Waqt: The Race Against Time

(AK: This kurta is quite cool!

PC: That is mine!!)

It is a movie to kill time for those who like it better dead. It should be called Waqt: The Waste of Time. But on second thoughts, it provides so much to laugh about, it's hardly any waste of time. Entire movie is filled with outdated cliches. The story is utterly illogical. I would love to kiss hands of the dialogue writers, of course after detaching them from their torsos. Some examples (after which you'll feel the same):

(Hero-heroine cuddling, supposedly in Jodhpur)
Priyanka Chopra: Kaata!
Akshay Kumar: Kaata?! Maine to kahin nahi kaata.
Priyanka Chopra: Woh kaata nahi, ghadi ka kaanta! Time dekho, time.
(arrrrrrrrrgh)

The costume designers of the movie are surely one of their kinds. They have finally found asexual clothing for Akshay Kumar (just see what's he wearing in the picture above). No one after Sallu bhai's sarong in Ek Garam Chai... has dared to wear such clothes! He is either seen wearing such confused sexuality clothes or atrociously loud colors (imagine blood red shirt with blood red pants!!).

Between such a torture, one tends to find some solace in the songs. In this movie, though the songs provide much needed break from whatever gibberish the movie is, they are torture of totally different kind! I can eat alphabet soup and shit better lyrics and the dog outside our apartment howls in better tune.

In absence of a good story the onus to carry the movie falls on the stars. They've disappointed immensely; the movie has failed. AB is supposedly dying due to lung cancer in the movie, one just wonders what's taking up so much time. I guess the thought crossed many minds to just strangle him and kill, rather than waiting for the end of the movie! Akshay Kumar's role can raise hopes in apes to catch up with us humans, apes who fell behind in evolutionary race that is. The comedians are just plain stupid and evoke laughs on them rather than on the jokes! Priyanka Chopra has done her bit fine; danced in four songs, shed some tears, shouted sometimes, that's it.

Just before the interval, AB shouts, "Ab kyun ruke ho, Chale Jao!". Some wise people took the cue and were not seen after the intermission. In the second half, there were some dialogues about leaving with just 35/- rupees :-

AB : Main apne gaanv se jab chala tha tab mere jeb mein sirf Rs.35/- they. Ab tum bhi is ghar se chale jao aur kuch ban ke dikhao.
Akshay Kumar : Aajkal 35 rupaiye mein kya hota hai Dadda!
(Please give us those 35/- and we'll leave!)

The climax is most cliched of them all. At some talent hunt contest where Akki dada is contesting, dying Bachhan and pregnant Chopra come. All the misunderstanding between Father-Son is cleared and now grandpa-to-be is all desperate to see his pota (They've not even spared a thought about the possibility of a poti!). Entire cinema hall was rolling on the floor laughing when both Bachhan & Chopra are carried in stretchers! Pota finally arrives and Bachhan dies only after naming him after himself (how much more obvious can it get?!). All in all, the movie is another attempt straight from the gut, but I guess it just came out of the wrong end .

Frustrated Rhymes

Jack and Jill, went to the office, To work on stupid Struts,
Jill wrote code, Jack debugged, And now he's down in dumps.

Roses are wilting, Violets are dead,
Work is stuck and I'm going mad.

Stinky-stinky little error, how I wonder why you appear,
Hidden in the code you mess, like a thorn in my flesh!

How to write a book?

Believe me it takes a lot more than an opening sentence! Inspired by some soulful attempts (vivek's book), I also decided to write a book. The idea first popped inside my head when I read the preface of A Time to Kill. It's the first book John Grisham wrote and he wrote it when he was still practicing. Grisham says he wrote about one page daily for a year to complete the novel. Although it's sales picked up only after the mega-success of The Firm, the novel is very well written. Now, didn't he make that excitingly simple? I mean, seven pages a week -- what kind of dumbo can't write that?!

