Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

It's OFFICIAL. That's what seventh is going to be called. Rediff says, JKR teased fans a lot before actually revealing the name on her website. Exciting as it may sound this to those who have been involved with JKR's wonderful journey of Harry Potter's seven years at Hogwarts, for muggles, it's just a title. While I start wondering in blogosphere and web. Here are some pointers, for further information.

Links : Official JKR website,MuggleNet,Leaky Cauldron,Rediff. If some of these don't make sense to you, you better not waste your time, visiting those :)

Sreesanth versus Nel

India's moment of glory finally came when they won their First EVER test on South African soil, but for any Indian fan best moment of the match came on Sunday afternoon. India's second innings was going on. Indians were already 9 down with handy lead of around 390. Sreesanth and VRV Singh on strike. Sreesanth was totally pumped up after her first innings triumph. Andre Nel managed to beat Sreesanth in a delivery. Andre Nel, as always, couldn't keep his mouth shut and gestured to Sreesanth saying "Show me your heart". Not a good moment to tease Sreesanth I say. And then came Sreesanth's reply. He hit Nel for the MAXIMUM. A huge SIX and what followed will be remembered for Indian fans for a long time to come. Sreesanth literally danced on the pitch. Don't miss the video attached.

beats me...

Just when I thought I came up with really good PJ, Gaurav comes up with this one. BEATS ME!!!

Creativity

An old forward came to me yet again, and once again couldn't help but appreciate but the creative mind behind the advertisement. Here it is, Big Bazaar's women's day Sale ad.

Another Blog

I love blogspot, I truly do, which is case with many of bloggers and that's what seems to be the problem. Blogger.com is synonym for blogging around the world, atleast for most of the companies and campuses, who want to prevent their employees from prying eyes of Blogosphere and that could be the reason I am getting so less hits or that's what my dear friend and fellow blogger Neha believes. Thank you friend, thank you for believing in me and my blog :)

So after all the lazyness, I have finally decided to move, rather copy other blog at Wordpress (http://nishitdesai.wordpress.com). Wordpress allows me to import my posts from blogger to wordpress, so I will be maintaining both the blogs and the benefits will be twofold. My loyal readers of blogspot (Not that there are many) won't have to change their RSS feeds or Blogroll (but I kindly request all of you to put my new blog on your blogroll :) ) and second of all, The larger world who is being deprived of witty thoughts (Ahem... yet another dear friend and fellow blogger Uday believes it to be double curse on the blogosphere). So in a nutshell, start visiting my new blog. See you there...

Dhoom 2 : disappoint kiya re!!

Hindi movies suffer from this problem. They try so hard to be, what's the word, yes cool. Pretty ironical, but that's the fact. Dhoom 2 is one of them too! Everyone tries to be Oh! Look at me, I am so cool !!!.

Ok, so there is a thief, popularly known as Mr. A (Hrithik Roshan), Notorious for stealing precious antiques. While his predecessor (John Abraham), had knack for creating a pattern on Bombay Express Highway, Mr. A has mathematical ambition of stamping his name on the world (literally). After demonstrating his sandsurfing, disguising and but ofcourse dancing skills, it seems all is going well for Mr. A. On the other hand, Jai Dixit (Abhishek Bachchan) is still accomplishing missions with all Suzukis, Ducatis, Waterscooters and his punter-cum-sub-inspector Ali (Uday Chopra) for Mumbai police. Enter his ex-classmate, who had (has) crush on him, sharp-shooter, ACP Shonali Bose. Ah! Shonali does make a wonderful dancing partner than Rimi Sen. Anyway, so now that Mr. A has completed his mission of imprinting his name on the world, is looking for more trouble and enters like desi Angelina Jolie, Sunehari (Aishwarya Rai), who is vying to become accomplice of her long time idol Mr. A. With that begins the tale of betrayal, revenge and theft in new destination of bollywood, Brazil. And in the end lo! Hrithik Roshan is not actually Hrithik Roshan, but John Abraham wearing a mask. Now that is one thing that, thankfully, doesn't happen.

As far back as I can remember, Greatbong always claimed that Sanjay Gupta had biggest collection of hollywood DVDS, but as it turns out, his namesis [sic] , Sanjay Gadhavi isn't far behind either. With bikes and babes, he manages to pay tribute to many hollywood bike-chick flicks. As for the cast, Hrithik Roshan is definitely cooler of the lot, but every now-and-then you have feeling that he still has big time hangover from Krrish, except designer clothes have replaced village attire now. However hard he might try, doesn't pull-off coolness of Rusty Ryan. Abhishek Bachchan manages to stay not to go overboard and is still no-nonsense cop at best. It's becoming harder these days for me to defend my choices. After SRK, it's time for Aishwarya Rai. All-is-well when she removes her disguise and gives Lara Croft-esque pose, but my question is this. WHY DOES SHE UTTER A WORD AT ALL ? I am feeling so hot in here, aren't you? ... Are you like checking me out??. Ms. Rai, as for look and feel, you look charming despite of your age, but you are not Angelina Jolie. Take that. No offence Ms-Rai-soon-to-be-Mrs-Bachchan, but you have definitely given enough reasons for AB fans to crib about you. Bipasha Basu is adequate until Shonali Bose turns to Monali Bose. As for Uday Chopra, lesser said the better. Now that his screen presence is reduced as compared to Dhoom, you don't mind him too much. Biggest villian of the movie is soundtrack. You don't remember a single song (may be except Krazy kiya re...) when you walk out of a theatre and it annoyingly keeps reminding you that you are watching sequel with constant Dhoom again... in background.

It has enough moments for fans and masses to cheer about no doubt. You can't help but to smile when, AB says, Let's do the way my dad used to, just before tossing the coin. You have seen Manhattan buildings and European locales, but you never saw Brazilian beaches, did you? Here is your chance then.

Not that I had many expectations with Dhoom 2 in first place, but people and reviewers going ga-ga about it had raised the bar atleast a little. My Verdict : Go watch it if you liked Dhoom. You might be disappointed, but you won't be bored for sure. Now that movie has released, what I will be eagerly waiting for is Ghoom 2.

If only...

...Terry, Lampard, Rooney had performed half of what they are for doing English Premier League, England would have ended way up then they have in World Cup '06. General wondering at half time of scintillating ManU vs Chelsea match.

Why SRK, why?

He did Polio campaign. Good. Always good when superstars come to spread social awareness. Then he did Navratna tel. Then he did ICICI Bank. Then he did DON. No problems till now, but just a question. And now to top it all he does this, replacing Amitabh Bachchan for STAR Plus' biggest show ever, Kaun Banega Crorepati. Why does he always have to follow Big B all the time?

I am not arguing on the point that Big B is irreplacable and no one can match him blah blah talk (which albeit is the fact). The point is Big B is altogether a different persona. With Big B comes grandiose, towering personality and respect. Shahrukh Khan, on the other hand, brings a charming personality and energy, who with his smile can be and is a big crowd puller. He might not be the greatest of the actor, but he surely rules boxoffice and above all he knows that. He knows his strengths and weaknesses. He is a clever man, who doesn't believe in hiding weaknesses and showing the world exactly what's needed to be shown to make sure he doesn't get all pretentious and hypocrite. (Don't believe me? Read this and you'll know exactly what I am talking about. Karan Thapar, who otherwise manages to frustrate the guest on Devil's Advocate, sees himself on the other side.)

Anyway, so why this? Why is he trying to prove that he can succeed, if not replace, Big B? He simply can't and doesn't need to either. People like and love him for what he is. He has fan base of his own. He has proved himself. He doesn't need this. He can make big by doing his own than trying to fit in someone else's shoes. God bless you!

