All n Sundry !

Avatar - 'Pretty' 'Dumb' !

2010-01-14T23:51:00.004+05:30

Ok people.. brace yourselves if you've been all gaga over Avatar.. and those of you who are already 'die-hard fans' might want to click on that little red cross button right away.

For all the hype-hoopla, all the build-up of expectations and all the talk of it being the "biggest movie ever", Avatar barely manages to be not-so-disappointing. As for the reviews which have been literally worshiping the movie, all I have to say is - if $300 million were spent on the making of the movie, another few millions on PR would have seemed like a good deal to the producers ;)

Coming down to brass tacks - Avatar is a pretty movie without a storyline of any kind. It makes you wonder if James Cameron just woke up after 14 years of creating eye-candy in 3D to realize that he totally forgot to script anything ! And then he opened up the newspapers, read something about Copenhagen in the headlines and decided to fit in all the 3D glitterati in an extremely preachy man-abuses-nature-and-nature-fights-back theme.

The result is before our eyes - an extremely slow and dragging first half of the movie where the director's sole aim seems to be to establish some sort of a flimsy premise for the ensuing war post-interval. The saving grace is that he manages to do the latter pretty well. The world of Pandora, though appearing to be lit up with Chinese lights sold during Diwali and Xmas, is breathtaking at times. The war sequences almost come alive, especially in 3D, what with the fleet of iron-men being squished to pulp by rhino-like gigantic creatures,and the herd of flying pterodactyl-like creatures making a grand entry at the call of Eywa (the Nature God, apparently the tree lit up with Chinese lights) !

I'll give credit where it's due.. Avatar deserves a 4/5 for the special effects. It deserves a 1/5 when it comes to the storyline though. The winner, in my overall experience, was the 3D screen at iMax, Mumbai. Undoubtedly, the best move watching experience you can get in India.

And finally a word about those sacrilegious comparisons between Avatar and Lord of The Rings trilogy. Don't ! Perish the thought ! Lord of the Rings was a movie that created on-screen magic not solely because of its visual splendor. Along with some of the most vivid visual recreations of Tolkien's Middle Earth, that movie had a storyline and a soul which is not easily achieved by all filmmakers..

Till next time..

Cheers..

Need Web Help ? Ask Me ! (Mozilla Service Week Volunteer)

2009-09-12T02:20:00.015+05:30

The World Wide Web, more commonly referred to as the Web, is more than a resource for most of us. It's an integral part of our daily routine, it's a way of living and often, its a second life too ;) Either through PCs at home, office or cyber cafes, we all access the Web and sometimes contribute to the Web too. It's time we realized that the Web is not a third-party or a bunch of mammoth corporations out there whose services we avail when needed. In the Web 2.0 era, WE form the Web - we express our views, we create content, we share, we discuss and we collaborate on the Web !

In order to ensure maximum productivity in the time we spend with the Web, we need to ensure a few things - pretty much the way we need to keep servicing our vehicles to ensure maximum mileage! On the occasion of Mozilla Service Week (Sept 14 - 21, 2009), I make my humble attempt to volunteer my guidance for PC owners in:

Maintaining a healthy Web access environment on their PC
Solving any Web related queries

Please feel free to access the form below to send in your queries to me. If you have any specific query pertaining to your internet browser, your web-based applications, messengers etc, you may provide details in the appropriate fields. If you are only interested in getting a basic Health Checkup done, simply fill up the mandatory fields and submit the form. Ensure that you provide your current active e-mail address where I can reach you with resolution of your queries or with feedback on your PC maintenance. I shall make all attempts to respond to queries within 24 hours.

Those of you who would like to get in touch with me over phone, or bring your laptops to me in person (I stay in Andheri East, Mumbai, India) for either of the above 2 issues, are also most welcome. Simple drop me an email at abhinav.kishore@gmail.com after you've submitted the form.

Click here to open the Web Help and Health Checkup Form.

Finally, requesting everyone to support and spread the spirit of Mozilla Service Week !

Firefox 3.5 - The Web Has Been Upgraded !

2009-06-30T01:46:00.002+05:30

Yes.. it's true. We're not talking about a browser upgrade or a new release here. We're talking of an upgraded web experience! Ladies and gentlemen, pros and amateurs, believers and disbelievers.. behold the new age browser in it's Fastest avatar ever - Firefox 3.5 ! Come Tuesday, 30th June 2009 and the world wide web will be a better place with the launch of Firefox 3.5 !

It's good enough that Firefox is undoubtedly the best and one of the fastest browsers around. What makes it even more exciting is that it keeps surpassing itself with every new release. Firefox 3.5, originally versioned 3.1, was later re-christened to Firefox 3.5 to signify the leapfrog improvements featured in the revamped version.

The list of features that Firefox 3.5 brings to the table is endless and needs to be experienced rather than be told. With newly introduced Private browsing mode, Location Aware Browsing, ability to re-open closed windows and tabs with a single click, Lightning fast browsing and a lighter-than-ever memory footprint, Firefox 3.5 is the ONLY smart way to surf the web. Visit the official homepage and watch the video to know more : http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/comingsoon/ For the curious and the impatient, the "release candidate" of Firefox 3.5 is available for download at the above webpage.

For those of you who worry about the Firefox memory footprint need to take a look at this link : http://dotnetperls.com/chrome-memory. Against popular myth, Google's Chrome may be as fast as Firefox but at the same time is also 3 times heavier on your RAM! Firefox 3.5 has the smallest memory footprint among all the web browsers tested. So if you love your RAM, Firefox 3.5 gives you a good reason to switch.

Going by past trends, experts predict that the the might of Firefox 3.5 might be sufficient to accelerate the decline of IE as the once-reigning web browser. Read here for more: http://www.pcworld.com/article/167135/firefox_35_release_may_accelerate_ies_downfall.html

Get smart ! Switch over to Firefox today !

Kate Winslet dazzles in Revolutionary Road !

2009-03-11T14:08:00.005+05:30

I've been trying to catch as many of the Oscar nominated movies this year as possible and so far most have been a disappointment - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Milk are just worth one watch each, Slumdog Millionaire is good but you won't find me raving about it. Valkyrie, not Oscar nominated but much hyped nevertheless, was a complete disappointment. But just when one begins to lose faith in the movie churning factory called Hollywood, there's a gem that's rolled out and it manages to reinstate one's faith in the art of film-making. Welcome to Revolutionary Road. The movie, aptly named after the street on which the protagonists, Mr and Mrs. Wheeler (Di Caprio and Kate Winslet) reside, is a class apart.

Tumultuous marital reations have been the subject of many movies but very few are crafted to such excellence and topped with truly incandescent performances by the lead pair. Cutting the long story short - watch this movie to witness the sheer adroitness with which Kate Winslet carries off the character of April Wheeler. She dazzles at the right moments, and does not simply emote, but radiates emotions all over the canvas. As the aspiring wife who wants to break free from the monotonous and illusioned life she's leading with her husband, Kate Winslet takes you through a roller coaster ride of hope, disappointment, unrealistic expectations and shattered dreams. She leaves you spellbound with her performance, arguably one of the best seen on screen this year. I have reasons to believe that the only performance that could challenge this one would be her own in The Reader, which I haven't seen yet. Reviews have been raving about Kate Winslet being one of the finest actresses of her generation, and now I see a good reason why !

