Encounter with a rajni fan !!!! (very close to Enthiran release)

As the release of another rajni fim nears... the fans are getting into a frenzy.. its like a swarm of piranha attacking a huge whale and the piranha are winning. I decided to risk my life and limbs and venture into the mind and world of a rajni fan just before a rajni release. How frenzied can they be ? Are all the hyperbolic stories true about the fanaticism ? What lengths can they go to and what drives them to these lengths ? This is an exclusive interview with hardcore rajni fan Chum Chum (name changed to protect identity. She is unarmed and extremely dangerous during the next two weeks, if you so much as say a word about rajnikanth which doesnt involve a paen at the end of your sentence.. The only reason i survived this interview was that It was an online conversation. i intend to not meet Chum Chum face to face for the next month or so. Some excerpts from this interview have been removed. The interview is entirely true.







Disclaimer : The questions in this interview are entirely constructed for academic purposes to measure the fury of a rajni fan. These are not the personal views of the interviewer. Please do not kill me.



me: ru goin for enthiran







chum chum: of fucking course



first day



show







me: i have never seen rajni first day.. is it as pompous here too like in india



doing poojas and all







chum chum: not as pompous



but close enough







me: ok



wat will u do.



do aarti and abhishekam ?







chum chum: we wil take paper to thwo



chum's chum's friend got a coconut



to break







me: haha.



did u do it for sivaji







chum chum: yes



then we will scream scream







me: in theater ?



chum chum: no one can hear dialogue







me: wat a waste







chum chum: thats how first day show is



we wil be screaming /clapping for everything



no one can say anything







me: il come and say shhhhhhhh



:P







chum chum: entire theatre



wil rise



and kick ur ass







me: il tell (name changed to protect identity. in this case its needed) northie 1 and northie 2 to bring north indian gang and come



to sabotage the show



:)







chum chum: entire theatre



will kick ur ass



not just me











me: will this be hit or flop?







chum chum: ass**



lava****



mayir**



nuvu******* p*** e** mpo***







me: so flop or wat ?







chum chum: i am not joking when i say



i will hit u guys



u cna hit me back



k







me: haha







chum chum: clear me off in fb



allow access







me: haha why.. wat will u write



chum chum: we can fight over rajni



for 2 weeks











me: wat happned..



why does rajni need to be a robot







chum chum: our rajni will be anything



everywhthing



whatever he wantsd







me: isnt it insult to him.. that u have to make a robot when u have him.. he shud say.,. just c,one me.. instead of making robot







chum chum: he is like lord krishan.



he takes many forms.



each for one of us







me: but robot is a machine.. cannot be his avatar.. actually being a robot will justtify all his stunts .. which takes away the whole point of a rajnikant film.. afterall he is supposed to do what normal humans cannpot



cannot



if he is robot.



then whats the use







Sent at 2:40 PM on Tuesday



me: let the facebook war begin



Sent at 2:43 PM on Tuesday







me: haahh then i shall put the restrictions again.



wat if u dont like endhiran







chum chum: what !!!



blaphemy



shut up !!1







Sent at 2:47 PM on Tuesday



me: i will watch pirated copy







chum chum: omg



i will come and burn ur tv/dv/laptop/iphone down











me: can rajni beat terminator



chum chum: he will beat terminator 1/2/3/4 whatever version all together



not one by one











me: he has 1 zetta yte memory enough for all of tamil nadu to store songs in the robot







chum chum: we can store in his one bit



all of the worlds music in him











me: will human rajni beat robot rajni



chum chum: they will together breathe and blow ur ass off this earth











me: can robot rajni dance better than human rajni







chum chum: both are the same



lord rajni



is everwhere



thoonilum irupanda



thurumbilum irupanda











me: i heard good robot rajni will be beaten up by bad robot rajni







chum chum: noo dont tell me spoilers







me: hahahah yea.. spoilers is good idea







me: did it already recover money from all the hype ?







chum chum: what hype



its FACT



TRUTH



It will do well











me: how will u feel when rajni gets beaten up







chum chum: what !!



not possible







me: in film







chum chum: the produders will be scared



to do soemhing liek that



its not a possbility







me: but how will u feel if u seen him getting beaten up







chum chum: very very very bad







me : any last words for all rajni haters



or lovers



and lovers



and rajni himself



and for the robot version ?



chum chum: thalaivar vazhga



unakaaga prashantha



thee kulika vaipom



me: apdinna ?



chum chum: meaning as a scarifice



i will burn prasahnth



me: why thats the only way film will do well ?



chum chum: now i will burn u



just for my pleasure







I Can't do more for the day without getting fatwa issued against me if it ain't already so...Phew !!!