Sanedo (સનેડો)

Sanedo is taking Gujarat by storm. Everywhere from every Navaratri to marriage function, Sanedo rules. It's time to visit some history, Geography of Sanedo.

Original pronunciation and word is Snehdo(Gujarati: સ્નેહડો), derived from the word Sneh(Gujarati: સ્નેહ), meaning love or affection. Sanedo contains couplets of four lines and has striking resemblance to Bhavai, a folk drama from Gujarat. Topic of lines can be anything under the sun satire, love, youth, anything that you want.

Sanedo originated from the villages of Patan district in Gujarat and it has become a very popular dance all over Gujarat and also among the Gujarati speaking population in North America and Britain. It is frequenty played during the festival of Navratri, during wedding celebrations and during parties. Sanedo originally said to have been made famous by Arvind Barot, around 20 years ago, but it wasn't until recently that Maniraj Barot made it rage in all over Gujarat. I was skeptical about it, but ever since my dear bro has "illustrated" Sanedo to me, I am a big fan of Sanedo. I still think Sanedo deserves much more recognition than it has. Jay Vasavada has wonderful article on Gujarat Samachar about Sanedo (here) . If you are a Gujarati reader, it's a must read.

I have also created a wikipedia page about Sanedo. If you have more information about it, please contribute to page.

PS:- If you want to listen to Sanedo, you can listen it here(free registeration required), here and here.

PS/2:- Few more customized Sanedo, listen to NRI no sanedo and CM (Narendra Modi) no sanedo.

Roger Federer as a religious experience

Roger Federer rules? dominates? crashes? thrashes? Damn! I have ran out of adjectives, so have commentators. Yesterday when Roger made Blake eat that Bagel, IMHO, he played one of the best games we have ever seen from the king. Roger Federer lifted his third masters cup in straight sets 6-0 6-3 6-4. I pity Blake, seriously. He didn't set a foot wrong, it was just that he didn't have answer to master's Impeccable, landing just online, powerful baseliner shots nor he could believe that how could anyone hit powerful cross-court forehands and unfathomable passing backhands. poor soul himself later on said, If Federer is an artist, his performance in Sunday's final would have to count as one of his masterpieces. I guess that came from defeating his nemesis, Rafael 'Rafa' Nadal, especially beating him in straight sets for the first time in 9 encounters. Fedex has proved himself a cut above others. He has been setting record of maximum INDESIT ranking points since three years. He is the first man to breach barrier of 8000 entry points. He has been sitting on #1 ranking since 150 weeks (i.e. almost 3 years), just shy of world record of 160, which he theoretically has already broken. If he takes break at this point of time and takes a long 4 months break, he will still return as #1. More than 10 titles per year since last three years. Consecutive 10 grandslam semifinal appearances. Consecutive 5 grandslam final appearances (4 out of which he won), and the list is endless. I would rather recommend his Wikipedia page.

On this occassion, I would like you to read an excellent article by David Wallace on NYTimes : Roger Federer as a religious experience.

There are three kinds of valid explanation for Federer’s ascendancy. One kind involves mystery and metaphysics and is, I think, closest to the real truth. The others are more technical and make for better journalism.

Don't miss this and I really say this literally. DON'T MISS IT.

Of Banning and Blocking

Not many are complaining the growth of Internet and arrival of Web 2.0, except a few. Hardware and Bandwidth going cheaper, on one hand has been beneficial to web companies, it is growing headache for sysadmins. They have strict orders from respective companies to control the bandwidth cost. Authorities have troubles keeping their employees productive with arrival of blogs, social networking and what not. Result? Banning of youtube,orkut,blogger is in rage. Can't do much about banning of orkut and youtube, but there are some workarounds for blogging.

One, Use PKBlogs. This was created when Pakistani government imposed ban on blog and in totally unrelated event later on by Indian government. Simple and easy to use, but it has issues with images and people have raised some privacy concerns.

Two, Get an RSS Reader. RSS phenomenon is fast catching attention everywhere. Concept is simple, instead of roaming all around the internet, just gather the places you are interested in and use it, which Google calls Inbox for your web. There are both online and offline RSS readers available. I strongly recommend Google Reader above all. IE7 and Flock have built-in RSS reader.

Well that's pretty much it. Necessity is mother of invention, they say, but no donuts for me as orkut remains banned at my workplace.

a PJ

Q. What is movie Janeman all about?

A. Tarzan.

As Gaurav once put it, sometimes I am happy I am not you. Johnny has all the copyrights for this PJ. For any kind of republishing, in full or parts, contact him.

You haven't had...

You haven't had perfect Vada Paav until you haven't had them at Andheri station.

You haven't had perfect Pani Puri/Chat until you haven't had them at Agarkar Chowk (Andheri, no sir , not Juhu-Chowpati)

You haven't had perfect Veg Sandwich until you haven't eaten at Narayana Sandwich.

Wondering I had gone to Mumbai for Diwali or for some food festival? That makes two of us. This was one of the best part of my Diwali vacation. More coming up :)

I officially...

...hate Indian cricket team. Stupid Dwayne Bravo has only one weapon, SLOW DELIVERY and Indian batsmen fall into the trap all the time. Today Smith trapped Yuvraj by same easy but slow delivery. Dravid is too confident about fielding of his own side and opponents that he is sure that when you are aiming with only one stump, you can NEVER hit it. Never mind. Pay the price and put your team into grave trouble, when it seemed that you are cruising along fine. No wonder Guru Greg (term developed by Indian Media) hit on them about their body language. How I really wish I could quit cricket someday like Formula-1

Retiring from Formula-1

...and Michael Schumacher is not alone. Herewith I am declaring my retirement from Formula-1 too. Not that it matters too much, but it's essential to declare it to the world :)

World is stage and players come and go and blah blah. Good for words, but I don't believe in it, atleast for Formula-1. Ever since I have been following F-1, I have seen Michael Schumacher growing, dominating, crushing opponents. Michael Schumacher, for me, has been greater than the sport itself and I know that's the case for many Indian F-1 followers. I can't imagine watching F-1 again without MS on circuit. Can't believe there won't be high jumps on podium in red dress. Can't believe German National Anthem won't be played at Paddock regularly. Adios Master!!! Luck didn't favour him in last two race or we would all have seen him dancing and jumping on podium with eighth world championship under his belt. Just when he looked all set to take the win, something happened, which hadn't happened to him in last six years. His engine betrayed him :(

Last race showed what MS is truly made of. There was only theoretical possibility that he could win, but he ran marvellous race. After dominating first two fabulous qualifying sessions, when he came on to the circuit, some problem with engine and had to return to pits. Even after such a disappointing qualifying, he ran his supreme and already pushed Fisi for fifth position, but worst was yet to come. He had tyre failure and after a long pitstop rejoined at last position, but as Damon Hill says, he never gives up. He had shifted to one-pit strategy now and was with heavy fuel, but started showing his mattle after second round of pit stop started. After zapping through tailenders with ease, now came the big names. Barichello et al was relatively easy. Now comes turn of Fisichella to feel the heat. Schumi took his best work at Turn 1 and did most overtakes there itself. He took inside track at turn 1 and others couldn't do anything but watch. Poor chap, Fisichella tried hard to outbreak the champ at turn 1 and ran wide outside grip. You don't do that with Schumi, boy!! suck on that, Fisi. Probably Kimi understood and managed to stay on inside track, but can't hold the man for long and ultimately saw Michael zooming past him. If it wasn't for the big gap that had already occured we would have easily seen him on the podium. What a race!!! What a man!!!

