Eternal sunshine of the rambling mind

Bringing back to life

2012-01-24T18:41:00.000+05:30

My primary grievance against my favourite authors has always been that most of them chose to limit their creative output when it came to their most memorable fictional characters. Every Wodehousian fan will wish there were more Jeeves and Wooster stories to chuckle at and I was quite depressed when I finished the last of the Potter books. It was no different for me with everyone’s favourite detective Sherlock Holmes. Of course, you can keep going back and re-read the canon and watch Jeremy Brent in the BBC adaptation, but there can be no encore when it comes to bringing the character back to life, is there?

So, I have really relished the BBC television series “Sherlock” where Benedict Cumberbatch plays the detective and Martin Freeman plays the re-invented side-kick John Watson. And talking about re-invention, that is the best part of this series for me. It is easy to make a spoof and a commercially sound strategy to borrow a few references to colour your own stories, but it is an entirely different matter to re-invent the characters in a modern day setting and employ numerous canonical references that the fans would appreciate and enjoy. And here is a stellar job on that score.

Holmes continues to be a scientific practitioner of the art of detection; he now has smartphones (an Iphone by the way…hmmm…fodder for a good argumentative discussion) and more advanced forensic tools to aid him. Watson is a tad smarter and at times leaves you thinking that he is in love with Holmes – Mr Milk, take a bow ! But the best of all, I have found one of my favourite villains till date in Andrew Scott’s Moriarty. You got to watch the second season to really enjoy his portrayal.

And guess what, as all good things in life and fiction, there are just three episodes to each of the first two seasons. Best chance for even the non-Holmesians amongst my friends to catch up on some quality drama.

Bhag D K !

2011-07-02T10:48:00.000+05:30

Irreverential, rib-tickling and total paisa vasool - that's Delhi's under Belly served on a platter with a generous serving of outrageous scenes and garnished with a mouthful of obscenities. The audience relished every bit of it, everyone sat through even the credits at the end.

Deo has done a good job with this situational comedy and the A-certificate was a marketing masterstroke. Lots of attention to detail. I liked Kunal Roy Kapur's acting as the friend with the diarrhoea. Not surprisingly, his best moments in the movie are shot in the loo. Good use of the cliche slapstick comedy devices - farts, noises and all; his expressions made them stand out. Newcomer Poorna Jagannathan is quite impressive. But Vijay Raaz must take a bow - he was the best of them all with his trademark swagger and dialogue delivery. Then there are the potshots at Mithunda.

My friend who saw the movie with me didn't even notice that the dialogues were all in English - almost all of them ! Funny!

This movie certainly reinforces Brand Amir Khan - King Midas.

Do watch it and take a crowd along. Just leave the kid and parents at home.

By the way, Ajay Devgan looks good in Surya's rule in the upcoming Singham remake. He is going to give Salman 'Dabang' Khan a run for his money!

Inflation - the sorry tale

2007-02-22T14:54:00.000+05:30

There is a lot of talk about inflation and the increase in food prices these days. But when I think of inflation there are other things that worry me more...

One of the biggest distorting factors in our economy is the state of taxation in our country. It is so inequitable - everybody except the salaried escapes the net - that it leaves a lot of unaccounted money floating. That cant be put to any easy productive use and finds its way into the real estate sector and perhaps the stock market (this I am not sure though). I haven’t seen reliable figures on the inflation in the real estate market myself and the consumer price inflation index doesn’t take into account this factor at all. Which is very surprising to me because housing is a universal basic expense for everyone - poor included. In fact for the poor and the middle-class, it probably forms as much as 20% of their monthly expense. And the inflation in the real estate market and the services sector, I think, is galloping ahead of the CPI. That is the bigger danger. So I think the 6-7% inflation is all bull. And unless we take urgent steps to achieve a more equitable growth and growth in all sectors of the economy, inequity in society will cause lots of social unrest manifesting in so many other forms. Thats India’s biggest challenge today and not achieving sustained 8% growth or matching China’s march.

And agriculture and infrastructure should be the biggest area of focus. Investing in infrastructure and improving agricultural productivity is most important and better in the long run than macro-economic interventions like tweaking the interest rate and reducing the liquidity. Instead of trying to manage inflation, we would do better to manage its effects. And subsidies are necessary but they should be better thought through. Offering farmers incentives to move away from pulses to cash crops doesn’t seem like a great idea to me, especially considering that probably no other country grows these lentils. All said and done, I think the biggest source of food price increases still remains manipulation by some cartels and hoarders, FCI included.

Travails of a linguistically challenged in Taiwan

2007-02-11T20:16:00.000+05:30

Language is the dress of thought - so said Samuel Johnson and in this respect, I was naked today.

Well, when one applies normal yardsticks, I am certainly not linguistically challenged. I can speak 4 languages and understand a fifth - as is the case with many Indians. But when it comes to being in Taiwan, circumstances are no more normal and the trio of English, Hindi and Tamil that I relied on for the past 25 years of my life failed me during these last two weeks. When I left for Taiwan, lots of well-wishers warned me that the only problem, and not a small one, in Taiwan would be to find vegetarian food. But I think on that count, I needn't have feared at all. I might have been better equipped, if instead of the few ready-to-cook packets of veg fare, I had carried a English to Mandarin dictionary or guidebook. Very few people in this part of the world understand English, much less speak the language, but for a couple of service staff in the hotel where I am put up, a few sales-coordinators in the partner-company here and a three-member team from my company stationed here.

This is my second short trip in a period of six months. During my first visit, one day the drain in my bathroom got clogged and I dialed the concierge to seek the help of the housekeeping staff. When I tried to explain to her my predicament, she failed to understand. "Clogged" and "flush" wouldnt work, so I tried telling her that the "water in my bathroom doesnt go". She gave an exclamation of immediate understanding and I sighed - finally I got through. But to my dismay, she asked me a return question - Hot Water or Cold water? It took me a few seconds to realise that she thought there was no water coming through the tap/shower. I then vehemently and repeatedly said "No !", that was not it. I spent another couple of minutes and then I finally mouthed just two words "Housekeeping - send ". Ten minutes later, I had a helpful lady at my door and I showed her, without attempting to explain, my problem. She immediately went ahead and solved it !

In Taiwan, you simply cannot go out onto the streets and hope to get directions from a passerby. No one you meet on the streets would understand English. And if you thought you could just mouth the name of the place or shop you seek and be understood, you will be in for a surprise. In Chinese, the proper nouns also different - the name itself differs and hence the pronunciation too. For instance, my hotel name is Ambassador but in Chinese its "Kopeen". Similarly, the company I visit daily is also called differently in Chinese. So, the best thing to do here, I learnt later, is to take a card which has the name written in chinese characters and show it to the taxi driver, the bus-driver (if you are brave enough to try one) or the passerby on the street (you can atleast make out the direction towards which his hand points ! ).