The Bay Area Vibha Dream Mile 2010: A Continuing Journey towards Perfection

The Bay Area Dream Mile 2010: A Continuing Journey towards Perfection

“This was the best race I've ever participated in, and I've done over a dozen, including the New York City marathon!”

When a user review starts with these lines it tells the tale of a well oiled machine in the Bay Area Action Center, executing a well thought out plan from start to finish culminating in what turned out to be one of the most successful Dream Mile races ever.

When a volunteer signs up to volunteer for Vibha his or her initial motivation stems from the fact that we are a Non-Profit trying to empower underprivileged children. The new volunteer is usually surprised to see the event planning & management which happens at the weekly meetings. It is confusing for them to envision how planning and executing a race to such minute detail can help a child attain a better future. It is also no secret that motivating volunteers as well as runners to raise funds for the cause is an equally daunting task for short distance races like ours. To all those new volunteers I would show them the reviews and accolades we received for conducting such a fine event. Each person who walked away happy from the event will probably give a second look to the fundraising email we send next year and think about sharing and contributing towards Vibha’s Mission of, educating , empowering and enabling children for a brighter future. And most of all a great event imprints the brand Vibha in the minds of the participants and makes the Dream Mile stand apart from being just another 5k/10k race at the shoreline.

There were many firsts in the Dream Mile 2010. These simple yet powerful improvements to the race were essential to the success of the event. The Bay Area Dream Mile 2010 has been getting close to 1000 runners since last year, thanks to some amazing and innovative publicity by our volunteers. This number is growing every year and making sure all of the 1000 runners get processed smoothly is vital to giving the runners a stress free start to the race. We already had a heavily staffed and efficient registration team which had resulted in a line-free registration in 2009. To top it we added pre race bib pickup this year which would ensure that runners could collect their bibs before race day and just turn up and race on the day of the event. It was a huge success as more than 200 out of the pre registered 600 or so runners turned up to pick up their bibs. We plan to expand this exercise next year and have the bib pickup spread over multiple days. This will also give us a great opportunity to talk to the runners about Vibha’s cause.

Also the race was started early this year at 8 am instead of 8:30 am with a staggered start for the 5k and 10k. Last year’s race day was scorching hot and an early start helps runners complete the race before the temperature rises and have a better race experience. The staggered start helps reduce crowding of the trail. Both these adjustments which required substantial back end work are the perfect platform to expand the race in the years to come.

Almost every comment in the reviews had two things in common. They started with the line, “Very well organized” and “the course was very well marked”. This is no mean feat. A major part of the race success is credited to signs along the trail. The signs team had turned the trail into a “war zone “with the trail divided into subzones and individual teams aggressively making sure we had excellent signs for the runners.

The most important aspect of this entire event was the enthusiasm of the leads and the cheerfulness of the volunteers on the day of the event. Every place the runners went, instead of big lines they found smiling helpful faces greeting them. All in all leadership, team work and delightful enthusiasm from a lot of dedicated volunteers powered the Dream Mile 2010.

On this Day in 2009, we were trying to get Shah Rukh Khan to come to the Dream Mile

As I was listening to leads of Dream Mile 2010 churning out ideas and action items to push the publicity into high gear for the last three weeks the campaign, my thoughts went back to Dream Mile 2009. The first thing that came rushing back to me was how a bunch of us (not on any medication, I might add) came up with this "crazy" idea of trying to get Shah Rukh Khan for Dream Mile 2009. Yes by The Shah Rukh Khan I mean the one and only K.k.k.k.....kkk... King Khan who was here in the bay area last year filming for "My Name is Khan".

Ribhu (Dream Mile 2010 lead ) and I were new to Vibha and were leading publicity for it. We had already garnered a dubious reputation of coming up with the nuttiest ideas but this one truly was the cherry on the cake .. our finest moment ..... We were...are still so proud of it..... I think the momentum of registrations had really picked up at this point and registrations team were really facing the heat of a mammoth turnout.. So when this idea first came up, it was more to tease them and get them to sweat some more....After all we all love to see Mukesh (National Fund raising Director) in panic mode... We were even more suprised when people started considering it seriously....

