GBUF - 15 Mar 26

 #sriGINthoughts #GBUF #GoodBadUglyFunny #15Mar26

> From Mahatala to Paatal: A Cultural Descent

I had planned to do the usual roundup this week. But with the world focussed on the Bad and the Ugly in the Gulf ‘conflict’, I thought I’d turn my attention elsewhere.

Little did I realise that other areas were not doing much better.

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First up, books.

Picked up The Chola Tigers by Amish Tripathi (who, for reasons unknown, seems to have quietly dropped the Tripathi). Somewhere along the way, the BusinessWorld described him as the “ Paulo Coelho of the East ”.

After this, Coelho might want a word. 🥹

His earlier Shiva Trilogy was passable — entertaining enough, with the occasional interesting idea. Roll forward the entire duration it took RCB to win the IPL, and the transmogrification is… a masterclass in pandering. I picked up the Chola book hoping for some insight into the life of Rajendra Chola I. 👑

What I got instead was “historical fiction” that was as light on history as it was heavy on Islamophobic tropes.

I finished the book only to see how low it could go. Suffice it to say that I safely arrived in Mahatala Loka. 🛄

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Okay, litt was not lit.

So I decided to go back to my favourite staple: movies.

Chiranjeevi is a proven crowd-puller and usually knows how to keep an audience hooked. Yet, despite his “ hooku steppu ” in #Mana_Sankara_Vara_Prasad_Garu , my own pull was increasingly towards the remote.

A botoxed Nayanthara, an intolerable Venkatesh Daggubati, and two rather interminable hours later, I touched down in Rasatala Loka. 🛬

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Now literature had burnt me. Films had finished me.

What about the news?

Out comes the announcement for the Jnanpith Award .

Vairamuthu!!! 😡

After living for almost six decades on this planet, I have come to understand that most awards operate on the you-scratch-mine-I-scratch-yours principle — a kind of institutionalised itchguard balm.

But to give it to someone who was average in film lyrics (certainly not deserving of the grand title கவிப்பேரரசு), below average in most other literary work, and exceptional in cultivating the powers-that-be and hurting the sentiments of the devout?

Perhaps the award should have been for lifetime achievement in predation and for being the ultimate #MeToo Teflon .

Hello, Paatal Loka. 👋

Time to rewatch Sanju Samson’s trio of innings and climb back up to terra firma. 🌏

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Views are personal. Any hurt unintentional.

GBUF - 03 May 26

 

#GoodBadUglyFunny #GBUF #03May26 #sriGINthoughts

A round-up of what tickled the brain and the ribs in the recent past.

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🏃‍♂️ Almost 72 years ago today, Roger Bannister ran a mile under four minutes. It was the invisible barrier that kept middle-distance runners dreaming. That record got shaved significantly (currently it is 3:43.xx) once Bannister banished the baggage. Another one such record is, no was, the sub-2-hour marathon. Last week saw two runners (Sabastian Sawe, Yomif Kejelcha) crack it and the third one missed it by a whisker. Nike responded to the winner Adidas, “There is no finish line.” Yes... to human endeavour. #Target1_59

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⌚ If endeavour is the father, intent is the mother. Ask Singh Deepak, an Italian national, who got caught in Singapore for selling a real Rolex watch as fake. You try to exchange a ‘fake’ Rolex for three real Rolexes. Shopkeeper agrees. The twist was that the ‘fake’ Rolex was actually a real and rare one! In the end, the transaction was to Deepak’s detriment. Yet, the court said, “Sorry, you get an ‘A’ for effort but ‘F’ for intent.” #RolexRoulette

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🗳️ From one finger game to another. Five states in India saw elections recently [~175 million voters from the ‘hellhole’; half the US population]. In a few hours, you will know who is winning or losing. This is one election that the ruling BJP is unlikely to walk away from ecstatic, although inroads are likely to be made. With a reported > USD 2 billion spent by parties and government to woo the voters, the stakes are indeed high. Tamil Nadu is promising to be fun. Is it going to be whistling dixie or clean as a whistle? #MovingFinger

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🛢️ Indeed the finger moved when UAE decided to get out of the OPEC cartel. This frees up UAE to pump more oil and price as they wish. It reduces Saudi hegemony over the group and makes life easier for Trump as oil prices will go down, hopefully before the November mid-terms. Of course, this is predicated on that Schrodinger Cat of Strait of Hormuz opening properly. MBS will perhaps have to work hard now to keep the bloc from going up in smoke. 4D-Chess loading. #SlickMove

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🏏 Well, the records in IPL this year are going up in smoke, alright. Batters (left-handed, Indian, openers to be precise), led by wunderkind Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, are having great evenings in walloping poor bowlers. You score 220? No problems. We chase it in 17 overs. You score 264? It takes a bit longer. That’s all. As if this smoke isn’t enough, Rajasthan Royals’ captain Riyan Parag was caught vaping in public during the game. Illegal? Tick. Bad role model to the kid? Double tick. #TeachKids

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🦛 If vaping is bad, drugs are worse. Yet Colombian ‘plata o plomo’ Pablo Escobar had a soft corner for Africa’s water-loving pachyderms. He brought 80 hippos to Colombia for his private zoo. Once he faded, they were let loose and today 200 are causing havoc all over. Govt wants to plomo them. Enter Anant Ambani: “These animals did not choose where they were born. My Vantara sanctuary can house them.” Maybe his investments would fare better than brother Akash’s in Mumbai Indians. Good man. #HighOnHippos

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🎨 What was not good was when the great Godrej decided to change its logo to something that screamed AI and, horror of horrors, used one already by a small agency in Australia. Godrej (founder to the left), and its signature logo, stood for trust, quality and heritage. The new one, apart from being a copy of someone else’s logo, looks like a reversed logo of the idly-dosa company iD Fresh Food. Can you shoot yourself in your foot? Which foot? #LogoBlock

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🧱 Talking of food and blocks, here is Texan Matthew Hine, who frequented two hawker centres in Singapore: Melvin Soh’s Toast Hut and Rahmath Cheese Prata. Ang mohs flocking to hawker centre? Normal, you say? Hine was so happy with them that hecreated miniature Lego 3-D models of the stalls and gifted them to the emotional owners. If a toast and coffee or prata and curry took five minutes to make, Hine took 9 months. There is no end line to human creativity. #MaxiLoveMinature

Views are personal. Any hurt unintentional.
Till the next one...

Photos/News Courtesy: The Straits Times, CNA, Forbes, NPR, NDTV, BBC, TOI, MSN