I force my mind to think and bark..

Despite the struggle , I fail to think..

Of what would be of me in time to come..

The hopes, the happiness, the drive, that got me along..

The fire, the blaze, the heat, that kept me going on..

Is it still on, is it still alive,  should’nt it be the one to keep me awake..

People come and go, things happen and are done with..

Sometimes we are left with a regret of what should have been done..

And yet, all we do is ponder all along !!

Just posting a few of my pe rsonal favorite posts from my blog itself.

1. I penned this article when I was preparing for CAT. I could not get enough material on recession and its causes etc. So I thought why not do some R & D and write on it. “May not be exhaustive but still worth reading. “. Well thats what people who’ve read have told me.

The How, What, When and Why of Recession !!

2. This one is extremely different from the one above. It is extremely sarcastic. Penned in almost 15 minutes, way back in late 2007 but posted only in 2008, not too much of editing done and straight from the heart of a software engineer.

A Techie Turned Celebrity !!!

3. A short, sweet and nostalgic way to bid goodbye to friends. Took it from my Orkut profile.

GoodBye Speech !!!

All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go.
I’m standing here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say Goodbye

But the dawn is breaking it’s early morn
The taxi’s waiting his blowin’ his horn
Already I’m so lonesome I could die

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you’ll wait for me
Hold me like you’ll never let me go
’cause I’m leaving on a Jet Plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again…

I dedicate this John Denver song to all my college friends ,
without the overwhelming support of you people, these 4 yrs would’nt have
been memorable enough.

Hats off to you friends !!!

You guys made the journey worthwhile !!!

I would always have special memories of the time i spent
in the hostel. A real rocking time with not much pressure
to study .. and fun all the way through!!!!

I thank all my classmates
Narayanan,Naresh,Periyaraja,Ragavendra,Rakesh,Rajesh,RG,
RajasekarS,RamC,Ramya,Hutch,Raja,Ravi,Revanth,Rohini,Sakthi,
Satish,Sathya,Sinduja,Siva,SK,Srinath,Sriram,Srividya,
Subhashini,Suja,Thilak,Thyagu,Uthra,Vasanthi,Vasu,Venkat,
Vikram,Vinu,Vivek,Dileep,Poorni,Siva,Praveen,Saravanan,Ramana,Sai Srikanth for all the So called guidance and support they gave me

and our dear friend Late Rajesh who passed away leaving a vaccum in my heart.

I extend special thanks to Srividya { my mini project mate }
for helping me with the 7th semester mini project.
To tell the truth, i was helping her by staying away
from the whole thing. Never thanked her in person.. what to do ..prestige issue na..she will be jumping around if she reads this !!!

And of course a very special thanks from the bottom of my heart to my final semester project mates Narayanan and Aishvaria for baring my nuisance naughtiness and razor sharp dialogues all the while !!!

Your “Project Leader” salutes you !!!!

Well time and tide wait for no one and its time to
bid adieu to each one of you. Some day when the pages
of my life end, I know you all will be one of its
beautiful chapters and if i ever get to read it
again , i will start from the page where i first
met you people.

Director: William Wyler

Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Eddie Albert

Genre:  Comedy/Drama/Romance

Sometimes, in today’s fast paced world, we tend to miss the beauty intrinsic to the smaller things in life. And at such moments we got to venture into past and take a look at things which we are missing today.

Roman Holiday does just that. The film introduced Audrey Hepburn to American cinema and she enchanted everyone with her role of Princess Anna; a young princess, who is tired of and tied to her royal duties and obligations. She runs away during one official trip to Rome, and along with Joe Bradley ( Gregory Peck ) spends an entire day in Rome doing the simple things in life.

From smoking her ‘first’ cigarette, dancing on a barge on a river, hitting the secret service agents with a guitar, driving a vespa scooter, getting caught by the cops, to getting a hair cut done at a local barber shop, she does everything which is not expected from a princess. A series of such light hearted moments in the film just adds to the magic.

Princess Anna’s subtle royal style of speech in normal mundane life brings in an originality to the character. Despite being her first major role, and first role in Hollywood, Audrey Hepburn gives a performance which is worth celebrating a holiday once an year. The kind of innocence which she portrays as a ‘commoner’ is simply enchanting.

