What Made the Birds Angry?

A dirty gang of few filthy, toxic-green coloured pigs stole eggs to make omelette's. When the pigs are just about to put them into a frying pan, the birds spot them. The pigs take a long run and hide in their homes, castle like structures. But the birds are determined to take revenge as they suffered loss of lives of their unborn ones. They decide to destroy their homes and bury the pigs underneath. All this at the cost of their own lives. The birds bombard themselves to the structures with help of a slingshot and make them collapse. These revenge driven creatures are indeed angry and insane. 

Angry Birds!

Angry Birds Promo

 

 

It's not a tale; it's a game. A freakishly addictive game. Originally developed for the iOS by Rovio, it still stands as the most downloaded app in US and UK. With time, the game expanded on platforms like Symbian, PSP, Android, WebGL, Mac and Windows. Recently chrome launched the web version of this game via Chrome Web Store. 

The gameplay is very simple and neat. Just put the bird in the slingshot and aim for the pigs. As level advances, birds with different special powers come into play. The triangular yellow bird is my favorite one. One can tell how angry they are just by their killer looks. 

The game became so successful that the company is taking out  an IPO for further expansion. Rumors are they are making a movie too. You can find a few fan-made movies on youtube too. First things first, you enjoy the game at Chrome Web Store. Or follow the Angry Birds on facebook.

Just don't piss them off and they are good!

Waterfalls at Marleshwar

Last summer, I got chance to visit Konkan with few of my friends. It's just a couple of hundred kilometers south of Mumbai. Konkan is a region consisting of three districts namely Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurga. The region is blessed with a beautiful coast line. And the scenic beauty of course. I have an equation about Konkan.

Konkan = Goa - crowd - foul things

There are hundreds of places to see in this region, but this one held my heart aback. Marleshwar. I would surely put this one on the 100 places before you die. The place is just radical. Especially when it's raining out there. Marleshwar is known for the temple of Lord Shiva, beautifully carved in the caves. One has to literally crawl down to get into the caves. The caves are so small that only three or four persons can enter it at time. Inside, it's pretty much same as any other temple. The only thrill is the small cavity dug into  big mountains.

Caves at Marleshwar Temple

The temple is surrounded by hills in all four directions. Hundreds of water streams from these hills unite to form a bigger one. I remember spotting a single dirt water line among hundred brighter ones. And the clouds... it seems like an ocean on milk floating in the sky. It is the beauty that can not described by words (May be that's why they invented photography). 

Waterfalls at Marleshwar

Beauty without equal!

Epic Rap Battles of History

I was browsing youtube as usual when I came across these videos. They ARE viral. They might look creepy but I love the idea of comparing two personalities through rap music. Despite the usage of foul language, I must say that they are quite innovative. The producer must be spending awful lot of money for these videos. And what does he gets in return? Your laughing faces. (And of course the money through adverts)

Just enjoy the god damned videos.

And my favorite one

Composed!

It was a sunny day and I had to go to Thane. It's been years since I had gone there. I discovered that they had implemented a crazy system of queue, outside the railway station for hiring auto rickshaws. It got to my nerves  to see almost half a kilometre long queue ahead of me. The only thing good about it was its fast moving pace. Within a minute or two I had come halfway through.

Meanwhile, I was noticing an old lady, wearing a typical Maharashtrian attire, in her late sixties, already passed through the bottleneck of the queue. She was holding a marriage card in her hand. May be that's where she was going. When her turn came, she showed autowala the card. I guess she did not know the venue herself. Without taking a deep glance, the autowala nodded in  denial.  Determined, she then proceeded to next auto with the card in her hand, where she got the same response.  And then it was a trend. Until a lady constable came and helped her. It was clear that she couldn't keep up with the pace of the system.
 

All this time, the lady never lost her calm; Neither the smile on her face.  I would have started yelling at people by this time, if I were in her place. It was eating my mind. How can a person stay so composed? What is it? The enthusiasm of going to an unknown place. Or celebrations of someone beloved's marriage. Or may it's just her. Her nature to smile. May be I'll never figure it out. 

I just want god to keep her smiling.....Always!

Killer Insticts

They say, by the age of 18, everybody has found a person who will love him for the rest of his life. I say, by the age of 18, everybody has found at least five persons whom he wants to kill brutally.  For Ketan, it was every single asshole he came across. He had this notion - if you can't remove bad things from this world, just remove the bad people. He hated people, most of the people. He reminds me of Christian Bale from American Psycho.

