an article I read a few months back or a few years back in The Outlook or in The Week (Indian Magazines) and it was pretty engrossing by talking about some What If scenarios in the context of India. I saved this article and below are the topics covered. If anyone is interested, email me and I will send you the copy.

What If India Were Really To "Shine"?

What If Netaji Came Back?

What If Indira Gandhi Had Not Declared Emergency?

What If We Were Together?

What If India Hadn't Been Partitioned?

What If Patel Was PM?

What If Gandhi Had Lived On?

What If Godse's Bullets Had Missed Gandhi?

What If The South Had Seceded?

What If India Had Won The War Against China?

What If Shastri Hadn't Died Suddenly In Tashkent?

What If We Had Embraced America?

What If Ambedkar Had Converted Earlier?

What If We Had A Uniform Civil Code?

What If 'Hum Do, Hamare Do' Had Worked?

What If Reforms Had Taken Off Years Earlier?

What If There Was No Operation Bluestar?

What If Rajiv Hadn't Caved In To The Zealots?

What If Reservations Had Come To An End In ?

What If Indira was not the PM?

What If Sanjay Gandhi Had Survived The Air Crash?

What If Advani, Not Vajpayee, Had Been PM?

What If Medha Patkar Hadn't Gone To Narmada?

What If Pather Panchali Hadn't Been Made?

What If Lata Had A Rival?

What If Steve Jobs Had Stayed Back In Benares?

What If AB Wasn’t ‘Inspector Vijay’?

What If Sushmita Weren’t Ms Universe?

What If Salman Rushdie Had Continued To Be A Copywriter?

What If Indira Gandhi Had Not Sent Maneka Out?

What If Sachin Hadn’t Arrived?

What If Bal Thackeray Had Remained A Full-Time Cartoonist?

What If AR Rahman Hadn’t Done Bombay Dreams?

What If Yoga Hadn’t Taken Off?

What If The IT Revolution Hadn't Taken Place?

What If Amjad Khan Had Been Rejected For Gabbar's Role In Sholay?

Drinking, Gandhi, Nehru, Netaji and Sardar!

What is it about drinking and coming to blows regarding the policies of Gandhi and Nehru?
Every time I have a drink with most of my friends, the topic always veers towards, what Gandhi did, What Nehru did, What would have been the state of the Nation if Sardar was the PM, If Netaji was Alive, If JP was more active and lived longer?

Are we competent enough to talk about their policies, their rights and wrongs? Hindsight is always 20-20. But do we have the right to say they did wrong? Were any of us there at that moment of time in History?

:)

But I suppose we can always indulge in our own fantasies and talk about the What if scenarios. I do not know if what happened was correct or wrong, simply because I do not know if the written history is the correct version. 10 versions give me 11 views of what happened!
But either way, We need to thank all those great Freedom Fighters and Politicians for providing us a lively evening whenever we drink!

3 Cheers to them.

The girl in Charlotte, from my previous posts. That was a totally impossible visualization. Just realized she was "d's" own sister and it creates more problems than I want to handle at this point of life.

The Sun appears cool

The day gets shortened

And is made pleasant by chill wind

On the fields lit by moonlight

The crows caw over the grain heaps

While the farmers sing in joy

Over the golden harvest

The flowers express their joy

By putting forth their petals

While in every home, filled with grain

The people welcome the advent of Sankranthi

(Telugu Poem)

A common sight during the Sankranti festival time is a traditionally dressed man with a decorated ox (Basavanna) asking for donations from passers by. He calls out Do...Do...Basavanna.
And yes all those muggus all over. It is fun watching all the women folk putting muggus during the evening and early hours.

Ooty:
One photo from my last visit to Ooty. Well not exactly a tourist spot but from one of the off beat places in Ooty, not yet polluted by the heavy traffic.

Karl Rove and the ongoing controversy:

This ongoing controversy about giving out information that Valerie Plame Wilson was a CIA operative is sort of unfortunate. You see Donald Rumsfield trying to change the way the pentagon and the defense establishment generally works and you have one of the top guys in the same administration being implicated on this sort of a leak.

But guys and gals, are we not forgetting one of the basic fundamental concepts of Law??

A suspect is presumed innocent till and when the suspect is proved to be guilty.

