CST takes a break

People waiting for their trains in Mumbai CST were in for a surprise on Sunday when the announcement system of the station started playing the title track of the movie 'Rang de Basanti' instead of the routine drone of the arrival and departure of trains. As if the music was not enough, a group of people started dancing enthusiastically to the tune in full synchronization. Random people on the station kept on adding to the group, and they were almost two hundred in number in the end.

And thus Mumbai witnessed its first flash mob- a phenomenon pretty popular in the West. According to Wikipedia, "A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an ununsual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse..." It all started in 2003 in New York, and the concept has been lapped up by enthusiasts in various corners of the world. One can find several videos of flashmobs on youtube.

Here's the video of Mumbai's first flashmob. Kudos to Shonan Kothari who made it possible, along with the multitude of dancers. I am sure it's the first of many more to come. Enjoy!

P.S. I had seen a video of a flashmob in Ahmedabad many days back. I searched for it on youtube and found the link. Here it is:

Team Anna to protest, again

Team Anna is at it again. They have got the nod from the local civic body to stage protest in Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi from Dec 27 onwards, if a strong Lokpal bill is not passed by the Parliament in the winter session.
(Read the news here)

I don't know about the popular sentiment but I have kind of grown tired of these continuous agitations and protests, which seem to be falling flat completely. Also, Team Anna members including Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal have done a lot of harm to their images recently with their actions. Their involvement in the Hisar by-poll elections was a disaster to their brand, and then Kiran Bedi's tryst with money related to her NGO. And, finally, Anna Hazare coming up with a witty one-liner after Sharad Pawar's Slapgate, and then backtracking completely and saying that he had said something else, even though everybody knew the truth.

Also, Team Anna has to learn that compromises are a part of democracy. You cannot have everything your way. You got to give away a little to gain a lot in the end.

Anyway, let's hope that whatever happens our country comes out as the winner in the end.

Thank You!

It's Thanksgiving Day and I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

According to a website, "Thanksgiving Day is traditionally a day for families and friends to get together for a special meal. The meal often includes a turkey, stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, pumpkin pie, and vegetables. Thanksgiving Day is a time for many people to give thanks for what they have." 
(Read the full article here.) 

It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in USA every year. With time it has found favours in other countries also, and is not celebrated in USA and Canada alone. Each country celebrates it with its own flavours and traditions. Read how various countries celebrate Thanksgiving day here.

Overall I find the concept of Thanksgiving Day very nice, and it would be nice if families in India too start celebrating this day. Western influences are nice if they lead to a better society. What do you think?

By the way, if I had to thank someone it would be my family (including all my cousins) for being my pillars through thick and thin, and believing in me when I didn't believe in me myself.

Cola Very ;)

It's a viral with more than a million hits already. It's Rajanikanth's son-in-law on the microphone. It's a promotional video for his next movie being made by his wife.

And I am in love with this song! It's very catchy, and very easy to the ears. As a bonus, the video has the very beautiful Shruti Hassan in it :)

For those who don't know, 'kolaveri' means 'mental torture'. Enjoy the video!

By the way, what is a soup song!?

Impossible is Nothing

"Impossible is Nothing" is Adidas' catch phrase which it frequently uses in its advertisements, and it seems the management of Adidas firmly believes in it.

Adidas, according to news reports, is going to launch 1$ shoes in India, which it will sell in the rural circuit. Surprisingly, Adidas did a similar experiment in Bangladesh last year but failed to execute it successfully. I wonder how they will sell shoes at a dollar a pair and yet make a profit out of it! Respect to Adidas for even giving it a try.

Read the full report here.

By the way, I was going through stuff on Adidas and I came across a few interesting facts. Here I will point down three of the most interesting ones:
1. Adidas is a German company. (Which means Germans are not only the kings in car manufacturing, they are the rulers in sports manufacturing too!)
2. Adidas owns Reebok sportswear company.
3. Adidas and Puma were founded by brothers, and they are the biggest rivals of each other. The brothers split to form their separate companies after a misunderstanding occurred between them during the Second World War.

How Kingfisher can make money

A certain flight travelling from Amritsar to Birmingham, carring many Indian tourists in it, halted midway in Vienna and asked its passengers to cough up a large amount of money as the airline could not afford to pay for the journey's second half. This is not fake news- it's real!! Read the full report here.

Some of the lossmaking Indian airline services can take a cue from this. It's common knowledge that  Kingfisher, Jet Airways and Air India have been making huge losses. It's time they tried this trick in their domestic flights, and they will see how their balance sheets will take an about turn.

Gem of a Phone!

