Voila

Tata

2008-05-10T16:03:00.003+05:30

I am officially switching to wordpress ,and giving myself a belated bday gift :)

Catch me here

www.moregyan4u.wordpress.com

Happy blogging and commenting !

Why ?

2008-05-10T11:11:00.011+05:30

Sample this

I was telling a friend of mine to check out my blog and leave her opinion

Me: yeah, so that is the link
She: Ohh ok,

So, why do you blog?

I was stumped :P

Didn’t really know what to say, I thought of saying this-really dramatic :-)

Do you know why you fall in love? Similarly I do not know why I blog?

But apart from my filmy analogy, Seriously Why do YOU blog?

Do you Blog to

Describe your current state of mind? Happy? Sad? Dreamy? Blog it.

Find a network of like minded people?

Discuss social issues?

Kill boredom?

Take a break from boring office schedules?

Give your opinion on anything under the sun?

Share info,gyaan on the latest gizmo, cell phone or a movie/book review?

Get distracted from personal ups and downs?

Say “Hey I am not a celebrity really but who stops me from being one virtually?” Blog, get noticed and get famous? ;)

Get more hits to your website by blogging about controversial topics :P ?

Vent out frustration?

Why Why Why ?

Why do we choose this medium over others? I am not sure about it too.
I think it is a mix of all the listed reasons. We let passion drive us and reason rein us and blogging makes me happy, rarely I feel relieved too :)
Sometimes, I don’t even think before I blog, It’s like this flash of lightning and I say, Hey I would want to blog that!

So why do you blog? Let me know :D

Parting shot:

I blog, therefore I am!

This video below was made by Vineet Rajan ,for one of the Indiblogger meets,describes the spirit of blogging

Choked!

2008-05-01T10:33:00.006+05:30

With academic schedules heating up, companies beckoning us, lab exams to be tackled, theory papers to be crammed for, my birthday bash seems the only happy thing to look forward this week ..

I am choked !

Havent caught a movie in ages ! havent posted since loong,feel like yawning every ten min :(sob

i am sinking into the "Himalayan Mode" ..

Current mood: Procrastinating

Current song: Main aisa kyun hoon

Sigh..

Mukthi 8.03 Day2

2008-04-20T21:23:00.005+05:30

Day 2

Began with a lot of fiddling around with the projector and Shreyas 's macbook,so finally we all sat around his Mac in a small group and he gave us his talk,he spoke about Clutters,he held all of us with interest and answered one basic question that bugs all beginners-"Where do I start from ?"

Noon ,one of the talks that i eagerly awaited-"switching to Linux",presented by Vivek.This was the best talk I could relate to.He gave a crisp talk,citing all the stuff available on Linux making it more than good to switch over.

Amarok,Rhythm Box,VLC -deadly matches to the outdated Windows Media Player :)
Torrents -Deluge
Gnome baker-disc burner vs Nero
Pidgin-IM works well even with windows :)
GIMP,Dreamweaver plenty of options to choose from,this talk charged me up and I have FedCore running on my system and gives me more reasons to use it more regularly :)

The day went on with sessions from Poornima on GCC-lot of gyan but pretty nice,
Archana gave a demo on Greasemonkey,this was also a nice one,she gave us a proper run through and I am using Greasemonkey now ,comes with a million scripts and if you do try it,blink twice ,read and install scripts only that you trust :)

They ended it finally with Laxman speaking about WINE,very interesting again,but I am not sure if I will get to using it finally.
And yes,almost slipped out of my mind,Thoughtworks ,the main sponsor for this event gave a talk on Ruby on Rails,touted the next big thing after Java !

The last part was the quiz that the CS quizzers conducted.WTF ,i wanted to scream out when some seniors who have already passed out and are apparently quizzers themselves walked in and participated in it and walked away with the prize,forget that,where in the hell is the spirit man,We are beginners and we have no bones about accepting that but mocking us that way is unreasonable,...yeah well,we didnt even turn in our answers ,we obv knew we dont stand a chance.

So pls take note,next year,if you have a quiz,make sure you know what kind of crowd you are dealing with and set it at that level,Dont keep it to entertain yourselves(the quizzers)There is no point in doing that ! If you think we stand no where in the race,thank you very much,but you can conduct a separate quiz for those guys ...

That ends Mukthi 8.03 :)

Hope it will be much more liberating next year ...

Mukthi 8.03 Day 1

2008-04-19T14:15:00.017+05:30

looong pending post :)
Day 1@Mukthi 8.03

This is an annual FOSS event conducted by the Linux User Group VRLINUG at MSRIT,Bangalore .

They have a nice way of naming it every year, this time it was Mukthi 8.03 signifying year ’08 and month March :) , the previous one was version 7.04 (Hope my memory is right)

This year they gave us barely a day to register and though last year almost 80% of the sessions simply flew over my head, this time I decided to give it another shot since well, I had taken the OS and Unix course in 5^th semester and I felt that I should be able to at least “recognize” some of the geeky terms flying around in the event.

Last year there was a huge turnout; literally, our entire seminar hall was packed to full capacity of 300, this is an intra-college event guys, so considering that I think that is HUGE! But many of us were completely disappointed and frustrated with last year’s event since we didn’t even know what a kernel was :( and many such terms kept popping up repeatedly in the sessions and most of us were at a total loss.

This year though, I was a wee bit more confident of being able to follow some talks. The crowd was a mere 30-40 students ,reason probably being that there was just a day for them to publicize the event or people genuinely didn’t want to sign up ?yet, the event’s target audience is mainly the VRLINUG who organize ,participate and ensure the entire event goes smoothly. So thumbs up for that one though!

Day 1 kicked off with Rahul Sundaram giving us an opening talk about FOSS(Free and Open Source s/w) and its growth et all. He repeatedly stressed the need for us to wake up and realize to this other world of OS :).

Then Peter Thomas gave us a short demo on Java in the world of FOSS, here too, since I am totally alien to Java, most of it flew over this tiny brain :) but I liked his talk somehow. He gave us a demo of his Indian open source project JTrac and spoke about JBoss, JMeter and other development tools. He signed off by giving an interesting list of sites to browse through...I must admit one thing, I never completely decipher what these guys are talking about until I come back home and run a search on it and follow it up, it takes time and that turn offs many participants, especially ones like me who are not really ardent users of Linux, at Mukthi..

Then we had demos by some of our seniors...Sriram Kashyap ran us through Blender, which is an interesting tool that performs a variety of functions on 3-D content and showed us how to create a simple poster.

Shegde spoke about Gedit as an alternative to the painful Vi :) with some fallouts here and there.

Fitting finale to Day1 was the movie screening of “Revolution OS “, a 2001 documentary, I guess the name says most of it :)

Revolution OS Trailer

Need the entire movie ? Watch it here

Still got time to read what happened @Day2,click here

Bucket List

2008-04-10T00:03:00.014+05:30

Firstly what is a bucket list; I came to know about it from the movie of the same name that I watched recently….Click here to know more

So here goes mine …

Karma

Pledge my eyes.
Teach blind kids dance or make them put up a show/play/anything on stage.
Do SOMETHING for disabled kids,maybe as simple as spending time with them, teach them something fun and useful.
Have a pottery or a painting session with kids.
Have a read aloud session for school kids,which book,I am undecided on which book though.
Volunteer to lend a helping hand to any organization that works with animal care.
Make atleast one person smile each day of my life.
Complain less(This one is tough! )

Material Girl

Go deep sea diving .
Try sky diving.
Visit the best spa in the world and get pampered all day.
Get tattooed,Color my hair red.
Have a Christian wedding –white dress,cake,wine et all.
Watch Hrithik roshan’s moves up close,in reality.
Listen to heaven-Bryan Adams live on stage.
Watch Rafa and Maria in action live. :)
Learn Belly dancing or Ballet. :P
Watch an f1 race upclose.
Meet J.K.Rowling ,Robin Cook,Gregory David Roberts,Dan Brown ,ok asking for too much,atleast meet one of them someday. :)
Buy the most beautiful pair of diamond chandelier earrings with my salary,someday,also take mom on a helicopter ride.