Now that I was officially bitten by the novel bug, first thing I needed was a plot. I decided to write a thriller. It was around the Ahmedabad ODI between India and Pakistan. The match started late because the groundsmen "mistakenly" over-watered the pitch and it was soaked in the morning. The curator was also missing, quite suspiciously. In search of a spine-chilling thriller, my mind did some extrapolation on the situation:-

In my story, the curator does soak the pitch on purpose. But not with water! It's soaked with a deadly bio-chemical toxic solution. The solution slowly evaporates when the sun hits it. The toxic fumes out of the pitch could easily kill the entire 15 players on the ground. It was "arranged" that the Indian team will bat first so that the prime target - Sachin Tendulkar - is in the center of the pitch.

At this point I lost it. I was reminded of the Super Commando Dhruv comic where he saves 4 top athletes from a genius-on-revenge villain. I wanted my book to be a sophisticated thriller, not a Rs.15/- worth comic! Then I decided to write a Sci-Fi book:-

It will be about a cloning-scientist, who decides to make a clone of himself, much against the wishes of his peers and family. He invents a new method to grow new tissues by using some living tissues. He uses his tissues to replenish the dead brain tissues of a freshly brain-dead corpse. What he doesn't know is that by doing this, he has passed on his knowledge & soul to that body! (It has some soulful moments too). The creature thus formed knows everything about the scientist and doesn't shy away from misusing this knowledge!

As anyone can notice, its an ugly mixture of Frankenstein, Face Off & Hollow Man. Moreover, I couldn't get it any further too. Such a scientific achievement and trying to steal petty cash using the scientist's password -- pathetic! I tried to write a tender story over relationships and the idea sounds like a comedy. I thought about a comedy, its awfully forced comedy and doesn't evokes laughs. I imagined a tragedy, it's dreadfully boring!

So ultimately, I'm back to just reading books! May be I should contact Raj Comics, they could use my ideas in their comics. The royalties will be huge, I hope; I spent a fortune on those darned things in my childhood!

Spring's here!!

Spring is indeed here! Flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, butterflies are fluttering -- bringing joy to the world. The breeze is filled with the fragrance of newly blossomed flowers. In the mornings, the birds fly, singing announcing the arrival of yet another sunny day. I was never to know this but for the early-to-work habit of our maid. She starts pressing our doorbell, never later than 7 o'clock. One of these days, the consistent doorbell found me to answer. After letting the bai in, I tried hard to get back to sleep, but it never happened. I picked up the paper and got to the balcony. It was very pleasant there; the warmth of rising sun, the chill of morning breeze! Bang - this was the inauspicious moment when the doomed idea hit me. I decided to get up early every morning and take a walk!

As if it wasn't bad enough, I announced my plans to my room-mates also. At first they didn't believe me and had a good laugh but eventually they understood that I was pretty serious about it and they laughed even better. The news spread like a wildfire and pretty soon bets were being made over my ambitious decision. Now it was a question of pride for me. I have a pretty long history of making such decisions and ditching them later; first there was the plan to learn guitar, then Spanish, then the swimming club, then cooking, then tabla, etc. etc. I never had any problems ditching them -- no guilt, no question-answers, no ridiculing friends. But this time the situation had gone out of hands.

Bothera, who was in habit of going jogging every morning, promised (quite cynically) to wake me up every morning sharp at 6:15 & take me along. As a matter of principle, I take rest on weekends, so a Monday morning was selected for the start of my jogging chore. I was pretty excited about the whole idea as I had my own ideas about jogging. I imagined young girls jogging with me in the park, I estimated it'll take some 2-3 weeks for me to have 6-packs for my abs, most importantly I thought it'll be quite easy to get up early for jogging. I was in wait for a rude shock!

