The Mushroom Cloud

For God and Country

2010-10-02T18:47:00.002+05:30

"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence."

-- Mahatma Gandhi

For an article that begins with a quote from Mahatma I must continue, for the moment, on a a more personal note.

It is that point in time when I must decide what I want to do with my life and who to do it for. I know I can be a good engineer. Than again I can be ambitious, I can be aggressive, tactical and business minded and with all that I might make myself a good earner. But what should I do to become a good man?

I want to be well off, financially. But I'm hesitant to go abroad for it; one of the reasons being that I want to contribute to my country, maybe even a little, doing what I do for a living. I want to use my talents for my own country's betterment than for any other nation no matter the paycheck. Or is that too naive a thing to ask for?

So what if I do stay in this country? How unselfish do I have to be to give anything at all to my country. I can be a partner to one, a friend to a few and charitable to a handful but what will I be to a billion and more? Whatever I contribute, will that not dilute to nothing in an ocean of selfishness and corruption? Or is it perhaps lack of confidence in my own skills that I should be fearful to try my luck in India if offered. I look up to Gandhi and I see a man who gave his entire being to his ideals, ideals which leveraged my country out of madness at at dark time.

I also have some principles that I live by. But whether these are ideals is something I should discover in life. Either way I stick to my principles to the best of my effort with faith that time shall polish the rougher ones. Which brings me back to the question: What principles should I adopt in my career. I have a strong driving force besides ambition: the wish to give my parents a full and well life. They've sacrificed a lot for me and I want to do the same for them. Yet, even when my mother wishes me to chase a career abroad I hesitate. I tell my mother that a fine life is to be had in our own country as doubt and ambition kick so mildly at my heart.

On this day I wish that I can find in myself a few sparks of Gandhi's wisdom, that it may quench my withering faith in a nation that can be as great as it wants to be but which has lost its way , forgetful of the path that lead to now.

"One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds."

How Avatar blew my brain more than my mind

2009-12-20T16:43:00.006+05:30

This is not a review of Avatar; I can't write one up until I've seen it properly. This is a bit of advice for my spectacled friends - Wear your 3D glasses over your specs.

Sadly I didn't know this until much later into the movie. At first I didn't use my specs at all but then I noticed how the image was a lot sharper with them on (over the 3D eye gear). But a bit later into the movie when they started showing subtitles for the Na'vi dialogue I noticed how the text was a bit split. I took off my specs to realize that the images on screen had a much more profound 3D effect than what I was seeing. But as handicapped as I am with short sightedness I had to choose between immersive 3D and image focus. I chose the latter.

All the while I didn't experiment with wearing my 3D glasses over my specs coz I feared I might tear them, a possibility that had been haunting me since I first heard they were made of paper. The result was that I was stuck somewhere between 2D and 3D, the scenes which looked 2D to be seemed mucn more impressive (but blurred) with my specs off. Half was through the movie the headache started and by the climatic battle scene I was taking my specs on and off in an effort to catch the full effect Cameron aimed to deliver. Add to that I had to twist my spine to have my head down at the request of the guys sitting behind me which resulted in simultaneous back pain and ass numbedness. The lack of an intermission didn't help.

After the movie, while my friends were mounting awe on the movie I had a hard time orienting myself. It was getting worse. By the time I got home I felt like somebody had shot my avatar in the head! Add to that the desperation in finding out that I could have gotten away with wearing the 3D glasses on top, I couldn't stand up straight anymore. The hours followed were submersed in more headache and ill colored semi-asleep iterations of the movie. A good 24 hours after the movie, the giddiness still persists... Sigh! I shall be visiting the cinema again, this time ready to live Avatar than be almost killed by it!

Morals:

1)Wear your 3D glasses over your specs, and
2) Don't over-hype (Credits: Unni and parents)

Superman's Secret

2009-12-02T01:19:00.004+05:30

Been a while since I flexed my Inkscape muscles... I'll let the picture speak for itself (Click to view larger version):

Please leave comments!

What I want to do with My Life

2009-12-01T13:58:00.003+05:30

Tomorrow I'll be in the sixth semester of my B.Tech course. If it were a few years ago I'd have been facing the first waves of campus recruitment. But thanks to the recession this extravaganza has been shifted to final year. Either way I feel like I'm nearing a crossroad in my life; numbered are the days before I get pushed out of the nest.

I've always been a day dreamer; I wanted to be scientist when I was a kid, an inspiration that rooted from countless episodes of 'Dexter's Laboratory'. And then +2 happened. That's when I broke up with Math; we've never been too close since. All through the years, however, I kept a burning passion for cinema within me. So a couple of years ago, when I joined college I was fixated on pursuing that road. But as I delved deeper into my studies I started liking the subject more and more and I decided I should be an engineer (Yeah, it took that long!). I also started feeling like I should do something helpful, something unselfish and humanitarian. But my passion was met with severe blows from my grades; No matter how much I absorbed my studies or however much I meditated on the tiniest detail my grades were underwhelming.

I do this thing where I imagine myself to be awesome whenever I'm feeling down - I escape to that fantasy world... no, not that one (not always :P). So that's where I found myself during those months between the really disappointing result and the new and improved one. That means all the illusory ambitions came surging back. But never at any point in my life have a lost sight of reality completely. The hardships my father faced in his career are perhaps my life's greatest lessons so far. So much so that the prudent, cautious, no-risk guy that I am was cast in the heat of these lessons. But even that wouldn't shape me into a padipist. No. Learning is a sport, not getting good grades. Bly me the day I forget that.

So here is my dilemma - I want to dive but still have land beneath my feet. The dream, to do something I love and be rewarded for it. But what do I love? I'm not sure. Its scary because the clock is ticking and I'm just standing there staring.

Man proposes, Google disposes

2009-11-30T14:05:00.003+05:30

I've been a regular at IMdB.com for a few years now. One of their news sources is a website known as 'Studio Briefing'. Recently they posted this message on the site, the key excerpts of which are:

"To draw revenue from the blog, we initially included ads from Google Adsense, and to help attract attention to it, we purchased ads ourselves from Google AdWords that appeared on related entertainment-industry websites. But a few months after we launched we received a boilerplate notification from Google that StudioBriefing.net had been "disabled" because it did not comply with Google policies. The notice was vague, failing to specify which policies we had violated. We have been trying to obtain an explanation ever since, without luck.

We have repeatedly asked Google to explain its decision and to provide guidance on how to bring StudioBriefing.net into compliance with its policies. Our messages have either been ignored or we have received copies of their original boilerplate notifications.

We are in no position to battle Google on this. And without StudioBriefing.net being included in Google search results we cannot draw sufficient readers to remain viable. We are therefore left with no alternative but to shut down."

Wow! First off all I don't know the reason for Google's decision but a company having to shut down because of Google's verdict alone... Isn't that monopolistic? As many search engines as there are, not one of them has touched Google's toes; their product is so good that we're slaves to it?!

Unlike Microsoft, Google has worked a certain charm with its users; while every BSOD makes Windows users hate MS more and more, every day saving search result makes Google that much more lovable. And with competition converging as they step on each other's feet with Bing and Chrome OS a clash of the titans is in forecast.

But Google needs competition and lots of it; to keep them on their toes and to protect the ordinary netizen. Karl Marx was right after all...

The Last Housewife

2009-11-28T19:45:00.004+05:30

The new generation of girls make pretty lousy housewives; there's no easier way to say it.

I don't think I know a single modern day wife that keeps up a household with the same amount of dedication and detail as, say, my mother (a very high benchmark btw). For eg. there are houses where the wife (nor the husband) cooks. They hire somebody to do the same... But its a whole different feeling if someone serves you food with love. I'm not suggesting that wives should subordinate to their husbands or give up their interests, passions and independence in doing so. Then again balancing a job, housekeeping, kids etc. together is a difficult task indeed. It requires a certain sacrifice.

When my neighbor got married, he asked his wife to quit her (IT) job and take up a new one near his residence; a typical arrangement these days, but a sad one especially considering that girls almost always have better scores than boys (from personal experience!). 'Why should the woman have to relocate? Why can't she pursue her own ambitions?...' All reasonable questions but with difficult or no answers. Also this dilemma affects middle families more I think especially with IT and BPO channeling workforce more from this class than any other. The nature of such work can be blamed; too often lately I hear stories of how the husband and wife hardly see each other coz they have to work overtime to keep their jobs.

What happened to the age old model of men going to work and women staying at home doing their chores? Its obsolete; its being replaced but by a less effective trend. Ours is a culture evolved over centuries, through trial, error and insightful correction. Now its being hastily shoved aside by winds of change from a younger and much less experienced western thought.

Its concerning, or maybe I've been spoiled by my mother, the best mother eva! \m/

K.U: On 6th Gear

2009-11-27T05:42:00.004+05:30

Finally my University exams winded up yesterday after much nerve wracking. S5 was the busiest sem so far despite being light on the syllabus but judging by previews of next sem's curriculum I don't think we'll be spared the same grace.

I like college and not just for the frivolity; I actually like what I'm learning there: electronics, social skills and people. But that's just fun during the normal "steady state" working days - the not-so-carefree-yet-not-so-busy times sandwiched between exams or the sort. Unfortunately however Kerala University stepped their game up starting with our batch.

When we were in first year they just wanted to finish the sem and conduct the exams on time without any delays. And they did, a monumental achievement considering the history of the University. But they didn't stop there; they accelerated; they went from sticking with the schedule to flipping it over and f*cking it in the rear!

To put it lightly our next sem does something like...

"Improvement in December
Lab exams in January
First series in February
Second one in March
GATE Exams in between
And final years we are!"

And that's after having left out the mini project (didn't rhyme too well). All this is to say that my precious "steady states" are gone and replaced with a horde of spikes. Or rather we're pushed to raise the bar as well. Again, I like electronics but writing an exam on it and especially a K.U exam is nightmarish. Its more of a gamble than gambling itself; you think one thing and the examiner... doesn't think at all.

But spikes mean minimas as well. And I'm having one right now albeit a very short one. Better make the most of it. They have this legend in K.U - nobody know if its real or not but everyone loves it because it is a legend that brings us hope, fills our heart with joy and promises our souls to kingdom come. That my friends is the legend of Sem-break... the legend of Sem-Break.

ISRO to partner with KSRTC

2009-11-22T07:58:00.009+05:30

Trivandrum: The Indian Space Research Organisation to borrow technology from Kerala State Road Transport Corporation for its moon exploration vehicle on India's own mission to the moon.

The inspiration came to ex-Director Dr. G Madhavan Nair last year when his convoy passed by Bakery Jn. last year. While his foreign-made luxury car was being molested by the road Dr. Nair noticed how KSRTC buses didn't seem to mind the relentless gutters at all. He was amazed at the durability of the large vehicles (the buses) in such terrains over such prolonged periods of time (Some of the buses are in fact older than the good man himself which partly explains why he was seen bowing to the mechanical marvels the other day). He immediately took measures to form a partnership with the Corporation in collaborating to work on the 'ChandraRover'.

"The roads in kerala simulate the lunar surface wonderfully if not slightly overly. In fact any vehicle capable of traversing these roads will find the Moon to be a cheelu case." Dr. Nair said resorting to the local dialect. "KSRTC has long standing experience in GONADS (Gutter Oriented NAvigation Detection and Simulation). Moreover the technology is completely indigenous. My only regret is that we didn't identify the great potential any sooner". His announcement has created ripples in the space community. The director of NASA Mr.Google-him-yerself was reported saying "We give up; We're no match for India's GONADS."

ISRO scientists also mounted praise on the Kerala PWD and the Govt. of Kerala for realizing the "lunar roads" with such remarkable degree of precision and to scale. Kerala's Chief Minister Shri. V.S Achuthananthan accepted the regards and forwarded them citing that "this iiiiis onlyyyyy a samplllle of our engineeeeeeers' capaacity. Centre must give us more money".

However all response has not been positive. China has raised claims that certain portion of Kerala are in fact parts of China which broke away millions of years ago and they want it back. The Chinese Ambassador for India addressed the Govt. thus: "To hell with Assam, we want Kerala now". The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh retaliated back: "China should have thought twice before establishing world class civil infrastructure. This is unfair. I'm going to tell Obama. Cutti".

Dr Madhuvidhu, a respected strategist and part time rocket scientist remarked: "All things considered we should be able to escape to the moon if China attacks."

PS: I made this shit up. Don't sue.

Windows 7

2009-11-14T13:47:00.005+05:30

Just saw yet another pro Mac video and this time on Facebook. Fact is, almost every ad/video/campaign that promotes mac does so by bashing on Windows. Isn't that just... sad.

Anyone who's ever heard the terms Windows and Mac know for a fact that Windows systems any other by a very "safe" margin. Sure, it has its flaws but millions of users don't use it for the flaws alone. So it would seem that Apple and its followers are trying to snatch users from Windows; an approach not very different from pre-elective campaigning in our country.

Windows haters I believe have a condition similar to the 'Titanic syndrome'; "its the movie they love to hate but in the process they're carving total idiots out of $1.8 billion of viewers. Same goes for Windows, Microsoft and numero uno, Bill Gates.

I've switched to XP to Windows 7 lately and for GOOD. I love it! I had completely avoided Vista. So a lot of things were new for me. To be honest Vista had pretty bad reviews almost everywhere. Even our vendor wouldn't recommend it. But 7's been getting some nice reviews. I'm not a pro, but after almost a month of using it I can definitely say its better than XP in every way I looked. The innovations in GUI are particularly good. Performance wise it has much better boot up and shut down times that Windows XP (64 bit with SP2) and applications run faster.

For the record I've used Mac OS X (Kalyway, the hackintosh version). It does look good and in many ways is better than XP, which I had at that time. But I for one would never solely rely on it. Why? Availability of applications is why. So there might be geek mythos of how MS "played it dirty" and it might be true but fact remains that Windows has a much better selection of software than any other OS. To prove my point lets play a game: Try naming the most number of major games available for Mac and Windows?

So when I feel like designing PCBs on industry standard software I have to go for Windows. That is a very specific requirement but it settles the case for me.

Why can't everything be like Facebook?!

2009-09-02T10:04:00.002+05:30

Facebook is so cool. And half the reason is that you get everything in one place. Normally, for most online services you'd have to go - *Click, click click, type type type*... "Oh, No reply :("; but with facebook all you have to do is... log in! I love how they've combined so many different types of content into a single stream. And I don't even have to scroll down the page to know the status of my "stream". Facebook has 'Notifications' for that. Its so convenient that I've been thinking 'Why can't everything be like this?'

And by everything I mean everything as in possibly every facet of the internet! I've discussed a very similar scenario before. Imagine this: I blog something, send an email, subscribe to a channel on Youtube etc. After a while I'd want to follow up; I wanna see if anyone's posted a comment on my blog, if there's a reply to my mail and if there's any new videos on my favorite channel. But I'm too lazy to remember what to check for and even if I remember I don't wanna do all the clicking and typing all over again. Spoiled net addict I am.

So the solution would be to have some kind of web service hook up to my Blogger, Gmail and Youtube accounts and update me on the fly. Everything can come in a single stream just like Facebook. Hell, I won't have to goto each service in the first place. I could just click which type of content I want to use now, say email and then I'd get the appropriate forms. If it be a blog post, then a blog form, just like the different kinds of content you can post on your wall in facebook. That's a nice idea right? I've even come up with a name for it: SpoonFeed!

Then again, this does sound a bit like Yahoo! Pipes but Pipes can't log in to different accounts can it? Its just mashes up content, we can't post back. And then there's Adobe AIR applications like Seesmic which looks promising. But its not compatible with that many accounts. That's another thing - if such a system should emerge and become popular then a standardised protocol, both incoming and outgoing, should emerge for the different types of content despite their source. Like if SpoonFeed is to access video content on Youtube and Metacafe, then both services should offer a standard method for sending updates to SpoonFeed.

Hmm... did I just re-invent the web browser? :D

SpoonFeed... ha ha! Btw, where do I patent this.... :|

What we're missing for Onam...

2009-09-01T21:16:00.002+05:30

So now everyone's going 'onam is dead... our culture is going to the dogs... blah blah' which means it is no longer fashionable for me to talk about it :P. Instead, I'll contradict!

Onam isn't dead, it has merely... changed or dare I say, evolved. Its still a happy time, its still colorful, still a festive season, only the festivities have changed. All those Onam games and stuff are dying out and people who once had it miss it badly. But I never had those; I grew up on Onam offers, city lights and the holidays. So that's what heralds Onam for me. If one day these things should occur out of season I'd immediately go 'yet another Onam...'. That is not to say that if I had a chance to take part in good ol' fashion Onam celebrations , I wouldn't take it. I'd be glad to have that. But right now I really don't know what I'm missing.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Onam is just a time for markets to warm up. But what if it is so? Is that really something to be upset about? People get bonuses, they spend it goods, the merchants are happy... its win win win for everyone! So Onam's still a jolly time but what's concerning is how we're having fun. Those old traditions had something to them that we're lacking now. Harmony, selflessness, unity... even when I see those practices on TV, fake or not, it does give me a heavy feeling... "A few generations still and I might never see it again..."

