So, the much awaited movie of the year was finally released last week and I hit the theatre to see it the opening weekend. My verdict - definitely worth the $(12.5+1.25) I spent on it.
Now that I'm in my late 20's I don't enjoy the thrills of sci-fi movies anymore. But 'Avatar' to me is beyond sci-fi. It's drama + sci-fi + one man's dream of creating the next step of cinema experience.
The story itself isn't new (remember 'Dances with Wolves'?).Cameron himself has accepted the similarities. But what makes Avatar unique is its ability to make believe its audience that there indeed seems to be a Pandora out there. And thanks to the stereoscopic film-making we almost feel we are on Pandora.
The creator has done a good job of casting not so famous stars in the movie (flashback Titanic). The performances nevertheless are laudable. You can't hlep but see the boy-next-door nature of the protagonist Jake Sully.
The film is rich. Am not talking about the vegetation on Pandora, am talking about the moments of drama, the CGIs, the almost real life forms of the alien tribe , and if you watch it in a IMAX the 'butt-kicker' experience - these are only few of the attributes of the movie. I think in a very long time has a movie truly attracted all age groups. My fav. sequence is the taming of the bird when Jake is under test.
For me the total 170 mins passed by like 60 mins. And for the first time I am really looking forward to going through the same movie experience all over again :)
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Climate change - what are you doing?
Today is 2009 blog action day and a little over 9000 bloggers from 150 countries are blogging about this year's topic of blogaction 'climate change'. As one of the 9000+ bloggers, I have my 2 cents to offer:
I would be surprised if any of you haven't experienced the climate changes in the past few years. Gone are the days when summers used to be summers and winters used to be winters. We,on the earth, now have rains in summer and totally shortened spring season and what not! Most people like me who are just laymen in scientific climatic knowledge feel the climatic change but don't really know what the reason behind it is or if they can do anything to reduce it. I think it's high time that the leaders of the world-nations do something to bring attention of the common man to adverse climatic changes. Else we'll wake up one day like the people in that movie 'Day after tomorrow'. Beware, unlike the movie there might just not be a happy ending!
But I'm optimistic with the way things are moving in the right direction. Blog action day is just one of these awareness generators. I hope that the efforts of fellow-bloggers can bring more attention to the matter and help the leaders meeting at the Copenhagen climate change conferene to take some serious steps.
I would be surprised if any of you haven't experienced the climate changes in the past few years. Gone are the days when summers used to be summers and winters used to be winters. We,on the earth, now have rains in summer and totally shortened spring season and what not! Most people like me who are just laymen in scientific climatic knowledge feel the climatic change but don't really know what the reason behind it is or if they can do anything to reduce it. I think it's high time that the leaders of the world-nations do something to bring attention of the common man to adverse climatic changes. Else we'll wake up one day like the people in that movie 'Day after tomorrow'. Beware, unlike the movie there might just not be a happy ending!
But I'm optimistic with the way things are moving in the right direction. Blog action day is just one of these awareness generators. I hope that the efforts of fellow-bloggers can bring more attention to the matter and help the leaders meeting at the Copenhagen climate change conferene to take some serious steps.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
A little LH nostalgia
LH - My friends from college would immediately know what I mean.
A good friend of mine got married recently to her beloved,who also is from our college. I couldn't attend her wedding, although I really really wanted to.
When I browsed through the wedding pictures I saw all my friends from college days...all my co-inmates of LH and it just brought back all the sweet memories from my 4 years in NIT Warangal.
1 - How our gang always used to be the first gang to arrive in the mess - no matter how much we hated the food.
2 - How we shouted and scared each other during power failures
3 - How my room was the offical 'someone call' sight room
4 - The carzy dance in the midnight B'Day parties
5 - Silly walks around the Lawn
6 - Getting dressed up on festival days and making trips to 1000 pillar temple
7 - Shouting in the cinema halls of Warangal
8 - Going to Punnami at 8pm and running to catch the LH gates before they close
9 - Reserving bathrooms for roomates after we shower
10 - Chanting Rahul's name in the TV room (or may be Sachin's :))
....list goes on....
