Only 3 roadies left now and with that the things are getting harder and much more exciting.

The tasks were very much fun-filled and challenging this time. The episode started with a journey of around 650 kms which the roadies covered in a ferri(boat like) and biking in the rain. On reaching the hotel, they all went off to sleep. The next day, Ranvijay met them at an Ostrich Farm. I was very much waiting for this task(from the time I had seen the trailers) and had met(even crossed the limits) my expectations. The ostrich ride was their last money task of the roadies series and the maximum amount they could win was Rs. 40000. The task involved lots of challenges as told by Ranvijay.

• There is no support to hold except the wings.
• To stop an ostrich you have to hold its neck
• To turn it right, you have to cover its left eye and to turn it left, cover its right eye.

For the first time riders, it was very much a challenge (same for the roadies also). But the task turned out to be full of fun and humour. Nihal fell off even before starting. Sonel covered the whole distance. For Ashu, the ostrich went awry.. I laughed out loud while watching that part.

The immunity task involved lots of focus and concentration. The roadies were supposed to balance a flag post on their forehead. Each roadie was given 3 chances and the best time was to be counted out of these 3 chances. The person balancing for the longest time would get the immunity. Ashu and Ankita(she accepted defeat while the demo was being given, quite strange on her part), were not able to do it. Only Sonel and Nihal managed to balance it for quite a time. In the end, Nihal emerged out to be the winner and immuned, as a result.

Voting out time came. Ranvijay offered to buy Nihal’s immunity for Rs. 70000(which would go into Roadies account). Nihal refused for the same and the norma vote out session began. Ankita(as expected) had to left with 3 votes to 1(for Sonel).

The next episode looks good as they showed a snapshot of Raghu and all the eliminated Roadies. An underwater task was also shown in the snippet. Lets wait and watch !!!

Tashan movie is releasing in PVR, and might be in other multiplexes from tomorrow. Why ?? It has not done a big business in other cinemas. Same is the case with so many movies which are decided not to be released in multiplexes because of the profit-sharing conflict, but somehow managed to surface in the second week of their release.

The distributors are shown commenting about the multiplexes for earning huge profits due to multiple screenings of movies. They claim that their share is eaten up by the people behind multiplexes and they do not get the “deserving amount”. Finally, they decide not to release their movie in these places. After a movie is released(except multiplexes) and if it bombs or do not perform as expected, then their decisions changes suddenly. The business minds starts churning its wheels. The “deserving amount” banner changes to “something is better than nothing”. They want to complete their profits somehow.

One thing I fail to understand is, why they do not release the movie there on its scehduled date. Even if it flops, the amount of money they gonna make will be an additional stuff. And, also the audience is not stupid. Nobody gonna watch the movie after hearing bad reviews and after being assigned the tag of “FLOP”. The fate is decided in the first weekend itself, and, 7 days is a big time for the fire to spread and take everyone in its grip.

Anyways, its business at the end of day.. They know better how to do it… !!!

Any takers on this ??

The same question I had in my mind when I first installed ubuntu 8.04.

Not to worry, if the user is not able find any .bash_profile in his/her home directory, look for .profile instead. This file is read by /etc/profile which in turn is read by /etc/bash.bashrc.

The user can either directly change /etc/profile also but it is not recommended generally. Grass is greener on the other side but please try to make your land fertile….

Users not comfortable with .profile can make a symbolic link using

ln -s .profile .bash_profile (assuming that the user is already in home directory)

Note: change in .bash_profile or .profile will change, only the command prompt. It may not cause the change in gnome-terminal. In that case, the user has to change the profile of gome-terminal.

How ??

open the terminal by Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal

go to Edit -> Current Profile -> Title and Command

Check the box “Run command as a login shell“.(by default it is not checked)

Close the terminal and start it again. changes made to .profile will be reflected in gnome-terminal as well.

One benefit I felt by making it as a login shell is that , the user does not have to logout of the system every time, he/she makes changes to .profile.Just close the gnome-terminal and open it again. changes will be reflected.

I recently migrated my home laptop from windows to Ubuntu and I am enjyoing it also…

My first experience with Ubuntu. … could not run cc or g++ with a new installation…

found out that following command has to be run before using a c or c++ compiler…

sudo aptitude install build-essential

sudo -> to use it as a root user

it will install all the library files/header files for c and c++.

there might be an error like

E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11 Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?

