Thursday, December 30, 2004

Bye Bye 2004!!!

Just thought of doing a quick recap of 2004 events and since my General Knowledge has improved quite a bit in the past few days...:-)

Politics:
Stories that became news:
1.Manmohan Singh was handed India's Future as he became the prime Minister of India and Sonia Gandhi's refusal of taking up the same post before that.
2.Chidambaram's budgetary highlight was education loans...hope literacy also improves in a similar manner.
3.Laloo's railway budget.....and of course an exclusive package for Bihar....due to only which he has extended support to the present government.
Uma Bharti's in-out walkout in BJP.
4.Vliasrao Deshmukh takes over as Maharashtra's CM and plans to make Mumbai the next Shanghai....well lets c if 5 years are enuff 4 him to do live up to this ....whether it was an election gimmick remains to be seen
5.Govinda and Sunil Dutt walked away with the votes of the masses and the classes...starting the actor-cum-MP profession!!
6.George Bush remains....enough has been talked about that. But an exiting election it was!!

Entertainment:
1.SRK ....defintely ruled the roost in the box office and generated all the moolah...Main Hoon Na, Veer-Zarra, and Swades.....undoubtedly the undisputed badshaah of Bollywood!!!
2.Among the actresses..it was Rani Mukerji.
3.AB Jr came up vith a kool preformance in Yuva followed by kool jackets in Dhoom and fell down with Naach....hope '05 is good 4 him!!
4.Aishwarya landed up with nothin in the overlyhyped Bride and Prejudice and she must be thinking..Kyun ho gaya na?!!
5.The famous Kareena-Shahid smooching controversy......give it a break the media fellas...bachche hain...let em enjoy..;)
6.Saif-Rosa, Aamir-Kiran....doing the rounds well 4 sure!!
7.Britney's got married at last 4 sure!!
8.Tata Young created all the Dhoom 4 sure....

Sports:
1.Sachin's tennis elbow and his record of 34 test centuries
2.Viru's 300 in a test innings by an Indian.
3.Kumble Surpassing Kapil Dev's record in Tests.
4.Lara...400 ..amazing record.
5.Shane Warne..leading wickettaker as of now...Murali is ther!!
6.Irfan Pathan..the find 4 sure..:-)
7. India landing up with the sole medal in double-trap shooting in the Olympics.
8. Schumacher and Vishwanathan Anand continue to reign supreme in F1 and chess respectively.
7.Cristiano Jr's untimely death while playing on field.

Tragedies:
1.The tsunami..of course....its been a devastating one and may everyone's souls rest in peace. I am planning to donate something to the Prime Minister's relief fund. Its really shocking to see the destruction caused.
2. Kumbakonam school tragedy in which children were engulfed in the flames while studying.

More News:
1. The Kanchi seer's arrest by Jayalalitha...zor ka jhatka dheere se lage!!
2. Veerappan's killing...this madam has been in news again!!

I guess thats all i can recollect as of now. On the personal front i graduated, i got a job, i left it and now i dunno where I am. Heres Wishing everyone a fantafabulous 2005 ahead and may peace prevail!!

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Happy New Year...!!!

Just 2 more days go and one more year would roll by. If i sit to think what would change or whats going to happen so significantly that one should look forward to the coming year then i really have no answer to that. All i can say is that new year brings along with a lot of spirit, cheer, goodwill, happiness and also some hope which i guess is very much needed in today's scenario. Being optimistic and throwing away the wee bit of pessimism that tends to grapple most of us always helps and i think a mere pshycological change in the date from 04 to 05 boosts our spirits somewhere.
This year i see each of my friends and classmates gettin engaged, hitched and dunno wat not around me. So i guess one of the themes for new year has to be "love is in the air"...;) and so i also decided to think of some of my favourite romantic hindi songs that i can recollect right now....
1) Suraj Hua Maddham.... for the sheer chemistry between SRK and Kajol and for Sonu Nigam's melifluous voice.
2) Tumse Milke Aisa Laga....for Suresh Wadkar's voice and the lyrics.
3) Jaanejaan.... for RD Burman's haunting background score.
4) Baahon ke Darmiyaan.....picturised well and signifies so much.
5) Aate Jaate.....depicts the confusion that one feels when one doesnt know if they are in love or not.
6) Tujhe Dekha Tho....DDLJ( i neednt say more)
7) Neele Neele Ambar par...KishoreDa rocks!!
And the songs that i like purely for their meaning are:

