Lens

Hey! Looks like you are a new visitor, you may want to subscribe to my Lens RSS feed. Or my shared links Convex RSSThanks for visiting!

Get busy living or get busy dying

Any person who calls himself at least half a movie buff would definitely have seen this movie. And most probably it would be in his top of his favorite movies list. Yet, I was zero biased when I started to watch and to say I was overwhelmed at the end of it is an understatement.

It starts off with one of the protagonists Andy ( according to me there are three important characters ) is tried and sent to a jail (named Shawshank) under the offense of killing his wife and her friend, but he is innocent. In jail he makes friendship with Red who is also serving life time.

There are those sadists and jail goons who unnecessarily insult and thrash Andy, who tries his best to stand up and fight but is always beaten up. Meanwhile in one of the best scenes, Andy using his banking knowledge, offers to help one of the officers to save money. In return he asks beer for his co-workers. In this one master stroke act, he not only wins friends, but also gains recognition as a guy who could do with banking and finance. Also, the officers, when the goons beat him up again, thrash the goons and reduce them to utter pitiable bodies.

There is another librarian, who after serving for 40 years is let free. The scene in which he wants to kill another prisoner, just so that he stays in jail, afraid of the life outside is a very touchy scene. He is set free and unable to cope up life outside jail, he kills himself.

Red is slowly becoming what he so clearly understands – institutionalized. After spending, so many years within the walls, he realizes there is nothing he could do outside even if he is let go. He slowly gives up hope.

Meanwhile, Andy is so silent. He gets promoted from laundry to assist librarian, does tax work, he teaches a new prisoner to pass his exam, he even manages the records of Warden and cover his financial scams. He also gets the clue to who had killed his wife, for which he is serving in jail, but warden prevents the case get any further. 20 years pass hence.

But he does not give up, he has a goal – an immediate one was to survive prison, long term is the life after prison. He plans to get out of prison and achieve them. How he achieves forms the surprise and is the beauty of the movie.

There is this scene which is one of my favorites – Andy plays the opera music to the whole of jail through the speakers which is meant only to give orders. He knows he would get punished or ill-treated for it, but he does not care. All jail inmates feel happy for a minute hearing to the song, and Andy sits silently there. Even when warden threatens to open up the door, Andy ignores and sits silently, allowing the music to go on for a little while more.

Another interesting lesson is in the perseverance Andy demonstrates – he keeps writing a letter each week to get grants for the library and finally after getting fed up of his letters they agree to give one time grant and send over many books. Not very satisfied, Andy plans to increase the frequency of letters asking for more !!

It is slow, but likable in a vague way. There are sequences which absolutely mean nothing to the story and there are sequences which look trivial but add up to a grand plan at the end. And at the end, I was left gaping.

No wonder it has been rated in top films even among top spiritually significant films.

Some dialogs are excellent :

The funny thing is, on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook.

He’s just institutionalized…The man’s been in here fifty years, Heywood, fifty years. This is all he knows. In here, he’s an important man, he’s an educated man. Outside he’s nothin’ - just a used-up con with arthritis in both hands. Probably couldn’t get a library card if he tried…these walls are funny. First you hate ‘em, then you get used to ‘em. Enough time passes, it gets so you depend on ‘em. That’s ‘institutionalized’…They send you here for life and that’s exactly what they take, the part that counts anyway.

I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are better left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t be expressed in words, and it makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a grey place dares to dream. It was as if some beautiful bird had flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.

My wife used to say I’m a hard man to know. Like a closed book. Complained about it all the time. She was beautiful. God, I loved her. I just didn’t know how to show it, that’s all. I killed her, Red. I didn’t pull the trigger, but I drove her away and that’s why she died - because of me, the way I am.

Philosophy other than movie :

The movie, at its face value, is as excellent as it could get . It has a good story, good performances and well written. The cruelty invoke pity from the audience, the surprise elements leave the audience speechless and mouth open in awe for a minute. But for me the take away from the movie, is “hope”. I enjoy the movie while watching for what it is, but when I go over it again and again, when I munch over it, I draw extensions, I draw comparisons…and thats when I probably come to a better conclusion whether movie was really worth the time or not.

This movie could possibly be summarized in that one great dialogue Randy says to Red “Get busy living or get busy dyin.”. For 20 years, he hasn’t lost the hope and he was reconstructing his life. Silently, persistently.

Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.

That’s TWENTY years and I am always just too eager to give up ! I get frustrated , disappointed very fast. Many of us are all in our own dungeon and after a certain time we give up.

There are three different mentalities depicted nicely in three characters..one who has given up..one who is confused but is moving towards giving up ..and the one who holds up.

From

Since people call on hope in circumstances ranging from those where one has much control over matters to those where one can do nothing but expect outside influences to help, Andy’s use of “hope” is ambiguous. That is because given Andy’s basic circumstances, it may appear he’s invoking the latter meaning of “hope” — that is, he can do nothing but expect that his innocence will somehow, someday be revealed and he’ll be set free by these influences outside his control. However, as evidenced by Andy’s characterization prior to this scene, “hope” to him means the belief that the good, such as freedom, has a chance of being achieved, but such a chance can really only arise through one’s rational thought and actions

Whether or not Andy succeeded in achieving his freedom, it is his fundamental view of life, one which refuses to resign to hopelessness in the face of evil, that makes The Shawshank Redemption a great, heroic work of art.

Tagline of the movie goes “Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.” And it definitely does not just mean about prison. It is the principle one should adapt towards any helpless, any hopeless situations in life – it does not or need not solve the problems, need not show the solutions, but at least it makes it easier to breathe.

PS: Kashmir Singh (who got released from jail after 35 years) said “Hope kept me alive”.

During the hardware(electronics/communication) related lab in college, a guy who used to assist us with components, would always remain optimistic and say “maadi maadi, output barutte”. Without coming to our place, without checking the circuit (may be he had that much confidence on our rigging up of circuits), without biasing students, his reply remained same. His confidence, his optimism, his hope were more than that of us and was surprising.Even when we panic, he was always calm and composed in his reply. Never got angry or irritated, he always gave his standard reply with smile.

With no way out, I used to come back and check everything again, and sometimes need to correct something and sometimes output just used to come by itself. I always felt, I could have done this myself without first going to him asking for help.

I always recall this whenever/just before I need to seek help. Whenever I am disappointed and ready to give up, I recall this. “maadi maadi, output barutte”. That brings back optimism!

Ps:On a lighter vein, I got so used to the pattern, try-does not work-go to him-come back-it works, that many times I immediately at the beginning itself went to him and complained it does not work and then come and gave a honest try.

