You Can Book (Online) Only 6 Rail Tickets Per MONTH – From One User ID

“

The decision was taken as it was suspected that 10% users who booked 10 tickets every month — the current limit — might be involved in touting.

Link

Err… The concerned department seems to believe that touts can’t make multiple User IDs. Interesting. Hmm… Whoever is coming up with all these idiotic ideas, needs to be slapped around for a bit.

The common / Non-Tout population will also find a work around. Thodi pareshani hogi, but they will manage. Government agencies ka kaam yahi tou hai - Pareshaan karna. ‘Kuchch karna hai’ ke chakkar mein saale kuchch bhi karne baith jaate hain. Duffer.

Jaahil log.

Allegiant – Veronica Roth

Disappointing. The characters are idiotic and easily offended. There is too much pointless talk with nothing much happening.

Boring. Didn’t even bother to complete the book.

The Royals – Season 2

The finale was disappointing. More lazy writing. Seemed rushed up as if just to wrap it up. It has been renewed for Season 3, though.

Spectre

Yet another disappointing Bond film. Waste of time.

Serious lack of eye-candy. Wit is non-existent. Lines are below average.

As great as the DB10 is, I just want to point out - for a prototype that costs GBP 3,000,000 (as per Q) – the customised panel/switches are rather shitty.

And… It’s a tad bit difficult to take the villain seriously if he dresses in such short pants!

Tere Bin

Nice track.

Reminds me of the title track from Parineeta.

How Do You Put Up With This?

 

I have a genuine question to all the Android users: How the hell do you put up with all these updates? The Twitter app has notified me of an update at least twice in this month alone (so far). The What’s New bit only tells me that putting up comments has been made easier (both times).

The file managers are a joke. I really don’t know how people are comfortable entering their DropBox credentials into a third party file manager. Why would you do that?! I am not saying BlackBerry or Google or Apple don’t mine for data, but at least there is SOME pseudo sense of security and trust. Here, we are talking about third party developers. There is a considerable difference.

The Play Store is an eye sore (seriously… what’s with the colour scheme).

The All Apps tab (in Settings) shows stuff like ApnSetterService, AuthenticatorService, CacSmartCardDriverSerice, CaptivePortalLogin, com.android.bla bla bla bla… Customisation ke chakkar mein saala phone ko dustbin banaa rakha hai!

The Calendar icon in the app drawer shows 31. My BlackBerrys (old and new), that are considered to be obsolete, have the calendar icon showing the current date. Probably there is a setting that I haven’t been able to locate yet or THERE ARE OTHER APPS that will let me CUSTOMISE the Calendar icon.

Here is the thing - Not EVERYONE enjoys App shopping/hunting. Not EVERYONE is comfortable installing third party shit (made by developers or companies that some of us haven’t even heard of) on their phone. Is the user now expected to research the developer before installing an APP to make the handset functional / usable?! Or does one just go by the stars/ratings and hope for the best?

The worst part is, there is a strong possibility that there may not be another BlackBerry handset (running BlackBerry OS) coming out. Sucks. Will have to be extra careful with the Classic now.

Jazbaa

Too predictable. Bad performance. Horrible writing. Pathetic camera work.

Shabana Azmi disappoints. I find it rather surprising that someone of her calibre and stature agreed to do such a ridiculous role.

Irrfan Khan does yet another repetitive role. It’s tolerable for some parts but annoying overall. BTW… you could pick a better pair of glares.

Aishwarya Rai is loud. Annoying. Irritating. The lines/dialogues don’t even qualify as mediocre. She looks rubbish in the scenes where she is trying to run (I blame the camera work here). Her emotional scenes and outbursts are irritating and lack finesse. The character itself, in its entirety is … pathetic.

And… Who decided on that ANNOYING ringtone on Aishwarya’s phone?! Yaar… Kuchch tou reham karo.

Quick Reviews

Boring.

---

Pathetic. Waste of time. Rubbish.

