Oscars vs Filmfare

Two of the greatest film awards was held recently Oscars for Hollywood and filmfare for Bollywood. There was stark contrast on the way both of the them was conducted . Though I am a kind of fan of the Hollywood movies so definitely a prejudice - nevertheless the difference was all over. Oscars was relayed live to the globe and our folks in bollywood gave us a stale diet the next day when all the so called suspense was over. Was the positioning of the advts more important than actually having the suspense relaying out to the masses. At least till last year there was a delayed live feed ( made popular by DD on olden days of cricked telecast) - so we have taken a step backwards.

Just have a look at the Emcee for both the events- here we had Shahrukh khan let loose and he was at his usual - self glorification and cracking those stupid silly jokes on unsuspecting winners . I think he was at his irritating best - was not able to stand him for what ever period I saw the program. Difficult to fathom on SRK's choice.Where as Ellen DeGeneres was refreshing - having grown watching Billy crystal, Steve martin, woopi goldberg hosting the Oscars - her witty repartees and the unassuming persona was quite a treat. It was surprising that a rank outsider hosting such a huge event by her own admission.

I was nearly in tears when Forrest Whitaker gave his acceptance speech. What intensity and emotions it had - at the Oscars we have folks who want to speak and thank as many people they can - time permitting. There was hardly any intensity at the filmfare -with so many awards and the various categories it is natural for everyone to win. Never understood the reason behind giving a critics award !. Even Oscar has its flaws - it took 25 years to recognise Martin's talent , Steven Spielberg was lucky with Schindler's List and George Lucas may never get one even though he is the creator of the most successful Hollywood Franchisees- Star wars. There are other numerous other stories of betrayal - the process of nomination & selection is as complicated and opaque as the functioning of the Indian government ( Lobbying , favoritism etc all potent ingredients)

We have a whole lot of film awards - screen, Zine cine, IFfa, stardust etc. Most of them seem to be an excuse to party and return some favors than any serious recognition of talent.I really admire Aamir Khan on his approach to these film awards - really commendable in the back scratching Bollywood. At the end of the day the viewer might just remember the stage performances and hardly the winners - there is hardly anything to be gained by winning leave alone a nomination where as in hollywood your pay packet immediately shoots up even on nomination. Folks feel proud on being called " X times academy award nominee". There is pride.
The execution is flawless at the Oscars - the paper for reading is held by the winners where as at the filmfare the hosts were seen regularly reading out - why cant we have a good teleprompter. It clearly shows the lack of planning. I can go on and on but the moot point is that the Indian film fraternity should get out of the dynastic confabulations ( read the names of this year's popular winners - hardly an outsider from the filmy families).

The obvious relevance can be understood from the respective websites....

Is Cancer a disease

The mention of the word "CANCER" itself evokes a range of emotion among them being anguish, pain , misery , depression etc. Probably this is one of the most potent diseases still widely prevalent for which there is no definite cure Its a slow and painful process of both discovery of the disease and recovery - with the chances of survival still grim even after so much advancement in medical technology. The whole treatment and its after effects on survival are gory themselves. From Chemotherapy to surgery and radiation and those exorbitantly priced medicines there is hardly any recourse for the afflicted. There have been a lot of very successful survival stories the most prominent which comes to mind is of Lance Amnstrong - the cycling great ( though he had his share of controversies). There are other courageous stories which regularly appear in Reader's Digest - of how normal people have overcome the disease.

I happen to chance upon the story written by Prof B M Hegde on cancer and its probable cure in a magazine published by Dr Reddy's . I was totally taken aback by the very approach -- how cancer may be overcome not just by medicines but also by TLC ( tender loving care ) . I still think the normal dose of medication is required even before any of these things can be attempted. Here is the link .. read on ..

http://www.housecallsindia.com/article.asp?aid=553

One thing common in the all the survival stories is the grit and determination shown by the patient and the support from all the near and dear ones.

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

Some how I never seem to get over YouTube. The kind and variety of videos is simply awesome. I only hope my blog doesnt become a repository of YouTube Videos. No wonder Google paid US 1.6 Billion.

Lines ...........

Two advts caught my fancy recently - Tata Safari Dicor on TV and KBC on radio. Though the products the companies they peddle are very dis-similar though the line of thought is similar and thought provoking. Even though the products does not have much relevance with the advertisement's thinking.

How we Indians have been caught in the so called clustered web of being in "LINE" . There is a queue where ever you go - lines at the wedding first to wish the lucky (?) ones then for the food later for the exit. Queues at the mall for first parking your car for paying that bill and then at the exit. In office at the lunch counter first to get the coupon, get food , drink water and even for the customary mouth refreshment. Lines every where and boy they are getting longer by the day. the best example I can think of how a line is formed without any chaos is in a lot of bus stops in mumbai- folks are so programmed to do that for an outsider to Mumbai's madness its simply incredible how people can be so disciplined and also animals while getting in and out of a local train. You name and there is a queue of waiting people - be it at the doctor's place, hospitals, at all kinds of courts at your local grocery shop etc.

This has even manifested itself in the long traffic jams in most of our big cities - ultimately they are also lines of car trying to utilise the same road resources. I keep thinking how wonderful opportunity if anyone manages to get into a business where you constantly have a queue. Always working at 100% capacity. Though there is a flip side which I have observed in Big Bazaar - possibly the biggest retailer in India today - customers get tired with the long queues at the billing counter and have stopped going to their outlets.

