The May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss contest

I was Tagged by Shilpa for this one and had real fun doing it…

The Rules:
1. On your blog, provide a link to the Great Bong’s page, May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss. Embedding the above picture in your blog would be nice but not needed.
The May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss contest
2. Then write down your top 10 Hindi movie lines or top 10 English movie lines (You can do both if you want. Only one set is required for the contest). If you cannot think of top 10, make it top 5. Cannot think of even 5? Make it top 3. No problem. Only restriction: no two lines from same movie. This is done to make it fair for other movies so that they don’t get swamped by Gunda or Loha or Sholay.
3. Tag five friends to do the same.
4. Come over to the comment-space of this post and post your blog’s link so I can go and read it.
Remember: Before starting the tag, paste points 1 and 4 on your blog so that the rules are available to anyone who wishes to pick the tag up from your blog.

So Here’s my Top 10 :

1. “Hum ek baar jite hain, ek baar marte hain, shaadi bhi ek baar hoti hai, aur pyar….ek hi baar hota hai” – Sharukh Khan in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

2. “Kabhi Kabhi Kuch Jeetne Ke Liya Kuch Haar Na Parta Hai, Aur Haar Ke Jeetne Wale Ko Baazigar Kehte Hain” – Sharukh Khan in Baazigar

3. “It’s alright Senorita, Bade Bade Deshon Mein, Aisi Choti Choti Baatein Hoti Rahti Hain” – Sharukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

4. “Rahul…naam to suna hoga?” – Sharukh Khan in Dil to Pagal Hai

5. “Ki.. Ki.. Ki…Kiran” – Sharukh Khan in Darr

6. “Pehli baar kisi gore ko Bharath ka jhanda leharate hue dekh raha hoon” – Sharukh Khan in Chak De India

7. “Ye telephone bhi ajeeb cheez hai- aadmi sochta kuch hai, boltha kuch hai, aur karta kuch hai.” – Amitabh Bacchan in Agneepath

8. “Yeh Dhai kilo ka haath jab kisipe padtha hai na…toh aadmi ut-tha nahi uthh jaata hai” – Sunny Deol in Damini

9. “bhaai,tumko pakkaa yakeen hai na, ki baar-baar andar aane se apun ki ijjat badhegi?” – Arshad Warsi in Lage Raho Munnabhai

10. “log katl karne ke liye mujhe dhoondh rahein hain, ladki bhagane ka ilzam mere sir par hain aur mujhe ladki bhi nahi mil rahi hain” – Shahid Kapoor in Jab We Met

I tag Pal, Nishita, Ravan, Lakshmi Rajan & Vineeta take it up girls and guys you may not win an iPod but Great Bong’s book maybe(That’s what the prize is by god).

Final Word:  My Name is Dhiman and I am NOT a SRK fan incase you deduce it due to his dominance above. What to do with IPL season just around the corner you have do it at times after all ‘King Khhhhaan’ owns my favorite IPL team :D.

Disclaimer : Some of the above dialogues have been copied from various sites as I could not remember the exact dialogue. Now would you call this plagiarism?

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Kingfisher Indiblogger Meet @ Kyra, Bangalore

Indibloggers must be aware that Indiblogger team had organised a bloggers meet on Sunday 21st Feb at Kyra Theatre Restaurant  Bangalore. I remember last year when I had first registered with the Indiblogger I had seen that I just missed the blogger meet @ Bangalore and was disappointed. So I ensured that I attend this one.

The plan was to reach the venue at least 10 min early but in my life hardly things go according to the plan ever. Some last minute work created a delay of about 20 mins so when I rushed into the hall the sessions had already began and I had to sit at the last seats quite far away from hub of activity. By the time I had settled down the “30 seconds of fame” session had already begun it was a sort of ice-breaker session where everyone introduced themselves and their blogs etc. One of the advantages of  being the back bencher was that I was among the first to get the BEER so as people were having there moment of fame I was sipping my BEER. Let me tell you that I am severely mike challenged, that is till date whenever I was handed over the mike it ended in disaster. So I was really working in my mind how to handle my ‘mike moments’ in front of such elite audience. God probably was with me as the mike moved away toward the front from row ahead of me and Gosh I was relieved but with Indiblogger coordinators around no-one was spared not even people without blogs. Yes there were a couple of them I hope this meet inspires them enough to start blogging. So the mike came to me eventually and I stood and spoke a few impromptu words without any hesitation or goof-ups(see nothing goes according to the plan I said earlier), Thanks to Kingfisher. The BEER had cooled my nerves I guess.

