Curator

@ravihanda Bhai gajab pessimistic views hain aapke. Chill.

Who are these folks who come back from the so called “rock bottom”. To me it seems that life just continues to get worse. I think I was happiest in my mid 20s when I started teaching math in Kolkata, eating good food, drinking cheap whiskey, and living independently. It has been a downward slide since then with some lucky bumps along the road.

@NonsensicalNemo There are so many other professions, what about them? Irresponsible.

DINK here. Don't need a brat wasting my hard-earned money on school and college to end up becoming some loser writer. My parents have already done that :P

@banglani Yes, it is like you have to stop overthinking while going to sleep. No one tells that you have to start thinking to stop overthinking..

The act of measuring my heart rate increases my heart rate. It's the double slit experiment of biology.

@deepakshenoy @VishalBhargava5 Did not say that at all sir, however to your point that none in your circle have regrets, there might be this factor playing out too.

@RankTurner @VishalBhargava5 And you know what they do privately?

A silent pandemic is underway in Indian cities. Far too many couples are opting to not have kids at all. It is the wrong decision. Most will regret it.

@deepakshenoy @VishalBhargava5 And they are going to regret publicly?

@VishalBhargava5 Of all the couples I know that have chosen to not have kids, exactly zero have regrets. Even those that are 80+.

@TheIndiaTalkies @sanjeevsanyal Temple politics indeed! They let Hindus live, isn't it enough?! Ungrateful civilization.

You are seething at the Mughal greatness just because they were Muslim. Babur’s Panipat wasn’t an ‘invasion’; it was the start of India’s most magnificent era: Taj Mahal, syncretic culture, ghazals, music, reforestation, administration genius & biryani that your ancestors happily devoured. Cry about temple politics while the world admires what you can’t stomach. Small mind, big grudge. 😂

The Economist magazine is disappointed that India did not celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Mughal conquest of India. Oh, those ungrateful natives who do not celebrate the gift of civilisation. Who knows, they may even refuse to celebrate the Battle of Plassey. Dangerous trend.....

@SHEKARSUSHEEL Are you sure? I thought the ending with RK dying and AB going to jail for it to punish his father worked just fine.

Actually Amitabh was supposed to die in the movie, but Rajesh khanna convinced HM, to let him die. This left Amitabh Bachchan disturbed after he found out about it the day of the shoot, and he never co-starred with Khanna again.

@saket71 All the time. Good it is happening this late with you. Know people who have sleepless nights in their 40s.

Age is a scary thing. Last night suddenly it occurred to me that in my firm retirement age is 58, and by the time next election happens, that is, 2029, it will be my retirement year after two decades in current company. My mind went into overdrive, taking calculations of savings, investment, daughter's educational expenses, post-retirement plan. I also went into the books I have in the mind to write and the pace with which I am writing them, how many can be churned in the productive year.. Could not sleep till Three. Does it happen to you as well?

@manujosephsan Trump later admitted that India is not a "hell hole", and everyone back in India took a sigh of relief.

I am delighted by India's strong denial that it is a "hell hole". That's all we need to ensure India is not a hellhole.

@ManUn010586 @MahimaSings @madhutrehan To define someone's entire body of work with less than 1% of such instances is whimsical, frivolous and dishonest.

@RankTurner @MahimaSings @madhutrehan Not really. As great as rd Burman was, a lot of his songs were "inspired" by foreign songs

Guess how many western music artists stole from Asha Bhonsle? Check this out!

@beastoftraal The whole point of taking Kambli was that viewers empathize with what is being said in the ad. And why not have this template? Underachievers also have their stories to tell, which brands can utilise.

