Friday, April 30, 2010

The First MURDER of my life...

I was getting bored at my office, as usual, and my friend offered me a lift to my home, leaving office a bit earlier than normal. I knew something wrong is going to happen with me today. As I picked up my bag to leave the office, was encountered by my senior manager just outside the lift and the guilt feeling cropped up instantly. That was a bad sign. Still carried on and reached home. The moment I entered into my flat, again I felt something fishy. Checked all the doors, windows, switches, gysers etc. Everything seemed well in place. Kitchen was also fine. But I guess, someone was watching me.

Ignored all my stupid thoughts and changed my cloths and crashed into my bed. After sometime, decided to get out of the bed and do something constructive. But was not much interested in going into the kitchen. Something was very disturbing about it. Switched on my TV and tuned onto my favourite music channel. Somehow my mind diverted from this "something-is-wrong" thing and I decided to put on the music on high volume and get into the kitchen.

I cleaned one part of it and quite reluctantly went on to clean the other side. At that very horrifying moment my stupid thoughts turned into reality. Someone was actually watching me and was waiting for me to kill me !!!!!!!
She jumped onto me and I could just manage to maintain my balance to avoid falling onto the floor. I jumped back and she fell on the floor. Regained my conciousness and looked straight into her eyes. She was such a pathetic black thing. Yuck !! and was lying still there. Thats when I decided to take on my Self-defense measure and KILL her.
I ran to bring my weapon from the balcony and attacked her brutally. Now it was her turn to run for her life but BANG... I stabbed her repeatedly and finally she lay there- DEAD. PHEW !!!

That was the first murder of my life. As if I am determined and destined to commit 50 murders in my life. Before you jump on to any weird idea of the murder of a human being, let me clarify, I murdered a LIZARD. Humanity wise sad/wrong/barbarous/horrible/ etcetera etcetera, (etc. etc.: many of us don't know the full form of etc.) I know. But that was Self Defense. When you are in a very good mood and cleaning your area/ sleeping/ singing/ or doing anything on this earth and an ugly looking lizard jumps on to you with the intention to kill you, won't you fight it back???

When you are too sleepy to even put off the light whose switch is some 5 steps away and you spot a lizard on the ceiling just on top of you, won't you jump off to save your life??? Yes, you would. Basically, was not my first murder. My earlier victims had been mosquitoes, bugs, spiders etc etc. But Lizard is something I hate, especially when I spot her on the above mentioned occassions. Else, am not much bothered.

And for this daring act, I got a big chocolate from my dear hubby (who is much more afraid of such creatures). Ek Kitkat to banta hai na !!! Sorry God for this murder....

BTW: when I entered home, I found it different, coz, Nimit's one of the cousins had been to our home a night before and he left for his work after both of us had left. So, the doors, windows and curtains were in a bit different position than normal :)

Monday, April 26, 2010

How to keep yourself awake in Office...

By working, ofcourse....

But in case you don't have any work or if it is a Monday (and you are damn sleepy) or if it is your birthday or your boss has made your life miserable and thus you don't want to work or if you are engaged/married (newly married only) and its a perfect romantic weather outside, and SO you are not able to concentrate on your work and are a restless soul, how would you keep yourself from falling off your chair publicly??

Do write in your ways how you keep yourself awake in the Comments section. I am scribbling down my ways:

1. Keep on drinking lot of water
2. Keep munching on to something- I eat biscuits, others may use Chewing Gum (you cannot sleep while chewing something right? or can you?? Don't tell me !!!)
3. Keep going to washrooms and stretch yourself and wash your face (I do that repeatedly till my face becomes so cold and numb that it loses all its senses)
4. Play games (which I can do only when my boss is not around- it doesn't look decent you see and you ought to show off that you are a decent being atleast in your office)
5. Read novels- yes, I have finished as many as 5 novels in my office
6. GTALK  and FORWARDS and REPLY ALL option on mail and hence the vella-panti with your group mates
7. Disturb others and get into any stupid talks
8. At times when I am awake enough to get into any serious discussion, I join my group of INTELLIGENT friends, who have knowledge about most of the things. The only problem is that I forget whatever we discuss as soon as I am out of the discussion, but thats my childhood problem, can't help it.
9. Ignore everyone and put on your handsfree and listen to your favourite songs on your mobile/ipod, how-so-ever indecent it looks.
10. GOOGLE/Google Maps/Wikimapia/Rediff news etc etc. Just pick any random term and type it on google and start your search.
11. Write a blogpost, as I had just now done...

