Kismat(Luck) not connected

I am not here to post the review of this movie “Kismat Konnection” as I have not watched it. So the “kismat” did not connect as the prints were not released in PVR here in Bangalore. My wife was very much awaiting for this movie and I had to keep an eye on PVR’s website as a result, beginning from Wednesday evening itself. Everytime I browsed that site it displayed every other movie but “Kismat Konnection”. Hey Guys, were you trying to be secretive ?
“Hey, Dude, we know that you are trying to access our website and we will make it sure that you do not get the ticket”.
and their phone number which is so very much written in bold letters on their website never works.
“Hey, Harsh is trying to call our number. Mind it he should not be successful in getting the line”.

Still, I was trying to be optimistic thinking its only Wednesday and they would surely open the bookings by Thursday night. My expectation plummeted from the Mt. Everest when the D-day came and I was able to hear a lady’s voice over the phone.

Lady: Hello, PVR.
Me: Is there anything wrong with your phone ?
Lady: Excuse Me, Sir.
Me: Anyways, Aren’t you people releasing this movie ?
Lady: No Sir, We do not have any information about the prints as yet. For today, we are not going to show it. The exact status can only be told after 5 pm. Do you mind calling us again after 5?
Me(f***, again): Again… I am playing with this number from past 2 days and you have picked it up today. I don’t know when you are going to receive my call next.
Lady: No sir, this is the only number we have and we do pick it.
Me(You are telling me, that you pick up the phone): Anyways.. Thank you for the information.

I replaced the receiver.

and the loop continued…. One thing has been added to the scenario. The reviews are out and the ratings are not good. Good for us. Somewhere the Kismat Konnected…. :)

Weekend Swapped

Well, this is what going to happen this weekend. Saturday going to be Sunday and vice versa. All the clothing and relaxation is going to be done today. Tomorrow, we have planned an outing for almost full day to Innovative Film City. I cannot comment much about the place right now, though details will be posted after I come back from there. Here is the link to the place which might give you an idea


http://www.innovativefilmcity.net/
http://www.innovativefilmcity.in

Things would have worked out today itself, however, my friend’s(with whom we have planned) wife is into a teaching job and its a working day for her. It would be very difficult for her to manage everything in a single day, especially when our planner includes a 4 hour drive(going and coming back). So we thought its better to keep Sunday as the outing day.

Here goes the plan:

9.30 am: Start from home
12.00 pm: Reach Innovative Film City
spend time there for around 4-5 hours (may be less, depends upon the liking)
5-6pm: Start from there
8-8.30pm - Reach home

Hope to have a nice time and hope to make it to the office on Monday !!! :)

Birthday Time

Today is the greatest day for me. Its my mom’s and dad’s birthday. Yes, you perceived it correct !!!! Their birthday falls on the same day like their anniversary(which is quite apparent)… he he he. Unlike the blunder that I made the other day, today I wished them in all my senses. Well, my younger brother is so fortunate for being with them on this auspicious day.

Wish you a wonderful birthday and a great life.

I love you mom and Dad. I wish I had be with you today. :)

I am alive and kicking.......... and busy

Its been quite a time since I had transformed my thoughts into words. Last week had been quite hectic for me. Engrossed with work at office, cooking after reaching home and then a little time for myself. In addition to that I had been reading(finished today) "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown- a bit complicated novel(for me) in terms of geography and the vocabulary used.

Anyhow, Saturday was exciting - first a surprise visit by my friend and his wife at 10 in the morning, I was not even fully awake. After they left we had brunch i.e. breakfast + lunch in the form of sizzlers at Garuda Mall. Added to that, some shopping(loose clothes) for Shivangi(yes, the baby is growing) :)... A drive in the rain while coming back home.

Sunday was relaxing as usual. Just one chore for the day.. washing clothes... They had to be dried up inside as the climate did not seem to cooperate. Thank god the clothes are not stinking..... :). Evening was spent watching IIFA awards..

Blunder on Anniversary

Tring, Tring
Dad: Hello !!
Me: Hi Dad.. How are you ?
Dad: Harsh, you are not audible as I am travelling. I will call you after I reach office.
Me: Ok, Dad. Bye !!

