The Pune International Film Festival

The 4th Pune International Film Festival is going around in town.
About 4 venues, with 6 screens are participating this time and they are showing about 100 movies.
The halls participating are: Gold Adlabs, E-Square, Citypride Kothrud and NFAI (National Film Archive Institute)

I, along with all the rest of my college crowd, went and got the delegate pass for 300 bucks (if you are not a student, it will cost you 500 bucks)
However, the benefit of a delegate pass is that you can walk into any movie without having to purchase any tickets at all.

Anyways, the general opinion is that if the pass costs 300 bucks, you should see 6 movies atleast to cover up for it.

Its a funny feeling actually, the all you can eat feeling.
However, I came up with my own rating - after having see a couple of really sidey movies.

My approach to this entire thing is, to pick and choose carefully which movies to watch - after which I decide an amount which I could spend to watch the movie, which would justify the movie.

If at the end of 7 days, I have made up the 300 bucks, I would be more than happy.
Anyways, got the opportunity to see some really awesome (and some really pathetic films).

Here is the story so far ( in the descending order of awesomeness)

1. Hotel Rwanda (English)
The movie is set in Rwanda (as the name suggests) and depicts the very violent struggle between the two different sects of people from Rwanda - the Hutus and the Tutsis.
The film has some very powerful performances and was nominated for 3 oscars.
A very hard hitting film.

My review on the film.
How much I would pay for this movie : Rs. 200

2. Dombivli Fast (Marathi)
This was my second good movie of the day (yesterday) and was pretty well made.
Told the story of a person - Madhav Apte - and what happens when you're driven up the wall (kinda). You flip.
Again, contains some really powerful performances and some awesome screenplay.
Last I heard, it won the Hero Honda Screen Award for Best Direction and the Best Actor (Sandeep Kulkarni) in leading role.

My review on this film
How much I would pay for this movie : Rs. 150

3. Lemming (French)
Not all french films are good. But this one was very well done. Extremely well done.
The movie had a very Alfred Hitchcockish kind of feel to it with the entire 2 hours 10 mins of it being very intense and gripping.
Though the entire film is mostly shot in one house - indoors - and was subtitled, it was fun to watch. The subtitles were very easy to follow and I really enjoyed the roller coaster ride that the movie took me on.

My review on this film (yet to come)
How much I would pay for this movie : Rs. 80

4. While it rains hard (Malyalam)
This movie was pretty decently made and it was worth my time sitting for it.
It talks about 2 families from South India (don't remember the exact place now) - one muslim and the other hindu.
Both the husbands are working in the Gulf.
Somehow, one manages to kill the other (in the Gulf) and surrenders and faces sure death penalty - unless the wife of the deceased decides to forgive him.
What I really liked about the movie was the "Malgudi Days" touch that it had - and the beautiful portrayal of South India - which transported you directly to the villages there.

How much I would pay for this movie : Rs. 35

5. My Nikofor (Polish)
Honestly, while it was playing, this movie was unbelievably slow.
Though the acting and direction were decently good, there were lots of editing flaws which caused a lot of confusion.
The movie is a story about Nikifor - a 85 year old Polish painter from the 1960s - who was a genius, but was living on the streets.
He also suffers from tubercolosis - and is shunned by everybody.
A 35 year old man takes care of him, and he himself is shunned by his family and friends.

How much I would pay for this movie : Rs. 20

6. A Real Man (French)
And they say, Indians make crappy movies.
After seeing this movie, I developed a phobia of entering movie halls, which, luckily for me lasted only one night.
This was the second movie that I saw, and in one word, it was pathetic.
The plot was paper thin and the movie was pretty badly made.
Though the cast acted decently well, the stupid story and untolerable songs (yes - they had songs equivalent to a Hindi movie) made the movie a definite no no.

How much I would pay for this movie : (minus) - Rs. 40

4 days still left to go ... will update you as we go along ...

The event update ...

I haven't been getting time of late to blog ... been extremely busy - painting the town red - everyday, going around for sponsors and then later for project.

The funny thing is that I HATE to get out of the house and roam around.
Part of this reason being that to go anyplace worthwhile, I have to go quite a distance.

So, in the vacations, when many of my friends just hung out the entire day, I would wonder why do they do it.
I rarely ever did it, and now I think, have compensated for it in this vacation ... maybe even for the rest of my life ...

Anyways, as per the event, we've made some progress from the last time the post came about, but we are falling drastically short as of now ... unless some miracle happens soon, we don't know whats going to come of it.

The event's gonna be on the 30th of Jan, and we need to get some amount of sponsorship, by the 10th of this month. Then only, we'll be going ahead with additional expenditure, like poster printing, advertising and the works.

I guess, by this Monday, we'll have a much clearer picture.
Either we do a full fledged event as planned (decently possible), a more cut down event - with lesser prize money and stuff (pretty likely), or we'll be scrapping the event altogether (equally likely).

Lets see ...

