A geek's hell....

Having been a huge fan of Tetris for years, this one just literally cracked me up...I mean figuratively...

P.S. : Non-regulars at xkcd who did not get the "literally-figuratively" connection need to go here.

Courtesy: xkcd

Worth more than a LOOK...

Just finished watching Look, an unheralded, little-known movie, which is clearly the "inspiration" behind LSD. (I am highly surprised no one found out about this movie yet! Quite a few concepts in LSD are clearly clearly taken from here!)

Look is a brilliant film in all respects, true to the core and very neutrally narrated...The stories are gut-wrenching and leave you with an aftertaste alright, but its to the credit of the director that he whips up such a simple yet complex inter-twining of tales that is not only delightfully novel but entertains! The stories keep you hooked because you want to know how they end, and the director manages to tie up all loose ends except a couple that are kept open on purpose. The end is just hard-hitting and overall, the movie brought back memories from a lot of good flicks like Life in a Metro and Mumbai Meri Jaan, not for the similarity in story but the similarity in feelings they evoked. Performances are extremely competent and most of the characters are underplayed beautifully.

The songs in the movie deserve special mention, especially noteworthy is High. Just marvel at the lyrics -

Opening a can of worms

That are now out of date

No matter what you do

Dont you dare throw them away.

A harlet sparks the boat

With regurgitating grace

We hide under a broken rainbow

Waiting for the rain to fade.

B'coz Deja Vu

Sounds like something not true

But I think

That I have seen it with you.

I am sure

I have never been here before

There's a dead marker

That is writing on the floor.

High...

About the shooting rains

Where the kids play

In that weather....we were high

And feeling okay

Where the cards change is where we...rely

High....

This is cinema that deserves to be watched! (Just read on imdb that it won the Best Film by the Grand Jury at the CineVegas Awards. At least someone saw and appreciated it!).

P.S. : You can watch the movie here. It contains a considerable amount of nudity and violence so watch it at your own peril if you are too judgemental!

New blog....

Finally! :)

http://straightfromthestomach.blogspot.com/

Dont worry...this one will be alive and kicking as well....the new one is exclusively for khavaiyye! :)

Superhit Pyaar, Paap Ki Dukaan aur Badnaam Shoharat

LSD...the day the movie was announced, DeeBee had me all excited abt what he'll bring to the screen next, after an earthy middle-class comedy and a riveting biography of a small-time thief...The music had me hooked with its zany, unconventional (and witty!) lyrics and the catchy tunes...Saw the movie last night...its very novel and interesting, altho also a tad underwhelming....

LSD is hyper-link cinema - one of my favorite kinds, along with anthology films....there have been numerous hyperlink movies i have simply loved, most notably Pulp Fiction, Mumbai Meri Jaan, Babel and Yuva. LSD, however, is not just tht, its cinema with a difference - difference in the way its scripted, the way its shot and the way it presents itself...somewhat like a news item....something you can choose to be or not be neutral about...that's a major plus and LSD scores big time on these counts as well as direction and performances...

The first story is the most appealing of the lot, maybe because it spoofs stereotype, maybe because it is so real, or even maybe, because of the shocking end (believe me, it'll make your senses numb!)...its the funniest of the lot and probably also the most enjoyable (upto the end, that is)....

The second story is interesting in bits but has an uneven pace and does not keep you hooked throughout...the climax and culmination are very poignant and extremely real...the coldness of human psyche is presented and portrayed commendably....the extent to which human ego can go to prove one's point and the utter disregard of other's sensitivity and situation is something that's very subtly laid out, without commenting upon it...the pace seriously hampers tho and makes you a lil impatient at times...

The third story is the corniest of the lot and altho it has some memorable performances, the setting is too over-the-top and takes the graph of the film lower...It also has a hurried, "non-flowy" quality which mars the overall effect of the movie...

