n00b

Parking Rush For Android

2013-06-10T05:29:00.003-07:00

I am not a big fan of parking games, simply for the fact that it has been over done. So I was skeptical when I saw this game while browsing my friend's phone. I was actually searching for some incriminating and gossip worthy content on his phone and instead accidently fired up this game. And for the next 20 minutes, I was hooked!

The beautiful splash screen popped up and before I could force close the game, I noticed a little button called a "Night Mode". Now I have seen and played a few parking games, 2D and 3D included, I thought I was above all the gimmicks that this genre has to throw up and so I was genuinely intrigued what a "Night Mode" would be. I gave in to my curiosity and clicked on the mode. What followed was pure genius, fun and immensely challenging as well. What the developers have done is that they have taken all the regular maps and levels available earlier and just made the environment simulate the night! Simple and it really works! And the only light that is available for you to navigate the treacherous dark alleys comes from your car's headlights.

Check out the same map, in Day Mode and then in Night Mode.

And now the same level in Night Mode!

So if you think you have seen it all in parking games, try Parking Rush in Night Mode. You will not regret it :). 50 crazy levels!

Available for your Android device here

The Best Android Word Game.. EVER!

2012-12-15T18:55:00.000-08:00

So its the end of another year and what have I done this year? pretty much nothing other than find an awesome game on Android... probably the best game ever. It is so awesome that it will overshadow all the collective awesomeness that has ever been out there.

And why am I singing paeans about this particular game? because I made it :).

Yes folks.. I have finally put down all my laziness and ramblings and put my word where my mouth is. It is a small attempt and I am proud of it. Just like your mother who thinks your are special and we all know how wrong she is.

So here goes.. introducing Word Search International for your Android devices. It is built on Unity and will work on any Android device 2.2 and above. You can download the game from the Play Store here

Screenshots from the game:

Game Description:

Word Search International, the best Word Search Game for your phone or Tablet this Christmas season! Game contains over 10,000 words to find, available in 4 languages - English, Spanish, French and Italian.

4/5 Mobile Game Reviews

5/5 Indie Gamers

9/10 Board Gamer Geeks

Word Search International comes packed with content, including High Scores and Leaderboards. Hours of fun guaranteed!

Features:

• Online and local leaderboards to challenge family and friends;

• Unlimited Word Search Puzzles, Hours of Fun;

• Full Tablet support!

To find the hidden words, tap them with your finger - up, down, left, right, or diagonally - and in either direction, forward or backward

So all you people, here is the link to the game again. Please show some love and download the game and rate, review and share :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Is 'Doctor Who' being localized in China...

2011-01-20T08:59:00.001-08:00

...as Doctor Hu?

The Average Male Sleep Pattern Over A Lifetime - An Infographic

2010-12-31T22:02:00.000-08:00

Click to enlarge Infographic.

Time to ring in the new year with a new post. I know I have been pretty lazy lately, but hopefully the new year will definitely see more posts than last year!

I woke up yesterday from a nap and got this crazy idea to do an infographic on the number of sleep hours an average male puts in, based on his age. It is very simple to say that we should sleep for 8 hours every day on an average, but most people seem to forget that it is not as simple. There are so many factors that influence the number of hours we put in, some under control and some beyond, such as the birth of a child.

Please remember that it is a trend and the number of hours might not be accurate.

Enjoy :-).

The God of all Suckers

2010-03-11T03:57:00.000-08:00

I wonder what happened to the previous god? Does he offer better services? I mean the bus ride of course :-P

Life In A Metro

2009-11-23T00:28:00.000-08:00

I was in Delhi for the weekend and this was the scene in the Rajiv Chowk metro terminal. And you thought this was possible only in a Mumbai local station? But then, the Delhi Metro has AC :-)

Its All About The Size Honey..

2009-11-17T23:42:00.000-08:00

It is a widely observed phenomenon that size play a 'huge' (pun intended) role in our social lives and self image. Men are measured (again intended) according to the size of their cars, paychecks, property, height and of course their manhood while women pride themselves in owing the bigger bling, greater number of offspring, more voluptuous boobs and of course a man with all the correct 'bigness's'.

Strangely enough, the co-relation of size to self worth goes beyond the personal and can be seen even in the collective sense of a nation or group. A smaller group, nation or company will always aspire to surpass the bigger one, be it in terms of economic or military prowess and it is usually the smaller one that will be more focused and in a lot of cases more successful, in its plans. Call it aspiration or the constant need to prove their worth, but history is proof that smaller groups and nations have always been the more successful aggressor contrary to popular notions of big countries with huge armies (one look at the USA in Vietnam and the Middle East says it all). Lets take a quick look at some case studies of 'Small Nation = Big Fight' in a chronological order.

Greece under Alexander III of Macedon (356–323 BC)

One of the greatest general and war tactician the world has ever known, little Alexie grew up in the small Greek city state of Macedon with an ambition to bring the world to kneel before him. Considering the fact that he was short and stocky (unlike Colin Farrel in the movie Alexander, where Angelia Jolie played his mom!!!), it must have rather difficult to bend down that low. In his prime, Alexie defeated the Persians in battle, marched through Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, , Bactria (not the micro-organism) and into India. An overdose of tantric sex and the earliest recorded case of the Delhi Belly syndrome forced Alexie to cancel his further travel plans and head back home. OK, I am guessing on that part but the fact remains that our man came from a little Greek city state and went on to bitch slap the entire world. First case of the smaller you are the more motivated you are.

Rome (1st century BC - 4th century AD)

Another hard ass city state. Rome's history as a city spans over two and a half thousand years, as one of the founding and most powerful cities of Western Civilization. It was the center of the Roman Empire, which dominated Europe, North Africa and the Middle East for over four hundred years from the 1st Century BC until the 4th Century AD, and during the Ancient Roman era, the city was the most powerful in Europe. At one point of time, it was said that 'All roads lead to Rome', such was the city's significance. Considering the amount of cultural, religious and military influence Rome had over the known world during that time period, it is nothing short of phenomenal considering the size of that place in comparison to the entire Roman empire! They also had a huge rock arena called the Colosseum where gladiators would perform before a packed house and the earliest recorded version of Survivor: Rome would be played out, usually featuring a Christian and a lion

England (during the British Empire days)

The British Empire comprised of territories ruled by the United Kingdom (primarily England), that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1922, the British Empire held sway over a population of about 458 million people, one-quarter of the world's population, and covered more than 13,000,000 square miles (33,670,000 km2): approximately a quarter of the Earth's total land area. At the peak of its power, it was often said that "the sun never sets on the British Empire" because its span across the globe ensured that the sun was always shining on at least one of its numerous territories. And the most impressive fact remains that all this was achieved by the small island of England with the size of roughly 131,000 Square km which is less than 1% of the entire empire! Talk of disproportionate gains. The good thing about the whole exercise was that it introduced to the world the delightful pleasures of fish and chips along with the hilarious British accent.

Germany (World War II )

This is a self-explanatory title and I don't need to go into the details. Suffice to put up a picture which shows German occupied territory during the Third Reich. Again a classic case of a small sized nation going on to take over the world (well.. almost). Hey at least they gave us Oktoberfest!