SKYDIVE Wooo hooo

Shantaram

2008-04-07T02:38:00.007+05:30

I bought Shantaram a couple of months ago.

As sheepishly mentioned before,I bought it with great enthusiasm hoping that I would read the book and enjoy Deepa Mehta’s movie better .For the uninitiated, read this

Now this idea was almost shelved, after many ifs and buts,I finally decided to give the 933 paged book a try .

The story begins with Roberts escaping from a maximum security prison in Australia and landing up in India,here begins his journey ,a fantastic,almost fictional tale(I would say so since his experiences are narrated superbly -quite hard to believe)

The central characters are strongly highlighted all throughout the book.Prabhaker-the naïve yet smart guide,Karla-the woman who stole Robert’s heart,Khader Bhai-the leader of the Bombay Mafia..All the characters are etched out beautifully and just blend with the backdrop of his tale .

Robert’s tale is inspiring,interesting and makes you look at India both in awe and disgust.With corruption,drugs,mafia and scandals galore it shows you the deep,dark Mumbai,yet the people at the slum,Prabhaker’s zest towards life and several other things bring about a smile to your face.

The book makes you laugh,cry,sympathize,worry,complain--A mixed bag of all emotions !

I was hooked on to the book thoroughly and thanks to Google images,I checked out what Roberts looks like..I was quite taken aback .I also saw the Leopold café that is the backdrop for most of the events occurring throughout the book .

Shantaram is the gripping tale of a man’s journey throughout Mumbai and his vast multitude of experiences. I am so eager to visit some of the places described in his work,that is the power of his narration .Roberts has mastered Hindi after his stay in India and also speaks Marathi !The novel was trashed twice after Roberts wrote it in prison.

I strongly recommend Shantaram to anyone who would be interested in getting a closer look at Mumbai- in its entirety.

Yes,the book can get quite a bit boring in between but it’s an experience in itself to finish the book.I was left craving for more,I wanted to know what happened to Roberts after his stay in Mumbai .Some sites tell me he has plans to write another book on what happened next in his life . Do give this book a try,you wouldn’t want to miss it :)

More recently,Gregory David Roberts was spotted at the LIFW on 30^th March’08

Parents

2008-04-05T21:28:00.006+05:30

This is a post from my friend Chi's Blog

Click here to see it

I loved its relevance ......

We have something to learn from this story :)

March Off !

2008-04-03T20:00:00.009+05:30

The march that just marched away

March was a hectic month...

In the first week, we began rehearsing vigorously for our Departmental Talents Day Show.

In the second week, Mukthi happened. Read my Mukthi post here

It is a two day FOSS event that aims to build greater awareness about open source through talks and demos on the latest trends in Open Source and involves interacting with people from the industry. More on Mukthi in a separate post.

During this period, I took to reading “Shantaram” by Gregory David Roberts, I shall admit the book is about 900 and odd pages and I didn’t want to stop reading it half way due to lack of time .

But soon I was lost in the fantastic, almost fictional tale and I strongly recommend the book to anyone .The Hitch is- in between, the book has a slightly slower pace .this is the point where most readers (whom I have come across) tend to quit reading it. Stay patient and you will enjoy the book.

I did not experience this burst of boredom anywhere while I was reading the book. I will sheepishly tell you that I was imagining Johnny depp as Shantaram all the while and it made my read thoroughly interesting! I am so eager to watch the movie, but with all the rumors flying around I doubt if it will happen soon. Read my post on Shantaram here.

I finished the book and then the internals landed on me, phew! I wrote some amazing pieces of non-technical jargon :-) and managed to get some decent scores in only a couple of subjects. The saddest thing about our university VTU and this course called Engineering is you wake up only when the exams and internals are only a week away and cram like there’s no tomorrow..

On the final day of my internals was our Talent’s Day...it was a beautiful show put up by our voISE Team and a huge success. Will write a post on it soon, no, I am not kidding, promise :-)

In between all this,I managed to catch "The Bucket List" ,I liked the movie,It set me thinking about a lot of things in life,what would you do if you really had only 6 months to live? Read my Bucket List here

In the last week of March we had our annual intra-college fest called Udbhav.

Ok I am repeating this again, but the experience of Udbhav shouldn’t be described in just a line :-) so will blog about it too SOON!

I am so tempted to quote this

“You will find time for things only that you really want to do! “

Adios

PS : I also signed up for Indiblogger this month and I love the experience of interacting with so many new people and checking out their writings too :-)

BSNL aargh!

2008-03-04T22:55:00.003+05:30

Top 7 reasons why I hate BSNL !

I have a BSNL data one wi-fi modem internet connection from the past 3-4 months .

My wi-fi modem has 3 lights –DSL,Internet,WLAN ,all three are supposed to light up in unison for the internet to work correctly which is an event that occurs only once a month !

The net never gets working at supposed “peak hours” namely 6-8 pm grrr and of course, on weekends it is foolish of me to expect it to connect...

My favorite words are “Problem Loading page” and “Server not Found “ courtesy the umpteen times I get to see it on my browser thanks to you know who!

My conversation, if you mention BSNL will begin with F***ed up BSNL,so they are taking over my vocab and making my BP rise well over the roof.

I have lost count of the number of times I mutter “DC” or “SORRY” during an IM conversation with friends on skype,Yahoo Msngr,Gmail or anything else !DC-Disconnected,aargh..

I pay 250 per month and end up getting “download limit exceeded” in my duplicate bill every other month, (note duplicate bill since the original bill never arrives on time except for one day before the due date ,phew ! ) so I switch to the 500 plan which makes my blood boil since this net is nothing compared to the peaceful 20 bucks per hour at a cyber café.

Lastly, I have shed about 2000 strands of hair simply by tearing it out in frustration cos their connection never stays constant and I always have trouble downloading since hey,the lights stop blinking after 35 sec u know :)

The Junior Engineer at BSNL in my area knows nothing about setting things right. I asked him for a secure connection, he says “illa,adu aagalla” Thank you sir, Do you know anything other than the full form of BSNL ,damn ..

Don’t get a BSNL data one internet connection especially if you stay around M.S.Ramaiah College. The service is so pathetic that you will spend more time working up your temper and swearing at them rather than browsing the net.

What is Fear ..

2008-02-28T22:30:00.015+05:30

Is it the fear of heights, shivering while approaching the 16^th floor terrace of your apartment block just to enjoy the occasional breeze?

Is it the fear of scoring 0 in the test even though you knew it was your fault that you partied late last night?

Is it the fear of a lizard, tiny and harmless as it may look!

Is it the fear of getting tetanus shot when you are in dire need of one?

Is it the fear of getting trampled by vehicles when you are crossing the road say, even a one-way?

