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Sunday, November 25, 2007

OSO

I know I am late at this one, but couldn't help it. I had almost dropped the idea of writing about it but when I saw it the second time on Friday, I thought I had to!! For those who are still wondering what I am talking about, its Om Shanti Om !!

People's responses to this movie are extreme - either they are amazed or they are utterly disappointed. I belong to the first category, and happily so. And believe me, the second category is very minuscule - that's proved by the fact that it has grossed Rs. 40 crore in India and around $5m abroad in a short duration. Its a complete entertainer from minute 1. The whole thing is so well thought out and well made. You can start talking about what you liked about it and you'll get lost. Listing a few of my favourites, and not in that order:
1. The shooting of the Tamil movie - excellent - "Muniyadaar Muniyadaar .. Yenna rascala!!"
2. The old style song where Deepika dances with digital forms of Sunil Dutt, Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra. Neat.
3. Using technicians as actors - dialogue writer, music director, director, etc.
4. Digs at Manoj Kumar, Dev Anand, Sooraj Barjatya, etc.
5. Return of the Khiladi - though it is copied, isn't it wonderfully made?
6. The awards show with special 'self-mocking' roles for Abhishek Bachchan and Hrithik as well as SRK himself.
7. Usage of the name OK for Om Kapoor - Ok, that's not something great but i mention it because me and my roomies have a nice story to laugh off about OK :).
8. Deliberate over-acting by Kirron Kher.
9. Karz and Subhash Ghai.
10. King Khan of course - he just rocks.
11. The absolutely stunning Deepika - I saw OSO the second time for her!! And everyone (guys) I meet seems to have fallen in love with her!!

I know I have forgotten some!! Readers can add to the list. Anyway, a very good entertainer. Farah Khan has truly arrived as a director who delivers no-brains entertainment. For those who are yet to see it, what are you waiting for?? Rush to the nearest theatre NOW!!

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Free rice!!

Today i got an email from my manager saying 'Web game provides rice for hungry'. Sounds interesting, right? I went to the site and was amazed by the concept. It's a great idea. Here's how it works -

1. The game - The web page shows you a word and you have to give its meaning. There are four options to choose from.
2. Whether you get it right or not, you go to the next question. For every right answer, 10 grains of rice are donated through the United Nations.
3. Where does the donation come from? Every time you click on an answer, the next page will show you a few ads at the bottom. Every time an ad is shown, the advertisers pay for it.

Isn't that simple?

The difficulty level of the word will depend on you. The game starts with a word of random difficulty. Three consecutive correct answers will result in a word from the next level. Every right answer takes you to a word one level below the previous one. So after some time you know your level. There are levels up to 50 and each word is assigned a level. The difficulty level of each word is also updated depending on how many people get it right. Isn't that a neat algorithm?

Now for the best part - After every right answer, they show you how many grains you have donated. That gives a wonderful feeling, at the same time giving you a chance to improve your vocabulary. It has a nice graphical display to boot !!

It kinda gets you hooked - and I kept doing this for a few minutes. Then the math guy in me took notice of the fact that 'number of grains' is no indication of how much it is and I was losing the motivation! So I googled a couple of things -
1. Is this site authentic? Yes, says the BBC - check this: Web game provides rice for hungry.
2. What is the weight of one grain of rice? On an average it is 28 mg.
3. How much rice a person needs in one meal (with other stuff of course)? 1 portion - about 50 gms.
Now 1 gm = 1000 mg (Didn't need to Google that!!). And 50 x 1000 / 28 = 1785.72 which can be rounded off to 1800. So here you go - the motivation - Play till you get 180 answers right - that gets you to donate 1800 grains or one portion of rice!!

It would roughly take half an hour to provide a decent meal to a poor man in some poverty stricken corner of the world - isn't that wonderful!! And yes - you can brag about your vocabulary level - I kindof settled at 36 :)

And while you are at math & rice, read this: Rice Rice Baby - very interesting!!

Click on the image below to start playing -

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Where am I?

For all those who were wondering where I have been since more than a month, here's a quick update. I was a bit busy in office to start with, then went off home (Ahmedabad) on two weeks leave. After a wonderful Diwali at home, I was back around 10 days back, but before I could settle down, CAT was staring me in the face. And then came the big surprise - I had to move to Hyderabad DC for one month. So I was off to Bangalore for CAT, and straight to Hyd from there. Now slowly settling into the new place.

I have been to 5 cities in two weeks !! Was in Ahmedabad on 10th .. Mumbai on 11th .. Mangalore on 12th .. Bangalore on 17th .. and now Hyderabad on 20th - howzzat !!

Will be busy with some training for couple more days, but will be back with my blogs very soon. Thanks for reading .. please continue !!