"Next" novel Review

I just completed Michael Crichton's novel, NEXT, which deals
with the business behind genetic engineering.Next has plenty
of inputs on the moral and financial implications of human
genetic engineering, but none of them add up to a meaningfull
and involving story. The chapters are short , some moments
even thrilling, but it’s hard to predict where the story is going.


The main plot of the story revolves around the patenting of
genes, and how that is at contraty with regular patent law.
How can you patent something that already exists in nature?
This practice leads to companies controlling entire lines of
research as they will sue if anyone attempts to touch their
genetic "property rights".

The narrative is difficult considering that Next almost never
stops bringing new characters, till the end of the novel
barring last few chapters.At some point of the plot there
were two kids with the same name and it confused me
pretty much whom he is referring to.There is no main
character which makes the plot less interesting. The very
short chapters have you moving from story to story
without making much advancements on each, and some
story lines aren't re-visited for quite a while, leading to
more than a few 'who is this character again?' moments
makes it very irritating . If you're going to read it, it's
best to do so in as much less sittings as possible.

The climax of the story, if you can call it that, is when a
few of the characters come together as the "chase" plot
is over. But after it was all over, I was left with a feeling
of "What the F***, that's it?".

The positive aspect with this novel is that its a well
researched one and very informative as with all
Michael Crichton novels. The internal mechanisms
of the pharmaceutical,biotech,legal, marketing and
genetic labs are explored in great detail.

Overall, i would rate this novel as one of Crichton's worst
works.

VodaFone IPL Ads - Zoo Zoo

The new vodafone ads thats being telecasted during IPL matches
are pretty awesome.I liked them all, especially the beauty tips AD,
that kid comes shouting 3 times superbly. Really Innovative to say.

I got a mail regarding these Ads.Thought i will share across with
u guys

Some info abt these characters. They aren’t animated characters.
They are human beings who were made to wear body suits. “The
design of the characters is such that one gets fooled into thinking
it is animation,” shrugs Rao, which was indeed the very illusion
that had to be created.“In a sense, it is ‘live’ animation!” he quips,
referring to the fact that it was all shot live. Prakash Varma, ad
filmmaker,Nirvana Films, has directed the commercials, and
reveals that the Zoozoos were a big challenge to create. The
practical aspects of how they will move, talk, gesticulate and
emote were very important. Essentially, costume design and
artwork were crucial elements.

“It took me three weeks of pre-production to understand how
it will work,” says Varma. There were two fabrics that were
considered for the body suits, and one was rejected for it had
too many wrinkles and was shiny. The wrinkles would have
shown when the characters moved, thereby shattering the
illusion of animation. “So we chose the more practical, thicker
fabric,” Varma explains.The production team divided the
outfit into two parts: the body and the head. The body part
of the outfit was stuffed with foam in some places, while the
head was attached separately. To make it look bigger than a
human head, a harder material called Perspex was used,
which in turn was stuffed with foam (with scope for
ventilation).

If one wishes to understand the size of this head, here’s a fact:
a human head would typically reach up to the mouth level of
this giant Zoozoo head. “We kept the hands and legs thin,
which is why we cast women – and occasionally children –
wearing the costumes,” says Varma. The thin limbs, contrasted
with big bellies and a bulbous head, all add to the illusion that
these creatures are ‘smaller’ than humans. Sets were created
to suit the size of the Zoozoos.

Cinematically, this ‘size’ was a trick: the creatures look smaller
than they actually are on screen, to portray a different world of
sorts. For this, the speed of shooting was altered: Nirvana shot
it in a high-speed format to make them look the size that they
do. Furthermore, simple sets/backdrops were created and spray
painted with neutral Greys – a colour of choice so that attention
isn’t diverted from the main characters. For a supposedly
‘outdoor’ shot, even the shadow of a Zoozoo was kept ‘live’ and
not done in post production: it was painted in a darker shade of
grey on the ground. An even lighting was maintained throughout.
There was virtually no post production work done.

The films were shot by Nirvana in Cape Town, South Africa, with
the help of a local production house there, called Platypus.
Incidentally, the same combination of people also worked on the
‘Happy to Help’ series last year. When asked whether Cape Town
is fast becoming a tourist spot for Vodafone and Nirvana, Varma
laughs, saying, “Oh no! It’s just that we are very comfortable with
the team there and know what sort of work to expect from them.”

Nagpal adds here that the production cost had to be minimal for
unveiling such a large number of commercials. “Otherwise, our
production costs would exceed media spends,” he quips.