Is it the fear of injuring yourself while playing rugby that makes you not try it even once?

Lastly, Fear of losing a loved one, or hurting a loved one …Which is your worst fear?

"The only thing we have to fear is fear it'self - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

"All of us are born with a set of instinctive fears--of falling, of the dark, of lobsters, of falling on lobsters in the dark, or speaking before a Rotary Club, and of the words "Some A ssembly Required."
---- Dave Barry

"Why are we scared to die? Do any of us remember being scared when we were born?"
---- Trevor Kay

"Courage is not the lack of fear but the ability to face it."
---- Lt. John B. Putnam Jr. (1921-1944)

Break Free

2008-02-21T00:06:00.003+05:30

This is back here on popular demand :P

This is my first post after nearly a month's hiatus and hey first post for the year '08 ... :-)
A friend of mine has recently got his eyebrow pierced and he deemed it a painful experience, I asked him why he got it done...

His answer: “just for kicks, I didn’t wanna grow old and think I didn’t do anything crazy in college”

This remark made me smile but had me thinking the whole day…We all have a rebellious streak in us but how many of us actually listen to it and break free ..

Childhood and teenage—parents make rules
Marriage-spouses and in-laws set limits
Finally in old age-kids have issues !

There are some who want to color their hair a shade red or a garish pink.

There are a few veggies who are rebellious about wanting to try eating a piece of chicken.

While driving a bike at a devilish pace may seem like an instant kick for several guys ,there are others who hang on to their daily puffs like darlings thinking they are in heaven. these puffs could be a mixture of various legal/illegal substances or plain nicotine..

Households where alcohol is a taboo always have the naughty young ones running out to grab a beer when a match is scheduled and returning home late in the night with proper defense mechanisms in place to face family members:--easily achieved by mint/mouth freshners/coffee/chocolates or by simply staying back at a friend’s place ;-)

I have always wanted to have short hair with red streaks in the fringy area..and also wanted a tattoo with something in devanagri script which i haven’t decided would be what !

And of course the navel ring is a subject of immense fascination to me ..

I have never brought up these issues at home else all hell will break loose.
The haircut is an absolute no-no since at all family do-s ,aunties will whisper oh,this girl is too modern ,and those red streaks ,my god,what was her mother doing !

The tattoo is an achievable dream and I think I will go for it once I am old enough to earn and decide independently. The tattoo is regarded as a rebellious display of youth by elders whom I know. And there is even talk of some crazy HR policies that do not take too kindly to a tattoo,though I am not pretty sure of this .but one day,I will take the plunge .until then ,will be content with just giving furtive glances to the existing rebellious species around me . I get to see enough of these at college  lol

Just remembered ,its easier to don a pink/red wig and save the embarrassment to my loved ones !

Finished reading “The Namesake” it’s a very depressing book ….

Love in the air??

2008-02-20T22:12:00.002+05:30

It’s past Valentine week and I am getting some really big surprises this year.

Revelations galore this week

People in question are Miss. X and Mr. Y

Miss.X

Quite close to me, we meet at family gatherings often and I thought I pretty much knew her until she told me she is in love and everything looks good...Apparently this is going on from the past one year...I was stunned and could only remember her descriptions of him and her being really happy. Parental approval granted, touché and things r looking rosy at the moment.

Mr.Y

Now, Mr.Y is someone whom I have known really well since the past few years. He would bore me with his technical skill but comfort me in moments of emotional distress .Today he tells me “Time to tell you something” I should have expected it coming .He is head over heels in love with a girl whom he has met on the net, and hasn’t admitted it to me since a really long time. Not that I am angry but isn’t it more than a mere co-incidence that two people whom I have known inside out, (well quite much are in looove J)

And there are the depressed ones

While one is lamenting about no reason to celebrate Valentine’s Day and instead prefers to spend quality time with horses: P

Another is sulking sitting 4,952 miles away from his love and cribbing . how was your Feb 14th this year ?
happy belated Valentine’s Day to all of you .

day 3

2008-02-19T22:46:00.000+05:30

day 3 @ chennai --officially was our last day there.

We directly had lunch at 11 am and the previous day our hosts noted our preferences and we were treated to a traditional meal .I loved the vettai columbu and the balekai dishes that were made especially for us. We bid our good-byes to our relatives and the extremely sharp and agile Pati at whose place we stayed these 2 days.

Then we reached the city railway station after a very long drive approximately 2 hours phew!

The journey back by the Bangalore Express was tiring and there were a lot of vendors who kept screaming out their wares .I managed to buy some CD there even in this confusion :- ) Reached Blore by 8:30 and just crashed into bed after a long day .

This Chennai trip has been a very memorable one, thanks to my relatives who were the epitome of hospitality and made sure we enjoyed every minute of our stay there .A big thank you to them.

Also thanks to appa for financing my shopping binges and amma for finally making this trip happen after planning it for about 3 semesters ,lol !

Mystic Mahabalipuram

2008-02-17T10:53:00.000+05:30

Day 2

It’s been a long time since I came back from my Chennai trip and gotten into my usual routine of going to college and blah blah.

So it’s going to be a lot of umm’s that set me thinking back here while I write this

We woke up early and left Chrompet by 8 am or so.

Reached Mahabalipuram at around 11 and had some plot visits to complete.

After that moving along the elegant East Coast Road, we reached the Pancha Ratham Rock Carvings there.

Again here, phoren tourists all around us walked dazed looking at the fantastic sculpture of the period of the Pallavas.

The carvings consisted of 5-6 single rocks carved out with pain staking detail to depict elephants and beautiful Pancha rathams. We couldn’t get enough of the place and strolled around and went inside the caves and sat admiring the sculpture.

An interesting sculpt was that of Ardhanareeshwara ,integration of the male and female bodies representing Shiva and Uma.

Meaning Of Ardhanareeshwara (androgynous)

"The Atma is Purusha (Brahman) and the body is Prakriti (Feminine Principle) in human life. So. every human being is androgynous (Ardhareeshwara). The Principle of Shiva (Shiva-twa) teaches the unity of Prakriti and Purusha. This is the true meaning of Shivaratri. Forgetting this principle, man considers this physical body to be made up of merely blood, flesh and fecal matter. No doubt, it has these constituents, but one should not forget the fact that divinity permeates this body." Sai Baba. SS, 3/99, p. 72.

Read on ...

The religious centre of Mamallapuram (formerly Mahabalipuram) was founded by a 7th-century- Pallava king, Narasimhavarman, also called Mamalla ("great wrestler"), for whom the town was named.

Pancha Rathas (Five Chariots) - five monolithic pyramidal structures named after the Pandavas Arjuna, Bhima, Yudhishtra, Nakula and Sahadeva) and Draupadi. An interesting aspect of the rathas is that, despite their sizes they are not assembled — each of these is carved from one single large piece of stone.

Most of the monuments are of Pallava dynasty except the original Sthalasayana Perumal temple was constructed in Vijaynagar times and the Mandapas belong to Chola days.

We came out of the temples and entered the shopping area. It was filled with shops that stacked the same kind of things, shell jewellery, shell show pieces, intricate mirrors with shells and the like. I was happy since I could finally get to shop !
My loot included bags, gifts for friends’ back home, jewellery and the like. I bought a very intricate mirror with sea-shells stuck all around it. Haven’t yet hung it up anywhere there .Oh yes, Vanity, No apologies :P

Also visited the Temple at Mahabalipuram and Lord Ranganathaswamy was in a very unique manner waving out his hand to the devotees and calling them .he is called STHALASAYANA PERUMAL here.

