Where the hell is Matt?

This is most brilliant video I have seen! P sent it to me and I what a joy it is :)

I wish I had made the video!

See the video here it says it took 14 months in the making, 42 countries, and a cast of thousands.

For more about Matt the guy behind the video (and in front of the camera) go here

More blasts - this time in Ahmedabad

I have no words to describe the anger and frustration I feel about the Ahmedabad blasts. As of this morning 46 people have been killed! What on earth is the logic behind this mindlessness?

Only sane thing I did was to stay away from the damned news channels. I cannot be angry at more than one thing at a time!

A day amidst energy, enthusiasm and efficiency

I spent one full day 8am to 8 pm watching 17 stage plays! I was the judge along with two others at the Chirst College festival "Darpan 2008" of which theatre is one category. BOY, was I impressed. These days kids get so many opportunities and they sure make use of it very well. There was class in all the performances. There was absolutely no slapstick comedy and the production quality was very good. I just did not expect PUC and under graduate students to come with such a fascinating show.

Even the themes were very interesting. None were frivolous. There were 4 comedies and the rest were all very serious topics. - rape, communal problems, seven sins, media madness, war, partition, romance, underworld...it was all there.

The underworld play was based on Ram Gopal Varma's Sarkar. Like a sequel to Sarkar Raj, they did a very slick job, I tell you! RGV should get the script from these kids :) I had agreed to be the judge very reluctantly, but I think it was a day well spent.

Of course we had trouble agreeing on who wins and who doesn't. The results will be announced in August. May be I'll write a review of the prize winning plays after that.

I also watched 3 street play performances (there were totally 10). Very good performances.

The blasts and the blasted TV

13 phone calls, 32 sms and 5 emails later, I know that all the people I was worried about are safe and sound. But the fact that V is still not home (stuck in traffic jam) and I can't reach his mobile at all is freaking me out.

My heart goes out to those caught in it all...9 blasts in a couple of hours. It killed 3 and injured about 15. They can call it low intensity but it is scary, nevertheless.

And I am mad at television channels because they don't seem to get the facts right. All the English channels didn't even get the names of the places right till 3 hours after...Audugidi & Sarjipura for Audugodi & Sarjapura. Since most people in Bangalore aren't localites, I have been getting questions about these locations!

The Kannada channel TV9's anchor was worth being lynched with his inane questions. Sample this, he's questioning some eyewitness on phone and he asks "Bangaloreans are not used to such things so how was it to hear the blast?" What the????

Then he also says that the bomb doesn't look like it was made by professionals (HUH???). And goes on to spew his theories...if they were professionals he says, they wouldn't put the bomb near the naala (this is near audugodi) where no one is bound to get injured. I wonder if he worked with the bomb squad before shifting to this glamorous profession of news reading!

Then they went off to Mallya hospital to question one of the guys who got injured. The guy's obviously shaken, he hasn't been bandaged fully yet, he's pressing cotton on to his right arm and there are 3 mikes thrust in his face!

All channels without exception were quite happy to speculate as to who put the bombs there. And all the usual suspects were named. Of course by evening they said this was not an international action but someone local was involved.

I agree there is a need to get the information, but why jump the gun when you have no clear information? And really please can you not think before you speak / ask questions? There are people watching you on live TV and hoping you know your jobs for godsake!

And what's wrong with the aam junta? Minutes after the blast, one would think that they would stay put at homes / offices where it is relatively safer. But there were 100s of people out to see what happened. Curiousity has brought them out, one reporter said. I don't get it.

Then of course the clincher, someone from the centre said, the last 2 blasts (now Bangalore and Jaipur 2 months ago) have happened in BJP led states! Apparently indicating the ineptitude of the party. Nice time to take potshots and the opposition.

I AM SO MAD!

Correction: Only 1 was killed and 8 injured in yesterday's blasts!

Realisation

This is fresh, just an hour old...I am incapable of doing one thing at a time! See, I always have been doing more than one thing at a time. Like reading 2 books together (no in a very logical way don't imagine crazy), or doing my job and studying, or having a huge fight with my other and at the same time writing long love notes. I've always done things like that. But now I fiddle with my phone when I am talking to people. I browse when I am watching TV. I read when I am watching TV. I am listening to music when I am cooking. I am constantly multi-tasking. Not a good thing eh!