On July 2nd, my friends and I were debating : Jaane Tu.. Ya Jaane Na, or Love Story 2050? Ultimately, we ended up watching both.. But there’s little doubting on which one takes the cake. Jaane Tu.. Is a winner all the way. Its one movie which’ll stay with you long after you leave the theater. It’s one movie which’ll tickle your funny bone without wandering anywhere near the ridiculous. It’s one movie which will take you back to the good old post-teen days. It’s one movie you’ll love to fall in love with. A movie as fresh as a Jasmine flower. A movie so real that you want to go and touch the characters on screen. Its something which Youngistaan can totally identify with- Characters, the couple in a mixed group, the problems with it..
Right from the time I left the theater on Friday night, I’ve been thinking about the film. I’ve done a lot in college life, but feel that I’ve missed out on such an important aspect. Forget about girlfriends, I’ve interacted with a very few girls during my stay in college. Forget about frustration, girls in your group bring around a completely different point of view to the fore. Forget about romance, interacting a lot with the opposite sex brings about a fair amount of discipline in guys. Towards the dusk of my college life, I wish I would have improved on this!
Anyways, let me not get too personal. Avoid Love Story 2050. In spite of a lovable Priyanka Chopra and a decent Harman Baweja, the movie sucks. And no exaggeration with the word. Horrendous story, funny sci fi and romance make for a terrible cocktail. Luckily, I slept through most of the second half. Made for much lesser of a headache that night!
Rating:
Jaane tu.. 4 stars
Love story.. 1.5 stars
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An year ago, I came across this survey in the JAM site asking engineering students to fill a form about their college. Though I ruled it out as another of those questionnaires out of which results never come, I could not resist filling it up for the heck of my college, IIIT Hyderabad. Last week, the book finally released. And I must say, the book’s not disappointed me at all… In fact, it’s one extremely informative book. Unlike the dumbass India Today ratings, a lot of effort seems to have been put into this review. And to say the least, the results show! So, cheers Rashmi and her team at JAM!
I’ll probably list out the positive and negative points of the book. Positive first.
• There are no rankings, just the division of colleges into categories- A++, A+ and so on till C-. This’ll probably ensure that friction levels are kept to a minimum.
• The division by itself. In most cases, a lot of research seems to have gone into the entire thing. Besides, taking in inputs from engineering students at a popular youth site was a good idea. Though I resent IIIT Hyderabad being put in the A+ category (I think we deserve an A++), I’m still happy with most of the ratings.
• The sheer size of the database- the book manages to cover more than 500 colleges! None of your other surveys have covered this number till date. Who would have thought that your GITAM, CBIT etc would be covered in an engineering survey. The number makes the book useful not just for budding IITians but also those who’re looking at other national and state level colleges.
• The articles in the magazine cover a plethora of topics ranging from the types of engineering, life at engineering colleges, life after graduation etc. For all those who wanted to get into an engineering college but didn’t know why, or those who have no idea of what BE and B.Tech are all about, this is a perfect place to start off. Some of the articles like the one on birthday bumps and treats, the one on placements by Bansal herself, and the one on donation are brilliant! They accurately and vividly describe the actual situation. There are other very good sections like the Editors’ pick, way of living and all.
• The book does a good job of describing some of the major branches in detail. It gives you a fair idea of where your aptitude lies.
However, being a first time work, the book does have some chinks in the armour, though not major ones.
• I can’t say much about other states, but for me, as an Andhraite, there was an error too many. For instance, the spelling of GITAM is messed up with. There are hardly any articles on colleges in Andhra. The book says that admission into NIT-W is still through EAMCET (as well as AIEEE), which is far from the truth.
• Some of the rankings seemed a little unfair. Indore’s GSITS was put at A+ whereas NIT Bhopal is at A. Even considering the advice (given in the book) that national colleges (like NIT Bhopal) be put at one level higher (A+ in this case) while comparing with local colleges, the ranking seems unjustified. The fact of the matter is NIT Bhopal is quite ahead of GSITS.
• The unofficial prospectus gets repetitive after some time. Engineering life is more or less the same across the country, with some variations with place, type of college etc. Considering the above fact, a few articles in this section can easily be removed.
• Articles on topics like reservation, ragging, college fests etc could have been covered.
All in all, the hiccups are far and few in between. The overall feeling of reading the book is pretty positive. I hope it replaces India Today as the primary engineering survey in India. Hats off to JAM for coming up with such a wonderful and useful book. I’ll call it a must have for all engineering aspirants.
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Go Roger Federer. Have placed 50 bucks on you for kicking Nadal’s ass 
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Here’s one more post on… what else, but the IPL. Prasant Gopal had tagged me quite some time back on this. However, I wanted to put off writing on the same till the IPL reached its concluding stages. So, here I go on the five best things I’ve liked about the IPL:
1) Manpreet Gony, Shikhar Dhawan, Amit Mishra, Yomahesh, Yusuf Pathan, Dhaval Kulkarni. Do you ever remember going to watch a Ranji match? But for the IPL, we wouldn’t have possibly seen these colourful players on the circuit. The tournament has given a lot of opportunities and a taste of the big stage to the rookies. And I dare say, a lot of them are ready to give the current crop of Indian players a run for their money.
