I miss those good old days....,

...., when it ws nothing but fun.., i mite hav posted this already., but am doing it again., to remember those good old days..,

BharathStudent.com : The young soul of India

All of us have must heard or experienced our careers break ‘cause of us spending our ‘productive’ time at work on online communities. Now, here’s one that will MAKE your career while you sit make friends, chat and watch videos. “Wait a minute.., videos?? Which community is that” you say!?

I’m talking about the new online community, Bharathstudent.com. Before I write what I think of it, I will put a pre-review for you in one line. For me, it’s like orkut + googlevideo/youtube + naukri/monster/timesjobs. Yes, it’s true., you got all that on one site and all in your reach once you’re a member through a free registration.

Now, here’s a little about the portal. The site’s look and feel is quite decent, neat and easy to navigate. It has different sections like Friends, Gangs (groups/communities), Bharath Café, Study abroad, Campus TV, Girls only and Earn Part Time (you can work parttime for the portal n earn money). It’s targeted at the youth, like every other community or even jobsite. But the inclusion of careers and ‘study abroad’ sections gives me the impression that this is not just another portal to pass time but a serious attempt to entertain and also help the youth of our country with their careers.

Friends: This is where you search for your friends and add them (why? I donno, but ppl love doing that on all communities) and also make new friends according to whatever you look for in a friend.

Gangs: This is the familiar groups/communities section where there are hundreds of communities under all possible categories where you can join and discuss about topics of common interest. I know quite a few people who join communities just so that they can learn stuff from the communities or GANGS. I’m so proud of them !

Bharath Café: This, you can call as an Indian version of the Youtube or Google Video where you got Latest news, gossips, wallpapers and videos in regional languages. But this is where I was disappointed, the videos uploaded here are exclusive from Bharathstudent.com only and we are not allowed to upload any. Aww shucks ! Oh wait., I’ve just been informed that we can upload our own videos in another section. These videos are also good enough to pass some time.

Study Abroad: Hundreds of students from India migrate to other countries in search of an independent life and good education. The reason why they leave India to go to another country is not known to me, but I’m sure they are pretty strong to put in such huge investment in going to a foreign nation and studying there for two long years. Bharath Student have decided to help them out regarding their information about various colleges abroad, profile reviewing and Visa consultation and of course there’s the forum where students can help each other out. It’s pretty hard to get all this info online at one single place and this is what I liked about Bharath Student.

Campus TV: Aah., now here’s the section I’ve been talking about., THIS is where you can upload your videos to share with everybody. You can do so under different given sections. What’s more exciting is that you can win gifts by uploading videos from or about your college campus. You also get 100 bucks for every 1000 views for each campus video. Good start for amateur video makers eh?

Girls Only: This is a section exclusively for girls. Here you got ‘Profile of the week’, ‘Recipe of the day’, ‘Powerful Women’, ‘Tip of the day’, ‘Product reviews’ and Featured articles and discussions. I wish they had a guy’s section too. Oh well.., this portal’s still cool.

I’ve got invitations from tens of online communities and I don’t even bother to register ‘cause they’re all the same. I did register for this immediately ‘cause the home page of the site says it all.., talks about all the stuff the site has to offer and I don’t regret joining this ‘cause it’s worth it. It’s free.., it’s fun and it’s useful too. Try it.., it’s definitely worth trying. I would like to know your thoughts about what you think about the portal.

Valentines mssg tips....

I know, the search engines must be really running on full load today with lovers frantickly searching for 'romantic' messages or sms's that they can just copy and send to their loved ones in hope of impressing them. Well, it works most of the time but imagine if a casual friend has already forwarded the same message to your loved one before you ! Oops ! U don't want that do you ?

I've always noticed that compared to when I send forwarded goodmorning or goodnight wishes, I get more replies from my friends when I sent them personalised wishes. I suggest you do the same for V-day !

It's not really thaaat hard. You don't need fancy words or lines that look like they were lifted off Elton John or Celine Dion's romantic singles. Write down something you really want to say or express, edit it and shorten it to the right size and send it with both your names. Mentioning names adds a personal touch that a fwd sms can never have. If you girl/boy friend's cool and don't mind you being goofy or funny, make up a four line poem with rhyming words and be jussst a little funny. It'll work gr8 !

Goodluck with your impressing and wish you a very happy Valentines day !!

Salaam-e-Ishq: The review

When I saw the promo of this movie and saw the huge collection of stars in this one single movie, I was very excited. All those stars and none that I can call my favorite but, I just knew that so many stories with so many stars packed into one single movie can only mean lots to see and no place for boredom and to add to my excitement, the songs also seemed full of melody and energy. Mmmm.... just the way I like them! I said to myself, ‘Dude, you CANNOT miss that movie!’.

The reviews that I got from all my friends that the movie is sick n horrible and many more adjectives that you would not generally use for a movie kind of got me worried. After I saw the movie, I was disappointed, disappointed that my friends don’t really have a good taste. I enjoyed the movie, from titles to titles. Yup! If you’ve seen the movie and disagree with me, read why I said what I said.

I used to tell my friends that I hate love stories when I actually hate love stories that are very regular, very bollywood and nothing that makes it stand out. Well, this one’s anything but that and that’s why I liked it. I liked the idea of putting six different stories in one movie. I liked the idea of having different love stories that we don’t usually see in bollywood.

Love stories that start off with marriage and go the other way around. Stories where you have your loved one with you, but she doesn’t remember you, seen memory loss stories in bollywood before? This one’s been dealt different! Love stories where you work hard to help the one you love find somebody else she loves. Love stories where life is a movie story and you just cannot help but follow the script. Love stories where you realize you’re not ready for commitment a little too late. Love stories where you have everything in life but want ‘just that little’ more which can cost you everything you already have. Stories where you can’t do what you wanna do with/to your loved one (this one’s really fun!).

Confusing review isn’t it? I’m not gonna give away the story (or stories) to you just like that but, I’ll tell you this. The idea of having six different stories that are very different from each other but kind of subtly connect to each other and having them alternate throughout the movie without boring us with one loooong story is really nice. Although it’s a three hour and 36 min long movie, I personally didn’t get bored for a minute in the movie. The songs only add more plus points to my personal impression about the movie and my review.

Don’t go expecting a typical one long love story, get yourself a big bag of popcorn, sit back, relax and enjoy the movie with an open mind. Enjoy each story by itself and you’ll enjoy the whole movie. Pakka!

Focus.... focus.... Clichik !

Urs truly has been bitten by the tech bug lately. Actually I've been bitten a long time ago, the bite keeps getting fresh every now n then. I'm almost dying to get my hands on a digicam for me. When my parents think it's an 'expensive' interest, I gotto do something about it myself. I'm sooooo into this, upto the extent that I've been thinking of getting a part time job so that I can get me a shiny new digi.

Why digicam ? I'm a creative guy with lots of creative interests and I know i'm pretty good at photography too. I also believe that everybody shud have a cam with them coz moments are moments, they only come once in life. To capture as many of them pssbl would be really nice!

IF ALL GOES WELL ;) I mite earn pretty good on the ads on my blog too. But I can't keep my hopes up too high on these ads though. Nobody ever clicks on ads on a personal blog coz they're not 'related' or 'specific'. Damn ! I even thought of having a paypal donation widget on the sidebar but even if that looked like me begging for money, how many blog readers would give away money just like that ?

I guess I have to wait and wait a little longer untill everything goes fine n my wallet gets heavy enough for me to make one of my dreams come true.

My new friends....

Music's one of my best friends, especially when all my other friends are away coz of many reasons. Some songs cheer me up, some motivate, some heal n some help me pass time. I've made friends with a few new (to me) really good songs that I'd like to introduce to you.

The first one's by Nelly Furtado from her new album Loose. It's a cool song about life.

"All Good Things (Come To An End)"
Honestly what will become of me

don't like reality

It's way too clear to me

But really life is daily

We are what we don't see

Missed everything daydreaming

[Chorus:] Flames to dust

Lovers to friends

Why do all good things come to an end

Flames to dust

Lovers to friends

Why do all good things come to an end

come to an end come to an...

Why do all good things come to end?

come to an end come to an...

Why do all good things come to an end?

Traveling I only stop at exits

Wondering if I'll stay

Young and restless

Living this way I stress less

I want to pull away when the dream dies

The pain sets it and I don't cry

I only feel gravity and I wonder why

[Chorus]

Well the dogs were whistling a new tune

Barking at the new moon

Hoping it would come soon so that they could

Dogs were whistling a new tune

Barking at the new moon

Hoping it would come soon so that they could

Die die die die die

[Chorus]

Well the dogs were............

Other good songs that I've made friends with are

The Killers - When You Were Young

U2 and greenday- the saints are coming

Akon Feat. Eminem - Smack That

Try them out, really cool songs !

A traffic light has a more exciting life than mine....

.... coz atleast it keeps changing colors all the time, stops working, gets repaired etc. Life's been sooo slow lately that a 5 min commercial ad can be made about my life over the past 6 months! I always wanted to take an year off after my graduation before I continue further with my career. To take time off regular life to do things I always wanted do, learn things that I always wanted to learn, relax., enjoy n all similar good things.

You plan something and life has something else in store for you, always! Now I know how it feels to be jobless at home, by choice or by circumstance. I don't wanna sound negative about it but I feel kind of wasted, as in, I could have done so much all this while n didn't really use all the time available. I wanna do a lot of things but....... hmm... sounds like too much nagging or complaining eh? I guess I'll stop now.

By the way... if anybody's watching Amazing Race Asia.. on a recent episode I saw something really funny. We all know asians eat all kinds of food right? All kinds of vegitation and every possible form of life. What surprised me was that all the contenders had a really tough time eating a full meal at a bengali restaurant! They were throwing up! Is it really that hard!? Not sure, but it was definitely very funny to watch.

Here goes another yr...

The last day of 2006. Personally, it’s been a long year for me. The year we’ve graduated. The year we had to say our goodbyes to our college. The year we all ‘grew up’ n started working. The year I had to face some of the toughest exams of my life. The year I said goodbye to a lot of my friends leaving this city. The year I was, for the first time in my life, jobless n felt jobless. It’s time to say goodbye to 2006.

It’s not just about remembering what happened in the previous year. It’s also about learning from those experiences.

It’s not just about counting down to midnight n cheering the arrival of the New Year. It’s also about being happy that you’re with the ppl u care about n celebrating the moment with them.

It’s not just about forwarding greetings and sms’s of New Year wishes to everybody in your phone book. It’s about remembering each one of them n sending them your wishes of a good year ahead.

It's not just about going out n spending money to celebrate the event. It's also bout making sure you're really having fun.

It’s not just about drinking n driving recklessly assuming it to be the way to have real fun. It’s also about coming back home safely to start a fresh year.

It’s not just about reading this post n getting back to your lives. It’s also about wishing me back !