Why?

The hostage terror continues more than 24 hours after it started. There are armed terrorists loose in the city: no one knows where.
Now that the first shock and disbelief of this kind of fidayeen attack is wearing off, the questions are starting to form. Why? Why are these terrorists doing this? What are they hoping to achieve/prove? Why is it taking so long to end this nightmare? How could some of our top police and security personnel be slain in battle, when they have bullet-proof vests? How can anyone imagine our security force or police fighting these terrorists, armed to the teeth with automatic weapons, with pistols and rifles? Why are the top politicos and our Prime Minister in town visiting hospitals, when there are still terrorists at large and rescue operations are on?
One more burning question: Why are the news channels broadcasting the images live, even after being told that the terrorists might be watching the TV for updates?? Why do the general public have to know everything live, when there is an military operation on? Will a delay in reporting - even a few minutes delay - hurt the general public- yes, you and me - watching the TV? Why jeopardize an operation by beaming in images of commandos being air-dropped?? Why discuss the possibility of the terrorists watching this telecast when you know that it might be a possibility? Is there no common sense left or is it all about (tv-network-name)-reporting-live-from-scene-putting-our-life-on-line. No, we, your targeted audience don't want to know the live happenings, we want the security forces to finish this nightmare for those people who are trapped and their families who are trapped in this nightmare. We don't mind if you say after the operation, these are the images of the successful operation that we didn't beam to you live as it would have jeopardized the operation but now that is over, we can show you what happened. For all those who didn't have or show the discretion, the scruples and the common sense to understand this: you have lost what would have made you legends in Indian television reporting history: maturity and integrity.

Terror strikes Mumbai again

Terror strikes Mumbai again

Indiscriminate firing on unsuspecting civilians, bomb blasts in
crowded areas, and hostage situations in landmark hotels. Horrifying
images of injured, dead, burning buildings, terrorists shooting on the
street are being beamed in into every Mumbai home. All educational
institutions and most of the offices will be shut today. The trading
market will also be closed today.
If the objective if these brutal attacks was panic, fear and chaos,
well, that has been achieved. Even for the resilient Mumbaikar, this
planned, merciless attack is hard to swallow. If the motive is yet
another reminder to the American and British people that they are not
safe anywhere, I think the point is made.
Jaipur, New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Guwahati, and now Mumbai. The
terror
continues.

Sent from my iPhone

Pic pick: Dunno if the police will be polite...

.... If and when they catch this guy. Wonder what this guy is after though, their parking space??

Movie review: Dostana

Enough has been said about Dostana and its whats-gay-about-it theme. So, won't go into the details about the plot and all. Suffice to say that the movie oscillates between OTT hilarity and extreme mushiness. Typical KJo stuff. But what pray is Bobby Deol doing in a movie that is mainly about good looks and awesome locales?? You have Johnnie boy - a cl(ass) apart, the sexy Priyanka Chopra and the passable (thanks to his acting) Abhishek Bachhan. How, how, how can one cast Bobby as the suave and cool guy when he looks neither on screen (whatever he might be off screen).
I had a grouse that I have harboured against Karan Johar since KKHH. So, if any of you know KJo or know how to contact him, please convey the following-
please, please. enough already with the Friends-sitcom-inspired scenes, acting, dialogues and plot-lines. you might like/love Friends as much as I do, but seriously, you can't actually use that much of their stuff in almost all your movies. how does it work? do the actors have to study some of the seasons or something? can you please leave something that is sacred, well, sacred. no more AB jr trying chandler-inspired mannerisms, or priyanka chopra mouthing stuff about 'plans' rachelesque. no no, can't (not won't) enumerate the other instances. just please stop or curb or at least acknowledge your inspirations by, say showing the actors watching Friends instead of KKHH.

Enough said.

Movie review: Quantum of solace

Yup, Bond sells like nothing else. Money making machine it is. A full week before being released in USA, Indians are thronging to movie theatres to catch the latest offering of the Bond franchise. Weekend shows are sold out and some multiplexes are screening 10 shows a day - most of them sold out again!!
So, the movie. Well it sure is a humdinger - though I still don't think Daniel Craig makes as good a Bond as Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan. He seems too cold and rigid. That said, the movie is good. The action scenes are really good and not monotonous. The plot though is something I have a problem with. How can a Bond movie be a revenge story carried forward from the earlier installment? The revenge angle is what I found a bit difficult to swallow.

The stunts: great, the fights: awesome (yup, again like Casino Royale the hand-to-hand combats are awesomely done and the bullet showers as well) and the locales: are beautiful and numerous (the most number of locales pictured in any Bond movie). The opening sequence of the car chase in Italy (Bond making mincemeat of the Alfa Romeo that is chasing his, what else, Aston Martin, and in the process trashing his own) is extremely well executed. There is even a fight/chase sequence with Tosca as a backdrop/alternate representation. These two fights were my favorite.

About the Bond gals, you see very very less of them. I don't see why Gemma Arterton was included in the movie. She has about 7 minutes of screen time with hardly any script to talk about. Oh and Bond doesn't get much action in this movie. Or if he does, it has been chopped off by our ever-so-solicitous censor board.

Like any other James Bond movie, this movie is not going to be watched for the plot or the storyline, so I am not going to go into it at all. Suffice to say that it picks up about an hour after the end of Casino Royale. This movie is all about the fights, the guns, the girls, the cars and the gizmos (which other than a Sony phone and touch computers akin to the ones we saw in Minority Report are nothing earthshakingly new - which I understand is what the director and producers wanted to do). I guess raw action is what they wanted to sell and they have delivered. Somehow, the suave and charming killing machine that we know as Bond is becoming increasingly similar to a Bourne (Bourne series) and Ethan Hunt (Mission Impossible series).

All said and done, its a visual treat and there is never a dull moment to the movie. Thankfully, Bond finally seems to get closure at the end of the movie so we can expect him to return to work exclusively for Her Majesty rather than for his avenging sensibilities.

List: Sites to dawdle on

Here are some sites you might like to dawdle on in office fighting off the zzzs. Some are good enough to while away time on even when you have work!! ;)

• Youniverse [Personality quizzes awesome]
  
• Oneplusyou [Stuff for sheer boredom.. You might get addicted]
  
• Snowdays [Create your own snowflake]
  
• Wordle [Create your own word cloud. Fun.]
  
• Picassohead [Create portraits]
  
• Fake or foto [Survey - Is the pic fake or a photo?]
  
• Smile or fake [Survey - Is the smile real or fake?]
  
• Left or right brained? [Find out which side of the brain you use most]
  

If you have a pic of yourself, you could got to:

• Yearbook yourself [Yearbook yourself]
  
• Museum [Put your pic in an art museum]
  
• Makeover [Upload a pic and have fun trying out different hairstyles]
  
• Makeover 2 [Upload pic and try on different hairstyles]
  
• Polaroid Collage [Create a collage of polaroids from one pic]
  

If you want an avatar, try any of these:

• AvatarMaker
  
• Portrait via email
  
• WeeWorld
  
• BeFunky
  
• MeezAvatar [The best avatar maker around...]
  
• RocketOn
  

These are some of the avatars I tried. Most of these are fun.






If you want to download some e-books you could go to these:

• Esnips
  
• 4shared
  
• Scribd
  
• Demonoid [If someone has a login to this site, please let me know.. every time i try to download from a torrent, the server is full and am unable to register since like eons!!]
  

This makes me think.. Maybe a separate blog for lists? What say?

Diwali sweets should mean chocolates!!

Hope you guys had a great Diwali. Spent this Diwali in Bangalore and performed the one ritual that I love. I make it a point to do it every time I go to Bangalore and used to do it every month I lived in Bangalore. It all stems from my chocoholism that has got me as a willing victim since I was in school. You really can't help but become one when your mum is a teacher and brings home chocolates of whichever bratty's kid's birthday it was. Back then, I used to identify the kid with not his exam essay (which mom used to force me to read) but which chocolate he/she tried to impress me (yup, not mum, me) with ;)
Two decades later and about as many visits to the dentists, I am still chasing and living a chocoholics dream, in spite of the burgeoning waistline.
Being in such a chocolaty mood, here are the best chocolate stuff you can gorge on in the cities that I have lived in. Not too long a list, as I wanted to pen down the best that I have had...

The Chocolate Bomb (also called the Lava bomb): Little Italy, Mumbai/Pune/Bangalore: This is exactly what they say it: a bomb. A jab with the fork is all it takes to set it off. The hot molten chocolate inside is yummy. There was this place in Lokhandwala called Cocco's that had the whole menu comprising of, yep, cocoa and nothing else. The Choco bomb there was superlative. Why did it shut down, why??

Dark Temptation: Barista Outlets: This is a temptation for me every time I go there for coffee. Comprising of a decadent chocolate pastry, chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. Some outlets serve the pastry too hot and gooey while some serve it stone cold. The outlets at Oshiwara, MG road Bangalore and the erstwhile outlet at Koregaon Park Pune are the places that get it right always.

Double Trouble: Mad Over Donuts, Oberoi Mall, Mumbai: Yup, its a donut. Though once you bite into one, you can see how its more like a flimsy cover holding all the chocolate! Be warned, its pretty messy to eat this one. This donut comes without a hole as the top is layered with milk chocolate and the donut is stuffed with molten dark chocolate. One of the yummiest and strangest of all places to satiate you choco-cravings.

Death By Chocolate: The Corner House, All Bangalore Outlets: Yes, I know its a ice-cream place. But do you know that this dessert is something that I cannot finish the large size of? Yes, its a huge deal!!! Anyway, this baby has chocolate ice-cream, chocolate brownie, chocolate sauce, vanilla ice-cream and whipped cream with nuts. It comes in junior and large sizes and trust you me, its a meal in itself irrespective of the potion size.

Chocolate Avalanche: Mocha Outlets: Ingredients of this most decadent dessert are chocolate ice cream with chocolate mousse, chocolate sauce, chocolate brownie AND pieces of chocolate! Yes, that is a whole lot of chocolate and it ain't for the faint-stomached or for someone who is watching the waistline (yes, i am, but not while eating this kinda stuff!!)

Will keep adding to this list whenever I find a culinary choco feast that matches any of these. Till then, happy gorging...

Oh, and wouldn't it be great if people actually started buying into the whole gifting chocolates for Diwali instead of the over-sweet (yes, there is such a thing) milky sweets. Make a note all ye who have the fortune of meeting me the next Diwali.