One more thing that you come across while doing an event is that the various people who you work with, all, have an event which they love.
Now, when the axe is about to fall on a particular event, these people will try and defend the event till the very last.
It is difficult to be stern, coz firstly, very few people are working anyways, so you don't want to upset them, and secondly, coz you generally don't want to upset people.

The other kind of people, which I hate completely are the ones, who come up with their own damn, neat, ideas for contests or additions to the events - last minute - months after everything was planned and months after people have slogged their asses to get to this position.
Whats more worse is, that these people, take the liberty of talking to people and start organizing things for "their" new additions and contests without consulting the others.
Very annoying.

But I guess, these are the typicals.
During this entire month and a half, I've met many not-so-typical people, but I'll leave them for another post.

Lets just wait and watch and see where this all goes.

Playing hardball ...

I was going to let this post go, but now I am sort of compelled to write this piece.
Yesterday, something very strange happened ... there was a comment on my previous post about sponsorships and stuff, from a guy named saurabh.
When I clicked on the name, I was taken to my own profile ...

At first, I thought that either someone had gotten hold of my blogger password, or I, might have posted the comment in a delirious state myself ...

Anyways, the trick is simple.
You say you want to post a comment, then click on the "other" option and then paste my profile URL in the URL area and volla ... identity theft.

Though I have a pretty good idea who had done it (dude! I have a counter which tells me which ISP you guys come from), I thought I'd let it go and I deleted the comment, because it was pretty rude in context that the particular individual would go to the extent of spoofing my I.D. to probably mock me or for whatever reason he had ...

For the benefit of all the people reading this, this was the comment that was posted to my previous post.

Hehe, But I've agreed to sponsor 100K more to the Prize money from my own pocket money;) Well, If it dosn't suffice, I'd get it by selling my Computer, Bike and anything and everything I own;) For me, the Inter-College Festival is above everyting else...;)

- Saurabh

My verdict - not cool !

But then, after having deleted the comment, this person had the audacity to come and post the some comment again today - at approximately the same time as yesterday.
This time, I am not deleting the comment. You can read it here.

For your benefit, posting it here also ...

Oops! Somebody has impersonated me on the last comment! I just deleted it, and incase any of you saw that last commnet, I suppose I can assure I am not sponsoring my money on that;)

I don't know whether I am reacting to this in a proper manner or not, but I am pretty pissed.
Hence this post.
I am not going to remove the anonymous comment posting feature, because I believe that everybody reading what I write, should be able to express their opinions.

However, going way out and spoofing an identity, is just plain shameless.
I have a fairly good idea who you are, and you know who you are ... and I pretty much know that you are reading this too !

As for the statement about the inter collegiate event being above everything else for me, it isn't quite so.
The only difference is that I believe that something worth doing, is worth doing well - or not at all.

For people who have no motivation in life, and spend most of their lives just "planning" and who probably don't have what it takes to go and actually do something, this concept might be a bit difficult to grasp.

I am not complaining at all.

From the time the vacations have started, a couple of us guys have been slogging our asses off, trying to get sponsorship for an event, which has no "visible" benefit for the whole lot of us.
At times, we wonder, why are we bothering with all this ...
Things aren't going too well ... but we aren't quitting anytime soon.

It is easier to sit on the sidelines and pass judgement.
I don't blame these people ... I actually pity them.
And these are the same people, who will turn up at the end of the event to collect their "Certificate of Appreciation" for helping out in the event.
I am not complaining ... I have made my peace with that.
As long we get our event rolling, we can carry such people along ...
It has always been this way, and I guess will have to continue for times to come ahead.

In retrospect, I won't say that the entire sponsor hunting endeavour has been a waste.
I have learnt how to deal with people, and I now know, whom I can trust with some responsibility and what are the chances of it getting done.

My problem has been that I trust people way too much. I learnt it the hard way this time.
I may not have turned into a cold calculating machine - yet ... but I think I am getting there.
And I know it is for the best.

It takes all kinds of people to make the world ...

Sponsor hunting ...

These vacations (if they qualify as vacations) have probably been the worse ever ...
Which I guess was pretty obvious after the disastrous exams that I gave before them ...

Anyways, we guys are having our inter collegiate festival in the last week of Jan - from the the 30th Jan to the 3rd of Feb.
After a much smaller event last year, we guys decided to spruce things up a bit - with 5 days instead of the customary 3, and 12 contests compared to the 5 last year.

Naturally, to get more people to participate, we guys even cranked up the prize money we "intended" to offer.
So, from the 19 grand last year, it jumped up to 119 grand this year.

We guys thought, what the heck ... we have lots of time (we've been working on this from the last week of Nov somewhere) - and we should manage to raise the dough.

Now, with only about a month left for the event, and only 46k from 2 sponsors, things are beginning to look a bit hazy.

The reason that the vacations have been sucking so far, more than the fact that we're literally hauling our asses every morning - to go sponsor hunting, is that the response we've got so far is pretty dismal.

We've been trying to analyse the reasons to this and can point to a few, but these are primarily out of our reach.

