Unicorn

Noun: unicorn 'yooni'korn An imaginary creature represented as a white horse with a long horn growing from its forehead. Though the popular image of the unicorn is that of a white horse differing only in the horn, the traditional unicorn has a billy-goat beard, a lion's tail, and cloven hoofs, which distinguish him from a horse. Interestingly, these modifications make the horned ungulate more realistic, since only cloven-hoofed animals have horns.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

A peek into a foot-note in Indian History

"Mangal Pandey". A name that does not reverberate in Indian history. A name forgotten among the countless sons of the soil who died for this motherland, A name that is more of a folklore than fact. A name that has been reduced to a mere foot note in the annals of Indian History until an actor plans to paint it on the magnificent canvas called "Celluloid" to satisfy his creative urge!

"Mangal Pandey - The Rising" is the story of Mangal Pandey, a sepoy in the East India Company. A soldier who rose in rebellion against an empire. Mangal Pandey's name is usually associated with the start of the revolt of 1857 (dubbed the First War of Indian Independence). I have never come across any bigger reference to Mangal's life than the 4-page article in the Dean's Big Book of Knowledge Encyclopedia (Hamlyn Publishers, London) on "The Revolt of 1857" during my readings. Even the best treatise on Indian History that I have read so far -"The Discovery of India" by Jawaharlal Nehru also just makes a fleeting mention of Mangal Pandey. Why was not he credited with lighting the wick for the bomb that finally ended "company-raj" (rule of the East India Company) in India? Probably having his roots in the masses, representing the common man was his undoing. Historians might have dismissed this "sepoy" as a minor character. All the other heroes of the first war of independence were Kings, Nawabs and a Queen.

The only other celluloid work that depicts the life of Mangal Pandey, as far as I know, was a lone episode of the TV series "Bharat: Ek Khoj" by Shyam Benegal (Which was aired on Doordarshan) on the first war of Indian Independence. The work of the director should be commended in translating less than two pages of history into an over two-hour movie on celluloid. The actor and star of the movie, Aamir Khan deserves a pat in the back not only for his performance but also for giving away the project four years of his life at the peak of his career to satisfy the perfectionist in him. Special mention needs to be made of Toby Stephens (plays Major William Gordon in the movie) who has almost as much footage in the movie as Aamir Khan. The director Ketan Mehta tries to portray the Indian society at that point of time with the untouchability and sati. Mangal Pandey's character is shown practicing "untouchability" while Major Gordon was shown with a "Bentick-ish" bent of mind who opposed social evils. The director shows justification for this sort of behavior by a "firang" by giving a brief biography of Gordon in the voice over attributing it to Gordon's birth in the lower social strata of the English society. The main reason for the anger of the sepoys was shown to be the newly arrived greased catridges. The catridges were supposedly greased with the fat of cows which the Hindus consider sacred and that of pigs which the Muslims hate. History shows that this was that lead to the spark of mutiny among the sepoys. The director follows the time-tested pattern of presenting folklore in Indian cinema: "Singing Minstrels". Even the film is titled "The ballad of Mangal Pandey". This was precisely the same technique which Shyam Benegal used in "Bharat: Ek Khoj", successfully. The character which plays another crucial role in the film is the "untouchable" sweeper who brings all the gossip and grapevine to Mangal. The director was correct in making the character a harbinger of news, both good and bad, in the absence of news sources. He being a sweeper only helped the cause because a sweeper can mix into the surroundings and become anonymous and yet can hear what people were talking about while going about his job. Om Puri, who played a crucial role in the TV series (apart from doing the voice-over he played the roles of Ravana, Duryodhana, Mohummud Ghori, Srikrishna Devaraya as far as I can remember) also plays a pivotal role here by doing the voice over. The movie ends with the public hanging of Mangal Pandey. The revolt made Queen Victoria abolish the rule of the Company and bring India under her rule. In a way Mangal's objective was achieved. I think with this movie Mangal Pandey was given his due share of credit in history. Truly the team of this movie deserves a standing ovation.

Why did the Queen bring India under her rule? Was it sympathy towards our suffering? I would doubt that because East India Company was rampant with corruption and the officers were making money. Instead the Queen probably wanted the revenue to be directed to the treasury of England! Were the catridges the only reason why the revolt occurred? Probably not the only reason: The Company introduced policies like "Doctrine of Lapse" that annexes local kingdoms into British territory when the King has no lawful heir! So the kings and Nawabs united. The farmers were forced to grow opium and indigo which were the items the East India Company traded in instead of rice or wheat. So farmers who could not subsist on the meager price the company paid and were dying of hunger. The Kings and Nawabs either surrendered or were subjugated. Now comes the most important question - Why did Indians join the army and help the English in conquest of our own motherland? They say it was the uniform, the pay and finally the guns. In the absence of good means of livelihood the people probably joined the Company's army in large numbers. At this point of time it would be good to bring the fact that Indians in English army were not promoted beyond the post of a "Subedar" into light. This point was also a major cause of unrest in the Indians in the Company's army.

The question that comes to my mind when I think of the first war of Indian Independence is "Were we ready to rule ourselves at that point of time?" Ruling ourselves was probably the most outrageous paradigm people then might have heard! What would independence 90 years ahead of time do to India? Would we have been on par with US or China today? Or would we have been plunged into civil war to decide who rules the people? We will never know. But the fact remains that we have always been comfortable under the rule of Kings and Dynasties (even to the present day).

Note:
1. Lord William Bentick was the Governor-General of East India Company who ushered in a many a social reform in the Indian society by abolishing child marriages and Sati.

2. The Doctrine of Lapse was introduced by Lord Dulhousie.

3. "Bharat: Ek Khoj" was the most ambitious project on Indian Television with the series spanning over two and a half years!


Saturday, September 24, 2005

Eye of the storm

Having lived most of my life in a town (now officially designated a City with the Mayoral elections to be held today) on the coastline, especially living in a house that is just 4 kilometers from the beach I have seen the raging cyclones many times over. It so happened that most of the time they struck the coast in the evenings - The torrential rains and gales all passed away in the dead of the night. No power. No telephone. No light. The scariest of all - No sound apart from the howling of the wind and pounding of rain on the roof. Occasional flashes of lightning reveal the dangerously swaying coconut trees in the neighbors' yard. The pinkish white glow that comes in the background makes it eerie. The thunder that follows a few seconds later is defeaning. It is the one time where I feel my large bed room window should never have been that large! All I could wish for during those hours was for the rapid approach of dawn. The ghoulish images of roof tops getting blown away, rising tides, drowning in water all pass through my mind when the fierce winds pass right by my window, making their eerie "whoosh" sound while I lie silently in my bed praying deep inside my heart that the concrete roof above my head has enough strength left in it to with stand the gale! Somewhere in the night my tired mind and eyes take rest.

I wake up at dawn to the few sun rays that manage to make it to earth cutting through the dense cloud cover and pass through my window. It is morning. Not the usual one because there is no work to do today. The All India Radio is the only thing that keeps you updated. No hurry on either mom's or dad's part as like always their workplaces will be submerged in knee-deep water. I have nothing much to do either apart from waiting for the newspaper to usher in news of the destruction or silently running through my favorite books in the collection. It never ceases to amaze me how these newspaper boys manage to brave all the rain, gale and submerged roads to throw in the paper at around 10 AM.