Though there are a lot of random thoughts - not able to articulate them right now

Indexed

I happen to stumble on this blog some time back. The drawings are simply amazing check them out. INDEXED . The writter has also produced a film....

My love

I have loved her since I first met her in Nov 2004. Though not beautiful as the current hot models and a bit out of shape, love her undying committment and the warm heart. She so far has not betrayed me and has been a faithful companion. Though a bit on the heavier side which leaves me a bit fatigued when ever I take her out. She can be a bit nagging in traffic jams but loves the highways.

Not a frugal drinker by today's standards but I still manage to satsify her thurst albeit sometimes grudelingly even though prefers only a certain brand. The love affair has actually deepened in the last 2 years and keep mentioning her quality/abilities to a lot of acquaintances who take my words with a pinch of salt.I am in this 3 year hitch had have a feeling that the relationship may not last that long going forward. Neverthless I intend to have her as for as long as possible. My good 8 year old Fiat Uno.

Survival of the fittest

The good old viral flu brought me down last week and as usual I popped in couple of paracetamol tablets and to my surprise they did not have the normal effect. Though the symptoms were all there bad throat , body pain initially I chose not to go to the doctor as from the last experiences - most of them have their pet medicines which they will prescribe which any regular patient can predict. Since I was getting bogged down I decided to anyways pay a visit to the company doctor and not to my surprise she handed my some anti allergies and a cough syrup in spite of explaining the state of my body and the bad throat.

I kept wondering why the medicines did not have the desired effect. Probably Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest came into play. Here I was every time felt uncomfortable popped the medicines un mindful of the actual dosage to be taken every time and when the flu's effect starts to wear off and medicines also go back to their usual place. The virus and developed some sort of immunity due to lack of proper dosage and as time is passing the so called 100 and 250 mgs of combination dosage don't have any effect and I am moving to the higher forms of dosage. To day it is normal to find medicines with 650 mg + for normal ailments.

This time I had to resort to a very strong antibiotic 500 mg which can be taken only once a day to make me stand and run again ( this is the 4 time in last 6 months though). I have observed while taking medicines any chemist shop - the number of people taking advice from the chemist for that odd headache or body ache is pretty high and the guy over the counter gleefully advices and doles out one or two tabs ( after all he has a social responsibility to perform) even if the tab/capsule carries the redundant warning " Schedule H drug" - to be given only on prescription.

Yupeee - its a long week end

Its all about the will ..

As soon as the cauvery verdict was announced the memories of Rajkumar's death the events that unfolded after that got instantly refreshed - what I called the fear psychosis was replayed , the honest hardworking citizen got transformed into a squirrel desperately trying to get into his or her borough. What happened last year was inexplicable a person whose normal death brought about such irrational expressions of mindless violence and there were all the elements of it getting repeated after all the pride of karnataka was at stake and how can our astute politicians miss the chance of grabbing the opportunity of misleading the gullible citizenary of how the whole country was against the state.

Alas that was not to be and except some benign skirmishes nothing major untoward happened - probably every of the banaglore's citizen reached home on time ( even for a change ) , the bosses did not have an excuse to ask the folks to stay back , all the customers deadlines was dumped in the dustbin and en mass we all headed home. Ostensibly our beloved CM decided that there was much at stake - The aero India show was happening in Bangalore - with a lot of senior folks from the global aviation industry present suddenly the image of the state was at stake and as sense prevailed all the immature and malignant forms of agitation was probably forgotten ( I hope ).

This clearly shows if our politicians want they can definitely make a difference to our lives - the problem is that they have to pander to the community which actuals votes them to power - the poor and the illiterate who probably cant make the out the difference between brass and gold but still decide who is worthy of their franchise. In this case the agitating people may even not know what this verdict actually means but you still find them in hordes blocking roads , resorting to ransom ET all.

If there is a will - our country could be a much better place to live and probably regain the lost glory of our heritage.

Closer look at the I-phone

The features of the phone are simply amazing !

Supermarkets every where ..

You name it and its in my neighbourhood - the ubiquitous supermarket. I was just counting the number of mall/supermarkets around 2 Km radius of my house and was astonished by the choice and variety I had - Two really big baazars, two subhikshas, Foodday, monday-sunday, foodworld , Vishal mega mart, Fabmall , others which I may not have discovered and innumerable small unbranded stores all around the place. Don't know how many will survive with the big one of Reliance and Bharti yet to invade Bangaqlore. I still feel that Big bazaar has an edge being a first mover and having a large format.

I have read a lot of articles which justify that the small shops dont get killed due to the large format stores but I have a different experience. I was recently in a area called Marathalli in Bangalore the factory outlet capital. Brand factory a venture of the future group (owners of big bazaar ) has opened a multi story outlet stocking more than 120 brands. The pricing is as competitive as most of the other outlets in the area but what the consumer gets is all he or she wants under the same roof plus some marque brands like Biba ( women's designer wear ) at never before heard rates.

I did a dip stick survey when I was there last and found that the some of the factory outlets have lost close to 30 % to 40 % of their sales - with the thin margins there now being forced to close down. Another thing which has hit them below the belt is that brand factory in collusion with the local traffic police has marked the whole area as no parking which makes the parking impossible in the area further constraining the customer flows. The parking charges in brand factory are Rs 50 - high by any standards though reimbursable against any purchase.

The polarisation of the market has ensured that the small folks hardly have any voice and loosing their customer base to big sharks . The ultimate benefit though is the consumer who has whole gamut of format stores to choose and buy almost anything - definitely at a bargain