I just hope things start picking up now, or 2005 will be a year best forgotten.

Hehe ... I intended to put down a blog later about "successful" sponsor hunting, but I don't see that happening now ...
Lets see where this goes ...

Torture on the airwaves ...

The Pakistani's have developed a new torture technique.
It's guaranteed to get any information out, from any human being, or even otherwise.

What they do is, they tap into Doordarshan signals broadcasted every Sunday night at 9:30 pm and tape this serial called "Kalakaarz".
Then they repeat the 30 min episode 6 times to make it a 3 hour long version and store it by day and date.

They also rank it from 1 - 5 stars depending on the intensity of torture the show can inflict.
Then they tie the victim to the chair, in front of the T.V and play the tape.

Apparently, they later realized that making a 3 hour version of the episode was a waste of man power and good ol' tape, because the victims would either surrender within the first 7 minutes, or if they resisted, they would die by the 9th minute of the episode.

Tests show that none of the victims survived after the 11th minute.

So now, they just tape the first 15 minutes of the episode and save multiple episodes on 1 tape instead.
Quite a save, don't you think?

Not having cable has its good as well as bad effects.

The good thing is that you have ample time (about 3 hours everyday more) than your fellow mates to put to better use.

The bad thing is that once in a while, when you just want to take your dinner and sit in front of the T.V. set, you have only one channel to turn too.
And with Doordarshan and its C grade programming, you'd be better of watching the static screen.

Today was one such day.

I happened to turn on the T.V and watch - one complete episode of that crappy show "Kalakaarz" which recently started on DD - and the worst part is, I somehow managed to survive through the entire show (Doing Engg gives you a lot of patience).

The show is about trying to scout for acting talent.
It is definitely in response to the huge successes that shows like Indian Idol and Fame Gurukul have been.
But even though I don't like the way these shows go about doing what they do, at least they have some quality standards.

No offence, but the people who turn up as participants on the Doordarshan show, would not even qualify to be extras in a C grade flick, even if they offered to work for free.

And I have heard, that these participants undergo a number of screening tests before they go on air.

Woah ! Can you imagine how bad the people must be who dont make the cut?
Or maybe no one turns out for the auditions.
So what these Doordarshan people must be doing is, sending out agents to catch people from the street opposite their studios, kidnap their family members and threaten to kill them unless they turn up for the show.

I really, really pity the judges who come on the show.
Atleast we have the remote control.

I know Doordarshan charges a LOT for advertising time ... even on the most crappiest shows, because their TRP is generated automatically.
If you don't have cable, then you're watching Doordarshan - and the number of people not having cable in India is pretty high ...

The only real good thing about this entire crappy TV channel is that you get to watch decent news and the occasional India match, if its being played in India itself.

My entire point being, if Doordarshan charges so damn much to put up advertisements and the people watching the channel is HUGE, why don't decent shows go to it?
And why does it not push for better shows?

It is not that you cannot make out whether a show is good or not till the end.
It's right there - on your face - and its pretty much pathetic.

And most of the shows look like table scraps from bigger distributors (Balaji telefilms) which were thrown out from other channels.

Doordarshan, once upon a time, was pretty darn good.
Remember Malgudi days, Surabhi, Amravati ki Kathayen, Tipu Sultan, etc etc?
They even had Street Hawk (man how I miss that show) and Knight Rider (pretty lame by today's standards, but still watchable)
Now, those were some really good shows - even compared to today's standards.

They should probably dump all the crap they are showing now and revert back to the programming of about a decade ago.
Sure it won't be glitzy and glamorous with pretty looking stupid women who do nothing but cry, bitch and conspire all day ... but I bet it would have class and grace ... and probably more "cable" TV watching audience would even consider tuning into to maybe watch Malgudi days.

And I challenge any of you cable viewing folk to tune into Doordarshan on Thursday nights at about 9 - I think to watch this show called "Aankhen".
Thats probably the only other show which could beat the one I mentioned above.
Writing more about it, would be wasting blogger's bandwidth and mine also.
So, I shall stop right here.

Thank God for the "moddable" XBOX and Bit torrents and the amazing number of people who seed TV shows like LOST, Whose Line is it Anyways, Joey, etc etc :)
And all your college buds who believe in sharing :)
I love you guys :)

The long march ahead ...

As I stepped out of the corridors of the college, into the sunset and the open fields, the Gladiator Movie theme (the one with Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerald) started playing somewhere in the background.

Was I imagining things?

No.
It was really playing.

As my other fellow mates slowly trickled out outside, squinting their eyes at the sight of the sun (or whatever of it remained at this time of the day), I slowly made my way to the fields.

The music was still playing in the distance, but I could hear it clearly.
I walked up to the more sandy parts of the field and stood there for a while.
Then, I dug a hole in the ground with my bear hands ... and taking the five sheets of papers from my bag, buried them in the hole which I had dug and covered them up with the mud.

