He came, He waved, He conquered!

The most awaited moment of recent BITSian history happened today, and it was worth the wait.Even though we could not get the audi pases, we made most of what we had.

At 2:30PM a BIG gang of students stood outside the library, under the scorching sun, jubiliating at every sound of a passing automobile in anticipation of the most powerful man in the country.

The moment finally arrived at 2:48PM.

A short, frail looking old man, extremely healthy for his 76 summers, walked out of a small ambasador car (which was followed by a long fleet of other vehicles) under the shade of a blue umbrella. He hopped up the library stairs and into the shade of the library roof. Then as if an afterthought, he walked straight back into the sun, sending his security men into a tizzy. An old man with white flowing silvery hair, stood on the library stairs and waved at us!

The President of India had arrived!!!

After a short 3 minute walk inside the library he walked out and straight into his car. This time he ordered his driver to drive slow. The entire convoy of 27 cars went past us at less than 10kmph. Dr.Kalam unfolded his blinds of the car and watched all of us shouting and waving in exhilaration of having the first citizen of the nation wave back and smile at us.

Once inside the audi, after the initial formalities of the welcome speech by the VC, the most awaited "invited lecture" in BITSian history began. Dr.Kalam talked about "Convergence of Technology". He felt BITS, with all its multidisciplinary approach and flexibilities was the right venue to broach such a discussion. The man started with World-Class systems, drifted into nano-technology and carbon nano-tubes. He talked about bioSciences and its culmination with information technology to form bio-informatics. He spoke of design and manufacturing and the strides our nation was taking in these fields. He then spoke of INdia's commitment to global development by citing an example of our support in helping in wiring the 53 african nations in one BIG wired network. He sought active BITSian support in this initiative.

Then there was a small QnA session. The normal questions regarding poverty level in india, multi-cultural affects on students in 21st century, moon mission etc were asked and answered with aplomb by his excellency.KrishnaHasa from my-india gave a small intro about my india and asked Dr.Kalam about howstudents could channelise their forces for better utilisation of communities like my-india. The president promptly replied that the most important goal of a student is excellence in education. The activities like social service, my-india etc can be carried out in your liesure time as on sundays and holidays, but he again emphasised that the foremost aim of a student is excellence in academics and nothing else.

Sindu Anand was the last to ask the question. She asked something related to righteousness.His excellency ended his speech in BITS by answering this question with the following words and made us repaet them after him.

"When there is righteousness in the hearts, there is beauty of character
When there is beauty of character, there is harmony in the home

When there is harmony in the home, there is order in the nation

When there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world"

After this he left the auditorium and proceeded on his journey to jaipur.

The much awaited visit had come to an end and we were fortunate to be a part of it.

Nokia N93 i Dream phone

TOP TEN LUXURY CARS!

10. Mercedes-Benz SL-Class: Want a roadster on warm, sunny days and a coupe on cold, rainy ones? Then you want the SL roadster and its retractable hardtop. Available with all of the same engines as the CL coupe, this Benz is equally unflappable in the turns

9. Mercedes-Benz E-Class: The E-Class is the priciest of all premium midsize sedans, but one look at the car and you'll know why: It's sleek, sexy and overflowing with curbside prestige. The high-performance yet still docile E55 would be our choice

8. Mercedes-Benz CL-Class: Probably the most refined coupe of them all, the CL has the classiest furnishings of any Mercedes. And if you know even a little about horsepower and torque, you'll salivate over the engine lineup, which ranges from a naturally aspirated V8 to a twin-turbo V12

7. Lexus LX 470: Rich wood trim, amazing off-road ability and an easygoing manner on pavement define the LX 470. If the Range Rover isn't plush enough for you and/or room for seven is a must, here's your premium SUV

6. Lexus LS 430: For those who still look for maximum value even when buying a high-dollar vehicle, the LS is an excellent choice. Fitted with what may be the world's most comfortable seats, the Lexus flagship offers the best package of features you'll find in this class

5. Land Rover Range Rover: If your idea of luxury involves a sport-utility vehicle, it would be hard to find one more distinctive than the Range Rover. It can handle a night out on the town as well as it can an off-road trail. The cabin provides the ambience of a safari vehicle yet is lavish all the same

