More Emperor's clothes...

There will be blood.... (*puke*)

This movie is supposed to be one of the best movies made in 2008 :|

Sorry, but as far as I am concerned, this is just an average movie. Daniel Day Lewis does a good job, but other than that err whats the excitement about?

Avergae acting by the others, baaaad editing and a lame ending.

bah! just another naked emperor prancing about !

What I did not know till recently...

Wow, sometimes the things you do NOT know surprise you, they sure surprise me :)

for example of the top of my head here is a list of stuff that I discovered recently...

• Brazil is bigger in size than India

Well, I knew Brazil was big, but I did not know it was as big as 8,514,877 sq. miles to India's 3,287,263 sq. miles! Its more than twice the size of India!
A lot of it is rain forest apparently

• Its a myth that Eskimos have a lot of words for 'snow'

I had always believed the popular 'did you know..." that Eskimos had hundreds of words for 'snow' but I read this somewhere while trawling the world wide web, (Unrelated trivia: If you notice, there are more syllables in WWW than in World Wide Web!)

ahem... his is all I could think of, off the top of my head, but I assure you the list shall increase

My favourite word...

Yes, I am sure we have been here before, I love talking about my favourite word!

it's ASSORTED.

Why?
Because, it feels nice to say it! go ahead, give it a try, and it brings up pictures of assorted biscuits, assorted breads and assorted chocolates in my head.

I have even uploaded this as my favourite word on this site, if you have a favourite word, go ahead put it up there.

Movies!

Pan's Labyrinth

Oh lovely lovely lovely, this movie is a definite must watch!
The cinematography, the music, the interlacing between real-life and fantasy, Pan, the fairies, the rebels, the sadist captain and most of all the pale-man sequence. watch it I say!

Quantum of solace

Well, have we not seen it all in the Bourne series? yes we have.
Mr. Bond we don't watch you for rooftop chase scenes, Bourne does that better. We don't watch you for the 'I shall have my revenge' bit, Maximus Decimus Meridius does that better, why. closer home, Monty does it better (the older version of Monty that is).
We watch you for the gadgets, for the martinis, for the fast cars, for the femme fatale's and for such things that make you stand out.

But well, I guess since you are being potrayed by a caveman(read Daniel Craig), we cannot expect much can we now?


Burn after reading

The Coen brothers are well known for their movie making style, they acheive the same with this. John Malkovich carries the movie with some wonderful acting as usual.
Other than the ending that like all Coen Movie's seemed quite abrupt, this mental storyline about crazy people doing crazy stuff is quite good. A decent weekend watch.


Free Jimmy

This animated movie aimed at a very adult audience, left a bad after taste. A dark 'comedy' about a group of animal activists who have a mission to free Jimmy a battered and bruised circus elephant, forms one of the plots of this story. The bad animation and not so great plot lets us down.

Atonement

Awesome! This Romance/drama is a wonderful movie. Kiera Knightley does a great job. Slow moving but with some of the best cinematography I have seen, as the viewer is taken from the green calm English countryside to London in time of war to the Warzone itself. Watch this!


Kung Fu Panda


"Legend tells of a legendary warrior whose kung fu skills were the stuff of legend. ", this and many more hilarious one liners make up this great movie about a fat panda Po(Jack Black), who gets a chance to live his dream of becoming the greates Kung Fu warrior,
after accidently becoming the Chosen one to fight Tai Lung an evil snow leopard who threatens the peace in the valley.
Along with the Furious Five: Viper(Lucy Liu), Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Monkey (Jackie Chan).
Po gains skill and wisdom under his master Shifu(Dustin Hoffman), who is err a red panda.

Great movie!
"It is said that his enemies would go blind from over-exposure to pure awesomeness! "

Diwali

This Diwali was brilliant :D


- A rangoli from home :)

Lovely Lanka

Back from Lanka... It is so like India that for some bits we never realised we were in a foreign land :)

Some highlights of the trip?

- The randomness of the trip, we just booked return tickets and left for Lanka, with no clue what we planned to do!

- The amazing wild life on display ! we saw, A peacock and a peahen, a giant squirrel, swam with huge green turtles and beautiful tiger fish in the ocean, watched a huge monitor lizard stroll by the swimming pool, small water snakes

- Hunnas Falls hotel in Kandy, do NOT miss that place when in Kandy, thanks to Mihiri for suggesting we stay there :D

Here are some pictures

A wonderful singer...

Mohit Chauhan is a wonderful singer. This is one singer who does not have to scream at the top of his lungs to display his 'vocal range', à la KK or Atif Aslam (who, I admit do have their good songs).

Obviously it was the wonderful 'Dooba Dooba' by Silk Route, which introduced me to Mr. Chauhan's fantastic voice. Though 'Silk Route' was disbanded, it is lucky that Mohit Chauhan got an opportunity to showcase his voice in the movies.
From the popular hits like 'Tum se hi' (Jab we met) to the lesser known(but equally good) 'Guncha' (Main meri Patni aur woh) or 'Sabse Peeche Hum Khade', each song stands out for its soothing quality and excellent vocals.

