"Social Media Catalyst". I love the internet and the outdoors.. waiting for a affordable gadget and service that can combine the two! Case in point - would love to listen to my favourite music on iPod while swimming!!
Tiger Woods story would surely go down as case study in bad celebrity management.
Story so far: Source: Wikipedia Tiger Woods meets with a car accident, right next to his house. In his statement, he makes sure other than talking about his health, he praises his wife. This is where, he makes his first mistake. Then you had the tabloids going crazy with the allegedly seeking confirmation on the other affairs. Timesonline and Google Source.
Rather than having a problem with a breach in privacy, he should have been forthcoming to make sense for the brand Tiger Woods where other brands like Accenture, Nike and others are backing on him.
He should made a statement which would not have build up on any rumours, if they are rumours and the time of making the statement should have been much earlier. It took him 5 days to make a statement on his current event. Source on his blog.
What he should be doing his to keep posting regular updates on his website and communicate with the media at least once in three days, if not daily or else this would become a could public crisis case study.
If he doesnt kill these rumours, he might just put a black mark on his career and too that has nothing to do with performance. Specially at that time, when he is one of the cleanest sport-persons, not just cleanest golfers.
Worse scenario for Tiger Woods is the list endorsements being canceled or canned. But that surely may not happen, if he can come back with more powerful drive or win on the golf course itself.
Love the whole wild, weird imagination of having fast food falling out of the sky, that would solve the half the world's problems. But then it is still an imagination. Simply, the the story of Cloudy with a chance of meatballs is a scientist solves world's hunger problem, and the food starts falling from the sky, only to realise that things are not going as planned.
It is a very well written movie, well done animation, even thought it would have been Pixar's idea at first, but then it isn't. Love the characters, all big eyed, there are some with no eyes, but then only at the time of surprise their eyes would be popping out. Love the father-son relationship, it is not saying I told you so. Even enjoyed the sarcasm towards consuming fast food as to how it would lead to health problems. So, there is nothing called fast food.
Love the way, the wild scientist works towards developing new inventions and his style of approach to an experiment as well as to a relationship is similar. A step-by-step approach.
Update: It got me thinking, if this movie had a Indian touch to the whole idea or was being developed by an Indian, then we would have every favourite local snack falling out of the sky in every Indian city, at first this would solve all our hunger problems, then it would make us more lethargic and fat. We should elaborate on "every favourite local snack falling out of the sky", it would idlis and appams in Chennai, Vada Pav in Mumbai, Lassi in The Punjab, Ras Gulas in Kolkata and we can continue with the lists.
It is nice movie, so even though you must have missed the movie in theatre, you can always catch it on DVD.
Amithabh Bachchan is flawless acting in Paa. But why make him look like extra terrestrial. There was a point in the movie where there were explaining the disease that his character is suffering - Progeria. In the movie itself, when the doctor is explaining, none of the images depicted them as abnormal heads. The children just looked old, why does fiction take undue advantage of medical science.
Sr. Bachchan who plays the character called Auro, I would not be surprised, if we have dolls being sold in Shoppers Stop, Big Bazaar, very soon. But one thing for sure, whenever Auro is in front of the screen, he just lightens up the moment.
This movie it seems like Bachchan Sr. is passing the baton to Bachchan Jr. It is high time, he does that. There is no competition amongst each other, but then there are a only a very few movies of AB Baby that are actually good. Naach, Guru, Sarkar, Sarkar Raaj and now this. Abhishek Bachchan is good political MP; no, this is not an oxymoron, it is the character. To that extent that you can actually see his voter's mark on his middle finger in the movie.
Simple Story. The 12/13/14 year old child suffers from Progeria and the disease brings the parent together. Three different occasions, when the age of Auro has been mentioned differently by different characters. One sincere request, stop comparing the movie to Benjamin Button, it is not! It was actually Robin Williams who was suffering the same disease in the movie Jack. It is not actually the original concept. The execution there are just too many cuts, that too very fast ones. The cuts becomes irritating towards the end. (Reference to Jack on IMDB)
Songs are well intertwined and the lyrics bring an amazing soothing effect to the whole scene, last time this feeling seeped into the heart, mind, body and soul, during Taare Zameen Par. Hichki, Hichki and Mere Paa is simple and nice and my favourites.