Will the new Vodafone ads set a new trend in Indian ad industry?
Lets wait n see

Kite Runner - Book Review

The Kite Runner is a novel written by Khaled Hosseini an afghan writer
settled in USA.The theme of the novel swivels around family relationships
(particularly father and son),love,friendship, the inhumanity of a rigid class
system, the horrific realities of war,betrayal and the subsequent redemption.
The moment i hear of afghanistan what i picturise in my mind is war and
terrorism.But only after reading the book i realized that even afghansitan
was peaceful country and it had its own cultural heritage.But then due to
repeated wars it was ravaged.The story takes you through decades of change
in Afghanistan starting from the removal of the monarchy until the fall of the
ruthless Taliban.

The main character of the novel is Aamir from the high society class in
afghanistan.His father is Baba who is discontented with aamir partly coz he
was not as brave as him and partly he also blames aamir for his wife's death
(aamir's mother).Hassan the servant Ali's son is Aamir's best friend.Though
Aamir constantly abuses their friendship on many levels and also physically
abuses hassan coz he is jealous of the love that his father shows towards
Hassan.At some point of time Aamir betrays Hassan coz of that incident
both are separated from each other.And I do not want to break the twists
and suspense of the novel by goin thru the entire plot.The story goes on as
how aamir redeem his self afflicted sins and how he turns out to be
courageous rescuer from a sheepish cowardice.

There are two phrases that impressed me when i read thru this novel one is
always said by hasaan to aamir whenever aamir told him of some work.

"For you a thousand times over"

and the other one was said by aamir

“There is a way to be good again”

And if you want to be good again, if you have some hidden guilt in the
corner of your heart then get inspired to nullify the haunting guilt from
your life

Moreover, you will find yourself laughing and crying through every chapter.
Overall, Kite Runner is a thoughtful novel and I have absolutely nothing bad
to say about it.The novel was well written ,all the characters were suitably
developed and straightforward, which made the narrative easy to follow.
The writing style appeals to readers’ emotion a lot.Atleast for me, I was
extremely touched by sad scenes.


Heard the author's next book 'Thousand Splendid Suns' is also equally good.
Didn't get a chance to read it.Though i will read it soon and then post u guys
the review for it.

Forest Mokkai

Mokkai can be defined as a totally irrelevant statement of ultimate
creativity that is a complete nonsense statement and it brings complete
destructiveness to whomever hears it.If there are more than one listeners
to a mokkai they end up saying why blood?? same Blood !! It can also be
said as a PJ(PoorJoke)Otherwise.

Any profession there will be the best set of  professionals.
Like u take swimming Michael Phelps and in sprinting Usain Bolt.Likewise in
this art of delivering continuous mokkais i would rate my roommate to be the
best. Though i wouldn't like to disclose his name he l thrash me off if he
finds out.Lets say he is Ramu.


X: Nee en kaalla vilundhu kettaalum mannikka maattaen
Ramu: Ennadhu un kaalla ulundha??? (arisi,paruppu,ulundhu)
X: :(


Ramu : time ennada?
X : 9 40 aachu
Ramu : 9 eppidi da 40 aachu???


X : (after scanning the laptop for matter pics and videos) he asks ramu
Enna da ..intha Laptap la onnumaye illa.....?
Ramu asks X to wait he takes the laptops mouse goes to the calendar in
 taskbar sets date to 1st May and says..ippo 1 May irruku da...it took
 some 10 mins for  x to come back to normal.

X:dei vala-palam[Banana] venum
Ramu:Appa sava(to die) enna venum?

X:Franch oil Engappa?(where vs franch oil)
Ramu:ennathu franch oil unga appava?


Though his mokkais might give a sense of irritation when one first hears it
later on when we sit back and relax we all used to sit and laugh reminding it.
Then slowly all our roommates got used to him and everyone slowly they
developed their mokkai delivering levels.

Recently at our house we were just browsing thru the channels.
Apparently in one of the channels they were showing an old movie in which
"saukaar jaanaki" acted.Suddenly a friend of mine gets up and asks Guys do u
know why saukaar janaki is called as saukaar jaanaki.After thinking for a
long time we said no idea.Then he said since she used to have 100 (sau) cars
she is called as saukar janaki

One more colleague of me cracked these ones.
Y is ten afraid of  seven ?
as usual i gave after thinking for few mins.
The answer was 7 ate 9 (7,8,9) thats y (WTF was my reaction hope the same
with u guys.)

