Soujanya

Dum maro dum Review

2011-04-22T08:32:00.006+05:30

Theater: CineMax, Banjara Hills, Hyd.

Krishna as usual calls up and asks if I’m interested to watch paid preview of Dum Maro Dum. Paid preview is a good way of making money these days I guess. The hall was houseful.

After series of comedy movie releases in Bollywood at the start of the year (Tanu weds Manu, F.A.L.T.U, Patiala House etc.,) it is some time for a slick action movie Dum Maro Dum by Rohan Sippy.

Plot:

The story and all the characters are set in Goa. Lorry (Pratiek babbar), a 17-year-old middle-class student is desperate to join his GF in US for studies but cannot afford to go as his financial aid is rejected. He gets trapped by men of most notorious drug dealer Lorsa Biscuita aka Biscuit (Aditya Pancholi) in Goa local area, who lures youngers to smuggle drugs. Joki (RaNa Dagubati) a local singer wants to help Lorry as he has seen his ex-GF Bipasha Basu getting trapped in a similar way and she was never able to come out of it.

Enters ACP Vishu Kamat(Abhishek Bachan), who has a sad past. He is given the task to eradicate drug business and its messy men from Goa. He arrests Lorry and Joki promises to help Kamat, in return of Lorry’s release from jail. The story progresses with these three characters and a suspense woven into the plot – which is not too difficult to predict.

There are some brilliant scenes and some good dialogues in the movie, which we people will talk about and take back home. After a very long time, I felt the action sequences are well choreographed – not too long and not too dramatized. I liked the fight sequence in the juvenile home (Kamat trying to rescue Lorry).

Performances:

Usually, we see people writing off AB jr. Time and again he proves he is here to stay. He plays the role of a cop with ease. I felt that he believed the director and the role and he gives us a good performance.

I was surprised to see Rana getting a significant role in a bollywood movie. Towards the end of the movie is when he gets to play an important part. I was not a fan of his acting in the Telugu movie Leader and he did just ok in DMD. His dubbing was a big draw back. But defineitely DMD is a good launch pad in Bollywood for him.

Bips doesn’t have much to do and just does what she is best at… showing her wonderful long legs :)

Aditchya Pancholi and supporting actors are good. Especially I liked the acting of the character named Ricky, a drug peddler.

I kept Prateik Babbar last as I have too many things to say about him. I adored him. He is brilliant in some scenes and his innocent looks would make most of the girls go crazy. If he is going to do good movies in future, he is here to stay and make it big in Bollywood.

Minuses:

Music by Pritam.

- ---There are songs, which were not even required, and Pritam as usual takes inspiration from old Dum maro Dum and Timbaland songs.

- ---Deepika missed something while dancing may be the right attitude required to dance for the title track. The item doesn’t live up the hype.

- ---Too many scenes are inspired from Engish movies - like at the end, when ACP Vishnu imagining joining his dead happy family..aka Gladiator.

- ---There was no need for Bips to be an interpreter from Hindi to Portuguese to the Brazillian drug peddlers, while the audience is Hindi!

Overall, movie is fine and I would suggest it to any one who wants a break from stupid slapstick recent Hindi Comedies, to go and have a dekko.

"Yeh Sahiba ..Goa aneka..khane ka peene ka, bas chill marne ka..lekin dum..psst psst ..Dum bilkul nahi marne ka"

Checklist for my future smooth “working” life

2011-02-09T18:44:00.002+05:30

Don’t try to clean up other people’s pending mess as you will eventually be pulled into the mess and you will be blamed for the mess (basically don’t try to show your humanity)
When people try to give you gyaan, learn to say “cut the crap out and come to the point”
You are surrounded by dangerous people, show them you are no less dangerous when required.
Mind your own business and shut your mouth when you see “politics” happening around.
If you are hurt by someone, hurt them the same way.
If you are a hard worker, feedback is - be ‘smart’. But if you are a ‘smart worker’, it means you are not a hard worker!!!! ( you are screwed anyway)

Disclaimer: The checklist is prepared by ME and it may be useful for normal people. I hereby give all the rights to you, to use these gems of wisdom on your desks.

Two sisters

2011-01-29T16:35:00.002+05:30

Warning: The post below contains some violent material, if you have a sensitive heart, please avoid reading :P

School days:

“Mama, she ate 2 chocolates and gave me only one. When I said I will tell you, she threatened me!” Siri complained.

Obviously, mom would trust Siri more than me - she is younger to me, thin and and fragile. Her innocent looks would buy mom and I got scoldings.

I wanted to take revenge. When she was running in the living room, I blocked her way with one leg of mine. Thhhhhhudddd. She fell on the floor with her face down and hurt her nose. I was more worried about myself than her – what else can poor me, who is a fourth grader do, but worry about the consequences. Even if you are not creative, you can imagine what could’ve happened to me later when Siri told mom.

College years:

“Common you cannot take my clothes, without telling me” I yelled at Siri.

“Hey, you wore my sandals without asking me. Did I complain?”

“Mom, I cannot tolerate this girl anymore. Tell her to have a separate cupboard,” I said.

Mom tried to convince both of us that we shouldn’t fight everyday for petty issues.

Petty!

No way. She always drops into my space without my permission. I hated her! She hated me!!

After my Marriage:

“I’m a guest in your house, so I should be given remote”

Siri was angry “Guests should just sit and watch whatever host is watching on TV. They should not snatch the remote.”

