All three leads (no, Bobby Deol aint a lead) ooze sexiness. And more sexiness. And boy, do Priyanka and John show of their well-toned/muscled bodies. In one of the scenes when Abhishek goes “bum?” look at Pri’s derriere, one reckons that he could have done it over and over and still meant it for Priyanka’s derriere looks that fabulous (and who’s the costume designer for such fab clothes?). John of course, wears the least clothes, and displays oodles of musckle (note: if going with your lover, make sure you both get seats at different ends – you’d both wanna enjoy the display of all that opposite sex rather exclusively)

Now that I have finished with the sexiness bit, lets talk about the other bits that I did like – moojik. And forget the current chartbusters – look at Maa ka ladla – if that aint a situational song, nothing is. And boy are the lyrics great! Loved the way all the songs are written, pictured – acted/directed, of course. Talking of cinematography – lovely. Camera just hugs the skin (tones) although in someplaces I felt it could have been better – but top notch.

The movie moves fast – and doesn’t bore one at all – not even the faux gay bits – in fact the entire movie pretty much moves without a blip and boredom – with the faux gay bits being very funny cos of the inside joke ‘tween John and Abhishek’s characters.

The only flaws? Bobby Deol, and the ending.

Everything else rocks – especially the ideas of including some Hindi film superhits in the dialogues – whodathunk! (wont give away too much though – except that I found Jhumma Chumma the funniest of ‘em)

Enjoi the movie!

Not an experience I’ll forget anytime soon. It was totally one to savour for some time! The first hurdles were locating a place that’d lend hogs at a decent rate – and also be close enough to my hotel. It took a bit of time, but I finally got there – after half a dozen phone calls!

The eve of the day (weekend) of reckoning, comes news that weather’s gonna be not so good – and 80% chances of rain. Ah great! Rain. Just the thing I was hoping for. But, there was this tiny voice that said “wait a minute, your last ride which was highly enjoyable was partly in the wet too…”. But a 140 kilo 180cc animal is slightly different from a 250+kilo Hog with 6 times engine capakitty, innit?

Well, Saturday morning opened to a nice surprise – it was sunny!! for the first time in a week nearly! And the change in weather signaled a good ride – in nice sunny weather.
So out I went to get the hog – got all the paperwork done, which, by now, it was kinda familiar to me.

Well, it was only till getting onto the bike that it was familiar territory. From then on, it was unexplored and very, very sensory. They don’t say “you know its a Harley when you hear it” for no reason! (more cliches found true, but we’ll come to that l8r) And I discovered the pleasure of hearing the hot-rod throbbing when I fired it up. Now THAT sounded sweet!  As were the vibes from the bike – I’d gone there expecting a bike that threatened to throw me off at first start-up, but the vibes were muted, pleasant -and gave the right amount of feel. Perfect!

The first ten miles back to the hotel, were SWEET. I had a mile wide grin plastered over my face for the whole journey. My cheeks didn’t hurt even after having that grin plastered over my face for ten miles. The initial turn-in seemed a bit laborious, from the Pulsar’s sporty stance – which’s what I was used to. After the first couple of turns trying to figure if I was on the right street, the rest of the time was spent, cruising, being stared at. (Helped that I’d dressed as a propah “biker” – leather n denims). Cruising on the hog with a full lane for me, hogging the attention of folks around me, in cages – was sweet. The cool Pacific Ocean draft set it out to be the perfect ride. (That the draft might be a bit too cool, I found out later).

Lunch dispensed with, maps printed from G-maps, and all-set to go, only to see the sky opening up. Rain. A short nap was beckoning when I discovered that the rain had stopped.  For good. Hoo-hah! Time to hit the California-1.

But now it was time for a bit of reality check. The first was the IRON of the clutch. Eooww! If someone wants to build up(?)/exercise their palm muscles, nothing better than the Harley’s clutch. It’s not so apparent when in normal traffic, but a 3-car pile-up meant I was forced to use the clutch a lot, and as a result my left palm took a good beating. Round 1 to the Sportster, for reminding me to have got some gloves along as well. Should try it Bangalore’s traffic. Palms and fingers sure to toughen up, and we can just junk the protective gloves after that, maybe.

But, the pile-up was soon dispensed with, and I was now onto CA-1, or the Pacific Coast Highway. One of the best roads I have been on, till now – ocean and beach on one side, tiny hamlets on either and the mountains opposite the ocean. Add in the ocean draft and it was perfect weather for cruising. Or so I thought.

Trouble was, I didn’t have gloves. And at a steady 50mph, that ocean draft bites in a while(and it was 8 deg C). But a Pizza/coffee /directions stop kinda took a bit of the sting away, and we’re on the road again – trying to find my way to the temple located amongst the hills in Malibu – which I’d heard about from my pals of being located in an awesome location.

