#SuperNDA and the #patheticUPA?

So we have the latest term "superNDA"(#superNDA) after the UPA1&2(#patheticUPA) gave us the "superPM"! Anyway, #superNDA vs the #patheticUPA, especially on the TV is an amazing duel. I feel this aggressive and non-complacent approach of the BJP is surprising even for its supporters. Of course the counting is still nearly 24 hours away, but the way the media is creating hype about this whole 2014 elections is good for the public's senses and healthy for the TRPs! I personally feel nice to believe that BJP is trying to make the new NDA stronger than ever so that crucial decisions relating to governance could be taken without hiccups and delay-free. As Narendra Modi has time and again: Minimum Government, Maximum Governance, and what I believe is that the ugly flab and wasteful expenditure of the govt should be trimmed and made lean and make it work more for the people. The latest trends where the experienced leaders of BJP went into a huddle seem to suggest that it is planning something big, really BIG.
Watching a timesnow debate, I heard a comment from one of the panel members: "...Congress house is full of scams and snakes!.." That was a good humour for which even the Congress spokesperson Ragini Nayak gave a full-mouthed gaffe with the mouth so wide open that an anaconda can easily slip through! And for the next few minutes, she didnt speak. Yes. Instead she underwent a verbal diarrhea of the most severe levels until Arnab came to her rescue!

With love.. Anil

My reactions to news..part 1

Over the past weekend or so, there have been some news and statements which actually has a lot of things not said. Look below:

News: Rajnath Singh offering an olive branch to the fiery, cat-on-a hot-tin-roof TMC's Mamata, and Mamata says: "...We will never, ever have an alliance with the BJP.."
My Reaction: OMG! Mamatha ate away the BJP's olive branch! You don't get a chance to ally with Modi often and it would be an opportunity of a lifetime! Anyway since she says she cannot ally in her lifetime it means she is going to take a new incarnation(avatar) and join with the BJP! Remember Mamata n Modi both start with M! After all friendship involves lots of friendly fights! There is certainly a bigger story unfolding behind the bars which will unfold after May16!

News: DD claims that the Narendra Modi interview was edited due to "technical" reasons:
My Reaction: When loksabha tv got blacked out during the Telangana bill(remember that ill-fated, conspiracy-filled day of 18Feb2014?), it was a technical issue, and now when Modi's interview got edited it was again a technical issue?

News: Priyanka Gandhi says "My father is Rajiv Gandhi. He laid down his life for the country. He cannot be compared to any other person"
My Reaction: Of course Priyanka is and should be Rajiv's daughter to make all those speeches. Who denied that and who can stop that? If not for her father, will anyone even care about her? What are her individual credentials? Born in the gandhi family. And the way congress behaves, they always take advantage of their ancestors' death. Rajiv's death benefitted the congress the most and it will always reap rich rewards of the same by labeling him as a "martyr"! Same is the case with YSRCP who keep calling YSR the martyr or a kind of God after an ill-fated helicopter crash. Wonder who else will sacrifice their life for the nation next!


With love.. Anil

Amazing Emma Stone-Jimmy Fallon lip sync battle!

Just amazing to see the talent of the leading lady of Amazing Spiderman 2 as well as the perfect pronunciation of words! Loved the video below. #amazingspiderman #spiderfans #spiderman #emmastone

With love.. Anil

Akshaya tritiiya: misconceptions and marketing

I know this article will ruffle some feathers, but its my view that everyone is given a right to express.
Ever since the medieval ages, there has never been a special festival called "Akshaya Tritiiya". On the FM Radio today, I heard something like: Whatever you buy today will increase/appreciate over time, so people buy gold! What a logic!
By their own above logic, anything bought today should increase: buy a phone worth 25k and its value will grow to 30K in a year, buy a cow today and it will become 2 cows next year, so on and so forth! But why do they insist upon buying only gold? Is it the most auspicious metal in the world or in the whole universe?
Whoever try to bring the religion into this festival is doing a big mistake. There was never a festival called "Akshaya Tritiiya".
A huge marketing cloud is being created every year to push gold down the people' throat. It never was a festival about gold at all, but rather an auspicious day to start any new work.
And who will be the ultimate winners? It is the jewelers who create an environment where anyone with gold is going to become legends and prosper forever. In fact the hype over this festival is nothing different from hype over a new iPhone or a new movie.
Yes, marketing tactics are not bad and in fact good for the economy, but creating a false link with religion is an absolute mockery of ethics. And people who fall into their trap will ultimately realize that its not what they imagined to be. Its not about gold but about starting any new work, whether it is a new business or a new job that would have been beneficial to the family and society at large. Pity them.