1) Aanewala Pal....really a true song
2) Ae Zindagi Gale Laga Le....Kamal Hassan's acting in sadma and Suresh Wadkar again at his best.
3) Tu Is Tarah se Meri Zindagi Mein Shaamil Hai....beautiful lyrics

So heres wishing everyone a very "lovely" and a musical New Year. May everyone's wishes come true and may there be peace everywhere in 2005.

The song which comes to my mind rite now is:
Yeh Zameen Gaa Rahi Hai
Aasmaan Gaa Raha Hai
Saath Mere Yeh Saara Jahaan Gaa Raha Hai (Happy New Year...(thats my lyrical addition..:-)..)!!!

Sunday, December 26, 2004

Merry Christmas.....

It was that time of the year again that i enjoy the most...Christmas spirit coupled with the New Year just round the corner!! Christmas for me has always embodied the spirit of goodwill and cheer. Our neighbours in Mumbai are the Fernandes family. They are a family of four..Robert uncle, Annie Aunty, their son, Kiran and their daughter, Carol. The last 3 years i have always celebrated Christmas with them and as luck would have it my engineering exams always used to get over at this time and then we used 2 have holidays during Christmas time. Then it always used to be cake preparation time......i used to help in adding a little bit of rum in the cake, or adding the cream....i mean the minor jobs while Aunty and Carol handled the major jobs of adding the ingredients proportionately and the cake used 2 come out nicely baked from the oven. In our custom when we make some sweets and eatables for some festival...we have to offer it to God first and then we can eat...thats wat is generally believed. But in Christianity....there is no such custom which gives me total privilege to devour on the cake..:-) and Aunty always tells me this sweet thing which has been told in Bible too..."Love thy neighbour as yourself"...so shes like "you eat the first piece and tell me "....and of course i was more than willing to oblige cos my relation with cakes goes back a long long time..;) The cocoa cake followed by the chocolate cake was simply delicious. Nothing to beat Aunty's cakes!!! Then there were a lot of other items like rose cookies, coconut burfis, laddos, chivda and some Mangalorean items.
I also attended the evening mass in the church and carol also sang in the choir..it was her solo this year and she sung beautifully!!
Then there was the evening Christmas party...i played games, danced a bit...got ballons and chocolates from Santa too:-) Carol and Kiran hosted the evening and it went really nice.Its been absolutely amazing having such good neighbours and i knw that ill carry fond memories of each Christmas wherever i go......smiling faces, always-ready-to-help attitude, yummy cakes.....the list goes on....

Merry Christmas to one and all and hope Santa makes all your wishes come true..:-)

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Genetic Karma....

Yesterday i was rummaging through a newspaper and I came across this interesting terminology called as "genetic karma"...It said that all kinds of addictions are a part of our genetic karma. Though I am not a bio student and dunno much about the so-called nitty-gritty details about genes and stuff I decided to give a thought to it. Genes deals with something that we kinda inherit..cos people generally say "this is there in your genes"....so which would mean that there is a natural inclination for people to take a particular aspect as their liking,career or watsoever.So there is more probability that a cricketer's son would inherit cricketing inclinations , an actor's son ..the acting genes etc...
But genetic karma could also mean that some people just wanna be "different" which is the most common kinda nomenclature used nowadays. They just wanna be apart from the rest....thats also a kinda addiction....thats a drive...a drive that motivates you....!! Again now that could either be a positive or a negative drive. Positive would mean sumthing that would drive you to achieve the best, strive for it and give one the urge to excel. Negative would again mean a drive to excel and rise up but at any cost and to any lengths...Again thats a karma....Its also said that doping is a part of genetic karma....though i couldnt quite get that...... More on this later....cos now i av to rush!!!!

