E-Recycling

Found a new use for my old keyboard...

Unique Celebration

My bro-in-law  found a very nice way to celebrate his daughter's birthday - at a school for the under-privileged children.



We cut a large cake, sponsored a sumptious lunch with chicken, biryani, bread, and ice cream, and gave return gifts to each and every kid in the school. Was very fulfilling indeed!

The ICICI Lombard Saga

So, having got no response from customer care for almost a week, I have now escalated the matter to the first level of escalation.

The saga has begun...

And Then We Complain About Traffic...

TOI reported an enormous traffic jam in a Chinese city, now into its tenth day, with the gridlock extending for almost 100 kms. Yes, you read it right - 10 days, 100 km, and authorities are now hoping it will get cleared by mid Sept, when road construction on a new highway is expected to be completed...

And then we complain about our traffic!

Crazy

I'm a freak, blogging at eleven twenty pm at some god forsaken highway stop. The kind where all those sleazy english horror movies begin :)

There's No Forever

Perceptions change. Realities change. Priorities change. Needs and wants change. Nothing is forever. There's no point worrying about the future. By the time future comes close enough, you'll have a new reality anyway! So take it as it comes.

Our Kitten

Remember the kitten we rescued with a broken leg last time and took to PAWS? Well god couldn't wait for us to come and take her so he took her himself. Very upsetting, especially for Sanam, although she was happy someone else was taking care of her!

It was a very upsetting visit. Two tiny abandoned kittens with almost no chance of surviving and a poor cat left there by her owners, now refusing food and drink out of sheer depression.

Guys, your small donations can make a huge difference. Let me know if you wanna help and I'll send you across their bank account number. And if you live in Goa or know someone who does, maybe its time you got yourself a pet?

Fun

It's fun blogging from the bus but I wish I could also easily send some pictures along! When it's about Goa, pictures are so integral to the whole experience! Guess it'll have to wait till tomorrow.

Oh, and yes, I've also decide to get out from facebook as much as possible and stay with my blog so I know my updates are mine and mine alone and no one can accuse me of plastering their walls with irrelevant stuff :)

Movie Review: Lafange Parinde

We saw LP in an empty theatre, the seven off other sleepy eyed souls equally desperate for some late night entertainment in rainy Goa. When you are greeted by row upon row of empty seats you immediately expect the worst. Thankfully LP proves your worst fears wrong and actually makes a compelling case for itself.

The story is predictable, the dripping blood and sweat avoidable, and the songs very forgettable, but when Deeps is sizzling the screen with a graceful-and-sexy-at-the-same-time performance, everything else is maaf. She looks beautiful, and dances her way into your heart to leave a very lasting impression. Neil Nitin Mukesh puts up a good show but pales in front of Deeps whose portrayal of a young girl who loses her eyesight in an accident is pretty impressive.

Not a bad movie at all and a treat for Deepika fans!

End of Vacation

No matter how much you want time to stop or at least slow down, it's always time to say good bye. Before you know four days have passed by and I'm back in my berth, this time at the end of the vacation and back to Pune. As always we had a packed trip - a birthday party, awesome dinners, visits to the beach, a long session in the spa (that sounds infinitely better than massage parlour :)), a late night movie and innumerable trips to and from Panaji. The rains provided some beautiful photo ops and the new camera was more than ready to oblige. But like all good things this vacation had to end too. We missed Samara and the cats and our wonderful life in Pune so it's good to be back too, but we're already looking forward to our next trip in too weeks!

Bliss

It is surprising how much fun it can be doing absolutely nothing at all. I'm glad I haven't lost the knack of doing that.

Good Morning

Just 430 am but I'm up and running... well not really, I'm in the bus... But you know what I mean. When it's destination Goa it's also a very early good morning :) Checked mail and had some good news waiting too. All in all a great start!

It Worked!

But I also realise I should use an external email server to send my blog updates because otherwise my office mail server puts in all those disclaimers :)

Trying Mobile Blog

Hope this works! I prefer this to tweets and facebook updates but inability to do it in real time is sometimes a serious limitation

Amoeba Poem :)

Amoeba at the beginning
Were not complex
Then they tore themselves apart
And started sex

LOL.. CSI is a masterpiece today!

Yawn

Confused!

Did you hear about this man who became a woman because he was obsessed about this lesbian who was really a man?

LOL...

East India Company

At a time when we are reading about the Tatas turning around the fortunes of Corus and JLR, another chapter of history is being quietly rewritten.

Over 400 years after it was established and became a symbol of tyranny and opression, the East India Company now has a new owner, Mumbai-born, 48 year old, Sanjiv Mehta, bent on making the EIC a symbol of the new resurgent India.

Conspiracies!

Here's a piece of news from our friendly neighbouring country, which, if not in such a sad context, would actually be pretty funny. (Snippet below edited from a Times of India news article)

Hardliners in Pakistan have started a massive campaign through a rash of reports in the Pakistani media blaming India, principally, for the massive floods, purportedly because New Delhi had deliberately diverted waters from dams in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, and from the ones it "controlled in Afghanistan”. Some reports also charged that US was manipulating weather patterns over Pakistan. US officials dismissed the idea with incredulity. "So it was the United States and India that conspired to have the monsoons come to Pakistan? I don't find that credible," Crowley said in response to a question about such reports in sections of the Pakistani media considered close to hard-line elements in its intelligence agencies and jihadists.

