as I see it

Suddenly, the computer fever is back. Its all back again as during my engineering days. Lot of time being spent with my computer :)

The title of this post is a very disappointing attempt at expanding the acronym NEWS but then I guess it is better than what is being delivered to us in the name of NEWS. As me and a lot many have seen it from their very own eyes, heard it using their very own ears, news items like "Commisioner Sahab ka kutta khoya/mila" or the "Chajje pe billo rani", we very well understand and often ridicule the horrendous use of a medium (TV Channels) to showcase ridicule! Maybe, it makes commercial sense, maybe a large set of people love such items for the entertainment quotient or anything else, but weren't you supposed to be a NEWS Channel, a channel that I assumed will give in important happenings around the world or was it that I made baseless assumptions.
Anyhow, as if the 'Vishesh's and the 'Breaking News's and more such unintentional humor wasn't enough we enter another era. As we all very well know the virus like spreading infection of joining Twitter, especially amongst the celebrities and well-known public figures. No, I have no qualms against this, absolutely not and I myself follow quite a few of them including Shahrukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Pritish Nandy, Gul Panag, Shashi Tharoor, Barkha Dutt, Riteish Deshmukh and some more. Now they are here for whatever reasons, its there business, I can choose to follow them or not.
Now a point here. Undoubtedly the small list of the much larger pool I gave above have huge fan following, love, respect from people on or not on Twitter. Of them, those who actually are on Twitter are likely to follow them so they are expected to have a large following. And as it was, it perhaps is a very big thing (a dream come true for many of us) if a celeb actually replies you and addresses you with your twitter alias in his tweet. It was big even for someone like Barkha Dutt who re tweeted (forwarded) someone else's tweet mentioning that she was the first one whom Shah Rukh Khan himself replied on twitter.
It is Barkha Dutt's personal account, she felt like and she did it. Fair Enough. But there are news channels on Twitter as well including CNN IBN, which I duly respect and liked. A recent update on CNN IBN has the headline "SRK tweets in support of 'unpaid' hockey player".
Now this is just too much, these channels are now following whatever celebrities write on twitter and are making news items out of them. There just doesn't exist any other news or what? Is it the most interesting and most important thing. An opinion by SRK, though well respected, but should it become a NEWS ITEM? And its not for the first time, I remember news items about celebrities joining Twitter, one update after the other.
Even if I try to justify the news story on Shashi Tharoor's 'cattle-class' tweet or the Chetan Bhagat's FPS-3Idiots opinions, which in itself was lame, I don't think I can justify this SRK one. How can you just make news stories out of ANYTHING, EVERYTHING or rather NOTHING!
I just don't understand where we are heading. As if the Kutta Billi stories weren't enough that now a less than 140 character tweet from a celebrity is molded into a full fledged news story. Ridiculous.

I have never written movie reviews on this blog before. In fact, I have never written movie reviews before, but this movie is just brilliant and so I feel compelled to write about it, to try and convince you to watch it, to have a great time and to laugh like never before. Yes, I am talking about 'De Dana Dan'. Have seen many Priyadarshan movies, but this one was amazing. So many characters, so many and all adding to their bit to have made tears flow out of my eyes laughing. Like all other movies, the central theme to this movie is also CONFUSION but its different. It is different in the way it has been executed, scripted, the way one event has been connected to other, the way one character is linked to other. Sheer brilliance.

The first 45 minutes or so are drape, I would now say, setting the foundation for a laughter hurricane, but by the time we enter the second half, you just can't stop but LAUGH and burst out more, LAUGHING. So much so, that you miss many dialogues, amidst the 'surround sound' and echoes of laughter! This movie is based around cash, characterssss and confusion and hats off to everyone for making it the way they have. I remember laughing as much (or less) last in some scenes during Garam Masala.

A movie which has Akshay Kumar, didn't bore you even when Akshay Kumar was locked in a cupboard for appreciable amount of time. In fact, you didn't even realize that he was there. They have made people laugh in  otherwise seemingly very ordinary scenes. Comedy out of nothing! And that was just the start, as I have said before, moving in to the second half, you may just slip out of your chair and actually experience 'LMAO'

I just loved the movie and would not mind watching it again and maybe again and then probably again and then give it the stature of 'Hera Pheri'. I think it deserves a 4/5 (being conservative), provided you leave your brains at home or maybe that is not required. There isn't enough time to try and use your brains, too many funny scenes lined one after the other.

I hope you do go and watch the movie and enjoy it as well. Good Night!

I have attended quite a lot of weddings all over India from Gujrati to Marwari but primarily Punjabi weddings because I myself am a Punjabi. I attended one yesterday as well and I realized how fun-filled and brilliant they are (not that others aren't, but I enjoy these more). There are some very interesting observations, some things you'll only see in a Punjabi Wedding:

* Baarat Reception time will be scheduled at 8:00 PM, but it won't reach before 11PM (this is the earliest).

* Through the entire Baarat procession, friends and family of the groom will be dancing in front of the ghodi throughout (and more often than not, fireworks being demonstrated steps away from the dancing crowd).