Leonardo DiCaprio does a swell job of playing the distressed man who's directionless about his future. He has come a long way since Titanic and complements Winslet's show-stealing act perfectly.

The movie doesn't have a story that'll bind you but makes up for it by performances and direction that'll leave you mesmerized. A must-watch this season !

Cheers...

Premchand - The Forgotten Master of Hindi Literature !

2009-03-06T01:44:00.004+05:30

The Jeffrey Archers, Sidney Sheldons and Dan Browns of the world might have successfully driven the lesser known masters of the Indian prose into oblivion, but a peek into some of those literary masterieces is enough to make us realise what we are missing!

I've recently completed reading Munshi Premchand's exemplary creation - Gaban (embezzlement). For those who haven't had the privilege of being acquainted with the works of the Master of Hindi / Urdu prose, this novel is but a peek into his sheer brilliance. The story revolves around Ramanath and his wife Jaalpa. Rama is the archetypical Indian husband who is too proud to admit his weaknesses to his wife. Jaalpa is the innocent but demanding wife whose biggest incentive to marry was to be loaded with exotic jewellery by her husband. The story unfolds into a saga of rising expectations and blundering lies, leading Rama to embezzle government money and then escape for the fear of being caught. Premchand's proficiency as a writer is exhibited as he traces the growth of each of the characters, their ambitions, motivations and priorities in life. Never has another author done such justice in identifying and illustrating the psyche of the rural Indian society and its members.

But do not be tricked into believing that Premchand's stories are "outdated" and "irrelevant". Even after almost 70 years of the passing of the genius, his stories and novels remain timeless and relevant. His understanding of human behaviour and the foundations of Indian society, as depicted in his short stories and novels, are assets which we must make use of and preserve.

It's nothing less than disturbing to see that the richness, depth and the wide latitude of emotions captured by Premchand has been replaced by superfluous and commercially-oriented Hindi literature available on stands today. Step into a Landmark or a Crossword and amongst the vast rows of well arranged and indexed Paul Coelho and Arvind Adiga novels, you'll find an isolated rack of regional literature. It won't be indexed and the books will be piled up unceremoniously on each other. Last when I saw, some great masterpieces by Saratchandra were buried under a pile of "Surakshit Sex Kaise Karein" !!

We preserve national treasures and monuments (or at least we try..) - this isn't different! How we do it, is a question that's for us to answer...

Windows 7 - A leap ahead or a patch up job ?

2009-01-15T14:49:00.008+05:30

With Microsoft finally releasing the beta of it's the much awaited and hyped OS, Windows 7, the tech world has been abuzz. Pre-release leaks on torrent sites, speculation about the feature set of Windows 7 and arguments about whether it's really a deserving candidate to be a new version of Windows OS or just a patch up job on Vista - have all helped build up the hype. I decided to grab a copy of the beta and satiate my curiosity :) Here's a complete review of Windows 7 beta, right from download & installation till the final user experience...

Downloading the beta

The download can be started from the official Microsoft website:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx

The download is managed by the Akamai Download manager which will need you to run an ActiveX control in your browser. I could not get the download to start in Firefox and Chrome browsers and had to (grudgingly) switch over to IE. However, a better alternative that emerged later was the direct download link posted on several blog sites:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/3/3/633118BD-6C3D-45A4-B985-F0FDFFE1B021/EN/7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULFRE_EN_DVD.iso (For 32 bit systems)

I would personally recommend staying away from torrent sites for an OS download because of obvious reasons! However, I did register on the official website of Windows 7 to get a product key for my copy.

Once downloaded, the ISO needs to be burnt onto a DVD. I installed my copy of Windows 7 on a separate partition on my disk allowing it to dual boot with Windows Vista Business. Following is the system configuration:

Toshiba Satellite Pro M200
Intel Core Duo 2GHz, 2GB RAM
Intel Chipset - 256 MB shared video memory
HDD - 80 GB (55 GB + 18 GB for Windows 7) - The partitoning was done using Acronis Disk Creator Suite on Windows Vista.

Installation

The installation is surprisingly smooth and simple. I booted my laptop from the DVD, selected a few options regarding region, language etc. on the first screen of setup and the it kicked off. It didn't take more than 30-40 minutes for the setup to complete. It did a few reboots on its own and bothered me only twice in between- once to enter the product key and once again to create a logon for myself. Full marks to Microsoft for the ease of installation!

First Impressions

The booting time is similar or lesser than Vista. I would not like to comment a lot on this since I didn't dare to load up Windows 7 with a number of startup items as in case of Vista.

Gone are the days when Windows used to beg for a driver CD for virtually every device in your system. Windows 7 had all my device drivers ready and running as soon as it booted.

The refurbished taskbar is obviously the first thing on the desktop that grabs your eyeballs. It looks a little bulky and makes you wonder what exactly those huge square buttons are doing there. But a little bit of experimentation, and you know that it's pretty much feature packed and makes navigation much easier. For those of us who like to multitask, it's a welcome feature.

There's a pop-up in the system tray (newly introduced Action Center) reminding you to install an anti-virus software and giving you a link for download options.

New Additions

While I have only superficially explored the feature set so far, here are a few noticeable changes:

The revamped taskbar - Groups similar windows in a single button, shows preview of all the grouped windows when you rollover a button and shows a specific window in isolation against the desktop when you rollover it's preview. Navigation just got better! However, I don't like the way the "Show Desktop" button has been pushed to the system tray end of taskbar. I'd rather have it near the start button because of the frequent use. Someone at Microsoft listening ? ;)
Desktop themes - While the extent of customization remains similar to that in Vista - changing window colours and wallpapers - the desktop wallpaper shuffling is a refreshing feature. You can auto-set the shuffle frequency to 10 secs, 30 secs - 1 day. More themes are available online and they are fairly elegant.
The Action Center - This gives you notifications about "actions" to be taken, like installing an anti-virus. I haven't explored this completely but it looks like an integrated Security Center + Performance Management + System Restore + Troubleshooting console
Paint - Not many changes here except that it borrows the ribbon format for menu from Office 2007 and does a god job of it.
Gadget Gallery - The gadget gallery has all the gadgets in Vista. But Windows 7 gets rid of the "Sidebar" and will let you place gadgets anywhere on your screen.
Windows explorer - This has pretty much been left unchanged except for the tree-style navigation added on the left of every explorer window, as opposed to Vista which allowed only the favorite links to be placed in the left column.