Wish I were in...

2009-08-31T11:54:00.006+05:30

I've always had stuff floating around in my head - stories, images, characters, speeches, inventions... stuff I've never told anyone about. Sometimes I even imagine myself at a talk show, communicating all this stuff to devoted ears (I'm very charismatic in my day dreams).

But the sad truth (sad to me actually) is that there is no one I can talk to about this stuff. I've my set of friends and colleagues, my gang and stuff and all that's fun but I don't really have that peculiar set of people I can share all the wacky stuff with. It wasn't always like that. For a while there was Unni, Azeem and occasionally Anand and Punja who could hear me out and and not go "So who'll be taking him to a Oolampara*?". Ah, good ol' school days now long gone. I talk to Unni now and then but there's only so much of geeking out you can do over the phone and Azeem, I guess, lives in a world of his own.

Curious still, I don't think even the old gang would suffice now. That's not to belittle my friends at college; they're a different kind of fun and I'll miss them badly when college is done. Lately, I've been getting more philosophical, more abstract and detached, more often than before and I've always found myself wishing there would be some other mind I could just 'copy' all this stuff to. I've never been that good at talking or writing; language just isn't my forte. For some people the good words just pour out of them so spontaneously that its difficult to imagine their brain was involved. For musicians inspiration must come as sound; For me, it comes as images.
I figure that's why I take a linking to films and comics. Its a form of expression, but a very tiresome one. I'm too lazy to draw a picture to express myself. Blah!

And I' wary of criticism. I don't want to evade it, I just don't want there to be any. So you can say I' a perfectionist of sorts but that always gets in the way. So if I were to express myself, I want to do it freely, from my heart, raw, uninhibited and effortless.

Okay, enough beating about the bush... what I'm trying to say is, there should be a special someone for me and although I don't know who she is, I'm already missing her...

*Oolampara - Infamous local mental hospital.

A-Wah!-Tar

2009-08-21T00:06:00.003+05:30

Its here. The first official teaser trailer for Avatar. Is it bad ass? I honestly don't know.

Watching the trailer for the first time in a straight run didn't give me what they call a 'nerdgasm' and trust me I'd know!). WAs left with a funny feeling at the end - 'OMG did cameron mess up?'

Again, I don't know. Going through it again and now, taking my time with each frame... Dang, every frame has photo finish but still the funny feeling. Its not the uncanny valley, that's for Certain (Notice the capital C). Has JC made another valley; one no one knew ever existed. Is that where Avatar will take us after all this hype?

Maybe not. I think the feeling because they're too real and my mind has trouble adapting to their form; an alien in the flesh, caught on an HD cam. Its not a question of image quality, its one of strangeness... of unfamiliarity.

Even so, the worst cuts are the one which look like an exceptionally well done digital painting... but not a photo. The environment somehow messes up things. Never as kaleidoscopic as Transformers 2 though.

I need to see it again...

Trailer Teaser

2009-08-19T06:43:00.002+05:30

I came across the phrase yesterday while going through RottenTomatoes a couple of days ago. They were teasing Twilight fans with 16 seconds from the 'New Moon' trailer which released yesterday. Or in other words a trailer for a trailer.

This ain't the first time I've come across the tactic. MTV showed a few seconds of The Incredible Hulk teaser a day before it premiered on their website and channel. Eighty thousand geeks beat me to watch the video that day; a small figure next to what is to come when the trailer for Avatar premieres 2 days from now.

The messed up thing is that I'm chewing it up and I'm not alone! Movie trailers are a genre of their own. For two and a half minutes they're packing! Even unbelievably bad movies have insanely good trailers (something to be wary of for the uninitiated); guess they scrap the best parts in the trailer.I recently read somewhere that studios outsource their trailer work; they have friggin' specialists for this stuff!

I for one oft check for new ones. Despite the short runtime they're great time kill coz of the re-watchability. In fact most of the time you need to see it a couple of times to take it in. There have been times, like Ghost Rider, when I just finish the movie and wished that I'd just played back the trailer for 1.5 hours instead. For starters, here's how you do it:

1) Goto IMdB, RottenTomatoes, Yahoo! Movies or any other well updated movie portal of your choice (the more the merrier).

2) Scroll through the 'Coming Soon' page.

3) Search that sucka on Youtube or w/e.

And you're done.

Belated Independence Day Thoughts

2009-08-16T03:41:00.004+05:30

Aha! My 100th post, here at long last. Yay! Now, onto the topic at hand:

Why are we not proud of ourselves? Some fine examples would be 'Indians at the Olympics? What a waste of time?!' or 'Indian Railway trains on time?! F*ck me sideways!' (Actually, they do come on time more often now and then).

Some of us are so full of pathos when we refer to our country, institutions, history etc etc. Yet, we speak as if not one of those has anything to do with us. 'India- a global power? Pfff, yeah right!' - that's you and me you f*cking moron! before we go any further I must admit that I'm so insightful about the topic coz I used to be (and still kind of am) one of those lamers who bitch about everything and yet do nothing about it. So this could be some kind of letting-it-out-of-the-system but hey... free speech right!

But its not just not being appreciative of the right things but being excessively jolly about the wrong things that gets on my nerves. I, for one, don't/have stopped doing that. Like one of those crappy attempt-at-patriotic videos flying around in YouTube and even in TV which play something like 'Vinod Dham... father of the Pentium processor' with emphasis on his Indian roots. Agreed, he may have contributed a great deal to making the Pentium but what on earth has that to do with his ethnicity. Its not like a coconut fell on his head and he had the idea but an apple wouldn't have done the trick.

Then there's quality control. You know how, for example, imported chocolate is so much better than the recast Bournvita we get here. But then again we pay that much less. Why can't indigenous quality meet competitive pricing? Sometimes a huge part of M.R.P accounts for nothing I should think. I recall hearing something about a local baby apparel manufacturer whose product sold at 4 times the price at a very highbrow shop. It goes that the shop owner would put the product on sale only if it sold at 4x price and he'd get 3x margin. That is to say that the guy was banking on 'the costlier the better' mantra of his customers. Looks to me like everyone's just trying to rip off each other.

What would it take to inspire justice? Justice to one another? In the absence of competition the craftsmen puts the price on his craft and what's there to halt his greed? A sense of oneness perhaps... a wider vista of social thinking... patriotism, dare I say? Are we to be herded by communists than by the spirit and sacrifice of our forefathers? I say, the price of freedom is exercising it wisely.

Belated Independence Day wishes.

Special Effects

2009-08-15T22:24:00.002+05:30

For a while now I've been reflecting on the possibilities of pursuing a career in special effects, so much so that I've come to the conclusion that a B.Tech in (Electronics and ) Instrumentation might help coz, after all, the camera is an instrument... of sorts... I think.

I've always loved cinema but the more I dived into it the more I came to realize that its way difficult than it looks. Also I happen to be taking my engineering subject more seriously lately. That is to say, I'm kind of in love with Electronics (except when it comes down to getting the damn circuits to work). So I thought to myself 'What could be a compromise between the two...?'. And tadda: FX work it is.

And now, digression: James Cameron's Avatar is just a few months away and up until the last Comic-Con everyone was almost convinced that it'd break the uncanny valley. But the feedback from Comic-Con was a bit less positive than the hype with the general notion being that the technology used doesn't make you go 'Wow! as in the first time you saw a CG dinosaur' (-AICN) but rather its 'an evolutionary step (for the technology) rather than a revolutionary one' (-some other website). Many claimed that although the CG was awesome they could still tell CG from the real thing.

Being the semi-geek I am I was a bit disappointed at the feedback at first. But lately I've been thinking - If CG becomes so uncanny that it can replace the real thing then where's the magic in it? And I'm not just talking about actor performances here, which, although would come under fire can never truly be replaced by any computer for a safe while. Camera effects. animatronics, stunts and stuff are prone to fall to obsoletion sooner.

CG is no longer savvy, so why sacrifice the good stuff to it? I remember when they still showed the 'making of' certain movies on TV. It was always exciting to watch them play with puppets, goo, paint and masks while with CG there was always the green screen or the blue shape which gets digitally replaced in the end. I looked so... monotonous... so easy. That's not to say CG is bad altogether, but the levels of it have become almost unbearable (Transformers anyone?). Soon they'll be making movies without cameras even!

Oh, they have that....

Hmm... its funny that I should think of it only when my new found ambition is at stake.

The Cradle of Politics

2009-08-12T19:50:00.008+05:30

You know how people hang around with a special bunch of people; your 'crowd' or 'gang' or whatever. I've been trying to recall when that started... I mean when did we start grouping up? I guess it was during the primary classes - fourth standard particularly coz that's when they split up boys and girls. I remember looking at the 'all-boy' bench in envy, wishing I could join their ranks of... I dunno... "manliness"!

After the split it was like 'Girls... eww... uck!' for a few years till the hormones kicked it. Maybe it was my super shyness, complex or even... chivalry (!) that I didn't get aboard the 'Woo' train with all the other boys. And now, in my college years I think the ladies play a more pivotal role than ever coz it seems to me that almost everything that everyone's doing is to get their attention.

They say there are 3 stimulants to war: 1) Money 2) Land and 3) Women. Apparently we don't have 1) and 2). And 3), to lay it out frankly , no guy could desist reputation among the ladies. But sadly things are just the other way around; certain ladies are the one's having "reputation" among boys. Once in a while quite a few go 'Oh there goes ---- chechi... '. Trust me, I've seen it way too many times.

We're always trying to 'land it' with girls in whatever way we can. Ever notice how after every small joke or stunt boys take a quick glance to see if it had any impact on the females. (Just ignore 'em girls!). But the simple fact remains that, in our escapades, we almost always end up trying to impress on our fellow men that 'I've a better chance of getting some than you'. And from that (and many other) friction is born politics.

We're old enough and wise enough to know that there is no social standing without contacts and due favors. So we choose to be with the most tolerable bunch. Gangs are a special kind of fun by themselves, I admit, but its even more so coz we can cuss and defame our "enemies" together. Doing it alone is at least as risky as saying a dirty joke to a group of people you just met. Although it may not seem so every male complex at this age, to my humble thinking, is rooted in the race-to-alpha-maleness syndrome. I may be wrong but nevertheless our diplomatic, social and political skills are taking their baby steps at a very very accelerated pace.

...

Why else do you think I run this blog?! :P

Edit [14/08/08]: In the light of recent revelations by a friend of mine I'm convinced that these past musings of mine were more naive than I had suspected they'd be. It seems that conspiracy and corruption are no longer unfamiliar to my cohorts, if reports are to be believed. I guess the world is truly beyond my sense of evil!

Ambitions

2009-04-18T10:33:00.002+05:30

My sis has been waning for the past couple of days about how her choice of subjects for +1 may not be so career friendly. At times she even accuses me of not warning her Math was mandatory for taking MBA course. How the f**k was I supposed to know she wanted MBA? At the time she just wanted to get rid of science subjects (including math) and social studies. She went for the easiest option and landed herself in commerce and accountancy with fashion technology (and still no math). Now she gets all all depressed that her options at a career may be under some heavy constraint (including but not restricted to the price tag) and takes to blaming us for it!

Blah I've never paid much attention to her anyway (not something I'm proud of). Come to think of it I'm a bit confused about my own ambitions. I believe I'm good at electronics although fourth semester of B.Tech maybe a lil early to reach that conclusion. I want to get a job in a 'core company' as they call it, maybe Sony or the sort (I'm a fan of Japanese tech). Again I ask myself 'Where do I want to be ? What do I want to be known as?'. And I still want to be making a movie. Damn! But a while ago I had convinced or rather subdued myself to thinking that I'm only a (good?) spectator. And very recently 'The Alchemist' set me to never settle with the easiest option; a motivation which was washed away from a week of playing Age of Empires 3. So now I'm lagging in my studies. Hmm, technically I'm up to date but that may not be good enough coz I don't see them finishing the portions any time soon. Mybe all the easted time is forcing my subconscious to take resort in fanstasy, as it always does... Sigh!

A good movie would help take my mind off things. But I've records to write and a paper to present. I really doubt if the latter is going to happen. I should get to work.

Or play Warchiefs....

Slow Death

2009-04-10T21:41:00.003+05:30

Somehow a box of sona papdi (or is it soan papdi) one day appeared in the kitchen. The process of its slow disappearance started off with dad sneaking in on it the first couple of days, which triggered some rather jolly making-fun-of. He's diabetic and for a very good reason as he himself admits; he and every one of his siblings just love sweets and diebetes is their correcting force. I always said I've never "digged" sweets that much anyway. That's at least part true and over the last week I've come to realize it might be less so than I had thought.

Turned out two-thirds the box's content went to my tummy after all and I loved it! Every bite found me a lil worried; having diabetes in the family puts me in the red zone and I can't afforrd to fall in love with sweets. face it: I'm not a health conscious guy but I'd prefer quick death to a hospital any day (the smell of 'em creeps me out)! And the things my grandmother has/had and is going through is unbearable just to listen to. "Obviously" I don't want that. This is the time to act but I still can't get myself to work out, at least a lil bit...

Women's Day

2009-03-08T04:20:00.005+05:30

Rosie the Riveter

Ah! Women's day is finally here!!! Don't get me wrong; I've been looking forward to blog on it for almost a year (ever since the last Women's day to be exact). Last year we had an essay writing competition of sorts related to Women's day (this year it turned out to be a full fledged celebration, more on that later). I really wanted to write something but.... I let it slip. Since then, time and then, I've been piling up "points" for another essay if they might do it again this year. A year later I can't make head or tail of the pile. So I guess I 'll start off with a very anti-feminist (sounding) quote:

"There are no feminists on a sinking ship."

What it means is that, if you haven't done so already, go ahead and watch 'Titanic' :) coz there you see women and children being prioritized for boarding the life boats rather than men. The statement simply suggests that none shall cling to feminism and ask that they be treated equal to men under such circumstances. A very good point to debate on but 'tis this I wonder: Isn't a question of human nature as whole rather than feminine nature alone? Let's be serious here, suppose it was "Mennism" (serious, serious) in place of feminism; would the "mennists" have acted differently? I think not.

I've never supported to extreme feminists, you know, the "Say NO to Men" types... that I'm not sure I've ever encountered in real life. Every female gets there even momentarily once the topic is open to debate. We all have tough times with people, a few of them no doubt, but a judgment borne out of such an experience may never be extended to a whole sect of people. I believe feminism is about equal rights for women and not equality of women and men. Hold on, don't blow the whistle. I'm not suggesting that women are lesser than men (or vice versa). How can anyone measure that?

Women are treated unfair the word over. The fact that I can't cite enough examples on the same is unfortunate if not shameful. It is my own shortcoming that I don't pay attention to news or even when I do it doesn't strike my memory as much as my sympathy. And sympathy without action is pitiful, I know. But then I bat my eye just the same over news on murders, accidents , poverty and hunger. I've never stood for any cause but neither am I against any of them.

Recently we had a debate on Women's rights in our class. At one point a boy suggested something that nearly amounts to "men can work in more difficult conditions and are capable of more difficult work owing to their superior physical strength.". This was met with a reply from one the girls who argued that "if it is physical strength that is needed then it can be met with by some machine; the mental strength of a woman is far greater". My own opinion: physical strength has always been an issue. Lets put it this was. Suppose a woman was attacked by a bunch of gang bangers; the only machine that can come to her aid (until RoboCop is invented) is perhaps a machine gun. Yes, male dominance is rooted on superiority of strength on an average. We read news about husbands turning their wives into punching bags but never the other way around. Female subversion has been tooled mainly by this aspect.

But what of the mind behind the tool? What drives men to deprive women of their rights? Is it some kind of fear or misplaced vanity? I cannot tell. Then what of the rapes, sexual exploitation and assaults? As for the former, I or any red blooded male ain't oblivious to the cause. But the drive that takes some men to these extremes is too criminal in nature. And assaults without sexual intent what so ever are just men taking unfair advantage of the aforementioned physical superiority to see their own ends. But policing can do only so much in a country like ours. The solution, if any, lies in fear of God and good will; not the iron gates to rest on I admit.

With women gaining, albeit slowly, the freedom they deserve there comes the concern that kept them inside the houses for so long.; the question of virtue. No doubt, globalization has played a significant role in grounding women's rights but with it comes blending of cultures. Perhaps in India remains the few places we can advocate feminism and chastity at the same time. Maybe its a personal opinion but I'm against pre-marital sex. Call me old fashioned but, setting the occasional infatuations aside, I strongly oppose men or women engaging in such relationships prior to marriage. Maybe its because I'm from the south. The cultural "revamp" is yet to percolate to hopeless extents. Can we not preserve social integrity and have equal rights for women at the same time? It seems women are placed responsible for their freedom may be more so than men.

