A typical day turns Atypical

When 15 minutes make ur typical day..what shuld i say..special/eventful? I leave that decision to you :P.

Here goes the story : 26th Feb 2009, a beautiful Thursday morning till the moment I got out of bed ;). I reach the office, park my bike in basement and walk leisurely towards the lift lobby. I see a guy rushing to get an open lift. And I tell myself "Why Hurry! I will take the next one!". I see a lift at the basement floor awaiting my push button instruction to take me to the office floor. And I tell myself "Tada!". The lift lifts me to floor no.3. And here's where the story takes a twist. The lift door does not open!! Bringing my engineering experience into picture, I go up and down each floor in order to get out. Obviously, it did not work :P. I confidently push the Emergency call button. Ooops, I get a busy tone :-). Following the failure of rescue plan 1, I went for plan 2 i.e. push another emergency button, which blew a siren which sounded loud enough to me, but I was not sure whether anybody else heard it. So with both emergency options tried and failed, it was time to find another plan. I checked my cellphone and found that Airtel towers are within range on higher floors. So, I managed to call a friend which set up the rescue operation in process. After whole 15 minutes, I was out and ready to sip coffee and stumble for the rest of the day ;).

And yeah, I again used the same lift twice on the same day :-). Call that courage eh? ;)

Super Rafael!

On 6th July 2008, Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer in 5 sets in Wimbledon final which lasted 4 hours, 48 mins. The quality of tennis in the match left the tennis lovers in a state of awe. And for us, the fans of Rafael, he had made a huge statement by defeating Roger on grass surface. ATP deservedly crowned him the new World no. 1. And Vijay Amritraj, the commentator of the match posted one question : When does Rafa get tired?

Fast forward to another year and we arrive at Australian open 2009 , the first grand slam of the year. Rafa breezed to the semifinals, while Federer had a great escape in fourth round before reaching the semis. Federer rushed past Roddick in the semifinal match on Thursday. And Rafa played an epic 5 set match against Verdasco which lasted 5 hours, 14 mins on Friday. So with the Sunday final set up as a fresh Roger (who had a extra day to rest) vs. a tired Rafa, the world anticipated for the answer to the question of Vijay Amritraj. Roger was tipped as the favorite, but Rafa had another ideas. Rafa entered the court as a fighter and roared his way to victory in another 5 set match. For 4 hours 22 mins, Rafa did what he does best, chasing each and every shot of the opponent throught the court, returning shots which end up as winners against other opponents and producing the trademark stunning winners from seemingly impossible situations. Rafa was crowned the Champion and in the world of tennis, a super-hero was born! Well, considering he played for close to 10 hours within 3 days, that's not an over-statement :-).

After the gruelling semifinal match, Verdasco said To win a point against Nadal, you need to win it 3 times! And after the finals, Federer said.....well he just cried. And we still don't know the answer to the question: "When does Rafa get tired?"

Go Rafa! Bite each and every grand slam trophy ;).

Oscars 2009

India is celebrating the 8 Oscars won by the HOLLYWOOD(and not bollywood) movie "Slumdog millionaire". Yeah, you can thank me for the clarification :P.

Well, in my opinion, this year's Oscar's have gone horribly wrong. So here is my list :-). Just to clarify, I still stand by the post I had written about me enjoying Slumdog millionaire.

1. BEST PICTURE - The Dark Knight! Surprised where this one came from, considering this is not even in the nomination list. But seriously, how dare the jury give this award to any other movie this year!!!
2. BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE - Heath Ledger for "The Dark Knight". Yeah the Academy thought he was supporting actor. But I think otherwise. And the fact that Christian Bale is a super-hero in this movie also helps ;)
3. BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE - Meryl Streep for "Doubt".
4. BEST DIRECTOR - Slumdog Millionaire. coz Danny Boyle has shown the Bollywood industry how a typical Bollywood story can be turned into a good movie! FYI, I agree with the jury here.
5. MUSIC AWARDS - Who else but the Mozart of Madras A.R.Rehman! Again, in accordance with the jury.
6. FILM EDITING - "Nothing but the truth". Another surprise winner here, not in the nominations
7. VISUAL EFFECTS - The Dark Knight
8. ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - Philip Seymour Hoffman for "DOUBT".
9. CINEMETOGRAPHY - The Dark Knight
10. BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - Amy Adams for "Doubt". I did not see Vicky Christina Barcelona. So I have kept Penelope Cruz out of my nomination list. Sorry about that :-). But didn't she look stunning at the Oscar ceremony? ;)

For other categories which are not mentioned here, I either agree with the Academy jury or I have no idea about them e.g. Documentary section, Foreign films.

This list still ends up with 5 Oscars to Slumdog millionaire. By the way, if you liked Slumdog, do check out "Traffic signal" by Madhur Bhandarkar. A good movie by an Indian director on the same subject of slum kids. It's really sad (and somewhat disgusting) that these movies go unnoticed in the crowd of the huge-budget crappy melodramas we continue to churn out year after year :-(.