Do Things Really Change?

2006 - NAM Summit, Havana:

• NAM Summit: Musharraf, Manmohan may meet
• BJP opposes PM's meeting with Musharraf in Havana

2013 - UN General Assembly, New York:

• Manmohan Singh, Nawaz Sharif may meet in New York
• BJP opposes talks with Pakistan

Every time there was an opportunity for a meeting, it was opposed by BJP leaders. The arguments from both the ruling and opposition sides remained unchanged over the years and the same arguments were blabbered out whenever there was a possibility of scheduling a meeting on the sideline of some event.

2014 - Modi Swearing In Ceremony, New Delhi:

• BJP ‘delighted’ as Nawaz Sharif confirms attending Modi’s swearing in
• Congress criticises BJP for inviting Pak PM to Modi’s swearing-in

This time around as well… the ruling and opposition sides have the same arguments as they did in the previous years. The only difference is - The ruling is now BJP and Congress is now in the opposition. The arguments are still the same, but the party mouthpieces yelling those arguments have switched positions.

Things don't really change. Positions however keep shifting depending on what side one is standing on.

Tokarev

I see a film title that has Nicolas Cage in a lead role and I think - 'This can't be THAT bad'. Well… sometimes I am wrong.

This is a shit film. Nicolas Cage (along with the rest of the cast) has sleep-walked through this film. The direction is terrible. The 'twist' in the plot would be obvious to anyone with a working brain (even half a working brain) and it gets revealed wayyyyy tooo late in the film, making it even worse.

Cage looks great for his age but looks absolutely horrible for this role. This is NOT a good film. This is not even watchable.

The Mentalist – Season 6

I was sure I read somewhere that this would be the last season. Turns out, it's not [Link].

Season 6 was fun. As mentioned earlier – So much better without the 'Red John' mystery (got really annoying towards the end).

The Blacklist – Season 1

Episode 16 and 17 were horrible. I mean… that was just bad writing.

An FBI agent trying to track-down a missing person. Gets a lead – An address from where the missing person had made the last call.

Instead of informing the authorities that are handling the case OR calling for her backup (the team that for some reason is always ready to respond to any of her idiotic requests)… this super dumb FBI agent calls her husband to ask 'hey… I have a lead. It's this address… do you know about it?'

WHY would she do that when she is standing AT THAT address? Wouldn't it just be easier to go in and find out for herself (or share the lead with the investigating authorities)?

And then the whole nonsense about Ivan… absolute rubbish.

Raymond 'Red' Reddington (James Spader) – Absolutely brilliant. This bloke is as cool as it gets. Wonderful performance.

Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) – She is definitely not the dumbest On-Screen FBI Agent, but she is far from intelligent (even reasonably intelligent). She is ok to look at, but the character is pretty incompetent. Way too emotional (for an FBI Agent) and simply lacks the spark.

Jolene (Rachel Brosnahan) – Not bad to look at. In fact in one particular scene she looked absolutely amazing. Was an interesting character, held some promise. Too bad they killed her off.

Harold Cooper, Meera Malik, Aram Mojtabai – Irrelevant and inconsequential to the plot. They hardly have anything to do.

Red just makes the show (even with the whole FBI nonsense) worth it. The one-liners are brilliant. There is a lot to learn / pick up from this character. The man does have a good taste when it comes to ties.

Waiting for Season 2.

…

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

Douglas Adams

Aaye Kuchch Abr Kuchch Sharaab Aaye

Faiz Ahmed Faiz…

Aaye kuchch abr kuchch sharaab aaye
Uss ke baad aaye jo azaab aaye

Baam-e-miinaa se mahtaab utare
Dast-e-saaqi mein aaftaab aaye

Har rag-e-khuun mein phir charaagaan ho
Saamne phir wo benaqaab aaye

Umr ke har waraq pe dil ko nazar
Teri meher-o-wafaa ke baab aaye

Kar rahaa tha gham-e-jahaan ka hisaab
Aaj tum yaad behisaab aaye

Na gaii tere gham ki sardaari
Dil mein yuun roz inqalaab aaye

Jal uthe bazm-e-gair ke dar-o-baam
Jab bhi hum khaanma-kharaab aaye

Iss tarah apni khamoshi guunji
Goyaa har simt se jawaab aaye

'Faiz' thi raah sar basar manzil
Hum jahaan pahunche kaamyaab aaye

Pompeii

This could have easily been a spectacular film… and 15 minutes shorter. Instead… because of a bunch of poorly thought out sequences, what we have is an idiotic plot and a stupid film. Sigh…  

…

If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn't swim.

