football fever

the group stages are finally over...now starts the real fun, the knockout stage!!!a lot of big names have made an early exit from the tournament...the mighty italians, the proud germans, and the fiesty spaniards have failed to make it to the quarter finals... there is a surprise package though...minnows greece have made it, even though they'll have to face the defending champs and favorites france in the qf...the hosts portugal will face dark horses england who made it through with some excellent performances by the young player rooney...sweden faces holland which boasts of players like van nistelrooy and davids and will be favorites for this match...the otyer scandinivian nation which has made it is denmark who'll face off with the czech team...in short should be a hell of a great experience coming up...i do hope that my favorites france make it all the way through...VIVE LES BLEUS!!!
all about euro2004

movie mania 4

ladies,gentlemen and whatever
i'm back with more movie reviews...so let's kick off
lakshya -farhaan akhtar proves that he is not a one film wonder, that he can make films which are not entirely post-modernistic in outlook, that good war movies can be "made in india", etcetera,etcetera,etcetera...this is really one of the best war movies ever made by an indian though it is more about the transformation of a confused young lad into an officer and a gentleman who carries out his duty well...hrithik shows he can act, once again...preity is oh so cute as always...big b and om puri though remain unutilised...
24th day -a beautiful low budget movie which is all about homosexuality and the scourge of aids though the treatment(pun not intended) is entirely unique...the whole movie revolves around two men...worth watching!!!
the 13th floor -this is a bit old(1999) but since i saw it only recently and liked it a lot i thought i should include it here...this movie is a thriller revolving around the sci-fi concepts of virtual reality and artificial intelligence...it raises a pertinent question about the 'reality' of an AI program which beleives itself to be human...does it really exist as in COGITO,ERGO SUM...good watch...
more movies later...

the little red devils

the little red devils come marching upon me
to take my body and claim my soul
they know no limits, know no boundary
they just march in to eat me whole

they march right in when i am sleeping
they have no god apart from need
from every crevice they come out creeping
feeding on death, their only creed

they're everywhere the eye can see
inside my room, upon my bed
they crawl on my skin full of glee
they even crawl inside my head

i cannot run, i cannot hide
cornered thus, i have to fight
they hurt me hard,they wound my pride
crushing my soul with all their might

they have their fill,they take the spoils
they leave me hurt, in deepest sorrow
i make a resolve, my anger boils
i'll kill those goddamned ants tomorrow!!!

91304-070328-830177-61
© 2007 All Rights Reserved.

terrorist???

a man changes his religion to marry the girl he loves...he has 3 children with her and is prospering in his life...he owns his own car and a shop...a few years down the line he is killed in an encounter along with some others of his new religion in his own car, supposedly because he is an Islamic extremist and a terrorist plotting to kill a political leader...sounds like a movie plot???...truth is indeed stranger than fiction... any person who's willing to change his religion for love is obviously a strong believer in the futility of religion...a person who takes his father to temples in his car cannot be a religious zealot harbouring malice towards non-Muslims...what does this say for our police machinery???
click here for story

Movie mania-3

once more i'm back with some new movie reviews...only two for today as i'm not getting enough time to watch new movies due to euro2004...so let's get 'critic'y...
girlfriend - aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!! this &^^*$^&*$%£&%^*& of a movie is simply unbearable....one way to put it is that if urmila loved sonali kulkarni instaed of fardeen in 'pyaar tune kya kiya' then you'd get the basic plot of this movie....same old story of an obsessed lover with the aditional angle of lesbianism thrown in for novelty...all the actors are simply pathetic!!!...the hero keeps laughing when he's distressed, amrita looks constipated when she's in the throes of the sexual act and isha is simply aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!....u feel like killing urself for putting urself through this interminable torture...
dev - this is a good movie...it could have been great but it has fardeen & kareena to bring it down a little bit...om puri and the big B are great in the 2 main characters of the film around whose conflict the plot revolves...the penultimate scene is reminiscent of brutus in julius caesar but very well done...good watching...

Euro2004!!!

it's been a long long time....i've been sort of busy which is good...because it means that i still have a life!!! the biggest news is EURO2004!!! thats whats been keeping me busy...gr8 match yesterday between france n england...being a french supporter and a gr8 fan of zizou(a.k.a.zinedine zidane) i just loved the shock ending...the free kick into the goal was superb...vive les bleus!!!(long live the blues for the uneducated...les bleus is the nickname of the french national team for the uninitiated)...the first day produced the biggest shock of them all when minnows greece beat the hosts portugal 2-1...boy must the portuguese have been unhappy...neways thats how it goes...thats the beauty of the game...neone can beat neone on their day...thats why its the third most beautiful thing god ever made...after beer and girls!!!(in that order)...
signing off...VIVE LES BLEUS!!!

