Thursday, November 19, 2009

Drying your Laundry

Why should there so much fuss about where one dries their laundry? While the americans and the west are waking up to this, we in India are slowly adding electric driers to our home appliance list.


Friday, November 13, 2009

Klueless5

Just finished playing. This is my first 'live' experience, where i started playing as soon as it was announced on Nov 5th. I wish i had devoted more time (what the hell !!). Well, so did many others who played. But i lost 24hrs flying from Chennai to DC, and then when i realized that 30 was not the magic number, lethargy set in at 31, and i was doing about 1 or 2 levels a day. I also thought i missed the HOF (Hall of Fame), and so took it even more easier. But soon realized that the HOF will have 250+, and i think i may make it (yeah right, there are already 247 in there, right now!).

Anyway, i hope to post my experience and my version of the klues to the different levels soon. Not now, since the game is still running, and moderators are helping the million cattle attempting to cross the winning post. I consider myself lucky, as i believe i made it under 300, maybe even in the under 250-260 position. A little more dedication and maybe i could have gloated over my name in the list. There is always a next time.

One sour note though. Last year, after crossing 30, the gamekeepers made the players sweat a bit to solve an extra puzzle before allowing entry to the HOF. This year they added 8 more levels to the actual game. I think that idea was stupid. The game is tough, it requires, quite a bit of lateral thinking, yahoo and wiki searching, and more importantly, inherent ability to connect two or more disparate thought points. So, while there is no rule that say, only 30 levels etc, the last 4 had only 30. We the players have come to accept that as a standard now. So when you change these rules, people are going to be upset. If it were facebook or yahoo, they would be more appreciative of user feedback. Now, klueless is a game, am not sure how much of an impact this would make on game wardens.

But due credit is due to them. It still was a fantastic experience. Klues for Level 1-19 and Level 20-38.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Amar Chitra Katha

A few weeks back, i decided to make the leap and place an order. An order, i wanted to do since i was about 10 years old. To buy the entire collection of Amar Chitra Katha books. I have the whole set that is in circulation today, thats about 255 books.



There are a total of 439 ACK titles, of which only 255 are in print. The current complete set includes 248 Amar Chitra Katha titles and 7 special issues. I have copied the list from the ACK site, and presented them below:

Current Titles:
A Bag of Gold Coins, Abhimanyu, Adi Shankara, Ajatashatru, Akbar, Amar Singh Rathor, Amrapali, Anand Math, Ancestors of Rama, Andhaka, Angulimala, Aniruddha, Aruni and Uttanka, Ashoka, Ashwini Kumar, Ayyappan
Babasaheb Ambedkar, Bagha Jatin, Bahubali, Bajirao, Baladitya and Yashodharma, Banda Bahadur, Bappa Rawal, Basaveshwara, Battle of Wits, Beni Madho & Pir Ali, Bhagat Singh, Bheema and Hanuman, Bheeshma, Bikal the Terrible, Bimbisara, Birbal the Clever, Birbal the Genius, Birbal the Inimitable, Birbal the Just, Birbal the Wise, Birbal the Witty, Birbal to the Rescue, Buddha
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Chanakya, Chand Bibi, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Chandragupta Maurya, Chandrahasa, Chandralalat, Chokha Mela
Dasharatha, Dayananda, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, Devi Choudhurani, Dhruva and Ashtavakra, Draupadi, Drona, Durgadas
Elephanta, Ellora Caves - The Glory of the Rashtrakootas
Fa-Hien, Friends and Foes: Animal Tales From The Mahabharata
Gandhari, Ganesha, Ganga, Garuda, Ghanshyamdas Birla, Ghatotkacha, Gopal and the Cowherd, Gopal the Jester, Guru Arjan, Guru Gobind Singh, Guru Nanak, Guru Tegh Bahadur
Hanuman, Hanuman to the Rescue, Harischandra, Harsha, Hitopadesha: Choice of Friends, Hitopadesha: How Friends are parted, Hiuen Tsang
Indra and Shachi, Indra and Shibi
J R D Tata, Jagadis Chandra Bose, Jagannatha of Puri, Jahangir, Jallianwala Bagh, Jamsetji Tata, Jataka Tales: Bird Stories, Jataka Tales: Deer Stories, Jataka Tales: Elephant Stories, Jataka Tales: Jackal Stories, Jataka Tales: Monkey Stories, Jataka Tales: Nandivishala, Jataka Tales: Stories of Courage, Jataka Tales: Stories of Wisdom, Jataka Tales: Tales of Misers, Jataka Tales: The Giant and the Dwarf, Jataka Tales: The Magic Chant, Jataka Tales: The Mouse Merchant, Jataka Tales: True Friends, Jawaharlal Nehru, Jayadratha, Jayaprakash Narayan, Jnaneshwar
Kabir, Kacha and Devayani, Kalidasa, Kalpana Chawla, Kannagi, Kapala Kundala, Karna, Karttikeya, Kesari the Flying Thief, King Kusha, King Shalivahana, Krishna, Krishna and Jarasandha, Krishna and Narakasura, Krishna and Rukmini, Krishna and Shishupala, Krishna and the False Vaasudeva, Krishnadeva Raya, Kumbhakarna, Kunwar Singh
Lachit Barphukan, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Lokamanya Tilak
Madhwacharya, Mahabharata, Mahavira, Mahiravana, Malavika, Mangal Pande, Megasthenes, Mirabai
Nachiketa and other stories, Nahusha, Nala Damayanti, Noor Jahan
Padmini, Panchatantra: Crows and Owls, Panchatantra: How the Jackel ate the Elephant, Panchatantra: The Brahmin and the Goat, Panchatantra: The Dullard and Other Stories, Panchatantra: The Greedy Mother-in-law, Panchatantra: The Jackal and the Wardrum, Panna and Hadi Rani, Paurava and Alexander, Prahlad, Prithviraj Chauhan
Rabindranath Tagore, Raja Bhoja, Raja Raja Chola, Ram Shastri, Rama, Raman of Tenali, Raman the Matchless Wit, Ramana Maharshi, Ramanuja, Rana Kumbha, Rana Pratap, Rana Sanga, Rani Abbakka, Rani Durgavati, Rani of Jhansi, Ranjit Singh, Rash Behari Bose, Ratnavali, Ravana Humbled
Sakshi Gopal, Samudra Gupta, Sati and Shiva, Savitri, Sea Route To India, Shah Jahan, Shakuntala, Shankar Dev, Sher Shah, Shiva Parvati, Shivaji, Shrenik - Jain Tales, Soordas, Sri Ramakrishna, Subhas Chandra Bose, Subramania Bharati, Sudama, Sultana Razia, Surya, Swami Chinmayananda
Tales from the Upanishads, Tales of Arjuna, Tales of Balarama, Tales of Durga, Tales of Maryada Rama, Tales of Narada, Tales of Sai Baba, Tales of Shiva, Tales of Shivaji, Tales of Vishnu, Tales of Yudhisthira, Tanaji, Tansen, The Acrobat and Other Buddhist Tales, The Adventures of Agad Datta, The Adventures of Baddu and Chhotu, The Celestial Necklace, The Churning of the Ocean, The Cowherd of Alawi, The Deadly Feast, The Fearless Boy and other Buddhist Tales, The Fool's Disciples, The Gita, The Golden Mongoose, The Hidden Treasure - A Jataka Tale, The Historic City of Delhi, The Learned Pandit, The Legend Of Lalitaditya, The Lord of Lanka, The Magic Grove, The Pandava Princes, The Pandavas in Hiding, The Pandit and the Milkmaid, The Priceless Gem, The Prince and The Magician, The Queen's Necklace, The Rani Of Kittur, The Sons of Rama, The Symantaka Gem, The Tiger and the Woodpecker, The Tiger-Eater, Tipu Sultan, Tripura, Tulsidas
Udayana, Uloopi, Urvashi
Vali, Vasantasena, Vasavadatta, Veer Hammir, Veer Savarkar, Velu Thampi, Vidyasagar, Vikramaditya, Vikramaditya's Throne, Vishwamitra, Vivekananda
Yayati
Zarathushtra,

Special Issues:
Mahatma Ghandhi, Valmiki's Ramayana, Dasha Avatar, Jesus Christ, Bhagawat - The Krishna Avatar, Mahabharata (Set Of 3 Books), Ram Charit Manas