tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63628802024-03-08T19:28:27.289+05:30Anand Sivashankar's blogAnand's blogAnandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comBlogger258125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-81440162721601404442011-06-14T10:43:00.002+05:302011-06-14T10:46:15.980+05:30Review: Beatrice & Virgil by Yann MartelEagerly expected books with talking animals having seemingly meaningless but verily spiritual and metaphysical discussions inveigle the reader into their cocooned world leaving him with the necessary option of retreating into more everyday realities or endeavour to cut through the chatter and experience a feeling of oneness with the ambition of the author. Martel’s Beatrice & Virgil follows Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-70858691975223295152010-07-10T21:53:00.002+05:302010-07-10T21:58:32.796+05:30The $64000 Question—Big Money, Just ImagineThe Idiot Box has a duty to perform-not only does it attempt to titillate & tantalize in its blind expansive ambition to bring more followers into its claustrophobic embrace, it also strives purposefully to drag its viewers to a Below-Mean-Sea-Level intelligence above which it actively renders unprofitable to rise. And it performs it with the sassiness of a Boxer in Animal Farm.That there areAnandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-17103406478774835562010-04-13T08:19:00.002+05:302010-04-13T08:22:24.246+05:30My Father the HeroShyam Benegal’s Well Done Abba is his latest film but sadly for a plethora of largely unconnected reasons, some way off his best. For once, the story moves away from glitzy India, even physically, to the Bharat that begins where the Worli flyover mythically ends.Drawn from sources as diverse as — Narsaiyyan Ki Bavdi by Hyderabad-based Urdu writer Jeelani Bano, Phulwa Ka Pul by Hindi author Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-82822525077995084162010-04-04T13:56:00.002+05:302010-04-04T14:06:06.915+05:30Stand up for your rights ( but sit down when wronged)The culmination of many a formal/official occasion in my student life had been the crisp and purposeful rendition of the National Anthem. And being slow on the uptake and getting longer in the tooth, I appear to have missed an interesting change sprung on us by supposedly well-meaning citizens. For what is now is played at the beginning of a film in cinema houses appears to be not the functional Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-306659932286894342009-12-25T16:26:00.002+05:302009-12-25T16:34:10.580+05:30The Day the Music DiedIt has been a soulful and melodious journey while it has lasted the course but as Nelly Furtado sings-Flames to dust, lovers to friends, why do all good things come to an end ?Announcing what appeared to be a business design flaw beyond redemption or correction, the company announced in a distinctly unmusical aside“On December 31, 2009, the WorldSpace satellite radio broadcast service will be Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-21383109293738128122009-12-15T21:05:00.002+05:302009-12-15T21:08:27.248+05:30Matches are made, in Poker HeavenI realized it the minute I left the cafeteria with the Lankans needing 40 from 36 with 5 wickets in hand. And I was wrong by all of one run !The rest of my tea-sipping fans wanted to know how exactly I did it—predicted the victor and the margin, when SL had the match in the bag.For that, one has to go back almost a decade when I saw the last two hours of an India-S Africa match, long after which Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-11676808703609607942009-12-13T11:51:00.001+05:302009-12-13T11:53:59.305+05:30Teda hai par mera haiIndia has come a long way from the 80’s time when the epitome of a child’s aspirations were a BSA SLR bicycle, a wad Wrigley’s chewing gum, a Mon Ami pen set and perhaps a North Star pair of shoes. However for most adult males, ownership of any of the famed Priya, Chetak, Super or Classic set of Bajaj scooters was sufficient to grant a visible halo of middle-class respectability, familial Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-564122842185327522009-12-02T02:00:00.001+05:302009-12-02T02:03:00.039+05:30Driving our Car’eersThe latest Volkswagen TVC is an integrated brand campaign in India that aims to increase brand awareness about its four cars - Beetle, Jetta, Passat and Touareg. The ad film opens with a shot of a young kid in a Volkswagen showroom, admiring the Beetle. A salesperson sees him there and offers to help him. The kid asks him whether it would be possible to book a car in advance, for his 