At the Sunday evening, I kept my shoes and track suit ready for next day. I ate early and by 9:30 I was in my bed. After tossing & turning in there for about half an hour (which felt like an eternity) I decided to watch TV for a while. (Un)Fortunately, Andaz Apna Apna was on! I had to watch it. By the time it got over, it was 11:15. I thought I'll sleep easily this time, but sadly it was not to be. After another tossing session, I thought about reading myself to sleep. I picked up some of the most bore books, even the dictionary - only to be disappointed! The view of my jogging shoes, from the corner of my eyes, was making me nervous. I decided to spend some time on the net. Three emails and two long chat sessions later, it was about 12:45. I felt little sleepy but a lot more hungry! I decided to have a Maggi before sleeping. When I finished eating my Maggi it was almost 2:00. I checked the set alarms, my jogging clothes & my shoes. I kept the phone under my pillow and for the third time in the night, hit the bed. I can't remember how many sheeps I counted, I think eventually I lost the count, but this time luckily I fell asleep.

I woke up with jogging (and the park full of beauties) on my mind. I woke up even before the alarms could ring. I checked the time and it was only 4:45. I cursed my broken biological clock and after re-checking everything, went to sleep again. My sound early morning sleep was broken by the harsh ringtone of my phone (I wish, I had some melodious ringtones, but my ancient cell is quite oblivious to these new technological advents!). It was Bothera. I straight away cut the call and cut it again twice, quite reflexively. The phone fell into a tranquil silence & I went back to the jogging park full of Parizaad Zorabians, in my dreams of course. I was again pulled back to the not-so-glamourous reality, this time by the alarm clock! I took Parizaad's excuse for a moment and banged the clock with my hand. I guess it din't take it that well as I have not heard from it since then. I finally got up at 9:45 and good for me, my room-mates had left for their offices by then. It was only a delay for the inevitable though and that evening over many dinner tables across Bangalore, I was the butt of all jokes!

Now I have found a decent excuse, "The work load has increased in office and I've to stay there till late! Early morning won't be possible at presnt", but I guess no one buys it :-(

So, What are your hobbies?

Q. What are your hobbies?
A. Well, lets see.. catching man-eating tigers, learning bird languages, but hey, I'm still working on it *DHISHUM*

Hobbies are no longer personal stuff. Now they are not the private affairs, practised in one's free time to soothen one's nerves. Almost every interview candidate is supposed to have some exotic hobbies to boast about. Hobbies are looked as a way to see through the candidate's persona & who doesn't want to potray a colorful picture? Since I've faced a lot of interviews in my short stay on the face of Earth, I'm also supposed to have some meaningful hobbies. First of all, I don't understand why hobbies should be meaningful of all things! My wordweb suggests that Hobby means an auxiliary activity, nothing more, nothing less. That means one has some primary activity & hobby is supposed to be auxiliary. So if my primary activity is eating & when I'm not eating I'm sleeping -- that certainly means sleeping is my hobby, no rocket science here! Simple, isn't it? But no, the puritans will just pounce upon me & shred me apart over this. Hobbies for them include painting, photography, horse-riding, travelling, etcetra etcetra. I just want to raise a rebellious flag!

During my childhood, various uncles-aunts had this question as their favorite ice-breaker. After extracting my name, the name of my school & my class, next cliched question was always about my hobbies! Cricket was my saving grace in those days. I could paint well in those days, but I never considered that a hobby. It was another homework; I used to do it because I feared our painting teacher, Dr. Ojha. Cricket was a plain lie tho'; I should've said batting because that's what I used to do most of the times. If I ain't batting, I ain't playing! The constables from my Dad's guard never objected to my tyranny, may God bless them. Infact, unfit uncles deemed it essential that every child have some sports as a hobby. Otherwise, the child was labelled abnormal!