Read more: US urges Pak to accept Indian aid; hardliners blame India, US for floods - US - World - The Times of India

Some People

Some people always stay special to you - no matter how long it is before you see them again, no matter how much you fight, no matter how much the world tries to tear you apart.

Had an awesome reunion today.

Maybe it'll be another two years before we meet again, but what the heck.. even at that rate, I have another 20 wonderful hours left in this lifetime :)

New Look

After experimenting with the Black look for the blog, which made pictures really stand out but made reading strenuous, I have settled on this cool blue look.

Do you like it?

Let me know! Comment, or take the poll, please!

Thomas Cook

A friend of mine had a pretty harrowing experience with Thomas Cook recently when she inquired for a ticket to Europe, and the agent went ahead and booked the ticket for her without a visa confirmation, and later professed inability to refund more than 50% of her money saying the ticket couldn't be cancelled now without a significant cancellation charge.

Thankfully, when she complained to the manager and threatened legal action in the consumer court, not only did TC agree to refund 100%, but more importantly, sent an apology letter, and a rose, hand delivered to her in office.

Every one makes mistakes, it's the way you recover that matters. Kudos to TC for a great job!

Now, if only ICICI Lombard was listening!

ps: It was pretty heartening to see ICICI Bank take cognizance of Aditya's complaint on my earlier blog post... must say, there's still some hope left!

Trust Deficit

At a time when Pakistan is suffering the worst floods in history, with millions and millions of people affected, it's facing a very rarely seen shortage of relief funds from the international community, a clear message that it's support to terrorism and misappropriation of funds is not being looked at too kindly. Interestingly, by far the biggest offer of help, 5M USD, has come from India, and even Afghanistan has shown it's large heart by donating 1M USD, two countries that have bled most from Pakistan's terror agendas. Most affluent European countries have pledged far less.

A few days ago, CNBC Pakistan ran an interview with some firang business guru asking him why foreign investors weren't treating Pakistan the same way they were flocking to India, and his answer was crystal clear - no one trusts you, no one believes this country can provide a safe and secure environment like India. At some point, you almost felt sorry for the Pakis... they are just like us, they always beat us in cricket when we were kids, people always talked about their never-say-die spirit, and yet, today... they almost aren't even on the map any more.

Evil never pays.

Tour Time

Goa this weekend, Konkan the next - looking forward to some great weekend action in the rains...

Anyone wanna join?

Cricket Tips

If you are bowling to a batsman at 99, with the batting team needing one run to win, and you want to play spoilsport and deny him a well-deserved century, then it's simple - bowl a no-ball. Even if the ball gets hit for a six, the batsman will be denied the runs, since the no-ball run ensures the end of the match, and the six doesn't get counted.

Sri Lanka did it to Sehwag last night :(

ICICI Lombard Saga

As the next chapter in my ICICI Lombard saga opens, I have now registered a formal complaint with them against the agent, using their customer service email address. Will wait to see how things go from here and update you folks :) (as if you care! lol )

Interestingly, their site provides a pretty long chain for escalation, starting with the first step I have mentioned, and going all the way up to Manager - Service Quality, National Manager - Process Excellence, and finally, Head - Operations.

Will be a good exercise for me, and a test for ICICI Lombard to redeem itself.

WhiteBerry

BlackBerry was always a strong favourite of politicians and criminals alike, primarily because it allowed encrypted peer-to-peer messaging that couldn't be intercepted by security agencies. Good to see the government taking it on, and making it clear that this won't be accepted. With the latest ultimatum to service providers to provide access or take the service off the air, looks like BlackBerry won't be so black any more.

ICICI Lombard Sucks

OK, I am generally positive, and tend to appreciate the good things and overlook the bad, but here's one instance I just cannot ignore any more.

It's been 4 months since I bought my Endy, and ICICI Lombard, with whom I bought my insurance, is yet to issue me the NCB and some other refunds, including cancellation of my earlier car's policies. I have sent a million reminders, by phone, email and SMS, and each time I am given a new excuse, a new promise, but no timelines, and of course, no closure.

I am so sick of ICICI Lombard at this time, I do not even feel like following up any more, and just want to sit back and wait and watch to see how bad they can get.

After my earlier terrible experiences with ICICI Home Loans, and horror stories I have heard about ICICI Direct, and some recent experiences with ICICI Prudential (they tried to sell me an insurance policy and then a pension plan as a mutual fund investment), especially when contrasted with the absolutely wonderful experiences I have had with HDFC Bank, HDFC Home Loans, HDFC Car Loans, and HDFC Standard Life, one thing is clear - it's really all about corporate culture and ethos, and the customer will always feel it.

Siesta Time

Casatta catches 400 winks

Not to be left behind, Catrina curls up too!

BBQ Nation and Esca

Two great restaurants in town that I wanted to invite my readers to try out soon...

BBQ Nation isn't really new to Pune, but I had never managed to go there in all these years. BBQ Nation has a fantastic concept - a live grill on your table, with unlimited veg and non-veg BBQ starters including some absolutely delicious fish and prawns, followed by a sumptious buffet.

And make sure you have ample space left for the outrageously irresistable desserts. If you don't believe me, check out my plate below.

BBQ Nation has one branch (the one I went to) near Aga Khan Palace off Nagar Road, and another one in Wakad (I believe somewhere near Sayaji).