Although I won't be watching F-1 now, but I will support whoever is challenging Alonso. Don't take me wrong, he is good driver, but passion comes with a price. And I have developed sort of dislike Alonso just like that. Kimi is a good driver and now in good car and hope he continues legacy set by MS. Massa is shaping up good too. and I seriously hope McLaren continues their poor reliability and we see Alonso in pits well before the end of the race. Amen!!

As promised by MS, I hope we see him back with Ferrari soon in important role. Long live master!!

Ram Gopal Varma Ke Sholay

After years of speculation, RGV's Sholay is finally hitting the floors. It's offically called Rom Gopal Varma Ke Sholay , sucks. It has been making news ever since RGV announced it. Starting from the whole hearted acceptance from Amitabh Bachchan to denial from Ramesh Sippy, Dharmendra et al. In a chain of events, RGV , almost everyfortnight declared an actor for the particular character in Sholay, creating buzz all around. He sure knows how to stay in headlines. In the recent move, he unveiled new look of Gabbar, which has brought mixed reactions. Anyway, it has been topic of lunch table discussion and here I am to summarize some of the points/suggestions/comments straight out of discussion, Ram Gopal Varma might think helpful.

Katrina Kaif

Katrina Kaif plays role of Jaya Bachchan. Well sort of suits given that Jaya Bachchan didn't have many lines to speak, but we are seriously worried as to how she will do the scenes of Holi where Jaya did running and speaking at the same time. We wish Katrina luck in her most adventorous and toughest job of her filmi career. This one being new age version we have our own suspicion that she might originally belong to London, so that Hindi can be pardoned.

Mohit Ahlawat

Mohit Ahlawat. strain your brains and dude on the left side might seem familiar . Yes he is the RGV's latest find, protagonist in the latest movie "Shiva", which was remake of movie "James" (duhh), which in turn was remake of the movie which brought RGV into limelight "Shiva" (huh??). And what role he plays? oh yes. Jai. All Amitabh Bachchan fans, start digging your graves. We wonder considering his chemistry with Nisha Kothari in above mentioned movies, why Ramu didn't opt for Nisha in role of Radha?

Urmila Matondkar

Urmila Matondkar plays seductress Helen. Considering her early reputation of hit item girl with Rajkumar Santoshi camp, she might be able to live upto expectations.


Trivia :- In one of the biggest ironies of World Cinema, Anu Maliik's (no typos there) Chhamma Chhamma was copied to Hollywood hit double oscar-winning musical Moulin Rouge!, albeit with permission. Oh did I say irony? I take my
words back after coming across this piece of interview.

Q : The music industry is facing its worst-ever recession now...



A : Let me tell you why! It is not downloading, nor technology like MP3, nor piracy. It's just bad music! Why are we still seduced by The Backstreet Boys and Whitney Houston? Why can't we be original? Why should people pay money to listen to poor music? The pop element and the obsession with sound and technology is a passing phase.

Thoughtful indeed(Source)

Suniel Shetty

Suniel Shetty (No sir, no typos there either) has gone too far this time. He is playing Sambha. I wonder how much he paid for this role. His boutique business must have earned him enough to pay for this role.

Here are the two choice, IMHO, which might surpass or atleast match the original cast. Mohanlal as Thakur and Rajpal Yadav as Surma Bhopali, but we have serious issues to handle i.e. unconfirmed cast.

RGV approached Shreyas Talpade (Iqbal) for role of Ahmed (originally played by Sachin) and when he asked for narration, RGV got temperamental saying what does he think? won't I do justice to him? Doesn't he trust me? Man's gotta do, what he's gotta do ... anyway... so we were talking about unconfirmed cast. For Basanti we have scanned everyone from Rani Mukherjee to Esha Doel but none of them seems to fit in the scheme of things, but we'll soon find it out.

On the other line of thought, we were thinking who from Original Sholay can still part of this one, without losing his/her original charm. Considering fact that Mac Mohan hasn't changed a bit in last 'n' years, he could still play Sambha, but as mentioned above Suniel Shetty has already paid hefty sum, we couldn't back out on that, but then we finalized the man to top them all, A K Hangal, I don't think anybody would have problem with that. Do ya? do ya ? do ya?

BUT, Here comes the biggest of all, which made me right this whole crap in first place. Who is going to sing Mehbooba Mehbooba opposite Urmila? Just try to sing this in Jalal Aaga's voice



Mehbooba O Mehbooba.. uuuuuuuuuuuu



and tell me the name comes first into your mind. Bingo! You got it
right. Devil's own singer, Himesh Reshammiya, is going to get featured opposite Urmila in this song and is also composer of the movie. What else could you ask for? Guys go watch this one in theatres near you. SUMMER ... 2007...? 2008?..2015? Let's just keep it SUMMER as of now.

---

PS:- Reasons for putting so many outgoing links and pictures, are simply pedagogical, on the special request by SlimShady, who says he doesn't know half of the name mentioned in this article. Uff yeh nayi generation!!!

Arrgghhh....

Michael Schumacher's engine betrays him only 17 laps away from chequered flag and when he looked all set to take the championship lead. Can't stand it any more..!!! :(

Bloglines out, Google Reader in

I have been ardent Google fan ever since it launched and using it since wayback in 1999. I have always preferred Google products over competitors as long as Google offers it. Google Search,GMail,Google Earth,Google Notebook, Google Talk to name a few... I rank Google for coolness of its products. Google offered 1 GB with GMail when other competitors were offering atmost 10 MB and shocked the Mail world.

I was disappointed when Google launched Google Reader, it didn't offer lots of features my then feeds reader Bloglines offered. It didn't offer reading feeds neither individually nor tags/folders wise and bloglines remained the only non-Google product that I used over Google, but I was more than thrilled to read latest post on Official Google Blog. Google Reader seems to have taken lesson from popularity of Bloglines and back in the webworld with its usual uber coolness. I admit, although as good as bloglines but not better, just for sake of my emotional attachment to Google, I am officially shifting to Google Reader.

Image Courtesy : Official Google Blog

Sachin Tendulkar : Return of the King

THE Master Blaster is back and with a big bang. Batted through 50 overs and marvellous comeback Century.



SR Tendulkar(rhb) 142(148) 13x4, 5x6 (SR - 95.94)



Form is temporary, class is permanent.

Michael Schumacher bids adieu to Formula 1

The rumours I was talking about have turned out to be true. Michael Schumacher declared emotional retirement after winning Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Personally speaking, it has been a huge blow. Not that I wasn't expecting it but it being official does matter. I started watching Formula 1 almost 7 years back. I supported Michael Schumacher for the simple reason that I knew only a single man from the sport. That time around Mika Hakkinen ruled the circuit and Michael Schumacher came 5th at end of the season. Since then it has been a long emotional journey till 2006. Since 2000, Schumacher started rulling the circuit. Unfortunately after 2001, worth competitor of Michael Schumacher, The Flying Finn Mika Hakkinen announced retirement, but Schumi continued his triumph there after. 2004 was season any fan had never seen before. Michael Schumacher winning 13 out of 17 races and ended up with 148 season-end points. 2005 saw rise of Renault and Fernando Alonso and his unreliable Ferrari gave him really tough time through out the series. Starting of 2006 season saw yet another slow start from Michael Schumacher, but as the season is ending Ferrari and Schumi are tightening screws on Alonso. After Italian Grand Prix Schumacher stands just 2 points behind Alonso and hopefully will end his last season as the champion, securing 7th Championship.