My next ordeal waited for me in form of NSO. Freshers in IITB are supposed to select some game or activity (auxiliary of course) for their first year curriculum. I selected cricket (like many others) & tennis (I had tried my hands at tennis once or twice before). Despite my sterling performances, I wasn't selected for any of them and I was forced to opt for guitar classes among other good-for-nothings. It wasn't forced in proper sense, I had choice between violin & guitar. Just that guitar seemed more glamorous then. Had I not flunked the second semester, today I could've boasted of guitar as a hobby. Alas! That was not to be. Our snobby guitar teacher stole another potential hobby from my resume.

In my IIT days, my main auxiliary activity was going to classes; primary being sleeping. So, you must've got the hint; my resume was not adorned by some exciting hobbies. I didn't hold any administrative posts in hostel, didn't paint anything, didn't write anything, didn't click anything -- I spent my four years totally engrossed in my primary activity. Regrettably, I had no time to pursue any auxiliary activities! I never missed a proper hobby until I had to face job interviews. I still remember distinctly, in one of the interviews, one of our IIT seniors only, asked me,"Your acads aren't very good for a Computer Science bloke. What did you do in your four years at IIT?". He was expecting something on the lines of cultural, atheletic or administrative activities. I was caught off-guard and I think I said,"nothing" or something of the same effect. How brave is it to corner a docile graduate and grill him over such naive points? My hobbies wouldn't have made any difference on their coding job ("Ooh..this bug, While photographing in Bastar I did the same mistake!" or "Ohh.. In painting we use Java like this".. stupid, isn't it?).

But being a quick learner, that I am, I took no time to learn to do things like Romans do. Now my resume has some, rather safe hobbies. Most generic of them is reading. Even if you still enjoy Raj Comics or Diamond Comics or Amar Chitrakatha, you are most eligible to count reading as one of your hobbies. You might not be well read, excuse: I started late! Safest books are categorized as light reading. No interviewer can grill you further on this. How stupid will they look if they start to ask about stories of Jeff Archer, after all! Never commit to any other category if you ain't sure. Once I did the same mistake; after reading 2-3 Khushwant Singh books, I once told them that I read mainly Indian authors. I certainly lost the job, but I found some 10-15 names of Indian authors! The problem with reading is, it doesn't allow much scope to lie.

Next safe hobby would be travelling. You may haven't gone further than Bommanhalli but you can still tell them that you love to travel. Moreover, there is excellent scope to lie! In one interview, I told them I liked travelling. Trying to be a jackass, interviewer asked,"Where did you go last?". Being smarter jackass, I bluffed,"I was in Goa last weekend." That's the beauty of it. Another lie-able (excuse the neologism) hobby is writing. This one is bit tricky though. You should know what you write about. "I used to write for our campus newspaper, InsIghT. I used to write light articles for the masses. I once published a detailed analysis on various cinema halls of Mumbai, rating them for new students. I once wrote about chances of Indian cricket team in '03 World Cup." See! How easy is it to lie. Basically, you write only about things you know!

Finally, I want people to recognize few neglected hobbies(yes! I count them as hobbies. Sue me!) and give them their due credit for their marvelous contribution towards soothening one's nerves. Sleeping never let me down! And since all of us spend so much time sleeping and must say, majority of us love it, why not consider it a hobby? Why not eating? What about ogling? Atleast half of the population enjoys it thoroughly!

P.S.: Nowadays I'm trying to have one real glamorous hobby - photography. Check out my latest efforts at my photoblog.

New Dell Invention: Transparent Laptop Screen!

Recently Dell rolled out their latest Latitude D840 laptops with, believe it or not, transparent screen. This technological feat has been made possible with the help of latest nano-plasmatic technologies. Jha was given one from his office, we found it amusing and clicked one shot. It carries slight bluish tinge, but it amazingly transparent.

Lies apart, this cool trick was introduced to me by RG. More such photos here. The funda is quite simple, take a picture & put it as wallpaper on laptop. Next, set laptop accordingly to create the illusion of transparency. One personal observation, geometric figures (like lines in the picture above) & matching them works greatly on maintaining deception.