The other wonderful new place in town is Esca, a fine dining restaurant with excellent service, which recently opened beside Pulse in Aundh. We've been there twice, and have been super impressed with just about everything.

Try the Watermelon with Ginger mocktail with the Kali Miri Lamb starter (absolutely succelent pieces of lamb with a wonderful spicy crusty layer on top), crispy Calamari (squid) with mango sauce, or simply the perfectly-done tandoori pomfret. If you love soup, you will absolutely dig the smoky flavours of the chicken and mushroom soup.

If you prefer Indian food, there's a nice spread, whether you like simply veg, chicken, prawns or lamb. And yes, the duck and some other creatures too :)

4 Years On...

It's 4 years to the day I started my blog. Today, more than 1000 posts later, I look back at pride and happiness that I have been able to sustain this for so long, providing myself an outlet to touchbase and take stock of my heart, to share and get in return. I would like to thank my readers and followers, a small but precious bunch that I value deeply, and long to hear from every time I write. An average 40 hits a day may be too small to win me advertisements, but for me, it makes life that much more worth sharing!

Movie Review: Despicable Me

Despicable Me is a sweet, short movie about 3 little girls, two not-so-bad villians, a scientist, some cute robots, and a plan to steal the moon. Most of the 3D is limited to depth within the confines of the screen, with a few flashes of brilliance when stuff comes floating close to you.

For spectacle wearers like me, the extra weight of the 3D specs can be a real pain on the nose. It's time someone found a spectacleless solution.

And yes, don't expect too much from the movie, though. Bolt, Ice Age, even Shrek, was a lot more fun.

It's Hot to be Indian!

Happy Independence Day! On this occasion, let's reaffirm our faith in the country, in our democratic values, and stand by our people, our politicians, judiciary, armed forces and media, and help in cementing our top spot on the world stage!

Cheers!

The Taj...

...opened the Heritage Wing today, more than 20 months after the horrific 26/11 attacks. Must visit on my next Mumbai trip.

Crime Shows

Just realised I've got a real fetish for crime shows these days.. many good ones on Star World and Fox Crime:

Bones - focussing on, as you can imagine, bones
CSI (Vegas), CSI NY and CSI Miami - everything about crime scene analysis
Castle - just a beautiful detective serial
Criminal Minds - focussing on profiling criminals, pretty intense at times
Rush - Australian show on hostage negotiations
Monk - quirky detective stuff
Numbers - pretty interesting, based on number crunching

And of course, we have World's Scariest Police Chases, Caught on Tape and so on... on AXN.

And of course, our very own megaserial, CID :)

Movie Review: Eclipse

The vampire saga continues... right where it left off last time. Edward is just as white, Jacob is still shirtless, and Bella is just as wow. But this time, there's a new threat - a bunch of "new born" vampires, out of control and out to get Bella, under the direction of the much-upset-at-having-lost-her-lover Victoria.

And while Bella oscillates between Jacob, whom she loves, and Edward, whom she loves more, the threat forces the vampires and wolves to come together, although grudgingly, to protect her.

Some of the dialogues are silly and repetitive, the action too is much muted than before, the story has lost its appeal and originality, but for Bella fans, none of that should matter :)

Not a bad watch, really.

Trip to Shirdi and Shani Shingnapur

I had never gone beyond Wagholi on the north eastern border to Pune, so when my mom, dad and cousin proposed a trip to Shirdi, I jumped at the offer. And since my Konkan trip this weekend had failed to materialize, both Samara and I were desperate for some action.



After tanking up on food and diesel, we hit Nagar road by 1000, and after a beautiful drive in the intermittent rains and a stop for tea, we reached Nagar around 1200. The road is well maintained, 4-lane all the way, and the drive was very smooth and relaxing. Nagar was a disappointment, a muddy, crowded 15 mins through the city thankfully ended with another nice stretch of recently-4-laned state highway to Shirdi, where we reached before 200, the rain progressively increasing until we parked in the muddy lot in front of the temple complex.

A couple of phone calls had ensured we had our VIP passes, the darshan took less than 15 minutes.

It was barely 300, and we had the whole evening to ourselves. We stopped for lunch at Nisarg, a nice, simple garden restaurant a km or so outside Shirdi, and gorged on some wonderful gavraan chicken fry and hot tandoori rotis washed down with Pepsi.

Next stop, Shrirampur, a few kms from Shirdi, 20 km off the road to Nagar, my friend's hometown, and a place I had always wanted to visit. Unfortunately, the highly recommended lassi joint Parijat was closed, and we decided to move on to Shani Shingnapur, famous for its door-less houses.

That's when the fun began.



My Navigator seemed to have clue on how to take me directly from Shrirampur to Shani Shingnapur, and later we found out the reason why - Google Maps showed roads radiating out from both places towards each other, but ending over 20 kms apart.




Well, we just trusted our instincts, the ever-willing-to-help villager, and Samara, and set off on one of my rewarding drives through beautiful villages with hard working, poor but happy farmers that depend on mother nature and their efforts to eke out a tough living from the rolling fields and herds of cattle and buffaloes, places that seem to sometimes just fall off the map, even though we were barely 150 km from Pune, where roads were defined more by the shrubs on the sides rather than the tarmac underneath.



And though Samara took a flat and bravely pushed on till we got onto the highway again (the emergency air pump came in very handy as a temporary measure!), never once did we feel like turning back.

