Watch it. Even if you’ve seen the original Tamil version, the dubbed Telugu version (I have), it’s still worthwhile. I will not write about the plot or what works, I will not attempt to write a review. Go to the theater, watch it, and let me know how you liked it.

This is a Yash Chopra type Yash Raj movie – not to be confused with YRF movies like Dhoom. Rab… is an extension of the DDLJ, Raj-Simran type movies.

This movie is about how an ordinary couple – Surinder Sahani (SRK), a government employee working for Punjab Power, and his wife Tani (Anushka) – discover each other and fall in love. Suri marries Tani when tragedy befalls her. He soon realizes that she has shut him out of her heart in her grief. He desperately wants to see her happy again. In order to bring her out of her depression, he disguises himself and befriends her as Raj. The story is about who Tani chooses, Suri or Raj (yeah I know they’re both the same guy, I’m just telling you what the movie is about).

It has the Yash Raj formula – romance, dance, music, production values and dialogues that are totally sappy and unbelievable if you say them outside the movie theater, but are apt for the tone and tenor of the movie itself. Watch for Vinay Pathak as SRK’s best friend Bobby, he is the highlight of the movie.

My disappointments with this movie:

• How impractical the story is: even if I accept that a wife cannot recognize her husband without his moustache, I don’t know how someone can create an alter-ego that is so alien to their personal style.
• The inconsistencies: Some songs just jump at you for no reason, like the parody song with SRK, Kajol, Bipasha, Preity and Rani.
• The movie starts dragging a bit towards the end with Suri and Tani both becoming very confused, along with director Adi.
• Excessive use of the word “Rab” throughout the movie, it was frankly irritating.

Having said that, Rab… is reasonably entertaining with some laugh-out-loud scenes, like the bike repair scene between Pathak and SRK; and the scene where SRK has to eat Biryani after a golgappa contest with his wife. The serious scenes have been handled sensitively; Aditya Chopra deserves credit for that. SRK’s performance was well done, restraining it just enough as Suri, and going just over the top as Raj. You can almost feel his desperate love for his wife. Anushka is pretty good too.

I liked the movie overall, although I can understand why some reviewers have not liked it. I’d say go see it, SRK is always Paisa Vasool.

We got news of the blasts when we were watching a movie in PVR cinemas. As we walked out we noticed a lot of other people also quietly walking out, there was no chaos and no panic. People were just quietly picking up their stuff and leaving, while some people were still watching the movie, wondering what was going on. I hope at some point, management made an announcement, so people were able to leave reasonably.

The traffic was very orderly, shops were open, the city reacted by showing no reaction whatsoever. I think AP Police Department should get credit for having controlled the situation so quickly.

The sad part was for pure Hyderabadis like myself. I love Hyderabad. It was sad when Mecca Masjid was bombed, where I have never been. But I’ve been to Lumbini park many times, seen the laser show. I knew the Lumbini park grounds since before there was a park there. I ate at Gokul chat bhandar 3-4 times a week for four years when I was in college. We still make it there once in a while. I have passed these two places hundreds of times and feel a very personal connection to these places, and can easily put myself in the place of the people that died. If the blasts had happened another day, another time, my family or I could have been the people killed. This ties it to me in a way that I cannot even describe, and brings tears to my eyes.

The poor, poor people who died. If ever there is a case of people being in the wrong place at the wrong time, this is it. Why are we surrounded with such senseless violence? What makes people do these kinds of things? What was the objective, and who stands to gain? I think Hyderabadis have proved that they have become inured to these random acts of violence. So I am not sure what purpose was served. YSR came on TV, made all the right noises, but we all know that the people who did this may never get caught.

In the end, we will pay the price for this, again and again. Tightened security in public places is additional burden on the common man’s pocket. The terrorists have not attacked a government or an establishment, they have attacked common people, like you and me and our friends.

Something should be done. Please, please report any suspicious activity. The bombs are being made in ordinary homes, there must be neighbors. I don’t advocate paranoia, but please keep your eyes open. If you see any object that is unattended, report it to the authorities right away. Above all, take care of yourself and your families. 

This book describes itself as a way to take charge, build your team and to get results. I used this book to ease into a new job I’ve just started, I have been here for a month now. I am using this book everyday like a guide, and I am a seasoned Leader, so a leadership role is not necessarily new to me. But this book, along with it’s helpful templates is helping me in getting to the logic behind the “gut”.

