6 6 6

Now this is supposed to be my take on 1 of my 2 most eagerly awaited movies from Hollywood in recent times. Both belong to my favourite cinematic genre i.e. Thrillers, both have their roots in biblical literature and both have aroused public curiosity in their own unique ways. The other one I wanted to write about was The DaVinci Code, but already so much has been said about it that not much is left to be written. It’s not that I didn’t like it, but when you’ve read the book it’s impossible not to make comparisons between the two, and one should understand that it’s indeed a hard job to do justice to a 3-400 paged book in a 2 hour movie. In the case of 'The Omen', however, the movie was made first and then the script was novelised by it's author, and i found the movie so engrossing that i did read that book later.

So this would be a review of the cult Hollywood 1976 horror flick ‘The Omen’, often quoted as the best work of Horror from Hollywood and my personal favourite Horror movie cutting way above The Exorcist and even The Ring, and whose remake is about to be launched globally on the day that is associated with the mark of the Devil – 06/06/06.

“…From the Eternal Sea he rises
Creating armies on either side
Turning man against his brother
‘Till man exists no more”

The plot is based on this prophecy from the Book of Revelation, which is believed to point to the birth of the Anti-Christ, the son of Satan, who’s branded with the number 666 – the mark of the Beast, and who would receive his powers directly from Satan, and unless he’s stopped he would threaten the very existence of mankind, a plot brilliantly exploited by the scriptwriter David Seltzer.
Well no need of spoiler warning now, since most people would have seen the original movie, and even if you haven’t and you read on, trust me the movie(at least the original) still has the power to send a chill down your spine.
Robert Thorn (played brilliantly by Gregory Peck in the original) is a senior American diplomat whose wife Katherine who’s already suffered 2 previous miscarriages, undergoes a painful delivery in which their newborn child dies. The hospital priest presents him with another child born that night whose mother he says died during childbirth, and compels Thorn to present this child as their own to Katherine, to avoid any trauma for her. The child is named “Damien”.
Life for the Thorn family seems perfect and Thorn is promoted as the American ambassador to Britain and they settle in a mansion near London.
But soon events take an eerie turn, first with the birthday celebrations of Damien at a party in their lawns, everyone seems to be enjoying the upbeat mood, suddenly someone is heard screaming out for the attention of Damien, and to everyone’s horror his nanny is standing outside a window of the house, and with a terrifyingly lunatic smile on her face she says “It's All For You”, and jumps to hang herself from a rope.
Soon a new nanny Mrs. Baylock introduces herself to the family, whose credentials seem impeccable and her demeanour kind and soft spoken, soon followed by a mysterious ferocious Rottweiler, both of whom maintain a constant vigil on the young child.
Another weird incident happens when his mother drives the young kid to a zoo, and as soon as they enter all animals get freaked out and go berserk.
Events start taking a nasty turn and soon Thorn is contacted by a Father Brennan, who claims that Damien is the son of the devil, born of an animal and bearing the mark of the beast, and the only key to stop him lies with an old man called Bugenhagen who lives in Jerusalem.
Thorn refuses to believe and as soon as he’s gone, Father Brennan is impaled in a freak “accident” by a cross struck down by lightning.
Further down Damien becomes wildly hysterical when they try to take him for church, and then more and more people around him start dying in mysterious circumstances, arousing suspicion in his already scared mother.
Thorn is again contacted by a British photographer called Jennings this time, who shows him pattern of mysterious blurred pictures of all people who recently died, claiming this to be a clue to something much more horrendous.
They both now investigate the claim by Brennan of his real child being murdered by the hospital staff and buried in a cemetery, where they encounter a vicious attack by a pack of guarding dogs.

Does Damien succeed under the protection of the evil nanny and his mysterious guards ?

What happens to Katherine who has begun to openly doubt the origins of this child. ( Her end is among the most shocking scenes.)

Would Thorn and Jennings be able to contact Bugenhagen in Jerusalem and bring the evil to an end before it’s too late ?

