Yeah, nowadays Bollywood is synonymous with copycats. Last saturday evening, I was glancing at a movie airing on Zee English (or whatever is their movie channel) and 30 minutes into the movie, I sensed that it seemed similar to a Hindi blockbuster. Worse still, this blockbuster had won a spate of awards at the multitude of leading award ceremonies and all. The English movie is Eye of the Needle and the much feted inspired Bollywood movie is Fanaa. These directors, story writers have no conscience it seems.
In recent times, amidst all the stale stuff being dished out, the movie Aamir seemed to stand out. But some time back I was saddened to know that it is a complete copycat of a movie called as Cavite.
Was just wondering, if some of them feel any pangs when their inspired creations win awards and they get all the credits.
I guess, since even the name Bollywood is inspired from Hollywood, we really shouldn't blame them for not being so original after all. Sigh.. I say
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Dubai Rocks!!
So on my way back from the US, I decided to do a stopover of around 3 days in Dubai. It came in free, you see, because my company was flying me to-fro on Emirates. Plus I have my cousin sister staying there with her family, so wanted to visit them too.
Had heard a lot about Dubai being visitor friendly and even though I was advised to take a visa from India itself, based on some suggestions by past visitors and my own laziness, I decided to do a visa on arrival. Oh how costly that turned out to be. Normal Visa charges in India would have been around 40 US $. But Emirates guys have some fine print that if one takes a visa on arrival from them in Dubai, that person has to necessarily buy hotel stay for the entire duration from them. I was like WTFFFF!!! Much to my angst and anger I had to shell out 400 US $, even though I was not going to stay in any hotel. So future travelers, beware!!
Thankfully, this turned out to be the only sore point of the trip. I was blown away by Dubai. This place rocks. Its like a globally cosmopolitan desert land, which has a thirst for concrete development like no other. I was told Dubai houses 25% of the world's largest cranes. Dubai just wants to be the best in everything that they construct. Add to that other very important freebies like Zero Tax and it makes it to rock harder. Though its an expensive place with rentals and real estate prices touching the roof. But an always eager rest of the world making a beeline, its sustaining the load. Was there for 2 days and checked out the different places. The Dubai Museum gave a fascinating glimpse of the Dubai of yesteryears and how under an ambitious, visionary, driven and very liberal ruler, it has transformed into this business hub in Asia.
Here are some pics of my tour. Check out the place at least once is my recommendation :)
Had heard a lot about Dubai being visitor friendly and even though I was advised to take a visa from India itself, based on some suggestions by past visitors and my own laziness, I decided to do a visa on arrival. Oh how costly that turned out to be. Normal Visa charges in India would have been around 40 US $. But Emirates guys have some fine print that if one takes a visa on arrival from them in Dubai, that person has to necessarily buy hotel stay for the entire duration from them. I was like WTFFFF!!! Much to my angst and anger I had to shell out 400 US $, even though I was not going to stay in any hotel. So future travelers, beware!!
Thankfully, this turned out to be the only sore point of the trip. I was blown away by Dubai. This place rocks. Its like a globally cosmopolitan desert land, which has a thirst for concrete development like no other. I was told Dubai houses 25% of the world's largest cranes. Dubai just wants to be the best in everything that they construct. Add to that other very important freebies like Zero Tax and it makes it to rock harder. Though its an expensive place with rentals and real estate prices touching the roof. But an always eager rest of the world making a beeline, its sustaining the load. Was there for 2 days and checked out the different places. The Dubai Museum gave a fascinating glimpse of the Dubai of yesteryears and how under an ambitious, visionary, driven and very liberal ruler, it has transformed into this business hub in Asia.
Here are some pics of my tour. Check out the place at least once is my recommendation :)
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Bon Voyage!
Well, my short stay in America is over. I will be leaving on Friday. Was pretty much an AMERICAN stay here. I ate a lot of American food - steaks, salads, omelettes, soups, glazed ribs and what not. The best place according to me was Benihana. I just loved the concept of someone cooking food on your table in front of you! I can already feel the combined effects of all this food on my belly.
I drank a lot of American beer - coors, ambiere, samuel adams and the likes. I did not like the coors light beer at all, it tastes yucky to me. I sampled a lot of american shots too this time around - yeager bombs, goldslager, pineapple upside-down and all. (No I am not a drunkard if you have started thinking so, I was just socializing you see :)) and even interacted with a lot of cool American colleagues from my office :).
Am planning on buying some stuff from here before I leave. I always get a beating back home because I don't take some stuff back. But you know, you pretty much get everything nowadays back in India at pretty much the same price. Some things on the list are - cheap external USB drive, toys for my nephew and my cousin sis' kids, some toiletries for the ladies back home, chocolates etc. Everyone has been paying for most of my meals and drinks here, so I have some dollars to spend on all of this :)
Will reach Dubai on Saturday where I will get a visa hopefully and check the place out. I hope the jetlag does not get to me while am in Dubai, otherwise I will be sleeping when the Sun is shining brightly down upon me :). Heading back to India on Monday. So more travel updates soon!
I drank a lot of American beer - coors, ambiere, samuel adams and the likes. I did not like the coors light beer at all, it tastes yucky to me. I sampled a lot of american shots too this time around - yeager bombs, goldslager, pineapple upside-down and all. (No I am not a drunkard if you have started thinking so, I was just socializing you see :)) and even interacted with a lot of cool American colleagues from my office :).
Am planning on buying some stuff from here before I leave. I always get a beating back home because I don't take some stuff back. But you know, you pretty much get everything nowadays back in India at pretty much the same price. Some things on the list are - cheap external USB drive, toys for my nephew and my cousin sis' kids, some toiletries for the ladies back home, chocolates etc. Everyone has been paying for most of my meals and drinks here, so I have some dollars to spend on all of this :)
Will reach Dubai on Saturday where I will get a visa hopefully and check the place out. I hope the jetlag does not get to me while am in Dubai, otherwise I will be sleeping when the Sun is shining brightly down upon me :). Heading back to India on Monday. So more travel updates soon!
Monday, June 2, 2008
RailsConferencing
Have been updating my other blog since I am visiting RailsConf in Portland, Oregon. Am back to NJ today morning. Checkout the stuff that I did there during the conf. We also managed to get someone post a pic of our booth on Flickr :)
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