What makes me angry...

...very very angry ... is when people use the term 'meet up' and 'wait up'. I dont know why but these terms are like chalk on the blackboard to me.

I decided to meet up Mr X .... I mean whats wrong with ... 'I decided to meet Mr X.'

And if I am not mistaken its a term I've heard from girls only.

I dont know if somebody else also gets as irritated as I get on hearing these terms.

Oye Lucky

The movie ... great.

But lets talk about Paresh Rawal first. He was a let down.

Nothing wrong he did. He is just not as good an actor as he thinks he is. He is an average actor (of course better than most in bollywood). But doing a triple role in OLLO was over ambitious in an otherwise very very well made film. He should not have played a sardar. Its just not right for a guy like him to play a sardar. He hams as much as ShahRukh Khan and is a terribly overrated actor.

Anupam Kher would have been a much better option fro Mr Handa. Even Archana Puran Singh was brilliant in her 2 min cameo. But Paresh Rawal in the three roles he got and the huge screen time failed to impress. I am just being too harsh right now because the expectation from Dibakar Banerjee are way too high and I think Paresh Rawal was a sort of let down. The second time I watched the movie he was a wee bit irritating.

And Dolly (Richa Chaddha) was just too good. The 5 min role she had. She just killed in everything she said. Abhay Doel was nice too. See, he is a natural. He doesnt have to try too hard to do what he does. Paresh on the other hand is NOT. Vinay and Ranvir were missed too. :)

And yes I am sure enogh credit will not be given to Manjot Singh (young lucky) and his friends. They entertained thoroughly :).

And the music was quite different and quite fabulous. The rap in superchor is a hit too.

What amazes me is that ...

1. How politicians can be so self centered.  Achuthanandan' conduct was shameful.

2. How dumb these terrorists are that they can be motivated to kill hundreds and then die themselves for religion while knowing that the ones directing the show are sitting on high political thrones.

3. How these news channels keep repeating the same phrases for weeks. Enough is Enough :P.

4. How the news channels call so dumb people for discussion. During a discussion on one channel the most sensible person was Rahul Bose. Nothing against him but if the most sensible guy is from bollywood then you know how bad the group is.

 .... to be continued

Jokes

Some jokes copied from HOMP:

1. People from greece came here. Thats why the food here is so greasy.

2. People call me a secret service agent. He eats shoots and leaves.

BTW HOMP = Highway on my plate. A program on NDTV good times. Two jolly and fat guys displaying their love of food (visiting dhabas and nondescript restaurants) and cracking some really good jokes.

Although there are many average ads around and some horrendous ones, but then there are some which stand out and sparkle. Eg:
Limca ad
Happydent
Chlormint
Max new york life insurance
Hutch
More often than not they have a very nice background music and good and refreshing concept.

On the last day of the 2008 Gartner expo, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer defends the software giant’s Windows Vista operating system and claims that the adoption rate is better than when Windows XP first rolled out. Ballmer also tells the audience that Google Apps do not offer the same type of functionality as Microsoft Office. (here)

Hello Mr Balmer, Its not called adoption. Its called "thopna" (in want of an equivalent english word) . You sell only your new OS without giving the user a choice and then charging him heavy. Moreover you prevent people from going back to the old OS by having new devices whose drivers are not available in the previous OS.

And regarding Google Office comment. Well it was both hilarious and sad at the same time. Of course it doesnt :). But I hope you know better than what you speak. I am assuming you are smarter than you seem to be. At times like these I think Gates was good.

Too much advertising !

So after living 25 years I have realized the following about this world:
Its a world divided between people who have something good to show, tell, offer and people who want to see, read this stuff.
But then there are advertisers: they are people who nobody want to see/read. But they pay money and force a 10 second slot into your happy tv viewing or when you are happily reading a webpage. They just "pop up" from no where.
In fact to an extent advertising is ok. With ads like this its even fun. But there are thousands more which are downright irritating. And they show them like 10 times in an hour. I have almost resolved (and successfully accomplished) to not eat Bingo at all since the last three months. I mean really great job if you convince someone to not use your product because of your ad :). Otherwise I really liked Bingo.

Bangalore radio

There are some things which I refuse to believe.
Let me provide some context.
More here: maybe try some more audio pieces of "Chamrajpet Charles" And "Rajini Sir". Although, I should warn you that these may be harmful to your mental well being.