The script of the film relies heavily on the performance of the leading lady but having said that, it was a truly wonderful performance by Gregory Peck as well as Eddie Albert.

My friends often tell that they don’t like watching black and white movies. Well , just give this movie a try and I am sure you can see the color in these films.

I would give this film 8/10. A true classic.

Cast: Abhay Deol, Ayesha Takia

Director: Imtiaz Ali

Genre: Romance/Comedy

I was just browsing thru imdb and Abhay Deol’s name came up. Dev D, Ek Chalis Ki Last Local and Oye Lucky Lucky Oye scraped through. I really loved these movies and I feel Abhay Deol is an actor and not a guy with a star tag   . So I thought why not watch his first movie 

Socha Na Tha was Imtiaz Ali’s first film as director. I had already seen Jab We Met and was expecting the same kind of pulse from Socha Na Tha. But it proved to be different.

Its a story about a happy go lucky..upper class  guy, Viren Oberoi played by Abhay Deol. Viren’s family starts looking for a girl and rounds up on Aditi Malhotra, played by Ayesha Takia. Both of them meet in a typical Indian arrange marriage scenario where a guy goes to meet the girl in her home. They both have similar sentiments against arranged marriages and mutually agree to part different ways. But things change on the family front and there is a family clash similar to the movie Hero No 1. And of course, during the course of the movie the two fall in love with each other and ends with a perfect ending.

What is good about this movie. This film is entertaining. No doubt about that. It has a subtle urban appeal to it. Screenplay and direction are top class but there is a ephemeral sense attached Abhay Deol does a very good job. In a couple of dialogues, I felt as if Dharmendra was inside him. He shows enough maturity for a first timer in this film. Ayesha Takia looks pretty and plays a perfect next door girl and one can simply fall in love with her character .. Aditi.

What is bad about this movie. Music. I think it just takes away the whole essence away from the movie and while watching the movie I felt like, ‘Oh My God.. Another Song’. The continuity of this film breaks with the songs. But songs are an internal part of bollywood movies and rarely film makers make films without songs and its very difficult to see movies in which songs gel with the movie.

There were certain instance where I felt, acting was downright pathetic. One particular instance was when Karen, Viren’s girlfriend finds Viren in her home and demands explanations for his actions. The acting was really substandard here. There was no conviction and it was distinctly visible on screen. I also felt there was a bit too much of make up visible on Viren’s Bhabhi, Karen and on Ayesha Takia as well. It gave me a feeling of Saas Bahu serials where women are usually with just too much of make up. May be the make up was a strategy to attract people from Saas Bahu serials to Cinema Theaters .

Nevertheless.. the movie is quite entertaining but could have been on a league of its own. The film reminded me of DDLJ, but that was another era. A DDLJ type of movie may not really sink with the multiplex audience today, but Socha Na Tha, definitely could have done something. The film promises a lot but fails to deliver the same.

Grab some popcorn and cola and watch this movie on a lazy saturday afternoon.

I will give this film 5/10.

Director: Vishal Bharadwaj

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Amol Gupte

Genre: Action/Drama

I sometimes feel that there is a lack of quality in Indian Cinema. There aren’t many films around which can weave a web around you and transcend you to a parallel world of story telling. However, once in a blue moon, there comes a film which defies barriers and restores faith. Kaminey is one such film.

Kaminey revolves around the story of 2 identical twin brothers Guddu and Charlie, played by Shahid Kapoor. They both have different types of speech impediments which lends to a characteristic feature of the characters. There is a striking contrast between the two bothers as well. One is a Wannabe-bookie for horse races and the other is an NGO activist and they can’t stand each other. The film sketches out a story of a part of their lives.

The film stands out for Shahid Kapoor but Priyanka Chopra takes her piece of pie as well with typical Marathi dialogues and effervescent sincerity. Kaminey also stars Amol Gupte as the bad man and his performance is the film is laudable. He hasn’t been around Bollywood much, apart from his Creative Diretor duties in Taare Zameen Par. The entire cast in the film does a splendid job. There are quite a few new comers and their performance looks spotless to me.

