Rushin Speaks...

It Is Mother’s Day Again...! :-)

2011-05-07T12:03:00.000-07:00

I have been wishing to blog more frequently, but somehow; never find the time or the energy due to my busy schedule or lazy vacationing. However, the second Sunday of May being “Mother’s Day” is something too special, and it is the specialty of this day that made me kick off my laziness, and just pen down a few thoughts that I have for this “Most Special Woman” of my life.

While it is very difficult to put this relationship in words, there are ways in which you can distinguish a mother from everyone else in the world. A mother’s relationship with a child is in many ways very special, and there is some sort of telepathy that works between them. While the umbilical cord that binds the mother and child is severed at child’s birth, there always remains a one-way cord that keeps the mother attached to her young one.

In fact, this is very nicely portrayed by a quote, which said, “The only day when you cried and your mother smiled, was the day of your birth”. This goes to express the intimate emotional relationship that exists between a mother and her child, and the fact that a mother can never ever be happy unless she knows that her child is happy as well.

It continues to amaze me how a mother can find whether the kid is hungry, tired or bored by just looking at the blank face of an infant, or hearing the voice of the child on phone. Probably, there is a sort of frequency where the emotions of both resonate together, and this results in the mother experiencing the same emotion that the kid does.

The other thing is, the amount of comfort and protection that a person feels in the lap of his or her mother, irrespective of age and position, it is almost unparalleled to same he can find anywhere else, and so here is appreciating the efforts, sacrifices and prayers that this self-less lady brings to your life. In fact, our society is attuned in a way that most if not all of us take our Father’s name in our full name and give him the credit for our successes, but very few of us take the time or feel the need to acknowledge the silent efforts of our mother in shaping our life.

Finally, there is a subtle difference between a mother and everyone else with respect to how they view you; while the world sees you as who you are, or even sometimes less, a mother can never see a wrong in her kid and always wishes the best for him or her. In fact, a well-known quote states, “Every boy may not be a king to his, girl...but he is always a prince to his mother.”

And so, I want to take this moment of my life to thank the most special person of my life, “Mom”. You always take time off your life when I am down in the dumps, when I want someone to listen to me patiently and when I want to crib about something out of my whimsy. More importantly, you are not only there to hear me out, but also bear the tough words or actions that may be acted on in fits of anger, and finally I thank you for always resolving my problems and forgiving my countless shortcomings and misdeeds.

So mom, on the occasion of “Mother’s Day”, which should be just another day of our lives, I just want to remind myself and express from the bottom of my heart that I will always be grateful for you being there when I needed you the most. And still being there, when I think that I do not need you or when I do not have time or patience for you.

Final Verdict:

Like I mentioned last year, there is no one and nothing in the world that can replace a mother’s love for her child. So, all I can say on the eve of the Mother’s Day is,

There is no single day that can be called something like a Mother’s Day. Considering what your mother brings to you, starting from your life itself, not just today, but each and everyday should be a “Mother’s Day”.

Unfamiliar Acquaintances – A Theory On Friendship

2011-01-22T12:03:00.000-08:00

This post has been written for a variety of reasons. But before that as a disclaimer, I would like to mention that this blog post is written after almost 9 months and it is also on a slightly emotional topic, so please ignore the grammar errors and the breakage in flow if any. Now, with that in place, I’ll get to the reasons of this post, one of my closest and most special friends had given the title “Unfamiliar acquaintances” for another topic, and I liked the theme, so here’s one from my end. There was also insistence from a few respected people (especially in this last one week) about my blogging again, and the flurry of events that have happened in the last couple weeks which keep reminding me of good old days and making me nostalgic, have resulted in this post becoming a reality. So, in case you are reading this post my friends, you’ll know that this one is dedicated to you.

The term acquaintance is used for people who we know by face, or just by name, but cannot actually put them in the category of friends, because of either our lack of time spent with them, or because the different interests or priorities in our life have ensured that we do not come close to them.

However, the acquaintances are first step of any possible friendship, just like any seed is a potential for a tree. What happens with time and events is what decides whether the once unknown acquaintanceship grows into friendship, just like the events like rain, soil and security, along with the much required element “time” would decide, whether the seed will get a chance to bloom into a beautiful tree.

Friends at School

Primary school is supposed to be the best time for making true friends, because the kids are innocent to be truthful, and there is no selfishness involved. The fact that people do not have a mask on helps, and of course I am bestowed with probably a lot of friendship luck to get the wonderful friends, who still await my visits to Ahmedabad and try to ensure that we spend some good-time together. Together, we still reminisce about our past, discussing the present or just speculate the possible events of our future lives.

Friends at College

However, another part of this story for me, started after my 12th, when I got admission in Nirma University. Being a student among hundreds of unknown acquaintances made me both excited me at the prospects of making so many new friends and even frightened me, since I was in an unknown region, out of my normal comfort zone. Nevertheless, starting with some acquaintances, I was bestowed with some friends for life, even at college. Guys who were a part of this can think of the special moments like placements and admissions, the quick canteen lunches and the fun and games we have all had. Those were some amazing days...

Friends at Work

They say that you make friends only in college and when you come to work, it is all professional. This means, the maximum transition you can have in work like is from an unknown person sitting on the opposite side of the desk, to a coworker, whose name you know and the maximum you would be made aware is the type of work and how office life is. And again, that is where, my life is an exception. Life sent me not only new acquaintances, but much closer friends, and at each level, I expected this to be last place to make new friends, and thankfully, life has proven otherwise.

I did not just get acquaintances or even friends at my work, I got my own local family. Of course we did not have formal relations like a father or mother, or a brother or sister, but the love and care, the friendship and trust and of course the useless, junk jokes and emotional fool talks we’ve shared are things that have made my current stint at work, the wonderful thing it is.

Some more Musing

If you metaphorically consider each friendship as a plant or a tree and the acquaintance as a seed, then I have had a wonderful garden of life. There are friendships which grew super-fast like normal plants, some acquaintances, which did not grow beyond the size of plain-grass and ultimately a bunch of other friendships, each of which took months if not years to root themselves in my life, and then one day all of a sudden, like the Chinese Bamboo, they grew rapidly, making the garden of life, the wonderful place it is.

I was talking about this to friend about the special rights that person has with me, owing to our “professional” friendship bond, when I realized that nothing changes in a relationship unless you want it to, and all my friends are the biggest proof of this statement. We have been together through thick and thin, through people going in different schools to people going in different streams, and even people going to different cities and states and still your friendship remains protected. The same holds true for my school friends, college friends, roommates and even with my close Company friends.

But that’s the funny thing called life, it just moves on. You want it to stop there, and keep enjoying the pleasures and the comfortable life you managed to have, stay where you are with the people you care about around you, but nature’s response to that feeling of yours is: the only thing constant is the change. Now with a new role at work and new people around me, life is once again taking the same twist. Getting to know new people and making new friendships is a phase of life we all always like to go through, but we know that saying “bye” someday is going to make life that much more empty for you. However as my parents would say,“People can come into your life, but only you can make them go”.

Final Verdict: (How can I miss writing this term? ;D )

Whether you change a place or the place changes you and ultimately, either you become a new person or new people always keep coming into your life, and so to all my friends out there,

THANKS FOR MAKING MY LIFE WORTHWHILE, and for all the other 7 billion people of the world, let us get to know each other better... :-)

Happy Mother's Day!!!

2010-05-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

Today is the 9th of May, but more specifically it is the second Sunday of May and hence most of the world celebrates this day as “Mother’s Day”.

Mother is the lady who gives birth to the children and cares for them the most. I wanted to write a lot, but somehow I am unable to find the words to describe this unique and wonderful relationship that a child fosters with his or her mother. It is said, God couldn't be everywhere and therefore he made Mothers. The Indian folklore even goes to state that one of the reasons why Lord Vishnu kept taking incarnations is because Gods are not blessed with the love of mother.

To put some facts that can be found on the Internet,
A human body can bear only upto 45 Del (unit) of pain. But at the time of giving birth, a woman feels upto 57 Del of Pain, which is equal to the amount of pain that person gets when 20 bones get fractured at the same time!

It is the miracle of life and the love of a mother for her child that allows her to survive this pain. I remember on this day what my mother has done for me.

I Remember...

Today when I am far from home, trying to pursue my dreams and career,
I remember the sacrifices my mother made for her kids.
I remember how she compromised her life, her wishes and her desires, whenever they came up as a conflict against the interests of her kids.
I remember the tough days she had trying to raise my brother (I was a good boy). And the times when she did not take up an alternate career because her kids were small and needed her attention.
I remember those sleepless nights when I remained up to finish my homework assignments and she stayed up with me to ensure I am comfortable.
I remember the long nights when I was sick when she kept up giving me medicines and all the care and not giving herself a proper rest.
I remember how she prayed for my good future, and was happy for me and my decisions, even if they brought sorrow in her life.
I remember how my failures brought her tears, when I myself was unmoved.
I remember all good days, and the good things that she bestowed in my life, and made the responsible and understanding person I am.
I remember...

Dedicated to the BEST Woman In My Life

I want to write more, but cannot find words to express this beautiful relationship. One of the best portrayals of this beautiful feeling in my life can be expressed by the above picture. It is the feeling of being safe and secure in your mother’s lap. Knowing that your mother is there to protect you keeps the kid strong and even against the fear of the razor.

To sum it all up, today the kid has grown and the razor has taken a much more dreadful form in terms of the challenges that life offers, and yet the love and care and the feeling of security that my mother is looking out for me, keeps me strong enough to face the brunt of the world.

Final Verdict:
There is no one and nothing in the world that can replace a mother’s love for her child. So, all I can say is on the eve of the Mother’s Day is that there is no single day that can be called something like a Mother’s Day.

Considering what your mother brings to you, starting from your life itself, not just today, but each and everyday should be a “Mother’s Day”.

Swarnim Gujarat – A State of 24 Carat Gold

2010-05-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

Almost everyone is in some or other way proud to be born where they are born and have spent the formative years of their life, and I am no exception to that rule. Born in the prosperous state of Gujarat has been a thing of pride to me, and probably the readers who come from the same state will be able to relate to what I mean. The recent event of “Swarnim Gujarat” to celebrate the completion of “50 Grand Years” of statehood is what inspired me to write on this glorious and unique part of the world. The blog post is probably a hybrid of what a beautiful state Gujarat is in terms of its heritage and probably some of the wonderful things which make me nostalgic about it.

Gujaratis - The Businessmen

Gujarat has been well renowned for its prosperity and entrepreneurship since the very ancient of times. Even the earliest of the civilizations, the Harappa and Mohan-Jo-Daro had a port named Lothal in Gujarat for carrying their trade. It is rightly said, that if you go anywhere in the world, from the biggest of stores and refineries and from the tops of the hills to the depth of the mines, if there is a business opportunity, you are likely to find a Gujarati.

Gujarat has given birth to countless business visionaries which includes the Ambani family, Karsanbhai Patel of Nirma, Gautam Adani from Adani Group and Tusli Tanti of Suzlon Industries. Gujaratis are known for their prowess and risk taking ability to do business since generations and hence thus the spirit of owning a business is almost imbibed in the genes of the people.

Gujaratis - The Leaders

Not just the business, the Gujaratis have made their mark in all aspects of Leadership. Gujarat is the only state in the entire world which gave birth to two people, who are respected as the Father-of-the-nation in their respective countries. While Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, was born in the town of Porbandar, the family of Mohammad Ali Jinnah traces back to Paneli in Gujarat where his grandparents and parents spent most of their lives. Apart from this, Gujarat also gave India, the Iron-Man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel whose vision and dedication made the dream of a united Indian Union possible.

Gujarat - The Cultural Heritage

The gifted state with its brilliant businessmen and quality leaders has always been prosperous and hence the people not only had time, but also owing to the trade relations, Gujaratis communicated with people diverse cultures and hence this made the Gujarati heritage much more adjusting and much better.

Apart from this, historically, Gujarat is known for its beautiful temples and mosques. Dwarka and Somnath are very famous religious spots. Other than that, for Jains there is Palitana and Girnar, and of course, historically, Gujarat is the first state where the Parsis landed. Also, the Gujaratis are fond of both celebrations and food. The state also houses the world’s only Pure Veg Pizza Hut, which provides Jain Pizzas to cater to the local public.

All festivals from Uttrayan to Holi, and Diwali to Janmasthmi are celebrated with great pomp and joy in the state. However, the festival of Navratri, with Garba and Dandia Raas which are the traditional dances of Gujarat, is what truly shows the vibrant spirit of the state.

Gujarat - The Growth Story

Gujarat has always been growing rapidly. The state is also bestowed with the longest coastline in India. Once upon a time, Ahmedabad used to house the maximum textile mills in the country and was called the Manchester of India. The city is still famous for attracting a lot of pharmaceutical industries. Apart from this, the city of Surat, which is the diamond hub of the world, lies in the state. There are huge Reliance refineries in the city of Vadodara and Jamnagar, and a lot of Suzlon’s wind energy stations on the coastline.

With the stable government and able leadership of Narendra Modi, the state’s Industry friendly policies are making a mark. Last year, we saw the prestigious Tata Nano Project being moved to Sanand near Ahmedabad. The last Vibrant Gujarat Summit also saw MoU worth 12,00,000 crore being signed, which show the image of the state in the minds of the investors. While the state missed on the Information Technology race in the last decade, there is a lot of investment coming in this sector as well.

