- Latest Popular Stories, Instablogs Community by Somyamathur

Preity Zinta: The ditto-effect

Somya — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:48:19 +0000

Do you know what is DÃ©jÃ vu ? It is something that I tell myself everytime I see Preity Zinta in the limelight these days. From Cannes to the vogue cover, fashion weeks to Page 3 parties, Miss Zinta has made some terrible faux pas across all these situations with the ditto-effect! Imitating ensembles without any alterations straight out of national and international runways is something that one doesn’t associate with Zinta, otherwise known to be a very stylish celebrity. As an ambassaddress of the Chopard Jewelry in Cannes, Zinta looked cut-copied-paste in terms of both jewelry and dress! The following pictures will substantiate my point and are simple tell-tale signs of a women who’s too busy with cricket to concentrate on fashion!

Via: Highheelconfidential

There is something about size zero

Somya — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:40:32 +0000

But, what is a size zero? Lords are praising this wonder that is size zero but it took me immense googling to find out what exactly after all is this famous size zero?? According to European parameters, having a size zero means a body frame bordering somewhere around 31-23-32 inches. Basically, what it implies is that a woman should comfortably slip into a pair of 22-inch waist jeans! Comfortable? I think most Indian women stop fitting into 22-inch waist pair of jeans after the age of 12!
Not only is it a question of beauty but of health, how healthy do you think is it for a woman to have that kind of a waist? She would have to cut down not only on fat intake but food altogether to achieve such an over-the-top ambition and expose herself to old age problems like osteoporosis and not to forget, the major psychological and fatal physiological consequences of Anorexia! In the year 2006, a model from Uruguay named Luisel Ramos was found dead soon after stepping down the ramp. She was anorexic and was found to have died of a heart attack.
People abroad have almost given up on the El Dorado that size zero is but back home Bebo has started flaunting it with her 48-kg dainty body! How much of this becomes a fad, only time will tell.

Image credit: Celebflicker

Shomu Mukherjee passes away

Somya — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:34:56 +0000

A classic film-maker of predominantly the 70s but went onto undertake ventures like Pathar Ke Insan and Sangdil Sanam till the 90s, Shomu Mukherjee, better known as Kajol’s father expired on Thursday following a massive heart-attack. At the age of 65, he is survived by his wife, Tanuja and two daughters, Kajol and Tanisha.
Such a happening just a day before Kajol’s husband, Ajay Devgan’s, directorial debut, U me aur hum is nothing short of a shock for the family. The funeral took place at the santacruz crematorium at 1400 hrs.

Aishwarya Rai's plans for Robot gone kaput?

Somya — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:27:10 +0000

Looks like ex-Miss world and Missus Bachchan is having a tough time trying to strike a balance between her personal and professional life. Having made her involvement in the South Indian director’s piece de resistance, Robot public, she is no longer a part of this project. She is likely to be replaced by Deepika Padukone if grapevine is to be believed. The age-old excuse of “dates” and time management is held as a reason for the same.

Chetan Bhagat and the three mistakes of his life

Somya — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:02:12 +0000

Hats off to the writer with such a gusto for life! Embracing dark themes and presenting them with a bollywood twist, under the garb of comedy and making them lessons that we’d like to learn, Chetan Bhagat is exceptional! A Robin Sharma, except he is interesting, an Arundhati Roy, concern for social issues without the boredom and like Salman Rushdie owing to the flair for effortless writing, Chetan Bhagat is read by all and what is truly rare is the fact that he is understood by all! Many a times we end up reading 400 pages only to close the book and think, “Thank god it’s over!” With Bhagat right here one thinks, “Aw man! It’s over already?” Such is the charisma and the finesse of this writer.
His first two masterpieces are all set to turn into motion pictures under directors like Rajkumar Hirani (Of munnabhai fame) with actors like Amir Khan, Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif.
After his 2004 and 2005 literary hits like 5-point someone and One night at a call centre, Bhagat is all set to gift his readers “Three mistakes of my life” in July 2008. I can hardly wait for this masterpiece to take my heart away, only this time it is based on something more serious and controversial. Related to the period after the bloody sectarian riots of 2002 in Gujarat this novel will address religion, another perplexing issue in India in the list of many, that the Indian youth faces today. It’s about the youth not being able to relate to the extreme values of the preceding generations with the trademark Chetan Bhagat bollywood twist and drama and impeccable Moliere-like satirical comedy! Rumours have it that the cover page of this novel will be painted by none other than the Mumbai-meets-Manhattan accented Salman Khan!
Bring it on Bhagat, we truly are your Bhagats (worshippers)! :)

Image credit: Hindu

A hard hitting truth - Indians lack soft skills

Somya — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:12:24 +0000

The burgeoning Indian economy has its own set of backbones like IT Services, ITeS, retail, hospitality, travel, and financial services but definitely threatens these strengths what we term nowadays as, Soft Skill Crisis in India.