The film has awesome lyrics penned by Gulzar. The cinemaography, editing, screen play, direction and fabulous acting helps Kaminey set a benchmark for forthcoming films.

The film may not be appealing to Non Metro audience and the pop corn eating film junta , but will definitely appeal to people who want to see some freshness in Indian Cinema.

Vishal Bharadwaj is often refered as Quentin Tarantino of Bollywood and you can see the glimpses of QT very well in Kaminey and to an extent in his previous film Omkara. Having said that, I did feel quite a striking resemblance to Guy Ritchie’s film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Nevertheless, Kaminey is a MaFterpieFe ….

I would give this film 8.5/10

What Copenhagen Summit was ??

This was the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) and succeeded COP 14 which took place in Poznan, Poland. The next such conference, ie COP 16 is to be hosted by Mexico.  This particular conference, was extremely important as the road ahead after the year 2012 was to be charted out.

The Goal :

The Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in the year 1997 is scheduled to expire in the year 2012. Thus the overall goal was to establish a global climate agreement from the year 2012.

India’s Role:

India, under the leadership of its Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, proposed to cut carbon emissions by 20-25 % below the 2005 levels by 2020. But it strictly maintained its original stance against a binding verification on emission standards.

Outcome:

The Copenhagen Accord, which was drafted by the countries US, India, China, Brazil and South Africa was not adopted as it was not passed unanimously by the participating countries.

The accord was not legally binding and doesnt contain any legally binding committments for CO2 emissions as well as other green house gases. President Barack Obama as well as Prime Minister Gordon Brown were pretty satisfied with the draft but many other countries as well as several non govt organizations were against it.

The focus of the industrialized countries was more towards the financial aspects surrounding carbon trading, technical knowledge transfer and verification of emission. Infact, the global carbon market was estimated at $118 billion in 2008 and is expected to reach $2 trillion by 2020. Thus, it was felt as if the the self interest of the countries also was in the picture. It is interesting to note that some of the people involved in the Credit Default Swaps , which lead to the global economic slowdown, were also involved in formulation of policies regarding Carbon Trading.

Overall, the summit did not achieve its objective and this resulted in a blame game between the developing and the developed countries. However, it was recognized in the Copenhagen Accord that rise in global temprature should be limited to 2 degree Centigrate.

Why did the Copenhagen Talks fail ??

1. The rise in global temprature was limited to 2 degree C, where as some countries wanted it to be 1.2 degree C.

2. Peak date for carbon emission had to be set. Peak date is the maximum time before which the carbon emission has to fall below 80 % of CO2 emission levels of 2005.

3. Close to 15 percent of CO2 emissions result because of deforestation. The developed countries are to provide finance for green research. The amount was $30 billion for the year 2010-12 and $100 billion by the year 2020. However, the accord fails to explain as to from where this amount of money would come from and how it would be utilized.

4. Some developed countries see certain conditions of the Copenhagen Accord as a successor to Kyoto Protocol, which places huge amount of responsibility on the developed countries. Such countries want each and every country to be accountable and have their own targets and a management and strategy to achieve these targets.

5. China is the world’s largest emittor of CO2, however its per capita emission is only 1/4 of that of the US. It is also interesting to note that, US has done quite a lot of outsourcing for various products. Most of these products are manufactured in China and exported to US. Thus, there is kind of blame game going around.

6. It has been estimated that to conserve the environment, the CO2 emission levels has to cut down by 80% of 2005 emission levels. This can only be done by researching in 17 different types of green technology such as Wind Turbines, Electric Cars, Zero Carbon Buildings, Zero Emission Vehicles, Solar Power etc. However, such intensive research comes with a huge price tag.

Activism and Protests:

A few sporadic incidents of protests also took place in the days leading upto the summit in Copenhagen and in other parts of the world such as London and Melbourne.

Recession is a general slowdown in economic activity over a period of time.

It is interesting to note that Recession is infact Depression at its nascent stages and Recession leads to Depression after a sustained decline in the economic activity.

There is a hint of euphemism associated with the coining of the term Recession which is almost synonymous with the term Depression.

