Category: In the News


Not Kolaveri Di after hearing it

Filed Under: In the News by Prasad
23 Nov, 11

I have been seeing updates on Facebook about this new song called ‘Kolaveri Di‘ . Initially I thought it was another aspiring artist like Wilbur Sargunaraj (whos branding & success can be a case study for creative agencies). Since it was Rajnikanth’s son-in-law Dhanush, it surely demanded some respect. Meaning killer or murderous rage in Tamil, also referred to as the Soup Song, it has gone viral on social networks. A Tamil friend of mine played the song to my ears today, and since then I’m hung on it. Posting the lyrics below for your reference ;)

Lyrics:

yo boys i am singing song
soup song
flop song
why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di
why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di
rhythm correct
why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di
maintain this
why this kolaveri..di View full article »

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And we’re back, for the global common good

Filed Under: In the News by Prasad
13 Nov, 11

The theme for my life over the last year or so has been ‘change without choice’. Things & people, out of my control, are forcing a change in my life – all for good. A fortnight back my web account was locked for some abusive script – probably my Facebook app that was looping indefinitely. Other ‘happening’ things spared little time to fix my blog. Last week, I recovered the data, massaged it to match the WP3.0 structure and got a new setup running on a new host – took around 10 hours in toto. Please help by sharing bugs & performance issues.

I’m writing after a couple a months and, as always, a lot has happened since. In my post ‘The not so ‘Shiney’ future of men‘ based on the Shiney Ahuja rape case, I had mentioned that apart from strong opposition, we need to have a non-tolerant attitude towards offenders. But the recent Kenan-Reuben murders are a gory, discouraging result of such opposition. Its a shame on part of law & enforcement, View full article »

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Mumbai traffic, the continuity equation & the polictical will

Filed Under: Economy, In the News by Prasad
11 Sep, 11

Mumbai has given me my friends, education, bread, happiness & sorrow – I love it. But with that it has given us traffic & pollution – 2 things unavoidable in this city. Despite of the patient Gaurav Samant driving me to work on that crazy JVLR, both of those rankle me everyday. But over the last couple of months, I’ve come to conclude that the traffic problem in Mumbai is a mere flow-rate issue. I might have lost touch with the intricacies of fluid dynamics, but the flow rate concept is simple enough to recollect & apply here. Wider roads have more cars flowing per second (wider area allows high velocity, hence higher flow rate). And its exactly the opposite on narrower roads. When 2 roads come together to form a road narrower than the sum of their widths, theoretically cars would have to go faster to keep the flow-rate constant. But I wish Mumbai roads allowed this. Such joints are usually where traffic clogs due to damaged roads & lack of driving sense.

The first problem is that these devastated intersections are “No Contractor’s Land”. View full article »

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A Tribute to Sachin Tendulkar

Filed Under: In the News by Prasad
14 Mar, 10

When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket, Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam. When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company,…

When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters. The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, View full article »

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From the Horse’s Mouth: Arundhati speaks on International Women’s Day

Filed Under: Guest Posts, In the News by Guest
08 Mar, 10

Prasad: I know quite a few avid writers in my friend circle who are lazy enough to run their own blog. I am going to keep the stage open at prasadgupte.com for sharing their wisdom, and to benefit them from provoked skill-set retrospection & motivation to start writing more. What’s a better start than to have one of the sweetest women in my life write on Women’s Day? Over to you Aru!

It’s the centennial anniversary of  International Women’s day and though it would be just another day down here, a lot of changed already and improving each year. The battle of sexes is never-ending, but women today are much more ambitious, open to challenges and reaching new heights.  And all this, thanks to the empowerment struggle by ‘us’ & the support extended by men; they are not so cruel after all, they just get insecure sometimes ;)

Although I don’t much happening in town, I’m expecting fun at the ‘Lavasa Women’s Day Drive’ on the eve of women’s day. With a long drive, live performances, makeovers & lots of goodies, it’s going to be one hell of an experience! I really wish I could join them, may be next year. As we struggle to create awareness by airing ‘Balika Vadhu’ as prime-time entertainment (fiction is thankfully better uglier reality prevalent in some parts of our society), the world elsewhere has seen several interesting initiatives View full article »

