Sea-storm in the making..

It felt as if the clouds were falling down as though there were a lack of space in the sky. Would have been awesome to be there beneath the clouds, as the place where the clouds seemed to fall was the Bay of Bengal.

Passing through the scenic ECR on way to Madras. Just opposite faces of the sky. On the left to us was a bluish sky with clouds running towards the right side. Missed the scene of the epicenter of a sea storm in the making. The last image shows a lighthouse in the backdrop. 

Nature has its own pastimes.

Sunny Boy

As the clouds got cleared, the sun came up and started taking the juice out of us. So brightly did it shine and that too with full vengeance as if it were getting goosepimps. All happened within a fraction of few minutes.

Shot on the same day.

Shine Rainbow Shine

Shot during our trip to Madras in the last week of September 2010. Our trip started at 4.30 am in the morning. This was the village after Mamallapuram that we were passing through. We hadn't yet cleared Pondy when the rains started. Was pure thrill. Getting wet and riding through the highway.

The shot taken through my sidekick. Was around 7.00 in the morning when the rains cleared and we had a chance encounter with this scene. Don't remember, when i had seen the last rainbow but for certain it was during my school days and after such a long gap i happened to see it again.

I wanted to to capture it end to end. Bad luck couldn't do it.

Neways, life is again a rainbow. You get to see the various colours as you tread ahead.

The Great Indian Laughter Challenge

It is a lot harder to make people laugh than to make them cry. But after years of success at the latter - thanks to the saas bahu series of soap sagas - Indian television is finally attempting to tickle our funny bones.

Ironically, the first memorable show on Indian TV was way back in 1983 a sitcom - Kundan Shah's Yeh jo hai zindagi. It is an all time classic. But nothing quite lived upto that for the next two decades.

Indian television comedies were pretty much 'lowest common denominator' - loud and slapstick. 'Hum Paanch' was maybe, slightly tolerable, only because of characters like Kaajal bhai and the dead wife on the wall (Priya Tendulkar) were imaginative (relatively speaking).

But, then the drought finally ended. With 'Sarabhai vs Sarabhai' Star One finally had a winner.

Saaru chhe
Sarabhai had all the elements necessary for a good sitcom -
1) A small but clearly defined cast of characters (like Rosesh the duffer son who wrote insufferable poetry)
2) An inherent - and exaggerated - clash of values producing comic situations (the sophisticated saas vs the middle class bahu).
3) Great acting (not just the big names like Ratna Pathak Shah, Satish Shah - everyone played their parts well!)
4) Great scripts and dialogue
5) Consistency

Sarabhai was (very loosely) inspired by Dharma and Greg but had a life and locus of quite its own. The same team (Jamnadas Majethia & Aatish Kapadia) also wrote, produced and directed another weekly sitcom - Instant Khichdi.

Khichdi started life on Star Plus and was later migrated to Star One. In the process the Gujarati family whose antics the show features also suddenly became crorepatis looking for new - and hilarious - ways and means to spend their money.

Instant Khichdi was also entertaining but of late the Praful-Hansa PJs lost their zing. Sarabhai was more sophisticated - and relied less on physical comedy - and hence got the vote as India's no 1 television sitcom.

Talent galore
What's more, the Great Indian Laughter Challenge - also aired on Star One - was on a hunt for India's "hasi ka baadsha". And was definitely worth a watch. Many a times the audience was struck by the originality and style of many baadshahs who were so good that the judges and audience had to declare a tie.

While some contestants merely related jokes - although with considerable chutzpah - the two who made it to the last round were stand up comics in the true sense. They used their own accents/ background/ world around them to create a very unique and personal brand of humour.

The Hyderabadi chap used his Hyderabadiness to great effect. His song 'Usne Paaya Khaaya' (usne including Bill Kalinton, Mrs Kalinton, Pervez Musharraf, Adnan Sami, and even Saddam Hussein) was absolutely hilarious. But hilarious while making a larger point - which is what the best humour was about.

Deepak Raja from Jalandhar put his own mama, chacha, foofas and taayas to good use while scripting his routine. The fact that he was dressed in an abonimable pink suit teamed with a flowery shirt didn't matter at all. What he said and the way he said it was so ... funny!

India has a long tradition of haasya kavi sammelans where little known and well known poets gathered. These kavis wrought out humour from everyday Indian life - some of it, truly priceless.

These kavis - and other homegrown talents like Deepak and his Hyderabadi counterpart - are the ones who will really raise the standards of humour in India.

And by the way, will someone PLEASE give Navjot Singh Sidhu his own show. Whatever you may feel about his cricket commentary (in English) Sidhu is amazing in Hindi. Witty AND insightful. As a judge on the 'Laughter Challenge' he laughed easily and loudly. A man jiske dil mein koi gile shikve nahin they. Shekhar Suman on the other hand was stiff and 'professional'. Plus he wore dark glasses - on air!

