Sunday @ Hanks

Sunday the 9 th, turned out to be a Hanks day for me. I was almost free. And in this sultry weather I decided to stay back at home and enjoy three classic Tom Hanks movie. Well for those who does not know Tom Hanks, he is an American actor, producer, writer and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title role in Forrest Gump, Commander James A. Lovell in Apollo 13, Captain John H. Miller in Saving Private Ryan, Sheriff Woody in Disney/Pixar's Toy Story, Chuck Noland in Cast Away, and Joe "NY152" Fox in You've Got Mail. Hanks won consecutive Best Actor Academy Awards, in 1993 for Philadelphia and in 1994 for Forrest Gump.

Well yesterday I managed to watch 1) The Terminal : Its a 2004 comedy-drama film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones. It is about a man trapped in a terminal at JFK International Airport when he is denied entry into the United States and at the same time cannot return to his native country, the fictitious Krakozhia, due to a revolution. The film is said to be inspired by the 18-year-stay of Mehran Karimi Nasseri in the Charles de Gaulle International Airport, Terminal I, Paris, France from 1988 to 2006.

2) Catch Me If You Can: Its a 2002 American comedy-drama film based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr., who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars by posing as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor and Louisiana attorney and parish prosecutor. His primary crime was cheque forgery, becoming so skillful that the FBI eventually turned to him for help in catching other cheque forgers. Steven Spielberg directed the film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Abagnale and Tom Hanks as Hanratty as well as Christopher Walken, Amy Adams, Martin Sheen, and Nathalie Baye.

3) Cast Away: Its a 2000 adventure film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks. Hanks portrays a fictional FedEx employee who is stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes on a flight over the South Pacific. The film depicts his attempts to survive on the island using remnants of his plane's cargo, as well as his eventual escape and return to society. Hanks was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 73rd Academy Awards for his critically acclaimed performance.

Well the descriptions may not be the right way to judge the acting supremacy of Tom Hanks. So friends if you are unaware of this legend, just google and take out some time to watch those masterpiece.


And today I'm leaving for a long trip. Train @ 11 PM from Sealdah. Will miss u friends but will keep on blogging. And plz plz plz keep on commenting!!!

Keep Smiling !!!

Simply Laugh

Septua To Nonagenarian's

"Man is a social animal". Well we all know this and it is applicable for every human being irrespective of the fact whether you are a teenager or a septuagenarian or a nonagenarian. But unfortunately many people specially the sophisticated ones and the younger generation does not believe this. They are really finding it very difficult to digest this age old fact. Yes, its us because of whom the oldies are suffering. Mom and dad when 60 does not remain as sweet and close as they were before. Literally they are treated as if they are kind of burden for us. Its pathetic and pity to note that we does not care for our own mom and dad and shove them in old age home. The people who are the replica of GOD at least as said in our own tradition, surely deserves a much more respect and care even when they cross 60.

Oh! Gosh where is all the humanity going?

I urge all the youths and people of our society to spend a bit of time atleast talking to the older generation. May be a few minute will not bug u, but it could play miracle for them, who have been secluded. Just place yourself in their shoes and think how it would feel to stay alone without talking to anyone. These oldies need nothing just a bit of support and love from our side. And I think those experienced bunch are not asking much. A small place in heart is all they need. After all love moves the world!!!!!!

The Wishing Well

Male or Mail

Munni Ki Ma

Oh finally the Government Of India came up with a golden policy which will feature thousands of poor home maids across the country. Even though its debatable and many people may not happily agree to it. But trust me, I think that if we can get a weekly off then why can't they. They have been tortured and humiliated for numerous occasion at times even in my own home. I never liked that. The policy will simply imbibe some self respect for them. Just being poor, backward and helpless does not at all mean that they are not human. If we expect them to be machines and help manage our home, day in and day out with a negligible wage and perquisite and without leaves and breaks then it is completely ridiculous from our part. We need to put our self in their position and think that even they have a family and home to look after. Their two months small baby, their eighty seven year old ailing mother also need their support and care as much as we need and may be sometimes a few degree more than us. The thing is simple we need to be sensible and human while dealing with these poorly paid and treated beings.

Well still it will take a lot of time to actually put this proposed policy into practice and there is every possibility that it may get lost even before coming into picture. But still I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Theres every possibility that you have missed this front page news which featured the workplace rights for maids. Well, the faceless engine without which daily life will grind to a hault in India, are finally set to get the right to a weekly off, employment contract, minimum wage, fix working hours and health and life insurance.

Really, if it gets accepted then it will change the face of house maids in India. Documentation of these unskilled daily workers is absolutely necessary which will even check crimes and may even put a full stop to the regular sexual harassment. Who could forget the latest Sahini Ahuja episode.

Just give it a little thought!

DEBDEEP

Well, you know what its tough to deny close buddies. A simple request from Prakash Dolridge Toppo and here it is the most amazing testimonial of Debdeep. Even orkut could not handle the excessive load of this great epic. So friends, fasten your seat belt and enjoy this wonderful fountain of words by Prakash and off course feel free to comment.


