Shilpa Shetty and her Big Brother

I just wanted to wait till something like this came up to blog on this issue.. The story goes like this.. Shilpa goes to London to participate in Reality TV's show - The Big Brother -- which is known to make fun of its participants by all kinds of means ...There have been racist,sexual, feminist and all other kinds of allegations to this show over the past few years.. Mainly C-grade celebrities take part in this show for the prize money and publicity... Lot of celebrities have walked off the show vowing never to take part in that again... Under such circumstances, and when being offered a princely sum of 350000 pounds just for participation, our bollywood star should have understood that what was in store for her was not a cat-walk session.. And, to know about the credentials of participants in the show, do a google image search for "Jade Goody" , the main 'accused' in this so-called controversy.. and see what comes up in the first three pages..

What puzzles more is why Indian Government is wasting its time and resources in this issue ? The visit of next expected British PM - Gordon Brown - was dominated over this.. The cheap publicity protests and everything like that have emerged from the so called society ladies and gentlemen... Heard somewhere in capital that VHP conducted a protest march over this ( I dont have links for this story ..so could be false ) ... The things said about Shilpa could have been utterly disgusting or insulting..But as per the reality show rules, she can walk out at any moment forfeiting her prize money.. Racism do exist in the world. And it cannot be removed overnight.. What ever you do, there will be narrow-mindedness in some.. And , making such a big hue and cry over this and that too over such a show, its nothing but cheap publicity..

I'm overwhelmed by the number of links that comes up over the search of this issue..
Ultimately, the winners are 1) Reality show & Big Brother -- for the ad-revenues and publicity that they are getting.. 2) Jade - Who's rather unknown outside reality TV and pornographic industry .. and Shilpa , for having a big boost to their careers and becoming celebrities..
And the losers - 1) The media - who highlight anything from Aishwarya Rai's fall from a bicycle to whats being said about Tanzania's trade policy as flash news..
And 2) We ( me included ) , who get hooked up to news channels watching such crappy stuff ..

Ajith

( P.S : Only things that keep my interest over this are the few possible quiz questions that I can frame out of this .. and if at all, is there a chance for people like me to participate in this show for the phenomenal participation fee itself ?? .. plus , I want to read the articles that feminists like Shobha De writes about these.. If any of u have any info over these, please pass it to me.. )

Guru - A must watch movie ( new links )

( New addition to the post - The scenes from GURU which were edited and removed ..Link :- http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/36051/guru-like-youve-never-seen-before.html )

Saw the latest 'Abhiwarya' flick - Guru - on saturday.. Really enjoyed it.. I'm not a great fan of AB - junior, but the way he has performed in this movie is just magnificent.. Its better than his role -- the la' Michael Corleone -- in Sarkar ... The sheer enthusiasm and energy that Abhishek brings to the role of Gurukant Desai ( Guru Bhai ) is too good.. Even at 33 , Aishwarya dances in a charming way. In the movie, Aish is left stranded at a railway station by her boyfriend who backs out of eloping at the final moment -- I wonder,if any guy would do that to Aishwarya :) .


Ok, enough about that.. Coming back to the movie.. Yes, it is based on DhiruBhai Ambani's life no matter what they say with that standard disclaimer notice -- "All resemblances are purely coincidental...blah..blah ".. Vidya Balan, Madhavan, Mithun...all have performed their roles very well...The movie is all about the grit and determination of a young man rising from humble backgrounds to be the king of Indian business... In his ulterior capitalistic mindset and for the brute speed of growth , he 'sort of' turns a blind eye to the corruption which was an inevitable byproduct of the license-permit Raj in the pre-liberalised India... Scams, lock-downs, inquiries, litigation....and to cap that, a great speech from Abhishek -- This is perhaps the best part of the movie.. The speech, however tailor-made it is, really makes fun of the industrial restrictions of the period.

On the flip side, music is not that catchy ( a contrast to the usual Mani Ratnam movies ) ... This subject is something which could have been used to convey the message in a more forceful manner..And, it didnt really deal much into the difficulties faced by DhiruBhai. People who have seen Malayalam movies - 'Mithunam' and 'Varavelpu' would have felt that that kind of intensity is lacking here.. Either way, Guru has done a good job.

My Rating: 8 out of 10 :)

( Edit : Another very good article )

Ajith

The CAT-alogue (Edited )

( Disclaimer :- This post contains many terms familiar with CAT aspirants, unfamiliar with the common public... Please bear with it )

Well.. my hobnobbing with this fair lady has ended.. The scores were better, the sectionals were better, and may be I expected a lot based on TIME and CL verbal keys... Anyway ., thats the end of it...

Looking back, it was in 2003 that I first tried this...

In the first attempt, ( which I think was my best paper till date ) , my chances were runied by a guy called Ranjit Don who leaked up the paper and sold it for as high as 16 lakhs as per the news reports.. The retest didnt go well.. DI-LR was the main culprit that year...

Second attempt in 2004 was a whitewash..Was not serious , was perhaps a bit carried away with my work in Oracle..etc, it was a big flop..Thats when I started studying well..

The third attempt was in 2005...After giving one of the toughest CAT-papers till date, I had a bit of hope..And that hope translated into a single IIMB call.. Prepared well for the interview...had a decent interview , but slipped to the Waiting list..and ultimately lost out.... Later on enlightened ppl told me that that they give weightages to sectional scores, overall percentiles etc in the final selection.. And, that did me in that year..

The fourth and final attempt was CAT-2006....Had put in one more rigorous year of mocks and preparations... And, I thought I performed well.. Seeing the verbal keys of TIME and CL , my expectations went sky high... Only to be brought down on Jan - 2 ... Still the score and was better than last year..and the sectionals were reasonable... ( QA - 90.28 , DI - 98. 25 , VA - 96.8 , Overall 98.08 ) ..Somehow, hopes of an elusive call was still kept alive .... Slowly by slowly, each IIM killed the hopes.... Seeing Pagalguy threads, I find there are much better deserving ppl than me who missed out..So, I shouldnt be complaining... Eitherway, thats the end of it.. Got to find something more interesting ...

Below is a link to an interesting thread in PG which mocks the selection criteria at IIMB .. Nice read.. Atleast I think B deserves some criticism

( Added later : Yesterday I remaked to my friend .." Seeing the call patterns of B and L, it seems its not worth preparing for CAT if u have low acads.." .. This was a bit of rash statement..For, regarldless of how arbitrary the process is, if u manage to get in, an education
wich can change your perspective awaits you... So, its something thats worth preparing.... But then, be prepared to take slips like this.. For, if couple more questions in QA/VA would have turned correct , I would have put posts here like 'how to crack CAT ..etc ".. So, its all a game.. A game which requires you to have a basic aptitude , a good day and lots of luck... But its a game which can go wrong too... )


Ajith