Three actors, each a heartthrob in his/her own right. A love triangle. Treading the grounds of terrorism. Giving out a social message. No extraneous song-and-dance routines. Yash Raj Banner. No big ticket cricket season to distract the moviegoers…

By the looks of it, director Kabir Khan’s New York was the kind of blockbuster Bollywood needed to relinquish itself from the economic recession and the two month long standoff between the producers and the multiplex owners. Except that it has failed to bust any blocks, yet.

Samir Sheikh a.k.a Sam (John Abraham), Maya (Katrina Kaif) and Omar Aijaz (Neil Nitin Mukesh) are the three, seemingly protagonists of the movie. They are the undergraduates studying at the New York State University, and classmates of each other. Sam is the sporty, attention seeking and intelligent guy who believes in enjoying life to the fullest. Maya is equally vivacious, and proudly proclaims that her mother will readily elope with Shahrukh Khan given the slightest chance. Omar, on the other hand, is a shy, “good boy” kind of a person who is new to the American brand of life, having moved in recently – all thanks to a scholarship. Both Sam and Omar secretly like Maya. And Maya secretly likes Sam. The two meet, get married, have a son, and they are off. Omar, on the other hand, is reduced to the sidelines – never to return in the lives of two of his best friends. Or is it?

Years afterwards, Omar – who still lives in the city, gets some unexpected visitors. The FBI, out there to arrest him. Agent Roshan, played by now stereotyped Irrfan Khan, wants him to act as an undercover agent for them, because they suspect that Sam is running a terror camp in New York.

Omar, having reluctantly agreed, enters into the lives of Sam, Maya and Daaniyal (their son) yet again. And a curious turn of events follow up.

The story, written by Aditya Chopra, is intriguing – but the buck stops there. The first half of the movie, dealing with college, love, friendship et al, is almost weird to watch. There are too many awkward moments and the screenplay falters frequently, as if being paid to do that. You get sick of Hai Junoon, for it plays continuously for the first half an hour! John Kat and Neil are just too old to play collegiates. Further, the story keeps jumping up and down nine years apart, and this hasn’t been done tastefully, to the likes of, say Rang De Basanti.

The music is as good as Pritam can give you. As I’ve said, there are no song-and-dance routines in the film. The track tune jo na kaha is good, but I think that its a matter of time before someone unearths its original – if you know what I mean :P There are no tracks worth remembering, and certainly no tracks which strike a chord.

As far as the performance goes, John and Kat have done their usual, mediocre stuff, but Neil has done loads better. He brings out the inner conflict raging inside him superbly. However, he looks very childish in his avtar as a college student. Irrfan Khan has portrayed his role as an FBI officer well, owing to the fact that he has played a lot of similar roles (Slumdog Millionaire, A Mighty Heart to speak of a few). Like the music, there are no performances worth remembering, and certainly no performances which strike a chord.

On the whole, the movie has its strong points, but the weak and the mediocre ones clearly outstrip them. Watch it only if you are sick of waiting for movies to release, or if you are a really big fan of Irrfan Khan :P

Peeves the Poltergeist :

Oh Sanny Macsy! Sanny Sanny Macsy!

Teaching Maths Fancy and giggling like batsy!

Ever since I have dreamt of enrolling for a particular course from a particular pedigreed institution, I have dreamt of joining a particular institute located at a particular place in Delhi – only because of its particular reputation!

One of the particular reasons why I want to enroll for that particular course is that I want to do a particular kind of job for some years as a start up for my career. After that, I have thought of engaging in a particular kind of activity to satisfy me, both creatively and on financial grounds.

Again, one of the particular reasons why I have chosen that particular institute to join because I want to do my best under the best possible guidance, so that my chances of coming through that particular pedigreed institution become very high.

See, I’m such a particular person!

That particular institute is known as SANMACS; that particular place in Delhi is Karol Bagh. As far as that particular pedigreed institution is concerned, I ain’t telling you yet… Nazar lag jaayegi naa..!

As many of you might have noticed, the title of the post is a satirical variation of the name of the particular institute. Exactly what the intended satire is, I can’t tell you – because I have failed to notice it. If you do, please tell me, will you?

About SAMNACS, then.

Apart from located in Karol Bagh, which happens to be in the list of my favorite places in Delhi, SANMACS is the premier institute of MCA entrance coaching in India. (See, you got to know about that particular course too!).

