The easiest way of keeping in touch...

Lots of talks are going on these days about Orkut and many people are joining it through friends. And there are stories in mail forwards about how and what for it was started and also about the profits Orkut, the guy who found it, is getting in a year. Whatever it might be, Orkut has become an unavoidable medium in the world of cyber communication.

I still remember those days when I started using Orkut. Today, after more than one year, Orkut has re-established many of my lost contacts, helped me to be in touch with the existing contacts and most important of all, has opened up my friends circle and I have gained lots of close friends today.

Even inside my own company, I gained a few friends through Orkut, and I am not sure whether I would have got to know them otherwise in my life. My school friends, with whom I lost touch many years back, are in frequent contact these days and I learned their whereabouts through Orkut.

Orkut has more things to be experienced than to be spoken about. The cyberspace today has a lot of surprises and Orkut is a blessing in disguise that has lots of such surprises in store for you everyday. Hail Orkut!!! :-)

Beauty with Brains

There is a show called Heartbeats on Star One. It is just a game show, but the difference between this one and numerous others running on TV is that, here it is not time that matters, but the cool temperament and presence of mind of the player that is more important to win. In other words, the formula of winning is very easier. The calmer the player is, the easier it is to win.

I was very excited to know that Priyanka Chopra, Former Miss World and Bollywood Actress participating in the game show. I like Priyanka Chopra not only as a model and actress but also personally after reading about her from magazines. She may not be the striking beauty as Aishwarya is, but as a woman, I feel she is much better than Aishwarya. I feel she is one of the living examples who can be projected to the world as an ideal Indian woman. J

Coming back to the show, Priyanka came in with dashing looks as usual and started taking questions with a cool and not-so-nervous attitude. Her heartbeat was almost within 90 per min throughout the show. I have seen women scream, shout, yell and do all sorts of non-sense in game shows, but Priyanka was calm but excited at the same time.

Question after question she used her lifelines wisely and nicely progressed on the money ladder. Many answers she knew on her own and the lifeline help was just a confirmation act. After reaching 7 lakhs and opting for cash question with a banked heartbeat count of over 2000, it was a easy task for her to win the cash. She laughed out loud on seeing first cash question asking “Which of these heroines were smooched by Emraan Hashmi on screen?”

Completing the final double money question on food items with her mother’s help and in her own style, the beauty took away 14 lakh rupees of cash from the show. And also the hearts of thousands of viewers... ;-) It was indeed a live demonstration to the world that beautiful women have great brains and more than that, she proved that a woman can stay with controlled emotions in any situation. Hats off Priyanka!!!

No Tamil Movies for now!!!

I have decided to stay off from Tamil Movies for a while now. Neither I watched any movie in past couple of months nor do I have any plans to do it for the next couple of months.

Reason - I hate Gangster subjects!!!

Indian Cinema had enough of Gangster and Underworld dons onscreen and has shown them in all possible dimensions right from the black and white era. Rowdies, gundaas, adiyaals and leaders.. Blood, gore, aruvaals and gunshots... Enough is enough!!!!

The trend was out for sometime and now its back again. In the last 6 months, we had Pattiyal, Kokki, Pudhupettai, Thalainagaram, Chithiram Pesudhadi and soon to follow are Naalai, Thoothukudi, Chera and many other movies whose trailers are even scary than worst horror movies!!!

So for some more time, good bye to Tamil movies!!!

India votes for football over cricket!

I came across this  interesting article from Times of India last week,  which disproves the theory that Indians are crazy only about Cricket!!!! 

A few statistics from the article:

Six out of 10 women drool over the England captain Beckham, every second man favours football over cricket.

Is it going to be the locks of Beckham or Mahi's mane, Ronaldo's power or the Wall's class, Ronaldinho's jig or Yuvi's charm? Call it sports enthusiasts' fickleness or the fact that football fever is all around us!

With the FIFA World Cup kicking off in Germany, it's a fever that's gripping the otherwise cricket-crazy nation and loyalties seem to be shared. As far as football goes, the tussle is between the glam and game. The fairer sex drools over the glam quotient offered by the footballers rather than the game whereas for the kids and men, it's always the action on the field that matters.

Forty-six per cent of the men polled and 48 per cent kids have a liking for soccer whereas for women, football comes after cricket with 37 per cent votes in favour of soccer compared to 46 per cent for cricket. For 41 per cent men, cricket was secondary vis-a-vis football.

It's interesting to note that kids are more inclined towards soccer. In cities like Bangalore, Delhi, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Kolkata, the survey received an overwhelming response in soccer's favour with 9 out of 10 kids favouring soccer in certain cases.

Cricket rules in Delhi and Mumbai, and as expected, Kolkata is floored by football. But surprisingly, 65 per cent women in Bangalore and Ahmedabad also voted in favour of football whereas the percentage was 35 in Hyderabad.

David Beckham emerged as India's favourite football icon, courtesy his glam quotient and off-field antics. A whopping six out of 10 women rooted for the English captain. But the men voted for the Brazilian striker Ronaldinho, casting 40 per cent votes for his on-field skills.

His teammate Ronaldo had the support of 26 per cent fans with diehards like 13-year-old Chinmay from Pune saying he would stop watching football when Ronaldo leaves the game.

(The survey was conducted for a sample size of over 500 people across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Pune, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad in the age group of 9 to 35 years)

The full article is available at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1631981.cms

Enna Koduma Saravanan Idhu!!!!

Got the above still of Superstar from a forwarded mail. My first thought was "Yuckkk!!!"

I am a big fan of Rajinikanth for many years now but I am not mad to claim "Aah, wow, superb" for everything he does. Especially since he started giving He-Man and Super Man(or Super Human) movies for the past few years.