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Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara

Filed Under: In the News, Reviews, Videos by Prasad
26 Jan, 10

Wishing fellow Indians a happy Republic day! Just checked out the new version of Mile Sur Mera Tumhara today: 2 x 8 min videos… huh! And not that exciting! Check out the new ‘Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’: Part 1 | Part 2. Some immediate comments:

  • All pure instrumental portions are fantastic: Rahman, Anousha Shankar, tabla, Sivamani, Jazz, …
  • Great focus on renewable energy: Solar water heaters and aggregators in the background a couple of times
  • S-E-L (Shankar-Eshan-Loy) are great towards the end of their part
  • The old-age home (supposedly) & Kashmir parts are very sweet
  • Old is Gold: Original music has been tampered too much. Preferred the older Punjabi & Bengali parts (Is Shaan saying send me ‘SMS’?)
  • There seems to be no one besides movie stars in this…
  • Amitabh Bachchan has been made to sound wierd; he should’ve only been asked to read out the lines
  • A bit of over-acting from actors down-under
  • No Value Add: The Lux couple, Sonu Nigam, Shahid, Ranbir (in pajamas), Karan Johar
  • Salman, Deepika short of clothes
  • First 14 mins were great, and then SRK arrives with his silly hand gestures  :( as if he’s going to jerk of the whole world by closing his fist ;) Just compare it to Aamir’s part
  • Thanks for paying homage to the military at the end

Notable comments from elsewhere:

  • why to ruin the good memories with bad bollywood experimentation. It is like comparing SHOLAY with RGV KI AAG
  • This “SUR” has become “BESUR” because of bollywood
  • Seriously, half of the people in this video didn’t deserve to be there

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What we, as Indians, should expect from 2010

Filed Under: In the News by Prasad
01 Jan, 10

Wish you all & your families a very happy & prosperous new year. It has been quite a lazy start to my new year, nonetheless I’m lovin it (am I using this too often? McDonalds gonna sue me :D ) What else would you expect when the new year starts with a long weekend?

I personally don’t keep new year resolutions; they perish as winter sets out :) While I was setting some targets for me to achieve this year, a few other things came to my mind which we, as Indians, should all look forward to. View full article »

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Globalization in Showbiz: Can we have ‘Is Janam Mohe Brazil Hi Bhejo’ ?

Filed Under: Entertainment, In the News by Prasad
08 Aug, 09

A couple of days back I read in the newspaper that Brazil’s hot-selling soap opera is one based on the Indian caste system. Caminho Da India (that’s not Punjabi! It Portuguese for ‘India’s Way’) is set in Rajasthan & revolves around a dalit boy who falls in love with an upper-caste girl facing opposition from their families and society. The Portuguese show has its entire production team and actors flown down from Brazil, yet revering traditional Indian values by not kissing on screen. The show has gained so much popularity that Rajasthani trinkets make a fashion statement on Brazilian streets. Also, chai, theek hai and bhagwaan ke liye have become household parlance. View full article »

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The Gandhi Dynasty

Filed Under: In the News by Prasad
09 Jul, 09

Further to [permalink href="250" title="Sea-link inaugurated, but what’s in a name?"]my post on the Sea-link Naamkaran issue[/permalink], here is a a ‘short’ list of schemes, roads etc. for the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty promotion with Tax Payer money! I was actually waiting for something like this, until this morning when I found it in my Forwarded Email label (folder for non-googlians). View full article »

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Sea-link inaugurated, but what’s in a name?

Filed Under: In the News by Prasad
01 Jul, 09
Bandra-Worli Sealink

Bandra-Worli Sealink

This morning all forms of media were talking about the inauguration of the gleaming new Bandra-Worli sea-link by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Apart from breaking news on TV & front-pages of print media, the news board at Yashodham High School, where I had been to submit Chibu’s FYJC admission form, also followed the event. Leaving aside details of the technical feat, the mighty cost involved and benefits to society, they were all debating the Naamkaran. View full article »

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