I stood up (the music still playing), looked up at the setting sun and said "Now we're free"

I had just finished writing my last exam paper for the semester, and the five papers that I had buried, were the tragic question papers - ones which had killed many of my fellow mates and would kill even more (including me) once the results are announced.

However, the time had passed.
We were all free to live whatever life we had left.
As I walked across to my bike, the feeling of relief and jubilation set it in ...

The music in the background had gradually stopped and it was now replaced with a soft sort of ringing, which had gradually grown louder and louder.

Till I realised it was my alarm !

I woke up. It was 6:30 am - and I was in my bed with still one paper to go !
I cursed, got out of my bed, when ...

I heard a thud.
It was me falled off the bed.
I was dreaming about the alarm and was actually having a recursive dream (dream in dream) like the picture in picture feature of many TVs.

Just to be sure, I dug out my cell phone and read the date.
It said, 16th Dec 2005, 3:34 am

Exams got over yesterday.
Phew, what a nightmare !

-- NOTE --
Just came from watching King Kong as a post exam treat.
Wrote a review on it, which you can check out by clicking here.

The Tata Safari Dicor Ads

I had posted sometime ago about the Indian Ad market reving up of late. You can read it here.

Anyways, the TATA Safari Dicor ad is not doing the rounds as it was once ( or maybe I am not watching enough TV ) but I really needed the soundtrack for something.

So, half an hour googling for it, landed up on hundreds of posts and reviews about the ad, but no sight of the ad or the soundtrack.

Finally, thought of checking up the company website and what do you know ?
Both the ads ( though I had seen only one of them ) are up for grabs :)

A mere 2.5 MB with the respective quality also - they are embedded in a swf exe.
So, you can't really monkey around with them unless you have the proper tools ... well atleast most of the people can't, so its a smart move by the company.

Well, atleast have a working copy of it ... one of the best ads ever.
Always brings a smile to my face...

And oh, if you are looking for it yourself, they can be downloaded from :
http://uv.tatamotors.com/safari/gallery/ads.asp

NOTE : Please use Internet Explorer only, the download links don't show up in Firefox !!!
( When will people start making browser independent sites ??? )

Enjoy !

-- Update --
If you're looking for the Bajaj Avenger ad also ( I had written about that too .. ), you can get it from here : http://www.bajajauto.com/avenger/Avenger.zip
It's about 9.7 Meg and at a decent res ( much better than the dicor ads )

Another one of those tp tests ...

Hehe ...
Pre examination wastage of precious time ...
Well not really actually, took me about a minute and a half ...

You Are a Pundit Blogger!

Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read. Truly appreciated by many, surpassed by only a few.

What kind of blogger are you?

Politics and Religion

I cannot, for the life of me, comprehend how people - completely logical, sane people - make rules to govern the country based on some religion bias.

If you think, this does not happen in India, you should just take a look around.
Most of the things in our country are based on religion bias.

To me, religion should be a thing which you should practice at home. Period.
Don't bring it out.

Your a hindu, he's a muslim, he's a Parsi, he's catholic - who gives a damn?
Where in the world is all this going to help?

Will it help me get a job?
Imagine me walking into a company, slam my resume on the desk and yell "Hey you ! Yes you there! I'm a jain ... now gimme a job!”

I don't know if this actually is possible - but the thought that it could be ... even in the remotest, possible way is very scary.

Unfortunately, this does happen on the caste level - which is just as stupid.
So many times you find advertisements in the newspaper which go:
Vacancy for the post of a professor: 7 (Open 3, ST 2, BC 2)

Not only is this really bad, what it does is turns us Open category people against the reserved caste people even when we previously had no problem against them.

C'mon - if I was a BC and had a certificate, I would be stupid NOT to use it to get a reserved seat in a college or a job.
But what the law in turn does is, gets the open category people pissed off on the reserved category people - and many times people don't spend a minute to realise that its not
the reserved category people which are to blame, its the damn, stupid pre historic laws.

And why aren't they changed?
Because it is suicidal.
Governments go to power to actually stay in power for eternity.
Doing this will make sure, a large percentage of their votes get depleted.

The biggest, most stupidest things that I have seen on Earth - something which walks away with the top prize for the Most Stupidest, Idiotic thing ever - are religious riots.

Hehe ...

It is like we all have a set of Pokemon cards, and we pull out swords and sticks and go at each other's throats because the other guy said that my Pokemon's powers were not good enough, or it was crappy.

Who cares?
I mean ... most of the religious backgrounds are based on mythological - fairy tale stories.
These things never happened.

But amazingly enough, the people who invented them, must be geniuses because thousands of years down the line, they are still effective - people are still fighting over the same, stupid reasons from the time that they were invented.

Somehow, I don't believe when people say that religion teaches you to live life in a nice way.
It does set down some guidelines on what you should do, but at the end of the day, isn't it just common sense?
Does it have to be written somewhere that it is wrong to kill another guy, or steal from someone else?

If you are not from India, you will not believe that we actually have different laws for different religions...
Some laws go like "You are supposed to do this, this, this blah blah ... unless you are a Muslim" or "You are not allowed to do this and this, unless you are a Hindu ..."

