think BIG, START small
No matter how much you plan, its as good as your execution... think BIG, START small ... even in this catch phrase, the key word for getting things done is obviously "START"
Friday, December 14, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Apne
Yeah its a very emotional and a typical "deol" movie with all the illogical things happening and all the proper hindi masala including the unnecessary, not so very interesting hindi songs sprinkled all over the 3 hours of the movie, with the ever so frequent reminder of the movie name ... apne tooohhh .. apne hoten hai ... Unfortunately, at the end of the movie, the audience ends up remembering this reminder and nothing else !!!
The real reason for writing this post are all the things that surrounded the event of watching this movie. About a couple of months back, all of us at home travelled out to a lovely town for attending one of our friend's wedding. I had spent a lot of my school years in this town, so it wasnt such a new place to me and my parents. The wedding itself was a beautiful fusion of Maharashtrian and South Kanara culture. The highlight of the wedding was the garlanding event, where the bride and the bridegroom are made to stand on either side of a white curtain waiting for the exact auspicious moment to garland eachother. And just when the moment arrived and the curtain falls down, the cousin and uncle of the bride lifted her up and the groom had to jump and jump and jump more to be able to garland her before she could garland him. Well, quite obviously, the bride won the battle and garlanded the groom first. All said and done, this was undoubtedly the happiest and beautiful moment of the wedding.
After enjoying the delicious luncheon served with 17 various food items, following the wedding, we reached back to our hotel room for some rest. The late noon showers spilled water on our further travelling plans and we settled for watching the newly released hindi movie, Apne. It had been quite sometime since our whole family had been to a hindi movie in recent times and i thought that this should be a "family" movie, which it thankfully was :-) I stood there in the ticket counter after years and it brought back all the memories of those gold old movie watching days. One funny incident happened while I was in the queue. A guy standing in front of me in the queue, who I came to know later on was very poor in maths, asked the ticket vendor how much it would cost him for 15 tickets. After hearing the cost, he hesitated for sometime, and produced 250 rupees and said, give me as many tickets I can fetch in this money. You must have guessed by know for whom he was buying those tickets ;-) That brings me to the lack of this practise in the modern multiplexes. Ofcourse, its illegal business, but then you could atleast be assured of getting a ticket even after reaching the theatre just when the movie is about to start !!! But then, with the costs for watching a movie in the multiplexes zooming further and further up, watching a movie has lost all its charm. I bought 4 tickets, a pop corn and a couple of pepsis costing me less than the cost of a single multiplex ticket !!! And, before you start thinking, the theatre was air conditioned and in great shape. It really gets tough to reason out the amount of money metro people shell on these multiplex movies.
Back inside the theatre, we had to wait for the previous show to get over and then rush in as soon as the doors were opened. We did not want to miss any of those "Paragon chappal" ads :D After the strangely enjoyable advertisements, the movie opened up to huge number of whistles and claps for Dharmendra. The only other person for whom the audience gave such a welcome on the screen was for the now world famous in London and India actress, Shilpa Shetty and the London girl [ ? ], Katrina. Apart from all its flaws and stereo-typical moments, the movie completely belongs to the one and only Dharmendra. This was the first Dharmendra movie that I watched on the big screen. In his golden days he was known for his handsome looks and power fights apart from his true to the heart, typical Punjab da puttar type dialogues. I havent seen many of his movies, but he was said to be the most romantic hero of his era. And is undoubtedly very well known for his acting skills as well. I went to the theatre for this movie without any baggage of expectations and was left amazed by the acting prowess of this fine actor. He was the central character for this story and his expressions and timing were just awesome. He portayed the character of a lost sportsman trying to revive his own dignity through his son, battling through the circumstantial delimma of reacting as a father and the hurt sportsman causing his heart to be emotionally ripped open, with great elan.
Recently, he was awarded the lifetime achievement award for his contribution to Indian cinema. The award was presented to him by the great Amitabh Bachchan, who portrayed the role of his long time crime partner in the epic Sholay. Amitabh announced to the audience that it was his friend, Dharmendra, who had recommended Amitabh's name to Ramesh Sippy, the director of Sholay, for his role in the movie. And what a great pair it ended up being !!! These friends portrayed their roles so beautifully that they ended up immortalizing the characters forever :-) On recieving this award, Dharmendra got emotional and gave a very long and touching speech. That speech just showed what a lovely human being he is. He has very straight forward thoughts and open heart. He openly proclaimed that Amitabh and himself though staying so nearby almost like neighbours still have to travel all the way to London to attend this award ceremony to meet up and get a hug :)
How strange, that sometimes, people staying far away get the time to catch up more often than those who stay so near ...
The real reason for writing this post are all the things that surrounded the event of watching this movie. About a couple of months back, all of us at home travelled out to a lovely town for attending one of our friend's wedding. I had spent a lot of my school years in this town, so it wasnt such a new place to me and my parents. The wedding itself was a beautiful fusion of Maharashtrian and South Kanara culture. The highlight of the wedding was the garlanding event, where the bride and the bridegroom are made to stand on either side of a white curtain waiting for the exact auspicious moment to garland eachother. And just when the moment arrived and the curtain falls down, the cousin and uncle of the bride lifted her up and the groom had to jump and jump and jump more to be able to garland her before she could garland him. Well, quite obviously, the bride won the battle and garlanded the groom first. All said and done, this was undoubtedly the happiest and beautiful moment of the wedding.
After enjoying the delicious luncheon served with 17 various food items, following the wedding, we reached back to our hotel room for some rest. The late noon showers spilled water on our further travelling plans and we settled for watching the newly released hindi movie, Apne. It had been quite sometime since our whole family had been to a hindi movie in recent times and i thought that this should be a "family" movie, which it thankfully was :-) I stood there in the ticket counter after years and it brought back all the memories of those gold old movie watching days. One funny incident happened while I was in the queue. A guy standing in front of me in the queue, who I came to know later on was very poor in maths, asked the ticket vendor how much it would cost him for 15 tickets. After hearing the cost, he hesitated for sometime, and produced 250 rupees and said, give me as many tickets I can fetch in this money. You must have guessed by know for whom he was buying those tickets ;-) That brings me to the lack of this practise in the modern multiplexes. Ofcourse, its illegal business, but then you could atleast be assured of getting a ticket even after reaching the theatre just when the movie is about to start !!! But then, with the costs for watching a movie in the multiplexes zooming further and further up, watching a movie has lost all its charm. I bought 4 tickets, a pop corn and a couple of pepsis costing me less than the cost of a single multiplex ticket !!! And, before you start thinking, the theatre was air conditioned and in great shape. It really gets tough to reason out the amount of money metro people shell on these multiplex movies.
Back inside the theatre, we had to wait for the previous show to get over and then rush in as soon as the doors were opened. We did not want to miss any of those "Paragon chappal" ads :D After the strangely enjoyable advertisements, the movie opened up to huge number of whistles and claps for Dharmendra. The only other person for whom the audience gave such a welcome on the screen was for the now world famous in London and India actress, Shilpa Shetty and the London girl [ ? ], Katrina. Apart from all its flaws and stereo-typical moments, the movie completely belongs to the one and only Dharmendra. This was the first Dharmendra movie that I watched on the big screen. In his golden days he was known for his handsome looks and power fights apart from his true to the heart, typical Punjab da puttar type dialogues. I havent seen many of his movies, but he was said to be the most romantic hero of his era. And is undoubtedly very well known for his acting skills as well. I went to the theatre for this movie without any baggage of expectations and was left amazed by the acting prowess of this fine actor. He was the central character for this story and his expressions and timing were just awesome. He portayed the character of a lost sportsman trying to revive his own dignity through his son, battling through the circumstantial delimma of reacting as a father and the hurt sportsman causing his heart to be emotionally ripped open, with great elan.
Recently, he was awarded the lifetime achievement award for his contribution to Indian cinema. The award was presented to him by the great Amitabh Bachchan, who portrayed the role of his long time crime partner in the epic Sholay. Amitabh announced to the audience that it was his friend, Dharmendra, who had recommended Amitabh's name to Ramesh Sippy, the director of Sholay, for his role in the movie. And what a great pair it ended up being !!! These friends portrayed their roles so beautifully that they ended up immortalizing the characters forever :-) On recieving this award, Dharmendra got emotional and gave a very long and touching speech. That speech just showed what a lovely human being he is. He has very straight forward thoughts and open heart. He openly proclaimed that Amitabh and himself though staying so nearby almost like neighbours still have to travel all the way to London to attend this award ceremony to meet up and get a hug :)
How strange, that sometimes, people staying far away get the time to catch up more often than those who stay so near ...
