life at its ironic best...

Scene I

9 year old boy, innocence personified, arrives in a new city...

goes to his new school, find out his aunt is the principal...

aunt asks the teacher to take him to the two sections of Class 5, so that he can choose...

boy walks in the lobby, wondering, how do i choose a section...

passes by 5A first...peeks in...and the first thing his eyes set on is a girl...and thats all he see's...

teacher pulls him to section B, tells this is the better section...better students better childrent...

then the question, 'beta, which section'...ummm...5A madame!!!

Scene II

an year has passed, boy is well settled, one of the top five rankers, and the class monitor...

the girl...ah the girl, is also one of the top five rankers...but he is in lovvveeeeee...

the boy has made friends...his best friend, also in the top five...is also in lovvveeee...

with the same girl...

they best friend...writes a love note to the girl...in the name of the boy...

the girl cries, the teacher summons the boy...shows the love note... 'I LOVE YOU GIRL - BOY'

the boy cries...i didn't write this...

the detective teacher say - 'write a love not exactly like, we will compare the handwriting'

the super bhondu boy write the love note exactly like that...

now the teacher compares the two love notes, both say...'I LOVE YOU GIRL - BOY'

and the teacher shouts out ' Eureka, it was you after all'

and the boy sheepishly says - 'but..but, you asked me to write it exactly like it!!!'

and the girl and boy don't talk for a long long time...

Scene III

the winters come and go...and the girl and boy don't talk...

but the bhondu boy is a good boy, and the girl sees this...

and then the sweet girl talks to the bhondu boy...

and love blossoms...and the world is rosy again...

the boy falls sick...and the girl comes meet the boy with her mum...

and the boy watches her go back all the way home...

and then the girl falls of the stairs and breaks her back...and the boy visits her with his mum...

and the girl would have watched him go all the way home if she could get off the bed...

the best friend is jealous...doesn't talk to the boy.

and passes taunts...and becomes super competitive...

and fights with the boy...and humilates him at cricket...

and kicks him out of the group...

but who cares...the boy is in love and his life is set...

if only...

Scene IV

the boys dad gets transferred, damn marketing job...

and the boy moves to a new, big city...

and the best friend, when saying goodbye has a sinister look on his face...

and the boy is heart broken

but the boy doesn't forget the girl...

and writes to her, every week...religiously...

and draws big hearts...and sprinkles sparkles and spray perfume...i think

and cycles to the post office, looks at the letters like its his will...and posts it...

and waits and waits and waits...

did i write my address right...did the best friend take over...is she ok...

and he waits and waits...

morning and evening, dad after day he tracks the postman...

but the letter doesn't come...

and then out of the blue...it does...

and his heart floats...he doesn't need anything more...

and he starts writing another one...more hearts, more sprinkles, better perfume,

and cycles to the post office and post the letter...

he waits, confident that the next reply will settle everything...

but no letter comes, morning and evening, days and weeks...no letter comes.

event he postman changes...but no letter comes...

and then the big city takes over, a new girl, but no letters this time...

but he doens't forget the girl...

scene 'i forgot the count'

the boy grows up...does well for himself...

shifts to an even bigger city

many relationships have come and gone...

the boy still remembers the girl...

and the world has changed...

the world is now moved from snail mail to email to Facebook...

and one night the boy searches for the girl on Facebook...

but as luck would have it...he finds the best friend...

who also is in a big city...at a good job and now...married...

and a fleeting thought crosses the boys mind...

and he, with trembling fingers, clicks on his marriage connection...

and after 12 longs years...finds his girl!!!

true story...

Tiger Woods and his 11 mistresses, for almost all of us, its just a news, masala. I like the way he has handled his disgresssions though, very dignified, ironic isn't it. Frankly speaking, i am not opinionated about what he did, its not my place to judge, i don't know the full story, believe no one does.

anyways had a theory about this, why the people at the top, people who have proven themselves to be the best of the best of our society, do such things. well, replace people with men actually. this is specific to us, the still to evolve sex.

so my theory is this, these guys are basically the top of the food chain, they are the alpha males, and as per the rules of the animal world, the alpha male gets the chicks...a lot of them, its biology, they need to spread their seeds, the best seeds their are!!! and thats what they do. ...

but our human alpha males can't, they are married and committed and all that. so they can't, society doesn't like it. the problem is marriage and commitment are not something which is natural, they are acquired traits, but alpha males needs to spread seeds is very natural very instinctive...so, conflict is inevitable!!! can't blame guys for it, can ya??!?

:)))

well that was that, girls reading this, please don't abuse me too much. am not gonna do it...am never gonna be the alpha male anyways. ;-)

btw - BOBILLI VIJAY KUMAR, writes about sports for the Times of India, and i have found him really good, his article about Federrer after he lost to Nadal was a classic. and this one, linked here is sarcastic and quite funny.

anyways, to more serious topics...

yesterday we got into a debate on whether its good to be an idealist. the examples were from music world and FB, its origins. A very idealist guy from the North East, (a region where i think we have the most idealist youth living, something to learn for the rest of the country) made a point that why can't you just do something for the love of it, why should everything be a business, should generate a profit...

why can't we just live on ideals, on the fact that i make my own kind of music and i want to share it with people who like it, why should i have to commercialize it??

well thats where the conflict is, if you want to make your music and you don't really care about what people think about it, whether someone listens to it or not, thats idealism, what every happens you won't change it. the moment you want others to like it, appreciate it, their goes your idealism, the moment you want to spread ur music, you are already on your path to commercializing it.

i gave the example of Fb, Zuckerberg started out with FB as a way to keep in touch with people at Harvard, he a pretty little server, he wrote the app, and since he didn't really put in any additional money into it, it was a zero profit zero loss for him. then came other universities, who wanted to use the app, and so he said, ok, let me put in 10 other servers (made an investment here) and share it with others. At some point the dude must have realized, 'this has potential' and must have approached the Venture capitalists, or maybe the other way round. well thats when he turned it into a business.