Tring, Tring
Mom: Hello Harsh
Me: Hi Mom, How are you ?
Mom: Yeah, I am fine.
Me: Congratulations !!! Its your anniversary today…
Mom(burst into laughter): Same to you, son…
Me(bit confused): Same to you ??? Mom, why are you laughing ?
Mom: Son, its yours and not mine….(again laughing ). You got engaged the same day. Mine is a month later…
My Brain - (Harsh, How could you!!! you idiot)..
Me: Oh, I am sorry Mom. I forgot the date(both yours and mine)…
Mom: That’s Ok, Congratulations again… (smiling)… Bye and take care

Tring, Tring
Shivangi(My wife): Tell me, Dear
Me: Happy Anniversary… See I remembered :)
Shivangi: ummmm…. thank you so much and wish you the same…. (some romantic lines….. censored here) :)
Me: How could you forget, dear ?
Shivangi: Ha, Ha, Ha… I am sure someone has reminded you also. You are not the one to remember important dates…
Me(smiling): I expected that….
Shivangi: see you in the evening, bye
Me: Bye

Tring, Tring
Me: Hello
Dad: Hi, you called me son.
Me(hiding my fault): Yeah, just like that. Its been 2 days since we talked.
Dad: Congrtulations, its your engagement anniversary today
Me: Thanks dad. (Shall I say wish you the same like Mom did??)…
Dad: God bless you… Bye and take care
Me: Bye Dad….

Tring, Tring
Me: Hello
Shivangi: You liar, idiot…
Me(realising parents called her to wish): What happened ??
Shivangi: so you remembered the date, haan !!
Me: Yeah, any doubts
Shivangi: Dad, just called me to wish me.
Me: (damn, I am caught).. Hello.. your voice is not audible…. I will talk to you later…
Shivangi: Yeah, I know.. This is the right time for the phone companies to disrupt the service…. especially our call…
Me: Ok, ok.. I admit…but I am the first one to wish you
Shivangi:hmmn… ok see you in the evening….. bye and take care..

I Miss....

1. the bicycle ride to school
2. the school time summer vacations and playing in the afternoons
3. the lunch box packed by my mother while going to school
4. the geometry box, those 2 pencils, an eraser and a sharpner
5. the morning prayer time at school
6. the Re. 1 coin which my mother used to give for spending in the canteen, though I hardly spend it.
7. the homework that was hardly done
8. the playground where every sports possible was played
9. the snacks that was eaten after playing and without washing my hands.
10. those orange candies especially the ones available at all the bus stations
11. my friends Yudhvir, Raju, Sonu with whom I used to stand at the front gate of my house and chat for a long long time in the evening.

12. those audio cassettes which we used to barter
13. my parents scoldings for not doing homework, for breaking the things and for coming home late
14. those excuses made to escape their scoldings….
15. the excitement on passing the exams and getting into a new class
16. the new books, neatly covered(though for a short time) and neatly packed on first day of school every year.
17. those stomache-in-head, headache-in-stomach and other lame excuses for not going to school.
18. those strange sounds which used to come from MBBS(members of back benchers society), while the teacher is teaching in the class.
19. the pranks played at friends and their reactions…

I miss my childhood…..

Roadies 5.0 - Journey 2

A fresh weekend and, another fresh episode of MTV Roadies 5.0. The sun poured its light on Goan Heritage resort, where remaining 11 roadies were enjoying their sleep. A knock on the door made them awake. It was time to choose a fresh captain. Snehashish named Prabhjot and others named Ashutosh. Finally, Ashu got the chance to
captain the ship. The journey was flagged of by Anthony and Bani(last year's roadies winner and runners-up). On the way, Ashu's driving was a mix match of fast and slow. On asking he said, "a girl(Sonel) is sitting behined him for the first time, and "he was feeling tickled". They stopped at Belgaum for their first task and, it wasn't an ordinary task both in terms of quality and quantity. It was their first ever money task and they were supposed to do Mallakhamb.

http://www.copperwiki.org/index.php/Mallakhamb

3 boys and 3 girls were selected. Boys and girls were to do a basic posture on the pole and the rope respectively. For each successful posture, Rs. 5000 would be added in their account. From boys, Ayaaz, Vikrant and Ashutosh were the selectees and among the girls, Ankita, Anmol and Shambhaavi were the hunted ones. The task started off with boys. Only Vikrant was not able to do it. Ayaaz and Ashu managed to perform the
daunting task but after many tries. None of the girls could even climb the rope. But all of them tried their best to perform the task. Ranvijay doubled the amount in their account. So, the roadies were virtually richer by 20K. Virtually because, finally the real money will be given to the ultimate roadie.

