A picture says it all

We have seen many humorous Nike images in many of our mail forwards, i think the picture above says it all and exposes the truth of child labor.

Spam Menace

Too many spam calls have being invading my phone since last 2 weeks, banks have got active again i think, calls for personal loans and investments have started again, also spam messages of all kinds also are invading my message inbox, i find myself cleaning up these spam messages most of the time from my mailbox and SMS inbox.

Movie Review: De Dana Dan and Kurbaan

Before the release of Kurbaan, comparisons were drawn to New York movie, the plot to the movie is more or less similar however the treatment of both stories is completely different, New York was a very casually handled movie, and the biggest stupidity i found in the story was that even Katrina's character knew that John Abraham who played Samir's character was involved in terrorist activity, she was actually waiting for him to leave the wrong path, rather than she doing anything, and New York's story was revolving around the story of 3 freinds and how their lives changed after 9/11 incident, whereas Kurbaan explores the plot on a completely different level.

There is no melodrama to the story, from both lead actors Saif and Kareena, i think Kareena had to salvage her credibility as a actress of calibre which had recently drawn flak to the roles she had done in Kambakht Ishq and Main Aur Mrs Khanna, The background score by Salim Suleiman is riveting and is a big plus for the movie, this movie tends to go a bit slow in some parts, debutant director Rensil D'silva has directed the movie well, sadly this movie has performed below average, at least in my view it is much better than New York.



The Second movie saw this weekend, this movie is a real torcher to your brains, don't even watch it for free if it airs on any channel and i know it would very soon, i spoiled my sunday and cursed myself for watching this movie, Akshay Kumar is on spree of delivering flop films after Chandni Chowk to China, he keeps arguing with the press and media that critics are going harsh on his movies, and one should not try to search for a logic in a comedy film, but his movies are crossing barries of stupidity film after film, this movie would evoke more frustration than comedy in you, towards the end of the movie you actually start scratching your head, figuring out how the story is evolving ( or you can say degrading), Priyadarshan repeats almost all actors which he has being working with in most of his comedy films, Katrina should now stop doing such movies just for the sake of being on good terms with Akshay, i could not relate her role and Sameera Reddy's role to the movie story, the only way you can sum up this movie is loud hamming with a large starcast and a common helter skelter running sequence in the end of almost all Priyadarshan comedy flicks, i wonder why they shot such movie in Singapore, where the major part of the movie was based in a Hotel, also Songs add to further pain in the story.

I had watched Blue on Colors and thought would somebody had really gone to the big screen to watch such flop flim, then i realised yes, people like me do get fooled watching  a movie like De Dana Dan on big screen.

Meteor Footage Video

Bumped upon a video on youtube which shows a bright Meteor lightning up the night sky on 18th of Nov this year, we have seen loads of meteor showers on the big screen with those special effect, this one really looks different.

Saif Kareena Tiff story Cooked up

What could have been a regular "nok-jhonk" which happens between every couple, has being cooked up into a story of rising tiff between Saif ali khan and Kareena, using words like "All is not well" , "Kareena angry with Saif"
some news reporter spotted kareena texting frequently on her cell, so this reporter zoomed his camera on to her mobile and found this is what Saif's SMS to Bebo reads - “Sorry baby... was talking about your role only.” Bebo replied, “You were rude, Saif! I am hurt.” watch out for more mindless news specials on Aaj Tak and India TV

It's true that stars and celebreties have no privacy these days and there are so many eyes and cameras ready to snatch the smallest moment of their private lives and splash it in media cooking up spicy and useless stories, which is evident from the controvery that has grown from a simple personal opinion expressed by Sachin Tendulkar which drew ire from the sena cheif, now even this has being published in Saamna and not a verbal attack from sena cheif in personal to sachin, so could this anger vented against sachin be drafted craftfully by the edit team of Saamna, and Sachin till date has never spoken anything on politics, he answered to a question which came from a reporter.