2) Half the people in the country seemed to be supporting the Mumbai Indians- and the reason? Yes, you guessed it right- It was being led by God. Every single Mumbai Indian player said that he was lucky to be playing under God. Every single fan in Mumbai was screaming for God to score in every match that he played. Fans in Jaipur were more concerned with God scoring than their team picking up wickets. Take a bow Sachin Tendulkar- the major reason why most Indians are glued to cricket.
3) My sister and female friends support the KKR. My aunt supports the CSK. Corporates run live matches. 50 matches have had more than 80% attendance. The TRP ratings have crossed the eight mark, pushing Panchvi Paas, Saas bahu sagas into oblivion. The support the IPL ahs got has been mind numbing.
4) It’s been weird to see some real dome strategizing by stalwarts like Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. Rahul Dravid and Mallya put up a dumb test team for the T20 (Though a lot of fans hate Mallya now, especially after his outbursts against Dravid). Must admit that Dravid was good though. Guess he’s made a case for his re-selection in the ODI team.
5) Harbhajan Singh is a total jackass. Need I say anything more? I support Murali Kartik or Amit Mishra getting a chance in the team ahead of the Turbunator.
There are other things like the IPL becoming a regular feature in my daily life, Shane Warne, Sanath Jayasuriya, Glenn McGrath etc, but I guess the tag doesn’t allow me to write more than the five points. And before signing off, here’s wishing Rajasthan the best of luck and here’s hoping that Mohali kicks Chennai’s ass (Oh, forgot to mention. Am mainly against Chennai because of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s attitude towards seniors)
I tag everyone on my blogroll who hasn’t been tagged as yet.
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The first reaction after reading “The three mistakes of my life”- haven’t I seen this before. A book filled with a lot of clichés- and a lot of similarities with “Five Point Someone”. The reason Chetan Bhagat got so popular in the first place was his refreshing attitude towards writing and his way of putting things in perspective. FPS was different as it was path breaking. However, two novels later, Bhagat seems to have settled into a particular mould of writing- not willing to experiment too much and stick to the proven. On the other hand, probably most successful novelists do the same- be it a Sheldon or an Archer.
As stated earlier, The three.. is quite similar to FPS with respect to a plethora of aspects. Three young friends, their tryst with destiny, the romantic scenes, the ups and downs, the dark humour, the screw ups.. It’s all there. However, there are a few roborant and refreshing aspects to the novel- not the least of all the handling of the business mentality. Coming from a Marwari family, I truly enjoyed this aspect of the subject. The other good things were the unabashed handling of the communal issue, the “Ali” part of the story (though it’s a little filmy), the handling of cricket and the local Gujarati flavor.
Bhagat’s however continued the trend of pricing his book at Rs.95. His earlier successes, coupled with the price of the book and the timing of the release will ensure that the book starts off pretty well. All in all, it’s a masala book and good for summer time pass.
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What else can this be about? Its everywhere, and its started a revolution like never before.
However, the balance between the ball and bat have been altered beyond the tolerable levels in the tournament. An important reason for the success of the T20 world cup last year in South Africa was the fair amount of success the bowlers achieved. The pitches were sporty and there was a lot in there for the bowlers who were ready to bend their back. There have already been 4-5 200+ scores in the first 8 matches, compared to the 5 in all of the world cup. While there is no doubting the fact that people love watching sixes and fours, a competitive match is appreciated greatly by the audiences around. Generally, balanced pitches tend to produce closer matches. If pitches like the ones in Chennai and Hyderabad become more common, the game would become pretty monotonous after a certain point of time. At least that’s what I felt while watching the matches. On the other hand, the pitch in Mohali was one which I enjoyed watching- there was a decent bit in it for the pacemen and spinners alike. The other thing with respect to the same is the Orange Cap. While the concept is good (though unoriginal), what is there in it for the bowlers? Is there something like the violet cap for the best bowler around? There is a cash award of Rs 1,00,000 for the batsman who hits the highest number of sixes in every match. Do we have an award for the guy who gets the maximum number of wickets? It must be remembered that without decent bowlers, T20 matches cannot be won. Glenn McGrath, Asif, Warne etc have shown just that. McGrath and Asif bowled brilliantly against Deccan Chargers and won the match for their team. Rohit Sharma though was unto the challenge and countered them beautifully. It is this battle between the bat and ball which is a joy to watch.
Meanwhile, the campaigns run by the managers have been brilliant. The most important factor for a league to succeed is support among fans for teams which is exactly what the guys running the show have been trying to muster. I’ll myself get a Deccan Chargers tee as soon as their show on the field improves. Lets wait for a couple of years and see how the entire league thingy shapes up.
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Ever since I’ve started listening to rock, the guitar’s been a fascinating instrument. The feeling of the same gives you a high.. It’s something for all moods. Sometime back, rock guru Aditya had come up with a list of divine solos. Here I am with a list of my favorite solos. Now since this is my list, the choices might be a little different. However, I’m not trying to write a comprehensive, popular top fifteen list.
