It has been a long time since I saw a movie and now with the release of Aegan for diwali (which has average reviews) I decided to watch it tonight with friends. I was asked by my friend to book tickets, so I logged into the Inox / PVR site and was in total shock when I checked out the rate for the ticket. The ticket was priced at a whopping 180 per person. What was even worse was the same ticket would cost 250 on a weekend or a public holiday and 100 if it was a morning show on a weekday.
I hardly stay in Bangalore on a weekend (as stated in my earlier blog) and I have watched 4 movies (Kuruvi, Dasavatharam, Dhaam Dhoom and The happening) till date here in the last 3.6 years. As you can see, the 1st time I went for a movie in Bangalore was probably in June this year. I have never bothered to check tickets in the site understandably. All the tickets for the above films were booked my friend who asked me to book this time as he had some issues connecting to the site. Now came the shock and I just couldn’t believe what I saw. I was stunned and I didn’t remember paying my friend 180 for any movie that I had been and called him to confirm that. He confirmed then that he had platinum ******** credit card and he gets a ticket free for a ticket purchased. So even if it was 180*4 – 720, he would pay only 360 which in turn is approx 100 per person. To add to the misery I called up Fame Lido Mall and they charge 200 and I just had three words in mind – W*** T** F***.
Trust me I am not a mean person but all I wonder is why we should pay so much for a movie. It was never the same amount a year or so ago (that's what I infer from my friends). I agree the theatres boast better facilities but even then close to 200 a ticket – it’s a big joke. Think of it, you go out for a movie on a weekend with family and you would spend more than a 1000 on a movie and 1000 is indeed a big money for me and definitely not worth it.
Also, we have Inox and Sathyam (which is as good as the PVR here) in Chennai and there is no discrepancy on whether it’s a weekend / weekday / day / night. The maximum the theatres price the tickets would be 120. As such I travel every weekend there and why pay more here and watch while I can watch the same movie at a much cheaper rate.
Small things in our life are getting out of our control without even we realising it because we have ppl who are willing to spend but its definitely not good for the future. Imagine – your kid walks up to you and ask every weekend “Dad – I need 1000 for the weekend as I am going out for a movie and lunch with friends”. I still remember my pocket money was 500 a month and that was good enough.
I am not sure if I am right but what the hell!!!
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Thursday, 23 October 2008
Cricket in Chennai
For those of you who have played street cricket in Chennai this might inspire some nostalgia and for those who haven't well you haven't really enjoyed the game ;-)
Street Cricket, or 'theru crickettu' as it is popularly known in chennai uses a number of words used with meanings attached to it. GOD knows who came up with the idea and the meanings to these words but trust me they are mind blowing. Its been passed on from our previous generation and will continue in the next generation.
*Mattai - The piece of wood to be used as the cricket bat.
*Gaaji - The indian reference for an 'inning'. It is a well known fact that captains of street cricket teams always prefer to bat first irrespective of conditions.
*Double Gaaji - An excpetional scenario wherein a batsman can bat twice if there are a shortage of players in the side.
*Osi Gaaji - A scenario where some stranger wants to bat for a couple of balls just for fun and then carry on with his work or when a batsman is actually out but not given by the umpire.
*Over Gaaji - The act of a selfish batsman who purposely retains strike by taking a single of the last ball of the over
*Last Man Gaaji - A scenario where the last man who is not out with all wickets down gets to play "Gaaji" with no runner.
*Current - The unique and distinctive way of getting a batsman run out. When a batsman attempts a dangerous run, He could be run out by any of the fielders who just need to land their feet on the stone at the bowlers end.
*Adetail - The most funny reference to a batsman being 'Retired Hurt'.
*Bongu - The slang word used if a team unfairly cheats the other team while playing.
*Full Cover - A situation where in a batsmen is taking a half stump guard thereby covering the complete stumps from the view of the bowler. Since street cricket typically do not have a LBW it is very difficult to get a batsman out, if he covers
the stump fully.
*One pitch catch - A rule where a batsman gets out when a fielder catches it even after the ball pitches once. Typically street cricket batsmen do not go for lofted
shots fearing to get out / hitting into neighbour's house / shop.
*One pitch one hand - A slight modification of the above rule where a fielder can use both hands if catching the ball full toss, but has to use only one hand, if the
catch is "one-pitch". Typically used to increase the chances of batsmans survival and make it a little difficult for the fielder.
*La Ball - Last ball of an over
*Full fast - Since street cricket pitches are a few yards long, a ball which is thrown with full pace and energy is considered a no ball as it will be impossible to handle such pace with short distance
*Waiteees - where in the batsman is not ready to face the bowler due to a distraction which can be a vehicle coming / ppl crossing the road.