Japan (Early 1900s - Mid 1940s)

Japan has one of the bloodiest histories in the world and despite being just about 378,000 sq. kms, it always had dreams of world domination. Ask any Chinese or Korean about Japan and they can give you some very graphic history lessons. Japan's modern military and territory expansion started in the early 1900s and continued well into World War II when they had advanced well into Chinese Manchuria and other parts of Asia. They even had the balls to not only attempt but pull off Pearl Harbor. In fact, they had to use not 1 but 2 frigging A-bombs to finally make them surrender. Other than all the tech goodies, Japan has given the world some pretty crazy and weird stuff. More on that later.

Mongolia under Ghengis Khan (1206–1227)

Finally, the baddest-ass of them all. If there was an example of the biggest single hit wonder from any country, it has to be the Great Khan from the otherwise-relatively-unknown Mongolia. If it were not for him, you would not have even heard of Mongolia. At 1,564,116 square kilometres, Mongolia is the nineteenth largest and the most sparsely populated independent country in the world, with a population of around 2.9 million people. It is also the world's second-largest landlocked country after Kazakhstan. The country contains very little arable land, as much of its area is covered by steppes, with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south. Approximately 30% of the population are nomadic or semi-nomadic. And out of this god-forsaken place you have one person who not only united the entire Mongolian population (think of the logistical challenges!), terrorized the entire world and also populated pretty much half of the world's population. Yes, you heard it right. One in every 200 men alive today is a relative of Genghis Khan. An international team of geneticists has made the astonishing discovery that more than 16 million men in central Asia have the same male Y chromosome as the great Mongol leader.

It is a striking finding: a huge chunk of modern humanity can trace its origins to Khan's vigorous policy of claiming the most beautiful women captured during his merciless conquest.

'One thirteenth century Persian historian claimed that within a century of Khan's birth, his enthusiastic mating habits had created a lineage of more than 20,000 individuals,' said team leader Dr Chris Tyler-Smith. 'That now appears to account for around 8% of the men in central Asia.' (BTW I am a confirmed recipient of his genes, the non-violent parts of it at least)

Talk about fringe benefits of being an dreaded invader!

Couple of honorable mentions would be Israel fighting religiously with the entire Middle East to claim the exclusive rights to hummus and the Scandinavian Vikings who were single-handedly responsible for the slump in European beach front properties during the Great Realty Depression lasting from 790 AD to 1066 AD. If I have missed out on any, please feel free to post it.

Size not only drives you to be great in the battlefield, it also makes great performers in bed. Just look at the Chinese, the biggest population in the world. They are not exactly known for their generous manhood but that didn't stop them from filling 1/5th of the world's entire human population. So the next time you see a shorter or 'smaller' man, don't laugh at him 'coz he might be doing your wife / girlfriend or both at the same time ;-).

How To Get Your Girlfriend Into Gaming - Part Deux

2009-09-16T02:57:00.000-07:00

Couple of years ago, I had written an article on how you can get your girlfriend to game with you. Much water has flown under the bridge since but gaming still is not very popular with the ladies despite all our begging, pleading and threats.

A gaming console maker from Brazil seems to have come out with a different strategy. They spent millions of $ to understand what really pleases a woman and they think they finally have an answer. In a very subtle way, they have been enticing women to buy their gaming console since their launch in June this year.

Ladies please welcome the Zeebo into your bedrooms.. err.. I mean living rooms..

And if you are wondering what this is all about.. take a closer look at the packaging. If you still don't get it, check out the picture below to figure out how they have been using subconscious marketing to women and their 'needs'..

ShareKhan on the prowl?

2009-07-01T23:42:00.000-07:00

Is it just me or are you also disturbed by the above advertisement?

The ad in question is the latest online banner ad for Sharekhan.com for their online stock brokerage / trading services. The disturbing fact is the look on the so-called "market expert" trying to put poor Karan's fears to rest.

If I were Karan and somebody like that comes along, I would genuinely be even more scared of investing into the stock market. Check out the facial expression on that guy. He looks a 100% guaranteed creep who is only interested in my money! And those glasses do nothing to hide that slyness in his eyes.

Whoever approved that ad in Sharekhan obviously hasn't heard of the nuances of emotions and expressions in advertisements. They got Karan's expressions correct though!

I will be staying away from Sharekhan.com

My 5 Most Challenging Problems Ever (..and their answers??)

2008-10-15T00:03:00.000-07:00

There are questions and there are Questions.. I am sure you must have also been in a situation where you just stood back and wondered at a problem so interesting and challenging that it has the potential to change the course of nothing less than the Universe!

My problems however are more ordinary. So without further ado, lets hit the road..

#5. Dressed Chickens

Please correct me if I am wrong, but as per my understanding, the act of covering your naked body with a garment or otherwise is called "Dressing" and the act of taking off that very outer wear is called "Undressing". Unfortunately, it is not so in case of our poultry friends

If you go to a shop selling poultry and ask for a "Dressed Chicken", going by our definition above, you would expect a complete rooster in its full multi-colored plumage. But to your horror, you should expect to see something like the picture to your right. That's correct... in Poultrese, "Dressed" is equivalent to being "Undressed" of your fine feathers, your royal head with its proud crown being chopped off along with your dainty webbed feet.

"..but the memo said it was a formally 'dressed' board meeting"

#4. Is The Quality Of Home Food Going Down?

Countless homes all over the world have broken up for the simple reason that the wife can't cook as well as the mother-in-law. How many times have you witnessed your own father complaining "Mom used to cook the Butter Chicken so much better.." with your mother giving him a steely glare. And if you thought that your grandmother really cooked the best Butter Chicken in the world, you are sadly mistaken. What is scary is that your grandfather in a similar setting had said the same thing to her and your great-grandfather and everyone before that, to their respective spouses. Right back to Adam.

So does this mean that the standards of home food have been going down the ages? Possible.. but a more rationale explanation would be that your mother's cooking is soul food and will always taste better. Crap!! mom just cooks better. End of argument

Ohh.. and as for Adam, this comment ended his stay in Paradise. How? Try it on your wife. Your paradise will end.

"My wife make horrible food.. she killed by bear.. very nice.. I miss her cheese but"

#3. Why Do Dogs Pee On Car Tyres?

Dogs like to mark their territory by peeing on objects, trees, humans whatever... but when it comes to cars, they will always go for the tyres. This act is totally independent of the dog's breed, nationality or gender (however, males will lift their legs and females will hunch their rears). They could have gone for the car doors, hatch, grille or even the glass windows. But no! they will pee on the tyres. Why can't they pee on the areas which have been dirtied by bird poop? At least the liquid will clean away the poop. It is as if the birds and the dogs have an agreement on who gets to soil which parts of the car and share a secret laugh at you every time they poop or pee on your baby.

A smart friend has this theory that maybe because the tyres are the only part of the car which is in touch with the ground, dogs feel that they are the "roots" of the "object" and therefore is the ideal place to leave their mark.

"Shez mine yo! All you dawgs stay off her.."

