Posts filed under 'General'
Amazingly I have started enjoying my travels to the various parts of the country now. Last week it was Delhi and today I came back from a quick tour of Bangalore - The IT City in the south. The only choice that we didn’t have was in staying overnight at this place.
With travelling too much; one has become critical about airline services. Since Kingfisher Airlines is set as a benchmark for services, all of them are compared ruthlessly with it. Unfortunately then, I would say, we had a booking with Indian Airlines (IA). Least to say the hostesses were far from presentable baring just one in the early morning flight schedule. Just one of them looked keen in serving the passengers, the rest looked like they were doing a routine job. The food wasn’t too good and there was no inflight entertainment provided like Kingfisher and I must say that the private airlines are taking away all the laurels from this 50 year old airline. OK I know I am asking far more from IA but it has to survive in this stiff competition.
Continue Reading December 8th, 2005
I had always wanted to see New Delhi, the power centre of Indian politics not that I haven’t been to this place before. But eversince the Metro has begun changing the lives of the delhites, I wanted to get a preview of how the city looks and feels now. A business trip to Delhi was the right moment to visit the city. I am sure that Delhi will become a world class city in the coming days. It’s exciting because of the way the political will has driven the development and left behind the bad memories of a city which had no future at all.
We are a team of 3 people who manage tcs.com. The agenda then was to introduce our culture and thinking patterns to the team so that site structuring & other maintenance activities are accomplished smoothly. This was kind of a workshop for both us as well as the backend team where-in we learnt and gave back a few things unknown. I had a 6:25 am Kingfisher flight to catch to Delhi after which we drove straight to Gurgaon where our backend team sits.
» Click Here for the Delhi Picture Album on Flickr
Continue Reading December 4th, 2005
And I mean it. Last night I logged into my
PayPal account to check how much moolah I’ve got. Surprisingly I saw a “limited access” message boldly written on the home page. Upon some frantic searching from some places I found out that I needed to provide certain documents to verify myself. That’s fine but when I clicked on the link to resolve the issue it just wouldn’t give me the checklist of items that I needed to produce. It is quite suffocating to know that my money has been unnecessarily blocked and I can’t appeal against it or speak to them.
My troubles worsened when my case ID couldn’t be found in the database which meant that I do not know why my account has been de-regularised. Inspite of writing 3-4 mails via the contact form on the website, I got the same replies for all of them. It was probably an auto-responder. It sucks to think that Paypal which is handling finances globally should resort to such practices especially when it knows that the users will be located in different geographies and time zones. At this moment I have lost all hopes of getting back my money. The least that I can do is set up another account and hope for some business to come my way. If somebody has faced a similar situation and has a solution please contact me immediately.
November 29th, 2005
I am sure after reading this passage a lot you guys would term me as a movie buff. This is the third weekend in a row where I have watched a movie. This time it was
Deewane Hue Paagal (DHP) with the affable (rascal) Akshay Kumar. I also wanted to see the FAME Raghuleela at the shopping mall by the same name. This mall culture has surprised me to no limits. We’re constantly bridging the gap between the manufaturers & the consumers in that goods are now easily procured.
DHP was touted as the sequel to Awaara Paagal Deewana (APD) but it fails in that regards. Both films however have a huge starcast but while APD had 3 female leads DHP has only one in Rimii Sen. While APD was all about Paresh Rawal DHP is Akkie all the way. The first half of the movie is very hilarious but tends to lose the grip in the second. Shahid Kapur is wasted yet again in a movie which does little justice to his acting capabilities. He’s however seen dancing in one song. My favorite song is ‘Maar Sutiya’ sung by Anu Malik but unfortunately it hasn’t been picturised entirely. The music sounds awesome in the Dolby Surround music system of FAME. Go watch this movie if you like Akkie’s comedy.
Soon after I went to see the animated movie Hanuman expecting to see some good animation atlast from the Indians but I am sure many of you would agree that it’s been a waste as well. The quality of the characters looked awesome in the various posters and Point of Sales cutouts that I saw and I went inside the movie hall expecting the same but alas! In some portions of the movies you can sense the animation “pixelating” and going horrible. Having been fed on animations like Finding Nemo, Lilo & Stich, Monsters Inc.etc. I would certainly find Hanuman well below par. The only noteworthy credit is that India can produce animation movies locally as well. Rent a VCD of this movie and watch it at home.
November 27th, 2005
I went to see Antarmahal at FAME Andheri on Sunday - a bengali language film starring Jackie Shroff, Soha Ali Khan, Abhishek Bachchan among others. The setting is of the old bengal in the 1800s when the zamindari system was still prevalent. The film is based on a short story written by Tarashankar Bandopadhyay called
Protima. It deals with the oppression of women by the hands of the zamindars and the hindu priests of those times. The most enduring aspect of the movie is the excellent light and shade cinematography by Abhik Sen. That really moves you well before you have settled down in your seat.
Bhubaneshwar Chowdhury (Jackie Shroff) is an oppressive & almost ruthless zamindar who wants a legal heir to his throne. Mahamaya (played by Roopa Ganguly) is the first wife and is almost discarded to the dark corners of the villa because she cannot conceive. Thus he marries Jashomati (Soha Ali Khan) with the hope that she will bear his child in the future. Soon they are joined by a potter from Krishnaganj called Brij Bhushan or Brojo (Abhishek Bachchan) who is entrusted with the job of making the idol of Goddess Durga with the face of Queen Victoria.
I must admit (and so have others) that Rituparno Ghosh is surely the contemporary Ray. I will just stop short of saying anything else because I know that there can’t be another Satyajit Ray for a 1000 years. But Ritu has a style that enchants even the most illiterate of movie buffs. His sense for details and the direction is magnificient. It has made me desperate to see Raincoat & Choker Bali (all directed by Rituparno Ghosh) which I hope to do soon.
Staying with the east, the biggest news of today is that of the NDA coming to power in Bihar. This would end the 15 year rule of Laloo Prasad Yadav and hopefully usher the state into some economic and social development.
November 22nd, 2005
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