I am a movie buff. Rather a movie buff so crazy about movies I watch it to prove a point that I am a movie buff. The Social Network is not a mere watching for me. Its an experience.
Some people are born with good looks or with the natural talent. Others come from money or are naturally charismatic; they draw people to them in a way that just can’t be learned. Then there’s the rest of us. We’re nothing special. We’ll never be those people. We look at them and say it’s ok, but can’t even convince ourselves. Whether we choose to admit it or not, we want to be them or at least gain their approval. We want those people to see us as their equals.
Known to many as “The Facebook Movie,” David Fincher’s The Social Network is not about the creation of one of the internet’s most successful websites. It’s not about becoming the world’s youngest billionaire. It’s not about greed and it’s not about power. The Social Network is a film about the inescapable need for acceptance inside each one of us.
It’s the fall of 2003 and Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is sitting in a bar with his girlfriend (Rooney Mara). He explains to her the importance of belonging to one of Harvard University’s eight prestigious all-male social societies called “final clubs”. Why? Because they’re “exclusive,” a word that Mark does battle with throughout the movie. Mark has a serious personality problem. To put it in psychological terms, he’s an asshole. Because of his intelligence, he gives off a stink of superiority and has no tolerance for those whom he thinks are beneath him (Read: everybody). He’s bullish and stubborn, which, of course, makes him unlikeable. His only option is to do something that makes people accept him.
Enter the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer). These 6’5” blonde Adonis’s are everything Mark is looking for: members of the Porcellian “final club”, future Olympic rowers, and holders of inherited money. They sit at the head of the cool kids’ table, shining examples of the kinds of people Mark wants attention from. He gets it after creating something called FaceMash.com, a small website so powerful it shuts down Harvard’s servers. The Winklevoss twins bring him in for a meeting with the Porcellian Club stairway and tell Mark their idea: create a social networking site defined by exclusivity, where women can find and meet Harvard men. It seems like everything Mark wants. But he’s not in a “final club,” he’s in a stairway. He’s not friends with the Winklevosses, he’s a business partner. He hasn’t been accepted – he’s been reached out to with a ten foot pole.
Whether because of his attitude or his approach, everything that Mark does to gain acceptance ends in rejection. He tells his girlfriend that being in a final club would allow her better access to the upper class, leading her to dump him. Mark’s first attempt to make a website in the film, a site where pictures of female Harvard students are posted next to each other and the users click on the girl that they think is the hottest, is wildly popular but results in every girl on campus seeing him as a sexist pig and their boyfriends repeatedly threatening him. Facebook is a billion dollar idea that winds up with Mark dealing with two simultaneous lawsuits, one of which comes from his best friend.
You may be tempted at this point to think of Mark Zuckerberg as a sympathetic character, a Willy Loman or Shelley Levene for the 21st century. Don’t be fooled - Mark Zuckerberg is a tyrant, an unstoppable force. Every effort Mark makes to gain acceptance winds up hurting someone; he is a serial bridge burner. Feeling disrespected by the Winklevosses, he morphs their idea and keeps them dangling on a string before cutting them off entirely. When his best friend and Facebook business partner, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), becomes a prospective final club member, gaining the acceptance that Mark craves, he begins to shut more and more doors, rejecting idea after idea, before Eduardo is left behind completely. Mark is attempting the impossible, trying to gain acceptance through rejection.
This isn’t a simple film. It’s not the paint-by-numbers approach that you might see from a director less talented than David Fincher. At no point during the movie is the audience meant to sympathize with Mark. There’s no emotional scene during the climax where he crawls into a corner and bawls uncontrollably because he feels so alone. While the audience may feel the occasional shiver from the cold, Aaron Sorkin’s script never lets the audience feel distanced from the material. Eisenberg, recently stuck playing the nebbish, nervous weakling elsewhere, is stronger and more captivating here than we’ve ever seen him. There’s more than a film here; there’s a comment.
All of us can relate to Mark Zuckerberg. And that’s what will keep you engaged. You and I both want that same acceptance and equality Mark wants. Plenty of movies show that heavy is the head that wears the crown. We have enough movies where money goes to people’s heads and they espouse that greed is good. The Social Network outright rejects the tropes of power and money. Instead, Fincher and Sorkin have given us something that we can all understand and relate to: the costs of the desire for acceptance when it mutates into the blind ambition of social climbing. There are a finite number of cricket team, only so many seats available at the cool kids table, and we all want to be offered that last spot.
Must watch for all ages. I for one will watch it again and again. Waiting fot the Blueray disc to be out. I can enjoy it frame by frame at my private home theatre of course.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
Inception..
Inception is probably the first movie of 2010 that movie lovers have been legitimately anticipating—that is, looking forward to since that very first preview back in February.
Certainly I was.
Sometimes that anticipation is a bad thing, as when your hopes are dashed against a mediocre production; sometimes it makes a movie even better, when it meets or exceeds all of your expectations.
Inception isn’t quite the latter but certainly isn’t anything else. Mostly, I think, what few preconceptions I had about the plot or scenario the movie would cover turned out to be wrong, so I can’t call it what I expected, but the movie as it exists blew me away.
The story of the film—and this is what surprised me—turned out to be one story with several layers, not several smaller arcs as they tackled different jobs or something.
No, it’s just one job, and it is a big job. A swan song for DiCaprio’s character, who wants as payment for the job the client to use his political connections to clear him of murder charges against his wife.
