Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Apple's Ipad2

I so so hate this news -Apple confirms March 2 media event to introduce iPad 2

I just got an Ipad couple of months back and that thing so reminds of the words from a US President about how you cant fart and chew gum at the same time. I can't play something on youtube and browse at the same time. Havent explored enough but even multi-tabbed browsing isnt available. You might think its there but its a sham. Though it looks awesome, so light, the touch screen is smooth almost as if this is the mode for humans. Very intuitive. 

One of the other things that bothered me is the low processor speed. We are so used to looking for the best of specifications that it was hard for me to go for this one. Agreed the form factor is small but the performance shouldnt go down to the level where you feel effect during normal browsing (not even video).

For once, I did an impulsive buy.
Now two months after I bought it, the next version is going to be out.


Monday, February 21, 2011

You dont live in Sunnyvale and claim to live in San Fransisco on your social networking page.  Same goes for New Jersesy and Newyork. 

Kattungulattur and Chennai - though prominent engineering colleges claim to be chennai -based when they are clearly out of chennai.

Though you can live in Pune and put Mumbai - Totally legitimate!



Thursday, February 17, 2011

Social network

The whole world and its family went gaga over Social network the movie but not me. Valleywag is to blame. A friend suggested that site and the few times I clicked this is the one story they had. The story of rich twin boys and 'whitest' Indian (according to a comment in youtube ) being taken for a ride.

The movie ofcourse is taken deftly. Not just aah... oh... exclamation point feel inducing for me.

Stepping aside from the movie and on to the real story, Bill gates was known for similar stories and look at what a wonderful Philanthropist he turned out to be. This sort of crooked street smartness actually boards well in building a corporation. Mark Zuckerberg sounds like he has a good future.

Facebook on other hand just seems to be one of the waves like myspace, orkut for indians and so on. Can we sustain updating statuses for 10 years?

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

My Taliswoman

In Life, if things don't go according to plan, it is OK It is OK if things aren't perfect. As long as you gave it what you could in that circumstance. If you missed something in effort - well you live and learn.

As long as good things happen, that is. When something bad happens as long as one can recover from that it is still fine.

PS: Dear Universe, I am giving you way too many concessions, don't go beyond these options. 

None of the stuff I wrote above is anything new, but words like these don't mean much to me unless when I experience incidents enough to have the thoughts grow within me. So as I see it, these words wouldn't mean much to others:)

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Indians, sort of.



"... At this moment, a strange thing happened — a woman paired off with a warrior and sat on the sand in a passionate embrace. This act was being repeated by other women, each claiming a warrior for herself, a sort of community mating, as it were. Thus did the militant group diminish. This continued for quite some time and when the tempo of this frenzied dance of desire abated, the couples retired into the shade of the jungle....


That is about the tribe in Andaman and Nicobar Islands which hasn't had contact with the outside world for  at least thousand years. They are hostile to contact worse our contact might kill them as they aren't immune to disease we are.

The tribe is estimated to have inhabited the island for 60000 years.

Ps: Dont we love Wiki? Oh,  thanks Sepia mutiny, some random genetic article link from your space led me to this entry:)

Monday, February 14, 2011

This news isnt from the Onion!

Vijay will be doing the role of Vandhiya Thevan

Frankly, compared to the atrocity of Vijay being Vandhiya devan, the news of him appearing in a Mani ratnam movie is so much more easier to hear. I am  a huge Mani fan and all.  But Vandhiya devan -  he was almost my first crush. I have sort of  read Ponniyan selvan 3 times. Sort of  because every single time I have only skimmed for portions with  Vandhiya devan. The charm, the wit  is superb. Way too many people love this character.

We need some one with inherent charm. Strangely in tamil cinema, a great actor is  the one who  will do the usual I will starve for 10 days, not take bath for 20 days routine. (Vijay doesnt even try that)This role is beyond those gimmicks.

When Kamal was suppose to play it years ago I thanked God he didnt.  He would have gone overboard and killed it. Kamal suits aditya Karikalan more.

Now Vijay?

Even as a pure gossip it is atrocious.

Ps: Surya, surya is the only one. Vikram would be ok too. But Surya.. that would be it. 


Friday, February 11, 2011

Time for da resolution

I had planned a list of resolutions to post here but after randomly going through some of my own posts, the dire-in-need resolution is to read every post, every comment I write thrice before I hit the post button.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Boss engira Bhaskiran and Band Bajaa Bharaat

Surprisingly, I enjoyed Boss Engira Bhaskiran. Humorous dialogues. Situations are illogical but it didn't bother me much. Some of it was truly lame like when Jeeva gets a call from the director in the climax or the climax itself and if we rewind from there we would find way too many instances as that. Santhanam and Arya rock - actually all the characters rock. Nayantara who was the reason that I almost missed this movie, was tolerable because she wasnt present all that much:)

Kadhal Bharath's character reference was extremely funny. Didnt really enjoy the mocking of alaipayuthey - too iconic a scene for a substandard movie(well in terms of movie making, it is) like this to make fun of. For a minute I didnt get why the famous scene from Alaipayuthey had to be played again, as if someone wouldnt have watched it and then realized it has been a decade since Alaipayuthey released. There are kids who might not have watched movie in their teens/ late teens even and I shut my mouth.
***
The reviews had set the bar so high for Band Bajaa Baraat that I thought it was destined #fail, in my eyes of course. Movie still ended up doing fine inspite of my under the microscope viewing. Performances are top notch. Anushka held herself up very well against Shahrukh in her first movie, this one she takes it up a notch with even more nuanced performance. She is not super hot but hot and she can act superbly - rare combination right?

The guy Ranvir nails it. 

And the writing? - the characters are etched well enough, real enough that they could be part of those slightly offbeat realistic ones like Oye lucky lucky oye. I honestly thought it was slightly wasted in the romcom space:)

To think I smirked when I heard it was about wedding planner. Hindi films are just importing stuff from HW. these days in the name of  making sensible cinema. And Wedding Planner seems so out of Place in India. But the rooted it well.

I do like well-made Hollywood Chick flicks even watch them repeatedly. But there is the whole 'hollywoodisation' to those characters that they dont seem flesh and blood. You only have the emotional arcs you can relate to. BBB's characters are real so much so it gets ahead of the HW chick flicks:)

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

This is how Indian Santa Clara is...

Happened couple of years ago.

My apartment manager suggests a guy for me, her friend's(Indian) son. First I try avoiding an answer, just nodding a no. She says, " I keep telling his mom(her friend) that you two should just meet and will hit right off. You are so perfect for each other."
I squirm not knowing where to start and end up not saying anything.


" Oh, He is a Brahmin, don't worry.", continues the blonde haired, blue eyed 40 something Caucasian woman.


The earth didn't swallow me that day!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Every one ends up fine is what I realized couple of years ago.

The guy who was thrown out of Grad School first semester, ended up working at one of the big Giants of the world. 

The one who was fired from the job only to be laid off in the next. Another who took 7 years to finish his Bachelors. Both doing very well in their career today. The guy who was teased the most stupid of the whole batch, got a call from a start up company.

Things that our Indian middle class Society considered the ultimate defeat so much that they pushed you to avoid them at any cost - failure at school/work. * I would like to add, my own parents are sort of slightly different, they insisted on us learning how to handle failures as well*  But people survive.

The stories are endless. I quote them often to friends to encourage them saying  that whatever they are going through will also pass.

But what I didnt realize all this while was that the marks of the trauma........ are there. still there, will be there for a long time. Reflecting in their actions years after - risk averse always seeking more security, paranoia, sometimes even affecting sleep.