Ten Goofy Things to spice up Monday Morning

Well.. Its monday again and here're a couple of things I dreamed of doing today as I came into DECS. Go ahead and try these (hope you have enough personal insurance though...)'

Disclaimer: T author of this post does not take responsibility for any loss of property / injuries resulting as a result of trying these out.

10. http://a-graduate-life.blogspot.com

9. Stand with a writing pad in the corridor, look intently at someone, smile to yourself, shake your head and scribble away...Look at the expression on their face from the corner of your eye

8. Call a close friend and tell them in a very serious voice...."Hey.. Do you remember that time I loaned you a thousand dollars?... I was wondering if you ever returned it?.. " Keep the farce up until the end of the day... put up a facebook status message that says.."someone owes me a thousand dollars"

7. When on the bus...declare loudly into the mobile phone..."Yes.. the reports came in yesterday... It is what we feared..." and watch people melt away from you...

6. Call last weekend's date and tell her you're sorry....when she asks why....ask if she's into Aliens...

5. Go to the library and empty an entire shelf of books onto a table. Then proceed to build a fort with it...Take one book and keep it open just in case anyone should ask you what you're doing.

4. Take a Hand lens to the diary store and examine the glass for ten minutes.....

3. Draw a quirky looking face on the whiteboard... when people stop to stare at it, look up from your book /computer and tell them very curtly..."nope.. its not you....although I do admit there's a slight resemblance..."...

2. Stop someone in the hallway and tell them you're looking for the Ministry of Magic / Justice league headquarters / Voltori's Temple / Space Port...

1. Send a mail to everyone in your research group telling them there's free pizza in Room XYZ where XYZ is a rest room...Watch as everyone comes back frustrated.. I suggest you do this only when you're not in the lab yourself.


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Top 10 Signs you're a newbie graduate student in the US

10. Your shoes still look new. FootNote: Your Spartan Village Carpet still looks clean.

9. Your laptop still has a shit ton of free space

8. You think Taco Bell serves the best food in the world and You still haven't figured out how to order in Subway

7. You visit the website www.msufcu.org as often as you visit Facebook.

6. You are very upset that the loaf of bread you bought costs 400 Rupees.

5. You just bought twenty packets of Ramen noodles from Meijer because they're only 20 cents a pack....&& You visit 'Dollar Tree' once in two days.

4. You attend every crappy resource fair that happens on campus and get all the freebies...including the clips, the post it notes and the small frisbees that go straight to the dust bin after one year.

3. You actually sweep your house once in two days and do your laundry every week.

2. Your backpack has the CATA schedules of all the buses, including the ones that service areas you wont visit in the next five years.

1. You think Research is 'fun'.


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Top 15 signs You're having a boring weekend

13. You're having a conversation with Raghav about Superhero comics.

12. You're a 22 year old male on a Jonas Brothers forum.

11. You're you-tubing videos from Karan Johar movies.

10. You go to the Spartan Village Community Center to check if there's any mail in your mailbox three times.. and then you realise its a sunday.

9. You change your wallpaper thirty times.

8. You eat 7 meals in one day because you have nothing else to do. And u do the dishes everytime.

7. You're with Abinand working on the script for his next movie. (wait .. what?)

6. You're writing a blog about the 'top 15 signs of a boring weekend'.

5. You're reading this blog.

4. You recount the number of signs and mail the blogger saying there's only 12 when there's supposed to be 15.

3. You've asked the question "what else is up" fifty times to the same person during one im conversation.. and he/she signs out..

2. You purposely leave out ten items from your groceries and make ten more trips to Meijer... and they lady at meijer gives you a free notepad on which to make your shopping list.

1. You've spent an hour refreshing your facebook page to see if anyone "likes" your status message

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Unnaipol Oruvan ? Idhaipol oru Padam - Remakes in Tamil Cinema

A rather Wikipedia-estic blog post.

