"Who're the little kids now?"

A couple of days back, I came across this really cute comic strip by Yale Stewart revolving around 8-year-old DC comic super heroes! It's called JL8 (JL as in Junior League) .

I was never into comics. Mom had bought us a couple of comics when we were kids(batman, Chacha Choudhury, Justice League and the like). But I never got the hang of it.But this little strip is just awesome. And if you know some background about the iconic Justice League characters, you are going to enjoy it even more. But that's okay if you are not the super-hero-comic type. You can still relate to the characters afresh!

The plot revolves around 8 little superkids: Batman, Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, J'onn J'onzz and among the girls we have, Diana and Wonder girl. Dont worry if you dont no anyone but Batman and Superman. I also hardly knew about Lantern, J'onzz, Wonder Girl, etc. And obviously some of the incidents(well, most of it!) never really took place in their original stories... but no matter what, you'll definitely love the new plot. There are big nana-robbing goons, kiddy crushes, classroom fights, ponies and so much more! Thank you Yale for creating this sweet thing!

My favourite is Bruce a.k.a. Batman. He obviously has to strive extra hard since he does not have any real super power unlike the rest. Probably why he is always sulking. But makes up for it with his gadgets. The Batman-Superman relationship is also done up so well. It's awesome how a comic strip revolving around elementary school kids could bring out so much!

And the characters are so cute-looking! they look like the European version of chibi-anime( I dunno what you call that style..) You know the one where they are about 2 and a half heads tall. And the head is rounder. And those big round eyes that exude cuteness! If only I could squeeze the hell out of those kids!

Of Online Shopping (and endless gullibility) ....

About 5 days ago, I had my first real encounter with online shopping. It happened in the form of a tiny ad in the side bar of my fb page. It was this irresistibly absurd offer of a pair of Austin Polo watches with a "90% off" sale which rounded up to 230 bucks for the pair. Now, I am not much of a shopper, and as far as watches are concerned, that too men's watches, I'm pretty clueless about design issues. But the offer was like abnormal. And thanks to modern day's C.O.D. (Cash On Delivery), I really thought I did not have much to loose as far as a trial was concerned.

The plan was to gift my bf the watch(es) if they ever arrived, which I had seriously doubted in the first place. The process was neat and simple. In fact I was regularly guided throughout the approximated 5 day shipping duration with alerts, smses and email verifications. Considering how skeptical I am about online shopping, I must say I was impressed... and excited too.

And when it finally did arrive, my first online-bought pair of Austin Polo, it was such a HUGE disappointment! Granted, I did not expect genuine stuff at such a cheap price, but you can't help that tingling feeling, that heightened expectation when you get your first online courier.

My hands automatically slipped into my pocket and started dialing my boy-friend's number.


K..., I just bought a watch for you!

WHAT! You are CRAZY! How much did they cost?! WHY did you buy!

About a thousand bucks :P(ofcourse I lied. I mean they were on a flat-ninety-percent sale...so their original price must have been that :P)

OMG! YOU CRAZY GIRL! WHY DID YOU BUY A WATCH WORTH 1000 BUCKS!!!



The "glass cover" of the watch looked like it was glued on to the watch with some sasta adhesive. The "leather" strap refused to bend without showing signs of an imminent crack. Basically for a watch worth 100 bucks, they were good. But for a Austin Polo that was supposed to be more than a grand it was shit. And to top it all, I had, like an idiot, already informed my boy-friend about my "awesome" buy.

Without a second thought, I gifted the two watches to my office boys. They were elated. And seeing them, I too felt less cheated. That was the only good that came out of the whole online experience: the expression on my office boys' faces.

When I called up my bf again to inform him that I had gifted the watches instead to the office boys, he must have got the shock of his life. Remember, they were worth a "1000" bucks, chuckle!


 Tum *baklol ki natin ho! (it's a slang meaning 'grand-daughter of an idiot')



Oh, and when I re-checked the stupid site, I realised they were selling "Ustin Polo" (not Austin Polo) watches worth 4 grand at that ridiculously low 90 percent flat discount.

Shikayatein.... Yet another coincidental copy

I just checked out the music of Lootera . I loved all the tracks so far. A little more digging left me disappointed .

You must have seen the trailer of Lootera? It's this upcoming Anurag Kashyap movie starring Ranvir singh and Sonakshi. Looks very promising, although when I first saw the trailer I had just seen Barf. Naturally, it looked uncannily similar to Barfi (the bike accident, the West Bengal location setup, the bong leading lady, the puranne-zamane-ki-kahini feel etc). But that was then. When i saw it several months later, it didnt look like a Barfi. But what remained was the theme score. I had loved it then too.

 Today, while I was trying to download some really nice songs from this movie, I figured that the background score, the one in the trailler is from this song Shikayatein , which unfortunately is uncannily similar too the title track of an english movie called One Day composed by Rachel Portman. It's a beautiful violin piece. The Bollywood version consists of a nice blend sitar and drums along with the violin thing.  :( Boy am I disappointed ! The director even tried to provide justification for the "coincidence" which I would have bought if I hadn't heard the original myself. Here's hoping that the movie plot is atleast an original.

The good thing is that it lead me to a nice sounding film, One Day. The trailer looks nice and the comments too seems to be pointing towards that.

The Betrayal

Saturday, I went to watch Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani with my bf. This was the first time that I had pre-booked the tickets. My love affair with Ranbir started with Wake up Sid and went on to grow with Rocket Singh and Barfi...There were stupid wannabe movies like Anjani Anjani which I have to admit I loved(at that time) mostly because I was in the madly-in-lurvve phase after Wake Up Sid...

But the Wake Up Sid hangover can last for only so long. You have to keep making movies like that to fuel that sort of love/admiration, etc... And he did that. There was Rocket Singh. That was the first time I liked a Sikh protagonist. And the recent Barfi. Oh-my-god-he's-so-cute!!! How was I to suspect his disastrous betrayal in YJHD?!

I have always liked guys first for their character and then their looks.. When Sawariya had released, there were many who were crazy for him...not me, uh-uh! I hated his sleepy eyes which made him look like a girl with a dick, not that I have issues with that. I am just not into gora-chitta guys who look so effeminate. And his nose is too long. That was before I saw Wake Up Sid o'corse! And that too I had watched coz of Konkona. I didn't expect the surprise Ranbir pakage. Anyways, I fell for Ranbir's Sid hook, line and sinker. There were ups and downs...The disastrous Ajab Prem ki Gajab Kahani_ A movie that made absolutely no sense. But then he made up for it with Rocket Singh. There was that Anjana Anjani with that irritating character of Priyanka yap-yapping away through out the movie. I still liked it coz of Ranbir. I mean there was the casual expectation of a typical bollywood movie which it overcame.

But Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani was just not anticipated. I mean I knew K Jo would want to ruin the movie, what with his larger-than-life sets and melodramatic climaxes. But after Wake Up Sid which was also a produce of Dharma Productions survived the Kjo effect. To cut the long story short YJHD was a down market miss-mash of Love Aajkal and WakeUp. Deepika has to spell it out to the audience that she's a "simple girl"(her character is that unconvincing!!!). What she means is that she's the nerd who's never got a decent guy to go to prom night with. But her costume doesn't go with her character. I know simple girls can wear cleavage revealing clothes ... I get that and mind you I am a fan of Deepika too, but in YJHD she just looked like a girl desperate to prove to the world that she has a pair of boobs. Like, I get it You are busty/sexy or whatever it is that you want to be, you don't have to rub it in, girl! As for Ranbir, he just didnt know what he was doing and neither did the audience. You cant relate to anything in the movie, the friendship of four buddies, the cameo dad-son -step-mom relationship, the "simple" girl or the vagabond Ranbir... The screenplay does not give enough time to the audience to digest or register anything. The second half looks like a continuation of another movie. The first half itself looks like several movies scrap-booked together, hence the feeling of disorientation from scene to scene. My crush on Ranbir is over and done with thanks to this movie. I cant trust Ayan Mukherjee anymore to make movies like Wake Up.

And Ranbir is once again that girly guy with sleepy eyes, the kind that makes him look gay and a bit drug-addicted(no i am not anti-gay...I'm just heterosexual and it is natural for me to not be sexually attracted to guys who look effeminate )