Saturday, January 31, 2009

SLUMDOGMILLIONAIRE,GHAJINI,HEYYBABY

SLUMDOGMILLIONAIRE...Since there was so much of noise about it I had to see it and realised that this hype and publicity..even if it is negative will become the reason IF it becomes a hit...very ordinary movie depicting shit..literally, nothing extraordinaire...except the tag of FOREIGN MADE. Since its about slum children, it shows slums and their life, they may have some beautiful moments also, but no..it captures only the ugliness of their life....crime, filth and meagre surroundings. The only endearing moments are a few with the young Jamal...it is all a fairy tale about a slum child getting lucky all the time in his life..........One thing I found strange...when they show a statue of Lord Rama, it looks so much like Shiva.......... .and they crying hoars that it is a movie depicting REALITY.....But i kept searching and dint find it anywhere except in the filth.....what is real...
A child going through the faeces for Amitab bacchan, or
Only muslims get killed in riot..or
All the orphans in India end up either in prostitution or in crime depending on their gender or
Not a single person is good in India,
A boy without any knowledge can get a seat on KBC or
he can get lucky in all the questions...I mean its just too muc...coincidence or luck or whatever but everything is so implausible...and here I am not raising the questions some other bloggers have raised...(of KBC not aired live etc)...nothing appeals here.
For my taste too gory at places.....only Irfan Khan and Anil kapoor made it tolerable.

Ghajini......reminds me the movies of 80's..what with the excess of cruelty and violence.Most of the situations and characters are artificial.....I am yet to see a billionaire indiustrialist..so simple and without any family, so much that in his worst condition also..there is no one with him.

A girl so sweet and helping like Asin is there and this situation of telling a lie about affair has been done to death in movies like Sajan(Manoj kumar Asha parekh) and there was one more also, but even then the part with Asin is beautiful, I loved it,She is fabulous and can give a tough competition to all bollywood heroines, where only dresses are considered important.She reminded me of kajol in earlier movies...now sometimes even kajol goes overboard.

Amir is also very good and looking nice in long shots, but in close ups..age is catching up my dear:).......Two songs are hummable...tum mujhe mili and gujaarish, but the second half is too violent and without any logic.....like how he gets this animal strength, and those tattoes,so many loose ends.......................





HEYY BABY..........I like the best scene where........Reitesh and fardeen listen to a young girl wearing a very short skirt talking to her father...saying.....she will wear it because her boyfriend likes it and father's dislike doesnt matter to her..:) and then there conservation..
Reitesh.....our angel will also say one day that we are not important to him and will wear such dresses.
Fardeen.....she wont have any boyfriend..only a husband and that too we will choose for her:):)and he wouldnt be anything like us....hehe
see the fathers talking:), but the first hour of the movie was quite boring with a crass and vulgar comedy.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

MY THOUGHTS ON VARIOUS THINGS

GIFTS ALL PACKED
ITEMS I PACKED IN THEM



Today my post is more about my reaction to different readings in newspaper and blogs:)


I was reading this news about Julia Robert's stay in Bangalore..award winning Julia Roberts and her cameraman husband......find it quite amusing ,these adjectives which journalists add to people..isnt it funny....are the awards to be flaunted like that or must the profession be always added before the name, cant say about others but I dislike both praise and demeaning in this way..............like somewhere I read...small time actress.....i mean what is this..an actress is an actress......and then they have coined a word...starlet seems to me rhyming with piglet:).I dont know if there is any such word for male actors also?


