Well to everyone wondering what the title all about, its simple. I happened to watch 2 awesome movies on the same day and couldnt stop myself to write about them. They were 300 and Dor. Hugely different subjects with magnanimous differences but nevertheless a class apart in their own right.
300 based on the book by Frank Miller, directed by Zack Snyder is a masterpiece from every sense of the word. The story as most of us knows was about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC between a humongous (close to a million soldiers) Persian army led by King Xerxes and King Leonidas of Sparta (with only 300 of his elite guards and few others). The battle is said to have inspired all of Greece to band together against the Persians, and helped usher the world's first democracy. Whatever be its historical/mythical significance, the movie is just awesome. Right from the first scene to the end, you just sit down holding your breath. Great direction, just awestrucking performances never let you forget the movie. Gerald Butler does complete justice to the role of King Leonidas and is quite impressive throughout the movie.
DOR on the other hand is a timid love story,shot at the backdrop of Rajasthan and Shimla! yes thats correct its as vibrant as the desert of Rajasthan to the greenery of Shimla, to the oppressed, simple village girl from Rajasthan (Ayesha Takia) to the "never say die" girl from Shimla (Gul Panag). The story was so cute and so elegantly picturised and portrayed that you cant help but feel spellbound. Indian cinemas have really come a long way and it is these directors like Nagesh Kukunoor who are leading the way from the front.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Cracking CAT for Dummies
Before I begin, a honest confession. The post below is not my original creation, received it as one of the forwards but I was so impressed with the same that I couldnt help posting it in my blog :-) Here it goes .................
Few weeks back the CAT results were announced. For those of you fortunate enough to not have had a brush with this monstrosity, CAT stands for Common Aptitude Test,something that these Indian Institute of Management blokes hold once every year to have a good laugh with the complete expense borne by the participating jokers.This time round there were nearly quarter of a million of these jokers who usually come from all walks of life for their 2 (now 2 and a half) hours of tryst with destiny.CAT is something like the Daddy-promise to get the He-Man toy on my birthday if I stay good for the next six months and do my homework everyday and help mother out in the kitchen and.....and .....(Parents always have their camouflaged win-win conditions. don't they ?). Anyway quite similarly,this bunch of jokers slog for their He-Mans to come and make life simpler for them.
These jokers,and I'd restrain the discussions to the ones originating from the engineering sector, hereby referred to as Jawans,usually start talking about CAT during their first years in college with the firm decision that they'd specialize only in finance and nothing else when in all probability,their extent of knowledge about the financial world is comparable with Mallika Sherawat's affinity for clothes.Gradually once the ragging period is over though and no one anymore feeds you with information of the type that Balubhai who sells eggs in the First hostel is also an electrical engineer passout from our college,the Jawans usually ease out and dedicate the next three years in search of pornography in the internet.
Then comes June of final year ...its 5 months to CAT and many rediscover their long subdued passion for feenance. This time round the Jawans come armed with loads of Business world magazines and months of Economic Times which all of course goes to Balubhai who uses it to demarcate his omlettes from the half-frys.Red paper-Omlette,White Paper-Half Fry.Simple rule of finance.
The poor souls lead a non engineer's life during the next few months trying to figure out things like who was Ramu's father if his second cousin was married to Sheela who had three daughters,all females one of whom was a school teacher and neither of her cousins Jatin and Rani were doctors. The lawyers in the family were not vegetarians and Deepika was the only ShahRukh Khan fan. Their pet dog Jimmy was allergic to vodka without any lime cordial and Ramesh and Jiten were not brothers!!!
They compare and analyse the sugarcane production, wool generation and alluminium output of 12 South American countries with bar diagrams, histograms,Chi-Square tests,normality tests and remaining sanity.The hapless souls burn many a candle to try and figure out what Carl Gustav Jung meant to say when he spoke of integrating spirituality and appreciation of the unconscious realm and then deciding whether the tone of the author in the paragraph was fuzzy,pedantic,obstreperous or regressionist.Four unknown words as choices are all that he had till last year! This year they added the choice Confucian and so Jawan has 5 choices now to direct his destiny.
