Week in pictures (Week 8, 2007)

Time flies - Another week has gone by. My last posts were during the last weekend. New posts this weekend start with the week in pictures - best shots taken from the various "Week in Pictures" from various websites around the web. This week's pictures are from MSNBC, Time and BBC.



This is a classic MSNBC picture. This one taken in Beijing during the week gone past (the week of the Chinese New Year) captures beautifully a simple pedestrian bridge in a cold and chilly Beijing morning.


This one is a beautiful picture taken from the Time Magazine. Its the spices season in India. In this picture red chillies are dried and grided to create one of the simples and most effective spice (used in many Indian curries) - the red chilli powder.



And finally a picture from BBC. Last week the Samjhauta Express (train service b/w India and Pakistan) was attacked and 65 innocent people lost their lives. This picture reveals the terror in the incident.

Filmfair??

Reading Dushyant's blog has prompted me to share some thoughts on the topic of the 52nd Filmfare award nominations.

Let's look at the nominations.

Best Film nominations
Dhoom 2, Don, KANK, Krrish, Lage Raho Munnabhai, Rang De Basanti

First, whatever happened to the 5 nomination limit? Looks like next year's filmfare will have all movies released in the year nominated for the best movie award. Come on - you can't have D2, Krrish and KANK in the same category as LRM and RDB. And as Dushyant pointed out - where's Omkara and Gangster?

My picks (notice - 5 only - winners in bold): LRM, RDB, Gangster, Omkara, Dor

Best Director Nominations
Karan Johar (KANK), Rakesh Roshan (Krrish), Rakeysh Mehra (Rang De Basanti), Rajkumar Hirani (Lage Raho Munnabhai), Sanjay Gadhvi (Dhoom 2), Vishal Bhardwaj (Omkara)

Karan Johar for KANK? Did I read this right? KANK was one of the most poorly directed movies of 2007. I am a fan of Karan Johar's work but I'm not sure if KANK was the right one. Anurag Basu's fine work in Gangster was one of the finest I've seen.

My picks: Rakeysh Mehra, Rajkumar Hirani, Vishal Bharadwaj, Anurag Basu (Gangster), Nagesh Kukunoor (Dor)

Best Actor in a leading role (Male) nominations
Aamir Khan (Rang De Basanti), Hrithik Roshan (Dhoom 2), Hrithik Roshan (Krrish), Sanjay Dutt (Lage Raho Munnabhai), Shahrukh Khan (Don), Shahrukh Khan (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna)

SRK in Don and KANK nominated as country's best in 2007? What is wrong with everyone? How about Shiney Ahuja in Gangster? I agree with the rest of the list.

My picks: Aamir Khan (RDB), Hrithik Roshan (Krrish), Shiney Ahuja (Gangster), Sanjay Dutt (LRM), Hrithik Roshan (Dhoom 2)

Best Actor in a leading role (Female) nominations
Aishwarya Rai (Dhoom 2) Bipasha Basu (Corporate) Kajol (Fanaa) Kareena Kapoor (Omkara) Rani Mukerji (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna)

Aah - don't even get me started on why this list is wrong. What good did Rani and Kareena do to deserve the nominations? Also - why do we have 6 actors nominated and 5 actresses - don't we have talented actresses in the industry?

My picks: Aishwarya Rai (D2), Bipasha Basu (Corporate), Kajol (Fanaa), Kangana Raut (Gangster), Ayesha Takia (Dor - has she looked prettier in any other movie?)

Best Actor in a supporting role (Male) nominations
Abhishek Bachchan (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna) Amitabh Bachchan (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna) John Abraham (Baabul) Kunal Kapoor (Rang De Basanti) Siddharth (Rang De Basanti)

Okay - give credit where its due (5 nominations only). I agree that both Kunal Kapoor and Siddharth should be nominated. Both Abhishek and Amitabh were the only saving grace in KANK. John Abraham had a good role and did do a good job but not better than Nana Patekar in Taxi # 9211.

My picks: Abhishek Bachchan (KANK), Amitabh Bachchan (KANK), Kunal Kapoor (RDB), Siddharth (RDB), Nana Patekar (Taxi # 9211)

Best Actor in a supporting role (Female) nominations
Kirron Kher (Rang De Basanti) Konkona Sen Sharma (Omkara) Priety Zinta (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna) Rekha (Krrish) Soha Ali Khan (Rang De Basanti)

After getting it right in the actor nominations - this one is messed up (again notice 5 nominations). Preity Zinta in KANK? Her acting was the worst I've seen - ever! Rekha didn't do anything dramatic in Krrish to deserve a nomination.