I just refuse to accept that anybody likes these. If anyone likes these, I would not think twice before killing them. And I would not feel any guilt at any point in my life for doing so.
These characters were created by some dudes called "Parveen Das" and "Kartik Iyer" (source).
Btw the company which started this is called "Happy Ideas" or something similar. Really guys, great work!! "Jaisa naam waisa kaam" :)

I had a constricted world view. But with age I tried to accomodate other people's ideas and beliefs. I tried to be more understanding. But this is too much to ask for.
It really raises my bp if i happen to hear them on my way to work in the morning.

Please let me know if any one likes any of these characters (Chamrajpet Charles or Rajini Sir). Likes maybe an overstatement. Let me know if you could tolerate either.

What a match

Roger Federer v/s Rafael Nadal. Wimbledon final. 5 set final. Doesnt get any better.
The quality of tennis was probably the best I have seen in my life. The game, gruelling. It was hard for me to watch. I imagined myself playing such a match, I would have probably given up. Federer has shown that a champion not only wins 65 matches in a row but when he is losing, he fights back and thus deserves to be called a champion. For there is no other human being in this world for whom I will use this word right now.

Nadal displayed his excellent form and tennis skills and stamina. Federer on the other hand just displayed character. It was unbelievable. He came down from 2 sets down and made the final set anybody's game. I mean there was no clear winner. If anything could be a draw in tennis, this would be it. With the poor lighting and all in the end I think the result was more or less a formality. Both of them won everybody's hearts.

Till the last moment before the match, I was asked who I was supporting, I said Nadal. But as soon as I saw Federer walking down the court I could not help but support him. So much so that I started hating my fav player Nadal for giving him a hard time. Whatever transpired at the first rain break (score Federer 0-2 5-4), but he came back just knowing he is destined to win. He never looked like he was down. He played with great flamboyance and grace for which he is famous. Yes he was making some unforced errors. But that did not bring down the quality of his game. Its heard that he was seen talking to his girlfriend during the break. Now you know why he likes her :). I saw her tense for the first time. Happy whenever he won and tense otherwise. In most matches she seems nothing but bored. It was a emotional roller coaster which all of us were riding.

Though it leaves me very sad in the end. But it was very good to see the champion fight back. Seeing him lose 3-0 would have devastated a lot of people. And Federer says he will be back next year. And I will wait for the moment when he lifts the trophy next year, I am sure he will do it in style.

It was a gloomy day for me. Very deep inside I was mourning. Yet everyone else seemed so unaffected. I think I was much too involved.

These lines are imprinted on the tunnel that leads from players locker room to the center court at wimbledon

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

Lines from the poem "If" by Kipling.

Adding sinppets from media:

Federer wouldn't be Federer if he didn't come back with something amazing. Whenever he was down he'd come back with ace or the great forehand down the line. It was just amazing to watch. -- Boris Becker

The match reminded you of The Old Man and the Sea, where an ageing, luckless fisherman is out on water engaged in a three-day battle with an 18-foot marlin.
When it went into the fifth set, it ceased to matter who won. Nadal and Federer had done enough, even before the last point had been played, to prove their heroism

Jaane tu ya jaane na

If you meet AR Rehman, you wouldnt particularly like him. But by the end of the day you would be head over heels in love with him. His magic takes time!
Ref:Kabhi Kabhi Aditi (Jaane tu ya jaane na).
The music overall sounds similar to Saathiya music. Romantic theme with a morning mist flavour(ala GLC). And all of the songs are sung by new singers excepts one thats sung by the God himself.

Copied stuff ...

Copied from somewhere ....


To quit, or not to quit: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of an outrageous job,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To quit: to be broke;
No more; and by an email to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That appraisals are heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d.

Rajasthan Royals

The reason why RR is winning all their games, besides good cricket, is probably Ila Arun's voice. She unnerves me even when I am watching. Its so bloody irritating. That ararara, its almost as irritating as someone scratching nails on a blackboard.
If I had to listen to her between every over, I am sure I couldnt play. I would put my bat to better use before playing with it.
Why hasnt anyone complained to her??

Researchers!!

