A Matter of Time

Resurrecting My Blog -Are we overdoing ourselves?

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 10:47:00 +0000

I certainly think we had a great run with FHD and HD until 4K took over and one piece of tech died with 4k the 3D

Let's debate over is 8k gaming too much?

8K Gaming How did we get there?

Hong Kong: Tour Guide for Indians

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 03:13:00 +0000

Places to see in Hong Kong for Indians( 4-5 Days)

Hong Kong:

Victoria Peak: Victoria Peak is one the main tourist attractions in Hong Kong. You can go to Victoria Peak from Hong Kong Station or from Central Station by either taking a Taxi or by walk to the Peak Tram Terminus down side of the peak. There is a Tram which goes uphill and is very famous from a tourist point of view. Up there is Madam Tussad’s Wax Museum which is a must watch if you haven’t seen that yet. There is also a Viewing Terrace called Sky Terrace which offers spectacular views of Hong Kong Harbour. You can shop something from the Peak Market if you need anything as a souvenir. It’s generally expensive as compared to Mong Kok Market.

Ngong Ping 360, Big Buddha, Po Lin Monastery: This place is near Tung Chung MTR (Metro) Station on the Tung Chung Line. Tung Chung is the last station on this line and the Big Buddha Terminus is located very near to the station. There are Cable Cars going to the peak where the Buddha Statue resides and its worth to take the Return Cable Car Tickets from the Terminus. You can club your Cable Car Tickets with the 2 Shows Monkey Trail and “Walking with Buddha” in your tickets to make it a Value Pass. There is a Vegetarian Monastery up there and the food is generally nice there. Also there is Ebenezer’s Kebabs which has Indian Food there. You can go to Tai O Fishing Village as well if you wish to see a floating fish markets and a few Dolphin Sightings if visible that day.

Citygate Outlets Mall: This mall is located just outside the Cable Car Exit from the Big Buddha so it deserves to go here after your trip on your return. Its a collection of large Brand Outlets and offers 40-70% discount on all big brands sold here in Hong Kong. There are cheap Esprit and Giordano shops which are good for retail shopping.

Hong Kong Disneyland: Disneyland is located near Sunny Bay Station on Tung Chung line of the MTR. It takes 20 mins to reach Sunny Bay from Hong Kong Station. You have to change train to Disneyland Resort line from the Sunny Bay Station to reach Disneyland. The tickets for Disneyland are 399 HKD per person. Recommended is enter around 10:00 Am and stay back till 9 PM to enjoy the Fireworks in the night.

Ocean Park: It is Largest Water Park in Hong Kong. It is located in Kowloon and you can take a Taxi from anywhere to reach the place or take an MTR to Admiralty Station on Island Line and take the Bus to Ocean Park which takes 20 mins to reach there. The tickets are around 175 HKD per person and the main attractions inside are Splash Rides and Dolphin and Seal Shows. There are huge Aquariums and other exhibitions as well to enjoy a whole day trip.

Avenue of Stars: This is a must visit place in Hong Kong and is seen best around 8:15 PM daily as there is the World’s largest Permanent Light and Sound Show called Symphony of Lights. There are Lasers in many buildings in and around Hong Kong and Kowloon and the show is synchronized in all buildings throwing lasers in water and air along with Music. You should reach Tsim Sha Tsui Harbour around 7:30 PM to watch this spectacle well in time. This is a 15 min show and the crowd can get really terrible on your return so be careful. Location: Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Exit K.

National Museum of History: Located in the same place as Avenue of Stars this is a good museum if you are interested to know history of China.

Hong Kong Space Museum: This is also located in the same complex as Museum of History and little better in terms of attractions.

Star Ferry: This is the traditional Ferry on the Victoria Harbour and you can travel from Hong Kong to Kowloon (Tsim Sha Shui) using this Ferry at 2.5 HKD per person.

Stanley Market: This is a famous market located in Stanley Bay area and is far from the city a bot. You can take train to Chai Wan MTR station and take the Green Mini Bus to Stanley Market. It’s a famous tourist spot and you can find lot of souvenirs and ladies stuff here. The market closes down at 8 PM so plan early. This place also has a few good Al-Fresco dining places on the beach. There is a Temple Called Tin Hau Temple which you can see there.

Tsim Sha Tsui: This is a famous little India place in Kowloon side of Hong Kong; you can find lot of Indian Restaurants like Branto and Woodlands nearby. There is a famous shady place called Chung King Mansions which sells Indian Groceries and Calling Cards for India. Good place if you want to eat Indian Food in a hurry. There is a big shopping mall nearby called ISquare which has some good Brands like Marks & Spencers and Mango etc.

Mong Kok Ladies Market: Located near Mong Kok station on exit D to Tung Choi Street this is a sprawling market mainly for Ladies items and Souvenirs. This is a must watch for any visit to Hong Kong as it sells many interesting stuff at negotiable prices. Always negotiate to 50% or less here to get good deals.

Temple Street Night Market: This market starts around 4 PM and goes on until late in the night and sells mainly ladies clothes and souvenirs. This is located near Jordan MTR station.

Big Bus: Take the Big Bus Tour of Hong Kong and you can see almost whole of Hong Kong in a day. They have tours in Hong Kong, Kowloon and Aberdeen areas in HK and you can travel in their Hop-On, Hop-Off Buses in any part of the city during the day. Times Square: This is the name of a shopping mall located in the Causeway Bay area of Hong Kong. This is a huge mall and a good place to shop for Brands and local stuff easily at discount prices. Causeway Bay is considered cheap shopping in the local markets like Jardine Street across Times Square.

Good Hotels to stay:

Holiday Inn, Tsim Sha Tsui

Novotel Citygate Tung Chung

Langham Place, Mong Kok

Good Indian Restaurants:

Branto, Tsim Sha Tsui

Great Indian Kebab Factory, Tsim Sha Tsui

Tandoor, Central, Hong Kong

Jashan, Central

Bombay Dreams, Central, Hong Kong

Woodlands (South Indian), Tsim Sha Tsui East

Guru, Central, Hong Kong

Things to buy first in Hong Kong:

Octopus Card for MTR Travel. It takes 150 HKD and its refundable and good to use at all stations and shopping places and malls.

Good Malls:

IFC Mall, Central

Elements, Kowloon Station

Olympian City 2 & 3, Olympic Station

Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon

ISquare, Tsim Sha Tsui

Times Square, Causeway Bay

The Landmark: Central, Hong Kong

Retail Shops: H&M, Marks & Spencers, Zara, Bershka, Pull & Bear

Guide to Indian Food in Hong Kong

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 10:47:00 +0000

This came after a long time but yes I am writing this a detailed Indian Food guide to Hong Kong.

Many would agree that Hong Kong is essentially a meaty place, where you will face difficulty finding Indian and Especially Veggie Indian food. I proudly deny the fact and here is a short survival kit for my fellow Indie Veggies en tour de Hong Kong.

Guru: Boutique Indian Dining (Elgin Street)

A friendly place in the quiet Elgin Street just touching the legendary Hollywood Road which I live now. Guru has some of the good Indian Veggie delights and a good conversant staff which can guide you to the elegant menu that it has to offer. The Captain who appeared to be a Nepali guided very well that I won't be able to fininsh the Samosa Platter and made it Half-Portion of Samosas. It has some good Sheeshas as they call Hookas in Hong Kong from some of the Arabic Places.

Cost Meter $$

Jashan (Hollywood Road)

This place is very accessible from the Mid Levels Escalator and you just need to look around and get down at Hollywood Road from the place where Red SOHO is. Take a right and after a few steps you'll see the Restaurant Board hanging on the 1/F. Food here again is good but the decor is more classy Indian Palatial types. You'll find more westerners here than Indians becasue of the rustic Indian bistro type looks. Ambience is dark and suitable for a mild drink or two with some good fried Kebabs. Dal Tadka is highly recommended. Only thing they need to improve is guest attention and the waiting time after someone has finished his meal for presenting the Cheque. I waited nearly 15 mins before I had to request for the cheque. It could ruin a good restaurant's image in an instant.