How about inventing one which says "If you kill another person, you will actually go to jail. Unless of course, you are a Jain - in which case, you shall be given the President's medal"
That'd be really cool :)

I studied in one of the best schools in Pune.
But, it was a convent school - Catholics being the minorities and so, had some reservations.

I mean, if you think about it, their primary aim is to encourage Christianity - it being run by the Jesuit society.
But then, that is not a valid enough reason to justify a boy with 60% getting into the institute just for being catholic over a non catholic boy getting 85%.
In the junior college, there were even reservation over vocational seats - the situation was that you could get a Computer Science seat only if you were catholic with a decently high percentage or a non catholic with an impossibly high percentage - above 90% which is only possible if you have just topped the boards exams, or are from one of them ICSE schools.
What this does again, is divide the students.

Imagine how pissed off a student would be who scored 89% and missed out a computer science seat just because another guy with 75% got it because of his religion.

In the hunt for an engineering college, I actually came across this college in Solapur, which had reservations for Jains.
I was like "Full on. For the first time, I can get a taste of reservation."

So, me and my dad go on a one day picnic to Solapur to check out the college and apply for it.
However, to my bad luck, the college was not what I expected it to be (it sucked in my POV) - and I probably would have hung myself on my second day there.
So, we came back which brought an end to my "reservation" dreams.

Hehe ... probably reason why I am so pissed off with this entire issue and am writing this.

But on a serious note, I just can't imagine why normally sane and logical people write such atrocious laws.
I mean, it's like a very bad director making a crappy movie and he knows it - because, he can actually see how it is coming out.
But instead of stopping it and improving it, he goes ahead and makes it anyways ...

I mean, c’mon.... grow a brain!

Some thoughts ....

The difficult is what gets done quickly.
It's only the impossible which takes some time ....

Shameless self promotion ...

Hehe ...

Have started this new blog to spread some gyan which I have gathered after years ( 3 and a half to be precise ) doing engineering.

The blog basically talks about Engineering life and different phases of it with how to choose your college or course and then later on to other more 'advanced' topics on submission tips and tricks, what to do for seminars, etc etc.

So, if you are in that field or plan to be in there in sometime, its worth a decko.
Go to : Saurabh on Engineering

Of quality and service ...

This issue has bugged me for ages ...
Ever since I was able to do most of the things myself ... booking tickets, paying the bills, buying and ordering things, I've had this major issue with Indian Companies ...

Most of them .. and I am talking of about the 99% of them ... have the shoddiest service and their product quality is so pathetic, that you could throw your money - literally - down the drain and be happier for that.

People and companies who actually deliver, are very, very rare in India ... and if you come across some person or organisation which truly does this, you should not even think of going anywhere else and never, ever forget about them ...
Recommend them to all your friends, and those who'd care to listen and do the people ( the customers ) a big favour.

Anyways, I learnt the lesson the hard way.
Never - and I mean NEVER EVER compromise on quality, OR the services of a professional to save a few pennies here and there ..
In the long run, you will be the one losing out on your time and money and mental balance in pursuing a jackass who promises you the world, but can't even deliver a decent product if his life depended on it ...

The story actually starts with us guys needing to make the sweatshirts ...
I am going to take real life examples here ... and these shops do exist.

So, we people decide to make our college sweatshirts ...
We had 2 options - Uberoi sports on MG Road and Champion sports at Deccan ( for those of you who are familiar with Pune )

I had previously got some sweatshirts made from Uberoi when we guys were in the tenth standard in Vincents ... and though they were not stunning, they were affordable and okay.

Plus, Uberoi was a lot closer to our college - and hence we decided to get it made there.
So, we go and place the order sometime on the 10th of September for the sweatshirts and give him the specifications.
Mind you, to do this, we actually visited his shop 3 times because most of the times the guy who owns the place - Sanjeev Brar someone, wasn't at his shop.

So, finally when we meet him, we place the order and he agrees to deliver the sweatshirts for 300 bucks on the 18th of September which is also the last working day of our college.
He collects 50% advance and agrees to get the job done even with the ICICI bank type of "Mein Hoon Naa" kind of glance at himself ...

We give him the slogan to be put on the back, which we write ourselves and mention to him that it has to be specifically done in a particular way, otherwise the meaning would be lost.

On 17th of September ( one day before d day ), his father mysteriously becomes unwell and so the guy does not answer any of my calls.
Later, what ensues is a series of calls which are just cut off. At one time, he himself put me on hold - after 8 minutes, when I disconnect the call and recall him back, his daughter picks up the phone and says that he hasn't been to the shop for the entire day.
I had to resort to asking my other friends to call him to fool him into answering the phone - which he did on all occasions.

Then suddenly, in the middle, someone falls off from the 2nd floor of his building, and our sweatshirts again get delayed because he was in the hospital tending to him.