The movie has its moments, but it just doesnt make you cry. The performance reminds you of Amitabh Bachchan in Black, but then that it was different, that was acting. In Black, when he was smiling, you were laughing, when he was upset, everyone in the theatre had tears in their eyes. Here, he just falls a little short of the getting the audience moved.
The other characters that needs mention is bum, grandmother to Auro played by Arundhati Nag (theatre personality, wife of Anant Nag). She was simply level headed, strong character. She was when faced with moral questions, she would be you take a stand, and you will have my support - that was brilliant. At the same time, the relationship between Paresh Rawal (Dad to Amol Atre) and Abhishek Bachchan does not come out that impactful. But individually there were sound.
Google being subtly being endorsed by Auro. (Tweet)
Public Relations angle to the story, creative people need to stop treating like media as "Jo bolo ge, wo lekhe gi, nahi tu paisa tu hai hee". It isnt like this always, please do not under-estimate the media as your pawn. The movie does bring out the current affairs element in the movie through redevelopment issues and media being used to create a hype on this.
In short, it is a complete worth it paisa wasool movie for Amithabh BAchchan. I would like to highlight, even though Auro is cute it is not for the kid viewing at the same time.
Akshay Kumar if he starts making any more faces then, he can well be named the Indian Jim Carrey, specially the Masked version. Suniel Shetty and Sameera Reddy are a perfect match, well built, rounded, grounded, have the accent, both come from down South; why didnt someone think of them earlier. On Katrina, i believe movies are being re-scripted and the dialogues are re-written and probably even the locations are more foreign or foreigner dominated once this lady signs on (also observed in Ajab Prem Ki..)
The story like any typical Priyadarshan movie the comedy ones (Hungama, Hulchul, Hera Pheri) where you know due to a lot of confusion there will be a lot of commotion because of lack of communication between all the characters. Ok, this is the same Priyadarshan who has also made the Kala Pani and other award winning movies. But then coming back to his comedy version, its starts with two characters Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty and then the girlfriends are introduced Katrina Kaif and Sameera Reddy respectively. Then parents and some bosses, killers, dancers, hookers, waiters, and the list will continue... are brought into the picture. Then there is lot of money at stake, there is a kidnapping, and then all are put together all under one roof the Pan Pacific Hotel in Singapore. 1000 times they should the name of the Hotel where they were staying, how can one forget?
I am glad that there are so many actors in the movie, so Akshay doesnt dominate the screen so much. The other Johnny Lever who tries to play a hitman; Rajpal Yadav who is a corrupt waiter; Manoj Joshi - father of the bride; Neha Dhupia hot headed hooker, who cares only about the money - these actors are quiet commendable. Paresh Rawal is wasted in the movie.
Once in the movie, sometimes you feel it becomes a drag; sometimes you feel too many songs. This one for sure you feel that you have not understood a joke even though the whole crowd in the theatre is laughing, dont despair their are intellectual capabilities do not match with yours.
This is not a spoiler but in the climax scene you have digitally (badly) done; water rushing across all the hallways in the hotel. Very similar to the Titanic one, dont even bother thinking how it happened. In the process, the audience is left confused yet again> Will the actors drown in them, will swim they in it, will they have funny slides made out of it, or what? cause the whole place is filled with water rushing and very bad extras reacting scared, but you can see through them that there is no water in front of them.
Just too many songs thrown in, for no apparent reason. Conversation between director (Dir) and song composer (SC). Of course this is fictional. SC: we have made 8 songs and 4 more with remixes, so that other DJs cant remix are songs Dir: I had asked for only 4 songs, Will ask the producer not pay you any money for wasting your time and creative copying juices SC: I dint waste much time, i had seen the underground scene in UK, that is where i got inspired for the remixes Dir: so? SC: So, now you need to use it.
After a few beers, vodkas, mixing all the drinks at the nearest dance bar to Andheri, Mumbai Dir: Fine, if you convince Rani to dance to your number, right now, i will picturise all your songs, and put you one too SC draws attention of voluminous aunty looking Rani, as if he was calling out for a waiter ... and the SC had some magic in his words... there are all the songs in the movie. My favourite song is Paisa, it has right Punjabi beats to jump and have right thump to groove and sway in the music. It is no thanks to Pritam, but thanks to Usher in this case.