Read the saif-kareena article here, and a feature on controvery related to Sachin Tendulkar here

Mild Earthquake Hits Maharashtra

A Mild Earthquake on a Richter scale of 4.75 hits Koyna region between 6:45 pm - 6:50 pm today evening, tremors were felt in Mumbai, Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, as per some geologist who was on Star Majha was informing that the earthquakes sesmic waves could have travelled between 300-350 kms range based on the Richter scale it has struck, i did feel the tremors while i was on the couch playing with my kid.

Well i had watched 2012 today at Inox, Typhoon Phyan has sprung enough problems for us already, i am more worried about the drama India TV and Aaj Tak with some other cheapo channels would cook up, harping again and again on doomsday "SPECIAL" shows, even the gods would get frustrated and end the world before 2012, i hope they don't watch these channels up there.

November rains are unsual in India, however the climatic conditions in our country are no longer unaffected by the Global Warming phenomenon, it's just that we do not appreciate what we have right now with us, Wall-E movie was one good movie which again made us realize how proud are we on our scientific developments, our commercial growth, knowing that we are growing by digging our own graves, it sounds exciting to find water on moon, but is it a good excuse to find a new home after destroying the place where we stay right now.

On a lighter note, after watching 2012 i just know now, when apocalypse hits earth, find a "Made in China" built Ark to board, you would be safe!

Knock Out Movie Shooting At Magarpatta

Since past one week a movie unit is shooting at Magarpatta for a movie which stars Sanjay Dutt and Irrfan Khan, and is rumored to be the shoot for the hindi remake of Phonebooth movie named "Knock out", the set construction started post diwali during the night when i used to leave office, they have build up a cafe, some road side stalls, a STD/ISD phone booth, with traffic signal and traffic signs, they have tried showing Bandra Kurla Complex area in the shooting, i saw a scene shooting where the junior artistes were supposed to run helter skelter on the road in a scene depticting road violence and police officials running behind the miscreants, Sanjay Dutt also celebrated somebody's birthday on the set, this thursday.

All the employees from the offices at Magarpatta and even the Magarpatta residents thronged to watch the shooting and take a pic of Sanjay Dutt, Sanjay Dutt's vanity van designed by DC was also spotted at the set.

Some links to the movie shooting news: Sanjay Dutt on Ketosis diet to look young in ‘Knock Out’ , Twitter feed of Vikrant deshmukh, Sanjay Dutt and Kangna Ranaut in Mani Shankar’s Knock Out, Pic 2, Pic 3

Samsung S5230 witnesses Bench Mark Selling of 10 million handsets

Samsung's S5230 handset which is popularly known as Samsung Star has raced to 10 million handset sales figure, which is quite an achievement for the company because the touchscreen handset market has already got overcrowded, and this segment is no longer ruled by high-end handsets, In India this handset is available in the Wi-Fi version as well, now retailing under Rs 10,000 it offers a good deal to buyers i'm listing down a short review on this handset.

Pros:

3 inch screen
Widgets
Full Fledged Internet Browser (Fast as well, without 3G)
DNSe (Digital Natural Sound Engine)
3 Mpx Camera Smile detection camera feature which offers good picture quality for pics clicked during daytime
Multiple Desktops

Cons:

No flash
Camera not suitable for low-light and night photography
limited themes and apps available
No USB based file transfer available, need to use samsung software

This handset is light weight and acceloremeter is responsive the handset OS also fast, check out the article here

What does Google become in India ?

A vendor in Bandra - Mumbai is selling the famous Indian Slush Puppie - crushed ice with flavored syrup on top which we call it as gola, he is creative enough to take the Gogola out of Google, check his website here, he is taking party orders as well!

Wallpaper and Theme Downloads for Nokia 5800

tube5800.com is offering some links for Nokia 5800 users to download collection of wallpapers and themes, links below enjoy!