These are my ways to make sure that I don't fall off my chair and let people have a good laugh about it. Do write in your ways, they may be interesting enough to put all of us reading this blog off the sleep at our workplaces.... CHEERS !!!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Its all about Money Honey...

Someone had raised a question on one of the social networking sites a few days ago: Why does Cricket has special and skewed fan following in India, even when it is not our National Sport? I guess the answer lies in the huge money involved in the sport. Its one sport in which everyone gains some monetory benefits. In other sports, like hockey, players keep on wondering if they have to play on their own expense, while the association gulps in all the money (whatever comes in).
In cricket, even if your team loses the match, you will get a handsome amount as match fees. And the new nationwide fever- IPL (20-20) has completely redefined the meaning of Teams. Richie Riches of the world "buy" players for huge amounts and make their own team. So, now Tendulkar has got the opportunity to play against his long time team-mate Kumble, coz he has been bought by Mumbai team and Kumble by Bangalore team.

And when something like this becomes this big, it is hard to believe it that no controversy would be involved. Earlier it was about the scantily clad cheargirls, then boycotting the Pakistani players, then Shahrukh's statement and now the biggest scandal of the IPL-- Modi Vs Tharoor-- has cropped up. And as customary, once someone's name is dragged into any controversy, we don't leave without tracing his every single act that he has done from his childhood.
Lalit Kumar Modi- The Chief of IPL. Only now it is made public that he has so many criminal cases against him, that his son-in-law has stake and interest in IPL teams and that Modi gave few contracts of IPL to his family members just like that. No one asked this when he was made the chief (may be because he was opening the door for the biggest money making market)
Shashi Tharoor- (Now Ex) Minister of state for external affairs- Kerala . Only now we have become so interested in his two marriages and current girlfriend.

Now have started the blame game and both the parties and their respective supporters are doing deepest research on each other and taking out the ghosts of the past. I have not been able to understand thus far as to how people find so much of time to put down their current state of mind on Twitter and even more that how curious and eager other people are to know what these celebrities have just written.

Lalit Modi (I suppose, he should have been very very busy with the on-going IPL), found enough time to leak the name of one of the owners of the Kochi team on Twitter (why on the earth did he use this medium??).
Then on further probing, this owner- "a beautiful attractive lady" - as quoted by Tharoor, Sunanda Pushkar, is rumoured to be Shashi Tharoor's girlfriend and they are about to get married.
Ms. Pushkar is said to have no skill and interest to be made the co-owner and this is when the real controversy striked. Shashi Tharoor supposedly used his GF (yeah, the slang) to put his stake in the team, which as a minister he cannot have and also instructed Modi not to probe into the owners of the Kochi Team.
Though Modi supposedly wanted other business groups to win the bid for the team,so that he can have the indirect stakes in the team.
This can be termed as money laundering and illegal betting.
Then all the Sherlock Holmes (as I mentioned earlier as well) took out Modi's life history, which is full of criminal charges against him.
Lalit Modi, himself is supposedly having stakes in other teams through his relatives.
Government came to Tharoor's rescue. They accepted his resignation (to keep up their clean image) and attacked Modi-aka-IPL-aka-BCCI, by asking all the papers and tax probe. If tax probe is done, BCCI may end up paying billions of rupees to the government.
In this scenario, BCCI is ready to sack Modi (better to lose one man than paying this hefty amount).
But how can the GOD of IPL quit? The IPL and its associates have been subject to nationwide tax raids over the past few days and authorities have summoned IPL officials on Friday to hand over all paperwork related to the tournament. This has led all the franchisees into deep trouble and tense situation.