Menasinakayi bonda/baji is one of my favorite dishes.

Every time, it is a suspense, risk because one never knows how the mirchi is going to be - either khara (hot/spicy) or normal. When I already know it is khara, like it happened this time, there are two minds and surprisingly I end up eating every time. It is for the lure of temporary tasty pleasure and an ever lasting memory of the taste.

Initially when bitten, it is tasty, salivates, everything is normal. Just before the sudden flood of khara, which suddenly blacks out the brain cutting off all senses, though for a short time. Eyes get closed as if to confirm to the brain’s action. Ears shut off to the surrounding sounds. When right/wrongs become one, pleasure/pain become meaningless. When time stands still. I just wish to stay in that trance, though will be pulled back in time. (Otherwise what is the point!) When I open the eyes, they are all teary, blurred. I take a minute or so to get back to normal.

There is this small regret for having to go through all this just for that temporary feeling of taste. But then the memory of the taste lingers. Taste does not remain, just the memory does - as if it was some good feeling, not sure of what exactly it was. Memory of blurry teared eyes remain.

And when I got the chance again, I went for it. The menasinakayi baji. All over once again.

I propose we celebrate today, March 5th every year as Lamentine day. Lets celebrate the joys of lamenting by allocating a special day for it. Why today, why not 15th of March? Don’t ask me. From the divine powers that be, it suddenly dawned upon me, through an body-less sound’s sound suggestion(ashareeravani- similar to the ones that came from clouds in Mahabharata) that this day is as auspicious as any other and I should immediately announce to the world - I am merrely carrying out the order. Actually the initial name I thought was Lamenter’s Day or Ranter’s Day or Cribber’s day..but since Lamentine rhymes with its another cousin day, I have zeroed in on this name.

So, what do we do on this day. We lament. Like valentine’s day, on L day we will show our talent by cribbing about anything and everything. At anything bad (as usual) and also at anything good. For example, you hear phone ringing and you start saying “This phone was one of the very annoying inventions ever made. It rings loud..it rings when not required. It invades the peace and privacy. It is more of a luxury to owner than a necessity….” You see Tv and start saying”This is one of the most dangerous inventions ever made..it deprives children of their physical activity, it wastes time, it is rightly an idiot box….”.

We lament/rant/crib about work (as usual), money, politicians, nature of people, imperfect and imbalanced society, infrastructure, partners,..you get the point. We will even lament about lamenting.

Unlike some other days which particularly target specific people (women/fathers/mothers/lovers), we dont discriminate anyone and our day is open to celebration by all people who are capable of cribbing given any situation.

I can even envision the future for this day - as usual the card companies will come up with some funny cards that could be exchanged with fellow lamenters. There would be contests on Fm radio to identify who the best cribber is. “I will give you a situation and all you have to do is tell me how many minutes you can rant on this topic..message me your expected duration and I will give you a call to the lucky person..”

What are the advantages, you ask ?
Plenty. First of all you will feel proud that you have the basic necessity to be called a lamenter - a mouth and the knowledge of a language. You will be so proud that it will increase your confidence at tackling the same. You will perhaps be able to laugh at yourself going by how illogically you could rant, or laugh at others. When you realize that there are so many who are willing to complain, you will feel not to be left alone. And most importantly, once you speak out what sits in your mind, you will be happy to take on next step (probably search for topic for next cribbing).

Why, you ask, should we have a reserved day for lamenting, when we (can) do that all days in the year. The answer is same as why we have Valentine’s day.

Ok, got to go now. Need to create orkut community, design badges, hold press conferences and processions to spread the awareness.

Long live lamenting.

Ps: This post should be categorized under its own category - Rant, for this is not completely satire/humour.
Pps: Did I “take” a break from blogging ? No. Do I resume to post as earlier ? Don’t know.

I first read a hope from GreatBong well before the start of Twenty20 cricket:

If Dhoni can do a Tunbridge Wells, if Yuvraj steps into Mohinder Amarnath’s shoes, if Sreesanth can shake his ass like the generously endowed Roger Binny, if Rohit Sharma becomes a Yashpal Sharma, if Hayden leaves an outswinger that then swings in and takes off stump, if Gilchrist top-edges a pull to midwicket, if Pathan can regain his mo-jo and Sehwag can blast the ball past his beer gut then who knows—-those who have come to scoff may very well remain to pray.

Indian fans (the ones that actually care to follow the tournament) can take comfort in the fact that 24 years ago, another such inexperienced motley crew of bits-and-pieces no-hopers went to foreign shores sans any hype and expectations.

if GB wasn’t GB, he would have claimed to have known all things before hand due to his supreme powers and due to the placement of stars !

Not to forget, his post wasn’t just a wishful one , he had then went on to analyze what was missing and what was required very well.

He then followed it with another excellent post after India had reached certain stage:

And one of the reasons for these small miracles has been, no doubt, what I had referred to as the only positive for Dhoni’s men—-they had gone to South Africa unheralded, with no expectations and no accompanying hoopla. This was in sharp contrast to the team that went to West Indies earlier this year amidst the “Cup jeetke lao” and the “Blue Billion” corporate-fuelled hype and got hopelessly eliminated in the first round. While Dravid’s men played like zombies with the weight of expectations of the entire country weighing on their shoulders, looking increasingly forlorn, disconsolate and on the edge after each setback , the new Team India, no doubt because nothing was expected from them, has been free-spirited, uncluttered and fearless even when faced with enemy ships that have outsized and outgunned them.

in the glories of the last few days of cricket—-Yuvraj Singh with supreme arrogance flicking an express delivery from Lee for a 119 meter six, Rohit Sharma running out Kemp with an amazing diving throw, Kartik’s airborne catch to get rid of Smith, Stuart Broad’s red embarrassed “teenager with his first dirty magazine” expression as Yuvraj gets stuck into him, Sreesanth slapping the pitch with his hands like Hannibal Lecter in front of a fresh corpse as Hayden’s stumps lie in disarray and Dhoni’s simple nod of affirmation to Harbhajan after Bhajji rattles Symond’s Michael Clarke’s timber.

It has really been the most fun one can have with their clothes on.

And after the win again, he wrote an outstanding post:

Mr Dhoni we understand. It is not easy wicket keeping, strategizing, blasting deliveries to all corners of the park, praying that Joginder Sharma does not get hit for a six , hoping that Sreesanth does not slice a batsman with a pocket knife, while all the time carrying on your shoulders the weight of a million expectations.

See the smiling Pathan brothers there—-one of whom strangled your team’s progress in the middle overs and the other led a rousing charge on your opening bowler. Tell you what, they also belong to the “Muslims of the world” and yet are deliriously happy at your defeat . Why wouldn’t they be ? They caused it.