Margaret Thatcher

BJP, Led By NDA ??

It can't possibly be THAT difficult for a leading News broadcaster to review/proofread articles before publishing them!

'Smart' Glasses

"

The Bluetooth wearable includes both eye and motion sensors that can tell when you're close to nodding off. If it gets to that point, a companion smartphone app will give you a heads-up. The eyewear is useful even when you're fully alert, as it can handle basic fitness duties like step counting and calorie tracking.

Link

Hmmm… so now we need a gadget and an accompanying app to tell us when we are tired ?!! Seriously… just HOW DUMB is this pathetic generation of human beings??

General Elections

The other day someone asked me why I was so indifferent towards the elections in India. Sigh… here is my response:

My interest in the polling/elections is… err… Not much interest, to be honest. For me, it's a bit like a football or cricket match. I would like it if the team I support wins. But even if it doesn't, I couldn't care less. It simply doesn't matter THAT MUCH to me.

That said, there is one difference when it comes to politics (for me) - In the case of a football/cricket match, I can pick a team to support. When it comes to Indian politics… I don't support any party. I simply can't. I see nothing in them that is worth 'liking'. Hate is too strong a word and given that I don't have any interest whatsoever in the political parties, I wouldn't use the word 'hate'. But I disapprove of all of them. Perhaps some more than the others.

…

Faiz zinda rahen wo hain tou sahi
Kya hua gar wafaa-shiaar nahin

Gunday

I found the film to be more irritating than entertaining. Scanned through it and was done in about 10 minutes or so. Stupid plot.

Arjun Kapoor - No screen presence whatsoever.

Ranveer Singh - Irritating personality. Will require an extremely well scripted role to be able to tolerate him (in my opinion).

Priyanka Chopra - Asalaam e Ishqum - Nice item song. She looks good. That's about it and I guess that's all that matters in the film as well.

…

I always turn to the sports page first. The sports page records people's accomplishments; the front page nothing but man's failures.

Earl Warren

Robocop

Not bad. Worth a watch.

But then… after watching Dhoom 3, just about ANYTHING would seem like a better film.

Dhoom 3

Finally got around to watching it.

Aamir actually did a decent job portraying Samar and Saahil. That's about the only 'relatively good' thing I can say about this 'film' (although it was a bit difficult to ignore the monkey ears). That said, I can't understand why Aamir would willingly be a part of such crap. But then again, Aamir was also a part of Ghajini (thu).

Here is a screenshot from IMDB, with a synopsis of the film:

• Avenge his father's death -  Jaggu dada committed suicide. He wasn't murdered!
• Corrupt bank in Chicago - There is no indication that the bank is corrupt or engaged in illegal activity. The bank was trying to recover a loan.
• Cops from Mumbai - Why? Logic?

If you think that synopsis is bad… wait till you see the film. The plot is absolutely rubbish!

What's wrong with having a bad guy be just a bad guy? Must there be a justification as to why he is bad? And if you are going to try to give a reason as to why this guy is bad… then don't come up with something lame like because the bank took over the collateral because of non payment of loan. It's a bank… not a charity organisation that gives a loan and doesn't expect to be repaid! Completely different matter that in this idiotic film, absolutely NOTHING is done to the property after it is repossessed. No tearing down, no real estate development, no construction… nothing (*rolls eyes).

It's not that the plot is 'unbelievable' or 'unrealistic'. The plot is unbelievably stupid (bound to happen given that the makers were trying to mash up a couple of Hollywood scripts into one Bollywood film and had to give some footage to talentless cunts like Abhishek, Uday and Katrina… ok. Katrina has SOME 'talents', but unfortunately acting is not one of them).

