Hello people.
This is a special post. Well, at least a special one to me. I am gonna write about the most daring thing I have done in my life till now. Recently, back from a short vacation from Tioman Islands, Malaysia with a few friends, I am re-energized to face the rat-race of life once more!
But this trip started with a lot of uncertainties. Tioman "Island" ---> Beach ---> Ocean ---> WATER! Lots of it! (here, I give you guys a quick reference to my hydrophobia) For those who want to write it off as "Bleh! Hydrophobia, Schmydrophobia! It's all in your head!" .... Well it is in my head and it is real! So take a hike! The blog post ends here for you.
So, as I was saying... the uncertain thoughts clouded my mind. Suddenly I went back 15-17 odd years back... picturing in my head my previous unsuccessful attempts at learning swimming in uber-chlorinated pools.
And before we started the trip, we knew we had to have fun. and the only means was to either get pissed drunk on the beach or be in water! To carry the spirit and enthusiasm of vacation along with my friends, I acted it out as something very trivial. But inside, I knew I was gonna face a lot of water and a deep ocean. I re-assured myself somehow that I was gonna be okay. Worst case scenario - I can back out of the 'ocean' fun any time I want to.
So there we were. We reached a small town in Malaysia called Mersing, from where we were supposed to take a ferry ride to Tioman Islands. 2 hours of it! (in my mind: You're gonna be alright. It's just 2 hours. Besides, there are so many people along with you. Don't be a wuss!) The first hiccup was that the Speed Boat stalled midway in the ocean for some god-only-knows technical fault. It was just our ferry and the wide ocean. After 5 irritating hours of stand-still, we finally got to Tioman.
The first day we relaxed. We had booked for a round-island trip for some sight-seeing for the next day. The next day, we all assembled at the meeting point. What I saw was that the ferry guy was handing all the folks a life jacket, a snorkel mask and a pair of fins. I could have chosen not to get the gear. But I said to myself, "All your life, you haven't been this daring! What's the worst that could happen??? You could drown! But if you don't, it would be an experience of a lifetime! So DO IT! Go Ahead! Buckle Up!" And, so I took it thinking that I haven't had such thrills in a long long time. I might as well go ahead with it.
So we set off. We went to a few points on the island seeing waterfalls, beaches.... and then finally the moment came! The boat guy stopped the boat in the middle of the ocean (I guess that's a regular spot that they have for snorkeling). And then, he instructed that we could do snorkeling here. Everybody with their gear ready, jumped off the boat and into the water. I could see people actually enjoying it. So I buckled up, and with my friends urging me to get into water, I did.
I cannot really describe the feeling at that very moment when my feet went under water. The first thought that crossed my mind was "SHIT! I cannot feel any solid ground under my feet!" Eventually I started floating (of course, because of the life jacket) .... I was still apprehensive of my head staying above the water. But then, with some help from my friends, who instructed me on how to breathe underwater with the snorkeling mask ON, and a few other instructions, I managed to finally snorkel for some time. It was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen in my life. The sea life. The corals. The fishes (big, small, vibrantly colored, graceful movements). It was a sight that reminded me of one of those NatGeo/Discovery Channel documentaries, and here, I was witnessing the same myself! The feeling was exhilarating to say the least!
The point of this blog post is that I realized one thing that day. It is OK to fear something and yet face it. Life isn't all about not having any fears and being rosy and perfect all the time. Sooner or later, everybody has to admit to have some fears and face them. Above all, one should not discard any thing as impossible before giving it at least one try.
I know that my fear for water hasn't really diminished after this experience. I may never get a chance or offer myself voluntarily for a snorkel session. But I faced my fear and came through. It has been a learning experience of sorts. Come to think of it, I am a guy who still recalls the harrowing swimming coaching sessions almost 2 decades ago as if it were yesterday. And since then, who has never tried anything like that. And this time, directly into the ocean. Considering all this, I must say it has been a unique personal achievement for me.
Thus, I can now say..... I CAME, I SAW, I SNORKELED!
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Raavan - A saga of screams, shrieks, cries and weird facial expressions!
Ok. Here we go. I just watched Raavan today. I must say I wasted a good 13 bucks on the film. Not to mention the whole effort of traveling one hour (one-way) to watch it.
I decided to analyze the torture. You never really know the pain unless you know the cause of it.
Let's begin with the story of Raavan. Ohh wait, I forgot.... it's Ramayan. Well then, that's that! Now let's head to the characters....
Raavan is a story involving a (supposedly) fearful dacoit named Beera (Abhishek Bachchan), a not-even-single-emotion-on-my-face-and-my-loose-attempt-at-spoken-Hindi cop Dev (Vikram) and his 'I must use every excuse in the book to cry and shriek' wife Ragini (Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan). The supporting cast is the Beera-clan and the extras as police officials and I-can-monkey-around-and-jump-around-ever-so-dexterously-despite-of-my-obese-body Sanjeevani (Govinda). Ohh and by the way, Sanjeevani is also supposed to provide comic-relief in the otherwise 'serious' plot. We cannot exactly ascertain how and when and where does he learn his 'comic' poetry but it is almost certain he uses it only once during his introduction.
Alrighty then! Let's head to the Ramayan analogy. Raavan : Beera. Ram : Dev. Sita : Ragini. Hanuman : Sanjeevani. Once you fit these in place, the rest of the Ramayan characters fall themselves in place in your head. (Mr. Ramanand Sagar. Please don't mind them. I still remember my Sunday mornings with your version of Ramayan.)