My dad who is in the bedroom comes wondering what were we screaming about, tried to calm us down and was giving an option to watch the other tv in his room.

Both of us wouldn’t cool down and were fighting like anything. The remote broke into pieces. Krishna calls at the same time. I complained. He was like tell me the whole story what exactly happened. I didn’t understand at that time, but now I know he enjoys these catfights between my sis and me. huh!

When mom came back from her work, both of us gave her our versions. She said our relatives think we are the most “ideal” and “loving” sisters and are given others as examples and we shouldn’t fight like dogs in the street.

Both of us said why don’t we tell them the truth!!

Siri has a sharp nose now, I tell her its because of me, her nose bone got corrected. We both laugh at the incident.

Mostly Siri does all the shopping (for her and me). We share our dresses and handbags and footwear too! When it is weekend, she calls me before she is even up from her bed to ask when am I coming to her home! Mom tells me when I’m not there she doesn’t watch TV that much. May be both of us actually like competing for remote.

Once she gets married and moves out of my parent’s house and this city, I will have remote for myself but I think it wouldn’t be interesting though!

RaaVan..On my lips

2010-04-26T13:48:00.001+05:30

After Ye maaya chesave in Telugu (Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa in Tamil) I’ve been eagerly waiting for A.R.Rahman’s next musical ‘Raavan’. It is most anticipated music score for sure as the movie is directed by Mani Ratnam and he gives such a liberty to ARR to give best tracks.

The first promo “Beera…Beera” which gave the hint on UP folk style version assured ARR fans that best is guaranteed.

I started listening to it from the time audio is released and as usual I can’t get the songs out of mind.

'Beera..Beera' is the first song and is very catchy. Gulzar’s lyrics add weight to the tune. Next track which is 'Behne De' is feast and is sung by Karthik and Md.Irfan. Though it reminds me of satrangi re of Dil Se, it is a treat.

'Thok de killi' is a foot tapping number and is sung by Sukhwinder Singh. This guy gives his best to ARR I guess. He is flawless.

Next song is sung by current favorite female singer Rekha Bhardwaj - 'Ranjah Ranjha’. It is a mix of Punjabi folk and funky beats. She sounds so different in this song. I loved this song.

'Khile re Khile re' and 'Kata Kata' are just fine.

All in all it’s a wonderful album and has A.R.Rahman’s stamp all over the album. I'm also eagerly waiting for Telugu and Tamil version of the same movie and heard there are couple of extra songs in these languages. Raavan music delivers what is expected. My personal favorites being ‘Behne De’, ‘Ranjha Ranjha’ and ‘Thok De Killi”. Go for it.

Confessions of a shopaholic

2010-03-28T15:50:00.003+05:30

“I want to buy gold with the bonus money we got for March”, Ramya said.
Koti shrugged off his shoulders, as usual.

Koti and Ramya are married to each other for a year n half now. We all work in the same organization.
We sometimes take the same cab while going home from office. Ramya and I sit at the back to gossip, discuss and do the same fav time pass of nagging about husband materials.

This discussion of what to do with the money came up on Thursday. Just when we were planning what to do Mr.Krishna calls up and gives an unwanted advice asking me to invest the money for the next year tax planning. Huh!

I appreciated his good idea and asked to invest his money on my name! Remember my money is my money and your money is our money concept!! He sighed and ended the call.

Obviously when I told Ramya about this bad idea, Koti was in support of Krishna and was suggesting Ramya to do the same. All husbands are made of same material. Awk!

As Koti was going to Gurgaon office site for one day trip the next day, Ramya and I decided to go on a shopping spree on Friday.

We finished our office work on Friday and were geared up to go to the Somajiguda area which has around 15-20 famous jewelry shops. We got down the office cab nearer to Malabar Gold shop which has some offer going on for diamond sets. We had a ‘dekho’ at all those sets.

That’s not the end of it, we went around the whole area and window shopped around 10’s of shops. Ramya was just checking every shop to decide on where to buy her stuff. She told me she will come next day with her parents, in-laws and Koti to buy.

At last we were happy that we haven’t spent anything and crossed the road to take an auto home and my eyes got struck on the ‘Metro’ footwear shop. I told Ramya we will just have a ‘dekho’.

After I saw these beautiful pair of platform sandals in maroon color I couldn’t resist. Ramya gave me the required encouragement and I decided to buy them. We were about to go and Ramya’s eyes were set on a beautiful clutch (purse). She decided to buy that. We were in the shop for not more than 10 mins and we decided on what to buy! We realized it is not a good idea to roam around as we sensed that the shop assistant was too eager to show us more stuff. Both of us swiped the cards and without even looking at any other shop we boarded the auto!

I called Krishna to pick me up and told him what I bought. He said don’t cry for the spent money it is ok!

But one has to look at Ramya and me at that time. We were so happy and excited with the outing that evening. We didn’t miss the husbands around, as they never help in decision making when it comes to shopping. Usually when I go out with Krishna and ask him to choose between two things he never gives me a proper answer. At least after picking me up and dropping home Krishna could've asked me to show what I bought. Nah! these guys can never understand that woman loves showing off!!

My beautiful sandals in the box are looking at me. I think they are asking me when I would wear them. See I can understand their language. They are in the rack with the other 20-25 odd pairs of footwear of mine. I just hope my dad/Krishna wouldn’t count all the pairs.

Seriously retail therapy works. I can feel the peace.