Take care that ‘Synaptic Package Manager is closed’.

Chow !!!

The time is really getting close now. An expected vote out turned out to be a game of gamble, never thought it could be twisted in that way.

Continuing with the episode… This time roadies crossed the border and reached Malaysia (think no more roaming around after this). Everybody was so excited (although I am still wondering the why !! ) crossing the border on foot. Then they reached their hotel by floating on the see (obviously a boat was there as a source of transportation). :).

The next day they met Ranvijay near a sea shore, where lots of water sports were happening. So, it was pretty obvious that the money task would be somewhat related to that only. Ranvijay pointed their sight towards a professional doing a wave boarding, flipping.. Easier looking then actual implementation…everyone was given 4-5 chances to perform the task. The more time they would be able to board, the more money they would earn. Everyone tried their hands and feet on the sport but nobody was able to do it. 1 sec, 2 sec, 3 sec.. was the count…. except Prabhjot and Ankita who were able to balance themselves on the board for a longer time(somehow). One thing I did not understand, nobody was competent enough to do the task, but when it came to critiizing others, the big mouth opened to the fullest. 13 evens out of 25 tries… They managed to cross 2 lacs mark this time. (is it that the producers increased the stake ? )

Second task (which was neither an immunity task nor an advantage task), was quite challenging and scary. The task was “win a Karizma” task. Only 1 Karizma this time, hmmn… Has the budget overshooted this time due to roadies going international, or is it due to the fact that, people left are not deserving enough to get 1 bike each… Whatever !!! the faces of roadie were to be seen at that time. On to the task. They were to lie down on a wooden plank and their hands would be tied with a rope, over the head so that they could not be seen. On the other side, a balde would be cutting the plank. So the roadies had to untie themselves before the axe reaches near their thighs. The quicker, the winner. Simple and in terms of Raghu “Fair enough” :). Nobody was able to do it, except Prabhjot and Ankita. The one who did it faster was Ankita (18 seconds). Well deserved !! Kudos…

No immunity task so no one was immune.

Then came the time of elimination. Ankita was given a chance to decide the roadie who could go home. She had to give her won bike to a roadie of her choice and that roadie would not drive ahead in the episode but would be driving back to India. Ankita played a big gamble here and did not agree to give her bike to anyone. Instead she opted for a normal vote out sequence.

One more twist, this time the voting happened for giving the power of elimination instead of elimination. The one with maximum number of votes would choose the one who would be going home.  Vote outs started and Ashu won the power with total of 3 votes.

Finally, Ashu named Prabhjot as the eliminated. Sonel once again cried and hugged her….. (sobbbbbb)…

It was 7 o’ clock. I just returned from my office and was relaxing on the couch at my home. Suddenly, it became dark all around. The darkness was followed by the roar of clouds and then a heavy rain. The weather changed suddenly. The mercury dip suddenly bringing relief from the hot and humid temperature. I hardly enjoyed the climate, when second side of the coin surfaced. Electricity gone and the mosquitoes took a big advantage of this opportunity. We could not open the windows and doors of our house as water would seep in(imagine how heavy the rain was). The roads turned into swimming pool, thanks to recently dug up roads. The piles of charcoal pieces were floating all around, with no intention to settle down. My car was beeping all the time due to the heavy drops of rain. The continuous honking of cars looking for a place to park was irritating me to the core.

Somehow, I had dinner in candle light. It was 10 pm and there were no signs of electricity. Laying on a bed like a dead body with sheet covering me from head to toe, saving myself from mosquitoes, I decided to go off to sleep. After about half-an-hour, a slight sound woke me up. It was my refrigerator. Yo, the electricity is here. I jumped off from my bed and switched off the fan. It seemed someone up there was not happy with the citizens. The fan was hardly in its full swing when it again went off. Nothing could be done. The whole night I kept changing the sides, trying to sleep.  The electricity came at around 4 in the morning today. 

The morning’s newspaper made the things more scary. Cars smashed by trees falling on them, electric poles falling down and what not. 

Wonder what’s gonna happen tonite and in the upcoming rainy days.

