The Stopover - Part 1

Whenever I visit Kolkata, I have to spend some hours at Chennai airport to board the connecting flight. Same happens when I return to Trivandrum. Every time I stop over at Chennai, I meet someone significantly memorable. Each of these characters are/were interesting in their own way.


In April 2008, I was supposed to take a 5:30 AM flight to Kolkata. I stepped into Chennai airport at around 10:30 PM along with co-worker and co-passenger Sajal (affectionately nicknamed Bihari).


Killing 7 hours was no small deal. Those being the wee hours, number of people in airport (read air-hostesses and gorgous airline staff) was hopelessly low. Laptop was loaded with movie but none of the charging points were functioning. The Higginbotham's bookshop was closed and book is one item which can not be window shopped. The last known saviour in such a circumstance- a brimming cup of hot coffee - could not be purchased as the Wings snack bar closed at 10:30.


Into the airport came a guy in his late 20s, with a very bong-ish face. Unshaven, unslept, crumpled casuals and a laptop bag hanging from his shoulder. This guy too got very frustrated after a fruitless search for a fully-functional charging point for his laptop and finally vented out his disappointment in words nostalgically familiar: "Dhur bNara!"

I called out to this tired soul -"Bangali? None of the charging points have power. Just like Kolkata airport" . Traditionally, Bengalis tend to gel with strangers better if there is a common issue to grieve/complain/bark about. If you are aiming to repel a true-blue bong, try positive vibes. This guy (his name was Saptarshi)- likewise - spontenously struck up a conversation with me about all things bad about Chennai and Kolkata, then expanded his scope to India, the subcontinent etc.

Before he could proceed any further, Bihari headed for the loo. Now, Bihari's denim trousers had something embroidered on a very strategic location. Saptarshi'e eyes got suddenly glued to the trouser and he asked me with a very perplexed look "Why is 'REPLAY' written on his bum?" Honestly, I did not have any explanation to offer other than a dry smile.

Soon after, we decided to swap movies from laptops. While my OS was coming to life, my co-passenger looked around and whispered "Buddy, got porn?" Unfortunately, I did not. I gave him Seven Samurai, The Bong Connection and Om Shanti Om while he shared Fahrenheit 9/11 and some other movie which I fail to recall. This guy was a software pro, middle manager in one of India's 4 then-biggest IT giants. Like a quintessential perennially homesick bong, he advised me to gather 2 years of experience and return to Kolkata ASAP. As the Schedule Display started flashing 'Security check' for Indigo flight to Kolkata, we parted ways. Saptarshi was going to Guwahati and had 2 more hours to spend.

We rolled our luggage towards Scan, my friend settled himself well in his seat, preparing for a nap.

Dadu'r Jonmodin

For me, this year's Pnochishe Boishakh happened two days early. Google, de-facto homepage of every netizen tweaked their logo on 8th May. I was looking for a new gadget when Dadu's Protikriti in google's logo captured my attention. This time of the year in Kolkata is generally marked by saree-clad aunties sweating in makeshift stages of Nandan premises, dishing out conventional rabindrasangeets throughout the day. Add to that DD Bangla's lacklustre Robi-homage programs (the private channels are not much different) . I am glad to have escaped all that fuss and actually a bit proud to see Google India's tribute.

First Family Votes...

An alternate version of this photo appeared in last Thursday' s The Hindu (Trivandrum edition). This happened to be the first ROFL event for me in past several weeks. I encourage all photojournalists to make our mornings brighter than ever with such captures! :-D

Some Disappointments

First, my parents had to cancel their trip to Trivandrum because dad fractured his ankle. So the opportunity of meeting my closest ones got postponed indefinitely. Everything was set, I even arranged an one room apartment where we 3 could stay for a couple of months together happily. All of a sudden, all plans came crashing down.

Instead I planned to visit Kolkata. I called up all my friends to announce my trip. Everynight I started having dreams of Phuchka, Bhetki Fry, Olypub and Coffee House. Just after I booked the flight, I got a great project to work on and was effectively tied down by professional commitments. Disheartening stuff, really.

Then came the Oscars. Even if I get a Deshdrohi tag for saying this, I would definitely say the Slumdog did not deserve 8 Oscars. At least 4 of them belonged to Dark Knight :-(

And finally, Ayesha Takia got married. I seriously feel that there should be a Law against hot actresses marrying when they are at the prime of their career. All the beauties in real life are bound to be taken before I meet them, if the same happens with women of fantasy too, the situation becomes very very bleak. Sigh!

