Anyone can memorize

Awesome video on memory. I wish I could remember like the old days. Those old WWF cards and all the wrestlers' stats. Cricket stats of all my favorite players. All the telephone numbers, my whole weeks schedule for school, or even where I kept my red coloured pencil. Who borrowed my comics, and how much money I have loaned to my friends. As the speaker rightly mentions, we have been off-loading this amazing power of our brains to our computers, mobile phones and the internet.

My contacts are always synced between my devices. I don't even remember my passwords to all the websites. The browser remembers them, and syncs across all the computers. If at all, my browser somehow forgets one of the them, I have to do a "Password Reset" or even a "Forgot Username" if I don't even remember my login name.

It's already well known that practice improves our memory. But, now a days, we don't really practice much, and at times, not at all. We rely on technology so much, that in a way, we have been using less and less of our brains. I used to remember multiplication tables, and just yesterday, it was very hard for me to remember what 7x9 equals to!!!

That's really sad. A few years from now, among all of us, there would only be a few who would have advanced brains if we keep evolving machines and become more and more dependent on them. Those few, would not be those who are or were really gifted. Instead, a majority of us would be so much dependent on machines, we would soon forget about the wonders we can actually do with their memory.

To be frank, my memory is quite good as compared to some people I know (please don't ask to name them), but this ability of mine has certainly been on the downward trend. I often grab a calculator to do simple mathematical problems. I have almost forgotten birthdays of all my close ones(baring a few such as sister, wife, etc.), since I get reminders just in time.

But, I don't want to go and win some World Memory Championship. I just want to have my old, helpful and amazing memory of mine. Actually, it's not that hard. Well, the guy in the video says so. I will give it a try.

Exams, Results and Dreams

Exams, well, obviously, they are not the stuff that people love. Results; even more hated. And the wait for the results can be sometimes, never ending. How long can you really wait!!! And especially, when you are just hoping that everything turns out good. But, it almost never happens.

Before exams, I have had weird dreams. Really really weird...

"I am writing my exams, and I then realize that I am completely naked. With that realization, I rush out of the exam hall, out into the street, no where to hide. I keep running towards home, and then I wake up."

One of them actually turned into reality. During the class 10 board exams, I was preparing for History. That was the most dreaded subject I have ever had. The next day, when I started walking toward the exam hall, one of my friends asked me if I have got color pencils and threads. I was terrified. I was laughing at the same time, on my friend, imagining how he would react on getting the History question paper, when he was expecting a Geography paper. Soon, I realized that it was me. I would have sweated out the most that day. I flashed towards the stationary shop, collected all that was required for the Geography paper and ran back to the hall, 10 minutes late. I was allowed to enter. And finally, I was able to score 78 in that paper.

At times, I have dreamed about being caught cheating.

By the way, I never cheated during the exams. Ummmm.. there might have been one instance as far as I can remember. I don't exactly remember which exam it was. I think it was in class 8. I had finished my paper, and was looking around. There was a classmate, a girl, and she happened to look at me. I was nervous. I had to do something. She looked beautiful that day. I had to do something. I had to strike a conversation. And then, I put up my hand, and gestured her to tell me the answer to one of the questions. She was happy to help. She murmured the answer. The distance was far, and I was very bad at lip reading. She must have tried 4-5 times, but failed. And then, she explained the answer with gestures. By the way, I already knew the answer. :)

I once tried to take bits of paper to the exam hall, but gave up the idea at the last moment. I guess, I never learnt that art, although in college, we were exposed to all the tips and tricks of the business.

And now, again, I am writing my exams. Things have changed though. One of the exams that carries the maximum weight-age is an open book exam. But still, when it's time for the results, I can feel my heart beating fast and loud.

A girl and a boy talk

She: Hey, why didn't you go to the gym today?
He: Ah!! I tried very hard to wake up in the morning, but my eyes refused to co-operate.

She: This is not done. You know, I wish that my boy friend has a good body and looks muscular.
He: I try my best..and .. ..

She: Nothing doing. Do you feel that going to the gym is a burden for you everyday?
He: Sometimes. You know, working out alternate days is recommended by many people.
She: Look, I need my boy-friend to be fit and have a few muscles which he could use to scare away at-least 5 people.

