Facebook addiction.... rehabilitation...

I got ready for the office a bit early today than usual; and got the opportunity to get a glimpse at today's headlines. The 'Pune' city supplement had a front page article on how the young generation is getting addicted to Facebook and one of the renowned schools in Pune is carrying rehabilitation activities for Facebook addicted children.

I was a bit shocked initially. But once the article synced in, I could not stop myself from wondering 'Are we over reacting?'. I agree the addiction could have gone 'out of control' in case of few; but just because the current generation is finding 'Facebook' (or any other social networking) a necessity can we term it as a threat to the entire generation?

When I was a teenager, my father got us a cable connection; which opened a whole new set of channels and entertainment programs for us. Initially me and my bother wanted to watch cable all the time.. but once the excitement was faded we decided what we want to watch and what we don't. Same was the case with first computer and the first time we got internet connection.

Chatting is now pretty common. When I was in college, it was new. My entire (well almost) generation was hooked up on chatting. No-one looked at it as a threat then. So many generations are following each and every Cricket match that BCCI is arranging that is also kind of addiction isn't it :-) (These days it has lot of bad influence as well ;-))

Every generation has something new to explore. That is "their thing". Anything done in excess 'is not considered good'.. then why blame only 'Social networking'.

Media converage sucks..

Too many news papers, too many news channels.. all trapped in boundaries of fierce competition.. trying to seek attention of maximum readers/viewers for achieving monitory success.. Is this really what we need/want? Media has lost that personal touch over past few years. Even when they are covering a heart breaking story all what is portrayed seems fake at most times and only intention of making more money is evident.

I remember fighting with my brother over who gets to read the newspaper first in the morning. Now, the scene has changed entirely. Multiple versions of what has happened anywhere in the world are almost hammered on you all the time. The newspaper next morning gives all stale news by that time news channels are already moved on to next cover story.

And what's with this "Bollywood" nonsense? Even after introducing "Page 3" crap, celebrities are still grabbing space in front page of the news paper. In country like ours where more than 25% of the population living below poverty line; and most are struggling to get even their basic needs fulfilled; this is the last thing we want to read about. 

Do we really care about who has twitted what? What is going to happen next in the TV serial? All the link ups/break ups between actors, actresses and cricketers? 

Seems like maximum of us do...

      

Prove and Approve

What a relief.. Finally I am done with investment proof submission for this year, and more importantly all my proofs are approved. Every year I undergo this exercise around this time-frame and I wonder why we need to prove everything? But then, we are proving something or the other all the time. Are we not?


This proving and approving has become an integral part of our lives. When we have to prove we were born by showing 'Birth certificate' and death also needs to be proved by 'Death certificate'; the journey has to be full (of) proof(s). 

I have to prove 'This is me' all the time. Have to carry election card for assessing my voting right, Office ID card for entering my work place, driving license to prove i am eligible to drive, pan card as a proof of my income status, and now newly introduced Unique ID (आधार card). All these can be proof of my identity. Even there is no-one ensuring all my cards are actually holding valid and in-sync information; these can prove I am 'me' than 'me' being present there myself. The person who approves these proofs is also holding some 'card' which holds power to approve. It's like we are trapped in card's world.


I now have so many cards in my wallet (all proving it's me); it almost feels like multiple identity disorder :-) 

Cricket 'THE' Sport

Around this time last year; entire nation was hooked up on Cricket. India was hosting ICC Cricket world-Cup after 15 years. Memories of 1996 were not all that great. 'We are going to win it' everyone believed, even before the tournament started.  And we did it. We actually won the ICC Cricket World-cup after 28 years. The celebrations after semis and finals were awesome. People came out on roads and went completely crazy. It was not just about those 11 players out there; every individual in India felt it was their win. 

It's not that India has not done well in sports other than Cricket. Vishwanathan Anand has topped Chess; Leander Paes has won 49 doubles titles in Tennis, and who can forget that Bronze medal in 1996 Olympics; Saina Nehwal became the first Indian to win BWF super series Title, and doing great in Badminton; Abhinav Bindra won Olympic gold medal in Shooting; Vijender Kumar won Olympic Bronze in boxing; Sushil Kumar won Olympic Bronze in Wrestling.. to name a few. People were happy with their achievements too; but the madness that Cricket world-cup win got on us was something else.

Many think this is media's fault; they are not giving enough coverage to other sports and not glorifying achievements of other sports persons. Well, I do not completely agree. Media coverage would certainly encourage players to pursue certain sport as career may be.. but How can media make some sport popular is beyond me. Personally, I tried following hockey but could not. It just didn't click. On the contrary; after England series mishap I wanted to quit following Cricket and I could not. It's quite unfortunate for other sports not to have Fame similar to Cricket in our country. But then, instead of cribbing about that let's just appreciate 'Cricket' as a sport which has successfully topped popularity charts for so many years :-) 

Cubicle.. daily soaps..