Yeh tha attitude
Shekhar Suman: Sidhuji bataiye, jab log Sardaron ke baare mein jokes sunaate hain, aapko kabhi bura toh nahin lagta

Sidhu: Kabhi nahin! Chaand ke upar agar koi thooke toh kya use daag lag sakta hai??!! 

If more of us believed that - instead of taking 'offence' easily when the joke's on us - the world would resound more often with laughter.

On the nightshift

I couldn't sleep last night. So I got up and switched on the FM at 3.15 am. 93.5 FM was playing a series of not-so-well-known - although pleasant - English songs.

A while ago 93.5 decided to accept that there is no life without Hindi music and went 70: 30 (Bollywood: English Pop). I think at that time the Boss must've said, "Look - you can play WHATEVER you want at night (when no one's listening anyways...)".

Initially the channel was rather apologetic about 'having' to play Hindi but over time they've struck a good balance. Their songs are slightly less faltu than Mirchi (which will even play 80s Sridevi / Jaya Prada numbers - some of the most horrendous music ever created).

And RJs have more interesting banter and better chemistry.

Whatever the quality of the films we are producing, the Bollywood music machine sure is getting better and better. Thanks to the 'item number' culture even the flop films produce a couple of catchy 'radio' songs.

Agreed, some of the best stuff is inspired or hijacked. But there's enough originality around for one not to get worried. History has evidence.

They're unlikely to be 'classics' remembered fondly 20 years from now but that's what pop is mostly - a quick and easy musical snack. How many of us can recall Rick Astley or the Bangles... two of the pop artistes back in the '80s!!

Jaago Mohan pyaare
Incidentally, someone believes people DO listen to FM at 3 am which is why 'Nightshifts' are sponsored by various companies. I bet it's the idea of some clever media planner ("Who's awake at night? BPO workers!")

Except they would - should - be busy working. Taking or making calls, not listening to FM on those big black headsets!

Death by Cellphone

You're sitting in a movie theatre and suddenly a cellphone somewhere nearby goes rrrrring! What's more the receiver invariably picks up and starts yakking. I sometimes have this urge to ask: "Is it a matter of life and death?"

Wish poor Prabir De had stopped to consider that question, before picking up his cellphone.

TOI reports that Prabir, a celeb make up artist (who's worked on the likes of Bipasha Basu, Koena Mitra etc) was on a photo shoot on the outskirts of Kolkata. On a whim, they decide to shoot on some railway tracks.

At some point De's cellphone rang and he took the call. Meanwhile, a train loomed in sight... Friends and onlookers yelled, but De was too involved in the conversation. And the worst happened.

What is this fascination people have with their cellphones ? In the same report it said previous year, 27 year old British national Nadia Khan - an assistant director with Kaizad Gustad - died after being hit by a train near Mahalaxmi. She too was reportedly speaking on her cellphone.

There's been a lot of speculation on the long term effect of cellphone use (radiation being linked to brain tumours etc). But the short term effect is no less dangerous. The cellphone is a medium which appears to not only distract but suspend common sense.

What else can explain such 'freak accidents'?

Changing the world - starting with yourself

I hesitate to use the word 'hero' to describe the influence any person has had on my life because heroes - inevitably - let you down. Suffice it to say that of the many public figures with wide and varied achievements one can possibly look upto.

 I read 'Odyssey: From Pepsi to Apple' and that one line jobs used to persuade Sculley to join him has stuck with me ever since. 'Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life - or, do you want a chance to change the world?' Not 'changing the world' in the literal sense but what I think Jobs really meant was you must look for passion - and meaning - in what you choose to do as 'work'.

Connect your dots
In his speech, Steve Jobs tells three 'stories'. The first is 'connect your dots'. Where he explains how a calligraphy course he took after officially dropping out of college had a profound impact on his future - and ours.

None of this (calligraphy) had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.

Imagine that! Everything you do - in the end - was somehow meant to be. It may not be immediately or practically applicable. It may do nothing for your CV at this moment. But you are the sum total of all your life experiences combined with your inherent talents. Which is why - like I said earlier - we all need to add some zig to our zag.

So, have those 'irrelevant' experiences. Pursue 'useless' interests. Because you never know where those dots may lead you.

As Jobs says: You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

The Second Coming
Elsewhere in his speech Jobs talks about how 'getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to him.' It forced him to reinvent himself - freed him to enter one of the most creative periods of his life.

Both the companies he started - Pixar and Next led to their own revolutions. Pixar became the pioneer in animated movie-making while Next was bought out by Apple. And the technology developed at Next ultimately led to the rebirth of Apple with the iPod.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. ... If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle.

Even if the great Indian mantra is beta, settle down :)
Live each day as if ...
The third 'story' Jobs shared was about death. A few months ago, doctors told him he had merely months to live. Turns out he had a rare - and curable - form of pancreatic cancer. So the death sentence was repealed.

But, he says once more the point hit home: Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life... Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

As a tidal wave of students in India pass out of class 10 and 12 and with bachelor's degrees - that's what they really need to sit still and listen to. Their own inner voice.

Jobs signs off with 'Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish'. You may not want to take that literally - but everything else he said you certainly should!