Books

This week, it will be books. My last read was "Hotel" by Arthur Halley. It was unique in terms of it's fantastic  detailed description of a  Hotel.

Schedule for next week is,

"You are here" by Meenakshi Reddy

"The Google Story" by David Vise

"Sign of the Cross" by Chris Kuzneski

If possible I'll also try to understand some of the theories behind the demography of the world by reading "Human Geaography" by Majjid Hussain.

Definitely Maybe -N- Yuvraj

Movies seen over last six days,

Yuvraj :  Went all the way to Inorbit to watch this gem. Six other people in the group expressed their dislike, in and out of theatre, in low to medium voices. Don't know why, but I did not dislike it. I wont say that it was a great movie, but it was okay to watch. I liked it's esthetics. Though somebody suggested that its a movie for people who like the art of filmmaking, not the film necessarily :P

What happened in Vegas : So-so types.

Roadside Romeo

Just returned after watching “Roadside Romeo”. It was an OKAY experience, if not great. Earlier, we reached Oberoi with no hopes of getting the tickets for this movie, today being Saturday evening. To our surprise, we got the tickets and soon realized that you can count the number of people on your fingertip, again not expected for a Yashraj movie. The animation was excellent and there is no denial this movie will initiate high quality animation import to Bollywood and very soon we can expect “Finding Nemo” and “Ratatouille” in Hindi, made in India though. Considering that it was first of its kind, I tried to overlook the overdone Clichés and its straight line plot.

It has the best animation seen in Indian cinema so far. If the plot had been as good, the film would have been world class. I liked the repeated telecast of Big Boss on Colors though.

A few * SENTI * dialogues... and A google trap

GTalk... Everybody knows about it. I mean everybody who is using internet. Its very hard for anyone to use internet and not fall in the google trap. It happened with me too.

Back in college when GMail account was available only on invitation, it used to be a good thing to have one. Quite reasonable given that it was offering 1GB mail-space compared to meagre 15MB hotmail that time.  I don't remember which came next Orkut or Gtalk or this blogger. But somehow it happened that I used the same id to open orkut account, then to talk on Gtalk and then to write blogs too.

Sometimes it comes to my mind how vulnerable we are becoming on internet giving so much data to one particular company. (Food for thoughts ??) Anyways thats not why I am writing this blog.

Yesterday I was chatting with one of my old schoolmate on GTalk and got surprised by seeing his status message on the same. It was..

When They Asked Me What I Love Most About My Life, I Smiled And Said YOU!

Knowing that he cant write this kind of heavy stuff by his own and also after ending my curiosity about his being Mr. Lovelace, I did some  google and in process read some of the most amazing one liners, which I thought to share with you on this blog space. I call them SENTI stuff and am pretty sure even you feel the same whenever you witness something similar in any movie or any romantic novel.

Some of them are....

One day u will ask me: Wat is more important to u, me or ur life? I will say: My life… u will walk away from me without knowing that U R MY LIFE!

NBA : First time

Accidently deleted the post, so just pasting the cached image of the same.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30

NBA : First time

My first time watching any kind of live game in a big stadium and this was a great game to start with.




Before the game, I didn't know any of the rules of basketball. But in 5 minutes, my friend explained the basic rules and all was set for a good match (viewing). Houston Rocket was playing Utah Jazz at their own ground. Result was not that important for me. But I was amazed by the overall package (including all the other non-game activities). What followed next was two hours of packed entertainment.

Rashomon

........ is a nice Japanese movie made in 1950. I watched this movie today (Holiday here, Ganesh Chaturthi). I was surfing through my movie collection and then I saw this movie "Rashomon" there.  The next logical step was to check the ranking on IMDB and I think it is safe to assume that everybody here knows about this. If not, then you should better check this. It has loads of information on every movie.

So it was a Japanese movie rated very highly at IMDB (8.5/10 and all-time rank of 69th), therefore decided to watch it. You all agree that its painful to watch a foreign language movie with subtitles. But this movie was not that bad on this front as there were very few dialogues, which is quite understandable considering the transition of movies from silent to present era during that period.

