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.