Hi, If you have been following this blog for a while (the chances of which are extremely rare) PLease note this: I am moving back to Blogger and the blogs would be posted in this URL: http://www.sumankrpaul.blogspot.com/ So see you there. Good bye and Happy New year 2011.

Below is a mail forward I recieved from a friend... whosoever has scrpited it is the real owner and I am just using this medium to share it wih one and all...

21 things that will happen if the IPL is nationalised.

1. The new Commissioner of the IPL, replacing Lalit Modi, will be an IAS officer, 1989 batch, transferred from the Food Corporation of India .

2. Mayawati will demand, however, that the new Chairman should be her own candidate, Mr Dalit Modi .

3. The name of Mumbai Indians will immediately be changed to Mumbai Manus. It will, naturally, field only Maharashtrians (preferably Maharashtrian Brahmins). All other players will have their legs broken. Zaheer Khan will have his house burned down. So will Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan and Mohd Kaif .

4. The Chennai Super Kings team will be renamed Dravida Cricket Kazhagam. Subsequently one faction will break away and the team will split into DCK (DMK) and AIADCK, owing allegience to Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha respectively .

5. Each political party will have its own team: BJP Bandits, Congress Cobras, CPI Cadres, Samajwadi Strikers, CPM Challengers, Trinamul Tigers etc .

6. Auction of players will be replaced by teams calling for tenders for players. The lowest priced players will be picked.

7. Sonia Gandhi will insist that 30% of each team should be reserved for women .

8. Mayawati will demand that SC/ST players will need to run for only 18 yards instead of 22 yards between the wickets .

9. Third Umpire requests will have to be filled in triplicate and duly notarized .

10. All Third Umpire decisions will be referred to a Joint Parlimentary Commission .

11. IPL tickets will henceforth be available at all post offices and BSNL centers from 10 a.m. to 12.45 p.m. The facility to purchase tickets on your cell phone will immediately be withdrawn .

12. Replacing an injured foreign player can be done only through a Tatkal application submitted 48 hours after a Govt doctor examines him.

13. Cheerleaders will be replaced by retired Air-India flight attendants.

14. These new cheerleaders will perform the folk dances of the states they represent during breaks.

15. IPL matches will be shown only on Doordarshan. They will be telecast the day immediately following the match, from 4 a.m. to 7.30 a.m. and subsequently from 3.30 p.m. to 7p.m, subject to satellite link-up availability.

16. Between each innings break Doordarshan will telecast the news in Hindi, followed by news for the hearing impaired.

17. Agricultural shots can be played only during the phase of the game termed " Krishi Darshan . "

18. There will be no matches on weekends or on national / regional holidays.

19. The three stumps will be painted saffron, white and green .

20. Bowlers will have to bowl sarpatti and ghasssarkundi balls (Hindi terms for underhand bowling) to the reserved players.

21. Pakistan will immediately announce its intention to start its own version of the tournament called PPL and Mr Zardari will make a visit to Washington to meet President Obama and seek an additional grant of $1 billion to fund it.


Personally I liked the idea very much.. what about you??

