Mind u Read

On 26th January 1950 India became a republic and the constitution was drafted to govern the country. The constitution is nothing but a detailed terms & conditions agreement that tells us how to behave as citizens of this nation and how the country needs to be governed. It is another matter that none of us have ever read a single line from that constitution just like we do with every other terms & conditions agreement. It has been 61 years since these terms & conditions have been defined and very few changes have been made to that document over the years. However the world that we live in has continuously and constantly changed bringing in a tectonic shift in lifestyles and mindsets that are far beyond the comprehension of the people who drafted the constitution decades ago. I wonder if it is fair enough to stick to a constitution that is definitely outdated and has proved beyond doubt to be a failure. The emergence of the politician as the flag bearer and representative...

WikiLeaks has been creating a major furore worldwide with its release of sensitive documents. In their latest release they finally manage to trace the origins of the popularity of Rajinikanth jokes on internet. The startling fact in their report is the secret connection between Christmas and Rajinikanth jokes. Read the full story below. It was the last day of August 2010 when a very bizarre worldwide trending topic appeared on Twitter. The topic was MERRY CHRISTMAS. People wondered why everyone was wishing each other Merry Christmas four months in advance. At the same time Kartik Dayanand who goes by the id @KartikDayanand on Twitter tried to find out the reason. In a matter of minutes he figured out who initiated this crazy trend and shared his findings with the world in the tweet below.

Couple of months back I wrote a blog post called  “The Future of War: A Digital Doomsday”  where I mention that future wars would be fought in the clouds and giant corporations would try to eat each other, in the process only one of them emerging the clear winner. It already looks like Facebook has laid out the framework for its next assault and the first major casualty would be Twitter, followed by Google. One would be mistaken to think it is better technology that is driving Facebook but the fact is, the roots of the future success of Facebook lie in the very nature of human behavior. I will speak in great detail about that in my next post but in this post I would like to specifically talk of how Twitter is on its path to annihilation because of Facebook, and why it is very important for Facebook to do what Twitter does currently.

  Few months back I had written a post on Ram Gopal Varma called “The Truth about the Man” . It was intended to be a two part series but somehow I never wrote the second part. Part 2 was originally intended to focus on Ramu’s technical accomplishments and the illustrious list of proteges that he has given to the film industry. However, in the few months since I wrote the first part I noticed something strange. By looking at Ramu’s statements and the movies that he has been attempting to make we can safely arrive at one conclusion.  Ram Gopal Varma is acting against the laws of nature and seems to be in a state of constant De-Evolution. In order to understand why I made the above statement, we need to first look at the evolution of Ram Gopal Varma. Only then will we be able to see the process of his De-Evolution.

Do you remember this line from the promotion of the iconic movie Rambo from the late 80’s?  This time it is going to be personal! I always wanted to use that line and today it’s my turn. Wondering where Rambo figures with respect to the movie Do Dooni Chaar? That’s because unlike all other movies that i wrote about in the past, this time it is personal. Personal because i am closely associated with the people who made this film and was witness to a part of the making of this little gem of a movie. I am going to share with you a few of my experiences. In case you only want to know what i think about the movie, then jump to the last paragraph.

Guess who I met online a little while ago? You won’t believe it. God sent me a friend request on Facebook. I thought it was a prank, but then accepted the invite out of curiosity and what ensued next was something that blew my mind away. Following is the transcript of my conversation with God. I had no choice but to share it with you folks. Note: KD is Kartik Dayanand and God is God obviously. KD : Hey God, are you for real? Looks like a joke to me. How do i believe you are not some fake account? There are too many fakes floating around these days. God : Ok, i can prove it to you, ask me to do anything and i will make it happen. KD : Sure, let’s see if you can turn off the light in my room, haha! God : Hmmm! Ok