Hehe …. this might sound like your average popcorn thriller, but trust me, whether or not you know it already, the movie (at least the original) was among the best horrors of all times. No ugly faced blood sucking ghosts, only a terrifying background music and the sheer impact of a story well told.

According to the the trivia by IMDB, there were a lot of freak accidents involved with the caste and crew while shooting for the original movie:

“Gregory Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer took separate planes to the UK...yet BOTH planes were struck by lightning. While producer 'Harvey Bernard' was in Rome, lightning just missed him. Rottweilers hired for the film attacked their trainers. A hotel at which director Richard Donner was staying got bombed by the IRA; he was also struck by a car. After Peck cancelled another flight, to Israel, the plane he would have chartered crashed...killing all on board. On day one of the shoot, several principal members of the crew survived a head-on car crash. The jinx appeared to persist well into post-production... when special effects artist John Richardson was injured and his girlfriend beheaded in an accident on the set of a movie.”

The spooky incidents seem to have followed into the production of the new movie as well. According to their official website, some prints of the movie were lost due to unexplained technical glitches, the visual affects supervisor when measuring a special shot realised that his meter read 666; a measurement it had never given before, one of the lights on the sets exploded mysteriously while shooting, then on Oct 6th (note the #) the whole crew came down with food poisoning, though no bacteria was found in the food on later tests, and the spookiest being when a still photographer developed a series of photographs, he found some images of the actor playing Father Brennan blurred with movements striking downwards, like a javelin.

Real spook or marketing gimmicks ? You never know, but one thing is for sure – come 06/06/06 and you get another opportunity to see some quality horror from Hollywood, and scare the hell out of yourself!

Related Links:

The Omen(2006) Website

The Omen Chronicles (Website for entire series)


Download the awesome Trailers from these links:(Right click and Save Target As)

Trailer 1 - Rarest of the rare trailer of the original 1976 movie (mov,23.69 MB)

Trailer 2 - 2006 -Damien alone in a swing(windows asf,8.41 MB)


Trailer 3 - 2006 - Scenes from the new movie(mov,5.91 MB)

Reservation Blues

I had a dream recently – well probably more of a nightmare. I dreamt that 25 years from now, my son (let’s call him Junior for now) had given his high school exams and topped his school. (talk about great expectations even in dreams!)
Now he wanted to apply to a medical college to get an MBBS….and this was the conversation we had:

Me : Well done, my lad! So how many seats do we have for this course in your desired college?
Junior : Umm about 10 but I guess I’ll just about manage….

Me : Hmmm hold your horses for now! Let’s do some simple calculations first. It seems there are lots of other brilliant and deserving candidates vying for those coveted seats! Ah do you remember your schoolmates Bubloo and Dubloo? Yea those same fine prodigies of 3 generations of IAS officers, who even though they failed each year, your school principal had the privilege to forcefully promote to the next class for the greater benefit of mankind. (Son of an IAS destined to be an IAS you see!)
Ah, so what if they scored only 10% marks in the entrance exam, our law says that 2 of those 10 seats should definitely go to the Scheduled Castes, which their certificates rightly identify them as, and hence as deserving as anyone can be! (Not to mention once they complete their MBBS, they’d be fine deserving candidates for IAS too!)

Now how can you forget that bright child Abracadabra – whose dad is a surgeon and who has a certificate claiming his ancestors jhingalala’d in the jungles of Andamans. Surely we can oversee a minor issue like him not writing the exam….well at least he filled the form! Since as per our constitution 1 seat has to go to a member of a Scheduled Tribe.

And in May 2006, the then honorable government passed a bill that ensured a seat for Other Backward Castes(OBC) too. Of course, Tommy fits that bill, and it doesn’t matter that his school uniform was designed by Donatella Versace, according to his certificate he’s still backward!