This is my personal opinion that the strong and stable Government of honorable Narendra Modi, has rekindled hopes in the hearts of Gujaratis and the very results of that are visible in very aggressive growth of the state in all directions. With the development of concepts like GIFT City and the BRTS in Ahemdabad, and with incentives like “Vanche Gujarat” and “Vibrant Gujarat” the state is on the fast track for further development.

While there are a lot of people all around the world who work hard and prosper, what makes the state of Gujarat special is the will of the people to help others around them. The unshakable faith of people towards improving their quality of life is what makes the state stand out in terms of progress. With great institutions like IIM, DAIICT, NIT, Nirma University, GNLU for Law and even a new upcoming IIT, the state is growing in education.

Gujarat has been prey to many natural calamities since ages. While were many riots in the past, the state was also bogged down by plague in the 1990s and the biggest hit was the earthquake in 2001. And yet, if you look back, you will see, the people always rose above the situation and came out as winners.

Today, the state boasts of 24-hour uninterrupted power supply, which probably no other state in the country can guarantee. The water of Narmada from Sardar Sarovar Dam and the huge number borewells and check dams which were created by Modi Government have caused the water table to go up and also allowed adequate supply of water in homes.

Final Verdict:

I am not being high-handed when I say that “I am proud to be a Gujarati”. The benefits of being born in a business oriented family, which understands finance gives you a head start in the world, and I am happy that I got that chance. As Malcomm Gladwell says in his Best-seller book “The Outliers”, success is not just dependent on the person, but also on several factors, which contribute to their success, and being a Gujarati is probably one of them.

The above song was composed by Legendary A.R. Rahman on the occasion of May 1, 2010, the 50 years of Gujarat’s foundation. While it starts slow, it gets speed midway and has a wonderful tune, which would sound much much better when heard after 2-3 times. It makes me feel utterly and yet happily nostalgic about being back home.

All in all, without trying to hurt any sentiments, I’ll quote what I read in a friend’s status message, “Some people have to work and try hard to be intelligent for most period of their life, while the lucky ones are Gujaratis by birth”.

The Quarter Life Dilemma

2010-04-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

This blog post marks the “Golden Jubilee” of the “Rushin Speaks...” blog, so a hearty thanks to all the readers who stuck with me in this beautiful endeavor. Also this post, partly by coincidence and partly by manipulation, marks the Silver Jubilee of my so-far exciting and beautiful trips around the Sun. And hence, this post is about the transition and the dilemma that most people of our age face owing to the overwhelming possibilities of what we want to do and how much of it can be done realistically in the limited time that we have at our hand.

The first title that I had thought for this post was the popular phrase “Quarter Life Crisis”, but then looking back at what nature has bestowed me with, like a good job, much better friends and possibly the best family I could have asked for, saying that my life is a crisis would be unfair and ungrateful and hence, the term dilemma. Now this post may slightly go personal, or not everyone amongst us faces the exact same questions, which need to be answered. However, with slight changes in some parameters all of us 20-somethings would have already faced, are facing or may face in the recent future, some of these catch-22 situations.

The Psychological Impact of turning 25

Even the Vedas emphasize on the number 25, as the marking of the transition from “Brahmacharya Ashram” to the “Gruhasta Ashram”, which in simpler terms of Internet Lingo mean that the person’s status in Facebook or Orkut should go from Single to Committed and finally settle at Married. However, this thought itself brings shudders to many among us and yet, the fact that you turn 25, brings a psychological feeling to your parents and “other enthusiastic” family members to assume that you have now settled with work life and they can start processing your matrimonial formalities.

But, I am still NOT SURE...

About Education and Work Profession

While many of us are settled down with a job or an educational career, there will surely be some amongst us, who would still be trying to figure out how to go ahead with their own lives. There are people among us, who still dream of studying something, or taking some drastic decisions or risks.

For instance, you may be happy with your current job, but maybe the prospects of growth seem to be slowing down, and you think of making a switch. Or, there can be a more lucrative option available which offers you a much better chance of working provided you leave the city or the country, or a more drastic choice would be to return to your hometown or a city nearby and hence live closer to your family and friends.

About Commitment

The expert advice from our adults when we try to linger away from the topic of commitment, by defending our life’s uncertainty goes like, “Son, you will never be sure of where life will take you, so take the plunge and the two of you can figure it out together.” The fact that some of your friends start getting committed or married also catalyzes the process of people start discussing your marriage. In honest retrospection, I am not scared of having a person around who cares for us and helps us, but the very thought of bringing another person in our life does bring in some sort of complexities.

It is the additional responsibility that scares me. Getting married isn’t just a formal knot between two people, where one person goes to stay with the other person and hence pays half the rent if they stay in a rented apartment and splits the other expenses like maintenance and electricity bills. As a guy, getting a wife brings with it the additional responsibility of ensuring that the person, who left her home and family to become a part of your life always remains happy. This would also mean that the decisions like shifting to another city, or even another country would not just need an approval from yourself and the outcome of that decision should ensure that her wellbeing and happiness, and her job, if you may, is not impacted.

The BIG Questions

The dilemma of the Quarter life also brings me to two very important questions which need an answer. It is almost like the companies bring out the quarterly results about their status and future predictions.

Are you happy?

The first quarter of my life has been pretty fruitful. I got success, if you may consider it that way, with a decently high paying job and some quality education on the professional front and a very supportive and lovely set of friends and family on the personal front, but there are times when juggling the professional and the personal spheres of life make it complicated.

Looking back at my life, I see various happy moments, which make the journey worthwhile. Honestly I don’t really remember many sad moments, thanks to the grace of God, blessings of my elders and nature’s gift to allow us to memorize only what we want to. The current professional life however demands sacrifices like missing birthdays, other occasions and festivals since you are away from home. And yet, in the greater scheme of things, I believe it has been a wonderful first quarter of my life and am hopeful for the same experience in life ahead.

And the BIG question, which a lot of “elders” in the family bother me with “When do you think you will be ready for taking the next step for marriage?”

An honest answer is “I don’t know.” There is no shortcut to happiness and no shortcut to knowing where life while take you next. Looking back at my life, I have found that it is only the “Long-term” goals which we can plan, and most of the short-medium term goals that I planned have been modified by the events that followed the planning. So all I can say to my own life is “Surprise Me” again.

Final Verdict:

The title Final Verdict is put to only keep up with the spirit of the blog. There wouldn’t be a dilemma if I could have my own verdict.

Based on the various serious discussions which I have had with my elders and my colleagues and close comrades on the uncertain topics of life like marriage and profession in the future, the only thing certain about this uncertain situation is that buckle up and prepare well, but remember, that whatever you do, however much you prepare and ready yourself, it will never suffice.

And hence, the best solution for now seems to just flow with where the life take us. Trust your parents and trust your Guardian Angels, like the seat belts of the rollercoaster and take the thrill ride. The light at the end of the tunnel of confusion will appear when the time is right. Another turbulent and exciting quarter in the life of yet-another 25-year old kid, is just about to begin.

Flash on Apple Devices – Not a Near Future Possibility

2010-04-18T05:10:00.000-07:00

The one thing common between the Apple iPhone and the Apple iPAD, except the fact that they both have an aesthetic appeal, wonderfully working touch screen and the illustrious brand name of Apple is the fact that both of them do not support Flash, which is one of the most prominent rich internet applications from Adobe. The spat between Apple and Adobe has been going on for many years now, and the exclusion of Flash from iPhone and iPad is just another chapter to this ever growing war between the two.

Flash is not only used for viewing videos, or creating multimedia websites, but it also can be used to create various applications and games, which has increased its popularity and reach many-fold, making it one of the de facto installations on the computers of people who surf the internet. The decision that Apple is not planning to provide support has made a lot of iPhone owners whine, more so, since Adobe came up with a Flash version for all major mobile operating systems like Windows Mobile OS, Palm’s webOS and even the Google Android, missing out only on iPhone’s Safari OS.

Apple’s Side of the Story

Apple has been adamant in not supporting Adobe Flash, since allowing Flash is against the Terms of Service Agreement of the iPhone. The main reason for this as per Apple’s software engineers is that allowing Flash will open a lot of backdoors or open up loop holes for malicious applications to misuse the information and even hamper the usability of the iPhone or the iPAD.

Moreover, historically, Apple’s MAC OS has never been in proper sync with the Flash player. Most complaints that the Apple Inc gets for the browser crashes is due to the use of Flash plug-ins and hence Apple is trying to stay safe by not providing the support for Flash at all, rather than allow Flash to compete for the battery life and the CPU cycles on the iPhone and the iPAD.

The “Other” Side of the Story

Apple is known to be a strongly coupled company when it comes to protecting its proprietary stuff. Allowing Flash to run on iPhone will not only enable users to view Flash content on their iPhone or iPAD, but it will also allow a lot of Flash applications and games to compete with their counterparts on the App Store. This will surely result in huge revenue losses for Apple.

Moreover, in the current scenario, all the things related to Apple iPhone and iPAD are owned completely by Apple and hence if they wish to make some drastic change like a Platform or architecture change, they can port and recompile their codes and libraries. However, if they allow Flash and then decide to do such a change, since Flash remains owned by Adobe, Apple would need to maintain some sort of a backward compatibility to ensure Flash support remains ON, until Adobe gets them the ported version of Flash.

Consolidating the Facts

The funny fact about Adobe Flash is that while all the major building blocks of the internet like HTML and CSS are open source, the most prominent proprietary software in the web-world is Adobe Flash. The popularity of Flash feeds itself and the result is it gets used more often. So the people who oppose the one company ownership idea like the fact that Apple is slowly weeding out Flash by sowing the seeds for HTML5.

Moreover, it is a known experience that while Flash works pretty well with Windows, it cannot do the same with Apple’s OS because the later does not allow Flash to access the lower level APIs and squeeze the maximum benefit from the hardware. However, while Adobe cribs that Apple doesn’t allow its platform level optimizations to be used for Flash, Steve Jobs rubbished Flash for being buggy and that was the reason why Apple is not too keen on granting support to Flash, and instead it supports HTML5 more getting the newer web-based applications.

Final Verdict:

According to me the reason why the Flash support on iPhone and iPAD isn’t encouraged, is a combination of both Apple’s way of trying to preserve its supremacy for the games and applications that get shipped for the iPhone and the iPAD, and also Apple’s intolerant behavior towards very stringent quality standards which currently Flash is not being able to adhere to.

For now, the situation is a dead lock and in midst of all odds, Adobe has come up with a bunch of tools which allow the Flash applications to get converted to a format where they can be loaded on iPhone. However, these applications match neither the performance, nor the elegance of what the original Flash could have offered.

And this leads us to the final big question is: When will Apple step down and allow a third party plug-in provider like Adobe, an access to its lower level APIs?

For now, the answer seems to be NEVER.

Man’s Search for Meaning – Understanding How Our Lives Fundamentally Work

2010-04-04T09:35:00.001-07:00

The starting part of the title is borrowed from the book “Man’s Search for Meaning” written by Dr. Viktor Frankl. It is a short autobiographical volume of this Austrian psychiatrist’s experiences in the Nazi concentration camps during the World War II, where he was imprisoned and tortured because he was a Jew. The book is a wonderful starting point to discover the power of the human mind and in a very heavy emotional way, it explains how we humans perceive things. The experiences he had in the death camp were terrible, and the explanations of the hideous tortures and indignities which were afflicted on the prisoners show to which extent their will to live was demolished. It is during this time, that he realized something which he calls “the last ultimate freedom”, which means the power to chose one’s own response in any given set of circumstances. During that period of time he realized that his Nazi captors could not hurt him, they could hurt his body, they could hurt his self respect, but whatever they do, they could not hurt the person who stayed in that body, i.e. they did not have the power to hurt Viktor Frankl. And little by little the spark of this freedom in him kept growing and he became completely indifferent to the hideous events around him.

It is that feeling which explains the fundamental power of the human mind. Nothing can hurt us, unless we want it to. It is our willing permission, our consent which allows events, people or things to hurt us far more than they originally hurt us. The things can hurt us, physically, but the real pain comes from the emotional hurt, which makes the physical hurt to multiply the pain many times over the circumstantial impact. This is particularly hard to accept and even harder to implement, because all of us, right from our childhood have this tendency of blaming the hurt to the circumstances, or because someone else did something to us. We have this tendency to blame things like, I am upset today because my friend doesn’t have time for me, or I am upset because XYZ did or did not do ABC.

This brings us to another important insight. If it is true that we are miserable because we wanted to be miserable, or we chose our response to be miserable based on a circumstance, it is also true that we can chose otherwise and not be miserable. No circumstance has in it the power to make us sad, unless we truly want it to. It is not the circumstance that influences what happens to us, but it is our response to the situation that decides what actually happens to us. This same thing can understood though in a much simplified way by Steven Covey’s 90-10 principle, which states, 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react.

There above is a simple and yet very beautiful example of this theory. There are numerous incidents and people who portray this very beautifully. Movies like The Shawshank Redemption and the Pursuit of Happyness show the level where we can reach, rising from all odds, if we keep hope and faith and most importantly do not let the “person” in us succumb to the external circumstances.

