Top Phllums of 2008

I’d like to unveil the list of movies that I think were the best of 2008. My list is not based on the box office. If you want to know how a film did go to boxofficeindia.com. My list is not based on any critic’s review of a movie. Let’s face it, Indian critics are only good at telling you the plot of a story.

Comparing 2008 to other years, I thought it was just an okay year. Then again I can’t be called an expert on 2008. Somewhere along living through 2008, I forgot how incredibly filmi I was. The year started big with Jodha Akbhar. While this movie was quite lavish, it won’t be making my making my list of great movies of year – just wasn’t that excited for having watched the movie.

Ghajini – while I thought that Memento was groundbreaking with the whole backwards plot thing – I felt Ghajini was a better film that it wasn’t so confusing and it was more interesting, especially the love story which I couldn’t wait to watch more and more of.

Jaane Tu... ya jaane na – wasn’t just any blah blah college romance piece, it was so much more. It was two people coming to terms with their destiny. It was about a group of friends. It was about how good Imraan Khan looked and how he made the cougar come out of any woman.

Slumdog Millionaire – while not an Indian film, but set entirely in India – I figured I put this in my list because it was damn good. You know a movie is good, if you wouldn’t mind if it was longer or you could sit through it again (back to back) or you feel better for having watched it.

A Wednesday – in light of the recent terror attacks in Bombay [although released prior to the attacks] – this film really hits hard. Who knew Jimmy Shergill had it in him to be so powerful and not just a pushover. In comparison, I still like Khakhee better (in this genre). I’d like to also mention Black and White – which I thought was a really bad movie. I think as soon as Anil Kapoor’s character heard the guys talking about their radical jihadi beliefs he should have reported them to authorities and the movie would have ended – this message of the movie was embracing terrorists (like that is going to stop them), it should be about preventing attacks. I can write another entry about this.

Race – great music, good looking actors, scantily clad women and a story line with twists and turns – that is why this makes it to the list. Just when I think I’ve figured out the movie and it has ended, here comes another piece of the puzzle.

Honorable Mentions: Welcome to Sajanpur, Shaurya

This is a working list and based on the films I have seen this year. Films that will be considered within the next couple of weeks: Rock On!!, Phoonk, Sarkar Raj [which I have only partially seen].

Text Flirting: Desi Style

I couldn’t comprehend texting (SMS – Short Messaging Service) – I didn’t need it, it wasn’t for me. It took eternity to type a message; chiefly because the 26-lettered alphabet is dispersed within just 9 number keys, not to mention the punctuation as well. Getting over my typing hurdle, I decided to give it a try. It turned out that texting was easy and even amusing. The simplest was forwarding jokes. Though, I shouldn’t have done it, I can text while driving – I’ve got mad skills. Ironically, now I can’t understand those people that block text messages. The frequent text forwards I used to get have dwindled, which led me to endeavor to look for some good text forwards. Let me say, in this venture I have come across some really dreadful texts, but there have been some noteworthy SMSs.

In my research, I came across an article, “Flirting by Text Message, Indians Test Social Limits”; it discusses how Indians use Text Messages or SMS to flirt in society where verbally flirting in public is difficult (but not impossible). I believe that flirting by text is genius and as in the article it is okay to text flirt with more than one person at a time. In stating whether or not, I flirt by text – I will have to plead the Fifth. I also read some Text Flirting Etiquette and a How to Guide, that would be useful to novice texter or the experienced.

For the wannabe cellular Casanova, that have so much smoothness in them, but doesn’t know what to say, I’ve compiled a list of some good flirtatious text messages.
While you may classify some as being cheesy, they are generally sweet and will bring a smile to the intended reader’s face. To start the list, a text message about flirting: “Flirting is the only job in the world that we cannot include in our CV/Resume.. Despite having years of experience and a number of references”. The categories are just suggestions, no need to follow the path.

Text flirting with someone you have a brief acquaintance with:
1) _________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Hey there Hottie, I am totally line maaring you! [THIS IS SHEEL SHAH ORIGNAL – Gotta love it]

2) Na Bottle Main Na Jar Main
Na Restaurant Main Na Bar Main
Na Bike Pe Na Car Main
Hum To Bus Din Guzartain Hain
Aap Ke Milne Ke Intezar Main

3) Somewhere, someone dreams of your smile
and finds your presence in life so worth while.
So when you are lonely, remember it's true –
someone, somewhere, is thinking of you.

4) Sometimes words are so hard to find,
to say that one perfect line,
to let you know you're always on my mind!

