A glass of steaming milky syrupy tea is best served cut. One by two or two by three, it embodies the spirit of sharing and camaraderie (and more significantly a resource crunch). Come, have a sip.
May 29, 2010 marks the fifth anniversary of this blog. Of late, I haven't been paying much attention here. But this web log has been a constant element in my life, while things have moved on a fast pace in both the professional and the personal fronts.
Today is a big day and the Chaiwali gifted me a Harley to celebrate the occasion. And not just any Harley-Davidson, but a 1936-vintage EL, also known as the "Knucklehead." So what if it is only a miniature scale model, it's the closest I can get to owning a Harley in the near future.
In the days to come I'll be posting a series of special 'Cutting the Chai @ 5' posts.
For now I've an announcement to make. Cutting the Chai is moving on to its own domain and hosting (and powered by Wordpress). Still working on a few things there and will post a post when everything's good to go.
The last major change on this blog was when the title changed from 'Mindless Musings of an Unmindful' Mind to 'Cutting the Chai' on April 14, 2006.
It has been the longest pause on Cutting the Chai since I first began blogging almost five years back. In fact if you look at the archives, February 2010 will be the only month that has gone postless since May 2005. And there were some pretty important reasons behind my absence here (though I had been tweeting a little). I got married.
Yes, the Chaiwallah has finally got a Chaiwali (though she prefers that, at home, I make the tea).
Its been a crazy last few months, juggling between work and arrangements for the wedding, now we are somewhat settling in into the new scheme of things. After a small ceremony here in Delhi (actually Noida) we went to Shillong (my home town) and then back to Delhi and then to Indore (her home town) and didn't even have enough leaves left to plan a honeymoon (I'll have to pay for that).
The wedding went off fine and with family and friends around, it was the best time of our lives (yet). Only I goofed up missing out on inviting some friends (my mother ensured that all relatives were). Apologies buddies.
To make things simpler we opted for a marriage according to Arya Samaj rituals but that didn't spare me the ignominy (that Bengali bridegrooms have to suffer) of wearing the tupur, courtesy my sis-in-law (No, I'm not going to post those pictures, atleast not here).
I was also live tweeting from my marriage ceremony. Here's what my Twitter feed read that night:
From suit changed to dhoti kurta and bhabi insisting that I wear the tupur (the joker-like cap) 12:38 AM Feb 5thvia mobile web
Waiting for the bride... girls just can't be on time even for their own wedding. 1:20 AM Feb 5thvia mobile web The problem of being the groom is that you can't slip inside the quilt. 1:23 AM Feb 5thvia mobile web
@Thecomicproject I waited for 8 years for this day... so impatience does creep in. Minutes become longer. 1:25 AM Feb 5thvia mobile web
Even the bored panditji is giving Bhagwat Gita sermons to the photographer and the videographer. 1:26 AM Feb 5thvia mobile web
Intense discussion on about my brother's ability to sleep with his eyes and mouth open. 3:53 AM Feb 5thvia mobile web Now I can even think of venturing into the wedding planning business. 3:58 AM Feb 5thvia mobile web
Also got to update my Facebook profile...okay that can wait for a few hours more. 4:00 AM Feb 5thvia mobile web
India's desi blog awards - The Indibloggies - are back after a year's hiatus. This blog - Cutting the Chai - had somehow made it to the final nominations for Best Topical Indiblog category, the last time around.
The last time I didn't file my own nomination (was a bit shy). Thanks to Amit who noticed this li'l blog. A couple of years after and with some of the hesitation lost, I didn't waste time and nominated myself.
Do send in your nominations here. And don't nominate Cutting the Chai, as I've already done that myself and the rules seem to imply that multiple (though no figure is mentioned) nominations may be interpreted as spam and could result in disqualification (you could if you desperately want this blog out of the race).
These awards are a great way to discover some great blogs. May the best blogger win. Hope CTC makes it to the nominations, multiple ones would be better. A win or two could make me a Rahman. Or some lobbying could atleast make me an Aamir (I'll then only post once every year).
But my biggest problem was that the nature of this blog doesn't exactly fit into any of the pre-defined categories. How would you classify Cutting the Chai? I settled for Personal Blog.