Absent Letter

Finally my Laptop has been fixed. After performing very well for almost a full year, one fine evening the speakers, keyboard and touchpad decided to break down together. Luckily, the warranty was still valid and the HP people in Trivandrum replaced the components for free.

Vista was throwing up an array of errors, so I switched to XP. That created some more problems because HP apparently do not support Notebooks that has been downgraded from Vista to XP. In the end, I was compelled to reinstall Vista to bring my laptop back to working condition.

Now, there was a new issue. Broadband bill was unpaid for 2 months, simply because the office of the ISP was too far for any of us lazybones to travel and pay up. Asianet guys chose this opportune moment to locate the defaulter customer and snapped the connection. So there I sat with a perfectly working PC minus the internet.

Good news is now all the problems has been solved. It feels good to be back online. Yay!

Chandni Chowk to China: Crapfest

First thing that I did after coming out of the theatre was buy a bottle of Muskovy, a brewed-in-Kerala vodka, unusually strong, can give a tough competition to Sharktooth. After 4 pegs, we had an argument which movie was worst ever - Himesh's Karzzz, Mithun's Gunda or Akki's CC2C. My vehement protests managed to get the cult classic Gunda out of topic, and finally Karzzz won the Krownnn. But that never implies that CC2C is a good movie. NEVER.

I am not writing this review to showcase my taste in cinema, but my increasing distaste in Bollywood magnum opii. I wonder what made Warner Brothers put money or lend it's brand (I'm not sure which business model the media giant used to participate in this crapfest) to CC2C.

Script: The storyline is as predictable as it can get. In fact the script is an arranged marriage between the celebrated cliches of Bollywood amd Kung-Fu reincarnation/revenge/comic genres, sad that the marriage did not work at all.

Acting: Deepika Padukone compensated her inability to act by appearing in two roles, and I am not complaining. Mithun, Akshay Kumar, Ranvir Shorey, Gordon Liu everyone else acted with the more or less the same passion with which they scratch their ass after waking up in the morning.

Action: Action is standard Hong Kong stuff and people exposed to Tamil movies for a considerable stint would yawn at CC2C antics. Seriously, Tamil movies are the best in Asia if you're talking innovative fight sequences. Warner Bros would have taken a prudent decision if it invested in a venture named "Chennai to China" featuring Vijay .

Music: Usual complaint about Bollywood song-and-dance numbers are that they disturb the plot, often coming across as a jarring element. In absence of a storyline, they are recalled as the refreshing parts of the movie(eg: Bachna Ae Haseeno). In Chandni Chowk to China, the less-than-ordinary music blended seamlessly with an equally hollow story. Once you're out of the theatre, you remember none.

We expected a historic crossover movie when world's biggest studio, largest movie industry, an international starcast and presumably the best stunt-directors in eastern hemisphere came together for Chandni Chowk to China. What we got was the untended restroom after a severe purgative overdose.

Music : Dev D

It was about a month back when I came across the first promo of Dev D in YouTube. Ever since, the tune 'Emosanal Atyachar' kept playing in back of my mind. Last week, I got hold of probably the most original Bollywood OST in last 10 years.

The soundtrack consists of 18 mindblowing numbers, each outshining any given other . The composer Amit Trivedi turns out to be hell of a dynamic guy. The songs he created can be tagged into categories as diverse as Rajasthani /Hariyanvi folk, Wedding Band song, Funk, Jazz, Rock and what not! Once you listen to the tracks, you are bound to run out of superlative words to appreciate the effort that is OST: Dev D. Whenever an awsome soundtrack arrives, composers hog most of the limelight. But not with Dev D. This movie is a ripe example of successful marriage between lyrics and music, where neither outshines the other or are equally brilliant.

Jewel of the OST is Emosanal Atyachar - the brass band version. This song has redefined the notion of break-up songs. Lyrics and music are earthy and exudes a manic kind of energy. Guess what, alongside the typical dil-pyar wordings, the lyrics contain "whore". Let's see whether it makes to the theatre. An ideal dope song. Except for two Punjabi tracks which sounded very usual to me (this can be attributed to my excessive exposure to Oye Lucky tracks for past one month :-P), every single track of the album are addictive.

The music has arrived in a big way with Emosanal Atyachar creating quite a tsunami among music lovers who subscribe to alternative genres. Let's hope the movie will be as spectacular as the OST projects it to be.

Emosanal Atyachar lyrics can be found here .
Anurag Kashyap talks about how Emosanal Atyachar was created here.