All the participants stand in a circle and the music plays in the background. A dupatta is knotted at one end and converted into a round loop, a hoopla can be used instead. Each participant passes the loop from his head to feet that is over his/her body and passes it on. Whoever is caught with the loop when the music stops intermittently is out of the game and the game continues till the last person, who is the winner.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Queen of Sheba
A party game for teenagers/small children. In which the host plays the Queen of Sheba. She asks for something and the first participant to fulfill her wish correctly wins a point/prize. She keeps asking for one thing after another.Examples:
1. Red rose.
2. A fifty paisa coin or maybe two coins.
3. 3 balloons or purple balloons.
The list is endless. The person with the maximum points wins or a small prize can be given immediately to the winner of each wish at that time.
Adults can play this game with a slight variation. All the participants can be divided into teams and then a team representative is chosen who goes up to the queen with the fulfilled wish. The nature of wishes can be changed according to the level of the participants.
1. Red rose.
2. A fifty paisa coin or maybe two coins.
3. 3 balloons or purple balloons.
The list is endless. The person with the maximum points wins or a small prize can be given immediately to the winner of each wish at that time.
Adults can play this game with a slight variation. All the participants can be divided into teams and then a team representative is chosen who goes up to the queen with the fulfilled wish. The nature of wishes can be changed according to the level of the participants.
Friday, November 13, 2009
2012 - an amazing movie
This is a must watch movie. It does get melodramatic at some places, but the effects are amazing and involvement of all nationalities is ensured to make it a global hit. It is a Hollywood masala movie. It is to be watched in the theatre and not on the television or computer. One feels one has seen it all - the superhero movies and action movies, but this movie goes beyond that in terms of special effects. While watching the movie, the theatre response was tremendous, the crowds were cheering the caste of the movie and were held totally spellbound. If it had been three dimensional !! It would have beaten Soaring! Its a movie not to be missed!
Rating *****
Rating *****
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Sweep - Rules of a favourite card game
Lately I got the idea of teaching my children, some of my favourite card games. I had spent hours playing some of these games in childhood. We started with teen do paanch, rummy and then sweep. Try as hard as possible, but I could not remember the rules of the game of Sweep at all. I asked mom but still nothing came back. Sweep used to be a favourite game which I used to play with my grandparents. I found the rules on the net and then everything came back. I have vivid memories attached with this game of my late grandfather. It is a great game which involves mental maths and logic. I felt my children were the right age for this game. I have copied the rules of the game from ehow.com but a more detailed description is given on pagat.com.
Sweep (or seep) is a popular Indian card game played with four people divided into two-player partnerships. The partners sit across the table from each other. The game uses a standard 52-card deck (the jokers removed).
- All cards are played at face value for each hand, regardless of suit. For instance, each ace is a 1, each four is 4, each jack is 11, each king is 13.
However, only the following are actually worth points when scoring at the end of a hand:
All spades are worth their face value. For example, a king of spades is 13, a queen is 12, and so on down to the 1-point ace.
The 10 of diamonds is worth 2 points.
The other three aces also are worth 1 point each. - Choose a dealer at random (or draw and let the player with the high card deal). Deal four cards face-down to each player in counterclockwise fashion (the player to the dealer's right--whom we'll call Player A from here on--gets the first card, and so on).
Everyone can look at his cards. Player A goes first by announcing a number between 9 and 13 that corresponds to the point value of one of his cards. For instance, if he has a jack, he can announce "11." If he has more than one card worth nine points or more, he can choose from them. However, if he has no cards worth nine or more, the dealer must re-deal.
Once Player A is able to announce a number, the dealer lays four cards face-up on the table. Player A then has the opportunity to lay a card from his hand onto one of the four on the table. To do this, he must lay a card down that, when added to the card on the table, totals his announced number. For instance, if he has a nine in his hand and there is a two on the table, he can lay the nine on it to total the 11 that he announced. If he cannot put a card from his hand onto a card on the table to equal his announced number, he must lay down one of his cards onto the table, face-up. Play passes to the right. - From the first play on, each player attempts to build "houses" of cards or take a trick (picking up a house already built).
To build a house, a player places a card from his hand onto a card on the table. A "house" must always add up to between nine and 13, and must total the value of a card in the player's hand. For instance, if there is a three on the table and a player has both a nine and queen in his hand, he can lay the nine on the three and announce "twelves." He has to wait until his next turn to take the trick (pick up the house), if it's still there.
Houses can be picked up by any player once they are built, unless they are cemented (explained below). For instance, if Player A builds twelves and Player B has a queen in his hand, he can take the house built by Player A. - Houses can also be raised higher by adding smaller cards onto them. For instance, if a twelves house is built, a player can add an ace onto it to build thirteens. Again, the player adding the ace must have a king in his hand (to equal 13).
Houses can be cemented by a player putting a face card equal to the house value on top of it. For instance, if a "twelves" has been built, a player can lay a queen on top of it to cement it, so that only a queen can take it--it can no longer be raised by a smaller card. The player doing this cementing must have a second queen in his hand before he can do it (in other words, he must be able to pick up the trick).
On his turn, if a player cannot pick up a trick or add to or build a house, he must lay down one of his cards face-up on the table. - If at any point no player can add to or build a house, the hand is over and all remaining cards go to the player who took the last trick.
Partners then add together their point cards (see the Section 1) for a team score. The team that took the most cards in the hand gets an extra four points. There will be a total of 100 points divided between the two teams (though it is possible for one team to collect all the points).
Most sweep games are played until one team scores 500 points or more, but this is arbitrary and can be determined by the players.
Points and Values
Beginning Play
Houses and Tricks
Raising and Cementing
Scoring and Winning
Monday, November 2, 2009
Latest Hindi Movie songs for free - musicindiaonline
I love Hindi movies, well I guess that's not a unique characteristic of mine, I'm just one of millions. Every week I like to hear the latest hindi songs, like top ten songs or top twenty or top fifty according to the time available. I like a ready-made list of songs, kind of "ready to listen". I usually listen to songs while I work on my laptop and luckily I am blessed with a laptop which has an excellent pair of speakers - Toshiba A205-S4577
My favourite site is Musicindia online.
Its a fave site also because their list of most user requested songs matches my taste. In my Bookmarks toolbar I have the following Bookmarks.
1. Most user requested 50 bollywood songs
2. Most user requested 10 bollywood songs
This site works great with Internet Explorer.
I use Firefox, because due to its hundreds of add-ons Surfing and blogging are very easy and enjoyable. On clicking these bookmarks another window opens and if you are using Firefox open the bookmarks in an Internet explorer window inside firefox and when the player tab/window opens that too opens in Internet explorer inside firefox (This can be done by adding on the IE tab addon). You can choose your player (Real or Windows) in the trident player and then select the songs you want to listen. The sound quality is good.
Another popular site for hindi songs is Dhingana.com. The advantage with this site is that you can embed the song list in your website or facebook or orkut. On the home page, just click on the top songs. Another window opens and you can play the songs. One can make their own songs list.
I have embedded the top songs from Dhingana on this post.
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