Everything happens for a reason

The last 3-4 books which I have read in July were so different from each other. First was "Three mistakes of my life" from Mr. Chetan Bhagat. I don't know whether he is doing it purposely (to keep 5 point something as his best) or  else; but the quality and and his famouus punches are slowly drying up in his  novels. The second book of his was "One night at call centre" was pretty good except the last 5-6 pages. And the last one- its kind of horrible, given his standards(I shouldn't say this, but 5 point something has raised the bar). It was a good timepass book, but certainly my expectations were much more.

Of course I read one from Jeffery Archer and, as always, it touched the right cords. Then came this refreshing book from Ms Kavita Daswani. This was not a super-duper book, but I really liked the way she has written it. Storyline is pretty simple and being a cinema freak, the end didn't surprize me. But I liked the INDIANNESS..yes thats the word (Is this a correct word !!). The books name was "Everything happens for a reason".

Quite a day …. Kris Dayanti, Marcella and the Idols

I have had an ordinary day till 3 PM when I decided to go to swimming pool. I don’t know how to swim and also I don’t know why but many of my friends just can’t believe it. Anyways I came to the swimming pool just to find out that hotel staffs were preparing for a press conference. Upon further enquiry, we were told that American Idols will be coming here for the interviews. What option I had, just waited there poolside with my friend checking the features of his new semi professional Panasonic camera. Also we just had a brief history of how Chinese traditional weddings are, from one of our Chinese friend.

After I finished sipping the cola, around 4:40 ish, five smart men (American idols, I have to say that for the sheer number of girls present there) arrived in the arena. After a quick photo session, they started answering the questions to the media persons. As I was not at all interested in what these idols have to say, so I swiftly make my way to have a good photograph with them and quickly move to join the Chinese wedding discussion going on one of the poolside table. I often wonder , if there wouldn’t have been Indian Idol on Sony Television, how uninformed I was about another sets of idols, in this case American.

So after this little rendezvous, I headed to the pool. After one and half hours of learning the basics of swimming (which I have to admit was very relaxing) swimming, I gave up. In the evening, we went to the new FX mall in Jakarta and had a full three course dinner in one of the Italian restaurant. Later one guy revealed that he was hungry even after the gluttonous dinner –which was quite a revelation to us.

After returning to the hotel and before heading to the CJ bar in the same Muliya hotel, we were standing in the hotel lobby chatting about nonsense stuff. One of our Indonesian friend also returned after dinner and spotted us and I can say that his face was beaming with the excitement. Very soon after the little conversation, I realized that the most famous diva of Indonesia was present in the hotel lobby,

Loo, Monas and Rupiyah in Jakarta

Monas is a national monument, built to celebrate the freedom of Indonesia (Ofcourse in Indonesia, Jakarta). I don't know much history behind it, except one thing from my history books  that it stands for the people's determination to achieve freedom and the crowning of their efforts in the Proclamation of Independence in August 1945. Anyways, we happened to go there on a sunny sunday afternoon. After taking the tickets and waiting in the queue for 2 hours, our turn came and the lift took us to the top of the MONAS, which was 130 odd meters tall. Seeing the world from those heights has always fascinated me. Last week only, I got the chance to see the KL skyline from a height of 430 meters. And yes, one thing; this is much different than looking down from the plane (As I think it lacks sense of control, however I even enjoy that too.)

One interesting thing happened there. I had to to take a loo break; so I found one toilet. Their system (bole to paisa dene ka system, bakin sab to default hi rahta hai) was similar to the sulabh sauchalayas in India. So I asked How much for the smaller loo break. And his answer was "1000 rupiyah"  - SHOCKER. Now this is the problem if you are not aware of the currency conversion factor and you visit a new place. It used to be

Euro cup, Wimbledon etc etc...

Past few months have been different with respect to the choices I have made in selecting the sports quota on TV. For the first time after Italy beat Germany in the world cup final, I watched a full game of football starting from the sensational quarterfinal win of Russians. Then came the tame defeat of Russians followed by the all-round performance of Spain in the final against germany. I enjoyed the Euro final as it was the fight among equals and finally the better team won. So that was  my rendezvous with football last month.

And then came Wimbledon. For little background, just want to update that I saw the french open final - full match on tv and then I decided to watch the Wimbledon final. It was a great  effort from my side as this place KL's time is two hours and thirty minutes behind the Indian time,  which in turn is 5:30 hrs behind the  UK time. I heard Federer complaining before the match that  Nadal is too slow between the points and

A Prisoner of Birth and No 2050 Love story

Last few months had been pretty hectic, never got a chance to read books; so today I'll start a new book "A Prisoner of Birth" by Jeffery Archer and there will not be any Love story 2050 this weekend (reason being the two shining stars it has received in Times and also I'll be leaving for KL this evening).