I'm just thankful to NITW for letting me have these amazing gorgeous talented and graceful women as my friends :D ...Love my hostel-mates
A good friend of mine got married recently to her beloved,who also is from our college. I couldn't attend her wedding, although I really really wanted to.
When I browsed through the wedding pictures I saw all my friends from college days...all my co-inmates of LH and it just brought back all the sweet memories from my 4 years in NIT Warangal.
1 - How our gang always used to be the first gang to arrive in the mess - no matter how much we hated the food.
2 - How we shouted and scared each other during power failures
3 - How my room was the offical 'someone call' sight room
4 - The carzy dance in the midnight B'Day parties
5 - Silly walks around the Lawn
6 - Getting dressed up on festival days and making trips to 1000 pillar temple
7 - Shouting in the cinema halls of Warangal
8 - Going to Punnami at 8pm and running to catch the LH gates before they close
9 - Reserving bathrooms for roomates after we shower
10 - Chanting Rahul's name in the TV room (or may be Sachin's :))
....list goes on....
I'm just thankful to NITW for letting me have these amazing gorgeous talented and graceful women as my friends :D ...Love my hostel-mates
Monday, September 07, 2009
Spell-bound...
..that's the one word to describe my state after I watched 'I'm not scared' tonight.
I feel that if you really want to know how you would like a movie, the best way to form an opinion is to watch the movie without any background or review in mind or without watching any trailers at all. And with the same approach I happened to watch 'I'm not scared'.
The story is both dramtic and thrilling. The theme and the ending of the movie are so touching that you would've to be cold-hearted not to be haunted by them. The story reminds me of the innocence of childhood and how the things happening around us can or cannot change the virtues we all are born with. The choices the little boy Michele makes in the story will amaze us for sure. I wonder if I was as brave a child as Michele seems to be in the movie.
The story is supposedly based on a real life event. I wonder how I had never heard of this movie before. But this sure is going to my list!
I feel that if you really want to know how you would like a movie, the best way to form an opinion is to watch the movie without any background or review in mind or without watching any trailers at all. And with the same approach I happened to watch 'I'm not scared'.
The story is both dramtic and thrilling. The theme and the ending of the movie are so touching that you would've to be cold-hearted not to be haunted by them. The story reminds me of the innocence of childhood and how the things happening around us can or cannot change the virtues we all are born with. The choices the little boy Michele makes in the story will amaze us for sure. I wonder if I was as brave a child as Michele seems to be in the movie.
The story is supposedly based on a real life event. I wonder how I had never heard of this movie before. But this sure is going to my list!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
How much credit do you get for a credit card?
I love hanging out at coffe shops, office canteens and now,sports bars....NO!!I'm not drinking yet my beloved friends and readers:). The thing about these places is that friends meet up and talk about a variety of stuff, right from who's their latest crush to what the new leader of the country should do.Last night at a hangout place, I couldn't but overhear the conversation of two adult men.No points for guessing their topic of discussion...what other can one discuss these days than money. One of the men was saying, "The only use the X Bank's debit card, after all I can't sepnd money that I don't really have"..Thanks my man!You are finally realising it.
The whole concept of credit was,I would say,marvelous and extremely smart and impacting...after all without credit one could never think of buying a home or a car or even for that matter go to college(this applies to colleges in the U.S...most of which are damn damn costly!). Hadn't there been no one to give us a mortgage or lend us money, we would just live life plainly...
While (!unemployed)
{
if (month-starts) get payckeck;
pay bills;
if (layoffs or over 60)
umemployed == true
}
In order to encourage credit-taking or borrowing, the US had come up with the concept of one's credit score, basically you borrow or take a loan from a bank or some other source and the time you take to pay it back and your promptness in paying it back, gives you a good creidt score out of 800 points.
