PremKudva's Journal

Manglorean Shetty owns floor # 100 of Burj Khalifa

2010-01-06T10:11:50Z

NRI spends Rs 114cr for two floors at Burj

What better address than 'B R Shetty, 100, Burj Khalifa, Dubai'," was the first reaction of NRI entrepreneur B R Shetty when asked about his latest acquisition: a couple of floors in the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

BTW this building till the last moment was named Burj Dubai, changed at the last moment to Burj Khalifa in honour of the Abu Dhabi ruler Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan. Why? Since he has bailed out one of their bonds, and will be required for further bail outs.

Also read this.
It's cheaper to own a pad in Burj Khalifa than in Central Delhi

3 Idiots

2010-01-06T06:40:05Z

Suchitra and me watched 3 Idiots yesterday, the 8:30pm Tuesday show was full in the second week. Goes to show how popular this movie is. Supposedly based on 5 Point Someone, and yet till the interval there was nothing in the book that showed on screen. Chetan Bhagat is actually a big cry baby, he should be happy that he was given a rolling credit [which we missed anyway heh] today's paper says he is sorry that he was a cry baby [probably his lawyers said that was enough]

So the only commonality between the book and movie is that there are three boys going to an engineering college [not an IIT] and one of the character's family is shown exactly as in the book. Otherwise the story I should say is quite different from the book, 95% different to be safe. So CB should actually get only 5% of whatever he is getting from 3I

Amir is old, and however much you try doesn't and will not look 20, in fact he looks bad in many scenes. But he can act, and that he does well. Mahadevan and Joshi compliment him very well [the three were together in Rang De Basanti], Boman Irani and Kareena Kapoor have both put in wonderful performances. Her performance when she comes drunk to the hostel had all of us in splits.

Omi Vaidya as the geek [the 4th guy] deserves a special mention, also he is the only guy in the movie who ages after 10 years. All the others look the same as they did 10 years ago. I don't know who this guy is, never seen him before even in ads, and man he was hilarious [except maybe for the over done pissing scenes] he btw was raised in the US according to his wikipedia page. It also says he had a small role in a Hollywood movie called Arrested Development.

An extremly well made movie and a must see. The baby delivery scene isn't as bad as it is sounded out in some reviews. It was well made, and probably the most intense of the lot. And no Kareena doesn't direct the scene on YouTube [as one un-informed reviewer said it], they are on broadband via webcams. Is it possible in real life? This is a movie, in our movies Manoj Kumar has cured his dying dad Ashok Kumar by playing a tape recorder. Compared to that this was definitely possible;-)

What I liked best about the movie is the message that is sent out to parents and educators on the rat race that is getting into professional colleges [and trying to stay there].

Movie, Direction, Story, The Three, Kareena, Boman, and that 4th guy

Suchitra's rating

See in the e-mail

2010-01-06T04:02:38Z

Infibeam sent an e-mail selling bunch of home stuff including a Black & Decker 2 Slice Toaster.

Is there such a thing as a single slice toaster? I mean all that I have seen so far are the standard twin slice toasters. Isn't this like telling 'two sleeved shirts'?!

A few Tanvi videos

2010-01-05T10:11:02Z

Tanvi's crawling now.

2010-01-05T09:21:04Z

Little Tanvi crawling.

Chevrolet Captiva

2010-01-05T06:17:07Z

Latest additional to our company fleet. Actually it replaces the Chevy Tavera.

Avatar - redux

2010-01-05T05:45:18Z

Saw Avatar again yesterday night. This time not alone, but with Suchitra and Sneha. Last time around Suchitra had no interest whatsoever in watching a sci-fi movie set into the future. Obviously she is reminded of movies like the Terminator. And then after I saw she asked me how it was, I told her, then she asked what I said on LJ, I said I gave it 6 stars [one more than I usually give] Then when we met my brother he was asked if he had seen the movie, he said "Yeah, twice!" And finally she asks me "Is it worth watching twice!" actually it was a question and this is what she had asked "Is it worth watching twice?" Meaning she wanted to go and I had to accompany her, and of course by this time Sneha was interested too. Since she came to the movie yesterday, today's paper said "Avatar crosses $1 billion, the fastest by any movie" so all thanks to her visit yesterday:-)

Anyway saw it for the second time and no complaints. Oh people are complaining about the floating mountains, the unobtanium mineral [and shipping charges there of to earth] and the 9' tall blue humans. But if we could accept Clark Kent and Superman being two different people to Lois Lane and the entire Superman world, then this is quite okay.