Here are a few, must listen to, songs to get one started on Mohit Chauhan's music and his mesmerising voice

Ek Meetha Marz dene - Welcome to Sajjanpur
Guncha - a Ghazal from Main meri Patni aur woh
Boondein - Silk Route Boondein
Humsafar - Silk Route Boondein
Ankhon hi Ankhon mein - EMI
Kuchh Khas - Fashion
Is this love - Kismat Konnection

Songs in the head

- Sitaram Sitaram - Welcome to Sajjanpur
- Ek Meetha Marz dene - Welcome to Sajjanpur
(This movie seems like a good one. Will watch)
- Aye Malik tere bande hum - Do Ankhein Bara Haath
- Tere Sawalon ke - Manorama Six Feet Under

Review time

Yes Yes a few more movies watched...

A Few Good Men

"Did you order the code red!!?"... A great courtroom drama with some hard-hitting dialogues.

Hell Boy II - The Golden Army

Disappointing. The dialogues lack punch, just when one thought that super hero movies had figured out the importance of giving depth to a character...Hell Boy proves it all wrong. If i had never seen a movie with special FX and CGI before, this would have been a brilliant movie, but well I have seen movies with wonderful CGI, hence I now expect more than just CGI to make me go wow!.
The movie is just one BIG anti-climax as far as I am concerned.

The Royal Tannenbaums

erm, interesting star-studded movie about a dysfunctional family. decentish!

Whitnail and I

A movie about two struggling actors, who decide to take a break from their unemployment and go to the Countryside for a 'holiday' with some funny results. A bitter sweet comedy with some wonderful script

Detroit Rock City

Great movie! I wonder why this is not as popular as the cult classic "Napolean Dynamite", The plot follows 4 friends whose main aim in life is to watch the KISS concert. Some hilarious stuff ensues in this very attempt!
I am no big KISS fan, but still enjoyed the movie, if you like the Band and their music, you will love this movie!

Amelie

Wonderful, if you have not watched it yet, then please do watch it now!

Die Hard 4.0: Live free or die hard
Not much I can write about this movie, it faithfully follows the (now) aging cop in his endless adventures. John Mclane seems very much to be a NYPD version of Sindbad the sailor in the sense that adventure, action and danger always seems to follow him around

Whirlwind trip!

Goa and Gokarna packed in a weekend !

We managed to visit two places in two days and yet managed to relax and enjoy the break. :)

How we did it -

Friday night: Train to Hubli
Saturday Morning: Taxi to Palolem beach - Goa
Sunday Morning: Taxi to Om Beach- Gokarna
Sunday Evening: Taxi back to Hubli
Sunday night: Train back to Bangalore :)

Super eh?

here are some pictures

Addendum: Life in the fast lane...

The next day after the post, a colleague struck up a conversation with me over lunch about my rant.

He was critical of the fact that I am errr critical.

I believe what he said was "Its very easy to criticise people, right Mr. Gawde?".

Well, absolutely. When I enquired why I wrong in my criticism,
Pat came the answer "A lot of my relatives live there"

Well ALL my relatives live there, a wonderful set of people, who I love to meet. But that fact would not change my opinion of the city.

I must add that it is also very easy to praise people, and here is some praise for Chennai

I do not know a soul in Chennai. In no way am I connected to the city, and neither do I speak the language.

But every time I have visited the place, I am amazed by how nice and polite everyone there is. Everybody is willing to help you out irrespective of whether you know the language or not

Simi says
"Hey, Mumbayya ANTAGONIST!
Each to his own opinion, right?
Through out the cycle of two seasons of terrible rains that I was in Bombay... except for one time when I got pushed off in a halting train (solely cos I really didnt know the trick!), Bombay's been such a cool city to me.

Its vibrant and rich with experiences stemming out of daily life esp the local trains which I refer to as 'Theatre in Motion'.

Tryst has it bad for you, with Bombay!"

Glad you had a good experience, I have known the city since I was a child, it definitely has changed as far as I am concerned :) and I wonder why there needs to be a 'Trick' to get off a train!

That's all folks!

Life in the 'FAST' lane...

It is ironic that the city I was born in, the city where I have most of my near and dear ones, is the city I HATE so much.
I speak of Bombay.

When I was younger, I would think of Bombay as an exciting energetic place where summer vacations were spent.

Over the last couple of times I have visited Bombay, I have learnt that the excitement and energy is nothing but senseless activity in a soulless city.

I have seen cousins and nephews being sucked into the mechanical lives that Bombay offers and many a childhood lost to endless hours of tuition and exams attempting to be ahead in some stupid race that everyone in the place seems to be a part of.

On one visit to Bombay, the girl and I were in a crowded marketplace, where we had to stop to let a middle aged lady pass, she was carrying the months groceries and I thought she had the right of passage.
But no, some uncultured (but cultured looking) piece of toxic waste who was standing behind me, said, "keep moving, this is Bombay, you cant stop here staring at people pass by..."
my responses along the lines of "I may look like a super hero but flying is not one of my super powers..." did not go down well with the chap, and he went away grumbling.