Studies by Stanford Research Institute and the Carnegie Mellon Foundation among Fortune 500 CEOs found that 75% of long term job success depended on people skills and only 25% on technical skills. If this were to be true then the Indian talent pool shall suffer a setback in terms of climbing up the heirarchy in any international organization.
Noted academic Prof. Henry Mintzberg while speaking on the importance of soft skills for MBAs, refers to the crucial “soft” skills - leadership, teamwork, communication, and the ability to think outside the box of a discipline - that separate the best from the rest in the management world. A simple glance at this text is enough to realize that if Indians but in fact lack in these qualities, then it is quite a serious threat to all the contemporary achievements in technical fields.

Image credit: Targetgenx

April 1 - It's a beauty-fool day !

Somya — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:38:18 +0000

Keep it alive people ! April is here. A month that starts with a burst of laughter, pranks and insanity that modern day is either devoid of totally or has too much of it! It’s a day to strike a balance, remember the friends, call them, tell them lies and get away with it, it could not get more perfect than this.

Though the 1st of April appears to have been observed as a general festival in Great Britain in antiquity, it was apparently not until the beginning of the 18th century that the making of April-fools was a common custom. In Scotland the custom was known as “hunting the gowk,” i.e. the cuckoo, and April-fools were “April-gowks,” the cuckoo being a term of contempt, as it is in many countries.

This is the day when media houses, news and radio channels are allowed to spread false rumours and create prank stunts, which believe you me they do anyway all through the year, but hey! legal support just adds to the fun. For an entire fun filled reading session on this April 1, 2008, click on the source.

Via: Wikipedia

Aishwarya Rai's passport leaks over the internet

Somya — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:18:13 +0000

Heights of invasion of privacy met our eyes when this extremely personal and cofidential document was leaked all over the internet, the person involved was none other than the magnet to controversy and always in the news, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. She was shocked to hear about the incident and has not been able to make sense of how exactly it happened. This was clearly a scanned copy of March 2006 as it ‘Rai’ as her last name. The entire family is bothered about such personal invasions and why not? This is definitely not a joke and it is hard-hitting that not even celebrity security is able to screen out such drastic and stalking stunts.

Via: Apnanukkad

Murphy's Law - If anything can go wrong, it will

Somya — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:21:57 +0000

Now now now! Minus all the technicality, in simple words murphy’s law implies that when your bread slips from your hand, it will fall buttered side down, when you are watching TV, your parents will walk in on you watching something frown-able! When you go out somewhere looking like trash you are sure to bump into someone important and when you are looking your stunning best, no one will know where to find you. Just this one day when you forgot to take an umbrella, hailstorms hit the town and as soon as you set out for your hot date that you have been looking forward to since ages, your car has a breakdown and then, so do you and your plans of having the best time ever.

Murphy’s Law (”If anything can go wrong, it will”) was born at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949 at North Base. It was named after Capt. Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on Air Force Project MX981, (a project) designed to see how much sudden deceleration a person can stand in a crash. One day, after finding that a transducer was wired wrong, he cursed the technician responsible and said, “If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it.”

I am sure we have all been smitten by the Murphyever (Murphy fever), so let’s share the funniest ones, after all comedy is nothing but tragedy plus time!?

Source: Murphy’s-law

Money can buy happiness - If you spend it on others

Somya — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:50:29 +0000

The never ending debate between the psychologists and economists is definitely not nearing its end with various corollaries and offshoots becoming more visible. Can money, after all, buy happiness? The hunt for fat packages, prospective groom’s salary being more important than this potency and Vogue’s lifestyle hitting the Indian scene, could it after all be able to get an ounce of extra happiness out of money? Apparently, yes.

That’s the conclusion of a study appearing in the March 21 issue of Science. It found that spending on others brings people greater satisfaction than buying things for themselves. What’s more? Most people seemed unaware of this hidden key to happiness, the researchers said. “It’s tied to ‘pro-social’ spending,” said Elizabeth Dunn, lead author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

So the next time you go out shopping with the longest list of necessities or unnecessaries for yourself, make sure to drop an item or two for your loved ones, it might just work as endorphins! Money can after all release feel-good hormones, all the more reason for the world to go more mercenary but at the same time more giving, quite a paradox, isn’t it?

Via: Yahoo
Image Credit - Cartoonstock