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
2020
Nah, I am not gonna talk about the Twenty20 WorldCup here. Thats for some other day. And before you start thinking, no, it isnt any review of Kalam Sir's India 2020.
While watching the recently concluded Twenty20 WorldCup, I was so very much reminded of the "street cricket" we used to play while at school. This form of cricket, usually played in streets or small grounds, or backyards could be played with teams of any number of players. Me, actually played a lot of matches with a one man team.
You dont need any great pitch for these matches. Any small strip of almost plain ground or even a cement track or footpath in your backyard can very well serve as a pitch. Some small cracks here and there on the pitch can add that extra spin to the balls being balled. Its the unexpected spin and swing that adds more fun to such games.
You dont even need a huge open space. Infact, the less open the space, the more fun. You can have a wall as your boundary. You can hit it first bounce for a six, but if you hit over the wall you are out :D.
On streets, you can have plenty of stand-by fielders. For instance, the cars and carts parked on the road. They come in handy as the batsmen cannot sneak an easy run.
In your backyards, you can have the trees and flower pots as your strong fielders. Ofcourse, if you play matches where the only runs you can score are that of 4s and 6s, then these trees are a great help to the fielding team.
There are many ways in which you can get out. Its not just by being bowled, or run-out [ always the most controversial way to get out ], or by getting caught, but also by getting caught after the ball bounces once. With trees and cars acting as your fielders, its even more fun, since the ball can bounce on them and you can still be caught out !!! Hitting outside the ground premises is usually declared as out and not a sixer.
Having proper stumps is a luxury !! Any wooden plank or wall with stumps drawn in the most artistic ways can be your stumps for the game. To avoid any controversies, people even go for full colored rectangle box drawn on the walls, so that they can confirm being bowled out by verifying the color on the ball :-)
Why stumps, sometimes, even having a proper ball is a luxury. You can play with your home made cork ball, or a rubber ball, or even a good hard plastic ball, especially in closed surroundings. Any deformities or cracks in the ball add more fun and spice with both the bowler and the batsman unaware of how the ball is gonna bounce :D If you can figure out a way to make the ball fool the batsman by making it pitch on a particular place, or in a particular angle, you can reap great benefits from it.
At times, these matches can also be played under lights, not exactly flood lights, but even street lights, or a room with some bulbs in it will also do. Teams usually go for such extreme conditions just because of bad climatic conditions, with heavy winds or rain making it difficult to decide the winner for that match.
Tournaments are usually played on a daily basis, with each match lasting only for a limited overs of 3 to 4 overs a side. With only 2 teams playing in the tournament, its usually the team that wins the most number of matches among all the matches played on that given day, thats declared as the winner. When both the teams have more time to play, the winning team usually proposes to extend the tournament by 1 or 3 more matches, thus giving the losing team equal chance to bounce back.
Apart from rekindling my interest in cricket, this Twenty20 tournament brought back all those good old days of cricket we played. So bad, those days feel like centuries away ...
While watching the recently concluded Twenty20 WorldCup, I was so very much reminded of the "street cricket" we used to play while at school. This form of cricket, usually played in streets or small grounds, or backyards could be played with teams of any number of players. Me, actually played a lot of matches with a one man team.
You dont need any great pitch for these matches. Any small strip of almost plain ground or even a cement track or footpath in your backyard can very well serve as a pitch. Some small cracks here and there on the pitch can add that extra spin to the balls being balled. Its the unexpected spin and swing that adds more fun to such games.
You dont even need a huge open space. Infact, the less open the space, the more fun. You can have a wall as your boundary. You can hit it first bounce for a six, but if you hit over the wall you are out :D.
On streets, you can have plenty of stand-by fielders. For instance, the cars and carts parked on the road. They come in handy as the batsmen cannot sneak an easy run.
In your backyards, you can have the trees and flower pots as your strong fielders. Ofcourse, if you play matches where the only runs you can score are that of 4s and 6s, then these trees are a great help to the fielding team.
There are many ways in which you can get out. Its not just by being bowled, or run-out [ always the most controversial way to get out ], or by getting caught, but also by getting caught after the ball bounces once. With trees and cars acting as your fielders, its even more fun, since the ball can bounce on them and you can still be caught out !!! Hitting outside the ground premises is usually declared as out and not a sixer.
Having proper stumps is a luxury !! Any wooden plank or wall with stumps drawn in the most artistic ways can be your stumps for the game. To avoid any controversies, people even go for full colored rectangle box drawn on the walls, so that they can confirm being bowled out by verifying the color on the ball :-)
Why stumps, sometimes, even having a proper ball is a luxury. You can play with your home made cork ball, or a rubber ball, or even a good hard plastic ball, especially in closed surroundings. Any deformities or cracks in the ball add more fun and spice with both the bowler and the batsman unaware of how the ball is gonna bounce :D If you can figure out a way to make the ball fool the batsman by making it pitch on a particular place, or in a particular angle, you can reap great benefits from it.
At times, these matches can also be played under lights, not exactly flood lights, but even street lights, or a room with some bulbs in it will also do. Teams usually go for such extreme conditions just because of bad climatic conditions, with heavy winds or rain making it difficult to decide the winner for that match.
Tournaments are usually played on a daily basis, with each match lasting only for a limited overs of 3 to 4 overs a side. With only 2 teams playing in the tournament, its usually the team that wins the most number of matches among all the matches played on that given day, thats declared as the winner. When both the teams have more time to play, the winning team usually proposes to extend the tournament by 1 or 3 more matches, thus giving the losing team equal chance to bounce back.
Apart from rekindling my interest in cricket, this Twenty20 tournament brought back all those good old days of cricket we played. So bad, those days feel like centuries away ...
Friday, July 20, 2007
Usually, the comma gets left out
Read a nice article on how the comma is getting lost in the fast pace of our lives these days. I still remember the school question papers when we were asked to place the comma in the proper place in the sentence. But, seriously, in today's communication, especially the non-business ones, the comma is completely obscure !!!
Monday, July 09, 2007
5ederer
Oh Lord !!! Please make Federer and Nadal battle out many and many more title matches so that we humans get many more splendid tennis to watch.
The 5th straight Wimbeldon title for Federer, equalling the great Bjorn Borg, was nothing less than a war !!! A 5 setter lasting for more than 3 hours with the needle of success playing a free flow see-saw from the champ to the challenger was a great epic to watch.
The 2 sets that Federer won were decided by tie-breakers. The other 2 sets Nadal won by breaking Federer, 6-4 and 6-2. Federer had more unforced errors than Nadal. Federer had fewer winners at the net than Nadal. Nadal had broken Federer's service more number of times than Federer broke Nadal. Nadal won the fourth set 6-2 and was on a high when the match moved into the deciding set. Forget about winning 5 titles in a row, Federer was on the verge of losing this match !!!
So .. what does our hero do ?
5ederer had an ace up his sleeve, literally !!! The first game in the decider set, including the first point, he won with an "ace" :-) He knew that if he went for rallies, Nadal was coming to the net and winning those points. Ofcourse, this cant happen for each point, and we were lucky enough to see these guys fight it out again in the rallies. No drop balls, just plain placement. Make the opponent run from one corner to another, flirting with the base and side lines. An awesome game of tennis was on display on a bright sunny evening at the Center Court in Wimbledon. Nadal once, did come to the net and made Federer run from corner to corner, and the straight forehand return that Federer hit in reply to the net game of Nadal was just divine !!! It reminded me of Girish's forehand shorts straight down the TT table , when you expect him to be hitting it cross on the table. The only thing you can do for such beautiful forehand shots is just stand and admire. Thats precisely what Nadal did for this beauty from Federer.
Once 5ederer broke Nadal to lead 4-2, there was a sharp cry of joy, something rarely seen from Federer. Both the players knew that Bjorn Borg's dream of witnessing his record of 5 continuous Wimbledon titles being equalled would eventually come true today. You could see Nadal's shoulder sagging, and as if adding insult to injury, Federer showered more and more aces on Nadal, totalling 24 to Nadal's single ace, making sure that all doors for a Nadal comeback were cleanly shut.
The thrill and joy of watching this match can hardly be expressed in words. You got to watch it point by point and have yourself mesmerised in a beautiful game of lawn tennis.
The 5th straight Wimbeldon title for Federer, equalling the great Bjorn Borg, was nothing less than a war !!! A 5 setter lasting for more than 3 hours with the needle of success playing a free flow see-saw from the champ to the challenger was a great epic to watch.
