Last days mark the beginning -- ??

Mmmmm... The bread is extra soft today as I bite into it .. The sandwich is perfect - just the way I like it.. And oh the frappe - it's so heavenly delicious, not all that sweet with the right amount of bitterness stirred in with the coffee!

Oh shucks, there goes my try at being a writer - the last line was so ... so... I am lost for words here! But anyways, to cut a long story short, I have finally completed my stay at Zacks; today was my last day and I am now sitting at the Barista outlet next to Forum.. probably having my last cup of coffee here - it sure remains a very special Barista for me!

Anyways, you all know my travel plans - so I won't repeat them here again!

Hope to get on with my packing again tonight -- it's proving to be such a pain in the arse guys! I am not quite liking the feeling of being unemployed -- today and tomorrow! Everyone is kinda giving me a farewell -- feeling pretty numb and dumb! I guess, the fact that I'm leaving Calcutta is yet to sink in!

Anyways, I believe that the last days in calcutta will mark the beginning of the next phase in my growth - personally as well as career wise! Hope this change brings along some much needed luck - I desperately need it! Well, I can keep rumbling on & on & on without making much sense, so please pray that I settle down on landing in Mumbai. 'Til, play hard and party harder!

Hey readers, it's been a long time since I last wrote here. My last post was a movie review of Kismat Konnection. Sadly, I have not been able to watch any other movie after KK. However, I did have the luxury of being asked to sample some of the new coffees launched at Barista this week, the best among them being Espresso Creme Shekerato! It's an awesome concoction of a drink and it sure will strike a chord with strong coffee lovers who prefer their coffee cold! This drink is perhaps the ideal cold, strong coffee. Served in a wine glass, it's best enjoyed when taken chilled, un-stirred.

More on the coffee and my plans for this week later! Enjoy!

Movie Review: Kismet Konnection

It’s amazing how you can speak right to my heart ...

Without saying a thing, you can light up the dark...

It’s amazing how you can aptly use these lines to describe the expression in the eyes of Vidya Balan. Her smoky eyes speak a thousand words and light up the scenes in Kismat Konnection. Like Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na, Kismat Konnection too moves on familiar lines. There is nothing new in the story line – in fact, the story is somewhat predictable in the way it twists and turns.

However, two notable things about the movie are the chemistry between Raj Malhotra (Shahid Kapoor) and his best friend, Hiten Patel and of course between, Raj and Priya (Vidya Balan). However, I was left feeling disappointed with the characterization of Haseena Bano Rani (a special appearance by Juhi Chawla). While I do believe that Juhi was perfect for the role, I think that the Director should have worked harder on this character rather than let Juhi act out her Kurkure-act. Still, the character eked out a few laughs from the audience but frankly, I believe Juhi was wasted in this role.

Those of you who went to watch the movie expecting another Jab We Met would have been left severely disappointed – I went in with a fresh mind, harbouring no expectations from the movie (all due to the average reviews of the movie) and I was left pleasantly surprised at the end of this 2hr, 45 min flick! I liked the movie – it had a nice, feel good factor about it! And of course, Neeraj Shreedhar rocked with the title track.. The music was decent, with Bakhuda Tumhi Ho and Kismet Konnection (ae pappi) being the highlights! Go watch it, it’s pretty decent stuff and especially, if you can’t get tickets for The Dark Knight.

Footnote: While Shahid's dressing sense is immaculate throughout the movie, Vidya Balan's dressing sense slips from pretty okay to sheeeeee as we approach the climax! Seriously guys -- I'm not joking!

Check my Kismat Konnection!

So readers, tell me what percentage of India believes in Destiny, or Karma, or Kismat? Well, I don’t about the rest of you, but there certainly are two people in the world who believe in the world of karma or Kismat: I and the other being the Director of Kismat Konnection. After reading the average reviews of this movie in various publications including the Rediff.com and The Telegraph, I had chucked the idea of catching this movie. As it is, the last few months, I’ve severely cut down on my going out for movies. So, watching a sub-standard movie was far off my mind when I ventured out of home earlier today at around 11 in the morning.

