KEYS TO MY HEART » Entertainment

Mile sur mera tumhara..

Archana — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:38:37 +0000

..tho sur bane humara.

The evergreen song that reminds us that, no matter how uniquely different we are, how we can all unite and stand together as one. This was brought to my attention recently through a FB post an old friend of mine made. Enjoy the cultural diversity exhibited in the song, blended together beautifully with a medley of melodious voices!

Here is the old, original version:

Original Mile Sur Mera Tumhara

And the new one, released recently in 2010:

New Mile Sur Mera Tumhara – Part 1

New Mile Sur Mera Tumhara – Part 2

An apology..

Jagadish — Wed, 06 May 2009 03:28:11 +0000

Dear Archana,

I want to apologize for my behavior last night. I lose control of myself every time I get on the red Poltergust 4000. It pumps my adrenaline and I want to drive as fast as I can bumping into everything that comes in the way. I agree that I should not have dropped all the banana peels on the road with the intention of tripping you. Worse, I should not have got my hands up in the air and jumped “Gotcha!” every time you tripped over them. I should not have shot you with all the red shells when you were about to win. I should not have braked and moved into the second spot so I could hit you with the devastating blue shell. Sorry I screamed “Ha Haa!!” every time I crossed the finish line.

I promise I will not put fake item boxes near the real item boxes to confuse you. I also promise I will not say “Oh yay!” if you fall off the ledge. I will definitely not slow down to get better items. I hope you will forgive me and connect to WFC again. I will look for your yellow blinking icon. Please come back so we can play again.

Love,

Jagadish

(For all those who don’t get it. Go play MARIO KART)

God bless the weekends

Jagadish — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:53:37 +0000

After a long and hard week of work, weekends usually mean getting some rest and catching up with the rest of the world. Being grad students means working on the weekends sometimes, but it doesn’t have to be the same as a weekday, so we can take it easy. I actually like to start working starting Sunday afternoons, whether I have any work to do or not. It actually helps me get over the “I hate Mondays” syndrome really quick.

Archana and I have a really lazy way of spending weekends. We spend most of the time catching up on the TV shows and picking movies to watch. It actually takes us an hour to pick a movie to watch and we usually end up not liking it. We don’t watch horror or drama, so that limits the choices. It’s almost always romance and comedy that wins the vote. Unless we want to get some regional flavor, we watch Telugu or Hindi movies and it’s difficult to find a good Hindi/Telugu movie that is intelligent and devoid of all the hyping up of the hero.

In Indian movies, the hero can hit a 100 people single-handedly without even using a weapon. It seems believable in Kung-fu movies where Jackie Chan jumps around taking a few blows but still managing to beat up a few thugs using the environment as props. It is also quite believable if Keanu Reeves fights 100 Agent Smiths in Matrix, because it is a fictional world. But, in Indian movies, the hero punches every thug into the air with just one mighty blow. Worse, the hero is almost always a lanky kid (who is probably the son of a veteran actor). The Indian hero is Superman, without a cape. Even in movies that does not involve a lot of action, the emotions seem unreal and over the top.

Our latest obsession is watching TV shows. We pick a TV show and watch all its episodes from its season 1 until we reach the current season. We started this trend with “Prison Break” and we quickly got addicted to the show. We used to spend our weekends just watching one episode after the other. The show is in its final season now. I guess the season finale is supposed to air on May 15th. It was a good show and even though we will miss Michael Scofield and his crew, I think the decision to end the show is a good move. It was getting predictable and it doesn’t bode well for the show that relies on surprising the viewer at every corner.

Currently we are watching the Heroes and loving it. Even if it’s getting a little contrived after 12 episodes, it’s still quite enjoyable. I hope it will be as interesting and fun as Prison Break.

Happy Valentines Day

Catcher in the Rye

Jagadish — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:58:58 +0000

I can’t say this enough, but life has been busy in the past couple of years. I am really ashamed to say that I haven’t had time to read any books other than textbooks, journals and papers. I love to read and I decided that I will spend at least one hour every day doing something that has nothing to do with computers. I even ventured out to buy a few books until my friend suggested that I could borrow some from the library. I immediately made a list of books I wanted to read and promptly borrowed them. I have about 8 books on the list and it took me about 2 weeks to finish the smallest of the books. I picked “Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger to start with because it was on the ‘favorites’ list of all my friends. I have been wanting to read that book for a long time now and I couldn’t wait to find out what the fuss was all about. I have to say I really wanted to like this book even before I started it. Maybe it was the expectations I had, but the book was really quite hard to sit through. The English in the book was old American slang and I had trouble ploughing through it. It also seemed like a monologue where the guy would go on and on about the things around him without giving the other person a lot of things to say. It took me a week to get through the first 100 pages and I dropped it for the next 5 days without the intention of finishing it really because I did not know if there was any point to this story. If the guy in the book would stop being such a whiny little teenager and get his life back on track.

