Thursday, November 30, 2006

A Royale treat!!

Taking into consideration that I'm a movie buff, it was shocking to note that I hadn't ever seen a Bond movie in a movie theatre to date. In fact the only Bond movie I had ever seen was "Tomorrow Never Dies" on a friends laptop. Unfortunately laptops haven't evolved enough yet to give the same effect as movie theatres. Something which I noted when I finally went to see Casino Royale.
There was a lot of talk about Daniel Craig not being worthy of holding a candle to the previous Bonds like Sean Connery, Roger Moore or even Brosnan for that matter. Fortunately all such fears were unfounded - I loved Daniel Craig as Bond. He is ruthless, which I feel is the basic quality you seek in a 00 killer. Compared to him, Pierce Brosnan looks like more of an accountant. Also the new Bond is much more human than superhuman & that is what will endear him to his fans.
And coming to the movie - its awesome to say the least. It has more of pure action rather than the gadget wizardry that was the highlight of the previous Bond movies. It starts off with an amazing chase scene which proves that chase scenes needn't always have fast cars or bikes. The pace of the movie is really good too, never do you get bored by the proceedings. And most of all - it actually has a story! And a good one at that. So this was one movie I really enjoyed - despite the handicap of watching it in Hindi & also despite the fact that I was watching the movie right in the middle of the exams. So my advice, go ahead and watch it - it's Royale!!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Go on Kev, we are with you!

The Britney-Kevin divorce saga promises to be the most public private affair of our times. And there is no doubting on which side my loyalties lie...
The video of Kevin getting a text message from his wife makes for really interesting viewing. And then again there were reports that Britney actually called Kevin "a nobody". I mean, how much more insulting can you get? After all Kevin is a dancer & singer par excellence. He has performed as backup dancer for Pink, Christina Milian & the band LFO. So its not as if Britney picked him up from obscurity and decided to marry him, thus breaking the hearts of millions all over the world. And after marriage Kevin has been busy. Though he hasn't done any backup dancing since ( a sensible decision on Britney's part considering that he fell in love with the last singer he danced for) he was nominated at the 2006 Teen Choice awards (Teen Choice Award for Male Red Carpet Fashion Icon). He then launched his debut album - Playing with Fire - released by Federline records which, shockingly, sold only 6500 copies in its first week, followed by 1200 in its second. But then, not everyone starts off with a hit. His NYC concert attracted a huge crowd of about 300 (possibly including some obsessed Britney fans with loaded handguns. Unfortunately no shootout took place..)So Kevin is a celebrity in his own right after all.
And he is perfectly right to threaten oops... warn Britney that he may release some of his Sex tapes with Britney. Considering that Britney actually ruined his whole life, thats the least he can do. And since then he has also filed for custody of their children. This was made in a statement in which he says that he is a responsible father and is not doing it for money or fame. We believe you Kevin, we really do. So go on Kevin, sue her. We're all with you!!

P.S: Q:What's Kevin's new nickname?
A Fed-Ex

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Top 10 sledges

Well everyone who has played a decent bit of cricket knows that cricket is not much fun without at least some sledging. In fact it does tend to make the game interesting especially at times when not much is happening. A real good sledge can serve many purposes - demoralising the opposition, provoking them or sometimes just provide some real good entertainment.
So here are some sledges that I found on the net. They're taken from Simon Briggs' new book - Stiff upper lips and baggy green caps which I'm pretty sure hasn't released in India yet. So till you get to read the book, read these sledges. Nice warmup for the ashes I'd say.

Warning: Colourful languages. Regular KSBKBT viewers may not appreciate the genre of humour on show.

Top 10 sledges:

1 Mark Waugh to Jimmy Ormond on his Test debut, 2001: “Mate, what are you doing out here? There's no way you're good enough to play for England.”
Ormond: “Maybe not, but at least I'm the best player in my own family.”

2 Merv Hughes to Graeme Hick et al: “Mate, if you just turn the bat over you'll find the instructions on the other side.”

3 Hughes again: “Does your husband play cricket as well?”

4 Mike Atherton, on Merv Hughes: “I couldn't work out what he was saying, except that every sledge ended with ‘arsewipe’.”

5 Dennis Lillee to Mike Gatting, 1994: “Hell, Gatt, move out of the way. I can't see the stumps.”

6 Derek Randall to Lillee, after taking a glancing blow to the head: “No good hitting me there, mate, nothing to damage.”

7 Ian Healy, placing a fielder yards away at cover when Nasser Hussain was batting: “Let's have you right under Nasser's nose.”

8 Tony Greig, England’s South African-born captain, to the young David Hookes, 1977: “When are your balls going to drop, Sonny?”
Hookes: “I don't know, but at least I'm playing cricket for my own country.” Hookes hit Greig for five consecutive fours.

9 Rod Marsh, late Seventies: “How's your wife and my kids?”
Ian Botham: “The wife's fine – the kids are retarded.”

10 Bill Woodfull, Australia’s captain in the Bodyline series of 1932-33, responding to Douglas Jardine's complaint that a slip fielder had sworn at him: “All right, which one of you bastards called this bastard a bastard?”

Friday, November 17, 2006

Life through a lens

I know I haven't written anything here since a very long time but since you must be used to my apologies for such delays, I wont bother with putting up another one.
But I must say that one of the reasons why I haven't been posting regularly in the last few weeks is the fact that I was having a series of bad headaches everytime I used the computer for long. And me being me, I never bothered going to the doctor, thinking that the pain would go away soon. However in due course of time the pain became more and more unbearable. In fact at times it got so worse at times that my roomie - the ever loveable Rishikesh Baviskar - immediately gave his prognosis - Brain tumour. This shows the adverse effect that Bollywood movies have on our innocent minds...
Then I had a break for Diwali in which me & my tumour travelled together to Nashik. There we met an opto-whatevero-logist who gave an entirely different prognosis. He said that my tumour was not a tumour at all (much to my tumour's discomfort) and that the only thing that was ailing me was my poor eyesight. Well that shouldnt come as a surprise considering that all of my recent addictions - watching movies, orkutting & reading - were not exactly eye-friendly. It so happened that my eyes finally got tired of the constant crap that I made them see & as a sign of protest started bending in places. That (according to my doctor) meant that even though I had 6/6 vision in both vision (something that my dartboard would confirm), my eyes were suffering from a lot of strain . And then he gave the worst news I'd ever had in my life (since my T2 results) - that I had to wear SPECS, day in day out. I almost fainted.
And well since then, my life has been confined to whatever I see through a pair of spectacles which are a constant pain in the ....er nose. And adjusting to this greatly reduced field of vision took a lot of time. But thankfully thats over, I'm finally getting used to my specs. However I still wake up occasionally thinking that the whole spectacles incident was all a great nightmare. How I wish that were true! But what I had feared most was the backlash that I might expect from the spectacled people whom I had constantly abused throughout my life. Thankfully nothing untoward has happened so far & my entry into the spectacled community has been welcomed gladly albeit unspectacularly.
But I guess having specs does have its advantages. It might get rid of my consistently low grades in practicals. And it makes people take me a bit more seriously than they used to. But these two are the only pros that I can think of, and even they're not much.
Hence a last bit of advice to all those who dont have specs - GO EAT CARROTS!!