With Dr. Kamal Hassan's Unnaipol oruvan (remake of A Wednesday) and Bharath's Kandein Kadhalai (remake of Jab we Met) hitting the screens anytime now, and with Ninaithaale Inikkum (remake of the malayalam mega hit, Classmates) already creating waves in multiplex circles. I began doing some googling on the prescence of remakes in the tamil movie circuit.

I initially wanted to make a conventional 'top-ten' list of remakes but then realised that everytime i made a list, i looked back at some of the movies and they didnt deserve to be there... and sometimes movies that had been eliminated fought even harder for a chance on the final ten. So what began as a top ten list boiled into a list of movies categorized by actor. A rather Wikipedia-estic blog post.

Just to make sure we're on the same page...I'm talking remakes from other indian languages...not those so called "inspirational tributes" from hollywood and other places overseas. So here we go...

Superstar Rajnikanth: Most trade pundits acknowledge that it was after Billa, the remake of Amitabh Bachan's Don, that Rajni began to monopolize the tamil box office. Billa was followed by Thee, a remake of another Amitach Bachan starrer, Deewar.

During the time when rajni dominated markets in india and overseas, he acted in Muthu which is not acknowledged as a remake, but is heavily inspired by the Malayalam film, Ponmaavin Thombathu.

And of course, after the debacle of Rajni's home production Baba, two out of Rajni's three films have been remakes, Chandramukhi (Manichitra Thaazhu, Malayalam) and Kuselan (Katha Parayumbol, Malayalam)

Dr. Kamal Hassan: The Universal Hero too had his share of remakes from other indian languages in his early years, the most noteworthy of them being Unakkul Oruvan, the remake of Subash Ghai's Karz. Well, technically speaking, Karz itself was heavily 'inspired' by the american film, 'The Reincarnation of Peter Proud'

After a few decades, he returned to the remake scene by starring in the 2003 remake of MunnaBhai MBBS, Vasool Raja MBBS. Following that, he will be acting in the much awaited Unnaipol Oruvan.

Ajith Kumar: Our 'thala' has dabbled with remakes too. Apart from the soulful Kireedom (Kreedam, Malayalam) which failed to rake in the moolah, Ajith made a comeback with the oft-remade Billa where he sashayed with Nayan (ooh. who can forget the much youtube'd Bikini scene at the pool) and Namitha. Also note, that despite being called an orginal screenplay, his 2008 Aegan is heavily inspired by King Kahn's Main Hoon Na.

Vijay: The Illaya thalapathy has by far starred in the largest amount of remakes in this list. But i'm guessing he'll soon be overtaken by another person who's made his entire career of starring in remakes (we'll talk about him soon). Starting with Fazil's Kadhalukku Mariyaadhai (Aniyathi Pravu, Malayalam) and Siddique's Friends (Friends, Malayalam), he also starred in the highly successful commercial blockbuster, Ghilli (Okkadu, Telugu).

His most recent hit, Pokkiri was also a remake of the Telugu film by the same name.

Surya Sivakumar: Surya's Perazhagan (Kunji Koonan, Malayalam) is seen by many as one of the most important films his career along with Gautham's Kaakha Kaakha. Since then there haven't been any movies of his that have been remakes as far as i can think of.

'Chiyaan' Vikram: Vikram, the reigning numero uno of tamil cinema has had two remakes in his career so far. In 2003, the critically acclaimed Kasi (Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Naanum, Malayalam) further cemented Vikram's supermacy as the most bankable star of Tamil Cinema. Vikram also followed his blockbuster film Anniyan with a lighthearted comedy, Maja (Thommanum Makkalum, Malayalam).

'Jayam' Ravi: I did mention that there is one guy who has made his entire career out of starring in remakes directed by his brother 'Jayam' Raja. Here's the list.

Santhosh Subramaniam (Bommarillu, Telugu)
M Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi (Amma Nanna O Tamil Ammayi, Telugu)
Jayam (Jayam, Telugu)
Mazhai (Varsham, Telugu)
Something Something Unakkum Enakkum (Nuvvostenante Naanowhatever, Telugu)

.......and his next movie is also a remake, Thillalangadi which is a remake of the Ravi Teja hit, Kick.

Madhavan: The almost-buck-toothed chocolate boy of indian cinema has two remakes to his credit. The critically acclaimed Evano Oruvan (Dhombivilli Fast, Marathi) and forgettable Guru En Aalu (Yes Boss, Hindi)

Simbhu and Dhanush (chuckle..): Simbhu's much needed hit in his early days came in the form of Dhum, the remake of the kannada film, Appu. After that he worked with veteran director K.S.Ravikumar in the remake of the telugu film Bhadra, which was released in Tamil as Saravana.

Dhanush's much needed hit came in the form of Yaaradi Nee Mohini, the remake of his brother Selvaraghavan's Telugu hit, Adavaari Maatalu Blah Blah.

Others:

Sarath Kumar's rib tickling Tenkaasi Pattanam, a remake of the mayalam film of the same name.

Prashant's 'Shock', a remake of the RGV movie Bhoot.

The Critically acclaimed Kasthuriman, starring Prasanna and Meera Jasmine was a remake of the malayalam film of the same name.

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The Quick-N-Dirty India Trip update !

Welcome back to the land of the blog. This is your friendly neighborhood blogger and I'm back in East Lansing, Michigan. A few days ago i was saying something about "enthusiastic PhD students" and someone overheard that and said, "enthusiastic" and "PhD" usually dont go together..

So i guess i'll make use of the last vestiges of leftover "cheer" from my India trip and tell you a little bit about what I did in my 20 days at home in Chennai.

Ate: Well, you know what they say.."Eat Healthy, Think Better" ...I revisited all my old favorites, New Andhra Meals, Saravana Bavan, Ascendas etc etc... One new place that i went to was "The Park Hotel" ...where me and laddu had a lunch buffet that totally blew me away

Slept: Yes... OId Room. Old Pillows. Old Dreams of Shriya Saran and Cute Mega Serial heroines who cry all the time..

Met friends: Of course. Met all my old friends. Most of them I couldnt meet much because my trip was only 20 days long. Rest assured, next time i'll be there to bug you a lot more.

Spent time with John Sebastian: He's my dentist. He took one look inside my mouth and had a heart attack. Fortunately he used a dental drill as a makeshift pacemaker.. and proceeded to ROOT CANAL the crap out of my teeth (which was not a big deal btw...ending my decade long speculation as to how a root canal procedure feels)... well.. my teeth now have enough metal filling to set off the metal detectors in the airport.

LandMark Quiz: I seem to be flying down everytime this takes place. Awesome questions yet again.. VV Ramanan and Co winning it yet again.. Dr. Naveen Jaikumar conducting it yet again.. I shall be there for it next year yet again...

Watched Kandhasamy with Families: If this movie had been made before Sivaji and Anniyan, It would 've made more money.... but i hear its already made 60 crore..so...well...

Despite the mixed reviews that this movie got, I think it was fun. The whole superhero messiah angle was nice and I think technically, the movie was brilliant. And YAAAAA.......SHRIYAAAAAAAA !!!...


Got Engaged: Yay! I have a ring on my finger and a chain (both literally and figuritively) around my neck.

I still remember the first time Lois meets Superman in Richard Donner's 1978 movie, He flies up and catches her in mid air.. This is the exchange of words...

Superman: Easy, miss. I've got you.
Lois Lane: You - you've got me? Who's got you?

So yeah.. I'm now officially engaged to the person I love the most in the world...or universe if you believe the existence of other worlds... or multiverse if you believe in the existence of other universes... or dimensions, if you believe in other dimensional planes... but well.. you get the general idea.

P.S. Wedding on June 6th 2010; be there !!!

So yeah.. that was pretty much a run through of what i did.... Will follow up with more posts as the semester heats up!

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