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Live Blogging – Slumdog Millionaire Wins Its Second Oscar

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Hugh Jackman is back to host the Academy Awards. He welcomes Daniel “Mr. Bond” Craig and Sarah Jessica Parker, from the “Sex & The City”. They announce the award for Art Direction.

And the award goes to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Donald Burt and Victor comes to collect it.

Slumdog Millionaire-3The award for best Costume Designer goes to Michael O Connor for The Duchess.

The award for best Make Up goes to Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Greg Cannom wins it. More than make up, he seems to be too fast at pronouncing names he wanted to thank in his 45 second speech.

Benjamin Button receives its second Oscar award.

Time is 9:27 PM EST

The vampire star from The Twilight comes to announce “Romance of The Oscars”.

Ben Stiller and Natalie comes to announce the best award for the Oscars. Ben Stiller looks funny with that beard and dirty chewing gum. He says Slumdog Millionaire was shot on the cellphone. He looks lost J, pretending funny- may be…Oh yeah, talking about the wizard cinematography.

Who will win this award – Slumdog ? Lets wait and watch.

And the Oscar goes to Anthony Dod Mantle for Slumdog Millionaire. He wants to thank 1000 people but can’t.

Congratulations – The Slumdog Millionaire team for the second Oscar award. I am excited!

Time is 9:36. Time for a break!…

Image Credit: MasterOrz

Popularity: 16%

Live Blogging-Slumdog Millionaire Wins Its First Oscar Award

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The Oscar fever has caught on and for the first time, I am blogging live watching the Oscars, from the comforts of my home. Nothing can beat this experience. Seeing it live, munching my favourite triscuit, watching my two kids screaming louder than the Oscar host and blogging as Slumdog Millionaire is about to win Oscars – At this point, I don’t know how many, though!

Oscar AwardThe expectations are high among Indians that music maestro AR Rahman, who has bagged three nominations for “Slumdog Millionaire”, will bring home the coveted trophy. What a moment that will be!

Other two Indian films vying for the glory are “Smile Pinki” and “The Final Inch”.

The time is 8.30 PM EST.

Ok, the Oscar Awards has begun and so is this live blogging.

The time is 8:33 PM

Singer, Dancer, Actor Hugh Jackman enters the show with startling display of his talent. He starts of with the song on Slumdog Millionaire, moves onto Benjamin Button – what a startling display, picks up Anne Hathaway for an impromptu dance. Jackman performs about the other movies – The Reader, The Wrestler and Nixon. What a Live Performance that was!

The time is 8:40 PM

Hugh Jackman introduces all the nominees including Mickey Rourke, the couple – Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie, the guy who played Nixon, Demi Moore.

The time is 8:45 PM

5 yesteryear Oscar actress winners including Whoopi Goldberg introduces Penelope Cruz, Marisa Tomei, Demi Moore et al.

Penelope Cruz wins Oscar for the best actress. She goes to the stage and thinks she would faint…but doesn’t. She gave an emotional speech saying it is art which unites the universe. You are too good and beautiful. Penelope – Congratulations !

The time is 8:54 PM

Some type pad clicks. Few sentences and sounds of a typewriter. I don’t know what is happening.

Enter Steve Martin and Tina Fei. They starts joking around, as usual and soon picks up the mike for announcing the best screenplay. Now I understand why there were those type sounds.

The best screenplay award goes to Dustin Lance Black for Milk. Dustin, on the stage, emotionally talks of “Hope” for Gays and Lesbians across America.

Next comes the award for the best adopted screenplay…and the award goes to Simon Beaufoy, the writer for Slumdog Millionaire.

Oscar # 1 for Slumdog Millionaire. Wondering why Vikas Swarup for Original Screenplay. But yes, he thanked Vikas Swarup and the other two musketeers and his love for India.

I am so excited now. My friend, Madhavan, who wrote Will Slumdog Millionaire Win the Oscar Awards, pings me on Gmail. We exchange congratulations for the first in the kitty and many to go.

The time is 9:03.

Enters Kungfu Panda and his star friends…I am talking of Jack Black and Jennifer Aniston. He is hilarious.

The best animated feature film goes to Wall-E. Oscar is taken by Andrew Stanton. He thanks everyone..nothing extraordinary of a speech. The show goes on

The best animated short film goes to La Maison En Petites. Kunio Kato collects the award and “Sanks” everyone!…Sankooo..meaning Thank You.

Time for a break!

Popularity: 27%

Windows Live Writer – A Must Have for Bloggers

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If you are new to blogging or if you are an avid blogger, a good blog editor will always come handy.

I have been blogging for a while now and have used variety of tools to blog. While the editors provided by most of the blog portals like Blogspot, WordPress areWindows Live Writer adequate, they sometimes fall short or make job of blogging a bit tedious. There are variety of tools out there along with plug-in to browsers which help you do this.

Today, I want to introduce you to “Windows Live Writer” and thankfully it is not Beta. I have been using it since it was in Beta and I am more than impressed with its ability.

Features

  1. Out of the box integration with popular blogging portal: WordPress, Blogger, Live Spaces, Live Journal, Typepad
  2. WYSWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, creates posts exactly the way you see in the editor
  3. Excellent Object Insert feature, provides total control on Images, Videos, tables etc that are inserted into the posts.
  4. Image Management, enables provides good effects and way to insert images into the posts
  5. Additional Information such as Tags, Excerpts and other additional features supported by the Blog provider.
  6. Publishing is a breeze.
  7. Wide array of plug-in to choose from, which enhance the tool.
  8. HTML Editing, to fine tune the post
  9. Spell Checker

Apart from the above features there are few other nifty tools, which make the overall experience of using the tool enjoyable. I only wish it could enable filling all additional data from WordPress plug-ins installed on any site.

But other than that it is fantastic. I have written this post using Windows Live Writer.

I strongly recommend you all to give it a try. Get it from http://home.live.com

Popularity: 12%

The Many Games People Play

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Last couple of weeks, two multimillion dollar news/ reviews caught my attention – Multimillion dollar stories of a dog, a shoe and the many games people play.

One was of course of “The Bush Shoe” and the other was the latest movie going the rounds- Slum Dog Millionaire

US President George Bush was attacked with a shoe by a Cairo based Iraqi TV reporter Muntadar Al-Zeidi. The shoe has gained tremendous popularity – in the middle eastern world and the western world. Although shoe throwing is considered as an insult in many parts of the Middle East, this particular incident was an exception of sort. There was allround praise for Mr.Zeidi. In fact I even heard the news of a Saudi man willing to give $ 10 Mln to get his hands to those “Godly” shoes

In his last days as President, Mr. Bush has certainly earned the respect from his followers so much so that it took a shoe for all the talking. Apparently the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al- Maliki had clearly heard the thrower’s accompanying cry of “This is a goodbye kiss, you dog”

Check out the many shoe games that has come to the market post this incident. There are many, here are the top five

1. Sock And Awe

2. Bush Bash

3. Flying Babush

4. Bush’s Boot Camp

5. Can You Throw a Shoe at Bush ?

What a mess indeed, huh ?

Talking of dog and of course the million dollars, it seems Slumdog Millionaire has caught its viewers by surprise.

Slumdog Millionaire is a story of a Mumbai Boy who won the Hindi version of famous reality show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”. The film is directed by Danny Boyle and written by Simon Beaufoy and is based on the book Q and A by Vikas Swarup.

The story sound simple – Jamal Malik  goes into the Hindi version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire and wins it. How can the illiterate boy from the slum with zero knowledge win such a prestigious show ? Things get complicated when the producers of the show do not believe that the boy indeed won it fairly.

Will that deter the boy from reaching his ultimate goal ? What is his ultimate goal ?

He loves a girl from his childhood days and has lost touch with her. Now he wants to get reunited with her. He knows for a fact knows that she watches every episode. Inorder to find her he goes to the show and wins it.  What mattered to him was the girl and not the million dollars that were waiting to be taken.

The Director Danny Boyle revealed on MTV Movies Blog that it is a true story. The movie stars Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan. Music is by A R Rahman.

I browsed around to get see what others are talking about the movie. And here are few of those ketch ups

1. Although set in India, Film’s appeal are universal

2. It is a Crowd Pleaser

3. One of the most dynamic and exuberant underdog stories

If you are keen to take a sneek peak, watch the theatrical trailer here.

Image Credit: Wikimedia

Popularity: 15%

Attempt To Shift The Cliché

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We all know and it is a cliché that we Indians are very warm, friendly and affectionate. We care about the people we know and in certain occasions we tend to care about people we do not know. We are a bit of an extroverts regarding the issues and matters related to the people we know. We have an inclination towards finding out the cheerful, sorrowful and problematic situations of the people there after enjoying, empathizing and solving them respectively.

All of this is completely unintentional and is out of love towards the people. But, unfortunately not everyone can understand this love and care which we showerPeople on them in all aspects of their life but, in turn they tend to feel morally offensive, insulted and as an act of breaking through their privacy and personal life.

As far as my experience is concerned and the circumstances I have faced with, in accordance with the issues (Good or bad) related to me, the people whom I know and also the ones whom I barely know turned out to be a bit unaccepted. Most often people tend to share their happy moments with others without asking them.  Also we could force them or try and get to know these happy moments.   

Having said this, there can be certain limitations that could be set for our own welfare and also to maintain a good relationship with others. Now it is time to shift the state of cliché that we Indians besides being very friendly and showering love by enjoying others happiness and by solving others sorrows, problems in all the ways possible, also understand that a person will have a private and personal issues which he would not prefer to be discussed unless he/she feels comfortable.

Here are few examples of rules and limitations I would follow conforming to the subject of this article.

  • If a person has written an exam, I would never ask his/her result and marks.
  • If a person is not married and it is the high time, I would never ask him/her about the plans of getting married.
  • If a person is unemployed, I would never ask him/her about the information about their trials, the number of hits and fails.
  • If a person is married and has not planned for kids yet, I would never ask them about his/her plans and time of them having kids.
  • Finally, if a person has an idea about what blogging is, I would never ask him/her if he/she has written a blog or is he/she planning to write one or I would not force him/her to blog some or read one.

I would be happy to discuss in these kinds of situations unless they themselves pick on a conversation regarding their issues. Thank you. I know I am trying to be an intelligent Indian trying hard to follow these set of rules and more, to ensure ones comfort while having a conversation with me and I am sure you will as well ;)    

Image Courtesy: Internationalrivers.org

Note: When I speak “WE”, it does not cater to everyone but only the ones who possess the traits I am talking about.

Popularity: 9%

Bollywood Blogging-Aamir Khan And Amitabh Bachhan Take It To The Next Level

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Whenever I think of perfectionism, there are two Bollywood stars that come to my mind – Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bacchan. While Aamir, over the years, has proved himself to be a cut above the rest, Amitabh Bachhan continues to hog the limelight even after four decades of service in the film industry. Talking about service, how many people do you know who has this level of commitment – One can probably count on fingers.

Coming to our topic of discussion i.e. Blogging, these two stars have taken Bollywood Blogging to the next level. Last few months I have been going through their blogs frequently and I must say that I have highest regard for these two Bollywood stars. My hats off.

Neverthless, I tried my best to give you my two pennies on what I think their blog is all about. So here it goes…

Aamir Khan

If I can speak of Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan, can I leave behind Aamir Khan ? These three Khans dominate Bollywood and it is a fact that none of us can deny.

As I told you earlier, I have been having some sneak peeks into Aamir Khan’s blog and I must say that I have rarely seen anyone attract so much readership attention, including some of the leading bloggers. The frequency at which each of the blog comes may not be very impressive, but the kind of interest that it creates is mind boggling.

As for example, he had written an article about “Ant Attack” in his bed – How silly that can be for an article. Guess the no. of  comments he received for that article – A stunning 1100+ comments in less than 5 days. That is STUPENDOUS !!!. Hitting jackpots once or twice is understandable, achieving the unachievable day after day – OUT OF THE WORLD !!!

In another article where he gave the mantle to Genelia and his nephew Imran Khan who wrote a piece on “Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Na“, the blog received some 2700+ comments – Honestly, I have never seen something like that, earlier.

Sometimes I wonder what is it that these stars are made of ? Well, lets not get into those – that’s why they are what they are..

Ever wonder what it would be like if he had advertisement on his site, going – he will soon become an internet millionaire. Different fact that he doesn’t need those millions :)

By the way, you can read his blog at www.aamirkhan.com/blog

Alexa Ranking of Aamir’s blog is at an impressive  47,183 as on 31st October 2008.

Amitabh Bachhan

We all know that Big B speaks well, recites poetries very well – Remember his renderings of the song “Kabhi Kabhi.. ” We also know that his dad, Harivansh Rai Bacchan was one of the greatest  poets that our country has seen in recent years. Like father like son – Amitabh Bachhan is a reader’s dream. He writes like he speaks – gentle, humorous yet very diplomatic

Now, for over a year – Amitabh Bachhan has taken the combination of his writing & poetic talents to the next level – Blogging. He is definitely one of the most admired blogger that India has ever seen. In less than a year he has managed to get a readership of over a million, a feat that many of us would take a few years to achieve.

His language, his presentation, the look and feel of the blog itself is brilliant. Goes without saying, there is a lot of effort behind this and no wonder Big B generates such an interest. He has proved time and again – Age is no bar and continues to excel in one field after the other.

If you haven’t still figured out where you can find his blog, go google it or click this link

By the way, Alexa ranked Big Adda- the parent site at 3000 levels and I am sure most of the traffic is brought by Big B himself.

Talking of Big Adda, this is part of Reliance Big Entertainment of Anil Ambani. Sometime back, I read a news somewhere that Big B was getting into a Rs.1500 crore deal with Anil Ambani for his BIG Entertainment business and I think writing for Big Adda was part of the deal.

Whether he blogs for money or not is a different discussion altogether – the fact is Amitabh Bachhan writes well and he creates interest on every post that he writes. He blogs daily despite his busy schedule, bad health etc. That’s called commitment !

Popularity: 20%

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