Then i read at a blog how she felt bad at the behaviour of her parents and few incidents reminded me of my children's childhood. When my daughter used to get her report card, her friends used to say that if they had got marks like her their mothers would be at the top of the world and my daughter would say...but my mom will ask me why 95, why not 98, where did u loose 3 marks?............I never meant to hurt my daughter, it never even came to my mind, since she was at topper and we had such expectations from her.Even for the water bottles, they used to break one in a month atleast, and same for the keds. Even sometimes my son also has this complaint that he never got the praise for his marks, if he was in top 5 we wanted him in top 3 and when he was in top 3 we wanted him right at the top:)..again the expectations and now it has become the bad word in my dictionary.if the children feel so hurt by these things that means parents are wrong somehwere..but where and how...can a middle class parent can afford to ignore the studies and academics in India......tomorrow if the children are not well settled, wont they blame parent..wont they say....we were young but you were adults, you should have been strict with us? wont we as parents wouldn't feel unhappy if we are not able to enhance their careers? Then may be we as parent would feel guily of not fulfilling our duties sincerely.....Seems to me that for parents its a nowin situation...you be strict and make them study, get them settled...still they feel hurt, You let them free..they dont study...dont fare well...they blame you for their failures. Sometimes being a parent is the toughest profession in life.But personally I would say that I loved my children more than anything in the life, nothing else mattered to me more than their happiness and life, and I took most of the decisions thinking about them first.......... Many times i have seen that strict parents make their children's life much better and happier.in the long run.......while pampering them silly makes them suffer in their life later.....like an efficient person always gets lot of appreciation and praise which makes him always happy and increases his confidence in life, whereas for the others, no compliment and no praise makes them feel sometimes as if they are not good for anything,Once i was in Warora and there was this young married girl who was educated but knew nothing at all about housekeeping.She belonged to a rich family where everything was done by servants.and she was miserable as she didnt feel like doing any housework and made her husband's life also miserable with a dirty ill kept house, no cooking( eating outside all the time..and this is not a healthy option, plus being a small place it was not feasible also, they always had their meals at the guest house where food was prepared with lot of oil and spices, I never liked it much), she was very good to talk to and so i learned a little about her....it was about ,not teaching ur chidren any work and then by chance her husband got a job in a such place where whithout doing anything one couldnt live......may be it was mismatched priorities, but then learning about the household never goes wasted,like i taught my daughter to work hard, be economical.....or i would say i didnt teach her, she learned by watching me and today with her hard working nature she is able to manage a job , house everything so well and makes so many people happy and I am so proud of her which i couldnt be if she was a lazy. and all that.
Heard somwhere that negativity sells...... but i dont think also, its always the positives in life which make it beautiful,and getting more comments with the negativity cant be a criteria for a post.I believe that more we write about positive values and good in life, more it is spread.
In the last post I wrote about Screen awards and we all blasted them...but on retrospection I thought that arent all the awards same..even these awards on blogs? How many people think twice before awarding them or giving those beautiful adjectives to one and all, if we cant be genuine in a small thing where it wont even alter anything much how can we expect others to reform. here we comment for the sake of increasing traffic, and sometimes even talk not worth mentioning even ,get so fullsome praise.....arent we fake then? We must clean our cupboards first then think about others....I am taking a resolution today that whatever i comment must be genuine and the same for awards, are you?


And last:) yesterday i did Haldi Kumkum in my style.....putting a few photographs here:), I prepared Halwa,peanuts masala,aloo bonda & sewian pulao in refreshments and gave them all a small token gift ( a small jewellery box,bindi,hanki,haldi kumum and supari

