Thursday, January 25, 2007

అనగనగా..

అనగనగా ఒక రాజు, ఆ రాజుకి ఏడుగురు కొడుకులు, ఆ ఏడుగురు కొడుకులు ఒక రోజు వేటకి వెళ్ళారు...

ఈ కధ మనమందరము చిన్నప్పుడే విన్నాం. "చేపా చేపా ఎందుకు ఎండలేదు?" అన్న డొంక కదిలించగల తీగ లాంటి ఈ ప్రశ్నతో ఆ కధ ముందుకు చర-చరా పాకేస్తుంది. (మరో విషయం, ఇదే ప్రశ్నకి బాపు-రమణ గార్ల తెలివైన సమధామూ ఉంది. "చేపా చేపా ఎందుకు ఎండలేదు?" అంటే చేప "ఎండలేదు" అందిట)

ఇంతకీ చెప్పొచ్చిన విషయమేమిటంటే, ఇలాంటివి చిన్ననాటి కధల్లోనే కాదు నిజజీవితంలో కూడా జరుగుతాయి, తెలుసా?

==

ప్ర: అయ్యగారు, అయ్యగారు మీకు 230 డాలర్లు ఎందుకు?

జ: నా కోళ్ళు చచ్చిపోయాయి కాబట్టి.

ప్ర: కోళ్ళు, కోళ్ళూ మీరంతా ఎందుకు చచ్చిపోయారు?

జ: పిల్లాడు అరిచాడు కాబట్టి (అరిస్తేనే చచ్చిపోవాలా అని ఇంకొక పంధాలో వెళ్ళిపోవచ్చును కానీ...)

ప్ర: అబ్బాయి, అబ్బాయి ఎందుకు అరిచావు?

జ: కుక్క మొరిగింది కాబట్టి

ప్ర: కుక్కా, కుక్కా ఎందుకు మొరిగావు?

జ: నన్ను యజమాని కట్టిపడేసాడు కాబట్టి

ప్ర: యజమాని, యజమాని కుక్కను ఎందుకు కట్టేసావు?

జ: కట్టేయకపోతే అది కోళ్ళని చంపేస్తోంది. మరి నేను కట్టనా? :))

==

అసలు కధ ఇక్కడ చదవండి.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

రాజీనామ అంటే?

ఒక పార్టీ ఎన్నికలలో ఓడింది. ఆ ఓటమికి బాధ్యత వహిస్తూ మనవాడు రాజీనామ పత్రాలు పంపాడు. రాజీనామ మంజూరయ్యింది. ఇంతవరకూ మామూలు విషయంలాగే ఉంది కదా?

హాస్యాస్పదమేమిటంటే, ఆ ప్రబుద్ధుడు రాజీనామ స్వీకరించబడుతుందని ఊహించక, చేతులు కాల్చుకుని, దిక్కు లేక పత్రికల వాళ్ళ ముందు ఏడుపు మొదలుపెట్టడం. నామమాత్రపు రాజీనామలు, నామమాత్రపు నీతీ నిజాయితీలంటే ఇవే.

ఇక్కడ చదవండి.

మన రాజకీయనాయకులలో నిజాయితీ ఉన్నదంటే ఎలా నమ్మబుద్ధవుతుంది మరి?

Monday, January 22, 2007

PMP

ఈ మధ్య మన కంపనీలు (ప్రత్యేకించి సాఫ్ట్ వేర్ వి) పీ.ఎం.పీ సర్టిఫికేషన్ కి ప్రాధాన్యతని ఇస్తున్నాయి. పీ.ఎం.పీ పరీక్ష, నేను అనుసరించిని పద్ధతులు, చదివిన తీరు - వీటన్నిటిగురించి రాయాలనిపించి ఇక్కడ మొదటి వ్యాసం రాసాను. మీకు ఉపయోగ పడుతుందేమో చూడండి. నేను రాయని వేరేమైనా విషయాల గురించి ప్రశ్నలు ఉంటే చెప్పండి,నాకు తెలిసినంత మేరకు సహాయం చేయడానికి ప్రయత్నిస్తాను.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Sekhar Kammula, a friend

It was mid-2002, i landed in Baltimore Airport a day ahead of the team. An eclectic team of 2 Telugus, 2 Marathis, a Tamil, a Gujju, a Bengali and a Delhite was put together to work on a short-term project. The policies wouldn't let company place all its eggheads in one plane, so we landed at our destination at different times. Later i met the Marathi folks and worked up a conversation. From them I found out that the second Telugu in our team was a National award winning movie director.

