New ventures...

Last weekend was fun.

The blokes (Myself, Videsh, Harshal, Mayank) gathered for a 'championship' of Pool. Everyone pooled in $2 and had a go at each other before the top two players played the finale. The prize money was significant (yes, $5 for first prize and $3 for second), with the table open to bets for others. Minimum betting amount was $1 per game.

It turned out to be more serious than planned, with people fighting tooth and nail for every game.

Game 1: Harshal vs. Videsh - Harshal was the winner
Game 2: Rohan vs. Mayank - Rohan was the winner
Game 3: Harshal vs. Mayank - Mayank was the winner
Game 4: Videsh vs. Rohan - Videsh was the winner
Game 5: Rohan vs. Harshal - Rohan was the winner
Game 6: Videsh vs. Mayank - Videsh was the winner

Final: Videsh vs. Rohan - Videsh was the winner

Though I lost to Videsh, I made $1 return on my investment of $2 :) And btw, I won a $1 side bet on Mayank too. Put in $2 and got $4, not bad, eh?

Rants on Usability

I have been collecting a series of rants that I have about GUI design in various softwares that I use in day to day life - http://blogs.sun.com/gridbag/category/Usability

Back...

Time to activate this property again. I collected too many creative nuggets in the 7 or so months that I was away, plus, my company, Sun Microsystems, is going to be history in some time (mostly), and until the new bosses decide whether blogging is allowed or not, I will miss out on all the creativity. So, back to my primary blog. Some resolutions when restarting blogging here:

1. No three consecutive posts will be rants
2. More serious content especially related to my recent study on software usability
3. Try to stick to 2 posts a month, at a minimum.

Let's see how long this adventure lasts.

The End

Ok, that's it folks!

That's the end of this blog.

After 3 years, and 3 months, I am hanging up my boots. Like an Ekta Kapoor serial, this closure is long overdue. Perhaps my next foray into the world of blogging will be a much better focused endeavor than this one, but for now the creative juices have all dried up.

Bye bye and all the best!
Rohan

Father of the nation

Say "Father of the nation" and the person that comes to your mind is Mahatma Gandhi. But I am not going to blog about Mahatma Gandhi. I am going to blog about a person who lost his only son, his only support in life to save people like you and me, so that we can enjoy our weekend box office movie in a multiplex. I am talking about Sandeep Unnikrishnan's father.

There comes a time when one realizes his/her worthlessness in life. An utter lack of meaning, a sheer clarity of purpose. It is exactly what yours truly is going through right now. Away in a foreign country, in search of big bucks, just like any other software engineer whose primary purpose in life becomes running away from his motherland in the guise of a green card. All of us say - India is this, India is that. But we cowards never go back and improve our motherland. We give up on it. What is the use of our education, our talent? Shame on us.

As I watched the events unfold in Mumbai on 26th November, I went through a variety of emotions. Utter outrage, concern, sadness, happiness, what not. But I can never forget that image of Sandeep Unnikrishnan's mother touching her son's face one last time, before he was consigned to flames. A mother who had lost her only son. Born to my parents after lots of hardships, I can only imagine what Sandeep must have meant to his parents. Their only hope, their child whom they would have always remembered as a little crawling baby, lying there, motionless. What does the future hold for them? Their lives be never the same again.

Will we as Indians make Sandeep's and other army men's sacrifice count? Does it make even a difference to an average Indian like you and me about why a lone son, decided to take a meagre salary job as an NSG Commando and laid down his life for the country? Have you thought for even a minute if you were to die, what your parents would go through? When the Kargil war was fought, our soldiers were tourtured by Pakistan. Their ears, noses were cut, their private organs mutilated before they were put to death. What must have their mothers felt on seeing their bodies? What would your mother feel like if she sees your body like this?

Is it fair that our army men die like bowling pins, and we carry on with our lives, careless, caring just about which movie is going to hit the theatres or which restaurant are we going to dine in?

Can we not atleast become sons and daughters to Sandeep's parents? Can we atleast not take care of them, the way their son would have? Donating money is not the way. The way is to spend time with them, take care of them, bring back a smile on their faces.

Can we atleast not tell our brave soldiers that we - Indians - commoners like you and me - will take care of them, should tragedy befall. Believe me, it's the least us civilians can do. It's high time we do it. Let's not wait for the government or any filmstar father turned politician to do it.

What women say.. and what they really mean!

This entry is taken from http://bitsandpieces.us/2008/12/02/9-things-women-say-and-what-they-really-mean. It's hilarious and dead correct!

(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with ‘nothing’ usually end in ‘fine’.

(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don’t Do It!

(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually not a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of ‘nothing’.)

(6) That’s Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. ‘That’s okay’ means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you’re welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says ‘Thanks a lot’ - which is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say ‘you’re welcome’ . that will bring on a ‘whatever’).

(8) Whatever: Is a woman’s way of saying F– YOU!

(9) Don’t worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking ‘What’s wrong?’ For the woman’s response refer to # 3.

Yuvraaj - Me in Rage

I had the misfortune of watching a Salman Khan movie. I just don't seem to learn from my mistakes, do I? I ended up watching a silly movie with a silly hero - Sallu, and in doing that blew up 10 dollars (which I earn doing not-so-silly things).

Suffice to say, the questions I had after the movie were: Where am I? What has happened to me? Why am I here? Apart from the large diet coke that I got free as part of AMC's promotional offer, and the blissful feeling one gets when one gets to pee after waiting and waiting and waiting with a full bladder, I had nothing to enjoy in the 3 hours at the cinema hall. And to think that Subhash Ghai has spent millions of ruppees on this crap. Shucks. India would be a developed country if such movies were not made. Since I generally have to speak about the film, here's the review:

The first half goes needlessly in trying to see Salman not even attempting to act. That he cannot dance with his steroid built body is a known fact, so dance directors would have been better served if they had asked a chimp to be put as a double instead. Anyway, Salman looks his age, and it's a pity watching Katrina Kaif with him. Not that she can act. But atleast one can look at her. Salman Khan, in his quest for delivering every line with his accent, makes a mess of an already paltry script and a disaster of a screenplay. I think Ghai lost interest half way through the project or has caught Alzheimer's. Other actors: Zayed Khan - it's amazing what one gets to be on the basis of one's dad's deeds. This dude who spends half the time kissing and cuddling a firang babe, doesn't know acting and still gets paid for his circus. Wow. And Anil Kapoor, to be fair to him, he is the only guy acting in the movie, but, the role is a bit moronic for someone like him. And what Boman Irani is doing in the film is best known to him.

Second half is for family reunion, as unconvincing as the first half. Oh what pain one has to put up to watch this movie. Every 2 mins, I had to quell the urge to utter a mouthful of profanities. Alas, I couldn't control it any longer when the credits appeared after the movie and I muttered - "Hit him, hit that guy. Don't spare him" to which a lady sitting next to me started giggling. Hardly a solace.

About the songs - most of them are unnecessary, and perhaps some goon gang from Ghai pressurized Rehman into giving music session while Rehman was on a severe bout of constipation. What a yucky musical score. And to see Salman dance, Oh Lord what wrong have I done in life?

One thing is for sure though. Salman is past now. Look out for the scenes where he is in his half pant showing off his body. He really appears comic now. Those false hair on his head make for a cool unintentional comedy.

Anyway, I have better things to do than write about this Salman crapper any more. Moral of the story, even if you have cash to blow or time to kill, please don't end up to watch this movie. I might still give this one more points than Drona - another misguided rocket from Goldie Behl (he got Sonali Bendre, can you imagine!). But surely Yuvraaj is a movie to recommend to your worst enemy - that enemy won't last long.