Everyday's an endless stream Of cigarettes and magazines...
[Homeward Bound, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel]
On cigarettes, I've posted before and magazines are a recurring theme on this blog. Since I shouldn't be ranking the best cigarettes in India, I thought of arranging at least the men's magazines in the right order, especially since almost all of them in one way or the other claim to be the best Indian men's magazine.
After a drought that spanned for almost the entire history of magazine publishing in India now there is a deluge of mainstream men's magazines on the newsstands. The only monthly drizzle in this waterlessness was a monthly called Gentleman, which after decades of well appreciated presence ceased publishing in 2001.
The vacuum left behind by Gentleman was for a few years filled by Man's World, which first hit the stands in 1999. Gentleman magazine covers[10 images] Courtesy: Subhadip Choudhury
Drawing up the list wasn't that difficult (but ordering them was). It was to include only the mainstream general interest men's magazines and therefore those (don't know if all from my growing up years still exist) of the adult's only variety have been excluded. Anyway, they wouldn't have been much of a competition.
The initial list had eight names (in alphabetical order):
1. Debonair 2. FHM (For Him Magazine) 3. GQ (Gentlemen's Quarterly) 4. M 5. Maxim 6. Men's Health 7. Man's World (MW) 8. The Man
A little thinking, shortened the list by two for the final nominations.
Debonair - though it no longer features topless female models and has also toned down its content - is yet to regain some of the class. The issues that I flipped through didn't appeal much.
Men's Health was excluded because of it's name and content. Though the magazine might not have only health-related content between its covers but the primary focus didn't match with the criteria of this ranking.
Left with six titles, and evenly matched too - three of Indian origin (The Man, MW and M) and three Indian editions of foreign magazines (Maxim, FHM and GQ). Only if Gentleman hadn't shut shop and Bennett & Coleman had continued with GT (It's a Guy Thing) it would've been even more interesting.
Cutting the Chai's 10 sexiest Indian men's magazine covers
10.Maxim, September 2008. Featuring Gul Panag
9.Maxim, August 2006. Featuring Celina Jaitley
8.Maxim, April 2007. Featuring Mandira Bedi
7.Maxim, June 2007. Featuring Koena Mitra
6.Man's World, March 2007. Featuring Nina Manuel
5.The Man, Quarter III, 2006. Featuring Nina Manuel
4.Maxim, November 2007. Featuring Yana Gupta
3.Man's World, March 2005. Featuring Mallika Sherawat
2.FHM, May 2008. Featuring Nina Manuel
1.Man's World, March 2006. Featuring Celina Jaitley
This proves that for magazine covers that are sexy all that you need is a Nina Manuel and a bikini. And women make for hotter magazine covers (this doesn't need any proof though).
[The information - besides my comments - provided in the listing is according to the January issues of the magazines]
The Best Men's Magazines in India (believe me it was tough)
6. The Man Periodicity: Bimonthly Price: Rs 50 Pages: 176 (excluding covers) Provenance: India Website: theman.in Editor: K Sunil Thomas (Issue Editor); Philip Mathew (Managing Editor) Company: The Malayala Manorama Co Ltd Place of publication1: Ernakulam
Though The Man offers the best value for money amongst the competition, it doesn't rank high on other counts.
We need our monthly dose of content and a bimonthly amidst all the monthlies isn't very exciting - especially when the content served isn't something worth waiting 60 days for. To make things more complex for the reader the people at Malayala Manorama (the company behind the magazine) do not even seem to get a freeze on the periodicity. It was once a quarterly, then became a monthly only to hastily turn into a bimonthly.
The layout is unimaginative and boxy and the humour quotient is low (though humour alone doesn't make a good men's mag - as this list would reveal). And their website too doesn't add any value.
5. GQ Periodicity: Monthly Price: Rs 100 Pages: 194 (excluding covers) Provenance: United States of America Website: gqmagazine.in Editor: Che Kurrien Company: Conde Nast India Pvt Ltd Place of publication1: Mumbai
Being an internet person, I take offence on not being able to easily locate the website address on the print edition especially when one exists. The Indian edition of i is one such. But their website isn't the reason behind the ranking (this after all is a ranking of the magazines and not the websites).