From there, we left to Pondy bazaar.

A nice jam welcomed us at the entrance, near Krishna Sweets Headquarters and we finally decided to walk the 100 m instead of simply waiting in the car for the traffic to clear out.
The entire stretch of Pondy Bazaar mesmerized me, Of course we have our own Commercial street, Brigade Road and MG Road but it always feels good to step into the shopping hub of any city .I visited T nagar the last time I was at Chennai and I liked that place too.

And for the good one hour we spent at Pondy Bazaar, I gazed at Naidu hall and the other multi branded outlets but didn’t step into them: P
I bought various little things here, a ring holder in plaster of paris, jhumkis in black metal, Bangles, all well bargained.
Finally I bought a joothi –yeah those flat shoes, the ones lucknow is known for.
The price quoted was 275, I heard it as 75 and was overjoyed; I tried them on and was telling amma wat a great deal it is when the guy screamed out “275 sister! “And I came crashing down, no way; I argued .I said 200 and the guy instantly packed it up. I felt foolish and my relative also felt that my bargaining skills were at an all time low that day. Dejected yet happy with my purchases, we went back home.

Now I had to pack up all our huge mass into our tiny 2 kits, I spent a good 45 minutes and carefully packed up everything. The mirror had to be taken care of since it was really fragile and I even managed to bring back my kite in one piece :- )

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Kanchi in a Kaleidoscope

2008-02-06T01:14:00.000+05:30

Kanchi in a Kaleidoscope

Day 1 started at 5 am, Woke up, left Chrompet by 7 …

Reached Kanchipuram, entered a 300 year old house right next to the Varadaraja Permual temple. The lady of the house took great pride in telling us how old the house was .Clad in green cotton “madi saar” /Kachche Sari; she stood fiddling with age old vessels in the kitchen, and acknowledged our vannakams. She was going to accompany us to the temple .Being a Friday; the long queues would make our entries late she said. We nodded.

While we spent some time at the ancient house, I observed the ceiling, it was extremely high; about thrice the size of the heights of our normal homes .The entrance door was huge and there were no locks! They didn’t lock their homes those days said the lady; I stepped out and saw a beautiful courtyard so big it could easily accommodate 50 people!

I stood outside soaking in the religious aura that the place had. I could see men clad in pure white panches /dhotis vibudhi smeared all over chanting and marching to the temple.

Saw Ladies with fine jewelry and pakka madi saars draped over them; the tilakam and Shree Charanam neatly drawn on their foreheads buying jasmine flowers and hurrying to the temple. The sight of these saris itself amused me, in the hot weather, how r they so comfortable in such sarees? I find the normal sari itself quiet a test of patience. A friend had even once remarked “why do you walk like a battery operated doll while wearing a sari” to which I couldn’t even answer since I was busy trying to walk!

The street was lined with many sari shops; Kanchi has the tagline “SILK CITY” quite aptly since all the womenfolk of the place are brand ambassadors wearing them 24/7. Jokes apart, Kanchi produces some of the finest silk and is home to many weavers and co-operative societies that market genuine silk saris.

We went to the temple and had the darshan of the Lord. A few curious phirangs were merrily clicking photographs of a function happening there at the temple. They were watching each and every ritual with great interest, their Canons and Nikons zooming in and out every minute.

At this temple, there is also the golden lizard which has a mythical tale to it.

Read more about it :-

The place houses a gold & silver lizard, it is said that they were once son and wife of Ayodya king Sakaranis, due to sin committed by them, they were converted into lizards.A prayer to lord Varadharaja absolved them of the sins.Now these lizards are touched by the devotes to wash off their sinsand start afresh account.

The main temple is reached by climbing 24 steps for the darshan of lord Varadharaja, who in his majestic form with Four arms holds you in captivated.

Source: sulekha.com

I touched it hoping for a friend’s eternal fear of lizards to be absolved soon.

Clue: - she comments regularly on all my posts.

Next stop was the famed Kanchi Kamakshi temple; a short distance away from the first temple. This temple is the hub for most Iyers and Kanchi muth devotees. Huge cutouts of the Kanchi mutt seer welcomed us at the temple; they were the managing committee of the temple I learnt. Kanchi Kamakshi’s darshan was smooth, only a half an hour queue :)

Then it was Saravana special South Indian meals at the Saravana Bhavan at Kanchi, they are a popular chain of restaurants in Chennai and also have branches all around the world.

There again another group of Swiss tourists at the table next to us were crying with glee when their open dosa arrived, they clicked more than they ate: P

We resumed our journey back to Chrompet with me napping off.

In the evening, we went to Marina Beach. It is the second largest---now corrected :P "longest" beach in the world after Miami, Florida I learnt. Still not verified that on wiki.

I flew a kite on the beach ,quite amusing ,considering it was my first try, the kite did manage to fly but only in the direction opposite to I was trying to navigate it each time .

I enjoyed the waves splashing onto me; we spent very little time at the beach :(

From there, we went to the Parathasarathy Temple. This temple just left me speechless; hundreds of women dressed up intricately were standing at the thaiyaar sannidhi while the men recited Vedic verses. Being a Friday, there was a total religious halo around the temple. The Lord at this temple, Lord Krishna in the Gitopadesham Avataaram was the most handsome Lord I have seen till now. He even had a moustache supposedly to disguise himself; I do not know the right story.

We called it a day after having another visit to another Saravan bhavan’s specialty restaurant where I devoured mini idlis and some delicious sweet whose name has slipped out from memory.

Day 2 @ Chennai: - will be posted soon

Chennai is full of hoardings and my god; the roads are so wide that I thought I was dreaming! Traffic moves at a considerably better pace there but hey, no city can beat us: P Chrompet where I was put up is quite far away from the city and to commute to a point it takes a minimum of an hour or more. Every drive felt like Mathikere to Maratahalli @ Chennai …

Till next time then, Vannakam!

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sinful delights

2008-01-23T11:25:00.000+05:30

My heart was racing ….

I gazed at the outer cover for a little less than 2 minutes.

A peachish background with a dazzling orange outline was visible.. “Chocolat Aprose” the bold logo stated on it.

“Swiss premium chocolate” was added below it with a sense of regality.

Finally the description “white” was neatly visible.

On the top right of the current object of desire was the Swiss flag added perhaps like a hologram for complete trust and on the bottom 200 g-7 OZ .

I admired the cover for some time but didn’t really read the army of information provided behind the cover about nutrition facts n blah blah.

Not today, I thought to myself .Heart beat still not normal racing faster ….

Then I thought to myself –No harm in taking a quick look at what the bar looks like, creamy white or a pure blinding white..

Tore open the cover delicately and lo, another Silver foil came into picture …

Aah, heart beat back to normal, not again..

Silly circular patterns floated around on the silver cover and I went back to debating whether a peek was necessary, Of course the peek would lead to certain obvious things, probably end up in a disastrous episode of me consuming the whole bar.

