Life Talkies

Have not been watching a lot of movies recently, at least not as much as i am used to watching.... a part of it is because that there are not many good movies coming out, especially in the two languages that i watch,malayalam and hindi.. english has always been second priority.. read lots of english books and no books at all in the other two, so i guess it fits like a puzzle...

it is something a lot of people have been lamenting upon - the drastic decrease in the quality of movies that are being churned out... though i do argue that some of the 'Factory' products as well as some of the 'multiplex' targeted movies in bollywood are good stuff.. but even thats not happening in the malayalam movie scene...

have heard a lot of arguments on the movies' influence on life, and vice versa, on which of these is actually true.. to cite a common example,are more people becoming part of the underworld because of the increasing number of movies being made on them, or is just a case of reel life being taken from real life...what i am wondering about is, can the lack of meaningful cinema be due to the fact that life per se has become less meaningful now.. if reel was copying real, then the superficiality of the current way of existence would automatically make movies frivolous and time pass, and nothing more deep than say, a face pack (oops, wrong example?).. on the other hand, if real was copying reel, then these movies would make us even more superficial than we are now... thankfully, movies aren't all pervasive...

until next time, screen yourself...

Smells Like Teen Spirit

The post has nothing to do with Nirvana, so apologies to the Cobain fans... but yes, the title does have relevance in a totally different context.. Since the entire country and its media have decided not to skirt the issue, i thought it might make sense for me to raise the issue here.. yup, its all about ms.mirza'a skirts and all the above puns were intended..:)

While it is known that the guy who made the initial remark about her dressing on court had both supporters and detractors, it is also quite clear to those who have seen at least one game of contemporary tennis that its quite impossible to play the game with a long skirt on.. that would get us the kind of results we might get if we compete in swimming with a formal suit rather than a swimsuit.. of course, it would give us the necessary excuses for not winning competitions, and perhaps ask for a reservation for people competing in burkha/suits in international sporting events. But all thats not the point here.. the issue would have been sidelined if sania had merely stated the obvious - that the clothes she wears are a demand of the sport she plays, and anything else would leave her at a disadvantage.. but as this article would have us believe, she is not comfortable wearing such clothes...

i have a couple of points to note though - firstly, all the women in the sport wear similar attire, but most of them, if you exclude the williams and sharapova do not offer scope for eye candy like sania does.. the kind of images that ToI splashes are proof of that, and i am very sure a little adjustment can stop the really extreme exposure that she offers, that is, if sania wanted to stop it.. secondly, for a person who flaunts attitude tshirts on a regular basis, the discomfort seems to be slightly out of character...

So at the end of it, she seems to be taking her rapt audience for a ride, with remarks about discomfort and actions which seem to be totally out of sync. and thats the only reason for the post - unfair ridicule of mass intelligence, ours!!

But, i also do think she's just another teen, who loves her game, is quite at ease with its requirements and also loves her religion and is quite at ease with its diktats, and is confused, like most of the people at her age, on how to balance the different things in her life.. so maybe we should just let her be and be mature enough to let her enjoy her game, cheer her for her exploits, let her handle the perks her performance gives her..

maybe we should stop splashing images that make her think that the number of navel gazes she serves are more important to her audience than the number of aces she serves.. we have enough tennis barbies, why try to make a sania barbie, and spoil a talent?
until next time, maybe she needs a break :)

For what i came.....

I finished reading a book recently, 'vertigo' by ashok banker... set in mumbai a little over a decade back, it explores the existence of a guy in the initial stages of his career, battling career debacles, an alcoholic mother and a stormy love life... no, i am not good at reviews, coz i rarely read objectively, which i think, is absolutely necessary to write a good review, but the book is definitely worth a read...

there was a quote in it, which appealed a lot to me, and which, if delved into, could give a lot of clarity to our existence... 'What i do is me, for that i came'.... we are what we do in life, from a personal as well as professional point of view.. to debate it further, in a perfect existence, our actions are such that there is hardly a difference between work and personal life...we enjoy doing it so much that it is no longer 'work', at least not in the way we treat it now.. imagine someone paying you for listening to music, reading, blogging, sleeping...yup, a very utopian kind of existence, but it sure would be wonderful, but i guess like all utopian theories, this one fails too, because i dont think there would be too many people who would enjoy cleaning public infrastructure, or pizza delivery, for that matter.. which i guess is why things are the way it is right now...