Michael Schumacher's career has always been full of controversies, but you can't deny that he has champion's attitude. His statistics speak for themselves. Just look at this.

• Most race wins: 90 (previous record beaten in 2001)
  
• Most race wins with one team: 71
  
• Most podium finishes: 153
  
• Most second place finishes: 43
  
• Most points finishes: 188
  
• Most pole positions: 68
  
• Most fastest laps: 75
  
• Most race wins from pole position: 40
  
• Most "clean-sweeps" (pole position, race win, and fastest lap): 22
  
• Most championship points: 1,354
  

Now what do you say to this? Records he has established aren't going to be broken for a long time I bet. Very few people have ruled the sport for more than 10 years like Michael Schumacher has. He will be remembered as long as the sport exists, that is for sure, whatever Jacques Villenueve or anyone says. When I picture Schumi, it's always standing on podium, wearing red dress raising his hands to the cheering fans and leaping on the top of the podium every time as if it's his first one and I think that's what keeps him going all the time. He is never satisfied. When he broke Alan Prost's record of 55 career wins, how I had really wish that he would retire with a century. Had it not been for the slump of 2004-2005, we would have easily seen him there. Love him or hate him, but you can't deny that he is undoubtedly one of the best of all time in Formula-1. As for me, After 2006, Formula-1 won't be ever same again.

Hail Schumi!!!!

એક ગુજરાતી પોસ્ટ

આજે વિચાર આવ્યો કે ગુજરાતી મારી માતૃભાષા હોવા છતા ગુજરાતીમાં મેં એક પણ પોસ્ટ કરી નથી. આ રહી મારી પહેલી પોસ્ટ. નિશિત દેસાઇ બ્લોગ પર આપનું સ્વાગત કરે છે.

Not just yet... :(

Everything that has beginning has an end. But not so soon. No please no. Please don't go so early. You have a lot to offer to the game and fans like us.

Official verdict is going to be out on the race day itself, but there are strong reports that Michael Schumacher is announcing his retirement on this Sunday at Ferrari home, Monza. I am already feeling too sad. Just one more season Schumi and I bet you'll show Alonso what a champion is!!

Lage Raho Munnabhai

Munnabhai meets Mahatma Gandhi. This was the title orignally chosen for the movie. Too paradoxical yet too befitting. Just try to picture it. On one hand there is Munnabhai, a local bhai who with his right hand Circuit knows only one way to justice. Khopche mein le jaa ke kharcha paani. On the other hand, you have Father of the nation, who had only one weapon, non-violence. Can these two go together? Yes they do and do it well.

Munnabhai is in love with RJ Jahnavi (Vidya Balan) (who BTW is jockey on Worldspace Radio and still you can hear her on most of the radio set for free.. yuppie..!!!) and ends up making her think that he knows a hell lot about Gandhiji and finds himself in trouble and that's when father of the nation himself comes to his resuce. Jahnavi has her own set of troubles which she needs to deal with aid of Munnabhai, the history Professor. Can Father of the nation help him? Can Munna get out of grave trouble he is in? Watch it to see it.

Lage Raho Munnabhai works and how? Writers for this movie had huge task at their hands. First movie was a blockbuster and one of the biggest hit of the year and they had to deal with huge pressure that naturally comes with a sequel of big-time movie, which most of the sequels fail to handle. Lage Raho Munnabhai comes out with shining colors. It gets even bigger and better than the original, I daresay. It's always tough to combine a comedy with a message and making sure that you don't get preachy and didactic at it. Making sure that your script is emotional but at the same time not sentimental. Munnabhai simply just does that. There is a Gandhi in all of us. We just don't know it or may be we don't care to know about it. It's not that big a deal if you just come face-to-face with it. Job well done Hirani. As Sarika, puts it aptly in the words.

People miss honesty
They miss
it by miles
People miss honesty
And they don't even realize.

Munna-Circuit chemistry is as good as the first one. They make you laugh with their jokes and one liners all the time. When you watch Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi on the screen, you feel like they must have been born as Munna and Circuit and not the other way around. They have immortalized this pair. Vidya Balan continues to impress me. She was like a seasoned actress in her debut Parineeta as a typical Bengali girl and this time around she enthralls you as a youthful urban girl. IMHO, she is one of the biggest difference between first two films. She brings out the charm on the screen which Gracy Singh failed to. Boman Irani continues to impress as an evil builder. It is unfortunate for Hindi film industry that such a talented actor remained hidden until Munnabhai MBBS brought him in the limelight.

Lage Raho Munnabhai. We want more..!!!

(Cross-posted to InFiCA)

Bakul Tripathi no more

It seems God is lacking fun up above there these days. After sad demise of Hrishikesh Mukherjee few days back, noted Gujarati humourist Bakul Tripathi died yesterday evening. Well-known for his daily column “Kakko ne Barakhadi” in popular Gujarati daily Gujarat Samachar was undoubtedly one of the cherished writer of Gujarati literature. May his soul rest in peace!!!

Hrishikesh Mukherjee no more..!!!!

A huge shock if you ask me. Makers of some excellent movies like Chupke-Chupke, Golmaal, Anand, Bawarchi, Guddi, Anupama, Khubsoorat, Namak Haram, Anari. Undisputedly best comedy film maker of India. I don't remember tears rolling down my cheeks when some film personality died. Salute to you Hrishi-da.

Anand mara nahi, Anand marte nahi...

Mixed Bag

In a state where I have been after a really looooong time. Atleast 4 years I say . And frankly don't know what it's about. It ain't frustration, boredom, emotional hell, fatigue or may be all of them. May be some complex combination of following things.

Current Album : Saathiya, Parineeta
Current Work : Automatic Error Detection
Current Platform : MATLAB
Current Thoughts : 11-dimensional (Personal, Professional, Academic and 8 other similar dimensions)
Current Ambience : Pleasant

Now you do the math and I will try to rest in peace.

Omkara

Omkara - A beautiful poem from Vishal Bhardwaj.

After struggling I finally saw the movie and that too by bunking office on that day. Yeah!!!! It feels so good and it was all worth it. Much has been already said about
the movie. I don't want to add much to it, but I strongly recommend movie to everyone. Vishal Bhardwaj has done fabulous job of bringing Othello on Indian Cinema and in Indian context. I haven't read Shakespeare or even Othello, but movie is a sincere and honest effort to present a story of a tragic hero.

Story is pretty much known, so won't write about it much here, but I will definitely put a word for performances. Saif Ali Khan is a revealation. I bet noone ever expected him to give such a fine performance as Langda Tyagi (Iago). I am betting for Saif for this year's National Award... again. Konkona Sensharma is a boon to Bollywood. This girl handles every role with finesse. Second surprise for me was Kareena Kapoor. I officially detest Kareena, but I must admit after Chameli for the first time, I actually liked Kareena (Kareina if you prefer). Without any makeup, she is perfectly cast as Dolly Mishra (Desdemona). Ajay Devgan succeeds as the tragic hero, but I somehow felt Manoj Bajpai would have done fabulous job as Omkara, but never mind that.

Bottomline : Omkara, without a doubt, is the best movie of 2006 with Being Cyrus being second. If you raised your eyebrows... yes I have seen Rang De Basanti, Fanaa, Krrrrish, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna or any other crap you have in your mind.