So, I left it there and took a walk around the house...All previous visits to the dentist haunted me and Dad’s voice boomed loud in my head –“Eat more Chocolates and buy a set of dentures when u r 30” .The Dentist‘s words were much better or should I say soothing -“This one was not really a serious problem but do take care in the future “with me just nodding and looking down at my knees …

Chocolates are my biggest vice. The passionate affair started very early in life, like many kids, I loved chocolate and loved it more when dad refused to buy a bar for me. I was rewarded with chocolates generously by amma whenever I topped or simply when I sat through a grueling session of some insanely slow and dull ragam lessons .My mother pampered me silly –Sad-Dairy Milk, happy-milky Bar, Grumpy-five Star, Cleaned my room-Kit Kat, Cranky-2 bars of milky bar and Achievements –well It would be a big assortment of all my favorite chocolates .And thus I grew up loving every bite of chocolate I ever tasted.

All my near and dear ones know my love for them and gifted them to me at every special occasion or simply for no special reason at all. Though I shyly refuse, they know really well that I would be devouring them happily the next minute.

With a phoren aunt coming down to India every 2 years, a big bag of “Candy” – (American and Canadian term for good old Indian “chaaklate “as we say it )

was guaranteed.

Once dad was furious that I would eat up the entire bag and sent it to my school. When the teachers asked “Is it your birthday” I would meekly say “No, but please take some” and that was the saddest year of my affair with these sweet little delights.

Now family and friends make sure I get to taste all the existing varieties.

While there was Mars, snickers and Bounty that greatly excited me a couple of years ago,

Temptations-Rum n Raisin-Made India was also sinfully good.

Ferrero Rocher and toblerone stood the top on my list until recently.

It was upstaged by Ferrero Garden-Ferrero Rocher in different flavors which tasted exquisite and for which I must thank the guy who went to Germany and froze and is now sweating it out in Dubai.

These were much more unique than anything else I had ever tasted.

Then Came Oreo Wafer Bars, they gave me the immense satisfaction of not feeling guilty since they had only an outer layer of chocolate and were simply wafer inside .I gobbled them up during all my stressed out phases-Read EXAMS and thank you,Mr Melbourne for that one . Still reeling of these instances, I walked into the room.

Entered --- heart racing though not as fast as earlier.

Damn, Let me just see and have a small bite, wouldn’t really hurt I said to myself.

Tore open to reveal 6 neat divisions of the most inviting white chocolate I had ever seen. 1 piece graduated to 4 and I gobbled it up quickly ,It melted in my mouth as I enjoyed the tingling sensation on my taste buds ,Yummy was so cliché here !

Enough for today I decided and neatly put the wrapper back and tucked it into my drawer.

How many times have I broken my vow, I dunno though I would say “never” to my dentist ;-) Well he has got to make a living too,you see :P

Below –My Chocolate wall hang resting in my room

And The Lucky Chocolate bar described with painstaking detail above :P

Quotes on The wall hang read:-

I call them The Chocolate commandments...

All I need to know about life I learned from eating chocolate

Some people are semi-sweet; others are just plain nutty
Don’t cry over spilled milk-unless of course, it’s chocolate milk
There is a fine line between vice and addiction
Good looking dates are like chocolate; good while they last, but they never last long enough!
When life presents you a rocky road, just eat your way out of it
Money can’t buy you love, but it can buy you chocolate-24 hours a day,7 days a week,365 days a year.
Don’t poke your nose in other people’s chocolate boxes!
Mothers-in-law are like chocolate syrup: a little goes a long way.
Flowers and cards may be the standard norm of courtship, but chocolates are sure to work wonders
A box of Swiss chocolates is worth two boxes of any other chocolate

Milk Chocolate ….. for all it’s worth
Even people of tremendous integrity are subject to yielding before chocolate!
A kiss is just a kiss, but a chocolate kiss is bliss.
True love will remain long after the chocolate have gone ….Provided there’s another box
The best things in life are not fat free.
Nothing is worth getting sick over, except of course, chocolate
When everything else fails, Choc it !
And remember life is like a box of chocolates; take a bite out of everything.

winter blues ..

2007-12-23T19:59:00.000+05:30

just read that there is scientific evidence to prove winter blues..
that explains the funny feeling i have been having for days now ...
feeling very stressed out ,exams in 2 days and so many things to study,no mug is the right word ..,not realised the value of time in the hols and always end up cramming in the last minute,lesson learnt every semester :-P

got loads of new topics to write about but will probably do so only after these exams which end on jan 7th (ugh !)

take care ...

provoked

2007-12-16T00:59:00.000+05:30

Just saw 'Provoked' - directed by Jagmohan Mundra on Max..
Aishwarya Rai portrays the tole of Kiranjit Ahluwalia in this movie based on domestic violence.

The movie has a simple and straight forward narrative ,lacks a tight screenplay and is based on the true life story of Kiranjit,A woman based in the UK who unable to tolerate physical and verbal abuse meted upon her, by her husband kills him in a daze ,after they were married for ten years.
the movie is based on a book written by Kiranjit-the circle of light...

The movie shakes you up and takes a look at the darker side of marrying an NRI,being helpless in a foreign land,repeatedly being abused,the pain and endless fights .Ash has made the pain and fear of Kiran's character come to life. She displays innocence while she is being married to Deepak Ahluwalia(played byNaveen Andrews )and later her inhibitions and confused state of mind leave you feeling sorry for her.The scenes where Deepak abuses are menacing and did scare me. Kiran's life in prison is a discovery and it generates happiness when you get to see a woman being happier in prison than she was when out of it ..

The scenes which made a tear trickle down my eyes are The scene where Kiran gets to meet her children finally after an agonising wait in the prison and Kiran making to the court room for the second trial ,kiran dons up a suit,shedding her behenji image ,these two scenes totally stood out for me from the movie ...

The movie wakes you up to a dark reality-domestic violence..

We have heard of several stories among friends and relatives of x divorcing y and accusing him of physical abuse or z committing suicide but kiran chose to kill her husband ,which she does in a confused but tormented state of mind.This is a harsh truth to accept for any law though she was in an abusive relationship for a period of ten years. The truth about domestic violence is that it can exist in any strata of society.

While gender equality maybe unheard of in a lower income ,daily wage worker family where the husband ends up drinking every night and bashing up his wife,the elite who speak of equality at champagne flowing,camera dazzling fund-raisers/charity dinners are themselves subject to repeated abuse-maybe of a different kind,say verbally or financially.the most recent example that comes to mind is that of Rahul Mahajan and shweta.Tabloids report Shweta filed for divorce after being in an abusive relation for over a year.didn't she have the power/position to walk out from the relation earlier ? why did she have to tolerate it all this while? It speaks volumes of how this is not a minuscule problem...sigh...

while cases of dowry are still being reported regularly in the papers,women staying close to their parents geographically still have a chance to open up and share the pain .but for women staying abroad,the situation looks grim.Support groups do exist but do all women have access to them?

it is believed that the number of NRI's marrying just for the sake of a domestic help has increased significantly in the past year,esp from the Middle East..

In this age of mass media penetrating every inch and corner,it is impossible to not hear a woman's wails but what will you say to a woman who like kiran refuses to speak up.
In the movie,when kiran is pregnant,Deepak pushes her in a fit of rage and she comes tumbling down the steps.When they go to meet a doctor,the doc gets suspicious and asks Kiran if she would want to tell her something but kiran never opens up,maybe because there is a fog of fear surrounding her entire life .......the movie made me feel sad for the thousands of NRI wives who marry with a twinkle in their eyes,little knowing what the future holds for them ...

Go watch Provoked and if you ever see a friend/relative just needing to speak up,do take a moment out and listen to them..you never know the dark truth hiding behind those innocent eyes......

