Crisp Cartoon with clear message. Did u crack it ?!

Drawn in 5mints using paint brush (outcome of joblessness). Do let me know hows it ?!!

pelancongan kepada malaysia( Tour to Malaysia)!

We went to Malaysia – Singapore for honeymoon on a holiday package. Don’t want to take the name of the package as we were dissatisfied by the city tour where we were just running around the places.

As soon as we landed in KL (Kuala-lumpur) the capital city of Malaysia I was flabbergasted by the size of the airport and it took us some 15-20min to understand from where we need to collect the baggage. We boarded a subway-metro which took us to the point where we had to collect the baggage. The first thing we did was to search our cab driver who was holding placard with our names on it. After a tiresome journey in Srilankan airlines and tasteless food we were so relieved to find him . Of course we had no idea then what all food options we will be having in forthcoming daysJ The cab driver Raja is from Tamil Nadu and got settled in Malaysia . It was my first international visit so like anybody else I was also surprised by the clean – wide roads and neat traffic and more surprised by seeing too many Indians especially Tamilians who were settled there from long. Am not sure on this but may be the reason being TN the nearest Indian state to Malaysia Tamilians were high in number there.

Raja dropped us at hotel Ancasa saying another Guide Christopher will be picking us from hotel next day in the morning. Meanwhile we can roam on our own in areas around the hotel . He told just adjacent to hotel there is China town which is good time pass as it is Chinese Newyear. We baded bye to him and were greatly relieved as soon as we entered our magnificent and luxurious hotel Ancasa. One thing to mention here is "Kolaveri" was played in high volume in the cab :D Our room was in some 11^th floor and the view was great from there as we were able to see a huge Bank – May bank and KL tower and also Petronus- Twin towers from the room window.

Hotel An-Casa , KL tower & MAY-bank (in order) from the hotel room window

Another interesting thing we spotted was Mc-D from the room window so it was decided we would have lunch there as we reached very late and the free unlimited buffet breakfast closed by 10:30 and we were in no mood to try any new cuisine, so we headed straight to Mc-D and had the usual French fries and non veg meal along with coke which seemed heavenly then .PS: I NEVER LIKED MC Donalds!

After a satisfactory meal we headed to China town which was all glowing in red with various decorations and too much of hustle bustle in shops . The note worthy things there were chestnuts which were yumm and also guavas which were the size of small coconuts. The person who was selling them seemed to be Yo-Yo with all his DJ kinda pics pasted to his cart. He was very vibrant and gentle when he was dealing with usJ and did not mind posing for us.

We roamed for an hour or so and in some shops we found it amusing and funny to see that there was a recorded tape of an old lady shrieking in a very happy tone regarding the sales/offers/products. She was shouting some thing like Pork for some ringitts and offer valid only that day. I was not able to make out exactly what it is but understood only one thing that ringitt is Malaysian currency and 1 ringitt = 16 Rs and a word of advise : if you keep converting in to rupees you will never be able to purchase any thing there J Even if I converted I found some fruits/ food items and clothing (T-shirts etc) were reasonably priced . After purchasing chest nuts and T-shirts and having some juice we came back to hotel to rest for a while. In the night we came out on our own asking the Taxi for near by famous shopping center in KL and got down at BB plaza surrounded by KFC and the majority of the crowd were Chinese celebrating the Chinese newyear!

KL-tower in the night below

Different meat sticks/rolls

---- Pork being sold as part of Newyear

After roaming around and having some veg-roll from an Indian stall which was tasteless purchased an orange juice to drain it. I purchased a leather belt and came back to hotel as we didn’t find any thing interesting to buy .Below is the pic showing Malaysian currency and the change we got from the Indian stall- 1 Ringitt!

