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Agatha Christies Hercule Poirot – Appointment with death

The much-awaited episode “Appointment with Death” of Hercule Poirot reminded me of “The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb” and “Murder in Mesopotamia”. It took some effort to get the video of this episode after lot of tough hunt on Internet.

However, this story did not live up to my expectations, and unfortunately, it could not create the ripples similar to some of my favorite older episodes of Poirot. The story starts with a man digging out ancient ruins of “Petra”, and a mystical ancient fable of man on a horse is used in the backdrop about this man meeting his death while roaming in desert. All Agatha Christie stories that are based on Middle Eastern and Arabia show the same stuff where group of Arabic men’s are digging. British people are portrayed as careless people roaming, drinking, and kissing. Anyways, it is well understood as all the stories have been penned in 30’s of the colonial period, as most of the archaeological discoveries were happening in that period could have left major impression in the mind of the writer.

“Appointment With Death” takes us to a Holy Land tour of Petra in 1937, first showing the busy reception area of the “King Solomon Hotel” in Jerusalem and then at a tourism camp at Petra. The tour group is primarily consists of Southern-bred Americans and Brits, making for an interesting mix of well-developed accents.

Lord Boynton an archaeological head working in Petra invites his family and friends to visit the digging site. Suddenly one afternoon among the towering red cliffs and historic ruins of Petra, the dead body of Mrs. Boynton is found. Poirot finds a tiny puncture mark, the only sign of the fatal injection that killed her, with blood and some wax. Suddenly Poirot recalls a statement that he overheard back in Jerusalem: “You do see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed?” Yes, Mrs. Boynton was, indeed, the most hateful woman Poirot had ever met. Poirot finds the killer amongst many suspects including the adopted children’s of Boynton’s.

The whole episode is full of drama and the climax too ends with it. For the first time I see Poirot praying in night. Poirot in the last scene has been show like an angel who is caring and a person with lot of grit, the picturization was perfect for this scene.

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End of an era, Sourav Ganguly the best Indian Captain so far

The announcement by Saurav Ganguly of his retirement has closed one of the best-written chapters in the history of Indian Cricket. In the beginning, I was not a fan of him right from the day he broke in to the scene i.e. his selection in the Indian Cricket team. I saw him first standing on the fence carrying a towel when was not selected for one of the match and yes he was the twelfth man.

This lad from the Bengal known to be a big hitter had different vision. He came into limelight with a debut century in series in England against England and won the hearts of all Indians, especially lot of Bengalis were attached to him by then. He still is the “Sultan” of off side and as said by Geoffrey Boycott, “The Prince of Kolkata”. Whenever I used to see him dancing down the track, it was sure that the ball is going to go outside the fence.

Right after becoming the captain of Indian cricket team, he gave more chances of the luxury of dressing room to his crop of young Turks, he also made sometimes Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble sit in dressing room for his conviction Right or wrong. Ganguly was a man who stood for what he believed in.
Once India won Natwest trophy most of the people started believing in him, he was the person who along with his youthful Turks and experienced fighters like Dravid, Tendulkar took India to the Finals of World Cup. Millions of Indians living in India or abroad loved him for doing what they never could do or thought of doing. Millions found a sensational liberation in the way Sourav scripted his fairytale in the biggest stadia. Sourav Ganguly had walked on fire, Sourav Ganguly had become an icon.

At a time, when he would soon he gone, questions are buzzing. Will he remain the icon that he is today? Time is a cruel judge, history reverent, and people forgetful. I dont care, for me, Ganguly will remain the best cricketer that India has seen and produced ever.

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Agatha Christies Hercule Poirot – Cat among the pigeons

This is the second episode that released on Itv1 this September and I must say it has been even better then Mr. McGinty’s dead. The story presents the most vibrant characters penned by Agatha Christie.

The hunger to watch more and more of Hercul Poirot has urged me to find different ways to get the latest and find the movies from where ever I can. The disappointment is that only two more episodes are left that includes most heard about “Appointment with Death”. I was very happy to find out most of the videos from season 1 to season 8 were available from a user in “Youtube”. The bad luck, suddenly one day I found all the videos were removed and that user was banned from “Youtube”, may be some one reported about them or may be it was an infringement of some copyright issues. Anyways, I started looking for different options, which included torrents.