Now it is widely believed that it was the collapse of the Lehman Brothers which lead to a global economy slowdown during the fag end of the last decade. Once Lehman Brothers went backrupt, morgages dried up and the stock markets plummeted.

How come one bank going bankrupt lead to a series of catastrophic consequences ???

Lehman Brothers was established in the year 1850 at Montgomery, Alabama, United States by Henry Lehman. Before declaring bankruptcy, Lehman Brothers had business expansion in varied dimensions of banking such as Investment Banking, Equity and Fixed Income Sales, Research and Trading, Investment Management, Mergers and Acquisitions, Private Equity and Private Banking etc.Richard Fuld was the reigning Chairman and CEO before the bank went bust.

When Fuld took this position in 1994, one share of Lehman Brothers cost $4 and in the year 2007 it cost $82.  The bank’s turnover in 2004 was close to $11.5 billion and in 2007, it almost doubled.

How did the bank make so much of money ???

It was done by investing in some highly lucrative, complex  and yet risky products. Post 9/11, the tax rates were slashed and mortgage terms were regulated. Bush’s vision of ‘Own Homes’ frenzy caught up. People were tempted into lucrative and cheap introductory rates and banks were willing to offer loans to risky clients. There had been a steady increase in property rates in the United States ever since the Second World War but house prices reached extraordinary levels after 9/11 when the interest rates were slashed and in mid 2006, the property rates reached new heights.

Lehman Brothers made a profit of close to $4 billion, in 2008,  primarily due to home ownership and property. There was a sense of belief in the financial markets in the 2007 that nothing could go wrong and people at the helm of affairs were so experienced that any risk undertaken could lead only one way…. UP  !!

This confidence lead Lehman Brothers to borrow more money. It was borrowing $44 to every $1 that it owned whereas for some other banks the ratio was close to 20:1. This activity is termed as Leverage.

Lehman Brothers used this money in the property business and it had invested around $60 billion in property by 2007. When property rates increase, leverage rake in profits, thus they multiplied profits and Lehman Brothers registered a profit of close to $4 billion in 2008.

It also happens to be true that, when property rates decrease, leverage rake in losses, they multiply losses and this is what eventually happened.

A growing number of people, who were initially attracted to the low introductory interest rates failed to keep up with the ever increasing interest rates. Repossession of homes started and the property prices fell. This is termed as the Sub Prime Crises.

Share prices of Lehman Brothers started a downward trend and a week before bankruptcy there was a huge fall in the share prices and it evenually reached 3 cents.

The second largest bank in US, The Bank of America, was expected to steer this large ship out of shallow waters but this did not happen and when The Bank of America got into a strategic partnership deal with Merill Lynch, it was all but over for Lehman Brothers.

The presidential elections were on and US goverment was not interested in giving a bail out to an ailing bank at the cost of taxpayers money.

The inevitable took place and Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on Sept 15, 2008. 

When markets closed, on that day, the Dow Jones had gone down by a little over 500 points. The confidence in the market slumped and a lot of complex global associations which Lehman Brothers was a part of took a beating. Banking operations such as payroll and inventory management at various top companies, which had nothing to do with financial banking, were hit and the repurcussions instigated a downward economic trend across the globe.

Could recession have been avoided ???

Things might have ended up in a different way, had US Govt intervened and instigated a bail out of Lehman Brothers , but it was impossible to foresee such an economic impact. More than the tangible elements, it was the confidence, in markets across the globe, which were hit and eventually lead to the economic slump.

Director: Ken Ghosh

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Genelia D’Souza

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Well Ken Ghosh is back after Ishk Vishk and Fida. I haven’t seen these two films but Shahid Kapoor was there in both of them.

I went for Chance Pe Dance today morning and I felt that the film makers thought of making a movie with Shahid Kapoor and then framed a story around him.