So, its Monday again... among the other things that have made news in the past week the IPL has been the major source for all the wrong reasons… and it was not just the Indian news agencies… apparently IPL was being monitored by many other cricket playing countries.
Well this post has nothing to do with the IPL... because of the mundane Sunday and too much of cricket being thrown upon... it was the best day to watch a movie. I decided to visit the single screen theatre as it was pretty long time since I went to watch one in one of these theatres. The theatre I chose was the Metro Cinema at Esplanade and the movie under scrutiny was”City of Gold”.
This is not going to be the review post of the movie because the movie had nothing to be reviewed. It was like I was back into 1990s when Mahesh Manjrekar made Vaastav and its sequel too. What has prompted me to post is the stature of the single screen theatres in Kolkata… Back in 2002-03 when the multiplexes had not eaten into these cinema halls, they were very popular. Today most of them have closed down and few which have survived are also slowly dying.
Today a movie experience is costly for many... gone are the days when one could catch a movie at the nearest single screen theatre for as cheap as 15 bucks… but with the cost it has brought some features which have become standards… like the beautiful sound system… the relaxing seating system etc… Instead of all this when we are forced to put fingers into the ears at a theatre because of the sound… it becomes a pathetic experience seriously!!
The theatre has ill equipped electricity management due to which the movie got stalled for almost three times due to constant load shedding… the AC wasn’t working either…
The Sound system was age old and whenever there was a loud background music it was noise pollution at its apex… nothing seemed to be working right not even the chairs…
Today a movie is just not a movie… we want a better experience after all the money we put in… that’s why the review of the movies have caught up with everyone… its not that earlier movies did not have reviews but people were not much interested into that… it was always the first hand experience at the theatre… but after having seen the state of affairs at METRO.. I was quite heart broken… One of my friends who accompanied me said that this is the view of most of the single screen halls today…
The highpoint of the entire exercise was the movie’s dialogue similar to vaastav… Maa ye ghora daba de maa… mujhe mukti de de maa..” but with different climax… and yes… the movie had no songs... except a marathi song which played during the credits at the start of the movie.

PS:
It has been a month of this blog and I have had some decent hits and a good number of visitors to keep me motivated to update my blog regularly. Thank you guys!!

With this I pitch into the review bandwagon of bloggers tearing apart bad movies and praising the hell of movies worth the watch.
With the Saturday heat unbearable and long power cuts I decided to watch a movie. My first choice was Green Zone but could not get a seat... it was running houseful… so I landed up with Jane kahan se aayi hai!!... Even Prince was running houseful…..
I like Riteish Deshmukh when he plays the sidekick... The second lead etc etc... but when he is the solo hero of a film.. I think he suffers a nervous breakdown… for few minutes it was like I paid to watch the re run of Aladin??But as the third assistant director of farah he does well.. and to think farah has three assistant directors... that’s why is gaining the weight after so much of hard work…
Then there is Vishal the poor soul who is always playing the supportive suffering friend who understands you better than yourself... and what more he features in the posters of the movie and he said he was happy and excited about this fact… ha ha funny!!
There is nothing alien about the story as the loser gets to spend time with a girl and is bound to fall in love…. The later part where he helps the girl find the suitable man.. made me remember ajab prem ki gajab kahani.. though that movie was way too better….
What I loved in the movie was the gujju verion of satish back on screen after the Kal ho na ho success… and the American piesh… portray of the character by vishal…
Some funny lines at the start of the movie by Akshay Kumar when he comments about the new actor Desh.. “Saala steroids leta hai,” and the cameos by sajid khan and prianka chopra.. thought they were the blink and you miss types… were the high points of the movie…
The girl from venus on a tourist visa of two days and three nights is in a hurry to find love… and what jadoo she has... pausing live action here eyes being the tata sky plus remote.. life jhinga lala!!
All in all at the end of the movie what I loved the most was the AC and nothing else…. And I felt so sorry for the movie makers.. (forgot the name of the director and I am too lazy to google it).. Yuk thoo performance…
I hope I have not divulged any details of the movie to call this review a spoiler and all fans of the Riteish – Jacqueline chemistry may have a read and comment… Go to the movie with you girlfriend.. you will have very little.. Disturbance!!!

 

Tui ki twitter e achis?? Are ami akhon shahrukh ke nijey janai je kolkatar match ta kamon khelte hoy!!... phat phati jinis.. (are you on twitter?? I can now tell shahrukh how Kolkata should play the matches!!.. it’s a nice thing)

Above is a conversation I overheard on a Maidan bound metro train… and thus got the inspiration to write this post…  what has happened since twitter was launched and how has it changed our everyday lives?? Has it changed or not?? These were some questions that came in my mind… and the answer is definitely Yes!!

