Meeting MG

.... for the 1st time since 1998. "11 years, man, 11 years", were his first words. How time flies.

Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows

A fantastic insight into Bret's last year in the WWF & all the goings-on behind what went into the lead up to the screw job. Always wanted to know the truth behind that incident and this documentary goes a long way in doing that.

Bret's been my favorite wrestler since the I got hooked to WWE & my respect for him & what he stood for has gone up after watching this.

2009 MB E Class

W212, the newest E Class was launched in India today. That makes it 3 car launches in about 24 hours ..... the 80s seem so far away ......

LR2

Tata launched the LandRover Freelander 2 in India yesterday at a very competitive ~35 lakhs.

Ford Figo

Ford India's contender in the hatch segment. The 5th gen British Fiesta's body with the 6th gen's styling cues at the front. To go on sale next year.

Another outdated model posing as an 'all new' offering in India from an American car maker .... when will these guys learn?

Weinbrenner

.... the newest addition to the shoe rack.

Saved?

Somebody had messed with SprtRd's fuel pipe and the handle lock on Monday night. Didn't take it to work. The chain & fuel lock might have saved my bike, I think.

Karizma ZMR

The Karizma's 1st major revamp was unveiled today.

Pretty solid makeover by Hero Honda's standards. I especially liked the new digital console. Pity it doesn't come with mono-x or double headers.

iPod Nano 'Chromatic'

Courtesy Arni who returned from the US this morning.

Memory effect ....

..... both, the cellphone and laptop seem to be suffering from it.

Wanted

A montage of well shot action sequences held together by the sliver of a plot. Salman sleepwalks expertly through the role that suits him to a T. Ayesha Takia continues to amaze .... she's pretty too, when you get a chance to set eyes on her face that is.

Good to see a return to action movies which seemed to have last been in vogue back in the 90s with Akshay and Sunil Shetty. I've had enough of the pansy love stories/activism and crass comedies that have been clogging the cine space of late.

1st service

Took SprtRd for the 1st service today. It's come out shifting better & running less stressed. The pick up seems to have gone up marginally.

Yamaha V-Max

Johnny boy launches Yamaha's latest import in India .... the monster 200 bhp V-Max ..... starting at a cool 20 lakhs ex-showroom Delhi. Wow!

Working @ Ahmed Plaza

Having been placed on the 'free pool' in these now deadly dangerous recessionary times, while IT companies are laying people off using whichever excuse possible .... the opening (& subsequent call up) from Infotech came like a huge relief.

It meant that I'd have to work at Ahmed Plaza - a small company facility that I'd never paid much attention to on the way to the EC campus. Reported there on 6th July probably. Jayamohan came across as the professional boss .... somebody for whom work came first .... fair enough. I liked his introductory talk though.

Then there were the colleagues .... Mantuno, Prashant and Rahul. Though Rahul wasn't on our project, he would always accompany us on our tea/coffee breaks. These 3 were some of the nicest guys I've ever met. I won't forget the numerous chat sessions we had while having coffee outside the office and often under the Bangalore Elevated Tollway flyover between pillar nos 196 and 197!

The work was mostly forgettable ..... calling up Deepak who was in Delhi & forever reluctant to take our calls, alongside Puneet, whom I somehow never got around to liking. Apart from this there was work on the prototype and .... that was about it.

The memories that stand out are those of the food .... it was horrible. I lost a few kilos in the 2 months I was there. And of course, the announcement of the technology change .... 'the client has decided not to go ahead with xxx platform since they don't want to spend on the licenses' .... effectively placing those of us who had just transferred in from Technologies & didn't want to relocate to Gurgaon/Hyderabad exposed to the vagaries of the free pool once again.

Anyway, all that's over now ..... Sarjapur is a far better place - food-wise; traffic-wise; facility-wise and 'greenery'-wise.

But there's one thing about A.P. that I'll miss .... the fantastic views just across the boundary walls. After all, how often does one get to see stuff like this ....



.... yup, a yard full of spanking new Beemers belonging to the adjacent BMW dealer.

District 9

Managed to hold my interest. Different kind of story with huge potential for a sequel. Probably the first South African movie I've ever seen.

Kabul Express

Ever since it released back in 2006, I've had this movie on my to-watch list. Couldn't catch it in theatres, never came across it's DVD & it never showed on TV. Managed to find a website which streamed it on the net, but the sound was so out of sync, I quit after watching a minute.

