What if it was an Indian production ?

There has been so much of excitement after the Anglo production " Slumdog Millionaire" sweeping the Oscars . Every Indian is proud of the fact that A.R .Rehman and Resul Pookutty are Oscar winners . Congratulations to both of them for their work .

However the question arises "What if the same movie was an Indian production in English ?" The academy would have treated the film as any normal entry in the category of Best Foreign Language film , it perhaps would not have even got nominated . Since it was an Anglo Production the film was nominated under different categories . What happened thereafter is history having won 8 Oscars . There has been umpteen Indian movies which fare much better than the Slumdog Millionaire in all categories . The Director Danny Boyle was lucky to find Fox Searchlight Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures to distribute the film for him . He had not found a distributor for the movie and was only planning to release the movie on DVDs.

Having found a distributor and marketed the movie in the right way "Slumdog Millionaire" got nominated for the Oscars and also managed all the Oscars . Does that sound rigged or just lucky ?

I only hope we have an Indian production nominated along with other Hollywood Movies and sweep all Oscars some day. That would truly make us all proud .

It Just Happened..

Relationships at work are often talked about and is a very interesting subject . There is lot of whisper and gossip about a relationship which blossoms between a married man and a married woman . Very often the woman is a subordinate to the man in the heirarchy of the organisation . Atleast that is how it is in my story today .

The protagonists in my story are in their early thirties . The guy does not have a hunk look but has a more uncoventional look. The lady looked young and charming. Their spouses were busy with their respective careers . Interestingly both did not have an arranged marriage in an Indian context . They had long courtships before they got married . It is a couple of years after their marriage that both discovered that they were probably married to the wrong person and their interests and priorities were different . What kept them together was the society they lived in , else they would have parted ways .

What started as an intellectual conversation between the two developed into a beautiful relationship. They discovered that they had so much in common which they probably did not share with their respective spouses . They would step out for corporate meetings together and would end up spending time at a coffee shop or a stroll at a mall or an art gallery . They would always be messaging each other or talking on the phone . Their relationship was blossoming as the days went by . The emotional attachment grew and also led to a physical relationship . There was this parallel life which both of them enjoyed . However life went on normally at both the households. Work was being compromised by both of them as they spend more time together . Time for appraisals and the boss had his say . She was asked to leave gracefully . She did not have any regrets as she enjoyed the relationship she had with him .

He moved on to a different organization and now he has met someone interesting out there . All he has to say is that " It just happened "

Breaking News

Breaking News is the new mantra for the electronic media. One would always find "Breaking News " on the bottom half of the screen on any news channel . The Indian media has almost forgotten how to classify what is important and what is not . Very often trivial issues are highlighted as breaking news and makes a mockery of Journalism .

The recent live coverage of the terrorist attacks at Mumbai was a challenge for all the media personalities as they had to cover it for more than 60 hours . Most of the channels provided their best coverage with their anchors and camera crew spending long hours out in the open braving the weather and also the possibility of stray bullets and grenade attacks hitting them . The picture above shows an army of media men and women with their cameras , booms and outdoor broadcasting vans in the background beaming out live pictures of the terrorist attack at the Taj Mahal Hotel. They maintained a vigil through out the 60 hours till the saga ended . It was a good job done by them .

However it also had a negative side to it as they were instigating personalities of different walks of life to make their comments on the drastic attack and the failure of the security agencies to prevent the attack on the commercial capital of India . Some of the personalities were very biased and vocal as usual in their opinion . One is often led to believe that they are also part of the media as they are the only people who are seen on different talk shows .

The media is often under fire for glorifying events and causing unwanted controversies . Be it a murder , a terrorist attack , a natural calamity or a catastrophe the media just blows it out of proportion . The media needs to be more sensitive to issues and also not highlight issues over and over to increase the TRP of their respective channels. It is time that both the electronic and print media act more responsibly and report more sensibly .

So let us have some genuine news with national importance appear under Breaking News.