What they are trying to do is not extract information (which is their usual line of work) but implant an idea that will then bloom from that subconscious/unconscious implantation via dream into the flower of a conviction from the man himself, by his conscious mind’s reckoning.
They have to create layers within layers in order to achieve this implantation, this “inception,” as they call it, and there is a risk to all of them, going this deep, that if they die in the dream they do not awake but get cast into limbo where the time dilation might well render them a lifetime before the dream comes to an end.
So here was the interesting thing about this set-up: I wasn’t sold on the framing story, about DiCaprio trying to get home to his kids via this shady corporate spying deal, and we never saw anything about the man they were implanting with this inception to know if he was a villain or a victim. I didn’t know who I should, in a moralistic way, be rooting for—but by the time the action started, it didn’t matter. I didn’t care whether I was in favor of the mission’s execution; all I cared about was that within the parameters they were given, the objective was immediate and exciting and tense to watch them try and accomplish.
The flashes back through the successive levels of the dream ratcheted that tension higher and higher, as you saw each team racing within its time dilation to beat both their clock and by extension the clock driving the entire structure.
Another thing that made the story not matter—I loved this conception of the dream world. For me, one of the only enduring ideas that stuck from my 13-year-old reading of "The Wheel of Time" books was the dreamworld his characters could enter, where things were like and yet not like the real world.
I have a version of my parents’ road that I know as well as their real one, but yet it exists only in my dreams.
And we all have times when we’re trying to tell someone about a dream, and we have to say things like “well, in the dream this made sense” or “then we were just elsewhere, like you are sometimes in dreams,” and this movie played with those ideas.
The world had its own physics, its own rules, and the dreamer would never notice it was odd until s/he awoke, because in that dream those were the rules.
The visuals were the final piece of this movie, and they were awesome. From the scene early on with Ellen Page’s character changing the physics of the world and creating streets that met at right angles along the x/y plane instead of the y/z, to the sequence when they are in a rolling van in one dream and the physics of that physical change affect the next level down so as the van rolls they are engaging in this fight that ranges from the hallway floor to its ceiling, to the sudden rearing of new buildings in the landscape or their equally sudden crumbling…this movie had some awesome things to look at. So if you’re someone who likes visuals—not special effects, which were actually used sparingly in comparison to achieving the same effect, but better, via camera tricks, but visuals—then this movie is worth seeing regardless of other considerations.
But I’ve spent all this time saying why the story didn’t matter without touching on whether it turned out to be good. It did. It was a bit slow to get started, and you will leave the theater still thinking about it. There is a facile surface reading that you can take away and feel satisfied with. If your mind can’t let go of the ideas that were incepted early in the film, however, if you paid close enough attention to note them, then you will start reevaluating everything.
I have gone through three layers of understanding so far, and this is only in the first 12 hours since I saw it. I am planning to see it again already—I expect on a second viewing my theories will become obviously right or wrong. But on the first viewing, this film leaves you thinking.
Chris Nolan is an excellent director, and I think he does better with idea movies rather than plot movies—for as much as I enjoyed the first of his Batman movies (I was the one person any of my friends knew who didn’t like The Dark Knight), I think they are the least of his films. He has a great cast that he’s working with here; there were no real weak links, although Ellen Page was probably the weakest only because she wasn’t doing anything we haven’t seen her do before. Which could easily be said of DiCaprio, too, here, except we forgive him for it because he’s just so damn charismatic to watch anyway. Joseph Gordon-Levitt—off his 500 Days of Summer backslide and back to his better form—Cillian Murphy (doing his usual naïf thing, too), Handsome Bob from Rocknrolla (Tom Hardy), Tom Berenger, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, and John Hurt round out the rest of the cast.
My bottom line on Inception is this: if you thought you wanted to see this movie, you do. And if you weren’t sure, imagine a mix of The Matrix’s reality-bending and reality-questioning and Ocean’s Eleven slick, complex heist, and The Dark City’s mind games and Memento’s mood and fractured storyline, and you get some idea of what this movie is. Add in a dash of Plato (“A man’s mind, once stretched to encompass a new idea, can never go back to its original dimensions”) and some hyberbolic space-time dilation, and I think it becomes obvious that you can’t go wrong with this movie. Expect to be caught in the moments. Expect to be made to wonder. Expect to be made to think. And expect to want to see it again.
Certainly I was.
Sometimes that anticipation is a bad thing, as when your hopes are dashed against a mediocre production; sometimes it makes a movie even better, when it meets or exceeds all of your expectations.
Inception isn’t quite the latter but certainly isn’t anything else. Mostly, I think, what few preconceptions I had about the plot or scenario the movie would cover turned out to be wrong, so I can’t call it what I expected, but the movie as it exists blew me away.
The story of the film—and this is what surprised me—turned out to be one story with several layers, not several smaller arcs as they tackled different jobs or something.
No, it’s just one job, and it is a big job. A swan song for DiCaprio’s character, who wants as payment for the job the client to use his political connections to clear him of murder charges against his wife.
What they are trying to do is not extract information (which is their usual line of work) but implant an idea that will then bloom from that subconscious/unconscious implantation via dream into the flower of a conviction from the man himself, by his conscious mind’s reckoning.
They have to create layers within layers in order to achieve this implantation, this “inception,” as they call it, and there is a risk to all of them, going this deep, that if they die in the dream they do not awake but get cast into limbo where the time dilation might well render them a lifetime before the dream comes to an end.