In fact, one of the reason why I am here is because of this communication barrier. The task for which I am here could possibly have been directed remotely from my office in Bangalore. But apart from the slow pace of progress which it will entail, the bigger problem is information lost in translation. I am here in relation to some work with a sub-contract mfg company in Taiwan. When I work with them from Bangalore, I usually communicate through a local Cypress intermediary at their office in Taiwan in English. He then communicates it in simpler instructions and elementary English to an engineer from this firm (who understands a bit of English) and he in turn translates it into Chinese to the engineer who will actually work on the task. I find that often critical information is lost, mis-interpreted in this chain of translation resulting in lot of mistakes and re-work. This is not acceptable and hence the reason why I am here.

But the beauty is I find that quite a few employees at this Taiwanese firm are able to understand and write decent English in their emails. But when you speak the same sentence, they cant understand. Something akin to how many Tamilians used to learn Hindi through postal govt courses and certifications ("Rashtrabhasha" etc) in the past but couldnt speak well because of lack of exposure to the spoken form. So I always walk around with a paper and pen in the office here in Taiwan.

But since Taiwan does a lot of business with the US, English language skill is accorded a premium here and people pay big bucks to learn the Queen's language ...eh...the yankee's language perhaps.

Great beginning

2007-02-01T16:01:00.000+05:30

I have had a great beginning to this year - one of the best beginnings till date, I guess. I started 2007 in a very good fashion - with a very good cup of coffee in the company of close friends. We attended a very boisterous (as much as it can be in dry Gujarat) New Year's eve party in Baroda and settled down at a friend's home with a cup of coffee each as midnight approached and talking on the phone to other unfortunate friends who couldn't be there. And my New year began with a much-needed relaxing ten day stint at my home, with parents.

On the professional front as well, recognition and monetary benefits have poured in. There is atleast one event which also holds a lot of promise for the future. Personal life has been eventful as well. But those are well-kept secrets. But the most important thing is my resolution that 2007 will be the year when I shall reclaim my life. So lets see what this year holds for me....

Hail the new Mr Bond !

2006-11-19T11:43:00.000+05:30

When I first saw Daniel Craig's pic (I havent seen any of his earlier movies), I was surprised at the choice of the latest actor to portray Mr 007. I thought this surely will hasten the end of the Bond saga. Kahan dashing PB aur kahan ye jerk ! I also read that this is the movie where Bond becomes 007 and gets his "license to kill", so I expected to see a movie set in the real olden days and hence sans all the modern day stunts, gadgets and a toned down version of the regular Bond paraphernalia.

But well, this evening proved me wrong on both counts. Since I had a wonderful saturday evening to enjoy but nothing much to do in the cold, the movie at the nearby Mall seemed the best recourse. When I climbed the three floors and reached the ticket counter, I almost decided to go for another movie "Stranger than Fiction"- its storyline sounded intriguing, but decided to check out the latest Bond flick and be ready to dismiss the latest agent from her majesty's service as an also-ran.

Folks, this is definitely one of the best Bond movies I have seen and not just because of my low expectations to start with. Pierce B was totally dispassionate and devoid of emotion, all too suave, cool headed and clinical. I read somewhere that George Lazenby was perhaps the only Bond who wasnt devoid of emotions and the only one who marries a woman, albeit for very short time. But Craig comes across as both a macho guy carrying out all the stunts and possessing the charisma required of James Bond, but he is also refreshingly human and emotional. He is intense with a simmering anger within him and is raw and uncut.
Craig plays a Bond who actually falls in love with a woman and decides to trade in his license to kill for the license to marry and live a normal life. He even delivers mushy romantic dialogues with convincing emotions. Also, this is a Bond who thinks on his feet, sometimes ridiculously so in contrast to his rival in the scene. Kudos to Craig's acting, he has been able to shrug off the older actors' legacies and create his own persona of Bond.

Chronologically, I expected this movie's plot to be based before all the previous movies. But surprisingly there are terrorist organisations in the plot, fancy Sony Ericsson cellphones (Its a Sony production, remember?) and flip phones, advanced GPS systems etc and yet the amount of money at stake in the plot is quite small by today's standards - its about 100 million. I bet this movie cost much more to make. So I am confused.

The plot is refreshingly simplistic - Bond is not out to save the world. A terrorist banker, who by the way weeps blood (every Bond nemesis needs to have his own peculiarities), plays a dangerous game by using his client's money to short an airline's stock and then attempts to blow up the aeroplane company's latest prototype to reap rich profits. But ah well, he didnt account for Mr Bond, did he? Agent 007 displays his usual skills at hanging on to the treacherous sides of an oil tanker, rigged with a miniature explosive and homing in on the airplane - its target. He of course turns the tables on the terrorist and prevents the blast. So now Mr Chiffre (our wily speculator) is left short of about 100 odd million in cash and his clients on his back demanding their pound of flesh or the money back. But his clients are no mean Armani-wearing businessmen but African rebel militia (conveniently termed as "terrorists" considering today's no-tolerance towards terror approach) wielding machetes and ready to chop off hands and wring necks at the drop of a hat. So Mon. Chiffre tries to use his skills at poker to recover his dough. The stage is set for a high-profile, high stakes game of poker at a "Casino Royale", with Bond at the table too, bankrolled by the British govt and chaperoned by a witty and provocatively seductive MI6 accountant. Of course, Bond outwits our poker king and leaves him high and dry, but not before plenty of drama, action and emotion to entertain the viewer. So now I think since Chiffre will become a turncoat and seek sanctuary with MI6 to save his own skin, its time for the curtains to fall on this episode of the exploits of the Queen's agent but the director surprises me with still more meat in the plot. The film finally ends with a flourish, with the signature Bond introduction which I was thinking would never come.

The best portions of the movie were the repartees between Bond and Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), esp the ones when the meet for the first time in the train and in the car on th way to the casino. The cinematography is very good too in the movie with many breathtaking landscapes and locales. The house by the cliff and the ocean in the end of the movie is amazing. And perhaps for the first time, the heroine in a Bond movie has a role with some meat on it.

So folks, I think we are going to see more of the new James Bond, ruthless enough to slit throats without mercy and vulnerable and human enough to love - all with a depth of passion of his own. Oh boy, the ladies are going to love him !

Beauty and the baby

2006-10-27T13:20:00.000+05:30

I found, in a friend's blog, the link to a youtube video which shows the transformation of a normal-looking slightly obese lady into an eye-catching beautiful face beckoning you out of a large poster on the road. Yes, you and I have a fair idea of the powers of make-up and photo-editing in today's digital make-believe age. But what I found more interesting was the comment by someone on the you-tube site, below this video, quoting a study which concluded that going by the statistics collected, even babies stare longer at beautiful faces than normal ones. So the quoted study concluded that perhaps traditional notions of physical beauty may not be just a result of environment and upbringing.