Next we were given chart papers and crayons with instructions that we hang the chart papers at our backs and move around the hall to meet up with fellow bloggers and collect comments on the chart paper, person with highest comment would recieve a  prize. Let me tell you a well known secret that I am very bad at networking so first 10 mins I didn’t move an inch from my place and was sure I would not get a single comment. But you know how kind bloggers are. People came along and voluntarily started interacting and writing comments just like they do on blogs.Thats when I spotted Laxmi Rajan of  ‘gingerchai‘ and as he came towards me with a huge smile and said that he had come this side of the room just to meet me I was so elated. Thank you so much Lakshmi. Then I met Harsha who calls his blog ‘Voices in my head‘ he is a fellow blogatonic and I think most of you know him. Then came Mohan who has voted most of my posts in indivine.

My Comment Sheet

Next up were discussions on How to become a better blogger, live blogging & tweeting(some people did that with this meet as well), plagiarism, then a very important debate which was about monetization of blogs or blogging is just a passion and it was good to know that there was a final consensus that Bloggers blog out of passion and if it brings in some moolah then thats a bonus along with your creative satisfaction. Another inspiring thing was to see age range of bloggers there were teenage bloggers to someone who has retired from day job but still hasn’t stopped growing in life and blogs actively.

Amazing! Finally the meet ended at 6 PM and I left for my home after the good byes. All in all a hot Sunday afternoon was spent in a very productive way as I was enriched by discussions, interaction with bloggers.

Now those of you who have seen the ‘real’ me can you spot me in this picture from Mohan’s site. Just Try!

Ok enlarge the picture do you three guys standing right at the back and just in front them a guy is seated in black T-shirt sort of craning his neck…yeah thats me :D! I know you can barely see me(that is ‘IF’ you have spotted me), so don’t strain your eyes too much you have my Avatar anyway.

PS: As I had mentioned in my previous post anybody willing to write guest posts please email me at [dmanji AT gmail DOT com].

Filler Post Again

What else can happen in my current state 😀 .

So here is the link for my latest Short Fiction aptly titled “Winter of 99“. Do read it and let me know how was it.

A bit of statistical puzzle my earlier fiction “First Day at School“(old timers of this blog remember?) is for last 5 months receiver of highest visitors around 15 per day. Mostly these days this post is topper for the day but the comment count still stands at about 6 so what’s it about post that’s making it apparently most visited post yet I am not sure whether its most read. Any ideas?

Last but not least soon I’ll be going off air that is will take a break from the blogosphere. Recent past many of the friends in blogosphere have used the Guest Blogging effectively. I too wish to keep the blog alive with your help in form of guest posts. So anybody willing to volunteer please email me at [dmanji at gmail dot com]. Lets keep Chronicles of a Techie ticking for the period of my sabbatical.

What’s the Issue?

You know something is not right when your playlist has only two songs on repeat mode “Jaane yeh kya hua” from KCK and Ali Haider “Purani Jeans” … find any connection?

You know something is not right when you go to Tirupati and don’t ask anything for yourself from Lord Venkateshwara.

You know something is not right when you say that you’ve stopped worrying about weight gain(actually you mean in it) when your well-wisher points out your “pot belly”.

You know something is not right when you finish filling your appraisal form in 30 mins flat(this is supposed to ‘best’ year in your career) that too after several warnings from your boss that you will miss the last date of   submission. Is it his headache?

You know something is not right when you feel elated to see that your areas for improvement from last year’s appraisal need to be copy pasted to this year as well.

You know something is not right when you don’t actually want to join Sri Ram Sene even after not having a ‘Valentine’ for last few years in a row.

You know something is not right when you are happy even after letting a life changing opportunity go by just like that.

I have not been to a Titan Eye+ store phir bhi kuch to hua hai…..otherwise  what is the explanation for this state of eternal happiness.

PS: Next up another filler post ….

What If!

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 7; the seventh edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

“Come on Sam! You can just one point!” his team-mates were cheering him but I wanted him to loose. Sameer Arora aka Sam as he liked to call himself. Sam was the semi-finalist the year before whereas Srinu his opponent was an underdog. I was supporting Srinu not only because he was from our batch and we practiced together but we didn’t want that arrogant Sam to win. So we were giving experts tips to Srinu as to How to overcome Sam and I sent a silent prayer to favour Srinu.  That day for a change God had listened to me. Srinu had won the match and went onto quarter-finals. We celebrated with strawberry juice. Oh I’ll never forget the look on Sam’s face.

But that was all a year back. Today an email from HR left me aghast. It said

“Colleagues,

It is with deep regret that we inform you about the sad demise of our colleague Sameer Arora, in a tragic road accident on Saturday.

We offer our heartfelt condolences to his family.

Let us observe two minutes silence at 3.00pm today as a mark of respect to the departed soul.

