Best of 2007: My Opinionated Takes

Blogging Rule #32: You have to give away Best of the Year awards on your blog.
Blogging Rule #32(a): The awards have to be opinionated.

I thought of having some gyaan on movies, books and food. But then, I realised I have been out too few times this year to make any sense.
So, here I am with my list of my favourite blog posts of 2007 - in no particular order.
They are here not only because they are from my favourite blogs but I need to compile them at one place so that I can go back quickly and read them whenever I feel like!

116 Moonlit Nights: Megha's take on my favourite song is almost as beautiful as the song itself. What more can I say?

And if you think that was the definitive Bollywood post, there is one even better from a banker who - when he is not pontificating about cigarettes and existentialist angst - is a closet Bollywood buff. For all the hyperbole, excuse me please.

The Calcutta Post is from a Bong, who is not too sure if she is a ghoti or a bangal. But then her Adventures of a Bengali Bride At Her First Pujo is loaded with acute observations and deadpan humour.

My friend, Anirban, and his wife, Sujata, started their blog this year and debuted with a post on Raag Darbari. To my mind, that was a stunner because writing on Hindustani classical music accessibly is as rare as it gets and this deserves a huge audience.
And then, a couple of weeks back, he wrote An Ode to New York. Essential reading for anybody who has been exiled from Calcutta.

Nandigram would easily be the Most Searched Google Keyword from Calcutta this year. So much has been written about it that it is very difficult to make sense of the whole sordid affair. One post makes eminent sense - with just the right blend of fact and opinion.

Amitabh Bachchan has competition. Not in acting but in comebacks.
In late 2006, an Indian cricketer turned logical reasoning on its head and decided some Australian jerk was not going to decide when he was going to quit playing cricket. And while he was playing the sublime shots on field, a lot of people wished they could say "I-told-you-so".
One guy could - and came up with a magical post on a magical comeback.

Most blogs are started on a whim and most posts are written in a hurry - in an attempt of get immediate thoughts 'on air'. In this situation, it is such a pleasure to have somebody taking pains to unearth rare gems for the interested.
Dipanjan translated a Ritwik Ghatak interview - definitely the longest I have come across - and put it up. Apart from the fact that it is a very well-done translation, it is a complete travelogue across Ritwik's turbulent life and times. Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

And finally, it has to be a large dose of nostalgia. Though Nilendu took off the rose-tinted glasses I use to look at the past and came up with a deadly recap of our college days. He is brutally honest and has an elephantine memory so it is rip-roaringly funny. And to protect jobs and marriages, he is not taking names. Except mine. In one episode, he calls me Vinod Kambli and in another, he accuses me of “vile, dishonest, corrupt and blatant subversion of power” in another. All three parts are required reading, nevertheless!

And I just realized that all but one of the bloggers mentioned above are Bengalis. I don’t whether that can be attributed to my partisan behaviour or general superiority of my race!

On that controversial note, let me wish all a Gr8 2008!