Aamir's tap dance routine in the beginning - well the audio track is pretty cool. The video feed is horrid. Aamir… tap dance… NO!

The stunts/CGI/transforming motorcycle… it looks childish. Not only could it have been done better… it SHOULD HAVE BEEN done better!

Abhishek Bachchan - Entry sequence - Yaar… kya chutiyagiri karte rehte ho?! Slow motion stunts with a rickshaw?? That would have been bad irrespective of who it was filmed on. Filming it on Abhishek just made a bad sequence even worse! And he continues to make a bad plot worse with every frame he features in.

Uday Chopra - Irritating, annoying, talentless cunt.

Katrina Kaif - Looks great. That's all that is expected from her anyway. Don't know why they bother giving her lines in the film. They should just include her for item songs and that would be significantly cheaper than paying her for a lead role. At least till she figures it out.

10-Year-Olds Can Open And Operate Bank Account Alone: RBI

"

To boost financial inclusion, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday said that banks were at liberty to allow minors above 10 years to independently open and operate savings bank accounts…

RBI also allowed banks to offer additional facilities like internet banking, ATM, debit card and chequebook to a minor.

…However, RBI has given the leeway to banks to fix the minimum age at which they will allow minors to operate savings bank accounts independently. Banks can also fix a maximum limit on money such minors can have at their disposal through such account. Banks can also decide on what kind of documents will be needed to open accounts by minors, a notification from RBI said.

Link

Interesting. I honestly don't see any major positive impact from such 'financial inclusion'.

On one side we have individuals like KN Govindacharya and his advocates (along with an idiotic Division Bench of Justices) claiming that anyone under 18 is a minor and legally incompetent to enter into ANY agreement and THEREFORE should not be allowed to have a social networking account (*rolls eyes). [Link].

On the other hand, we have RBI issuing directives that will allow 10 year olds to independently operate bank accounts. Not that I have a problem with this. Just that… one would have to be a complete retard to ignore the obvious issue. Which is - How easily this could be used to launder black money within the country.

10 year olds depositing INR 100 - 1000 in their independent bank accounts will obviously not be asked to disclose the Source of Funds now would they? So, the cash goes into the account and stays there for a while, before being transferred out using an ATM card or a cheque or an online transfer. Even transactions for small amounts would eventually add up to a lot. All you would need is about 100,000 accounts for minors spread all across the country. Not too difficult, considering how people have been managing to set up accounts for paper companies and fake identities as it is. Setting up real accounts for fake minors would (in all likelihood) be even easier.

Given that money laundering is a serious problem, it just seems stupid that the RBI would want to start something that could potentially serve as a much easier option to facilitate laundering of dirty money.

Even if this doesn't get exploited by the organised crime networks (I am sure they would have more efficient set ups already in place), it will definitely be exploited by the parents/guardians of minors.

The Last Pope - Luis Miguel Rocha

Boring. So boring that I didn't even bother to complete the damn thing.

I found the timeline to be unnecessarily complicated. Way too many characters with absolutely nothing interesting about them. Some of them don't even have names! Waste of time.

Corporate Avoidance

"

Corporate Avoidance is a free program we designed to unshackle you by taking advantage of the necessary evils of life as an editor.

Corporate Avoidance works by loading screenshots and animated gifs to make your computer look like it’s busy rendering, so you can set a predetermined amount of time to take a walk in the sun to that place that makes the good sandwiches, or pull the plug on a client who insists on sitting-in until the cows come home.

Link

There is another way.

Complete your work! You are paid to do your job, right? So quit being a lazy prick. Finish up the job and THEN take your fucking break to stuff your ugly face with that sandwich. There is no reason to keep your boss or client waiting just because YOU don't feel like working right now.

Chances are, IF you keep doing a good job - A time will come when you just might make it to a position where you get to dictate terms and not just take orders. BUT if you keep avoiding your tasks, it's highly unlikely that time will come anytime soon.

Why make others suffer for your incompetence or lack of sense of responsibility? Their time is just as important (if not more) than yours. Waste YOUR time, if you want to. But there can be no justifiable reason to waste someone else's time.