Dinshaw's new ad for its ice cream cone, featuring Vinod Kambli, by the agency Womb, left me dismayed. The narrative crux is the line "Jinko life mein thoda kam mila, unke liye thoda zyada". The subject of that "thoda kam mila" framing is a real, living person whose health struggles, public breakdowns and financial difficulties are well-documented and ongoing. Sure, many feel Kambli deserved more in life. But this ad film doesn't redeem that narrative. It harvests it to sell ice cream cones. The word "dildaari" (generosity) is doing particularly cynical work here. It's a loaded, noble word, implying big-heartedness, even grace. The agency's narrative applies it to the extra chocolate at the bottom of a cone!! The deflation is almost comic, and the asymmetry between the weight of the human story and the lightness of the product is utterly jarring. I can anticipate the counter: "Won't viewers empathise with Kambli? Won't younger audiences Google him and feel for him?" Perhaps. But there's a meaningful difference between empathy and sympathy. Empathy is feeling *with* someone ("I know what it's like to work hard and not get recognised"). Sympathy is feeling *for* someone ("Poor Kambli, he lost everything"). This ad pushes firmly toward sympathy, and then does this with it: 1. Kambli got less. 2. Poor Kambli. 3. Dinshaw's gives more. 4. Buy this cone. If a young person Googles Kambli and discovers he is currently battling neurological issues and financial distress, the ad's cheerful metaphor of an ice cream cone bringing him joy looks jarringly inadequate... like the brand is leveraging real-time vulnerability for a summer sale. Kambli was paid for this, yes. But the cruelest irony is that he may have needed the money, which makes the entire exercise more uncomfortable, not less. By choosing the "deserved more" arc, Dinshaw's and Womb lock him into a permanent state of failure. He isn't a collaborator in this story. He's the cautionary tale. I hope this ad doesn't normalise a template: find a fallen public figure, wrap their misfortune in warm language, sell something cheerful. #advertising #marketing

@thevirdas Gyan cho**, pehelgam ke victims ki family ko bolo yeh? Remember, we didn't start the fire, it was..

🙏

@suchin545 Dishonest in self critique as well. Answer one simple question - what gives you the authority to review a movie? Viewers used to trust you guys at one point but you folks destroyed that trust. Don't blame the viewers now.

"I’ve been a film critic in India for 14 years, and I can safely declare that the profession has never been as systematically targeted and demonised as it has in the last four months." @reelreptile/p-193488318" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">substack.com/@reelreptile/p…

@MahimaSings @madhutrehan Only a musically illiterate person will say something like that for RDB.

@madhutrehan Actually, none of these are “stealing” from Asha Bhonsle. She was just the singer. The Composer is the one responsible for the music & composition. Which in most of the discussed cases happens to be RD Burman, who quite (in) famously was known to rip western songs blatantly 🤯

@brucekumarwayne @Mohansinha x.com/i/status/20469…

@RankTurner @Mohansinha The feeling that’s invoked by watching a clip years after can never match what it felt like to live that moment in real time.

I still remember the day as clear as daylight. I had just moved to then Gurgaon in 1998. We were having a few beers at 32nd Milestone, which is off the Delhi-Jaipur Highway. The kids were playing pool. It was the usual sultry day. Then He started his assault. I was watching on the big screen. Suddenly, the kids had stopped playing pool. They were watching the TV. Every eye in the restaurant was on the TV. You could sense it that day that something unique was about to happen. More beer flowed, food arrived. But nobody moved from their seats, except to jump and cheer as The Master showed to the world why he was the greatest. And he was still only 25. x.com/CricketopiaCom…

@Mohansinha I know. Not just T20s, but the level of cricket in terms of running b/w wickets, fielding, techniques, awareness, etc have improved significantly in modern day cricket. Sachin was ofc way ahead of times, but the innings felt meh this time from what I remember watching back then.

@RankTurner T20 is SHIT

@taparam The length of it? It goes on and on. All matches appear the same, difficult to keep track too with so many matches. Test cricket lovers would want to see more Test matches getting played if few weeks are freed up.

I'm completely sold on IPL now. Half the country enjoys it, teams/cricketers/BCCI earn money, brands get to market themselves, new talent is cultivated at scale, contributes to India's soft power - what's not to like.

@yooday While the outré songs were central to her reputation.. Hmm.. not sure if people who have gone though her body of work will agree with this assessment. This is a naive, superficial take.

Asha's body of song is the history of desire in Hindi film. By giving unapologetic voice to longing, she liberated us all. My piece in this week's Lounge livemint.com/mint-lounge/ar…

@manujosephsan Looks like somebody influential read your book.