Ghajini Season

Its the end of year time and what better way to celebrate it than to watch the most awaited movie of the year-GHAJINI.
After long discussion and trepidation me and my roomies finally decided to go for the movie on 25Th December.Tickets booked in advance and we were are revved to watch Amir Khan in a so called "once in a lifetime role".
We were a bunch of 7 people,out of which 3 of us have already seen the original movie,nope I am not talking of the brilliant Memento but the original Tamil Ghajini.
I have been a die hard Amir khan fan since childhood,but this is probably his second movie(after mangal pandey) that he disappointed me.
My view was shared with another of my friend who had already watched the Tamil version.
As a Amir fan This was a bitter pill to swallow but I had to accept that Surya(the Tamil hero) outdid Amir in every frame.
The movie was excellent(a frame to frame copy) and the climax which the director changed was even better.
But I came back to our lair with an unexpected heavy heart.

Remembering a lost Genius!!!

Its been a long time since my last post,work and other issues being the reasons.

I think I must continue with what I had written in my last post ,about Pink Floyd.
I had introduced to this mesmerising band thanks to Roger Walters,but as I delved deeper there was another person who intrigued me,Syd Barret,the founder of the band.
Lost genius,that's what he is described as,someone who had ridiculous talents but was undone by 'LSD'.

One should listen to Floyd's first album 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn' .
the sound is unimaginable if you think it was created way back in 1967(Phew!)
But unfortunately drug abuse took its toll,he got disoriented as days went by and finally he left the band he had formed by "mutual consent".
But his impact was long lasting,as proven by immortal songs like "Shine on you crazy Diamond" and "Wish you were here".

Truly World music lost a DIAMOND!!!!

Fallin in love all over again!!!

I am writing this post with a headphone plugged in my ears listening to the choicest songs on Jango.com.
you people might think this post is an extension of my earlier post on ROCK! http://optimumiconoclast.blogspot.com/2008/06/my-tryst-with-rock.html
you might be true but partially only.in this post I am goin to write of only one band,THE BAND,in my opinion the GREATEST band ever.
------------------------------------PINK FLOYD ----------------------------------------there are no words to describe them.They truly make you feel that you are coming back to life,your true life.

I still remember the first day when I heard them,my cousin,already a huge fan showed me a video(dont remember the song) with lots of instrumental but I wasnt impressed.Those were the days of Bryan Adams(just for the sake of impression "Wish you were here"is now playin,my all time fav.)

The first song i heard of this psychedelic band was non other than another brick in the wall!!!!

It took time to sink in but when the "cement" dried up its indestructible,no one ,nothin can remove Floyd from my veins.

While going to cal I had a very borin time,and obviously lot of time to think about lot of stuffs!!!!! :)

with my N73 plugged in I was listening to all sorts of songs(again for info sake I do not have a single Hindi movie song in my mobile!!)

I decided after much debate and trepidation,songs can be divide into three categories.

1)First category which includes those songs which are likened immediately but slowly gets erased from your memories....eg:Hindi Marsala songs

2)Second category includes songs which you like from the first and you continue to like them.I wont give general examples since this is completely individualistic but my choices would be old Bengali adhunik,old Hindi songs and definitely some English bands like metallica and Guns n Roses.

3)The third and category only and only contains pink Floyd.PERIOD!

You will take quite some time to fall in love but once getting hooked it is indelible,that i can vouch for

The difference between the second and third category being that the third category songs will always feel like new,as if you are likin it for the first time i.e fallin in love again and again........

In my earlier post I had hailed GnR,but now I realised they are songs fit for 'Good Times"

PINK FLOYD is for every season,every moment,you will savour it.

WARNING:Try Pink Floyd at your own risk,there are chances of addiction.

Good Times,Bad Times!

well its been a long time!!!
long long time since I managed to write something here.I had promised myself that I will write something after coming from cal,but finally I understood what work means[:)].I simply had no time,the little bit time I get after my office goes into my new love-TableTennis.Now atleast an hour of TT is must.Today due to some inconveniences TT area is blocked off,so here I am.
Often I think today I will write,write my heart off,but irony being That day I WONT BE ABLE TO WRITE,THATS LIFE.
things have been strollin along,get up at 7 o'clock in the morning,run to office stay there till 8:30pm(thats intentional).sleep like a dead dog on weekends,my friends joke that I die for some hours on Saturday morning!!!!
One thing I have understood after leaving cal,that is how much i love that city.Maybe the city is crowded,dirty,unruly...whatever you say I am still in love with that city,staying away from home has made that love even more deeper and sometimes obsessive.
On the other hand Chennai is quite good(I am not jokin dudes!!!),what we call in bengali "nirjhanjhat".But life becomes borin during the weekends,nothin is here man!!!!
no good bars!!!!no good malls albeit one or two(can you imagine!!!)...so what to do but SLEEP!!!!:)
I believe I see life now in adifferent perspective,more serious,more mature.Lets see how long this life goes!!!I am truly living "good times,bad times"!!!

My Tryst with Rock!!!!!!