After lots of hassles ... and believe me ... I have NEVER been so harrased in my life, we finally get to see the sweatshirts on the 28th of September.
But to tell you honestly, the quality of the material looked like stuff they use to make tents.

And best of all, he gets the printing all wrong in the back.
Not only does the sweatshirt suck, we will look like fools if we had to wear it.

To cut a long story short, he tried to rectify the printing job, but he got it all messed up and the idiot tried to sell me the story that it would all go away after washing it ...

I demanded my money back, for which I had to drag 10 of my classmates - the huge and hefty kind - to his shop ( thanks you guys ! ) to demand the money which he eventually gave us ( that too using a Post dated cheque which thankfully cashed in later )

Now, after collecting the cheque on that day, we rushed to Champion Sports ...

This is on a Saturday - 5th of November and we place the order for our sweatshirts ...
After a lot of thinking and looking at the hundreds of sweatshirts which Champions previously had made, we place the order for the sweatshirts.

He agrees to do it for 310 bucks and not charge us for the printing ( he has his own printer setup ).
They have an inhouse designer, who designs the print job for us on the comp - and hacks at it till we are satisfied with it, and then creates a template for the print job in front of us.

Champions then calls me on Monday - 7th of November - and asks me whether I could come on Tuesday to look at the temp embroidery job ( college name ) which they did.
I check it out on Tuesday and find it satisfactory and approve it.

Thursday evening -10th November - I get a call saying that the sweatshirts are ready and we can pick it up anytime.
Friday evening, we pick up the sweatshirts and by Saturday, everybody has it.
Boom !

Quick and painless - how to get sweatshirts made in 6 days.
After what I had gone through, this looked like a fairy tale ..
The quality of the fabric is awesome and everyone loved the sweatshirt.

I have very high regards for Champion Sports after this, and could not recommend you to anyone else for sports wear related matters.

He may be slightly expensive - for the more jazzy designs ( ours is a plain black with name embroidered and slogan printed on back ), but you can be rest assured he will deliver on time and the quality would be exceptional.

What he offered us for 310 bucks, made the Uberoi sweatshirts for 300 bucks look like rags to clean the floor with.

Lesson learnt !
Point noted !

• Never ever ever compromise on quality !
• Professionals charge more coz they know what they are offering you.

BUC - Bandwidth under Control

I don’t know how many of you know this, but BSNL has got this awesome feature called “Bandwidth under control” in which, they themselves help you in controlling your broadband usage.

I am using the Rs. 500 plan in which I get a 256 kbps line and a 1 GB limit for a month.
Now, 1 GB per month is roughly 33 MB per day.

I generally stick to about 25 – 35 MB per day, which keeps me in the 1 GB safe zone … however, during exams and submissions and seminars, this limit touches about 55 – 60 MB per day.

So, what BSNL does is awesome …
During the peak time, exams and practicals and stuff, my phone magically goes dead for 2 days.

No phone, no broadband.
This works perfectly.

Coz, during the peak times, when I really need to use the internet, I would be hitting about 150 MB in 2 days.

So, by cutting my phone, these guys help me save up on that.
It’s really awesome you know …

You should definitely give it a try …

Nitpickings with Pune ...

I've lived in Pune all my life, and to tell you honestly, I wouldn't probably want to live anywhere else ...
But of late, there have been a few things, really hurting, which I wanted to yell about.

I don't know if this is happening in other parts of the country, but it shouldn't generally happen anywhere at all.
Anyways, here are a few things which really hurt and I have no idea how I could help to fix.

1. Pathetic Roads
When the it rained recently, all the roads got completely damaged.
I mean - the roads were so bad, and nothing was being done about them ... that someone actually came up with an online petition which was the number 1 active online petition till some weeks ago.

Even now, the roads are pretty bad and if you get out of your house, you are sure to face the brunt.

There is a road behind residency club ( which I have also written previously about ) in which people come to one of the ends.
Stop their bikes or cars, get off, observe the stretch, go back to their bikes / cars, turn around and take the longer route.
The Pune Police has actually barricaded the stretch of road to deter adventurous people from venturing there.

It's already a month since the last of the rains and still most of the roads have not been fixed. Going at more than 40 km/hr for more than 2 min at a stretch is next to impossible and even trying to go above 50 km/hr anywhere is plain suicidal.

2. The Public Transportation System
In Pune, this equals to nothing but the PMT ( Pune Municipal Transport ) buses.
Everytime I go to college in the morning and see the scores of hapless people waiting at the bus stop, and hundreds of people hanging out of the bus, I thank my stars that I have a bike and don't have to depend on the crappy system.

Everytime I see people hanging from the buses, and by hanging I mean - atleast 7 people hanging from the bus, I feel this blinding rage at the apathy of the PMT and PMC.

The true story goes that, sometime ago, there were the six seater rickshaws which would ply through most of Pune.
They were not allowed to move in as many places as the PMT buses were, but they covered a major chunk of Pune.
Of course, they were rash drivers and would stuff 8 people in places meant for 6 ... but they were a blessing.
You could walk out of your house and be certain of catching a six seater within 5 minutes.
They stopped everywhere, and their sheer frequency was such a boon.