Anyway, I've to wind up now. Maybe I can make myself an "I Love Women" T-shirt. But first, gotta catch Sarach Connor Chronicles. How feminist am I?! YEAH!

PS: For all those who wondered why there's isn't a Men's day, be at peace in knowing that there is one!

Error 1012

2009-02-27T22:18:00.002+05:30

Disclaimer: I don't usually post tech articles being quite naive on the subject myself but I felt that I must share this experience in case my fellow human has to go through the same. Its more of a where-to-look guide rather than a complete description of the solution.

Went through trying to install openSUSE 11.1 on a friend's laptop. Kept getting an Error 1012 whenever the installation tried partition the hard disk. Troubleshooting, Re-partitioning and a lot of head bashing ensued. Previous solutions, that was borne of numerous Google searches, was in vain. However, one such query led to the idea (or rather the fact) that Vista was to blame.

It seems that Vista needs the new partitions to be created by its own partition manager before installing Linux. Sounds easy enough. But the things is, and I'm to blame for this, out of practice I had formatted his previous Linux installation with Gparted, which means Grub is gone, Vista MBR is gone and no Recovery Environment available (being that they don't ship the Vista DVD with the laptop). Tinkered with the idea of using ms-sys, but didn't have any distro in hand with that package. Super Grub distro settled things finally.

To round it up, Vista handicaps Linux install, I screw Vista, Vista screws Linux and Linux saves the day!

Jai Ho!

2009-02-23T11:23:00.002+05:30

Whoa! 8 Oscars!!! I don't wish to be all negative here but was that one too many? :) Like I said, I wanted one of the biggies to go to Benjamin Button. But here we are. I'm pretty sure that a slew of haters is just bursting to break into the arena or has they already? Right now I'm not absolutely sure where I stand but I guess its a bit more towards Slumdog. Two Oscars for Rahman! Bly me! And Pookutty was very very good on stage being the first Malayali on the Oscar stage. loved Will Smith's expression the second time he opened the envelope for Slumdog Milionaire.

Overall it was a wonderful ceremony. My only slight grudge is Mickey Rourke not getting it. Then again, I haven't seen Milk. Should catch it soon along with Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Reader and Rachel Getting Married. Also Revolutionary Road dererved much more by my thinking. What a show!

Oscar Fever

2009-02-23T06:34:00.000+05:30

As of now the Oscars are live and happening. They'll be announcing the winners soon so I thought I should make my own predictions, however late. After all a weekend watching Oscar flicks should be worth a few words. The ones I did catch were Slumdog Millionaire, Doubt, The Wrestler, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Revolutionary Road and of course The Dark Knight and Wall E among, a widely resented title I must say, the lightweights.

I loved Revolutionary Road although some portion does make ones stomach turn, as Frank (DiCaprio's character in the movie) put it. Besides Kate Winslet's excellent performance or maybe even more than that I loved the direction. One could almost always tell what was on the characters' minds even without them uttering a word in that direction. Of course there was subtlety where there should be. DiCaprio also put on a wonderful performance albeit being overshadowed by Winslet's. Wanted to see The Reader but somehow couldn't make up my mind to deliver it a worthy audience.

Benjamin Button; the word I'm looking for is... Curious. That's what the movie is - nothing more, nothing less. I don't know why people try to make anything more out of a movie - some subtle implications, overtones, undertones, blah blah. If there were any it completely slipped me. The movie had a very good feeling about it with some fine performances by a sometimes CG most times real Brad Pitt and Taraji Henson. Although I'm very unfamiliar with the best supporting actress category I wish Henson does nab that one. Best special effects and make up are definitely locked. And as a major competition for Slumdog especially with respect to Best Director and Best Picture, this one's got me biting my nails. However I feel that it'd be plain unfair if Button doesn't get at least one of those.

Doubt had some great moments fabricated by the awesome awesome performance of Meryl Streep and equally important, yet somehow scarce run by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Amy Adams was also excellent. I gotta catch more movies of her, other than Enchanted (Saw it). It felt more like a short story than a full fledged film, never straying far from the central theme.

The Wrestler had some great moments although it didn't hit me as much [;)] when I first saw it. It deserved at least as much. Following the week I saw The Wrestler, every sad moment however slight found me resounding with Randy 'The Ram'. Its a movie that I come to appreciate not by watching it but by relating to it. Maybe if I were (much) older the effect would have been more ingrained. I really wish I could've caught 'Milk'. It would have been interesting to pit Penn against Rourke. Its resentful that the film didn't get nominations for best picture and director.

And finally Slumdog.... Slumdog, Slumdog. I could write pages, yet I never did. To me Slumdog is like a girlfriend who became famous overnight leading me to jealousy, frustration and strained love. The thing is, I took note on the movie long before anyone gave a rat's ass. I followed up on every little news that came out, but somewhere along the line I bat my eye, turned my head a little, just for a moment and when I looked again I realised that she had been nabbed away and I like everyone else had to crowd around in cheering. When I finally saw the movie I was taken instantly by the direction but not by the movie itself. I loved the performance by the cast, especially Anil Kapoor. What a show! But the climax did fall short of the bar set by the rest of the movie. Not that I didn't see it coming but nggg... I don't know. About India and the movie I agree strongly with the opinion that any other backdrop wouldn't have had the same effect. Like one of my firends said 'Who'd want to see a millionaire from the slums of London?' :P. And there's just about 'about India' in it for us Indians to cheer it on. However Slumdog Millionaire is not an achievement of Indian filmmaking (excepting Rahman's and Pookutty's nominations) or is it. I'm sure Danny Boyle didn't know where to look when he landed in Mumbai. Someone had to show him. That's a credit I, oblivious to the truth, am gonna bestow upon co-director Loveleen Tandan. More on it later.

The Ceremony is about to start and off I go. Here's my predictions:

Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director Danny Boyle/David Fincher
Best Supporting Actor: Duh!

and of course A.R. Rahman for Best Original Song.

And I should probably go to...

Smileys

2009-02-15T21:27:00.002+05:30

Its funny how a simple picture at the end of a message can really lighten up things. Even when you're throwing shit at someone via text, adding a smiley makes all the difference in the world; like when I say 'You're an idiot :P' its much much more acceptable than simply 'You're an idiot.'. The effect is hardly restricted to text. Even when you're having a conversation a good smile always eases delivery. And yet I hardly ever smile around people.

Sure, I laugh at the funny stuff but never really smile at anyone. Its mainly coz I don't like my own smile and I tell myself 'How can you expect anyone to like that?'. As always inferiority complex kicks in. I'd do anything to be able to deliver a wonderful smile. Hmm... come to think of it, I don't mind a better chin, shinier skin and prominent hair. Are you reading this God?! :D

Signing out before philosophy kicks in....

The Debt

2009-02-10T06:48:00.005+05:30

My mother is the most hard working person in our family. She gets up at early everyday, cooks us breakfast, packs my tiffin (the richest tiffin in variety and flavor, consistently since kindergarten), maintains a very tidy house, washes my clothes, does the dishes... I can't even begin to put it all here. Now and then she does complain about not having a servant or maybe when don't give her. Two thirds of the day she is working; she burns out all he energy on us and its heart rending to see her go to bed all exhausted with only another day of the same tedium to anticipate.

When I got into higher secondary my father's job demanded that he move to Bangalore. So for one year my mother was left with governance of the family. And my mother was never able to rope me to my studies as much as my father, that is to say I stopped studying altogether! Like many others I was also admitted to several tuition classes which meant I would have get up at 4:30 on four out of five weekdays. But my mother had it worse; these tuitions were so inconveniently placed at three corners of the map with my house in the middle so that my mother had to drive me there by car (She had to take driving classes during my post board exam vacations to do the same). She would get up an hour in advance, start with the cooking, prepare a hot bath, fix me breakfast and would wake me, always saving an extra five minutes for me to sleep. I would get up, brush my teeth, have the bath , down some food and get in the car and I'd be in my class, never late. All that was expected of me was that I just sit down and study. But I didn't; I spent the easiest part of my life during those days at the expense of my parents toil. I can spent a million bucks for a week's stay at the most luxurious hotel and yet it won't be as terrible a price to pay.

Though my mother is persistent she was never tireless. Now and then she stops for a couple of seconds to catch her breath and gets right back at it. Seldom a few mumbles of complaint does come through. There's always some vacancy to help her out but I dodge it half the time out of laziness. Yet, I feel a sense of debt within me is growing. Some day I'll have to take the weight off my parents shoulders onto mine. I know I have to start with these lil things but I almost always convince myself to just sit back and take it all for granted. I'm kinda afraid now; Will I be there for them when they need me, Would I know even if they don't ask, Would I weigh their priorities over my own?...

To recount what you owe your parents is a ardent task by magnitude and by morality. Till I'm sure of myself all I can do to save conscience is nurture this sense of debt, in hope that it'll root itself so deep into my heart that any future decision I make will be checked against my owing.

B'Day

2009-01-26T07:53:00.005+05:30

Its my birthday today (Happy Birthday to me!). I turn 19 today. I kinda feel like Karna now; he was cursed that he would not be able to hone his skills when he needed it the most. Although far less grave ,my dilemma lies in that my phone's validity ran out day before yesterday. 18 hours and several phoning attempts later did I realize this. Had to happen to me right on my birthday. Now I can't reply to my friends' greetings and lately not many of them have been online.

Guess I'll have to get off my ass and try and get it recharged. Meanwhile this to let you know (someday when you do read this) that I'm very grateful for all your wishes, especially Das who tried calling me after 12 last night. Dude, I sleep early lately!

That was the card my budds from college got me!

Thanks guys, working hard to get there! :)

College Diaries

2009-01-19T17:58:00.002+05:30

Once in a while I get tired of my template or even my blog as a whole . No surprises there :). So I end up going through 'free blogger templates' results on Google. Seldom I do try on a new theme only to revert to good old Minima all over again. And then there's the urge to start a new blog. That's the really frustrating scenario. When I started blogging I just wanted one blog to dump everything and get done with. Over time a standard kinda evolved and every time I wanna post something I feel it necessary to conform with these rules of sorts.

This urge to start over is just my wanting to break free from these rules. I know that I'm the one imposing these restrictions yet its so difficult to break free. This blog kinda grew its own tone and I don't wanna wreck that for anything its worth.

Then again ever since I joined college my life, thoughts and sometimes even dreams ;) have been revolving around it. And the same standards I mentioned before kinda barred me from blogging on my college life. I did try a proxy once through our class blog (which I co-founded :P). After some rather dull response, mostly coz of my lack of inventiveness and lack of interest among my classmates in general (no offense guys if you're reading this!). I even tried to extent it to the rest of our batch (i.e other trades as well); a rather cheap stunt I admit.

So now, hopeful that the dust has cleared I'm starting out my own 'CET Diary' and this time I'm doing it alone. No more guest writers who don't write anything :P (again, no offense). Its going to be way less depressing than this blog coz I'm going to be posting primarily about lacal stuff from college (duh!), there's going to be Malayalam (slang and otherwise) and I'm putting on the Denim theme (always wanted that). And if that's not enough, the blog's named 'Shenta Mone'!

And if the last paragraph don't mean anything to you, take comfort in that fact that I'll 'continue' posting here as well. :P

This time, Its Personal

2009-01-19T07:13:00.018+05:30

When I started this blog I wanted to share some of my personal stuff... no I wanted to put some personal stuff in here. Save a couple of posts here and there, it never happened; I've always been sidetracking on movies ("You don't say!" might be what you're thinking). The reason that happened (other than the fact that I love movies) is that I always measure something by its worst qualities. And I kinda thought people would do the same to me if I blogged my unrefined self.

But, what the hell... Maybe the 'Who cares?' syndrome has finally got to me. Who cares! (See what I mean). For the past couple of days I've been having this urge to start a secret personal blog. But I figured even I won't like what I'd write under the cover of secrecy. As compromise I thought I'd post more stuff that dealt with real life from now on. For starters, I'll let you in on a lil secret: I 'm kinda intimidated by girls...

Hmm... I'm having second thoughts about this whole personal thing.

6 Movie Characters I Wanna Play For All The Glory (And The Money)!

2009-01-04T00:25:00.003+05:30

After a considerable time spent googling and IMdBing (I know that's not a word... yet) I've settled the facts as best as I could and finished my list of '6 movie characters I wanna play for all the glory (and the money)'. And by 'playing' that role I don't mean literally stealing the part from the actors who, obviously, have done a great job with it. No. My "good looks" and "talent" would bomb the film faster than a global meltdown. Its more like if I could possess these actors and bathe in all that awe inspiring awesomeness, then these guys would be my best picks:

(The list is ordered roughly in ascending order of preference)

1. Yuri Orlov (Lord of War, 2005)

Despite being the least 'classic' among the list's members, Yuri Orlov has a special place in my fantasy. Maybe its all those guns the very unique charm (I'm not sure if that's the word) that cage brings to the role.

Favorite Scene: I can't pinpoint any one scene but if you hold a gun to my head I'd say: "The scene where Yuri checks out the AK-47 and please dont kill me".

2. Tony Montana (Scarface, 1983)

Say hello to my little friend, Tony Montana a.k.a Scarface, street thug turned drug lord and one of the most bad ass, movie characters of all time replete with paranoia, ego, insanity and a lotta adoration for the F-word; what's not to like?!

Favorite Scene: The shoot out; Ardent testimony to the statement, 'a gun is like a metal penis' (Tracy Jordan, 30 Rock).

3. T-1000 (T2: Judgement Day, 1991)

Choosing between Arnold's T-800 and Robert Patrick's T-1000 is like choosing between snickers and ice cream (Hmmm... interesting analogy). But when it comes down to it the cold stare, silvery texture, cold deceptiveness, and sauve bad assedness 1000 reigns supreme; T-1000, the best terminator eva! (Forget the "Boobinator" ever existed).

Favorite scene: The stroll after the truck explosion.

4. Hannibal Lector (Silence of the lambs, 1991)

I have no clue what to write here that might justify sufficiently Dr. Lector's place in this list. I'd have a census taker's liver with fava beans in return for that metal rasp voice alone.

Favorite Scene: Clarice's first meeting with Lector.

5. The Joker (The Dark Knight, 2008)

Its a cardinal sin to wish anyone else in place of the late Heath Ledger for the part of Joker. But I'd bear the sin for all that glory! Every frame with the Joker on screen is pure nirvana, every line an instant classic

Favorite Scene: The "interrogation" scene with Joker and Batz.

6. Roger 'Verbal' Kint (The Usual Suspects, 1994)

If I were served all six roles on a platter (say) my senses probably would only detect 'Verbal' (and possibly a faint smell of the Joker). In a way this role is like sex; the 'moment' comes only at the end of the show. But boy, is that a moment to cherish!

Favorite Scene: The last 3 minutes prior to the credits ;)

And on a further note I also wanna be Bruce Banner if they ever make a Hulk movie people will actually like (I still hold Ang Lee's Hulk amongst my favorite 5 superhero movies). Other honorable mentions include, not necessarily in any order, Jack Sparrow, Davy Jones, Michael Corleone, Edward Norton's character from Fight Club and Tony Stark.

That I've left out some major characters is beyond doubt. The list is neither thorough nor complete. These are just the ones that come to immediate memory despite the fact that I've been working on this post for way too long!

Ghajini

2009-01-03T21:01:00.007+05:30

From my previous post you must gather that I had the faintest of hope or rather a good deal of moderation gathered up for Aamir Khan's 'Ghajini'. Finally, saw it today and to sum up, I was disappointed.

I was have been 5 minutes late to the cinema, and didn't get catch all of the Hindi dialogue (me and Hindi being divorced since 7th standard). The only enjoyable aspect of the movie to me was Asin's humor. This is the first feature length movie with Asin I've seen (!). I've grown to respect her a lot more now. But everything else is sub par. And I'm not talking about Bollywood's way of cramming fashion, music, dance in one package, a concept to which I'm neutral by stilted moderation.

The plot would definitely be the weakest part of the movie. I'll take it that you're familiar with the gist of it. Sanjay (Aamir) is a business tycoon who, other than wearing he silliest outfit to work, pretends to be an average guy to get with Kalpana (Asin), a television model. This theme furnished the best portions of the movie although at times it felt exhaustive. For the last half, almost like different chapters are joined together with duct tape.

The love story and the revenge story, which constitute the whole movie, are spliced together rather bluntly. The revenge story follows Sanjay chasing down Ghajini, Kalpana's killer, who is introduced in the love story a little too late and by some really dull maneuvers from the writers. And oh, luckily we're reminded occassionally that the present Sanjay suffers from 15 minute amnesia coz it can be considerable challenge even for the non-amnesiac to keep than in mind. The amnesia part just... exists in some corner. The writers use it on and off as they please. I'd better not take out logic now, for logic's sake!

And about the climax, well... its just the 20 minutes before the credits roll. And with that I'd rate the movie at:

5/10 (on the re-calibrated Bollywood friendly scale)

At least I saved 5 bucks on the front seat!

PS: Notice that I didn't use the 'M' word anywhere in this article!