Bangalore Trip

2010-03-27T15:45:00.005+05:30

I remember going in train when I was in my III standard vividly. That was last! I avoided travelling and was scared of journeys!

Krishna knows that I haven’t travelled in my life neither by train/bus nor flight after my III stnd stint. My sister Siri many times tried to push me to travel but I always made sure trips are cancelled. Krishna tried his best couple of times booking the tickets to take me out, I ended up cancelling them too.

So this time around when Krishna had to go to Bangalore to meet my friend (and his friend now) on business trip. He literally was after me to join him to the trip. Also my friends Usha and Sree warned me with dire consequences if I cancel the trip!
Finally, I boarded the train! Alas!! Usha checked on by calling and asking if I had boarded the train or not.

Train journey was fun and I enjoyed the window view after 5.00 in the morning as hardly I could see anything at night (It was AC coach).

We ended up landing in Bangalore very late. We headed straight to my friend Giridhar's house. We are family friends and Giridhar’s mom insisted that we stay at his place in Bangalore. His 3-bedroom flat was part of a big gated community with around 9-10 blocks and is on 9th floor at Marthahalli (near ITPL). The morning view of sun from the balcony was pleasure to watch.

After exchanging greetings with Giridhar, we refreshed and went out on roads of Bangalore. I was disappointed with the weather as it was too hot opposed to what I heard about the cool weather. Friends told me there has been drastic change in the weather from past two years cos of massive cut down of trees for the Metro rail project.

I liked the roads; though few roads are narrow I felt Bangloreans have sense of traffic unlike Hyderabadis. Most worrisome factor is traveling in autos. These autowallas dupe new visitors so badly. We had tough time commuting but thankfully with the help of friends we were able to use public transport effectively.

Our friend Hemanth, who came to meet us and take us around Bangalore, has shown us few malls and busy street Brigade road. I didn’t like the ‘Mall cultured’ Bangalore. We went back home tired and hit the sack.

Next day we were to meet my friend Adi (Aditya) at his house for lunch. Little pretext about Adi here. Adi and I met at an online social networking group 5 years ago. We haven’t met face-face though. Adi and Krishna are in same line of work and they had to discuss some business deal - that’s how we ended having a trip to Bangalore.

We were wise enough this time to use the public transport rather than hiring a cab service or take an auto. Adi’s place was at Yalahanka. He invited his three more friends from Bangalore to meet us. Adi n his lovely wife Lakshmi were great hosts. The lunch was lip smacking. While Krishna, Adi and other friends were discussing the business, Lakshmi and I had gala timing nagging about respective husbands! After Adi's place it was time to meet Krishna's childhood pen friend Madhavi's house. Madhavi and her mom were super cool to talk to.

Next day was a big day. Giridhar suggested we take his car to go to Mysore. We hired a Telugu speaking driver and started at around 7.00 in the morning and headed to Mysore.
We had tasty breakfast at one of the small hotels in Maddur and had the famous Maddur Vada. We covered almost all important sightseeing places like Sreerangapattanam temples, Tipu sultan gardens to Sangam river. After reaching Mysore, I tried my level best to find a good Mysore silk shop to buy a saree for myself but somehow felt it was luxury to indulge! We bought few Sandal related items like Doop sticks etc.
We visited the beautiful Mysore Palace – the architecture was a treat to eyes. After having lunch we went straight to the famous Mysore Zoo and Chamundi hills. I had lot of fun at Zoo. By then it was already late and we started back to Bangalore and reached home at 11:00.

Next day we started back to Hyderabad. After coming back to Hyderabad, I had to say to myself “Nothing beats home!”

P.S: Krishna is planning another trip already!! 

Free Ticket

2010-03-15T14:57:00.001+05:30

“Acting bug bit me when I was in the college. My dad asked me to get trained in acting before launching me as a hero”.

This is frequently heard dialog from our ‘new gen’ Indian heroes. Not just bollywood but this is a routine dialog from Tollywood (read as Telugu) industry. I wonder if they are ever going to realize that acting doesn’t mean becoming a ‘Hero’. Duhh!

If we see the recent ‘big’ movies of Tollywood all ‘fresh’ faces (Hero) have been from affluent film families.

Four heroes of the Tollywood - Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Venkatesh and Balakrishna are like pillars to the industry. Apart from Chirnajeevi, all the other three big heroes had solid background from the film industry.

Now their sons, nephews and nieces play major part in the film industry. Mostly daughters are not allowed to be a heroines as it is still conservative. How strange!!

Sad part is that industry outsiders are literally not allowed to play a bigger role in the film making( exception to Direction, it involves creativity) or acting roles. We will see one off cases like Ravi Teja who made it big with his sheer hard work through years but his recent success is after a crusade of hardship of 10-15 years and he has only few more years to play lead characters.

Take for example Mohan Babu. I always liked the roles he played in past whether as a villain or a hero; he is a self made man. But his desperate attempt to make his sons to get foothold in the industry is laughable. I can’t comment on their acting skills or looks, but as an adherent film buff I wouldn’t want to forcibly watch only ‘dimpled’ angle of his younger sons face throughout 2 and half hours! It is his fame and money power which is taken as a chance by new upcoming directors to make movies with his sons as heroes in a film. Otherwise would he ever put money on these poor little unknown directors and produce a film with outsiders in lead characters!

I’m not against this hereditary in the film industry. Allari Naresh and Prabhas are my favorite heroes and they have a solid backing when they were launched by outside production houses. Still Naresh proved he is a good actor.