And whole of other things he has said over there ( Dear Flintoff, Dear Aussies, Dear Lankans,Kiwis and South Aftricans) is delightful to read !

**
Sidin’s open letter to Flintoff was another delight :

nce again proved without doubt that England should restrict itself to inventing games but not actually expect to win any of them. This is a small selection of such sports and games for your perusal:

- Football
- Cricket
- Tennis
- Hockey
- Rugby
- Badminton
- Anything that involves running (except running industry to ground), throwing (except throwing up outside pub) and jumping (except jumping on head of supporter of rival football team).

I know some Singhs who have two washing machines at home: one for washing clothes and the other for making Lassi.

Mr. Sidhu once had a minor tiff with another individual in a traffic-related situation. Now I am aware that Englishmen also get into traffic tiffs and then resolve it by hurling abuse at each other or a little pushing and shoving.

Mr. Sidhu, after due thought and introspection, killed the other man. Kaput. Khallas. Phineesh.

**
Gaurav feels bowlers will love Twenty20

Which is why, at the end of 2 weeks of cricket of quality and thrill levels not seen in the last 4 ODI world cups, it was the bowlers who made the difference. It was a bowler who got the man of the match in the final. It was a bowler (though the wrong bowler) who won the player of the series. Go through every match (except for, possibe the SA-WI run-fest) and it was bowling that tilted the scales.

**
Amit Varma thought it through :

Speaking of new stars, a big reason why this World Cup was so important for us was that it gave us a snapshot of the future. The decision by the Dravid-Tendulkar-Ganguly trio to withdraw from the tournament was a magnificent one for Indian cricket, as it gave us a chance to see what a young Indian team, without the baggage of the past, would look like. MS Dhoni’s team looked united, confident, devoid of politics and happy together.

That does not mean that we should discard the older players, for we need them in the season ahead, and should persist with them as long as they merit their place. But it does invalidate the argument that we should stick with our legends because the newcomers aren’t good enough. This tournament showed that we have eager, hungry young players waiting their turn, and any seniors who underperform should be shown the door—respectfully, but without regret.

***

Finally my few words about it. I saw some part of semis and nothing much of earlier matches (Sleep always dominated!). I followed the results keenly though.

I was stuck with work in office when all other cricket enthusiasts were glued to the TV for the finals. While coming by road, the road was empty and free flowing like no other day. Very frequently there were many groups in front of a showrooms which put the screen for the passing by crowd to watch There were loud cheers - for both dropping a catch and for taking a wicket - so it was very confusing for me as to which side the match was tilting. The cab driver got some updates on phone and by which I could guess it was a seesaw match. I came home just after it finished.

**
The fact is the trio-Dravid,Sachin,Ganguly- haven’t won the world cup for India despite having a strong team, despite being talented. The fact is the young team did it. But leave it at that. The conclusion based on these two facts can NOT be: the seniour players caused the team to loose or that their re-entry is not called for.

I am one of those few fellows, who despite had had disappointment over the way some players failed over and again, who would have been even more happier if the trio were part of the WorldCup winning team. I do not think their presence would have failed the team in any way. This Ponting talk of - it is unfortunate the winning team members should make way for seniours is CRAP. Now the failure would be tagged to the presence of seniours and the victory would be tagged to the world cup winning team’s “momentum”. Now I feel Rahul’s decision’s timing was very right, much before Dhoni’s team won the cup - if he had taken later/or if he had not resigned he would have had to face several other criticisms !

**
Despite the takl of “Chak De” movie reforming the game for the masses and media, after the Asia Cup win, not many covered it in bold. And this was to be highlighted and protested against at that very time. Now that saying “You are giving them and not giving us” sounds sad. Hope the media, govt and other companies (yesterday ToI carried an ad by Oil PSUs congratulating the heroes for winning the Asia Cup - is akin to giving a chocolate to a crying baby) will not repeat such bias in the future. I don’t accept that Asia Cup was smaller than cricket world cup - Asia Cup too had 11 playing teams and India did superlatively well - remaining unbeaten, defeated tough teams and setting few records.

**
Last few weeks Indian sports is doing better in almost all outings - billiards, chess,cricket, hockey, tennis. Here is a wishing and hope that the dream run continues.

Just wondering what would have happened if these things did not happen in our life time - iPhone, Harry Potter, Rajnikanth ? What would have people talked about so passionately ? What would have caught the fancy of people ? What would have got the cult following ?

More importantly, would people have led a mundane, mediocre lives or would people have found something among the available things as craze-worthy and cult-status worthy ?[1]

If it is the former, we have been very lucky. If it is the latter, more thoughts needed. Till then happy reading/watching or experiencing.

Be maniac, be happy [2]

[1] Lets leave out iPhone from this discussion. iPhone or actually iPod created a space for itself when there was none. Its not one among 100s like movies/books.

[2] I personally feel, everyone, everyone should have something to be maniac about.

I was thinking of asking this question. How do you visualize time ? Somebody did it, so let me just use that post

Vivek asks

When you think about time, do you visualize it?

For example, when you think about an appointment that you have to keep, does the image of a wrist-watch or a clock present itself to you? Is it a digital display? When you think about months and years, do you mentally flip pages of a wall calendar? Or is it more like the inbuilt calendar of whatever Operating System you happen to be using?

This issue came up recently in a conversation. My friend thinks of time in closed loops, and I think of time in a strictly linear fashion. In my imagination, months proceed like this:

J–F–M–A–M–J–J–A–S–O–N–D

The year ends and a fresh line begins under this one. Within a month too, the dates are arranged in a straight line for me (not in groups of seven). The same hold for hours in a day - I count them from 1 to 24.

Not that I find it impossible to think of time in a closed loop, but the linear imagery comes naturally to me.

I wonder if it means something.

Which camp are you in? And are there other ways in which people visualize time?

As for me, the Jan to Jun goes like in the calendar on the wall — not the calendar where each page has one month. I get the picture of 3 months on a row, till june it is clear. After that it is not strictly 3 months per row. From June it goes in one coloumn below June till December.

Also when I think of a month, I get to see some dates marked with some importance like June 1st beginning of school, April 10th results, my birthday in March, exams in March and other close relatives/friends’ bdays, October holidays, Christmas, Rain in June-July (instantly reminds me of umbrellas), summer from March. April to June are lit brightly in my mind’s calendar probably because it is summer. Similarly Jan-Feb is little dark probably due to cold. July, August, September, November are not present on my mind’s calendar, only if I look for it, it would be visible in their appropriate places.