Monday, January 26, 2009

STAR SCREEN AWARDS

Yesterday i saw Star Screen Awards, and i was wondering what the awards function have become...just a song and dance show? Do they even entertain us? Is it really entertainment to see them doing oneupman ship all the time and taking potshots at any small fry( this is the most hated part for me, because I hate hippocracy, if they have the guts then make fun of biggies...why have laughs at the cost of small actors? Is this what we have come to get in the form of entertainment? when we hanker so much for Oscars, why we dont bring some standard and accountability in our own awards.
Earlier i used to think that Screen awards are better than those Filmfare ones where the awards are fixed, but yesterday's ceremony belied all my expectations...there wasnt a single item which could be called enjoyable..neither dances..they were all looking the same with same moves and dresses......and for this they get crores...nor the anchors did us any proud....and Ashutosh Gowrikar took the cake:)
Yesterday's favourites were Rock on and Jodha Akbar, only saving grace were the few awards won by a really meritorious film...WEDNESDAY. Personally I found it strange that Shahana was given the award and Illa Arun not...because Illa did a very different character in Welcome to sajjanpur and did with so much of aplomb...she deserved it. JA was good , but couldnt be called the best movie of the year.
The lyrics..singer ..male and female both were from one movie and for the best music it was a different movie..i find it quite a contradiction in itself...if there was no good song or good lyrics, then how come the music was best?
Few awards...even my H..he knows not much about bollywood, but after watching with me has become a little pro:)..even he predicted...like best actor in a comic role...Tusshar and the best Jodi...Abhishek and John.......See some people have to get something:), becuase now it has a become a trend either they must be given an award or a few crores for their performance..otherwise they dont come to the function...always the excuse is there...no dates:) . I read somewhere that Akshay demanded multicrores for a performance and when organisers couldnt afford that they promised him an award, but here..he though he was getting best actor, but he was given the best popular actor:), so all that charity and magnanimity he showed of refusing the award, as Aamir deserved it.
One thing i have always felt bad about is the snobbish attitude of anchors...like even sometime for senior actors also, they dont take the nbames with some respect, then when abig shot gets an small award even, he is given ample time on the stage, but whenevr not so big get an award, they are not asked to say anything,, it has happened so many times that sometimes even i wanted some to say, but they were not given an opportunity and this time the anchors went even an step further like hurrying up, or getting forward without giving anytime to the awardees.
So yesterday the presence was quite low..No Shahrukh..he is most unsporting person..never comes to a function unless he gets something,Amitabh,Abhishek,Salman, etc etc.
Faraha was glowing but no good as an anchor...her remark..what we have to do for money...was really in a bad taste..shows her highhanded attitude.
Rekha..She never changes..the same sarees..kanjivarams and jwellery shop and hyper on the stage:)
Twinkle Khanna was looking most elegant and beautiful, never saw her like this even in the movies:), their pair was looking best.
Aishwarya was also looking very good in her Indian attire.
Jaya Bacchan was for a change in an elegant white saree and her solitaires(earrings) were the rock size.
Kangana was looking ravishing and Hritik gentleman that he is.
Now for a little gossip:)
Jaya never once smiled at Aishwarya, even when she got the prize:)
Akshay expecting to get the best actor for singh iis kingh..isnt it too much?
It was pathetic to see...
Akshay getting miffed at not getting the best actor award,
Rekha stating..she has nothing..no one and no money.
Ashutosh and Sajid having a verbal fight,
Watching Sajid in a backless dress
and irritating to see Neeraj Pandey with his Chewing gum all the time,
And so quite a lacklustre affair.......
And now I WISH YOU ALL

Happy
Republic
Day !

Friday, January 23, 2009

Thanks for writing



La belle dame sans merci...awarded me with this beautiful award, her words are so sweet that i want to quote her here..........


I wud like to thank all my readers but specially thank the commentators who take an effort to leave their opinion n motivate me and this award is for the extra special people who are here regularly marking me feel alive and important, so i know i am not blabbering to myself here, i do have an audience for the crap i write ... So here we go, this is for u for putting up with me :)anoobhooti - Renu! am sure she knows this is coming to her first! i was unknown, unsettled, unorderly and almost felt unwanted in this blogosphere until i knew that she'll be among the first few to comment... n i try to watch my language too for her :) (ah can u believe i jus said that?)... and yea she is my lucky charm, somehow after she started makin visits, this place has become a picnic spot :) my circle of blog friends has increased invariably.


I am so very much honored Swarna, thank you for all the love you shower on me, because for me love is more important than accolades even.


Your reference has made me sure that i am really lucky for others:) hey i am not being arrogant or anything like that, its just that i am happy and sharing my happiness:) and it reminded me of a few other incidences also...once i was in Dewas and there i started buying my groceries from a very small shop near to our place.Once , he was extra courteous and nice to me, when i asked the reason, he said..madam since you started buying here, my shop is doing very well, i felt so happy, and the same thing happened at one more place. And now when we went to Dakshin chitra..the lady astrologer there said..that you H and children..if they do anything in ur name, it will be very succesful..........its all for fun and feeling happy, nothing else:), there is no harm in being narcisstic also sometime:)

Now since most of the people have got all these awards, i wouldnt like to name anyone. its for everyone who writes something worth reading.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

One More tour-..KANCHPURMA,MAMMALAPURAM


SHORE TEMPLE

FIVE RATHAS











VRAHADESSHWAR TEMPLE





KAMAKSHI TEMPLE







MY MIL GOING IN THE RESTAURANT

On 15 th Jan, we planned to revise our memories of Kanchipuram and Mammalapuram.This time we took a conducted tour from TTDC. It started at 6.30 AM quite an early hour from their office at Wallajah road. We went via guindy to kanchipuram. Its 75 km that way. First we saw their Kamakshi temple, beautiful place..its said that here Parvati got married to Shiva under a mango tree, though the guide told us that the mango tree is a new one.,Then we saw Ekambareshar mandir and Vrahdeeshwar temple also. In the last one there was big queue for watching and touching the golden lizard. it is said that some sages were given a curse to become a lizard and here if you touch them its considered good for you. so some people just wanted to be there, without bothering about the long queue:)...... Even For Vrahadeshwar bhagwan..it is said that whatever you desire there, it will be fulfilled. There was so much crowd for the darshan of Laksmi temple inside that we couldnt dare to even think of standing..just saw from outside.

kanchipuram is famous for kanjivaram sarees, last time I went there I bought a few and they were liked by everyone.But this time there were 3 women from Delhi..they were looking at sarees and dress material and they only told me that they didnt find anything cheaper here , but i felt that the reason was.....their friends told them that here you will get the materials..tanchoi for 500/..and thats not the price one can get real Tanchoi, its only possible to buy some synthetic material in that:) so may be impractical expectations:)..I find it a heaven for silk sarees.

