Art of Chilling Gear

Foster’s take on the traditional gifting app allows you to gift your mates chilled out gear like a cool pint to help relax after a long day at work or you could gift the F Badge to a friend whom you know is a certified chiller! Whatcha waiting for get gifting! 

Gift a Chill Head

Know someone who ‘Lives to eat’ and not the other way around or someone who cannot go through any day without listening to some chilled out tunes? Well, they are Chill Heads Burp and B

oombox for you! There are 17 Chill Heads waiting for you to meet them. Pay them a visit and gift them to your friends; after all there is a Chill Head in all of us…

Introduce Strong

Did you know you could win an iPad2, Android phones and tons of other goodies simply by Introducing Strong? Check out this cool app and give it a shot, who knows, 1 click could win you some cool stuff. To take part, click here.

Share the Freshness

This app allows you to share the Freshness of Foster’s Draught in 1 ltr PET bottles with 3 of your best mates, which in turn makes you eligible to win Android phones, Art of Chilling parties, tons of other goodies and of course most important of all, the title of Most Chilled Out Gang. To take part and start sharing, click here. 

Art of Chilling

We have 6 situations that require YOUR Chilled Out solution! Give us your most creative answers and garner as many vote as you can on them. If your answer ends up getting voted most Chilled Out, you’ll be walking away with a customized Art of Chilling iPad2! Can it get any better? We think not so click here to check out the situations and make sure to put your creative thinking hats on.

Time2Chill

This cool app/micro site helps you unwind, kick back and chill for 2 minutes as you listen to the calm tune of waves crashing onto shore. Sounds easy? It is but make sure not to touch your mouse or keyboard or the ticker restarts at 2 minutes! Click here now because its YOUR Time2Chill.

Courtesy - Deccan Chronicle - 12/09/09

Austerity is a term used when a national government reduces its spending, usually to pay back creditors. And austerity seems to be the buzz word in the Parliament of late. The UPA government’s decision to implement austerity measures, though welcome, has already created a storm in the political circles.  It all started when ministers SM Krishna and Shashi Tharoor were asked to check out of the luxury hotels they were staying at. However, this definitely was uncalled for, because as far as my knowledge is, both the ministers were living off on their own hard earned money and not the taxpayers.

The issue kicked in further when Finance minister P Chidambaram ‘requested’ his peers to travel in Economy class while flying domestic and Business while on International flights. Of course, something not easy to digest for the Baabus. Although they agreed to it, their call for 1st class on International flights is very much in the wrong direction. Sharad Pawar even went on to point out the “hazards” of flying economy was the prospect of being intruded upon by other passengers. Perhaps someone should remind dear Mr. Pawar, that he just a servant of the public and not vice versa.

Shashi Tharoor had responded to the situation, saying on Twitter:

I would be ashamed if I was spending the people’s money. But I’m not – I’m spending my own savings.

As long as the ministers pay from their own pockets for special privileges it is okay. Most of them are rich and buying an Executive class ticket as they wish won’t nuke their pockets. Like Mr. Tharoor says the ministers, who are mere representatives of the people, should be ashamed to spend the people’s money for their luxuries.

Moving on, Rahul Gandhi called for the Congress to return to power in Tamil Nadu. He was here in TN to kick of a youth recruitment drive all across the state. I really hope his dream comes true and end the dominance of self-centered regional parties. While an alliance with the DMK may be good at the moment, the Congress will definetely need to rethink about it in the future, especially if it hopes for a revival of the party, like it did in Uttar Pradesh.

Just like ‘South Park’, Sunny was also piloted as a low-budget handy cam quality project with a budget of less than $200.  After knocking the doors of the big networks, the show was finally picked up by FX network, skyrocketing their TRPs.  The show is set in an Irish pub in Philadelphia (The word ‘Irish’ was enough to get me addicted to this) and is about its owners. Dennis Reynolds, is a narcisstic loser with a  high dosage of superiority complex. Deandra ‘Sweet Dee’ Reynolds, his sister,  is on her eternal quest to “prove women are equal to men”.  Charlie Kelly is an underachiever who does his best to woo the Waitress across the street. Mac is Charlie’s childhood friend and coming from a broken home, his only goal is acceptance. Then there is Frank Reynolds, Dennis’ and Dee’s dad, played by Danny DeVito who joined in the scond season. These 5 make up the co-owners of the pub and are always ina bid to out-do each other.  The only thing that the guys are bothered about is somehow getting laid, through hook or crook and in the process getting in trouble almost inevitably. There is also the Waitress (whose name is never revealed as of the 2nd season) who is the subject of Charlie’s constant attention although it is Dennis who mostly scores her.