The plot starts with a rather haphazard introduction to 'Who is Beera?' or rather 'What is a Beera?' and we finally land in a lake where Beera kidnaps Ragini. Till now we got no logic in place as to why he does what he does, but never mind. Dev is shaving (apparently) in his tent when he gets the news that Ragini is kidnapped by Beera. Thus starts a unseemingly frantic search for Ragini and an equally unreal manhunt for Beera. Though it seems that the copper is more interested in hunting down Beera than rescuing his wife Ragini. This is not surprising considering the fact that Ragini screams, shrieks and sheds tears at the drop of a hat in the movie that follows. In the meantime, on a high cliff waterfall, Beera has tied-up Ragini and is ready to execute her. But Ragini shows no fear and Beera-dude is thoroughly impressed. Ragini says she would prefer dying by jumping off the cliff than from Beera's bullet (I say DO IT!) And she eventually does. jumping off the cliff and yet miraculously surviving the fall. (Bollywood - Anything's Possible!) It is a few minutes later into the reel that we come to know about the justification of this miraculous escape. Ragini does not fall into the water below but is stuck in a tree after undergoing a 'Rambo: First Blood' like fall. She eventually falls into the river. Thus the Beera+Beera-clan+Ragini entourage wanders thru the jungles showing us a beautiful landscape in India we never knew existed. Along this journey, Ragini continuously maintains her hatred for Beera. However, at this point the audience can really predict that eventually she's gonna have a soft corner for Beera-dude (she HAS to, it's a Bollywood movie!) Together they visit the villages where Beera is the ultimate deity and everybody praises him. Meanwhile, the search for Beera continues with the supercop raiding villages and lining up village folks to individually interview them asking about Beera and his qualities. Apparently, they have all the time in the world to do that cus Mr. Cop is sure his wife ain't dead yet!
The narrative abruptly jumps from the present-day to a bit of a flashback revealing to a yet-wondering audience as to why Beera has kidnapped Ragini. Apparently Beera has a step-sister whose marriage is ruined by the coppers' raid and who loses her life thru an indirect involvement of our ever-so-expressionless Mr. Cop. So the bottomline is plain ol' Bollywood 'ishtyle' revenge. Eye for an eye, chic for a chic.
Coming back to present-day, somehow our Sanjeevani jester-dude convinces Mr. Cop that he can reach to Beera where a battery of trained cops fail. And he lands up on a tree above where Ragini is sitting and gives her the message that Mr. Cop is just around the corner waiting to rescue her. And he gets caught (probably one of the few pleasant surprises in the movie) by Beera-clan. Sanjeevani convinces Beera not to kill him and Beera promptly obliges and sends his brother for a peace proposition with Mr. Cop. Mr. Cop kills him leading to an enraged Beera (yet another pleasant surprise in the movie, considering the other times Beera-dude tries to act grim and ferocious but ends up giving a distinct comic over-act). This leads us into the climax (Part 1 of 2) of the movie .... Finally! Phew! The climax is one of the fewer scenes which looks a bit realistic. Beera kills every copper except Dev and Dev returns the favor by killing all the clan-members except Beera and they proceed to a bridge to pursue the remainder of the dhishoom-dhishooms. While Ragini is tied to a tree at one end of the bridge, Beera-dude and Mr. Cop battle it out the Last-Man-Standing way, eventually leading to a short-lived enthusiasm among the audience with both men surviving. The bridge breaks causing a swing to one mountain with the audience clearly able to make out the dummies for Beera and Dev. Beera climbs up and releases Ragini (what can he do? finally he gives in to her constant crying and shrieking which is describes as "chik-chik-chik-chik" and "bak-bak-bak-bak" ... WTF!?) Mr. Cop reaches to Ragini and they end up in a much-cliched Bollywood Re-union embrace, with Ragini saying a meaningless, irrelevant and misfitted dialogue "Dev 14 din baad aye ho lene, 14 minute mein kyun nahi?" Dev, on the other hand, enquires more about Beera than the well-being on Ragini. Whatever. The point is that the audience until now was in a sweet misconception that it's finally time for the end credits.
Dev and Ragini travel back in train (Jai Indian Railways!) when Dev doubts Ragini of her purity. Unless I am unaware of a scientific breakthrough, Dev asks of Ragini to take a polygraph test to verify whether she's telling the truth about Beera/Ragini love-saga. Ragini pulls the chain (I guess, after promptly seeing the notice 'To Stop Train, Pull The Chain') and walks off landing straight back into Beera's lair. Beera-dude is happy to see she returns back (cus even if it is not evident enough throughout the movie, Beera falls for Ragini and asks her to desert Mr. Cop and live with him), only to misconceive that Ragini has led back Mr. Cop and his army to Beera's lair. Ragini tries to convince Dev not to kill Beera but in vain. Beera is gunned down to death. Apparently, according to this movie it takes endless rounds of bullets to kill one man.,... and he falls off a cliff (which I may add, he is shown doing it more than once). A fitting end to a cliff-lover.
Apart from the step-sister's role played by Priyamani, clan-member and Beera's brother played by Ravi Kishen (who, by the way, provides more comic-relief than an overweight Govinda), none of the supporting cast is worth a praise. Abhishek in his Beera-dude role .... at this point, I should probably explain why I keep calling him that. He seems to find an unlimited access to hair-styling gels and mousse in the jungles and remote villages throughout the movie, be it rain or be it dusty. Cus his hair never loses its style! So.. anyways Abhishek has failed to deliver to the audience a ferocious and merciless dacoit. For most of the movie, the audience is clueless whether to love him or hate him. So, to compensate, they just LOL at his facial expressions and grunts, shouts and howls. Aishwarya is probably a bit of a saving grace but for her constant and overtly-done melodramatic character. Vikram .... well... no comments! Govinda in his role of Sanjeevani a.k.a. Hanuman is ... can we end this please?
The film tries to portray the underlying message of the original epic, i.e. Good and Evil and the victory of Good over Evil. Sometimes it gets lost in the purpose, while sometimes it exaggerates. For instance, in the climax, when Beera fights Dev, Beera wears a typically symbolic black while Dev dons a white T-Shirt. And what's with the OD of 'Multani Mitti' by AB Jr.?????
Rehman's music is good, but only for the auditory senses. The songs appear in the movie completely irrelevant to the situations. Probably the real saving grace is Mani Ratnam's choice of scenic locations and Santosh Sivan's amazing camera work to make those locations even more heavenly.
