small town under clouds

These are the kind of snaps that feed the photography “keeda” in me…
Soon have to buy a good camera and foray into the world of photography…

small town under clouds

via [daily dose of imagery] on 7/1/09

Green landscape seen from a road a few hours north of Tehran, Iran. (from archives)

Posted via email from Shivanand’s posterous

New York : Movie Review

The Departed inspired + 9/11 plot + a religious angle + a triangular love story = an awfully dissapointing movie, New York.

The movie reveals how the Asians especially Asian Muslims were treated in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. 1200 people were detained under the patriot act, even the faintest suspects were arrested and detained. The movie shows the horrific mental and physical abuse these detainees were subjected to by the American agencies. After 3 years 1000 detainees were released as not guilty. They trying hard to recover from the mental trauma they had gone through.

The story is about 3 friends Omar (Neil Nitin Mukesh), Maya (Katrina Kaif) and Samir (John Abraham) and how their lives changes in the aftermath 9/11 attacks. The movie begins with the FBI agent, Roshaan (Irfaan Khan), picking up Omar for transporting illegal arms. Omar, begins a flash back of his time with Samir and Maya at NYU as students. Samir is suspected to be abetting terrorism. The FBI force Omar to spy on Samir, to prevent future attacks and to plan their capture. The movie then goes in a typical bollywood way after the re-union, Omar recalling his love for Maya, who is now married to Samir. Many scenes I felt were “inspired” by The Departed, especially the scenes with Roshaan and Omar.

The acting was good by all the characters, Kartina for once has acted good, direction was also not bad. I some how was not able to relate to the story, the ending especially. I felt the ending of the movie was a total spoil sport. A very good thought that the movie was trying to project, was lost due all the hara-kiri in last 15 mins.

If you are wanting to watch a good hindi movie, after the prolonged movie drought due to the strike. New York will disappoint you, I certainly was disappointed.

Feud over Archie ends : Archie to wed

The brunette Veronica has finally done it. The 41 year love triangle between Betty – Archie – Veronica is now a history. Always indecisive Archie finally makes up his mind to wed Veronica and has proposed her. This is quite an event, for Archie fans. Betty fans should be furious because, I always felt Betty was always loyal and Veronica had a kind of wicked when it came to getting hold of Archie.

Reg is now vying for Betty. Jughead to be Archie’s best man. Veronica has asked Betty to be her maid of honor.

Archie finally gets out of “Betty – Veronica Syndrome”.

2009 Election : A $3 bn Celebration

India’s National Election Spreads $3 Billion Around – NYTimes.com

Candidates and parties spent $3 billion on everything, including transportation, advertising, celebrity endorsements and cash bribes over the course of the campaign, according to economists and political analysts. In comparison, the last United States presidential campaign cost an estimated $2.4 billion.

The campaign, which will wrap up Saturday with a final tally of the votes, is trickling through the economy and plumping earnings at television stations, advertising agencies, florists, airlines, car companies and gas stations. It is adding to the business for sweets manufacturers, priests and astrologers.

The programs are so extensive that the amount of money spent in India will give a 0.5 percent boost to the country’s gross domestic product for two quarters of this year, says Kotak Securities, a brokerage firm.

Indians are masters of spending and displaying grandeur be it any kind of celebration marriage, diwali, holi or the elections (celebration of democracy). Its a different topic to discuss if the spending is justified or not. Looking at the voter’s turn out 2009 elections were mere celebration for the political parties and candidates not an ideal exemplification of democracy.

Dead-Man switch in locomotives

I found this interesting…

Observatory – Absence of Chemicals Signals an Ant’s Death – NYTimes.com

Locomotives and other equipment often include a fail-safe mechanism known as a dead-man switch. If the operator lets go of the engine throttle for more than a prescribed amount of time, for example, the locomotive will shut down — the assumption being that the operator is dead (or otherwise incapacitated) and there’s a risk of a runaway train.