Taare Zameen Par!!!

Never have I gotten so emotional watching a movie! This is one such movie that has been brilliantly shot which tells every parent how precious their child is and always being number 1 is not the most important thing in life.

The movie also shows how important it is to understand a child and encourage the child to pursue his/her passion.

Everything about the movie is great. The cast, dialogues, direction, music & the lyrics. There are a couple of songs (Maa & the title song) that stands out even after you have left the movie hall.

A must watch for everyone! As the tag line of the movie goes, every child is special! Love all the children.

First Caucus result is out!!!

Against all odds, Obama and Huckabee win the Iowa causus for democratic and republican nomination for the presidency battle in the US. This was the first test put in front of all the front runners for the presidential election this Autumn.

On the democratic front, Obama emerged a surprise winner much ahead of Hillary Clinton, who was placed a poor 3rd, with nearly a 5% lead. This was a completely unexpected result as a record number of caucus goers voted (most of them first time caucus voters)! Although a lot is not expected to be read into these results, the result did come in as a rude shock to Hillary who was considered to be the front runner of the Democratic party.

In the last 24 years, every person who has won either the Iowa Caucus or New Hampshire Primary has gone on to win the White House with the exception of 1 person. No Points for guessing who that is. Yes, all of you guessed it right. It was Bill Clinton!!! Will Mrs. Clinton be able to repeat the same thing??? Or would she win the New Hampshire primary??? Only time will tell! Watch this space for more...

The first test for the US Presidential hopefuls!!!

Continuing with the coverage on US Presidential elections, the first test for all the hopefuls will happen in the next 2 days. Iowa would be the state which would conduct the first caucus which would set the pace for the selection of candidates from both Democratic and Republican parties. Though not considered to be one of those most important states in terms of number of votes, everybody is still looking forward to the results from Iowa. Many believe that this would be the pace setter for the rest of the campaign.



As per the opinion polls conducted by various agencies, Hillary Clinton and Mike Huckabee are leading the Democratic and Republican race respectively.

Hillary Clinton has a narrow lead of 4% over Obama while John Edwards is placed 3rd, a further 1% less in the democratic front.

In the republican front, Mike Huckabee is leading by a huge margin.

Who is gonna win??? That's the most important and intruiging question that everybody wants answer for... Look out to this section for more on this...

Presidential Election in the US!!!

The latest presidential elections in the US, about to happen in a little less than one year, is one of the most interesting and intriguing elections of our times. I would have to admit that I am very interested in this election and am looking forward (like a lot of my fellow worldmates) to see how the Americans vote to choose their new leader (or should I say World's new leader ;-)). I have to admit, though, that I am more of a Democrat than a Republican (Especially after watching Bush rule this world for nearly 8 years now). Also, cos of the calibre of Democratic candidates seems more convincing and are more likely to take the US out of the economic mess that they find themselves in.

I would be writing more on this in the coming weeks/months... More than anything else, I would be profiling all the candidates in this place soon... So all of you sit back and enjoy...

Back to blogging...

Am back... and after a long time... Its been more than a year since I have blogged last... Hope to discuss a lot of interesting things out here and soon...

Chelsea - Returning to what they know best, Win games!!!

Chelsea, who have been playing some fantastic football in the last 3 years, are not leading the league at this time of the year. It has been a turbulent season for the former league champs who started off indifferently under their former manager Jose Mourinho losing a couple of matches and drawing matches that they should have won. This lead to the sacking of the self professed 'special one' and appointment of Grant. Such a shocking move it was! Every Chelsea fan was was angered at this move and didnt bother to hide their emotions in the games that followed. However, Grant (& to a large extent Abromovich) proved everbody wrong with the strategies and results. Chelsea are 15 games undefeated in all competitions. To add on to this, they are 71 games undefeated at Stamford bridge (something that started in Feb 2004 under Ranieri). Chelsea is now back in the race for this year league title (just 3 points away from the leaders!!!) and I wouldnt be surprised if they went on to win the Premeir League and the Champions League!!!

