L-man & M-woman

(My amateur - supposed to be fun but actually not - super hero story)

Mother Nature (M) can't help but notice the imbalance in the world. Men and women are not attracted to each other anymore! They are distracted all the time with their gadgets - mobiles, tablets, smart watches, TVs - at home. When they are out of their home, they are after power, money and self-gratification. M knows that the world can't go like this far enough. M knows more than clearly that the fundamental source of all forms of positive emotions - friendship, peace, camaraderie, joy and celebration - is love. Only when people are in love, they feel good about themselves and others. That's the only way to restore humanity. She's so sure!

But how is that possible?

M has so many other responsibilities. The environment is polluted, so many species are going extinct, stars are dying, droughts, cyclones, seismic activity, volcanic activity... there are just too many of them. M needs to scale. So she decides to create a new super power, L-man.

L-man can make two organisms fall in love.

1. He can touch any two beings and they will instantly fall in love with each other. Remember, he has to touch both of them only then they fall in love. Just one touch is of no significance. ( I'm taking no questions there. That's how super powers work! )
2. He can be at many places at the same time. M thought this is important because she felt her creations are so many and growing!

The first few centuries L-man got to work, he was quite successful. He made things work like magic! People respond to his touch like crazy. They go sleepless, no hunger, feel insecure, deep think, trash talk, obsess, cry and what not! He also sees that the more they stayed in touch the better they feel. They seem to enjoy each other's company more after his touch. L-man also experiments touching beings of the same gender and that works too! M, however, isn't sure how that'll work for the next generation. She also needs to think about maintainability and sustenance, you see! She thinks it's not coming in the way of what she's doing so it's OK.

One fine day, L-man realizes a flaw in his activity. He is touching same beings multiple times forgetting that he had touched them already. When he spoke about this to M, she starts thinking deeply about it! M feels the need for somebody who can reinforce the power of L-man's touch into the lives of people. M is convinced there has to be an M Jr. She creates M-woman.

M-woman starts working with L-man to bring longevity to his touch.

These are their super-hero logos, OK?  

Lucia (Kannada)

Hola!
Movie review is not my thing.
That doesn't stop me from attempting this for a movie in the language that I don't usually watch (It's a Kannada movie)!

If you are planning to watch the movie, don't read this any further. (It's an old movie but definitely worth a try.)

The name "Lucia" is an apt implication for "lucid dreaming".
The movie revolves around the character who succumbs to the effect of a drug called Lucia.
First of all, the movie raises strong questions on Euthanasia, effects/side effects of drugs, aspirations, success, understanding intentions and compromises many of us come across in our lives.

For a not-so-regular watcher like me, the progress of the story is quick and crisp. The transitions from the common man working at a theatre (talkies) to his romantic interest and then to the actor and beyond happen at an enjoyable pace. Honestly, I didn't quite enjoy watching this movie so much because of the issues addressed in a very subtle way go deeper into the mind. Drug abuse, highly competitive movie industry, investigating circumstantial evidence, the love story and the back-stabbing keep you gripped.

The theme of the story is rooted around the protagonist Nikhil (played by Shivakumar), a celebrated actor yearns for the life of a common man. He takes to Lucia for reaching out to his yearnings and succumbs to the after effects of the drug. The support he counts on start showing their darker side and that pushes him deeper into the abuse. Major part of the story-telling picturizes his lucid dream of a common man with his romantic interest in Shwetha (played by Sruthi Hariharan).  

The movie consummates at the moment where the protagonist asks his girl "Is this really real?" (Is this love true? / Can I trust you?)

The screenplay which blends the imagination with reality is outstanding. It's very easy to leave audiences wondering what had happened in such a complex knitting of shots. For a regular watcher, there are some songs. Not all of them blend into the story though. There are some fun parts in the story as well. Especially when Shwetha attempts to teach English to Nikhil. For native Kannada speakers, the conversations in slang from Mandya (a city close to Mysore) are refreshing.

Have been hearing about this movie from my Kannada friends for a very long time and finally managed to watch!

This movie also happens to be crowd-funded!
Isn't that cool?

Movie's available for a watch at rental INR 50 (valid for 48hrs) or at buy INR 100.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7AhxgNDRB8

Interested in someone?

Of late, I'm thinking a lot about what triggers a romantic interest in you?

After a little bit of contemplation, good bit of observation, past personal experience and research from few blog posts, few books and a little bit of tinder & trulymadly ( ...panting now!), I think there are 4 categories in developing this sort of an interest. 

1. Physical attraction: You like the way the person looks. It could be the dressing sense, the colour of eyes, the hair style, the body language, the complexion or the build. You just like looking at the person!
2. Demisexual: You are emotionally attached to the other. The other person means a lot to you in your life. Intense, you cannot imagine your life without him/her. You seek each other's company to share your feelings. You acknowledge and value each other's mood swings. You are not happy when the other does not give you enough time and attention. You are upset when the other is down. 
3. Sapiosexual: You are convinced with a good bit of reasoning that this is the person who you like to be with. You treaded all the possible paths and in some way or the other your options converged to this person. You debate, you question, you play and you may (sometimes) mislead each other but you are a team, no matter what!
4. Spiritual: You believe that you are meant to be together for reasons you can't explain. Perhaps this is a divine calling. You may not belong to the same faith but you believe that a super natural power unites you. You believe things the other person believes in. You may not be from the same region, religion or may not even speak the same language but your faiths align.

    This diagram is created using creately and is copyrighted to me.  When you show this to girls I'm interested in, please make sure you mention that it's reproducible under NPL (Naveen Public License).

To verify my observations, I took some attributes as a thought experiment to verify this model. 

• For example, you are interested in financial status. It falls under sapiosexual circle because it shows that you are convinced that the other person can support himself/herself to earn a comfortable life style. However, it can be in any of the intersection regions with demisexual circle like you are certain that the other person will not think about a wealthier one (I just made this up. Don't judge me on this one, OK?) or it can get into physical circle as well as you can spend some bucks on grooming.
• Another example, you are interested in adventurous types. It falls under sapiosexual circle again because you are convinced that the other person can take risks to keep the his/her interests alive and possibly yours too. It, again, may fall into physical category as well, because the person may try physically challenging things and so stays fit. ;-)

To conclude, I feel our interests fall in the intersecting region of all the circles. That sweet spot, my friends, is difficult to reach! 

Hope you liked this read!
Let me know if you like it / don't like it.

A (fake) report on positive effects of unpredictable sexual behaviour

[ Disclaimer: All the ideas/statistics quoted in this article are purely fictitious. Any resemblance to characters in real life known or unknown is definitely not coincidental ]

Predictable sexual behaviour is popularly believed to foster trust, healthy relationship building, social security and team building. With sexual preferences evolving, this is an interesting time we relook various aspects of sexual behaviour.

Conversations (verbal/electronic communication) are the core focus of this analysis. There has always been a debate* on spontaneity vs consistency in the sexual conversations. A sample space from one of the most used dating apps were asked about their preferences on various aspects of their exploration of sexual preferences of their partners. A surprising 81.9% felt that clear, crisp and straight forward conversations are boring because they tend to be predictable. Universal facts (29.3%), daily personal events (61.4%), career achievements(32.2%) and passion of life(45.0%) are marked as major turn offs by the participants.

That raises and interesting question “With a person you haven't met before, what creates the spark of interest?”

Looks, understandably, remain in the top 53.2%.

What followed, stunned the team of researchers

Element of surprise (32.7%), Adventure – Complexity in reaching out to somebody (31.2%), Anticipation (25.3%)

This implies that the sample group favoured unpredictability as a major turn-on in their sexual exploration. This could be largely attributed to the fact that some values – Honesty, straight-forwardness, emotional transparency, intellectual honesty and so on – are pretty much understood and the participants consciously and carefully avoid conversations in these areas.

When asked to explain, unexpected delays during rendezvous or dates increased their feelings of intimacy because they share their care and rush of emotions clearly. Participants (roughly 67.1%) thus favoured a touch of raw emotions compared to conscious (and controlled) exchanges of ideas.

The transformation period from expressing interest to realizing the interest to a convincing level in both the partners is crucial for dating apps. The results of this study will uncover many potential research areas around the elements of surprise in budding relationships.

*Some random reference you needn't bother going through. Get back the topic now!

Restlessness

You wake up in the middle of the night. The lights across the street glow dimly. You wonder if it is morning already. The blanket is half on the floor. Pillow 45.5 deg from the position you put it in. You know something is wrong.

It's not a bad dream because when it is, you remember all the gory details like you wake up next to someone you don't know or the strair case which has all the steps equally spaced but for one or you are extremely comfortable in a place you have never seen before talking a language you've no idea where you heard it from.

You hear the clock ticking. That damn thing doesn't stop!

You might think it's an RPC from your beloved and start checking gmail, fb and whatsapp! You try to read. You feel thirsty but don't feel like drinking water. You definitely know there's something totally out of place. You've felt it any times before. That crazy sensation which sets you off on a boolean - may be it is / may be it's not.

You badly want to discuss this with someone but you are afraid what they'll think about you. They might judge you as someone immature or even confused. Your head is reeling, your knees are trembling and you can't even swallow. Your belly is helpless and you are not even hungry.








That's exactly when you should know you have an indigestion.
Go, get a pill!

What else?

They all say "listen to your heart".
Right now, that goddamn heart doesn't say anything.

It troubles to realize that you have to listen to it but it doesn't listen to you. But still you are responsible for it.

You have to secure it like you take an oil lamp with your hands around
(1) keeping it alive from the winds - not letting external forces control it,
(2) not burning your hands - you try to control too much, it hurts you
(3) let it burn out - you can't let it go after things which don't matter 

I don't like my heart.

Case study

Party A contracted party B for an initiative. B is supposed to provide services in a domain, which will help A move the needle forward in their business. In the initial days, A had big plans on the potential and visibility of the business which led to great energy and enthusiasm in both the parties to make it work. B, being new to the business, wanted to learn and deliver great results and make their mark. A made sure B doesn't have to worry about resources in terms of timely bonuses, trainings and timely feedback.

This situation went on for an year.

Over a period of time, A went through a shift in the topline management who had a different perspective about how things should happen. A had new expectations and fresh experiences from rest of the world, some relevant, some tried and tested, some erudite and some amazing! B on the other hand failed to see the perspective because of no visibility or rationale behind the changes. B was sure not only about how things can be made better in their perspective, but also was very clear about how things don't work. B, however, was very upset about the career opportunity, exposure and motivation levels with the ever demanding regular responsibilities of the contract. Though B is efficient, B failed to see things which A considers rudimentary in their deliverables.

A decided to do an analysis on how the responsibilities of the contract of B can be restructured. They estimated that 1-n responsibilities of B can be split by simple divide and conquer. 1-j, j-k, k-m and so on. By doing so, (1) we can track the progress (2) we can compensate better and (3) we can achieve simultaneous execution. The challenge however is to integrate the whole effort. We can see how big this challenge is as we move along. Considering our experience so far, this has to work.

B is not the only contracting party A has worked with.

PS: A is me and my flat-mates. B is our cook. :-P