Above is a picture of Strawberry Chocolate Martini, the recipe can be found here.Devotchka - How It Ends
Lyrics:
Hold your grandmother's bible to your breast
Gonna put it to the test
You wanted it to be blessed
And in your heart
You know it to be true
You know what you gotta do
They all depend on you
And you already know
Yet you already know
How this will end
There is no escape
From the slave catcher's songs
For all of the loved ones gone
Forever's not so long
And in your soul
They poked a million holes
But you never let them show
Come on its time to go
And you already know
Yet you already know
How this will end
Now you've seen his face
And you know that there's a place in the sun
For all that you've done
For you and your children
No longer shall you need
You always wanted to believe
Just ask and you'll receive
Beyond your wildest dreams
And you already know
Yet you already know
How this will end
You already know (You already know)
You already know (You already know)
You already knowHow this will end
E.M.I. is one movie which I was not sure whether I wanted to see or not. I thought it would be same old Bollywood stupidity. Just out of curiosity I watched the movie since on the face of it at least the theme appeared different and it had few decent actors (Urmila and Sanjay Dutt).
In the end I ended up enjoying the movie. The story was, if not 100% based on real life, at least kept real life in sight. I was not whisked away to a foreign land to see our actors dancing around and pretending to be super-cool US ishtyle.
The movie has four parallel stories where the central factor is, as you must have already guessed, people taking loans. All the stories are believable and could happen to any of us.
Over all, without giving away too much of the story, I enjoyed Sanjay Dutts acting but he tries to do a Munna-bhai in this movie which doesn't work. It makes the ending seem rushed as he solves all their problems in last 40 mins of the movie. But maybe they wanted a feel-good movie. Mostly people go to movie to forget the real world for some time. One surely doesn't want to frustrate the audience by exposing them to reality throughout the movie.
Where the movie does go wrong is in the choice of actors. Arjun Rampal was surely the worst possible choice for his role. He is bit one dimensional in this movie. I am sure if the roles were better matched the movie would be even more hard-hitting.
On the whole I enjoyed the movie. More than anything I liked the practical message of the movie which is explicitly stated towards the end of the movie:
I recently had the pleasure of watching 'Hulla'. The movie came highly recommended so I was looking forward to watch it. I started the movie just before going off to sleep just to fill in the 20-30 minutes before bedtime but I had a tough time getting away from the movie. If I hadn't been really sleepy I would have probably finished the movie then and there.
The movie involved me in its simple and down-to-earth story line almost immediately.
The story line is very simple and straight forward. This story could be your story. After a very long time am I seeing a movie which highlights life in the real world.
I will not reveal the story line (although the name of the movie should give a clue).
I will just say watch this movie!
How to categorise the movie... well it is not a comedy and it is not a serious movie. I would call it a dark comedy. The music is also excellent (it is by Indian Ocean).
Today I saw Phoonk (a horror movie by Ram Gopal Verma). Reportedly he had issued a challenge to give anyone who would watch the whole movie alone in a theatre a prize of rupees one lakh.
I am sure he issued that challenge because he was sure no one would be able to see it that way. Not because it is a good horror story that leaves looking over your shoulders weeks after the movie. But because it is such a slow and predictable movie that you would die of boredom if you saw it alone. After the first ten minutes I wanted to forward the movie to its last scene.
The story has been copied from Geherayee (an EXCELLENT hindi horror movie) and Ram Gopal Verma's Raat (another EXCELLENT hindi horror movie) which shows an age old struggle between superstition and science.
The actors have all done average work (especially since they didnt have much of a story to go by). But the characterization has been done quite badly. The grandmother keeps shaking her head like a spring loaded car-toy trying to simulate a muscle spasm. I am sure she would have had a neck sprain with all that head shaking.
The good 'tantrik' has a facial expression which is a combination of a man suffering from intense constipation and a man having the best sex of his life. Weird but true!
The only thing positive about the movie is that the special effects were good. Not excellent but much better than the cartoon-like special effects usually seen in Hindi movies.
