Had a busy few weeks.
* Took the GMAT got a borderline score of 710 (Q49, V-38), still mulling
over whether to retake or not.

* Flew out to india for a 3-week holiday on 6th of June. Had a 14-hour
layover in Abu Dhabi. I used the opportunity to catch up with my classmate
from Engg who has been based there for the past 10 years. Met up with his
family and saw a bit of Abu Dhabi.

* Mumbai was hot and humid as usual. 3 days was spent attending a training. Met up with a couple of guys from college and from previous companies. nearly all of them are "family guys" at this stage. Met up with another ex-colleague on the flight back, so thistrip was a good one for catching up with old mates.

* For an IT superpower, the way some things are done in India still sucks!
You have to queue for 20 minutes to get a ticket for a local train! Where
are the vending machines?? Roads and other infrastructure are still woefully
inadequate, at least in Mumbai!

1 brown baguette + 1 meat filling + 1 veg filling = €4.30

Rip-off republic at its best!!

The next edition of IPL will be held in Pakistan. The cheerleaders will be
wearing burqas. Taliban will be providing the security and there will be a
bomb blast after every sixer and wicket!

I had the misfortune to watch the trailer of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes
which is supposedly being released later this summer. As a diehard Sherlock
Holmes fan I was simply shocked. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law seem like
caricatures of Holmes and Watson. Added to this is the fact that the story
is not from A.C.Doyle's canonical Holmes stories! One shouldn't judge a
movie from its trailer but I can't simply stop making a comment on this!

test

It's still good to watch Prannoy Roy's election analysis. I think I'm watching his live poll analysis for the first time in about 10 years. With NDTV live coverage on the web it's now more accessible!

Today I had vada sambar for the first time outside India and it was yummm! I pigged out at the opportunity, gluttony is no sin! :))

Akkara Kazhchakal is a Mallu comedy series which I have been regularly watching for sometime. Apparently it's been aired on Kairali TV but the producers of the show have also been uploading the videos of all the episodes to youtube which makes it more accessible for people like me. In an age where Mallu comedy has been reduced to just mimicry, Akkara Kazhchakal is like a breath of fresh air. The serial is based on the day-to-day events in the life of an NRI Mallu family based in the US. The characters, though stereotypical of Mallu NRIs are quite appealing. George Thekkumootil(Yes they gave him a typical tongue-twister of a surname) is an Achayan with a typical Kottayam accent and works some clerical job , while also running his own insurance agency during out of office hours. George dreams of returning back to Kerala with his family one day. Rincy, his wife is a nurse and they have 2 kids--Matt a.k.a Matthaikunju and Chakkimol. It could be very well the Mallu family living next door. Some of the other interesting characters are Appachan(George's father) who is visits them in the US,Gregory--George's assistant in his insurance business(whom George calls Girigiri), Mahesh and Babykuttan(2 male nurses whom George befriends). With impeccable dialogue delivery and timing, this is a must view for any Mallu who appreciates comedy.
The interesting aspect about this serial is that the actors and the directors are all amateurs and work in dayjobs in other industries, so this serial has been shot mostly on weekends and that too on a shoestring budget using one of the directors' house as the primary set. There have been 50 episodes so far and all of them are available on youtube. There have been no new episodes for a while now so I think that they have taken a hiatus, I sincerely hope that they come back for another season.

Some truly inpirational stories in this post by Rashmi Bansal in her blog.

The 5th season of the UK Apprentice has been on for a few weeks now, but I've seen only 2 of the 6 or so episodes telecast, and I don't think I'll be watching any more. This time just don't feel there's anything new in it---I watched all but 2 episodes of previous 4 seasons!

* * *
Watched X-Men origins: Wolverine yesterday. Nothing great about it, mainly shows the genesis of the rivalry between Wolverine and Sabertooth, other previously shown characters include Col. Stryker and fleeting appearances by Cyclops and Prof. Charles Xavier. Apparently there's another movie planned on the X-Men origins, this one about Magneto.

Mumbai Indians pull it off!

I've realised that I'm more of an owl these days than a lark (don't know how exactly this change came to be!)
I'm increasingly becoming more obsessive and impulsive, and less organised!
I'm completely hooked on to Wikipedia.
Some movies watched:
1. Omkara (yes seeing this only now though I've had the movie with me for the past 2.5 years)
2. Se7en (old one again with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman)
3. Black Book (Dutch film about WW2 resistance movement)

Transited through Charles de Gaulle for the first time while travelling to and back from India. I must say that the amount spent in the security queue was woefully long! They had just 2 queues to process about 500 passengers. I was quite lucky to make my onward flight from Paris to Mumbai, literally had to run to get to the plane. On paper the transfer time was 50 minutes which was quite short on its own, but the slow security screening just compounded it. ON the return leg at least I had more time.
* * *
Watched the following movies
Vicky Cristina Barcelona - 3/5 Weird one. Didn't feel that Penelope Cruz deserved an Oscar for her role in this. She should have got it for Volver for which she was nominated earlier.
Pour Elle (French) - 3/5
Emmerdeur, L' (French) - 3/5
Eagle Eye 2.5/5
Madagascar 2 - 1.5/5
Dasvidaniyan - 4/5
Largo - 2.5/5
* * *
Mumbai's sweltering as usual! Didn't go out much.