"DEBDEEP...........uh.....oh........hmmm........................okay

The first thing I would say is that Never ever think to write a testimonial on him. Secondly if the thought comes in to your foolish minds, never ever dare to write one.

Confused ????????? I will prove both the points.

Many a times we meet people and the first thing we do is become formal. "hi", "hello", "Morning"..............etc. But HEY......... "abe yaar tension kis cheez ka, problem hai to batao, solve ho jayega". Moreover he would sit with you, listen to you, and then at the end of it all...........THERE IS NO SOLUTION TO THIS. The last portion was a pun.
Therefore you can see that he is very very fun loving and facetious. He never forgets to shine his teeth before going out anywhere, because those are the most revealing portions of his body. He is very athletic and his "long jumps" are awesome. I doubt whether his trainer is a monkey. He is a great manager, and can organise parties and meetings, but at the end of it all, the credits go to the others who helped him. Are engineering ke baad MBA karna parta hai. Again if you wish to call him or sms him, you do have to wait for a long time. This is because, he cares his cellphone so much that to bring it out off his pocket into his skeletal fingers, takes a long long time. Again his haircuts are all peculiar, seems like, had a rush at the barber and therefore the latter took his revenge. Again................... Again......................Again
See i told you Never ever think to write one. The list does not finish.


But really, if you want to have a real friend, he's the one. Now do not go by the definition of "real" (having an actual existence in the physical world), but in the sense that he is a genuine person who can just make you feel secured when in and around. He loves to eat heavy food and light snacks are his enemies.
Yes, gossips and chatting are his special weapons. He deceives people through the efficient use of these tools. Wah! Wah! These are the computer engineers. Again i don't understand he has a soft corner for squashy and spongy bengali songs. A character like him can have a contrasting taste. Moreover he loves to take snapshots of....... of......of,, KYA YAAR HE ALWAYS TAKES PHOTOS of anything. Pata nahi mera modelling assignment kab aayega ??????
He has numerous tastes and different hobbies but again I said earlier, never ever sit down to write a testimonial for him. They never finish.

Now since i have proved my both points, it is time to reveal the actual truth. To know him and to comprehend him, you need to be close friends with him. And to become a close friend you just need to do one simple thing......................................
SEND A FRIEND REQUEST. It is as simple as that.
Anyways good luck.........................."

Sci-Fi

Those who does not understand "Fallopian Tube", google!

Adieu Friends

Its exactly 4 years in the city of joy. The memory stretches from first lecture @ Goenka to the last working day @ IBM. Really the 4 years were a perfect blend of exposure and freedom for me. I have witnessed the harsh days @ Shoba Bazar & Dum Dum Cantonment to the smooth stay @ 73/9. I have tasted the plain simple food of police canteen on one hand and the spicy cuisine of Machan @ Money Square on the other. I have enjoyed a lot @ swanky malls and even suffered and panicked @ water logged street. The office hour rush crowd @ Bangaon Local to the soft, smooth luxurious journey @ Low line volvo AC bus, I have seen it all. From Debadarshi to Devesh and from Pratik to Prakash, I have met hundreds of people in this great city.

Well yet again I'm standing on the verge of another sharp turn in my career and there are several things that I'm going to miss and I reckon that many of them are never going to replicate in my life time.

Joining Art Of Living and then diving deep into the service was definitely one of the finest thing that I have done in my life. And rightly the good deed, presented Ridhi Tibrawala, a beautiful soul into my life. Well, I really don't know the reason behind my affinity with her, but yeh strangely, once an unknown face is now my elder sister. The amount of love and respect that I have got not only from her but also from her clans is simply amazing. Ridhi, Kriti and Saurabh are the three musketeer with whom I gelled well during my fruitful stay @ Kolkata.

The mouth watering, savoury food that I got to eat, even hundreds of KM away from home was only possible because of the Tibrawala's. Really I owe a lot to them and will truly miss you people.

Devesh, the swashbuckling, Mechanical Engineer from Jadavpur University, frankly tops the list whom I'm going to miss. The days with him were fabulous. We have smiled, fought and even slept neck to neck (read positively) for numerous occasion.

Its tough to get a friend who will fit into his shoes. His physical absence will surely bug a lot. I wish him very best for his next chapter @ United States and I'm confident that he is going to get many accolades even in that foreign land.

Really it seems, I would have to continue playing (read living) without some key players and it would be tough to overcome there absence. I agree life needs to move on but its going to be a real emotional turn around!

The Barking Culprit

Love Moves The World

I was 16, when I first heard about Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Art Of Living. Yeh, both of them are two sides of the same coin they cannot be separated from each other. In our nuclear family, my father was the first person to get into AOL and I was the last. At first it appeared just to be a normal thing for me. But slowly the music penetrated my body and touched my soul and soon I was dancing into the tunes of Vikram Bhaiya.