Confused signage... these signs were painted by DLF in GK-2 outside their construction area. Don't know whether they want people to park or not!
:)
Vodafone Tuesdays - http://www.vodafone.in/existingusers/Pages/privileges.aspx
Vodafone Tuesdays is a buy one get one free offer for all Vodafone customers on Tuesdays at selected outlets. Therefore on Tuesday in selected multiplexes you can buy one ticket and get the other one for free if you are a Vodafone Customer in Mumbai, India. This offer is slowly being rolled out to other cities as well.
Orange Wednesdays - http://www.orange.co.uk/film/orange_wednesdays.htm
Similar offer from Orange for cinema tickets on Wednesday. This is valid only in UK.
This is what I call copy-cat marketing! Pick a concept from your competition in UK and apply it in India! Just change the day and the scope of the offer!
A married woman is having an affair. Whenever her lover comes over, she puts her nine year old son in the closet. One day the woman hears a car in the driveway and puts her lover in the closet, as well.
Inside the closet, the little boy says, "It's dark in here, isn't it?"
"Yes it is," the man replies.
"You wanna buy a baseball?" the little boy asks.
"No thanks," the man replies.
"I think you do want to buy a baseball," the little extortionist continues.
"OK. How much?" the man replies after considering the position he is in.
"Twenty-five dollars," the little boy replies.
"TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS?!" the man repeats incredulously, but complies to protect his hidden position.
The following week, the lover is visiting the woman again when she hears a car in the driveway and, again, places her lover in the closet with her little boy.
"It's dark in here, isn't it?" the boy starts off.
"Yes it is," replies the man.
"Wanna buy a baseball glove?" the little boy asks.
"OK. How much?" the hiding lover responds, acknowledging his disadvantage.
"Fifty dollars," the boy replies and the transaction is completed..
The next weekend, the little boy's father says "Hey, son.
Go get your ball and glove and we'll play some catch."
"I can't. I sold them," replies the little boy.
"How much did you get for them?" asks the father, expecting to hear
the profit in terms of lizards and candy.
"Seventy-five dollars," the little boy says.
"SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS?! That's thievery! I'm taking you to the church right now. You must confess your sin and ask for forgiveness", the father explains as he hauls the child away.
At the church, the little boy goes into the confessional, draws the curtain, sits down, and says "It's dark in here, isn't it?"
"Don't you start that crap in here," the priest says.
India reaches 500.
India declares at 613 after Laxman gets his 200!
Laxman gets his 200!
Gambhir gets his 200!
The Tickets.
India reaches 600.
Chanas wrapped in court judgements.
The chaos behind the stadium.
The other day I was browsing through few TV channels when my eyes fell on a notice being shown on Zee TV (UK).
It said something like:
The following program features subtitles in English and French press 888
for English and 889 for French.
Obviously I was curious as to which programs shown on Zee TV feature French subtitles.
To my utter surprise the program which followed this notice was a Saas-Bahu soap opera called 'Kasam se'.
It was good to know that Indian soap operas have crossed the language barrier and are now in the process of invading continental Europe.
I did a bit of Googling and this is what I came up with:
In addition to English subtitles, ZEE TV is also giving its viewers access to
French subtitles, for the first time.
To use the facility, viewers will need to press “888″ for English subtitles and “889″ for French subtitles on ZEE’s analogue teletext. To make use of the subtitles on Sky Digital, viewers can press the “Help” button and then select “On”, which will turn on the subtitles.
The full article can be found here.
I wonder what is next?
Maybe Chinese subtitles for Saas-Bahu Serials to tap the worlds largest audience?
I am sure Ekta Kapoor is already planning an international soap opera. I think all the soap stars must be getting bored of shooting in Lonavala and Khandala!
Finally: who needs nuclear bombs when you have scheming Indian mother-in-laws and intelligent Indian daughter-in-laws to unleash at your neighbours.
One of my favourite songs Najane Kyon by Strings.