Saturday, December 11, 2004

Sachin Aala re...!!!!!

Yay..Yay...Yay.....Yahoo....ok before people begin to wonder if i have already lost my "lost" senses or think that me humming the Shammi Kapoor song of "yahoo" i should clear that this enthusiastic "hullagulla" is for Sachin equalling Sunil Gavaskar's record of 34 Test centuries. Simply one word comes to my mind-AWESOME!!! Now it won't be too long before he surpasses that record.
Well what do i say about this cricketer and what more can i say about him as hes already so talked about. This knock of his would also give him confidence to come back from his lean phase after his recuperation from the tennis elbow. Hes a phenomenon in Indian cricket. His records and statistics speak for themselves. Today he also became the first Indian to score centuries against all test-playing nations and also the most centuries away from home. Hes always been a man of less words and he lets his willow do the talking. People always start criticising him and during the late 90s there was a stage in Indian cricket when the team solely depended on him but now thats not the scenario. There are a lot of performers in our team now and now the burden on him has lessened but still hes a treat to watch!!!
Congrats Sachin and I hope u keep the laurels for India coming in. Its the sheer brilliance of his cricketing skills and perseverane that has brought him so far. Its a great gift to all those people who have watched this batting genius play...its pure delight....every four and every six..i myself remember how much i have shouted in every match he has performed. Thats the kind of player one likes to watch and thats the sheer thrill of the game too!!
All i can say is "The saga of the legend continues.......!!"

A special mention also to Kumble's feat of surpassing the great Kapil Dev's record and also to Pathan's haul of 5 wickets..:-) I guess with all such records being created in the past two days the threat to the cricketers in Bangladesh is a forgotten story!!!!Keep it up India!!!!!

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Well done India...!!

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....Yup at last a much-needed series win to boost the low morale of all players in the Indian contingent. And especially when they have been at the receiving end of my criticism too...thought that it wouldnt be fair on them if i didnt show my appreciation ven they deserve it..thats why a short second post on the trot 2day..:-) So Eden Gardens proved lucky yet again after all...Best of luck 4 the Bangladesh tour!! Congrats to Anil Kumble too for equalling Kapil Dev's record. Heres a cricketer who shows that commitment and perseverance can reely take you places!!! Congrats Saurav and his lions at E-Den!!!!

Humour.....

Being humorous is one thing and "try"ing to be humorous is another. I have always believed that one needs to have a natural flair to be humorous. But i get put off by people who laugh for the sake of laughing, who crack jokes for the sake of cracking and who flatter you for the sake of flattering.
Humour is always cracked at the expense of someone or something. So its always fun to crack jokes only on people whom u know will take it in the right spirit. But the person who cracks jokes should also be sporting enough to be at the receiving end, if need be. The opposite person also needs to be assessed to find out the extent of humour he or she can tolerate.
Ask any girl the man of her dreams the general answer or one of the qualities he should possess is "he should have a good sense of humour" and half of them dont even know what it means or they think that cracking jokes is synonymous to good sense of humour. The very word "sense" before humour definitely implies something....that means it takes intelligence to develop a good sense of humour. Its actually more to do with the on-the spot wit that occurs to one at the spur of the moment. Spontaneity is definitely one of the key factors but then no amount of deep thinking is required for that. People laugh and go ahead...very few can appreciate good humour and acknowledge it be saying "that was a good one"!! No wonder cartoonists or any person workin in the satirical professions have to think a lot to generate the much-needed originality and spread laughter all around. No wonder even people in the cine field say that comedy is the toughest of all emotions. Making people genuinely laugh is definitely an art.
Well, as far as moi goes, i dunno if i am humorous but i definitely know to appreciate good humour...i dont laugh for the sake of laughing...and i dont believe in artificiality too. But i do believe in the saying that "smile and the world smiles with you" and thats what i always try to do. A pleasant smile, an original wit and lively personality is whati carry forward with me most of the times.

So keep smiling everyone and smile cos you want to!!!