Turned out that the temple amongst the hills, or, the Malibu Venkateshwara temple, if you so prefer, was just a couple of turns from the PCH. Ah nice, that meant not so long a ride – and an easy ride. Or so, I thought. Trouble was, one turn was into the hill country, the second one put me bang on the hills, with a signboard reading, in a rather friendly manner, “Landslide zone, next 4.6 miles”. 4.6 miles? Ah, not so bad. I’d get off the road in that time. Time to check the map again. “4.6 miles on that road, before the turn to the temple”. Yeah, so much for calculations. The first few corners were spent trying to avoid my fear of heights, and thinking of the rock that might send me and a 250kilo hog plummeting down. After those initial fears seemed a bit too much, out came a small tunnel to set things in sweet motion again – Nice! The roar of the bike on the tunnel was good. My hands were somewhere between being numb and totally numb, but trying to pull the levers made of IRON helped in bringing them back to life, in bits.

And finally, there it was, nestled in the hills, amongst the best locations for a temple that I’ve ever seen. The most delightful part of it, of course, nestled inside. And that was the tap with hot water streaming out of it. With fingers back in motion, and paying my respects to the deity there, I headed back home, er, to my hotel. The ride back was mostly eventless, and an actual cruise with just one break to see a panoramic view of the coastline all through Malibu up until Santa Monica(or so I guessed). The only sad part was that I didn’t have enough time to snap it – a slight drizzle and a cloudy sky meant I didn’t want to tempt the gods into dousing me with water.

The Sportster’s lights were just about okay. If I had one, I’d complain about it as much as I’d complain about my 180′s lights, or maybe slightly lesser.

Fuel consumed: 1.8 gallons

Rental paid : 106$

The Experience : Priceless.

Which’s why whenever someone talks of riding gear, I sometimes think back to that incident all those years back and wonder how much better it would have been if we’d riding gear back then.

Back then, folks my age only wore helmets cause

a)  Their  parents forced them to

or

b)  It protected them when in rain.

Jackets were only worn due to rain. There was hardly any awareness about injury prevention, defensive riding/driving etc., Things have improved but still not to the extent they should. Which’s why this post.

This is what happened then. I was a *very* inexperienced rider, but full of b__s. Or so I thought. So there I was doing 60kmph which was not far off from the top speed of the scoot, the front wheel hit a rock, and I took off. Luckily for me, my helmet saved my life. But, one of my arms lost a chunk of skin – about 8 inches in length and 4 inches wide – just a light tee-shirt. My right ankle took a hit (I was wearing sandals only). Both palms got deeply bruised. Luckily nothing was broken, and nothing ran me over.

It took 45 days for all the skin to grow back. Even now,  I still have a 6 inch scar on me arm to show for it.

I had probably a 1000km’s under my belt then. I now have more than a 1000 times that experience. But still, I need my riding gear, and I wear it too.

Consider how lightly my friend got off, the other day. We were out on a 1000km ride. On the first day we’d done quite a bit of riding – about 350km. the last 75-100km were mostly on bad/no roads. And then, when returning back to the hotel that day, my friend – veteran of 50,000 km+ fell. Probably at about 50kmph, front wheel hit a ditch, instinctively hit the brakes, wheel locked, fell.

Whats the damage?

Helmet took the full blow, chin part and the visor scrathed, visor partially broken. Gloves okay, just scruffed up. No major impact to the jacket – but apparently it slid up a bit, and a slight tear in the riding pant. Steel toed boots take the hit, and now we could see the steel inside.

And he? A scratch, on the elbow. He’s slightly dazed because it was his first fall. Nothing else. That’s it. A couple of nights’ rest, some painkillers and he was good enough to ride back home!

The bike has a 6,000 Rs repair bill.

Helmets save lives. The rest of the riding gear minimizes recovery time from an incident. (More posts to follow in this direction…)

Some of them also lead to some funny comments. Like one biker pal saying “I was just waiting for someone to buy the Hunk so I can pass some comments on it!”. Yup, a silly name like the “Hunk” would inevitably lead people to get smart!

But, that is the name, and that is what the “Hunk” owner – male or female – would have to live with.

All is not lost however – the bike looks pretty good, on its own – though not as modern as say the Pulsars, or as Racy as the RTR, it does hold its own ground -which’s somewhere in between modern and racy. Thankfully, it certainly is not styled extremely like the Xtreme! It has got nice sculpted body panels to go with the fuel tank. These help one grip the tank easily – giving for much better control over the bike. What I loved was nice tough to the Speedo – by giving it a red background. Slick.