Some excellent reviews : Bardwaj Rangan,Falstaff (Not too impressed with the movie, but excellenet review), Raja Sen, Jai Arjun

SRK fascination and 'Don'

Let me accept this first. I used to be a fanatic SRK fan. I used to publicize and recommend anything and everything that attached Shahrukh Khan name with it. If I say ever since Deewaana and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman came, I was SRK fan I would be lying. As a kid, I used like Shahrukh as Abhimanyu Rai in "Fauji" a lot. Baazigar and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge just strengthened his status. I still remember when DDLJ re-released after almost two years, I took my friends willingly/unwillingly for the movie on my 18th birthday. Now I was out in full swing. I was ready to take on fan of any other hero. Then I went to see Baadshah first day first show, I came out with all praise (although with a little guilty). Unfortunately, after that I started listening to my conscience more than my fanaticism. Meantime, I also saw Guddu, English Babu Desi Mem, Ram Jaane, Zamaana Deewana (bet you haven't heard this one), Ram Jaane, Duplicate. Duh... what more do I say? Although Hey Ram, Dil se and Swades(an apt review) made me proud.

I am not a fan now, but in some corner of my heart I still hope his every coming film beats any other Aamir (although he is a better actor), Hritik flick. Whatever I or you say about Shahrukh, we must admit he has an aura about him. Whenever he is onscreen doing a typical mushy, candyfloos Yashraj-Karan Johar scene he makes his presence felt. There is energy about every step he takes in his dance. His dance for 5 minutes can make crap like Kaal a hit. I bet there are millions like me out there who would want to watch an SRK movie, although it might be clearly evident from promos that it's just another Rahul/Raj movie, you never know he might surprise you with Aman Varma or Amjad Ali Khan or Mohan Bhargav.

How was I remembered of Shahrukh suddenly? Because I watched First promo of a first official Hindi remake, Don. Disappointing I say. I hope he is not pulling off yet another Mannu (a la Duplicate). Amen!!

Related Posts : Gaurav Sabnis on defending Khan. My feelings aptly put.

Promo Source : IndiaFM

Freedom to be...

First breath in free air

India got its freedom back again on July 21st, 2006 where bloggers can now view their blogs again. Got a little carried away there eh?

Read full story here.

Sometimes...

Sometimes you remember someone so much that you can't get her out of your mind ? She may not be love of your life or your bestest friend, but feels so special for some moments that her memories can't be overcome by thoughts of *anyone*. You don't exactly miss her, but for those special moments she is very close to you. I enjoy those moments.

How you really wish that you could call her up and say I remembered you sooo much, but that isn't always appropriate, now is it? Has that happened to you? For me, it indeed has. I would rather keep it to me only and cherish it for a long time to come. So here it is to the beautiful person I've known, befriended and loved...

Champion v/s Champion

It was indeed clash of the titans.

Roger 'cannibal' Federer ate up Bjorkman in Wimbledon Seminfinals..Scoreline read. 6-2 6-0 6-2. and that's not a first round score, it was semifinal. Commentators comment "Nadal and Baghdatis (other semifinalists) better not watch this match, it might scare them" . Very true..!!! Seed 3 Andy Roddick has declared "Federer is almost unbeatable on grass court". Nobody has answer for Federer's baseline shots and backhand pass shots. He was broken only twice this year at wimbledon and has not dropped a single set and is on route to his fourth consecutive wimbledon crown.

Rafael 'clayking' Nadal beat Marcos Baghdatis and beat him hard. defeated in straight sets. 6-1, 7-5,6-3. Nadal sets up dream final with Federer and I tell you what, it's not going to be easy. The way Nadal was playing Federer must be wishing that he would face Baghdatis in Final but it's his nemesis face to face again..Nadal sprint across first set. In second and third set Baghdatis gave fight with some wonderful drop shots but ultimate had to lose to Nadal's power game and well-executed volleys.

Now it's show down. On one side, Roger Federer, Grass court's undisputed king. On the other side, Rafael Nadal, who is invincible or clay court, but considered very vulnurable on Grass Court. To everyone's surprise, he reached final of Wimbledon and it was only his fifth encounter on grass court. Only fifth encounter and Wimbledon final??!! Great feat. Ever Since Federer era began in 2004, Nadal is his only nemesis. Nadal had defeated Federer in their last 5 encounters, including 4 this year and overall record stands 6-1. Battle was all set.

First set looked like yet another triumph of Federer. Federer won 6-0!! Nadal is the man who doesn't give in so easily. He fought back and broke Roger Federer's first serve in first game of second set. Federer broke back and ultimately won the set in tiebreaker, but it was never so easy. Third set, it got even harder and Nadal forced Federer to drop his first set in Wimbledon 2006. but Federer, the man that he is, Broke Nadal twice and ultimately won his fourth consecutive Wimbledon Crown with 6-0 7-6 6-7 6-3 and proved that he is still best in the business. But emergence of Nadal has proved that if Federer wants a place in All-time great, it won't be an easy journey with this hurdle always on his way and who knows like Pete Sampras Roland Garros might always allude Federer the emperor. See you at US OPEN :)

Don't ask a blogger about....

Don't ask a man's salary and a woman's age they say. What not to ask while talking to a blogger?






Source :- Pears Before Swine

How Brazil Lost

Need I say anything more? You decide if they deserved to win this one?

Wikimapia

Q. What happens when you take cross-product of Wikipedia and Google Maps?
A. Wikimapia

Wikiesque effort for tagging cities, helpful for Indian cities where Google Maps are not available (and high-resolution images for few major cities). You can search and tag your places here and even put it on your page (Shown below is my office, Read-Ink technologies).



Few other Bangalore landmarks :

• Read-Ink Technologies :)
  
• Bangalore Airport
  
• ChinnaSwamy Stadium

Riya Photo Search uses similar tagging technology for location-wise photo search.

(Link via Rupesh)

Update: It does work in Firefox :)

Bus Uncle

Haven't you seen Bus Uncle yet?



This video is now HUGE in Hong Kong and has led to many debate over work pressure and all. Bus Uncle's quote I face pressure, you face pressure has become a catch phrase in Hong Kong Junta. Post stories and related stories on India Uncut here.

Devil's Singer

Describe 2006 for music channels in two words :Yes you got it. Himesh Reshammiya. Reshammiya is not only sensation but also a secret, a mystery which remains unfolded. No one could quite understood. Despite far from being melodious, he was rocking all the music charts, not only as composer but also as a singer. Few people had their own doubts/suspicions/theories/hypothesis, but no one could quite prove it.

Some thought that his all-round abilities (singing and crying at same time that is) that earned him his popularity, but Anu Malik too had multi-facet personality i.e. composing (stealing that is), singing (crying that is), but he never got what he "deserved" and had to satisfy himself with face on TV singing Dekho Baarish ho rahi hai.. it's raining.. it's raining.. it's raining.. Mera Dil ro raha hai.. my heart is paining.. it's paining.. it's paining...

A huge set of conspiracy theorists thought that it was his uninque nasal singing that earned him respect, but then again wasn't Anu Malik unique too (i.e. the only singer in bollywood, who actually didn't sing). So after all, what is it??

Our team had our own hypothesis, but we being perfectionists and insisting on Bringing out truth out, no matter what. decided to dig further into this and we finally had a clue. We came to know about this and suddenly all jigsaw pieces seem to fall in the right place. With these interviews and further research we have found out the truth.

