3 Idiots

3 Idiots seems to be a simple story of three students in a college and having fun together. But it addresses a bigger problem of the education system in India. When this message is mixed with some good comedy, great acting and decent songs, then the recipe becomes irresistible!

The film stands out in a number of instances...Take the scene where Sharman Joshi lights up a serious scene to the question of starting up an induction motor, Aamir Khan and Madhavan make fun of the khujli roti, Kareena Kapoor's analogy of missile names with Gujarati food and so on.

Though exaggerated for effect, the obsession with parents to force their kids into an engineering or medical college is still prevalent in many places. I think there should be an interim class after X standard where the kids are explained about the different branches of study available to them. Then the children should make their own choices based on their interests. That would be an ideal situation but this film is definitely a step towards that direction.

But the movie is not without its faults. The scene where the baby is delivered using a vacuum machine, every one shouting Aaal is Well which makes the baby come back to life and also the one where kareena kapoor is kidnapped from the wedding makes the second half of the movie a dragging affair.

All said, the movie is still very entertaining and much better than some of the mindless entertainers this year. So I would definitely recommend watching this movie as Aaal is well that ends well!!

Another attempt....strike two!

Fun on the run....

Recently I became interested in running and decided to check out the trail around the lake in my apartment. The trail has a beautiful locale around it and takes you into a path with trees on both sides that give you a forest feel. Just the environment gives you the motivation to run more rounds even though I seemed to lose all my energy after a couple of errands.

Only then, I realized energy conservation is a key to cover more distance. But reckless spending of energy led to exhausting my resources within a couple of rounds. But I was happy that I was not causing environmental damage by this and also given the fact that bigger corporations who were supposed to conserve were in fact exhausting energy resources, I did not care that I was burning my own energy. No guilt involved you see! The other relieving factor was that human energy is renewable in the sense that I can gain the energy I lost after the next meal. Unfortunately, there is no alternative energy source as my body had to spend the calories to make me run the whole distance.

But in any case, I concluded that it can make a person healthy, lose calories and improve stamina. So there I decided that I should make more such rounds around the lake and have some fun on the run. So here I am taking my music player and off to the lake.

Cabtan speaks tamil!

Music(k)!!

Comments are welcome :-)

Holding the spirit of the game...?

Well a lot of talk has been going on about the recent controversial decisions at the SCG. Before I rant about the issue, hats off to Kumble and his team for playing the game in its right spirit. I could not stop empathizing myself with the Indian cricket team when Kumble said "When too many things happen at the center, its difficult to concentrate on the game. But we still fought it till the last moment". It was amazing to see the Indian players come out and shake hands with their opponents after their controversial defeat (I would still rate it higher than some of the wins in the past). But after all this, I could not believe that Ricky Ponting still said "We played the game in the right spirit"!! It was apt when one of the senior players pointed out some of the incidents involving the Aussie captain in response to this- His vociferous appeal for Dhoni's catch even after clearly grounding it, his "directions" to Mark Bensen that Sourav Ganguly was "Out" (n the umpire just accepted it!) and his refusal to walk even after a clear nick to the keeper in the first innings when he was at 14.

These are just a few instances from the plethora of frustrating incidents that happened during the game. The "World Champions" were just behaving like a bunch of cry babies who were desperately looking for a win to equal Steve Waugh's record of 16 straight test wins. Even though it would go into the record books that Ricky Ponting's team did equal the record, the test match at SCG would be remembered for all the reasons other than this.

Happy new year!

Happy new year to you all. Everyone of you is a champ in your own respect and so party it hard :). 2007 has been a good year to me with its own ups and downs. Hoping to make 2008 a great year! and wishing you the same too. Here is a free toast to you all!!




More later!

Nice widget!

Found this nice widget embedded with a good song ;).

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

Shawshank Redemption

I love this movie. Wanted to post some of the best dialogues from this movie (tough to choose tho :)

1. Some Birds Are Not Meant To Be Caged...
Their Feathers Are Just Too Bright..
And When They Fly Away..The Part Of You Which Knows,
It Was A Sin To Lock Them Up Rejoice..Yet The Place You Live,
Is Much More Drab And Empty After They Are Gone....

this was red's feeling after andy broke out of SHAWSHANK.

2. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

3. On the outside I am a man straight as an arrow... I had to come to prison to become crooked...

4. Red : These walls are funny, first u hate them , then u get used to them and as time goes by u get dependent on them

5. Red : Some things are best left unsaid

6. hope is a good thing,maybe the best of things and good things never die


7. I tell you, those voices soared. Higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away...and for the briefest of moments -- every last man at Shawshank felt free.

8. "Andy Dufresne, he crawled thru 2 miles of shit and came out clean
on the other side"

Dandia bash!