Then we headed for breakfast to TTDC hotel. It was the usual..pongal,idli,bada and tea...preparations were good but the place was just OK..ambiance wise and cleanlinesswise both.


And then we started for Mammala puram...it was 65 km from there. First we went to Five Rathas.....there are 5 chambers each for arjuna, bhima, nakul, sahdev and one for draupadi...as told by our guide, where Yudishthira lived I dont know:), actually these are the remnants of that time.....but beautiful to see and enjoy..we had a lovely time taking snaps and all. and the next stop was Shore temple near the beach...These are also the remnants of old time,and they are all monolithic structures so one looks with awe. The way is full of shops selling varied items and eatables also. Lovely place, i thoroughly enjoyed.

Now the time to lunch..though it was nearly 3PM, we went to TTDC beach resort for lunch..it was south indian lunch but the vegetable were prepared in a north indian way..so good mix.. I love the MATTHA here:).

Now back to Chennai..on the way we stopped for boating at Mutukadu.

Then we had our next stop...VGP beach.....its a theme park with beautful architectural structure and in the evening they light it so well from the outside. We saw it last time, this time we didnt go inside as 40 minutes is not the sufficient time to see anything and we were tired also. That we kept for one full day..some other time:)

Sunday, January 18, 2009

PONDICHERY

GANDHIJI'S STAUE ON THE BEACH
BEAUTIFUL RESTAURANT ON THE BEACH

SEE THE HIGH TIDE !


AUROVILLE---TEA JOINT ........and my DH giving the pose:)



MATRIMANDIR




BOATING AT MUDALIARKAPPAM






BREAKFAST TIME

This is the best time in Chennai to see around and the bonus is My H also gets the leave on sakranti, so we decided to make a trip to Pondichery. We took a sight seeing tour from TTDC, once I tried APTDC but their management was very bad and selection of restaurants even worse
For this one day tour, we were supposed to report at 6.30 in the morning, quite an early morning it was for us..but that time so pleasant, one feels so happy, tranquiel.......the bus was late and we started around 7.15 from here.It is 175 km from Chennai to Puducherry...... a very scenoinc journey.....I could see and see the lush green fields, and the the sides of the road.

Just before Mammalapuram, he stopped for breakfast. It was a very good, neat and clean AC restaurant with delicious food. We had our fill og Idli, vada , dosa and tea.In our tour there were two tourists fron UK..one Elizabeth from birmingham and Brigette ...they had Idli for the first time..they wanted me to write the name of it, so that they could ask later for them in their food:) I was more than happy to do that----white pan cakes..Idli:).
Our next stop was Mudaliyar kappam.... a boat house..where we had a very enjoyable boating experience... there was a young couple and the girl was shouting...no life jackets? how can we do without that...I smiled and thought..must be from IT sector, been abroad. and showing that:)..In India we are habitual of sitting in very primitive boats even and here it was a motor boat, and we had a good time. they had pedal boats also and for then they provided life jackets:)

Around 11.30 we reached Auroville.........A huge place, well maintained, with lot of natural beauty and walking trails even, most of the inhabitants were cycling, weather was also pleasant.First we were shown a video about auroville. Their charter says.......this place is not owned by anyone and belongs to every human being. There is a one and a half km walk to see Matrimandir..place for meditation..one has to take prior permission to see it from inside, so we saw it from outside only. and came back and had a very good tea:)..very relaxing.

Now we went to the beach......its a very rocky beach and tide is quite aggressive there.
Now the time for lunch..here we went to Sangeetha and had traditional lunch of rice, sambhar, rasam,2 vegetables, papad, he was supposed to give rawa kesri also but he cheated....and dint give anyone unless asked for.Now the time Aurvindo ashram.........This area is the most beautiful place..its a french colony in white colour and all the houses have french architecture with roads of cemented tiles. Ashram is the personal house where there is a tomb type SAMADHI for ma and arvindo, people meditate there ,and buy literature about them..pin drop silence is maintained.