The way the stories connect is brilliant...something that has always drawn me towards hyper-link cinema...seeing the same scene from the perspective of different characters and figuring out where this piece fits in a totally new puzzle every time is really intriguing and DeeBee carries it off very well..the end is fantastic and but for the poor pace in the latter half, the movie could have been deemed flawless...Much has been said about the cinematography and the roles played by different types of cams in the movie, so I'll refrain from repeating it...This is daring and different cinema, make no mistake about it...If only it was trimmed a lil more, it could have been as riveting for the entire length...

The choice of actors is top-notch and DeeBee has been brave enough to present something off-the-beaten-track in a radically different way...This is a movie you should watch if you like variety...only dont expect too much, since its more of a "reality" movie than a dramatic one, so the underwhelming feeling lingers...and if u can make ur peace with tht, LSD is one movie you probably shouldnt miss...

Scientines day....

14th Feb + geek_max + frust_max + "science" =

courtesy : xkcd

Trash of the year.....

In keeping with the spirit of last year, here's some of the trashiest stuff dished out this year...

Worst Film
Radio

Blue

Main Aurr Mrs Khanna

What's Your Rashee

Dil Bole Hadippa

Luck

Kambakht Ishq

Chandni Chowk To China


Worst Actor
Akshay Kumar - Blue
Akshay Kumar - Chandni Chowk To China

Akshay Kumar - Kambakht Ishq

Harman Baweja - What's Your Rashee

Sanjay Dutt - Blue

Himesh Reshamiya - Radio
Sohail Khan - Main Aurr Mrs Khanna
Neil Nitin Mukesh - New York


Worst Actress

Lara Dutta - Blue
Kareena Kapoor - Kambakht Ishq

Lara Dutta - Billu

Rani Mukherjee - Dil Bole Hadippa

Deepika Padukone - Chandni Chowk To China


Worst Director
Anthony D'Souza - Blue
Prem Soni - Main Aurr Mrs Khanna
Anurag Singh - Dil Bole Hadippa
Soham Shah - Luck
Sabbir Khan - Kambakht Ishq
Nikhil Advani - Chandni Chowk To China

I hope we dont have such movies next year so I cant come up with this list (Yeah! Right! And lets hope pigs fly!)

And the award goes to....

After the *really* lame nominations put up by Filmfare, i cudnt resist the urge to do some justice to ppl who toiled hard and made classy stuff, some of it so good, the mediocre Filmfare and Screen juries barely got it! Here's hopefully a more comprehensive and deserving list for the year...(Winners are bold and italicized)

Best Film

3 Idiots
Dev D

Gulaal
Kaminey
Luck By Chance
Wake Up Sid

Best Director

Anurag Kashyap - Dev D

Anurag Kashyap - Gulaal
Ayan Mukerji - Wake Up Sid
Rajkumar Hirani - 3 Idiots
Vishal Bharadwaj - Kaminey

Best Actor In A Leading Role - Male

Abhay Deol - Dev D

Farhan Akhtar - Luck By Chance
Ranbir Kapoor - Wake Up Sid
Ranbir Kapoor - Rocket Singh-Salesman Of The Year

Salman Khan - Wanted

Shahid Kapoor - Kaminey

Best Actor In A Leading Role - Female

Konkona Sen Sharma - Luck By Chance

Konkona Sen Sharma - Wake Up Sid

Mahie Gill - Dev D
Priyanka Chopra - Kaminey
Vidya Balan - Paa

Best Actor In A Supporting Role - Male

Abhimanyu Singh - Gulaal

Amol Gupte - Kaminey
Boman Irani - 3 Idiots
Chandan Roy Sanyaal - Kaminey

Hrithik Roshan - Luck By Chance

Piyush Mishra - Gulaal

Rishi Kapoor - Luck By Chance

Salman Khan - London Dreams

Best Actor In A Supporting Role - Female

Ayesha Mohan - Gulaal

Divya Dutta - Delhi-6
Kalki Koechlin - Dev D
Kareena Kapoor - 3 Idiots

Supriya Pathak - Wake Up Sid
Best Music

A R Rahman - Delhi-6
Amit Trivedi - Dev D

Piyush Mishra - Gulaal
Pritam Chakraborty - Love Aaj Kal

Pritam Chakraborty - Tum Mile

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy - London Dreams

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy - Luck By Chance
Vishal Bharadwaj - Kaminey