Unoriginality

too much of unoriginality for the past few entries in my blog...it seems as if i'm more of a cut and paste person than one with some views of his own...neways that doesn't matter because i just liked these things so much that i had to put them in and i'm sure that i'll continue to do that in the future...especially quotes from rand, because i feel that her writings have influenced me more than anything i've ever read or heard...coming from an easily impressionable mind like mine i feel that this is the greatest compliment i could accord her, but then again she doesn't need my compliments because she's just written down what she believes in and she doesn't need the acceptance of the world for that...for similar reasons i'm just writing all this down and i don't care of what people will think of it because this is who i am and i don't need the stamp of the world on it...

Mankind

"You know, it's such a peculiar thing--our idea of mankind in general. We all have a sort of vague, glowing picture when we say that,something solemn, big and important. out actually all we know of it is the people we meet in our lifetime. Look at them. Do you know any you'd feel big and solemn about?There's nothing but housewives haggling at pushcarts, drooling brats who write dirty words on the sidewalks, and drunken debutantes. Or their spiritual equivalent. As a matter of fact, one can feel some respect for people when they suffer. They have a certain dignity. But have you ever looked at them when they're enjoying themselves? That's when you see the truth. Look at those who spend the money they've slaved for--at amusement parks and side shows. Look at those who're rich and have the whole world open to them. Observe what
they pick out for enjoyment. Watch them in the smarter speak-easies. That's your mankind in general. I don't want to touch it."

Dominique Francon in "The Fountainhead"-Ayn Rand
another one...it stresses on the fact that the idea of the community as the greatest of all things to be served is stupid...it is our own individuality and the greatness within our own selves which we need to understand and worship if we want to realise our potential, failing which is the greatest sin which we can commit...

Love and Loathing

"If I found a job, a project, an idea or a person I wanted--I'd have to depend on the whole world.Everything has strings leading to everything else. We're all so tied together. We're all in a net,the net is waiting,and we're pushed into it by one single desire. You want a thing and it's precious to you. Do you know who is standing ready to tear it out of your hands? You can't know, it may be so involved and so far away, but someone is ready, and you're afraid of them all. And you cringe and you crawl and you beg and you accept them--just so they'll let you keep it. And look at whom you come to accept."

-Dominique Francon in "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand
this is a qoute from one of my favorite books and it reflects very well how i feel about the world...

Role of a Poet

Like a sickle moon
in the dark universe
or a silver lining
of a sunset cloud
or a dazzling ember
in the smouldering fire
or a shiny drop of rain
on a yellow drying leaf
I am, a mere hint of hope
my life, fluid poetry.

-written by Rashi Bunny (1998)

movie mania-2

some more movie reviews...
hellboy-what were they thinking???all right, nice special effects...nice action sequences...but there's something called a story people!!?!! i mean some gateway is opened for the gods of chaos by a supposedly immortal guy who's sold his soul to the devil to enable the nazis to win ww2 !!!! i mean how lamer can you get???sure hitler did a lot of evil things in his lifetime,but this???
van helsing-count dracula+frankenstein+werewolves+an agent of the papacy out to destroy evil...more like a ramsay potboiler than a hollywood production...dracula can't be killed by the conventional methods...god only knows why...but this movie proclaims a universal truth...the desire to procreate is the driving force of any lifeform, even if it's an evil dude who's made a covenant with the devil to become a half bat undead creature...
troy-high on hype, low on deliverance...this epic(???) movie tries to tell the tale of the famed trojan war and its heroes...it gives you a very concise rendering of the war and only two heroes and a villain...achilles, hector of troy and agamemnon, king of the greeks, respectively...the rest are just insipid idiots fighting for some reason or the other...where is ulysses(or odysseus in greek)???where are the twins castor and pollux???this is another movie which fails to live up to the book on which it is based...
more movies later...

angel

All through the night
I'll be standing over you
All through the night
I'll be watching over you

And through the bad dreams
I'll be right there,
Baby holding your hand,
Telling you everything is all right.

Telling you were never anything
Less than beautiful.

So don't worry
I'm your Angel standing by.

p.s.this one's not original,so plz don't blame me for plagiarism...i liked it..so it's here...

Hope

I had a dream one night
I shone like a lamp
And filled the world with light.
I dreamt that I would
Remove the suffering and hatred
And change the world for good.

I dreamt of a new world
Filled with happiness, joy and love
As was meant to be by the One up above.
A world with no shackles, no chains to bind
The thoughts of a carefree, beautiful mind.
A world of freedom, equal for all
No one would cry, no tears will fall.
Where love would be the only creed
There will be no fear, no hearts would bleed.

No pain, no grief, no darkness, no sorrow
This brave new world could be ours tomorrow.
Yes, I had this dream one night
That I could fill the world with His light.

But the dream was shattered like fallen glass
When they came marching upon the grass.
They said they fought in His name
Upon Him too they had staked a claim.