I can only say confused, go watch it, dont have any expectations, laugh when the crowd laughs, or you will left out on the joke.
I picked up this book, just by chance at the Ahmedabad railway station. I like these kind of books cause there are light reading, there are situations you can relate to. The new breed of authors Chetan Bhagat and Tushar Raheja and many more, will never be a classic, but will be entertaining.
Author Rahul Saini introduces Raj who gifts his girlfriend a soap and then also introduces all the women in the life of Raj unlike Khuswant Singh's In the Company of Women. Raj's love (read as mostly infatuation) story starts when he was in pre-school, and continues through out school, college, and then work with different women in a very Bollywood-ish style. He works as a architect where is always in the company of women, not like he flirting with them, but he is always surrounded with them for friendship and emotional support.
Raj elucidates his relationship about the 8 women in his life and you can pick up any chapter out of random and start with any one. Please note, the grammar, style of writing, for emphasis using ALL CAPS. Thank God, for not using abusive language or mom had done the proof reading and she ordered the author, "beta, the 'f' word is not necessary here; please delete it, right now".
With this book and many other Indian authors to name a few Abhijit Bhaduri, Meenakshi Reddy, Tushar Raheja, Roma Bansal, Karan Bajaj they are writing interesting books to read and surely a morale booster to a lot of Indian born writers, publishers are also showing interest in the new style of writing, the pricing of the books are also not very expensive, and they make good airport (train/bus) reading and sometimes even good discussions. The best part is a lot of younger generation even though having multiple entertainment options (also read time wasters) will inculcate and develop a habit of reading.
Next Step for for these established authors is to start writing scripts or adapt their books for movies, give expert views on global phenomena effecting every Indian, leave the black leather comfortable job and start writing regular columns in the newspapers.
Someday, to write my own book!! Have a few ideas, anyone open to discussion??
Before I enter the theatre I pray and hope that Ninja Assassin is a path breaking movie. (Tweet). Once the movie starts you see a whole lot of Ninjas, whole lot of fighting, whole lot of weapons and ammunition flying in the air, and a sweet heart filled story of revenge between all the fight sequences.
Once you go and watch this movie, you will have flashes of all those Chinese movies, where father or teacher is murdered and then the son or the pupil is preparing himself to avenge the death. The sweet revenge where people would only learn kung-fu, takenwondu, jujutsu and any other martial arts form only to kill the killer. And yes, this story line is nothing different.
The only better part to the movie is the fighting environment that is created and simulated, the last battle where the house is under fire and the protagonist Raizu (played by Rock Star Rain) is fighting his master and you can see burnt ash as well as slightly lit paper all flying around while they are at fight. The weapons and use of special effects to that extent that you would feel the camera is slower to capture moment of the fights, this is also brilliantly done. (Tweet)
At the same time, the choreography of the fight sequence is also very predictable. You have the blood and gore all splattered around and sometimes the blood would be come up as a shower from someone's body. WoH! too much blood for one day, the movie not recommended for pathologists and vampires, it may be a huge turn-on for them.
At the end of all the violence, it is something that one as already seen before in Kill Bill, 300, and many others where you see people getting sliced, diced, beheaded, dismembered, and bodies being halved. The whole thing seems so perfect for an action mindless game on X-box than anything else.
For a story level, one thing that i disliked the most if that teacher would attack from behind and now that is something that is never taught in martial arts form, it is either you face your worse fears or runaway to put an army together and challenge them. No one fights here for honour or nobility but only for revenge.
If this movie released in Hindi adaptation to this, the lead should be played by Shahid Kapoor, he has the hairstyle, he has the looks with no expressions, sometimes and now he is ready to show off his six pack abs, cause Raizu just doesnt like wearing shirt, he likes to fight topless.