Anyways, naturally people preferred them, rather than waiting for the buses.
So, PMT went into loses and they got an order passed via the PMC, banishing the six seaters to the outskirts of Pune.
Their reason - six seaters cause too much pollution.

Later, more buses were promised ...
But I think its almost 5 years now, and nothing has changed except the number of commuters.

All the people who switched over to using the public transportation system ( six seaters ) were stranded.
It's so sad and pathetic.

The government creating a monopoly in a market which it itself does not have the resources to satisfy the basic needs.

3. Power Crisis
I have noticed this huge crisis cropping up ever since the congress government came into power.
There hasn't been a single day where you had 24 hours of pure unadultrated power ( electricity ).

And on top of this, the government has the audacity to offer free power to farmers.
The farmers, naturally happy at the offer, elected these people, and are now suffering the most.

All villages around Pune undergo 9 hours of power cuts everyday.
And as all election promises go, the free power deal was eventually cut off ...

On top of this, the maximum revenues of the MSEB come from Pune and it has always gotten step motherly treatment.
With hundreds of BPOs and software companies and industries in and around Pune, needing to manage power themselves for 3 - 4 hours daily, who in their right mind would want to come here ?

4. Fuel Stations
There should be a rule made in the constitution, which makes it illegal for fuel stations to go on strikes.
It has just been happening too frequently off late here.

These people know that they can hold an entire city to ransom, just by going on an indefinite strike.

The latest thing which happened just yesterday is just short of a joke.
The Fuel distribution centers went on an indefinite strike ( which has now been called off ) because they did not want the Oil companies coming and checking the purity of the fuel they were serving.

Their argument being that the oil companies themselves send them adultrated fuel and come later to check it themselves.
What utter crass !

========================
I don't know, but I sincerely hope something is done.
Sell off the PMT, sell off BSNL, sell off MSEB, sell off everything that makes any difference to the life of the general populous to private companies.
Though I doubt anyone stupid enough to actually buy any of these.
Privatisation, it seems might be the only way out ...

You don't see Mumbai undergoing load shedding of 2 hours daily ... do you ?

A different beat ...

Oral exams or vivas have always been a pain in the rear end ...
And this time, all the timings been missed up ...

We had one AI ( Artificial Intelligence ) Viva yesterday and have another one ( Computer Networks ) tomorrow ... on a Sunday !

Apparently, all the external examiners that come to take orals for BE students are people with jobs - working in companies.

The AI orals, was basically not worth the 3 day effort of cramming the utterly useless Rich and Knigt book.
The people who wrote it should be tied to a pole and stoned ( or booked in this case ) with their own book.
And the people who recommend it to hapless students as 'Good Reading Material' should be tied next, and again stoned with the same book - twice over !
No matter how much I tried, could not get stuff into my head from that book.
It was a frikkin discussion, with 18th century english and language so complex, that would put Ayn Rand to shame.

Fed up, last day, picked up the AI local author textbook and went through it from page to page.
Yeah ... the language was really sucky, and in the end, lots of stuff didnt make sense, but then the satisfaction of having read an entire book is nice :)
Gives you that placebo effect.

Anyways, the external examiner ( bless his heart ) was one of the chillest dudes I have come across sitting on the other side of the table, and everything went off perfectly, awesomely well ...
I had friends gushing "He's so cool ya ..." all over the place :)

Now, tomorrow, on a Sunday, have to haul my ass all the way to college for the Computer Networks Orals, which many people are predicting will be doomsday for most of us.
Again, some person from the 'Industry' is going to pay us a visit and probably, take our case.
Make sure his wasted Sunday holiday is well spent ... eheheh :)

In contrast to that very crappy Rich and Knight book, we have an excellently written network book by Tanenbaum.
Now, this fellow can write ... and very well at that.
The book is peppered with all these interesting anecdotes and examples, which make all the boring stuff network stuff - more interesting ...

But lifes not fair, and we dont have much time.
So, even though I'd have loved reading the entire book - no time.

So, have to sit with the text book on one hand, and make sure to read ONLY the boring part.
Sooo ... anyways, me sitting here blogging with less than 18 hours to go for doomsday, I have kinda given up ...

Watch this space for more news from the grave :)

Painting

Painting
Originally uploaded by saurabhj.

Because the previous place where I posted the image went offline, and Blogger is somehow not allowing me to upload this, I have put it up on flickr and linking it back here...

Take that Bravenet and Blogger ! :)

Some painting ...

Just tried my hand at this new form of art ... err ... yeah .. art ... :)

Did some good old mouse painting and then touched it up with flower and bubbles and other kinds of objects ...

Now, to get back to studying AI :(

[ Please see above post for picture ]

Ad - Sense ...

Wanted to talk about this topic since ages ... but never actually got the chance ...
Anyways, now that I am totally useless with nothing better to do, wanted to take this up ...

