Friday, December 11, 2009

New Beginings before the End!

Ah.. Exams finally over ! (almost, one practical left)
Weren't too great. I planned in the previous semester that I'd do well this sem, but then, promises are meant to be broken, aren't they?
[Well, the fact that the group I created on Facebook a few months ago , 'I'll Definitely Study in The Next Semester' has more than 14000 members (and increasing) should speak volumes]




But I was disappointed by one exam, for which my preparation was like, average but my performance was VERY bad. Anyway, Lets see what happens when the results come out.


So, I have new beginnings to look forward to even before the semester starts.
  • A Trip to Bombay. Looong trip. don't know what to expect, I'm excited as well as I'm not.
  • Crescendo 2010! Our own College Fest and I'm one of the organizers!!
    [plz note- our team got selected after fierce competition with 3 other teams .. was a long process including proposals, presentations, sponsors etc . Well, as is the theme/tagline of our college -
    "We Mean Business", We actually do perhaps. I realized it halfway through my graduation
  • Lastly (sigh) the new semester. Seniors say this is toughest of 'em all.
    :O


    I'm looking forward to work hard,and party harder. The coming phase will be one of the most significant phases of my life so far.
    I just hope everything turns out to be good.
    *fingers crossed*



Thursday, November 12, 2009

Vent!

IIT-Kanpur was amazing (the fest).
There's no motivation now.. (for studies, CAT, everything)
Life's hectic. Busy. Sad. In short, no life.
Those #$@$%@ engineers ! They solve the questions of QA in less than the time I take to read the question. [btw, QA= Quantitative Aptitude-- the highly complicated mathematical stuff]



And they've been also working on their vocab .
[and listening to English songs too.. Those being 'you're beautiful ' and Songs by The Police ; LOL!]
And here I am, listening to Lady GaGa songs all day. :D

They've been reading novels like "The Alchemist" :O
Anyway, #$%# them
Nerds.. :P

This has been quite an informal post. Anyway the blog's been inactive for a long time.. if not anything else, It served as my 'venting' machine ... I feel better now.
Thanks for reading it.
I might just post my Kanpur pics here... in sometime...







Friday, October 16, 2009

Dear Husband.....

This is an e-mail that I got. Read it ! :D


Dear Husband:

I'm writing you this letter to tell you that I'm leaving you for good. I've been a good woman to you for seven years and I have nothing to show for it.


These last two weeks have been hell. Your boss called to tell me that you had quit your job today and that was the last straw. Last week, you came home and didn't notice that I had gotten my hair and nails done, cooked your favorite meal and even wore a brand new negligee. You came home and ate in two minutes, and went straight to sleep after watching the game. You don't tell me you love me anymore, you don't touch me or anything. Either you're cheating or you don't love me anymore, whatever the case is, I'm gone.

P.S. If you're trying to find me, don't. Your BROTHER and I are moving away to West Virginia together! Have a great life!

Your EX-Wife
============================================

Dear Ex-Wife

Nothing has made my day more than receiving your letter. It's true that you and I have been married for seven years, although a good woman is a far cry from what you've been. I watch sports so much to try to drown out your constant nagging. Too bad that doesn't work. I did notice when you cut off all of your hair last week, the first thing that came to mind was "You look just like a man!" My mother raised me not to say anything if you can't say anything nice. When you cooked my favorite meal, you must have gotten me confused with MY BROTHER, because I stopped eating pork seven years ago.

I went to sleep on you when you had on that new negligee because the price tag was still on it. I prayed that it was a coincidence that my brother had just borrowed fifty dollars from me that morning and your negligee was $49.99. After all of this, I still loved you and felt that we could work it out. So when I discovered that I had hit the lotto for ten million dollars, I quit my job and bought us two tickets to Jamaica. But when I got home you were gone. Everything happens for a reason I guess. I hope you have the filling life you always wanted. My lawyer said with your letter that you wrote, you won't get a dime from me. So take care.


P.S. I don't know if I ever told you this but Carl, my brother was born
Carla. I hope that's not a problem.

Signed Rich As Hell and Free

Friday, August 14, 2009

Ambitions.or the lack of it. Part 2.

