tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31638414805165658262024-03-13T22:30:06.023+05:30Life, and everything besides...<i>Be kind, my friend.
Hold on, in times of pain and strife;
Until death comes, all is life.... </i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-40120330362563500092016-06-19T02:43:00.000+05:302016-06-19T17:27:09.458+05:30Cinema: Movies that moveM has asked me to list my top five favourite movies. This is something I have always avoided doing. I have never understood how to rank either movies or books. I get so confused. Do I like Toy Story better than Godfather or is it the other way around? I am sure scholars and critics, people who have some understanding of the art and craft of movies, will be able to say why one is better than the other. I am just a guy who watches a lot of movies. I can only talk about how a movie made me feel and that too at a very intuitive level. And I react to the same movie in different ways at different times. So how a movie makes me feel depends as much as on the frame of mind I watched it in as on the movie itself. However, not answering when someone asks about my favourite movies also feels like a cop out. <span class="fullpost">There are movies that I like very much. Movies that have moved me in different ways. Even movies that have moved me in different ways at different times. So I am going to take a middle ground here. I will think of different genres and for each genre I will mention the movies that for me represent that genre. That is to say the movies that immediately come to mind when I think of that genre. They may or may not be the most "acclaimed" or well-known, or the most award-winning or money spinning movies for those genres but I don't care about all that. <p>
I have decided to create separate lists for Indian and non-Indian movies to avoid the difficulties of slotting a lot of my favourite Indian movies into these genre definitions.
<p>
This is the list in no particular order. <p>
<dl>
<dt><b>Science Fiction</b><br>
<ul>
<li>Gattaca
<li>Blade Runner
</ul>
<p>
<dt><b>Adventure</b><br>
<ul>
<li>Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
<li>Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring
</ul>
<p><dt><b>Drama</b><br>
<ul>
<li>Godfather
<li>Il Postino
</ul>
<p>
<dt><b>Thriller</b><br>
<ul>
<li>Tinker Tailor Sailor Spy
<li>Notorious
</ul>
<p>
<dt><b>War</b><br>
<ul>
<li>Paths of Glory
</ul>
<p>
<dt><b>Comedy</b><br>
<ul>
<li>Groundhog Day
</ul>
<p>
<dt><b>Noir</b><br>
<ul>
<li>The Maltese Falcon
<li>Chinatown</li>
</ul>
<p>
<dt><b>Romance</b><br>
<dd> I do not like <i>romance</i> movies unless they are comedies. By romance movies I mean movies where the drama is just around the trials and tribulations of love. A list like this is no place to go into the reasons for this bias - believe me, as irrational as it sounds, there are reasons for it - so I will elaborate on that some other time.
<ul>
<li> My Fair Lady
<li> Notting Hill
<li> <b>Love Actually</b> - Not all the stories in this movie are equally good.
</ul>
</dl>
<p>
There will be follow up posts to this as I add to the list of genres and movies. The only two genres guaranteed not to appear here are horror and blood-and-gore. I hate horror movies. Even the lousiest horror movie scares the shit out of me and I don't like being scared. And I despise gore for gore's sake. I don't like violence in general. Movies which have no point other than to show gore - "Saw", "Hostel" series and their like - turn me off.
</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-22013914849546913632016-06-13T19:58:00.000+05:302016-06-14T11:54:52.346+05:30Six years to the dayA recent conversation with M reminded me of this blog. I am amazed to see that my last post here was exactly six years ago. How's that for coincidence? I did think about writing again from time to time. I even drafted a couple of posts. But, somehow, I could not. Whatever seemed worth writing about, whatever was most important to me, seemed too personal to share. And writing about anything else seemed pointless. I see that I had made exactly the same excuse for not writing for a year six years ago. I had just moved back home after the death of my parents. I had assumed then that I was making a new beginning, a fresh start. I was wrong. There are no fresh starts. Life is just one long journey. It starts when you are born and it ends when you die. In between, you walk, run or crawl. You stumble, you fall, you pick yourself up and you move on. You meet new people, some hurt, some heal. New wounds replace old ones. New memories add to old ones. You are the sum of your journey. Six years on I am in Bangalore, older - hopefully wiser - and still waiting to see where my journey takes me next.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-1005634064164557592010-06-12T05:31:00.004+05:302010-06-12T16:57:06.704+05:30Blogging again...from Canada<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is 5:00 AM in the morning. I am sitting in my room on the seventh floor of Holiday Inn & Suites, Ottawa, Canada. It is slightly misty outside and the sky is overcast. There is a slight drizzle. Its my kind of day.</div><span class="fullpost"><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">I reached Ottawa last evening after a twenty hour journey. As it was too late to do anything else I went straight to bed after an early dinner. I was anticipating rising very late in the morning but that was not to be. Four o' clock found me wide awake. After an hour long stuggle to get back to sleep I gave up. As I didn't want to get out of my room and there wasn't really anything I could do inside it (and I had my laptop with me and internet is free) I decided to visit this blog again.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's been more than a year since I last posted anything here. A lot has happend since then. My parents died. I quit my old job and moved back home. One year ago I could never have imagined that my life would be what it is today. But then, I guess that's life. I didn't blog about any of it because I just wasn't comfortable talking about them. And blogging about anything else seemed so pointless. But anyway, here I am ready to scribble again. And what better way to start again than from a completely new experience. Life, after all, goes on.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I am here on a business trip but that doesn't mean I am not going to try my best to have fun.</div></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-23919941903727748662009-04-08T15:11:00.005+05:302009-04-08T15:58:56.532+05:30Of Indian English and History Sheeters<div style="text-align: justify;">I stumbled across a nice <a href="http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/South-Asian-English">article</a> on Indian English a few minutes ago. It explores the many variations of Standard (or BBC) English that are in use in India. I came across it while doing a Google search for the definition of the word "dias".