Why Ghajini should not be Memento

2008-12-24T11:14:00.005+05:30

Recently Aamir Khan announced that 'Ghajini' is not a remake 'Memento'. I believe him. The simple truth is that 'Memento' will never sell with an Indian audience and Mr. Khan would know that. It is held that Memento has depths beyond the first, second or even third viewing. I've only seen it once and found it to be as much unsettling as it is genius; definitely not something a hero-savvy audience would ever go with.

Recently I've been having second thoughts about Indian films. I've always wondered why we can't have more realism in our movies rather than song, dance and melodrama. I've settled with the realization that the average Indian moviegoer is not looking for more of reality when he takes his seat at the cinema. No, he's already had a lot of that from life and all he wants is to shake it off for 3 hours. This is just the opposite of 'film buffs' who eat, sleep and shit movies. The more resourceful a society, the more diversified is its spending. That is why Hollywood is as big and busy as it is. The number of people thriving directly and indirectly on the industry is overwhelming, keeping themselves busy with speculation, hype and criticism. The big difference is that we simply don't have enough time to waste on movies. A movie lasts as long as the reel rolls. After that its back to living. The same contrast also reflects in the content of our movies.

Of course, I'm not saying there's an absolute lack of hype in India; its just short-lived by comparison. Neither do I imply that indian film makers are churning out the ideal film diet. There's a lot more we can offer to our taste while maintaining ingenuity. In that respect I think Ghajini would be the Bollywood version of Memento and not its remake.

An Old Friend and His Blog

2008-10-08T21:39:00.003+05:30

I don't usually post about web pages I come across but this one's so compelling. Its not because its funny or informative or useful. Matter of fact its everything besides these.

Take a look at my old friend Madhav's blog. Okay, so there are only 6 posts some with (less than) childish content and complete with bleak writing. But then again, that's Madhav! Here is a blog that resembles its author. No pretensions, no pompous attempts at language (ahem!) and best of all, no lies. I wish more people would do this. From now on I'll try a hand at it but being an aspirant to (false) sophistication, I'll have to try really hard.

An Onam to Cherish

2008-09-12T20:34:00.003+05:30

I'm not going to be bragging about Onam like I'd done last year (although it'd seem like it). Why? Coz Onam was actually nice this year! Like last year, I didn't get to see an athapoo this year (then again I got to see hardly any of the traditional stuff) but that don't bother me. This year however I had a great buncha friends "amidst" whom I celebrated Onam despite our being scattered all over the state. How? Orkut of course.

My father is of the view that the harder/more expensive the task, the more its worth. So if I call up my friends to deliver the season's greetings, its more worthy that if I power scarp the same message to all my friends. Ten years from now when politics, individuality and vanity creep into our hearts these little things may matter. But not now. The selfless bond we share and innocence inherent of it elevates us to overlook these gross realities. It is that friendship I cherish, this Onam.

Onsasamsakal to one and all.

Life is Corny

2008-09-11T16:45:00.003+05:30

Its is very corny indeed. If I were to graft images from my life onto a movie, without alterations, it'd make for a really cheesy flick. Take a conversation between me and my mother for example. 70% of the time I'm trying to be cute and she conforms. A third person will have the impression that I'm a retard. Hmm... in fact almost every aspect of me when I'm by myself would settle the same.

And now, as usual I'm going to digress to my favorite topic, Cinema. If a film can't risk simulating life in all its colors (corniness being one) then doesn't that imply that cinematic art fails here albeit due to a 'fault' inherent of the audience. Take the scene from 'The Happening' where Mark Wahlberg's character talks to a plant subservient in tone coz his life's at stake (Keeps getting better with every word doesn't it?). My first reaction amounted to a few giggles. I replayed the scene, paused, and reflected on it; If you're stuck in a room with a killer plant and somebody told you plants react to human stimulus, would you react any differently? I won't :).

Yet the viewer's mental inertia is an overwehlming obstacle(I'm not advocating 'The Happening' BTW). Buffs seem to be paying much more effort to digging out the subltle implications, overtones and undertones rather than checking the plausibility of character reactions. Then again cinema takes liberties to get the message through and sometimes the 'message' is more significant. But otherwise undertones should be implicit. I've heard of a scripted-but-trashed scene in a Romero film (not sure which) in which the female protagonist runs head on into a plane's live propeller (...killing herself, duh!). On the same page I read this fact the author was contemplating undertones of the US driving itself to peril by lack of proper schooling (or something like that). WTF?! The scene itself will appeal to hard-gore fans but would oppurtunist would use this level of analogy?

Be it whatever. I've to go jump around in my shorts now...

Feeling... Rusty

2008-09-09T23:33:00.003+05:30

It always happens during these prolonged vacations (not that 2 weeks is exactly 'prolonged' but for a college which offers a mere one week holiday following University exams. its a blessing); I sink back to my 'Old Ways', referring to the routine I so inseparably cultivated during my post entrance holidays. Essentially it means 12 hours sleep sessions (that's double my normal sleeping time), more food, more blogging (as you can see), more orkutting, more movies bits of reading and a whole load of sitting on my a$$ the whole day.

The diminished productivity seriously inhibits my brain. As of now I resent going back to college. Its becoming increasingly tougher to keep my drive sharp. For one, my 'projects' for the holidays are getting nowhere. In fact I'd rather not speak about those. I think even my motor skills are starting to creak from the inactivity. My belly seems to be gaining forward though. Come to think about it its not just the belly.... ;). Then again I'm finding time to catch up with a lot of things (the blog again). I'm bound to get bored soon enough but its difficult to shake the angst of having to go back to the dreaded workshop sessions, assignments and good ol' stringent HOD.

Touche Mr. Reality.

"Start, Action, Dialogue, Hot Girls, More Action and... Cut!"

2008-09-09T02:04:00.009+05:30

Here in India we have an interesting term pertaining to cinema - the 'Art film'. It refers to those films with slow pace, poor lighting, minimal dialogue and an incredibly high soporific quotient. And then there are the thattu polippan commercial flicks, a complete description of which would amount to to something on the lines of 'A mix bag of "death-defying" stunts and/or my-balls-have-balls dialogue coupled with dance sequences studded with semi-nude nymphettes (who'd make Lindsay Lohan Oscar worthy by comparison) all strung together by a cliche ridden pathetic excuse for a story which guarantees enough niches for the hero (B/K/T/XYZ-ollywood term for the male lead) to flunt his manliness, better so in from of the damsel'. Of course there are the few movies which earn the label, "a good movie" mainly because people don't know what else to tag it.

To my thinking these classifications of movies and their definitions have rooted in our mind over time to such an extent that even film makers seem to abide by it. Particularly in the case of the 'Art film' wherein they're supposedly using actual spatial brain power, the style has become cliched. Draggy pace, hardly any background music and forced juxtapositions and not so endearing attempts at subtlety. Seep out the movies with the forementioned properties and you're bound to end up with a handsome categorization. Arthouse is apparently suffering from the same dilemma as the rest of Indian cinema: Stagnancy. When'll people start thinking outward or in pop terms, experiment more? Budget need not necessarily be a concern. Memento was made for $5 million whereas its Hindi "remake" (the 'llywood term for cerebral rip off) starring Aamir Khan costs more than 7 times that amount. Then again the Khan version is a re-remake, which means it was ripped off another rip off! Of course, Memento was the most revolutionary movie of the last decade but it was the fruit of creativity as opposed to the fomulaic undertakings the 'woods serve us. Its about time they started reaping profits for more than just conjuring up seductive visual double entendres.

At the least Indianize some of the cooler stuff like Scarface so that even if the movie sucks (which it probably will) I'll have yet another excuse to scrutinize the dumb fucks who run this show. Better that I don't provoke them for these are the lot who can "remake" Forrest Gump into Suppandi.

The Pursuit of Annoyance

2008-09-05T22:50:00.005+05:30

Sometimes I get so sick of routine that I just wish the "next turn" gets here ASAP. That's when I succumb to my fantasies; when I take refuge in paranoia. But then I realise (as I discussed with my Father just yesterday) that, in life shit happens and you just have to deal with it, not dodge it. Well, those may not be the exact words I used but you get the idea. So, while I hate writing lab records (being the inexorable perfectionist I am) I'm learning to like the process.

That's the principle of living (not of life). Life's not about the pursuit of happiness. What is happiness but smiles, heartbeats and warm memories? Ultimately the stimuli behind these are unimportant. The rich and seasoned would require the best and the most luxurious to make them happy. It would take so much less to make a peasant equally happy. Of course I've made a crude generalisation of the 'rich' and the 'poor'. Then why should we chase shit if its not after us? To lower the bars for pleasure? God, No! Its just that hardship teaches us important lessons; in endurance and susceptibility, mashes us up to fit any situation, frees us, refines us. We'll carry these lessons with us forever and (as I like to believe) even beyond death. But material joy will fade off in time and memory.

So, if I deal with this lab record business now, I shall have one less lesson to learn and the next time around it won't have to be such a pain in the ass. Its about learning to like and learning to learn to like.

Cultivating Insomnia

2008-08-02T02:33:00.005+05:30

I used to be a sleepyhead. Well, matter of fact I still am. But I've discovered a means to "overclock" myself. Here's how I go about it:

Go to sleep at 5:00 in the evening (Achan used to say "sandhyakku urangikooda" but in exchange for late night rendezvous with the text books he keeps quiet). I wake up three hours later, walk around, have dinner and off to the table. In between music, dancing, pretending and plain fooling around I get some bookwork done. Hit the sack somewhere between 3 and 4. Now comes the hard part: Waking up 3 hours later. After tug of war with Amma and half my conscience comes. Then the harder part: enduring the ice in the bucket and hoping friction between the soap and skin heats me up! Breakfast. The hardest part: going to college knowing free hours are the rarest commodity :(

That makes roughly 6 hours a day of shut eye. *Yawn* to some but an all time record for me.. Of course, my biocycles are hampered, my ears do echo and I 'm trying to get this damn bee out of my skull.....

The Darkest Knight

2008-07-19T19:44:00.006+05:30

...special thanks to Nolan and the Joker. I can't begin to say how awesome this movie is. I dare not review it. Its a damn masterpiece! While I've always been distasteful of crime dramas (save 'The Godfather'), I love what Nolan has done with the Dark Knight. I've seen the movie only once now. I must admit that I didn't catch the Harvey deal on the spot (partly coz the sound in the theatre was below par). Once I did get it into my head I found it rather... abrupt. But juxtaposing Harvey Dent with the Dark Knight was truly genius on Nolan's part. Joker was incredible. So was the Nurse ;). My only regret is that I won't be able to catch this on IMAX. Oh well, you can't have it all.
My Rating: 9.99/10 (Until the next screening)

If anything this post is meant to deliver this message (and I'm doing you a huge favor if it gets through):

Get to the nearest 'The Dark Knight' NOW or miss one of the finest Summer movies of ALL time. In the mean time I'm off to persuade my father into letting me go a second (and eventually a third) time!

...Well, Watchya' still doin here?!

Happy Birthday Blog!

2008-07-16T02:28:00.002+05:30

A Very Warm (albeit belated) Birthday Wish to My Dear Blog... Happy Birthday.

Cheers to Perseverance and to royalty-free internet images.

Delusive Little Me

2008-06-25T21:33:00.006+05:30

It has been almost a year since I started this blog, but judging from what I've put in so far it is hardly a personal blog. Its time to be bold...

I believe that every person is "polar" - exhibiting opposite behaviour in two completely non-identical environments. This is my own empirical theory which should be testimony to my skills of observation and reckoning. The best example other than myself (I'll get to that later) would be my own sister. The rest of the universe ,to whom she seems the most refined, cultured, dignified and infinitely agreeable girl existent, does not realize that she is, quite plainly, the Devil incarnate! But that's not to say that I don't like her.

On a similar note I'm unbelievably loony verging on schizophrenia. But my fellow man may be under the impression that I'm mature, restrained, grave and sober and yet I am these, albeit deliberately! I live the most naive and childish fantasies in the security of my room . Even when my escapades take me beyond my door I'm hardly discomforted by the presence of family coz my mother has long got used to my flying around the house in my imaginary F-32. Its the same exact reason I dread society - I can't be (or can't afford to be) myself around others. But I've grown so fond of and familiar with some of my friends that my powers of restraint weaken in their presence.A keen eye is bound to catch me walking about as the 'Hulk' or 'Li Mu Bai'. Das has already come dangerously close and I'm afraid I've to be more alert.

But its difficult because I can take in only so much of reality every day. I wake up from my illusions to realize how embarrassing or cheesy they were, yet my inner child, protected by all his innocence, allures me to indulge them. It takes immense effort to keep my impulses at bay. Its because I "live" my fancies that I've grown so critical of them. I've to strain and struggle to keep focus. Through all that effort its becoming increasingly difficult to be sociable, even to the small extent I already am. As goofy as it is kinda scary. Now I know what John Nash feels like!

The Not So Incredible Hulk

2008-06-21T21:23:00.003+05:30

Saw 'The Incredible Hulk' today. I'm too tired/pissed off to write a review but lemme just say that when I get the DVD I'm gonna watch the movie in mute and slow-mo to comprehend it a lil better. Also the story was 100% Zak Pennish but I guess he has improved since 'Last Action Hero'. There are three major action scenes and the characters are just catching their breaths between these. That's about all the plot there is! Throw in a bunch of Eastereggs and wallah!

Maybe I'm so disappointed coz I'm an avid fan of the Hulk and I loved Ang Lee's Hulk (after several screenings over 4 years). But that doesn't mean I was looking forward to more arthouse. This time around I wanted 'Hulk Smash". I've been keeping tabs on this project for a while and I'm familiar with the whole "re-boot" business. But this movie, lik the first, didn't capture the fantasy of being the Hulk, the adrenalin of "You're making me angry..." and the inane satisfaction of "Letting Go"! In short I wanted to Banner to Hulk out in everyday situations - stuff we all go through. I know it can be demanding on the writer's part but to me that's what Hulk's about just like Spidey is a teenage fantasy. Instead they take stuff that's so relatable and make it the other way around. Wonder if they'll ever make a movie that meets the appeal.

Looks like I'll have to wait for Nolan to save the day.

My Rating: 6.5/10 (Akhil smash puny movie!)

Back to Blogging on My Own

2008-06-18T18:43:00.005+05:30

Today I had a chat session with an old friend. He's doing Humanities in IIT Madras. I'm not really sure of his real name (I think it is Vishnu) but we all call him Kanju (he's an sleepy head on a whole different level). A while into our conversation I told him that I had started a blog for my class. Here's what ensued....

('ACDC' is Kanju's nick and the chat is presented in its original form)

ACDC: blog fort the class?

bad idea

Akhil: yeah I had to learn tht the hard way

ACDC: dat u r

Akhil: check it out: http://cetae711.blogspot.com

ACDC: k

Sent at 1:56 PM on Wednesday

Akhil: sorry got d/c

I'm on a so-far-unsuccessful campaign to make it an interbranch blog

but somehow they lack.... taste....

ACDC: inter branch? at cet?

i dont think dats happening

Akhil: I was tryin to appeal to a wider audience

ACDC: btw, u write really well

Akhil: but i guess the best i can do is gather up 10 more visiotrs to the blog

Hey, thanks

... at the best

ACDC: no, no, wont work

i've seen 7-8 cetians

Akhil: and....

I've seen 500

ACDC: & dey're all my branch rox, urs suck donkey balls

Akhil: DEAD ON!

ACDC: so, dont thinats gonna work

Akhil: Kodu kayi

oh the shame....

u know what's gonna piss me off even more.......

ACDC: wat?

Akhil: .... some kid comes along a couple of years from now, he starts a blog wich kicks 75% less ass than mine and it becomes popular.

easily in my top 100 worst nightmares of all time

ACDC: hehe

anoder thing, ur blog sounds a bit depressing

Akhil: a bit Tim burtonish I am

ACDC: not abt ur branch, but more abt cet in whole

Akhil: why'd u say that?

ACDC: not likely to give d blog much popularity

Akhil: yeah

Its so refreshing to finally talk to a person of your sensibilities

ACDC: i'm sernsible

best thing i've heard all day

...!

Couldn't have put it better myself (This is exactly why I 'm so in love with the visual media. Its so much more... easier to engage and get across to an audience by visualization than through writing). Anyway, I don't regret making that blog (yet!) but Kanj had a good point there about CETian attitude. The first thing that came to my mind was a mech student telling me "Mech will prevail! (in the University exam)". Pfff... I don't give a shit. But why are we like this? I think "groupism" is characteristic of CET students. Its something that we imbibe from the college environment along with foul mouth,

As to how its gonna affect my venture... I think Kanj is right about that too. I'm feeling disinterested already. Of course there's always Das to keep my spirits up. I guess this would have been more relevant a post in the CET blog but my own tiredness of it coupled with the fact that this blog was in need of an update has prompted me to post it here. Call it whatever you want but I'm better off by myself.

