On behalf of Captaan Balbir Singh ‘Bobby’, this is your Flight Supervisor Banta Singh “Bunty” welcoming Â to you on the P’njaab Airways flight no. 9211 (Nau Do Gyaraah) to Ludhiana.

We apalogize for the two-day delay in taking off, b’cause the sun was not shining brightly in the fog. And we are knowing the sun does not shine in the night.

Landing in Ludhiana is not dafinite, but with good luck we can be landing d’rectly in your v’llage.

P’njaab Airways has exc’llant record for safety. In fact our safety standards are so high that even the fully trained tarrists and hijackers are afraid to fly with us.

I am pleased to ‘nounce that starting this year over 90% of our p’ssaingers have reached to their dest’nation.

For the rest 10%, the P’njaab Airways staff has lots Â of experience for consoling the next-of-kin. Our Â Hostess Bubbly Kaur will be haippy to brief you on our out-of-court settlement policies.

If engines are too noisy, on p’ssainger request, we can turn them off for comfart, but your flight will become late and you may become the late also.

For our religious p’ssaingers, we are the only airline who can help you to contact God at once. In case of sudden loss of cabin pressure, Holy Books will be quickly distributed.

We regret that today’s in-flight movie will not be Â shown as we could not record it from the tallyvision due to power cut.

But we will be flying right naxt to Air India, where their movie can be seen from the right side cabin windows. These windows have been opened for your viewing convenience. For p’ssaingers on leftside, we have put binoculars under the seat.

If AirIndia flight is again cancelled, then for your in-flight ent’tainment. our hostesses Bubbly Kaur & Â Cuckoo Kaur will do the Bhangra with flight stewards Pappu and Tappu. Oye, Balle Balle!!

Your in-flight Menu has a choice of Chicken Tikka Masala, Tandoori Fish, Dal makhani, unlimited P’ronthas and Lassi.

There is a half charge for Red Label Whiskey served from Black Label bottles. Patiala pegs will be served only on Patiala flights.

As per safety rules, smoking is not allowed on all P’njaab Airways flights over P’njaab. Any smoke you see in the cabin is only the early warning system on the engines.

Please do read the ’structions on the Safety Card in sit poket in your front side. It is not a hand fan.

The P’ssainger behind you must read the card in your backside.

Life jackets are placed under your seats for emergency water landings on any of our 5 rivers. Do not use life jackets on the land.

Kindly keep your seat in upright position for take-off & landing. Also do not use force. Broken seats will not be replaced and you will be tied to the floor during take off and landing.

Please be seated first and then fasten your seatbelts. Do not call for steward or airhostess for a glass of water when plane is taking off.

We are about to take-off. We wish you a pleasant flight. For air sikness problems we have echo friendly jute bags in the sit pokets.

Thank you once again for flying P’njaab Airways.

Tue 30 Jan 2007

Desi Lecturer - NTU

Posted by ZV under Teachers , Desi
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have patience in for the first two minutes… he should stop talking that fast, IMHO!

Sun 14 Jan 2007

Review of Guru

Posted by ZV under Desi
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Hat Tip: Bharath.

NOTE:- I am changing my Review format…..i ve made somethings more concise and included some essentials in the begining !

Essence

Story of a man who wants to grow unstoppably.

Should i watch it

You may just watch it once !

StoryLine

Gurubhai (Abhishek Bachhan) is working in turkey since he is very young. He proves his mettle in the company where he is working for. But he believes in working in his own country and so returns to india in his teens. His dad who is a headmaster discourages him from setting up cloth business since he had failed in the same. But nobody can stop guru from achieving his mission. He strikes a deal with his friend to marry his sister(aishwarya rai) for a dowry of 15 grand and in return makes him a half partner for his business. The three of them move to mumbai and from day 1, guru is on his brass tracks. With the help of mithun chakravorthy who is an honest newspaper editor, he sets up his shop in the central business region of mumbai. Once in, he employs all methods including corruption, bribery, blackmailing, etc to grow unbounded. He becomes every business man’s favorite and gains extreme popularity for his entrepreneur skills. With the help of public issue (starts the concept of shares) he sets up his own polyester manufacturing company “Shakti Exports” and goes on to become a business tycoon. He bribes @ necessary places, exploits the system loopholes, etc and publicises to grow as the largest company in the country. With healthy share holders under his belt and loads of self confidence it all seems to become true. The bigger fish in the ocean try to subdue him with money but he does nt surrender. But his interests conflict with mithun chakravorthy and hence here starts a rivalry thread. The son in law of mithun, maddy cleverly exposes the illegal trade secrets of Guru. What seems to be as a black cloud for him darkens further when he is affected with paralysis. The rest of the film deals with how Guru jumps all the hurdles and still strives towards his goal.