But we being humans that err, took this whole credit cycle to such a phase where almost all the money that was was in the air floating as credit in circulation...I don't want to elaborate on how one thing led to another and we landed where we are today.I was shocked to know that the present day avergae credit of an adult in the US is $11,500 dollars and the average # of credit cards a student has it 5!!! While any form of credit could potentially go bad, the chances of credit abuse are more with a credit card than any kind of mortgage or bank loan etc.This is coz, once you have a card that could be swiped at places ranging from cffee shops to the Prada stores...we children of the God eat up all the candy we can afford with the allowance we were never actually handed out.
I'm glad the phenomenon of credit cards has not caught up in a country like India where the economy is stabilising finally.Forget the nationalised banks, no private bank would give a college student any credit card so easily, and it's good in one way. You teach the kids to spend resourcefully and judiciously. No wonder economies like India and Brazil are called more important than that of US (ref. on of the July TIME issues)the saviors of the current economy. As for the U S of A,I hope the current credit scare here stays the way it is , if not in a more paranoid state.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
What should google do against the new bing ads?
The latest from the Google-Microsoft wars are the Bing ads.Check out one here.
For over a decade now , google has been the place to go to when you had an unanswered question, atleast for most people like me :).It became a synonym for 'search'. People started saying , "did you google it" instead of "did you search for it". It is acontemporary case of a brand-name replacing the name of the product itself, like 'Xerox' replacing the word 'photocopying'.
Now microsoft , in its ongoing competition with google, has launched Bing!
I haven't use Bing much, but its latest TVC (TV commercial) promises to not overload search reults onto the consumer , unlike google which gives you all possible things related to your search and lets you decide which of them is appropriate. My first impression on seeing the ad was 'Good point!'. But unfortunatley Bing doesn't stand up to what it promises.It ends up giving me results similar to those on google search.
So what should Google do now, should it continue what it's been doing so far:not advertise its products on the TV or should it comeback with a retort?
In case Google decides to do the latter , what should be its positioning?
For over a decade now , google has been the place to go to when you had an unanswered question, atleast for most people like me :).It became a synonym for 'search'. People started saying , "did you google it" instead of "did you search for it". It is acontemporary case of a brand-name replacing the name of the product itself, like 'Xerox' replacing the word 'photocopying'.
Now microsoft , in its ongoing competition with google, has launched Bing!
I haven't use Bing much, but its latest TVC (TV commercial) promises to not overload search reults onto the consumer , unlike google which gives you all possible things related to your search and lets you decide which of them is appropriate. My first impression on seeing the ad was 'Good point!'. But unfortunatley Bing doesn't stand up to what it promises.It ends up giving me results similar to those on google search.
So what should Google do now, should it continue what it's been doing so far:not advertise its products on the TV or should it comeback with a retort?
In case Google decides to do the latter , what should be its positioning?
Monday, June 22, 2009
When the light came into our house!
The title might seeming promising but this post is nothing philosophical in its content.If anything it's nostalgic. After spending a handful number of months in the Eastern part of the west(sorry I simply should say East coast of the USA :P), I have enjoyed every moment of my time here. I have to admit that I've even considered the thought of becoming an East-coaster , however self-contradicting I might sound to my good friends in saying that. With no complaints at all so far, I realised how much I missed things back home when we bought a white tubelight last night. All these days our home was lit with the so called soft-white light, which I hated. If you are from the urban populations of India and are relatively new to the US , you will definitely see what I'm talking about. I hate this soft-white light. It's everything but white. It has this yellow glow which is closer to the sepia mode of the camera. Finally last night we bought this white tubelight.And as soon as we lit it....wow I felt like I was in the living room of my home back in India :)
Silly as it may sound,it's these small things that bring back memories of good old days. The smell of the agarbathi, the aroma of Bru coffee, the samosa in Patel Groceries, an oil bath on Sunday.....the list goes on.