Finally, decided to try my luck on the digital pirate's favorite means - torrents. My experience with Hindi film torrents had been dismal to say the least, especially when it came to quality DVD rips. Well, not any more it would seem. Not only did I find Kabul Express - fantastic print & decently seeded to boot, I also managed to lay hands on 2 other rare but very good movies - Sehar and Haasil.

The movie itself is interesting with some good performances by the varied cast of actors present. The cinematography stands out, as do the ruins of Afghanistan.

Viper!

The MMRCA fair weather trials began in Bangalore about a month back. Boeing had sent in a Super Hornet initially & one could hear a new kind of jet exhaust over Bangalore skies all of last month. Unfortunately I never managed a sighting, which was sad since I really like the plane.


This was followed last week by Lockheed Martin's F-16IN Super Viper flown in from the UAE. Today while returning from office, I heard the roar of a distinctly non Russian jet engine coming in low & fast from the East. Luckily, the sky was clear & I looked up just in time to make out the silhouette of the Viper. An awesome sight, my 1st ever of an American fighter. It's not as loud as the Russian jets, but sounds menacing none the less.

Sonu's back?

Sonu Nigam has been one of my favorite playback singers ever since he came on the scene back in the late 90s. But ever since Mungaru Male became the monster hit it did, back in 2006, he almost gave up singing for Hindi films & seemed to have devoted himself full time to his Kannadiga fans.

His Bollywood credits since then have been few & far in between .... but have consequently stood out apart from the clutter. Last year, Soniyo from the Raaz sequel was one of the best songs of the year, and today I've got hold of the Main Aur Mrs. Khanna soundtrack, where he features on the bonafide hit track, Don't Say Alvida alongside the silky smooth Shreya Ghoshal. One of the best tracks for 2009, I'm sure. He should definitely be singing more often for Hindi movies.

Revving up

Very interesting article on Bloomberg today about India's car exports this year vis-a-vis China's. Seems Al-Hind has handed the much-hyped dragon some much needed humble pie. Made for pleasant reading on a gloomy day.

MG reconnects

MG has shifted base to Bangalore. Had a long chat during which he informed about the unfortunate demise of his dad. The circumstances were uncannily similar to what happened with mummy.

Seems he'll be here for some time to come. Nice.

Dudes and TV

Ajay came along this morning. Was meeting him after about 6 months, how time flies. He has mellowed down after marriage .... in a pleasant way.

Caught up about a lot of things .... Deepanjan's leaving for UK, his own plans for the future and of course, the good old days at Shivam. It's strange how all past memories acquire a rosy tinge regardless of how the prevailing situation at that time might actually have been.

Gunakar has shifted base to Bangalore and with Arni set to arrive back from LA sometime in the 3rd week of this month, it looks like it's gonna be a partial Shivam old boys' reunion pretty soon.

On an aside, there's been a spate of emergency oral contraceptive ads on TV over the last 6 months. Was watching an ad for Parle's shitty lemon drink 'LMN' today. It goes by the tagline 'emergency lemon refresher' and when the dude doing the voiceover mentioned the word 'emergency', I was sure the next word to be mentioned would be contraceptive. It was only when he said lemon, that I looked up from the laptop & realized that it wasn't another 72 hour contraceptive being advertised. That's how pervasive their ads have been!

Hyundai's new design direction

From the dowdy looking Tucson .....

.... to it's successor, the very appealing ix35 .....

..... and from the iffy present generation Sonata ....

.... to the sharp new 2010 model .....

.... it's good to see Hyundai finally getting it right across the range.

... and another ....

Andhra's much popular 'YSR' becomes the latest in a long line of Congress leaders to meet his unfortunate end in a crash. The names of Madhav Rao Scindia; Jitendra Prasada and Rajesh Pilot come to mind .... tall regional leaders snatched in the prime of their political careers.

I was impressed when, defying all popular opinion, YSR led the Congress to a sweep of 33 out of 42 LS seats in this year's general elections, besides winning a 2nd term in the state assembly polls held concurrently.

The search operations for the wrecked chopper were pretty intensive, involving as they did IAF Mi-17s; Dhruvs; Su-30 MKIs (with an IL-78 for in flight refuelling); an ISRO terrain mapping plane with Indian and US reconnaissance satellites also playing a part. Ground forces included AP Greyhound special forces; Army and Central paramilitary troops besides the local tribals. Boats were also pressed into service on the Krishna river.

Brings to mind the question, is the Congress cursed to lose such powerful leaders ever so often? Because one doesn't see this happening with other parties a lot.