It has been a long time since I have witnessed the fury of nature first hand. Like I said it was always in the night most of the time. The last time I remember seeing a cyclone hitting the coast in broad daylight was in class 10. The second time happened to be this Monday (19-09-05). All the images I only imagined but never saw because of the darkness unveiled right in front of me in the field of view of my bed room window. The rain that started trickling down late on Sunday evening matured into a torrential fall the next morning and continued to haunt the skyline until late in the afternoon of Tuesday. When the skies cleared it left a trail of destruction. People say that this cyclone was our very own "Katrina". But I would dare to disagree because I think I have seen worse than this. I would prefer rating the one I have seen in class 10 (Nov '96) on par with "Katrina". To those of you who fancy comparing this present one to Katrina, I give you this: I cannot forget the haunting images of dead bodies both human and animal, floating around in the water at the place where river Godavari meets the sea. I still remember the image of a hungry street dog picking at the rotten flesh of a cadaver on the beach. The things that I heard on the news - that the relief workers are still entangling bodies from the mangrove forests (Point where Godavari meets the sea in the Kakinada coastline which is dotted with woods - The same type which you find in "Sunder bans" in Bengal) even days after the storm passed. That was the only time in my life probably when I have spent my time with out power in the house for more than 5 days. It is also the only time when our school remained closed for 10 straight days expecting the life to return to normalcy. That my friends would have been the havoc a Katrina would have wreaked. But we were lucky this time. By the grace of God life returned to normalcy in the city in just 3 days! Yet power did not return until late in the evening of Wednesday. After making 3 trips to the power sub-station that supplies us and filing a complaint that power was not restored - To my relief, They did it. I cannot blame them because they were short on man-power and equipment and power cables were dangling all over the place! They had to race against time before people got hurt.

In the absence of communication, road and rail links, my mobile phone was my only source of contact with Hyderabad. Since I couldn't recharge the battery, I had to conserve its charge. I was convinced that I had exceptionally good battery pack installed on my mobile when it sustained with out recharge for 3 days (I last recharged it Sunday morning). It became a ritual of sorts for me going to the station every morning from Tuesday on and canceling the previous days tickets and reserving anew for the next day's train in hope that services might be restored.

The remarkable thing this time around was that apart from my books, radio, coffee and bed to keep me company I had one more - Sudoku puzzles. Call it the dance of destruction, Misery for the poor, Call me incompassionate: The fact remains that those few days (Which is probably about once in 2-3 years) where I spend my time sans the conveniences of modern life like TV, Electricity, Internet and Music are the ones that I savor the most. They demonstrate how simply life can be led. I revel that time probably because I have so much time to brood and pursue my most favorite hobby - Book reading with unrestricted freedom and without the distractions of modern life.

The Monk who sold his Ferrari

I went to Kakinada last weekend only to get stranded there for another 5 days due to the cyclone and its aftermath. In the 4 days I was at Kakinada, I finished reading the book "The Monk who sold his Ferrari". I thought I should make into a PPT so that I can remember those principles because they appeared very logical to me and this is one of the first books that concentrates on change from with in rather then exterior changes.

The story of the Monk who sold his Ferrari begins with a hot-shot trial lawyer, Julian Mantle, crashing with a heart attack inside a packed court room. We hear the story through the lips of John - his assistant. After the incident Julian sells all his material belongings including his proud possession - His red Ferrari. He leaves his busy practice and sails off to India in search of spiritual enlightenment. He returns after 4 years and by that time his junior, John is managing the show at the law firm. After the few introductory chapters the rest of the book is the conversation between the transformed Julian (The Monk) and John. Julian shares his principles with John after extracting a promise from him that he would spread the wisdom around. The principles and techniques Julian tells John are very old ones and yet the anecdotes and quotes through the course of this literary work relate the same age-old principles to the current way of life. The seven timeless principles are:

1.Master your mind
2.Follow your purpose
3.Practice Kaizen
4.Live with discipline
5.Respect your time
6.Selflessly serve others
7.Embrace the present

Thursday, September 15, 2005

The "Warrior" planet!


Many of us probably know about Planet X by now all thanks to the media! But there is another scoop in store. Astronomers who discovered the planet (Michael Brown of Caltech, Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii, and David Rabinowitz of Yale University)were calling it "Xena" (Planet "X"). During their internal communications. But the people who discovered it have no authority to name it. The authority rests with the International Astronomical Union who officially designated the planet 2003 UB313 which as you can see is very boring. So there are lots of discussions going on in the internet speculating about what the planet should be named. The discussions are reasonable because this is the first time a planet has been discovered after the proliferation of the internet and so all the netizens would believe that they will have a say in the naming of the new planet. "Xena" seems to be a likely contender owing to the "X" factor which stands for both number 10 in Roman numerals and also X in English alphabet is used to represent the unknown in algebra (Scientists were searching for this unknown planet). But what ever it is my vote is definitely for naming the planet as "Xena". If you for some odd reason think that I have made up this story then you can click on the following links to take you to the related news articles (One of them is actually from the BBC):

The tenth planet

The warrior planet

BBC News - Astronomers discover 10th planet

Top 10 names for the tenth planet

Engineer's Day

To all my fellow engineers who passed out of the innumerable colleges and universities around India:

Wishing you all the best in all you future endeavours on an "Engineer's Day"

Note: Today is the birthday of noted Engineer Mokshagundam Visweswarayya which is observed as Engineer's day in India

My watches

Ever since I was a child most of the presents I get on my birthday were either books, alarm clocks or watches. Why people always give me those is the question I failed to understand till this day. My room is literally brimming with alarm clocks. Lots of tones, lots of models which have accumulated over the years. It seems odd to me that the first watch that I had was not given to me by my father but by my Maternal Uncle. He was consistent in giving me the latest models until the year 1999. That was when he gave me the magnificent black Sonata that I am wearing now. The clock work is perfect. In the six years that I had the watch it went for a battery replacement just twice - yesterday being the latest! The other watch that I sport is the gold-color coated Timewell. This was presented to me by my father's best friend incidentally also in 1999, when I joined my engineering. That was when the shower of watches finally stopped but that of the alarm clocks continued ...

Screw VAT!

VAT is the acronym for Value Added Tax - We all know that thanks to the media.The government as usual said that they are not going to burden the people. I went in for a battery replacement for my Sonata yesterday and guess what - I was charged 45 bucks when it was just 40 a little over 4 months ago when I got the battery on my other watch replaced (More about my watches in the next post). When asked the owner of the TITAN showroom said one word - "VAT". What kind of a tax is this? These days for every item being sold the prices rose and they say "VAT". Even when I went to the restaurant the other day the bill said "VAT". For whom is it adding "Value" to anyway? The government's coffers? Perhaps. The government wanted VAT to be deducted from the profit margin of the retailers. Why the hell would they cut their profit margins and abide by the government? They promptly pass it on to the purses of the consumers. I dont see any gain to the people except relieving them of the weight in their purses.

