The AICTE Fracas.

When will India come out of the shadow of the false ego of government organizations like AICTE who, want to decide the fate of bright students by turning a blind eye towards them. The Indian School of Business is a testimony to the above claim.

ISB, as it is popularly known as is the first Indian B School to be listed in Top 20 B schools in one of the prestigious financial magazine. That implies it follows world standards in the eyes of those who are among the best in the world. Apparently, it follows standards which havent been followed till now in India. Why ? did any B school made it to top 20 in the history of Indian B schools. But sorry, according to the officials at the AICTE the school is lagging some thing which makes them disapprove it. The reason this time is high fee structure at ISB. Well, ISB never asked AICTE for its approval.

How does it matter to the people at AICTE if at all grads of ISB are getting an average salary of 15-16 lakhs if the ISB people doesn't bow its head before them. This is how it runs in India. ISB people knew very well that if they bow their head to corrupt govt org( read AICTE), they'll have to follow the norms of AICTE which are anyway far below the practices followed by ISB.

This is what happened during my graduation days when my alma mater didnt seek for the approval of AICTE. AICTE said similar thing for DAIICT. It didnt approve a new degree which gives BTech in ICT. They said there is IT and There is CS. What is ICT. That was back in 2003-2004. So what if the officials at AICTE dont understand the new vision of India. They let the students without any approval. Result: students couldnt make it to places where approval from AICTE was mandatory. Now Govt of India has its department of ICT. Moreover, the students after passing out prooved to the industry that in the future they 'll be one of the most sought after graduates. Click the link that follows http://cities.expressindia.com/local-news/messages.php?newsid=176564 and you'll be able to see the response of the people at that time.

The article has stated that students of DAIICT are destroying their career by taking a degree which is not approved. The kind of response the article got prooves many points besides the axiom that Good Institutes dont even need the approval of AICTE. DAIICT had the standards comparable to the best in the world and the results only proove the above claim. It, similar to ISB never applied for AICTE.

I am not here to boast of the world class standards at DAIICT. Time is the best equalizer . It has been, and will keep on prooving the above results consistently. I am here to say that AICTE should rise above its petty norms and start respecting(read approve) the deserving institutes independent of anything. ISB is above any norms and has been set up by people who are among the best in the world. The time has come when everybody is talking about PPP and AICTE should take a step ahead by approving ISB to endorse the same.

Perhaps, India will be a much better place to study when all the institutes will be autonomous and not one of the nodes of the Government tree which places some written text in the hardcopy lying on one of their dusty shelves above common sense and world class standards.

Review - Mithya

Writing review for a movie like Mithya is a tough task for me. I am not sure how far I will be able to keep the critic cap over my head. But as the saying goes well started is half done. Ok..

Shot purely in and around Mumbai, Mithya is one of the finest parallel cinema produced. Before reaching the cinema hall I had an idea that it was one of the best stories available with the director and I now stand as a testimony to the same. Rajat kapoor has done a brilliant task in approaching the movie with this angle.The legacy of Raghu Romeo and Bheja fry remains intact with this yet another splendor effort.

Ranveer shorey in as VK, is one of those theatre artists who is chewing hard nuts to make it big in the bollywood. He has a penchant for acting and approaches the work with sufficient diligency. But the going gets tough and he doesnt gets a chance for any good role; instead becomes part of the gang war between two gangs when he is unwinding himself with a deadly combination of sutta and a quarter sitting in Marine Drive.

His face resembling a Don's face , gets him into a position which he prima facie thinks as a lifetime role. But no sooner he gets into the meat of the role, does he recognizes the intricacies involved in reaching the acme in the performance. He 'd rather step down and lead the same mundane life he was living, given a chance. But the bird was already out of the cage. Willy-Nilly, he had to lead his life in this way compromising with his natural way of speaking, to match it with the "played " don's voice.

Finally, he gives up and plays certain ideosyncracies of his natural character to make the game a mudpot. The cat is out of the bag and something happens that everybody catches the point that VK is the DON - Raje, only by face. VK is thrashed deservingly for playing with the sentiments of the Don's family and left for dying his natural death.

Before all this drama VK gets acquainted to the struggling actress Sonam( Neha dhupia) which graduates to love in due time.

In the end the couple dies and world runs as usual. So it can be called a Love story.

Ranveer shorey is up to the mark in getting into the skin of character. This performance is as good as his performance in Traffic Signal by Madhur Bhandarkar. Naseruddin shah surprisingly is first time in a role where audience could have any actor for playing the role. Neha dhupia as well, as expected is doing nothing remarkable and could have many substitutes. The dialogues are very good and there is hardly any scene in the movie which public would not like to appreciate.

all in all a must watch from my side.

My rating for the movie -- 4/5.

Happy watching !!!

A good read - 5

another good read..food for thought.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorials/Indias_eroding_offshore_advantage/articleshow/msid-2765250,curpg-2.cms

Review - Sunday

Ratings are just like statistics...Not in the real sense as in ratings hide more than they reveal..But ratings are perception. But yes, ratings are statistics as they ride over the person's success. Like the movie which casts SRK is bound to have a rating +1 above it deserves. Because even the predictors wants the junta to agree with what they give to the movie of their favourite hero. Now, the person of course who gives the movie the ratings is no God but a human and so can have his own perception. So can my friend Ramesh( name changed on request) who dragged me to watch yesterday one of the most bogus movie, a poor concoction of comedy and suspense. Though concoction is not a right term to be used as we now days have such combinations. huh !!! Sunday--the movie is all deception and not an eye candy by any stretch of imagination. Casting? preety simple..ajay devegan, ayesha takia, arshad varshi and Irfan Khan.

Now does arshad varshi thinks that he can turn any normal scene of the life into a comedy scene..Yes perhaps. He seems to be truly obsessed of himself. The scenes which are displayed supposedly to make you laugh are no comic but just stretched like a chewing gum to make the person laugh at the end , owing to the stupidity of the matter. Certain scenes from the first half had some overtones of few TV programs which get screened in some TV channels which are less privileged( less people watch them).

Yes, sure. Arshad varshi was acting fine..but then the scenes are not supposed to be comic and one could sense that the comedy wing of the movie had just two legs, one each with arshad and irfan khan. If at any moment of time one of them was missing then the scene as expected was turning out to be yawningly boring. The villains were all truly idiots, necessary to make a comedy movie.

The script is loosely edited and there are number of voids that could have been filled with better dialogues, better direction and at times even better location for the shooting. I am not even sure by the fabric of the reel whether the movie had just the background of India gate like we used to have it in 70's with the hero just sitting in the car and background running to depict a moving car, or was it really india gate.

Music: The only romantic song in the movie was a good respite amid the otherwise cacophonic pseudo item numbers. Ajay devegan prooved again that comedy never, was, is and will be his forte. Irfan Khan is perhaps swimming against the tide of his good image by taking such roles.

The movie in a single word is an "avoidable" watch. Avoid all your temptations to watch a movie and wait for AGPPL's Jodha Akbar.

my rating for the movie -- 1.5/5

Inspiring -2

This article from economic times deserves an attention from each one of us..

Be an everyday hero..

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Columnists/Sanjay_Gupta_Everyday_hero/articleshow/2745922.cms