It is just that how much as an audience can we take!!I agree many of them have talent but they should realize playing alone a ‘hero’ role is not acting.
Hero≠acting

How many of these new age heroes who have godfathers can act? Oh yea it will take 10 years for them but probably there are quite a number of unlucky stalwarts who are worth it but just cos of no backup or godfathers in the industry their careers in the film industry is never made. Many other people with the film background have taken the other paths in the same industry like taking up productions and marketing businesses. Take the case of Allu Sirish, he writes wonderful and thoughtful articles on film industry in his blog and his passion for the industry is shown in his writings. Of course his magazine is not released without talking/promoting about one of his own family members which sometime irks me a little but it is his magazine and I’m just a commoner to even comment on this. Right!

Also, I wish these new heroes realize that success is not instant and after few trails learn to say “Oh I think this hero thing isn’t working, let me give a chance for the audience to take a break from me”

I know am asking for too much!

Farmville uninstalled!

2010-03-07T17:36:00.006+05:30

Finally I uninstalled the Farmville from my Facebook a/c. I’m damn happy about it. My ‘time spent’ on Social Networking sites have come down drastically. What does this mean? What do you think of me?

Loading...

Ye Maya Chesave...Songs

2010-03-05T17:01:00.003+05:30

Ofcourse, I’m gonna talk about the new addiction – songs of Ye maaya chesave.

After a long time, I like the whole album of a movie. When the music of the film was released in Jan, only one song caught my attention i.e., ‘Hosonna’. Just like any other ARR musicals, you will start loving the songs after watching the movie. Music will grow on to you later.

When the album got released I read this review, where the reviewer felt ARR disappoints!

I now feel we shouldn’t depend on most of the online reviews, especially if they cannot write anything good about some proven stars like ‘ARR’ and ‘Sachin Tendulkar’ its better to ignore them.

I went to the movie on its third day of release. I had no expectations from the movie.
I enjoyed first half of it and felt the second half is dragged a little. It’s a story about how a men and women behave when the decision to marry against the wishes of parents. Girls are usually confused and don’t dare to say yes for a love marriage as theythink about their parents first and about the boy later. And a boy is determined to get a commitment from the girl.

But at the same time we cannot compare this movie with classics like Geetanjali or Devdas. Its completely different and is mostly related to this generation of Love stories. I felt it is a honest and realistic approach of movie making which is why the movie works. Gautham Menon proves his mettle and this movie establishes him to be listed in the elite Indian class directors. Oh I’m not the only one who is saying this – but K.Balachandar is saying so - check link here

I felt Naga Chaitanya fits the role and looks honest (acting wise) in his second movie. He is likable. Samantha deserves applause for giving best shot in her first movie. She is lovable.

Songs just stay back in your mind as it is happening to me. ‘Hosanna’ is good but ‘Manasa’ and ‘Vintunnava’ are my personal favorites. Shreya Goshal's Voice is very soothing in vintunnava song

I think you should give this movie one shot and watch it in a theater than wait till the TC torrent or DVD, ofcourse for the songs!

Flashback...

2010-01-22T23:31:00.004+05:30

Oct’2004 :

I met Krishna for the first time after initial one and half years of chat conversations.It was a dud meeting and we were quite happy that it didn’t create any ‘story’ between us. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t meet this guy again after the first meeting.He is probably the second stranger guy in my yahoo chat list (First being Chakri – who is like a mentor to me) and that’s the end of the list!

All that we talked on chat was about our studies and careers in that complete one year before the face-face meeting. Both of us have similar family backgrounds and grounded roots.

Our second meeting definitely was the start of a new relationship between us.You will know why.

I was getting ready to go to Sultan bazaar to collect my dress from the tailor. I got a call from Krishna.

“My friend said she would meet me today and is not meeting me for lunch. I don’t want to go back to office. Can I meet you at koti itself for 5-10mins?” (Oh yea! He had so many girl ‘friends’ and he said I was just another friend)
I didn’t want to meet him.
“Is there anything important that we have to meet and talk? Why can’t we talk over the phone?”
“I’m not gonna kidnap you. Just casually wanna meet you and say hi. Also its exactly one week that we first met and we can celebrate the meeting”

Lame excuse. But I thought it shouldn’t be a problem as it is 5 minutes meeting.
I collected my clothes from the tailor, asked Krishna to meet me at Gokul chat. I called my mom and said I am meeting this guy (I was this obedient child you see). By the time I reached there he was already waiting for me. Somehow I felt he was not the same guy whom I met just last week. He was eagerly waiting for me. We had chat at Gokul and I was about to take leave.

He offered to drop me on his kinetic honda till bus stop which of course I rejected. He literally forced me to sit on his bike and I didn’t want to create scene in public so hesitantly I was his pillion rider. He took me to ‘Ohris’ ice cream parlour without listening to me. He ordered ‘sundae’. He was just glaring at me and I pretty much know by now that something is wrong with this guy. I was so very uncomfortable that day. I just wanted to run away. I hurriedly finished the ice cream and left.

Things have changed a lot after that meeting. I avoided him and his calls after that for some time. It was not just friendship anymore. The ‘love’ season serial continued for 3 years and we are finally married!

Present

So why the hell did I go into flashback??