We saw ganpati temple from outside only as it was closed.
Time to come back..had evening tea also on the way with bajji and vada:)
Quite enjoyable trip as a picnic, but didnt find anything so special, we have the beaches, temple in Chennai also..almost the same types. Tell me if any of you have been there and saw something which I missed.
A good read....http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Speaking_Tree/A_letter_from_a_father_to_his_little_son/articleshow/4002613.cms

Friday, January 16, 2009

A very different tag

I was given this tag long back by Cess, but then I was on vacations,I didnt want to do anything in a hurry, sorry Cess for the delay, but never the less it is here....with love:)
This is very special tag and an effort in looking below the iceberg..... and mainly its for my blog readers...... go ahead and do it if you want or like:)----- write the answers in the comment and delight me or even annoy, but be truthful, no diplomacy here:)

Here are the questions:
1. Who are you?
2. Are we friends?
3. Something I have and YOU want?
4. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.
5. Describe me in one word.
6. What was your first impression of me?
7. Do you still think that way about me now?
8. What reminds you of me?
9. If you could give me anything what would it be?
10. How well do you know me?
11. How do you see me in the future?
12. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't
13. Are you going to post this in your blog and see what I say about you?

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Festivals week




http://www.thanksgiving-day.org/makar-sankranti.html
photopage.wordpress.com

--pongal picture

This is the week of festivities....LOHRI,PONGAL,SANKARANTI, SAKAT all together. basically all these festival celebrate the harvest.
LOHRI is celebrated on 13th. I know this much about it only.......First Lohri of any bride is very special, she is given lot of gifts,and its celebrated with lot of joy, with bonfire, rewri, peanuts etc.
Pongal....Yesterday i asked my neighbours what you do on this day, she told me that they take sugar cane, haldi and all that and worship Sun god and make few delicacies like sweet pongal etc.
My daughter makes Pachdi...mixture of five thing..sweet,sour,bitter..all the taste and it symbolises that one must face all the things in life with the equanimity.
From this day starts SHUKL Paksh and so the season of Haldi kumkum in Maharashtra,--I wrote the details here.SANKRANTI----I know a little about it, as its celebrated in our family.I remember my childhood, when on this day my mother used to ask us not to eat anything without मिन्सिंग ..its giving out something..on this day she will get fresh Gazak and put it in a plate one for each of us with some money and we shall give it. Then after the first year of marriage, on this day girl/s parents send all the clothes and sweets for inlaws.I still remember that my chacha's inlaws used to send so much of special sweets on this day..like varieties of laddoos, in those day sankaranti laddoos used to be very big ones ,like something of 250 gm each, and then in 5 laddoes one silver coin would be put inside in a small box..one in each. Now I know that most of the young girls reading it will question..why should a girl's parents only do something:).........I always told my daughter not to interfere in what i am giving and always take pride in whatever i do, and the same I am writing here...these are traditions..made to make the relationships better, may be in the earlier days they thought that their daughter lives with the other family, so they wanted to please the family..but now.a.days, I think that if we can afford..though this is also very subjective, because everybody does everything, only the scale or the range varies,we must follow the traditions, because if we start questioning everything, then we shall loose all the traditions and celebration will mean only either making food or eating outside and then only we will miss all this. These small traditions dont make any difference to even inlaws...as most of the time gifts are hardly used, they just make them happy that somebody gives them respect.yes , these things should be out of choice only, none should be compelled to do it, but at the same time one should not abolish all the systems... and today's generation is so kind hearted and generous in donations and other things, then why this old mindset of being against inlaws...when everything is changing...and they want everybody to change all the perspectives, I would say..first change yourself and remove this negative perception of inlaws...think of them as your own and once you start think REALLY that way, you would never have these questions...फ़िर सब अपने होंगे तो कहीं कुछ बुरा नही लगेगा,कौन दे रहा हा कौन ले रहा हा, सभी तो अपने हैं.when in all other relationships, nobody questions any give and take, why this negative feeling ward inlaws....see here everybody has the same relationships somewhere------I am a mother and MIL both,,, and personally i feel lot of happiness while doing everything, and feel bad when for some reason I can do anything. When I love my daughter so much , I care for her inlaws also who have given her respect and love in their family, for that i am eternally indebted to them.This is my take on life:)
SAKAT This is Ganesh Chaturthi and celebrated as sakat for us this month and this year it falls on sakranti day.We keep fast, prepare some sesame delicacies like TILKUT, Laddo,..receipe here take out Baayana..give it to our MIL, then worship the moon at night and then have the dinner.
WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY LOHRI,PONGAL AND SANKRANTI !

