iPad Paintings

This is the second of my experiments  with Art Brush Pro iPad app. The app is pretty good.

This is based on a painting of Jimi Hendrix from voka.at

Quiz 2 - Crack This (Level - Moderate)

"A's" first movie was "B" and was directed by "C" who has directed and acted in a number of classics and is considered as one of the greatest film directors of all time.

"A's" last movie was  "D"  directed by "E" and was inspired from the movie "F".

"E",  is considered as one of the finest actors in the country. Arguably, "E's" most notable role was in the  movie "G" directed by  critically acclaimed director "H". "H" has directed a number of critically acclaimed as well as commercially successful movies in multi-languages. "H" brought in upcoming music director "I" for his film "J". "I" himself has been described as one of the worlds most prolific and prominent composer by "K". "K" also lists  "G" one of the all time 100 greatest films.

"K's" most famous feature "L" started in late 1920s and had "M" as the first "L". "N"  is the only Indian so far to be chosen as "L". 

"N's" image was used in a poster advertisement (T-Shirt Prints)  that cleverly re-used the tagline "O" from the advertisement for brand "P" . And "P" is the screen name (given by "C") by which we all know "A".

NK1

  Canvas Print

Shutterfly custom cards for Valentines Day, Easter & Mother's Day.

View the entire collection of cards.

Connect (CQ2)

Another one. Connect. Not that easy but not tough either :)

Easy Connect (CQ1)

Not much to do so thought of posting a connect quiz. Easy one to start with . Connect along with  the funda.

Movies I saw in 2011

Here's a list of movies that I saw in 2011. Not many compared to 2010.

The Good Ones ->

Super 8 - Enjoyed this movie.
A super tribute to Spielberg. If you enjoyed E.T, chancer are you will like this one.

Rise of the planet of Apes - Awesome CGI. Enjoyed it.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Saw the Swedish version. Nice movie.

HP and Deathly Hollow 2 - A very well made final chapter. Did justice to the book. Probably the best of the series.

X-Men First Class - Thoroughly enjoyed this on flight.

Transformers - Dark Side of the Moon -Amazing CGI. Super first shot of the dark side of the moon. Enjoyable.

Source Code - Nice concept. Enjoyed the movie. The ending seemed deliberately stretched to
give it a happy ending. Overall nice watch.
7/10

Kung Fu Panda 2 - As good as the first part. Watch it if you are searching for Inner Peace!!

The Dirty Picture - Good hindi movie after a long time.

Paul - Absolutely hilarious. Totally loved it. Went to see this just because it was a road movie and was pleasantly surprised. 9 on 10.

No One Killed Jessica - Another good watch

Midnight in Paris - Nice movie.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - A road trip video made into a movie. Was enjoyable in parts though.

Bodyguard - Another mindless action , a la Rajnikanth kinda movie. Strictly for Sallu fans. Rest avoid.
This one is featuring in the "Good" section is because "it was soooo bad that it was good" :)

The Bad Ones ->
Cowboys and Aliens - The trailer was way better than the movie. Waste of money and time.

Fast Five - Mindless but amazing action. Din't enjoy as much as the first part of the series.

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan - I thought this movie was a bit stupid.

The Ugly Ones ->
Aarakshan - This one gave me a sever headache.

RA.One - The top contender for India's Razzies (Kela Awards) and This.One deserves it more than any movie. Big let down by SRK.

Dhobi Ghat - This was na gar ka na ghat ka. Though the performance by the relatively lesser known stars was admirable.

I am Number 4 -  Totally avoidable. Didn't even remember that I had seen it.

Divine Intervention

Kabhi kabhi kuch aisie ghatnayein hoti hain jise explain nahin kiya jaa sakta.

It was Saturday evening around 7:30pm and I was hungry. One of my roomie Ankur was talking to his fiance on phone and the other Abhi, had just taken a shower. 

It was full moon night. Abhi had bought a telescope. I asked my roomies to get ready for going out on a random drive to a place where we could setup the telescope and enjoy the view of the moon.

While they were getting ready, I decided to make myself some tea. Had bought Earl of Grey flavored Iranian tea and I absolutely love it.  So I placed the tea pan on the stove , added water, sugar and tea leaves and turned on the stove.

Meanwhile Abhi was all ready and Ankur had reluctantly ended his call to get ready. Abhi got his telescope and started fixing it. It was a Celestron table top telescope and is good for beginners. Easy to setup and light to carry. Ankur was ready as well and we decided to go to Joseph D Grant county park which was a 35 minutes drive from home. He was wearing slippers and I asked him if he wanted to change to shoes instead, to which he replied in negative.

I have been to Joseph D Grant park many times and am always awed by the calmness of the place. You can "hear" the silence here. And the drive to this place is awesome as well. The curves, the bends, the view of the valley , especially during sunset and after.

