Jul
16
2010
Just read that Saina has became World’s No. 2 player. Hmm! Good News!
Though frankly speaking, I don’t follow any game except Cricket (and even don’t prefer watching cricket matches). My knowledge of other sports and their rules are as limited as Himesh Reshamia is having about acting. In that article I came to know about other players who are also in the rating lists. Few names, I have heard earlier; few I googled and tried to prepare a list of famous Indian badminton players.
Pullela Gopichand Prakash Padukone
Aparna Popat Anup Sridhar
Chetan Anand Jwala Gutta
P. Kashyap Arvind BHAT
Saina Nehwal Syed Modi
Few Facts/Links:
You can watch latest ratings here.
From the article: the Indian trio of Chetan Anand, P. Kashyap and Arvind Bhatt were at 15th, 25th and 27th spots, respectively, while mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V. Diju were static at the seventh place.
Syed Modi (1962–1988) , from my hometown, was an eight-time National Badminton champion (1980–87). He won the Austrian International in 1983 and 1984 and 1982 Commonwealth Games, Men’s singles title. He succeed to Prakash Padukone as a National Champion.
Pic: Syed modi
Jul
11
2010
1. Zakumi – The mascot of 2010 FIFA
2. Jabulani – Official match ball of the world cup
3. Final Match host city – Johannesburg, The city of Gold
4. Its 19th Edition of World Cup
5. Final b/w Netherlands and Spain. These two teams have never won the World Cup before.
3 more hours for Final match. yeppi!!
May
22
2010
Just read a news that first time, an Indian circumnavigated the world solo and today he is coming back to India. Hmm! I know that In a developing country like India, people will neither tag it as a big achievement nor its going to be a well received news. (OK! Cool down). Well after reading the news, I opened Encarta just to see meaning of few geographical terms. Here are my findings:
1. Clipper Route: The fastest sea route to travel in southern hemisphere. (Thanks to “Roaring forties”.)
An Clipper Boat
2. Roaring forties: ( area of latitudes between 40°S and 50°S) so called because of the boisterous and prevailing westerly winds. Because there is less landmass to slow them down [Source: Wikipedia]
3. Furious fifties and Shrieking Sixties (or Screaming Sixties) are sisters of “Roaring forties”.
4. “The great capes” are the three major capes of the Southern Ocean — the Cape of Good Hope (Africa), Cape Leeuwin (Aus), and Cape Horn (S America). Note that a cape means a point or body of land extending into a body of water, usually the sea. for example Cape Comorin. For a detailed list of capes of the world, click Here.
Here is a picture on Wikipedia, which depicts all the above terms.
May
15
2010
Since morning, I have done nothing except making omelette and tea for myself. After a lazy morning, I started reading few wiki pages (BTW its my old habit to read random wikis). After surfing through few pages related to Indian movies, I came to the page of DadaSaheb Phalke Awards. Well frankly speaking I never took it as a serious attempt to recognize the life time contributions in Indian cinema ( I will tell few reasons later). I thought to do a bit of analysis on its recipients and came up with few piddling facts:
1. Started in 1969 (birth centenary year of Dadasaheb Phalke).
2. First Recipient: Devika Rani (All I can recall about her is the “Achhut Kanya” and her kissing scene with her hubby)
3. Out of 40 recipients till date, 21 are directors/Producers. VK Murthy is the only cinematographer/ technician in the list
4. Only 4 actresses are in the list (Devika Rani, Sulochana, Kanan Devi and Durga Khote)
5. 7 actors in list (Prithviraj Kapoor, Raj Kapoor, Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Dr. Rajkumar, S. Ganeshan and Dev Anand). Prithviraj Kapoor is the only one posthumous recipient.
6. Music Segment have 8 recipients: 3 Composers (Pankaj Mullick, Naushad and Bhupen Hazarika); 3 Singers (Lata, Asha and Manna Day) and 2 lyricist (Majrooh Sultanpuri and Pradeep)
7. Director list includes V. Shantaram, Satyajit ray, L.V. Prasad, Chopra Brothers, Adoor Gopalkrishnan, Benegal, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha And Hrishikesh Mukerjee.