Best Lyrics

Amitabh Bhattacharya - Nayan Tarse (Dev D)

Gulzar - Dhan Te Nan (Kaminey)
Gulzar - Raat Ke Dhai Baje (Kaminey)

Javed Akhtar - Iktara (Wake Up Sid)

Piyush Mishra - Aarambh (Gulaal)

Prasoon Joshi - Khanabadosh (London Dreams)
Prasoon Joshi - Masakali (Delhi-6)

Best Playback Singer - Male

Amit Trivedi - Nayan Tarse (Dev D)

Mohan - Khanabadosh (London Dreams)

Mohit Chauhan - Masakali (Delhi-6)

Mohit Chauhan - Ye Dooriyan (Love Aaj Kal)

Shankar Mahadevan - Sapnon Se Bhare Naina (Luck By Chance)
Sonu Nigam - Dont Say Alvida (Main Aurr Mrs Khanna)

Sonu Nigam - Shukran Allah (Kurbaan)
Sukhwinder Singh-Vishal Dadlani - Dhan Te Nan (Kaminey)

Tochi Rainaa - Pardesi (Dev D)

Vishal Dadlani, Roop Kumar Rathod - Barso (London Dreams)

Best Playback Singer - Female
Kavita Seth - Iktara (Wake Up Sid)
Rekha Bhardwaj - Genda Phool (Delhi-6)

Shreya Ghoshal - Dont Say Alvida (Main Aurr Mrs Khanna)
Sunidhi Chauhan - Chor Bazaari (Love Aaj Kal)

Sunidhi CHauhan - Oh By God (Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani)

Best Song

Aarambh - Gulaal

Dhan Te Nan - Kaminey

Emotional Attyachaar - Dev D

Iktara - Wake Up Sid

Khanabadosh - London Dreams

Masakali - Delhi 6

Sapnon Se Bhare Naina - Luck By Chance

Peace!

Recap....

Its been more than 5 months since I wrote stuff here...and I know its been too long, I shud have come here earlier, but sometimes things dont necessarily work out the way you want them to....anyways, i'm back and thts what matters for now i guess :)

The last 5 months have been just fab! Right from packing for 2 years, which was an amusingly monumental task, to saying goodbye to loved ones, which was surprisingly not as hard as I had imagined, maybe because I was better prepared, to flying across the globe to a totally new and unseen place on my own, to finding my feet in one of the awesomest places on earth, to getting thru a bitter-sweet, whirlwind first quarter, laced with more lows (all academic, none personal or social :) ) than I had had in life till then, to the fantastic vacation, where I ensured there's not many places I'm yet to see in this part of the US :) , to a rollicking second quarter which is already halfway through, phew! Its been quite a journey! I wouldnt want to bore people with a detailed account of these months, but still, there's quite a few snippets worth sharing...So here goes...

1. The Half Wave Rectifier
One of my first memories of the place is the EE dept orientation, especially the end of the Chair's welcome speech. After he had finished welcoming us and wishing us all the best for the upcoming wonderful years of our life, Prof. Horowitz asked the besotted, bedazzled crowd a seemingly simple question...

Whats this?
I thought "Great!! The quarter's not even begun and Profs have started pestering us with questions, albeit ridiculously simple!"

"Half wave rectifier!", the whole class answered in chorus.

"Correct! Now tell me what happens if the breakdown voltage of the diode is lesser than the input voltage? How do you ensure the diode stays alive?"

"You add another diode in series!", pat came the reply from the class!

"Very good! What if their combined voltage isn't enough to withstand the input?"

"You add another diode in series!"

This was getting ridiculous! Just as I was about to form a really bad impression of this whole place, Prof. Horowitz said

"Now students, like this sine wave, you all will have lots of ups and downs at Stanford. What matters is how you can keep the highs and get rid of the lows, just like this half-wave rectifier! What do you need for that? Like you all said, diodes! Who are these diodes??"

There was perfect silence in the room full of 200 people! This wasnt a technical question and hence nobody was willing to venture a guess :) Everyone was eager to hear what was coming next!