Before describing the city tour we had next day let me brief Malaysian History for those who are interested J

Malyasia is a country of southeast Asia consisting of the southern Malay Peninsula and the northern part of the island of Borneo. Malays probably moved into the penisula eventually reaching northern Borneo and displacing the indigenous Dayaks. Europeans arrived in the 16th century. Gaining independence in 1957, it joined with Singapore, Sabah, and Sarawak to become the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. Singapore gained independence separately in 1965. Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the largest city. Population: 24,800,000. This is what our guide MR. Christopher briefed to us on the first day of the tour which covered the city tour. For more information you can google or go to wiki ;) I also referred the same for the figures!

Christopher also explained that type of Govt in Malaysia is constitutional monarchy nominally headed by paramount ruler (commonly referred to as the King) and a bicameral Parliament consisting of a nonelected upper house and an elected lower house; all Peninsular Malaysian states have hereditary rulers (commonly referred to as sultans) except Melaka and Pulau Pinang (Penang); those two states along with Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia have governors appointed by government. Sabah and Sarawak retain certain constitutional prerogatives (e.g., right to maintain their own immigration controls).

Our first stop is Istana Negara which means National palace, the royal residence for the King and queen. They did not allow us to enter inside , so we took some snaps at the entrance of the palace where there were details of the palace, constitutional monarchy as well as the hierarchy of all the sultans who ruled till then.

Our next stop was a monument built in the memory of dead warriors in 1^st and 2^nd world wars. You can check it in the images below

Then we visited Masjid-negara which means National mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world. As we entered inside we realized that wearing a burqa is must to walk inside till the point where tourists are allowed. All foreigners maintained hijab as they entered inside. It was very bright to watch all sea of people dressed in purple.

As told by our guide Christopher and as we roamed we realized it’s a strict Islamic country and we were told that there Muslims are even punished if they are caught eating food in day time during the month of Ramadan! They can carry food items to their homes but shouldn’t eat in open. There were even Islamic museum and one of the largest bird watches in Asia but due to time constraint we couldn’t stop by L

Our next stop was the world famous KL tower or Telecommunication tower which is the seventh tallest tower in the world used for

broadcast purposes with an observation deck on the top most floor and a floating restaurant. The tower also acts as the Islamic falak observatory to observe the crescent moon which marks the beginning of Muslim month of Ramadhan.(go to wiki for more). The tallest telecom tower is Tokyo sky tree in Japan.

We went to the top most floor of the tower from where we had amazing views of the KL city. Petronus towers were also visible from the windows of the KL Tower

We had lunch in Little India where there were shops selling clothes from Mumbai, Kerala etc. We had some south Indian food which tasted lousy! Next stop was obviously Petronus/twin towers .The night view of Petronus towers is extremely beautiful. There are offices inside and you are not allowed to go in. Tower 1 has Petronus offices and Tower 2 is given for lease to other offices like Accenture, Mc Kinsey etc . It was tallest building in the world from 1998 to 2004 till it was surpassed by Taipei-101 in China but they remain the tallest twin towers so far. Both towers are connected by Sky Bridge and it’s an amazing sight to watch in the night where the zenith of the towers shine like twin stars competing with the sky!

That night we picked up courage and tasted veg noodles full of vinegar in China town. They were edible but the surrounding crab and frog dishes were not so welcoming. Hence we finished the dinner asap and enjoyed the rain outside. Being a tropical country there is sun as well as a daily evening drizzle in Malaysia. The two day stay was enjoyable with occasional drizzle , little India (which almost gave the feel of home :)) , China town, visiting all the tall towers, knowing the history of the country etc. One more thing is hibiscus is national flower of Malaysia and we could see lampposts in the shape of hibiscus almost everywhere and you can see the hibiscus flower on the currency note too (check in the image above)!The 2 day stayal was noteworthy if we keep aside the food and the whiffs or sight of the food ! We thought may be they will react in a similar way when they come across Indian spicy food.:)

The next day we packed and were all set to go to “Genting Highlands” .Its my most fav place in the whole trip . On the way we also visited “Batu” caves which is to the north of KL city where there is a Hindu shrine of lord Muruga. It acts as a focus of Hindu festival Thaipusam which was happening when we visited Malaysia . You can witness many Indians there , mostly Tamilians and it’s a famous pilgrimage site for Hindus all over the world. While climbing the steps to go inside the cave you will come across many ferocious monkeys scaring you and trying to snatch things from you .I almost ran on the steps to escape from all the mischievous monkeys! Outside there is 140ft worlds largest lord Muruga’s golden statue , a golden shrine and inside the caves also there is a shrine.