The episodes usually follows the gang’s exploits at making the most out of others’ miseries. All the members of the gang are self centered bastards only bothered about their own financial gain. They are never united and each person is more than ready to dump the other for their own small personal benefits. The characters are played by the makers of the show themselves. It was Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton and Rob McElhenney who plays Charlie, Dennis and Mac respectively who shot he initial piolt on a digital camcorder before FX ordererd for the first season. The show started telecasting in August 2005 and so far 4 seasons have been completed, with the 5th just started.

For all those in India, if you are part of that civilization which hasn’t mastered the craft of torrents, I guess you can catch it on Star World. Don’t ask me about timings.  I’ve more or less ditched the idiot box.

For all those who saw the nerve-wrecking final of the Nehru Cup between India and Syria, I’m sure it must have been of a one of a kind experience. It was easily by far, one of the best games of football I’ve ever witnessed. No goals in regular time and with less than 10 minutes for penalties substitute Renedy Singh converted a free kick to send the crows to ruptures. He may not be a David Beckham but on that particular day he did much more than Beckham could ever do in his career – help win a trophy for his national side. But then, just when everybody thought the game is over for the Syrians, Ali Diab brilliantly headed the ball past the Indian ‘keeper with hardly any time left for the final whistle.

Ask Roberto Baggio or David Beckham. They wouldn’t think twice telling you that a penalty shootout is the most dreaded affair for any football player. No matter how big a superstar you are, when it comes to shooting the ball from 12 yards with just one person separating glory from you, it is not about skill or talent, rather its about the nerves. Unfortunately for the West Asians, nerves deserted them, along with luck. And then there was super-man Subrata Pal. The three saves he made were nothing short of being called spectacular. The moment Pal leaped to his left to stop Belal Abduldaim, I swear the song Chak De India was playing in my head. The Syrian Coach Fajer Ibrahim commented after the match that Syria could have romped home 4-0 had they scored and the Indians did not deserved the victory. Someone should remind him life, and football are not about possiblities, rather reality. The bottom-line is that Syria lost and India won. But what an irony that in both 2007 and 2009 India won the cup after losing to Syria in the league stages but defeating them when it mattered the most in the final. Lightning does strike twice after all.

India does have a lot of talent. Guys like Chhetri, Pal and NP Pradeep certainly deserve a shot in the European leagues, at least in the smaller ones like in Belgium. It is a pity that Chettri couldn’t make the cut for a work permit with QPR. Else he would have been the second Indian after Bhutia to play in England. What India lacks the most is enough match practice. In the last couple of years apart from two Nehru Cups and the AFC Challenge Cup, the team has hardly played a game. India needs to play more friendlies against better oppositions from Asia and if possible outside. I can’t wait to see India play  the likes of Japan and South Korea in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.

Of course, I would be exaggerating if I say the Baadshah of Bollywood planned the ‘detainment’ in advance as a publicity stunt for ‘My Name is Khan‘, his next movie which follows a Muslim’s tribulations in post 9/11 America. You don’t have to pass through the immigration checks at Newark or travel to the USA to realize the ‘torture’ faced by the actor is something every Asian, Muslims in particular have long  faced. But to make such hue and cry about it was absolute shame. Whether you like it or not, these checks have prevented possible security violations.

Shahrukh couldn’t have asked for a better promotion for the film. He was simply in the right place in the right time. He is possibly the best person to know how to handle the media in the right way to hios own advantages. Now all he has to do is to wait for the media to highlight the similarity of the film to this real-life event faced bu the star of the film himself.  He may have shed crocodile tears and threatened ‘never to set foot in the US again’. But at the end of the day he is Bollywood’s biggest star and a big percentage of his moolah comes from overseas, in particular North America. Not just that, the whole incident also would also increase awareness about him among the Americans, probably even land him a future Hollywood role.