This song is a part of the Spiderman 2 soundtrack. I love the part of the movie where Spiderman stops the train with his web. Special effects in this movie rock!
Enjoy!
:)
A: Men are so "S.........."
Me: hahahahaha obv ... otherwise why would they fall for girls
Today I got some excellent advice from someone who has a lot of life experience....
For a happy marriage you need:
A woman who is caring
A woman who can cook well
A woman who has patience
A woman who is 'experienced'
A woman who likes cleaning stuff
and MOST IMPORTANTLY
For the above mentioned women to be unaware of each others existence.....
In my continuing effort to try and understand women I thought I would explore their shopping habits.
Let us look at a typical shopping scenario where a girl goes shopping with her boyfriend (or for that matter any other close male friend).
So it goes something like this:
It is a sunny Saturday morning, for sure there is a good cricket match/movie on TV or something equally exciting is happening somewhere. You (the guy) have been dragged out of bed (oh what a warm bed it was!) just because your 'female friend' wants to go shopping and she can't find anyone else (stupid enough) to go with her!
When she pounced on you as you were enjoying the warmth of your bed you finally understood how a deer feels when it sees a lioness pouncing on it. You swear to all the Gods of all the religions that next time you WILL NOT pick up the phone. Next time you will CONTROL your emotions and if need be you will be RUDE. Then (being a man) you face reality. You stop lying to yourself and accept that you are now trapped.
Now you are standing in some XYZ shopping mall (man they are springing up everywhere, like trees used to some time ago!), staring out into space. You feel itchy all over and your eyes refuse to focus. Your brain is working as well as a car engine without fuel. You realise that if someone asked you what 2+2 equals to you wouldn't know.
You tried (for the millionth time) to get a list of things your 'female friend' is shopping for. But every time you get a different list. Then you realise there is no list. The cat is just playing with the mouse (you are the mouse here!).
You watch as she picks up one item, looks at it, rotates it, thinks about it then puts it back on the shelf. This is like the old Chinese water torture for you. Each time she does this your blood pressure increases thinking that yes she will buy something and that will be one item less on the 'imaginary list of things to be purchased'.
Then comes the time when she asks your opinion on some thing. That is the time you feel like the prime suspect in a double murder case. You know anything you say can and WILL be used against you in all future fights. You know there are no right answers. You are sure that girls ask for your opinion just to check that yes you are still alive and have not turned into a walking vegetable.
Then comes the time for relase. When she says the magic words 'Lets go home I am tired'. You are just too happy to even think about the irony of the statement (since you have been carrying all the bags!).
Obviously as you near the exit your expectations of a swift release are dashed each time she stops to explore a store. But you are also bit happy as long as the overall movement is towards the exit.
You reach home. She is happy. She quickly does a survey of what she bought. If she bought something for you then you get to go and try it then and there (even if you don't want to!).
She is happy because she went 'shopping'. You are happy because the torture is over. Both of you are happy because.....
obviously you know why the both of you are happy....
still not sure....
ok let me spell it out for you... both of you are happy because YOU LOVE EACH OTHER and managed to spend the WHOLE DAY together (who cares if it was constructive or not).
Credits: Amol Chavan for the dish shown in the picture. ;)Google Maps (Google Earth) is going to implement streetview in UK. Which means you can watch the actual location in 3-D through Google Maps or Google Earth.
Today as I was leaving my house I saw a car with a mounted camera driving into our lane.
It was the Google Maps car! It was quite a coincidence that I happened to be out when the car came. Our street is a short dead-end street so it was pure luck that I caught their car. Here are few pictures:.jpg)
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Why does the alarm ring during the BEST part of your sleep?
Why can we not talk on cell-phones in a restaurant, I mean other people are talking with each other then why can't I talk to someone through my cell?
Why do we allow politicians to take us for a ride every time there is an election?
Why do people wish for 'magic wands' when they know there is no such thing?
Why does love have to be so difficult yet so enjoyable?
Why can we not get free ketchup at burger joints?
