Low Cost Airline - Ultimate Video Parody!!

This one's too good!! I've been enjoying the MAD TV videos for a long long time, but this video certainly takes the cake!!
With low-cost airlines becoming more and more popular, there's no surprise if this day comes soon!!!
Take a look :)

Honest Monkey!

The latest 'In' thing in advertising is probably the use of animals!!
How can you forget the cute lil Pug which is the star of Hutch and Vodafone advertising in India?
(Here's my earlier post about that campaign)
You must have seen the latest Visa Ads, featuring a monkey in the jungles of Africa and Borneo.
Here's one that hasn't hit the tube yet. Damn Cool!!
Thanks to Chaitanya for Sharing.

How Men Cry!

Awesome Ad :)
Thanks for Ranjna for sharing. How True!!!

This one's Fantastic!!!

This easily is one of the most awesome ads i've seen in a long long while!!! Only yesterday, i was watching the Hindi Block Buster Film 'Tara Rum Pum' and the Hero's car (he's a racer) is a Chevrolet Aveo! Wow i thought. When the car launched, i had taken a test ride and the power of the car is amazing!
Now, when i saw this video of the Transformer-type car which dances, i couldn't stop laughing!
The New Aveo has some Rad features! You can check out the website (Chevrolet Europe)
Or better still, take a test drive and find out for yourself!
The advertising (as in this video) talks about 'Get Real', which is so true!!! Most of the Ads today talk about features away from the car's main purpose.
Aveo Doesn't!
Watch the video again guys!! You deserve it :)

The 3 Mistakes of my Life - My Review

Before i talk about the book, there's something i did not like. In an interview, Chetan Bhagat (The author) wrote about this being the most important book he's written and even said that this book will bring back the reading habit of Indians.
High Hopes!!!!
Mr Bhagat, just because Indians are crazy about Religion and Cricket, your book't won't sell. In fact, the super image i had on Bhagat got slightly tarnished - not only with this book - but because of blatant promotion.
Now, not everything is so bad.
The book holds a lot of promise.
It is the story of 3 friends (again!) who are (once again) entwined in a series of dark circumstances.

Let's start with the pros of the book

For the first time in his 3 books, Bhagat has ventured out of the realm of the young. i.e. though the protagonists are youngsters, the story deals with a very mature subject (Not that, you evil minds!!)
Govind, Ish and Omi are friends from a little colony in Ahmedabad. Their passions are Money, Cricket and Religion respectively. How they try to get there forms the crux of the story.
There are several heart-warming parts of the book as well - The Iqbal-esque cricketer Ali, his dad, Mamaji's Samosas, the love between Govind and Vidya (Including a ........).
But the Cons outnumber these by far!!
One thing i liked about 'One night at the call centre' (You can read my review Here) is the way Bhagat started the story - about being approached by one person who formed part of the actual story and being asked to write a book about it. However, he tried doing the same in this book too - in a more melodramatic fashion - He starts off with receiving an E-Mail from some boy (Govind in this case) who has just committed suicide and wanted to tell someone about his dying. Somehow, he chose Bhagat! Bhagat apparently rushes to Ahmedabad and saves the boy from dying. Then he proceeds to ask for his story. Not too believable right? There's more!
These 3 chaps along with Ali (The cricket kid) manage to slip into the Australian Dressing room during an India-Australia match at Goa and manage to convince an Australian player (who also owns his Cricket Academy in Aus) to check out Ali! The player not only agrees, but is duly impressed and also offers free tickets to all 4 of them to fly to Australia so the kid can get proper training in his academy!!! It doesn't end here - Ali impresses the Cricket Australia officials enough for them to offer him (and his 3 guardians) residential permits in Australia!! However, the kid declines saying he wants to play only for India!!(Politically so correct :))
What Bhagat Could not manage to do is seamlessly entwine all the 3 topics - Business, Cricket and Religion.
Finally, the climax is a big let down - Though he weaved the story around issues of the time - Gujarat Earthquake, Ayodhya Struggle and Godhra Massacre, the end is way to Bollywoodish!
Probably he wrote the story as a screenplay for a film (as his earlier book has already been made into one)
Still, Bhagat is one of India's promising young writers. I look forward to his next book, which undoubtedly will dwell with a youthful story again, and will be a major hit.
One good word about the publishers - Rupa, who published all 3 of Bhagat's books are to be lauded for keeping the cover price at the same level, even after Bhagat's previous books have been bestsellers! The book is priced at just 95/-! Hope Rupa gets to publish lots of books, sell lots of books (keep the price the same!) and make a lot of money!!

