Top 5 Reasons to own a Blackberry!!

You don't own a Blackberry!BB is calling... where are you?

Here are the Top 5 reasons for you to head to your nearest dealer for a BB-

1)To save your marriage/relationship: Tired of everyday fights,arguements,complaints- go get both yourselves a BB- you would be too busy trying to get to know the new member to fight and complain with and about each other.And neither of you are going to bother each other much in that way.Your marriage is safe for life and you don't even have to pay for a counsellor (which may or may not work)

2) To break your marriage/relationship: Getting choked at your existing love or married life but don't know how to end it - since you are too good to be bad to someone.Soak yourself in a BB - don't spare the bedroom,living room - not even your bathroom.Or better still if you are the one not owning it - get your spouse/partner a BB,get him/her hooked on to it and one day just throw it out of the window in front of him/her - the storm that will result will save you the future storms forever!

3)To give your professional image a makeover: Your Boss questions your committment.Mail him from your BB midnight,even if you are in a nightclub,early morning from your WC, or even when you sneak personal time during office hours for - say a massage in the spa.You wanted committment, I am giving you every second of my life.The promotion party is due sweetheart!

4)To flex your muscles: Have tight fingers which needs flexing- no worries- keep fiddling with your BB,even if you have nothing important to do.You don't pay a buck and you have a good exercise for your fingers.Not just that if you land up with a twitch in the muscles, hunt for a good looking therapist- you gain anyway!

5) You want a healthy fruit diet- HA HA you have a Black Berry- to binge on to!!!Wonder why they named it Blackberry!

Enjoy BBing- Forget Life ?

*Thanks to all my friends and family who got hooked on to a Blackberry and inspired me to put down my thoughts :)!!!

What it takes for Indian Cinema to go International?

I was writing this while watching the World's most prestigious award ceremony- the Academy. Slumdog Millionaire has bagged 8 awards and Smile Pinki won the Best Short Documentary.I was happy really happy about India being a subject of these 2 experiments of 2 brilliant film makers, and bagging the global recognition, and putting India in the world pedestal for the first time in World Cinema.In fact when Resul Pookutty ,and Rahman walked the stage for Best Sound Mixing,Best Song,and Score respectively, and were speechless for few seconds..I actually felt a lump in my throat- feeling their emotions!!!!

But while these were feel good moments -I cried actually which I never do on any such events- and very feel good moments- the only achievements that India could be proud about was Rahman and Resul's Oscars, which was theirs ...by all means!!!The excitement and joy in me for all the other categories, - well - was absent actually !!


What also made me think and feel sad about was - why both the films- Slumdog Millionaire, and Smile Pinki needed a Danny Boyle and Megan Mylan to capture India's essence,issues and story, so brilliantly?Does the Indian film industry lack good film makers, directors, or is it that we do not have the resources, or a film needs to be made in English or the lobbying and PR- or our film producers are more keen on the cliched, hero/heroine love,revenge,and some lousy comedy based stories- where a Kareena's size zero, or wardrobe, and power yoga are the source of publicising a film- WHAT?

Slumdog's budget was made on a budget of $15 MN- which is being called a low budget film- but to our standards, go ahead and calculate how much that is - ...close to 70 crores!But what about Smile Pinki?


Let's come to talent- plot,direction,music, there is no lack of it in our country..what with such brilliant off beat cinema coming up in the past few years, and concepts (don't forget SM is actually written by an Indian- Vikas Swarup) which have never been experimented before- even if they don't make box office hits- but no- there is no dearth of talents...but probably the lack of a global milestone in the vision of making a film.


And as for making it in English ...no way- Jai Ho was not in English to win the Oscar and neither was Smile Pinki (it was in hindi and bhojpuri)!!!


Lobbying?PR ? is that what it is ? I am really failing to understand what is it that we lack..Rahman's music was always brilliant, but it was because the Slumdog was in English it proved to be a wonderful platform for Rahman to reach the global platform.But even for a documentary film, why is it that no Indian film maker could make a short film on any issues on India which could make it to the world platform? Considering that we can feel, and relate to such issues, more closely and emotionally than a non-Indian? contacts,resources, reach?

Probably a combination of all the above..maybe Slumdog Millionaire and Smile Pinki has projected India as a land of creative opportunities to be explored by everyone in the world!And maybe now that 2 India based films, with all Indian sentiments, and emotions have bagged the most prestigious awards of the world,our own film makers, and producers can give a thought on the question in the title of this note rather than just wondering about the Friday's Box Office collections!

Moral Battering- Is the Media listening?

Guess who did the best job Moral Battering in the much talked and shocking Satyam revelation.The media and specially I want to mention one specific media house who took absolutely no responsibility on the authentication of its reports on the company.Every report seemed to have picked up a headline which kicked the moral of every Satyam stakeholder real bad.And I have no qualms sharing the initials TOI/ET.Anyone well versed with the media houses would know whom I am talking about.Let me give an example- there was a report stating that Satyam employees have received an email from HR announcing that there would be no salary for 2 months.I read the report in the online version on TOI/ET,and was shocked.Being the wife of a Satyam employee, I knew every little developments in the company.There was no announcement as such which was even close to that.My knowledge was confirmed through all the comments which followed that report.And sadly even after the constant reminder to the editor by the readers, no effort was made to remove the report.

This was not the only report with such misleading and unauthenticated information.Many followed after that.

But this is what these reports did-

1) Calls from every concerned family member/friends frantic over this news.Wondering what is going to happen to the family!

2)Team members calling managers of their project early morning half crying "what will happen?"

3)Spouses worried to hell and calculating where to cut down expenses, even if that means withdrawing the basic costs.

4)Sleepless nights to 50,000 employees and their families, who were already in a state of shock.

5)And who knows "suicides"

And God knows what more!!!!

I still remember reading the role of media.One of which is to focus on the problems of the common man and discuss solutions.Is that what this media house was doing actually or misleading and speculating too much, adding more problems to the existing ones for the stakeholders of the company.

I really hope the media starts behaving a little more responsibly and also be considerate on the moral of the readers which may be affected considerably.Please do not BLOW THINGS OUT OF PROPORTION...and do the job the way it is supposed to be done!