The 5th seat of course has to be given to the highly athletic and competitive Milk-Kha Singh, who represented our country in the World kabaddi championship and got us a gold medal. Err so what if there was just 1 team participating, he surely deserves that 1 seat for Sports quota.

Another seat, my child, is undoubtedly deserved by your Italian Indian friend Rah-Hool Gandhi, whose surname is sufficient proof that his great grand daddy must’ve fought in our freedom struggle, enabling him to be eligible for the freedom fighter quota.

And how can we be so cruel as to deny the claim for the 7th seat by your schoolmate Free-thick Roshan – whose disformity of having 2 thumbs on a hand is indisputable proof of his crippling handicap – hence the rightful candidate for the Handicapped persons’ quota.

Darn, the 8th seat would have to be given to Arj – June singh, whose daddy is a professor in that college, putting him up for the management quota.

Of course no one dare deny admission to your friend Lux-Me Mittal, considering his dad is a rich NRI businessman and more than willing to shell out a lakh pounds for that NRI quota seat.

Whoa, there’s still 1 seat left! Go get it Tiger.

Junior : I just called up and they said that it’s been taken up under the “No Reservation” reservation.
Me : Uff, how did we forget to get this certificate made ! Don’t worry my child….better luck next time!



P.S. - I’m sorry if I’ve offended anyone but I’m really taken aback by this reservation issue right now. For those who are not in touch with the latest news here our government is going forward to pass a bill that would reserve 50% of seats in top educational institutes for people based solely on their castes.(irrespective of their scores in the entrance exams)
It’s common knowledge that India is one of the most competitive countries in the world when it comes to education, and the cut-off percentages for the premier institutes keep getting higher each year. Imagine the plight of students like those in the medical profession, where lakhs of people appear for exams each year for sometimes as few as 10-15 seats, and what would happen to their morale when they would see some people walk off with more than half those seats just because they belong to a certain “caste”, and irrespective of their scores.
Nobody denies that the caste system has been a bane of the Indian society, but surely this would be the worst possible way to try to “uplift” the downtrodden, since majority of these seats are enjoyed by children of SC/ST’s who’re already enjoying the spoils of reservation by being in the highest of public sector jobs, leaving the rest in a status quo.
Even when reservations were started by B.R Ambedkar after our independence, he had asked for them to continue only for 10 years. Still they have been continuing for more than 60 years after our independence, primarily due to the votebank politics being played by each major political party which is trying to appease the voting population belonging to these particular castes, and in the process only further deepening the caste divide in this country.
A sensible approach would’ve been giving scholarships, fee-waivers and study material to the deserving candidates in these classes, yet the government wants to take the easy way of total appeasement out.


As if this wasn’t enough, peacefully protesting medical students in Mumbai were brutally lathi-charged by the police as if they were gangsters, reminding one of a similar scene in the recent RDB, and this has further flared up the protests in the student community all across India.

Well if vote bank politics is what a democracy is all about, then perhaps an autocracy might suit us better.

(Thank God at least The DaVinci Code is finally getting released here next week .... with a disclaimer and an A certificate)

Guilty As Charged

YES your honour, I do plead guilty to the charge of taking up too many tags in recent times (* In Sunny Deol’s “Tareekh pe tareekh” ^4 dialogue’s tone *)
Now please allow the defendant to throw further light on some of the points mentioned by the public prosecutor-cum-tagger Ms. Ramblings :


Culinary Guilt:

Hmmm well yea kindof….though my entire khandaan is a vegetarian yet I’ve given in to the pleasures of the flesh on some occasions since last year, and yes I did find the “reshmi kababs” to taste better than anything I’d had in the vegetarian platter. Having said that, I still prefer vegetarian on 14 days in a fortnight, and my future culinary status would most probably depend on my partner, since I have no qualms about either foods right now.
Oh, and I still have to learn to cook stuff beyond Maggie noodles. I’ve promised my mom next time I visit home I’m gonna learn a minimum of ‘chapattis’, ‘paranthas’ and ‘pulao’ (a promise I’ve been making since the last 2 years).


