UK's Beautiful People

Had heard a lot about the grumpy and unfriendly British people - but London, Edinburgh and Inverness were so welcoming and friendly, especially compared to my experiences in mainland Europe. In general, we found people avoiding the "Hi, Howdy" conversations that are so typcial in America - instead getting into meaningful and intelligent dialogues. For example, I was clicking a London cab, and a local couple walking by stopped to ask me how I found London, whether it was my first trip, and then going on to recommend some good pubs and hang outs!

Another big difference is the way people carry themselves. No loose fitting and torn denims hanging half way below the butts. Beautiful well-tailored clothes (like in Hong Kong), sexy denims and skirts, high boots and stockings, great make up.

Children take advantage of a bright and sunny day, at the Portobello beach in Edinburgh

Mother and daughter at Hyde Park

A beautiful couple catch up on time at Portobello

The future of Inverness

Bagpiping her way into your hearts, at Edinburgh

Family time at Portobello

Eager tourists mingle with locals rushing home after a great day at Edinburgh

With her furry friends at Green Park near Buckingham Palace

The Tower of London guard poses for a pic

Selling souvenirs at Tower of London Bridge

Camera Obscura in Edinburgh

One of the most unique and exciting attractions during our trip was the Camera Obscura in Edinburgh, on the terrace of a five floor building, packed with exciting optical illusions, hands on experiences and visually stunning shows.

Check out http://www.camera-obscura.co.uk/

The Camera Obscura is a combination of a giant pinhole camera and a periscope. At the top of the tower is a dark chamber with a mirror on top which reflects light downwards, passing through three lenses before projecting a stunning image of the city onto a large white table. The guide turns and tilts the mirror to give a live 360° tour of Edinburgh combined with a fascinating and fun commentary. You can even pick up passers-by on your hand in this amazing interactive exhibit. Our guide was simply awesome too - pretty and petite, with an amazing sense of humor, with her dramatic tones and voice modulation and knowledge of Edinburgh making this one of the best tourist experiences ever!

Here are some pics (although none of the Obscura, given that it needs to be seen in a dark room - and no pics would do justice to it anyway!)...

Look closely - how many dolphins can you count? What were you looking at? :)

An amazing exhibit that slices and dices you and your partner - see it to believe it!

One of the many stunning holograms

A childhood version of me :) Yes, to be frank, I looked a little better!

A Chinese me :)

The giant and the midget!

A very interesting and sweet notice...

England & Scotland

One of my most interesting experiences during my UK trip came on the bus tour in Inverness, Scotland... listening to the tour guide recounting, in a barely vieled bitter tone, how the English had attacked the Scots, surrounded them, and massacred them in a matter of days. A line that was repeated over and over again, location after location, especially at places like Urquhart Castle, which witnessed many years of bloody fighting between the English raiders and the Scottish tribes.

We may have our own grudges with the Pakis, but one needs to remember it's a story barely 60 years old, we have fought many bitter battles, and a long, painful proxy war of terror.

You would expect that the Scots, after so many years of peace and prosperity, and being part of the United Kingdom, would have moved on - but no. Most Scots actually hate the Brits, and want independence! Our taxi driver even told me that it was a strong possibility in the next 1-2 years! Wishful thinking, or am I ignorant of geopolitics here?

This is what Wikipedia pulled up...

The Scottish Government intends to hold a referendum of the Scottish electorate, on the issue of independence from the United Kingdom, on Thursday 18 September 2014. The question asked in the referendum will be "Should Scotland be an independent country?" After failing to obtain support from other parties for a referendum on independence during the 2007–11 Scottish Parliament, the Scottish National Party (SNP) again pledged to hold an independence referendum and won an overall majority in the 2011 Scottish election. On 10 January 2012, the Scottish Government announced that it intends to hold the referendum in the autumn of 2014. An agreement was signed on 15 October 2012 by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, and the First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, which provides a legal framework for the referendum to be held. The principal issues in the referendum are the economic strength of Scotland, defence arrangements, continued relations with the UK, and membership of supranational organisations, particularly the European Union and NATO.

Chaos In London

We always compare the Western countries to our own "pathetic" infrastructure - and for good reason. While the London Underground works like clockwork, beautiful, spanking clean coaches hurtling inside the maze of tunnels, on time every time, our own trains seem to huff and puff under the strain to millions spilling out of smelly, over crowded dabbas...

(Yes, for now, ignore the wonderful Delhi Metro :))

But on our last day in London, we got a taste of what happens in these cities when one of the cogs in the wheels come unstuck. There was some little delay on one of the lines... and immediately, the ripples spread throughout the Underground. Platforms quickly started overflowing with harried travellers, coaches arrived at full capacity, and the rush of commuters jostling to get in and out at the same time would have made Dadar proud. Coaches started getting terminated mid journey, and already-stressed commuters were suddenly asked to disembark and wait for the next train.