Cat among the pigeons – Season 11 Episode 2

Miss Bulstrode, the founder headmistress of an English girls’ school “Meadowbank”, is notified in a informal discussion with one of the pupils parent that she has recognized someone at the school from her days in the intelligence service. Then there are series of murders and an attempt of murder, and Poirot is on hand to try to solve the mystery.

Poirot finds connections with a revolution in the Middle Eastern kingdom of Ramat and Prince Ali Yusuf’s missing jewels, and finally the cold-blooded killer. This episode has received overall 8.9 ratings on Tv.com. The episode for me should be the best, anyways I am awaiting release of “Appointment with Death”, as it is the one, which has received most number of votes.

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Agatha Chrisitie’s Hercule Poirot “Mrs McGinty’s Dead”

This has been aired on September 2008, the latest season 11 episode 1 of Hercule Poirot. This short movie has been aired on Itv (Exclusive to Britain).

David Suchet is looking older in comparison to the last season. I think world will always remember him as the “world’s most greatest detective”, despite portraying a virtual character he would remain the most life like depiction of a person who has the worlds most powerful “grey cells” to solve the most difficult murder mysteries.

The show begins with a trial of James Bentley for the murder of “Abigail McGinty”, the cleaner of Broadhinny who also took in Bentley as her lodger. The evidence is overwhelming and he is sentenced to hang. Superintendent of police “Spence” is not at all convinced, and feels the man is innocent, and so he visits Poirot, asking him to look into the case. Poirot then heads off to the village, where he becomes the paying guest of Maureen and Major Johnnie Summerhayes.

Ariadne Oliver, Poirot’s novelist friend, has also come to Broadhinny to work together on a stage adaptation of one of her novels with dramatist “Robin Upward”. With the clue of a bottle of ink purchased by the dead woman shortly before her death, Poirot searches Mrs. McGinty’s possessions and finds an edition of The Sunday Comet newspaper, where an article in relation to two women connected with famous murders has been cut out.

With the story are two photographs of the women. Poirot discovers that Mrs. McGinty had seen one of the photographs before, and knew to whom it belonged to. However, which woman was this case connected with goes in suspense? Checkout the way Poirot solves the mystery and how he saves James from being hanged.

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Suji Upma – South Indian Recipe

Prepration Time : 10-15 Min

Ingredients : 1 cup suji (semolina), 2 cups water, mustard seeds 1 teaspoon, cumin seeds 1 teaspoon,  curry leaves (5-6), peanuts 1 table spoon, cashewnuts halves 10-15 nos., green chillies 1-2, salt as per taste, oil 1 table spoon, chopped coriander.

Cooking Instructions

a) Heat the oil in a pan

b) Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and saute till they start crackling

c) Add curry leaves and chopped green chillies

d) Add peanuts, cashewnuts saute till they are bit brownish

d) Add water and salt and bring to boil

e) Slowly add the suji in the water stirring continously

f) Mix well till suji swells and soaks all the water, close the pan with lid and let it cook for 2-3 min on low flame.

g) Sprinkle chopped coriander before taking out from the flame

Your healthy breaksfast totally in south indian style is ready, serve with Sambhar, coconut chutney.

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Download Mac Games

Tired of looking games for your MAC, download-mac-games.com is where your entire search will end. This website gives numerous options of shareware and freeware games for Mac OSX operating system for Apple. This site is designed and developed to become one of the best games download site where you can choose your Mac games, either free or buying some games with reasonable prices. Therefore, if you have a Mac Apple desktop or laptop, you can easily opt apple games right on this site.

There is a huge collection of apple games and several categories to choose from, you will find many games on Action, Arcade, Adventure, Solitaire card games, Casion, Board, Kids, Puzzle, Logical, Simulation, Sports and many more. This intensive database of Mac games is more then sufficient for anyone looking out for Mac games. Therefore, have fun by visiting download mac games website.

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Agatha Christie’s Poirot

Agatha Christie’s Poirot a British television drama that is aired on TV since 1989. It stars David Suchet as Agatha Christie’s fictional detective Hercule Poirot.

“My name is Hercule Poirot and I am probably the greatest detective in the world” A elegant, moustache-twirling unconventional with extravagant respect for his own ‘little grey cells’ this brilliant Belgian detective solved some of the most puzzling, mind boggling crimes of the century.

The character of Hercule Poirot has been played by David Suchet a british actor who has been the most accurate choice for this character as he did lot of homework before playing the character.

