Arjan Gujral - Year 1

My son turned 1 on 24 October 2007. This is a photo and video montage capturing some of his special moments.

Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist

I counld't resist putting this up. Its a hilarious take on suicide bombers. Achmed is just too adorable. Watch and enjoy!

Ump Ire!!!

The tragedy that befell in the India-Australia 2nd Test match at the SCG is akin to the Shakespearean ‘Twelfth Night’. While the 16th century play is a “comedy of errors”, the number of umpiring errors subjected on one particular team during the match was not funny at all.

For some inexplicable reason India has been on the receiving end of Bucknor’s ‘Ump-Iring’. But the umpiring on the 5th day of the 2nd test match was woeful to say the least. Innumerable match changing decisions went against the visitors. Good umpiring is known to be consistent and Bucknor has been consistent about bad umpiring against the Indians. So in that respect he’s a great umpire!

The decision that ended Rahul Dravid's resistance was one of many poor calls that went Australia's way


Peter Roebuck delivers his verdict on the second Australia-India Test in the Sydney Morning Herald, "It was a match that will have been relished only by rabid nationalists and others for whom victory and vengeance are the sole reasons for playing sport ... It was a rotten contest that singularly failed to elevate the spirit." I couldn’t agree more with Roebuck Ji (yah, he deserves some form of an Indian knighthood to go against mainstream nationalistic opinions within Australia.

Turning our attention briefly to the Harbhajan and Symonds saga it seems its more a case of Australia failing to grasp the most popular of Biblical maxims, “Do unto others as you wish others do unto you? When they get dished back their aggressive on-field verbal volleys ‘its not fair mommy’ is what they shout! Steve Waugh explains this merely a misunderstanding of cultures. He explains that Australian kids grow up showering verbal venom while playing sports in their backyard. Well, Test Match cricket is not played in someone’s backyard and Australian cricketers need to grow up. For decades they have been sledging at teams and now that someone is standing upto them they cry foul. They need to grow up else India will not be the first nr the last team to stand upto their verbal bullying.

It seems the tour will go on. There was no way it couldn’t given the amount of money the two cricket boards stood to lose. Money wins over politics and righteousness. It will be interesting to see how the 3rd Test Match will proceed. Indians will certainly be at a disadvantage mentally. The shock of the defeat, the betrayal of Ponting to the captain’s understanding and the general attitude of the Australian cricketers during and after the match has been a heavy burden on the Indian team as their record will show a loss while the Australians celebrate 16 consecutive Test wins.

I only wish we could place an asterix against that record so future generations will always be reminded of the basis of this victory.

Blood Brothers Review

Living each day differently for 100 days is a more fulfilling life than living the same day for 100 years. This would summarize what Blood Brothers from Vishal Bharadwaj is all about. Its 18 minutes of spellbinding storytelling with each frame and minute more distinguished from the previous one. Blood Brothers is a study in contrast of a man’s reaction when he learns that he has AIDS. It captures the essence of what drives one man to call quits over life while another takes it in his stride and is living his shortened life better than before. It’s a story that exhibits the fear of AIDS and for once explores the mind of the virus carrier rather than those around him. The acting of Siddharth of RDB fame and Ayesha Takia are spot on and I take extra delight to see Pankaj Kapoor back in this small but brilliant film. Watch it and be proud that this came from a Bollywood director. A sheer genius this Vishal Bharadwaj.

Blood Brother is part of the Mira Nair’s production of AIDS JaaGO project that brings together 4 short stories each directed by acclaimed directors such as Nair, Santosh Sivan, Vishal Bharadwaj and Farhan Akhtar.

Oh! Saawariya!!

Mr. Raja Sen’s critique of Saawariya is extremely well written and my only hope was that the scriptwriter of the film would have taken the pains to think through the lines as carefully as Mr. Sen has thought through this critique.

I enjoyed Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam a lot even with its flaws. But since then Mr. Bhansali has got this absurd notion that Indian audiences think from their heart and feel from their ears. Why otherwise would he have loud characters with overflowing emotional quotients and a hyper-imaginative backdrop to all subsequent movies? He's better suited to paint abstract art with his vivid imagination and give Mr. M. F. Hussein’s a run for his money. If escapist cinema is his excuse then please at least show me the backdrop of Switzerland in your gazillion songs so we so-called poor Indians can visit these countries for free and importantly without the hassle of long visa lines. If Black had a black and white backdrop and Saawariya a blue hue I shudder to think what color combinations are next. If you Mr.Bhansali can focus on the various shades of characters and not just on the cinematic hues it would better serve to narrate a story which I thought was the primary purpose of cinema. I better stop now before my stereotypical over emotional Indian state of mind gets the better of me!

Tiger...Stop It!

Mr. Tiger Woods,
This letter is from a concerned Golf fanatic. I was introduced to this game 4 years ago and have been following it regularly since then. I have enjoyed many battles with my own friends as you have undoubtedly enjoyed whipping the butts of your fellow PGA tour professionals.

The excitement of a putt on the 18th hole to win or force a play-off and the uncertainty of the result is what makes me glued to the idiot-box for hours...to the utter dismay and amazement of my dear wife.