Cost Meter $$$

Viceroy (Wanchai - Soho Delivery)

I ordered food from Viceroy and it was a Lifesaver as they have the early Brunch service on Sundays as people tend to get up late after a merry Saturday. The food is good and is not so oily as compared to other Indian Joints. Good accompaniments like free papads and chutneys. unfortunately they do not have any sets to offer. Recommended for once in a while type needs.

Cost Meter: $$

KPC: Kebab Pizza Curry (Central ferry pier no 7)

Someone gave me a menu when I was returning home from the Mid levels Escalator and I found the name interesting so I ordered from this place. This is the perfect link to cheap Indian style places with mediocre food and cheap prices. I would rate 4 out of 10 in food and 6 in delivery time.

Cost Meter: $

I also have visited some other places which are showing interest in the lavish Indian cuisine and would mention them below. This list is particularly useful when you venture out to find some good food with Indian and veggie attached:

Curry in a Hurry (Time Square Mall, Causeway Bay)

Chef Singh Negi (Citygate Outlets - Tung Chung)

Three Sixty (The Landmark - Central)

Subways (Central Ferry Pier and SOHO)

Mc Donalds (Fries and Veggie Sandwich only)

Pizza Hut (Quarry Bay, Tung Chung, Olympic and other places)

Chung King Mansions (many shops and restaurants having some good Indian food at a bargain.)

Indian Grocery Stores: The one in Chung King mansions is good and even has daily use items like Coconut Oil and India Today (old though)

Marks and Spencers Food - Has some good Indian Frozen foods and spices

City Super: Has some good spices and spice mixes. Fruits and Veggies are damn expensive. Buy them from a local Wet market or from Wellcome.

Monk's Food at Po Lin Monastery is a complete No No if you have any taste buds left. Its plain spinach soup and mushrooms..ahhh!

With these hints I think Hong Kong is a place to be for even a traditional Indian Veggie. Feel free to explore and remember if you are an Indian then you have the inborn gift of getting things Customized. Run your fantasies!

The End

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:13:00 +0000

अंत

मैं नहीं कहता,

की यही होगा,

पर होगा कुछ इसी तरह

चला जायेगा कुछ, रह जायेगा कुछ

सोचते रह जायेंगे सब कुछ न कुछ

इस अंत की कल्पना भी ना की होगी

अंत सब कुछ अंत कर चला जायेगा

विलक्षण विभूतियाँ खोने लगेंगी

डर की अनुभूतियाँ होने लगेंगी

डरने लगेंगे ये मानव

जलने लगेगा ये सागर

इन्सान ही इन्सान को डारएगा

अंत सब कुछ अंत कर चला जायेगा

क्षितिज के पास न होगा

ये आसमा फिर कभी

रूठ जायेगा सागर फिर उजली धुप से

छनेन्गी न किरनें फिर कभी सूर्य की

की उन पर बादलों का पहरा न होगा

सूर्यास्त का नज़ारा कहीं खो जायेगा

अंत सब कुछ अंत कर चला जायेगा

बातें न होंगी फिर कभी चाँद की

क्योंकि चांदनी का भी निशाँ न होगा

निशा न रोशन होगी फिर कभी तारों से

की उस पर कालिमा की चादर होगी बिछी

वो समां न होगा रात्रि-विचरण का

रात ही ना होगी अख्हियाँ बिछाने को

सब इसी तरह कहीं खो जायेगा

अंत सब कुछ अंत कर चला जायेगा

सब कहते हैं बातें करो न अंत की

पर अंत ही तो रीत है जीवन की

इसे स्वीकारना ही सत्य है

क्यूंकि इससे अधिक न कुछ है न हो पायेगा

अंत सब कुछ अंत कर चला जायेगा

-अमृत भारद्वाज

Avatar: Enter The World!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:29:00 +0000

Very rarely does a movie comes which turns you into a kid and makes you fantasize yourself into a bird falling from the cliff and emerging flying into the woods. Avatar is one of them!

I was waiting for this since 3 years when I heard of Terminator: Salvation with Sam Worthington being announced as one of the leads along with Christian Bale. Sam also got Avatar offered to him by James Cameron at the same time. Avatar was announced then as being the best 3D FX ever made with technology never seen before and effects never imagined ever. They say it was planned before Titanic itself and was postponed as James Cameron said Technology needs to catch up with his imagination to get the optimum effects required for filming such vivid shots.

Boy! and then finally I saw Avatar alone on an Aisle seat in 2D because I wanted to see the content rather than effects that dazzle me and make me forget the thrill of the story.

Synopsis: (Spoiler Alert!)
The story is set on the man's mission in 2154 to capture Pandora, our only hope to sustain the dying human race on the suffering and war-torn Earth. Pandora is an alien moon of the planet Polyphemus which is a part of our nearest celestial neighbors the Alpha Centurai. The life on Pandora is very simple Hunt-Eat-Sleep on the Home-Tree. Most of the native inhabitants the Na'vi live in tribes or clans and they hunt in packs on Na'vi horses and Flying Beasts called Ikrans. Jake Sully enters the Avatar program as a replacement for his brother as his brother dies in mission on Pandora. Although his brother was a scientist, Jake is selected as he is an Ex-Marine and a worthy candidate of fitting into his Brother's genome controlled Avatar body.

The Avatar program is actually human brain controlling the genetically designed bodies based on Na'vi DNA and artificial tissues. Avatar bodies can be controlled by human brains which genetically match the Avatar body but the human has to be asleep to control them. They are called Dream-Walkers by the Na'vi. Jake's mission is to befriend the Na'vi and persuade them to slowly evacuate Pandora to make room for the humans from earth. They want the large Unobtanium reserves which is found in abundance beneath the large Home-Tree the village and home of the Omitacaya Clan.

Jake enters into Pandora's forest and gets lost in the woods due to an attack by one of their primitive beasts and finds himself alone in the Pandora forest in the darkness of the night. Jake is rescued by a native Neytiri and slowly Jake finds this life as his own and finds that he can actually make use of his active mind better that what he can use with his semi-paralyzed body back on the ground at his base station.

Jake falls in love with Neytiri and they mate in front of the Tree of Voices, one of the sacred trees of Pandora. As expected the humans get involved between the love as in any other Love Story and try to separate them. Jake being a true lover defends his love and turns enemy towards the fellow humans. His friends Dr. Grace Augustine and Norm Spellman help him to in his mission to save the Na'vi from getting destroyed by the wicked plans of humans.

As we would expect all love stories to end there is some blood shed and Neytiri's father dies in combat and there is a place for the new clan leader. Jake turns to his Na'vi call and turns himself completely into Na'vi by transplanting his soul into the his Avatar body. After his transformation he becomes the clan leader and vows to protect the Omitacaya clan from any further attacks by humans or any other aliens.

Verdict:
Avatar is an interesting mix of characters and you would not imagine such an end to a human giving up his complete self to protect someone from the outside world.

Well love has its own ways!

Anyways, Avatar has brilliant effects and Sound mixing and some breathtaking shots of the Hallelujah (Hanging Mountains) and High Magnetic Flux zones at Pandora. The trees of Voices and Souls are magnificent and the Ikrans are marvelous flying beasts which remind of the Archaeopteryxes of the Paleontological age of Earth!

Go Watch Avatar with an empty mind without any pre-conceptions about it and enjoy James Cameron at his creative best!

I see You!

Bon Voyage 2009!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:49:00 +0000

Here I am, writing about my various travels and transits across land and
sea crossing Bay of Bengal into the Pacific Ocean and towards the South
China Sea, all happening in this very year of the Ox 2009.

I started off from January 1st being into Hyderabad and thought I have
started 2009 off with a travel and may god keep the streak running into
the whole year. God, passing by just heard it and granted my uncanny
wish. I have already traveled 12 times this very year and travel is
again on the cards on the last day the 31st as well!

