Videos of the Week

This week has been pretty eventful in terms of videos. While browsing the net I found the following video. The video has been shot in Central Station Antwerp. Take a look before going any further.

This is one of the best videos I have seen in a long time. The dance starts slowly but gets better by the second. I've seen a lot of hindi and tamil movie songs where we see so many dancers matching their steps in sync. There are many retakes to get it right. But to do the same thing in real time is very tough. The dancers have really pulled it off here.

I have watched this video multiple times now. Each time it brings a smile to my face. It's nice to see the reactions of the bystanders. I am sure most of the commuters must have some worry or the other. While watching this all of them forgot all their problems and enjoyed every second of this performance. Many of them try to join in and participate in it. Most of the people who have commented on youtube hope something like this would happen during their commute. Me too :) It sure made my day. I'm positive everyone who watches this video will definitely enjoy it and smile along the way.

I got the next video while going through the comments of the above video. A similar stunt was pulled sometime back in Liverpool station by TMobile for an ad. Watch this video.

This video was slightly different in that the dancers tried to make almost everyone dance. I personally liked the sound of music one better than this. This was taken more in a commercial angle. The Belgium one seemed to be more about pure fun and human bonding.

The third video though has become almost a viral video in the past 2 - 3 days. It's the audition for the show Britain's Got Talent. Usually we see a lot of people with no talent coming and wasting the judges' and the viewers' time. Here we see a person who looks exactly like that kind of person. She exhibits a rather cocky attitude and people feel she is reaching for the stars when she may not even be able to reach for the ceiling. When she starts to sing, what happens??

Well I have been unable to find an embeddable video for now. So use the following link to take a look at the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk

After watching this video I was left wondering why she didn't get a chance till now to perform and become a big star. I guess opportunities are a little difficult to come by. The best thing about this performance is that even Simon Cowell, who is full of harsh criticisms, was overwhelmed by Susan's singing. Every audience member must have felt so foolish for having discounted Susan for a petty performer who was there to waste their precious time. In just one minute the audience was transformed into a priveleged set of people who got to listen live to Susan. I hope she wins this season.

I'm off to start hunting for more interesting videos.

52 Weeks 52 Books

Off late I have been spending a lot of time doing nothing in particular. Of course the Masters coursework keeps me busy but the free time in hand has been misused a lot. I was just wondering about this when I picked up a book titled "Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously" in the library. Right from the cover it oozed of chick flick material and generally I stay away from such books. Since I was bored with reading the same type of thrillers and classics I decided to give this book a try. Plus Amazon had a good review of the book too.

Anyway I picked up the book and started reading it in the library. The book is basically about a lady who is in a dead end secretarial job decides to reclaim her life. She does this by trying to cook all the 524 recipes presented in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking within a year.

This got me thinking. Well I already cook so there's no point in me trying something similar to her idea. Therefore I decided to do something different. I plan to read atleast 1 book per week and then share my views about the book on this blog. The books will not necessarily be just fiction. I hope to read about a wide variety of topics and build my general knowledge too in this journey.

The first step in this journey is "Oil on the Brain" by Lisa Margonelli. See you at the other end of the cover.

Movie Time

We recently switched our cable connection to a different provider. As an added bonus we got 3 months of movie package. When the movies come in HD and that too with no ads all this translates to more movie time :) We watched a lot of movies non stop since everything looks good in high definition. We watched a wide variety of movies ranging from Harry Potter to Pirates of the Caribbean, Cars to Bourne Ultimatum.

Two movies which I had not heard much about but which were really good have been shared here.



The movie revolves around the life of a professor, a widower, who tries to compensate for his loss by trying to learn the piano since his wife was a classical piano player. Despite his sincere efforts to learn the art he is unsuccessful. Similarly he is grumpy in all his activities. His life takes a sudden turn when he goes from Connecticut to New York to present a paper. He finds two people living in his apartment. Soon the grumpiness fades from his life and he appreciates life and becomes attached to the two people in an unexpected way.

Along the way he gets drumming lessons from one of them and surprisingly he is good at it. Things take a tragic turn when one of them gets arrested. The professor tries all that is possible to get his new friend out. Is he successful or not?? That is the story. Richard Jenkins was nominated this year for Best Actor for this role.




This movie is a total opposite of the above movie. Where Visitor was a soft real to life portrayal, SEU is a total non stop action movie which goes beyond all reality. The story line is pretty simple. A stranger rescues a new born baby from being killed and then self appoints himself to guard the baby from the repeated attacks on it's life. He tries to find out why the bad guys are out to kill the baby so desperately.

The movie boasts chases and fight sequences of all possible varieties. They are firing at each other while running, driving and even jumping out of airplanes with parachutes. They are firing right from the first scene till the last scene when Clive Owen puts even Rajini and Vijayakanth to shame by shooting bullets with his bare hands (no gun). This is a must watch for those who enjoy nonsensical action movies.

Two movies which are from opposite ends of the spectrum but both are good watches. Try them when you have nothing else to do.

New Year....

It's that time of the year again when we get all misty eyed about the year that is almost over. Most of us try to cling to the year which is almost over and yet look hopefully towards the beginning of a new year. We try to recollect all the good memories of the year by gone and try to forget all the not so great moments.

So let me also join the bandwagon and try to recollect some unforgettable moments of 2008.

• My first new year in USA. We ushered in 2008 by going out for dinner and celebrating the new year's eve with our friends.
• My bro started his engineering course.
• My dad was finally able to return home after his tenure in Mumbai. (This saved us a lot of tension during the Mumbai attacks.)
• My mom started working as a counselor. She had always wanted to do something apart from the normal routine and she finally took the plunge.
• Lot of trips - My husband & I spent some wonderful time visiting various places including Vegas, Grand Canyon, NJ, NY, PA, Niagra and of course my first camping trip in Cape Cod.
• Best friend's wedding... Only, I couldn't make it :(
• A new addition to our family. My cousin gave birth to a beautiful girl.

Of course we had our share of tense moments and a few disappointments but hey this is a time of celebration and hope. So let's hope that the coming year brings all of us a lot of joy and prosperity. All of us need a little boost in this bad economy. So three cheers for the new year :)

And don't forget to make all those resolutions you always wanted to make and do try to stick to atleast 4 - 5 of them :)

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Nenjukkul peithidumaa mazhai...

What a beautiful song. I have been humming this song for almost a week now. When I heard the songs of Varanam Aayiram none of the songs impressed me initially. After hearing all the songs 3 - 4 times I fell in love with this song. It has such beautiful lyrics and the guitar strummings are amazing. Of course the voice of Hariharan adds to the magic of the song. Everything about this song is amazing. 

I tried watching the movie but didn't like it so much. What was really ironical was that the characters spent most of their screen time talking in English but when it came to songs they were all pure Tamil. I couldn't figure out how the characters could sing in pure tamil when they could not speak 5 sentences together in tamil :)

Thamarai is the best lyricist around right now. Kudos to the entire team for giving us such a refreshing song. Hope we get many more songs like this.