My picks: Kirron Kher (RDB), Konkona Sen Sharma (Omkara), Soha Ali Khan (RDB), Alice Patten (RDB), Gul Panaag (Dor)

Best Actor in a comic role nominations
Arshad Warsi (Lage Raho Munnabhai) Chunkey Pandey (Apna Sapna Money Money) Paresh Rawal (Phir Hera Pheri) Sharman Joshi (Golmaal) Tusshar Kapoor (Golmaal)

There are a lot of problems here (only 5 in this one as well). Phir Hera Pheri didn't really deserve a nomination. There have been better performances from Paresh Rawal this year. After the tons of comedies that released this year - this list is very very weak.

My picks: Arshad Warsi (LRM), Chunkey Pandey (ASMM), Shreyas Talpade (Dor - the mimickry made me LOL), Paresh Rawal (Malamaal Weekly), Rajpal Yadav (Chup Chup Ke - the actor made you laugh all year long, he deserves a nomination)

Best Actor in a negative role nominations
Boman Irani (Lage Raho Munnabhai) Emraan Hashmi (Gangster) John Abraham (Zinda) Naseeruddin Shah (Krrish) Saif Ali Khan (Omkara)

Boman Irani was one of the lamest villains in LRM. And why did the list come down to 4 here - did we not have many villains in movies this year?

My picks: Boman Irani (Don), Emraan Hashmi (Gangster), John Abraham (Zinda), Boman Irani (Khosla Ka Ghosla), Saif Ali Khan (Omkara)

Best Music Nominations
A R Rahman (Rang De Basanti) Himesh Reshammiya (Aksar) Jatin-Lalit (Fanaa) Pritam (Dhoom 2) Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (Don) Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna)

Himesh Reshammiya in Aksar - was the music any good? Pritam in D2 - the music sucked and well documented that it was a major letdown. I don't think KANK deserved a nomination as well.

My picks: A R Rahman (RDB), Pritam (Gangster - copy or no copy), SEL (Don), Shantanu Moitra (LRM), Vishal Bharadwaj (Omkara)

Best Playback Male
Atif Aslam (Bas Ek Pal), Himesh Reshammiya (Jhalak Dikhlaaja, Aksar), Shaan and Kailash Kher (Chaand Sifarish, Fanaa), Sonu Nigam (KANK - title), Zubin (Ya Ali - Gangster)

Where is Daler Mehndi for the year's biggest hit from RDB? and KK for Tu Hi Meri Shab from Gangster or Kya Mujhe Pyaar from Woh Lamhe. And how can we forget the wonderful job that Udit Narayan did for Khaike Paan?

My picks: Atif Aslam (Bas Ek Pal), Zubin (Ya Ali - Gangster), Daler Mehndi (RDB - title), KK (Kya Mujhe Pyaar - Woh Lamhe), Udit Narayan (Khaike Paan - Don)

Best Playback Female
Alka Yagnik (KANK - title), Shreya Ghoshal (Pal Pal - LRM), Sunidhi Chauhan (Aa aa ashiqui mein teri - 36 china town), Sunidhi Chauhan (Beedi Jalaile - Omkara), Sunidhi Chauhan (Soniye - Aksar)

Now agreed that these are popular awards - but some talents are better recognized for their capabilities and performances (some may only give such a performance once in a lifetime). There are a lot of songs that were absolutely breathtaking and definitely deserve a nomination for the best of 2007.

My picks: Sunidhi Chauhan (Beedi Jalaile - Omkara), Rekha Bharadwaj (Omkara - Namak Ishq Ka), Shreya Ghoshal (Pal Pal - LRM), Kavita Sheth (Mujhe Mat roko - Gangster - just listen to this one and you'd want to listen it over and over), Alisha Chinoy & Mahalaxmi (AAj Ki Raat - Don)

And finally - I'd be mad like hell if Saroj Khan doesn't win the best choreography for Khaike Paan. I watched the movie twice just for that performance.

I used to think Filmfare as India's Oscars and would defend it bad against all the SRK bashers. Trust me - I'm a fan of SRK, Karan Johar and the Yash Raj. However, one has to give credit to the talent when you spot one. People take being nominated for the Oscars as a serious credit to their performances. Ask Kate Winslet - who has been nominated so many times, never won but still thinks of it as an honor. You must have noticed the "Oscar Nominee XXXXX" during movie promos. With this list in the 52nd Filmfare, they've clearly removed themselves from the credible awards list. This is very discouraging to all the rising young stars and will continue giving rise to 15 other award functions throwing trophies out to anyone and everyone. Bollywood - if it has to compete on a global scale has to reward the right performances. Populist awards or not - there is no way you get away with a list like this. Shameful!