He: Umm... Well, I also want my girl friend to be fitter, slimmer and healthier.

She: Ain't I? I am already so lean and thin.

He: Haha, you need to cut off a few pounds here and there.

She: My work timings are so hectic. Ok. If you want, I can come with you to the gym in the mornings. Earlier the better.
He: Are you sure?
She: Of course. You want your girl to lose some weight, right?
He: Yeah, but..

She: Let's go in the mornings. What time does the gym open?
He: 5 am

After a long pause...

She: We will discuss about this some other time. Got to sleep now. Good night. :)

Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The olden golden days

Long back, when we are just out of college, and had joined our first jobs, fun had a different meaning. The times were different. The friends we had were different. The places we visited were different.

This photo was taking at the Brigade road, during the Diwali celebrations in the year 2007. You can see two friends of mine on that bike. And I was on a bike as well when this photo was taken. I think I had clicked this photo.

Vishal and Felix on that bike. On the other side, I think it was Kunal and Me. Not very sure.

I came across this photo today. I vividly remembered me taking this photo, or may be Kunal, but, with time, had forgotten about those days. It's been at-least 2 years now that I have stepped into the Brigade Road. And yeah, I am still in Bangalore. Friends from those days are now far far away. I get to talk to them over Facebook, phone, Gtalk etc. But, then we don't have that kind of fun anymore. It might be just me. Other's might be enjoying their new life for sure.

This is yet another photo from the yesteryears. Weekends meant one thing. BEER and lots of it...... And House No. 420 in Koramangala 8th block. Sometimes, I miss those days. Those were really crazy days. Want to go back to the Olden Golden Days for sometime.

Conversations and her

She is either very intelligent, or just loves to show off her arguing powers. One day, out of nowhere, she wanted to test me. Usually, I lose the argument, irrespective of the topic of the discussion. Here we go.

A chat transcript.

She: Did you see a soul-mate (past, present and future) when you first looked into my eyes?

I instantly knew that I cannot afford to be outright truthful here. Didn't reply for a long time, pondering over my course of action, and also anticipating the possible repercussions.

She: (Impatient) You didn't answer my question.
He: (Oh no.. Not again!!) Ummm, No.
She: No? You did not see a soul-mate in me? You are lying.
Me: (Trying to be funny, to divert her) Living life with you is enough. I don't want to linger around with you after we become ghosts.

She: You are saying that we were not together in our previous births?
Me: I don't remember. (Trying to remember harder as ever)
She: And you don't want to be with me in your next birth?
Me: Global warming, everything will be over soon. So, I am not thinking about my next birth. :)

She: Oh...
She: Okay ("Ok" would have been fine, but "Okay" is a sign of the approaching storm)
She: (She was reading a book just before we started this conversation) Then, I guess, I will read my book.
Me: Hahahahaha
She: Huh!!!

And after that, we had to continue this discussion over the phone and finally reach a conclusion, well, not exactly, but to a point where she can go back to reading her book normally, and me, well, telling myself, "A job well done" and gave myself a pat on my back. :D I won this time. Yay!!!

What? What the heck!!!

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

People can be so stupid at times. Sometimes, we say or do stupid things, which would make even a donkey laugh out loud. However, there are certain situations where you tend to ignore them. For example, you would just ignore a stupid question from someone when you know that the person is perhaps sad about something, and not in the right state of mind.

But it's really irritating sometimes, when people ask stupid questions, whose answer they already know. The best example for this is when your phone rings, and the other person confirms first that it's actually you who answered. Of course, there are exceptions, but then, at times it's just so obvious that nobody else other than you could possibly answer the phone.

There was a guy, whose name I prefer not to mention. I had this habit of reading newspapers few years back. Whenever he walked into my room, and saw me reading the newspaper, we would go like this:

He: Hey, What are you doing?

Me: Reading newspaper (Obviously)

He: I can see that. Reading what in the newspaper.

Me: So and so article. (Guiding his vision towards that portion of the newspaper)

He: Hmm. What are you reading in that article?

Me: Well, you know, so and so happened. I was just reading that. (Should I read out loud)

What the heck!!! I don't have the habit anymore.