For more info:
http://www.revenue.ie/services/tax_info/vatinfo.htm

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

MAPs



These days a lot of hue an cry is being raised over the availability of MAPs or morning-after-pills over-the-counter (OTC - with out a valid prescription from the doctor) just like some other common drugs like Saridon or Anacin. Pardon the comparison but for some people unwanted pregnancy can be a real headache! Some say this is unethical because then teens might misuse the freedom the pill offers. They might lead a wild life and there by the moral values of the society might be at stake. Some argue that previously the couples used to consult a doctor and the fear of falling in the public eye - all made them exercise utmost precaution. Now since they have it in their reach they can buy it and pop it in right there at the medical store itself!

True, the worry that exists after unprotected sex, gauging for the symptoms, pregnancy checkup, doctor's appointments, abortion - a lengthy procedure cut short. If by accident you do have unprotected sex you can visit the chemist next morning buy it and swallow it. The chances of getting pregnant are very very less (about 5%) when you take the pill less than 12 hours after the event. There are some brands in the market that are useful even upto 72 hours after having sex. I grade the MAP as one of the wonders in modern medicine. How does the MAP work? It is nothing but an overdose of the contraceptive pills which women generally use with the same chemical composition (Progesterone, Oestrogen) but when taken the immediately after having unprotected sex they can actually delay ovulation or in worst case make the endometrium lining on the inner side of the uterus unfit for holding the fertilized ovum. The embryo unable to attach itself will be rejected by the body (The endometruim lining cracks once every month - we call it menstruation and the unfertilized ovum is rejected by the body).

Are they safe? The drug companies say they are safe (At 24 pounds a dose in London, obviously the drug companies will say so). Some doctors opine the contrary. However research says that they are bad if they are taken more than twice a month. Whatever they say - In my opinion: they would surely lead to hormonal imbalance in the body. Excessive hormones floating around in the blood is not good for health. Psychological effects of excessive hormones would also accompany the physiological ones.

Do I support their use? I believe that everyone should have a choice to decide whether or not to conceive. The MAP would give more freedom to women. I opine that women should also enjoy the same degree of freedom that the darker sex enjoys. Iam not talking about rape-victims here because they anyway will have a prescription from the doctor. What about those who are crying hoarse over the availability OTC? I can just say that excess of anything is dangerous. The body has its own way of expressing its dissent - in the form of nausea, head ache, stomach ache, vomiting etc; Will they be able to take such painful symptoms more than twice a month? The effects of the pill on the children who survive the dose (those 5% of cases) has not been studied yet making the usage an issue of conscience. Also all those who wish to have unbridled sex and pop in a pill in the morning should also know that the pill offers protection only against unwanted pregnancy but not against STDs.

What about the doctors who say it is unsafe? 20000 abortions a month - In Hyderabad alone! Why would they want to lose their business? Who would want to go to the doctor if there is an option as simple as popping in a tablet? There is nothing unethical in deciding not to get pregnant when your social, financial, physical or emotional conditions are not in favor of bringing in a child into this world. I also appreciate the government in taking such a bold decision for making a pill that costs 24 pounds in London for Rs.5 here! Let us see what ripple effects this decision will have on the generations to come ...

For more info:

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

GenX monks

I chanced upon an article about the nextgen monks in the Metro Plus of The Hindu a few days ago. Incidentally it was the same day I picked up the book "The monk who sold his ferrari" by Robin. S. Sharma. The article set me up thinking. No, I am not going to renounce my worldly possessions and desires! I was thinking of something else. All the nexgen monks who were interviewed by the write were between 23-25 years old. An age when they are supposed to aspire for higher positions (material ones of course!) - a cushy job, good career growth, comforts etc; What shocked me was that most of them were the only child of their parents. What persuaded them to take the step? They say it was their lifestyle of partying, boozing, gunning and girls. A few years later they were so bored of their hollow lifestyle that they started to question the meaning of their very existence. Some joined ISKCON while some joined the Buddhist Monastery in the city. One monk said "When we see these guys and girls and their bikes - we pity them. They do not know what they are missing!" The nexgen monks have found their higher calling. They renounced their worldly possessions and desires. True. But in my point of view they shunned responsibilities as well. Don't their aging parents need their support in their final days? Since they were so accustomed to the "no-strings-attached" kind of lifestyle did they use the monk-hood as a convenient excuse to run away from worldly responsibilities? Don't take to task for the above questions because even the Hindu scriptures say about the 4 "aasramas" of life - Baalya, Youvana, Grihastha and Sanyaasa. When we have experienced and fulfilled our responsibilities in the first 3, then we can renounce worldly pleasures and take the path of salvation or sanyaasa to attain self-realization. Youvana is the time for intellectual, physical and emotional growth - not the time for sanyaasa! That is what my opinion is about spirituality in the early 20's.

Monday, September 12, 2005

Never has been action so stylish

Some said it was a hit. Some said it was a flop. Some said it lacked the Trivikram "punch". Some said Prince wasnot given enough lines to speak! Whatever they say I saw a packed cinema hall today morning playing "Athadu". Reserving my judgements on the above comments about the commercial success of the movie I would say this - One of the best action flicks in Telugu after a long long time. Coming to action - The man of the moment - Peter Hains - The action choreography has never been better. We had the same Peter Hains last year too. But I didnot notice the same beauty in the stunts then. Why? Perhaps the action sequences choreogrpahed by Peter needed a slender frame rather than the aging body of Venky (in Gharshana) or the bulky body of Vikram (in Aparichitudu). The action sequences looked stylish owing to the fact that it was "Prince" Mahesh, a slendor, tall guy with intensity radiating from his eyes who enacted them(Venky was always wearing goggles and Vikram was always a hairy mess!!) . Prince is who gave the action sequences an edge - He executed them with panache. What ever the critics say - never has been action so stylish in Telugu. I am a fan of good cinema - I dont care who stars in them if I get the Rs. 40 worth of entertainment from the movie! Truly the money spent on Athadu's ticket was well spent. I enjoyed the movie throughly.

Coming to director Trivikram the transformation from family commedies to action was looking very natural. Dialogues did have the punch contrary to what I heard. The title song introducing the hero deserves a pat on the back. The only problem there was I was looking at the elegant Prince rather than the credits - A bad thing considering that the people who have put in their best efforts to make such a movie. The "scan" that goes on in the titles describing the accessories like bikes, guns etc; the hero uses is really cool. Trivikram never ceases to fascinate me in the way he tries to rip-off scenes from english flicks. In Athadu too - the accidental assasination scene (Rip-off from "Most-Wanted") - The jumping onto a train scene (exact rip-off from "US Marshalls" starring Tomy Lee Jones and Wesley Snipes). Screenplay was slick. The only loose end that needs to be tied - Charan Raj (Who shoots Rajiv Kanakaala) - makes his re-entry into the movie at the climax fight but miraculously vanishes when Prakash Raj and the CBI team walks in!! I dont know why a capable director like Trivikram didnot notice that - An example of Trivikram's capability: In general we find mis-spelt posters in political rallies. In the rally organized by the character Siva Reddy - The word "Prabhanjanam" is misspelt as "Prabhanjenam". When he can take care to observe such minute details - he is capable.