Literary Guilt:
Well OF COURSE yes. I’m a self confessed bibliophile – all my friends would vouch for it. Whenever I visit any mall here the 1st shop I attack is the book store and normally my friends have to drag me out of it.
Such is the extent of this addiction that I’ve ended up buying at least 8 new books recently which have been piled up at home and I’m yet to start devouring them. Then there are some or the other amazing new titles I keep hearing about everyday….somehow I’ve managed to hold myself back till I finish the ones already pending.

Audiovisual Guilt:
Well this time I’m guilty of NOT seeing enough movies lately….even though I might’ve already seen enough for a lifetime (over 200 dvd-rips in my collection). Still I do manage 1 movie in a theatre per fortnight.
As for TV, I just hit 3 channels on my remote…. CNN-IBN for primetime news, VH1 for the classic videos, and History channel for the Biography show.

Musical Guilt:
Ummm nahh no guilts here. I know the kinda music I like(from almost all genres) and I have it both on my PC at home as well as at work. So no wonder I’m mostly found with my headphones on at work.
But yes, I do have to get myself either an IPod or an mp3 cellphone soon.

Celebrity Guilt:
Well I’m certainly not the kinds to go screaming if I see or meet any celebrity. Though I do look upto Mr. Amitabh Bachhan for his overpowering personality, his acting prowess and the way he speaks with his command over both English and Hindi.
In college I used to have only wallpapers of the supermodel Laetitia Casta on my desktop (around 200 of them!)…..and I’ve put up 1 of them here!

Shopping Guilt:
Hmmm well if I see something I like(and need), I don’t think too much about it and would go for it. But yes, I’m biased towards seasonal sales and discounts….and prefer to do most of my shopping during these times.

Clothes guilt:
Nahh….I’m satisfied with my wardrobe. Though I do feel guily that ever since I started working, I’ve been able to wear the ultra casuals only on weekends.


Is there more??...

Bad Critic Guilt:
I do find it hard to criticize anything/anyone…. And somehow always look for the good points even in the worst. I do realize that this is detrimental at times and sometimes you just have to be blunt with some people, but hey I’m working on it.

Procrastinating with job guilt:
YES. This is the single biggest guilt that I have right now - even though I know I have to switch my job, I don’t understand what is preventing me from applying to new companies, especially since the Indian IT sector is real Hot right now. On that note, I’ll go and at least update my CV right now.


Well with that I rest my case. I also refuse to divulge the names of other fellow bloggers who might be guilty of the same charge, and leave it to their conscience to surrender before the honourable court and declare their personal guilts.

The Motorcycle Diaries - Kudremukh Chapter

The heat is on but I’m on a roll right now…what with a 2nd trip within 2 weeks I guess I must’ve been in a real vacationing mood.
The real trigger again was the long weekend as this Monday was off for labour day (funny name) but the plan actually materialized at the very last moment on Friday night.
Initially there were 4 of us planning to go for a trek to the famed Kodachadri peak in west Karnataka, but as usual being the procrastinators that we are, we found all tickets to the place had been sold out.
Still not being the kinds to admit defeat so easily, me and my college buddy Prabudh were positive about not letting this 3 day break go wasted. So we did a quick search on google for hills in Karnataka, zeroed in on a place called Kudremukh national park, downloaded the road map and made a spur of the moment decision to make it a 2 day road trip on my Thunderbird.
So on Saturday morning we left Bangalore just at the crack of dawn at 5:30 am for this place which was supposed to be a good 360 kms away. So abrupt was the decision that we even forgot to carry a spare set of camera batteries, a blunder that made us miss a lot of good photo-ops later on.

As soon as we got out of the city limits I was surprised to find a smooth, wide and almost empty highway unlike the bumpy and traffic infested Bangalore roads, and I easily started zipping at almost 110 kmph, something this cruiser is specially designed for.

