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My novel @ The Frankfurt Book Fair!

Very proud moment

The Frankfurt Book Fair is the Cannes of the publishing world…

Its a great prestige to be there … (right wall, bottom shelf…the beauty..lined up) … framed by Undercover Utopia’s latest thriller … really can’t wait to get my hands on that one … The Bolshevik Conspiracy

And like my publisher reminded me … the novel starts in Frankfurt (opening dramatic sequence at Frankfurt airport, pg1)…..and now its being showcased in Frankfurt :)))

Its a great thing on any writer’s resume..

Its inspiring me to finish the next…

and the next…

and the next…

Allez….

Me

Posted in Release 2.0.

1 comment

By Anil Goel – October 20, 2009


I exercised my franchise…finally…

I had no intention to do so…but somehow ended up doing it …in my third attempt this morning…clad in the usual embarassing short shorts and reebook jersey, sipping chai on pali hill, i realised the St. Annes polling booth is open…being the politicophobic ignoramus i am, i had not really bothered to check my voting slip…something made me walk across…someone at the desk informed me rizvi college is a better bet…attempt 1 over…


somehow…i gave it attempt 2…this time a slightly more tolerant school teacher at rizwi (not a dadisa type aunt giving me dirty looks for the skin show)…politely told me i can walk in with a drivers licence and expect them to dig out my voter numbre….there is a voter number eh…live and learn…attempt 2 over….


walking up the steps at home, thought ill look into my post box once more..lo behlod..the jerk who had deliverd the slips had not done it correctly…i could see something stuck at teh top that had not followed in….turned out to be my voter slip…back to rizwi…attempt 3…drivers license still carries marine drive address so i was sure tehy would find a way to make that a national threat and stop me…somehow they didnt…i pressed the button next to the hand and walked out with a stained finger…hmmmm….


I am still drifting…ambling…havent figured out who or what i care about … some things are clear to all of us…i would do anything for a close friend…i will always overpay for services anyone renders… i dont know about god but i will always thank him if he takes care of a loved one when there was no help at hand…things like that are easy..but what do i hope for in life, for myself, fro my city, my country, for this world…gosh i have no clue…i havent yet woken up sid….so without trying to dissect too much …i think i just know one political party since i grew up … and thats the congress..from Indira Gandhi, to Rahul Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi….i was playing chor police hiding in a chowk when i heard Indira Gandhi had been assassinated….i had no real clue what that meant but that was the only political memory i retained from that age…when I saw a red, handsome Rajiv Gandhi at nariman point from hardly twenty meteres away, minglign unabashedly with people well poasdtd his security cordon..evn as a kid…something impressed me….and when we heard the news early morning of his assassination…i dont know why but i cried…my dad also cried..we all cried..im sure my dad knew why he did…i had no clue…i just cried…


all these years…i havent watched cricket and yuvis six sixes that i walked into inadvertently at a baskin store brought cricket back to my world…similarly…somehow rahul gandhi has brought politics back to me…even if ever so slkightly…no valid reason..no mature analysis…just sentiment…


and koi doodh main nahin dhula hai….htere is no wrong or right…i guess not much to vote for…congress or otherwise…but these guys…they at least look like a party to me…they look like educated people with an education behind them, a roof over their head, food in their stomach…and everything else that they are doing driven by something higher…even if its lust for power, money, ..i dont know what..it still seems higher..


higher than people who seem hungry and desperate for alms….who seem like they will do anything to get their daily meal…even if it means making fodder of the country…i see advani, modi…i see the fathers of terrorism and hatred…I see the various senas and…the less said the better…frankly in absence of any otehr abiilty to judge a party or its leader, i think ill vote for someone who i wouldnt mind sharing a cup of tea with simply because he seems like someone i can relate to … who might talk technology and science to me, open teh door for a lady, wait at a signal….enjoy a good game of crciket and maybe a crappy bollywood movie…i cant think of anyone i could hsare that cup of tea with today…except Rahul….good luck chief….

Posted in India.

1 comment

By Anil Goel – October 13, 2009


Book Review: (For) The Class of 2010

Class MMX is a handbook for life itself.


Al Raines’ last book ‘Soul Search’ Engine takes us to primitive life, journeys through the generations and ends in the current, giving us more than a hint that we are not just what we seem. We are the sum total of all that we have been Till Now.


Class MMX takes the baton from Now and makes us look into the future, about who we want to be and what to put on the left side of the equation today so that it all adds up and puts us on the
right side, pun painfully intended, tomorrow. It is a handbook for life, best suited for a pocket reference guide, to be looked at by anyone at any time of his life that he wants to look at his situation as a teenager would.


In a sense, it is an elixir of youth for all ages. It shows us how we can reset the clock and look at life afresh, as if we were teenagers, and plan the way ahead, no matter where we have stopped to consider.