18th Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-28992040858593802482009-11-25T02:15:00.002+05:302009-11-25T02:23:06.828+05:30As I Lay DyingThe casual brutality of the world’s oldest “way of life” reasserts itself as rusty knives and rustier beliefs are brandished yet again. Shrugging off fervent entreaties from a few disparate directions, hordes of devotees swarmed to at the Gadhimai temple premises in southern Nepal where over a lakh animals are to be ritually slaughtered.There have been some muted and some strident protests – Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-30710110776708741892009-11-15T00:57:00.004+05:302009-11-19T01:20:50.402+05:30And of Muddied Oafs....An unseen and ineluctable downward intellectual spiral in most of our lives has us occasionally pausing out of breath wondering where all one’s lofty pursuits have disappeared. The extent of elation on encountering anything divergent from the status quo, usually a direct measure of the depths that we may have plumbed, is unfettered by any stimulus causing it to begin with which consequently Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-31850610217120990052009-11-05T01:22:00.001+05:302009-11-05T01:25:00.398+05:30Valley of the DoltsHaving always considered myself a genuine sports-lover and with more than a passing acquaintance with the Indian Army, I am alarmed at the predictably churlishly and piercingly shrill rants that have found their way into the mangers of the media at the refusal/inability of the Services team to visit Srinagar to play their Ranji Trophy match against the hosts J & K.As the story goes, the top Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-42970297528802008432009-10-28T00:20:00.000+05:302009-10-28T00:22:35.304+05:30What the well-dressed man is wearingAfter ample coverage of the mayhem dished out to unprotesting “fabric” and self-conscious models during the yawnfests also known as fashion shows, the scene shifts to embarrassing a hitherto content and silent section of our population. It is the season of the relatively low-key Gladrags Mrs. India where a politically motivated set of organizers attempt to set aright the balance.The ads that Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-32169486579478762012009-09-10T02:12:00.001+05:302009-09-10T02:16:02.913+05:30Follow the SunTo ensure and complete a rich integration of a smooth transfer of learning from the bored-room to the black-and-bored room, the Ingenious Silo of Blah has enunciated their version of beating the street in the wake of recessionary pressures. This heady concoction titled “Chase the Shadowy CEO” engenders students staking a claim to bid for and get a full day to trace the whereabouts of CEOs of Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-7202517052966809102009-09-06T01:01:00.002+05:302009-09-06T01:05:53.734+05:30A Teacher's DayAn unhappy task lies before me, to remember a dear teacher on an occasion meant to salute the noble efforts of this most undervalued and under-recognized profession. The discomfiting humidity and momentary loneliness I feel may pass but the lump in the throat that refuses to go away may not.Prof. Deven Dhanak who taught me Organization Development about a decade ago passed on last month. While Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-16361381675574573632009-09-04T01:25:00.001+05:302009-09-04T01:26:26.585+05:30A Star is BornFor a nation ranked about No. 150 ( FIFA rankings) to rejoice about exploits, real or imagined, on a football field might be construed as heady optimism by some and blind faith clamouring for any form of sporting success by others. This light-headed joy came largely due to custodian Subrata Pak held up as the public face of India’s victory, and who now finds himself the subject of a respectable Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-30010284946664213842009-08-28T01:27:00.001+05:302009-08-28T01:31:58.720+05:30Sankat CityOther than two forced references at the beginning and the end of the film, the unnaturally-named and even more unnaturally-made Sankat City does not directly reference the city much and in fact the only ones weaken what was never a taut plot in the first place. An empty B.E.S.T bus lumbering uphill and then downhill and a garbage dump the size of Scrooge’s money bin may seem thin devices Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-34283173286575111902009-08-25T00:50:00.002+05:302009-08-25T00:57:16.313+05:30The Secret Lives of BeesIn an enervated attempt to bring the tense spectacle of the Spelling Bee contest to the already-academics obsessed Indian living room, ESPN STAR Sports hosted the inaugural edition of Spelling Champs 2009 recently.Unlike the now-familiar “ May I have the word again please”, “May I have the usage”, “May I have the language of origin” routine, one now had a staccato fire of words thrown at the Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-45707222723321228592009-07-14T00:45:00.001+05:302009-07-14T00:49:43.604+05:30Some Pride and Many PrejudicesIn another reckless display of mind-boggling conceit and superciliousness, He of the grating Jayanagar- meets-Jacksonville accent, held forth another contrived media ode on the pretext of recording His reactions on the afore-mentioned strutting s.