Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali to everyone!

Cool Iris

Cool Iris

The Best freaking Firefox Add-on till date! It provides a 3-d view of all images on any webpage. Check it out:
Here's what happened when I used Cool Iris on my blog -


Here's another sample - with the search term being "Waterfalls" [something which even a retard could guess from the photo, so I dont know why I even mentioned it]



Here is a sample of what it can do when applied with better search terms on Google Images like "Victoria's Secrets" ;)


Let thy imagination take control!

10,000

Ten Thousand is a big number, and that's also soon to be the number of hits my humble blog has received. I've written close to 120 posts, close to a 100 posts already this year. Imagine the amount of time I've wasted, downloading and uploading photos, posting hyperlinks, writing stories and articles ranging from college stuff to Sachin, to Keeley Hazell and Megan Fox.
Boy, I should've used my time better ;)

Brisingr

I've finally begun reading the 3rd book in the Eragon Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. I've barely done 43 pages, but I'm glad that the writing style is the same and the pace is pretty decent.
After The Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter, the Eragon series has been the only one I've followed closely. A pity that the movie "Eragon" sucked big time, I guess every book isn't as fortunate as The Lord Of The Rings to have a great director like Peter Jackson to transform the book series into an equally great movie series. My suggestion, get a copy and read it.
Happy Diwali and Happy Reading!

This one is hard to believe

This article in TOI suggests that Amir went to the gym for months in the past year and apparently got the above look. It's weird coz during all the publicity interviews for Taarey Zameen Par when Amir was apparently building his body, not once did he seem to be hiding such bisceps and shoulder blades and triceps under his T-Shirt!
This one I really got to see. As of now, it seems like a morphed image; time will tell.

Fashion

Here's a movie I'm really looking forward to, not just 'coz Priyanka is looking gorgeous or 'coz it's a movie about fashion models' private [darker ;) ] lives. It's 'coz Madhur Bhandarkar gives his movies a certain edge in terms of the story treatment, so my guess is that it'll be worth watching.

Also, this movie needs to be a hit to turn around what's been a disaster of a year for Priyanka Chopra. Now, the movie has been given an A certificate; not that I have an issue with it, me being an adult and all [what's da point of being an adult if one can't watch movies made for our mature sensibilities ;) ]. But Madhur Bhandarkar seemed pretty upset in an interview. He explained how the movie shouldn't have been given an A rating, since - and I quote - "in today's generation, 10... 11 and 13 year olds are very well advanced"!

Well, he said it! Let's just drop the charade and let all movies be thrown open to all age groups and India will become an advanced country!

Come to think of it, I specifically remember watching Titanic as a kid in 5th or 6th standard; and boy did that movie push the U rating to a new level. Ofcourse I knew what was going on in the car and boy oh boy, was the theatre completely silent in admiration of Leonardo Dicaprio's drawing skills during the scene where Kate asks him to "draw her"! If only art classes in school were as intriguing I'm sure I would've become an artist.

I hope the movie is as good as it looks, only time can tell.

P.S. : Priyanka is also looking pretty hot in Dostana, but then it's got John and Abhishek in it in a story apparently adapted from the pathetic Adam Sandler movie "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry"; so can't really hope for too much out there!

The name is Tendulkar, Sachin Tendulkar

Yeah, he did it. The Chappels wanted him to retire; sections of the media wanted him to retire, dumb asses claimed he hasn't won India a match in 5 years [forgetting the Aus series in February] and then they all stand in line praising the Master when he proves it yet again!

And to top it, he did it at a time when we needed the runs from him; he and Sourav Ganguly in yet another 100+ run match turning partnership. Sourav also passed the 7000 run mark.

But then came the turnaround of the year, news channels who until 3 days ago were headlining stuff like - Sachin fails again! etc. started to sing praises of him. Times Now even went to the extent of having a poll asking whether he should make the 2011 WC his next target. Talk about overcompensating.

As a Sachin fan, it's days like these when one can enjoy the show, all the double talking dim wits embracing Sachin as if he was their messiah, only to turn against him a week later. But what a record like this does is stamp the man's rightful place in history.

On a slightly different note, I must mention the narcissism of the Aussie media and cricketers, they know their days of world domination are numbered, so their rhetoric increases every day.
On a day when Sachin screwed their asses all over the park and set a world record, this is what they are reporting Ricky Ponting next in line for Sachin Tendulkar record
Talk about self obsession!

There's news for you, Aussies. Ageing is not a process reserved exclusively for the Indians, even Aussies get old. Ponting [already 34 yrs old and is just 1 year younger than Sachin] too is going to have his set of injuries and rough patches, he is no Bradman, so just calm down and watch Sachin pile on the runs!

And Sachin, there's no need to say this, but still... You Rule man! Thank God I was born in this era, imagine being born and not having seen Sachin Tendulkar play!

Sexist?

I just read this mail on our college server, asking for help as someone "urgently needed girls for Rangoli".

Now, I just wonder, isn't that a little sexist?

Does it mean that only girls are supposed to do Rangoli, or that boys can't do Rangoli... hmmm. Yet another question thrown open by the brillaint mail writers from college ;)

The Fake Accent Thingy

I wonder how many people have noticed this, but off late we have had a surge of Indian reporters from English language news channels, who all of a sudden have developed very thick American accents. The pioneer in this phenomenon has been Times Now, these guy's have literally redifined English.

