Book Name – 2 States
Author – Chetan Bhagat
Publishers – Rupa & Co
Price (India): Paperback Rs 65 (Flipkart)

Well, once again an entertainer from Chetan Bhagat. It is always fun to read his books, especially his art of telling stories, the Indianized way

2 States

The synopsis of the book says,

“Love marriages around the world are simple:

Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. 

They get married.

In India, there are a few more steps:

Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy. 

Girl’s family has to love boy. Boy’s family has to love girl. 

Girl’s Family has to love Boy’s Family. Boy’s family has to love girl’s family.

Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.

Welcome to 2 States, a story about Krish and Ananya. They are from two different states of India, deeply in love and want to get married. Of course, their parents don’t agree. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple have a tough battle in front of them. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but it is much harder to convince. Will they make it? From the author of blockbusters Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Center and The 3 Mistakes of My Life, comes another witty tale about inter-community marriages in modern India.”

You will be glued to the book till you reach the last page. The ending is quite known but still the twists and turns are interesting.

In this book, Chetan has covered the college life and work life issues, similar to other novels. 

As most of the reviews say, he has quite explored (exploited) South Indian culture…

The story reminds me of Abhiyum Naanum (Tamil Movie). It has a similar plot. Did Chetan saw Abhiyum Naanum and then wrote this book???

The story is very funny, just wanted to know what happened after…oops sorry I dont want to open the plot

I am sure you would enjoy the book like how I did.

Do enter your comments, of course after reading the book…

Watch the teaser HERE.

For a change, I am losing my bachelorhood first on June 14, 2009 (Sunday) and gaining my Masters (PG) on June 20, 2009 (Saturday). I am visiting my college IIML, Noida Campus on June 20th for my convocation

Do RSVP by this weekend, so I can make the necessary arrangements

“Men who have a pierced ear are better prepared for marriage – they’ve experienced pain and bought jewelry.  ~Rita Rudner” – No, I have not pierced ear so far

Someone said, “Marriage: It’s an agreement in which a man loses his bachelor’s degree and a woman gains her master’s”

For a change, I am losing my bachelorhood first on June 14, 2009 (Sunday) and gaining my Masters (PG) on June 20, 2009 (Saturday). I am visiting my college IIML, Noida Campus on June 20th for my convocation

I am getting married to Swarna Latha on June 14, 2009 (Sunday) @ Vellore.

Venue: PMP Dhanalakshmi Mahal, Arcot Road, Sathuvachari, Vellore (bang on the Chennai-Bangalore Highway)

Do RSVP by this weekend, so I can make the necessary arrangements

No excuses, make sure to be there…Vellore is just a 2 hrs drive from Chennai…and 3 hrs drive from Bangalore…

“Men who have a pierced ear are better prepared for marriage – they’ve experienced pain and bought jewelry.  ~Rita Rudner” – No, I have not pierced ear so far

Well, this episode was funny and crude…

Roop got evicted with the Brats stupid plans.  In the previous episode Dev got evicted himself by his stupidity. (he does lot of lateral thinking, I guess…)

Raghu was very angry at Roadies (especially coz…his favorite Roop was voted out), you can see it all over in this episode

Watch Online

Usually, I don’t watch the Sat 7 pm episode on TV coz I have my classes in the evening, so I come back by 10 pm and watch the episode online.

Oh yes, for people who are hearing this for the first time…MTV has a website – www.mtvindia.com and you can watch most of the shows here. Roadies can be watched here http://www.mtvindia.com/roadies

And I used to wait for them to Upload the videos on the site and then watch, sometimes even after 12 AM

Coming back to the show…

Raghu gave an entry and everyone were like WTF now… He said “no more groups, no more gangs, no brats, no om blues…” and wow…you need to see the Roadies face…Kodak moments )

Everyone is alone now and they all need to wrestle to win an immunity and a 100% chance to go to Australia. Guys and Gals separately…

Guys Fight

First Guys went, four of them and as expected Pradeep vs Kiri and Sandeep vs Samrat.

Samrat successfully sent Sandeep out and then the fun started Now, he needs to push both of them out of the ring and initially Samrat said that he will wait for a Winner (out of Kiri and Pradeep) but when they both were moving towards the line, he started to push both of them

First he threw Pradeep out and then pushed Kiri. And Pradeep as usual started his loser talk saying unfair, etc, etc.

