Movie Magic

4 movies I'm looking forward to:

1.

Cheeni Kam

With no pretensions of tackling "isues" or KANK type intellectual fart, Balki (national creative head, Lowe Lintas) says, "Cheeni Kam's love story is a comedy. It’s also got Paresh Rawal in it. I have attempted to make a very shallow film with no depth in it. It’s a very light film. Cheeni Kum is as mainstream as a film can get”. (Indiafm)

I kinda like that! No Karan Johar type intellectual hypocrisy here! I am so looking forward to this movie! I've seen the trailer and it promises to be funny (without being slap-stick) and sweet (without being syrupy).




2.

Shrek 3

Who doesn't love the green ogre? And his loyal friend, the dunkey? Or the princess who decides she is happier being an ogress to her ogre? And the cat-in-the-hat!



3.

Pirates Of The Caribbean 3- At World's End

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see PoC 2. However, I have every intention of watching the 3rd one. Why? Because I have a simple funda: anything with Johnny Depp is at least one time watchable!



4.

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix

As a true-blue HP fan, there's no way I will miss out on this! It will be interesting to see how they managed to compress the mammoth book into 2-3 hours of cinema.


Let's see whether these 4 step up to the promise they hold out!

Any guesses?

A nation of readers

Reading is a hobby which makes a regular appearance on resumes. These days it surfaces in one more place -profile section of one of the ubiquitous social networking sites.

Next time you visit one of these sites, take a look at the books that lads and ladies list as their 'favourite':

1. The omnipresent "The Da Vinci Code"

2. Everyone's favourite "Five Point Someone"

3. "One night at a Call Center"
(Chetan Bhagat sure seems to have done a lot for the reading habits of the youth of India!)

4. Oh wait, how can I forget "Angels & Demons"?
(I think Dan Brown should be accorded the same status as Chetan Bhagat)

Did I mention that these are the *only* books which make an appearance? Hmm, that's only four books and two authors... am I forgetting something?

:-/

Oh yeah! I forgot that for 21st century India, the only reading that's required is Dan Brown & Chetan Bhagat.

In other words, reading one of the above, doth a reader make!

Redefining Service!

Talk about customer service!

Curious, I headed to zappos.com.

My first impression? A layout which feels cluttered and is not all that pleasing to the eyes. Overall, an amateurish look.

And yet, does it matter? Reading the testimonials, it appears not!

Looks like these guys have their priorities right. They pump their money back where it matters the most - the customer.

I thought I work in a company which always puts customer first - Obviously, we are not the only ones!

Summer Loves

Somebody recently said, "The only thing that makes summers bearable are the mangoes".

It got me thinking. No doubt one is almost inclined to forgive summer (its heat) for the mangoes it brings but as I started thinking, bits and pieces of memories started assailing me:

1) Gradual seeping away of all scholarly inclinations as everyone waits impatiently for the summer vacations to start! And of course the general desire that the DM or the Mayor would get the schools closed earlier due to the heat wave sweeping across the city!

2) The last day of the school - ahh, the best! The eagerness, the excitement, the knowledge that there will be no schools for the next 2 months! It's almost like standing on the top of the world.

3) The sondhi-khushboo when coolers whirl to life the first time. The long afternoons spent sitting in front of the cooler and solving mysteries with the Five Find Outers, living the school life at Malory Towers & Chalet school, and adventuring with the Adventurous Four. Summer afternoons for me are synonymous with being lost in another world - from Enid Blyton to Perry Mason to Thomas Hardy to Sydney Sheldon to Jane Austen and so many more.

4) Aam-ka-panna & pudeene ki chutney - a must for all summer lunches.

5) Litchee - succulent, fat, drippy, sticky and yummy. Made all the more dear because they used to be available for only 2-3 weeks in the market!

6) The king of fruits - Aam after lunch, aam after dinner and aam-in-between-slices-of-bread for breakfast. 'Dussheri' was always my favourite and remains to this day though I have yet to find it in Hyderabad :(

7) Swimming classes, going to nani's place, my best friend's home, 10-year-old-skirts meant to be worn only during the summers, the summer holidays spent in Benaras, sleeping on the floor during power cuts, sitting outside and staring at the stars on electricity-less nights during power cuts, rummaging through my dad's book collection to see if I could find some book I'd still not read and the realization one day that I'd read 'em all, cold-coffee with ice cream, watching mostly inane and some good Hollywood 'classics' on TNT (does anyone remember that channel?).

Summer for me is a mosaic of all these memories. In fact, as I re-read the list above it strikes me how seasonal these memories are. Most of them are tied in with one aspect of summers or the other. Hmm... perhaps, something to think about in a future post!

Meanwhile, do you find your favourite memories 'seasonal' too?

Blog - In

here a blog,
there a blog,
everywhere a blog-blog...

blogs, blogs eveywhere
one more enters the ring....

Some common types of blogs:

1) Tech Blogs (Tech Talk) - A common variety. Used by the Web 2.0 geek who hops on the bandwagon for its ease and the air-time/platform it gives him. Interested in developing a reputation and building a brand, he posts the in-thing, his expert opinions, and blogs about the next kid-on-the-block in technosphere.

2) Journals & Reflections (Inside Out) - Intimate, pour your heart-out variety, these provide a catharsis and think-space to the writer. The comments and the counter-comments also make for an interesting (and even hilarious) by-play. Some are honest introspections (leaving you touched) and some are written for the galleries.

3) Sport a Blog:
a) Because it's in: Created 'in keeping with the times', out it goes as the new in-thing becomes the next best.
b) Life's Like That: Created in a moment of inspiration it languishes as life catches up with the author who updates it once in 6 months.

4) The Serious Writer: Opinions, thoughts, reviews, experiences, anything which strikes the fancy. Grammar and punctuation in place, some are gems while others are just air-time outposts.

5) Cross-Mix: Cross-mix of all the above (I have yet to see this)

6) The Uncategorized: Far be it for me to presume I can categorize it all. So everything else, falls under this!

So which category does this blog fall under?
That, only time can tell! :)

So what kind of blogs have you encountered?