I regularly have a fight with my parents, regarding the same old stuff- 'what to do in life?'
Some two –three years ago, they used to ask this politely, as if they’ll genuinely allow me and support me in whatever I choose for myself. Ironically, they always wanted me to go by what THEY wanted.
Sigh.
I took a decision a year ago, which was the first decision I took for myself, independently, and against my parents’ wish. And since then, my life changed. My parents never really talked to me like before.
They see me as a failure; a person who has completely destroyed his life. They’re not at all interested in what I’m doing and what I want to do next. They don’t care where I am, with whom I am and what am I doing.
All this, just for choosing the best college in the country, but of a different field.
And it disturbed me so much, that I myself started feeling like I’ve made a mistake. I had an option of choosing what my parents wanted—Opting for B.Tech in an average college of a very good university, but I preferred opting for BBS in the best college of the country.
Throughout the first year, I remained frustrated and kept it all inside (this is the first time I am revealing all this to anyone!)
Frustration, which lead to more & more fights with friends and family; and the circle continued.

For the past few months, things remained silent. If they (my parents) were not positive, they were not negative either.
But now all that is back. Because, in less than one and a half years I have my CAT exam, and they really want me to be successful in it. (They think my grad degree is anyway useless)


Our parents really want us to be successful, we know. And, for that, they want us to follow the conventional path, a tried and tested career path which everyone is following. They might talk about letting their children do whatever they want, but inside, they’ve probably made plans for us right from our birth.
They do care about us, and it’s not their fault completely either. Our society is such, that no parent would want their child to do something that is risky and unconventional. Only those courses are considered good for which you have to study for 12 hours a day to crack the entrance and be amongst those top thousand students from some 2-3 lakh students giving that exam.
Lucky are those, who clear these exams and make everyone and themselves proud.
Also, lucky are those, who take their own career path and are able to fulfill their dreams.
And stuck in between, are people like me, who have their dreams they can’t do anything about, nor have they cracked these hyped exams to make their parents happy.


We studied in a management subject of ours that the need for a social status, money and a stable life comes before the need of ‘self-actualization’ (fulfilling your personal goals in life and realizing your potential to the fullest). It applies here also, that we take those conventional paths first, have a stable career ; and then go out and fulfill our dreams. The risk involved is less,
and people around you are happy. So, I am planning to start preparing for CAT very soon, and this time,really looking forward to clearing it. I hope I am motivated throughout, and make myself & everyone proud.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

The Moment of Talent

Have you seen,or at least heard of the reality /talent series 'Got Talent' (America's Got Talent, Britain's Got Talent)? And, a show called 'The Moment of Truth'?You must be aware of them at least, if you watch TV or spend some time online.
The Indian versions of the shows were launched a month back.
This is not a first time that a game show has been adapted for the Indian Audience.
The trend was started by a show called 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' in 2000, which was based on the UK game show 'Who wants to be a Millionaire?'. The show was a massive success in its first season, starting a trend that lead to many more game shows all across different television channels. The show was simple and straight...answer questions testing your general knowledge, and take one million home if you answer them all correectly!
The next successful reality show was 'Indian Idol', which was also a huge success in the first season. The so called 'Indian Idol' , Abhijeet Sawant's debut album topped every chart in India for many weeks
Later, these shows declined in popularity in the seasons that followed. I, and many of my friends, now don't even know or remember who Indian Idol 2 ,3,and 4 were? (maybe there's also a 5)

After that, we've had reality shows of all sorts, like Khatron Ke Khiladi (Fear Factor), Jhalak Dikhlaa Ja and Nach Baliye ( both about dancing, the former an adaptation of 'Dancing with the Stars') , Deal ya No Deal and the list goes on...

Some of them worked, some didn't, while popularity of some varied with seasons.
I liked Nach Baliye (celebrity couple dancing show) in its first two seasons , but in the further season, they got couples from nowhere. I didnt even know half of them...Who were they?were they even celebrities?
God knows!
I followed this season of Britain's Got Talent because of a phenomenon known as 'Susan Boyle', the 47 year old woman, who was a runner up on the show. She became very popular online and her videos were among the most watched on YouTube for a long time. I mean, you don't get to see a 47 year old, shabbily dressed, frumpy woman, to come and give you goosebumps with her tremendously good singing, followed by a standing ovation by everyone who was laughing at her initially.
I also liked the winners, dance group 'Diversity'. They deserved to win, with a flawless ten on ten performance in the finale.