People say it was Sonu Nigam who insisted that Reshammiya should sing title song Aashiq Banaya Aapne instead of Sonu, which was followed by record and ear-breaking sales of Reshammiya music numbers. Seeds of success had been sown long before that. Evidences of Ghost-capturing incidences from Gujarat and Reshammiya being Gujarati is not a mere coincidence. It was a lonely night when Reshammiya was trying his hand at singing and while no one on the earth could bear it, his voice crossed three-dimensional frequency barriers and went far ahead and deeper than that until followers of the dark side compalined their lord. The Dark Lord contacted Reshammiya and urged/requested/petrified/stupified , but none of them worked. It wasn't until dark lord promised him success in our world (a la Keanu Reeves of Devil's Advocate ) that Reshammiya agreed to confine his voice to our world. Rest is history, but don't just write it off yet. There is more to it. Dark lord is happy with success of having found an apprentice to torture mere mortals, is signing permanent contract with Himesh Reshammiya on auspicious day of 6/6/6 and Reshammiya will be popular till eternity. It's your right to fight against the dark side, so please sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/please_dont_let_us_rot_in_hell_for_rest_of_our_lives . Once having enough signature, we will forward it to the dark lord for reconsideration of his agreement. Remember your and future generations' future depends on you. Let's awake our generation. Together we can and we will make a difference.

PS:- This was really a poor attempt at Satire when half-asleep. Now that I am reading it again, I realise it and now I'll roll back and go back to Reshammiya following with my room mates.

Silver lining in the cloud

However cliche this may sound but that's what first came to my mind when I heard Advani's this quote.

Somebody has finally spoken up against current implementation of reservation. This doesn't indicate that he is against reservation, but atleast he is unhappy about the way it is implemented right now. Government's absurd, frustrating (for people ofcourse) way of forcing quota on us, was something much lesser than what we deserve as people of a democractic country.

I am not saying, Advani is a visionary or understanding politician, but his this step is much better than defeaning silence of not only congress but also opposition parties. There was hope when Left was talking about excluding creamy layer and all, but suddenly all was well for Congress after UPA meeting and Pranab Mukherjee blatantly declared proposal of the bill the monsoon session. Talk with Doctors, blah blah was suddenly vaporized and all hopes were shattered. Does this mean BJP will oppose reservation bill? May be not, but atleast this is better than what has been happening till now. Hope this boosts spirit of people seeking justice and transperancy.

This is really is funny...

Poor Inzy... He was already facing some competition from Younis Khan on captaincy front, now he has competition off the field too. When you watch India-Pakistan match, above anything else, you don't want to miss Inzybhai's speech at presentation ceremony. Typical speech goes like this.

Bismillah-e-rehman-e-rahim. First of all many thanks to Allah. We is played good cricket is today. But Indians is played more good than us...

and thus it goes. Now why I said he was facing competition? Oh right... He is now face to face with Indian media giant Hindustan Times, when it comes to stand-up comedy.

Read this article : Wild, wetty dreams

Inzybhai start innovating, else you're out of the business.

Some more links : India Uncut, Greatbong,Goose Egg

PS:- HT seemed to wake up after the article made news all around blogosphere, they did minor modifications and changed the title to "Wild, Witty dreams" !!!! That didn't seem enough and finally they have removed it from the website. You can find original unedited version here.

It's getting wild....

...here at Bangalore. It's first time after coming to Bangalore that I have seen so turbulent weather. Raining hard and high-speed wind. uuhhh.. I am loving it... :)

The One With Disappointment

It happens most of the time and it has happened again. Very few have managed to make sequel bigger and better than prequel, like T-2. (History proved itself with T-3 though). And History is repeating itself with Joey, a spin-off from mega-hit sitcom Friends.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S was hugely popular through out ten years it lasted. Contrary to its popularity, its Pilot received absymal ratings and people who watched pilot rated it as hackeneyed, but it started gaining popularity because of its humourous dialogues, sharp one-liners and well-knit subplots. Chandler, Matthew Perry, quoted in one of the interviews that other comedy shows like Seinfeld were great too, but what was different about Friends was that writers were not afraid to make some emotional subplots. Very true!!! But Friends never ceased to be a good comedy show, they never overdid emotions on the show and it remained huge hit.

On the other hand, JOEY had huge audience even before pilot was aired, because fans of FRIENDS wanted to see more of friends and it did open with huge audience, but it didn't live upto reputation of FRIENDS and it's no fault of audience. People would have definitely expected it to be as humourous as FRIENDS, but leave that alone it wasn't even "good" comedy. First of all, Characters aren't defined very well. We all know that Joey is stupid, food-lover and promiscuous and that's what we like about him, but when you overdo it, it's not that funny. His sister, Gina Tribbiani, is weird and his character is very confused. His nephew, Michael Tribbiani, is a genuis rocket-scientist, exactly opposite to his uncle. Acting-wise both Gina and Michael are mediocre. His Neighbour, Alex Garrett (Andrea Anders), on the other hand is rather cute and sweet. Her fear for Gina and her love for Joey sometimes touches you in otherwise loose plot. Obviously, Joey makers have failed miserably to recreate the magic created by David Crane and Marta Cauffman. Ratings have keep falling down and NBC have decided not to continue after second season and last episode of second season will be series finale. :-(

Despite all these, being an ardent FRIENDS fan, I keep watching Joey with hope of resurrection. I want to see silver lining in the black cloud. Hope that comes soon.

Scooping the Loop Snooper

Warning : Techie poem ahead. Read at your own risk.

An elementary proof of the undecidability of the halting problem

No program can say what another will do.
Now, I won't just assert that, I'll prove it to you:
I will prove that although you might work til you drop,
you can't predict whether a program will stop.

Imagine we have a procedure called P
that will snoop in the source code of programs to see
there aren't infinite loops that go round and around;
and P prints the word "Fine!" if no looping is found.

You feed in your code, and the input it needs,
and then P takes them both and it studies and reads
and computes whether things will all end as the should
(as opposed to going loopy the way that they could).

Well, the truth is that P cannot possibly be,
because if you wrote it and gave it to me,
I could use it to set up a logical bind
that would shatter your reason and scramble your mind.

Here's the trick I would use - and it's simple to do.
I'd define a procedure - we'll name the thing Q -
that would take and program and call P (of course!)
to tell if it looped, by reading the source;

And if so, Q would simply print "Loop!" and then stop;
but if no, Q would go right back to the top,
and start off again, looping endlessly back,
til the universe dies and is frozen and black.

And this program called Q wouldn't stay on the shelf;
I would run it, and (fiendishly) feed it itself.
What behaviour results when I do this with Q?
When it reads its own source, just what will it do?

If P warns of loops, Q will print "Loop!" and quit;
yet P is supposed to speak truly of it.
So if Q's going to quit, then P should say, "Fine!" -
which will make Q go back to its very first line!

No matter what P would have done, Q will scoop it:
Q uses P's output to make P look stupid.
If P gets things right then it lies in its tooth;
and if it speaks falsely, it's telling the truth!

I've created a paradox, neat as can be -
and simply by using your putative P.
When you assumed P you stepped into a snare;
Your assumptions have led you right into my lair.

So, how to escape from this logical mess?
I don't have to tell you; I'm sure you can guess.
By reductio, there cannot possibly be
a procedure that acts like the mythical P.

You can never discover mechanical means
for predicting the acts of computing machines.
It's something that cannot be done. So we users
must find our own bugs; our computers are losers!

by Geoffrey K. Pullum
Stevenson College
University of California
Santa Cruz, CA 95064

From Mathematics magazine VOL73. No. 4, Oct 2000 319-320

Online petitions

Best web business idea today is to create an Online petition website. No matter what happens, create an online petition, circulate round of emails all around the world and get satisfaction that you have started a "revolution" now it's "world's" responsibility to carry it on. No matter what topic is just start a petition. Whether William Hung goes out of American Idol or some Rahul chap goes out of Indian Idol, just create a petition and show your outrage. How many petitions have you signed till date? and how many of them had positive outcome? or for that matter any outcome?