Text flirting with someone you are friends with:
1) Who is Hot? It's U
Who is Charming? It's U
Who is Sweet? It's U
Who is Smart? It's U
Don't get too full of yourself, some hottie just sent this to me
OR
Zyada khush hone ke zaroorat nahi hai, some hottie just sent this to me

2) Those beautiful eyes, that incredible body, such a brain, sexy lips, nice smile....
but that is enough about me, tell me how are you?

3) I think you are very careless! You come & leave things behind! See what you’ve just left behind. You just came in my mind and left a smile on my face.

4) Always be happy; always wear a smile; not because life is full of reasons to smile but because your smile itself is a reason for many others to smile!

5) When the night comes, look at the sky.
If you see a falling star, don't wonder why,
just make a wish. Trust me it will come true,
'cause I did it and I found you.

And to take it up a notch:
1) Hello!! What's wrong with your cell? Tried so many times but every time I call it says: The subscriber you are trying to reach is in your heart!

2) If a big fat man creeps into your bedroom one night and stuffs you into a bag, Then do not worry 'cause I told Santa I wanted you for Christmas!

3) I love your eyes, I love your smile. I cherish your ways, I adore your style. What can I say? You are one of a kind and 24/7, you are on my mind!

4) Hearts can Skip a beat 4 a while
Memories can b kept in the file
A desert can b replaced by the Nile
But nothin can stop my smile
when ur name appears on my MOBILE

If now you know what you want to say, but still want to be anonymous, when you send it out, here’s a site that allows you to do just that.

As a warning, please don’t have an entire relationship that initiates, flourishes and finally gets extinguished via text. Text Flirting is basically the first step or one of the steps; other interaction and communication is key. Also, while you can send pick-up lines through texting, I feel that pick-up lines are too cheap to be sent via text.

Happy Text Flirting!!

Claim your money

Sometimes we forget that we have stocks, bonds, savings accounts, security deposits, contents of safe deposit boxes, insurance proceeds and other valuables out there -- that we have forgotten about. Sometimes it's paychecks we never claimed or something. These are reported to the govermentt as unclaimed by banks and other financial institutions after three years.

Here's a website to find missing money"
http://missingmoney.com/

For the State of Maryland:
https://interactive.marylandtaxes.com/Individuals/Unclaim/default.aspx

Orkut - Social Networking

Orkut is a social networking service which is run by Google and named after its creator, an employee of Google - Orkut Büyükkökten. Orkut is the most visited website in Brazil and second most visited site in India. Unfortunately, it's not that popular in the United States. I think probably because Facebook is quite popular. Orkut is quite limited in design and capabilites compared to Facebook.

Orkut Scrapbook similar to the Facebook Wall, is much better than the Wall. It allows so much more to be posted.
Here are some Orkut dedicated websites that enhance Scrap positing:

Song dedication using Scrapbook
http://www.musicalorkut.blogspot.com/
http://www.songscrap.blogspot.com/
http://mp3street.org/

Orkut scraps - graphics and flash
http://www.123orkut.com/ [songs as well]
http://www.orkutsmart.com/ [create your own messages]


[More later, many sites blocked at my work]

Reincarnation

Reincarnation, literally "to be made flesh again", is a doctrine or metaphysical belief that some essential part of a living being survives death to be reborn in a new body. This cycle continues until the soul receives moksh.

Having stated this, my cousin, Krishna, and I were pondering about a particularly cheesy pick up line/scenario about having known someone in a previous life time (meeting in a pichla janam). While no guy has ever come up to me and said they knew me from a previous lifetime - if they had, as cynical as I am I probably wouldn't believe them. I'd have a laugh it off and move on. What if someone I knew from a previous life with whom my soul is connected to is out there somewhere?

Which brings on an experiment. I’ll try to connect with a random subject as their girlfriend/love interest from a previous life. Does this pick-up line work on guys? My subjects should only be flattered, I only consider guys that I think are attractive. Keep you posted.

Update 1:
Here's message sent to subject 1 - ", you probably don't remember, but we laid eyes on each other during a sunset at the Mela in a past life in an eastern Gujarati village. Our eyes met and there was an instant spark, a deep connection. We briefly spoke and you had to return to the neighboring village where you resided. You vowed to come again to the Carnival the next day, but star-crossed as we were, it didn’t happen. My then sister, Mangi, hypothesized it was due to those pesky ‘gaon vallons’ [our villages feuding and all] or the village gunda that had an unnatural interest in me. I think destiny has brought us back to acquaintance with each other. “Tera Mujhse Hai Pehle Ka Nata Koi…”? Jog any memories??
--- Jagruti from a previous life/ Sheel in this one"

Attitude

I read this and thought it was really cute:

If A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
equals
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Then,

Hard Work
H+A+R+D+W+O+R+K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

Knowledge
K+N+O+W+L+E+D+G+E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

Love
L+O+V+E
12+15+22+5 = 54%

Luck
L+U+C+K
12+21+3+11 = 47%

.
.