The 2 sets that Federer won were decided by tie-breakers. The other 2 sets Nadal won by breaking Federer, 6-4 and 6-2. Federer had more unforced errors than Nadal. Federer had fewer winners at the net than Nadal. Nadal had broken Federer's service more number of times than Federer broke Nadal. Nadal won the fourth set 6-2 and was on a high when the match moved into the deciding set. Forget about winning 5 titles in a row, Federer was on the verge of losing this match !!!
So .. what does our hero do ?
5ederer had an ace up his sleeve, literally !!! The first game in the decider set, including the first point, he won with an "ace" :-) He knew that if he went for rallies, Nadal was coming to the net and winning those points. Ofcourse, this cant happen for each point, and we were lucky enough to see these guys fight it out again in the rallies. No drop balls, just plain placement. Make the opponent run from one corner to another, flirting with the base and side lines. An awesome game of tennis was on display on a bright sunny evening at the Center Court in Wimbledon. Nadal once, did come to the net and made Federer run from corner to corner, and the straight forehand return that Federer hit in reply to the net game of Nadal was just divine !!! It reminded me of Girish's forehand shorts straight down the TT table , when you expect him to be hitting it cross on the table. The only thing you can do for such beautiful forehand shots is just stand and admire. Thats precisely what Nadal did for this beauty from Federer.
Once 5ederer broke Nadal to lead 4-2, there was a sharp cry of joy, something rarely seen from Federer. Both the players knew that Bjorn Borg's dream of witnessing his record of 5 continuous Wimbledon titles being equalled would eventually come true today. You could see Nadal's shoulder sagging, and as if adding insult to injury, Federer showered more and more aces on Nadal, totalling 24 to Nadal's single ace, making sure that all doors for a Nadal comeback were cleanly shut.
The thrill and joy of watching this match can hardly be expressed in words. You got to watch it point by point and have yourself mesmerised in a beautiful game of lawn tennis.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Bartolli Roks !!!
******* Blogging this on 07-07-07 *******
Its a once in a century date !!! But then, isnt any other date a once in a century date ? ;-)
Once, Bartolli broke Henin in the second set to lead 6-5, there was no looking back for her. She had completely broken the confidence of Henin. Bartolli won 7 straight games from that point on to lead the penultimate set by 5 games to 0. Probably the fact that Henin has never made it to the Wimbeldon finals [ or is it just that she has never won the Wimbeldon finals ever ? ] started playing on her nerves and you could see her shoulders sag. From nowhere, Bartolli started finding her form playing some very beautiful forehands, pushing the ball to the far corners, reducing the match to a mere cat and mouse game, with Henin being the unlucky rat who was caught by the cat, knowing all the time that the cat was just playing with it and death was inevitable. Bartolli kinda made this evident, when she had some pity on the world number 1 and literally handed one game to Henin sparing her the embarrasment of losing the final set 6-0. Bartolli won the match 1-6, 7-5, 6-1. A phenomenal comeback I have witnessed for a long time now.
On a more personal front, I have been feeling on cloud nine since yesterday after being fascinated by the awesome MotoRokr E6. It truly rocks !!! A touch pad screen with clarity better than my laptop, sound clarity unheard of in Motorola phones [ well, its about 3 years back when i tried a Motorola mobile and was so very dissappointed by its sound clarity, the most basic part of a mobile. ] I have been hooked up to the FM Radio that comes with this handset all day long. Except for RealPlayer scrolling list being very very very slow, everything about this handset is just so very cool. The coolest thing being that its based on Linux ;-) and probably the main reason for *not* making a huge hole in my pocket. Great video recording with 2 Mega Pixel screen with 1.4X focus zoom, that comes with a 1GB storage space for mp3, pics, video and a business card recognizer, its centuries ahead of my first mobile, the Sony Ericsson T310.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Nightout at Lokhandwala
me : Hey Reddy, can you quickly complete that review in another 30 minutes ? I need to check-in the changes before i leave today
me : Pat, did you create the investigation report and upload it ?
Pat : yeah ... done .. I have started working on the new bug already
me : Good .. Raj, how far have you reached ?
tring tring .. tring tring ..
Raj : I think we need to [ tring tring ] change the implementation ...
tring tring ...
me : just hold on .. will take this call .. hi Niv .. how are u ? ... what ?? today ?? night show ?? dude ... its already 7pm !!! how will we get the tickets !!! ... its friday night !!! i have got to finish off so many things .. btw .. which movie ?? haha ... yeah, how does it matter !! .. 10 pm show ?? hmmm ... let me think for sometime ... no no .. wait ... count me in ... :) .. ok .. will start by 9 from here...
Thats how the plan for the night out originated. When I reached the theater, I found out that the other 2 of my friends who had pulled me in for the movie, were actually celebrating their temporary freedom from their wives who were out of town :D One of them was hell bent on seeing "Lokhandwala", and the other 2 of us were ready to just watch any movie. Since it was a friday night, It was impossible to even expect a ticket. The only hope was that it was the night when "Sivaji" got released !!! .. we were hoping that people would be too interested in Sivaji and we can get the tickets for other movies. But, I guess, almost all who came there had the same thoughts :p This got confirmed when no tickets were available for all the movies at the ticket counter. We decided to fall back on plan B. Just go out and eat at the food court. Surprisingly, the service was fast, and we finished eating in about 40 minutes. We gave the movie a final last shot and to our luck, with only few minutes left for the movie to start, we got the tickets for "Lokhandwala" !!!
We were hurrying to enter the movie hall, when our eyes chanced upon a known face. But, it was the height that puzzled us. Was he the one whom we were thinking he was ?? The hair style matched the posters we had seen him in, but definately not the height !!! After a good stare we realised that it really was our own "Uppi" , a Kannada movie actor better known as "Upendra" !!! Boy, what wonders can camera tricks do !!! When i saw him in his world class movie "A", he looked like he was atleast 6 feet tall. But only after seeing him in person, we found out that he was just about 5'6" in height.
We entered the movie hall talking about Uppi and were surprised to see that the movie was just about starting. We felt bad on missing the "comically" made so very funny commercial ads :D .. Given the backdrop of events based on which the movie is made, it was terribly sad to see the way it was made. The main shootout that happens covers only about 15 minutes of footage in the almost 100 minutes of the movie span, that too after adding the emotional drama of gangsters calling up home confessing their mistakes !!! now, how real is that ??
The movie definately tries to glorify the police and it does it in a good way, but could have taken some "inspiration" from Die Hard kinda movies and concentrated more on the planning aspects of the shootout itself. It was funny how Sanjay Dutt disposes off the bullet proof jacket as an unnecessary garment when the whole police force of about 100 officers is all wearing it religiously. The gory scenes make the movie a bit more harsh. And I have no idea why a movie based on such a serious event should have songs !!! Are the publishers so paranoid that the movie wont sell without songs ? They should be really paranoid now with the utter failure of the songs themselves .. they neither fit into the story, nor do they avoid people from leaving the movie halls for a quick smoke.
Well, after the movie, we ventured out back home on empty lanes filled with pockets of ever vigilant dogs who thankfully stayed away from showing their skills at running along our bikes. It had been years since I reached back home at 2am !!! Just the thought of entering home at that time, drove me down the memory lane .. to the good old college days of living life as if there was nothing like a "watch" ever invented .....
me : Pat, did you create the investigation report and upload it ?
Pat : yeah ... done .. I have started working on the new bug already
me : Good .. Raj, how far have you reached ?
tring tring .. tring tring ..
Raj : I think we need to [ tring tring ] change the implementation ...
tring tring ...
me : just hold on .. will take this call .. hi Niv .. how are u ? ... what ?? today ?? night show ?? dude ... its already 7pm !!! how will we get the tickets !!! ... its friday night !!! i have got to finish off so many things .. btw .. which movie ?? haha ... yeah, how does it matter !! .. 10 pm show ?? hmmm ... let me think for sometime ... no no .. wait ... count me in ... :) .. ok .. will start by 9 from here...