So I decided to follow him, and when as expected, he got stuck in the crowd at the next junction, I let rain the same dialogues that he had given me.
This definitely did not go down well with him, so in some wonderful Bombay Hindi, he abused me and my family .
The soul of Bombay, described in a simple anecdote.

This time when I went there, A guy pushed me right down the steps of a railway station in his hurry to catch some train. I thought the poor chap must be in a real hurry to have pushed me like that, but no! he landed up in the same compartment as I :) which meant that after all that, he had missed his train, tch tch so much for expertise in catching trains.

When I tried to get off the train, the oncoming crowd, did not let me do so and down I was again on the floor!
The guy who pushed me this time was nice enough to say "hey you were trying to get off eh?, don't worry you can get off at next station".
This definitely evoked laughter from me :)

I hate generalisations, but I tried very hard to find something nice to say about the place but the people I met seem to have all been contaminated by the city.

This place of sweat and grime evokes disgust and nothing else as far as I am concerned

reminds me of lines from Bhupen Hazarika's wonderfuly sung 'Ganga behti ho kyon'

"Vyakti rahe vyakti kendrit sakal samaj vyaktitva rahit nishpran
samaj ko chodti na kyun? 
Itihas ki pukar kare hunkar O Ganga ki dhar nirbal jan ko sabal 
sangrami samagro gami banati nahi ho kyun? "

A thing of beauty...

Reads: Kshama Beauty Parlour

Kids...

1
A friend and I were out in Shenandoah, and as we were walking down a narrow path to go look and clap at a 'waterfall' , we saw this little firang kid (must have been like a 1.5 feet), who was laboriously climbing up with his mom in tow.
When he saw us, he stopped, looked at us and asked me. "Excuse me sir, would you tell me how far it is to the top?" in full Brit accent
First I was surprised that he could even talk, second he was so damn polite despite the fact that he was super tired.
I smiled and told him that it was not too far away, to which he was all politeness again "thank you sir"

If he was wearing a hat I am sure he would have tipped it at me. hehe


2
More recently, I had stopped by at a bakery, and saw a very little girl come to the farther end of the counter, begging for food/money.

Just as I was trying to figure out what I could buy her and was about to approach her, A little boy, of about 10, dressed in an old pair of trousers and a torn shirt, came to the bakery and was trying to get the attendants attention,

I noticed he had a 5 rupee coin in his hand, and seemed like it was the only money he had on him.

When the Baker asked him what he wanted, he asked him what he could get for 5 bucks, so the guy pointed out some chocolates and some other bakery products.

Interestingly enough, the boy instead of buying a chocolate (as I had thought he would) asked for a couple of 'Jam Buns'.

He handed over the money to the bakery attendant, went straight to the little beggar girl, gave her the food, patted her on the head and walked away!

wow!
My turn to tip my hat :)

cinemaaaah...

Flushed Away

This animated movie from the makers of 'Wallace and Gromit' and 'Chicken Run', is a joy to watch.
Roddy St. James(Hugh Jackman) is a pampered pet rat, living in a posh cage in London, until one day he gets flushed down the toilet into London Below, a city of sewer rats.
Where he meets the pretty Rita (Kate Winslet) who owns a boat :)
Put in an evil toad boss and Le Frog(Jean Reno) as his french assassin along with a handful of singing slugs (do not miss the slugs' rendition of 'Lonely')

Wonderful Wonderful piece of animation. Do not miss!


Thank you for smoking

Aaron Eckhart plays Nick Naylor in this comedy about a fast talking chief spokesman for the Tobacco industry, we follow his life as he smooth talks his way through everything and at the same time aspires to be a role model to his son.
Nice movie


Dr. Strangelove or: how I learned to stopped worrying and love the bomb

Peter Sellers in 3 roles :)
This is a movie that has gone down in history as a cult classic. A satire about the cold war and nuclear warfare, this movie was released at the peak of the cold war.
The satirical nature of the movie make for some laughs, but this is NOT exactly a comedy.

Its a decent movie, with some wonderful scenes, especially the one where Strangelove(Sellers) in the American war room, fighting with his hand that has a mind of its own and goes on giving heil Hitler salutes lol
or the straight faced US president (Sellers again) "you cannot fight here, this is the War Room!"

Not a movie I liked too much, but well its got Seller's :)


Turner and Hooch

Tom hanks is Turner and a dog is Hooch as they partner to solve a crime :) feel good movie. Better if you like dogs :)


Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

This movie is everything you would expect it to be, crass humour, Neil Patrick Harris and some love sprinkled in.
What got ot me was the extra dose of American Patriotism.
not so nice

Picked a Tag...

1) Look at the list and mark in orange those you have read.

2) Italicize those you intend to read.

3) Mark in a bright green, the books you really love

4) Reprint this list in your own blog.

