Quick Gun Murugan

Quick Gun Murugan’s official website says, “Quick Gun Murugun is an unlikely Superhero with Guntastic powers. He is a sincere South Indian Cowboy who considers it his duty to serve and protect. The movie revolves around mis-adventures of Quick Gun Murugun and his fight with his arch villain Rice Plate Reddy! In 1994, a maverick called Sashank Ghosh (MBA from University of Jodhpur), left MTV to become the creative head at Channel Vand created a character called Quick Gun Murugan. Those “fillers” in between programs were a rage among the youth. Quick Gun Murugan trailers quickly became the talk of the town especially in the colleges across India. It introduced the phrase “We are like this only” as a tagline that reflected the growing comfort with Indian English. Years later in the film Om Shanti Om, Shahrukh Khan imitated this character complete it the catchphrase “Enna Rascala”! This is an out and out spoof on film heros who duck bullets, thulp twenty attackers without ruining the shirt crease. The character is said to have been inspired by MGR, the cult movie hero of yesteryears in Tamil films. Read more

How to Manage Short Term Asignments

You are the rising star of the corporation. You are working at building a resume that will qualify you for the corner office in the next few years. You want to set the world record for being the youngest head of the corporation. In anticipation, you have started looking up models of corporate jets you could buy and the power suits you will need to order for the swearing in ceremony. In the midst of all this comes the email on the blackberry that your manager wants to know if you would be interested in a short term assignment to New Widgetovia, the country where your company has struck gold. You would need to be there for three months… maybe six… ummm … a little bit more perhaps but hopefully not.
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Kaminey

I am a fan of writer, lyricist, music composer and film director Vishal Bhardwaj. He brings in a breath of fresh air into Indian cinema especially mainstream Bollywood. He has cracked the magic formula of making movies that are aesthetically appealing and yet are commercially successful.  Never afraid to experiemnt, Vishal is gifted and gutsy. As a director, his films Maqbool (adaptation of Macbeth, made in 2004 *ing Irrfan Khan and Tabu) and Omkara (adaptation of Othello, made in 2006) have made audience sit up and take notice. Taking great stories to the masses is a challenge. To take the complexity of a Shakespearean play and adapt it to contemporary India and yet make it appeal to a broad spectrum of audience is what Vishal does best. His literary and cinematic mentor Gulzar writes songs that play at an upmarket nightclub as loudly as they do in the autorickshaws. Omkara had Saif Ali Khan and the blockbuster song Beedi Jalai Le (watch the song here if you have not) featuring a sizzling Bipasha Basu. Kaminey has Shahid Kapur. He carries the script all the way. Read more

Interview Questions for HR Applicants

Many moons back when I started off my career as a HR person, I had a chance to attend a training program. All the HR folks used to have this once a year get together and just bond. I was briefed by my boss that, being the lowest in the food chain, I had to just take the opportunity to get to know the big fish in HR. Being a really obedient kind of person I took that advice to heart. I spent the next tea break running around that huge hall like a headless chicken collecting names and faces. I will tell you upfront that I have difficulty remembering zillions of names with matching faces. Within fifteen minutes of this maniacal pursuit of perfection, I discovered that the names and faces were all a big jumbled up noodle soup. I gave up. Read more

Sonia Faleiro

Meet Sonia Faleiro, the globe trotting writer, award winning journalist and storyteller. She is the author of The Girl (Viking 2005), and a contributor to AIDS Sutra: Untold Stories from India (Random House, Vintage UK, Anchor Books US). Her nonfiction book on Bombay’s bar dancers will be published by Penguin in 2010. She has her website at www.soniafaleiro.com which has some interesting podcasts.

She blogs at http://soniafaleiro.blogspot.com/ and has a Jack Russel Terrier dog named  Zoey Faleiro-McKnight (See inset photo). “Faleiro from my mum, McKnight from my dad”, says Zoey on his blog. Sonia is on Twitter at http://twitter.com/soniafaleiro if you want to follow her. Read more