Departments/Performances

The story which is inspired from the life history of Dhirubhai Ambani is a veryÂ big one and had to be condensed into a 3 hr cinema. To some extent, the director mani ratnam has succeeded in doing so. But in the process, he has forgotten patience of audience. The racy 1st half effect is mitigated by the rather slow and boring second half. Ambani who had a business rival (Wadia of bombay dying) is not portrayed in an interesting manner in this movie. The rivals are shown in the movie as a weakling. The strategies employed are interesting only in the 1st half but the 2nd half misses the same. There are lot of unnecessary sentimental threads roped in which contribute to slow narration and uninteresting 2nd half. The climax has a very good speech by Guru in the court in front of the commission dealing with the allegations of his unethical business practices. With the commission deciding to fine heavily, it is not justified as to how guru still protects the share holders. Similarly, there are couple of more unconvincing parts of the plot.

The artwork of the movie is brilliant. The whole movie has the 1950s backdrop and the feel is translated excellently on screen. The songs are pictured well. Music by A.R Rehaman is good and the background score deserves a special mention. Dialogues are very catchy and apt. Few of the gujarati accent dialogues might be difficult to comprehend for a section of the audience. The film boasts of rich production values and excellent technical values.

Artists performances is a plus for the movie. Though it might not be a commercial hit, abhishek bachchan walks out with all the honours. His impeccable guestures, superb histrionics and lively portrayal of the character is excellent. The characterisation of all the artistes in the movie is very good. Aishwarya had a little more than a limited role but she performed aptly with grace. Vidya balan and madhavan are adequate for their roles. However, the sentimental threads involving vidya balan and abhishek-ash tend to slow the movie at the strategic point which is a big let down !

My Verdict

Mani Ratnam adding his touch is not unusual but the point in the movie, where he has added it spoils the show to some extent. The movie which starts of great, proceeds excellent till interval bang slows down tremendously in second half. The speed of narration is again justified with a brief but a brisk climax. By the end of the movie, the director leaves behind quite a few unjustified facts. The movie is definitely not a pick for the normal viewers but for those who are searching for pure essence or the real “Film Lovers”. Normal Viewers may watch it once for the idea behind the movie.

Box Office power

The movie provides no comedic entertainment whatsoever. There s hardly any comedy thread (which is usual in mani movies) and is not as focused too as movies like Sarkar. The slack in second half would contribute to its partial box office failure to large extent. On the whole, its not a commercial hit though has some elements which can contend for national awards.

Plus

Abhishek’s Performance.

A.R Rehman music.

Artwork and sets.

Minus
Slow narration

unnecessary side threads off track.

lack of commercial entertainment values.

–
luv,
bharath

Fri 5 Jan 2007

Happy New Year and an Interesting Article…

Posted by ZV under Silicon Valley , Entrepreneurs , Desi
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From: Silicon Valley

Valley’s new leaders coming from overseas

STUDY SHOWS IMMIGRANTS HELP CREATE MORE THAN HALF OF AREA’S START-UPS

By John Boudreau

Mercury News

Sudhakar Muddu left everything familiar in his homeland of India in 1990 to attend Yale University on a post-graduate scholarship. He later worked for IBM and Silicon Graphics.

But he didn’t leave family and home just to have his name in a company directory. He staked everything on the Silicon Valley Dream — starting a tech company.

“Leaving family is such a hardship,” said Muddu, now on his second start-up, Kazeon, a 3-year-old Mountain View maker of search technology for businesses. “So the dream is to make a mark, to prove something to your family and to the world.”

Muddu’s story is replayed over and over in the valley, where, according to a study being published today, more than half of local start-ups established in the past decade were founded by people born overseas.

The report, “America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs,” written by researchers from Duke University and the University of California-Berkeley, confirms what many in the valley already know: Skilled immigrants from India, Taiwan, China and other countries play key roles in the creation of wealth and jobs. Nationwide, 25 percent of tech and engineering start-ups have founders who are immigrants.

Wed 20 Dec 2006

So what’s the big deal about HD?

Posted by ZV under HDTV , Comcast , Pioneer , HDMI , Hi-Def TV , Geek Quotient , Desi
No Comments

I bit the bullet this time and bought an Pioneer PDP-5070HD PureVision 50″ Plasma HDTV - having looked at CNET and Amazon. The 50″ may a little too big for our living room (although hey there’s no such thing!) but it is a visual pleasure.

Some key observations-

HD programming is limited, waaay too limited right now. It did force me to watch more of Discovery however and see things that were invisible in the past on a regular TV.

TBS cheats. Seem to watch some sorta pseudo-HD with major pixellation which is an annoyance.

Regular programming can look like crap on HD. I set mine at 4:3 to eliminate most issues.

You need a better cable box that supports HDMI. I had to return my Comcast box and get a brand spankin new one, which is actually smaller and has more DVR space - so that was a good deal. I did have to drive down to Livermore however to get it.

You dont have HDMI DVD Players in the market. There’s one from RCA at about $80 that is too one dimensional for me - looking for a next gen home theater system with Bluray/HD-DVD with HDMI outputs. When will that come?

Plus, want to throw in a SlingBox. So who said Im not all geeked out