Archive for the ‘Indian Blogs’ Category
The Chennai book launch of Amit Varma’s ‘My Friend Sancho’
There was a warning that the news of Prabhakaran’s killing may cause riots in the city, so the company that I work for let me go one hour early today. No doubt they’ll keep me back one hour late somewhere in the near future.
So, given the risk of venturing out into the city on a dangerous day, half my blog’s readership (my friend PJ) and I decided to do what most rational souls would have done – travel for about 10-15 km to the Landmark store where India’s most powerful blogger (or something like that), Amit Varma was making an appearance to promote his book.
The book reading was good, although for those of you interested in celebrity trivia, Amit pronounces that as ‘dat’. The passage that Amit started out with contained swear words and orgasmic sounds; these were greeted by silence and a muffled gasp by the Chennai audience who are not used to such potty mouths. And after the discussion with Sharanya and another reading, came the funniest part of the session – audience Q&A. Some gems from the evening below:
1. I am a journalist, and as a journalist I know what journalists go through. Since I’m a journalist who’s written a couple of books called ‘?????’ and ‘The ???? of ????’, my journalistic question to you is about journalistic writing. What is it?2. Why don’t you start a website?
3. WHO IS THIS YOUR FRIEND SANCHI?
The last question came from a really grumpy but cute old gentleman. The end of the session was followed by the book signing and the most anticipated part of the evening – snacks. Unfortunately, my Ayurvedic diet mandates that bread cannot be eaten, so I had to keep away from the sandwiches. 
Oddly, Amit seemed to remember me and insisted on getting his photograph taken with me. Here’s the picture we took after a nice, short conversation about writing, Mumbai, blogging, wives (all good), work and books.
Amit signed my book with, “It’s nice to finally meet you.” The feeling was mutual Amit. 
Also, check out Sunil’s more detailed coverage of the event here.
Fake IPL player blog
This blog has set the nation alight, made the front page of national dailies, even Cricinfo and without any social bookmarking, advertising or anything! There’s not even a link to the RSS feed! The Fake IPL player ‘followers list’ grows at the rate of 10-20 followers an hour. Who cares if he’s real or not? The whole thing is just fun.
On another note, if he’s not real, he seriously screwed up by not using Adsense.
FyF contest winning photos
This is me – ecstatic on winning the second prize of the second caption contest at Fly, you fools. I did it on purpose, you know. Who wants to come first in a second contest anyway? Hmph.
As an aside, I must start charging Saad for the free publicity. Ahh what the hell, one bar of chocolate is enough to buy my soul. Thanks Saad.
Best Asian Blog
You’re supposed to click on India Uncut in the thingy below. Now! And 24 hours later too. Go!!
[Update: Poll is now closed and some foul play seems to have been the case. Now we await the results.]
[Final Update: http://indiauncut.com/iublog/article/thanks-for-voting/]
Awards-that-recipients-care-least-about day
There are days and there are days. International useless days and awards-that-recipients-care-least-about days. The former on “Fly, you fools!“, the latter – today. Two reasons:
1. Barack Obama – “Time person of the year”
Ok, say a man had created history by becoming the first black president of the most powerful country in its 200 odd years of freedom. How would you thrill him? What other prize would really send him over the moon? You guessed it – he don’t care.
2. Sachin Tendulkar – Voted Happiest and Healthiest person in India
This is probably how his quote was taken:
Journalist: Sir, you are being voted happiest and healthiest person in full India. What you say, Sir?
ST: (If I use a negative word, these guys are going to misquote me anyway. Let me string together a statement that contains an exclamation, disbelief, re-iteration, joyous appreciation and ends with the word ‘forever’.)
ST: Goodness me! Is it true? My countrymen think that I am the healthiest and happiest person in the country? What a compliment, I am truly overwhelmed. I will cherish this compliment forever.
ST: (Oh man, I think I overdid it. Hope he doesn’t report my sarcasm.)
Journalist: Sir please to be taking photo with me for my daughter Chunni who is very large fan.
ST: (Phew!)
Water to be banned in India
A national policy on consumption of water in public places will be soon be implemented in the country, Dr Ramadoss said.
Caferati LiveJournal results are out!!
For those looking forward to the Caferati Livejournal results, they are finally, FINALLY out!
Two of my entries have made the shortlist. Please vote for your favorite blogger. Remember 10 is highest rating you can give.