The intensity of magnetic attraction (also called వేలం వెర్రి) Telugus feel towards movies, stars or starmakers is rivalled in intensity only by Tamilians' star worship. Telugus and Tamils are teeming masses of movie-buffs, many born that way and if not, quickly and quietly assimilated into the folds. Only a groupie from such groups can understand the wonderment that whooshed through me hearing the news. Few other details quickly trickled in - Dollar dreams and Sekhar Kammula were name dropped. I had heard about Dollar Dreams, knew it had a decent run in Sangeeth, Hyderabad - beyond that my movie GK drew a blank. But now i was curious to know more.

A few hours later i met Sekhar Kammula and slotted him real quick as a simple hyderabadi with no filmy airs but one burning passion. "ఈ జాబ్ లో కెరియర్ గ్రోత్ ఇవ్వన్నింట్లో నాకు ఇంట్రస్ట్ లేదు" he said. A completed script save a few finetunes at hand (my guess, it was మంచి కాఫిలాంటి సినిమా in the making) and a lot of ideas was what he had to feed that passion. His simplicity, openness and a marked dislike towards overt aggression in business meetings or casual discussions, easily made him the easiest-going type in the team.

The team came together as close group really quickly, thanks mostly to the presence of 2 freshers and their endless enthusiasm. With having fun as the motif plans for Friday evenings and weekends were put together at a quick pace and then debated and agreed upon. Very few notable places in and around Baltimore and Washington DC were left out; Rental cars were utilized to the fullest possible extent as weekly fun times were ordered in. And to work away the weekday stress, Tennis sessions were relied upon.

Good times!

Once on a weekend, during a tiresome search for parking and then during a tiring walk from the Washington Memorial to White house, Sekhar regaled us with a few shortfilm stories scripted and filmed by his fellow classmates in Howard University (not Harvard as some Telugu websites mistakenly mention). One story was about a newly married bengali couple visiting DC, roaming the lanes chipak-chipak-ke and having a good time. And then they get separated accidentally. The film captures the bride's contrasting emotions about DC before and after the separation. Another one about 2 parallel stories of a lady and a girl sharing the same name. The film takes us through an incident rendered suspensful because of mistaken identities.

Good times!!

Later, Sekhar gave us video cassettes of his "Dollar Dreams". In the movie, the last scene is an important one, it shows us the protagonist's decision on Dollar Vs Rupee dreams. Sekhar makes an appearance in that scene too. The only glitch? It comes after THE END card is flashed. Sekhar told us that the placement of that scene wasn't good - he realized the mistake after the movie's release.

12 weeks later, we all headed back to India to our respective cities and offices. I met Sekhar again in Chennai, he came there to meet our దాదాగిరి project manager. He mentioned about the finalized script, and his on-going work on finalizing the cast. I wished him the best. A few months later, i moved to the US. Sekhar had already left the company on a sabbatical to focus on the movie full time. I received reports about his hard work on the movie later from a mutual friend. A few months later Anand was released. I kept checking idlebrain (the website Sekhar introduced me to..) for a review and updates but an unending focus on Shankardada MBBS was all i found there. May be Sekhar made a mistake deciding to take a big budget movie head-on. Or may be not! 2 Weeks after Anand's release the word was out and slowly catching on. It was the same verdict Sekhar joyfully shouted out when i called him a week later. "SUPERHIT". And a well deservered at that.

Since then i didn't get a chance to speak with him, not until recently. But in the meantime I saw him once as an autodriver in a blink-and-gone role in Anand and heard him through the animated dog in Godavari. The other day i called him to congratulate on Godavari's success. Though he was busy with some story discussions (of "Happy days" i guessed later), he stepped out and spoke for a while. The same old, no pretensions, no filmi-airs kind of talk. Good!

I later read that "Happy days" is a story of college-going students and that Sekhar is working on showing us college students in a different light. Given the unbelievable amount of trashed dished out at us in the name of college humour (it all started with unwatchable Prema Desam, i think), it would be good to have a refreshing perspective from a nice guy and a good director like Sekhar. I am sure we will be saved of silly cliched Brahmanandam type students and helpless but vulgar MS Narayana type lecturers in Happy days. Expect a realistic, humorous and interesting portrayal of college life - you'll get it. Here's welcoming Happy days and wishing Sekhar all success.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Guru is a bore

Towards the end of the movie, Guru says to an enquiry commission "You gave me 5 minutes but i finished my speech in 4 and half, 30 seconds profit - munafa. That's business". Applause! Good but for the fact that in a truly filmi style he actually takes over 6 minutes to deliver some not-so-pertinent retorts to the allegations levelled against his company. Click here for the rest

Monday, January 01, 2007

నూతన సంవత్సర శుభాకాంక్షలు

Center stage web version two

TIME saw year’s person in you

For us bloggers a heady mix

Well, that was 2006.

May we rule '07 too!