Sunday, January 11, 2009

MOVIES MASTI MAGIC

I saw the TV serial..first ladies on NDTV IMAGIN>.and can say one thing only...not everybody can be an anchor at TV, how i wud have loved ...Karan johar, Saif, Shahrukh or even shamita singha...as one instead of so boring, staid..Abu and Sandeep,......they may be good designers, but they are hopelessly boring as anchor..just like Shweta bacchan--a good show marred by them:(, it was sad to see such an insipid banter.
and then there is Karan doing it with designers...at an evening at Chivas...............Chk it to see the difference.
Last week i saw so many movies and since none was new, i am going to state only what I liked about them or not:) SUNDAY..is a real sunday..with a cast of so many actors...none of them is worth watching....except Irfan Khan..he must be thinking all the time..what it is that Ajay has that he is a hero and me a sidey:), Irfan has done a good job..Ajay is looking haggard, ugly and plus his character is also shown of a corrupt policeman, his assistant has done well, I am forgetting his name. Arshad is Ok Nothing is here worth writing about.



WELCOME TO SAJJANPUR; Now this is the movie after my heart. seems to me as if old days of Amol palekar have come back, not so good, but still very endearing.Its directed by Shyam benegal, and I happen to have sen all his movies:) from Ankur...his first...excellent director.Here i can write and write..everything is so appealing...

Mahadev(shreyas)..a letter writer in a small village...human, smart and of course a writer, but Ravi Kishen..he stole my heart--he is so lovable in the character of a compounder in love with a widow,even many big actors cant differentiate between a simple(seedha) and fool(buddhu), most of them will play a simple character as if he is a fool.Now i know why he is such a big hit in Bhojpuri films.
Ravi Jhankal for that act of a Hijra--superb
and Illa arun...I cudnt stop smiling as soon as she came on the screen..
Divya dutta..good, but she dint have much of a role,, Rajeshwari is not worth mentioning.
Yashpal sharma..as a supporter of corrupt politician and then
Amrita rao..as a simple village wife. and many small nuances..worth watching, missed the good songs here.
And the dialogues are biggest strength of this movie..i just loved them, dont who wrote it,will chk.


, MUMBAI MERI JAAN......another movie on terrorist attack....its quite Ok, specially

The track--where a fun is made of the way TV people ask everywhere...kaisa lag raha ha...even to the village women who have lost their husbands and are in mourning.
Madhavan's belief in using public transport.
KK..getting suspicious of evry muslim
The frustration and corruption in police.....Paresh rawal is very good, only his retirement speech is too long to enjoy.

Irfan..as a poor man who .. takes revenge of his humiliation by giving hoax calls, but what is the result of these calls is shown in a very good way.


Treatment of the story and character are quite real..so enjoyable.
I dont know why music has taken a back seat in the movies..i love melody.
Aamir...so well claimed, heard so much about it, but i found it very illogical...a doctor comes to India, somebody takes away his luggage and instead of calling police or taking any help ,he goes on a wild chase, taking the audience for a royal ride, it never touched my heart anywhere. I loved Rajiv on TV but here, he is just a good looking hero.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

SATYAM-- is it?

yesterday was the worst day of my life. I cant believe it that I bought Satyam just one hour before the mayhem. But who could have thought or imagin even that even books are fake, accounts are fake, and one of the esteemed auditors have either bungled or co-operated at the cost of Junta. My bro didnt want me to buy, but then my H thought that they have so much of cash reserve and all that....... and lo...........everything fell like nine pins. I am a very minuscule investor, but think about the other hundresds of investors/ whats happening in India. With a set frequency we are loosing our hard earned money, First there was harshad mehta in 92-93, then after 5 yrs we had parekh............then again after 5 yrs we had the biggest fall in the market.....,and then there was this CRB..where even govt sanctioned tax rebate also on deposits,and many other finance companies gone bust........How long and how many mishaps will it take to make the govt. and SEBI work, may be its time investors thought of some guidelines or some safety mechanism,I wonder what is it which makes these businessmen cheat with elan and impunity of a rich man,I cant sleep for a night even, if somebody gets ruined by any of my actions and they are ruining the country without any remorse whatsoever, they are worse than the politicians even, something is wrong with the moral fabric of society, its time to take proper measures in all directions.
Most of the youth crib about everything Indian, but when it comes to enter the system, they shy away citing it as a mess...but we need some people to clear the mess also.
You cannot solve a problem until you acknowledge that you have one and accept responsibility for solving it.
Yesterday I dont know why, but I felt very sad, it was neither the first time I lost, nor the amount was too big, but may be it hurt me for multiple reasons and biggest one was that.......it was a real scam..everything fake, this way we cant trust anybody.....tomorrow suppose any other big house collapses like that then.....should we stop investing or stop doing business?----all the Tv channels were advising like big brother..invest carefully...take all the info etc...info my foot, where were they before/ none said anything about it? How does an investor know about any company..by the auditor's verdict....balance sheet...what else?
So its true...Life is all about correcting mistakes.....but how?

