I wanted to run the Big B version of Chitrahaar this week, when I stumbled upon a really cool French ad for bottled water (Volvic) featuring the hottie Frenchman Zizou, set to AR Rahman's "Bombay Theme". I went on to find two more ads in the same Volvic series along with a Shekhar Kapoor ad with Rahman's music for an Italian icecream company, and an ad in which Rahman pitches for a staellite radio. Then there were two clips from the Spike Lee's bank- robbery thriller "Inside Man" (with Clive Owen; I am going to so watch this movie soon) that features Rahman's ever dance-able "Chaiyya Chaiyya" as the score for the opening and closing credits. I also recalled that Rahman's "Bombay Theme" made a brief apperance in Nicolas Cage *rring "Lord of War". So that go added as well. Finally, we have the vedy vedy lovely theme Rahman composed for Banyan. Is the world becoming flat? I don't know but you go watch:

A comment, with minor editing, on this Sepia Mutiny post:

Excellent summary of a f**ked up situation, Siddhartha - very troubling to me personally given that in a few months time this macaca would have to get his sepia self onto airplanes every week. I suppose I will have to ensure that I don't ever do any of the following:

1. Fidget with mobile phones, and exchange plastic bags with other passengers [1]
2. Cheer if a mobile phone or a Blackberry rings at or just after takeoff informing me, for example, that I have just won a million dollar jackpot or France won the World Cup, etc [1]
3. Wear ethnic grab or grow a beard modeled after one of the arrested gentleman [2]
4. Sit in front of or next to one Mr. Nitin Patel of Boston, who like the “Chosen One” thinks with his "gut" [3]
5. Forget English after an attack of amnesia, and revert to language of Faiz Ahmed Faiz or Ghalib, and thus not to fasten my seatbelt when ordered to (in English?) [4]

References: 1)from Swissinfo.org

2)from an 8/25 NYTimes article

3)from a CBS News report: The Algemeen Dagblad newspaper quoted Nitin Patel of Boston, who sat behind the men in business class, as saying, "I don't know how close we were, but my gut tells me these people wanted to hijack the airplane."

4)from a Huston Chronicle article: They described the men as between 25 and 35 years old and speaking Urdu, the language commonly spoken in Pakistan and by many of India's Muslims. Some had beards, and some wore a shalwar kameez, a long shirt and baggy pants commonly worn by South Asian Muslims. A Scottish tourist, Stewart Nichols, said he saw the 12 being handcuffed by three armed air marshals. "I don't think that any of them behaved suspiciously." "They were not fastening seat belts despite being told so by the airline staff," Nichols said.

IV.

I fell beside him and his corpse turned over, tight already as a snapping string. Shot in the neck. "And that's how you'll end too," I whisper to myself; "lie still; no moving. Now patience flowers in death." Then I could hear "Der springt noch auf," above, and very near. Blood mixed with mud was drying on my ear.

translated from the Hungarian by Zsuzsanna Ozsváth and Frederick Turner

Note: When the Hungarian Jewish poet Miklós Radnóti's body was exhumed from a mass grave after World War II, a bundle of his poems was found in his coat pocket, including his final poem "Postcard IV" shown above.