FINAL VERDICT: Avoid it. Rather reminisce the fact that Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan had a cult following and was a massive hit in its times!
MY RATING: 2/5 (1 for the locations, 1 for Mr. Santosh Sivan)
PLEASE NOTE: The post is strictly based on my own interpretation of THIS movie. Please bear in mind that while writing this review, I have neither discounted the previous successes/masterpieces from the allied/individual efforts of the acting/production crew nor am I speculating the future for them.
Peace,
*Boink*
I decided to analyze the torture. You never really know the pain unless you know the cause of it.
Let's begin with the story of Raavan. Ohh wait, I forgot.... it's Ramayan. Well then, that's that! Now let's head to the characters....
Raavan is a story involving a (supposedly) fearful dacoit named Beera (Abhishek Bachchan), a not-even-single-emotion-on-my-face-and-my-loose-attempt-at-spoken-Hindi cop Dev (Vikram) and his 'I must use every excuse in the book to cry and shriek' wife Ragini (Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan). The supporting cast is the Beera-clan and the extras as police officials and I-can-monkey-around-and-jump-around-ever-so-dexterously-despite-of-my-obese-body Sanjeevani (Govinda). Ohh and by the way, Sanjeevani is also supposed to provide comic-relief in the otherwise 'serious' plot. We cannot exactly ascertain how and when and where does he learn his 'comic' poetry but it is almost certain he uses it only once during his introduction.
Alrighty then! Let's head to the Ramayan analogy. Raavan : Beera. Ram : Dev. Sita : Ragini. Hanuman : Sanjeevani. Once you fit these in place, the rest of the Ramayan characters fall themselves in place in your head. (Mr. Ramanand Sagar. Please don't mind them. I still remember my Sunday mornings with your version of Ramayan.)
The plot starts with a rather haphazard introduction to 'Who is Beera?' or rather 'What is a Beera?' and we finally land in a lake where Beera kidnaps Ragini. Till now we got no logic in place as to why he does what he does, but never mind. Dev is shaving (apparently) in his tent when he gets the news that Ragini is kidnapped by Beera. Thus starts a unseemingly frantic search for Ragini and an equally unreal manhunt for Beera. Though it seems that the copper is more interested in hunting down Beera than rescuing his wife Ragini. This is not surprising considering the fact that Ragini screams, shrieks and sheds tears at the drop of a hat in the movie that follows. In the meantime, on a high cliff waterfall, Beera has tied-up Ragini and is ready to execute her. But Ragini shows no fear and Beera-dude is thoroughly impressed. Ragini says she would prefer dying by jumping off the cliff than from Beera's bullet (I say DO IT!) And she eventually does. jumping off the cliff and yet miraculously surviving the fall. (Bollywood - Anything's Possible!) It is a few minutes later into the reel that we come to know about the justification of this miraculous escape. Ragini does not fall into the water below but is stuck in a tree after undergoing a 'Rambo: First Blood' like fall. She eventually falls into the river. Thus the Beera+Beera-clan+Ragini entourage wanders thru the jungles showing us a beautiful landscape in India we never knew existed. Along this journey, Ragini continuously maintains her hatred for Beera. However, at this point the audience can really predict that eventually she's gonna have a soft corner for Beera-dude (she HAS to, it's a Bollywood movie!) Together they visit the villages where Beera is the ultimate deity and everybody praises him. Meanwhile, the search for Beera continues with the supercop raiding villages and lining up village folks to individually interview them asking about Beera and his qualities. Apparently, they have all the time in the world to do that cus Mr. Cop is sure his wife ain't dead yet!
The narrative abruptly jumps from the present-day to a bit of a flashback revealing to a yet-wondering audience as to why Beera has kidnapped Ragini. Apparently Beera has a step-sister whose marriage is ruined by the coppers' raid and who loses her life thru an indirect involvement of our ever-so-expressionless Mr. Cop. So the bottomline is plain ol' Bollywood 'ishtyle' revenge. Eye for an eye, chic for a chic.
Coming back to present-day, somehow our Sanjeevani jester-dude convinces Mr. Cop that he can reach to Beera where a battery of trained cops fail. And he lands up on a tree above where Ragini is sitting and gives her the message that Mr. Cop is just around the corner waiting to rescue her. And he gets caught (probably one of the few pleasant surprises in the movie) by Beera-clan. Sanjeevani convinces Beera not to kill him and Beera promptly obliges and sends his brother for a peace proposition with Mr. Cop. Mr. Cop kills him leading to an enraged Beera (yet another pleasant surprise in the movie, considering the other times Beera-dude tries to act grim and ferocious but ends up giving a distinct comic over-act). This leads us into the climax (Part 1 of 2) of the movie .... Finally! Phew! The climax is one of the fewer scenes which looks a bit realistic. Beera kills every copper except Dev and Dev returns the favor by killing all the clan-members except Beera and they proceed to a bridge to pursue the remainder of the dhishoom-dhishooms. While Ragini is tied to a tree at one end of the bridge, Beera-dude and Mr. Cop battle it out the Last-Man-Standing way, eventually leading to a short-lived enthusiasm among the audience with both men surviving. The bridge breaks causing a swing to one mountain with the audience clearly able to make out the dummies for Beera and Dev. Beera climbs up and releases Ragini (what can he do? finally he gives in to her constant crying and shrieking which is describes as "chik-chik-chik-chik" and "bak-bak-bak-bak" ... WTF!?) Mr. Cop reaches to Ragini and they end up in a much-cliched Bollywood Re-union embrace, with Ragini saying a meaningless, irrelevant and misfitted dialogue "Dev 14 din baad aye ho lene, 14 minute mein kyun nahi?" Dev, on the other hand, enquires more about Beera than the well-being on Ragini. Whatever. The point is that the audience until now was in a sweet misconception that it's finally time for the end credits.
