Do Svidaniyan (Russian for Good Bye)

Yes, it inspired a sweet little movie called 'Dasvidaniyan' in Hindi. A movie with the protagonist (of course a loser so far in his life) tries to live his life once he gets know that he is not going to live for a long time. Many such movies have come till date, but this one deserves a mention.

This movie is special just because of its simplicity, and a very natural treatment of the story. With no overload of drama/melodrama and with no ensemble of big stars, the director has made sure that the story gets narrated in a very light manner. Yet he brings out super performances from its characters. The movie doesn't become dull or boring anywhere, and does not get into any preaching mode. A story that had the potential to become heavy has been successfully kept light and warm. 

The performances of protagonist Vinay Pathak, and protagonist's mother 'Sarita Joshi' have been very natural and effective in the entire scheme of things. Go and watch it for yourself if you haven't watched it till now.

Andha-dhoondh Strike

Have you ever played carrom board?

Have you ever tried taking a particular coin (say the Queen, or the Queen cover), and found that you are never ever able to take that particular coin. For e.g., you may be successful in all your attempts to take the Queen, but all these times you'll find that you somehow mess up with the Queen cover coin (only for that Queen coin to come on board again!!).

This happens to you, say, n number of times, and there you are frustrated to the core. And then you say, that enough is enough, and you get into a 'clear-all'/'re-arrange all' type of mentality where you just take the striker coin and make a very random and arbitrary, yet a very powerful strike that will re-arrange all the coins that are on the board currently. You might just have made a strike with your eyes closed and with all the power that you could have mustered at that time. You might have taken a lot of your frustration out at that time. That is called an Andha-dhoondh strike.

The strike would have been so forceful that some coins will go into pockets (much to your chagrin, most of those coins will be of your opponent), some will fly out of the board, some coins near the pockets will be nowhere near the playing zone, some coins in the difficult playing zone will come near the pockets, etc.

Depending on your luck, you'll find the coins re-arranged in a manner suited to you or your opponent. But most of the time, it will provide equal opportunity for you both to start all over again. Even if you are not in a good position after that, you will find a sadistic pleasure of being a destructor, and will at least seek solace from the impact that your destructive act had on the game.

Have you ever tried something similar in your real-life actions (other than on the carrom board)? How many times have you done such a thing? How many times have you found yourself with viable options after you have done such a thing?

Klueless

One of the best online games that I've ever played so far in my life. Many similar games have been in existence, but still I like this one more.

Even more coz it originated from my Alma Mater. You can see it evolve over these years. To try it yourself, here are the links:
4th Edition (2008):
http://www.iimi-iris.com/iris-2008/klueless/

3rd Edition (2007):
http://www.iimi-iris.com/iris-2007/irising/klueless3/

2nd Edition (2006):
http://www.iimi-iris.com/iris-2006/irising/klueless/index.asp

1st Edition (2005):
http://www.iimi-iris.com/iris/irising/klueLESS/

Enjoy!!