Another thing - Stop assuming that your boss and/or clients are idiots. If they are - Good for you. That's probably the reason why you still have a job. Just in case they are not - In all likelihood, they would be aware of how long a rendering or a system process should take. A smart boss would also know what all projects are pending and what all should have been completed.

Is it really necessary to resort to such pathetic stunts? Considering that you can avoid all the headache by simply completing your work and behaving like a responsible adult instead of a spoilt 5 year old.

Etihad's Residence First Class (A380)

Comfortable enough?

Donald Sterling Issue - My View

"

The NBA suspended Donald Sterling for life and fined the Clippers’ owner $2.5 million — the maximum amount possible — for a series of racist comments he made during an April 9 phone conversation with his lady friend.

… The NBA’s investigation into Sterling came after audio tapes of the hate-filled phone call were released last weekend by TMZ and Deadspin…

Link

What did Sterling say… well this is how it is being reported:

- In the taped conversation with his girlfriend, Sterling specifically objected to photos that the woman posted of herself with Hall of Famer Magic Johnson. "It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people. Do you have to?" Sterling asks the woman on the tape. Link

- In an audio obtained by TMZ — allegedly recorded during an argument Sterling had with his girlfriend, who is black and Mexican — the Clippers owner tells the woman identified as V. Stiviano, not to bring black people to his games and not to be photographed with black people. Sterling mentions Lakers legend Magic Johnson, in particular, telling his girlfriend that he doesn't want her "associating with black people." Link

Pretty damaging eh?

My view:

Conversations don't simply get recorded and leaked. That's for sure. But I am not even questioning the legality or the intention behind the recorded / leaked tape(s).

The guy has his views. Going just by the reports - It would be stupid to attempt to argue that those comments aren't racist. They most definitely are racist. No argument at all. But… WHAT has he done that merits the maximum possible fine and a life time ban?

Don't get me wrong. I assure you - contrary to popular opinion - I am NOT a racist, and I am not trying to defend Sterling either. I am just trying to understand how is it considered OK and JUST to penalise someone for having a view (racist or not) or expressing said view (in a private conversation with his gold digger slut mistress girlfriend)??

Colleagues and the general public can frown upon him, call him names… choose not to be associated with him in public gatherings. BUT penalising the man for having a view that YOU or MOST of you do not approve of?? Is that really fair?

So he doesn't like blacks - Big fucking deal! He made racist remarks (in a private conversation). He was being a racist prick - Agreed. Since when did it become ok to penalise someone because you did not approve of his/her attitude? If it is IN FACT ok to do so, then please make a public announcement because there are a lot of people that a lot of other people would like to get rid off / penalised and/or banned (for life, if not from life).

There are plenty of people who don't like gays. Should we penalise them? Should we penalise the Republicans who passed a bill in Arizona legislature that allowed business owners to refuse service to a gay individual (The bill was eventually vetoed by the governor)? [Link]

What Sterling did was express a view. This isn't really a 'hate CRIME'. The guy has his views - Even if it is racist, it is still just a view and it isn't something that he was barking from a podium (like Giriraj Singh barking out the 'don't support Modi, then leave the country' remark). [Link]

"I disapprove of what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it" - Evelyn Beatrice Hall (quote often incorrectly credited to Voltaire).

Dikhaawon pe mat jaao… apni akal ladaao.

Remember Where You Parked… Hmm

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You probably have a trick or two up your sleeve to remember where you've parked amidst a sea of other cars. But if you're still prone to forgetting your parking spot, Google's refreshed Android Search app might be able to help you out. The update adds a new Google Now parking card that lists the address of the place where you left your car, along with a map that shows how far you are from that location. In case the card got it wrong the first time (ever got lost because Google Maps gave you faulty directions?), it can also offer alternative places that you can check.

Link

No comments on the technology or the 'developments' in technology… BUT… it is a rather depressing thought that there are people who don't / can't remember where they parked their car. Seriously… how stupid does the human race have to get before someone does the universe a favour and hunts us into extinction?