A sunny day finally!

It’s finally a bright sunny Sunday. The incessant rains had the whole of last week dull and damp. I fell ill too. A bad cold, fever and cough. Could it be the dreadful H1N1? My worst fears didn’t come true. :P  I'm all right now ready to kick start the week. The weekend was not so eventful but then it wasn’t totally a drab too. Watched 'Wake up Sid’ on the big screen. The movie lived up to my expectations. Read more about it here. The long due meeting with Rishabh finally happened. I will cherish the hot rasam and rice I had at his home. It was just the thing I needed then. The bad cold mysteriously vanished after the meal. Nipper, the dog didn’t bark at me even once. I almost mistook him for a well made soft toy. I loved Nipper and apparently he too took an instant liking for me. Rishabh’s comment on him being a very class conscious dog did give me an ego boost. I’m waiting for the day Nipper brings his offsprings into this world. Rishabh! are you reading? :)

It’s a hectic week coming up. I’m on holiday from Friday for an entire week. A wedding in Ludhiana and later some time with my in-laws in Dehradun. I’m looking forward for that simple pleasure in a bowl of chicken soup from K C soup bar. I hope the weather is cold in Dehradun because I didn’t enjoy the soup last summer as much as I did in the winter.

I have this funny habit of cleaning up my PC just before a vacation. In the process, I discovered this video. I don’t remember watching it before. It is a Greek short film ‘What is that?’ (with English subtitles), simple and thoughtfully made.

I’m sure almost everyone can relate to it. I have a grandmother whose memory is giving up on her. She fails to recognize people and has no grasp of time. Most often she confuses the past with the present and tells things over and over till she drives my mother crazy. But I have all the patience in the world for her for once she was the loving, doting grand mom who was always on her toes while I chased the butterflies.

Is this what you call time travel?

Take a look at the manufacturing date and you will know what I am talking about. You don’t come across such things everyday, do you? Time travelling to future! Not a bad idea at all. Just pack your bags and go to Erode! ;)

Rock..Paper..Scissors!

This weekend I visited my parents who live just 8 hours away by train. Soon after I boarded the train, I began reading Small Miracles for Women and slowly drifted off to sleep. Woken up by a loud “Stone..Paper..Scissors!” and some giggles that followed, I found two little girls who sat across me engaged in a noisy animated game. I soon figured how the game works. It wasn’t just me. The entire bunch of people around me was very much a part of the fun and the kids were totally oblivious to it. The older one won, the younger one threw some tantrums, the father chuckled at how the older one exploited the younger sibling’s naivety.

What I thought is a simple game invented to keep a troublesome twosome busy turned out to be a much larger ‘Rock..Paper..Scissors!’, a tournament held at an international level. There is International World Championships, an annual open event organized by the World Rock Paper Scissors Society, there is USA Rock Paper Scissors League Championships and a lot others. Check out the 2009 USARPS Championship video below and see how it takes as much skill as the randomness to bag that $ 20,000 prize money.

Next time you catch up with a friend or you need to bust that stress, try this game, have a little laugh and feel lighter.

Here’s how to play (Text courtesy of Wikipedia)

Each of the three basic hand-signs (from left to right: rock, paper, and scissors) beats one of the other two, and loses to the other.

The players both count aloud to three, or speak the name of the game (e.g. "Rock! Paper! Scissors!" or "Ro! Cham! Beau!"), each time raising one hand in a fist and swinging it down on the count. On the third count the players change their hands into one of three gestures, which they then "throw" by extending it towards their opponent.

• Rock represented by a clenched fist.
• Scissors represented by the index and middle fingers extended and separated.
• Paper represented by an open hand, with the fingers connected (horizontal).

The objective is to select a gesture which defeats that of the opponent. Gestures are resolved as follows:

• Rock blunts or breaks scissors: rock wins.
• Scissors cut paper: scissors win.
• Paper covers or captures rock: paper wins.

If both players choose the same gesture, the game is tied and the players throw again.

Bubble Trouble

It'sa lazy Saturday and I am glued to this game. I was stuck in level 10 for the longest time till I figured I should do away with the smaller balls one by one before dealing with the bigger ones. Now I'm stuck at level 12. The disadvantages I see with the game is there is no way to pause it and every time you run out of lives you need to start afresh. Check out Miniclip's site for more interesting logic games like Bloxorz, Scribble etc.