By the time we reached Shani Shingnapur, it was almost 730, the night was falling, and we still had to take care of Samara's flat tire, and decided to move on rather than hang around for a darshan.



An eager to help mechanic got our tire repaired in flat 5 mins, and we were back on the 4-laned highway to Pune by 800. 150 Km and 2 hours later, the drive aided greatly by the Xenon lights, we pulled into the parking lot at BBQ Nation near Kalyani Nagar, tired from a long day, but excited, energized and filled with some beautiful memories of a wonderful outing.

Some more beautiful pictures from the trip below.



Greenery envelopes you, welcomes you every where you look, including the sky!



We were amazed to run into this herd of over a hundred exactly identical brown cows.



Bullock carts are still the preferred mode of transport in these parts.



Beautiful rolling hills as far as the eye can see, this is not Montana! Just a few km away from Pune, these are the farms around Shrirampur in Maharashtra.

Sony HDR-XR550

Bought a very sexy Sony HDR-XR550 videocam today. I am still exploring the dozens of things you can do with it, but for those who love specs, here's something to chew on: Full HD 1080 (AVCHD), 12 MP Wide Angle Still Camera, Night Shot, Steady Shot, 240 GB HDD, 23 h recording time on max HD, 60 h for standard video.

Also, features include support for burning DVDs as well as Blu Ray disks, in-built GPS to capture coordinates, video plus photo dual recording, auto-detect and capture faces while taking video, support for uploading videos and pictures to social networking sites, support for additional external mike and flash lights...

Can't wait to get started on some movie making... Ashutosh Gowarikar, here I come!

Movie Review: Once Upon A Time In Mumbai

Another gangster movie, this time set in the old Bombay of the seventies and early eighties, Once Upon A Time In Mumbai is apparently based on the life of the "good" don Haji Mastan, and his betrayal by his one-time protege, Dawood Ibrahim. Excellently shot and executed, the story and the screenplay keeps you spellbound till the end, even though the end is a foregone conclusion of some sorts...

Ajay Devgan and Imran Hashmi play their roles to perfection, Prachi has her (intimate) moments. Kanagana Ranaut is delicately beautiful, for once, she's sane and normal, and simply dominates the screen every time she's on it. But for me the find of the movie was Ranjeet Hooda as the ACP, tough, tall, dark and handsome, the kind of officer every guy wants to be when he's a child!

A couple of good tracks that will eventually grow on you, along with excellent background music, make it good for your ears too! The dialogues are filmy, yes, but trust me, you will actually like them.

Interestingly, there's very little violence, and it's almost safe to take your kids.

My only concern... given this is a gangster versus gangster movie, at the end of the movie, one dies and the other is glorified... unlike other gangster movies where the long arm of the law catches up to the bad man, here, the bad man comes away the king. Not exactly the kind of influence I want my movie to leave on impressionable minds.

I am yet to see Eclipse, but other than Kristen, I am sure this movie matches it eye to eye, if you are yet to decide!

Movie Review: Khatta Meetha

Priyadarshan takes a serious message about politics and corruption, and tries to lighten it with a generous dose of comedy... builds up wonderfully in the first half, but the big turning moment never comes, leaving you unsatisfied and disappointed when the curtains come down.

A little less violence, and some generous editing around the unnecessary gang rape, and this would have actually been a fun movie.

Unfortunately, this one has a lot more khatta after-taste...

Avoidable.

A Tale of Two Fiestas

I drove into my office parking in Madhavi's new car yesterday and the watchman came by to ask, "Sir, gaadi ka color change kiya kya?". When I told him it was Mad's new car, he commented with a puzzled look, "But number toh same hai!".

Remember, both our Fiestas have pretty much the same number, differing only by one letter :)

Movie Review: Salt

Russia and America are at it again, on the brink of war pushed to the limit by espionage, spies, and double spies. Interestingly timed with the recent Russian spy scandal, one wonders whether this was just coincidence... or...

Anywayz, Angelina Jolie is simply superb in the role of Salt, a CIA agent, who is called in to interrogate a Russian "defector", who exposes a plot to kill the Russian President at the funeral of the American Vice President in NYC. She scoffs at his information, and is about to walk out, when he names the would-be assassin. Salt.

The plot thickens with every minute, and Angelina outperforms herself in every scene. The action is fast paced with stunning screenplay and the story keeps you guessing till the very end.

A very good action movie, in the same league as A Team, Knight and Day and Inception. A very good option this weekend, don't miss it.

Our New Ford Baby

Pari came yesterday - the latest member of our Ford family, younger sister to Lisa, Reona and Samara :) A stunning Sea Grey beauty, 1.6 SXi. The sun roof and tinted windows are yet to come, but the spoiler and reverse parking camera are already in :)

Updates On Sunday: She got her tinted glasses yesterday, the sun roof is planned tomorrow.

By the way, she has ABS and Air Bags as standard equipment, which Reona didn't have (ABS was an option, but we didn't go for it). However, Reona had a 6 CD-in-dash player, while Pari's unit, while additionally supporting MP3 and Aux-In, has a single CD input :)

Movie Review: Inception

I can join the gang and rave about how awesome Inception is, or be true to myself and say, well, it has some good action, some interesting special effects, an interesting concept, but gets too twisted and complicated with its plot, and all you can do is make up some explanations to convince yourself that you are getting it.

I will stick with the latter.

It's a good movie, but to truly get it, you got to be dreaming.