----------

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen


2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien


3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte


4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling


5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee


6 The Bible/ The Bhagavad Gita As It Is


7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte


8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell


9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman


10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens


11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott


12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy


13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller


14 Complete Works of Shakespeare


15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier


16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien


17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks


18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger


19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger


20 Middlemarch - George Eliot


21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell


22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald


23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens


24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy


25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams


26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh


27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky


28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck


29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll


30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame


31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy


32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens


33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis


34 Emma - Jane Austen


35 Persuasion - Jane Austen


36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis


37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini


38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres


39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden


40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne


41 Animal Farm - George Orwell


42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown


43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez


44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving


45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins


46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery


47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy


48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood


49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding


50 Atonement - Ian McEwan


51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel


52 Dune - Frank Herbert


53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons


54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen


55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth


56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon


57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens


58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley


59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon


60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez


61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck


62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov


63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt


64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold


65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas


66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac


67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy


68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding


69 Midnights Children – Salman Rushdie


70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville


71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens


72 Dracula - Bram Stoker


73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett


74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson


75 Ulysses - James Joyce


76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath


77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome


78 Germinal - Emile Zola


79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray


80 Possession - AS Byatt


81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens


82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell


83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker


84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro


85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert


86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry


87 Charlotte's Web - EB White


88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom


89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton


91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad


92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery


93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks


94 Watership Down - Richard Adams


95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole


96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute


97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas


98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare


99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl


100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

movies I watched..

In Bruges
Colin Farrel, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph fiennes.
Fantastic movie. This is a movie that you will either love or you will hate. I loved it to the core. Each character is well etched and the story well told.
MUST WATCH !

Dark Knight
Heath Ledger Rocks!
Finally Christopher Nolan has managed to get batman the cult status it deserves. A big Batman fan, I hated all previous movies, until Batman Began :)
obvious must watch.

The Bank Job
Jason Statham
A true story. This fast paced thriller about a bank robbery is a good weekend watch :)

Wall-E
Decent animation movie, I am not a big Sci-fi fan but still enjoyed this movie, just felt it was a little over rated on IMDB though.

3:10 to Yuma
Christian Bale and Russel Crowe in this western is about a poor cattle herder(Bale) who has lost his leg in the civil war and is struggling to save his land & cattle from a local landlord.
With a point to prove about his abilities to his son, he gets his opportunity to do so, by escorting the wild west's most wanted outlaw (Russel Crowe in an interesting casting) to a train (the 3:10 to Yuma).
I liked this movie :) Good characterisation and great action.
Watch out for some wonderful acting by Ben Foster and some more great casting in form of Gretchen Mol (siiigghhhh) as Bale's wife.

Smart People
umm well this movie has got Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker (who I think looks like a horse, an ugly one at that) and Ellen Page (Who I do not like either), so not a movie I liked too much :)

Sleuth
Micheal Caine and Jude Law, are the only actors in this movie about a novelist(Caine) and his wife's lover(Law). Who play mind games with each other.
The movie started pretty well, but somewhere in the middle it turned into a boring horrible act.

Oxford Murders
Elijah Wood plays a student to John Hurt as they set about solving a series of murders in oxford.
The only thing I liked about it other than the fact that it was picturised in Oxford (one of my favourite towns), was the hot Leonar Waltin.
A senseless movie.

macbook

Gone is the Dell 505, replaced by a white, sleek, MacBook. It looks beautiful and it has pretty good usability as well.
The first thing to learn is, the command button is the Ctrl button :)

What I like
- The way it looks
- Its dock and the genie effects
- Its webcam
- The search - 'spotlight', it returns results in a jiffy and is wonderful to use, no more navigating through directories :)
- Its lovely keyboard


What I dislike

- Itunes
I hate Itunes, easily in my top 5 worst software on the planet . The thing has no winamp.

- MusicIndiaOnline does not play on mac (real player and Windows Media Player)

- In Windows one could move up and down a sentence, word by word. All one had to do was hold ctrl and use the left/right arrow keys, Mac will only let you traverse sentences, character by painful character

- No auto restore from the trashcan, if you delete something by mistake, you will need to drag and drop it back in its correct folder to restore it :(

- I am yet to install photoshop etc but I have a feeling I will hate the fonts :|

To London To London...

London is the same, nothing seems to have changed.

What did I do there?

1) Did my favourite London walk :)

Begin :
British Museum --> Totenham Court road --> Leicester Square --> Piccadily Circus --> Trafalgar Square --> Big Ben --> Cross the Thames on the bridge by Westminister --> By the Aquarium, London eye, Waterloo Station --> Up the Millennium Bridge (staring straight at St Paul's Cathedral) back across the Thames --> and walk by the London Bridge --> all the way to the tower of London and the Tower bridge --> Back to the Hotel in the Tube: End

Last visit I had done part of this alone and gotten horribly lost (!) for about 2 hours.

This time I knew my way around quite well and I had a friend along, it took us 5 hours :) with breaks for Hot Chocolate, some shopping in the open markets by the Thames and a nice lunch at an Indian(!) restaurant.

2) Shopped in Camden :) :)

Here are some pictures


Trafalgar Square : National Art Gallery


Trafalgar Square: Nelson's column


Thames: London Eye


Big Ben

There are some pictures of the night walk we did :) will post them later!