Newspapers

Now every other news paper has a ready source of news bite from the top celebrity who can not deny they had said that... be it a political news or information about any celebrity its there for anyone to view.  While you get to know about the stars and there whereabouts media does not need the gossip building journo… or the PR of the stars to quote them on the papers... starts are themselves speaking and what not…

Judiciary

 Think hard before you tweet that information about where you are, because your wife may ask for divorce on the basis of your twitter updates.  Before this thing came on the web evidence was not be found not at least from the horse’s mouth and that too in simple 140 characters…

Marketing

Almost every small and big marketer who is serious about online marketing is definitely present on twitter and now we have the Twitter 101 for business to get help… and I think the idea of the company behind twitter was to create such a platform…

Social Networking

While we already had Orkut, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and what not… twitter came and it came big bringing the SMS fans’ population to the web…  with twitter you get to know about friends many such information which would note have been shared other networking platforms like Paris Hilton going to sleep…

For the fans of the celebrities it is a dream come true to interact with their idols things they always wanted to share with them… no seriously think 10 years back did you even think you could actually receive a message from your idol... once you punch in your thoughts…

Business

 Ok URL shortening sites existed earlier also… but what made them famous is twitter… and now we have n number of websites which somehow use the main twitter platform to bring in unique visitors... for example twitpic, the whuffie bank etc… and to products like these….

Software

 Whether you have a Nokia or a Blackberry there is a twitter client for you… the software makers have started minting money and all thanks to twitter… examples include Snaptu, ubbertwitter, Gravity etc…

Well... upon the analysis I come to the conclusion that twitter has changed the way we used to see the social networking websites... and yes its here to stay…

PS: in case you are still new to twitter help is at hand contact me at @skptweets

Please do comment if you like this post… and if you don’t then definitely comment

In Kolkata it is a common sight to see the road side stalls filled with over crowded people munching their favorite Chowmein or fried rice as the case may be…
In this particular case I was enjoying the fresh fruit chat by the road side of our office, when I saw a kid shabbily dressed trying to eat out of the paper plates thrown by people after having their lunch.
My colleague was discussing the right to education bill being passed and how it was important for the kids to learn…. to educate the society etc… question is what about that kid?? Will he ever go to school??
The dilemma struck me then… which side of India should I see?? The one which is growing better than any other country can… where foreign companies are lining up to invest and operate…
Or
Where people are dying without food… without shelter… corruption is on a all time high… and politicians are busy creating more states… creating statues and what not… the list will be long….
PS: It must be noted that I am very much proud of whatever we have gained and how we stand in the world map… but unfortunately when I notice things in which I can do nothing of that importance... that I think of washing it away… that is the sole reason of this post…

A few days ago I went to enjoy the 30 Match of the IPL 2010 between KKR and DC, while I had enjoyed the game pretty much…. This post is not about the experience of the game or that of the Eden garden and its crowd as already discussed by well known Greatbong, this is serious… this is about the security in and around this heritage city which makes me think what if Kolkata had to witness a Pune or Delhi??

When I was about to enter the ground I had kept almost nothing that could be thrown at people not even coins, but once I was inside I could see people easily breaching the security:

1)      Cameras were not allowed inside but almost everyone except me was zooming in on the players.

2)      Huh..  it was a no smoking zone but few good Magicians had managed to smoke inside the stadium.

3)      The stadium had almost the entire state police for safety but still people managed to enter the F1 block with a ticket of G1 block..

Well so much so only at cricket game….  Nothing that can harm us right… but think if it is possible to take matchbox and cigarette inside the stadium and smoke too.. then who is going to stop a blast??

Our Para Uncles joke and say.. “Eta sob age theke bandha.. Kolkata te blast korbe na… age thekei janiye rekheche..” (They will not bomb Kolkata they have informed the police).

One who is staunch supporter of Didi was saying.. “Joto din CPM ache aar kono gundar dom nei Kolkata te bomb phelar..” (Nobody except CPM can do such things till they are in power)

Kolkata has the worst possible fire management.. which was ripped apart after the Stephen court incident , so if a blast happens the damage would be many fold increased due to the ill managed government….

Lastly .. one more thing to mention here … chances of poor Bengali soul getting hit are increasing….