It’s a very different feeling zipping for a long stretch of time on a bike at this speed, with the trees and the vast open fields swooshing by when seen from the corner of your eyes. It’s almost as if your life’s running past by you, and at occasional times one can easily loose the sense of time and perhaps even switch to a philosophical mode. It’s something hard to explain and maybe only another rider can relate to it.
Another remarkable difference that one notices while riding a bike is that unlike in a car, where you’re in relative rest with respect to your immediate surroundings as you’re kind of boxed inside an enclosure, on a bike you’re no longer a passive observer of your surroundings, but become a part of it. With the wind slapping in your face you can actually “feel” the changing landscape around you, and when this threshold is crossed, the journey becomes more pleasurable than the destination.

Also, with the power of a 350cc engine producing the pull of 19 horses thundering under your legs, you simply feel like the king of the road.
For the uninitiated, the cc(cubic centimeters) refers to the displacement of an engine, that is the amount of fuel mixture that the piston can sweep through from the top to bottom. So obviously the more fuel the engine can burn up in a cycle, the more power it can pack to the wheels.

Anyways, we kept taking breaks for snacks and to ask directions, and as usual I found that the humble villagers or small town people are always more than eager to help. The bike and it’s unusual registration no (CH- Chandigarh) invited a lot of curious questions though, and people assumed I was driving it down from Punjab! One restaurant owner even identified Chandigarh as the hometown of Yuvraj Singh and started citing examples of the brilliance of his own Karnataka boy Dravid as the captain, though all with an innocent rustic charm.

By the time we hit the hills after riding for 250 kms, we were already a bit exhausted and the steep inclines had to be carefully negotiated, however the beautiful greenery around soon made us forget all the fatigue and we reached our destination at the base of Kudremukh peak’s trek around late noon.

We asked a local shopkeeper about taking the bike up the mud track to the top of the peak, but he warned us that we shouldn’t go without taking permission from the wildlife officials, since this area was being combed for the Naxalite(Maoist) militants taking shelter in these forests. We were warned that the security forces had a shoot at sight order for anyone seen inside the forest without permission, and this was enough to deter us from going for another misadventure. Permission not forthcoming due to a holiday, we were a little disappointed, but then another localite came to our rescue and suggested that we pitch our tents at the camping grounds of a deluxe resort nearby.
So we finally got the necessary space within the boundaries of the beautiful “Silent Valley Resort”, and had an awesome stay at the resort where they’d organized a flute music program in their open lawns amidst a bonfire. Eating a 10-course scrumptious buffet, especially when you’re dead tired and in the middle of a forest is also a uniquely gratifying experience.
Next morning the resort guide took us to a small trek in the hills around the area, and after absorbing all the natural beauty we decided to start back, since in any case the main purpose of the trip was the ride itself.


The return ride saw me zigzagging with a renewed passion along the sharp and dangerous turns of the hills, sometimes tilting the bike to almost 30 degrees to negotiate the deadly turns. It was again a smooth and enjoyable ride till the last hour when darkness fell, and I had to ride in the glare of the high beams of the incoming traffic, which makes one literally blind to the road ahead, and then losing your concentration for even a second can mean the difference between life and a painful end.

Anyhow thanks to our guardian angels, we reached Bangalore in the evening after having covered almost 800 within 48 hours, and spent the next day discussing the trip and tending to our sore backs and bottoms.

Trip Info:-

Route: Bangalore - Hassan - Mudigere - Kalasa - Kudremukh

Distance: 360 kms (1 way)

Road Condition: Excellent

Close Calls: 3

In God's Own Country

Indeed, that phrase befits the description of the beautiful state of Kerala to which I had a lucky chance to ‘escape’ to during this last weekend.
Kerala being only 1 of the 2 states (other being Gujarat) that I’d never traveled to, this 3 day weekend was a good time to satiate the traveler bug in me, as well as get away from the stress of city life.
So on Thursday night, I along with 2 of my friends, Prabudh and Jeetu, took a Volvo to Kochi. We reached there next morning and had a few hours before we could catch the next bus to Munnar, so we thought of checking out some local landmarks like Fort Kochi and the old Santa Cruz Basilica built in 1505.
We reached the beautiful hill station of Munnar late in the evening and checked in to a room in the “Kanan Devan Hills Club”.