Most people who rode the bike were rather pleased with the handling – and yes, Hero Honda has got it spot on.  The ergonomics is pretty much on the ball – while I’ve often felt the CBZ to be smaller than my P180, this one didnt seem smaller – and the seat to foot peg to handlebar positioning was just right.  As was the knee recesses. You’d grip the fuel tank just so – and the result was amazing flickability.

The Hunk also did not feel so much underpowered compared to the P180 I’d just ridden – which meant it was a good one in performance – although I did not drag it too much. But a longer ride should convince me on the performance aspect – but it’s gear changes are spot-on and go thru with a convincing air – except for the first to second – which is rather hard – and involves a good deal of effort.

Is it the best in the 150cc segment? Not sure – but it sure as hell is good – and just maybe something I might consider – if buying a 150cc bike.

It also means you cannot carry most things you want to – a shoulder bag containing all your documents and other stuff neatly, a cell phone etc.,

Now, it seems that the US Govt has finally woken up to this hardship and is doing something to address it.

They’re calling it – surprise, surprise – the Stars and Stripes Lounge.

For a list of Amenities and facilities there, I quote (link) :

* A comfortable air-conditioned waiting room protected from the weather.
* A Café Coffee Day counter which offers you a cup of tea or coffee and a sandwich at no extra charge.
* Free storage area for your baggage and items that cannot be taken inside the Consulate.
* Free use of changing rooms.
* Free use of clean restroom facilities.
* Free return coach transfers between the Lounge and the U.S. Consulate. Coaches leave the lounge every 30 minutes.
* Privacy and safety: The Lounge is protected by security staff, with access restricted only to visa applicants and accompanying persons
* Snack Bar for refreshments and light meal priced most reasonably

So if you wanna talk to your sweetie, or loved ones, you can do that and leave your cellphone in the storage area.

Entry charge is 200Rs/- per person – including food and drink coupon, but considering that I once had to shell out the same just for the darned security person to gimme back my cellphone, I think its worth it!

(I havent yet had a chance to review the arrangements, but it seemed worthy enough of publishing)

The Airwave is a station wagon model based on the Jazz platform – and its ordinary at best, boring at worst.

The Airwave is a model exclusive to Japan, but based on the Jazz platform, pretty much like the City. Except, that its got a boot, a big boot.

How’s it like to drive? Well I drove it for a lil over 200kms and following are my observations.

When I started out, I feathered the loud pedal as we’d just been caught speeding (wasn’t me!) and the acceleration was generally sluggish – not all that unexpected from an automatic – importantly, it wasn’t progressive at all. But when the revs built up, i.e., I hit the loud pedal hard, the acceleration was marked, with a kick at the neck(but still not progressive).

The engine really didn’t exhibit the “smoothness” that’s apparently Honda’ strength. It was actually a pretty unrefined unit. NVH characteristics were rather bad, considering that the windows were up – and a lot of noise filtered through. A lot more than even in any small car! Getting maybe 4/10 in my book.

The dynamics of the car, would be slightly different I suppose. Being the first stationwagon I’ve driven – and fully loaded with 5 people and lots of luggage, I was careful not to upset the applecart.

It was nothing great to write home about though – having driven it among the twisties on the way to Fuji, it was okay – didn’t corner like on rails, but didn’t really give too much cause for concern either. Was generally okay (was on unassisted brakes and steering as we’d nearly run outta fuel!) .

One thing I really hated abt the car was the driver’s seating – everytime I had to get out, my legs fouled with the steering stalk – a real pain, adjustin the seat back and then forward again. The Jazz better have decent seat positioning!
And the driver’s seating was kinda okay when driving, but the “auto gear” lever did not fall to the hand well. The armrest fouled with the left arm (thank god, it was auto!). Imagine driving in an Indian city where every so often you get a thump on your elbow because you’re trying to shift gears!!

It was slated to seat 5, but, thats only if the people sitting on the 2nd row are all of slight build. Add even person of slightly heavier build and it began to get cramped – very cramped – more so than most Indian hatchbacks (Santro, Wagon R et al) Not a good thing for a stationwagon.

We didnt really test the fuel economy as it was our Japanese colleague who was managing that.

But there was one awesome feature of the car – and that is its sunroof – or a glass roof at the top. I’m not sure how safe it is, in a crash, but boy, it gives you an awesome view. The whole of the top of the car above the passenger rows would open up to a glassy roof – great thing on a ride! I wish they bring it to India too – subject to safety constraints, of course!

The looks were nothing to write home about – it was an average stationwagon, with the modern angular lights, curves. Nothing that distinguishes it from any other car. And the design of some parts – and especially the illumination provided by the headlights was nothing to write home about. The lights were absolutely useless – most Indian compacts have better lights!

Overall, its a just about okay car, that doesnt simulate ones senses, nor the brain. If the Jazz or equivalent is similar, then I’d say buy it only if you have no other choice!

Added attractions of the festival, apart from over a million books on show, are the cultural programmes that happen everyday – ranging from children’s dance programmes to carnatic jugalbandis.

The added sweetener for Book lover is the hefty discounts offered on all titles – including the latest releases – I bought Dev Anand’s autobiography at a neat 140 Rupee Discount!

There over 300 stalls in the book fair – with a sizeable representation of all classes and languages of books. I had gone there with my family – and there was something for everyone. My parents were rather delighted to find the range of Kannada books and magazines on display – and they bought quite a few, with discounts ranging from 10 to 20%.

There was a stall with Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings displayed – and with reproductions available for sale as well – at reasonable prices – starting from as low as 50 Rupees!

There was this gorgeous paiting – printed on Canvas, which I thought would fit right onto my wall, but at 4,000 Rupees was slightly beyond my means – so I bought a paper reproduction of the same! (Unfortunately no web link seems available!)

There are also various book publishers – Tata McGraw Hill, Prentice Hall India, Navkarnataka, Cambridge University Press, and many more!

For the spiritually minded, there are various stalls from publishers and spiritual organisations alike – Ramana Maharshi Ashram, ISCKON, etc., – although notable absentees were Art of Living Foundation.

Exclusive stalls on Islam, Gandhiji, on rare books etc., were among the niche stalls

Kannada Language book, littérateurs profiles are available in a wide range – stalls from Navakarnataka, Sahitya Parishad and the like display the best of Kannada literature available – so if you want to discover Kannada literature, head straight to the Book Festival.

Update: Another Book Festival is on at Palace Grounds, off Mekhri Circle. 2 & 4 wheeler parking is widely available, and hassle free. Open on weekends till 9pm from about 11 in the morning

Spiderman’s bestfriend becomes enemy.Spiderman loses girlfriend.
Spiderman goes bad, er. black. Spidey’s girl gets ‘napped.
Spidey fights 2 enemies at once – and gets the arse kicked all over the place.
Ex-Best Friend turned enemy comes to the rescue, dies saving Spidey. (Friends again?)
Spidey’s Enemy says “sorry!”. Spidey gets girl back.

like the movie? hate it?
cant decide – it was interesting all right, but walking out of the theatre, those lines above were my reaction. The start has some of the haziest graphics I have seen. I could hardly make out what happened – just goblin and spidey flying thick and fast, in blurs. Spidey black, I like – entertaining, uncool-ly cool, and quite funny. If Spidey is supposed to project innocence, then Goblin Junior beats him hands down. He looks like an innocent lost puppy thru’out. Heck, even dies for the best friend!
Sandman, Sandman, Sandman – what do I say about such a boring character? I said too much already.
And Venom is fun – before, he becomes venom.
In fact, the best, most interesting “villian” of the piece is Spidey himself, in black.
CG aint to spectacular, the score’s okay. There’s some doses of being “good” in the movie, which are okey-dokey. But, Bollywood handles it better anyday!
If you havent watched it, maybe watch it wid yer pardner… if you’re out with friends, watch it for the smartass comments u gonna get/make!

Is almost typical in the kind of BULL CRAP movies one used to get in the late 80s/ early 90s.
Reality is an illusion caused by lack of alcohol – or so some wise soul said. The movie lives it up, aptly. And apparently everyone was totally floating in alcohol there.

Well, we werent on alcohol, so we had to deal with reality. And in reality, its a nice premise but utterly butterly bad execution.

A Posh restaurant is next door to a slimy residential area. Racers race on 800bhp cars that can do 200mph and try to win by taking each other out. “I dont like you. I am gonna slam you into the next barrier, and NOT be penalised for it – so am gonna win!” And from eating a burger that was just then thrown into the garbage bin, the kid gets a piece of glass into the stomach. (Of course they only use styrofoam in that canteen is a different detail altogether)

Is there anything gud about the movie? Hmm, Saif looks like he could really use some “toning down”. DUDE! You’re short, that kinda beefcake on you aint good!! Rani looks dead for a few scenes, then smiles, then looks dead.

right, we were trying to see if there’s anything gud about the movie. Its the premise. Its that you have to have masti all the time – you have to be cheerful even when things are going down. That is the only saving grace of the movie. Pity, it cant save it much though.

Stay away from this one, go listen to some pep talk, or something like that.