Lately, he had literally started planning murders of his enemies in his mind. He once said,'Killing them virtually, in my mind, in my dreams, alone gives me so much pleasure; imagine when it would happen for real', giving a dark, wicked smile. It sounded like a psycho killer who always had the last laugh. It scared shit out of us. But deep down, we always knew that he was just joking, just enjoying the strange looks on our faces.

Killing fantasies

He always said that he wanted to be an assassin, say like Hitman. He wished to open a secret organization that would do political assassinations for money. I think he took the movie more seriously than everyone else. I remember, we used to have a good laugh whenever he used to tell us about this. I even said,'Hey, may be I should join this thing. We would kill people, together. We would be rich players.' Real bullshit. It still brings a smile on my face.

And just for the record my friends, he hasn't killed anybody till date.

Rock MJ

If you say 'I love pop' to a hard core rock music fan, chances are you would be punched right in the face.

I can't figure out the reasons why rock and pop just can't go together. The battle is quite is old. They say that these two are two extreme ends of a string called music. The only similarity is the prominent use of drums. 

Beat It by Michael Jackson

I cant stop myself telling you about this particular song where the king of pop and the guitar hero, jam together. Beat it. A single from the album Thriller by Michael Jackson. Eddie Van Halen being on guitar. I couldn't believe myself when I found out that this single went on the list of 100 Greatest Guitar Solos, despite belonging to a pop album. The song's marvelous. No doubt about it. A perfect blend of  beats and strings.

Van Halen and MJ jamming up in a concert

It is wonderful to know that they were not together just for namesake. Van Halen showed up in MJ's one of concert Victory Tour. It fetched MJ two grammies. It is very sad that we didn't get to see another such melody. Whenever I listen to it, I get stuck at this part of the song.

Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated
Showin' how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn't matter who's wrong or right

Identifying a Pure Heart

We were three. Wandering on the streets of Delhi. The city flooded with filth. While some are living the dream, others live like rats. But I never thought about it at that time.

Scrolling up the staircase towards the metro station, we were lost in the conversation. It was me, Dodo and Adi. I paid hardly any attention to passing faces. Just then an elderly man, carrying two big, heavy bags, fumbled, just a couple of steps ahead of us. He regained balance. Tired and soaked by the sun, he put down the bags. He was too ordinary to gasp our attention otherwise. Mine or Dodo's especially.

I was so engrossed in talking that I didn't even give him any look. But only Adi saw exactly what all should have seen. He swiftly went up to the old man and offered him help. The old man denied him out of dignity. Adi joined us back in our talk. It happened so quickly that I didn't even take a pause in my verbal shit. Avoiding eye contact, giving indifferent looks, Adi pretended as if nothing happened. He kept walking. And so did we, as me and Dodo exchanged glances.

Do we need a reason to be good? That day, it differentiated us. The pure and the corrupt. I envied him. Though it was a very usual incident, I still remember it. I could just wish, I had such a heart.

Remembrance

Sitting on a lonely bench on marine drive, a thousand thoughts drifted through his mind. Jim couldn't stop thinking. Sudden splashes of water waves seemed not to deter him by even by a blink. He remembered his dead parents in years. He wondered how funny it felt. He had almost forgotten them. He was lost. Lost in the comfort of plastic life. Hadn't he had so much free time, not a single thought would have come to his mind about his parents. He would have overgone any such memory.

The uninvited remembrance of his parents made him somewhat uncomfortable. He felt ashamed. Devastated. Defeated. Disturbed. It shouldn't have been happening this way. He should have become happy. The happiness of meeting an old friend. Or the happiness of finding a toy lost in childhood. Something was wrong. 

Self agonizing thoughts struck his mind. 'May be I should burn my hand with a Cigarette. Or cut my forearm. That big ugly scar would remind me of them. Always!' Insanity hit him. The more he thought about it, harder it became. He so wanted to relive this moment again and again though it's full of pain and agony. Deep down, somewhere in his heart, he knew this wouldn't work.

Vivcu!

What is Vivcu?

Just a word.
Just a thought.
Just the regular world through different lens.
Just a perception!

Decades later, I now understand what owned Jim. He always said. "If the doors of perception  were cleansed, everything would appear to a man as it truly is: infinite."