The Geographer's Library - The remaining part of the Review!

Last week, i wrote an interim review of this book. That's here
Now that i've finished reading the book, i can finish writing the review too!
Firstly, the book did not really live up to the hype. That's the only real bad part of the book
However, there are a good many goods too. The twists get bigger and wilder! The intricacies become complicated and more complicated!
Still, the book is a thrilling read. Especially that it's a first time author, you can't help but appreciate him more.


The beauty of this book is that it's part-truth and part-fiction. The parts of truth can be easily researched using Wikipedia. The Geographer in question is Al-Idrisi. Try looking him up on Wikipedia. Other than being a Geographer, he was also an Alchemist of repute.
It is this Alchemy that this book focuses on. As i said in the earlier review, the book alternates between present and past. In the past, it talks about the gathering of various relics - all of which are also documented in real life!
Now, this can be considered Fasman's greatest achievement. Merging fact with fiction seamlessly!
You never know when you're in the realm of fantasy and when you slip into history!
I'm trying my best not to give out details of the story and the plot, but i can't help but tell you that Puhapaev was probably much older than he seemed in the story! To find out more, you must read the book!!
If you liked 'The Da Vinci Code' and other books in the genre of history/suspense, you'll like this one too.
One word of caution - If you plan to skim thru the book, you might miss a few important pointers! This one is a hard read!! So, put some time out for this one and enjoy it.
Cheers Jon.

One Night @ The Call Centre - My Review

Sometimes, i can be the most obnoxious of people!
I did not like the title (thinking this is some sort of Harold Robbins-esque book) and hence did not read it till date!
However, Bhagat's 1st Book - Five Point Someone - was nice! Though i read that book after finishing college, it still connected. It was sort of like the 'Happy Days' Movie that recently became a block buster in Telugu.
Now, the blurb was what got me to read the book (along with the price - just 95/-)
When it said 'The call was from God', i just bought the book and i regret not having read it earlier!!
Chetan Bhagat has the most wonderful way of writing. The same held true for his earlier book and for his latest book too (I bought 3 mistakes of my life too and read it. That review will come up later) his style of writing holds you and doesn't let go.
Starting from the Prologue right to the Epilogue, he doesn't lose track of the story even for one sentence! And that's real rare!
One night... is the story of 6 friends working together at Connexions Call center in Gurgaon. The story begins by taking us into the lives of Shyam, Vroom, Priyanka, Esha, Radhika and Military Uncle. The whole book (as the title suggests) is just one night.
One night where many many things happen! One night when their darkest secrets come tumbling out, one night when they get even with their boss, one night when they get drunk and one night when they receive a call from God!
It might sound corny - a call from God - but when you're into the story, it's utterly believable!! That's Bhagat's greatest advantage!
The last phase of the book (starting from God's call) takes us into a retrospective mood - sorta like the Alchemist - and am sure it'll hot bull's eye with a majority of youngsters in India. They'll identify themselves pretty close with one of the characters in the book. (Else, they'll atleast identify with God!!)
I won't spoil the suspense by telling you about the plot here, but if you've come to this blog, it means you trust what i say and it means you're going to read this book!
Let me know what you feel once you're done with the book. I'll add it as a postscript to this one.

The Geographer's Library - My interim review

Usually, I write reviews once i'm done with a book. However, last time i had this brainwave. This was during the Prisoner of Birth. You will find that review also on my blog. The book started pretty well, but lost steam and somehow got around and around before the expected ending came up.
So, this time when i picked up 'The Geographer's Library', i thought i'll write a review around half-way. The book is 546 pages thick and i'm on page 166. Not halfway actually, but still......
Jon Fasman is a young writer. He's just 33 and this is his first book. The intriguing title and the interesting paper-cover made me pick this up.
The story has been described on the blurb as 'A sophisticated thriller' and 'Marries the immediacy of 'The Da Vinci Code' with the rigour of 'The rule of Four''
Now, the book started innocently with Paul Tomm, a reported for a small county weekly paper and his fine boss. An old professor dies and the story begins.
The story is what one would call a 'Wraparound'. Which is to say that this one's a story around a story. The inner story (which actually is the 'Geographer's library') is of a real character - Al-Idrisi who was one of the world's foremost Cartographers and collectors and lived in the middle east during the middle ages.
The chapters weave in and out of either story. Till now, it's pretty interesting. Fasman introduced us to 3 objects till now, which are relics of a bygone era- related to Al-Idrisi in some way, which have got stolen.
An interesting situation has come up in the life of Tomm where he just met Hannah, the neighbour of the dead professor Jaan Pupahaev.
The book hasn't let me down anyplace. It's an intelligent person's read with enough twists and turns to make you dizzy.
I'll complete this once i finish the book.

