One More Drag Racing Fatality

Scott Kalitta an American drag racer who competed in the Funny Car class in the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series met a fiery end today evening when his car exploded after he attained 300 miles per hour. I had embedded a Youtube video of the crash but for reasons best known to Youtube the video is no longer available. I found this AP picture on the website of The Age and thought I'd share it to show the seriousness of the crash.
Racing is a risky sport and like any most other dangerous sports there is a high possibility of losing one's life in this. Even the most experienced racing champions can succomb. It can be due to a technical snag, a human error or any minor mistake. This incidents are scary but not scary enough to deter people from racing or participating in the sport. So long as human race exists extreme sports will continue to exist. It gives an adrenalin rush to us and we will indulge in the sport.

Movie Review: What Happens in Vegas

Disappointing comedy!

Title: WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS
Director: Tom Vaughan
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Ashton Kutcher, Rob Corddry, Lake Bell and Queen Latifah
Genre: Comedy, Chick flick

What happens in Vegas is one of those total fantasy movies with completely outrageous plot. The movie starts off with a jaded looking Cameron Diaz and her friends planning a surprise birthday party for her fiancé. But her fiancé has his own plans, he comes home and before she could utter one word, he dumps her. A visibly distraught Cameron Diaz decides to take a holiday in Vegas and come back rejuvenated to her job.

At Vegas she bumps into Ashton Kutcher who has been fired from his job by his own dad and is combating depression. Both of them hit off in the casinos and in drunken stupor get married. Next morning while they are still not sure how to tackle the marriage and annul it, they come by a windfall of $3 million. Now the question is who gets the money, though both of them agree to split even, the judge plays spoilsport. In the court the judge dismisses their plea for annulment and orders them to live together for six months and get marriage counseling. If they fail in their efforts then they would be granted divorce.

The judge further says that if they stay together and show that they really tried to make it work for six months, they split the money evenly. But if one can prove that the other cheated, didn’t try to make the marriage work, quit from the marriage then, he/ she gets to keep all the money. Both Jack (Ashton) and Joy (Diaz) attempt every trick in the book to mess each other’s life so that they can claim the booty. The rest of the film is how each makes life miserable for the other and in the process fall in love with each other. Their divorce plea gets passed but they reunite and decide to get married again.

Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher have delivered a good performance as bickering newly weds. Queen Latifah in her role as marriage counselor seems so out of place, even with her funny accent and seemingly authoritative postures. She needn’t have accepted such a minor role in this movie. The only merits of this movie are the numerous comedy sequences, such as when Jack removes the toilet seat because Joy tried to give him potty training. The early morning sequence when Jack pees into the kitchen sink loaded with cutlery is really gross.

The movie disappoints in several counts, first Cameron Diaz seems to have lost all her beauty. She looks skinny, tanned, dehydrated and really old; almost like Ashton’s mother. Wonder if the movie makers couldn’t afford a better make up artist or wonder if she has really become old. The screenplay is mediocre and the dialogues are just average. It is ok to watch once if you have loads of time and no other options.

I’d give it a rating of 2.5 out of five.

Check out the trailer.

Book Review: Two Wheels Through Terror

India has always been full of warm and compassionate people. This is the only country in the world where Jews were not persecuted. This is one country where everybody was welcomed with open arms. The concept of “Athithi Devo Bhava” or “Guest is like God” is practiced only here. But somehow in post-independence India, the road has become one of the most dangerous places. Road travel, be it in the bustling cities or on the highways has become increasingly dangerous. Somehow once people get behind the wheel or astride a motorcycle, a strange phenomenon happens. They get taken over by road rage, speeding, reckless driving, callousness towards other road users seems to be the order of the day.

In such scenario what do bikers who wish to travel around the country or even the world on their trusted metal steeds do? India being the youngest nation in the world with more than half its population comprising of people under 24 is also waking up to the growing culture of biking holidays.

Not surprisingly the availability of vrooming nexgen motorcycles has incubated the phenomenon of biking holidays. In contemporary India it’s not uncommon for bike enthusiasts to strap up their saddlebags and hit the highways to exotic, off-the-beaten-track destinations ranging from the freezing heights of the Himalayas to the golden beaches of the Indian Ocean. Cashing in on this new fashion are smart two-wheeler marketers who have promoted motorcycle clubs in major cities across the country. These clubs with evocative names such as Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club, Bangalore; Inde Thumpers, Pune; 60Kph, Mumbai; Indian Bikers, Kolkata, among others, are thronged by leather-clad, greasy-handed motorcycle buffs.