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T20

Lets for a moment this that I am Sachin Tendulkar. :)). I have enough money. Why will I sign up for a T20 IPL series. Where the likes of ShahRukhs and karanjohars (unintentional non-capitalization) are jumping around.
In fact if karanjohar is in a place, any form of serious sport should not be played in a 1km radius. Its totally inappropriate.
Football also have leagues. And they conduct it very soberly. The spirit of the game is maintained. The camera remains on the field and not where the stars and cheerleaders are dancing. Players dont have to wait for the dance numbers to be paused so that they can continue playing.
All thats happening here is being overdone. My hope is that all this random stuff will die out in some time and cricket will survive. Coz right now its not cricket thats happening. Its good for the players also. As Bhajji said, its gonna be fun coz I know how Dravid and Kumble bat. And they know exactly how I bowl. Plus I think its a great opportunity for younger players to try their hand at before going into international. I would have appreciated more one-dayers in the series. And I guess its lot less pressure also. They can experiment here a lot.

This link here in Washington post that talks about IPL. Its an english newspaper in the country of America, a country where the average intelligence is not much higher than this
Some excerpts:
tens of thousands of male cricket fans finding it hard to keep their eyes on the game.
Go ahead .. make your assumptions.
"It's a new era for cricket -- hooray for American cheerleaders!"
Loll around in your assumptions.
It condenses nearly a week of match play into three hours, with shorter "overs," which are similar to innings in baseball.
Get your facts right. Theres no shame in asking someone if you dont know them. And no, nothing in cricket is *like* Baseball. Its the other way round, you morons.
I wish I could wear a bikini, but that's not allowed for Indian women.
This was a statement from Rakhi Sawant. But let me correct it a bit. Its allowed. And ppl will wear it where it is required. On the beach. NOT on a field. You are a bunch of hippies who have no idea whats going on in this world.
Across South Asia, modesty is still an essential part of everyday life.
Thanks. I know you didnt think it to be one. But never mind.

Orkut

Whats happening is beyond comprehension. People are telling me that Google is copying every feature ever made by facebook. That in itself is quite sad.
Then I saw a new thing today. Status messages in orkut!! First they allowed names to be changed in orkut. Which allowed people to compe up with a new name every day. Well they were not names but anything they wanted to write often spanning 10-20 words. Then I think they integrated gtalk status messages into orkut. Then changing display name in gtalk. All of this ended up showing all sorts of names in my messenger list and orkut friends list. Names like "Lakshadweep to Goa" and "Teetotaler" appeared in my gtalk, which were perhaps their names on orkut, and google decicded that names on orkut are names on gtalk. And to top this there was a bug somewhere. This name stuck in my gtalk liks pertmanently. Even after the experimenting guys changed their names back.
Now to top it all they have another independent status field in Orkut. Now come on!! How many thing u want ppl to write abt themselves. Name (it has become a creative field in itself), About me, Headline (the one under personal tab), status, gtalk status, gtalk name. Surviving is becoming harder and harder.
There was another cool feature added. Ask friends. I just saw thatsince its launch six months ago, only 2 people in my firnd list of 250 have asked questions. Both of those were "hello world, mike test 123 questions"
This just makes me sad.
I want to delete my account. The only thing that I will miss now is not my friend list but the entertainment being provided by orkut!! :)

NGV

Started living in NGV now. It's a huge resdential area with around 10 blocks. Each block having 5 buildings. Each building having 25-30 apartments over 7 floors. That gives us close to 1-1.5K homes. We are in bangalore so needless to say all occupied. That gives us close to 5K people.
Now this place has 2 gates. One of which being the front gate and the other (surprise!!) back. The distance between these gates is approx 1km. I will try to replace these values with actual values shortly.
Now the issue is that someone (lets call him Mr X) has decided to close the back gate during the night. from 11 pm to sometime in the morning (will never be able to find that out :D). That is probably understandable to most people. Though I can argue about that too. Lest call this issue 1.

Besides issue 1, they also close the back gate at 11 am. Yes, in the morning. And open it in the evening around 5. So for these six hours the doors remain closed. I have no experimental data but lets approximate the number of people travelling in and out of NGV during these hours.
Out of 5K people lets say 1.5K are at home during those hours lets say 300 move in/out (school kids etc). Out of the 3.5K people going for work 500 or so would also go late etc. 200 would probably come early. Another 500 for visitors, delivery people, etc. 1.5K? Lets approximate num of vehicles differently. Lets stand at the gate for 15 mins. What frequency do we expect. 5 per min sounds ok? 6hrs * 60 * 5 = 1800. Lets downsize a bit and assume 1000 people. Now lets say 50% of these wanted to go from the back gate but were forced to go from the front one. That gives us 1000 wasted kms. by an average of 25 kmpl that gives us 40L of petrol. .Take all that fuel for a month you get 1200L petrol. Put it in a big tanker. And put fire to it. Why because Mr X did not feel like opening the back gate.
I was trying to guess what were his "reasons" for this decision.
Not being a very smart guy, I couldnt think of many. Here are my modest attempts:
a. Avoid an extra guard required at the back gate during these hours.
b. It would provide more security during the day to people living inside.