4. Why Do Babies Pee When They Hear "Sssssss....hhhh"?

Babies have an insatiable need to feed and to poop. They come genetically pre-programmed to hunt down the nipples of the nearest human female and suck the life out of them literally. Also the ability to know exactly when its parents are sleeping so that it can destroy it, comes pre-programmed. But one thing that has not been studied perhaps in great detail is why do babies respond to the sound "Ssssss...hhh" by letting go of their bladders.

Again like dogs, this response goes beyond race, nationality or gender. A baby knows only one response to this sound.. Let it go baby!

Or I might be completely wrong and maybe it is the combination of the sound as well as the actions that are done to make the baby pee by its mother in the hope that it will not wet the bed in the night. But the babies are smart. They might let go a little when they hear the sound, but they save the best for the exact moment when their parents just enter deep sleep.

"Bringing you to the library was not a very good idea"

# 1. No Matter How Much / Hard You Shake, The Last Drop Always Wets Your Underwear

This might be strictly a male phenomenon, so if you ladies also experience the same, I would love to do more "research" on it

Guys, after they have pee-ed, shake their members to let loose the excess pee that might have accumulated on the foreskin or the last remnants of the original release by the bladder. Each guy has a different and distinctive style of executing this action but one fact that all of us have accepted as infallible is the rule "No matter... wets your underwear"

It is not that we haven't or don't try. I know guys who have gone to extremes to prove the rule wrong. They have spent countless hours researching the human anatomy for answers and solutions to this most unique problem that besiege the human male. They have tried various stirring and shaking methods, changed positions, experimented with frequency of the movements and have even stood still for hours hoping that it will dry up. But alas, when they thought they have finally won, that little drop comes out triumphantly and wets their underwear, almost as if someone up there is having a good laugh at the little joke he played in designing the human male urinary system!

"Sayz who?"

5 Applications I Want On The iPhone

2008-08-23T00:17:00.000-07:00

OK... the iPhone 3G finally made its debut in India.

Every new product market launch from the Apple stable causes fanbois to line up and camp in front of the stores, days (sometimes weeks) ahead of the launch date, across the world. Surprisingly, in one of the biggest markets for mobile phones in the world (India dumbo!), the launch didn't create any such fanatic activity and the one guy, a small time actor, who actually made it to the store at midnight, had his 15 minutes of fame on national TV and press.

No point in writing a review about the iPhone as it has been done to death by everyone. What we will do instead is to talk about one feature of the iPhone which I found very innovative. It is the Application Store, where you just logon to, browse through the various applications (including third party ones!) and pick something which interests you. You can choose from mobile games, movie, music, karaoke and even finance applications.

Top 5 applications in my wishlist would be:

# 5. Honker Buster Ultimate

How many times have you felt like murdering the person driving the vehicle behind / next to you at traffic signals or jams. No matter how impossible it might be to move even an inch, he/she will honk as if you are respopnsible for the jam. And if you have experienced the highways in Mumbai, you will know what I mean. Don't worry, help is near with the new Honker Buster Ultimate application

The next time you are in such a situation, just run the Honk Buster application on your iPhone and point the phone to the offending vehicle. It will emit a powerful electro-magnetic pulse which will disable all electric circuits in the vehicle rendering it totally useless for 1 minute. In that 1 minute, he will see his entire life pass before his eyes and will realise how it feels like to be on the recieving end of all that honking

#4. Guess Who?

How many times have you met somebody somewhere and forgot completely about him after that meeting. Then one fine day, 5 years down, you see that someone come running to you with open arms and introduces you to his family and you have no idea who he was and you don't want to break the poor guy's heart by telling him that you don't remember him. This is when the Guess Who? application on your iPhone comes to the rescue

Everytime you meet a new person, just run the Guess Who? application and your iPhone will do an automatic scan of the person's facial features, biometrics and voice and store it in the phone memory archives along with the name and the conversation (kinda like gmail). The next time you are in a sticky situation, just run the application and click on "Search" option. Based on the subject's voice alone, it will give you the details about the subject and your history with him. No more awkward situations with the "Guess Who?" application.

#3. Universal RiMote Beta

One for all and All for one. There are a lot of universal remotes available but each of them has their own set of problems and the biggest challnge is that you are not carrying one when you actually need one. All will be history with the Universal RiMote application

This application is actually universal as it will sync your iPhone with all electronice devices (which can be conrolled remotely and irrespective of manufacturer) within a range of 15 feet and give you a list of controllable devices like a normal phone throws a list of bluetooth enabled devices around you. You pick your device and start using the controls remotely. No more fighting with your spouse for the TV

#2. Stun Da Gun

Ever been in a life threathening situation where you wish you had a stun gun? (I have been in a lot of dog dramas). This is when you should be able to covert your iPhone into a defensive weapon using the Stun Da Gun application

Like emergency numbers, the combination required to activate this application should be accessible even if the touchscreen is locked. Once activated, you just have to take aim and press the power (fire) button. It will release an electric pulse with enough voltage to stun an average human male for 10 seconds. So cool..

Since it can be used as a weapon, this application will be sold like one too

#1. Get Laid Suite

Tired of spending Saturday nights watching TV or surfing porn? Don't despair. Help is just an application away. Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting the ultimate in seduction technology guaranteed to ensure that you never sleep alone again, the newly updated Get Laid Suite now available at the Apple Application Store for just $2

What does it do? Lets take the scenario of you heading out to a hot spot on Saturday night and how this application helps you.

Featured highlights:

Scans the number of incoming / outgoing calls from a nightspot, checks with the service provider for the percentage of female listed numbers and gives you the demographic statistics. Example: ClubX has 112 active users in the past 30 minutes. 67 active female listed numbers
When inside the club, you hover your iPhone over a female and it gives you the following information: Biological age, height, bust size and if they are real, most likely profession and the likely number of drinks you will have to buy her to get into her panties (costing will be based on the club's rates)
Wingman 1.0 feature gets turned on if lady is with another guy. The other guy suddenly gets a text from his mother asking him to come quickly for an emergency. Most appropriate line to kick start the conversation is displayed
During the conversation, based on keywords, information and trivia are prompted regularly to make you sound knowledgeable and intelligent. Also eliminates the requirement of you having to listen to her attentively (well.. very attentively at least :-P)
After both of you have warmed up enough and its time to take her home, Dial-A-Ride application ensures that a cab is waiting for you outside the club door with your address already texted to the driver's phone
Forgot to check if you have condoms back at your pad? Fear not, for Doc Con 1.1 application has already cheked the medicine stores open at that time around your are and a pack of your preferred brand is on its way
Erogenous Zone Detector application then scans the female and based on the nerve distribution data analysis determines the 5 most erogenous zones for you
OrgasmO application ensures that she climaxes at least 5 times during the act

OK.. I might have been a little over ambitious with OrgasmO :-)

There you go. I hope I get to see these applications available soon. Which applications are you waiting for?

Love Shove And All That Bullshit...

2008-08-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

.. Or alternatively, Shove All That Love Up Your...

(A guest post)

When you sum it all up, Indian men have two psychological complexes which are complemented by the female of the Indian species equally well. But me being me, a prominent sexist and popularly titled MCP, I shall show you everything only from the male side of things, you do the substitution. For instance, when the man is doing his hero thing, the woman is doing her daddy thing.