‘Kannan Devan’ is the name of Munnar special brand of tea. There are tea estates spread around all hills in this region, and we were told Tata’s have tea estates in an estimated 37,000 hectares of land here.


We had a nice dining n chat session in the open lawns of the club late into the misty night where we discussed almost everything from Indian economics to Global politics to the entertainment industry!
The next morning we checked out and left for a place called Top Station which was supposedly the highest point in the region and where we intended to camp for the night. The drive to this place was absolutely stunning, and I would not be exaggerating if I said it was better than any other hill stations I’ve seen in South India(Ooty, Kodaikanal, Coorg).

On the way there was a dam with a huge lake on the other side almost 10 kilometers long, and it offered a stellar view, arguably even better than a similar lake in Nainitaal.
Though the destination “Top Station” in itself was a kind of disappointment since we couldn’t find an open grassland where we could pitch our tents. Since this was a dense forest area with no other hotels to stay, we decided to move back to Munnar.

I think there’s something about places near coastal areas; probably the moisture and humidity in the air, that gives brilliant shades of orange, red and purple during sunrise and sunsets here, and which I somehow managed to capture even though a little blurred due to the moving jeep. (These pics have all natural colours....no modifications!)

Back in Munnar we were faced with another problem, since we arrived late and it was a festival holiday season, all hotels were fully booked. By sheer luck we found a guide who told us he could take us to an isolated cabin in the forest just outside the town. We were told that this place was normally preferred by foreigners who’re never scared of trying a (mis)adventure of this sort, and since we were anyways out for some thrill, we decided to give it a shot.
When we reached the place, it actually did look like a haunted house in the middle of nowhere. 1 of my friends immediately backed out saying he would rather return to the town with the guide and look for a place there, moreover he had to leave back early next morning due to some urgent work.

Anyways we 2 stuck to our guns and decided to spend the night here itself. The guide arranged for a bonfire just outside the house and then they left for the town.
We even found a pickaxe in the house which we kept with us and somehow at this moment, all those long forgotten horror movies of a group of friends dying in old jungle rest houses came alive in our minds.(Friday the 13th, Evil Dead, Blair Witch, House on Haunted Hill etc. etc.) And we were not even a group… just 2… easy job for any killer. Lol.
Thankfully we were carrying some “Somras” (divine nectar :p ) with us and loads of snacks, which helped soothen our frayed nerves. Pretty soon we got engrossed in another discussion on life, the past and the future, and this kept us occupied till late into midnight.
When we finally decided to have lights out I saw an ancient looking b/w picture of an old man in the back room who must’ve lived here some looong time ago, and it did unnerve us a bit, but thankfully the room we slept in had a poster of Goddess Durga on the wall, which was reassuring indeed. So cracking jokes and laughing at ghost stories, we ultimately fell asleep.
Next morning we trekked back to Munnar across 4 hills, and were captivated by the stunning views all across the way.
Post lunch it was time to bid farewell to this beautiful place and back to the artificial city life…..though rejuvenated with a thrilling trip!

Escape

A maddening city where tempers are flaring and your senses are being overpowered with extremities of all variations...

And all you want is to escape.


A vicious circle of lies,pretensions and false allegations where honesty is the name of the bird long extinct, and 'nice' guys are always meant to finish last...

And all you can do is escape.


A weird world where well intentioned concern is more likely to be seen as some cunning scheme with an ulterior motive or personal gain...

And all you think of is to escape.


A lifeless drudgery where days slip by with the uncanny knowledge that your untapped potential is going to a waste and that oh-so-helpless feeling that you can't do anything about it...

