Gasp!!!?

Guys...this is shot from my Nokia just last week...

Its a classroom desk....

St. Andrews, Bandra, Class IV to be precise... (Yeah I 'have feet, will dance')

And yeah, its been there for a while now...

What did Julius Caesar say to Brutus as he breathed his last?

Who cares a whatever....

No, he didn't say that, he of course said "Et tu Brute"....

but what are the chances the kid was reading all this fascinating graffitti instead of paying attention to Ms. Briganza / Wiganza...whatever...

Jeez again...

- Anil

Pictures (Created a quick collage) clicked from a Nokia N72 in PVR Juhu before the last fadeout, as Gordon ends with 'a Dark Knight'

Yeah that 'adwbxapd'..is not a typo...

its blabber...

i'm like that after watching The Dark Knight

3rd time...

and every time...

This third show was at PVR, Juhu...

Went alone... I thought

'chalo i'll see The Joker on screen again (yeah i like the guy more than the bat now...scary no?), i'll take in the breathtaking action sequences, and theek hai, all the dialogue and yeh woh, i'll just chill through'

a bit apprehensive about whether or not i'll really not end up getting somewhat bored sitting through it a third time...

Man.....

I caught myself soooooooooooooooo often at the edge of m yseat...

As if i didn't know what was going to happen next!

Like wow...

The first time I came out from the Nolan spell..it was intermission

I was like..Gosh! ... is it really intermission?

Next...when it was time to leave man!

I sat through mesmerised third tiem around...and this time when leaving i did something ive never done before...clicked a pic...the one here...

wow...its been a while since something has made such a deep impact on me

"

So we will hunt him down...

because he can take it...

... because he is not a hero

he is a silent guardian...

a watchful protector

a DARK KNIGHT

"

Goose pimples man...unbelievable spell....

- Anil

Advertising guys call this 'Above the line'...but is it also crossing the line?

What's going on man ... this is Carter Road...bang opposite CCD ... not Kamathipura

What do kids see when they come for a walk or jog or stroll...

This?

What's really getting my goat is the mobile number on the pic... circled in red

What is it?

1) The chick's...for those who want to get down to business right away?

2) The 'agent'? ...in case you want to negotiate a long term contract?

3) The agency? ... in case you are just not able to stand out from the crowd amidst all the skin flashing everywhere these days

Jeez....

(Bale is fantastic of course in his role as the tormented, eponymous Batman / Bruce Wayne but the picture is my tribute to the phenomenon that TDK brought to the sliver screen...the ironic, tragic, last performance that is off the books in its brilliance...read on below though about what really makes TDK in my view)

The Dark Knight is the most stunning movie in a long, long time...its no surprise readers on IMDB have voted 'The Godfather' out of the top spot after nearly two decades....

Its been almost since two decades incdientally since I saw the godfather, what with my almost autistic inability to relate to the small screen but things are changing and i've been to add to the DVD business..as a consumer...i think i'll get it and see a few times more..hopefully as often as I am going to see TDK (3rd instalment due this week)....

Also read Citizen Kane from the first half of the century has consistently been voted by the fraternity as the best film of all times...so thats two films i defn have to catch....

The TDK...i dont know where to start or where to stop...no surprise ive setup a group called Bataholic Anonymous on Facebook where i am going to organise group therapy sessions, so what if im the only one who attends and babbles stuff...

Heath is just mind blowing beyond a doubt...but you just cannot, CANNOT give anyone credit without diluting it a bit by letting Nolan share some of it...i dont think there is even a nano second in the film where Nolan's genius doesnt pervade...Heath, even perhaps if i may say so in almost blak humour, may have been given the power to perfom like he did as a tragic last wish....but he couldnt have done anything with that gift without a character like the Joker and the lines given to him....

Like Big B has mouthed lines that are in circulation even today...the jokers lines have potential to be there forever.....

His take on life...its beyond rational...its a level of rationality thats just off the plane of lesser mortals...the people he condescendingly refers to as 'civilised....

all that was written by Nolan and co...just mind blowing brilliance...the depth, the decision to not have a backstory to underline the fact that he does not need a reason to be what he is, the understanding of human pscyhe and its exploitation (the brilliant scene where he escapes from prison 'do you want to know which of your friends were cowards')

I think TDK is summed up in five letters

N-O-L-A-N

All bow...