When I was growing up,I had the chance of listening to various kinds of music. Hindi music was there but the scenario then was completely different. With no cable television(So no MTV!!!) it was the good old doordarshan that gave us our weekly feed of hindi music through its staple(now legendary) programme like chitrahar. Along with that my parents ensured that I listened to all sorts of Bengali music which included Rabindrasangeet and adhunik (modern) songs of stalwarts like Hemanta Mukhopadhayay, Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey, Shyamal Mitra and so on. Most importantly, thanks to my mother I had the chance to listen to some lovely English music, artists such as Cliff Richards, Boney M, ABBA etc.
Well being an Iconoclast(!) I always wanted to listen something different, but as the older generations are, mother would dismiss new generation English songs as crap(Well that’s not exactly the word he used!), but I remained inquisitive. Finally MTV came to our household and lo!! Bryan Adams entered my life sending me to cloud number nine. I was blown away, but still I felt something was missing. In one my coaching classes I would often some of my friends speaking weird names. One day I asked them what were they talking of? In response to that one of my friends simply pulled my hand and wrote something no it. It read “LINKIN PARK”. Foolishly I asked(Naivety being my forte) where did this park exist., only to be slapped on my head.
The next day, one of my dear friends , Dwaipayan told me it is high time that I started listening to some quality music and recommended me Guns n’ Roses. But unfortunately for me the imported cassette was way too expensive (I got a measly pocket money during my school days).I lingered on, hoping that one day I will get to listen to ‘real” music.
Finally after acquiring a PC I got to listen GnR. First song I heard “you’re crazy”.Slow guitar rifts and then………madness .I was blown (yes again) and this time there was complete satisfaction. Gnr still remains one of my favorite bands even though my horizon has widened considerably.

Adieu Les` Blues

With great anticipation I had sat down(or should I say lied down) to watch the most anticipated match of this year’s Euro cup: France vs. Italy. Group C was almost wide open albeit Holland who had cruised past both the 2006 World cup finalists. the equation was simple, if Romania defeated Holland they will go through irrespective of what happened in the “big” match. France had to beat Italy, a draw wouldn’t be enough. Before the match started I had a bad feeling when I saw the French lineup. Thuram had been replaced by Abidal in the centre of defense. Now Thuram can be slow but Abidal is purely a left footed wide player. I kept my fingers crossed hoping Titi and benzema would sparkle today. But calamity struck in the 8th minute.Ribbery,the French playmaker got badly injured and had t be taken off in a stretcher. In came Samir Nasri, I sat up(really!) in anticipation, hoping to see this so called French wonder kid in action. But Abidal spoiled everything, fouling an Italian player in the penalty box(which Pirlo converted), conceding a penalty and getting himself a red card. Now Domenech(French coach) showed that he is actually a donkey. Down to 10 men, he decided to replace Nasri with the baboon…oh sorry Boumsong. Benzema was pushed back in the creative role with only one genuine winger in Govou. I think that sealed the fate of the match, Nasri plays as a playmaker for his club and he should have been retained in the field. Makelele looked out of sort in the entire match.

In the other match Holland cruised to a 2-0 victory over Romania, a very one-sided match. Good news being our very own Van Persie getting a start(and surviving the entire match!!!!!!) and scoring(Awesome!!!!).
So another mouth watering quarter final clash awaits, that of Italy and Spain, cant hardly wait for that.
So people get prepared for some more exciting times over the coming 2 weeks….

Its Euro time!!!!!!

When I decided to write my own blog,I was a bit uncertain what should it cover??? I must admit that being a football fanatic the only thing that motivated me for a long time was writing about football only. I dreamt on basing my blog on the likes of my favorite ones like arseblog,goodplaya,Le grove and many others. If someone follows European football with a fifth of my obsession then he can easily come to the conclusion which team I support: ARSENAL.
So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that when the Euro 2008 is going on in full sway, my blog should cover it. I am supporting Germany, apparently for no reason other than that all my childhood sporting heroes had been Germans-Steffi Graf, Lothar Matthews, Michael Schumacher and Jurgen Klinsmann. It was heartbreaking to see them capitulate against the Croats( those horrible nightmares of WC 98’ coming back).Don’t know why but my gut feeling says Deutschland wouldn’t surrender meekly(its simply not in their blood!),they would outgun the Austrians and march forward though I cant guarantee that on 29th of June they will lift the cup or not.
The team which has been most pleasing to the eyes and the senses is obviously Holland. The Orange Brigade has started the tournament with aplomb, their football a mixture of footballing technique of the highest level and controlled aggression. The way they dismantled Les Blues(another of my favorites, thanks to Titi) was simply a classic act.
From the Gunners point of view it was heartening to see Robin Van Persie getting to the scoring charts. The next few days should get very exciting as the tournament approaches the knock-out stage. Keep looking for this space for more updates.
And by the way India lost the final of an obscure tri-series to Pakistan(why I am not feeling sad?) just for the sake of information.
That will be all for today. Your comments are valuable, so keep them coming.

First Post!!!!

Well WELL wELL!!!!!
finally I have managed to create a blog!!!!
first things first.
I need to thank a few persons without whom this lazy Ass wouldn't have started blogging!!!
My roomie vishal who is a blogging freak.
My school friends(don't ask their names) whose blogging got me hooked.
finally but definitely not the least Somnath AKA Lomu whose blog I follow regularly,and to whom i dedicate this post(or the whole blog) for advising me in everything under the sun including this blog(YES!).

those who might be reading this blog might baulk at its name:OPTIMUM ICONOCLAST
well to clear matters ICONOCLAST means one who breaks the normal norms, with typical thoughts.
so you can expect mundane things with a little twist,like yellow dal with that extra zing!!!
well that's all for now.
don't worry I'll keep bloggin!

PS:I am eagerly wiating for comments.