Specific Applications

IE 8 Beta 2 - Call me biased or cynical but IE just doesn't seem to work for me. After the install, IE 8 just refused to connect to my institute's proxy server forcing me to install Firefox from my external disk. And guess what.. Firefox worked like a charm. So did Google Talk with the same proxy. Eventually when IE did manage to connetc to the proxy, it was not only sluggish while switching tabs but also noticeably slow in rendering web pages.
Norton Internet Security 2009 - Stay away from this if you're using Windows 7 beta. Althogh I could get it to install properly, after 2 rounds of updates from the internet and a reboot, I was stuck with a CHKDSK error screen on every reboot and a message on my desktop telling me that the disk is corrupt. Had to do a complete disk format and re-install of Windows 7 to get things back to normal.
Kaspersky 8 Technical Preview - Microsoft site rcommends 3 AVs for the Windows 7 beta - Norton 360 Beta 3, Kaspersky Preview 8 and AVG Internet Security. Norton 360 didn't dwnload due to "export restrictions to India". So I decided to go alongwith Kaspersky. Worked smooth.. fixed some viruses on my disk that Norton 2009 couldn't detect and doesn't seem to be going heavy on my system either.
Windows Media Player works well with MP3 and common video formats like AVI. Pretty much the same experience as Vista.
Other programs that work fine so far are : Open Office, Google Talk, Firefox, 7z compression utility, IrfanView and iGetter download manager.

Performance

In terms of performance, Windows 7 doesn't disappoint. Unlike the shift from XP to Vista, this shift isn't gonna cost you RAM money :) With all the above programs installed and running, my system uses around 800-900 MB of RAM and multi-taking is smooth. Haven't tried gaming yet, though!

Shutting down is an issue at times and I'm stuck at the "Logging off" screen. Forced exit of some programs also throws up memory errors. Explorer might behave jittery at times when opening large folders with several video / image previews.

Verdict

Not a leap ahead for sure! Microsoft needs to take lessons from the Windows ME to XP transition and surprise its users. However, this is still the beta and only a few days old. I'm sure that with regular usage, the "hidden" improvements are going to show up and make this a worthier contender. Keep an eye out on all those techie blogs to keep a track of the new discoveries in Windows 7 ;)

Till Next Time....

Chrome Rekindles The Browser War !

2008-11-03T02:50:00.009+05:30

The excitement of the browser war never ceases - at least for those of us who try to stay abreast with the latest browsers in hope that with each new product and each new version, the average netizen will have a larger basket of goodies at his disposal ! And these "goodies" are not hard to come across - with Google's Chrome, Firefox 3 and IE beta 8, all loaded with features that might change the way we know and access the WWW.

The usage share figures above say it all. Piggybacking on it's Windows OS, Microsoft's IE still commands the largest market share. My apologies to all IE users - but guys... its high time that you DO move on to better options :)

Not only does the browser war keep the net users hooked but it provides ample scope for discussions, articles and benchmarking on numerous tech websites out there. A notable mention to CNET Download.com's Prizefight (http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-10079338-12.html) which pits IE7, Firefox 3, Google Chrome and Safari against each other on the following parameters:

Speed
Security
Customization
Killer feature

Needless to say, Firefox wins hands-down in Security, Customization (you didn't think anyone could even come CLOSE to that huge add-on library, did you ?) and killer feature (that's again customization).

Google's Chrome has been touted as the fastest browser around and there are third party tests which prove so. However, there's more to Chrome's blazing speed than meets the eye. Google Chrome has a significantly faster "page rendering" mechanism because of its Javascript engine which speeds up client end processing. So at the end of the day, if you have a below average net connection (not very difficult to find in India), you end up noticing (if you reallly notice) only a marginal improvement in Chrome as compared to, say, Firefox 3.

Safari and Opera (which was left out of CNET's test) are definitely better options than IE, but both of them lack that "one USP" which Firefox (customizability) and Chrome ("blazing" fast) have to offer.

Firefox is, without any doubts and questions, the big daddy of all browsers out there. Call it Mozilla's gift to mankind and it won't be an overstatement. Installation is a cakewalk, security patches are always on time and they really mean it when they say that you can make Firefox "your own" ! Although, if I had to be really nitpicky and find ONE fault with Firefox, that would be the memory usage (which CNET conveniently seems to have ignored), which could shoot over the roof with those add-ons and extensions all loaded at the same time. So think twice before installing an add-on to see if the value it delivers is worth the RAM that its gonna eat up.

Amidst the biggies vying for market share, we have a lil kiddo called "Flock" which brings a smile to those social-networking addicts amongst us. With a delightfully seamless integration of social networking, mail and browser into one neat package, Flock is a welcome product which could change the way we look at browsers in the future.

That brings me to my final '2 pennies-worth 'thought on the market leader - Internet Explorer. Now, I don't mean to sound biased or anything, but if I had to give ONE advice to the IE team, it'd be - "WAKE UP!!" Going by a few features of IE 8 Beta, Microsoft seems to have woken up a bit but they need to gulp down a mug of hot coffee, come to their full senses and see where the competition is heading. IE, as a browser, takes the last place in ease of installation, adherence to open standards, ease of updation and frequency of security updates. It doesn't score too well on customizability either, especially considering that it is best placed to use Microsoft's advanced technologies like Windows Presentation Framework (used in Vista) for some really neat UI effects. IE 8 Beta looks promising but in no way would it prove to be the brahmastra that'd stop Firefox from eating into IE's share. IE is all set for a plunging market share unless Microsoft comes up with an orbital shift in its design and feature offering!

Till next time... Cheers !

My Favourites !

2008-09-25T14:31:00.001+05:30

In an attempt to lend a more personal touch to this blog, here's a list of my favorites across various categories that I can think of :) Did I hear someone saying "How am I concerned??".. Go hit the red cross button in the upper right corner of this window :P !

A few riders before I actually start the listing - these are in no particular order and I've only included the categories where I've a distinct favorite . So there's no "favorite hindi movie" section coz I can think of many of them which I like almost the same.

Favorite Author - P.G. Wodehouse
Favorite Actress - Aishwarya Rai
Favorite Game - Age of Empires series
Favorite Book (recent) - Ramayana Series by Ashok Banker
Favorite Book (all time) - Jeeves and Wooster series
Favorite Movie (English) - Lord of The Rings series
Favorite Color - Orange
Favorite Chat Messenger - Yahoo
Favorite E-Mail service - GMail
Favorite Search Engine - I deny answering this ! As far as I'm concerned, there's just ONE search engine that exists ! The rest is all hogwash !
Favorite Website - http://www.download.com
Favorite Cartoon Character - Bugs Bunny
Favorite Comics - Archies
Favorite Newspaper (National Daily) - Times Of India
Favorite Newspaper (Financial)- Mint by Hindustan Times
Favorite Technology Brand - Google
Favorite Possession - My laptop !
Favorite Fruit - Mango
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor - Butter Scotch
Favorite Greeting - "Hey.. Hi!"

Hope that you all keep the above list handy till my next birthday :P

Cheers...

The Epic Saga.. Retold !!

2008-08-18T22:05:00.006+05:30

Every so often, we hear stories of good triumphing over evil, stories of men and women who inspire us or stories that are beyond the realm of mankind and earth-kind and yet inspire us. But there's one story that ecompasses all this and more - the epic tale of ramayana.