Soon, we were following twitter to see where SRK was filming, planning on pitching tents outside his Hotel in SF, talking to his bay area agents to see if they could give us some face time.... Some actually believed this would be possible and started planning for the worst... what if he actually turns up ? Will we have a logistical nightmare on our hands ? If a 1000 man running event turns into 10000 man stampede .. lets just keep it at if..... The logistics lead Anand was incredibly cool about this... which gave us even more fuel to pursue this...We tried hook and crook to try and get face time with SRK but to no avail..... Also , after it truly sunk in that if he turns up, it wont be a pretty sight finally put an end to this grand plan..

But what this entire exercise gave us was incredible momentum going into the event...The registrations team was preparing for the worst.. the pledge team started dreaming about a big fat cheque from SRK, the publicity team.. well we didnt need any momentum at that point.... everyone was trying to apply brakes on us :).... But it did bring the entire Dream Mile team together for the final push.

This year we don't have SRK in the bay area.. But we need still need the all the awesome volunteers we had last year to build the same momentum as we head into the the final days before DOE.

After all, it wasn't SRK who made DM 2009 a grand sucess, it was all of YOU !!!!!

www.dreammile.org

An open letter to the Shiv Sena

Thackeray Saheb, ( BalaSaheb or Udhav , whoever is calling the shots )

Asa kai kela ?

I live in Mumbai. No; I live in Bombay. Sorry, I am using the dreaded “B” word as a mark of protest. Why am I in a sacrilegious mood? Because, I am upset and disappointed with the Shiv Sena’s attitude! I was so looking forward to this weekend. I had it perfectly planned and you ruined everything. How could you do this? We had such a great thing going over the years and in a blink of an eye you betrayed me for that over-rated Shah Rukh “Ham” Khan.

Valentine’s Day will not be the same anymore without the Shiv Sena disrupting itL.

Growing up in Bombay, if you ever put me in a rapid fire quiz show and asked me, “What comes to your mind first when I say Valentine’s Day ? “ Without any hesitation my answer would be “Shiv Sena”. Yes, Not Love, Not roses, Not cupid. You had entrenched yourself in Bombay’s Valentine’s Day folklore. And now you have abandoned all those couples in love who depended on you to provide the spark in their otherwise mundane relationships.

As I write this letter, it takes me back to my first V-day. You were at your peak that year. Most of the big hotels, pubs, and night clubs had canceled their parties. It was the perfect hide and seek game. How will the couples manage to sneak in some alone time, manage to hold hands in public, exchange those ridiculously expensive roses and paraphernalia and whisper sweet nothings without being caught by the minions of Balasaheb. So much more exciting than a quiet candle light dinner or a deafening Bollywood remix party. Looking at the expensive demands the chick I was taking out was making, I was sweating balls. But as it turned out, everything she asked for, you managed to get to it first J.. She wanted some expensive soft toys. That store I went to was destroyed by you a day earlier. So all the other stores around were closed. She wanted to go to this yacht party with some supercool DJ from Delhi. But your goons got to him a week before and made him swear that he will never set foot in Mumbai on V-Day. I ended up giving her a rose from my neighbor’s garden and taking her out to a romantic dinner to the local Chinese tapri and I didn’t even look cheap doing it. She was so impressed by what you had done in the run up to V-day that she was begging for this. I never properly thanked you for that. Aah the good old days.

As the years went by, I was amazed at your innovative methods each year. How funny my date and me looked when we had our faces blackened , or the time I wanted to break up with this girl but didn’t know how until you came along and made her tie me a Rakhi. That was easy J. Or the time when I was having a romantic candle light dinner and your sena broke the window of that restaurant. The tiny pieces of glass flying all over the place and falling all over our food and us, looked magical. Right out of a fairy tale!!! But what takes the cake was your campaign to force couples caught on V-day to marry each other. I was so pumped up about that. I even managed to catch a filthy rich girl that year. But somehow we never ran into each other. That would have been the jackpot.