1. The Hero complex
2. The Oedipus complex

If you look closely most Indian men at the beginning of courtship are always trying to save the woman. They're always like, "Are you in trouble? What happened? This That, come let me help you cross the road, go against your father's will, he's not the father of your life... more this and more that!" The man is known to go to the extent of trying to convince the woman she's in trouble only to save her. Yes of course, there are times when this backfires but the corollaries are not important to the theory.

And then they put on a cape and fly down (which they can't) so they tarzan swing down to help.
Post initial courtship phase: The hero phase causes sudden exhaustion of all the adrenaline they've gathered over a dry spell. They suddenly realise that their knees are weak and they need mumma back! But then of course they have to maintain hero image in front of girl, so they end up treating girl like mumma!

Just like the phases of grief, one doesn't always go through all the phases of courtship. Sometimes they tend to skip one or the other phase depending on how well the woman has adapted. Sometimes one phase lasts much longer than the other. Sometimes both of them together last as long as a lifetime. Sometimes women enter the man's life as second mummas only. Sometimes the men keep saving the woman forever and the woman keeps getting into trouble purposely to keep their attention.

Anyways, the point being once they run out of stories which dont fall into either of the above phases, there starts a conflict of interest. During this phase of conflict, the couple --
A. Either they really fall in love
OR
B. Starts cheating on each other/breaks up.

The third and most popular option is addiction. This where the post-courtship phase begins in case they don't fall in love, they get addicted to whatever hell one is putting the other through OR both are putting each other through. Even fear is a hormone one can get addicted to. Unlike A and B, the third option is not exclusive, it may come with packets of A and B as well.

Falling in love is very rare and tough because that would mean they'd have to accept how stupid they were during courtship. Heroes and Sons don't accept they're stupid. A damsel-not-in-distress and a mother will NEVER EVER accept that either.

So the ultimate question in all these relationships is: Once the drama dies, who will save them? Is this lack of drama another universal name for relationship? Some questions unfortunately can't be answered by mankind. Though one can always derive immense pleasure from this all when one is a third person viewer. If you're a first person experiencing it all, then the sex better be good and worth it.

Thus ends a lecture on Male-Female Non-Platonic Interactions. Thank you, don't come again...

Look Who Is Smiling

2008-07-19T01:58:00.000-07:00

There are 2 movie sequels that I have out most respect for. The first is the second installment to every teenage boy's wet dream franchisee, Star Wars : The Empire Strikes Back where one of the biggest badass in movie history Darth Vader reveals to Luke that he came into this universe (can't say "world" here) from his loins! The other movie would be good ol' Arnie coming back from the future to save the teenaged John Connor in Terminator 2

Add Dark Knight (2008) to the rolls and that too right at the top! All because of one guy and I am not talking about the Batman

Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in applauding the late Heath Ledger in creating the most dangerous and vile villain of all times, the Joker. Jack Nicholson had created the benchmark when he enacted the Joker's role in the Michael Keaton starer Batman (1989). Heath has not only upped the bar, but he pretty much ensured that the Joker is never going to be part of any Batman movie ever. He has made this role his very own. It is said that when Heath was preparing himself for this role, he got himself locked up in a room with food being pushed in from the bottom of the door. And as if taking his reel character to real life, he played a cruel joke on everyone when his lifeless body was discovered in his apartment early this year. Possible cause of death: overdose.

What he has done to the Joker character is beyond words. The Joker has always been the greatest enemy of the Batman, his nemesis and also his biggest fear. The Batman is feared by everyone, even by his peer superheroes and for good reason. He is the only hero without any "super"powers and has to rely only on his (in)human abilities to survive and take down the bad guys. One false move, loss of concentration for one split second and the cowl and cape will be part of some museum. He is the guy who single handedly can take down the entire league of superheroes if he feels that the world wasn't safe with them, with the greatest superpower in the universe, the mind and tactics. And when the Batman fears someone, it makes you stand up and take notice.

The Joker has killed not one, but two of Bruce Wayne's (Batman's identity in the real world) extended family. Other than Rachael Dawes (the movie character), the other victim is none other than Jason Todd, who was Batman's crime fighting partner Robin when Tim Drake (the original Robin) feeling he needed to get out of his mentor's shadow and find his own identity, abandoned Wayne Manor and left Gotham City. And in true Joker method, he makes the Batman watch while killing Jason in the graphic novel, A Death In The Family (1989).

What Ledger has done is to take all the ingredients assimilated from all characterization of the Joker and added his own variety of insanity to it. The slithering of the tongue in reptilian fashion, the smacking of the lips in anticipation of a tasty and satisfying kill, the desire to put up a grand show of mayhem, the spine chilling grin and the explanations for his physical and mental scars makes you forget that it is a Batman movie and he is the villain. And he is quite frank in admitting that he is an 'agent of chaos' and his dastardly acts are experiments to prove that we are essentially evil from inside and all pretensions of love and brotherhood go for a toss if the right buttons are pressed. He almost succeeds and while doing so, he ensures that the movie belongs to him and Batman and even a major league villain like Two-Face are mere spectators to his orchestra of pure evil. May his soul rest in peace

Chris Nolan has resurrected the entire Batman franchisee from the farce that it had become with the George Clooney starer Batman and Robin (1997) and how to take it further is the question that must be also bothering him now that he has pretty much created the best movie of the decade so far.

My forecast:

Top 3 highest grosser of all times
Best Actor (Academy Awards) - Heath Ledger
Best Director (Academy Awards) - Chris Nolan
Best Movie (Academy Awards) - Winner or close very close runners-up

Ohh, and btw they are coming out with Terminator 4 - Salvation. This triology will focus on John Connor's fight against the machines and guess who is playing John? Check out the trailer below to find out. If you are too lazy, then it is Christian Bale :-). Now he is no more an independent movie actor, but in top league with the Batman and Terminator franchisees

Tips For A Successful Underwear Management

2008-07-12T07:17:00.000-07:00

For most guys, specially the college going ones, one of the chief worries in life is how to derive the maximum mileage from their underwear without having to clean them. Prior to college, mom would have taken care of the laundry and post college, sex (or the desire to have sex) with girlfriends and wives will force them to wash their underwear rather frequently.

The same problem is faced by frequent fliers and people with jobs which require them to be on the road a lot. Either you can carry with you a separate bag full of clean underwear, purchase new stock at the nearest convenient stores or wash them on the go. This is all fine, but they present a new set of challenges. A bag full of underwear can get u arrested as an "underwear thief" suspect or worse.. a sexual pervert at the airport. Constant purchases of underwear will not be feasible until the time your company starts reimbursing them under the head "Travel Hygiene". Washing on the go is a big pain and it gets worse if they don't dry by the time you are ready to go. Wet underwear will ensure you get fungal infection and you can pretty much look forward to a "scratching session" while making that presentation to that client of yours.