I am reminded of a story here. Churchill used to instruct his subordinates to keep woods and axe ready for him when he returns after acidic public lectures to subside his anger. Petitiononline seems to be doing same thing for us. Just to subside our anger. We feel we have done our part and get back to our lives!!!

One such mail came to me asking to sign petition to protest against quota in IITs and IIMs. Although I support the cause, I strictly believe this is not the way out.
Slimshady aptly puts it in words...

1. We signed this petition when Akshardham was attacked and they went to varanasi
2. We signed this petition when an IITian got slaughtered and they moved to IIM
3. We signed this petition when a Girl got Desecrated and they moved to another
4. We are signing this petition now so that they can divide and rule


Needs to do something solid rather than merely signing petitions. Various students from different IITs have gone on hunger strike. I don't know if it's effective move but atleast stronger move than signing petition. They might end up like Rajeev Goswami in case of Mandal Comission but they are putting out their anger and not feeling satisfaction by putting their names on online forums.

Quote of the day : The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous....
--V for Vendetta

PS :- Although it may seem that it's contradicting to my stance on Blank Noise Project, but it isn't. Why you ask? Blank Noise Project had different purpose, different presentation and different audience. Read the need of Blank Noise Project here.

Being Cyrus

Once the game is over, The king and the pawn go into the same box.

With arrival of movies like Raincoat, Black, Iqbal, Page 3, Hazaaron Khwahishein aisi... Bollywood has proved that it's certainly moving forward and going to routes which has remained virgin to it. Being Cyrus is one such attempt. While others have attempted to go subtle. Being Cyrus is not only subtle, but also highly professional, stylish and well executed.

We see the movie through eyes of a young parsi, Cyrus Mistry. He joins family of Dinshaw Sethna, well-known pot-maker in the past and his wife Katy. What follows is a twisted story of Sethna family of Fardounjee Sethna and his sons, Dinshaw Sethna (Naseeruddin Shah) and Farokh Sethna (Boman Irani).

First half deals superbly with development of characters of both of the brothers, their father and their spouses. Homi Adjania, being a Parsi himself, gives superb look into the Parsi culture and mannerisms. Scenes like Boman Irani's encounter with his neigbour, Boman Irani's dealing with his father give a fair outlook. Second half starts a mystery where actual plot starts. Who is good? Who is bad? Who is killer? Who is victim? You never know!!!

Saif Ali Khan vowed to do film with a solo hero after Kal ho naa ho. At that point of time, he seemed overconfident, but in recent times he has definitely grown up into a decent actor. Boman Irani and Naseeruddin Shah are at their usual best. Simone Singh scores. Dimple Kapadia is adequate. Manoj Pahwa does more than what director might have hoped for him as Inspector Lovely.

At no point in movie you have dragging feeling. Editing is superb. Why not? Editing is taken care of by Jon Harris, who edited Guy Ritchie's Snatch. Camera work, Cinematography gives you an international feel. While other offbeats (Page 3, Iqbal) were different yet Indian, but this one is truly international class. Homi Adjania's work as a debutant is fabulous. Watch out for him, he's going to make big in new-age Hindi Cinema. Movie is a punch with its 90 minutes storyline. Highly recommended!!!

Other Reviews : Gaurav Sabnis, Rediff

PS:- This review has been cross-posted to InFiCa, where I am ahem...a movie critic now.

Experimenting Google AdSense

Google AdSense is good way to make money, if your site/blog is getting good visit, unlike mine. I have managed to earn $ 0.81 through my blog. YEAH!!!! Anyway...

Multiple sources tell me that some keywords are getting very high "per click price". Here I am putting some, so by chance you're visiting this article and see Google ad on top, please click it. I'll share my revenue with you, if you can get past me $1. (Although Google won't pay me till I manage $100 :( ). Let's see how much money can I make out. Here are the keywords with per click price. Happy Clicking!!!!! Click with all your might and all your time. :-)

$78.30 chicago personal injury lawyer
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$69.17 lasik new york city
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$60.74 atlanta personal injury lawyer
$60.29 new york personal injury lawyers
$59.00 lasik dallas
$58.68 new york personal injury lawyers
$58.38 miami personal injury attorney
$58.08 best equity loan
$57.95 lasik new york
$56.88 whole life insurance quote
$56.75 new york car insurance
$56.55 the lasik vision institute
$54.81 new york personal injury attorney
$54.33 mesothelioma lawyers
$53.74 lasik nyc
$53.46 whole life insurance quotes
$53.42 car insurance in new jersey
$53.12 las vegas personal injury lawyer
$53.12 term life insurance quotes
$52.54 mesothelioma treatments
$52.41 equity loan rate
$51.78 equity loan
$51.50 new york personal injury lawyer
$51.29 equity loan rates
$51.15 fixed rate equity loan
$49.88 manhattan lasik
$49.38 whole life insurance quotes
$49.12 miami personal injury lawyer
$48.79 auto insurance in new jersey
$48.64 lasik nj
$48.52 beverly hills plastic surgery
$48.52 new jersey auto insurance
$48.39 apply for mortgage
$47.79 what is mesothelioma
$47.72 peritoneal mesothelioma

Update 1:- List has been updated with highest keyword worth $78.30. If you're still reading this, which is quite unlikely, keep clicking...

Update 2:- This is more interesting. I actually earned 3.80$ in two flat days, more than I have earned till date. Wow!! This actually works.

Sivasamudram / Shivasamudram

Due to some laziness I am missing out on putting up some pics of my recent outings, so before I miss again, I just put up the pics of Sivasamudram. Description later or may be never... In short, the place is awesome, especially in groups and don't miss it if you get a chance. And if you don't get a chance, create one.



First View





Our group



First fall





Second Fall







A few brave men... and women too






Me, Puneet, Rawat and Shetty made some efforts to go down and this venue of so-called Dam. Rest of us prefered to stay in the cab. And boy, they definitely missed this opportunity. It was a perfect view ( a la Rang De Basanti - above two pics). Sitting on the cliff of looking down, wow!! that's awesome. 180 degree steep. We were out for a casual trekking and didn't take the camera, so didn't manage to have closeups of this breathtaking visuals.



While returning, although tired we were in great mood, with a biig hoopla, with all 'Dil' songs and some wonderla-remix :-) Detailed ( and better) description of tour by Anshu is here.

PS:- Pallavi mentions that the place is called Shivana Samudram. Wikipedia says both are same. Now I am really confused. Please someone clearify my doubts.

Holi - 2006

A picture is worth thousand words. Let the pictures speaketh...



Read-Ink group, who were enthusiastic enough to celebrate inspite of not having holiday at company. People here don't celebrate neither Uttarayana nor Holi nor Navaratri. Bangalore sucks, Gujarat Rocks!!!! :-)



Host Couple, Lalit and his wife...



With Nishit, there has to be a solo.




Ab itne nahaoge, to bhookh to lagegi hi...




Bhang ka rang jama ho chakachak, phir lyo pan chabai...
Aisa Jhatka lage jiya pe, punarjanam hui jaay...

Do you love/hate Google??

I have been told that these days my blog looks like more of sports/IT blog :-) Might be true, but then again it used to be movie blog few months back. So stay here and you might get something of your choice in future :-) This time around it's again some techie stuff, but I assure you'd enjoy this if you are using Google (which I bet most of us are).