Stunning Pictures

Continuing on the theme of websites I visit frequently - heres one: MSNBC - The week in pictures.

Even though The Time Magazine, LA Times and CNN carry out similar features, the pictures in MSNBC are simply breathtaking. I've captured some pictures here from Jan 18 - Feb 15 (last 1 month). Kudos to the photographers of MSNBC.

Enjoy!

1) This is my fav picture - a picture of a cosmic eye. Taken from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, the Helix Nebula, a cosmic starlet about 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. IR light from nebula’s outer gaseous layers is represented in blues and greens. The white dwarf is visible as a tiny white dot in the center of the picture, while the red color in the middle of the “eye” denotes the last remnants of gas expelled with the star died. The brighter red circle in the center is the glow of a dusty disk circling the white dwarf.

2) Jan 18: The McNaught comet as seen in New Zeland. Discovered last year, this comet came within 75 miles of the earth and had frantic calls of ‘fire’ and police authorities around New Zeland thought that something burning was falling from the sky.

3) Jan 19: Even the power grids can’t sustain strong winds.. This one in Germany bows down to mother nature.

4) Jan 19: Its not just the Indian parliament with such incidents. A shoe was tossed on the speaker of a Taiwanese national parliament. Notice the grin on his face!

5) Feb 8: A tugboat pushing a load of barges in the Mississippi river. I like the shot - beautiful river waves and it almost appears as a ship is going through a vast ocean.

6) Jan 23: A car sticking out of a parking lot in Germany. The woman confused the gas and break pedals while parking her car backwards. She was not hurt. Like the way the car sticks out of the parking lot here.

7) Jan 27: Beautiful shot of a jumbo jet passing through the moon. Another one of the German shots.

8) Feb 5: Beautiful shot of a sun shimmering through the exhaust of chimneys in the outskirts of Shanghai

Welcome the new # 2 ODI team

I check a few websites very often, and Cricinfo is one of them.

While catching upto the stories from the cricket world, something caught my eye.. Look at the current ratings table.

Team	Matches	Points	Rating
South Africa	36	4595	128
Australia	45	5692	126
Pakistan	34	3780	111
New Zealand	36	3996	111
India	48	5243	109
Sri Lanka	44	4733	108
England	36	3806	106
West Indies	39	3956	101
Bangladesh	35	1454	42
Zimbabwe	34	755	22
Kenya	9	0	0

Did I see this right?? Australia is the # 2 ODI team now. If you've followed what has been happening in the cricket world recently, you'd know that this is more of Australia's undoing than South Africa's blazing success. Lets look at the score cards of the last 4 matches.

Just a week ago Australia had lost the Commonwealth bank tri-series against England.

Feb 11 Sydney - 2nd CB final
Eng 246/8 (50 ov, Collingwood 70, Flintoff 42) beat Aus 152/8 (27 ov - target 187, Hodge 49, Plunkett 3-43) (D/L method)
surprising to see new faces rejoicing after a final against australia

Feb 9 Melbourne - 1st CB final
Aus 252/10 (48.3 ov Hayden 82, Ponting 75, Flintoff 3/41) lost to Eng 254/6 (49.3 ov Collingwood 120, Bell 64, Lee 3/41)

Thanks heavens - I can go back home now

At the end of the second final Ponting had made comments like
"I don't really have any explanation as to why we have played the way we have in the last couple of games. I'm really angry and disappointed with the way we let the game slip away on Friday and even today I thought that total was really gettable. Maybe this is the kick up the backside we needed."

And now the Chappell - Hadlee trophy against New Zeland.

Feb 16 Wellington - 1st ODI
Aus 148/10 (49.3 ov, Hussey 42, Bond 5/23) lost to New Zeland 149/0 (Vincent 73, Fleming 70) - 10 wicket loss!

Shane bond taking a beautiful C&B

Feb 17 Aukland - 2nd ODI
Aus 336/4 (50 ov, Hussey 105, Hodge 97) lost to New Zeland 337/5 (48.4 ov, Taylor 117, Fulton 76).. McGrath's last 4 balls went for 11 runs!

Note: Ponting and Glichrist were rested for this series. That's why you'd say.. But wasn't Australia a team with the strongest bench, and look at the losses!