"Release 2.0 India Book Tour" - Noida programmes organised by Book Cafe...

Two excellent enactments of key scenes from "Dear Popples" and "The Prayer" by 3 actors from the National School of Drama (NSD)

Book reading and signing by Anou and me...

I read through the scene where William is contemplating giving Sudharshan a brief slot on his diary that had been originally reserved for the American President...his cockiness and disain for an "Alladin of Outsourcing" comes out very strongly...and sets the reader up for the shock that William gets in the next scene...enjoyable reading that one :)

Best,

Me

The Release 2.0 Book Tour continues...

The book launch of Anouradha Bakshi's "Dear Popples" at Delhi / Gurgaon...

More than anything else, it was just meeting up with some fantastic people that was the best part of the stop at Delhi...met some people I had been niteracting with a lot but had not met in person before and met some people completely new....but it was all amazing

This is a snap from Reliance Time Out at Ambience Mall, Gurgaon...

Anou (Anouradha Bakshi -http://projectwhy.org) and me...

Best,

Me

Bol M#$%&c$$d Ram Naam Satya Hai" ("Say you son-of-a-bitch that Lord Ram is the truth")

The unshaven, pan chewing bastard who had slurred his Lord's name with abuse in one breath, waited for only a second as the bearded old man, trembling as he stared death in the face, mustered up the courage to remember Allah. Faisal woke up in a sweat even after thirteen years as he saw his father's skull split into two and the sword embed itself into his brain. No scream had escaped the young boy's lips as they mercilessly hacked his father to death. Frozen by shock he vaguely remembered the mob hanging Ammi next.

To date he could not remember how he had himself survived. His next memory was of a dirty hospital bed in GT hospital, where only a few lucky ones like him were brought alive. He overheard later that the men who carried him had to step over piles of corpes dumped like unwanted garbage all over the ward. Many of them had vomitted as they trugded bravely through blood, flesh and bodies to find a doctor for some poor wretch whose life had still not drained out of his body.

Today, after thirteen years, the eighteen year old youth saw vomit first hand. He coughed and gasped through the smoke, covering his nose to avoid passing out with the smell of burning flesh. As he pushed aside mangled limbs and severed heads to reach for a hand that seemed to extend from some soul whose voice he had heard feebly crying for help, he saw older men lose control over their bowels, and retreat from the task at hand, vomit gushing out of their mouth and noses and sending them into convulsion.

By the time his body gave up with sheer exhaustion, five hours had already passed. He slunk down against the dirty hospital wall, staring unemotionally at the bodies that passed his defocused eyes. Somebody gave him a cup of tea which he sipped slowly, letting the caffeine slow throughly through his veins and stir his muscles till he had the strength to get up and find his way back home.

He lived in a dilapitated two storey building in a godforsaken lane and there was no one around to stare flaggerbastedly as he trudged up the steps, his face and arms caked with dried blood and his white shirt a deep mix of black, brown and red. It did not even occur to him to clean himself or change. He just walked into the tiny eight by ten feet hole that served as a hall and kitchen and switched on the TV.

There were already eighty seven confirmed dead. Twenty something old boys that would have been far more immature than him in 1993, reported confidently about how Gujarati's had been targeted in retaliation to Godhra. Well-fed, ivy league educated greenhorns that travelled in cars since the time they were allowed to set foot outside their posh apartments by well to do parents feigned an understanding of the minority psyche and pompously grilled politicians of all ethnicities who strangely enough appeared under pressure to respond.

Had life not taken the turn it took thirteen years back for this young lad, anger would perhaps have meant hurling an abuse and perhaps pumping a fist. But the devilish cold that had strangled any scream that must have tried to erupt from his thorat as he had watched his family getting slaughtered had taken away all phsycial manifestations of the emotion from his life forever. He just watched disgustedly as theory after theory unfolded as each channel tried to outdo the others in one short night of investigative journalism, his eyes and mind only focusing on the death toll.

By the time his body succumbed a second time to exhaustion in twelve hours the toll was already touching one hundred and fifty.

The shrill ring of the phone startled him out of his deep sleep less tha an hour later. He shook his head to try and register what had woken him up and it took almost a minute before he realise someone was trying to call him. As the slow, deep, gentle voice congratulated him he felt disgust threatening to consume him again.