And before all that, we got a taste of London traffic. A drive from the hotel to the station at King Cross - St Pancras that should have taken us 10 mins or less, took almost 45 min, and could have been much worse if not for the expertise of our drivers, who knew the tiny lanes and bylanes and helped us avoid some of the major bottlenecks.

It's all a matter of population density really - and it's amazing how our authorities are coping with our billions. Truly amazing.

Facebook Shares Your Contact Information

FB has done it again.This time, in an optimization algorithm gone wrong, FB ended up exposing personal contact information like phone numbers and email addresses of millions of users to other users. While they claimed that your information was visible to max 1-2 users when they downloaded a copy of their profile data, the worry is - is this all, or does this happen much more regularly?

Will India Prevail in the CT?

A few hours from now, an unbeatable-looking Indian team will take on the English on their home soil in the CT final - the only ICC trophy missing from our cupboard. India has been in smashing form, winning every game absolutely comfortably, beating SA, Sri Lanka, Windies, Australia and Pakistan. Shikhar has already smashed 2 centuries in his first 2 games, the rest of the Indian batting has also been like a juggernaut, smashing every attack that's come up against them. India's pacers have hunted as a pack, seriously wounding opposition pride, and never letting them wake up. Dhoni's captaincy has been spot on, and this Indian side is the best fielding side in the world now, by far.

Can we repeat this performance, one more time, and get us the coveted CT?

Aspirations

At intermission, there was this guy in front of me at the snacks counter.. tattered t-shirt, a little overwhelmed and scared.. he managed to mumble "Coke kitna" to the guy behind the counter, and was told "95". From his pocket, he pulled out a few tenners, counted out 100, and almost ran away with the Coke, forgetting to collect the precious change...

Don't know what - just disturbed me a lot. Whether he should be at Inox watching the movie on that expensive ticket, whether he should be buying a cup of Coke for 95 bucks... I don't know, maybe not - but he had aspirations, and he paid a big price for it... somehow, didn't seem fair!

Movie Review: Raanjhanaa

"Akal ke parde peeche kar de", says a line from one of the countless tracks in Raanjhanaa. As if it's taunting the audience for having kept their own blinders on! "Aakhri mein kyon gadbadagayi, Zoya?" goes another dialogue towards the end. More aptly, what happened to the entire second half of the film, Mr Director?

Not that the first half wins any awards from my stable, but at least it was an attempt at creating something different. An audacious plan to cast someone who defies all definitions of a romantic Bollywood hero, and who, like his Kolaveri Di, uses nonsensical antics and exploits an instant connect to the millions of uneducated, jobless, tapori youth of the country, to try and draw the crowds to the theaters. A story that glorifies a selfish obsession, with no care or concern for the safety and well-being of the other, as love and passion. But at least it felt like an honest attempt at something different. The ghats of Varanasi, the dusty bylanes and roof tops, the railway tracks provided locales that haven't been seen before. AR Rahman's music provided some melody, although the repetitiveness of the tunes and the picturization with the over indulgence in Holi colors quickly becomes unbearable.

Two grossly overgrown "school kids" fall in love - one the son of a brahmin, the other a Muslim - their interactions consisting primarily of the girl slapping the guy hard every time he holds her hand in public, sending him into a monkey dance of ecstasy. Sixteen times. Morale of the story - no matter who you are, how you look and what you do, persistently following a girl, holding her hand in public, and getting slapped will land you your prize. They finally meet clandestinely by the banks of the river and kiss, just before she finds he is a Hindu and runs away. Away from town, only to return 8 years later, as an educated and driven girl, who doesn't even recognise her childhood friend (although, the grossly over grown kids have stopped growing since, and look exactly the same as they used to...) and wants to marry someone "more like her" - the guy she's fallen for for in college. More antics follow - and with the unkempt look and the ill-fitting wardrobe, it's easy to appeal to the masses in the theatres. Add a few silly one-liners, and you have the next Himesbhai ready to be served on a platter.

The hero decides that if pleading doesn't work, violence will. So he slashes his hands, threatens to slash hers, and even callously dumps his scooter into the river- with her screaming on the back seat... and it doesn't stop there. The story quickly starts hurtling towards more mayhem. Her Delhi-waala politician boy friend (Abhay Deol in a role he will regret for the rest of his life) makes an entry, gets killed by our hero when he "exposes" him for being the Hindu that he is, then the scene shifts to Bhatta Parsaul in a amateurish and senseless sequence where our hero uses his Tamil with the Tamilian SP leading the police force against the protesting farmers to prevent a police shootout. Our hero becomes the most sought after political leader, while leading a gang of a dozen odd students, usurping the "throne" of the slain Abhay Deol, and pissing off his lady love further. The CM of the state woos him, pretty college girls fall all over him, while he serves chai out of a kettle to his "team", and sweeps the courtyard... he has to continue to appeal to the masses, you see? How much can you manipulate the audiences? As much as you want to! Where is a simple dash of reality? What's that? Goaded by the CM, the girl decides she wants to use the hero for political gains... she dresses him up in her dead boy friend's sherwani, and puts him on stage to be killed... but he survives the bullet, wins her heart, and finally, the credits roll.