Nothing else I can think of. Now reason "a" doesnt suit a country which thinks that a person should sit in a lift to press the button of the floor which u desire to go to.
Reason b, I do not understand. Suppose I am coming to do something bad in NGV. I find that the back gate is closed. What do I do? I dont feel like travelling another km to reach the front gate. So lets drop the plan.

Now the issue 1. The only reasons for dong 1 are the same as for the day. No they dont ask for identification. And its impossible to recognize 5K people.
Wait it gets even more interesting. There are seperate lanes for each way of traffic in the area and a wide divider in between. There are two seperate gates for each of these lanes. They close one of these gates during the night. The one going out of NGV. So half the traffic moves on the wrong side at night. Given the accident count and drunken driving cases, drunk people driving wrong way doesnt sound like safety to me.

Now Mr X. Hello. You sound like a hell of a guy to me. You just took it upon yourself to decide the wellbeing and safety of not just all of us but also of the planet.

I try to remain aloof of all administration. (I know, thats not something to be proud of :( ). And I try to encounter as few administrators in Bangalore as I can for the sake of remaining iota of sanity in me. But I will try to get some answers about these.

Associations

These sounds will make you happy:
The sounds of the beginning of a half hour of bliss.
The sounds which declared a lazy weekend day ahead:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je_yeFtwS7w (Duck Tales)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjoirTcWth4 (Jungle Book)

Euphoria

Indian music never really took off as a band based music market. It was always dominated by Bollywood and individual singers and composers.
The rock band market place was mostly for college bands and would die down as the participating students' college got over. And the career conscious that Indians are they got down to their regular jobs. Just like sports, music industry was at a loss too. Talentdrain. To monotonicity. To mediocrity of an economic safety and social conformity.
So besides the Bollywood (which behaves like a high class party, entry by invitation only) and the Pop Singers (Like the dudes who have too much money, and often negligible talent decided to host their own party).
Not that these people are not good. Bollywood has produced some great music. But they tend to be repititive. And since the number of people limited so theres no variety.

Nevertheless among all this one band came out. It became quite a success. They had their own type of music. They refreshed us whenever they sang. Euphoria!! I dont know quite a lot of thier history but I guess Palash would be the backbone and 4 more very talented guys. Topped by the fact that he is a doctor.
This is nothing but a tribute to Euphoria. Hope to have more such bands like yours in Hindi music.

The lost childhood

Looking at a photo of "Chip 'n' Dale" today reminded me the countless sessions of ChipnDale that I played on our beloved Media Video Game with my younger brother. Everyday when we returned from the school (and of course after Shanti and Swabhiman got over) we started playing video game.
The whole memory was so lost all this while. And it suddenly struck me. It felt so alien as if it was another life's memories. Has it really been such a long while.
How I wish to go back to those times. To throw away our school bags and pickup bat and ball and play cricket for hours. Really those were some really happy times. It got over so soon and we became so busy in making our lives that years went by and we forgot everything. And I personally believe that among all those things that were lost during my college an important thing I lost was that innocence and that connection with everyone I had at that time. Because I think my brother is still very well connected with everything. Because everytime we both are home I always find him complaining why did we give out that video game to our younger cousins. And it didnt really ring a bell then why was he so hell bent on it. Its just a video game. We have better equipment and better games now. But now I know what a fool I've been.

Sachin vs Ganguly

Of the many things which I could never understand one was why was Ganguly dropped from the one day squad against AUstralia. He was in quite a good form. He has proved his dedication and there are only few who doubt his abilities.
I am not a die hard Ganguly supporter but nevertheless the man has proved himself on multiple occasions.
And what was more bizarre was why was and is Sachin in the team. I dont remember any responsible innings in the recent past. I have seen him get out like I would get out if placed on that pitch in the first few balls he faces. He has completely lost it and should be given some "rest". I understand that everyone has a bad phase. But in conditions when u have to chase 317 a player of his caliber can stick around for first 15 overs. Or at least try to. Terribly disappointed.
Kudos to Dhoni thought. Very good to see him and Kumble fight.

Jodha Akbar and quite a lot of history

Its a good thing that Jodha Akbar was not names "Akbar Jodha".
Dont think I could have managed to not make a small mistake in speaking :)