The challenge for a successful strategy to get the maximum mileage out of a pair of underwear was put forward by a cousin of mine who recently started a micro-insurance company which required him to travel to villages for weeks at a go, without requiring him to do anything of the above options. Another smart cousin of mine came up with a four pronged solution to make a pair of boxers last a minimum of four days without feeling "overtly unclean".

Day 1 (The Straight Dude):
Wear your clean pair boxers the normal way. Make sure that you have applied your anti-perspirant and a dab of anti-fungal dusting powder on your privates. Take extra care not to dirty it much, especially after peeing or using the loo. Also take extreme care not to engage in extreme physical exertions so as to prevent your pubic area from sweating profusely. If you have to engage in sports, then go commando (without underwear).

Before retiring for the night, iron (if possible) boxers and hang in an airy place.

Day 2 (Revolving Reverse):
Remove boxers from hanger and put them on backside front. It means that on the second day, the back of your boxers will face the front. Repeat all precautions from the first day with one more addition. From the second day onwards, before getting physically intimate with your partner, remember to remove your underwear before the romp or at least turn off the lights during foreplay (if you like to keep them on).

Repeat ironing and airing exercise.

Day 3 (The Inside Outsiders):
This is the most crucial day and if you manage a incident free third day, you have almost made it home. On this day, you wear your boxers the normal way, except that you will have to wear it inside out. Now you understand the importance of ironing and airing them every night. Chances are that a little stink will emanate from your underwear (at least for the newbies). You will now have to resort to a good deodorant. You are also advised to restrict all your sexual romps to the bathroom, while bathing and showering

Repeat ironing and airing exercise.

Day 4 (Revolving Reverse II)
The last day. Extra anti-perspirant, anti-fungal dusting powder and deodorant recommended. Wear your inside out boxers reverse side (from the third day). Repeat all standard precautions. This is by far the longest day of the experiment and also the most uncomfortable. Stay away from sex that night and spend that time in the shower instead.

Put boxers in an airtight zipper pouch and send to laundry

Disclaimer: This is an experimental procedure yet to clear regulations. So if you decide to follow it, please do it at your own risk and don't sue us.

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Evolution??

2008-05-08T03:39:00.000-07:00

Nothings changed really... except maybe for the learning that I shouldn't sing :-)

Why Men Can't Wear Heels

2008-04-05T02:08:00.000-07:00

There are few things more beautiful than the sight of a woman who can walk in heels. It is one of the most painful things that you can do to your heels and ankles, but I must say that if done well, the clippitty-cloppity of those heels can be pure poetry in motion. No matter what your body shape, type or fashion sense, if you can master the art of walking in heels you will still look extremely hot! (at least in my book)

Little girls are initiated into this ritual quite early in their lives, when they try out their mothers' make up kit and shoes while MOST boys are busy killing each other with their toys. This brings us to the question why men can't wear heels. Most obvious answers would be:

Men already have the height advantage, so adding a few inches won't really make any difference unless you are Salman Khan
Most manly activities will be hampered if you wear heels. Try playing catch in the office wearing heels
You don't want to wake up every morning and quarrel with the women in your family on who gets to wear those nice heels to office that day
Men are not exactly your most graceful creatures and the addition of heels will make us look even more ugly

All the above answers are very correct, but they are all answers to "Why men WON'T wear heels" rather than "Why men CAN'T wear heels". The answer to the latter question, my dear friends lies in the structural differences between physiques of men and women.

It is a fact that women have stronger lower bodies and men have stronger upper bodies. To demonstrate this phenomenon, walk into any gym into your neighborhood and observe the workout routine of the males and the females. You will have the women concentrating more on their already stronger lower bodies with exercises like running on the treadmill, steppers and cycling/spinning while the men concentrating EXCLUSIVELY on their upper bodies!

Most women have this fear of working with weights on their upper bodies as they feel that they will grow huge ugly muscles. They don't understand that it is essential to work with light to medium weights to strengthen and tone their upper bodies. In the case of the men, the situation is worse. All of them want to attain the "V' shaped figure and they would religiously do their bench presses, bicep curls, tricep pulls, abdominal crunches and shoulder lifts, while totally neglecting their chicken legs. The end result is something like Johnny Bravo (see pic). It is a V-shape alright, but in this case, the V doesn't stop at the waist. It extends all the way to the feet.

Leaving aside gym habits, this basic difference in the physique of the sexes make it difficult for men to wear heels. Due to their weaker lower halves, it is very difficult for men to balance their heavier tops in high heels. Even if they manage to balance themselves, the awkwardness in their gait becomes obvious. In case of women, it becomes much easier as they already have stronger lower bodies.

So the next time you see guys in heels, please spare a second look at them to honor their bravery in going against nature :-)

A Front/Rear Side Story

2008-03-07T03:52:00.000-08:00

Indians like to do it with their hands and water. Westerners use paper. I am sure you have by now guessed what I am referring to. If not, then I am assuming you do neither so please feel free to tell us more about your technique

Of course I am referring to the cleaning of the exit after the dump. No matter where you do it, in the open, on the side of the railway tracks, in your home loo or at your buddy's loo, I am sure you do clean up after the act.

The point of discussion, however is not the loo. It is the ritual of cleanup after the act. If you are an average Indian, it is pretty simple. You pick up a mug of water, roll up your sleeves of your left hand (in case you are lefty, then the right hand), and then with a rather unassuming air, splash water on the exit orifice and with a daft movement of the fingers clean it up.

So what's the interesting part you ask? well my dear friends, here lies the catch. Has it ever occurred to you to spare a moment and think about the direction from where you splash water on your orifice? You will say "Its pretty simple. Everybody splashes the water from the front/rear !!". Wait a minute, did you just say front/rear? Yes my friend, you can splash water from both directions.

Now I will share with you some of the findings of a rather scientific research and study that I conducted way back in college. I went around with a questionnaire and polled some 300 odd students, ladies included, on the splashing direction habit of people and to summarize:

The number of people who splashed water from the rear is exactly the same as the number of people who splashed water from the front! It is one of those unexplained mysteries of the world. Nobody knows why, but it is evenly balanced. The day one faction outnumbers the other, it will be doomsday for sure!
90% of people who participated in the poll didn't even know that you can splash water from the other direction!
95% of the participants felt that splashing water from the other direction was practically impossible and couldn't understand why anyone would do it
50% of couples polled had opposite directions. It came as a major shock for all the couples
People of different directions (amongst the same sex) were more likely to become good friends.
Only a rare 1% polled were unidirectionally, which meant that they were adept at splashing water from both directions. All of them were high achievers in their field of study. Sign of genius??
Left handers are more likely to splash water from the front, while right handers are pretty much adept at both directions
A high 70% of the ladies polled, did it from the front.
Western potty users are more likely to do it from the front

So if are through reading this post, ask your neighbor about his habits and I assure you, you will be surprised with his answer and he will be too when you tell him your side ;-)

As for me, I do it from behind :-)

See you guys after my holiday!

Whassup Yo?

2008-03-05T01:16:00.000-08:00

Long time no see. If you are wondering if Trashhead00 is dead, sorry to disappoint you, I am still alive and kicking.

