Archive for December, 2005
Monday, December 26th, 2005
The year’s about drop its curtains. And a new one begins shortly. The Desi Train whistles into its second year. Why Desi Train? Why not some other name for your blog? Among many emails, this is most oft asked by readers.
Trains. Like many of my fellow Indians, I grew up in India, watching trains, listening to the early morning whistle, the talks about making reservations, spending a large amount of time in trains…pleasant memories of early morning fields with the rays of the sun seeping through them, the empty fast passing by railway stations with a lone guy in a dirty kurta pyjama, hands folded behind his back, watching your train pass by, the ...
Posted in Lens Eye View | 1,275 views | 4 Comments »
Thursday, December 22nd, 2005
I’m working on preparing a post for us poor desi guys, who are looking to shed all shyness, inhibitions and wanna know more about this new buzz word called seduction science / sarge / pickup skills etc. News is that Bombay now officially has a Seduction school (caught that on Sahara news).
Am off to see the doc, the coughing seems to have got worse. Will try posting a couple before 27th after which I’m off to Sedona for week and will be back on DesiTrain after 3rd of January.
So if, me or my posts don’t get to see you until then…here’s wishing all of you, dear readers,
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and May all of you have a Great & Prosperous ...
Posted in Life Flava | 1,236 views | 10 Comments »
Wednesday, December 21st, 2005
There was a time when news of all forthcoming releases would come from Jignesh, Paresh and Ganesh. No, they aren’t Tridevs of any sort, but three brothers who ran the video store next to my apartment, during my days in Bombay.
These days I have it fairly easy in winning bets from Tapan, Ketan and Chetan over what movie is coming out next Friday. Thanks to the internet which provides faster information to me, than Tapan - Ketan - Chetan’s DVD supply-wallah. If you are left wondering who the fuck are these new three entities, then you need not think too far, my dear blog reader. These three entities are brothers running the Desi Store ...
Posted in Bollywood, Movies, TV etc. | 1,808 views | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, December 20th, 2005
oz piece of advice: Whenever you have a sore throat please do not go and buy the strongest medication available over the counter. No no, the problem is not that your sore throat feels much better after 24 hours of the first dose. The only small problem is that your legs are now putty and you keep crashing back on your bed each time you attempt to stand up.
So the whole day was spent staring at the ceiling and it was a Herculean task to simply turn over.
Wanna keep this short before I go back to my prior state of unconsciousness.
Suparn Verma of Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena had recently made a statement that ...
Posted in Bollywood, Life Flava | 969 views | No Comments »
Monday, December 19th, 2005
Vroom, vrrrrooom, rammm. It looks like he’s doing a modeling assignment, on overtime, be it a bar, salon or a coffee shop. Sniff, diff, cry biff. His Rani has pressed the “Delete†button on him. Mr. Whale tutors Mr. Small Fry “This world’s an ocean and every person is a fishâ€â€¦The train screams Chook Chook. You adamantly stay put over a sore throat and tired ass “No…I stay and give this filum more Look Lookâ€. Crash bang. Life is such a nasty tang. Your throat’s gone sore and shank. Where is Dr. Dang?
Your favorite chai-wallah, now serves you tea, cold. Boy, he is so bold…and your friends go I told I told. Alas, the cash has swum over to the ...
Posted in Bollywood, Movie Reactions | 1,397 views | 10 Comments »
Friday, December 16th, 2005
So what happened this week? Fardeen Khan got married. The MSM websites are in a race for “who gives more space on their website to this eventâ€. I wish they could have instead had a race for “Who makes their website more glittery and sparkly†for this event.
Or perhaps who shows the most of Fardeen Khan Classics, live streaming, on their website. Classics which would include Prem Aggan, Hum Ho Gaye Aap Ke, Kitne Door Kitne Paas, Khushi, Janasheen and last but not the least Shaadi No. 1.
Really is the media this desperate to get content on their pages, print/web, that they are treating Fardeen Khan’s wedding as the event of the decade?
What’s the ...
Posted in Friday Masala, Lens Eye View | 3,079 views | 12 Comments »
Thursday, December 15th, 2005
Tom Lykis doesn’t talk without mentioning it a million times, Billionaires ensure their kin don’t get married without it and Hollywood microscopically defines it in specific terms such as “No mother-in-law sleepovers. Only one football game per Sunday. Mandatory sexual positions.â€
This article on Yahoo points to how important and life saving entity this thing, called a pre-nup, has become. Jessica Simpson missed it, as a result she may have to part with half of the 30 million she made last year.
I knew a pre-nup could save you a lot of financial distress, but this borders on ridiculous,
“Attorneys say some recent celebrity prenups include:
• Limiting the wife's weight to 120 pounds or ...
Posted in Lens Eye View | 1,268 views | 2 Comments »
Thursday, December 15th, 2005
Revisiting Sedona, this Christmas. Checked the Weather channel. Sedona’s expected to have an inch of snow. Shit! It’s been years since I visited a place covered with snow. And I’ll be there for a week.
The problem is I don’t have any idea of what to wear besides the two dozen sweaters knitted by my mom and my two grandmoms. Surely it’s not gonna be enough. So here’s a list of what I think will be needed to ensure oz flies back to sunny California safe and sound.