I have always worked instinctively towards my goals, acquiring skills required to perform at the next level through insight and through watching how other people perform their jobs. This book is helping me explore the logic behind the instinct, and helping refine the way I react to situations in a new environment.

I recommend it highly – I am seeing positive preliminary indications and I will share the results with you once the 100 days are done.

For those of you who are interested in buying it, the book’s name is “The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan: How to Take Charge, Build Your Team, and Get Immediate Results” by George B. Bradt, Jayme A. Check and Jorge E. Pedraza. Check it out. 

This novel is a story about Paro, a girl who moves to big, bad, Bombay to become a set designer of some sort. Oh forget it, there is no story. This is a really ridiculous book, and I cannot believe Chetan Bhagath, Kundan Shah, Javed Akhtar, Soha Ali Khan and other such eminent people have endorsed it.

The characters are too superficial. Rajashree would like us to believe that her heroine, Paro, is a straight-laced girl with middle-class sensibilities but she smokes, drinks, parties, spews out the “F” word in every sentence; and has two boyfriends and an abortion in about a years’ span. Sorry, but as a legitimate, straight-laced girl with middle-class sensibilities, I object. I object to this characterization.

There is not one single thing I like about this book, and this is such a low. I had picked up this book, hoping that since it was written by an Indian woman, and about an Indian woman, I’d be able to relate to it. Instead, it is a smutty book about a slutty girl, masquerading as a humorous book. What repartee? What humour? I read the whole book waiting for the witticism to start, but did not find it.

Why can’t there be a book about the trials and tribulation of a normal Indian girl? Heartache is no less acute if the one affected does not engage in drinking, smoking, swearing and sleeping around.

I normally buy anything that has John Grisham’s name on it – so I bought “The Innocent Man” a while back along with a bunch of paperbacks. Finally found time to read it this weekend. I started reading the book, and it was so gripping, so un-put-down-able, that I soon became engrossed in it. Imagine my shock when I got to about the middle of the book, and saw some photographs! I had not realized that it was a True Story, that Ron Williamson really exists! The “story” was so out there; that I never imagined it could be real! I must be the only Grisham fan who did not know that this was his attempt at non-fiction, but I really had no idea. It was so strange, seeing a smiling, handsome 18 year old boy degenerating into to a scrawny old man.

The book is about a small-town boy from Ada, Oklahoma, who grows up dreaming of making it big in professional baseball, but soon gets sucked into bad company, alcohol, drugs and womanizing. He fought various mental illnesses during his lifetime, including depression, bipolar disorder and personality disorder. He was wrongly convicted of a murder of a young woman; along with a friend of his, Dennis Fritz, and served 20 years in prison. 

At no time is Ron likeable. He is portrayed as being moody, selfish, prone to bouts of anger, self-aggrandizing, scary and lawless. He is involved in a lot of skirmishes with the law early on in his life, and is rescued countless times by his sisters and mother. Grisham treats him gently, and with a certain amount of sympathy, bringing out his innocence of the particular crime, the abuse he underwent in prison and his various challenges with mental and physical problems including sports injuries, cancer and cirrhosis of the liver. Due to Grisham’s sensitive handling, you feel pity for Ron throughout the book. If you read my blog on Sanjay Dutt, you would know that I don’t care for the hard luck stories of the “poor little boys” who waste their lives and talent due to their various addictions, but while Dutt was proven guilty, Ron was eventually proven innocent after being incarcerated on death row for a long time.

By the end of the book, I was shocked by the American criminal justice system, shocked to know just how many exonerations happen every week. There are two men, Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot, in prison for life, right now, who are known to be innocent, but can’t be released from prison with the evidence available currently because of the loopholes in American law. The body of the woman they were supposed to have killed was found, not knifed or burned as they had “confessed”, but shot. There is no evidence connecting them to her murder, their “confessions” were proved wrong and coerced, and they were still convicted!!! The real killer is out there. Grisham provides this link for more details: http://www.wardandfontenot.com/

Grisham has also touched on the work Barry Scheck is doing with the Innocence Project, which is helping exonerate people convicted of crimes they never committed; and Mark Barrett who has also exonerated people, including Ron Williamson. The bumbling police officers and the brash DA who put these innocent men behind bars are still practicing in Ada, Oklahoma. If that does not make chills run down your spine, then I don’t know what can.

