बाहेर जेवायला जाताना मी शक्यतो मराठी उपहारगृहात जात नाही. घरी जेवतो तसंच जेवण बाहेर जाऊन खाण्यात काय मतलब आहे, नाही का? पण त्या दिवशी मात्र का कोणास ठाऊक, मराठी जेवण जेवावंसं वाटलं आणि पावलं वळली ती शिवाजी पार्कच्या जिप्सीकडे. त्या दिवशीच्या मेन्यूत अंबाडीची भाजी बघून क्षणभर ती ऑर्डर करायचा मोह झाला खरा पण मी तो आवरला. आवडली नाही तर जेवण पानात टाकता येत नाही, संपवावी लागेल. मग ऑर्डर केल्या दोन डिशेस - तांदळाची भाकरी आणि झुणका आणि तांदळाची भाकरी आणि भरली वांगी :-)

तांदळाची भाकरी आणि भरली वांगी

तांदळाची भाकरी आणि झुणका

I have been studying R and SAS recently. Of course, you need sound knowledge of statistics for that and I was sure my knowledge of the subject, picked up as it was about a decade ago when I did my MBA, wasn't upto the mark. My first port of call was, of course, the internet. But I didn't find anything that covered the subject right from the basics like normal distribution and probability to advanced concepts like regression and time series. So I turned to the other known source - namely the secondhand book stalls that had served me well during my Engineering days.

Not surprisingly, I found that the same guy was manning the shop. When I ticked off the list of topics, he asked someone to get some book. When the book (Statistical Methods by S.P. Gupta) was heaved on the counter, I wondered for a moment if I will be able to carry it all the way home. It was thick, bulky and voluminous and I don't say this lightly. I thumbed through the index and it sure covered most of the topics needed. I asked for the usual deal - 50% money back if I returned the book within a year - and got it. I am sure I must have toned more than a couple of muscles in lugging it back home.

When I started reading it though, I was more than impressed. God bless the author for explaining the concepts in such a lucid fashion. Let me tell you that I don't have any intention of ever returning the book. But the reason I am writing about it is this - a priceless gem tucked away somewhere in the middle pages.

I did a double take. Sure, the first edition of the book was out even before I was born and this might have sounded relevant then. But the copy that I am holding in my hands is the 34th edition (2005). Does this make sense today?

These days I find myself reaching for the Mute button on the TV remote - to get the sound back - every time the IPL ads come up. Don't get me wrong. I think it is a sin to waste so much water for these matches when the whole state of Maharashtra is going through a major water scarcity. But the ads have been bang on the spot in capturing the mood - cricket matches are celebrated like a festival in India and God knows we need it, what with so much of negative news floating about not only in the country but worldwide.

One ad shows a woman cabbie who discovers, to her horror, that her passengers are a group of rowdy-looking men who are returning home from an IPL cricket match. They set her alarm bells ringing when one of them suggests she take a lonely dark street as it is a short-cut. The woman's unease shows up on her face and the man on the front seat picks up on it. He immediately admonishes his friend asking for a longer route instead so they can discuss the match for a longer time. The rest of them catch on and agree. The cabbie smiles and the car moves on the well-lit road. Another ad is of an old age home where a senior citizen is watching a match alone. One of the caregivers who is finalizing to watch the match with his friend notices that and joins the old man in watching the match instead. His expression on seeing the senior citizen enjoying the match is priceless. And one more ad is of a man who makes sure that a boy from a poor family is able to enjoy the match that is being telecast live on a big TV in the street.

Ah, we Indians have always been falling for emotional drama. I hate it most of the time, except when I love it :-)

Hell's Angel (Supernatural, Season 11, E18)

I knew it! Rowena is alive and kicking - though I am not sure if it is good news or bad. But whatever it is the latest Supernatural episode was a blast compared to the sorry affair of the last one (Red Meat). It really looked like the writers of the show were reheating the leftovers till they could figure out how to sort the whole Lucifer-Amara mess. Of course, all is forgiven, given that today's episode was by all means the best one so far of this season. I don't remember seeing so much happening in such a short time in any earlier episodes.

Of course, the Winchesters were gonna fail. We would have been back to square one if they had succeeded in forcing Lucifer back to the Cage. But with him still in the fray, the plot has loads of possibilities. One good thing is that now all cards are on the table as far as all characters are concerned. Everyone knows that Rowena is not dead. The Winchesters (and Crowley, of course) know that she had been helping Amara in secret. The Winchesters know that Crowley has escaped from Hell. And that Castiel is in no hurry to cast Lucifer out of his vessel. It is just that the team structure is way too fluid so I guess the only two people who can trust each other are the Winchesters. No surprises there, they always had each other's backs. I wonder, however, if perhaps they have been a little hasty in thinking that like all other earlier weapons the Horn of Joshua (I really lose the plot when it gets too biblical!) was of one-time use.

I have my doubts if the Almighty is going to make an appearance anytime soon but who knows. Wiki tells me that we will have to wait for 3 more weeks before the next episode is aired. I hope the writers are on a roll so that the wait would prove to be worth it.

Bluff Master

This is one of the Golden Era movies that I have always wanted to see but never got around to actually doing it. One reason is of course Shammi Kapoor. I believe, though I don't actually know if it's true, that his movies are rarely sad. The time slot of 11-12:30 is rather inconvenient. And frankly, the idea that you will have to wait for 24 hours to see the other half of the movie is ludicrous in this day and age when people watch even TV channels in real-time on their mobiles. But I guess it has its charm - it kinda takes you back to the good old DD days when you would wait for the Sunday evening Hindi movie. :-)

Okay, so about the movie. If the title fails to clue you in, the message shown before the movie starts - 'You can fool some people all the time and all the people some of the times. But you cannot fool all the people all the time' - is enough to figure out the entire plot. So we have the hero Ashok who is very adept at conning people. In fact, almost the first half of the movie is entirely dedicated to bring out this aspect of his personality. But since he is a hero, all is done just so that he can secure a better station in life. Somewhere along the line, he meets the lady (Saira Banu) who is, as was the norm for many movies of that era, from a wealthy family. The duo are about to get married when the villain (Pran) brings Ashok's mom (Lalita Pawar) into the picture. The rest of the movie, though utterly predictable to any Indian, is nonetheless a good entertainment to watch - even the last fight, though it seems almost comical by today's standards.

As far as the acting goes, Shammi has been his usual likeable mischievous self. Saira Banu looks adorable (Boy! She was so slim then!) though her transformation into a docile Indian would-be daughter-in-law did baffle me. Pran plays the villain to such a perfection that you want to reach in and throttle him. And Lalita Pawar, for once, is a loving ma-in-law. :-) Three of the songs - हुस्न चला कुछ ऐसी चाल, चली चली कैसी हवा ये चली and ऐ दिल have always been my favorites. I never really liked गोविंदा आला रे आला. But बेदर्दी दगाबाज was a surprise discovery :-)

All in all, it was worth staying way past midnight on two consecutive weekdays :-)

An Indian Spy In Pakistan - Ravindra Kaushik

Operation XXX - M. K. Dhar

The Kaoboys Of R&AW - B. Raman

Mission R&AW - R. K. Yadav

Open Secrets - Maloy Krishna Dhar

The Critical Years - T.V.Rajeswar

India's Exeternal Intelligence - Major General V.K. Singh

Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis

Last Men Out: The True Story of America's Heroic Final Hours in Vietnam

10 Books Zuckerberg Should Read

What used to be an every-day sight on Mumbai's roads is becoming a rarity these days. :-( I hope to travel by one before they go the Dinosaur way :-)