For teenagers themselves, of course, the book is a prize. Its an award for being at the right time of their life. Its a celebratory, congratulatory nudge and wink, pointing almost unfairly to the shortcuts that lie ahead on the road to adulthood and achievement.


Shun it with attitude and life still awaits you eagerly; grab it with both hands and rush forward is my advice, the world is waiting for you…


- Anil


Posted in Books.

2 comments

By Anil Goel – February 1, 2009


Oh Boyle! - Every slumdog has his day!

The disclaimer first. Slumdog is an entertaining, fast paced, slickly shot masala film that makes for good entertainment.

What it does not seem to be is a world beating Indian film that showcases the best of Indian cinema. Anil Kapoor’s cameo is less ill equipped to capture the range of ex-pressions of India”s best leading men then Freida Pinto’s glimpse is to underline the depth of experience of our leading ladies but neither are as futile as Irrfan’s English Dramatics special appearance. So why are we frothing at the lips and deliriously waiting for the Oscars to unfold?
To SDM’s credit, and surprisingly unacknowleged in all press I have seen about the movie, I don’t think it sweats the poverty angle to titillate a western eye yet again. I think, as my close friend Ahmed(z) said, that SDM is ultimately a fantastic movie about the underdog. Its ROCKY all over again in 2009. Only this time the adversary is poverty, which India seems quite well placed to offer as a backdrop. Except for that little fact, the movie is all about an underdog’s rise and eventual victory under seemingly unsurmountable circumstances. Its an inspiring story about how unwavering ambition, combined with perceptiveness, good use of common sense and bold decision making can swing things your way, even if life tries to drown in you in a pile of shit.

So, for the better or for the worse, there isn’t much that India can take credit for from the film. I must confess the background score is terrific. I am not very good with technicalities so i’m not sure if its pookutty’s sound design or rehman or who to congratulate for that but i certainly don’t think Jai Ho is the miracle creation that it is being made out to be; its certainly far from Rehman’s best

You know the bright side of all of this? I think SDM just reinforces… at the end of the day, the Oscars, like any blatant true blue film awards, is more about hype than true substance. Not to say that substance is not important, but its only necessary and not succificient - hype is key. And the bright side? Since SDM is NOT made of the substance it appeared to have been made of, its obvious the hype thats working.

And that means, the Oscars are coming. Boyle oh Boyle!

And oh, before I forget, even if the answer to ‘How many Oscars did SDM win?’ In the next season of KBC is ‘D - none of the above’ I assure you people who gape at television screens at busy electronic showrooms in Juhu galli will know the contestant answered last week; that the show is not telecast live.

Jai Ho!

- Anil


Posted in Movies.

2 comments

By Anil Goel – January 28, 2009


Be Uncorrupt? Everyday?? Ouch!!!

I have been going through tremendous personal ’stress’.

 

The main cause is my recent resolution to try and reduce, and hopefully eliminate the CORRUPTION within me.

 

It's extremely stressful to try something like that.

 

It roughly went this way.

 

I wanted to find RR Patil and ask him - ‘How the hell can you have vital information about the attacks and not share it with authorities?'.


Then I realized, hold on, he is an offender. There is a system to bring him to book. Now I wanted to write to the chief of police (who probably via many levels of hierarchy reported to RR at one time) and ask him ‘why the hell can you not arrest RR if you would arrest me without a second's hesitation for a similar offence?‘

 

I’m not sure I can find the time and inclination do all that, hey certainly not if I have ‘deliverables’ and ‘action items’ pending at work that definitely need to be acted on, while romantic notions of curing a bigger system can perhaps wait. I need to get back to work. But I need closure so I can move on too.


Pat comes the answer - corruption, Anil, they are all corrupt.  You are not, hence you feel the anger.

 

Then I feel a sharp shooting pain. A voice asks me "Are you, Anil, really? Are you really uncorrupt?"

 

My peace is gone.

 

I begin to question myself. I beging to wonder,  if I have only chosen to ring fence corruption to only what our politicians and other more prominent arseholes have been blatantly doing, so that everything corrupt I do personally does not qualify as corrupt.


I try to assess how corrupt I am.


- Do I meticulously pay all my taxes

- Do I sift painfully through every transaction in every account and look for everything to report

- Do I always pay by cheque and always insist on a receipt

- Do I always wait for the signal to change even though the pressure is building up as everyone around is zooming by

- Do I never pick up a phone call when I am driving, and patiently park by the side and pay the fine if I do and am restrained by a traffic cop

- If a cabbie refuses to take me somewhere and I am in a hurry, do I never offer him extra money instead of just waiting for another cab, or ideally, reporting him to the police and trying to ensure that he gets punished and reconsiders it when someone stops him for a ride

- Do I never try to get by a security check with an article like say a nail cutter in my bag when it is declared as restricted but I think "its not really a big deal and I have no negative intent'

- Do I always refuse to be served first, out of turn, if the waiter or the person at the counter knows me well and decides to be extra helpful

- Do I always throw trash in a bin, even at the cost of cockroaches thriving in my car because I couldn't find a bin, left a packet in the car to throw later, but forgot?


