Newyork -- the torture film

Indian multiplexes went through a drought of good movies during this summer. Newyork (2009 film-hindi) was to end this, but it failing didn't achieve so. The film very touches a very different topic, human rights violations post 9/11 in US. Well film buffs would argue that "Khuda Ke Liye" (2008 film) is the source of inspiration, but givent that KKL was not released in India on a wide scale, the concept might be new for many. But nothing else is right in this movie. Acting is pathetic, storyline poor and dialouges range from worse to worst. And don't even try to apply any logic during the 2.5hrs.
Like john, i too had this strong urge to destroy the production house which made me go through the nightmare.

Jist: The message is good, the medium through which it is deliverd is BAD.
film rating: watch only at your own risk, not even for any eye candy.

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Khoon ka badla Planet

Shakal (the villian) kills Ram. same time Ram's son Vijay is born. Vijay wants to avenge his father's death. 25 years later, Shakal kills Raj's family and community people. Raj, eventhough a very rationale person, wants to avenge the loss. So grown-up Vijay and Raj team up to kill Shakal and out end to his evil intentions. A typical bollywood philum... No??
Now just go back and substitite Ram with George Kirk , Vijay with James T. Kirk , Shakal with Nero and replace the director with a firang, add some sci-fi physics concepts, imaginative weapons, nice visual graphics, with some love angel thrown in between and resurrect a hollywood franchise. Now that's Startrek (2009 film) for you. Had expected great storyline but apart from the sets and the visual graphics, the movie was as good as a bolywood flick.
Let's see how transformers-2 turns out to be....

Airtel - worst customer support

An year ago, when my roommates and i were discussing about the best broadband service in Chennai, Airtel and BSNL were the only two names in our list. Being skeptical of BSNL's service, we went for Airtel, but turns out that Airtel is no better, if not worse. A simple complain of router not working takes 3 days to attend to and after that replacement of faulty router takes more than 1o days. http://bit.ly/lRdZi. And not just that, even after the 10 days, customer support informs that new router will be available only after 10 more days as Airtel has ran out of stock. ow wait a minute. Is this the same airtel we talking about which wants to merge with MTN? A company which can't even keep track of its inventory wants to go global!!!
Even if we assume that the company has ran out of stock, the customer support doesn't even offer any solutions to the issue. I offered my services to personally go to the market and buy a router onbehalf of airtel, but the airtel guys were adamant on only one thing "saar, we'll replace it sometime next week" or "i've written it down, and will forward it to back office". One guy even pleaded, telling me that he is just only a call center employee and it depends on back desk to get a replacement. Well for gods sake, let me take this opportunity to tell airtel and all other companies, we don't care if it's back desk or front desk, that's your problem. For us, customer care is the only face of the company.
But Airtel guys did accept one of my suggestions, and that too w/o delay. Termination of account. Hope they do this one in time.

ps. airtel complain number is : 20432964 for chennai circle

vandu, yardu.. muuru.

Life has suddenly come to a standstill.... I'm the same as an year ago, doing the same thing, surrounded by pretty much the same people (and if you don't feel the same, then enjoy the coll life). But then, I have lived 1 full year in Chennai... My dear friend chex went ahead and nominated me for Limca book of records. Why not Guinness? well apparently foreign liquor is banned in TN. and i don't like the local MGM-vodka. so happy with Limca....
My claim to the feat might seem unreasonable, more like the price for chappatis here. But then even our soldiers get a standing ovation, with some medals here and there, when them come back from their annual stay at siachein or Thar. I can atleast get a pat on the back.
Although my stay in this suburb-cluster has been mostly confined to air facades (my word for air-conditioned places) at office/home  I did get very few chances of exploring the city (read when not sleeping). the most important thing of all which i have learned is - do not expect this city to be like Mumbai or Bangalore or Hyderabad or Delhi or Pune or Ahmedabad or Indore (ok this one here only bcoz of blood ties) or any other indian city. this city resembles only one city, Chennai. Heavn't yet found the city soul. You know, like mumbai's soul is it's fast life, trains, highrises and beaches; ahmedabad/baroda's soul is it gujju culture, eat-outs on the road, navratri festival, the veg food etc... . But i havn't found anything for chennai. let's hope that i find it out within the next year or so.
But one thing which earns brownie points for chennai is that it doesn't have the perils of a metro. since the city is spread across, traffic congestion is minimal. Also cost of living is quite low compared to mum, blr, hyd, del. Period.

The city might be different and some may even dis-like it, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter much. coz "It's not the Journey, but the company which matters". With many friends leaving the city, the journey might become quite a bore in the next year, so planning to take up sailing to pass time.



ps: the blog title are the only tamil words i have learned , apart from definition of the word Sister
Sister - Often used to address figures where attempt was unsuccessful
courtesy : http://tamilslangs.blogspot.com/

Earth Hour... we need it, but just for an hour?

I'm sure that by now, either through fwds or your friends/colleagues or through the extensive media coverag,  you would have come to know about the "Earth Hour"  initiative. For the uninitiated, it's a publicity stunt by WWF to raise awareness towards climate change.
But do we need such an event. Symbolically the event will achieve a lot. Even if it doesn't reduce global demand for power, it at least makes people (esply those from the developed countries/cities where more power is wasted than consumed) standup and take notice of climate change. It's more like turning off lights to light our future (©, u know- just in case someone likes it). It might be a very strikingly different experience in the developed nation, but Indian cities won't have much trouble, coz we invariably have power outages, and that too for no less than an hour.
Instead of organizing such events, WWF should make people come to developing nations like India where they can see how people live w/o electricity, and that too comfortabely. Hope people learn from it, and don't waste electricity on as petty a thing like running for you.

Recession ka asar (Aftermaths of recession)

Well before u proceed any further, let me assure you that even though you feel that i am FULLY capable of it,  i have not authored the following piece of art. I have copied borrowed this from my friend harish… after not paying him the due amount… If you want to publish this poem, or would like to buy any of the author’s creations (past & future, if any) then i’ll b his manager…. njoi reading…

Dikh raha he recession ka asar !!
Dosto nein baatein karna kam kar diya,
Phone lagana band kar diya,
Pahle scrap to kiya karte the,
Ab to online aana bhi band kar diya !!
Ladkiyon nein itrana band kar diya,
Aankhe zameen se uthana band kar diya,
Pahle jin nazaron se kiya karti thi ghayal,
Un par kaazal lagana band kar diya !!
GF nein pyar se muskurana band kar diya,
Pahle le jaati thi har roj shopping,
Ab to ghar aana bhi band kar diya,
Hadd to tab hui jab usanein,

khushi mein khilkhilana bhi band kar diya ....

 

ps: some of my friends feel that i’ve been using too much of enng language off lately, say for eg like this poem….. but then… the question is .. “to B.E. or not to B.E.”