Yours Unfaithfully,
Akhil

The Incredible Clips

2008-05-25T02:23:00.007+05:30

Exams are going on but I just had to post on the upcoming movie The Incredible Hulk after seeing the new clips (Check them out here and here).

A month ago I'd have titled this: 'The Not So Incredible Hulk'. But now.... WOW! The Hulk vs. Abomination clip kicked a$! The CG looks amazing and the action's top notch. CG from the second clip was... nice too. I guess it has something to do with the lighting. And what's with Blonsky's moves? Is he some kind of super soldier? I sure hope so. Note how Ross asks him to step in (when all else fails?). Maybe Blonsky opted to 'abominate' himself coz he may have had undergone similar experiments in the past?!(Captain America serum anyone?) Needless to say I'm pumped!

To all those who're skill lurking in doubt and indecision, at least its better than...

Told Ya... or Not

2008-05-02T19:06:00.006+05:30

I happen to stumble upon this page today. Coupled with recent incredible renovations in Google Reader, this amounts to something I thought up during my higher secondary public exam (thank you, thank you!). The only person' I've told this ever is Azeem but, despite our mutual interests, I don't think I conveyed it properly. Better late than never. And so....

I had this idea that much of our textual communication (email, blogs, websites, IMs etc.) can be unified under a single element with different attributes. Why? Because they're all just a string of characters with spaces and breaks. Lets say I had a box. I put some text in it and leave it about for everyone to see. basically, we have ourselves a website. People come and see my box and they leave their 'comments'. But to comment they're not exactly punching the 'Reply' button - they're just dropping some more text under the heading 'hey here's a comment'. We have a blog. Some people may like what they see in my box and they'll tell other people about it or in other words, they'll link to it. Imagine I told the box only to open up to certain people so that only they may read/write on it. We have ourselves a discussion board or even a scrapbook. Gmail introduced the conversation concept to webmail (I've heard that the Bat had it before). So I guess email can be viewed as a discussion with 'last in - first out' arrangement. So our box can work ask mail too. So far it'd seem that I've been writing on 'Internet for Dummies'. No.

What's different in my paradigm is that the box never goes to anyone, people come seeking it. The contents are never duplicated (as in the case of email), it just has restricted viewing. Suppose the box broadcasts its contents. People with the right frequency (implying authentication) can 'tune in' to what's inside the box, just like feeds. Thus a transmitter can be morphed into a radio or a walkie depending on attributes. Thus all we need is an intelligent box with broadcasting capabilities (!). Enter the Internet. The boxes do exist, its just that we use a different size for every other thing we have to say. My idea primarily suggests simple webpages working as forums non redundant emails with basically the same code. So a user can log in to our 'box service', click on 'Create new box' and type away. He can then then restrict the viewing (or not). People may refer to it by URL. As I've already mentioned each piece of information can be labeled, arbitrarily or otherwise (like 'here's a comment') which can serve as an anchor, so that people may refer/feed directly parts of the box they want. People may even constitute a 'box' with contents fed by other boxes, dynamically even. Its just simplified communication for social networks (like an advanced scrapbook).

Bah, w/e. If this rings a bell, great! Have a nice day.

Interpreting the Space Odyssey

2008-04-23T19:27:00.006+05:30

The science fiction world recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and I recently read up on what Kubrick's interpretation of the movie. The first time I saw Space Odyssey (which was only a couple of months back) I found the movie ambiguous and confusing (I've seen it only once, mind you). What was more confusing was why it was hailed as such a classic. So the movie has special effects which were way ahead of its time and it visualized the the future of space exploration with unprecedented accuracy. Cheers to that. But only after reading Kubrick's interpretation have I been able to formulate my own view. It was an epiphany - I think I almost cried!

Kubrick discussed the plot at the simplest level. I caught a few important points I had missed out when I saw the film. Having fully contemplated what is happening, I've come up with a more philosophical/spiritual explanation:

The first monolith is depicted to have triggered technical intelligence in the ape men which consequently lead to evolution of man and technology. There's reason for me to believe that the nature of this intelligence is more technical than spiritual as I will reveal later.

The second monolith acted as a sort of alarm device to signal "word of man's first baby steps into the universe" and thereby his technological progress.

The third opened a stargate and... "When the surviving astronaut, Bowman, ultimately reaches Jupiter, this artifact sweeps him into a force field or star gate that hurls him on a journey through inner and outer space and finally transports him to another part of the galaxy, where he's placed in a human zoo approximating a hospital terrestrial environment drawn out of his own dreams and imagination. In a timeless state, his life passes from middle age to senescence to death. He is reborn, an enhanced being, a star child, an angel, a superman, if you like, and returns to earth prepared for the next leap forward of man's evolutionary destiny."

And the fourth which resurrects him as the star child.

My first argument is on the basis that the monoliths were created by ancient aliens of intelligence much greater than our own. The first monolith marked the instance when the spark of technology was set off in the human brain. The third monolith bore witness to the second spark; the spark of realization.

As the astronauts enter the final phase of mankind's farthest journey yet, they are incidentally pit against the on board AI system HAL . HAL is the the zenith of man's technological progress - a virtually sentient entity with wits to match his own. Yet HAL lacks emotion and humanity. His lack of humanity is shown when he coldly murders all the crew on board with full contemplation of their gradual death and lack of emotion is depicted by his monotonous appeals to Bowman to stop killing him. The line between human and machine intelligence is drawn. Could this be his final lesson before he ventures to "beyond the infinite". The cataclysmic chain of events (starting with an apparent fault in AE-35 component) could have been triggered by the aliens themselves. Odds of HAL going wrong were nil, so there must have been a higher intervention to reveal HAL's dark side. With his lesson learned, man is ready for his next step in intelligence. The Stargate is opened He witnesses aging and death and the friable nature of life (conveyed by the breaking glass). In his death bed he appeals to the fourth monolith - a scene analogous to HAL's death. In layman's terms HAL is to Man as Man is to the Super Beings. He is upgraded to the next level and reinstated on Earth.

The second theory assumes that much of the movie is symbolic. I, like many others, also believe the monoliths were never real! They were more of a visual bookmark of turning points in man's evolutionary journey. Of course then there'd be no rational explanation to the Stargate and the monolith on the moon but then again was that real too? The Stargate sequence could have been a dream; an epiphany. Maybe the analogy could have been projected from Bowman's subconscious mind. It was realization of that we've strayed from our purpose by pursuing worldly desires which in the end count to nothing. Whatever fluctuations in the probability flux that triggered evolution of man was repeating itself; maybe it is what we've come to call God.

'Odyssey' is closer to a poem than a movie. Such a thing can never be sheer imagination. Maybe a monolith presented itself before Kubrick and Clarke! We'll never know....

Cancer and Cure, War and Peace

2008-04-14T12:30:00.004+05:30

A couple of months ago I underwent a minor surgery. Looking back I muse at how easy it was (excepting the needles!) . More so coz I recently came to know that the pre-modern treatment for the same was rather painful. If my suffering has been eased so much by something artificial, then we must be upsetting something.

It sucks to be ill. That's what diseases are supposed to do. And modern medicine is taking that away. Medicine is so advanced and painless. Have appendicitis? Couple of days in a 5 star hospital will do the trick. No pain, no sweat. Just chill and pay the money. I'm not saying that everybody can afford it but even the ones who can't afford needn't die from it. The same disorder a couple of centuries ago would have been disastrous. We've brought about a change and its reciprocating. For all the suffering that medicine has taken away we've been plagued with newer still; diseases like Cancer, AIDS, Diabetes etc. we cannot cure. Some of these were around for hundreds of years but they only took center stage now. Why? Some may argue that its because of changing life styles. That and some more friend. Billions of dollars go into finding a cure for Cancer but so far almost nothing. And maybe they will find a cure only to see it replaced by something worse.

"The more things change, the more they are the same."
[Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose]
-Alphonse Karr, Les Guêpes, January, 1849

It sounds so futile, doesn't it? But then again, we don't give up; out of hope or ignorance? We had war. We have war. We learn history only to find a new excuse to fight. And Miss Universe wishes for World Peace, mind you! "War is bad! No more fighting! All is in vain". True true. But I've never heard anybody justify war! Yes, war kills a lot of people, destroys families, burn up resources. In the end there is no victory in war. But we do it anyway. Maybe its programmed into us. Maybe God set us to explode when the time is right. War is suffering. Why do we suffer? We suffer for our sins. Couldn't it be that war is some kind of Judgment day when all of our accumulated sins are burnt off and the meter is reset to zero. The bigger picture is so much rational and soothing even. Boy, don't I sound like a villain or what. Then again the villains are right aren't they?! But when i gets down to it, if it was my father/brother or myself in the battle field I'd curse and cry and be pulled back to this lesser reality by gravity of the pain and suffering. I guess that's where faith comes in....

So what is it about Cancer and War? Is there a remedy? No, they are the remedy or rather a treatment. And when we realize what is our disease and work to cure ourself, we'll be free of it.

Rebirth

2008-03-29T21:10:00.002+05:30

Everybody must have seen at least one comic/cartoon/movie/book which ventured into the possibilities of immortality. My personal favorite (among the one's I've seen) is 'Death Becomes Her'. And yeah, the flip side always ends up to the pain of seeing your loved ones die, yadda yadda, blah blah...

I've heard Kamalahasan, when asked about aging and death, say something like 'Death is a part of Life. Death is to Life like full stop is to a sentence; A sentence isn't complete without the period'. That's a nice way of putting it. But my opinion is a bit more elaborate...

I believe in Rebirth. A lot of people don't! Of course there's no real proof to convince them otherwise. Why do I believe it then? Because that's what faith is for. We don't know if God exists but we believe in Him. Of course my conception of God is a long way from the omnipotent being He's contrived to be. Hell, why am I even calling Him a He?!

I believe each incarnation we have to painfully claw through is a stage set to better us, to correct mistakes of the old (lives) and ultimately guide us to wherever sentience was meant to end up. We talk of inborn talent. Couldn't that be remnants or roots from our previous lives? A musician in his next life would be a person who has a strong passion for music. A person who had an accident in his previous life would be instinctive and wary of driving in his next one. And similarly karma is passed on from one life to another as luck. Hard work never goes to waste but then again we may not taste the fruit within the life span. A person may work hard for something and yet fail at it for no good reason. Bad karma is dissipated then and there and the slate is clear for the persistent. Most of us, however, lose our temper and faith; we curse and scream and fall even deeper. That is our test. A far greater justice is at work here and it never goes wrong.

But then again why do we have to die and be reborn over and over again? We can take it all in one long stretch. I think its a matter of identity crisis. Imagine if Hitler was an immortal and that he'd have been captured at the end of WWII. He'd be a lifer. No one will ever forget or forgive him and he'll be trapped in isolation where there's no real chance of redemption. But if Hitler died and was reborn nobody would identify him; And when justice cometh people will pity the poor soul. We hear of people being murdered everyday and we sympathize. We shudder on the thought of 'It could've been us'. But if we could just see what these people have done in their previous lives maybe we'd have justified his end. Humanity would have drained of its mercy and compassion if we had that insight. Only few would think otherwise.

Wonder what's in store for me this time. This one life is just a piece of the puzzle and while I just want to get it done with I realize patience is a virtue I'll have to acquire... one of these lives.

Growing Up

2008-03-24T01:47:00.002+05:30

A year has come to pass and I barely noticed. This must've been the quickest year in my life and I can't deny that I wanted it to be.

A couple of weeks and first year at college comes to an end. I'm surprised, and I'm pretty sure quite a few of my peers share my sentiments. I've come to realize the difference between school life and college life; I regret the loss of innocence but cherish the solace of freedom, however delusional. Life has took a turn towards the complicated. I can feel politics creeping into everyday life. And no, I don't mean party politics. Its just that people aren't just friends anymore. Everyone has a social tree now and everybody else has their own definitive ranks in it. It has come to be that you need to put in some effort to get into or move up someone's list. I miss the ol' days when we could have a fight, cry it off, go home and start afresh the next day. College isn't all intimacy. Intimacy comes at price. I think everyone will realize that in time.

Meanwhile you can try to make something out of all this cryptic talk! Hell, even I'm not a 100% on what it means :). Just trying to keep it focused. Better posts coming soon, promise!

Rajni News

2008-02-18T15:13:00.002+05:30

Yesterday, I read up what's been happening with the infamous Rajni Kanth. And here are a couple of points I'd like to further and comment:

Sultan - The King:

That's Rajni's new movie being directed by his youngest daughter Soudarya Rajnikanth. Its all the same cheesy jargon we've all come to expect from Rajni only that this time the superstar is animated! The first time I heard about this project was a few months ago and I thought it'd be something for kids; more on the lines of Bal Ganesh or something. But I was wrong. I'll let these videos talk for itself:

The first few seconds reminded me of Warcraft cinematics and that's something I never expected to see. I applaud that. However the later part of the second trailer shows classic Rajni sequences of which I'm distasteful. But I don't intend to debate that yet again. For now I'm honestly surprised at the quality of the work and though I can still point out shortcomings and comparisons it'd be rude of me to throw shit at this.

Later on, I happened to see interviews and behind the scenes with of a few Tamil productions on TV. There was this producer guy in shirt and mundu talking about the scope of CG in cinema! The image was almost metaphorical -They are always looking to renovate and improve the looks while always delivering the same cheap thrills. Sometimes I just wish their tastes were more cultivated and demanding: Oh, what spectacles they'd conjure up then! But still, its somewhat charming to see them moulding hi tech to their own needs and we gotta respect that.

Anyway, onto Rajni's second news:

Rajni as Ravan.... NOT:

I also read that Rajni rejected an offer for playing Ravan opposite Ajay Devgan's Ram (Ugh! That'd be a sight!). And frankly I never thought that humble Rajni would do that! As much as I ridicule Rajni's cheesy dialogue and over the top action sequences I like his humility. If I were to be asked in front of hundred thousand Rajni fans if I liked Rajni I'd say: 'I'm NOT a fan of Rajni the actor but I'm a fan of Rajni the person', partly because I don't wanna die and partly because its true. The fact of the matter is Ranji isn't an actor; he stopped being one a long time ago. He's a 'Superstar' now which means his fans identify him with his characters. I guess that's the same reason why he can't risk/afford to play a villain role no matter what the director intends to picture him as. I think that's very excusable.

Mammookkan takes out his Roudram on a fan!

2008-02-12T20:22:00.000+05:30

The 'Mammootty beating one of his fans' video circulating on orkut. Am not a 100% on its authenticity but looks pretty real to me. I'm sure Mohanlal fans are gonna celebrate this. Personally I don't think there's no need to make a big fuss about it. I just posted it to keep the blog alive.... NOT.

PS: Feeling kinda cheap on having post this as my first post for 2008.

Happy New Year

2007-12-31T23:57:00.000+05:30

Wishing you, who ever you are, A Happy New Year!

Ideas

2007-12-27T13:42:00.002+05:30

Edit[3/3/08]: This is Bullshit (with poor grammar too!)

Its been a while since I posted something as and when it occurred to me; Usually I'd laze around and by the time I post on that same idea it'd be adulterated with countless afterthoughts. This post is a fresh spark caught and exhibited.

I wanted to talk about ideas itself. As I have come to realize, my brain simply cannot stop thinking. I talk to myself almost 95% of the time I'm awake. I recently read about a 'Mathlete' who computed the 13th or so root of a 200 digit number in 74.x seconds or so. He said in an interview that when he started doing multiplications he simply couldn't control his brain so much so that he needed to take medication at times. I'm analogous to that guy but instead of mathematical jargon I tend more to the artistic side. And the medication in my case are watching movies. When I see a movie my attention draws heavily from it that the slightest disturbance can be the greatest annoyance. And lately my unsettling brain has been showing me images of this fantasy creatures which, at times, baffle me much more than the most radical sci-fi/fantasy creations existent. And all the same these images occur to me within milliseconds, in a flash! Th e frequency of these occurrences have been so intimidating that I've somewhat made my mind to learn sketching and digital painting. Of course, I'm talented enough to get by my homework diagrams at time even managing to instill a bit of awe in my peers but it still need more working.

And I've been thinking - where do this glimpses come from? Heck! Where do all ideas come from? To my intellect Ideas originate in two ways: the ones that simply occur to you out of the blue and the ones that result from permutations and filtration via trial and error. Let me explain by example; The glimpses I spoke of would fall largely in the first category. A mathematician solving a problem relies heavily on the second technique. Yet the distinction between both kinds (of ideas) are not definite. Each of these processes are nearly inseparable. Like when I suddenly get a glimpse of a fantasy creature there will be some level of familiarity to it and moreover my brain would do some simple re-arrangements in the creatures appearance as to make it consistent with my rationality and scientific foundations. On the other hand a mathematician (of the average sort) would first do a quick comparison o the problem in hand with previously done questions and known methodologies and if that fails he'll have to resort to permutations of possible steps that can be taken next. For this he'll use his creativity which basically would be ideas out of the blue. And all at the same time our brain filters the less likely solutions based on its prior experience and understanding. This is similar to the re-arrangements I made to the creatures to make them 'digestable'.