Asking the president to fire him or anything else depicts the lynch mob mentality in all of us. We are a civilized populace who should think clearly before we act. Let the due investigation happen and then based on the results the action can be taken.

Till then, I will presume Karl Rove to be innocent and would prefer for him to continue in his job.

Robert in Everybody Loves Raymond

Do you pity Robert for the situation he is in or what?

He is middle aged, lives in his parent’s house. Not sure if like him living with them or not. But the mother is always meddling into his affairs.

I am not sure if I can do that.

But you never know what compels people to get into such situations.

Think, think think……

The girl in the café….

Last weekend I was watching this movie in HBO. It was a good movie, sort of set me thinking about myself. The movie is about Lawrence (Nighy), an aging, lonely civil servant who falls for Gina (Macdonald), an enigmatic young woman. When he takes her to the G8 Summit in Reykjavik, however, their bond is tested by Lawrence's professional obligations. The movie had wonderful performances by both Nighy and Kelly Macdonald who, of course is beautiful. J

Well it has been exactly 58 days since I have started this job in Charlotte, NC. That means I started on May 16, 2005. And I will be completing this job on the 22^nd of July. On May 17 I met a girl named “NA”.

Her name is of Sanskrit origin, and means ‘ruby’, but in a general sense also means ‘dawn’ or ‘radiance’ or 'bright morning sun'. The name expresses the quality of the color red in spiritual terms. Blood is red and conveys the essential life force around the body. And believe me she radiates the life forces. J

She is beautiful, has a good smile, lovely eyes, good voice, and some other attributes which I liked. Well, to put it simply, I was attracted to her. Not the love at first sight kind of thing but seeing her over a period of a week or so.

I have been watching her, observing her from that 2^nd day of this job. Generally, when you see an Indian girl, you can tell if she is married or not by looking for the bottu or the mangala sutram or mettelu for the legs, or some other things. Well, being over confident, I also checked for all those and concluded that she might not be married. She doesn’t look that young but certainly not old. Well, I thought, Srikant, here comes Lady Luck. You are looking for a girl and maybe you found her!

And as time goes on, I keep seeing her, talk to her and everything looks rosy and bright. And one day another friend named “J” says something which really encourages me. That “Na” is Single and available. That “Na” also the sister of one of her friends from work. Yahooooo!!!!!! That was a real good day for me. By this time, I think I got the ring from Raju Garu and me thinks this is it! J

2 days later I and “J” were again talking and now she drops the bomb, that “Na’s” child was sick. Confused! Dreams Shattered! What not! I later found out that “Na” has a son not sure about his age or name. But a “Son”!! And that “Na” is the elder sister of her friend!! That makes her older than me!

Oh God!!! Where was this going?

Can I survive another argument with my parents regarding marrying a girl with a child???

BTW, one of my goals is to adopt a child. Hence, my argument is that if the child has a natural parent, it would be beneficial to the child. My logic seems sounds perfect (at least to me it does!), but to my parents its anathema. It is something, which cannot be imagined or visualized. They believe that marrying a girl with a child is against conventional wisdom and that it would not work out and create a lot of problems in the future.

My brother “bobby” thinks it is ok. My dad and mom were totally against it

You know, a long time ago, in March of 1996 I think, It was on the occasion of the marriage of another cousin, my dad scolded me that I was too narrow minded. And that somehow made a strong impression in my mind.

And here I was being pretty liberal; trying to live up to some lofty aims of life, but simply cannot convince my parents to believe in my goals. Now, how can I change the world if I can’t convince my parents.

Does this make me a Coward? Not able to live up to my own goals!!

Does this make me a Failure? Not able to do what I wanted to do?

Does this make me lose my sleep?

Not sure, but most probably I was battered by the social strata prevailing in some corner of my mind more than anything else. This most probably stopped me from arguing more for what I believe.

This actually reminds me of something I wrote a long time back.

“mrutyuvu kabalinchaboyinaa, jwalinchi,

oka maarkanDaeyaa mahaastramai nilabaDi, jayinchi,

mahottunga himavannaga sikharamai nilavaalani,

ee kullina samaajamlo chaitanyam kosam poraaDaanu.