Today Krishna took me to Ohris again for ice cream. We sat at the same place. We ordered two slices of ice cream. I asked him to replicate our past. He asked me to close my eyes. I gladly closed my eyes for 3-4 secs and when I open my eyes I see that he was happily eating ice cream and is not even bothered to look at me!! Wah so romantic!

Huh. Husbands!!!

Not a ‘Proud Indian’ any more…

2009-12-17T14:50:00.003+05:30

“These Andhra settlers need to be thrown out of Telangana area, they have literally stole all our resources”

“We want a united Andhra”

“Only Marathi speaking people are allowed to stay in Maharastra”

“We want a separate state - Gorkhaland”

Disgusting isn’t it? When someone talks to me about Telangana or AP issues these days, I avoid them. Reasons are aplenty. The first question when a person wants to debate on ‘the current burning issue’ is – “to which region you belong to? Andhra, Rayalaseema or Telangana”.

And my answer these days is I belong to neither AP nor India anymore. I was meant to live on this planet and earn my livelihood by working, so I am just here in a place called Hyderabad.

I realized, agitations on separate state/ united state are not just instigated by politicians but the shocker to me was few educated fools too are actively involved.

The other day I spoke to a guy who was a pro-telangana, ans a S/W engineer by profession (IIT product). All that I could sense from teh conversation was that he has so much hatred towards people from Andhra/Rayalaseema. He wishes all the settlers to be thrown out of the area. I wished him all the best. Huh!

Another guy who works in Navy and hails from Andhra region says, Telangana can be developed only with Andhra/Rayalaseema support it seems. Ohh...accha!

I am a telugu and when I speak to other telugu people I wouldn’t ask them to which part of Andhra Pradesh do they come from. But these days I see so many people asking me the same question again and again! And I can’t run out of this state cos all the other states in India have same kind of issues, if there are not any issues in a particular state; they are for sure created in near future. Why can’t we just live our lives peacefully, it shouldn’t matter much whether we belong to south – north India or any part of state right?

It is depressing to see the ‘state’ of this country. Oh no please don’t give me any false encouragements or say ‘vote next time and change the fate of country’ – vote is not gonna work out in this country called India. The only solution I can think of is apocalypse to the world.

Uggh. Yea I said that. I’m no mood to say sorry for the above statement.

Disgruntled Employee of the Month...that 'was' me.

2009-11-03T16:14:00.008+05:30

“We are paid peanuts.”
“Unfriendly company”
“Managers are damagers”
“I cannot take the stress any more. My company treats me like a donkey”
“No growth prospects in my present company”

Have you heard these (probably said these) in your life? If not then you don’t belong to present generation of ‘normal’ employees.

When I finished my schooling it was my parent’s decision to choose my subjects for my college.

When I finished college it was markets demand that I join mad race of getting an S/W job.

When I’m in a job I realize I am not satisfied with what I do and clueless on what I want to do.

Most of us aim for two things in life - money and settlement. All that we want is secure job which can help us to earn lot of money, buy a place to live in (of course with all those huge loans!) and sleep with a peace of mind!!!. Isn’t this that all of us wanted??

After slogging for few quarters to achieve something in my job, I forgot to enjoy my life. I was working weekdays, weekends and on holidays too. But, I realized it’s not worth the effort when reality struck. I am frustrated, irritated and blamed managers (of course blamed myself too :). When I look around, every one has the similar feeling and are in the same lineage as am in. So I’m not alone in the mess (oh yea it makes me feel little better)

I realized today that I’m wasting valuable time of my life cribbing about things that didn’t go well. When I look back - the past six months of my life (job) made me stronger and has lot of happy moments to cherish - which I’ve not thought about. I’ve made lot of friends in office and I’m more social now, tuning my (idle) brain for certain good things which reminds me that my confidence level is in a new high. Also, the support that I’m getting from family and friends to cheer me up is invaluable. I wish I can keep this tempo up and enjoy the life as it comes.

Oy!..

2009-07-13T15:29:00.006+05:30

Past few weeks have been very tiring(Months, if I may say so) with my work targets etc. I’ve been thinking of taking vacation to travel which looks like a distant dream considering my work schedules and savings. Last week decided to take a vacation leave on Friday.

I was at my parents place. Siri wanted to watch a movie. So the only interesting movie in theaters right now is ‘Oy!’. Krishna joined us.

Siddharth’s character in the movie is of a rich-spoilt brat who believes in short-term pleasures. Predictably he falls in love with Shamili, who leads a planned life and is a loner. It is love at first sight and he tries to woo her in all possible ways, which works but there is a twist in the love story.

The role for Siddu is tailor-made and he is flawless. It seemed like he has become a pro playing lover-boy roles. Shamili suited the role of an ordinary girl. I actually tried finding any resemblances of her childhood, none in vain. She is changed a lot. Her performance is just okay. Story is dragging in the second half.

Comedy tracks are not really great except for the Pradeep Rawat and Sunil episode. Music by Yuvan is superb. His music is excellent and all the songs are soothing to ears. I personally liked “Oy-Oy!”, “Seheri” and “Saradaga”. Pictuarization is not exceptional but is pleasant to eyes.

The first half of this year, most of the Telugu movies disappointed me. Billa, nachavule, Konchem istam konchem kastam, Evariana eppudaina were just average. Only block buster I thought and enjoyed thoroughly was “Kick” (including Songs). I hope the rest half of the year has something good in store for Telugu cine-goers.
☺☺...○

Technology is a ...