Without much ado, some things I have been up to lately, explained with graphics for those of you who can't read

Working Out

Its official. Biceps measure 14 inches now. Previous record was 13 inches in college. I still remember that year's vacation when mom got scandalized seeing over sized arms (as compared to the rest of my body). She put me on a strict diet thinking that I was getting obese! This time around, I am also working on my chicken legs so as not to give my mom another shocker when I visit her this month.

Biker Boi Valentino

Been free riding (on my game console). I always fake about being a biker. In my defense I am good at it (the faking part). So much that I got a gift of a scaled Honda Valkyrie model. Yay...!

RokSta

Guitar Hero 3, Rockband... bring it on boyZ.. give me my guitar. I can manage to do a shriek too in Rockband. Total paisa-vasool

Kode5

Mega Gaming event. Read more about it here
It was interesting because of this video. Just switch the volume and watch it. You will find me describing a terrorist attack I just saw

Punch Punch

Ran out of punching bags in the office. So now we use colleagues

Beauty Treatment

What is the fuss all about? I tried it out. No change though. Same old fugly me

I am finally going home after almost 2 years! Please do drop in your wishlist in the comment box. Hometown is in the North Eastern part of the country

Social "Security" Network

2007-12-24T21:20:00.000-08:00

Just 6 more days and it will be 2008! Another year went by in a blaze of glory and another digit to be added to all forms asking for your age. Since everyone will sit back and take stock of the year, how can this blog not do so? Of all the popular trends for the year, the madness surrounding 'Social Networking Websites' takes the cake for me.

I have been on such sites for more than 3 years now and it still continues to intrigue me on how the madness of scrapping, tagging, Fun Walling, Hotness Quizzing (and so on..) doesn't seem to be giving up. And it just gets worse. You open your inbox and there are like 100 mails asking you to join "Save the Yeti Andolan" network, make 'friendships' with Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Monica Belluci (going by their profile pictures) and so on. Just last week I was reading the editorial of a very popular youth magazine which starts with how studies have shown that social networking sites decrease productivity at workplaces and educational institutes. It then goes on to advertise its own recently launched platform for social networks! Talk about misplaced messages.

This cultural phenomenon has grown so big that unless you are on the popular sites, you don't really have a life. Now there is this mad rush to add more friends, join networks, turn friends/contacts into werewolves and vampires and take 'likeness' quizzes. Recently these sites have also featured in criminal investigations, providing 'clues' and 'insights' into the victims and perpetrators alike. Now the big question is what makes us network socially, via websites or otherwise?

Last week I met up with a senior from college who is a hot shot consultant now and another gentleman who is the CEO of a big internet portal and this was the perfect place to throw up this question. The idea was to strip down the idea of 'networking' to its basics and what makes it tick.

Humans have always been social animals and we have had social networks since the time one smart ancestor realized that it is much more easy and convenient to hunt, gather and stay safe with a group than solo. And very soon, these networks started signifying power and status within the group. It is therefore not surprising that throughout our human history the leaders, kings, conquerors or simply the ones with the most number of mates, were people who were able to use these networks to their benefit. Times have changed, but the significance of social networking hasn't, although the nature of it has evolved. Now you do business networking or join networks online. But the intention remains the same. Survival!

Social networking and self-survival?? Did you miss something? No! you didn't. Social Networking has always been for survival and it will continue to be so. Being at the top of the social hierarchy definitely increases your chances of surviving a calamity. Is it a wonder why kings and political leaders get so much protection while commoners like you and me pay taxes to maintain that status quo? The more popular or revered you are in your social network, it will ensure that people will protect you in case of any danger or calamity. And this survival instinct is inside each one of us and this drives us to 'add' more friends to our list and be part of a large network of people. This is the logic behind the popular saying 'Safety in numbers'.

How about the friend'ship' makers you ask? Well, it is again observed that people with access to a larger network will have a much better chance of finding more mates and thus ensure that his/her kind lives on. This is the eternal hope that drives these 'ship' makers

Studies have shown that primates have an average number of social contacts for whom they 'feel' attached. Like monkeys will be very tuned in to the needs and feelings of the 30 closest members around them. For humans, the number is around 300, with the individual being at the center and relatives and friends forming the surrounding groups. Casual acquaintances form the periphery. The closer the person is to you, the more intense is the feeling. This is the reason why you are devastated by the demise of a parent or a close friend. After that the intensity decreases. You might not be so much saddened by the death a person who lived in the same lane as you and lesser for a person who lived in the same city and very less or no change in feelings when you hear the demise of a person who lived 1000 miles away from you. (Thanks to Angelo for this absolutely useless piece of information)

Still find it hard to digest the entire concept? Think of a person who decides to move away from social network and live as a loner. Very soon he will develop emotional problems and there will no guarantee that he will be taken care of or provided for. And in illness, he is on his own and the only time he might be noticed is when the rotten stink coming from his apartment becomes too much for his neighbors to handle.

And lastly, all that business networking is just for one simple reason, to survive in the corporate jungle.

OK, time to go now. Have to scrap back my friends and take some iLike quizzes. Caio..

PS: A very merry Christmas to our dear Dimpy who we miss very much :-)

DJ Whosane @ Dance Ganesha

2007-09-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

If there is one festival which can bring Mumbai to a halt (other than celebrating the return of the victorious Indian National Cricket team from the T20 World Cup 07), it is the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. Lord Ganesha is considered to be the Remover of Obstacles in Hindu Mythology and is one of the most widely worshiped gods in India.

This is my first year in Mumbai and it provided me with an opportunity to be part of the festival that defines Mumbai, in the form of the Dance Ganesha Festival @ Mahalaxmi. This festival is in its 9th year and is a favorite haunt of a lot of celebrities who want to party as well as celebrate the elephant god. This party happens on the last day of the festival when all Ganesha idols are immersed in the sea.

The party is hosted on top of a huge trailer truck which travels all the way from Mahalaxmi to Hajji Ali, with a DJ spinning his tracks and a 100 odd super exclusive invitees on the trailer partying and dancing. The DJ was Whosane and the whole experience can't be written about, only experienced. So without much ado lets move onto the videos of the event.

Wear Clean Underwear @ Mondays

2007-09-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

So lads and laddies, it is that time of the week again when Mundane Mondays follow Sizzling Sundays and you can't do anything about it. You spend the entire weekend partying and chilling out and the rude reality of your work/study targets strikes you the moment the alarm bell wakes you up on Monday. At that precise moment, your very existence seem pitiful and you want to go back to the comforts of your mother's womb. But since life must go on, you are best advised to go about it without much complaints. However, if you are still complaining I will give you some other worries to take your mind off your work/study assignments. They won't cure you of your Monday morning blues and might even make it worse but at least it is comforting to know that there are bigger problems in life than just your work load.

