Tale of two cities

Colombo 10th Jan:
Recently all of us at Zimmer (India) went for our annual Sales meeting to Colombo (Incidentally since me and my spouse work for the same company, our colleagues pulled legs saying it was unfair that we were together at Colombo while they couldn’t be with their spouses). On one of the evenings a bus was arranged to take us for local sight-seeing and shopping.

At one of the T junctions on the main road, our bus collided with another speeding bus coming at right angles. Last minute maneuvering by both drivers prevented a head-on sort of collision, but still the collision was severe as you can see in the pic below –



The cleaner and a person from our team got injured (thank god, no major injuries).

Within 3 minutes, there was Police Van; within 5 minutes ambulance, fire-engine, a vehicle deployed for accident cases and the local media. In no time the mob was dispersed and the injured were taken away to hospital - silently and efficiently.


New Delhi 17th Jan:-
One of our Senior Manager was driving back to home (Gurgaon) from Delhi around mid-night with his family. After they crossed Andheria-More on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon road, they were followed by a speeding Alto Car. There were unruly guys in it, smoking and yelling. They tried to come in front and block our Manager’s car and waved hands to stop him. As the Manager kept his cool and kept driving, he asked his wife to call up Police on emergency number 100, hoping to get aid from some patrolling van. Someone at phone on 100 said they would get back immediately.

On reaching Gurgaon, as there were some call-centre employees gathered closer to Bristol Circle, the Alto guys sensed danger and stopped following the Manager. The Manager finally reached home safely.

It took another cool 45 minutes for police to get back to him on phone, still only asking frivolous details.

No Idiots.

By now most of you would have seen “3 Idiots”. No wonder, the movie is the biggest Bollywood grosser so far breaking all box-office record. By the 3rd week, the film had already grossed 300 crore plus!



It is true that people have different preferences, tastes and likings, thus their definition of “good” often varies. There are books /movies/music some like, others don’t. But then there is some ‘absolute good’ stuff, which everyone appreciates. A good thing in such case is absolutely good and everyone agrees. This movie surely falls in that category. Everyone I have come across (and I do across lots of them) have liked the movie, except perhaps my boss who thinks that book (5 points someone) was better than the movie (I feel otherwise).



This brings us to the furor which was generated by Chetan Bahagat vs. Aamir & Vidhu on the due credit to be given to a writer. Chetan alleged that his credits were buried down at the end of the movie while Aamir camp alleged that the movie is only 5% adaptation from the book and Chetan was trying to take away credits from the scriptwriter.

The debate it generated was such that Vir Sanghvi wrote a full article in HT and threw-in a new dimension – He mentioned that Danny Boyle apologized in front of so many people during Oscar ceremony when he missed out to credit one of the artists. His point was Vidhu and Aamir were severe (almost abusive) on Chetan at a press conference, which was uncalled for.



My view is neither Chetan nor Aamir/Vidhu were born yesterday and they very well know that all the publicity generated will help their causes. In fact Aamir went incognito (without revealing his identity) to various cities to promote his film and at Varanasi, the Hotel where he stayed came into problem for allowing Aamir Khan to stay in a false name. Well, all this helped the movie as well as the book as “5 point someone” was soon back at Crossword’s (and other book stores) top 10 fiction best-seller list!

Coming back to film, I am becoming a bigger and bigger fan of Aamir after his every new film in last few years. It is amazing how he managed to look/act as a college student in the movie, when he is 44! Ditto for (director) Rajkumar Hirani who broke the conventional belief that a sequel can’t be a hit with “Lage Raho Muunabhai”. This time he has raised the bar further. Three movies and every time he has outdone himself. Amazing!




Lastly, I laughed my guts out on the joke which is doing rounds on why “3 idiots” is only a mega hit and not a super duper Mahan mega hit – because in the movie Kareena didn’t say, “Jahanpanah, tussi great ho, tohfa kabool karo!”

safed, khaali, naya canvas
us par sapno ko
aakriti dene ko aatur ungliaan

saal ke pahle panne par
thodi jhijhak, thodi akulahat
par rang vishwas ke bharpoor

ye rang, ye canvas,
ye aatur unglian,
banega achcha ye saal bhi!



Dear Reader,

Wish you all a very happy new year. May you get to do all that you have planned, dreamt for 2010, which still is more or less a blank white canvas. Go ahead, colour it with your dreams, with your passion and hard work.

Sanjay.