What’s it with Bebo???

Looks like Bebo is the current buzzword. What’s with the name! First it was Alisha whining “Bebo mein Bebo…Dil mera lelo…”. Listen to the song from Kambakth Ishq featuring Kareena Kapoor who is also known as Bebo in the film circuit. No prizes for guessing the composer. It’s a typical Anu Malik composition sung by his friend turned foe turned friend again Alisha Chinai. Both have made peace with each other co-judging Indian Idol Season 3. Imagine Anu Malik sing the song! It would bring a smile to your face however depressed you are. It didn’t!!! What about ‘It’s raining…it’s raining…dekho barish ho rahi hein’! I bet you did now :D

The other ‘Bebo’ track is from ‘Do Knot Disturb’ sung by Neeraj Shridhar and Anushka Manchanda. What is interesting here is if Kambakth Ishq marked Anu Malik’s comeback, with Do Knot Disturb, it is the former kings of melody Nadeem Shravan, the former’s peers making a comeback. Both the composers were hit makers of their time.

All said and done, enough of Bebo, seriously! If any of you are very particular, there are a lot other potential qualifiers. Try Chi Chi, Lolo, Duggu…!

How do ya say it ?

A very nice site for a non native speaker of the English language. It helps with the pronunciation of words in Standard British English and also tells you the American or World English alternatives.

Some interesting things about the site:

• Unsuccessful searches are automatically considered for inclusion.
• Profane language and erotica are excluded from the dictionary in the interests of child learners.

I verified their claim entering the F word and it taught me how to say yuck ;)

Change Please!

Hunting for change is not a very happy thing especially at a parking lot. A non cooperative sulking security guard makes the experience even worse. A change machine offers you the solution. Below is a change machine aka coin dispenser installed on Brigade Road, one of the busiest streets in Bangalore. It's been there for a couple of years now but I never noticed. It isn't very conspicuous. If not for the noise of the coins dropping into the disbursement pan, I would not have taken notice today too.

You can feed in currencies in denomination of Rs 10, 50 and 100 and get your change in coins of 5 /- How cool is that? The automated parking system installed in Brigade Road accepts only coins of 5/-. While I clicked the machine away, a proud guard apprises me that the RBI is the only other place which has this vending machine in Bangalore.

Helping the environment through its ordeal

I guess 2009 is the year of awareness, a year committed to evoke thought and action! I found this card at Ambara* on one of my routine visits to grab the complimentary issue of At a glance - Understanding India. The front side is a profound painting on climate change by artist Naresh Kapuria. The reverse has a list of things UN advocates one should do to counter the climate change. It must have been printed for distribution on the World Environment Day, after all melting ice is the hottest issue now. But then it turns out that UN had chosen Naresh Kapuria to highlight the impact of climate change in India, on the occasion of UN Day, last year.

  

Though the issue of global warming for long is being dealt with, there is a noticeable change in its momentum. At the first instance, I thought climate change must be a new term coined to represent the much over used ‘global warming’. There seems to be a difference. While the former refers to the increasing global temperatures, the latter refers to regional conditions.

In 2008, Kapuria did a light and sound show 'Badalta Mausam' at UN Information Centre in New Delhi, in order to raise awareness on the issue. He used ordinary objects like brightly coloured kettles in different shapes and sizes hung on the trees along with pots and pans, various figurines and sculptures to bring to life the experience of climate change. A poignant imagery of rising temperature titled boiling over from his show.

 

Alarming to know our country is one of the top polluters in the world. We contribute around 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions as its consumption of fossil fuels gathers pace. But as a developing nation, India is not yet required to cut emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.

Every individual leaves a considerably good carbon footprint and here are some low-carbon lifestyle choices at home, in the office and when travelling
(Text courtesy of unep.org)

• Waking up with a traditional wind-up alarm clock rather than the beep of an electronic one - this can save almost 48g of CO2 each time;
• Choosing to dry clothes on a washing line versus a tumble dryer – this can save 2.3 Kg of CO2 each time;
• Replacing a 45-minute workout on a treadmill with a jog in a nearby park - this can save nearly 1 Kg of CO2 each time;
• Opting for non-electric toothbrush – this can save nearly 48g of CO2 each time;
• Heating bread rolls in a toaster versus an oven for 15 minutes – this can save nearly 170g of CO2 each time;
• Switching from regular 60-Watt light bulbs to energy-saving light bulbs – this will produce four times less CO2 emissions;
• Taking the train rather than the car for a daily office commute of as little as 8 km – this can save 1.7 Kg of CO2 each time;
• Shutting down your computer and flat screen both during lunch break and after working hours – this will cut CO2 emissions generated by these appliances by one-third;
• Investing in a water-saving shower head – this will save 10 liters of water per minute and cut CO2 emissions in half (from a three-minute hot shower);
• Reducing the weight of goods and items carried onboard by airline passengers to below 20Kg – this can cut global GHG emissions by two million tonnes of CO2 a year.
  

