Social Media- Misuse and Dangers

I was reading an article yesterday about a Youtube celebrity (female) who went to meet her fans offline. One of her admirers took out a gun, and shot her, and then shot himself at this meet. This is an extreme case, but illustrates that you really don't know too much about online connections, particularly when they are of the "celebrity-admirer" type. Of course, confidence tricksters from around the world have also made their online friends part with money in many cases, some of which have come to light.

An interesting case of a big amount being asked for (and given) by some random person who promised big returns in a short time has happened to someone in my friends' circle, and may not be an isolated case.

There is worse, and one reads about stalkers and predators doing nastier things globally. So it may be wise to be careful, and allow some regulators (not necessarily government, but including govt.) to exercise control, and make privacy laws stringent, so that at least you are protected to an extent. Of course, be careful whom you befriend online.

Best Female Dancers in Hindi Films

Helen takes the cake there. She is just too good, in a variety of dancing situations, mostly on the stage, and the highlight of a song. But among the other ladies (leading or otherwise), here are a few favourites-

Mumtaz was on song in many a dance, but my favourite one will remain the Shammi Kapoor duet, Aaj kal tere mere pyar ke charche har zubaan par,..from Bramhachari.

Vyjayantimala had numerous great dances to her credit, and just one highlight was Hothon mein aisi baat main dabake chali aayi from Jewel Thief. I also liked the Main ka karoon Ram mujhe buddha mil gaya from Sangam, and her duet with Uttam Kumar - Chhoti si mulaqaat pyar ban gayi, pyar banke gale ka haar ban gayi, ya ya hippi hippi ya ya ya..

Asha Parekh did full justice to her dances when given a chance, as in Aaja aaja, main hoon pyar tera in Teesri Manzil, or Parde mein rehne do, parda na uthao, or Sayonara, sayonara, my first intro to the Japanese language in Love in Tokyo.

Hema Malini was also a trained dancer, and she sometimes got to show her mettle, but she was as good in pure commercial stuff like Naseeb (Mere naseeb mein tu hai ke nahin), and Sholay (Jab tak hai jaan jane jahaan mai nachungi).

Leena Chandavarkar had a few good outings in the times of Jeetendra, with Haye re haye, neend nahin aaye being my favourite.

Madhuri Dixit was a graceful dancer too, and my favourite of hers is from the film Raja- Ankhiyan milaun kabhi ankhiyan churaun kya tune kiya jadu..

Pakeezah had some great dances, but it is rumoured that someone else did the dance steps, as Meena Kumari was too ill.

Asha Bhosle by Raju Bharatan- Book Review

A must read for fans of a great singer. I am happy that the musical journey of a country has been captured by a serious writer like Raju Bharatan. Being interested in Hindi films and music, I have read several biographies/autobiographies such as those of Dev Anand, but the singers' and music Directors' biographies are special. Having read RD Burman's life story earlier, it is interesting to read about the role played by them in each other's lives.

It was actually OP Nayyar who brought her individuality to the fore, though other music composers played their roles (SD Burman among them). After a split with him, she teamed up with RD Burman and created many songs that shattered records and won them lifelong fans. Some also had RD Burman singing with her (Piya tu ab to aaja, in which he mostly said, Monica, O my darling), and the picturisation of some of the others (the Teesri Manzil songs like Aaja aaja main hoon pyar tera, and O Haseena zulfonwali are good examples) brought her a lot of attention. She was actually good at all types of songs and sang some ghazals for Umrao Jaan impeccably. Her duets with Kishore Kumar and Rafi are among my favourites.

Though she played second fiddle to Lata Mangeshkar, who was the first choice of most music directors, the number of songs Asha sang are a few thousand, and she left an impact in many of them.

A lovely read, if Hindi music interests you.

How to Have Fun

Our definitions of fun may vary widely. For someone, fun may mean skiing in the Alps, for another, beach-running in Goa, and for a third, trekking in the Smoky Mountains.

But I have tried classifying what I consider fun things to do-

Having an unstructured conversation (Gossiping) over a beverage- Chai, usually, and wine or a malt at other times. Accompanied by food, usually. I remember many such conversations with Savitha, Achint, Pallavi, Shafique, Vrinda (and her family), Shweta Agarwal, Abha, Tosha, Urvashi, Garima, Meghna, Ratnashree, Divya Singh, Radhika, Sowmyashree, Prabhakar, Dash, Harish, Himanshu Manglik, Pragya, Arvind Joshi, Mrunal, Sheetal Garg, Anant Ram, TK Chatterjee, Gadgil, Vijayakumar, Dhanapal,.. and some family members, over the last couple of years.

Planning what to teach or how to teach it- the actual thing may be fun or not, depending on the response. Planning an exam, likewise.

Discussing ideas for research/case writing. Sometimes the doing is also fun, but getting bad reviews is not!

Travel, for any purpose..essentially, the prospect of something new is exciting, even if the travel is sometimes tedious. Road trips are actually more relaxed, and I did many of them in the U.S. Train travel in Europe was pretty cool too.

Reading. I love reading, though my throughput has reduced thanks to social media. But there's nothing like a good book. Currently, it's a biography of Asha Bhosle that I am reading.

Watching a movie- of late, my tastes have changed from the formula film to a slightly more meaningful type of cinema, but I still like a variety of films if well-made.

We Are Multidimensional

Women more so than men I think, but we all are to some extent, multidimensional. I think the tendency to look at a human being as only one thing (or two) is extremely myopic.

We all function for about 60-70 years in ways that require many skills at work, and even more of them outside it. We might pursue a hobby (or many of these-photography and writing, in my case), maybe play a sport (I have played Golf, Badminton, Tennis and cricket at various points, apart from Table Tennis), travel alone or otherwise, interact with a variety of people from all walks of life (maids, drivers, assistants at work, bosses,...you get the picture), and some of these are not easy things to do.

We communicate, handle emotions of great variety, from anger, frustration, joy, hope, in ourselves and others too, and handle mundane tasks like cooking, cleaning, setting up a home, bringing up kids, buying a vehicle, and need various life skills to do that.

Did I mention academics? It is deliberately left to bring up the rear, because I want to make a point.

The End of the short lecture.

Kolkata- A Pictorial Tour

A pic is worth a thousand words- here are a few thousand words.

 With my classmate Dash-we met 37 years ago at IIMB, where we have been partners in crime.

 You ain't seen nothing if you don't do the Amar Prem run..Chingari koi bhadke..

 This is Tolly Club, and the building below is where we did an alumni party of
IMT Ghaziabad a few years ago, when I worked there.

A fuller view..

Innocence Lost in Lanka and Elsewhere

There was a time when governments fought wars over territory, or colonials conquered the armamentally backward for commercial gain, all through history. Dictators occasionally chipped in with murder and mayhem, but at most of these times, common people got along well, and there was an age of innocence among them. It seems that those innocent times are now history. It is no longer an army participating in an officially declared war with some rules (Dharma Yuddh?), but anyone who has a grouse getting up and killing anyone who may or may not have had anything to do with the creation of that grouse.

Where all this will lead, is anybody's guess. This could be the time for good governance to kick in, and show that it can bring humanity back from the precipice where it finds itself. More than all the nukes in the stockpiles of the nuclear powers, this is the trend that is likely to eliminate humanity. Not sure how much of it remains, after the regular spate of killings by individuals and organisations that see no other alternatives to killing other humans.

Hopefully, there is still some hope..