Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Hulchul......

There has never ever been shortage of hulchul in my life as such...sumthing or the other has to has to keep happenin and i dont need to do much at all...;) Well as of now im quite preoccupied with the thought of wats gonna happen ahead and thats y me not paying much attention to the hulchul happening around me!! Neways goofups and me always go hand-in-hand!!!And thats y i have taught myself, both consciously and unconsciously, to always be prepared for the unexpected cos u never know whats gonna strike you the next moment!!
I caught up on the Akshaye-Kareena starrer "Hulchul" too. Its a light flick with its decent share of comedy. Arshad Warsi(After Munnabhai) and Paresh Rawal are on a roll yet again. The first half is amazing and the second half is a drag but all in all worth seeing once. As the say i would like to give it a "Deeps Mirchi" of 3 stars...:-)!!! Saw the movie in R-Adlabs and must say tat R-Mall is reely pickin up!! A perfect place 2 spend ur day and one just doesnt come to know how time flies off!!! And people interested in window shoppin..this is just the place for u!!!
Thats it for now. For more Hulchul....same time same place..milte hain break ke baad!!!

Friday, November 26, 2004

Running around.....

Its been one helluva of a week and i have hardly had any time to breathe. I have been running helter-skelter for a lotta thngs. Its actually been destination Mumbai for me and the pace of Mumbai does get on to you in a day or two!!! I also had to attend a wedding but it was one wedding which was worth attendin...;) The crowd was vibrant and lively and the food was simply yummy!!!! I dont think anyone even wants to know how many rounds i would have made to the icecream parlour...;)....not just cos it was tasty but also cos of the crowd hovering around the place...:)
Ill keep blogging off and on...but right now me in a real hurry!! A special mention to both Arul and Saurabh for keepin my blog alive by their innovative comments..:) PLEASE CONTINUE doin tat cos then its fun for me to read to ven i read my blog...:)
Happy birthday Arul..have a blast and enjoy ur day!!!!

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Curtain Raiser...!!!



Well..curtain raiser to what...I am preparing myself for seein Veer-Zarra and the review will also soon be posted. I liked this particular pic cos its different and Shahrukh as usual looks awesome in black..:) Its almost as if his mischievous eyes are conveying something. Now more pics will be posted on this blog cos now i got to know how to upload pictures(at last..;)..)thanx to some able assistance again...:)
As for my CAT exam....the cat's gone behind the rat..i guess!! First of all the format had been changed a wee bit plus the Maths section was also a little out of hand. So now its like.."billi gayi baat gayi"!! I have decided to let bygones be bygones and focus on things ahead!! Would also like to mention a special thanx 2 everyone for their wishes...really meant a lot..:)

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Singular Vs Plural......

Sometimes the usage of singulars and plurals in English fascinate me and what is more fascinating is how we use it in our everyday life. For example, the thread between "I" and "We" is so fine that sometimes I ponder as to what I should use. The alphabet "I" or the singular form, if used often, denotes self-centredness, ego, pride or bragging about oneself. But everyone does have to think about oneself and their priorities and if thats termed selfish then so be it. Again the word "We" or the plural form is again important cos at certain times individual interests have to be set aside and team work or others' interests become important. There again its our wish that we choose "we" over "I". Its just that a proper balance between "I" and "We" neds to be maintained. It is something like the relationships we have in entity-relationship diagrams like one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, many-to-many. So similarly it would be I-to-I which would mean you set goals for urself and achieve them, I-to-We which would mean you do something whose output will help others or prove beneficial to them and so on.
English is an interesting language. It is generally observed that plurals are formed by appending a single alphabet 's' to the singular form of the word....but in practice transition from the singular to the plural is not easy for many. But there are certain words in English like sheep which remains the same in both singular and plural forms which is actually interesting. So that would mean no demarcation between usage of "we" and "I"....both are considered as one. I guess that would mean selfless love...in which two people would care for each other more than they care for themselves...feelin happy in other's happiness and feeling sad in other's sadness and accepting people as they are.
It just depends on how, when, with whom that we need to choose our "I"s and "We"s else the sentence would sound grammatically incorrect or inappropriate.

Saturday, November 13, 2004

Balle Balle from Wankhede to Eden Gardens...!!!