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Few Interesting Facts about India

here are a few interesting facts about India...I know many people are going to scoff at this and say...we Indians always live in past and glorify ourselves, what are we doing now...but the present belongs to US, and we must do well, but the past always reminds us that what we were yeaterday and motivates us and guides us to a glorious future..that is if we desire so....

INDIA FACTS :
The official Sanskrit name for India is Bharat.
INDIA has been called Bharat even in Satya yuga ( Golden Age )
More INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT India
The name `India' is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu. The Persian invaders converted it into Hindu. The name `Hindustan' combines Sindhu and Hindu and thus refers to the land of the Hindus.
The number system was invented by India. Aryabhatta was the scientist who invented the digit zero.Sanskrit is considered as the mother of all higher languages. This is because it is the most precise, and therefore suitable language for computer software. ( a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987 )..Chess was invented in India.
Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus are studies which originated in India.
The' place value system' and the 'decimal system' were developed in 100 BC in India.
The first six Mogul Emperor's of India ruled in an unbroken succession from father to son for two hundred years, from 1526 to 1707.
The World's First Granite Temple is the Brihadeswara temple at Tanjavur in Tamil Nadu. The shikhara is made from a single ' 80-tonne ' piece of granite. Also, this magnificient temple was built in just five years, (between 1004 AD and 1009 AD) during the reign of Rajaraja CholaIndia is.......the Largest democracy in the world, the 6th largest country in the world AND one of the most ancient and living civilizations (at least 10, 000 years old).
The game of snakes & ladders was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev. It was originally called 'Mokshapat.' The ladders in the game represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices. The game was played with cowrie shells and dices. Later through time, the game underwent several modifications but the meaning is the same i.e good deeds take us to heaven and evil to a cycle of re-births.
The world's highest cricket ground is in Chail, Himachal Pradesh. Built in 1893 after levelling a hilltop, this cricket pitch is 2444 meters above sea level.India has the most post offices in the world ! The largest employer in the world is the Indian railway system, employing over a million people !.
The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to mankind. The father of medicine, Charaka, consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago.
Although modern images & descriptions of India often show poverty, India was one of the richest countries till the time of British in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by India's wealth and was looking for route to India when he discovered America by mistake.
The art of Navigation & Navigating was born in the river Sindh 6000 over years ago. The very word 'Navigation' is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit word 'Nou'. Bhaskaracharya rightly calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. His calculations was - Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: ( 5th century ) 365.258756484 days.
The value of "pi" was first calculated by the Indian Mathematician Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century, which was long before the European mathematicians. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus also orignated from India. Quadratic equations were used by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10*53 ( i.e 10 to the power of 53 ) with specific names as early as 5000 B.C. during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera: 10*12( 10 to the power of 12 ).
Until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world. ( Source . Gemological Institute of America )
The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982.
Sushruta is regarded as the father of surgery. Over 2600 years ago Sushrata & his team conducted complicated surgeries like cataract, artificial limbs, cesareans, fractures, urinary stones and also plastic surgery and brain surgeries. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India medicine. Detailed knowledge of anatomy, embryology, digestion, metabolism, physiology, etiology, genetics and immunity is also found in many ancient Indian texts.
"What makes a nation, is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past", says the noted historian Eric Hobsbawm.
Hence, when talking of a nation, it becomes very imperative that the past
should also be talked about. And the past of India is as fascinating and interesting as it is momentous. (source-email) Proud to be Indian !
JAI HIND !