They took away my dream
They left my love dying
They took all they could
And left the babies crying.
They took away my heroes,
They took my belief,
Leaving in their wake
Nothing but grief.

With flashes of light and thunderous sound
They razed everything to the ground.
They promised freedom, a heavenly life
They gave us nothing except for strife.
They took away my faith
They took away the light
For there’s only darkness
Until the time they fight.

Still I live, I dream
While in the dark I grope
They may have taken everything
But they can’t take away … my hope

35549-070328-272621-60
© 2007 All Rights Reserved.

movie mania

i have been seeing a lot of movies recently...i am not a very good critic of movies because i like very crappy movies which flop left,right and centre...i also like intellectually inspired movies in addition to intellectually challenged popcorn flicks... i like mithun movies,govinda movies and boom apart from liking shahrukh movies and above all i like mani ratnam movies,shyam benegal movies,etc....in short i like almost everything that has ever been made on celluloid...thats why i might be a very bad critic because i simply love the medium...still let us talk about some of the movies i recently saw...
yuva-over hyped instruction to the youth of india to get up and do-it-yourself!abhishake bachchan is brilliant,ajay devgan is expectedly strong and silent while vivek oberoi is an insipid nut who doesn't have a clue as to what he is supposed to be doing...disappointing by mani ratnam standards....
hum tum- 'when harry met sally' + yash raj films = rich indians strutting around the globe falling in love slowly and steadily over a period af years!!!unthinkable by the love at first sight standards of indian cinema...but over all its a wonderful movie...saif is at his charming best in a wonderful role...rani does well too...kirron kher is gr8 as rani's loving punjabi mom...gr8 movie for all of us romantics...
shrek2-i have no words for it!!! just the cast of voice talents speaks for itself(pun intended!!!)-mike myers,eddie murphy,cameron diaz,antonio banderas,julie andrews,rupert everett...it is one of the most delightful sequels i have ever seen...eddie murphy is at his best as donkey once again...puss in boots is simply wonderful with that spanish accent...the movie reinforces the moral of its prequel...it doesn't matter what you look like...what matters is what's on the inside...
enough for now...more movies later

the sound of music

music....food for the soul...sound arranged into notes and chords and god knows whatnot to make it sound pleasing to the ears and to our soul...good music never fails to touch me somewhere deep inside...and the genre really doesn't matter to me...i listen to all sort of stuff...western classical, indian classical, semi classical, folk, sufi, rock, ghazals, retro, pop, film music, trance, etcetera, etcetera...in short i listen to anything and everything as long as i like it!!! i especially like rock because i sort of like the ideas and thoughts behind it...freedom, justice, equality...rock sort of goes well with a youthful mind full of ideals and respect for the indomitable human spirit...i am a strict believer in the might of the individual human spirit to endure and endeavour towards a better world...and this is what rock is all about...here i would like to quote from one of my favourites "stairway to heaven" by led zeppelin..."and its whispered that soon,if we all call the tune...then the piper will lead us to reason..."!!!apt if you can understand what it means...another genre which i love is sufi music, especially the great nusrat fateh ali khan...i used to be a big beleiver in mysticism but thats changed now due to reasons which might be discussed elsewhere...anyways i still believe in the eternal nature of love which is preached in sufism...love...not for the beloved but for the holy which means the spark of life we all carry in us because god is a concept created by this spark of life which has reached its pinnacle in our intellect...love for the values which make us what we are...love for the ideals which we cherish and live by...too much idealism for today's practical materialist world for now...so i'll conclude with another quote this time from metallica..."nothing else matters!!!"

why?

i am currently studying(...???really?) in the Indian Institute of Technology,Kharagpur...one of the most exalted colleges for technical education in our huge,poor nation...it is the oldest of the iit's..well enough for gk let's get down to the business of writing something for this damned blog which no self respecting man in his right mind would ever like to read...but therein arises the question that why am i doing this?wasting my time trying to write something which probably no one apart from me will ever read?...the answer lies inside each of us..all of us human beings have a natural urge to express their innermost thoughts in some way or the other...some of us draw,paint or sketch...some try out acting...some can't do it because they don't have any innermost thoughts(innermost???do we have layers or something,dude?)...others like me write...for as long as i can remember i have been reading stuff...from comics to magazines to novels to encyclopaedias to a whole lotta crazy shit including jam jar labels....and i always wished to be able to write something which others could read and appreciate...well i have succeeded partially as i have written a couple of poems which have been appreciated by a lot of people and i also participate in creative writing competitions in which i have managed to get a few prizes...but it was always something which was written more for others..now i have realised the importance of writing for oneself and that is the reason i am doing this...and as it is these are the summer vacations and i have nothing much better to do being away from my girlfriend and most of my friends...so now that i have explained the raison d'etre for this blog go ahead and read it if you want to...but if you don't...i give a damn!!!