So here was the interesting thing about this set-up: I wasn’t sold on the framing story, about DiCaprio trying to get home to his kids via this shady corporate spying deal, and we never saw anything about the man they were implanting with this inception to know if he was a villain or a victim. I didn’t know who I should, in a moralistic way, be rooting for—but by the time the action started, it didn’t matter. I didn’t care whether I was in favor of the mission’s execution; all I cared about was that within the parameters they were given, the objective was immediate and exciting and tense to watch them try and accomplish.
The flashes back through the successive levels of the dream ratcheted that tension higher and higher, as you saw each team racing within its time dilation to beat both their clock and by extension the clock driving the entire structure.
Another thing that made the story not matter—I loved this conception of the dream world. For me, one of the only enduring ideas that stuck from my 13-year-old reading of "The Wheel of Time" books was the dreamworld his characters could enter, where things were like and yet not like the real world.
I have a version of my parents’ road that I know as well as their real one, but yet it exists only in my dreams.
And we all have times when we’re trying to tell someone about a dream, and we have to say things like “well, in the dream this made sense” or “then we were just elsewhere, like you are sometimes in dreams,” and this movie played with those ideas.
The world had its own physics, its own rules, and the dreamer would never notice it was odd until s/he awoke, because in that dream those were the rules.
The visuals were the final piece of this movie, and they were awesome. From the scene early on with Ellen Page’s character changing the physics of the world and creating streets that met at right angles along the x/y plane instead of the y/z, to the sequence when they are in a rolling van in one dream and the physics of that physical change affect the next level down so as the van rolls they are engaging in this fight that ranges from the hallway floor to its ceiling, to the sudden rearing of new buildings in the landscape or their equally sudden crumbling…this movie had some awesome things to look at. So if you’re someone who likes visuals—not special effects, which were actually used sparingly in comparison to achieving the same effect, but better, via camera tricks, but visuals—then this movie is worth seeing regardless of other considerations.
But I’ve spent all this time saying why the story didn’t matter without touching on whether it turned out to be good. It did. It was a bit slow to get started, and you will leave the theater still thinking about it. There is a facile surface reading that you can take away and feel satisfied with. If your mind can’t let go of the ideas that were incepted early in the film, however, if you paid close enough attention to note them, then you will start reevaluating everything.
I have gone through three layers of understanding so far, and this is only in the first 12 hours since I saw it. I am planning to see it again already—I expect on a second viewing my theories will become obviously right or wrong. But on the first viewing, this film leaves you thinking.
Chris Nolan is an excellent director, and I think he does better with idea movies rather than plot movies—for as much as I enjoyed the first of his Batman movies (I was the one person any of my friends knew who didn’t like The Dark Knight), I think they are the least of his films. He has a great cast that he’s working with here; there were no real weak links, although Ellen Page was probably the weakest only because she wasn’t doing anything we haven’t seen her do before. Which could easily be said of DiCaprio, too, here, except we forgive him for it because he’s just so damn charismatic to watch anyway. Joseph Gordon-Levitt—off his 500 Days of Summer backslide and back to his better form—Cillian Murphy (doing his usual naïf thing, too), Handsome Bob from Rocknrolla (Tom Hardy), Tom Berenger, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, and John Hurt round out the rest of the cast.
My bottom line on Inception is this: if you thought you wanted to see this movie, you do. And if you weren’t sure, imagine a mix of The Matrix’s reality-bending and reality-questioning and Ocean’s Eleven slick, complex heist, and The Dark City’s mind games and Memento’s mood and fractured storyline, and you get some idea of what this movie is. Add in a dash of Plato (“A man’s mind, once stretched to encompass a new idea, can never go back to its original dimensions”) and some hyberbolic space-time dilation, and I think it becomes obvious that you can’t go wrong with this movie. Expect to be caught in the moments. Expect to be made to wonder. Expect to be made to think. And expect to want to see it again.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Where are we heading
The other day I had a very challenging travel to undertake. These early morning flighta and late evening return flights to Mumbai and out of Mumbai are not so easy.
Combined with it, the run way in Ahmedabad was closed for few hours and all the flights were diverted to Mumbai. Our Pilot was sounding apologetic about the delay however said with lots of happiness - "dont worry we have enough fuel".
We keep hearing those horrible stories of flights were hoveing over Mumbai with just "two minutes of fuel" to spare and "flying within 500 meters" etc.,
One need to live on hope in India when you fly in the sky. Not that its bad... there is no comparison when you fly with uncertainty and expect to achieve effeciencies.
Its a tall order.
Now the real reason why I started writing this blog was for somethign else.
I was in this flilght which provides a satelite connectivity to watch your favourite channels. I was surfing and landed up watchign a horrible, half baked, orchestrated, immature program conducted by India's leading anchor woman Barka Dutta.
Hey Barka no offense meant. If you are running short on time demand two episodes instead capsuling it in one. It will help.
There were half dozen of eminent personalities in the show. They were impressive and particularly one recited some Hindi Peoms as well. The show was to discuss the linking language for India other than English. Its was so biased.
What was the BBC reporter doing in this show god only knows.
There was one teacher who teaches Sanskrit - very meakily sounded off to the audience - why wont we revoke the Sanskrit the mother of all language and develop it as a linking languguage only to be snubbed by Barka's statement stating that " she was so scared of the language as a child".