Thats how the plan for the night out originated. When I reached the theater, I found out that the other 2 of my friends who had pulled me in for the movie, were actually celebrating their temporary freedom from their wives who were out of town :D One of them was hell bent on seeing "Lokhandwala", and the other 2 of us were ready to just watch any movie. Since it was a friday night, It was impossible to even expect a ticket. The only hope was that it was the night when "Sivaji" got released !!! .. we were hoping that people would be too interested in Sivaji and we can get the tickets for other movies. But, I guess, almost all who came there had the same thoughts :p This got confirmed when no tickets were available for all the movies at the ticket counter. We decided to fall back on plan B. Just go out and eat at the food court. Surprisingly, the service was fast, and we finished eating in about 40 minutes. We gave the movie a final last shot and to our luck, with only few minutes left for the movie to start, we got the tickets for "Lokhandwala" !!!
We were hurrying to enter the movie hall, when our eyes chanced upon a known face. But, it was the height that puzzled us. Was he the one whom we were thinking he was ?? The hair style matched the posters we had seen him in, but definately not the height !!! After a good stare we realised that it really was our own "Uppi" , a Kannada movie actor better known as "Upendra" !!! Boy, what wonders can camera tricks do !!! When i saw him in his world class movie "A", he looked like he was atleast 6 feet tall. But only after seeing him in person, we found out that he was just about 5'6" in height.
We entered the movie hall talking about Uppi and were surprised to see that the movie was just about starting. We felt bad on missing the "comically" made so very funny commercial ads :D .. Given the backdrop of events based on which the movie is made, it was terribly sad to see the way it was made. The main shootout that happens covers only about 15 minutes of footage in the almost 100 minutes of the movie span, that too after adding the emotional drama of gangsters calling up home confessing their mistakes !!! now, how real is that ??
The movie definately tries to glorify the police and it does it in a good way, but could have taken some "inspiration" from Die Hard kinda movies and concentrated more on the planning aspects of the shootout itself. It was funny how Sanjay Dutt disposes off the bullet proof jacket as an unnecessary garment when the whole police force of about 100 officers is all wearing it religiously. The gory scenes make the movie a bit more harsh. And I have no idea why a movie based on such a serious event should have songs !!! Are the publishers so paranoid that the movie wont sell without songs ? They should be really paranoid now with the utter failure of the songs themselves .. they neither fit into the story, nor do they avoid people from leaving the movie halls for a quick smoke.
Well, after the movie, we ventured out back home on empty lanes filled with pockets of ever vigilant dogs who thankfully stayed away from showing their skills at running along our bikes. It had been years since I reached back home at 2am !!! Just the thought of entering home at that time, drove me down the memory lane .. to the good old college days of living life as if there was nothing like a "watch" ever invented .....
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Mahiya
Watch, listen and enjoy the music in this song sung by and performed by an indian version of Shakira :D
iit divas rocking performance
If anyone happens to find out a way to download this song, please let me know.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Virtual Barbershop
This does not work with Speakers ... you HAVE to have your headphones on .. that too in the right alignment .. the speaker that reads "R" should be on your right ear !!!
If the above thing doesnt work .. well then try downloading from here
Friday, May 04, 2007
You have been Tagged
Here's my small attempt at explaining what tagging is all about.
In the World Wide Web, we come across plenty and plenty of webpages which give us the information we seek. Humans cant remember the IP addresses of the machines. so we have hostnames. From here comes the URL. To remember the webpages that we visit, we "bookmark" these URLs. Now, since we keep on bookmarking a huge number of webpages, we start clubbing them together into categories.
These categories have a small problem. I can have categories like, "blogs", where i bookmark all the blogs that i often vist and categories like "technical", where i store my bookmarks that link to webpages discussing technical stuff. The problem occurs when we have to bookmark a page which is a mix of both the categories. Like for example, this post of mine. Do you want to bookmark it under "blogs" since its a blog, or under "technical" since it talks about some techy things ?
Most of the times, we end up wasting a lot of time digging through the various categories of the bookmarks to find the link we bookmarked a couple of months ago. We try to decipher the possible webpage the bookmark points to by reading the text that forms the URL. Not the best thing to do, but then thats the only choice we have. This basically boils down to the fact that, just plain categories of bookmarks doesnt help us.
This is where tags come into picture. As you must have tagged a single conversation in gmail with multiple tags since those tags describe the contents of the conversation, in the same manner, when we bookmark a webpage, we can give it tags that would be like some meta-data or "indexes", that would describe the contents of the webpage the bookmark points to. So, the next time you want to dig up a bookmark you saved a couple of months ago, you simply use the tags to "index" through your bookmarks thus increasing your chances of finding the bookmark you were looking for in quite less time than earlier.
Now, if you store your bookmarks on your browser, you have the problem of not being able to use those bookmarks on a machine where you did not save them. If you use a workstation at office and another one at home, you need a mechanism to be able to synchronise the bookmarks on these 2 machines. To solve this, there are websites where you can login and save your bookmarks online. some of these sites provide you the flexibility of storing these bookmarks personally for your use, or you can share them with the public.
Websites like del.icio.us, bring together these 2 thoughts of "sharing bookmarks" and "tagging bookmarks". Once you login and create an account for yourself, you can install a button on your web browser, and everytime you come across a webpage you want to bookmark, you can click on that browser button, and it will save that bookmark into your account. While doing so, you can give this bookmark some tags that would decribe the contents of the webpage. The main intention being to create useful "indexes" that will help you in searching through your own bookmarks at a later point of time.
Things start getting a bit interesting when you start bookmarking and tagging blogs. People write blogs and there are very few ways in which they can publicise their blogs so that more and more people on the World Wide Web can read through their blogs. When you visit an interesting blog which you want to bookmark, more often than not you would give the name of the person who owns the blog as a tag for this bookmark. This is called "tagging the blog". Websites like del.icio.us, have a public list of these bookmarks and tags. People can surf through these tags and thus increase the chances of them visiting your blog. So, tagging of blogs can help you popularise your blog !!! I have already "tagged" the blogs of my friends whom I visit so very often :)
The confusion about tags starts creeping in since lots of blogging sites provide you a feature where you can add tags, or labels to your posts in the blog. There is no easy way of linking these labels with the bookmark tags :(, well atleast for blogspot. Guess, this is another thing just waiting to happen in the near future ...
In the World Wide Web, we come across plenty and plenty of webpages which give us the information we seek. Humans cant remember the IP addresses of the machines. so we have hostnames. From here comes the URL. To remember the webpages that we visit, we "bookmark" these URLs. Now, since we keep on bookmarking a huge number of webpages, we start clubbing them together into categories.
These categories have a small problem. I can have categories like, "blogs", where i bookmark all the blogs that i often vist and categories like "technical", where i store my bookmarks that link to webpages discussing technical stuff. The problem occurs when we have to bookmark a page which is a mix of both the categories. Like for example, this post of mine. Do you want to bookmark it under "blogs" since its a blog, or under "technical" since it talks about some techy things ?
Most of the times, we end up wasting a lot of time digging through the various categories of the bookmarks to find the link we bookmarked a couple of months ago. We try to decipher the possible webpage the bookmark points to by reading the text that forms the URL. Not the best thing to do, but then thats the only choice we have. This basically boils down to the fact that, just plain categories of bookmarks doesnt help us.
This is where tags come into picture. As you must have tagged a single conversation in gmail with multiple tags since those tags describe the contents of the conversation, in the same manner, when we bookmark a webpage, we can give it tags that would be like some meta-data or "indexes", that would describe the contents of the webpage the bookmark points to. So, the next time you want to dig up a bookmark you saved a couple of months ago, you simply use the tags to "index" through your bookmarks thus increasing your chances of finding the bookmark you were looking for in quite less time than earlier.
Now, if you store your bookmarks on your browser, you have the problem of not being able to use those bookmarks on a machine where you did not save them. If you use a workstation at office and another one at home, you need a mechanism to be able to synchronise the bookmarks on these 2 machines. To solve this, there are websites where you can login and save your bookmarks online. some of these sites provide you the flexibility of storing these bookmarks personally for your use, or you can share them with the public.
Websites like del.icio.us, bring together these 2 thoughts of "sharing bookmarks" and "tagging bookmarks". Once you login and create an account for yourself, you can install a button on your web browser, and everytime you come across a webpage you want to bookmark, you can click on that browser button, and it will save that bookmark into your account. While doing so, you can give this bookmark some tags that would decribe the contents of the webpage. The main intention being to create useful "indexes" that will help you in searching through your own bookmarks at a later point of time.