2009-07-06T10:09:00.004+05:30

I don’t miss my parents...thanks to mobile phones and video conferencing. I don’t miss any important updates of my friends’ life...thanks to their blogs and to their profiles on social networking sites. I don’t miss any movies that I didn’t get tickets...thanks to torrents. I don’t miss any news updates...thanks to News feeds. I don’t miss any TV serials...thanks to YouTube: P.

Of course all my friends know what I’m up to every minute through my ‘tweets’.

I read an article on BBC a few days back in which a boy is asked to use the first Sony Walk-Man set. He was embarrassed to take to his school as it was a large box with various buttons on it. I’m sure back in 60-70’s people might have been curious about evolving technology, though it was available only to rich people, these days we rather ask for the affordable technology to be made available to make our life too easy for us.

My grandmother thinks of Internet as Google. My dad thinks Google has answers for everything (Oh yea it’s true though). I remember, about three years back, when I first introduced my mom to chatting on yahoo to talk to my sister, she was pretty excited. My nephew who is in sixth grade now scraps me on Orkut asking me to login to my G-talk to talk to him to suggest new game portals. My friend’s parents look for suitable alliances for their children online through matrimonial sites.

One of my friends decided to purchase home and she scans all possible deals online through discussion forums and tries to squeeze maximum discounts from various vendors for her new home.

So what if for one day technology vanishes? If network fails...Satellite TV stops...Internet crashes...Unimaginable right? Technology is boon for people like me, though it looks like I’m too much addicted and depended on it but is it possible to backtrack?

India Votes...

2009-04-16T18:09:00.011+05:30

What a fun it has been to cast my vote today. After debates, arguments and frustration on politics and our political leaders finally India started voting today. At least we, people of India get to be ‘Ek din ka sultan’. None of our politicians or leaders are going to give us this much of attention and respect until next elections.

I decided I would get up early in the morning and go to the polling booth. Krishna went to vote by 8.30 as he had to go to office (Thanks to AP Govt. timely initiative for declaring a holiday for MNC’s on polling day). I prayed god that at least this time our political leaders will change for good after being elected.

My dad dropped me till the polling booth, at around 10.00 A.M. I was amazed to see the turn out. People were in long queues. I saw my old friends in the queue. Old people were complaining about lack of facilities and severe heat. But I thought EC this time has done quite a commendable job with the arrangements. Pregnant ladies and old people were sent in without having them to wait in the queue, to cast their vote. Drinking water was arranged. Finally, it was my turn to exercise my right and of course, duty.

Polling agents and officers were very cool and helpful. I cast my vote and came out. It was a great feeling. Hopefully, next time we will have bio-metric cards for elections and the confusion of voters is lessened. When other developed nations use our IT professionals’ knowledge to build an effective electoral system for their elections why are we still lagging behind – only our next Indian Govt. who gets elected have answers for it.

Anyways, Happy voting India. ☺

Fake

2009-01-29T10:33:00.003+05:30

We come across so many people in our life everyday. We meet people in offices, online, sometimes in unusual ways.

We never assume a person to be bad or harmful in the first meet. Supposedly, if the person is one whom you got to meet with a reference we just blindly believe him/her and make a first impression.

Somehow, I never make first impressions and I recommend people too, to change the habit of it, especially online. A girl/guy whom you met on internet may be sweet, cute and talks like an angel. Don’t be judgmental right away. Take some time and unless someone in your peer group know him/her by face never trust them for what they say they are.

I had lot of fun yesterday playing a prank in an online forum group. Of course another friend of mine helped me to cook up a story that I’m not the girl he assumed and I am quite old and lured him to meet me in person and looted his money. We wanted to keep the name a secret for sometime.

The reaction was quite funny. People who were so sure of the girl they know for years couldn’t have been a fake. They were suddenly shaken. They didn’t want to believe but somewhere in their mind they are scared. They advised my friend to give a complaint in police and were thanking my friend for coming out with the ‘real’ story.

It was humorous but people can learn a lesson or two from this. Take some time to place trust. By the way don’t give your phone numbers and you important information right away to a stranger.

‘Trust’ is not just a word. Make sure you are using it on a right person so that you will not fall into any kind of problems.

P.S: I met a guy online few years ago and I got married to him and have no regrets for the decision.☺☺☺

LoVe♥♥♥

2009-01-23T13:58:00.006+05:30

Ishq ke charche bahut hain,
Husn ke parche bahut hain,
Hum ne bhi dekh liya ishq karke,
Par kambakht ishq me kharche bahut hai!!

So I got this shayeri from Airtel updates. I loved it. So what is it all about us long for in life?

Everyone wants to experience ‘love’ (I’m only talking about boy-girl love here). They need that eternal experience. And when someone really feels it they know it also comes with some sweet pain and few of them are happy about the pain and a few suffer the pain.

I have a few friends who fell in love, got married to their sweethearts and enjoying fruitful life. And few crib that they choose a wrong guy/girl as partner and wish they were never married. Few people whom I got to know socially (groups, online forums) have openly said they don’t want love or marriage in their life. And mostly these are people who have to deny desire for love as they cannot attain. This means they too long for it but wouldn’t admit it.

I have a friend who is stressed out as the girl he is in love with (She too likes him) is unable to take a stand for him as she is too scared to talk about it to her parents. And it is understandable as she might have got such circumstances at her place which might not allow her to go against her parents. Both of them want to be with each other and get married. And it is highly impossible.

