1. The Joy of Quiet

2. http://www.engrish.com  – Examples of classic English

A Very Happy New Year to all of you!!! Hope you guys have a great 2012.

Here’s my report card for 2011 which WordPress has prepared. Must say I loved the way they put it. This is one of the reasons I love WordPress :)

Thanks all who visited, read and took time comment on this blog. Happy reading.  

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,100 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Kapil Sibal in a press conference. photo courtesy: http://demockcrazy.wordpress.com/

While there are some alleging that All the Congress leaders have been told to give foolish statements so that they can make Rahul Gandhi look good.

Well, I have nothing against Congress or the Gandhi family. In fact when I see the posts regarding Sonia Gandhi not being born to her father or Indira Gandhi’s character is being assassinated, for me it only shows how cheap and narrow minded these individuals are, whoever posted that content. Really people - GROW UP. how does that matter to you? What should matter is the policies that they make and how they run the country?

But then politics is a race, how could Congress have been left behind. They made their move and have shown that they can be cheaper than those posting such offensive comment. They want to censor “user-generated” content from India and make a mockery of Indian democracy. They want to show us the lesser mortals our “Aukat”. But then do they not know that it is not possible. Ah! Is this yet another ploy to divert the public attention from issues that actually matter? May be. But either way – you lose.Harms your IMAGE in any case.
Times have changed. Please wake up. What worked 2-3 decades ago doesn’t work anymore. Find some new tricks. But then seasoned politicians that you are I am sure you will figure out ways. Anything to keep yourselves in power, right?

In the end, all political parties are the same. Everyone of these is working for their own welfare. FDI in retail sector is one classic example.

Here’s one rant that sums it up correctly.

I was lost in watching all the flash mob videos, different versions of Kolaveri Di, reading news about “Dirty picture” and wasting lots of time on Facebook. Have been ill in between and kind of became completely useless  for sometime. So my poor blog suffered from complete lack of attention.

Just re-posting a few funny tweets, I found. Of course, I hardly use my Twitter account so most of these are courtesy “Google-baba”

The first two are for the voice app “Siri” for the new iPhone

• Q. “Siri, find me the nearest gynaecologist.” A. “Kalmoohi, kahaan muh kaala karaake aayi hai?”
• Q: Siri, will you marry me? A: My end user licensing agreement does not cover marriage. My apologies. (Actual answer )
• If one synchronized swimmer drowns do the rest all have to drown too?
• The only way Mark Zuckerberg can get seriously injured is if Rajinikanth pokes him on Facebook
• Hi. I suffer from amnesia. Do I come here often?
• Respect your elders!…. They made it through school without Google or Wikipedia!
• If Apple wants to sell iPhone 4s at a ridiculous price, the least they could do is replace Siri with Savita bhabhi. :O
• Q. “Siri, explain the movie ‘Inception’ to me.” A. “Saree mein saree, Parag saree.”
• Do you have Facebook? -yes. YouTube? -yes. Twitter? of course. Life? I opened an account but I don’t really use it!
• You never know what you have untill you clean your room…

What font are you? – take a quiz and find out

India Inc plugging into the Web 2.0 with regional languages - waiting for Kannada to be included in it.

Lastly my fave Dilbert

Happy Anna-dependence Day

 Amul has this art of coming up with print ads for every occasion. Something similar to the google doodles only that this one started much earlier.

They have done it yet again! Not commenting upon Anna’s lokpriyata but this one is our lokpriya butter for sure

“In 1982, In Singapore, LOKPAL BILL was implemented and 142 Corrupt Ministers & Officers were arrested in one single day.. Today Singapore has only 1% poor people & no taxes are paid by the people to the government, 92% Literacy Rate, Better Medical Facilities, Cheaper Prices, 90% Money is white & Only 1% Unemployment exists..

Re Post this if you want to live in a corruption free country.. Spread this like FIRE..”

Wow!! all these people spreading fire. For Gods sake READ what you are posting. No taxes??? what goddamn country on earth (or even mars for that matter) does that? Has history any record of such a king, province, country?

And this from people who are on a quest to know the “TRUTH”. What is your definition of poor? From the official Singapore website the resident unemployment rate is 3.1%. And mind you the unemployment benefits in Singapore are very very low. To be poor is your own mistake in the state. Public welfare is looked down upon. And there is something called as demographics. Pls google it if you don’t understand what it means. And no single change can claim to get India into that league unless there is strong will in the top bureaucrats as well as the people.Neither seem to have that in India. (Pls shouting slogans and clicking on FB buttons does not count). There is something called as CPIB in Singapore though which fights against corruption. This comes under the charge of Singapore PM’s office. It was set up in 1952 and not 1982 and there is no record of 142 arrests in a single day.

Like every other Indian, I was glad too when I heard about this movement, Anna and the Janlok Pal Bill the first time. I did support the cause but as things progressed and I looked into details the mass hysteria just doesn’t make sense to me. With all due respects to Anna, your methods are undemocratic! We know the current government’s sad state and we want solutions and not a new road to chaos. We want to remove corruption and not “remove the current corrupt so that new ones can take on the reins of corruption”. I am not cynical here just trying to be pragmatic. I know no single solution/law/method can be perfect and that is exactly why I don’t want one single entity taking over and trying to solve all our problems.

Even for a moment I assume the bill is justified and the blackmailing is required to get the current government move its a$$ and get working in this case, I don’t know what else will become justified. If this is how things start getting done and this is the example we set we can’t even predict the results. It is going to be complete chaos. Lets have some method to our madness…

I want corruption removed too, want to contribute to society too and I believe living in a democratic country entitles me to voice my opinion. Not allowing dissenting voices is not just undemocratic, it is arrogance. Your intent is noble but pls understand that change will be gradual and needs to happen at all levels and many more steps need to be taken to get there. There is no magic wand that can do away the curse of corruption on our country. But we are all empowered to bring about that change. Lets use the power and use it judiciously…

British Columbia is beautifully captured

Today was our lay low…chill at the house…do laundry…drink Pina Coladas and watch boat traffic day.   While walking on the beach at low tide, I was able to get within 50 feet from this eagle. The house is the one above the beach house on stilts. This was the sitting area below the house. Another wonderful day! … Read More

via Fabulous at Fifty

Senorita_ZNMD

In this era of forgettable hindi movies ZNMD is a breath of fresh air. The cast, the locations, the adventures are amazing! It is not an experimental movie and in fact a very predictable one but that exactly is the challenge here. It is  worth watching in spite of it being so predictable.

ZNMD

One of the movies that lingers on even after you have come out of the theatre. After watching the movie you would want to do all of that: Visit Spain, go on a road trip, meet up with ur old frnds, do adventure sports, go to Spanish festivals, dance, have fun and well “seize the moment!”. It is a very cliched dialogue and kinda lost charm but nevertheless, the characters seem to be having fun and you would want to be a part of it. The trio Farhan Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan and Abhay Deol are irresistible. Katrina looks fab and so does Kalki. Music and dialogues are of course good too.

The movie is about conquering fear and living in the moment. What I could see while watching the movie was How beautiful Spain is, what a few days of vacation can do to your life, what is it to live life unburdened, what it is to meet up with old frnds and how good it is to have fun, how it feels to have met love unexpectedly, how good it feels to be silly and not worry what we did yesterday or how tomorrow is going to be.

The best part of the movie was the song “Senorita” where all the actors have sung the song themselves and the dialogues of Imran’s musings. It is a normal, typical hindi movie where all ends well and the characters have nothing to care about but to enjoy life, sing and dance. Totally worth my money bole toh paisa wasool. Thanks Zoya for such a refreshing movie !