The days in the months are, obviously, visualized to be like in the calendar I mentioned. 7 days a week. Again Sunday reminds me of shoe-polish, hair cuts. Only Sunday gets marked as holiday in my mind. Saturday is half-day with white uniform. Wednesday - colour dress

Talking of numbers, 1 to 5 is in one line (left to right), in parallel to it (above it) is 6 to 10. After which it goes till 30 one next to another. After 30, 50 is marked somewhere like the end of 5th line in a table. After that only important numbers like 80, 90, 100 come to picture. After 100 it is again very sparse and like in a table only important numbers at the end of the coloumn - 1000. Anywhere above 20 to 25 and 80-100 are thought of as marks obtained. (As you can see only school related things are imprinted strongly on the mind. Engineering marks like 35-50 don’t have a place )

As is noted in that post’s comments,

Random Access View
Linear Alphabetical View
Meteorological View
GOTO Statement View
Dormitory View

some interesting views are possible. Tell me, how do _you_ visualize time.

I have always enjoyed watching movies alone. Does not mean that I do not enjoy in groups, of course I enjoy in groups too. But when I say I went to watch it alone, people look at me as

• I am a big loser,
• I am a big anti-social guy
• I am a maniac/crazy about movies
• I have too much spare time on my hand.

I feel only one of the above is marginally true. I watch because I want to watch. Period.

Here is a post that thinks on the same lines as I do

Everytime I tell a friend that I watched a movie the previous day in one of the 21,000 malls beside my house in Gurgaon, the first question eventually is, “with whom?” If I manage to utter the unmentionable, that I watched it by myself, he looks at me like I watched the a rakhi sawant anchored “great indian laugher show” in loop six times.

I have always failed to understand our obsession with the society. The society must approve. The society must accompany. The society must not think you are crazy. I think this spirit has made us miss one of the greatest joys of the 21st century: watching a movie by yourself

He then analyses both the situations.

You want to watch a movie. You walk down to the nearest mall. You catch the movie. You appreciate it thoroughly, because the movie is now an experience between you and the movie-maker. You can connect with the soul of the movie, without popcorn or coke to ruin the experience. You finish in time for dinner. You get back home, eat and sleep peacefully. Its work the next day. 3 hours. Thats all it took.

You must try it sometime: A lot of fun

Many times, I feel so good when I read something that is so close to what I would have said otherwise. I will link to certain such items.

Last few days/months, I felt I am spending too much time online, and too much online-time is spent at Orkut, Chatting, Reader, Digg, del.icio.us, reddit, Desipundit, Blogbharti, Indianpad, putvote - you got it. My reader itself not only has too many feeds, but also too many updates. I feel guilty to mark it as read without reading it and to catch up would take enormous time. There are also days where I literally get fed up of catching up. After hours of spending on the net (browsing, chatting, orkutting), the net gain is so less and I feel I haven’t done anything all that time !

As Prof Sadagopan said,

Reading is deep, involves the brain and leads to learning. Browse can often be very shallow with very little learning.

Anyways, coming back to the topic, I have almost stopped orkutting and chatting. I can not stop reader - but will clean up the feeds to include only feeds of friends and important news. I am liking this utility which will combine many feeds into one so that I can mark “mark all as read” in one shot

Coming back to where I started, I liked this post, for it conveys what I wanted to say a lot better. Excerpts:

My next activity would be to do away with Orkut as well. I’ve been on it for 4 years, but all of a sudden I feel so sucked into it. Making new friends aren’t really worth it and I just will have to show my attitude. A stinking one at it, like one of the readers whom I’ve never met, told me on chat sometime ago. It helps. People come and they GO too. They say good things. They throw crap. They are opinionated. I do all that too. But then it will have to just stop someday. …

It is just a phase. Will life be more exciting if I’m away from Internet? Away from all the Information overload.

Of course one difference is that I am still not fed up with “my own” blog or blogging. I would let this continue and I have always seen that blogging does not interrupt my life.
I have to continue, because it is my ranting ground.

Wasn’t life simpler when I was way back in college? When mobile phones were a luxury. When surfing the internet would cost a bomb. When your needs were less. When you had more time to read and watch good TV shows. When you had more quality time with family and friends. When your life was within a circle that you ran around it oblivious to all the filth outside the circle. When the words “best friends” really meant something. When you just have ten bucks in your pocket, yet go and eat with your friends, order for one chilli parotta and share it, order one pepsi and fight for it. When long drives meant, riding a two-wheeler against the wind and feeling so accomplished. When branded clothes were just for commercials, while you can wear anything off the street that makes you look like super star. When library meant book library and not DVD library. When piggy bank meant saving up for summer holidays. When temple visits meant something divine and not a formality. When street cricket and seven stones were religious rituals in the evening, while Playstations and Xboxes were for the westerners. When treats for friends meant tea shops and bakeries. When the rains were the best time to sit and chat outside the classrooms, getting drenched, and staying home complaining of sickness. When the nights were meant for dreamless deep sleeps. When early to wake up and early to sleep was order of the day. When I wrote stories in college notebooks and not on computer. When I painted using oil paint and not Photoshop.

Life was much better, then. With little in life. With more happiness.

Little meant more. Amen.

Something I wrote some time ago to the yahoo group to which I used to write my rants and reviews before I learned/started about blogging. The pat I received there was the only reason to fuel my continuation of writing the rants!

Today I would like to share a little happiness with you all. Because in a way, remotely, this group has a connection with it. Read on to know more.

Back in the days, in my early days at Mumbai, not only my Hindi was as bad as it could be but my knowledge about movies was also zero. I had heard of Hum Aapke Hain Koun but did not know what HAHK meant. Nor did I know the cast of it. And it was already running for 2 years or more in Liberty talkies in Mumbai. As an additional note, I did not even know the spelling of Kajol (who later became my one-n-only craze - in movies) and did not know the cast of DDLJ - which too I watched after 1 year of release !!

In the college, as usual with my life - the first friend I get at a new place will become good friend and will remain one at least till I remain there, I got acquainted with a Mallu guy -Arun Ganesh- who was a movie freak. Sometime later I realized that he was very close to being a walking encyclopedia of movies. Being a Mallu if you expected him to know less Hindi, you are wrong there. He came from Ahmedabad and knew better Hindi than the mixed Hindi some people speak in Mumbai. To me, speaking Hindi was not difficult but did not want to utter foolish stuff, he was my guru for my Hindi. Being in the Bollywood capital Mumbai, it is too rare to see someone not talking about movies or music. I clearly remember asking him what was the meaing of “pahad” and when he asked for context I quoted the song from Raja Hindustani “aaye ho zindagi mein tum pahad banke”. :))

Slowly I too started to watching movies more frequently. Bunked classes and watched movie. Skipped eating out and watched movies. Watched movies for the sake of watching. Sometimes with a group from college, sometimes with another group, sometimes with some other, sometimes alone. Good, bad, hit, flop I saw it all.