Sunday, January 4, 2009

MUTTUKUDU AND CROCODILE PARK

Sitting benches on the bank of the river
Birds on the trees, The care taker there told us that after 6pm, all the trees here are worth a sight, as birds of all varied species are here and trees are full of them

This is the heaviest captive crocodile of the world----575 kg in weight.


Baby turtle in hand of Elu malai




Baby crocodile...2 year old in the hands of my H



crocodiles lying, they are given the food once a week only, as soon as the person comes to give them food, sudden activity starts..till now you see as if they are sleeping, but suddenly even from the water they start moving towards him, take their food and go back to water:), so systematic better than humans, where i have seen stampede everywhere whenever any distribution is taking place:)..7000 crocodiles eat seven tons of meat in a week.





Fisherman doing their job in the midst of Mutukudu lake...its a back water one















Yesterday we went to Muttukudu..its around 40-50 km from here on ECR, Its a boating place, quite scenic place and they have pedal, rowing and motor boats. We took motor boat....for 6 people...charged us 300/- for 3 km ride.It was very enjoyable..no less than a cruise on Ohio in Cincinnati or in Michigan in Chicago and when he took us from under the bridge , i thought we are going under Rialto in Venice:).

But the only problem is that in India, infrastructure is not maintained...there was no good and clean shop selling any eatables, whatever is there is so dirty we didnt feel like taking anything, and there under the nose of the govt....the shopkeeper was selling everything at hiked prices, few educated people were arguing but to no avail , after his question...tell me do you want it or not?

Then our driver asked us..sir have you seen crocodile park, if not, then its worth it and near here ...so we went a 7 km more, and it was worth it..It was started in 1970 by some foreigner and runs on a trust made by him. here they have snakes also and extract poison from them which is used for anti venom and other medicinal purposes. Very beautiful scenic place.
I forgot yesterday..but I had a request to everybody--on the way there are many trees on the sides of the road and beautiful places to picnic and i saw many families eating food and enjoying there...but the most disgusting part was that the whole place was littered with used plates cups and newspapers.....please.....look before you leave the place, enjoy the picnic but dont leave it in a mess for others....it was a literal sore to the eye and I felt very sad that today, when Youth is so verbal about their rights etc...why cant they honour the rights of nature..so please dont spoil the environment...do a picnic, enjoy , but collect all the used items in a paper bag and leave it in a trash only, If you dont find it, take the trouble to keep it with you . Thank you!








Saturday, January 3, 2009

Few firsts.......

I read somewhere, someone. blog name..something we get too cheap...something like that and it reminded me that today there are so many things that we hardly notice even, but the first time we get it, the thrill is overwhelming, or till we dont get anything, we always think that may be once we get it, life will be a bliss,how wrong we are. Life is always bliss, its only we who see outside, never inside. Just see ...these are the few firsts in my life, and I always thought then that once I get them,but even you cant say..its a big thing:)
  • In my childhood, there wasnt electricity everywhere, and first time when we got it....it was.....oh lala:), now just switch it on and u have light..no lanterns and candles.
  • Then we used to have hand pumps, one had to work to get water even, and first time when we got this tap connection, I was so thrilled,.
  • We used to go to Ganga Ghat by Bullock cart.....yeah believe me, I had many bullock cart rides, cemented roads and transport came much later......
  • First time when i heard from my Mausi that they have TV and everyday sunday they watch movie at home......felt so envious...see how lucky they are(in those days TV reception was limited to big cities only) and i was a movie addict from my childhood. and then Asiad turned everything into colorful panorama.
  • Now the desire turned to VCR..and I thought that once i have it we wont need to go out to halls and all, it will be real fun, and yes initially it was fun, but then everything becomes routine.
  • I used to get 10 paisa per day to spend, (of course all the expenses were taken up by parents, it was only for munching something in School) and it was sufficient for us, Myself and my sister never demanded more, only once my Chacha(uncle) said...(ours was a joint family).....we must increase it to 12 paisa he called it..mehangai bhatta..hehe---Dearness allowance in corporate language:), compare to the pocket money today.......and we were the happy lot..no dissatisfaction at all:)
This is the way life goes on....first mobile then Ipod , now I phone......and the things will keep coming and we shall keep running after them, the point is that these are only accesories to a life, not the life itself. Things come and go,its only the people in our life who remain there, so----
Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them.

Ajanta Ellora

 Last week we made a trip to Aurangabad. We had a direct flight from here.we stayed in Lemon tree hotel and liked it. It’s totally value for...