Now this is something that is very interesting. I have always thought that the only thing that held a baby's attention is a pair of spectacles on someone else's nose. I have seen umpteen babies, boys and girls, and in recent times, different races, but all of them are enchanted by that invention of which Ben Franklin should be most proud of. They dont rest until they have managed to grab the object of their attention and yanked it off the hapless person, gurgling with joy and twisting and turning their conquest, dangling and shaking it until the owner can take it no more and decides not to indulge the baby any further.

I have also strongly believed that most of our perceptions are developed and not innate. So, as with most other 'studies' I take this one too with a pinch of salt. Their methodology of isolating other possible causes of the end effects is rather suspect in most cases and the correlation that they establish is most daring.

But anyway folks, the next time you are walking down the road and pass a really sexy bombshell and hear a loud catcall & whistle, dont look around - it may just be the infant you are cuddling in your arm !

War and peace

2006-07-25T08:49:00.000+05:30

I was just watching the latest news on the Israel-Lebanon conflict on BBC world. It was a coverage of the efforts of British and German forces to evacuate its nationals from Lebanon. Most of these nationals were Lebanese holding British passports. In many cases, one of the spouses, say the wife had a British citizenship and hence could take her children with her. In other cases the children were separated from one of the parents, often the mother, and wailing. It was really pitiable. There was this grandmother taking the grandchildren with her on the boat and the parents are left behind. The children wailing and the gmother and parents are beseeching to let them on the boat. Several people clamour to get onto the boat, all in vain. There is plenty of space but they are allowed a small window of time and opportunity to take away only their nationals.

What could be worse than being forced to beg to flee one's own land and being foced to live the life of a refugee? Perhaps losing one's loved ones on the altar of senseless hatred and having the seeds of the same all-consuming hatred sown in one's own souls, is the worst thing to happen. They are fighting a losing war, a war in which battles may be won but never the war. Both the parties may have their own justifications for nurturing this hatred and all this war-mongering and destruction. But they should know very well, they are only scarring an entire generation who will nurture this grudge against the faceless enemy for its lifetime.

So who is to blame? The Zionists for standing upto attacks on their citizens from groups outside the political and military establishment of hostile neighbours? Or the Arabs who demand justice and land for their own people but are unable to reign in extremists and terror-mongers ? Or perhaps the Americans and the Western powers that be, who control a lot of pieces on this chessboard and are content to meddle for their own benefit and to meet their own needs, who sell the arms to not only the Israelis but also to the Hezbollah whom they publicly chastize. I sure wont be able to sleep easy with the guilt weighing in on my mind. I wonder how the Americans manage it, perhaps the naivette and ignorance of the average guy on their street saves him from the agony that would come with the realisation of the collective guilt that they shoulder. And I wonder how the militant follower of Allah - the ever merciful - hopes to attain heaven and immortality after having blown innocent children and people to smithereens, purportedly on His behalf. Even at the end of the great war of the Mahabharata with all its justifications, the righteous Pandavas didnt get to enjoy the fruits which they fought the war for.

I am reminded of an incident from my childhood. Once my brother broke one of my game-boards or something. In anger and retaliation, I in turn exacted revenge by destroying one of his possessions. This mutual cycle of vengeance took its toll and left in its wake a bunch of broken items and bruised egos. My parents then took us aside, chastized us and I immediately protested that I was of course justified in my actions and it was only fair. The wise folks that they were, they then pointed out that yes, I broke 5 nos of his stuff and he likewise destroyed 4 of mine. So I did win and made my point. But of course, did I really win? All though my brother did lose more than me, that did nothing to diminish my own loss !! Even with my juvenile brain, this logic struck a chord.

But well, did this wisdom stop any such future foolishness on my part? Of course, not. You see, I am inclined to believe that mankind by nature is 'programmed' to fight within itself. So although individually there might be enlightened souls, collectively it all 'averages' out and some ppl fight will others profit from their fighting. But all are stakeholders, in this great "Bhoo-lok" of Maya. And the great dramatist must be really amused at the unfolding drama.

From Venus and from mars

2006-07-09T23:21:00.000+05:30

Ever wondered how men and women in general are constituted in a different way and think along diff lines.

A conversation from Seinfeld :

"I met this lawyer, we went out, I had the lobster bisque. We went back to my place, yadda yadda yadda, I never saw him again."
"You yadda yadda'd over the best part."
"No I didn't. I mentioned the bisque."

:-)

Soccer Videos

2006-07-03T00:07:00.000+05:30

I found some really cool soccer videos on Google.

1.Ronaldinho's Superb Goal

Yet again

2. Ronaldinho and C.Ronaldo

Alas, why couldnt he reproduce some of this magic yesterday !

3. Some great goals and a save

These are some great moments, the video is rather too fast-paced though.

4. The Brasillians "doing timepass" at their airport (Nike Ad)

5. Another cool Nike Ad, this time with Figo, Cristiano and co.

6. Lest you think that this post is an ode to the Brasilians (no reason why it shouldnt be, though) here is the official sponsor's Ad which was a familiar sight on TV.

It reminds me of my childhood. We used to form teams the same way. But of course, we had mere mortals to choose. ;-)

It was the simplest way to pick as evenly balanced teams as possible. And everyone used to strive to move up the 'ladder of choice' over time.

7. Part two

Interesting to note that Nike has tied up most of the brasilian players except perhaps Kaka and Adidas has the rest of the world's stars in its coterie. Because of the respective spheres of influence? The Americas for Nike and Europe for Adidas?

Maybe we should have an Adidas vs Nike match up. Wonder which group of players will gel as a team.

8. The making - Last of the trilogy

9. Diego - the God.

10. Sheer
class, some of it

11. Ten great goals of the world cups
This is one of the best videos.

12. 50 goals, (23 minutes long)

13. The triumvirate

All credits to the the individuals who created this videos, the original copyright owners and Google of course. Enjoy whatever is left of the world cup !

Art and Mathematics - the two sisters

2006-06-23T11:12:00.000+05:30

Yesterday I came across this interesting blog where there was a discussion on whether there is Art in Maths and vice-versa. Now this was a topic on which I have done some thinking in the past. So I decided to share my two cents.

The opinion in the post was that (quote) Art has a lot of Maths in it but there's no Art in Maths (unquote). Then there was this suggestion that (quote)there is a certain degree of talent as well as skill needed to be good at both Maths and Art.(unquote).

We had a good discussion on this topic.

Karthik :
Interestingly, with minimal knowledge of math, you can deduce and reach upto advanced math by pure logic and intelligence.So it is probably incorrect to say that math requires prior knowledge. Infact, any creation of new field of math is an art.There is tremendous creativity involved. Ramanujan came up with close to 4000 formulae in math purely through intuition without furnishing the proofs for many of them.