Well, Guruji was born on May 13, 1956, in Tamil Nadu. He is an exponent of Advaita Vedanta and the spiritual leader of the Art of Living Foundation (founded 1982), which aims at relieving both individual stress and societal problems and violence, and which is an NGO (non-governmental organization) with UNESCO consultative status. According to his biographies, at the age of four Guruji could recite the Bhagavad Gita and then moved on to receive a baccalaureate in science at 17 from St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore University. He was even nominated for The Nobel Prize for peace. He has written various books on spirituality like "God Loves Fun", "Celebrating Silence", "An Intimate Note to the Sincere Seeker" etc etc.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar emphasizes breath as the link between body and mind and, therefore, as a tool to relax the mind, emphasizing both meditation and service to others. According to him, science and spirituality are linked and consistent. Emphasizing that joy is only available in the present moment, his stated vision is to create a world free of stress and violence, and his programs are said to offer practical tools to help accomplish the desired goal.

Sudarshan Kriya is a breath-oriented process, and a core component of the Art of Living courses. According to me its the best thing I have ever experienced in my life. Frankly speaking the feelings are beyond comparison. I can only tell u that, thousands and thousands of people across the globe have hugely benefited from this unique techniques. Be it a poor Indian farmer or a sophisticated American billionaire.

The Art of Living Foundation is one of the world’s largest volunteer based, humanitarian and educational Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO). It was founded in 1982 with the vision of creating a stress-free, violence-free society. The Art of Living has reached out to over 300 million people in over 140 countries with its various programs. AOL are dealing with hundreds of social problems across the globe. Prison courses of AOL are very effective, which deals with the stress level of hard core prisoners and terrorists and in many instances have completely re-structured there life.

As a member of such a big organisation I myself have visited its Tribal School in Ghatsila. Really the amount of labour and pain they have taken to educate those tiny tots is amazing. Most of them are the first one to get educated in their family. AOL have really offered a helping hand towards the building of independent citizens. Apart from the regular course work they are trained in vocational studies which will later help them in earning their livelihood. And let me tell you that this is just one example and there are probably a thousand more, occuring every day every hour at different centres of the world.

The Green Kolkata Clean Kolkata campaign was other learning experience and a positive initiative from the youth members of AOL, Kolkata. Yes, the journey so far is undoubtedly without any hurdles and there are always a thousand things which you can learn while you are standing under the banner of "Art Of Living". Self Confidence is the main thing which I got from meditation apart from clarity of mind. I could really feel the shift after doing kriya (meditation). Science also says that meditation has a positive effect on the various chakras of our body. So the young health conscious society is getting more and more inclined towards these stress booster techniques.

The satsang or the bhajans, rejuvenate my soul and feeds happiness into my body. The feeling after half an hour satsang session @ Bangalore ashram is simply beyond words. You just need to feel it. The aura there is so different, its bound to shift your mood.

Thanks Guruji! for radiating my life with so much of knowledge, faith and love.
Jai Gurudev!

Humor @ Cricket

Why are these Aussies behind me? I thought section 377 was legalized only in India.



Miandad had probably been watching a lot of wrestling the previous night, maybe wrestling of a different kind. You may call it the slug hitting. Perhaps inspired by American Baseball.




Dhoni is not just a good cricketer and captain, here he is showing us some of his karate skills. Now that's called a true all-rounder.

HairDress

Paa's Hole

The Ghost Town

Dallol was a settlement in northern Ethiopia. Located in Administrative Zone 2 of the Afar Region in the Afar Depression. It is situated at an elevation of 50 meters above sea level. The Central Statistical Agency has not published an estimate for this settlement's 2005 population; it has been described as a ghost town.

Dallol currently holds the record high average temperature for an inhabited location on Earth, where an average annual temperature of 34°C (94°F) was recorded between the years 1960 and 1966. Dallol is also one of the most remote places on Earth. There are no roads; the only regular transport service is provided by camel caravans which travel to the area to collect salt.

Nearby is the Dallol volcano, which last erupted in 1926.


Uuuuuuuuuhuuuuuuu, got lost in the bumpy terrain of Dallol, think about an entire day trip in that strange land. Just imagine!

CBS

Well Core Banking Solutions (CBS) is new jargon frequently used in banking circles. The advancement in technology, especially internet and information technology has led to new ways of doing business in banking. These technologies have cut down time, working simultaneously on different issues and increasing efficiency. The platform where communication technology and information technology are merged to suit core needs of banking is known as Core Banking Solutions. Here, computer software is developed to perform core operations of banking like recording of transactions, passbook maintenance, interest calculations on loans and deposits, customer records, balance of payments and withdrawal are done. This software is installed at different branches of bank and then interconnected by means of communication lines like telephones, satellite, internet etc. It allows the user (customers) to operate accounts from any branch if it has installed core banking solutions. This new platform has changed the way banks are working.

Nowadays, most banks use core banking applications to support their operations where CORE stands for "Centralized Online Real-time Exchange". This basically means that all the bank's branches access applications from centralized datacenters. This means that the deposits made are reflected immediately on the bank's servers and the customer can withdraw the deposited money from any of the bank's branches throughout the world. Few decades ago it used to take atleast a day for the amount to reflect in the account because each branch had their local servers and the data from server in branch to server in the datacenter happened only at the end of the day (EoD).

Normal core banking functions will include deposit accounts, loans, mortgages and payments. Banks make these services available across multiple channels like ATMs, Internet banking, and branches.

Thus CBS has revolutionised the seven letter word called "B A N K I N G".