1) For the love of God- Steve Vai
2) Crystal Planet- Joe Satriani
3) November Rain- Slash (Guns n Roses)
4) Stairway to Heaven- Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)
5) Comfortably numb- David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)
6) One - Kirk Hammett (Metallica)
7) While My Guitar Gently Weeps - Eric Clapton (The Beatles) 
Circles- Joe Satriani
9) Smells like Teen Spirit- Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)
10) Aqualung- Martin Barre (Jethro Tull)
11) All along the watchtower- Jimi Hendrix
12) Whole Lotta Love- Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)
13) Bohemian Rhapsody- Brian Mary (Queen)
14) Wanted Dead or Alive- Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi)
15) Smoke On The Water - Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple)
I know it might be a bit of a weird list, but well.. Just felt like putting it down.
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I have often been accused of being a batch chauvinist. However, being the only ‘regular’ blogger among the UG2K5 cricketers, I had to write on this one. UG2K5 vs UG2K6. It has indeed been a sensational cricket rivalry. Each of the four matches the two teams have played against the other has gone down to the wire. The much hyped final, which was won by UG2K5 in the last ball truly lived to its reputation. Never before has the cricket tournament been as fiercely contested as this year.
The match up started last year with UG2K6 winning two closely fought matches. The unfortunate final between the two teams was marked by bitter rivalry and the infamous “scuffle”. It was indeed a low point, and something which shouldn’t have happened. Of course, save minor blemishes, the games have been played in the right spirit this time around. There has understandably been some tension in the air, but credit to the players for treating cricket like what it is - a gentleman’s game. People saying “things” and G-Talk status messages only added to the excitement of the matches. A mention about one of them which said something like “Don’t worry guys- its still 2-1. Thats how one accepts defeat” after our win against the juniors in the league match this season- well my dear friend, its 2-2 now!
Personally, it was a pleasure playing the final and the tournament this time around. Especially after being overlooked for most matches in the past two years. It has been a dream come true for me to be performing for a winning cause. Of course, playing with the team has been fantastic- there is this amazing camaraderie in our team now. We know each other well and understand each other’s weaknesses and strengths. We support the others and more than anything else- we now enjoy our training and cricket sessions! I’ll say that winning the finals has been one of the high points for me at IIIT.
I hope Pagare and Mahaveer live up to what they’ve said and write posts on our win!
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Jackie: Steven, do I really disgust you?
Steven: No. I disgust me because I’m supposed to be disgusted by you but I’m not.
[after Kelso tries in vain to convince the others he had sex with Brooke, she comes to the basement]
Brooke: Kelso, we have to talk about doing it at the Molly Hatchet concert.
Michael Kelso: Just a second, Brooke.
[to Fez]
Michael Kelso: Burn!
[to Eric and Donna]
Michael Kelso: Burn!
[to Hyde]
Michael Kelso: Burn!
[to Jackie]
Michael Kelso: Burn!
[Kelso runs upstairs to the kitchen]
Michael Kelso: [to Kitty] Burn!
[to Red]
Michael Kelso: Burn!
[Kelso runs back downstairs]
Michael Kelso: So, Brooke. What did want to talk about?
Brooke: I just found out I’m pregnant.
Michael Kelso: [defensively] I never touched her!
Freaking awesome! That’s the phrase to describe That 70s show. After 200 episodes, I finally finished my rendezvous with the best sitcom I’ve seen. Be it Kelso’s antics or Hyde’s coolness, the show never ceases to amaze. It’s a rip-roaring laugh-a-minute-serial which a collegian can immediately relate to. There have been instances when I’ve had to pause the episode because I just cannot stop laughing. There have been others when I’ve finished an entire season (25 episodes) in a day. It felt a little emotional to finally complete the wonderful series again. For an off the screen goodbye, check this wonderful video on youtube:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fAPvnovhuuY&feature=related
And yeah, take this test on which character on That 70s show you are:
http://web.tickle.com/tests/seventyshowcharacter/index.jsp
I got Donna 
I’ll miss you Eric and company!
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Gaurav has tagged me to write the shortest tag post ever- “What I fear the most”. Well, there are quite a few things which’ll fall into that category, but I guess the first which comes to my mind right now is losing my beloved ones. I know its clichéd and boring but it’s also awfully true. What if I wake up one fine day and find myself alone in this world? Horrible. Another thing which I can think of is the fear of letting down people. By the way, both these fears together seem like an endorsement of Gaurav’s worst fear “people forgetting me”. Well that’s how humans are- however deep a loner you may be, your friends and loved ones are important! For most people. Oh, yeah, I also have this lump in my throat when I set out trying to achieve or do something big. “What if it doesn’t succeed?” It’s something which I find discomfiting and unpleasant. For example, the tiny bit of fear in my heart amidst all the positive vibes before Felicity ’08 were to start. Can get unsettling, I say!
I tag:
Aakanksha, Ankit Garg, Aniket, Bhargava, Gopal, Kulbir, Maruti, Namrata, Pankaj, Prateek, Rama sir, Rohith, Teja
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