Finally a forwarded sher:

अर्झ किया है:

एक महफ़िलमे कई महफिले होती है शरीक
जिसकोभी पाससे देखोगे वो तनहा होगा

Wasn't it Bill Gates who said something to the effect that each morning you should check the list of the richest people in the world and go to work if your name isn't in it? Well, I may not find my name in that list but judging from the SMS that I received last night, I seem to have won 700,000 GBP in 2010 Irish Splash Draw, UK :-) I am already working on my resignation letter ;-)

Looks like The Taco Bell is coming to Bangalore. Can't wait for them to come to Mumbai! And while we are at it, wish Denny's would come here too. :-)

पुणे आयपीएल संघासाठी नियम

I fell off the chair laughing when I read this:

खेळाडुंसाठी
1."फलंदाजा कडून धावा निघत नसतील तर मैदानावर उगीच टवाळक्या करत बसू नये"
2."गोलंदाजांनी चेंडू जपून वापरावा अन्यथा प्रत्येक नविन चेंडूचे ३ रुपये आकारण्यात येतील"
३."क्षेत्रारक्षकांनी दुपारी १ ते ४ या वेळेत उगीचच Howzzat म्हणून गोंधळ करू नये ,लोक इकडे झोपलेली असतात"
प्रेक्षकांसाठी
१. सामन्याची वेळ तुमच्या तिकिटावर छापलेली आहे, उगाच कधीही येऊन गर्दी करु नये
२. सामन्याच्या वेळेच्या आधी ३० मिनिटे मैदानात प्रवेश दिला जाईल, तुम्ही गडबड केल्याने सामना लवकर सुरु होणार नाही
३.खुर्चीचा वापर फक्त बसण्यासाठीच करावा ... एका खुर्चीवर एकच
४.मैदानात पिण्यासाठी (साध्या) पाण्याची व्यवस्था केली आहे. घरुन बाटल्या आणुन कचरा करु नये.
५.मैदानावरचे कॅमेरे हे सामन्याच्या हालचाली टिपण्यासाठी आहेत, उगाच हिडीस चाळे करुन त्यांचे लक्ष वेधण्याचा प्रयत्न करु नये
६.आपण पुण्यासारख्या एका सुसंस्कृत शहरात एका सार्वजनिक ठिकाणी सामना पहात आहोत ह्याचे भान ठेऊन चियरलिडर्सना खाणाखुणा करु नये किंवा त्यांच्याकडे डोळे फाडुन बघुन लाज आणु नये. अश्लील चाळे कराल तर नुसतीच पोलीस कारवाई नाही तर धिंड काढण्यात येईल
७.फुंके ( सिगारेट, बिड्या, चिलीम ), थुंके ( तंबाखु, गुटका, मावा, पान ) आणि शिंके ( तपकीर आणि स्वाईन फ्ल्युग्रस्त ) ह्यांना मैदानात मज्जाव
८.मैदानात दारु विक्री केली जात नाही, मैदानात दारु पिऊ दिली जात नाही, मैदानात बाहेरुन दारु पिऊन आल्यास प्रवेश मिळणार नाही.

सगळ्यात महत्वाचे.
समोर नाचत असलेल्या चिअर लिडर्स जरी मस्तानी असल्या तरी आपण बाजीराव नाही. म्हणुन क्रुपया सामना खाली बसुन बघावा.

Finally a forwarded sher:

माँगा करेंगे रबसे दुआ हिज्रे यारकी
आखिर तो दुश्मनी है असरको दुआके साथ

Have a good week ahead, folks! :-)

The Book Of Eli

I am not a fan of what I call "Apocalypse Now" kind of movies with their barren, scorched and desolate landscapes. But I wanted to find out what exactly is this book that Eli so desperately wants to deliver somewhere.

The movie didn't disappoint me - even when it was clear what the book is. Sure, there were some gaps when I left the cinema hall like, for example, exactly what is it that destroys so much of the civilization? Solar flares? WW3? Aliens? I wasn't also sure why people keep demanding that Eli show his hands. I don't know whether they didn't mention these clearly or I missed the part. In any case, it was imdb.com to the rescue as usual. :-)

The movie made me rather sad. With the state of the world as it is now, we cannot dismiss the possibility of world annihilation lightly, can we? And when that happens, who can say that people will not insist on having their own God's word proclaimed? Even a solar flare might not destroy all fanatics :-(

The Partner - by John Grisham

I must have read about 7-8 Grisham novels by now. But I must say I liked this one the best. The protagonist is Patrick Lanigan, a junior partner in a small law firm somewhere in Mississippi who dies when his car erupts in a giant ball of fire after its crash. What makes him famous, or notorious - depending upon your point of view, is that 6 weeks after his death about $90 million that land in the firm's off-shore bank account vanish without a trace.

There are 2 insurance companies involved - one that has paid Patrick's wife and one that has settled his firm's malpractice insurance claim. Then there is the client whose money got stolen. The trio forms a syndicate to hunt down Patrick and succeeds in the enterprise.

How Patrick, with the help of his lawyer friend Sandy, makes them as well as the FBI and other assorted legal bodies dance to his tunes is the stuff that makes this novel worth reading. Rather unfortunate that the "twist in the tale" doesn't come as much of a surprise. :-(

Origin In Death - by J. D. Robb

This is another "In Death" series novel that I picked up at the library. This time the detective, Eve Dallas, is hunting a killer who seems to have ruthlessly murdered a father-son doctor duo who were at the top of their profession - cosmetic surgery.

As in any "In Death" series novel, the plot is full of futuristic stuff like the droids doing domestic chores, AutoChefs churning out the culinary delight of your choice (I could kill for one!) and self-termination permits. But the author has done a good job of keeping us all guessing as to who the killer could be. The novel does seem to drag on for a bit in the end after the killer is discovered but overall, I liked it.

आया मौसम आयपीएलका

The IPL is here again and so are the beloved Zoozoos. Must say Vodafone has got a gold mine with these adorable characters which people like me never seem to get enough of. Bring on more ads, folks! :-)

With the Indian cricketers in each of the IPL teams, there is no logical reason why I should be against any of them. But still, I am. And the funny thing is that I seem to have a bit of logic behind it - however weird.

Now, I am from Mumbai so it follows that I will always cheer for Mumbai Indians. So far so good, you say? Okay, listen to this. I hate SRK from the bottom of my heart so I don't like it when KKR wins any matches. Weird? Wait, there is more. A colleague from Bangalore made the mistake of saying RCB will thrash MI and that was enough to turn me against RCB. I used to be a fan of Preity Zinta once upon a time but lately she seems to be getting on my nerves with her over-the-top antics in the stadiums so I will not be caught praying when KXIP is in trouble.

I don't have anything against Shilpa Shetty (though I find it hilarious when Shamita behaves as if she owns the team!) so RR seems to have escaped my wrath. I am equally neutral about CSK, DD and DC - at least as of now.

And with the Pune team in the fray from next season onwards, I know of one topic that will be a strict no-no when I SMS my Pune friends. :-)

I am coming here almost after 3 weeks. A very hectic schedule at workplace and bad attack of cough and cold conspired to keep me away. Not that the schedule has eased now and the cough still seems to be with me. But I started getting worried that I was becoming lethargic about posting here. And that won't do at all. So here I am.

During this time I have finished reading 4 books - 2 of them in my mother-tongue, Marathi. I have always wanted to blog in Marathi too here but somehow or other never managed to get down to installing the fonts necessary for that. Hope to get that done soon so I can post reviews about the Marathi books that I read - especially as I have decided to read at least one a month.