Shaikh & me took this one last night. We didn't have to try very hard, this trick isn't that tough! We're mighty proud of this though (while some people couldn't find anything better to say than ask why is the screen looking blue!). We were so excited after this that we googled for next half an hour or so, to find more photography tricks! Soon, I'll post more.

Its bye-bye Ganguly.

Ganguly and another one of his atrocious shots!

Its high drama before the 5th ODI; is he in? is he out? is he captain?. ICC made is quite simple for Ganguly to gracefully take a break, but no sir! Our captain will go down fighting. I hope he is made to miss the next few matches, otherwise with current form he won't be able to come back to complete his 5000 test runs & 10000 ODI runs.

I just can't believe it when people argue that he should stay in the team because he has done so well in the past. They stretch it further to label everyone thankless who is in favor of Ganguly exclusion from the team. Sure he has done excellent for the team (in the past), but so have Kapil Dev, Gavaskar, Srikant. Going by the stupid logic all of them should be still playing for India! The bottomline is that with his current form he doesn't qualify to be in the team and ofcourse you have to be in the team to be the captain. As for the thankless tag, its a competitive sport and entire nation's pride and hopes are at stake. Its extremely important that we select the best team from whatever resources we have. Sadly, Ganguly doesn't make into the top 14, atleast in my opinion.

I do feel that Ganguly has some years' cricket left in him but to continue he must regain his form. Indian team cannot afford a free-rider, especially when there middle order is struggling to perform consistently. And what weight could his opinion carry with absolutely no performance to back it! In a time of such low confidence, his captaincy is surely to take a toll.

Best for Ganguly will be to not represent India for a while. He can try to get his form back in domestic cricket or English county cricket. When he comes back, he should be taken back as a top-order batsman and not as a captain. Let Dravid stay as captain for a while, make Ganguly his vice. It'll surely reduce the stress on Ganguly.

As of now, its bye-bye Ganguly. Get well soon!

Gym (Miss)Adventures

It has been around a month since I started gymming. My main motives behind this endeavour were to lose some of the loose weight and relocate some. Till now, I've made moderate success; some weight was relocated from my pocket to the instructor's desk. If I've been a regular at the gym, the credit must go to ever insistent Nandu and also to the presence of some nice dames at the gym. Its because of them that my time in the gym, though trying, passes like a breeze. I've actually started to look ahead towards the evenings.

It was one of such evenings. I was on the treadmill, trying to push myself through the twenty minutes, I've allotted myself. This was the moment when she entered the gym. I noticed her before too; she was another one of the regular lasses at the gym. Her figure didn't look as if it needed much toning. She also had nice features and all in all was an absolute hottie. As she entered, she gave me an inquisitive look which was absolutely crying out loud - "Who's the stud?". She then checked her watch, perhaps taking a mental note about when to come the next day. Just like 50 cents in the Reebok poster, outside our gym, I'm also firm believer in the obvious fact that I am what I am. and being what I am, that look isn't new to me. Still coming from her, it really tingled the hair at the back of my neck!

On the radio, Dev Anand was crooning:

Nazron se kitne teer chale
Chalne do jigar par jhelenge
In pyaar ki ujli raahon par
Hum jaana ki baazi khelenge
In do naino ke sagar mein
Koi dil ki naiya dubota hai
Jiya oh, jiya oh jiya kuchh bol do
Arrey oh, dil ka parda khol do...

Then I glaced at the mirror in front of me and the obvious became clear to me. I was looking absolutely fantabulatic! My hair had grown them enough to cover the tragedy of the last hair cut; I was wearing my favorite blue gym shirt (which covers up pretty nicely); I had one day old stubble which was looking smart. To cut it short - I was Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise & Brosnan, all rolled into one! No wonder she looked so interested. I pumped up the speed of treadmill to my all time high of 8.5 (I had to pull it down to 7 after some 15 seconds).