ME :
Art by definition is possibly the only thing that springs from an innate source. There is little or no skill involved except for expression of the gift and the honing (or adulteration) of it to conform to popular taste. Mathematics on the other hand is a skill , to develop it you have to walk down the path.

One might say that with minimal knowledge of math, you can deduce and reach upto advanced math by pure logic and intelligence.So it is probably incorrect to say that math requires prior knowledge. But from minimal knowledge when you deduce and reach advanced logic, you are actually treading this very path and developing your skill. Also, Ramanujan surely worked a lot on his math, he only was not schooled in the formal system of expressing it for which Hardy bailed him out.

But interestingly, Math is nothing but the modelling of what already exists in nature. Its modelling and simulating natural phenomenon and axioms so as to enable objective analysis and prediction of cause and effect. Its all for "automatic" processing. Art is the creative expression of nature "as is" but as perceived by the artist. It is this subjectivity that you pay a premium for. The very thing which you seek to eliminate as a mathematician. How ironic ! When all they seek to do is the same. Also paradoxically, the have-nots in Art, need to "cultivate" the taste to appreciate it, while the have-nots in maths can easily comprehend the results of maths through plain logic and elementary education.

One more thought...often enough great mathematicians are able to see through the veneer of objectivity and perceive the beauty of nature in their mathematical derivations and observations. That is when I think there is art in maths and you need a practitioner of the highest order, a true artist to appreciate this. Also, history shows that highly skilled mathematicians and scientific minds have been 'gifted' artists too, in music, painting or any of the other forms of creativity. Da Vinci, Bertrand Russell, CV Raman and others were all great artists or patrons of art.

Sujith :
To add to your points. Mathematicians wouldn't be happy if you say that math is just about modelling the real world. You might well be aware about Platonism, the school of metaphysicists who believe that 'mathematical objects' reside in a world of their own. Another way to say this is that Math would have been there even if this world hadn't.

Mathematicians wouldn't also be happy if you say that it's all about skills. Math has no more to do with skill than art has. Again invoking metaphysics, there's a strong school of thoughts of 'rationalists' who believe that there are a set of innate or a priori knowledge that we are endowed with. Knowledge about math is one such thing, according to them. Math is more about discovering that innate knowledge. The skill part of it just a practice with symbols so that they don't come in our way of understanding what we already seem to know!

ME :

Platonism is a refuge of the mathematicians who are more than a trifle uncomfortable with the pure objectivity in maths. ;-)

There is really a choice to be made in maths and art, also the aims are different. In one you seek to understand and PREDICT natural world, so you want hard theoretical models which are objective and most importantly replicable. The other is a choice where you dont seek to predict or really understand but just PERCEIVE and express. For eg. its most important in the derivations of maths that be used in applications without really needing to understand the real root of the derivation and how it was arrived at. Whereas in art, a person without the necessary understanding and perception wont be able to appreciate the work of art.

To wind up a lot of my babbling, I would say that I would respect a great mathematician and I would be in awe of a great artist. I hope I make sense.

Credits & Thanks To : All the bloggers mentioned in the post, Pritesh and her original post.

It was love at first hearing

2006-06-15T09:16:00.000+05:30

Oh for the love of my own voice.....Its the most amazing thing that we spend a good chunk of our life talking and we ourselves dont get to hear our voice the way it sounds to others. It has surprised me in the past to hear recordings of my own voice. Today I happened to playback the message I had left on my friend's voicemail and was struck by how great my voice sounded. :-) I know its narcissistic, but well, I spent the better part of the next hour recording and listening to my voice in different languages....And I fell in love !

Fanaa...Oh Kajol...

2006-06-13T10:05:00.000+05:30

Two movies this Saturday, two different flavours from a similar pot.

Although the first part of Gangster was barely watchable, I stuck on and found the second half to be entertaining. It depicted how the mind of a woman is often an emotional playground. It can play wierd games and she might make the most surprising and irrational decisions at times. I felt pity for the gangster in the end, as the director intended, but I guess the director succumbed to temptation and ended up making Emran's character all black and that of the gangster all white, instead of both being shades of black and white as humans really are. Shiney Ahuja, I thought acted decently well as the brooding gangster. I wonder how this story is even faintly similar to the Abu Salem-Monika Bedi chapter. Did I forget to mention the song "Ya Ali"?

"sahi aur galat raste mein faisla karna aasan hota hai..magar, do sahi raston mein se behtar ya do galat raston mein se munasib rasta chunna bahut mushkil..aaj kiye huye hamare ye faisle hi hamare kal ka faisla karte hain.." Well, this was the theme of the Kajol starrer, Fanaa. About difficult decisions that you got to make in life. Entertaining sher-o-shayari and I bet no forty year old can flirt as well as Aamir does, he does deliver the couplets with great panache. I am a big-time fan of Kajol and boy, is she great in the movie ! She looks as sexy as ever and great acting. Although Rani in Black was good, but Kajol's performance as a blind girl is refreshing because it is more real and effortless, without any histrionics. I liked one particular scene for the attention to detail given there. Its night, Kajol and her friend are on their beds in the dormitories reading a book each. They finish chatting and her friend tucks herself in, switches off her light and asks Kajol also to do so as she (the friend) is going to sleep. I instinctively thought "How rude !". Then immediately I realised as Kajol switches off the light and continues to roll her fingers over the braille script that she is reading, that she really doesnt need a light to read !!

There was this other scene in which their kid hands aamir a glass of milk and tells him that there was no use trying to dispose off the milk by throwing it into the sink, out into the snow or some other means because his mom was too smart for all this. Then as he turns to go away, he pauses and remarks that in case Aamir ("deadman" ) happens to find out a foolproof way of doing it, he would be glad to know about it too ! Reminded me of how my own methods of doing away with the awful daily glass of milk without my mom coming to know about it evolved over time to perfection. Alas, the ingenuity of a child's brain...

To cut a long review short, Fanaa is definitely atleast a one-time movie just for Kajol.

Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the most influential of them all

2006-06-13T09:12:00.000+05:30

A small ripple in one place which gives rise to big shockwaves everywhere around the globe. No, I am not talking about the butterfly effect or chaos theory here. I am referring to how the words of one man can have big effects on economies around the world. And if you thought it is someone like the President of the only superpower who wields such influence, then you are mistaken. Much more influential are the words of the Greenspans and the Bernankes of this world. The Fed chairman sneezes and the bourses all over catch a cold. He insinuates and hints at changes in the interest rate and investors world over lose their shirts. There are umpteen highly-paid analysts who move billions across continents, forever trying to pre-empt and outguess this guy.

In comparison, the Prez makes a big speech on how great the war on terror is going and how the bad guys are on the run and its all I can do to keep myself from yawning and switching channel.

Sigh...the ways of the world.

As we wait in anticipation of yet another hike in rates, isnt it interesting to note that the Fed rate has risen from 1% to 5% over a period of about 3 yrs !

