TATA CRUCIBLE: A lost hope!!

Every year , i go on a pilgrimage to taj residency in cochin marine drive on usually the second week of march.!! Wierd isn't it..Well that's just me..Being a huge business buff, i am highly complacent about my abilities to win the prestigious tata crucible..This quiz is unlike other quizzes...There is a genuine feeling of ease whenever i try to answer the business related questions...fo e.g - in other quizzes they mat ask the desert in which the good , the bad and the ugly was shot!!! A brilliant question , claps all around if someone answers it right and claps for the quizmaster if anyone doesn't...in the crucible they shoe you the poster of a simple down to earth film like "udaan " and ask you who the production house...the so called "gods of quizzing " may not be able to answer it but the normal film addict would!! thats the beauty of this quiz..its too simple in a lovely way!!! business!!

For the first year , i just went about the quiz like an amateur with my quizmate anand, with no dreams only hope!! It was not a disaster mind you...for first years , we scored a lavish 10 points where the cut off was 13!! a good start ..thats when i realised this was for me!!
how wrong!!
the second year , i prepared for 2 weeks rigorously...seeping up every bit of trivia i could find on business!! They announced the finalists and yet again our names were unsurprisingly missing.

I decided it was time for me to step up , and prepare for the crucible 2011..this time the whole year was spent on writing a diary full of facts that you would crave to get your hands on!! This year Ronnie Raju would be my partner...From november 2010 i started preparing in a hardcore manner!! I had to atleast be in the final this time around!! 4 months of vigorous preparation, ended on march 21 9:00 pm ...when i decided this was enough!! Unfortunately, the next day i found it wasn't...Everything i studied was just rubbish and i had wasted my time on researching these topics...Huge mistakes in the prelims saw us losing out to 2 points in the prelims!!! How sad!!!
i guess that is what they call life!! this is not a positively inspiring post!! , this is just my way of letting out the agony i felt!!!

The uncrowned superstar: Rahul Dravid

First person to catch the ball 200 times ... Not so tough is it!! Try doing this in international cricket and it will take you 15 years.. Third cricketer ever to score 12000+ runs in test cricket.. He has been part of more than 80 century partnerships , a record in itself.. And not an ounce of complacency has creeped into this man whom i personally refer to as the true blue gentleman of the gentleman's game.. In the middle of october, while we were on an industrial visit , me and my friend arun were standing near the visvesarayya museum .. That is when i glanced upon a floodlight stand sprouting from a clutter of trees.. Dragging my reluctant friend along with me , crossing the road at the anil kumble square, i stood before the gates of the chinnaswamy stadium, which many bangaloreans aka software engineers and more software engineers take for granted...

beyond the gates was the "wall" a wall erected in honour of the dravidji that we know of.. The same one who doesn't care whether its shoaib akhthar or brett lee bowling... dragging their spike clad shoes running with the wind and bowling at unimaginable paces , the ball stops its motion with a mere touch of his bat! The bowler, astonished, tries the trick again and again but to no avail!! Commitment consistency and Class, the words imprinted on the wall at chinnaswamy are the words inscribed in our minds when we hear the name dravid.. This man was denied a slot in the Indian world cup team, (which by the way features half the chennai super kings) , yet he did not complain and he did not whine, ..That is the story of a true gentleman!!

The change that is the tamil film industry!

