Sunday, August 30, 2009

Hindi Movie: Sikander

My brother called me last week and told me particularily to watch this movie. He called me right after watching the movie and said he was moved watching it. He gave no further info, so I was very curious to watch the film. I finally saw it today - a powerful movie, though not impressively taken. It revolves around the life of kids in Kashmir, how they are effected by the terror that is going on during the fights in Kashmir. As soon as I realized the movie is around this theme, I was very tensed, because I was not prepared to see the children suffer or to see any kind of atrocities happen to the kids. I was tensed through out and had a terrible headache because of that. It was emotionally draining tho the movie did not involve any violent or abusive scenes. Overall, it is a good movie..should not be watched for purely entertainment for sure...thought provoking and brings realities to vision.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Hindi Movie: New York

I watched New York last night and was very impressed. I did not hear about the movie until last month. And once I heard that it was a Yash's movie, I postponed watching it thinking it is another comedy or musical. I was thoroughly amazed to see that the movie content it revolved around post-9/11 dealings with the suspects of the attack. Even though it is a very sensitive subject, that too for a foreigner(non-US) to handle it, the story, screenplay, direction were all meticulously crafted and very well handled. Also to my surprise, Katrina is not just another 'model' in the movie...she actually acted well and carried her character efficiently. Thanks to Kabir Khan, Sandeep Srivatsava and the Yash's..we do have a good movie to watch after a long time. Whats interesting is (to the best I know) there have been no other movies on post-9/11 related to Gitmo detention center made so far and I am glad the first one is indeed good, non-controversial and perfectly presented.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Learning words

I was playing Text Twist on Yahoo games..and...learned couple of words interesting new words...
Ell: old European term for of cubits- arms length

Burr : Has may references..fruit/seed, deformed wood growth on a tree, scrientific theory and many more. I never knew it was a word and it had a meaning, I was surprised to see so many meanings of the word in different contexts. Whats most interesting on these is that the burr seed: it was inspiration for Velcro!

Ebb:
1 : the reflux of the tide toward the sea
2 : a point or condition of decline

Ode: Greek Lyrical verse

Friday, August 14, 2009

No perseids

A whole night without sleep, still no perseids :(
I read that even the night of 12th is good to watch the meteors this year. I went to bed by 10, but couldnt sleep well anyway...woke up at 1.30 in the night and spent 2 hours looking at the sky.....no luck! I was quite disappointed..
watching the dark blue blanket of sky and gazing at the sparkling stars, after long, was a very good experience though!!

After I woke up the next day and searched online again. I read that the night of August 11th and early morning of 12th, before 3pm...that was guaranteed to see some showers in almost all places in US, North America actually. The night of 12th had a chance, not a strong one may be. There will be a chance again sometime in December..there will be Geminids. Can try to watch then, provided we can dare to stand the cold!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Perseids

Last chance to watch the meteor shower today! We wanted to watch it yesterday, but couldnt. I hope I can wake up before 5am tomorrow or stay awake until after midnight today and see the shower. It is suppose to be a very good view this year somehow..with an abundant chance.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/090812-perseids-perseid-meteor-shower.html

Some enjoyed the show yesterday already and I saw some videos online today..looks like they had good fun!
A good guide to get more general insight:
http://www.earthsky.org/article/earthskys-meteor-shower-guide