Mathematics is the more or less an expression of an idea so that it can be dealt with more definitely and the end result can be concerted back into a pure idea. However science is based on ideas that simply occurred like Archimedes principle, Newton's laws of motion, Theory of relativity, The Wave equation etc.

Thus ideas itself can be of two kinds: the ones that come to you (the Eurekas) and the ones you go after (Mathematica) . The first would be God and the second would be Human.

Season's Greetings

2007-12-25T06:33:00.000+05:30

In the spirit that everybody else is doing it, wish you all a Merry Christmas!

I am a Malayali....

2007-12-20T20:58:00.000+05:30

Checkout this... ahem... patti-rotic song by a malayali for a malayali:

Malayali.mp3

The Newniverse!

2007-12-20T20:06:00.001+05:30

As lazy a blogger I am, I like to introduce some of my new buddies from college. Getting down to it... we have...

Ajith - sho, sarva samayavum padutham padutham enna oru vicharam mathram ;) :

Shaun (a.k.a Pappi) - Old School, New Cool:

Denny - (S)Ho...(S)Ho...(S)Ho:

Arun Varghese - Veppu Meeshaya!:

Michael -Eli-Ass-Jacky:

Salmaan - Vellam adikkathe ingane!:

Arun Das - Ninte matte shot vekkathilleda!:

Sreejith (Vaa thurannal Vedangal purathu varikayayi!)

Missing out Manu here. Photo wash cheythittum cheythittum velukkunilla! Will get it soon.

I like College, its nice!

2007-12-11T21:24:00.001+05:30

In one of my recent conversations with Unni, I told him that College friends are much more fun than school friends. I cited that when school friends greet each other with 'Da, Poda...'college friends usually add certain ahem... "compliments"(usually beginning with 'Ma' or 'Pu') after the 'Da' and 'Poda'. And yet it brings us all the more closer to each other. Over the last couple of months I've discovered more friends than I ever did so far which also translates to the fact that I've heard an delivered more Ma's and Pu's over the same period than I ordinarily do!

(And if you couldn't find anything funny about the title I pity you! Go see 'Borat')

India Lost (Again)

2007-10-12T18:28:00.000+05:30

And I'm quite happy about it! The suckers truly deserved it. There goes the Thirty30 (:P) victory down the drain. And the 'fans' had it hard (Thank you Lord!). Read Dhoni asked everyone to "forget this match"! Wha?! Is he crazy? (Buy me a X360, PS3, Wii and an iPod 60 GB and I may consider it) I just wish the 'highlights' of this match aired on Star Cricket 24/7 until the last fan standing. And just before the game heard cricket enthusiasts mark it off as a 'sure victory'. Right at your face m*********ers! I just hope that the revamp the whole team and get some "fresh meat" on the team. Until then the Australians needn't bother come here. We have DHL too y'know . We'll send you the cup by mail.

WoW Ads

2007-10-07T20:54:00.000+05:30

Thought I might share a couple of videos with ya. We have...

1) The Toyota/World of Warcraft ad:

2) Coke/World of Warcraft ad:

Leave a comment!

Stayin Alive!

2007-09-24T20:54:00.000+05:30

This post is intended primarily as a relief for the seemingly avid fan of my blog and my fellow moviephile: Unni and of course to show the rest of the world that I live on... (and plays WArcraft 3 in the meanwhile)

Anyway I just learned that India won the Twenty 20 cup; Hey, That's NEW! But it bugs me to know that Sreesanth made the final crucial catch. He's a fuckin disgrace to his countrymen. He, who should uphold our pride through good behavior is out there shakin' his booty to the rather perplexed opponents. Of he'd been a female (the possibility of which I' can't completely rule out!) he... I mean she would have surpassed Nayanthara in her 'specialty'. Of course I 'm under the idea that The Indian cricket team is trying to win back less faithful fans and in turn their won brand value through these petty wins. The series almost looked tailored; Not the games, but who won! But setting the skeptic me apart I still don't buy them. They were a disgrace at the World Cup. Make them wait 4 years for a chance at saving their names!

Mutiple Man

2007-09-05T00:21:00.001+05:30

I've always wanted to do so many things, so many times and so much that I end up doing nothing in the end. Why does that sound so familiar? I guess we all feel that sometime. My latest short-term ambitions include learning web design, losing weight, write a book or even better write a comic, learn drawing to make the comic, watch Star Wars again... and so forth and what not! And there's always my IIT repeat plan bothering me. Its a fucking pain in the ass. I just can't escape it; I know I could've done way better than I've done now and even I'm beginning to think that I just took shelter under the 'repeat' notion when the going got tough.

Sometimes I just wanna clone myself and do all those things I wanted to do. I'm mostly a perfectionist and so I would want to research and work on something before I do it, say, writing a book; I've some great ideas but in all my linguistic capacity I wouldn't do justice to them (Hence the notion of comic books). But I'm farsighted/insightful enough to know that all my clones are just gonna laze their a$$ off just like me. Or even worse they'd make me do all the chores by myself, as punishment even! And there's no way I'm sharing my underpants with those fuckers. What if we all get h**** at the same time?! Ulp! Cloning should be banned....

...until behavior modification is perfected :D

The Jack-Asses of all Trades

2007-08-29T11:23:00.000+05:30

Its no secret that I hate most Indian Movies. And frankly I'm surprised the typical Indian moviegoer buys this shit, Lemme explain:

The Indian protagonist is the most versatile human in the universe; He can sing like Yesudas, fight like a drunk monkey and dance like Michael Jackson (with bones). On (and off) screen he could look like a tub of lard or a kid awaiting puberty or a ton of walking talking makeup but all the same the audience seem to eat it up and relish it.

The hero is the supreme fighting machine. If the guys from hollywood sci-fi movies were to hear of Mohanlal or Rajni or Salman they'd definitely abandon all their super soldier research and packed their bags to India. Its one thing these guys beating the crap out of squadrons of opponents in hand to hand combat but what's more ridiculous is that most idiots could have an orgasm watching it! I mean, why's Mohanlal still doing fight scenes. Is he that desperate for the money or doesn't he realize how ugly it looks. A f*cker names Shaji Kailas has a hobby of runing great actors with his "action" movies.

And Rajni, that's a whole different thing, its insane. I don't know why they have an IIT in Tamil Nadu; Rajni's popularity there clearly show that majority of tamilians have very small brains (if any). But I guess at least the Brahmans deserve it. I can buy all the sci-fi shit from Star-Wars but not Rajni's interpretation of the physical universe. The guy could well be impotent but he's dancing with babes who must call him 'grandpa' off screen. At least Mammootty looks the part when he does the same. But I'm no fan of Mammootty either. His face's only preserved. Regrettably I went to see 'Big B'. I bet it must have the lowest production time of any commercial movie. The whole movie, if played in normal speed wouldn't last half an hour, but they've stretched it with so much slow-mo 'Bullet-Time' would be an unfit reference to it. Its was more like 'Super-sonic-Mach5-time'.

And one last thing - the gunshots in Indian movies. While Hollywood flicks be exaggerating gunshots a bit, Indian producers don't seem to have as much dough for gunpowder. But seriously, they should think about selling it to Mortein or something; One shot with that thing generates enough smoke to kill all mosquito population for a couple of miles around! But then again I haven't seen much of Hindi movies else this article would have been three times longer.

Even Steven

2007-08-28T17:06:00.000+05:30

Yup, I saw Kill Bill again very recently. The whole revenge thing's been bugging me for a while. I'd say revenge is the guiltiest pleasure of them all. But it'd be impossible to convince a victim otherwise. And its human nature that we'll derive pure pleasure out of it. In a way its like sex; God put a unique pleasure in sex to strengthen the bond between lovers (or w/e) and he put a strange pleasure to revenge so that we'll always crave it. But virtue lies in that we resist this temptation.

Work is always done against a force. And the right thing to do is work against revenge. Besides the crime that was done to us was our own fault whether we realize it or not. So we are actually relieved of our bad karma when karma bites back at us. But instead when we go get Even Steven with our opponent we are just going back to what we started with; for which we were punished in the first place. And the next time karma bites it'll be much more shattering and hard to recover from, for, the notion of getting revenge is itself a sin and blinded by revenge we shall commit much more than what was done to us. So, let us be more tolerant knowing that justice shall be served although we'll not get to see it.

And so, Revenge is a dish best not served at all.

The new look for Orkut

2007-08-25T04:46:00.000+05:30

Whew! Finally they've decided to change Orkut's plain (and boring) design. Checkout the Orkut blog for more info. You can see a dim image below the left sidebar indicating the same. There's a screenshot on the blog. It gives a good first impression. Finally, Orkut's moving to something that's 21st century! And adding that 'nav-bar' on top was a much needed mod. But when are we gonna see a full fledged Blogger-Orkut integration?

Who's the Sicko?

2007-08-24T15:08:00.000+05:30

I wanted to write about this ever since I saw the movie Sicko. Unfortunately I didn't have this blog then and I needed to think a lot about it. For those of you who haven't seen Michael Moore's latest flick 'Sicko' (for which I'd give an A-), here's the pivot of this discussion:

'Sicko' is Moore's criticism of the American Medical Insurance system. There are a lot of revelations and questions which is all great but towards the end of the movie Michael Moore announces that he contributed $12000 to aid an anti-Michael Moore webmaster whose wife was ailing and they were having problems with the medical insurance (or w/e).

Of course the first thing I did after seeing the movie was google up this site Moore was talking about. At that moment I was kinda 'turned against' this character. Anyway I found the site. Of course there were lotta angry people there and I came to understand that he was getting floods of abuse from Moore fans. But a lot of thought later I find this whole thing rather unfair. I mean Moore has a way more powerful and far reaching medium of expression here, namely his movies and boy does he know how to use it. Bear in mind that he's an Academy-Award Winner. And on the other side we have this umm... Average Joe, by the name Jim Kenefick (that's for the tip on your last name Jim) who finds his expression through an anti-Michael Moore site.

Now that I think about it there is something wrong with Moore's methods. And while the rest of the world is submerged in what Moore delivers through his media, only few think about how he's delivering it. For example, there's a scene in Sicko where an old and bankrupt couple has no option but to find shelter at the mercy of their children. And the children in turn treat them badly. This is clearly depicted in 'Sicko' and its heartrending but one has to wonder if any sane person would do that before a camera or even before a stranger. So it couldn't have been a hidden camera, more so because that would be an infringement of privacy. So how did Moore do it? I really don't know. But very few bother to ask if at all it occurs to them in the first place. I'm not entirely sure if Jim is such a person but the following lines from one of his "Why" page is as good a reason for the site as any:

"...someone needs to try to keep Moore honest. Rather a Sisyphean task, I know, but we exist to debunk and/or verify facts, claims and even opinion put forth by Moore...."

Its difficult to be 100% honest when it comes to politics. And it wouldn't hurt to use some "tactics" in play. Moore's methods are somewhat excusable considering what he is trying to achieve. But having a check should only keep Moore sharp and in the right path. After all, he's human too.

Its true that charity loses its value when its publicized. But Moore takes it to base level. By announcing his contribution through 'Sicko' Moore directly bought people's favor intentionally or not. Of course, the whole event is relevant to the topic at hand but somehow I find it flawed. And it served to stir up some level of hate against Kenefick. Moore should have refrained with at least that in mind. But I should note here that Moore said that the 'site shouldn't stop speaking'. That could as well be a nail in the coffin or the honest truth. To me the whole affair is perfectly two-sided in that I can't say if Moore was being honest or he played it well! I think its for the same reason that he delivers. So, who's the Sicko here?!

Scrapping in Malayalam

2007-08-22T14:08:00.000+05:30

Although I prefer to chat in Malayalam, I'm tired of this hard to read manglish all over my scrapbook. So here's a simple yet useful solution. Keep in mind this is not my brain child; It's always been there (Ever heard about Malayalam blogs or better yet, seen one?!) and there's even an orkut community about it!

Anyway, here's how you do it:

Firstly and most importantly you need Internet Explorer (which is available on all Windows systems). You may also use Maxthon for better features and improved security.

Download Anjali Old Lipi font and install it.
[Font Installation instructions: Goto Control Panel --> Fonts (Switch to Classic view to see the Fonts folder). Now open File Menu --> Install new font. Browse to the downloaded font and install. Restart IE/Maxthon.]

Goto Peringodan's Malayalam Online page and type your manglish in the text space. It'll get transliterated to Malayalam. (However you'll have to follow this Lipi for more complex contructions) Now all you've to do is copy and paste to the scrapbook!

Tip: Since we can now scrap HTML, you may enclose your malayalam within font tags and give size = "+1" to make it more readable.

Here are some other pages that might also come in handy:

Varamozhi on Wikia
Lipi
Malayalam Blogging

PS: Your friends must also have this information to see your malayalam scraps. So link back using this bar:

(Just Right Click--> Copy Image Location and scrap away)

End of Days

2007-08-21T22:52:00.001+05:30

A lil more than three weeks from now I'd be going back to my official life, college, assignment,exams and to make it all worse, ragging. The last 3 months have been suh-weet. If I had an option I'd spent the rest of my life like this, no sweat, 'cept for some... ahem... basic needs.

Back when I was at school I, like anybody else, would have given anything to just get it over with and have a long vacation, especially when the pressure was really coming down on us. But it eventually happened and in time I got bored with it. That's until I tried out this as a stunt for the infamous 'JEE repeat' plan. The plan is flushed and I'm probably gonna end up regretting it forever. But life just got all the more colorful after my lil experiment. Like there is no good without evil, no light without dark and no Paris Hilton without sex tapes, there is no fun without pain. And a lot of it is coming to me or more accurately, coming back to me.

This time around the Govt. seems to be keen on opening the colleges in time. At least I'm one of the last to fall. Looking back to those 'Zephyr days', those were simultaneously the best and the worst days of my life; 'best' because those were the last days with the old gang and our little moments of joy and 'worst' for everything else. It was some experience. I feel a new beginning with new friends, new campus, a new impression but old memories waiting for all of us, and even though I keep nostalgia tucked to the side I cannot help but shake to the idea that here we part...

Cheers to everything that was.... us.

Return of the King

2007-08-21T03:23:00.000+05:30

Well, its true. Right now I can see a countdown on their site. And because it doesn't update itself automatically it'd help to know that the time is in hh:mm:ss format, which means there's less than a day to it! The biggest ever BitTorrent site of the past returns...

You can check it out at the old URL itself.

Update: Its back, check it out for yerself.

The SoNe Wars

2007-08-21T03:04:00.000+05:30

Ever since the Orkut Boom I've seen more and more Indians go for Social Networks (SoNe would be short for Social Networking btw). That, however wasn't so popular before the phenomenal success of Orkut over that last year. Of course, there were the minorities like FriendsCircle and Hi5, but none of them seemed to reach out. Even before orkut there were SoNes; I myself never bothered to checkout MySpace although I've been mentioned it quite a few times. I guess the main reason for Orkut's success must be that Orkut was 'The New World' when it came to SoNe's; it was there for the taking, new Indians signing up wouldn't feel estranged among the foreign majority and/or we all just enjoyed scrapping!

But that's not what I wanna write about. I want to talk about social networking in the post Orkut era (not that Orkut is finished, yet :P). It seems, here in India many new SoNes are trying desperately for a piece of the action (mainly from Orkut). And "trying" ranges from TV Commercials to marketing through Orkut itself which includes spamming on Orkut communities with Job offerings to sex scandals to lure people to the login page. And I'm pretty sure a good number of 'em fall into such stuff everyday. These guys claim to offer cash rewards per profile view or something on their site, Sheesh! But wait, it doesn't stop there. Orkut's seemingly having security issues these days with idiotic users executing potentially dangerous javascript and going for third party sites that to "revamp" your Orkut experience. Not to mention the ignorant "Ban Orkut" notion going about. And to make things worse its now possible to scrap images and HTML code, which means there's gonna be a surge of obscene content as promotion by rival, local and pathetic companies.

Well, the guys at Orkut must have a Contingency Plan at the least coz its gonna get dirty!

The Bourne Ultimatum

2007-08-19T22:31:00.000+05:30

I've thought of the Bourne movies as more of thriller, maybe somewhat brainy, than an action movie. This one, although an easy no-brainer, is still an excellent thriller and action flick. What's so great about the action is that its actually feasible. No hardcore Rambo stuff here, yet its as much entertaining. And the camera work goes well in hand with the stunts.

The plot is simpler than the previous movies and doesn't demand close attention. This one can reach out to a wider audience for the same reason.. The little details are dealt with nicely. There's an almost constant adrenaline pump throughout and although its not always at the tip of the needle, it comes close enough to be enjoyable. Bourne surviving every car crash is a little hard to buy though, as is breaking into CIA Anti-terrorism bureau in bright daylight. But I'll leave you to it. The climax however seemed a little hasty and unjust. And this time around the assassins actually present considerable challenge to Bourne. The story's a direct continuation of the last movie and you can expect little tie-ins. And as always Bourne's intuitiveness and improvising are fun to watch. Some parts of the story felt a little repetitive but the makers seem to have cut to the chase in time.