Another Bollywood movie in the making Two States is a story between a couple Ananya and Krish, who meet in college, the reputed IIM-A, and take their relationship forward even though there are from two separate worlds, two different cultures, two different states, and of course two families, dont think they wanted to relaise in the end they are brother and sister, that would be a story. Actually, the story is as to how the convince their parents to get them married happily, leaving differences aside. very Bollywoodish! You have stopped writing for writing sake, you writing the novels as scripts, dont you deny, Mr Author?
I still like Five Point Someone. It is very easily to relate to the characters that you portray in your books, you see them in trains, you see them in metros, you see them bargaining for vegetables at the local vendor. Except for the fact you bought GOD in One Night @ the Call Centre, was way over board. Your first book gets reflected so very strongly in this, you have made a whole story revolving around it. Last book i remember where same character was repeated was Robert Langdon in Angels and Demons and then in Da Vinci Code. Also, this time you didnt bring in the God element, but to play Safe - a Guruji.
Punjabi vs. Madrasi I like and dislike the whole North Indian vs. South Indian divide. I like it because it brings in the humour element and very stereotypical characters specially the pubjabi fat, health conscious aunites and at the same time South Indian food. The story lacked the in-depth elements that focused on highlighting the cultures and the differences, but then i believe you must have been told by the publisher / editor / whom so ever, please keep the story below 250 pages, we are not planning to sell the book for more than Rs. 95 wonly. Why was there a hurry to finish the story. I actually skipped a lot of the elements, while reading the book, like i already knew it.
Love Story and delayed marriage They fell in love way to fast, they got successful careers. On the career end, that is when i started liking the Punjabi mother the most. Her son IIT and IIM graduate and working for a MNC company called Citibank feels upset and she suggests that leave that job, till then i will speak to the Manager of Canara Bank, which is next door.
Love is fast in this movie; oops novel. But then it takes them one and half years to get the things sorted out between their parents and there are no fights between the couple and just basic arguments between them which are solved more amicably and with complete maturity, totally unbelievable. Once, everyone is happy, you take another 4 to 5 months to actually get the date of marriage.
Dedication and possible sequels I also liked the part in the beginning where you dedicate the book to your in-laws and then you make a very careful, diplomatic acknowledgment to all those Punjabis and Madrasis. Glad you didnt take digs at Marathis, or even better still you didnt fall in love with a Martathi girls or the sales of the pirated copies of the book would be higher and it would be one of the banned book. This should clearly give an idea as to what would be the sequel to this book - 2 States - Second story - Gujarati marrying an Assamese. You are lucky at present India has 28 states and 7 Union Territories (Ref), you are a banker, you do the permutation and combination of the number of sequels that one can write.
With fast paced novel, missing north and south elements, 70-yr old Guruji, whooped time-lines, multiple unnecessary brand mentions (my favourite: Citi never sleeps, only makes customers weep) and predictable sub-plots it still makes the pleasant read.
I just cant see any horror movies. The closest that i have enjoyed a ghost movie is Ghost-Busters. The Patrick Swazye Ghost movies was watched only on cable, never in theatre. This movie is not a horror movie, but there were ghosts and very ugly looking characters and very scary ghosts specially, when you see the Disney tag name.
Jim Carreyis awesome best, but then you cant just make the man do all the characters in a movie, give others a chance. He is good and he plays the 60 year + Uncle Scrooge the character from the Charles Dicken's novel who hunches, walks with a walking stick, but then falls from a whirlwind and topples onto a huge flight of stairs and is being chased by demented Ghost of Christmas yet to come and still manages to stand, which all is very commendable and entertaining. With a performance and the central character so strong, the other characters automatically are away from the limelight.
With Christmas Carol, now Jim Carrey does a second movie where the protagonist hates Christmas, the other movie being How the Grinch stole the Christmas?. One question that I have in mind does Jim Carrey hate or love the spirit of Christmas?
The graphics was over - powering and 2D was very effective, specially because the story is based in the winters in London and then you have snow flakes landing in front of your eyes and the visual seems like snow flakes might just be falling in front of you.
Overall, if you have scared of horror movies, then be prepared to be spooked a bit. Visually, a very entertaining movie.
