Reco Letter

Right now there's this phase of life where a lot of my friends are collecting letters of recommendations from a lot of places, while they are individuals who are big achievers and highly skilled people, what if a guy/girl who has done nothing of significance in his/her life wants a letter of recommendation. What if he/she was a nightmare of a student? This is a sample Letter of Recommendation of such a person.

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To whom it may concern,

It is my immense pleasure to recommend Patrick Henry Jr. for your post-graduate program for the next coming academic year. Patrick outweighs every other student in his class and the fact that he still manages to travel by public transport is very impressive.

I came to know him in the autumn of 2005 while teaching his class. Both in class and outside he made a very strong impression. During the course of studies his partner's grades were very good and even though he sat next to him in every exam and still managed to get exceptionally low marks in those exams, I can certify that he is honest and definitely never cheated in any test.
He never took up any extra curricular activities, thus showing that he knew his limitations and excelled within them.
He has the ability to gather around him a team of peers who ensure that no matter how less an effort he puts in, he always completes his assignments on time and when he cannot he displays his profound ability to impress upon professors that time is a relative quantity and whether he gave his assignment on time or a few days late, it didn't matter as long as he eventually did complete it.
He is a very respectful student and always is a positive influence on his peers, he has the ability to see positives in everything and he is a very happy person, since he keeps laughing during most lectures. His antics during lectures always ensures a healthy attendance of students.

I would love it if he continued his higher education at your institute and not mine. You will be the happiest man alive when he walks out of the gates of your institute after he completes his higher studies, I assure you.

Sincerely,

David Flabbergaster

HOD Electical Engineering Dept

ICU Institute of Engineering

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Dev D Movie Review

Just one word – Fabulous!
I finally saw this movie on Sunday and thank God I waited to watch it in a theatre. One of the best Hindi movies I have seen. Anurag Kashyap and Amit Trivedi – take a bow!

Yes, there are those who didn’t like it, but I liked it and that’s all that counts. I don’t care who gave it 5 stars and who gave it 1 star; a movie like this is beyond ratings.
I really wish people would decide what kind of a movie they expect before they step into the theatre, that’s where I believe most people end up not liking movies. What one gets in Dev D, is some great acting, great direction and above all great… great music and lots of it, there’s little else that you can ask for.
What I liked about the movie was that even though you know it’s a Devdas remake, you still are surprised with the total angle change and twists in the story. I for one loved the role of Chanda, seriously well etched out. Paro was also fine, but the best acting performance was by Abhay Deol, from whom one now can just start expecting great performances and nothing less. I had also seen “Oye Lucky Lucky Oye!” a few weeks back and he did brilliantly in that too. While the movie is a serious one it has some great humor in it, the “Sattu” scene at the start, Emosanal Attyachar [Brass Band version] with those two hilarious singers and a host of other moments in the movie. The entire movie is intelligent and is entertaining. Some people have complained about the songs and stuff, but I didn’t really have an issue since I loved the album [which has been on my playlist since the last month] and the handling of the scenes, especially between Chanda and Dev is superb.
Chanda, played by Kalki is a revelation; her entire story arc starting from the MMS scandal to the last scene is amazing. One was really pleased the see the way the whole MMS issue was handled in a completely non-sleazy way in the film. One can only imagine what the directors of the 90’s and 80’s would’ve done with that kind of subject matter! I don’t know what people were saying when they complained about Chanda’s accent, she’s not playing a Bharatiya nari types as it is.
The strength of the movie lies in the depth the female characters are given. While it is true that in most Bollywood movies, female characters are just eye candy; Anurag Kashyap gives us Chanda who is not only eye candy, but also has a huge role to play in the movie itself. Even Paro did a great job in the movie.
What I was also glad to see was that the theatre had quite a decent crowd, even though the movie is relatively old now.
Now the music, enough has already been said about how awesome it is, but I think it’s necessary to mention how well it has been used in the movie. By far one of the best soundtracks to come out of the Hindi movie industry!
To finish this review, which is mostly a recommendation for this movie – one hopes that the Anurag Kashyaps of Bollywood prevail over the mindless trash made by the Nikhil Advanis and Aneez Bazmees of this world.

Good Times

Yeah, weekends in Feb have been great so far, especially weekends with some relation to St. Vincent’s. First was the amazing/random/weird/awesome time at school a couple of Saturdays back, followed by what happened on Sunday. I finally saw Dev D, with Akash and Srinivas; we all unanimously liked the movie, but to different degrees, I loved it. We had a great time during the movie as is the case each time a bunch of Vincentians go for a flick together, we either totally screw the movie and laugh over it or totally enjoy it if its good. This time it was the latter.
Then came the best part of the day, Vedo, Robert and Karl joined us after the movie and then we had non-stop narrations of hilarious incidents, I’m pretty sure we didn’t even finish 10% of all the incidents we all had in the past 4 years, but even then it was enough to spend an afternoon.
There’s something about your schoolmates that’s special and the nature of the friendship only gets better in time. A few of us may have met after 4 years, but it was almost like we had met yesterday. Some things don’t change that much, and thankfully they never will.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

I had been waiting for this flick to "release on DVD" [read as - come out with a good torrent] for the past 6 months and finally I got the movie with me today morning and after watching it all I can say is - it was really good. Once again I propose my theory of liking a movie as much as one wants to like it, so if you read this and "get the DVD" and don't like it, it's not my fault.
It's a simplistic story - all about the events that transpire on one night, between the 2 protagonists, Nick and Norah. Nick is the sole hetero/straight member of a gay band called The Jerk-Offs; who hasn't recovered from a break up with his girlfriend Tris; so he calls her up and leaves all loserish messages on her answering machine along with sending her mix CD's in the hopes of winning her back. Tris is least interested in him and had been cheating on him during their relationship.
Norah is this rich kid who tries to lead as normal a life as possible and is always with her best friend Caroline [who gets drunk at parties and needs Norah to save her]. Norah, played by Kat Dennings is perfectly cast along with Michael Cera who plays Nick.