Kaani!

ee budhbudhapraayamaina jeevitamloo,

aa chaintanya Sikharaalanu nilupalaeka,

aatmaarpaNa chaesukunna alalaa,

ee samaaja samudrapu gunDekallollaallo kalisipoyaanu!”

What it basically means is that, a human might have lofty aims and goals, may even achieve some of them, but still the society encompasses everything and the human will fall back into its folds whatever be the achievements.

Going back to “Na”, what do I do??? I am not sure I know the answer. No idea!!

A couple of basic questions!

What I am really looking for?

Tell me! Tell me! Tellll meeee! :(

No real answers.

Maybe, the title of this post should be “The girl in Charlotte, The girl from ….”

Last Weeks London Bombings:

I have been thinking and thinking about this. In 2001I was having a discussion with Pawel regarding Muslim Teachings and their interpretation by the mullahs.

I sometimes used to go to mosques on Fridays. This was not because of my love for Islam but more for the good food they sell in the mosque premises on those days.

I also find Islam in general better than many other religions, because of its straight forward philosophy and strict adherence to it. This is both a Pro and a Con as far as my thinking goes.

The discussion with Pawel started after my 1^st visit to a mosque in the Chicago area and soon after I saw a movie called “My Son the Fanatic”. At the end of the Namaz, a collection bowl was sent around for the Palestinian cause and to fight the Israelis. This was a shock to me that collections were being done in the open to support the fight. (Some may view this as a fight for freedom and some as a terrorist act). I view anything that kills people as a terrorist act. Way back in England, even the IRA was fighting for freedom. They were more systematic, but their bombings were directed towards the system rather than killing innocent bystanders. I view this to be better than what is happening in Israel, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, or any other place today.

Going back to my discussion with Pawel, I was advocating the practice of non appeasement and to strictly deal with the terrorists/insurgents in Afghanistan. Pawel was taking a more humanitarian approach to this and was talking about dealing with it in a peaceful way. We talked about this for like 1 hr and quit.

This was also the time when the news was all about the disappearance of Chandra Lavy. And then one day, September 11, 2001 the attack happened in NY,NY. I was in Pawel’s house that day or the next and we were watching the news. This was my “I told you so!” moment. J And I also told him that this was the answer to Gary Condit’s prayers regarding Chandra Lavy.

Well the incidents after that were sort of promising the way George Bush started to deal with the problem, but again he has fallen prey to the obligations of politics, appeasement of the Minority Community. HISTORY has shown us that appeasement is not the best policy and does not give proper returns. The problem should be dealt in a fair and square manner. Unfortunately, all over the world, every country tries to appease the minorities and create problems for themselves.

In India, the BJP government, considered to be a party with Nationalist Hindu ideology was appeasing Muslims by increasing the subsidy for Haj. But no such benefits were given for Hindus.

Well, I was expecting UK to be hit real hard by this new Muslim terrorism after I saw the movie “My Son the Fanatic”. I always believe that UK was sort of ignoring its problems.

The movie details the contentious relationship between an aging cab driver, Parvez (veteran actor Om Puri), and his beloved son, Farid (Akbar Kurtha). On the verge of becoming engaged to an English girl, Farid suddenly breaks off the relationship and aligns himself with a group of hard-line Islamic fundamentalists. Parvez, who has rejected religion as well as most of his culture, is deeply upset by this turn of events, and matters become worse when his wife begins embracing Farid's beliefs. Feeling alienated from his family, Parvez turns to Bettina (Rachel Griffiths), a prostitute with whom he shares a special bond (of course, she has a heart of gold). The second aspect of My Son the Fanatic details their relationship as it develops into something deeper than the usual interaction between a hooker and her driver.

Farid’s behavior and the way the life in UK is depicted were realistic and was the way the youth in general was going.

London should at least now respond to the reality of what is happening in its streets. No appeasement should be done and the law and order should be strictly enforced.

Hopefully, the world goes towards peace faster. Let’s wait and see……

Fantasy

I am one of those people who like to live in their fantasies.

Movies in general, have and will continue to fuel a lot of fantasies in me.

I tend to think a lot, though I realize that most of those thought are futile and some sort of idiosyncrasies within me. Each situation and moment in life I have faced, continue to churn in my mind with different permutations. If then what…. Sort of thing.