The roadies returned to hotel and the day ended with playing truth and dare game. Shambhavi's lap dance with Nihal, Prabjot's cat fight with Sonel, Sonel's proposing Ashutosh. What a day it was !!!

The next day, they went to "Kumar Gandharva RangaMandir" for their immunity task. As soon as they entered the auditorium, Ranvijay was waiting for them on the stage. One of the most funniest and embarrasing tasks, I have ever seen in the roadies series. The game was to be played among 5 teams - each team having a boy and a girl.
The teams were:
Anmol - Vikrant
Sonel - Ashutosh
Shambhavi - Nihal
Ankita - Snehashish
Prabhjot - Vibhor

At the end, Ayaz was left alone in lurch.... He was really disappointed on not being selected by any of the girl. After the team was selected, Ranvijay started telling the rules of the game. It was a quiz competition among girls, with a disqualification on a wrong answer. To qualify for the next question, boys had to play the role. Every boy team member had to remove a piece of cloth to qualify for the next question. The name of the game was "Strip SMS". Boy, the game was too good and funny. I was laughing like hell during the gameplay. Questions were too simple and the answers, I could not believe that girls were so dumb. Except Vikrant, everybody else was in his frenchie and except Ashutosh, everybody else was feeling embarassed. Ashu would have removed the last piece also, had there been any probability of answering the next question correct. At last, Anmol and Vikrant got the immunity. Now pointers turned to Ayaz, and Ranvijay gave him an opportunity to win immunity telling him to convince any 5 out of 8 people who could vote in his favor of granting immunity. Ayaz refused indirectly telling, "Ranvijay, you passed on the task to me and I pass it on the roadies". He did not even try to convince the members. Others got really pissed off on this as he wanted to get immuned without doing anything.

Roadies came back to the hotel and again, started the game of politics. Main contenders were - Prabhjot, Vibhor and Ayaz. At the voteout scene, Ayaz was again given a chance to get the immunity. He refused to so called "begging" for immunity. Only 2 of them(Ashu and Sonel) agreed to give him immunity and Prabhjot, Ankita and Snehashish refused to give him immunity.

Then started the voting stuff. At the end, only Vibhor(6) and Prabhjot(5) were voted for elimination. Vibhor, before leaving had done the damage saying to be careful from Vikrant and Snehashish, as they are the only ones who are driving the whole game.
Lets see what happens in the upcoming episodes.

Highlights:
1. Strip SMS
2. Truth and Dare

Jodha Akbar - Good Music, Good Acting, Great Direction

Excellent music, superb Direction coupled with a great camera work. Last and most of the above, good performance by Hrithik and Aishwarya Rai.
I am not talking about Dhoom 2 here.. but its a movie from the history that has come of age. Its Jodha-Akbar. The movie slated for release in 2007, and planned to release in April 2008, finally managed to hit the theatres on 15th Fbruary 2008, after so many controversies. Though, the movie is still not released in Rajasthan, I hope that people there should see the movie first and then comment upon it. It is shown in the starting of the movie itself, what is the belief, what is the probable truth and what coulld be the possible reality here.

Well, the movie is free from all those marketing strategies like:
1. clothes shedding
2. dance sequence by Hrithik
3. item numbers

Though, people may not like the movie because of the length of the movie, I won’t agree with it as the movie is not dragged unnecessarily. Ashutosh(the director) has managed to keep the pace of movie intact. He is one bundle of talent who has extracted best performances out of Hrithik and Aish. All the characters are best suiting to the role. Nowhere, I found that there was no need to an “ABC” character. He has shown a great amount of maturity directing a period film.

Hrithik has done full justice playing the role of a Mughal Emporer and has shown a balanced attitude as a lover and as a king.

Aish has also managed to steal the show with her performance. The Rajput attitude, keeping self-respect, way of showing expressions through her eyes were simply great.

One word for A. R. Rehman - Genius. The music is classical, soft, refreshing and goes well with the historical era. There are so many variations in a single song that a listener will not feel bored at any point of time.