5 movies with a twist

There are some movies that are 'slice of life' and others that make you sit up and stare at the screen in amazement here is a list of the latter, movies that have a twist at the end that one never expected:)
again, in no particular order the five movies at the top of my mind are...

Charade


This classic stays imprinted in my mind because I watched it when I was a kid and it stil made me go wooow!


Memento


The editing the fast paced narration and the thing about this movie is, it ties everything together in the end and then gives it a vicious twist! lovely !

The usual suspects


Kevin Spacey, brilliant

The Others


One of my all time favourite horror movies. what a turn this one takes!

SAW



If one thought the movie was edge of the seat, the twist was definitely unexpected!

papercraft

Here is something I made today :)




All I did was

1. Visited PaperCraft
2. Downloaded the templates
3. Took a print out
and
4. Created the bird with scissors and glue

5 Weird movies

They are zany, they are twisted and they are insane. Here is a list and gist of 5 of the most insane movies (in no particular order) that I have watched

EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY


Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey and Geena Davis star in this weird movie about an alien spaceship containing 3 aliens (a red alien, a green alien and a blue alien) that lands in a swimming pool in America and the weirdness that ensues is unparalleled, well almost.


A CLOCKWORK ORANGE


"a bit of the old ultra-violence"

This is one weird movie that I enjoyed a lot. It is one movie that deserves its cult status! I love this movie!


I HEART HUCKABEES


This movie to me is the epitome of weirdness, a couple play detectives who help solve existential issues and the movie makes no sense whatsoever and is NOT funny by any stretch of imagination. Oh and I cannot stand Lily Tomlin so she helps the movie grow weirder exponentially


REVOLVER


Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham, a surefire combo to success right? WRONG! this is one movie that takes action to various metaphysical planes and gives the viewer a doped feeling. You guys were involved in Lock Stock... and Snatch. What went wrong here guys??


TRAINSPOTTING



Man, this dope head movie is one that will make it to my weird movie list every time.

Re-whew!

Where the truth lies

A Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth movie about a popular stand-up comedy duo, a Ménage à trois gone wrong and a murder mystery.
Unfortunately for me most of the plot was in the "offending scenes" that were edited out on HBO to make the movie suitable for family viewing, hence I did NOT get the plot! did not seem like much of a plot though :) *The grapes are sour, he says*


Lucky Number Slevin

Harman Baweja is a cheap imitation of Hrithik (not that Hrithik is anything great), and this director is a wannabe Guy Ritchie, he does a take on the the Tarantino/Ritchie style of direction.

However, even some 'interesting' sound track and an ensemble of popular actors - Bruce Willis, Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman to name a few, cannot save this tripe!

The suspense is basically created by showing the viewer a series of scenes that do not show one or the other character and then later showing these scenes again, only this time the faces of the characters are shown and the audience is expected to go 'oooooh' and 'aaaaah' for me this was more of an 'Ouchhhh!' movie.


Get Smart

Fantastic! Wonderful!

I watched this movie expecting it to be another 'Johnny English' or worse, another 'Austin Powers' but I am pleased to say I was pleasantly surprised :)

Steve Carrel does a brilliant job and the very pretty Anne Hathaway (siiiighhhhh) is as usual good!
and there is Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson and Dalip 'The Great Khali' Singh to provide some thrills.
The action sequences are awesome and could have been part of any Bond movie

This is one witty comedy that you would not regret watching

humming...

Kahin to hogi woh - Rashid Ali (Jaane tuya jaane na)

this one is fresh! and Vasundhara das gives it a completely new feel.


Yaad Aaye Jaaye - Mohit Chauhan (Ugly aur Pagli)

hehe yes! this one is from t he movie 'Ugly aur Pagli', But Mohit Chauhan is Mohit Chauhan

A site to see

ReadyMech is so cool :)



I took a quick print out of their 'do it yourself ' Japanese toy and with some scissors & glue was able to make a 'toy' in 10 minutes.

It looks awesome!

Visit the website for more free and cool toys.

BIAL -Bangalore Airport

If one were to visit the BBMP (aka BMP) offices and manage to sneak past the files and the babus, I am sure somewhere in the innermost sanctum sanctorum of that great edifice sits a monkey tapping away at it computer and churning out plans involving flyovers that need traffic cops and signals perched atop, and underpasses that need you to take deviations from the main road so that you can use the underpass to get to the main road that you just deviated from.
Warped? What else can you expect from a monkey?

Well, before I deviate like the Bellary Main road, let me get back to the topic at hand!

The road to the airport has taken its own sweet time, The airport however is on a completely different level altogether!

Wonderful parking facilities, a sprawling complex to accommodate everything that Bangalore can throw at it, very nice waiting lounge and wide open space if further plans of expansions exist.

After the Hebbal flyover the road leading to the airport is fantastic! (yes all 27 kms of it). No traffic snarls what so ever!

Excellent transport facilities to and fro from the Airport and for once some one in the planning committee has done something right!

I am a big fan of the new airport and I am appalled that so many people are complaining about the airport.

Bangalore is imploding, the need of the hour is to spread the city out, yes, there will be transport issues for some time, but so what?