It is easy for outsiders like us to give advices and suggestions but ultimately it is them to decide what matters most. And it is painful for both to part ways, but the only good thing is they always will have respect for each other in their life and would have no bitterness about the relationship in future.

My close friend is getting married soon. It is a kind of arranged match by parents. I can see that she is already attached to the guy within weeks of meeting him. I’m sure she might be asking her self - Is this love?

And yes it is, though she might not openly admit. Love and marriage are two different things. But if you are marrying your love or loving the person after your marriage is one and the same and it is a rewarding experience.

So, all I can suggest is go for it rather than passing sour statements on love and marriage. Remember rose has thorns. And do let me know about the experience. I’m waiting ☺

♥♥♥.........♥♥♥

Gruesome act…Acid attack

2008-12-15T11:08:00.000+05:30

This post is related to an incident which happened recently in AP, India. Two engineering girl students were followed by three miscreants and poured acid on them.

Girls are severely injured with severe burns on them. One girl is fighting for her life and has her left eye already blinded and the other one is in depression. Three guys were caught by police yesterday, the main accused confessed to crime. Reason – girl refused to oblige his love advances. A previous complaint in police was registered by accused parents of harassment by the same guy 6 months ago, who came out on a bail.

Without any shame or guilty on his face, accused told media he hatched a plan to disfigure girls face as he is hurt by rejection. There was huge public outcry on the incident. People wanted a public trail of the case.

So what happens next is a shocking revenge act, which surprised many people but I was happy. Three accused were killed in an encounter by police. It was made up encounter killing but public is far by happy though politicos and human rights org has apprehensions by the act of police. At least people learn lesson from this. Any criminal would think twice to do these kinds of heinious crimes.

But is this enough? What about the girls who might have to undergo the trauma for their life, surgeries and expensive treatments and a question in life “why me”. I can just pray for these girls for a speedy recovery and for confidence to lead the life further.

Terrorists…We Need Answers?

2008-11-28T11:24:00.004+05:30

Thursday morning: Turned on my TV in the morning at 5.30 after I woke up to see the cricket update. I slept early before night so wanted to catch up with the cricket score.

So the first scene I get to see was a ‘mad man’ photo with a gun on screen and news tickers on Mumbai seizure. It was confusing for me to even understand what was going on. After 5 mins I realized that something really bad has happened.

While I was coming to office I realized that we are living in such an insecure world. It is the fear of losing not just ones life but our loved ones which is more depressing. My mind was blank for whole day. I didn’t want check the news papers or read the discussions which were on forums. I felt since 2001 9/11 world is at war - terrorism is the opponent.

So who are all these fanatics who create havoc? They are just like any other human being living on earth but their minds are polluted with religious extremism and hatred. I always wanted to ask these terrorists few questions-

Why do you kill innocent people and pass a statement “it is revenge” when these innocents doesn’t have anything to do with your lives directly or indirectly?

Do you people really know the value of life?

Don’t you have near and dear who love you and want you to lead peaceful life?

What is any violence to do with the religion?

I believe in God and you too. But why do you have to force people to believe in what you believe?

So you think other people are threat to you and it is in your defense you are on killing rampage. Why don’t you think that this might backfire anytime on you and your people sooner or later?

Each tragedy stuns the nation, our people. How long are we going to take this **** from you mad people? One day irrespective caste, creed or religion everyone who is tired of your antics will not take it anymore.

Help yourself and love life and see the difference. You are threat to self and your set of people. Stop it now for your god's sake.

Are you listening…? (You are not deaf am sure)

Collaborative Spreadsheet Art.. with Google Docs

2008-11-25T09:38:00.004+05:30

I came across this Youtube vid on how Google Docs can be used to create art. Check out and try. It is fun(of course hard too).
Collaborative Spreadsheet Art

I love the background music of this video.

And also if you want to try something similar, you can visit Docs

Small Gestures…

2008-11-18T14:28:00.004+05:30

Life is routine. Get up, go to office, come back, watch TV, go out for dinner or watch a movie and once in a while meet your parents come back and same routine awaits you.

So what spices up the life? Your husband praising a dish cooked by you, or your boss appreciating in your quarterly review or your dad agrees to the fact that his daughter can manage her own life and your mom accepts hesitatingly that ‘You are grown up”. See the title of my blog. FINALLY!!!

So coming to the idea of this post today, I need to get into little history. Krishna after marriage is a changed person to me. Before I got married to him he would call me every possible minute until I tell him to stop. Yea calls would stop but then messages would start pouring in asking if it is ok to call now. When I ask him to stop messaging, long emails would start. (Oh yea they are pretty long, may be 1000-2000 words, though I love to read them now)

Every other day he would ask if I can meet him up. He would ask if he can get just a minute of my time for him. But I was either too shy or skeptical to meet him at that time. Anyways, after whole lot of incidents and accidents we got married.

The role is reversed now. He hardly gets time to think about calling me. Mostly we are online and talk to each other on chat. He sends me those Robin Sharma’s verses or Chetan Bhagat’s stories online.

Suddenly today he shocked me by sending a beautiful song. Well, we were talking about a movie and he said he is sending one song from that movie, but when I actually played the song it was from a different movie, a romantic song and no need to say I was taken by surprise and of course loved his ‘unseen’ gesture after long time.

All that I want to say is a few timely gestures does good to your life and relationships. These moments are cherished and are memorable. So go and make people happy, surprise them with the things that may bring a smile on their face.

