Celebrate All Fools Day with Gmail Custom Time

So its April 1 and guess what Google has come up with for Gmail users?
Gmail Custom Time™
The tagline? Be on time. Every time.*

The idea is fantastic. You can send an email and reconfigure the time to the past – so say your mom’s birthday was last week and you forgot to wish her, you could still send her an email today and change the sent date to last week – so it appears in her inbox as sent on such and such a date. Then you can claim, “I did send you an email!”

Google has even set up testimonials:
"I just got two tickets to Radiohead by being the 'first' to respond to a co-worker's 'first-come, first-serve' email. Someone else had already won them, but I told everyone to check their inboxes again. Everyone sort of knows I used Custom Time on this one, but I'm denying it."
Robby S., Paralegal

Even more hilariously, Google has set a 10 predated email limit per person because allowing an infinite number, “would cause people to lose faith in the accuracy of time, thus rendering the feature useless.” Heh heh, they talk about e-flux capacitors that make predating an email possible and even have a crazy formula:



Ha ha, hilarious. Its so April Fools day! I'm loving the humor in it. They almost had me. Almost!

Indian Superman and Spiderman, uh wait, Spiderwoman

The bad guys better watch out! Shudder!

Heroes Rocks!

We watched Heroes on Monday and caught a new show, that seems promising - The Black Donnelly’s.

Heroes just seems to be getting better every week. And this week’s episode was particularly gripping.

Ever since this show started, I look forward to Mondays. I even plan my Monday evenings around the show. Its that good.

God, do I sound like a nerd? :)

Tech support anyone?

Does this work?

Just fooling around...!

Some Man Has To Have Made This Up!

I burst out laughing, this morning, when a friend of mine forwarded this to me (see below).
I suspect some man made this up!!

<<<Women who exercise by doing the housework can reduce their risk of breast cancer, a study suggests

The research on more than 200,000 women from nine European countries found doing household chores was far more cancer protective than playing sport.

Dusting, mopping and vacuuming was also better than having a physical job.

The women in the Cancer Research UK-funded study spent an average of 16 to 17 hours a week cooking, cleaning and doing the washing.>>>>

But on further research I was horrified to see this.

Apparently it just might be true. Jeez. Thats all we need, further arsenal for the man to say, "You need to do the housework!"

My South Park Self!`

Bwahahaha. This was so fun!

Thanks Leah for the link.

I went to sp-studio.de and created my South Park self! What does your South Park self look like?

Snakes on a Plane!

Ha ha. I loved this movie. It was totally ridiculous, campy and silly. Yet so dramatic and hilarious in a very dark, potty humor kinda way.

We went for the movie on Friday - the day it released and I was so surprised to find half the audience chanting dialogues in all earnestness with Samuel Jackson. I know that its an internet marketing phenomenon - with so much buzz, totally driven by bloggers, who got so involved with the whole movie that even the dialogues they suggested got inserted into the movie.

But what I didnt expect was the audience to scream out dialogues, giggle and get totally hysterical even in the un-funny moments! It was awesome watching the movie with the very vocal crowd!

On hindsight, I think the movie would totally suck on DVD. But on the big-screen, it was just fun, fun and more fun. Over-the-top, hilarious dialogues like:
This plane is gonna go down faster than a Thai hooker...!
Time is Tissue...!
These are snakes on crack...!

And crazy, vicious snakes coming at you from every angle. Snakes on a plane? The title delivers what it promises and much more. Go see it, if you need a laugh. But just leave your intellectual self outside the door. Its just a silly, random, absurd, but ridiculously funny movie!

Miami Vice is so Disappointing!

Just got back from watching Miami Vice.

Man, i'm so disappointed by the movie. I was expecting an action packed thriller. Instead it was a routine cops-turn-undercover-to-bust-drug-ring kinda movie. The characters mumbled their lines throughout until I began to wonder if something was wrong with my sense of hearing only to discover everyone else had the same experience; the story felt quite mindless and the movie just lacked the style and the glitz one would expect from an acclaimed director like Michael Mann.

On the plus side the locales were quite lovely and picturesque - but sadly thats all the movie has going for it.

Cool Amul Ads spoofing Bollywood!

California Remixes Indian Culture

'California' - the alumni magazine at the University of California in Berkeley has a very insightful feature story on India this month.