Gals Fight

Now the funny part with Gals Bobby opted out coz of her injury, she didnt want to take risk. So now,  it was Natasha vs Tammy and Suzi vs Polly.

When Suzi started pushing Polly out, oh man you need to see how Polly ran out of the ring…hahahaha She says she does not like this kind of cat fight…lol

Natasha vs Tammy vs Suzi was real gals fight   Another funny part was Suzi trying to pull Natasha out of the ring and Natasha waited for her to go near the ring and then suddenly she pushed her out. Clever? Who??? Well finally Natasha won…

You really need to see the video to enjoy – Episode 8  – http://www.mtvindia.com/roadies/videos_episodes.php (watch 7/20)

As usual, the day ended with blame games …

Day 2

And some more twists on the next day, the archery task and the offer from Raghu -> immunity vs performance/ australia vs 2 lakhs. It was a real test for Roadies.

Vote Out…

Suzi was voted out, in fact I was not expecting her to go. Bobby didn’t perform (OK she is injured..but??) and Polly just ran away..lol…, it was very unfair to see someone who performed and still is getting voted out.

Well, as they say, “All is fair in love and war”…”All is fair in Roadies…”

Roadies in Australia

The sneak peek shows the  re-entry of Ex-Roadies and as expected they are gonna challenge the Roadies (just remembering Roadies 5.0 – Prabhjot vs Anmol, Shambavi vs Ankita and Nihal vs Vik contest)

Waiting for the next episode to see Roadies in Aussie…

Oh BTW, Roadies timing has changed, it will be now aired on Sundays 7 PM from March 8…why change???

Well, MTV Splitsvilla is coming back … First show is on March 7th @ 7 pm, this time it is 8 boys vs 8 gals, gonna be more fun

49124 @ 1230 PM  – Mar 2

This is the reply to the post – “How to become a Roadie“

Well, some of this I agree and some I dont. Actually, to be a roadie, you need to be YOURSELF. If you have it in you, the judges will find it One just needs to BELIEVE.

Just to add on to the  second point – Abusive words, “you need to have a good vocab on abusive words (on all languages)”…after seeing Suzi’s audition

Fourth Point, I do not agree. The first thing that they ask you is “what is the interesting/bizarre thing you did in your life?” This seems to be a common question to be answered in the form.

You need to have the TALENT to do interesting/bizarre things.

Am I confusing TALENT with GUTS? Well, you need to have the TALENT to have GUTS

Seventh point, well kinda tricky. Yes, you need to plot but not by joining hands with loosers. You need to be neutral mostly and not get involved/marked with any group/gang/team.

My take on Surviving… you need to perform the task (to an extent) and must not come in the limelight. Lie low and plot against all

48906 @ 27 Feb, 1 PM

Finally, I was able to participate this year for the Airtel Delhi Marathon and also complete. Well for all those wondering…”Did he really run 21km?”…actually I participated in the Great Delhi Run for 7 km

But still it was kinda “big thing” for me

Talking about preparation…well to be honest…I was running off and on and also cycling, so I guess that helped me to avoid those cramps and run.

Some pics from marathon…

Start...10 AM

Finally... I made it @ 10:40 AM

Certainly...running is joy

Running is Fun – Moments

• The feeling of running a marathon, talks for itself. I was completely overjoyed while running
• Good to see kids, veterans, people with fancy dresses, etc  running the marathon
• Frequent water stops, health center and regular attractions by sponsors
• Best part was free refreshments after the marathon, was really a life saver

Running is (NOT) Funny – Moments

• Parking was kinda hectic. The route to parking was not clearly laid out. The Marathon Starting point was in front of Nehru Park and the parking spots were mentioned as Khan Market or Paalika Bazaar So, I had to part bike at Paalika Bazaar and was waiting for the Shuttle Bus to arrive, which never came, so ended up catching an auto and reaching the starting point. Same while returning also, there was no shuttle bus and I had to walk for a long distance (almost escaped from cramps while walking back) and then took an auto to Paalika Bazaar to get my bike.
• I could see lotsa people taking short-cuts and not running the whole 7 km. Well, I somehow covered the entire 7 km and felt bad for people who crossed the barrier and took short-cuts.
• It was good to see that they were serving refreshments after the marathon but there were not enough dustbins. So you can see the fate of the ground in the pic

Sad part of Marathon...and free refreshments

Was trying to get closer to the nature here…

Closer Look at the Nature...

On the whole it was a great moment in my life, my first marathon, was fantastico

Please share your marathon moments/comments…

Thats All Folks!

41,436 (1AM – Nov 10)

I guess by now most of you guys must have started using Chrome and getting the HANG of it.

Well some of the features I really liked/disliked in Chrome:

LIKED

Faster??

Yeah, Chrome is faster but only for Google applications (Gmail, Orkut, Picasa, G! Docs, etc)

Well this is still a debate, many say it is faster. I experienced this, when opening my gmail, it loaded faster in Firefox (FF) and in Chrome it said, “Still loading…”

Home Page

This is a nice feature, showing the recently opened pages on the screen. Hmm…well it is kinda risky also sometimes, I guess you know what I am saying

Incognito

Google says that the sites are not recorded/tracked, etc, etc. I am not sure how far it is true.

DISLIKED

Java Support?

Well, I guess Chrome does not support all Java applications. Check the pic below, I tried to open a chess game from Chessgames.com, but I got this error.

Chrome vs Java Support

Yeah, the plugin is not installed, so what should I do? Just sit staring at the window? In FF/IE, there is a popup asking the user to install the required plugin. It is missing in G! Chrome

Youtube HANG?

Did any of you guys face this? I had opened few youtube windows in Chrome normal window and another two/three youtube windows in Incognito window and suddenly both stopped working (HANG). Finally, I had to open Task Manager and close both Chrome and restart it. It happened many times not once. Maybe G!, needs to check this issue.

I don’t have the screen shot of it, when the error strikes again (yeah – Emperor Strikes Again type ),  I will surely post the pic here

Currently, I am using G! Chrome for extensive Google search and Google docs only. Not even Gmail…

Google so far has worked on the deploy-and-build mode rather than build-and-deploy mode

Well right now it is fast (so called), need to check the next version (when they fix all these bugs) and let us see if that is fast also

One of the best Hindi movies I have seen in 2008 Felt very bad after watching Singh is King that too a preview show. Had decided not to see any hindi movies Rock On came as a solacement

Frankly, though there were some traces of Dil Chatha Hai in this movie, it still scores…

Drums forever...rock on

Storyline was really good, four friends, what happens in a span of 10 years, friendship, compromises, and so on. It also teaches how to get rid of past rues and get ahead in life. It is an eye-opener for all working professionals, guys there is more to life apart from WORK life. Live it to the fullest…start getting back to your long lost sports, hobbies. If you say “I have no time”…it is BS… What it infers is that “You have no commitment”…

Some good and funny quotes from the movie:

• “Not everybody gets a second chance”…
• “Live life to the fullest”
• “Sometimes we need to do some compromises in life…”
• “No one takes over MAGIK”
• “Every morning, you brush your hair before brushing your teeth”

So start living your dream…

I went nostalgic, was remembering my good old days in Flextronics where we used to jam and performed live for a Diwali Event When I joined the company there was nobody in the band. So had to revive the band, got new members, lead guitarist, tabla player, keyboard player, had auditions for singers and finally formed the band. We named it as FSS Band. We did regular practices and performed live on a Diwali Event.

Playing drums @ FSS Band Live Performance

Sry for the bad quality of the pic

I have plans to jam again in a band (expect a surprise.. ). Keep visiting my blog fore more details…Now you know why I inserted this movie wallpaper of Rock On…instead of characters

ROCK ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN !!!!!! keep raw-kingggggggg

Finally we went to GOA…never thought that planning to visit a tourist place with friends would be so tough

Planning (etha pannalum our PIIILAAANNNIINGG-oda pannanum )

We first thought of going to Bangkok but unfortunately the timing and other things did not work out. So this year (Sandy would say no, coz he said let us go to Bangkok this year itself ) we decided to go to Goa and finally it came down to three of us. Sandy aka Santosh, Britto (Agnel Britto – AB) aka (always known as Britto) , and myself… Sara aka Saravanan.

