Before The Coffee Gets Cold- Book Review

 A very interesting book of four short stories involving time travel. The author is Japanese. There are some tough rules that the time travellers must know and follow, while travelling back or forward. Does it still make sense to go for it, is the central theme.

Very emotional, it covers a wide range, from a Mother who is likely to lose her life while giving birth and wants to know what happened, to a story of two lovers, who may or may not re-unite after a break of three years away from one another.

Two other stories are equally interesting, about relationships-a husnabd who's getting Alzheimer's, and a girl who is estranged from her sister. Touching, and handled in a very empathetic manner towards all the characters. It's a surprising mix of high technology and basic humanity. A good blend.

Reminded me of a Marathi play about time travel- Amar Photo Studio- that I saw a couple of years ago at Pune. That was good too.

Ragas and their classification

There are zillions of ragas, I am told. But my listing is not the real classical ones. These are totally new, invented by me. To be sung in appropriate tunes..

Work related ragas

   Victim Raga- I am a victim, ..only I seem to work around here.

   Nitwit Raga- My co-workers are nitwits..who hired them, who hired them,...repeat musically

Love Life (Relationship?) Related Ragas

   Rocking Raga-The flowers are dancing, my life is rocking,..

   Full of Doubts Raga- Will she, won't she, will she, won't she..

    Never Again Raga- I will never fall in love again,...I am becoming a monk/a saint..

Old Age Ragas

    Spectacular Raga- Where did I keep the chashma (spectacles)?...

    Beckham Raga- Why doesn't my body bend at the right places?

    Existential Raga- Where am I, Who am I? Who are all these people?

    Dhritarashtra Raga- Yeh kya ho raha hai (Hindi)?

Boss Ragas

    The I Tune- I know everything, I KNOW everything, I know EVERYTHING

The Comedians

I mean the directors, not the actors, though some of them were both.

In Hollywood, the first guy that comes to mind is Woody Allen. He made several good films, one as recently as a couple of years ago. Most of these had wonderful humour, mostly about human relationships, but also a lot of other things. Sometimes dark humour, but very witty. And delivered with deadpan expressions. A genius.

A very different kind of humour (in your face, slaspstick) is to be found in Mel Brooks' films. Usually spoofs on something (Silent Movie was about Hollywood itself), I still remembers scenes from films of his I watched many years ago-Blazing Saddles (spoof on Western Cowboy movies), History of the World (about major events in history), To Be Or Not To Be (on Hitler), and a Star Wars spoof called Spaceballs. I remembered the last again while watching The Martian recently.

Closer home in India, directors of good comedy were Basu Chatterjee and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Both masters of situational humour, they made between them, great films like Chupke Chupke, Chhoti Si Baat, Shaukeen, Gol Maal and Naram Garam. Angoor by Gulzar was another great comedy. Though not known for comedy, Satyen Bose's Chalti ka Naam Gaadi with Kishore Kumar was an excellent romantic comedy. So was Padosan, directed by Jyoti Swaroop. Mehmood's role in it was immortal, on of the best ever.

Indexes for Personal Life

Indexes like the Stock Market and Wholesale Price/Consumer Price are critical to a man's well-being. But why stop there? I have developed the following indexes (patents pending) for helping measuring your own well-being. No, it's Ok. You don't have to thank me.

Health Index: Inverse of the No. of antibiotics you popped in the last six months, plus inverse of the no. of doc visits in the last six months

Relationships Index: No. of ships of various kinds that you are into, minus those that you are out of

Relative-control Index: (No. of relatives in close proximity with micro-level hyper control syndrome) to the power of 'N', where N is the no. of such relatives

Happiness Index: Average No. of  likes on your last five facebook statuses and/or cover photos, added to the blog viewership of your last ten blog posts, minus no. of real meetings with your friends.

Unhappiness Index: No. of scheming mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, shouting news anchors, experts on TV debates, repairmen of any kind that you encountered in the last 24 hours, all added together. Add 20 points to this if you watched Himesh Reshamiya on the small screen.

Kejriwal Index- Closely related to the above. Number of times you watched Kejriwal's antics on TV. This is independently capable of causing Unhappiness or Mirth depending on how you look at it.