This movie is not about that. This movie is about a civilisation going across to another and destroying it. Pretty much what has happened on earth. Cameron could have done that using Native Americans [North or South American or both], the wrecking of the tropical rain forests, creating humongous pits to get diamonds [and gold] but then he probably didn't want to upset anyone on earth;-)

PS: Those floating mountains... are absolutely cool and out of this world.

Ter-Centenary of Gur-Ta-Gaddi of Shri Guru Granth Sahib

2010-01-04T10:32:28Z

The Mumbai Mint opened bookings for this coin in December 2008, order sent on 20.12.2008 and received the sets today.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

2010-01-02T03:29:24Z

Nokia is aggressively advertising their 5800 XpressMusic phone with free Sennheiser Headmax PMX60 headphones which they say are worth Rs 2200/- In the ad the phones looked like they were bluetooth phones very strongly resembling my Nokia BH-501 bluetooth headphones which was worth the same amout in 2007. Except that I learn from my nephew yesterday that they are ordinary wired phones, the wires which have been photoshopped away in the ad. Can't say that they were totally misleading since nowhere is it mentioned that they are wireless headphones.

Disclaimer: I am not in the market to buy this phone

2010

2010-01-01T06:14:20Z

Wish you all a
Very Happy New Year

Killing the Y2K bug 10 years old.

2009-12-31T12:12:42Z

10 years since we found out that the Y2K bug had been successfully thwarted by Indian software companies:-) I remember the day 31st December 1999 our bank manager had said he and his staff would be up in their branch at 12AM to see that the systems passed over safely without deleting anyones credit balance. I wasn't too happy about that since our company has a debit balance you know, that getting erased would have been a great way to start the decade.

Car Street, Mangalore

2009-12-30T11:14:53Z

Car Street, Mangalore being widened to accommodate at least 3 lane traffic as compared to the very tight two lane that exists. In the process all old buildings are being demolished. BUT no trees are being chopped... since none have existed on this road.

Vishnuvardhan 1950-2009

2009-12-30T06:20:07Z

Popular Kannada actor Vishunuvardhan passes away

Predictably there is violence in Bangalore and even more predictably a bundh has been called. Suchitra, her mom and our girls reached Mangalore [from Bangalore] just yesterday morning. If he had died a little earlier they would have had to face loads of trouble. Probably even delay their departure from Bangalore.

My brother and me once spotted him at Hotel Woodside, Mangalore many years ago, very casually entering the place minus of hangers on, and fans, after what seemed like a liesurely walk. He looked absolutely cool and happy with the privacy. It took us a minute to realise it was him.

Shop lifting

2009-12-30T05:19:19Z

Shoplifters? Studies Say Keep an Eye on Workers

Employee fraud involving gift cards appears to be growing sharply as retailers struggle to contain overall theft, now estimated at $36 billion a year in the industry,

Wow!

Tanvi playing at the head board

2009-12-29T04:54:52Z

This was last Saturday, my bro's little baby daughter doing her favourite thing. Ie going across to the head board, climbing up, tossing the toys placed there, and then placing both her little palms on the wall. Like climbing Mt. Everest it is for her I think;-)

Krushna Patil's mountaineering feats!

2009-12-28T10:25:35Z

After Everest, Pune girl climbs Antarctica peak
Saraswat bank waives Krushnaa's loan

Krushnaa Patil after climbing Mt Everest [May 21 '09] went to climb Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa in October and on Dec 22nd '09 she climbed Mt Vinson Massif, the highest peak in Antarctica.

Dead Spy Running

2009-12-26T10:39:35Z

I just finished reading Dead Spy Running by Jon Stock, who you'll remember as one of the authors of The Last Word in The Week magazine. This is his third book, first being The Riot Act and the second being The Cardamom Club. Both of which I have not read, in fact I heard of his second book when in one of his TLW columns where he quite frankly mentions that a blogger called Vivek Kumar saying "I didn't even want to open the book" or words to that effect.