Well, I have to say that the India club event at Georgia Tech provided lots of entertainment to all the students who took part in the Raas Garba Night last weekend. After a l'il thought, I have to admit that the dandia night matched the navratri celebrations that I had taken part in India. I thought of tracing back the origins of dandia through this blog. So here it goes....

Raas and Garba are the featured dances of Navratri evenings in Western India, originating in Gujarat and Sindh. Navratri is the longest Hindu festival celebrated all over India for nine consecutive nights in praise of Lord Rama (Hero of the Epic Ramayana) and Godess Durga from the end of September to early October.
Originated as devotional Garba dances, which were performed in Durga's honor, this dance form is actually the staging of a mock-fight between the Goddess and Mahishasura, the mighty demon-king, and is nicknamed "The Sword Dance". The sticks of the dance represent the sword of Durga. The women wear traditional dresses such as colorful embroidered choli, ghagra and bandhani dupattas (traditional attire) dazzling with mirror work and heavy jewellery. The Men wear special turbans and kedias, but can range from area to area. The dancers whirl and move their feet and arms in a choreographed manner to the tune of the music with lots of drum beats. The dhol is used as well as complementary percussion instruments such as the dholak, tabla and others. The true dance gets extremely complicated and energetic. Garba is performed before Aarti (worshipping ritual) as devotional performances in the honor of the Goddess while Dandiya is performed after it, as a part of merriment. While Garba is performed exclusively by women, men and women join in for Raas Dandiya. Also known as "The Dance of Swords" as performers use a pair of colorfully decorated sticks as symbols, the circular movements of Dandiya Raas are much more complex than that of Garba. The origin of these dance performances or Raas can be traced back to the life of Lord Krishna.


Today, Raas is not only an important part of Navratree (meaning nine nights) in Gujarat but extends itself to other festivals related to harvest and crops as well. The Mers of Saurastra are noted to perform Raas with extreme energy and vigor.

T20 T20

Well lemme start with the amazing Ind Vs SA match today! Congratulations to India for storming their way into the semi-finals of the Twenty Twenty Cricket tournament. Well, I am not going to get into the details of the match in this blog. I wanted to give an opinion on this new format of the game and whether this new format will go well among people in India. When the twenty twenty world cup started, I was not very sure whether I would like this format and with the big guns from Indian batting line up opting out, there was even more uncertainty about Indian team's performance in this tournament. But credit needs to be given to the new players who have come in and to a few others who are making a comeback. This Indian team has seen it all on its way to the semi finals. The bowl out with Pakistan, the stunning sixes by Yuvraj Singh against England, a smashing 50 on debut by Rohit Sharma and an amazing spell of swing bowling by RP Singh!

I think one of the few advantages of a 20 over match is that there is never a dull moment during the entire match and if the pitch offers some assistance to the bowlers, the match becomes really interesting. How many times has someone switched off the TV after the first 15 overs of a 50 overs match and then switched it on in the 40th over? Well that explains that there are many people who woould like this format. Especially, in today's fast paced world, if one can watch a full innings of a T20 T20 match with a couple of hours to spare, I think there would be many takers for that!. And with India doing well in this tournament till now, there would not be many who are complaining. But it might be too early to come to a conclusion whether T20 T20 would be liked by everyone or whether it should be played more often. Still it looks promising and hope there are many more fun filled matches to come by in this tournament and in the future as well!

PS: There are many times in the past when India makes a stunning performance in a couple of matches and loses it all in the big finals. Hope that does not happen in this T20 T20 tournment. Here is wishing all the very best to Team India!!

Rafting at its best!!

Well, after a long hibernation I thought I should start posting again in my space after a year or so!!! Probably not because I am feeling bored but may be coz the rafting experience was really good to share it with you all :-). It was an early morning on Saturday (09/01/07 to be precise ;) and we were all out of the bed in that hour! (pretty unusual for a weekend). But the reason was mainly due to the impending experience called white water rafting at Ocoee river in Chattanooga. When the person gave us the instructions for the rafting, initially I did not pay too much attention. But the moment he started telling about the instructions on how to hold on to the boat and the paddle when you fall into the river accidentally, I could do nothing but concentrate hard! After all I need to come back to the boat if at all I end up in the river :). Then started the ride in the bus towards the river. All along the way, I was checking out if I could get a glimpse of the Ocoee river and get an idea how rough the rafting experience was going to be. After about a twenty minute drive, we reached the place. The rafting boat is a six seater and has a separate seat for the guide who is like the captain of a ship.