If you travel further north you will reach Genting highland-resorts with a Theme park also called as Genting Island which is more like a man made island developed to attract the tourists! As we were taking many hair pin bends and were about to reach Genting highland there was a remarkable drop in temperature and we didn’t feel like having the local cold drink Kickapoo which we bought at Batu caves as it was burning hot there. We felt as if season changed from summer to winter in minutes and we started groping our bags for sweaters and shawlsJ

The main attraction of Genting is The First World hotel which held its place in the Guinness records as the worlds largest hotel in 2005 . it was largest hotel till 2008 when The Palazzo of Los vegas became worlds largest hotel. Now The first world hotel is the 4^th largest.

Nevertheless if you go to Genting you have to stay here in this place which is like a township full of entertainment and fun. We thought of going for foot massage and fish pedicure but we felt we had no time and to be honest we didn’t feel like spending a lot on it ;)

Below the hotel is a 500,000 sq ft (46,000 m2) plaza called the First World Plaza, housing shopping malls, arcades, foot outlets, Starworld Casino, and the Genting Indoor Theme Park. It has a mini stage for weekly performances (such as magic and music shows) at Time Squares, surrounded by a replica of the Statue of Liberty and an Oscar statue. Other attractions include the Watersplash Pool (an indoor water theme park for children), Genting Sky Venture (Asia's first free fall simulator) and a Cineplex.The colorful building below is the first world hotel and as it was too foggy nothing was visible from our room which was in 20^th floor!

We visited Robert Ripley’s Believe it or not museum and also scary house which was lot fun! As in any scary house there were only people who were scaring each other and it’s needless to say Ripley’s was very interesting .It was fun to know some facts, face some illusions and solve puzzles , capture our shadows , feel dizzy inside a room as it was slant and many more. We spent long time there.

Genting sky way (Cable car ride) was good and theme park was extremely interesting to people who want to enjoy all the rides where as I was just spending my time shooting here and there and observing people who were having food the odor of which was so unbearable to me that I had to cover my head and nose with my scarf. I saw people eating some thing called herbal egg a boiled egg dipped in brown solution packed in a plastic bag!! Well I don’t want to mention the smell of it J

We were very relieved when we found a north Indian food outlet in a vacant un-occupied corner among all Chinese, Thai food outlets. I couldn’t bear the smell any longer so we almost ran to that outlet and ordered some biryani and pakodas and satisfied our eyes , nose and stomach even if the food was not so great! After a half-hr to 1 hr stroll in and around the hotel we came back to room and packed our bags as we had a bus the next morning to Singapore!!Will detail the Singapore trip in another post as already the post is too longJ

Genting highland was awake even after midnight !

Our memories from Malaysia are firm and wide awake even now. All in all a historic country populated by very kind people, amazing traditional silk- ware , attractive colorful flowers mostly orchids, scarfs and pretty women wearing the baju kurung, a knee-length blouse worn over a long skirt. The add-on during our trip was Chinese newyear which made Kualalumpur even more bright with beautifully decorated lights, lamps and dragons (This time Chinese newyear is the year of black dragon)

Few words I learnt from the Malay language are

Negara- National

Keluar – Exit

Kedai – Shop

Maaf- sorry

kiblah (also an arabic word) - Orientation or direction of Mecca

terima kasih – Thanks!

A word of advice ( Very Imp) : Do carry lot of fast food along with you if you go to malaysia (It can range from biscuits to fruits:))

That’s all for now friends and terima kasih for reading my post !!

Please visit the link http://www.mahindraxuv500.com/

This post is submitted for a competition "Incredible-Stories" by Indiblogger in association with "Mahindra"

My Post is at "Tour to Malaysia" Do visit and vote/post your comments if you like it:) Hope you enjoyed reading this!:)

Kahaani- My Take!!

