Allovasudden my Yahoo! Mail interface has changed to Hindi!!! Till yesterday it was in plain ol’ English and looking all neat and tidy and now most of the labels and links have turned into Hindi. Even the pop-up messages are in Hindi!
Yahoo had launched the Hindi language option some six months ago. While I fully agree with Yahoo’s globalisation policies and fully support its endeavour to reach out to the bulk of the Hindi populace, what riles me is that I wasn’t even asked whether I would prefer a Hindi interface to the English one! One would at least expect that the final choice of the display language be left in the hands of the user and not decided based on geography or location! For I presume that Yahoo! have detected me as an Indian user and have assumed that I would be wanting the interface in Hindi only! Bah!
Funnily enough, some of the words are phonetically in English even though they are spelt out in Hindi! For example, the popup above has the word ‘delete’ spelt out in Hindi! Other similar occurrences are those of draft, spam, trash, inbox etc. Thankfully, the senders’ names and the message subject itself are still in English. Excuse me as I now go about reading some of the Hindi labels and then change the default display language back to English.
June 13, 2008
Just caught the trailer of the forthcoming Ram Gopal Varma movie - Phoonk. Seems Ramu is going back to his second-favourite genre (after the Underworld i.e.) - the Supernatural. He has directed spooky movies such as Raat, Deyyam (Telugu) & Bhoot and had a hand as a producer in Darna Mana/Zaroori Hai & Vaastu Shastra.
Come to think of it, Phoonk does bear some faint resemblances to Vaastu Shastra! I guess the common elements such as the tree in the courtyard, the maid, and the child artiste Ahsaas Channa make me feel that! Phoonk has as its backdrop, the age-old superstition of Black Magic or witchcraft as we know it. The trailer isn’t as spooky as its made out to be by some of the entertainment websites but it is in trademark Ramu ishtyle! Watch it at the official website or after the jump.
(more…)
June 12, 2008
Yesterday: Netherlands 3 - 0 Italy | Today: Spain 4 - 1 Russia
Two of the tournament favourites kicked off their Euro 2008 campaigns with clinical victories over their opposition. Yesterday evening, the Netherlands team clinically demolished World Cup Champions and highly-rated Italy, and in no uncertain terms. They slotted in 3 goals past one of the most stingiest defence in the world. The match was a highly anticipated one and rightly so, given the composition of group C. With Romania and France having drawn their game, the winner of this game would head the group and have some sorta boost towards progression. The Neds started off well with smooth passes and quick counter-attack moves whilst the Italians were made to sweat. The midfield of Netherlands is so much stronger than the Italians and this showed as the Azzurri struggled to string together winning passes. Netherlands opened the scoring via a contentious goal from Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Wesley Sneijder slotted in a beautiful second 5 minutes later. Italy’s did manage to carve out few chances but either the finishing touch was lacking or the Dutch keeper was saving them finely! The scoreline ended at 3-0 with a Giovanni Von Bronckhorst header ten minutes from time.
Today’s match between Spain and Russia saw a hat-trick from striker David Villa. Coming into the tournament, Fernando Torres was hailed as the marksman to watch out for…but his strike partner showed that he’s no less lethal a force. Torres set up the first goal with a neat flick-on that Villa slotted in comfortably and then added a second on the stroke of halftime. A neat splitting pass from Fabregas found Villa with the Russian ‘keeper & three defenders to beat, and he did that just comfortably to complete the first hat-trick of Euro 2008. Pavlychenko headed in a consolation goal for Russia from a corner but Spain had just enough time to slot in a fourth - courtesy Cesc Fabregas who was in the right position to head-in after the ‘keeper had palmed off a Xavi shot.
With these two matches, Netherlands and Spain are suddenly the new Championship favourites! Of Course, Germany and Portugal have also chalked up wins…but nowhere as efficiently as these two teams! Buck Up Italy!!!
Pix Courtesy: BBC Sport
June 11, 2008
May 26th 2007 witnessed Milestone I.
December 24th 2007 witnessed Milestone II.
and I had completely overlooked the fact that on June 4th, the Wierd Wired World achieved its third major milestone of 300,000 Visitors.
Of course, the posts about Radio and Movie Reviews have been the neon lights that have attracted most of the fireflies but of late, the number of recurring visitors have been increasing. The blog saw few days wherein 900+ visits have been clocked but the thousand-hits-per-day mark is still somewhat away! I guess I have to package, sell & market the blog in a better way but I’ve always believed that content is the king and once I attain that another level of write-ups, the day of popularity is not far!
I thank all of you who’ve diligently kept coming back even though the wierdness has waned down considerably!