 
Ultimately, Tharoor has quit, Sunanda Pushkar has quit, Modi is facing the same charges that he has put on Tharoor (of using someone else to get the stakes in the team), entire IPL brigade is under the scanner now.
 
The cuplrit: Twitter. Lets see where does this all end up at. I am again very confused (as I was in the case of Sania-Shoaib). You are most welcome to put this entire case in the most simple language, to make me understand, in the comments section. Thank You.
 
PS:
1. The word "supposedly" has been used many times, because all of us are still in the "guessing" mode. Nothing is sure and certain. So, don't be annoyed by the repeatitive use of this word.
2. Don't forget to visit this place http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalit_Modi . I always wonder how Wikipedia always have all the information.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

WHY...

Got these questions from the "Light Humor" section of the magazine from one of the most boring (that's what I think) team of any organization- Legal...

Read this, even you will think "WHY?"

1) If swimming is a good exercise to stay fit, then WHY WHALES are fat?

2) WHY is that everyone wants to go to HEAVEN but nobody wants to die?

3) Shall I say that there is racial discrimination in CHESS as WHITE piece is moved first?

4) In our Country, we have freedom for SPEECH, then WHY telephone bills?

5) If MONEY doesn't grow on tress then WHY do BANKS have branches?

6) WHY does a round PIZZA come in a SQUARE box?

7) WHY doesn't GLUE stick to its bottle?

8) WHY do you still call it a BUILDING when its already BUILT?

9) If its true that WE are here to help others, then what OTHERS are here for?

10) If you aren't supposed to DRINK AND DRIVE, then WHY do BARS have parking lots?

WE are funny people living in a SERIOUSLY funny world!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Practical Ramp Walk...

Now this is what I call the practical fashion show, the designs which can actually be used by commom people (as compared to the saree designs, for which I had given the link in my earlier post- Amazing styles). This is Istanbul's Islamic Fashion Fair, which showcased the clothes which the Muslim ladies can and mostly wear...

Friday, April 9, 2010

15 seconds of Fame...

28th January 2010
Indian Tennis star (Sania Mirza) has called off her engagement with Sohrab Mirza, supposedly a close family friend, stating lack of compatibility as the reason.

29th March 2010
Sania Mirza to marry ex-Pakistani Cricket Captain Shoaib Malik on 15th April 2010.

Though none of the news make any difference to my life but the events which took place after 30th March annoyed me a bit. The media came into its Sherlock Holmes mode to investigate till the root why Sania mirza actually called off her engagement, was that to immediately marry Shoaib Malik, was her family earlier not ready for Shoaib, why have they agreed now, that Sania was adament on her decision to marry Shoaib only.... phew...

The Times of India quick summary of the events:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March 29
Sania Mirza’s family confirm that she is all set to marry Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik in April

March 30
Sania officially announces marriage, says will keep playing for India

March 31
Ayesha’s father Mohammed Ahmed Siddiqui threatens legal action against Malik

April 1
‘Sania will only be Malik’s second wife,’ says Ayesha’s father

April 2
Siddiqui family releases Shoaib’s ‘marriage’ certificate

April 3
I was cheated, never met Ayesha, Shoaib tells TOI April 4. Ayesha’s father files FIR, Shoaib charged  with cruelty, cheating. Ayesha says she had an “intimate relationship” with Shoaib & suffered a miscarriage

April 5
Cops grill Malik for 90 minutes at Sania’s residence, seize his passport and mobile phone. On same day, Shoaib, Sania address media together; Shoaib vows to clear name

April 6
Ayesha hands over wedding night clothes, said to contain Shoaib’s semen stains, to cops. Clothes sent to forensic lab

April 7
Malik accepts first wife Ayesha, divorces her; decks cleared for marriage with Sania
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Ayesha: The lady who claimed that Shoaib is already married to her and that she had a miscarriage with Shoaib's child.
On 31st March, btw, another news caught my eyes (thankfully, it was not blown up much by the media) :
Some Pakistani official commented that Sania should play for Pakistan post wedding...
Sania and Shoaib would settle down in Dubai after marriage...
 