Barka who cares. And all those so called intellegencia in the show who cares what are you scared off. The concept of the linking language other than English to a grossly misinformed and under previleged Indians is a sin to discuss in open. Some one was throwing statistics 4% of the civilised world in India uses Engllish and majority of them uses Hindi.
Hindi in India is spoken in many forms. There is a Bojpuria, UP - eria, Tamilindia, Telugindia, Malayalamindia,Begalindia ( even today in Kolkata - if you happen to call your friend and if some senior citizen answers the phone - if you ask in nice sweet Hindi can I speak to Chakraborthy - you can hear the Senior Citizen yelling at his son in Bengali " hey listen you got some call from some Hindustani" - thats the extent of Bengali understandig a non Benali.).
The fundamental thing about this so called orchestrated show conducted by Barka - leaves nothing to ponder over by the intellegencia, policy makers, academecians, students or any one who wants to think.
Why Barka why do you have to do this. When we go out for shopping in a Video shop with our Children we always land up pikcing educational DVD made by BBC, Nat Geo or some one who is non Indian. The best Children movie is also from Iran. Shame on us.
The time now for India is to present a single face to the world.
The only country in the World which is talking about economic growth and the world is eagerly waiting to participate in this opportunity. There will be a fall out of greedy minds currupting it. We agree.
The only thing which worked in favour of invading foreigners to India is - be it Moghuls or Brits we as Indians were always divided by cultures, language even through the skin of our colour. We recognise faces and based on the text of the skin within India and declare them - hey he is a Madrasi, he is a Punjabi etc.,
There was this theatere personality ( he acts in movies too by the way) from Maharashtra. He was sounding too sleepy and for heaven's sake this wasnt about saving Marathi as a language. But discussing about the linking language among Indians.
The lady I didnt get her name, but she is the one who did the role of Vidya Balan's mom's role in Paa. Lavishly spoken, articulated few sentences and got applauded by people in the show.
Why is that I felt half of the audience in the show were South Indians. Then there was some celeberity who was defending how the formation of LTTE has happened because of forcing a language on Tamils of Srilankan made them to fight for their own identity therefore dont force Hindi on Indian. Rubbish.
Mr. Roy of NDTV. Have you actually seen this episode while it was shot or after it was telecast. Can this episode be shown to my growing up child and explain the relevance of our a naion which needs to be united through a common language other than English?. Can this open up debate among academians accross the country to seek for a reform. A french for france. A German for a Germany.
God some one need to remind Barka.
The mother of all language on earth are not from England, Germany, France or US. Its from India. The mother of language per se which united the civilisation during its formative days are not from an outer space - but from India. The oldest lanuage known to civilisation is none other Tamil, Sanskrit and Tulu.
Tamil has become a pride for DMK and its multiple forms ( did you notice D of any party in Tamil Nadu represents Dravidar - be it DK, DMK, ADMK and many more) of parties.
The only oldest language which survived its brutuality over a period of time is Tamil. Sanskrit (which the greeks worship) has gone out of circulation. Thanks to many more Bharka's of our society who never had a parent to preach them what is Sanskrit is all about.
Divided India during British regime had nothing to gain - yet was so undecided about its rich language heritage and culture.
We almost were partonised on every possible occassion. Indian post Independence were united for a cause. Who will make the fastest run in amassing wealth.
That too disproportionately. Will anyone ever bother to keep " Chanakya's ArthaShastra" as a compulsory study among school syllabus. Can the epics like Ramayan and Mahabharata can be replaced by anything else. Will we stamp Bhagawat Geetha meant only for upper caste in a caste ridden politically exploited system.
Vedas, Upanishads and many more - all were for generations were written and read in Sanskrit. Some time during the formation of a society which got divied between educated and not educated - the educated took advantage of the not educated and created multiple forms of Mannu's of our society. Sanskrit was systaatially murdred. Driven out of practice. System.
And Bharka shot a snobbish and rubbish statement on the one and only woman in the entire show who made one sendible statement.
Bharka -- we call it you know what " time pass". We have better things to do in life but not at the cost of corrupting a nation with this half baked theories telcast over a channel like yours.
The topic which you choosen is so powerful and none will dispute it. Talk to your producer. Provide a show underplaying your personality. Engage a research team. How was this nation still managed to exchange ideas, built Universities, ( I am sure you would have heard about Nalanda University) and a Chinese traveller called Yeun Sheung who travelled accross India and understood its culture - the country was united from its inception through a medium called " Sanskrit".
India is happy with its English ability to communicate with each other. What we need a movement now. And that movement can connect us only if we have a history to support it. Difficult task. But not impossible. Proivided you media does enough of research and present the Glorious India back to its citizens.
A country thwarted by its intellegencia who never even bothers to vote when its the time to elect a new system has no right to participate in this discussions. How many times have you voted in India Barka. Good question. I wont get an answer.
I know you are a Punjabi born and brought up in Delhi - scared of Sanskrit. Dont worry you will find enought of voluteers to help you... including the Sanskrit teacher who appeared in your show. Take some time out - may be its time you can do with some learning before you present it to your audience.
Indias linking was never in its language, will never be in its language - it will be in its culture. And that culture is hidden in libraries accross the country written in sanskrit. Instead of searchign for IGSE/ICSE/CBSE and many forms of Firang Universities - which has a history of not even 500 years lets start digging our own language history which has taught the world to communicate and interact.
Participate in promoting it in India for Indians by Indians.
God bless India.