But, as per Tamil Cinema Industry, since he is a superstar he can do whatever he wants… Even if gundaas fly when he blows air, everyone finds it "Aah.. so realistic"

"Thillana Thillana" from Muthu is the most chinguchakka song I have ever seen… Kannu nollai aagra colors ellame… Still ppl found it "Wow.. how great"

For about 10 yrs right from Annamalai till Baba, in every film Rajini will be someone in first half and turn out to be someone else in second half… Like flashbacks or transformations and all that.. The very same theme with slightest changes… Still everyone claims "Aaah…how great and interesting"

When Rajini does a stupid movie with unbelievable stories like Arunachalam, he is catering the masses and entertaining his fans. When others do, they are doing the same old thing and spoiling Tamil cinema.

When Rajini insults Ramya Krishnan, Kushboo, Meena, Roja etc… It means he is giving "Aapu for thimir pidicha females"… When some other actor does the same, he becomes a chauvinist…
I am not against Rajinikanth, I still love all his old movies but whatever he is doing now is a pain for my eyes to watch.

The same people who are praising Amitabh Bachan as the actor of the millenium wrote him off and criticised him very badly, when he did youth roles and paired with younger heroines. His own fans stayed away from his films like Sooryavansham.

But in Tamil Cinema, there is no end for Super Star and star values. It happened with MGR and continues with Rajinikanth. Hope it won't happen again with next generation actors!!!!

P.S: The above still was just a sample. There will still more scary stills in the forward :P

Tamil Nadu suspends screening of Da Vinci Code

www.rediff.com
June 01, 2006 17:15 IST

"The Tamil Nadu government has asked District Collectors and the Chennai Police Commissioner to suspend the screening of Hollywood film, The Da Vinci Code.

A press release issued by the state government, quoted by The Hindu newspaper, said on Wednesday: 'The government has taken cognisance of the various reports and complaints received from the minority communities, particularly the Christian community regarding the proposed screening of the movie. The screening of the movie might hurt religious feelings and sentiments of the Christian community and lead to demonstrations and disturb peace and tranquillity within the state.'

The collectors and the commissioner have been asked to study the situation and take action under Section 13 of the Cinematograph Act, 1952 (Central Act 37 of 1952) to suspend the screening of the movie."

One more stunt from the State Government to claim that it is protesting the interest of Minorities... Some thing or the other is needed for them everyday to make politics out of it.... I heard even the Andhra Government has banned the film.

When there are lots and lots of unwanted content shown in all regional language film, people are ready to find follies and sensitive content to be banned in an International Movie...

In future, the CBFC and Censor Board can be closed permanently. Because now politicians have supernatural powers to certify a film without even watching it once!!!

An exciting trip to Savanadurga

On Friday the 26th of May, our project team of 30 and odd members set out on a trip to Savanadurga Forests, 62 kms from Bangalore near Magadi Town. What was all exciting about the trip was that we knew where we are going, but never knew what was kept in store for us and all activities planned were maintained as top secret!!!

This was the final event as a part of the fun week celebrated in my project for team building and of course, enjoyment. There were tourneys for board games like chess and carrom and computer games Midtown Madness and Quake-3. Plus a couple of spot events too.... 4 days of total masti and then, for the fifth day, a memorable team outing.



We had breakfast on the way under a road side shady tree which itself was a new experience for most of us. After a great breakfast, we reached the camping spot in about an hour. We were split in three teams and began our forest exploration with our team leaders and guides. Our target: To reach the destination given in the map on our own, exploring the forest with the help of compass and the map.



As expected we were lost though the experience of travelling through the forest was a great one. Who minds small scratches from all those thorny bushes all over??? ;-) The forest was situated near a hill which by itself has lots of stories to tell. Our guide pointed us to a scribble on the hill saying "Abhay Eesha" and said they were two lovers who made their love eternal by jumping off the hill :-(



After getting lost, with the guide's help we reached the destination, posed for photos and reached back to our camp site. Then after an okay kinda lunch and a short period of rest, we were back to activites.



Next activity was river crossing, and we were really scared when we came to know that there was actually no river present and we had to cross a rocky terrain from about 30 feet of height holding on to a rope. Though I was claiming "I can't" in the beginning, I finally gathered all courage and did it. It was really great experience combined with adventure.



After this there was rapelling, where we had to get down from an approx. 30 feet rock. Again scared but did it somehow. :P



Finally there was a boat ride in the lake nearby on a Coraccle(as said by our guide). On a cloudy and cool evening, close to sunset, it was a beautiful ride through green waters.... Unforgettable!!!!



With three cheers for our client :P and thanks to our guides, we started our journey back to Bangalore in our bus. And one hour later, back to pollution and traffic jam of the city.. Who cares? The experiences of the day made me forget everything!!!! An experience that I will cherish for a lifetime....



Note the dog in the above group snap. One cannot find such good and affectionate dogs anywhere else... They were with us as a team throughout the day!!! :-D

Back again....

I am back after a month of self-imposed hibernation. Lots of exciting things happened in this period. I went for a 2 day trip to Chennai and recharged myself. I met a lot of intersting people online and in person and had good experiences and new friendships.

My Orkut scrap count crossed 5000 and friends count became 170+. (Is that an achievement? lol...) Bangalore turned from very hot to super cool with early monsoon rains with an awesome climate.

I had one week of fun and masti in my team at office where we played lots of games and tourneys giving great fun and relaxation. To top it all I went for an adventurous and awesome outing with my team members(probably the final one as my project is heading for a close). The experiences fromt he team outing will follow in the next blog post.

And yeah, back to blogging as usual...... :-)