Honda CBR1000RR & CB1000R

.... were launched in India today.

The last 1 year has seen a lot of activity in the high capacity sports bike segment - what with the likes of Yamaha; Suzuki & Ducati having launched their biggest & best models here. So it would seem that the old saying - "when it rains, it pours" - is true.

The logical progression from here would be to start assembly of 500cc-600cc models & start localising 250cc-300c stuff here. India already makes some of the best bikes in the world in the 100cc-200cc range. This would be the next step.

3G finally!

BSNL 'soft launches' 3G in various state capitals today. It's been a long, long wait.

Other operators too should roll it out soon, hopefully.

Carlsberg

.... has launched in Bangalore & tastes pretty darn good too.

Budweiser has competition now for the position of my favorite beer.

Oh, and I love the cool green bottle!

Dev

Dev landed up to wish Sid on his b'day yesterday. Seems the poor guy is going through a major hair loss phase. Which is strange, considering how good he looked with his straightened long hair when I'd met him on the bus a month back. The transformation is pretty surprising.

Afsha

Caught her on an NDTV special yesterday evening interviewing the Pathan brothers.

I remember Sittu & me were big fans of hers back in college .... she still looks very much the cutest sportscaster in the country. And this^^ picture doesn't do her justice.

Slumdog at the Oscars

Best picture: Slumdog Millionaire

Best director: Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire

Best adapted screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire

Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire

Sound mixing: Resul Pookutty - Slumdog Millionaire

Film editing: Slumdog Millionaire

Best original score: A. R. Rehman - Slumdog Millionaire

Best original song: A. R. Rehman - Jai Ho - Slumdog Millionaire

Wow!

Reality shows this season

Roadies 6

It's all beginning to look a little jaded for this show. They've tried to spruce it up a bit this year with more imaginative tasks & tougher vote-outs, but people have got so used to the format, that all they wanna do is save their spots for the next episode. All the spontaneity that could be seen earlier with people like Shambhavi & Bani seems to have gone out the window. Bobby though ....


.... is one of the cutest girls ever to have featured on Roadies.

Indian Idol 4

Saurabhi ....


.... should be the 1st ever female Indian Idol. She's the best among the last 3. I completely didn't follow Idol this time. Probably cause Arnab's away in the US. The same goes for ....

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009

The episodes (or at least the few that I caught) competed among themselves to see which could be more sillier than the last one. This show was at it's peak last year with contestants like Amaanat Ali & Raja Hassan. Sadly, this year the decline in standards is more than apparent. I don't even know who won the recently held final.

Dance India Dance

Zee's attempt to muscle in on the dance reality show genre. And I must say that the results are impressive. The contestants are able, the judges (Terence Lewis, Geeta Kapur & Remo Dsouza) know their choreography, the standard of performances has been high & Mithun da (as 'GrandMaster') has been more than a ceremonial showpiece. I'm looking forward to this one.

EDIT: my prediction was spot on .... Saurabhi did win Indian Idol 4. On an aside, it seems Idol has turned into a means for the people from the North-East to stamp their presence on the mainstream Indian psyche. Get someone from that region into the finals & people vote for him/her with their feet. This doesn't imply that Saurabhi didn't deserve it .... it just shows how much this region yearns for acceptance & awareness from people of other parts of this country .... I think.

Hitman

Managed to get hold of the unrated version & it didn't disappoint. The action scenes are very physical, the guns shown are some of the latest, Audis are all over the place & then, there's gorgeous Olga. Dougray Scott and Timothy Olyphant have done well.

Quite liked it, especially the line, "where i was raised, they didn't give us names, just numbers .... mine was .... 47".

Iron Man

Liked it, but could have been better.

Hope the upcoming sequel is.

The Getaway

One movie where McQueen isn't in the armed forces or in prison, but plays a criminal. Interesting.

Aero India 09

.... took place here in B'lore from the 11th to 15th of February.

Bar the Grippen & Rafale, all the contenders for the MRCA competition were present; with the Typhoons from the Luftwaffe .....


.... making their Aero India debut.

The F-16 for the competition was christened ....


.... the F-16 IN Super Viper. Let's see if that helps Lockheed Martin strike it big.

My favorite for the selection though remains .....


.... the F-18 Super Hornet.

The Ruskies' offering ....


.... the Mig-35 was present too, like in the last edition.

Among the others was my fav heavy lift transporter ....


.... the C-17 GlobeMaster.

The Sarangs were at their ....


.... impressive best. As were ....


.... the Surya Kirans.

The Indian firecrackers were provided by the (now) incredibly sleek & sexy ....


.... Tejas and it's factory cousin - the menacing looking weaponised version .....


.... of the Dhruv. Eat your heart out Kiowa.

Good show all in all.

