colors

Finally my blog got it's new year gift - a new dress! pretty, i guess :)

Yes, there has been a change from ripples to colors. Though my profile boasts of my presence in Blogs ville from October 2005, ripples was born in 2008. The blog was aptly named ripples cos it reflected the emotional instability in me. My words let out my frustrations. Maybe those frustrations or emotional turbulence did not reach you, but definitely I was relieved. A year with you have taught me so many new lessons. A year with you have definitely made me a better person. A better person with better perspectives. And now, its time to move away from all those frustrations and tensions. Today I share my moments with you. Today I share my day with you. Today I talk to my friends through this page. This page has gifted me so many wonderful friends. It has advised me when needed, teased me and comforted me in pain. This page has seen all the shades of my life this year. And hence I name it - Colors!

You might be thinking that the name and the body of the blog doesn't match! I say, it does! Lets compare this blog with your life. Lets look back. How many incidents in the past do you remember when you laughed with all your heart thinking that was the best time in your life? How many incidents do you remember when you cried bitterly thinking it was better to be dead or insane or at least immune? I am sure you could count them. At least I could. These are the shades that reflect in our blog. Moments which we cherish or which had some kind of effect in us. Those are the colors of my page and the long dark portion of the page reflects the forgotten life!

And so here we are towards the end of another year. Let me wish all my friends out here a very very happy New Year. I love you all. Take care.

wrapped in a new skin soon

Soon this page would feature a new template. I so want to wrap the new skin by 1st jan, but doesnt seem like i could make it. So all that I could say is that I would be doing that soon :)

Merry Christmas to all my visitors

a day out at the film city

It was 7 in the morning when my fascinating trip to Ramoji Fim City began. How better could I spent a holiday? The roads where busy cos it was a Friday morning and cabs were zooming in and out on every corner of the road. People rushing to their office! What an irony, i was looking forward for a relaxed holiday and people around me thought of the tiring workplace!At 9 we reached our destination! Long 2 hours journey, but I already got a feel that it was going to be worth the journey. It was my second trip to the place.

There were different entry packages and we could already see crowd storming in. The parking lot was filled with designer buses built specially to attract tourists. There was a bus in the shape of worm, another the shape of a bug, another a bee, then there were buses which looked like steam engines, and lot more. e took tickets for a privileged trip which promised us of a A/C couch, an exclusive guided tour and lunch+snacks. I should say it more than worth for the 850 INR that we pay. The ticket counter was at Gate # 1 and our guided tour starts from Gate # 2 which is full 8 km away from the first gate!

i found this statue on way between gate #1 and gate #2. Seems like its getting ready for a movie!

The guided tour was not new to me since its not the first time I am visiting the place. Our guide explained about various spots and we stopped at the Sun Fountain, Angel's Fountain, Eureka, Princess Street, Maya, Railway Station, Central jail, Rainbow Temple, Airport, South Town, Japanese Garden, Hawa Mahal, Boasura, Filmi Duniya, Action Stunt Shows and more.

About 80% of the structures that we see in the Fim City [which spans over 2000 acres] is made of Plaster of Paris. Many of these are detachable for changing the sets. The fountains are all made of plaster of paris and shows the creativity of the sculptor!

Princess Street: Can you believe that all these buildings are made of cardboard and plaster of Paris? :)

You could experience the grandeur of the Mauryan empire in Eureka.




the front gate to Eureka

You could even wander of the dusty roads of the Wild Wild West and witness a stunt show!




shots from the Wild Wild West Stunt show.

Borasura is the first of its kind in Asia. Enter the sorcerer's den to find the hidden treasure. but mind you, it isnt easy. You have to encounter fiery dragons, crawl throgh a snake's belly, and cross molten lava. There are mine shafts, and spider webs hampering your path. Not to mention the Paper's ghost. Designed by international experts, this is one experience you cannot afford to miss.

the fountains [angel fountain:left]

Travel around the world in Filmi Duniya. Its a whole new world made completely of Plaster of Paris and we travel through this world in small wagons! Behold the romance of Paris. Get a taste of evergreen England. Experience the drama of imperial Rome. Contemplate the majesty of the Swiss Alps. Stare in wonder at the mystical palaces of Bhagdad. Get swept off your feet by pulsating New York. Its one ride that will stay with you for a very long time!

the trip was really beautiful, trust me!

