To Whomever it May Concern

This is to notify all the readers (past or present) that the owner of this blog i.e. the author of all the posts here, is very much alive and enjoying the mental state, which could be aptly called "in senses", and the physical state as "active and healthy". His long absence from blogosphere should not be considered as his complete annihilation in the materialistic physical world. His inability to compose a meaningful post for this blog or post his comments on his regular-reads could merely be attributed to the transition period, a new phase of life, he is passing through. Now he has well adjusted to this new, exciting, demanding phase. He wants to convey one message to you: "Kanishk's Realm might not be a happening place in last two months, but Kanishk's life was."

So, now keep checking !!!

Google Fight

A sheer example of the fact that "how crazy (or different) can someone think"....the concept of Google Fight. Just write two keywords and see which one gets more results. If you are wondering from where did I got this kool link..then lemme satiate your curious mind. Its the same Raluca Cozma, my source of those quizzes. She has this special talent of gathering kool stuff from the web. The first fight I created was between me and her, and she won.

Now use your creativity to make some interesting fights like, Steelers and Seahawks, Playboy and Penthouse, Honda and Toyota, Pamlea Anderson and Britney Spears etc etc.

Wikipedia vs. Encyclopaedia Britannica

If you are a passionate internet user (which probably you are, if you are reading blogs), then you must be aware of Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica. Wikipedia is an open-source encyclopaedia, created and edited by its users (meaning anyone who has an internet connected computer) whereas Britannica is the copyright protected encyclopaedia written and edited by some selected stalwarts.

Comparing these two, Wikipedia could be aptly labeled as democratic (of the people, for the people, by the people) and Britannica is definitely capitalistic (by selected few, for the privileged few). So, now keeping this in mind, which one is supposed to be error-free? Here are the interesting results of a study done by Nature (taken from this article):

In the midst of all this controversy, Nature published the results of an analysis of a broad range of entries from the websites of Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica which shows a different picture. Even so, the results were impressive. After looking at 42 articles, according to Nature, “only eight serious errors, such as misinterpretations of important concepts, were detected in the pairs of articles reviewed, four from each encyclopedia”.
"But reviewers also found many factual errors, omissions or misleading statements: 162 and 123 in Wikipedia and Britannica, respectively."

One problem is that this Wikipedia is vulnerable to is vandalism. (Remember the saying, Too many chefs spoil the dish?) Some noted instances are reported in this article. But one thing is for sure, that Wikipedia has revolutionized the way of sharing the information on internet. “Wiki” (Hawaiian for "unpaid labor") is now the term used for anything open-source and edited by anyone.

One thing I observed is that Wikipedia do has an updated entry for Britannica, but Britannica Online returns “No results found for Wikipedia”. Anyone from the Britannica’s editorial board reading this?


f you haven't tried Wiki yet for digging some piece of information, check it out.

Disclaimer: This post reflects solely the views of the author and has no relation paid or forced with Wikipedia.

Another Hiatus

No activity or meaningful post on this blog since a long time. The only attributable reason for this long hiatus could be my lack of zeal for blogging and in general, all those things I am usually passionate for. Actually, when the things are not going the way you want them to be, they take toll on your other sides. Moreover, it seems that there has some loss or deterioration of my writing skills too. Whats more strange now-a-days is my inability to organize my thoughts and express them in a readable way. So, in order to get rid of all these recently acquired negative traits, I am back into blogging, first reading and more reading and then writing. After all, blogging is a serious writing…isn’t it ??

Happy New Year 2006

Wish you all a very happy new year 2006. I wish that all your dreams and aspirations come true this year. And you keep blogging with more zeal than ever.

Thank You for 1500 Visits

I wish to express my sincere thanks to all the readers who have visited my blog and read my posts. My special appreciation to those, who have posted comments on my posts. I personally feel that even posting your comments is also a form of writing like blogging as one has to organize his views and thoughts on the post to write his/her comments.

Thank you all again for taking my Blog Visits to 1500. My blog has recently crossed the 1500 mark in about 4.5 months and I feel happy about it.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone who is reading this. I know its a bit belated wishes, but this christmas was so busy in meeting with friends and hanging out, that I barely got time to access internet.

It was a great fun to be at Times Square and Rockfeller Center on Christmas eve with continuous drizzling and comfortable temperatures.

Forbes 40 richest Indians

Forbes 4o richest Indians in the world list has been released and is quite exclusive. It gave a great sense of pride while reading that lists and the achievements of the people featured there. The article can be accessed here and the ranking is here. The details of each person's business can be seen by clicking on his name. This list spans all the major sectors business including steel, software, telecom, pharmaceuticals, energy, textiles, real estate etc. Here is a snapshot and an excerpt:

"FORBES ASIA's second annual list of the 40 richest Indians is quite a bit more exclusive this year. Folks needed a net worth of at least $590 million, up from $305 million last year, to make the cut. Twenty-seven members are billionaires, more than double last year's count. The group's collective net worth soared to $106billion, up from $61 billion; by contrast, China's 40 richest are worth a collective $26 billion."

I personally admire the spirit of entrepreneurship which has been driving the human civilization and society's development. Hats off to all of them.

More Movie Reviews

Well, I watched some more movies recently this week. It seems that I have been watching lots of serious kind of movies. Most of them are depressing ones and now I need to change the genre to action-packed or raunchy commedies. Here goes the list in my preferred order:

1. Crash*****(#62 on IMDB's Top 250)
2. Downfall****(#51 on IMDB's Top 250)
3. Layer Cake**
4. Oldboy **(#118 on IMDB's Top 250)
5. Ordinary Decent Criminal
6. Requiem for a Dream(#47 on IMDB's Top 250)

Crash is a an excellent movie and shows how different people of different races in US are linked to each other. Its focus is on racism and humanity together. It will definitely touch you and make you think. The scene in which the locksmith's girl was shot in order to save him from the bullet made me dumbfounded. That was a turning point for me.

Downfall is a german movie based on WWII. Unlike other WW movies which mainly show battlecenes, this one shows the different moods of Hitler in his last few days when he was loosing the war and Red Army was marching over Berlin. Its based on a book by Traudl Junge, Hitler's last private secretary from 1942 to 1945. One dialogue by Hitler which shows his character, goes like:

"Be ruthless. Life doesn't forgive weakness. This so-called humanity is religious drivel. Compassion is an eternal sin. To feel compassion for the weak is a betrayal of nature. The strong can only triumph if the weak are exterminated. Being loyal to this law, I've never had compassion. I've always been ruthless when faced with internal opposition from other races. That's the only way to deal with it".

Requiem for a dream, although rated quite high and critically acclaimed movie, was very depressing for me. Lives of all the four characters are ruined and destroyed in the end by drugs and will leave you with a question, "Why did I watched it ??"

Layer Cake and Ordinary Decent Criminal are good entertainers (crime n commedy) and Oldboy is revenge-based with a real twist, but still kind of depressing.

Mulholland Drive

Another post with a movie review. Yes, I do love watching movies, all thanks to those monthly membership options of Blockbuster, Hollywood Videos etc. Mulholland Drive is a thriller (#228 on IMDB's Top 250 list) directed and written by David Lynch. Based on the dream world of Hollywood and L.A., this movie depicts human psychology in general and the thin line between our imaginary world and the real world. You need to watch it very carefully without missing even a single scene or single shot or even a single dialogue. Then only you would be able to understand it and unlock the mystery (if not, then see it again and even if not after that, ask me). I am sure that if you are able to understand the storyline, then you gonna definitely appreciate it. And yes, if are a big fan of only chick-flicks, hardcore kick-a** movies which dont require any involvement of grey-cells, please dont rent this one. Some good quotes :

1. A man's attitude... a man's attitude goes some ways. The way his life will be.
2. There's sometimes a buggy. How many drivers does a buggy have? (One) So, let's just say I'm driving this buggy. And, if you fix your attitude, you can ride along with me.
3. It is all an illusion...

Run Lola Run

The audio playing in the background of this blog is the OST of one of my favorite movie, Run Lola Run (#133 in IMDB's Top 250). Winner of several awards, this german movie shows one story from three different perspectives, to prove how much fate controls one's life and how much the happenings of our lives are closely associated with so many "what if"s. With only a few dialogues and mostly Lola (Franka Potente aka Marie from The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Identity) running to save her boyfriend, this movie is an interesting watch. I am very much fond of its background score and the main soundtrack "I Believe". So now, I guess you are also listening to it. Care to heed to the lyrics...???? Here you go...I am sure you will like the lyrics equally well.

Men's Brain: 10 Mysteries Revealed

Check out this article from today's MSN Health and Fitness, titled as "10 mysteries of the mind revealed". An interesting read, this article will tell some answers of following mysteries about our mind:

1. How a memory is made ?
2. How alcohol affects your memory ?
3. Why you can't remember being born ?
4. How memory stacks up to an iMac ?
5. How testosterone can help you remember ?
6. What amnesia is all about ?
7. Why you never forget how to ride a bike ?
8. Why hypnotism works—sometimes ?
9. Why you lose your keys ?
10. How to preserve your memory ?

Most interesting is the answer to Question No.2 :- "When you encode memories while in a specific state, like being drunk, you're more likely to remember them when you're again in that state," says Jonathan Schooler, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia.

So, if you got drunk and did something which you dont remember, then get drunk again and try to remember. So, next time, when you plan to get drunk, you have got a good reason to do so. Ok, time is up, I dont remember what I did yesterday evening..lemme get back to my beer. :)

Malena & Monica

I watched a few movies this weekend and the recommended ones are:

1. Malena (starring beautiful Monica Bellucci) ***
2. Kiss the Girls** (Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd)
3. The Confession* (Ben Kingsley, Alec Baldwin)
4. Under Suspicion *(Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman & Monica Bellucci)

Malena is a very good movie and shows the story of a very beautiful woman in WWII time Italy and a young boy's crush on her. The actress in the lead role is indeed very lovely and beautiful. The moral of the story is: "A beautiful woman cannot live alone in this selfish world governed by physical desires. All she can do is to use her beauty, either willingly or unwillingly." This post will be incomplete without a serious appreciation of her acting and one of her picture.There is one quote from "The Confession", worth mentioning here. It is said by Ben Kingsley, an excellent actor with stern face expressions.
"It is not difficult to do the right thing. It is difficult to know the right thing. Once you know what is right, it is difficult not to do so".

Rest two movies are good ones. Gene Hackman is good as usual in "Under Suspicion". It shows how a person can be victimised by circumstances and be held responsible for some heinous crimes. (If I tell you, whether he really committed them or not, your thrill will be all over)

So, if you have seen these movies or planning to see them soon, feel free to comment here :).

Brief Hiatus & The Dilemma

I have been very busy lately and was not able to keep it regular in blogosphere. But now I am back with the usual vigor. Now I ma gonna make you feel my presence by overwhelming your blogs with my comments and posts on my own blogs.

Sometimes, I get intot he confusion about what to write and what not? For instance, I do not like to write about my daily chores (nor do I read) or about the daily happenings. I do like to express my views and quote them as my "idiosyncracy", just in case, if they are in strong contradiction with others views. Thats like being diplomatic, so that I dont gt sued or dragged into a useless altercation.

The phase I am going through right now is very thought-provoking. This is the time which makes you think what you are worth of or are you worthless altogether? This is the phase of being "unemployed" after an advanced engineering degree. I think a lot to write about it, but the more I think to organize my thoughts to write, the more pessisimistic I become and then eventually I dump the idea to do so. But I wish, I would have been able to write about it to track my ups and downs during this difficult time. I am certain that currently I am down. Anyway, wait for some more posts.

My Thanksgiving Meal

Hope you all had a great time yesterday with fun, food and family. I had a great time yesterday with a hefty meal. You can get a very good idea from the picture above. It was really an awesome food, all home-cooked and most of the ingredients fresh from the garden. That was really an all American food. What we eat at fast-food joints, subs etc is not the real American food. There is lot more than just sandwiches, hamburgers and fries. But one thing is evident, that it is based mostly on different forms and varieties of meat. For some (or rather most, I should say) Indians who do not eat meat at all or are very selective in eating meat, it becomes a bit difficult to enjoy real Thanksgiving meal. Indians are either strictly vegetarian or eat chicken, lamb and fish only in the name of meat. Beef and pork are not eaten because of either religious reasons or personal reasons. The first taste of turkey for me was on my first Thanksgiving meal in 2003 and it was with cajun-filling, as I was in LSU at that time. I really liked it very much and since then I have never looked back :). I think it must be similar for other Indians also who come to US. But I admire those people who stick to their vegetarian tendency and eat just green, no meat at all. It is really difficult to manage to live here without eating meat and strive on vegetarian meals only. Everywhere you go, be it fast-food joints or restaurants, menu will have hardly one or two green meals, which means limited choices everywhere. But still, a lot of my friends do survive and I admire their spirits. And the spirits of Thanksgiving too (which was the main idea of this post, but I digresse a bit).

Happy Thanxgiving

Wish you all a very Happy Thanxgiving. Enjoy your day with lotsssss of food and loadzzzzz of fun. Do lots of shopping also but dont fall for the "Big Sale" gimmicks. I wish, I too could have enjoyed the "Big Friday" sale and have spent time in queues outside stores in early morning in chilling winds. But I am too broke to do all that. But whatever, I already did my shopping of this Thanxgiving....a warm lower from Aeropostle....at least I dint broke my record :).

OMG! I m a Nerd!

Another online quiz, again sincere thanx to my dear friend Raluca (online Quiz expert) for proving me to be a High-Level Nerd. I am smart...but not this much nerd..I do hang-out (with girls), love music & shaking on dance-floor, have plenty of friends and a good social life...NNNNNOOOOOO0000000000...!!!! I object...!!!!

Your Score Summary
13% scored higher (more nerdy), and 87% scored lower (less nerdy).
Your nerdiness is: High-Level Nerd. You are definitely MIT material, apply now!!!.

If you have taken the quiz by now, then tell me, how can you prove someone to be a Nerd by asking the basic high-school freshman kind of questions ????????

Am I JFK or Clinton?

What Famous Leader Are You?

personality tests by similarminds.com

The moment I finished my earlier post, I found another link for a "What famous leader are you ?" quiz on SnglGuy's blog. Since I was already in a quiz-taking n results-analzing mood, I took this one also and to my utter surprise I am JFK. Wow...standing ovation to me please :). First I took the quiz with 9 questions, then 27 questions and then with 45 questions. Same result each time. Pretty consistent..hmm..!!!

Then, still feeling a bit unsatisfied, I closed the window, cleared the browser cookies and took the test again with 9 and then 45 questions. This time, I came out to be Bill Clinton. Now I am kind of confused. As far as I think, they are very different personalities. Any comments on this deadlock...Who Am I ?????

Am I "The One" or "One of the Many Ones"?

Another online Quiz results. This time the quiz is to find out What Matrix persona are you ? I found this quiz in blogosphere on Jaya Jha's homepage. The author of quiz is TrinityKills. An interesting thing to do, at least for me as I like Matrix a lot and have seen it soooo many times. The quiz results says that I am Neo, I am "The One". I was so excited to see this result. The mere feeling of being "The One" was so great and challenging. Afterall the responsibility to save the world, to save the human race lies on my shoulders now. Suddenly I became active on a Sunday afternoon and started thinking about how I will proceed from now onwards. But then, I am not "The Only One". The results also display the statistics, which goes like this:

3577 other people got this result!

This quiz has been taken 12478 times.

29% of people had this result.

So, I gotta find all these supposed "The One"s and make a team of humans pledged to save the world from those damn machines. The overall results of the quiz are also pretty deceiving. It says that most of people who took this quiz are Neo (29% Neo, 16% Morpheus, 11% Trinity, 11% Agent Smith, 9% Cypher, 7% Tank and some others too ). If we have so many Neos or "The One"s, then whats his importance anymore ? BTW, I am using a machine to type this too :).

You are Neo, from "The Matrix." You
display a perfect fusion of heroism and
compassion.
What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

My Girlfriend

A thought crossed my mind while reading the article in my earlier post and then thinking about this relationship stuff. The question is : Who has the potential to be one's partner/girlfriend ?

Let me first go through the traits of a potential partner:
1. The one with whom you like to spend most of your time of the day and is close to you.
2. The one to whom you can express your feelings.
3. The one who lets you do what you want to.
4. The one who does not interferes with your deeds and gives you your "personal space".
5. The one with whom you sleep.
6. The one whom you'd like to see every morning as soon as you wake up.

After a careful thought-process, brainstorming and checking all these requirements on the potential candidates for "My Girlfriend", I have given this privilege to my laptop, whom I call "My Lapi". Today I wont hesitate to express my deep love for My Lapi. And interesting thing is that there are qualities apart from above ones which are there in My Lapi and go in her favor e.g. she entertains me by songs and videos, keeps me in touch with the whole world, let me express myself through blogging, bears my frustrations and anger (when I am hard on keyboard) and never says a word. A small problem is to decide the gender of a laptop. Some may say M, some may say F. So, given this flexibility in the gender determination of a laptop and my own preferences, I have aptly granted her the status of my girlfriend. See her picture..how cute she looks. I love you sweetheart.....