Things start getting a bit interesting when you start bookmarking and tagging blogs. People write blogs and there are very few ways in which they can publicise their blogs so that more and more people on the World Wide Web can read through their blogs. When you visit an interesting blog which you want to bookmark, more often than not you would give the name of the person who owns the blog as a tag for this bookmark. This is called "tagging the blog". Websites like del.icio.us, have a public list of these bookmarks and tags. People can surf through these tags and thus increase the chances of them visiting your blog. So, tagging of blogs can help you popularise your blog !!! I have already "tagged" the blogs of my friends whom I visit so very often :)
The confusion about tags starts creeping in since lots of blogging sites provide you a feature where you can add tags, or labels to your posts in the blog. There is no easy way of linking these labels with the bookmark tags :(, well atleast for blogspot. Guess, this is another thing just waiting to happen in the near future ...
Monday, April 30, 2007
Cometh the hour, cometh the man
149 of 107 balls with 13 fours and 8 towering sixes. The innings of his lifetime. It was a delight to watch Gilchrist come back to form and play his usual game. He was struggling the whole tournament, especially the later half. And boy, what a time to regain your confidence and touch !!! It was his last innings in the World Cup and he definately is gonna cherish it for his lifetime. I guess, not just he, but every person who saw him butcher the Sri Lankan attack would cherish his innings. There was no slogging, pure timing in his shots. I was very delighted to watch his innings. And it was even more crucial, since none of the in-form Aussie players were able to find their usual touch. Hayden, Ponting, Symonds were all out of nick on the day it mattered all. Thanks to Gilchrist's beautiful strokeplay, Aussies had it easy third time in a row in the finals.
Gilly scored a boundary or a six of each of the Lankan bowlers. Not a single one was spared. His six that he scored of Murali was his best. But, the best six of the match was not from Gilly's bat. It was the captain, Ponting who scored the most beautiful six of Malinga. It wasnt a bad ball, but the six was shot from the middle of the bat and was struck with great force. It was a classic shot. Malinga was the best bowler among the Lankans on that day, and to score a six of his bowling speaks a lot in itself.
Its funny to see that in all the 3 World Cup finals that Australia have won, its been one of the sub-continent countries whom they beat. All the time, the team that reached the finals was the best in that tournament, and once they played the finals, you felt like they actually handed over the trophy to the Aussies in a plate, knealing down on their knees. Thankfully, it wasnt such a bad match after all with the Sri Lankans giving them a good fight. In fact, the match could have gone either way when Jayasurya and Sangakarra were at the crease. It made the match interesting and not a one sided event as most of the matches in this tournament have been. If it was not for Clarke's fluke dismissal of Jaysuriya, we certainly had a tight match in hand.
It was Jaysuriya's, Arnold's and Murali's [ is it really ? ] last World Cup bout and they definately gave their best. But, it was Glenn McGrath, playing his last one-day match, who got the most attention. He was the highest wicket taker in the tourny and was bowling his usual immaculate line but was not finding the wicket. In fact, he got hammered a lot too in his bowling. I was doubting if he would even get a wicket in this match. His first wicket that he got in this match was from a runout !!! But, then it doesnt count as a wicket on his name. And as it was with the Test matches, he got a wicket of his penultimate ball in his one-day's too. He is probably the only player in this tournament having a fairy tale retirement
Russel Arnold c Gilchrist b McGrath 1
All the 3 players involved in this wicket were playing their last match :), well atleast the last match in a World Cup.
I dont know about others, but I am really gonna miss watching the immaculate McGrath and the entertaining Gilchrist ...
Gilly scored a boundary or a six of each of the Lankan bowlers. Not a single one was spared. His six that he scored of Murali was his best. But, the best six of the match was not from Gilly's bat. It was the captain, Ponting who scored the most beautiful six of Malinga. It wasnt a bad ball, but the six was shot from the middle of the bat and was struck with great force. It was a classic shot. Malinga was the best bowler among the Lankans on that day, and to score a six of his bowling speaks a lot in itself.
Its funny to see that in all the 3 World Cup finals that Australia have won, its been one of the sub-continent countries whom they beat. All the time, the team that reached the finals was the best in that tournament, and once they played the finals, you felt like they actually handed over the trophy to the Aussies in a plate, knealing down on their knees. Thankfully, it wasnt such a bad match after all with the Sri Lankans giving them a good fight. In fact, the match could have gone either way when Jayasurya and Sangakarra were at the crease. It made the match interesting and not a one sided event as most of the matches in this tournament have been. If it was not for Clarke's fluke dismissal of Jaysuriya, we certainly had a tight match in hand.
It was Jaysuriya's, Arnold's and Murali's [ is it really ? ] last World Cup bout and they definately gave their best. But, it was Glenn McGrath, playing his last one-day match, who got the most attention. He was the highest wicket taker in the tourny and was bowling his usual immaculate line but was not finding the wicket. In fact, he got hammered a lot too in his bowling. I was doubting if he would even get a wicket in this match. His first wicket that he got in this match was from a runout !!! But, then it doesnt count as a wicket on his name. And as it was with the Test matches, he got a wicket of his penultimate ball in his one-day's too. He is probably the only player in this tournament having a fairy tale retirement
Russel Arnold c Gilchrist b McGrath 1
All the 3 players involved in this wicket were playing their last match :), well atleast the last match in a World Cup.
I dont know about others, but I am really gonna miss watching the immaculate McGrath and the entertaining Gilchrist ...
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Kaka's attack
Its often said "Attack is the best form of defence" and Kaka proved it right, when he scored 2 goals on a counter attack beating the out of place Manchester United defense.
This was the first time that i saw Kaka in action and for my luck, he scored 2 good goals. The precision and the ease with which he scored the goals made me realise why people talk about him with so high regards. The first goal that he scored was simply amazing. It was a simple flick with his right heel to the far end of the goal and all the goalkeeper could do was to watch it pass by him. Probably he thought that the ball would not go inside the goal. What struck me was the confidence with which Kaka hit the ball in that far angle. I tried to catch some clues as to how he figured out the angle in the replays, but it seemed like he never moved his eye from the ball. Wonder when he calculated the angle and decided to strike the ball. Guess its the practice of scoring goals from such angles that gave him the confidence to shoot it.
This was the first leg of the first semi-final of the UEFA Champsions League 2007. It was between AC Milan and Manchester United. Thanks to Kaka, AC were able to score 2 away goals which might come in handy in the next leg. ManU won the match 3-2, thanks to some silly errors by AC goalkeeper Dida. How strange that the land that produces so great football strikers has never produced any great goalkeepers !!!
It was a high pressure match. But the first half was more interesting than the second. ManU were lagging behind AC by 2 goals to 1 at the end of the first half and it was Rooney who came to their rescue. He scored the equaliser in the first 10 minutes of the second half. But the best goal came in the dying moments of the match, 91st minute to be precise, when Rooney struck hard from the right corner of the D, to score the winning goal. The power with which he struck the ball was amazing. Though Ronaldo, being crowned the PFA's Player of the Year just a day before this match, played some very fast and I should say a bit selfish football, it was Rooney who won the hearts at the end.
Its been a really long time since I had a chance to follow things on the EUFA Cup. Another 4 more matches to go now. Hopefully, I get to watch all of them ... and they are of the same quality as today's match :)
This was the first time that i saw Kaka in action and for my luck, he scored 2 good goals. The precision and the ease with which he scored the goals made me realise why people talk about him with so high regards. The first goal that he scored was simply amazing. It was a simple flick with his right heel to the far end of the goal and all the goalkeeper could do was to watch it pass by him. Probably he thought that the ball would not go inside the goal. What struck me was the confidence with which Kaka hit the ball in that far angle. I tried to catch some clues as to how he figured out the angle in the replays, but it seemed like he never moved his eye from the ball. Wonder when he calculated the angle and decided to strike the ball. Guess its the practice of scoring goals from such angles that gave him the confidence to shoot it.
This was the first leg of the first semi-final of the UEFA Champsions League 2007. It was between AC Milan and Manchester United. Thanks to Kaka, AC were able to score 2 away goals which might come in handy in the next leg. ManU won the match 3-2, thanks to some silly errors by AC goalkeeper Dida. How strange that the land that produces so great football strikers has never produced any great goalkeepers !!!
It was a high pressure match. But the first half was more interesting than the second. ManU were lagging behind AC by 2 goals to 1 at the end of the first half and it was Rooney who came to their rescue. He scored the equaliser in the first 10 minutes of the second half. But the best goal came in the dying moments of the match, 91st minute to be precise, when Rooney struck hard from the right corner of the D, to score the winning goal. The power with which he struck the ball was amazing. Though Ronaldo, being crowned the PFA's Player of the Year just a day before this match, played some very fast and I should say a bit selfish football, it was Rooney who won the hearts at the end.