David Suchet is exceptional as the polished, French speaking Belgian descent detective. On all his cases, Mr. Watson, Captain Hastings, his secretary Miss Lemon and Chief Inspector Japp ably assist him. The tele-series is set in the thirties, and the characters still carry the scars of the First World War with them, while at the same time omens of the next conflict are present.

The way Poirot greets women and the respect he delivers to people is exceptional and displays the authentic British society. I find the way he speaks “merci”, “Oui” and “magnific” a little amusing. However, the character portrayal and amount of detailing which has been carried out in each of the series is brilliant.

I will in my next posts would be covering al the episodes that I have been able to see, I will discuss the characters portrayed and the mystery behind each tale.

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Trip to Wonder La – Bangalore

The best way to enjoy weekend would be a day visit to Wonder la, an amusement park located 28 km away from Bangalore on Mysore highway. This spanking amusement park has all that it takes for creating a special destination for complete family place to enjoy weekend.

It was my first trip to this amusement park. I had been to Appu Ghar in my child hood, but an amusement park like Wonder la is incomparable to what appu ghar was. It is much more then what Appu Ghar could offer (However, that was what we could have considered to be the best in India in those days).

A ticket on a Weekend would cost approx Rs 600 and Rs 420 for kids between 90-140 cm, on weekdays charges are lesser. You must come prepared with your swimming trunks or costumes as there is so water splash for you to enjoy. The best time to enter the park would be by 11:00 am, which means you have enough time to enjoy major attractions may be two – three times.

The first thing I checked out was friendly fish, a small pond full of 7-9 inches Koi carps, once you try and feed them they would suck your fingers. This place has lot of scream machines and people looking for real fun should try “maverick” ride once, there are many more like that.

The park has lot of fantastic water rides; the best was Wave pool and had most number of visitors. The only thing disappointed me was the food served at the local restaurants here, and it was pathetic. They could allow outside food joints to serve food to improve the quality of food served here.

The security and cleanliness was up to the mark and should not be a major concern for parents. I think people coming to Bangalore should visit this place once.

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Citibank India Credit Cards – Keep away from them

When Citibank launched Citibank MTV credit card, I thought its better to have this card to avail offers on music or collaterals related to MTV. So, applied for this card and also got this approved from Citibank.

After using the card for and maintaining good record for couple of years, I had a financial crisis and was with some debts to clear off including Citibank card credit, so I requested Citibank for a settlement of the account and convert whatever I have to pay in EMI’s. Upon receiving my request, I received a plan from Citibank for the full and final settlement.

They took PDC cheques for equal installments and they kept withdrawing monthly installments regularly. Suddenly I got a better opportunity and had to change my job and city. Due to this the bank where I was holding the salary account had to be closed by the previous employer. The cheques unfortunately I had issued to Citibank were of the same bank account, which was getting closed.

I inquired with them and explained my situation, they again gave a new plan, where the executive came and collected the new cheques of different bank, this time they reduced the number of installments and increased the amount for which I also agreed, as I wanted to get this closed as soon as possible.

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Hathway Internet Connection – Review

The place where I have been living since 2006 is a sub-urban part of the Bangalore. Coming from Delhi and that too from South Delhi, I had access to all major Internet service providers including one of the best in India, Airtel. However, unlike Delhi I had to face some problems in getting an Internet connection. Upon searching with local people, I found that “Hathway” who is the cable T.V. service provider also provides Internet connectivity.

Therefore, I decided to start and see how good it is. I opted for a shared 128 Kbps (small b, which means bits) connection. An engineer visited my house who appeared to be bit more literate then the normal cable guy, he connected a CAT6 cable to my house. Obviously, it was really a shared connection. They then installed a small application with user name and password to access Internet. Below mentioned are some of the problems with this type of connection.

• Bandwidth is heavily shared and you would never get enough bandwidth to open even small websites. Never was able to know how many users are sharing the bandwidth from a single 128 Kbps line, generally, they claim such connections to 1:4, but for me it seems it was 1:16. Imagine the usage.




• The application was required to run at startup and made me to wait 5-10 minutes to boot my laptop. Moreover, the application behaved like a virus as removing its driver caused blue screen of death on my Windows XP, I had to use my repair tools (Bart-PE) to repair my Windows.




• The supports they provided was really pathetic, a guy who was not aware of anything used to handle calls between working days and on weekdays there support was on the hands of the security guards or the peons who were in the office.

This is entirely my own experience, experience with this service provider may be different with different people. I am not using this connection and would never be from this company.

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