Movies should be about pure entertainment, or a social message. Sadly, Raanjhaanaa not only fails in the former, but worse, passes on some very dangerous messages... It's rare that I go for a movie with low expectations, and come back having seen something lower! Ranjhaana was one of those moments.

Movie Review: World War Z

The world is swiftly and horrifyingly being taken over by zombies, and a UN official fights against odds to find a solution... from Korea to Israel to a remote WHO facility in Wales, he manages to stay step ahead of the increasingly deadly tribe of the walking dead closing in around him. But will it be enough to save the world, and his family, from doom?

WWZ has the familiar apocalypse theme we have seen in dozens of movies of the genre, but the treatment is fresh, the SFX and visualizations stunning, and the action fast paced and very realistic and plausible (to the level it can be in a zombie movie!). The opening sequence brilliantly sets up the tragedy to follow, with the father, the mom and the two daughters having breakfast in the kitchen... the moment of reckoning, the first attack of the zombies is brilliantly executed, with some stunning action shots. The scene of the zombies climbing over each other to cross over the high walls into Israel is simply brilliant. The end is a little predictable and filmy, but overall, here's a movie that begs to differ, and succeeds.

And yes, I got the 2D version - and enjoyed it a lot more without the heavy 3D glasses sitting on my nose... but it might not be too bad in 3D, given that it's shot in nice, bright light...

Tragedy In Uttarakhand

Rishikesh, Kedarnath, Badrinath... holiest of holy shrines, devastated in an unimaginable tragedy, the deadly fury of nature unleashed in an unforgivable Himalayan Tsunami. The army, the ITBP, the navy, the air force, and the administration is working round the clock to try and save as many lives as possible.. but with thousands feared dead, hundreds of roads and bridges unpassable, and with the threat of further rains within the next couple of days, one wonders - is this a man made tragedy, the wrath of the gods or simply the fury of nature, hitting back at the rape of the mountains and our rivers?

Meanwhile, it was pretty interesting to hear Vijay Bahuguna, the CM of Uttarakhand, on Headlines Today. A soft spoken, and smart leader, he seemed completely in control, practical yet sensitive, being able to very clearly elucidate his thoughts on environment versus development, the requirements of his poor and developmentally backward state, and how certain compromises need to be made to address the conflicting goals of eco-conservation and development.

Printer Wonder

Bought a new HP printer the other day - a simple, basic home printer for around 6000 bucks. It has all the standard stuff - scan, fascimile and color/B&W printing, wireless connectivity etc.

But here's the amazing thing. The printer allows you to connect to the web, and deploy applications that access content, and then download it for printing. Imagine a cartoon a day. Imagine recipes. Imagine stories, news articles. Crossword puzzles. What an idea! You buy a printer, and then the printer ensures you keep printing over and over again! Brilliant.

Not to mention the dozens of forms and templates pre-built into the printer. Need to make a to do list? Travel reimbursement? Print an invite? Fret not. The printer has it all - just choose what you want, feed in the paper, and you are set!

You can now also update the printer software directly over the web, and mark the cartridges electronically in such a way that even if someone swaps them and tries to use them on another device, they simply won't work! Amazing!

Movie Review: Fukrey

A wonderful, unassuming cast. Great humour, completely effortless. A simple story. And great cinematography. Fukrey is a sweet, simple movie to soak in on a wet, rainy day.

Three guys, finally out of school, are desperate to get into an elite college, with dreams of having hot girl friends. A struggling musician wants money for treatment of his ailing father. All 4, united by a common need, join forces with an outrageous plan, for which they need seed money. Enter Bholi Punjaban, a fiesty lady don, who agrees to help them out, for assured returns. But the plan goes horribly wrong, and the four need to quickly come up with some money-spinning ideas to keep the Punjaban at bay.

Pulkit Samrat makes a very good debut as Hunny. Varun Sharma is confident, Manjot Singh puts in another great performance as the Sardar. Richa Chadda is absolutely stunning; you will fall in love with her character. Priya Anand is sweet, but I think she's losing out on meaty roles, and she also needs some help on the wardrobe and makeup! She has potential, and it's not being realized! Vishakha Singh as Neetu is also pretty good.  Only Ali Fazal is weak, in his brooding avatar, and stands apart.

Overall, a sweet and simple movie that you will enjoy!