Combined with it, the run way in Ahmedabad was closed for few hours and all the flights were diverted to Mumbai. Our Pilot was sounding apologetic about the delay however said with lots of happiness - "dont worry we have enough fuel".
We keep hearing those horrible stories of flights were hoveing over Mumbai with just "two minutes of fuel" to spare and "flying within 500 meters" etc.,
One need to live on hope in India when you fly in the sky. Not that its bad... there is no comparison when you fly with uncertainty and expect to achieve effeciencies.
Its a tall order.
Now the real reason why I started writing this blog was for somethign else.
I was in this flilght which provides a satelite connectivity to watch your favourite channels. I was surfing and landed up watchign a horrible, half baked, orchestrated, immature program conducted by India's leading anchor woman Barka Dutta.
Hey Barka no offense meant. If you are running short on time demand two episodes instead capsuling it in one. It will help.
There were half dozen of eminent personalities in the show. They were impressive and particularly one recited some Hindi Peoms as well. The show was to discuss the linking language for India other than English. Its was so biased.
What was the BBC reporter doing in this show god only knows.
There was one teacher who teaches Sanskrit - very meakily sounded off to the audience - why wont we revoke the Sanskrit the mother of all language and develop it as a linking languguage only to be snubbed by Barka's statement stating that " she was so scared of the language as a child".
Barka who cares. And all those so called intellegencia in the show who cares what are you scared off. The concept of the linking language other than English to a grossly misinformed and under previleged Indians is a sin to discuss in open. Some one was throwing statistics 4% of the civilised world in India uses Engllish and majority of them uses Hindi.
Hindi in India is spoken in many forms. There is a Bojpuria, UP - eria, Tamilindia, Telugindia, Malayalamindia,Begalindia ( even today in Kolkata - if you happen to call your friend and if some senior citizen answers the phone - if you ask in nice sweet Hindi can I speak to Chakraborthy - you can hear the Senior Citizen yelling at his son in Bengali " hey listen you got some call from some Hindustani" - thats the extent of Bengali understandig a non Benali.).
The fundamental thing about this so called orchestrated show conducted by Barka - leaves nothing to ponder over by the intellegencia, policy makers, academecians, students or any one who wants to think.
Why Barka why do you have to do this. When we go out for shopping in a Video shop with our Children we always land up pikcing educational DVD made by BBC, Nat Geo or some one who is non Indian. The best Children movie is also from Iran. Shame on us.
The time now for India is to present a single face to the world.
The only country in the World which is talking about economic growth and the world is eagerly waiting to participate in this opportunity. There will be a fall out of greedy minds currupting it. We agree.
The only thing which worked in favour of invading foreigners to India is - be it Moghuls or Brits we as Indians were always divided by cultures, language even through the skin of our colour. We recognise faces and based on the text of the skin within India and declare them - hey he is a Madrasi, he is a Punjabi etc.,
There was this theatere personality ( he acts in movies too by the way) from Maharashtra. He was sounding too sleepy and for heaven's sake this wasnt about saving Marathi as a language. But discussing about the linking language among Indians.
The lady I didnt get her name, but she is the one who did the role of Vidya Balan's mom's role in Paa. Lavishly spoken, articulated few sentences and got applauded by people in the show.
Why is that I felt half of the audience in the show were South Indians. Then there was some celeberity who was defending how the formation of LTTE has happened because of forcing a language on Tamils of Srilankan made them to fight for their own identity therefore dont force Hindi on Indian. Rubbish.
Mr. Roy of NDTV. Have you actually seen this episode while it was shot or after it was telecast. Can this episode be shown to my growing up child and explain the relevance of our a naion which needs to be united through a common language other than English?. Can this open up debate among academians accross the country to seek for a reform. A french for france. A German for a Germany.
God some one need to remind Barka.
The mother of all language on earth are not from England, Germany, France or US. Its from India. The mother of language per se which united the civilisation during its formative days are not from an outer space - but from India. The oldest lanuage known to civilisation is none other Tamil, Sanskrit and Tulu.
Tamil has become a pride for DMK and its multiple forms ( did you notice D of any party in Tamil Nadu represents Dravidar - be it DK, DMK, ADMK and many more) of parties.
The only oldest language which survived its brutuality over a period of time is Tamil. Sanskrit (which the greeks worship) has gone out of circulation. Thanks to many more Bharka's of our society who never had a parent to preach them what is Sanskrit is all about.
Divided India during British regime had nothing to gain - yet was so undecided about its rich language heritage and culture.
We almost were partonised on every possible occassion. Indian post Independence were united for a cause. Who will make the fastest run in amassing wealth.
That too disproportionately. Will anyone ever bother to keep " Chanakya's ArthaShastra" as a compulsory study among school syllabus. Can the epics like Ramayan and Mahabharata can be replaced by anything else. Will we stamp Bhagawat Geetha meant only for upper caste in a caste ridden politically exploited system.
Vedas, Upanishads and many more - all were for generations were written and read in Sanskrit. Some time during the formation of a society which got divied between educated and not educated - the educated took advantage of the not educated and created multiple forms of Mannu's of our society. Sanskrit was systaatially murdred. Driven out of practice. System.
And Bharka shot a snobbish and rubbish statement on the one and only woman in the entire show who made one sendible statement.
Bharka -- we call it you know what " time pass". We have better things to do in life but not at the cost of corrupting a nation with this half baked theories telcast over a channel like yours.