"Look around the room....Its full of diodes....like you! How much you like your time at Stanford depends on how many friends you make....the more diodes there are in your circuit, the happier you will be in this wonderful place!"

People couldnt stop beaming at that statement! :) Prof. Horowitz himself could barely stifle his smile :)

2. In retrospect...

Dec 11...The day I felt like a huge load was off my shoulders! Last day of my first quarter at Stanford! A hectic 12 weeks later, I was lower on confidence than I had begun but that was more because of lack of mental preparedness than anything else. For one thing, I hadnt studied much for the past 2 years, and for another, I hadnt expected Computer Networks to be a difficult course after taking it once at COEP and after working in the domain for 2 years! Guess what, it was the toughest of the lot! Believe it or not, I came pretty close to flunking the class, but in the end managed decently well. AI turned out to be the savior of the quarter for me. What networks took away, AI supplied in plenty - confidence of being able to work on something totally alien but totally awesome! Now as a I look back, I cant believe I have already programmed a robotic dog to cross the most difficult of terrains, written a handwritten digit recognizer, written maze games and puzzles, encoded a whole static router, encoded a whole dynamic router, implemented NAT, unsuccessfully written TCP reliable layer, programmed robots called Romeo and Juliet to find each other after they are lost in Gates(CS dept building) and yet attended almost every home game, most of the parties, and managed to stay alive, with a semblance of sanity still intact! :)

Life at Stanford isnt as much about time management or workload management, as it is about managing and controlling the fears within you! What a Masters degree teaches you here is more relevant than what the Professors teach in class or what you teach yourself during assignments, and that is recognizing your strengths and weaknesses, and playing to your strengths while trying to convert the weaknesses to strengths! The awareness of this is primarily the reason why my second quarter has been so fun-filled and rollicking! :)

3. A superb vacation!
December was so much fun after the exams! A couple of laidback days and i was off to LA to meet Niks and Ravi. Dhav had a lil surprise in store for us and before we knew it, we were in Vegas! After seeing "most" of Vegas and LA, Stanford was the next stop, where Gou joined the party and in the process, added another dimension to the gang! Ksh's entry was the quintessential icing on the cake, and as a result, Muir Woods was much more fantastic than before, Golden Gate bridge was really Golden, Sausalito was like a fairy land and best of all, the 17-mile drive was heavenly bliss! Another week in LA and San Diego capped off what was a truly memorable trip in all respects! The first of many many more to come surely! :)

4. Season 2 begins...
would be a very wrong statement to make, especially since today is the last day of week 5 of Season 2, and there's only 11 weeks in all :D So, its more like season2 is half way thru! Again, courses are really interesting, in fact, the workload is much much more this time, but since I am in a better state of mind now, I am enjoying it all even more! How Google Street View works, detecting people in videos, writing my first research project proposal, building a working car out of Lego pieces after solving puzzles to make money to be able to bid for raw material, vehemently supporting Skype against the traditional telecoms in Scandinavia, learning team-building through the Beatles, bagging a high-profile Microsoft project on cloud computing for climatology to help Berkeley National Labs and ultimately, NASA, getting surprisingly large number of internship interview calls, especially when people obviously much smarter and more experienced than me have got fewer, and bagging a Qualcomm offer have only been a few high-points of this quarter yet. And mind you, its been only 5 weeks! :) There's definitely more in store!

I'll try to be here more often. But even if I'm not, keep the comments coming people. This is a fab way of sharing stuff and it wud be a pity if we do away with it! :) Till next time then, ciao!

Movie time!

It was harder not watching and not being able to write about movies than it was trying to find the memory leak in my NAT code! But truth is, I had zilch time! Still managed to watch a few movies and here's a quick recap of what i thought of some of those...

Wanted
Unpretentious, unabashed actioner packed with a powerful, in-form, confident Salman Khan! Pleasant surprise! Inspite of a hackneyed, predictable plot and lame supporting actors except for Mahesh Manjrekar, Salman packed a sucker-punch to ensure people stayed glued to their seats. One of my favorite Sallu performances in recent times, especially since he seemed to be enjoying it too! :)

Dil Bole Hadippa

WTF! Double WTF! Didnt complete it, but WTF!