Ending this post here .i am very depressed now thinking of the sorry state of women today....

Gender equality be damned,at least women deserve to be treated humanely ....

Listen up men else doomsday shall arrive soon ...

PS: everyone's asking me why am I writing only about movies,hmm,I admit I am a movie freak but most of the times when i watch a movie,it triggers off reel vs real ,ideas begin to click in my mind which are reflected in my posts. so :-)

2007-12-12T20:08:00.001+05:30

exam mode

2007-12-08T22:32:00.000+05:30

hi all,

there will be no posts on my blog till 14th Dec,07 due to my exams ...

take care

some day........

2007-12-01T23:12:00.000+05:30

yesterday i was at the post office-Yeshwanthpur RTO branch ...
the regional transport office (RTO) is a hectic scene of activity.
it houses the driving license issuing offices ,various property doc related offices ,a bangalore one center-an integrated facility that will cater to various needs .

tucked away in the second floor corner of this building is our post office.the lift goes only to the third floor,so we have to go to the 3rd floor,take the stairs down and reach our p.o .

now yesterday the lift was in perfect condition but its usual occupant-the lift operator with his creaky broken plastic chair seated inside the lift,(taking up a good amount of space in the lift) was missing .my mother refused to get into the lift citing the poor condition n blah blah.the actual reason-the lift has another lift adjacent to it which is not functioning from almost a year,they have started the repairs around a month back and it is still going on. so worried for her dear life,my mother suggested we take the stairs .

i have no problems with stairs as long as there are no rogues pushing you around the railings,driving license touts running around with documents bumping into people all the time and serpentine queues of people waiting for their license tests .add to this ,the chaos of some more people desperately looking for directions to a govt office and people looking baffled when the lift does not stop at the second/first floors but shoots up like a rocket to the third..well,the p.o is all this and much more .the staircase has been thristy for years ,forget domex/dettol/any cleaning ingredient,it looks like the stairs haven't even been washed with good old plain water for ages though there are occasional fresh marks on the "spitters hall of fame" all throughout the building right from the entrance sometimes even on the steps ! aargh.

as we entered the p.o,cobwebs greet us from all directions. a shutter settled completely with dust has a notice pasted on to it saying all posts and parcels lying at tumkur p.o,nh road ..
there is a public coin box which serves as good humour ,once a notice says "STD working ,20 seconds-1 rupee" but you look closely and the receiver is dangling and the notice below it says "not working-out of order " . the po was recently upgraded with some decent furniture which is the only plus point i can think of . some shiny black chairs and a neat wooden huge desk for interacting with customers,like a teller's at the bank have been added . though there is an antique desk smeared with glue all over reminding that things haven't yet changed completely .

as my mother got into the queue to await her turn,i could see that it was quite crowded for a Friday morning ,usually nobody withdraws money on friday's,lakshmi et al being reasons . so most of the people were there for deposits .

the p.o provides a range of financial services for the common man,ranging from savings bank accounts to kisan vikas patra among others.they provide a low amount of interest compared to any big-wig bank but the common advice among elders in the family is that investing in a p.o is extremely safe- courtesy the numerous lessons learnt from relatives by investing in xyz chit funds or fake financial companies for the greed of a higher interest . hence my regular trips to the p.o with my mother .

as i waited for my mother to finish up her work,i saw a woman,in her late thirties,helpless and confused enter the surroundings . she seemed disheartened at the length of the queue and started talking to a middle-aged woman seated next to me asking her to fill up a form for her . the middle aged woman said she had to leave and was in a hurry and said she couldnt do it .
then the woman approached one more person who pointed towards me ,i was coughing and sniffing by then and was pretty tired since was unwell.

the lady came to me and said "please form fill maadi kodi " i agreed but warned her that this form was new to me and she would have to help me out with her details,she immediately produced another filled up form and waved it in front of me and said "idu hale form,pls same fill madi,only date change maadbeku" .i was struck by her clever thinking and filled up the details in the same manner but only changed the date . she thanked me and joined the queue.by then,my mom was back and we departed home .

this set me thinking ,if the woman had ever got a chance to go to a school,learn how to read and write ,it surely wouldn't have made her helpless for the 20 min that i saw her in the p.o but also probably would have made her a successful person ,she had enough sense to get an older form for convenience sake ..it really made me wonder ,what miracles could such people achieve if given proper education ?

our country has celebrated 60 years of independence and today i got to see two sides of a coin majorly disturbing me ,
1.illiteracy
2.poor state govt organisations

now both problems are better solved in the election manifestos of various parties (simply on paper) rather than reality,i just hope that some day i can proudly show off my local p.o as a place known for its impeccable neatness ,efficiency and see a long queue of literate women handling businesses there ......

might be a far off dream but some day,maybe some day............

luck

2007-11-29T20:00:00.000+05:30

temp status---102 at 8 am,down to 100 at 3 pm,back to normal at 8 pm grin :-)

luck ,sheer luck in the mp lab today .....

the vtu site is making me tear my hair out,its so disorganised and the searches are totally unreliable .... and u end up downloading umpteen presentations....grrr

someone make the site simpler for god's sake !

Quote for the day !

So, bad luck turned into good. I believe it can always be that way.
David Janssen

aaja nachle

2007-11-23T22:25:00.000+05:30

Madhuri dixit’s back and this time mouthing “aaja nachle” all the way …….

She was on Nach Baliye to promote “Aaja Nachle” being touted as her come-back film but I argue why should we say “come back” , cos I feel she’s one icon who has permanently stolen all our hearts. Her Dhak-Dhaks, Jhatak-Mataks, Expressive eyes and million dollar smile have captivated us since years.

So what if she was away for 6 years, she’s got to settle down someday too..simply cos she’s human and not the divine apsara that you have mistaken her for all the time you watched her on screen.

By the way I have seen hum appke hain kaun atleast 17 times :-)

When she entered the nach baliye set,rather stage in a tonga,my heart skipped a beat .

Her radicance can stun your living daylights, I wonder what it would be like or to see her in person,close by..she’s that for me, filled with a spark of life.

Her smile, I wonder if it a talented dentists’s handiwork but I doubt it since she’s been around for too long and techno advancements/enhancements were not really the norm of the day back then,I suppose ,looking at all the beauties of that time…….

Anyways for the last 15 minutes that she was on the set,she mermerised me,I didn’t want to take my eyes off the tv set even for a nano sec ! She’s supposedly Judging the next round which is definitely great news cos nach baliye’s in terrible shape now with the so called wild card entries kashmira and Krishna putting up such a pathetically loud performance,it almost had me running for the remote,but remember the clever marketing guys made sure that didn’t happen by slating the diva madhuri’s entry for the last 15 min of the show,but kept on saying “abhi aajayengi ! “ grrrrr …

Other updates from nach----

rakhi and abhishek not at their usual best-rakhi’s syncro was surprisingly disappointing ,sanjeeda and aamir ali put up a bad show according to me but analyst vaibhavi felt it was of the “RAitha pehla diya” types though she refrained from using that term today..

And the other couples,don’t even deserve a mention. The poor show has now added a 11 th jodi to compensate for falling TRP’s but I seriously doubt if it will work . also,please pray that karan and amita get voted out next week since their standard of dancing is nowhere close to even the “tolerable” variety

Hmm,also currently playing 24/7 on all channels is promotions for goal,oops dhan dhana-dhan goal,bips is running from one set to another in her frocks ,sorry, couture wear ! (bah) that she looks like she’s promoting her stylist and giving ample display of her anatomy rather than movie .