In parallel we started discussing movies. We had our own tastes but most of the times we shared the same opinion. In fact, I started viewing movies critically after taking first cues from him. He used to point out the mistakes (like the missing power chord from an electric guitar or the “readers dont digest” kind of stuff ). We used to analyse many scenes, how better things could have been or why something did make sense. The forthcoming movies, music (Arun is a big Rehman fan), the past hits - our discussion covered it all. To top it we had a French tuition teacher who was a film freak. She religiously read Filmfare and followed all gossips in filmdom. We used to fight for the filmfare when we used to go there for the class and we even dedicated additional 15 min for reading filmfare (not compensating for 1 hr class for which we were paying her!). She somedays used to get irritated that we read it and discuss it in the beginning itself, so she used to hide it till the end of the class!

Talking of analysis, we almost at the same time, hit upon Khalid Mohammed who used to write for Times of India. His language, his sharp merciless remarks as well as his knowledge about movie making as well as references to various other movies impressed us no end. Monday morning talking most compulsorily started with our take on his reviews that used to appear on Sunday Times. Even though initially we worshipped him and made his every opinion ours (shamelessly), slowly we started noticing our difference of opinions from him. Be it what it is, I still regard him the one to look upto.

Then I moved to Bangalore and Arun to Sangamner for studies. Occasionally when we mailed each other, it was mostly about movies. The movie watching also reduced somewhat when we were in Engg. The communication too reduced/stopped, due to various other reasons. It was DCH, the cult classic of our age, that moved me so much that I wrote about it to him and few of our close buddies. Though it was not written as a review at all but just as a salute to the times we had spent and to Farhan Akthar, I received good (unexpected) encouraging words and thus begun my experimentation with writing reviews. DCH, still one of the closest movies to my heart, had each of us (we were 3, like in the movie, in gang other than girls) in ample amount. As a tribute, I visited Mumbai and watched the movie with the group

Impressed by that feedback, I started noting down my thoughts after most of the movies I watched. I used to share with that select group of friends (and with the group I mentioned). After joining job our communication improved (thanks to always-on office email) and we started exchanging mails regularly. This was the time this group was also most important part of my life. My so called reviews got very good feedback and appreciation that I can never forget in my life. And hence review writing became a must for me after every movie.

Now reviews too became a part of mails with Arun. Partly motivated/encouraged by my acts, he too started responding by reviews. There was even few times, we fought who would review the movie. Or skip reviewing a movie so that other can do. Sometimes we decided not to read each other’s reviews but wrote one each (Lakshya, Black were such). And during somewhat that time I feel now that I had peaked (bcoz these days I am not happy with my writing). But he kept on improving.

Those were days before blogging and blogging opened a new world for us. I created a blog and soon followed it up with our combined site on movie reviews.He was so glad. In fact I started the review blog only to make sure he gets some recognition and fame, and by which I knew he would keep doing it! As far as me, I was losing the grip and as well was getting not too affected by the feedback. The hits came coming and I left no opportunity to publicize our site. The hits came, the comments came and we were feeling good. He sent his black review to filmfare and it got published in readers review section.

Things did not remain all good all the time. The work started eating our time. Weeks used to go by and the reviews did not happen. In fact we did not get time to watch movies. Sometimes I used to get busy that time he used to fill up. And sometimes otherwise. But sometimes both of us got so busy and felt bad for our pet - our site. Yet we kept hung to it. We approached few friends to fill in during our absence. Some of them agreed and filled up (fill up even now) and we are glad to be a part of creative circle. And we knew that many times, we watched movies only to write reviews, we wrote reviews only to keep our site updated!!

While about reviews let me capture another funny event. There was a guy (lets say X) in Arun’s organisation who was observing the fame Arun was getting for writing reviews. So X too started sending his reviews to a girl (Y) whom he was trying to impress. Y was in Aruns list of pals receiving movie review updates and X was a TL to Y. Y sent X’s reviews to Arun asking us to have a look and publish it on our site. X’s reviews were very difficult to understand and we withheld before posting. It so happened that, Arun investigated on the reviews and found they were all from a rottentomatoes. X had intelligently(?) clubbed many reviews and hence there was no continuity nor any sense and it was all too tough to follow. A clear copy paste. Arun exposed this and sent out a mail to all his buddies including Y. Not to mention they broke up soon and everyone was staring at him funnily after that incident!!

If you ever have a pet, you understand my feeling towards my site. Its a cute thing to own and to show to the world. But the rare updates is always a problem.

Thankfully he has moved to a different organisation where supposedly the work load is less and has moved out of city. So like me, all he has to pass time, is to watch movies.

Then recently icing on the cake happened. Much anticipated fame arrived. It started with KANK. He had his ticket booked for first day. He had read up Taran Adarsh’s review. I also had planned for a second day show. I could not do much due to work load and jotted down few thoughts on KANK but Arun, declining to read my views before he jotted down his (like the earlier days!) detailed review. Incidentally rediff announced a contest asking for reviews from readers. Arun sent his entry (and asked me to do, but I let it go. I felt my review was incomplete and was also pressed for time. Also had no belief in my effort). Now KANK is every movie reviewer’s delight and many responses must have come. Nevertheless his review was one of the best 10 reviews and he got to be a part of rediff reviewers group. What an achievement ! I hadn’t been many times as happy as this recognition. I know its his review but I shall take some claim and happiness for that fame His achievement is mine and his fame is mine :))

His organisation had an all employee movie watching event and they saw KANK. (No this has nothing to do with his review…his review appeared on rediff much later). Then he sent his reviews and its being published on rediff to his colleagues. Not to mention appreciation and wishes followed. It took few days before he got back to normal self If plagiarism is flattery, he got that too - someone even plagiarized his review!

Being in rediff critic group, Arun got to review Don for rediff. And when it appeared on rediff main page, not to mention that Arun was on cloud nine for few days :))

It is an interesting parallel we have shared with Farhan Akthar - that first movie of Farhan Akthar (DCH) had started me on writing reviews and for the second we both competed to write and each one wrote one and for the third one Arun’s review got published in a leading online news site.

And thus ends my intention of sharing my happiness with you all. Without your encouragement and feedback I would not have attempted to write and without me he would not have continued to write. So in a sense, this happiness finds its root in you, in this group (and the blog readers/commenters ). Thank you friends.

All the above talked about reviews could be found at 70mm

I have this enormous repulsion towards few people that repeatedly blinds me to their positives and magnifies their not-positives. I have let many instances where I can pounce upon, pass by me and remain unaffected but with these people it is as if I am just waiting to capture that every oppurtunity. Actually when I do look back, it is not that I hate the people, not even dislike them, but pure can’t-stand-you feeling.

Sometime ago, there was a similar incident and the character is the sameperson. He saw a flashy car and cribbed “I don’t have such a car”¹ (the conversation was in Kannada and the original sentence was even more full of cribbing - it was with such a tone that indicated “sadness” “hopelessness” “anger-towards-destiny” all together ). Now that tone and that formation of sentence was what irked me most.

Needing/wanting a car is different. Not having a car is different. And I with utmost patience and with a very un-emotional and controlled voice decided to enlighten him.

“I do not understand why if it had to be any diffrerent. I mean, lets look from other direction. Why is that you “should have had” a car by now ?” His reaction, as expected, was a reaction to unexpected reply. He wanted me to sympathize/join him. He was silent. I grabbed the chance to continue my onslaught (In kannada with choiciest of effective words -eg ನಿನ್ನ ಯೋಗ್ಯತೆ ಏನಯ್ಯ ? - and my tone I am sure I was hurting and as well as making a point crystal clear). “Lets see if you deserved to have had a car by now. There are few cases where one at an as early age as yours could have owned a car. Lets see. Do you have a rich industrialist father, who could have gifted you a car in your early teens to even go to your college ?² Or have you won any lottery ? Ok, lets leave the “luck and chance” thing aside, have you done any thing remarkably great and ‘earned’ a lot of money - say like Sabir Bhatia - at an early age ? You have been just an engineer with less than 2 years experience and if you have had to own a car by now, you should have been earning and saving x many thousands a month, are you doing that ? Being a software engineer you are earning quite more than many others and at least you could desire/hope/plan to own a car after a few years where as there are others who could not even hope or plan now. I do not understand why you should have had a car by now, by any reason ! It simply means that either you haven’t worked towards it (like stealing!) or you do not deserve it. When you have not done anything and there was no other way by which you could have had a car, where is the point of worry ? Do you think otherwise ? ”

“Ha, of course if you had said “I want/wish to buy a car”, that would have made sense. But “Aiyyo I do not have a car” does not make any sense. Agree ? “. He nodded.

I was happy I could drive home the point with a neutral voice and with good words Also now I keep a watch on myself if I complain for not having what I do not deserve.

1. ನನ್ನ ಹತ್ರ ಅಂಥ ಒಂದು ಕಾರ್ ಇಲ್ವಲ್ಲಾ ಅಂಥ :( [back]
2. I do not mean any disrespect to any father for not doing so, and I told him that. It was just that this is the easiest logically possible thing [back]

These days I am playing the snake game on my mobile. I knew about it earlier but had never played. Mostly I play it during waiting - for order in hotel, for bus, for someone, whem I am lonely and during other freetime (guess when!). It is a simple game alright, but a small lapse of action(keypress) or concentration or foresight can end the game and thus the effort so far. Though it can be played passively, I play it actively, so that no other thought bothers me. With a timelimit, it could have been made even more difficult.

Well, the post is not to discuss as simple a game as that. Recently someone¹ observed that “Hey why are you playing that game always..isn’t that too simple..there are many other interesting games …”
To which I involuntarily replied “This game is present in my mobile and however it its, I believe in playing well the games I have instead of worrying myself about the games that are not in my mobile”. It tangentially was an answer to something else in a subtle way, which I am sure did not reach him.

Later when I recalled that impromptu statement, I feel that is very true with me², naturally.³ I have had undesirable times with my health, friends, relationships, career and every thing else and each time I just swallowed it. Initially I had to that with the help of thoughts and decision, now it comes naturally to me.

As long as I have this game I will try to play it in a best way possible and will enjoy it. It does not mean I will not buy a new mobile with more challenging and enriching games⁴.

1. a whiner, about whom a book can be written and who takes, these days, all the credit for the fun I have,in his absense [back]
2. reminds me of a quote from IISc Prof who taught us Transmission and Switching - damn I forgot his namethanks to anon in comment, his name is Prof Ashok Rao- he had said “These days every one says ‘I want to do good projects’ no body says ‘I want to do the project good [back]
3. There is a huge difference between ambition/need to complaints/cribbing. My ambition has sometimes been misunderstood as complaint by many [back]
4. While at it, I will make sure to have Chess on my mobile, Like snake it will be best companion during lonely times [back]

What do you discuss during lunch time ? (Especially in office..?)

Some questions on human memory I have from quite some time. I might get some answers via Google if I wish, but felt like recording it here to get some ready answers !!

Is human memory unlimited ?

[Is it possible to keep on memorizing ? For eg, is it possible to memorize everything that is there in a dictionary ? ]

I guess, ability to recall from memory does not only depend on when it was stored (or when it happened). Then, is there someking of “frequently accessed” area in memory from which it is easy to recall and from other areas it is difficult ?

When you’re young you want to change the world. When you’re older you just want to understand it. - Unknown

Is it ? I tried understanding all while and have energy to continue that. Understanding the world -its people, thier behaviour, relations, its very existence, the science behind it, the logic behind it ..Most of the time the understanding fails and it poses more complex questions. There I can accept either of two solutions - one to believe that there is an answer to everything and “one” source knows it and to surrender to that source. Other being comfortable to realise that there need not be an answer, or that there can be an answer but at this certain point of time I do not have any way of knowing it. Understanding it. I can either continue trying to understand next oppurtunity I get or close it once for all by choosing the first path. I think I can be comfortable in the second choice.

But what I guess is important either way is to realise that “we do not yet know it completely”.

But while all this pondering has been happening and fights going on, I never thought of changing the world ..if any, that feeling(only mildly) is surfacing now. I realised early on that it is too vast and always tried to find a place for myself inside it. Yes there are irregularities, things that are not right, things that can go wrong. Yes, but I somehow remain blind to them (is it fear or is it a failure I do not know) and concentrate at what is right, at what is good, at what makes this such a lovely space inspite of those dark spots.

But I realise that if everyone resorted to safe corners, today it would not have been as good a place. Fighters (freedom or any other fighter for a social/general cause), believed they could bring about a change and worked towards it. Some succeeded and hence today it is much cleaner.

Yet, is not as clean as it is ought to be and that requires those who behave opposite to what the quote says.

First try to understand and then try to change.

What makes us cry when in pain and laugh otherwise and not vice-versa ?

In other words, is it possible to condition a child from the start to react otherwise ?