After taking care of a couple of my works, I called up my buddy, Amit Jodhani (one of those rare souls who have stayed on as my friends in Kolkata) and asked him his program. We had an educational thing to take care of and according to plans made on Friday night, we were supposed to meet up at 3 pm on Saturday, i.e. today, July 19, 2008. After taking care of my works, I thought I’d plenty of time to work out at the gym and catch Amit at 3. It was 12:25 pm when I entered my gym. As luck would have it, Amit called me up 10 minutes later and suggested that we meet up at 1. Now, I’d already changed and was ready to hit the gym floor and work up a good sweat. As a bargain for meeting so early, Amit agreed to go for a movie. After hunting through the newspapers for the movie timings, we finally agreed to watch The Dark Knight at Fame, South City. For some inexplicable reasons, INOX was not screening this movie in either of its theatres in Kolkata. It was 12:45 then and with the show beginning at 1:15 pm, we agreed to meet in 10 mins as the Fame South City multiplex was 15 mins drive from where we were.

I huffed and puffed and was able to reach the ground floor of the building (which houses my gym) but Amit was stuck in some pretty bad traffic jam. 1:15 pm came and went and Amit was finally able to pick me up at 1:25 pm.. After discussing for what seemed like ages, we decided to head for the Russell St dhaba where we finally agreed on watching the movie at 4:15 pm at the same multiplex. With plenty of time to kill, we took care of our educational queries and reached South City at 3:15 pm. However, to our utter dismay, the 4:15 show of The Dark Knight was already housefull (with only 1 ticket available – the lady at the counter was kind enough to inform us of this fact).. We then decided to choose from Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na or Kung Fu Panda but as our Kismat would have it, we bought tickets for Kismat Konnection, a movie both of us had initially agreed on to skip!

Thanks to the unpredictable nature of life, we were able to watch this lovely flick – it’s not mind blowing like Jaane tu Ya jaane Na or Jab We Met but it’s still manages to be worth 1 watch atleast! I’ve written the review of this movie but I’m waiting for it to be published on Desicritics.org before I publish the same here. So, fingers crossed, I hope that your Kismat lets you watch the movie and read my review, right here, sometime tomorrow! And yes, a girl like Vidya Balan is the perfect take home material – watch the movie to understand more! :-) :-) :-) And for that person, who had originally received this remark - hope you got it! Then again, I did mention it to you at the Airport!

And a final word of caution: Besides the obvious similarity to Jab We Met, the movie also has some sequences which will remind you of Chalte Chalte and Lage Raho Munnabhai. Nonetheless, this movie is certainly a good timepass!

IMF Revises Inflation & Growth forecasts

Oh wow ... Another 500 point rise --- oooo boy, the lovely days are back here again or are they? Hmmmm... Well, the oil has declined by $16 in the last 3 sessions, when I had checked in the morning - so this seems to be more of a relief rally more than any fundamental factor which may be driving the Sensex north. There are too many worrying factors on the horizon, most notably political uncertainty, inflation worries and a worldwide economic slowdown.

By the way, IMF has revised both inflation and growth forecasts. Read the piece here for more on this!

Teach India - Are you Game?

Hey guys, do you that the Inflation data will now be reported on a Thursday instead of the usual Friday 12 noon announcement? Read the same in Rediff.com today and saw the inflation at 11.91% in CNBC sometime in the evening. Now hile the infaltion has been steadily creeping higher, a point to note is the reduction in the rate at which the inflation rate has been creeping higher. All fiscal and monetary measures operate with a lag and maybe in the coming couple of weeks, we will see first signs of the restrictive monetary events like rate hikes take place, bringing the inflation down. No need to panic on that issue at least!

With the way the Times of India have gone about promoting the Teach India campaign, I am sure that not many of us may have missed it. According to the campaign, this effort requires only 2 hours of our lives per week for a duration of 3 months. For those of you registering for this program, the Times of India group will patch you with a local NGO of your chosen area with whom you can take this charitable work further. 2 hours a week, on any day of your choice and any time, shouldn't be too much to ask for - So are you volunteering?

Some newsworthy events of the week gone by!

Hey readers, I gave up a chance to again go & watch Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na with my family for the second time – I thought that well, I needed to devote some time to this space too! So, here I’m and this is me... Ten ta naaaaaaaa....... Not that Jaane Tu... wasn’t worth a second watch but I thought I should stay back and try and bring some sense to the belongings that I’ll be lugging over to Mumbai (where I’m shifting early next month ... O.k. you cynics, I am probably shifting!!) and also to read up on the latest happenings and all!

