as i see it

Joost is yet another web shattering service following the likes os youtube , kazaa n stuff.
Joost is sorta p2p platform that gets streaming television on your comp.For those that don't know, Joost is a new web venture that puts on demand video on the web. The service is free, and paid for by advertising that is interspersed within the shows you watch. I'd rather have Joost be free with ads than have to pay for it. The grand plan for Joost seems very cool. On Demand television without paying the cable company. The channels are specific to the content on them. For example, there is a Green Day channel, an Indy Car channel, and a Gaming channel. Currently there are about 25 channels to choose from (in india ) The interface is simple and clean and easy to navigate. In addition to the standard channel flipping methods you can also search for shows by name or type. Joost allows for full screen viewing or putting it in a window so I can easily watch have shows going while I do other stuff on my computer. The full screen is nice for putting it on my TV.
The worst fear in such video app's id the struttring of video. But i was amazed at the quality even on my average mtnl connection. just a few hickups once in a while ( mind you , u still need broadband & 512mb ram)

so thats all for now go ahead and enjoy.

Kabul Express is a tale showing the current scenario of Afghanistan post-9/11, post Pakistan abandoning them.Its first of the kind in Bollywood, a travalogue set in the barren and war torn lands of Afghanistan
John Abraham plays a journalist and Arshad Warsi is his cameraman. They land up in Afghanistan fas rookies looking for a story and end up being taken hostage -- along with their Afghan driver and an American journalist -- by an escaping Pakistani Colonel who was a Taliban member.
Each visual depicts the tragedy of a spectacle called Afghanistan accompanied by a killer line by Arshad. John really doesn't have much to do or say in the film and is treated purely as eye-candy as lso the firangi journalist. Of course, the hero of the show is Mr Taliban with his nice guy-bad reputation image.
The movie names American excesses and Pakistani betrayal as the reason for every ruin you see in the film.The most interesting conversation takes place on the run -- when Coke-Pepsi, Madhuri Dixit, Kashmir and America are all tied
up.
A must see movie......and wonderful to watch on the big screen........
The wonderful story with a perfect sprinkling of sarcastic humour throughout is what makes it a winner..........
bollywood bollywood movie review movie review

just in case anybody was wondering where i had vanished i was just too busy for the last few months to write.................... so now i hope to writing................will be going for a camp to raigad next so that will be gr8 topic to write on..........after all thats one of d the things i always look forward to...........
if anybody has any suggestions for me to write on pls pour your hearts and tell me.....cant think of nething offhand............

The Afghan is another masterpiece from th0e stables of Frederick Forsyth .

The western intellegentia pick up traces of a major attack being planned by al queda but have absolutely no idea about when and where of the attack. So they finally go on to do something that has never been tried before.... planting an agent inside the AQ itself....but can a westerner pass off as an arab amound the arabs.......Mike Martin an ex army man takes up the challenge and.........read on .....

The major success of Frederick Forsyth lies in the successful intertwining of facts and an amazing thrilling story into one......seems so real

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kudos 2 france & germany

So my dream comes true, France actually pulled of d miracle and showed Brazil the door. And to top it off England was majestically pushed off from d WC again by Portugal !!!!

Maan, this world cup seems to be one heck of an entertainer ( and we havent even reached the semis !!!! )

No guesses abt the germany-italy match but the Fra-Portugal will be a gr8 one.

I'm still behind Zidanes guys .... wat a game they played against Brazil..... Zidane seemed to ooze out brilliance with his midfield miracles .... the whole team seemed a spirited lot...... and henry's goal was one heck of a master stroke .... can u imagine he was left unmarked.....

A fantastic goal by Klose 10 mins before extra time brought back germany from d brink of WC disaster.

argentina's domination over d game ended with a brilliant goal in d 49th min much 2 d joy of white n blue clad fans in d stands. But agrentina seemed 2 give up its agression for bettr defense after dat goal so that d ball almost never left d arg side .

Nothin seemed 2 go right for d agr side as goalie Abbondanzieri had to b taken out on stretcher after a stomaching one of Kloses knees !!!