And all you crave is to escape.


A sickening feeling of seeing hypocrisy rule the roost all around, and standards being altered to suit the palate of the privileged few...

And you know the time has come to escape.

Da 4th TAG

Hmmm 1 would imagine I’ve run out of ideas to write something, now that I’ve been taking up so many tags lately. But hey…I feel it’s fun and I enjoy doing them.
So Phoenix_Rises tagged me with this questionnaire and here I go…

1.Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4.
Ok I just have an e-book with me right now…Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
“…Even when he cheated he couldn't win, because the people he cheated against were always better at cheating too.”

2.Stretch your left arm out as far as you can.
I can touch my clipboard. I don’t get the point.


3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Bon Jovi on MTV Unplugged


4.Without looking, guess what time it is?
5:00 PM


5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
5:05 PM.
Hmmm not bad…

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
The beeps of the electronic swiping instrument at the door near my cubicle


7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
This afternoon went outside office campus for lunch


8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
My current webshots desktop wallpaper…I’ve put it up here(It’s a painting!).

9. What are you wearing?
Ah…ThankGodIt’sFriday …. So I’m in my full fundoo casuals…cowboy styled leather patched Wrangler jeans and a black tee!

10. Did you dream last night?
I mostly do but I hardly remember what the exact dream was….except when I get woken up by the alarm and then put it on snooze and go back 2 sleep….
I often find myself dreaming about walking in snow covered mountains….wonder what it means….maybe I’ll do a whole post on it sometime!

11. When did you last laugh?
Saw the spoof Rendezvous with Simi Girebaal hosted by the hilarious Cyrus on MTV…. Guests were Funmohan Singh and George Tush…. Damn funny!

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
On the wall of my cubicle there’s a pin-up that says “Bus stops at the bus station, rail stops at the railway station, and this is my workstation”. :D

13. Seen anything weird lately?
Saw “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” on my comp last week ….. damn weird movie I must say…. Still Johnny Depp makes it worth a watch.

14. What do you think of this quiz?
Good when you don’t have anything else to do.

15. What is the last film you saw?
“Being Cyrus”, again another dark movie …. Can’t say that I “enjoyed” it but Saif Ali Khan is a transformed actor now!

16. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy?
A Harley Davidson, a Lamborghini Murcielago and a bungalow overlooking my own apple orchard somewhere high up in Himachal.


17. Tell me something about you that I dunno.
Hmmm… I have a teeny weeny goatee below my lower lip that I’ve been sporting off and on for 4 years now, also i make good chai.

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
There should be 1 universal religion where everyone worships a nameless God as I feel that’s the root cause of almost all conflicts worldwide.

19. Do you like to dance?
U kidding me…. OF COURSE I CAN PUT THE BLOODY DANCE FLOOR ON FIRE

20. George Bush:

My favourites amongst his gems:
"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country."
"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
"The future will be better tomorrow."
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Ahaan now that’s interesting!
I lovee the traditional Indian Sanskrit names….but it wud have to be unique yet sound Kool.
Umm the girl wud be Naija – which means the daughter of wisdom ;)
But seriously I luv the name Lavanya (means a beautiful girl)


22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Arnav ( means the ocean)


23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
I don’t see any reason not to.

24.What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
“Ok dude you’ve been a reasonably nice guy down there….here u can have all the apsaras” ;)

25. People who may do this memo in their journal:
Hmmm now I won’t leave anyone this time !! All who’ve come here ….

(alphabetically)
Amy
Anand
Alive_n_Confused
Deepa
Dewdrop
DeVile
Ekta
Elle
Icyblue
Keshi
My_Ramblings
Nidhi
Sebia
Shikha
Shivangi
The_Ego_Has_Landed
White Forest


Just do it if you haven’t yet!

Work It Up !