Whiskas

Watching this 1985 James Bond movie A View To Kill - the lady asks Bond, my cat's hungry, I need to feed him, you hungry? Bond replies, what you feeding him, Whiskas?

25 years later, that's what I just fed my cats! :)

Another Baby on the Way!

Watch this space for updates....!!!

It's Not Always Sun and Sand!

The beautiful canvas of nature, with the clouds, the roaring sea and the placid sands... simply mind-blowing!

Kitty Hawk

We rescued this beautiful kitten as she desperately tried to get away from the road with a broken leg, possibly from an accident just a few seconds earlier. A brief chase through the municipal garden later, we had subdued her thrashing mini paws. Under the warmth of a blanket, we took her to the PAWS shelter in Taleigaon, where a doctor gave her an injection, cleaned her and bandaged her broken leg.



She should be fine soon, although it's possible she will carry a limp for life. We have adopted her, and she should be in Nerul as soon as she's good to go fight with our dog :)

While at the shelter, we also met many beautiful kittens/cats and dogs... if you need a pet, pleaase do drop by. They work mostly on donations, and anything you can help with - including old blankets and food, will be so wonderful for these tiny creatures that need your love and support.



This mini-bomb (see the tiny head?) was all set to take on three dogs with her fierce "pssss" and sharp claws! :)



And this cat had a tough time accepting she wasn't a monkey!

Nerul in July

Shiva, our faithful. long term gardener, helper and all-in-one - except when he's dead drunk :)

The "ghasare" in the aangan at Nerul. When we were kids, we used to bathe under them, and then splash around in the "swimming pool" created by blocking the outlet from the aangan.

Heavy rains greet us as we approach our main gate. It's a short wait before the housemaid turns up to open the gates to us...

A beautiful creeper on the coconut tree... this one is many years old!

Looking out towards the main gate, the bench on the left is a very recent addition

The main gate in brighter times :) The two lions keeping guard were earlier part of our devghar.

This open space at the left of the entrance driveway was earlier public space, and as kids, we played a lot of cricket here .

I planted this tree in 1998-99 as part of a school initiative to plant trees

An amazing multi-headed Ashoka tree, this one has had a couple of rebirths after falling to heavy winds and stormy weather.

And this one was planted by me in 1997-98.

Lavasa in the Rains

Figo Under Escort

Says it all... two Black Endys escorting a pretty black Ford Figo on Law College Road :)

Wagon R

Guess what's Maruti's best selling model? Going by what we saw in Goa, it's the Wagon R! Yes, believe it or not, in a space of around 10 mins and 2 km in the city, we counted an unbelievable 64 Wagon Rs! Try it yourself...

Movie Review: Tere Bin Laden

A hilarious, off-beat movie, TBL is a wonderful satire on Pakistan and America's war on terror. When Ali is permanently refused a visa to the land of his dreams, it looks like his journalist career with the Pakistani news channel Danka TV is going to be limited to covering rooster competitions. Until he meets a Bin Laden look-alike, and hits upon the idea of coming up with a new Bin Laden video. Little does he know what lies in store for the world - America's Operation Kickass!

With a wonderful script, good performances by all the actors (most of whom have never faced the camera before), and a plot that all Indians will love and identify with, TBL is perfect entertainment for at least a couple of times.

Do not miss it!

Biometric Problem for the UID!

Guess what's the biggest problem facing Nandan Nilekani's UID project? No, it's not logistics or database sizing, or integration. It's the absence of adequate quality biometrics in the vast rural population of India, the exact data set which is expected and targetted to benefit most from this project. What exactly do I mean by lack of adequate quality biometrics? Well, most of the farm workers and daily wage labourers do not have high-quality fingerprints! And the rest do not have adequately transparent corneas (because of cataracts), making retina scans impossible.

At the end of the day, these are the two key identification mechanisms for getting your UID.

Honda Civic versus Volswagon Jetta

We did a comparison test drive of the VW Jetta and the Civic on Saturday.

The Civic looks good, especially in Black, and the interiors are also top notch, like most Hondas. The dashboard is beautiful, the leather is high quality, and the interior trims and space gives the Civic a very posh feel. While acceleration is poor, it performs wonderfully well once it's got some momentum. And of course, the AT is a bonus when compared to the Jetta which doesn't have an AT version.

The Jetta on the other hand looks and feels like a small car from inside, with very poor leg room for the rear passengers, with the transmission housing and rear AC vents making the third passenger almost a no-possibility. While it definitely has better torque, even considering it's a diesel version, the car stalls in 2nd gear, and that was a huge disappointment.

Overall, the verdict goes heavily in favour of the Civic, and when you roll in the price tags with the Jetta coming in at almost 2 lakh more than the Civic, the decision is a no-brainer.

Saina Nehwal is World No 2

Saina's dedication and hard work is paying dividends! Just a step from the top, India's darling deserves a round of applause!

Do you have a Demat Account?

From the Times Of India today:

Can Hindu deities have demat accounts to enable them transact in shares and debentures on the stock market?

The Bombay High Court will decide the issue after a religious trust filed a petition challenging the decision of National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) to refuse it permission for opening demat accounts in the names of five Hindu deities.

"When the Income Tax department has issued PAN cards to these five deities why should NSDL not allow opening of demat accounts in their names?" the trust has asked in the petition, which is likely to come up for hearing later this week.