Its been a really long time since I had a chance to follow things on the EUFA Cup. Another 4 more matches to go now. Hopefully, I get to watch all of them ... and they are of the same quality as today's match :)
Monday, April 23, 2007
More Movies
Forgot to write about a couple of other movies I saw in the past couple of months...
Monsoon Wedding
For a change I saw this movie on DD !!! Yeah, was surfing for anything good on TV and surprisingly found that only DD had something good going on at that time. Its been almost a decade since I watched a movie on DD. I cant believe how I was able to spend my time in front of the TV with just one channel playing on it !!! Those days, watching the Sunday evening movie was nothing less than a party. Buy some snacks, close the curtains, make yourself comfortable and wait for the movie to start. Sometimes, less is good :D
Coming back to the movie .. I liked the movie. There were atleast 2 tracks of stories in the movie. And definately, it was the पी. के. दुबे who steals the show from all. The way he introduces his name as 'drank and drowned' [ thats the literal meaning of his name when read fast :p ] is really funny. Its his expressions that make the scenes more cute. the ups and downs of his new found love and the way they both communicate just with their eyes and so few words is marvelous. It was this story that kept me interested than the main story. The main story was a bit out of place. It wasnt the groom who looked like American, but the bride. Even the characters that they portrayed were not in line with their background.
The screenplay was also good. Especially since it never felt that the actors were speaking on cue but as if they were actually preparing for the wedding and talking impromptu. The guests being welcomed in colorful umbrellas in the rains was fun to watch. Shefali did a good job and she is definately a very good actress who unfortunately never gets any "main" roles to play. The pick of the actors in this movie though is Naseerudding Shah. His role is very central to the non-main theme of the movie and he makes his role look so very natural. No over-acting, just plain simple things done right.
गंग्स्तेर [ Gangster ]
Heard a lot about Kangana in this movie and wanted to watch it since long. Watching the first 15 minutes of the movie, where she gets the meaty presence on the screen, I was shocked to see her speak so broken Hindi. I was shocked to see that they were talking so much about this actress who could not even speak Hindi properly. But, later on as the movie progressed, I realized that what she did in the start of the movie was part of her role. She was trying to portray they she was drunk !!! It was a good try I should say. Shiny too got a good role in this movie, but was not allowed to utter a single word for almost 80% of the times he is seen on screen. I dont know if it was for good or bad :D ... His character steals away the show from all, when he reads out these words in the letter that is sent to Kangana. "I now know why I came running to your house on that rainy day ... " Kudos to the guy who wrote this script and the dailogues ...
सिनेमा का भूत उतरा ॥ अब चलो कुछ काम कर लेते है :p
Monsoon Wedding
For a change I saw this movie on DD !!! Yeah, was surfing for anything good on TV and surprisingly found that only DD had something good going on at that time. Its been almost a decade since I watched a movie on DD. I cant believe how I was able to spend my time in front of the TV with just one channel playing on it !!! Those days, watching the Sunday evening movie was nothing less than a party. Buy some snacks, close the curtains, make yourself comfortable and wait for the movie to start. Sometimes, less is good :D
Coming back to the movie .. I liked the movie. There were atleast 2 tracks of stories in the movie. And definately, it was the पी. के. दुबे who steals the show from all. The way he introduces his name as 'drank and drowned' [ thats the literal meaning of his name when read fast :p ] is really funny. Its his expressions that make the scenes more cute. the ups and downs of his new found love and the way they both communicate just with their eyes and so few words is marvelous. It was this story that kept me interested than the main story. The main story was a bit out of place. It wasnt the groom who looked like American, but the bride. Even the characters that they portrayed were not in line with their background.
The screenplay was also good. Especially since it never felt that the actors were speaking on cue but as if they were actually preparing for the wedding and talking impromptu. The guests being welcomed in colorful umbrellas in the rains was fun to watch. Shefali did a good job and she is definately a very good actress who unfortunately never gets any "main" roles to play. The pick of the actors in this movie though is Naseerudding Shah. His role is very central to the non-main theme of the movie and he makes his role look so very natural. No over-acting, just plain simple things done right.
गंग्स्तेर [ Gangster ]
Heard a lot about Kangana in this movie and wanted to watch it since long. Watching the first 15 minutes of the movie, where she gets the meaty presence on the screen, I was shocked to see her speak so broken Hindi. I was shocked to see that they were talking so much about this actress who could not even speak Hindi properly. But, later on as the movie progressed, I realized that what she did in the start of the movie was part of her role. She was trying to portray they she was drunk !!! It was a good try I should say. Shiny too got a good role in this movie, but was not allowed to utter a single word for almost 80% of the times he is seen on screen. I dont know if it was for good or bad :D ... His character steals away the show from all, when he reads out these words in the letter that is sent to Kangana. "I now know why I came running to your house on that rainy day ... " Kudos to the guy who wrote this script and the dailogues ...
सिनेमा का भूत उतरा ॥ अब चलो कुछ काम कर लेते है :p
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Movies
एक और बड़ी लंबी जुदाई blogging से. Wow !!! It really works :) Its really nice to see that hindi text there just as you type in the phonetic equivalent in English. Hectic life, but got some time to watch some nice movies. So thought of penning down some of my reviews about these movies.
डोर
This is one of the best movies I have watched in recent times. Its a very slow movie, but you dont get bored with it. Its like reading a book which takes you into its grip and you keep turning the pages in anticipation of the way its gonna end. अयेशा has certainly given a very good performance in this movie. The story itself is so simple and good and since she is the central character in the movie, I guess thats the reason she has got so much attention. But, yeah, she has lived upto the expectations of this role.
The movie backdrop and the setting is so good, there are so many interlinked stories or rather aspects to the characters. It makes them look so much more real, when compared to other movies when the characters have only one dimension in life and nothing else. The movie talks about what "friendship" is. How you can fall in love with your friend, and that "love" doesnt always have to end up into a relationship. Its the bonding that matters. The movie also talks about how widows are "made to behave" without even a single person giving a damn to what she feels in her heart. On the other hand, it also shows why the lady accepts this discrimination, only to be enlightened at the end to break all the shackles and lead her own life. The reasoning and the changes that come into her life are quiet convincing. The more central theme of the movie though is "capital punishment". The movie makes its point clear at the end that, its not always an eye for an eye that everybody wants. The lady who was hell bent upon punishing the culprit of her husband's death, realises that by not signing the forgivance letter, she would be implicitly committing the same crime that caused her husband's death and in turn making another woman go through the same torture that she has been through. The last scene of the movie is very फिल्मी ॥ पर इतना चलता है :p
Red Eye
Another gripping kidnap drama. Only that this time, the kidnapper is sitting write next to you in the flight and you cant run away from him !!! Its only between you and the kidnapper and nobody else has a clue that you are actually kidnapped. You are held hostage and cannot get any help from all the other passengers in the flight. Its a very unique idea and keeps you on the edge of the seat throughout. Except that the motive for the kidnap is very dull and it doesnt sound convincing at all. But, its a good one time watchable movie.
The flight of phoenix
Another plane crash movie, just that its in the middle of the desert caught in a sand storm !!! A strange calculation is done by the pilot and they come to the conclusion that if they all walk [ they are about 12 of them ], the water in their reserves would finish off in a couple of days. But, if they wait there hoping that someone would find them, then the reserves could last for 30 days !!!. There is a aeroplane design engineer among the people stranded and he convinces them that he can rebuild the damaged plane. But, it would be a single propeller plane and they will have to join the wings and reuse the undamaged tail. At the end of the hard work of making the plane, they come to the harsh realisation that the plane can hold only the pilot and no passengers. They all get angry on the design engineer but they cant do anything to him, since he the only hope they have. Finally, they all tie ropes to the wings, and hang on to it while the plane named "Phoenix" takes flight.
हमको दीवाना कर गए
One lazy weekend afternoon after lunch at home and nothing else to watch on TV. Thats how i ended up watching this movie. Its a खीचिदी of all the hindi movies that have been made till date. Not a single penny of innovation. Girl is engaged, boy meets her before wedding, they fall in love, but dont tell eachother. Just before wedding, guy meets the girl again [ oh yeah, this time they meet by co-incidence !! duh .. ] and this time the guy runs away with the girl. The settings, the locales and the fashion show in this movie were only selling points. Katrina has a brilliant taste for dresses that look good on her :D
50 first dates
I had watched this movie long time back and happened to watch it again this time around. Adam Sandler has done a wonderful job in this beautiful movie. The girl with whom he falls in love, has a memory problem. She can remember things only for 24 hours. When she wakes up in the morning she cant remember anything that happened the previous days. So, every day, her brother and dad, keep her drawing canvas clean, and give her the same newspaper to read. She wakes up, reads the newspaper, draws the same things everyday on her canvas and visits the restaurant. Its in this restaurant that Sandler meets her, and each day, he starts from the beginning trying to win her heart. All this carries on for 50 days. Each day morning he meets her in the restaurant, spends a lovely time with her the whole day, and even proposes her a few days in the evening, but the next day morning, he has to start all over again !!! That guy really has a lot of patience and personifies perseverance. A good watchable movie.
