Avatar

Wow...The story is so alien yet the essential premise of moral dilemma is so formulaic.
But I am sure, James Cameron will do justice to the story. Looking fwd for this movie Avatar.

Ideas

Well some ideas are getting generated in my head about some independent ventures. Although, I neither have the plan of taking this seriously at this point of time, but it is fun to at least orient myself.....

Eating, Working, Sleeping and sometimes Dreaming. That's been what's happening for me right now...

One idea which is definitely profitable is to start an agency which caters to the needs of the reality tv shows. One of the integral parts of Reality Tv is to elicit feedback. Feedback is basically in the form of sms'es (as of today) but it can change in the future to may be interner or web based applications on mobile, interactive television etc. So, this agency should give feedback services, conduct surveys, provide authentic voting (of the contestant mechanisms), show the voting trends etc. to a prospective television show producer. He has to just pay this agency for offering feedback services. Going down the lane, this can actually be a branded service.

Another idea (implemented by my cousin brother Sujay Rao in the US as Grasshopr.com ) which is going to catch up, in another 5 to 10 years(in India) is an agency which will provide web based services to MLA's and MP's to interact with the public. The agency should implement the processes for citizens to track and hold MPs (and the officers) responsible for their complaints. The work will be very visible. There could be a tool like a Software Defect Tracker where we raise complaints which get assigned to officials who can track the problem.

Ideas make the world go round, round, round ....

World Maps

My new found fascination with history continues (in this post) and I have found a very good website related to historical maps.

Have you ever wondered : How will an atlas published in the year 1300 B.C. look like ?

Well even I had not, but one guy has taken all the pains and created an atlas for historical eras. I just realized how much of a melting pot of cultures India has been. People from every nook and corner (of the Old World) have visited India. Chinese, Afghans,

Check this website about historical world maps

A coincidence

Yesterday I just found this three piece documentary called "The story of India" - presented by a historian called Michael Wood. And today it is Independence Day. What a coincidence!

If you have the time (like more than 6 hours) on a lazy rainy weekend (like how it is today here in Bangalore), then I would recommend this series. Very insightful and passionated documentary. Michael Wood's approach towards History appealed to me, as he puts forth the story of India right from the Dawn of Indus Valley Civilization till the Indian Independence.

The first series talks about the the Africa=>Mid East Yemen=>Kerala migration of humanity to Kerala and about the original gene preservation in some Kerala tribes (because of marriage between first cousins) and then moves over to the IVC (Indus Valley Civilization and the Aryan Invasion and Sanskrit.

The second series talks about the thinkers in Ancient India namely Budhdha and Jainism and the existence of caste system and how it worked in ancient india.

The third was about the Silk Route. Did not know much about this and enjoyed this episode the most...I was particularly fascinated by a king called "Kanishka" whom I had heard during my school days but was not aware much about him.

I could get only three episodes of this 6 episode series.

I would like to read "The Discovery of India" by Nehru someday but, you need both time and energy , so such a series is good enough for the time being :)

I saw the Hangover

recommended by zeeds ... sakkath aagi ide .... yappa nakki nakki sakkaagoythu!
I think the fat guy and the Doctor (dentist) have done a good job!

There was a similar picture called Sideways which I saw a couple of days ago. That was the same premise and there are fleeting references to Sideways in Hangover (like Napa Valley reference and the Wine tasting)

Sideways was not a goofy/slapstick comedy. It was a serious movie and there were some elements indicating a (?) dark comedy approach.

But nonetheless Hangover was fun. Saw it when I was really tired and bored and laughed the whole night!

BCB, Drag n' Drop, Coffee n Biscuits and McDonald .... Life has been pretty hectic!

The Hangover

highly recommended and not adivsed if doctors have recommended that "laughing is injurious to your health".

The name and the premise ( lost memories of a bachelor party) does not really give you the right ideas about the movie. I was in split minds when I entered the movie hall. But my doubts lay to rest as soon as the credits start to roll.

This movie is a luaghing riot. The character "Allen" is f***in (i used this for a particular reason) hilarious. The minute details are handled very well.

Dont miss it unless laughing is injurious to your health.

Another movie you might want to catch for some laughs is Sankat City.

Egomaniac politicians..

Bill Clinton recently visited North Korea to bring back two American journalists in captive back home. There could never be a remote possiblity of this happening in the Asian world. Asian political representatives are probably the biggest ego-maniacs in the world. The issue of pride (which is mainly ego), face (china and other eastern nations), royalty (middle east) will prevent them from doing anything for the common people.

The Chinese, Indian, middle east, south east politicians are probably the worst kind (combined with their counterparts in africa as well). They just keep a huge distance between themselves and the public. The political standards in this part of the world (which is usually a privilege passed on by the family or a cadre or a religious sect) totally sucks and the worst part is there will be no reform.

I wish to see a King abdullah/ Hu Jintao / Sonia Gandhi moving sometime for someone apart from their near/dear ones. We never do anything unless things reach a critical mass like the racial slur in Australia, which made Mr. Foriegn affairs minister fly down under

KPL ??

Any opinion on KPL ?

I totally agree to Kumble's opinion :-

Kumble warned that the tournament, “in its current form, would allow a backdoor entry into the KSCA for people not passionate about cricket”.

Why are people just promoting 20/20 format ? Any money for sponsorship would just be drained for 20/20 format :-( Test cricket is slowly becoming an antiquity.

Seriously, we need to support test cricket. By 20/20 format, we will forget the worlds of Yorkers, In Swing, Out Swing, Maiden Overs and getting beaten ...Ball weathering out, tiring out bowlers and fielders, slip fielder placements, off spin, leg spin and the googlies....Lunch/Tea and all the things which are actually cricket in a conventional sense. The Wisden Cricket, the real cricket. I heard that ICC wants to get away with a 5 day test cricket format which is not a positive development.


The real cricketing pundits are conspicuously missing. All we hear is about BCCI politics and some bloody Bollywood stars who just want to make money and fame and view Cricket as an investment. And Indian Media is shamelessly more interested in dishing out the politics like coach v/s team v/s captain and all that cr@p. Why can't it just focus on the cricket.

I am happy nowadays happy watching some great test cricket videos on Youtube.