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* Ambara is a life style store located near the Ulsoor lake. They have nice traditional & contemporary art & artefacts. It also houses a nursery, OMO an indo-western casual wear, Utsav handlooms, Rouge Elephant a garden café. (Of course we lunched here one of those Fridays, the food is very appetising but slightly over priced.)

Our green turn!

It was World Environment Day, last Friday. So what! It's just another day for me. I have always been this environment friendly person. It was Friday and that means our customary lunch day. We were in mood for some continental food. We knew 'the only place' was the place. They serve awesome food. Their steaks, easily the best in Bangalore. Pretty pungent, their mustard sauce will give you the kick. The place is a huge hit among the foreigners too. Before it starts to sound like a restaurant review let me get to the point.

Call it kismet or karma, it was one of the places in Bangalore, Zee Cafe had chosen to run their 'Green Turn' campaign. The initiative welcomes people to take home a sapling (it's a gift) and care for it. Their motto is "Adopt a sapling. Take the oath. Be a potster! "

“I, from this day forward, promise to care for this sapling, to water it and protect it from all harm. I am taking a green turn. This is my contribution for a greener earth.”

That’s the Green Oath we took to take our saplings home. It was nice to see Prathima and Bala too venturing out to be potsters.

My healthy little sapling (it's actually a small sized indoor plant, an absolutely maintenance free Syngonium) is sitting pretty in a corner in my living room. The day was special in a totally unanticipated way.

Annoying Captchas!

When I first heard captcha I thought it is some relaxed pronunciation like gotcha. Hey! I caught you! Some sort of an exclamation over an unexpected capture. My vocabulary of jargons definitely needs to be worked up. Well, a Captcha is nothing but one of those word verification processes where you are given a distorted image and asked to type in what you make out of it. It aims to differentiate human beings from bots. Entering the correct answer strengthens the user's probability of being a human.

(Picture courtesy of geekandpoke.typepad.com)

Captcha stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. The first captcha was developed to be used by Yahoo. Though the whole idea is security, sometimes it can get extremely annoying. I don't really like them. In fact I hate them. (A hate post immediately after a love post is just not intentional at all.) The other day it took me three attempts to get convinced I'm not a human. Calling off the registration seemed easier. 20% of the time, I just can't decode them. With captchas like these can you ever prove your existence?

Ik hou van Diana!

I meditated a bit over a title for this post. I love Diana! It sounds strange, doesn't it? That's exactly why I went for a little Dutch there, which interestingly conveys the same sounding less wierd (or wierder?) Well, Diana is no princess. It's a software I just cannot do without. It doesn't do anything out of the ordinary. All it does is help me keep track of my to-do list (for over 3 years now). Yeah it also helps me deal with my random cut-copy-paste and disconnected thoughts.

At work of late, people have been curious about this ever active little window in my computer. That's when I thought I should do a bit to promote this teeny weeny tool that has made my life a lot easier. Diana's creator Sanne Schaap (alias Sheep) says the program was not made to impress and simplicity is his philosophy. Schaap is sheep in Dutch. Thanks to Google language tools. Ik hou van Diana! You see the connection now :P

The core part of Diana is a calendar. Click on a day and you can enter data against the day in the panel below. It remains there until you remove it explicitly. So you can go back and forth managing your past, present and future with the aid of your arrow keys. The calendar menu gives options to go to next month, previous month, jump to today and make summary report (of the next 40 days). Keyboard short cuts are Pg dn, Pg up, F5, F9 respectively. That's about it. Nothing more nothing less.