From RDB(Between DJ and Sue):

Sue: kaha milte hain aise dost

ek din ye sub kuch nahi rehna
sab apne apne raste (pe) nikhal jayenge

Sue:kabhi kabhi mil hi sakte ho

hota nahi ji..wohi duniya di zamele
naukri doondo paise kamao ghar basao
phir life de ishar pe nachte jao
tim lak lak te, tim lak lak

college kii game mein is tarah hum life ko nachate hain
to duji taraf life humko nachata hai
tim lak lak te tim lak lak

you know gulabo, university se pass out huye menu punch saal hogaya
phir bhi, I am here only

Sue:main samjhi nahi
..
..
mainu bas university mein hi rehna hai

Sue: kyuon

idhar campus mein log jante hain menu
DJ ki ithi koi aukad hai
log kehte dj mein badi baath hain
kuch karega dj

lekin bahar duniya mein ache ache dj phis gaye
lakhon ki beed mein

From Page 3:

kitne ajeeb rishtey hai yaha pe
do pal milte hai saath saath chalte hai
jab mod aaye toh bach ke nikalte hai
kitne ajeeb rishtey hai yaha pe
do pal milte hai saath saath chalte hai
kitne ajeeb rishtey hai yaha pe

yaha sabhi apni hi dhun main deewane hai
kare wahi jo apna dil ki hi mane hai
kaun kisko pooche kaun kisko bole
sabke labon par apne tarane hai
le jaye nasib kisiko kahape
kitne ajeeb rishtey hai yaha pe

khwaabon ki yeh duniya hai khwaaboh main hi rehna hai
raahen le jaye jaha sangh sangh chalna hai
waqt ne hamesha yaha naye khel khele
kutch bhi ho jaye yaha bas khush rehna hai
manzil lage kareeb sabko yahape
kitne ajeeb rishtey hai yaha pe
do pal milte hai saath saath chalte hai
jab mod aaye toh bach ke nikalte hai
kitne ajeeb rishtey hai yaha pe

A conversation between Lin and Karla in Shantaram

“That’s why I like you, you know.”

“I thought you did not believe in love.”

“What do you mean, love ?”

“I ..I thought thats what you were talking about.”

“No, I said that’s why I like you.” she said laughing and looking up at moon. “But I do believe in love, everyone believes in love.”

“I am not so sure. I think lot of people have stopped believing in love.”

“People haven’t stopped believing in love. They haven’t stopped wanting to be in love. They just don’t believe in a happy ending anymore. They still belive in love, falling in love but they know now that…that most romances almost never end as well as they begin.”

They say, it is western culture. They say love and feelings are present everyday and question the need to celebrate one particular day. They say it is all a great scam and hype by greeting card companies and other gift article producers.

I agree. But any reasoning does not justify opposing it or more importantly forcing others not to follow it. It is a western culture. So what ? If there are feelings everyday, you don’t buy gifts everyday, do you ? God, too, is present everywhere and is present everyday. Why do you go to temples in search of Him, then ? And why do you prepare sweets on His birthday and not everyday ? Scam by greeting card companies - to an extent, it might be true. But whom are you gifting anyways ! Most importantly, are these companies forcing you to buy them and beat you up if you don’t buy ?

Vivekananda said, all bad things will perish themselves and good things will stand by their own worth. Of course, there is a need of law, order and punishment, but what crime is expressing love ? I wonder about the time wasted to stop Valentine’s day by taking out morcha and by damaging stores, if used for some other purpose that would have helped other mankind and thus an oppurtunity to display the love to whole of mankind on Valentine’s day.

Love is such a beautiful feeling and I can not understand the motives of people who hate its celebration. According to me, celebration is important, no matter the reason behind it. Vivekananda also said:

Do not hate anybody, because that hatred which comes out from you must, in the long run, come back to you. If you love, that love will come back to you, completing the circle.

Happy Valentine’s day everyone and a hug from me.

While showing directions, why many of them, point towards left and say right or vice-versa.

For me, new year day or a festival has least significance. As many say, it is going to be one another day. Just after the clock strikes 12 in the night there is not going to be dramatic change in our lives or to this world. Only important day for me would be my birthday which is very different to me alone.

But, point is not that. Celebration and festivals are important. One simplest reason is that it provides a milestone and reminds us that time has indeed flown.[1] But important reason is that it brings so much diversity and colour to otherwise normal routine life. It might be just another day tomorrow, but today is something special. In preparation, in anticipation and in celebration lies little joys of life.

Sometimes, the forward I get would be related to what is going on in my mind. This time it hits it right on::

What does it cost to have a celebration….

A winter evening.
Four friends.
One barsaati.
Four glasses of chai.

Hundred bucks of gas.
A rusty old bike.
And an open road.

Maggi noodles.
A hostel room.
4.25 a.m.

3 old friends.
3 separate cities.
3 coffee mugs.
1 internet messenger.

Rain on a hot tin roof.
Pakoras deep-frying.
Neighbours dropping in.
A party.

You and mom.
A summer night.
A bottle of coconut oil.
A head massage.
Gossiping about absent family members.

You can spend
hundreds on birthdays,
thousands on festivals,
lakhs on weddings,
but to celebrate
all you have to spend is your Time.

Yes, time is what we need to spend. But unless something forces us to do it, we would not. Thus it is important to celebrate everything - from small achievement to big festival.

[1] I am sure most of us will remember the previous year of the same festival/day and think how soon we have come here and say “it was just yesterday..that it happened..” I often think, that speed is because we can condense the series of normal days to one. There is nothing to remember about them. If we had 365 separate special days [as in festival days] where in each day would make us remember it, next year event would not look as yesterday.

Why do “Indian” drivers honk more - when unnecessary and when it is not going to help ?

I saw this documentary (Link via: Scoble) “The other side of outsourcing” for Discovery done by Thomas Friedman (of “The world is flat” fame).

It is a must watch. I will just document/summarize what I saw and what are my reactions to it.

On one hand I was feeling very proud to be a part of a nation that is giving nightmares to the people of the wealthiest and mightiest country. On the second, when the documentary focuses on the other side, the other side that is disturbing, it saddens me. But not before I say to myself, it is all going to change and change has started already.

Let me go in the sequential manner as the documentary. Few minutes into it, I was utterly disappointed. For it seemed to think the outsourcing and BPO is reduced to call centers only. (About this particular topic, I will remind myself again that I have to document my thoughts and to link some really good links I have seen.) BPO is not just that. It sort of highlights the rosy picture of call center as lot of disposable time and lot of disposable money. Even though the other face of it was releaved, it could have been done in a more profound way. Well, there are lot of factors in call centers and no justice could be done in a short documentary.