It's ironic how most people back home(of course I wasn't one of these 'most people' :P )hate the places they live in , stay dissatisfied and wish to escape from their surroundings.But take them away and put them in the best possible ambience and I bet ya ,they'll ask you when you are gonna send them back! That's us!
Silly as it may sound,it's these small things that bring back memories of good old days. The smell of the agarbathi, the aroma of Bru coffee, the samosa in Patel Groceries, an oil bath on Sunday.....the list goes on.
It's ironic how most people back home(of course I wasn't one of these 'most people' :P )hate the places they live in , stay dissatisfied and wish to escape from their surroundings.But take them away and put them in the best possible ambience and I bet ya ,they'll ask you when you are gonna send them back! That's us!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Gone baby gone - Review
Gone baby gone is not a new movie. It was released in 2007. Am surprised how I did not hear much about it. It was a matter of chance that I happened to see this movie, full of commendable performances, last night.
The film revolves around the kidnapping of a 3 yr old girl in the shady parts of Boston. It goes on touching issues of kidnapping, drug-dealing and abuse of children - all the ingredients of a social rather crime awareness movie. The story is something that can happen to anyone, yet is something you wish does not happen to anyone.
The protagonist (Casey Affleck) is a private detective living with his work-partner in our shady suburb. He is hired by the family of the missing kid to find her. Now one might ask why he and not the strong police is the protagonist in the movie. Well our guy happens to be brought up in the community and is just the right kind of person with contacts within the world down under, possible where our missing kid is. At times the viewer is definite to be thrilled with how a simple looking person like our man can go on and threaten all those biggies of the underworld. But it's carried in the movie in a convincing way.
Although I don't want to spoil your own experience if you ever watch the movie, am tempted to discuss about the ending. The climax puts you, the audience, in the midst of a question - is everything you think is right, really right? When you look back and see do you really think abiding by the rules of law was the right thing to do? What would you do if you had a chance to change a person's life by compromising on what you believe to be right?
Some of the scenes in the movie are haunting. They force you to come face to face with the horrible things we do to our children and family. At one point of the movie, the story makes you feel that you have reached the end , but suddenly it shifts by 180 degrees - a characteristic of a perfect mystery! The movie is like a page turner book, it makes you sit at the edge of your seat. Few references in the story reminded me of Mystic River. Only when I read the details of the movie on wiki did I realize why, after all they have a common author.
When the titles played on the screen I told myself, “Ben Affleck probably made this movie just to give his brother Casey a much needed big break after his small roles all these years”. But after 2 hours I could not stop admiring Ben for his directorial talent. The movie also has big names like Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman, who as usual deliver brilliantly however small a role one gives them. And Casey, well, I’m surprised we are not seeing much of him these days. He is definitely a gifted actor. I hope I get to see more of him.
The film revolves around the kidnapping of a 3 yr old girl in the shady parts of Boston. It goes on touching issues of kidnapping, drug-dealing and abuse of children - all the ingredients of a social rather crime awareness movie. The story is something that can happen to anyone, yet is something you wish does not happen to anyone.
The protagonist (Casey Affleck) is a private detective living with his work-partner in our shady suburb. He is hired by the family of the missing kid to find her. Now one might ask why he and not the strong police is the protagonist in the movie. Well our guy happens to be brought up in the community and is just the right kind of person with contacts within the world down under, possible where our missing kid is. At times the viewer is definite to be thrilled with how a simple looking person like our man can go on and threaten all those biggies of the underworld. But it's carried in the movie in a convincing way.
Although I don't want to spoil your own experience if you ever watch the movie, am tempted to discuss about the ending. The climax puts you, the audience, in the midst of a question - is everything you think is right, really right? When you look back and see do you really think abiding by the rules of law was the right thing to do? What would you do if you had a chance to change a person's life by compromising on what you believe to be right?