Oru erumba cut panuna enna agum?
athu cut erumbu agum (ahhhhhh)

Prove that soap = juice

Answer
According to newton's law
F = ma
multiply "a" on both sides...
You get Fa = maa...
Fa is a soap and maa is juice....
ayyo saami

A scientist disconnected his doorbell.......
can u guess why???
Answer
he wanted to win the No-bell prize


I l wind off this post before some one reports it as abuse..

Dairy Industry Harsh realities

I have heard a lot from so called animal lovers or environmentalists or vegeterians about the meat industry and how it brutually tortures animal.I accept these facts. But why dont these people always neglect or forgot the suffferings done by the dairy industry ? .I would say if they truly care about these animals then they wont consume milk related products either.If eating meat or egg is sin then i wud say consuming milk is also an equal sin.

We generally believe that cows produce milk ‘naturally’ and they cherish getting milked. Its really surprising for many to learn that the life of a dairy cow is characterised by years of physical and emotional suffering.Dairy industry is always projected as happy cows with bellies grazing happily through grasslands where in actual case they r not so.Dairy cows do not automatically produce milk as many of us believe.Like any other female species—cows have to give birth in order to produce milk.The newly born calves are seperated within few hours or even after just few minutes from their birth, so that we can consume the cow's milk.This is very very stressfull for the cow and insecure for the calf as it is on its own having seperated from its mother.Also these calves are slaughtered for meat and more specifically for a substance called rennet which is used as a coagulant of milk in the process of making cheese.Male calves are of little value to the dairy industry, so dairy farmers sell them to the notoriously cruel meat industry.Most of the calves in the meat industry are mainly from the dairy industry.A byproduct of the dairy industry is a calf per year per cow.

To produce enormous amounts of milk cows are genetically manipulated,provided with high
energy feeds as well as drugged which will result in a metabolic strain on the animal.Also the great weight of the animal it l also acuse frequnet tears of ligament and foot problems like laminitis.

With advancement in the technologies most of the dairy industry now use milking machines
which causes infection to the cows at their mammary glands.The front teats may be subjected
to vacuum pulsing for up to two minutes after the quarter has been emptied and while the hind teats are still yielding. This is believed to be painful for the cow, and may also weaken tissue. The nature of the vacuum milking process is known to increase the possibility of infection.

Across few dairy farms the tails of the cows and the horns are amputated coz the dairy farmer do not want the dirty tails of cows to be swished in their face or the horns to hurt them.This causes severe pain,infections as well as nerve damage which might result in a chronic pain.

As time passes on if either the cows ability to produce milk declines or if they find difficult getting pregnant or it has any other disease then they are slaughtered. There is huge amount of wastewater and manure produced on dairy farms that pollutes rivers and underground water.A study by the University of Florida estimated that 100 cows can produce over 100,000 gallons of wastewater each week!

While I was browsing across sites to gather information i read this at one site i was really surprised by this fact .It says "The most alarming figure is that it takes 4000 glasses of water to produce just one glass of milk! (source: Fred Pearce, science advisor to New Scientist Magazine). This figure includes the water used to irrigate the crops grown to feed the cows, the water consumed by each dairy cow, and cleaning of the machinery and milking facilities."

Dont have a misconception that these kind of cruelties happens only on abroad.
Please go thru this link http://www.milliondollaryack.com/meat/archives/290

Congrats to Dravid

Rahul Dravid, the former indian captain made the world record of highest catch taker in Test Cricket. Rahul Dravid achived this world record in Test match against New Zealand at Wellington on April 6th on the fourth day of the final testmatch dismissing Tim McIntosh.Dravid standing at third slip fumbled a bit before securing this record equalling catch.India won the series 1-0.He broke MarkWaugh's 181 catches record.The other cricketers who have catches nearby Dravid are Mark Waugh with 181 catches, Ricky Ponting having 148 catches, Jacques Kallis and Jayawardene with 147 and 142 catch respectively.
Though his batting records were always been overshadowed by sachin , he is quiet on his own in the slips

Also Dravid had a good Test match series against Newzealand scoring consistently though he couldnt convert any of them to a century

Liverpool Vs Chelsea Q/F april 8th 2009 champions league

The most eagerly awaited champions league Q/F first leg between chelsea and liverpoool was held at anfield yesterday. Champions league clashes between chelsea and liverpool has sort of become a cliche these days.