<span class="fullpost"> This article told me that "dias" ia a mispronunciation of the word "dais" which is generally accepted only in India. The link to the article is:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/South-Asian-English">http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/South-Asian-English</a><br /><br />I also learnt, much to my surprise, that words like <span style="font-style:italic;">batchmate</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">eve teasing</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">opticals</span> are not standard English and are not used outside India.<br /><br />One word I have always been curious about is "history-sheeter". I know it is not part of standard English and is used only in India. But it has become standard in India and is used in newspaper articles, government notifications and other such bastions of standard English. What I find curious about this word is its complexity and apparent lack of relation to any word in English or in any Indian language. Most words in Indian English are either derived from some Indian words (such as <span style="font-style:italic;">bunglow</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">mantra</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">guru</span>), or are corrupt forms of some English words (such as <span style="font-style:italic;">fundu</span> from "fundamental" and <span style="font-style:italic;">backside</span> from "rear") or are literal translations of Indian words (such as "good name" - "<span style="font-style:italic;">bhalo naam</span>" in Bengali and <span style="font-style:italic;">taxi-wallah</span>). However, the word history-sheeter, meaning someone who has a long criminal record, has no equivalent in standard English. Worse still is that there is no term in standard English or in any Indian language (as far as I know) which conveys exactly the same meaning. The closest word I have found is "rap-sheet". The word "rap sheet" refers to the criminal record of a person in standard English. However, it refers to the record and not the person. How "rap-sheet" evolved to "history-sheeter" - if indeed it did so in the first place - still remains a mystery to me.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-87348150520587183802009-04-08T10:49:00.002+05:302009-04-08T10:52:39.937+05:30Crossed fiftyI have just realized that my last post was my fiftieth post on this blog. So I have crossed half century with this post. Time to doff my cap and raise my pen towards the pavilion. <span class="fullpost">If only, there was a pavilion...sigh.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-73741870675919845112009-04-08T09:59:00.004+05:302009-04-08T10:47:09.668+05:30Shoe-ing accurately<div style="text-align: justify;">Throwing shoes at people has suddenly become a rage. If you don't like what somebody is saying or doing just throw a shoe at him. Just ensure a dozen news channels are there to capture the moment. The benefits of doing so are many. <span class="fullpost">Mr. Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journo who started the trend by throwing his shoe at George Bush became a hero overnight. Iraqis took to the streets in his support. Some parents even offered him their daughters in marriage. Others offered to support him financially during his incarceration and subsequent joblessness. The man who threw a shoe at the Chinese PM was far less successful. But that's only because he chose the wrong man to throw his shoe at. The Chinese have a habit of censoring all embarrassing news from the state controlled media. This seriously impairs any such unconventional bid for grabbing eyeballs. Otherwise, given the number of things the number of people in China are unhappy about, this man would have become an overnight star in China and an even bigger superstar in Tibet. Our own Jarnail Sigh has found his fifteen minutes of fame after throwing his shoe at the home minister. While the minister has himself tried to downplay the incident and "forgiven" him, other political parties are apparently making a mascot out of him. One party has allegedly announced a reward of five lakh rupees and another has offered him a ticket for the coming elections. I am sure others yet will come out with even more novel ways to fete him.</span><br /><br /><span class="fullpost"> While the world debates on how to react to these new champions of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Shoe</span>, I have only two observations to make. The first observation is that all these people are lousy shots. Not one of them could actually hit his target. That seems like a terrible waste. If your target has presented himself to you on a dais, standing up tall and erect to offer the largest surface area possible, the least you can do is to offer him the courtesy of at least touching his person with your missile. If you cannot do that, you have no business to be in the shoe throwing business. The second observation is a recognition of the age old Indian values of frugality and price consciousness. Where as all others chose to throw expensive branded shoes at their chosen targets with the Iraqi throwing the most expensive shoe, the Indian chose to throw a cheap unbranded shoe at his target. He must have realized it would be a terrible waste of hard earned money to spend more than is absolutely necessary on a shoe he would be wearing for just half a trip for it was always unlikely that the police would be courteous enough the return the offending shoe after the incident.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-17929361733669810572009-04-06T10:40:00.009+05:302009-04-06T12:16:01.203+05:30My experiments with food: Steamed prawns with mustard<div style="text-align: justify;">I had never imagined that finding as simple a thing as ready made mustard paste would be so hard in Pune. I am partial to steamed dishes with a hint (or more) of mustard in them. That goes for all varieties of food, fish, chicken, egg, etc, with the absolute favourite being steamed <span style="font-style: italic;">Hilsa</span>. But that is probably boringly predictable in a Bong. <span class="fullpost">It is no wonder then that I began searching high and low for mustard paste as soon as I set up my own kitchen (buying a mixer just to grind mustard was never an option). But, I had not contended with the utter lack of enthusiasm of Puneites for ready made mustard paste. Every shop here stores either whole mustard or split mustard. Split mustard or <span style="font-style: italic;">dal</span> mustard as it is called here is mustard seed split in half. I have not been able to figure out what earthly use can split mustard have for anyone. I mean, either you use whole mustard seed in your preparation or grind it into paste, so why split it? Anyways, fed up of my incessant grumblings about mustard my mother took pity on me and sent me the paste from Delhi by courier. I could guess how fed up she had become only when I found that the cost of courier was seven times the cost of the paste.