And finally klose who'd bin almost invisible for 80 struck back, stamping his authority.

the extra time too ended with scoes at 1-1 and germany struck gold in d shootouts with some AWESOME saves from Lehman.

Look like the German fans will have a lot 2 cheer for as germany play against italy for a berth in d finals.

And as far as Brazil only a miracle win by France can stop them fro playing d finals. And i'm just waiting for dat miracle ( buck up Zidane)

>Mail originally from Akshay Baheti, Final Year Medical Student at GS
>Medical College & KEM Hospital.

>He was a part of the protest on May 13, 2006 that saw police
>brutality at its worst. Read on and let all your friends know the
>truth.
>
>We Indians are basically a very decent, sober and non-violent lot.
>We don't expect too much, we don't demand too much, and we are quite
>adjusting in nature. We will bear the local train crowd, we will
>bear the dirty toilets and pot-holed roads, we will bear corrupt
>officials and incompetent governance, we are actually a dream public
>for any politician.
>
>Whenever any injustice is done, we all feel very strongly against
>it. We will sit in our drawing rooms and discuss it threadbare with
>anyone and everyone. Nowadays, with the advent of sms es, its become
>even more convenient for us. We can message our protest and silence
>all scruples, feel that we have done our bit. But if someone is
>protesting against it in front of us, we wont join in; we are after
>all a non-violent and decent lot. Some of us become cynical over the
>years, blame everything on the system and just live insulated lives;
>or just go abroad.
>
>The injustice now becomes a law; it now slowly becomes a part of our
>lives. We get adjusted to it and learn to live with it. But the
>power-hungry politicians can never stop. So they decide to test our
>decency again. So they increase the injustice for their selfish
>political gains. Most of us go through the same routine again, more
>drawing-room discussions, more sms es and emails, more frustration,
>more blaming the system; and then will again get used to it. And the
>same cycle will repeat again and again. Till of course all limits
>are crossed, our limit of tolerance and decency is reached. When we
>realize that just how terrorists cannot be dealt with humane
>behaviour and tolerance, so also the politicians. That its time to
>shed off the garb of decency and non-violence (used to hide our
>basic laziness, indifference and cowardice) and take some action.
>
>The Youth For Equality has decided. That the time is RIGHT NOW. That
>we cannot let the politicians make us scapegoats for their
>incompetence in improving the lot of the reserved category for the
>past 59 years. That its time to stop them from ruining our beautiful
>country anymore.
>
>It time for you to make your decision. Whether the time is now, or
>it is when 50% reservations will be implemented in jobs, or whether
>when they make reservations in education 70% (its there in Tamil
>Nadu already), or when they make it 100%. Or whether its time for
>you to shift abroad.
>
>I faced the brutality of the police in front of the Governor's
>residence today as the whole nation watched. How the police
>mercilessly ran even after girls to beat them up. How one policeman
>beat us to the extent that he broke his lathi. I saw how the DCP
>lied without batting an eyelid that we peacefully protesting
>students were trying to get inside the Governor's house. If even
>this doesn't make your blood boil, then I don't know what will. If
>you still don't come out to support us, it is we and not the
>politicians who will lead this country to its ruin. Remember –
>Democracy is the best way of ensuring that the public gets exactly
>what it deserves.
>

Schumacher has once again stamped his authority all over F1 with an impressive victory at the european grand prix. Schumacher tagged behing Alonso from the start but was unable to pass until the 2 nd pit stop. The fact that Alonso took an early 2nd pit stop allowed Schumi to pass and schumacher held on to the lead till the very end. The close fight between Raikonnen - Massa - Alonso for the podium places in the closing laps added to the excitement of the race. After a long draught of wins these consecutive wins puts michael back into the race for the championship. With his raw talent and brains schumi has once asserted his right over the title of the best driver to have scorched the F1 tracks.

A Photo Tribute to Mahajan

News just came out about the death of Pramod Mahajan .
Alas India has lost a great leader and reformer to say the least. BJP will never be the same, Indian politics will never be the same. I'm not a gr8 follower of politics but who can not be inspired by a person of such great stature.
A person who so naturally won everybodys heart.
It was under his leadership that Maharashtra rose up the ranks to national glory. He was instrumental in stiching together the Sena-BJP alliance with his amazing convincing powers and unfailing logic. He has the credit of bringing in professionalism into BJP, into Indian politics.
His position in Indian politics can never be replaced. India has lost an able and dependable future leader.
Why only him ? Why .........
May his soul rest in peace.

