This is embarrasing. Just as I was making waves with my exceptional storytelling skills, I had to be stung by the old bug. Blogging about blogging. But I will console myself by reminding myself that everyone does this once in a while. Also, my modest observations here are fuelled by a certain amount of frustration with the need to define my medium, my blog, my pajama. Also as a response to Vinu’s post. Even though it is not a straight answer, here goes…

“I’ve noticed this thing about people who try and change the world. The world turns around and changes them right back.” — Batman in JLA Super Special, Gotham Comics, 2003

One little doubt I have about sting operations or anything else of their nature is the original inspiration. Was Operation Duryodhan the brainchild of people who were approached by those corrupt mortals we always manage to choose as our representatives in the Parliament? Or was it the engineers of sting operations who came up with the idea of paying them to ask questions in the House? Perhaps they thought bringing out the fallibility of human nature every now and then is a healthy thing to do?

We cannot, said Pritish Nandy with all due respect to the court, have an entire nation sitting in front of the TV watching Cartoon Network. Oh. Hmm… Er… May I ask why? Cartoon Network is not bad. Not all that bad anyway. As Dumbledore would put it, “There are worse things.”

Mr. Nandy was talking about the telecast of U and U/A cetificate movies being banned from Mumbai television. There must be a lot of people who would have reason to agree with this decree. I do not doubt their reasons. What with all the uncomfortable groping around for the remote control when the actors suddenly decide to do what they shouldn’t do in front of your grandmother. I understand. I really do.

The Mumbai bloggers meet up happened on Tuesday at last. These are all the bloggers who attended (lazy is my middle name). And here is a full report written by someone who was there too. Also this.

Will try and write something longer later.

And whoa! I am a Desi Critic!

I wrote this piece for Digantik.com in 2005.

Neither at the reasonably comfortable hotel room at Parvatipuram, nor when I am at the base camp of the team that takes a periodic trip to the hilly villages with the Mandal Revenue Officer some 18 kilometres from the town, does the realization of where we are going dawn on me. It is only when the jeeps can no longer cross the ditches and our path started getting ever more vertical that ‘the walk’ started. Our luggage, mostly containing edibles and filming equipment, was unloaded and the officials who we were travelling with led the way to what was to be the destination of our lifetime.

One afternoon, boredom brought back memories of watching B R Chopra’s Mahabharat on Doordarshan long ago. I remember hearing one story about the son of Hanuman. Yes! I know how it sounds. I told someone the same story some time ago and got, “Yeah sure! And I am Queen Elizabeth…” kind of responses. Whatever that might have been, here is the story - or what I remember of it.