Another episode gone.. This time the epsiode was meant for enjoying and bathing in lake or sea. The journey started with selecting Ashutosh as captain(once again) and riding to Phuket(680 km from the place they were staying). As expected, they could not complete the whole journey on their bikes and a van was hired to port them to their destination. All the way they were sleeping like hell and on reaching their hotel in Phuket, they were still feeling damn tired. Nothing for the day except sleep, sleep and sleep. The next day they reached a place with a great scenic view. A lake with a small wooden platform (with a big storm fan and a drum, few feet away). Ranvijay greeted them explaining their next money task. They were to balance themselves on a drum against the force put by storm fan. The longer they manage to withstand, the more money they would earn. The maximum time limit was 1 minute for each roadie and per second the prize was Rs. 100. Surprisingly as a captain, Ashu chose to go first(to avoid any kind of criticism). He hardly managed to balance and fell into the lake after 2 seconds. The same situation was with other roadies except Nihal and Ankita who balanced for the longest, 13 seconds and 20 seconds respectviely. The stake was increased to Rs. 500 per second as the totality was only 43 seconds. The next day they got a stroll which gave them a shock full of excitement. No immunity task for the day, instead they were taken to Krabi’s beach (remember Kaho Na Pyar Hai song)… They all had a great time flirting around, watching foreign gals having sun bath. Nihal and Ashu topped the charts. After coming back to hotel they got another scroll telling to gather and meet Ranvijay for the elimination. Elimination without any immunity task, strange. The box was opened on meeting Ranvijay. He told them instead of elimination, they had to vote a person whom they think, should stay. One person could get one vote and more than one also. So all could be immune or only one could be immune. Fortunately or unfortunately, all voted for each other leaving behind Vibhor and Ankita.  All discussions between Vibhor and Nihal for eliminating Ashu had fallen into ditch. How to decide the elimination now ? No, not re-vote again… The elimination would be decided by a task, and what a task it was !!!! I liked it and would like to do it on one of our team outings….

The next day they were taken to a sea shore where the setup for the deciding task was done. Two parallel ropes were tied to 2 trees with one rope hanging. What was required to be done was, they had to walk on the rope(holding the hanging rope), starting from one point and reach to the other point. The person covering the maximum distance would win. No time limit with the exception, if both of them fell at the same distance then the time would count.  Vibhor was the first to go. One piece and all fit and fine, I thought he would be able to finish the whole distance. I did not know what happened to him, he started running on the rope. Heights of stupidity there….. and he fell of from the rope. Next one was Ankita, in full pain and not able to walk properly. Nobody expected her to even climb the tree to start the task. But she was determined. Somehow she managed to start the task. She was uncomfortable, all sweaty due to pain and moreover it was raining. She could not balance and finally lost the balance. Now the decision. Vibhor covered around 7 meters and Ankita won by covering 8 meters. So Vibhor had to go.

I think prayers of lots of roadies fan had been heard this time. 

This is what cheer-leaders in IPL have been described as, by none other than Mumbai unit of BJP. Well, Mr. Shatrughan Sinha has also joined the bandwagon to ban cheerleaders from performing in the matches. They said that it’s better to give chance to bar girls of Mumbai.

I quote from times of India, 

“If you are so interested in deploying these cheergirls who dance after hits of fours and sixes, it is better to give chance to the bar girls who became unemployed after Maharashtra government banned their dance in bars,” Sinha said.

One of the best cheerleaders from US, have been described “worse than bar dancers”.

It seems Mr. Sinha has not seen the actual skills of these cheerleaders. Please somebody gift him a DVD to make him realise the actual talent. 

It all depends upon with what intention and where are you looking at.

Cheerleading is not all about showing their skin. It is another kind of a sport that involves lot more hardwork as compared to any other game.

Sinha said it is “difficult to find cricket in these matches” and it is making a mockery of the sport.

Cricket is being hidden behind the performance of cheergirls. Somebody tell Mr. Sinha that right now the girls are keeping the things very simple and their feet are  on the floor with pom-poms in their hand. The need is to give one performance showing their true talent and skills. Then you will realise that where the cricket has gone. The people who wants to see cricket will always see cricket, no matter how much glamour you put in the game. 

Sorry, Mccullian, Symonds, Sehwag and other people for playing such a good cricket and not being given a credit by the “so-called” politicians of India. All the huge scores, raining 4s and 6s have been covered by the pom-poms. 

Well, not a new thing for these politicians !!!! 

What is your take on that ???

