The Small Voice

12:56 AM Just watched Pan Singh Tomar.....FABULOUS MOVIE.....4/5 stars ratings from the wifey and me. The movie is based on true story of the National Games winner turned Dacoit (he prefers the term "rebel"). Played by Irrfan Khan who is mind blowingly good and should easily be the performance of the year. Had this movie been a big budget extravaganza starring one of the Khans/Kapoors/Kumars of Bollywood, the worthies of the press and the TV would have been drooling praises and feeding innumerable trivia tidbits to the nation. By the second week, Bombay Times would have had exhausted the usual stories about how Saif Ali Khan observed a Betel  leaf ( Paan , see??) for seven days to get into the character and would have started to publish the interview of the small but critically praised role of Tussar Kapoor playing the role of...well..err...Pan Singh's horse in the movie. Unfortunately, this was a budget movie. Hence, no horse for Pan Singh Tomar (a sacrile

Dude , Where's My Home? A sparrow was scouting the space above the steel almirah in our bedroom, the one in which HER EMINENCE, the wifey keeps the exploits of her shopping expeditions locked and barred from the general public. She was of the view that the poor bird must have lost its way. But to my experienced eyes, the reasons were clear. The poor bird was a male. And since today being world Sparrows day, obviously he had been sent by his better half to do some last minute real estate scouting. Mind you folks, Gudi Padhwa is drawing near too, and so is the discomfort for struggling-to-make-ends-meet-in-this-inflationary-days-hubbies. The pressure on the husband to buy an apna house will mount by the minute. They will be cajoled and threatened; often the latter to bite the Home-Loan bullet and buy an exorbitantly overpriced, match-box size flat despite the builder’s shady dealings from wives of all shades, shapes and sizes. Sigh. I made a mental note t

My favorite cricketer Rahul Dravid has retired from International cricket. The first time I saw his batting, in the 1990s, it was probably his 4 th  or 5 th ODI appearance and he had come in at No 7 with only a few ball remaining of that innings. Dravid faced maybe 3 balls but his cover drive was a stamp of class. I was an instant fan. Years later, that six off Allan Donald at long on was one of the most satisfying moments of cricket. Poor Donald was provided some rough treatment by Sachin earlier but when Dravid joined the party with a beautifully caressed six against the pacer was what really upset the chap. Dravid was a hero because somewhere, deep down he was one of our own. He wasn’t a naturally gifted player like the Tendulkars and the Sehwag and probably had the least amount of lucky survives in his career. Often in his long and hard fought innings he would play but only a single bad shot and would be out on that. While on the other end, lesser mortals would keep

A close friend of mine has of late, been going through a really tough time in life. As I see it, a lot of her hard and honest work has not been appreciated due to people who were not wise enough to understand her in totality.  So my little hummingbird, this is for you : “ Long before the time when Tolkien had conjured up Frodo and Gandalf and the ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL, t here lived a King, very powerful and very wise.  Like all bosses, he loved to make his employees life miserable and present them with "challenges".  So, one fine day, he asked his clutch of most wise and learned men of his kingdom to make him a magical ring that will make him happy when he is sad, and make him sanguine when he is too full of joy or pride. The wise men thought and discussed long and hard. Finally, they presented the King a simple gold ring with the words "This too will pass" etched on it. The king read the saying and smiled.  He had understood what the wise

The early leads on the UP elections indicate the voters have given a BIG BOOT to the BSP Govt: BSP is leading in only 87 seats (down 95) from last time. Ha ha ha The state seems to have denounced the wastefully expensive statues and the parks and the colossal wastage of public money for self aggrandizement of the CM and the party. Not to say the law and order situation and the poverty stricken and unemployment common man of the state. The state deserves better. I hope they get a better Government this time. Hope, somebody holds these netas accountable (read punish) for wasting thousands of crores of taxpayer’s hard earned money. Maybe someday, recover it too.