The Royals – Season 2

Even with all its flaws and glaring oversights by the writers, this show does manage to remain interesting (for me). That may have a lot to do with Princess Eleanor (Alexandra Park). Somehow, I don’t find her annoying even when she is being a complete cunt. Must be the hair.

It also helps that Ophelia (Merritt Patterson) made an appearance only once (so far) in this season, which makes the show a bit less stupid than it could’ve been (don’t get me wrong, it’s still pretty stupid but Ophelia takes it up a notch or two).

King Cyrus (Jack Maskall) – Still good to watch, but disappointed that he isn’t being nearly as bad as the character ought to be.

Queen Helena (Elizabeth Hurley) – Sigh…

Prince Liam (William Moseley) – Easy to ignore.

Violet (Keeley Hazell) – Good to look at. Wish there was some more of her.

Rani (Laila Rouass) – Looking absolutely horrid in this series. The character is also far from impressive. Disappointed.

Ted (Oliver Milburn) – Dumb as always.

Mandy (Sarah Dumont) – The shorts were good. That’s about it.

Err…

Jan 3 - The Pathankot terror attack is a huge national embarrassment. There can be no arguments over it. It has exposed the inefficiency and incompetence of our intelligence agencies, Punjab Police and the lack of coordination among the various agencies involved in taking on the terrorists and flushing them out. [Link]

Jan 3 - While Home Secretary Rajiv Mehreshi today claimed at a press conference that there was no security lapse, Defence experts, however, felt that the operation could have been handled in a better way as there was advance intelligence about infiltration by terrorists and that the IAF base could be potential target.

Former RAW Chief A S Dulat raised questions about failure of security agencies in thwarting the attack. "Generally intelligence agencies get the flak but here is a case when you had a pinpointed intelligence and still you could not make it. Why?" he said. [Link]

And then… on Jan 5:

Images of Prime Minister's event will be released to press through Directorate of Public Relations, PIB only after it is finally approved by the PMO, the SOP states. [Link]

An air base gets attacked by terrorists. Plenty of chatter going on about the inefficiency and incompetence. Some very legitimate concerns as well. And… the GoI is coming up with Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for releasing pictures?! Surely I can’t be the only one who thinks that both GoI and the media have their priorities messed up.

Definitley there are more pressing matters that need to be addressed as opposed to photoshopped pictures of the PM surveying flood hit Madras.

Chutiye log.

Elementary – Season 4

Meh…

Watched a few episodes. Just seems… forced. Idiotic. No wit.

Will not be watching anymore of this. Enough time has been wasted hoping for this to become interesting.

Just ‘Line’ Walking Barefoot

Saw this at the Steps outlet at Fanar.

Even if one were to ignore the obvious typo, that’s a pretty stupid tagline for a shoe. I mean… you are paying for a shoe that makes you feel as if you are walking barefoot! How can THAT be a good thing? Of course something similar for contact lenses or the likes would make a lot more sense, but shoes? Surely some other version of ‘Like your feet don’t touch the ground’ could’ve been thought up for this.

I am sure they meant it in a good way - that your feet get to breathe and all, but there must be a better way to put it as opposed to suggesting (to some, if not all) that you will feel the stones and pebbles pricking your feet when you wear these shoes.

Elementary – Season 2 and 3

Done with Season 2 and 3. It remains watchable… but just barely. Doesn’t really exploit the ‘genius’ element. The supporting characters aren’t helping either. The last episode of Season 3 was absolutely ridiculous.

Natalie Dormer as Jamie Moriarty was a good addition to the cast and wish there was more of her.

Ophelia Lovibond as Kitty Winter was a treat to watch.

Rhys Ifans as Mycroft Holmes had some good lines. An interesting character. Wonder why no one from the crew suggested fixing up his hair.

Lucy Liu as Watson is pathetic. Dress sense is horrible. The walk is laughable. The acting is sad. The character is idiotic and annoying. Arguably the WORST part of the show.

Captain Gregson, Detective Bell add little (if anything) to the show.

Will start with Season 4 today. Hope Morland Holmes brings in the much needed wit to the show.