In the last few months you have reduced watching golf to watching paint dry! The result is as predictable and the event as boring. I mean honestly, if that was the level of excitement I wanted I would switch channels and watch the never ending saga of an afternoon soap...no I won't! But that's beside the point. The point being that even if you have to win. I mean if you really do have to win, at least make it more interesting for us Golf fans. Make it seems that the other guy has a chance on the 18th hole and then curve your 30 foot birdie putt to win or let them enter a playoff with you and then hit your approach shot in the 1st playoff hole to 1 foot.

Mr. Woods you owe us Golf fans at least the excitement, lest we switch to watching other sports. I don’t grudge you your wins. I ask that you don’t grudge us the experience of watching competitive Golf. The operative word being 'competitive'.

Tiger...Stop It!

39/36

Golfing and Other Peoples of the World,
39/36 - yes that's my new number for the week, month, year till I better it. What does it mean you ask??

Last weekend I had the fortune of playing golf with my buddies. We call ourselves FOREsome. Check us out at mygolfrecord.com. We are quite an eclectic bunch of desis with a love for this game. Anyways, getting to the point, we played at the San Jose Municipal Golf Course (first time) where I had a normal front 9 and scored a 46 on a par 36.

Then began the back 9 saga. I had 6 pars and 3 bogeys for a total of 39 on a par 36. Its my best ever 9 hole score and the best in the group as of now. It seems my group is getting better by the week as every week someone form our group breaks another group record. BTW - did I tell ya that I was playing with a borrowed putter? I had left mine at home. On this day I was just PUNJab Da. The PUTTER was MIA.

But this is my moment of glory so let me hog the limelight. For those who with boring lives and nothing better to do, read on.

The back 9 started with no fanfare. Made a solid par. The next hole was another shot down the fairway and a regulation par (it’s not usually regulation for me to make consecutive pars). By now I was dreading a quadruple bogey or something worse as my luck of pars would soon ebb away. But the magic moment continued and I made yet another par.

A thing about my swing. I have a natural slice...fade if you want to be nice. Well, on one of the holes on the back 9 I had a great tee shot with my trusted 3 Wood. I had 169 yards left to a front pin which is a normal 6 iron for me. The greens were hard and it had been difficult to check the ball so I decided to hit a fade to check the ball quickly. In my fledgling golfing career I have never hit a controlled fade but this time I pulled it off. It landed flag high and checked immediately. I couldn't believe it. I was staring at a rare 8 feet, left to right break, birdie opportunity. Damn it felt good.

As my golfing buddy would say, "Lo and behold" I missed my birdie out but made a regulation par.

It’s been the best 9 holes of my life thus far. I can’t wait to play my next round. And I know you can’t wait to read my sorry report for the next round. Till then, keep it in the short grass.

Darfur, the Olympic Spirit and our Blind Spot

Well, it finally happened. The Winter Olympic flame was extinguished for another 4 years to be lit again in Vancouver 2010. NBC’s coverage of the Olympics was packaged very well with good insights into the athlete’s lives and explanation of sports which were completely alien to me.

While watching the games and celebrating the Olympics spirit (brilliantly exhibited by Shauni Davis and Chad Heddrick) I had a thought. What would it take for the US and rest of the world to see the plight of our fellow men at Darfur. On one hand we have celebration and triumph of the human spirit and on the other side of the Equator the same human spirit was being crushed, raped, mutilated and humiliated by the Junjaweed, a Government supported militant group.

More than 2 million people now live in camps and more than 180,000 (as of May 2005) are assumed to have died in the genocide. I wonder what numerical value will it take for Darfur to stay at the top of our news headlines and for CNN, Fox and MSNBC to cover it as religiously as they covered the missing girl in Aruba. Ohhh, I forget, this is in Africa. The so called armpit of the world. Why bother.

I wonder if the US or the Western world response would have been different if Sudan had proven Oil reserves. Hmmmm…somehow I think things would have been different. I don’t know why but a tweety bird from Iraq tells me as if she has had that experience.

But how easy it is to blame the Government, the media and the United Nations. While I sit back, relax, sip my Widmer Heifewizen and watch Shizuka Arakawa put on the performance of a lifetime to win the Gold, never once did the Darfur conflict enter my consciousness. I guess we all are guilty of having placed Darfur in our blind spot. I guess it is convenient to do so. I guess it’s easy….

Wake up world. Smell the roses, lest the stink of Darfur spoil your appetite.

Hello World

Fellow Madcaps,
As this is my maiden attempt at blogging, I would like to start it with a disclaimer. I am in no way responsible for any and all comments made by my evil avtaar (Punjab Da Putter), which by the way is a pun on the word 'Putter' as in the golf stick and 'Puttar' which means 'son' in Punjabi.

This not a topical blog. It has no rules. And no structure. It is a free flow of thoughts and if anyone identifies with any of my blogs....or should I say the blogs of my evil twin...you are in serious trouble and need desparate help.

On that prescriptive note I will rest my comatose mind for now and get back to work...shhhhhhhh!

See you around,
PDP