The topic which you choosen is so powerful and none will dispute it. Talk to your producer. Provide a show underplaying your personality. Engage a research team. How was this nation still managed to exchange ideas, built Universities, ( I am sure you would have heard about Nalanda University) and a Chinese traveller called Yeun Sheung who travelled accross India and understood its culture - the country was united from its inception through a medium called " Sanskrit".
India is happy with its English ability to communicate with each other. What we need a movement now. And that movement can connect us only if we have a history to support it. Difficult task. But not impossible. Proivided you media does enough of research and present the Glorious India back to its citizens.
A country thwarted by its intellegencia who never even bothers to vote when its the time to elect a new system has no right to participate in this discussions. How many times have you voted in India Barka. Good question. I wont get an answer.
I know you are a Punjabi born and brought up in Delhi - scared of Sanskrit. Dont worry you will find enought of voluteers to help you... including the Sanskrit teacher who appeared in your show. Take some time out - may be its time you can do with some learning before you present it to your audience.
Indias linking was never in its language, will never be in its language - it will be in its culture. And that culture is hidden in libraries accross the country written in sanskrit. Instead of searchign for IGSE/ICSE/CBSE and many forms of Firang Universities - which has a history of not even 500 years lets start digging our own language history which has taught the world to communicate and interact.
Participate in promoting it in India for Indians by Indians.
God bless India.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Raavan and Raavanan
I had this good fortune of following Tamil as well Hindi as a language. Last Friday the day movie got released in Mumbai I watched it in Hindi and next day in Tamil. Contrary to the usual style of Maniratnam this movie is a an attempt which easily could not be digested by hardcore Maniratnam's fans.
Well who is a fan by the way?. I never understood the concept or interested to understand it either. Only a Maniratnam can have the guts to recreate a story we would have heard over hundred time while we all grow up. The theme is quite contemporary. To some extent elusive too. But who cares.
I was stunned at the Visuals of the movie. Something other movie makers in India got to learn from Maniratnam. None of his movies ever had a locale which is outside India. Even his master creation " Kannathil Muthamittal" the Srilankan visuals were created within India.
Whether it Ilayaraja ( remember his movies before the Roja era) or A.R. Rahman - only a Maniratnam movie can have such a wonderful music. Ranja Ranja is a soul warming number.
Every one in the movie has attempted something which they would not have done otherwise in our star stuck fame world. Govinda for instance will find a batch of egomaniacs preaching him how did he land up doing such a role which otherwise no one would have considered doing. Yeah you are right - Sandra Bullock should have never done the part in " Time to kill" for instance.
Maniratnam is always a trend setter. He defeated our so called Star system and made them look characters. Prabhu and Karthik for instance in Tamil are totally applaudable. Similarly the Bhojpuri actor in Hindi Ravi, is good. Priyamani and Aishwarya Rai Bachan ( such a long name) are the two characters remains same in both the version.
Two things I need to tell about this movie:-
Watch the movie don't listen the nonsenses written in media or the so called self declared film critics. May be the PR agency of Maniratnam didn't buy them a beer or showered them with gifts. Everything in this country can be orchestrated - media included.
Watch the movie with your friends, family and children included. You will not find an opportunity to be yourself in which you can be the one family all over again watching a movie.
Maniratnam - one word to you. Great attempt. Keep trying more and more.
Well who is a fan by the way?. I never understood the concept or interested to understand it either. Only a Maniratnam can have the guts to recreate a story we would have heard over hundred time while we all grow up. The theme is quite contemporary. To some extent elusive too. But who cares.
I was stunned at the Visuals of the movie. Something other movie makers in India got to learn from Maniratnam. None of his movies ever had a locale which is outside India. Even his master creation " Kannathil Muthamittal" the Srilankan visuals were created within India.
Whether it Ilayaraja ( remember his movies before the Roja era) or A.R. Rahman - only a Maniratnam movie can have such a wonderful music. Ranja Ranja is a soul warming number.
Every one in the movie has attempted something which they would not have done otherwise in our star stuck fame world. Govinda for instance will find a batch of egomaniacs preaching him how did he land up doing such a role which otherwise no one would have considered doing. Yeah you are right - Sandra Bullock should have never done the part in " Time to kill" for instance.
Maniratnam is always a trend setter. He defeated our so called Star system and made them look characters. Prabhu and Karthik for instance in Tamil are totally applaudable. Similarly the Bhojpuri actor in Hindi Ravi, is good. Priyamani and Aishwarya Rai Bachan ( such a long name) are the two characters remains same in both the version.
Two things I need to tell about this movie:-
Watch the movie don't listen the nonsenses written in media or the so called self declared film critics. May be the PR agency of Maniratnam didn't buy them a beer or showered them with gifts. Everything in this country can be orchestrated - media included.
Watch the movie with your friends, family and children included. You will not find an opportunity to be yourself in which you can be the one family all over again watching a movie.
Maniratnam - one word to you. Great attempt. Keep trying more and more.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
A child is the source of inspiration...
I have earlier written about the leanings I have undergone through children. As the day progresses and in the process when I watch my children - who are growing up as every day passes - one is 13 and other is 6. It's amazing to watch them, talk to them, connect to them, observe them and above all you learn something new from them every day. I am never tired of learning from my own children.
We can learn so much from children. And most of us have the good fortune to get to be closely reacquainted with the magic of childhood twenty or thirty years after we were children. If our children then have children, we get another lesson some years further down the track.
It would seem that many parents see the teaching process as a one way street.
Parents can also do well to spend more time learning from their children and less time teaching.
Children know a lot more about having a good time than most adults. Children know how to laugh.
They don't need much to laugh at. Sometimes they don't need anything at all. They laugh because it feels good. Did you get your quota of laughs today? ( I was moved to see my 13 year old daughter once remarked in FB - about generally feeling good factor)
They are delightfully spontaneous. Children don't analyze and work everything out. They are just busy "being".
Whenever we meet grown ups who are so spontaneous, we tend to treasure them also.
Let's do less thinking and more responding.
Children are eternally fascinated. They are curious.
Everything is a new exciting experience, to be absorbed. We Adults switched off ourselves.
Many of us have forgotten what a magic place this planet is.
Children are also very accepting. They are without prejudice. Rich or poor or black or white, you are OK. A child is not your religion or your politics. One of those occasions where I lost my cool for some thing ( an unfortunate night when I returned from travel when there was no power till wee hours I have lost all my cool and subjected my kid as a recipient for which I am ashamed off myself) the next day morning I called my daughter from office ( when I left in the morning she was still sleeping) and said sorry to her and apologized to her. She simple shrugged it off. That's children for you. They never do any carry forward of grudges.
Kids have enormous resilience and determination. If they want, they don't quit. Their persistence is really something to be admired, as well as endured. Children just keep going for it. When you learned to walk, you kept at it and kept at it. You fall over and got up. Finally you learned to walk! Do you still exhibit that kind of determination?
In a nutshell - Spend time with children. Learn more about laughter, spontaneity, curiosity, acceptance, resilience, trust, determination, and your imagination. They are here to teach us!
We can learn so much from children. And most of us have the good fortune to get to be closely reacquainted with the magic of childhood twenty or thirty years after we were children. If our children then have children, we get another lesson some years further down the track.
It would seem that many parents see the teaching process as a one way street.
Parents can also do well to spend more time learning from their children and less time teaching.
Children know a lot more about having a good time than most adults. Children know how to laugh.
They don't need much to laugh at. Sometimes they don't need anything at all. They laugh because it feels good. Did you get your quota of laughs today? ( I was moved to see my 13 year old daughter once remarked in FB - about generally feeling good factor)
They are delightfully spontaneous. Children don't analyze and work everything out. They are just busy "being".
Whenever we meet grown ups who are so spontaneous, we tend to treasure them also.
Let's do less thinking and more responding.
Children are eternally fascinated. They are curious.
Everything is a new exciting experience, to be absorbed. We Adults switched off ourselves.
Many of us have forgotten what a magic place this planet is.
Children are also very accepting. They are without prejudice. Rich or poor or black or white, you are OK. A child is not your religion or your politics. One of those occasions where I lost my cool for some thing ( an unfortunate night when I returned from travel when there was no power till wee hours I have lost all my cool and subjected my kid as a recipient for which I am ashamed off myself) the next day morning I called my daughter from office ( when I left in the morning she was still sleeping) and said sorry to her and apologized to her. She simple shrugged it off. That's children for you. They never do any carry forward of grudges.
Kids have enormous resilience and determination. If they want, they don't quit. Their persistence is really something to be admired, as well as endured. Children just keep going for it. When you learned to walk, you kept at it and kept at it. You fall over and got up. Finally you learned to walk! Do you still exhibit that kind of determination?
In a nutshell - Spend time with children. Learn more about laughter, spontaneity, curiosity, acceptance, resilience, trust, determination, and your imagination. They are here to teach us!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Get on with life... Dont be in the captivity of your own negativity....
Blocked?
Frustrated?
Know you are doing things right yet there still doesn't seem to be any movement towards getting your goal.
Spiritual Timing may be the answer. To determine if Spiritual Timing is the cause of your delay, you must first ask these questions.
Are You:
Trying to control the situation?
Worrying about what people will think?
Confusing happiness with fulfillment of desire?
Insisting that your way is the only right way?
Rationalizing your situation to maintain your own independence?
Living in the past or future and not in the moment?
Trying to stop change?
Setting up too rigid goals and paths to manifest your goal?
Setting up expectations for outcomes?
Trying too much or too hard to fulfill your desires?
Using the ego to set up significance, projections, feelings or attitudes towards accomplishment of your goal?
If you answered YES, to some or all of these questions, it may be your personal growth that is stopping you from actualizing your goal.
To eliminate these obstacles you must work on eliminating negative thought patterns that may be getting in your way.
If you answered NO to all these questions, the next step is to find out if you are in a place that I call the Creative Void.
A Creative Void is a time in your life where you are shifting, adapting and getting ready for a major change.
It is a spiritual growth time, where like spiritual timing, there is little or no movement. You may or may not know what your next step towards your goal is and you might not even know the goal. You feel and know a shift is about to occur and things around you don't feel exactly right - but nothing seems to be happening.
The Creative Void may be a time for information gathering, reflection, sitting still, eliminating things that are no longer necessary in your life. It is the time of spiritual growth and advancement towards balance in your life. To determine if you are in a Creative Void time here are some of the questions to ask yourself.
Do You:
Hold on to ideas, methods or things that inhibit your spiritual growth?
Need to get rid of attachment to people, places or things?
Want to find the missing balance in your life by including time for: Spirituality? Self? Family? Significant Others? Community? Career?