Then came the moment when we had to put our life jackets on, wear our helmets and get into the raft with our paddle. I touched the water a bit and found it pretty cold!! I was thinking again that I should not fall into the river :). Once we started our rafting ride, we needed co-ordination among all six of us in the raft to make a move forward, backward or standstill. After initial hiccups, there was a decent bit of coordination and we were progressing very well into the Ocoee river. Then came the swirling water bend for which the captain told us a fancy name "Washing machine"! He also explained that there are lots of swirls along the ride with names like double trouble, frenzy and what not! When we were nearing Washing machine, he gave us special instructions on how to use the paddle when we go into it. Every one in the raft was excited and then came the moment where we faced the washing machine :). We entered a gush of water flowing from all around and for a moment it seemed like the paddling did not help and no one had control on the raft. But somehow we came out of it safely and our captain was giving a casual smile! Really it was an exciting experience. Check out the snap in one of the swirls.

After the washing machine, we could go through the other swirls relatively easily but with the same enthusiasm. The best part was when we crossed a level 4 swirl (based on the force of water, the swirls are classified as level 1, 2 etc) and our captain took our raft towards the river bank. He explained that many rafts tumble in this swirl and he wanted us to have fun seeing some of them. I was happy that I was in this raft :). As expected, the other raft in which some of our other friends were coming tumbled just in front of our eyes and every one was swimming hard in the water. But the nice thing was because of the life jacket, even persons without swimming experience managed to hang on!. It was a little scary though since the river water was flowing fast and there were lots of rocks on the way. But somehow, the captain of the other raft managed to pick all of them in the water and we proceeded along. Then there was a part of the river which was relatively calm and had no swirls. The captain told us that we can get into the river and swim for sometime as there were no swirls in that part. For a few minutes, all six of us were thinking hard to see if it was necessary :). But finally one got into the water and then everyone followed suit. It was nice swimming in the river for some time and only later I came to know that the depth was about 17 feet! I would have a second thought if I had known it before :). So somehow we all got back into the raft again and finally made our way back to the starting point . All along the way, our captain was telling about other rafting places, the best season to raft and lot of other information about rafting which made the experience all the more informative.

But have to say that rafting is so much fun and everyone should experience it once whenever they have a chance :)! Check out the photo of our gang after the rafting below.



(PS: I will try to post more often from now on)

Simply Irresistable!!

A winter evening.
Four friends.
One barsaat.
Four glasses of chai.

Hundred bucks of gas.
A rusty old bike.
And an open road.

Maggi noodles.
A hostel room.
4.25 a.m.

3 old friends.
3 separate cities.
3 coffee mugs.
1 internet messenger.

Rain on a hot tin roof.
Pakoras deep-frying.
Neighbours dropping in.
A party.

You and mom.
A summer night.
A bottle of coconut oil.
A head massage.
Gossiping about absent family members.

(From a mail from one of my friends!!)

Halloween Party!

Well this October 31st 2006, I got my first chance to attend a Halloween party. It was good fun especially when you get a chance to see some of the academically serious folks dressed up in funny costumes to keep up the spirit of the party. Even in my college department, there was a pumpkin patch created in the administrative office with one pumpkin dedicated to each professor :-). Well this said, it enthused me to know more about the history of Halloween and so here is this blog with my findings about it.

Halloween, variously called Samhain, and other names based on the pagan region that celebrated, falls at the midpoint between the Autumnal Equinox (around Sept 20th, give or take) and the Winter Solstice (Dec 21st, give or take). Of course, equinoxes have the day/night of equal length (12 hours each). Recall that when people did not have electricity or other modern comforts, and relied in a more direct fashion on what they grew for themselves, it was important to pay attention to these solar cycles.

So, after the Autumnal Equinox, the days become shorter and the night becomes longer, until reaching the Winter Solstice, when the night is longest and the day is the shortest. However, the Winter Solstice is usually considered a more positive time, because the days begin to get longer from that time. So, All Hallow'sEve, is considered the darkest time... the days are getting shorter and shorter, and will continue to get shorter until the Winter Solstice, still a month and a half away. It was this growing darkness which associated that time of the year with the "spooky" feeling that Halloween is characterized by. It was thought that during this time, the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead was thinnest. But some considered this time to be the best to worship their ancestors.

The tradition of wearing scary masks and costumes was developed, supposedly, to scare away the dead from the world of the living, and make them want to go back to the land of the dead.

Since most of these traditions developed long ago, often in cultures that did not have much literacy, it is probable that one cannot fully answer in a definitive sense what Halloween is, especially since there is so much regional variety to how it is celebrated. However, Halloween is one of the most pure pagan traditions still going.

I had also sported a mask on my face just for the fun sake of it. I shall upload that picture asap :-)

Anything for love!!

Well recently I came across an article about Tamil Nadu's superstar Rajnikanth's son-in-law Dhanush :). Recently he was in news for reasons other than his movies - he had become a proud father. He was married last year with Rajnikanth's daughter Aishwarya.

But before the marriage between Dhanush and Aishwarya, there were many questions raised about the feasibility of their marriage. The very reason for all kinds of questions being raised regarding the match is the 'glaring and obvious differences' between Dhanush and Aishwarya.