The title of this post does give the feel of a Hindi-dubbed English film but let me assure you thats where the similarity ends!!! I am talking about the Indo-Pak cricketing encounter at Eden Gardens on the occasion of the BCCI platinum jubilee celebrations. India won the toss after a long time and must say...they did ample justice to the fact of winning the toss. I was sleeping in the afternoon....my Dad woke me up and told me that India had won the toss and Sachin was run out. Wow..that was sone pe suhaaga kinda news and i didnt even bother getting up cos tat wud av meant compromising on my sweet afternoon sleep...:) But then the crackling display of batting by Sehwag and VVS coupled with the deafening uproar of the "Eden" crowd was tempting enough to lure me out of my sleeping nest. But seeing then bat was worth it all!!!
Then the good work was further carried on well by Ganguly, Yuvraj and Kaif who followed suit. The "sixes" competition between Ganguly and Yuvraj was awesome!!! For "Dada" fans ..im sure they wud be surprised and delighted to hear a word of praise for him on my blog....cos its been a real long time since i told nethin nice about him..;) but 2day i have to admit that he batted well and lended able support to Yuvraj. The Bengali dames were busy goin ga-ga about Yuvraj. Anyways India managed to put in its highest ODI total of 292/6 at Kolkata.
But then Pakistan's Salman Butt butchered the Indian bowlers and of course our bowlers and fielders also assisted him with ample misfields and extras. But it did turn out to be a magical unbeaten century 4 him. Pakistan won the match with an over to spare.
This time it was a well-balanced match with a nailbiting finish and ultimately the game won but as an ardent Indian fan i av 2 admit tat i obviously wanted India to win and I am disappointed abt the result but not abt the manner in which the game was played.

So Balle Balle to cricket as it really provides sum refreshing entertainment!!!!!

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Rangoli Aptitude Test .......

The Rangoli Aptitude Test (RAT) is the latest entrant in the common entrance examinations...but its very unlike the other run-of-the-mill examinations cos theres no college or coaching for this...its just pure talent and skill tats in question here.

Total No.of Marks : 100

Duration : 3 hrs

Age : No bar (alag categories for all naanis and daadis cos the clearly hold
the advantage..they are really experts!!)

Sections :
Section I:-
Basic Rangoli Layout Section

Marks Distribution:50
Time Duration : 60 mins

Section II:- Coloring Rangoli Section

Marks Distribution: 50
Time Duration : 120 mins
(Unlimited colours will be provided)

Carrying of rangoli books, designs, cellphones , calculators (for calculating rangoli size and number of dots) strictly prohibited. Drawing rough rangoli sketches on rough papers with HB pencils permitted.

Eligibility:

Absolutely anyone of any age, any qualification and any nationality allowed. Mind u..there are certain unique things about RAT...
a) Absolutely fair and open test.
b) No reservation for SC/ST or OBC candidates. Everyone is equal.
c) Separate categories for above 50 and below 50 age groups cos else itll be a one-sided exam. And obviously the levels of both these categories also differ.
d) Absolutely autonomous....Not a Govt of India undertaking.
e) Selected candidates will get a certificate from RangBirangi University of India.
f) Score valid for 1 month. If u want to further increase ur scores ull have 2 keep drawing 1 rangoli per month to become from an amateur rangolist to a professional one..:) If u have become very professional b4 the age of 50..then u can apply for competing with the stalwarts above 50...but then there are only limited number of seats of that. Its completely based on merit and at the University's discretion.


Placements:

Since no college...so placements as such arent goin to be any. But students below 50 and who have a job in some leadin company and u have rangoli competitions there then u certainly hold the edge. Students who have cleared Elementary and Intermediate drawing examinations in skool also have an advantage. For students above 50 ....they can certainly keep teaching their grandchildren, neigbours and impart the knowledge.

Key Factors needed for clearin RAT:

Understanding

Dexterity

Patience

Music in the background also helps cos u just dont come 2 knw how time passes

Urge to learn and excel


For
further enquiries please contact the concerned authorities....
i.e the comment section of this article.

Comments from experts:
I think im the only person whos given RAT till now and i guess itll only be me...:) but in my case i have CAT too. So actually CAT follows RAT or RAT follows CAT....??? hmm..still thinkin...sorry no comments...cos me not an expert..;)

HAPPY DIWALI TO ONE AND ALL. enjoy this festival of lights and just dhoom machao....RAT or no RAT...;)

Monday, November 08, 2004

Shopping At Last.....

