Super-Fly!!

Here's One Helluva Fly! The poor frog had absolutely No Idea!

Saving Private Ryan - The Movie - My Review

As promised earlier while writing the Review for the Book, i watched the movie last night and as far as i'm concerned, it's been a letdown!!
Not that there's anything specifically wrong with the movie, it's just that after reading the book, i had a different set of expectations, which naturally, the movie could not meet.
Actually, i can't fault Spielberg, Hanks or any of the team. Compressing a 300 Page book into a 2 Hour movie is no Joke! To be honest, the movie was brilliantly made. Without losing any of the Grim reality , Spielberg magnificently showed the humane side of of War. Real Good!
But as i relished the book and remembered each bit of the story (i'd just finished the book 2 days ago) i was getting ahead of myself and when a particular scene was missed or replaced by a more cinematic one, the book-lover in me sort of revolted!
Especially the scene (in the book) where, after being given the assignment to find Private Ryan, Captain Miller and his team set off in a Jeep to being the search. It is one of more colourful parts of the story with Sarge driving like crazy thru pot-holed and mine-laid roads for quite a distance, till finally the Jeep is blasted off with the passengers escaping unhurt. This crazy bit was totally left out in the movie. This is just one example. But again, it isn't probably possible to show everything in the short duration.
The ending has also been slightly modified with Corporal Upham's character being shown as a coward. It's way different in the book. But i guess someone had to become a fall-guy so the audiences relate to the grim ending of the flashback in the story.
However, Credit is due to Tom Hanks, one of my Fav stars, who is a natural fit into Captain Miller's character. His entire team's cast has been very well chosen with many names that we would today recognize easily - Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel, Edward Burns and Adam Goldberg.
Matt Damon does a Fab job as Private James Ryan.
The movie has been nominated for 11 and has won 5 Academy awards including Best Director for Steven Spielberg.
Here's what i have to say - If you've not seen the movie, Watch it now! If you've not read the Book, Read it immediately, but don't do both in immediate succession!!!!!

Hilarious - US Return Checklist!!

Here are 22 of the most recognizable quirks of an Indian who's just returned from the US - See if you can identify someone from your circle with some of these!
22. Uses 'Nope' for No and 'Yep' for Yes.
21. Tries to use Credit Card in roadside hotels (will atleast attempt!)

20. Drinks and carries Mineral Water and always speaks of health consciousness
19. Sprays so much Deo that he doesn't need to take a bath!
18. Sneezes and loudly says 'Excuse Me'
17. Says 'Hey' instead of Hi
Says 'Yoghurt' instead of Curd
Says 'Cab' instead of Taxi
Says 'Candy' instead of Chocloate
Says 'Cookie' instead of Biscuit
Says 'Free Way' instead of Highway
Says 'Got to Go' instead of Have to go
Uses 'Oh' instead of Zero (For 704 - Seven oh four - instead of Seven Zero Four)
16. Cribs about Air pollution each time he steps out
15. Says all distances in Miles instead of Kilometres and counts in Millions instead of Lakhs
14. Tries to figure all prices in Dollars
13. Sees the fat % on the cover of a Milk Packet
12. Instead of Zed (Z), will say 'Zee' and will keep repeating it as Zee even if people don't understand!
11. Will complain about Jet Lag even after 2 months!
10. Writes in MM/DD/YY and calls the traditional DD/MM/YY as 'Oh! British Style'
9. Will make a lot of fun about Indian Standard Time and Indian Road conditions
8. Avoids eating Chilli!
7. Tries to drink Diet Coke instead of the normal one
6. Complains about everything India as if he's experiencing it for the first time
5. Produces Schedule as 'Skejule' and Module as 'Mojule'
4. Looks suspiciously towards Dhaba Food!
3. Will not remove the Airline stickers from luggage even 4 months after arrival
2. Takes a trolley on trips in India and tries to roll the bag on our Roads and Platforms!

And The Ultimate Check -
1. Will begin conversations with 'In the USA'!!!!
No harm meant guys :) You make the country more lively!! Cheers
- Thanks to Raji for sharing.

Who would want one of those - 3

Actually, this is not 'one' of those. It is Who would want 'all' of those!
Actual Credit for this article would go to Readers Digest which came in this morning. It carried a Joke about this and when i went online, i couldn't resist putting this article up!!
Check out www.babybushtoys.com
Even considering the namesake, the items sold are ridiculous!!!
Don't believe me? Check this out for an example -

A Rubik's Cube with red on all sides!!! Why? So that the child has the satisfaction of completing the cube! The price , Just $24.99 - A small price for such a fantastic invention right?
Next Up is a Portable playground priced at $48.99 only! The name seems intriguing right? Till you see the sheer ingenuity of the product - It's an empty cardboard box!! Let your child's imagination run wild and use this box in any way they want! Wow!!
Not enough, check this one out then, An Abacus with just One counting bead!! Why? So that your child can never go wrong :) Priced at just 54.99$
However, this one takes the cake - Good Night moon - A book which is destined to make your child's self-esteem soar - How? The book is completely blank - The child will just pretend to read it and feel more and more confident! This one beats Einstein's inventions right? And at just $37.99, it's a steal!!!
But whatever said and done, the site gives us a great laugh!! Thanks guys :)

Of Splogs and Google Bombs!!