But what, pray tell, is left to be told of this epic tale that has been narrated time and again in the form of books, teleserials, cartoons and theatre? Nothing ? Thats what I thought till I chanced upon a gem titled "Prince of Ayodhya" by Ashok Banker (published by Penguin). It was first of the collection of 6 books kept in a desolate corner of my institute's library. Apart from the (highly) abridged version of the Ramayana that I'd studied as part of my school's Hindi curriculum, I never really had a detailed exposure to this monumental epic. The book looked inviting.. and well.. since it was only one of the 6 books that I'd have to read to get the entire story of Ramayana, I'm sure it must have been pretty inviting for me to actually pick it up and read in between the hectic MBA schedule.

I generally pride myself on my selection of books - I read very little but I've thoroughly relished and enjoyed every book that I've read. This one didn't let me down either.

From the very initial pages detailing the source and the history of various versions of Ramayana, Ashok Banker gives you a sense of the richness of the magnum opus that would unfold in the books to follow. The story that has been told and re-told again and again is told YET again.. but this time with the finesse of an artist who lends new colours, vibrancy and imagination to the same old portrait. This is Ramayana like never before - The dialogues, settings and events are realistic enough to teleport you to the Ayodhyan era, the sorcery and the witchcraft is binding enough to keep you glued to the pages and the emotions are touching enough to melt your heart.

My heart skipped a beat when Manthra shot a green flame of light from her forked tongue, it sank when Rama used the Brahma-astra to elimiate the asura forces and it almost stopped beating when Parasuram's axe touched Rama's neck only to dissipate concentric circles of sound evergy leaving Rama unscathed !

With every page I turned, there was just one thought that crossed my mind - If this book were to be adapted scene by scene in the form of a movie, won't it put the likes of 'The Matrix', 'Lord of The Rings', 'Spiderman', 'Superman' and 'Star Wars' to complete shame? My guess - Yes ! It would !

Till Next Time..

Cheers..

The Good, Bad and The Joker !

2008-07-23T03:47:00.002+05:30

Call it incessant rhapsodizing, euphoria or viral marketing.. the fact remains that The Dark Knight's 'Joker', brought to life by Late Heath Ledger, will sweep you off your feet, curl you up in your seats and put you in deep thought ! As the comic book character, Joker, the maniac who loves to kill, Ledger delivers a performance which probably surpasses any prior rendition of the Joker, animated or otherwise. Watch the Joker bring a "smile" to his preys' faces as he goes on a rampage - killing, bombing and looting Gotham city. Every scene and every entry of the Joker on screen is purely a high-wattage affair. So much so that a fairly good performance by Christian Bale as Batman is pushed to the background.

The biggest achievement of Ledger and the directorial team, although, does not lie in creating yet another "high-wattage" drama. Hollywood's done that before.. with incandescent actors like Ledger, camera work par-excellence and graphics capabilities, its a given ! What separates the chaff from this movie is the fact that it is a breath-taking attempt at baring the mind of a psychopath. Why does the Joker kill ? For money ? No ! For revenge ? No ! The Joker kills because he LIKES to kill. He kills because he believes that there's that hidden streak of evil in everyone around him - the only difference is that we don't like to show it as blatantly as he does. His crime is an attempt to provoke others to bring out their veiled evil streak in the open..

The movie depicts an "idealist" view wherein citizens of Gotham city do not possess that evil streak at all (am not gonna give out any spoilers.. watch the movie yourself !). But idealism will lead us nowhere ! Which brings us to the question - Does the world really need a Batman or do we need a Joker first ??

Till next time..

Cheers..

Why 8.5 million+ users love Firefox 3 !!

2008-06-21T02:32:00.001+05:30

It's as grand as it gets ! With over 8.5 million downloads on the first day of its launch, Firefox 3 is all set to create its mark as the "most downloaded software" in Guinness Book of World Records. Glancing back at Firefox 2, the figure of 1.6 million downloads, though not puny by any standards, is overshadowed.

The Firefox 3 Download Counter

Why do the net surfers of this world love Firefox 3 ? What instigates 8.5 million users to ignore the default Internet Explorer and Safari browsers that come bundled with their company's OSes and download Firefox ?

For starters, Firefox makes the web YOURS, literally ! It is probably the only browser that'll let you run plug-ins that enhance the feature set of sites like Orkut and GMail. My GMail has an all new themed look, thanx to the "Better GMail 2" plugin. It makes the browser a personal product, letting you add/remove/modify the features by way of plugins or by using the config option. Need an integrated dictionary option ? Wanna see screenshots next to your Google search results ? Want to write your blogs offline ? Want to view all images in a 3-D window ? Firefox has a plugin for all that and more !

GMail (Themed) with Better GMail 2

Numerous other benefits, especially faster product patches and fixes (many thanks to the Mozilla Community), easy installation (NO system restart), neat interface, faster loading of websites than any other browser and lighter consumption of system resources (with Firefox 3), make Firefox an indispensable software for any PC.

And for those of you who think Microsoft's might lies in marketing.. think again ! Visit www.spreadfirefox.com and see how Mozilla's marketing, based purely on the strengths of their product and users' faith in it, has succeeded in getting that staggering figure of 8.5 million downloads within 24 hours. Millions of users pledged to download Firefox 3 the day it is released. And the product hasn't let them down ! 12 million plus downloads have been done since it's release, which is a testimonial to its viral spread.

What does the Mozilla Community have to gain from this ? It's a FREE software, aint it ? It doesn't have ad-bars or pop-ads either !

The answer is simple - The internet belongs to the users, Firefox lets them reclaim it ! With a horde of proprietary coding techniques (read : IE), which result in non-standardized display of sites across different browsers, the net is in a mess ! Firefox and Mozilla stand for OPEN standards. As the Mozilla Developer Community tagline goes - "Don't hurt the web... Use open standards !"

Three cheers for Mozilla and Firefox 3 ! Click any of the buttons below to download Firefox 3..

Cheers...

Abhinav Kishore

Blogging In A Round World !

2008-04-23T02:17:00.004+05:30

Firstly, thanks to all my blog visitors for being umm.. regular visitors ! With the last post my blog completed 1000 hits. Looks like people from far and beyond have been reading my blog too :D My statistics counter reveals that this blog is visited by people from India, US, UK, Germany, Singapore, UAE, Mauritius, Egypt, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Japan, Senegal, Romania, Canada, Malaysia, Qatar, Netherlands and some others which the tracker couldn't track.

Speaking of hits, don't we all like more and more hits on our blogs everyday ? But then how many of us actually manage to get hits without pestering our friends to go and click on our blog links (GA and PDV - are you listening ? :P) ? But let that not bring a wrinkle on your forehead. Venture out into the Google territory and there are enormous number of sites and blogs which give you "tips" on increasing your blog traffic (yeah.. they tell you to go and pester your friends too :P). Now you might find this weird but blogs which tell you how to increase your blog's site traffic get some pretty good traffic themselves !! So here's what I'm gonna do.. like a true consultant, I shall give you wonderful topics to blog about. These topics are sure to get you increased traffic on your blog.