The scenes I found best:
1. Hrithik punishing his maid’s son - Anger
2. Hrithik taming a wild elephant - Attitude
3. Hrithik’s fight with his brother-in-law in the climax - Anger
4. Sword fight between Hrithik and Aish - Naughty Affair ;)
5. Hrithik’s intoducing scene in the movie, where he says, we are to win kingdoms and not to kill people.
6. The war scenes especially the very first war scene - Great Camera work
7. Song “Azimo Shaan Shehanshah” - Choreography

The movie is surely not for the masses but I will still suggest people to go and watch the same.

Cheers’

God of War 2 - one of my favorite level

Friends... Please don't get confused....
It's not a movie... It's a game.... God Of War 2...

MTV Roadies 5.0 - started of with politics

http://www.mtvroadies.tv/

Finally, the much awaited(atleast for me) reality show is on air once again. After the gruelling and nightmarish auditions by Raghu and Nikhil, 13 roadies have been selected from all over India.
Shambhvi Sharma - New Delhi
Ayaz Ahmed - Kolkata
Vikrant Rathore - New Delhi
Snehashish Das - Mumbai
Anmol Singh - New Delhi
Sonel Singh - New Delhi
Nihal - Mumbai
Ashutosh Kaushik - Jaipur
Prabhjot Virk - Chandigarh
Vibhor Gupta - Chandigarh
Ankita Bajaj - Kolkata
Ankita Sehgal - New Delhi
Varun - Chandigarh

This time the first location was Goa where they were to complete their tasks.
The worst thing this time was, the politics had started from the 1st episode itself. Rather than knowing each other, people are planning to vote out the roadies from other region. The best thing , Raghu had f!@#$ their planning at the end of the episode 1.

The roadies were welcomed with some goodies from Reebok. The first evening of their arrival in Goa ended with a dance party in the resort where they were staying. I think Ashutosh took all the kudos here as he is the one to break the ice on the dance floor.
The next day they all landed upon Aguada Fort where they met Ranvijay again and he formed 2 teams - red and blue.
The red team had - Snehashish, Vikrant(captain), Shambhavi, Anmol, Ashu and Nihal. The blue team had - Ayaz (Captain), Sonal, Ankita, Ankita Bajaj, Varun and Vibhor.
Prabhjot was left alone at the end with no one to pick her.
Ranvijay asked the roadies to go to cafe coffee day to perform the first stage of their first task. They were supposed to take hot coffee shots (inspired from tequilla shots). The team to take maximum shots will win and the loser team will get Prabhjot as the team member. The red team won the challenge. I must say that they really had the great spirit and enthu. Ashutosh was gulping the shots like anything.
Now the second stage of the first task. A banana boat ride with a twist at Kalingute beach. The twist was, any 5 of the members from each team have to take a ride and while the boat is moving, the person at the last has to jump over the other team members and come at the first place, then the next person who is in the last now, has to do the same task, and the loop will go on for 15 minutes. The team with maximum number of rounds would be the winner. The red team again won the game.
So the score was 2-0.
Now the third stage of the first task. This was the task that will actually give the immunity to the winning team. That was the shocking twist for the red team. So the first two stages that was compelted by roadies, was just a warm up for them. Thats a roadies show and the people have to be prepared for these kind of twists. Now the details of the task. "Right key in the right bike".... 3 Karizma bikes with 7 keys. The red team would get 3 chances and the blue team would get 2. Whosoever will start any of the bikes in these chances will win the immunity. The task was totally based on luck rather than on the team performance.
It was really a welcome gift for the blue team but they were not able to cash in this opportunity also. Red team again won the task in the last chance.
The wait for elimination started and the time pass was politics and discussions on whom to eliminate. The strongest contender for elimination was Sonel as she did not have the attitude to play the game. Delhi people were trying to be together (atleast in discussions) and wanted top 5 people from Delhi only.
Then came the most awaited part. The roadies were standing facing Ranvijay. Ranvijay gave the shock to all the roadies when he invited Raghu on the set. Little did the roadies know what Raghu was going to say. After critising the blue team members and congratulating red team members, Raghu said "There is a good news and there is a bad news. The good news is, not one of the roadie will be eliminated today. The bad news is there will be two roadies to be eliminated today." For more enjoyment watch the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yMdX57bGNs

The episode ended with elimination of Ankita Sehgal(10 votes) and Varun(6 votes).

Highlights:
All the team members from blue team had atleast one vote for elimination and this has happened for the first time in the history of Roadies
Raghu's shock - 2 elimination in the first episode itself

Hippo and Dog

A nice song and a great picturisation...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lJwgP44Ap9E