Nothing wrong with it, and i think, if you want to spread you idea, you need to make a business out of it. as for your ideals, well you many times have to give some...

Rehman today, has western tones to his music, maybe to commercialize it, maybe to get acceptance, the point is, he, at that point might have decided, 'ok, so what if in a album of 10 songs, 1 is not really what i want, i at least get 9 of my songs across.' the question is when do you stop, if you end up with all 10 songs of what the 'public' demands, then you lost out.

take care...me off to cycling.

ank

friends..

yup yup...friends again, but this time, not only the sitcom but 'you have clowns for friends' group of friends that i have in blr...

i have watched friends everyday for 10 years now...i remember it started on Star World 10 years ago...it started, if i remember right, on the first day of my 12th board exams. if ur an Indian, you know what 12th board is, its basically ur career, and everyone, everyone is tense. ur parents treat you extra special, people call up on a daily basis to ask 'kevu gaayu exam aaje'...but their is also this hanging tension anywhere you go..ur home, ur friends home...the streets even. '12th na boards chale che' atmosphere anywhere you go....

anyways, which is a word i think i picked up from Friends, although the 's' at the end is mine, well anyways, i missed it the first day, and then negotiated with my parents that i will take a break between 9 - 9:30 to watch friends, and study the rest of the time. i loved it the first time i saw it, didn't understand it too much, but just friends hanging around all day long and having fun...used to laugh a lot, and that used to vaporise the tense cloud around me.

over the years...friends has been a constant companion, sometimes just to entertain, sometimes to support me. i remember watching 5 episodes back to back when i had my accident, and wanted to sleep but was too scared too....it started many conversations, one song, gave me many analogies and many lines.

today, after watching the re-run over re-run, and living through my life along side, i realize that friends was so popular, is so popular, because over its run of 10 seasons, i has all kinds of situations, everything that people just outta school, going to their jobs, living alone expect to experience, and so you connect. the best part is, it showcases each of that situation with a funny tone, there is always a line by one of those six which cuts through the tension, and u leanr that sometimes, always, laughing over ur situation is maybe the best way of living it.

i today have a group of very similar friends, we are 7, and we do all the same things. relationship crap, work woes, drama in life, and the individuals, each different, each very well defined.

and they are fun to be with, we have accept each other, questions each other on the way we are, but always to make each other better, never imposed. we know mostly everything about each other, all the gory details, we know that some are a bit perverted, that some are selfish, that some are kiddish, some are drama queens, some are too rigid, and almost all have a level of kaminapanti...but we all are great friends. we share and have fun.

and we entertain each other, there are small time situations happening on a daily basis, and there is huge drama around each situation, but each such situation is handled with a level of humour which makes the situation fun, easy to handle. ofcourse you also get support to handle that situation.

i never wanted to belong to a group, but here, without even knowing it, i do. and its been a life saver many times.

cheers to my friends...to sandha, dude, shogo, kauky, shaitan, mai, me and some more who come and go...and to friends, i hope never to get bored of it!!!

best friend / boy friend

'Marry your best friend, nothing is better' - i read this long time back in an article...

Someone asked me, what if you are more compatible with your guy best friend, more then ur boy friend...

and that led into a series of conversations on the topic.

Well, i think a boyfriend and a best friend are two different things. your expectations are different. you expect support from the best friend, you expect the best friend to question you, advice you...

you expect security from the boy friend, you expect him to be possessive about you...

ur expectations not satisfied by a best friend don't hurt that much, but not the same with a boy friend, simply because you feel a 'haq' on him. you feel he owes you that.

If you go shopping together with ur bestfriend, and the two of you will mostly argue on it, but with a boy friend, there will be a sense of disappointment, 'ah you don't like this' kinds.

also, it would be ideal if ur boyfriend is also your best friend, very ideal, but doesn't happen often. guys anyways are dumb idiots, i was giving an example that the fact ur boyfriend hears ur rants for an hour on the phone, is a big thing for him. stop cribbing about him not understanding what you are saying.

but boyfriends need to be trained, tuned to ur frequency, and that takes patience...this is one thing which perfects over a lifetime, if its perfect at the start...it'll become boring afterwards...