I traveled my heart out this year to various destinations including
local, domestic and International, various occasions official, leisure,
pilgrim and fun. I visited places in India like Lonavala, Ganpati Pule,
Hyderabad, Shirdi, Nashik, Shani-Shignapur, Jammu, Kota (3 times),
Jaipur, Ajmer and Pushkar along with International Cities Tokyo twice
and Hong Kong in this very year of the Ox. Passed in Transit over
Bangkok as well!

Over these travels I clicked thousands of pictures and met hundreds of
people around, now it feels like being an avid traveler. Now I can boast
off my tales of voyages across flights, trains, buses, boats, ships and
ferries, trams and rickshaws and worth mentioning the city Walking
Tours. Had at least 300 meals outside my usual place of eating and met
at least 100 new people. Kudos to 2009 for that!

The Tokyo Drifts:

Twice this year I flew over to Tokyo over an Official trip and
absolutely loved the way the city treats gaijins! The hope of getting
lost in the crowd was as fake as song and dance in Bollywood. Tokyo is a
magnificent city for Gaijins like me who like to parade the streets on
foot and look out for local wonders about food. It has a network of
multi-cuisine restaurants spread all across the city and you'll get from
Pasta to Sushi and from Dhokla to Paratha and also from Masala Dosa to
Chardonnay! Its just said that a vegetarian will face problems in Japan
but its all fake unless you are short of cash. You get excellent Indian
Vegetarian food and that too with Authentic Punjabi lassi in any Indian
Restaurants in Tokyo.

Filled with beautiful and scenic country side and also a great network
of transport to reach places like Nikko, Kyoto, Enoshima-Kamakura,
Hakone and Mt. Fuji. I would not say all this is cheap but if you have a
thirst for them they are worth it.

I just think why do Indians head west for these comforts when Japan and
China are our such good neighbors? People are helpful enough to show you
the nearest AM-PM shop and Pedestrians rule over traffic on the road.
Minimal Pollution and no dearth of trees in the city. City so advanced
that even a local needs a GPS to locate the nearest barber shop. All
this and more when you look at the fantastic Metros that operate in the
city. They have English Commentary and Signs that help even a Gaijin to
travel safely to his destination.

I know I am praising a lot but what can I say that's the way it is.
Okay, there are a few disadvantages as well. One, the Rents are too high
and you can only live there if you are on an official trip. Two, the
people are a little slow in understanding and not knowing Japanese can
be the biggest challenge (read nightmare) if you plan to live there.
Apart from that if you are okay with the cost of transport and food in a
metro like Mumbai you would hardly notice any price too out of reach for
daily household articles.

All is said and done, I rate the city a decent 8/10 on my scale of being
traveler friendly and beautifully set to make you want to come back.

Hong Kong: The Gateway to China:

Although I just went there for a week, I learnt it's a closer India than
England itself. the first experience was however not pleasant as I
struggled to reach my hotel from the airport despite having Cash in my
pocket. On Sunday there is a shortage of Public Transport and some Buses
do not operate at all. So plan a landing on either a Weekday or on a
Saturday. My hotel was fabulous and on a decent not so far list of
hotels from my Super Cool Office the 2 IFC. The Transport system in HK
is far better than what I saw in Tokyo as it was more foreigner friendly
and neat. HK is a World City and it lives up to it to the fullest. Plush
Malls and Subways people dressed in Armani Jackets, holding Louis
Vuitton Bags you've see it all in HK. Classy Restaurants a very feel of
like being in a British City, after all the roots do tell the tales of
the mighty stem that once stood over it.

HK has the famous Island mentality and boasts of a fab culture of being
living on the Island. People feel proud of being able to afford living
on the mail Hong Kong island. Others not so fortunate live in place like
Kowloon and North Point and some even more far from riches stay in the
'New Territories'. The divide is so much so that Malls are structured
based on the purchasing power of the people living there. Like Pacific
Mall at Admiralty is a No-No for foreigners with just ample money to buy
souvenirs as it is sky rockety pricy and sells only Super Designer
Brands you would only like to drool upon. On the other hand there is
Time Square Mall which is good enough to fulfill all your gift and
souvenir needs as well as not burning a hole in your Levi's. And then
there is Citygate Outlets which though being right at the Airport at
Tung Chung is the most visited and highly recommended Mall for all the
foreigners and locals also I would guess. It claims to run at discounts
of 30-70% all round the year.

I was able to buy my first Armani bag and Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren
Shirts at very neat prices here. It also has a good food court offering
Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Korean food besides serving excellent Indian
Punjabi food made by a Delhi Family.

Hong Kong also is very beautiful if you explore the country side and the
different surrounding islands. I got a chance to go to the Po Lin
Monastery on the Lantau Island built over the Tung Chung Plateau which
seats the Largest Sitting Bronze Buddha Statue in whole of the world. It
is situated an hour long boat ride from Hong Kong followed by an hour
long Bus Ride to Ngong Pimg village which is host to the Statue and the
Ngong Ping Cable Car station and loads of other museums and markets.

Recommended Course:

Boat Ride from Central Ferry Pier No. 6 to Lantau Island (60 mins) . Get
down from the Lantau Pier and board the Bus no 2 from outside Bus Stand
to Giant Buddha Statue. Walk down the Wisdom Path and get on top of the
Statue (Don't forget to buy the Meal Pass if you are not carrying any
lunch) Visit the Museum atop the statue and head out to the Po Lin. At
Po Lin you'll find different God Chambers or temples and beautiful
deities and forms of Lord Buddha, very peaceful inside it. Here you can
have the Monk Food inside the restaurant at a good rate of 100 HKD.
Leave Lantau by the Ropeway Cable Car as it takes only 20 mins to reach
Tung Chung and from there you can go to Citygate Outlets Mall and take
the Tung Chung line back to Central Hong Kong Station.

One word I would say about Hong Kong is Awesome!

I would write more about my escapades in India in my later posts, stay
tuned for now.

After all these travels all I can say is keep'em coming and I am lovin'
it!

Mumbai Tales

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:00:00 +0000

I complete 2 and a half years in Mumbai and now I feel like a pro at least of Sub Urban Mumbai. There are numerous tales to tell and many stories to narrate. From a Thane 3 Star Hotel to a small flat in Kanjur to Suburban Andheri to So-Called Backward Jogeshwari to a large house back in Andheri. I have been moving flats all these years primarily because I am a bachelor and a outsider.

I just feel Mumbai keeps growing with time at an exponential rate and takes the people along its growth track. Take me for instance I started off in Mumbai from Kanjur Marg and slowly moved to suburban Andheri and now aiming towards owning a flat in some more hip location. Take the example of many Share Brokers and many Sales Executives. I feel there is a certain charisma about the city and as I have already stated in my previous posts it is very sticky and makes you very picky.

People are somehow weird but when you look at them with a third person's view they are all in sync with what you are. Some complain that in train someone pushed and I broke my Sandal or my Laptop fell. Did you consider yourself about when you pushed someone for a brisk of fresh air from the sliding door of the ubiquitous Mumbai Local. It is al the same Mumbai breathes, eats, sleeps works and partys at the same time.

It is all linked. IPL, Mumbai Terror Attacks, Train Explosions, 26th July, Elections, Siddhivinayak Tuesday, LalbaugchaRaja are all instances when all people think alike at the same time. This gives the strength to stand for some cause, to breathe against pollution, to fight against terror, to protest against reservation, to lead a change.

The Slumdogs feel better after its Millionaire success. Films perform better if Mumbai's mood is better. They imitate the stars and stars try not to imitate someone else, but still want the films to be 'Hatke'.

Words like 'Jhol', 'Galata', WTF', 'Dude', 'As In', 'Cha Ayila' go hand in hand and are uttered according to the need by the youth. You can hardly keep yourself unexposed to a language fondly called Mumbaiyya.

You have a 'Horny Man Circle' here and a Church which has no gate. A place named after Santa Cruz in US. There is even a Andheri which seems to be the brightest place in Bombay. You can pronounce Bandra in 3 ways depending on your descent. Trains wait for none and the 'pilots' are allowed 3 Murders in their careers. Roads are deliberately dug during monsoons and bridges are left half way of their construction to imitate unfinished Aztec temples. Caves now occupied by Drug Peddlers and Beaches famous for Eunuchs also exist here. (You can contact Reshma the Chakka of Silver Beach very easily for any information about the area).