Danny Sullivan has two nice articles at SearchEngineWatch blog. 25 Things I Hate About Google and 25 Things I Love About Google.

A weekend that was!!!

A great day in history of sports. And a great weekend!!! Too much adrenaline to be contained in veins. You don't know what to see, what not to see, of course you can demonstrate your remote control skills to miss as less as you can, just like Uday did.

Australia gets off to flurry start, courtesy Gilchrist and then Ponting and Hussey stretched it to the limits. 434-4. Highest ever total in the history of ODIs, breaking a record almost 10 years old, which many brave teams closed to but could never broke it. Australia broke it in style and broke with margin of 36 runs. Whew!!! Now who's gonna chase that? 330 is the record chasing total in ODIs. 434?? Impossible. No one has chased that even in Test Match. Can Proteas do it? Doesn't seem so. Loosing first wicket even before they get into double figures, but then miracle happens at The Wanderers. SA skipper Greame Smith and Man-of-the-match-to-be Herschelle Gibbs punishes Australian bowlers all around the ground. In the midway, after few wickets, they seem to lose the track, but with the support of tail-enders Mark Boucher takes Proteas to the win in style with pen-ultimate delivery boundary marking his half-century and an exciting match and series win for South Africa. Australian record is broken in less than five hours. Lewis ends up with record of higest beaten bowler in ODI history with figures of 10-0-113-0. Statisticians have hard job at hand. So many runs scored and so many records tumbled. A match that was!!!

It was bound to be an intense battle. Michael Schumacher. Making his intensions clear in qualifying by snatching the poll position and issuing warning to young guns. I ain't out of here so soon. Fernando Alonso. No mood to give up his well-deserved champion title. Kimi Raikonnen. A poor chap. Had to satisfy himself with runner-up position last season courtesy repeated engine failures of his McLaren. This time too starting from the back of the grid due to engine failure in qualifying. Alonso made his intensions clear when he overtook Massa to find himself on tail of Schumacher. Then onwards these two were involved in a fierce battle for the dominance. Ferrari crew managed to keep Schumi on top after first pit but Renault overpowered them and Alonso took first place while coming out of pit and wheel-to-wheel battle with Schumi. At some points, Schumi went close enough but this Spaniard, Alonso is here to stay and didn't let seven-time world champion overtake him. And while these two were busy in their battle of man, the man who started behind all others snatched the last podium position owing to some great driving and clever one-pit strategy. First Grand Prix of 2006 season, the Baharin Grand Prix has shown us the flavour, as to what this season has in bag for us. A race that was!!!

Everybody was certain about the future of the second test between India and England at Mohali, when only 65 overs were bowled in two days game. But Indians aren't giving up so easily. After restricting England to 300 in first innings with man-of-the-match deserving performance by Bespectacled, engineer, mild-mannered, soft-spoken, unlike Warne and Muralitharan, metronomic line-and-length, hardly turns the ball, flipper, loyal soldier, matchwinner Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid with some tailenders support made sure that India secured handy lead of 38 runs in the first innings. All well upto this point, but on fourth day England tasted what they had been deprived of till now, India's spin attack. The way Bhajji and Kumble were turning, flipping, googlying, doosraing deliveries, each England batsman must be praying Bismilla-e-rehaman-e-rahim-esque thanks to Jesus for each surviving delivery. The penultimate day of second test match saw England reduced to 112-5, which ultimately resulted in 9-wicket win and 1-0 series lead for India. A day that was!!!

PS:- Adjectives used for Kumble are a blatant lift from Amit Varma's India Uncut.

MS : Back to the business

That kind of rhymes, doesn't it? Well, almost. 2006 Formula 1 season officially flagged of today with qualifying for first Grand Prix of the season, The Baharin Grand Prix. And the baap of all is back to business. Yes, it's Michael Schumacher.

IT's Ferrari on the front-row with master on the poll. Ferrari showed reliability in both the practice sessions, as compared to poor reliability of McLaren and poor show by Renault. With new regulations in place, MS did intelligent show by just managing to stay in top 10 for first two qualifyings and snatching the first place in the third one and equalling Ayrton Senna's record for 65 polls. His partner, Felipe Massa, who was upgraded from Sauber-Petronas to Ferrari seize the opportunity to manage second place. Jenson Button and current world champion, Fernando Alonso followed. Hit by rear wing failure and right rear suspension failure Kimi had to satisfy with last place on the grid. Tomorrow is the big day and this season I bet is rebirth of the Phoenix.

Renounce what you don't have

Nice Zen story about Renounciation and Non-attachment. Thanks to Arati for sharing this beautiful story.

On Women's Day...

Frankly speaking, I had forgotten Women's day until Puneet woke me up and passed on this article (Streets, stories and strategies)to make me feel something I am unable to put it in words. Is it pain? I don't know. Amit Varma puts it as (Of many violations) Bloody hell, I'm lucky to be a man; and a part of me says I should be ashamed to feel that way.

Being a man you're lucky not to go through some of emotional hell as women or girls or even female children go through. Reading such incidents make you feel their pain, although you may not totally understand their frustration, their anger, their embarassment, their pain that they suffer at one or other stage of their life. Most of them never speak. Neither to friends, nor to family. I have few bold female friends who have been brave enough to put their embarassing experiences in front of me. I have seen their faces while narrating, I have seen their anger, I have felt their pain and I will never be able to forget those faces. I seriously don't know how to conclude this. Whatever had to be said has been said here and here, but can only feel satisfaction to hear some instances such as Hemangi's Train to Chennai.

Link of the day : Blank Noise Project. A voice against street sexual harassment.

Update : Gaurav Sabnis aptly describes need and effectiveness of Blank noise project.

Remembering Gandhiji

Linking yet another great post on punyatithi of Mahatma Gandhi.

Happy Republic Day

I had seriously thought of writing something on my blog on this day, but after reading this great post, I feel complete. And this is not a mere excuse for not writing anything, but go through the post and you will know.

India v/s Pakistan

India-Pakistan series is supposed to be high-electric series, but if you look at India-Pak 2006 series, I bet you won't agree. Batsmen get to make all the merry and bowlers waste their energy on flat and dead pitches. Make last session of 5th day an exception to this.

5th Day was full of farce at Faisalabad. Pakistan unwilling to try some challenging and dynamic game, continued their batting, probably Younis Khan's sake, who missed his double century ... ⟨forrest_gump⟩ again ⟨/forrest_gump⟩. And in all these farce, there was definitely some entertainment as an Indian bowler conceded 13 runs, a toffee if you guess that bowler.... MS Dhoni :O Last few overs were no less than one of the biggest tumble of Test History.Here are last few overs (W are supposed to be wicket)

| W 1 1 . . W | . . . . . W | W . . W

Zaheer Khan paid finally for some good bowling on the dead pitch and ended up with 4 wickets. So Pakistan is like 488-3 and then 490 all out!

As if this was not enough Lo!!! Shahid Afridi and Younis Khan opens the bowling with new ball !!! How I really wish Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan would have opened Indian innings. Younis Khan fights a bit and wants to continue. Height of frustration !!!!! Finally match ends in a draw. Wow!! atlast some interesting moments at end of the final day of the match :)

Look who's talking...

Almost when I am about to leave the office I read this story and can undoubtedly classify as story of the month. McGrath calls for better behaviour. ROTFL. If ever I make an International Sledging - XI, more than half of the spots would be occupied by Aussies and McGrath would undoubtedly be the skipper and man calls for good behaviour. Bold step I'd say ;-)

PS:- Brett Lee too joins the band