And it happened almost every time he saw me reading either the newspaper, a book or even listening to the radio. I mean, isn't this stupid? I could understand that he wanted to break the ice someway or the other, but didn't he have any another ice-breakers?

Perhaps this: "Oh, you are reading the newspaper! Did you see this article today?"

I would at-least not wonder if he was "BLIND".

There are other stupid questions as well. And the more frequently used one is:


Why do you like Ice cream so much? (Or anything else which I like/love)
It's not that I haven't tried explaining them. For example, a typical response to such a question would probably be something like: "Well, it's cold, it's sweet, and it comes in a variety of flavors".

But then, how do I respond to questions like: 
1. Why do you like cricket?
2. Why do you not like tennis?
3. Why do you have a Citibank credit card?
4. Why are you wearing a black shirt on such a warm day?
5. Wassup?

Ah!!! The last one is one of those, which I answer with a "NOTHING - Nothing at ALL".

Let bygones be bygones

I stay in Bangalore, a thousand miles away from my home, where I spent my childhood. When my mind is blank, and I am not thinking about work or anything else, I ponder over the past. I know those days will never come back, but to even re-live those moments with memories is truly nostalgic.

Recently, there have been a series of power failures in my area. "Damn it!!! @$#%3 @##@$ @#@$". No other thoughts come to my mind when the lights go off. When it starts raining, I curse the rain gods for the untimely downpours. Everything seems to have changed now.

We used to wait for the power cuts everyday when I was a child. Just before the scheduled power cuts, everyone could be seen getting ready with their snacks, water-bottles and other paraphernalia and walk up to the terrace. Those were the days when I learnt and actually saw the Pole star, the other constellations that we read in our Geography books. We talked about a lot of other things. About animals, birds, the moon and the sky. We talked about school. I miss those conversations. And I am sure that my parents miss that too.

When I was a child, I used to love the rains. I loved getting wet. Everytime it started raining, I made it a point that I had a good excuse before walking upto my Mom, for not using my raincoat. I enjoyed those summer days when it was a routine exercise for everyone to get rid of the mosquitoes every evening by burning mosquito repellants.

We also used to go for a walk after dinner, or played badminton right after our dinner during the winters. The Saturdays and the Sundays had a host of TV programs lined up for us, and everyone had a reserved place for him/her and nobody was late. We had only 1 television set and only 1 channel.

Sundays were really fun, when each vehicle in the house, including my bicycle had their weekly bath.

And now, I let my bike collect all the dust and mud until I give it away for servicing. I curse the mud and the overflowing drains when it rains. I use All-Out/Good Night to drive away those irritating mosquitoes. Even if it's not raining, I put on my jacket, just in case. I don't even remember when was the last time I looked up into the sky. I don't play badminton anymore. I keep on switching from channel to channel and end up watching nothing at all.

Sometimes, I feel sad about all these changes. But, you know what? There's an saying for everything.

"Let bygones be bygones"

Friends... Forever

What's a Friendship without fights? What's a Friendship without arguments? What's a Friendship without compromises?

Friends are supposed to understand what you don't say. Friends are supposed to advise when you are off the track. Friends are supposed to keep quite when you are mad. Friends are supposed to be there for you, all the time, no matter how busy they are.

But things change with time. You might not be in contact with your best pal from your childhood. You might have forgotten the name of your best friend in school. And the best friend from college, well, you might just call him up a few times in a year, perhaps on his birthday, or the new year.

Nobody has a single best friend. At-least, I don't have one. They kept changing, all the time, from the childhood days, to school, then college, and now at workplace. The concept of a "Best Friend" is a little flawed for me, at-least I feel so. I believe that, at a given moment, a person can have a pool of good friends, and it becomes almost impossible for one, to chose the best among them.

It might sound as if, today, on the occasion of "Friendship Day", I am trying to make all my friends happy. Well, in a way, Yes. I thank all of them who have considered me as a "Friend", but, also, those who have considered me as their "Best Friend" at some point of time.

I think I can list down a few friends who have been in my pool of good friends.