As said earlier, the Internet has created a whole new set of terminologies and a huge economy by itself!
With every Good, there come along a big bunch of Bads and bigger bunch of Uglies!
Same with the internet too!!
The Good here is the independence for people to express themselves in a world that's entirely virtual and created entirely by people like them!
After Google came on, the world became a better place (even if some people disagree)
Though not actually 'The Bad', online advertising comes somewhere close to that! But i guess without advertising, the Internet would have been a much smaller and inaccessible place! Still, the offshoots of advertising went bad, with ads dominating the marketplace and everything being changed to accommodate more and more ads! It spurred Millions of bloggers and webmasters to actually redirect their sites towards revenue rather than towards readers.
The Ugly is probably the biggest ruiner in today's Internet experience - Spam! Not just the Email variety, but of the Splog variety! Surprised?? The word 'Splog' was coined in 2003, referring to Spam Blogs. These are blogs created for the sole purpose of redirecting people to sites that earn thru traffic!
The simpleton that the average Internet user is (read ME), he unwillingly and unknowingly becomes part of that ugly world - The world of Piracy, the world of Free Toolbars, the world of Free 3D wallpapers and of god knows what else! Nah! We're actually going away from the topic here!
The topic still is Advertising. As Google is the Key thing in Revenue earning, A Top slot on Google search rankings ensures that you're site will get Top traffic and Quality traffic too! So, here come Google Bombs! These are artificial key words, which bring up totally different searc results! This term was coined in 2001, with a search string 'more evil than satan himself' throwing up Microsoft as the top search result!!
Try out Google for 'French Military Victories' and the top result will be an 'Albino Black Sheep' which will say 'No results found', try 'French Military Defeats'!! Is that a Gag or what!
Here's more info from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb
Got any other interesting phrases?

Saving Private Ryan (The Book) - My Review

Since the day Warner brothers started making movies, it was obvious that movie makers would turn to books to fuel their appetite for stories!
In the beginning, i guess the writer had more say in the making of the film. As time went on, Screenplay took over and finally the day has arrived when books are being written based on screenplays!!
Rarely does a writer command as much respect as the film maker, unless the name's J K Rowling!
Now, Since Speilberg made Saving Private Ryan, i've been wanting to read the book. Till date, i've not seen the movie as it doesn't make sense to see first and read later. I did that mistake with Jurassic Park and did not enjoy the reading part at all!!
Finally, i caught hold of a tattered paperback in our local library and finished it yesterday. Seriously, WOW! Normal war time stories (of which i've read a horde) take you through the first hand experience of Wars and it's Battles! Now, this one's different. Obviously more of us have seen the movie than read the book, so you know the story - A Rag-Tag unit during the second world war is assigned a unique mission - to get into the heartland of battle and to bring out Private Ryan due to a PR decision at the Pentagon. The story weaves a beautiful emotion!
Seriously, the only reason i've been wanting to read this book is that Speilberg bought out rights and made this movie. And Tom Hanks starred in it!
And is it worth it! Undoubtedly one of the best Human stories i've ever read (along with 'How Starbucks saved my life' and 'Black like me')
Characters like Captain John Miller Corporal Wade and Private Jackson linger on long after you finished the last page.
You know what, even if you've seen the movie, you must read this one! And if you haven't seen the movie, you MUST read this one!
This 317 page book is published by Penguin and the font is very comfortable to read (unlike the regular war time books which have a sadistically small font).
I've got the DVD and will watch the film now. Keep you posted :)

Thousand Hand Bodhisattva

I've seen this video for the first time maybe 2 yrs ago! Since then, it's been on my Orkut list of favourites. Just watched it again now and thought i should post it here so we can all enjoy it together!

Thousand-hand Bodhisattva
The performance of Thousand-hand Bodhisattva dance performed by 21 hearing impaired girls and boys at the 2005 CCTV Spring Festival Gala caused a nationwide sensation.

The entire audience was thrilled by the synchronized movements dancers, who performed with exquisite grace and precision, even though they couldn't hear the music.
And this was choreographed by an Army General!! Wow!

You must watch it right now!! And watch it till the end! What other testimonial can we give their phenomenal talent?? More info from Wikipedia here
Just click on play, sit back and enjoy!!