The action and stunts are better than the last two movies put together and then some. I've always loved the chaotic camera and stunt work combination, but this time its taken to a whole new level; from on-the-foot chase sequences to awesome high octane ones. And like I've already said, I'd buy the stunts any day. Its difficult to have action that's practicable yet entertaining especially in this post-Matrix era but that's why I love this movie!

Overall, its a fun thriller and a nice break from a CGI/Adventure Summer and as re-watchable as any if the other Bourne movies, maybe even more.

My Grade: A-

Recommendation: Very recommendable. Even viewers unfamiliar with the Bourne series should feel at home. I should get it on DVD when it comes out.

WiseA$$ Bang! Bang!

2007-08-19T02:21:00.000+05:30

There are two kinds of geeks in the world: The ones who hate Bill Gates and Bill himself :P. A part of that number would be the ones that use Windows too much. But hey! Microsoft has been begging for forgiveness ever since they coined the name 'Windows' by making constant offerings of eye candy software and Service Packs. The other part (and obviously the bigger) would be the ones who, although they won't admit it, are plane jealous of "poor" ol' Bill! You can count me as one of them :D The reason is simple. Everybody hates wise guys. And everybody likes to see someone else get their asses handed to them. As mild a reason as it may sound, it surprisingly holds for a range of events as I'm about to write on. But then again I could be (and am probably) wrong.

Ever wondered why there aren't Kings and Queens anymore (well, at least ones that would chop my head off for blogging this!). Forget some long lost minuscule jungle kingdoms, look at the bigger picture here. What used to be a bunch of empires at war has transformed into nations over a couple of millenia. Whatever happened that these rulers would be overthrown and an equitable system of government came to being? Could it be that people got tired of just one guy having all the fun while they hailed and watched. Could be. Maybe the attitude changed and people began to think: 'Whoa whoa, hold up, why should he have all the fun' (No, Hero Honda Pleasure wasn't invented then). Its true that we always seek something "better" without actually knowing what better is. I'll leave the whole question of dictatorship to debaters. I bragged this much to cushion my outrageous opinion that Kings might've been seen as wisea$$es and that could be why the loyalty of the people eventually crumbled and they got kicked. As I saw in 'The Queen', people were angry at the Royals when Princess Diana died. I do think that they (the people) were just looking for an excuse to attack them coz the modern times has been something of a 'Wise a$$ hunting' season. I bet if Napoleon were born in this century he wouldn't have lived long enough to lose his virginity!

And lately I've been seeing a lot of 'Fall of Google' talk here and there. People or more precisely meta-netizens seem to be interested in that kind of stuff. I know I am! It could be that our inner sadist actually enjoys when they fall hard and he kinds anticipates it. The monopoly Google's enjoying would be irritating to some people. It makes it all the more difficult to stay on top for long ;)

PS: Why do I get the feeling that I may have ego issues.

Onam Moan

2007-08-18T21:13:00.000+05:30

Modernization seems to eat away at everything. And Kerala's very own festive season appears to have morphed into something of a state-wide consumer fest. Hey! I'm not complaining. After all I myself plan to buy a new TV set at wicked low prices :P. But I no longer enjoy Onam for the past couple of years as I used to in my childhood days. I truly don't remember last year's Onam and I've no reason to think this one's gonna be any different.

Lately, Onam reminds me of sadhya and the lame mimicry shows that try desperately to put on a moral but turn out to be insulting impersonations of Maveli. We all know the age-old story and frankly, I'm dead bored with it. Now I think its a weak reason for all the fuss. And a consumer fest has a strong chance of beating the mythos when it comes to a reason to celebrate. I'm almost sure I'll forget this whole deal sometime in the near future. And coz I've been having a rather long holiday for the last three months, the 'break-after-the-exam' value is totally flushed.

So, the only thing I'm looking forward to is the new TV, and maybe a DVD player that'd come with it as an Onam bonus!

Mythos

2007-08-17T19:33:00.000+05:30

There's something associated with every country. For example, US: Sex, Iraq: War, Africa: Poverty, China: Kung-Fu (not to mention the Chinese people) and India: Superstitious. Of course different people might have different ideas people but superstition and India are arguably synonymous. Of course lately the country has also been related to 'Outsourcing' and 'IT'. But if you're Indian you must definitely have heard at least a dozen superstitious notions and may even live by some of them. I, for one was inspired to write this article after screwing up the '1st day of Malayalam New Year' and to tell you the truth I'm not that happy about it.

It seems that these little beliefs have been grafted to our conscience through years of our elders feeding it to us. But then some of those little undefined rules have sort of disciplined us, haven't they? Of course we've heard the stories that these little untruths were created by grannies of the old to make the young ones behave. As reasonable a story as it sounds I somehow think there's more to it. Couldn't it be that our ancestors must've had a better insight and intellect to identify the rights and wrongs in etiquette and may have made up these sayings to have effected lesser minds to the better. Maybe they knew or believed in something we no longer care to notice. And the technical stuff must've eventually been forgotten.

Whatever! I bet few of us are 100% Superstition-proof. There's something to the Mythos that we cannot completely deny, isn't there?

Ad Non-Sense

2007-08-17T19:05:00.000+05:30

Of all the stupid reasons to buy a product! I'm sure those of you in India must've seen the Zeiss spectacles ad wherein a dude is mocked for not wearing branded spectacles. Wha?! WTF?!! Wow, I didn't know females have binocular vision. And the ad sounds desperate if not anything else. It wouldn't be out of place if I requested you not to go for Zeiss spectacles ever again :P

Sex sells. So sell some already!

2007-08-15T19:42:00.000+05:30

It is said that every cloud has a silver lining, its just that nobody notices. Well, I must get an Award for this post! As crazy as it sounds I wanna say that there may be a silver lining to porno (besides the obvious err.... *ahem*). I saw the trailer for an upcoming Hindi movie titles 'Cash'. I've to say, from the trailer I think they've got something right here and there and then I saw... girl bending over. I reminded me of the so called "glamour" that sells new age Indian movies and I had a sudden urge to...

... blog about it :P. And mind you it seems to be working. Certain small revelations seem to be attracting more and more drooling guys to the cinemas. Admit it - Mallika Sherawat sells coz she's got great knockers! And so does a whole buncha them. And especially in Tamil they don't have anything special to do other than falling for the "hero" who could turn out to be her great granddaddy's classmate :D. If there's something to cherish about modern Malayalam pics its that the female lead has to do some solid acting instead of going for a dog-eaten wardrobe. And Bollywood (Gawd, I hate that name!) seems to be one step ahead of Tollywood (Akhil Smash!) by having the skirts shrunk a feet more than the southerners.

I bet Nayanthara's career wouldn't have gone far from her first movie if she hadn't cut fabric in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. And when Hrithik kissed Aishwarya, there was a furore of (mostly jealous) people. Well, good for us, but their protest isn't hacking at the right places. The censor board must've been constituted of one hand wankers I guess. Oh, did I mention that the censor board in US seems to have vanished! You'll know what I mean when you see 'Babel'. At least the foreigners claim its done for art than a profound commercial interest. And you know why they can't make a peak at the box office charts with some "glamour", coz the they get A-class porn at the nearest video rentals easy. And thus we come back to the point of this shadow-fight discussion; Maybe Indian youth is drooling over the curvy revelations coz they aren't getting quality (native) hardcore already!

I'm not suggesting that this much percent of Indian's must do prono this much times a year nor am I passing an Amendment to the effect (Gee, that would be nice... me becoming an M.P, I mean) but hey, legalize porn already!

- Akhil the Outrageous

Another Independence day, [YAWN]

2007-08-14T21:30:00.000+05:30

No 0ffense to the nation, the freedom fighters and the patriots who fake their citizenship on social networks to flirt with whites. I was wondering... couldn't we spice up Independence day for once. The whole parade stuff is really boring. Hellooo, knock knock There's cable TV now, the parade is no longer 'flick of the year'. And by spicin' up I don't mean having bellydancers at the parade, no sir! Why can't we use our creativity and create something colorful, something entertaining that more people will be looking forward to while at the same time upholding the sanctity and importance of the day. Why don't they just tape a parade once and play it over and over every August 15th. I'm sure not many would notice! I'm not sure if this is too much to ask for but I can swear that there'd be hefty amount of criticism and protest if that sorta thing would ever happen. Maybe the bellydancers weren't sucha bad idea... Hmmm...

And just so it would matter, H.I.D.E (Happy Independence Day Everyone)!

Jai Hind.

John Rambo

2007-08-14T06:49:00.000+05:30

Yep, that's the trailer for John Rambo a.k.a Rambo 4. I came to know about yesterday going through the Empire movie mag. And no, he's not gonna be kicking Osama's a$$ as ( whoa, three 'as'es together!) early 04 reports suggested. Instead he's going after a bunch a missionaries or something trapped by the Burmese regime. My first thought seeing the stills was 'Finally, Rambo got his pensions coz he's wearing a decent T-Shirt'. Then again why the hell would Rambo come out of retirement to save a bunch of sorry losers. But after watching the trailer I'm more or less convinced on the question of his objective and his morality. Then again I didn't see any of the die hard stunts Rambo does 3 times a day for exercise and yes, Stallone looks fat for the part; that explains the shirt (Duh!). Here are a couple of stills:

Checkout the grit in the second one, well done. But his throat looks too swollen and he's in much better shape than in 'Balboa' (which by the way was a lil bit too much of drama). I can't imagine how this old Stallone is gonna make us believe he can take on the Burmese regime but I don't mind finding out!

According to IMDb the movie releases on December, 2007.

PS: When was googling for more on 'John Rambo' I came across this near outrageous article! Check it out. But on second thought he does look the part from the original movies.

Orkut India

2007-08-13T19:15:00.000+05:30

Just logged into orkut to discover the following screen screen:

Being me the first thing that crssed my mind was whether people outside India were seeing this. As wishful as I was, the answer was obvious: No. I accessed orkut via a foreign proxy and came to discover they're still seeing that stupid bunch of folks. And suddenly I've noticed so many people on my friend's list putting an Indian flag afor their profile photo. Guess I should change mine too, but I'm looking for a good twist to it ;)

Click on the image (on the orkut page) and you'll be taken to a post about Independence day on the official orkut blog.

The Namesake

2007-08-12T23:32:00.000+05:30

Halfway through the movie I never expected 'The Namesake' to finish off as good as it did. I've just seen the movie and wanted to blog about it when it was still fresh in memory. Seeing this, I suddenly realize that I owe my parents much more than I had imagined.

This is not really a review; the movie deserves not a review but an applaud, but then I'd like to just take this space to give it a B+. The ending is heartwarming and the movie is nothing short of memorable. That's not to say everyone will enjoy it but I'd recommend it to anyone just so that it might get through to them. Its a must watch for the younger generation caught in a transcultural dilemma. Its not an entertainer, its more of a lesson. I'd say Mira Nair has crosshairs on a younger, fast-paced and ambitious India. The story flows slowly and gently but there's never a drag though. The cast also performs well although I did feel Kal Penn could've used more makeup playing the young boy.

My fellow teens, you need to see this movie.

Ocean's 13

2007-08-12T16:10:00.000+05:30

Just saw the much hyped Ocean's 13, the last of the series. This one's a rendezvous of magnificent proportions although Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones don't show up. Yet I cannot say its as good as Ocean's 11. There's a sort of drag all through the movie, its just not as lively as Ocean's 11, but then it must be because one kinda gets used to it. Still its better than 12.

The setting is weak and the heist is too complicated but the humor's definitely there. And maybe Danny's too farsighted to be believable. Of course, Rusty keeps the cool and Linus (Damon) is learning the cool! I kinda missed "The Rookie" Linus. Al Pacino to be supposed to be somekinda mobster casino owner, instead he turned out to be a really rich rat. And yes, the "Nightfox" shows up and Terry Benedict wants gets a slice of the action. The climax was short but cool. This movie's more tactics and less action but you just gotta love the brain game. There's a lot going on and a few '?' will definitely pop over you head. Somehow its just not exciting as the original.

All in all something seems to be missing or out of sync. I just can't figure it out. But don't worry, its not disappointing. Fan's of the previous movies (like me) would ask for something more but I think I can live with this.

My Grade: B

Recommendation: Its worth the watch, maybe once or twice.

PS: This happened to be the 100th movie I rated on Yahoo! Movie. Yay for me.

Turning the Cheek

2007-08-11T06:29:00.000+05:30

This could be perhaps the most sensitive issue I've posted on my blog yet. Just the other day I was flipping channels when I saw a speech by the recently released Maadani (I had to Google for the spelling) speaking of the atrocities he underwent in jail and saying how crimes were committed on him, all the time having both his sons by his side whom he'd occasionally bring into discussion occasionally. Now I'm no detective and so I say if he indeed went to jail for not having done anything it certainly is a mistake. I really don't know how it happened despite the Indian Judiciary claiming that not one innocent shall be jailed (or w/e). But then again I don't know much about Maadani either so I can't really pick a side. But looking the bigger picture, maybe its karma biting back for sins from his previous lives'. But since that's out of the scope a legal system and also beyond 'rational' thought it would seem Madani had to go to jail for no good reason. And the masses would naturally sympathize in Maadani's favor as we ca neither see nor acknowledge the bigger picture (of karmic balance).

Now, the right thing for any man to do would be just to go home and forget the entire thing! But none of us do that do we?! If somebody hurts us we'll simply want hurt him back and probably enjoy the vengeance. That's one of our greatest weakness, isn't it; Somehow we are able to enjoy the revenge, bathe in our enemy's blood. Its some perversive pleasure that God has put into all of us and one which is to be refrained from, as difficult as it is to.

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you." (Matthew 5:38-42, NIV)

But it seems men do just the opposite; There was hate in Maadani's words for which I wouldn't or couldn't blame him because that's exactly the stance I would take given I had the resources. However, a majority of the audience present were Islamic followers.People unfortunately forget that the crime has been committed on the man, not his beliefs. It is impossible to corrupt faith. But as he spoke the audience seemed to mourn and enrage with him. The worse thing that could happen is for this rage to translate into religious hatred through primitive and base thought plus Maadani's political influence. Its almost always how a mass of people would respond. I'm no mob psychology expert but I've read my share of history; Religion and Caste divide India as Race divides the Americans, Class divides the British and Caste divides the middle east.

Once a crime is committed on a person he immediately gets ground to strike back. Even when we strike a fellow, there'd be a part of us feeling sorry for him and which would demand us to accept is blow in return. That's what happened/is happening with the races in western countries. But then what would happen if the victim returns one blow too much? Ah! The hate never seems to stop...

PS: I never picked a side in this discussion; It wasn't about any sides at all if you didn't have the proper discretion and insight to see otherwise.

Whatever happened to Email?

2007-08-10T02:28:00.000+05:30

My father goes online to check his email and I go online to check my scraps (among other things!). And to tell the truth I'm not liking it. You don't need any introduction to scraps - Its just crap with an s at the beginning n' end and every social networking site seems to have its own variant of it. But most importantly, anyone can see it. And for the same exact reason it can be surprisingly fun and equally dangerous. To tell you the truth I hardly check my email anymore because nobody in my circle of friends use it anymore. I can't help thinking if we're becoming estranged from it altogether. The thing is we can no longer message in private, coz we can't be sure the message is seen on the other side and in time. But on a lighter side, I don't suppose us teenagers having nothing so private and important to say to one another unlike the office goers. So, are we witnessing a slight generation gap even in hi tech communication?

[Oh, brother...]

Of Heroes, Super: Part-I

2007-08-08T23:12:00.000+05:30

As usual this article was also inspired by a movie; Superman Returns. To say in short about the movie itself I think it lacked 'glue' to join the rather well done sequences plus a weak performance by Brandon Routh as Superman. And now to the popular question about Superman's stupendous disguise. Its damn right outrageous even for a comic. Don't serve me some bullshit like superman's mental cloaking (or has he one?). Lois's new boyfriend (Richard or w/e) comes so close (he should be made the hero!) and Clark Kent just convinces otherwise with an idiotic gesture. I know one thing for sure; a whole world full of idiots need to be saved!

For those of you who haven't figured, I never liked Superman so much. Mainly coz he's so, so... PERFECT! Too damn powerful and too damn decent plus Martha uses Ujala too much. And oh, did I mention the big 'S' for stupid. That's something I never like about Superman and Batman. Okay so many people like it that Batman's just human but check this out: He's filthy rich, can get an M.I.T degree in all three sciences in his sleep, a bodybuilder, mastered all known martial arts (and maybe some unknowns too) and takes it out on Superman once in a while. And any comic nerd favoring DC would say: [think narrator="nagging girl"] "oooooh! Batman vs. X-Men - Batman wins, Batman vs, Hulk - Batman wins..." heck, "Batman vs. Galactus -Batman wins coz he's really cunning and smart, ooooh, scary!" [/ think]. So 'perfect' would be too small a word for Batman. I can rest assured knowing how he must make an a$$ of himself in that costume. Sigh!