1. My Sisters (Mausumi, Sushmita): Well, obviously, they have to be among them. Had the best of times when we were children at home.
2. Hara Prasad Sahoo: He was one of the first who I met in Stewart School, and we were perhaps best friends till Class 4
3. Santrupta Mishra: We quickly became best friends in Class 4 and stayed Best Friends till 10th.
4. Shyam Bedback: In college, most of the times, we were seen with each other. Does that mean we were best friends? Perhaps.
5. Samiran Rautray, Ritesh Parida, Ashutosh Bag, Sidharth Gourav Nayak, Kapidhwaja Pratap Narayan Singh (Hope I spelled is correctly): Bet friends in the first year of engineering. Ragging was so fun in the first year. The whole year, we all sort of stayed together all the time.
6. Rishabh Kalra, Saurabh Shukla, Vivek Bhagbole: In addition to the first year friends, the pool kept getting bigger and bigger, and by the time it was my last year in engineering, the boundaries "Circles" of good friends started melting away.
7. Kunal Kishore Malviya, Vijay Kumar, Vivek Dwivedi, Rwitam Mitra, Sagar Mohane, Vinay Suri, Vishal Jain: All of them started to break the boundaries.
8. Nitin Chhabra, Gaurav Paul, Shakul Jugran, Sandesh Kothare, Rahul Jain: Well, those were the close group of friends with whom I spent most of my time in the initial days in Bangalore.
9. A few more which don't really fall into that chronological order: Amit Chahar, Vidushi Goyal, Rwitam Mitra, Debasis Biswal, Rajesh Jena, Santhosh Joshua, Padmaja Dash, Shantanu Singh, Vandana Toshniwal

And the list goes on and on and on.  I just can't really put every friends' names down here. Actually, it's a little unfair on my part, if I have left out anyone. But, I could, very clearly see the pattern emerging. The pool of good friends becomes bigger and bigger with your age. And, thus, the concept of having a "Best Friend" is diluted once you are exposed to such a large number of good friends. Sometimes, you can't make up your mind and pick a better friend among a two. At times, you will have to make a few compromises. It has frequently happened to me, that 2 from those friends would call you up and ask you to catch up for a movie. And now, you have to make a choice. When you make a choice, it's definitely hard for you, and it is perhaps hurts the other guy who you ignored. I also, feel the same, when such things happen to me. But then, everything is forgiven and forgotten soon, and then, the next weekend, you get to go with the other friend. And everyone seems to be happy now.

Ah!!! Ok, fine, Let's end this day here. By the way, A very Happy Friendship Day to all my friends, and I hope that I am always there in your "Circles" as a good friend. Don't ever think that I have stopped being a Friend of yours. Even if I don't call you often, even if I don't wish you on your birthdays, even if I have forgotten your last names. I still think about you all when I rest my mind. I still have dreamed about a few. It's just that Life has taken a toll on me, and that I have many many more friends to talk to, and keep my circle growing.

Thanks all, again, for being a FRIEND. Happy Friendship Day.

By the way: Did you notice? That list contains only 3 girl friends, apart from my sisters. I want to make as many girl friends as the boy friends I have. So, anyone interested on growing their pool of friends, please contact me.

Teaching kids is tough

I bet you would agree. Well, sometimes, they can be smarter than you at alphabets, arithmetic or whatever you are trying to teach them.

She was a 3 year old girl just beginning to learn alphabets. Kids can get difficult at times, and might also be uninterested, particularly when their favorite cartoon characters are starting out on yet another adventure on TV. Her mother found it too difficult to draw her attention away from the television and make her concentrate on her books. Her uncle offered to help. Her mother was more than happy to hand over the responsibility and go back to the kitchen.

Mr. Uncle seemed confident and determined at the job at hand. "She is just a 3 year old, and I have my ways of teaching", he must have thought. Today's target was to teach her at-least 2 alphabets, A and B.

She was more fond of her uncle. He used to bring her chocolates, take her out on his bike and was never angry at her. She had her reasons. Perhaps, she was bored of the cartoons and thought this was going to be interesting.

Mr. Uncle pulled out a blank sheet of paper. She sat down beside her, with a pencil in her hand, with all the focus and concentration required of her. Mr. Uncle started with 5 DOTS on the paper. She seemed confused. Mr. Uncle explained her, "Look here, the first DOT is your house, the second one is my house, the third DOT is your school, the fourth one is Papa's office and the fifth one is your friend's house. Now, to learn how to write an "A", you start from your house, go to my house, then go to your school, and then Papa's office and finally to your friend's house." He didn't connect the dots, rather he explained it to her(sequence) 2-3 times.

After Mr. Uncle was satisfied that his point was put across, he asked her, "Understood?". With a little smile on her face, she nodded her head. And then Mr. Uncle said, "Now write A with the help of dots".

Without a live demonstration, she looked confused and perplexed. Mr. Uncle tried to help her out. He said, "Ok no problem, I will help you out. How would you go from your house to mine?"

She was now smiling again. That's the hint she was looking for. With the pencil in her hand, she stoop up, and put her foot on the sheet of paper. :D

Filmy Dialogues

We all love Bollywood. I still remember those Saturday and Sunday movies on the National Television for which the whole household would eagerly wait. Everything stopped. Mom would stop cooking, my sister and me would close our books and everyone else would be rushing home to be in front of the TV. No matter what movie would be playing, those 3 hours seemed like a small theatre minus the pop-corn and the Coco Colas.

And those movies also influenced us in everyday life. Especially the dialogues. Some of them are still being played around. And I still remember and sometimes use them as well.

For example, Mr. Dharmedar's all time fav:

"Kutte, Kamine, Me tera khoon pi jaunga".

Well, that was considered as a harsh one those days. We children, for example, were never allowed to call a person or a human as a dog.

Another classy dialogue which was repeated over and over again in almost each and every movie:

Doctor: "I am sorry, Hum kuch nahi kar sakte hain" / "24 ghante tak hosh nahi aaya to hum kuch nahi kar sakte hain"

These days, nobody in the movies consult Indian doctors anymore. Perhaps, they are frustrated of hearing the same dialogs again and again.

And the policemen also had one:

"Kanoon ke haath bahut lambe hote hain".

Mr Suresh Kalmadi knows exactly the length, and thus has been able to keep himself out of reach.

Farmer: "Me iss jameen ko apne khoon se seenchta hoon".

There are no more fields or farms. Instead, there are 5 star hotels and IT companies.

Judge: "Saare saboot aur bayanat ko najar me rakhte hue, ye court is nateeze pe pahunchti hai ki muljim ko dafa 301 ke tehet faasi ki saja sunai jaye"

Nobody takes there cases to the court fearing execution. 

Gabbar Singh had a few super duper hit dialogues:

"Kitne aadmi the"

"Holi kab hai, kab hai holi"

Kalia and Samba have retired now and Gabbar's question go unheard and unanswered.

Satrughan Sinha's all time favorite: "KHAAAAMOSHHHHHHHHHHHH". 

I guess he was paid per character he spoke.

Rich villain Dad to Son: "Me tujhe is jayedaad se bedakhal karta hun"

Hero to villain: "Agar maa ka doodh piya hai to saamne aaa"

Weren't they funny? I miss them. :(

Just in time - Again

Continuing from the previous post, the journey back to Bhubaneswar on the Scooty was very very thrilling. Every 2 minutes, I used to ask Ashish to look at his watch while I was on full throttle. The Scooty was running a race of it's lifetime. I had never been in such a hurry before, well, may be I was, 2-3 times, :).

Finally, we did manage to reach the airport on time, just before the checking counter shut down. And Mr. Ashish could fly back to Hyderabad that day. What a relief!!!

People had always doubted my Scooty riding skills, but yet again, I have proved them wrong, and yet again, I won the race against time. I was in a similar situation when a friend of mine asked me to drop him at the railway station. It was in Bangalore and I had a Pulsar 180cc with me then. I made it on time then as well. A few days back I was mocking at Vishal and Gaurav for missing their flight, by 10 odd minutes. Now, I realize the importance of each minute, especially when you are running to catch a flight or a train. Hahaha, but in the end, it's the result that matters. They missed it !!! Kudos.

A Scooty’s trip to Puri

For the people who are ignorant of this word “Scooty”, let me first  introduce this to you.

Scooty is an Indian brand of scooters manufactured by TVS Motors. Basically, it was designed for women, and at one time, was the largest selling scooter brand in it’s segment. Equipped with a 60cc engine, it can hit a top speed of about 60 kmph with a single person. However, the max speed dropped to a surprisingly lower value, somewhere around 45 kmph when you add on a pillion. If you want to know more about this scooter, visit the website.

Well, mine, not exactly mine, but my sister’s scooty is 6 years old now. And whoever rides it now, vows never to ride it again. But during it’s initial days, I used to love scooty rides a lot. :) And, so, there is some kind of attachment between the two of us.

Ok, the story continues. Ashish, who was in Bhubaneswar, for  attending Sidharth’s marriage, wanted to go to Puri. I told him that we can take a car/taxi. Not willing to contribute to the already increasing Carbon levels in the atmosphere, he recommended to avail the public transport. Hmm, Bad Idea, I thought. But, I knew that I will not be able to convince him to take a taxi, he would have never agreed. So, I gave him another better (looking atleast) option. My Scooty. And he somehow agreed.

Well, there was one little constraint. He had a flight to catch, the same day, at 6:45 pm, that very evening. And so, I worked out all the calculations (taking into consideration all the factors, including the max possible speed of my scooty) and arrived at our scheduled departure time, 9:00 am in the morning. Well, true to their reputations, NITKians, never made anything on time. Or they always did something wrong. Ya Ya, I am one of them. But, I can give you some more examples. Mr. Vishal and Mr. Gaurav missed their flights by just 10 minutes who wanted to attend Sidharth’s marriage. Mr. Srinath, who is currently a student at IIM, Kolkatta, by mistake booked a train ticket for the day after when he was supposed to travel. He managed his time well, but had all the wrong data and inputs. :) And I wasn’t even expecting Mr. Ashish to make it to my house before at-least 11:00 am. And I still over-estimated. He reached my house at 11:30 and then we started.

Puri is around 60 kms from my house. And, I just did a test ride on my Scooty. A max speed of 43 kmph. Hmm, Well, at that speed, I thought it will take at-least 2 hours to reach Puri. And we did it. YAY!!!

But the return journey was more fun, exciting and tensed. For some reason, my Scooty refused to buzz beyond the 40 kmph. At the place where we stopped for food, we got a bit late and lost a few minutes there (may be 10 minutes). And, it was already 5:00 pm and there was still some 30 odd kms to cover. If at all, Rajhans misses his flight, he and only he would be the sole person responsible. He did all this, wasted time, which could have saved us a few minutes.

Did Rajhans miss his flight? Did Scooty survive the torture? Did we manage to break the NITKians record of never being on time?
To be continued… 

Indian Supermaaaaaann!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even the original superman cannot dance in the air like this. Note that, all the time Mr. Govinda is in the air, he keeps his left hand raised. I wonder why!!!!

And, well, indian movie makers are creative at times too. Kimi Katkar is portrayed as the Spidergirl in this song. The lyrics goes :

    "Tu Mera Superman" Hilarious.

Kitchen Champion - What the heck!!!!

It's really a pathetic these days on TV. I had been out of this connection for nearly 2 years. Now, I got a cable connection working with my laptop. And I have a remote. Within a few days, the remote's keys are dangling out. But they still work.

The DIDs, CDDs, Boogie Woogies, Emotional Atyachaars, Love Net, MTV Roadies, aaah, the list goes on and on and on. Do I like these? Well, honestly, I want to slap those fellows. I mean, it's been an overdoes of the so-called "Reality Shows".  And these shows don't seem to end. They go on forever.

Roadies 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, I mean, come on, this is definitely not software. And now, there's a new show on the TV. Kitchen Champion.

I guess, the actors weren't getting paid enough. They were interested in such a novel reality show. And the most amazing thing is, People do like to watch such things. Weird. Well, I also spend some time on these channels when something's cooking. But, I guess, these shows are just like the "Facebooks" and "Orkuts" for the not-so tech-savy people. Once a particular episode ends, I can see many people get on the phone and discuss about how Tulsi is going to escape from the traps of her Sasural wale, or if Parvati would leave her husband. It sometimes is very very funny.

I guess, the hardest job in all these shows is the work of the cameraman. At crucial junctures, they have to move those heavy cameras back and forth, uinfinite number of times. "Sweeeeiiissshh" "Sweeaaasshhh" and with sound effects as well. Out of the 30 minutes or so, 15 minutes goes into ads, 5 minutes in these "Swwweeeshing and Swwwaashing" and the remaing 10 minutes is full of "tears, cunning looks, abuses". It's just masala. I sometimes love masala, but an overdoes of it upsets my stomach.

One more thing, I hate those women cry out so loud with trillion drops of tears. I was once sleeping, really hard, and suddenly I heard someone crying loud. I rushed out to see what happened, just to realize that my friend was watching "Baalika Vadhu". Crap.

And by the way, all these Reality Shows are copied from some similar shows running in US/UK/Canada/Australia. Come on guys, be creative. Don't just copy and paste like me.

A 4 star Movie - Rajneeti

Rajneeti. From it's reviews it looked liked a good movie, and a bunch of friends decided to book tickets. This time, we got the tickets cheap. 100 bucks each. But the theatre which we walked into was one of the those in Bangalore which I had never went in before. A/C and dts. Though the sound was good, the combined effort of the ACs and fans inside couldn't dry our sweat. 5 minutes at our seats and we were sweating. :(

Itne paise me itna hi milega!!!!! Ok, 3 hours, and a good movie would shift my concentration from the heat to the movie,I thought. The first half was enjoyable, though the others were already bored. One of them even proposed that we should run away during the interval. But we didn't. There were a few who were still expecting a sweet turn-around to the already complex plot, including myself. Killing, death, politics, bombs going off, corruption and love. It was a mixture of all. But, none of them really made sense to me. It's not so easy to kill a big political figure in the real life as portrayed in the movie. And there were so many people getting killed. Arrrggghhh!!

Prakash Jha deleted steamy scenes of Katrina and Arjun Rampal from the movie to get a U/A certificate. Well, I wish someone had deleted the whole movie. It was pathetic. Even Nana Patekar's acting seemed out of sync. Some dialogues seemed to be directly copied verbatim from Mahabharata, the epic.

Katrina doesn't know how to carry herself in a sari. But she has definitely learnt some Hindi. Ummmm, Atleast Prakash Jha could have kept that steamy scene, and released it with an A certificate. There's anyway nothing in this movie for the younger people. My rating is just 2 stars.

Atop Nandi Hills

Well, we could not see the sunset, but the bike trip was awesome. Throughout the day, it was raining intermittently. And our clothes never dried. Though the roads were all wet, that didn't stop us from speeding our bikes. The ride down the hill was just great. With our engines shut off, we were still doing 60 kmph. We could have done better, but it was too risky.And before this, in the morning we also went for go-carting. It was the first time for me. After the first lap, I was riding along quite comfortably. Next time I will take along a few friends and race against them. I stand a good chance of getting the checkered flags.

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A pro smoker

 Here's a cool YouTube video 

A 2 year child smokes 40 cigs a day. The style of his will bring shame to even the biggest chain smokers of modern times. Check it out.

Location : Karnataka,

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Appjam '10 - A platform for the mobile community

Last Saturday, my dream came true. I had always dreamed to be at an IIM. This came true when I went to AppJam to demonstrate my Android application called "Blogaway" at the event which showcased the best 30 mobile apps. It was a 3 minute presentation and I couldn't really talk much, and didn't win any prizes but it was fun. Especially the iJam session and the ball throwing concept. One of my friends got a chance to present her idea in this session. Hahaha, she was hurled soft balls from all around the auditorium. But I guess, at the end they liked the idea. She is a lazy fellow and wanted everything to be done by her phone, without even her waking up from sleep. :P

The weather was just perfect for the day. There was another app from our company which was also demoed. Solaro for the iPad which is a client for the Solaro website. Tushar from Kolkatta had come down for the demo. The funny thing was, the duration of the demo was a mere 3 minutes. He also was sort of time, but we somehow managed.

It had rained while we were inside the auditorium of IIM Bangalore. And it seemed that everyone in Bangalore was happy that it had rained and the temperature had come down quite a bit. So, I guess all of them walked out of their home and clogged the roads. It took us 1 hour to reach home that evening. IIMB is around 15kms from my house. :(

We got free T-shirts. And the lunch was also free. I gobbled up 4 gulab jamuns. :)

I love Fridays

Who doesn't ? I guess, this is the most eagerly awaited day of the week for most of the humans on earth. Well, there are a few unfortunate lot, who have a 6 day week, but I think majority of the people on earth have a 5 day week.

My Friday morning's are really really different from the others. You won't believe that I wake up early on Fridays. So that, I can reach office early, finish work early, leave office early, and reach home early. Friday's schedule is completely different for me. The way we used to celebrate Fridays has changed now. Before all of my college friends dispersed from Bangalore, Friday was celebrated every week. A new hangout, a new reason to celebrate, some new friends and the same old beer. It used to be a lot more fun. There was no right time for anything on a Friday. We had dinner at 2am (Saturday, extended Friday), get some more beer at 4am (Saturday), sleep at 8am (Saturday) and wake up at 4pm (Saturday). That was pretty much the schedule for us. And midnight bike trips, walks, heated discussions, funny fights, we had it all.

But now things have changed. People have gone. Some people have quit drinking and smoking. Some people are married, some have girl friends and the rest have gone to foreign lands. Oh, and a few have joined some MBA colleges to study ( I think beer makes people think beyond their capabilities). There are still a few who are continuing with the traditional Friday celebrations, but only a very few and you never get hold of them. They have their Friday's planned out well before it arrives. When you call them up, you get a wry response, "Dude, I am booked!!!, You quit or what?? Bye, see ya next month ".

Aah, I just woke up from sleep, don't know why, and have nothing to do, than write this. I need a beer very badly. :( But, it's 3:30am (Saturday, Extended Friday) and still I love Fridays.

Google should buy Facebook

Last year, there was a rumor that Google has eventually bought Facebook. This was definitely a big news for the Silicon valley. I don’t know if this deal made people happy or sad, but at first, I was very reluctant to accept the truthfulness of this piece of news. Later, it turned out that it was just an April fool’s joke. :)

But I think Google should now buy out Facebook. Though Google already owns Orkut, the popularity of Facebook is way higher that Orkut’s. Orkut was a different company, which Google had bought some years back. I used to love Orkut and hated people who used facebook. Orkut had it’s own fan following, and almost 90% of them were not very keen to switch to Facebook. But, this was 2 years ago. Now, I don’t use Orkut. I AM ON FACEBOOK, and I open it 3-4 time a day. A lot of people who I know, were not ready to shift to Facebook, now are avid lovers of the social networking site.

Let’s discuss about the factors that made people shift from Orkut to Facebook. By the way, as far as I can see, Orkut will be going down the memory lane in less than 3 years. That’s my estimation. :)

1. The first thing I can think of is “Facebook’s UI”. It’s the basic thing which really affects how the website is being used. Facebook gives a better user-experience. Facebook is completely Ajax-ified. Orkut uses Ajax in bit’s and pieces.

2. The colors and layout of Orkut hurts the eyes. Whereas, Facebook’ backgroun (white) is very easy on the eyes.

3. The games on Facebook like “Mafia wars”, “Farmville” and “Knighthood” were instant success. Orkut missed out on these features.

4. Orkut introduced games and contests, very late. And they were not as good as Facebook’s.

5. Communities or groups on Orkut, well, it wasn’t properly used by the people, whereas on Facebook, these actually help out a lot of people.

6. Orkut has Ads everywhere, which makes some pages look odd. Ads on Facebook were small and were placed at the right places. They actually look good sometimes and some of them are indeed clickable. :) I never click on something that has “Google Adsense” written on it.

These are some of the things that I think might be reasons for the downfall of Orkut. Orkut was of-course quite popular. But now, It’s Facebook who is taking away users from Google. Google should buy Facebook now to stay in the Social Networking business. I don’t want Microsoft to buy Facebook. But I don’t think Facebook will ever agree to Google’s offer just in case there’s one. It’s doing good.