Su-Doku

"Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. That's all there is to it." - http://www.sudoku.com/

There's no mathematics involved. The grid has numbers, but nothing has to add up to anything else. You solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic. It's fun. It's challenging. It's very addictive! You don’t need to have a brawny brain rather a simple observatory; reasoning would suffice to play this game. A few months ago blogging was the latest craze among youth - It seems it has been replaced by Sudoku these days. Every major English newspaper publishes a Sudoku puzzle everyday. The Deccan Chronicle goes to the extent of describing it as "Suffer its agony, discover its ecstasy. Everyday." My first Sudoku solving venture took a little more than 20 minutes. The aim of the puzzle is to enter a number from 1 through 9 in each cell of a grid, most frequently a 9×9 grid made up of 3×3 sub-grids (called "regions"), starting with various numbers given in some cells (the "givens"). Each row, column and region must contain only one instance of each number. Completing the puzzle requires patience and modest logical ability. I have two Sudoku champions- Kiran and Rajkiran as my room-mates from whom I learnt to play the game. I generally try to solve my puzzle by taking the help of a piece of paper and a pencil/pen to list the possible candidate digits for the square and go by the process of elimination by cross referencing. When I typed in 'Sudoku' in Google some of the interesting results that surfaced were:

Get a new SuDoku Puzzle everyday!
The Official SuDoku website
All you wanted to know about SuDoku and its origins
Other Japanese games like SuDoku
Tips and Tricks to solve a SuDoku puzzle

My Oscar

In my two years at MSIT - I had a dream - I wanted to get an 'A' (above or equal to 90 marks) for one of my soft skills credits. All my soft skills credits till date were graded 'B'. The only time I came even close to getting an A was when I was awarded an 89. I was trying for an A since a very very long time. I was losing heart with every passing soft skills course that I would ever get an A grade... A couple of months ago we had a soft skills workshop - our 9th (out of the possible 10). I was treating it like a last ditch attempt at an A. I did pretty well - Like I do every time - Two months on ... Results are out - I got an A. I was ecstatic at heart! Was my A solely my credit? Perhaps not - This time around I had two terrific partners for all the activities like role-plays - Lavanya and Ramarao - All thanks to them I could fulfill my dream. It might be little for those of you who do not share the passion but achieving what I wanted is a very big satisfaction. I would like to call it my 'Oscar' because it was as much a tribute to my acting skills as it is to my 'soft' skills.

Persis Gold

My experiences with restaurants in Hyderabad were good most of the time. If you are a through foodie - there can be no better place than Hyderabad in entire Southern India. The variants of cuisine available and the number of restaurants that are available with a specialty cuisine to offer make Hyderabad a foodie's paradise. Having said that word 'Paradise' - I cannot hide the fact that I had one of my worst dining experiences at Paradise at around this time last year. If the service itself can be rated bad - the food in my point of view could be rated worst. I vowed I would not to go to that restaurant ever again. A year passed now...

Today afternoon I got a call from one of my friends inviting me to have lunch with him at Paradise - Persis Gold rather. Well, I was in reality apprehensive about how the things would turn out keeping in mind my previous experience. We walked into the restaurant and what lay before me turned out to be quite a surprise. Tastefully done interiors, comfortable chairs and a well furnished menu card housing all the hyderabadi delicacies with a price tag not too easy on the purse but not as hard either! I ordered a biryani and the taste was one of the best with the rice cooked in milk and the curry was an excellent addition to it. I wolfed down the biryani with a bottle of Thums-up. My dining experience at Persis Gold was one of the best ever in Hyderabad. I am looking forward to visiting it again.

First day matinee

Its been a long time since I went to a movie on the first day of its release. Yesterday was one such day. I watched Sarkar on day 1 of its release. I wanted to watch the movie that had one of biggest casting coup of sorts in recent times. I wanted to watch it firsthand instead of reading its reviews or listening to my friends. I was at the theater - crowds started pouring out as I waded my way in to the ticket counter. That was where I met this guy who just bought a ticket but was willing to sell it off because his friend next to him (who watched the noon show) said the movie was bullshit. So I bought the ticket from this gentleman - Lucky me ... He surely missed alot. I got a chance to view the movie sitting on a big couch (A couple seat where the other person didnt show up) and the movie was pure magic.

The movie was a literal rip-off from Godfather with minor changes. But what made the movie novel was the terrific chemistry between the two Bachchans. I watched the Godfather saga many times over an over again. I was overwhelmed by the potrayal of Don Vito Corrleone by Marlon Brando. Marlon towered above every one else though his voice never rises beyond a certain level althrough the movie. When I heard they were making Godfather in hindi I wanted to watch - not to see the two stars in it but how well they adapt it to our nativity. In this regard I have to say that RGV succeeded in two aspects. One - He managed to get the most out of the two stars, Second - He adapted it to our nativity excellently. Just as Al Pacino appears clueless in the beginning and grows as the movie progresses - Abhishek Bachchan steals the show towards the end. The movie is serious in note and the only comic releief in the movie is provided by the dialogues uttered by certain characters and the way they are uttered. For example the way Kota (playing Selvan Mani) says 'Main Selvan Mani - Mera style complete South - Mera operation complete north' evokes a good laughter. The way he asks for concession while Abhishek Bachchan was going to be executed by Iqbal ("Yeh Sarkar kaa beta hain. Aur Sarkar mera dost hai. Mere liye tumhe concession denaa hi hogaa - Sirf ek bullet se maarnaa - Brain yaa phir heart") also evokes laughter despite being in the middle of one of the most tense moments of the movie. The highest point in the movie comes when they come to the point of bumping off Abhishek's charcter. This is a very high point in the movie not only in terms of the story but also the background music. The music scores 10/10 for the scene because it creates a tension in the hearts - Will he or wont he! Abhishek Bachchan gives one of his best performances to date. As for Amitabh - What can I say? He was the one who pulled the crowds in. He is the one who makes Sarkar a 'must watch' movie. Since the beginning of the movie it appears as though all the characters pale when they share the same screen as BigB including AB Jr. Towards the end of the movie AB Jr towers so high that the process starts repeating with AB Jr at the helm and BigB pales! Among all the movies I have seen in recent times I have never seen such a chemistry. The Bachchans emote most of the time through their eyes. It is one of those rare movies where their rich baritones take a backseat while their eyes do all the talking!

Some call it trash, Some call it hype - I call it sheer 'movie magic' - A movie spread a little over 2 hours holds your attention althrough, backed by a good script, crisp dialogues and tight screenplay make it a treat to watch. I wasnt disappointed. A truly great desi-adaptation of a great cinematic phenomenon called the Godfather.