I saw India's Got Talent with no expectations , for the reason that Indian audience is quite emotional, and a section of people are also inclined towards participants of their own caste, religion or their own town/city; often ignoring their talent. This mindset of people acts negatively for some very talented people, as they don't get enough votes compared to the others. These shows also have the system of votes by audience, where each vote costs around 3 to 10 Rs. (6 to 20 cents)(thanks to the 'all we want to do is make money ' attitude of the channels and producers of the show).

Hence, all those who vote are mostly their close friends and relatives, who don't mind spending money for the contestant. Ok you tell me, do you still vote for contestants of reality shows? Earlier many of us did that, even I spent some money on these votes; but do we do that even NOW? I voted for a contestant , a few months back ,only when her performance by a was superb, but she was lagging behind in audience votes, and I really wanted to see her in the finals & win the show! (she was a runner up on the show, though!)

So coming back to India's Got Talent. The show,surprisingly, is good!

What works for it is the fact that India is very diverse in its culture, people and hence, its talent. Also, they have equal involvement of judges and audience votes, which is a good thing!

The audition episodes were fine, but the first semi final blew me away!

From Salsa to Indian Classical Dance, Rajasthani Folk music to Punjabi-English Rap, Pole and Rope Malkhamb to Hip Hop, Magical acts to balancing football; every act was completely mind blowing!!

I've never come across any other show which had so much of talent, and so much diversity, at the same time.

Let’s just wait and watch, to see how the show unfolds in the coming weeks.

Another show launched recently was 'Sach ka Saamna'.

To be honest, I never expected the show would have explicit questions (about people's sexual life) , like the questions asked in the original show 'The moment of truth'. That because, in India people are still not comfortable talking about such things openly. And also, there are large number of people who have nothing better to do, so they carry out protests against any event/person who dare to talk about these kind of things openly. For example, a few years ago, a famous actress said--
"In case you indulge in pre-marital sex, practice safe sex " What followed this, were protests all across south India against her, saying that she's propagating 'pre marital sex' (which, by the way, is still a taboo in majority of India)

And similarly, We just had protests by useless politicians against the show 'Sach ka Saamna', and court cases filed against it.
Thankfully, the court ruled there's nothing wrong with the show, and those who don't like it, shouldn't watch it!
Well, that’s right I guess.

Pay attention to much more important issues concerning the country. And Indian culture and values are not so weak that they'll be shaken because of one show that airs for half an hour daily.

Anyway,
both these shows are fresh, and have brought back some quality entertainment on TV for the time being.
It's the moment of talent, and truth, I must say!

If you leave comments and feedback, I'll be very happy!


The Hangover You'll Love!


Hi!!
This time am blogging the same day I saw the movie.
Today was a Friend's birthday, so went to this nice mall I'd not seen before.
The mall, located in a nice place , has everything inside! Every kind of brand outlets, restaurants, food joints and what not!
Sad part- it's too far away from my place.Anyway, we did some bowling and went for the movie, The Hangover.

And that's exactly what you can call 2 hours of complete entartainment!You'll start laughing the moment you enter the cinema hall, and you'll continue laughing till the end of the movie.

The story is about 4 friends
Doug (Justin Bartha) ,Stu (Ed Helms),Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) who go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, because Doug is about to get married.
They plan a great ,
adventurous night,
then sneak on to the roof of the hotel and toast to the night ahead. They wake up the next morning, and find Doug missing, Stu missing a tooth, a tiger in the bathroom, and a baby in the closet! What adds to it, is the fact that they have no memory of last night. So, this hangover makes them go to various places, to realise the things they actually did that night, leading to some more adventures throughout their journey.
Adding to that,The movie also features many famous songs throughout, which , have been used at the most apt (and unapt) places. (the songs include Candy Shop, Live your life(by Rihanna and TI) , who let the dogs out etc.)
Good performances, great places, nice direction and some really funny scenes are icing on the cake.