15 minutes into the movie and I could feel what was coming. I started hoping for a Jab We Met experience  wherein I got dead bored in the first 10 minutes , but after the movie, it was bliss

But of late, my wishes are not working

This film is about Sameer Behl played by Shahid Kapoor who is an aspiring actor in Mumbai. The usual struggles of new comers in the film industry  is portrayed  through Sameer Behl. Tina played by Genelia convinces him to take part in a reality show competition. Sameer does… wins it …and becomes a superstar with a hit in his very first film. Ironically, the film in the movie is also titled Chance Pe Dance.  I am sure what happened with Sameer …cannot happen with Shahid . This film is downright boring.

The performances of Shahid, Genelia and other cast is pretty good but the movie just lacks the script to carry it through and I wonder whether they really had any story to start with.

Anyway I guess the film was very poorly edited as well. There was this scene in which Genelia and Shahid race through the Mumbai roads, as Shahid is getting late for the reality show. They race through broad day light but as soon as they reach the designated place it is dark all of a sudden. This I would not say is a cardinal sin but certainly a dark spot.

But there was a huge blunder…….. In the film, Shahid is a dance teacher for a group of kids and amongst the group is a cute but dumb girl….There is a dialogue describing her which goes like “ Only Video Sir.. No Audio !!” Now… as if out of the blue… this girl has a dialogue at the very end of the movie.

The film could have done a little bit justice to itself had the music been better…… An off beat film like Rock On had awesome music to back up a wonderful script. We have already discussed the script but the music was also ..nothing special. When you dont remember the songs.. you can tell whether the music score was good or not.

The film was good in certain aspects.. To start off, the tite was probably very very good. I read in Wikipedia about the alternative titles which were considered like Yahoo and Star. Performances of Shahid and Genelia as well as the other cast is pretty decent. A few dialogues did bring in a few giggles and smiles. The dance sequences are are pretty good and picturised well. I really liked one particular song, in which Genelia and Shahid had larger than life images singing and dancing across the Mumbai skyline. I also felt the film to be a very short one.Perhaps it was heavily edited to make it more palatable

In my humble opinion, this movie is definitely not a must-watch and can be missed. Watch it if you are a die hard Shahid or Genelia fan or are just crazy about dance.

I would give this film 4/10.

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Cast: Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi, Madhavan, Boman Irani, Kareena Kapoor Genre: Comedy

I went to watch this film pretty late when compared to some other avid film watchers. But I went with absolutely no idea about the film apart from the fact that its loosely based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel Five Point Someone‘. After having watched Munnabhai and Lage Raho Munna Bhai, I was expecting 3 Idiots also to convey some kind of social message, and it wasnt a surprise that it did.

The film is eventhough a lot different from the novel but its got to be said that the atleast five characters of the film are etched out from the novel and a few scenes as well.

Eventhough, the movie had elements of comical brilliance, I felt there were several instances wherein I was able to see what was going to happen. The initial pencil scene could’ve been replaced by something innovative. The scene with Joy Lobo committing suicide was another instance where I felt it was expected. May be it was from Five Point Someone but I read it long time back, and I can’t recall whether something like this was there in the book. The third instance was when the character Phunsukh Wangdu came into picture. Chatur Ramalingam keeps on talking about Phunsukh Wangdu for quite some time but later he shows the picture of Wangdu’s assistant to the other 2 idiots (which has Aamir in the background). Now, it was a cakewalk to identify who Phunsukh Wangdu really was….eventhough it is revealed only during the last 10 min of the movie.

The film runs close to 165 minutes and I felt it could have been cut short by atleast 10-15 min. Chatur Ramalingam getting an electric shock in Ladakh was one scene which could have definitely been avoided. May be it was done to isolate him from the 2 idiots in the plot but again it could have been in some other way, instead of repeating the idea all over again. A similar  scene was there in the first 10 minutes of the movie and again having it near the end makes no sense to me. The Vacuum Cleaner scene was again unnecessary and it stretched out the movie a bit.

The cast was awesome with heart warming performances from everyone. But I think it was Boman Irani with his ssss accent who impressed me the most. He is probably one of the finest actors in the Indian Film fraternity right now. Good that he has moved away from being a professional photographer that he once was…

One thing which could have made this film better would have a better music score. The music was below par and disappointed me.

The film already is the highest grossing Bollywood movie of all time and is expected to be officially released on YouTube  as well.

I would give this film 7.5/10.