Thursday, December 27, 2007

RandomTrivia - Find the Variables

The movie "A" was primarily set in the city "B".
The climax of the movie was shot in the city "C".
Earlier a band "D" had written a song "E" as a tribute to city "B".
But the makers of the movie "A" played the song "E" when the protagonist visits the city "C".
Tragic misinterpretation of the song :-)

You can hear one character quoting Gertrude Stein's "'F' is my country, but 'C' is my hometown"

Find the variables.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Find the Variables - RandomTrivia

This quiz has two parts.

part one:
Movie Trivia:

'A' is the director of the Spanish movie 'B'.
'C' played a lead role in the movie 'B'.
'C' at some point in her career was dating 'D'.
'D' is a major Hollywood star and was simply spell-bound by the Spanish movie 'B'.
'D' earlier was directed by 'E' in a movie 'F'.
'D' never known as a great-actor was nominated for 'Best Actor' award for the movie 'F', thanks to 'E'.
'D' and 'E' decided to co-produce the movie 'G'
'G' is primarily a scene-by-scene remake of the movie 'B'.
Since 'D' was dating 'C', he chose 'C' for the same role that she played in 'B'.

Find the variables.

part two:
Cricket Trivia:

Find the variables:

When 'A' toured India as part of a test-match tour. 'A' lost the test series.
'A' in the only test match they won during that tour, was particularly annihilated by an Indian batsman 'B' who earlier had a really rough patch.
'B' totally destroyed 'F' who was making a debut during that series.
'F' inspite of being on the receiving end for most part of the match came out laughing by taking lots of wickets.
When India visited A(country name) as part of the bilateral series, Indian team was in the receiving end.
But still couple of inspiring batting performances by Indians really amazed this commentator 'C'
'C' followed the entire series i.e in India and in A closely and was amazed by B's favourite stroke 'D'.
'C' used another name 'E' to refer to the stroke 'D'.
Of course, B is not India's only exponent of the stroke 'D'.

Find the variables

Friday, December 07, 2007

Flip-flop

Act 1: In the cricket-field

Balaji always wanted to spend time playing cricket with his apartment friends on the road. Balaji is fielding near what is supposed to be the boundary line and is anxiously hoping to contribute something for his team by taking couple of wickets or score a massive six, but those are out-of-his-zone thanks to the skill-level. So, being a safe fielder, he is hoping to pull of some reasonable saves or catches if at all the ball comes near him.

Balaji could hear someone shouting for him and turns around in one of those "don't disturb me now.. not now" looks and finds his grand-mother calling him.
Balaji dismisses her in one of those polite gestures, but on repeated calls he tells his buddies "sorry guys, i have to go.. my grand-mother is calling for me" and leaves politely ignoring any adverse reaction from his cricket-mates.

Act 2: In the house

Balaji enters the house and before he even thinks of shouting at his grand-mother on disturbing him on what was a key match of his life.
His grand-mother in an amazingly pleasant tone pleads to her favourite grand-son "Please get this wheat grounded from the mill shop close-by".
Balaji knew he is one sucker for such pleads and knows he could never ever say 'no way' to such pleads, atleast not to his grand-mother.

Act 3: On the road

Balaji walked fast towards the 'mill shop' to get the wheat grounded and at times did those quick jog followed by the fast walks when he wanted catch his breath.

Act 4: The machine

On receipt of the wheat content, the shop-keeper got his apparatus ready i.e he turned-on the heavy noise-making motor and slowly started turning the gears of the mill-machine. It's tough to appreciate the science behind how such a massive machine works, but it doesn't take much long for anyone to appreciate the noise which comes out of this gigantic apparatus.
Balaji liked this machine, not for the science behind it, but for the noise it makes. The noise will scare most of the mortals but not Balaji, he will stand close to this machine and will sit on the stool close to that.
Now, having got used to the high-decibel level from this machine, he will use his index fingers to close his ears.
Any person would perceive this act as being scared of the noise, but what Balaji will do is just use his fingers to close his ears and then open it subsequently.
And this open-close goes on and on until the shop-keeper asks him to pay-up for 'grinding the wheat'.

Act 5: On return

When Balaji enters the apartment, he finds a small crowd before his apartment-block, but ignores the crowd and slowly he finds his way back home.
When Balaji is about to enter his house, he could only hear cries which grew much higher when the folks in the house saw him.
Balaji had seen most of these folks in one of those marriage-functions but never at his house.
Balaji finds his father over a huge ice-block which was surrounded by saw-dust, in sleeping posture with his head seeing the ceiling and his foot-toes tied together and cotton stuck on the nose and ear. Balaji is a trifle too amused and could hardly understand why all this fuss. He could hear his grandma crying 'Raju.. Raju.. ' repeatedly. Balaji could not locate his grandma, but walked towards her den.

Act 6: In the kitchen

His Grand-mother's den had way too many people than the den can hold. As long as Balaji can remember, it has always been his grandma's domain.
The moment his grandma set her eyes on Balaji, her cry seemed to have hit a crescendo. Though she held him close to her like never before, but still only one name seemed to come out of her mouth 'Raju .. Raju.. '.

