Life Etc Etc

125 years have rolled by since the comic genius, the showman and the master (the epithets will never end) Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin has graced earth and its also the centenary of his " Tramp " character (who first tiptoed into our hearts in the film " Kid Auto Races at Venice "). The timing couldn't have been better for me to pay my tributes to an all time Chaplin classic, The Circus . Charlie Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy films were a big part of my childhood and one of the first films I ever remember watching in a theater was another Chaplin classic " The Kid ". But despite watching several of his short films and masterpieces such as Modern Times and The Great Dictator I never knew that Chaplin made a movie called "The Circus" until a few weeks ago(Thank you Romedy for airing the picture and enlightening me). This won't be a typical review. I won't go too much into the plot but I will say this "The Circus"

Somewhere at the back of my mind I had to publish a follow-up to my previous commentary because in all these years of watching cricket there were lot more than just three performances which caused me pain. You might have already noticed that I am using the word ‘performances’ instead of ‘knocks’. This is because even though Cricket is a batsman’s game all the three departments of bowling, batting and fielding need to work in order to make a team go over the line. So here are a few embarrassing moments in the sport of cricket which have well and truly upped my pain levels. Shastri deadbats:   Ravi Shastri paved the way for many Indian triumphs over the course of his career but the 1992 world cup (which was also his last) came at a time when he was at the nadir of his powers. Shastri started off the world cup with a sluggish 57 (112) against England which India went on to lose by nine runs .   Shastri decelerated further in the next match against Australia where he blocked his way

Its been just a shade over twenty four hours since the World T20 final and the story on everyone's lips continues to be how Yuvraj's knock of 11 from 21 balls deprived India of a second world championship in the shortest format. I watched the Indian innings in its entirety and I must confess that even though  Yuvraj's knock was agonizing, what was even more painful to watch was the disappointment on the faces of the spectators (who had travelled far and wide to support the Indian team) and the disbelief on the faces of the players (in the Indian Team dugout) regarding what was transpiring on the field. Yuvraj Singh unable to middle the ball Yuvraj Singh Strike Rate 2014 T20 World Cup <Courtesy:  Chandi Sports > Now make no mistake I have tremendous respect for Yuvraj's determination and have been an ardent admirer of his talents right from his fiery debut in Nairobi. His unbelievable six-hitting in Durban was magical and his champion like perf

Its not everyday that someone can advertise a destination as the place where "Dreams come true" and live up to it every step. I have been fortunate enough to visit both Disney World at Orlando as well as Disneyland (Euro Disney) at Paris and must say my experiences in the magical land of Disney have been nothing but amazing. The support staff there are truly helpful and courteous and the rides are out of this world. But what takes the cake is a magical piece of paper called the Fastpass . The Fastpass allows the visitors to come back to the ride at a later time and wait in a shorter queue rather than waiting in the regular queue where one could end up spending twice or thrice much as time as the Fastpass queue. Fastpass thus allows you to plan and take as many rides as possible without getting stalled at any one ride. But how does Disney know how long would it take on a particular queue (Fastpass/Regular) for any particular ride. How does Disney measure the wait times

Its not everyday that you come back after more than two years to take care of unfinished business. Two years is a long time in any individual's life and the last two years for yours truly has been like a roller coaster ride on the edge of a knife. But irrespective of the tremendous highs and deplorable lows I am happy to inform you that my learning has continued. Yours truly is now a seasoned orator and a respected competitor on the Toastmasters  circuit. It's not always easy to make a comeback <Courtesy:  Dmitrii Vaccinium > Questions such as, Where was I all this while? What's next on my agenda?  will all be answered in due course. But for now yours truly is back!  Let the drum roll begin! And I am back with a fresh perspective and with whole lot of insights to share on not only the professional side of things but also from the world of public speaking and life in general. Come along with me on this journey and I promise you will definitely be amused if nothing el

It’s been one crazy week and it's in weeks like this that you end up doing much more than what you plan for. This was the week when I finally got my hands on a brand new Samsung Galaxy Ace smart phone. Every purchase hinges on some factors and this being my first smart phone I did a fair bit of research to arrive at some of the essential features I wanted and some others which I could trade-off with. Without any further ado then some of the factors (features) I considered are as follows: 1. Touchscreen (capacitive vs resistive): Here's an excellent link about the pros and cons of each touchscreen but what made me go for a capacitive touch screen was the fact that it offers multi touch support and is not prone to get activated by just any object (such as a dust particle) which comes in contact with it. 2. Operating System (OS): There are several operating systems (Bada, Symbian, Android, IOS, Windows) to choose from but the best OS I figured was the one which could

Some cities give you the feeling of being on the cusp of technological evolution. I got that same feeling when I visited Bangalore (Bengaluru) recently. I saw quite a few Mahindra Revas (the first electric car of India), you don't see too many of them here in Hyderabad quite probably due to the lack of a well established dealer network. I caught a glimpse of the Bangalore Metro Rail project which reminded me very much of the Canada Line in Vancouver.  Then I saw something which quite frankly made me do the one thing that I usually don't like to do too often -- it made me Analyze . It all began when I decided to commute via a city bus from Electronic City (the place where all the IT companies are) to one of the prominent malls in town. I caught a bus but lo-behold I didn't get into an ordinary one I got into a A/C Volvo (Yes Volvo!!!) bus. Wait that's not what caught my eye. What caught my eye were the monitors (at the back of the head rests) which were star