Dev and Ragini travel back in train (Jai Indian Railways!) when Dev doubts Ragini of her purity. Unless I am unaware of a scientific breakthrough, Dev asks of Ragini to take a polygraph test to verify whether she's telling the truth about Beera/Ragini love-saga. Ragini pulls the chain (I guess, after promptly seeing the notice 'To Stop Train, Pull The Chain') and walks off landing straight back into Beera's lair. Beera-dude is happy to see she returns back (cus even if it is not evident enough throughout the movie, Beera falls for Ragini and asks her to desert Mr. Cop and live with him), only to misconceive that Ragini has led back Mr. Cop and his army to Beera's lair. Ragini tries to convince Dev not to kill Beera but in vain. Beera is gunned down to death. Apparently, according to this movie it takes endless rounds of bullets to kill one man.,... and he falls off a cliff (which I may add, he is shown doing it more than once). A fitting end to a cliff-lover.
Apart from the step-sister's role played by Priyamani, clan-member and Beera's brother played by Ravi Kishen (who, by the way, provides more comic-relief than an overweight Govinda), none of the supporting cast is worth a praise. Abhishek in his Beera-dude role .... at this point, I should probably explain why I keep calling him that. He seems to find an unlimited access to hair-styling gels and mousse in the jungles and remote villages throughout the movie, be it rain or be it dusty. Cus his hair never loses its style! So.. anyways Abhishek has failed to deliver to the audience a ferocious and merciless dacoit. For most of the movie, the audience is clueless whether to love him or hate him. So, to compensate, they just LOL at his facial expressions and grunts, shouts and howls. Aishwarya is probably a bit of a saving grace but for her constant and overtly-done melodramatic character. Vikram .... well... no comments! Govinda in his role of Sanjeevani a.k.a. Hanuman is ... can we end this please?
The film tries to portray the underlying message of the original epic, i.e. Good and Evil and the victory of Good over Evil. Sometimes it gets lost in the purpose, while sometimes it exaggerates. For instance, in the climax, when Beera fights Dev, Beera wears a typically symbolic black while Dev dons a white T-Shirt. And what's with the OD of 'Multani Mitti' by AB Jr.?????
Rehman's music is good, but only for the auditory senses. The songs appear in the movie completely irrelevant to the situations. Probably the real saving grace is Mani Ratnam's choice of scenic locations and Santosh Sivan's amazing camera work to make those locations even more heavenly.
FINAL VERDICT: Avoid it. Rather reminisce the fact that Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan had a cult following and was a massive hit in its times!
MY RATING: 2/5 (1 for the locations, 1 for Mr. Santosh Sivan)
PLEASE NOTE: The post is strictly based on my own interpretation of THIS movie. Please bear in mind that while writing this review, I have neither discounted the previous successes/masterpieces from the allied/individual efforts of the acting/production crew nor am I speculating the future for them.
Peace,
*Boink*
Friday, May 14, 2010
Follow Fridays!!!!
Hello Tweeple! Welcome to my blog.
This is a post, kind of a one-stop shop for 'Follow Friday' on Twitter.
A 'Follow Friday' contains follow suggestions for Twitter. It is precisely the list of people (or shud I say 'Tweeple') you follow and think that others should follow them too. For the simple reason that they are cool in one-way or the other. :)
So here goes my FF list. (attaching links to the Twitter handles so that you can directly visit their profiles)
Note: The tweeple I mention here are based on the chronological order of which I started following them. One preceding the other does not mean that the later ones are any less fun to follow than the previous ones. :)
- @WordOfMohit - Mohit is an avid blogger and a writer. He has an interesting blog. Follow him to read his blog.
- @Kal_Penn I am a huge fan of Kal Penn. Follow him if you are one too. :D
- @CocaCola (Verified Account) Always Coca-Cola!
- @buffalax - Follow Mike for his hilarious videos.... They are good. Guaranteed!
- @SahilRiz - Sahil is a writer. Follow him and also visit his blog for amazing Movie Review comic strips.
- @lolacronyms - Funny Acronyms. To add a bit of humor to your day!
- @kunalnayyar - If you are a fan of Big Bang Theory and Rajesh Koothrapalli. ;)
- @DavidRoads - For inspirational quotes.
- @omkars - Omkar is a writer and tweep. I recommend you to follow him and also read his book "Welcome to Advertising! Now get lost!" if you wanna tickle your funny bone. :)
- @ZsofiTapasBar - SG Tweeps. Here's a cool hangout place with some good Tapas and drinks.
- @sashreddy1 - For nice tweets on Quotes, Internet, Technology and News.
- @Help0thers - For the amazing quotes and quotations that bring smile on your face at least once in a day.
- @OddeeBlog - For the oddest and the weirdest things in the world. In short, the things that would make you go "Hmmm...."
- @sachin_rt - The 'God' of Cricket has a verified account on Twitter. Go, follow! :)
- @JeykiGee - For inspiring thoughts.
- @Flipbooks - For amazing, inspiring thoughts and bites from the biz and the tech worlds.
- @QuakerQuotes - For amazing quotes and quotations.
- @xanpearson - For inspirational thoughts and interesting news articles from around the planet.
- [@FalkEbert, @Gefahrgut_Blog, @chris_faller] - For great articles on Advertising and their wonderful blog.
- @desireekoh13 - Johnny Cash is her hero. Do I need to say anything more?
- @airplanetalk - For his passion on social issues in India, and his tweet-opinions of cricket, politics and news in India. Ohh yeah, he's a Pilot. That makes him uber-cool!
- @wilfredphua - For he is a chilled out Singaporean who loves to tweet almost about everything.
- @omgzam - Another chilled out Singaporean dude. He tweets about weird trivia and facts that make you go OMG!
- [@Sarah_Chong, @williswee @PennOlson] - For their amazing blog and cool infographics on Social Media, Marketing and Advertising.
- @Katie_North - For amazing stuff on Social Media and Marketing.
- @BrewerkzSG - For their amazing beer. You should follow them offline as well. :P Also for their amazing promotions and games for Social Media users.