So think you can handle some more worrisome facts about the world around you? brace yourself for the ride

Mushrooms are a tasty and edible variety of fungi. There are however, poisonous varieties of fungi which look exactly like mushrooms. So if you are looking forward to that mushroom masala curry for lunch, just remember that the people who separate the non poisonous variety from the poisonous have the same eye for differentiating between the two like you. So please go ahead and enjoy your lunch

So your brain likes to escape to your 'happy place' every Monday, which is usually an exotic vacation island somewhere? And if you are lucky enough, you might even make the trip sometime in your life. But please remember that there are approximately 6912 living languages in the world today (last count) and in how many of them can you say, "Take my wallet, but please don't kill me!"? And since you know how nasty human beings are, you better start now

OK, you have learned quite a few languages and have even managed to book your holiday to some exotic place in the middle east and best of all you have been invited by a real Sheik to dine in his tent in the middle of the desert. What is the downside? You might be served a whole roast camel (no idea how they taste like and camels are BIG!)

So you have managed to evade the roast camel dinner complaining of stomach ache, but how do you avoid all the leftovers for God knows how many days? (I don't have the data on that)

So you take pride in being the eldest in your family and the command you have over everyone? Think again, coz scientific studies have shown that the youngest sibling in the family will outlive everyone else. So if you are not the youngest one, sorry mate.

So you have worked your ass off for the entire year, without learning new languages and postponing that trip to the middle east? This will most likely ensure a hefty raise that year. But it might not be so good. The universe has a limited life expectancy and scientists can only guess when it is going to die. And what if the universe decides to go bust on the very day you receive your new paycheck?

OK, the universe doesn't go kaput and you have your new salary. With inflation and increasing interest rates, you will realize that the additional money isn't helping much. In most cases cash outflow will overtake cash inflow by around 10% (more on that figure in a later blog). This is the reason why although your earnings go up every year, your savings doesn't

You have managed to save money despite everything. Congratulations! But as the great Murphy once said, needy relatives/friends are in direct proportion to your savings. So it is back to square one for you (OK this is not Murphy, but my own law. but it does make sense no?)

Even if all the above worries don't work for you, you still have to go to the loo every morning don't you? The world's most poisonous variety of frogs, the Golden Poison Frog, is only 5 cms in length, small enough to slip into most drainage pipes. What if they have invaded your home drainage system and are waiting for you to sit on the loo to jump out and bite your you-know-what?? This is my biggest personal Monday worry.

What is the point I am trying to make? well, just want to say that life is not that bad and a day in a week shouldn't stop you from living for the moment.

Ohh.. and yea if you are still wondering about the title of this post, studies have shown that vehicle drivers have a lot of Monday blues/rage and you are most likely to be hit by a speeding car on a Monday. The last thing you want to happen at that time is to be seen in dirty old underwear with bullet holes under your outer designer wear. If you die, it is not so embarrassing, but if you survive you will have to live all your life with the image of all the cute nurses in the hospital going giggly over your dirty underwear. If you have friends who are doctors, just listen to their 'funny' stories and you will know what I am saying.

BMW Car Art @ Mumbai

2007-09-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

A BMW is a piece of art in itself and so when you have renowned artists using these beauties as their canvas, the result can be pure brilliance. This, in brief is the concept behind the acclaimed BMW Car Art Collection

It all started in 1975 when auctioneer and racing driver Herve' Polain, in an attempt to make his BMW 3.0CSL stand out asked his artist friend Alexander Calder to alter its appearance. The result was so breathtaking that BMW decided to continue the experiment and so you had artists like Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol doing up BMW production cars with their artwork.

Since BMW is trying to enter the Indian market in a big way, it made sense to showcase these babies to car lovers here. This was the intention behind displaying two of the most popular Art Cars at the Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai from the 7th-16th of September 07. The cars in display were the ones done by Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

1977 BMW 320i Group 5 Racing Version by Roy Lichtenstein (1977)
Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) is considered to be one of the founders of American pop art. His early works range from cubism to expressionalism and by 1961 he started creating his pop art paintings. It was followed by caricatures of the "American way of life". Roy spent a lot of his life in New York

For this project, Roy wanted the lines he painted to be a depiction of the road showing the car where to go. In his own words, "The design also shows the countryside through which the car has traveled. One could call it an enumeration of everything a car experiences - only that this car reflects all of these things before actually being on a road". The oversized "Benday Dots" are characteristic of Lichtenstein's world famous paintings of comic strips.

Click on the thumbnails for a bigger view

1979 BMW M1 Group 4 Racing Version by Andy Warhol (1979)
Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is the quintessence of pop art. He started out as a commercial artist and was successful in holding his own exhibition in New York as early as 1952. In 1956 his work was acknowledged with the coveted "Art Director's club Award". His legendary concept of "Factory" was created in 1962. Warhol also did a lot of celebrity portraits and paintings of trivial objects.

Being the maverick that Warhol was, he decided to paint the car from the start till the end unlike his predecessors who worked on a scaled model and then left it to assistants to paint the final model. Quoting Andy "I have tried to give a vivid depiction of speed. If the car is really fast, all contours and colors will become blurred"

Click on the thumbnails for a bigger view

Scaled models of the other BMW Art Cars

Ash Chandler @ AMD Barcelona Launch Mumbai

2007-09-12T23:10:00.000-07:00

AMD recently unveiled its latest line of multi-core processors targeted chiefly towards enterprise solutions, code named Barcelona. With this launch, AMD hopes to recover lost grounds from Intel in the multi-core processor war.

The Mumbai launch happened at the ITC Grand Central in Parel and I had an invitation! (surprised? :P). The invitation mentioned cocktails followed by dinner, which was the chief attraction. Reached there by 8:30 PM and hooked up with quite a few people from the industry and all of us were there for one reason: food and drinks.

The event organizers, although had other ideas. They kept us hungry and thirsty for an extra 90 minutes with presentations by top honchos from AMD, Oracle, Novell and Red Hat, all trying to demonstrate how their products/services are Barcelona-ready and optimized. Damn! they could have codenamed their processor Bar-se-mat-lena instead of Barcelona!

However, fate did have a twist in the form of a short and sweet standup performance by desi actor and comedian Ash Chandler!! wow! for 10 minutes he did a really breezy act and made me forget the rats that were running inside my tum tum. His take on Intel was hilarious. Check it out

And yea, the food was not that bad!

Independence Rock XXII Finals - Day 2

2007-09-10T06:55:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for Day 1 content, kindly click here

First of all a huge round of applause to Farhad Wadia for his never ending support to Indian Rock year after year and also to event organizers E18 for the wonderful show. I found the sound to be much better than the Iron Maiden concert in Bangalore

Reviewer: Jugal
Media: Sukamal

Dream Out Loud
The band that started the second day was Dream Out Loud. The band exhubed great energy on stage, and working on an all original set is not very easy with the rock prudes from Bombay yet they managed to get people jumping. Also the first band of the day has always been received with a strange sorta skepticism by most people. Their guitarist had people raving and he also did the tongue trick :D

Them Clones
Next up were the band that I was waiting to watch ever since I had seen them perform at Mosh Mania two years back: Them Clones. This is one of the only hands that has a no frills attitude. You don't see long hair, you don't see naked bassists and drummers, you don't see a vocalist sporting a beard or jumping around. Of course a similar attitude was shown by the Bangalore band Caesar's Palace on Day 1 as well but that I hadn't discovered till that day. Even the Them Clones vocalist could pass for the boy next door who had ended up in the wrong lane because he had come to watch a movie at Fun Republic. But the man commands the crowds, I've seen it before and I saw it again. Their guitarist again, no real frills, enjoys playing, his composure is calm even in the craziest of Morello solos. Yet, the band radiate energy. Was a great experience as they went on to do a great set which blended both their originals and their trademark famous covers: Disturbed's Stupify, RATM's Killing in the name of. Though my favourite's alwas gonna be their originals: My life & Zephyretta (though someone must check the pronounciation of this name for them).