Shahrukh should learn a lesson or two from former President APJ Abdul Kalam. He kept his mouth shut and did not want up to stir a controversy after the ‘mistreatment’ meted out to him by an American airline. Be it SRK or Kalam, they are no different from the common man. They may have done great deeds but that doesn’t mean they get special treatment wherever they go. Very few Indians are aware of the fact that even former American Vice President Al Gore was checked after he inadvertently bypassed security. Unlike SRK, he made no fuss about it and politely went through the check.

The Red Devils will definitely go into the league as favorites even without Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. Sir Alex may not have shelled out £50 million on transfers, but Michael Owen, Gabriel Obertan and Antonio Valencia will be eager to prove themselves. The signing of Owen on a free transfer is probably the best move this season so far in the Premiership. He has so far hit top form in the pre-season games. An early introduction of Owen could have swinged United’s fortunes against Chelski. Ecuadorian Valencia is by no means Ronaldo, but his last season at Wigan was nothing short of exceptional. Then there is also the yet to be tested Zoran Tosic. He played a few games for the senior team last year but was largely involved in reserve fixtures.

I really can’t wait for the Premier League to start. I have already started making my presence felt in Fantasy Premier League games on various sites. Like any other Red Devils faithful, I too am praying for another successive title not just in England but also Europe.

This movie released in January this year and here I am writing a review in June. Now this is something I really regret. I should have been watching this marvellous film relaxing on a posh seat in Sathyam or Inox rather than in my dingy room on my ancient computer. First time director Zoya Akhtar delves behind the glitter and glamour of Bollywood, or rather as the ever lovely Dimple prefers it ‘Hindi Cinema’, and gives us a bold, yet masalaish outlook of the industry.

It doesn’t take a genius to know that when it comes to Indian cinema, there is lot more than what you see or what you read in the tabloids. Om Shanti Om was the last film to poke fun at the industry.  RGV attempted it with Rangeela before that.  Whereas the former dealt with the subject in a rather humerous manner, the latter was more of the hard-hitting category. Luck by Chance, on the other hand has the same old cliches told in a refreshing new manner. For example, unlike her cousin Farah Khan’s OSO, Zoya Akhtar has been careful in not going over the top. The movie tells the story of young Vikram Jaisingh (Farhan Akhtar), who has come down to Bombay from Delhi to see his Bollywood dreams achieved. He meets and slowly develops a romance with Sona Mishra (Konkona Sen-Sharma), a struggling actress who belives someday she too will touch the heights of fame. While Vikram spends time honing his acting skills at a school, Sona is left with no choice but to act bit parts in B-grade movies. Sathish Chowdhury (Ally Khan) a small-time producer takes advantage of her predicament and promises her a ‘big’ role in the future. Meanwhile Vikram unexpectadly manages to bag the lead role in big shot producer Romy Rolly’s (Rishi Kapoor) latest venture after superstar Zafar Khan (Hrithik Roshan) ditches him for Karan Johar’s sure-shot next. The film also acts as a launchpad for Nikki Walia (Isha Sharwani) , the daughter of yesteryear heart-throb Neena (Dimple Kapadia). Conversely on the same day, Sona’s dreams are crushed when Chowdhury shows his true colors and and is left in the lurch. The rest of the film follows Vikram’s life as the new kid on the block and whether success gets into his head and affects his relationship with the ‘lowly’ Sona.

The opening credits itself, a montage depicting the hard-work put in by everybody involved in any film, from the caterers to the extras, the light-boys to the set builders, the taliors to the fashion designers, is enough to create a lasting impression of the flick. What makes this movie different from other similar ones like OSO, is that although it digs into the filthy secrets of the industry, it does so in a subtle manner without ‘offending’ anybody. It is not easy to please everone, but Zoya has managed to even please even those at whom she takes a dig at. Writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar has complimented daughter Zoya well. With a strong script and simple, yet hard dialogues, Javed saab has once again proved he is one of the best around. I had never heard of cinematographer Carlos Catalan before this, but his work here is truly exceptional. You almost feel like you’re in the midst of Farhan and others. The soundtrack may not be anything outstanding, the trio of Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy have sure come up with some good tracks. I especially liked the folk sounding Baawre song.

