IPL semis

It will be Rajasthan vs Delhi & Punjab vs Chennai.

Teams led by the 'icon'ic Dravid, Laxman, Saurav and Tendulkar are out. Hmm .....

Monaco GP

McLaren win & Hamilton is back at the top of the Drivers' standings!

BJP wins KA

And consequently gets it's 1st decisive victory in a state election south of the Vindhyas. It's a historic occasion for them, but will it turn out to be a new beginning for the state?

Progress(?) has stalled repeatedly over the last few years because of one inept leadership after the other and states like A.P. & T.N. have stolen a march over India's original tech state. Seeing BJP's performance in Gujarat & Rajasthan, there is reason for hope on the development front.

Now Playing

Kabhi Kabhi
Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na - Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na O.S.T.
The 2 stand out tracks in an average A.R. Rehman job.

Chalte Chalte Phir - Jal
The sound is somewhat juvenile, but it works. Boond itself is a pretty good album, with tracks like Sajni standing out.

Nkalakatha - Mendoza
The language is probably Afrikans, but the bassline is very very catchy. FYI, this is the track they used in the Bajaj Avenger 'Feel like God' commercial.

Poets of the Fall's latest 'Revolution Roulette' and 50 Cent's 'Before I Self Destruct' do not have what I was looking for. Maybe I'm growing out of Hip Hop.

Bengaluru International Airport

The new airport finally opened on the 24th. Nobody in the city is very happy about it though because of how far it is for most people.

The pictures ....








.... look good.

The transportation is what will have to be sorted out. The Volvos are the best means available now.



And they're using Logans as taxis.


And Revas for ground transport!


All pics courtesy this guy and Wikipedia.

Goings-on

Busy week at work. Reaching early and leaving late sucks, but there's no other way, is there?

It's been a pensive week what with Kuppu having returned & Baishaly's departure imminent. I have to learn to let go of baggage.

A lot of goings-on on the family and relatives side as well, but that's the subject of another post.

Salil has returned to Jampot for good, Soumya won't be back from Bombay before October & Pritish will be in Dubai indefinitely. Rakesh left for the US, Seth is in Korea and Prav completed a year in Texas this month. It's probably God's way of telling me to get the hell out of this city too.

The IPL - well, Kolkata flattered to deceive. Delhi are holding on to hope against Mumbai while Chennai are bent upon making things difficult for themselves. It's been a month of fascinating entertainment. Come back in the evenings just in time to catch a match which finishes just as it's time to crash for the day. The fact that any big movie hasn't released since the IPL's advent tells a story. TV ratings for other programs have taken a beating too.

Talking of TV, Roadies 5.0 got over yesterday. Rumours circulating on Orkut had conjectured about a victory for Ashutosh, and that is how it turned out. This year's edition wasn't very appealing somehow, probably cause the girls had been selected for looks rather than smarts. The guys would sometimes match them on the dumbness stakes though. It will remain a mystery how somebody like Nihal managed to reach the final 2. Probably because he struck up a friendship with the very shaayna Ashutosh.

Get ready for the next season of the assorted bunch of singing-talent-unearthing programs now.

Kuppu is back from Connecticut and there was lots of Hershey's in the office today.

Did my first bit of stitching and button sewing today.

Google never ceases to surprise. Today's logo commemorates the invention of the 1st laser.

1 year

I almost forgot, it's been exactly a year since I shifted to M4.

And I haven't looked back since ..... at Hosur Road, that is.

Baishaly resigned today.

New Honda Accord

Honda has released the 2008 Accord in India.

Salil said goodbye to Bangalore today.

Shoaib is back,& how!

In what must surely be one of the best matches in the 2008 IPL, Shoaib Akhtar made a dramatic comeback. Knight Riders managed 130 odd in a listless batting performance against the Daredevils.

It was supposed to have been a catwalk for the Delhiites, but in comes SA making his IPL debut & ripping apart the top order with 4 wickets in his 1st 3 overs!

Arni, Sarfu & me found ourselves backing the underdogs Kolkata to the hilt & SRK's team did not dissapoint. Shoaib picked up the MoM deservedly, & I've never been happier to see him do so. Superb match!

Deepanjan's mom is in the ICU & he has had to airdash back to Calcutta. I just hope everything gets sorted out soon.

TORCS

Not bad. But will take some time getting used to the game play.