The formatting is awful, so I’ve reproduced the same here with the relevant voting links. You need to sign up with Live Journal before voting.
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Entry 211 – Dead Man’s LiveJournal (Vote here):
I was born today. Maybe not this year. But today.
June 14th, Youth
Love has lost its sheen. The birthday was bloody. Told them all it was an accident. Wonder how they think 15 exactly same-sized wounds are possible through an accident. Age can seem any old statement seem sane.
April 4th, Youth
It happened again. The dream. The paper cutter. Still with dry blood on it. The screaming in my soundproof music-cum-self-torture room. C’mon c’mon c’mon c’mon! The music cuts through me, way deeper than the stupid knife ever can. Je vous aime, je dois partir.
April 17th, Youth
Road kill. Today it was just a dog. Still the flesh on my car seems to be morphing into fingers pointing at me, making it out to be the guy I might have run over years ago. It was just one glass of rum with some Cola. Couldn’t have been the drinks. The fucker shouldn’t have run across the road while I was blinded due to the overtake. I shouldn’t have fuckin’ pressed the pedal to the floor for the next 25 mins in sheer high speed panic. What could I have done if I had killed him? I had alcohol on my breath. Everyone lost. That bump still wakes me up at night. Was it a limb or a head?
April 20th, Youth
I hear the shame through the day. Not just the night. What can you do to make up the fact that you might have killed some one and were too chicken to find out? Love is all around. Yeah right! Lord, send me an angel to protect me and hug me when I hold myself behind locked bathroom doors. The shame will always persist.
May 20th, Middle Age: Birthdays. Tales of woe. Birth. Just reminds you that you were non-existent before this day. Makes you wonder when the last one will come, and what becomes of you after that. Will it be a shark bite or an avalanche or some stupid thing like cancer that makes you seem infinitely less heroic?
September 30th, Old age: Lost my breath. It’s no laughing matter. No flashing life-in-a-moment, just a major reduction in brightness, contrast and volume. The movie of your life may be only a switched off fucking TV. What if death is nothing but a scam? What if you just… die? Where does that leave you and me and our stupid code of bloody living around in morals and shit?
February 11th, Old Age: Anniversaries. What do they mean but the mathematical equivalent of anything important? Miss Jones and Mr Smith so and so did so and so this day. Big, fucking deal. Diaries. What are they good for? Release? Or public thinking? Either way, this Live Journal is now dead. And so is its writer. Hello paper cutters, meet Mr. Radial artery.
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Entry 229 (Vote here):
Excerpts from Vijay Mallya’s diary
(Somewhere in May 2008)
Another loss. Got piss drunk. Broke some bottles of competitors’ booze and had a few swigs of RC. Blanked out. I hate cheap whiskey.
Awoke to Rahul’s sms. Says he’s not going to play the game anymore. What a relief. Finally, I can replace that white elephant. Need to make travel plans to Goa to poach some Rajasthan Royal team members for next season on their Goa vacation.
Note to self: Check cockpit glass in the flight. Never know what happens.
Worried about Gian. Says he’s unhappy and not performing because he doesn’t have NFL cheerleaders rooting for him. I told him I pay him a bomb, and he can go get whoever he wants to cheer. He said not a good idea. Look what happened to Cristiano, he says. Am pissed again, need to speak to some presswallahs.
Broke some more competitor bottles and spoke to the press and took a dig at Aguri. Always helps. Pretended like I know a lot about F1. Am so smart, drives me crazy sometimes. Feeling a little better.
Another day, another disaster. Heard SAB Miller’s coming out with a brand to take KF head on. To think I named my team after one of their brands. Should have just called them Anitquity Blue Bangalore like I originally planned.
Was pissed again, so spoke to the press again. Feeling much better. Based on Rahul’s sms that he’s not going to play, said that Rahul and Charu didn’t listen to me. Also said that I wanted Misbah and some ‘others’ in the team. Hope it makes me look good. Love it when I talk like I know stuff.
Note to self: Support ladies sports more. Working with so many men is definitely not my thing.
More bad news, I looked at Rahul’s sms again. He said he’s not going to play the blame game anymore. I hate cheap whiskey.
Vote here
Fly you fools
There are some hilarious sites out there, but I really love this one from “flyyoufools.com”. ROTFL. Check out the other strips, they rule as well.
Fly You Fools – An Indian Webcomic about Life.