The story is about this teenager who keeps getting thrown out of one school after the other. It starts off with him being thrown out of the current school he is in called Pencey. His dad is rich, and his friend is dating his neighbor that he has a crush on. He is highly principled and thinks that every guy in the world is a phony. He sits on his high horse and judges every guy/girl in the world, calling them phonies and doesn’t listen to anyone in the world. He is kicked out of the school, and he decides to spend a couple of days out in New York before going home. In that one night, he experiences a few things-some interesting, and some not so interesting. I don’t want to give too much away but the book really does get interesting in the last few pages. It isn’t until after we run into the character of his little sister Phoebe, who is just lovable and most adorable, that the book transforms from being dull and whiny to lovable. Phoebe is obviously the most adorable character in the book; the other character I really loved was Mr. Antolini, the English teacher from his previous school. Those few pages changed my perception of my book. I could have easily hated the book if I stopped earlier but those few pages in the end sort of made me feel like this is a good book. I wouldn’t say it was a great book or one of my all-time favorites, but it is definitely a good book that I can recommend to someone.

I couldn’t help but identify myself with the lead character. He is constantly pissed off about the double standards in people and life. I was particularly impressed with the Mr. Antolini’s talk with Holden when he visits him, when he says, “The mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one”. I felt the line was really profound. The way he talks how education is important in determining the size of your mind is quite interesting as well. All in all, a good read.

My very own Rhett Butler

Life at IIT-M

Jagadish — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:24:03 +0000

This video pretty much sums up the life of an IITian. Of course, not everyone gets lucky enough to study with a girl. This made me really nostalgic, having spent most of my adult years at IIT. Enjoy

Music & love

Archana — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 02:04:35 +0000

If there is one common thread that can connect all of humanity, it would be music. If you think about it, every culture has a form and expression of music that is distinct. Over the years, my taste in music has been varied, and as I’m exposed to more kinds, the more I tend to appreciate the art of creating music.You know how most couples have a “song”? It used to be that, a long time ago, Jagadish’s and mine was ‘How you remind me’ by Nickelback. Wherever I’d go-shopping, hair cut, grocery store, or even in my car, I’d hear it play around me all the time. It wasn’t really our “song” as such but just happened to be a coincidence of sorts.

More recently, however, we both fell in love with a song we heard over and over again on the car radio while driving around. More than anything else, it was the lyrics that really hit the spot for us. Especially as we know what it is to be in a long distance relationship; what it is to feel longing and loneliness; what it is to crave to be together and be merry.

This song not only reminds me of all the good memories we have, and the reason we so love each other, but it also reminds me that distance is but a word.The song I’m talking about is by Plain White T’s and is titled ‘Hey there, Delilah’. Here it is, from YouTube.

Despite everything, I know we have something special, and I know, in my heart, it’s got to have all happened for a reason. Destiny.Just listening to this song makes me feel a whole lot better.

And just a little sad that we aren’t together right here, right now.

Someday, we will.

Valentine’s Day: #5

Archana — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 22:44:45 +0000

The last few months have been particularly hard for both Jagadish and me. A number of issues had come up that we had to deal with. While most of them remained unresolved, Valentine’s Day showed up, bright and merry.

I thought I had, for once, surpassed myself and bought him a really outstanding gift that would surprise him, but he got me something that I was really almost craving. He’s always been into gaming, and I turned from someone being blissfully unaware of video games into a casual onlooker, getting (loads of) info from him about the latest and greatest games around. So when he made his way into the US, I bought him a Nintendo DS Lite, with one of the Final Fantasy games. He soon found other games for it and I was hooked onto BrainAge and WarioWare. I absolutely loved Mario Party! I played until the end of the game-with a little help from Jagadish of course.

And so… I received a brand-spankin’-new DS Lite in red for Valentine’s. Not only does it look gorgeous and evokes ‘wows’ from anyone who looks at it, but it is incredibly easy and sooo much fun to play on! We can even hook up to Nintendo’s WiFi connector thingy and play against each other. I can only say I’m getting better at Mario Kart, but I bet I’ll beat him at it some day very soon!

Besides all the excitement of getting this awesome gift, Valentine’s, as always, reminded me of how fortunate I am to have someone out there who cares about me as Jagadish does, and someone who I care about just as much. Indeed, it happens much too often when the person you love may not love you back as much. I hope everyone who is in love and is looking for love will remember that, always.

It has been a wonderful five years with him, despite the many hiccups we continue to face. Money, fame, success, and the highly ovverrated societal ‘respect’, although perhaps important in some regards, sometimes pale in comparison to having a happy and fulfilling life.