The download is available for free at Sheep Friends. Try it once and you are going to like it, the least assured, you will forget Post-it notes. At Sheep Friends there are other adorable friends of Diana

• Abby, a quick conversion tool (my second favourite)
• Billy, a lightweight mp3 player (Billy in Wikipedia)
  
• Hawk, an ultra fast hex file viewer
• Kelly, a disturbingly small desktop calculator
• Natty, a system tray mail notifier

Finally, thanks to Saurabh who got a reluctant me hooked to Diana.

My last couple of weeks!

Looks like the drive to blog is not just enough. Not blogging for close to a month pinches especially when I am striving to be a religious blogger. My friends never miss to make fun of that very aspiration. Not so amusing, they even doubt the verity of ClustrMaps and voice it a little too often. In a fit to blog, I wrote a lot and said RIP to all of them. I guess I should take it a little easy.

Last couple of weeks have been absolutely hectic with more responsibilities at work. It's going to be like this for another one month before I get away to Kashmir for the perfect holiday. Okay people exclaim! Kashmir! I am just so excited even when I'm agnostic about my coming back.

Some other relevant updates. My experiment with baby tears in a terrarium failed miserably. A good old friend called on me after 4 long years. I took time off from work and slogged away the next couple of days. No regrets there, those are some moments to cherish. Carpe diem! I believe in it. Chandana celebrated Mac's first bark. Meanwhile Mac & Cooper still sing the same song of friendship. Before the intense work schedule took a toll on my well being, I did a bit of self indulgence at Bodycraft. I loved it and would recommend the place to all fellow Bangaloreans.

After coaxing close to a score of people to buy 'Three Men in a Boat' and making sure that each one advocates the same in an MLM fashion, I picked up my second copy of the book. This time a neat hard bound edition all for just Rs.150/- from Wilco Publishing House. The publishers have a huge list of titles, mostly complete & unabridged classics, classified under 'Classic Library Books'. These books elegantly bound come in surprisingly low price. Before I even realised, I had already grabbed The best of O. Henry, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. My pleasure, Alice's book came with the original illustrations by John Tenniel. I had always wanted to read them with an adult's perspective ever since I figured Alice & the logic-chopping pair Tweedledum and Tweedledee in a book on logic. Below Tweedledum and Tweedledee debate the finer points of logic with Alice.

"I know what you are thinking about", said Tweedledum : "but it isn't so, nohow."

"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be: but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."

As I said earlier, let me take it a little easy. Alice and her adventures can easily be part of another post. By the way did you know that Alice's books were banned in China on the grounds that "animals should not use human language".

There was a big fat wedding in the family and we paid a brief visit to my folk's. It felt great catching up with aunts, uncles and cousins, who were little kids when we last met 7 years ago. Some interesting pictures I took during the trip. This one is my favourite.

No, it is no tree in hibernation. It's a dried flower of teak tree held against a white wall. Mangoes, the luxury of summer, fallen from the big mango tree in my ancestral home yard.

 

The tree provides food and shelter to a lot of animals and birds. Like always I still spot many rare birds. They may not be actually rare but I haven't seen them in plenty. There is a beauty in the infestation of this wild plant too, right? Come monsoon, it is going to thrive more.

Finally, the purpose of this left me confused. A shelter? for? from?


Last weekend had my friends at work and their families coming over for a potluck lunch. It was fun to play the hostess. With a couple of the same guys leaving work to pursue better options, the Friday lunches won't be the same fun anymore. Let me wish them all the best. Meanwhile I am still waiting for Manu's blog launch. Given the fact that he is much of a self starter and is diagnosed with an acute case of verbal diarrhea (I'm stealing his very words here), I am surprised I am still waiting.

That's gully cricket!

With summer holidays and IPL season 2, things cannot get better for children all over India. I took a detour yesterday on my way back home and chanced upon some kids playing cricket. They were having immense fun. Seeing my car approaching, the batter quickly towed the stumps. Wondering how? That's convenient cricket aka gully cricket.

Generally it's a brick or a plastic bottle that is found roleplaying stumps. But this is indeed cool, right? There was someone silently on the watch, or should I say umpiring the game. He looked quite appreciative about the whole thing.

I wanted to capture the fun but didn't want to interrupt the game and annoy them. I pulled over on the side of the road, went up to them with my cam and meekly asked, "Can I take a few pictures?" They gave the nod in unison. They were more than happy and seemed to be enjoying the attention.

Wow! We have an earth day too!