But the new-age Indian biker is hardly aware of the hazards of cross-country running on a two-wheel machine. He has to negotiate unruly truck drivers, bandits, vehicle snatchers, naxalites and terrorists among other perils on the nation’s unpoliced highways. In terms of books and journals there are no recallable works by Indian authors on the subject and most automobile magazines devote their columns to techno mumbo jumbo. Against this backdrop Two Wheels Through Terror by US-based adventure motorcyclist and traveller Glen Heggstad, is a boon even to sub-continental bike enthusiasts. The book is a first-hand account of an ambitious motorcycle journey through South America that gets horribly, and violently, detoured. It’s as much a travel diary of a motorcycle odyssey as a story about bravery in the face of terror and perseverance in adversity.

Heggstad aka ‘Striking Viking’ has driven custom-built Suzukis across the most rugged terrains worldwide and is a former member of Hell’s Angels — the largest motorcycle riders group in the US — apart form being a martial arts expert. His biking adventures have been featured on NPR and CBS’s 48 Hours. Currently in Asia on yet another round-the-world motorcycle tour, Heggstad has his permanent residence in Palm Springs, California, where he owns and operates a martial arts school.

Divided into four sections featuring maps and top-quality pictures of South American landscapes, the book begins with the profile of a confident man preparing to zoom away from the safe confines of his home to realise a dream and ends with a dazzling display of determination and courage. "Warriors claim that battles are won in the preparation. This is a personal battle for which I am preparing — a battle to survive the adventure through Mexico, Central America and the West Coast of South America to the tip, across the Straights of Magellan to the island of Tierra del Fuego, and back up the East Coast — on a 650 cc dual-sport motorcycle. A 25,000 mile ride through blazing deserts, freezing mountain passes, sub-Antarctic wilderness, and steaming tropical rainforests," writes Heggstad in his introduction.

Two Wheels Through Terror is perhaps the most thrilling and absorbing motorcycle adventure travelogue ever written. Both diary of a motorcycle pilgrim and survival guide, this book should be standard reading for any daredevil motorcyclist who plans to hit country roads, and especially for bikers planning cross-country travel in India, infested with militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, the naxalite-insurrectionary states of central India or the lawless BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) jurisdictions. While biking through the rebels-dominated northern district of Columbia, Heggstad was kidnapped and held for ransom for five weeks by the rebel army Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN).
A compilation of events recorded by Heggstad during his journey, his capture, escape and eventual realisation of a dream, Two Wheels Through Terror is a gripping story of a bike adventurer robbed of all and frog-marched through fly-infested tropical jungles with assault rifles pointed into his back. But given his preparation in terms of proficiency in martial arts, unarmed hand-to-hand combat and shrewd thinking, he overcomes.

Once free, Heggstad does not return home. Not a bit bogged down by the violent torture he had to suffer, Heggstad arranges for another motorcycle to be despatched to him in Columbia to continue on the high road to adventure through Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. The rest is smooth riding, by his standards of adventure from which automotive two- wheeler enthusiasts worldwide can derive great inspiration and knowledge.

Published in EducationWorld

Learning New skills

America is truly a land of opportunities where one can fulfill his dreams. At least as long as one can make enough money to pay for them. In my case I am lucky to have a supportive wife-to-be who is helping me fulfill do several things which I would probably never have attempted in India.
One of the things, Roller Skating, an activity which I was interested in since my early childhood and had never learnt in India. Yes there are some facilities to learn Skating out there but they were either inaccessible or only for kids. Here I started learning roller skating about 8 weeks ago and I have been going to the classes off and on. But the first five weeks I was regular and made rapid progress. I can now skate straight at slow speed and forwards. I can turn, stop, run and walk on wheels. And after some more classes I am sure I will be able to skate backwards, reverse, jump, hop, skip etc all on wheels.
Another activity I took part in last weekend was flying. Can you believe it I actually co-piloted a small plane. Again thanks to Padma and her friend Chris I was able to do it. Padma spent the money and Chris, a certified commercial pilot taught me the basics of flying. Last Sunday morning was perhaps one of the most thrilling mornings of my life so far. I expected it to be a joy ride with Chris taking us in a small aircraft around Dallas area. But when I met Chris at the Addison Airport, he asked: "Who is going to fly first?". Padma replied: "He will" and pointed to me.
Then we went into the hanger and Chris started gave us a brief lecture on the various things to check before even getting into the air-craft. The fuel quality, wings, weights, rudders and lot more.
Then we got into the aircraft each wearing a headphone for communications. Seated in the small 4-seater aircraft Chris explained all complex instrumentations and levers in the cockpit and what they do and how we need to operate them. Once these things were done, Chris spoke into the radio with the air traffic control tower and obtained clearance to taxi and we were soon on the runway ready to take off. One more exchange of words on the radio and we got a green light to fly and in a matter of seconds we were off with Chris giving a constant commentary on what is happening and why he was doing what.
It was a great experience of sitting in the cockpit staring at so many instruments giving an array of measurements, each important for at least one aspect of the flight. We climbed higher and higher and attained an altitude of 2,000 ft, Chris said we will fly at this height and land at Sherman Municipal Airport and then fly back to Addison. Enroute Chris taught how to manouvere the metal bird to destination and how to read the in-flight GPS and set course. We also did a small 360 degree loop at 2,000 ft. It was a little scary but with Chris' reassuring us, we were comfortable.
Return was even more thrilling when Chris told me to manage the course till Addison, soon after taking off. He taught me how to maintain altitude, how to ascend, decend etc. The flight was in my control in mid-air, couple of times I lost altitude and had to fly up. I did panic and feel jittery when this happened but under the Chris' expert guidance I made it safely upto Addison. Chris took permission from the ATC tower and landed safely.
For this wonderful experience I must say thanks to three entities who made it possible. The first being Padma, then Chris and then America.