Go for it, if you really want to have some great fun!

My Rating--
4/5



Sunday, July 26, 2009

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, or Harry Potter and the High school Musical?


Hi!!
How Long has it been!
Well, I am bad at time management I guess!
So,
Last Week I saw the much hyped and eagerly awaited movie worldwide- Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince.
First, I am not a great fan of Harry Potter.It's not because I don't like it, but , I don't read much.
TV, Internet, Assignments keep me busy. And so, I haven't read the book.
I was saved from the disappointment that many of my friends had, after watching the movie, calling it a bad adaptation of the book. (one more reason for not reading books I guess! LOL)
Since I had not read the book, I got a chance to see the movie, just as a movie itself, and not as an adaptation of any book.And ,I liked it!


It has everything a good movie should have--- a nice story, good direction, great performances and cool special effects!
Some of my friends also said that the movie is more like a teenage romantic flick rather than a dark story(and calling it Harry Potter and the High School Musical, haha).Well, at some points, yes, there is more of romance and comedy than it is generally in any Harry Potter movie. But,the kids have grown up to teenagers now, so it is justified to show some romance !
(and it also spices up the movie a bit! or adds fun at least)
I really liked Draco Malfoy (played by Tom Felton), Bellatrix (Helena Bonham Carter) and Voldemort as a kid! The special effects and the scenes of Bellatrix were simply awesome! (and scary at some parts).
The only thing I didn't like was that the Death of Dumbledore, who is one of the major characters, was not as heart-touching or emotional as it could be.He's been an essential part of the Harry Potter series, and very close to Harry Potter. His end should've been portrayed in a better manner.
But apart from that, the movie provides good entertainment! And hey, movies are made for entertaining as the major purpose, aren't they?
My Rating--
3.5/5
Thanks!
Comments and feedback are highly appreciated .

Saturday, July 4, 2009

The Origin...

I am Back!!
As I promised, I am back, with an all new BLOG!
This is my second blog!
First one(which I deleted) was a great learning experience!
(if not anything else, at least I learned how to blog!)

This blog would talk about movies, music, TV, books ,everything...
So grab your Pepsi 'N' Popcorn, and lets get it started!

So,
Recently I saw 2 movies. X-Men Origins:Wolverine and Angels and Demons....
I saw them back to back at the theater (with a gap of just half an hour), which is quite a fun experience altogether!
Both are prequels.
I'll talk about X-Men Origins today...



X-Men Origins is the series that shows us how these X-Men (and some other mutants ) originated...how they grew...
These movies will talk about their past..
And the first movie of this series is Wolverine, which released about 2 months ago.
(Next one will be X-Men Origins:STORM)

Wolverine... is the one of the most interesting characters in X-Men..
and throughout the X-Men series,we see him waking up from his nightmares.
Nightmares about his life,the time which he doesn't remember--some experiments ,he in a glass chamber of liquid...
Those are the only images he remembers.

This movie shows his past....beginning from his childhood, where accidentally, Logan (Wolverine) Kills his father..and he and his brother escape..

Eventually, both of them join Team X (a team of mutants, who use their powers to fight in the World War and American Civil War)

One day, Logan leaves the team and his brother, Victor, and starts a new life on the hills with his girlfriend..
Victor finds him one day and kills his girlfriend...
Logan fights with him but ends up getting beaten himself!


Logan meets Colonel Stryker and Stryker offers help.
Logan undergoes an operation to reinforce his skeleton with an indestructible metal.
But Stryker had other plans...he instructed scientists to erase his memory!

Logan overhears and runs away...
And then,some turns and twists, shocking revelations, some more mutants, and cool action!

In case you are a X-Men fan, this is surely an amazing movie for you!
In case you are not, or don't know anything about X-Men, You can still go for the movie!
Because it talks about their origin...you don't need to know anything about X-Men series for this!
Performances were awesome, Hugh Jackman has done a great job!
My rating--
3.5/5 for X-Men Origins!






X-men: Evolution (Marvel's cartoon series)

Thursday, January 1, 2009

About Me

Will update later... when I get THE TIME!