Category — Videshwa

A Frenchman has gone on to dethrone an Indian for the longest speech ever recorded.

Frenchman Lluis Colet broke the world record for the longest speech after rambling nonstop for 124 hours about Spanish painter Salvador Dali, Catalan culture and other topics. The 62-year-old Catalan and local government worker spoke for five straight days and four nights to set the record in the southern French town of Perpignan.

Three notaries were on hand to recognise the feat which allows Colet to enter it in the Guinness Book of Records. The previous record was held by an Indian man who delivered a 120-hour speech.

Now it’s really a matter of shame that an Indian doesn’t hold this record – given the fact that the discipline is India’s favourite pastime. If there was a record for non-stop, nonsense speeches, I am sure we would have still held it. We do have contenders like Amar Singh – who would be given a stiff challenge by Anu Malik and Himesh Reshammiya.

Does the Guinness have a record for nonstop nonsense blogging? That’s one record that should rightfully be ours.

TOI reports that a New York gentleman,  involved in a bitter divorce – apparently on advice of his lawyer, has demanded his pound of flesh.

A man locked in a bitter divorce battle wants his estranged wife to return the kidney he donated to her or else pay a compensation of $1.5 million.

“There is no deeper pain than betrayal from someone you loved and devoted your whole life to,” Richard Batista, husband of Dawnell Batista said in an interview. Richard, a surgeon, had been married to Dawnell for 15 years and they have three children. In 2001, he donated one of his kidneys to his wife to save her life. 

I wish she does return his kidney – minced, cooked  with onion,  ginger-garlic paste and garnished with finely chopped coriander.

IMDB has a list of top 250 films – based on votes from their regular users. And now you can check your film-addiction levels by clicking this link.

I wasn’t surprised that I have seen just about 3.6% of all the movies in the list. And among those I have seen more than once include just Gandhi and Finding Nemo.

What’s your score?

There are other lists as well. The Time Magazine’s top 100 films of all time (compiled by critics) – which includes Indian films like the Apu Trilogy (Satyajit Ray), Pyaasa and Nayakan.

There’s a recent list of top 10 American movies of all-time by the NY Times. Thankfully, I haven’t seen even a single film from this list.

Just as the world prepares to give George W. Bush a fitting farewell – with Hit the road Jack running in the background, his father – former CIA Head/President George Bush Sr. has dropped a bombshell.

George Bush Snr., the former president and father of the current White House occupant, today urged his second son to seek election to the Senate next year in Florida. “I’d like to see him run,” he said. “I’d like to see him be president some day.”

And you thought the worst was over.

If you haven’t seen a Buffalaxed video yet, you have missed quite a bit of the fun.

So what does getting Buffalaxed mean? The Urban Dictionary calls it: The art of taking an Indian (or any other non-english) music video and giving it subtitles for what it sounds like in English.

And why is it called Buffalaxed? Simply because the art of subtitling was started by a Youtube user called Buffalax. His real name happens to be Mike Sutton and the first of his videos – a weird interpretation of a Prabhu Deva video – loony bun is fine, Benny Lava was a massive hit. Soon, the idea spread and there are now hundreds of Buffalaxed videos all over the web. Do a search for “Buffalax” on youtube and you’ll find tons of these videos.

But there were objections too – Some felt that the video was done in “good fun” while others worried that their culture was being mocked. And then MTV jumped in as well. In a series called “Lost in Translation”, MTV Buffalaxes western videos (as well as a few tamil and telugu ones) for its desi audience. Check them out:

The Benny Lava Video that started it all.

MTV gives it back with Alane.