Meanwhile, she got herself set at the cycle. She was stealing some glances to check out me time and again. It was surely another kill for the ladykiller; my thoughts started to wander - She looks like a northie, perhaps some student or working here in Bangalore. She can be a model too! What name would suit her best? Perhaps Nisha - small, sweet and suave! Now that it was just a matter of collecting the kill, I started to think about how to proceed. Radio went on:

Tum bhi to is aag mein jalte ho
Chehre se bayaa ho jaata hain
Har baat pe aahe bharte ho
Har baar pe dil tharraata hai
Jab dil pe chhuriyaan chalti hain
Kab chain se koi sota hai
Jiya oh, jiya oh jiya kuchh bol do
Arrey oh, dil ka parda khol do

May be I should ask for a coffee after gym - Nandu can take an auto. Asking for dinner will be too early. Dinner can come later, perhaps at Ebony! If she turns out to be veggie, Angeethi isn't bad either. Oh, that can wait, what about NOW? Do I go to her? How do I start?

- The name is Varun. (naaaaaaaaah, too formal)
- Call me Varun! (duh!)
- Hello! I'm Varun. (tchaaah!)
- Hi! (phooooooh!)

I was just contemplating the situation, when, through the mirror, I noticed her proceeding towards me. It got me really self-conscious. I was going to again increase the speed but then decided not to lest it might cause embarrassment. I was following her through the mirror and was practising what would be my dashing opening line (The name is Varun .. Call me Varun ). She was almost there.

Hottie: Hi!
Me: Tall me Varun.. uggg grrl...
Hottie: oinnn .. How much more time will you take on the treadmill?
Me: (checked the treadmill, it had been 27 minutes since I started!)Uh.. I'm just done. (gracefully got down) All yours!
Hottie: Thanks!

Needless to say, she didn't return another glance. It was my turn to note the time; I'll try best to skip gym at this time for a while. Radio was playing:

Bade miyan deewane, aise na bano
Haseena kya chahe, zara humse suno

P.S.: Totally work of fiction. All characters are fictitious expect Nandu, the instructor & me ofcourse.
P.P.S.: I've updated my photoblog, please to check out.

A View To Kill

Yup, this bond flick was perhaps the biggest bore (actually it was A View To A Kill; I got it muddled up!). Still, I thought this was perfect title for my Photoblog! Short of smart ideas, I am currently using Google's tools (Picassa + Hello + Blogger) to maintain the photoblog.

Currently, I've put up the pictures from my recent trip to Pune & Mumbai. Next I'll be uploading some pictures from my last Goa trip, in December '04. I'll keep uploading latest stuff there, unless Jha stops to lend me his superb Canon Powershot S1 IS. I'm not much of a photographer, but I'm very much interested in learning the art. With all the luck, I might get better & pull up some real stunners. Till then please bear with my experiments and keep visiting the photoblog. Please to put in some comments too.

(One of my favorites)

Sania Mirza's doing it now.

Almost all the cricketers, including small wonder Parthiv Patel & Ajit Agarkar, have done it and now the latest face in the advertisement world is Sania Mirza. She is promoting Malabar Gold, which is fancying to go international now. I couldn't help noticing her huge hoardings placed all over the city; she looks atrocious in them!! First of all, they've put all sorts of make-up on her face, next they have covered her up in jewellery; she looks like one of those ladies from Chaach Bhi Kabhi Dahi Thi.

These marketing people definitely know how to get their work done! I still can't imagine how could Sehwag agree for Sehwag ki maa ad! Cola-wars are most enjoyable in the backbiting world of advertising. Over the years I've seen quite a few furious threads of spoofing others' ads. Latest is the Mountain Dew ad, where they've made absolute mockery of Akshay Kumar's Thums Up ad. Sprite people are quite sharp in this department. Their advertisements have a certain touch of zang to them.