Some of the scenes in the movie are haunting. They force you to come face to face with the horrible things we do to our children and family. At one point of the movie, the story makes you feel that you have reached the end , but suddenly it shifts by 180 degrees - a characteristic of a perfect mystery! The movie is like a page turner book, it makes you sit at the edge of your seat. Few references in the story reminded me of Mystic River. Only when I read the details of the movie on wiki did I realize why, after all they have a common author.
When the titles played on the screen I told myself, “Ben Affleck probably made this movie just to give his brother Casey a much needed big break after his small roles all these years”. But after 2 hours I could not stop admiring Ben for his directorial talent. The movie also has big names like Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman, who as usual deliver brilliantly however small a role one gives them. And Casey, well, I’m surprised we are not seeing much of him these days. He is definitely a gifted actor. I hope I get to see more of him.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
What made last weekend good was...
...that I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's.It's one of those feel good romantic comedies. I'm a huge fan of romantic comedies , especially the ones with more romance and lesser comedy :). Anyone would agree that movies like When Harry met Sally , You've got mail, French Kiss or Breakfast at T.'s are sure to make it one's 100 movies to watch anytime to cheer oneself up.
I couldn't have imagined anything better to do this windy weekend than getting cosy on the couch with Breakfast at T's playing.Although I had watched it already, I wanted to see it again.You see that's the thing with these romantic comedies, you can watch them again and again. I hardly remembered Moon river, but as soon as the titles starting coming up on the TV with Audrey Hepburn eating her croissant in front of Tiffany & Co. the tune came back to me. After all a tune doesn't win the Oscar without being qualified as memorable!
Audrey Hepburn amazes me. 8 years after Roman Holiday she still managed to look the same innocent looking 20-ish girl and portrayed her role so convincingly. You can't help but sympathise with the poor little Holly Golightly. She makes you fall in love with her inspite of the facts like she absolutely deserted her family back home and ran off for her own reasons, accompanies men for 50$ bills and turns her back on her true love Paul.
Apart from the deliberate fun made of Holly's Japanese neighbour upstairs, the portrayl of which even the Director Blake Edwards regretted later, the movie is a memorable one. For me it will always be a one of the best things to watch on a cold windy dull day :)
Image source - thecinemasource dot com
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Funny ads
Most of us hate advertisements. We hate them even more when they come when you are at the edge of your seat.But there are some ads which most of us have loved...remember the Dairy Milk ads-especially the one with the young lady dancing in the cricket match.Lately I've started to like the funny ones.Here's a Heineken ad that says Women:Clothes :: Men:Heineken - Perfect advertising - in a simple and impressive way.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
W.R.T post in Oct 2 - Do's and dont's of online match-making
Now that I've given the gyan on match-making websites in the previous post,let's get working!What to and what not to do when you are trying to find your soul-mate online.
Do's
-----
1 - When you create your profile,be honest,state the facts,don't hide any important things.
2 - Put your latest photos on the site, after all when you meet the person he is goinna see you as you currently are, not as you were in your 'younger' years :)
3 - Check your inbox regularly , I suggest daily. Remember, there might be someone somewhere, who might not be made for you,but is still waiting for your reply to his/her interest request.
4 - State your expectations clearly in the very beginning.This way you can avoid spending time with the wrong person and also the disappointments that might result.
5 - Take the process seriously.Don't just be fooling around.
6 - Add filters to your profile when you know what category of people you don't want to get interest requests from.
7 - Most of all , be patient. You are gonna get tons and tons of requests daily. Be sure to go throught them.And make it a point to reply.
8 - As soon as your wedding is fixed,delete your profile. You don't want some poor soul to still keep dreaming about you.Be kind to them :)
Dont's
-------
1 - Don't be rude. Express your lack of interest in a polite way. Put yourself in the other person's shoes and see what you might feel.
2 - Don't hurry through the process and end up talking to some fradulent person. We have all heard of the cases of internet matrimony gone bad.
3 - Don't be late to online rendezvous. No one likes to be stood-up.
