SHANDE

On Sunday we(Harish, Seena, Shreesh, Ski & me) had been to movie Honey Travels Private Limited. Harish had booked tickets for the 12.40 pm show at REX. On the way to the theatre, I picked up Ski at Jain Bhavan in KR Road. By the time we reached the theatre the movie had already started.



The movie is about six couples on a honeymoon to Goa, together in a ‘Tata Starbus’ of Honeymoon Travels Private Limited. Six couples!!! sounds similar to Salaam-E-Ishq .. yes … but I can’t comment much on similarities and differences as I haven’t seen Salaam-E-Ishq.

Overall the movie is watchable. Actually there is not even a single dull moment in the movie. Every sequence is like a highlight, there is something happening on the screen. Of all the sequences I liked the most are
- Dope dancing by Kay Kay Menon
- Raima Sen parasailing wearing a saree.
- Dance sequence between Minnisha and Abhay Deol.

On the other side there are many negative as well. The movie turns into a fairy tale in later stages. To conclude, if you are planning to see the movie, better leave your brains at home.

References:
1. India FM - Taran Adarsh: The review - Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd. : 3 stars.
2. CNN-IBN: Masand's Vedict : 2 stars :

The entry mechanism for Kaun Banega Crorepati(KBC) is to register the answer for question of the day and expect a callback. But getting a callback from them is next to impossible. I too had same opinion until this happened.

Feb 13th 2007, 4.47 pm. Incoming call from number +91 22 44344942.
I attended the call, heard a female’s (say ‘K’) voice

K: Is number se KBC ko phone aya tha ?
Me: Jee Haa
K: Is number ko phir se dohrah sakte hein
Me: 98XXXXXXXX
K: Do you want to continue conversation in Hindi or English
Me: English
K: Please note that to be a KBC contestant you should be good in conversational Hindi
Me: okay
K: Are you free to attend KBC shoot on March 6th in Mumbai, at our expenses.
Me: Yes
[then she asked me abt details such as date of birth, residential address, back phone number]

K: Let me repeat the entry question for which you had registered the answer. Keep in mind that you have only ten seconds to answer this question. You are not supposed to repeat the question or the options, otherwise the call will be disconnected. Are you ready?
Me: Yes
K: Which animal form did Vishnu took for Kurma Avatara? options are Boar, Fish, Tortoise, ***.
Me: Tortoise
K: Tortoise is the right answer. Now I will ask you another question. Right answer will take you to next round. Ready ?
Me: Yes
K: Which of these is a serial telecasted on Star Plus? Options are Gulab, Kesar, Jal, ***
Me: Kesar
K: Your answer is Kesar. If your answer is right, we will call you back within 3 days.
[call ended, call duration 00:07:14 ]

'Kesar' was just an intelligent guess as many serial in Star Plus start with ‘K’. In fact it is right the answer and I was expecting call for next round.

Fast Forward.

16th Feb 2007, 3:31 pm. Incoming call from number +91 22 44344953.
Again a female’s (say ‘K1’) voice

K1: Is number se KBC ko phone aya tha.
Me: Jee Haa
K1: Is number ko phir se dohrah sakte hein
Me: 98XXXXXXXX
K1: Do you want to continue conversation in Hindi or English?
Me: English
K1: For this round I will be asking you four questions. First three with four options and the last with no options. You will have 10 seconds each to answer first three questions and 15 seconds for the last. Are you ready ?
Me: Yes

K1: First question. Former Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna is Governor of which state? Options are Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Rajasthan, Haryana.
Me: Maharastra.
K1: Your answer is Maharastra. Ready for next question?
Me: Yes

K1: Second question. In which year did India host the Asian games for second time? Options are 1952, 1982, 1990, 1974.
Me: 1982
K1: '1982' is your answer. Ready for next question?
Me: Yes

K1: Third question. Which of these mean Pure in hindi? Options are Sujeet, Navneet, Puneet, Vineet.
Me: Puneet [answered by elimination method]
K1: Your answer is Puneet. Your next questions will have no options. Keep in mind that you have to answer this question with units, otherwise the answer will be invalid. If answer is in distance then it has to be number followed by metres or kms. Are you ready?
Me: Yes

K1: How many years ago Reserve Bank of India was established ?
[ whoosh ... bouncer ... after thinking for a few seconds, I made an intelligent guess ]
Me: 75 years
K1: Your answer is 75 years. If your all answers are right then we will call you back within three days.
[call ended, call duration 00:04:24]

After the call I had a look at RBI page in wikipedia and found it is established on April 1st 1935. So the right answer is 72 years !!!. For me it is so near and yet so far, but I was bit optimistic that I might get a call again because many people cannot answer this RBI question with accuracy. Now more than 3 days are over, so I am assuming that I am not selected for the next round.

After all these stuffs, I have realized that the route to Fastest Finger First is not so easy as there are many hurdles on the way. I have shared this because you should be mentally prepared in case you get a callback from KBC.

Are you sharing system password at your workplace ? Think again. Today I had a funny experience at my workplace. Here it is.

On occasion of Valentine’s Day I had been to Hyderabad to do handwriting analysis at Barista outlets. I had shared my system password ‘Password1’ with my teammates since it is necessary sometimes. Someone took advantage of this and tried to do some heroic activity (hero banneki koshish ki). He/She logged into my machine and sent the following mail to many of my colleagues (majority of them were girls)


Happy Valentine's Day to all my favourite girls and.....also boys(wink wink) in Aricent.