"Ji, main poore paanch ghante thaa vahan pe. Meri gaadi main him tees chaalis to gaye bhai" (Yes sir, I was there for a full five hours; at least thirty forty must have died in my train alone) he replied slowly into the phone. He nodded patiently as some more intendedly encourging words came over the line and finally murmured "Khuda Haafiz" as the man who claimed to be his mentor kept the phone perhaps a thousand miles away.

He was more disgusted with his own than with the media. If Zahiri had not changed plans at the last minute, if he had not told them to improvise and do what they could but debaggage instantly, no fucking twenty year old kid would have been able to confuse the public with some stupid theory on targeting Gujaratis.

His eyes had been red with anger and not tears as he mingled with the rescuers for five hours taking a first hand account.

If he had been allowed to detonate the bomb at eight O' clock as planned the number of god fearing Indians he would have slayed would have been way too higher.

- Anil Goel (c) 2006

Author's Note
I wrote this fictional piece as an exercise in exorcism right after the blasts because I could not get over the fact that while I was watching the news in disgusts some bomber somewhere must have been watching TV at the same time...but for a different purpose..

I should have explored it further but I guess I wasn't really in the frame of mind of a writer then...after all this while Aamir took me back to Faisal...

I do believe Aamir is very similar in treatment and plot style - although the plot itself is different - to Faisal...I do regret not having developed on it :)

Has it started? The beginning of the end for India Inc? How long before the IT companies start lining up? Its high time Sudharshan had that nightmare...

Read this insightful article in the editorial page of today's TOI about how Ranbaxy's desperate attempts to innovate have come to naught by a heavily western leaning patent regime. The death knell for Ranbaxy may well be the death knell for India Inc as the market changes and the global big wigs come and sweep up things...

"Innovate or Perish" it says

Ranbaxy's takeover is a wake up call to India Inc that the global bigwigs - riding a patent regime - are all set to gobble up an India inc that has ignored innovation and relied purly on cheap labour.

Sounds familiar eh?

Welcome to "Release 2.0"

Ninad makes a special reference to Indian IT  "...most Indian IT firms are nothign but glorified code developers"

Maybe now you beleive that Anil Goel is not just a drug addicted "Prophet of Doom"

Its coming...

The time to Innovate or Perish...

In fact, if the Ranbaxy story is really the beginning....it may be too late

*G-U-L-P*

- Anil Goel

--------- ARTICLE REPRODUCED FROM TOI ----------------

Innovate or perish

- Ninad Dhirubhai Sheth

Just when Indians were rejoicing the takeover of iconic British brands Ford and Range Rover by the Tatas, Daiichi Sankyo spoiled the euphoric mood. In what has been the biggest takeover of a listed firm in India’s history the Japanese major paid $4.6 billion in cash for Ranbaxy. This is not just another takeover. It holds valuable lessons for corporate India as well as the government regarding India’s emergence as a global player. 

For many years Ranbaxy was held as an example of an Indian multinational that bravely went where few Indian companies had gone before. In the world of drugs, Ranbaxy was betting big. It was trying to move beyond the generic space where Indian firms can reverse engineer off patent drugs. It had also benefited in its early days from lax patent protection. This allowed the firm to grow in size by profiting from volumes of scale. 

The change came when Ranbaxy set itself a target of developing original drug compounds through proprietary research route. Alas, the strategy proved to be its undoing as an independent firm. India’s economy still lacks firms with the wherewithal to make pathbreaking discoveries.
  

Over the last three years this painful weakness of corporate India was becoming all the more obvious. Ranbaxy was unable to come up with even a single original blockbuster drug discovery. The rights India signed away in the WTO deal were coming home to roost. With a patent regime loaded in favour of the West, developing new drugs was proving prohibitively expensive. Drug after drug developed by Ranbaxy ran into American and European patent regimes. On the generic front too there was competition from smaller, more nimble firms. Few know that Ranbaxy was not even in the top five generic drug developers worldwide. Unable to make patent breakthroughs Ranbaxy was at a stage where it may have discovered that it could reach just so far on its own and no further.
  

