Friday, December 07, 2007
I have always tried to publish posts on a regular basis. But for varying reasons ( ranging from 'being lazy' to 'lack of good stuff that inspires me'), I have been maintaining an absymal frequency in this matter.
Hence, I plan to take a break from blogging now. And perhaps the most important reason for this decision is my internal guilt of letting down people who are visiting my blog ( assuming that there are people who are visiting!) with an intention to read a new post.
Thanks a lot to everyone who have been patient with me and who took the time out to visit my blog and read the stuff that I write.
Being an eternal optimist, I am hopeful that I will be be back in the near future.
cheers!
Chandra
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
India wins
A nice summary article that talks about
It was for the first time that I saw the entire Indian cricket team in flesh and blood and getting up and close with them, seeking their autographs (Sreesanth was the most patient and had the most legible autograph) and getting clicked with them (RP Singh was the best here with patience personified in agreeing for photographs) was a wonderful experience. In a way, this series win by
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Google killers??
powerset.com
ChaCha.com
search.wikia.com
toptenwholesale.com
zillow.com
kayak.com
yahoo.com
ask.com
live.com
contextweb.com
quigo.com
In any case, Google admirers and bashers have to keep watching this space.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Sometimes, fellow bloggers come up with something that ought to be highlighted for its brilliance and the thought process that went into it.
I have always been a regular reader and an admirer of Anand’s fantastic site. Have lost count of the number of times I have referred his site to my friends. Of course, it never so happened that I wrote about his site, but quietly linked it on my blog reads. However, when he came up with this gem of an invention, can’t help but write about it!
Basically, you can EASILY search and listen to your favorite Tamil or Hindi songs online or for that matter download them! Clearly inspired by Google’s minimalist home page design and winamp’s “find as you type” functionality, it’s a brilliant tool that can whet the appetite of any discerning music lover. Not just that, he goes one step further and like the wikipedia spirit, writes down on how he actually created it. He spent over 2 years on this and I can just say: well spent effort!
Thursday, March 29, 2007
What a song! Telugu songs are indeed coming of age…consider this concoction:
A programmed version of an evergreen old song
Background Arabic vocals
Hip hop lyrics
Western percussions
Hindi lyrics
and of course the normal Telugu lyrics and all this in ONE song!
It would be tough to melt such varied influences into one song and make it sound good. But the hugely talented music director of this song, Devi Sri Prasad does manage to pull it off and make it sound like one hell of a song!
I would not be surprised if this song goes out to become a trendsetter in the hugely talented, underrated, capricious world of Telugu film music. All you music lovers out there! Hear it out!
Movie: Jagadam
Song: Mu Mu Mudhante Chedha
Link: http://www.raaga.com/channels/telugu/movie/A0001068.html
And while you are on it, hear the other brilliant song in the same movie: “5 feet 8 inches”, a superb song that starts off with a style reminiscent of the old country songs with one BIG difference. It is meant to rock this generation and it does with a catchy tune, some amazing percussions and brilliant contemporary lyrics!
Friday, December 08, 2006
Once in a while, amidst all the running around you do in your 'busy' life, its a good thing to take a welcome break and concentrate on something that is solid food for your grey matter. And if that something happens to be a wonderful online game that has become even more interesting in its second avataar, nothing is more exciting that than for a puzzle lover!
All you puzzle lovers out there, take a shot at Klueless 2, a terrific online puzzle game (devised by three chaps of IIM Indore) that demands a lot of logic and googling and see if you can make it from Level 1 to Level 20.
P.S. Having cracked it, I will be more than happy to leave good clues in the comments section. Just buzz me.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Finally!
A movie that inspires and motivates me enough to shake my lethargy and write down some notes on it….
True that I have watched some wonderful movies like
But this movie immediately deserved a note; to be precise lavish praise. "Bommarillu" simply blew me away. I watched the movie yesterday night with my entire family and was simply stunned. It was the most original movie I have ever seen with not even a single scene or dialogue inspired from some other source. The movie is downright simple, yet tremendously effective and is all about the hero’s efforts in achieving two goals in his life - his aim to have a good career and his wish to choose his life partner, with an over affectionate father for company.