More about Grant in my next blog... Look forward to it...

Xiao Bai & I

When i first landed in Beijing and used to go out to have lunch with my team members here, they always used to speak in Chinese. The Chinese law required me to have a Chinese name (and mine is Bai Ke Nan!!!). I used to hear one word quite often. Xiao Bai (pronouned Ciao Bai!!!) Xiao Bai... I used to wonder what is that... I knew it was something relating to me as it was being used too frequently... N my team would burst out laughing everytime they use that word... That made me realise that 100% it has to do something with me... So, i decided to ask them what it was... It took me all my persuasive skill and a lot of convincing to do before i got to know what it meant... Xiao Bai means Little Bai (from my Chinese name)... In other words, it was their way of calling me Little Kapil... Did i like that name?? I think i would say that i loved it... It has been a long time since they used that name... And i too completely forgot about it... Then one fine morning, i see that a couple of my team members have bought this small cute pink monkey, with whom i am posing in the snap, for me... I was completely moved... I felt completely happy when i took it from them... Now was the most difficult part, i had to give this sweet pink monkey of mine a name... So, i started to think as to what i should name it... It already has a name (Kapo is the official name!!!)... Eventhough, i like the name, i wanted to name it something different... I couldnt figure out a good name for it... Then i remembered what my team member told me, she said that they bought this doll cos they thought it looked just like me and had a similar name as mine... Then it stuck me... That is when i remembered that they used to call me Xiao Bai... I decided to name it Xiao Bai to repay the love and affection that my team has for me... And thus was born Xiao Bai... For the record, the birthday of Xiao Bai is 11th September 2006... And as of today its 5 days old... I intend to keep it with me for many years to come and not part with it... I am really happy to have it as my companion (you can guess it from the smile on my face in the photograph!!!) and feel very good about it... I hope all of you like my Xiao Bai and are jealous of me... he... he...

Cole - A Chelsea man... Finally...

The biggest transfer saga of this summer (actually, an extension from last summer) was over yesterday with Ashley Cole, the best left back in England, making his long awaited move to Chelsea... He now joins his England team mates Terry, Lampard and Joe Cole at Chelsea. The saga that started last year with Chelsea and Cole, both accused of breaching the laws by meeting unlawfully over a transfer deal with both Chelsea and Cole fined ended well for both the parties after Cole signed at the dotted line. Cole will continue to wear the Number 3 jersey that he wears for England and the number that he wore at Arsenal. Cole was the last but the most awaited signing for Chelsea before the close of transfer window. The signing was like everything from a Hollywood flick with the status of this agreement not being clear until the last moment. Ashley Cole was exchanged for William Gallas, who joined Arsenal, and 5 million pounds. Ashley Cole was one of the most sought after player by Jose Mourinho and now his signing gives Jose the option of having 2 people for each position so that he can carry on his work uninterrupted even if a few of his players are injured. Cole is expected to be unveiled early next week as he is away on duty for England against Andora and Macedonia over the weekend and midweek. He is expected to play his first match for the blues next weekend at home to Charlton. He is expected to make an immediate impact and settle into his role fairly quickly. Let us all hope that Cole does a good job at Chelsea to help us retain the premiership and also possibly help us win the Champions League. All the best Cole. Welcome to the best club in the world... :)

A full vegetarian dinner... At Last...

