I’ve just seen the trailer of this wonderful movie starring Johnny Depp. Releasing at a time when banks are facing public’s ire, the story of criminals who robbed banks during the great depression(I ain’t gonna capitalize the G and D ’cause it ain’t great anymore 
) would definitely be a big hit. The trailer has Johnny Depp saying this to a customer “We are here for the bank’s money, not yours. Put it away.” Another movie I am waiting for Micheal Moore’s movie about the bankers who caused the current crisis. Good time to cash in on the anger against the bankers.
About the movie ‘Public Enemies’
From iPhone
Watching Monster-in-Law on TV and writing this crap to check the wordpress app on my iPhone. Thinking I am jobless? Ads are playing on the TV. That’s why!!!
Okay. That’s a photo of the London Eye that I took the other night 
Crossroads never end!!
Or to be more precise(?): No matter what road you take, you will reach there. And there you stand…contemplating about the direction to move in. One line of thought says that you need to know the direction you are moving in and the goal you are moving towards while there’s another line of thought which says that it’s the journey that matters in the end. I would prefer the second one and I will take it one peg at a time.
Do men really cry? Matt says:”I reckon men cry at odd times because they withhold the tears at more obvious times – it has to leak out some time but social conditioning frequently hinders this.” Perfectly true!! I have experienced something similar recently during a conversation when my eyes suddenly started to water enough to make them flash. ^__^
Share your experiences too!!
WIP
Warning: This is a WIP(Work in Progress)
Every time I start writing a post and try to think of a title, I can’t think of one. Lemme hope that i will be able to come up with a title by the end of this post.
- As i frittered away the night to write this blog, a question flashed in my mind. How much of our daily time do we spend ( or waste? ) on checking/re-checking/re-re-checking mails or on googling for trivial stuff? I heard about this word ‘Infomania‘ today. When i looked at the wiki pages, i felt that it’s meaning was somewhat incomplete. Shouldn’t infomania encompass a more wider range of activities carried over the internet? ( Mind it. I didn’t say computer
)
- On an unavoidable visit to a temple in India, I was awestruck by the way some trusts are building temples and milking money from people. I got a feeling that the number of babas has definitely increased over the past decade. There seems to be real (un)healthy competition in that profession as well. Why don’t parents consider this as a lucrative profession for their kids? A profession that offers every possible comfort that one can possibly think of.
- Look back into the past? It ain’t a crime. Sum up what you have done over the last few years. Cling to it! Nah! On a starting note, I definitely seem to have a wider range of memories from my short stint at TML. Experiences, the traces of which are no longer in your mind but nevertheless have made you learn something out of them. Whether it was related with me trying to communicate across in a language that I haven’t spoken much often or to those moments when I tried to handle those larger than life contraptions which could be sold more easily than many other things in India. Ah! They could be sold easily as we didn’t have a choice. You had to pick the best among the worst. And slowly, i guess that’s changing and the pioneers of the indian automobile evolution have woken up and took note of this fact. (No offence meant)
- You intend to concentrate on something. But, your mind doesn’t slacken it’s grip from what you perceive as unimportant. Your mind’s blocked. It’s in such a ravaged state that you cannot get it to concentrate on any other task. And all that you could do is write this crap. You aren’t sure about the one thing that’s on top of your mind. On a closing note, let me tell ya that I tried hard to pick up some ingredients that i could add to the cauldron of thoughts in my mind. Now, when i read the above post, I can be sure that the reader doesn’t get the original flavor of those thoughts.
P.S: Your comments would make this post even more fuzzier.
Start doing!!
I had this opportunity( Let’s not call it compulsion for the time being.) to listen to a person talk about commitments and the like. Though a selective digestion of its contents might have made some impression on me, this long-winded talk tended to take me off the hook. I am not sure if anyone really enjoys listening to these kind of things where you lose the patience to stare across and let your wandering mind take-off on its course. Even the “soft-skills workshop” lot fall in this category. Here, atleast, you are better off as it’s some kinduva classroom setting and you can pretend to take notes while you can actually draw sketches, scribble something like this, etc.
It’s kinda hard to push these into your head just by shooting across bullets on a screen intertwining them with stronger sound waves for more than an hour.
And later, i see this ad from IBM about innovation with a tagline ‘Stop talking’.
Now. I am thinking. Was it really a futile exercise on his part? Was he really not able to send across his point?? Yeah, he did I guess.
What If
What if there was no light.
Nothing wrong, nothing right.
What if there was no time?
And no reason or rhyme?
What if you should decide
That you don’t want me there by your side.
That you don’t want me there in your life.
What if I got it wrong?
And no poem or song..
Could put right what I got wrong,
Or make you feel I belong
What if you should decide
That you don’t want me there by your side
That you don’t want me there in your life.
Oooooh, that’s right
Let’s take a break jump over the side
Oooooh, that’s right
How can you know it if you don’t even try?
Oooooh, that’s right
Every step that you take
Could be your biggest mistake
It could bend or it could break
But that’s the risk that you take
What if you should decide
That you don’t want me there in your life.
That you don’t want me there by your side.
Oooooh, that’s right
Let’s take a breath jump over the side.
Oooooh, that’s right
How can you know it when you don’t even try?
Oooooh, that’s right
Oooooh, that’s right
Let’s take a breath jump over the inside
Oooooh, that’s right
You know that darkness always turns into light
Oooooh, that’s right..
P.S: Influenced by my friend and co-blogger Sreejith’s blog, posted above are the lyrics of a song by Coldplay.
A really inspiring song huh??
Randomness and Chance
Aptly being posted in the “Random Scribble” category.
It’s mid-night. No need to write down the date(You can see it). And I can’t help but appreciate the fact that Life inspired Movies. And Movies inspire Life. Whoever said that,salaam aleykum. On this day, after yet another attempt at the ‘great and fatal’ mystery a.k.a riddle a.k.a “WORDS CAN’T SAY WHAT IT IS”, I am here. Infront of a computer, reminiscing a movie I have seen , and recollecting some stupendous dialogues, I try to comprehend the mystery of life ( a.k.a movies ?? ) and the exam.
This is not just “Something That Happened.” This cannot be “One of those things…” This, please, cannot be that. And for what I would like to say, I can’t. This Was Not Just A Matter Of Chance. Ohhhh. These strange things happen all the time.
“Strange things happen all the time.”And all I would like to think is that, this, indeed, was just a matter of chance.
South Goa
Some pics from a recent trip to goa:
Though you cannot escape visiting beaches(Calangute, Colva, etc.) for which Goa is known for, if you really wanna stay away from the crowd and experience tranquility, try exploring places in South Goa. Spots like Cabo da Rama fort, and a little private beach nearby are awesome.
Post No# Something
Thinking of posting a post as i haven’t posted a post for a long time ( 
couldn’t use anymore ‘post’s )
1.Height of customer information management:
Recently, i got a mail(not an e-mail) from my credit card company. It said, ‘Please update your mobile number with our records. You will receive some amount’. Sounds fine so far, but the irony is, a few weeks back, i called ‘em up to inform that i wanted to cancel my card. The service rep tells me that some one will get back to me on my number. So, i hung up. Later, i get a call from another rep who persuades to keep it along even if i don’t use it(sooo generous of’em. Huh??). Customer service has my number. But, the bank sends me a mail saying they don’t have it and they want me to update it and give me some cash.
If this is the case with the world’s local bank, wouldn’t other banks be far behind?
2. Ohh, btw, I had trouble accessing wordpress login page from my office laptop. But, i was able to log-on from my home computer. Couldn’t quite figure out where the problem was?..Was it a one-time affair?..Most of the times, wordpress.com experiences high-traffic. Was this the reason? Or some thing fishy with my office laptop?? Or has this got to do with linux and windows?(Definitely, not the last one!!) Any thoughts please!!
Added on 21 OKTOBER:
And i ain’t joking. It’s happening again and again.
A thought not so random……
This is an article which has long been due. We, as Indians, just can’t stop blabbering about the fact that Indians have their presence in every nook and corner of the world, mostly
North America.
India is, of course, [Should I have to tell you that??] the second most populous country. Hence, finding them in great number anywhere on this planet would be the most plausible thing. I don’t really know if the Chinese also talk about their expatriates, in the same manner as we do, i.e. with so much hype and hoopla. I stumbled upon this article long ago. To sum up that article, 1 in 10 British citizens stays abroad. Compared to
India’s 1 billion population, 25 million NRIs + PIOs [I googled to find out this statistic] is such a small percentage.
Yes!!! Now, you got me. It’s no big deal to have just 25 million abroad.
Anyways, i guess, migration would be a common thing in the days to come. So, all ye people of the world, please digest this fact either by not blocking your own borders to others’ or by not boasting about it.
Assemble your car!!!
Many of us can assemble a PC by getting help over the internet and buying parts from a local store[ or online as well]. With inter-operability between computer parts of different suppliers and with a little technical know-how, it is easy for anyone of us to assemble a computer by ourselves. We should also keep in mind the fact that companies[like Lenovo, hp, Acer] do exist which do the job of assembling a PC. All said, people still buy a PC from these companies[reasons are aplenty] but, there do exist customers who would prefer an assembled PC for the cost advantage.
Now, coming back to the point, will a day come when more number of people can be able to assemble an automobile by themselves?
I do hope so. With a vehicle modeling architecture in place and a set of definitions which will standardise the sub-system interfaces, one day, it might as well happen that we[ many people might object when i say 'we', so let me say,engineers*]would be able to assemble a car with a little technical help. As a step in that direction, a Japanese company started selling car kits which can be assembled at your home.[http://www.boingboing.net/2006/11/21/little_car_kits_from.html]
Open source design of a car which people can modify and keep releasing future versions of it. Suggestions anybody??
*Engineers[The technical knowledge they might be having is unimportant. It is just the degree which qualifies them as an engineers] are in abundance in India [:P]. Thanks to the southern states, which have overly populated themselves with a lot of them.
Globalisation: A one way route???
While, on one hand, talking about opening up economies,why are some countries in the developed world trying to be protectionist in nature?
Looking back, in the past half year, there have been instances when governments tried to prevent business deals that might affect their national interests.
In april, it was UK's turn to "protect" itself by trying to block Gazprom's effort to takeover Centrica.
Mr. Putin's comment on the above move — "What kind of reaction is this? What about globalisation? What about free markets? What is this?"
In February, there was much furore about the acquisition of P&O by Dubai Ports World.
In January, few countries in the EU which had controlling interests in Arcelor voiced their concern about Mittal's offer to acquire Arcelor.
Having mentioned that, i would like to say that, personally, i don't prefer creation of a bigger monopoly who would threaten the existence of smaller players in the same field.
In 2005, CNOOC withdrew its all-cash offer to buy Unocal Corporation for $18.5 bn citing political resistance within the US towards its offer. Finally, Chevron Texaco's offer of $ 17.1 bn was accepted by Unocal management.
Chennai on GMaps!!!
In collaboration[virtual] with Google, i present you (music starts) Chennai!!
Though Chennai sucks in a lot more ways than any city, living in the lungs[1] of chennai gives a completely different feeling about this city where i have stayed for 5 years all the while without learning a bit of Tamil.
1– You can find this phrase "You are in the lungs of Chennai" closer to the location i bookmarked below[Not using GMaps ofcourse!!]
Peeling a banana
It all started with one of my wing-mates asking me for the right way to peel a banana. I replied "You can do it from both sides but i don't think that one of them is the right one and the other wrong." After a little debate, we finally googled for "how to open a banana" and got this funny yet interesting link.[;)]
We followed up by asking a couple of our wing-mates about the right way to peel a banana. One of them replied "Turakollu, telangana vallu stem-side open chestharu kani memu opposite side nunchi chestham"[People from telangana open from the stem-side whereas we( from coastal Andhra) open it from the bottom]. Strange how people generalise even simple things such as this one.
Podcasting and more!!
Before i started this blog, i had opened an account in Odeo hoping to stay technologically ahead of others[;-)]. But, unfortunately, i haven’t been able to podcast my first message so far. I hope to do it sooner.
What is the next big thing after podcasting?? There are already a lot of people who have started blogging their diaries giving others a peep into their lives. And you have people sharing their photos online. So, along these lines, will “video-blogging” take its place? It has already taken off in some sites like www.youtube.com. When Internet TV takes off in a big manner, we can surely expect billions and billions of TV channels[ ]. Which one will you see?? Go along the same lines as you did with blogs.
On History –Inspired from “The Use and Abuse of History” By Marc Ferro
I penned down this blog after i went through a few chapters in the above mentioned book. This blog is concerned with the history we are taught at school. May i warn the reader that this particular blog might not make sense at all.
Let me carry on.
The importance of history teaching at school cannot be under-estimated. The impression we have of other people [people of different national origin or race] is in someway or the other influenced by what we have learnt during our childhood.
As a student, the history i studied about India starts with the arrival of Aryans in India and continues till its independence from the british empire. Thinking of the generation of Indian children whose parents have emigrated to United States towards the end of 20th century, doesn't it sound absurd studying about the American War of Independence or the Civil war which neither their ancestors nor anyone from their race has been associated with?
So, to imbibe "indian" values in their children, their parents might join them in an Indian school. Even parents of all other races might think in a similar fashion. In this process, the perspectives developed by them might vary resulting in a biased view of his/her environment. In this rapidly globalising world, a single and "acceptable to all" perspective of world history taught to everyone may help a mutli-racial society coalesce together.
P.S: Text modified from the original post.
EU Film Festival
The EU Film Festival is being held for 11th time this year in India.It is held once in every two years. Just wondering how i wasn't aware of this in the past. Anywayz, a very good collection of movies are being screened at the festival to promote socio-economic and cultural interaction between EU and India.
By the way, there is no entry fee for the festival. Still wondering how a ticketless event promotes economic interaction?? [:D]
The Turkish Connection [:D]
The movies on the first day were Kebab Connection and Under the Stars. While the first one was a romantic comedy between a turkish guy who wants to direct the first kung-fu film in germany and a german girl who is fond of theatre. The second was about a young greek survivor of the turkish invasion who visits his village to re-collect his childhood memories.
Did u notice the turkish connection??
More Info:
Kebab Connection
http://www.kebabconnection.de/
Listen to the second track on the website. It is damn good.
Kato apo ta asteria(Under the stars)
http://wbff.org/films/detail.asp?cid=1&fid=238
EU Flag at the venue.
I was able to cover 8 out of the 15 movies screened during the week. The movie i liked the most was "Koirankynnen leikkaaja"(Dog Nail Clipper).
http://www.ses.fi/en/film.asp?id=522
Peter Franzén, who played the main character in the movie has won the finnish Oscar-equivalent "Best Actor" award for his role.
Currently reading “The World is Flat” by THOMAS FRIEDMAN
By trying to prove that “The world is flat”, the author takes you through the past few years in the 21st century during which the barriers separating the world have come down and gives a much better picture of the IT revolution that is changing the shape of many nations (esp. India).
Gone through the first 100 pages so far. My rating: Excellent
All my fellow GenX’ers ought to read this one to get a bigger picture of the IT revolution that changed the shape of india.
My example of the world becoming flat: The publisher of this book, hoping to reduce costs, shifts the digitisation work of this book to india. Now, this same digitised copy is used by many publishers[ofcourse, without permission] to print the book and sell it for a much lesser price[slightly more than a dollar]. In this age of information, this same “flattening” effect enables the people who do your work for a much cheaper price to access information for a much much cheaper price than their counterparts in the developed nations pay.