June 10, 2008
BMW and Robert Kubica took their first ever Formula One victory in a very very unpredictable and topsy-turvy Canadian Grand Prix! In an incident-filled race, BMW scored a 1-2 finish with Nick Heidfeld following his teammate in 2nd position. Red Bull and David Coulthard tasted a rare success with a 3rd place finish. Toyota took the 4th and 6th places with Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli, with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa between them in 5th. Honda’s Rubens Barrichello finished 7th and Sebastian Vettel, who started from the pitlane, took the last point in 8th.
Front-runners Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen were involved in a pit-lane accident and both were out of the race. Adrian Sutil’s stall brought out the safety car and the lead runners pitted, afraid that the pit lane would close anytime. While Raikkonen was at the end of the pit exit waiting for the light to go green, Hamilton ploughed into the back of him and Nico Rosberg hit the back of Hamilton! Kimi’s and Lewis’ cars were damaged beyond repair and both got out, shook hands, and retired into their garages. Rosberg was able to continue after changing the nose wing. After the shakedown, Nick Heidfeld emerged as the race leader and had a 20+ seconds gap over teammate Kubica with a pit stop still to be made. Drivers who were caught out by the marbles on the track included the Renault of Fernando Alonso whilst teammate Nelson Piquet retired with brake problems.
The race threw up a great result for BMW who are just 3 points behind Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship but more importantly, Robert Kubica is leading the Drivers’ Championship from Hamilton and Massa who’re tied on points with Kimi Raikkonen further behind in 3rd place. This sets up the battle for the title race rather nicely. The next race is in two weeks time - the French Grand Prix at Magny Cours.
Image Courtesy ITV F1
June 9, 2008
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton grabbed the pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix - for the second year in a row - at the last possible instant with a blinder of a lap. On a track which was fast breaking up at the newly-relaid turn 10, Ferrari were the fastest in sectors 1 and 2 but were losing out a hell lot of time in the 3rd sector. Kimi Raikkonen did string together a decent lap on his final run but again lost time in the final sector to end up P3. BMW’s Robert Kubica took P2 at the track where he had a horrific crash last year. Renault’s fortunes seem to be on the upswing as Fernando Alonso brought round his car in P4. Nico Rosberg’s Williams is in P5 - making it five different cars in the top five positions. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was P6 with Heikki Kovalainen, Nick Heidfeld and Rubens Barrichello behind him. Rounding off the 10th position was the Red Bull of Mark Webber who had a spin n’ wall-bang in Q2 and did not run in Q3.
Drivers to drop off in Q3 were Bourdais, Sutil, Button, Fisichella and Vettel whilst Q2 drop-outs were Piquet, Glock, Trulli, Coulthard and Nakajima. Much of the attention was on the deteriorating track surface at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit and the track had to swept off the debris at the end of each qualifying session. That was the place where the Ferraris were losing much time but there were also indications that they were carrying a bit more fuel than Hamilton. If Kimi doesn’t let Hamilton get away too far ahead in the race, a superior strategy could yet see him win the race. Of course, Hamilton isn’t to be discounted. He won his first F1 race over here last year and he would want to do an encore. And in between these two, Robert Kubica could still throw in a surprise result. All’s set for a cracking Canadian Grand Prix tomorrow!!!
Image Courtesy ITV F1
June 7, 2008
At 1700 21:20 IST later today, the European Championships or Euro 2008 will kick-off in far-off Austria/Switzerland as millions of viewers all across the globe will tune into the coverage and watch eight of the top European countries vie for the Henri Delaunay Trophy. England are not in it but the other European powerhouses are, and it should be a fascinating battle! The European Championships are said to be Football’s second biggest prize after the World Cup and given that UEFA boasts of some of the best teams, clubs and players under its aegis, it should be a cracker of a contest!
My personal favourites are the World Cup holders Italy. But with their talismanic captain and defence-lynchpin Fabio Cannavaro out with an ankle injury, they suddenly seem deflated! Spain have been the perennial under-achievers at this stage but maybe they will come good this time around. France, Netherlands, Germany and Portugal also have a decent chance.I’d predict that Spain, Germany, Portugal and Italy will be the semi-finalists.
A bit of a dampener information is that ESPN-Star, the telecast providers for India, will not be telecasting the Semi-Finals and Finals 
. At least that is what I gather from their website! Hope they’re negotiating with the broadcasters and we do get to see the finals on the 29th of June! Yay to that!!!