My current obsession!

I just placed an order for the O2 Cocoon.
It's been ruining my sleep for the last week.
Finally, temptation won and it's on the way! You're sure to get hooked too - Check out the info here.

http://cocoon.o2.co.uk/

You can check out the Video Preview here

Lingo Kid- The Teenage years

This is too good!! This kid is a genius!

Who would want one of those - 3

Here's one truly crazy invention!!
An Electronic Rechargeable Cigarette!!
Here's what the company has to say about it's invention

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We're now all fortunate enough to live in a more or less smoke-free environment, but that doesn't necessarily mean everyone has managed to kick the weed. Well now thanks to some 21st century gadgetry, you can smoke without smoking. Mad as it sounds, someone has invented an electronic cigarette. It looks like a cigarette, it tastes like a cigarette, it smokes like a cigarette, but it isn't a cigarette, it contains no tobacco, and the "smoke" is just vapour. Containing state of the art micro-electronic technology this re-chargeable e-cigarette produces a real smoking experience without any of the deeply unpleasant side-effects of tobacco. As you inhale a tiny battery vapourises liquid inside the cigarette producing smoke. You can insert cartridges (it comes with a set of them) that will release nicotine - or of course choose to skip the nicotine altogether and just puff away on what is virtually nothing. Of course people may come finger-wagging at you telling to put it out (it looks that real), but there's nothing to put out. It's incredibly clever, and if you're bored of being unable to smoke anywhere then this little stroke of genius will be a godsend. It comes with a spare battery and a charger, and a full charge will last you for ages. No flame, no tobacco, no carcinogens, and unaffected by the smoking ban, this glowing "smoking" e-cigarette is considerably better for you than hacking away over the tobacco filled alternative, and will save you a fortune in the long run. A simply brilliant invention for those still slaves to the weed - and rather fun too.

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And at 49.95$, this one's supposed to be a steal :)

Horrifying stuff!!!

I still remember.
One of the very first movie conversations we've had back when we were kids was about the Exorcist challenge. I still don't know how true it is, but it was said that if you'd watch the movie alone in a theater, you'd be rewarded big!
I did not watch!
However, the conversation set off an ongoing fascination with horror movies! I guess the genre is a fascination with most of us!
It's like the old adage - Can't live with, Can't live without!!
Unlike many other, horror is an evergreen genre too!! From the days of Hitchcock, they've continuously been terrifying people!
Now, most of the Horror movies have a horror themselves - and that is the censor board!
The director's vision is shredded into pieces by the censor and the movie which finally hits the screens isn't even close to being as terrifying as what the director actually envisaged!
So, it was a pleasant surprise when i saw this poster of 'Frontier(s)' which proudly advertised that the movie is being released ' Uncut and Unrated ' !!!
That's real terrifying!! However, the movie is only hitting select screens worldwide on May 9th. So, if it's not coming close to you, don't worry! The DVD is out on 13th May! That too uncut and unrated!
Enough of the tease - You can watch the Trailer
I've looked this up and it's true - Very rarely does a movie come to theaters uncut and unrated! The Censor seldom lets a film get past. The fact that this one's doing so talks volumes about the team behind the movie.
I'm certainly gonna watch this one!
Here's more info about Frontier(s)

What i amPacking???

Izea came up with this fantastic idea to share what gear are we packing to get the job done!
Cheers :)
Here's what i use to get along

A HP Pavilion 6000 Desktop with inbuilt 1.3 Webcam, All-in-one Card reader
An IBM Thinkpad Laptop
Wi-Fi Modem with Broadband
Nokia Smartphone with 1GB
Sony Cybershot 7.1 MP
Sony SR45 Handycam with 30GB Internal Memory
Philips Noise Cancelling Stereo headset
And a all-purpose battery charger!

Now that i've written about it, it seems like quite a bit right? But i guess there are Biggies who use much more power to deliver better stuff!