*Common Fielding - Due to lack of number of fielders, it is possible that people from batting team who are not actually doing batting have to field or do wicket keeping or for that matter even umpiring
*Ball Right - When a umpire/batsman declares a wide ball, bowler uses this term to say that the ball was not a wide. Typically happens because umpires are from the batting teams.
*Dokku - A derogatory term for a defensive shot. Typically a batsman is discouraged from playing such shots because of the constraints of less number of overs and because everyone in the team needs to have a fair amount of gaaji.
*Baby Over - When a bowler has no hopes of completing his over with lots of wides and no balls he is substituted by a better bowler and the over is called a Baby over, Baby because the first bowler was very amateur.
*Uruturadhu - hen the bowler is unable to extract any meaningful bounce from the pitch. Sometimes used as a defensive tactic towards the deck.
*Thadavuradhu - When a batsman is not able to make any contact with the ball using his bat.
*Suthuradhu - Same as slogging in cricket towards the deck.
*Kathadikudhu / samma kaaathu - when a batsman slogs and misses.
*One Side Runs - When teams decide before hand that there are runs only on one side of the wicket due to lack of sufficient number of fielders
*Granted - - When a batsman hits a reasonable distance from which fetching the ball back is slightly difficult due to technical difficulties already mentioned (like vehicle crossing a road, presence of a thorny bush etc), teams agree that a fixed
number of runs are GRANTED This is also referred to with a suffix "ji" - like
one-ji, two-ji :-)
*Trials - This is the first ball bowled to any batsman who walks in and it is called trials. It is used to gauge the pace and bounce of the pitch and the ball by both batsman and the bowler. Note: The batsman is not supposed to hit this ball, else the fielding will demand him to go and fetch the ball. It's a kind of tactic by
the fileding team to not allow the batsman to free his arms.
*All-reals..first ball - This indicates the start of the match. Usually the batsman prefer to play "dokku".
*'hitting the bats after each ball' (no term used) - This is the usual practice followed by the batsmen in the middle. This gives little time to take breath and also signal for a quick signal in the next ball. The best part is even if they dont want to discuss anything, they still need to hit the bats. If they miss or doesn't do it properly, they have to come back and make sure that they hit properly.
Now This is what is called CRICKET ;-)
Street Cricket, or 'theru crickettu' as it is popularly known in chennai uses a number of words used with meanings attached to it. GOD knows who came up with the idea and the meanings to these words but trust me they are mind blowing. Its been passed on from our previous generation and will continue in the next generation.
*Mattai - The piece of wood to be used as the cricket bat.
*Gaaji - The indian reference for an 'inning'. It is a well known fact that captains of street cricket teams always prefer to bat first irrespective of conditions.
*Double Gaaji - An excpetional scenario wherein a batsman can bat twice if there are a shortage of players in the side.
*Osi Gaaji - A scenario where some stranger wants to bat for a couple of balls just for fun and then carry on with his work or when a batsman is actually out but not given by the umpire.
*Over Gaaji - The act of a selfish batsman who purposely retains strike by taking a single of the last ball of the over
*Last Man Gaaji - A scenario where the last man who is not out with all wickets down gets to play "Gaaji" with no runner.
*Current - The unique and distinctive way of getting a batsman run out. When a batsman attempts a dangerous run, He could be run out by any of the fielders who just need to land their feet on the stone at the bowlers end.
*Adetail - The most funny reference to a batsman being 'Retired Hurt'.
*Bongu - The slang word used if a team unfairly cheats the other team while playing.
*Full Cover - A situation where in a batsmen is taking a half stump guard thereby covering the complete stumps from the view of the bowler. Since street cricket typically do not have a LBW it is very difficult to get a batsman out, if he covers
the stump fully.
*One pitch catch - A rule where a batsman gets out when a fielder catches it even after the ball pitches once. Typically street cricket batsmen do not go for lofted
shots fearing to get out / hitting into neighbour's house / shop.
*One pitch one hand - A slight modification of the above rule where a fielder can use both hands if catching the ball full toss, but has to use only one hand, if the
catch is "one-pitch". Typically used to increase the chances of batsmans survival and make it a little difficult for the fielder.
*La Ball - Last ball of an over
*Full fast - Since street cricket pitches are a few yards long, a ball which is thrown with full pace and energy is considered a no ball as it will be impossible to handle such pace with short distance
*Waiteees - where in the batsman is not ready to face the bowler due to a distraction which can be a vehicle coming / ppl crossing the road.
*Common Fielding - Due to lack of number of fielders, it is possible that people from batting team who are not actually doing batting have to field or do wicket keeping or for that matter even umpiring
*Ball Right - When a umpire/batsman declares a wide ball, bowler uses this term to say that the ball was not a wide. Typically happens because umpires are from the batting teams.
*Dokku - A derogatory term for a defensive shot. Typically a batsman is discouraged from playing such shots because of the constraints of less number of overs and because everyone in the team needs to have a fair amount of gaaji.