I was pretty sad to hear about Pepsi and Airtel chucking ties with Sachin Tendulkar. Reports are that Mahendra Singh Dhoni is now drawing a higher ad fee than Sachin – he certainly has a lot more brands under his belt at the moment. Here is a report that highlights the higher earnings (via ads) of Dhoni vs. Tendulkar. In other events, TRAI has suggested an online auction for all broadband and wireless services – I say, way to go TRAI! Read the report here for more on this! According to another report, NASSCOM has said that the Indian IT growth is expected to take a dip following an increase in competition from new outsourcing destinations like Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Indonesia. Remember that saying when the going gets tough, the tough get going – Time for the heavyweights like Infosys and Wipro to take notice and raise the bar higher!

And finally, am I glad to see the Prime Minister showing some spine and coming out all guns blazing in support of the N-deal! If reports are to be believed, the Government is looking to launch several ads meant to educate teh public and get crucial public support for the deal. No wonder the Government has good reason to look towards the future as well with elections round the corner! Check the report here for more details of the same.

Hey readers, this certainly is a new experience for me - blogging from my mobile! For long, I've bemoaned the slow speed of my Reliance NetConnect for the infrequency of my blogging but today, while I was just lazing around, I stumbled upon this application in my mobile browser! Oh, I simply love my Sony P990i! More later!

DLF buyback at RS. 600 per share

Well, the markets sure are representing a roller-coaster ride - up by 60 points one day and down by 570 points the other day! It's a yo-yo ride and it's more down than up - and isn't that the most scary part? Going down, the earth rushes to meet you and embrace and then suddenly you are yanked and now you are going up, all the while knowing that the next turn is going to send you hurtling down once again! Ha ha, enjoy the ride guys! As I’ve mentioned earlier, it’s a great time to build your portfolio with a long-term view of at least 2-3 years.

I liked the positive steps taken by the management of DLF to boost its share price – the stock had slumped to a low of Rs. 350/- after touching a high of Rs. 1225/- a few months earlier.. The company had announced the decision to buyback shares at a price of Rs. 600/- per share.. It sure does represent a good premium to the current stock price and should boost the company’s share price in the near-term. Also, with DLF being the giant in the infrastructure place, one may expect the sentiments in the infrastructure to improve going forward.

Love Story vs. Jaane Tu?

Vs.

Oh well, today sure is a BIG day for moviegoers - two heavyweight films (1 claiming to be a sci-fi flick with a Hrithik Roshan look-alike while the other is a teeny romance story launching the nephew of Aamir Khan, the guy with a dog named Shah Rukh). While chances of me watching either of the movies is pretty slim, I did skim through the reviews posted on Rediff.. So, I thought, why not, I shall share the same with you! Click here and here for the review of Love Stroy 2050 .. And click here and here for the reviews of Jaane Tu ya Jaane na!

Well, both movies got some new faces but its Jaane Tu... that is my pick from the two! I simply love the Aditi song from this movie!

By the way, this blog on the Indian Economy is simply awesome! And also an article which pins the blame of rising food prices on Biofuels, not India!

Patience, dude, Patience!

I have often found myself praying to God, asking him to grant me some patience and asking him to make it fast! I've so often heard people saying that those who wait for the right opportunity get the best offers! Now isn't that weird - how do you know what is the right opportunity and what is not? What quality of one offer makes it the best while making others look worse? I mean, it's only now when I look back at my earlier years can I say for sure that yes, that was the right thing to do and that wasn't.. But for someone who started his professional career only a couple of years back, how can I tell instantly which offer is best and what is the right opportunity? Is it necessary that the right opportunity has to come with the best offer????

Give me a decade.. else, atleast another 5 years, and then maybe I can tell you whether I made the right professional choices or not but hearing people repeat such sayings over and over again sure makes me see red! :-)

Grrrr... Nice take on patience though ... The pic is taken from here.

Up, up and away!

Hey readers, Gmail has finally been banned in office and after 30 months since first joining this company, I've resigned -- well, I'd expected to feel sad and nostalgic but currently I feel pretty numb!

Anyways, what a stupendous rise in the indexes today - over a 5% increase. The markets needed a positive sign and with DLF signalling a shares buyback, the investors simply gave in to the news, with the realty index rising by over 12%.. Sure was good news for a sector that had born the brunt of the negative market sentiment in the last 6 months!

More on this and the above later - time for me to head home now!