IPL update

This is what it looks like at the moment. And this is just about the semi final line up I had in mind after the 1st few matches had been played.

Royals and Super Kings are definitely through, while King's XI had their 5 match winning streak snapped by Chennai the other night. They too look like a certainty.

The 4th place should be a toss up between Knight Riders; Daredevils and Mumbai Indians (if Sachin comes off the bench). I'd love to see Kolkata go through, but Delhi too are a very good side.

Chargers and Royal Challengers are as good as dead.

Turkish GP

A very keenly fought race with Hamilton and Massa going back and forth for the 1st place throughout. In the end it was Ferrari getting 1st and 3rd with Hamilton at 2nd.

Sittu informs that City Sagar has been shut down .... whether it's for renovation or the place has been sold is not clear. It'll be sad if it closed, it was the 1st hotel in Bangalore whose food we took a liking to and the Chicken Manchurian Fried Rice was to die for.

Tashan

Crazy ass movie, but it's likable in parts.

There was a time in the 90s when Akshay and Saif had a good thing going at the box office. Movies like Main Khiladi Tu Anari, Keemat & Tu Chor Main Sipahi were superb timepass fare with above average standards of comic timing. I wonder what happened then, and why it's taken so long for these two to feature in the same movie once more.

Anyway, the 2 are together again and here's my take -

The film is shot very well. The landscapes of Ladakh; Rajasthan & Kerala have been captured superbly. But then, it's expected from a Yash Raj film, right?

Kareena - I liked version 1.0, but the new size 0 iteration just doesn't cut it. Femmes are beautiful creatures, and should feature curves. Leave the straight lines for the men please.

Saif - looks jaded; and the cool dude act is beginning to look dated now.

Anil Kapoor - never liked him & this movie doesn't change that.

Akshay - awesome is the word! This guy never ceases to surprise. From his dialog delivery to the facial expressions and the U.P. accent, everything is totally watchable. The scene where he proposes to Kareena while Saif holds the placards in the background stands out.

Script - it's there somewhere, appears now & then.

Music - Vishal & Shekhar deliver as usual.

Direction - Akshay makes the director appear talented, seriously.

It sometimes feels like you're watching a typical 80s masala flick with the mandatory action laden 'climax' at the end. Which is sad, since the 1st half is quite promising.

NGM - May issue

This month's issue of NGM is one of the best ever.

in.youtube.com

Yup, the Indian version of the world's most popular video sharing site has been launched!

Ducati's here

The country's biking scene has been pretty quiet this year after the flurry of launches last year.

Anyway, here's something that sounds good .... Ducati has launched in India. They'll be importing at the moment, with customer response determining whether they should start assembly in future.


Even so, it's a start. One 1098 for me, please.

iPhone / Tube?

Vodafone has announced the launch of the iPhone later this year in India. And there are reports of Nokia coming out with a competitor at around the same time.

I know one thing .... my next phone is going to be a toss up between these two.

Partaaaaay time

Salil's farewell party on Saturday & Sarfaraz's b'day party today.

Meanwhile Royals have reached the top of the IPL team standings. I, for one, never saw this coming.

Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR
Rajasthan	6	5	1	0	0	10	+0.873
Delhi	6	4	2	0	0	8	+0.761
Punjab	6	4	2	0	0	8	+0.385
Chennai	6	4	2	0	0	8	+0.176
Kolkata	6	2	4	0	0	4	+0.482
Mumbai	6	2	4	0	0	4	-0.889
Bangalore	6	2	4	0	0	4	-1.540
Deccan	6	1	5	0	0	2	-0.200

Mumbai have upped the ante of late, while Kolkata are going down. Things are hotting up nicely.

Navigator is dead, here's Flock

Thought of checking out Netscape Navigator after using it on Abhishek' laptop last weekend. Turns out Netscape has stopped it's development as this BBC report confirms.

I remember when the net came out in the mid-90s, Navigator & IE used to be THE browsers available. Of course, MicroSoft killed it by bundling IE with Windows. What's surprising though, is how it managed to survive this long, till 2008. Also that Deepanjan, the browser aficionado didn't blog about this.

Anyway, Netscape itself recommends Firefox or Flock now & so I decided to check it out.


It's quite similar to Firefox functionally & visually, so let's see how it goes. I'm looking forward to the 'Social Browser' part.