Advertising Humour at its best

Advertising is one of the best ways of capturing people's attention and making them aware of the merits of your product or service. Advertisements can be downright dumb or sometimes so good that we like to watch them again and again. All this conveys the message of the sponsor/ advertiser to the audience.

Anyway I came across this compilation of five advertisements of a mortgage company in the US. I am quite sure you will fall off your chair laughing as you watch these five advertisements. Do let me know if you like them or dislike them.



Don't Judge Too Quickly... We Won't. - video powered by Metacafe

How to slash your international phone call expenses

I have been living in a foreign country (US) since the past eight months and believe me feeling homesick is very common. My family, friends, home, everything else I was familiar with has changed and it is quite natural to miss these things. The telephone is a magical gadget which keeps me in touch with my loved ones back home. While international calls keeps me in touch with my loved ones, it also costs quite a lot. In my quest for affordable telephone calls, I found this great online resource, where I can buy cheap phone cards and make international calls.

This place known aptly as Phone Cards Avenue is one the few places which offers cheap international phone cards which enables users like me to save 80 percent or more on international calls. This savings are better than popular mass-market telephone service providers like at&t, sprint, verizon etc.

Prepaid phone cards are one of the best ways to save on long distance and international telephone bills. The market is full of companies selling phone cards, each claiming to offer the best deal. This blitz of advertising makes it very difficult to find and buy a really cheap phone card or calling card.

Thousands of websites sell pre-paid phone cards online, and searching for good deals only make us frustrated. But at Phone Cards Avenue, this frustration is removed completely, the site offers pre-sorted international calling cards which offer great quality and value. Users can save thousands by buying country/ region specific cards available online at Phone Cards Avenue.

My advise is simple and straight forward: If you call home frequently, don't bother to buy minutes from your phone provider. Just buy a pre-paid phone card from Phone Cards Avenue and start saving money.

Skateboarding event at Plano

The day started off as a boring Saturday morning and we didn't know what to do. We finally decided that we must get out and do something and got ready to go out. But in flat Texas and boring Dallas area what do we do? Well, we decided to go to Sports Academy and check out their bicycles and if there are any good offers we would buy a bike and start biking around the trails in Carrollton.

We drove down to the mall were the sports goods dealer is located and to my surprise I saw this huge crowd of kids doing skateboarding. Getting closer to the venue music was blaring deafeningly and there were guys and gals enjoying themselves on 4 miniature wheels of the skateboard.

I have always been fascinated by skating activities of all kinds, roller skating, inline skating/ roller blading and skateboarding. But lack of facilities to learn ad practice in India had always prevented me from indulging myself in these pursuits. Now thanks to my being in the US I have learnt how to do roller skating. I am not perfect but I can do something. So this event was too much of an attraction to give up. The sun beat down on us as we walked around the parking lot looking at the various fun stalls, skateboarding kids.

There was one stall selling skateboards and funky t-shirts, another peddling food and bottled water, one of them was a fun stall in which they were giving away T-shirts, chains and other funky stuff if participants did something really gross. Like applying mustard sauce all over their face, coloring their hair purple etc.

I shot a video of the proceedings, skateboarding, doing gross stuff etc. Watch it and give me your feedback.