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Showing posts from May, 2010

First day of US vacation - Bayside Miami, Hooters

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Consecutive day at the Hooters and the bay side of Miami. I would be game for such an option any day. Introduced to 'Hooters' to just previous day, I now admire their market positioning. Outlandishly flirtatious but not cheap. ' Debonair' magazine in India thrived on similar concept. Singapore was their first international outlet 13 years ago. Watching Athle tic chiseled bodies of young women evokes an admiration for their physical fitness. ' What's their hiring policy ? ' Well, they have a standard size uniform, those who fit get selected , those we don't gets chucked out ' , a quick repartee from Latino guy with eyes fixed on sharp curves. Most of them appeared students who worked part time and they worked with passion and speed but not with great intelligence. But again physical beauty is no measure of intelligence quotient. Orange colour remind me of Holland, Shiv Sena and Bajarang Dal. I wonder how many years India would take to have hooters

Fledgeling Wings needs Support to fly

Chirpy, Boisterous young girl in late 20's dream of something that not many Indian girls of similar age group would dare. She wants to sing, dance and merry by marrying an old man who has cushion of money and has abundant space to give her an opportunity and access to pursue her dreams in artistic world. Her parents think the same way as other Indian parents. They lock her on the house and frantically search for a suitable groom. Her artistic wings are now clipped and she is incarcerated in bedroom cell but her parents born before the advent of Internet technology kept an escape window open for her. She is now on the net looking for a matured man who can restore her wings and make her leap towards her creative utopia. Will she succeed in her endeavor ?

36 Hour Sunday

36 hour Sunday in my life spanning three countries, four cities. 9am : Singapore 5pm : Tokyo 12pm Arrival in LA 2pm : flight to Miami canceled so stay put at LA airport. Till 730pm : at LA airport then fly to Las Vegas 9pm : Arrival in Las Vegas 10pm : depart for Fort Lauderdale Total number of hours in a day :36 hours.In air : 27 hours On land : 9 hours, plus Transit time 1 hour Narita, 7 hour in LA and 1 hour in Las Vegas. Delta upgrades me to First Class from Las Vegas to Fort Lauderdale but in a small aircraft, its equivalent to economy of SQ. At 10,000 ft and above, Delta airlines provides free WiFi but my Internet is jammed. Only way I can do it is by resetting my phone but it my i Phone needs a pin. On some day, nothing seems to go right ! Welcome to the Land of Honey. I have some special relationship with LA airport. In my previous travel, from Mumbai to LA , I was accompanying a customer and we missed each other at LA airport. I had to spend whole night at airport in the compa

Marathi Graffiti and Blog

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Business and Celebrities

Is there any law that can prevent using historical celebrity for the purpose of business ? I was to travel to Munich and I was tempted to book hotel Leonardo De Vinci . In Bangkok , I stayed at Rembrandt hotel on Sukhamvit road. An entity that has no match to the qualities of Rembrandt paintings. I was told that this hotel is owned by an Indian. This hotel boasted flat screen TV and free Wi Fi but both didn't work. Govt has clamped curfew on both these media tools that are capable of rampant spread of right and wrong information . But You Tube and foreign media filled up the void space. I enjoy watching the behaviour of celebrities. More so, if they are conscious of people watching them and how do they handle the the adulation, staring and intrusion by their admirers. Air travel gives an opportunity to observe and enjoy this. Vaijayanti Bala was next to me on my flight from Mumbai to Chennai. Her seat was on window and mine was at isle. She politely made a request of ex

Actor MacMohan passed away.

A face that appeared in many Hindi movies only for minutes but his character lasted far longer than his movie name . He had squeamish feminine face and frail physical frame. He looked to me like a younger brother of Hussein - an Indian but now Qatari national painter. It's nice of Amitabh Bacchan to write about his fellow actor who shared only few frames with him but put sizable meat on Amitabh's charactor . I remember his standing with me in an elevator of Savera hotel in Chennai . His wiry body and bearded face is still fresh in memory as much as his role of antique shop owner in movie Mazboor .

Khalil Chishtee - creating a world out of plastic trash

Creativity can take any form , from any source. If that creativity stirs emotions, it has a lasting effect of a lifetime. A chance visit via Esplanade theater lobby made us discovery of the magic of Khalil Chishtee who has replicated a world that many in India and the Subcontinent would easily identify and empathise with. He calls it a world of suffering and he has created this from plastic trash bags. Can score of plastic bags be squeezed to make different shapes and sizes ? It's not all that impossible. But can these plastic bags that transform into an object would evoke expression, emotion ? They do with hands of Khalil Chishtee. He calls himself noamdic with no place as his home and names this creation ' Dreaming of Dreaming ' dedicated to creative people who have lived very ordinary life through their suffering and became a victim of organized society , so much so that their creative dreams became an impossibility. Meditative Buddha is also fascinating and makes sens

US Visa: an agony of wait

Two and half a minute of work but Two and half hour of a wait. However, this is one place where no one can dare to ask Why and When. Everyone is treated in fair manner , he be a mechanic on a ship or smart clad rich business person. Everyone sits in row of plastic molded chairs with eyes glued to the red LED digital number that displays one’s token number along with the window number. The place is fortified edifice called United States Consulate and the mission of every visitor is to secure US visa stamp. I am not bemused why our number came last after almost everyone in 9am batch had left. After all my surname Pappu belong to the notorious names that have chronicled in the list of Indian police, customs, court and politics of mayhem. Pappu Yadav , Pappu Kalani and some more. A background check is necessary when this Indian name appears on any application. There could be another reason as well. Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Iran all are bête noire of US Govt and my passports hav

Happy B'day Maharashtra

Happy B’day Maharashtra . Mumbai, Kalyan, Igatpuri, Nasik, Shirdi, Sangamner, Chalisgaon, Nagpur, Pune, Alandi, Aurangabad, Karad, Satara, Sangli, Miraj, Kolhapur, Hatkangale, Gadhinglaj, Roha, Pen, Panvel, Chiplun, and thats all. I am run out of the places in Maharashtra that i have spent my time. What a pity !! I have passed through Akola, Amravati, Badnera , Wardha on way to Nagpur and Kolkatta by Kolkatta Mail or Geetanjali or Solapur, Barshi by night when I took a journey to Chennai. But a vast trackland of Maharahtra still eludes me. I am yet to touch my feet on Matheran, Mahabaleshwar , Pandharpur and yet to traverse the country of ‘ hard and toughened stones and people ‘ . A description that described of Maharashtra in poetry of Vasant Bapat ' Rakat Desha , Kankhar Desha, Dagdanchya desha ' . Few more descriptions that I can think of Maharashtra are ' Mangal desha , Pavitra Desha, Maharashtra Desha by Govindagraja' ' Bahu asot sunder sampan ti mahan, priya a