Jawan takes simulated exams named after all available species of Cats and by the time he reaches the actual exam hall on a nice November Sunday morning ,he can barely remember his name and it is for this purpose that such cases are provided an Admit card with a name,photograph and address so that people can help these poor souls find their way back home.What happens during the next three odd hours will certainly need another post so I am skipping that portion here.
A month or so from that Sunday ,the results are announced in a website and if you wished to see your score on the same day that the results are released, then you might as well type the website's address, press enter and accompany your mother to her long awaited trip to Amarnath and on the way back maybe make the visit to Rishikesh and Haridwar and then if you've washed away some of your sins of this life and the one previous to it,then you may be blessed with the home page of the IIM on your return.Now you may click the link which says CAT 2006 results and doesn't Dad always talk about the Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry and the serenity there? So why not make that visit with family and the Rameswaram temple is something to be seen to be believed !!
While some Jawans come back from their trips, type in their CAT registration number, ask their mothers their date of birth, type that in and wait for their results to appear.......some, like ME, just wink and go on with their lives.
Few weeks back the CAT results were announced. For those of you fortunate enough to not have had a brush with this monstrosity, CAT stands for Common Aptitude Test,something that these Indian Institute of Management blokes hold once every year to have a good laugh with the complete expense borne by the participating jokers.This time round there were nearly quarter of a million of these jokers who usually come from all walks of life for their 2 (now 2 and a half) hours of tryst with destiny.CAT is something like the Daddy-promise to get the He-Man toy on my birthday if I stay good for the next six months and do my homework everyday and help mother out in the kitchen and.....and .....(Parents always have their camouflaged win-win conditions. don't they ?). Anyway quite similarly,this bunch of jokers slog for their He-Mans to come and make life simpler for them.
These jokers,and I'd restrain the discussions to the ones originating from the engineering sector, hereby referred to as Jawans,usually start talking about CAT during their first years in college with the firm decision that they'd specialize only in finance and nothing else when in all probability,their extent of knowledge about the financial world is comparable with Mallika Sherawat's affinity for clothes.Gradually once the ragging period is over though and no one anymore feeds you with information of the type that Balubhai who sells eggs in the First hostel is also an electrical engineer passout from our college,the Jawans usually ease out and dedicate the next three years in search of pornography in the internet.
Then comes June of final year ...its 5 months to CAT and many rediscover their long subdued passion for feenance. This time round the Jawans come armed with loads of Business world magazines and months of Economic Times which all of course goes to Balubhai who uses it to demarcate his omlettes from the half-frys.Red paper-Omlette,White Paper-Half Fry.Simple rule of finance.
The poor souls lead a non engineer's life during the next few months trying to figure out things like who was Ramu's father if his second cousin was married to Sheela who had three daughters,all females one of whom was a school teacher and neither of her cousins Jatin and Rani were doctors. The lawyers in the family were not vegetarians and Deepika was the only ShahRukh Khan fan. Their pet dog Jimmy was allergic to vodka without any lime cordial and Ramesh and Jiten were not brothers!!!
They compare and analyse the sugarcane production, wool generation and alluminium output of 12 South American countries with bar diagrams, histograms,Chi-Square tests,normality tests and remaining sanity.The hapless souls burn many a candle to try and figure out what Carl Gustav Jung meant to say when he spoke of integrating spirituality and appreciation of the unconscious realm and then deciding whether the tone of the author in the paragraph was fuzzy,pedantic,obstreperous or regressionist.Four unknown words as choices are all that he had till last year! This year they added the choice Confucian and so Jawan has 5 choices now to direct his destiny.
Jawan takes simulated exams named after all available species of Cats and by the time he reaches the actual exam hall on a nice November Sunday morning ,he can barely remember his name and it is for this purpose that such cases are provided an Admit card with a name,photograph and address so that people can help these poor souls find their way back home.What happens during the next three odd hours will certainly need another post so I am skipping that portion here.
A month or so from that Sunday ,the results are announced in a website and if you wished to see your score on the same day that the results are released, then you might as well type the website's address, press enter and accompany your mother to her long awaited trip to Amarnath and on the way back maybe make the visit to Rishikesh and Haridwar and then if you've washed away some of your sins of this life and the one previous to it,then you may be blessed with the home page of the IIM on your return.Now you may click the link which says CAT 2006 results and doesn't Dad always talk about the Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry and the serenity there? So why not make that visit with family and the Rameswaram temple is something to be seen to be believed !!