On April 5th, Shoaib was questioned by the Hyderabad police for over 90 minutes and his passport and mobile were seized. That day Sania-Shoaib addressed media and Shoaib emphasized that "he had never seen Ayesha"...."I call her maha-aapa (elder sister)"... Just a small confusion Mr. Malik. Did I hear/understood it wrong or you actually said that you have never met her and if that is the case, whom are you referring to as Maha Aapa? (someone please clear my doubt about what he said).
 
On April 6th also, he stood firmly on what he said a day before that he is not married to Ayesha and there is no point of divorce since they were never married.
 
On April 6th only, the media threw up another mind-blowing question to public: Are Shoaib and Sania already married?? The facts supporting their question were- why is Shoaib staying at Sania's home before marriage (arre, because Sania's family has no issue then why should we have?) and the venue has been booked only for the reception and wedding is not mentioned.
 
And on April 7th, all of a sudden, Shoaib formally divorced Ayesha. Which means that Shoaib, in a way, accepts that he was married to Ayesha. Then what was all this fuss about earlier? Was that just for the Media attention? If you wanted to marry Sania and your relation with Ayesha was anyways not working out, why didn't you follow legal path at the first place itself of divorcing Ayesha and then annoucing your wedding with Sania? When Sania was standing firmly by Shoaib's side saying that I completely believe in him and that he is not married to any Ayesha, why didn't Sania reacted badly when Shoaib accepted that he was married to Ayesha or was Sania already aware of this fact and was just trying to shield him to escape hassles of divorce (alimony and the negative publicity of him being secretly married to a lady and that she had a miscarriage with his baby etc)? Did Shoaib accept his first marriage since he understood that he could get severe punishment if found guilty, which he actually was?
 
Why do people crave for 15 seconds of fame and annoy others?

Thursday, April 8, 2010

A place called Wayanad...


After a long time we had a long weekend for which we (I, Nimit and mummy-papa) had been planning for long. Finally zeroed on to Wayanad, Kerala. It was not the right time to visit Wayanad (280 Kms from Bangalore), because it is beautiful during rainy season, but who cares.. Such long weekend is not going to come in rainy season.
DAY 1
Started from Bangalore by 6:45 a.m. and our first stop was at Kamat Hotel- very famous highway hotel and it was a mad rush there. We decided to take the buffet for breakfast of typical South Indian dishes- Idly (not the traditional round idlis but conical, wrapped in a leaf), dosa, sambhar etc. Crossed Ramanagaram, where Sholay was shot (as I had mentioned in my earlier post). Crossed Muthunga Wildlife sanctuary, where our eyes were desperately scanning deep forest hoping to spot any wild animal (TIGER specially). But all we saw were the monkeys, showcasing their acrobatic skills.

The moment we entered into the Kerala border, everything seemed green, as if the soil also knows the physical boundary between the two states- Karnataka and Kerala. Within Karnataka, some of the trees were green, rest were all dried up but in Kerala, all the trees were green. Since Wayanad is a hill station, the moment we entered into the Wayanad district, the roads were zig-zag and slopping up and down. Finally reached our resort- Wyndvalley Garden Resort at Kalpetta, by 2:30 p.m.


The resort was much smaller than my expectation but the rooms were clean and cosy. All the shops were closed due to Good Friday and major portion of the Kerala population are Christians. Decided to freshen up and head for the Pookote Lake (14 Kms from Kalpetta), after having lunch at the resort itself. This is when we realized that there is a major language barrier over there. We ordered something else, got something else. Tried to rectify it, only to increase the confusion. Somehow had lunch and reached lake, where the boating time was about to get over. So, clicked few pics and decided to take a walk on the path along the perimeter of the lake. Then went to Valley view point (2 kms from the lake), which was nothing but the view of the entire valley, but you have nothing else to do there, apart from clicking the pics and having ice-cream. Then went to the most happening tourist spot- The Chain Tree (1.5 kms from the lake). It was a tree by the roadside, with a very small, rather tiny, temple and a chain on the tree. 1 priest was doing some puja at some distance. There was a sign board saying: Do not touch the Chain. All of us, alongwith few other tourists were wondering for about 10 mins as to what is so special about this road side place. Even didn't find it interesting or worth enough to click its pics. Called off for the day, since nothing else can be seen. Decided not to repeat the lunch incident and had a dinner in a restaurant across the road, Woodlands.