Zoya Akhtar is the daughter of such stalwarts like Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani. Not to mention Farhan is her brother and the beautiful Shabana Azmi is her step-mom. Coming from a typical filmy family, she perfectly understands what goes on behind the scenes. Her past experience as a casting director has well paid of in this flick. After Rock on, Farhan has put up another mindblowing, yet effortless performance as the protoganist. This being just his second film as an actor, he has the right expressions and simplicity of a new-comer, something that the rags-to-riches role demanded. Konkona meanwhile is in a class of her own. Her ‘unbollywoodish’ face perfects fits the bill of the actress struggling for a break. Sona is one character that deserves to be placed next to that of her award-winning character from Mr and Mrs Iyer. I would have loved to see Rishi and Dimple once again as love birds, but their respective roles more than make up for it. Dimple especially deserves a special mention as her’s is a role that echoes that of many former Bollywood starlets. Isha Sharwani may have gone unnoticed among the other major roles, but her character of the star-kid with zero acting skills is indeed special. After all, to act like someone who can’t get even the most basic dialogues right is no easy task. Her character is one of my favorite in the film. All the others including Hrithik in an extended cameo are realistic and translates one cliche or the other.

Apart from Hrithik, the film also features cameos from stars like Aamir Khan, Abhishek Bachachan, Akshaye Khanna, John Abraham, Rani Mukerji, Kareena Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Ranbir Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi, Dia Mirza, Ronit Roy and also others such as Karan Johar, Rajkumar Hirani, Javed Akhtar, Mac Mohan, Manish Malhotra and Anurag Kashyap all of whom play themselves. The script did require the cameos. But even if it didn’t I’m now sure Zoya is someone who is capable of pulling it off even without the presence of A-listers. If at all, there is any regret (if i can call it that way), it is the length of the film. We are talking about Hollywood and crossovers and here we have 2.5 hours. But other than that, there is not a speck of lifelessness in it. On the whole, I loved the movie and is a must watch, especially for those who don’t mind knocking the doors of the studio chaiwalla for a role. With Luck by Chance Zoya Akhtar has managed to carve a niche for herself.

My verdict – 4 out of 5

There was nothing international about the conference except maybe one Thai guy I can remember. Rest were all Indians. I guess it did not even qualify as an ‘Asian’ conference. It went on for three days and numerous sessions, of which I attended none. So what was it then that made my week ‘hectic’? Well, there was this fashion show that ‘showcased the different ethnic cultures of India’, to entertain the delegates. What is a fashion show doing at a conference meant for intellectuals? I don’t know, to be honest. There was also a western music show and a few dances as well to go along. Unfortunately or fortunately I was among the many who were ‘picked’ for the fashion show. So there I was, ‘walking the ramp’ for the first time since 9th grade back in school.  Me and my partner, a chick from first year, were designated the state of Haryana. But when the costumes arrived and I put it own, I realized that I was no Haryanvi but Jawaharlal Nehru. Did they lift the kurta-pajama from Nehru’s memorablia? All that was missing was a red rose on the chest. During the practice we never got the pose right. We were supposed to pose in opposite directions but somehow we almost always managed to screw it up. Finally we did manage to get it right, and we told ourselves, ‘first left, then right, then again left’. Apparently someone forgot to remind the same to us before the final show. So just as expected we screwed up the pose. To add insult to injury someone clicked a picture of the pose and put it on facebook, and in it there I was ‘ogling’ at her. Brilliant. To add to the woes, we almost forgot to make the exit from the stage on time. I promise to never again to appear in a fashion show, NEVER!