Lets face it, the old airport was but a pathetic excuse for an airport, tiny, cramped, lacking basic facilities.
But no, we were willing to live with all that, just because it would save us 30 minutes of travel time to the airport.

What about the lack of seating in the lounges?, what about bad restrooms?, what about serpentine customs queues?
Never thought how much time was getting wasted there?

Its time we stop suffering from tunnel vision, and accept change!

Lovely!

Jive gave me this!

Batman Begins: The Official Movie Guide

130 odd pages of sublimity :D :D

A wonderful present indeed :) Thanks Jivey!

Vaav! vat-e-day...

On Saturday, I learned that my presence was "required" at our lovely Chennai office ASAP.

The earliest (I almost wrote 'Soonest' :P) possible for me was Tuesday, and out I headed to the fantastic Bangalore International Airport (I will sing its praises in a future post *is not sarcastic*) to catch a flight to the land of humid weather, polite people, Rajinikanth and sambhar

I had my tickets booked for Tuesday (Jet Airways) with a return planned on Friday (Air Deccan).

Wait at the wonderful Bangalore airport lounge : 8:00 am to 10:00 am - 2 hours ( I like an early check in)

Some 4-5 minutes away from boarding the flight, I got a call that inform me that the reason for which I was hurriedly headed to Chennai no longer existed. *Clicks a finger* just like that!

Given that the tickets were already booked and at that moment, Chennai was 45 minutes away compared to my Bangalore office that was a minimum of 120 minutes away, I decided to fly out anyway!

Some confusion about the boarding gate (Hey we are boarding at gate 8, err actually gate 10, hey guess what peehpul! Gate 11 it will be!) and off we flew to Chennai.

Flight time en route to Chennai: 1 hour

Reached the Chennai office, socialised with the crowd (a few old faces a few new) and decided to reschedule my friday evening flight.

A quick lunch, some more socialising and an auto ride saw me at the Chennai airport, at 4:30 pm well in time for the Air Deccan flight scheduled at 5:30pm.

At check-in I discovered that the flight was late by 40 minutes (The plane has not yet arrived saar!)

siiiggghh, I settled down to catch up on the days news, A TOI, an Indian Express and 15 minutes of watching cyclic clips of the latest developments in the Arushi murder case on the airport telly and I was all set to board the flight

Wait at the Chennai airport lounge :4:30pm to 6:10pm - 1 hour 40 minutes

They took us in the bus to the plane, got us to sit in the plane, gave us a couple of Kingfisher mineral water bottles and then the Captain's voice boomed on the PA system

"Welcome on board our flight #### to Bangalore, we have an engine failure and hence are presently unable to take off"
"You know it is after all a machine and is liable to fail anytime, thank you for understanding"

*Makes a straight face*

Fail anytime!?? wow!

Some reassurance that! So in about 20 minutes it was decided that the plane is not going to be air borne anytime soon.

Waiting time in immobile aircraft : 30 minutes

Off we were loaded back into the bus on the way back to the waiting lounge.

After the screaming and shouting at the Air Deccan ground staff, we were pacified with "refreshments" which included what seemed like a fruit cake, a mango juice in a tetrapack and 2 slices of bread with some cheese within.

We were to be put on another Air Deccan flight scheduled for later that evening at 8:50 pm

Out came the P.G. Wodehouse, Thank heavens I had carried it along.

Waiting at the Chennai Lounge, Phase 2: 2 hours 10 mins

at 8:50pm, we were told that the flight is delayed by 15 minutes, (The plane has not yet arrived saar!) a wave of Deja Vu.

Waiting at the Chennai Lounge, Phase 3: 30 minutes

Finally we did board the flight at 9:20 and this time it did take off and stayed aloft long enough to reach Bangalore!

Flight time back to Bangalore: 1 hour

That makes it a total of 8 hours and 50 minutes at the Airport or in the plane!

And I have not even factored in the time to get to the Airport and Back.

Whew! a long day and a long post :)

ads

On one hand one had ads such as Bajaj Caliber (the unshakeable), the wonderful close-up Jingle and a hundred other classics!

and on the other hand you have Max insurance ads :|

Weirdness! The Max ads (Screeches of "Sanju, Sanju" and "Ek bimaari") are like fingernails that
run over the blackboard of my mind.

In the cranium...

Dave, Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich - Hold Tight!

Silk Route - Sabse Peeche Hum Khade

Spent all of Sunday singing these two songs :D :D

Show Off!

Yaaay I won big!

Beating krymsson 532 to 335 is something worth showing off!

One long day

Thursday, saw me at the land of the Wodeyars, the silkworms and the Mahishasur (not in any particular order, mind you)

Mission: Pre-placement talks at a couple of colleges that we would later in the year visit for campus recruitment.

Prior Experience: Whenever time has permitted , I have tagged along with the recruitment team to help give a quick talk about ThoughtWorks and life therein.
Just the way the students go "wooow!"when we show them videos and pictures of what life at ThoughtWorks has in store, makes my day!, not to mention the saccharine sweetness with which the placement officers us.

Mysore, however was a different ball game altogether!