Not only do they have horribly fake accents, they also unabashedly mimick CNN style news reports. Then the obsession with the US, WTF? Leave American News reporting to American news channels man, last week there was this 'special' about some 'cat' stuck in a chimney in New York and how firefighters had to struggle for 16 hours to get it out. Oh please!!! We have enough babies falling in borewells here in India, we don't need to know stuff about 'cats in US chimneys'.

Now a little something about Fake accents:

If you don't really know what a fake accent is, it's something like this... clearly Indian males/females who overnight decide that they will henceforth pronounce their leading 'c' as a 'kh', as in 'currency' is pronounced as 'kh-urrency'. What is the need to do this is something that baffles me!

An Indian news channel, catering to Indian news shouldn't find it necessary to speak in an alien accent. Then ofcourse we have Salman Khan, the baap of fake accents. Just watch this guy in a movie like say Hum Aapke Hain Koun, and then watch him in Partner. One would think he spent the last decade working in a Manhattan Dosa Diner.

The only people in India for whom learning the fake accent is understandable are the call center employees, it's their livelyhood. But then they should leave it at their jobs and not pakao us when they are outside, like at a movie or something.

I'm not saying that it's wrong, but it's just silly. 

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Story:

A bunch of friends are out for a movie, also in the gang is this guy who has freshly joined a call center. He's at it with his fake accent, trying to act all high and mighty. The friends tolerate him, after the movie they all head off to CCD, he carries on with his horrendous accent, which is now really irritating everyone. Then by accident a waiter loses balance and spills some coffee on the 'fake accent' guy's shirt. He gets angry and yells 'faaack, kya kiya yaar, theees shirt is s-k-i-r-u-u-d [screwed]'. They all start laughing, more on his transformed accent than his screwed shirt!

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Now the moral of the story is, a fake accent is like botched up make up, a bit of rain and it's all gone! So people, quit it! Do not unnecessarily use a fake accent, it doesn't make you an American. Similarly using a British accent won't make you a Britisher. Just be proud of who you are and use whatever accent comes naturally to you. 

As the saying goes - people always know when you're faking it!  ;)

Sourav Ganguly's Retirement and it's implications

DADA announced his retirement! If this is news to you, you obviously have been living in Siberia. It's sad that Sourav Ganguly was treated badly post the Sri Lanka series. For all those blaming him for that failure, here's a fact: Dhoni, the so called Superstar and Khel Ratna [rarely has an upstart been given a Khel Ratna like he has] refused to go to Sri Lanka for the Test series. No questions asked!

I respect and salute Sourav for giving Indian Cricket some spine! If Sachin held India's hopes on his shoulders for nearly 2 decades, it was Sourav's captaincy that made us so strong that even the mighty Aussies crumbled before us [remember 2001, just in case you forgot that due to News Channel Propaganda].

He is a master batsman, few realize he is the 2nd highest century maker in ODIs. Sourav Ganguly is India's greatest left handed batsman [Yuvraj, keep wishing]; he along with Sachin formed the greatest opening pair in cricketing history.

For those who think Indian cricket will be better off without the services of it's legends, well, you're in for a big surprise. Along with the undisputed difference in talent, there is also another major difference in the seniors and juniors.

It's something called honor. As soon as the last of the legends leave this team, we will no longer have players who play for the country at the risk of physical injury

I doub't whether the "juniors" would do what Kumble did that day. Who can forget Sachin's tragic century in 1999 against Pakistan in Chennai, which almost ended his career? 

The new generation is smart, they'd rather look after contracts. Kudos to Sourav for showing the board and the "juniors" that they need to introspect. 

Talent like Kumble, Ganguly, Dravid and Sachin will rarely present itself at the same time, if ever we can conjure such a bunch. Instead of savoring each moment of the last few years that these legends have left in international cricket, we have maniacs asking for their retirement.

People should remember that, a candle's flame is strongest just before it extinguishes. The end of the careers of the giants of Indian cricket shoudn;t be hastened by irresponsible men in positions in power. No I am not anti change. But forcing the process is not the answer. Meanwhile I will enjoy the last Test Series that dada will play in. Good luck to him.

Thanks for the memories Sourav :)

Forever The Bengal Tiger! 

Trivial Updates

After 2 months of abstaining from hearing music on my iPod, more because of the fact that my earphones got screwed, I finally resumed listening to the greatest accesory a college student can want. The replacement earphones are brilliant. I also happened to go through the Bose India Catalogue and I gave up hopes of buying Bose headphones for at least a year. 62K for headphones! WTF! It's supposed to be great though. Also, there aren't any Bose stores in Pune. So I'll wait till Bose comes to Pune [and till I accumulate 62K].

Also, we got all our midsem marks. Thankfully I maintained my record of double digit marks ;)

My ED presentation was seriously awesome considering that we had to redo our entire B-Plan 1 hour before the presentation.

Ponting scored another century, bloody #@$%!* !!!

Finished reading Jeffrey Archer's 'A Prisoner Of Birth' and Khaled Hosseini's 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'.

Waiting for Sachin to score his next century.