I have, for years, struggled with my opinion on death penalty. I did not know whether I was in favor of it or not, even though I normally have very strong opinions about pretty much everything. After reading this book, I don’t think I can ever be pro-death penalty again, lest an innocent man be hanged.

This story is compelling, and Grisham is a master in his element. Read the book, but not purely for entertainment. This is one of the rare books that you should read so that you can think things over, and form your own opinion.

Lets play an association game. Think of Cops, especially traffic cops, and what comes to mind? Corruption. For whatever reason. Maybe it is movies, maybe it is the fact that many times we’ve been pulled over to the side of the road and been forced to pay a “fine” for whatever illogical reason, or maybe because nine times out of ten, you can bribe your way out of a situation with a traffic cop.

The one word that does not come to mind when you think of Cops is Efficiency. 

From my home to where I work, there are many major crossroads. They are not all aided with street lights, and every morning I see some traffic cop at each “junction” managing the traffic. I always thought they were there to line their pockets, never realizing what they contribute to the smooth flow of traffic.

Imagine my surprise this morning. There was really bad traffic this morning, a commute that usually takes me only 30 minutes took well over an hour. There were no cops to be seen anywhere, at any junction. I don’t know if they all went to some convention or to provide security to some big wig or what, but I was appalled that people driving on the roads seemed to have abandoned all common sense while driving. Why do people think that if someone has stopped their car, they only have to go around them? This causes so much chaos! People on both sides crowd the road, blocking on-coming traffic, so that there is one major traffic jam at every crossroad, and no hope of clearing because there is not an inch to move in any direction.

Dear Traffic Cops, I am sorry. I am sorry for every time I thought you were inefficient. This morning was an eye opener for me, and I appreciate all that you are doing to keep traffic flowing. Please come back to the streets, and deliver us from traffic jams! 

I got this book the morning it was released, and read it all through by 2:30 in the afternoon. Wow! What an amazing book! I have been following this series since 1997. I’ve lovingly read each book several times, and watched the movies several times. 

I wrote this review the moment I finished reading this book, but decided to wait until all the real Potter fans had finished reading the last book because this review is A TOTAL SPOILER.

This book begins the same way as most of the others, we are in #4 Privet Drive for the last time. The Dursleys and Harry part for good, since Harry has come of age, and the protection placed by Dumbledore on the Dursley Home will not be effective anymore. Harry is ambushed by Voldemort and his followers, but manages to reach the Burrows. Bill and Fleur are getting married, and although Harry has to be heavily disguised, and is torn between wanting to be with Ginny Weasely and wanting to do the right thing by her, ie, not get involved with her since it is highly likely that he would die by the end of the book, it is still a charming wedding, until a patronus sent by Kingsley Shacklebolt warns everyone that the ministry has fallen. Ron and Hermoine are staunchly supportive and all three of them escape to the erstwhile headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix in Grimmauld Place. Through the book, Ron submits us to his usual sulks and tantrums, but eventually comes back, a stronger supporter of Harry than ever before.

Harry’s charter in this book is to find all the horcruxes – objects with pieces of Voldemort’s soul stored in them. In order to destroy the horcruxes he needs the Gryffindor sword and to conquer death, he needs the Deathly Hallows – an invisibility cloak, the resurrection stone and the Elder Wand. He acquires these objects, destroys the horcruxes and meets Voldemort in the climax, set in Hogwarts, which turns into a battleground between the good guys and the death eaters. In this book, we find out that Snape was one of the good guys, and we lose a lot of good guys along with him: Mad-Eye Moody, Remus Lupin, Tonks, Colin Creevey and Fred. Voldemort meets his end when Harry manages to destroy all Horcruxes.

In the end Harry takes care to prevent the deathly hallows from reuniting and gains approval from Dumbledore. Don’t ask. Read the book.

There is an epilogue, which shows Harry happy, married to Ginny and the father of three kids. Ron and Hermoine are also married. Everyone meets at Paltform 9 and three-quarters to see off their kids to Hogwarts.