I took my flashlights, picked up my pullover, camera, wallet & keys, put on my trekking shoes and was ready. Since all of us were hungry , we first decided to go to MacDonalds which was just a block away.

So off we went to MacD in my 2002 Honda CRV and ordered a couple of Southern style chicken sandwiches. Abhi, being a vegetatrian and with MacD not offering much veggie choice,  decided to go to Subway instead. Ankur and I had the chicken sandwiches and then I said I would walkdown to the Starbucks to get a Latte.

We came out of MacD and were getting into our car when just like that I just suggested on going to 

Golden Gate in SFO (which was about an hours drive) and its vista points to observe the city and the full moon from there.

It was 8:10pm already. Abhi jumped into the idea and said yes. Ankur had no other choice but to agree :)

So we decided to get coffee first, then drive down to Subway from where Abhi would pickup a Veggie Delight and then we would start for Golden Gate.

As Ankur was getting into the car, I again noticed that he was in his slippers. I asked him if he still didn't want to change to shoes, as Golden Gate area would be very cold at night. Ankur finally agreed and decided to walkdown to home and change to his Reebok shoes. I also asked him to get the Canon DSLR from my room and said we would pick him up from 7-11, which was next to our place, right after we picked up the veggie delight.

  

It was already 8:30pm. So Ankur went back home and I picked up a tall extra Hot Latte from Starbucks. We (Abhi and I) drove down to Subway and after our transaction there we reached 7-11.

Ankur wasn't there so we waited.

After some time (which seemed a tad long)  we saw him coming towards us, wearing his white sneakers with the camera bag in his hand.

As we pulled down the window of the car, he asked "Did any one of you leave the stove on?"

And then it came back to me - pan on stove, Iranian tea ... I had completely forgotten that I had left the stove on.  Ankur then said that when he entered home, the room was completely filled with smoke and the tea pan was hot red. For some reason the smoke detectors had failed. He opened the windows,

switched off the stove and cleared the smoke.

Another few hours and it would have been a disaster.

It was for some reason that Ankur had put on slippers....that I suggested going to Golden Gate..that I asked him to change to shoes. God knows what would have happened had we left for Joseph D Grant park.

I still dont know what prompted me to suggest going to Golden Gate when we  had already planned for JDG park. Divine Intervention is what I call it.

Woh kehte hain na - Jo Hota Hai Achche Ke Liye Hota Hai :) 

Buddha Speak

A friend of mine wanted to buy a specific car from Maruti but was short on budget. He looked sad and I asked him the reason.
He replied "Dezire is the cause of sorrow".

A couple of years later I met him again. He had already bought the car but he still looked sad. I asked him "Now why are you sad."

He replied "Dezire is the cause of sorrow". Apparently his car was giving problems. :)

Changing Times

One of my office colleague and social n/w-ing friend (Dheeraj) put this as his FB status message : 
"When I was a kid I didn't have a computer, cell phone, iPod, Nintendo, DSi, Xbox, PS3, Wifi or Wii. I played outside till evening.... I ate what my mom made. If I ever told my parents "no" or back answered, I got in TROUBLE! Life wasn't hard, it was BEAUTIFUL & I survived. I appreciate the way I was raised.... I love my parents and the childhood they gave me... ♥ :) "


And it made me think for a while. 


- When I was a kid, there were no computers, no cell phones, no iPods, no Nintendo, no XBox, no PS3, no WiFi, no Wii, no Kinect, no iPad. So naturally I would not think about things that aren't present. Had it been present , I would have definitely wanted at least one of it and would have been a bad kid (frowning/crying/shouting/throwing tantrums) if my demands were not met :)  


- There was the cricket bat and the entire kit, there was badminton, there was football, there was carrom, Ludo and other indoor games, there were comics, tintin..  that I was aware of. And I wanted one of each. And my parents did give me most of it , if not all. It made me happy. It made them happy as well.


- TV was new in the year around 82 (in my city atleast) and  it was a wonderful box indeed. I wanted one. (As I grew up I  realised the fact that the wonderful box was an idiot box in 'guise.)


The list is endless.


Times have changed. Times are changing. Kids are getting smarter. The current kids have more exposure to technology than us. And the current generation parents have more responsibility ,  to provide the right amount of exposure to the field activities, the offline activities and  the online activity. And yes the parents are smarter too. That I guess is evolution :)
Adapting to the changing environment is important. Darwin was very right.


So maybe 15-20 years later (if FB still exists) , the current generation kid, who is exposed to the gadgets and the online world and who by that time would have grown up, would probably post something like this :

"When I was a kid I DID have a computer, cell phone, iPod, Nintendo, DSi, Xbox, PS3, Wifi and Wii. I played outside as well 

... I ate what my mom made..well most of the time :) .  If I ever told my parents "no" or back answered, even I got in TROUBLE!  Life wasn't hard, it was BEAUTIFUL & I survived. I appreciate the way I was raised.... I love my parents and the childhood they gave me... ♥ :) "