“KAHAANi” the title itself is so apt for the movie! Last night after watching the movie I was so relieved that I didn’t waste my money and finally went to a good movie after watching so much of trash in Hindi cinema. It’s a thriller movie so not going to leak any spoilers here, but I am tempted to mention just few names and few scenes which will for sure not spoil the movie watch. Kahaani is all about Vidya Bagchi who comes to India from London in search of her missing husband who visits Kolkata on some official assignment and suddenly disappears! The story oscillates between Arnab Bagchi and Milan Damji. The plot, twists and turns in the movie are so neat that there is no loop hole anywhere in the story. You will not doubt the integrity of the story till almost the end of the movie. As the movie is about to end audience will be clean bowled when the facts are unfolded. Vidya is so damn natural. Of course there is no need to mention this as she is an actress who should by now get used to bagging as many awards as possible. I became a fan of her after watching “The Dirty picture”. Yet again a proof being a part of a Khanna/Kapoor/Khan family or having good looks and zero size are not needed to sustain in Bollywood. We all know how many “poor-ka-poors” taste sour grapes as and when their movies get released! Anyway I don’t want to debate on benefits and losses of being a part of cine family! It can wait as now we are talking about the attention gripping movie Kahaani which is already declared a hit and is houseful on first Sunday adter release even in abroad! The plus points of the movie are

Ø Showing Kolkata, the nativity and the localities so amazingly and am so thankful to the story writer and the director who did not make it a Delhi/ Mumbai based routine flick.

Ø Vidya as a pregnant lady carried herself so naturally and her struggle to find her husband even in that condition is shown in an ultra-ambitious and chivalrous way!

Ø The suspense bits were portrayed so damn nicely that even the sharpest of the brains will not be able to guess who the culprit is and who is doing what till almost the end of the movie.

Ø The teeny weenie light moments in the movie are also worth mentioning like when Vidya hacks the system and says she does it in her spare time the sub inspector Rana asks her “You remember you are talking to a policevman right ?:)” , the child who acts as “running hot water supplier” and also the momentary humorous face of the dangerous serial killer Bob Biswas is funny.

Ø Every actor did his job rightly! I said “rightly” as there was no major blunder worth mentioning in the whole plot of the movie.

Ø Amitabh’s singing in the background even if it’s for a shorter stint. (Ekhla chalo re!)The song even if I don’t understand Bengali is soothing, rings in your heart and blended well with what’s happening in the movie at that moment both the Durga pooja and a sorrowful Vidya. Usha uthup’s voice is sexy for the sexy Kolkata song! Aami shotti bolchi!

Ø A literary brain like Advaita behind the screen who got this brilliant idea of “Kahaani” . Many thanks and best wishes to her at this huge success

Ø Well there are not many minuses to mention in the movie. The only thing which I felt was not much in demand for the movie which was already drilling the audience’s brain was the romance created between Rana and Vidya which he imagines for few seconds. But I didn’t mind much as its just for few seconds and it just vanishes in the seriousness of the movie!

When Vidya wears the traditional red and white Durga pooja Saree I remembered Vidya Balan of Parineeta and again was amazed to see how neatly she carries herself in any native look. All the actors shown in Kolkata were like true Bengalis which reinforced the movie.

Want to watch many more such thriller movies in Bollywood or movies which really have a “kahaani” in them and I would really love to see many more actresses doing such different roles which would be delightful to watch and which really will attract audience to the theatres in the very first week rather than making them go buy the pirated DVD!

All in all Kahaani is a suspense thriller, so don’t delay watching it. Go with friends/ family/ cousins or even alone. You will enjoy with anyone or none. Kahaani is not a timepass pop-corn movie. It’s a movie where you will purchase pop-corn but for sure forget munching them for long as you will be immersed in the story / sequential events of the movie and this time I don’t want to even mention any Hollywood flick with which its matching-matching as there is absolutely no need of it. It has already got raving reviews and I am just trying to add little more icing on the cake. The whole cast and crew can happily celebrate the success!