This will be in addition to the few novels of Mr Archer, which I have alrady read and are ...

Not a penny more, not a penny less.

Shall we tell the president.

The Prodigal daughter

First among equals

The fourth estate

Sons of fortune

False impression

Kane and Abel - only the first 100 pages :P

Jaane Tu........... ya jane na

After an operose compaign towards the finalization of phase 1 at school, this week came as a relief. School (:P) was closed due to the rainy day on tuesday and all the other remaining days were short too. On the cloudy friday evening, we went to watch a movie in Oberoi's. Choice was difficult this time, because of the clash between 2050 and "Jane tu"; anyways we decided in favor of "Jane tu ya Jane na" (JTYJN).  I must say that it was a complete waste. Apart from some small moments of brilliance (which are too few by the way), this movie didn't stand up to the expectation and one  is forced to say that Amir could have done better(may be script writing or something I don't know). May be It was because of the high expectation. My friend said that the lead protagonist can give a tough fight to Hugh Grant, if only they start making films like that in India. All in all, the best part of the day was the  Chicken Teriyaki on the third floor.

Following sensex this week would have been more fun, I think. Lets  see how 2050 opens today. I'll go for it only if it gets three and half star in Times tomorrow.

Why do we call Doctor's work as PRACTICE???

Was listening to one soundtrack featuring Shahrukh Khan, made for the promos of KBC and found this line real interesting - डॉक्टर के पेशे को प्रैक्टिस क्यों कहते हैं ??? (Why do we call Doctor's work as PRACTICE??? )

Why do doctors call what they do practice? Shouldn't they be good at it by now?? ?

Its funny. Ever though about that?? I bet , you haven't.

May be they are just practicing the art of medicine and they have not perfected it yet. Day will come when they will eventually perfect the art and stop calling their occupation as practice. Also, I am not sure weather "patient" has got its name from patience, who has to wait and watch all the Doctor's trials and errors - which they call as Practice. :P

Bay of Bengal is in which state?

Some old set of questions, which were supposedly asked in the IAS interviews and replied in this manner.........

Q. How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
A.Concrete floors are very hard to crack!

Q.If it took eight men ten hours to build a wall, how long would it take for four men to build it?

A. No time at all it is already built.

Q.If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and three oranges in the other hand, what would you have?

A. Very large hands.(Good one)

Q. How can you lift an elephant with one hand?

A. It is not a problem, since you will never find an elephant with one hand.

Q. How can a man go eight days without sleep?

Padma Shri n Manoj N Shyamlan

What a weird system?? Padma Shri was given to a man for his contributions to the film industry who has supposedly seen only 3 Indian movies and was not even aware of what the award is all about. They say that this award stands fourth in the hierarchy of civilian awards after Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. 

And the man this time was M N Shyamlan. Seems like its becoming more like a craze to give these honors to Indian born foreign nationals and somehow we are taking pride in that. I am pretty sure that Indian government can find more deserving Indian nationals if they search honestly for them. Just wondering about all the civics and political science books I have read till now, which had given me a wrong (:P) info about the award.

Anyways, the Padma Shri goes to Mr. Shyamlan. Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!

Teerthyatra : 1 of the 12 Jyotirlingas : Trayambakeshwar

Trayambakeshwar : Visited last month with my grandparents.

A good design

Some doors have signs on them: pull, push, slide, lift, ring bell, insert card, type password, smile, rotate, bow, dance or, perhaps, just ask. Somehow, when a device as simple as a door has to come with an instruction manual—even a one word manual—then it is a failure, poorly designed.

The ASS Family

Award winning Photograph of 2006 : "Photograph on run"

Source : msn

If you don't understand, you might consider yourself among one of these.

The picture tells everything..

Colored clothes. 9 players in one frame near the batsman. Surprised????

Probably not.

This is a pic from the 20-20 played last night between Australia and India. As the match was played in Australia, it was an absurd timing here in US of A. I was planning to watch the match in the night from 2:30 AM. Somehow (luckily), I couldn't. After reading the results in news today morning, I was happy that I didn't waste the time and had a good sleep.

India lost miserably. The picture tells everything..