Meetings since the 2004/2005 season
2008/2009
Sun 01 Feb Liverpool 2 - 0 Chelsea Premier League
Sun 26 Oct Chelsea 0 - 1 Liverpool Premier League

2007/2008
Wed 30 Apr Chelsea 3 - 2 Liverpool Champions League
after extra time, 90 minutes 1-1, Chelsea won 4-3 on aggregate
Tue 22 Apr Liverpool 1 - 1 Chelsea Champions League
Sun 10 Feb Chelsea 0 - 0 Liverpool Premier League
Wed 19 Dec Chelsea 2 - 0 Liverpool League Cup
Sun 19 Aug Liverpool 1 - 1 Chelsea Premier League

2006/2007
Tue 01 May Liverpool 1 - 0 Chelsea Champions League
after extra time, 90 minutes 1-0, aggregate 1-1, Liverpool won 4-1 on penalties
Wed 25 Apr Chelsea 1 - 0 Liverpool Champions League
Sat 20 Jan Liverpool 2 - 0 Chelsea Premiership
Sun 17 Sep Chelsea 1 - 0 Liverpool Premiership
Sun 13 Aug Chelsea 1 - 2 Liverpool Charity Shield
played at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

2005/2006
Sat 22 Apr Chelsea 1 - 2 Liverpool F.A. Cup
played at Old Trafford
Sun 05 Feb Chelsea 2 - 0 Liverpool Premiership
Tue 06 Dec Chelsea 0 - 0 Liverpool Champions League
Sun 02 Oct Liverpool 1 - 4 Chelsea Premiership
Wed 28 Sep Liverpool 0 - 0 Chelsea Champions League

2004/2005
Tue 03 May Liverpool 1 - 0 Chelsea Champions League
Wed 27 Apr Chelsea 0 - 0 Liverpool Champions League
Sun 27 Feb Chelsea 3 - 2 Liverpool League Cup
Sat 01 Jan Liverpool 0 - 1 Chelsea Premiership
Sun 03 Oct Chelsea 1 - 0 Liverpool Premiership

Out of 22 matches Chelsea have won 9 matches Liverpool 7.

The line ups for the match

Liverpool:
Reina; Arbeloa, Skrtel, Carragher, Aurelio; Lucas, Xabi Alonso; Kuyt, Gerrard, Riera; Torres.

Chelsea:
Cech; Ivanovic, Alex, Terry, Ashley Cole; Ballack, Essien, Lampard; Kalou, Drogba, Malouda.

One of my roommate is a die hard liverpool fan and am a chelsea fan.
We both were eagerly waiting to c this match.The kick off started at 12.15 am IST.

The atmosphere at anfield was simply amazing and the liverpool fans were making a great noise.
this is why liverpool is so strong at their home games and particularly when they play champions league.

chelsea were lil nervy initially and then a superb back pass by kuyt to arebola whose cross perfectly found Torres within the D line and el nino doesnt misses such simple chances and a fine finish took liverpool to lead under 6 mins.I was damn pissed off .To make my worries more ,drogba missed a sitter a one on one with reina.then Liverpool took a majority of possesion frustrating chelsea players.And again a long pass from ballack found drogbas left foot with no defencer around him one more one on one with reina this time drogba fired it above the post.
I was beginning to believe it wasn't our day.



Then ivanovic turned out to be a savor for chelsea striking his foal goal for chelsea impressively.
He made swift movement accross the penalty box before heading into the net.Moments later Drogba had one more chance and almost succesfully netted into the goal if at all carragher didnt had made a imposible save.Man i thought this was not Drogbas day at all.Ivanovic's second header took chelsea to lead.and a fine cross later from malouda found drogba who didnt find difficult to launch it inside the nets.That almost finished of the match.

Essien was the man for chelsea he was like a shield surrounding gerrard preventing him from moving much.With Gerrard contained by Essien and Mascherano's absence liverpool's midfield lacked pace and width.The replacement for mascherano Lucas was a disaster.

Liverpool in the last 20 mins tried scoring in vain except for one decent effort from Alonso else chelsea were pretty much in control.It was a night when everything went perfect for chelsea at anfield except for Terry's yellow card which forces him to sit out the next leg at home.
I guess chelsea are almost sure to reach the semifinals if at all for some brilliant display form
Gerrard and torres


A special mention to Petr Cech with his ' out of this world ' catching and two world class saves from Alonso and Kuyt

Still meeting Barca in semis is very ominous considering the display they showed against Bayern munich.Lets wait n see :) .