-a.p. of I’s c. leaving the N-company.Amongst various facts that he revealed were his having personally selected the Acolyte over thirty years ago, his Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-20747404726136386972009-06-26T01:07:00.002+05:302009-06-26T01:10:07.185+05:30When there is a whorl, there is a way…On a pleasantly rainy day in Bombay, the strutting self-appointed paragon of modern India’s consciousness is elevated to the rank of a Cabinet Minister with the responsibility of leading a project to provide a Unique Identification Number to all its denizens.“The Unique Identification Authority shall have the responsibilities to lay down plans and policies to implement the Unique Identification Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-86971191323098292282009-06-13T09:12:00.001+05:302009-06-13T09:13:34.837+05:30My Cup Spilleth OverIgnoring pointed reminders from the likes of Kabir, the Modern Man deigns to count his blessings only during a recession. And many hours of sedulously hoarding each nugget of material pursuits finds He is really better off than He gives Himself credit for. Contentment is just around the corner !Bhutan’s edicts of Gross National Happiness get a look-in once over…Pico Iyer’s meditative “The Joy of Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-70163346525192525412009-04-16T01:40:00.002+05:302009-04-16T01:46:24.824+05:30Aaja Re PardesiWith our elections just around the corner, there may be reasons for the 58% or so of those among us who vote would have a momentary sense of alignment and self-congratulatory righteousness associated with participation in this massive exercise. Of the rest, most would get on with their lives unfettered by any feeling of remorse with the overall process or result seemingly able to absorb this Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-17939101257971871612009-04-02T23:52:00.002+05:302009-04-02T23:58:52.858+05:30Butterfly strokesA pub, according to the venerated Billy Bunter is an unsavoury place where victuals and beverages of dubious origin are served to shadier folks, and is not , not a place where the well-heeled go to.A crawl, according to the even more venerated dictionary is To move slowly on the hands and knees or by dragging the body along the ground; creep.But by Golly, a pub crawl according to the most Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-78529736438135169692009-03-31T23:59:00.000+05:302009-04-01T00:00:39.936+05:30Thus Spake ZarathustraIn retrospect, the lost demeanour of the Indian team at Napier,at least for the first three days, could be attributed to a dreamy Dhoni mumbling thus“Not really,” said the Indian captain. “When it comes to the mind it depends on what you are feeding into the mind. The mind doesn’t know if it’s Napier or not. You come and say this is Napier it believes it’s Napier, you say it is day it believes itAnandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-51389924655733953252009-03-31T00:06:00.002+05:302009-03-31T00:12:53.416+05:30For He’s a Jolly Good FellowNewton’s third law at work here—the air is rife with folks who are at the other end of the moral-socio-fiscal tug-of-war finding some willing listeners. The most listened-to voice beinghttp://www.usnews.com/blogs/the-ticker/2009/03/25/jake-desantis-dear-aig-i-quit-.htmlNow, there appear to be two aspects on which the writer has my sympathies—one, laws applied retrospectively smack of poor Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362880.post-53815475834145245592009-03-25T23:48:00.001+05:302009-03-25T23:52:27.946+05:30The Continental Drift TheoryIn a sad move that may yet derail the world’s biggest democratic fair, the Insatiable Pecuniary League has moved house to the Republic of South Africa, abetted by dreamy visions of balmy weather and barmier viewers who would now safely relied upon to spend most of their summer days watching coloured cricketers in coloured clothing pretend to immerse themselves in the wonderful game of Ten10.In a Anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950338953048746347noreply@blogger.com