On top of all this, there's injury concerns as well. Lee is 50-50, and so is Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds

This is not the Australia we're used to seeing. 4 losses in a row?! Looks like the 2007 Cricket world cup just became competitive. Lets see how this goes.

Lufthansa

Back from a hectic week at 3GSM which I'll talk about in the next few entries. This one is dedicated to my experiences with Lufthansa.

The flight deserves a special post, since for the longest time I've heard people taking Lufthansa to go to India because there's a smaller layover in Frankfurt. I've always been contesting that notion for two main reasons:
1) Is there any airline in the world better than SIA?
2) Have heard lots of negatives about flying with Lufthansa.

POSITIVES
- Operating since 1926, Lufthansa is one of the oldest airlines in the world. Its the second largest airline in Europe (only behind Air France - KLM and ahead of BA). It was Lufthansa that gave Boeing the idea to launch the 747-8, competing neck to neck with the Airbus A380-800 for being the biggest jetliner. Plus, its a part of Star Alliance the largest airline alliance in the world (read: I can use my krisflyer card!)
- Excellent Hindi music collection in the radio program - Rhythms of India (in flight entertainment -> flights to germany from NA -> Listen & Relax -> Channel 21). This was the best part of the flight. Lots of good songs with classics (Julie, Saath Saath), new songs (Kailasa, Corporate, Tere Bin) and Bhangra mixes. Better radio programs than many other flights. There's also a special channel for Tamil songs (channel 22).

NEGATIVES
- Service sucks! - kinda. There was a sense of "I'm doing my job" in the service. There were some air hostesses that tried to show the genuineness, but most were very cold.
- No individual TV screens. You get the common 17" TV screen that you share with about 75 other passengers.
- In flight entertainment sucks (other than the radio)! . They showed Marie Antionette on both routes (SFO - FRA and back). Who in their right minds would show a stupid movie which was booed during its launch in France, and for good reason. The MOVIE is s....l.....o.....w.... and you have the 18th century French kings and queens talking american english. I'm choosing not to go on and on about how bad the movie is - will need a special blog entry.
- Lufthansa has one of the smallest seats and leg room in the world. Only the United Economy seats (not the Economy Plus) come close. Infact, what surprised me was that their domestic airlines (I flew Frankfurt - Stuttgart, Stuttgart - Barcelona, Barcelona - Frankfurt) had more space than the international ones.
- Food sucks! The choice was between 'Salmon and Pasta' or 'Beef and Pasta'. My neighbour had ordered Indian Vegetarian and she was served the Pasta!
- They gave me a German I-94 card, and said they don't have English ones!!

WTF!!
Now for the part that really makes me wonder why people choose to fly through Europe on Lufthansa while going to India.

Frankfurt is one of the main hubs in Europe. Most flights to India will go through Frankfurt. Lufthansa obviously has dedicated space at the airport. However, there are some critical flaws in the check in system at the airport.

1) All US bound flights go through one check in counter. Now most airports have it this way, but when you have flights to Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Denver flying within 2 hours of each other the system is bound to crash. I've seen many a long lines, but the Economy checkin lines at the Lufthansa counter - are the longest I've seen ever! The story is the same with First/Business Class lines. This is the only place where I saw about 50 people queued up in the Business Class line. On top of all this, I saw a couple of check in counters closing since it was 'lunch time' for people behind the counters and now you had 2 (instead of 4) counters serving these huge lines. People were directed to go to another counter!!!

2) 4 security checks!! Expect huge lines here as well.. Once again, you have people for 11AM flights as well as 9:30AM in the lines at 9AM. I was seeing the plight of people with 9:30AM flights, begging others to let them go first. Should've checked in earlier you say - they were at the airport at 7:00AM! During the first checkin line, I was lucky to get into the business class check in line - even though I had an economy ticket. I quickly realized my mistake, but the economy line was way too long.. I said yes to "Business Class ticket?" and no-one bothered to check after this. I saw people being asked to get back into the Economy class line. Lucky eh? This was only the first check though. After immigartion (second checking - passport only) I thought I could take a small breather in the lounge - glad I decided against it. I walk into a next baggage security check with even bigger line, and this one was a mumbo jumbo of flying classes. One attendent took us upstairs saying lines there were shorter, but the guy in front of me swore they looked the same. No tricks here, I waited till 9:45AM for my 9:55AM departure when I heard "Passengers to SFO, this way please".. We were branched into the 'Business Class' checking irritating the passengers already there. After all this, there was the last checking (passports again) where the lady kept looking at my H1-B for some reason and with a lot of reluctance told me to go to the gate. There were 12 other passengers behind me stuck in security. The flight left 30 minutes late.

