Bye bye Cinti....

Approximately four years back, I landed with my friend, Pushkar in Cincinnati with a dream to continue my education and get a master's degree in structural engineering. It was a totally new world, new people all around, new place, new food, new lifestyles, and the list can go on. We had already decided on who will we be roomates with, and accordingly, me, Pushkar, Omkar and Yogesh got along, found an apartment very close to the campus and started our new "graduate life". However, we never actually stayed as roomates...no no, we didn't fight, but it felt like family right from the beginning. We had a lot in common, the most important of all - we all were from mumbai. All four of us had worked before we came here, infact me, Pushkar and Omkar even shared the same course. All of us were marathi, which was the next big thing and so we had a blast from the word go. The first year was all about new friends, Reena, Rima, Abhilasha, Reynold, Dhashu and a big marathi junta, about courses and more courses, finalizing advisors and thesis topics, cooking turns, enjoying the ISA functions, potlucks and oncampus job. We also went to St. Louis, Dayton, NYC, Niagara and Chicago. It was fun.

Then we moved to the oncampus apartment and to the second year of our program. This year brought in new friends, Jaya, Vidhya, Priyanka who went on to become some of the closest friends in my life. Courses reduced and thesis work increased in this year. The fun was all the same with ISA functions and our individual get togethers. I sang for the first time on stage during the ISA Deepotsav, and I was enjoyed it to the fullest (ya ya, i know i bored a lot of people, but I am talking about me here). Friendships grew stronger and the family became bigger. I also made my India trip this time.

Then in the third year, there were no courses. It was time to leave one by one, and so Omkar was the first one to do so. He got a job and the family had started to reduce now. Rima left next. Next was Pushkar and then Yogesh. Me, Reena, Jaya, Vidhya and Priyanka were the only ones left in cinti by the end of the third year. I too started working in Cinti itself.

And the job also brought in a very welcoming change. I bought a car and though I used it for work everyday, it was also kind of a family member for us. We used to hang out almost every weekend and try out new cuisines and new restaurants, watch movies, celebrate festivals and birthdays; basically we used to have a lot of fun. But then at the end of the fourth year, rest of the members started going one by one as each of them either got a job or graduated. The last ones left in cinti was me and Reena. I didn't get visa for this year, so I got my job transferred to the office in mumbai. It was a very nice thing, but that means that I am leaving cinti now. The place has given me a whole lot of memories, both good and bad, but the most important things I gained were friends for life, and a job. So here I am at the CVG airport saying goodbye to cinti and US and to all my friends, actually my family members here. I hope to see you all next year, till then you all take care and have a nice time.

अरे हुजूर, वाह ताज बोलीये!!

It's official now...the new 7 wonders of the world have been declared. And after a huge global online and telephonic voting, the taj of India, TAJ MAHAL got selected as one of the seven new wonders of the world. So what more better occasion to start my blog again, which was stagnant for quite some time now. The selection is the reward of all the efforts all the Indians all round the world have taken to vote for our beloved Taj. The other six wonders can be found here. The announcement was made at a grand show in Lisbon today, on the 07/07/07. And our dear Bips was one of the 3 hosts of the show, dressed in a sexy Indian outfit. Among the performers were J Lo.

It was about a week back that news got distributed in emails that the Taj has just 0.07% votes and we need to make a lot of efforts by voting for the Taj. I am sure many of us must have voted more than once, like I did, thanks to the online voting system. And the result is good. I really hope that this brings a huge amount of tourism to India, which is the second fastest growing economy in the world today. The weekend has turned to be really good for India, first the sensex crossing the huuuge 15000 mark and now the Taj getting voted as one of the 7 wonders of the world. I hope we are able to keep the Taj as beautiful as ever, the WONDERful symbol of love.

But wait, thats not all. The new 7 wonders committee has now decided to announce natural 7 wonders of the world. Nominations have begun for the candidates here. The nominations will go on till 08/08/08. The committee will then shortlist 21 candidates and voting will be done for these 21 wonders. So, lets get going guys. We can make a collective effort to nominate some of the best natural wonders in India, like the desert of Rajasthan, valleys of Kashmir, the Himalayas, the Shivling at Amarnath, to name a few.

DON....The chase finally ends

After remixes, it is remakes which is becoming the IN thing in bollywood. First it was Mughal-e-azam and now the movie whose original or prequel brought the two sides of the Big-B coin in one movie, I mean the angry young man and the comedy man. That movie was one of the initial flicks which gave Big-B his current fame.

The remake, on the other hand, is being made in a later stage in King-K's life, when he is sitting on the throne of bollywood at present. The story basically starts off with the same theme but a new dressing. The shooting abroad gives a different touch to the movie, though Farhan could have done it even in India, as he had done in DCH, a fresh new look to the Indian youth. He has done one chasing scene in India, which has been shot really nicely. Even the dialogues having been taken from the older version, leave alone the songs. Kareena is too fat in the song, and is totally untalented. I am sure Helen would have felt like murdering her. I need to say this that one of my friends performed better and more gracefully in UC-ISA’s annual show “Deepotsav” than her. Priyanka is good but has a loooot to improve. Boman is a very apt person for the role, as is Om Puri.

King-K is getting slimmer by the day and he surely looked much much better in Swades (I didn’t mention KANK, coz, hulllooo, it’s a movie not even worth spending a few bytes). His hair is very bad in Don which makes him look bad. Acting is his usual self, however I feel that his comic role was not upto Chamatkar’s Sunderlal Shrivastav mark, though the character was almost similar. This is his comeback in a villainous role, as I had expected years back, that he would do it, and he still has some of that acting left in him, though not as terrifying as in Darr and Anjaam.

The main part is the story which actually unfolds a little later after which you come to know the difference in the two movies, and then the comparison stops. You start to think “What will happen next” which takes you to the end. The team has done a good work in that aspect. Music is fresh for the 3 new songs, my favorite being “Aaj ki raat”, since the rest are ‘DJ Luv exclusive’ remixes. Its good to hear Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy back with some good numbers after boring KANK. Udit Narayan doesn’t match Kishorda, ofcourse, but doesn't have even his own touch to “khaike pan banaraswala”.

All in all, the movie is a good remake, though it actually isn’t one. The slick touch to the movie makes you feel it’s a movie of this era. At the same time, I felt like saluting the team of the original Don, for the amazing story they could think of and Kalyanji-Anandji for the excellent music scores, which make you tap your feet even now. Still, I feel Lage raho was made better than this one and deserves the best film and best director filmfare award for this year, considering the movies made uptil now in this year. But there’s no harm in watching a good movie like this and enjoy the fresh performances and scenes and remembering the Lord of Bollywood, Big-B and rest of the team of the original one, esp. Pran and Zeenat.