</span><br /><br /><span class="fullpost">Anyhow, now that I finally had my precious paste, I had to decide what to do with it. I decided to cook something which I had never tried before - prawns. The trouble with prawns is that they are so hard to clean and devein. That problem resolved itself when I found ready-to-cook cleaned and de-veined prawns as a super mart. And so the stage was set for my next adventure in the kitchen.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Recipe: Steamed prawns with mustard</span><br /><br />Ingredients(serves 3):<br /><ol style="text-align: justify;"><li>Medium prawns - 250 gms (cleaned and deveined)</li><li>Mustard paste - 2 tb spoon</li><li>Mustard oil - 3-4 tb spoon</li><li>Onion - 100 gms (finely chopped or paste)</li><li>Garlic - 5-6 cloves (finely chopped or paste)</li><li>Green chillies - 3-4 (finely chopped)</li><li>Tomato - 1 (finely chopped)</li><li>Turmeric - 1/4 tb spoon</li><li>Salt - to taste</li></ol><br />Steps:<br /><ol><li>I don't like adding the residue or the fibrous part of mustard paste to the preparation as it is this part that is hard to digest. So at the outset, I soak the paste in half a cup of water. This way the fibrous particles sink to the bottom and the milk can be drained from the top.</li><li>Mix onion, garlic and green chili.</li><li>Add a little turmeric and salt to the prawns and mix.</li><li>Heat oil and the onion mix to it.</li><li>Stir for some time, till onion turns golden.</li><li>Add tomato and fry till they release water.</li><li>Add prawns and let the mix fry on low heat till the prawns lose their pinkish colour.</li><li>Add the milk of the mustard, add salt and remaining turmeric.</li><li>Cover the kadhai till the gravy begins to boil. Then remove from fire.</li></ol><br />It is important to keep in mind that prawns should not be deep fried as they become tough and difficult to chew if heated for too long.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">About prawns</span><br />The terms 'prawn' and 'shrimp' are used interchangeably with 'prawn' being more common in UK, India and 'shrimp' being used exclusively in the US. The etymology of the word 'prawn' is obscure. In Middle English, the word 'prawn' is recorded as <span style="font-style: italic;">prayne</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">prane</span>; no cognate form can be found in any other language.<br />Source: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prawn">Wikipedia</a></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-77164949244523092672009-04-03T14:30:00.008+05:302009-04-03T17:43:40.369+05:30The British Council Library<div style="text-align: justify;">The British Council Library has come up with new plastic bar-coded photo-id cards for members. Apparently, they have been issuing these cards for quite some time now. I got one when I went to renew my membership.<span class="fullpost"> My membership had expired more than two years ago but I had never got around to renewing it. This year when I got an invitation from them for the third time offering a discount of Rs. 100 if I renewed my membership by the end of March, I realized that these guys were just not ready to forget me. So I decided to renew their acquaintance and make our relationship a two-way one. Of course, the discount was an added attraction. It was not the amount of discount that appealed to me - Rs. 100 is less than 4% of my membership free. It was just that the offer was so charmingly conceited that I could not resist it. I could almost visualize BCL taking on the form of a prim old librarian (somehow librarians have to be prim and old) and putting her nose (I have nothing against it being a "him", I just think that prim old ladies are cuter than cranky old men) in the air saying, "Don't try to judge the value of what I am offering you young man, it is <span style="font-style: italic;">invaluable</span>. However, since you <span style="font-style: italic;">are</span> being so contrary and this <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> the age of consumerism <insert distasteful grimace here>, here is a hundred rupee note for you". To be fair to BCL though, the membership fee is not too high - the most expensive one (Senior Family) is Rs. 2600 per year, which comes down to hardly Rs. 200 per month, against which you can borrow upto 8 books/CDs/DVDs at a time as many times as you want. I took the Senior Family membership as this is the only one which includes DVDs. Any other membership type charges you Rs. 50 per DVD. And at the rate I borrow DVDs, I will cover any difference in fees in one month. After all, on the first day alone I borrowed 6 DVDs.<br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-15979410407866318702009-01-03T10:43:00.003+05:302009-01-03T11:30:50.871+05:30New resolutions for old<div align="justify">I don't believe in new year resolutions. I don't believe there is any special day for making resolutions. If I feel the need to form a resolution, I don't wait till the start of next year or my next birthday to implement it.<span class="fullpost"> By a curious coincidence however, since the two years I have been making resolutions just around the time of new year. Last year, after dithering for years, I finally made up my mind to learn swimmimg. And I did it!! I can now proudly claim to know three of the four strokes in swimmimg. I don't know the last one only because I have decided to avoid the water during the winter. This year I found myself making another resolution while frolicking in the beaches of Puri. I have resolved to become financially literate. Its the unlikeliest place to be making such a resolution but <a href="http://rajorshighosh.blogspot.com/2008/12/happy-holidays.html">recent events</a> have not allowed me to ignore money matters even for a second, not even when I was vacationing in Puri. I have decided that the only way I can be free of such worries in the future is if I start worrying about my finances before they start troubling me. Till now I have steadfastly refused to think about investing. I believe I am temperamentally unsuited for the job. My investments have been limited to hurried buys into the first tax saving MF someone points out to me before March every year. Needless to say, the recent slowdown in the economy has gobbled up all that money and put it somewhere I can't find it. All that I about to change. I have resolved to become Mr. Investment himself. I am evolving a long term investement plan which should put the most die hard investor to shame. As a first step, I have bought a copy of the "bible" on investing - "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham. I have already picked up a few invaluable tips from it but more on that later. For now let me just quote a wise woman who said, "Money, if it does not bring you happiness, will at least help you be miserable in comfort".</span> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-43958346206438347862008-12-19T20:46:00.001+05:302008-12-19T20:47:54.116+05:30It's bliss to be back in Delhi....Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-53461679169500652042008-12-17T10:11:00.004+05:302008-12-17T13:34:52.202+05:30Happy holidays<div style="text-align: justify;">The days just don't seem to end. My vacation starts this friday and it seems like it is a hundred years off.