With love.. Anil

The Thrilling Spiderman!- My review of Amazing Spiderman-2

In many ways, The Amazing Spiderman-2 could have been named "The Thrilling Spiderman"!
After yesterday's evening show at Uurvashi with the cosmopolitan audience of Bangalore, it was evident that the movie certainly meets the expectations of the public and gives complete value for the money spent. Despite not being as luxurious as a multiplex, the quality of the sound system and the larger screen certainly makes it one of the most loved theaters of Bangalore and on the international workers' day it was nothing different. The full house applauded each and every stunt that spiderman did and there were many whistles and "woowww"s and "ohhhhh"s during the movie that was as good as a roller coaster ride, taking the audience into the world of spiderman! The director's way of making us experience the heights that spiderman takes were nothing short of awesome, with his now trademark style of super-slow shot that shows spidey almost stop mid air during high-octane chases!
With the first shot of the "sony" logo on the big screen, young crowd reacted in their own way by screaming other mobile brands like "samsung", "apple", "moto g", "moto x", "nokia" that were popular in India too!
I personally felt that the movie looked much more colorful compared to the first part.
Coming to the story and the treatment, it lacked a certain emotional connect, but still manages to hold up and justifies the reason why people come to see spiderman films: the action scenes and witty spidey dialogues.

Though some people may say this movie resembles spiderman-3 in the sense that too many villains were packed against the wall crawler, it doesnt too heavy, because the story cleverly uses them to introduce spiderman, open up his vulnerabilities of being a superhero, the epic climactic battle with the electro and goblin and finally laying the foundation for the next installment 2 years from now(planned on 10 June 2016).

My personal feeling is that Spiderman's fights can actually move to other cities or new landscapes to keep the movie series interesting. Maybe a sequence in front of the Egyptian pyramids or a Taj Mahal or atop Eiffel Tower or India Gate? That would give a break for the audience from the New York's skyscrapers! Not that they seemed boring, but fresh content in fresh locales will certainly be welcome, like how the Transformers series went to the deserts of Egypt from cities of America!

Overall, the movie is a complete entertainer with amazing action sequences, funny one-liners, thrills,etc which all make up for a good cocktail of a near-perfect movie for spider fans like me (and even for those who arent), even though the original movie series starring Tobey Maguire was my personal favorite! The original series has a boyish charm of the 2000s but after watching this movie, I feel the movie franchise can go to greater heights from now on with a transformation of Peter's character with the personal tragedy that he encounters(there are enough spoilers on the web to check for yourself!). The platform has been well laid for the next part and has interesting to see how Peter's personal life goes from here(an expected return of Mary Jane) and how many villains he has to fight in the future! Go spidey go!

With love.. Anil

The Newshour on Times Now(29Apr2014)

Looking at the way yesterday's Newshour progressed on Times Now, I can easily say that the topics were well selected and the party in power remains exposed to the hilt.
Some of the debates that I personally felt on this program was the one about Priyanka gandhi getting more mileage than her brother Rahul, who is on the backfoot these days. Infact it seems to be a silent time for Kejriwal as we didnt hear much from him about either Rahul or Modi!
So why did Priyanka come to the stage and why was Rahul taken away from the scene completely?In simple words, I would say: Congress is out of petrol and thus using kerosene. It has run out of genuine heroes and falling back on item numbers not to shore up some seats but to save their modesty. Priyanka(whether Gandhi or Vadra, its her choice) is a clever, homely lady who can churn out huge crowds through her glamour once every 5 years! Rahul might have lost some of his looks but Priyanka looks fresh to pull the crowds. After all, if someone comes out so rarely, their glamour will obviously be intact! Anyway in Rae Bareli and Amethi, any living thing with Gandhi in its name will win!

With love.. Anil

Spiderman in Indian Elections 2014!

Just wondering where would Spiderman stand in this largest human drama called "The Great Indian Elections 2014"..And it goes like this:
Our friendly neighborhood spiderman decides to contest this elections and nominates himself under a new red-blue color party called "Spiderman Party", with the abbreviation SMP.
What would be the reactions of some parties?