4. Cadillac STS: A domestic car on a list of premier luxury cars? That's right. Cadillac has finally built a sedan that meets the Germans on their terms when it comes to driving dynamics and luxury accoutrements

. BMW 6 Series: The sportiest of personal luxury coupes, the 645Ci is a driver's car that doesn't compromise a bit on luxury. The sleek convertible version beckons to buyers in mild climates

2. Audi A8: If the A6 isn't big enough for you, try Audi's flagship A8. A lightweight aluminum chassis makes it feel more nimble than other full-size sedans. And an intuitive control system makes it easy to manage its myriad of functions

1. Audi A6: It may be just a midsize car, but this Audi has more style and luxury than vehicles twice its size, along with an exceptionally refined driving demeanor

TRANPARENT APPLE

NO WORDS!

Best Movie, my views

Departed!!!!!

Well, my first reaction was shock, then amazement, then I accepted the fact that the academy people had finally lost it. I do not say that The Departed is a bad movie, it was definetly one of the better movies of the year yet not the best!

Maybe the following points will make it clear why I said the above.

BABEL : Death is the greatest leveler

Well, thats the message from the movie. Death or almost something very near it.
The near death experience of Cate Blanchett creates enormous amount of ripples through four countries and three continents.

That one act rekindles the dying marriage of an american couple in morocco, completely destroys a moroccon shepherd's family, rips apart the career of a mexican lady in america, yet reuniting her with her family in mexico, ignites the debate of terrorism in morocco and totally screws up the only chance of a dumb and deaf japanese girl to get laid.

Death is definetly the greatest leveler, but with a theme as gloomy as this, the movie was bound to get depressing and dark, yet somewhere in it you could spot the message it tried to deliver.

The Queen : "Tradition prepared her. Change will define her."

"The Queen" isn't one of those self-important projects that constitutes a duty rather than a pleasure. It's an elegant mixture of deft, lightly impudent high comedy and human-scaled drama. Dame Helen Mirren gives a stellar perfomance. Of course, it's unlikely any of us will ever read the following sentence in any review: "Helen Mirren disappoints in the title role."

The Queen situates its title subject slightly off to one side without lessening our interest. This film is a tale of two leaders. The queen represents one image of England, the Classical image. The new prime minister, Tony Blair, represents another, fresher image, the New Labour Party in action. The Queen alternates between scenes of the royals cloistered away in their Scottish hideaway, wondering what the worldwide fuss regarding Diana's death really means, and scenes of Blair and his wife, or Blair and his cabinet. The PM must finesse a tricky week with the public and a trickier one with a woman who puts no value on public expression of sorrow. "Restrained grief and sober, private mourning," the queen says--that's the civil approach, "and that's what the world has admired us for". That to me is the defining moment of the movie, a moment in which The Queen takes in everything that tradition taught her and tries to re-invent herself in these changing times.


Little Miss Sunshine: A situation comedy that rescues the very meaning of the phrase

You want to hug the Hoover family, which is surprising given how cranky and ill-fitting they seem at the start. They're middle-class suburbanites hanging on by split fingernails: dad Richard is an unemployed motivational speaker desperately trying to turn his nine-step "Refuse to Lose" program into a book deal and a national brand. Mommy hoover is the breadwinner ready to relegate her patience and understanding to the back of the crisper drawer. Teenage son Dwayne is a sullen ghost who reads Nietzsche and has taken a vow of silence until he's old enough to escape to flight school. The Little Miss Sunshine is the seven year old kiddo of the family Olive whose only aim in life is to win the pageant.
The film's most sitcom-ready invention is Grandpa, a heroin-snorting scoundrel living with the family only because he was kicked out of Sunset Manor, a befiting award to Alan Arkin for his hilarious portrayal.

But other than the dysfunctional family providing those punches of laughter now and then, I have neverunderstoof how it came to be in the contention for the BIG one. As the Hindu puts it " Its too low brow to merit an oscar".

Letters from Iwo Jima: The best movie of the year, too bad its japanese!

The movie is filmed in sepia tones, contributing to the film's depressing, ultimately hopeless view of those Japanese soldiers mired in what will be inevitable defeat. To say Letters from Iwo Jima is a heart-wrenching film is an understatement, but Eastwood directs with a simplicity that ensures the subject matter never becomes heavy-handed. The blanched-out cinematography and subtle computer effects heighten the realism instead of distract from it.