BlueROFL-fest of the year! Paunchy Sanjay Dutt as scuba-diver! :D aptly referred to as Sethji by a freakishly-goateed Akshay "buffoon" Kumar, who survives a whole 2-day thunderstorm underwater by breathing the air from the tires of the bike he jumped into the middle of the ocean with! Unbelievably howlarious! And some "dialogues of the year":

Bikini-clad Lara Dutta to husband paunchy : "You know..mera sapna hai...oceanography institute...jahan pe main marine life pe research kar sakoon" ROFLMAOTICST!!! Yah they have whole institutes for ONE SINGLE "passionate" researcher, especially if shes hot and promises to wear bikinis throughout working hours! :D

Immensely constipated Lara Dutta to immensely busy paunchy during a bullet fight "Discussion karke matter solve nahi kar sakte kya?" :D :D Lady, there's bullets flying around and none else got a "shield" like you (pun totally intended!)

Some jackass cald Rahul Dev to some jackass cald Zayed Khan : "Sawaal yeh nahi hai ke kam hua ke nahi, sawaal ye hai ke agar kam nahi hua hai to main kya karoonga!" WTF.

For more fun, go buy an original Blue DVD! This Blue film's worth watching! :D

Main Aurr Mrs. Khanna

Gah! Boring to the bone!

All the Best

Abandoned after half an hour! I am not in 2nd grade anymore!

London Dreams

Not bad at all although not a patch on Amadeus. Again, Salman Khan outperforms himself! Was he on steroids or something while shooting this and Wanted? Cant believe this same guy played that soporific character in something something Khanna! Awesome songs btw! Couple of my favorites of the year in Barso and Khanabadosh :)

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani

Huh! Decent movie with a few good laughs and good work by Ranbir, but whoever compared it to Andaz Apna Apna?? You cant compare M S Dhoni with Sachin Tendulkar! Even if Dhoni starts making more money from commercials!

Invictus

Well-made, well-meaning, well-performed and insightful look into how and why Mandela thought the way he did at the beginning of his Presidential career. Sadly, drags a bit and hence, not very entertaining.

AvatarVisual orgasm! Cameron is GOD. Following up something like Titanic with something like Avatar is no mean feat. And although the story may not be meatier than a single-layered steak, its substantial and spicy enough to ensure a never-before movie watching experience! Hats off to the vision and the visionary!

Sherlock Holmes

Delicious, delectable, crazy in its own way! Guy Ritchie does a Nolan on Holmes franchisee and brings our beloved detective out of his pristine aura, to give more human touches than Doyle could have imagined. Brilliant work by Downey Jr and Jude Law as Watson, but real hero of the movie - Director Guy Ritchie! Probably the best sleuth movie ever!

3 Idiots

Where do I start! Brilliant, at times tacky, at times unoriginal, at times slapstick, at times gimmicky, but still, brilliant! Mr. Hirani, Mr. Chopra, Mr. Khan, Mr. Joshi and Mr. Madhavan - a point well made!

Missed out on quite a few movies, most notably Wake Up Sid and Rocket Singh. Will try to catch up as soon as possible.

Signing off with my lists of the year. Not as comprehensive and as many as last year, since there werent as many bad films this time around, what with Sanjay Gadhvi and Subhash Ghai having no releases :D ...but still, something to chew on :)

Movies of the year

1. Kaminey
2. 3 Idiots
3. Dev D
4. Gulaal
5. Wake Up Sid

6. Luck By Chance
7. Love Aaj Kal
8. Delhi 6
9. Wanted

Music Albums of the year

1. Dev D
2. Delhi 6
3. Kaminey
4. London Dreams
5. Love Aaj Kal
6. Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani
7. Luck By Chance
8. Tum Mile
9. Raaz-TMC
10. Blue

Halloween!

Had wild wild back-to-back nights at Stanford campus with all the funky parties! Partying at Stan rocks!Especially when u have slogged ur ass off for so long! \m/