Yea finally after a gap of about 2 months I’ve managed to rejoin a gym, this time the one at my workplace itself. Even though working out without any company can be monotonous and difficult to maintain as a routine, yet the importance of some kind of a daily workout can just not be overemphasized, especially considering the sedentary lifestyle of most of today’s young generation.

I think I can trace my penchant for fitness to my roots – my great grandfather who expired last year at age 97 used to religiously take his morning walks till I saw him last. To the best of my knowledge he never suffered from any major ailment, used to read without using spectacles and best of all – took his tea with full 2 teaspoons of sugar…. A rarity beyond age 40 these days! My grandfather also continues uninterrupted with his Yoga and walks to this day…ever since my granny passed away he keeps touring around the country and on tough pilgrimages…all thanks to his fitness level. Though unfortunately my dad had to stop gymming after suffering a back injury during his body building days….. which shows how cautious one should be with heavy weight training.
So even while I wasn’t ‘working out’ in a gym, I used to ensure that I did my daily dose of the bare minimum activity required….using stairs instead of the lift at home and work, a nightly walk to the local restaurant for dinner etc. besides some basic simple exercises that I’ll share with you.
To begin with any kind of exercise, you must first know your body type and hence the category of workouts that would best suit your requirements. Those who’re fortunate enough to be blessed with a lean framed body that doesn’t accumulate much fat despite voracious eating habits, can easily concentrate more on weight training exercises to shapen up and strengthen the muscles, while those with a broader and heavier frame with tendency to gain weight should focus more on stamina building cardiovascular workouts that also help them to keep flexible, such as jogging(or treadmill), aerobics etc.
Ideal Height-Weight Chart
Again it depends on what’s your ultimate goal…pumping up those muscles or loosing that extra flab.

In case you’ve joined a gym there are any number of workouts that the instructor can help you out with, however I’ll discuss the ones you can do at home and still be fighting fit. You can do these at any time of the day (at least a 2 hour gap after a meal) and they just take around 30 to 45 minutes of your precious time.

1.Warm up/ Cardio :
To start off, just find any open space like your balcony/terrace and start with warming up by stretching and then jogging / skipping for a minimum of 10-15 minutes.

2.Push-Ups:
Lie flat on the ground with your stomach against the floor. Place you palms on the ground just below shoulder level and raise your entire body in a straight line, then back down and repeat. Females can take upto 2 sets of 20 each while guys should increase to about 100 – 2 sets of 50 each. Good for strengthening the arms and shoulders.

3.Crunches:
Lie flat on you back, keep both hands behind your head and slowly raise your upper half to a 45 degree angle, then move back and repeat in 2 sets of 20 each. Awesome for working up the upper abdominal muscles of your tummy.

4.Leg Raises:
Keep lying flat on your back, join both feet together and raise both your legs slowly upwards to a 90 degree angle with the floor, then slowly bring them down and keep them suspended just above the ground. Repeat in 2 sets of 20 each and you’ll feel that ugly fat on your lower abs melting away. Also good for hamstrings.

5.Sit-Ups:
Stand straight and hold a chair or any waist level object with 1 hand for support. Raise your left leg and fold it behind the erect right leg. Now bend your right knee and sit all the way down and then slowly raise yourself up. Repeat for about 20 times and then the same with the other leg. Great for knees and shins.

That’s It! Still it’s unfortunate that an overwhelming majority of us Indians continue to ignore the basic minimum workout needed by their body mostly citing excuses such as ‘unnecessary narcissism’ to paucity of time. Well my friend, if Anil Ambani can take out 1.5 hours daily from his schedule for his body, I’m sure we all can spare at least half an hour.
Remember your body is just another machine, and like any machine needs to be constantly oiled and checked to prevent repair by a mechanic, so should you work up this one to prevent damage control by a doctor later. It’s not just about a longer life, but a healthier one where you can make full use of this God given tool.

It’s your body.
Love it.
Pamper it.
Take care of it.
It just might be the only thing that would serve you till your last moment on this planet.