4 - Don't be a jerk and send replies like,"You are too short for me","You are too dark for me" etc. If you are not attracted to the person simply say ,"Sorry our interests don't match".
5 - Don't be pushy.Wait for the other person to respond to your interest requests or to reciprocate to your liking.
6 - Don't hurry things.Never be one of those who think,"I'm taking a month's vacation and going to India.I'll meet a girl and get married right away". No sensible guy/gal appreciates that attitude.
7 - Don't reject a profile right away by seeing a picture. Aks for more pictures and then decide.
8 - Once you yourself are involved in the process, don't harry your parents. Take responsibility.
Hope these are useful!
Do's
-----
1 - When you create your profile,be honest,state the facts,don't hide any important things.
2 - Put your latest photos on the site, after all when you meet the person he is goinna see you as you currently are, not as you were in your 'younger' years :)
3 - Check your inbox regularly , I suggest daily. Remember, there might be someone somewhere, who might not be made for you,but is still waiting for your reply to his/her interest request.
4 - State your expectations clearly in the very beginning.This way you can avoid spending time with the wrong person and also the disappointments that might result.
5 - Take the process seriously.Don't just be fooling around.
6 - Add filters to your profile when you know what category of people you don't want to get interest requests from.
7 - Most of all , be patient. You are gonna get tons and tons of requests daily. Be sure to go throught them.And make it a point to reply.
8 - As soon as your wedding is fixed,delete your profile. You don't want some poor soul to still keep dreaming about you.Be kind to them :)
Dont's
-------
1 - Don't be rude. Express your lack of interest in a polite way. Put yourself in the other person's shoes and see what you might feel.
2 - Don't hurry through the process and end up talking to some fradulent person. We have all heard of the cases of internet matrimony gone bad.
3 - Don't be late to online rendezvous. No one likes to be stood-up.
4 - Don't be a jerk and send replies like,"You are too short for me","You are too dark for me" etc. If you are not attracted to the person simply say ,"Sorry our interests don't match".
5 - Don't be pushy.Wait for the other person to respond to your interest requests or to reciprocate to your liking.
6 - Don't hurry things.Never be one of those who think,"I'm taking a month's vacation and going to India.I'll meet a girl and get married right away". No sensible guy/gal appreciates that attitude.
7 - Don't reject a profile right away by seeing a picture. Aks for more pictures and then decide.
8 - Once you yourself are involved in the process, don't harry your parents. Take responsibility.
Hope these are useful!
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
W.R.T post in Oct 1 - Match making online
A couple of you, my friends, have been eagerly waiting for these upcoming 3 posts from me...well atleast that's what you've told me :).Forgive me for keeping you waiting so long, but there is a reason from me writing them now.Am gonna let you figure out that reason ;)
Most of us,gals and guys,are of the opinion that online match-making is silly and stupid and hence are reluctant to try it.Trust me I was one of you!But only when you explore this option will you know, how realistic it is to go with them in today's world.
A good number of us keep complaining about the crunch of time we face everyday. And in the midst of this chaos around us, thinking about getting married and even trying to find the right person might sometimes seem like an impossible thing to seriously do. This is exactly where an online match-making site would be of use to.It gives you flexibility to check matches when you are free and when you feel like it. This flexibility is not the case with traditional match-makers.
None of us today want to get married to a person that we have not spoken or seen till the day of marriage,atleast none that I know of. Consider the good old arranged marriage groom search in a gal's family.
While (!Groom-found)
{
Family ++
if (son:Family == Good)
if (horoscope-match)
Grooom-Found = True
}
But with online match-making involved
While (!Groom-found)
{
Match ++
if (gal likes profile == true)
if (gal and guy mutually interested == true)
if (compatibility matches == true)
if (parents agree == true)
Groom-found = true
}
Although the last "parents agree" thing still qualifies it to be an arranged marriage, as you can see the factors driving the match are mostly those involving the gal and the guy. Hence the possibility that you will end up marrying someone you don't know or don't like is quite less.