Most of us think these are the most important ???

Then what would take us to 100% ?

Is it Money ? ..

NO ! ! !

M+O+N+E+Y
13+15+14+5+25 = 72%


Leadership ? ....

NO ! ! !

L+E+A+D+E+R+S+H+I+P
12+5+1+4+5+18+19+9+16 = 89%


Every problem has a solution, only if we perhaps change our attitude.

To go to the top,
to that 100% ,

What do we really need to go further... a bit more...

ATTITUDE
A+T+T+I+T+U+D+E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

It is OUR ATTITUDE towards Life and Work that makes OUR Life 100% ! ! !
ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING

Attitude Can Change Our Life

"The basic thing is that everyone wants happiness, no one wants suffering. And happiness mainly comes from our own attitude, rather than from external factors. If your own mental attitude is correct, even if you remain in a hostile atmosphere, you feel happy."
-H.H. the Dalai Lama

Twitter

Twitter -- What is it? Well it's just a place you add your status -- what you are doing? Then you add friends who are using Twitter. They tell you what they are doing and read what you are up to. How interesting? Not really – who cares. I have the same feature on Facebook. It takes me forever to figure out what to type in that. Something exciting, something relevant that everyone would want to know. I can’t manage to use that real well. So I was like, ‘why join twitter?’. Lately, I’ve had a lot of thoughts. Really I’ve had them all my life.  Seriously, they were like one sentence thoughts, which weren’t really enough for a single blog entry, but I can put a couple of these thoughts together for an actual blog entry, so I thought I would join Twitter. It’s allows me to write the things that I’m thinking as I’m thinking them. So if that’s it’s purpose then it’s useful. I don’t have any friends on it though. Sad but true. No one I know is on it. If you are on it comment.

The URL: http://twitter.com/sheelshah

To Achieve Work/Life Balance

Understand the importance of what type of work/life balance you need.
I'm personally not the kind that likes a balance. I prefer to tip the scale in favor of life.

Take less to work. Sometimes you have a laptop, which is understandable. Remember a laptop is way your employer tries to get you to work at home.

Looking for a New Job: Benefits

Some of the things they don't tell you in an interview are some of the most important.

Hindola

Hindola is an important Hindu festival celebrated in India. The festival falls in the Hindu month of Shravan, which can be July to September depending on the year.
This is a festival of swings, wherein Lord Krishna is placed in a decorated swing and swung gently. The festival originates from 5000 years ago in Vrindavan when Lord Krishna was swung in a hindola by the Gopis to express their love and affection towards him. Hindola translates to swing, which is made in a variety of colors, shapes and forms. The hindola can be decorated with vegetables, leaves, flowers, earthen pots, fruits, dry fruits, beans, chocolates, steel dishes and cups, etc.

As this blog tries to be informative as well as controversial. I'm going to ask the question, why the deal with Swaminarayan mandir's celebrating the Hindola festival. It's not like Swaminarayan was ever swung on swing by gopis. And I don't want to hear any made up stories either of devotees swinging him.

With Great Power...

A couple of people recently said to me, "Sheel, God put you here to save me." I don't know if I want to save people, because if I'm here to save others, who is here to save me. I'm not looking to be a hero.

Draupadi was a picky woman...

Draupadi was a very picky lady..Can you blame the gal..she just wanted the best. If a soul like her is that demanding, than leaves little hope for us.

Draupadi is the wife of the Pandavas. She had in a previous lifetime prayed to Lord Shiva to grant her a husband with five desired qualities (Strong, Intelligent, Sharp witted, Handsome and a great archer). Lord Shiva, pleased with her devotion, tells her that it is very difficult to get a husband with all five qualities that she desired. But she sticks to her ground and asks for the same. Then Lord Shiva grants her wish saying that she would get the same in her next birth. She got them all right(be careful what you wish for). She got each of the five qualities she wanted, but one quality was present in one of the five husbands. She got five husbands.

It's crazy that "handsome" was part of her requirements in a good husband. If it's in the Mahabharat..you know all girls think like that and are somewhat shallow.

Could you imagine -- five husbands -- I could. Bet she was satisfied in more ways than one.. I of course mean, 5 salaries from the 5 husbands...