John ‘s simply sweet to watch on screen cos he looks like he’s firmly rooted in his middle-class values which is a welcome change from the bloated egoistic khans and kapoors ! anyways I do wanna watch goal sometime before the 30^th,cos tat’s d day when aaja nachle’s gonna be out,but with the proj deadlines and lab tests and internals,it looks like ......well impossible comes close :-)

Until next time then ,

Show me ur jalwa ….show me ur jalwaaaaaaaa

It’s the latest track being aired frm aaja nacle,never mind if you haven’t heard it,its bound to be thrown at you from every single radio station,tv channel,newspaper,website and wat not baby,so just chill and enjaaaaaaaay the weekend

OSO day

2007-11-21T00:34:00.000+05:30

Saw OSO finally today!

I have decided not to write a review about om shanti om simply bcoz we’ve been bombarded from these projectiles called oso n saawariya from the past 2 months, it’s almost like a war between the two as to who gets maximum media attention!

Though I found it all a tad bit irritating, I must say trailers, sneak peeks, music launches all send me rushing to the theatre at least to find out if the movie lives up to the hype.

The last movie that though didn’t have too many pre-movie marketing gimmicks was Anurag Kashyap’s No Smoking. I wanted to watch it badly but had to give it a miss, and as trade reports tell me ,for good !the movie was deemed terribly confusing by critics and movie-goers alike but hmmm,I think I shall watch it in the semester hols and then give my opinion.

Anyway coming to OSO I shall write two blocks of statements here (aargh blocks, statements! effect of system software gibberish stuck in my head!)

Block # 1:-

If you have seen the movie:

1. Wasn’t the climax quite scary and different, a friend of mine tells me it’s not original, but a lift from our very own dilip kumar classic madhumati!

2. The akshay Kumar nomination scene was also unique, managed to break us into peals of laughter but in the papers, it was the latest scoop for the day, saying it was a lift from a Polish movie!

The papers, who are the official partners for the movie, went on to say that Farah has made a movie by patching up parts of several movies from here and there, just imagine!

Official print partner for OSO being Mid-Day…

3. Also couldn’t we have Deepika Padukone at least, if not minimally, a tad bit completely clad in the second half! She looks so divine in the first half in the 70’s look that her unnecessary exposure looks unconvincing in the second half.

Honestly, SRK does look “uncle-ish” and shorter compared to his herione, save for some clever camera angles and make-up of course to the rescue..

4. Don’t give me excuses that you were not humming ‘Main agar kazoo’ or swinging to ‘DARD-E-DISCO’ after exiting the theatre ,Vishal-Shekhar have created such catchy tunes alongside the haunting main agar kahoon ,it’s impossible to not hum them!

Must see how long the songs remain in public memory!

Block # 2:-

If you haven’t yet seen the movie:-

Reasons to watch the movie:-

1.Deepika Padukone-

She looks so good that it’s unbelievable its her first movie as all news channels have been screaming from the past 2 weeks, yes she’s great but remember she had a kannada movie “aishwarya” previously and was launched in it, and the pretty damsel has done enough home-work on her mistakes in aishwarya and thus the transformation ,..

Yet, she’s simply sweet in the first half and brilliant in the climax..

2.Arjun Rampal and Shreyas तलपडे

Their characters are well-etched in the script and they do full justice to it. Who ever said Arjun Rampal, being a model can’t act, go watch OSO, it will take you by surprise.

Now Shreyas is one actor whom I loved in Iqbal, the best part that comes across throughout his acting is simplicity, he has nothing extravagant to do in the movie but kindles your interest and keeps the spirit of the first half going!

3. Dhoom तना

This song was aired just a few days ago, believe me it shows Deepika displaying her fine dancing skills, she has a lot of grace, and excuse me all SRK fans, he just looks like a buffoon in this song, with the ear-rings and he just doesn’t dance in sync /in tandem with deepika, the result is out there for all of you to verify …

4. If you liked main hoon anthem run and watch OSO, its gonna floor you

If you hated main hoon na,still go watch it,cos I felt main hoon na was a trashy script but SRK saved the movie running behind sushmita draped in her chiffon sarees in a college set . But oso has a decent script though the second half’s overtly dramatized.

5. The photography, sets and background scores are definitely something to watch out for,

I’m saying this even though I have zero technical knowledge about these things but still if something makes u sit up and take notice, it is the sets, and if you find you just can’t take your eyes off deepika, its cos of some brilliant camera work . The OSO set as shown in the trailers --- yeh hai Hindustan ki sabse bade movie oso ka set blah blah, the set is a treat for the eyes … n the background score’s wonderfully in sync with the on goings in the movie especially the scary portions hehe !

So there ends my list, do try n watch OSO, if you give it a miss, no worries, wait for 6 months, you can watch it on sony/set max or maybe even NDTV! Considering the kind of stuff broadcasted these days on so called news channels!

PS : today I downloaded two word games from yahoo, text twist and bookworm, I loved both of them .you see, I love word games simply cos I’m dumb at number games ,have honestly given up on sudoku and the heavy duty action ones ,well let’s talk about my disaster at those some other time .

Now the problem is the downloaded games are only trial versions and last only 4 an hour, sob sob sob….so if anybody has these games, licensed pls send it across to me ,or if you know any links which have similar games, I’d be glad if you cud post them here

Till next time then,

All hot girls put your hands up and sing, OOOOOOOm Shanti OOOOOOOOOOm

All cool boys ,come on,make some noise and sing, OOOOOOOm Shanti OOOOOOOOm

Kal Ho Naa Ho

2007-11-19T00:20:00.000+05:30

Today I am gonna write about a movie that I have watched a dozen times and still fallen in love with each frame over and over again…

Its “Kal ho naa ho”, which was aired on sony again today….

The movie revolves around the life of Naina Katherine (Preity Zinta) who stays at New York with her family comprising of Jenny (Jaya Bachchan) and a bro,sis,dadima ,Indian neighbours et all…Naina’s life is simple yet complicated cos she finds no happiness at home ever since her father committed suicide..

Enter Aman Mathur (SRK) a happy-go-lucky (completely cliché term) neighbor who comes from India, meets Naina’s family and changes her life forever….

Naina invariably falls in love with him in true bollywood style-

First she hates him

Then she begins to like him

Then she’s head over heels in love with him!

But Aman suffers from a cardiac ailment and has little time left, so when Naina decides to propose to him, he lies about already being married to Sonali Bendre and Naina’s heart shatters.

Now another main character in the movie is that of Saif Ali Khan’s (Rohit)

He is Naina’s evening MBA classmate, and also loves her... But he realizes that she loves Aman...

Aman convinces Rohit to profess his love for Naina and she accepts his proposal, only

After they get enagaged does Naina realize that Aman has kept his illness in the dark from all of them...

Still Naina marries Rohit and Aman passes away ….

Now, many people argued that the movie is a direct lift from “Anand”. I haven’t watched that movie so will not comment on that aspect…

The movie has many beautiful moments-like where SRK faces Jenny’s mum-in law with some bitter truths about her son’s life.

Where Naina transforms from an angry, arrogant and emotionless maniac to a calm, happy and sprightly woman.

The movie also has an excellent dose of humour with Kanta ben providing a few good laughs and lilette dubey does an excellent job of posing as a seductress auntie!