Talking of interesting ads, one candy has extremely funny ad (I can't recall the name of the candy; may be the theme shouldn't be so funny :). It goes like this:

Gabbar: Arre O Sambha! Kitne ka inaam rakhi hai re sarkar humare upar?
Sambha: Sardaar, poore pachaas hajjar ... baar bata chuka hoon. Ek baar mein baat samajh mein nahi aati? Aur koi kaam-dhaam nahi hai mujhe?

I was literally rolling on the floor, laughing, when I first saw this one. Now I fancy to enter advertisement world sometime :). Funny thought and that'll be a funny day!

The delights of Night Driving in Bangalore

If you like that rush of adrenaline in your veins, if you fancy yourself doing daring stunts on your bike, then you'll be pleased to have a ride in the evening traffic at Namma Bangaluru. Not only it keeps your reflexes sharp, it also teaches you the important lesson about the fragility of life.

A ride at any time of the day in Bangalore traffic is incredible, but there are certain areas where night time traffic has definite edge. The traffic signals, for instance, they are not applicable, or so it seems, once the Sun sets. The result, an existing game of touch me not! Just imagine, you arrive at an intersection, traffic is rushing in from all directions; you have a rousing challange in your hands. The field is all set (much before your arrival) and the game is on. You have to beat all others at take up your original direction, as soon as possible. Novices waste too much time in waiting while experts don't mind taking up all sorts of turns, who dares wins!

If this gave you the impression that traffic at that time is cut-throat, you can not be further from truth. The cars coming from opposite direction are so assisting that they keep their lights in high beam. You never know when sleep might get the best of you, someone must take the onus to keep your eyes (and pupils!) wide open. The pedestrians - they are the most considerate lot. They'll search for the darkest spot on the road and try to cross the road from there, lest they might break the concentration of riders by their appearance.

Buses, the transportation for masses and how well they accomplish their tasks! Once the Sun sets, its obvious that their riders are anxious to reach their destination ASAP. KSRTC buses start to run at a break-neck speed at that time, obviously to assist their passengers. Let the roads be narrow, let the traffic be crawling, they never think twice before pushing their buses to the last possible inch! Such is their dedication that they make sure that no other means be possible to reach before them (by literally blocking the roads).

Auto-rickshaws, what can I say about them? They have the license to kill! Its only in the night time that we see enough to appreciate their skills & talents. They have the coveted ability to take a U-turn at any time, in any traffic, without any warning! One can learn a lot only by watching them drive. Give them space enough for a bicycle, they'll try and push their way through it. These are really brave heart fellows and don't shrink from bending the rules or even breaking them. If customer is bhagwan, which authority can be superior to them?

Lastly, the drivers at Bangalore have immaculate sense of timing and razor sharp reflexes! You notice this when just about 10 seconds before the signal gets green, vehicles from behind you start honking. The entire flock gathered at the red light, starts inching ahead as soon as it smells the coming of green. Keeps lazy people, like yours truly, on toes! Car owners, specially software people, never forget their two-wheeler riding days and the essential surviving skills gathered in that period. They still enjoy the same freedom to sway the vehicle, over take from the wrong direction, make combative cuts and what not! We at Bangalore, believe in Work while you work, Play while you play, Play some more while you drive!

One can only imagine how much the car owners enjoy this. As for me, I only get about 20 minutes of this joyride every evening (how I wish I had more!) on my Pulsar.

Zeher!

We went for the movie on Saturday. It was that sort of movie which supports the time dilation funda; at the interval, it was barely a minute above an hour since the movie started, and we felt as if it has been aeons! Kabra was sleeping in the second half in his meditation pose; Jha was restless, tossing around in his seat; Sheikh and me had given up on commenting. Yes, it was that bad!

Lets leave the acting aside; the script, the dialogues were all very ludicrous! For better understanding, go through the following ones:

Bozo Hero: Kal raat humare beech mein jo bhi hua, theek nahi tha.
(Aaj raat theek se kar lena!)
********
Mrs.Bozo: Ab mujhe pata chala ki tumhe mujhse ek baccha nahi, ek chaukidaar chahiye.