An early morning start, breakfast at Lokaruchi and Mysore by 11:45am, just to make it in time for the first presentation at SJCE (a well known engineering college), or, so we thought.
When the placement officer was called and informed of our arrival,
Pat came the reply "you see, I am driving down from Bangalore, I shall reach Mysore in next 30 mins, then I shall have a bath and come!".

Dude! notwithstanding your lack of punctuality, at the very least spare us the gory details.
He finally arrived(when we were well into the presentation) and left in about 20 mins, stating "I have some grandmother's ceremony I need to attend to"
but, not before he had told us exactly what had held him up in Bangalore, apparently he had gone to the Forum for some shopping and in general seemed to have spent his time about doing inane things, while he should have been on the road to Mysore!

Hilarious!

The students however were pretty chirpy and surprisingly had quite a few smart questions to ask, though one of them did manage to squeeze in a "Do you have a swimming pool at ThoughtWorks?" question.

A quick pit stop for lunch and off to College #2

National Institute of Engineering

Well, here, the placement officer welcomed us with a smile, offered us tea and thats when it went downhill, as he picked up his phone and proceeded to make half a dozen phone calls to random people, all the while, shouting his lungs out.
If he wanted to show us that he was a very important person, the shouting and the having to introduce himself a minimum of 3 times over the phone did not help.

He seemed to have clean forgotten we were there. We our tea (good tea it was!) and set off for the presentation.
The students trudged in about 15 mins late and I was soon done with the presentation!

Off we left Mysore only to return at an ungodly hour - 12:30 am t o be precise

Bottom Line - Placement officers in Mysore have failed to impress

The lighted windows dim

Are fading slowly.

The fire that was so trim

Now quivers lowly.

Go to the dreamless bed

Where grief reposes;

Thy book of toil is read,

The long day closes.

- Henry Fothergill Chorley and Arthur Sullivan

Neil Young

I want to live,
I want to give
Ive been a miner for a heart of gold.
Its these expressions I never give
That keep me searching for a heart of gold
And Im getting old.
Keeps me searching for a heart of gold
And Im getting old.

The man in black

"Hello I am Johnny Cash"

I spent most of my Saturday listening to Johnny Cash.

One of the most talented musicians to have ever walked this planet.
Be it his trademark, train like rhythm, be it his deep voice. One is spellbound the moment the head phones are on!

If you have not yet heard Mr Cash play, then I would recommend the following numbers for starters

I walk the line
Ring of fire
Long black veil
Folsom prison blues
Heart of Gold
Boy named Sue
I've been everywhere
:)

And the icing on the cake for me was this wonderful video having the legendary Roger Miller improvising with Johnny cash on "King of the Road"

Comic!

Found some time in the middle of the Project I just rolled off and the Project I am rolling on to :)
Decided to play with Photoshop and Freehand.

Result: A comic strip showing the ThoughtWorks reccruitment process :D

Movies that deserve a separate review post

I am not a big Ironman comics fan, in fact the Ironman comic I tried to read completely bored me.
despite all that, the movie was fantastic! so much so that for a brief period (a brief period mind you!) the Ironman Screen saver will replaces my customary Batman Screensaver)

The movie itself has all the makings of a wonderful Superhero movie. I have always liked the 'origin' superhero movies, and this one kicks *ss in every department.
I watched this twice! go watch it now!




I am a big fan of Guy Ritchie movies, and this movie faithfully copies his style of direction.

I LOVED this movie! The gangsters, the corrupt cops, the pretty hooker, the gambling and beer loving hero. simply super!

I am now a definite fan of Abhay Deol, After Manoram 6 feet under and Ek chalis ki...

oh and if you are the kind that likes mushy romantic movies about angel faced people, stay away from this one.

Movieees!

Snatch
Super! Guy Ritchie, Britans answer to Quentin Tarantino does live up to his reputation here

Death at a Funeral
A typical Brit comedy, dark and at times gross.
A good weekend watch though.

Superbad
Err had heard a lot about this movie, the screenplay at times had me in splits, but other than that, not much really.

Grandma’s Boy
I was pleasantly surprised with this comedy, about a 30 something video game tester who is forced to live with his Grandma. Yes it is a Stoner movie, yes it has some toilet humour, but its wackiness got me.

Summer of 42’
Hmm, a movie about coming of age, decent enough.

Good Luck Chuck!
WTF!

Hitman
If you want action, here is some. But it follows all the paths already taken and the plot is nothing great.

City of GOD
Fantastic! Must Watch!

When in Mangalore...

May saw us in Mangalore !

There was a wedding to attend and of course the added benefits of having wonderful beaches around :)

The wedding I shall deal with in the learnings section of this post, but first here is a glimpse of Kaup beach (for reasons as yet unknown, Kaup is pronounced Kapu :|)








Learnings from the trip/attending a Mangalorean christian wedding

Learning #1: When given a glass of wine, do NOT drink it up immediately !, wait till you see at the very least 200 other people drink. Lest you down your glass of wine and then realise you were supposed to hold on to it for 30 minutes and wait for the bride and the groom to sip their wine first.