<span class="fullpost"> The last couple of months have been pretty stressful what with multiple release schedules in office and troubles with bank accounts, loans, cars and everything else under the sun at home. This leave has come at the perfect time for me. The best part is that it is compulsory - all employees <span style="font-weight: bold;">have</span> to take the next week off. So I will not feel guilty about running off without closing all issues here. I have added a week more to the leave of my own so that I will be back only next year.</span><br /><span class="fullpost"><p>I am going home initially but then the entire family is taking off to Puri. We might even visit Konark and Chilka if we have time. I have never been to Orissa. Actually, none of us have except my Dad. He has been there four times. It is one of his favourite places. We will all be traveling together after a long, long time. I am really looking forward to it.</p></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-79098023057323598892008-12-10T12:14:00.004+05:302008-12-12T11:35:34.008+05:30Cinema: Two movies<div style="text-align: justify;">Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! is not a comedy. Sure it has lots of humour. But ultimately it is a tragic tale of a bright boy lead down the path of crime by his environment and his own greed, taken advantage of by everyone around him and then betrayed by all.<span class="fullpost"> It is to the film maker's credit that he manages to tell the tale with humour instead of with the usual dose of glycerine.<br />It might have something to do with the fact that I am from Delhi but the first thing that I noticed about the movie was its atmosphere. This movie has captured Dlehi in all its avataars. From the posh colonies of South Delhi to the run down mohallas, Oye Lucky! does for Delhi what <span style="font-style: italic;">Aamir</span> did for Mumbai. Abhay Deol and Manjot Singh as the teenaged and adult protagonist are terrific. Abhay is quickly becoming one of my favourite actors in Bollywood today. His just being in a movie guarantees that it will be different from the run of the mill stuff. Paresh Rawal is great in all his roles. I did not understand the logic behind him playing three characters though. If there is some hidden meaning behind it I totally missed it. Both Archana Puran Singh and Neetu Chandra do justice to their roles. The pace flags a little in the second half but not so much as to prove distracting. This is probably where the director's first movie Khosla Ka Ghonsla scores over it with its tight pacing through out. I liked it the open endedness of the story and the morally ambiguous ending. Any attempt to tie all ends would have made it either sermonizing or clicheed. Dibakar Bannerjee set out to make a more difficult movie than his first movie which was an out and out comedy and has succeeded admirably. I would have liked to see this movie become a big hit but that will be tough considering that it does not offer push button entertainment like most audience seems to expect.<p><br />Dil Kabaddi seems less like a movie than a collection of random scenes taken from a different movie. It starts and ends abruptly and zig zags in between. For a movie which claims to be a comedy, very few situations have anything funny in them. The only saving grace of this movie is Irfan Khan. He practically carries the film on his shoulders. Khan has all the rib ticking scenes in the movie and does full justice to them. The movie becomes entertaining whenever he comes on screen and goes back to boring when he exists. Rahul Bose is totally miscast as a college professor and also has the most irritating story arc. But then he also has the best (and only) kiss. Konkona Sen is competent as usual, Rahul Khanna has nothing much to do and Soha Ali Khan is incompetent, again, as usual. <br /></span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-29258622223375675632008-12-10T09:29:00.007+05:302008-12-10T12:34:36.260+05:30Why should Pakistanis leave India?<div style="text-align: justify;">Now that our Army and police have cleared the streets of Mumbai the self appointed moral guardians of our society have started stepping out from under their beds. Shiv Sena was the first to proclaim their return to action with another of their all too familiar diktats.<span class="fullpost"> They have proclaimed that all Pakistanis in Mumbai have to leave the country. I was watching a Shiv Sainik on TV calling all "rashtra bhaktas" to join them in driving out all the Pakistanis in our media yesterday. Their main targets are basically the people who are trying to make a name for themselves on the various television talent shows. Apparently, they (Shiv Sainiks) respect their(singers', actors', etc) art but they do not need Pakistanis in Mumbai. He also said that all producers and directors of television serials have been served notices to expel Pakistanis from their shows or face <span style="font-style: italic;">rashtra-bhatks's</span> wrath. It is funny how these people are so creatively challenged that they cannot even come up with new speeches for their different agitations. Replace Pakistanis with North Indians or Muslims and you will get the speech they used in their "agitations" against those people. What is not so funny is how these people, who presumably represent a significant number of our countrymen, can never come up with anything that is constructive for our society. They are obsessed with dividing and destroying the fabric of our society. What harm have any of these Pakistanis done to anybody? They are ordinary people who are trying to realize their dreams with their hard work and dedication like millions of other Indians. How will driving them out help us? Why target them? The answers are simple. Driving them out will not help anybody but these people do not carry AK-47s and hence can be attacked without fear of retaliation. The people who attacked Mumbai did not ask for Shiv Sena's permission before entering Mumbai. They attacked Mumbai in broad daylight. They were easily recognizable after they fired their first shots. Where was Shiv Sena then? Why didn't this band of <span style="font-style: italic;">rashtra-bhakts</span> come forward to protect their <span style="font-style: italic;">rashtra</span> then? When all of Mumbai was out on the streets expressing solidarity with the victims of the attacks the leaders from Shiv Sena and MNS were conspicuous by their absence. Raj Thakeray has not issued a single statement since the attacks. The fact the a Bihari has been hounoured by the Maharashtra Governor for saving the lives of many Indians with no regard to his own life during the attack on CST has probably put a seal on his big mouth. I am waiting to see just how long this seal lasts. Probably, till he decides that the public has forgotten this inconvenient fact. We will never be able to face the enemies by dividing and persecuting helpless people or by pointing fingers at foreigners. Doing so will only serve to justify the actions of these extremists. The only way to face them is to become so strong and united ourselves that these enemies give up trying to divide us. In view of this fact, I submit to you that the only people that Mumbai and India do not need are these Shiv Sainiks and their copies.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-60174709264494644342008-12-03T14:50:00.005+05:302008-12-03T16:05:22.630+05:30The newly awakened<div style="text-align: justify;">Would the Mumbai attacks have caused such a furor among the public if they had been directed at the usual targets? There is no doubt that these attacks are completely different from those in the past, both in their nature and their intent.<span class="fullpost"> But they are not so different when it comes to the body count. The serial blasts in Mumbai claimed more lives. And as for the symbolic value of the targets, they are definitely not more important than the parliament. So why is it that this time we are so angry about it? Is it because this is the first time that the victims are not just the common people on the streets or trains? Is it because this time the victims are the people who "count" in our society, the ones who actually have a voice? People died at CST just like they died in Taj but I do not hear about their miserable fate on TV. Our society has traditionally shown a strange kind of apathy whenever the nameless and faceless people have been affected by violence of any kind. Take the last serial blasts in Mumbai. The media sang about the spirit of Mumbai for a day or two, the authorities offered condolences and things went back to just the way they were. The people who survived the blast just took the same train to wherever they had to go the next day. There were no protests, no vigils and no calls to change the system. This time things are different. TV screens have been taken over by celebrities who have suddenly woken up to the threat of terrorism. Chat shows are filled with current and has been Bollywood stars talking about how unsafe the country has become. Media is filled with accounts of how angry the people are. I do not understand who are the people they are talking about. The "aam aadmi" has been frustrated and frightened for years now. Who are the newly awakened people? Are they they people who are not affected by bombs in trains or richshaws because they do not travel in them. Have they suddenly started to realize that they too are vulnerable? If the answers is yes, it is both pathetic and encouraging. Pathetic because there is this vast segment of society which just does not matter, people whose lives and deaths do not evoke any reactions from any one who has the power or the position to better their lot. Encouraging because maybe finally, the two classes are identifying with each other. All that remains now is to unite the political class with them. Or will they have to become victims themselves too before that happens?</span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-37301610980203339832008-12-02T12:27:00.002+05:302008-12-03T17:52:29.657+05:30Divided we totter<div style="text-align: justify;">Mumbai police was not able to protect Taj and Oberoi from terrorists even though it had received information about their plans in September. It did not have resources to guard the hotels and also protect the rest of Mumbai from being ravaged by Raj Thakeray and his goons. <span class="fullpost">The ATS chief who died fighting terrorists at CST was busy investigating Malegaon blasts done by Hindu fanatics from within the country. He probably didn't even get time to plan for threats from outside. Our public is more interested in real or perceived insults exchanged between communities than in threats from outside. We are all fighting against each other - Marathis vs. north Indians, Hindus vs. Muslims, south Indians vs. north Indians, Christians vs. Hindus, tribals vs. non-tribals, lower castes vs. upper castes. The list is endless. The ironic part is that in all the fights all the communities involved use the same arguments to justify their violence. Apparently, "someone else is always trying to humiliate them, demean their culture, rape their women, take away their jobs, or inflict some other horrible injustice upon them. They are just returning the favour". Is it so surprising that somebody from outside will try to take advantage of the situation? Every time we have fought against each other some one else has been there to exploit it to his advantage. All this makes me think. Can we really blame outsiders for trying to use our infighting to his advantage? After all, if we have so little sympathy, kindness, consideration or respect for our own people, why should an outsider have any such feeling for us? Our behaviour after the attacks has only served to justify the fact that we deserve to be taken advantage of. Look at how our leaders are behaving. The home minister of Maharashtra dismisses the attacks which took 200 lives as a "small incident". The chief minister of Kerela calls the home of a fallen soldier not worthy of a visit from his dog. Every political party is out to gain political mileage from the attacks. Every celebrity wants to turn the event into a PR drive. Every security agency is busy trying to pin the blame on somebody else instead of analysing and rectifying its own errors. If this is the way we react to these attacks, how will ever prepare ourselves for the attacks that are bound to happen in the future. We know they will happen but we are just not ready to give up our petty concerns and unite against them. Ariel Durant might have not been speaking of India when she said that a great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within but it sure fits us more than any one else in the world today. But we, as always, will just not listen.</span><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-87481100927656011572008-11-17T12:49:00.004+05:302008-11-17T13:45:54.624+05:30I am back...<div style="text-align: justify;">Its good to be back after such a long time. My last post was two months ago. So many things have happened since then and I have so much to write about. I don't really know where to start. Its probably best to talk about the present first <span class="fullpost">but I have had a completely uneventful week so there is nothing to talk about there. The week before that I bought a 6 DVD pack of Guru Dutt's classics and held a Guru Dutt film festival over the weekend. Needless to say, I was the only attendee. But more about that later. <p> I have been buying a lot of DVDs lately. The sale section at Crossword is to blame for that. They have a "Buy 1 Get 2 Free" offer going and I just could not help myself. I got <span style="font-weight: bold;">Blade Runner - The Final Cut</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Flags of our Fathers</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Letters from Iwo Jima</span> for just 600 bucks. I also bought the anniversary edition DVD of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Lagaan </span>at half the price. I also bought a whole lot of books. The great thing is that I didn't have to spend any money on them. I had got Crossword gift vouchers as prize for something I did at work and I spent all of them. I will ramble on and on about my purchases later. Right now I have to go for lunch. Bye...</p></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-73593587535538057952008-11-12T11:45:00.002+05:302008-12-03T12:04:40.829+05:30Mothers and sons<div style="text-align: justify;">Margaret Alva has alleged that the Congress Party sold tickets to politicians before the Karnataka polls and that tickets are given on the basis of inheritance rather than on merit. While the first allegation has to be proved, the second can be easily verified by a brief glance at the list of nominees fielded by Congress in the last couple of polls.<span class="fullpost"> Neither of the two allegations are as earthshaking as the electronic media - perennially starved of news - would have us believe. Given the state of Indian politics it would be surprising (though probably not news worthy) if any aspect of our democracy is found to be free from corruption. I am pretty sure the opponents from the other parties have the same skeleton in their closets as well. This is the most probable reason they are not making as big a deal out of Alva's revelations as they could have.<br />The bit about inheritance being more important than merit is even more ridiculous coming from someone who has spent her life serving a party which has been ruled almost uninterruptedly by a single dynasty for the last five generations. Inheritance has always been of paramount importance in the Congress Party since it first came to power. In fact, none of the rulers from this dynasty have had any claim to the throne - either because of their talent or their experience - except for their inheritance. Ms. Alva is not concerned by the lack of democratic spirit in her party. She is merely miffed that her son was not allowed to benefit from the lack of it.</span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-1119152013162107702008-09-06T11:44:00.006+05:302008-09-06T12:41:08.882+05:30Chrome continued<div style="text-align: justify;">I finally managed to try out Google Chrome. It was not a good experience. First of all, let me clarify that I know it is a Beta release and is probably not a reflection on how the product will turn out to be in later versions.<span class="fullpost"> However, being a software engineer myself I am aware of the standards a Beta release from any decent self-respecting company should meet. This release does not meet those standards. My take is that Google never meant to release Chrome for at least the next couple of months. They were forced to do so because information about it <a href="http://www.prweekus.com/Google-adjusts-Chrome-launch-efforts-after-leak/article/116325/">leaked out</a>. Given a choice they would have resolved some of the major problems, stabilized the product and then announced it to the world. This is borne out by the nature of problems plaguing this release. The problems are mostly related to memory consumption, stability, compatibility, etc. These are short-term problems which are typically taken care of during intensive testing cycles which this release missed. On the other hand, the design decisions that went into Chrome are fundamentally sound and should pay rich dividends later in the product life cycle.<br />I did not sit and go through every feature of Chrome. Nor did I consciously compare it with other browsers in the market. Here are my impressions of the basic product in isolation:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">User-Interface</span> - Chrome continues the Google tradition of minimalist product interfaces. Google has maintained this tradition in all of its products till date and has been the gainer for it. The Chrome UI is very elegant and it does not miss out on any major functionality. Combining the address bar and the search bar is a very cool idea. Of course, once Google unveils the API kit to develop add-on plugins for Chrome, everyone will be free to add his/her own bit to the UI and mess it up. But then it won't be Google's fault.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Separate process for each tab</span> - This is one of the design decisions that will have long term gains. Having separate process for each tab will insulate them from one another minimizing browser crashes. It will of course add a lot of overhead in terms of resource utilization. So if you have a not-too-high-end machine forget about Chrome. Also, as of now the product is too unstable to show any benefits of this design. Browser crashes are pretty frequent.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Grouping tabs into new windows</span> - Another great idea. Often when I use a browser for a long time I end up creating a lot of tabs which I subsequently want to move to a new window. This feature will let me do that.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Incognito</span> - A special window whose activity cannot be tracked? Great for watching porn. But enterprises will probably want to be able to disable this feature on corporate networks.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Buggy product</span> - Some problems that I faced:<br /><ol><li>I had opened five tabs and was browsing through the Times Of India website watching news clips and reading articles. After one hour of browsing the memory consumption reached almost 300 MB and the machine became very slow.</li><li>I closed the browser but one instance of the process continued to show up in Task Manager. I had to kill the process manually.</li><li>On Vista, if a browser instance is running, the machine hangs when trying to hibernate.</li></ol><br />All in all, Chrome has the potential to become a great browser in the future but I am not going to use it till it becomes more reliable.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-63895735214288728912008-09-03T12:04:00.004+05:302008-09-03T12:58:53.438+05:30Chrome woes<div style="text-align: justify;">Google launched their new web browser yesterday. They call it Chrome. I am dying to install and try it out but for some reason it is just not starting up.<span class="fullpost"> Every time I try to start it, it gives an application error and shows an irritating smiley. The error log says that some essential files have not been installed. Downloading again and reinstalling does not help. Granted this is a Beta or trial version but I still expect some reliability from a software I install on my machine. And surely I should be able to expect better quality from Google. What makes it more frustrating is that hundreds of other people have already been able to try it out successfully. The web is full of reviews and screen shots. Meanwhile, I can only sit and sulk.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4slF-GvTVb8NfJd_mRQNUFPw5pZZn7QrLeK0BbOIYZ7lOyMPf6DwxtpzqQvhAu7boCbQoFKeHtNpv2WBhuK7fAB5Cxco4Gydh3SVfmN4J1yf2PmnTgaQLeHBTQVpP8lfT8sfLkgJ8OlSc/s1600-h/chrome.JPG"><img style="float:center; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4slF-GvTVb8NfJd_mRQNUFPw5pZZn7QrLeK0BbOIYZ7lOyMPf6DwxtpzqQvhAu7boCbQoFKeHtNpv2WBhuK7fAB5Cxco4Gydh3SVfmN4J1yf2PmnTgaQLeHBTQVpP8lfT8sfLkgJ8OlSc/s320/chrome.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241692375725029986" /></a><br /><br />The offending screen.<br /></span><br /><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-35432836454839100332008-09-01T11:07:00.005+05:302008-09-01T15:29:23.748+05:30A Lazy Sunday<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">00:10 AM</span>:<br />What!! It's midnight already!! Should really go to bed now. Have finished season one of LOST. This is a good time to take a break. Wait, lets just take a peek at season two.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">03:15 AM</span>:<br />Can't stay awake any longer. Have finished four episodes of season two. Going to bed.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">06:30 AM</span>:<br />It's morning already? And a hot and cloudy one at that. Feeling hungry.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">07:00 AM</span>:<br />Am sick of having noodles for breakfast every damn weekend. But its easiest to make. Why can't we have Chicken in <span style="font-style: italic;">Atta</span> Noodles? It will be some variety. Feeling sleepy. Think I will go back to sleep.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">10:30 AM</span>:<br />Is that a door banging somewhere? Its very quite otherwise. Am I sleeping or am I awake?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">01:00 PM</span>:<br />Can hear noises outside my door. Roomies must have got up. Lazy bones!! Lets join them. Have to decide what to do for lunch.<br />Oops... they have already bought mutton. When did they go out? Whats the time? O my God! Its one already. I slept for that long?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">02:45 PM</span>:<br />Finished lunch. Mutton curry was delicious. Lets finish the remaining episodes of season two.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">04:30 PM</span>:<br />Did it have to rain now. It is making me feel sleepy. But I won't fall asleep. Otherwise I will have to spend the night awake. Now lets see where was I in LOST. Episode 16 or 17?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">10:30 PM</span>:<br />Must have fallen asleep. Whats the time? Shit!!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">10:45 PM</span>:<br />We have some mutton left over from afternoon. Just have to make rice.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">11:30 PM</span>:<br />Dinner is over. Now, since I will not be able to sleep anyway lets finish season two.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">00:30 AM</span>:<br />I was watching LOST. When did I fall asleep? What the heck!! Just turn off the lights and go back to sleep. Have to get up early tomorrow. Hope it does not rain in the morning. Have to go swimming . Already missed it on Saturday.</span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-38546115275289809302008-08-21T09:50:00.003+05:302008-08-21T11:30:53.108+05:30You have been erased!!!<div style="text-align: justify;">Disaster struck in office on Monday. My computer refused to boot. <span class="fullpost">I have three machines in my cube. I use two of them for (secret...wink, wink) developmental activities. The third is for communicating with the outside world. It is my email machine, the machine I use for browsing the net and, since the last few months, also the machine I use for blogging. In short, it is my lifeline. So of course, it had to be <span style="font-style: italic;">the</span> machine to conk out. I had to spend a three days out of touch with the world. Not that it bothers me the least, I am only too happy to be left alone. But work suffered. I have got a new hard disk now and am back online. However, I have lost all personal data that was on the old disk. This includes online passwords, bank and credit card passwords and statements, pictures and everything else I had accumulated in the last three years that I have been using this machine. Its like the soft copy of the last three years of my life has been erased. Feels funny. Strangely enough, what I am most bothered about is the loss of a Eva Mendes wall paper that I had set as desktop background. It was a beautiful black and white portrait of the lady. I spent last evening looking for that wall paper all over the net but did not find it. Passwords and statements I can find again, but beauty lost once is lost for ever. I think I will now switch of the computer and spend some time mourning my loss. In case you haven't guessed already, I love Eva Mendes...</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-17459073316163396282008-08-15T16:24:00.006+05:302008-08-18T16:35:41.274+05:30Cinema: Mere Baap Pehle Aap<div align="justify">MBPA is probably the first film to show a father fantasising about his son dancing with lots of semi-nude women. Unfortunately thats the only interesting thing in the entire movie.<span class="fullpost"> MBPA is one of those movies which make you think more about what could have been than what has been. It is full of interesting sub-plots that have not been realised. It seems like Priyadarshan had lots of plots in his mind and could not decide which to make a movie out of till the end. As a result the focus of the movie changes from one scene to the next and justice is done to none. MBAP start of well enough. We see two friends past middle age, Rane and Mathur, who set out in search of a bride for Mathur. They encounter a series of hillarious misadventures with a strict cop, ACP B.B. and we think the movie is about to carry the adventures further. But then enters Rane's son and takes him away. We see a nice little family of two where the traditional roles are reversed and the son is the father's guardian. Now we expect the story to develop along those lines. But then enters an anonymous woman who stalks the son and claims to have been wronged by him in the distant past. But this story is disposed off hastily and the father is made to meet a woman from <em>his</em> past. At this point the film loses its way completely. Suffice to say that at the end of the mandatory three hours both father and son pass their <em>agnipariksha</em> and live happily ever after. Throught this time all I could think of were the half a dozen other movie that could have been made from each of the sub-plots. Take the story of Mathur and ACP B.B.. Everytime Mathur goes in search of a bride he ends up being hauled up by B.B.. Their story would have been interesting. Instead, we are merely told towards the end that Mathur has convinced B.B. to marry him and thats about it. Or the story of the father and the son in reversed roles. That would have been a first for the Hindi film indutry. But we don't get that either. And by the way, the baap here is the one who wants to get married while others don't want him to - exactly opposite to what is conveyed by the title and the promos. <p>Of the actors Om Puri is the worst. He is extremely irritating. He looks very uncomfortable (as he should) in a meaningless role dancing on beaches with babes in bikinies and leering at any woman who happens to be in front of him. He is only funny when he is with Archana Puran Singh as B.B. This is the first time I have liked this lady in any movie. She is the only one I felt sorry about. The charactor was tailor made for her and she was doing justice to it before being edited out of the movie. Akshaye Khanna and Paresh Rawal were competent as usual but they deserve a flop this time just for signing up for this movie. Genelia does not have much to do. I can't really find fault with the actors when they don't even have a story to back them up. All my venom is reserved for Priyadarshan. He has been going downhill since <em>Hungama</em>. This movie continues his descent. I just can not understand what he was thinking when making MBPA. Somebody should tell him that just having Rawal and Akshaye in a movie does not make it a comedy.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-73148658659670407482008-08-12T16:58:00.006+05:302008-08-12T17:15:43.574+05:30A wall paper for programmersI found a forgotten wall-paper when cleaning my hard drive of junk today. It is so hilarious I had to put it up here.<span class="fullpost"> It is a list of possible icons for various HTTP client error codes. I don't remember where I got it from. If I did I would have acknowledged it. Please let me know if I am violating any copyrights. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_qO6g6z3E811Nrbr-ufdMtjvH7mMRv7yXUAmTIkM1j1NX8MFcdUBtveDav-JsqO3z6jm3cGQ1AZvVlTPJPHAjrjcBZRQx5xeCa-6JJ2GsGC1-r9kSSToxOPKQEHe-jkqA_GbXpdU4V9Xg/s1600-h/400_codes.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_qO6g6z3E811Nrbr-ufdMtjvH7mMRv7yXUAmTIkM1j1NX8MFcdUBtveDav-JsqO3z6jm3cGQ1AZvVlTPJPHAjrjcBZRQx5xeCa-6JJ2GsGC1-r9kSSToxOPKQEHe-jkqA_GbXpdU4V9Xg/s400/400_codes.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233595936109339026" /></a><br /><br />For illiterates: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes">HTTP codes</a> are the mysterious numbers you see on your browser when you are not able to access a web page. These numbers tell you (or will tell you if you have the sense to interpret them) what the problem is. For example, 404 means the page (or resource) you requested could not be found.<br /></span><p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-73632308446333464232008-08-10T21:55:00.004+05:302008-08-21T14:53:56.469+05:30Cinema: Aamir<div style="text-align: justify;">Why would a terrorist organization go to all the trouble of forcing an unwilling man to commit a terrorist act by kidnapping his family when it has thousands of volunteers who would do the task willingly? <span class="fullpost">That's the question that bothered me all through the movie. If you can ignore this question though <span style="font-style: italic;">Aamir</span> is a pretty good movie. It is the kind of inexpensive no frills movie that I like. The plot is simple. The protagonist, Aamir lands in Mumbai from London. As soon as he gets out of the airport somebody throws a cell phone at him. He is wondering what to do with it when it starts ringing. Aamir takes the call. The caller tells him that his family has been kidnapped and he will have to follow certain instructions if he wants to free them. The movie follows Aamir all over Mumbai as he deals with the situation. All the action happens in half a day. One situation follows another and the action almost never lets up. It does get a little tedious </span><span class="fullpost">for a little time in the second half </span><span class="fullpost">before picking up again for the climax. This is mainly because of the lack of characters and dialoges. The movie concentrates exclusively on Aamir. We see only brief hazy shots of the caller on the phone. Some other minor characters turn up from time to time to help or hinder Aamir. This is not a big problem for most of the movie as Rajiv Khandelwal as Aamir is more than able to carry the film on his shoulders. He is perfect as an ordinary guy who does not understand what is happening to him. He just wants to go home to his family and carry on with his life. It is all like a bad dream for him. I especially liked the part where he finally realizes what all this is about and reacts to it. <span style="font-style: italic;">Aamir</span> is a very well shot movie. It captures Mumbai like few movies have done. In keeping with the no frills look, there are no songs or heavy background tracks.<br />I have heard <span style="font-style: italic;">Aamir</span> is actually a "remake" of a foreign film. Since I have not seen that movie I cannot comment on that. Even if it is, that does not bother me. A creatively made remake may sometimes surpass the original. <span style="font-style: italic;">Aamir</span> is a serious effort at making a realistic suspense thriller and it has succeeded.<br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3163841480516565826.post-51939173118514691122008-08-08T23:41:00.006+05:302008-08-09T00:31:21.298+05:30Bookmarks: Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie<div align="justify">I got <a href="http://rajorshighosh.blogspot.com/2008/07/blog-post_9306.html">yet another Poirot mystery</a> from my boss yesterday. Its called <em>Elephants Can Remember</em>. After reading it what I truely want to say is: I wish they couldn't.<span class="fullpost"> Christie is nowhere near her usual top form here. There is no real mystery for the reader here. Christie's forte is in letting the reader see all that is visible to her detective, sharing all clues with him, letting him try to figure out the puzzle on his own and still surprising him in the end. Here unfortunately, the reader is able to figure out the solution long before Poirot gets to it. I found myself struggling to concentrate on the plot after the first few chapters, a thing that rarely happens between me and Christie. One of the reasons was the distracting attempts at humour. These come from the person Mrs. Ariadne Oliver. This person is said to be a caricature of Christie herself. Now, I for one believe that caricatures do little to improve any suspense thriller. They merely loosen up the plot. I have never liked this character in any of Christie's novels and must confessed to being biased from the outset. But even by her usual standards, Mrs. Oliver was a little too irritating this time. For instance, the first three pages were devoted to describing her trying on her hats. And it is she who brings up the reference to elephants. Having made her point she, or rather Christie, should have let go of it. But elephants keep coming up in all conversations up to the point where they become tedious. So between Mrs. Oliver and elephants we somehow get to the climax in the twentieth chapter but it isn't really a climax because we already know the solution somewhere around the fifteenth chapter. And to top it all the motive for the crimes is really sentimental mush. The whole plot hinges on the fact that multiple women loved a man and he in turn loved multiple women. The ending where everybody is professing his/her love for everybody else was really embarrasing for me. For anyone not obsessed with eading all Poirot mysteries, reading this one would be an elephantine waste of time.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0