Still Mumbai is good ol' mumbai, you can find peace in having a Vada-Pav on the highly noisy Andheri Station or rather have Gujrati Thali in a Christmas Themed Mall in Malad West. You have it all from roots to fruits, chakkas to fashionistas, from CG to BVLI, from CST TO KYN.

Its an art to live in Bombay and it slowly teaches you to live, fight, love and enjoy a journey called Life!

Spooky, Eerie, Scary

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:08:00 +0000

Last night we were talking about ghosts and weird happenings which many of us have experienced. A small girl who is an Management undergrad from a college in Bombay narrated this story to us.

It was their college Industrial Visit abbreviated I.V. Don't know why I remember Poison Ivy Trilogy here. They had been to Jodhpur the fort city of India for a 3 day trip. They say the hotel was weird in the first glance and it differed from the normal conception of a building design of a traditional Indian hotel. It was designed in a rather unusual fashion where it had several duplexes connected by a common courtyard. There were 4 rooms in each duplex and a large common room on the ground floor.

The participants stayed in two adjacent duplexes and complained of strange incidents throughout their stay. The series of unfortunate incidents is summarized below:

1.) The rooms were very spooky at the night and strange sounds could be heard at all times if you keep your ears open. You can hear people talking in corners of the hallway and find absolutely no one when you check it out.

2.) A strange mishap occurred which scared the little shit out from them. A girl went out at night to meet two of her friends who were in the adjacent room. When she knocked the door, she heard the two of them talking from the outside. She knocked again and again but no one opened the door. She tried to turn the knob and found that it was locked from inside because the door latch was open. She was frantic at this and rushed to call others from the common room at the ground floor.

Once she climbing down the staircase the scene scared her to the soul. The girls whom she was calling to open the door were standing below talking to each other. They were not in the room above and they were talking slowly. There was no possibility that she was overhearing their conversation from below. She called them upstairs to find out the weird sounds. They brought the keys to open the door but as they turned the door knob they got surprised at the result.

The door was open and only latched not locked. The girls were scared to the core and slept the night in talking, no one of them could sleep after that.

3.) You don't believe unless it happens to you. The boys of the group made fun of the girls and said they are framing this story and claimed the first girl might not have checked the door properly and overheard the discussion downstairs in the silence of the night.

The boys had to pay for not believing the girls. They were drinking liquor in one of their rooms and kept ice in a ice box with them. One of them thought that Ice will not melt if kept in the washroom (don't know why). They did this with the ice box and started to drink.

After some drinks one of the boys went to pee into the washroom. He was standing in the washroom and suddenly the lid of the Ice-Box broke open the seal the boys have put in and flew ceiling high and landed over his leg. The boy screamed and ran back into the room to narrate this to his friends.

The Legend
The group later quizzed the waiter about this and the waiter told him this legend.

This hotel was constructed on a site where once used to be a farm land. There were farmers who used to live here in their small huts. The owner of the land confiscated this land and payed the farmers some money as compensation. However, there was one farmer couple who did not want to move from their patron land and stayed there disagreeing the terms of the owner.

The land owner and his men decided to kill this farmer and set his house on fire. The couple was charred to death on this land. From then they say there has been such series of mishaps surrounding this land.

A number of times when they tried to make a building design the building collapsed and killed many workers. So, they decided to make duplexes instead of a single building hotel.

The waiter said once there was a couple who stayed there for their honeymoon and there were strange happenings surrounding their stay.

The couple received the news of the man's father being ill and decided to discontinue their stay and return back home. They checked out in front of the manager and a waiter. However the manager went on leave the same day, thus leaving no news of the checkout of the couple to other staff.

It was some days later that another waiter brought the room service bills to the manager when he returned from his vacation. The manager got puzzled when he saw bills from the room where the duo stayed. He inquired the room-keeping staff and got baffled. The staff replied that they were getting continuous orders from this room and they even delivered the food onto this room to the couple.

The manager decided to go and check out for himself. When he reached the room there was a stench coming out of the room like that of rotten food. They opened the room and fond food getting rotten kept on the table and a Red Saari lying on the bed.

This was the time they declared the hotel haunted and advised the guests to be ware and not to step out at night anywhere in the hotel.

I have no idea whether all this is true or not but certainly I would say this is all linked.

Scariness is not mental alone, what if you hear someone you can't see??

It all about What If?

SAVING IS SIN, SPENDING IS A VIRTUE

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:10:00 +0000

Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also Japan exports far more than it imports. Hasan annual trade surplus of over$100 billions. Yet Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing. Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports. Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billion.

Yet, the American economyis considered strong and trusted to get stronger. But where from do Americans get money to spend? They borrow from Japan, China and even India. Virtually others save for theUS to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars. India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in US securities. China has sunk over $160 billionin US securities. Japan's stakes in US securities is in trillions. Result: The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world.

So, as the world saves for the US, Americans spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going, that is for the US economy to work, other countries have to remit $180 billion every quarter, which is $2 billion a day, to the US! Otherwise the US economy would go for asix. So will the global economy. The result will be no different if US consumers begin consuming less. A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in China, or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what China has invested in US. The same is the case with India. We have invested in US over $50 billion. But the US has invested less than$20 billion in India. Why the world is after US? The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. Infact they use their credit cards to spend their future income.That the US spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US.

So US imports more than what it exports year after year. The result: The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to feed on US consumption. But as the US needs money to finance its consumption, the world provides the money. It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. If the customer will not buy, the shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the lucky customer. And theworld is like the helpless shopkeeper financier. Who is America's biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan of course. Yet it's Japan which is regarded as weak. Modern economists complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force the Japanese to spend, the Japanese government exerted itself, reduced the savings rates, even charged the savers. Eventhen the Japanese did not spend habits don't change, even with taxes,do they?. Their traditional postal savings alone is over $1.2trillions, about three times the Indian GDP. Thus, savings, far from being the strength of Japan, has become its pain.

Hence, what is the lesson? That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Notjust spend, but borrow and spend. Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born economist in the US, told Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, on imported cars and,seriously, even oncosmetics! This will put India on a growth curve.

"Saving is sin, and spending is virtue." Before you follow this neo economics, get some fools to save so thatyou can borrow from them and spend. This is what US has successfully done in last few decades.

'Princedog Billionaire'

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:12:00 +0000

Danny Boyle planning to make 'Princedog Billionaire' next?

After the moving story about a slum kid winning millions on the Who Wants To be A Millionaire game show and its success, Danny Boyle has embarked on a more ambitious 'Princedog Billionare' film.

The story revolves around the real life story of the death of People's Princess Diana and her ill-fated boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed. Unlike the true story. Dodi Al Fayed in survives the car crash and rises with a vengeance to become the first Muslim prince of England with the help of the People's princess! Dodi Al Fayed, son of Harrods Departmental Store chain owner Muhammed Al Fayed an Egyptian immigrant who strikes it big in England and grows to become a billionaire. His son, Dodi Al Fayed who grows up in the slums of London, also beats the odds of racism and rises in life.

The people's princess Diana is lost almost suicidal after being cheated by her husband the prince for another woman, when she meets the humble Dodi and falls in love.But as luck would have it, it is frowned upon by the scheming royal family and the equally scheming English establishment. An assortment of henchmen and henchwomen from Mi5 eventually plan an accident in Paris tunnel to kill Dodi and the people's princess. James Bond is sent by Mi5 to assasinate Prince Dodi and Princess Diana. James Bond actor Daniel Craig, who plays the role confesses "I always wanted to play the dark side of James Bond and Mi5 in a movie". "And Danny Boyle provides me with a perfect opportunity for that in Princedog Billionaire" adds Dainel Craig.T

he accident is planned in a Paris Tunnel and the stage is set to be blamed on the chasing papparazi and executed by none other than James Bond 007 and Mi5. However, things dont go exactly as planned by James Bond this time and he ends up falling into the trap he set for Dodi. "This is one movie where James Bond doesnt come off beaming" quips Daniel Craig.This is the turning point of the film and the story takes a twist from the true story of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed's car crash in a Paris Tunnel.Dodi and the people's princess are rescued by a sympathetic papparazi who reaches on the spot and pulls them out of the crashed car. After a nearly two month struggle for life, Prince Dodi and the People's Princess eventually survive. Desperate to fight against the injustice done, they decide to reach out to the people of England to challenge the English royal family and the English establishment. In the process he also chastises the wayward prince 'Potty Harry' to give up racism.

