Wednesday, February 20, 2008

The troublemaker

On the eve of my last day in Brighton, I sent a farewell note to all my colleagues at work and signed off with a Irish Blessing - " May good luck be a friend in whatever you do and may trouble be a stranger far away from you"
After a few hours, I got a reply from my manager " Madam, please have lunch with us tomorrow so that good luck stays with us and trouble goes away to India"

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Confusing names...

I: I got my tickets. I am travelling back home.
Dave: British Airways?
I:Jet Airways
Dave: Well I was sure it was on a Jet. What airline?
I: It is called Jet Airways :-)
Dave: Clever name

Sunday, February 10, 2008

My first encounter with Dinosaur !

I was enjoying the beautiful scenery of Pantagonia in South America and was amidst a group of paleontologists (Group of people who study the fossils to reveal ecologies of the past and human evolution). We came across the fossil of the largest animal to have ever walked the earth, 'Argentinosaur'. Even before I could imagine how huge the animal could have been , I saw it walking in front of me and before I realised it was walking straight towards me looking straight into my eyes !! Lord !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My heart skipped a beat ! or may be a couple of beats.. I wanted to scream out loud ! I found a kid beside me trying to touch the dinosaur that was walking towards me. I almost wanted to pull the kid's hand away from the huge giant ! I looked at my friend, Ashok, sitting beside me, for some help ! But all I could see was that he was quite thrilled and was just grinning at me. He seem to be having fun at the sight of me just about to be swallowed by the huge monster !!!! I turned and saw that the giant had now opened his mouth and was ready to swallow me ! I was so damn scared.. My fists tightly clasped.. Nobody around me seemed to be bothered..Tears trickled before I realised.. I closed my eyes and said a silent prayer. The scene changed ! :-) We were back in the desert where paleontologists were excavating something else.. It took me more than 5 minutes to recover and realise it was just a 3D show...I was thrilled.. I couldn't stop smiling at my self but tears just trickled down out of excitement...

This was my first encounter of dinosaur at an IMAX theatre ! :-)

For the first time, today I watched a 3D movie in an IMAX experience. Thanks to my friend, Ashok, the first experience was truly the best one because we watched it in the UK's biggest cinema screen at BFI (British Fil Institute) IMAX London Cinema Hall. The huge screen is more that 20 metres high and about 25 metres wide with a 11,600 watt digital surround-sound system. To make the most of the show, we decided to watch the 40 minutes movie called 'Dinosaurs: Giants of Pantagonia 3D'. We were seated almost at the center of the hall. Since I didn't have a clue of how the show would be and was very curious to see a 3D, I sat back and relaxed in my seat waiting for the show to start. At the start of the show, they showed a one minute trailer of sea monsters 3D movie. And the very first thing that appeared was a weird looking sea monster resembling a whale that was swimming towards me ! I sat upright ! and the next thing that happened was I was eaten up by it !(or rather, I felt so) Oh my ! I was shocked. The trailer came to an end and by now, I had a fairly good idea of what I would experience especially in a 3D show of Dinosaur..

We saw how 'Argentinosaur' came out of the egg and grew up to a full size HUGE MONSTER. As the monster walked, it crushed the huge stones on its way and I could see the stone pieces hitting my face. The show went on for about 40 minutes with many such nail biting experiences..

After the show, it took me couple of hours to get my heart beat back to normal....Truly an experience of a life time !

Since use of cameras was prohibited inside the theatre, I got some pictures from the BFI website itself to give you a glimpse of my experience..

Image 1: Argentinosaur just about to swallow me !

Image 2: Inside London BFI IMAX theatre

Image 3: London IMAX theatre structure from outside