SANMACS (as it claims), is responsible for sending a majority of students to a majority of pedigreed institutions offering MCA in India. Maybe because of that, I joined the institute five days ago. (I don’t want to miss out on my chances, you see!). Alas! For me, it is back to studies then. I enjoyed just 33 days of my precious holidays being busy in inefficient and unproductive somethings, which should be a World Record to say the least. (I’m known to waste an entire year in useless babble). With SANMACS, I’m back to finding out about of the chances of Q being S if some P’s are Q’s, and finding out the correct time after 23999999992 hours from now, and worrying about the wizard who lost his shoes while taking a dump. (Okay, I made the last one up!)

As far as my routine goes, the day starts pretty early, considering the fact that I have to wrestle with a sweaty crowd that greets me inside metro each morning as I make the short commute to that particular place in Delhi, and that I have to find time to read, write, listen, walk, study, and teach all at once. Teaching is over for now, and it does make the list considerably shorter. Yet, there are a hell lot of things to do. Sometimes I am amazed when I notice the fact that I always end up making myself terribly busy while being pathetically unproductive.

See you guys later.

PS : I know I shouldn’t have written that horrendous piece of verse above. But ever since I’ve read A Suitable Boy, I cannot help treating various situations with kakoli couplets, and the above one is by far the best I’ve been able to do! Hope you didn’t mind… :)

What do Facebook and Pirates have in common? The language!

I discovered this feature quite a while ago. It so happened that I was trying to pass some time by browsing web pages at random – about.com, howstuffworks, cnn.com and the likes. At that moment, I came across a wikipedia article on facebook features, and found out an easter egg!

You can change the default language of facebook to be English (Pirate), and ye scullywags’ll be speakin the tongue in a grain ‘o sand! See:

Even if you aren’t a Pirates fan, you can try out the application for the fun of it! Just notice how familiar things change when speaking pirate lingo:

Here, Home becomes Home Port, Profile becomes Me, Friends > Me Hearties, and Inbox > Bottle o’ Messages :)

Look at some more screenshots:

In the last screenshot, Pocket Parrot stands for Mobile Device! :D

I suggest that you give that pirate a try! Furthermore, I can be found on facebook at http://facebook.com/rajatarora.info/. Befriend me!

Ah, btw… If you are wondering what an easter egg is, find out all about them here.

Of jQuery and related

Contrary to my belief, jQuery is very easy to learn and implement. And to top that, it has a bubbling online community filled with people who are more than willing to help. In fact, most of such Open Source Projects have similar communities, including Linux. This presents a welcome change from the oh-so-snorty college authorities who are a real headache to deal with. I wonder why Microsoft is still making money? :P

The Cat and the Baby

The other day I was watching Amazing Baby Videos on Discovery. They were showing some really  humourous videos about babies and pets. But they were really thought-provoking. For instance, in a particular video, the pet cat wasn’t so happy about the presence of the baby in the household, so she occupies his toy chair as an act of revenge. When the baby approaches, she catches hold of his sleeve (thankfully she only gets hold of the shirt!).

Funny, eh? Apparently not. Even the host of the show felt so. Just like elder siblings, even pets need to be prepared for the young one’s arrival. If handled incorrectly, they can even harm the baby!

Of Reading and Writing

A Suitable Boy is turning better by the page (though I agree that the numerous procedures of law sprinkled all over it are a pain in the a** to read!). I’ve even started to identify with one of the characters in the book… Funny, eh? Plus the Chatterji family, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, Maan and Malati make reading the book quite enjoyable!

And I’ve been wanting to write a piece of fiction these days. But the problem is that most of the themes that occur to me invariably contain blood and gore – about which I don’t want to write. The only short story I’ve ever written, Sikandar, was along similar lines… dealing with a bomb blast in Delhi. Perhaps that’s why I’m unwilling to touch on that subject again.

Also, speaking of Sikandar, I’ll publish it here very soon. Its been long overdue!

Everything Else

Piano Lessons? Going good. Movie Watching? Atleast one everyday. TV? Not much. World Cup? Didn’t watch a single match. Roaming around? Next to none. Delhi’s heat? Untolerable. College? I’m better away from it. Love life? Still single! :(

Guess I’ll leave it at that!