The deities of the Sangli-based trust "Ganpati Panchayatam Sansthan" are Lord Ganesh, Chintamaneshwardev, Chintamaneshwaridevi, Suryanarayandev and Laxminarayandev.

Movie Review: Knight And Day

A good looking Tom Cruise and an old looking Cameron Diaz star in this comedy-action drama featuring some very original and exceedingly well executed car chases and action scenes and some interesting and unusual screenplay and dialogues, making it a good option for the weekend.

Don't expect too much, ignore the plane crash at the beginning of the movie, and try not to chase the storyline, and you will have some fun.

Oh, if you haven't seen the A-Team yet, though, go for it.

Quote For The Day

If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time. Chinese Proverb.

Bandh?

It's sad to see the opposition playing cheap politics, opposing an able PM who, as FM, brought this country out from the brink of bankruptcy and ably led us through the economic meltdown, providing 10% growth rate when the world was sliding deeper and deeper in recession.

No, I Don't Really Follow Football

We now have the semi-final line up for the FIFA WC 2010, and I think I know most of the teams in there. No, I don't really follow Football, but then, when it's the greatest show (and sound!) on Earth, I guess one shouldn't totally miss it!

I've seen a few games, some brilliant goals, but mostly, for me, the FWC has been a disappointment.

Here's why.

Technically, there's very little compared to cricket. No pitch reports, no seam versus spin, no mongoose bats, no worrying about lights. No one even bends it like Beckham any more. Pre and post game discussions talk more about injuries and lack of goals, instead of team strategies and techniques.

Messi, Rooney, Ronaldo, Kaka, Mama, Maushi... sexy names, waxed chests, multi-millions dollar deals. But where are the results? My favourite of the tournament, by the way - David Villa, Spain.

When you watch ninety minutes of twenty three players running around on the field, you expect more than 1-0 or 0-4. When the ball passes up and down, back and forth for so long, you wonder why life couldnt be made a little more interesting. And it irritates the hell out of me when players feign falls and injuries, when cheating is blatant and ends up being called the hand of god, when referees are not allowed the option of resorting to TV replays, when the whole world sees unfair play being rewarded and FIFA defends it with lame excuses. Mexico lost to a lacklustre Argentina, France made it to SA, Uruguay beat Ghana, and none of these results were meant to be.

Yesterday's game between Uruguay and Ghana provided some excitement - back to back penalties on opposite goals, a brilliant save, a goal, then goal denied, huge refereeing errors and inconsistencies. The hand of god denying Ghana yet another goal, the resulting penalty kick resultless.

What kind of a game is it when the best teams lose to unfair play, and cheaters become demigods?

Movie Review: I Hate Luv Storys

Girl meets boy, boy likes dates, girl likes love stories, girl proposes, boy disposes, boy proposes, girl disposes, but eventually they live happily every after. It's not a love story, it's a saga. Or so it pretends to be.

Positives:
Imran back after Jaane Tu in a cute and believable role.
Sonam Kapoor's ravishing smile.
Some good songs, although you need to listen to them a few times and let them grow on you.
Samir Soni, looking delicious though loud in his role.
Sameer Dattani's shirts. Lol. OK, that was a joke.
College Humour.
New Zealand locales (and Pune's Mariott :))
Imaginative title.
Takes on SRK movies.

Negatives:
Stretched second half.
Some other College Humour.
Unimaginative story line.
Too many takes on SRK movies.
Unnecessary references to sex - a definite problem when you want to take your eigth year old to the movie!
Sonam Kapoor's legs and stiff acting. Her make up man needs a change too.
Imran's acting - at times, you don't know if he's serious or joking, a la George Bush Jr.

Overall, watch it once, take a book along to read in the middle of the second half, and some cotton to plug in the ears in case you take your kids along.

Amazing Rainfall Picture

This came to me in a chain mail... simply beautiful and awe-inspiring! Apparently clicked from Sinhagad Fort looking towards Pune.

EU Madness

If you thought only Indian politicians knew how to create a mess out of a perfectly beautiful life, here's new from TOI that should make you rethink. An EU legislation, if approved, would mean an end to packaging eggs or fruit by the dozen, bread rolls in a pack of six or fish fingers in boxes of 12. The proposed change would cost the food industry millions of dollars as items would have to be individually weighed to ensure the accuracy of the label on it.

Formatted Out

Ended up formatting my cell, forgot to take backup and ended up losing most of my phone contacts. Shit.

Folks, please help me with your numbers - a short SMS with your name will be perfect.

Xenon HID Lights

Got Samara some very sexy Bi-Xenon 4300K HID lights, for the main beams as well as for the fogs. Though I am not using what is called as the "projector" (focussing the beams in a narrow arc), the effect is simply mesmerizing.



Will try and get some better pictures later, but for now, here's a sample of how the lights come across in my society parking - bright and white. Oh, yes, that's Reona there in the middle :)

1001

This is my 1001th post on this blog. Wow, it's been a fun journey! A logn time back, I had blogged on why I blog. While I have loved sharing my life, my thoughts with all my readers, the best reward has been the self-awareness, a sense of curiosity, a better appreciation of life and its nuances.

Next target: 10000.

Movie Review: The A-Team

I had read the A-Team novels way back, almost two decades ago in school, after I had finished reading all the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drews there were to read. A few months back, I was rewarded with a cute Nancy Drew movie, and The A-Team just brought back a lot more beautiful memories from childhood!