Now I agree that you'd only have 2 of these checks in a transit flight, but there are crucial flaws in the system if you don't time the flights/gates such that passengers of 10 flights don't get in at the same time through the same gates. Hence, I'm convinced that the best way to fly to India is through the Pacific. Take SIA if you can. If you have "long" layover at Singapore, refresh yourselves with a quick shower, catch a movie, catch a nap, do emails - there are so many things to do at Chengi.

For a FRA-SFO I don't think there are a lot of options but to put up with this mess. Give yourselves 3.5 hours to board the flight if you're boarding from FRA.

Guru facts

One of the most anticipated movies of 2007 - Guru is currently the # 1 movie in India. Earning a lot of moolah with a boost from a nicely timed engagement between the lead actors (Mr. Jr B with Ms. Rai), Guru is a Mani Ratnam flick and is worth a watch. I wouldn't say that Guru is Mani's best work, but it does have his TM.

I'm not going to write a review of the movie - since a lot has been written about it already, but what I found most exciting was how close to reality this movie really is. Everyone knows that this movie is from the life of Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani, who lead Reliance Group of Industries (RIL) to become India's largest private sector enterprise. RIL's annual income is US$22B and is a Fortune 500 global company. With >US$7B in exports to more than 100 countries in the world, Reliance employs about 25000 people. (info from www.ril.com)

But not many know about the real life people/events that were depicted under pseudo names in the movie. A quick look at Wikipedia and other google searches yielded the following results:

1) Manikdas Gupta (Mithun) ---> Ramnath Goenka








2) The Independent (newspaper) ---> Indian Express
3) Journalist Shyam Saxena (Madhavan) ---> S. Gurumurthy
4) Minister who Guru gets Petrochemical approval (Unknown) ---> Ms. Indira Gandhi
5) Shakti Group of Industries --> Reliance Industries Limited
6) The contractors (Parsi competitors) --> The Wadias (of Bombay Dyeing)
(BTW Ness Wadia, son of Nusli Wadia is currently dating Preity Zinta and the Wadias have a direct linkage to Mr. Jinnah - the founder of Pakistan)









7) Stadium of meetings during the last/first scene of the movie --> Cross Maidan, Mumbai





Other facts accurately described in the movie:
- Reliance Commercial Corporation, his first business venture was started with a capital of Rs 15K
- The business was set up with partnership with his second cousin Champaklal Damani
- Dhirubhai went to Aden, Yemen during his early years
- Dhirubhai's was one of the first IPOs in the country
- Had shareholder meetings in stadiums
- Fight with Indian Express died after his first stroke
- Bogus investment companies registered under the 'Isle of Man' island located in the Irish Sea






With so much resembling real life Dhirubhai, wonder why the film makers didn't come out openly and admit it.. If you have more data points/people that match the real life (other than the wife and kids) do let me know.

WELCOME!

I've been resisting a blog for the longest time. Why? - coz its work :)

However, after constant pestering by the DW and seeing no outlet for the built up thoughts, I've finally decided to launch one. Thanks to the DW though for creating the template and almost making it as easy for me as typing my thoughts out after clicking the 'New Post' link.

The name - I'm fully aware that it seems 'inspired' by a popular Bollywood movie which I haven't seen yet - came after a lot of deliberation. There were names like "Dhurbeen" (in Hindi Doorbeen means binoculars) and "BajaDhur" (in Hindi Bahadhur means brave) or just simply "Dhurka" (which the DW felt was too plain).. I ruled in the favor of "Being Dhurka" inspite of sounding unoriginal, since its much easier to relate to.

For those who don't know me (though I don't expect a lot of people to come to the link) my name is Vikas Dhurka, currently working in the Bay Area (otherwise known as the Si Valley) marketing semiconductor chips. Product of the 100% EOU, LD Engineering College Ahmedabad, Gujarat India, did my MS in USC - LA and have been in the Bay Area ever since.

I met DW - http://deepthoughtworkshop.blogspot.com, at USC and have been married (alright happily married) since 2004.

The blog will contains posts for movies, music, marketing, technology, food, television, cell phones, stocks, cricket, jokes, politics, sports and anything else that I might have missed here. No promises on the # of posts, or the frequency. But, it will definitely describe the challenges of Being Dhurka.