Brussles Sprouts and Neanderthals

If you think cabbages, brussels sprouts or other such vegetables taste bitter, then you could be the descendant of a Neanderthal! Check out here.

The hat-seller and the monkeys (Ver 2.0)

It's an old story that we have read in Class 3 but this one is with a new ending.

A hat-seller who was passing by a forest decided to take a nap under one of the trees, so he left his whole basket of hats by the side. A few hours later, he woke up and realized that all his hats were gone. He looked up and to his surprise, the tree was full of monkeys and they had taken all his hats.

The hat seller sat down and thought of how he could get the hats back. While thinking he started to scratch his head. The next moment, the monkeys were doing the same. Next, he took down his own hat, the monkeys did exactly the same. An idea came to his mind. He took his own hat and threw it on the floor and the monkeys did that too. So he finally managed to get all his hats back.

Fifty years later, his grandson, Sukhwinder, also became a hat-seller. He had heard this monkey story from his grandfather. One day, just like his grandfather, he passed by the same forest. It was very hot, and he took a nap under the same tree and left the hats on the floor.

He woke up and realized that all his hats were taken by the monkeys on the tree. He remembered his grandfather' s words, started scratching his head and the monkeys followed. He took down his hat and fanned himself and again the monkeys followed. Now, very convinced of his grandfather' s idea, Sukhwinder threw his hat on the floor but to his surprise, the monkeys still held on to all the hats.

Then one monkey climbed down the tree, grabbed the hat on the floor, gave him a slap and said, "You think only you have a grandfather !!!???"

Kaminey

If something could force me out of my blogging slumber, it had to be something that was nauseating or exhilirating. I am glad it is the latter.

Watched Kaminey recently. Wow. That sums up my reaction. I have this habit of checking reviews of movies after I have watched them so that I know which reviewers to trust next time. All the reviewers have given good ratings which are justified. Even Raja Sen of Rediff, a reviewer so hopelessly out of league of Bollywood cinema, has given it high ratings.

Intelligent cinema was one word that was common to the five reviews I read. I agree. In fact I witnessed several "non-intelligent" people watching the movie with utter confusion since they could not make out what was happening in many parts. I was actually enjoying their discomfort as they squirmed and shifted uneasily in their seats! Shame on me.

The dialogue in Marathi, Bangla (don't say Bangali or Bengali; that is a misspelling!!), Portugese, Hindi, English, Hinglish and Bambaiya Hindi was kinda hard to follow, even for me. But it was real and natural. I am sure gangsters who travel to India, don't start conversing in Hindi suddenly, for the benefit of Indians ;)

I enjoyed dhan te nan immensely. This is a sure shot evergreen hit. A regular at all dance parties! Disappointed that other songs don't match up!

The ending was along expected lines of Hindi cinema. After all, as SRK says in OSO, "Jab tak hamari picture mein sab kuch theek nahin ho jaata, picture khatam nahin hotee. Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost." I wish Vishal Bhardwaj had the guts to show a different ending. A dying hero adds glamour to the movie, a la AB in Sholay!

Shahid Kapoor is really convincing in his role as Guddu and Charlie!

I am a confirmed fan of VB now. I personally think Omkara had better overall impact. I will give omkara 4.5 out of 5. Kaminey gets 4 out of 5.

Look at the web looking at you!

You see the web regularly. Ever wondered about how does the web see you? Have a look at how you are perceived by the web at this interesting website.

Outwit the cat

A nice game I recently stumbled upon. Quite addictive. I could not get it the first three times. I got it the fourth time but then not the next 10 odd times. Now I can get it about 75% of the times I play. But what's the game? Ahh! Here it is.

And if you can't outwit it at all or do so accidentally, drop me a line. I will expose "the method" to trap the cat ;)