This is both a boon and a bane. Boon in the sense, I realize if any mistakes happened, or if there is a better way of doing things. Banes in the sense, most of these thoughts are useless in nature, and distract me from more immediate things.

Movies, music and novels are one of my favorite pastimes.

I can hear Rafi or Kishore or Mukesh or Manna Dey and be transported to the 50’s – 70’s time period.

I see period movies or art movies or any good movie in general and tend to translate them with me in the frame.

Same thing with novels.

Always transposing / juxtaposing my self into the picture or story or song.

I wonder if this is normal.

Let me tell you about my movie tastes. I watched maybe a total of 15 – 20 complete (start to end) movies till my 10^th class. This includes TV and Cinema Halls. I started seeing movies regularly once I started my inter, and then after coming to the US, started quenching my thirst for good movies and old movies.

I am willing to watch any movie in any language. As long as I can understand the story of the movie in whole, though I would prefer if it had sub titles. I tend not to think about any fallacies in a movie, so no analyzing. I see the visuals, hear the words and that’s it.

I can watch many actors, and see a good thing in all of them. I really have no real favorites in heroes.

Lets talk about Hindi Movies.

I might say Raj Kapoor or who ever. But it is not really true.

I like Dharmendra because I think he is a fine actor who never got any accolades though he has many beautiful movies under his belt. An actor with perfect comedy timing never fully utilized. Satyakaam, Chup ke Chup ke, and so on.

He is one star who withstood the onslaught of Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh and still delivered hits.

I like Feroze Khan. He is the best showman Hindi movies ever had. His movies generally have great songs, visuals and the best music. Songs from Dharmatma are a personal favorite. I believe he marginalized himself by making movies himself. One of his best roles for me was in Safar. As far as I am concerned he proved himself even with Rajesh Khanna in the same frame. That song “Jo tumko ho pasand wahi baat hum kahenge! Tum din ko agar raat kaho to raat kahenge” is a quintessential romantic drive song for me.

Sunil Dutt. I believe he is really India’s Robert Redford. A real fine actor. I would have loved if he made more movies.

Raj Kumar aka Jaani. Another great actor. The best dialogue delivery you can imagine. He can under play, over play and play. J See him in Mother India or Pakeezah or any of those later movies from the 80’s and 90’s. He still delivers the same impact.

Same with Danny Denzogpa. I saw Bulandi once, twice, thrice …………..

Pran!!! The ultimate villain, character actor or anything. You can compare him with Satyanarayana in telugu. They can perform any role you give them. Villiany, Comedy, Parental, Sibling, Grand Father, any sort of role. Just imagine Pran with a tooth pick or cigarette in his mouth. Continuously keeps chewing it and turning it. All that rest less energy ready to burst.

Ashok Kumar. Another great actor. If he is in a movie, I am simply game.

Shatrugan Sinha, Mr. Shotgun himself. He is a good actor who took many risks even at his peak. One of the few star actors who worked in a lot of offbeat movies. You give me a Shatru cinema, and I am ready to sit down and watch.

Rakesh Roshan. He was the most handsome actor in the 70’s and 80’s. Initially a bad actor but learned his trade pretty well. Good comic timing by the time Khamoshi came along.

Amol Palekar, for me the best actor. Any movie which involves Amol is a gem in itself. J A great actor and looks like an even greater director.

Farooq Sheikh. The first time I saw him was in the TV Serials “Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi” and “Shrikant”. Felt he was good. If he is there in a movie, you can bet that it is good. As simple as that!

Many other actors, from Prithvi Raj Kapoor to Dev Anand to Sanjeev Kumar to Om Puri to a lot more.

Same thing with heroines. Meena Kumari to Geeta Dutt to Rakhee to Sharmila to Mumtaz to Rekha to Smita Patil to Sridevi to a lot more.

I wonder if anyone else has so many favorite actors in one language. And then just imagine Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, etc.

Actors are not my only criteria. I also have favorite directors, producers, music director, camera man, lyric writer, dialogue writer, even PR (Publicity In charge).

The previous post was written in Telugu and since I was not sure how to post in telugu alphabet here (I actually tried to use "padma" but was not happy with the results),so, I created a .jpg file and posted them as pictures.
So if anyone wants to read them, click on them and zoom it and it should be clear.

This is me! :)