Today, I I woke up late. Didn’t practice my piano lessons. Didn’t read A Suitable Boy. Then I took a longish nap in the afternoon!!! I didn’t start developing the theme for this blog. Gave a very very very late reply to Prabhjot’s technical questions. Didn’t help mom when she wanted to look up something on the internet.

In short, I didn’t do anything.

I am dreading the day when my sanmacs classes start. Then I’ll have to go there, study, AND do all the stuff mentioned above. I need to be more productive. Immensely more productive.

Shit!!

It will be a while before I get the hang of regular blogging all over again. Remaining out of action for extended periods of time does have its own set of problems, you see!

Wordpress 2.8 has been released. I’ve upgraded. I guess you should do that too.

My piano classes are going great! I’ve learnt the C-Major, and now I can play an oversimplified version of Hickory Dickory Dock with conviction! In tomorrow’s class, I’ll learn the F-Major. Lets see what’s in store for me. :)

People (read: Meeta Ma’am) were pestering Mohna to start a blog. She was unwilling. So I decided to take the initiative. I registered a blog for her. And now, our (read: Me and Meeta Ma’am) job is to cajole her to actually write something. She’s a bright girl. I believe she’ll come up with something interesting. Will keep you posted.

I’ve noticed that when I stop doing something, it becomes very hard for me to come back to it. About writing blog posts you already know. But you don’t know about reading them. Ever since I broke the vow of internet-celibacy (I took it due to the exams, you know), I haven’t brought myself to read Ritu’s and Freya’s blogs again. I don’t know why… but that’s the case. These two were the only ones I used to read with some gusto. Sorry guys, I’m working towards making myself click those links! Its not that I ain’t reading any blogs. The other day I was browsing IndiBlogger to look for some new, interesting ones. And I did get myself into reading some of them. But that’s about it. My old reading habits are destroyed.

Speaking of reading habits, I am currently reading A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. For those who know about it, don’t wince. For those who don’t, it is the sixth longest english novel ever – running for almost 1400 pages. I’ve reached the halfway mark in about 10 days. According to Meeta Ma’am (who has apparently read the whole thing), it is slow and dull. According to me, it is mildly interesting. I got it from the library.

Next up in my reading list is Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. I bought it from Om Book Shop. They are running a sale these days, with discounts ranging from 10-90%. This book is marked at 15%. The full set of Lord of the Rings is marked at 82%. Some obscure cookbook by some obscure author containing some obscure recipes is actually marked at 90%. You get the picture. The bestsellers are still expensive. The rest come cheap. The store has got a very good collection, though.

As you might have noticed, I have implemented IntenseDebate comments in Talking Talking. Happy Commenting! I’ve never liked Disqus, or WordPress’s very own commenting system.

These days, I’m watching a lot of things. Heroes, Prison Break, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, American Pie, Star Wars, Aliens, X-Men – you get the picture. Its my way of enjoying the holidays.

And I’m learning PHP too! But I guess more on that later.

• My best friend’s birthday came and went.
• IPL 2 started and finished.
• Barack Obama completed 100 days in office.
• The Lok Sabha Elections made huge news.
• The BSE Sensex got back on track.
• There were no movies in the multiplexes.
• And the ICC T20 World Cup started.

Where was I when all that was happening?

I was shut up in my room, buried in books and trying to study. Or rather trying to mug up. I WAS HAVING EXAMS!!

I wasn’t tweeting. My facebook statuses were few, far between and boring. And blogging was out of the question. I was secretly happy (sic) about the producers’ strike, coz there were no movies to distract me. During IPL I was rooting for Delhi Daredevils. So I didn’t watch the other matches. I did vote, though! It was the first time that I was allowed to do so, because the last time I was six days too young. And no, they didn’t ink my middle finger.

As about the exams – some of them went very well while the others didn’t, but that was exactly I was expecting. I’m happy. Perhaps that’s what matters.

Did I have something else to do while I was hooked up with textbooks? Well yes… I made my PC into a downloading machine! I downloaded lots of stuff, some of it NSFW, so that I have a free run during holidays. And that’s what I’m doing these days – having a free run! :P

And I started teaching! Oh yes… I am teaching an eighth standard guy about writing skills – you know… letters, postcards, reports and all that. And I am teaching his elder brother JAVA. Its fun, really! Having someone to command! :P

Now that the exams are over, I am doing what I really like. Sitting at home. Reading books. Learning to play the piano (yes!). And designing a new template for this blog.