डोर
This is one of the best movies I have watched in recent times. Its a very slow movie, but you dont get bored with it. Its like reading a book which takes you into its grip and you keep turning the pages in anticipation of the way its gonna end. अयेशा has certainly given a very good performance in this movie. The story itself is so simple and good and since she is the central character in the movie, I guess thats the reason she has got so much attention. But, yeah, she has lived upto the expectations of this role.
The movie backdrop and the setting is so good, there are so many interlinked stories or rather aspects to the characters. It makes them look so much more real, when compared to other movies when the characters have only one dimension in life and nothing else. The movie talks about what "friendship" is. How you can fall in love with your friend, and that "love" doesnt always have to end up into a relationship. Its the bonding that matters. The movie also talks about how widows are "made to behave" without even a single person giving a damn to what she feels in her heart. On the other hand, it also shows why the lady accepts this discrimination, only to be enlightened at the end to break all the shackles and lead her own life. The reasoning and the changes that come into her life are quiet convincing. The more central theme of the movie though is "capital punishment". The movie makes its point clear at the end that, its not always an eye for an eye that everybody wants. The lady who was hell bent upon punishing the culprit of her husband's death, realises that by not signing the forgivance letter, she would be implicitly committing the same crime that caused her husband's death and in turn making another woman go through the same torture that she has been through. The last scene of the movie is very फिल्मी ॥ पर इतना चलता है :p
Red Eye
Another gripping kidnap drama. Only that this time, the kidnapper is sitting write next to you in the flight and you cant run away from him !!! Its only between you and the kidnapper and nobody else has a clue that you are actually kidnapped. You are held hostage and cannot get any help from all the other passengers in the flight. Its a very unique idea and keeps you on the edge of the seat throughout. Except that the motive for the kidnap is very dull and it doesnt sound convincing at all. But, its a good one time watchable movie.
The flight of phoenix
Another plane crash movie, just that its in the middle of the desert caught in a sand storm !!! A strange calculation is done by the pilot and they come to the conclusion that if they all walk [ they are about 12 of them ], the water in their reserves would finish off in a couple of days. But, if they wait there hoping that someone would find them, then the reserves could last for 30 days !!!. There is a aeroplane design engineer among the people stranded and he convinces them that he can rebuild the damaged plane. But, it would be a single propeller plane and they will have to join the wings and reuse the undamaged tail. At the end of the hard work of making the plane, they come to the harsh realisation that the plane can hold only the pilot and no passengers. They all get angry on the design engineer but they cant do anything to him, since he the only hope they have. Finally, they all tie ropes to the wings, and hang on to it while the plane named "Phoenix" takes flight.
हमको दीवाना कर गए
One lazy weekend afternoon after lunch at home and nothing else to watch on TV. Thats how i ended up watching this movie. Its a खीचिदी of all the hindi movies that have been made till date. Not a single penny of innovation. Girl is engaged, boy meets her before wedding, they fall in love, but dont tell eachother. Just before wedding, guy meets the girl again [ oh yeah, this time they meet by co-incidence !! duh .. ] and this time the guy runs away with the girl. The settings, the locales and the fashion show in this movie were only selling points. Katrina has a brilliant taste for dresses that look good on her :D
50 first dates
I had watched this movie long time back and happened to watch it again this time around. Adam Sandler has done a wonderful job in this beautiful movie. The girl with whom he falls in love, has a memory problem. She can remember things only for 24 hours. When she wakes up in the morning she cant remember anything that happened the previous days. So, every day, her brother and dad, keep her drawing canvas clean, and give her the same newspaper to read. She wakes up, reads the newspaper, draws the same things everyday on her canvas and visits the restaurant. Its in this restaurant that Sandler meets her, and each day, he starts from the beginning trying to win her heart. All this carries on for 50 days. Each day morning he meets her in the restaurant, spends a lovely time with her the whole day, and even proposes her a few days in the evening, but the next day morning, he has to start all over again !!! That guy really has a lot of patience and personifies perseverance. A good watchable movie.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Whats your limit anyway ?
Yahoo has announced that Yahoo Mail users will get limitless storage space !!!
Its almost 10 years since I created my yahoo account. I remember creating it in my college. And in those days, creating an email account was like the most toughest thing on earth and you needed support from people to help you create it. And if you were the unlucky one who was late to join the party and didnt have an email account, you were looked upon as inferior souls who were missing the most important thing in life !!!
Well, in a way now email has become ubiquitous and is everybody's second identity [ or should I say first ? ]. Its really so hard to imagine a world without email. But hey, emails have been around, atleast in my limited world, for only about 10 to 12 years !!! Technology can certainly paint this world in a completely new color :-)
The interesting part of the announcement was in the details given there about how the industry has started creating goods that can just store more and more data. I liked the way he has depicted the growth in stages for the past 10 years. Imagine storing a 100 hours of video, thats like atleast 35 Hindi movies, in a small iPod that can fit into your pocket. Compare this with the delimma we had in college when we had to store 2 pdf files in our 1.44 MB floppy !!! Will one floppy be sufficient to hold them ? or should I just borrow another floppy from my friend ?
Moore's Law rocks !!! If anyone had any doubts in the value of compounding returns, they just have to take a mathematical look at how the storage space on a single device has grown from 1.44 MB to 80GB in a span of 10 years. Infact, on taking a more closer look we have even beaten the 18 month cycle and reduced it to 10 months !!!
Strangely enough, even with these huge jumps in memory storage capacities, I still find instances where I end up having the same delimma of less storage space I had in college. Will one memory stick of 1GB be sufficient to store these 2 movies ? or should I just borrow another 1GB stick from my friend ?
Parkinson's Law rocks too :-) Wonder how soon/long it will take for Parkinson's Law to dawn on Yahoo Mail's unlimited storage space. Is there anything bigger than "limitless" ...
Its almost 10 years since I created my yahoo account. I remember creating it in my college. And in those days, creating an email account was like the most toughest thing on earth and you needed support from people to help you create it. And if you were the unlucky one who was late to join the party and didnt have an email account, you were looked upon as inferior souls who were missing the most important thing in life !!!
Well, in a way now email has become ubiquitous and is everybody's second identity [ or should I say first ? ]. Its really so hard to imagine a world without email. But hey, emails have been around, atleast in my limited world, for only about 10 to 12 years !!! Technology can certainly paint this world in a completely new color :-)
The interesting part of the announcement was in the details given there about how the industry has started creating goods that can just store more and more data. I liked the way he has depicted the growth in stages for the past 10 years. Imagine storing a 100 hours of video, thats like atleast 35 Hindi movies, in a small iPod that can fit into your pocket. Compare this with the delimma we had in college when we had to store 2 pdf files in our 1.44 MB floppy !!! Will one floppy be sufficient to hold them ? or should I just borrow another floppy from my friend ?
Moore's Law rocks !!! If anyone had any doubts in the value of compounding returns, they just have to take a mathematical look at how the storage space on a single device has grown from 1.44 MB to 80GB in a span of 10 years. Infact, on taking a more closer look we have even beaten the 18 month cycle and reduced it to 10 months !!!
Strangely enough, even with these huge jumps in memory storage capacities, I still find instances where I end up having the same delimma of less storage space I had in college. Will one memory stick of 1GB be sufficient to store these 2 movies ? or should I just borrow another 1GB stick from my friend ?
Parkinson's Law rocks too :-) Wonder how soon/long it will take for Parkinson's Law to dawn on Yahoo Mail's unlimited storage space. Is there anything bigger than "limitless" ...
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Wah re bengalooru
Back to blogging after a long hiatus ...
In the past couple of months when I had been extremely busy, I had the chance of travelling outside Bangalore on a few occasions. And this time for a change it was in a bus. While travelling I realised the truth in the saying "A nation is as developed as its roads."