Ads ... hmm ...
You get all kinds of them ...
And ad making is not easy ...

Imagine getting your message across in less than 15 seconds ... something experienced speakers cant do in hours of speech.
It is an art ...

How many times have you seen an ad, and gone
"Woah ... Who ever thought of that must be God Damn brilliant !"

I do all the time ...

The only thing going on in India, which we can probably compare on a world level - if you really think of it, are the ad agencies ...

Ofcourse, we have all these crappy, utterly disgusting ads, which make you wanna run to the sink and puke ...
Like all those Fair and Lovely ads ...
I really hate them !
Apart from promoting low self esteem and making women believe that no one will marry you, if you are not fair, they come up with such utter crap like the one in which a mom and her daughter keep showing 5 fingers to each other signifying that a new sachet costs only 5 bucks.
Aaaarghhh !!!
That pissing off ad ran for so long, that I swear, I could have strangled the guy who made it if I ever saw him on the streets ...

And now, that they get a person like Shehnaz Hussain in the ad, who looks absolutely - horrific, their ads have reached an all new low.
I guess she looks like that due to trying out all her products on herself first ...

Anyways, I dont want to talk about all these "crap, waste of air space ads" ...
I want to talk about those extremely slick ones doing the rounds nowadays ... which give you that big grin on your face and that "woah !" feeling ...

I really, really, really love the Tata Safari Dicor ad - the one which reads "Reclaim your life"
The "I always wanted to quit on Monday mornings" line, then the guy in the suit standing alone as the sea of humanity passes him by....
The "I always wanted to ride the waves" line, and then finally the car jumping out with the musical cresendo in the background is just so brilliant !!!
These guys got everything just perfect ... and I just cant get enough of it ...

Come to think of it, Safari has always had very nice ads.
Remember the one with the Canoeing and the "Make your own roads" punchline ?
That was very cool for its time ...

The other really good ad doing the rounds nowadays is the Bajaj Avenger - "Feel like God" ad.
That is also brilliantly done ... just loved it ...
The punchline comes so very nicely in the end, that you cant help grinning everytime you see that ad ...

Another product, which sometime ago had excellent ads, but now they mostly suck is Pepsi.
At one particular point of time, all their ads were brilliant.
The Sumo soccer players one and then the one in which the sky diver feeds the birds some pepsi, were really good ones.
I remember skipping through channels just to catch the Sumo Wrestler ad when it was first aired.

Can't remember it properly now, but wasn't one of their first Indian ads - one in which Aishwarya Rai ( before she became Miss World ) asks Amir Khan for a pepsi, and he jumps around, hopping from one bus to another finally manages to get her one ?
Now, both of them have switched to Coca Cola ... :p

Coca Cola, in comparison, always had bad ads ...
They weren't any smart, but always piggybacked on the star power of Amir Khan and whichever people they could hire ...
Their only catchy ads were about the Amir Khan one in which he pulls out bottles of coke from the well ...

The only other cool ad which comes to mind, even though it gets bugging after a while was the close up one - "Kya aap close up karte hai ?" ad.
It was so different that it had to work.

And lastly, the Pulsar stunt ad, which these 2 bikers show off on Pulsars on a bridge was too slick to be an indian ad.
Very nicely done ...

One thing I would really want to do is be part of the creative team which comes up with the Safari or the Avenger or the Pulsar ads ...

So, incase you have unlimited resources, and are in need of a damn good ad idea, look me up :)
I shall be happy to provide you with my creative insights ...

Tribute to one of the best bands that ever was ...

I believe the sun should never set upon an argument
I believe we place our happiness in other people's hands
I believe that junk food tastes so good because it's bad for you
I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do
I believe that beauty magazines promote low self esteem
I believe I'm loved when I'm completely by myself alone

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

I believe you can't control or choose your sexuality
I believe that trust is more important than monogamy
I believe your most attractive features are your heart and soul
I believe that family is worth more than money or gold

I believe the struggle for financial freedom is unfair
I believe the only ones who disagree are millionaires

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

I believe forgiveness is the key to your unhappiness
I believe that wedded bliss negates the need to be undressed
I believe that God does not endorse TV evangelists
I believe in love surviving death into eternity

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

- Savage Garden, Affirmation, 1999

People changing the world ...

Very often, something happens that makes you stop in your tracks and thank God, for just being alive ...
It's the stories of people ... real people, standing up for what they believe in ...
No matter what it takes, and what sacrifices one needs to make in order to go to sleep at night thinking that he / she has done the right thing ...

One such story is of Gaurav Sabnis ... a name which people will remember for a long time to come.

What it takes for one man to stand against a large, corporate organisation, with fancy lawyers and in the end, come out on tops ...

Read the stories out here ... and please follow each of the links in order ...
And follow the relevant links inside each of the 4 posts ...

- Post 1
- Post 2
- Post 3
- Post 4

And the actual blog of Gaurav Sabnis here.

Kudos to you Gaurav.
It's people like you which make the world a place worth living ...