A beautiful cast (girls, feast your eyes on the delicious Bradley Cooper), great action (barring 5 min of unwanted mayhem towards the end) and wonderful dialogues make this a must-watch movie.

India are Asia Champs

80 run victory over Sri Lanka, clinical victory! Hurray, Dhoni's men!!

What's up?

Saina Nehwal at No 3 in the world
Rusty Sania and hubby Shoib out of fashion
India on verge of Asia Cup championship
World's longest tennis match still on at 65-65 in final set

Samara's Goa Trip Photos

Eager to tackle the Kolhapur - Goa stretch at 540 am


Taking a shower on the Amboli ghat


Some warm-ups before the wheeelie


Up on Zoo Zoo Hill


Me and Sanam pose for pictures


After some mud crunching in the marshes

Wheelie!!!

Back to Pune

Samara set a fresh record of 5 hours 30 mins from Goa to Pune. We've done 5.15 earlier in the Fiesta, but given that we left at 9.00 am and got a lot of initial traffic, this record does matter!

This was truly Samara's coming of age trip, watch out for the wheelie video and pictures coming up in a while!

Movie Review: Raavan

What works for Raavan: Stunning locales and amazing cinematography, innovative and unseen camera angles.

What doesn't work: everything else.

Raavan is a modern day version of the kidnapping of Sita, and her Agnipariksha, although the "rescue" here becomes an uneventful release. Beera (Mr Aishwarya Rai Bacchan) is part Naxalite, part Veerappan from a place that is as bewitching and beautiful as any in the world. He kidnaps the wife of a very handsome police officer (southie Vikram), planning to kill her 14 hours later (yes, they got the number right!) for revenge of his sister, a victim of police excesses. Inexplicably (how else do you justify him falling for someone who screams in constipated agony?) he falls in love, and 14 days later, decides to let her go. But the modern day Ram will not rest till he has finished Mission Eliminate Beera. He conspires to have her "follow her heart" to her beloved Raavan (yes, she switches loyalty faster than it takes the machine at Inox to dispense the coffee), follows her with some heavily armoured men (no, not tanks), and blows Beera to pieces.

But not before Beera keeps uttering his most inspirational dialogue (zhig zhig zhig zhig... accompanied by a vigorous shaking of head akin to someone trying to shake out the non-existent vuvuzela bees from his ears), dances like a man possessed amidst beautiful ruins of temples in the rain, smears haldi on his face in anguish over the death of his clan members, and generally makes you wish you could die in peace.

Not before Aishwarya reminds you it's time to go to the potty with her constipated cries of anguish (yes, I know I repeated this - but it's still relevant and true), tries hard to make her breasts fall out of her blouse (thankfully, she doesn't succeed) and does a Hrithik-like jig in her jeans, making you wonder if she's got a frog in her pants.

Not before... oh god, just leave it. I wanted to try and describe the torture of living through the song and dance sequences, but will defer it out of whatever little respect I have left for Rahman.

PLease go watch the movie, I don't want to be the only one having suffered through it.

Samara Goes to Goa

On Thursday evening, Samara left on her maiden visit to Goa, her longest trip so far. We had decided to take a halt at Kolhapur, and so took an evening start, leaving from Pune by 5.00 pm. The weather was beautiful, dark clouds, but not much rain. The chilly weather and the gradually undulating terrain was perfect for the 250 km drive. With Sanam sleeping peacefully on the back seat, my friend and her cousin ensconsed in their blankets on the middle seats, watching Twilight on the DVD, wifey and I enjoyed the drive immensely. We reached Kolhapur by 830 pm, after a 30 min break for bhajiyas and chai at the Sai International, half an hour from the city.

I did miss my Fiesta, though... the agility of the car enabling better power driving on the highway. Another thing you have to be careful of in the Endy are sudden jumps on the road, those uncomfortable speed bumps, which don't harm the front seat passengers, but can be pretty bad for the passengers in the rear. Thankfully, the super efficient ABS brakes on the Endy ensure you can avoid the impact to a large extent.

So round 1 was a tie, power driving on the highway went to the Fiesta, although the Endy made up through it's better in-car entertainment and stressless long driving experience.

Day 2 began at 545 am, with a slight drizzle, the last hour of the night yet to pass. By the time, we hit the Nipani-Uttur-Azra-Amboli-Sawantwadi stretch, both the car and her driver had sufficiently warmed up and found their rhythm, ready for what was expected to be the biggest challenge - 100 km of second class road, narrow and twisty, through fields and jungles, and the Western ghats. This has always been my time guzzler on all speed record attempts, the Fiesta needing to slow down on the potholed stretches, having to follow the lumbering STs and trucks, having to slow down to a crawl to let incoming traffic pass. And this is where the Endy proved it's worth, easily managing to stay at an average 100-120 kmph, effortlessly handling the potholes, scaring half the incoming traffic off the road long before we came to a head, and easily stepping off the tarred surface when needed for those tight squeezes.

The eye-opener was on the ghat. We were taking a hair pin bend at a decent speed when we suddenly saw this truck broken down right in our path, requiring emergency brakes and a tighter turn to pass the parked truck safely. The ABS kicked in, enabling unbelievably smooth and safe passage, and my respect for the Endy went up a level of magnitude.

Immediately after the Amboli ghat, a mostly-kuccha road takes you directly to Banda, saving around 20km and half an hour of frustrating single lane traffic in the Sawantwadi area, and we had tremendous fun throwing the Endy at the huge ponds of water, splashing through, the delugu splashing onto the windscreen and blinding the driver for a brief moment, before the wipers take over.