The national highway that connects Bangalore and Hyderabad is so very well done you wont feel any bumps and can have a very peaceful sleep even when travelling in a bus [ the hi-tech, non-volvo type of buses ]. Its a huge 6 lane road all along very neatly done.
There are quite a few other roads that connect Bangalore to other neighbouring states. Most of these roads are state highways. I was shocked to see the condition of these roads. They are so pathetic that no vehicle travelling on it can be in a good condition after a ride. The condition of the people travelling in those vehicles is beyond imagination and are left to the mercy of the driver's maneuvering skills on how best he can find the path with the least number of bumps. What was disheartening to see was that the roads were in this condition even as close as 30 kms near to Bangalore.
It goes to show the extent of neglection of the authorities. When they are not bothered to fix these things about 30 kms away from Bangalore, imagine the plight of the people living 300 to 400 kms away from Bangalore !!!
Everyone has problems with the crumbling infrastructure in Bangalore and all the money is being poured to fix this, as if this is the only place in the entire state that has problems. Even after all this fire fighting by the authorities, the people end up wasting their time stuck up in huge traffic jams.
In the same trip that i travelled on that pathetic state highway, it was such a relief to find our bus making less noise when we were near Bangalore. Within 15 minutes of this pleasure, we were welcomed to Bangalore with a traffic jam at a railway crossing !!! To cross that small stretch of 0.5 kms, we had to wait 30 minutes in the bus that was moving slower than a snail. I really pity the bus drivers who first have to drive the noisy bus on those pathetic state highways and then counter with such rude and senseless traffic jams. No wonder, these bus drivers are being taught meditation to have their emotions in control.
In the past couple of months when I had been extremely busy, I had the chance of travelling outside Bangalore on a few occasions. And this time for a change it was in a bus. While travelling I realised the truth in the saying "A nation is as developed as its roads."
The national highway that connects Bangalore and Hyderabad is so very well done you wont feel any bumps and can have a very peaceful sleep even when travelling in a bus [ the hi-tech, non-volvo type of buses ]. Its a huge 6 lane road all along very neatly done.
There are quite a few other roads that connect Bangalore to other neighbouring states. Most of these roads are state highways. I was shocked to see the condition of these roads. They are so pathetic that no vehicle travelling on it can be in a good condition after a ride. The condition of the people travelling in those vehicles is beyond imagination and are left to the mercy of the driver's maneuvering skills on how best he can find the path with the least number of bumps. What was disheartening to see was that the roads were in this condition even as close as 30 kms near to Bangalore.
It goes to show the extent of neglection of the authorities. When they are not bothered to fix these things about 30 kms away from Bangalore, imagine the plight of the people living 300 to 400 kms away from Bangalore !!!
Everyone has problems with the crumbling infrastructure in Bangalore and all the money is being poured to fix this, as if this is the only place in the entire state that has problems. Even after all this fire fighting by the authorities, the people end up wasting their time stuck up in huge traffic jams.
In the same trip that i travelled on that pathetic state highway, it was such a relief to find our bus making less noise when we were near Bangalore. Within 15 minutes of this pleasure, we were welcomed to Bangalore with a traffic jam at a railway crossing !!! To cross that small stretch of 0.5 kms, we had to wait 30 minutes in the bus that was moving slower than a snail. I really pity the bus drivers who first have to drive the noisy bus on those pathetic state highways and then counter with such rude and senseless traffic jams. No wonder, these bus drivers are being taught meditation to have their emotions in control.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Vocabulary
| Your Vocabulary Score: B- |
 You have a zealous love for the English language, and many find your vocabulary edifying. Don't fret that you didn't get every word right, your vocabulary can be easily ameliorated! |
Friday, February 02, 2007
Demolition Man
Thanks to Ajay, I am back at blogging something here !!! Its been almost a month since i posted anything ... and I was once telling someone that they dont post so frequently :p Come to think of it, its been one of those very hectic months, where i felt being tied from 4 different directions and stretched to the limits. Strangely, its also been very enjoyable and satisfying month. No wonder, they say, only a busy man can enjoy his leisure.
On retrospect, I find this not only because I had a lot of things to handle in parallel, but also because of a slight change in the way I work. I have now consciously started to complete the important things first when I go to office. Rather, I make a point to complete atleast something before lunch. This gives me a sense of feeling of accomplishing things. And once I have taken care of the most important work for the day, the less important works somehow find a way to get done by themselves. Writing down the daily activities and finding out the most important work for the day has definitely been of great help too.
Now .. back to the demolition man about whom I have been wanting to write since a week for now !!!
I was hoping to see a very well fought match in the Australian Open final between Gonzales and Federer. And it certainly lived up to my expectations. The first set, neither of them could break eachother. It had to be decided in the tie-breaker. The second set was not so great to watch. But, i thought that Gonzales started playing better only in the third set. And his customary backhand straight drive down the line, so much similar to Federer, was visible only in the thrid set.
Both the players had similar games and thats what interested me. Both were equally good at chop shots and backhand strokes. Gonzales really had a very good run the whole week beating all big timers with class and elan. His game looked very similar to Federer and I was wanting to see how Federer changes his game to Gonzales. Federer had one thing more than Gonzales, that got him the match. It was his confidence. Gonzales for some matter I thought was very nervous playing his first Grand Slam final.
This was the 10th time these 2 were meeting, and it was Federer who won it all 10 times and this was also Federer's 10th Grand Slam win !!! Perfect 10 .. maybe.
I would want to see Gonzales play more and more games with Federer and I am sure he would one day beat Federer. Wow !!! My first prediction, lets see if it will ever come true :p
On retrospect, I find this not only because I had a lot of things to handle in parallel, but also because of a slight change in the way I work. I have now consciously started to complete the important things first when I go to office. Rather, I make a point to complete atleast something before lunch. This gives me a sense of feeling of accomplishing things. And once I have taken care of the most important work for the day, the less important works somehow find a way to get done by themselves. Writing down the daily activities and finding out the most important work for the day has definitely been of great help too.
Now .. back to the demolition man about whom I have been wanting to write since a week for now !!!
I was hoping to see a very well fought match in the Australian Open final between Gonzales and Federer. And it certainly lived up to my expectations. The first set, neither of them could break eachother. It had to be decided in the tie-breaker. The second set was not so great to watch. But, i thought that Gonzales started playing better only in the third set. And his customary backhand straight drive down the line, so much similar to Federer, was visible only in the thrid set.
Both the players had similar games and thats what interested me. Both were equally good at chop shots and backhand strokes. Gonzales really had a very good run the whole week beating all big timers with class and elan. His game looked very similar to Federer and I was wanting to see how Federer changes his game to Gonzales. Federer had one thing more than Gonzales, that got him the match. It was his confidence. Gonzales for some matter I thought was very nervous playing his first Grand Slam final.
This was the 10th time these 2 were meeting, and it was Federer who won it all 10 times and this was also Federer's 10th Grand Slam win !!! Perfect 10 .. maybe.
I would want to see Gonzales play more and more games with Federer and I am sure he would one day beat Federer. Wow !!! My first prediction, lets see if it will ever come true :p
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Reading Trends
When i refreshed my Google reader today, i got a link for finding the trend of my how much and when i read the items in my Google Reader. I got some really interesting trends about myself on it. And yeah, apart from this, i also was shown the feeds which i have least accessed, thus helping me in unsubscribing those non accessed feeds.
First was the trend about the usual times of the day when i access my reader.
Its really interesting to note here that I tend to read more during the noon times and at midnight. Whats more interesting is that my readings increase seem to exponentially increase after lunch :D
Next was the trend about the usual days of the week when i access my reader.
Most of the trends were not surprising. I tend to increase reading more as the week progresses in a linear progression. But what surprised me most was that my reading time suddenly falls down drastically on Friday. But on some more speculation, I figured out the reason. Its certainly the one day when I happen to work the most !!! ... lol :p
First was the trend about the usual times of the day when i access my reader.
Its really interesting to note here that I tend to read more during the noon times and at midnight. Whats more interesting is that my readings increase seem to exponentially increase after lunch :D
Next was the trend about the usual days of the week when i access my reader.
Most of the trends were not surprising. I tend to increase reading more as the week progresses in a linear progression. But what surprised me most was that my reading time suddenly falls down drastically on Friday. But on some more speculation, I figured out the reason. Its certainly the one day when I happen to work the most !!! ... lol :p
Warne sets up the whitewash
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007 !!!
Liked reading this cricinfo article that clear describes one of the most famous days of the retiring trio of Aussies. [ well may be just two of them are mentioned in this story ]
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