Action is part of Filmi Duniya where in they show us all techniques involved in making a movie! The magic of special effects, editing and dubbing with the help of chromo screens and the real "start-action-cut", everything is shown to us! They even select one among us and make a short movie on them! Its incredible, but I couldn't share the photographs! Cameras and Mobiles are strictly not allowed in here :(

sculpture of angels!










another mind blowing sculpture!










a replica of the famous jaipur hawa mahal!

this is the way to the hawa mahal. these lampshades are removable and once moved this road could be used as a highway [for movies]. Then they would replace the lamp posts with mile stones :)

another showpiece event happened at the Alampana Theatres. There were special performance by various artists and the program was named : " The spirit of Ramoji".

alright, last but not the least. food: we had lunch from the new restaurant. Its called the Superstar Restaurant. The walls over here are decorated with portraits of various super stars covering all regional languages. I found stars ranging from Mohanlal [malayalam] to Amithab Bachan [hindi]. The interiors were beautiful and food awesome! Next time you visit RFC, dnt forget to pay your visit to this place.

The snacks were served at another place named "DilSe". The food is average, but the interiors are good.

Finally a word about the games. There are a lot of games right from bungy jumping to many exciting rides. Anyone and everyone who is visiting Hyderabad and who has One Full Day to spare, do visit this place. You need a minimum of One day to see atleast a good portion of it. Thats it for now. Enjoy your day :)

For people who want to have a better view of the photographs, click on this link.

i, me, myself

After a series of serious and gyaan posts, i decided to write something about whats happening in my life these days! I am on Week off. For people who dont know - I work in shifts. I start my month with a night shift for a week [6 days]. This is followed by afternoon shift [5 days] and then morning shift for the third week [7 days]. The fourth week is off for me and this 7 days leave is named as "Week Off". 

Week off have always been boring for me. Yet I somehow look forward for this week every month. Maybe the lazybones in me gets too much aroused at the very thought of sleeping all day :-)

So how did I spent my days? 

Sunday I had a night shift. Obviously Monday I din see sunlight! Alright geeks, dnt ask me where the sun was when i returned home, the morning after a night shift could be called "late night" and not "early morning" :)

I saw the trailer of Transporter 3 from office and I was dying to see the movie. I thought that before I watch the movie I should refresh my memory and hence I downloaded Transporter 1. Since it was getting downloaded,my net became a lil slow, so din feel like sitting in front of the monitor. Went to a friends place, a friend who shares similar interests. Every time we sit together, politics would become one of the subjects of conversation and his wife hates it :P But then, she is too good a person cos she makes sure than I dont starve :-) When ever i am at home, I would get timely meals :-) thnx to sagu and sagu. I call my friend and his wife "sakhave" mallu for "comrade". "sakhave" later on became short : "sagu" :)so thats about them. I had dinner and went back to my place. The movie was still getting downloaded. I checked my mails and browsed through the blogs. Ah, Scrawler din comment on my comment :( 

Tuesday, I woke up early morning somewere around 12.30 pm.. Sun was too bright and there was no current :( Thankfully power was back as soon as I was done with my lunch. Transporter 1 has finally been saved. Watched the movie and started downloading Transporter 2. There was 1 mission to be completed this week: Cleaning the house ! Again the lazybones in me convinsed me to postpone the idea :-) Went for a small shopping. Came back, switched on my pc. Ah, i found some interesting mails.. ST, u guessed it right, its all about the hunt! :-) Spent the rest of the day at KM :-) Movie got downloaded by late evening. Watched it and then i switched over to blogs. In between I was online and chatted with few wonderful frenz.  I always wanted to create a profile in facebook! Finally I got it done. 

Wednesday, I put my alarm and woke up early. I was in the Cinema by 11 in the morning. There happen to be only two shows for Transporter 3. One at 11.30am and the other at 9.45 pm. Considering that its too cold at night, I thought 11.30 would be more reasonable! The movie was amazing as expected. The car, the chases, everything was mind blowing. Anyone who respects beautiful cars and amazing driving skills - go watch this movie. The feel that you get is beyond explanation. My bike sure went through the after effects. Some how I din see the gutters on my way back home :P Night was spent as usual - News, blogs, chat and mails. 

Thursday, I went to take some prints of my photographs. Seems like my dad got only a set of passport size photographs of mine, that too taken when I was doing my graduation! He din have any snaps to be shown to my prospective future in-laws :) My friend, mentioned earlier :"sagu & sagu" picked me up from the studio and we went to some of his realtive's house. Long day, but met a few other fellow mallu families settles in Hyderabad. Came back at late evening and slept hard. We had a plan for friday :-)

Friday, woke up at 6 in the morning. We planned to go to Ramoji Film City. A small intro for people who havnt heard about it. Ramoji Film City (RFC) is the world’s largest integrated film studio complex at over 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) of land. It is also a popular tourism and recreation centre, containing both natural and artificial attractions. It is situated near Hayathnagar on Hyderabad - Vijayawada, NH9 highway, about 25 km from Hyderabad. Guinness World Records certifies Ramoji Film City as the World's largest Film Studio Complex. Ramoji Film City offers pre-production, production, and post-production resources. It offers over 500 set locations. There are many gardens, authentic sets, about 50 studio floors, a digital film facility, the support systems, outdoor locations, high-tech laboratories, etc. The Film City's infrastructure includes custom-designed locations & mock-ups, set construction, properties & costumes, shooting stages, cameras and equipment, audio post-production, digital-post-production/SFX as well as film processing. Twenty international films and forty Indian films can be produced simultaneously in the complex. 

Thats for an introduction. I would talk more about the trip in my next post. Its gona be more of a photo post cos I have loadz of photos to be uploaded. Till then, take care. Have fun :)

mumbai, i stand with you

...

hatred souls, angels of terror,

balance insanity and brilliance,

oath takers, protectors, gaurdians,

dictates, whines then pleads!

unfortunate souls, the comon men,

wanders through the corridor of life

struggles, survives, dreams,

only to be killed by the unknown!

...

its time to react. its time to crush them. lets show the terrorists the real meaning of terror.

This is my contribution to this week's 3WW (Three Word Wednesday).

use your Right to NOT vote

I was listening to one of the common debates these days - should we blame the government?

Its we who elect them, then why on earth should we blame them? Valid point!

Now, what could be done? Choose your rulers wisely! sigh, the problem is right there! We chose someone from the lil lot we have! What if we dont like anyone who is competing? What if we consider every candidate a looser? What if all major political parties give us their worst people?

All these questions where running through my mind when I visited my friend. The answer was right there in his post.

So what is it?

As per the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1969 Act, in Section 49-O, a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his identity, get his finger marked, and convey to the presiding election officer that he/she doesn’t want to vote for anyone! 

As seen on a government site: 

ELECTORS DECIDING NOT TO VOTE

41. If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the Register of Voters (Form 17A) and he has put his signature/thumb impression on that register, decides not to record his vote, he shall not be forced or compelled to record his vote. A remark to the effect that he has decided not to record his vote shall be made in the remarks column against the entry relating to 116 him in the Register of Voters by the Presiding Officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark under rule 49-O. It shall, however, not be necessary to make any change in the serial number of the elector or of the succeeding electors column 1 of the Register of Voters.

If you think none of the candidates at the ward / constituency are able enough to lead the community, you can always opt not to vote. If you will use this right of yours you may start a new trend in our electoral process, which will further strengthen our democracy.

How does it help?

In a ward or constituency, if a candidate wins, say by ’xyz’ votes, and that particular ward has received "49-O" votes more than 'xyz', then that polling will be cancelled and will have to be re-polled.Not only that, the candidature of the contestants will be removed and they cannot contest the re-polling, since people have already expressed their decision on them. This would bring fear into parties and hence look for genuine candidates for their parties for election.

So next time its election, do visit the polling booth. India's future is in out hands.. Show the political parties that its WE, THE COMMON PEOPLE, who elect them and put them to power. Their strength is OUR faith in them and will power. Its time WE take a decision, for our own good, for the good of the nation. Use your rights.