Implementing this in Our Day to Day Life

The above shows the importance of how the reaction of our mind can make or break a day. There is a beautiful line in the movie the Matrix, which goes “What is Real? How do you define Real? If real is what you can smell, see, touch or feel then real means just the electronic impulses interpreted by your Brain...” If you dig deep, the above statement does seem to suggest the same thing. The whole world, the perceptions, the situations, the experiences and to an extent event the outcomes of events are all dependent on how we react to a situation, and not the situation itself.

Since we are on the brink of yet another summer season, there is surely going to be a particularly interesting situation, where people constantly crib and complain about how hot it is around this time of the year. Do remember to do this exercise and keep repeating something like Shit! The weather is so hot… its killing me to yourself, and you will realize that each time you say the statement, you will actually feel a lot of heat, and you will actually feel the brunt of summer. And then, on a completely separate note, try to react in an opposite way and think something like, if the weather won’t get warmer in summer, when would it get hot? The minute you start giving these positive autosuggestions to your brain, the heat will kind of reduce by a couple degrees for you.

Final Verdict:
While it is not particularly easy to reach the level where Viktor Frankl had reached and become completely liberated from the pains associated with the circumstances that keep changing the course of our life, it is also important to give moving towards this goal a try. Another thing, if you find yourself in self-pity or know someone else who is, I would suggest you pick up this short book Man’s Search For Meaning and gauge the situation that you are in today and be thankful to life for not being hard on you.

All said and done, the parting thought is that we keep in our mind is the fact that the key to a happy and satisfied life is to start choosing our responses and gaining control of our life. And the very reaction that it is not easy to make a change of this magnitude in our thought process, will make the process of this transition tough, and hence this negative thought, should be scrapped.

So in the end, it all boils down to what Mufasa, the Lion tells his cub Simba in the famous movie The Lion King, “Remember who you are”.

The Attitude of Gratitude

2010-03-28T04:54:00.000-07:00

The first time I came across this catchy phrase, when I was learning Reiki more than a decade ago. This post can partly be considered to be a sequel on Happ-I-ness, but to consider it that way or not is left to the reader’s discretion.

The Attitude of Gratitude

Hardly anyone amongst us ever stops thinking about what we want, but we don’t have. The theists amongst us pray to God asking for those things, and all of us strive towards getting those things or positions or whatever we had wished for. Nevertheless, in this fight of never-ending wants, we forget to focus on what we have, we forget to even take a minute to enjoy the things we achieved, or simply put, we forget to count our blessings. In any language, probably the most powerful words would be “I love you”, but there is another set of words, which is probably as powerful as these, and ironically, it is also a phrase used very scarcely as “I love you” and hence there is still misery amongst us humans, and as you would have probably guessed it, the phrase is “Thank You”.

Do we really lack the quality of being Grateful?

Most of us would oppose to this fact and say, we are grateful for what we have in life. If today X get a more paying job, or a salary hike, or a new house or any profound success, X would be thankful for that. Hence X is grateful, isn’t he? However, if the same X gets laid off, someone in his family gets a disease, or if X loses a chunk of money, will X still remain thankful? In most cases X would be depressed, angry and disappointed.

Our problem is, in most cases, our gratitude is incremental, i.e. it depends incrementally on what I have today that I did not have yesterday, and not just on what I have today. If on the other hand, we can have an absolute level of gratitude, we would still be thankful for what we have. X would still be happy he has a two-bedroom flat instead of the bunglow he had yesterday, and he can still have a happy time with his family. In no way are we trying to say that X shouldn’t work hard to earn back his bunglow and just remain content with the flat, however, being grateful for what he has in had will reduce his mental stress and trauma, this will ensure he doesn’t get angry at his family due to his tensions, and more importantly, with a composed mind, he will be able to focus more clearly on how to fix the situation.

The Perception of Glass Half Empty or Half Full

The other issues about being grateful come from the perspective with which we look at things. Sometimes, it all boils down to the well known story of how we perceive the things that come at hand. Let’s consider the same story of Half-Full-Half-Empty Glass with a slight twist. Say we go to someone’s place for dinner and they serve you half glass of some new flavored drink, looking at which you may mentally think positively that they served you only half glass since you are full with the dinner, or you may smirk at the thought that how can someone serve a guest half-glass something. For the half-full guys, you are already there at the level of gratitude, however, for the half-empty people, here we fork of the story into 2 sub-situations,

Situation 1: You really liked the flavored drink and were unhappy since they served only half-glass. But then you come to know that it was the only amount of flavored drink they had, and everyone else in the house sacrificed because you were the all important person who was offered the flavored drink, would your perception change? Would you now look at that gesture of even having a half-empty glass and smirk, or would you be heartily grateful and appreciate the half-full glass.

Situation 2: You did not like the flavored drink at all, but are forced to drink the amount served to you or after drinking the half-glass you realized that the drink had caffeine and since you are sensitive to caffeine, had you drank a glassful you’d be awake the whole night. Now, would you be unhappy that it was half-full, or would silently in your heart rejoice the fact that thankfully you only got a half-glass to swallow.

Both the above situations try to move us from a negative perspective to a positive one, nevertheless, there is a subtle difference between the two, in both of them we first started with the perspective that we wanted a glass-full but we did not know whether getting the half-glass was good or bad for us. There will be incidents in all our lives when we look back at events and say, Thank God that what I wanted did not happen, else I wouldn’t have gotten so much.

This is beautifully depicted by a famous statement said by the character of “God” in the movie “Bruce Almighty”, which says, “When we say may God grant all your wishes, what we forget is that, since when do we know what we actually want?” The above idea resonates the fact; that we never know what is the best for us and hence rather than crib for what we failed to achieve, we should be happy and grateful for what we have.

The Direct and Indirect Benefits of this Approach

The direct can be considered from the fact that the attitude of gratitude makes us thank people around us for whatever good they have done for us. Everyone likes to be appreciated for their hard-work and sincerity and if someone takes time to just thank the person for his efforts it just makes the work seem tireless. In fact, I bet most of us would work full nights out for people who take that one minute to appreciate our hard labor. The same holds for our superiors and subordinates as well. Thus if we sincerely and heartily thank them for what they have done for us, irrespective of the fact that it is our group director or the security guard who stands in front of the office, a difference in their attitude towards us will be visible.

The indirect may be a little hard to prove, but if you have learnt “Reiki”, read the BestSeller book “The Secret” or plainly known any religion, all of them preach that “Whatever vibrations you send out to the Universe get echoed back to you in a long run”. By taking the time to acknowledge our blessings each day, we become a magnet for further abundance because we are placing the energy of our thoughts into further manifestations in our life, rather than in what we do not have. As Reiki puts it, this works simply because, like everything else, thoughts are energy. The level of the vibration of our thoughts determines what we experience in life, what is drawn to us and what isn’t. If we are constantly focusing on lack and attuning to its vibration, that is what we will attract more of, in your life. Conversely, if we recognize and are thankful for the abundance and blessings in our life, many more will follow.

Final Verdict:

As is depicted in good movies like Pursuit of Happyness, Shortcut to Happiness, Bruce Almighty and many more, it boils down to the line said in Kung Fu Panda, “Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, but Today is a Gift, and that is why it is called Present.” So if we have a gift in our hand, the least we can do is be thankful for the gift. While we open the packet and realize that we haven’t got what we wanted, it’s time we remind ourselves of another dialogue from the same movie “There are no Accidents”, and then remain thankful for what we have today.

Before ending this post, I would sincerely like to “Thank the Universe” for the wonderful family and friends it has bestowed to me in this Journey called life. A special set of thanks to all my friends who give me critiques on my blog posts and point out my mistakes since “If someone points out your mistakes, be happy that at least someone is interested in what you have done” and a special thanks to a special friend who reminded me to write on this topic. Last but definitely not the least, a sincere and heartfelt thanks to You, my dear reader for patiently and painstakingly reading my blogs.

Quoting something I read somewhere, “God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say 'Thank you'?” -William A. Ward

So as a parting statement, take some time off to count your blessings; you will be surprised to find many things which are small or so routine that they go unnoticed every day till you list them down. Remembering the 4-line prayer we used to sing in A.G. (my Primary School)

Thank You God for the World so sweet,

Thank You God for the food we eat,

Thank You God for the Birds that sing,

Thank You God for Everything.

Like in Happiness, the word Grat-I-tude also has “I” in the middle, so start counting your blessings and I know for sure that many more will follow.

Happiness - The Most Elusive Emotion

2010-03-20T05:30:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of months, I have been mostly blogging reviews of movies and books, and so I wanted to blog on a topic, which is more deep and different. However, the problem with this approach is it takes a lot of time to research and form an opinion to write about something. I almost felt like being in a writer’s block, even though I was writing regularly. The thought to what I would blog in the next weekend kind of persisted throughout the week. Though I have some thoughts, philosophies or musings, I never post at this blog, since I think this blog is in a different genre. And then, it struck to me, since the blog is rushinspeaks, why can’t I blog what I perceive and hence this blog-post.

The idea of this post came from the very thought, why do I want to blog every weekend, what does writing give to me (except the funny feeling to see the small virtual amount of money in Adsense, which will never cross the needed $100 to give me any real money), and the answer was “Happiness”, hence the topic.

Disclaimer: This is a type of topic I don’t generally blog about and hence the flow may not set correctly, please bear with the same.

Happiness

For those who don’t know, the above clip is taken from the Famous Movie “The Pursuit of HappYness”, which is based on the life of Chris Garnder. The emotion on the face of Will Smith is the one of the best portrayals of this complex emotion we call happiness. True and pure happiness is the feeling when you, even in a crowd and when you cannot stop yourself from celebrating and feeling the bliss around. What is beautiful in this movie is a line, which Chris in his musings thinks of, a line for which we can all relate to, “It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what. How did he know that?”

Is it not true? Happiness, the emotion we seek, we look for it here, we look for it there and more often than not, we find that it completely eludes us. All our activities, the dedication and efforts we put in at our work, the meaningful relationships we have with our family and friends, our nature to seek growth and glory, from the biggest of actions to the small activity like reading or writing this blog-post, all of it happens in us trying to attain this momentary state-of-mind, the feeling we call happiness. And yet, ironically, the minute we reach there, in-a-wink, the feeling disappears and we begin our adventure once again. What is more disheartening is the fact that in transiting from one destination to another goal so focused we are on reaching the next milestone that we completely forget to enjoy the journey.

There is so much of a power-struggle in life, it’s almost like driving on the Express-Highway and focusing only on the road, trying to overtake the other cars in front of us, but what we fail to see is the beauty of the nature beyond the edges of the road. What is more sarcastic is the fact that we think we are moving towards the next hill station, the next pinnacle of happiness, but what we fail to see is that the trees, the lakes, the farms, the mountains, they are all right there, just by the sides of the road, when we are driving through. “But Alas! We have no time to stand and stare”.

Let’s think for a minute about a situation when we are truly happy. Let’s assume you wanted something badly and you got it, and you are happy briefly, only till we think of getting something else. So did the actual happiness come because of getting the first thing, actually no, if we dig deeper, we became happy because we became free from “Want”. For that one minute of happiness, we were at peace with the Universe, we were so contented with getting what we desired, that we had no other wants. So, in that sense than, Happiness is a feeling, which doesn’t depend on what we want, it depends on how we can keep ourselves contented with what we have. Ideally, this is the real reason of happiness, but unfortunately, we attribute to the success of getting what we had aspired and move on.

I took my own-self to test and came up a list of things which will make me happy. When I did a reanalysis, I found things like fame, glory, understanding family and friends, good health, interesting work, decent money topping my list. Nevertheless, if I look beneath the surface of what truly made me happy, I realized, most of these things are needed only to gratify my ego. Getting the above things will also not keep me happy forever; I will demand more once I get these. The problem with all of us is that the society has groomed us to think that our achievements define us, and to be “successful” means to be “better”, but is that really true?

Honestly, if we look at what things would have made us happy, say during probably our 12th Standard and the first few years of college time-frame, we would have things like higher education from a prestigious university, good stable job, decent salary, some growth and recognition, and probably an understanding spouse among other things on our list. Looking back today, we would have achieved some, if not all, of those things, but are we really happy, or is that list of “things which make me happy” changed now with a hundred other things? Moreover, when we have demands from others, we put some expectations in people beyond our control, and hence the outcome of their action defines our happiness, while actually since happiness is our-state-of-mind, it should only depend on us.

If we look at the Research done by Psychologists, Silvan Tomkins and Paul Ekman, I came across some part of their research in the book “Blink – The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” by Malcolm Gladwell, they came to a realization that just like our emotion and state of mind determines how our facial expression will be, i.e. we smile when we are happy, and frown when we are sad, but astonishingly the exact opposite of the above is also true. If we keep smiling forcibly, we are bound to become happy and if we keep frowning forcibly, we will become sad, angry and cranky. What the above discovery reinforces is the fact that happiness comes not by actions and their outcomes, but can be generated from within.

By saying the above, I am not saying we should not put effort to achieving anything, but we shouldn’t let the outcome affect ourselves. The simplest way to put it in one line, and yet probably one of the toughest thing to implement in our life is, “Enjoy truly what you have. Strive fully for what you want, but strive with the understanding that the joy is in the striving, not just getting what you wanted. If you succeed, enjoy it again, if you don’t, still enjoy the striving.”

Final Verdict:

I am so used to writing the “Final Verdict” title in all my blog-posts that I have put the same title here as well. I wrote this post because it made me happy, I hope reading it would have made you too. I am leaving all of us (even myself, when I forget what I preach) with the above picture to remind us that “Happiness lies in our Own Hands”.

Last but not the least, a thought that suddenly struck to me, I as in the person in contention, is so very closely related to this feeling called happiness, that the way the word is spelt, in itself tells us, Happ-I-ness. The "I" is at the center of the Happiness and we cannot gain this supreme state of bliss, again spelt with "I" at its center, unless we indulge ourselves fully with this emotion.

Do drop in a comment on whether you liked the post or not. If you did, that is great, if you did not and you reached this sentence, I sure am happy you strived to reach the till the end.

Right Ya Wrong - Is it worth Watching?

2010-03-14T05:50:00.000-07:00

I know I have been writing movie reviews a lot these days. I guess that can be blamed to my otherwise busy life in Synopsys Hyderabad, where I can’t have much time over the weekdays. The weekends, I generally watch a movie (though honestly, I am not a movie buff), and end up writing the review at the blog. Have got responses both-ways to carry on with this and to move back to the Current Topics, but with current less time at hand and movie at the Multiplex, I am writing yet-another movie review, with a promise that I will also write about the other things (when time permits ;-) ).

So here goes nothing, and in fact, on a fun note, the overall rating of this movie also matches the Overall rating of the last 2 movies I reviewed. If you do check the movie out, you can comment on whether the ratings are “Right Ya Wrong”.

Right Ya Wrong

Cast: Sunny Deol, Irrfan Khan, Isha Kopikar, Konkana Sen Sharma, Deepal Shaw, Aryan Vaid

Director: Neerraj Pathak

Overall Rating: 6.5 / 10.0 (A good thriller, slightly predictable, but a refreshing movie to watch, if there are no other plans)

The movie “Right Ya Wrong” starts with a climax scene and suddenly it moves back in a flashback. It is a story about a 2 friends Ajay Shridhar (Sunny Deol) and Vinay Patnaik (Irrfan Khan), both working as brave and valiant cops in the Goa Police Force. The movie starts of by showing them battling the bad guys together, each in his own style, while Vinay is a cool-headed cop, who analyzes the complete situation before taking any action and believes Justice is everything, Ajay on the other end is hot-headed and spontaneous, and he is also a risk-taker who also looks at the crime committed from a humane perspective and makes his own decisions.

The movie starts with Vinay and Ajay trying to catch the dreaded criminal Boris (Aryan Vaid), but then moves to a web of conspiracies, which involve Anshita (Isha Kopikar), who is Ajay’s wife and Sanjay, Ajay’s brother. The plot gets deeper with the post-interval entry of Lawyer Radhika (Konkana Sen Sharma), who also happens to be Vinay’s younger sister. Since the movie is supposed to be a thriller as per its genre, and there isn’t much that can be written without revealing the plot, I am directly moving to the “Rights and Wrongs” of the movie.

The Rights

Sunny Deol and Irrfan Khan, both have acted very well to portray the characters they were supposed to project. Their on-screen chemistry keeps the movie go on very smoothly. All the other actors, Isha Kopikar, Deepal Shaw and Sanjay plays her part well.
The script and the story-line keep the viewers excited and hence even though the movie becomes predictable at time, it never really gets boring. In fact, so evident is the climax, that I had a hard time finding a picture for this movie, which wouldn’t reveal the plot.
The first half is a bit slow and drags on, but the second half sweeps on pretty well. Also since the movie is about 2 hours, it doesn’t seem to be too long at any point.

The Wrongs

There seems to be a disconnect with the exact portrayal of Konkana Sen Sharma’s character, which doesn’t completely blend with the story-line.
Last but definitely not the least, like a lot other movies, this movie is also inspired from a Hollywood movie called “ABOVE SUSPICION”, so much so, that if you check this movie’s plot on IMBD (contains Spoilers, so don’t check it unless you want to know the plot), you will say it is an IMDB page with a Plot-Review of Right Ya Wrong.

Final Verdict:

I almost seem to be writing paradoxes, when I say the movie is a thriller and yet predictable, but then, this is one of those movies, where you can very easily suspect what will happen next, but still look forward to how the movie portrays the same. Thus, in spite of the movie being predictable, the movie is pretty enjoyable and can be watched once.

The movie also in some parts, puts some questions about ethics and justice, which the viewer can answer to himself, based on his own value system. And like any genuine ethical question, the review of a movie depends a lot on what the person who is reviewing liked or disliked in the movie, but all in all, if you ask me, whether seeing this movie on a normal care-free day (when you don’t have anything much to do), would be a “right or wrong” choice, I’d say:

Right Choice, just go with less expectations and enjoy the flow of the movie.

Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?

2010-03-07T02:21:00.000-08:00

This weekend, I had a trip planned for Bangalore and so had been thinking of what I would blog about. However, the joke turned out on me, since Synopsys Bangalore took us out for a Movie, which was ironically titled “Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?”, a question, which was asked repeatedly to me by my colleagues in the Bangalore office, though, hopefully, not with the thought of sending me away. ;-)

Nevertheless, to give justice to my Bangalore trip, and make the expensive Inox ticket feel worthwhile, here’s a review on the same movie.

Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Paresh Rawal

Director: Ashwini Dhir

Overall Rating: 6.5 / 10.0 (A good movie to watch, if there are no other plans)

The movie begins in the Metropolis of Mumbai, depicting a typical nuclear family, trying to survive the hardships of the competitive cosmopolitan life. Welcome to the home of Puneet (Ajay Devgan) and Munmun (Konkana Sen Sharma) and their kid, comprising a family, who has never ever welcomed any guests, since they never had time to keep contact with people, owing to their fast life.

Things are going smooth in some sense, till Lambodar Chacha (Paresh Rawal), a distant relative from Gorakhpur suddenly drops in uninvited at their home to pay a visit. For the first time, the family has to make small sacrifices to accommodate this guest in their home and they still try to cope up with the situation maturely. However, pretty soon they realize that Chachaji has no immediate plans of returning back and this is when things start getting topsy-turvy.

The story shows beautifully how the inclusion of a person from a small village or town can impact the lifestyle of the modern urban family. Munmun has to wake up early in the morning to make breakfast for chachaji, thus adjusting her routine, which can impact her productivity at her job. Puneet, called Pappu lovingly by Chachaji, also falls prey to the illiterate Chachaji’s rural gambits. To make matters worse, Chachaji with his loving and inviting nature also brings home, friends and neighbors, who tag along with him, adding to the woes of Puneet’s family.

“Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge” mirrors a reality of the new generation, where the family being victimized by the perils of the guest feels that their privacy and happiness is threatened. The ways in which the family reacts to the guest and tries to send-him-off is what makes the movie funny. On a comic sense, Chachaji also has some gastric problems, which adds an element of laughter. And yet, the movie shows the upsides of this rustic guest, who lovingly installs good “sanskaar” in the kid of the family, teaching him to be ethical and more responsible.

Final Verdict:

The movie is a synthesis of satire in the new-age urban life and strong virtues of traditional Indian family system. The movie though is about 2 hours long, seemed to comprise of various parts, and atleast some of these chapters, weren’t really needed and were probably added to drag the movie along. Paresh Rawal acts his beautifully and Ajay Devgan and Konkana also do well for their respective roles, and yet the movie isn’t a real pleasure.

Nevertheless, the movie does have some parts which bring giggles, and also tries to convey a good message. But this makes the movie a combination of “Hera Pheri” and “Baghban”, which though is nice and watchable, cannot have the humor, seriousness or the charisma of either of the movies.

Last but not the least, it is watchable for all the people who want to relax and laugh with a packet of popcorn in their hands after a hectic week of hard work, and carry home a good message as well. Reminding the viewers of the traditional movies of 1980s timeframe, the “Atithi” will probably settle in the guest-room of your heart.

Karthik Calling Karthik

2010-02-28T05:12:00.000-08:00

Cast: Farhan Akthar, Deepika Padukone, Sheefali Chhaya

Director: Vijay Lalvani

Overall Rating: 6.5 / 10.0 (A good movie to watch, if there are no other plans)

The movie Karthik Calling Karthik, starts with the portrayal of Karthik (Farhan Akthar), as a low on self-confidence and hence low on self esteem, hard-working guy. His straight-forward nature and self-formed fears have made the subject of exploitation from everyone; from his greedy and wily land-lord and smart colleagues at work to his ever-cribbing boss, who gets all the work done by him and takes away the credit without even thanking him for his effort once. Ironically, even the people who bullied him did not need to boss-around or threaten him, and even a whimper would scare Karthik, who would silently bear all the pain, and do all the hard-work fearing a reprisal. The start of this movie almost reminded me of another movie like “Rocket Singh”.

The movie also adds a romantic twist, the entry of Karthik’s dashing dream-girl Shonali (Deepika Padukone), who has worked with him in the same office for 4 years, but doesn’t even know that he exists. The story trudges slowly and suddenly Karthik loses his job, and in midst of all this depression, Karthik thinks of ending his life on his birthday, when at 5 AM in the morning, he receives a “phone-call”, a phone-call, which as mentioned in the commercials, changes his life for the better or the worse.

The person on the other end of the line claims to be Karthik himself. After initial resistance, the LOSER Karthik decides to listen to his mentor on the other side of the phone. The mentor Karthik seems to be sort of a Steven Covey or a Dale Carnegie, if you may, who grooms Karthik to become a better man. He listens to the insecurities of Karthik, imbibes positive thoughts and incorporates confidence in Karthik. He also plans both personal and professional strategies for Karthik, which is fun to watch. The same LOSER Karthik now almost undergoes a metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a butterfly. He not only subdues his landlord with his new skills, but he also convinces his boss into giving a much better job, and more importantly finds a place in the heart of his romanticized angel.

However, as all good things come to an end, Karthik’s dream streak also reaches its end once Shonali finds out that he receives phone-calls from his imaginary self, and asks him to make a decision and pick either her or his so-called mentor. And, one-day Karthik doesn’t pick up the call of his mentor and things start going in a downward spiral for him ever since. Since Karthik goes against his mentor, the Guardian Angel suddenly becomes the Messenger of Death for him. He ensures that Karthik suffers falls in both his professional and love-life, ushering him back to his world of miseries.

The movie moves back and forth, trying to then answer the questions like:

Who's the other Karthik and why is he calling Karthik? What can Karthik do to free himself from the menace of the other Karthik’s wrath, and will he succeed in resolving the issues in his life?

Final Verdict:

The movie in a nutshell shows the trauma and stress surrounding the current corporate scenario and fast lifestyle. We have on one hand an exploited and depressed worker Karthik, who is trying to set his life on track; and Shonali, who has had too many bad relationships, and is trying to bring some stability to her life.

Personally, I felt the storyline went on too slowly, and yet, with witty and sarcastic dialogues, the movie kept going on. The end is almost abrupt, and before you can fully comprehend the movie-flow and get into the flow of it, the credits start popping in.

Nevertheless, Farhan Akthar has done a marvelous job, acting almost like a chameleon, moving from the dull-boy to happening-guy and so on. It is a movie with a new topic, and the freshness along-with the comical thrill will probably make the movie sail thorough. It’s a good movie to watch, if you have no other plans, and look forward to seeing a light and yet serious flick.

Up in the Air - A movie Review

2010-02-20T12:55:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday, I was sitting in the Hyderabad airport, waiting for my flight to arrive, and thinking on what should be my next blog topic. Suddenly out of nowhere, I got reminded of this recent flick that I had seen which seemed to be a complete match to my wait for the flight situation. And so, here is my review on “Up in the Air” literally written up in the air, on-board my Flight from Hyderabad to Ahmedabad.

Up in the Air

Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick

Director: Jason Reitman

Overall Rating: 7.5/10.0 (A very good movie to watch)

For most of us, the very thought of taking a flight reminds us of endless queues for luggage checkin, waiting a grueling amount of time before the boarding commences and then the flight itself, where we are made to breathe recycled air, given some cookies and snacks, while time gets spent looking at the clouds, without nothing much in sight. However, this is the story about Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), who is kind of obsessed with the thoughts of flying, so much so, that he prefers to be on-the-move, rather than stay snuggled on the ground.

In his life on the ground, Ryan works for a company, which takes the outsourcing of the work of downsizing people. This means that Ryan is always on the move, going from one city to another, visiting the offices of the loser-bosses as he calls them, and helping them by discussing with the to-be-fired employees about their dismissal. The idea of travelling is also perfect for Ryan who wants to keep earning more sky miles and reach a magic figure of 10 million miles, as a sense of personal achievement. He keeps buying and spending all of the allocated corporate allowances to ensure that his sky-miles keep getting maxed out. The idea behind this is to ensure excellent loyalty-related services for being a preferred customer. Things seem to be going pretty smooth for Ryan, when all of a sudden; Natalie (Anna Kendrick) enters the scene. Natalie is a 23-year old graduate from Cornell, who is all set to revolutionize the way firing is done, by bringing in ideas like using Remote Access Video Conferencing to lay-off people and having set of instructions, almost an algorithm to inform people about their lay-off.

Being the big-fish in town, Ryan obviously doesn’t like the changes and he takes Natalie with him “on-the-road” so that she understands the need for the human presence when the axe is lowered. The idea is to explain to Natalie, that the way she treats this business makes it seem like a presumed human resource expert, who follows a set of instructions and has no grasp of the human character. On the other hand, Ryan fires people sitting face to face, with a smile on his face, and sometimes even giving a pat at the back of the employee being downsized, doesn’t hurt the person on the other side of the table as much. In fact, he even tries at times to make the person realize that it is a blessing-in-disguise and they should look forward for tomorrow, with renewed hope and energy. It is this journey in which, while teaching Natalie the emotional side of the job; that Ryan figures out a lot about himself. For the first time, he understands the importance of family and friends in life.

The story also takes a slight romantic twist when Ryan meets Alex (Vera Farmiga), who is also a high-flying executive and probably as mile-hungry as him. Their perception of life and definition of relationships though seem to be inhumane to most of us, are perfect for each other, and thus this adds a new chapter in the story.

The movie also shows Ryan as a public speaker, who takes sessions on explaining people how to work and how to fly. He comes up with this theory of packing the life in a single back-pack. The idea he lives by is that the higher the luggage, the slower you will be able to move. He goes on to say that emotional baggage is also a baggage, and carrying it will slow you down in life. As he says, "The slower we move, the faster we die."

Final Verdict:

To put it in short, this is a movie about Ryan, a downsizing expert, whose everyday brushes with people to be fired, their anguish and despair have left him falsely compassionate, living out of suitcase and loving every second of it, trying to protect his way of life from the prying eyes of Natalie, who wants to ground him by using Remote Access to do the job instead. And yet, the genre of the movie is comedy, in spite of all the layoffs and the depression the movie talks about.

Though the movie is not completely flawless, the movie comes with a beautiful message portraying the impact of lay off in the life of a person, but more importantly, the part, when in the post-layoff counseling, most of the people who were given the pink slip, speak up about the support and understanding of their families and friends, due to which they could sail over the trauma.

All in all, Up in the Air, is definitely a good watch, for the beautiful handling of a sensitive topic, which brings us closer to ourselves. By any chance, if you are going to travel by an International Airlines like Emirates, which give you a choice of movies to be watched, “Up in the Air” should definitely top the list of the movies to be watched while you are up in the air.

My Name is Khan - Review of A Highly Awaited Movie

2010-02-14T06:32:00.000-08:00

Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Jimmy Shergill, Zarina Waha

Director: Karan Johar

Overall Rating: 8.0/10.0 (A movie which is definitely worth a watch)

“My name is Khan” was one of the most awaited films in the year 2010. For anyone who saw the trailer, the base of the storyline seems clear, whatever be the issues, questions about national and religious identities, lack of support from near and dear ones or not completely sound mental state, what Rizwan Khan (Shahrukh Khan) wants to convey to people divided with prejudices and the racist behavior unfolding in the United States as an aftermath of 9/11 is that, “My name is Khan, and I am not a Terrorist.”

The story starts with Rizwan Khan as a kid in the slums of Mumbai, who is suffering from a medical condition called Asperger’s syndrome. This condition causes him to have fear of new places, feeling of insecurity when in crowded places, hyper-sensitive to loud sounds and scared of bright colors like yellow. He also cannot easily communicate his feelings, and he can view the world factually, but not emotionally. Nevertheless he is a genius when it comes to brain-power and becomes popular in his mohallah (locality) since he can fix almost all electronics. Being specially-abled, results him in getting more of his mother’s attention, which leads to sibling jealousy and rivalry with his younger brother. (Jimmy Shergil)

The story moves on and years later, when his mother dies, Rizwan moves to the United States, with his brother, who then ushers him into the business of selling beauty products. Though he is afraid of new places, let alone new people, Rizwan battles on in this new phase of his life as a salesman. This is when he meets Mandeera (Kajol ), who is a hair stylist at one of the beauty parlors where he goes to sell the beauty products. Mandeera is a Hindu by religion, and also a single mother, whose husband left her and eloped with another woman when she was 22. The first half of the movie moves on in this phase, with Rizwan trying to woo over Mandeera in his “normal” way asking her to marry him. Finally, the movie reaches its peak of happiness when Mandeera marries Rizwan and even Sam (Mandeera’a son) becomes Rizwan’s best friend.

Then comes the next era, which as Rizwan puts it is the third era. The first is BC, the second is AD and the third is Post-9/11 era. The United States goes in frenzy and Rizwan’s Dream-world is shattered. His son and “only-best friend” Sam becomes a victim of a racist attack, because he shares the last name “Khan” from Rizwan Khan. In a state of shock, Mandeera accuses Rizwan for being a part of her world and asks him to meet the President of United States and convey to him the message that, he is a muslim and not all muslims are terrorists. The rest of the movie conveys parts and pieces this journey, with its highs and lows, of this differently-abled common-man wanting to meet the President against all odds.

Not wanting to have any spoilers, I am avoiding the risk of spilling more information about the story. However, the movie has some wonderful incidents and witty one-liners. It contains even aspects like Presidential change from George Bush to Barack Obama, but most of all, it shows us a glimpse of the post-9/11 United States, where saying Allah in a public place is as good as committing a crime and uttering the word terrorist and having a last name “Khan” is proof enough to lock you up for interrogation without giving you legal rights. But the wonderful aspect of the movie is the fact that Rizwan sticks to his goodliness, which has become a part of his character from his mother’s teaching.

For me, the highest point in the movie is that part when Hindu-Muslim riots were on in the city and young Rizwan enters home reiterating what the people outside were saying about Hindus being bad and should be killed, his mother, draws 2 stick figures, one with a stick and another with a lollipop and asks Rizwan which stick figure is good and which is bad. When Rizwan says the one with stick is bad and one with lollipop is good, she asks which of the stick figures is a Hindu and which it is a Muslim? When young Rizwan is unable to tell the difference, she says, the only division this world has among people is that there are good people and there are bad people. There is no other way to divide people like caste, creed or color, everything boils down to just “good people” and “bad people”. This is one thing that sticks together with Rizwan, and when he is on his quest to meet the President, and cannot do it at a Presidential fund-raiser, since it is open to Christians only, he leaves back his $ 500, which he gathered for his event and says, “Keep the money, it is for the people in Africa, who are not Christians”.

Final Verdict:

This movie sees the trio of Karan Johar, Shahrukh Khan and Kajol in an area of Cinema, where they have never ventured before as a team. Shahrukh does really well to move out of his normal chocolate-boy roles, but in some parts of the movie, the transition doesn’t seem to be complete, however, it is a meaty role which is played well. Kajol plays her part pretty well, and Shankar Ehsan Loy music add wonderful sound tracks taking the movie to the next level.

To be honest, this is not a movie without flaws, and yet it is a wonderful watch irrespective of its shortcomings. I felt the movie was about 20 minutes long, and it could have been shortened in some places to make it more compact and more effective. However, the characters, their struggles and the realities they face live with you even when you walk out of the theatre hall. The broad mindedness and the tolerance that the movie resonates with is a necessary lesson for every citizen in our small-globalized world.

And in a lighter vein, due to the confusion in the city of Mumbai for the release of this movie, since Shahrukh made some statements about Pakistani players not being a part of the 3rd Indian Premier League, which the Shiv Sena did not quite approve, probably the next quest for Shahrukh would be to meet Bal Thakrey and tell him, “My name is Khan and I am not an Unpatriotic Indian”.

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

2010-01-31T03:02:00.001-08:00

Overall Rating: 7.5/10.0

“Stay Hungry Stay Foolish” is a very catchy phrase, which was first used by Steve Jobs in his speech for the convocation of students at Stanford University, however, title apart, the book has nothing to do with Apple or Steve Jobs. On the other hand, this book is an amalgamation of entrepreneurial achievements of 25 alumni of IIM-Ahmedabad. The book has been published by Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, IIM-Ahmedabad in 8 languages, and it topped the as the #1 Best-Seller in India Today’s “Non-Fiction” category.

As per Rashmi Bansal, the Entrepreneurs in the book, and by extrapolating this logic, even elsewhere can be broadly classified into 3 categories.

THE BELIEVERS:
People who knew entrepreneurship was the Chosen Path. They took the plunge straight after their MBA or after working barely a couple of years. And they persevered until they made it big!

THE OPPORTUNISTS:
These entrepreneurs did not plan to take this path but when opportunity knocked they seized it. Their stories go to show that you don't have to be 'born with it', you can develop an entrepreneurial bent of mind at any age.

THE ALTERNATE VISION:
These individuals are using entrepreneurship to create social impact. Or as a platform which allows them creative expression.

The Praises (Positives)
The language used in the book is very lucid and straightforward. Also the book comprises of short interviews of each of the chosen-25, which is followed by their advice to the aspiring entrepreneurs. This “pearls of advices” are a concise version of what they have learnt in their years of hard work and struggle, and hence very inspiring to both the prospective and the struggling entrepreneurs.

The other wonderful thing that has been taken care of here is that the entrepreneurs are chosen from different aspects of the business world, unlike the so-called technocrats who have had a huge share of the limelight, thanks to the IT Revolution. Except the “software-related” success stories, the book also covers the conventional fields of hotel management, pharmacy, polymer-related water tanks and the sugar industry. However, the thing that touched my heart was the fact that the book also covers the Social-Responsibility aspect of the Entrepreneurship and covers Educational institutes and Financial Institutes which help the rural development among others.

In reading the real-life experiences of the interviewees, you will be able to relate to your dreams, your aspirations and even some of the experiences, which you have already undergone, are undergoing, or will undergo in the future, if you take the bold step in direction of entrepreneurship. To be really honest, reading all these stories, not only rekindled the entrepreneur in me (after all, most Gujatratis want to own their own business), but it also aroused a feeling of nostalgia for all the Business-related case-studies we used to work on during our college days. I guess, this book can be a starting point for the B-School students, when they want to look into case-studies, however, they would need to do more research on their own.

The Brick-Bats (Negatives)
The book also has some short-comings, which can turn people off from reading it. Since all the people featured in this book are from IIM-A, it seems more like an Alumni-Achievement Report, and hence people cannot directly relate to it. Also, the main thing that turned me off was the fact that most of the people considered did their MBA from IIM-A in 1970s and 1980s, when getting into the institute was much easier with a lot lesser competition and once they got a job, the job profiles they got as freshers were a lot higher than where any of the average people with a similar education history, which directly stops us from correlating their stories with the current market situation.

Moreover, about 15 of the stories have the same “abstract”, where the interviewee's story goes like this, my parents were ignorant or passive, I took CAT, made it to IIM-A, toiled at an MNC for a few years, got a great idea, worked on my new idea, and here I am, owner of a multi-million dollar organization. It almost seems like reading the same story over and over again. On a personal note, I felt that there could have been some more optimizations w.r.t. the people selected for the book. There is no mention of people like Chetan Bhagat (who is also an author) and Harsha Bhogle, who too are IIM-A Alumni, who left their MNC jobs to follow their hearts’ passion.

Another thing I found amiss here is that the level of research done for the entrepreneurs mentioned in the book is pretty less as compared to what is expected. Barring a few exceptions, the stories are missing the people around the interviewees, i.e. their families and friends who supported them in the ups and downs of their journey. The book also misses explaining some terms, and some business models in detail, which lead the readers to a state of not being able to completely grasp the stories. Also the English version book has places, where suddenly in the middle of a line; the author mentions some thoughts in Hindi, which break the flow of language.

Final Verdict:
All said and done, irrespective of the shortcomings with language, depth or any other criticisms, “Stay Hungry Stay Foolish” still manages to convey the ideas crisply in few pages and that's the essence of the book.

At just Rs 125 for a new copy, the book is cheaper than having a lunch/dinner at most of the Restaurants. However, even if you skip a meal to buy this book, since the book is bound to imbibe some wisdom into you, you won’t be able to “Stay Hungry and Stay Foolish”.

2 States – The Story Of My Marriage

2010-01-24T21:42:00.000-08:00

Overall Rating: 7.0/10.0

I finally managed to get down reading and now reviewing “2 States” the latest novel penned by Chetan Bhagat. This is a book about the “love-life” and the marriage of a Punjabi boy and a Tamilian girl, who met each other at IIM-A. Of course, as per Chetan Bhagat, this book is a work of fiction, but the fact that it is inspired from his life can be gauged from the fact that his wife is also from Tamil Nadu and they met at IIM-A. The witty part however, is the fact that this piece of literature is dedicated to Chetan Bhagat’s “in-laws”.

The Story

Like all his previous books, this book too is supposed to be a book with a “Happy Ending”. The lead characters Krish Malhotra (a Punjabi Boy) and Ananya Swaminathan (a Tamilian Girl), who meet as classmates in IIM-Ahmedabad and the end result comes from the title itself, i.e. the boy marries the girl.

The storyline of their meeting and falling in love moves very fast indeed. The boy and the girl have a rendezvous on the first page in the first chapter itself, they become friends by the second chapter, kiss by chapter 6 and sex by chapter 7. The real story starts when their parents meet for the first time during their convocation, jolting them out of their dream-world and the things start going sour. So, in a book which has 63 Chapters, the “I love you” happens in the first 1/9th part if you may, and that is when the reality mentioned in the starting of the book makes sense.

Love marriages around the world are simple:
Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. They get married.
In India, there are a few more steps:
Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy.
Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl.
Girl's Family has to love Boy's Family. Boy's family has to love girl's family.
Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.

Needless to say, there is the typical Chetan Bhagat style of writing where the lead characters are rebels and try to break the rules of their society. The book seems to be a “continuation” of Five-Point-Someone with “Hari”, now in light as “Krish”. There are references to having an affair with Professor’s daughter during his undergraduation at IIT-Delhi. Moreover, there is also a mention during Krish’s interview with CitiBank regarding a missed semester, during his undergraduate studies, which Krish corrects as calling it “Research Semester”.

The book depicts Ananya, who is a Tamil-Brahmin eating non-veg and boozing, which is against her social culture. In a very light fashion, Chetan Bhagat also shows the fact how some of the students take up careers without their actual interest just for the sake of money. It also shows the Indian mentality on topics like pre-marital sex, nuances of regions and religions and the social stigma of inter-caste marriages.

The book is based on a concept that has been covered countless times in innumerable Bollywood movies (it reminded me of Dil-Wale-Dulhaniya-Le-Jayenge). The funny and yet heartening was the fact that when Krish proposed later in the book, asking Ananya’s hand-in-marriage, he proposed to the entire Swaminathan family and bought rings for all of them. On the whole, it is a sweet story, where the kids though madly in love, don’t just elope together and respect the feelings of their family members; and yet, they also don’t their parents influence their choice of their life-partner.

Final Verdict:

To quote something that I figured out over time, Chetan Bhagat’s books always have something to do with numbers in the title. I even found a similar discovery from someone else on the Internet.

Five-Point Someone
One Night @ The Call Centre
Three Mistakes of My Life
Two States

Nevertheless, the book doesn’t meet the expectations to make it reach a “Four” out of 5 on the rating, so probably, his next title needs to have a “Four” to complete his set of 1-5. It’s not a literary classic and not reading the book won’t make you feel as if you are missing something. However, with its witty jokes, though sometimes regional, the book never turns boring, if you pick it up to read. To summarize, since the book just costs Rs. 95, which is lesser than a single movie ticket in the Multiplex, it is well-worth the money.

BT Brinjal – Can we BeaT it?

2010-01-17T06:22:00.000-08:00

Over the last few days, there has been much of a fuss about the newly designed Genetically-Modified BT Brinjal, which was given an approval by Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of India, declaring it fit for human-consumption and hence open for Farmers to start planting it. So, here am I, writing my bit on this topic.

What is the BT Brinjal? What are the Advantages? Actually the word Bt stands for “Bacillus thuringiensis”, which is a soil bacteria, and hence the BT Brinjal is actually the normal Brinjal, with an additional gene from the Bt bacteria, which produces Bt protein. This new Brinjal was researched on by Mahyco (Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company) and is promoted by University of Agriculture Sciences, Dharwad, and Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore.

Actually, India is the “heart-place” for the Brinjals, and the egg-plant has been cultivated since last 4000-odd years. Though there are many local varieties and hybrids of this plant, Brinjal is highly prone to pest attacks. According to a recent survey, it is estimated that the damage caused by the Shoot & Fruit Borer in brinjal ranges from 50 to 70% and in economic terms, it is estimated to be around $221 millions. It is to lend tolerance to this pest primarily that the Bt Brinjal has been developed. The Bt protein is supposed to make the Brinjal plant resistant to a lot of known parasites of the plant and hence increase the yield of the produce. Moreover, this will also ensure that the farmers will need to use lesser insecticides, which will not only result in less poison spraying, but will also be cost-effective to the farmers. Also, the Mahyco plans to price the seed in a cost-recovery model and hence it will be affordable to all farmers.

The Alarming Facts
Though the benefits and the promises look wonderful on paper, the current safety assessments are not sufficient to verify whether the Genetically-Modified are completely safe. There was an assessment done by a bunch of NGOs including “Green Peace” and others, which did not deem the Bt Brinjal as wonderful a reality as is portrayed. Some of those points, are as follows:

Rats fed Bt brinjal had diarrhoea, increased water consumption; decrease in liver weight, and liver to body weight.
Cattle showed increased weight gain, intake of more dry roughage matter and milk production up by 10-14 percent as if they were treated by a hormone.
When fed to animals, effects were observed on blood chemistry. Also there was a visible impact on blood clotting time (prothrombin), total bilirubin (liver health), and alkaline phosphate in goats and rabbits.
Also, the Bt Brinjal tests did not include the impact on other species like butterflies/moths which depend on flowers.

Moreover, there are concerns regarding how will we be able to manage the cross-pollination which happens in Bt Brinjal and it’s other varients. Also, if all the farmers move to this one brand, wouldn’t we be losing the “Bio-diversity” and the “Gene-Pool” which has developed in the different varieties of Brinjal in the different parts of the world.

Other GM-related Precedents

Farmers reported massive loss in soil fertility after growing Bt Cotton for a few years. Disease incidence on Bt Cotton is also seen to be higher than on non-Bt Cotton. Also, there are alarming reports now that lot of animals died after feeding on plants of Bt Cotton farms, adding to the concerns that many farmers developed different allergies due to Bt cotton production.

A study from Phillippines shows that people living next to Bt Corn crop fields had developed many mysterious symptoms, especially during pollination time.

Worldwide, it is generally accepted that more studies are needed to understand the impact of Bt toxin on soil ecology. Natural Bt toxins have never been authorized for mammalian consumption and are known to be harmful to health.

The Harsh Reality

Nevertheless, since GEAC approved the Bt Brinjal, it was almost set to some into the Indian Supermarkets. If allowed, Bt Brinjal, would be the first food crop in the world with the Bt gene inserted into it that is to be directly consumed by human beings. Hence, the results not too certain and yet, Indians are subject to be made “guinea pigs” due to the approval of the GEAC.

The shimmer of hope lies in the fact that the product needs to have a final approval from the environment ministry. In October 2009, when the issue came up, there was wide-spread protest from informed consumers, NGOs and farmers-alike to stop this product from coming. This led to a Press Release where Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh said that he will have a series of consultations with all the stake holders in January and February 2010 before finalizing his views.

There is one more problem, in India, there is no proper labelling, which tells the consumer whether the product he is buying is “Genetically-Modified” or not. Hence the consumer is never in a position to choose whether he wants to try the new product or not.

Final Say

I am not the one, who is against Change, but I tend to be pessimistic (if you may), when the stakes are too high and when I don’t have faith in the analysis of the problem at hand. I am not against Bio-Technology and amazing potential it can bring forth, but until we are truly sure of our capacities and have all the issues/variables sorted out, I prefer to remain with what Mother-Nature has given to us. More specifically, when it comes to Brinjal, there are known to be other safer alternatives than Bt Brinjal, or even better practices, which kind of weed-out the need of Bt Brinjal, and so, honestly I wouldn’t want this product to hit the stands. If really the Bt Brinjal is sanctioned, I'll probably stop taking brinjal in my food (I don't like it much anyways). But what will we do if all the crops/vegetables follow the same suit?

Last but not the least True to his word, Jairamji in now on a Country-wide tour, asking and meeting people for their opinion. There are going to be rallies for the same in different parts of the country on different days. Great if we can get ourselves heard physically, but with the advent of technology, ifcannot be physically present, the least we can do is take a minute from our busy schedule and Fill this Form and show our Protest virtually. (It opens a page from the Green-Peace NGO in a new window)

Aman Ki Asha – Let’s bring Peace in this New Decade!

2010-01-10T04:27:00.000-08:00

This is one topic I wanted to write since Jan 1, 2010, when I picked up the Times Of India and saw the title “Peace with Pakistan: Give Tomorrow A Chance”.

What exactly is Aman Ki Asha?

Aman ki Asha is a joint initiative taken by two very powerful Media Houses, Times of India (India) and the Jang Group (Pakistan), to bring the people of the subcontinent back together on social, cultural, emotional and economic fronts. The two countries have been in constant fight over various issues, ever since they got partitioned over 6 decades ago. India and Pakistan have fought many wars in the past over territory issues. After partition there were fights for Kashmir occupation, followed by fight in 1960s and 1971 (Bangladesh partition), followed by Kargil. The reasons of these fights may include few of the following views.

Indian View - We Fight for Our Protection
Time and again India has blamed Pakistani militants and terrorists of entering the border and creating havoc in our motherland. There is said to be strong anti-Indian sentiment in Pakistani army and ISI, which is wrecking the possibilities of peaceful ties between the 2 countries.

Pakistani View – We fight for Our Existence
Still there is a wrong notion in Pakistan that India split them into half, creating Bangladesh. There is also a lot of dissatisfaction due to the Kashmir issue. This sentiment of hatred is further aided by other issues like sharing of river water and sudden success of India.

Consolidating the Views to form a Real Picture

The hatred between the countries have now reached a height where, some people, unfortunately, highly educated and powerful people look at the people from the other side of the border with complete distrust. As an Indian, while I am disheartened to see the massacre of innocent masses on this side of the border by Jihadi forces (which we presume are from Pakistan); I am pretty sure, there will be someone else in Pakistan, feeling the same emotion for the deaths of innocent people due to the activists from RAW.
Though we know for a fact, that not all Pakistani residents are bad, and unfortunately, not all Indian residents are good, there is still a bunch of people who don’t acknowledge this fact, and hence the countries are unable to move on from the gory-past of the Partition.

Why Aman Ki Asha is a Good Initiative?
A large bunch of the new educated citizens of both India and Pakistan form their views from what the media feds them. In past, we have seen the horrific articles on some terrorist activity somewhere, missile testing to threaten the other country, various racist or nationalist articles and in some way, at least for a small period of time, we get stimulated by the tune of the writer. Unfortunately, instead of giving us good news, these media sources generally talked about pessimism and failed negotiations. But then, can we really blame the media? I guess not. Don’t we as readers tend to focus on the negative-sensational news rather than read an editorial of some philosophy? The negative emotion buried deep inside us keeps getting reinforced with each such incident and we start forming wrong ideologies.
Now, with two of the major Groups coming up with initiative to appreciate what we have in common, rather than why we are fighting, it will slowly trigger in changing the decades-old feeling of rage and hatred in the newer generation. Print media is one of the most widely reaching means of communicating with the masses and what we really need is wider and deeper engagement to tear down the walls that separate us, and clear the misconceptions we harbour about each other.

Why should we do it?

Most of the articles I read boil down to fundamentally these questions.
Why us?
They did wrong to us, why should we forget what happened to us?
Shouldn’t they acknowledge and apologize first to us?
Why do we even need them in the first place?
The answer is simple. It’s better “living together” rather than “dying fighting each other”. A politically-stable and developed Pakistan is as much in an interest of India, as it is for Pakistan. Unlike the past, waging a war is not even an option now, and both the countries are now facing internal chaos because of the radicals and terrorists taking over. Also on the monetary side, if Kasab (the 26/11 lone surviving terrorist) is to be believed, he did not take to arms because of hatred for India, it was just because, it would have brought prosperity to his family. What we don’t realize is that, the amount of money both countries can save by not fighting each-other can actually push the two countries much faster and much further on the list of the “Developed Countries”.

Final Take

I have read a small number of blogs on this topics (both Indian and Pakistani), and found that there is more optimism than pessimism in the views of the people. To quote what Kamla Bhasin wrote in the Times of India.
“I always found it strange that leaders who will unleash wars and decide to cut off contacts between people continue to meet, while those who think Wars are absurd can’t meet.”
Should the good intentions of hundreds of millions of Indians and Pakistanis be subverted by a few hardliners and radicals? Certainly not.
I read a lot of blogs, which seem to suggest that this is a marketing gimmick and nothing more; but all I wanted to comment is, marketing or not, it is a new start and it gives hope. We are not fancying endless optimism here and saying, the two countries, aided with just this one initiative of two groups (which again is neither the first, nor the most ambitious) will kiss and make up. However, it may be just one of those “yet-another-small-steps” which finally helped us complete the journey of a thousand miles.

I am not sure if we are all ready for the plunge as yet, but,
I hope that there will be a day when we will have that trust and friendship back,
I hope a time will come, when Indians and Pakistanis won’t need be suspected as terrorists if they went to meet their brothers across the border.
I hope there will be a time, when we will be able to use the words “India, Pakistan and Peace” in one sentence without using any negative word in the middle.
I hope...

3 Idiots – All Izz Not Well!!!

2010-01-02T06:17:00.000-08:00

Well, the title by no means tries to convey that the movie is bad or anything. In fact, I watched the movie last weekend with my School friends in Ahmedabad and completely fell in love with the movie. More specifically, the lucid way in which the movie shows the “peer-pressure” and the mind-set of most Indian homes was absolutely amazing. Being a student in an Engineering College myself, I saw first-hand the reasons why some of my fellow-students took up engineering and also the issues they faced because of difference in their aptitude as against their field of specialization.

Nevertheless, this is not a movie review, a lot of people have already reviewed this movie by now and there is one review in particular, written by a friend of mine at 3 Idiots: A must watch for every Non-Idiot!, which is pretty close to what I would have written, and hence there is no real need for me to have a redundant post. This is however, a post on the recent row that is going on between Chetan Bhagat, the author of the book Five-point someone and the movie’s lead actor Amir Khan, film producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra and director Rajkumar Hirani.

The controversy about the credit stealing sparked based on Chetan Bhagat’s blog post, which contained the statement “Pre-release, the makers made press statements like the movie is ‘very loosely’, or 2-5% inspired by the book”. Also, he seemed to suggest that the movie has almost 70% material taken from the book. This claim was supported by big names like Shashi Tharoor, Veer Sanghvi alongwith various other journalists and fans. Chetan Bhagat also went on to comment that he had put blind faith in the Production unit of 3-Idiots and now he felt back-stabbed since the movie gives the credit for the story-line to script-writer Abhijat Joshi and director Rajkumar Hirani, while he just got a small mention at the end of the movie.

On the other hand, the 3-Idiots representatives, i.e. Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Amir Khan jumped into the fray trying to defend their stand. Vidhu Vinod Chopra almost shouted at the Journalists in Noida that he had read the book and it wasn’t a copy from the book. Amir on his part denied the claim that the movie wasn’t based 70% on the book (without he himself having read the book), and criticized Bhagat’s being “publicity-hungry”, since the movie had become a HUGE HIT. Amir Khan went on to suggest that the Vidhu Vinod Chopra Production House already possesses the rights of the book and there was already an agreement that was reached between Chetan Bhagat and the Production House regarding the rights and the credit-sharing. Amir Khan also charged Chetan Bhagat with trying to take credit away from the 3-Idiots team for coming up with a fabulous adaptation to his book, and that was not expected from a writer of his stature.

Finally, Chetan Bhagat stood his ground, trying to defend his stand, with interviews, where he shows similarities in the movie and the book one-by-one. Since Chetan Bhagat was not allowed to see the movie before it hits the screens, he couldn’t object earlier. On the other hand, Vidhu Vinod Chopra closed the topic saying that since they bought the “rights” of the book, it was at their discretion, whether they wanted to copy 5% or 70%.

The Indian Media in its own sense has also added a lot of fuel to the fire and made this a big issue. Also, some of the statements are shown with a bias, which will not resolve the issue easily. All in all, the row is bound to keep going on, at least for sometime now.

Final Verdict:

We are bound to see more fights on this, may or may not be legal, but credits are something everyone involved here is craving for. On a personal note, I realize how painful it feels if you first read the book, then see the movie and check for the kind of credits given to Chetan Bhagat; you will feel saddened.

Nevertheless, I believe, either good or bad, publicity is publicity, and it will help both the movie and the book. But a row about such a nice book and a very refreshing movie does tend to show that for such a fight between the “3-Idiots” Chetan Bhagat, Amir Khan and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, my personal rating on a scale of 10 would be “Five-Point-Someone”, I mean “Five-Point-Something”.

An Inconvenient Truth - A movie which needs to be watched by everyone

2009-12-24T22:23:00.000-08:00

Last week, our Leaders, the representatives of our human race met at Copenhagen and decided our future, or decided if we should have a future or not. In my personal opinion, they let us down. To an extent, they delivered words, but when it came to actions, we saw none.

So, as a citizen of this beautiful planet, and to my knowledge, the only habitable planet, it boils down to us individuals to help initiate the change we want to bring about. Very honestly speaking, we can’t just blame the Leaders, since in their shoes; we too would take a similar step, since the support from public still needs a long way to go, before a leader can promise drastic changes. Also, a lot of the issue is caused by the fact that people are ignorant, or probably less motivated, and keeping that view in mind, I am writing this “Movie Review”, or should I say Documentary Review.

An Inconvenient Truth
Cast: Al Gore

Director: Davis Guggenheim

Rating: 9.0/10.0 (You really need to see this)

As is known, or would be clear by now, the movie is a Global Warning on the Global Warming issue. Very straightforwardly put, the movie revolves around a “glorified” Powerpoint Presentation on Global Warming that Al Gore supposedly gave more than a thousand times by the time this movie was made (i.e. 2005), along with some of his quiet musings and a decent background sound track, which as an movie would sound pretty dumb and boring, but the some brilliant direction and the catchy and crisp presentation skills of Al Gore keep the viewers interested. On a personal note, I never knew that Al Gore anything more than yet another American Politician, till he was actually bestowed the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, and the Indian media was abuzz about this movie.

The movie, which on the whole enlightens the viewers (though I had earlier thought of using the word depresses) about what harm the uncontrolled and unchecked human activity is doing to the environment and what will happen when nature reacts back, has its own set of light moments. For instance, while introducing him-self, Al Gore starts by saying, “I am Al Gore, and I used to be the next President of the United States of America”. The obvious reaction is a giggle from the audience, and to this he retorts saying, “I don’t find that particularly funny”. The movie is laden from time to time with such moments, which make us smile, even when we are buying some facts which show us the horrific picture of the future.

Though Al Gore is not a scientist, he has the air of a Professor, who can explain the even the boring parts of studies with a creative use of pictures, animations and jokes. I cannot think of any other movie, where seeing the red lines of the graphs, the audience gasp (I am not talking of office, where CEO shows loss and people sigh). The pictures used for explanation are very powerful and even the future speculations of what will get submerged strike a chord with the viewers immediately. This is coupled with a really cute video from the world of Simpsons, which in a comic way show us the gravity of the problem.

There are a few more areas of concern, which the movie cites with examples. While there is Zero disagreement over the fact that human actions are causing the temperatures to go up, taking a sample of 925 recent scientific papers on this subject, the normal population looks at this possibility with an almost 50% chance of agreement with this fact, showing that a lot of us are still ignorant, or probably possess half-knowledge.

All in all, Al Gore in a very subtle way proves to the viewers, all his view points, and convinces the layman about what went wrong, and what it will result into. There is a part in the movie, where he shows the choices the Politicians have, and shows us a Scale, which has “Gold” on one side, which stands for economic development and prosperity, and on the other hand, we have “The Entire Planet”. And then, when he has to choose, he just looks greedily at the gold, and goes hmmm. Doesn’t this strike a chord with what just happened at Copenhagen, with different countries fighting it over development and emission rates?

Since there is no fear of revealing any plot here, I am putting some of the facts that were put into the movie.
· The ten hottest years in the last 200 years came in the last 14 years.
· The data from Antarctica’s ice show that the current concentration of carbon-dioxide is the highest as compared to all historical data going back million years ago.
· Mumbai had a severe downpour of rain of 37 inches, highest in any city in India.
· There are lot of glaciers and mountain ranges, where we see the amount of ice retreating giving rise to water.

To be really honest, the movie leaves the viewer with a sense of despair, since the facts shown are pretty depressing and though Al Gore tries to imbibe the fact that we still have time and all hope is not lost, it doesn’t really sound convincing. However, in a nutshell, Al Gore’s presentation not only deserves, but also demands the viewer’s rapt attention.

Final Verdict:
The best thing about this movie is that it teaches you the same Green House effect, which most of us probably in our school days, and yet it makes you passionate about our planet, in a way you would have never felt before. Also, the movie does an impartial analysis of the human race and doesn’t point to a specific Political Party, Country or an Industry. On a personal note, the line that Al Gore repeatedly said, got stuck into my mind, that Saving the Environment is more of a “Moral concern” rather than a Political issue, and hence, each one of us should do what we can for saving our Home.
All in all, if you ask me, “Should I watch this movie?”
I would like to answer it saying, “Watch it, so your children don’t need to tell you, why did you not wake up, when you could have saved our planet and our existence? When you proclaim to be the most-evolved and the smartest species on this planet, why did you not act responsibly when you still had time?” A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, now it is the time for you to see the movie and awaken.

Copenhagen Conference 2009 – Did it "REALLY" change anything?

2009-12-20T08:42:00.000-08:00

Just the last week we had the ONE OF THE BIGGEST event in probably the history of mankind, where all the supposedly important people from the 192 countries of the world, met at Copenhagen, Denmark to decide the fate of humankind. In brief, our so-called leaders met to decide on how to reduce the pollution we are causing and save our planet’s self-sustained ecosystem, before we reach a chain-reaction that causes changes which threaten the existence of a lot of species, including ours. ore so, this meeting is decided to chalk-out a successor to the renowned Kyoto protocol.

What is the Kyoto Protocol?

On Dec 11, 1997, with a moral-view in mind, a protocol was inked in Kyoto, Japan under the realms of United Nations for the reduction in the carbon emissions by the developed nations and the European Union. Now, in 2009, we have 187 countries, who have ratified this Protocol.

Nevertheless, among the developed nations, the United States, responsible for the highest emissions and Australia have not ratified this protocol as yet. Also, a lot of the countries, who signed up for this protocol are not able to meet up with the required figures. Though this was a good beginning, the scientific data shows that the checks are not enough and we will need to go one more step to stop our actions, if we want to stop the nature’s alteration. Thus, with that view in mind, and with the hope that Barack Obama, would act more responsibly as compared to George Bush, who exclaimed that reducing the emissions would hurt US economy, the Copenhagen Summit was organized.

The Change is Coming
The latest scientific evidence seems to suggest that the Earth’s ecological system is changing much faster as compared to earlier predictions. This is also due to the fact that the countries like China and India, which are home to almost 33% of the world population, are developing fast. Due to this, the emissions are increasing rapidly. Moreover, the emission levels from even the so-called developed countries have increased, putting more pressure on the environment. Major issues are expected for the island countries and the countries at lower sea-level. Other issues with increased temperature will include reduction in food production. Moreover, for India, the melting of the Himalayas’ glaciers will result in lack of water in Ganges and Brahmaputra, leading to major destabilization in the region.

The United States vs. China – A Deadlock
It is probably a human-tendency to just blame the others for whatever wrong has happened, and it is in this habit of ours, that we forget to look and gauge the existing situation and don’t salvage what can be stored while we keep fighting and blaming the others. The Copenhagen Conference saw a similar display of this human trait, albeit at a larger level and probably with something as importance as our existence at stake.

There was a tussle regarding the emission levels between the Developing nations and the already Developed nations. While the developed nations demanded equal stakes for all, the developing nations argued that they were at the brink of growing and cannot be equated with the former ones. Also, it was argued that while US and EU were not subjected to such laws when they were growing, why should India and China be.

There was a bigger issue between the United States and China, which are now, by far the highest emitters of green-house gases. While the US asked for independent evaluations of emissions, the Chinese refused vehemently stating it would be a threat to their sovereignty. So while the Chinese refused to budge from their own projections, there was not much that came as an offer from the United States, which instead of reducing their emissions by 15-17% of 1990 levels, only promised about 4% reduction.

The Final Outcome
As a last day measure, Barack Obama offered an aid of $100bn-a-year fund for the developing countries to move to the global goal of halving the emissions by 2050. This is only for the countries who join the Copenhagen Accord, which is the new outcome of this Conference, since nothing really concrete was pledged. Even the Accord doesn’t really boast of specific commitments and numbers, so things are pretty much in the wait-and-watch mode. And if the new agreement doesn’t include China, which is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, it would be a significant drawback towards a Universal deal.

Hence, all in all, the Copenhagen Conference ended with a much inspiration, but no action way. The final conclusion was that the United States, China and India reached a “meaningful agreement”. And as per the officials, a very diplomatic answer was echoed, that though none of the countries was fully satisfied, this Conference was a step, albeit small, in paving a way for the future.

Why the Conference Failed and the Errors
I believe the Conference failed because they had too many leaders to decide who was to do what. In fact, I read a few articles on the internet and found that, for this Conference 1,200 limos and 140 private planes were used to ensure the leaders and their delegates (15000+ people) were catered to. According to the organizers, the eleven-day conference, including the participants' travel, will create a total of 41,000 tonnes of "carbon dioxide equivalent".

Most of these people are not needed at the Conference, but they are present because none of the Leaders want to take the accountability of the issues. Moreover, instead of giving figures, which can be tracked and noted, say 8-10% reduction in 5 years, the World-Leaders are talking about Pledges of reducing the Carbon-emissions by 80% in 2050. I wonder if any of them (knowing the average age of the leaders), would be alive at that time, and leave alone, being in Power.

My Take on this Issue
All I can suggest we do is, reduce our carbon emissions as responsible species of this planet, encourage the use of alternative sources of energy, plant more trees and do whatever else we can for saving our Home – Planet Earth. In the end, if nothing works out, just move to Lands away from Seas and at higher sea-levels, with a few Air-Conditioners and a stock of Electronic Batteries, which lasts your lifetime.

Rocket Singh - Salesman of the year

2009-12-13T05:53:00.001-08:00

Oh well! Here I am, back with another post this weekend, which is kind of funny after my long period of estivation, but then there is logic for that. ;-)
Well, what has happened is that a group of us friends have taken initiative and have formalized a Synopsys Group for weekend leisure and the two activities we sincerely follow are playing Volleyball and watching a movie. And I kind of gave myself another commitment, to write about any movie I see in the Synopsys Movie Club as we call it. ;-)

So, for the movie I saw this weekend; here goes nothing...

Rocket Singh - Salesman of the Year

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Prem Chopra, Gauhar Khan, Manish Choudhary, D. Santosh, Mukesh Bhatt, Naveen Kaushik, Shazahn Padamsee

Director: Shimit Amin

Overall Rating: 6.5/10.0 (A good movie to watch, if there are no other plans)

The movie Rocket Singh, revolves around Harpreet Singh Bedi (Ranbir Kapoor), who is a happy-go-lucky Sardar. Just cleared his B.Com., with borderline marks, and having a futile year in study-life, Harpreet is still optimistic about life and dreams of becoming a great “Sales Man”, the job he thinks doesn’t need qualifications, but needs quick thinking and persistence.

So, armed with his confidence and enthusiasm, and of course, his credentials, he starts looking for an appropriate job, and finally lands at AYS, a firm, which sells computers and provides service-contracts for computer maintenance. However, once into the job, he realizes that the “ideals” that his Grandfather (Prem Chopra) had imbibed into him are non-existent and he sees around him the complete opposite. One reason why every Professional, who does a job, will like to see this movie, is that, this is probably the first movie, which very effectively captures and shows the day-to-day office politics, cut-throat competition and the bitching, that exists in office environment. Also, this is shown very brilliantly by excellent acting from the bosses Nitin (Naveen Kaushik) and Sunil Puri (Manish Choudhary), who want absolutely no-nonsense, very competitive and at times even rude.

Harpreet tries his hand at learning the “new” tricks-of-the-trade, which include things like filing wrong information, spying on the competitors, and using everything, from bribes to office politics in your favor for getting your deals and meeting the targets, but fails miserably, since the ideals imbibed into him, cannot be undone so easily. This leads to a mistake, leading to more aggressive targets for his co-workers and in the wake of anger, his colleagues not only make fun of Harpreet, but also keep throwing rockets (paper-planes) at him, and if this was not enough, he gets some “real” criticism from his superiors; which leads to dynamic change of events in Harpreet’s so far silent and straightforward life.

The plot has been well-managed by all the co-actors, and their acting is definitely worth mentioning. All the actors, D. Santosh as Giri, a computer expert, Gauhar Khan as Koena, the ambitious and talented receptionist and Mukesh Bhatt as Chhotelal the Peon live upto their characters. Newcomer Shazahn Padamsee adds a romantic twist to the tale, but her part of the act actually doesn’t have much, to judge her acting capability. However, Prem Chopra’s role as Harpreet’s GrandPa is as refreshing to watch as ever.

Final Verdict:

On the whole, the movie is pretty straightforward, and relatively dry as compared to what the trailers depicted. The one loss I had while going to see this movie is to go with a mindset of a comedy movie, and finding none in return. And yet, the film has some pretty catchy lines, which keeps the audience amazed, but they are too few. My personal favorite is the line which goes, “Risk to Spiderman ko bhi lena padta hein, mein to phir bhi Salesman hoon.” (Even Spiderman needs to take risks; I am just a salesman), and then it has the catchy background music, which goes “Pocket mein Rocket Hein… Rocket Singh”, which is the only lip-synching sound track in the movie.

Another thing the movie lacks is a decent sound track. On a personal note, I felt the story went too slow at times, making it almost a documentary on the lives of Sales-men, and that it could have been made more amusing. Rocket Singh may not fit everybody’s idea of having a good time at the movie, nevertheless, the message the movie sends is very good. If you don’t go to see the movie expecting a comedy flick, you’ll realize, the movie delivers a much needed wakeup call to our conscience.

The Lost Symbol - A Sneak Peak

2009-12-12T04:07:00.000-08:00

Overall Rating: 7.5/10.0

I finally managed to get down reading and now reviewing Dan Brown’s Latest Book “The Lost Symbol”. The problem with writing a critique on this Latest Best-seller, which sold more than one million copies on 16th September, i.e. the day of its launch and also reaching the #1 position on Amazon.com sales, is that there needs to be a lot of care taken to ensure that the review is useful, and yet doesn’t reveal the slightest things about the plot. However, I am trying to take care to ensure, I have no spoilers here, which may spoil the fun of the blog-readers, who haven’t had their share of reading this book as yet.

Like all of Dan’s novels, even the Last Symbol, has hidden groups, shady enclaves and hidden secrets, which unfold at each and every turn. The story moves with our dear Prof. Robert Langdon (who is now 3 books old), moving in yet-another quest, which challenges his in-depth knowledge of ancient societies and symbols.

The story this time is about the “circles-inside-circles” in the Free-Masons society, which is hiding some secret, which yields un-imaginable power to the person, who can solve the mystery and reach the conclusion. However, as with his other books, Dan Brown, includes some facts of history, which are probably also mixed with some of his creative fantasies, which creates a fusion, the readers would find completely invigorating. One major difference here is that, the story happens right there, in the heart of Washington D.C., the Capital of United States, and yet, we find the reading as fascinating as it would have been Venice.

One point I’d really like to mention here is that, in this book, the role of the villain here is very well managed. You may find the villain early, and may not get the shock-value, like in the older books, because you know Dan Brown, but the actions are so villainous and kind of brutal, that you feel like dumping the villain in front of an Express train and see him getting trampled. This very fact is a definition of a villainous job well-done.

Why I liked this book?

The Lost Symbol is a page-turning thriller – but the main reason why I loved this book lies in the fact that unlike his other books, in this book, there is a revelation. The book kind of reveals the importance and opens the readers to the thoughts of “tolerance” towards other people, their customs and religions, and also makes the readers ponder about the existence of “the Supreme Element - God”.

This is done, in a self-realization, when Langdon tries to defend the Free Masons society, whose customs are first shown kind of satanic and a cult, till Langdon gives explanations and forces the readers to not be judgmental since, all customs will look the same way unless properly explained and looked at a bias.

What I did not like in this book?

One major drawback that turned me down was the constant self-denial the character of Robert Langdon had for the happenings around him. He keeps trying to fight out everything stating, it cannot be real and that all this is just a myth. I had hoped that the character would have matured to believe anything, especially after what happened to him in the earlier books (Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons), where he found truth, which was even stranger than fiction.

Final Verdict:

I guess, here I need to answer the question most readers will probably be posing. “Is this book better than Da Vinci Code?”

Well, in my humble opinion, the answer is “Yes, the book is better than Da Vinci Code”. However, my personal favorite still remains Angels and Demons. Yet I believe, Dan Brown has done excellent work in this book (barring Grammatical mistakes). Some of the points he puts really makes us have self-realizations, while others make us have thrills. Take a copy and read the first chapter, I won’t ask you to read more. And while enjoying this “dessert for the brain”, don’t forget to have your meals for the body.

Red Cliff - A Review of the Western (English) Version

2009-12-06T06:10:00.000-08:00

Hi Guys,

I had been BUSY, these last few weeks or months, if you may.
For those of you who don't know, I was off to the United States for some Official work for about 6 weeks. Further more, I visited HOME, for a couple weeks on my return, making me EMOTIONALLY FULL and PHYSICALLY depleted. Giving all the above excuses, what I am sadly trying to admit is that I haven't been able to blog regularly, since my weekends, had been really hectic. But life is back to normal (at least as of now), so I will be trying to get back to my schedule of blogging once-a-week. :-)

To all my readers, Sorry to Keep you waiting, and now, getting down to Business. :-)

Red Cliff - A Review of the Western (English) Version

Cast: Tony Leung, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen, Chi-Ling Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Hu Jun

Director: John Woo

Overall Rating: 7.0/10.0 (A good movie to watch)

Before I start this review, there is a Disclaimer about this movie.

Since this is an actual movie of almost 5 hour length, which is compressed into 2.5 hours for English audiences, there are notable areas where movie’s story suddenly seems to go off-the-track. Also, a 50% reduction in the show-time cannot be loss-less and hence there are some things, which happen unexplained in the movie, and the audience is supposed to use its-own-imagination to understand the context.

The Storyline:

The movie is set in ancient China, where there are seemingly 3 kingdoms, one on the North and the other two are relatively on the Southern-side. The Northern empire became stronger and the ambitious Prime-minister named “Cao Cao”, made the “puppet” emperor to allow a full-fledged attack on the Southern warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan, by calling them Rebels, who were traitors to the empire.

This is followed by a series of battles, first between the armies of Cao Cao with Liu Bei, where the completely outnumbered soldiers in Liu Bei’s side try to fight as long as they can to ensure the peasants and the common men can escape the wrath of Cao Cao, before they are defeated. In this process, the most notable thing that happens is that General Zhao Yun saves the life of the infant, who is the heir to the throne of Liu Bei while fighting in the battle and towards the end of this battle, when he is cornered and running, Cao Cao admires the loyalty the great Generals have towards Liu Bei.

This loss results in a fleeing Liu Bei’s Viceroy to go and convince Sun Quan to formulate an alliance with them, even when Liu Bei’s armies are much smaller, and just defeated. The alliance is a success when Zhou Yu, the most trusted Advisor and Viceroy of Sun Quan gets convinced that war is inevitable, and only joining forces do they have a chance to protect themselves from the threat of being run-over by Cao Cao’s army.

The story now becomes interesting as the Cao Cao makes plans for his attacks in various formulations, whereas Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang, (the strategists from Liu Bei and Sun Quan), try to reverse engineer Cao Cao’s attacking strategies and try to defend their stands. What is more beautiful to see is the sentiment that Cao Cao harbors, that though he has the strength of armies in numbers, they are all soldiers, who were imprisoned from previous wars, and hence, their loyalties were shacky, whereas though the opposition had fewer soldiers and notably some great war-heroes, they were all loyal to their respective leaders.

The alliance of Liu Bei and Sun Quan, brings a consensus amongst armies, one which is well trained and in high morale, and the other having strong and inspirational leaders, thus making their combination a force to reckon with. The action sequences, atleast the picturization of the armies and the scenic beauty are a pure spectacle to look out for in the movie. However, it is the whole chess-like battle planning and strategizing that awes the audience the most and leave them yearning for more.

Final Verdict:

It is a good war-movie, but the cuts probably took off some of the storyline with it, jerking the audience out-of-sync with the storyline and making the movie difficult-to-comprehend. On a personal note, it made me nostalgic a lot, about “Age-of-Empires”, as I saw similar visuals, same type of infantry and cavalry units, coupled with the siege weapons and even the navy.

On the whole, I walked out of the theatre, pondering, “Damn! That is some war-time strategizing, and some really awesome military formations, but was there anything more in the story except the war?”

If you ask me, “Should I watch it?”, all I can say is,

The action sequences and the cinematography are absolutely awesome. If it helps to know, this is the most expensive movie in Asia-Pacific region till date. However, the real answer depends on whether you would like to see a few hundred thousand men, fighting with medieval weaponry in a historic backdrop and/or if you love “Age-of-empires”, watch it to remember the “good-times”.

Bandra-Worli Sealink - An Indian Achievement or a Hoax?

2009-07-05T06:28:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday morning, July 1 of 2009, the Indian Government finally rolled out what is officially called “Rajiv Gandhi Setu”. More formally known as the “Bandra-Worli Sea link”, it is believed to be one of the most complex and advanced construction endeavor ever in India. In simpler terms, this Sea-link is a 8-lane cable supported bridge which is built over the sea to join two of the most busy areas of Mumbai to provide ease to traffic congestion problems.

The History

Till this bridge was envisioned and even constructed, the only link that could connect the Western suburbs of Mumbai to the main city was the Mahim Causeway, which is a very old link (made sometime in 19th Century). The problem faced was that the existing Causeway is not scalable to meet the needs of the ever-growing traffic in Mumbai and there is very heavy congestion especially in the peak hours. The estimated numbers show that more than 120000 cars use this way for daily commuting and the stretch of 7.7 km from Mahim to Worli takes about 40 minutes. The vision was to reduce this time in commuting to just around 7 minutes. Moreover, having a parallel route would also divide the traffic and hence reduce the congestion.

Finally, in 1999, Shiv Sena laid the foundation of this ambitious project, which the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation awarded to Hindustan Construction Company with the initial deadline of Dec 2004 (which was later revised twice to Dec 2007 and then Dec 2008). However, the construction was stalled due to varied reasons like lack of funds, payment disputes, opposition from fishermen groups and other changes in design structure and finally, it is now partially finished after one decade of long wait in 2009.

Facts and Benefits
The length of the bridge is an astounding 4.7 km over the sea-surface and the weight is almost 670000 tonnes. The massive structure is held together by main towers of height 126 metres, which is roughly 43 storey (floors).

The bridge is going to have very hi-tech features like automated toll-collection lanes to reduce the turn-around-time and the vehicles using the bridge will be able to avoid 29 traffic lights. There will be automated systems which authenticate the toll pass in a matter of seconds and the bridge is also installed with 12 camera, which will be used to monitor the movement and ensure safety on the bridge. With an estimated traffic of 125000 vehicles, the bridge is going to save almost Rs 100 crore annually from transportation front alone.

The 8-lanes on the bridges (once all are functional), will not only reduce the traffic in the Mahim causeway, but will also add significantly to the Tourism image of the city, especially with the concepts of open-bus/cars giving the passengers a cool drive over the sea. On the same lines, the bridge is going to be fitted with various fountains and plantations which will beautify the jewel on the crown like bridge in the city of Mumbai.

The Criticism

Instead of just saying good things about the bridge and saying that India is doing great, we should also see some issues where things could have been better.

The initial cost of the bridge was estimated to 300 crore and the completion in 2004, however, the actual cost is now estimated to have crossed 1600 crores (almost 5 times the estimation) and this number dwarfs the amount of savings and hence the benefits of the sea-link by a great deal.

Also, according to various traffic experts, though the bridge will reduce the travel time from 40 minutes to 7 minutes, this duration is just from the end points of the sea-link. Since the impact and the handling of the traffic congestion at the Worli end is not thorough of yet, the actual travel time will be as high as almost 25 minutes, which kind of negates the very purpose of the bridge.

The last and surely not the least point that we have to consider here is that a toll of Rs 50 is going to be collected for each one-way trip on the sea-link, which per se, is going to dissuade many of the commuters, unless they see a real improvement in time.

Final Verdict

I feel that though the Bandra-Worli sea link project is hyped so much about and understandably it is a massive project which gives us Indians a sense of satisfaction. However, though a step in the right direction, the sea-link doesn’t live upto the expectations. There is still a lot to be learnt from this project and improve before we can truly proclaim that we too can have and build “World-class” infrastructure.