How to Buy a Saree

Its not as difficult as its made out to be though that might be because I went alone and did some very objective decision-making. So here are the steps I followed:

• Inquire about some famous showrooms in town: This is especially required when shopping the first time so that one does not get cheated. Sure you'll end up spending a bit more but at least you'll be sure of what you have brought.
• Think about the type of cloth you are looking for. Now for gifting, its silk or some other exotic local fabric you should look to buy. This will reduce the pain of selection by ensuring that the saree wala cannot dump a whole heap for you to select from
• Have a range in mind: Now this won't help in terms of you selecting sarees from that range but it will surely help in knowing when the prices are getting 'obscene'. Trust me, there's no limit on how expensive sarees can get!
• See the amount of design and 'work' on the pallu. Higher this is, better is the saree and subsequently, more expensive.
• Make sure to see the saree in daylight. Showrooms have a knack of making even ordinary sarees look amazing due to their lightning.
• Color and color combination are important. I am not sure how to decide on this but best is to follow the gut feeling.

Amar Akbar Antony

Here's a lesson for today's filmmakers. Amar Akbar Antony. I have watched this movie a zillion times and I watched it again today. It is no surprise that yesterday's hindi movies were considered complete masala and entertainment for the whole family. They had mass following not just in India but across the world, especially south east asia and africa. Compared to today's movies, these movies were popular even amongst the non Indian population.

Now why would I consider Amar Akbar Antony, an utterly illogical movie at times (imagine the three heroes singing out their names in front of the villain and the fool is fooled by fake mustaches. How dumb), a landmark?

• AAA appeals across age groups : With the story of three kids getting lost, maturing into a love story (without getting too sensual like today's movies) full of comical moments appeals to the younger generation. For the elderly the whole aspect of single existence in old age, burdened with physical and emotional problems (eg. of the 'Mai') would be a point of connection. I don't say that AAA would appeal equally to everyone but it does not pitch to anyone with a half heart, by having utterly useless side-actors (which has become so very common these days)
• AAA shows the whole spectrum of social strata: From poverty to richness and from Hindus to Muslims to Isiais to Sai Baba, the film has it all. And what amazes me is the sensitivity and secularity with which all this is handled. Eg. is when 'Mai' gets her eyes following the wonderful Sai Baba song. Its so amazing. A muslim person singing in praise of Sai Baba and a hindu heroine getting back her eyesight. Isn't this secularism at its extreme and hats off to the director for avoiding any religious statements by mixing the diversity of India so well.
• AAA comes with a message, without lectures: One of today's popular directors, Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, ends up giving lectures in his movies. I wish he gets lectures on what's good and what's bad by a kala bandar for the rest of his life. Anyway, AAA has its own learnings for the audience, but delivered in a subtle way. Remember how Akbar denies to forcefully marry his dream girls. Or how even the evil Pran beats up his man because he did not pay the wife and kids of his employees on time.
• Songs are amazing and they are part of the movie, not the movie itself: These days there are so many movies where after seeing the songs you'd think its so awesome. And you go to watch the movie and it turns out the songs were all that were to it. AAA and other movies of the era has songs that were a logical extension of the movie and gelled well, and more importantly the movie had more to it than just songs. I am not a great fan of Laxmikant Pyarelal (they used almost the same tunes in all movies :X) but they did give some appropriate music for movies.
• There's happy endings: Now this may just be my personal bias but I like movies that end happily and make you feel good. I mean either you make a movie that's a piece of art, so much so that people don't care how it ends, only how its made. Or you make a movie that ends happily. The folly today's directors do is they make totally sloppy movies and end them abruptly with no head or tail. Its almost as if the producer ran out of money.
• The acting's so effortless, it almost feels real: OK this one's a problem of an industry flooded with actors and actresses made out of lineage not talent. But still, its appalling, the difference in acting out roles of a normal person (I'll admit these days actors are much better in acting stylish).

Things I Want to Do

I had some things in my mind that I wanted to do out of the routine and had posted them on my earlier blog here. Well I passed out of XLRI and still have most of things unchecked. But then that does not stop me from having my own set of fanciful wishes. So here's my updated "Bucket List":

1. Visit Bhutan
2. Learn Salsa - Check
3. Read Old Man and the Sea - Check
4. Play Mafia with some of my old Friends
5. Give a presentation as impressive as at TED - (Update) - Do something with as much passion as those people at TED
6. Get a real job
7. Do pull ups
8. Run 4kms. in 18 mins. - (Update) - Ok 18 mins. is overshooting, I'll settle for 20 mins. Hey come on, I have only grown older since last time.
9. Climb up those 10 storey high cranes and see the world from the controller's cabin.
10. Learn to dance - Salsa was good but I'm still in the two left foot syndrome.
11. Learn to play guitar - Yeah man, that's a really old one but this is one thing I'd really want to do. Just for the fun of it. Actually I want to learn to play piano but that does not seem to feasible so guitar is the next best instrument.

Let's see where I reach in 6 months time.

I'm Impressed

Now this is a perfect case of getting impressed simply because you do not expect it, not because you think its impossible. Here's my salute to the PAN issuing authority of India:

• August 13 : I apply for PAN, pay online and get an immediate acknowledgement and directions on what to do next
• August 20 : I send the documents (lazy me, delay by a week)
• August 24 : They receive the courier (info. from my courier service)
• August 26 : PAN authorities tell me they have scanned my documents and have forwarded the application to IT department
• August 28 : IT department dispatches my PAN card, sends me an email to that effect with the courier service (Blue Dart, OMG they must be spending everything on postage!) and the tracking no. details.
• September 1 : I get my PAN

The total cost for this for me was Rs. 179 (Rs. 94 for the PAN and Rs. 85 for postage of documents by courier). Awesome, really awesome. Here's the link for applying online:

https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/pan/index.html

Would be glad to be of help to anyone in the process. (That's because a highly inefficient financial service provider kept delaying my application for more than a month here in Bangalore and as vendetta, I want to destroy this market for the "agents". Hehe, evil me.)

Inconsequential, Am I?

I just joined my first job and got my first salary. While I managed to splurge most of it away, there was still some left and it had a destined purpose. This portion of my salary was supposed to go towards some good work, as in donating to charity etc. In our company, which boasts of being highly CSRish, there are various programmes through which you can fulfil this need but just when I was figuring out the tax benefits this noble deed of mine would bring about, I thought.

Everything seemed so absurd. Here I was being this godly character, trying to help someone when the truth was, I was not sure my actions would have any effect at all. I mean they would, but I was sure that they would not affect even an iota of what was around me. Is this what real charity is? Cribbing about the smelly and dirty drains around, ridiculing the foreign policy of our country or mourning about the environmental degradation but doing something that changes none of that but something else all-together. I risk sounding eccentric but isn't it hypocrisy if we think that by giving some money we'll tidy up affairs for someone but, truly, we know of no way to improve our surroundings?

I think that there are very good ways of spending the money that you wish to otherwise donate. How about planting a tree every month on the roadside of the lane you walk by everyday? I am sure by the time one switches the job, the person would leave behind an indelible mark on her surroundings. By donating, aren't we just trying to outsource our good deeds because we just don't have the time or the drive for it? Aren't we admitting that we are inconsequential to ourselves but probably someone else will disagree?