While some Jawans come back from their trips, type in their CAT registration number, ask their mothers their date of birth, type that in and wait for their results to appear.......some, like ME, just wink and go on with their lives.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Keep Walking!!!!
Check out the figure above! You must be wondering what is this pic doing in my blog. Well I just got this as a forward and found it worth sharing.
Many of us already know that the Organs of our body have their sensory touches at the bottom of our feet, if we massage these points it provides us with relief from aches and pains as can be seen from the figure. Note the organs on the right and left foot, such as the heart which is on the left foot.
These are covered in great detail in Acupressure studies or textbooks. The nerves connected to these organs terminate at our feet. God created our body so well that he thought of even this. He made us walk so that we will always be pressing these pressure points and thus keeping these organs activated at all times. So, keep walking...
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Team Building
Last weekend we finally had our Team Building activity at my fav Mysore DC, some sort of a dream esp after a series of postponements... we started from Ooty, to Kodai, to some resort in Bangalore and finally settled with Mysore.. then came the issues with dates but finally my colleagues (the event organizers) could put two and two together and it became a reality.
Although I was a bit sceptical in going to Mys with a bunch of oldies, aunty ji's and probably only a handful of youngsters but I just couldnt resist the temptation of spending my night at the warm n cozy rooms out there something I have missed after coming to Blore. So off I went with my projectmates (some 55 of them) in two AC (supposedly) luxury buses. After a 3 hr long not so great road trip we finally reached Mysore and somehow I could feel the excitement within me. There is something abt that campus, something which makes u fall in love with it, that aura of belongingness, the fond remembrance of those amazing (fun as well as tension-filled) 4 months with which I started my professional life, something which never lets you forget the place.
We checked in and to my pleasant surprise we were not staying in the ILI Hostels but at the Infy Guesthouses (this was like my dream come true!) The gueshouses were the only place on campus where I had not been before and now I was actually going to stay in them for a night. Cooooool! Predictably it exceeded all my expectations and had all the comfort of a 5-star accomodation but the most amazing part was the BED... I had always maintained that there is something abt those beds which are in Mys be it hostels or guesthouses... u cant get a more comfy well made bed... nothing relaxes me more than the thought of sleeping in one of them with the AC on and the quilt over me... and how can I ever forget the shower.... simply amazing....
After I had checked in and was done with admiring the room it was time for our lunch, supposed to be a buffet in ILI... well things I had always wanted to do as a trainee in Mys were coming true now... not bad! The whole team building activity I mean the so-called boring part (where u sit and listen to lectures) was outsourced to a event management company Stanley David & Associates and man I guess that was by far the best decision we took. Those people were FUN and kept us really on our toes with a string of out-door games (YES for the first time we didnt have any boring sessions in the audi), something I enjoyed thoroughly..
Although I was a bit sceptical in going to Mys with a bunch of oldies, aunty ji's and probably only a handful of youngsters but I just couldnt resist the temptation of spending my night at the warm n cozy rooms out there something I have missed after coming to Blore. So off I went with my projectmates (some 55 of them) in two AC (supposedly) luxury buses. After a 3 hr long not so great road trip we finally reached Mysore and somehow I could feel the excitement within me. There is something abt that campus, something which makes u fall in love with it, that aura of belongingness, the fond remembrance of those amazing (fun as well as tension-filled) 4 months with which I started my professional life, something which never lets you forget the place.
We checked in and to my pleasant surprise we were not staying in the ILI Hostels but at the Infy Guesthouses (this was like my dream come true!) The gueshouses were the only place on campus where I had not been before and now I was actually going to stay in them for a night. Cooooool! Predictably it exceeded all my expectations and had all the comfort of a 5-star accomodation but the most amazing part was the BED... I had always maintained that there is something abt those beds which are in Mys be it hostels or guesthouses... u cant get a more comfy well made bed... nothing relaxes me more than the thought of sleeping in one of them with the AC on and the quilt over me... and how can I ever forget the shower.... simply amazing....
