Monthly Archives: March 2013

Movie Review: 3 Idiots ! ….

3 idiots is probably one of the best movies I have watched of all time and definitely makes the top 5 in my list. If I was to count how many times I have watched this movie, I can say that it would definitely exceed 20 ! The 3 characters Racho, Farhan & Raju are absolutely loveable and their story together through all the hardships of life and college is so heart warming that after you watch it, you just have to repeat certain parts of the movie just to laugh, cry or cheer them on again. 3 idiots is one of those movies that I would watch when I need some cheering up or if I want to have a bit of a laugh because it simply touches on almost all emotions.

The story basically revolves around 3 college students all from differing backgrounds who have successfully gained admission into the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE) in India, where competition to get in is tough and only about 1% from all applicants gain admission. Each of the 3 friends (Racho, Raju and Farhan) all have different reasons as to why they are doing engineering (For a better life and to escape poverty, pressure from parents to become engineers and simply the love for the subjects) and as a result alter and change their journey and their view point as they progress through the years and learn more about themselves, their friends and about life and what it is they really want to do.

There are many different aspects of the movie around dealing with pressure from parents, poverty, fear of the future and love, specially when love doesn’t make sense. The journey of all the 3 characters and how they overcome their own demons and obstacles is simple heart warming and will make you laugh, cry and cheer them on.

One of the things why I really loved the movie is because of the message that it tries to deliver to the audience and as a result a saying emerges from the movie which is simply – “All izz vell” – “All is well”. The movie has many life lessons and portrays them really well and the lesson behind “All izz vell” is a very important lesson that I have had to teach myself many times in the past. When things are really looking down, looking difficult and about to crumble just play a small trick yourself into thinking everything is OK, stay calm and in turn this will simply give you the strength to get through your problems. I think this works because if your panicing and stressing your head isn’t clear, but by clearing your head, getting rid of any fears, its simply just easier to face the problems ! It’s a great message because sometimes that small little trick can help you get through the most difficult of times.

In addition to all this acting by Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Ranganathan Madhavan & Sharman Joshi is absolutely legendary. Amir Khan also does a great job of looking like he is still in his very late teens to his early 20’s even though he is close to 50 these days !

Anyway, hope you get a chance to watch it, you can actually find the whole movie on youtube so simply search for “3 idiots full movie” on youtube and sit back and enjoy one of the greatest movies ever !

OK – So my attempt to translate the above (or at least the jist) into hindi is below. Please excuse THE MANY mistakes as I am still learning and this is my way of practicing 🙂


ठीक – मे translate तेषत ऊपर परयास कारेना नीचे है. माफ लिजे अगर बहुत बाननाना mistakes है. मे भि सिकि है. 🙂

मे बहुत पासानद 3 idiots है. वहो मेरा एक favourite movies है ! यह फिलम पर मेरा top फिलम list, definitely top ५ ऊपर. मे सोचता २० बेर देख है. वहो ३ लड़का रानचो, फारहान और राजु बहुत अचधा अैर loveable characters है. यह कहानि about उनके जिनदागि college अैर विपाति encountered है. उनके कहानि बाहुत दिल कुश अैर खाबि खाबि फिर देख over अैर over.

मुल कहानि है,३ कोलज लड़का विभिन्न से स्वीकार किया Imperial college of Engineering में. यह बहुत कोलज िनदिा में अैर यह कोलज से सिर् 1% स्वीकार किया है.

सब ३ लड़का विभिन्न कारण ICE में engineering  कार राहे. एक लड़का क्योंकि माता पिता force engineering कार राहि, एक लड़का क्योंकि engineering favourite subjects है अैर एक लड़का क्योंकि बहुत पासानद engineering अैर भी मादात पारिवार है. लेकिन उनके जिनदगि परिवर्तन कोलेग में क्योंकि पयार, दोसत अैर पारिवार. जाब कोलेग खाताम वह  फरहान अैर राजु खोज रानचो क्योंकि रानचो जानति, भात good bye नहि है. From there the plot thickens !

भी मे पासानद 3 idiots फिलम क्योंकि वह मेसेग बहुत अचधा है ! यह फिलम जिनदगि बहुत पाठ है. बहुत important  पाठ “All iz vell” है. मुल मतलाब जाब जानदिगि मुश्किल है, आप trick yourself into believing सब कुछ ठीक है. यह आप हो जाना शाकति शालि अैर समस्या overcome साकता है.

भी Aamir Khan,Kareena Kapoor, Ranganathan Madhavan अैर Sharman Joshi acting बहुत अचधि वाला है ! Aamir Khan का चेहरा बहुत young है. यह बहुत अचधा है.

आप दख फिलम जारुर है यह  फिलम youtube में. आप search “3 idiots full movie” youtube में, आप दख full movie साकता है.