My very own Rhett Butler

Archana — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 11:46:58 +0000

Jagadish has long insisted I read ‘Gone with the Wind’. It was also made into an Academy-Award winning movie whose re release poster you see above. It’s a book he absolutely adores, and I never had any real interest in the so-called classics. I love mystery, thrillers, and some comic relief. Yet, he persuaded me to buy this and I did, and it lay around a few days when I finally picked it up after my exams.

I was hooked! I read the book straight through in two days. What a beautiful, beautiful story. For those who have not yet read this book, I implore you, read it! It is amazing. Here is a synopsis of the plot.

Today, all of a sudden, I thought of Rhett. And I thought of Jagadish. Today morning, I woke up in a fairly pleasant mood, but I was suddenly cross with Jagadish because of a few issues. As I always do when I get annoyed, I went quiet and refused to talk to him. Jagadish is an absolute mine of incredible patience. Very gently, kindly and soothingly, he brought me out of this moodiness of mine. It is little things like these that jolt me to the reality of how much he really loves me.

He reminded me of Rhett. Not that Rhett was kind or gentle. But Rhett so obviously loved Scarlett. He always let her have her way. He teased her, played along with her…made her smile, made her alive. Like how Jagadish makes me feel. Scarlett could stomp around, be mean to him, make him mad, and yet, he would continue to love her. Like Jagadish loves me.

Rhett was so practical, so thoughtful. Uncaring about what the society believed was right, but of a sound mind that knew what he was doing or did was not wrong, not immoral. Oh, he reminds of my Jagadish in so many ways now that I think of it.

Anyway, once again, today, I am thankful to God for putting Jagadish in the path of my life. He is my very own Rhett Butler.

(And I’m not going to be as stupid as Scarlett to let him go )

Happy Valentines Day

Jagadish — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 22:26:00 +0000

Valentine’s Day is a day invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap.

–Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine is one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s an amazing movie with some brilliant lines that resonate through some good acting by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. It is one of those movies where you see Jim Carrey not resorting to his stupid antics and Kate is brilliant as usual. The movie is basically where a couple have a bad relationship and they try to erase their memories about the relationship(Its a fictional procedure). He starts reliving those memories that comprise the relationship from the earliest to the oldest as they are being erased. So we see the bad memories first where he is really happy that he is doing it and he starts regretting the whole thing when he starts reliving those good memories they spent together. It’s all a little surreal but a great movie nevertheless. I must’ve watched this movie a million times already learning the lines by heart. I really wanted to see this movie again on this Valentines day. I recommend this movie to all the people who have had heartbreak or been in a bad relationship or if you are just single. The movie is not about all those perfect romances we see in the movies, it’s about normal people involved in a normal relationship where there are bad things as well as there are good things. All we need to do is to try and resolve the bad while we remain happy for all the good that it has given us.
Anyway, on a more relevant note, this is our fourth Valentine’s Day together. Three anniversaries and four valentines days, its amazing how nothing has simmered down as yet. Archana has always told me how she had bad Valentine’s Days before our first. I’ve always had that in the back of my mind and I always wanted to make our Valentine’s Day a great one. I think we have been doing a good job for the past 4 years now. We have always been happy during this time of the year especially last year when Archana sent me 2 kg black forest cake. It was probably the first major surprise she had given me as a gift (I was always quite good at guessing her gifts). This year though, we went ahead and did something better. Most of you guys probably already know and there is no need to tell about it all over again . Of course it sucks that we have to be apart on a day like this but on the plus side of it, we get to celebrate it twice . For us, V-day starts 12 am my time and ends 12 am archana’s time, so we have a few more hours to douse ourselves in the celebrations compared to the usual 24 hrs time you get when you are living in the same time zone.

So here’s wishing you all a very Happy Valentine’s Day. I hope all the couples celebrate all these years of love and all the single guys/girls find love and happiness. Have a great day everyone.

Happy New Year

Jagadish — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 16:53:00 +0000

A very happy new year to all of you. So this new year, me and archana have decided to start up something new in addition to the blog we have here. I am a huge fan of web comics. I am not talking of the regular Sunday newspaper comic strips like Dilbert or Calvin and Hobbes but more like gaming web comics like Penny Arcade, Ctrl-Alt-Del. It is amazing how these people have made this their living. Especially Ctrl-Alt-Del has some really good strips which me and Archana can relate to. Not only is this about gaming but it also touches on some aspects of relationships. After seeing a couple of those comics, Archana started wondering if we can do the same thing, Archana’s new MacBook comes with a nifty application called ComicLife. Its a cool application to make comic strips. Since we had the ideas and the tools, we decided to make a web comic. Here is our first attempt at it. However, we both are amateurs at a thing like this. So we dont know the specifications like panels size and all that. The only thing we were really concerned was to make it as funny as possible Any kind of feedback will be really appreciated.

(click for larger image)