Unconnected II

Its wierd how when someone’s building something, that can play a major part in breaking something totally unrelated (Heck! Come to think of it, that’ sounds a lot like Software Engineering…build some, break something else )

Anyways, the building I was referring to was the construction work going on at the head of the street where I reside. In their eagerness to erect pillars, the construction workers had inhumanely slashed away all the non-electricity wires snaking through their airspace and poof! went my Internet and Cable connection…

I was hoping (which later gave way to yelling at the repairmen) that it would be fixed by the weekend, but alas, the repairmen turned out to be more moronic than the workers. They simply “patched up” the wires and left them dangling just above the airspace of the second pillar! The result, it was gone again the next day! Of course, the fact that the connexions were all-too-similar to this, didn’t help either.

[Un]welcome Showers!

I’m confused! I don’t know whether to be happy that the rains have helped bring down the sweltering heat a little or to be angry that they managed to drench me and also were responsible for the no-power situation! In case you didn’t know yet…it rained today evening in Hyderabad…heavily…and there was no power until a few minutes ago!

Winding the clock a few hours back…I was bang in the middle of the road (on the divider, actually) on the busy JHCP – LVP road, with traffic flowing on either side when the heavens opened up! It was either risk-the-oncoming-vehicles-and-make-a-mad-dash-for-cover or stay-put-twiddle-your-thumbs-and-get-wet scenario. And to to make matters worse, the rain was getting heavier and so was the traffic flow! Throwing caution to the winds, I scampered back to office and sat around waiting for it to abate…and drafted this post [I can’t post images from there, so had to complete it from home].

P.S: That strip is just the sorta scenario I was in…as I was scampering back, a mischievous colleague remarked boasted how he’ll take a lift from the boss and thus can cosy up at home sooner than me

Bah!

Come-from-behind-wins Day

It surely was that, personally as well as on the sporting front!

I sure don’t like to brag about it but I managed a nifty comeback earlier today and one that surely classifies as a come-from-behind victory. Allow me to spare the details and praise the other two come-from-behind-victors (apart from me, of course!):

• Deccan Chargers, who beat the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League
• FC Barcelona, who beat FC Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League.

And the architects of the comebacks – Rohit Sharma and Andres Iniesta, respectively. Take a bow, gentlemen!

Rohit Sharma & Andres Iniesta played stellar roles for their teams

The Deccan Chargers were defending a rather modest total of 145 against the Mumbai Indians and despite losing Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya cheaply, the Indians were on course for a comfortable victory at 97/3 in the 14th over. Then came the turning point as captain Adam Gilchrist threw the ball over to Rohit Sharma and he grabbed 4 wickets in 5 balls (including a hat-trick, spanning two overs) to knock the wind outta MI’s sails! The Chargers went on to win the match by 19 runs and move into 2nd spot in the IPL points table.

The second third – and even more stunning – comeback came from FC Barcelona, as they saw Chelsea take a 1-0 lead as early as the 9th minute, but they continued their patient possession-and-passing game and struck the equaliser deep deep into injury time to level the tie 1-1 and win on the away-goals rule. Chelsea had almost six shots on target and four pretty decent penalty appeals turned down whereas Barcelona had 0 shots on target and were reduced to 10 men after Eric Abidal was sent off in the 66th minute. The lone shot-on-target for Barca came in the 93rd minute, courtesy Andres Iniesta and he buried the ball high into the net to spark wild scenes of celebration for the visiting Barcelona team. Chelsea were absolutely gutted and they let their frustration get the better of them as several players harangued the referee after the final whistle (Didier ‘Cheat’ Drogba, the chief culprit!)

Both Cricket and Football are team sports, and these virtuoso performances might have been the match-winning ones but the entire team rallied around them and credit to all of them.

P.S: Mine was a solo effort though

Happy Ugadi | ఉగాది శుభాకాంక్షలు

Here’s wishing everyone a very Happy Ugadi! May the new year bring with it bounties of joy, peace, prosperity and happiness.

 

For the curious-er of the ppl. out there, this Ugadi marks the advent of the శ్రీ విరోధి నమ సంవత్సరము (Virodhi Nama Samvatsaram). I sure hope that there will be no troublesome virodhis (opponents) in my quest for success this year . There’s some Ugadi Pachchadi  for all of you after the jump…

Cinemax Multiplex Opens in Hyderabad

Hyderabad now has another multiplex added into its kitty. Cinemax, which was under construction for almost a year has finally opened to the public on the occasion of Sankranthi yesterday with the release of the Telugu flick Maska. Hindi movie Chandni Chowk to China will be the next to be screened here on 16th Jan. I’d heard this from a friend in Hyd yesterday and today’s news reports indeed corroborate it.