For more of these cartoons : check this out

Requiem for a dream?

2006-06-03T22:50:00.000+05:30

A land of myriad people,ours is a nation inhaling and exhaling diversity in its every breath. You have umpteen languages, religions, sects and even sub-sects which form a multi-dimensional grid in which every inhabitant can be slotted. And each flavour of this diversity brings along its own baggage of prejudices nurtured through centuries of mistrust. The very fact that we have survived over almost sixty years as a single democratic entity often boggles me. What is it that prevented us from fragmenting into smaller nations each seeking to find and plot their own destiny on their own terms ? Surely, it isnt not just the Sardar who we have to thank (although to him we as a nation are forever indebted). He knitted us into a single geography, but what is the thread that has sewn us and held us together, inspite of all the push and pull in the social fabric of our existence. Yes, we collectively share a past, a history of assimilations and amalgamations in this vast land. But I think I am deluding myself if I consider that there was ever really a collective consciousness or shared identity upto some fifty years prior to independence. The numerous empires that were repeatedly built and razed over this land were but poor substitutes. One concession that I will give the Mahatma and his coterie is that totally flawed though the non-violent movement for independence was, it unified the people all over the country and organised them, all for one common cause. There surely were other more effective means to drive out the British, but none of them could have infused a spirit of nationalism and shared angst across the length and breadth of the country. So yes, in some ways, the Mahatma is the father of the nation. After independence, despite the innumerable squabbles on grounds of historic grievances, we have managed to survive and plod on. So it seems to me that a nation isnt born but needs to be developed and nurtured.

So I am ever hopeful that in the long term, things shall evolve and we as a nation shall develop. A nation, where we can truly celebrate our diversity, where we can think rationally and manage our affairs better, a place where the rulers are accountable to the subjects. Where everyone is an equal. Thats my dream. But often I am forced to wonder if with all the corruption, the religious bigotry and a dysfunctional political leadership, we are doing alright? And worst of all, what can I do about it? Why, I am even unable to vote out an ineffective, corrupt and criminal politician. It has come to a point that the govt passes legislations which sacrifice rationale and ethics at the altar of expediency. They can do this with impunity because it requires the collective action on part of the society to reject them and these divisive tactics that they employ. But aware minority in the country have either been brainwashed on a diet of pseudo-secularism or other crap or else are unable to influence the outcomes or policy in the country. The majority is bogged down by their petty prejudices to see through this. The collective action that democracy demands leaves me feeling impotent and helpless. So whats the way out? There is only the hope that slowly but surely things might improve. Whether its a fool's fantasy, time alone will tell.

A nationalist's dream :

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake"

There are occasions when I feel pessimistic and despondent and this post is a result of one such occasion. But I wonder....

So Dark the Con of Man

2006-05-25T09:43:00.000+05:30

Zzzzzzziiippppppppppppppppppp.....Thats how the two and a half hours went by me.

Sprinkling of anagrams, dollops of suspense, a pinch of blasphemy and two measures of history, served by Ron Howard, made up for a good treat on a lovely Sunday afternoon. Really fast paced, the movie sprints through the book. The film covers the entire story in the book, but falls short of the details, which is only to be expected. I liked the book for the detailed description of the symbolisms and the discussion on the importance given to and the role of the sacred feminine in most ancient religions and civilizations. The film doesnt go into any of these except for a passing mention. A mention of these and what the Church tarnished as pagan practices in its proselytising past would, I suppose, have been more unpalatable to some people than the mere claim that Jesus actually married and his bloodline existed to which the film owes its controverial nature.

Tom Hanks as usual has acted very well. Jean Reno also does full justice to his considerable reputation. The film opens, as does the book, with the dying curator in the Louvre leaving clues and puzzles strewn all over. Then there begins a chase for the legendary and exotic Holy Grail, with the astute symbologist and his beautiful and intelligent (does God make them in enough number?) French policewoman played by Audrey 'whatever'. A chase that takes them across Europe and different churches and graveyards and crisscrossing interesting meridians. Hanks's brains work faster than Chacha Choudhary's to decipher complex anagrams in real-time finally leading to the startling discovery about the Grail. Langdon shows remarkable wisdom at the end - the author's conciliatory ending. The director refrains from giving any romantic angle to the lead-pair in deference perhaps to the hero's greying temples or maybe to avoid any distraction from the suspense in the plot. This, I thought, was the only deviation from the book. The way Director uses the special effects in the Mona Lisa painting in Teabing's study to illustrate his point is quite facinating.

Where the book lacked in the skills of the author, the film compensates through the director's talent. All in all an enjoyable movie, worth the seven and a half bucks that I paid for it.

As for the charges of historical inaccuracies and blasphemy levelled against the book, well history is after all His Story, the story of mankind. The story of mankind is the story of struggles through the ages, a story crafted and narrated by the victors, the dominants, flavoured over time by various influences. To seek complete objectivity in it or to claim the same is not an act of reason. And religion is a doctrine, a way of life and principles, shaped by men through the ages not the prophets who originally expounded the principles. So rather than live in a state of denial, its better to accept this very basic premise and understand that a religion is but any doctrine that makes a person a better human being. The moment religion starts dictating one's life to the extent that he stops being human, you violate this basic tenet.

I sure want to see the Louvre !!

whew...what a roller-coaster

2006-05-22T09:36:00.000+05:30

If there is one law which ranks up there with Newton's laws as one of the fundamental axioms, it must be Murphy's law for its sheer universal applicability.

I have been trying to expect and pre-empt the slump in the oversensitive index of Dalal street ever since the end of March and stayed in cash for what progressively appeared to me to be a long waiting game. But the punters had a different idea than a novice like me and the graph seemed to only rise higher and higher after each fall. Finally, I couldnt resist and let go of some of the cash. But since I have burnt my tongue earlier, I respectfully kept track with the venerable stop-losses. But well, this difference in time-zone is a troublesome thing and soon enough I found myself caught napping once in a while. And lo, I wake up the next morning to find Mr Murphy smiling his stupid smile at me.

But whew, this has been one hell of a roller coaster ride. The lower it falls, the faster it seems to recover, this is going to be one hell of a roller-coaster ride this summer. Hang on folks and have some fun.

While I am on this topic, here is something that a friend forwarded to me :

Once upon a time in a village a man appeared who announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for Rs. 10. The villagers seeing that
there were many monkeys went out in the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at 10 and as supply started to diminish and
villagers started to stop their effort he announced that now he would buy at 20 rupees.

This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching moneys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going
back to their farms. The offer rate increased to 25 and the supply of monkeys became so that it was an effort to even see a monkey let alone catch it.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at 50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business his assistant would now buy on behalf of the man.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers, "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at 35 and when the man comes back you can sell it to him for 50."

The villagers queued up with all their saving to buy the monkeys.