1. Winter boots, here’s something that caught my eye.
2. Woolen socks
3. Woolen gloves
Now this is tricky, what do you wear under your clothes? Woolen vest under your ...
Posted in Life Flava | 1,450 views | 7 Comments »
Wednesday, December 14th, 2005
All bets are off! Sanjay Gupta has won oz over…
Corrupted A-hole. How much did he pay you?
Nothing in cash. Simply in music. Music that touched the heart, and has been playing on oz’s iAudio for the last 12 hours non stop.
Zinda, yes, the carbon copy of Old Boy, has some of the best, foot tapping, touching your heart -music, that oz has heard in a long time. A few songs in oz Drive Raaga (bottom left column), were forcefully pushed into the list, simply because there wasn’t anything new around which had a mesmerizing quality and feel to it.
But here, Sanjay Gupta delivers some delicious, falling for it right away, kind of ...
Posted in Bollywood, Music | 3,393 views | 12 Comments »
Tuesday, December 13th, 2005
He’s frozen, tongue-tied and yet his inner self screams to not let this opportunity pass by. The journey started with him having no intention to get married. The plan was to reject the girl or be rejected. Now sitting next to a beautiful lady, he traveled from Lucknow to “seeâ€, he sits there caught on the other side of the fence, the utter prospect of him being rejected by the girl. A girl, he is falling hard for. Trapping on camera - such finer, delicate sequences lifted from your and my life is what makes Main, Meri Patni aur Woh (MMPaW) utterly enjoyable.
The film belongs to Chandan Arora, no doubt. Here is one director who has escaped the ...
Posted in Bollywood, Movie Reactions | 1,906 views | 13 Comments »
Monday, December 12th, 2005
Ramanand Sagar, the creative producer, director of India’s first most popular Television series “Ramayanaâ€, has passed away. He was eighty seven.
Though Ramanand Sagar became a household name after “Ramayanaâ€, he had been making films since 1953 beginning with Mehmaan.
One of his most famous hits was Arzoo, starring Rajendra Kumar, Sadhana and Firoz Khan. Arzoo had some of the most melodious songs and I can still hear my mom humming those songs all around the house.
His next major hit was Aankhen (1968) starring Dharmendra and Mala Sinha, an Indianized take on James Bond. Again the music was one of its key assets along with the comedy of Mehmood. The “International Fakir†song got me in splits the first ...
Posted in Bollywood | 1,385 views | 2 Comments »
Monday, December 12th, 2005
I saw a comic book last Sunday. I paid $10.00 for it. In terms of Desi Currency: 10 X 43.00 = Rs. 430.00. It was the most expensive comic book I’ve ever paid for. Gone are the days when I used to pay Rs. 2.50, then Rs. 3.50 and in the end Rs. 6.00 for my Amar Chitra Katha or Indrajal Comics. The sweet old days of buying 32 pages for a 20 minute adventure are gone.
Today in a Desi Theatre in Southern California you pay Rs. 430, sit your ass on a sticky seat which has traces of 34 chewing gums, listen for 2hours 39 minutes - the crispy krrr krrr noise of ...
Posted in Bollywood, Movie Reactions | 1,562 views | 3 Comments »
Friday, December 9th, 2005
News is that Neil Strauss, yes - the one who revealed the secret pickup community to the outside world, is retiring from the pickup community. Neil a.k.a Style, in the pickup community, came out with “The Gameâ€, a tell-all book about the insides of the pickup community, which I’ve reviewed here.
Before retiring Neil decided to train 5 chosen ones to whom he would pass the secrets of Pickup, tools he had invented and not yet revealed to the outside world. Before you start thinking…No… I was not one of the chosen 5. The Last Workshop. Final 5. The fee was $15,000 for a 3 day workshop. And when the curtains came down, ...
Posted in Friday Masala, Sex, Romance etc. | 1,942 views | 8 Comments »
Friday, December 9th, 2005
Sitting on the edge, legs dangling over the parapet, I watched the gently passing by clouds kissing the Kumaon hills. A thought wrapped in sweet loneliness, crept up, enveloped my heart, as I enjoyed a glass of tea from Guptajee’s dhaba, watching the hills, the clouds. The silence was pure music, the moment simply Gulzar.
- posted in response to the 55Friday open invite from Sepia Mutiny.
Posted in Fiction | 1,329 views | 2 Comments »
Thursday, December 8th, 2005
I give up. I FUCKING GIVE IT UP. THERE IS NO FUCKING HOPE FOR BOLLYWOOD. Just when you are given a high by the rediff.com review on Vishal Bhardwaj’s latest “The Blue Umbrellaâ€, the very next instant you are slapped with this preview of
“Fight Club†a Sohail Khan Production [first tipped by Akhil here in the comments section]
The preview and the trailers are here on indiafm.com.
Now if it doesn’t ring a bell, ghanta, tring tring, bhopoo or any other thing in your sweet world, please take a look at the original Brad Pitt/Edward Norton Fight Club.
I would like to call upon all pharmaceutical companies to respectfully provide a daily dose ...
Posted in Bollywood, Comedy | 1,578 views | 6 Comments »