We pray to the Almighty to give his family courage and strength to overcome this grief. May his soul rest in peace.”

I rushed to his project and found his photo on his cubicle and his bereaved team-mates narrated that Sameer was returning from a party that night and he had his helmet on and had stopped at a signal. A little girl had smiled and waved at him from a neighbouring car and he had taken off his helmet to talk to the little one. Just then a speeding SUV with drunken driver on the wheel lost control of the vehicle and knocked Sameer down fatally. After listening to this tale a lot What Ifs came to  mind but the truth is Sameer is no more with us.

Every year thousands of people die on roads due to drunken driving. We have stringent rules in place but unless we ourselves do not follow the rules we will have to come face to face with such ugly What Ifs.

This post is based on true events and last week I have lost someone I knew. The reason why I replaced the original post for blog-a-ton is more people will read this and would request you to spread the message.

PS: Though this one based on true events names and other details have been changed for privacy purpose.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Endless Footsteps to Ballygunge Court

This Sunday became a movie day for me. It so happened that I was clearing my shelf and stumbled upon a bunch of CDs/DVDs which I bought from Kolkata but had safely forgotten. So I discovered that the bunch had two unopened films namely Ballygunge Court and Padakhep. So I picked them up with Antaheen(family’s choice as I have already seen it) the film which seems to have swept the national awards this year. Infact lead actor of Padakhep Soumitra Chatterjee won a National Award for Best Actor and the director of Ballygunge Court Pinaki Chowdhury won the National Award for Best Director in previous years.

Ballygunge Court is a film based on Bani Bose’s story. The film deals with a problem that India and Kolkata in particular  is facing for past few years. That is the mass exodus of youngsters for greener pastures. Which is  creating a serious social problem of empty nests with elderly people left all alone to fend for themselves. Add to that the crimes committed against these helpless senior citizens. The movie struck a cord with me and my family as we could relate to it straightaway. Today when I go to Kolkata the apartment where I grew up  bears a deserted look, a complex that once was bustling with lively children screaming around holds an eerie silence. I just want to add here that like the movie showed people are not always happy to move far away from their roots looking for better opportunities but what do you do if you have no options left. I am not going to do an elaborate review as you can get them on internet if interested.

Next was Padakhep. This film is the story of a middle-class, retired, widowed, banker(Soumitra Chatterjee). A man who potters around home arranging calenders, candle stands and reading books/Newspapers. His life comes to a full circle when a NRI family comes to live as their neighbors and their little daughter becomes the center of Soumitra’s life. We see that the old man too starts behaving like the child. In one of the interviews the director Suman Ghosh mentioned that he was inspired by Curious Case of Benjamin Button which is a story of a man who ages backward.  In Padakhep we have the story of a man who’s mental age reverses. Truly how many times you have felt that your parent or grandparent is behaving like a child. These two movies back to back were dealing with similar issues.

What I liked about them is that both films were not sermonizing and were very balanced in its approach to the respective subjects. While in Ballygunge Court we have one character who encourages and guides his children to fly away whereas we have another character who stops his son from following his career. At the same time in Padakhep the old father stoops down on floor  to watch ants and be intrigued by their activity.  Yet gets into an argument about her daughter’s boyfriend being a Muslim. After two films portraying reality I felt we need some change so we put on Antaheen.

Though I had seen it earlier but did sit through it for the second time. What do I say about Antaheen this movie is all over internet. With experts dissecting and a lot of talk around it most of which are in line with my feelings too about the film.  Like the endorsements I mean Nihar Coconut oil, Cafe Coffee Day, Reliance Mobile, Reliance Money actually we were not missing the commercial breaks but I guess  even a thoughtful cinema director has to keep the  financiers happy as well so its perfectly fine. One more thing the music was very high point of this film its beyond doubt that Shantanu Moitra(whose 3Idiots is making waves )  did a fantastic job and in my Common Man opinion he deserved a National Award for the music. Also understood some portions of  Chandreel/Anindo’s lyrics after watching the movie second time(Bengalis who listen to Chandrabindoo should know how difficult it is to interpret their lyrics for dumb-asses like me).  The National award for Best Cinematography too was well deserved by Avik Mukherjee as I have never seen such  beautiful shots  of Kolkata. You want to know  more about plot,  cast etc then please jump to this Wiki page.

Finally just to add this Saturday watched Ishqiya. Free advice go watch this movie if you want to see a mature yet not as complicated as Kaminey , bold and humouros movie. Another wone this movie has some of most elaborate yet aesthetically shot deep mouthed smooches of bollywood till date and some raw language spoken by a woman(which may not bleed your ears) so people with kids watch it as per your comfort level with them.