After I had checked in and was done with admiring the room it was time for our lunch, supposed to be a buffet in ILI... well things I had always wanted to do as a trainee in Mys were coming true now... not bad! The whole team building activity I mean the so-called boring part (where u sit and listen to lectures) was outsourced to a event management company Stanley David & Associates and man I guess that was by far the best decision we took. Those people were FUN and kept us really on our toes with a string of out-door games (YES for the first time we didnt have any boring sessions in the audi), something I enjoyed thoroughly..
After the sessions and dinner, we set out to re-live those magical moments of which I was a part of only a year back. We cycled around the campus and I very proudly took some of my leads (who hadnt been there before) around the place. Some of the auntyji's wanted to watch the movie "Baabul" screened at our in-house multiplex so off we went... needless to mention the movie was pathetic but we had fun passing comments and tearing it apart... he he... we finally gave up and left (just after the interval) for the most happening hangout in the campus... "The GAZEBO!!!!!" basically just a small bakery opposite our labs open 24x7, where we would have had the most amazing time during training.
Next morning, a Sunday I had plans to get up early and play badminton for a couple of hours before the sessions would start... so I left (yes! I left my comfy bed surprisingly early) for the courts... We would have played close to three hours, was literally dead with cramps all over my body so much so that I had problems walking for the next three days. The rest of the day passed in Bowling, lazing around the pool (see above) and some other fun-filled sessions......
All in all we had a great refreshing, nostalgic and an awesome time out there.. probably the best after joining this project and I hope there are many more to come!!!!!
Sunday, December 3, 2006
Why Dreams!?
DREAMS seems to be kinda cliched for the title of a blog page.... but still I thought of going with this name! Why the heck!!!!
Well there are quite a number of reasons why I would do that - first of all because I am a dreamer, I love to dream it gives me the strength to move on in life, to ignore my miseries and problems and concentrate on the great things it has to offer, to be able to believe..., in short to be an OPTIMIST.
The dictionary puts 'Dream' as a visionary scheme, a wild conceit, an idle fancy, a revery applied to an imaginary or anticipated state of happiness/bliss, in short a series of thoughts or imaginary visions which occupy the mind generally during sleep. But is it really that simple! Many psychologists believe that interpreting one's dreams correctly can give a sneak-peek at one's own subconscious self, something not possible in any other way. Fascinating isnt it! Who wouldnt want to know oneself better? A site which I accidentally pounced upon provides some interesting info about dreams - http://www.dreammoods.com/. Whoever is the creator of the site had done a decent job in helping one interpret their dreams.
Well there seems to be a problem, not everyone remembers what they dream, so how do one interpret it? A simple solution - if its a nice dream, something which brings a smile to your face, who cares what it really means!! Its not really necessary to take it so seriously, just be happy and fascinated.
So welcome to this intriguing and mesmerizing world of Dreams! KEEP DREAMING!.......... :)
Well there are quite a number of reasons why I would do that - first of all because I am a dreamer, I love to dream it gives me the strength to move on in life, to ignore my miseries and problems and concentrate on the great things it has to offer, to be able to believe..., in short to be an OPTIMIST.
The dictionary puts 'Dream' as a visionary scheme, a wild conceit, an idle fancy, a revery applied to an imaginary or anticipated state of happiness/bliss, in short a series of thoughts or imaginary visions which occupy the mind generally during sleep. But is it really that simple! Many psychologists believe that interpreting one's dreams correctly can give a sneak-peek at one's own subconscious self, something not possible in any other way. Fascinating isnt it! Who wouldnt want to know oneself better? A site which I accidentally pounced upon provides some interesting info about dreams - http://www.dreammoods.com/. Whoever is the creator of the site had done a decent job in helping one interpret their dreams.
Well there seems to be a problem, not everyone remembers what they dream, so how do one interpret it? A simple solution - if its a nice dream, something which brings a smile to your face, who cares what it really means!! Its not really necessary to take it so seriously, just be happy and fascinated.
So welcome to this intriguing and mesmerizing world of Dreams! KEEP DREAMING!.......... :)
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