Aishwarya was educated in Australia. She studied Corporate Law in Ashram College run by her mother. She is also taking care of administration of this college. But Dhanush is entirely different. He studied up to just 10th standard only. Aishwarya is older than Dhanush. Dhanush is 20 and Aishwarya is 23.

Despite these obvious differences, there is just one thing that had joined them together, that is their love for each other. Anyhow, when it comes to love, even Super star is also just another father!

The Life Of PI

"It was a story that would make you believe in God" says the author Yann Martel in the beginning of the book. Though there are may be arguments about this, a consensus can be easily reached about the fact that the book is a treat to savor.

Piscine Molitar Patel, is a young man in Pondicherry, a tiny area in southern India which was once part of French India. The first part of the novel tells of Pi's childhood as the son of the zookeeper in Pondicherry. Growing up in the zoo, Pi learns a lot about animals. He educates us in the ways of animals, both penned and wild, and in how to keep them content and controlled. Infact, these lessons turn out to be his saviour in the later part. He is especially interested in Religions and infact does not confine himself to one religion as Love of God is his belief. Pi does not want his parents to know about this and it is witty when he says "They didn't know that I was a practicing Hindu, Christian and Muslim. Teenagers always hide a few things from their parents, isn't that so? All sixteen-year- olds have secrets, don't they?".

Soon thereafter, Pi, his brother Ravi and his parents decide to emigrate to Canada along with the animals in their Zoo. Unfortunately the ship sinks and Pi finds himself in a boat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a huge Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. As the animails fight for survival in the boat, eventually only Pi and Richard Parker are left in the boat. Though Pi fears that Richard Parker might come and attack him anytime, he decides his only hope is to try to show him who is the alpha male in their particular highly restrictive jungle. He succeeds in it with the help of a whistle and makes sure that whenever he blows the whistle, Richard Parker listens to him as instructed (though after many initial failures). Pi also makes sure that he has defined his boundary within the boat very clearly so that Richard does not intrude in his area! Pi is forced to become a non-vegetarian, starved of food for many days and almost becoming blind in the end!! But after all these struggles, he still maintains his belief in life and never lets his faith down.....Though the readers guess it correctly that Pi Patel survives all these in the end, the story still keeps you engrossed till the very end!

Probably here is where he teaches a beautiful lesson that life is infact a struggle. Though there may be obstacles in the form of Richard Parker, one must never lose faith upon oneself to overcome the difficulties.

The master is back!

For those who had voiced the end of the little master's cricket career, Sachin Tendulkar came back with a bang in the DLF cup. The innings against the carribeans in the second ODI was a testimony to that....It's been sometime now since we have seen such a wide array of stroke play from the champion himself. The cover drives and the pull shots were a treat to the eyes and especially the lofted six in the final over of the match stood out!
Having been booed by his home crowd and subjected to "Endulkar" headlines over the past year, the challenge to perform was even more. But the poise with which he handled the situation definitely showed that there are many years of cricket left in his willow. Though it may be argued that India was out of the series before the finals, it is defintely the failure of the team as a whole in the match against Australia. And if the innings against West Indies are any indications, then we definitely have many more days of the cricket fiesta from the Little Master!

Wishing them a happy married life!!!

Me!

Vettaiyadu Vilayadu (Hunt & Play!)

Well....here is a movie that promised a lot before it's release. Hyped as sequel to the blockbuster 'Kaaka Kaaka' with Padmasree Kamal Hassan in the lead, Harris's music setting the right stage and Gowtham's so called hatrick hits! After running into a series of problems, there was a question whether this movie would ever be released? Finally much to the respite of Kamal and Jo fans :), the movie hit the screens last week.

The initial introduction of Kamal where he just walks into a group of gangsters with an open challenge, even though cliched, glues the audience to their seats. The follow up song Karka Karka with stills from his heroics during his police encounters is just the right beginning. Right from here, the screenplay is very fast paced....Even before you realise, there are a series of murders, a flashback with Kamalini and Kamal reaches New York to trace the criminal! Here begins the cat and mouse game and the rest of the movie just unfolds solving the riddle behind the gruesome murders.

The introduction of Jo in New York is natural and just brings her character into the story. But a couple of songs and a few more "romantic" scenes gives a slight feeling throws a question over Kamal's mission at New York !

Kamal's performance in the fight sequence is to be watched out in this movie...the climax chase and the stunts gives a feeling that it is technically advanced cinematography. The ending though appears a bit contrived and gives a slight impression that it may have been modified just to satisfy the viewer's demand.

Well...all in all a movie that can be definitely watched for its fast paced screenplay, technical supremacy and Kamal's performance even though there are points that Gowtham missed out compared to its earlier version Kakha Kakha!