The rest of the story is a breezy set of events that transpire along the night when Nick and Norah start the night, separately hunting for the location where this band called "Where's Fluffy? " is going to perform.

The one liner's in the movie are really smart and funny. The situations are pretty fresh and worth watching. Michael Cera has been part of Superbad, my most favorite comedy of the 2000's and then he added Juno [which was a decent movie] to his list and he does himself no harm with Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Kat Dennings too has done a fabulous job. The whole movie is a light on the head but not stupid flick and I for one enjoyed it a lot and will urge [read as force] my friends to watch it.

If you have seen the above movies and liked any of them, I suggest you watch this flick which is supported well by a pretty decent soundtrack as well.

3.5/5 stars for Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Happy Violent Times Day

I won't go into the cultural aspect of whether Valentine's Day is good or bad... that's for each of us to decide for ourselves. But somehow it seems that this time of the year some people get a license to be violent en mass. The news channels show these losers on screen thrashing people and yet they never get arrested. If this trend continues, we might as well rename it Violent Times Day, a day for violent people to go out on the streets and thrash people!

Sad to see such trends in our "non-violent" country.

Worst part was seeing a police constable thrash a woman in Haryana, yeah man... way to go... hail your sadist culture where you use force on a woman! Then we had a case in MP where a bunch of cultural thugs mistook a brother-sister pair on the roads as "lovers" and thrashed the guy until they were told that the guy was her brother! So apparently on 14th Feb, if you're seen with a girl, she better be your sister - or else...

Then we had cases in Maharashtra of couples being "married" on the streets, with a bunch of sadists clapping away to glory as a sobbing girl garlands her "husband". Insanity seems to prevail in the country on such days.

And then a lot has been written about this topic already and I don't want to be repetitive, but this is no way to treat your countrymen.

One rarely gets to hear of some boy harassing a girl on such days , but we always hear of the people who want to prevent the damage to Indian culture, harassing people. It is a mockery of the law and order, the cop thrashing a woman just proves what kinds of people are out on the streets to protect the innocent. Frustrated losers should not decide what Indian culture is.

Anyways blogging about it also doesn't help much, but then at least making your point of view known is a start. Hopefully power will go to sensible people in this country... someday!

Are those real or fake?

Are those real or fake?

A common query in the minds of guys who look at super endowed models or actresses etc. But now no more will this be a question simply in the minds of guys! And we can all thank the phenomenon called "hair transplant" for this.

Hair transplant is the male answer to the female cosmetic enhancement procedure called "implants". In the coming years when a 35+ man walks the streets with his hand running through thick, flowing black hair; women will have all the right to wonder - "Real or fake?"

Its a viral process, very strong rumors suggest that Sallu got it done a couple of years back, Arun Lal then tormented us with his newly reclaimed hairline, now Harsha Bhogle has taken the plunge. And rumor has it that in the next few weeks Sehwag of all the people in the world will unleash his... well... hair!

It's sad to see such famous baldies shed their trademark head shine, but I guess the day Fair and Handsome got accepted, it was a matter of time that men dropped gyms in favor of cosmetic enhancements!

Only time will tell whether this is a passing phase or whether "mardo vaali cream" types of people will prevail. Till then I'm praying that baldness stays away!

Dig Out Your Soul

"Wassup" is the usual question asked on Gtalk and other places - Along with the usual reply of "Nothing Much", this is what I'm upto - Listening to the album by Oasis called Dig Out Your Soul. It has some classic Oasis tracks, and the one's which I like in particular are -

Bag It Up - Listen to the last 1 minute of the song, awesome stuff.

The Shock Of The Lightning - Nice Song

I'm Outta Time - Simply my most favorite track of the album, great lyrics and a haunting feel to the whole song makes it a song worthy of remembrance.

1. Bag It Up
2. The Turning
3. Waiting for the Rapture
4. The Shock of the Lightning
5. I'm Outta Time
6. (Get Off Your) High Horse Lady
7. Falling Down
8. To Be Where There's Life
9. Ain't Got Nothin
10. The Nature of Reality
11. Soldier On

Four stars out of five for this one.

A beautiful day and those pockets of pure joy

I had a great day today, filled with memorable moments and times that I will cherish for life. I also went to my school after 4 long years... yes, it's been that long since I walked on the school ground, sat on my favorite bench, took guard in front of the tree which we used as the "stumps" for playing cricket, sat near the Gulati Hall, saw some of my favorite school teachers and swore I'd go next as soon as I am done with engineering. It's like an elixir for the soul, visiting places which have only and only got happy memories, people who genuinely like you, people who are proud of you and to get to do all that in the company of someone who is your best friend, is as good as it gets. I had a great day today... St. Vincent's is the best school ever!
It's days like these that make you capable of facing all the hurdles of life, because there are these pockets of pure joy that still exist.

To use a Lord of the Rings reference, places like these are like Lothlorien. You can always come there, weary... tired and leave rejuvenated and full of life. Or you can go there just for the heck of it and remember the never ending set of stories that took place out there. I do have a few more pockets of joy; places which can make my day and now, after today's amazing experience I will go to those pockets more often.