Terror strikes Mumbai

The Taj Mahal hotel the famous landmark near the Gateway of India , Mumbai was witness to a deadly terrorist attack on the 26th of November 2008 . The other places which was also under attack were The Trident & Oberoi Hotels in South Mumbai , Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus and the Nariman house to name a few.

The well planned attack had all the ingredients of a Hollywood movie. The terrorists had sneaked in to Mumbai through the sea and landed on the seafront at Mumbai using a rubber dingy . They were armed with grenades , Ak47's , satellite phones and other advanced GPS devices . Their motive was to create mayhem in the city and to kill innocent people of both Indian and foreign origin . They had spread across the city of Mumbai targeting different landmarks . They went on a firing spree and killed innocent people and among them were some top police officers . Some of the terrorists got killed in the crossfire and one got captured live .

The action then shifted to the Taj Mahal , Trident & Oberoi hotels and the Nariman House where the other terrorists were holed up . They went on a firing spree within the hotel killing the guests and also held some as hostages . The commandos got into action to flush the terrorists from all three locations taking utmost care to avoid co-lateral damage to the heritage buildings and the hostages . We had all the news channels covering the saga minute by minute . The media personalities were armed with their microphones and cameras and trying to outdo each other with the live coverage . A lot of us were glued to our television sets trying to get updates on the battle between the commandos and the terrorists .

We could hear the occasional blasts and also the rapid gun fire in the background as the cameras were shifting focus from one place to another . We could see more enforcements coming in to ensure that there was no escape route for the terrorists from the three buildings . We had the army ,the naval marine commandos , the Maharashtra police and the rapid action force providing different tiers of support to the National Security guard commandos who were in charge of the flush out . The fire force was busy putting off the occasional fire which was spreading out on some parts of the building and was also rescuing people from the hotel through the windows of the Taj Mahal Hotel.

The hotels were under seige by the terrorists for more than fifty hours before the attackers were gunned down by our elite commandos from the National Security guards. The attack had claimed more than 200 lives across the city . Investigations reveal that the terrorists are of Pakistani's origin and had intensive training in arms and other ammunition's .

The country salutes all the brave commandos and policemen who gave up their lives fighting the terrorists and our heartfelt condolences to all who lost their beloved ones in the gruesome attack.

The Virtual Pilot !

I was always fascinated by the big birds in the sky . As a child whenever I heard the sound of an aircraft I would just run out of the house to spot the aircraft and then try identifing the airline . I would spend hours gazing at the aircrafts whenever I had an opportutnity to go to the airport . I never dreamt of being a pilot as I knew that it was not within my reach financially to be a pilot .

A couple of years back I chanced upon this beautifull software from Microsoft called Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 . It was a dream come true to give me a virtual experience of what flying was all about . You could fly from a Cessna to the fascinating Boeing 747 . It was an amazing experience learning how to fly them . One must be wondering where do you fly to ...and where do you land ...! Well it has all the airports you can think of in very nook and corner of the world . I then discovered that there are a lot of addons you could add to this simulation software beginning from aircrafts to scenery of different places in the world to give you a real feeling of flying through those cities or places .

This fascination had got me hooked on for hours in front of my computer flying to different destinations in the world . It was now time for me to upgrade the simulation software as Microsoft had launched Fs2004. I also decided to upgrade the hardware on my computer . I needed a new video card and more memory for the system . I then discovered that you could fly online and there are two Virtual flying organisations named VATSIM and IVAO . You could get networked to any of these networks of your choice and you would be flying along with other virtual pilots around the world with ATCs and giving you the real feeling of flying . You get to talk to a lot of real world pilots and ATCs who are part of this amazing activity of virtual flying . One must experience it to believe it .

You bet this is addictive and this community of virtual pilots are eagerly awaiting the launch of Microsoft's next version of FlightSim X or 2006 . The picture above is not of a real aircraft it is the picture of the aircraft I fly a Boeing 737... I am sure all the budding pilots would like to have a go at virtual flying before they fly the big birds .......My real world pilot friends tell me that this is as real as it can get .

This is my first attempt at blogging and thought would write about what I am passionate about and my virtual flying experience continues ! Capt signing off for the moment !