People seem to have different view points when it comes to open cubicles vs private cabins. I personally have mixed views on this. If not for open cubicles I would never have had encounters with so many characters. 

It kind of always fascinates me how people can be so comfortable talking on phone in public. Especially personal matters. I have witnessed so many lives going through ups and downs. Some voices are annoying, some conversations are irritating, some topics are boring, some characters not so fascinating. But then why cubicles would be an exception, we get all these in television daily soaps as well. I listen to these conversations regularly (almost daily) and story starts forming in my head. I have found myself even guessing what actually has triggered this conversation and was lucky to validate my guess in coming days phone calls.

Earlier I used to get really mad at all these people. But then as they say "If you cannot stop them join them". I gradually started feeling; these daily soaps are better than the ones that come on TV. The beauty here is you are always listening to only one side of the story. This gives me liberty to guess who might be there on the other side of the phone line, what that person might have said. I can actually form the story the way I want, the way I like it to be. 

I have even given my own names to these characters. "Mom" to the guy who keeps on calling his mother up every afternoon to discuss family issues; for obvious reasons. "Mavshi" to a guy who everyday informs his wife that he has reached office safely; because the way he talks. "Sud" to a person whose conversations are hilarious; mainly because of his voice, it resembles with the 'Sud' of Radio Mirchi. "Gajajhampa" to this girl; who keeps on conversing about typical family matters and advising people around her on how to wear a sari and stuff like that in really high pitched tone. "ChaTNi" to a girl who accidentally dropped chaTNi (Chutney) on her colleague in the cafeteria.. and so on

When these people have moved either out of company or somewhere else internally; It felt like you are following a daily soap and channel takes it off air for TRP reasons.

Ready.. Bodyguard... Ra One.. what's next?

3 "biggest blockbusters" of 2011, staring 2 "superstars". After successfully watching all 3 (not in the theatre of course) I really appreciate myself not falling for their publicity stunts. The disappointment began with the movie 'Ready', it was making news allover after its release. Salman effect clicked once more after the success of Dabang. I kept telling myself "don't fall for box office figures, don't fall for 'dhinka chika' topping all charts.. it would soon come on "showcase" you can watch it there". Thankfully i listened to my inner voice. 

Watched it on showcase and many questions started popping in my head. What do these so called stars think we audience are "stupid?".. hell yeah.. box office figures are showing that. The story was pointless, performances were mediocre, no fancy locations, weird family (i mean what was that swimming pool scene), average music.. yet a success.  How? Why?

That time I thought "Ready" is the most pathetic movie of 2011 when it was perhaps asking us to get 'ready' for coming hell.. and came "Bodygurad". Salman's second movie "Bodyguard" released within couple of months after "Ready". I never had great expectations from this movie and thought it might not click as "Ready" was already a box office success.. moreover Salman was not available for promotion. Obviously audience had something else in mind. Bodyguard got biggest openings ever. Again I kept telling myself "Ready has already proved i should not fall for this.. don't fall for Katrina's item number ('Sheila ki jawani' has already wasted my hard earned 1000 rupees:-)).. it would soon come on "showcase" you can watch it there". Thankfully i listened to my inner voice one more time.

Watched this one on showcase and i could not believe myself as i instantly felt 'Ready' was actually better than 'Bodyguard', at-least it had some plot however illogical and stupid the movie actually did stick to it. Whatever happened in last 30 minutes in 'Bodyguard' was beyond imagination. I said.. here it is "Bodyguard" - the most pathetic movie of 2011.

Luckily for Salman, SRK had plans of his own. Ra One was the most hyped movie of 2011. Released in Diwali vacations, it was bound to have huge openings. I am not SRK fan so never really wanted to watch this one in cinema hall. This one got pretty bad reviews all over. People who saw the film were going nuts over Ra One and SRK. Still lot of people around me went and watched this 3-D movie spending much more on it than usual. This time i was completely sure, i did not want to watch it on showcase either (it still costs you 50 rupees). I waited patiently till its television release on star gold HD and boy what the hell was that. Even 'Bodyguard' started looking better in comparison with Ra. One. There were so many flaws in the storyline, and SRK is totally confused throughout the movie about how actually the 'video game character' SRK should act. Was this video game character suffering from autism (specially in the last scene of the movie) or its My name is khan effect on SRK. Ra One yet managed to collect more than 100 crores at box office (at least i did not contribute :-)). How? Why?

Here I am.. waiting for a movie which makes mi think.. 'Ra One' was actually not that bad :-) Come on "Superstars" of bollywood, you can do it..

         

Here I am

It's been a while I was thinking i should start my blog... so here i am.