DSR is the first of a three part spy thriller trilogy. It is well paced and while a spy thriller with spies from at least three agencies doesn't befuddle your mind with confusing Kameeney type action;-) In fact it looks that Stock has taken good care not to fall into the trap that multi-character spy novels usually fall into. The story starts with the London Marathon and ends with the visit of the [new] US President to India. Our hero Daniel Marchant has lived in India before, has bag packed his way through before his spy career started and once again comes to Indian in search of a terrorist.

The Indian part is obviously handled very well, considering that Stock has been in India on assignment for The Daily Telegraph. And BTW he gets some publicity for The Week on one page when the narrative says "he found the phone under a copy of The Week, an Indian news magazine" heh! The Week editor will be very pleased.

The book had said "Le Carre meets Jason Borne", and one of Stock's article in The Telegraph had mentioned that he had been inspired by Le Carre. Considering that just half of The Little Drummer Girl had me completely at my wits end I was a bit worried how DSP would turn out. Thankfully the only part Le Carre has played in Stock's inspiration is writing the book on the train on the way to work.

The second book is currently WIP.

Tanvi playing

2009-12-24T11:25:22Z

The Lost Symbol at the top... How? Why?

2009-12-24T10:30:28Z

The Lost Symbol is top Christmas book

Not because of its literary value, but because it lasts longer than plum cake on the shelf. Like the plum cake no one will be eating it either.

Why was Hitler anti-Jew?

2009-12-24T10:27:22Z

Hitler anti-Jew because of World War I

Ah not a moment too soon! Now the 6 million Jews can rest in peace. So it was because of WWI and not because they allegedly killed Jesus Christ.

Avatar

2009-12-23T05:06:49Z

I have yet to see a better movie than Avatar. I saw it alone yesterday since Suchitra was quite uninterested in seeing it. But it didn't disappoint me at all right from frame one to frame n. James Cameroon has just upped the ante with this creation of his. In the beginning we are shown the hero is is asked to accept an assignment, he is in a space ship, a better rendered space ship has not been shown previously. And so it goes on.

The alien world does not resemble some exotic place on earth as in previous space alien movies. Here every tree [huge trees], litchen, moss, flying insect etc etc are works of art. The forest glows at night with what looks like optical fibre vines, leaves and tendrils. Absolutely amazing. Especially the "floating mountains". Wow!

The alien characters, ie the blue people, are the pinnacle of alien CGI creation. The creatures in Star Wars look like crap in comparison [remember jar jar dinks, or was it bar bar winks in Episode I].

Additional their is a very poignant story and plot, usually missing in all our space/alien/other world movies. Here of course the story is "Preserve Earth" :-) And the humans from earth... expectedly are all Americans;-)

Yes Yes I have given an extra star over and above the max of 5 that I usually give.

Travelling minstrels

2009-12-22T06:56:38Z

These three travelling minstrels came home one Sunday. They were singing rather well and so this video. The singer is Basavraj on the harmonium, Vishwanath on the tabla, and Nagaraj with the book [money collection book].

A wedding at TMA Pai Convention Centre

2009-12-22T05:32:01Z

Bangkok Airport Scam

2009-12-22T05:07:42Z

Tourists warned of Thailand airport scam
July '09, BBC Online

You have received e-mails on the "Bangkok Airport duty free throwing in something for free for which you later get arrested scam". This is the news item on the BBC site.Why this has not got more publicity in the media [instead of arriving via e-mail which we doubt most of the time]?

India Sri Lanka 3rd ODI

2009-12-22T04:13:10Z

Yesterday cricket match [3rd ODI India vs Sri Lanka at Cuttack] was rather more pleasing to watch since it didn't go to the wire like the previous two matches. In the end Karthik hit the winning runs [a 4] and was quite crest fallen since he wanted to either defend it or send it for a single so that Tendulkar could take strike and finish his century [he was on 96] But Tendulkar was all smiles, one less century he will live with but not one more loss.