100 Themes for 5800 | 150 Wallpaper Pack | 200 Wallpapers Mega Pack

Shrinking Indian Family Size - Is this the solution to population explosion

Indian Families have been addressed with words like "The Great", "The Big" Indian Family for long, however the current generation is seeing a drastic change in the family structure, which began in late nineties first when we saw emerging trend of Nuclear Families on the rise in India parting ways from the close knit Joint Family system, now we are witnessing a significant drop in this nuclear family as well, there are many factors which are contributing to the shrinking family size in the Urban India, it is true that we have had lot's of chacha's ,mama's, fufa's and other relatives from our maternal and paternal families, but i am sure my kid would not have such big family to deal with, more reading ahead here from an article on Yahoo India

Gorgeous Auto Show Babes

Treat for those who prefer to look at some beautiful women besides heart throb wheels we love, check out some pics here

The Most Beautiful Places Of China

Take a look at a set of 113 pictures of some really eye catching images of locales from China.

Strong Leonid Meteor Shower Expected Nov. 17

Check out this report from Space.com which lists November 17th as a possible date of a Strong Leonid Meteor shower which would be strongly visible across across most of central and eastern Asia. The Leonid radiant is within the so-called "Sickle" of Leo; a backwards question-mark pattern of stars that outlines the head and mane of the constellation Leo, the Lion.  Hence the meteors are known as "Leonids." check out more about this astronomical event here

Diwali celebrations

I woke up early morning with the noise of crackers resonating in our surroundings, kind of a wake up alarm of the big day, kids in our society were enjoying bursting those noisy crackers and bombs, as i stood in my gallery gazing at the sky waiting to be lit up by the lamp of sun, took this pic of the lantern against the early morning sky backdrop, i was craving to feast on Jalebi Fafda today, it has been 5 years i have come to Pune i never thought of having Jalebi Fafda which was a regular breakfast item in our family while i was in Mulund.

Somehow today my craving for Jalebi Fafda was more strong and i set out at 7:30 am to a nearby sweet shop, where the owner had opened up the store but was not started for the day, so i waited again for half hour, skipping my morning tea, i got disappointed when that guy told me that today no Garam Nashta would be kept, all i could see in his shop was sweet boxes everywhere, i really wondered if he would be able to sell all of them by end of diwalli festivals, a thought also slipped in to my mind of all the news flashing these days on TV, where officials were hunting down mithai adultertation scams throughout the country.


I set out to Koregaon Park, at Rajput dairy also only parathas were available, i went again further to a shop at bund garden, he also told me that they have stopped keeping snack items for diwali and only have sweets, i gave up and returned home to settle for some home made breakfast, still remembering while having my tea the tatse of Kothari Sweets Jalebi Fafda i used to have in Mulund.


My kiddo was all dressed up in his new diwali clothes, i set out in the evening to visit Dagdusheth Halwai temple, the temple was less crowded so we could finish our darshan properly and took some sweets from Kaka Halwai and came back home to do our Diwali Pooja, this was my first diwali with my kid in Pune at my home, last year my wife and my kid both were in Mumbai at my in-laws place, so i felt nice spending time together with them.

A History of Windows Advertisements

Take a look at this video from You Tube which looks back at the hits and misses of Microsoft's windows advertisements

Champions Trophy 2009 - India Vs. Pakistan Match

Indian team gave into the spin bowling attack of Pakistan Team this Saturday, after clashing with the arch rivals almost after a year, Indian bowling looked miserable against Pakistan middle order batting display, above that with our class players out of action, we were more vulnerable in all departments of the game.

I felt only Gambhir and Raina were going fearlessly after the Pakistani Bowlers, while Rahul Dravid did provide a costly presence at the pitch, expecting his partners to fire, he did get Gambhir run out, as he casually dragged himself back to the crease and got himself out. Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan never looked comfortable while they came at the crease and i think they were in two minds whether to go after the bowling or play defensive.

Dhoni had somewhere lost the battle mentally after watching his bowlers being pounded for runs, defeating Australian team in a good form after winning onde day series in England, their task seems to be more daunting to stay alive in this series.

