THE REAL BIG BROTHER

Now, this is a thing to be proud of..am talking about Tata steel's successful takeover of anglo dutch steel giant Corus. Now, almost all of world's steel production is in the hands of Indians. Hope u remember Mittal steel's takeover of Arcelor. These are the things that raises the stature of the country in the global arena. Not Shilpa Shetty's manufactured emotional tryst on Big brother. The media was obsessed with projecting her as a sign of India's growing stature abroad. And she herself was telling us that she made the country proud with her exemplary behaviour and then by her winning the big brother show. This is such a big piece of crap to say the least.

Anyone with little common sense can understand that BIG BROTHER was nothing more than a perfectly scripted TV show. There's not even a tinge of the so called 'reality' in it. The racism controversy was a well planned move to rescue a show which was sinking. And they did rescue it. More than that, senseless characters like Jade goody became household names worldwide. Then, the kissing and making up show between jade and shilpa 2 days later was another big pre planned twist to the tale. Shilpa's innocent looking face and her famous dialogue, ''i was not aware of the things going on all over the world because of this. I was not subjected to racism'' etc, proved that she can act well after all. It would've done her a world of good, if she had displayed this talent in her films, rather than the tiring skin shows. And Jade goody played the perfect villian. Now, there's the media, bombarding us with the latest from Big Brother and the house mates. Shilpa's winning was hailed all day long on all the news channels as the best thing to happen to India. But, they don't understand that this was also a foregone conclusion. Another hidden agenda of channel 4 was to boost the ratings of its Indian clone 'Big boss'. And the Indian media helped them in all the ways they could. Still, 3 days after the show ended, u can see some trivial news on shilpa's win on some of the channels. The most funniest was what i saw yesterday on CNN IBN- a feature on the Shettys who made it big. The interesting thing was that the reporter was also a Shetty. I wonder why such reputed channels stoop to such levels. What difference does a failed actress winning 3 crores make to the millions of starving Indians? What difference is it gonna make to the stature of India as a nation? Can anyone please answer these questions?Can Rajdeep Sardesai's long tongue which has the power to present trivial news as breaking news answer my question?

As long as these questions remain unanswered, these type of page 3 gossip will rule the Indian media headlines..Not a normal headline..But Banner headlines in big bold black letters...Don't be surprised if morrow the front page of your paper reads..''SHILPA's LITTLE FINGER BROKE YESTERDAY. BIG BROTHER PREVENTS THE BLEEDING BY HOLDING HER HAND
TIGHT''. Don't think am exaggerating, but this is the way in which the national media is heading.

Leave all those shit at big brother's house. Lets celebrate a news which deserves to be called as a sign of 'India rising'. TATA group laid a foundation stone on India Inc's quest to be the BIG BROTHER of World economy. I know, its a long way to go. But, there's nothing wrong in celebrating this. Some years back, such mammoth takeovers by Indian companies was unimaginable. Rather, it was the other way round with foreign companies taking over Indian companies. Now its all changed for good. Hope this is the just the starting point for a long list of Indian takeovers abroad. JRD Tata's dream has grown into a full fledged global empire thus taking India along with it to the top of the world corporate ladder. The TATAs have proved their worth in all the fields they have laid their hands on. Ratan Tata's able leadership has more than matched the huge legacy left behind by JRD Tata....This is a new dawn for India Inc... I can see the Indian domination looming large in the horizon...Celebrate..but don't rest on the laurels...Move ahead ...conquer....

Salutes to the real big brother of India Inc..the TATAs

With pride,
your crusader Praveen

RAHMANTIC DAY...

Its morning again. The rays of sun and my mother's non stop calls of 'wake up wake up' made me sit up from bed. I go straight to my cd player and push the play button..The mellow strains of guitar starts and then Rahman's magical voice enters singing 'vellai Pookkal'. This is how I begin every other day. Today also I did the same, but this day was special. It was A.R.Rahman's 41st birthday. A day special for every rahman fan, a day he celebrates every year like his own

birthday. Here, I celebrate my day as a Rahman musical.....

Rahman has made a song for every moment of the day, every emotion and every action. After 'vellai pookkal' welcomed me to the beautiful world, its time for me to take a bath..here comes 'kulicha kutraalam' from duet. I looked at my small garden as i walked along. 'en veetu thottathil' is the song on my lips now. Then i took a peek at the days' newspaper, as usual the i saw some news about some communal riot in north india. The song that came to my mind was 'ishwar allah' from earth. Oh, its breakfast time. Amma's affectionately calling me to come and eat. Seeing the love in her eyes, i think of the song 'kalayil dinavum' from New, describing motherly love.

