IIM Bangalore Visit

Had a chance to visit my alma mater, IIM Bangalore, for a conference on Entrpreneurship where my co-authors and I are presenting a case on a Nagpur-based entrepreneur who exports wood-metal figurines made by craftsmen who are ex-Bastar tribals. It has interesting business issues, and could be a good teaching case.

The campus of IIMB is unique in the sense that it looks like a mini-forest, with plants, shrubs and trees of different hues all around. It is pleasant to walk around. Maybe you could call it a B school in the middle of a forest. Like IIMA which is known for its architecture, and might be termed as a B school in the middle of an architectural wonder. As an aside, at one time, ASCI at Hyderabad used to be called a college attached to a bar, as it had an active beverage service!

The crowd at the conference was eclectic, and had a sprinkling of international faces. Since the focus is on BRIC nations, there were a few Chinese and Brazilian paper presenters too. Maybe some Russians as well. All in all, an interesting experience. Nice to see a bit of the metro in operation on MG Road. Hope it reduces some of the moving around blues over time. The lesson is that other cities need to start building it now, instead of waiting to get congested beyond endurance.

Tintin- the Movie

I used to read both Asterix and Tintin, though I liked Asterix a shade better. But Tintin was also a regular read, and his characters like Thomson and Thom(p)son, Professor Calculus, and Captain Haddock were familiar territory. We had even named some of our IIMB classmates after some of these characters, for either their looks or their behavior.

It was fun to see these characters brought to life. Along with their typical traits and dialogues- 'blue blistering barnacles' (Captain Haddock) and 'to be precise' (Thompson). The titles are themselves a work of art, and very enjoyable. The use of the same font as in the comics gave them a very familiar feel.

This one is called the Secret of the Unicorn. I was never too sure what a unicorn was, but that did not reduce the enjoyment one bit. I thought it was an animated film, so it turned out to be a surprise. Not sure if they created masks for all the characters in the movie. Actually, it was running houseful last week, and so I missed seeing it earlier. Incredible, in its third week too.

The characters are all loveable, even the villain. Steven Spielberg has his work cut out for him, with lots more movies to make.

Dev Saab and his Music

I never tire of writing about music and Dev Anand was much more musically minded than most film directors/actors that I know of. Probably includes Vijay Anand, his brother who directed some of his films and had great music too.

Anyway, these are some of his musical numbers that I recall, from his films.

The Hemant Kumar song from Solva Saal, 'Hai apna dil to aawara , na jaane kis pe aayega'. I had once learnt to play this on a harmonium.

'Dil ka bhanwar kare pukar, pyaar ka raag suno' from Tere Ghar Ke Samne, I think. Very melodious, sung (in the movie) inside the Qutab Minar.

'Hey, maine kasam li' and 'Jeevan ki bagiya mehkegi' from the film 'Tere Mere Sapne'.

'Yeh duniya wale poochenge, mulaqat hui, kya baat hui' from Mahal.

'Nafrat karne waalon ke seene mein pyaar bhar doon', 'Pal bhar ke liye koi hamein pyaar kar de', and 'Oooo. mere Raja' from Johny Mera Naam, which I hold to be a classic of the Bollywood masala genre.

'Khwab ho tum ya koi haqeeqat', 'Are yaar meri tum bhi ho ghazab' and 'Likha hai teri aankhon mein' from Teen Deviyan

Almost all the songs from Jewel Thief, though my favourite among these remains 'Yeh Dil Na Hota Bechaara'. 'Aasma ke neeche', 'Hoton pe aisi baat main dabaake chali aayi', 'raat akeli hai', are some others.

'Dil aaj shaayar hai, gham aaj naghma hai', from Gambler. Also, 'chudi nahin yeh mera, dil hai'

Almost all songs from Guide. 'Tere mere sapne ab ek rang hai', 'Din dhal jaaye hai raat na jaaye' and 'Gaata rahe, mera dil', are all great songs with unique emotions , and so is 'Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai', with the lyrics signifying the "rebirth" of a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage.

Dum Maro Dum, from Hare Rama Hare Krishna, which overshadowed all other songs.

'Jab Chhaye Mera Jadoo', a foot tapping number from Loot Maar.

Des Pardes had a few great songs, like 'Nazraana, bheja kisine pyaar ka', 'Tu Pee aur Jee'

Heera Panna- 'Panna ki tamanna hai ke Heera mujhe mil jaaye', 'Main tasveer utaarta hoon'

Bullet- 'Chori chori chupke chupke tere mere bina is kamre mein aur kaun hai?'

Shareef Badmaash- 'Neend churake raton mein , tumne baaton baaton mein, dekho baat badal di hai' and a qawwali sung in a jail, 'Na khidki na jharokha, milte hi magar mauka. de jaaonga main dhokha'

Darling Darling- 'Aise na mujhe tum dekho, seene se laga loonga'

Prem Pujari- 'Phholon ke rang se' and 'Shokhiyon mein ghola jaaye', apart from Rangeela re, tere man mein yun ranga hai, mera man'

Hum Dono-'Main Zindagi ka saath nibhaata chala gaya' and 'Abhi na jao chhod kar, ke dil abhi bhara nahi'

Munimji- 'Jeevan ke safar mein rahi, milte hain bichhad jaane ko, aur de jate hain yadein, tanhai mein tadpaane ko'. How true!

I am sure I have left out a few good ones, thanks to a fading memory, but this is good enough to make a point- that he had an ear for lovely music.

Dev Anand- A Tribute

He made/makes me feel young at all ages- his and mine. He was youth personified. The energy he exuded in his eighties would put a 30 year old to shame. I read his autobiography a couple of years ago, and it is written in the same style he brought to his films. Many of them were classics and dealt with themes which were relevant to the times. Drugs-in Hare Rama Hare Krishna with its unforgettable Dum Maro Dum number, Des Pardes on the theme of migration blues, Tere Mere Sapne on the subject of rural doctors, and of course, the classic Guide with its story of extra-marital love.

Then there were pure entertainers like Johny Mera Naam, Jewel Thief and Hum Dono. Prem Pujari, an unsuccessful movie, also had lovely songs like Phoolon Ke Rang Se, and Shokhiyon Mein Ghola Jaaye. His association with SD Burman and RD Burman resulted in some glorious music over a few decades.

He also introduced a few heroines like Zeenat Aman and Tina Munim to the film industry. His peculiar crinkly neck which bobbed up and down for no apparent reason, and his walking style, imitated well by Ravi Baswani in Chasme Baddoor, only endeared him further to his fans. His films of late were not great, but he loved to do what he liked best, so who are we to complain? He was one of a kind. May he entertain those with whom he is now!

A History of Technology- From my Viewpoint

We did use slates in school and at home, I believe. Not e-slates, the good old ones. This was around 1960 and beyond. Then, we had our blackboards and chalk in school. We had exposure to some technology through the radio, fairly gargantuan in size, through the sixties and seventies, and I remember you needed to renew a licence to operate/use a radio at home.

We heard of a contraption called Skylab which was sent into space and the collapsed back on to the earth around 1977 or 78. There was a story that a Sardar had named his kid Skylab Singh after this lab. Around 1982, the Delhi Asiad, colour TV entered our lives, having given us our fill of the black and white variety for a few years before that. I watched all the early TV shows like Chitahaar and the weekly movie in B&W.

The floppy drive computer with 256k RAM and disks of 5 and 1/4 inch was what I first used in the US in 1986. This was state-of-the-art then. Apple was floundering, though it had a loyal band of followers. The IBM PC changed everything pretty fast. By 1989, we had an early version of the net at Clemson, USA, but India did not have any place connected then.

In 1991, I taught SPSS using DOS at XIMB. Then, a few years later, it changed to WINDOWS, and became a lot simpler to use. I actually wrote my first book in long hand at Kirloskar Institute. Now I can't imagine doing that. The floppy gave way to the hard disk, the DVD and the pen drive. Now my car runs only a USB/pen drive and does not have a CD player of the older type! And my collection of 200 audio cassettes is suddenly redundant. I recently discovered a karaoke system that plays Hindi music and you can sing along to, thanks to cousins at Pune. It's a lot of fun at parties and get-togethers, and saves you the bother of remembering lyrics.

Facebook came along, and I found friends who I did't know existed- or rather, where they existed. Before that were hotmail, yahoo, and google, introduced to me by various friends. I am thankful to them for introducing me to this blogger too,as it is so easy to communicate with the world at large- I am continuously amazed by some of my reader stats, which seem to span the globe from Maryland, USA to Kazakhstan. I would have had no way to reach out to so many people otherwise. And benefit from reading their thoughts online.

Another great experience with technology was when I published my autobiography online with pothi.com a couple of years ago. That's technology in a nutshell, as it affected my life.

Dirty Picture- a Review

Silk Smitha (deliberately using the southern spelling) was apparently quite a character, and lived life mostly on her own terms. I vaguely remember some of her films. Though not much to look at, she made up with a lot of oomph and verve, and the public lapped it up. Though thinly disguised, this film is probably her story.

Vidya Balan is one of my favourite actresses, and she does the role justice. The spirit of a woman who wants to make it big in films, yet who longs for love after having made it, is well captured. The sidelights or commentary on the whole business of films that the movie presents are themselves worth the watch. What are the causes of the movie moghuls churning out trash (the audience, as suspected), the casting couches, the phenomenon of the 60-year old lecherous hero (brilliantly portrayed by Naseeruddin Shah, who, but for the pot-belly, fits the role perfectly), the cronies, the hapless writers who have to twist their tale according to star whims, the fate of the 'different' films (Emraan Hashmi in a nice role), etc. are well brought-out.

The dialogues are sharp, witty and meaningful. They add a lot to the enjoyment. Milan Luthria has directed the movie quite well. I also liked the songs Ooh la, la and Ishq Sufiyana. The takeoff on the Jeetendra films of 70s (white shoes et. al.) is hard to miss.

Norwegian Wood- the film

This is a Japanese film subtitled in English, based on a book of the same name. Had read the book just a week or two earlier, and so was familiar with the storyline. But the movie still amazed me. One, the story itself is full of unexpected events. But more than that, the style of telling it is in tune with the storyteller's- it is slow, lyrical, almost magical.

If there were an adult fairytale (can't think of any better description), this might be it. Emotions of grownups, but the candidness of a child comes through in every frame. The enchanting scenery of a snow-laden Japanscape complements the rhythm, and the result is mesmerising.

I do hope more directors take on the challenge of converting Murakami's other books into celluloid (not sure if celluloid is the right term, given changes in film technology). Poetry in motion is what you would get, if that happens.