My nephew Aarav turned one recently. He has grown to be a very cuddly baby! He has learned to wish sat-sri-akaal and does it everytime Akshay Kumar comes on TV in his Singh is Kinng avtar! He has learned to squat flies and kick the football. He even played holi this time! Just look at the picture…

Yes! My worst days are over! The infamous exam season of Delhi University has gone! I can be myself once again, and do things I like doing. I can kick those books goodbye for the time being. :D

Writing fiction is difficult still. You have to think about people – the characters and the story behind each of them. You have to think about the settings and the events – and how they progress towards the final goal. Sometimes fact and fiction are intertwined, when somebody weaves a fictional story about familiar, factual events. The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh is one such example, where the author has kept the setting honest – that of the British invading India and the neighboring countries. The characters of King Thebaw and his Queen are real too, but the rest of it is solely fictional.

How do you go about writing fantasy then, where everything needs to be invented?

As many of my Facebook friends know, I recently completed completed reading books from the Harry Potter series. Yes, I took my time alright – I read them back to back, you see – but that is not what I want to talk about. All I want to say is that JK Rowling has got a brilliant mind.

Harry Potter is not like a regular good versus evil stories where you just have to kill the bad man to end all the sin in the world, because killing Lord Voldemort in person will not help. He will still live, for he has ripped apart his soul in different pieces.

The high point of the series is that seemingly simple incidents that happen in the beginning have a big roles to play towards the end. It comes as a surprise to the reader, and increases the interestingness of the story manifold.

Speaking of the concepts JK Rowling has invented – they are splendid. Quidditch and the Flying Broomsticks, the Time Turner, the Invisibility Cloak, humans talking to snakes, horcruxes – the list goes on. She has spun an entire world – a parallel world alongside the normal. Everything is invented, and everything is entirely new. Heck, she has even written the Tales of Beedle the Bard – fairy tales for the wizard kids! Yet, it is not science fiction. Concepts described in the books will never bear out (although I heard about some scientists trying to make the cloak of invisibility). The genre is Fantasy, yet Fantasy has never seemed so real!

Harry Potter is one hell of a story. Though I expect most of you to have read it, those who haven’t – go for it!

Note: Don’t put me off for writing less and less. I know that I am updating after a long time. I was reading Harry Potter in the meantime, you see! :-)

Earth Hour 2009 is a unique way to show one’s responsibility towards the planet Earth. Get rid of Global Warming – Switch off the lights on 28th March at 8:30 PM (your local time) for one hour. Watch it make the difference!

More than 50 million people in 370 cities around the world took part in Earth Hour 2008. The lights went out at Sydney’s Opera House, Rome’s Coliseum, the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge. Even the Google homepage went dark for the day. Many major corporations took part including HP, Coca-Cola, and Morgan Stanley.To get a better sense of the magnitude and inspiring nature the event, please take a moment to watch WWF’s video about Earth Hour 2009 at www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjWD8pbK5t8.

Participating in Earth Hour is easy, fun and absolutely free. For more information and to sign up for the event, visit www.earthhour.in where you’ll find fun tips for what you and your family and friends can do when the lights go out.

I’m excited about Earth Hour and hope you are too. Don’t forget-March 28^th at 8:30 pm, switch off!

Anyway. I took the personality test on MyPersonality.info, and got categorized as an INFJ. Lets see what an INFJ is:

INFJs, making up an estimated 1% of all people, are the most rare type (males even more so). They are introspective, caring, sensitive, gentle and complex people that strive for peace and derive satisfaction from helping others. INFJs are highly intuitive, empathetic and dedicated listeners. These traits tend to act as a “tell me what’s wrong” sign on their forehead, hence the nicknames Confidant, Counselor or Empath. INFJs are intensely private and deeply committed to their beliefs. (source)

I am the rarest of all!

The second test, known as the Multiple Intelligences Test, categorizes you in one or more of the eight categories of intelligences. Mine? Intrapersonal and Linguistic.

Today has been a feel good day for me. First being a top inviter, and then being an INFJ – Confidant, Visionary! Why don’t you take the test too? Maybe you can post the results here!