Among the recent crop of movies if there is one movie that is providing bang for the buck then it certainly has to be Dabangg. Purists of cinema as well as general public, all unanimously accept the fact that the movie is a smash hit purely because of the star power of its lead protagonist Salman Khan. Many might also snigger at the fact that in terms of opening week box office collections it has overtaken a movie like 3 idiots, a movie with a message to society whereas all that Dabangg does is glorify the hero and indulge in some mindless action and dance numbers, what one generally calls the Indian Masala movie. It’s the return of the action hero, most proclaim. I only laugh at their ignorance. It might sound like blasphemy to many if I say Dabangg overtakes 3 idiots in not just box office numbers but also in terms of message to society and its relevance. It’s more than coincidence that the movie also features a song that has the following lines mein Zandu Balm hui d...

Teachers Day came and went by. There were customary status updates and messages, though not as many as one sees on Valentine’s Day or Friendship day. On that day I sat wondering about my teachers. I grew up with the notion that teachers are Gods only next to parents. After all who hasn’t heard the saying...    Matru devo bhava , Pitru devo bhava , Acharya devo bhava, Atithi devo bhava But in today’s times the conventional role of a teacher and his position as a god appears to have been usurped by something called as Google. That’s the reason why i had only this to say on teacher’s day. Happy Teachers Day! In recent times my biggest teacher has been Google. Thank you Google :) Incidentally this tweet went on to become a ‘Top Tweet’ of the day on Twitter along with the legendary Amitabh Bachchan’s tweet. Even he speaks of his parents as his best teachers. An obvious notion since they are already placed first in the hierarchy of gods. But what about the poor teacher and h...

As a nation we have grown so independent of everything that we are no longer an independent nation but an indifferent nation. We have slowly and steadily got used to the idea of Independence over the last many years. We now have achieved Independence from all things on which we were dependent earlier, like our families, natural resources, culture, traditions, leaders to a million other things. We have become so independent today that all we are left with is a sense of cynicism and ridicule, more so among the younger educated generation that is being fed a constant dose of sarcastic humor about the idea of India. So what happened to us? Allow me to dig a little deeper.

It is stale news by now, every single media outlet has been ranting about the rot that is the Commonwealth Games 2010 (CWG) preparation. Most have done a good job in highlighting the sorry state of affairs. Ironically most of us common people along with the media are experts at dissecting dead bodies, good at creating post mortem reports but rarely do we ever propose any remedies to not let anything like this happen in the first place. Not just these games, in fact this is a game that is played out every day in various parts of our country in various departments and sectors. The noise we make about the mismanagement of these games only highlights our ignorance of the way this country functions.  I am glad that the Commonwealth Games are happening in India.  Also extremely glad with the way things are progressing. It is time we woke up to the reality that is India. My above statement could be pretty confusing as to what I really intend to say. Am I excited about the game...

For the next few weeks there is only one movie everyone is going to hear and talk about, INCEPTION . It’s being called a mind bending exercise, a movie that challenges our very beliefs of existence and creation, a movie that will remain with us in our subconscious even after we leave the cinema hall. Let’s try and look at some of the concepts from this movie and see if they really are that path breaking and mind bending, let me warn you in advance, this isn’t a review of the movie so don’t expect me to talk about technicalities or other creative aspects of the movie. It is just an attempt from me to find out the Myth behind the Myth of this movie.

It certainly must be rocket science, otherwise how can one explain the conflicting and bizarre feedback for the latest Mani Ratnam movie Raavan. Sample this, most Hindi audiences hate this movie, it’s a huge hit in its Tamil version down south, western critics have hailed it as a masterpiece while our popular Indian critics have trashed it. A small minority swear by this movie and a majority simply hate this movie. How is it possible that one movie can evoke such extreme reactions? What Mani Ratnam has made is something far more controversial than the original man with ten heads. It is a debatable point whether Raavan was a bad man or a victim of circumstances, but the debate whether Raavan the movie is good or bad is even more confusing.  Let me make my stand clear at the outset, I loved this movie, probably  I am the only one to have watched it thrice already within the first week of release, twice in Hindi and once in Tamil, also not to forget the s...