My big grouse with the book was that we don’t know what actually happens to the people we care about. Does Harry become an Auror? What do Ron and Hermoine become? Do they complete school? What happens to all the other characters?  During the last couple of weeks, JK Rowling has very kindly let people know what she thinks happened to the characters, and the information is available here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/

I loved the book, the whole series and it will always have a place of pride on my bookshelf. The magic of the books is so powerful, that I can’t wait to go back and read the whole series back to back to discover all the hidden nuances I may have missed earlier. I am sure everything will be more magical now that I know how it ends.

And I printed out a copy of the article in the link above, and pasted it into my last book, so that I have all the details I want if ever I read this book 10 years later and wonder all over again what happened to Harry and his friends

I was talking to my colleague this morning, and she said she felt sorry for Sanjay Dutt. Sorry because he has had such a troubled life, his addictions, marriages, loss of his parents.  But you know what, I may be extremely unpopular for saying this, but I don’t know what there is to be sorry about.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of Sanjay Dutt. Lots of people love him. He has had a pretty good run – and I have watched his movies from Rocky to Lage Raho Munna Bhai, so I know. When Rocky came out, all the didi’s in our colony were infatuated with him. Over the years, I’ve had a lot of respect for Sanjay Dutt because he has been so dignified in his choices, playing age appropriate roles: he chose to play Hrithik Roshan’s dad in “Mission Kashmir”.  

Despite all this, I can’t find it in me to feel sorry for him. It is tough, definitely, for him to have to spend 6 years in prison. But he had an AK-47, people! At the time that Bombay was burning! For those of us who are old enough to remember the horror of the Mumbai riots in 1993, how can we trivialize this? How can success, charm and talent make up for the inherent arrogance in purchasing weapons that the Indian Army had not had access to? Yes, the media says it was ignorance, stupidity and fear that prompted him to buy the gun, but I think, added to that was the assurance that he was above the law, thanks to his connections, talent, lineage and influence. He was in his 30s when he bought the gun, definitely not the spoilt kid he was when he was battling his addictions. Sanjay Dutt has had a lot of reprieves. He has been given enormous latitude by the courts. Obviously I don’t know him personally, but what I read about him just makes me think he has wasted god’s gifts. Handsome, successful, rich, with access to the best that money could buy: and this is what he chose to buy with it. 

I am glad justice has been served. The fan in me is disappointed that an actor I admire will not grace the screen for some years, that Munna Bhai -3 will have to be postponed, but the citizen in me is glad that no one is above the law. The emotional energy I am saving by not wasting sympathy on him is going to be spent on sympathizing with the people who lost their loved ones in the riots.

It’s a heist movie. It has Brad Pitt in it. And it also stars George Clooney, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac and other heavy weights like Al Pacino; and Oprah! And even my mom has watched Ocean’s eleven and twelve. So, Ocean’s thirteen was eagerly anticipated – and the slick promos definitely attracted attention. But there is no Julia Roberts, no Catherine Zeta Jones and no pizzazz. Half the movie and all my popcorn was consumed before I figured out who the twelfth and thirteenth guys are. No, I am not telling you.

I definitely enjoyed the movie, but on the whole, it was all pretty difficult to swallow. I don’t even think the actors were acting; it was more like they were coasting. And they knew something we don’t because it looked like they were having fun, and we were on the ride but not in on the joke.

For the story: One of the original eleven, Reuben (Elliott Gould) is robbed by Bank (Al Pacino) who is opening a new Casino called The Bank in Las Vegas. The others launch a revenge operation to bankrupt The Bank, damage it’s reviews and make some money while they’re at it. Half way through they run out of funds to pull off this operation, due to heavy investments like an earthquake creator (sigh, I am not kidding) and they approach someone- go on, make a guess – for more funding. Towards the end, they succeed and the movie shows the maturing of the character Linus (charmingly played by Matt Damon, who really is one of my favourite actors). George Clooney and Brad Pitt are still the leaders of the pack.

I liked the design of the Bank building, the slick technology of the movie, and it’s pace. I liked the actors. I loved the part where Danny Ocean (George Clooney) is as lost with the high-tech stuff as we are and sort of pretends to understand, but Brad Pitt sees through it and explains to him. Hey, if Clooney had trouble with it, I am only human J

I enjoyed the movie enough to want another instalment – I’d love to see an Ocean’s 14 – but minus the earthquake machine type unbelievable stuff, please. And bring Julia Roberts back!