Phir na woh aadmi mila na us ka assistant........... Sirf bandar hee bandar..

Well, isnt this how the stock market works ? But the only hope is I end up being
The Man more times than I happen to be one of the villagers. Amen to that.

The Bane of bachelorhood

2006-04-27T00:31:00.000+05:30

I hate this. I hate packing up and vacating a home. Well, for me it has always been a home that I stay in and not just a house. So I dislike having to pack up and pull together my life and move on to another place and restart again. Yet, that is what I find myself doing time and again, forced by vagaries of bachelorhood. I have been living a working bachelor's life for under three years now and have resided in as many houses during this period. I had to move out of the first house when I (and my other roommates) changed employment and loyalties. I was then guided by my desire to avoid Bangalore's brain-numbing traffic and took residence in a far less favourable house, the construction of which was most awkward - Roark would have found it repugnant. So my stay there was shortlived and I moved into a small "penthouse" in a wonderful locality, strategically located with respect to keeping my daily commmute to the minimum and yet affording me a good lifestyle with all the modern conveniences and restaurants (the bachelor's mainstay)at walking distance.

Yet it has hardly been a year that I am forced tonight to sit and pack up my life into cartons and bags. Why, you might wonder. Because my roommate is now lucky and gets to move in with his parents and setup a home independently. To make things worse, I have to leave for foreign shores for a considerably lengthy period of time. Consequently my inability to find a compatible roommate (is that an elusive species) at this point of time, leaves me with little choice but to break my resolve of not moving out of my penthouse for a long time to come.

So this night finds me sifting through and packing all my stuff, getting ready to vacate a home. There is nothing more depressing than to leave town for a period of time, with the feeling that you cannot really return to a home of your own. I am left with the unenviable task of finding a roommate too upon my return. One other roommate left me in the August of last year. This second one, though like a paying guest (never really spent much time at home), was a good friend and human company atleast. Tonight the TV must fill the void.

But the optimist in me (yeah, I have one)tells me that things always work out for the better. I get to see more places in bangalore, get an opportunity to live with and make another friend for life. Lets see what life holds for me...Malleshwaram, here I come.

Whats all the SK brouhaha about?

2006-04-12T00:56:00.000+05:30

Over past two days there has been a lot of media focus on the incarceration of Salman Khan over the Chinkara murder case so much so that it even shared frontpage headline space with the coverage on the Meerut fire tragedy. The conviction is a vindication of the efforts of the Bishnoi leaders and othe public vigilantes and a victory and cause for celebration for our civil society (we dont have many of these). But the film industry and some prominent page3 personalities seem to be outraged and feel that celebrities are being unfairly targetted. One of them remarked " I want to know why the man who killed Jessica Lall walked away free? A celebrity is a sitting duck. " Well so do I. I too feel outraged that someone could manipulate our judicial system and get away with murder. But how does that excuse Salman for what he did? If at all there was something perhaps unfair for SK in this whole drama, it was the public trial in media, independent of the one in courtroom. But then, thats the cost a celebrity has to pay. Like every other citizen, SK too can appeal.

A bullock cart hobbling along on three wheels...

2006-04-11T02:07:00.000+05:30

The tired bullocks stumble along the dusty oft-beaten path. Your eyes rest for a while on their tired beseeching eyes, then on they drift and stop when you see the load the cart is carrying. Gunny bags laden with plump ripe mangoes - the cart is fully loaded with these to the point of tipping over and is headed for the warehouse where they will be encased in wooden chests. Most of them will be exported and will reach demanding markets on foreign shores, some of them will be consumed by discerning consumers within the country. You then gaze down and are surprised. Why, the cart has only three functional wheels,one is broken and the third one is already wobbling. You wonder and dont cease to be amazed at how the fellow manages to eke out trip after trip with this contraption. Then the next day, you again spot the cart on the road, but you are aghast to see that now one of the bullocks has now given way to another frail, almost dead specimen. You want to cry out aloud and chastise the driver, how much more does he think he can tinker with the cart until it finally collapses on the road, with the merchandise strewn all over.

Well, this is the precise feeling I have at this point in time. Our educational system's in spite of all its anomalies and shortcomings, despite being at the mercy of the shortsighted polity, has delivered to some extent. Atleast the few institutions that constitute our very own Ivy League. The IITs, the IIMs, the NITs, the NIDs and the rest of these creme de la creme offer every young student in our country something to aspire for, to work for. We are given to understand, that if you study hard enough, compete with the best and prove your mettle, there are places where these efforts are recognised. You dont need to count on which community you were born into, how was your breeding, how deep are your parents' pockets. The confidence that the system still works and is objective.

Yes, these opportunities should be more inclusive and should be available to the greater deprived majority. But reservation quotas are not the answer, esp when the aim is not to seek diversity in the student intake, but to correct some perceived wrongs and shortcomings in the system. Dont give alms to the beggar, enable him to earn his livelihood. Instead the focus should be on providing better access to quality education at the primary level itself to the deprived and backward communities. subsidise the education system at this level and improve the quality of education offered esp at the rural areas. Most importantly accountability needs to be ensured. If the assembly line is turning out defective parts, then first examine the feeder, not the endofline. To those who argue against subsidies in education, I say, if the govt cant even subsidise something as basic as education, it has no business collecting taxes from me.

I hope this new proposal wont pass muster and some sane less-politically motivated souls will kill it. But I guess, in the light of the booming economy and more confident janata, there wont be massive protests like we saw during the mandal commission fiasco. Thats a pity.

End of the bull run?

2006-03-14T12:11:00.000+05:30

During my stint here in the bay area, since I cant drive a car, I take a cab every night to my hotel in milpitas. It is a fifteen minute 6 mile ride from the office in SJ to the hotel in Milpitas. But I am never allowed the opportunity to feel bored by the loquacious cab-drivers most of whom are Indians, generally Punjabis. They feel very inclined to make this fellow Indian feel at home with friendly banter. Now yesterday, this particular taxi-driver, in his very affable tone, engaged me in a very interesting conversation on how he thought the Indian economy is now faring. He said, he makes an annual sojourn to India and he had noticed on these trips of his that people back home in Punjab are becoming more and more affluent every year. Why his cousin who didnt have a telephone in his home until a couple of years back now boasted about a fancy camera-wala cellphone, something which even he sitting in California didnt possess and at this point he showed me his more humble flip-phone. "Yeh software walone ne India mein technology improve kardi hai " was his comment. I then pointed out the GPS system monitor on his car dashboard and said that this was a neat device which cabs back home could actually make use of. He then turned back to face me and asked "Kya bangalore mein bhi yeh nahin chalta? Maine tou suna thaa ki India ke bhi satellite aajkal bade ache hote hain. " I laughed and told him that this was the first time I saw a GPS tracker. This seemed to re-assure the fellow that perhaps Silicon Valley hasnt been completely Bangalored yet !