The director sticks to the above storyline with absolutely no deviations and the result is a spectacular effort. Each and everyone in this cast steal the show with their performances, but the highlight has to be Genelia, the heroine of this feel-good movie. She delivers a mind blowing performance as an innocent, happy-go-lucky girl. Sometime back, I had raved about Charmee’s performance in ‘Anukokunda Oka Roju’. After that, it has to be this performance which is in the same league, if not a notch better. I always used to like her charming, innocent face and with this director, her potential has been finally and fully realized. Her cheerful performance will linger for a long time after you have finished watching this movie.
Here’s wishing that we get to see more of her in the future……
Needless to say, Siddharth once again gives a fantastic performance. He realistically portrays the agony of a pampered son. An excellent performance from Siddharth is naturally expected and he does not disappoint in this movie too. This guy is a multi talented personality with his brilliant crooning for a song in this movie doing wonders! That song ‘Appudo Eppudo’ has become the latest chartbuster in Telugu musicdom here.
With this movie, we can also herald the return of Devi Sri Prasad, the talented music director. After his initial melodious scores early in his career, he degenerated into giving the typical beats, losing the plot but now with this movie gives a flawless musical score.
A simple, charming, neat, feel-good movie with innumerable sparkling and light hearted moments, this movie will appeal to anyone (the reason for the extreme difficulty in obtaining its tickets even after 30 days of its release). Finally, after so many days, we have an amazing, original movie that the entire telugu film industry can be proud of!
Finally!
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
This fantastic article by Jhumpa Lahiri in Newsweek (a really good author who gave us two immensely readable books ‘The Interpreter of Maladies’ and ‘The Namesake’) is a bit short in length…..but accomplishes something that articles thrice its length fail to! It makes us understand the painful emotional experience initially faced (and sometimes lasting for a lifetime) by an immigrant from India to America, or to use her terminology, the experience an ‘Indian-American’ faces in trying to reconcile the two worlds they live in. By virtue of being an Indian-American herself, she gives the article a much needed flavor of authenticity.
When I was in the land of opportunity some months back, trying to get adjusted into a new way of life, I involuntarily used to wonder about their predicament. The way they would be making efforts to get involved in the new world outside their homes and at the same time, feel comfortable in an entirely different world that awaits them inside their homes. This dilemma is obviously and unfortunately felt the most by Indians who are actually born in America, rather than those who go to the land of opportunity to earn a good living and end up settling there or sometimes return.
This experience is the price they pay (for no fault of theirs) for a better quality of life that America offers in comparison to India. But does this have to continue? Well…this excerpt from the article suggests the answer: ‘Many of these friends proudly called themselves Irish-American or Italian-American. But they were several generations removed from the frequently humiliating process of immigration, so that the ethnic roots they claimed had descended underground whereas mine were still tangled and green.’
As someone rightly said….time alone will take care of some things in life.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Whenever I saw him on screen, it’s the sincerity in his acting which really impressed me. Of course, one has to forget the awful voice modulation he had! His career and in fact his personal life too reached a high point, when he was all set to marry the daughter of Chiranjeevi (numero uno of telugu silver screen). What happened next remains anyone’s guess. The marriage was cancelled for various reasons, some of them attributed to his affair with a journalist. After that, no one knows about the reason for the poor fellow not being given a single film offer, even though he was portrayed as a hot shot actor!!!
Good to see him back in his second innings now…....all set to star in K.Balachander’s film ‘Poi’, the first tamil film he will be seen in. I only hope that he doesn’t ruffle the feathers of any bigwigs this time around!
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Sometimes this sort of news really makes you wonder at the levels to which our politicians can stoop to make things worse and in the process make them look extremely foolish!
The facts of the case are simple: Mittal put in a hostile takeover bid for Arcelor. Arcelor refused to cow in. Period.
Where the heck does racism come into the picture? When A business is trying to buy out B business, B can obviously do anything in its power to stop it if it doesn’t like being taken over. How on earth does this violate the principle of national treatment? To go by Kamal Nath, any business that tries to take over another business should have its way provided the cost of the bid is good. I have never seen such a simplistic model of M&As (Mergers & Acquisitions) in operation, now being suggested by our honorable minister. Wow! This will lead to the rewriting of all the textbooks on this subject!