Hey Everybody, I am back. This time with another interesting episode of how all of us went to have some vegetarian food in Beijing. I took my team (yes, the same lovely team of mine...) to our weekly dinner (yes, we go out to have dinner as a team at least once a week...) We went to have dinner at a Chinese restaurant. What is so great about having dinner at a Chinese restaurant in China, you might ask. The most interesting part of this dinner was that it was at a vegetarian restaurant. Yes, a vegetarian restaurant at a meat loving country. All of us (actually, everybody in the team) were in the mood to try something different today. Also, there was this invitation to buy dinner for the team from our old good friend Deepu who was moving into a new role within Reuters in Bangalore. So, off we went to have some nice new variety of food. Eventhough, we normally finish our dinner by half past seven, we were delayed today as we had to do some grocery shopping and we didnt get to visit the restaurant until half past 8. When i got the menu, i was so amazed to see the different varieties and the number of options available in terms of vegetarian food. And also there were these mock meat items (basically items that look like meat but are made of vegetables) like mock fish, chicken etc. We ordered a lot of food as everyone was very hungry and ate till we were filled to our throats. If you thought this was fun, then the real fun started afterwards... We started pulling each other's legs... Started with Kevin, the sweetheart... He was unusually silent and so i decided that it was time for me to start with him... We talked about Indian beauties and how Kevin would enjoy in India... and moved across the table and didnt leave anyone out... We continued that for another half hour when i could teach them some more Hindi... All in all another wonderful dinner... It was lovely as always... :) More fun to come over the weekend... Hope that i am able to write in more then... For now... All of you enjoy this... n Bye...

Team... Sweet Team...

Hey Everybody, As i told you all, i am in Beijing for an assignment and to set up a new team. So, here is my team. From left to right, (standing) Michelle is first, one of our two Japanese experts (she is also good at cooking!!!). I am searching for a nick name for her. If anybody can think of something good, let me know ;). Next to her is Kevin (the sweetheart!!!). Yes, he is the sweetheart of the team (and of course, of the girls too!!!). They just swamp all over him(no wonder he is surrounded by 4 girls in this snap ;)). For the record, he loves playing ping pong and keeps defeating me in that. Well, moving on (will post a separate one on Kevin and his fundas!!!), we have Joyce (the princess!!!), our second Japanese expert and the princess of the team. And mind you, she is the princess of signs as well. She has different signs for different things. Benson (the macho man!!!) is standing to her left. He is our Korean expert and looks like the perfect bodyguard for all the girls. Any security agencies around??? The last person standing is Crystal, the queen. She is forever hungry and her face lights up when you are talking about food (Chicken wings!!!). She is the queen of the team and of course the queen when it comes to eating :) The person squatting on the left is Li Li (Lili ma!!!), the second of the Korean experts. Her current objective is to change her name and find another interesting and more difficult Chinese name (she isnt happy that i am pronouncing her name easily and wants to make life difficult for me!!!). Otherwise, the girl's girl and my favorite (dont ask why!!!). She wants to learn some latin dance. Last but certainly not the least is Jane, the panda of our team (she does look like one, doesnt she??? but she doesnt like being called one). She doesnt eat bamboo shoots like the panda. All the girls in the team treat her as if she is a doll and she doesnt like this either. But if it is the internet, she is the boss. You want to search anything, just let her know and you get all the information. She is the panda of the net. She is in love with her university (I too am!!! I think its a great university..) and loves to spend as much time she can there. She does like reading books (which is incidentally my favorite hobby!!!) and i like that.

So, that is my team for you. Team full of fun... Full of energy... and young, of course (I am the youngest in the team though!!!)... I love every minute i spend with them and treasure them very well... Any comments???

Chelsea - The True Champions of England

Chelsea - True Blues - The champions of England were back to winning ways at Edwood Park (where they lost last season) after having lost the midweek fixture at Middlesborough... A goal each from Lampard and Drogba in the second half was enough for the champions to ensure victory. Cech was back again as a goal keeper for his first match of the season and was tested a couple of times by the home team. This win puts the champions back in reckoning for the championship even though it is still early days. But i am sure that the Blues will be crowned champions for the third time in succession (only to become the 3rd team to do that in the premier league era...) Hail the blues!!! Hail Jose!!!

My First Time!!!

This is the first time i am going digital to express my thoughts. I hope that all of you will enjoy it here and let me know your thoughts.

Three cheers to this.... Hip... Hip... Hurray....