but its a good thought nevertheless, each of us doing exactly what we love to do, and therefore feeling that we have made a difference by our existence.. the first key being finding out exactly what it is that we would love to do.. and since that doesnt throw up too many practical answers (in the current scheme of things, that is) i suggest we get back to what we regularly do...

until next time, a post is what you came for, right? ;)

Fwd: 55

1. The police had only a couple of clues on the serial killings, the message on the bodies - "the murder number and 'of LV'" , and the victim was a criminal. They tried the known criminals' database for the initials 'LV', with no luck. They had no hopes of catching the killer, but how many would die?

2. He sat at the window, happily gazing at the vast metro. A killer out there was decimating his competition. And he knew he wouldn't die, because he had worked out the clue. And the news said murder #55 had just been committed. So when the guy barged in and shot him dead, he was surprised.

3. He waited outside the door. He had hoped to stop after the last one, but RGV insisted that the title was registered, he would have to do one more before they made the movie based on the encounter specialist. He barged in and shot the criminal point blank. This time,there was no clue.

until next time, i got it from here, try it out...

Onam

Oh yes, very much God's own festival... and yes, He had a major role to play in it.. Legend has it that the demon king Mahabali, who ruled over Kerala, was so good, that Indra, the king of Gods, felt a tinge of professional jealousy, a God size tinge... so he politely took an appointment with Vishnu, who had, by that time, made it a habit of rescuing Indra from all the shit he was constantly falling into.. Indra convinced Vishnu that the yajna that mahabali was conducting now was only a smokescreen, and it was part of the long term strategy to overthrow Indra...

And so Vishnu, who knew all about the matrix, morphed himself into a brahmin lad, went to Mahabali, and asked him for three measures of land, and the measure would be His foot.. Now Mahabali, was famed for his generosity, which was king sized, and immediately agreed, inspite of advice from his spiritual guru... What he needed was a lawyer, for, like most other cases, it was the fine print that caused his downfall.. for Vishnu, just bloated himself and in his first measure took up heaven, and in the second , earth and the other planets.. i guess, by now, mahabali would have totally lost his composure, and, in response to vishnu's query on where he should keep his third footstep, would have said 'mere sar pe'.. vishnu, wily God that he was, did just that, and pushed Mahabali into the netherworld...

Vishnu might have felt some pity, for he gave Mahabali permission to visit Kerala, once a year to see his subjects.. and the day he comes back, we Keralites celebrate Onam and sing our own versions of 'Those were the days, my friend....'

Of course, times have changed now, the Congress is ruling,and they are worse than in the times of Indra, Onam is celebrated more in UAE, America, Europe, Bangalore and other assorted places where Keralites reside in more than 3 numbers, but in spite of all that, its still Onam, and i still get a smile on my lips, even if its in memory of the good old times - yours, Mahabali, and mine too....

until next time, happy Onam to all of you...

Granted...

Wish.. we all do.. for different things - more money, a better life, that prized job, with which we think our life would become a little better than what it is now, momentarily or for a lifetime... and like always, we forget what has been granted to us without asking, and what we have taken for granted...

a loving set of parents, a good education,food when we are hungry, shelter when we need it, a lifestyle that is comfortable, money to take care of our needs, all senses intact, a couple of arms and a couple of legs, enough of thinking ability to enjoy a good book, a taste for good music and good food..

and while taking this for granted we also assume a lot of things - from the newspaper and milk being delivered in the morning to our surviving the day... that we will not fall sick, that the vehicle will not conk, that nothing will rock our personal or professional boat, that a natural disaster will not befall our peaceful existence, that we have all this because we deserve to.....

and also in between there are some moments when we take a look out of our coccooned world, and see others' version of reality, a life where survival itself is the biggest victory, and then we wonder... at least for sometime..
until next time, what if you could grant wishes.....

Tech Republic

Upfront, let me admit that an intense subconscious jealousy might be the reason for the contents of this post, but thats a big 'might'. and before i start off, let me assure you that i have nothing against the people i write about, only sympathy at the way they are being used.. and it may not be a situation which applies to everyone in the industry... disclaimer over, post start...

A few days back, i read an article that a reputed software company is going to start a beauty salon, on its campus.. the reason being that since the employees start work early and end late,they may not have time to get a haircut or facial, and so the oh-so-concerned employer is taking care of it... sometime earlier, i had also read about how creches were the latest HR craze in the silicon towers..reason being that employees shouldnt be bothered about finding a safe parking place for their toddlers... i assume the forthcoming attractions would be a work station which will double up as a dorm at night, with facilities for brushing/shaving etc, entertainment facilities for the last generation of visiting parents, express mating services coz baby, who has the time for love and romance, mini sperm banks and artificial insemination procedures, so that the correct genetic ingredients can be used to make a perfect tech kid who might be able to start programming after uttering the cursory 'papa' and 'mama' utterances, and its formal introduction to them, and yes, before i really lose it, please, a toilet seat instead of the regular seat....

Welcome to the tech republic, founded on the toil of a million professionals who bravely walk that thin line between their retina and their monitor, and their fingers and the keyboard... who are led to believe that their work is making a difference to millions of users whose life has been made easier because of the billion applications/programs that are being churned out... who are worth so much, thanks to their ESOPs, that it would make every other kind of professional hide his face in shame, but who wouldnt have the time to enjoy it.. whose life, for me, is still an enigmatic code... er, before we got diverted, wasnt the whole process about improving lives? i guess,like every republic has its own set of martyrs, so too does the tech republic...
until next time < / post >

Weight and Watch

A long long time ago, long before watching one's weight reached fashionable proportions, we used to have a simple routine at home, that of measuring our weight every month...

Having hovered around the twenty and thirty kg mark for a long time, crossing the 50 kg mark was a big priority in my wishlist... But we humans are funny folk.. its been a long time since i crossed the magic figure, and now i exercise so that i can keep it somewhere close to that figure.. like the saying goes, the more things change the more they remain the same...in childhood, it was about increasing the weight till it reached there, and now its about decreasing it...

however, i have always wondered when exactly the body weight increases, when exactly was it that i crossed from 49 kg to 50 kg.... like the movement of the hour hand of a clock, we never manage to know the exact moment... not for any particular purpose, just curiosity...
until next time, wait a second, and think about it....

Login

Karma was a good movie... Dilip Kumar did a decent job.... simple.. but no, this is not a movie review, this is about the other kind of karma.. not so simple..

as a kid, and a hindu one at that, i was given a basic understanding of karma and its functionality.. in retrospect, i do believe that it was used more for preventing any unruly behaviour on my part.. karma was the 'thing' that would get back at me later if i did any wrong..like in the case of most other things that were told to me, i fell for this one too.. but maybe that was good, anyways..

but as time passed, the belief in the flawless machinery of karma gave way to a questioning attitude, and then onto absolute disbelief... it could have been that the machinery was having a slow race competition with the indian judiciary, or with some file in the massive indian bureaucracy,anyways, it seemed to be winning.. there was no retribution from 'karma', and that was from experience..not that this knowledge was used in some diabolical plan or for some evil purpose, but the belief had been shattered...

More time has passed, and like most other things, the belief system has also come full circle, and most likely is here to stay, because unlike the first time, this is a self learning, and not something that has been drilled into the conscience.. but i do think that it is time for the karma machinery to get a good overhaul, maybe get more efficient... and like the new nationalised bank accounts, become accessible with a simple username and password..

so we could actually redeem our karma reward points!! yes, there would of course be the regular issues like 'Forgot Password' or an occasional nasty case of hacking, but overall it would be much more convenient... getting movie tickets, that new job, discounts on stuff we badly want to buy, a good marriage/ love life, not getting soaking wet in rains, getting back power supply ..would all be possible with just a karma account... and to get the points, one would have to do good deeds.... a win-win situation..
until next time, think about the possibilities!!