Letters From Iwo Jima gives the global audience a small glimpse into the world of Imperial Japan during World War II, and more specifically, the Japanese soldiers who fought to defend the island. Although there are some historical inaccuracies, I felt the film was very successful in expressing the Japanese soldiers' ambivalent emotions of patriotism to their country, as well as the reality that they were going to die fighting a war, which by that time, could not be won.
The movie gives a very human aspect to the Japanese soldiers by showing, through their letters, that they, like their American counterparts, just wanted to end the war and go home to their family. They were not the merciless, suicidal robots that many people like to imagine, but simply were human beings fighting for their country and for a cause which, regardless if they believed in or not, had to respect.

I feel it was better than any other movies in this category ( its a little long, and there are movies that did not get nominated, yet were good) and its the only one that truly deserves the golden statue. Its a pity that it had to be a japanese movie.

The Departed: well, its the winner!

A hugely successful 2002 Hong Kong thriller, "Infernal Affairs," provides the blueprint that is essentially a tale of two moles. Or brother rats, if you like. Departed is a direct lift off from here.
I guess al of us have watched this movie last semester!

"The Departed" is Scorsese acting accordingly — fast, fluid and light on his feet. He's helped enormously by some clever adaptation, which firmly transplants the action to south Boston. For instance, one character quotes : "The Irish are the only people impervious to psychoanalysis."
Bet that wasn't in the Hong Kong version.
Still, much of the movie is vintage Scorsese (read DESI) . A severed hand with a wedding ring still on it. Wahlberg rat-a-tat-tat-ing expletive-loaded lines with Al Capone aplomb. Conventional gangster wisdom along the lines of what Mr. French tells Billy after the newcomer smashes a bottle over the head of someone sitting next to him at a bar. "There are guys you can hit and guys you can't," he cautions, sounding like a concerned Boy Scout leader. Now in how many movies have you heard this very dialogue- hundreds!

"The Departed's" only flaw — and it is, perhaps, inherent in the concept of adapting a Hong Kong shoot'em-up — is that the film never ripens into something deeper than its splendid cat-and-rat game. Surrogate fathers and fatherless sons are underlying themes, but the emphasis remains on the guns, guts, corpses and, in this case, cellphones.

That I do not believe is worthy of an oscar. Its not a bad movie, but It doesn not deserve the BIG prize!




PS: Please feel free to hate me!

Rocking in audi!!!

Now from the title of this section please do not jump to the conclusion that there was a musical nite or an amazing movie in the audi. Today I discovered a new dimension to myself. I had been to the annual music festival of Ragamalika, SANGAMAM 2007, its eleventh edition in BITS Pilani.

After a brief inaugural function attended by the likes of VC LKM, Dy Diros and Deans the first concert of Sangamam 2007 kicked off. It was by Sangeetha Kalanithi Sangeetha Shikhamani Padma Bhushan Shri. Dr. T.V.Shankaranarayanan.

He started the musical journey with a vandana to ganesha in his enchanting style with violins and ghatam playing in the background - I rediscovered carnatic music. In the pin-drop silence of the evening, the maestro's voice drowned BITSians in an ocean of mixed emotions - the feeling of melancholy, but we were enjoying that, his voice was deep - touching our souls - but we felt lighter too at the same time.

He enthralled us with his magical voice for one full hour. In the end it was a brilliant experience for me and Haki. We decicded to drop in for tommorrow's concert as well- a jugalbandhi of sitar and bansuri. Will update on it soon.

The audi was truly ROCKING!!!

More on Vint Cerf.

This was the Vint Cerf, first day at office in Google. As he was given the post of Chief Internet Evangelist, he didn't know what to wear.Photo was taken by Eric, CEO, Google who happened to carry his digicam.



Vint Cerf was 'feeling lucky' perhaps for the reason that he was the only one to have faced the shortest interview.
Vint Cerf was a friend of Eric Schmidt.

Vint Cerf - " Eric can you do me a favor?'
Eric - " Yes"

And he was in. He was inducted into Google as the Vice President and when asked what he wanted his post to be called, he said the 'Archduke'. But later realized the problems associated and they named him as the "Chief Internet Evangelist".


Vinton Gray Cerf, remains one of the most respected and influential person in the present Information age.