Last but not the least I love you Vidya/ Bidda Bagchi J and hats off to Sujoy Gosh and Advaita kala. You inspire all the budding writers and ya I just loved the poster below that shows Vidya and Durga maa and the buzzing Kolkata behind !!

My rating : 4.5/5

PS: Wanted to post it in the very first week but some how forgot!

By

Afshan

I-Hate "Girls"

I Hate girls!!

As soon as I read the topic by Indiblogger in association with “Stayfree” and also as it mentioned "This women’s day be the voice of the change” I remembered many women who bump in to me daily and who don’t inspire me at all and make me feel that am lot better than many J Well on a lighter note to feel high and good I think you need such people around.

Do grab a coffee mug before U start as it’s a bit long;)

Well I couldn’t think of a better title. I hate some girls. It would be an understatement if I use “some”. Actually I hate too many girls. Am taking the privilege to modify Abraham Lincoln’s statement here: “You can like some girls all the time. You can like all the girls for some time but YOU CAN NEVER like all girls all the time”

Original one is : “You can fool some men all the time. You can fool all the men for some time but you can never fool all the men all the time”. Correct me if am wrong and Merlin’s beard I see a deep connection between the original and the demolished statement by me J Enough of playing around the proverbs and statements .Now I want to come straight to the point -> Why I hate too many girls? The intense basic instincts of some girls and also the power to shower them so instantly that you wonder if the reflexes of spinal cord are slower than this! This is what makes me wriggle away from them! Some illustrations are listed below.

Scene-1

Girls Rest Room

Morning 9 0’clock (Not the busiest hour of the office I can say!). I enter the rest room. Everyone needs a space in front of the huge horizontal mirror to comb their messy hair / not to look worn out early in the morning / to touch up their faces. Some carry a huge bag which contains moisturiser/ Mascara / eyeliner/ Foundation/ Lip-gloss and many more things. Its not a crime to carry what all they want to but spending more than 15-20min in front of a mirror where everyone has the right to check their image at least once is definitely a punishable crime. Some have the sense to at least give way to you for a while so that you set your messy plait or wash your face once. It’s really generous of them. I LIKE THEM. I mean it as they stopped mid-way as they know they need more time, but I HATE people who scan you and don’t budge from their positions. I am sure the frisking done in theatres and at airports is much better and it’s not an exaggeration if I say a boys stare is much more better than that of a girls deep stare! I feel so lethargic when a girl stares. She will start scanning you, if possible you in real or else your image in the mirror. She will start with your hair. Check if it is long / thick / thin and again give a final glance. You will try hard to ignore her but you can’t and you glare. She then looks back at the mirror as if she didn’t notice anything. She will again slowly look back at your image. Now she is probably checking your figure. If she is slim / zero size she will pass a satisfied smirk at her image and happily applies lip gloss. If she has all extra tiers and she is a couch potato who never leaves the cubicle and only gets-up from the seat when she finishes her 8hrs of work then she makes a grumpy face and looks at you as if she will serial kill you next and then wash her face in rage with all might and clean the face roughly with tissue paper. I feel like giving a free advice of not cleaning the face so roughly that too in winter but I just wonder what did I do early in the morning to her? I continue combing my hair. She continues her stare from tip-toe and after the final frisk she leaves. I definitely am not responsible for the tiers and I definitely did not apply fevicol to her chair

I sigh and when the coast is clear, when there is pin drop silence I feel victorious!!

WOW nobody else in the rest room. It’s my time now! Ye ye ye . I almost sing. Wash my face. I whistle (a mock one as I can’t whistle).

Then all my fears engulf me. There is a creek, a thunder. It’s like a dark cloud surrounded me.

Somebody opened the door with a huge hand bag dangling from her shoulder :-(. I silently leave!