The sale by itself is not bad news for the promoters. After all, the firm was established in 1962 with an investment of Rs 2.5 lakh and gave a return of Rs 10,000 crore to the investors. It is in the genius of the capitalist system that it provides for several exit routes to entrepreneurs. So everyone, the promoters of Ranbaxy, its shareholders and the Japanese firm gained by getting the correct combination at the right price. However, for corporate India the deal comes as both a shock and a loss.
  

This deal exposes the fact that across industries Indians are still incapable of being thought leaders. Soulsearching has already begun in the Indian corporate world. Several firms across industries could be potential takeover targets since their growth formula depends on incremental volumes and cost arbitrage unlike global leaders that are innovative thinkers and have proprietary research in their portfolios. 

Particularly vulnerable are firms in the IT, textile and pharma sectors. Even top firms like Wipro make less than 4 per cent of their turnover from products and patents. A very large percentage of second-rung IT firms are nothing but glorified code developers.
  

India Inc needs to take a long hard look at its current globalising strategy. Instead of the easy way out where you fill in the gaps in the international trading system based solely on cost advantage, corporate India must invest in research and development. This is a longer, costlier route to becoming worldclass companies but it is also a surer way of ensuring sustainable success.
  

On the government’s part, it would do well to use the proposed $2 billion sovereign fund to buy the right technology which can later be auctioned to Indian firms so as to provide them a firm footing in the exclusive club of original ideas. Ranbaxy’s takeover has a stark message for corporate India. Innovate and prosper or the big fish will gobble you up.
  

The writer is a Delhi-based journalist.

I felt like posting something after a long time.

And its always these oversimplified things that I somehow feel the urge to share. My views on the digital economy not so much via the blog - unless there is some oversimplification there too. 

...this one was straight out of Madhur's Page 3, the scene where drivers are waiting outside a party, chatting about things like "air kissing"...here goes...

A regular, pleasant morning on Pali Hill. Two newspaper delivery guys are unloading the daily catch from a bicycle and dividing the load between themselves.

Guy1: Nowadays Mid-Day doesn't carry too many 'pictures'
Guy2: Yeah, you're right
Guy1: Earlier all married men used to buy Mid-Day
Guy 2: Yeah nowadays they all buy 'Bombay Mirror' (merger?)
Guy1: Yeah, Yeah the circulation of Mid-Day is really going down

And off they trod ... :)))

I'm sure there will be a panel discussion somewhere where similar pts will come up ... And then there is always the delivery boy/taxi driver/tea vendor / peon / you-get-the-drift version. Mera Bharat Mahaan!

Hmmmmmm.... I posted after a long time and a Pali Hill Pearl after ages...have things changed since I last put finger to keyboard....

Sohail Khan has moved in behind Yunus bhai and comes down cheerfully to pick up his chai and return thr glass himself though he doesn't share my love of leaning against the Chupa Rustom  to enjoy it ... Maybe he does but can't afford it. Its been less than a year since work was finally completed but the gorgeous interiors are being totally redone.

Deepika has of course moved into CoziHome bang opposite but I've seen her only once...

Ranbir doesn't seem to be jogging much ... papa Rishi still drives up and down in. Beaten Ford.

Rakesh Mehra steps out of Mamta every now and then to get into his CRV(6770), Gulzar Saab playing Tennis at Bandra Gym is an impressive sight thought he sticks to doubles, and Atul Agnihotri of course is a reguar, dropping his son to school daily in a more modest Scorpio (5758).

Aamir is a deadly sight sitting in the front seat of his Audi in a tight black tee...and he's finally (well must be his entire society, not necessarily him) getting Marina & Bella Vista Apartments done up...the compound flooring was done some time ago and thankfully now a decent compound wall has come up....

What else...the doggies are doing great...haven't seen Mauserin a while...wonder if he has gone into depression becasue Sanju baba has lost so much weight....

See i'm getting shallow and irreverant....need to do that once into a while....else the serious, brooding, no shit author image can start actually sticking around even after the paint is off....

Yawnnnnzzzzzzzzzz .... see you around.....

If you're in or around Gurgaon on Sat the 29th, do drop in to Reliance Time Out for a fantastic event - there is the book launch of "Dear Popples" the latest book from my publisher Undercover Utopia, an exciting contest with a unique opportunity for the winner to contribute 2 Lacs to help someone, and of course the  hunt for the next big author!

I will also be meeting with readers and signing copies of "Release 2.0"