BRAVO
thats all i'd like to say to the YouthForEquality group after the rally at azad maidan on 2nd may.
The yfe group had organised a rally on 2nd may at azad maidan in co ordination with nation wade protests against increase in the number of reserved seats. I'd been there with some more ppl from my college.
The rally was graced by speeches from some really good speakers including the maharashtra prez of the Indian medical associations, students from medical colleges in Mumbai, IIT, as well as Xaviers ( hey , u all the speeches were awesome) . Students not only from medical streams but lots from engineering colleges, junior colleges as well as those from non technical fields attended the rally.
The rally was an amazing success considering it was the first meet in Mumbai with more than 200 people present.
Come on ppl we all have 2 support these people. Students or not, medicos or engineers, reserved category students or not all of us should fight these foolish policies of the govt.

pls read d latest updates from yfe at
http://yfemumbai.blogspot.com

It time the govt stops this foolish and thoughtless politics. Uplifting the lower classes is the common reason given for providing reservations in education. But has the govt tried to ever figure out if its working. For 50 years we've had reservations then by now there shud have been a change, but no. This clearly shows this method for upliftment is not working. What we need is strong policy making to uplift the lower classes not shortcut methods. Generations after generations of certain families are using reserved seats but the rest are left behind. If one generation of a family has been provided reservations the next generation is their responsibility. One way of phasing out reservations as mentioned by our constitution is marking which generation of a family has recieved reservations and stop it at that point, their kids cannot again use the facilities.
The govt should tackle the root cause of the need for reservations. Why do certain students require reserved seats, probably bcuz they dint have the same quality of schooling as the rest ( the status of munciple schools can be seen ). So the solution is not to go on increasing reservations in higher education but to improve primary education facilities, provide the students from backward castes with good facilities and teachers so that they are equals in the competition for seats in highr education.
Sadly these days we aree reminded time and again that are caste matters .Is this how the govt plans to spread equality. These policies will lead to segregation of the students.
The SC/ST/OBC students have by no means any lesser brains. They have the capability to compete but they need the facilities. These students are by no means wrong in asking for help from the govt. These students lag behind in admissions b'cuz of the failure of the govt to provide them the facilities.
But students who cannot compete with others for seats in higher education even though they get d best of education n facilities thru reservation at undergrad level are those who arent worth giving reservation. Why shud they be given ?
When a common middle class student who sweats all year long with hard work loses his seat to someone who dosent deserve it , thats injustice !!
When in an institute is rank 138 for open seats and rank 5000 for reserved seats thats injustice !!
Yes, the govt has wronged all these years and so these students havent got d education that would make them competitive for higher education. Its the govts fault. The soln can be opening of new, better instututes to cater to these students .But the govt has no right to make us pay for that, no right to leave our seats for someone else.

The govt is the only one who shud pay none of us students neither the reserved or the rest. Before every election these politicians manage to increase reservations and brain wash the masses to vote for them. People shud realise that the govt is not helping their cause on the other hand it is actually making them lose confidence , making them believe that they arent good enough to compete with the rest. But this is not true all of us are equally talented and with the right facilities these ppl can compete with us.
So lets get together and fight the govt lets fight the system.
we will not let these people ruin our country.
We are the YOUTH we are the future.

As the whole of india follows up on the health of Pramod Mahajan with bated breath all we can do is PRAY for his health.
With the best of wishes and prayers from all his friends , family and admirers behind him I'm sure its just a matter of time before he is on his feet to lead the nation with new vigour and strength.
Mahajan is the undisputed GEN next leader of BJP and is possibly one of the very few politicians i can trust to lead INDIA ( though he did seem to have undesirable ties with some indusrialists he's MUCH better than the rest of the bunch).
He has always seemed to capture the imagination and support of the young generation with his business style politics and his AWESOME oratary skills. I remember dropping my books and going of to listen to one of his campaign speeches near my house and that too just days before my HSC exams.
so lets keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