 

Located at RK Cineplex on Banjara Hills Rd #2 (opposite LV Prasad Eye Hospital), Cinemax will have three screens with a total seating capacity of 1001, with 88 recliner seats. The best part – for me, at least – is that the screen is very close to my workplace…within walking distance! So the early-evening dash to catch the latest release on Friday evening will be less of a cumbersome affair

But there’s a dampener: the ticket prices are at a steep Rs 200!

The Andhra Pradesh government has issued a GO to Cinemax India Ltd, which owns a multiplex at Road No. 2, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, allowing it to charge Rs 200 per ticket. This is the highest ticket price charged by any theatre in the AP state.

The GO, No 7, allows the theatre to charge Rs 200 per ticket as a special case. The order states that since a huge amount of money was invested in the theatre, the government permitted it to charge more. Cinemax can collect Rs 200 for the Gold category and Rs 100 for Special and Executive Class of the three screens. Other multiplexes in the city can charge a flat Rs 100 and Rs 200 for 3D films. [Source]

Cinemax Website

Wierd Wired Game

So the recession’s making the workspace a little all-too-boring does it? Or maybe a little scary and jittery, not knowing when’s the ‘light red coloured piece of paper’ is gonna come! Fear not, for the wacky Radio Stations in your city will come up to your workplace and ‘jazz’ it up…with some wierd games n stuff

Well, that’s what happened at our workplace today as one of the leading FM Radio stations came swooping down for an evening full of CITY-styled BIG fun with MIRCHI-hot games and some S-pecial prizes!

Movie-watching…in a Bus!

During my recent sojourn to Bengaluru, I happened to watch two Telugu movies on the bus ride. I prefer taking the Volvo buses and they put on some decent movies during the journey. Why I’m explicitly penning down the experiences with these two movies is because whereas the first one kinda rekindled my belief/interest/faith/hope in Telugu movies, the second one nullified it all over! The first one was:

• Aadavari Maatalaku Ardhaale Verule [4/5 | IMDb | Wikipedia | Review]

Starring Venkatesh and Trisha, this one is a feel-good wholesome entertainer movie which was quite good. Ignore the whole system-crash-in-DOS sequence and turn a deaf ear to the farty-comedy scenes and its golden! Though there were no chartbuster songs, the music was quite good. Venkatesh carries the film on his shoulders throughout and his effortless portrayal of a myriad of emotions – anger, comic, cheeky, romantic, preachy, sentimental – is a treat to watch. Trisha looks good throughout. My fav part was the one where Trisha’s younger sister (played by cutie Colours Swathi) develops a crush on Venkatesh…the sequences were too good! Watching this movie made me realize Tollywood wasn’t too bad after all…and that feeling was intact till the return journey, when I happened to watch this:

• Hare Ram [-5/5 | IMDb | Wikipedia | Review]

Starring NTR-clan-boy Kalyan Ram (in a double role that too!), Priyamani (National Award winner) & Sindhu Tolani, this movie is as lame as it can get! Based on a wierd premise – twins, one having a dysfunctional Medulla Oblongata who kills anyone who calls him ‘dumb’, older brother included – it endlessly meanders through sibling separation, sincerity in police duty, serial killings, corrupt politicos, health mafia (!), kiss-ass media, misplaced romanticism and brotherly love before ending bizarrely in courtroom drama! Having more twists than a corkscrew and a pea-brained apology of a script, this one is what defines TRIPE! And it was not as if I could stop watching…I had seat #5, right in front of the TV

Now I shall have to wait for another good flick to reaffirm my faith in Telugu flicks. Any recommendations?

AdLabs is now BIG Cinemas

A few weeks ago, I went upto the multiplex in Ameerpet and it was called AdLabs Cinemas then (am trying hard not to recall that it was for Drona ). Tomorrow, I’ll be going there again for watching Quantum of Solace but it will be called BIG Cinemas now! They recently had a rebranding exercise and all the various AdLabs theatres were renamed as BIG Cinemas.

 

Adlabs Films Limited, a member of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and India’s largest cinema chain announced today the launch of BIG Cinemas with the tagline “Ab Bada Mazza Ayega”. The entire rollout will happen simultaneously on Tuesday, 28th October 2008 across BIG Cinemas’ 73 properties throughout the country, totalling 186 screens and 71000 seats. [Press Release]

I must’ve missed the announcement or the news items… I only realized that when I’d logged in earlier today to book tickets for QoS. Though I must say the ‘AdLabs’ name was much better. Of course, many people back in my hometown believe that I work there (owing to the very close resemblance of the name of my actual workplace to that!) but it has nothing to do with that. Just that PVR, Prasadz, AdLabs sound like a theatre name when compared to BIG Cinemas. When you say “I’m going to the Big Cinema”, people may end up asking “Really? How Big?”