At The Edge

Originally written for EPW Blog   "…how much does he earn?" "Once he gets married, he will start earning too." "So, does he not earn anything now?" "He does but a man can't always win. Sometimes he loses too." "Loses!" "Isn't that's true of gambling?" "So, he's a gambler!" "No, not a gambler but once he gets drunk, he obviously can't help playing a hand or two." "Gambler and a drunkard too. But he's too nice a person according to you!" "Of course! Once married, he will stop visiting that dancer's house and his drinking-gambling days will be over too" "So, he goes to the house of some dancer too!" "What's wrong with that? Only bluebloods have such taste." "Alright then, tell me about his bloodline too" "As soon as we find anything about his bloodline, we will cert...

Picked this from someone from U.P.land. Pehlay Naukri Thi Nau Log Khate Thay Phir Chakri Hui Char Log Khate Thay Phir Tankha Hui Sirf Tan Kha Pata Tha Ab Betan hai Ab Tan Bhi Nahi Kha Pata Hai Naukri, nine could sustain Chakri, four could sustain Tankha, only body could sustain Betan, not even body can sustain. -0-

Leela Mishra in Sai Paranjape's Chashme Buddoor (1981). -0- Not often remembered fact about this film is that the main motif of this more than thirty year old Delhi based funny film made by a woman was violence against women. I believe the reason for that could be that for a certain generation, driven by nostalgia, "the Room" and the life of its occupants defines a certain era, a certain phase in life. While a lot may have changed since then, but if walk on this city's streets now, you can see how the Delhi motif still persists. -0-

video link -0-

Case of subtle appropriation of space by human imagining of heaven. A scene from a Doordarshan presentation on Urdu language and poets. -0-

Aaao baby tumhay estar banaye. Lo yeh Bandh Gobi...aur imagine karo yeh tumhara dil hai. Thoda Emotion  dalo. Aur thoda sara pout.  From December 1, 1972 issue of Filmfare, this is Jaya Bhaduri in possibly one of Bollywood's freakiest photoshoot ever. Interestingly this was the issue that had Amitabh Bachchan on cover, it was his first ever Filmfare cover. -0-

conform. conform.conform or Chalo Murga Bano. A School in the time preceding annexation. (From a picture book said to have been prepared for the Mahárája Dalíp Singh.) Came across it in 'The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir' (1916) by Sir James McCrone Douie.

Now, try as you might, you won't be able to look at those white women in those late night ads the same way. -0-

from 1970 -0-

I design games for social networks. The statement basically means I spend an indecent amount of time on Facebook. To be able to work I haven't added too many people as friend and as a precaution I have blocked a lot of incoming distractions that are often likely to appear on one's Wall in form of  timepass  like this : Mahatama Steps Out of character of Gandhi This supposed image of Gandhi dancing with some white woman travelled from hate groups (Anti-Gandhi to Anti-India) with comments about ' Mastikhor Ayyash Gandhi' to liberal groups with 'O! he could dance!' remarks. The basically ended up going viral. If it managed to reach my high wall, it must be really viral, that's my rule. It took me one google image search query to find that the image is actually of an Australian artist impersonating Gandhi for some charity event held in Sydney for India back in those days. -0-

Or that may explain a lot. -0-

24/2/2011 -0- A fun activity. Requirements: Firefox with Firebug  (or even Chrome with Dev mode) and some basic understanding of 'calls' and related things. Go to Facebook. Enter your username (which in facebook's case is your email id) and next do not enter your password. Instead enter a wrong password. Now Facebook Facebook will send you to a 'login_attempt' page. Now enter you actual password. In the 'Post' call to 'login.php', in parameters you will see your dear password getting 'pass 'ed nakedly. Isn't that fun.

Noticed at Guru Dronacharya Metro Station and posted only after getting convinced that the word is not an electrical engineering term. Would have been funnier if a heritage site was to say that back to the Metro.

A Surf bath! from song 'Masti aur Jawani' in film Dil Daulat Duniya (1972) 

Zarina Wahab in 1975 with the bun. And to think that people believe Princess Leia was the first one to get Cinnamon Bun hair . Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope released two years later in 1977. Later, Rakhee in 1978 movie Muqaddar Ka Sikander

video link Disco item song from a Telugu film from 1980s dubbed in Hindi as Maut Ka Badla Maut(1985). Although the star of this film was Vijay Lalitha, the actress that kept this thermos warm is Kavitha. And the Thermos is famous Eagle Thermos.

"Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race."  ~Bill in Kill Bill 1. Bill didn't know much about human race. -0- Kaun Hai tu?Tu Kaun Hai? (Who are you? You are Who?) Main Manoj Hu. (I am Manoj) Main Mohit Hu. (I am Mohit) Bahut Maray Karay Hu Main. (I like to beat a lot) Main Khurakh de du. (Should I give you the Medicine) Achha. Hmm. And just when Mohit and Manoj, who look like identical twins, are about tear each other part. Something swoops down on them from the sky. It's a bird, it's a plane. it's Mannu Dhaakad (Great) Man. This is the story of Raja, a not so mild-mannered rickshaw driver who likes to disguise himself as a Superhero, Mannu, a messiah for the poor and landless. A hero more Dhaakad than Superman. While all powerful Superman finds it difficult to fly chest out against the wind, our desi hero does most of his flying standing up-right. When Mannu takes his Lois Lane on a late nigh...

I have been wondering about it for quite sometime now. I write something at my Kashmir blog and it gets re-tweeted. No matter what I  write. I might be writing about my dead cat. It gets re-tweeted. Good thing no one reads! Here's what is going on: Fetch the feed of a 'suitable' blog and feed to FriendFeed and then connect it to twitter. Viva la Revolucion!

video link Someone should have told Md. Aziz along ago, 'Yes you are the new Md Rafi. Now stop singing.' And yes never mess with a Md. Aziz fan. A couple of years back, me and my friends hired an Indica to get out from Goa to Mumbai. The cabbie turned out to be from Muzaffarnagar, and his system came loaded with only one CD and that was of Md. Aziz. He did turn his system off but devil got into me and said - We digg Md. Aziz. From Goa to Mumbai, we choked on 150 Hits of Md. Aziz.

In the 80s we had Kalahandi, now we are rich enough to afford Kalmadi. -0- Original was a poster of Mithunda's Paap Ki Kamaee (1990)