Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

I had earlier seen 'Cirque du Soleil' when it came to Seattle Area. It was impressive and I would say it had good music and excellent presentation and superb execution. But coming out I somehow felt it was very monotonous and repetitive. All the acts were very similar. All required great skill and I was impressed but I was not as entertained as I expected to be. At that time I formed a image that perhaps in USA all circus are like this. The notion was not correct.

Last Saturday we went to see Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The circus shows were in Everett. This was the circus which I would say matched my mental image of "Circus" closely. It had all the elements that you would expect

1) Clowns (Joker)
2) Dancers
3) Animals (Elephants, Horses, Sheep, Goats, Tigers, Lamas and dogs)
4) Trapeze artists.

And above all Stunt show "Maut ka Kuan" (Globe of Death). This was really amazing 8 motorcycle in a enclosed globe going at full speed.

All the animal acts and Trapeze acts were also very good and impressive

I would rate Ringling Circus a 8.0 out of 10. I would say I was impressed and entertained. I think the obvious question is why 8.0? The reason is the clowns were not funny enough and lacked creativity.

Anyway I would recommend it over 'Cirque du Soleil' because it has more variety. Last but not the least it was at almost 1/3 price of 'Cirque du Soleil'

The only sore point was that as we were getting out, some one handed me pamphlet on animal cruelty and how Ringling was linked to it which left some bad taste.....

Prediction : Republican Candidates for 2008 election

The time has come to make a prediction. Today on 9th day of Feb I Aditya Kapoor predict that John McCain would be Republican Candidate for President of USA. But this is not a important prediction. The more important prediction is that Mike Huckabee would be Republican candidate for Vice President.

Although I wish it was Mitt Romney was candidate for Presidential candidate. He is smart and I believe he would have been a better President.

Update on 09/09/2008
I was wrong... :)

Happy New Year : Kal aur "Kal"

Thanks a lot to Praveen for writing and sending such a beautiful poem. Thanks to him for permitting me to post it on my blog.

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For reading convenience:
Kal means Yesterday
“kal“ means Tomorrow
*****************************************************

Kal ki baatein beet gayi Kal
Kal ke aage bhi hai ek “kal“
“kal“ naa Kal pe zaaya karna
“kal“ le liye bas aage badhna

Kal hai yaadon ki parchayi
“kal“ hai suraj ki angdai
Kal ke liye aansoon kyun bahaane
“kal“ mein chhupe kitne hi khazaane

Kal jo hua, us par kya bas hai
“kal“ mein jeevan ka sukh ras hai
Kal ko na sambhav phir laana
“kal“ hai tere haath sajaana

Kal hai kahaani balidaanon ki
“kal“ hai gaatha nirmaanon ki
Kal hai ek thaka musaafir
“kal“ chhoo lena chahe himgir

Par Kal hai guruon ki vaani
Aur “kal“ hai chanchal agyaani
Kal hai jaise shaant sarovar
Pade jo patthar, leher banaye
“kal“ hai kal-kal behta jharna
Ho unmath bas badhta jaaye

Samay par swayam ko setu banao
Kal aur “kal“ ko aaj milaao
Baith ke “kal“ mein, Kal ko vichaaro
Kal se seekh ke, “kal“ ko sawaaro

Happy new year!!!!!

Songs for Children: Thanks You Tube

Jungle Book Title Song : Abhimanyu is mad about this video.



Ek Chidiya Anek Chidiya



Lakadi Ki Kathi



Masterjee Ki Agayee Chithi: A very nice song, but not very famous

I am impressed! Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Today I am going to start the new series called I am impressed. This series would contain some information about the things or the software's that impressed me.

So what am I impressed by today? I have impressed by this amazing piece of software called Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a voice recognition software by a company called Nuance software. I have previously tried to use voice recognition software by Microsoft but was not impressed, in fact I must say I was disappointed by its performance.

I am using version 9.5 of Dragon NaturallySpeaking and it seems pretty accurate . This blog has been written with Dragon NaturallySpeaking and I haven't typed even a single word. What is more amazing about the software is that it allows for various accents. A user can choose the following type of accents: American, UK, Southeast Asian, Australian and Indian. It is only because I was able to choose the Indian accent that it is working so well.

The amount of time that it takes to dictate to the software is significantly less than the amount of time it would have taken me to type it. The people who know me, know that I am not very good at typing. Moreover recently I have been suffering with accute pain in my right arm. A voice recognition software like the one I am using helps a person like me to get some rest to the arm without decreasing the productivity.

I part with Dragon NaturallySpeaking at best buy for $99 only. It also needed a good headset and I'm using Plantronics gaming headset which was bought for dollars 50.

It looks like the future of voice recognition is here!

Gujrat Exposed: Is this why we call ourselves Human

Are these people human? Are they followers of Ram or Ravana. Perhaps even Ravana would be ashamed of these people.

See the videos below.












To read more about it Click Here

This is the worst face of humanity. I hope people who did this are punished with a death sentence.

Aditya

Who is behind bomb blast in Benazir's convoy?

Today was another sad day with over 100 people killed in bomb blasts that rocked Benazir's convoy. This seems to be decade of terrorism. Being a Indian I know how painful these acts of terrorism are. It seems however that terrorism is now affecting the nations who used to export it. This reminds me of old saying "Jo dusre ke liye kabr kohdtaa hain, who khud he us mein girtaa hian". I should here make it very clear that I condemn any act of terrorism no matter where it occurs.

Today's incident got me thinking who would be behind these bomb blasts? My suspects are

• Mushraff
• Taliban and Al Queda
• Nawaz Sharif
• Benazir herself

Mushraff : He would like to create circumstances where he can declare emergency and gain more powers. A bomb blast like this could be used as excuse.

Taliban and Al Queda: They declare their power and let politician know what they can do.

Nawaz Sharif: She is her main opponent

Benazir: She seems to gain most by way of sympathy and show that she is returning to Pakistan inspite of all the dangers.

I don't know who it is but all appear to gain from it. The only looser is common man.