OK 😛 I hope that was understandable … 🙂

Watch Review: CASIO G-Shock MTG-900-DA-8V

So I bought myself a waterproof G-Shock watch by CASIO and it has now finally arrived. The specific model that I purchased was the MTG 900 8V. I bought this watch specifically because I needed a basic water proof watch to enable me to time my dives. I know there are more specialised dive watches but I will purchase one when I find out exactly which one I need. With this watch, at least I can do the basics and calculate my dive time and my rest time to ensure that I have the right dive to rest ratios. I also needed a watch seeing as I accidentally put my iPhone into a glass of water so I had no way of telling time 😛

So what is the MTG-900-DA like ? Its pretty dam good. The solid stainless steel finish is great, gives it a nice look that isn’t to sporty and out of place if you are wearing a suite but is also a tough as nails and can be taken pretty much anywhere. I have taken it to 20 metre depths, taken it sailing and all it needs is a bit of a rub and a rinse and its back to its new shiny self. The casio MTG-900-DA has a nice back panel light and really is just a practical watch for the sporty and active.

As usual I bought the watch online. I didn’t buy it from the well know websites such as amazon or ebay but from a smaller Australian online merchant. The rationale was that if i bought it from an Australian merchant it would arrive sooner as it would be local post (2-3 days tops), however this wasn’t to be. The watch arrived almost 3 weeks later. Reason being was the merchant mentioned that they didn’t get my unit number (even though I had typed it and even wrote it in the paypal special requests). The merchant said they did not get the paypal request so I guess that was the main issue. I didn’t hear from them for about 2 weeks and thought for a local delivery this seems to be way to long so I decided to send them an email. What I found to my amazement was that the merchant website didn’t have any contact email.

What I did then was try to reply back to the confirmation email that I received from them after the purchase. So I wrote them a short email only to have the email bounce back ! At this point I was beginning to feel that I had been jipped and I would never get my watch.

I put on my tech hat and began to do some searching and finally traced the merchants details and sent them a message. I received a response and sorted out the issue. Now that I have the watch on my wrist, all is well. As usual I had to take some of the links off the watch because they  usually make it longer and to big for my wrist but after taking 3 of the links off it fits nice and  comfortably.

Pretty happy with the watch, can’t wait to take it out for a test run and take some proper stats so I can improve my times …

Free Diving Clovelly – (Sydney Australia)…

Over the last couple of weeks I have been wanting to go to Clovelly to explore the underwater marine life. Clovelly is a great place to dive because its safe but still fun to explore. There are life guards present and the beach is actually enclosed like a massive swimming pool meaning that its not out in the open ocean. For obvious reasons this is a much safer environment.

The great thing about Clovelly is that even though its enclosed there is still very significant depths in different areas of the beach so that it is still fun to free dive and still a challenge. There is some decent marine life including the famous bluey groper and its deep enough so that you can practice various free diving techniques to improve your diving for when you go to deeper and more open waters.

One of the major disadvantages with clovelly is if there has been rain any of the previous days you can forget about visibility. You will get about 2 feet visibility and that is it. As a result this makes anything other then swimming laps unacceptable. However, today was a great day and the visibility was pretty good, not the best but still acceptable.

In the video I posted above, I was able to get clips of the famous big blue gropers, some other colourful fish (which I don’t know the names of yet) and even a wandering scuba diver roaming around by him/her self (ran out of air before I could approach and say “hi !” 🙁 ). The clip was taken without fins and no camera pole so its pretty jerky and can really be improved in future videos. Hopefully when I get around to buying/making my own camera pole and getting some decent fins, I can improve the quality of the videos.

Anyway, video posted above, hope you enjoy it ! I had a great time making it 🙂

Below are the directions from the main city of sydney to clovelly beach:

sydney-to-gordons-bay

Bollywood Movies !

(A nice romantic mashup of all the different songs across many different Bollywood movies)

Bollywood movies are the best ! I started watching them just under 10 months ago (I think) after a trip to Bali with a friend of mine from work. My friends name is Parveen. Towards the end of the trip Parveen and I went to a DVD store to buy some DVD’s. I was looking for the latest hollywood releases whilst Parveen was checking out the movies in the Bollywood section whilst calling his wife to see what additional movies she wanted to purchase.

I knew that Bollywood movies were a big hit in Indonesia and are shown on free to air TV every sunday with Indonesian dubbing. I scanned through the different Bollywood movies and thought, why not ? If it shows on Indonesian TV every sunday and millions of Indonesians enjoy watching them there must be something about the movies that I could also relate to and enjoy.

So I decide to buy one DVD (Pyaar Impossible). I watched it and thought what an awesome movie ! It’s a bit of a chick flick but doesn’t matter, it was enjoyable to watch. I then watched “Ek Tha Tiger” with crappy subtitles but still really enjoyed it. I was hooked and decided when I get back to Australia I would find more Bollywood movies to watch.

Fast forward 10 months later and I think I have watched over 30 titles and even been the only non Indian to watch latest release Bollywood movies on the first day when they are shown in selected cinemas here in Australia ! 😛 So what is it about the movies that I enjoy the most ? I really like how the stories are about the people, there are special effects in some cases but it isn’t the dominating part of the movies. You really fall in love with the characters and their interactions.

