Shilpa Shetty wins Big Brother

Shilpa Shetty finally won the controversial reality show Big Brother. In a related story, a drunk bicyclist rammed into a telephone pole on Daman road. Yawn.

Black Friday

Black Friday - the much acclaimed film on the Mumbai bomb blasts is finally set to release in India. Although pirated copies are freely available on the Net, I was waiting to get my hands on a proper copy of the film. Better still, I'll be able to watch it in cinemas. Finally a break from the Karan Johars and the Nikhil Advanis.

Since much has been said and written about the film, I'd rather talk about one of the songs in the album. The songs have been performed by Indian Ocean. The song I'm talking about is called Bandeh. Here are some extracts from the song which are my favourite.

...are neendein hai jakhmi
are sapne hai bhooke...

are mandir ye chup hai are masjid ye gumsum
ibadat thak padegi ho...

...kise kafir kahega kise kayar kahega
teri kab tak chalegi ho

Full lyrics of the song are available here.

The son of the Nithari serial killings accused Moninder Singh Pandher has termed the attack on his father as a human rights abuse. Talk about f***ing irony.

Three types of deja vu

As I was traveling to Mumbai for the FMS entrance exam, I saw a slaughter house in the way. I was trying to find out the synonyms for the same and the word abattoir crossed my mind. Then I started wondering what how many people might know the word if it came in that day's exam.

While writing the exam, I was really surprised to find a straight-forward question about the meaning of the word abattoir. Now this may not be exactly deja vu, but there have been many, many instances where I have felt that I have seen a certain scene before or I have already lived through certain sequences of events sometime. I can clearly recall what the other person will say or do. After a few seconds the whole experience disappears. I've tried to find out the cause of this amazing phenomenon. A few answers I found on the net and in books include:-

1. It is a kind of wish-fulfillment. The brain wants to repeat a past event with more satisfactory conclusions.
2. Another theory states that a certain image, sound or a scene evokes a past scene from the memory which had a similar setting and thus the brain mistakes it for the past.
3. Deja vu has also been associated with temporal-lobe epilepsy.
4. But my favourite explanation is the one which says that there is a slight delay between perception and cognition in the brain. Sometimes what you see and feel gets detoured in the brain before you have a chance to interpret it. This experience is stored in the memory. The delay causes the brain to think that the event happened in the past when actually it has been stored just a few moments ago. Interesting. However this informative article criticizes the generalization of deja vu and divided it into three parts - deja vecu, deja senti and deja visite.
   

I'm a Simpsons character!

I've always loved the Simpsons show and after seeing this excellent caricature by Chris Wahl, I was inspired to create one for myself.

How would I look if I were to act in the Simpsons? So I dressed myself up in my favourite apparel - a white t-shirt and jeans. And this is what came out of a night's hard work. Still there are many improvements to be made. It still doesn't look much like me. But I'm working on it. Please leave a comment through my email to tell me how it is.

Gurubhai gurubhai avya che

Saw this movie yesterday and found it to be quite interesting. I surely don't have to spell out on whose life this movie is based. One just has to watch it to realize it. Visually the film is a technical masterpiece. It starts out in Black & White, moves on to Eastman colour, and then ends in the vibrant range we see in today's movies. This itself depicts the journey of the protagonist from his teens to his middle age.

Rather than talk about the story, I'd prefer to describe the performances of the various actors. Firstly the chemistry between Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai is excellent, especially in some of the scenes. Abhishek seems to have put all his energy into this movie and that is clearly evident in parts where he clearly shines over other actors.

On the downside though, there were a few songs which could have been removed. They just jar the continuity of the film and I was almost waiting for them to end so that we could get on with the story. Don't know what Vidya Balan was doing in the film. Her story seems completely out of sync with the film. Both R. Madhavan and Mithun Chakraborty play their roles genuinely though it seemed to me that their roles were cut off abruptly. But there's only so much you can put in about three hours.

The high point of the film is its climax, and Abhishek clearly shows the intensity that Amitabh Bachchan used to bring out in his films. Maniratnam has shown the technical finesse that is expected of him especially the last couple of his films didn't do well.

All in all, a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable film. And a hummable background score too... Gurubhai gurubhai avya che, dhoom dhadaka thaila che.

PS. Here are some interesting reads on Dhirubhai Ambani - Indian Legends, The two faces of Dhirubhai Ambani. Also thhe book 'Business Maharajas' by Gita Piramal gives a very detailed account of his rise in the Indian business scenario.

Crazy kyun kiya re

Is it just me or does Bollywood come out every year with a song that manages to grate my nerves and at the same time go on to become a huge hit? Maybe its time for me to adjust my musical tastes. Last year it was Aashiq banaya aapne by the now-lost-in-the-shadows Himesh Reshammiya. And this year, it is Crazy Kiya Re from Dhoom 2. The whole song is filled with nothing but these very words repeated mindlessly. This song literally drives me crazy. I'm scared to even find out who the singer is.

Thanks to my music-loving(?) neighbour, I have to listen to this song every other day. Well, to each his own. But unlike last year, all my exams are over and done with. So instead of plugging up my ears with cotton, I put on Limp Bizkit at full blast and that is enough to drown out the wails. Until that time when my neighbour gets more sense or I get a more sensible neighbour, let me just enjoy the music that I like.