The yuckiest(I don’t know if the word exists in the dictionary, but I am sure the readers will be able to map this with the episode) and the most challenging of all the journeys till date. Gosh, how could they eat such kind of stuff… Leave behind eating, how could they even look at that stuff. 

The journey started off with selecting Varun as captain on the breakfast table. Sonel was the one who pressed hard on making him as the captain, though she is the first person who could not withstand that guy. The roadies reached a restaurant where they were to complete their money task. The task… yukk… people had to eat all kind of stuff right from the insects, frogs, snakes ….. Ma’am Maneka Gandhi where are you… ? Weren’t you watching this episode to see the exploitation done on these animals/insects……? The roadies were given six servings(each serving had a different recipe.. and each serving had a different prize money)… Ashu being a vegetarian refused to participate in this task.. (Boy, I liked his attitude).. So, other six tried their level best.. I cannot explain more than that as I myself was feeling like puking while watching the episode… To summarize, they managed to accumulate Rs. 20,500 in their account, totaling to Rs. 162000. 

The next destination was a famous Thai Boxing school in Bangkok where they were to do immunity, sorry advantage task. Ranvijay told them that they would be given 6 hours to learn the basic movements, after which they would enter in the ring to compete. Training was interesting, all learnt it with a great enthusiasm and excitement. (I found Sonel taking it too seriously). After the training got over, they landed in the ring where Ranvijay introduced them to each other as they had to fight among themselves(except Ashu, as his foot was already injured, so the crew did not want to take any kind of risk). Guys were to fight among guys and same among girls. Each match would have 3 rounds. Ranvijay had a box containing 3 chits - 2 chits it was written “fight” and 1 chit was blank. The person to get a blank chit would sit in the 1st round and had to fight in the second round with the one who lost in the first round. Among girls, Ankita and among boys, Vibhor had to wait for the second round. The fight started off with Sonel and Prabhjot.. though Prabhjot was giving friendly smiles to Sonel initially, but later on she realised that Sonel was in full mood to kick her a**. Literally, she kicked also… Kicks, staring, blow job(please do not take the word in its actual sense ). Prabhjot could even reach Sonel’s face due to height. Finally, Sonel won the first round and the advantage too…. Next, was the turn of Varun and Nihal. Everybody was under the impression(made out from the big bang task), that Nihal gonna win the fight and it appeared till the first bell rang, but in the other 2 rounds, Varun took over as a host and served Nihal with all the punches and kicks. Nihal was completely beaten to the core. Varun got the advantage. 

Then, was the turn of Prabhjot and Ankita. The results were pretty much predictable. Ankita had no stamina and also she was already scared of Prabhjot. Moreover, Prabhjot realised that it was not a place to show friendliness and she had to beat her competitor to win the advantage. She did the same. Prabhjot steepped into the shoes of Sonel and beat the sh*t out of Ankita. In another match between Nihal and Vibhor, the latter completely overtook Nihal and beat him in the first round itself. The judges did not wait for the other 2 rounds to announce the results. 

Finally, the results. Among girls, Sonel and Prabjot got the advantage and among boys, Varun and Vibhor got the advantage. 

On coming back to hotel, everybody thought the people who got advantage would only vote like in one of the episodes earlier. Nihal was most scared this time. Anyways, came the time to vote and Ranvijay opened the box announcing that those who got advantage would give 2 votes and others 1 vote. So, all in all, 11 votes would be given. The process finished and votes counted. Varun got 6, Nihal got 4 and Vibhor 1. 

The episode ended with Varun arguements with Sonel and Ashu. 

 

Finally, the orkut sandbox has been brought to the real working environment. Yes, the orkut applications are here now. I think it has been released on 17th April 2008. I don’t know any specific reason of choosing this date and also I am not here to discuss about relevance of this date.

Any user logging in orkut would be able to see an additional box on the left hand side(below the profile picture area) with the name “Apps”. On logging in the user would see some new icons just below your “today’s fortune”. Next to those icon, will be a link with the name “Add applications and customize your profile”.

Clicking on it, will take you to a new page listing all the available applications alongwith their descriptions. There will also be a button to add each application. Click on “add application” and you will be taken to a page seeking your approval. Click on “add application” and voila……….  you have just added an orkut application in your profile which you can use anytime according to your convenience. Once added the link to the added application will also be available in the new area below your profile picture….

NJoy !!!

Wonder how much time would it take for orkut to leave behined facebook in this domain…..