He then started talking about Reliance and asked me if the Ambani family feud is now settled. He sure seemed genuinely concerned. He then enquired "Market pe iska kya asar ho raha hai?" I told him that the brothers had now patched up and dalal street's tensions in this regard have eased off. He then said that he has been tracking the Indian stock market for a while now and it seemed that it was now booming and everyone is raking in the moolah. He too wanted a piece of the action now. "Sochta hoon apne bhai ke through thoda-bahut invest kar hi doon. Software boom tou chaloo rahega " What was my recommendation - which software company did I think was the best bet? Andar ki baat? Wipro sabse achi haina? I told him that Infosys and TCS and not Wipro were the biggest IT firms. By this time, we had reached my destination and the most interesting dialogue had to regrettably end. I paid him, thanked him both for the ride and the 'timepass'.

There is a saying in Dalal street. When the neighbourhood pan-wallah starts to give out stock tips, its time to exit. Its the beginning of the end of the bull-run. Maybe I should reevaluate my humble portfolio and tighten my stop-losses. Hmmm....

Rang De Basanti - the dilemma of the youth

2006-02-05T20:05:00.000+05:30

RDB was the sequel to Dil Chahta Hai, with generous dollops of the Yuva brand. Very well shot, quite slick, good acting by most of the cast, but an unrealistic ending.

It is a made for metro kind of movie. Dont know how much appeal it would find amongst the smaller towns. But I suspect, that the metropolitan and smalltown tastes are converging these days, slowly but surely. Nevertheless, its a relief that films can be made and can be a commercial success without necessarily catering to all segments of the audience.

The theme touches first base with the audience very easily. We can easily identify with the youths here who believe the "system" cannot be changed, its far too corrupt to be changed. But their lives go on as they are not directly affected and they can go alongwith the system. But only until the muck hits home. What happens after that and how they react forms the climax of the movie.

I liked Atul Kulkarni's acting in particular. His acting and dialogue-delivery infused warmth into the script. His passionate rendition of RamPrasad Bismil's immortal lines "Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna..." was touching. Soha Ali Khan seems to be a decent actress too. Aamir has added a Punjabi twang to his repertoire of 'Tapori' performances. Kunal Kapoor has also essayed his character well.

The parallels drawn to the real life Minister and the saffron party are too difficult to miss. I heard that a scene where the minister travels in a MIG aircraft to prove its air-worthiness was censored. Perhaps George would have sued for libel otherwise and the blatantness of it all would have been difficult to defend. In any case it is too far-fetched to assume that any popularly-elected minister would dare to villify the memory of a martyr or a soldier who died in the line of duty. He would never get re-elected or reappointed. Thank Goodness, Indian democracy isnt as immature as the director here feels. And I might feel the ending is not how it should have been, but of course its the director's cinematic license. Its his canvas to paint. But the reaction of the these youths in the movie, is the ultimate act of cynicism which the characters emphatically seek to deny through their dialogues when they go 'on air'. This apparent contradiction and need for defending the ending, which the director perhaps felt, mars the climax of an otherwise eminently watchable movie.

The Goblet of fire holds me in thrall

2005-11-21T13:44:00.000+05:30

Beware : potential spoiler ahead, tread with wary steps

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Well, I have been reading HP and the halfblood prince these days. Nearing the end and waiting for dumbledore to die. First HP book I fully read. And found it to be quite good. The mystical and fantasy world of magic is captivating. JKR does a good job of putting her imagination to words evoking wonderful imagery in the mind. Of course, in my case, I have seen a couple of the earlier movies. So whenever I read about Harry, Radcliffe boy came to my mind. Hermione was always Emma Watson.

So, I had looked forward to seeing the latest offering in Harry Potter - the movies. I havent read HP and the Goblet of Fire yet. Well, Sunday came and by evening, I didnt manage to see the movie yet. But finally I caught hold of a friend and went for the 10pm show at Innovative Multiplex. Braving the nippy wind, I reached the multiplex, went in and settled down in the comfortable seat. All this effort proved to be worthwhile. It is quite important that you see this movie in a theatre with good accoustics and in comfort.

Since I watched the movie without having read the book, my cinematic experience was unadulterated and not weighed down by the expectations raised by the book. So this is my unprejudiced opinion of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - the movie. :-) Maybe, after I go through the book, I shall revisit and publish another post on it for me to compare my thoughts.

The film opened with the scene of Tom Riddle's house (I think thats what it is). There was the imposing sculpture of the "Grim Reaper" supposedly there as the face of the evil. The Quidditch stadium and the display was impressive. The vision in the sky of the mark of the dark lord was also cool. But one of the best scenes of the movie for me was the entry of the team from the Witches school (I didnt catch the name of the school). The sheer grace with which they made their entry was simply superb. The actual triwizard tournament wasnt that great except for the first task. The dragon-harry chase was 'shot' well. But the movie previews made the underwater scenes to be something really special. Maybe it took great effort and skill to film, but I didnt really find it visually that great. The new Dark Arts Teacher or rather the impersonator was quite cool too. Actually his eyeball was quite eye-catching. Why, it seemed to have a 10x optical zoom !

But one of the takeaways for me from this movie was the scene where Hermione appears in her ball dress. Emma Watson looks beautiful in it and Parvati didnt manage to beat me in remarking on how lovely she looked. And the Russians looked good in their tunics too. All in all, I felt that the special effects, the cinematography and the costumes were quite good in the movie.

"Sau rupiye poore vasool", I would say. And I didnt mind the chill in my bones, when I rode back at midnight.

Attack of the clones

2005-10-14T21:00:00.000+05:30

When I was a kid, I was once amazed to learn that according to the wise folks, every person has about seven people who share an almost similar face. Wow, I thought, the Creator sure knew how to make things easier for himself (productivity win, isnt it ?!). But now, with the wisdom gained at the expense of the loss of the naivette of childhood, I think those wise folks sure didnt do their research right.

Why, in these few years that I have lived and the restricted geography (my countrymen)for the sampling, I think I have already beaten the statistical mean of seven that I fully believed in. Each time that an acquaintance remarked that he knew or had met someone who looked exactly like me and swore to the veracity of his claim, I would pacify my doubtful mind thinking that of course God did make seven of them, didnt He?

Often, first time acquaintances with whom I had just shaken hands, basking in the warmth of the newfound friendship have ventured to ask me if I have a brother who worked in so and so place or lived in so and so city. Initially, I used to be amused and would point out the existence of my sole sibling who in no way looked like me. This cardinality of my kinship would not satisfy my newfound friend who would ramble on how this guy he knows looks, walks and talks like me. Amazing, I remark, perhaps I was baked in a very popular mould !