*Baby Over - When a bowler has no hopes of completing his over with lots of wides and no balls he is substituted by a better bowler and the over is called a Baby over, Baby because the first bowler was very amateur.
*Uruturadhu - hen the bowler is unable to extract any meaningful bounce from the pitch. Sometimes used as a defensive tactic towards the deck.
*Thadavuradhu - When a batsman is not able to make any contact with the ball using his bat.
*Suthuradhu - Same as slogging in cricket towards the deck.
*Kathadikudhu / samma kaaathu - when a batsman slogs and misses.
*One Side Runs - When teams decide before hand that there are runs only on one side of the wicket due to lack of sufficient number of fielders
*Granted - - When a batsman hits a reasonable distance from which fetching the ball back is slightly difficult due to technical difficulties already mentioned (like vehicle crossing a road, presence of a thorny bush etc), teams agree that a fixed
number of runs are GRANTED This is also referred to with a suffix "ji" - like
one-ji, two-ji :-)
*Trials - This is the first ball bowled to any batsman who walks in and it is called trials. It is used to gauge the pace and bounce of the pitch and the ball by both batsman and the bowler. Note: The batsman is not supposed to hit this ball, else the fielding will demand him to go and fetch the ball. It's a kind of tactic by
the fileding team to not allow the batsman to free his arms.
*All-reals..first ball - This indicates the start of the match. Usually the batsman prefer to play "dokku".
*'hitting the bats after each ball' (no term used) - This is the usual practice followed by the batsmen in the middle. This gives little time to take breath and also signal for a quick signal in the next ball. The best part is even if they dont want to discuss anything, they still need to hit the bats. If they miss or doesn't do it properly, they have to come back and make sure that they hit properly.
Now This is what is called CRICKET ;-)
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
weekend in Bangalore – WHAT ?
For ppl who don’t know me – here is a fact. I joined a MNC here in Bangalore (Native – Chennai) on March 14th 2005 and till date I have spent 4 weekends here. Yes, I have been traveling every weekend to Chennai. It all started off due to my MFM (Masters of Financial Management) classes which happened on weekend. So I always booked tickets months in advance to attend the classes. I then cleared my Ms in September 2005, but the traveling never stopped. It more or less became a habit and I always felt it would be very strange to spend a weekend here.
When I started off my career here I used to stay alone. I never really made any friends at work that I could go out with during weekends. I must confess I didn’t make any effort to stay back at Bangalore and plan something with office folks as well. I always had this idea of spending in Bangalore would be so boring. I mean even if I go out with friends how long will I be out with them, just for a few hours, what after?
Honestly, why do I go to Chennai every weekend, what is so special there – below is just a gist.
I am a much pampered kid at home being the only son. I never do things which are expected out of someone to do at least at the age of 25. Eg: I stay put in my room and have breakfast / lunch / dinner on my bed watching tv. I don’t really go and take water if I am thirsty, I expect ppl to get it for me. I don’t wash my clothes, I don’t iron them. I don’t even know how to boil a water, forget cooking.
I cannot imagine a life without my grandma and my mom. Home food, my room, my tv, my movies, my freedom, MY CHENNAI, my bike, the routes around the city, my best friends, sathyam theatre, spencers plaza, Chennai citi centre, saravana bhavan, marina / besi, poes garden, boat club, cricket on Sundays at mihir’s the juice there after, kai yendhi bhavan, aiyappa stores, gopalapuram streets, cenotaph lane coffee day, anna flyover, radhakrishna salai, gangotri, PTC bus from central to my house, the wonderful parakum rail (local train), drive on ECR, mahabs, idly, dosa, sambar, ponnuswamy, eden, pazhamudhir nilayam, t.nagar and of course THALAIVAR SUPER STAR RAJINIKANTH.
The funniest part is I stay with 4 of my close friends now in Bangalore (from January 2008) and its been 10 months. I still go to Chennai every weekend – why? Cos my friends wanna go to Chennai every weekend as well :-)
PS: The 4 weekends I spent here were times when my mom had come over :-)I don’t hate Bangalore, its not that I don’t wanna spend time here – its just that CHENNAI IS THE BEST and no city can match it.
When I started off my career here I used to stay alone. I never really made any friends at work that I could go out with during weekends. I must confess I didn’t make any effort to stay back at Bangalore and plan something with office folks as well. I always had this idea of spending in Bangalore would be so boring. I mean even if I go out with friends how long will I be out with them, just for a few hours, what after?
Honestly, why do I go to Chennai every weekend, what is so special there – below is just a gist.
I am a much pampered kid at home being the only son. I never do things which are expected out of someone to do at least at the age of 25. Eg: I stay put in my room and have breakfast / lunch / dinner on my bed watching tv. I don’t really go and take water if I am thirsty, I expect ppl to get it for me. I don’t wash my clothes, I don’t iron them. I don’t even know how to boil a water, forget cooking.