* Alongside, the baarat, there will always be few cars, running one after the other, stopping for sometime and then moving along. Whenever they stop, Khul Ja Sim Sim happens, the famous Dikki opens and I don't know why but children are kept away from it :)

* One of the rituals is for the bride's family to greet the groom's family at the entrance itself, and so the bride's family has sweets, gifts, garlands, etc in their hands. But the groom's family and friends will reach right there on the gate, call the dhol wallah and start dancing there. Its evident that the bride's side is getting impatient and are probably tired of holding so much stuff in their hands for long, but NO, the dance has to happen. Same 3 tunes on the dhol in a cycle and the dance continues. Currency notes waved over all dancing, and then tucked in the mouth of one of whom is dancing and then he will do his own sweet steps, take his time, before giving away then note to the dhol wallah. This dancing in itself can take HOURS!

* Once in, a lot of eating and with evolving trends, DJ with loud music, dhinchak lights and smoke! This DJ will play tracks totally different from any DJ in a disc, for obvious reasons of giving what is demanded.

Now here, I would like to draw your attention to one special event that happened in Indian history. This was the release of the movie Singh is Kinng. Songs from this movie hold special soft corners in hearts of everyone present there. The not-so-big dance floor witnesses a sudden rush when a song from this movie is played for 7th or 8th time in the movie. The 7 or 8 times that it has already been played will never see any crowd on the floor, but if you turn around looking here and there 360 degrees you will definitely find one or two people getting excited within and shaking their heads, moving hands or entire body expressing their intent to just jump on the floor.
Now all it takes is one person who would catch one or two other people on the floor when that song is played for the 7th or 8th time. And then what, other already excited people, get super excited and jump over. And as and when the population density on the floor increases, everyone goes out and gets at least 2 more people each to dance thereby flooding the floor.
What follows are totally traditional, otherwise unconventional (ask the experts) but total "fun" steps. These steps may seem funny to them, but you'll definitely enjoy them even if you are just seeing someone else perform them. Now there are so many many many different tracks, but NO, these Singh is Kinng tracks, and some other selected Punjabi tracks which exist since the Big Bang happened and formed the earth will be played often, in fact quite often.
One popular step is, Running away from the floor, getting a cola glass, keeping it on the hand, and slowly dancing your way to the floor again. gish! And you become the center of attraction, rightly so :)
Most of the weddings, still can't do away with dhols so they will have dhols being played alongside and will enjoy both.
Am actually not quite learned to be able to pen down the entire experience in words. You have to be there, see it to understand.

* All through the ceremony, the bride and groom will meet everyone, dressed in so much taam jhaam and full bright yellow mercury lights shining on them and click after click with people after people, stand up, click, smile, meet, sit down before the next set of people come. While the rest of the crowd enjoys eating, treating their stomachs, bride and groom STARVE!

* During the ritual of exchanging var maalah again its mandatory for groom's friends to lift the groom up away from the bride's reach. Another "fun" incident for another fifteen minutes or more.

* Lastly, when most of the people have left, a big table will be set for the families of bride and groom to have food and NOW, everyone will come and keep on feeding the bride groom, one gulaabjamun, while they were having roti, then laddoo while they just tasted daal. All that is possible is fed all together, not even considering that he probably has daal, rice and jalebi in their mouths at the same time!

Phew, long post :)
But I seriously enjoy attending these kinds of weddings. Truly brilliant and totally fun filled!
The one I attended yesterday, I was forced to EAT, EAT and EAT and then since I couldn't eat more, I was taken to dance, dance and dance and then EAT EAT EAT and then DANCE DANCE DANCE (on Jee Karda, Singh is Kinng, Oye Lucky and other few standard age old Punjabi Tracks). My stomach was on the verge of exploding by the end of it if only I would have fallen on my stomach, full blast :)

Much like 'Doosra' in Cricket, here is a workaround to update Twitter and Facebook via SMS (even if you are not an Airtel customer) at standard SMS charges (tested for India). I found it via twitter thorugh @testbot123 on this page.

So, its a simple 4 step process and here we start.

Step 1 - Create a page on Facebook with a suitable name under the "Brand, Product, or Organization" head and select "Website" from the list below it. Create the page and then Publish it.

Step 2 - We now have to Edit Page and look for Mobile option there. We have to Edit settings for Mobile by clicking on the icon as shown.

Now Activate Facebook Mobile but beware that doing so will end any previous link of facebook mobile with your account and you won't be able to update your profile status.

Step 3 - We now have to link this page to Twitter which can be done on this page.

Doing so will make the status message of your facebook page reflect back on your twitter profile.

We are half way through and ready to tweet via SMS. Send in your tweet as an SMS to 92FACEBOOK (9232232665). This will update your fanpage and thus your twitter status. Standard SMS charges apply as it is a 10-digit mobile number.

Step 4 - Now to use the same update even on facebook you have two choices. First choice is to use Twitter Application on Facebook and then use the option "Allow Twitter to update your Facebook status"


The second option is to use Selective Twitter Application which allows you to update Facebook ststus with your Twitter Update only if the latter has the tag "#fb" in it.

Now to get Twitter Updates referenced to you we go for two more steps

Step 1 - You need RSS Feed for tweets addressed to you which is of the form

http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=@<twitterID>

Here Replace with your twitter username. For instance, if your twitter username is random543217654 then the RSS Feed for tweets referenced to you is (remember to prefix ur twitter ID with '@' symbol)

http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=@random543217654

Step 2 - We now use Google SMS Channels and Create a New Private Channel and use the Link above in the RSS Feed option there as shown:




You can choose who all can subscribe to your channel by "Who can subscribe" option.

And we are done, make sure you have set your Phone Number correctly to use Google SMS Channels.

I would like to thank fundubytes once again for sharing this information.