Sigh, I’m all teary-eyed now. This year, I had met a girl from the “We love Shiv Sena on V-Day” generation. It was going to be perfect. We were planning to walk in front of protesters and then hold hands. This would have led to a high speed chase through the streets of Bombay.On being caught; we were looking forward to the new and innovative punishments you would come up with. It would have made both of us feel proud. But all that is just a dream now. You chickened out and decided to go after a SRK. It was so much below your dignity. Was it worth it?

I just cannot have a V-day without the excitement the Shiv Sena used to provide. So I became innovative and decided to do the unthinkable. If the disrupters don’t come to us, we would go to the disrupters. I was going to commit the sin of going to a SRK-KJo movie in its opening weekend just so that it would be disrupted and I could have a slice of excitement and reminisce the good old days. But, and it’s a big BUT… our government decided to actually do something for the first time in 10 years. Why now , Mr Chavan. Please go back to doing nothing. We loved you that way. That’s why we relected you time after time for the last 10 years. Now you have really done it. The one place I could get some action, and you stopped that too. Why ? I had to actually coax some local Sena Shakha guys to protest outside a local multiplex before they catch the Sunday evening show , pay off the local constables to wait for atleast 15 minutes before taking any action, just to get a feel of the good old days.. We are living in truly troubled times. This has cost me more than all the earlier V-days put together.

I hope you learn your lesson and we have a normal V-day next year. Otherwise I will have to move to Bangalore. Ram Sena is eating into your market share.

Sincerely

With Apologies to Bill Maher

New Rules

If I call a person on the telephone, I want to hear a traditional ring tone. I do not want to hear the love song which was playing the night you lost your virginity or the song your mom loves. When I hear of a song instead of a ring tone, it makes me feel, I am on hold with customer support. So dont be surprised if you get the same treatment I dish out to them, even though you pretend to be my friend.

More.. Coming soon

Shorts Standing Tall

Great Short Films I Stumbled upon

Woke up last Night at 3 am from a horrific nightmare involving my boss... again

Anyway that's besides the point..

I had recently hooked up my new Tivo HD and wanted to see if it had recorded something to put me back to sleep :)
It turns out it was recording these short films being shown on a showcase on IFC.
I have never been a fan of shorts. But the ones I ended up seeing really turned me into a fan, a high speed one at that.

The first one was called "Underground"

Details can be found on IMDB.

Underground

It was exploring human nature and how we perceive certain situations based on our own fears and notions. The viewers, in this case, were subjects and how we perceive the situation being shown is the purpose of this short experiment. It simply involves two guys following a girl riding on an empty subway train. What happens next will help you judge yourself and your perceptions.

It used a simple quote as a baseline and then launched from there.

"We don't see things as they are. We see things as we are."

Watch it and let me know what you think. I don't want to analyse it too much for the fear of giving it away.

The film is being shown on IFC and they have repeat dates. I have listed the dates at the end.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

The second film was called "Disposal"

IMDB link:

Disposal

This is again a character study of Human nature or a certain aspect of it in 10 minutes. It shows how people react in a naive fashion during times of unexpected crisis and the repercussions of actions taken to resolve the crisis. A couple in the city accidentally hit and kill a homeless man, while a father and son are hunting in the jungle. The two couples don't know each other, but accidents will cause their lives to intertwine and change forever.

fascinating!!!!

I think shorts are a great way to explore human emotions and the way we think. You can make a point very quickly and then post mortem all you want, based on it. In Feature length films, there is usually just too much going on to really have a good character study done. Not that it hasn't been done. But, I just think shorts can really bring out the point trying to be made to a diverse and wider audience.

Anyways, Comments are always welcome, and if you cant catch the films or don't have IFC, I have them recorded on Tivo, so I can help out.


IFC Short Films Showcase Schedule:

Thu, May. 15 at 12:35 PM EDT

Sun, May. 18 at 06:55 AM EDT

Thu, May. 29 at 06:00 AM EDT

Tue, Jun. 3 at 08:50 AM EDT

Fri, Jun. 6 at 05:30 AM EDT

Thu, Jun. 12 at 12:30 PM EDT

Enjoy...

Random Thoughts

Slipping away

Time slips away
Slippery like the ground outside
Drenched in Winter rain
Inviting the gullible
Welcoming one and all
To admire the green that comes with the rain
To take in wisps of the wet soil
Distracted from the goal
"I can get it done"
"This will only take a few minutes"
Minutes turn into hours
By the time they return
Its too late
Time has slipped away.