********
Cop Shetty: Raj, case banao ki Anna aur uska husband apni maut ka natak karke kuch to fraud kar rahe the.
(April fool perhaps, too bad they were killed for that!)

Now about the acting, the hero, Mr.Bozo didn't get much chance to display his talents. He should be best suited for the roles like dressed as a tree in the background. Udita Goswami looked very uncomfortable in clothings and was ready to shed them at the slightest of hints. May be it had something to do with the shooting in Goa; all humid and hot, who wants to stay dressed! Shamita Shetty looked confused; she wasn't the one selected for the skin show, but she looked more than keen on it. The leading couple was supposed to be working for Goa Police, but they are never showed in their Khakis, Goa factor again perhaps.

If you're die hard fan of Udita (without clothes) don't miss the movie; the story et al are there to ruin the striptease, but thats all part of parcel in Bollywood!

SOS!

Hi fellas,
I'm looking out for a space where I can upload potentially infinite amount of images and make them public too. Imagestation lets you keep as many pictures as you want, but you can share them only with imagestation users. I'm looking out for space to upload some of my recent pics and later probably start a photoblog too.

Meanwhile, enjoy the new "Photoblogs" section in "Blogs I Read". My favorite picture (from Who Am I?):




TIA,
- Varun

Zen and Garfield

I once fancied becoming a fighter pilot, an astronaut, a wildlife photographer, a cricketer; I'm none of these. I also fancied becoming an IITian, a computer science engineer, a software engineer; I am now!

Whats on the TV?

For past three-four weeks our cable was out at the previous house, rendering my 20" Onida useless. It was frustrating in the start, more so because I missed the ongoing test series between India-Pakistan. But I didn't miss TV for long; started to read lot more books. I was quite pleased with my reading efforts; I was finishing books at never before pace (probably Harry Potter series was an exception but then I was in college and had all the time to read!). Today we shifted to our new residence and found the cable wire functioning, now TV has started to mesmerize us again.

Studies indicate people's minds are less active while watching the TV than while sleeping. I doubt how capable are minds of the people who are part of such studies, but still it could be the case. How much does one need to apply his mind to understand what Berri Ke Ber girl is venturing to convey? I spend most of my TV time surfing news channels, but even they are broadcasting crap like Aaj Ka Gunehgaar and Sansani. 24 hours new channels are the worst thing that could have happen to the news programs. Now they don't have enough material to show whole day, this is pulling their standards down to bull crap like Election Qwwali.

But, no matter how much we hate it, we all are enslaved by the idiot box. From my new room I can see the TV of my neighbours. That apartment is also leased by bachelors, probably software engineers too. For last half an hour they are surfing the entire frequency spectrum in hope of finding something watchable. The search ultimately ended at FTV. It started all over again after a while, this time its DD Sports. Imagine, watching volleyball matches between two countries, about whom you know absolutely zilch, at such late hours! What do I make out of it? There are so many better way to spend time or waste time, if you want to, still we find ourselves staring agape at the boob tube.

Its a strange world!

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Today we shifted to our new home. It (the moving process) was quite messy, a definite pain in neck! My mood has lightened considerably in the evening (now) since it has rained. Not enthu to write, so will let the pictures take over.

May be I'm being a little too mean to the pool soul. May be he can take few leaves out of Younis Khan's book. After the first test he was called names like "Useless Khan" & "P*nis Khan". But what a splendid come back to silence his critics! Ganguly's morale will be down in the dumps after such poor performance and specially after getting booed by compatriots, but confidence is the key for Dada. He has done excellently in ODI's and I hope he will come back strongly in tomorrow's game.

The opening game of the much anticipated ODI series between two bitterest arch-rivals, sounds yummy!

Currently Reading: The Rule of Four - Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason