Good Bye 2008

I’m sitting here at my office and have just finished my important task and am a bit relaxed. So I thought I shall stop other work for sometime. I have been following the test match between India and England. Due to bad weather conditions the match has been delayed. Okay, and, while I'm waiting for the match to start, I wanted to memorize as what has happened in this year.

As we get ready to welcome 2009, I'd like to take a quick look back at 2008, with a YEAR IN REVIEW.

JANUARY: I have decided that 2008 will be "my year of new things". My start for the new year did not have anything that exciting personally or professionally. I was feeling alone in Singapore getting bored with personal as well as professional life. Only new thing that I did was camping at the beach side on the new year eve.

FEBRUARY: February also went the same way. Only compensation was I was making some new friends (Nagraj, Ganesh and Vidya) in Singapore with whom I was spending most of the pass time. Thought of doing many things but as I did not really have a proper company I couldnt do any of that. This made me think of going back to Hyderabad.

MARCH: The year passed on the same way and finally searched for a new passtime, thats when I started blogging at Palwai's Blog. One more hobby started this month and thats photography. I bought a new Alpha 350 DSLR camera. I did not really work on it that much immediately.

APRIL: April was a bit better when compared to the first quarter. I visited Jurong Bird Park with my Nagraj's family. This is the first time I got a chance to actually use my new camera. I also bought a dart board at home to pass time and was on full swing writing some crap on my blog. Mind you the work at my office still did not start. Was doing some minor report which was used for some management presentaion purpose.

MAY: May was exciting for me. I was a bit busy with one of my friend coming to Singapore, work being allocated to me, and my trip to India arrangements. I was accompanying mom dad for North India trip for 9 days. The saddest part was that I was in Hyderabad only for 2 days and couldn't really meet any of my friends. Last minute Brother and Bhabhi also joined us for the trip, something which none of us has expected. The trip itenary was
Singapore - > Hyderabad - > Delhi - > Nainital - > Ranikhet - > Bageshwar - > Kausani - > Almora - > Haldwani - > Back Delhi - > Back Hyderabad - > Back Singapore.
Landing in the new Hyderabad Airport was also exciting as the new airport was really good when compared to the Begumpet Airport. Took lot of pictures and started writing about the trip in my travel blog.

JUNE: This has been one of the most exciting quarter. As soon as I came from India, I left for Vietnam. This was a wonderful experience as I travelled alone and made many new friends there. This trip of mine has inspired my friends too to join me for the upcoming trips. This trip has helped me to develop a love for the travel which I tried my level best to fulfill in the upcoming months. Later at the month end I, Nagraj and Srini planned for the most eventful trip of the year. We went to Phuket. I have done many new activities which I haven't done before in my life. Along with these trips the weekends also started being very hectic and we had get together every weekend.

JULY: The excitement of the Phuket trip lasted for many a days. With the same excitement we planned for the Malaysia trip. I, Nagraj, Srini and Vidya went to KL and Genting in the mid July. This was totally an unplanned trip but some how we pulled it off very well and had a great time there. This month also ended my long wait for the F1 tickets. I also bought a new Sony Erricson P1i phone. I always wanted to buy a touch phone and finally I did it. My friend Gayatri also came from London and we had a great time for 3 days. So overall this has been again a great month with lot of memories.

AUGUST: This month was a bit slow from my end. We went to Hanoi and Halong Bay trip which was a great experience. The night at Halong Bay was very memorable. We made some new friends here also. Saw many new and nice movies this month. Bought a scrabble board even though I played only once the day I bought it :-). August was nice as I had some nice time travelling and watching movies.

SEPTEMBER: This was one more crazy and eventful month of the year. Did some thing really new, started reading novels. Read all the three Chetan Bhagat novels as they sounded just like any Bollywood Movie. I bought a new Samsung 40 Inch FULL HD LCD TV. I also got a Home theater system free with it. The movie experience in it was really great. Sep-12th was one crazy day when I suddenly felt of seeing parents and left to Hyderabad straight from office with just my passport. This month also had the most awaited weekend for the year, that's the night race at Singapore. Had a great time watching those machines run past me with such a high speeds and it was good to see Alonso win the race.

OCTOBER: This is the most important month in my life. One fine day I was called to India and was shown a girl. At the first look I thought she is the one and I decided to tie the knot with her. My parents have decided the marriage data as the Valentines Day 2009. Since then the golden period has started. Apart from the personal front even at the professional front work has been hectic from this month. Got into a new project and has been working on the latest software which was good for me.

NOVEMBER: This month has been very very hectic with work and phones.

DECEMBER: This is the month has totally gone in anticipation of what I will be doing in India when I am there. This time the whole trip I planned for Dolly as she was coming from Sweden. But later realised that many of my friends would be coming during that time and I have been planning different ways to meet everybody possible as we are not sure when we will again meet. Tomorrow I am leaving for India and will come back in the New Year.

So that's What I Did This Year. What did all of you get up to?

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas if you celebrate it, and a very healthy and happy 2009. See you around, either online or in person!!!!

Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.

Before I came to Singapore, Dad gave me many photo copies of all my documents. I kept them for more than 10 months and did not really use them at point of time. I thought its better not to keep junk at home and finally decided to throw them. Just weeks after I threw all the photo copies, I was asked for my passport photo copy by Surya for the house contract. I was not sure where near my house this can be done and hence I had to wait for 2 days to go to office and then get the photo copy done.

Early to rise, early to bed, makes a man healthy but socially dead

I guess this is a very apt statement for anyone who wants to be social. I have personally experienced the effects of this early rise and early bed.

If I start hitting the bed as early as possible, then my night life would go totally into darkness. I will not be able to keep in touch with many of my friends who are in different countries in different timezones. Leave friends apart even to talk to my parents because of the time zone differences I will have to call in some specific timings.

Early rise is something next to impossible for me. Every night I sleep so late that I will have to fight to wake up and drag myself to the office. There are so many plus and minus of every act we do. But this early to rise and early to bed is something which depends on the individual perception.

Health is something which would go bad if you have less sleep. As I am going late to bed and rising late from bed I don't think my health would be effected by this. Many people do not understand the importance of being social and still advice me to sleep early.

Happy Thanks Giving

This post is just for the sake of having at least one post in November. Life in November has been very busy with work life and personal life and hence could not update anything here. This month I was busy
Completing my tasks at office
Calling friends, family and fiancée
Coping up with the latest released movies like Dus Vidaniya, EMI, Fashion, Yuvvraaj, Quantum of Solace and Body of Lies.

Does India Deserve This ???

A chronology of terror attacks in India :

September 24, 2002: Akshardham attack: The attack on the Akshardham temple claimed 34 lives.

Aug 25, 2003: Gateway of India attack: Two blasts near the Gateway of India claimed 46 lives.

October 29, 2005: Sarojininagar blasts: 61 people were killed in three separate blasts at Sarojini market in New Delhi.

March 7, 2006: Varanasi blasts: 21 persons lost their lives following three blasts

July 11, 2006: Mumbai train blasts: 7 deadly blasts on local trains in which 209 people lost their lives.

September 8, 2006: Malegaon blasts: Two blasts killed 40.

February 19, 2007: Samjhauta Express blasts: 66 persons killed in two blasts on Indo-Pak Samjhauta Express train.

May 18, 2007: Mecca Masjid blasts: 9 persons were killed in a blast at the Mecca Masjid at Hyderabad. 5 persons were killed in police firing which ensued later.

August 25, 2007: Hyderabad twin blasts: 42 persons lost their lives in twin blasts at Lumbini Park and Gokul chaat.

October 11, 2007: Ajmer blasts: Blast at Ajmer dargah kills two

May 13, 2008: Jaipur blasts: Serial blasts at Pink city claims 68 lives.

July 16 2008, Ahmedabad blasts: 57 dead in serial blasts in Ahmedabad.

July 25, 2008: Bangalore blasts: One person dies in Bengaluru serial blasts.

September 13, 2008, New Delhi blasts: Blasts at New Delhi claims 26 lives.

September 27, 2008, Delhi blasts: terror strikes Delhi again in which 3 people were killed.

September 29, 2008, Modasa blast: One killed in blast at Modasa in Gujarat.

September 29, 2008, Malegaon blasts: Five persons killed after bomb placed on a motor bike went off.

October 21, 2008, Imphal blasts: 17 killed in blast near Manipur police commando complex.

October 30, 2008, Assam blasts: Eleven blasts kill over 40 persons in Assam.

Source for this article is here

SINGLISH POEM

I found this while blog hopping just now. Just to cheer anyone who's down up. :)

For those who don't know what Singlish is:

Singlish is a creole inter language native to Malaysia and Singapore. It is the first language of many younger uneducated Singaporeans, especially those whose parents do not share a native language or dialect, and is the second language of nearly all the rest of the country's residents due to the "Speak no dialect" campaign.

Wah! I heard we all now got big big debate.
They said future of proper English is at stake.

All because stupid Singlish spoil the market,
want to change now donno whether too late.

Aiyoh! Ang mo hear us talk like that also want to faint.
Even our our "U" graduates speak like Ah Beng, Ah Seng.

Singlish is like rojak, everything throw inside anyhow mix.
Got Malay, Indian, Chinese and English, can give and take.

When you donno something is under table or chair,
you ask loud loud, "Oi! Under where? Under where?"

When you see somebody behave very bad,
you scold him, "Aiyah! Why you so like that?"

When you warn your kids to be careful all the way,
you tell them, "Careful har, you better don't play-play!"

This kind of standard how to pass?
Wait, you sure kena last in class.

Other people hear you, say you sound silly.
So like that how to become world-class city?

Basically Singlish got good and got bad.
Aiyah! Everything in life is all like that.

Actually Singlish got one bright side.
I am talking about our national plight.

Other people all say we all got no culture.
All we got is alot of joint business ventures.

So we got no culture to glue us together.
End up we all like a big bunch of feathers.

Wind blow a bit too strong only we fly away.
Everybody all go their own separate ways.

But actually we all got one "culture" in Singlish.
It's like rice on the table; it is our common dish.

I know this funny "culture" is not the best around
so we must tahan a bit until a better one is found.

I donno whether you agree with me or not?
I just simply sharing my thoughts.

Composed by The Sweet Popcorn, Cornelius
"CORN" Pang on 19th August 1999

The weekend update

This was Diwali (long) weekend and we planned many a things during the week. We thought of going to Malaysia. We did a lot of research on going to Kota Kinabalu. But as I did not have my Malaysian visa we finally had to decide something in Singapore. Surya came up with this idea of going for trekking at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve on Saturday, Golf on Sunday and Total rest on Monday. It was a bit different Friday night this time. We did not booze and slept early to keep the energy for the trekking.

Saturday morning we started off by 10 o clock for the trek. The trek was a bit exhausting and we came back home and slept till late evening. Everybody was frustrated with the tiredness during the trek. We cooked Carrot and Beens curry which did not have any special ingredients but was very nice to eat. I slept early at 12.30AM when compared to my regular late night stays.

Sunday morning when we woke up we were still struggling to get out of the couch as everybody was still feeling the pain of the trek. We dropped the plan of going for Golf. We spent the whole day sitting at home. In the evening we went out to Harbor Front to do some shopping and watch Ben Stiller's Directed and acted Tropic Thunder movie. It was a nice movie. I spoke to Dolly, Chinni and Swetha in conference call and was awake till 4 in the morning.

Monday which was Diwali holiday in Singapore started off by waking up late in the morning (actually because of my late night conference call). In the afternoon we cooked some fried rice and had it for lunch. We decided to go to temple in the evening. Going to temple comes to mind only when there is a festival or special event in life. At 6PM me and Surya got ready in traditional Kurta - Paijama and left for the temple. After the temple we met Rajeev (Surya's INSEAD friend), Anu (Rajeev's Wife) and Satish (cousin of Prashanth who is again Surya's INSEAD friend) and had dinner at Khansama.

Finally we came home and started cursing the next day as we have to go back to work after an eventful weekend.

Happy Diwali

Token of Gift for Diwali

Today at Credit Suisse we got a pen as a token of Gift for diwali and appreciation for our good work through out this year. This is a multi-utility pen which has a Laser, Torch and the Pen.

Long Weekend

Its long weekend for the first time since May. We have so many plans for long weekends. Last time in May I was in India and went for the north trip. This time also I wanted to go somewhere. Surya and me had plans to go to Malaysia. But because of the visa problem that plan was dropped. As my passport is with the Malaysian embassy I cant even go to India or any other country. Finally Surya stepped up and planned for Bukit Gombak trek and some golfing on Sunday. Monday I am thinking of having total rest as I am suffering from lack of sleep for more than 2 weeks now.

Its just an hour that I will be leaving office and my long weekend will start. I am very much looking forward for this as I wanted a break after this hectic month at work. Shall update the weekend details soon.

Tea Time Gossip

One of my favorite times in the day at office is the evening tea time at 3PM. This consists of tea, coffee, ice milo, kaya bun etc served at the Pick n Bite stall. Its a great time to get together and gossip about the days events and what had happened in the meetings. We discuss a lot during this span of 30 minutes. Some of them are below:

Office gossip
Current Affairs
International Affairs
Movie gossip
Reviews on cars, bikes and movies
Travel & Living

So I thought from now on I can write something on the everyday gossip that we do during the tea time. Some of them might be stupid but some are really interesting.

Changes in life with Marriage News

Below are the observations I have made after the news of my marriage.

• Increase in work (This is no way related to the news but this was coincidental).
• Increase in phone bill (This was a known thing).
• Lack of sleep (I did not see this coming).
• Wishes from friends (This is obvious).
• Decrease in number of calls to home (Work and phone calls to friends and girl is giving me less time to call back home).
• Started walking and dieting (Started feeling conscious and I want to be in a good shape by the time of marriage).

One Year in CS

It was yesterday that my salary review has been done in Credit Suisse. Thats when I realized that its been a year working here. Last year Oct 21st I started my tenure in Credit Suisse. So what did I achieve all this year? Did I learn something new? Did I earn a great name at office? Did I enjoy working at this place?

Here goes my tenure details. Immediately after joining CS(Credit Suisse), I went back to India within 15 days to attend Dolly's Marriage and Vijay & Jitna's marriage. I came back and had no work at office for the next few months. I was just passing time reading Rediff.com and Cricinfo.com. Later in May I again went to India for a North India trip. Thats when I interest in travel has come up.

I started traveling since June. I went to Vietnam Twice (HCMC-1, HCMC-2, Still have to update about the Hanoi & Halong Bay trip), Malaysia Twice (KL-1, KL-2, KL-3, KL-4, KL-5, Genting, Melacca), Thailand once (Phuket-1, Phuket-2, Phuket-3, Phuket-4, Phuket-5), Indonesia once and two surprise visits to India as well. I always had this so called free time here. I downloaded hundreds of movies. Locally I have visited so many places. Made so many new friends. Met old friends who came to Singapore. So my whole year I enjoyed traveling, watching loads and loads of movies, Having fun with friends and going home now and then.

Coming to work, I haven't learned anything new in Business Objects. I have been working on an old version of it. Recently after upgrading to the latest version I have been feeling good about the work. Its just a month ago that my work has started seriously. Now the things are a bit hectic. I have learned some facts about the queries and all. When I did not have work I always wanted to do my certifications and stuff. But this did not happen.

Other than work and travelling and having fun I have learned some photography on my new camera Sony A350. Now all my trips would be accompanied with my camera. Need to learn lot more tactics and need to expertise in many areas of photography. Hope this new year of mine in CS will bring me some new challenges and some new things to learn and finish off my certifications. May god bless me and All the best to me :-).

V-Day is the D-Day

There was some speculation about fixing the marriage date. There were some dates in November, February and March in consideration. Everybody felt November was too early and March was a little bit far. So dates in February were checked for the auspicious occasion. Firsly February 5th was considered which I have already shared with most of my friends.

Later after 3 days I was told by my parents that the date has been postponed. After hearing the new date I was more excited than the marriage. Everybody likes to have occasions on special days. Now my marriage date is also a special day in the calendar. Valentines Day is my marriage date. Even my friends were excited to hear that the marriage is on February 14th.

Now I say to friends about the date as "V-Day is the D-Day"

Golden Period in Life

This post is just to write about the time in my life where I enjoyed every bit of it.

Even though I don't remember, when I was a kid at the age below 3 years there was complete freedom to do what ever I want and get all the pampering in the world.

When I finished my 10+2 and finished counseling, I had all the time in the world for 4 months to just enjoy rather than studying something.

When I finished my engineering and was free for almost 8 months enjoying the time. Even though this period is full of mixed feelings, I always managed to enjoy rather than getting tensed about the future.

When my match with a girl got fixed and I was allowed to date the girl officially with the permission of both the parents.

Wedding Bells

I did not see this one coming so early. One fine day I got a call regarding this match with the girl. My parents liked her and wanted me to speak to her. I spoke to her the same day and liked her attitude and the way she carried herself through the conversation. I was curious and wanted to see her once directly before I say yes. I went to India and when I saw her immediately I heard the bells ringing.

Four Months exactly from now, I will be taking the responsibility of a lady for a life time. Everybody is excited about the news. I want to make this moment very very special as I will be sharing everything I have to the person I have chosen to spend the rest of my life with. Now I wonder if I would have to surrender all the perks and luxuries of single hood, that is financial, emotional, physical, psychological, and even sleeping peacefully alone at night.

Finally I would say taking this decision of responsibility for life time was very courageous. I am not that excited may because of the tension, but the feeling of getting married is really nice and special.

Going Home Yet Again

Going home sounds so good. Its just not that I am going to meet parents and friends but there are many small factors because of which we feel going home is good.

Away from work (not going to office on a working day)
Away from tensions (As of now none)
Away from deadlines (Can extend :P)
Away from skipping meals (Can have 3 meals at home)
Away from Junk Food (No need of going to Pizza Hut, SubWay, McDonald's, KFC, Bread Talk or any other food court)
Away from local transport (Can drive my bike and car back home)

Anyways this time I am going for a complete different reason which I shall update very soon here. I have just now booked the ticket for Bangalore from where I shall go to Hyderabad. Tomorrow morning by 6AM I will be home.

Most Awaited Weekend of the Year

This weekend was the most awaited weekend of the year for me. This was because I have taken the Formula 1 tickets way back in March. I have been waiting for the date with these cars since then. Finally I had a wonderful, amazing, astonishing, astounding, enjoyable, excellent, extraordinary, fabulous, fantastic, incredible, lovely, magnificent, marvelous, phenomenal, sensational, superb, terrific weekend. I mean it. I was at the race and the experience is once for life time. I am now part of history. I was in the Pit Grandstand and being first to watch the start and end of the first ever F1 night race. Haha .. anyways I will be updating my three day experience in my travel & photo blog.

Five Point Someone

After One Night @ Call Center, I started reading Chetan Bhagat's first book Five Point Someone. I heard that Raj Kumar Hirani is making a movie based on this movie starring Aamir Khan. After reading this book I thought there is so much to relate to our lives. The story is about three students with different backgrounds coming together at IIT.

Story shows that these guys get frustrated with pressures of assignments & grading system. They feel that the system is not correct and its only promoting mugging and there is no appreciation for the original work. They decide to enjoy the college life by placing themselves at the edge of the passing percentage which they call 5.0+ GPA (Five Point Something GPA).

Even though I am not an IITian,
Even though I was never traumatized by our professors,
Even though I never had these unending quizzes and assignments,
I liked this book a lot.

But the similarities that I have found in my life from the book are:
Like the three heroes of the novel Ryan, Hari & Alok , I found my best friends of life in those 4 years of graduation.
Ragging as freshers.
Bunking our classes.
Eating at roadside dhaba after college hours.
Talking about the girls and the affairs.
Most important of all, even I am some where near to Five Point Something. As the main plot goes these guys think that they have to enjoy their graduation life, is what I have also thought long time back and have settled for just Five Point Something enjoying each and every moment of those 4 years.

As I flipped through the pages of novel, I could remeber so many events from my college life. Its just like a nostalgic journey of the time we spent at our alma mater.

One Night @ Call Center

In all my profiles I always write "I Hate Books". This time when I was coming back from Hyderabad, I was alone and had to kill sometime even at Bangalore airport. Meanwhile my eyes went to Landmark bookshop at Hyderabad airport. Just went inside with no intention of buying any books.

I have seen a book with the name ‘One Night @ The Call Center’. I heard a lot about this book. I have mainly heard about this because Katrina Kaif was acting in the film based on this book. So I became curious after seeing the book and thought I will read it. This was the second book of the IIT and IIM student Chetan Bhagat.

I just started it with a very little interest and as the story went on I got more and more interested in the book. It had all that youth element in it and also had the masala required for a bollywood movie. It had the comedy, tragedy, romance, action and complete entertainment. Even though I have worked in such a call center for more than 2 years I never experienced such a night. After reading this book I thought this guy would be one of best storytellers of the new genre.

The book was nearly 280 pages and was extremely racy (even though I felt a little drag in the story at some points) and also engaging. It is all the more interesting because the novel is centered on the India’s new generation. I was so desperate to finish this book as I did not want to wait for long time. I read the whole book in a single day. The language used in the book was also very much easy to understand.

Hence I would suggest this book as the first book to get interest in reading books for any starters. I am planning to read his first book Five Point Something which is based on three IITians.

A crazy day - 12th Sep 2008

It was a regular Friday when I went to office and started early back home along with Nagraj as he was going to Banglore. On the way back home in the train we were just discussing all kinds of stuff. Suddenly Nagraj gave me an idea and the whole chaos started.

4.05PM: Started from office.

4.30PM: I told Nagraj that about the call from dad saying that he is missing me. Nagraj asked why not I go to Hyderabad as it was weekend. Immediately my mind started thinking about possibilities to go.

4.35PM: Called Mahesh and Srinivas to check if there were any flights to Hyderabad or Banglore or Chennai that day. I was very much excited about me going to India.

4.45PM: Mahesh called and informed that seats were not available in Tiger Airways to Banglore and there are no flights to Chennai that day. Till 5PM he was on the call and suggested all possibilities but finally said it would be impossible to start that day.

As I did not have my room key I went to Nagrajs place.

5.45PM: Mahesh called and suggested one more plan to take Singapore Airlines one way to Hyderabad, then take a flight to Banglore on Monday and then come back in Jet Airways from Banglore. This whole trip would cost me about 1500+ dollars for which I was ready as I was very excited.

6PM: Nagraj dropped me at Terminal 2 and left for the Budget terminal. Mahesh was on the way to room to get me my passport. I went near the Singapore Airlines counter and asked if tickets were available. The lady said it would cost about 852 dollars for one way and half the flight was empty.

6.15PM: Nagraj called me and asked me to wait until he checks with Tiger if they have any tickets available. Mean while I started giving my details to the lady for the Singapore Airlines ticket.

6.20PM: Nagraj called and told me that the 2 way ticket to Banglore was available for just 540 dollars. I asked him to immediately book the ticket. I left the terminal 2 for budget terminal in the shuttle bus.

6.40PM: Mahesh came to airport along with my passport. At this point I was directly coming from office with just the passport and no hand or check in luggage.

7.30PM: We boarded the flight and flight took off at 8.15PM

10.55PM: We landed in Banglore. The landing itself was so crazy that he just jumped on to the runway which actually hurt the passengers inside including me.

11.25PM: Took a ticket for Hyderabad which was scheduled at 3.30AM.

3.00AM: Boarded the flight and at 3.30AM flight took off.

4.35AM: Landed in Hyderabad.

6.15AM: I was at home giving a surprise visit to mom and dad. Actually speaking even I was surprised about my sudden visit to Hyderabad. I hope this will not be repeated and I should have control on my mind regarding such decisions :P.

Influential Cinema

Yesterday I have seen a movie called Meet John Doe. This was one such movie which would make us think about the subject even after the completion of the movie. Movie making has two reasons to make a movie. One is for entertainment and other for making people think about a subject. In fact both the movies leave good impact on audience provided actors and subject are professionally selected.

Movies that are made for entertainment, help people forget about their daily problems and stress. It's a way of having fun and enjoying life. In most of the countries where war and trouble is prevailed, entertaining movies will help innocent civilians at least make their life easy, have an ambitious at a better future.

On the other hand movies made for audience to think also have a great impact on the common man. These movies give us facts and stories about very important events, and very important people. Many influential novels have been made into movies as the whole novel can be explained in just 3 hours and still influence the common man. These movies which make us think not only allows us to improve the way of looking at life but also helps in making others life comfortable.

It would be hard or harsh for anyone to choose between these two types of movies. Depending on the situation and mood we can actually choose the movie. Also the film makers should think about making both variety of movies rather than just making the mass masala movies. Actually filmmakers can think of movies like Charlie Chaplin where they made people think and at the same time gave lot of entertainment.

Movies of the Day

Agent Cody Banks - Save the world. Get the girl. Pass math.
Good movie for Kids. I would rate 6 out of 10. After seeing this movie I thought that Baadshah starring Shahrukh was inspired from this movie.

Agent Cody Banks - Destination London.
This is a sequel but did not really have that feel good factor in it. I would rate it 5 out of 10.

Meeting John Doe
Its a profound and moving film. This movie would be one of them which would make us start thinking. This movie has been remade in Hindi as Main Azad Hoon starring Amitabh.

Mails from Managing Editor - Picture.com

Link

Dont Miss "A Wednesday"

The story is all about a fateful Wednesday in Mumbai between 2PM to 6PM. Police Commisioner gets a call from a man informing about the bombs that he has planted in different places in Mumbai. The only way to avoid this devastation would be to give the man what he wants.

Personally I felt A Wednesday is a better film than Aamir. The movie can be called the best with the help of strongest contributions from everyone involved in the film. Anupam Kher has done some excellent work as a responsible cop. Debutant Aamir Bashir and Jimmy Shergill were also looking good in their roles. The Baby Doll image Deepal Shaw did her job fine though the dialogue delivery was stiff. Last but the best Naseeruddin Shah was at his intimidating best.

The plot was great. The dialogues were good and looked awesome because of the stellar performances by Anupam and Naseer. Even though I watched this movie online I would suggest you to go to theater and watch this movie. At the end of the movie this movie will make you start thinking.

Watching TV at Home was Never so much Fun

This weekend I have seen 13 movies. Now you may wonder how somebody can see so many movies with just 2 days. I have seen them at my home in my new TV and Home Theater. Recently I have bought a Samsung 40" Full HD LCD TV with 800W output 5.1 Channel Home Theater. This was the first time that I was experiencing such a theater effect at home.

We saw movies like Black Hawk Down, Prey, 300 etc to feel the theater effect. I also enjoyed listening to music in this. Overall we had a great weekend with some great food, great movies and some really good music. Thanks to Samsung :-).

Paes win US Open mixed doubles title

Finally after 2 years an Indian player have again shown some talent in Grand slam. The last I saw was the 2006 US and Australian Open Mixed doubles titles that Paes and Bhupati have won respectively. Hope next year we see more of these.

Movies of the Day

I just wanted to write about the movies I saw yesterday. I have seen two movies which had comedy and romance.

1. Lost in Translation - The first 30 minutes of the movie clearly shows the culture differences between the western and Asian countries. This part of the movie is very hilarious. Overall I liked the movie and would rate it 7 out of 10.

2. You Have got Mail - I was looking to watch this for a long time but did not really see it. Finally yesterday I was lucky to get time to watch this movie. Its also a romantic comedy flick. The movie shows the relationship between two people in real life and through Internet. I heard that its a remake of one movie from 1940s. I shall watch that sometime and would love to compare the both. I would rate this movie 6 out of 10.

Teacher's Day

Gurur brahmaa gurur vishnuh
Gurur devo maheshvarah
Gurur saakshaat parabrahma
Tasmai shree gurave namah.

Meaning
Know the Guru to be Brahma himself. He is Vishnu.
He is also Shiva.
Know Him to be the Supreme Brahman,
and offer thy adorations unto that peerless Guru.

This is how we respect our Guru's (Teachers). I thought of writing a small post on this occasion of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan birthday which we all celebrate as the Teachers Day on SEP 5th every year. As students we all have a lot of influence on us by our Teachers and there is no doubt in the fact that they are the one who put us in the right path. It is so important that in which ever position that we are in today - we should spend some time and remember all those teachers who shaped our careers. So on this important occasion of Teachers Day - join me in sending teachers day greetings and messages to all those teachers our success.

History of Middle Finger

Well, now......here' s something I didn't knew before, and now that I got to know it through a forwarded mail, I feel compelled to share it on to my more intelligent friends in the hope that they, too, will feel edified. Isn't history more fun when you know something about it?

Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous English longbow was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew").

Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, See, we can still pluck yew! Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodentals fricative F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute! It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird."

IT IS STILL AN APPROPRIATE SALUTE TO THE FRENCH TODAY!
And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing.

My Hanoi and Halong Bay Trip Pics

Ganapati Bappa Moriya

Elements of Ganesha

Ganesha Chaturthi aka Vinayak Chaturthi aka Vinayaka Chavithi is on 3rd September, thats tomorrow. When I was in India we used to celebrate with utmost bhakti. This was a special day for us because its my dads birthday also that we celebrate on the same day. Normally this comes in Mid Aug or Mid Sept.

Typical Ganesh Pooja

I just don't want to write what this festival means or what it is all about. I just want to write some of my observations about this festival. Previously the idols were small and cute. Now a days it has become like a competition and the height of the idol is going on increasing. Even at houses people want a big idol.

These huge idols are made of plaster of paris. The quantity of these chemicals used in these huge idols are also high. This not only pollutes water in rivers, lakes and sea but also makes the horrible situation the next morning.

Small and Cute Idol

Some of my suggestions:
1. Keep the idols small and theme BIG.
2. No chemicals but should be made of mud.
3. Immersion in tanks specially organized for this.

Rock on Rocks

Friday night we went to watch this much awaited Rock On Movie. The music was awesome. The actors did their role very well. Everything was great in the movie. I would give 8 out of 10 for this movie. This is yet another youth oriented movie like Jaane tu Ya Jaane na. The story line is inspirational and motivating.

Farhan did a great job even as an actor and singer. Even Arjun Rampal was at his best. The debutants (Prachi Desai, Luke Kenny, Shahana Goswami, Koel Puri) also did a great job in the movie. The best part of the movie is the music by Shankar Eshaan Loy.

Felon - One of the great Prison Movies

Story of most of the Prison movies is almost the same. Usually A nice guy being convicted for a crime that he did not do is sent to prison and face the consequences. I started watching the movie with the same impression. As the movie started I was looking forward for those friends, enemies and traps that are normally involved in these movies.

The movie all about a man who is working hard to start his business and create a comfortable life for his family. The hard work start reaping the fruits of his labour and life suddenly brings some unexpected twist. He finds himself in prison. From here we see his transformations of the man who is forced into a completely new world where he has no control.

This movie gives us a clear picture of the extreme conditions that prevail in American correctional system. It shows how people can get corrupted by power. All the actors (Stephen Dorff, Val Kilmer, Harold Perrineau and others) in this movie have done wonderfully well in their characters. The story is very well told. At the end of the movie, we start thinking how the correctional system has so many flaws and how it makes people to become their worst, both as inmates and as guards. The best part of the film is it also shows that even in these circumstances, there are great acts of humanity and compassion.

Felon, is an excellent film with great acting, a great plot and good dialog. Lots of suspense, good solid action, excellent cinematography and great acting make this film a must see for drama/suspense fans. I would rate it 9 out of 10

A New Chapter in AP Politics

Yesterday was a Historic day for the fans of Chiranjeevi. He in a very good cinematic style has launched his party “PRAJA RAJYAM”. He had this party meeting in tirupathi where 9 lacs fans were gathered which seemed like a sea of chiranjeevi’s fans. Before he came on to the stage they played movies of chiranjeevi which were related to some social issues. There were a total of 70 gaint screens to show the proceedings.

He also unveiled the party flag which has White, Green, Red and Yellow colors in it. It meant that the white and green flag with rising sun in the middle, would spread the power round-the-clock to every nook and corner and the yellow lining around the sun is the smile on the faces of the people.

Chiranjeevi gave a speech for more than an hour. The only thing that I did not like about that was reading the same from the paper. The impact would have been much more if he has actually spoke without seeing into the paper. In his speech he spoke about the issues like Telangana, naxalism, corruption and categorization of Scheduled Castes. He said he would take a collective decision after some scientific evaluation.

He was very careful in choosing the words for the speech. One of them I felt was “On these sensitive issues, I cannot take an immediate decision”. He has taken a real good care of the crowd who came there. But, because of that huge crowd there was some bad news of 1 dieing and 35 getting injured.

Finally lets hope he will stand by his cinematic image and do something or at least a little good to the society and his fans. I don't really have much in depth knowledge or analysis to comment on his stand in politics but I would wish and hope for something good to happen for AP politics.

A Tribute to Sir Donald Bradman

1. Best ever batting performance in a test

During 2001, Wisden came out with a list of the 100 best Test innings of all time. Don Bradman's 270 played at Melbourne in 1937 was adjudged the best ever test innings. This was closely follwed by Lara's match-winning 153* and Gooch's 154*.

Playing on a gluepot, Bradman declared at 200 for 9 and Gubby Allen countered by declaring at 76 for 9. The wicket was still very difficult and Bradman sent his tailenders in. Soon they were 97 for 5. Then Bradman and Fingleton added 346 for the sixth wicket, . Bradman continued on and was ninth out at 270. England fought gamely but lost by a big margin. A tactical battle which was won by Bradman, the captain and he also led from the front. A potted summary of the match is given below.

Test # 257. Australia vs England.
Played on 1,2,4,5,6,7 January 1937
at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Australia won by 365 runs.
Australia: 200 for 9 wkt(s)
England: 76 for 9 wkt(s)
Australia: 564 all out (Bradman 270, Fingleton 136)
England: 323 all out

2. The best 10-innings stretch

Bradman's best 10-innings stretch was during 1937-46, when he scored 1236 runs at an average of 154.50

The scores were 212, 169, 51, 144*, 18, 102*, 103, 16, 187 and 234.

Also relevant here is "Alex"'s comment, reproduced below.

Also, regarding the 'best 10-innings stretch'. Bradman scored 1370 runs in 10 innings during 1930 and 1931: 131, 254, 1, 334, 14, 232, 4, 25, 223, 152. There were no not-outs during this period however, so his average was 'only' 137.0.

3. The worst 10-innings stretch

Bradman's worst 10-innings stretch started during the second body line test during 1932-33 and continued until 1934 when he scored 426 runs (in 11 innings) at an average of 38.72. He finished this streak with his monumental 304 at Headingley during 1934.

The scores were 8, 66, 76, 24, 48, 71, 29, 25, 36, 13 and 30.

4. Highest average reached (after 10 innings)

Bradman reached his highest career average of 112.29 after the Adelaide Test against South Africa, in which he scored 299*.

5. Lowest average reached (after 10 innings)

Bradman reached his lowest career average, after passing the initial period of 10 tests, of 89.56 after the Old Trafford Test against England during 1934. Not surprisingly this was the end of his worst streak, referred to elsewhere in this article.

6. When the average of 100.00 was reached

Surprisingly Bradman did not have a great start to his career. He reached an average of 100.00 (agreed very few have ever touched this milestone) only after 15 innings

7. Quality of opposition bowling

Surprisingly the bowling Bradman faced in his career was slightly below all time average. 29.62 against 29.50. However it must be noted that he faced this level of bowling almost all the time. The all-time average arrived consists of 40s and 20s scattered across the 1800 odd Test matches.

8. Runs scored in each batting position

Batting Position      3      4      5       6      7
Runs scored         5078    485    427     681    325
Batting Average    103.63  53.89  142.33  97.29  162.50

The No. 7 total is bolstered by that amazing innings of 270 referred to elsewhere in this article.

9. Analysis by batting position

Bradman's Batting Position Average is 3.65, indicating that he batted at No. 3 most of the time. For the record he batted at No. 3 a total of 56 times (70%).

10. Analysis of 100s

This is the one measure where he has yielded to a contemporary batsman. The average of the 29 hundreds Bradman has scored in Test cricket is a very high 185.97. Till a few weeks back, he was the No.1 batsman in this regard. Sehwag overtook this figure with his 319 at Chennai. However Bradman's 100s frequency of 1.8 Tests per hundred is way ahead of any one else.

11. Home/Away runs scored

Not so surprisingly, considering his success in England, Bradman's away performance is superior to his Australian performances. He has scored 2674 runs away at an average of 102.85 while in Australia, he has scored 4322 runs at an average of 98.22.

12. How far ahead of the next

Just to show how far ahead Bradman is of the other batsmen, a relative scale table is shown below.

Measure          Bradman     %    Next Best    %     Difference

Batting Avge      99.96    100.0    68.38    68.47     31.53    (Hussey)
Runs per test    134.53    100.0    99.54    74.00     26.00    (Headley)
Tests per 100      1.79    100.0     2.20    81.00     19.00    (Headley)
Inns per 100       2.76    100.0     4.00    69.00     31.00    (Headley)

13. Man of the Match awards

Hey what is this, no Man of the Match awards were given when Bradman played. True. So I have gone through the scorecards and using the Innings Rating points, determined which player could have got the MOM awards, if these were given. Bradman would have got no less than 16 MOM awards in the 52 tests played, a frequency of 3.25 tests per award. Compare this with the current leaders. The best is a frequency of 6.00.

Kallis         123     20    6.15
Muralitharan   123     19    6.47
Wasim Akram    104     17    6.12
Shane Warne    145     17    8.52
Ambrose         84     14    6.00

14. Movement of averages

Finally a footnote. I am not sure whether I would jump with joy if someone, as reported recently, conclusively proved that Bradman scored those elusive four runs, by mistake credited to Jack Ryder, during 1929. The figure of 99.94 is etched into the memory of people and sounds far better than 100.00. It also confirms a nice human element to one pervceived to be a super-human.

Taken is Awesome

My cousin wanted me to watch this movie. He said its a nice fast paced action movie. That sounded good and I immediately downloaded the movie. I didn't really read any reviews about this movie. Its just with the word of mouth that I started watching the movie.

Actually speaking I was not sure about the story and the starcast.
The film started really well. Right from the start I could sense that the picture was going to be a thriller. Once the movie started and before I could even realise it was over. 93 minutes, gone just like that without any notice. The movie had chasing, fighting, shooting, excitement and even the emotional scenes carried at a good pace.

The direction was so perfect that the movie had all that ingredients which would make us stick to the seat till the end of the movie. The last scene was very touching and emotional. Some of the scenes were so good that I couldn't stop my excitement that I started clapping. I would rate this movie 10 out of 10 mainly for the pace of the movie. Though the film is short, it was really really really good. I would definitely watch this movie on big screen if that releases in Singapore.

Back from Hanoi

After a relaxing tour to Hanoi and Halong Bay today I am back to work. Came at 3.30 in the morning and didn't really sleep. Now in the office I am feeling very drowsy, so thought of just writing something to change my mood.

20.08.2008

Yesterday date has some specialty if we see it properly. Its 20082008. Good to see such dates. The day is more special for me because its my brother's birthday. Many happy returns Bro.

Second visit to Vietnam

Today in another 4 hours I will be starting for Hanoi and Hallong Bay in Vietnam. This will be my second trip to Vietnam in June. My first visit was for the Ho Chi Minh City. This time I am not a solo traveler. I am being accompanied by Nagraj and Srinivas. We will be back on Monday and shall update about the trip.

Respite from Activities

This weekend for the first time I didn't have any plans. My roomies wanted to go out but I wanted to use this for rejuvenating my energy for the next weeks work. The only activity for this weekend was to watch "Journey to the Center of the Earth and Bachna Hai Haseeno" movies and some archery stuff.

Why do I Travel?

Am I trying to escape?
Am I in search of something?
Am I lured by wanderlust?
Am I running away from something?
OR
Is it a fear of the routine?
Is it to avoid people?
Is it to prove a point to myself ?
Is it to get lost ?

Raksha Bandhan

Happy Independence Day

Scrabble

Long time back when I was kid I used play this game called scrabble. At that time me and my brother used to play it with great interest. Later years as we grew up we tend to play more outdoor games and I dont even remember where my scrabble board has gone. After so many years yesterday when I went to Mustafa Center I saw this scrabble board in the kids section. As soon as I saw that I was nostalgic and decided to buy. I bought a new board for S$39.


I came home and sat with Mahesh to play the game. For Mahesh this was the first time. After a while it became very competetive and we used some good words. Atlast we were left with just 1 letter each. I won the match and the scores were 378-332. It was great fun and I shall play this regularly from now, on weekends.

08.08.08

What a special day is this day. There are many reasons why I feel this is a great day. The most important of these is the Beijing Olympics 2008. I am right now watching the opening ceremony and thats something which nobody should miss. For me this is one of the best ever opening ceremony I have ever seen. Second reason being my best friends birthday. Third being the deciding match between India and Sri Lanka. Forth being Kevin Peterson becoming captain of England. Last but not the least release of the Katrina's movie Singh is Kinng.

Happy Friendship Day

Firstly I would say belated wishes to all my friends around.


I didn't really had any thought to write a post on Friendship day. I did not even wish many on the day. But the reason I am writing this post is because of the movie "Its a Wonderful Life". The final statement in the movie was simply emotional and touching. It says:

"Remember No Man is a Failure who has FRIENDS".

Busy Itenary

I have been doing a lot of travel and activities for the past 2 months. Just thought I would pen down the itenary for my trips.

16-26 May, Hyderabad -> Delhi - > Nainital - > Ranikhet - > Bageshwar - > Kausani - > Almora - > Haldwani - > Delhi -> Hyderabad.India

7-9 June, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

28-30 June, Phuket, Thailand

17-20 July, KL & Genting, Malaysia

26 July, Johar Bahru, Malaysia

27 July, Melacca, Malaysia

21-24 Aug, Hanoi & Hallong Bay, Vietnam

Next destinations I am looking forward is for Hanoi, Vietnam and Vaishno Devi, India.

The Wait is Over

After a wait of over 5 months finally I got my ticket to see the First Ever F1 Night Race in Singapore. I booked the ticket on 18th of Feb 2008. I wanted to be part of history so I definitely wanted to see the race. But the dilema was to decide on which ticket to be taken. Finally I dared and took the pit stop ticket which costed me 1400SGD. Hopefully it should be worth the amount.

Day before yesterday I went to Singapore post to collect my Ticket. I was totally unaware as how the ticket would look like. The lady at the post office gave a big box when I gave her the mail that I had. I thought there would some goodies too. But to my surprise it was a hollow box with just the ticket box. This box contained the 3 passes for 3 days of race and a circuit map.



The event is on 26, 27 and 28th of Sep 2008. Shall update you with the race details very soon. By the way I forgot to tell you the seat number where I am going to sit. Its the exact point where the race starts :). So I will be the first person to see who has won the race.

Back from KL

I am back from Malaysia trip. We had a great fun there. Have done many activities. Had some new experiences. Day 1 was quite interesting and had so much of activity while the second day was a bit relaxing and a bit disappointing at some points. We have been to Petronas Towers, KL Tower, Times Square, China Town, Batu Caves and Genting. I had some new experiences like a Roller Coaster Ride and Casino. I also learned some Malay words which we used through out the trip. I shall update the whole story in my travel blog along with the pics very soon.

Going to KL

This weekend we planned to go to KL. I, Nagaraj, Srinivas and Vidyadhar are in the group. This time we thought we would give it a try by going in a train. We have a train at 9.30PM on Friday in Singapore and we would reach KL by 6AM. Similarly we have a train back at 9.30PM on Sunday in KL and we would reach Singapore by 8AM. Hope this trip will go fine as we started hearing some news about red alert in KL. So lets see how things go. I shall udpate my KL experience very soon.

London se Aayi mera Dost

Last week was full of fun. I met my friend whom I didnt see for the past 4 years. She came to Singapore last week to meet her brother. She and her sister both were here for about a week. I could spend almost 3 days with them. I met her on 8th July while they were leaving on 11th July. At the very first sight of her I felt very happy as I was seeing her after such a long time.


Tuesday, I went to office and took ML to meet her. I went to her place at around 12.30 in the afternoon. I also met her brother and sister. Her sister had a cute little 2 month old kid who was so sweet and cute. By the time I went there they werent ready so I waited for a while had lunch and then we went to Orchard Road for shopping at Takashi Maya.





Gayatri did lot of shopping. Even though her brother was against this she some how managed to spend so much money on this shopping. In the night we went to Little India to have dinner. Her brother Ravi gave a small party which also included his friends. We had dinner at Fifth Season restaurant. From here Ravi asked me to come home for over night and can go to office directly in the morning. Gayatri was ready to stay awake so that we can chit chat for sometime. Ravi and Radha (Gayatri's Sister) slept by 1AM. Me and Gayatri sat till morning and spoke about the happenings in our respective lives. We spoke till morning 4.30 and then I came back home as I had office.


Wednesday, I once again left office by 4PM. They came to Suntec City. So I went to meet them there. They wanted to go around Raffles Place. We walked through the Suntec City food court, Also saw the Fountain. In Suntec Gayatri once again did some shopping at Levis. We walked further and I showed them my office and the city link mall. We walked further to Esplanade and the Indian war memorial structure. Finally we stopped at the Merlion. We took many pics throughout the way. From Merlion around 8PM we went to Little India again to have dinner at Saravana Bhavan restaurant. We had our dinner and dispersed to our respective houses.


Thursday, Yet another quick jumo from office. Left office at around 4PM to go to China Town to meet my friend. They were already there. I met them at the pagoda. They did some shopping. Had some Thailand coconut water. From there we went to Perumal temple in Little India. This was my first time to Perumal Temple. It was very nice. We then went to Mustafa to do some more shopping and had dinner at Raj Restaurant. After dinner Ravi asked me to stay back at their place as I would anyways come to airport the next day. So I once again went to stay over night at her place. As she was going the next morning, I helped her in her packing. We sat and chit chatted for some more time. By the time we realised time was 6 in the morning and we started off to airport. We had a very nice time together for 3 days. Even her family members were very nice to me. Finally it was time to say good bye.

Cheers

Yet another wonderful weekend. We had a great time this weekend which involved many activities. The Fun started on Friday. Friday night I, Srinivas, Nagaraj, Vidyadhar and Ganesh went to Dance bar. We met at the Orchard MRT and from there we went to the Orchard tower for the dance bar. We had a great time as there was a Live Rock show going on who played some real good music. Even though they were local folks they played it very well. From there at around 2.00 in the night we went to Clarke Quay for disco. We were supposed to go to Rupee Room for disco. But as Ganesh was running out of time we just went to Shiraz, had a Chicken roll and started back home at around 3. We slept at around 4 in the morning and we were supposed go to movie on Saturday.

Ganesh @ Dance Bar

Saturday morning at around 1030 we woke up and got ready for the lunch. First we went to the Golden Village Cinema and took the tickets for Hell Boy II for the 4.30PM show. We had lunch at a north indian food court and started off in a bus for SAFRA. We went to Orchid Bowl at Tampines SAFRA. We did enjoyed bowling for around an hour.

Final Scorecard @ Orchid Bowl

After bowling we went back to theater to watch the movie. I, Mahesh, Nagaraj, Srinivas and Vidyadhar came for the movie. Other than me everybody else liked the movie. After the movie we just sat at the shopping mall discussing as what next. We decided to get some beer at home and enjoy watching some movie.

We went to Fair Price to get some beer. Also took some eggs, carrots, cucumber, ground nuts etc to have them as the side dishes. While coming back home we took Biryani for the dinner. At home Srinivas and Mahesh prepared all the side dishes stuff required.

Heineken Ad

Srini & Mahesh

We started having fun at around 9.30 and we were awake till night 2.30. We discussed many issues. Some things were professional somethings were personal and so on.

Before the start

Cheers Time

After

At around 3 we hit the bed and Sunday was just for relaxing. I thought I had great fun this weekend so just wanted to share this with everybody :).