- @NeverTheTwains - For their wonderful and inspirational quotes from Mark Twain.
- @dtcav - Donna writes incredibly good. Follow her for inspirational and motivational thoughts and poetry.
- @InspiredRobin - For their tweets on motivation and inspiration.
- @unmarketing - Scott's the coolest Marketing dude ever! You heard me right!
- @LovnLite - Follow Kathy for her inspirational quotes and articles.
- @Sherbrukka - Follow John for amazing Henry David Thoreau sayings.
- @xavlur - Follow Xavier for his cool tech-world tweets!
- @charlesyeo - Charles tweets about anything and everything. Right from Social media to OMG Facts to general trivia to politics to entertainment.
- @AskAaronLee - Aaron tweets about tech-news, quotations, marketing/advertising tweets.
That's about it! If anybody is still remaining, my sincerest apologies.
You can still visit My Twitter Page and browse thru my 'Following' list for more follows.
Over and Out!
*Boink*
This is a post, kind of a one-stop shop for 'Follow Friday' on Twitter.
A 'Follow Friday' contains follow suggestions for Twitter. It is precisely the list of people (or shud I say 'Tweeple') you follow and think that others should follow them too. For the simple reason that they are cool in one-way or the other. :)
So here goes my FF list. (attaching links to the Twitter handles so that you can directly visit their profiles)
Note: The tweeple I mention here are based on the chronological order of which I started following them. One preceding the other does not mean that the later ones are any less fun to follow than the previous ones. :)
- @WordOfMohit - Mohit is an avid blogger and a writer. He has an interesting blog. Follow him to read his blog.
- @Kal_Penn I am a huge fan of Kal Penn. Follow him if you are one too. :D
- @CocaCola (Verified Account) Always Coca-Cola!
- @buffalax - Follow Mike for his hilarious videos.... They are good. Guaranteed!
- @SahilRiz - Sahil is a writer. Follow him and also visit his blog for amazing Movie Review comic strips.
- @lolacronyms - Funny Acronyms. To add a bit of humor to your day!
- @kunalnayyar - If you are a fan of Big Bang Theory and Rajesh Koothrapalli. ;)
- @DavidRoads - For inspirational quotes.
- @omkars - Omkar is a writer and tweep. I recommend you to follow him and also read his book "Welcome to Advertising! Now get lost!" if you wanna tickle your funny bone. :)
- @ZsofiTapasBar - SG Tweeps. Here's a cool hangout place with some good Tapas and drinks.
- @sashreddy1 - For nice tweets on Quotes, Internet, Technology and News.
- @Help0thers - For the amazing quotes and quotations that bring smile on your face at least once in a day.
- @OddeeBlog - For the oddest and the weirdest things in the world. In short, the things that would make you go "Hmmm...."
- @sachin_rt - The 'God' of Cricket has a verified account on Twitter. Go, follow! :)
- @JeykiGee - For inspiring thoughts.
- @Flipbooks - For amazing, inspiring thoughts and bites from the biz and the tech worlds.
- @QuakerQuotes - For amazing quotes and quotations.
- @xanpearson - For inspirational thoughts and interesting news articles from around the planet.
- [@FalkEbert, @Gefahrgut_Blog, @chris_faller] - For great articles on Advertising and their wonderful blog.
- @desireekoh13 - Johnny Cash is her hero. Do I need to say anything more?
- @airplanetalk - For his passion on social issues in India, and his tweet-opinions of cricket, politics and news in India. Ohh yeah, he's a Pilot. That makes him uber-cool!
- @wilfredphua - For he is a chilled out Singaporean who loves to tweet almost about everything.
- @omgzam - Another chilled out Singaporean dude. He tweets about weird trivia and facts that make you go OMG!
- [@Sarah_Chong, @williswee @PennOlson] - For their amazing blog and cool infographics on Social Media, Marketing and Advertising.
- @Katie_North - For amazing stuff on Social Media and Marketing.
- @BrewerkzSG - For their amazing beer. You should follow them offline as well. :P Also for their amazing promotions and games for Social Media users.
- @NeverTheTwains - For their wonderful and inspirational quotes from Mark Twain.
- @dtcav - Donna writes incredibly good. Follow her for inspirational and motivational thoughts and poetry.
- @InspiredRobin - For their tweets on motivation and inspiration.
- @unmarketing - Scott's the coolest Marketing dude ever! You heard me right!
- @LovnLite - Follow Kathy for her inspirational quotes and articles.
- @Sherbrukka - Follow John for amazing Henry David Thoreau sayings.
- @xavlur - Follow Xavier for his cool tech-world tweets!
- @charlesyeo - Charles tweets about anything and everything. Right from Social media to OMG Facts to general trivia to politics to entertainment.
- @AskAaronLee - Aaron tweets about tech-news, quotations, marketing/advertising tweets.
That's about it! If anybody is still remaining, my sincerest apologies.
You can still visit My Twitter Page and browse thru my 'Following' list for more follows.
Over and Out!
*Boink*
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Ex-Quiz Me please!
And here I am .... Had been off hibernating for the Ice Age to pass by!
Now that we are all warm and cozy and tucked up in our seats, let's begin.
The title of this post, as suggests is about the worst torture in the history of Social Networking, 'If I see one more of these, Ima piss myself off' thing. The Quizzes. And a 'quiz'master called Face Book.
What is it with these quizzes!? No, seriously!? I have been observing these quizzes for a long time, and the utter devotion with which Socially (menacingly) 'active' participants attempt them.
For the ease of your understanding.... hell, for the ease of my understanding, I have categorized these 'quizzes' and 'applications'.