Fresher’s day is supposed to be a time when the seniors ‘get to know’ the juniors. But this time around, I already knew few of them thanks to the above mentioned tragedy. There was nothing much to talk about the day really. The emcees, with their lame jokes and same lame dance performances from the juniors, there was nothing really in it.Just like every year, the professors made it to a point to spoil the fun by telling not to ‘harass’ the freshers. Apparently one fo the first year GIRLS rides an Apache RTR-160 to college. I was scared. In case you don’t know, I still haven’t got a drivers license. I was expecting at least the food to be something more tolerant.I remember for last year’s freshers day we had got a packet of maa and samosas as refreshments. No such luxuries this time though, for all we got was what a bhajji the size of matchbox and some tea. Or was it coffee. I don’t remember.

ONCE AGAIN, REMIND ME NEVER TO ATTEMPT A RAMP WALK.

Peace.

At the moment I’m using Vodafone. The service is pretty decent and most of my friends are using it too. But the feature that I’ve been attracted to the most has obviously been its super-good Internet services. 10 p/10 kb at zero rental is music to the ears of any net-savvy person. It has hepled me to keep in touch with Facebook and Twitter. But now that Docomo has gone one step further in charging users  for every 1 kb rather than 10 kb,  it will only make net on the go even more cheaper. Btw Airtel’s internet sucks simply because it has no zero rental GPRS plans. I don’t really talk on the phone but that may just change with Docomo’s 1 sec pulse. But even this may change with Docomo’s arrival. This is even better than the 10 paise per call offers on Vodafone and other networks. On the flipside it lacks enough SMS offers.  This could affect its popularuty among the text-crazy teens and the youth.

The government had said Mobile Number Portability would be ready by mid-2009. This is especially helpful when you are unhappy about your service provider, and not being able to switch to another provider because you don’t want to lose your current cell phone number. But now, you may as well say good-bye to such fears as you can switch to a different operator while retaining your old number. This means increased competetion and ultimately it is the consumer who gets to smile. Docomo’s launch is thus very well timed.

I have to admit that Vodafone is definitely in danger of losing at least one happy and loyal customer, Moi. But whether that happens or not is in their hands. The customer’s motto is simple -Gimme More.

The mantra of Orkut’s compatriot Facebook’s (I wouldn’t dare  say rival because Orkut never has been any competition for FB) success have been Change, Evolution, Revamps. True, FB does have a new group popping up protesting every time they come up with a new interface, but I’ve always liked FB ‘reinventing itself’. Orkut came up with something called ‘themes’, though only in name. Anyone who’d used the themes would know they attract nobody but Indians and Brazilians with the mindsets of 2 year old kids. Seriously, what else should you say when you got ‘themes’ depicting a tiger or a snowman or a friendly ghost. The album section which is ripped of from that of FB is like one of those cheap Bollywood remakes of foreign movies. Unlike in FB there are no notifications and so you end up seeing  a comment on some photo of yours a month after it was posted. There is not one decent application worth even checking out, let alone using it regularly.FB has more than just sending messages across. You have a lot of applications that you can actually get addicted to like I am to Mafia Wars. Commenting on pictures can be more fun than anything you could think of. I’ve seen comments running upto more than 100 for some people’s photos. Yet the only thing you do on Orkut is sit, scrap and wait for the return scrap. And they say THIS is addicting. Jeez. Really?

But what pisses me the most is when you’re searching for someone using their own name and you find nothing. Rather they tell you to type some god knows what characters and some weird quotation or song from some stupid movie in the search box to locate the profile. The problem only doubles up when someone you may know sends you a friend request but as a name they have those weird characters and if that was not enough they have an image of David Beckham or a Hillary Duff as Display Pics. How the hell are you supposed to know who the person is? Why would you wanna put up the picture of someone who doesn’t even look remotely like you. I may be able to understand if girls say their pictures might be misused, but guys? Do they actually think they’re so gorgeous that people ‘misuse’ their pictures on gay-porn sites? It is your own fuckin face and if you don’t think its good enough, then no else is gonna think it is.

I’m not saying Facebook is THE best social networking site out there. You don’t have to join FB because of its brilliance but rather because of Orkut’s stupidity. I’ve a lot of good friends who are not able to relieve themselves of their ‘addiction’ for Orkut and refuse to switch to FB.  This is the invisible force I was talking about preventing me from deleting my account. If I delete my account, then it would mean that I lose my only resort to keep in touch with them online. To define Orkut in one word would be ‘monotonous’.