The list is endless, and arguably some of it may not genuinely qualify for corruption, maybe just indiscipline.

 

But it's just that I've resolved, personally, that I may continue to discuss corruption on the face of it, socially, intellectually etc but ..deep inside… never blame a corrupt person till I am convinced I have become uncorrupt myself.


If I am myself corrupt, then perhaps the only reason I have not swindled you of your security and well being (while other bastards successfully have very recently - especially if you are a Mumbakar, and definitely if you are a SOBO, South Bombay, townie) may be because I have not been smart enough, or bold enough, and not because I am uncorrupt enough.

 

A miss is as good as a mile.

 

Corruption is corruption.


Be it bribing a cop at a traffic light or taking a thousand crores to let a shipment of death through my country's borders.


I don't want the next shipment to pass my country's borders.


I am therefore going to try consciously to never break that traffic light, even if its 6:00 AM in the morning and no one is watching.


I am trying that all the time now, and I never realized it can be that difficult. Especially at 6:00 in the morning when you are the only moron standing. I think I succumbed yesterday morning.

 

And every day is a new day, a new mood, a fresh challenge - every day is a new “Will I, won’t I?“

 

'What would you do Jack, what would you do?'


 Ouch!

Jai Hind.

- Anil

Posted in I The Great.

2 comments

By Anil Goel – December 17, 2008


He, Mumbaikar

Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan

Posted in India.

5 comments

By Anil Goel – November 28, 2008


Playing Cricket or just Monkeying Around?

Moving to coaching or managing a team or being a sports writer or commentar is par for the course for retired cricketers.

But the speed with which Gilly has come out with his memoirs and how heavily he has relied on controversies with apna bhai log makes me really wonder. Was Gilly’s mind always fully occupied with the happenings on the 22 yards facing him every over, every ball, as he crouched behind the stumps in the comforting shadow of his helmet?

It seems more to me, that like any othe sincere writer, Gilly’s researching brains would be churning more with all the characters and situations unfolding before him…aah Bhajji seems to be a writer’s dream…a spicy, multi faceted, controversial sorts…“mebbe i can figure out what his favourite drink is and add some real unique perspective for my readers…”

I found it a bit intriguing really…

And not with Symonds swinging another book i’m beginning to wonder if there is only cricket unfolding on the field or some more monkey business …..

When Brett Lee dropped Sachin on 97 was he trying to figure out the trajectory of the rolled up leather projectivel or was he perhaps more taken up trying to capture his emotions at the thought of stealing another ton from the master blaster … can’t miss the finer stuff in his memoirs…the devil is in the details…

I think the entire team needs a shrink

Bollywood movies …memoirs…where’s the time for cricket when there is so much monkey business?

- Anil

Posted in Cricket.

1 comment

By Anil Goel – November 9, 2008


God Bless America

Its been a while since I have posted … can’t put any particular reason to it … life has been busy but I HAVE been online … Facebook is to blame to an extent … its an alternative existence…

Anyway on to this one … my mentor told me one day, in one of his reflective moods that I am ‘blessed with a woman’s intuition’. He said I go more by instinct than analysis, and more often than not, I am right.

I took that and take that seriously, and of course as a compliment.

That instinct, that woman’s instinct of mine, has always been unilateral that Obama is right for the USA, and if i may say ‘therefore’, for the world, including India (People tend to oversimplify the very complex subject of protectionism and job creation - there are too many people who don’t understand the difference between outsourcing and offshoring 99 days out of 100 who will just react saying Obama is going to shut down the India IT/ITES story, how can he be good for India, but I couldnt care less).

Even stronger than the feeling that Obama is right was the feeling that McCain is wrong, for the USA and for the world.

I can only visualise more anti-Americanism, more hatred, more conflict, more unravelling of the world order when the watermark on the globe bears McCain’s face.

I am more relieved that McCain is not there, than happy that Obama is.

And as someone recently reminded me

“When America sneezes, the world catches a cold“

America certainly is sneezing, and the world, nonone can deny, is experiencing a huge chill…

God bless America

- Anil

Posted in Politics.

2 comments

By Anil Goel – November 5, 2008


RODAS - India Stinking?

Felt compelled to write something after a long time … unfortunately it is revulsion and not revelry that leads me to it…

A bit sad, the state of affairs in this country.

The sense of ‘entitlement‘

The irrational exuberance.