The complete list of recipients: Here
=========================================================
Blunders: What is missing (according to me)
1. Music : K.L. Saigal, Kishore Kumar, Rafi saheb, Pancham Da, Javed Akhtar
2. Directors: Guru Dutt, Basu Chatterjee, Bimal Roy, Gulzar, Ritwik ghatak.
3. Actor/actress: Kaka, Amit ji, Shabana Azmi. In fact I should add few more names like Pran, Kamal Hasan, Rajnikanth.
May be you have few more names. Few odd things like, Dev Anand got the prize too late (in 2002).
May
14
2010
Today is birthday of actress “Waheeda Rehman”. Her chemistry with Guru dutt and the roles she played in the classics like CID, Kagaaz ke phool, Teesri Kasam, “Sahib bibi aur Ghulam” and the ultimate “Pyaasa” makes her my all time fav.
May
11
2010
If somebody asks you for the top 5 Bollywood movies of all time, I am sure that Sholay will be in your list. One of the most popular scenes from movie is the entry of Gabbar in the movie and his dialogue with Sambha. Macmohan played the Sambha and became instant hit from the movie although he had very few dialogues.
Yesterday we lost our Sambha. He was suffering from cancer. Most of his roles were “Boss Ka Aadmi” type and He had monopoly of these roles. Although physically he was not even closer to the image of the classic Bollywood villain, he beautifully acted those roles. His last appearance, which I can recall now, was in Zoya akhtar’s “Luck by chance”, where he portrayed himself and even said his classic dialogue “Poore pachaas hazaar”. Rest in peace, Macmohan, Sambha!
Feb
28
2010
Just finished “Hazaar Chaurasi ki maa”, A fine movie by Govind nihlani and moreover a great performace by Jaya ji, though few scenes are ponderous and dialogue-heavy. Movies in queue –> Aakrosh, Suraj ka Saatva ghoda. & Need to look for “Dev” by Nihlani…. got news that 3 idiots rocked in filmfare this year. Hirani,Every time fresh, the real Heera!! Giving social message is the best part of his movies. Compare his this art with Karan’s MNIK, and you will find a great difference! Love the bollywood!
Feb
20
2010
(A poem by Dilip Chitre. Its the theme poem for the movie Ardha Satya (1983) by Govind Nihlani )
चक्रव्यूह में घुसने से पहले ,
कौन था मै और कैसा था ,
यह मुझे याद ही न रहेगा .
चक्रव्यूह में घुसने के बाद ,
मेरे और चक्रव्यूह के बीच ,
सिर्फ एक जानलेवा निकटता थी ,
इसका मुझे पता ही न चलेगा .
चक्रव्यूह से निकलने के बाद ,
मैं मुक्त हो जाऊं भले ही ,
फिर भी चक्रव्यूह की रचना में
फर्क ही न पड़ेगा .
मरुँ या मारूं,
मारा जाऊं या जान से मार दुं.
इसका फैसला कभी न हो पायेगा .
सोया हुआ आदमी जब
नींद से उठकर चलना शुरू करता है ,
तब सपनों का संसार उसे ,
दोबारा दिख ही न पायेगा .
उस रौशनी में जो निर्णय की रौशनी है
सब कुछ समान होगा क्या ?
एक पलड़े में नपुंसकता ,
एक पलड़े में पौरुष ,
और ठीक तराजू के कांटे पर
अर्ध सत्य .
Feb
2
2010
Today is the birthday of Columbian singer and “Queen of belly” Shakira. Seldom I hear English songs (however making a slow progress in this area – thanks to Manki). And few of my fav songs in my limited collections belongs to Shakira.
From whateverver I have seen and heard, I have the opinion that She is a better dancer than singer. Her belly steps are awesome!!
Foot-Notes:
[1] According to Media Traffic, "Hips Don’t Lie" is the second most successful song since 1998, only behind Cher’s 1999 hit "Believe", so far, the most successful single in the twenty first century, the fourty-sixth most successful song in music history and also Shakira and Wyclef’s most successful single ever, amassing nearly 10 million points . [Click here]
[2] Farah khan gave her dance lessons for “His don’t lie”, and that you can slightly guess from the steps and feel of the dance.