Pirangut Trip Log

It was a very long time since i had been on a outing with my wife after we had our kid, after our trip to Goa last year, i was keen to visit Lavasa at Ekaant Resort, however when i checked in with the hotel reservation desk, they informed me that all their rooms were booked for weekends up to October, so i checked up other hotels in near vicinity of Lavasa and was also thinking of visiting Mulshi, i checked some info about Centurion spring hills holiday resort and decided to give it a try since it was on road to Lavasa, i could not find much reviews about the hotel, however thought to give it a try.

The drive to the hotel is just about an hour from Pune, taking the exit from chandni chowk towards the road to Mulshi, as you cross Manas lake resort, go ahead and once you spot a petrol pump, take the road left ahead which has a sign board indicating route ahead to Centurion Spring Hills resort, I took a holiday package inclusive of room tariff and food given on their website and was offered 20% discount on it, the hotel stay was good, our room was hygenic, with a good view of hills from the gallery, the hotel has a restaurant which has decent variety of food offered, Indian, Continental and Oriental food is available both veg and non-veg, however you do not have much variety in terms of Indian food. If you want to visit Lavasa and cannot get an accomodation there, this hotel is surely a very good option because the surrounding vicinity does not have much to see, but the drive through mutha ghats is very scenic and pleasent towards Lavasa.

It had rained a bit while we caught a nap in the afternoon, the sky was still somewhat cloudy, after we had our tea we set out just to roam around and check if we could spot some bhajiya's at some eatry in the nearby village which is 2kms from the hotel, the roads are very narrow and you need to watch the road while driving, herds of cows and bullocks would keep coming your way from the village, luckily the road condition was good and we stopped by a cliff on the Mutha Ghat road and took some pics from there of the village below, however we could not find a decent food joint to binge on a wadapav or spicy bhajiya's, we did sight some road side eateries but decided to give it a miss just not to take any risk eating outside food due to the on-going swine flu scare in pune.

We came back to hotel after a good drive, clicking pictures of sky turning beautiful by the sunset, we had our snacks at the hotel in evening and the next day after having our breakfast we headed towards Lavasa, the drive was very good throughout, there was lush greenery all around due to rain god's still pouring in the month of september, Mutha Ghat drive was really refreshing and as we approached Lavasa, we took a Halt near the dam at Lavasa foothills, and clicked pictures of the landscape for there, and while we drove few steep curves up towards Lavasa, we realised that we were already late and had to checkout from the Hotel, so we headed back again from the fourth turn i took at the Lavasa road, also i was bit low on my confidence to drive up on very narrow and steep curves to Lavasa, i had never driven in such condition also my car had frequent highway trips and was due for maintainance, i was not willing to take risks with my brakes, so i headed back downwards, rushing back to hotel, clicked some pics of some bird species spotted in the hotel compound, a Munia bird was actually building a nest behind the bathroom glass window, which i recorded in my camera, we had our lunch and checked out coming back to Pune city, the drive back to pune was also good as it had started raining on the way.

I'm planning to visit Lavasa this year maybe in November or December, had a really good trip which was long due for us, check out my trip pics here.

Create your own nametag on the Internet

A lot of internet users these day's find themselves entangled in building the REAL persona of themselves on the internet, and end up with fragmented pieces of their self identity through multiple social networking site accounts, so here's Hi I'm, a social network aggregating service that consolidates the different fragments of your persona that are scattered across social networks. it refreshes the content updated by you across your social networking profiles, you can put a link to your YouTube profile, Linked in id, Twitter Id, Flickr Photos

Derogatory Ad Campaign: Tata Photon Plus

I spotted this ad campaign playing on rediff site today, while i was logged in to my mail box, i am baffled with the intention of above advertisement, it portrays a maid quoting that " I carry Shiney's number", now does this mean that Shiney has got popular amongst maid's for the heinous act he did with his maid, or does the above ad signify something else, don't know, but surely this incident is something that should not be joked about or portrayed in ads in this way.

I found this AD offending so thought of putting it across, what is your view on this, kindly post your comments