Slumdog becomes a millionaire

So many raving reviews in the Indian and Foreign media about this one.. Had to watch it to see what it was all about.. yes.. it did portray the true reality.. from a different angle.. I really enjoyed the movie.. I didnt care much if it was made by an Indian or Foreigner. As a matter of fact, if it was made by an Indian, I am not sure if he would have portrayed the India as it is shown in this one and may be Danny Boyle had that advantage of not being attached to the theme as an Indian or nationalist and just purely as a filmmaker. Some people say that it is getting credit because of Danny Boyle.. maybe it is.. but it does bring the likes of ARR in the global arena, once again... and i will be rooting for him in the Oscarss... :)

I read AB's comments.. "if SM projects India as [a] third-world, dirty, underbelly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations".. Well.. AB... maybe u should take a walk out in the the reality i.e India.. India is a land of contradictions and surprises... Yes.. we are great country.. we are proud and we are a developing country and at a fast rate at that one... But the true reality is that more than 80% of the 1.1 billion population (all these numbers might have changed by now.. :) is living in poverty... Face it.. Just becasue it is shown that way in the movie does not make it bad... As Indians, I have always felt that some of us are hyprocrits and also have an inferiority complex... Lemme explain what i mean by this..

I was once making a comment to a friend long time ago that lot of these tourist places are ridden with scoundrels and crooks who try to take advantage of the foreiners and this projects a bad image of India to them.. etc etc/... and also about beggars and how the government r the police never do anything about it... Interestingly my friend pointed out that it was a problem indeed and we should focus on solving it not because of improving our image in the international arena, but more so for the people themselves and how they should get a better life that they deserve... I thought how silly of me... How could I not think of it that way... although I had the right intentions... After a while I was chatting a different friend during a backpack tour and we came across a foreigner who was complaining about something and I had to agree with him based on the facts (dont exactly remember what the issue was)... My friend although agreed with me privately on the matter, but didnt like the fact that I was open about it in front of a foreigner and it projects a bad image of India.. I have come across many other situations with many other people, but the bottomline is always good/Bad image of the country... What I think is... Lets face it... we are a big county with many people, lot of poverty exists, we have many problems.. yet we would like to project a rosy picture of it... Why? who are we kidding ?? why live in a Denial?? Why not accept the fact that problems exist and try to find a solution rather than brushing the dirt under the carpet and make it look clean rather actually cleaning it out for the better??

so AB, I think this statement of yours such a hyprocricy... What the movie shows exists in real life.. I dont care if it portrays a bad image of India... and I dont think we should be ashamed of it either... Lets not live in a denial.. Lets accept it and try to do something about it... I dont think any movie can ever truly capture India as it is... India is so large and so complicated to be even covered completely in a movie.. Thats what makes India so interesting... If anything, I think this movie is not far from reality.. esp. the bit about blinding kids to beg in the streets was very sad to see... makes me wonder how can people do this to kids.. how can they be so cold hearted?

The wait is over... Snow everywhere...

It all started when I went for a lunch at nearby place called Sandvika to see the frozen fjords .. Snowfall was expected, but didnt know it was going to be a blizzard... More than 12 hours of snow and still going strong upto now.... The whole of Oslo and Asker (Place where I work - suburb of Oslo) looks like a winter wonderland... 1/2m of snow so far... all the snow men/women factory will jump start into production... you can see plenty of snow angels everywhere.. All of a sudden the whole place looks so beautiful... and my balcony is almost half filled with Snow now...
Fresh snow... Fresh powder.. I have to hit the slopes to snowboard ... yipeee... :)

A nerd trying to date another nerd :)

I've been watching this TV series called "The Big Bang Theory" lately and I must say it is quite funny. All the physics mumbo jumbo and intellectual crap in every dialogue is really funny... I love the Sheldon character. He is the ultimate intellectual human robot(watever that means :D). One of the episodes where Leanard tries to ask his labmate Leslie out on a date... It goes something like this... pardon me if I didnt get it completely correct ...
(Leonard is going to ask Leslie out on a date...)

Leonard: I was thinking more of a Bio-social exploration with a Neuro chemical overlay
Leslie: Wait.. Are you asking me out?
Leonard: I was going to characterize it as a modification of our colleague/friendship paradigm with the addition of a date like component.. but.. we dont need to quibble over terminology
Leslie: what sort of a experiement would you propose?
Leonard: There is a generally accepted pattern in this area. I would pick you up, take you to a restaurant.. then we would see a movie... probably a romantic comedy featuring the talents of Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock.
Leslie: Interesting... Would you agree that the primary way we would evaluate either the sucess or failure of the date would be based on bio-chemical reaction during the good night kiss?
Leonard: Alright...
Leslie: So... Why dont we stipulate that the date goes well and move to the key variables?
Leonard: You mean kissing now?
Leslie: Yes
Leonard: Can you define the parameters of the Kiss ?
Leslie: Closed mouth, but romantic.... Mint ??
Leonard: Thank you...
Leonard: Shall I count down from three?
Leslie: No. I think it needs to be spontaneous
** Kiss **
Leslie: Soo.. what do you think?
Leonard: You proposed the experiment. So I think you should present your findings first.
Leslie: Fair Enough. On the Plus side it was a good kiss, reasonable technique.. on the other hand no arousal.
Leonard: None.
Leslie: None
Leonard: Ah... Well.. Thank you for your time
Leslie: Thank you.

Cmon.. How can you not like this show? Its brilliant. I wonder how someone hadn't thought about it before. Check it out on IMDB. :-)

Bus to Rome Fiumicino airport for early morning flight

If you have a early flight out of Roma Fiumicino airport (a.k.a Leanardo Da Vinci airport) and do not want to spend a big chunk of money on taxi, then take a look at this post.. I recently had to do the same and there is very little information available about these buses (very cheap compared to Taxi) and noone really knows much about when and where these buses come. So I just put up some info .. Bon Voyage !!

A thing or 2 about staying in hostels...

Whenever I travel in Europe, I always like to stay in hostels instead of hotels.. althought its mostly for students and youths... :) .. Lot of people dont particularly like staying in hostels and consider it very noisy, not very private accomodation etc.. but I like it for the fact that you get to meet fellow tourists from all over the world and sometimes u also get company to travel for a day or two.. i agree .. it could be noisy, sharing a dorm room with so many strangers can be a bit overwhelming for some, and if u r not so lucky then it could be very unclean and messy.. but it has it advantages... i ve gotten some real good travel tips, maps, someone planning out your itinerary, tips about transportation etc.. really priceless... i ve always been lucky to have stayed in some good hostels , clean and freindly service, some with free internet and also tv room... and i highly recommend them.. cheap accomodation when you are on tight budget, possibility to meet fellow travelers and get some good tips and also share stories... i havent traveled so much outside of Europe. so i dunno about the hostels elsewhere, but this is mostly my opinion on the hostels inside Europe...