GBUF - 22 Sep 26

 

#GBUF #GoodBadUglyFunny #sriGINthoughts #22Sep26

Here is a summary of what irked, quirked and smirked me recently. 

Served with Spirit. 🍻

1️⃣ “When you walk towards me, it’s like getting darshan of Lord Venkateswara!” (நீ எதிரே எதிரே நடக்கையிலே ஏழுமலையான் தரிசனம்தான் சாமி!) Rashmika Mandanna cavorted to this line in Pushpa: The Rise. I think she landed the plum role of playing Bharat Ratna M S Subbulakshmi (MS) in the eponymous biopic, precisely for this line. You see, MS became a household name after her soulful renditions of Venkatesa Suprabatham++. For those tying themselves into knots, do you see the connection now? 😊 #BalajiCasts 🎬

2️⃣ While Iran-Israel-US and Ukraine-Russia have ceased to occupy the front pages, US-Denmark-Greenland has managed to get back there through the Security Agreement to be signed at the UNGA in NYC later this week. Denmark says that it has emerged largely unaffected. US says that it will prevent Russia and China from gaining a foothold in Greenland and the Arctic. Heard that the polar bears of Nuuk are throwing an ‘Orange is the new Green’ party this weekend! 😊 #DealNoDeal 🐻‍❄️

3️⃣ Talking of deals, the boardroom battle involving Tata Sons and Tata Trusts is exciting. NCS says he won’t be the boss of Sons anymore. Then 4 directors say, ‘Don’t go!’. But Chairman of the largest shareholder Trusts, Noel Tata, says, ‘Go!’ A 4-1 scoreline should win any game. But not in this case. All this started since Reserve Bank of India wanted Sons to go public. Noel is against it as it will be against the principles of Tata Trusts: charity + bailout of struggling Tata companies blah. Lawyers are salivating. So are the case-study generators: Biz Schools. #NoTrustInSons ⚖️

4️⃣ Being the harbinger of doomsday news, Anthropic’s Evan Hubinger warned that there is more than a 10% chance AI could kill humans in less than 10 years! Experts say that superhuman, self-improving systems could affect (attack?) power grids, create bio-weapons (remember the cancer drug created for a dog using AI?) and eventually see humans as ‘obstacles’ to achieve whatever they want to achieve. Jensen Huang pushed it back, calling this narrative ‘irresponsible’. However, his own recent acquisition of Hugging Face, after 1,200 AI agents ran amok on it, kinda flies off the face! Time to hoard candles? #boomAIdoomAI 🤖

5️⃣ It is doomsday alright. Shashi Tharoor, the last bastion of good (read as sometimes un-understandable!) English, made two blunders over the last few days. First, he wished PM Modi ‘in his 76th birthday…’ Horror! And then somewhere immediately thereafter, he said “This is an utterly suburb thread…” Superb, Shashi! I don’t know whether I should blame it on the full-body scan that he underwent at a friend’s clinic in Los Angeles or on the fact that he met Anupam Kher there. Wag says that it is a combo-effect. #PoorTharoor 🤦

6️⃣ Speaking of English, the Speak Good Singlish Movement got a leg up last week, when Tyler Creasman penned his Wedding Vows in Singlish. Full of fabulous references: chio bu (attractive woman), better or worser, chope, garmen, ‘I will never let you queue alone’, ‘Oi! Unkal, now can kiss or not?!’ The guy set the bar quite high, mah! 💓 This easily pushed the mouth/eye-watering SG political office-holders’ salary hikes (~9%) to the background. Oh, the PM is donating his hike to charity, anyway. Still, netizens feel sian oredy! #WowVow 💍

7️⃣ 20th Asian Games (Aichi-Nagoya 2026) began a couple of days ago. 17,000 athletes. Cost-cutting led to athletes housed in containers, short beds, leased cruise: Costa Serena… Indian Cricket megastars have already wielded the megaphones on this. Of course, if they win any medals, there will be more noise, as they will have to collect their medals from Asian Cricket Council boss, Pakistan Minister Naqvi, which they won’t. As if the organising committee doesn’t have enough problems! #NothingSerene 🏅

8️⃣ BRICS summit happened in Delhi. Modi and Xi shook hands for 20 seconds. Iran and UAE met on the sidelines. New Development Bank to expand local currency financing (read as developing countries can borrow in their own currencies) is happening. ‘Maximum restraint’ called for to address the tensions around the world, arms and trades alike. All very good. But what took the attention was President Xi Jinping’s absence during the gala dinner. Mean rumours suggest that he was unwell. But I think that it was due to the all-vegetarian menu that was served at the dinner! #MeatlessMeet 🥬

Dashes in this post were not inserted by AI. 😉

Views are personal. Any hurt unintentional. 

Kadais & Karma: A Walk Down Serangoon Road on a Saturday evening

 #GBUF #sriGINthoughts #LittleIndiaSG

The specialty tea and coffee Kadais^ (by specialty I mean the ‘roadside’ ones!) are amazing Madras Coffee House, Kumar Mama Tea Kadai, Tekka Tea Corner…

Erodu, Kumar, Gandhi, New Pattukkottai Kamachi… There are different types of messes ready to mess with your tummies! Must say the parottas at Erodu + veg kuruma was amazing!

The number of barber shops with those multi-coloured rotating light thingy is ubiquitous! So much so, I ended up having a haircut without really wanting to do one. Talk about carpet bombing! Kinda proves my pet theory that Indians are more hirsute than other races.

On a Saturday, it is easier to get tickets for Odyssey on iMax than seats at any of the restaurants. 20-deep queues everywhere.

Mustafa is overcrowded as ever - a tad less though.

A2B is everywhere, whereas the grand old dame of Serangoon Road, Komala Vilas, is permanently shuttered. There is Akshara Jewellers occupying the space partially. Anirudh flashes his rockstar smile, inviting you to his concert on Sep 26. Rumour has it that Ishtara is taking up the space. Soon you might buy gold from the same spot Modi ate vadais!

Veerama Kaliamman Temple is undergoing renovation. So all deities are lined up outside - looking a bit tired - perhaps because of being exposed to the haze, non-stop hawking by mobile shops nearby.

Kailash Parbat, considered a ‘poor-man’s fine dining experience’, is filled with noisy, complaining, and demanding tourists: ‘Why is the Vada pav not like that of Mumbai?’ ‘Where is my lassi that I ordered 30 seconds ago?’ But KP extracts its revenge by sending them to wash hands to the next block (!) where the wash area is locked up with a number-coded lock.

PS: After all this, I had sambar idlies at Mani Iyer Mess on Hindoo Road.

PPS: It may seem the list has more about food and stuff, but it is a reflection of status, as one wag says!

^Kadai/Kedai/Shop