New website under construction

We had hoped to rollout the new look of the blog website by the end of this week and hence were putting off writing anything new here. But as is the problem when a team is involved, there are differences of opinion regarding the layout, styling, functionality etc etc. Basically we are fighting a lot. Anyway, I think we should have everything up and running by next weekend. In the meantime, we are going to start writing again here.

Meanwhile, we have started a Facebook page for the blog. You can find it here.  Also we have a Twitter account in case you guys didn’t know. We update the Facebook page only about 2-3 times a days so as to not spam people whereas Twitter is updated quite often during the day. Writing only 140 characters does help here. Do follow us on these accounts. (If you guys want to know a lot more about International music and other random funny shit, Twitter is the place). We’ll be using these accounts to put up links to some interesting and/or funny articles, images, videos etc that we come across on these two sites and add a line or two.

 

Signing off for now. Keep reading

India v/s China: We’ve got Facebook! What’ve you got?

This article was originally published at India’s China Blog. The guest writer is Maitreya Bhakal.

An interesting analysis in TIME magazine, to the extent that it tries to be an analysis:

The ChIndian Century

And don’t forget to check out these two accompanying arguments, one for India and one for China:

The Case for India: Free to Succeed

The Case for China: The Power of Planning

I plan to blog about this general issue sometime soon. Right now however, I just can’t help commenting on just two points for the time being, particularly because many westerners have humongous misconceptions about these issues. Almost every article on the topic contains at least a reference to these two fallacious points.

Cafe Bean Garu musings

I have lived in Mumbai all my life. I have seen the rise and fall of malls, restaurants and hotspots all over the city. The beauty of the city lies in the joy of always discovering something around the corner, because no road, corner or nook in the city looks the same after a month. With blogs like this, Twitter, Facebook and what not, that joy of discovering has changed over time, where a small RT makes you discover a new band, hear about this new pub and you and your friends have a flash mob show up soon after.
But I miss the days, when I would go to eat Vadapav after school and discover a new fruit juice stand on the way, or go shopping on Linking Road and see “60% off” in a gully shop like a secret sale made just for me. Discovering a new place today in a non wired manner made my visit to Bombay after a long time totally wonderful. Because unless you work/live in deep Suburbs (Never Never Land for the southern Western Line Girl in me), you have probably missed Café Bean Garu.

The best shit this year! Part 2

Now moving on to the movies (Read Part 1 about the best  music of 2011 here), something everyone likes and enjoys. If you are like me, you distinguish between the years of your life, as to when a certain movie came out. Everything about that year, what you talk, what you think, how you dress is connected by that movie. So this list is special as 2011 was special. These may not be the highest grossing movies of 2011 but are definitely the best ones made. Catch them before the Oscars.

12 Books worth looking forward to in 2012!

A new year for some, is like a checkpoint, a pit stop created to help them to look back, assess, review, derive conclusions and redraw plans and blueprints to chart their next year or beyond. To sum it up, Resolutions. One of the many common resolutions I know of is ‘This year I will take up reading seriously, I will take out more time from my oh-so busy schedule of doing nothing and eating to read.’  So this is me helping you to keep atleast one of your resolutions.

I have tried to compile a list of books I am looking forward to releasing in the year 2012. So read on…