The controversy mantra

Am about to go to bed after watching an art piece by one of the most successful movie directors in India, Mani Ratnam. I only thought it's extremely important to put my opinion for debate out there if it has any weight. The much hyped directors of the desiwood(s) seem to take a pleasure in riding the controversy tides. Water, Sarkar, Guru, Iruvar, Ghajini, Rajneeti, Raavan, 3 Idiots... to name a few fall into this category. While the turn-over on the box remains unpredictable most of the times, what is driving this school of thought is a very interesting discussion, isn't it?

1. Movie audience is unimaginably huge. I can bet my life on 3/4th of population in India being directly or indirectly informed about the tinsel world be it through Radio, TV or Newspapers. With all those special columns on actors' complicated relationships, programs on imaginary success reviews and titillating posters everywhere, it just goes without saying. My movie buff friends must excuse me when I say, there needs to be something splashy and striking in the trash to stand out to make it to the rack-sack, which undoubtedly is the current scenario.
   
2. A top notch director is bound to appeal to the aesthetic lot (which unfortunately is tired looking for all crap and will be ok with the splashing trash). What more do you need than a most debated concept? Moreover, we can label the art realistic. There definitely are Nandi awards or some FMCG branded awards jury, who would have book-marked such movies to throw some confusing awards like Best Before-Interval Scene Ever or Best Post-Video Contrast editing.
   
3. Don't you be tricked into thinking that the basics are amiss! A multi-starrer would make sure the reels are booked well in advance and by the time the audience realize they are in the dump, they would be watching the movie. Questions? Why do you think I'm publishing this post?

As everybody knows, the rules are set already. Attention is proportional to marketing and hence to money. The creators have their share, so does the movie team.
Honestly, I would say, all fair!

Audience! I would rather be happy for them thinking they have imbibed socialism. Just think about how many families of skimpily clad girls(read women) they are supporting! Sorry I'll mention guys without shirts also!?

Here some tips/techniques, which directors can make use of in the future

1. During the shooting, an RSS, an MNS or a KV or any hired mob(good if they are famous, otherwise it's ok, depends on the budget actually) can attack and get some damage done.
2. Find a sensitive religious issue like Purdah system or Honour killings - or a religious Epic is not a bad idea at all.
3. Make a senior actor/director/producer/somebody(who is well-known) say "first of its kind in my life!" and keep it around for some time.
4. Let the author or another director file a law-suit on IP infringement - Needn't be something understandable and it's ok if it doesn't come for hearing soon, the media will make sure it does.
   

Dreams

I'm sure everybody has! So do I... what now?

Leaving the interpretations aside, I will start by saying it's good to dream and that's what keeps us look forward for the next day.

Btw, Do you believe that the thoughts which don't really become words and then actions are useless? That's not even a rhetoric, forget it!

Now, for all practical purposes, it's good to think about what one wants to be or with whom one likes to be or what one want's to have. That's why I wanted to post this. Enough of pulp!?

So I started practically dreaming about my future and the world

1. We should have ample soft water as much as I have now. The hardness levels (can't give you in ppm) should be in such a way that there won't be any layers on my buckets and taps.
2. The temperatures will be the same at various parts of the world. ( Bangalore should be as cool as it used to be in 2004 - That's when I stayed there for almost 2 months. Heavenly! )
3. Roads - even after widening - have trees on both the sides but don't fall onto the roads when it rains heavily.
4. That brings us to rain. There should be rain during the regular monsoons... even at Chennai (Reminder: There wouldn't be water clogging on Chennai roads in the dream). And there won't be rains during weekends and whenever we want to WFH - watch football from home.
5. There goes one more. Indian team qualifies for the FIFA world cup.
6. -------------- summit on environmental issues concludes that some countries have set (not met) a milestone for addressing environmental problems.
7. The CO2 we release into the atmosphere will be balanced by O2 released during Photosynthesis. (God knows that happens to the lead oxides and other gases. Never mind! What has happened since a century!?)
8. Earth's axis will only tilt by 2 X 10 ^-illion degrees or radians, which disproves 2012 theory. Not to mention, the earth's core also doesn't slip and hence doesn't change the magnetic field and the solar system is in equilibrium. There wouldn't be comets or asteroids - which when reported by an unknown scientist from an observatory far far away - ignored. (I know I should stop watching lot of hollywood movies. I have been trying.)
9. Innocent people will not be killed by politically backed terrorist groups. And anti-terrorist groups also, mind you!
10. All people in this world will get food, clothes and shelter.

Fingers crossed!

Hyper-pseudo-network

Netizens are undoubtedly bitten by the social networking bug. I have always been wondering what makes anybody cling to facebook or twitter at 12 midnight on a weekend. As part of their jobs, techies spend almost 80% of their day in front of their monitors. With ubiquitous social networking sites, it is not hard for the IT folks to stay up-to-date on a friend's marriage or a close relative's promotion or a neighbour's admission into a grad school.

I was looking at a cartoon strip which makes fun of a faked tweet on an earth quake at some corner in the world, which creates panic more than the actual incident. I should agree that the world's become smaller and we are going more and more global. We are in an age when dates over yahoo messenger are turning into marriages and talks over VOIPs causing terrorist attacks!

Where does all this lead us to is the question I asked myself.

Some facts
1) We look at our IM as just another action item and ignore most of the times. Half the times I ping someone, I'm not sure I'll get a response.
2) Our responsiveness on our social network is limited to an exciting update -Perhaps a stolen mobile or a nauseating dinner - from some X, whom we have almost forgotten.
3) Warm greets like "Hi, how do you do?" or "Howz life?" start sounding very boring and of course, we ignore them.
4) Greetings on a birthday or a festival look perfectly artificial with a greetings.com or some other site you don't even know of and with sign up links more than the greeting message.
5) We prefer spending time over these pages more than talking over phone or paying a visit.


Techies do live in a different world full of online conferences, meeting minutes, new friend requests, milestones, newly released block-busters, cafeterias, VPNs, reimbursements and most important of all craving desperately to get to the real world on social network.

Ok, what now? Why am I up against it?
One main reason is the commitment we show to our contacts. It's easier to say lot of things from far, unseen than be there and offer our shoulder. Being a frequent visitor to the networking sites myself, I can confidently say I don't ping a quarter of contacts on my friend's list. Most of my responses are limited to a thumbs up mark, which says "I like it!".

Are we escapists? Am I?

What should others do?

I believe our well-being lies in a simple fact. Getting the fundamentals right! The reason I thought about this is we always have loads of expectations from everybody starting from the corporators not doing their job well, parents not giving us enough gifts, neighbours not keeping their compound clean, colleagues not helping others or friends not ready to give away some things for us. Have we ever stopped for a moment and asked ourselves what would we have done in their place? If we are critical to ourselves as we are towards others, we can be a lot more "Social" beings.

The mob dynamics...

The human lot as a whole tends to a normalized level of mediocrity. Democracy seems to ascertain this tendency in every possible way. In Indian context atleast, it appears as if everything's in place. After watching Leader, a telugu movie, which though fantasises a revival in the system clearly depicts the condition of the state and the country.

If one is to take a lead and be responsible for a group, one needs to be as intelligent as the most ignorant. The harder I think about reservations on the basis of sects or sex or about the Bt brinjal issue or about the Godhra riots' case or the Headley's, the more I get confused understanding the outcome. May be I can't just tell myself anymore that we have always been so why do we care a damn now.

A day or two ago, there was a news headline, which talks about a case revoked by an IPS officer on the babri demolition. What justification would the case provide to the lost lives and ruins of the monument?

Here we are talking about IT recovery, real estate boom and the share market trading. Can't we do anything at all about this. I'm sure we can and no wonder we won't!

I say we need to "Vote" first before doing anything for the country!

2010's here!

From Kuduremukha Trek

Hmm... What's new in 2010? Before everything else, the trek to Kuduremukha, which according to my Bangalorean room-mates, is one of the highest peaks in western ghats!

With a new Cybershot in hand, it was no less exciting than my first ever trips to Nainital, Mussourie, Kodaikanal or Manali. It really was an accomplishment for my room-mates to stop me from going home and have me trek the steep rocky slopes of the peak.

We were ready with food, water, camera, salt (for leeches) and umbrellas for the majestic trek, the longest ever for me. Leeches - as usual - were our companions. With the entry of a couple of snakes (Amar's nightmare) it made a great day in the national forest reserve. 10:30 AM to 6:30 PM, it is an excellent escapade from the office cubicles and city traffic! The water spray under the beautiful waterfalls atop Hanumanagundi, the following day was unforgettable. A night's journey and a day's trek followed by a night's sleep and the visit to the waterfalls made a perfect start for the new year. And you know what the resolution for this year is, don't you? Work hard and party harder? I stole it from somewhere but that's definitely not my resolution not for this year.

There are plans to execute and challenges to face this year. Though I don't have a resolution, I have a plan of action. So, will you say with me? "Just do it!"

More on what's in store at Goa follows! Signing off this time... with a snap and a video.

From Kuduremukha Trek

Saraswati Mandir

No student misses a darshan of Goddess Saraswati's Murthy (Idol) in our campus - Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani. The temple brings to our mind, the serenity and the silence. Students assemble now and then here for a Vishnu Sahasra Nama or an Aarti. This place like most other places on campus is frequently visited by Pigeons and Peacocks. The temple lawns was the meeting-point for most of our meets. It sometimes gets very nostalgic as I remember filling my eyes with tears, cursing myself for being bad, admiring someone for being so nice, interactions with juniors and laughing our times out.