Golden Compass: Re-discover your childhood

Last evening, Ramya and I watched Golden Compass with my sister, brother-in-law and their "almost 4 yr old" Tarun. The movie was a great watch especially with Tarun.

The premise of the movie centers around a 12-yr old Lyra, who lives in north-central Europe in a magical parallel universe where souls take shape as talking, continuously transforming animals. Lyra has gypsys for friends and plays around with them. She lives with her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) is a researcher who is attempting to get in touch with magical worlds in parallel universes, via a communication medium called 'Dust'. His research takes him away from home and while he is away from home, the smooth talking but evil Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman), asking Lyra to escort her to the North on an adventure. This adventure coupled with the disappearance of a gypsy friend, triggers an extraordinary adventure for Lyra filled with courage, fun and friendship.

The movie has a very good storyline filled with rich characters including the eagerly anticipated polar bear Iorek Byrnison (voiced by Ian McKellen). The scenes filled with action have been designed to make it gripping, being suitably supported by non-intrusive simulations.

The storyline/plot is along the lines of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Chronicle of Narnia with many parts inspired by these movies. However, the inspiration is productively transformed into a different experience, making it a worthy watch.

On the negative side, Daniel Craig's character is under-developed. But, since this is a trilogy, it is likely to evolve in future episodes of the movie. Also, the director seems to have used dialogues in between action to create a context for the movie's progress. This could have used slick editing.

Nevertheless, I would strongly recommend this as a good watch, especially for those of us who are still young at heart and want to take another jab at our childhood.

From Farmworker to Neurosurgeon

"From illegal migrant worker to Hopkins brain surgeon: It sounds like a movie plot, but the leading man now walks Hopkins' hallways."

What?!

Read the whole story

Human Tetris -- Too good and funny

Paul Potts -- an amazing journey

A few months ago, Ramya sent me a video of a cellphone salesman called Paul Potts, who participated in a British Talent show and mesmerised the audiences with this amazing operatic voice.

I share below 3 videos of his, which show a remarkable journey of a shy and humble man, who went on to win the talent show. ENJOY!







Read more about this amazing man

Report of Oct 2nd Hospital Cleaning by Bhumi

I spend some of my spare time for an online group called 'To Make A Difference'. This group is predominantly led by members in Hyderabad and Bangalore. In both these places, the members double up as volunteers for various social causes.

One such social cause where the members participated was on Oct 2nd in cleaning up of Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad. This event was created by a group called BHUMI. I have posted here the report of one of the volunteers, followed by pictures of the hospital cleaning and a followup candle vigil.

I am posting this to bring to your notice the current state of hospital's in India and leave you thinking about what you can do to alleviate this situation.

Following is the report from Ravishankar of TMAD group.

"It was about 12'O clock by the time we all assembled. Though few of us came early we waited for all so as to have fun while working together. There was some more delay because of equipement (Brooms, phenoil etc..). Actually, the superintendent there is supposed to help us regarding that but it was not encouraging.

We went directly to MO ward 2 and directly asked the head nurse to help us arranging them. Her attitude really irritated but still we had little fun with some witty answers to her. She responded like ' r u really going to clean?? r just came to show off'.. for that we responded with complete coolness like ' u speak after the program'.

It was a huge ward and we dragged all the cots and cleaned entire floor and walls row by row. We were joined by engineering college students (I don't remember all names, but it was complete fun along with them). we worked in a competetive spirit to get a chance to take the broom. Lakshmi never transfered the broom to any one excepet when she find lizard etc.. (Balli.. kalijeru.. ).. There are few perfectionists among us who doesn't move from a place unless that mark on walls vanishes.. Really they put their muscles to a great pressure. We thought we should have taken a photograph 'before' and 'After' some thing like obesity treatment centers. We completely couldn't remove the marks as those have been used for years to spit pan (Aakulu tini godala meeda use vaaru). One encouraging thing was that one patient scolded the other old lady for spitting on walls as we are giving too much of efforts to clean them. We were completely lost in time that we realized at about 4'O clock that we din't have lunch today.

After that ward we split the team and me, pradeep and few other engg. students moved to post operation ward. It was heart rending to see somany injured patients with bandages at once. Here the problem was that we are not supposed to move the beds. Even then without compromising, we cleaned the floor as we cleaned the other ward. Initially when we were given aprons and face masks i thought that organizers were over careful but later realized that those are compulsory. Infact, one doctor warned us that it is highly infectious area.

We had taken the help of Ravi, who is a contract employee there to remove the water after cleaning. His skill was of great help, in fact. He was a contract employee there and he need not to work with us. but still he helped us. No hospital employee worked with us except the nurse who was a disturbance rather than being helpful .

All in all, it is a wonderful experience. All our efforts will be fruitful only when they are maintained like that and only if authorities realizes the importance of hygeine and show some concern in that regard."

Also, please view pictures from the event

A Dying Professor's Last Lecture

"Top professors are often asked to give final talks on the hypothetical theme: what wisdom would they impart to the world if this were their last chance? Watching healthy teachers consider their demise and ruminate over subjects dear to them can make for an intriguing hour. But a recent speech by Dr. Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon University was more than just an academic exercise. The 46-year-old father of three has pancreatic cancer and is not expected to live longer than a few more months. His last lecture was a rollicking and riveting journey through the lessons of his life."

Watch this very inspiring video here

Also, read the article about the same event here

Early morning call ...

Its 5.10 am this morning and the Mission Impossible ringtone on my cell phone goes full blast. I have one of those "Earthquake Happenned" type awakenings, as I jump out of bed. I find the cell phone quickly and it says "Unknown" on the caller id. Ramya who is still trying to come to terms with my explosive jump tells me it must be from India.
Groggily, I say "Hello!".
Guess who's calling? Its my dad!!
He's like "What are you doing still sleeping? It is India v/s Pakistan cricket match finals. Aren't you watching it?"
I say "Nope dad ... no live relay anywhere!"
He says, sorta sad for me, "Oh! Sorry I woke you up"
I say "Its ok dad ... Thanks for calling anyways"

I tried sleeping, but couldn't! I was super curious about the match now. I tried refreshing the score once or twice on my cell phone, while still sleeping. The match was just too exciting for me to sleep.

I jumped out of bed and started following the game excitedly on cricinfo. Man ... what an exciting match! India's total was pathetically low. For a game like this, something close to 200 or even 200+ would have been very safe. I felt Yuvraj and Dhoni let the team down badly by their batting. Bowling and fielding was amazing as usual, except for pathetic bowling by Sreesanth and Harbhajan. But, Sreesanth made up for his follies by taking crucial catches.

An early morning work related phone conference meeting made following the game all the more tense. Man! that's what great games are made of. I wish I could WATCH it live.

Thanks Dad for making my morning a great one! :-)