I have lost count of the number of times that i must have mentioned that i wanted to go shopping on this blog. I guess its been close to around one and a half months now and for people who read my blog..well theres good news at last....Yes I Shopped..:) :) The very fact that i shopped for 10 hrs would indicate that for how long it had been pending. I shopped 5 garments for me...so the time is not directly proportional to that.....in short..i didnt buy the entire shop..;)
It was family Diwali shopping this time..which of course meant shopping for everyone and since it was a Sunday the crowd was obviously vibrant and full of enthusiasm. We bought colourful diyas too which add a colourful effect to the entire surroundings. Then also halted at Music World..but found none of the new CDs interesting.
The transition from "workplace" to "workhome" has been very smooth and has still not struck much.. since its only just been my first day at home. But neways if one is prepared mentally then i guess there are no regrets.

Just a quote that i read somewhere...
"I could be bound in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space".
-William Shakespeare

Saturday, November 06, 2004

Fuelling things.......

Come Diwali and i guess that its the favourite time for hike in prices by the government. The petroleum ministry was going to announce if there was going to be any change in prices or not and the result was that the prices of petrol, diesel and especially of LPG gas cylinders have soared up. The LPG landed up with a direct Rs.20 hike this month and a further Rs.5 hike in the months to follow.
Interestingly this time i observed that even the maid who works at our place was waiting with anticipated breath for the outcome of whether prices were going to increase or not. When we told her i could almost see the sudden change of expression in her face. It was as though a lot of her festival celebration plans had changed. I guess that with India's economy condition and population a Rs.20 hike leads to enormous change in plans, especially for people who are economically backward and to the households which have just left the shackles of stove and trying to economically progress into the cylinder stage. And the petroleum minister, Mr.Mani Shankar Iyer, also stated in his defence that India was lagging around Rs.180 on the average cost of a cylinder as compared to the other countries in the world. But the fact still remains is whether India is really that economically rich to bear the brunt of hikes off and on and India does have a lot of deficit on the World Bank loans too. So the point is should a country's progress be considered or the common man's economical conditions ?? I think a country can progress only if its people are self-sufficient and that is not the case here.
On the other front....things have really fuelled up on the Shahrukh popularity too. It seems he got the maximum number of online wishes on his birthday which was on November 2nd and he has broken all records since thats the maximum got by any cinestar till now...:)
Lagging not far behind in fuelling up of things are the Indian cricket team. Well with all the adulation they are getting all of a sudden back again I think that we have to watch them play for 2-3 matches to see if they are back in form or is it just a one match wonder. On the personal front i had taken a 10-match cricket sanyaas but now i have brought that down to 5...;) i.e for 5 matches i am going to be unaffected by the results, be it a win or a loss!!!! Anyways well done guys and let this be a good beginning again and credit goes to only those players who played in the match..:)

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Kerry BushWhacked....!!!!

The stage was set and the battle lines were drawn for what was set to be the D-day for America. It showed all signs of being an exciting battle and thats what it exactly turned out to be......!!!! With voters, both men and women, turning out in large numbers, results of each state being announced every instant and the popularity polls clearly favoring Bush the fight was interestingly poised at 254-252...with results of Ohio, Iowa and New Mexico yet awaited....!!!

But like they say "A bird in hand is worth two in bush"....so I guess Ohio in hand was worth quite a lot for Bush...and surprisingly he had a lead of two too!! Ohio clearly showed that Bush was leading quite significantly and Kerry's hopes were diminishing by the second. The Indian media were clearly focussing on the impact the result of the US elections would have on Indians living there. While the Osama factor clearly held predominance in Bush's case, worries of no jobs for Indians in US was the thing being held against Kerry. But I must admit that CNN's website and the coverage they gave was pretty impressive. Every minute detail and statistical data had been covered and the website is colourful and doesnt look cluttered at all and i guess me being in the software industry I tend to appreciate these details even more!!!!

Then the news arrived that Kerry had conceded defeat and it was after all gonna be Bush again for 4 more years. The impending wait ended.....people from all wallks of life.....trade analysts, politicians, students, citizens started thinking what impact this would have on their lives and what strategies they would have to adopt now. Well for me I wanted Kerry to win though me not interested in politics and as such it really did not matter to me whosoever won.

Lastly a nursery rhyme comes to my mind and the different ways in which the same rhyme can be interpreted....

First interpretation:(conversation between Bush and Kerry after elections)
Bush Bush
Yes Kerry
Eating sugar (kyunki muh mitha tho karne ka rasm hota hi hai na..)
Yes Kerry
Telling Lies
No Kerry
Open your mouth
Ha Ha Ha!!

Second interpretation:(conversation between Bush and Osama after elections)
Bush Bush
Yes Osama
Eating sugar
Yes Osama
Telling Lies
Yes Osama
Then better not open ur mouth from now
Ha Ha Ha!!!