The first copy of GQ that I bought and spend a while reading resulted in a yawn. I never had access to the international editions of GQ (unlike Maxim and FHM's videshi editions that were sold by kids at Delhi traffic lights), but expected some excitement from the newest kid on the block in the Indian men's mag market.
There are too many men between the covers. I think that straight men still have a larger share in the demographic pie. And too less humour. The presentation too is insipid.
But GQ seems to have improved by the issue, though not by much. Hopefully by their first anniversary issue, I'll look forward to becoming a regular reader.
4. M Periodicity: Monthly Price: Rs 75 Pages: 164 (excluding covers and the Kajol pull-out) Provenance: India Website: m-magazine.in Editor: Pranav Kapila (Executive Editor); Amitabh Taneja (Editor-in-Chief) Company: Images Multimedia Pvt Ltd Place of publication: New Delhi
Much like The Man, M too had its share of periodicity pangs. For a better part of its existence it was a bimonthly and to my liking it turned into a monthly (from July 2008). It its bimonthly avatar the magazine used to be an unwieldy behemoth. Now it is comparably more manageable.
In some of the pages there are interesting experiments with page design. There's some food for thought, but not much of fun. Too much space is wasted on full and even double-page images of men!
A name like M isn't very search engine friendly too.
3. FHM Periodicity: Monthly Price: Rs 100 Pages: 136 (excluding covers) Provenance: United Kingdom Website: fhmindia.com Editor: Tushar A Amin Company: Next Gen Publishing Ltdxt Place of publication1: Mumbai
Overlying the FHM masthead on the cover the text says, "Voted the Best Magazine in the World", pity this list doesn't give the magazine similar reverence.
FHM tries to mix everything that a man would need, including those silly personality profile tests. But rival Maxim manages to package things better. Like Maxim it has the advantage of content from sister editions the world over, but there is still something missing - a little bit of salt.
2. Maxim Periodicity: Monthly Price: Rs 100 Pages: 164 (excluding covers) Provenance: United Kingdom Website: maximindia.in Editor: Anup Kutty Company: Media Transasia India Ltd Place of publication: New Delhi
Maxim is funny and also makes fun of the people involved in making the magazine. That builds a personal relationship with the readers. But sometimes the effort shows.
The magazine has quite a lot of goods - in all senses of the term. There are women practically overflowing from everywhere and gadgets, jokes, cars, accessories manage to elbow in some space. The worst part is that it ends too soon. There isn't enough to read, the focus is on the visual pleasures.
While M and The Man had periodicity problems, Maxim took a while to get the price right. They even tried packaging in digital editions and other stuff in CDs to lure readers. But in India the MRP is the biggest bait.
1. Man's World (MW) Periodicity: Monthly Price: Rs 100 Pages: 132 (excluding covers) Provenance: India Website: mansworldindia.com Editor: Murali K Menon (Managing Editor); Nair Radhakrishnan (Publisher and Editor); Anuradha Mahindra (Editor-in-Chief) Company: MW.Com India Pvt Ltd Place of publication1: Mumbai
The oldest of the lot. And uses experience to its advantage. It recently (January 2008) went for a makeover for what they termed as a bigger, bolder look. Look it does better, but the size is a bit too big. Man's World is an inch longer and wider that the much better proportioned Maxim. And yes, it's preferably MW - like JLo, JFK... (or because of GQ, FHM?)
Now what would be the proper name to call the magazine by? MW or Man's World - both names are registered with the Registrar of Newspapers. But the registration number printed on the back cover corresponds to MW whiile the website's title reads Man's World. We should get a fix on this once and for all.
The print is small, the page is big, photos many but not oversized... takes hours to reach from one cover to the other. And the journey is worth the time. Amazing regular line-up of contributors. No other men's magazine in circulation manages to even come close. Beautiful hot women, but not an overdose (actually it isn't possible to have an overdose of beautiful women). Men also get cover space. Both the brains and the things down under are taken proper care of. In short the best than an Indian man can get.
Hope no one sues me for any not-so-complimentary observations ;)
1 According to information on the Registrar of Newspapers for India website
And here's the 2009 edition of the Cutting the Chai Calendar (with Indian festivals and holidays).
