Tour Down Under: Lance still wins hearts of fans!

I have a special feeling for this American professional cyclist, Lance Armstrong. It’s not for the reason that he is the 7-time record winner of the tour de France. This US cyclist is born to be a winner like I believe.

Lance might have lost at the Tour Down Under, but didn’t disappoint his worldwide fans. After more than 3 years of hibernation, he’s returned back to professional cycling with the Tour Down Under and its no mean achievement.

The 37-year-old US cyclist had surely exceeded expectations of people, who most of them are his fans, on his return. I believe he will return to world-class form by May 2009 to give a fight at the Giro d’ Italia and in Tour De France by July 2009. Isn’t this telling the kind of a character that this cancer survivor is?

Lance Armstrong fought and survived a testicular cancer, which he was diagnosed in 1996. It was after diagnosed by the dreadful cancer that Lance won the Tour de France for seven times. Thanks to improved medical diagnostics and cancer treatment, Lance, post cancer treatment, is fighting back to come to professional cycling form. I believe he’s got what it takes to clinch another Tour De France title.

His life is an example to say that there is so much power in all of us to do if only there is that WILL to fight! Lance has got strength in his NAME, and he remains role model to cyclists as well as the fighters of cancer disease! Way to go Lance!.....err.....Way to cycle Lance!!

New Fiat Linea Indian Commercial song?

Please check the update to this post
http://liv2rite.blogspot.com/2009/01/fiat-linea-india-commercial.html
(Thanks to AsMi and Bravo your blog seems to be authority in ad campaigns. Loved it!)
It comes as background for the new Fiat Linea Ad commercial in India. The lyrics go something like this:

It was an ordinary day....then you came up to me...looking so fine....Oh....you were divine...
now I am STUCK at the sight of you.......STUCK ...at the thought of you .......there's a voice from inside......because I'm STUCK at the sight of you..... babe...... STUCK..... at the thought of you ....STUCK

The song sounds pretty cool and romantic...tried searching several routes couldn't get much information but any help from any of you guys- very much appreciated!

PS:
The ad too scores a 10/10 concept perfect for the tagline The new Fiat Linea "Admiration Guaranteed" and the ad guarantees admiration from all corners. Bravo! Good work here.

Indian Judicial System A big mockery with countless pending cases!!

The National Law University celebrated annual Convocation the last Monday, and Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekawat had been there on the occasion. His Excellency, the Vice President, Bhairon Singh Shekawat was pointing at the pending cases in several courts of India that were in huge numbers. The Vice President warned, the graduating community, of the fury they may have to face from public should justice be not delivered on time. "The fury is building up," is what he said while addressing at the convocation of the National Law University, Jodhpur.

He also substantiated the reason for 3 crore plus pending cases in the various subordinate courts and about 35 lakh pending cases in various state High Courts and attributed partially to the vacancies in the respective courts for judges.

He remarked that there is a need to address these through multi-pronged initiatives which include and not limited to inflating the strength of judges, infrastructure of courts, modernizing the judicial process, encouraging alternate systems for dispute redressal and also reinforcing the Lok Adalats. He also suggests of the need for fast track courts to speed up dealing of serious crime cases, election dispute cases and corruption cases.

He also brought into limelight the growing distate for the Indian judicial system felt by commonman. He further brought into notice the languishing time of undertrials at various prisons and that some of them serving there for time longer than what could be the maximum term they could have been sentenced to, should they have been found guilty. He remarks that it is inhuman to have such inordinate delays in the trial of cases.

He urged the graduating lawyers to take cases of gross violation of the Fundamental Rights especially of below poverty line group of people and to exercise legal perception in dealing such cases and set themselves as role models.

Is it just another convoation speech or something that the graudating lawyers will take seriously? I remember former President Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam suggesting that every Supreme Court judge work for two hours in addition to what he does to close the pending cases, and set themselves as example for other judges to tackle backlog cases. But how many of the SC judges have taken this Man's word seriously? Even if there be one, I salute!

Chinese welcome new lunar year, the Year of Ox tonight the 26th January 2009

The year 2009 is the year of Ox according to the Chinese Zodiac. Chinese believe that Ox or Buffalo symbolize prosperity through perseverance and people born under the influence of Ox are believed to be persevering and consistent who also has a strong character and is tolerant. This is the second year of Ox come in the 12-year cycle that the Chinese follow.

Ox is known to be fearless and has strong resolution to fulfill a task and not many people are blessed with this cThe typical Ox is a tolerant person with strong character. Not many people could equal the resolution and fearlessness that the Ox exhibits when deciding to accomplish a task. Ox people work hard without complaints at work or at home. They know that they will succeed through hard work and sustained efforts, and do not believe in get-rich-quick schemes.

Celebrities born in the year of Ox: Napoleon Bonaparte, Charlie Chaplin, Dustin Hoffman, Walt Disney, Anthony Hopkins, Jack Nicholson, Eddie Murphy, Margaret Thatcher, Picasso, Meg Ryan, Princess Diana, Meryl Streep, Richard Nixon, Barack Hussein Obama, are a few celebrities who were born in the year of Ox.

According to Joy Lim, a reputed Feng Shui Consultant, Year 2009 will be a year of resilience and other Feng Shui experts echo with Lim that despite global economic slowdown, the Year of Ox 2009 can bring some respite with some patience and perseverance. Only when the failures are faced with the results of success could be felt. Endurance is the keyword and the Chinese are looking forward to it come Year of Ox 2009. Feng Shui believes in displaying ‘fu’ on doors as well as walls to descend that luck. The lucky charms include golden Buddhas, tiny gold bells that Chinese believe ring in the luck for their families.

Chinese New Year, the Year of Ox 2009 or ‘li Chou’ is welcomed today night. The Chinese clear all the clutter in the living space and throw off the junk and then welcome their new year into their homes. They also believe that there is nothing obstructing flow of natural elements through doors and windows and that good fortune comes through the doors.

They will have a night feast where families reunite and people working elsewhere come home and join the feast and it’s the first holiday in the Chinese calendar. To have all family members join at the feast will certainly add to health and longevity of people and Chinese believe in this very strongly.

Dragon dances and fireworks will mark the celebration of Chinese New year in the Chinatowns of various places.

The celebration of the Chinese New Year traditionally begins on the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar and ends 15 days later with the observance of the Lantern

Festival.

The year 2009 is the Year of the Ox, which is also known by its formal name of "Ji Chou." To all Chinese "Gung HeiFat Choi” and “Sun nien fai lok.”

Tips to maintain an LCD

Once upon a time - I didn’t mean very long ago but just a couple of decades back we knew of very few homes that had TVs, but now, TVs are a passé and LCDs and Plasma TVs have taken their place. In fact LCDs have become more popular than the Plasmas because the former can support full high definition of 1080p screen resolution technology (the latter support a max of 720p technology). I am not going to differentiate between the two in this post. Here are some tips on how to handle an LCD television:

*See that the polariser surface does not receive any scratches, as the surface is very sensitive and soft which could be damaged by even a small scratch. Touching, rubbing, or pushing the polariser surface with any hard abrasive material is a strict NO.
*Keep the surface clean. Use hand glove before cleaning the surface of LCD screen. Use n-Hexane on an antistatic cloth and clean the surface.
*Water can spoil the LCD by an electrical short or corrosion. Remove water carefully if there is accidental spill of water.
*See that there is no sudden temperature and humidity changes in place where LCD is kept. An LCD cannot be used in areas of high temperature or high humidity.
*Keep the LCD away from corrosive gas as it can damage the circuit and/or the polariser of the LCD.
*Do not operate LCD under same pattern as it can damage the screen usage and turn the power off when not in use and change the use pattern regularly.

Shivamani Kannada Movie Review

Film: Shivamani
Banner: SJP Creations
Producer: Jagannath V Pai
Story, Screenplay, Dialogues, Direction: SK Amarnath
Cinematography: Sree Venkat
Music: Veer Samarth
Stunts: Anal Urs
Editor: Suresh Urs
Cast: Sri Murali, Sharmila Mandre, Shobaraj, Vinaya Prakash, Avinash, Ramesh Bhat, Kote Prabhakar, etc.

How the hell I came to such a movie is what I uttered at the Intermission of the Shivamani movie. The director of the film S K Amarnath must have lost his logical thinking while scripting the story. It appears that the story is only designed for Murali and it’s quite obvious when you see Murali’s stunt sequences which may or may even not appeal the mass and front row seaters. For producer, the Pai Group’s Jagannath V Pai, though, who forayed into sandalwood film production with this shitty film. No doubt, the Pai group tried to promote the movie but he would have been in state of a shock if not coma for Shivamani’s openings.

I was smitten by this out and out rubbish called Shivamani for about 145 minutes and I am unsure if I have to sympathize with the Shivamani crew or lambast them for taking Kannada audience granted.

It’s so unfortunate to see Sri Murali’s talent being untapped. So sad, Murali still tried to impress the audience in emoting some drama and sentiment from a script that hardly got anything other than stunts. To have big off-screen crew such as Vira Shankar and Sree Venkat working for this crap surprised me. However, Veer Samarth’s music and Sree Venkat’s cinematography are the feel good factors if any for the movie Shivamani.

The storyline is weak, and the screenplay makes it weaker and director S K Amarnath failed to do his best in his debut directorial, and it gives a feeling that he jumped the gun little too earlier. Maybe he needs to go to Pune and take a diploma course in contemporary film direction. He seemed to have influences of the 60s and 70s Indian cinema. The fight sequences which are poorly picturised defying logic will only reiterate this. The hero successfully actually grounds 20+ big-bodied goons each and every fight, and there are over 10 stunt sequences throughout the movie. As Shivamani movie ends audience will become immune to the goried scenes.

Film is poorly woven around college romance between Shivamani and her lady lead Shruthi (Sharmila Mandre). Shivamani is raised as an orphan by a good samaritan and he grows into a person who’s intolerant to societal wrongs and tries to correct. It is this character that is liked by his college mate Shruthi. Shivamani later meets a couple and realizes that they are his birth parents, but keeps estranged from them for obvious reasons. Mafia leader Naga’s sycophants receive some bashing up treatment from Shivamani and that’s how he becomes hostile to Naga (played unimpressively).

Sri Murali by all means tried to impress as Shivamani, but he wasn’t given enough space other than showing his bare chest and muscles. Shivamani tackles 30 baddies at a time during the last fight. How long Kannada audience will cheer such nonsense? And to add to woes those irritating punchy counter dialogues, which I doubt anyone will be impressed with. Comedy track runs along the villains which is in bad taste.

Although, Shivamani movie takes off with a nice hummable tune ‘Badatanekke ambuva chinte’ the nice part ends there and we got to take all rubbish for 2 plus hours that Shivamani has for us. Sharmila Mandre looked beautiful, but other than that she has nothing more to offer in Shivamani. Even acting pros Avinash, Ramesh Bhat and Vinaya Prasad had nothing much to offer in the movie. S K Amarnath fails in all aspects of direction and you will heave a sigh of relief once you see the end card.

Verdict: Shivamani movie is a poorly blended cocktail tasting awful. In all mercy, it can be given a C rating.