People

It is more 'noise' than news these days on National News channels. The only few that were exceptions have also joined the race. Whether this is a useful trend, we will have to wait and see.

It often is outrageous to see well respected artists making generalized comments about Indian Cinema without actually even considering the impact of it. Beeb [:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6369621.stm|has a story] quoting a criticism from the very respected actor Naseeruddin Shah. Quote:

He was speaking after the Bollywood film, Rang de Basanti (Colour Me Saffron) failed to pick up an award at this month's British Academy of Film and Television Awards (Baftas).

Catch Kumara Sangakkara on this [:http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/ci/content/current/story/281454.html|very nice podcast on Cricinfo]. Sangakkara talks to Sanjay about the Cricketers entering this World Cup and his opinion on who might make it big (he leaves out himself, obviously) Sangakkara seems very eloquent and also forthright. "I was average at both" he says, referring to his wicket keeping and batting. "But my father helped me improve".

In the run-up to the World Cup, media is coming out with all sorts of special features to grab the attention.

"Dumped" List

CricInfo has an article today titled "They dumped me". As the names suggests, it is about those players who were dropped from the team. The article tries to guess the reasons.

I caught up [:http://www.wired.com/news/technology/medtech/0,72675-0.html?tw=wn_index… this news article on Wired] only today. The article discusses on how organs are being sold in India in violation of the [:http://www.indialawinfo.com/bareacts/transplant.html#_Toc498337709|The transplantation of human organs act of 1994]. Quote:

More than 500 people across the state of Tamil Nadu say they've sold their kidneys to organ brokers, in violation of a ban enacted in 1994.

The articles goes on to reveal the helplessness of the authority concerned quoting an anonymous source:

"We do everything in accordance with the letter of the law on paper, but we know that almost all of the documents we see are false,"

Can't get myself to believe that [:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shyam_Benegal|Shyam Benegal] actually liked the film [:http://don.indiatimes.com/|Don]. In the outlook article, he mentions,

Don was extremely well made, used technology with a great deal of sophistication. SRK was superb.

Suchitra film society is organizing a unique film festival (its first ever) in Bangalore during Christmas (22 - 28th of December). There would be more than [:http://www.suchitra.org/pages/Biff-list.htm|80 films from all over the world] screened in a span of a week. Passes priced at Rs 600/- can be collected at [:http://www.suchitra.org|Suchitra], B V Karanth Road, Banashankari II Stage, Bangalore.

What is it like a Sunday you wake up to noises when you've hardly had any sleep overnight? Worse yet, the news paper carries on front, a page long report about deaths in double figures - and another with made-look fairy tale of a weirdo accident survivor.

Dr. Rajkumar's [:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqGSA4n3kMo|this particular song] from an old film [:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqGSA4n3kMo|has gathered] lots of peevish comments from people who conspicuously are non-Kannadigas.

News is that [:http://www.outlookindia.com/author.asp?name=Krishna+Prasad|Krishna Prasad] - the person (also) behind [:http://churumuri.wordpress.com|Churumuri] is now busy handling the reins of [:http://www.vijaytimesepaper.com/|Vijay Times] (which recently was purchased by [:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/dmd/htmls/aboutus.htm|Bennett Coleman and Co]). He is the new editor of the news paper.