The ticket prices acted as a dampener though. Som & Salil wanted me to accompany them, but I let it go since it would have meant taking the bus all the way to Domlur in the above normal February heat & then riding pillion till the other end of the city to Yelahanka. Maybe next time, if Pavan & his Goan 800 are free & willing.

New colors

MSD & gang posing in Cricket India's new colors for 2009. To me they all look like bars of Rin.

Wonder why they can't come up with something jazzier like the Aussies & Kiwis do year after year?

Yamaha R15 is IBOTY

I expected it would win.

Yamaha should now go ahead & launch .....


.... the R125. It's even more of a looker .... just look at those alloys! And this would really shake up the market in favor of the big Y from Japan.

Movin out

Joy bhaiya & family have decided to move out of Hyderabad. I'll miss having someone from the family staying 'close by', even if that meant an overnight bus journey.

Andey

Double egg bread omelet for breakfast --------> 2
Egg manchurian with egg fried rice for lunch -> 2
Double egg omelet for evening snack ----------> 2
Double egg curry for dinner ---------------------> 2
____________________________________________
Total no of eggs today --------------------------- = 8
____________________________________________

Valentine's weekend movie marathon

Shoot 'Em Up

An orgy of shooting, some of it funny. Clive Owen is OK while Paul Giamatti is irritating.

Bullet

I'd caught a few scenes of this movie back in the day during the 90s on Star Movies. The title role's name - 'Butch' had stayed on .... till last week, when I finally looked it up & came upon one of Mickey Rourke's own stories. And I'm glad I did .... found it to be one of Rourke's best. This film is also notable for featuring Tupac Shakur, although his role is limited. Rourke has some good lines - especially the one when after coming out of jail, he beats up one of Tank's men & goes, "tell that nigger Tank, Butch is back".

Quantum Of Solace

Well, the action scenes are very Jason Bourne-ish and .... umm, not much else. It starts with 2 brilliantly set up chase sequences but loses steam as the story progresses.

Death Race

Fast cars, guns, babes, plenty of gratuitous violence & a nice little twist in the end. What else does a man need? Natalie Martinez, maybe? ;-)

3:10 to Yuma

Christian Bale & Crowe are brilliant. A well made western, which could have been a bit more compact.

.... those falls

Back in 2006, Sid, Prav & me headed off on a snap weekend trip to Goa. On the way there, somewhere in the Western Ghats we crossed this waterfall. Didn't have a camera then, but I've finally found this pic (on skyscrapercity) which is just about perfect.

We travelled in August, the monsoons were in full flow & the falls were twice as thick as in the picture. The water rushes down on the left of the train & you immediately run right to see it disappearing underneath the train & down into a deep gorge ...... it's awesome.

One for the memories.

Thriller20

.... the headlines on cricinfo on a day when the Hussey brothers took Australia to a win over the Kiwis & the Pathans did the same for the T20 world champs in a thrilling run chase versus the Lankans.

The Dark Knight

Brilliant direction, fantastic acting, intriguing twists, hard-hitting action & a superb background score. For once, a film that lives up to the hype.

Awesome!

Early to rise ....

This weekend happens to be the first time in probably over a year when I woke up early (around 7-ish) on both days of the weekend. Wow.

Dev.D

A bit lengthy, but doesn't bore you for a minute. Worth the INOX ticket.

EDIT: Okay, the movie's been playing out in my mind ever since I got back from the theater. What stands out in this movie is the treatment - no Bollywood-ian melodrama - it's plain, simple storytelling - & that was something different from the standard Hindi film.

The way Abhay's post drunk scenes are shot is something somebody who drinks to get high can easily identify with - the overwhelming desire to get buzzed, the world swimming around you once the kick sets in & the need to put your head into cold, cold water ..... lovely.

Then, there are the females - Mahi Gill is terrific in her role & manages a to project a sexuality very different from the typical Hindi film heroine - it's overwhelmingly appealing to the normal, straight male. Kalki as Chanda is too good - that scene where she belts out dialog in Hindi, Tamil & French is just too cute. And I loved the fluency with which she spoke Hindi.

And finally, there's Emotional Attyachar - the rock version has been running in a loop on the Walkman since the last 24 hours.

Anurag Kashyap, Abhay Deol, Amit Trivedi - you rock guys!

9*

MSD's men are on a roll. After blanking England 5-0, it's Sri Lanka who face a series whitewash with 1 match to go.

Incidentally, this is India's longest winning streak in ODIs.

Double damn

1 - tea is the only beverage available at the pantry now. The cost cutters have stopped coffee!

2 - all cricket sites are blocked from now on.

Right now ....

.... Neeral is in Washington; Arnab is in California; Praveen is in Texas; Abhishek bhaiyya & family are at New Jersey & Sid must have reached Florida.

ODI #1

SA have just regained the No. 1 spot in ODI rankings & this cartoon seems apt.