We reached Goa by 830, well in time for our first chai of the day!

Goa has been a lot of fun offering unlimited offroad opportunities. Wait for some cool pictures and videos, to be uploaded as soon as I reach broadband land.

Movie Review: Karate Kid

When young Dre Parker (Will Smith's son, Jaden Smith) moves to Beijing with his mother, he is forced to take on a bunch of ruthless Chinese bullies from his school. His frail body no match for their karate training, he is pumelled time and again, until the "maintenance man" in his apartment building takes him as his student and prepares him for the ultimate showdown, the karate tournament.

Jaden impresses with a stunning performance, his innocence, his vulnerability and frail body providing a stunnign contrast to the determination, sweat and karate skills he picks up from his mentor.

Jackie Chan has his moments of brilliance, but it's Jaden that the movie completely revolves around.

A very nice movie.

GE Money Rocks

Last week, when we decided to sell off Madhavi's old car, we ran into a major issue. The RTA needed confirmation from the financier that the loan had been paid off - apparently, this is a must before you can transfer ownership. You need an NOC, as well as Form 17 and Form 35.

The problems were many. The loan had been cleared a year back. And Maruti Countrywide, with whom we had taken the loan, was now part of GE Money. And to top it all, we had no idea about the loan account number, no documentation, nothing.

I wrote to GE Money about the situation and they promised to help. Less than a week later, I had everything I needed, delivered to me at home.

All they asked for was the car number. No other forms, no other formalities, no visits to their office. Zero fuss. Max service.

GE Money rocks - another example of wonderful customer service I have seen in India recently.

Sanam at Shiamak Davar's Dance Show

First from right, this is one of the two dances she participated in. This is from a report in the Sakal Times, 4th June English edition.

Badalta Plan or Bewakoof Customer?

With competition hotting up, cellular companies are trying hard to woo customers with lower and lower tariffs and other schemes. After coming down to 1 paise per minute, what else? Tata Indicom recently launched a daily plan - where customers can keep changing their plan on a day to day basis, as per their talking pattern! Convenient, or just crazy? Well, Uninor, which is making its debut in Pune, has launched a Badalta Discount Plan, wherein customers are promised a new and different dicsount plan every few km! How the hell does that help consumers other than simply confusing the hell out of them? Am I encouraged to go around town making calls, checking out my discount rate every few meters? I wish companies would focus on providing better and more reliable services, and stop playing these stupid games with their consumers!

Movie Review: Kites

Much has been written and said about Kites, but the authors missed one major factor that made me love it. A sexy Black Ford Everest (that's what they call it in the US!) which holds it's own and comes out tops against a Hummer :)

Coming back to the movie itself, it's definitely not worth the hype and the noise surrounding it. Hrithik, for me, is going from bad to worse. He needs to be, look and act like a human again. Barbara Mori, though, looks and acts beautifully, and sizzles the screen with her body, her smile and her adahs. Totally worth it!

The action scenes are OK, the story line is nothing to write about, and the end really ends any hopes the movie had of redemption! A couple of tracks, however, make the music CD a must buy.

Watch it, it's not that bad an option if you have nothing else to do. And Barbara needs your support :)

Movie Review: Shrek Forever After (3D)

Checked out the latest installment of the Shrek franchise, Shrek Forever After, in 3D, last weekend at ESquare. Not bad for a family outing, the 3D glasses and picture quality were good, but definitely not as much fun as the earlier movies. Can take a miss.

Movie Review: Atithi Kab Jaoge

What happens when a much-awaited guest comes home, but then refuses to go away? AKJ is a simple movie, with a simple story line, mostly predictable. With Ajay and Konkona, and the king of comedy, Paresh Rawal, though, you expect a lot more, and that is why AKJ disappoints.

The best part of the movie? Two scenes with a black Endy! :)

10000 Hits on the Counter :)

My hits counter crossed 10000 today - that's about a 1000 a month since Aug last year, or 30 per day :) Not bad for an amateur blogger like me who can't get over certain fetishes - right now, my Endy, for example!

Thanks folks, for inspiring me to continue observing, thinking, and sharing.

Movie Review: Daybreakers

Vampires have taken over the world, humans are being farmed for their blood. Dwindling numbers of humans, though, are threatening the survival of the vampires. Will a blood substitute ever replace the real thing?

Lot of blood and gore, bodies exploding, splattering innards over bystanders...

Get it?

Not for the weak hearted, but not a bad movie, actually.

Hailstorm

Had an amazing rain and hailstorm today, following the thundershowers that lashed Pune last evening.

Here's a pic of a bunch of hailstones:

Take Off

Did something with Samara I always dreamt of but never really achieved as well as I wanted to with Lisa and Reona... a take off. We were coming back from a late night movie, the roads were empty, and the new elevated pedestrian crossing ramps on Baner road provided the perfect setting for a take off jump in the Endy. And as we hit the ramp at 100 kmph, the Endy took off effortlessly, jumped a few meters and then almost as effortlessly glided back onto its wheels, rocking once more before settling into the ride. Not a whimper from the suspension, not one second of hesitation, absolutely no loss of control.

We did it again a few hundred meters at the second ramp, this time much slower.

It is such an addictive feeling, I am afraid it's here to stay!