An almost fairy tale like rise after his accident in Paris tunnel along with the people's princess, Princedog has all the ingredients of Slumdog's success recipe, though dollops more of it!Prince Dodi's rise in Princedog Billionaire is comparable to the rise of the slum boy in the movie Slumdog Millionaire. Prince Dodi starts off in a humble way in his approach to the people, but eventually becomes a phenomena in the country. The people of England embrace Dodi as the 'People's prince' along with the people's princess Diana.

Prince Dodi is eventually designated as the next heir to English crown instead of William as he has people's mandate.The Music for the film is composed by John Barry of James Bond Music fame. Daniel Craig plays the dark side of James Bond in the movie. However, despite the success, the winning star cast of Danny Boyle of Slumdog are missing from this film. Loveleen Tandon is missing from the direction and A R Rahman will not be composing music for this movie. "The cast and crew of Slumdog are not comfortable with English culture." says Danny Boyle.

"I will recreate the magic of Slumdog in Princedog with a new set of crew altogether" says a confident Danny Boyle. "I may chose Dev Patel to play Prince Dodi, but the hunt is still on for an actress who can portray the people's princess Diana" concludes Danny Boyle.

Touchscreens May Die Sooner!!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Your IPhone may soon be priceless because soon ( if the scientists are not able to find a replacement for the metal used for manufacturing a touch screen) it will go extinct!

I was reading the IEEE Journal for this month and it says that the metal that is used in the manufacturing of modern day touch screens i.e; Indium Tin Oxide or just ITO will soon be very rare or practically unavailable. The metal Indium is currently priced at 1000$ per Kilogram in the market which was 100$ per kilo at the start of 2008. Indium excavation occurs with Zinc mining and it is very inlikely that the Indium reserves are gonna last little more than 10 years.

According to the article the popular touch sensitive screen is made by two transparent plastic sheets coated with highly clear and conducting ITO layers. These sheets are then placed over the phone circuit board act as the the screen of the Phone. When the user touches the screen the sheets join due to the impact and complete the circuit because of the ITO coating. This is highly reliant of the ITO availability in the market.

Research is on to replace Indium with a transparent yet highly conducting metal to replace ITO. Some companies have however claimed of replacing ITO with a conducting polymer but not in a very reliable fashion.

So whatever be the case with Scientists, lets get prepared with our touch screens and IPhones and ITouchs and MacBook Airs, HTCs and Blackberry Storms to die their natural technological death!!

Mumbai Unforgotten

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:15:00 +0000

My locality has become a hub of activists and leaders trying to display their anger, grit and patriotism against terrorism. In their various acts of portraying this I have witnessed the Christmas Star which is made every year and hung up at the Society, this time bore Taj Mahal Hotel Burning and Peace Quotes written all over it.

Another such act is the Shahid Vijay Salaskar Udyan recently inaugrated by Mr. Ravindra Waikar.

It is a blessing for the locality because of its clean, green grass and pure air and it seems it has also fulfilled the cause of public awareness about the aspiring candidates of the upcoming elections. The 2.5-acre municipalised park along the Jogeshwari-Vikroli link road was planned by local Sena corporator Ravindra Waikar.

I had a stroll at late night here in the park and it bears the paintings by students of Mumbai School of Art and also a monument erected in rememberance of the Shahid Vijay Salaskar.

Another interesting fact is all the boards, signs in the park, the paintings are in Marathi. No objections here but isn't it too politicized. The message of peace must be communicated in a medium understandable to all and I guess even Marathi people are fluent in Hindi as they are with their Mother-Tongue!!

As Sarkar has rightly said "To kill is a crime, to kill at appropriate time is politics"

India is no Slumdog!!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:50:00 +0000

Slumdog's Success is indicatory of the rainbow of India's vibrant colors displayed by Danny Boyle's Millionaire Brit Kid Dev Patel in the over hyped yet under nourished Indian Tale of a slum dweller who transforms from rags to riches over-night in an Indian Tele Show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati'.

We all might have seen the movie or perhaps even read the novel by now. The novel is available at INR 95/- on the streets of Mumbai. I would say if you have seen the movie or heard the storyline, you are able to believe in the reality of life in India or even in any metro city of our bejeweled country. Still every dog has its day and every cloud has a silver lining.

Many a times I notice the little girls near the jogeshwari Flyover Signal trying to insert their hands into a large metal lid of a manhole which has a very narrow opening. I stopped by once to notice what they do, they actually insert a bottle in the small hole of the manhole which has a pipe of fresh water passing through it. They might have pierced a hole into the pipe and started to use this water for drinking and washing clothes. Innovation at its best and by the most underdogs. This is what it means to be a Slumdog Millionaire.

Another example of such innovation is the Auto Rickshaw drivers pooling their passengers charging each one of them 5/- bucks for a nearest sub urban station ride. They charge 15 bucks for 3 people and make profit also the passengers feel free after jsut having to spend 5/- per head and even ladies feel safe in travelling in such Sharing Ricks since there are more than one passengers to help them in case of any untoward incident. Who wants to remember Car-Pooling here??

Sharing and Caring has been a part of Indian Culture since ages. The joint familed business minded Gujratis are excellent examples of this trait. Legacies are made in India from each step and continue till ages. Take the case of Music Maestros for instance, hardly any maestro exists who has not passed his art to his next generation.

A child near Taj Mahal Agra, who sells fans made from Peacock Wings knows 6 different foreign languages and is very fluent in all of them. All he knows is to sell a fan per customer and his success rate is almost 100%. He learnt all these languages from tourists of different origins and uses them to fulfil his and his families' hunger.

For many their talent or whit is amazement but for them it is survival tactics!!

Che Guevara

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:38:00 +0000

You might have seen him millions of times but you still might not know that he is perhaps the most famous photograph of the entire 20th century. He is Ernesto "Che" Guevara and he was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary and was shot on 9th October 1967 (that also happens to be my Birthday, but the year being 1984). You can see him on many T-Shirts and even on Farhan Akhtar's T-Shirt in Rock On!! Now You Know Who he is!!

Here is the famous picture of him that shot him to fame even after years of his death.

Here is the link of the Wikipedia Article that relates here.

Some view Che Guevara as a hero; for example, Nelson Mandela referred to him as "an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom" while Jean-Paul Sartre described him as "not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age." Guevara remains a beloved national hero to many in Cuba, where his image adorns the $3 Cuban Peso and school children begin each morning by pledging "We will be like Che." In his native homeland of Argentina, where high schools bear his name, numerous Che museums dot the country, which in 2008 unveiled a 12 foot bronze statue of him in his birth city of Rosario. Additionally, Guevara has been sanctified by some Bolivian campesinos as "Saint Ernesto", to whom they pray for assistance.

By the way: I recently saw even a picture of his and a Quote " Che Guevara is dead, Leave him Alone"

Awesomeness 2009!!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:37:00 +0000

Here We Go! March in to the chinese year of the Ox. So the Rats are out and Oxen are In!!

Sounds Weird isn't it?

If you think its time for some fun, then you are right, because 2009 is the year of some of the biggest blockbuster movies in store. Here is a sneak peak into the Year's Most Awaited Movies Hollywood & Amchi Bollywood!!

