Vikram Dhunta

Remember (does it still air?) the AIR FM jingle by Shibani Kashyap that was their trademark jingle for so long? It was better than most other FM channel jingles by far, and conspicously better than any other AIR attempts at making jingles (hear the AIR FM Rainbow jingle if you want this proven). You would hear it in the bus, in your room, on the roadside, in a hotel whereever and instantly recognize the all new FM channel that had so much more to offer than drab ole FM.

Unfortunately, turns out this jingle was a copy. That superb chorus 'A Aye Awwrrr Eff Emm Radio-o" is actually a direct lift from a song "Listen to the music" by the Doobie Brothers. Aint' it sad?

There's nothing worse for a music lover fanatic to discover that one of his 'all time favourites' is a straight liftoff of a song from another place/era/genre. Just like when I realized that the old Shammi classic 'Dil use do jo pyaar de de...' is inspired by 'With a little help from my friends' by the Beatles, just as "Chura Liya" is a redux of a film theme.

Here's a great site dedicated to plagiarism in bollywood.

Labels: bollywood, india, personal

Posted by Vikram at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments
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My first trip to the US takes me on my first visit to Canada as well. I'm sitting right now in a nice hotel in Oakville, a pretty suburb near Toronto.

So far all I've seen is a lot of open space with a lot of construction and a great road networks and what looks like, a lot of housing projects in anticipation of a lot of people that will settle in, in the near future, of which there are very few right now by the way. Canada's population is 33 million, only as much as Bombay and Delhi put together. There seem to be a lot of Indians (asians?) btw - at the hotel, the airport, the restaurant, the sidewalks etc etc.

I won't be taking any pictures though because I don't have my camera here (yes, I can't believe it either).

Labels: personal

Posted by Vikram at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments
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Earlier, I mentioned how I used mapquest.com, wikimapia.org and a paper map to find my way around in the US. Well, after a really long time, I reinstalled Google Earth and tried to find my way to JFK using it.

It blew my mind. When you can see driving directions like this, you hardly need anything else. I can actually see how a road and the signs/landmarks on it look like, and that's a big help when you're trying to watch out for that sharp left turn on Exit 41!

Labels: personal, usa

Posted by Vikram at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments
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Ok, who (else) thinks US electrical outlets look like two petrified little smileys?




~

Labels: humour, personal, usa

Posted by Vikram at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments
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Driving's much easier now, though I did get honked (done only when you're 'upset' or 'angry' according to a boss) since I was driving (much) within the speed limit, which is 25 mph on city roads, which is a neat 40 kph but doesn't feel the same since, it's 25 < 40 to my mind.

Anyway, I've been able to check out the local super market (StopnShop). Things aren't really that expensive compared to India - for e.g. a gallon of milk cost me about $3. That's 140 INR for 3.8 gallons, or nearly 40 bucks per litre. Only double. Or like salted butter, which is $4.99 for about 450 gms, or Rs 250 for half a Kg, more than triple. But like I said earlier, this mental math has to be done away with.

By the way, one thing that is really in abundance here - space. Houses have nice lawns and garages. Shopping complexes have huge parking spaces outside - no basement parking. The roads are wide and there no shops/restaurants right on the road - there's usually a fair amount of footpath/garden before it. There's also a lot of green cover.

~

Labels: personal, usa

Posted by Vikram at 9:37 PM | Permalink | Comments
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Got my company car today, a 2005 Chevy Impala. The size of an ocean liner. I can barely open the passenger door while sitting on the driver's seat.

It's an automatic though, which essentially means its like driving in NFS. I initially thought I was going to have a lot of trouble handling such a big car - but actually the wide empty roads, at least 95% rule abiding traffic and the car's own power steering and really small turning radius, make it all much easier.

Actually driving on the right side isn't that much of a big deal. If you have a lot of previous driving experience, you easily adjust to the right side of the road. One thing is - you're sitting on the left side of the car, and so having oncoming traffic to your left is intuitive.

What is difficult though, is not the driving itself. It's driving when you have no clue of the directions and no GPS - just a huge paper map that folds the wrong way hiding your current location which you can't find anyway. If you take one wrong turn, you really lose your way - and getting back on track means at least a few additional miles.

The roadside is littered with signs - and you need to obey each and everyone. Especially hexagonal red stop signs, where you're supposed to pause (completely) for 3 seconds and then move on, allowing cars before you to move on. I've noticed traffic at 4 way stops actually move one by one, like they were on a round robin basis. No tailgating. Nice. It also helps inject safe distance between vehicles.

The traffic lights are obeyed too - though one weird thing - if you need to go left, and its a green for you, hang on - it's green for oncoming traffic too! So before you cut your left, you allow traffic coming straight at you to pass.

~

Labels: personal, usa

Posted by Vikram at 9:16 PM | Permalink | Comments
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Finally, I have arrived. In the US i.e.

Lufthansa business class rocks (more on the frankfurt to JFK flight than the delhi to FF flight, just fyi). Made the nearly 28 hr door-to-door journey much more tolerable.

A Lincoln with an installed GPS got me to my apartment. No food, so I ordered a pizza for $17. One of the things we desis need to reign in when working in the US on an Indian salary is our inborn mental-math skills - if you start considering everything USD, in INR, you just can't survive.

There's a TV with only basic cable, which means about 78 channels, including movie, news and comedy, so that's all I need. No Zee, Sony, NDTV (ok that's a relief) etc though.

Labels: personal, usa

Posted by Vikram at 8:02 PM | Permalink | Comments
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