Official Website | Fixtures | Telecast Schedule in India | Tournament History
P.S: Liju beat me to it 
June 7, 2008
I am not one to catch FDFS regularly. But I did break that mould when I caught Sarkar Raj today. Its a sequel to the 2005 blockbuster Sarkar and sees the the three AB’s - Amitabh, Abhishek and Aishwarya Bachchan, together on the screen for the first time (in a full-length movie i.e. Kajraare is not to be counted!) It is directed by Ram Gopal Varma, whom we’d taken to be a spent force and done n’ dusted post movies such as Aag and Darling. But after seeing Sarkar Raj, RGV is back at the exalted position of a master film-maker and an exceptional story-teller. Sarkar Raj has the RGV stamp all over it. The story-telling, the taut screenplay, the gripping sequences, the eerie silences, the cacophonic beats as a revelation is unearthed, the dark n’ sombre look, lighting effects….all of them have the RGV mark.
The crux of the movie can be encompassed in a dialogue one of the character speaks: “agar Abhimanyu chakravyuh tak nahin aasakta, toh chakravyuh Abhimanyu ke paas lena padega!” (If Abhimanyu can’t come near the chakravyuh, let’s take the chakravyuh to Abhimanyu!). Story, in short, is of the Nagres - Subhash (Amitabh) & his son Shankar (Abhishek) and how a proposal of an Electric Plant brought forward by Anita (Aishwarya), the CEO of an MNC, engulfs them and threatens their very dominance. Senior Nagre is against the project but Shankar foresees a greater good in it and decides to implement it no matter what. He convinces his father, who in turn convinces the patriarch of the villages which would be displaced by the project. But there looms a greater conspiracy within and Shankar finds things going against him but still, he abides by his beliefs and continues relentlessly. Affected by betrayals and volte-faces all along the way, and hit hard by two very dramatic turns of events, Sarkar emerges wounded but still with his sense of powers intact. The movie culminates in almost similar fashion as its prequel - revenge and (probable) unveiling of a successor.
(more…)
June 6, 2008
After a long time, am watching a good movie on the telly. Telugu movie Kshana Kshanam, starring the vivacious eternal beauty - and my favourite actress - Sridevi, Venkatesh and Paresh Rawal. Sridevi plays a simple, bubbly and motormouth Satya who unknowingly has an envelope containing the whereabouts of a Crore of rupees thrust upon her. In a panicky situation, she stabs a goon who’s after the cover and escapes…with the police hot on her heels. She runs into Chandu (Venkatesh), a smalltime thief who thinks the police are after him and flees into the forest alongwith Satya. They’re followed into there by Paresh Rawal and his gang who had orchestrated the bank robbery and whose henchman had betrayed them and hid the money someplace. What follows is an ultimate chase across the jungle, the city, the railway station and ultimately culminating atop a moving train!
Directed by Ram Gopal Varma, who had earlier made the gritty dark blockbuster Shiva with Nagarjuna, this time chooses a racy road-trip-esque story with ample drama, twists and loads of humour. Much of the latter is provided by Paresh Rawal who does a great job with his telugu dialogue delivery. Poovemaina kanipisthonda (do I look like an idiot?) and aayana chaala manchi vaaru (he’s a very good person) make one’s sides ache with laughter. Venkatesh delivers a decent performance in a gritty role with a streak of goodness at the end. But for me, the star of the movie is undoubtedly Sridevi. Her expressions are priceless. Her histrionics are awesome. Her panicky demeanour is praiseworthy. Her cries of devuda…devuda…(Oh My god! Oh My God!) whenever she’s in trouble make you chuckle and feel for her at the same time! She does her own stunts (climbing across ledges, moving from one bogie to another on a running train) & even sings one of the songs! And if you thought hers was a plain-jane tomboyish role, look at the video of one of the songs after the jump and you’ll definitely change your mind.
She’s sensuous as ever….
Charming as ever…
Beautiful as ever…
(more…)
June 4, 2008
Now that the Indian Premier League has been done n’ dusted (Rajasthan Royals won, by the way), the evenings have become dull allovasudden. Gone are the days of blink-and-you-miss action from 8 PM onwards. Gone are the days of scurrying back from work to catch the power-play. Gone are the days of rushing through dinner at the innings break. Gone are the days of nail-biting at the death. Gone are they days of incessant clapping after the favoured team won….*
I guess everyone is feeling a little relieved that it ended. Of course, the hardcore cricket fan would have never wanted it to end but all good things have to come to an end and the IPL is no different. Initially, I thought that it would have been better if the last four were to play the semi-finals in a round-robin fashion but now I realize that it would have made the tournament even longer! Phew!
But hey, all’s not lost yet for the sports lover. For there is lots of interesting stuff coming our way this June. The F1 season enters a crucial phase with the Canadian, French and the British Grands Pix. And for the soccer lovers, there’s EURO 2008 to look forward to.
*And oh yeah…also gone are the days of the tedium of watching Bangalore Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers 
P.S: A Cricket post after eons……that sez it all abt the IPL and Moi 
Image Courtesy: Tylorlilley.com
June 3, 2008