Nokia has released a video of a concept phone- and it's amazing! And the pace at which technology is breaking new grounds, who knows we might even have such a handset in our hands in a few years. Here's the video:

P.S. : Another piece of good news for phone freaks in India. There are news reports that Apple is going to sell refurbished iPhone 4 at a price of just Rs 22,500 (around Rs 10,000 less than a brand new iPhone 4). Refurbished handsets are those that are sent back to Apple for repair work. They are then serviced fully and then repackaged for selling, and are almost as good as new. These refurbished phones would come with full 1 year warranty by Apple. Read the report here.

Beautiful Mother, Beautiful Daughter

Aishwarya Rai's beauty has been a talking point the world over for the past decade or so. Today I saw a photo of Aishwarya when she was a cute, little girl. In the photo we also get to see her mother- and, God, isn't she gorgeous! We now know who Aishwarya inherited her beauty from. You really got to see the photo- see it here. 

Baby B

So Abhishek and Aishwarya were blessed with a beautiful baby girl today (you are not an Indian if you don't know it by now). God bless her. Well, come to think of it, she is blessed already with the Bachchan tag as her last name. She has a royal life ahead of her. Let's hope she takes after Aishwarya Rai's exquisite looks and Abhishek's.....well, there's not much to take after there apart from the last name.

P.S. Considering the day and month of the delivery of the baby, it seems that Aishwarya and Abhishek had a pretty rocking Valentine's day this year ;)

Zaraa Dil ko Thaam Lo

The first song of Don 2 is out, and has a very retro feel to it. I quite like the song, and am eagerly awaiting the release of this movie. SRK is looking dynamic in the promos, and seems to be in his elements after a looooong time. Plus, he has always reserved his best for the negative roles (Darr, Baazigar, Don).

Have a look:

P.S. : I still get nightmares after watching a late night show of Ra.One, and I seriously hope that Don 2 will wash away all those bad memories.

Nuclear Physics made easy

Sometimes you read something on the internet and you just can't stop yourself from saying WTF!
Here I am talking about a particular news item, glaringly posted on the main page of Times of India. I read it and I just couldn't stop laughing. The title of the news item goes : "Salman Khan studying nuclear physics".
I mean, really, come on! Salman Khan and nuclear physics!!!
I still can't stop laughing. If you want to have good laugh, read the full article here.

Ganga behti ho kyon...

A few days ago legendary singer Dr Bhupen Hazarika passed away. I have only heard two of his songs 'Dil Hoom Hoom Kare' and 'Ganga behti ho kyon', and love them both.

I find the 'Ganga behti ho kyon' song exceptional. The tune and the lyrics are stimulating, and Bhupen Hazarika's powerful voice adds to the magic. Here's the song, which I found on youtube:

Word from Image: Fun, Creative

I came across this wonderful video on youtube and couldn't resist sharing it. As the description of the video reads, the challenge was to "create an image out of a word, using only the letters in the word itself". It's very creative and fun to watch. A big thumbs up to the maker!

Prison Breaks Deferred

In another interesting piece of news, Lindsay Lohan has been sent to prison for 30 days (read here).

Her jailmates must be thanking their stars. All the prisoners who might have planned heroic prison breaks during this period must have deferred their plans by 30 days.

Many of them would have started practising their pick up lines already. With her apparently low benchmarks (she was seen with Vikram Chatwal a few months back), clearly, everyone is in with a good chance.

Match Fixing Reloaded

Yesterday Salman Butt and Mohammed Asif were found guilty of spot-fixing and today Harsha Bhogle said in an interview that match fixing does happen in cricket. Probably Harsha Bhogle was splurging on a vacation in Mars when Hansie Cronje first came out with the revalation that match fixing is a reality in cricket.
Or may be it's just a promotional tactic for his yet unannounced tell-all book on scandals in the gentleman's game.

Talking of books, BCCI ex-secretary Jayawant Lele has come out with a book on cricket in which- in his own words- "there are interesting or mafia-type things" (read here). Is Ram Gopal Verma listening?

And here we G-O!

There is only one reason why I have started to blog- I love to write. I write poems, I write letters to newspapers- most of which don't get published, I write essays which no one cares to read. But I still keep on writing. I write because I love to, and I don't expect anyone else to give my work the same kind of affection. But like any other human being, I too crave for compliments, which in my case are very rare.

This being my first post I would like to lay down a few things about myself, and about how I see this blog shaping up. The first thing that one might notice about me- my lust for knowledge. I love to read a lot, and I like to keep myself aware of all that is happening around me. Internet- being a vast pool of interesting articles- is my favourite hangout, and one can expect a lot of posts on unusual and interesting links that I may come across on the Internet.

From Anna Hazaare to Anna Kournikova, from Ra.One to F1- this blog is going to be my mouthpiece on all that I find worth commenting on. So join me on this joyride, and *please* do leave your comments. Your comments are going to be my most prized possessions.

Enough of blabbering for now. We shall meet soon.

Ciao!