Paper Precious

A friend of mine runs this amazing boutique shop of hand-made paper art and artifacts - and no, you cannot imagine what she does unless you check it out yourself!

Check out www.paperprecious.blogspot.com and www.facebook.com/PaperPrecious!

Solitude

NDA In Self-Destruct?

What is it with the NDA? Why do they want to screw up their own chances everytime the Congress hands them their heads on a platter? Having been severely battered by corruption, a slow economy, rising inflation and a general sense of disillusionment, the Congress seems to be at its weakest in the entire UPA/UPA2 era, and yet, just before the elections kick off, the BJP can seem to be able to get neither its own house in order, not dance with its partners. Nitish and the JD(U) are splitting, LK Advani made a spectacle of himself, and Modi, for all his charm and capabilities, seems to have perfected the art of alienation with his own colleagues, if not with the cadres.

The country is looking up to the new age BJP with a lot of hope, as a party capable of good governance and development, but recent developments are very worrying, and with regional parties  and outfits like the Federal Front of the Eastern states gaining in strength, one wonders how the scene will eventually play on the national stage.

Maybe choosing between the devil and deep sea, the known devil is better than the deep sea of confusion in the NDA?

Movie Review: Man Of Steel

At 2.5 hours, MOS is far too long... and while the SFX and visualizations are pretty stunning at times, there's only so much you can take. A liberal dose of the editor's knife, and this could have been a great watch. Oh, and yes, someone stop making these 3D movies please... unless you are really gonna have things popping OUT of the screen!

The movie starts with a long and stretched account of how Superman is born on Krypton, and the baby sent to Earth, to help save the Kryptonian civilization from doom, when the planet implodes with an unstable core. Always trying to fit in, the baby grows up into a strong and handsome boy, adapted to the ways and atmospherics of the humans, his cells drawing on rays of the sun for strength. But when the Kryptonian general, long ago banished to the Phantom areas as punishment, returns to Earth, to claim it as the foundation of a new Krypton, Superman must reveal himself, win the trust of the Earthlings and save our world.

And when it's all done and dusted with, he ends up at the office of The Daily Planet, dressed a Clark Kent, the reporter, and the Superman we all know!

Not a bad watch, really - but be warned, it's far too long!

The UK Diaries

So, almost 3 weeks after I returned from the UK, the photos have finally been downloaded from the cam, and I am ready to blog a bit about the trip... beautiful memories, and while the pics attempt it, they don't really do full justice to the beautiful land of the Queen (whose family, it was reported in the Times of India today, has Indian DNA in it... )

Let's make a gentle start with the Mumbai - London flight (and a few pics of the return flight to desiland)... we left early in the morning, at around 6:00 am, which meant we had to leave from our cousin's place in Mumbai at 3:00 - it's fantastic to see the city still awake at that time, although most of the roads offer a free run!

Here are some pics from the aircraft... notice the amazing patterns on the land, seen from 10 km up in the sky...

Somewhere over the Iranian desert

Over Europe

Snow-capped mountains in the distance

 

Approaching Heathrow

Touch-down!

That warm and fuzzy feeling on board Air India!

Mesmerizing

The sun sets down over Europe - the last few hours before touchdown in Amchi Mumbai!

My Endeavour on Nat Geo

Interesting series on Nat Geo - My Endeavour. Celebrities like Chetan Bhagat, Rajeev Khandelwal, Karun Chandok and Gul Panag on a journey through the interiors of India on their gleaming Endeavours :)

Feels good seeing the beautiful AT beasts prowling the jungles!!

Sadly, I wasn't home when they came to invite me to participate :(

Aadhar

Applied for the Aadhar card today, at a special camp organized in my company. A very simple one page form, and minimal documentation was required (just the passport copy was good enough as address, ID and birth proof). The operator quickly entered name, birthdate and address on the computer - which had an amazing auto-fill, continuously updating itself, and auto-translate into regional language. A quick photo, iris scan, and all ten fingerprints - the software checking for quality and duplicates, and that was it! For all three of us, it took less than 15 mins.

Pretty impressed.

NaMo Reigns

Finally, the inevitable. Bowing to growing pressures from overwhelming majority of the party cadres, and an unmistakable wave of support from Gen Y, the BJP today named Modi to head its election panel for 2014, virtually closing the Advani chapter, and with it, his decades long wish to be PM, a wish that now seems likely to stay just that.

Will this be the nail in the coffin for the Congress, or will the Indian electorate prove that it doesn't forget and condone the past? Will this be the push India needs to march into future, or will the country have to wait for the crown prince from the Congress dynasty to assume reins?

Most importantly, will this finally bring the BJP together, or will the sulking Advanis, Uma Bharatis, Jaswant Singhs and Shartughan Sinhas of the party do another Yeddy on it?

Time will tell.

I, for one, am getting my electoral roll updated!

Book Review: The Utopian Experiment

Another Covert One novel by Kyle Mills, based on the legacy of Robert Ludlum, the Utopian Experiment interestingly builds upon the same theme as Dan Brown's Inferno - too many people on Earth, and one crazed scientist's desperate and brilliant attempt to make things right, unmindful of the rightfulness of the methods used.

This time, it's the Merge, a technology that allows users to seamless connect the Internet to their own brain, overlaying external video and audio inputs onto their own sensory organs, drawing analytics from LayerCake, a unique search and analyze algorithm that can evaluate a person's good/bad quotient in seconds, drawing upon everything that is known about that person in the ether. While millions of ordnary citizens are getting hooked to the Merge for its multiple entertainment and life-enhancing capabilities, including the ability to induce perfect sleep, the US military is excited about using it in combat, riding on an exclusivity partnership with the creator of Merge, the reclusive and brilliant Christian Dresner.

But when Jon Smith, the man in charge of the military program, and his friend and ex-girlfriend's sister Randi Russel, stumble upon some strange occurences in Afghanistan, their curiosity lands them in a desperate battle to survive, and thwart Dresner's diabolic plans.

And unlike many of the earlier Covert One novels which took very early scientific research and created doomsday scenarios out of them (like the DNA computers), this one hits very close to real!

Book Review: Inferno

This time, our very dear Robert Langdon, after waking up in hospital bed with no memory of what brought him there, has to race against time to thwart the deadly plans of a brilliant, crazed and dead scientist to wipe out a third of the Earth's population, unravelling clues in Dante's Divine Comedy across Florence and Venice, with the help of his new-found friend and accomplice Dr. Sienna Brooks.

A decent read, although compared to the earlier books, the excitement is a level lower.

Dan Brown also seems to have missed a very strong Indian connection here - as reported in the Times of India, one of the two oldest surviving manuscripts of the Divine Comedy is very much in amchi Mumbai in the building of the Asiatic Society Library! Its some 450 richly illustrated pages, dating from the 1350s, are bound and wrapped in red silk. And in the 1930s, Mussolini reportedly offered a million pounds for it!

The Monsoon Is Here!

Finally, after a very dry and difficult summer for most of Maharastra, the monsoons are here in force, and on time! Really look forward to good rains this year - after a very thirsty season last time. Personally, also, I really want to make the most of the season, get out a lot and get wet.

Started with a bang with some really heavy showers this week... look at the pic, doomsday clouds hovering over the city before the storm crashed down, with almost a couple of inches of rain in 2 hours.

Movie Review: 12 Rounds 2 Reloaded

An EMT paramedic suddenly finds himself in a bizarre game of life and death, a game of 12 rounds, which he must win, or many people will die. A throwback to Saw, but infinitely boring. I switched off after round 1.

It's that kind of movie that you have seen a million times, the same dal subzi with nothing in it to excite your taste buds.

Avoid it if you can!

Movie Review: Gangster Squad

It's LA, 1949, terrorized by the ruthless mob of Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), with the law reduced to mere spectators and the corrupt web of Cohen extends deep into the police, the judiciary, the administration and the politicians. As a last ditch effort, the Chief of Police sets up his own under-the-radar squad, led by Sgt O'Mara (Josh Brolin), with a single mandate - make no arrests, just clean up the muck.

A good gangster movie with some vintage car chase sequences, and hand to hand combat, but not for Bourne fans.

Movie Review: Movie 43

I have seen many outrageous, stomach churning, disgusting, shocking movies - but trust me, this one takes the cake. By far. Very far.

Two wasted teens put their kiddo hacko friend on the search for a fictitious movie called Movie 43 on the Internet, while they mess around with his laptop. As their friend comes up with one wierd movie after another, we, the audience are subject to stories so outrageous and at times, so disgusting, it will make everything else you have seen so far seem like stuff for the Cartoon Network.

The most amazing thing about the movie, though, is the cast - everyone from Hollywood, including Kate Winslet to Richard Gere seem to be there!

Caution: Absolutely not fit for watching with family

Joke Of The Day

I broke off with my gym.

We were just not working out!

LOL!!!

Movie Review: Now You See Me

Another amazing movie this weekend, Now You See Me! A total and complete entertainer with great visuals, a beautiful cast, excellent dialogues and humour, some simple but wonderfully executed action, and most of all, a very different story line that keeps you totally engrossed through the entire length of the movie, begging for more.

Four street magicians end up with an invite to a secret location, and the "Four Horsemen" is born. Performing stunning acts of magic in front of thousands of live audience, police quickly realize the magic is just a vehicle to pull off unbelievable cons. Are they looking simply for glory, or is this a build up to a mega con? And who is really controlling the four?

A special mention for the cast - each one is absolutely spot on, and a visual delight. The harried officer (Mark Ruffalo), the three guy magicians, their sexy female team member (Isla Fisher), the Interpol lady officer with her seductive French accent (Melanie Laurent), and Morgan Freeman as the guy who exposes magicians on TV...

This is a movie very much for the big screen, so do see it while you can!

Stymied By The Drivers

For once, I am not complaining about traffic... it's my USB drivers I am cribbing about. My laptop's USB drivers have gone corrupt, or so says my Sysad team, and that means I cannot access or upload any of my London pictures.

Until then, here are some movie reviews coming up :)

Movie Review: Fast And The Furious 6

Oh, what an entertainer! When Dom and his crew sign up on the side of the cops to take on an increasingly daring and sophisticated terrorist group in Europe, they know they have a precious target of their own - getting back Letti, and completing the family picture!

With a great-looking cast, especially the female leads, adrenalin pumping high octane action on the roads, breath-taking stunts, beautifully executed hand to hand combat and great humour, the movie keeps you thoroughly entertained, barring a slightly stretched climax and ending.

Absolutely must see for action buffs.

Movie Review: Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani

What's Hot:

Ranbir as Bunny, the "I, me, myself want to live my life all over the world" guy, with some very intense moments, especially in the second half. I rate his YJHD performance much higher than his potrayal of the rock star.

A sizzling hot Deepika as a simple, family girl, who decides she's had enough of her boring life, and goes out on the trip of her life, where she meets her schoolmate Bunny, and falls in love. And then falls again almost a decade later. The way she's cried and smiled, you can't help feel for her. Intensely. Check the smile on her face when Bunny turns up at the marriage, and her tears when he comes back to her on New Year's.

Kalki, in a role she does so well!

A couple of amazing songs that will stay on the charts for ever... Balam Pichkaari and Battameez Dil. Lovely melody, great choreography, a sensual treat.

Item song by Madhuri. Could have been better, but compare what her peers (Juhi, for example) are up to! Madhuri looks simply stunning.

Stunning locales, both Indian and foreign.

What's Not:

The story, or lack of it.

The second half, meanders along aimlessly after a racy and pacy first half.

Sidharth Roy Kapoor and some of the supporting cast. Very average.

Should you watch the movie? Absolutely, no doubt about it!

Back To Base

Reached back home early morning on Thursday, after a week long trip to London, Edinburgh and Inverness with my extended family. We were super lucky with the weather - imagine a whole week in the UK, with just a little rain on just one day, and beautiful sunny chilly weather rest of the time! Walked a lot, shopped a bit, took millions of photos. Tried some amazing dishes, and used the jetlag to my advantage taking some very early morning work-related calls, before kicking off the touring for the day!

Lots and lots of blog posts coming up, but for that, I got to first download and process my pics... so keep checking back :)

New Massage Parlour In Nerul

Azad Maidan in Panaji

Age Of Daughters!

A sign board like this can do so much more than all the rhetoric put together!

Gutsy Signboard in Goa!

Messages For... ?

Chilled Out Cat!

Can I? Looks Safe To Me!

Community Living

Cafe Real

While in Goa, I visited Cafe Real a couple of times - for the famous bhaaji pav, and samosas. Used to visit so often when I was in college with my then-girlfriend-now-wife, almost 25 years back! And guess what, the waiter who used to serve us then, still works at the same place! And people get surprised that I haven't changed jobs in 15 years...

Swinging Away

Resting

Belgaum

We passed through Belgaum on the way to Goa... I think I ended up in Belgaum after more than a decade - probably more like 13 years! We stopped at Sanman for some chai and snacks.. As children, summers always included a trip to Belgaum for rest and shopping, and Sanman was the preferred choice. The drive itself, though barely 150 kms, seemed like a huge deal in our old Fiat, requiring a couple of stops along the way, to pull up the bonnet, fill up the radiator and let the engine cool while we rested and had chai at a roadside tapari on top of Anmod ghat.

Sweet memories of childhood...

Driving To Goa

We went to Goa a few days back - and I never got around to blogging much about it. Anyway, here are some pics and updates from the trip coming up, starting with the pics of the drive down... starting from late afternoon, when the clouds started rolling in on a dry and sunny day, bringing cool breeze, showers and some wonderful climate!

Wonderful shrubbery along the highway makes the drive so beautiful for most parts

The beautiful jungles of Chorla Ghat - the best option from Belgaum to Goa

Ample Water

While Vidharba and rest of north eastern Maharashtra reels under a severe drought, most of the Pune-Kolhapur belt is comfortable, with plenty of water in its rivers and canals, and lush green sugarcane fields, which look better and better as you near Kolhapur. All thanks to Koyna and the westerns ghats, I guess!

Suhana Safar!

After what felt like decades, I was sitting in a bus this Saturday, on the way to Kolhapur from Pune. A road I have traversed dozens of times, but either at the wheel, or dozing off in a sleeper at night. For once, I was looking out at the landscape, the towns and villages, through the massive tinted windows. Watching a Marathi movie on the two screens in the bus. Although it was sizzling hot outside, the AC was doing a great job. The road was great, the Volvo powerhouse putting most sedans and SUVs to shame. Such a wonderful feeling.. Part of a group, yet alone in my own space and time, connected yet wonderfully isolated.

The way back was a different kind of fun. We had a puncture, and the roadside tinshed mechanic hadn't really worked on a tubeless bus tire before. Took all of 90 min to repair the flat, and in the meanwhile, while many others preferred to continue sitting in the bus watching Singham torture his nemesis, many of us enjoyed the roadside tea, watched the mechanic and his henceboys at work, and socialized around the common cause.

I should do this more often!

By the way, the car that came to drop us to the bus-stop at Kolhapur itself had a flat, requiring us to shift to a more humble auto - two flats in an hour, on two diff vehicles - now what are the chances of that?

Movie Review: Aurangzeb

Had a lot of promise in the basic plot, but it quickly gets too convoluted with multiple threads and confusions. Except for a credible performance by Rishi Kapoor and an interesting Jackie Shroff, the rest of the cast generally disappoints. Arjun Kapoor shows flashes of his Ishaqzade character, but fails to capitalize on a meaty double role. Sashaa Agha has a bikini scene, but is that really the best way to make a debut? Prithviraj uses his glum face to his advantage, and shows promise for similar roles in the future.


Very slow, average performances, and an entirely forgettable sound track makes this a pretty tepid movie.

Movie Review: Shootout At Wadala

SAW is the story of Mumbai's first "encounter" in which dreaded gangster Manya Surve was gunned down by the police at a college in Wadala. The movie tracks the transformation of a sincere college student trying to break away from a life of violence and crime, and how he is falsely implicated in a murder and sent to life in prison, propelling him to become one of Mumbai's most feared underworld dons in the 80s.

John Abraham does his best, but apart from the rippling muscles, doesn't have too much to show for it. Especially the scenes in which he roars like a wounded lion - hardly convincing! Kangana puts in one of her worst performances. Tushar Kapoor bags yet another role through his sister's support. Rest of the support cast is OK, especially Manoj Bajpai, but kudos are due to Anil Kapoor for an age-defying performance as the officer who goes after Surve.

Not one but three items songs which add nothing to the entertainment quotient, and just help in stretching an already-too-long saga.

After movies like Satya and Lokhandwaala, this one feels like the Zombies have overtaken the city!

Very much avoidable!

Movie Review: Bombay Talkies

4 directors, 4 poignant stories, one theme - Bollywood. What's missing? The punch.

Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee and Zoya Akhtar direct (completely independent) stories about gay relationships, children pursuing their dreams, a father desperate to bring a smile on his sick daughter's lips, and a son who goes to great lengths to grant his elderly father's Amitabh-wish. Chicken Soup for the Crazy Bollywood Fan, but stop short from touching you. And a needless, ineffective and kinda irritating "recap of Bollywood" item number at the end.

Watch Go Goa Gone instead, and if you have already seen it once, check it out a second time - it's even more enjoyable since you catch a lot of jokes you might have missed the first time!

Silver Linings Playbook

Watched "Silver Linings Playbook" on DVD yesterday - absolutely delightful movie, with great performances by the handsome Bradley Cooper, the ravishing Jeniffer Lawrence (who also got an Oscar for her role) and the always-awesome Robert Di Nero. A must watch - this is a beautiful love story, as good as it can get.

Tale Of Two Elections

Two interesting elections this week...

Across the border, Pakistan saw the first ever civilian govt to govt handover, a historic moment for the country plagued by home-grown terror, fundamentalism, corruption, domination by the army and a total economic collapse. Pakistan has voted for change, kicking out Zardari's party, and giving a third opportunity to Nawaz Sharif. Imran Khan's party put in a solid performance, boosted by the sympathy factor after his fall during compaigning, coming second ahead of Zardari. Interestingly, while development and issues like power cuts dominated the election pitch, most countries, including Sharif, promised to normalize and improve relations with India. Will this dream be realized? Remember, Sharif was in power during the Mumbai blasts, and during Kargil! What does this election mean to Zardari's future - already under the cloud for corruption, and not exactly most popular with the army? What does this mean for Musharraf, now in jail for treason, and at the mercy of the guy he allegedly sidestepped and overruled over Kargil?

Will anything really change on the ground? Does this bode well for India and Afghanistan?

The other very interesting development, of course, was in Karnataka, where the Congress rode anti-incumbency and the BJP vote split by Yeddy's caste based politics to hand the BJP a crushing defeat in its only Southern state, raising questions about the BJP's ability to call itself a truly national party at the 2014 elections. Without Yeddy, can they afford to fight? Can they afford to take him back, having distanced themselves from him so clearly with corruption as the core issue? With Nitish Kumar already drawing blood in Bihar, and SP-BSP as fickle minded as ever, the BJP seems to have nothing to bank on in the 2014 polls, inspite of the Congress handing it opportunity after opportunity on the corruption plank. Will the Congress pull off a Houdini yet again?

And while we are on the topic of corruption, where is AAP? There is only a deafening silence - Bansal and Ashwani don't fall in their scheme of things?

PM Issues

With Bansal and Ashwani out, the BJP is now baying for the PM's blood - and while I have been a staunch admirer of Manmohan Singh, first for his stint as FM when I was just out of school, and then the way he stood up to the Left's blackmail during the Nuclear Pact days, I am coming around to the view that there is justification in the demand, after all. In addition to the involvement of the PM in the Coalgate mess as the erstwhile Coal min, and the interference or collusion or plain and simple incompetence of the PMO, the way the PM shielded the two ministers for such a long time, and then had to give in to the demand of Sonia Gandhi, points to a very real conflict in the top leadership of the Cong and the govt, and raises uncomfortable questions.

There was a joke doing the rounds about why Manmohan Singh only takes his walk in the evening - because he is a PM not an AM! The question is, has the firing of the ministers also come too late?

Movie Review: Premachi Goshth (Marathi)

What can I say? There have been better. A very predictable and flat movie, with average performances, except Sagarika Ghadge, who shines as a very sweet and vulnerable girl, fighting to reclaim her life from her estranged husband and move on with her life.

Movie Review: Stand Up Men

Three men, partners in crime, are out for a night of action, Hangover-style. Except that, they are all in their sunset years. One (Valentine played by Al Pacino) has just been released from prison after 28 years, the other has just got out from his home for the dying, and the third, Val's best friend, has been hired to eliminate him.

Al Pacino puts in a great performance as Val, but the movie will appeal to a very limited kind - those interested in drama and dark humour. If you are one of those, this movie is not to be missed.

Movie Review: Go Goa Gone

3 friends - the chilled out Hardik (Kunal Khemu), the obsessed-in-love-with-a-FB-friend Luv (Vir Das) and the sincere Bunny (Anand Tiwari) - escape to Goa for some hard partying, and end up securing an invite to an exclusive rave party on a remote island off the Goa coast, organized by the Russian mafia.

After a crazed out night, they wake up to the nightmare - the new drug dished out at the party (and too expensive for them to afford) - has unleashed the walking dead - the zombies, with their twisted limbs, the slow but unrelenting march, the mission to convert more and more living to their kind!

Joined by the Delhite-turned-blond Russian "Baaris" (Saif), who likes to "keel dead people", the three friends and their female interest Luna (Pooja Gupta), must outwit and outmanouever the zombies to escape the island.

I loved the movie. Totally. From the first frame to the last, the movie is unrelenting with great dialogues, smart wit, and some really funny moments. The play on Scooty, the "what did we know, what have we learnt", the conversation with God, the dumb charades with the Russian, the dancing around the trees with the zombie girl - absolutely delightful. The performances also are top notch. Kunal, Vir and Saif are absolutely spot on - and Pooja and Anand are easy and comfortable. All this while the zombies are real, the danger fatal, and the blood and gore in your face.

If you enjoy zombie action (or even if you can just tolerate the spurting blood), and enjoy intelligent humour, you will absolutely love every bit of the 110 mins the film has on offer.

Oh, and yes, don't miss Saif's very sincere and touching message against smoking, drugs and violence at the beginning of the film. And as he says, respect Goa for the beautiful place it is!

Social Gamification

My article on social gamification techniques for enterprises

http://www.gamification.co/2013/05/07/4-social-gamification-techniques/

Samara's 3rd Birthday

Samara had her 3rd birthday (and 55555 kms) on the 30th of April, and to celebrate, the next day, we (4 adults and 2 kids and lots of shopping) piled into her and set off for Goa.


It was hot and humid until we hit Kolhapur, but then the rain clouds enveloped us in beautiful weather, and by the time we hit Belgaum, the chilly winds and drizzle really made it a lovely drive. We tried out a new route through Chorla Ghat this time - and even though you have to get through Belgaum city (still retains its charm as a quaint hill station and shopping paradise for Goans), the road is in excellent shape (though a tad narrow and winding for my taste), and highly recommended for sedans driving into Goa from Mumbai/Pune/Kolhapur.

With the kids and multiple stops for grub, pics and nature's calls, it was a long day - but when you are headed to Goa in one of the best SUVs in the country, you can't really complain much, can you?

Why Gamification Fails

Read my article on why many gamification projects fail at the following link on HRExaminer.

http://www.hrexaminer.com/12-ways-to-make-your-gamification-project-fail/