Five tips to get the best out of your broadband connection

Many ISPs have 'freakingly frustrating' schemes where the happy hours (free downloads) are in the dead of the night. You have two choices - either you can stay up all night to download your favourite stuff and go to work looking like a zombie or you can teach your computer to do all the work for you. Here are a few tips which will help you schedule your downloads in the night and let you catch up on much required sleep:-

1) Setting your DSL router in Bridge mode - If you have an DSL line, your router can be configured as 'always on' or in 'bridge mode'. Putting your DSL router in bridge mode lets you use the broadband connection as a dial-up one. This means you do not have to keep it logged on always and thus save whatever little bandwidth you can by those random pings and background processes. an optional step. Also since using bridge mode, you connect only when you want to, thus safeguarding your computer from outside access. Bridge mode or no bridge mode, you should always use a personal firewall to protect your computer. To setup your DSL modem to bridge mode, first follow this and then create a new PPPoE connection (Here's a tutorial to turn it back to auto-dial). To schedule this new connection to be dialed automatically, see this tutorial in conjunction with the Task Scheduler tutorial given below.

2) Rapidshare and other file uploading sites - If you use Rapidshare or other file uploading services and if you do not have a premium account, it can be really frustrating to deal with the file download restrictions. There is a solution. Sites such as Ibiet & Rapidcat convert the free links to premium links thus letting you download more than one file at a time. This is made possible by the premium accounts donated by users. Paste the free Rapidshare link in the textbox and get the premium link. Copy the premium link in your favourite download manager and schedule it (tutorial given below) to run during the happy hours. One problem is that there are thousands of users using these sites. So the accounts which are donated run out of bandwidth quickly. Keep checking the site regularly. If you're lucky, you'll catch the site when it still has a few accounts active.

2) Download streaming videos - If you prefer to watch videos after downloading them rather then watch them on sites such as YouTube or Google Video, you can download these videos all at a time. If you use the Firefox browser, download the DownloadHelper extension which will provide you with the download link for the video. For those not using Firefox, try this YouTube downloader. Just paste the URL of the video which you're watching and it will provide the download link. Copy this download link in your download manager and schedule it.

3) Use bittorrent - I could rave and rave about bittorrent but let me just provide this link for a quick tutorial of how bittorrent works. Some bittorent clients have a scheduler built-in using which you can restrict your downloads/uploads only during your free hours. Using this in conjunction with Windows Scheduled Tasks, you can fire up the client at the start of your happy hours and then shut it down when the happy hours are over. Just remember, the bittorent technology is legal. What you download from it may not be.

4) RSS feeds - If you like to read blogs/news through RSS feeds, you can schedule your RSS client to download the feeds during the happy hours, thus presenting you with all the fresh news and blog posts when you wake up in the morning. More of how to schedule using Windows Scheduled Tasks next.

5) Windows Task Scheduler - This is one of the most underused utilities in Windows. By using this program you can schedule any program to start up at any time you wish. Depending on your computer's BIOS, you can even start the computer from sleep/hibernate mode.
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i) Start Task Scheduler by going to Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Scheduled Tasks.

ii) Click on Add Scheduled Task.

iii) Click Next on the wizard screen that appears. Depending on the number of programs installed on your computer, it may take some time to load the list.

iv) Select the program which you want to run from the list, or click Browse and navigate to the directory where the program is installed. This can be your bittorrent client / browser / download manager / RSS reader etc. Just remember to configure your program to start downloading as soon as it starts. Click Next.

v) In the next screen, select the frequency at which you want to run the program. This can be Daily, Weekly etc. The most common setting would be Daily. Click Next.

vi) Select the time when you want to run the program, and fill up the other details shown on the screen. Click Next.

vii) This screen asks for the username under which you want to run the program. This should ideally be an admininstrative account. The name of the logged-on user will be displayed as default. Enter the password for the same user, or enter the username and password of another user with admin privileges. Click Next.

viii) The next screen will show you the summary of the details you have provided. Click Finished if you're satisfied, else click Back and change any setting you want.

ix) A new task will appear in the Task Scheduler list. Right click on the scheduled task you just created and click Properties. Uncheck the 'Run only if logged on' checkbox, and check the 'Enabled' checkbox.

x) Click the Settings tab. You can set the amount of time you want to run the program. Check the 'Stop the task if it runs for' and enter the time period you want. e.g. For BSNL DataOne, the happy hours are from 2am - 8am. So you can start the scheduled task at 2:10 (to compensate for the difference in time between your computer and the server), and then enter 5 hours and 45 minutes as the amount of time you want to run the task. So the selected program will start at 2:10am and will close at 7:55am.

xi) Lastly if you're going to keep the computer in sleep mode, check the 'Wake the computer to run this task' checkbox. Depending on your preferences, you may want to check/uncheck the other two Power Management options.

I suggest trying out a sample schedule with Notepad to test if the settings work correctly.

Cricket Australia does it again

As I was watching the second day of the last test match of the Ashes, I got a nice surprise. John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia was invited to the commentary room. This wasn't the first time a 'celebrity' had been called into the commentary room but what was impressive is the man's knowledge of cricket. He talked about the current performances of the members of the Australian and the English team and about the time when Viv Richards was the captain of the West Indies. I would be happy if his Indian counterpart can even name the current test-playing countries. Here's what a fictional commentary with him would go like. Of course it would have to be in Hindi - "Yeh achhiiii baat nahi hai! Ganguly ko phront phoot pe aake khelna chahiye".

While Ian Healy addressed John Howard as John, the Indian commentator would have to address the Indian PM as Manmohanji. I agree that respect should be given, but when respect takes the ugly face of sycophancy, I can't take it.

While the Aussie PM was by his own in the commentary room, the Indian politician would need a few of his faithful chelas to make the scene complete.

The way politics is separated from sports there, or for that matter, from religion is what we need to emulate.