The last time i was reading Hindi poetry was to give my Hindi elementary exams. The poems and poets that i fairly remember are Sukh-Dukh by Sumitra Nandan Pant and Agneepath by Dr. Harivnashrai Bachchan. My favourite part in the poems sections were the Dohas that we had to actually by-heart and then vomit it out to for the exams. Dohas are the two line couplets where in the first line, you would have the obvious written and then in the second it would be compared to the life in very simple terms. The most popular or he ones that we had to study were Rahim and Kabir. One of the most memorable Rahim doha that i remember and continue to follow is
रहिमिन देखी बडेंन को, लगो न दिज्ये दर, जहा काम आवे सुई, क्या करे तलवार.
All this was more of a nostalgia that brought in my book that i currently finished reading as well was present for the book launch. The book titled is "Tum Kabhi Boodhi Mat Hona" by Mukesh Anand. Where the poems are written in such simplicity that it brings out the most complex issues in subtle manner and makes you think.
What I liked in the book the most is that, after reading a stanza, momentarily use to forget the rest of the poem which us still unread and use to start aligning that whole stanza with part of my life, where they would be flashes of people, places or situations that I have been. Never had this effect earlier, after reading any book, cause you just keep on visualizing how the story would unfold, once you read prose or any fiction.
Will not deny that all the poems had that effect, but most of them did, cause there are sometimes you are unable to relate to that experience that the poet mentions, since you have never been into one. But most of the times, the poems are dealing with current issues that we all feel for.
Favorite section in the book is what is called Mukhdas (मुखड़े) where this section is similar to Dohas the form poetry that I love. Amongst my favourite is
अपनी ख़ामोशी का हासिल उनको बता देना जिन जज्बातों को पनाह न दे सको उन्हें मेरा पता देना
... and there more like these in the book. At the book launch, i got my first autographed book my the poet himself. Always had the impression that poets are very serious, dukhi and sad. This impression was formed because the Pyassa, what else could have been. Mukesh Anand turns out to be a little different, where he accepts life in its hostility as well as its humility and that is what it reflects even in his poems. He jokes too and sometimes has not one but two punch lines in his jokes!!
Book Launch images here. There was Anurag Kashyap, who had done the launch.
The One Minute Manager written by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson is one of the simplest ways to explain on how to plan, organize and reward people. It is not just applicable in large multinational corporations, but also in our daily lives.
If you have a father who likes to keep talking some sense into you, or you teacher who keeps motivating you to study or a boss who keeps telling you to do things in a right manner or a guru who tried to give you a spiritual path of enlightenment (or Moksh); then next one and half hour when you would be reading this book, you will all start realizing that the book just keep emphasizing all those points that have been told to you earlier in more structured manner.
The style of writing the book is to elucidate all the management concepts in the that one has studied and rephasizing on the importance of Goal Setting; giving individuals the opportunity to make their own decisions and reward them for it and repimanding behaviour and not people, if the deviate away from the objective or are unable to achieve it. Simple style of writing makes the concepts very easily understood and it makes you think, if you have diverted away from your path or no. It is inspiration, which will last for sometime, or untill you re-read it or read something else.
In the most simple terms, the three things that the book tells you is that * Set your goals * Reward people * Reprimand people
On Manipulation Hey, now that does not tell you everything about the book. You can still go ahead and read it. One of my question on manipulation got answered, after reading the book. Always thought that as public relations consultants we manipulate people emotions into achieving desirable goals for the orgnizations that we work for. My take from the book on manipulation is that if we inform everyone of our intentions and the objectives of the organization, then we would not manipulating them or making them think in terms of that we are using them. Manipulation is not just what organization decides to tell his employees and or hides from them, it is also which makes them think as what they want to achieve from the organization.
Question answered Question that remains answered from the book is that on the concept of reprimanding people, it says that you do not target the people, you target their behaviour. That is something one will definately be very difficult to achieve cause your biases towards a person will surely creep in and the book subtly states that you would want to hold back shouting and getting back at people in more aggressive tone. Again, this also very difficult to achieve, even though knowing and understanding people, if they dont shout at you, they would surely be sarcastic about it.
Book easily available at all book stores at Rs. 125, you dont even wish to buy the pirated version of this book. Read it, get inspired and use the learning cause If you dont blow your own horn; someone else will use it as a spittoon.
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