Your's Forever Lovingly,
Sandeep


Next day (Feb 15) morning I was embarrassed when Priya showed me the above mail in her Inbox. I don’t know who all have received this mail as it is deleted in the sent folder and recipient addressees were in Bcc. I hope recipients of this mail have not taken this seriously. Sorry in case you are one among them. It all started with my mistake - sharing the password with my teammates.

To the person who sent this mail from my machine “sir/mam why you did all this, there is limit for everything, u have almost crossed the threshold this time. I am taking it lightly but what about the people who have received this mail?”

To conclude, I never thought that I would be blogging about this topic. As of now I feel this is the right place to express as I don’t know who is that great person and also who the recipients of the mail are ?

For some people of today’s generation Valentine Day is one of the most awaited day. The rest have the opinion that it’s just another day. This was my opinion till last year. In fact my friend Manish has gtalk status ‘Yet another V day goes without a V’. For me this year was quiet different. Relax .. Relax .. the difference is not in the area of 'V' but something else.

Handwriting Institute India in association with Barista conducted free Handwriting Analysis for the occasion of Valentine’s Day. I was part of outstation(Hyderabad) assistantship team.



We (Imran, Rashmi, Meeta and me) departed from Bangalore at 9pm on Feb 13th, reached Hyderabad next day around 8 pm and checked in at Royal Banjara Inn. In Hyderabad we conducted event at two outlets Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills. I was given responsibility of managing Jubilee Hills outlet along with Meeta.


We were at the outlet around 12 noon. After putting the posters we started with our analysis job. This assisting program was different from normal exhibition and seminar one as we had to approach people and introduce about us and handwriting analysis. Initially 3 groups didn’t give positive response. After respecting their decision, I approached another group of Inter students. Only one was curious in their group and immediately gave his sample. While delivering analysis to him, his friends found the analysis interesting and gave their sample as well (the same happened with other group of friends later in the day). One of among them was a DJ by profession. It was nice to analyze handwriting of a person with different background.

Then I analyzed handwriting of 2-3 couples and also of a real estate developer. After that I got a chance to analyze handwriting of two gentlemen. After the analysis they asked for right profession for them. Later got to know that they are superintendent of police. I concluded the day with handwriting analysis of a couple whose handwriting indicated that they are perfectly compatible, in other words ‘made for each other’.

After winding up at Jubilee Hills outlet at 6 pm we went back to Royal Banjara Inn. My friend Naresh came to meet me there at 7pm and we two roamed around Banjara Hills area including Hyderabad Central Mall.

Finally, we departed at 9 pm by Raj National Express Volvo and were back in Bangalore on 15th Feb at 7.10 am. It was end of my first outstation assisting program. To conclude, 2007’s Valentine Day was not just another day for me. I helped many people to understand themselves and their partner using science of Handwriting Analysis.

I had been to Aero India 2007 on Saturday with Raveesh. This was second time I was going to the show(last time in 2005) hoping that I will get pass to the exhibition. Unfortunately I didn’t, therefore we had buy Rs.300 tickets (entry only to Aerial Display Area).

The major reason for going this time was to capture the moments with my S2 IS. Few minuets before leaving home, all my enthusiasm went down when I read on backside of the ticket that cameras and electronic items are prohibited. (cameras were allowed in 2005 show). To avoid all headaches I decided not to carry my cam.

Our plan was to meet at KBS. I reached there around 9.15 am and Raveesh was still on the way. When I went to platform 23, I was delighted to see Volvo Bus#284 (direct to Air show) parked there. By the time Raveesh came, the Volvo had departed. So we had to take ordinary special bus. Raveesh found out positive in this, that we are saving Rs. 30 per head because his lateness. On the way to Air Force Station I did handwriting analysis of Raveesh, it was pending for many months.

We reached to air show venue at 11 am. The 11am-1pm show had already started. Then came the major shock ... I saw authorities allowing people inside with cameras. I was disappointed like anything. What is all this? Are the rules on the backside of ticket written for formality?

I left all these things behind and decided to carry on and enjoy the show. First there was aerobatic display by Sarang helicopters. This team had reduced to 3 copters because of an unfortunate crash during the rehersal(2-3 days before the event). Hats off to the team as they performed by saying 'the show must go on'. After Sarang the show was taken over one after another by many fighter and passenger planes such as Tejas, Sukhoi, F-16, F-18, MIG-35, Gripen, Falcon-9000, Sarus and some chota mota planes of HAL. The morning session concluded with Boeing’s monster cargo plane C 17.

Of all the planes, the aerobatics of F-16 were too good. Especially fly past in front of audience with speed of 800 miles/hr and also vertical ascent from 500ft to 15000ft in a few seconds.

In the break we had lunch at food court in the venue. The prices were almost double. The vendors were taking advantage of another rule of organizer’s “outside eatables not allowed”.

The evening show started at 3 pm. In the beginning the session was bit boring as there was repeat of aerobatics by Sukhoi and Gripen. Later in the show Mig 29 brought the crowd on their feet by perfoming the cobra head maneuver, it was has one of the highlight of the show. Then came the moment for which everyone was awaiting for … the aerobatics by IAF’s Suryakiran team (led by Wg Cdr Sandeep Bansal), without them the Aero India show is incomplete. Their aerobatics make our money worth.

After Suryakiran we decided to leave the place and get into the bus 10 mintues before 5pm as there was some junk stuff in the ending. The bus left the place at 5:15 pm. Unlike last time there wasn’t much traffic jam around Hebbal. We were in KBS by 6:10 pm. It was end of an eventful day, it would have more eventful if I had carried my digicam ignoring the stuffs mentioned on the backside of ticket.