DAY 2
After having breakfast at the resort, which was thankfully good enough, we headed for a dam, which our driver suggested, only to realize that its deserted (no tourist visits it) and not enough water is there. Then went to Edakkal caves (28 kms from Kalpetta). The way to Edakkal caves is very narrow and it is on height. Thanks to our adept driver, we reached there safely. But again had to walk for another kilometer to reach the spot from where the Jeep service would start. Waited for our number to board the jeep to reach the place from where the actual entry to the caves was still 900 meters ahead, and have to climb up the rocky and uneven terrain. Nimit helped mummy climb those difficult steps. On reaching at the entry gate, we realized that its over crowded and that mummy-papa won't be able to go inside, because they are much more difficult to climb up to. So, both of us took the tickets and started towards the caves, only to realize that its one-way and we would be stopped randomly to give way to the crowd climbing down the caves. I was enjoying this "rock-climbing" experience but it was way too annoying to keep on waiting and giving way, since no government official was there to control the traffic. So, decided to come back half way.
Next stop was the Suchchipara Waterfall (roughly 30-40 kms from caves and 20 kms from Kalpetta) (after having lunch at a local dhabba). By the time, we reached there, dark clouds had started hovering up. But again, it was a walk of almost 1 km and then further rocky uneven steps to take you down to the waterfall. So, again, mummy papa decided to sit before the steps while I and Nimit went down to the Waterfall. But after reaching there, it was extremely relaxing to see the fall and it started raining for a while, making the weather cool. Spent some time there and climbed up (somehow). After this tiring and sweaty day, had a nice bath and chinese dinner at the resort and slept early.

DAY 3
Woke up and started packing, since it was our last day. Had breakfast and checked out of the resort and headed towards the Bannasura Sagar Dam (12 Kms-20 mins from Kalpetta), supposedly Asia's 2nd Largest Earthen Dam. It was a hot day again and we found very less number of people there. Again was a walk of some 500 mtrs and 310 steps to climb. By the half way, we came to know that there is this Jeep service again to transport you directly to the top. Boarded a motor boat for a 15 mins ride but can't call it amazingly exciting. The area is under construction to be made a tourist spot. Finally we started on our way back to Bangalore and reached our home by 8 p.m.

As I said, the right time to visit Wayanad is rainy season, we thought to visit again during that time. But its just a thought. Let us see if we can materialize this. But Kerala is green anytime.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Half Century...

Yeeeeeee...!!!!!! Nothing special to write in this post, but just now realized that I had completed 49 posts of my blog, so thought to Congratulate myself on the First Half century. Thank you... Thank you...

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Amazing styles

Again while aimlessly browsing through the Internet, landed up at this page.


I wonder who will wear sarees in such style?? Why do these Fashion designers design such outfits which can be used only on the ramps, because I don't think that any person, who is not considered insane, will ever wear them and step out of his/her home (except Fashion designer's high-society friends). Just check out yourself.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Kitne Aadmi The...

No need to even ask you to make a guess of which movie this dialogue belongs to. Every Indian (until and unless you have a language problem for Hindi) has seen this movie- Sholay. Some of you might have just seen the movie but most of us are in love with Sholay, including myself.

