आज कल राम गोपाल वर्मा की बॉलीवुड में काफ़ी हवा है - लोगों की फूँक निकाल कर रख दी है। ऐसी ऐसी फिल्में बना रहे हैं कि लोगों को सोचने का पूरा पूरा मौका मिल रहा है। फ़िल्म देखने से पहले लोग सोचते हैं - "देखें या नहीं?", फ़िल्म देखने के बाद लोग सोचते हैं - "ये मैंने क्या किया?"

आप सोच रहे होंगे की मेरी नज़र राम गोपाल वर्मा पर ही क्यों अटकी? दरअसल ये एक ही ऐसा महामानव है जो हर साल ढेरों फ़िल्म बनता है और फिल्मों का स्तर तो माशाल्लाह गिरता ही जा रहा है। मैं सोच रहा था कि जिस रफ़्तार से वर्मा जी लगे हुए हैं, और जिस जिस तरह की फिल्में वो बना रहे हैं, भविष्य क्या होगा? गौर करने की बात ये कि इनकी हर अगली फ़िल्म पिछली फ़िल्म से बुरी होती है।

आइये रामू जी की कुछ पुरानी, नई और आने वाली फिल्मों पर एक नज़र डालते हैं:

=> सरकार
===> सरकार राज
=====> सरकारी अनाज
('सरकार' बहुत ही बढ़िया फ़िल्म थी, 'सरकार राज' ठीक ठाक, अब इस कड़ी को यहाँ रोक देना चाहिए नहीं तो 'सरकारी अनाज', 'हमारा बजाज' या ... )

=> नाच
===> निशब्द
=====> नहीं हुई हद
(...शब्द ही नहीं हैं...)

=> डरना मना है
===> डरना ज़रूरी है
=====> डरना मजबूरी है
(जब डरना मना था, तब लोग डरे जब डरना ज़रूरी हुआ, तो लोग हँसे)

=> राम गोपाल वर्मा की आग
===> राम गोपाल वर्मा की फूँक
=====> राम गोपाल वर्मा की थूँक
(पहले आग लगाई, फिर फूँक से उसे बुझाने की कोशिश, नहीं बुझी तो अब थूँक ही बचता है जी)

राम राम! ये रामू जी किस प्रकार की फिल्मों की और बढ़ रहे हैं... कुछ समझ नहीं आ रहा है! रंगीला, सत्य, भूत, कंपनी जैसी उच्च कोटि की फिल्में बनाने वाले रामू कुछ मूड में नहीं लग रहे हैं ।

वैसे और भी कुछ अच्छी फिल्मों की मिट्टी पलीद होती नज़र आ रही है:

=> डॉन
===> डॉन टू
=====> कौन तू

=> मुग़ल-ऐ-आज़म
===> मान गए मुग़ल-ऐ-आज़म
=====> भाग लिए मुग़ल-ऐ-आज़म
(मधुबाला नहीं मना पाई मुग़ल-ऐ-आज़म को, मल्लिका शेरावत को बुलाना पड़ा, राखी सावंत आएँगी तो?)

=> कोई मिल गया
===> ककक्रिश
=====> कककककिशमिश
('क' की संख्या पर कोई लगाम लगाओ भाई ... )

'दौड़' बनी तो 'रेस' बनी, 'रन' बनी तो 'भागम-भाग' भी बनी, अब बारी है, 'जम्प' और 'उछल-कूद' की।

'टशन' आई, 'फैशन' आई, तो 'टेंशन' लाओ, 'पेंशन' लाओ - बूढे लोगों को भी देखने में मज़ा आए।

मैं यहीं ब्रेक लगता हूँ... ये लिस्ट तो बहुत लम्बी जा रही है।

डिस्क्लेमर (तथ्य): खाली बैठे व्यक्ति के दिमाग में कुछ भी आ सकता है, जैसे मेरे दिमाग में आया :)

Sorry for being a bit late in writing this.

This Saturday I made myself lucky to visit Lonavla – A place of waterfalls. Finally, I set myself out for my “first adventurous trip” after coming to Pune and it was simply amazing.

Protagonists (7): Jharna, Nandita, Trupti, Savita, Shambhu, Jigar, Praveen

We booked a Qualis and started at 7:30 in the morning, but spent around 2 hrs in Pune itself picking people from their respective places. Played UNO on the way, so could not concentrate much on the sceneries en route, which I felt later, we should have.
Reached Lonavla at around 10:30. When we got down from the cab after reaching the place, the weather was awesome with wind at full speed. We were busy clicking photographs and there it comes - RAIN. It started with little showers and turned into a heavy downpour in no time.

Initially being hesitant in getting wet, the feeling was completely washed away by the showers in the face as we leapt towards one of the waterfalls (out of many facing us) in the downpour itself. A miscalculation here: Except me and Jigar, everyone took their mobile phones along with them and Shambhu’s digicam too. For some it was intentional while others were just carried away by the excitement and forgot to leave them back in the cab.

Jharna’s handbag came to rescue the ruined gadgets but little did it help. The damage was already done. Though we were in full rain, completely soaked, we didn’t stop clicking photographs putting a shade of hands around the camera and mobiles. Little did we realize that the water had found a way into the gadgets?
So, the cost of the trip was Shambhu’s camera and all the Sony Ericsson phones (except mine, Jigar had Nokia) we had. Some of them are able to revive themselves while others are still to be brought back to life. So, the photographs are awaited till these gadgets start breathing again.

The Giant Waterfall: The scenario was like this. We are enjoying in a waterfall. Suddenly, we see another waterfall far away. A mutual decision to reach there. Hit that waterfall. Then the next and the next… Jharna evolved to be a falling girl (she didn’t miss any opportunity to slip, or fall), Nandita evolved to be a fish (she even lied down in one of the waterfalls), Trupti and Savita were quite cautious with their steps (thankfully!). In this scheme of things, we happened to hit a giant waterfall all set to mesh up anything that comes its way. The force was terrific and we could see the force increasing. Some of us sat at one of the slim legs of the waterfall but not for long. The water was hitting very hard at our backs. And it was so loud that we had to literally shout to make ourselves hear. There was a Vada-Pav, tea-coffee shop nearby this waterfall. It was so cold around that even a 50 Rs./tea cup won’t hurt you.

Serendipity: After enjoying this – one of the heaviest waterfalls around, we decided to come back to our cab. On the way, out of the excitement of exploring the place, we took a different route and kept moving until we discovered that we are lost. But the place where we were lost was such a beauty. Pristine it was! It was greener than the greenest and enclosed by a wire fence. The only disappointment was: Our camera had already been feasted upon by the cruel rains. So, couldn’t click the shots there :(

We did some calculations, listening to the voices of people shouting far away to figure out a way out of this scenic place. Somehow, we found our way back. I actually had my only fall of the trip on this way. Trying to be over smart, I thought of jumping over a small water stream while others followed a decent route. I jumped and landed on a rock which was not firm on the ground. The rock rolled over but the momentum took me forward (with a lost balance) only to make me fall in the mud. The ugly face of the fall: This was the only place till now, which didn’t have clear water. The group had a nice laugh on my fall. I would say I was lucky that we didn’t have the camera at that time, though Nandita managed to get some shots on her mobile while I was cleaning myself in the stream water.

Lost and Found: After conquering a series of waterfalls (one after the other) and Bushy Dam, we started towards the “Shooting Point”. We found “Amby Valley” and “Air Force Station” on the way but only Armed Forces personals are allowed to enter, so moved ahead. We got down at “Shooting Point” and left the cab on the road. We had moved just about 8-10 meters in the chilling wind without realizing what is following us. When we turned back, we found that our cab is lost, even the road was not visible. Such was the density of clouds. But again, the place with its ultimate beauty was just like a meadow. And we could realize its real beauty only when the clouds were carried away by the wind and there it spreads in front of us - the green expanse.

We climbed up, we climbed down, we shot, we slipped, we fell, we ran, we did all fun that we could in the beautiful space. Away from the project, away from the work, away form any kind of tension, it was a day.
We were completely drenched for 12 continuous hours. The funny thing, even if we (boys) had extra changing clothes with us, we didn’t feel like changing. We were in rains the whole time, so no point in changing clothes if you don’t have an umbrella. The girls in the group proved to be “the intelligent beings” (at least here) to get themselves changed and even had umbrellas.

The bad part: Such trips usually have some disappointing parts. But we didn't have any except that the driver of the Qualis was new to the routes and he didn’t have much knowledge about the places and the routes. Result – so many U-Turns. We had about 8-10 of them during the day. Time waste! U-turn is not just a U-turn; you also have to cover a section of route again. Result – Didn’t get enough time to visit Khandala.

On the way back, it was all Jharna and Nandita, the singing sensations of the group. These girls have the lyrics of each song by heart (along with the dance steps, of course), howsoever latest the song is. The talent is amazing.

We were back in Pune at around 10:30 PM. I still wet, entered my room at 11:30 PM. Had a bath, made myself banana shake, brushed my teeth and off to sleep at 12:10.

Special thanks to Shambhu that he was always ready with his money bank to buy the Vada-Pavs, tea-coffeee, pakodas, bhajjis or any other eatables, anytime, anywhere – on roads, inside the waterfalls, at the dam, the shooting point and all other places that I have missed. A twist here too: His wallet along with the money, the cards etc… was left with Jharna (in the protective bag) when she got down at her place and resultantly, Shambhu had to spend his Sunday sleeping and feeding on friend’s pockets :)

All in all, a memorable trip! My first from Pune and hence one of my best weekends here with a wonderful group of friends.

Highlights:
[1] Waterfalls – There are plenty
[2] Bushy Dam – Consisted of three waterfalls in itself.
[3] Shooting Point – Movies are shot here.
[4] Lions Point – Couldn’t see much because of very dense fog. Even the place was a little dirty because of a commercialization.
[5] Walvan Dam – The surrounding area is all gardens, though we couldn’t witness much because of the “Strictly Private…” notices.[6] The moment I took my feet off my shoes. What a moment man, really! My feet breathed like anything.

Points to remember (learning, as they say):
[1] Average expenditure per head if go by cab (from Pune): Rs 400
[2] Trekking shoes – Beware of the slippery rocks! You slip one, you slip all!
[3] Extra changing clothes plus towel
[4] Most Imp: Leave your mobile phones in the cab, if you really want to enjoy. If you are “I can’t live without my phone” types, have a water proof poly bag handy. The falls won’t show mercy to your costly gadgets and you know these electronic gadgets are too much water prone.

Thanks for dialing in. Stay tuned for the pics!

I have finally finalized this template for my blog. Satisfies most of my requirements, though I had to play around with the code a little bit. Cool, isn't it? :) I am even happier for the page load. It doesn't load with any error now. In my earlier theme, I had screwed up the widgets and code and it used to show some errors while loading the page.

OK, justifying the title of this post: My "Edit Layout" Page now shows "Add a Gadget" instead of "Add an Element" and clicking on this gives me a myriad Gadgets available in the blog world. Check this out:

Blogger has a whole new range of gadgets to be added to the blog and the number is countless. The Gadgets are classified under different categories and "Gadget Search" is also available.

Happy Blogging and Gadgeting !

OK! I am signing off for the day leaving this template here.
As decided in the morning, I spent the whole day searching for the templates only.


During the day, one of the templates that I found good enough is the "Aspire" theme. Take a look below:

But I again found some issues with this template. E.g. the date of the post is not appearing, the images of the theme hide the key links (New Post, Customize, Sign In) that are otherwise visible at the top right corner of every blog.
Though I am not very much satisfied with the currently theme, but I am finding suitable enough to leave it like this over the weekend.

I'll try to revive my lost widgets next week and come up with a better template if possible.

Till then! Happy Weekend! :)

Abhishek - boy, you spoiled me...

Looking at the new look of Abhishek's blog (which is cool enough), I too thought of giving it a try. Though I had this idea at the back of my head for quite sometime, but thinking it's a high time now, I jumped into it.
I am struggling to find a decent theme for this blog. And I got to know one thing about myself in the past few hours - I am too choosy :D

I have scrolled through hundreds of themes by now and none of them caught my eye. I saw their live demos and in each and every theme, I found some limitations. So, thought of listing down the characteristics of the ideal (Where will I find it?) theme I am looking for. Here they are in decreasing order of priority:

--> Wide span. I just don't want to see the background. Only the contents of the blog.
--> Not more than two columns. Multiple columns will shrink the post area.
--> Not very broad [vertical length :)] header. It should be wide enough to house the Blog name and the Subtitle placed at a beautiful position and angle with proper spacing.
--> Colors: I can't list the colors I want to see (In fact, I am not so good at it!). Any combination will work for me provided it is simple and sober. No hard colors please!
--> I don't mind if there is no footer at all. Mostly people read the recent posts (at max top 2-3 posts) only. Who cares to scroll to the bottom of the page?

Now, with all these restrictions at hand, I started searching for the themes. And, I haven't find any yet which satisfies all the above criteria.
Still, when I finally settled with a theme (though not the ideal one, but thought of giving it a try just to see how it works), I uploaded the XML and got a similar error as Abhishek's. Thought of following the same path as him, I tried to submit the error with "Blogger Support". But the BOFA (Bank of America) network didn't allow me to cross it. Categorized the page under "Personal Homepages" and access denied.

The result is in front of you: I reverted back to my old template but without the widgets.

I have told my teammates at Bangalore that I have lots of work today and am very busy (in searching themes). So, no project work today! But, anyway I am not even getting success here.
:(