Uh...Ahh…Ouch!!

2008-11-03T12:47:00.005+05:30

Saturday morning:
“Wake up now. Remember you have to go and play today!”
“No. I’ am not going”
“I didn’t ask you whether you are going. You must go”
“Excuse me. Let me stay at home”

This is the conversation between me and Krishna. His office has booked cricket ground for employees to play and have fun. He first gave excuses that he had one important meeting to attend to all his colleagues and when he called his boss to let him know about the meeting his boss said “I already have complaints from your subordinates that you haven’t been attending offsite and Office get-together. You better be on cricket ground tomorrow”. Ha Ha Ha. I was more than happy to hear that.

I packed him off to the ground which is not even a km from my house. Whole house was mine. I had remote of the TV for myself. I cleaned up the house for a while had breakfast and by 10.30 I was off to sleep!

I woke up by 12.30 cos of my sister’s call. She asked me what was I doing and I told her I’m enjoying.I was to call my friend Gayatri too. We planned to go out in the evening, since Krishna said he will be late I thought I would call her n let her know I might not turn up and I completely forgot about it. I remembered only when she called me to know if I' m joining her.I had to to tell her not this week. Later Krishna’s colleague calls up and asked if I would join their party to watch movie. I couldn’t give excuse and had to tell him if Krishna wants to come I wouldn’t mind.

Krishna called up and said he is not interested and wants to be at home for sometime (surprise to hear that a movie buff like Krishna can say ‘No’ to movie. Shocking isn’t it?). He also told me he scored some runs for his team and took a wicket too. their team won it seems. okay. Good to know that this guy can play. When I told the news of his team winning the match to my sister, she was too very excited. I had to calm her down saying he hasn't won a international match and it is enough to just be happy.HUH!

He came back from ground and we had lunch. He slept for sometime and by evening we planned to go out. I wanted to eat ice-cream and we went to Ohri’s havmore. I had awful-awful (name of the icecrem) which was a delight. Later we went to Prasadz played few games there (childish rt?) and were back to home.

Now comes Sunday. We both enjoyed TV and lunch at home. We had dined at new restaurant sree kreesna at Banjara hills at night, which was little too much on pocket but worth a visit for Veggies. Now Krishna complains about body pains. Ah...ha. Obviously when you are a lazy boy and play cricket after years you are bound to say uh…ah…ouch o boy. Better start playing for sometime everyday, your body stays fit and you will not be complaining about the body pains anymore. (I know this applies for me too..psst).

Zaheer Khan's Romance with a cricket Fan!!

2008-10-21T16:48:00.002+05:30

I came across this interesting video on YouTube, which shows easy-going side of our cricketers. check the video out:

After watching it i thought this girl would have become a star in her college overnight. Quite lucky I say.

Kotha Bangaru Lokam

2008-10-11T22:08:00.005+05:30

“I’m bored akka, let’s go out” Siri said. I asked her to decide whether to go to a movie or shopping. She said “Dear sis, we need to restrain from going out on shopping in this global economic crisis. It is possible that we might like something which will tempt us to spend money”. I couldn’t control my laughter and asked her what else to do. My mom said best thing is to sit at home and watch TV. Nah. We didn’t like it. My sis hasn’t watched a movie in a theater in recent months (it’s been over 6 months I guess). We decided to go to a nearby theater which will not cost much.

Kotha Bangaru Lokam is the movie we decided upon which was released two days back (Oct 10th). Story starts with narration by a mother about her son. Balu’s (Varun Sandesh) middle class parents (played by Praksah Raj and Jayasudha) are very protective and loving, studies in a residential college. Swapna (Shweta Prasad) too joins the same college. Both of them are attracted to each other and after a couple of scenes and songs they feel it is love, not simply attraction. On a college picnic for girls, Balu follows her and takes her out, eventually is caught by the authorities in college and they are asked to come back only with their respective parents. Swapna’s dad (Ahuthi Prasad) gets to know about his daughter’s wrong track and takes her home.

Balu goes home and tells his parents that for a small mistake in the college he is dismissed. Both hero and heroine do not concentrate on their studies and decide to elope. What follows next is the excellent emotional drama, which is not the usual melodramatic or sentimental scene we normally watch in the routine movies. Yes it is not one of its kind stories and we have seen many love stories like these before. What this movies offers is the realistic solution to the parents while dealing with ‘teenage children in love’.

Direction by Srikanth Addala stands out. Screenplay and casting is excellent. Especially Varun Sandesh and Shweta Prasad have the faces which suit their characters and perform well. I need not mention about Jayasudha and Prakash Raj, as usual they do justice to their characters. But surprise package is the new set of actors who act as friends to hero and heroine. They appear realistic and add freshness to the movie. Music by Mickey J Mayers is good and two songs “Nuvvani… and Nijanga nenena...” are excellent. Choreography could have been better. I need to mention about cinematography by Chota.K.Naidu. This movie stands out from other normal movies because of the camera work. Producer Dil Raju has another hit movie in his kitty.

After long long time I went to a movie with my sis (for past few months my only movie partner is Krishna). It was a good outing. We had gala time. Hope she often comes to movies with me.

Search Engine Rap: Yahoo Vs Google

2008-09-25T14:40:00.003+05:30

I came across this funny search engine rap battle video. Check out if you are interested. By the way whom do you think has won? Yahoo or Google.

You can vote on the site here