Manu sure thinks I have a thing for meteorology. He talks to me about March Equinox and I am blinking. No no! I am not talking about snow-blink or ice-blink. A bit of googling and I realise Equinox and Solstice mark the change of seasons. On a side note, auto correct tells me there is no such word as googling and suggests me to 'go ogling'. I just need that motivation. :)

Whoever googled yesterday would have known that it was Earth day. Surprisingly I hadn't and realised it only after Manu told. Later I spotted this email from WWF India in the spam folder asking to switch off the lights once again.


Wikipedia suggested there are two earth days. A lot of sites talk about March 20 (as per United Nations) as the 'authentic' earth day. We have an earth hour, two earth days. Are we not simply overdoing it?

Searching for news on earth day, I came across this site on earth day crafts using recycled materials. Check this out. http://crafts.kaboose.com/. See what you can make out of an egg shell. Isn't it just adorable?



It is really interesting, specially if you have kids at home, you can make their holidays more worthwhile. If you create an awareness in them now, we will have an eco-friendly generation for whom each day will be an earth day.

Mac's already home!

After all that hoopla, my friend couldn't wait any longer and brought Mac home a little earlier than decided. Here are some pictures of Mac. He looks dispirited and is not in any mood to be photographed. Probably the change of address has left him a little wary. Hope we will have more interesting snaps once Mac gets back to his lively self.

Apparently he's already found a friend in Cooper, a 3 month old St. Bernard in the neighbourhood. That is Cooper below. Is that a dog or a ball of fur?

Path to bliss with Ananda Spurana Program

I underwent Ananda Spurana Program (closely translates as Life Bliss Program) the last weekend. Earlier a colleague had literally run out of words describing the 'experience'. It got me curious and there I was at the centre to bliss out. It is an introductory level 2-day meditation program that works on the seven energy centers (chakras) in our body. The program is organized by Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam, a worldwide movement for meditation and healing. Nithya Dhyaan is a unique meditation technique devised by Paramahamsa Nithyananda and Ananda Spurana Program (ASP) is the precursor which looks at cleansing the seven energy chakras.

The energy chakras (picture courtesy: Dhyanapeetam.org) when blocked by the negative emotions affects your well being and ASP helps eliminate the negativity in you. More about energy chakras in another post. Though I found the introduction to each meditation technique a little sleep inducing, the meditations as such were interesting and left me refreshed.

We were a small group of 11 people from different backgrounds, out of which 7 were ardent followers of Swamiji and were already practising Nithya Dhyaana. At the end of the first meditation which focussed on the Heart Center (Anahata Chakra), I could feel an energy wave propogating through my body. This tells me I might have had a heart blockage ;) Another interesting thing was out of 7, 6 exercises were done blindfolded. At the end of some meditations, I found myself at an entirely different location from where I started, without realising that I moved. The last meditation was Nithya Dhyaana itself which probably was the longest with 7 minutes of chaotic breathing followed by 7 minutes of humming in Vajrasana. This is followed by 7 minutes of bringing awareness to the 7 chakras. Then 7 minutes of silence and 10 minutes of listening to guru mantras (chantings). A mantra that goes like 'Brahmanandam paramasukhadam' was a familiar one from Rig Veda which used to be one of my school prayers. It's a pleasure to silently listen to these mantras.

I haven't undergone any major transformation. But last night I had the best sleep in some time and am smiling a little more than usual. It's definitely an experience to cherish. The guided meditation CD costs Rs.100/- which comes with a booklet that explains the process. Once you have your chakras activated, you can meditate playing back the CD. I'm not sure if I would become a part of the Nithyananda community but I intend to practice Nithya Dhyaana. If that makes me a happier person, why not!

Her Mac, my Cloud

Exactly a week ago, my friend Chandana who lives in Troy, Michigan announced, "We are getting a puppy home!". I thought she was kidding. She never had anything, even remotely, to do with dogs. Then she sent me a picture (below) of a 2 week old Mac, a Labrador pup. Mac is indeed cute, though I would have called him Cloud. I have a thing for the name and always have wanted to name my pet that. I was more than willing to donate the name, but she was no taker :(

Chandana feels Mac is going to be the sole solution to the mundanity of their life. Also, having to look after him, they will grow more responsible. When asked about her new found love for dogs, she told me she has been watching 'Dog Whisperer' in National Geographic Channel and she couldn't wait to get one puppy home.