The national pride on the outside with low esteem and extreme confusion about our identity and what it is we are proud of on the inside.

The economy … yes, the economy…jobs were never easier…getting fired was never less worrisome. Consequently its just impossible to pin down anyone in the service industry and threaten him with exposing/reporting him.

Either his managers, who have hired him with great difficulty after a lot of courting and then begging and pleading will not care about your concerns (there are ten customers waiting in line for every one customer who walks out) OR he will get fired but there will be ten employers waiting outside to hire him at double the salary.

Case in point, RODAS at Hiranandani…

Had I been 3 years younger, my BP would have been 20-30 pts higher and I would have lost my cool with the pathetic standards and absolute disregard for customers….but i am old at 33 and have mellowed….realised the evening with an old friend is more important than the rot setting in….enjoyed the company but when leaving i politely filled out the back side of the feedback form..the full page…with some words.

“The activist is not the person who says the river is dirty…the activisit is the one who cleans it up” Ross Perot said,

I no longer could be bothered to do that at the cost of my sanity and BP but the effort was my small attempt to not be ridden with guilt at my total indifference…

To be fair, the staff are polite and courteous…so i wont put it down to arrogance which is definitly a bigger problem in Mera Bharat Mahaan…but i guess they just don’t have the ability or need to be good with service…

Here goes the reproduction of the comments section…handed over to a smiling, sunny Mr. Shantanu Roy, supposedly Restaurant Manager who will look into this.

Best,

Anil

Customer Comments

Except for the shortage of restaurants with a decent atmosphere in this part of the city, NOTHING would make me come back
to this restaurant.

A few excerpts from the experience today

1. We ordered Bruschetta which never arrived. When I inquired about the order I was asked ‘if I ordered it’

2. The Bruschetta arrived 2 mins later. I was told “it just came out of the oven” Surprising, considering it was ice cold
3. We were asked about what water we prefer but noone bothered to server water ONCE in 3 hours
4. Butter Toast was served in a basket that had wafer crumbs (leftovers) in it
5. We were politely todl guests were waiting for the table (We had finished eating and were generally chatting at this
point). When we therefore asked for the cheqe and put a credit card in it, noone came to colect it for 20 mins, we finally
left exact change. Hopefully someone has collected it

P. S. 1 A waiter was prominently picking his nose
P. S. 2 ‘Filling’ is wrongly spelt as ‘FILLING on the menu card

Posted in Indig - Nation.

1 comment

By Anil Goel – September 23, 2008


“Rock On” Rampal Sirr

Very happy for Arjun Rampal … happy to see him doing good work…Rock On (RO) was enjoyable (though not novel) and the production quality was superb but I was really most happy to see Arjun coming into his own….


And its not very often that an extremely good looking star like him changes his look so much and still comes out on top … I think his deviation from regular looks in RO was more successful than most attempts i’ve seen in bolly…for me that is probably among the top three differences i see between bolly and holly…the holly guys very, very often don’t look the same across movies….


I’ve always somehow liked Arjun…i liked the fact that he walked away from the ramp when he was ruling…when he was at the top…after Milind Soman i don’t think anyone has ever dominated the scene like Arjun has…


My mom, at 60+ has a huge crush on him to date… if she’s given one shot at a date she’ll waste all her time deciding between Salman Khan and Arjun…which is why I probably ended up seeing “Pyaar, Ishq aur Mohabbat” thrice in theatre

….with such a superb start it was a pity to see him not really being able to get on with it… till OSO came along…he’s got praise for Don but i found him too scrubbed and it was just an impossible shot really to slip into Pran’s shoes (”Is Jail ke darwaje khule rakhna…main bahut jaldi waapis aane waala hoon” - god who can dare mouth that line again?)….but his screen presence in OSO would have made even critics nod their heads a bit and i’ll be very surprised if he doesn’t get a lot of accolades for Joe Mascarahnes in Rock On...good stuff chief…


P:S: I’ve always loved the lovely, shy, ultra chic Meher Jessia…her professionalism is the stuff of folklore …in a country where a misplaced sense of ‘entitlement’ seems deadlier than HIV she’s always worked hard and well ….and she’s lived her job (i remember she landed up at a fasion show only to find the sarees to be used for the show had not arrived because the airline had lost the bag…she… frigging did the show with her own collection)….and she’s never had the ‘guys, i’m mehre jessia, ive jsut walked in, look at me’ aura around her and always been shy and almost reticent…i love that…i love that in a country where we are proud without even knowing of what….her aloofness has been misread by some to be snobbishness but i think she’s just a very simple, reticent, family being…


So that makes it two people i love…god bless the lovely family

And god bless you, Arjun Sir

Good Luck…ROCK ON!

- Anil


Posted in Movies.

2 comments

By Anil Goel – August 30, 2008