The common weekend was decided and I was able to join only on a Sunday. AB and Sandy left on Saturday noon coz AB had some urgent work in office on Saturday also. So they landed in Goa on Saturday night and I joined them on Sunday by 2.30 pm. Check their blogs for more updates on what they did from Saturday night to Sunday noon

Sunday

I started at 11.05 am – Spicejet flight and landed at 01:20 pm. The flight journey was really awesome I had the feeling on Kingfisher (well if not the comfort, at least the service was equivalent). Luckily the Hotel Guys – Coconut Grove had sent me a pickup cab. (Sandy would go mad at this coz when they had requested for pickup on Saturday night the hotel guys said that they would provide pickup for them coz they provide pickup only for the person who has booked the hotel )

I reached the hotel at around 2 pm and found that these two guys were out on tour and they came around 3.30 pm to the room.

We had snacks and then moved out for a stroll in the Betalbatim beach (walkable distance from our resort – you can see the video below).

We started at Betalbatim beach and walked along the beachside to Colva Beach.

Spent sometime there had snacks and then walked back to the room. We thought we could settle in the swimming pool in the night but after coming back to the hotel found that the pool is closed by 7 pm itself.  So we just had our dinner (oh we went on an awesome off-season package – “Non alcoholic welcome drink on arrival, Book 2 night and stay 3rd night complementary on room and breakfast only, Airport Transfer, Breakfast and Dinner, Complimentary Tea / Coffee Maker in the room with daily replenishment, Complimentary cookies in the room, Complimentary wine in the room, One Half – day sightseeing by coach, Taxes”, and we ended up paying 9k only for three of us, for three nights it was booked through TravelGuru )

goa_at_night

We decided to stay in the room on Sunday night because we had no proper transportation While walking back to the room in the night we noticed the sands sparkle after we step on the sands AB says it is his discovery (invention) but found that it is because of Noctiluca. Quote from the source, “The creature responsible for this bioluminescence is a tiny, single-celled organism called Noctiluca”. Source – Google Answers – Luminescent Sand Particles. One more article here – Ernesto Glow or Alien Base Station? The Mystery Revealed!

Monday

As everyone plans, we also decided to wake up early and watch sunrise and kept the alarm, etc, etc… We woke up at 5.45 am and went back for a nice sleep Woke up at around 8 and entered the swimming pool, …

Swimming Pool @ Coconut Grove, Goa

We were there for an hour or so and then had our brunch and left again to Colva beach to get our BIKES – cruisers.

Waiting_for_Bikes

Video captured while waiting for the bikes…

We got two bikes – One Avenger and a Pulsar. Francis was the person who provided the bike for us. We paid 500 INR for one day.

This picture we took at the end while returning the bike to Francis. If you plan to stay in South Goa and you need a good bike do contact Francis – 9890030822

Francis_Bike_Lender

We took at 12.40 pm IST and he asked us to return the bike the next day, same time at 01:00 pm IST. As a norm they maintain the tank with very less petrol and it is the duty of the tourists to pour petrol…So we just filled one litre in both the bike, (strange to see that people pouring petrol in the 1 litre water bottle )

Straight we headed to Panjim – Central Goa  The drive was awesome one, driving in the mountains, etc…and it makes all the more wonderful driving in Avenger “God Like Feel”

Check the bikers …

Bikers_@_Miramar_Beach

Check some of the bikers videos HERE… (coming soon)

From there we went through Miramar Beach and reached Dona Paula beach. We got impressed by the tattoos that were made there and got one for us also

Dona Paula Beach - Got Tattooed

We had our lunch at Dona Paula itself and then straight headed to Calangute Beach, North Goa. We went there but was not good enough, so we moved from there to Baga Beach, North Goa.

Baga Beach - Boats, Fishes, Sandy

Spent some time in the beach and left for the Boat Cruise in Santa Monica. There is a very close attachment with Santa Monica. The first time I visited Goa was in 11th Standard – 1997. We came on a school tour – Chennai -> Bangalore -> Mysore -> Goa -> Bangalore -> Chennai. At that time me and Mani aka Maninathan had a blast there with all other students. We took the same Santa Monica boat in 1997 . So this time also…to maintain the tradition (what tradition???) we took the same boat. Since it was an off-season there was not much crowd but still we enjoyed

@ Santa Monica Cruise, Mandovi River

After the boat cruise, we headed straight back to our resort in South Goa for our dinner. We reached there by 9.30 pm (orders are closed by 10 pm). We had our final dinner @ the resort, and crashed on the bed

Tuesday

Morning woke up early, had our breakfast (buffet) and left for Old Goa. The food was really nice in the resort. We came out of our resort and it started drizzling…a welcome one of course. Driving in rain, in Goa…is a memorable experience On the way we got stuck in the railway gate for few minutes…