Soulmates is what i believed in, believe in...but someone told me about soul people group, basically meaning you can't everything from one person...but a group of people...makes sense sometimes. but yea nothing better then finding ur soulmate.

sorry for the girl talk, am gonna visit an auto show later in the day, so will write about some macho stuff soon...;-)

later.

ank

its not my cause...

recently there was a some major events, almost a blitz of events celebrating LGBT movement in my workplace...and i was asked many times to join. i didn't

the celebrations and what they asked for was very valid, acceptance, and the same treatment as everyone else. and i totally agree with it. i don't know if its a natural choice, or something acquired, what ever it is, its a choice, and there is no reason to question it.

this blog is not about LGBT, but more about why i didn't participate in it. i just didn't think it was a worthy cause, i just didn't think it required to be given as much importance, as much hooplah, as many other problems we face.

there was an article in the TOI today, a politician was asked if his taking the oath in Hindi instead of Marathi, and all the noise around it, had taken the focus away from other issues, the performance of the govt as one. and i think it did. agreed, the right to take an oath in Hindi, which also talks about bigger issues, is important, but compared to the performance of the govt, not that much.

But then i don't blame the politician, or the LGBT, it is their cause, they need to highlight it. and someone needs to write about it, the media that is.

but my problem is with the media who gives undue importance to issues which make the news, which sell.

there should be a regulator for the media, its been debated, and yes i think there should be a regulator. whether the regulator should decide on the importance of a story, well no they shouldn't, but they sure should be verifying the facts being reported. because frankly, what is reported becomes the truth. for someone sitting a hundred miles away, truth is written.

as for me not participating in the LGBT thingy, well, i just don't think its worth that much importance, i am not sure about how much percentage of the population are LGBT and go through the social stigma associated with it, but from perspective, can't be larger then the kids dying of hunger, or lack of education or environmental issues. But LGBT is a controversial issue, it gets eyeballs, it is easy to sell. and i truly believe, we shouldn't sell what is easy to sell, but what needs to be sold.

again, no offence to LGBT, i am only against undue importance given to a lot of things when looking from a macro picture level.

my first controversial post...but this i had to write.

take care

ank

after a long time...

i have written about association before...am just developing another theory!!!

associations are nothing but part of habits, if you take habit as a process, which is done without any thought put into it, by instinct, then associations are the triggers to this process. there are routines in the process, lunch break-teammate-smoking is a routine, with team mate being the association...

doesn't make sense i know...anyways what i am saying is that i have been trying to quit for some time, every friday evening i smoke my last....every monday morning i have to stop at the coffee shop and i have to smoke. its an association i have...well i broke that and then discovered that there is another association, my teammate invites me for a after lunch sutta everyday, if i refuse he is disheartened, i thought he was just offended but its actually disheartening for him, this is his only sutta of the day, and its not the same if he doesn't have company...so i have to smoke.

so i basically have to make him give up his one break of the day for me to stop smoking...

i love those days where is like dawn all day long...

so once you start discovering one of a kind, u start discover many...its amazing in how, a very short period you start frequently noticing something of the same kind, which in all the years gone, you never ever have. 14th Nov the date, in ten years i have discovered so may people with their birthday on Nov 14, its weird. discovered two more today...

well not a very good example of the funda there, but the funda is actually true. it works with words, u see a word which is new, and then u start seeing it more and more...

maybe u just become more sensitive to it, u notice it only because its in ur head, and we look for things which we know, its gives us the 'aha' feeling.

another thing, to start with u like a persons physical apperance, but soon, very soon, if ur like me, it trancends that...and then the physical appearance doesn't really matter....more later.

PS: It always irritates me when bloggers don't blog for a long time, and then when they come back, they start with a huge 'i am sorry, i was doing this and that...' posts but were really just being lazy...so even though tempted, i am limiting it to just the title... :-)

and yea...happy birthday!!!

irony at work...

horrible week...working till two in the night on a sick day...and then working late nights everyday till mid week to plan something, push something, negotiating with all and sundry to schedule it...get everything done, then find out the basics are not ready, and get ready to work all night long to get it going...2 hours into the work find out that everything just got cancelled.
confirming the fact 'if you wish for it strongly enough, it will come true'

anyways that was not ironic...this was

Irony 1 - sending the last mail for the week out, all ready to leave work and party hard...and find out ur application is down...(this happens quite often btw)

Irony 2 - the access door to the application is hosted on the application itself...how do you get in to troubleshoot??!?

Irony 3 - somehow troubleshoot and find out the application is fine, but you, the owner of the application, are the only one not able to access it...

just another day at work...thankfully this was not my day at work. but work is exciting, always, never routine, as i like it.
take care.
ank
PS - personal post, life is ironical, if you can laugh at it, it won't sting that bad.
sorry for the terminology...can't describe somethings with the same impact without using the terms.

work would be so much more fun...

if this would happen...

well a guy's confession, we all have our muses at work...

well not only at work, at the gym, at a party...sad as it is, it is a guy thing...

and i can guarantee this for most single guys.

but it does make life so much more interesting, you run to mundane work...

the video doesn't require a description, it captures the essence perfectly.

i don't posts videos, but this needs to be shown....

enjoy, and fall in love, even if for a short time. ;-)

take care

ank

blinded by love...

so have an eye infection...some kind of conjuctivitis...non communicable and doesn't need me to rest my eyes either...so can't take an off from work, not that i want too...wouldn't know what to do all day long.

anyways so had this for two weeks, was just being a lazy ass, am going to ahd so though will get it checked once there, but was up all night yesterday because of the irritation so finally went to the doc and was an experience...first a nurse checked my vision...then an intern, a cute intern did all kinds of stuff with my eyes. she almost pinched my eye lids off, everytime foxing me by tellin me to look down...well what the hell, she was cute.

anyways that done, i finally got to meet the doc...miss suzanne john...thought it was Susan, Suzanne was even cooler. was joking in the morning that if i do go to an eye doc, it has to be lady. can't have a guy stare into my eyes like that. anyways she was nice, motherly, said it was quite common, need to put three drops, four times a day for two months and to come back next May because the infection will be back...and i go what!!?!...something to do with Bangalore weather. have a cold and she its because of this weather, and i say no, its a side affect of sth and she asks what, and i sheepishly say...smoking and get a 10 min lecture on quitting. funnily, i keep on saying, i did, for six weeks, and even in my head i feel so ashamed...anyways...so have been telling people all day long about the experinece...was making a lot of fun about it.

the great mai says, when told that i was up all night, you could have gone to the emergency room, and i think, the thought of going to the doc didn't even come to my head. same with the time i had the accident, didn't even think i would go to the doc. guess pain has just become a habit, also maybe because of this incident that happened long time back, feels almost cowardly going to the doc and doing something about the pain...a very very idiotic macho guy thing. absolutely stupid, but most of my kind have it...

hospitals are such an experience...you see all hues and shades of life...very few happy ones. its one place where most people are not pretending...where most don't really care about what others are thinking of them. it intimidates everyone, i have seen people freak out when they go to hospitals, the smell, the chaos, especially if ur the one who is being treated, u feel so vulnerable.

one thing i have learned, if someone needs to go the hospital, go along with them, how every minor the thing is, how ever tough the person is, it always helps if someone is alongside.

and all the people who know me...if its in Bangalore, take me along. i am getting pretty skilled at this, i was counting and i have spent 14 days in the hospital just with others, have been to the manipal emergency room accompanying someone 5-6 times...i am good at it. and a very very patient guy, pi and dude can vouch for that. so need someone to accompany you to a hospital, give me a call.

anyways long post, just felt like writing.

my right eyelids paining...damn the cute intern

take care.

ank

ps...the title is just something andie said today when i was joking around abt flirting with Suzanne the doc...

also this thing about blr weather...its nice weather...very pleasant, rains every now and then, and beautifully, short showers, lasts 15 mins, always between 4-6 and leaves the weather all cool and rainy...but then its not good for you health, half the people i know have allergies and sinusitis because of it...and body pain. its kinds of two faces, attracts you with the nice pleasant weather, but gives you all these ailments...if you know what i am saying!!!

never retire...

parents of people my age are somewhere close to the end of their working lives, close to going into retirements, close to turning 58, the mandatory retirement age in India. Whether they want it or not, whether they are capable of working more or not, retirement is something everyone has to face. for some its just a status (retired hain), but statuses, as i have learned, affect your head more then you would want them to. even if you don't feel it, a status might start making you believe it.

anyways retirement is a transition, a transition from one phase of life, a phase full of responsibilities, of tensions, of taking care of ur loved ones, to one in which there are others who take ur tensions, ur responsibility. the roles get reversed.

most of us, who are middle class, have parents, dad's atleast who worked hard through their lives and came up from no where to somewhere. their top priorities, their only priorities were their family, giving them a good life. no other ambitions, even those they had were so that they can give their families a better life. they gave up all their hobbies, all that they wanted to posses, their friends, so that their sons and daughters could explore more, could possess what ever they wish for and could go places where they could meet more people, make more friends.

and now, when they have achieved what they wished for their sons and daughters, now that their sons and daughters are grown up and busy in their lives, and now that they are not responsible for their children, they don't know what to do with their lives. they don't have any hobbies, they don't have any dreams, its too late for that now, and they don't really have any good friends left. because their world was their family, its like they lost their world.

and their sons and daughters who they gave up everything for, have moved out, have their own lives. what do they have left for them, be happy with the fact that they gave their children a happy life. i don't wanna grow old...

There is also a perceived power shit. the sons and daughters become the decision makers, starting living a more independent life. they also now know that their parents are not always right, that their is a generation gap, and somewhere, without even knowing, they don't give as much importance to their parents opinions, forget letting them make the decisions. well understandable, but what does that do to the parents.

parents who till now were in control, suddenly see others taking control of their own lives. and this scares parents. makes them feel less important, and ultimately, hopefully never, but sometimes worthless.

i think its more because India itself is in a transition phase today, where our parents lived in the tradition world where joint families were the norm, and today we are living in a more westernized world where children move out, so parents expectations are very different, and how their mind is conditioned is also very different, its condtioned for their children to live with them, and them taking care of the children and then the grand children. children and grand children want a more independent life.

blame it on times that we live in, will be the easy way out. don't have answers though...

there is no conclusion here...i am just stating whats happening, don't have a solution. i have seen some parents move on, living their own lives, getting into spirituality or charity or getting some hobbies. some move from one son's home to another' 6 months here, 6 months there...they make their peace.

i guess everyone does it, everyone lowers their level of expectations, fragments their dreams, and stays happy with a smaller piece, lower expectations. but then what would be ideal here, what would be perfection...i can't figure out.

later.

take care.

there has to be a PS: a lot of my gen and a gen after me have a dream, to retire by the age of 40...what the fuck??!? i ask them what then, and they tell me, we'll do some farming, live a relaxed life. go on vacations, enjoy family time. again what the fuck...retirement for me in its true sense is not having any more dreams, not have anything to live for, anything to work for. and in that case, for me, i would rather die then retire. because there is nothing left in life after you retire. enjoy life..., savour the fruits of what you sowed...bs. if you are not moving forward, ur still...and stillness is just another word for being lifeless. better die.

i don't want to retire, ever...i'll be 22 forever...i wish!!!

whatever gets you going...

well i know some movies where this has been used in a very different sense...but here, it was quoted by the great mai in an elevator, and meant whatever inspires you...forget the context, but somehow found it really powerful. and thought provoking.

do the means justify the ends...thats what this statement asks...is flirting justified if it makes you happy, is smoking justified if it helps you think,

well, don't know, its a tough question, and differs from each situation, from each perspective. but sometimes i think, as long as you are not hurting someone permanently, as long as you are thinking of the greater good, i think its fine to take support of something which other wise might not be justified, might not be right.

anyhoo...another thing which was said was that its ok to go around with girls and take emotional support if ur in a foreign country, as you don't have anyone else and are lonely. well, i don't think it every is, but as long as both parties know what it is that they are getting into, have their expectations set, and are tranparent and honest, temperory emotional attachments are fine. as long as they don't permanently scar, but don't think that happens, everything scars you, leaves a mark.

saw a couple of nice movies today, three actually, Loving Leah was sometime back, wrote about it in a pervious post. nice movie, quiet different in the sense it deals with a very real situations, which might actually happen, talks about a girls husband dying and her having to marry her husbands brother because of some tradition, and how they finally fall in love. the movie is very relevant to the indian society, where girls get married at really young age, many times having to sacrifice their dreams, their idea of a life...in this case she gets a chance to get her life back. i know someone who got married at 18...today at 31, she is a very lively female, had a lot of fun, which suprises me. wonder what it must have been to get married so early.

well that was one, the other was breach which is a true story about a CIA mole, couple of things, its kind of a biopic, how a mole gets caught, doesn't have any action, just a plain movie which tells a story. not very entertaining in the sense it doesn't keep you rooted to your seat, but then it does tell a story. its a true story...and at the end, like any other true story, has these 'what happened after' scrolls...and somehow these scrolls make the true story truer...i always wait for them, they kind of add to the authenticity of the movie, weird. also i don't know why, but a true story always becomes a higher rated movie for me then a made up one, well its got less of a creative input, there is not story made up, so why, i guess, just because it actually happened, so its not made up, you get to say 'well these things do happen'.

what else, yea, '10 things i hate about you', its a yuppy love movie....american school flick. but somehow, although it has some of the stupid gags that such movies (pointing to american pie) usually have, its also makes sense. the pretty girls attitude of falling for money and looks, the stuck up girls attitude of wanting to liked for her brains and being a rebel, the fathers concerns and his struggles to let go and hold on, and heath ledger. well watch it when you just want to enjoy a very light movie.

heath ledger, he was almost a nobody, and if he'd have gone the way he did, he would have been a nobody. but he became the joker and now is immortal. am not sure if the depression came because of the performance or the performance came because of the depression, i think the latter.

but here's the question, the great mai, when told that it was maybe the right time to go, right at the top, no one will question you ever, just remember that one last performance which made you memorabel, said, whats the point, ur dead.

agreed, you are dead, but then you are also immortal. its like the picture of the buddhist monk sitting in the fire, burning alive for a cause. will you do it, take up a cause, and take an extreme step, knowing that if you accomplish what you started out for, you won't be there to enjoy it...allt he people who kill themselves to protest something, i am sure, partly, they have the fact of becoming immortal at the back of their minds, but then, immotality is something you can't enjoy yourself, so it their a point to it.

just a question, you'll only come to know when u get into a situation like that, and i hope someday you do. one way or the other, you'd have lived a bit more.

later...

ank

i told someone its gonna be a packed weekend...well it sure was an eventfull one...a party worth calling a party after a long time...3am trips to get stuff...and discovering that the person you went to get it from and the person you went to get it for, both have crashed...talking to good friends late at night, and then working all evening, being the owner and getting appreciated for it, early morning show of kaminey, second time, celeberating ganesh chaturthi by eating like ganesh...and then a first datec (kinda) at twenty-eight (made it rhyme see) and a pleasant one at that, sharing friends with someone after a long time, discovering more then smelly cat..and getting to know about the new age english songs...finally sleeping, and then my first past midnight issue...which i got resolved...so yea, an eventfull weekend, not over yet though.

anyways that was the personal blog part of it, now what i really have been wanting to write about...kaminey.

well first things first, i don't understand the name, itni kaminapanti dikhayee nahi hai movie main, could have been named something better. don't have any suggestions but could have been something else...

except for the name, i loved everything about it. this i think would be the first movie in hindi cinema, which makes you stick to the seat. you cannot loose attention for a minute, or else you are lost, the movie stops making sense.

a lot has already been written, shahids acting, the so natural fexy and s..ss..ss..science, and the amazing cinematography, the movie looked like a home video of an amazing quality, the music, and the background score, the dhan ta nan, which actually gets your pulse racing, the acting by everyone else...the jokes which make you laugh unexpectedly, they just popped up. and the chills. this girl (who was there with a date, who was a south indian and din't understand hindi so much, and kept on asking her to translate, was also kind oversmart, tyring to laugh at stuff, the girl was kind of on one of those 'so what, atleast i get to watch a movie' dates, and interested in the movie, in her popcorn and in her cola...thats it.) sitting next to me today actually spilled her cola and popcorn in shock when charlie hits guddu in one of the scenes. the direction was brilliant, was it in the league of tarantino and guy ritchie...well don't know, but it surely was topnotch by indian standards.

so what else can i say...knowning me you know i have something to say...

so heregoes...

i have written in some movie review on this blog, that only if filmmakers had the patience they would achieve perfection, well this movie did. there was not one thing that i thought was out of place, was not required, or could have been added. it was quite perfect.

why did people not like it...well some didn't understand it, the movie was kind of too confusing for them, and they just lost interest, these were also the people who said the movie didn't have a story. some didn't like the violence, well it was rated 'A' and rightly so, whatever Shahid has to say, a movie with a dialogu like 'pyaar ke beech main koi teesra nahi aana chahiye' and has a 'everyone dies in the end' gang war scene at the end, should be rated Adult. a lot of people didn't like it because it didn't give a message, well not everything does. sometimes there are just movies which entertain, which don't leave you all brooding afterwards. hell i am sucker for such movies, but doesn't mean there can't be pure entertainers like these ones, and well you can take out a message out of anything.

well for me it was perfection, three cheers to Vishal Bharadwaj. the third really good movie this year, after Slumdog and Dev.D...three movies which actually started a debate, and for me anythign that stirs up emotions, did its job really well.

and yea almost forgot...for people looking for a message, the starting song shot at kamathipura...about using protection, well that was a message. and so was the mumbai vs bombay thingy...remember Shahids dialogue, 'tab yea bombai hi tha'.

go watch it, and watch it again...

me off to sleep now, ah wait gotta wait for dawn.

take care.

ank

PS...more conversational style...someone told me she likes it. but then its just they way i write now a days, not something on purpose.

cost of not doing the right thing...

there was some stats somewhere that packaged water is more expensive then cola's...well not sure about that, but was thinking, we actually pay for water now a days. during my MBA it really surprised me that students use to by aquafina bottles and not drink from the coolers.

and then the other day i saw this advert by an america company which certified water, they basically test packaged water and certify, kind of an ISI mark for water.

saw this three vehicle carrying 20lt cans yesteday and something stuck me, how much premium are we made to pay because someone somewhere was not honest, didnot do the right thing, took the easier shorter route...

think about it, was was always clean, you could take out water from the well, and drink out of the tap. then we screwed up the environments, and polluted all water sources, so now we need to put in purifies, and start drinking packaged water. till a time there was Bisleri, everyone trusted it, then came the cheaper brands, wich were cheaper, but didnot purify water either...so now there are certifying agencies.

a bottle of bisleri cost so much no only because of the purifying costs and transportation, but also because bisleri has to change its bottle design, put in safety caps et al because people copy it and come out with duplicates.

so well my point is...we pay so much more for someone else being dishones, and someone does for us taking the shorter route.

am in software, and was a civil engg when i used to enjoy my work...both professions major costs are around quality control and assurance. but if you make it right the first time, and keep on doing so, even if you spend more time doing it, after a time testing won't be required, because assurance about quality will be built in. but no, we won't build it right the first time, because then how can we charge for all the add on's, all the testing, all the bugfixes. Microsoft is a $52 billion company right!!!

just wondering if we don't actually waste so much money wasting what we did wrong in the first place, and put it into new ideas, the world would be a better place and at a very cheap cost.

later.

animal conspiracy...

its like all the animals / birds / reptiles are coming together and attacking the human race...bird flu...now swine flu. good for them i say, someone should.

anyways just something to start with. and below are just random things somewhere connected to the swine flu...

it started in US, and mr shr1 who sits next to me at work, always the funny one, when heard that someone from the ny office was visiting said, "unhe bolo abhi naa aaye..." and i said why and he goes..."swine flu dude!!!". so finally the tables have turned huh? that day there was change in what i thought of us Indians. i thought we were humble by nature, but appraently we not really humble, we were just poor and opressed. sorry for sounding like that...i am proud of being an indian, really love it, but i like being humble, i don't want to reject people just because they are sick, or judge them because they are colored (pointing towards some of my friends judging african junta in blr). well we have been there, so why judeg others when we are somewhat past it??? i am very surprised at how a little bit of money and a little bit of a western life style, a little bit of booze and parties, makes us forget everything. where we start questioning movies like slumdog, saying thats not what india is...well india is all that, and far more. so lets not forget who we are and where we are coming from...lets not let it hold us down...but lets not also loose our humility.

too many 'lets'...a clear indication that i am sermonising again (english for gyaan dena :-) )

watching this nice movie 'loving leah', should be in other part of the blog, and i should be going to work, but what the hell, my boss somehow got the idea that i am on vacation...

so one more thing about swine flu...its just started in india, well 5 deaths till now in blr, but you already see a lot of people wearing masks. my friends don't want to go watch 'kaminey' (which is a must watch by the way) because they don't want to go to public places. well one, its overreacting and second, its reacting in the first place. i remember the time when plague broke out in Surat, i was in Ahd, but for a long long time, even as the news kept on coming, people didn't react. life was normal. but now, 10 years later, people have started reacting. its only in the cities, and guess only in the IT cities (pune, blr, hyd) but people are reacting. as i wrote some time back, guess once you don't have to worry about food, and clothes and housing...that you can start worrying about wearing masks to protect urself from swine flu.

well i don't have to worry about the first, and i am not gonna worry about the swine flu, puts too many restrictions on you. too much to give up not to get swine flu.

anyways...one more thing. so was reading all the advisories on swine flu, and one said that it is swine flu can be prevent far more if the people who have it wear masks, rather then people who are not infected. so now everytime i see a person wearing a mask, i wonder whether s/he alreayd has it?

later.

ank

how real do we want reality shows to be...

the earliest instance of a reality show i can rememeber is the truman show...a movie where Jim Carrey lives his entire life on a make believe movie set town, with everyone around him an actor playing a part which is scripted. the only unknown is truman...but his behaviour is also moulded, his actions directed by a Godman director...nice movie...asks a lot of questions.

but apparently reality shows have been their since 1930's, candid camera was one of the first such show.

why this, well have been thinking about reality shows for a long time, and today there is this story in ToI, rakhi sawant after her swayamvar is now working on another reality show where she and her new hubby take care of their new born...

it was revolting just to read this, imagine the kid. even at that age, it will leave an impression.

anyways to a larger question, are reality shows really real, and if they are, how much reality should you show, and what are the effects of it?

well i don't think reality shows of the kind where random people are put in situation is really real. even if there isin't a script, the made up situations they need to deal with, the way the host's prod them with leading questions, heck, the way the participants are chosen (roadies has most from Chandigarh and Delhi, people you know are more on likely to fight and play politics and be flashy), everything is scripted in such a way that the outcomes are almost known. they know that masala makes viewers watch...and everything is scripted such that it evokes a lot of masala.

the counter argument people give, is that, well, its reality, this actually happens in families, if you put random people together, thats exactly how they will react. well agreed that there is always politics, malicious ways and strategizing, but not in such compressed form. there isn't so much of it in a one month period is there? and also the reactions might be natural, but the situations are made up...

should everything be shown, NO...please, there are somethings i don't want to see, i don't want anyone wants to see. all we are doing is showing behaviour which other wise is revolting and making the audience think that it is fine, part of life. the audience, us, become conditioned to accept such behaviour. we are promoting the evil side of humans, conditioning us to say, its part of life, chalta hai, sab karte hai...

and frankly, unless you have some sort of evil, the shows won't sell. even an innocent show like "Jon & Kate + 8" had a jump in viewership once they couple started drifting apart!!!

i guess, reality shows are fine, but as long as they are moderated. there are shows like the amazing race, Alaskan Experiment, man vs wild, jon & Kate + 8, all reality shows, but moderated versions, which actually show reality and coaxed up reality.

and where are all the funny serials gone...i don't see a single good comedy on the hindi channels, even the english one's have pathetic ones...

i wonder why...

people don't say what needs to be said...why men don't talk...why because of one thing which cannot be said, an entire conversation comes to a stop and two people just sit like zombies...their heads talking continously to each others but their lips not moving at all...

i wonder why...one small disagreement, or maybe one big disagreement washes away all the agreements that their were...why we give so much importance to one small thing...so much that it takes priority to everything else.

wonder why we can't live a more disjointed life, where everything is so connected, that with one negative thing, we convert everything into a negative...

wonder how illogiacally our head thinks or our heart feels that one fight makes us forget all the good times spent.

wish our hearts and heads were more chamberised...i would put all the negatives in one chamber, and stop the blood supply to it...!

well i wish...i wish we could talk more freely....and not let this one small make words get stuck like lumps in our throats...i wish...

abstract post...later.

btw, the couple fighting in the bus below...was exactly this, so much being said, but the lips were not moving at all...!

to the glorified paperweight...

2 years now...and this has been my best gadget ever. a constant companion, useful for everything...the swiss knife of gadgets, now reduced to a paper weight, a super intelligent one at that though

i bought it in NY, was the first to in my group, and big group at that. Bought from the 5th avenue apple store, at 12 in the night on a spur of the moment decision. And most importantly without knowing if would be able to unlock it. So basically i bet $400 on this...but man, never did i expect such returns.

we spent the next three days unlocking it...me and sirji, well sirji did almost everything, but I helped out. Everything done (and here everything is basically a 39 step guide, to jailbreak and unlock and later virginise it as well, making sure you don't brick it!!!), we needed to test it. And to get the sim out needed a pin...and an india sim. Woke up two girls at one in the night..got shouted at but got both the sim and the pin, and voila it worked.
Btw one of the two, the termperamental but loving cancerian named it 'a glorious paperweight' on this blog...

30 odd were bought between 60 of us...i carried three in my cargo pockets.

it became a constant companion...was always there attached to my waist...with the earphones snaking out to my ears...and it was there when i had my accident. i remember opening my eyes, and the first thing i saw was it sliding away, at that moment seemed like it was floating away from me. with all my injuries i was more worried about it...it got more bruised then i did, mine atleast got healed, it still has the deep scars over its back, scars which make it special and different, and tells people that its lived a full life. scars which also gave it a much needed grip...i don't have to hold it tightly anymore...

and then function by function it started dying...the virbrating part first...thanks to sirji and his horribly misdirected kick meant for my butt...and then the dead spots. started with 'p' and 'l' and the 'x'. o was the new p in my dictionary...Prachi was saved as orachi...priyanka as oriyanka!!! it was upgraded and virginised, not once but repeatedly...and it got scarred, and started complaining. the 'send' on the msg UI died...when i wanted to send a hundred msg's a day...

and then it became a cranky old guy...sending messages and making calls on its own, from a touch phone it became a hover phone...no need to touch any more, and then finally, today, its a wind sensitive phone. just put it under the fan, and it will start making calls, changing screens.

today it cannot be unlocked, and it cannot be switched off...an entire strip on the right hand side is dead...

but it still is legendary, my iphone. it still evokes conversations everywhere...it still gets me interested looks...it still makes me look with interest...

the iphone has to be the best gadget ever made...a game changer and a conversation starter. an evolving platform, which has the potentail to provide every function required...and more. it already is...anyone who doesn't agree, who still think there are other comparable phones...nothing comes even close.

this is for my iphone...i might have given up on you...but you will always be there with me, and i will try to keep you alive as long as possible....

long live the iphone!!!

feel like blogging

not a really good title is it...was bloggin in a bus sometime back on my BB, mailed it to myself.

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One of those times where you really wanna blog but don't know how.
Am in a bus going to the airport to pick up dad, first time we will be spending alone time ever.
There's a couple sitting opposite to me, at some distance though..have a very cute baby. Good looking couple, both belong to each other. Well this would explain better, remember phoebe telling chandler, you see all these great looking girls with nothing guys...you could be that. Well this is not one of those couples.
But sth's wrong. They just had a fight or are at a very uncertain place, sth like that. fight meaning argument kinds, uncertain place meaning came to know something they didnot prepare for, were not ready for and so are still digesting the fact. looks like the first though, are not talking to each other, but they steal these glances at each other with the bahana of looking at the baby. Quite cute.
Its like they both wanna talk, have so many things to say, but pehla kaun walla funda hai...the husband has this totally blank expression on his face, as if he trying not to think at all. the lady, pretty lady, keeps on getting these expressions on her face, she is thinking it over, scenes flashing in her head, and her reaction to the scene can be seen on her face. it lights up when she feels love, and she purses her lips when feeling guitly...
The baby is cute..just sitting in her father's lap, and has her chin supported with a finger, well not really but from a distance looks like that. Under the circumstances is a very appropriate pose and quiet funny too...
Ah just started talking, the girl said sth to break the ice. Well its gonna get over soon...
I miss fighting... :-(
Yup they r back... :-)
Later...

fair vs equal...

went through a training the other day, inclusive something, was about how to live in diverse environments...was one of those very lectury kind of trainigns, a lot of gyaan giving.

anyways the trainer was an african american, why i mention this, well because during the training he made many refrences to his color, it seems like that was one of the major factors in his life, one of the things which had shaped his life...anyways was kind of funny. he was the kind who knew exactly who he was, and what people perceived him to be....while giving his introduction, he told us about his family, four sons, eldest 33, even his wifes name. one, i was surprised, mostly people don't introduct their families, mostly just who they are, and at the most 'am married, with three kids'. don't know if its a cultural thing about african american's but they always seems more integrated and emotional about their families.

second, he didn't look like he had a 33 year old kid...he looked very young, well surly not 50+. and he knew it, when he saw someone staring at him, he just non chalantly said 'yes i am that old'.

so anyways, somethings said in the training that i noted down...

fair vs equal - what would you rather be? fair or equal, treat everyon as they deserve, or treat everyone equally. i would treat everyone fairly, but make sure that at higher level i am equal as well.

a quote - 'hard to get an idea from an echo' , not sure about the origins.

a question which has always bothered me, should you charge a premium for first to market or for an innovation, it makes sense when you take medicines as an example.

there was game about predictive thinking...well i didn't have any, simply because i was slow at thinking...but that save me from making a fool of myself. so guessin slow is not bad always.

same as ignorance is bliss...

i loves this - what you ignore becomes more, what you tolearte takes over, what you challenge can be changed...

also we too often sell and not deliver feedback. its so true, while giving a feedback, we try to make sure that the other person actually agrees with us. well feedbacks are mostly critical in nature, how can you expect someone to accept it without question.

a question he asked, a party is being organised, but none of the attendees know each other, what can the host do to make sure everyon mingles, is comfy with each other and fun....

and i jotted down on my notebook without thinking - get booze...:-)

well anyways, thats that. have things to write in the PS...

PS: the moment i started typing this out, the power went off...seemed like a sign, but then its just a post, big deal....

i still raise my hand in such lectures et al when to ask / answer a question. indian education system???, well not really, just don't want to break the flow of the thought of the instructor, don't want to be an interruption.

and apologise for the title...if you thought it was gonna be a deep thoughtful handling lifes basic questions kinda post!!!