Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Creative Crap-Master

Time for the Donkey to praise his own tail!!!


Showcasing some of my "artistic" creations from the past...








For times when you wanted to Kick-Ass!!!



For the love of blogging

Some spoofs of allegedly Best selling English Novellists in India




For all Harry Potter Fans... A former Triwizard Champion!!!



Hmmmm... Absolutely wonderful... I think I'll put all of these in a slide show :P

Saturday, November 27, 2010

For the love of Harry Potter

Its been quite a while that I haven't done some Harry Potter bashing. My last post "I dream of Genie" with that scandalous pic (shown below) of Harry and his pal Draco is still quite a hit. Atleast thats what Blogger.com stats say. So in the wake of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, bringing to your notice some bloopers or to be politically correct - sort of - some lapses in continuity on part of J.K.Rowling in the Harry Potter book series.



Lapse 1
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in Chapter Six - Ghoul in Pajamas:
Hermione: “I’ve also modified my parents’ memories so that they’re convinced they’re really called Wendell and Monica Wilkins, and that their life’s ambition is to move to Australia, which they have now done. That’s to make it more difficult for Voldemort to track them down and interrogate them about me – or you, because unfortunately, I’ve told them quite a bit about you.


In Chapter Nine - A place to Hide, After escaping from Bill and Fleur's wedding, when they overpower 2 Death Eaters on the cafe on Tottenham Court road:
“What are we going to do with them?” Ron whispered to Harry through the dark; then, even more quietly, “Kill them? They’d kill us. They had a good go just now.”

Hermione shuddered and took a step backward. Harry shook his head.

“We just need to wipe their memories,” said Harry. “It’s better like that, it’ll throw them off the scent. If we killed them it’d be obvious we were here.”

“You’re the boss,” said Ron, sounding profoundly relieved. “But I’ve never down a Memory Charm.”

“Nor have I,” said Hermione, “but I know the theory.”

She took a deep, calming breath, then pointed her wand at Dolohov’s forehead and said, “Obliviate.”

Interesting to note, isnt it that people tend to forget.. even stuff that they did to their own parents


Lapse 2
In Chapter 27 - The Final Hiding Place, After having escaped from Gringotts on the Dragon and leaping off into a lake:

They were wincing as they dabbed essence of dittany onto their many injuries. Hermione handed Harry the bottle, then pulled out three bottles of pumpkin juice she had brought from Shell Cottage and clean, dry robes for all of them. They changed and then gulped down the juice.

And after Harry's vision of Voldemort:

Harry's eyes flew open as he wrenched himself back to the present. He was lying on the bank of the lake in the setting sun, and Ron and Hermione were looking down at him. Judging by their worried looks, and by the continued pounding of his scar, his sudden excursion into Voldemort's mind had not passed unnoticed. He struggled up, shivering, vaguely surprised that he was still wet to his skin, and saw the cup lying innocently in the grass before him, and the lake, deep blue shot with gold in the falling sun.

Interesting again... dry clothes getting soaked in a matter of minutes... MAGIC indeed


Lapse 3
In Chapter Ten - Kreacher's Tale, Kreacher explains how he was taken by Voldemort to hide the Locket:

“There was a b-basin full of potion on the island. The D-Dark Lord made Kreacher drink it …”

The elf quaked from head to foot.

“Kreacher drank, and as he drank he saw terrible thing … Kreacher’s insides burned … Kreacher cried for Master Regulus to save him, he cried for his Mistress Black, but the Dark Lord only laughed … He made Kreacher drink all the potion … He dropped a locket into the empty basin … He filled it with more potion.”

And later Kreacher told that Regulus himself drank the potion. But this time who refilled it for Dumbledore?? Was it that refilling technology was implemented later on??


Lapse 4
In Chamber of Secrets, it is revealed that Colin Creevey is a muggle-born. So how come he was at Hogwarts during the war when the rest of the muggle borns were expelled at the beginning of the term. May be Ms. Rowling was desparate to get him killed in the book. What a thing to do to your own characters.. Very bad!!!

P.S.: Thinking of writing a story based in this series.. Harry Potter and the Kidney Stone.. this is an old one but worth the bashing!!

Friday, November 26, 2010

Remembering them

मौत तो यहाँ बड़ी सस्ती है,
मौत तो यहाँ बड़ी सस्ती है...
समुन्दर से आके मुफ्त में बटती है|

Its been 2 years since terror was unleashed on Mumbai. 2 years since the demons coming by way of the sea destroyed our peace, our security, our property. I'm not going to whine or complain about what has changed since then. There may be a lot of angry complaints about nothing has changed, the same callous people ruling and the common man saying "How can we make a difference when they cannot?"

All I want to do is Salute.. salute them who laid down their lives fighting those demons. Pay respects to those innocent people who lost their lives.

But it would be an insult to all these people if we just resign to tha fact that there will be attacks on our cities and that we as a people of this country cannot do anything about it. Just a little bit of alertness from each one of us in this rat race called life, and together we might be able to make a difference.. How??  Its up to you!!!

हाँ, में हिंदुस्तान का वह युवा हूँ
जिसकी कोई खता नहीं,
क्या खबर क्यूँ हुआ पैदा
क्यूँ मरेगा पता नहीं,
मौत तो यहाँ बड़ी सस्ती है,
मौत तो यहाँ बड़ी सस्ती है...
समुन्दर से आके मुफ्त में बटती है
मुझे भगत सिंह की मौत दो,
हज़ार बार मरूँगा...
हज़ार बार मरूँगा...

P.S.: Poetry written by Avadhoot Gupte (Marathi Music Director and Lyricist)

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

An Ode to Marketing

Yawwwwn.. another boring lecture..another boring presentation... yawwwwwwn... struggling to keep my eyes open.

What was it again?? Porter's 5 Force Model... Porter's 5 Force Model to analyse business environment.. Porter's 5 Force Model for solving problems faced by industry..

Porter's 5 forces pulling... me.. into deeeeeeep sleeeeep... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..

And then in a trance I write an Ode.. an Ode to Marketing!!!

Need का निर्माण फिर फिर, Buyer का आह्वान फिर फिर
यह उठा recession के economy पे छा गया सहसा अंधेरा,
Zero demand के बादलोंने market को इस भांति घेरा
स्तब्द से हो गए साल्स, फिर loss आया और गहरा,
लग रहा था अब न होगा इस निशा का फिर सवेरा
Inflation के उत्पात भयसे भीत जन जन, भीत कण कण,
किन्तु government से subsidy की मोहिनी मुस्कान फिर फिर
Need का निर्माण फिर फिर, Buyer का आह्वान फिर फिर

On regaining consciousness, I write this DISCLAIMER: This verse is not intended to poke fun at Harivanshrai Bacchan or any of his works of art. Kindly enjoy it in the lighter vein that it is written in.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

What is love?

Found this great little sms doing rounds...

We know 'TAJ MAHAL' as symbol of love.


But the other lesser known facts:-
  1. Mumtaz was Shahjahan's 4th wife, out of his 7 wives.
  2. Shahjahan killed Mumtaj's husband to marry her.
  3. Mumtaj died in her 14th delivery.
  4. He then married Mumtaz's sister.

Question arises

 What is LOVE ??

PS.  My first post thru sms :D

Corrigendum: Shah Jahan did not kill Mumtaz's first husband. That case was true with Salim and Noor Jahan. Or may be not.. Doesn't matter too much :p