Scene -2

At the bag checking- Main gate

Everybody is always in a hurry at the bag checking. All have come to office to work if I keep aside who really is busy. Some might be having a status call. Some might simply want to go grab that bread omelet in FC and some want to start their bench for the day ASAP. Whatever might be the reason, all are in rush. A rush like never before. It’s an everyday scenario with most of the people in office especially girls!

A girl came running to the conveyer belt or whatever it is called. I was already there. She was chit-chatting in the phone happily but still wanted to be the first to put her bag in the scanner (I guess scanner is the appropriate word!)and jump the queue and she wanted to do all this in midst of giggles and a loud noisy chatter! She pushed me with elbow when I was about to put the bag in to the scanner and before I winked whoosh, her bags/ covers were ahead of mine inside the scanner. I glared at her but it was in vain as she was ahead of me too and chatting away in all glory! I was muttering all possible curses under my breath and hoping the scanner springs to life and eats her luggage and then gives me back my bag decorated with a gold medal and rose bouquet!

Putting a full stop to my crazy thoughts I went to the turnstile as I wanted to be the first one to take the bag, so ran fast to another machine and went to the scanner.

But holy cow the bags were stuck L!!

Finally when all her baggage came out she was there wearing a pretty smile , still talking in phone collected all the bags and I with an idiotic face was waiting for my turn and ran as there were only 5min left for the status call !

I hate many such cute girls who jump the queues and that too very gently and cutely!

Scene-3

Good lord Everywhere!!

Whoever told Ignorance is bliss I want him/her to rethink as it’s an utter flaw! (I apologize if it’s some legend but I really felt so taken the present circumstances)! Coz One’s ignorance can be pain in ass many a times. The ignorance some girls act!!! Bah. God must save all men and of course sensible women from those GIRLS!

I have come across too many posts lately on FACEBOOK and also some on blogs which are too optimistic at times and sometimes too ignorant as if they are asking a genuine doubt and showing their innocent side to the whole world out there. But I think this optimism falls so heavy on my stomach that I feel like emptying two three Eno bottles to burp it out. How can a person be so optimistic and talk so much unholy crap! Sorry I for dumping the frustration but I needed an outlet. These days I see the teenagers and even primary school kids are getting addicted to FB/ any social networking site and I see their whole life/ thoughts on the walls/ windows / doors and everywhere

This scene 3 is dedicated to those baseless, senseless , unlaughable, never ending bulletin threads which start with what if sun stops rising in east to a silly enlightening poetry. Whoever can sneeze 2lines becomes a poet these days! FUN is much needed but I feel torture is not.

To my surprise these questions/doubts have too many Optiomentalistic replies too!! Either people have all the time in the world or there are too many Opti-Mes(pest)s with only few cynics like me. Who needs a little cleaning on the top most floor is still unclear to me!

I am thankful to the poor internet connection due to which am not logging in to FB much or checking the motivating fwd mails in detail! Please note that here I am saying about the category of people who are baseless and opt good for nothing ways to project themselves and stay glued to the computer hoping to get 100 likes on a positive status message or day dreaming that one fine day they would be leading a group with 100s of disciples

As a final word Yes I DO HATE GIRLS and a slight change here, I do hate the row of men who give the replies too just for the heck of it!

DO NOT FROWN that being a girl am saying so. There are few girls whom I really adore and there are many whom I hate more than anyone else. This post is for them! Even if I don’t know them personally I hate their acts / their responses/ on the whole what all they do!

I cannot drill their brains or poke/motivate/inspire them but as and when I wrote this my close knit group said if “THOSE” women read this they will definitely think twice before doing the same act. So as it is high time to raise voice and high time to change here I am with this post , glad that I have finished writing this and super glad that I am feeling very light after actually writingand extra glad that I don’t have to march on the roads to bring this change. Even if one person gets impacted by this article my mission is accomplished!

By the way I do love sensible women

There’s a saying:

“A confident and sensible woman will look beautiful and sexy no matter

whatever figure she has!"

This post is for the below competition which is by "Indiblogger" in association with "Stayfree". Click on the image below for the details on competition!!

Do vote if you like this/ share your views after reading.My Post is at "I-Hate girls"

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