Railway_Gate_Shoot

We went to the biggest church in Goa (some even say it is the biggest in Asia) – St Francis Anthony church. It was really a great visit. In the Cathedral, they were performing restoration on the artworks. It was great to see how they did restoration. For all those Da Vinci Code fans, this is a nice place to visit. You can relate with most of the pictures

St Francis Church - Old Goa

While returning back to our Resort (oh by the way we need to return the bike before 1 pm to Francis ) we halted few times for a photo shoot…

On_the_way_back_to_resort

The main reason for me to go Goa this time was to njoy the water-sports (skiing, etc, etc) but after I reached, got to know that the season starts from next month only. So was very much disappointed. But on the way back from Colva beach to Betalbatim Beach (to our resort) we saw the skiing-boat used by rescuers (was remembering Baywatch serial ). So we took some pictures (for consoling ourselves).

On_the_way_back_to_resort

Well that was a very brief writing about our trip to Goa. Check here for the complete album – Goa – 2008 Picasa Album.

This was the third time for me in Goa, I had been there last year October 2007 for STC India Annual Conference. If you ask me, “will you go again?” the answer is “Of course”…we still have lotsa beaches to be explored, we did not see sunrise (though we saw sunset ) and did not go in any of the water rides. (just finding reasons to go to Goa again )

Some more videos to be added, keep visiting this blog for updated videos. Next trip might be Bangkok or maybe a place in India also Of course will blog about that trip too, so lemme know your comments…

• Book Name – The 3 Mistakes of My Life
• Author – Chetan Bhagat
• Pages – 206
• Publishers – Rupa & Co
• Price (India): Rs 95 (Rs 71.25 here – Indiaplaza * Hindu Site)

One main thing that will entice you to buy and read this book- The 3 Mistakes of My Life (t3mom) is that it is a “Chetan Bhagat“’s novel…well he tries to keep your enchanted throughout the book

As in other two novels, Chetan also is a part of this novel and he hears the story from a different person and makes it as a novel (not sure how much of the story is true… )

Once again he has written about students (his other book on students was Five Point Someone) and has well-knit the story around them

If you are a Cricket lover, you will really enjoy this book. As usual there are three friends in this story, the entire story is narrated by one of the friends.

This book can also be a suggested read for Entrepreneurs and people who want to start a business with partnership. Chetan describes in simple terms on how to choose a location for your business, how to negotiate with the wholesalers, how and when to expand your business, how to deal with profits, accounting practices and to “expect the unexpected” – that is how to deal with losses.

These three friends start a business as partners…followed by various incidents which helps them to realize their dream. This movie covers cricket, business, religion and of course love

Well, let me not uncover the story entirely, it would be great if you can buy this book and read It is a very short book (and cheap also… 95 INR only), I am sure you can read it in 2 to 3 hours at a stretch…

Somehow I felt that his writing has turned from Actual Story to Cinematic one. I guess he has started writing his novels for movies This book is more like a filmy one…

Happy Reading

31882…

Oh yeah, well of course this is what is predicted by all

Reasons???

Semis line up: Rajasthan vs Delhi and Punjab vs Chennai

Rajasthan Royals (RR) vs Delhi Daredevils (DD)

During the first match Delhi had won and this would mentally help them in playing against RR. Gautam Gambhir is in fantastic form along with Sehwag, the partnership is going to cross 100+ this time.

It is the day of the underdogs and DD is the underdog for this match hence their chance of winning this match is very high.

Kings XI (KXI) vs Chennai Super Kings (CSK)

Well Chennai has beat KXI in both the encounters. In the first match, CSK won, of course with the help of players who are not available now (Hussey, Oram and Hayden). But in the second match, it was a fantastic show by the CSK batsmen and CSK were able to post a decent total. KXI tried hard to chase it but Balaji was marvellous in castling KXI batsmen like ninepins. So morally, CSK has an upperhand against KXI.

And, CSK are the underdogs in this match also and they have more chances of winning this match

Finals: Delhi Daredevils (DD) vs Chennai Super Kings (CSK)

This is going to be a very crucial match as both have won one match…each when they met. But CSK beat DD at the last encounter when all the Aus and NZ players were gone. I guess this will be an important morale booster for CSK and hence lotsa chances for them to win this match.

Do add your reply as comments

28,687…