All this said and done, which wesite to pick up. This should not be very difficult.It all depends on how open or how confined you want your search to be.
Amongst the tons and tons of match-making websites,go with the one that best suits your needs. If you want options only from your your caste,then go to websites like christianmatch.com, agarwal2agarwal.com etc that are driven by caste choices.If you want someone with a personality type that matches you go to a website that has options to drive matches based on peronslities ex.chemistry.com. If you want to search within the same tongue speaking folks there are sub-categories of bharatmatrimony.com - telugu/tamil/hindi etc etc matrimony.com. There are websites even for sigles within a city. But unless you choose a popular website, be careful to check the authenticity.
Most of us,gals and guys,are of the opinion that online match-making is silly and stupid and hence are reluctant to try it.Trust me I was one of you!But only when you explore this option will you know, how realistic it is to go with them in today's world.
A good number of us keep complaining about the crunch of time we face everyday. And in the midst of this chaos around us, thinking about getting married and even trying to find the right person might sometimes seem like an impossible thing to seriously do. This is exactly where an online match-making site would be of use to.It gives you flexibility to check matches when you are free and when you feel like it. This flexibility is not the case with traditional match-makers.
None of us today want to get married to a person that we have not spoken or seen till the day of marriage,atleast none that I know of. Consider the good old arranged marriage groom search in a gal's family.
While (!Groom-found)
{
Family ++
if (son:Family == Good)
if (horoscope-match)
Grooom-Found = True
}
But with online match-making involved
While (!Groom-found)
{
Match ++
if (gal likes profile == true)
if (gal and guy mutually interested == true)
if (compatibility matches == true)
if (parents agree == true)
Groom-found = true
}
Although the last "parents agree" thing still qualifies it to be an arranged marriage, as you can see the factors driving the match are mostly those involving the gal and the guy. Hence the possibility that you will end up marrying someone you don't know or don't like is quite less.
All this said and done, which wesite to pick up. This should not be very difficult.It all depends on how open or how confined you want your search to be.
Amongst the tons and tons of match-making websites,go with the one that best suits your needs. If you want options only from your your caste,then go to websites like christianmatch.com, agarwal2agarwal.com etc that are driven by caste choices.If you want someone with a personality type that matches you go to a website that has options to drive matches based on peronslities ex.chemistry.com. If you want to search within the same tongue speaking folks there are sub-categories of bharatmatrimony.com - telugu/tamil/hindi etc etc matrimony.com. There are websites even for sigles within a city. But unless you choose a popular website, be careful to check the authenticity.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
I fell in love all over again with.....
…Boston. There is something beyond the tall buildings, the crowd, the sub-ways that caught my affection. The last time I visited Boston was around 2 years back. And I immediately fell for it. I can never forget the enthusiasm with which our group of friends explored the great M.I.T and Harvard campuses. I even visited the famous Boston tea party massacre sight. But this time I just roamed around a couple of streets around Park Station. The first thing anyone would notice is the student crowd of Boston. Every student I saw made me wonder if he/she was from M.I.T or Harvard or one of the numerous colleges of Boston. And then the narrow streets with old apartments on either side, the struggle to get a parking space, the cars parked in the lanes of the roads;all of them are contributors in their own. In fact I guess it’s a thing about any downtown, one just forgets who one is and gets lost in the crowd. Sometimes its this feeling of getting lost in the middle of an ocean of people is what makes you retrospect and realize what you are and who you wanna be.
Monday, February 02, 2009
So much for the Superbowl XLIII
....was what I told myself at the 3rd quarter of the game yesterday;but it was only until the 4th quarter started. The excitement and the twists in the game that followed were nail-biting (and I'm not even exxageratin!!)