Pin Drop Violence
PDV, The king of the mosh band. They started quite a terrific mosh but most fans were disappointed in their performance. There seemed to be something missing as most people were heard saying. I actually heard someone say, "They did a better gig at Razz." They had the moshers eating outta their hands. I had meanwhile walked back for a drink and was sitting on the sparse grass while this got done with. This is something I didn't do on Day 1.

Oldies
Dinosaurs of Rock, don't really have much to say about them. I don't know the name of the guy who came up first but remember seeing him on Movers and Shakers performing with the Rubber Band. He did a spoof called Another Rides the Bus. Then came in the non-Dinosaur female vocalist Shazneen for the evening who looked like she had been possessed by Robert Plant, no complaints. Up next was Rajiv (once again my memory fails me) as he started off with Lynyrd Skynyrd and wrapped it up with a cover of Coming back to life. The best line he said on stage was to the bottle throwers, "Somethings never change." with reference to the changing music, changing crowds. Fahad Wadia came next, successfully had the crowds moving with a successful cover of Pink Floyd's Time and then terrible covers of Hoochie Koochie Man and some AC/DC number. Last up was the crowd's favourite Dinosaur and my least favourite: Gary Lawyer. I'm happy he didn't get to perform his original because the cops barged in. He started with Creed's My Sacrifice and then did The Doors' LA Woman. And well that wrapped another evening.

Though, I didn't feel as sated as I felt on Day 1, still no regrets over the 200 rupees spent. I think I was just happy, I got to see Them Clones perform again.

Independence Rock XXII Finals - Day 1

2007-09-09T23:06:00.001-07:00

Brought to you by the dynamic duo, Jugality-Trashhead.

Review: Jugal mdY
Media: Sukamal

I know that the Headbangers and Moshers Union will kill me for this but the first day of the 22nd Independence Rock was the most fulfilling rock experience in the last 5 I-Rocks that I've attended in my little life. The last year I actually did not go to I Rock, didn't bother to see what the line-up was because I just presumed that it was all going to be Death Metal, Black Metal or something Metal with all the wannabe moshers running here and there - may be the bands are good at what they do, but I kinda need a break. Let me just get ahead with the bands now than keep ranting:

Black
The event kicked off with Black, a Bombay based band deriving heavy influences of grunge. They were the last band to sound check so their sound checked OC (Newspaper boy, if I'm not mistaken) became their first song as the crowds had started to trickle in. The most memorable song that they performed was their cover of Pearl Jam's Black and it showed that it was their favourite song (as the vocalist had claimed.) The band had great timing and a terrific live presence, with the lead vocalist even jumping off the stage, off the barricade and moshing through the crowd as well.

Boomerang
The next were a band from Mizoram called Boomerang. The band came through as a little unlucky with the guitarist's strings snapping right at the first number which was RATM's Bulls on Parade. That took a bit of their time while the band just stood there on stage like lame ducks waiting for the string to be replaced. Despite the crowd shouting out to them, "Play some bass!" or "Do something!" Their music had the crowd raving and illiterates calling them Nepali. You know it's strangely funny but no matter how much we accuse the rest of the world, I realised how stupidly racist Indian youth is. Most of them couldn't understand and stand the fact that a band who they hated because of their physical appearance actually put up fucking good act. To add to that: Bombay is the most wannabe rock scene ever. Coming back to Boomerang, they've got this great reggae and blues sound to their rock and they probably gave me the most memorable extended live version of Killing in the name of. Their original "Who do you wanna be?" was once again nothing less than terrific. One wished that the glitch didn't happen and they had gotten to perform their whole set.

Half Step Down
Next up were Half Step Down, starting off on a very different sound from their predecessors. A very mixed influence was visible in their sound which for a while had me listening closely. But by the time they reached their third song, I was a fan. One of their originals "Overture to Outer Space" was a great number because of the piano solo prelude. I wish they had more live energy. Most of the band just stood there like mechanical dolls doing their thing. The guitarist had come pretty funkily dressed in a cowboy hat and three-fourths but all that attention drawn to him seemed like a waste.

After Burn
Following Half Step Down, was the worst band of the evening in my opinion. After Burn was the not-so-good band in the terrific line up. I think the problem lied with the fact that their vocalist was just not cut for the scene. The only good thing I could see coming from the vocalist was the cover of Pearl Jam's Animal. The rest of the band though sounded perfect. Their originals were the worst in the lot so far. They were very repetitive as individual songs by themselves, and almost all of them sounded the same to me at some level. Also, please someone tell the vocalist to NOT jump around so much if he is to go out of breath and stop singing.

Caeser's Palace
Caesar's Palace, I shall call them a brave band. Having guts to cover Tenacious D in front of a hostile wannabe rocker crowd is brave and courageous. Covering the song well and the moving on to do a lot of originals is another sign of bravery. Good bluesy sound to one of their songs had us foot tapping. Just like Boomerang and Half Step Down, CP also had beautiful change overs in the middle of their originals. Their originals went in all possible directions which was really impressive.

Scribe
Well, by now the wannabe junta was all restless. Too much of good rock had happened for their taste and they were all confused, they were dying to run amok in the jungle and cause some heavy chaos. And much to their rescue was Scribe as they kicked off on the heaviness. I quite enjoyed the heaviness for a while more so because that would complete the whole balance and make this day the most fulfilling I Rock experience yet. But then after two songs when the vocalist presumed he owned the masses, he switched over to a track by Del Amitri and he lost the crowd. Fame is a fickle friend. All his fans in the mosh started cussing him the next second. Right in the middle of the Del Amitri track they switched to something heavier, quite sad actually, SELL OUTS! The bad news is Scribe won the event. Not that I was rooting for any one band in particular but still, no Scribe.

Parikrama Pro Act
No doubt, the Indian Rock sounds have matured and gone to greater heights. This is the first time, I was so tired and full that I wasn't looking forward to the headling act of the evening which was Parikrama (quite surprising). Well Parikrama came in and Nitin started with his trademark, we-love-yous and we-can't-wait-to-get-started, I was worried if everything was going to fall into the same pattern as the last three times that I'd seen them perform in Bombay and would they play the same ten songs as everytime. Thankfully, NO. Though I feel sad that they didn't play Coldplay's Yellow or Pink Floyd's Coming back to life but was a good show nonetheless. They played a whole lotta originals. The track they wrote for Frodo and Sam, "Am I dreaming?" was probably the best track of the evening. Open Skies, their instrumental had some great variations this time. Nothing went about as usual with Parikrama this time so I sighed, feeling happy that I didn't just go to the back when they arrived on stage.

That's it folks. A really nice evening of rock music. Will put up the review and media from the second night later today. Keep checking