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Friday, March 5, 2010

Info Post
Just came back from the book launch of May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss.
Buy it NOW! I was reading it at the traffic lights on the drive back and chuckling to myself.

Probably for the first time in the elite portals of India Habitat Centre, names of films like Zalzala (Kimi Katkar, Shatrughan Sinha), Zehreelay (Chunky Pandey, Juhi Chawla), Loha and - but, of course - Gunda were bandied about and the audience lapped it up.
Nilanjana Roy moderated a lively conversation between three of India's best read bloggers - Jai Arjun Singh, Sidin Vadukut and the book's author - Arnab Ray. Jai Arjun talked about how a reader (hopefully infrequent) of his blog claimed that his son was the proof of a rocking sex life. Sidin explained how he has been suspected of being a North Indian and has been asked to do unspeakable things to dogs. And Arnab held forth on how only Mithun Chakraborty can be a coolie in an airport.
My only regret of the evening was that none of the panelists - including the author - pronounced the name of the book as it has been spelt out!

Ahem... and now for a bit of self promotion.
After a really bad day at work yesterday, I was hoping that I will make up by wrestling with my son once I got home. I did not realise my day would get made so brilliantly till I stumbled upon this interview with GreatBong. By all metrics and standards, Random Thoughts of a Demented Mind is the most popular Indian blog. Therefore, GB counting Calcutta Chromosome as one of his five favourite blogs was so gratifying that I had to re-read it to believe it. I was reminded of a Gavaskar interview in India Today, in which he praised Atul Bedade to the skies!

A thought: Is Random the most often used word in blog titles? Is there a scientific way of finding out?

Going on to another random subject - of things getting lost & found in translation.
A friend SMSed me a while back – “How would you translate the spirit of this line in English – Rishtey mein toh hum tumhare baap hote hain. Naam hain Shahehshah.” I invoked the combined spirits of Chuck Norris and the dubbed Kung-fu films to come up with – “I f***ed your mom, you a**hole. Call me Dad. Or call me Shahenshah.” Any better suggestions?

Talking of subtitles, I flew Air India (Indian Airlines of my childhood and still retaining most of the hostesses from my childhood days) and was rewarded with a subtitled version of Love Aaj Kal as the in-flight movie. The subtitles were evocative (“The day has blossomed like a flower” for Ajj din chadheya), to say the least and I was quite enjoying matching them to the lyrics. But nothing had prepared me for Chor Bazaari. The black marketing of stolen glances is a habit I have now given up… Now hear the real words!

Now, that's the subject for Arnab's next book!

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