Act 7: The chant

Balaji had to change his dress i.e from his shirt-trouser to just dhoti.
And had to sit before the homam (or sacred fire) and the priests started chanting mantra (or the sacred lines chanted before a dead person is carried to the graveyard), even though the cries grew louder and louder.
Balaji sat still and used his index fingers to open and close his ears.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Elvis rocks

Listening to "Can't help falling in love" by Elvis Presley is fantastic.
The initial polite drum rhythm for the first 8 seconds of Elvis's song reminds me of the starting beats in 'piyu bhole' song from the movie 'parineeta'.
Guess, Shantanu Moitra replaced the drum beats with piano tune. Of course, inspired stuff I guess ;-)
Though the transformation from pallavi to anupallavi is kind of rotten with some carol kind of harmony. Though the voices were brilliant i.e Sonu Nigam and in particular Shreya Ghoshal with her silly smiles inserted all through the song.

Feels blessed to hear such songs.

words & music by george weiss - hugo peretti - luigi creatore

Wise men say only fools rush in
But I cant help falling in love with you
Shall I stay
Would it be a sin
If I cant help falling in love with you

Like a river flows surely to the sea
Darling so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand, take my whole life too
For I cant help falling in love with you

Like a river flows surely to the sea
Darling so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand, take my whole life too
For I cant help falling in love with you
For I cant help falling in love with you

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Jaws

Act 1:
title: Varun realises he has a tummy

Wakes up as always and then gets ready for office .. and during the shirt tucking ceremony identifies that if he tucks his shirt his tummy pouch is quite obvious. So, refuses to tuck in and then leaves for the office preferring informals to formals.

Arun: It's a Monday and you are coming like this..
Varun: You don't have this tummy, so you can't understand my problem... (and taps his tummy)

(the shot is done indoor and then when Varun and Arun leave with their laptop bags, the shot is preferably done from the terrace..i.e from a higher location)

Act 2:
title: In a huddle-room

(the shot is done in some huddle room where Krishna, Arun and Varun when Dileep enters the room)
Dileep: So, how are we planning to handle the CUSTOM pll packaging. Seems like yesterday's pack had overwritten the customizations introduced in the previous pack. Buggers, please change your MD120 in such a way that old code is not deleted from the code unit.

(Dileep spots Varun in casuals)
Dileep: Dude of the nation, this is Monday and you have come in casuals..
Okay guys, get the pack ready in another hour for client-release.

(And shouts on the phone, ) Sunil bugger, wait for me, I am coming for the smoke..

Act 3:
title: Wakes up early for gymming

(The alarm rings with LedZep's "Kashmir" ringtone and Varun wakes up with all the energy at 6 am... gets ready)...
(V starts his rather slow jog on the street, but seeing a dog he just starts to walk )
(V reaches office and does the climb to 9th floor via stairs and breathes heavily when he reaches the gym, taps his tummy and starts cycle-pedaling ... )

Act 4:
title: And the story continues everyday

(V runs on the running machine and the fm radio in the gym room gives him company.. , along the pressing his tummy to check if it has reduced..)

Act 5:
title: V reaches home after one of those usual runs but now looking a lot slimmer and of course tired

Arun: What's wrong with you? Why are you over-doing your exercises... hang on.. i think your face has gone out of shape..
(Varun gets all worked up when he hears the 'face deformity part' .. and goes infront of the mirror and can't figure out anything)

Varun: Moron.. what do you mean ? Guess, it's looking all okay
Arun: No, your left-jaw is much longer than the right-one.. never noticed this earlier in you.. guess, it has to be related to some wrong exercise technique.. anyway, got some work, bye da..

(Varun just gapes at the mirror)

Act 6:
title: Jaws up-close

(In the gym, he goes infront of the mirror, now he knows the tummy is not his concern which is now in controlled shape, but the jaw is not.. and just wonders why it is like that.. )
Varun: Damn.. Arun...

Act 7:
title: In the bay

(Varun is working infront of his laptop in his bay and that's when Deepika starts up a conversation )
Deepika: So, any plans for the weekend ... ?
(holds his chin in 'rodin's thinking man' posture and replies..
Varun: Nothing much, though planning to play tennis..
(Deepika leaves in disgust.. )

Act 8:
title: Stares

(Varun reading newspaper in the reception and a girl passes by who just stares at Varun, Varun is not sure if it is the jaw that the girl just stared.. so just holds his chin.. )

Act 9:
title: V gets an email forward from Neemit in his gmail id, with subject as 'Deepika Padukone ***Careful'..

(Varun opens the mail and scrolls through the clips, but he stops scrolling and gets real close to the laptop to check one photo.. - Bach's "air on the g string" in the background)
Varun: Ah, the jaws and smiles..
(Varun notices that Deepika's left-jaw is also longer than her right.. and realises it's the same for all )