The search for a pup was on. They found Mac, the cutest of a litter of 10 and connected instantly. He is still with the breeder. Mac's home-coming is on the 24th of this month. I am excited.

A clean and organized home will be a thing of past now. Very soon territories will be marked all over. Her footwear, bags, couch will turn his favourite chew toys. Nothing worries her. She is determined to bring up Mac to a good boy. I hope Mac will make his parents proud one day.

Happy Parenting Chandana & Hemant! :)

April, the cruellest month

Had T.S Eliot been a banker, he would have spared April and called March the cruellest month, says Manu, a friend and a banker himself. Apparently in the UK, where Eliot lived, the fiscal year ends on April 5 every year unlike March 31 in India. This revelation certainly would make my friend feel better, who is done with his March woes and celebrating the happiness April brings in.

However, with mercury on the rise, April's ignominy isn't entirely questionable. Temperature has already crossed 40° Celcius in most parts of India. Also with the general election campaigns in full swing, it's great deal of pressure on our politicians to come up with new promises so charged with magic. For a good majority, April is indeed cruel if not cruellest.

Earth Hour! A symbolic act to demand action on the climate crisis

I received an email forward yesterday. When I was about to dismiss it like any other forward, Aamir Khan's determined face against a black background caught my attention. Thanks to the person who sent this and let me know about this initiative.

Earth Hour is World Wildlife Fund's global initiative where individuals, businesses and governments turn off their lights for one hour to show their support for action on climate change. Earth Hour is a symbolic event designed to engage people from all walks of life in the climate change discussion to send a strong message to our political leaders that we want them to take meaningful action on climate change. The largest climate event in history where millions of people around the world will unite by turning off their lights for one hour, Earth Hour, to demand action on the climate crisis.
(Text courtesy: www.earthhour.in)

Started in 2007, the symbolic 'lights out' initiative is to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change, by observing one hour of 'no light' the last Saturday of March every year. Many people look down on such symbolic acts of solidarity. But they are indeed quite powerful and do have a way of triggering changes.

In 2008, Earth Hour reached out to more than 400 cities with 50 million adults participating in the initiative. Major icons went dark including the Sydney Opera House, Rome's Colosseum, and Antarctica's Scott Station. This year, Earth Hour will take place on Saturday, 28 March 2009 from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm, local time and aims to reach out to 1 billion people across 1000 cities. It is happening in India this year for the first time. It's essentially not a black-out and of course you can watch television or work on your computers during the time. But don't forget to flip the switch! For more information, please look up here.

Makante Achchan a nice watch!

A lot of stories celebrating the father - son bond have been told already. However this one is a little different with the protagonists being father and son in real life too. The film ridicules a lot of prevailing trends and also comes with a social message. The first half is thoroughly entertaining. However it might get a bit slow in the second half.

Jagathy as Himaval Chaitanya, the fraud spiritual guru is fun to watch. Salim Kumar is his usual entertaining self. Suhasini's part could have been played by anyone. She is simply wasted. There aren't many characters in the movie. No character is different from anything seen before. All said and done, the movie is definitely worth a watch. It is good in parts and will make you laugh.

I was right as well as wrong about Ringa Ringa!

Yes right about it being influenced by an earlier hit 'Choli ke peeche'.

Wrong about ARR! Apparently the song is Rahman's homage to Choli ke peeche celebrating bollywood music. But I pray he doesn't pay such homages too often.

Ringa Ringa!

Everyone these days has something to write about the phenomenal 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Well I haven't seen the movie yet. Some how the superhype has left me with no desire to see the movie.

Its music indeed fetched a great deal of awards for A R Rahman including the Academy awards, making him the first Indian musician to receive the honour. I have no qualms about it. He is more than deserving for all the good music he has given us all these years. However I agree with a lot of people that it wasn't Rahman's best.

But sadder is the realisation that, while listening to Ring Ring Ringa from the movie, it constantly reminded me about 'Choli ke peeche kya hein' from Khalnayak. From Ila Arun's intermittent sighing to the basic background beats, even in Alka Yagnik's singing style, there was a reminder about the chartbuster which rocked the nation more than a decade ago with its beats as well as its raunchy double entendre lyrics. A not-so-happy revelation to me, as I have always been appreciative of the originality in Rahman's music. Listen to it and you probably will agree with me.

Subash has come up with a list of songs which strikingly resemble some other songs. He doesn't seem to be a bit generous here!