Congress: "His web is going to be a threat to the indian society and disturb India's secularism!"
CPM/CPI: "His roots lie in the capitalist USA and thus a bigger danger to India than Modi!"
BJP: "SMP is helping the minority appeasement by signing a secret deal with congress!"
AAP: "SMP is funded by Ambanis and Tatas in a joint venture and Spiderman will be used to market their products. This will increase the prices!"
TRS: "Endi raa bhai veedu. Godalekke vaadiki mana kashtaalem telusthaayi? jai telangana"

So our spiderman keeps campaigning under the spider symbol with the Red and Blue color flag and gets a huge applause and huge crowd for all his meetings.
And lets say he wins the elections. What will be his priorities then?
* Make spider the national animal of India!
* Spider Universities to improve their breed and a spider serum will be created that will improve people's health!
* A spider force that will impart spider sense to the investigators of crime and corruption.
* Encourage more skyscrapers so that people can swing through them using their webs!

As the spiderman mania peaks, lets hope we dont hear our netas pumping out spiderman slogans like "with greater power comes greater responsibility".
#amazingspiderman #spiderman

With love.. Anil

Laddu babu: An under rated movie

Watched Laddu Babu yesterday and it was an amazing movie which was well handled by the director Ravi Babu. The film brings to the fore a new Allari Naresh who seems to have got into the role with ease.
It may not be the comedy that we expect from Naresh, but it certainly has a different feel to it.
I disagree with some reviews which said the story is too predictable. Sure the story is not completely new, but the way the story was told is good. It has a good message to the society.
Music is a letdown, but I dont think it matters anyway since songs doesn't suit this type of genre.
Missamma(2003) was a movie in similar genre and Laddu Babu in comparison is better in terms of comedy.

The way Naresh transforms into the insanely obese character is worth appreciation and applause.
I dont think this is an experimental movie, but certainly a fresh movie.
It may not be the movie which can draw crowds to the theater, but maybe an official DVD release would do well.

With love.. Anil

Banyan Tree vs Coconut Tree

Last evening, I was reading an article on banyan tree from a blog at http://drgauravpradhan.blogspot.in/. I liked the way the author described the world. I would like to take it further:
I realized that people have different ways of growth. Some like to grow as banyan trees: Spread their roots all over and shelter many others in their shadow. They may not have much height but the roots are strong that not even a massive tornado can destroy them.
Others like to grow like coconut trees: They may not hate or destroy others but would like to grow up to larger heights alone without giving shelter to others by the way of love, support and respect. They may grow tall or taller, but fail to live up in times of adversity. And when I mean "alone", it doesnt mean alienating themselves from the society, but it means keeping their interests at the top and always suspecting others. They even hate being under the shelter of the banyan tree, since they feel they are being dominated and choose to grow away from it. But the fact is that the banyan tree is not a hinder to their growth at all and in fact it helps them in being rooted and remain strong during the times of adversity.
This is not to say that coconut tree is inferior to banyan tree. In fact coconut tree has more uses than banyan tree, especially its commercial value is higher, signifying a higher status in the society by reaching greater heights, even though people use banyan tree's shadow to relax.
Ultimately, it is a matter of personal choice as to how one wants to live their life.

With love.. Anil

EVMs: How rugged are they?

A thought came across my mind:
So more than half the nation has voted for the 2014 Parliamentary Elections by the time I have written this article.
Are the EVMs(Electronic Voting Machines) being used water proof, Dust proof, shatter proof, bullet proof and theft proof? Is there any testing done by banging it with a large hammer? This type of ruggedness is important in a nation like India where conditions can go to extremes like ink/water being thrown, EVMs being stolen, etc.
Lets take a situation where a person, angry with the elections goes in and tries to damage the EVM with H2SO4(sulphuric acid), failing which he/she bangs it hard with a hidden hammer, or steal the EVM as a final option. Who knows, there might even be a gang around the polling booth just waiting to destroy it by shooting it with a gun by expert snipers. This might not have happened yet, but may happen anytime and the EC needs to be prepared for the worst.

1. Does the EVM withstand acid attack of the highest intensity? If so for how long can it withstand immersion in water or acid?
2. How are the results stored? Are they stored locally inside their circuitry? If so is the storage medium a sensitive hard disk or the latest SSD(Solid State Drive)?
3. Is there any backup storage like saving in an encrypted form in the cloud?
4. How will the police track a stolen EVM? Does it have GPS that cannot be turned off and with an embedded battery that is always on and how long can the batteries survive before draining out?
5. How secure are the databases and the memory that store all the votes? Any AES-256 bit encryption?
6. What is the body made up of? Cheap plastic or unbreakable carbon fibre that can withstand even a bullet attack?


I just wonder how they are all built and how well are they tested and if tested, by whom.

As an after-thought, India is still awaiting internet voting and it remains a dream(Gujrat has implemented it in 2011 for the Municipal elections in Gandhinagar, but nothing was heard since then).

With love.. Anil