Initially I also thought, that this sudden discovery of my clones occurred because of the pressing social need, felt by my new found acquaintances, to make intelligent and interesting conversation after the customary introduction and handshake. But later I was forced to revise my opinion because often some of my closer friends would suddenly chance upon one of my clones - an unsuspecting dude walking down the street, the new kid in a junior class in school, one of the junior batch in college, a colleague in their company and so on. Another disturbing thing was none of these clones happened to be a bigshot or an impressive personality, just your everyday nextdoor kind of guy. Maybe my clones and I are not destined to be great.

Those of you, who have managed to read on so far, testing your patience all along, will wonder why all this rambling suddenly today. Well, today was the proverbial last straw; one lady working with me today to solve a particularly vexing problem at work, innocently sprang on me the existence of a former colleague in her previous workplace who looked, walked, talked and even typed like me ! As if this shock wasnt enough, I seemed to have more in store. When I initiated a pleasant conversation with a particularly attractive girl - a new recruit who I have been trying to reach first base with - in my company today, she giggled and disarmed me with the disclosure that I reminded her of her uncle who - u knw whats coming - looks very much like me ! This does it !

It is the attack of the clones and I am going to fight tooth and nail. I am going to arm myself by compiling a list of all new clone-claims that I encounter. This shall be presented to every new acquaintance. Any claims made of existence of a sample outside the list would need photographic evidence of same, failing which it would invite legal proceedings for libel and damages for causing mental agony.

PS : Any reader who posts any claims in the comments, better talk to his lawyer first !

Is the Microsoft monopoly all that bad?

2005-10-12T20:48:00.000+05:30

These days I have been seeing lots of articles on how Google is upstaging MS and how the latter's monopoly is in danger and the crown might soon roll. This set me thinking...Is the MS monopoly, exercised through its Windows OS, all bad?

Think of it this way...It is because Windows is the all-pervading OS and platform used the world-over, that you dont need to learn any other system, except this. For the general lay man, who uses a PC, he doenst really need to have a choice of systems to learn. The easy adoption of computing systems in all spheres of industry and economic activity owes a lot to the equation of PC => Windows !

Today you take it for granted that when you write a Word doc or forward that ubiquitous romantic pps file for the umpteenth time, the recepients wont have to go searching for an application that can open it. The de-facto standards that underline our computing experience are a positive offshoot of the Windows and Microsoft monopoly. Almost every competing application that runs on a competing platform is designed to mirror the features (and then maybe build on them) that the microsoft experience offers. Nobody sticks his neck out to go and promote an alternative. This forced adherence to imposed de-facto standards is the reality that we enjoy and have come to take for granted.

In fact, if one thinks about it, it is the omnipresent Windows system and the resultant lack of incoherence in the slew of technologies that were designed and road piggyback on it, that have played a significant part in the Internet Juggernaut that has rolled on and poses a threat to Microsoft today. How ironic ! In my opinion, whether Microsoft maintains its domination (monopoly is a bad word, much profaned) in the long run, would depend on how soon it realises that its future world lies beyond Windows and enlarges its vision to think "Domination in computing, rather than domination in operating systems ". But knowing MS, they are surely one step ahead and have already figured it out.

Not surprisingly, Google gets to enjoy so much good press. Afterall, every David enjoys the good will of the janata, in the duel with Goliath. It is a rule of human psychology that the underdog enjoys the support of the ppl, but when it comes to backing this up with their money, you would find the same ppl putting their money on Goliath, with all due regrets expressed to David. :-)

Equanimity - an enviable state of existence

2005-04-19T05:35:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, I walked down the wet streets of my locality with a few clothes that I needed to get 'ironed'. All the while I was kind of cribbing and thinking that the drizzling prevents me from going out anywhere and that it is all such a big inconvenience.

I came up to the 'dhobi' who hailed me cheerfully and looking at my load, warned me that it wud take him till the next morning to get them done. I noticed that all he had to protect himself from the natural elements was a tarpaulin sheet covering his trolly. But this man, who had to perhaps iron 100 clothes a day to earn 200 bucks, was cheerfully smoking a beedi and listening to the radio and having a jolly time, while I was going about cribbing and complaining.

Well, I left him and wondered aloud on how he was so content and enjoying what life has to offer to him, while the majority of the young tech crowd is ever disgruntled about not being able to meet their ever increasing aspirations.

Well, I guess, this is 'equanimity'.
An enviable state of existence.

Quarterlife crisis...

2005-04-17T12:10:00.000+05:30

Just the other day, I was discussing with my roommate about what we termed as 'quarter-life' crisis. It is the void which many 25-something guys experience these days. Though laughable, it is nevertheless true and can be seen in many youngsters. It is markedly different from the more common midlife crisis.

The average 25 year old in the Indian software/tech industry earns a handsome salary enough to enable him to lead a comfortable lifestyle.
You would surely expect such a candidate who has achieved so much so fast to be leading a blissful existence. But I am willing to bet that the majority of these suffer from largescale disenchantment with what they are doing and are a highly discontented lot.

So what is their need that they are not able to fulfill ? The average period for which a guy works in a given company is not more than 2 years in the software industry. Attrition is rampant. Is the reason the easy availibility of jobs? I would say this is the facilitator and not the cause. Is it the lure of better pay? Well, during the initial years it is the primary concern but not later on. Most of the people dont find satisfaction in their job after sometime. They want something more in their life, something extra, which they are unable to find in their present job. Everyone, I believe needs some kind of long-term aim and satisfaction in trying to achieve that. They need something to look forward to in their lives when they wake up in their bed in the morning and they depend upon their career to provide that. In most cases, being part of the rat-race provides the diversion that a person needs. It is a 'comfort pillow' that he or she hugs on to make life meaningful. So today it is that deadline that one has to meet, tomorrow it is the account that one has to capture. Then it is a promotion, the appraisal, the raise, the switch to another company/job and the rat-race goes on. The rat-race thus has a role to play. It serves a purpose without which your career and by extension your life may not carry much meaning to you.

It is only at some stage in your life, when you get tired and stop and ponder that you realise that you have always been running after short-term goals and in the long-term it all sums up to nothing. That my friend, is what I believe they call the mid-life crisis. At this point, after much introspection and perhaps after effecting some changes, the individual moves on - perhaps unwilling to accept that the rat-race is a necessary evil and he has not eliminated it but only modified it.

Coming back to how I began my point, this has kind of shifted in the time-frame and is seen pretty early in the career. It is perhaps coz of the fast pace at which life rolls on. Today, a youngster is pretty-self sufficient by the time he reaches 25 or 16 years of age. He manages to meet all the 'lower needs' in Maslow's heirarchy chiefly the physiological and safety needs. Earlier this would have taken some years to achieve. Everything is fast-track today and so is the crisis. Give it a thought.

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This is a reproduction of a comment I had added to a friend's blog where she had talked about the 'rat race'.
http://indialostandfound.blogspot.com/2005/04/trouble-with-rat-race-is-that-even-if.html