42 Quirks

I am convinced that all Hindu weddings are a massive exercise in classical Pavlovian conditioning.

Any utterance of the words “Shubh,” “Mangal,” and “Saavdhaan” in any order will automatically cause the akshataa in your hand to be flung in the general direction of the stage/podium where the ceremony is happening.

Sirs and Madams of the world,  we’ve been royally trolled.

O_o

(Pic Credit: “I dream of liberty” by snickwas@Flickr)
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Can a Hindi Film win an Oscar?

No. I am not talking about the Foreign Language category. I am talking about the Best Film category – the category in which Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscar Award this year.

How? Read on till the end.

The Eligibility criteria for a film to be nominated for the Oscars are clearly laid out on this page. A first glance at the page reveals something very interesting.

Nowhere does it mention that the film has to be in the English language!

In fact, Paragraph 8 clearly states:
“Motion pictures from all countries shall be eligible for the annual awards listed in Rule One Paragraph 3, as long as they satisfy the requirements of the other applicable rules, and contain English-language subtitles if released in a foreign language.”

That’s not all! There’s more!

Paragraph 2 of Rule 2 might cause a few problems actually. Condensed down to the basics it means:

“A film, that runs for more than 40 minutes, is eligible for an entry to the Oscar Nominations as long as it runs in a commercial theater in the Los Angeles county for at least seven days and is properly advertised before-hand.”

So what’s stopping us?

Rule 3, more or less. :)

The essence of Rule 3 is that, the Los Angeles run must happen between the 1st of January to the 31st of December in a specific year and no other theatrical runs are allowed – competitive or otherwise. And this is where it gets kinda complicated. Here’s Paragraph 3 of Rule 3, verbatim:

A picture first theatrically exhibited outside the U.S. prior to the Los Angeles qualifying run shall be eligible for submission provided the prior exhibition takes place in a commercial motion picture theater after January 1, 2007, with the following further conditions:

Kinda confusing, isn’t it? But, this is what I make of it in the Indian context. Correct me if I am wrong:

If a full-length Indian feature film, (properly subtitled) were to theatrically release in India this year, and next year, release exclusively in the Los Angeles County (after proper advertisement and marketing) on a commercial theater run for a period of at least 7 days and no other theatrical engagement for the total period of 90 days, then the film qualifies for an entry to the Oscars!

So, technically, if an Indian film made in 2009 – say Dev.D – were to release exclusively in the Los Angeles county this year – ensuring that no other theatrical runs happen anywhere else during that exhibition period – Dev.D could, might, possibly, maybe, qualify to win an Oscar!

With big bucks like Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, etc entering the Indian market, has the American Dream suddenly become achievable? ;)

He stood out among the crowd. He was alone.

The other kids are having a field day in the park. They run, scream, yell, fall, bawl, and are picked up and soothed by their parents.

He simply stands alone on one side and looks at them with a wan smile on his face.
» Read the rest of this entry «

I know this post is long overdue…

MICA was a fabulous place. It had all the elements a quirkyalone like me would ever want. It was remote, there was ample solitude and there was a good place to crash…

I have over 300 pictures of my days at MICA with all the other RJs from all over the country. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to upload all of them.

The first batch of 25 selected photos is up.

Here’s where you can access it:

http://picasaweb.google.com/shrikant.j/TrainingMICA

More photos are on the way… You can subscribe to the RSS feed for this album if you want to be updated everytime I add something to this album.

There’s so much I want to write about MICA, and so little time… :(

Good old days, eh?I had decided not to post any Cricket-related items on this blog. But, this was just too hard to resist for me. Patriotism and all that, or maybe, a flicker of hope.

Does anybody have the email addresses of our heroes abroad? I am seriously thinking of forwarding this… At least it is better than the crappy forwards that people keep sending…

Pop Quiz: What, according to you is the most appropriate song for this clip?

Note:This does NOT mean I will be yelling “Hoo-haa, India” any time soon… Or any time later even.

Dina Mehta has just posted something that will hearten every Indian…

The Hindu quotes:

Union Minister for Science, Technology and Ocean Development Kapil
Sibal on Monday launched the Natural Disaster Information System
(NDIS), a first of its kind pilot project aimed at alerting people
about any impending natural disaster.

This project is currently under private-public partnership by the Technology Development Council (TDC) and Bangalore-based Geneva Software Technologies.

The NDIS will communicate alerts over mobile fones and specially setup Wireless PA systems in – get a load of this – less than ONE minute…

Now, if only these people had the good sense to bring something like this into action a little earlier – like a few years. But, I guess, what they say is right, better late than never.

Rest in peace, folks. Be assured, that if this pilot kicks off and kicks off well, your kids and grandkids won’t have to see the days you had to… Our deepest and fondest thoughts are with you. R.I.P

Note to self:
Keep your cellfone full of juice and dough. I wouldn’t want to miss a call like that one anyday.

Thanx Dina!! via 14donline.net

Technorati Tags: NDIS, India, Disaster, pilot, alerts