Also at one point it greatly assumes that outsourcing is causing the westernisation. Agreed that there is money inflow and imitation is easier but the fuss about Valentine day celebration and other minor fears of westernization is not a result of outsourcing. What I mean to say is, outsourcing and westernisation as byproducts of globalisation stand at a same hierarchy, if not anything else but not definitely that latter is the cause of the former. These talk of “valentines day is bad, it is western”, “we gave KS to world but what should remain indoor should remain indoor” are opinions of certain individuals and do not represent the opinion of all. What I fear is that, given the wide audience of the channel/site, Indians will again be stereotyped to certain individual’s thoughts, just as many foriegners even today think India is a land of snakes, elephants and beggars.

Let me not digress and get on with documentary. It revolved around Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore !!) and captured the best and worst of it – but nothing particular to Bengaluru. The observations would apply to any other city as well. TF did an interview with U R Ananthamurthy, but nothing great worth mentioning about it. Then it shows RSS [not syndication, but a group of culture guardians] drills and some interviews with them. One observation is noteworthy – “World has become a market and humans are reduced to consumers.”

I was astonished to know 54% of Indian population is less than 20 years of age. So India’s face tomorrow will be literally the face of today’s youth.

As an example of glocalisation, TF mentions jadooworks. I must confess I came to know about it only now. There as a part of stress handling, employees undergo Yoga everyday. They not only employ artists to do animation on computers but also are preserving cultural heritage by creating an animated series on Krishna. Along with service industries, BPOs etc, these are the companies Americans should be afraid of , as they can steal the work from right under their noses. They can protest and get a bill sanctioned against outsourcing, but how can they stop the creativity and quality provided by companies such as these which are “creating” content as against servicing for them.
You should see the confidence to believe in Rajesh Rao of Dhruva Interactive, a gaming company. He affirmed, what we are seeing is just tip of iceberg and that tomorrow, India is going to be a super power. “We are going to RULE”.

As against the confidence of the hot blood, was the words of wisdom, experience and maturity by Aziz Premji, richest person in India. He declared the truth that we need to co-exist in this global market and that is only helpful to all of us.

Any dignitary visit to Bengaluru wont be completed without visits to two companies that are originally responsible to put India on a world map this faster. Wipro and Infosys. Rightly TF felt the Infy campus looked like a luxurious resort of Caribbean. He has not seen other buildings of Infy yet, like in Mysore etc, and he could take back a list of tourist spots in India to contain visits only to these campuses !

TF briefly spoke to Nandan Nilekani of Infy, Aziz Premji of Wipro and Ramesh Ramanathan of Janagraha.

I did not find the fears of Vimochana valid. They were only emotional and did not have right answers to TF. What villages need is better hygiene, better facilities (health education etc) but not the attitude “that cities are good only because you are used to it, villages will also be good if you get used to this”.

It saddens to see that there exists a completely different world just less than 2 hours journey from Bengaluru. The place which is calm, which does not have basic necessities like running water, health, education. [Quite ironically they have fresh air to breathe as against they do in Bengaluru]. This is not general to any one city. In India (I don’t know outside), there is a great polarisation/concentration at cities. I feel this will be the biggest problem of tomorrow. Unless the wealth, facilities and population does not spread evenly, we can not claim to have developed. Unless that happens, even when we project the glory of cities, at the back of our mind we realise that there is darkness in villages. Unless that happens we can not really smile and say “India is shining.” This is where people like Mohan Bhargav (Swades) can make a difference. So I was totally surprised when the documentary ended with such an example. It gave this entire documentary a great facelift and it answers the apprehensions of the wealth generated not being used properly. It is an initiative by Abraham George who has funded a school Shanti Bhavan out of his savings of working abroad/MNC. The students there are completely at ease with computers. One girl even beat TF in speed and who would mind losing to the children!

The smiles and hopes of these children gave a beautiful look to the entire documentary. Last few scenes just arrest you and you smile back as if you are acknowledging, “Tomorrow is going to be a great and happy day, for you, for me and for the entire world”.

Ps: I have immense respect to all the people whose names I have mentioned, just that I skipped “Mr” everytime.
I apologise for any wrong references/credits.
I am begging time to allow me to read World is flat.

My Engg final sem project was Burst Spectrum Analyser. The input would be small meaningful signal bursts buried in constant high frequency noise. The burst is also going to appear at a particular frequency (regular interval) and its resonant frequencies.

Well, when I look at my blogging frequency pattern, I am always reminded of that signal pattern. When I blog for few days there would be constant posts and then there would be complete silence for sometime. Right now I am going through former phase

The reasons are many..it is completely snowing in US and hence there are less meetings. Less (or no) meetings means less work. So I am relatively free. My colleague is so free (and frustrated) that he backed up his huge data, formatted the entire disk, reinstalled OS and other programs and copied back the backed up data. Good choice if someone is not addicted to reading blogs/blogging!

The other reason is that there is lot of festive mood in the office. All activities and movement. Office work has taken a backseat(except for critical ones) and all are having fun. Colourful office with balloons, decorations, banners, posters, Christmas tree and what not everywhere. More details later.

And the most important reason is that….I could not hold it any longer and requested for net access in office..and so there!

Role reversal
Still in the hangover about the contents of my previous post.
It perfectly demonstrated the opposite of what they had to convey. Mena had to call names and thus cease to remain nice after getting upset over a comment in the backchannel. It is very natural to get agitated when one points a finger at you. But Ben did do it in a nice way. Even his further posts and reply to comments show that he was not reacting rashly but adressing calmly.
Say good
If one just reports an event(like what media is expected to do), there would not be any one trying to contradict him(apart from some people whose only aim in life is to contradict/oppose what the other person says). But as soon as you start opining, as long as you are taking positions, when ever you give verdicts, opposition is bound to happen. And even there, if a product is bad to people and you say it is good, not as many people would oppose you (actually they would want to but will not have patience to do so), as they would if you say a product is bad, when it is good to them.
So if you want to please all, never say anything bad about anything. Even if you think it is not alright, just say what is right and close. I have been doing this most of the times unless I have great urge to make clear of my stand.
Drawing the line
When I look at the all the latest controversies, like Khusboo, Sania, moral policing in Chennai regarding dance club/outing, dress code in colleges, bar dancers’ , closure of night shows before some time, against celebration of Valentine’s day in Mumbai and any such ones, it is all about “Drawing the line”. What one thinks as the “height” might not be it for someone else. Then the arguments begin.
Where it should be drawn is a BIG question. Bigger questions are Why and Who should do it.

I had been intending to ask this…why do I sometimes wake up just a minute before alarm would shout ?

Answer is here.