Passage to India by Sandip Roy talks about the remix of Indian culture on California shores. Its a delightful and intelligent read that makes us think of the impact of multiculturism and what it means in the long run.

Here are some interesting paragraphs from the essay.

"Immigration once meant cooking with substitutes, imagining the taste of a long-lost vegetable while nibbling its nearest (but still somewhat distant) American cousin. No longer."

And a little later..."This pick-and-choose, mix-and-match chai-latte multiculturalism means Indian culture could easily become a parody of itself, says Sandeep Sood, one of the creators of the popular weekly South Asian comic strip, "Badmash."

"We could be peddling power yoga with one mehndi-filled hand while using the other to hold up our dhoti ... selling enlightenment free with a pack of $2 bindis," quips Sood. "Don't do it."

Read the feature here

India is the Cover Story of Time Magazine!

Just saw the cover of the latest issue of Time Magazine.

Now I cant wait to read the cover story!

You can access the stories on Time's website - here.

Drop it like a FOB!

Saw this hilarious Desi parody music video today and literally laughed my guts out.
Anoop Dogg parodies Snoop Dogg's 'Drop it Like Its Hot!'
For those who dont know what FOB means - it stands for Fresh Off the Boat - which is what a lot of Desis call newly arrived South Asian immigrants.
It used to be a derogatory term, but is today used by Desis very loosely and in a not-so-negative sense.





For those who cant follow the lyrics....this is just some of it...FUN!

If you have a lot of chest hair,
Show it like a FOB,
Immigration comes to get you,
Marry like a FOB

I've got the chappals on my feet,
when i'm walking down the street,
and I make the best saag,
when I want something to eat

I am a nice FOB,
I work in the IT,
When you call tech support,
You will get me.

I am a bachelor,
And I work hard,
Come and marry me
So I can get the Green-card.

White people, they can’t understand me,
Their jobs are now in New Delhi.


(Saag is a spinach based dish, and IT stands for Information Technology)

Hips dont Lie

Saw this video and had to get up and get grooving on the floor!



Turn up the volume and hit that PLAY button!

The Sitayana

This video came out some time ago, but I happened to come across it today and remembered again how much I loved it.

Its the Ramayana from Sita's point of view by this extremely talented animator called Nina Paley. Its called the Sitayana and is set to this old jazz song that just blows my mind.



Hit the play button and turn up the volume to enjoy this piece.

Growing up in India, the Ramayana is one epic that I'm pretty familiar with. Its the staple source from which the elders tell a child stories from. Later as I grew older, I read the whole thing in the form of illustrated comic books (Amar Chitra Katha); and then read the whole English translation and parts of the original epic in Sanskrit when I was older.

What I like about this animated episodic film is that it takes a refreshing look at the whole epic, from a woman's point of view and makes it so accessible to the whole world. Not to mention that its really well done and witty at the same time.

If you want to see and download more videos you can go here and here.

You could also visit Nina Paley's website where she has all her amazing work on display and talks at length about the process involved in making these films.

The Simpsons in Bollywood!

Just saw this funny video on You Tube. Its the Simpsons in Bollywood!



Hit that Play button and turn up the volume!

Incredible India

The Incredible India Campaign has been playing on several TV stations in the US. It's a beautiful, visually enticing and well crafted ad. The slogan at the end says "Atithi Devo Bhava" - which is a line from the Hindu scriptures that means "The guest is on par with God".
Feels like a not-to-miss ad: But at the same time, I feel its such a stereotype. It doesn't portray any of the advances India has made in technology or everyday living. It still shows these culturally rich images that most people in the West imagine India to be made up of.
Hit the play button to watch the ad.

Curry-n-Rice Girl

Just came across this absolutely hilarious video called 'Curry-n-Rice Girl'. Its by these guys called MC Vikram and Ludakrishna - who write and perform Indian parody hip-hop songs. So this song is set to the beats of Gwen Stefani's 'Hollaback Girl' from the album L.A.M.B. (Love Angel Music Baby)

If you're desi (Indian) you might just find it funnier, since it pokes fun at the traditional, Indian set up when it comes to marriage...I'm talking about the whole arranged marriage thing of course! So hit that play button below and get set to die laughing.