But than take a look at Spider-Man; Yes, he's kinda kiddy n' all but just think of the torment he goes through it makes him more human and more of a hero. It was pictured exceptionally in Spider-Man 2 which according to me (and RottenTomatoes.com) is the best comic book movie yet. I mean, there's a sort of karmic balance to it y'know; here's an ordinary guy given super powers - he may choose it for evil, for good or not use it at all. But he chooses the 'Good Side' or w/e but in turn his life's continually a torment as long as he does so. That's the price he pays and that's heroism. Of course, looking back at Batman, I'll argue to myself that Batman is something of a 'hard worker' type, one who has completely dedicated his life to fighting crime and he pays his price in tireless efforts of preparation. But not many authors seem to be bringing that out. Even the celebrated Dark Knight Returns just got the boost from Frank Miller's unique style and the grit he brings to it. So, really both these characters are undergoing torments, getting their share of the pain to achieve what they think is right , what the creators intently or unintentionally put on them to deliver, which is why I wouldn't ridicule when I say 'comic book hero'.

But then, what of the Hulk?

(To be continued...)

Talk about deep shit

2007-08-07T22:43:00.000+05:30

I saw 'Babel' yesterday. Got interested in it seeing the extremes of reviews in Yahoo! Movies (Check out for yerself). I'm not gonna bragg about the story, but thinking about it later, I was kinda amused by a significant plot point. There is this Moroccan kid ( a moron is a better word) who gets in a lotta deep shit. And this is as deep as it gets, at least for a kid; So his dad buys a new rifle and gives it to him and his brother to kill any jackals that might attack their goats when they're grazing. Later, the idiots get into an argument as to whether the bullet can go 3km as the seller claimed. They end up shooting at an American tourist bus. They hear the news later that an American woman was shot, The U.S is accusing the country of terrorism and the country's claiming that all terrorists cells were evacuated some time ago. So it becomes a sensitive international issue and the whole worlds listening. Their own country wants them bad. Later own in a shootout out protagonist idiota fires at a police officer in defense and his brother gets killed in turn.

And that's not all, his parents recently learned of his ahem... incestuous habits. Tell me, can somebody get in deeper shit?!

Human Intelligence

2007-08-07T14:14:00.000+05:30

I saw 'Apocalypto' the other day. Although the movie is nothing I may call special (its much more like Rambo without pants) it did leave me thinking; Has the human brain evolved only recently. From to the theory of evolution any major change would take over millions of years. So I'm guessing people a couple of millenniums ('millenia' is no lo longer the plural to 'millennium' according to the spell checker program) to the new ago must've had our own level of intelligence. But then why wasn't all the great scientific breakthroughs made then? Why did humans not have technology back then?

Over the last century we've been witnessing near exponential growth in technology. The theory of Relativity contributed much to it. That must be why Einstein was recognized as the most influential person of the 20th century. Over the last century we have developed much much more than we did in the past couple of dozen centuries at least. So naturally the information in take for the modern day student has also increased. What we learn as out pre degree Physics was, but a couple of centuries ago, the scientific breakthrough accesssible and digestible only to the higher levels of intelligence. But since the new age severely depends and build upon all the laws which have now become only the fundamentals, we're required to inherit and build on this knowledge.

Even looking back two or three decades students didn't have this much to intake. My father tells me he didn't have so much to study when he was in the +2 equivalent. With each generation we have more to learn and to build on. A modern day engineer would have to learn the basics, the developments in technology in the past couple of decades, the newer techniques that have been developed through years of research or even trial and error and so on and come up with newer and better solutions to stay on top of the game. And more so for a doctor who always have to keep himself updates about new treatments and developments the world over and a fresh student will need to know all these developments plus the basic lessons by the time he/she graduates. Can the human brain handle take in so much in such a short while? Can evolution catch up ? Won't the world soon be divided into stratas based on intelligence?

The modern world mostly revolves around brain game rather than muscle power. There had been brain game then too. After all, what is war without strategy. But with the introduction of technology; guns and bombs and bioweapons, strength in numbers truly doesn't matter anymore. Its all technology. You've the better bomb, you've already won the war! That's why America which can arguably be called the cradle of modern technology stays on top. And on a much more individual level, its no longer survival of the fittest, but survival of the smartest especially in over populated countries like India. Of course, we still need man power but is the day so far when all that would be so effortlessly replaced by robots. So I raise my question again about division based on intelligence. Economy would certainly favor the brainy. We can see that phenomenon now itself. People going to better Universities get better salaries. And as a student I know how most parents think Doctors and Engineers are the only way to go. But when you think about this, those are the safest options. An engineer can add to the large pool of people nourishing and sustaining all so vital Technology and the Doctors will always have a job because there will always be sick people.

And over the years, the people they are catering would turn out to be themselves. As of now here isn't much shortage for end consumers. But what would happen when all man power would be replaced by machines. At first they would be installed in factories as has already been done. Fewer and fewer factories rely on human handwork, one of which I would like to mention is Harley Davidson engine assembly. The production lines still having extensive human involvement are the ones that may require some level of human discretion. But with development in processing technologies and image recognition, won't machines replace that too. This is just an example. If we were to think so forth one day engineers and doctors, the so-called vitals now, be replaced by artificially intelligent or simulated intelligent beings. But then what would be left for us to do, to earn for the service of machines, to earn for our livelihood when most of our jobs are already been done by the machines. So I suppose we won't be overrun by machines the way we see in Hollywood movies: Because they (the machines) think its for the betterment of mankind all that bullshit, just because we have nothing left to do! Of course, at the earlier level of such a machine integration the laboring class would revolt and when that time does come I just hope we do not ignore them, that we would have the far sight to know that comfortable is not the way to live out lives, we have to work and strive for survival just like we did all those centuries ago!

Shilpa Shitty

2007-08-05T13:46:00.000+05:30

I read in the news about Shilpa Shetty leading the polls for the next Bond girl (Read all about it!). This is certainly... bad news. Okay, so I'm not into Hindi movies (I won't use the B word, I hate it). So she kind got a break from the Big Brother - won British sympathy, met the Queen in person and just when her washout was nearly complete, she made a great comeback. Okay, good for her! But a Bond girl, Oh no! No, the first ever India to become a Bond girl and it has to be her?! Why, Lord? Errr... British people (or w/e), that's enough you have done to make it up for the racist comments; no need to cast her as a Bond girl. I mean she hardly has the looks, not to mention certain other ahem... parameters ;). I've nothing against Shilpa Shetty, most probably because I haven't seen any of her movies.

I mean to say that if they're ever picking an Indian, pick out the best like Aishwarya Rai or Katrina Kaif, not some washout with public sympathy backing her up.

Boratified!

2007-08-04T15:42:00.000+05:30

I changed my profile pic in Orkut to a funny pic of Borat. And of course, Akri's been using the 'not' gag on me since. And even Cynji scrapped me that the pic is hard not to notice. I agree! Anyway, I just thought I might read up more on him. Borat is played by Sacha Baron Cohen, a British Ccmedian who his himself a Jew. All those of you who've seen the movie must remember Borat's anti-semitism. Anyway there are facts which are stunning still, the most important of them being that in the movie only Borat, Azamat and Pamela Anderson are more or less the only ones doing any acting!

That's right; the chasing people around, buying a hummer, the rodeo, the 'not' gag, 'shooting' in from of Victoria's secret in public are all real. Every bit of it! The people concerned were only aware that this was some kind of documentary and they were asked to sign an extensive contract stating they would not take legal action against the producers. Naturally most of the scenes were more or less unscripted and yet Cohen was nominated for best adapted screenplay at the Academy Awards this year! Over 400 hours of footage was recorded for the movie. And although most of the criticism has been positive there are some people still who call it outrageous. Hey would you want this happening to you? Of course there are still cases in court against Cohen and the producers. The movie has been banned in all middle-east countries except Lebanon. You can read more from its wiki page.

And that's not all for this post, I've managed to find some deleted scenes from the movie on YouTube. Here are a few. I really wish I could describe it for the less bandwidth endowed among you, but I'll only spoil it and besides its not the cleanest of jokes ;).

You can find more clips of Borat from Da ALi G show on YouTube.

Feeling Lucky, Punk?

2007-08-03T21:59:00.000+05:30

Hey I've installed Azeem's 'Feeling Lucky' widget to my blog with a little twist of my own. Just click the text and you'll be directed to a randomly selected article within this blog. So, as Clint Eastwould wood (:P) have it: Feeling Lucky, PUNK?

PS: Thanks Azeem.

Iron Man Preview

2007-08-03T19:58:00.001+05:30

I read that they showed a preview of the upcoming Iron-Man movie at Comic-con. However footage of the event was yanked from YouTube and DailyMotion by the studios. However I've managed to find it here. Not a bad cookup but then the last scene where Iron-Man flies with a couple of F-22s, hmm... was that (CG) done in the 80's or something or maybe its just the crappy cam print. Sheesh! watching the cam print of a trailer, what have I come to these days.

PS: No more comic news, I swear

.................................................NOT!

Introducing Games!

2007-08-03T14:35:00.000+05:30

I've created a new label for Games. Okay, I'll ask a question and you can answer via comments. Here's the first question and its a chalu:

Which movie director cannot play Counter Strike at his home?

Tip: Although its a chalu, don't think too much!

GAME ON!

Edit: Since not many of my usual readers are moviephiles I'll give a clue; his first name is Christopher and a movie he directs has already been mentioned in this blog.

Red Alert Orkut

2007-08-03T10:11:00.000+05:30

Hey, you guys been noticing the sudden surge in security tips and warning starting today? These are a couple of what I got:

I guess users must've got phished. Don't go for all that powerscrap stuff.

A cure for Vacation Sickness

2007-08-02T21:09:00.000+05:30

Everybody's having vacation sickness these days. And guess what its almost up! Another month and we'll be dragging or sorry a$$es back to college. Bah! So this is our last chance to finally enjoy the freedom. I've devised a simple yet powerful therapy for vacation sickness:

'Just take your Chemistry book and try to learn Inorganic Chemistry'

Its that simple! Just try it. Results guaranteed.

Hollywood Suicide

2007-08-01T09:27:00.000+05:30

I've been a moviephile since I was nine years old. Back then I couldn't understand or 'appreciate' the dialogs, understand the plot, or enjoy the somewhat 'in' jokes. I was just in for the eye candy (the sfx and the chicks ;)). But anyhow that's history and I've grown to even criticize (although not a professional level) and the chicks are in plenty online ;). And all the while I couldn't digest most of the Indian films either. But there are a handful of these that I can list with the best movies I've seen.

Okay, enough crap talk. Here are a few interesting, funny (and somewhat true!) facts I've learned of the American civilization from its movies:

1. Crashed cars always explode.

2. You can even bring down a chopper with a couple of bullets, just shoot the fuel tank.

3. Gay is in fashion.

4. There's only one difference between a hooker and a lady, you can pick up a hooker from the street and a lady from the bar!

5. Its easy to make money in the US, just sue someone else for breathing in your share of the oxygen.

6. The electric chair is preferable to a day in jail (unless you're gay). Goto jail and say good bye to your a$$hole.

7. If you're still a virgin at your 13th birthday, you're not American.

8. Being a cop is easy, shoot or get shot. Hand to hand combat is lame and time consuming, besides everybody gets a gun on their first birthday.

9. Americans just love sarcasm; if somebody says they're gonna jump off a cliff they will :|

10. Aliens only land in America, that's how they 'developed' HIV.

11. Russians are the bad guys.

12. America always save the world, and sometimes even the Universe. The rest of us can goto the nearest landmark and applaud.

13. Nobody uses a rope to suicide, they have 1000 ft. buildings for that.

The Dark Knight

2007-08-01T08:37:00.001+05:30

That was the teaser for the upcoming Batman movie: The Dark Knight. Although the video shows the bat sign for almost all the time and the audio reveals a seemingly irrelevant plot point, the video is 100% must watch. Just listen to it, see how the Joker comes into all this. Alfred saying Batman pushed the mob to turn to someone they didn't understand: the Joker. Its absolutely perfect, ah the karmic balance and tranquility there off. I always wondered why all these super villains pop up just about when the heroes does. Recently I've seen a couple of comics attempt to answer that with probability curves (yes, that's Reed Richards there) etc.

But this one's good; when something out of the ordinary comes into play in the usual cat and mouse chase, in this case Batman, it is countered equally like you know, Ying and Yang maybe. The mob's turning out to be powerless against Batman and in order to maintain a balance or the game to remain fair the Joker comes into play. Sa...weet! Batman's arch rival couldn't have been introduced any better. But it remains to see how Two-Face and ahem.. another dude from the past fits into this harmony of a comic book story.

I'm a geek (Duh!)

The new Hulk design

2007-08-01T08:21:00.000+05:30

Hey, I justcame across this video from Comic-Con 07 which shows a sneak peak at the concept design they're using for the next Hulk movie namely, The Incredible Hulk, Check it out:

Its just incredible. I've never dreamt they'd reach this level. WOW! Bless Hollywood! this is exponentially better than the first movie design. Just look at the cracks, the grit. I'm telling you, I'm HYPED.

the real Milhouse

2007-07-31T20:41:00.000+05:30

Hey, was just googling and look what a came across: A Milhouse (from the Simpsons) look alike:

Miss the thick eyebrows though. (D'oh)

The Simpsons Movie: Review

2007-07-31T16:40:00.000+05:30

Saw the Simpsons Movie today. Heard that its making huge rounds back in US. Well, I thought it was worth the wait. Guess what Bart what writing on the board this time: "I will not download this movie illegally" :P.

The first half of the movie was classic, although the plot is set in motion only after a hilarious 30 minutes. The jokes were off scale! I think they must've been saving some of their best jokes for the big screen. But there are almost no "in-jokes" in there. The makers probably cut 'em off to serve a wider audience. It works if you ask me, however I don't suppose so much for the "in" people. There are a couple of parodies here and there too. Overall the first half was a really good mixed bag.

And when the plot finally kicks off its not as interesting as you might expect. Okay, so Homer dumped a silo of pig poop and maybe some of his own poop (bah! what's the difference :D) into the river and the US Government quarantines the area, the people hate Homer, he has to play family man, win back Bart's affection or whatever, save the day, yadaa yadda... But its not so boring as my last line may deliver. It somewhat felt like the TV show stretched another 15 minutes. And the climax is more than a little cheesy even for the Simpsons. But at the end of the day everything's A O.K and Homer still can't fix the roof.

The End

My Grade: B

Recommendation: First half kicks Homer! The rest is not as much engaging but still enjoyable. Overall, its fun.

Adios Anando

2007-07-28T21:28:00.000+05:30

Well, I think I owe Anand at least this much after the crappy testimonial I wrote him. Was not in a good mood anyway.

Well, bidding farewell to Anand was a lot tougher than I thought it'd be. I'm sure all of us felt that. And although I'm not one to breakdown so fast like Pachu, I think such a reaction wouldn't have been much of a misfit for the situation. There were times when I'd want to squeeze his neck like when the answer papers are distributed :D but most of the times most of us would be slurping up a mild jealousy while at the same time pondering uselessly to how a person can remain so versatile and engaged at the same time, not to mention cheerful. In the past couple of years I've seen Anand angry just a couple of times, maybe its because I don't play football with him :P.

I'm a person who speculates a lot (and boy when I say a lot, I mean a LOT). So far Anand is a difficult one to guess up. He has this immense reserve of energy which he seems to be using very wisely and productively rather than goofing around wasting our time on useless fantasies like the rest of us. He's always so focused but being such I can't help wondert about his 'slight' lack of punctuality. Anand has always been so friendly. One simply cannot have a grudge against him. I mean when he comes into a group everyone notices, yet he is not centered. You can talk to Anand on any subject. he's a good listener (How else do you think he tolerated Steamu all these years, no offense Azeem if you're reading this!). Yet I've always felt he's always in control of himself and his actions (quite contrary to Pachu). I can absolutely positively conclude that there's a lot more to Anand than any of us know but whatever we do know, we cherish it.

Good Luck buddy and may Fortune shed her best on you.

PS: You owe me a (blog) comment at the least.

Orkut or Power Cut?

2007-07-25T15:05:00.000+05:30

Just when I thought there was nothing to do....

I was 'lucky' enough to spot Orkut during maintenance and as I write this it is going on. I might never see this again and for those who were less 'fortunate', check it out:

So, they're learning from CEE webmasters now?
And surprisingly, there were no donuts involved.

The Singhsons

2007-07-25T14:32:00.000+05:30

I was just browsing around in YouTube when I found this short yet funny video starring a hypothetical Indian version of the Simpsons: The Singhsons. It has its flaws in detail but nevertheless its fun: