City of Ghosts

When I visited New York recently, I was seeing people or sequences which weren't there.
It was as creepy as saying 'I see dead people' a la Shyamalan's 'The Sixth Sense'.

I could recollect NY-based Scorsese movies or Godfather series or Sleepless in Seattle climax on top of 'Empire State Building' or Serendipity climax or Taxi Driver or Tom Cruise walking on deserted Times Square or Al Pacino driving like crazy on a Ferrari or Seinfeld or Friends and many many more.

How to dream ?

There was this time, when I could recollect very few dreams. Whatever little that I could recollect, was always below par and not worthy of mention. But lately, things have taken a turn for the good. Nowadays, my dreams are really intense. The other day I was in Afghanistan escaping from the Taliban and this was definitely one helluva dream. It was as good as any 'Tom Clancy story.

But, such things don't happen often and I kept wondering why I had this dream. And then I remembered, before sleeping I was listening to BBC documentary podcast on 'Afghanistan Opium Wars'. And since I had downloaded that particular episode and since my winamp always runs on 'repeat' mode and this particular episode kept playing again and again. And I guess, unlike other dreams which dissipate in just a few hours, this particular dream kept going on and on, more like a real-life story with a little bit of Kite Runner, Rambo, Saddam Hussein capture from a bunker, Hitchcock's North by Northwest fertilizer spraying glider scene etc.,

And as it always happens, the climax evaporated into thin air, when my mobile alarm rang. But, this time the difference is, I could recollect my dream, which I was never able to till then. 

Listen to exciting radio programmes and allow it to keep playing, even if you are fast asleep. And you would know what will happen next ! 

Happy dreaming!

The best US offers

a. Hollywood (Scorcese, Woody Allen, Clooney-Soderberg, Shyamalan, Coppola),

b. Centrist liberal media (NPR stations, NY times, AirAmerica etc.,),

c. Standup comedians (George Carlin, Bill Maher)

Border / Coastal State

The above picture is the epitome of US elections 2008.
Reds or Republicans are conservatives and Blues or Democrats are liberals.
Reds seem to be strong in hinterland, while Blues are strong in border areas or coastal areas.

Probable reason why Blues are strong in coastal areas or border areas is, people who live in these areas are exposed to other cultures who would have to enter US through these regions. Thus, the more likelihood of clash of cultures and which soon settles down and people of difference race/religion/languages start to coexist inspite of all these differences.
Probable reason why Reds are strong in hinterland is the exact inverse of the above i.e. people in hinterland have a lesser likelihood of interacting with people of other cultures and thus, grow more resistant to "change".

We

Check out this documentary
We
Arundhati Roy's lecture forms the bedrock for this documentary and some of the visuals are brilliant in this documentary.

You always wonder "who is right", "who is wrong".. "what is right".. "what is wrong" "is there something called 'right' or 'wrong'" .. "why is ideology so bigger than self" .. "is there something called 'self'" ..
"why should people prove superiority over others"..

I am sure all there are no answers to these questions.

Documentary to watch

Sartre.

Time to Kill - Podcasts

BBC is indisputably the god of 'podcasts' with their
"World Book Club" (to get to know quality thoughts from really good novelists, who also read from their own excerpts), "Wake Up to Money" (UK-specific Business commentary), "Test Match Special" (after any ODI or Test which England plays, the BBC commentators give their views on the match), "From Our Own Correspondent" (geo-political news reviews), "Documentaris" (best ever documentaries - assignment style), "Fighting Talk" (hilarious sports talk show) and some more..
some links where you can catch podcasts:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/radio4choice.shtml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/default.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/file_on_4/default.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/programmes/fightingtalk.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/index.shtml

Am now a fan of "The Office" and "Saturday Night Live" hosted by nbc.com (if you visit this site, you can see the streaming videos of their latest and old episodes) - really good initiative.

One can see movies/tv serials in "surfthechannel.com" too, amazing treasure house this site.

Also, lately am impressed with "KQED" (http://www.kqed.org/) radio/tv shows. The quality of their tv/radio programs are as good as BBC's.

Where is Michael 'The Boss' Scott

You definitely need a Michael 'The Boss' Scott in every office.

What's wrong with Obama

In spite of Fox's tirade or Hannity's slander, 'Barak Husein Obama' just appears to look much bigger than his own self. You just wonder, is he for real ? is he really the solution to all of everyone's problems ?
Credit goes to George W Bush, if not for Bush I think the canvas that Obama was provided, could not have been this huge.

If not for cricinfo ..

If not for cricinfo, I think I will be so lost..

Everyone on their own

This line kind of irritates me.

Kashmir - Whose line is it anyway ?

My favourite subject in school included 'geography' and I used to treasure those days when I read 'maps' aimlessly. I mug up longitude-latitude or play hot-cold or capital cities or rivers running or seas or mountain chains and information like these when I take a look into maps. Somehow, India map was always a treasure of information for me and I will stare at it so many times, such that I can draw the map of India with my eyes closed. (india map)
And then it happened, when CNN or BBC came to India, they knocked off the 'horns' of India, here am referring to 'Kashmir'. Surprisingly, Indian map didn't look half as attractive as it used to look without Jammu and Kashmir horns. Those were the times when Indian government will throw warnings to CNN or BBC or other western media requesting them not to tamper our boundaries. But those were the burgeoning times of Indian economy when it was quickly liberalizing itself. Still, BBC or CNN or even MTV resisted cause they were vastly 'western' media who were traditionally more close to Pakistan and not with India and so they toed their government's boundary lines.
With the onset of India liberalization, Indians weren't anymore immune to what happens around the world and thus, India got wide publicity on its policies on 'Jammu and Kashmir'.
It became a deja vu that 'Azad Kashmir' is annexed by Pakistan, 'Aksai Chin' was donated by Pakistan to China. And now India has just the Kashmir valley with the horns lost. And worst part of all this information overkill is, India had never really had the horn all the while in its history since independence. The horns were always with Pakistan or rather weren't formally annexed at all. The sickening part here is, why would Indian government claim to its people that 'horns' are part of our territory when it was never its own ! And of course misrepresented the facts to all its citizens in particular to the kids in school by providing wrong maps or wrong information claiming 'India has a land border with Afghanistan' how could we possibly have a land border with Afghanistan when the horns is not ours.
Trust, this could be an sensitive topic to Indian government i.e in rewriting their history/geography/atlas books to suit the reality, but posting false information to all concerned in particular its own citizens, is much worse.

Aamir and The Happening

Both the movies were good.

Aamir is an outrageously well taken movie. It's gripping and fast all the way. The background score sounded familiar, but couldn't find out the source. The lead actor did an outstanding job and so did every character who appeared in this movie.

Manoj Night Shyamalan once again has come up with an interesting weird idea for a movie i.e plans do react in 'The Happening'. I really enjoyed watching 'Lord of the Rings' movie, in particular the scene in which the tress or woods or forests come to the rescue of the good against the evil. Really awesome sequence that. And so did I enjoy the 'Narnia' movies too, where they explored similar sequences. So, in fact it was so amazing to see Shyamalan explore the 'trees' and how they react to the humans. Of course few silly parts include the casting of Mark Wahlberg (a typical action hero) in this movie somehow appeared odd. Zooey Deschanel was really beautiful. She looks similar to Meg Ryan in parts and Jodie Foster in parts.

Hazara and Kites

The Kite Runner was outstanding.
Best scenes which I liked include:
a. Amir asking casually "where were you .. i was looking all around for you" to Hasan. Thought it was totally outstanding..
b. Amir trying very hard to get rid of his guilt by calling Hassan a thief.
c. Amir asking his father to back down when confronted with a Russian guard.
d. When Soraya and her parents visit the hospital. Amir telling his father, how much he is in love with Soraya.

e. And most of all I liked the way they have dealt the ethnic conflict i.e Hazara-Pashtoon conflict. Got curious and read an article in wiki on Hazaras, and glad it was amazing education for me.

Also, it was truly spectacular how the movie romanticized 'kites' and I cannot agree more, it is such a beautiful hobby really. But I thought there was a flaw in this movie in the way in which, Amir successfully cuts the other kites by not allowing more thread instead by pulling more thread towards him. My kite experience teaches the opposite i.e you have to give more thread towards the kite rather than pull the thread, in order to win the duel.
Am sure other kite exponents will agree that you really have to push the kite away from you rather than pull the kite towards you, for winning the contest. As they say in tamil, deel pannnumpothu noola vidu .. neraya evan noola vidarano avan than most of the times kite contest a win pannuvan .. (of course goes without saying manja is mandatory for the thread)

Lamppost conversations

It happens so often to me.
I would have had a really long not so productive and silly conversation with a friend (maybe in his house or my house or maybe in a playground or movie hall or bus-stand etc.,). And the time ticks real fast and soon it will be time to say goodbye. And invariably the "goodbye's" are told under a lamp post on the road side near to my friend's place or mine. I think I would have stood there before my friend all the while hoping that I will get to hear some "super truth" or "wisdom" or "totally profound" or "a mantra which will give me nirvana" or "the reason why I am born on this earth etc.,". Simply put, the objective of the entire conversation is to figure out who am i or what am i here for etc., invariably you get to hear these only from your close friends or folks, who know you better than anyone.

And just when 'goodbye' is about to be told under the lamp post, my friend utters something totally profound and we get embroiled in that topic. And both of us hate to let the conversation die, so continue on and on, but there comes the time when both of us run out of ideas and we both wonder 'what next?' and we just say "good bye" and walk our way towards our respective houses. It is so strange that the best part of our conversation invariably happens on road under a lamp post.

This hasn't happened once or twice but so many number of times and the worst part is "you feel what you went through can't possibly be nirvana" or "can't possibly be the super truth or wisdom". Since I haven't seen 'super truth' or 'nirvana' or 'wisdom', I can't possibly identify them when I see it.

TR is god

Kamal Haasan in his latest movie has tried real hard to emulate what TR has been doing all his life i.e not just sticking to "what one does best", but doing every damn thing. And as they say, jack of all arts and master of none.. rule applies to both Kamal and TR. Both incredibly talented but superbly disappoint all by trying way too many things and end up killing their invention too.

Another commonality is their pride. They seem to be overly arrogant when they market their movie. And never miss an opportunity to indicate that in the "they are the best and in the case of TR he also adds that Simbu is god's gift to mankind".

Variables again

Find the variables.

'A' visited the capital city 'B' of country 'E', to inaugurate 'C'.
'A' was upset looking at the white elephant, so said he would inaugurate 'C' provided another structure 'D' is erected close to 'C'.
And the hosts promised they would build another structure 'D'.
Country 'E' is lately well-known thanks to it's famous export 'F', who is a renowned sportsman.
'F' plays for a successful club 'G', which is owned by another expatriate 'H'.

RandomTrivia - Find the variables

Find the variables:

'A' was a highly influential (political) song. (famous among counter-culture followers)
Originally sung by B, C and D.
Actor 'E' sang the cover version of song 'A' in the highly acclaimed tele-series 'F'.
The tele-series 'F' includes a character of Indian-origin 'G'.
The lead-actor 'E' of the tele-series has also appears in a CNN tv-show as 'G'.
In a 'Seinfeld' episode 'The Opposite', Jerry Seinfeld earns the name 'H' (a misnomer of 'G').
E's name is included in 'I' (group), which has famous Hollywood comedians in it.
Another similar group 'J' (with top Hollywood actors), included Frank Sinatra.

Loosen your grip

Noticed this lately:
When driving a bike at a fairly decent speed, if by mistake you run over a speed-breaker, you have better chance of still being in control of your bike only, if your hand-grip isn't all that strong

If by mistake your hand-grip is too hard, then the impact of the speed-breaker is directly proportional to you losing control of the bike.
Guess, it thus pays not to have a hard hand-grip.

I trust, one can draw a parallel of this scenario to 'cricket' or 'shuttle' or 'hockey' or to other sports too.

It is important to have a loose grip on the bat/racket/stick-handle cause that way you get to wait for the ball/cork and then use the wrist to play at the last moment.

I think the key to play extra-ordinary flicks in cricket is to have a superb bottom-hand game. In cricket of course, the right-hand batsman tend to have a loose left-hand grip and strong 'right-hand grip' to play those awesome flicks between mid-wicket region to fine-leg region. Of course if the bottom-hand grip is too hard the ball on collision with the bat will end up flying in the air, thus the chances of getting caught is also high. But feebler the grip is, the better the chance of ball going along the ground and more finer. Indians somehow seem to have a divine power to play these strokes on and on. Hyderabad cricketers Azharuddin and VVS Laxman are exponents of this stroke.

In the sport of 'shuttle' or 'badminton' too, another Hyderabad wristy genius P. Gopichand said that Indians play this sport with lots of wrist-skill than anyone else which helps them play those exorbitant cross-court shots or drop shots, while most other top-international contenders play the quick-fast-hard game, with little wrist-skill though. According to Gopi, where Indians miss out is in the fitness part, which traditionally our genes are never equipped to.

The sport of 'hockey' too used to depend on strong wrist-work and 'stick-magic' during the days of 'grass courts'. During grass-court days, a players stick work and anticipation of ball-bounce were important and I trust, Indians with their traditional strength which allows to play good wristy strokes and their soft-holding of the hockey stick helped them to adjust to bad ball-bounce and to play the strokes at the last moment which means they can hit from one end to another without much ado. But the introduction of 'astro-turf' meant the usual skills of 'stick-work', 'wrist-work' or 'individual brilliance' did not gain much recognition, instead it is more about speed-strategy-teamwork which became important.

Impact of hold on life in general:
The tight hold on material possessions or close linkages or bonding with people, means you will have more to lose when any of these possessions are lost or bondings broken. The lighter you hold, the better you are placed in the recovery road.

Are you 'there' ?

When you start communicating to someone new or learn a new skill, the initial energy is high.
The rise to reach the threshold potential is so difficult and takes lot of effort but it is also an enjoyable adventure.
You learn, you unlearn so many things during the course of this joyride.
But the moment you have reached the threshold point no romantic thoughts are with you, cause till then the 'quantity you were running towards was an enigma to you and that inspired you to race towards it'.
But the moment you have reached the target, you are so lost cause the sense of adventure stops the moment you achieve what you were hoping to achieve.

I think one would come across similar kind of emotions when you in pursuit of a friend or spouse or a sports-hobby or new skill or read about a new topic etc., the energy level you carry when you were in pursuit is so high, but the moment you are 'there' you stand puzzled with only one question running through your mind 'okay, what next?'.
You feel so happy when you are in pursuit cause that keeps your head occupied with interesting challenges, but the moment you are 'there', you feel upset cause what was your "raison d'etre" is lost.
No wonder you end up liking the phases where 'you struggle' or to put in better words 'you learn about life and yourself', so better enjoy the rise-up cause once after reaching the summit you only have to walk down!