(The topics come with my extended never-return-to-my-blog-if-not-satisfied-guarantee !)

How to increase hits on your blog ! (Tried and tested... never fails)
I love Windows Vista ! (Write on this topic and I assure you threatening comments from the indignants)
MBA, placements, money (You get 2 lac CAT aspirants from India buzzing to your site)
How to lose X kgs in Y days (The number of hits is directly proportional to the X:Y ratio. The larger the X and smaller the Y, the more is your blog traffic)
Osama Bin Laden (ONE hit assured.. guess where from ? ;))
Shakira, Sakira, Sakhira, Sakir, Sharikha - just try ANY one of them. With people desperately googling for any info on her and making little typos in the process, you'll be better off tagging ALL those keywords.
Give out freebies on your blog - free software, wallpaper, iconset.. anything ! (Here's the analogy - FREE:Humans::Honey:Bees)
Aishwarya Rai (Who cares if you get traffic or not - just drop me a line with your blog link and consider one hit added)

Satisfaction guaranteed with the above topics. Do leave a comment if you blog on any of those topics. Unfortunately I can't reserve copyrights to the above topics, but I'd nevertheless expect a thank you phrase in your blog, a link-back and a courtesy mail should any of them work for you :P

Till next time..

Cheers..

SPJIMR DOCC Project @ SOS, Bhopal

2008-04-17T03:45:00.002+05:30

The DOCC (Development of Corporate Citizenship) projects @ S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai (SPJIMR) is an attempt to bring future managers closer to the social sector. During the six week tenure of this project, SPJIMR participants work with NGOs across the length and breadth of the country. This year's participants have been to places like Ladakh, Andaman & Nicobar, Shimla, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. Since the theme was "rural and slum based projects", most of the participants are working in villages and communities adjoining these cities.

This series of projects, started in 2001, has had multi-pronged advantages : sensitizing MBA students to the needs of the social sector and providing inputs to the NGOs for funding, branding, program enhancement and assessment. This also offers an avenue for the participants to put their learnings to fruitful and practical use.

As far as I'm concerned, my project is titled "Family Strengthening Program" which is a run by the SOS Children's Villages of India, Bhopal. Currently, me and good friend, Diksha Mangla, are working on this project along with 2 SOS co-workers. I've put some of the pictures above from the field visits to the villages that we've made so far.

Will keep you posted more on this ;)

Cheers...

Vista Boot Repair for Dummies ;)

2008-04-14T02:04:00.006+05:30

"The afternoon sun poured brightly into the office of the manager of Guiderstern's Stores, Madison Avenue, New York, but there was no corresponding sunshine in the heart of Homer Pyle, the eminent corporation lawyer, as he sat there."

An excerpt from Wodehouse's master-stroke "Girl in The Blue". But why I quote it here is because, all you need to do is substitute me for "Homer Pyle" and my home in Bhopal for "Guilderstern's Stores, Madison Avenue, New York" and you've got the complete picture ! "Why?" you ask ? Well.. that's the most reasonable stance (of lacking corresponding sunshine in the heart) you can adopt when Windows Vista simply denies to boot on your laptop. Yes.. mysteriously, miraculously and to my great annoyance, without bothering to throw up a boot time error.

Well.. I eventually got it working, so I'll put this post in flashback and detail the steps for recovering your corrupted vista boot sector. While I was attempting to fix my own installation, I googled voraciously and found several bits of scattered information which I'll attempt to collate here.

To start with, my system configuration:

Toshiba Satellite Pro
Intel Dual Core (2.xx Mhz)
2GB DDR
Windows Vista Business Service Pack 1 (32 bit)

When your vista installation fails to boot and all you get is a flickering cursor on the upper left corner of your screen on switching on your laptop, you KNOW that it's a boot sector error. There are 2 broad options to fix this:

Use the recovery disk utility that comes with your laptop. Most manufacturers like Dell, Toshiba etc create a recovery partition on your HDD and provide you with a utility to create a recovery disk (CD/DVD) from that partition. Of course, they expect you to be far-sighted and keep such a disk handy in case of any such eventuality as a corrupt boot sector. My Toshiba laptop also came with such an option but the disadvantage of using the utility is that it needs to format your entire drive (at least your primary partition - C:) which'll cause you to lose all data.
Another option is the Windows Vista Recovery Disk that is an added feature of Vista SP1. This recovery environment lets you fix your startup errors (boot errors) after you boot in with your recovery disk.

Second option is the one that I attempted first and it worked for me. Here's how :

Those of you who have Vista SP1 installed, may follow the steps given in this article to create your recovery disk :

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20070929/vista-sp1-recovery-disc/
In case you do not have SP1 installed or you cannot find the recovery disk creator for some reason, follow these steps:

Download the image file for the recovery disk (120 MB) from this torrent (you'll need a torrent downloader like u-Torrent or BitTorrent(http://www.bittorrent.com), which I'm sure most people have these days ;) ) : http://neosmart.net:6969/torrent.html?info_hash=c7411cffb5b0c27b28d0ec080af55ea0016f7b7b
Once you have the ISO file, you need to burn it onto a CD/DVD (I recommend a CD since it's only 120MB). I was stuck here for quite some time since several burning programs gave me improper results and the CD wouldn't boot my laptop. Please use Img Burn (http://www.imgburn.com) only. It's a small (around 3MB) freeware utility for burning ISO files and fits the bill perfectly.

Once the Recovery disk is ready, you need to boot using that disk. Instructions henceforth are specific for the Toshiba Satellite Pro Laptop and the Phoenix BIOS. Read through and judge if it can apply to your system model also:

Press F2 at boot time to enter "System Utilities" (BIOS setup)
Goto "Advanced" tab
Change the value of the "Execute-Disable bit" to "Not Available" (The default value is "Available"). This option apparently prevents the execution of malicious code at startup and in this case, even prevented my recovery disk from booting.
Save and exit using F10
Your system will restart. At the next boot screen, press F12 to select the boot device. Select the CD/DVD drive as your boot device.
The next screen will show you a message "Loading Windows Files" after which you get a slick (typical Microsoft style ;)) GUI. Among several options, "Startup Repair" is one. This should take a few minutes to run and at the end of which it'll ask you to reboot your system. I got my windows booting after just one run of the "Startup Repair" utility but in some cases you might require you to boot with your CD/DVD run the utility again.
Once you're convinced that your system is booting properly, do remember to change the status of the "Execute-Disable bit" back to "Available"

I'd strongly recommend that even those of you who are not facing this problem currently, keep a copy of the Windows Vista Recovery Disk and your manufacturer's Recovery Disk ready.

Till next time...

Cheers...

P.S : The title is dedicated to one of my friends who's constantly been pushing me to write a book titled "PPT for Dummies" ;)

Do leave a comment to let me and other visitors know if this worked (or didn't work) for you !

Microsoft, Yahoo and Google - The Mammoth Clash !

