Goaaaah!

I’m in a Bill Cosby zone. Kids, kids, kids and they are making me say the darndest things.
Which is why I actually backed off from writing everyday.
That tide is about to change. I’m off to my motherland; from where all the women in my life come from. Whether they like it or not (that’s for being in my life).
Often, my only prayer is that Goa be in my future. It’s where I want to live... soon. Until then, I will simply enjoy doing these hits and runs. Live in Goa, die in Pune. That’s the future.

Me, and my views

The big debate is if IPL and T20 are hurting Indian cricket.
My view is: screw cricket, play football.

I was pretty nervous as Sania Mirza reached the semis of the Japan Open. Then she lost.
My view is: she should retire now while she is still the sexiest woman sportsperson out there.

I lined up Winehouse, Duffy, Lilly Allen and Corrine Bailey Rae. Then I lined up Norah Jones, Sade, Diana Krall and Dido.
My view is: I hate the divas (Whitney, Mariah, Dion and the like)

Finally, I can only be at peace with very little money.

Experiments with kids

I experiment quite a bit with my kids. Some go well. Some, well, time will tell.
Thing is, you can only afford to do this if you are present in their lives. I missed most of my son’s early years, which is why he doesn’t take too well to my suggestions nowadays.
Of course, you never experiment with your eldest (child no 1 is always too precious). But I did (never told the mother) and she survived. The third child though is just perfect for experimentation. So if you ever do have three kids (or more), gimme a buzz…

What is it about the Blues?

What is it about the Blues that makes it such an influential genre.
Listening to the Rolling Stones’ Shine A Light album, I was awed by the continous referencing to the Blues. Eric Clapton sounds best when he plays the blues. Even a wannabe band in Pune wants the Blues tag.
What did the Blues have? It was dark, depression, escapist music that offered no hope. The music was the escape and that was it. Elvis was soaked in the Blues. Now I listen to Amy Winehouse and I get the Blues. What is it about the Blues? Anybody?

Hi-tech education

A promethean interactive board. A laptop. An overhead projector. No chalk, blackboard or duster. It just did not seem like a classroom.
There was obviously a lot of razzle and dazzle going on in my son’s Grade 1 class, but I was also hoping that he was learning how to write neatly. If his teacher is not writing on a blackboard how is he going to learn? I was too intimidated to ask, but I’m just not sure hi-tech is always good for our lives. Maybe I’m resisting change. I don’t know. Unlike Facebook, which I’m sure is crap.

Don't bail out a system that has no values

I have been enriched today. Which is why I am going to share this pearl with you (as against dumping my own gems on here).
Joseph Stiglitz, (deserving) Nobel prize winner for Economics, wrote a wonderful column in which he argued that Norman Borlaug, the man who is responsible for millions of Indians not starving to death and the global green revolution, for which he got the (deserved) Nobel Peace, would probably have been a banker on Wall Street had he been brought up with today’s values. Instead, he was a genius whose value system demanded he serve others.

And the award goes to...

Every award I have aspired to has been mocked, spat at and pissed on. Arundhati Roy winning the Booker. Mockery! 420 Mafia gets an Oscar. Pssplastt! And now the Oh!Bummer gets the Nobel. Pissers!
I may not have written a word towards my eventual Booker victory, or the lyric that will get me both Oscar and Grammy, but, even I have done more for peace than Oh!Bummer.
So I gathered my kids and used this as an example to teach them that not always do awards go to the deserving. Sometimes you get an award you don’t even want.

As predictable as a cuppa coffee

I’m willing to wager the most oft-repeated line in Hollywood movies is: ‘Would you like to get a cuppa coffee?’
I have been tracking this for some time now (yes, I do have a life) across all genres of movies, as well as random channel surfing. I have been truly amazed at how often the line is used.
Obviously, you’re unlikely to hear the java jibe in a Rob Zombie or Tarantino flick, but any other film scene in which a guy and a girl are on an emotional collision course – you will hear the coffee line.

Crap o'nine tales

Chetan Bhagat is a crap writer. In terms of you know, writing as an expression, intervention, discovery and creationary experience. He spins a good tale and has the manner of an after-dinner storyteller, but as an author – he is crap.
Read his piece in the Sunday Times of India on Gandhiji’s anniversary, if you don’t believe me.
Which brings me to the cricket Champions League in South Africa. New Zealand play Australia in the finals. What a bummer! Cricket is become a game of huff, puff and blow a lot of steam. And the Aussies will still win.