A load of crap from an idle brain » english

Happiness is….

Liju Philip — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 04:34:06 +0000

Seeing an inept, incompetent, overhyped England team being torn to shreds by a German war machine. The English team didnt even deserve to enter the knock out stage of the competition. With France & Italy too gone, the most prominent European teams have exited.

Germany 4-1 England

It would be sad to see Germany and Argentina meeting in the next round as only one can go through. Sad, i love both the teams.

Above picture courtesy: FIFA

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Movie marathon and ratings

Liju Philip — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 06:43:05 +0000

Watching movies endlessly these past few weeks. But iam unable to find any time to write a detailed review of them. If and when i find time, i will write something detailed about the ones i liked. As of now, a list of the movies and my ratings.

Basic Instinct -1 (4/5)
Taken (4/5)
A Wednesday (4/5)
21 (3/5)
Mumbai Meri Jaan (3/5)
Charlie Wilson’s War (3/5)
Rock On (3/5)
Chamku (2/5)
Hijack (1/5)
Mukhbir (1/5)
Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam (0/5)
C Kompany (0/5)
Meet the Spartans (0/5)
Aeon Flux (0/5)
Basic Instinct -2 (0/5)

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Chain mails and the myths that go around

Liju Philip — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:28:12 +0000

Am sure, you would have received chain mails which propagate myths about the Indian civilization, the number of doctors and scientists working in USA and NASA etc. Outlook magazine has gone around asking people with authority and knowledge on the subject and debunks almost all the myths that get propagated around by some stupid NRI sitting in some corner of the world.

Claim: India never invaded any country in her last 10,000 years of history.

Fact: This is not fully true, as the Cholas conquered Sri Lanka and took its ruler prisoner. In AD 1025 the Chola navy of Rajendrachola I (r.1012-1044) conquered Sri Vijaya in the Malayan archipelago.

-Pius Malekandathil, maritime history specialist at JNU, Delhi

Claim: Taj Mahal predates Shah Jahan’s era, and was a temple dedicated to Shiva, worshipped by Rajputs.

Fact: The Taj was built by Shah Jahan. Every single brick and stone purchased has been documented in the Taj Mahal archives. so is the land deed. Travellers from different periods also saw it being constructed.

- Mushirul Hasan, Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Milia Islamia

Claim: Times Group is owned by Bennett & Coleman. ‘World Christian Council’ does 8- per cent of the funding, and an Englishman and an Italian equally share the balance 20 per cent.

Fact: Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL) is largely owned by the Jain family and some subsidiaries, such as ENIL are listed. All details of the holding company, BCCL, are available in ENIL’s prospectus at the time of listing.

- Vanita Kohli-Khandekar, author of The Indian Media Business

Claim: The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5,000 years ago. The very word ‘navigation’ is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘navgatih’.

Fact: It is absurd. All river-valley civilisations like the ancient Egyptians, the Mesopotamians and the Chinese resorted to riverine navigation and coastal navigation. The English word ‘navigation’ is derived not from Sanskrit ‘navgatih’, but from two Latin words navis (ship) and agere (to drive). It is from them that English and Latin family languages, like Portuguese, got the word.

- Pius Malekandathil, maritime history specialist at JNU, Delhi

With Independence Day round the corner, get ready to receive more such bullshit in your mailbox. To read more about all the myths, click here and here.

Now, am waiting for some member of the chaddi gang to call me a commie

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Weekend movies

Liju Philip — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:58:54 +0000

Have been watching a lot of movies these past few days. Went to the library on Friday and picked up 4 more movies and watched them over the weekend. Still got a few more to go. A friend lent me his collection of the Godfather movie series (Part 1, 2 and 3). Haven’t found time to watch them. Then there are tons of books to read that i have collected over the years. Some spring cleaning bought them out of the dusty cupboards. Cant believe that i spent so much of money on books that are idling away in some corner of the bookshelves.

Rebel without a cause

My rating **** (4/5)

You dont mess with the Zohan

My rating * (1/5)

Tomorrow we move (French)

My rating ** (2/5)

Return of Magnificient Seven

My rating ** (2/5)

The Towering Inferno

My rating **** (4/5)

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