This printable calendar is in the standard A4 size (minus any frills), so that you can take easy printouts and put it up wherever you want to. Moreover, this calendar is in a compact single page, that saves you the trouble of flipping it over every month.
Major Indian festivals and holidays have also been included as they are usually not found in most calendars available online.
This time the printable calendar is available in three formats (PDF, JPG and GIF). Take your pick.
2009 Calendar with Indian Festivals and Holidays (Size A4)
Every year, just before and during the 10-day Durga Puja festivities, there is increased activity on this blog thanks to two posts releated to Mahalaya related downloads (there are direct MP3 download links).
Nowadays, I don't seem to put in as much emotion into my writing as I used too. Therefore some posts from the past to welcome this festive season.
In a few days it'll be three years since this blog began. And for the readers I have a special treat that should continue over the next few posts - free MP3 ringtones to download for your mobile phones / cell phones (also SMS tones, the short ones).
I've posted in the past quite a few mobile phone ringtones (some in MIDI format, a few in MP3). Ringtones are fun (though I myself tend use the same one for years together) and here at the Cutting the Chai the motto is to share the fun, at minimal or - more preferably at - no explicit cost.
This is the first batch. You can preview (actually prehear) the files before you download (just showing off the new audio player that I put up here). Some of them can be put to some interesting uses:
Phone Vintage: The vintage telephone ring is one of my favourites. Does bring back the memories of the rotary dial.
Download [MP3 26 KB 00:00:03 64kbps Mono 44 kHz] Right click and Save Link As/Save Target As Phone Electronic: Before we went multi tone, this one was the universal ring. I often rushed back to pick up the phone, only to realise that it was actually the neighbour's phone that was ringing.
Mosquito: Ranked as one of the most irritating noises to reach the human ear. This would make an ideal tone for the alarm, only that you might try to swat the phone in your sleep.
In case you want to save yourself from the botheration of downloading individual fines, you can download all the 12 MP3 (featured above) files in a single zip folder from the link below. Download [ZIP 324 KB]
Hello everyone! This is Yana (spiritual vehicle to god), though my school register would spell my name as Yashna (one with fame). I turned two today (not years, months), and my kaku/chachu (I'll decide what to call once I start speaking) is yet to post a post on his blog about me.
He puts the blame on his elder brother (ie my father) for not sending him many of my photographs. Though I'm a well behaved child and haven't given my parents much trouble (yet), everyone is quite busy. Dada is a little naughty (old readers of this blog would know him) and manages to keep people around occupied.
Chachu wants to rush to Shillong to meet me, but he can't. This is the price you pay for switching jobs too often.
Since no one was doing it for me, I thought that it would be more appropriate that I announce my presence to this corner of the blogosphere myself. That's all folks. Gagagoogoo... (go figure).
At Cutting the Chai, 2007 wasn't a very exciting year. Though the number of pageviews and visitors have doubled since 2006, I couldn't post quite as often as I did the year before last.
Consequently, the number of comments have also dried down to a trickle. And the way things are going now, I don't see much of a shift in trend this year too, but I'll try my best to make amends.
Some readers have pointed this out that this blog is losing its personal touch and I agree. Though it is easy to blame frequent job switches or other pressures, but I believe that I have blogged better in harsher conditions.
Now looking back at the year past. There have been 149 posts on this blog reflecting 2007 on the timestamp - that makes it an average of 2.87 posts a week (not bad by casual blogging standards). And the top ten posts (by number of visits) of 2007 were (this excludes posts from previous years):
6. Indian Idol 3 - A City Turns Loony These stupid 'talent' shows are quite popular, everywhere. Amit Paul's childhood pics as a bonus gave that extra appeal
7. Top Indian Internet Scandals Since there existed list(s) of the top internet scandals of the world, I thought of conjuring up one India specific
10. Sarabhai Versus Sarabhai: Select Shots My favourite desi sitcom has a substantial fan following. But sadly, the typical, intolerable and stretched saas-bahu still rule
And here's my pick of the bestCutting the Chai sips from 2007 (in no particular order):
The top keywords used by people to land on this blog via the search engines (may the almighty continue to bless them) were (in order of visits):
1. free download old hindi songs 2. download old hindi songs 3. desi porn 4. old hindi songs 5. cutting the chai 6. buxom babes 7. old hindi songs free download 8. indian advertisements 9. ankita jhaveri 10. free old hindi songs
The most visitors came from the following countries:
1. India 2. United States 3. United Kingdom 4. Canada 5. Pakistan 6. UAE 7. Singapore 8. Malaysia 10. Germany
The 2007 Cutting the Chai calendar has been downloaded 266 times. Given the fact that it was a late release (May 2007), the numbers were encouraging enough for me to work on the 2008 calendar and release it well in advance of the new year.