Learning #2: When some one over the microphone asks the crowd to stand up and bless the couple, do NOT stand up and raise your right hand in Heil Hitler style just because everyone around you is doing the same. Lest you realize that everyone around you is at least 40 years old and you need to -at the very minimum - be elder to the couple in order to bless them.

Affecting an Accent

Whats with trying on a Firangi accent? How many times have you seen an American try and talk in an Indian accent to either be 'helpful' or to show-off?
Well I for one, have never seen that happen. I know a couple of firangi acquaintances try and learn Hindi, and learn to speak it quite well!

But I find so many people around me, producing different accents for different occasions/contexts.
A firangi asks you a questions and out comes the accent.

"Yeaaah, I mind ahhctuaaly"

Arre! subah mere saath baat ho rahi thi to "Ahhctuaaly" ko aap "Actually" keh rahe thhe.


Personally, I think nothing sounds as stupid as an artificial accent.
I am not buying it if you tell me your 3 month, 2 year, stint in America/UK naturally got you an accent that keeps changing
(I doubt if a 3 month stay in Bangladesh will give a Bangla tinge to your accent. Selective absorption of accent then?)

Hey! be comfy the way you are, if nothing else, at least you will save me the effort of cringing in disgust!

Back from a wonderful vacation !

Yes, Hampi again :)

Random Ramblings

Ah, the pleasure of winning a game of scrabble after trailing at one point 36 to 127 is unparalleled. :D

Unparalleled is the irritation one feels when after two weeks of contemplation one, suddenly at the last moment realises, hey "Actually we should postpone it, a couple of these guys cannot make it" :|

Also unparalleled one feels is Blogger.com's audacity to delete a 4 year old blog, and then not respond when questioned! its true it happened to a friend! unnerving!

The joy of designing your own personalised T-shirt and gifting it to a friend is unparalleled as well :D

Movieeees

Manorama 6 feet under
What-e-beauty of a movie, simply loved it! A wonderful effort at making an Indian Film Noir movie, excellent!
Most people I spoke to did not seem to like it, but oh well, Sometimes the majority only means... :P

Alexander
Puke! Colin Farrell stumbled through the movie looking like he suffered from an irritable bowel syndrome.

No Country for old men
Watch it for Javier Barden, never before have I seen a more disturbing villain in any form of cinema. Excellent performance!
Also, the Cohen brothers have their own style of directing. The most unexpected things happen at the least expected times. This is one thriller you do not want to miss.

Monty Python- Life of Brian
Is this the same group that conceived the brilliant "Fish Called Wanda" ? surprising, the much acclaimed Monty Python falls flat.
Only one scene evoked laughter, the one where Caesar stumbles through his pronunciation evoking uncontrolled snigger from his centurions.
and only one scene made me go wooow
The scene where the entire group is crucified and Eric Idle (one of the members being crucified), begins singing "Look at the bright side of life" as the credits start rolling.

Else I do not understand what the big deal (Biggus Dealus? :P ) is about Monty Python.

Good Fellas
Decent gangster movie, but tends to get boring. IMDB rates it as #15 of all time great movies. I disagree. The Untouchables is easily a better movie in the Genre. Watch it for Joe Pesci's portrayal of a mobster.

Wonderland
A biopic about the Wonderland Murders, bad movie!

Pink Panther
Steve Martin's Inspector Closeau tries hard, and fails to live up to Peter Sellers' Inspector Closeau

Judging a book by its fly-leaf

Today I took out a book (Calvin and Hobbes), that someone happened to gift me (reasons unknown). To my horror and disgust I realised that there exist people who gift books for the sake of gifting them, I would understand a gift given as a formality, but to gift a book and not bother to jot down a couple of words on the fly-leaf is outrageous !
Why would this person (whom I hold [held?] in high regard) do such a thing?
I wonder. For once this lifetime, I just don't feel like reading the book :)

Thanks, but no thanks!

On the brighter side of things, I did get another book (Dilbert, this time) that has a fly-leaf covered with the funniest of comments, making the gift immediately a personalised one !
also got the most beautiful set of PG Wodehouse!

Thank ye for your thoughtfulness

Hampi

Easily the best place I have been to in recent times, Hampi in its golden age was a rich and bustling city by the banks of the river Tungabhadra, the capital of the prosperous Vijayanagar Empire.

What makes Hampi special today is the fact that, it transports you back to the age of its glory instantly.

All the streets are 'intact', all the temples are 'intact' (of course the Deccan Sultans destroyed the idols and lots of the architecture), its as if only the people have moved on, leaving behind the empty shell of a once thriving city.

Hampi is poetry in stone, a must visit place.
Also visit a restaurant called the 'Mango Tree'.

Take a look at the pictures and learn of things you can do in Hampi:


Hire a two wheeler - the best way to visit most places spread across a 10 sq km area


Enjoy the lovely architecture


Stroll through the well maintained gardens of the Palace


Trek up hillocks


Take a coracle ride on the river Tungabhadra


Take a nap!


Lie down on the rocks surrounded by beautiful structures, waiting for ...


a beautiful sunset!


Have a blast!