1.) Celebrity quiz: This category contains all those quizzes which have some relation (if at all) with the celebrities. (I swear to God, I even saw Rakhi Sawant as one of the results for one of my FB friends.) The most common form of this quiz is "Which Celebrity are you?" And the results vary from all the A-listers from Hollywood right to historical figures such as Thoreau and Gandhi (Yeah Right! They had a horde of paparazzi following them and made it to the Page 3 of every tabloid.) What amuses me more is "How in the Hell's name did FB think of you (quiz-taker) being the celebrity!?" What amuses me further, is when you tend to "Like" your own results and your equally dumb friends comment on the result with "Wow"s and "Autograph Please!"s. Tell you one thing, there's something which you might have probably heard of before. It's called a MIRROR. Go figure!
Another awesomely stupid version of this quiz is "Which Celebrity is most likely to date you?" (Variation: "Which celebrity are you most likely to date?") The results are an insanely large number of celebrities ranging from Robert Pattinson (for girls.... in some cases for boys too) to Lady Gaga (for boys.... in some cases for girls too). Yeah right! Like the celebs have no better thing to do. Wake Up! Life's is real. FB's not.
2.) TV/Movie Quizzes: Ohh man! These are of an endless variety. For the simple reason that there are endless number of TV Shows and movies you can juggle on with these quizzes. These are quite generic, in the sense that it takes no grey cells to replace one TV Show/Movie with another .... and YET come up with a brand new quiz. The generic of these types is "What character are you?" Be it F.R.I.E.N.D.S. or be it the Twilight Series. Let's face the facts, shall we? You? Really? A character from a TV Show/Movie? *No More Comments*
Another version of these is "What TV Show/Movie is your life?" I am sure that whatever result you get, I would still vote for Joey/Son of the Mask as a better TV Show/Movie than the result that you'd get from your quiz. Simply because, I don't give a damn.
I would LOVE to delve much deeper in this category, but that would require tremendous stamina to endure the uncharted heights of stupidity, which frankly I don't have.
3.) Art Quizzes: I haven't seen much of these lately. However they deserve a mention because they are equally irritating. These come in the form of "What painting describes you?" OR "What music resembles your character?" And so on and so forth. The results vary from The Mona Lisa to the Monet and Picasso masterpieces to genres such as Jazz, Rock n' Roll and Hip Hop. If you're a Mona Lisa does that mean that you are painted on Poplar wood and you are around 600-odd years old?
4.) Flora/Fauna Quizzes: These are the type of quizzes that generally occur as describing a person (quiz-taker) as a member of the Plant or Animal kingdoms (Last I heard was that they are shortly launching a world-wide protest march against humans for degrading their species). These quizzes generally come in the forms of "What kind of a flower are you?" OR "What animal best describes your personality?" I wouldn't brag about myself but I guess the most accurate answers would be:
Q: What kind of a flower are you?
A: A "Cauliflower"?
OR
Q: What animal best describes your personality?
A: A "Dodo"? (Don't be mad. Look at the brighter side. The 'real' Dodos are extinct and that saves you the trouble of facing a protest as mentioned earlier.)
Here's where my patience ends. And so, Ima describing only one more category.
5.) Self-Help Quizzes: I have titled this category as Self-Help because I could not think of any other title. (Other options were 'Agony Aunt', 'Dear Diary' and so on and so forth) This category contains all the quizzes that know more about you, your friends, the next-door aunty/uncle, your cousin's pet dog's front right paw, your relationship (very frequently pseudo-relationships and very rarely real relationships), your lovers.... more than you know about them. Some of the examples are "What does your name say about your personality?" OR "How creative are you?" OR "Who is your best friend for today?" OR "Which of your friends are you mostly likely to date?" OR "How lucky are you today?" OR "What does your Fortune Cookie say?" ... Ohh gawd! the list is virtually endless!
Who is your best friend for today???? If you forget to wear the left sock but somehow never forget to religiously take this quiz, I would say it would be the Shrink who'd treat you for mental illnesses.
How lucky are you today???? Yeah right. FB decides your fate. Spare me! And to add to the excruciating pain equivalent to a kick to the shin, the results are in percentages!!!! "You are 65% lucky today." Yeah right, the 35% unluckiness for you would be if you'd meet me and ramble about the quizzes you take.
THAT'S IT! I can't take it no more. I must, however, remind all my dear quiz-takers .... I have no problem whatsoever if you like these quizzes. Go ahead. While away your time. It only shows that while your Facebook status messages say things like "OMG! No time today. So much work." OR "So Much Work! I need a vacation!", we now really know what kind of work you guys do.
I do not have a problem with you attempting those quizzes. My problems begin when you start randomly publishing your results (your reasons may vary from "a hope of impressing that one boy/girl in your friend list with your results" to "look-at-me-whiling-away-time-while-my-boss-thinks-I-work-hard" fun) Now I know I have an option of hiding that quiz result if I got a problem with it. But the argument here is How Many Times!? I hide one quiz, you crop up with another one. I hide that, another one comes up. It's like never-ending. My only humblest of the requests to you (because I still see that small tiny ray of hope in you that would make this sense to you) is that, while you can have an enormous gratification in getting 'quizzed', please do make sure that you do not publish the results. At least find a way in which I am spared. Ex-Quiz Me Please!
Now that we are all warm and cozy and tucked up in our seats, let's begin.
The title of this post, as suggests is about the worst torture in the history of Social Networking, 'If I see one more of these, Ima piss myself off' thing. The Quizzes. And a 'quiz'master called Face Book.
What is it with these quizzes!? No, seriously!? I have been observing these quizzes for a long time, and the utter devotion with which Socially (menacingly) 'active' participants attempt them.
For the ease of your understanding.... hell, for the ease of my understanding, I have categorized these 'quizzes' and 'applications'.
1.) Celebrity quiz: This category contains all those quizzes which have some relation (if at all) with the celebrities. (I swear to God, I even saw Rakhi Sawant as one of the results for one of my FB friends.) The most common form of this quiz is "Which Celebrity are you?" And the results vary from all the A-listers from Hollywood right to historical figures such as Thoreau and Gandhi (Yeah Right! They had a horde of paparazzi following them and made it to the Page 3 of every tabloid.) What amuses me more is "How in the Hell's name did FB think of you (quiz-taker) being the celebrity!?" What amuses me further, is when you tend to "Like" your own results and your equally dumb friends comment on the result with "Wow"s and "Autograph Please!"s. Tell you one thing, there's something which you might have probably heard of before. It's called a MIRROR. Go figure!
Another awesomely stupid version of this quiz is "Which Celebrity is most likely to date you?" (Variation: "Which celebrity are you most likely to date?") The results are an insanely large number of celebrities ranging from Robert Pattinson (for girls.... in some cases for boys too) to Lady Gaga (for boys.... in some cases for girls too). Yeah right! Like the celebs have no better thing to do. Wake Up! Life's is real. FB's not.
2.) TV/Movie Quizzes: Ohh man! These are of an endless variety. For the simple reason that there are endless number of TV Shows and movies you can juggle on with these quizzes. These are quite generic, in the sense that it takes no grey cells to replace one TV Show/Movie with another .... and YET come up with a brand new quiz. The generic of these types is "What
Another version of these is "What TV Show/Movie is your life?" I am sure that whatever result you get, I would still vote for Joey/Son of the Mask as a better TV Show/Movie than the result that you'd get from your quiz. Simply because, I don't give a damn.
I would LOVE to delve much deeper in this category, but that would require tremendous stamina to endure the uncharted heights of stupidity, which frankly I don't have.
3.) Art Quizzes: I haven't seen much of these lately. However they deserve a mention because they are equally irritating. These come in the form of "What painting describes you?" OR "What music resembles your character?" And so on and so forth. The results vary from The Mona Lisa to the Monet and Picasso masterpieces to genres such as Jazz, Rock n' Roll and Hip Hop. If you're a Mona Lisa does that mean that you are painted on Poplar wood and you are around 600-odd years old?
4.) Flora/Fauna Quizzes: These are the type of quizzes that generally occur as describing a person (quiz-taker) as a member of the Plant or Animal kingdoms (Last I heard was that they are shortly launching a world-wide protest march against humans for degrading their species). These quizzes generally come in the forms of "What kind of a flower are you?" OR "What animal best describes your personality?" I wouldn't brag about myself but I guess the most accurate answers would be:
Q: What kind of a flower are you?
A: A "Cauliflower"?
OR
Q: What animal best describes your personality?
A: A "Dodo"? (Don't be mad. Look at the brighter side. The 'real' Dodos are extinct and that saves you the trouble of facing a protest as mentioned earlier.)
Here's where my patience ends. And so, Ima describing only one more category.
5.) Self-Help Quizzes: I have titled this category as Self-Help because I could not think of any other title. (Other options were 'Agony Aunt', 'Dear Diary' and so on and so forth) This category contains all the quizzes that know more about you, your friends, the next-door aunty/uncle, your cousin's pet dog's front right paw, your relationship (very frequently pseudo-relationships and very rarely real relationships), your lovers.... more than you know about them. Some of the examples are "What does your name say about your personality?" OR "How creative are you?" OR "Who is your best friend for today?" OR "Which of your friends are you mostly likely to date?" OR "How lucky are you today?" OR "What does your Fortune Cookie say?" ... Ohh gawd! the list is virtually endless!
Who is your best friend for today???? If you forget to wear the left sock but somehow never forget to religiously take this quiz, I would say it would be the Shrink who'd treat you for mental illnesses.
How lucky are you today???? Yeah right. FB decides your fate. Spare me! And to add to the excruciating pain equivalent to a kick to the shin, the results are in percentages!!!! "You are 65% lucky today." Yeah right, the 35% unluckiness for you would be if you'd meet me and ramble about the quizzes you take.
THAT'S IT! I can't take it no more. I must, however, remind all my dear quiz-takers .... I have no problem whatsoever if you like these quizzes. Go ahead. While away your time. It only shows that while your Facebook status messages say things like "OMG! No time today. So much work." OR "So Much Work! I need a vacation!", we now really know what kind of work you guys do.
I do not have a problem with you attempting those quizzes. My problems begin when you start randomly publishing your results (your reasons may vary from "a hope of impressing that one boy/girl in your friend list with your results" to "look-at-me-whiling-away-time-while-my-boss-thinks-I-work-hard" fun) Now I know I have an option of hiding that quiz result if I got a problem with it. But the argument here is How Many Times!? I hide one quiz, you crop up with another one. I hide that, another one comes up. It's like never-ending. My only humblest of the requests to you (because I still see that small tiny ray of hope in you that would make this sense to you) is that, while you can have an enormous gratification in getting 'quizzed', please do make sure that you do not publish the results. At least find a way in which I am spared. Ex-Quiz Me Please!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
HOLY S**T!!!! It's been almost a year!
In a nerdy world, I might have committed suicide .... twice .... by now, for being absent from the blog for such a long time. However, as much thankful I am, I am relieved that I am still alive.
Alive and kicking!
The past 10 odd months were not exactly the best ones of my life. Simple reason. No job. No money. No independence.
I searched and searched and searched.......
.... and searched yet some more. I came across people who gave me strength to carry on, I met people who empathized with my predicament and then I came across people who simply wrote me off!
All these experiences have been, to say the least, very enlightening.
After a 10-month long ordeal, I finally managed to bag a 2-month freelance assignment. It's come as quite a SHOCKER, considering that almost for the past 2 years, I had forgotten what was 'work' .....
But now, I am getting used to it again and am glad to be back on the circuit... :D
Ohh, and while we are hovering around the topic of blogs, I hope I do enter random ramblings here more often.
Take care,
A
Alive and kicking!
The past 10 odd months were not exactly the best ones of my life. Simple reason. No job. No money. No independence.
I searched and searched and searched.......
.... and searched yet some more. I came across people who gave me strength to carry on, I met people who empathized with my predicament and then I came across people who simply wrote me off!
All these experiences have been, to say the least, very enlightening.