Music was good. I liked the songs. Except for the title song and the one thereafter the rest were just hindrances in the screen play by popping up at tense junctures of the story. I was more engrossed in contemplating what was going to happen next in the story rather than the song. Nevertheless Mani Sharma deserves a round of applause and the picturization too was perfect. Coming to the most boring and predictable aspect of the movie. The climax fight - Matrix style. I still can't get it. Why do producer's and director's chase the Matrix style of "stop-motion-camera" work action when it is absolutely unnecessary for storyline like this. When will the Indian film makers learn to draw the line between what can be used and what should not - The usage of technology should not be reduced to a mere publicity stunt ("We picturized action sequences with 16 cameras - We imported special cameras from hollywood" etc; ).

Mughal-E-Azam: The untold story

The movie got re-released in color. I downloaded the DVD-rip thanks again to Bit comet. "Mughal-E-Azam" - I remember having sat until 1 AM in the morning to watch the movie on Doordarshan way back when I was in my seventh class. I remember seeing the eternally youthful song "Pyaar Kiyaa tho darnaa kyaa" umpteen number of times in Sunday morning's "Rangoli". I couldn’t understand why the songs popped up in color while the rest was in shades of grey. It looked so funny - the characters turning into colorful outfits once and then grey for the next few scenes. At that point of time I was too young to understand that way back in 1951 making a movie at a budget of 10 Lakhs was a big thing. Later on I came to know that the movie was in the making for 10 years and it ran into frequent production stalls. When finally the movie was released the print was brought to the main theater in Bombay on an elephant! The audience rejoiced. Thus began one of the most successful runs at the box-office in Indian cinema. The film kept re-releasing enchanting the generations afterwards. For Gen-X it got released in color unveiling its full splendor and all its glory. Tears welled up in my eyes the same way they did when I watched "Pyaar kiya tho darna kyaa ..." for the first time many years ago. True - Art lives long!

I heard that K.Asif, the director was nominated for an Oscar for the movie. As usual he didn’t get it. Perhaps those guys dismissed it as the usual song-and-dance affairs that Indian cinema is generally thought to be. What will the Americans understand about what Akbar's problem was as to why he couldn’t solemnize the marriage between a courtesan and the prince? Arthasastra says "The subjects have the right to err - the king does not" Akbar was tied down by the rules of the society. Being a king he was supposed to abide by them and hold them in respect.

Many people do not know the repercussions this love-story had in the later lives of both Akbar and Jehangir (Prince Salim). Salim was a great motivator and general of the Mughal army. After the tragic end of the love-story Salim fell into a downward spiral fuelled by excessive drinking. To make him realize his responsibility Akbar sent him away to the Deccan. It was Salim who induced a crushing defeat on the Bahamanis (Who were responsible for the downfall of the Vijayanagara Empire). Salim was rescued from the spiral and he got well only to nurse a deep grudge against his father and the Emperor - Akbar. Salim was given the title "Jehangir" in recognition of his victories in the Deccan. Jehangir commanded a regiment of 70,000 soldiers on horseback which was a sizeable fraction of the Mughal army. In spite of being the head of a large army like that he couldn’t bring himself to staging a full-scale rebellion against Akbar. Perhaps it was either his fear of Emperor Akbar “the Great” or just compassion for an old man. Though from my studies I conclude it to be fear. History says that after conquest of the Deccan Jehangir marched his army right across to the capital city of Delhi (Fatehpur sikri to be exact). Spies warned Akbar that the prince was planning to overthrow him. Residents of Delhi lived in constant fear of a blood feud. The army camped at the outskirts of the capital for months. Nobody knew the prince's intentions. He was guided by some power hungry generals in his army who wanted to replace the old school of power-bearers from Akbar's regime. Most of Akbar's contemporaries and friends like Tansen were already dead by then. Akbar founded a new religion called Din-i-Llahi. Birbal was the first to embrace it. Birbal who was old by that time was assassinated by Jehangir's men on the outskirts when he was trying to leave the capital. Akbar's General - Mansingh was captured by Jehangir's men and they sent him to exile away from the capital. Incidentally Mansingh was the one under whom Jehangir received tutelage in war fare. Still the army didn’t attack. Akbar was all alone in the city. Neither his nine gems nor his general were by his side. History says that Jehangir finally paid him a visit and Akbar was angry at the prince for denying a hero's death. A pact was made. Jehangir came in and started to take the affairs of the state into his control. Akbar's health began to fail. Finally Akbar died a broken man - friendless and all alone. Jehangir became the Emperor. Jehangir was the one who gave permission for trade to the Europeans in India thereby setting in motion a chain of events that finally resulted in the enslaving of India. Whether he gave the permission because he had the foresight that international trade relations are good for the economy or because of the exotic taste of the French wine (that the traders brought from Europe), we may never know.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

"Chestu gistu mastosthadhi!"

The Shia board issued a fatwa on Sania ordering her not to play in revealing oufits! Tho kyaa burquaa pehen ke khelegi?? If they had a problem what were they doing until now? They should have passed a fatwa long time back that no shia girl should hold a tennis racket. It all seems they want to gain media mileage. Just because they have the religious right does not mean they can issue fatwas on everything under the sun.

The other day I was travelling by bus 127 and a couple of junior college kids got in at Nampally. One of them said lets tell the conductor that we have pass even if we dont. The other one said why shell out 500 - if caught - when the need of the hour is just 6 for the both of us? I was impressed. After some time their conversation veered towards workouts. The guy who wanted to avoid taking the tickets said "Arey - Oka aaru nellu smoke cheyyi - Chestu gistu masthosthadi" Tho haum sab kyaa gym mein hawaa khaa rahein hain?? Agar woho such hothi tho meraa x-roomie jo smoke karthaa hain uskaa chest tho Arnie jaise hone kaa thaa naa?

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Life goes on ...

Life goes on. People come in and leave. Yet life goes on. Some leave indelible impressions and yet some others leave fragrances of their thoughts that linger on for quite some time after they are gone. New people come in. Some make life easy, some don't. Some like me, some don't. Some people are here because necessities have brought us together. Some people are here because fate brought us together. Some are here because I chose to be with them. Yet some others are here because God willed that our hearts be blended together. We become best of buddies. I take everything for granted. I take solace in the myth that he will be with me forever. Then one fine day he leaves. Life goes on. Not until that moment do I start to miss his company. Then starts my wait for the person who comes next into my life. It is always a guessing game. Whether he is fit for me or he calls me a misfit is what I want to see. I stay at the same place trotting around at the same pace. Some body else comes in. Some share the same passions as mine. While some others might have passions that I might find interesting. Somebody else might dismiss my passions as wild goose chases. Some say Iam dumb. Some say Iam too good. I know Iam neither and fall somewhere in between. Some try to influence my life and the decisions I make while some get influenced by me. I borrow mannerisms, slang and habits from people around. Likewise some might borrow mine. There are some whom I trust with my life and there are some who trust me with theirs. There are some who take me for granted and there are some who don't. There are some people who take my restraint for a sign of weakness while there are some who respect the same. There are some who misunderstand me while I misunderstand some. There are situations where I burn the bridges and never let them in again while there are some who burn the bridges and not allow me in ever again. There are some whom I ignore even though they are still a part of my life and there are some who ignore me while Iam still a part of theirs. Not talking to them is my way of expressing dissent while hitting me or ignoring me is theirs. I keep my hands tied because I know everything is just a passing phase in my life. Today they are there tomorrow they are not! I keep drawing circles around myself in every phase of my life and add a select few whether they want to be in or out is their wish - not mine. What matters to me is that I have nurtured a handful of relationships who make my life happy and bring joy into my mundane existence. I know that even though they may not be here with me right now they will be always there for me. I will be always there for them. Paths keep crossing and I keep learning from everyone around whether good or bad. Learning is what that completes me. Observations is what sharpens my mind. Iam selfish at times. Iam the all-giving-up at times. Life goes on. Change is permanent. Love me or loathe me. Iam the only one eternal in my life and nobody else. Life goes on ...

p2p

When asked to name the single most influential advance that changed the life of netizens across the globe I would call it Peer-to-Peer Technology (p2p). After introduction it became so popular and a great source for everything from e-books to photos, from music to movies. It is one of the few things in life that relieves me of the monotony by throwing in great surprises. I was able to make a virtual home theater out of the ordinary PC sans the TV tuner card, Speakers and a Cable connection thanks to the p2p sharing. From sharing music at Napster, p2p has evolved over the years into sharing everything under the sun. p2p is no longer just one-to-one connection but rather a one-to-many connection, courtesy the bit torrents that have perpetrated the internet. From a meager download speed of about 2 Kbps during the "Kazaa" days we are right now enjoying download speeds of upto 100 KBps with clients like Bit Comet. I have observed that is no ceiling on the top speeds that can be attained for both download and upload. When no holds are barred I have seen a simultaneous download and upload happening at an incredible 2400 KBps (This happened when a guy was downloading a movie and it stopped at 61% (He became a peer - No seeds were online at that point). One more guy in the vicinity downloaded the torrent and started the download. Since there was only 1 peer and this guy was the second and since both of them haven't specified any limits incredible speeds were possible. The second peer got the entire 61% in just under 5mins.) First was Kazaa, then we had others like Limewire and E-mule. Then came the age of bit torrents with clients like Azureus. Now this is the era of Bit comet. Lightning fast and light on the system resources. Over the last one and half years I have accumulated a collection of DVD rips of about 100 movies and counting. Since I don't have a chance of catching up with TV, I have made it a habit of downloading all those movies/ TV series that I missed out from being away from home.

Friday, September 09, 2005

"Tabla"

A new restaurant has come up in our locality near the end of last month. My tongue was itching to try it out. Finally I got a chance to visit it yesterday night with my "roomie". I used to be a regular at "Veda" which is on the first floor of the same building. There were two ushers downstairs on the ground floor competing for the customer's attention. It felt funny having two guys at the door saying "Restaurantaa sir? first floor" (Come for a restaurant? First floor please) "Restaurantaa sir? Second floor" (Come for a restaurant? Second floor please) both at the same time! Finally after passing the tug of war between the ushers we came to the second floor where we were greeted by the doorman and what I saw inside made me gape in surprise.The lighting was just perfect and the ambience was something I have never seen before. The furniture was very comfortable and the air conditioning was damn good. I can surely bet there is not another restaurant in the same league as this for miles around. Though I find the prices a bit on the high side it is both time and money worth spent. I don't know from where they got the idea of serving the biryani in a bowl that was shaped like a "tabla" - truly authentic! The food was good. I can say that this restaurant is going to give the other famous restaurants in the viscinity a run for their money. "Veda" will anyway lose to its competition from the floor above. I dont think anyone would notice the 15-25 Rs of price difference between the two because of the superior and faster service, ambience, quality of the food and above all better airconditioning and music. Tabla is here to stay. A meal for two cost us Rs.280 which is not bad considering the fact that we had chicken and mutton biryanis along with a thick lassi to top it up.

Made in America: Sam Walton - The Wal-Mart Story

Just finished reading the book "Made in America: My Story - Sam Walton". Sam Walton is the founder of the most successful retail chains in the world: The Wal-Mart. I picked the book up as I was getting bored one day and I just wanted to kill some time. I thought it was just another autobiography where the blabbering would go on and on. But the book packed in a real punch. I wasn't able to put it down. It was not just about Sam's life. It was about a culture he and his family had created - A culture his associates followed - A culture where the customer was revered: The "Wal-Mart way". I have read about Wal-Mart a long time back as a coverstory in Eenadu's Sunday edition when it did 50 Billion in sales. At that point of time I wasn't able to comprehend how large a number that could be. Now after I have read the entire story I understood that the empire was not built overnight. It was a result of methodical planning and offering the best quality an service to the customers. There are some valuable lessons to be learnt out of the Wal-Mart story. They are not just for retailers. They can be applied to any field wherever customer satisfaction is paramount. The basic rule for Wal-Mart is: "If you got a good deal you got to pass the profits onto your customers". That is how they kept coming back. A truly "Isse sasthaa aur achchaan kahi bhi nahi" unlike Big Bazaar where the prices are cheaper but quality is not upto the mark. Every employee is not regarded just as an employee at Wal-Mart rather an "Associate" (Partner) of the firm. This make employees responsible and since it is their own stock that grows with every dime they save they work harder and contribute to the growth of the company which ultimately results in their own financial growth. In the book there were a number of examples of Wal-Mart associates who retired as millionaires. Two key aspects of retailing: The Customer and the Associates being covered the only thing left out is the Management. How did they streamline management? That is the most interesting part of the story. "Save a dime and you can pass it off to your customer - Spend a dime uselessly and the Customer may have to bear the brunt" seems to be the line of thinking of Sam. So whenever Wal-Mart's top management hold board meetings they don't rent the costliest of the resorts neither do they travel in the most luxurious of the available means of transport. They donot have bureaucracy. It is hard to believe that a retail chain with as many as 2000 stores (1992 figure) has an office operations overhead of just 2%. That's incredible! But it should also be noted that they are not misers either. Sam approved the state-of-the-art satellite communications system that tracks nearly every item sold at Wal-Mart and the information is available to every Associate of Wal-Mart at the click of a button. Sam believed in communicating everything to his associates he wanted to empower them with information. He believed that the advantages of sharing information with your associates far outweigh the risks of letting your competitors know the same. All in all it was good reading and I would hold it on par with "Made in Japan by Akio Morita" in terms of literary value.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

A modern day Nero


I picked up the Chronicle today and in the center spread I found an article by Thomas L Friedman of the Newyork Times. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the author opined that America is no longer able to compete with emerging powers like China and India. What surprised me was his holding India on the same grade as China and affixing the "Power" tag. Then he went on with the usual Bush-bashing which has become very common these days. It seems there were not enough troops in the US to help manage the aftermath of hurricane "Katrina". Most of them were deployed in Iraq ("Eye-Rack" as Bush calls it) and Afghanistan. Like Nero who played his fiddle when Rome burnt we can see President Bush playing his guitar on the day Katrina hit the US coastline. It has also come to light the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) had sent warning signals to the government long before Katrina hit. While browsing through the net I found an interesting open letter at sell the ranch.com urging Mr. Bush to take action. I thought people would never re-elect Mr. Bush. But to my surprise he made it to the Oval again. Even Biharis learnt their lessons from "Laloo raj" then why did Americans fail? It baffles me ...

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

"Gulnar"

"Gulnar" - The name that brings water into my mouth. The name of great restaurant in Masab Tank. The restaurant that held out on its own inspite of being in the middle of two heavy weights: Hyderbad House and Hotel Golconda. The door of the restaurant faces the lower end of the Masab tank fly-over at its JNTU end. I found it one fine evening when I was pretty bored with the kind of food being served in my hostel. I went in hoping that my pockets would become lighter. Here I was, fresh from a small town into a big city. Dining at a restaurant of that size and ambience at my place would generally cost a small fortune. But to my pleasant surprise when the waiter handed me the menu card it was right in my range! Gulnar serves authentic Hyderabadi cuisine. The ambience is sure to give any other high class restaurant a run for its money. I loved my first dining experience. I returned in the subsequent weeks and started taking my friends with me. Pretty soon I was turning up at the restaurant very regularly - about twice every week. With the help from Gulnar I was able to forget my woes with the food being served in the hostel. The curry served easily serves two. The bread is (nan and roti) served in really large chunks. I would especially recommend the rumali roti and butter naan with any of the vegetarian curries. The other interesting dishes include a egg fried rice and butter chicken. The only thing where he needs a little improvement is the Biryani (Sad, but true). Otherwise - All in all it would be a perfect dining experience giving you good value for money. After a hearty meal at Gulnar dont forget to visit the juice corner next door. At Rs.12 a glass the "Chaacha" who owns the shop would give you the best Mausambi juice in the city. You can also choose from a wide variety of fruit juices(Carrot juice is also offered) in the offering or order a cocktail of your choice! I visited Masab Tank after a gap of almost 18 months and the taste at Gulnar is still the same. Chaacha still works his "magic" with the juices! If you are a thorough foodie like me I advise you to try this once - I bet you will want to return! If you do not believe me about the pricing try this - 2 butter nans, 1 vegetable jaipuri and a bowl of egg fried rice cost me just Rs. 119!

"Banthi" - The ball

Ball. Metal ball. Shiny. Silver colored. Small one and ofcourse it is round! Ball is of the type you generally find in mechanical ball bearings. I found it rolling around in my lab. It has been many years since I have a seen a metal ball let alone play with one! I picked it up. I kept tossing it around with my hands for about an hour having nothing much to do (The assignment that was supposed to come hadn't come yet). I found it cute. I found it so adorable that I wanted it to adorn my workspace. So here it is sitting silently in my pen-holder attached to the keyboard stand.. Now what do I do with it? I keep rolling it inside the pen-holder by tilting the holder at it far edges. It slides down effortlessly across the gap making the familiar whizzing noise. It is a good way to brood over and get lost in a world of my own ...

Shall we dance?

Shall we dance is one of the best romantic commedies I have seen in recent times. The movie stars Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Jennifer Lopez. The movie opens with a narration from John Clark (Richard Gere), a busy attorney in the "Big Apple". He is content with his life. He is happily married to Beverly Clark (Susan Sarandon), a fashion designer, for 19 years. The couple is blessed with two kids who are in their teens. John Clark is so content and happy with his life that on his birthday when his wife asks him to name something that he wants - that "comes in a box" - He says that he is so happy that he cannot think of anything else! The uneventful and content life of this busy attorney takes a turn when by accident he chances upon seeing a beautiful woman with an expresssion less face (Jennifer Lopez who plays Paulina) from the window of a train and enrolls himself in a dance school hoping to meet her! There he meets two other people - an overweight colored man, who is looking to master a few moves to impress his girl friend before he actually proposes to her and a gay man. There John Clark finds that his teacher is Miss Mitzy and not Paulina! At first John is clumsy and so are his batch mates. When he tries to break into a conversation with Paulina - she cuts him off saying that he should be more serious about dancing and if he has enrolled there looking for a date, he has come to the wrong place. This icy comment makes John only more determined about learning how to dance and he along with other members enroll for a dance competition. Here Paulina and Miss Mitzy train them to dance. John starts spending more time on the dance floor. Beverly grows suspicious. She employs a private detective to know what John is upto. What the detective finds out baffles her wildest imagination. Finally on the D-day John sets his foot on the dance floor for the competition and Beverly and his teenage daughter are there to watch him. On seeing them John loses his balance and they lose. In the final moments Paulina gets her groove back and wants to leave for London to continue her career as a dancer. She asks for one final audience with John - "Shall we dance Mr. Clark?". Whether he accepts her invite or not forms the rest of the story. At the end Beverly discovers "something" that her husband wants "that comes in a box". The flame in the relationship between Beverly and John rekindles. The movie is romantic and the way it unfolds on the screen is simply superb. There are certain cracker of a dialogues like "Why do people marry? - Your life will not go unnoticed - Because I will notice. Your life will not be unwitnessed - I will be the witness to your life. We marry because we need a witness to our lives" There is one more from John saying "You gave me so much - that I felt guilty to tell you that I wanted to find happiness elsewhere - That I enrolled myself in a dancing class" Richard Gere is perfect, Susan Sarandon looks great and Jennifer Lopez gives a controlled performance. If you are a fan of romantic movies - This movie is just right for you. The best part of the deal is that it has repeat value.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Rudraaksh

No, I am not going to review the movie! I want to share with those of you who visit my blog some facts about Rudraakshas that I have come to know today - courtesy: Eenadu. Rudraaksh means "Rudr kaa Aksh" which literally means "The eye of Rudra (Siva)". Rudraakshas were said to be born out of the tears that fell on the earth from Lord Siva's eyes. Rudraakshas are treated on par with the nine gems in astrology and unlike the nine gems which need to chosen very carefully (If not harm befalls the ring-bearer) Rudraakshas never harm the bearer of how many ever faces they might have. The number of faces the Rudraaksh needs to have in order to be worn by a particular individual is determined by a careful study of his horoscope. The botanical name of the Rudraaksh plant is 'ELAEOCARPUS GRANITRUS RODEX'. This plant is found in Indonesia, Malaysia (which account to 70% of all the production of the beads), India, Nepal, Myanmar and Borneo. The Rudraakshas are worn for their specific benefits. They are said to be much more powerful and help achieve wonders, if energized and empowered the right way. Rudraksh of different faces (mukhas) pleases the corresponding planets. It may be sufficient to go in for only for those mukhis whose ruling planets, cause malefic effects. The naming convention for the Rudraaksh seed is very straight forward - It has a single cleft it is called Ekamukhi (Single faced) Rudraaksh, If it has two faces it is Dvimukhi, 3 faces it is Trimukhi and so on. The most commonly available form is the Panchmukhi Rudraaksh. The higher the number of faces the costlier the Rudraaksh although Ekamukhi Rudraaksh is very rare and is equally as pricey. The highest number of faces for a Rudraaksh is 27. The type of Rudraaksh suggested for use varies according to the walks of life. For example students and businessmen are prescribed the Shanmukhi (6 faced) in general. It is said that the Banaras Hindu University has funded a study on the powers of Rudraaksh and have found some interesting things. Rudraakshas were found to generate electromagnetic fields and possess para-magnetic properties which help in the development of brain's neural pathways. Reduction in blood pressure, tension, improvement in physical strength and memory power were supposed to be the results. For the power of a Rudraaksh to be effective it is said that we are supposed to follow certain norms and practice certain things. I found this topic worth blogging because Rudraaksh is the "in" thing right now.

Monday, September 05, 2005

"My name is Lincoln"

Immortality is hard to buy even when you are stinking rich in the present day. But this is prescisely the point on which the new sci-fi action adventure "The Island" fom Director Micheal Bay and Producer Jerry Bruckheimer is based on. In the not so distant future rich people take "Insurance" policies - An amount debited to a biomedical research company to clone themselves so that they can have replaceable "spares" when their original organs fail. The clones are then bred and brought up and when the need arises they are taken for harvesting by saying that they are being taken to an idllyic uncontaminated paradise - a Xanadu, called the "Island". The clones never venture out of the lab because it has been imprinted in their neural pathways that each one of them is the survivor of a nuclear disaster and the world outside is heavily contaminated with toxins. The trouble starts when a clone of the third generation called "Lincoln Six Echo" starts questioning his existence. His explorations around the nooks and corner of the lab allow him to find a living butterfly that has come inside the lab. He follows its path and sees the real thing that is going on outside the lab. It is later revealed that because of a flaw in the system the Echo generation of clones have advanced neural pathway development - They are evolving into humans establishing their own identities. L6E meets a beautiful girl called "Jordan 2 Delta" and out of sheer necessity (Jordan's sponsor meets with an accident) she is chosen by the insurance company to go to the "Island". How L6E rescues himself and J2D and frees the other clones forms the rest of the story.

The story's other interesting characters include the ultra-cool mercenary employed by the "Doctor" to hunt down L6E and J2D played by Djimon Hounsou (Of Amistad fame) and the Doctor who supports his actions saying that this is all a previlege for which the clients pay! Added to all this you have a Michael Bay style - "Mass Vehicular Carnage" and action sequences a'la Bad Boys II and the sound track scored by Steve Jabalaonsky make it the most watchable and interesting sci-fi action movies of the year post the debacle of the much hyped Steven Speilberg's "War of the Worlds".

Perhaps a flaw:
The sponsors (policy holders) do not know that their clones are living beings. They are just told that the clones live in a permanent vegitative state and will be harvested from when the need arises. What I cannot understand is the fact that in such an advanced age - about 30 years from now are people so ignorant as to believe this? The Lamarckian Theory of Evolution (Who proposed the concept of mutation) way back in the 19th century clearly states that mutations occur rapidly over generations in the genepool depending on the living conditions. For example Snakes when they were born had limbs like all other reptiles but since they were crawling using scales, legs were of no use - mere appendages and in subsequent generations lost them. No wonder legs can be seen only in Pythons albeit very very small! So if the clones were to be kept in vegetative state the organs would become useless and non-functioning because of "under work". Why did not anyone of the sponsors notice this flaw for so long a time? The Doctor notices this problem and so keeping the sponsors in the dark brings the clones to life!

Points to notice:
"msn" exists even in the year 2030!
The gang of mercenaries in pursuit of the clones is the usual Michael Bay gang of action figures who also starred in Bad Boys II - you can noticed the heavily moustached, completely bald guy in both movies.
The yatch in which L6E and J2D sail away at the climax is ironically named "Renovatio" which in latin means "Rebirth".

The Raz Al Gul connection

What is the common thread among "Shadow", "Elektra", "Dare Devil" and "Batman"? All of them are superheroes (or heriones) for one thing. Upon looking a little closer we get to know that they are not genetically modified as Spiderman is nor are they alien to Earth like Superman. They are ordinary humans doing extraordinary tasks by polishing their skills and training their bodies and minds. Every one of them is skilled in martial arts and well versed with decption techniques and know the art of invisibility. While watching the Batman Begins I noticed a pattern repeating. The underlying thread that connects these super heroes is none other than "Raz Al Gul". We have first heard of him in "The Shadow" (Super hero played by Alec Baldwin) - trains him to become the Shadow. Then we heard of him in Elektra - The reason why she is so proficient in the Ninja techniques. Since Elektra is a spin-off from Dare Devil (DD) - We can safely assume that Raz Al Gul might have had a hand in the making of DD as well because we all do know that DD is blind but does extraordinary things using his other senses which others might find humanly impossible even with all the 5 senses intact! Finally Batman begins shows that Bruce Wayne was under the tutelage of Raz Al Gul. So, are most of the "genetically unmodified" and "all-american" super heroes trained by Raz Al Gul? Or is it the creators'(the persons who created the comics) obsession with the oriental? Perhaps. We may never know.

Batman Begins ...

Critics dismissed it as a half-baked effort. Some said they were more interested in the heroic stunts of Batman rather than his past. Christian Bale, Katie Holmes, Micheal Cane, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe - A bunch of "star" actors were brought together to enact the beginning portion of a boxoffice phenomenon called "Batman". Super heroes (whether that of DC or Marvel) always have a story of their birth whether it is Superman, Spiderman, Elektra or DareDevil. But the reasons for the birth of batman have been vague except being shown that he turned in to the caped crusader to avenge the death of his parents and get Gotham city rid of it criminals. When I first watched the Batman way back in 1989 that reasoning was enough. As I grew up I began to think that there was perhaps a little shortcoming in the saga. Batman and Robin (1997) rendered the image of Batman even more hollow. It was just an eye-candy which had all the stars but lacked substance. The movie made fans like me think - Why did he become Batman? Was it an overnight decision? Was the rich kid bored of his life? Did he buy all those fancy gadgets because he didnot know what to do with all the money he had? These are all the questions that lingered in my mind and "Batman Begins" provided the answers.

Unlike the graphic ridden, eye-pleasing metropolis as was Gotham projected in Batman and Robin of 1997, the Gotham in this movie can be substituted for any metropolis in the world today. The contemporariness is what makes the movie quite different from its previous sequels and that is what exactly makes the movie watchable. The movie would not have been as good as it is without the great script and dialogues that it carried. A perfect 10 for director Christian Nolan for that. Batman sequels have all been star-studded affairs and this prequel is no lesser. Everyone of the actors performed really well and it is hard to differentiate the charcater from the actor. Especially the Laim Neeson and Bale excel in their respective roles and the voice of Neeson seems to haunt you long after the movie if finished. Such is the effect of his calm but stern voice. Finally a mention has to be made about the background score by Hans Zimmer (Of the Black Hawk Down fame) who departed from the earlier versions scored by Danny Elfmann to come up with a very refreshing and cool soundtrack.


Plothole:
I always thought that "Joker" (played by Jack Nicholson) was the murderer of Bruce Wayne's parents as was shown in Tim Burton's Batman (1989) and not some ordinary street mugger. Also the "Joker" is later on arrested and kept in Arkham Asylum accroding to the comics. I find this as a loose end that needs to be tied up in Batman Begins.

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Beetlejuice

Odd as it may sound the word is the title of a movie released in 1985. It was way back when I was studying class 5 that I saw a poster of the movie and I could make neither head or tail out of it then. The other day I was looking at the bio of Danny Elfmann and read that it was one of his earliest movies which saw the duo of Danny Elfmann and Director Tim Burton come together. And then I decided to search for it and thanks again to p2p network someone out there did keep the movie in share.

So what is the movie all about. Its about a "recently deceased" couple, the Maitlands who turn into ghosts and haunt their country house. The Deedz move in. The Maitlands begin their term as ghosts trying to scare them away and make their trips between a funny looking heaven and their haunted house. They are commanded by their legal counsel (Yes, you got that right - their lawyer for the judgement day) to get back the ghosts manual that accidentally falls into the hands of the Deedz kid! The Maitlands try lots of not-so "scary" haunting stunts that fail to throw the Deedz family out of the house. So they enlist the help of a bio-exorcist "Beetleguese" (Pronounced - Beetle Juice) for scaring them away who has his own agenda which makes things complicated.

The movie is fun to watch partly because of the funny graphic work and we can see the threads hanging from the ceiling! Coming to the cast we can see a frail and young Adam Baldwin, a very young and pretty Geena Davis, a "pre-Batman" Michael Keaton (plays Beetle juice) and finally a very very young Winona Ryder. Combined with all this we have a very nice background score from Danny Elfmann (Who gave successful OSTs like Men In Black). Can be watched once.

FYI: Betelguese, Beatrix and Regal form the 3 stars that make up the constellation called the Orion's belt which is also called the Archer.

Danny Elfmann and Director Tim Burton come together later on for many successful movies including Batman, Planet of the Apes etc;

Star Trek - Insurrection

Its been quite a long time since I watched a star trek episode let alone a complete movie. I have been a big fan of Star Trek - TNG (The next Generation) since my childhood. Ever since we got cable TV I got hooked up to this sci-fi series being aired then on Star TV. Then I came to know from one of the e! uncut series that full length movies were being made by Jonathan Frakes (Who plays Cmdr. William Riker). I did see movies like Star Trek- Generations and Nemesis but I missed Insurrection. After waiting for a long time I could lay my hands upon it thanks to the latest p2p services on the net.

There are people who dismiss Star Trek as some nonsense. There are people who compare it with freak show with all those weird alien faces that come across on the series. But what they fail to notice is that every one of these episodes wether canned for the small screen or the big one is based on the lessons learnt from history. The sci-fi eries perhaps reiterates the fact that Earth is a microcosm of the entire universe in terms of life forms and their emotions - not only like love but also things like greed and hatred.

"Insurrection" is no different. What happened in history when ever a section of the human race was forcefully dislodged from their homeland? Conflicts arose. The never ending ones. During our partition, in west bank - we see that it has happened and see it happening around in our world. The USS Enterprise and its crew come to the rescue of a race of people called "Buccans" from being dislodged from their home planet because some selfish allies of the Federation have found that the "Metaphasic Radiation" coming from the planets rings results in ever lasting youth.

The cast of the Star Trek with the 5 major charcaters Jean-Luc, Riker, Troi, Crusher and Data played by Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Gates Mc Fadden and Bretn Spiner respectively were looking fabulous and were a treat to watch. If you are a sci-fi fan then I recommend you to watch it.

Friday, September 02, 2005

Cool Radio

Exactly an year ago Yahoo introduced launch cast radio on yahoo messenger in the messenger 6 suite. I was completely bowled out by this radio. It was very "Kool". It was the first radio where I could customize the songs I listen to. I have rated hundreds of songs\artistes and albums since and customised the station very carefully until one fine day yahoo came up with messenger 7 suite which was more like the Skype messenger. Everybody in my team moved to this version of ymsgr and I did the same owing to "herd" mentality! But then I discovered to my horror that my radio didnt play! I cursed the damn day when I installed this latest one. Upgrades are supposed to be better. They are supposed to make the best out of better features in the previous versions. But after an year of listening to the radio I found the new version completely useless sans the radio - Well, What good would be a file sharing and conferencing tool if the server is always busy? I was waiting for the day when I could revert back to my old version. The project is over now and I stopped using skype altogether and the features in ymsgr 7 are mere appendages to me and nothing else ... Then yesterday while surfing the LAN I found the ymsgr6 suite in one of the computers and immediately I copied it and installed and successfully reverted back to the older version. Now after a full 3 months Iam listening to "mystation" on yahoo launchcast. My workstation has become lively again. Cool Radio!!!

The ubiquitous mobile

A recent article in Metro Plus states that the Cellular phone is becoming omnipresent. True! There is probably no place left where the din of a cellphone is totally absent. The article didnot vote either for or against the use of the mobile but rather it was just a collection of opinions of people. Most of those who were against the use of the mobile phone seemed to be technophobes where usage of the gadget is the rootcause of the phobia rather than the gadget itself! The rest opined that the cellular phone was invading their privacy. Some said they would be rendered paralyzed at work if they were ever to lose their mobile!

I have been using a mobile since the grand old days when even incoming calls were charged by the minute. After the cellphone came into my life - Thanks to my parents who wanted me to have one, to stay connected - something did change. I stopped memorising phone numbers as the phone book in my cellular phone was doing it for me. My wallet got lighter because I threw away the small phone directory that used to stay in my wallet prior to the entry of the cellular phone into my life. My mobile performs the duty of the alarm clock now-a-days. I was always bad at remembering birthdays of other people. My mom calls me up at 6 AM when ever it is the birthday of one of my family members and then I call them up to wish them. Now-a-days the mobile is doing it for me by giving reminders.

My handset is pretty old one - a Panasonic GD 55 - which I bought in around '99-'00. But there are two features that I am very proud of in this handset: The ringtone that I use ("Cuckoo") which is not found in anyother models and the crystal clear voice that comes out of the speaker when I convene a teleconference with someone using the hands-free option. The only replacement that I made was the battery (about 2 weeks ago).

So am I a cellular phone freak like many others in the city who seem to have the mobile glued to their ear? Did my mobile grow to being an extension of my hand and ear? Certainly not! Yes I DO use the cellular phone in the place of an alarm, scheduler and a diary and it relieves me from the burden of remembering all those events an numbers. If we donot use technology to make lives easier than what good is it for? People complain of invasion of privacy. We always have to remember that it is always us who decide to answer a call. I donot answer calls while Iam having lunch/dinner however important it might be (even from family members)- I always choose to call back after I finish eating if it is very important. I set my mobile in silent mode (no vibrator - no ringtone) when Iam in a meeting or class. I call back after the class. So I dont think the cellphone invades my privacy. When it comes to staying connected - I rarely switch the cellular phone off. I am always in the loop - so as to say- but it is always my option- to answer or not to answer!

Some people see the ubiquitous cellphone as a bane of modern day existence but I would term it as being a necessary evil - You cant live with it, cant do without it either! Iam looking forward to a time where the man and his mobile can peacefully coexist, sans the jarring and weird ringtones that keep disturbing peace for miles around!