Now that the malayalam film industry's woes can be forgotten for a small amount of time since "traffic " has released, let us take a look at the booming tamil industry....Last year telugu and kannada film industries boasted an overall gross output of 1600 crores into their films....While tamil industry didn't go to that level of money just being wasted for unnecessary purposes(excuse enthiran) , they put their money where their pen was and claimed the most profits in the whole country....The most sensible explanation is that the tamil industry is going through a phase where the yesteryear crew is working even now, the 90's crew also doing great and the newcomer's are creating new never before heard genres....And its not just the actor's , it includes the whole set-the scriptwriter's , the directors, the composers and the art directors....while the malayalam industry is straining under the influence from the likes of prithvi, anoop menon and all, the tamil industry has definite superstars in the making which include arya, jayam ravi, karthi and jai.... Talking about the director's- instead of doing the old age tactics and references that the mallus use, they are thinking ahead and want to take a risk with the audience....Even though the below par films like vettaikaran and others got what it should not have, the audience definitely did not neglect the likes of madrasapattanam , payya and some....Last year saw the further upliftment of the brand -rajni...Even though his acting skills have been consistently put down by the critics , there was a definite enigma to his performance.... director shankar had thought too much and left some glitches behind but still the most expensive film in indian history was a must watch on the list of all ages alike....There is nothing more to say but that the tamil industry will keep booming while the stocks last!! And that will be for a very long time!!!!

The fate of the film industry in india..

First of all let me begin with the bad news...the trend of films being released in india sucks...from super cool robots to under water stunts , from ultimate cgi to brilliant cinematography, yes, the indian film industry has grown as a technical unit and that too tremendously but the talent pool that once captured a versatile amount of emotions in the screen now has to use movie magic because of the incapability of the actors to even consider acting out the simple emotions...About 75% of the actors take a step into the world of cinema due to hereditary advantages ...these advantages are not at all in the genes...its in the green bucks and the power the fathers , mothers and uncles have on the industry....

Let us see the case of the malayalam film industry....hmmm....looks in a pretty bad shape....prithviraj can't act (and that is just the tip of the iceberg), jayasurya acts but its few and far in between , kunchako boban nowadays takes on the role of the second actor in female dominated movies, indrajith does a good job but the audience (read girls) are not convinced....i am not even gonna start about anoop menon , nishant or asif ali....allmost all actresses are average so its not too bad...But the good thing about kerala is that it is a powerhouse of brilliant directors who can do stuff , others can't even think of...kudos to them for keeping this thing afloat...

to be contd..............

The turncoat that is america

holly molly !!! Well well well.... the true colours coming out of the american so called "diplomacy"......This was not much of a surprise....we knew this was going on but nobody thought there would be proof!!!!...wow...that is a lot of development to happen in one day....these low blowing snobs have been onto this for god knows how long...but then its a blessing in disguise....after this every country will think before it signs a deal or an agreement with the us of a.....suspicion is the beginning of down fall......you know.... abdul kalam may have been right....india may well become a superpower by 2020.....we have our diplomatic relations intact if nothing else.....the world has been turned on its head by Mr Julian assange....thank you for showing us the light.....now you know how the universe works......jai hind

Pranchiyettan and the saint

An absolutely absorbing movie from the stables of renjith and crew...all the dialogues are perfectly calculated and delivered...the characters on screen arrive at the right time and the punchlines are funny and long lasting....its worth a watch for a malayali to know about a christian dude with a thrissur accent and how he goes through in his life where he meets the revered St Francis........

There is a light bit of drag in the middle of the film where the film goes through typical vintage malayalam films with the dark background and stuff.....biju menon's cameo is very much appreciable....in general , the cast and crew have worked hard on it and deserve a loud round of applause when you leave the theatre .......@ppu,,,,

inter caste/religion marriages and what indians think about them

The reason for bringing up a not so fashionable topic is because my cousin who is a "hindu" married someone from the "christian" community....the quotes suggest that i don't care about religion being a bias any more than i do about angelina jolie adopting an african kid....but if you utter something of this sort to someone from a healthy, well bred "religiously intact" family, you can see their lips pouting and indicating that they are not pleased....The narrow mindedness of these sort of people shows the lack of common sense....If you think rationally, inter caste marriages are the way to go....not only does it ensure the true meaning of our nation, (sovereignity , secularism) but also enables one to dig deeply into another religion and then find out to your surprise that either ones are exact clones of the other.... Personally, i would be happy if it happened to me....(to the wrath of my mother of course) (and then i would have to find someone with my height range which may prove to be hard).... so i don't really know and am only 20 years old and not an expert in love or marriage or anything related to that....and finally , god bless us everyone....except for ricky ponting(i hate him!)....