Recently read the book, Sholay- the making of a classic by Anupama Chopra. She did not tell the story of Sholay in this book, rather tells about what all went in to make this epic. Sholay in a way was a movie which changed the way movies were made in Bollywood. The white dhoti-black kurta-black teeka clad dakus were transformed into paint-shirt wearing ugly daku, sand-dunes were replaced by big boulders as the adda of these dakus, 70 mm print was introduced for the first time, was the first film in the history of Indian cinema to celebrate a silver jubilee (25 weeks) at over a hundred theaters across India, first time even the writers- Salim-Javed, got their name printed along-with the star cast of the film, first Hindi (and possibly Indian) movie to have a stereophonic soundtrack... Such a huge star-cast, stunt directors from foreign, huge budget, the size of the crew and set... everything was BIG.

Every dialogue, the background music, the characters, the songs, they are immortalized. Gabbar, Thakur, Jai-Veeru, Radha, Basanti, even the mare- Dhanno, Imam saheb, Ahmed, Soorma Bhopali, Angrezo ke zamane ka jailor, Ramlal, Sambha, Kaalia, Mausi are still remembered, irrespective of the fact that many of them appear on the screen very briefly. Like, Soorma Bhopali had just one scene. Sambha, surprisingly, had just one line to say in the entire movie- "poore pachaas hazar" (when Gabbar enquires the prize money police had announced for catching him). The cassettes of Dialogues of the movie were sold off more than the cassettes of songs only. Not many people know that Danny was chosen for the role of Gabbar prior to Amjad Khan. Due to problems with his dates, Amjad stepped into his shoes and since the beginning till the release of the film, everyone, baring few, had doubts about him. But ironically, Gabbar's popularity surpassed every other character of the movie.

For every small scene, lot of thought process went in. A whole new village had been set up for Ramgarh, at Ramanagaram, near Bangalore. Amitabh-Jaya got married, Jaya delivered their first child during the making of the movie and was again pregnant with Abhishek by the time film was ready for release. How Sanjeev Kumar was famous for his drinking habits, how Dharmendra-Hema affair kicked off and Dharmendra used to bribe the spot boys to make any careless mistake for his romantic scenes with Hema so that there would be more re-takes, that Sachin had done more than 60 films by that time as compared to few films done by Amitabh and that Amitabh had started considering him his senior (eventhough he was much younger than Amitabh)....

Trivia:

1) The director's original choice for Jaidev (Jai) too was different. Shatrughan Sinha was almost  signed, when Dharmendra convinced the producers that Amitabh would be the right choice.

2) The producers wanted Danny Denzongpa to play the bandit chief, but he was committed to Feroz Khan's "Dharmatma". Amjad Khan was a second choice.

3) The scene in which Thakur's family is killed was cut by the censor board; the murder of a small child was deemed too horrific to show. Moreover, there was no child underneath that white sheet, since the child artist had his yearly exams at school and could not afford to miss them. Thats the reason that his sheet was not blown away by the wind.

4) The film showcased two real life romances. Amitabh married Jaya Bhaduri, who played the widowed daughter-in-law in 1973, 4 months before the filming started. Dharmendra married Hema Malini, his second marriage, in 1980, five years after the release of the film.

5) Amjad Khan prepared to play a bandit chief by reading a book titled Abhishapth Chambal, which told of the exploits of Chambal dacoits. The book was written by Taroon Bhaduri, who happened to be the father of Jaya Bhaduri.

6) The screenwriters, Salim-Javed, named Veeru and Jai after a couple of Salim's college friends.

7) The original ending of the movie had to be changed because of Censor Board, after much reluctance. In the original ending, Thakur crushes Gabbar after hitting him repeatedly with his nailed shoes and then breaks down and cries. But since it was "too voilent" and that the police (Thakur was a retired Police personnel) cannot take law in their hands.

8) Due to the length of the movie, a dhabba scene and Soorma Bhopali's scene were cut in few of the territories. But later Soorma Bhopali's scene was added back.

9) When the film released on 15th August, 1975, it was declared a commercial flop by the critics and the audience  but with the word-of-mouth, the movie clicked and became the highest grossing movie of all-time in the history of Indian Cinema. At Mumbai's Minerva theater, it was shown in regular shows for three continuous years, and then in matinee shows for two more years.

For the fans of Sholay and its insights, go ahead and read this book. I now want to again watch the movie...