You can download printable versions of the calendar which lists major Indian festivals and holidays from the links given towards the end of this post.
This is a one page A4-sized calendar (landscape), without much visual appeal. That might be compensated if I release an eye-candy version later (if things go as planned). Meanwhile, for people (like me) who have lost track of time and are always short of dates (of all kinds), this basic tabular array should suffice (for dates of one kind). 2008 Calendar with Indian Festivals and Holidays (Size A4)
Watta match! It did live up to the tag of an Indo-Pak encounter. And India winning it made it even better. It was a thriller with all the twists and turns. And at last when the ball went sky high, millions of throats would've developed lumps on both sides of the LOC and only on one side were there shouts of exhilaration that followed. It was a match which will take this quickie form of cricket ahead.
Two teams bereft of some of the big names, ostensibly rested from a more youthful version of the game. Two teams who couldn't even make it beyond the first round of the 50-overs version of the World Cup went on to battle for the first ever Twenty20 World Cup. But then those teams were a little different from the 22 at the Wanderers.
The BCCI had initially phoo-phooed the idea of Twenty20 only to reluctantly embrace it. The launch of the Indian Cricket League opened the eyes of the custodians of the game of cricket in India to launch their own version of a domestic T20 league. Now with the success of the Indian team at the World Cup the BCCI is attempting to wipe off the egg on its face (it is by now quite used to it) with currency notes worth approximately rupees nine crore (that's what Ravi Shastri announced as reward for Team India and Yuvraj Singh on behalf of the BCCI).
Cricket it is said is a game of uncertainties and even an inept administration cannot always come in the way of a spirited team. Though there will be many clamouring to take the credit, it should always go to where it is due - the team.
And India also keeps it all win record against the arch rivals in both forms of World Cup cricket.
Had planned for a special isspecial on Independence Day. But now have to do with this kamchalau one. Anyway here are some advertisements which were published exactly sixty years back on (or around) August 15, 1947.
The following were published on the front page of The Times of India, Bombay on I-Day.
It Happened in Brooklyn starring Frank Sinatra and playing at Metro
These are sourced from The Indian Express (who have digitally altered the text, thereby killing the real feel) who in turn got the original from the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. MS Subbulakshmi's special Independence Day broadcast on AIR Madras and Trichy
Parle's Gluco & Monaco biscuits
GEC Radio
Prem Nath Motors Ltd, Scindia House, New Delhi
Kopran White toothpaste
Kanan Devi in Lux ad
Dalmia Cement
Gandhi & Stalin by Louis Fischer
And a few wallpapers in 1024x768 resolution (reflecting the mood of the hour) for your desktops [To save the wallpapers right click and Save Link As (Firefox) or Save Target As (IE)]
May 29, 2010 marks the fifth anniversary of this blog. Of late, I haven't been paying much attention here. But this web log has been a constant element in my life, while things have moved on a fast pace in both the professional and the personal fronts.
The wedding went off fine and with family and friends around, it was the best time of our lives (yet). Only I goofed up missing out on inviting some friends (my mother ensured that all relatives were). Apologies buddies.
It's that time of the year again. The beginning. And there are a lot of dates that we'd come across as we proceed further.
India's desi blog awards - 
On cigarettes, I've 
Some stats first...
In a few days it'll be three years since this blog began. And for the readers I have a special treat that should continue over the next few posts - free MP3 ringtones to download for your mobile phones / cell phones (also SMS tones, the short ones).