The music’s so good, you will feel the songs haunting you even after you are done with watching the movie.. karan johar and nikhil advani make a good screen play turn into wonderful cinema with extremely good marketing and packaging thrown in..the streets of New York have never looked so inviting!

But according to me, Preity breathes life into every frame of the movie-she looks so divine and beautiful, her dimpled smile is her best asset apart from her silky straight hair (which by the way I’ve always dreamt of having!)

In the song,aaja mahi ve,she looks like an angel ! And the title song will make sure you hum it for atleast a day.

N everyone has heard “It’s the time to disco” ,it was the party anthem the year it released.

SRK n saif have done justice to their roles but for me Preity stands out more than SRK,yes he is good at his job but still Preity takes top grades home .

Saif’s career got a new lease of life with this movie and he proved he deserved it,he has done a great job –

His lying phases –about meetin Naina in the park with his dog,

Rajpal Yadav swap –blind date,

Che din,ladki in ,

Camilla episode,

geeta aur uske do gande gande bachche..

All these are some sample hilarious moments from the movie.

I remembered all those moments once again today while watching the movie.

Also the climax does cause a lump in your throat-nobody wants Aman to die, but he steals all our hearts with that scene.

A special mention of the cinematographer – I think its Anil mehta, not too sure ,but his camera work is just amazing and like I said, priety looks a million bucks.

So if u have watched kal ho naa ho, good J and do remember the message of the movie –

Jiyo,haso,khush raho

Kya pata ,kal ho naa ho….

And for those of you who haven’t watched it,run to the nearest DVD store and rent/buy a copy. You will not regret watching this movie even if you aren’t a great Karan Johar/SRK fan .

Till next time ,

:-) keep smiling!

PS : never have too many expectations from a director after enjoying his first movie completely –

I am talking of Nikhil Advani who directed Kal Ho Naa Ho ,his next film Salaam-E-Ishq was a big dud . It was a good yawn session and totally disastrous ,except 4 some life-saving pleasant music .

Comin up next is Aaja Nachle,being promoted as Madhuri’s come-back movie- which is cinematographer Anil Mehta’s directorial venture-let’s see if he can live upto people’s expectations …….hmmmm . Anil was the cinematographer for Kal Ho naa Ho

role reversal ?

2007-11-17T00:21:00.000+05:30

ok i just typed out something really nice and the damn autosave is simply not working

so i dunno where my writing disappeared !

but still i am gonna write it all over again sob ......

it was something like this

yawnnnnnnnnnnnn

don't blame me,its 12 am now ,and its been a long day as usual

yesterday,i saw nach baliye's role reversal episode,wherein a guy dresses up as the gal and vice versa,it looked like a spoof,but i must admit that i enjoyed this episode far more than the previous 70's theme with srk thrown in for a good measure of publicity during diwali and smartly to coincide with the release of OSO .

now this set me thinking ,just imagine role reversal at home

a sample conversation

mum:i cannot buy you any more jewellery ,i am almost broke

dad:but you don't understand gold prices crash after diwali and now is the right time to invest in a new necklace

mum: what ! a new necklace,no way !

dad:all right,let's buy a pair of bangles then

mum:bangles,no way,you have way too many bangles,i have an idea,wear the bangles as earrings,its in vogue,wearing earrings the size of bangles ,i read it in the economic times

dad:oh god,you and your ideas ! ok since u r unwilling to buy anything,let's settle down for a ring
mum: (fed up of arguing ! ) i might as well say yes! (with a heavy heart )

situation 2 :

student : pls cancel classes for the day

teacher: ok

student : pls postpone the lab tests

teacher: ok

student: pls extend the deadlines for the assignment

teacher : ok

now wouldn't that be an ideal world where we would get to say something other than ok!

scene 3 :

srk : i love you but i am scared of my father

deepika padukone : kyun,pyar kiya to darna kya! don't worry

srk: but i fear for your safety ,let's elope

deepika: no,we shall win your dad's heart ,simran errr srk ! dilwale dulha le jaayenga ssssrk

i hope this managed to at least bring a smile onto ur face

ok,time to crash ,

bye for now!

phew

2007-11-15T23:38:00.000+05:30

too tired to type anything today,
but scary lift incident day ...

began studying mp lab progs, they are quite something,

gotta work hard :-(

chao !

PS : Gyaan for the day- ALOHA stands for LOOOOVE

ALOHA is a DC term

hip hip hurray

2007-11-14T23:55:00.000+05:30

Day 2!

N wat a day it has been! Crazy day, crazier me brrr…

Ok well, the good news is my lappie arrived today, it’s a HP Pavilion DV-2601TX, yeah well for all those of you who think I am blowing my own trumpet yes I am!

Shru, are you listening?

Yahoo!!! My laptop’s here, happy? :-)

Now whoever said material pleasures are momentary, I don’t agree and the reasons are simply obvious!

The day started off quite normally with me waking up at my signature time -5 minutes to 8 (giggle!) and then there were classes-which we are not willing to attend since its almost the end of semester but somehow are sitting through it .classes terminate unofficially on Monday !

Well then, at one, I had to make a mad dash to my grand dad’s ceremony, reached late, had lunch and then had an interesting round of bollywood and sandalwood games with my cousins, now they were amateurs and thanks to my bench mate, I am quite an expert at these time-pass games .so got the opportunity to show off my skills, well ahem, if u could call them so …..

Landed back home right in time for this little piece of materialistic happiness to arrive home! Oh I waited for an hour for it to complete its journey from the dealer’s office to my place, and knew how majnoo n laila must have always felt –ok now that’s filmy!

Anyways I have been exploring it from 9 pm, its 12 now, call me mad, I deserve it!

So, I learnt how to click, double-click on the touch pad n after fooling around got the drag options, then hmmm well let’s see, tried out the usual stuff ,downloading stuff ,trying tc,n d likes ….

Well ok, time for me to crash, tomo’s gonna be a long day again!

Cheers!

Song of the day: - Tumse hi din hota hai – Jab we met, perfect lyrics

Na hai yeh paana,

Na khona hi hai

Tumse hi din hota hai

Surmayi shaam aati hai

Tumse hi …….

Tumse hi……..

Kis se bolo ? laptop buddhu !

First Blog

2007-11-13T22:18:00.001+05:30

Phew !

After an agonising waiting period -good 2 months ,the BSNL Jr. Engineer finally knocked on my doors today and gave me a belated diwali gift !

So,here I am writing my first official blog ever (n the rest as they say is History ! )

Well, it was an otherwise normal day with lab and classes squeezed in after a filling lunch-8 bucks rice bath at the canteen ... Later when i was back home,appa n amma welcomed me with a huge smile depicting our victory over BSNL's torturing antics ;-)

anyways i did dust my room and make a nice space on my desk for a mean new HP Laptop arriving tomorrow . oh,my current machine is making me tear my hair out for some very obvious reasons-128 MB SD RAM with 20 GB HDD n will turn 6 soon :-)

so the right time to invest in a new laptop ,hopefully will also use it for "educative" purposes other than writing away to glory all the time .

also i had a hearty laugh as i struggled to create this post,fumbling with the simplest of buttons and making a mess,but finally all done !

Man,am i proud !

Done for the day,

Cheers !

PS : Haven't yet figured out how to check account usage on BSNL since my download limit is fixed at 1 GB,will get a good dose when the bill arrives next month,so HELP !