After a 10-month long ordeal, I finally managed to bag a 2-month freelance assignment. It's come as quite a SHOCKER, considering that almost for the past 2 years, I had forgotten what was 'work' .....
But now, I am getting used to it again and am glad to be back on the circuit... :D
Ohh, and while we are hovering around the topic of blogs, I hope I do enter random ramblings here more often.
Take care,
A
Monday, April 20, 2009
A Miracle called Boredom
Ever heard of a miracle called 'boredom' ? I am sure most of us have....
Well, I tried my hand at this miracle, and decided to use it.
I have decided to jot down in this post, all my Google Chat status messages, every time I change one. Now, don't judge me. How else can boredom be utilized!? :-P
So, here it goes...
- Laudate omnes gentes laudate, Magnificat en secula, Et anima mea laudate, Magnificat en secula....
- User Command: open database curse_vocab
curse_vocab opening. please wait....
System Message: system overload ... are you sure you want to continue? (Y/N)
User Command: HELL YEAH!
-
- Ice Cold .... the common preference in Attitude and a Glass of Water
- Alphonso Mangoes ..... Good Times with Good Fruits!
- The Magic of Magic is Magic
- It's Movie Time!
- A Kick called Death Metal!
- I been to the edge, an' there I stood an' looked down. You know I lost a lot of friends there baby, I got no time to mess around....
- If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments. - Earl Wilson
- Und die Welt zählt laut bis zehn.... (Roughly Translated as "And the world counts loudly till ten....)
More to come.. stay tuned!
Well, I tried my hand at this miracle, and decided to use it.
I have decided to jot down in this post, all my Google Chat status messages, every time I change one. Now, don't judge me. How else can boredom be utilized!? :-P
So, here it goes...
- Laudate omnes gentes laudate, Magnificat en secula, Et anima mea laudate, Magnificat en secula....
- User Command: open database curse_vocab
curse_vocab opening. please wait....
System Message: system overload ... are you sure you want to continue? (Y/N)
User Command: HELL YEAH!
-
- Ice Cold .... the common preference in Attitude and a Glass of Water
- Alphonso Mangoes ..... Good Times with Good Fruits!
- The Magic of Magic is Magic
- It's Movie Time!
- A Kick called Death Metal!
- I been to the edge, an' there I stood an' looked down. You know I lost a lot of friends there baby, I got no time to mess around....
- If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.
- Und die Welt zählt laut bis zehn.... (Roughly Translated as "And the world counts loudly till ten....)
More to come.. stay tuned!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Pappu Pass Ho Gaya!
Got my Semester 1 Results today ...... Can't believe I am actually half way through the course! Phew!
Got 3.50 as my TGPA (Term Grade Point Average), out of 5.0
This is quite a decent score, considering that I have had devoured 5 out of 10 courses already! Days were quite hectic, Nights were even more drastic! Assignments, Submission, Powerpoint Slides, Quizzes ... All this managed between the Dinner times, movies, chatting, surfing, partying, sight seeing, and of course, being with my beloved ... 'Sleep'!
I am constantly hammering this on my mind, that at this age and at this stage of my 'academic' career, grades do not matter! Yet, somehow the sense of greed and remorse surrounds me at the same time, when I look at my marks. Phrases such as "I could have done better", "If only... I had studied a bit more", "Next sem I'll try to score more" and alike; keep on hovering in my mind! I say WHY?
It is then I realize, that, we, as Indian students, are constantly bred within our education system, to race against each other on a benchmark of 'marks', 'grades', 'scores', whatever! Why is it that the first thought that crosses our mind (pre-exams, during the exams, and post-exams) that, I should score this much..... anything less than this is something to be ashamed of! We, intrinsically, have been developed in such a way, that we unconciously (or even sub-conciously!) try to be merely qualified than being thoroughly educated?
I do know that grades are a measure of feedback on how much the student has 'understood' of what is being 'taught' to him/her, but why such a tremendous emphasis as if it were to be a matter of life or death!
From now on, of whatever is left of my student life, I refuse to be dragged into this grindmill! I would not be bogged down or flattered by any grades of any magnitude, and the sole purpose of my academics will be to be educated and not just qualified!
If Only.....
Aditya
P.S.: This is from personal experiences, observations, trials and tribulations! The reader has it in the free will to disagree with any of the opinions, thoughts, and ideas.
Got 3.50 as my TGPA (Term Grade Point Average), out of 5.0
This is quite a decent score, considering that I have had devoured 5 out of 10 courses already! Days were quite hectic, Nights were even more drastic! Assignments, Submission, Powerpoint Slides, Quizzes ... All this managed between the Dinner times, movies, chatting, surfing, partying, sight seeing, and of course, being with my beloved ... 'Sleep'!
I am constantly hammering this on my mind, that at this age and at this stage of my 'academic' career, grades do not matter! Yet, somehow the sense of greed and remorse surrounds me at the same time, when I look at my marks. Phrases such as "I could have done better", "If only... I had studied a bit more", "Next sem I'll try to score more" and alike; keep on hovering in my mind! I say WHY?
It is then I realize, that, we, as Indian students, are constantly bred within our education system, to race against each other on a benchmark of 'marks', 'grades', 'scores', whatever! Why is it that the first thought that crosses our mind (pre-exams, during the exams, and post-exams) that, I should score this much..... anything less than this is something to be ashamed of! We, intrinsically, have been developed in such a way, that we unconciously (or even sub-conciously!) try to be merely qualified than being thoroughly educated?
I do know that grades are a measure of feedback on how much the student has 'understood' of what is being 'taught' to him/her, but why such a tremendous emphasis as if it were to be a matter of life or death!
From now on, of whatever is left of my student life, I refuse to be dragged into this grindmill! I would not be bogged down or flattered by any grades of any magnitude, and the sole purpose of my academics will be to be educated and not just qualified!
If Only.....
Aditya
P.S.: This is from personal experiences, observations, trials and tribulations! The reader has it in the free will to disagree with any of the opinions, thoughts, and ideas.
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