The NSS group of our college had been to a camp to a small vilage wawe - mandraj near mangaon .It was quite an experience with lots and lots of hard work and of course lots of fun.
we had actually been there to help an NGO SHARE ( hope u read about it in my last post) with a water project it had undertaken in that village.
We left mumbai by ST bus ( you can guess how comfortable our journey was ) on 20th. We change to another bus at Mangaon and then to a van at Sai to finally reach Wawe around noon.
And we were welcomed there with a hot and delicious lunch.
Our daily schedule included work from 7 to 11:30, rest and lunch until 3:30 and work again till 6.
The work was quite tedious, we were desilting a reservoir built on a river (which was now dry in december ).
The reservoir was created around a year back by building a dam on the river. But during this monsoon the reservoir was completely filled up with loose mud and rocks, which had to be removed.
The work was quite tiring ( believe me we had never worked this hard before). But being there with friends, there was no chance of being bored (especially the ever chattering girls ), and we had a great time out there.
The most amazing thing i saw was the good nature and hospitality of the village people.They were always ready to help and went to great extents to make us comfortable. They gave us room in their houses for sleeping, some came to help us with the work. .
Another development that SHARE inspired was that women in the village have formed a ' mahila samaj ' which gets the womenfolk together and its a platform for voicing their their views and aiding development.
This group actually took time out from their work ( house work, farm work etc) during our visit to cook us meals.
The food we were served over the 5 days was a typical diet of the region dal, tandlachya bhakrya ( rice flour bhakris ) , vegetables, rice (lots of it) and occasional delicacy of puran poli. And to tell you what I liked most about the place ( apart from the people ) was the food. Especially after a whole day of work when our appetite was HUGE, the food seemed five star .
The evenings at wawe very another intresting part of the camp. A cultural programme was organised each evenings where people from the village and surrounding areas came toghether for skits, dances, songs, recitations
performed by kids. And we were really impressed by the performances put up for us and ofcourse we too put songs and dances and got great support from the people. The kids ( some just 5-6 yr old) had really practised a lot and were dressed up in cute costumes, which really made my day.

The camp was a great experience and a very satisfying one. It really made a really great impression on us and convinced us that however small our effort can make a difference. Hats off to SHARE.
bye

SHARE is a NGO working in rural areas of Maharashtra. I found out about this NGO through the NSS group of our college. the work of the NGO seems to be quite effective . Lots of wells, bore wells have been constructed as well as methods for improving the ground water level are being devised , which seem to have eased the water problem to a great extent. The ngo has done quite a lot of work including various water harvesting projects in the region, since water paucity is a major problem in this rural maharashtra.. What struck me was the encouragement and support that the organisation has got from the villages in Raigarh near Mangaon which i have visited (i'll tell you more about my camp in the next blog ) . Seeing the work that was done and the it effeciency the people have come out to paricipate and help out in a way i had never imagined. Getting people to support and help is always the most difficult job for any NGO, and once that is done the job gets much simpler. SHARE has appointed its representatives in each of the areas it works in. These representatives work towards getting together the people, organising the work ans such stuff.Apart from water conservation SHARE also works towards improving the general life of the villagers. It organises cultural programmes in which kids from surrounding villages put up plays, dances , recitations etc which provides them with the much needed exposure. I think this organisation has doing an amazing job of actually inspiring the people to work for their own welfare. This method shows quite better results than just colecting money, clothes, books and stuff and donating it to the people.

I'll start out this blog by telling you about my college Fr'>http://www.frcrce.ac.in/">Fr Conceicao Rodrigues College of engineering ( better known as Fr Agnel or CRCE ).Its located at Bandstand a quite scenic place along the Bandra seaface in Mumbai. It is one of the foremost engineering colleges of the Mumbai University and yes also one of the most disciplinarian colleges here ( read compulsary attendance ). In terms of faculty and infrastructures i would give it full points (especially compared to other colleges in Mumbai) and the enthusiasm with which festivals and other activities are carried out here is amazing. I could go on and on ranting about why i think this college is AWESOME but i'd better not bore you at the very start of the blog. I'll surely tell you much more about myself and my college in future posts so keep checking .