HollyWood
Angels & Demons (Prequel to The Da Vinci Code: Watch Trailer Here.)
Astro Boy
Avatar (Directed by James Cameron. Yes! Bang On Titanic Director.
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Freddy vs. Jason 2 (No Ideas)
G.I. Joe (Gung-Ho on Silverscreen)
Ghost Rider 2 (Nicholas, Please No Cage this time!!)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (This should have some serious Action. Trailer Link)
Ice Age 3 (I liked 2 better than 1. I hope 3 is better than 2)
Jurassic Park IV (Finally! JP is what I call a period film..not like Lagaan & Jodha Akbar!!)
Justice League (If this was made in India, the movie will just give footage to each superhero and a song for each heroine will make the movie well beyond 5 hours)
Magneto (Two X-men movies in one year? Hmm…)
Night at the Museum 2: Escape from the Smithsonian (Mueseusm Ke Andar Phir Se Phas Gaya Sikandar??)
Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (Bheja Fry 2 will be better)
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Should be good as the Game Rocks)
Superman: Man of Steel (Awesomeness!)
Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins (He Will Be Back Soon!)
The Chronicles of Riddick: Return to Furya
The Fast and the Furious 4 (I haven’t watched any)
The Jetsons (This might be good)
Transformers 2 (Yo BabY!)
Watchmen
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Link to Wolverine Teaser Trailer, I'm Loving it!!)

Our Own Bollywood
Victory (Harman Baweja)
Acid Factory (Sanjay Gupta (Cap), Dia Mirza,Irrfan Khan,Fardeen Khan, Manoj Bajpai, Aftab and Danny)
Raaz-The Mystery Continues (Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut & Introducing Adhyayan. Mohit Suri is the Director & yet another jewel in the Bhatt Camp's Scary Crown)
Chandni Chowk to China: (Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Nikhil Advani (Dir))
Billu Barber (Irrfan Khan, Shahrukh Khan Trailers are already out)
Delhi 6 (Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is the director and Abhishek & Sonam star in this purely Delhi Flick)
Delhi Belly (Imran Khan is back this time in an Adult Role with lot of Strong Language and
New York (Yash Raj Films presents John Abraham, Katrina kaif and Neil Nitin Mukesh in New York post 09/11)
Luck By Chance (I am looking forward to this one because it stars Hrithik Roshan and Farhan Akhtar together)
8x10 (Akshay Kumar's First Parallel Cinematic Role as a man who can look the past through the eyes of the dead. Directed by Nagesh Kuknoor.)
Alibaug (Yet Another Sanjay Gupta Flick. Expect Action, Drama, Suspense & Music)
Alladin (Don't Bet on this one Riteish Deshmukh is Alladin and Big B is Genie.)
Ajab Prem ki Ghajab Kahani (Ranbir Kapoor)
Aashayein (John & Ayesh Takia, Directed by Nagesh Kuknoor. Watch for John's performance)
Kambakth Ishq (Most Talked about film of Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor with Cameos by none other than Rambo: Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards. Got to be deadly Action movie)
London Dreams (Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan (yes together after HDDCS) and Asin of Ghajini fame)
Hissss (Mallika Sherawat's Snake Woman act in collaboration with Hollywood)
De Dhana Dhan (Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Suniel Shetty and Paresh Rawal. You can easily guess the director now)
What's Your Rashee (Priyanka Chopra & Harman Baweja by Ashutosh Gowariker)
Kaminay (Shahid Kapur is in a double role here with Priyanka Chopra and Amol Gupte(TZP Director himself)
Wake up Sid (Dharma Productions film starring Ranbir Kapoor and Konkona)
Blue (Blue, one of the most expensive film of Bollywood ever(budget more than Rs.100 crores), has Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Lara Dutta and Zayed Khan in lead roles. The action film is shot in Bahamas and is written by American writers Joshua Lurie and Bryan M. Sullivan. The movie has a lot of underwater scenes and dare devil stunts by Akshay Kumar. A.R.Rahman has given music for the film. Australian singer Kylie Minogue has been reportedly paid 1.5 million dollars to sing for Rahman, Antony D'Souza is to direct the film.)

Now you know 2009 is the most talked about year of the Human History of Film Making.

You can make entire Finance Industry feel revived if the cash invested in the movies is put in there!!!

* The Views expressed here in this blog (The Text in the () after the Movie Names) are original however I admit to collect the data from various sources on the Internet. Dude, I am not GOD!!

Who is An Indian?

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:00:00 +0000

Unity in Diversity

If will just add one example here of Bal Gangadhar Tilak here:

Once as a kid Bal Gangadhar Tilak was asked to join the pieces of a big jigsaw puzzle with India's map inscribed on it. He was accompanied by his entire class of the school. All the kids started to build the puzzle as soon as possible but were facing difficulty as India's Map is quite big and complex to join a Jigsaw Puzzle is made out of a picture.

The Teacher was taking a round of the class and saw Tilak making something else out of the puzzle. He inquired to what was he doing. Tilak replied that this big jigsaw puzzle had a picture of a man on the flip side.

He said joyously "If I join one man's picture in the puzzle, the picture of India on the back will be complete."

I was just thinking today, how true this statement is even today and wonder when will we shed our inhibitions and make our country truly a 'Golden Bird'.

How does it matter from which state you belong to or what language you speak or which opinion you are of if you are born in one great nation which is a matter of pride for you?

Ghajini is not Memento

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:53:00 +0000

GHAJINI IS NOT MEMENTO

Leave Aamir Khan alone for making a re-make of two different movies. I can bet on this one that at least Ghajini is not a remake of Christopher Nolan's 2005 film Memento. It is although inspired from it as you see the Tattoo Stuff which is a mere copy cat act. Still you can't blame Aamir for this as it had already been copied in the Tamil Ghajini. It's a remake of Tamil Ghajini but in a Mumbaiyya way.

It has a touch of the Action of down south Mollywood and Stunts like Cheeru Anna & Rajni Anna. If you compare the story of the two flicks Ghajini & Memento there is a similarity but not resemblance. Memento doesn't have a line in the story its just events roped into a timeline, no chronology or sensible information which can be extracted from watching it Top to Bottom.

However, Ghajini is predominantly a love story, which revolves around Aamir's intense love for his lover who doesn't even know his real identity as he pretends her to be a common man even though he is the CEO or Air Voice Company the leading Cell Phone Network Company.

Memento is something you'll have to watch it again and again because it is impossible to make sense of it in one go. It has three stories in one. First one being of Leonard Shelby, (played by Guy Pierce) who has a short term memory disorder (anterograde amnesia) and keeps forgetting things after he had been hit by a goon who killed his wife infront of him. Another Story being of Sammy Jankis whom he pretends of knowing and had a similar disorder. Sammy later killed his own wife by an Insulin Overdose because he forgets that he has already fed her diabetic wife enough of the medicine already. The last story being the Black & White Scenes where he receives Phone Calls from an Anonymous caller in his hotel room.

Ghajini is very logical Indian Made Love Story in which the Hero Wont die until he has killed the villain even though you stab him with a rod right into his stomach and hit him hard with metal chairs, rods, pillars and imaginable fighting objects. Sanjay Singhania (Aamir Khan) is a filthily rich guy who is in Town to take over the Air Voice empire after hi father's demise. He falls in love with a simple girl who works as a model in Ad Films. He pretends like a common struggler to impress her and gets her 'I Do' so easily without even telling her who he was. His investigation is not shown completely and even his tattoo scenes are not shown in the movie. A very good depiction of fear is shown in the eyes of the slain police inspector and even the goons of Ghajini are afraid of confronting full blown Sanjay Singhania.

The songs are all wrongly placed and the movie would have been better without them. The scenes where are the Heroine Asin is shown in her good light like when she helps Blind Man, Physically Challenged Children and Young Girls to be sold in Goa are all worthless and could have been avoided. I feel the director just wants to show how good Aamir's lover was that he can't forget her even if he suffers from 'Anterograde Amnesia'.

Overall a good movie, tremendous performance by Aamir & the lady Asin but direction is weak and editing could be improved and obviously the length could have been cut short.

Rating: **

I would rate it 2 out of 5 Stars.

PS: The Work out of Aamir's 8 Pack Abs is very good but is not a very healthy physique according to his counterparts like Salman Bhai & Sunny Paaji. They have challenged him to maintain this physique for at least a year more. Let's see how our Mr Perfectionist is able to prove them wrong.