Take for example Rancho in “3 idiots” and even his 2 side kick idiots or Rizwan Khan from  “My name is Khan”, Sanjay Singhania from “Ghanjini”, Shashi Godbole from “Enligsh Vinglish” or even “Jerry Patel” from Desi Boyz.  The characters are awesome and when you are watching the movies, as a result of how the characters have been built up you really want to see them succeed, find love, prove everyone wrong or get revenge !

Even though the story lines might have some similarities to western movies in many aspects the movies have a very “local” feel and I see many similarities with Indonesian movies and indonesian story lines (which I also am very fond of watching). It is hard to put a finger on what I mean exactly but to put it bluntly the movies deal with issues that are more relevant in many non westernised countries and its a nice change to see a different perspective on a myriad of different issues such as family relationships, marriage, religion, friendships, education & growing up and not just that portrayed by Hollywood.

And finally the music … how awesome is the music and dancing. I think i’ll stop writing about the music here as i’ll probably write much more about the music specifically in later posts 🙂

I guess thats my take on why I really love watching Bollywood movies. And just to finish off, below is a list of some of my favourites (so far …. :P) in no particular order.

It all started with the keycard…

Today I had planned to start training for a jog that I been wanting to try from my house to Wollongong. For those that don’t know where my house is, its about a 65km run in one direction so its about 130kms both ways. I calculated that if I even can make this distance it might take me 8-10hrs non-stop. I have no idea if I can even make this distance (65kms one way, sleep a night then 65kms back) but I want to try it and see. I decided that today I will try to do the same kind of distance but within the main sydney region so if i dont make it i can catch the train back or ask someone to come and get me 😛

I started packing my small backpack that I use for jogging with some water, wallet, some food, salt and a few other things. As I was checking my wallet for money I noticed that my keycard was expired and thought “crap, no money in my wallet, only credit card, might get stuck somewhere where I need cash”. I cancelled my jog and decided to instead go to my bank and get my card. I called them up and they said they had it, they were trying to call me but could not get in contact with me.

Bank closes at 11:30am on a Saturday and the time I realised my card was expired was about 9:30am. I thought “fine, no worries, I can go for a swim then make it back in time to get my card”. I head over to shelly beach to go for a swim and arrive back at home at about 10:45. Perfect ! … enough time to have quick shower and get my card (which is about a 30min drive at its worst) then I can head over to darling harbour and stay the night before going to a dive site the next day.

As I am just about to leave, I realise that the Camry I usually drive has it’s registration expire tomorrow ! This means I will be OK for today but tomorrow the car will be officially unregistered and if god forbid something happens (I get into an accident or get pulled over for an RBT) I would be absolutely rooted. Crap ! Then I thought, “thats OK, I can use the other car !” So I start the other car only to realise it can’t start. So now from my original 45mins of time , because of all the crap that has happened I only have about 25 minutes left to drive to the bank and get my new keycard. After I try to fiddle around with the other car only to fail getting it to start, I get back in the Camry realising that above all, the main thing is to get my keycard otherwise I have no cash ! I drive as fast as I can to my bank (within speed limits :P) only to have the bank shut the door on my face because im a minute late !

Crap, so I drive back, no keycard, screwed up jogging plans, car with rego about to expire & another car which I have to check and open to see why it doesn’t start. Absolute fail of a day. All because my keycard expired !

Only thing good about today is … i found out Bon Jovi will be here this Dec ! Wooohoooo, will be first to buy the tickets 😛

The Water, Beach & Ocean

(Note music starts after 10 seconds)

One of the advantages of living in Australia’s east coast is the fact there is beautiful beaches very close by. If you love being in the ocean as much as I do its very hard to imagine living anywhere else where this kind of access to the beautiful clean beaches is not readily available.

I have lived and worked in asia in the past and also really love the atmosphere there but for very different reasons so sometimes im torn between deciding to one day move overseas and live in asia (Indonesia specifically) or to continue living here in Australia.

I run my own technology business and work varying different hours. Sometimes its a normal 8 hour day and other times when the pressure is on to finish something we want to deliver it may be a straight 14hr marathon. It’s not as bad currently as much of the core development we needed to do has been completed however there are still the one off days when its required.

Regardless of the situation though, prior to any work I usually wake up in the morning at about 6:30 and pick up Damir (who is my swimming buddy) and drive to Cronulla where we head towards   shelly beach. Shelly beach is a nice beautiful little beach which has an ocean pool (where the pool is filled with ocean water) nice little sandy beach and really beautiful rocks to sit down and collect your thoughts or prepare for the day ahead. We usually spend about 1-2 hours at the beach swimming (about 1.6kms), spend some time with stretches, breathing exercises and then taking out the bags and gloves for some cardio workouts. It’s a great start to the day and the water, the beach and the ocean with all the ocean spray and the fresh air is something hard to imagine doing without once you are used to the feeling.

Picturing a morning where I can not do this is difficult as it has become so routine. Anyway it doesn’t matter,  things are going great so I am just enjoying what I currently have 🙂 When and if things change in the future, so be it …