I cannot imagine a life without my grandma and my mom. Home food, my room, my tv, my movies, my freedom, MY CHENNAI, my bike, the routes around the city, my best friends, sathyam theatre, spencers plaza, Chennai citi centre, saravana bhavan, marina / besi, poes garden, boat club, cricket on Sundays at mihir’s the juice there after, kai yendhi bhavan, aiyappa stores, gopalapuram streets, cenotaph lane coffee day, anna flyover, radhakrishna salai, gangotri, PTC bus from central to my house, the wonderful parakum rail (local train), drive on ECR, mahabs, idly, dosa, sambar, ponnuswamy, eden, pazhamudhir nilayam, t.nagar and of course THALAIVAR SUPER STAR RAJINIKANTH.
The funniest part is I stay with 4 of my close friends now in Bangalore (from January 2008) and its been 10 months. I still go to Chennai every weekend – why? Cos my friends wanna go to Chennai every weekend as well :-)
PS: The 4 weekends I spent here were times when my mom had come over :-)I don’t hate Bangalore, its not that I don’t wanna spend time here – its just that CHENNAI IS THE BEST and no city can match it.
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
Sourav Ganguly calls it a day
This is definitely one of my saddest days. It was a normal coffee break at work and when I saw the news on TV that Ganguly has decided to quit at the end of the current Australia series I was in total shock and disappointment.
The moment Ganguly took on the captaincy I became one of his greatest fan. I firmly believe that he was the man who changed the way India played its cricket. He ensured that it was no longer a team which depended on Sachin. He had the right attitude to captain India and some of his achievements were truly inspirational. The road to 2003 world cup final, the India vs Australia 2001 series, the India vs England – Lord’s final, the Brisbane test and the series, India vs Pakistan series.. so on ..
As a cricketer he was fantastic to say the least. Just close your eyes and imagine - Sachin and Sourav walking together to open the batting, those majestic shots on the off side, coming down the track to a fast bowler and smashing him over point, those huge sixes which cleared the stadium with ease when a spinner comes in .. can’t believe we will be missing all these.
He is probably the only cricketer to go through so many ups and downs in his career. He was always under pressure to perform – thanks to the media. I have a strong hatred towards the Indian media who just blow up everything out of proportion. When he was picked, it was a question of how, when he was dropped it was a question of why. The one thing the Indian media must understand that the players are also human. One cannot just keep criticizing them every time they fail or every time a youngster performs better. His comebacks to the Indian cricket team have always been admirable. He is probably the only person who would be able to do it.
To be honest I wouldn’t care if Rahul Dravid quits, I have never been a fan of his game. He is the only player who has the credit of putting me to sleep while I was watching the India Vs South Africa test match in Chennai live. (Sehwag’s 319 game). However, I would be sad when Laxman and Kumble goes and definitely shed tears when Sachin calls it a day.
Its definitely a sad day for the Indian cricket team. For a team without Ganguly is still unthinkable in my mind. Having said that, the only thing which is cheering me up despite his exit is he we will still be a part of IPL.
The moment Ganguly took on the captaincy I became one of his greatest fan. I firmly believe that he was the man who changed the way India played its cricket. He ensured that it was no longer a team which depended on Sachin. He had the right attitude to captain India and some of his achievements were truly inspirational. The road to 2003 world cup final, the India vs Australia 2001 series, the India vs England – Lord’s final, the Brisbane test and the series, India vs Pakistan series.. so on ..
As a cricketer he was fantastic to say the least. Just close your eyes and imagine - Sachin and Sourav walking together to open the batting, those majestic shots on the off side, coming down the track to a fast bowler and smashing him over point, those huge sixes which cleared the stadium with ease when a spinner comes in .. can’t believe we will be missing all these.
He is probably the only cricketer to go through so many ups and downs in his career. He was always under pressure to perform – thanks to the media. I have a strong hatred towards the Indian media who just blow up everything out of proportion. When he was picked, it was a question of how, when he was dropped it was a question of why. The one thing the Indian media must understand that the players are also human. One cannot just keep criticizing them every time they fail or every time a youngster performs better. His comebacks to the Indian cricket team have always been admirable. He is probably the only person who would be able to do it.
To be honest I wouldn’t care if Rahul Dravid quits, I have never been a fan of his game. He is the only player who has the credit of putting me to sleep while I was watching the India Vs South Africa test match in Chennai live. (Sehwag’s 319 game). However, I would be sad when Laxman and Kumble goes and definitely shed tears when Sachin calls it a day.
Its definitely a sad day for the Indian cricket team. For a team without Ganguly is still unthinkable in my mind. Having said that, the only thing which is cheering me up despite his exit is he we will still be a part of IPL.
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