Love Sex or Dhoka or LSD as we know it popularly has been in the papers and all over the web with reviews by one and all..
Having been through all the reviews some how I now have a resistance from with in to go and watch it at the theater. You have professional moview reviewers now a days who write their coloums in the paper every thursday or friday as the case may be. Now a days even before a movie releases you have a dozen reviews about how good or bad the movie is.. Typically one goes through a review to make up a mind about whether to invest the 500/- bucks on the movie or not... but the results are not always as desired.. I have some aprehensons on the authenticity of the reviews especially by the professional movie crtitcs..because:
1) I see it as a marketing tactics by the production house to get good remarks from them.. after all a review by MR. Masand today brings the movie to that big platform.. isnt it?
2) I have seen a few movies which got very bad remarks from the so called professionals but.. at the end of the I liked the movie.. may be if I went ahead with the reviews I would not have ventured in th vicinity if the theaters..
3) I dont understand why should only multi million dollar movies have to be professionaly reviewed and not movies like.. Gulal etc..

Well these are my personal thoughts on these so called reviews.. and may be baised because of the torture I had to go thorugh reading revies in the news papers which are almost same just the title of the movie changes..

Instead it is better to go thorugh a blog where a guy undrestands the investment that goes into this process and gives us a better view.. Like in case of LSD.. I have read a blog from Greatbong a blogger turned writer who has given us the special highlights of the movie.. and that iswhat we want .. isnt it??

I have been over the internet and all social networking sites (My Google Profile) for a decade now and find it rather interesting to share my views and experiences with friends who are far and wide. But I share the most important relationship with this friend of mine who does not exist on the Internet. Feels kind of strange isn’t it! Like the main character from the movie Wanted who puts his name on Google and receives no search results. Few days ago I also came across this cartoon which talks about The Ungoogleable Man. Now this is where I got the inspiration to share my thoughts on the search availability of a person.
Now getting back to my friend who does not believe to be on the social networking sites just because he feels that takes away his privacy. It is not that he did not try the features; he did so and had an Orkut account, but soon deleted it. His reasons are that with Orkut he was being found by people with whom he did not want to be in contact with. He has a well knit network of friends including me and does use the email frequently. He travels a lot and has some nice experiences to share but doe not blog. Taking cue from this case I now have a few questions cropping up in my mind:
1) Is it anti social to be off the web?
2) Why do we ask people about their orkut or facebook page rather than may be their email id?
3) How to bring such people who have severe privacy issues on the social networking platforms?
Answers Solicited!!


PS: Beacause of my the problems with my server links have been disabled. Appologies for that...

How I started this blog...

No seriously this is nothing less than a mamoth task that I did all in one day...here's how:

1) I googled for blog services.. which could penetrate the walls of the websense policy of our office. Yes it took almost half an hour of googling to do and arrive at this web page.
2) Now, registration was easy.. but they have this verification mail that comes to your email ad my office blocks such mails. So I gave yahoo id instead. Here on the ordeal started..
3) I have a mobile connection with Air... which gives really slow network speed. I opened my yahoo mail on mobile.. checked for this particular mail and whoala no mail from bravenet.. I was pissed off by this time as I had to climb up to the fourth floor in the heat to the terrece to get the signal..(yes this is where we stand TRAI).
4) I came back to my worksation and founnd that i had missed out on the "n" of my mail and so no mail coming to my id. Well I thought I will easily change it.. but bravenet is not that userfreindly for someone who cant see the page properly.(websense remember).. however upon spending another half an hour on the site I finally corrected my ID went to the terrace again and checked my mail. I had to just click to verify my email ID but the signal would not come..
5) I hopped down to my workstation and started typing the code it was 38 characters long with caps, numbers and all premutations with the keyboard keys.. so I had made a mistake again.. I clicked verify to see the message.. "sorry this is not a valid code"
6) What next.. was my question... I again went to the site resnt a verfication code.. the process involved one more trip to the terrace. BY this time my boss had seen me running like this and I was asked to explain. It was easy to lie and explain.. and up I went to the terrace
7) This time I made sure I will get the task completed at the terrace itself.
8) Here I am posting this blog from my mobile phone itself..

There are many lessons that I learnt with this.. one of which is "where there is a will there is a way"

PS: Technically this should have been my first post.. but the earlier post was imported from my earlier blog.. so appears first..

Anyways comments appreciated...