Its 9 am. Time 4 me to go to college. I kickstart my black unicorn. Now what else..but 'LOSE CONTROL'..I cross the college gate singing 'apni to paathshala, masti ka paathshala..na koi padne waala, na koi seekhne wala'. Its college election time. The campaigning is going on in full swing..am singing 'kannai katti kollathe' from Iruvar after seeing all those pandemonium. Ok, let me attend atleast one period. Now teacher asked me to show me her notebook. Getting into the
class itself is a big acievement for me and she's asking me for note. Am singing 'urvasi, take it easy urvasi' [her name's not urvasi..donnow her name...he hee] in my mind. Well, she took it pretty easy and asked me to get out. 'Ekla chalo' from 'bose-the forgotten hero' is the song for the moment because no one is there with me as usual. She asked only me to get out. I've got nothing to do. So I just walk along the corridors looking at those beautiful gals passing along. Its 'Kalluri Saalai' from kadhal desam as i take a second look at the most beautiful among the lot. Now i head to the cricket ground. There's an exciting match going on there. As am not that expert in playing, my place is at the gallery in the cheering squad singing 'chale chalo' from lagaan. A gust of wind swept through the ground thus providing a little cool atmosphere.
There goes 'kaatre' from rhythm. Now , my best friend comes after the period to give me company. We walked back togather from the ground singing 'musthafa musthafa'.

Its evening. Time 4 me to go back. There's a road block due to a protest march going on in front of us. There's lathicharge and stone pelting up front. I remember the song 'Khoon Chala' from RDB. As i ride along the road, I can see beggars, child labourers from bihar and at the same time a minister passing through a luxury car...Thats how diverse our land is. What better song to symbolise it other than 'yeh jo des hai tera'. Now i've to hurry to be with our band for our rock show tonight. As I wait to get on stage, 'sa re ga me' is the song that inspires me to give it my best shot. The scene of the applauding crowd makes me remember arr's words to always keep my feet on the ground. Now am riding back home on my bike. Night is falling. 'New york nagaram' is the song on my lips.[just change the city name, thts alll]...Well, morrow is a holiday, so i can sleep till noon..'colombus, colombus, chutti hai bhai'....Its a sweet moonlit night. I take my acoustic guitar to play some soft stuff before i go to sleep..what better song than 'Khamosh raat' from 'thakshak'....and atlast am in bed after a hectic day...as i close my eyes, i can imagine my amma singing a lullaby 4 me..'Ghoomparani' from 'Bose'...

Thats a day from my life, told in the form of a musical. And thats my tribute to my idol , the musical genius A.R.Rahman. ARR ended 2006 with a bang by winning the song of the year award in polls conducted by 3 leading news channels. If it was 'lose control' that won in NDTV, 'Roobaroo' made it a clean sweep by winning in CNN IBN and TIMES NOW. Mind u, this was an year in which a guy called Himesh Reshammiya bombarded us with 30 albums of his nosy tracks and was hailed as the greatest thing in Indian music. But, Rahman proved again that quality matters more than quantity. He swept all awards with just one album, that had more vareity than all the other releases of the year combined. Rahman also continued to be the face of Indian music abroad. Towards the end of the year, a list of 56 songs to be considered for oscars were released.. and guess what, our man had 3 songs in that list. One from Water and 2 from Rang De Basanti. And he has two films of his competing in the best foreign film category. RDB from India and Water from Canada. Now, can anyone match that. hope that we could see him with that coveted statue at the kodak theatres this year. This was also an year in which he made great inroads into hollywood. He made a completely foreign crowd at the Hollywood bowl dance to his Indian tunes. His cult classic 'chaiyya chaiyya' was part of the soundtrack of the big budget film 'Inside man'. It was a great feeling to see a Hollywood film opening with A.R.Rahman's song. Then, his evergreen composition 'Bombay Theme' was used in the soundtrack of the Nicolas Cage starrer 'Lord of war'. He was also active in the ad circuit with the Worldspace ads becoming a favorite with the audiences. His tamil releases 'God father' and 'Sillunu oru kaathal' also topped the charts. 'New York Nagaram' and 'Munbe Vaa' is still being played a million times a day in all the tamil music channels. Now, with GURU music finding favour with the critics and audience alike, he's all set to rock 2007. Altogether, it was another eventful year in the life of the musical genius. Another milestone in the musical journey of the man who considers the journey more important than the destination.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAHMAN SIR...
A million Thanks for spreading happeiness all over the world with your music...
LONG LIVE ARR ...LONG LIVE MUSIC..

NB- it was an eventful year for me as an ARR fan as I finally got to meet my idol face to face, give a shakehand and also got an autograph..It was on June 10th ..chkout my previous post on that...

http://crusadertvm.blogspot.com/2006/06/gr8est-day-of-my-life-today.html

sorry 4 the late posting...this was meant to be posted yday..on his bday..but could n't do...

with love,
the greatest fan of ARR....your crusader Praveen