I was a Cardinal supporter from the beginning;with them being the first-timers at the superbowl. But at the end I should agree that the trophy went to those that were worthy;the Steelers with the second youngest QB (age 26) and the youngest coach(age 32) ever in the game history. Inspite of putting up a great comeback in the last 15 mins on the clock, the cardinals did some serious ddamage to themselves in Q2 and Q3. And all those personal fouls not required at all. But its easy for us to say that and difficult for them under that tremendous pressure.
All in all the Steelers made a place for themselves in history being the franchise to win the most number of Superbowls ever. Hats-off to them all.
I was a Cardinal supporter from the beginning;with them being the first-timers at the superbowl. But at the end I should agree that the trophy went to those that were worthy;the Steelers with the second youngest QB (age 26) and the youngest coach(age 32) ever in the game history. Inspite of putting up a great comeback in the last 15 mins on the clock, the cardinals did some serious ddamage to themselves in Q2 and Q3. And all those personal fouls not required at all. But its easy for us to say that and difficult for them under that tremendous pressure.
All in all the Steelers made a place for themselves in history being the franchise to win the most number of Superbowls ever. Hats-off to them all.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Choices vs. Analysis
Everyone taking the admission tests for any Graduate course or Masters course,particularly in a country other than India,is familiar with the Multiple choice based examination pattern. Back home in India many esteemed colleges still have a traditional testing approach of Q & As. As a person taking the test I always felt more comfortable with the Multiple choices, especially because it doesnot require me to write a 2 page explanation of a simple conclusion. In additon,college tests proved that if a person has got a good handwriting and a gift of managing all the time to use stencils and color pencils etc, he would always manage the same marks as I no matter the actual content of his essay!
Of course there is always an advantage of having the essay questions since they really prove the extent that the subject has gone into the mind of a student. Whereas working with the multiple choices can be a matter of good luck at times, which can be bettered with the use of intelligent guessing.
Everything seen and heard and gone through , the Computer Adaptive Tests are worth the praise. A seemingly simple set of questions can actually be so confusuing and misleading that people end up with blunders. An algorithm on which these CATs are based would be one intelligent piece of work.
Of course there is always an advantage of having the essay questions since they really prove the extent that the subject has gone into the mind of a student. Whereas working with the multiple choices can be a matter of good luck at times, which can be bettered with the use of intelligent guessing.
Everything seen and heard and gone through , the Computer Adaptive Tests are worth the praise. A seemingly simple set of questions can actually be so confusuing and misleading that people end up with blunders. An algorithm on which these CATs are based would be one intelligent piece of work.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
An irony behind our struggle for freedom
I was watching 'Gandhi' yesterday and I couldn't help but see how ironic is it that the whole fight of non-violence we put up to get our freedom from Imperial rule was immediately followed by loss of freedom to the communal evils.
The whole world worships the Mahatma and what does his very own home do? As soon as we got our independence, in fact a few hours before we actually got it,the nation was being divided into 2 - based on the religion followed. No one from that time is now alive to tell us whether this was really a result of "hunger of power" of the great political dynasties or was it something hidden all the while under the British rule. Imagine the picture a fresh-born India would have given to the world by breaking into burning communal riots!
How can we teach our children that our great nation stands for Freedon of the poeple when we forced the same people to fight against one another, with their own brothers and sisters?
And seeing the crisis in the world,it really makes me ponder the irony of lack of peace in the lands of the Buddah and the Christ , the very saints of peace.
The whole world worships the Mahatma and what does his very own home do? As soon as we got our independence, in fact a few hours before we actually got it,the nation was being divided into 2 - based on the religion followed. No one from that time is now alive to tell us whether this was really a result of "hunger of power" of the great political dynasties or was it something hidden all the while under the British rule. Imagine the picture a fresh-born India would have given to the world by breaking into burning communal riots!
How can we teach our children that our great nation stands for Freedon of the poeple when we forced the same people to fight against one another, with their own brothers and sisters?
And seeing the crisis in the world,it really makes me ponder the irony of lack of peace in the lands of the Buddah and the Christ , the very saints of peace.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)