Adios!!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:37:00 +0000

Here is the Video. Watch & Enjoy!!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Theatrical trailer.

Isn't it Wonderful??

Our Own Preity Zinta on the Wikipedia Home Page!!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 06:49:00 +0000

Wish I could reach out to Preity Zinta personally and tell her that she has been featured on today's Home Page of Wikipedia in Article of the day section. It may not be as coveted as the highly coveted 'TIME' magazine but it is very substantial according to me.

I was just passing by the Internet Highway and noticed a familiar face on the cover of Wikipedia. I said is it January 31st or is it something else? It's a welcome change from Articles which feature mostly Western Content that too about unknown facts and even unknown faces.

I feel India is finally making its mark in the International Sphere in bits and pieces though but very steadily. Way to go Indians and Hearty Congratulations to Ms. Zinta!!

God Bless Michael Jackson!!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:27:00 +0000

That's really bad and I feel the plight of the 'Invincible' Singer who is facing a serious condition of the lungs which he is hiding since years now.

He can't even speak now and his eye visibility is 95% gone already. The 50 year old singer is battling for his life and now moves only on a wheel chair.

Source: http://www.myparkmag.co.uk/articles/celebrity/michael-jacksons-deadly-disease.html

Michael Jackson's 'deadly' disease

Monday, 22 December 2008
Michael Jackson has a potentially deadly genetic disease, it has been claimed.
The 50-year-old pop superstar - who has previously been photographed looking frail in a wheelchair - is said to be battling inherited condition A1AD (alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency) which leaves sufferers without a protein needed to protect the lungs.
Ian Halperin, a respected writer, also claims father-of-three Michael is now nearly blind after keeping the deadly condition a secret "for years".
He said: "He needs a lung transplant, but may be too weak to go through with it. He also has emphysema and chronic gastrointestinal bleeding, which his doctors have had a lot of trouble stopping.
"It's the bleeding that's the most problematic part. It could kill him. He can barely speak. The vision in his left eye is 95 per cent gone. For years Michael has been working with his doctors to make sure it doesn't progress. He has been on many medications that have stabilised him."
Michael's brother Jermaine also revealed the 'Thriller' singer - who is currently working on his comeback album with rappers including Ne-Yo - is "not doing so well right now", only saying: "This isn't a good time."
The news of Michael's illness comes just days after a woman called Billie Jean Jackson, who claims to be the singer's wife and the mother of his youngest son Prince Michael II, announced she is suing him for £700,000 and joint custody of the six-year-old child.

Together Let's pray for the messenger of peace and our hero Michael for his good health and long life!!

Dig Boi! Dig A Tunnel!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:21:00 +0000

Serious Security Lapse near Rajasthan Border

It's barely 26 days to the Black Wednesday when 10 Terrorists raped the city of Mumbai over and over for 59 hours and now again this news shows a serious security issue with another of our Natural Border: The Thar Desert (First one being the Sea). This time a tunnel which runs from Pakistan to India has been discovered by the Border Security Force (BSF) and they explain they actually don't know how long could this be operational.

So now anyone who can't afford the luxury of crossing the Indo-Pak border can sneak through the tunnel safely with his family of known and unknown terrorists and may be they are doing so for many years. Great discovery by the way! I guess this is not a lapse but I would rather name it a failure on the part of Security Personnel who are deployed there. Didn't some one interrogate the scores of people who were caught crossing the border with the way they used to enter India?? This is getting serious by the day. Imagine for what all purposes such a 'Silk Route' can be used. You can get people, drugs, Fake Currency, Weapons and even Terrorists easily from the other side of the Border.

I do not blame the forces altogether but yes there has to be some stritct vigil across our already vulnerable borders. My only concern here is the money of tax payers like us should be utilized in a organized fashion not merely in recreation of the VIPs. I respect the refusal by Mr. P Chidambaram to accept Z-Level personal security but loath VIPs who just mis-utilize their stardom and waste our Security Personnel's resources and time.

I as a citizen am ready to get a millitary training to defend myself and my family if need be. I hope every other youth like me is ready to do so. If 5% of the population is given Self Defense training and basic arms knowledge the number of people who fall victim to such attacks like the one in Mumbai will be reduced to a great extent.

If we plan out well and execute our plans also well we can at least save our souls!

Access Blocked GMail!!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:50:00 +0000

Office Email Blocked?? Access Blocked GMail and Go Un-Noticed!!

Dude! I have done it! I found a way out. Let me give you an introduction about me. I work as an Equity Analyst. You can easily imagine the atmosphere here, it's a place where you can't dream of accessing private mails and cool stuff like Social Networking Sites and of course GMail.

I was trying to do this since ages and I had finally found the link that acts like a proxy and give you your Emails in Plain text mode here it is.

But that's not what I am so happy about. I found 2 ways to access GMail where you can never get caught using it because it is legal and no one can still block that method.

Method #1

If you are familiar with RSS, it would be much easier for you. I would make it simple.
(i) Create your GMail as an RSS feed that is actually a link like https://USERNAME:PASSWORD@gmail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom and subscribe to it using a feed reader like Google Reader,Newsgator, Bloglines etc.
But as you can see the above link is very vulnerable to attacks by just about anybody because it will include your user name and password in plain text right in the URL. So this option is ruled out.

Now what you can do is you can subscribe this link: https://gmail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom in a HTTPS and SSL secured reader like NewsGator and you will receive your emails right as your feeds and you can view them easily.

Only you cant view images and HTML because the link of any mail will open up GMail.com which is still banned.

Try out this one it is very good to look at and also gives you a lot of free Feeds and News Streams.

Method#2
Create a Google Group with a name of your choice like 'My Mail'. Now forward all your incoming mails to this group. Now make an RSS feed of this group like the link below: http://groups.google.com/group/NAME-OF-GROUP/feeds . Subscribe to this link now and enjoy the mails in your favourite RSS reader like Newsgator. You have an option to hide this feed from others and making it password protected as well. You can view images as well if your Google Groups is not banned.

Sit Back, Relax and Enjoy viewing GMails right at the luxury of your Office Workstation.

Just an advice do not do this when you have actual work or else your Manager will have a problem.

PS: For Social Networking Sites like Orkut,Facebook and Hi5 use:
http://www.power.com/ and you can also try http://images.orkut.com/ for Orkut.

Just Remember: "With Great Power comes Great Responsibility!"

Ayn Rand - "Atlas Shrugged"

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 07:01:00 +0000

WORTH READING:

"Rearden heard Bertram Scudder, outside the group, say to a girl who made some sound of indignation, "Don't let him disturb you. You know, money is the root of all evil – and he's the typical product of money."
Rearden did not think that Francisco could have heard it, but he saw Francisco turning to them with a gravely courteous smile.
"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Aconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?
"When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears nor all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor – your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money. Is this what you consider evil?
"Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions – and you'll learn that man's mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.
"But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made – before it can be looted or mooched – made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more than he has produced.
"To trade by means of money is the code of the men of good will. Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except by the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgment of the traders. Money demands of you the recognition that men must work for their own benefit, not for their own injury, for their gain, not their loss – the recognition that they are not beasts of burden, born to carry the weight of your misery – that you must offer them values, not wounds – that the common bond among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of goods. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best your money can find. And when men live by trade – with reason, not force, as their final arbiter – it is the best product that wins, the best performance, then man of best judgment and highest ability – and the degree of a man's productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?
"But money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. It will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires. Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality – the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind.
"Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants; money will not give him a code of values, if he's evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he's evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. The man who attempts to purchase the brains of his superiors to serve him, with his money replacing his judgment, ends up by becoming the victim of his inferiors. The men of intelligence desert him, but the cheats and the frauds come flocking to him, drawn by a law which he has not discovered: that no man may be smaller than his money. Is this the reason why you call it evil?
"Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth – the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it should have been distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve that mind that cannot match it. Is this the reason why you call it evil?
"Money is your means of survival. The verdict which you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life. If the source is corrupt, you have damned your own existence. Did you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men's vices or men's stupidity? By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing work you despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment's or a penny's worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not an achievement, but a reminder of shame. Then you'll scream that money is evil. Evil, because it would not pinch-hit for your self-respect? Evil, because it would not let you enjoy your depravity? Is this the root of your hatred of money?
"Money will always remain an effect and refuse to replace you as the cause. Money is the product of virtue, but it will not give you virtue and it will not redeem your vices. Money will not give you the unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit. Is this the root of your hatred of money?
"Or did you say it's the love of money that's the root of all evil? To love a thing is to know and love its nature. To love money is to know and love the fact that money is the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men. It's the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is the loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money – and he has good reason to hate it. The lovers of money are willing to work for it. They know they are able to deserve it.
"Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.
"Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another – their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.
"But money demands of you the highest virtues, if you wish to make it or to keep it. Men who have no courage, pride, or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not willing to defend it as they defend their life, men who apologize for being rich – will not remain rich for long. They are the natural bait for the swarms of looters that stay under rocks for centuries, but come crawling out at the first smell of a man who begs to be forgiven for the guilt of owning wealth. They will hasten to relieve him of the guilt – and of his life, as he deserves.
"Then you will see the rise of the double standard – the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money – the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law – men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims – then money becomes its creators' avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they've passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.
"Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that it does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.
"Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men's protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it becomes, marked: 'Account overdrawn.'
"When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, 'Who is destroying the world?' You are.
"You stand in the midst of the greatest achievements of the greatest productive civilization and you wonder why it's crumbling around you, while you're damning its life-blood – money. You look upon money as the savages did before you, and you wonder why the jungle is creeping back to the edge of your cities. Throughout men's history, money was always seized by looters of one brand or another, but whose method remained the same: to seize wealth by force and to keep the producers bound, demeaned, defamed, deprived of honor. That phrase about the evil of money, which you mouth with such righteous recklessness, comes from a time when wealth was produced by the labor of slaves – slaves who repeated the motions once discovered by somebody's mind and left unimproved for centuries. So long as production was ruled by force, and wealth was obtained by conquest, there was little to conquer. Yet through all the centuries of stagnation and starvation, men exalted the looters, as aristocrats of the sword, as aristocrats of birth, as aristocrats of the bureau, and despised the producers, as slaves, as traders, as shopkeepers – as industrialists.
"To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money – and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man's mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being – the self-made man – the American industrialist.
"If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose – because it contains all the others – the fact that they were the people who created the phrase 'to make money'. No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity – to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted, or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words 'to make money' hold the essence of human morality.
"Yet these were the words for which Americans were denounced by the rotted cultures of the looters' continents. Now the looters' credo has brought you to regard your proudest achievements as a hallmark of shame, your prosperity as guilt, your greatest men, the industrialists, as blackguards, and your magnificent factories as the product and property of muscular labor, the labor of whip-driven slaves, like the pyramids of Egypt. The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of the dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide – as, I think, he will.
"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns – or dollars. Take your choice – there is no other – and your time is running out."
original source: Part II, Section 2, pages 387-391 of the paperback

We Need Guns, Lots of Guns

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 07:32:00 +0000

I am talking about the movie in which Robert Downey Jr. makes an Iron Man and escapes terrorists who had captured him for making a dangerous missile making use of his genius skill of weaponry.

I just was thinking and thinking about ways to tackle terror and went onto the roots of terror. This is what I found:

ter⋅ror [ter-er]
–noun
1. intense, sharp, overmastering fear: to be frantic with terror.
2. an instance or cause of intense fear or anxiety; quality of causing terror: to be a terror to evildoers.
3. any period of frightful violence or bloodshed likened to the Reign of Terror in France.
4. violence or threats of violence used for intimidation or coercion; terrorism.
5. Informal. a person or thing that is especially annoying or unpleasant.

It is very practical of thinking this way after what you see in Mumbai and hear from Survivors and Victims of this Terrible word. I also saw the ways to tackle terror on the Internet. All I got was some way to supress it by force or standing against it.

This is what I think about terror tackling: Terrorize the Terrorists and you Kill Terror. You need a new way to fight now not known by these bunch of eunuchs who simply think that they can walk into our homes and kill us.

IDEAS

Make a WAR Machine to fight Terror. Dont Expect it to be Super Man who fliles and is indestructible. It can be something like the IronMan Suit or Batman who doesn't fear and also find the Kryptonite and destroy it beforehand.

I saw the NSG who were struggling to fight terrorists who were having an obvious panoramic vantage point from an elevated Taj Mahal Towers. Had there been a single man like Iron Man who don't fear them because he has his Iron Suit and Bulletproof armour and Grenade Proof Vest full of deadly guns he would have flushed them out of their hideouts.

Make our Black Cats tough enough and equipped to fight them face to face and terrorize them before they kill. Give them latest machinery and guns give them On-Site Medics and SWAT like gadgets, then you see how Indian Blood fights terror. I dont have a single doubt on the bravery of the Indian Forces and I know given the best guns they are the strongest force in the World.

More IDEAS

Teach our MEDIA what to report and what not to. The Freedom of press should be till the point where our people are safe. I read that some terrorists were watching TV while the operation was going on and were prepared for the attacks by the NSG beforehand.

Make the people aware of these situations by road shows and camps. The common man can identify terrorists by simple signs like hurrying up, grin on face, sweating and other gestures of sucspicion. The CCTV cameras must also be equipped with face recognition like the ones in London and NY.

Strict checking and Compliance of rules in an orderly fashion. All taxi and Cab Owners must be given the right to check the ID and Luggae of the Passenger before getting him/her onboarded. A sucspicious traveller must be reported immediately. All local stations must have a 24 hour vigil by the Police.

More of them

All guards like ATM guards, Building Guards, Office Guards, Private Security and the rest of them must be equipped with atleast 1 modern gun and must have authority to fire it when necessary.

There is a standard for the Passport Picture at the Airports in countries like US & Canada which doesn't allow you to smile when you get your picture clicked. This helps the Security Personnel to identify a terrorists from a normal civilian. This has now become a standard rule of Biometric Scanning across the world and I feel it is high time India must follow suit.

If we are more powerful against them, only then will they feel our strength, merely declaring that we are not afraid will not work now. They know what we have.

We will need guns, lots of them...!!

The Indian Redemption

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:09:00 +0000

All is said and done but there is no result; There are social evils like poverty, illiteracy, corruption and terrorism which are spreading like stench spreading from a dirty manhole. What can we do? BlameGame! .......BULLSHIT! Its our house and we have to pick the mop!

Get Up! Get Going! ...See no Evil, Do No Evil, Tolerate no Evil, And Kill Evil if need Be...

Corruption
Aggression in a country like ours is confined in the hearts of a few creative rebels. It needs to be percolated in all the spheres of society. People must be hard faced against corruption, illiteracy, poverty and against any thing that causes oneself or any Indian to face down. Don't think twice for reporting against the Traffic Cop who accepts bribe and also be ready to go with him to the Police Station if you can't carry the License. Don't do any favors for anyone who does not deserve these just for your petty personal profit. Don't let any ineligible candidate get through in any post which you appear for selection or any political post also for that matter.

Illiteracy
Try to teach some children if you can or donate something for NGOs that take care of such children who cant get proper primary education. You can even donate old books, clothes and toys to these children via NGOs many accept even articles like used household items even. You can try to get the child of your domestic help in a proper school and may be sponsor the childs education partly or fully. Illiteracy is a social hindrance and must be eradicated by all means.

Poverty
Try to cut wages from the Rich and distribute them to the poor to get a country almost equal in its living standards or atleast follow a benchmark in terms of Income. Eradicating Poverty has to be gradual and People in the Government can think of some concrete plans to do so.

Terrorism
I feel the governments should launch joint inter-country operations to flush terrorists out of their hide outs and eliminate them. I even have an innovative idea about fighting Terror that I have kept on board in my next post.

We need justice and we need peace everything else can wait at this time.