2008-02-20T10:52:00.009+05:30

Much has been reported and discussed about Microsoft's attempts at gobbling up Yahoo! Inc in what could turn to be one of the biggest consolidations of software giants in recent times. There was a time when Oracle Corp. went on a shopping spree ending up with PeopleSoft, Siebel and other biggies in its cart only to come "closer" to the market leader in business software - SAP.Microsoft's motives are similar, but much bigger than we can fathom. I'll not mince my words in saying this - It's a desperate attempt on part of world's leading software company at slowing down the pace of the charging internet mammoth called Google.

The might of Google has not been hidden from Microsoft. With a share of 75% in search advertising, Google has tapped one of the most lucrative online businesses which big daddy (read:Microsoft) totally missed out on. Also, several attempts by Microsoft at improvising its own services (MSN, Live, Hotmail revamped etc.) have not really taken off and it continues to be only the 5th most popular destination on the World Wide Web. Google has also opened the doors to a completely new world of online software. Microsoft's might in desktop software stands challenged today with Google replicating the same features in online softwares such as Google Docs, Google Apps for Enterprises. The next step for Google is rumoured to be the launch of its very own Operating System. It's high penetration into an era of net savvy PC customers will give Google more than an edge in selling their OS (IF the rumours are to be believed!). What options does this leave then for Microsoft? For a company sitting on a pile of cash worth $6111 million, the easiest way out would seem to be to BUY its way to the top. That's probably the thought that struck MS when it made a bid for the ailing Yahoo! Inc. Microsoft can only aim at at being a "reasonable" competitor to Google after its tie-up with Yahoo.

In the war of the worldwide software giant and the search leviathan, we cannot underestimate what has been the most popular online destination for netizens worldwide - Yahoo! Inc. Yahoo's messenger, chat rooms, groups, avataars, games and much more - have been hosts to millions of users across the globe, transcending boundaries of culture and language. I remember typing "www.yahoo.com" into my browser's address bar the FIRST time I ever used the internet - and so do lacs of others. Yahoo has rarely let down its users by constantly improving its services, giving users what they wanted and doing it BEFORE anyone else did it. But while Yahoo managed to do this for several years, it has recently been accused to failing to keep pace with the advancements in technology. It's profits and share prices have taken a dip, and shareholders' confidence has been at a low.Businesses like Microsoft would term the situation as "Hit the Iron While It's Hot" but the move would undoubtedly invite the ire and anxiety of millions of users worldwide. Microsoft is not very popular among the net-surfers for its online services - Hotmail, MSN Live Messenger, MSN Communities etc., all of which invoke a solitary feeling from users -"Ancient"! Its inability to feel the pulse of the evolving netizen and its needs has pushed Microsoft on the back front in the arena of online services. Microsoft taking over Yahoo could have dual implications for the users. While Microsoft as an organization is known to be a highly innovative software developer and marketeer, it’s knack of bringing technology under the umbrella of proprietorship is also well known. Users might, therefore, end up with better services, should Microsoft manage a seamless integration with Yahoo (as-it-is) or a set of inferior services, led by proprietary technology (and hence little growth), should Microsoft try to have an iron grip on everything.

In the end - the internet has tremendous potential for growth which needs to be managed and captured not by ONE monolithic giant but by several technology leaders each of whom can specialize and innovate in their domains. Microsoft, without doubt, is the company that needs to be credited for making the PC a household name. It is the company that needs to be credited with making operating systems which enable “dummies” to use computers. But the internet is one place that will be better off without a giant such as Microsoft. And should Microsoft manage to successfully complete this deal, let it be known that the fate of the internet and the companies that drive it is determined NOT by the companies or the governments – it is determined by the users of the World Wide Web who have a mind of their own.

Till next time.. Cheers !

A tele-protagonists' dilemma !

2008-02-01T02:05:00.000+05:30

Just when I was rid of my end term examinations and was strolling in Andheri with my friends to celebrate the joyous occasion, a huge billboard caught my eye - one of the tele-serial bahus, with the typical tele-serial look (expression, make-up, saree, bindi included) posing a tricky question to the audience of the hoarding - "Saas sasur ki salgirah ya mayke mein pooja - Aap meri jagah hote to kya karte?" (For those not conversant with Hindi - "My in-laws' anniversary party or pooja at parents' house ? What would you have attended if you were in my position?").

Now for those of you who are already rolling on the floor, laughing away to glory, I'd like to emphasize upon the criticality and urgency of this question. Do you people even realize that it was close to a life-and-death situation for this poor female? Lets explore some options...

You say that she could've easily divided her time between the two? HAH ! Fat chance! With all her poor luck (and ours too!), the very muhurat for both the events would match till the last millisecond washing out any multi-tasking plans she might have had.

You say that she could've attended the anniversary party and ditched her parents? Woah ! You inhuman soul! The very same parents who nurtured HER from childhood till adulthood and finally managed to get her married into a nice rich family (where the in-laws throw prompt anniversary parties :P) will now be deprived of her company on such an important occasion? To add to the trouble, the pooja is probably meant for the longer life of her ailing father/ mother/ brother/ sister/ bua/ tai/ tau/ mausa / mausi / kaka/ kaki/ ba/ ba's ba etc and is an absolute must-attend!

You say that she could've attended ghar ki pooja and ditched the party at in-laws' house? Now thats where you cross all lines! How will she ever come back her in-laws' place? Won't they burn her alive? Won't they torture her and ridicule her all her life for not joining in the celebration of their matrimonial union? Won't they get her divorced? Won't they disown her? The poor soul will then have nowhere to go (neither will YOU when you sit there watching episode after episode of tears trickling down the protagonist's eyes!)

I urge all readers of this blog to spare some time and give a serious thought to this poor female's dilemma. Help her out - by helping her out in solving this dilemma, you'll not only help her but also help a large section of the populace by saving them innumerable episodes of long winding discussions, unending tears, unceremonious slapping, shameless lying and bitter verbal retorts! Do tune in to future episodes of "Babul... blah blah.. aangan.. etc etc.." on one of the regular saas-bahu channels (Sony/ Star/ Zee) to know more and advise the protagonist.

Till next time.. Cheers !

The Browser Wars !!

2008-01-20T01:38:00.001+05:30

No matter how much my good friends GA and PDV hate it, tech posts will always be a part of this blog. So here's another one on a topic that I have always been meaning to write and have finally been able to do so with some concrete conclusive bit of supporting evidence too - The Browser Wars (more aptly titled "Firefox v/s IE", given that the rest of them have barely been able to capture any market).

We all know how Microsoft virtually monopolized the internet browser market by shipping Internet Explorer (IE) free-of-cost with Windows. Netscape made a hue and cry over the "unfair" competition but finally lost out to Microsoft's might.

With a company whose revenues were lesser than what Microsoft earned in interest on its cash, Netscape was indeed vulnerable. It depended only on a single product - Netscape Navigator while Microsoft had 90% of the OS market captured with Windows. IE research and development was funded through Microsoft's Windows revenues and hence MS could afford to ship IE free of cost. By 2002, when IE gained almost 92% of the market share, Netscape was destined to be washed out !

But peace was not in sight for Microsoft yet. 2001 saw the launch of what I personally regard as one of the most robust and extensive pieces of software - Firefox !

Launched in 2001, and growing by leaps and bounds ever since, Firefox is undoubtedly one of the greatest contributions of the open source community to the home PC user. It is easy to use, customizable, powerful, secure and FREE - fits everyone's requirement like a glove ! With a huge repository of Firefox add-is and themes that enable customization of the browser look and feel, Firefox has been eating into IE's share slowly and steadily. Here are statistics from the World Wide Web Consortium (http://www.w3c.org)

The official statistics show an approx 54% of share with IE variants while 36% share with Firefox variants. However, I have a different story to tell. I maintain some basic statistics of the visitors to my blog, including their browser information and out of 200 odd visits, here is the information that I've collated:

I agree that the sample of people visiting my blog is not exactly representative of the entire population of web surfers but the point that I'm trying to make here is that probably the scene is changing faster than MS can imagine. The message for Microsoft ?

"Beware! Open source giant on the loose!!"

Till next time.. cheers !

Backtrack to MBA entrance days...

2008-01-18T01:17:00.000+05:30

Since there's nothing interesting happening in my life these days (at least nothing that I would want to bore my blog readers with), I decided to take a walk down the memory lane and share my journey through the tumultuous days of MBA entrance examinations which culminated in the very delightful SPJIMR, Mumbai admission.

2006 November - It was my second attempt at MBA entrances. My first attempt in 2005 (while I was in my final year of engineering) didn't go too well (percentiles remain undisclosed!). The second attempt was placed right in the middle of my job tenure at Oracle, Bangalore. Thankfully for me, the work-life balance that so many corporates CLAIM, was a reality at Oracle. I had sufficient amount of time on my hands to prepare for the entrance exams. But as luck would have it - I made the most unproductive use of that time that was possible. The few Sunday Mock CATs which I attended (purely out of the guilt feeling of paying 5K odd bucks to Career Launcher and not attending a lot of the mocks) were the saving grace.

The exams happened - some good, some bad, some ugly and some not worth qualifying with any adjective invented yet by mankind! For the sake of maintaining my reputation amongst those who know me, I shall restrict to discussing the "good" ones here. XAT was one of the good ones which ultimately fetched me an SPJIMR call.

Didn't come as a MAJOR surprise because I had the call in 2005 also with a lesser score in CAT. But nevertheless - it was wonderful to see my name on the website after hours of refreshing www.spjimr.org and www.pagalguy.com

Then came the most difficult part - "converting" the call (for the non-MBA aspirants : It means securing a final seat in the institute after clearing several rounds of interviews!). And while the logical mind would start expecting a whole lot of things here about how I went about preparing day and night for the interviews and stuck to that call for my dear life, I prefer to spring a few surprises :D

I only remember glancing at the newspapers every now and then and following some news channels once I was back from office (the news channels would still not receive higher preference than my favorite prime time channels - MTV, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel and HBO). Of course, the experience of attending an SPJIMR interview last year had me well prepared for what was coming my way :)

The fist round of interview took place in Bangalore - "smooth" is how I would describe it. No high points and no low points. Came to know the results a few days later when I was sitting in my office refreshing the website :P - I had cleared the first round. The second round held in Mumbai was also a breeze. The final results this time created a much bigger flutter than earlier - I was happy (and running right through my office corridors to call up home!), my manager at office wasn't too happy (I wasn't too happy about leaving Oracle either... one of the best places to work!) and mom and dad were obviously elated!

Amidst all this, I must mention that there was no bigger support than my friends and my brother who'd have to bear with my endless discussions about interviews, result dates, B-Schools etc. etc. etc. I virtually spoke the "MBA" language for those few months right through my coffee and lunch breaks at office (My good friends GA, BKD and PS will vouch for that!). If someone asks me today about why I converted my call this year and not last year - the answer would not be "good score", "work-ex" or "luck" - the answer is that it is these people who made all the difference :) So a BIG "thank you" to all of you.. And a specially BIG thank you to my special friend code-named "Sona Chhele" who was probably the saddest of the lot when I broke the news about leaving for Mumbai.

Till next time... Cheers !

Weekend Retreats @ Mumbai

2008-01-09T01:53:00.000+05:30

(Me @ Infinity Mall, Andheri(W), Mumbai)

After several comments and suggestions (please refer the comments for my previous posts for some pretty harsh ones :P) about how I should stop blogging about technology, Madhuri, Aishwarya and Wodehouse and get back to blogging about ME, drove me to write this one.

Amidst the hectic MBA life out here at SPJIMR, the only saviors that we have are a few hangouts which are our weekend retreats(just to re-iterate : weekend at SPJIMR is a Thursday and not Sunday like in most other parts of the world). Here are some of the top ones:

1. Vrindavan - Lifeline for the mess-oppressed souls at campus, this little joint, right outside the campus gate is undoubtedly a favorite. Located in Andheri(W). Specialty - Malai Kulfi with rabdi and falooda!

2. Krishna Udupi - Pretty much the same as above. Has the distinct advantage of being close to my hostel and hence gets my vote on occasions when I'm tired/lazy/sleepy (Those of know me would have inferred by now that I'm a pretty good contributor to the profits of this Krishna Udupi setup!!). Located in Andheri(W). Specialty - Palak paneer

3. Infinity Mall - The "Forum" (ref : Forum Mall, Bangalore) of Andheri(W). Always abuzz, always festive, good food, close to campus. And yeah - true to a mall-hopper attitude, have never bought so much as a pencil from this place. We don't go to these malls to BUY, do we ??

4. Juhu Beach - Have been here only twice. It's dirty and crowded, but when with friends, who cares ?? The waves (which in my opinion look starkingly similar to a bunch of little chihuahuas yapping towards you) make one forget all about the assignments, quizzes and exams back there at college!

Till next time.. stay good, keep smiling, post a comment and keep coming back to read more!

Cheers..

A Likeable Desktop..

2008-01-07T02:12:00.000+05:30

After several weeks of exploration and experimentation with wallpapers, Windows Vista Aero themes and icons - I finally seem to have stumbled upon this desktop setting that looks pretty cool :) For those of you who like the above theme and would want to replicate something on similar lines, here are the details:

1. Wallpaper - Download Here (Expand in full view in picasa and copy)
2. Mac style icon bar - Rocket Dock (http://www.rocketdock.com) Free Download
3. Windows Vista Aero colour scheme - Read Colour
4. Icons - Disable "autoarrange" and drag icons to the center. Arrange as per your choice though I personally prefer the horizontal look!

Till next time..

Cheers..

New Year Resolutions..

2008-01-03T01:05:00.000+05:30

It's that time of the year when we are all making resolutions and when I say "all", I have a jolly good mind to include myself ! So here goes my very own set of new year resolutions (those who have been waiting for this can whistle, hoot and clap.. the curtains are going up):

I shall LISTEN to the professors in class. Exceptions - The boring ones, classes that stretch beyond an hour, classes held after I've had a good meal, classes which deal with Finance or finance related topics, classes which are held when I don't want them to be held !
I shall stay well organized (with the help of a planner diary which I soon propose to buy)
I shall be nice to everyone. Exceptions - Two old ladies who don't miss an opportunity to make my life miserable (ping me in private for details), those who are not nice to me, those whom I don't WANT to be nice to !
I shall make my bed every morning before leaving for class. Exceptions - days when I get up after 8:00 am for the 8:30 am class.

Those who know me will vouch for the fact that the exceptions are damn reasonable and nothing to be scoffed at.

Shall try and keep you all updated on how well I'm keeping all my resolutions...

Aaja Nachle - The Diva Returns

2007-12-04T03:13:00.000+05:30

The diva returns - an actress who made a million hearts throb with "Dhak Dhak" , who made us all believe that "Someone.. Somewhere.. is made for you" and who danced her way out of the Indian Film Industry 5 years back with "Maar Daala" !

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Friends and Foes, Earthlings and Aliens.. I present before you, the invincible, gorgeous and evergreen Madhuri Dixit !!

Madhuri returns to Indian films with Yashraj Film's Aaja Nachle ! It's 4 days past the release of the movie and having seen it at the first opportunity, it'd be sheer sacrilege if I deny you all (my regular blog readers), the pleasure of a peek into Madhuri's comeback tale. Disclaimer : All views and opinions expressed herein belong solely to the author of this blog who has a natural bias towards Madhuri and will hence neither express nor accept any derogatory comments / remarks about her :D

The movie begins with.. Madhuri (Dia) dancing and ends with Madhuri dancing ! Sheer treat for all her fans, if you ask me. Chuck the movie, chuck the story, chuck the direction, screenplay and the dialogs ! Go there just to see one of the most versatile dancers of Indian cinema performing the most exotic jhatka-matkas, flashing the regular 1000 watt smile of hers and delivering a performance that leaves you gasping for more. She can still emote as she did, she can still make you laugh and cry with her, and most importantly - she can still make you dance with her !

The movie is centered around Dia who comes back to her town, Shamli to save the local theater, Ajanta, with which she and her Guruji shared an emotional bond. With some other typical movie masala put in and a beautifully choreographed climax (a musical rendition of laila majnu starring Kunal Kapoor and Konkana Sen Sharma) the story reaches a happy ending - Ajanta is saved from demolition and revived by the people of Shamli.

Believe me - that's all there is to the story :) Those who expect anything more from the story are hereby warned that the movie is solely meant for pure-blood Madhuri Dixit fans who do NOT mind spending a few hundreds on the ticket to see her on screen !

The Inimitable Wodehouse... An Introduction..

2007-06-11T03:53:00.000+05:30

Before I start : This update comes soon after the previous one ! Do NOT miss the one below :)

Okk.. now that we are done with the preliminaries, let me introduce you, for the very first time on my blog... Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse..

The simplest and the most succinct description of Sir P.G. Wodehouse has been given by Douglas Adam : “P.G. Wodehouse is the greatest comic writer ever.”

No words that I can conjure, will be able to describe his genius any better. So I'll not attempt to do so either. Below are a few quotes from some of Wodehouse's best works which will leave you laughing in fits :

It was one of those jolly, happy, bread-crumbling parties where you cough twice before you speak, and then decide not to say it after all
I suppose I'm one of those fellows my father always warned me against.
I can detach myself from the world. If there is a better world to detach oneself from than the one functioning at the moment I have yet to hear of it.
``What ho!'' I said.
``What ho!'' said Monty.
``What ho! What ho!''
``What ho! What ho! What ho!''
After that it seemed rather difficult to go on with the conversation.
The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of the gun
She wrinkles her nose at me as if I were a drain that had got out of order
Her face was shining like the seat of a bus-driver's trousers
I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled !
I know I was writing stories when I was five. I don't know what I did before that. Just loafed I suppose.
She fitted into my biggest armchair as if it had been built round her by someone who knew they were wearing armchairs tight about the hips that season !

Watch out for more bits of work from this literary genius on my blog !

Till next time.. Cheers !

And thus began the much awaited MBA course..

2007-06-11T03:18:00.000+05:30

Hello people !

After many delays, lost couriers, redirected speed posts, angry phone calls to the SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR - for future reference) and several trips to the courier office, I finally got my PGDM PFC material (Post Graduate Diploma in Management - Pre Foundation Course) which flags off two years of books, studies, assignments, drudgery and (hopefully) fun ! :D

Contents of the PFC :

Fat book on Business Statistics
Fat ugly book on Management Science with spreadshets
Fatter, uglier book on Financial Accounting by Stice & Stice ! (HMPH ! Looks like a Stice family conspiracy to make my life miserable ! May a bird with an upset stomach relieve it's droppings on the Stice residence.. wherever it is !)
Miscellaneous hand written notes by professors on each of those topics. Looks like a must-read (as a rule - always be scared of professors who prefix "Dr" to their names :D)

The whole ordeal has been scheduled to last for 30+12+(not known) number of hours for each of the above respectively.

So that leaves me with umm.. 6 days (leaving for Mumbai on 16th evening) to prepare for the test that awaits me on campus. Further analysis reveals thus :

42 hours

6 days

No. of study hours per day = 42/6 = 7 hours/day (That shud almost cover the time of the day when I'm awake :D)

On the brighter side. the material doesn't look too monotonous. Lots of interesting stuff which (thankfully) doesn't need to be gulped down the throat for examination purposes. Let's see how I fare... will keep you all updated on this !

Till next time.. Cheers !

FMCG companies go nutritious !

2007-05-25T15:12:00.000+05:30

Whoever said that Indians are malnourished ?

With every shampoo, toothpaste and soap these days, having extracts of egg, curd, pumpkin, papaya, strawberries, banana, spinach , rose, gulmohar, orchid etc etc .. I'm sure we all get a lot of their nutrients whether we want it or not ! Pretty convenient, one could say. I mean, naturally none of us would've thought of munching on a red rose, thereby missing out on the much hyped nutritions that it is supposed to be teeming with ! Thank FMCGs for their kind attention to this and thereby including prized roses in their products.

The questions stands at how genuine these claims are ? Even if they ARE genuine, do I really need watermelon in my hairs ? Wouldn't I rather eat it and give the nutrients a better path into my body rather than rubbing it on my hairs ?

However, the trick here seems to be to cash in on the recent "go green" trend. Any product with veggie extracts in it , appeals to the customers. This brings us to the question of how matured the Indian customer really is ! Pretty matured, I'd say.. these gimmicks can attract customers for the first time but it's quite difficult to hold on to them if you don't deliver what you promised. That is more so important in a country like India, where the concept of "brand loyalty" is virtually absent. If I'm using soap X today, the next time I'm buying soap.. there's little certainty that I'd go looking for the same brand. Instead I'll probably be more concerned about other criteria such as "other new products","prices" and "availability"(here... "I" is the typical Indian customer.. the regular "I".. that's ME.. uses the same brand of soap always :P)

But it's nonetheless interesting and amusing to see what they can come up with next ! Almost all known species of fruits, vegetables, milk (and other dairy products) and flowers have been extracted for use in FMCG products. Wonder what's next ??