Need to let go of negative emotional situations?
Have to eliminate sources of fear in your life?
Need to make and accept changes in your mind, body or spirit to allow change to flow?
Have a need to find your purpose or service in life?
If you answered YES to any or all of these questions, you must honor this time of spiritual growth. Consider these things as opportunities for growth and work on them one-by-one.
Always remember that the Creative Void is a time to resolve issues and allow balance to come into your life. It is the time to throw away the old and invite in the new.
As issues and balance are resolved in your life, action will manifest and movement will follow.
If you answered NO to all these questions, it may be that Spiritual Timing is at work.
Spiritual Timing is what I call God's Timing. It is a time when everything is in synchronicity.
The right time, the right place and the right action all manifests when it is exactly right for everyone and every thing in the universe.
Everything is comprised of energy and we are all one. Therefore, every thought or action affects not only us but the universe as well. Negative thoughts produce negative energy just as positive thought produces positive energy. Universal truths (e.g., the power of love) are not perceptions and have their own energy.
Our perception, which is another energy, is just that -Our Perception. Every thing and everyone's perception is different from each other and is dependent upon their individual life path journey.
When you think about the magnitude of all this perceptive energy it can be overwhelming. Think of the energy of a flower growing, an ant busily living its life, the earth's energy or the individualized perceptive energy of the billions of people on earth. Each and every thing with its own energy!
Spiritual Timing orchestrates this energy for the good of all. Not just for the individual but for everything, everywhere.
You may be coming from the right place, doing everything right, having the right thoughts and providing the right energy, but perhaps somewhere some thing is not ready for what you are to manifest. Synchronicity is missing, so Spiritual Timing comes into play.
When Spiritual Timing is the cause of lack of movement towards your goal, patience and acceptance can help you cope with the delay. There are no mistakes and there is a reason why everything happens or does not happen.
Remember that we are comprised of body, mind and spirit and some or all of these areas can be addressed to help you wait until the Spiritual Timing is right. However you choose to cope with Spiritual Timing is exactly right for you. Here are some hints that I use when I get into Spiritual Timing.
Reduce Your:
Physical Stress by taking care of your body - Eat a proper diet - Take the correct dietary supplements and herbs - Get enough rest and sleep - Exercise
Mental Stress by quieting your mind - Accept that things are exactly right and stay positive - Understand that there are no mistakes and things will manifest when and how they are supposed to - Let Go and Just Be without expectation - Meditate and Pray
Emotional Stress by releasing attachment - Maintain an attitude of love, joy and happiness - Know you will be provided for and everything's all right - Practice
patience - Gain comfort knowing that things are happening for the good of all
Spiritual Stress by cleansing yourself of negativity - Feel and connect to the Oneness and Universal Love - Trust your inner guidance always - Know that everything is exactly right and the solution is being taken care of.
Following these hints doesn't mean that Spiritual Timing will work any faster.
After all time is man-made and not a prerequisite to the master plan. What will happen is that you will feel part of the whole, gain understanding and peace and be able to assist with even more positive energy.
Happiness.... clearly its all yours...
Happiness is a gift that we can all enjoy if we choose to; it enters your life when you let your thinking patterns take a more positive angle.
Rather than coming to negative conclusions hastily, the key is taking time to think about a situation in its entirety. A new angle will reveal itself which will make you understand why things happened the way they did. There is always the opportunity to be happy around every corner as the quotation by James Oppenheim states: "The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet
Learn to smile and laugh a lot more, it is infectious and soon you have others around you doing the same and time passes a lot better. Happy people radiate a field around them that draws others to them who want to share in their happiness. We all have come across people who have been through all sorts of problems in life and yet they have not stopped laughing or smiling. These people are examples to follow and they prove that even in their difficult times they have not given up hope or given up on life.
Happiness comes from acceptance of your situation or your surroundings. It comes from counting the blessings around you and believe me each one of us has plenty of blessings if we care to count them. The gift of health, the gift of families, the gift of friends, the list is endless. And if we are amongst those who have had more than their share of sadness in life, there are still things that make you have another go at life. It is a matter of finding something that will make you feel good about yourself and doing it.
Being healthy makes a person happy so learn to cultivate good health. This means eating less junk food, exercising not only the body but also the mind and entertaining good thoughts. The mind, body and soul work together as a unit so try and keep all three healthy and motivated. Being anxious and stressed does not promote happiness so try and rid yourself of emotions like these that drain the mind and the body. Seek help to get you on the road to good health
Learning new skills and exploring new subjects expands the mind and if it enhances a career then the satisfaction will relate to happiness. Self development makes a person feel good about themselves so do not let yourself stagnate but keep evolving. Life can be an exciting journey with so much that one can do and achieve at every stage, young or old.
To be loved gives a lot of happiness but to get this love you have to give it too. Do not hesitate to show your love to those that matter the most and caring to those that need it the most. Happiness also comes from giving to those not as fortunate as you.
The irony of life is that happiness lies in the simplest things of life and it does not have to cost a penny. Wouldn't it be sad then if we spent our lives not being happy and making everyone else around unhappy as well?
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." (Oscar Wilde)
Rather than coming to negative conclusions hastily, the key is taking time to think about a situation in its entirety. A new angle will reveal itself which will make you understand why things happened the way they did. There is always the opportunity to be happy around every corner as the quotation by James Oppenheim states: "The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet
Learn to smile and laugh a lot more, it is infectious and soon you have others around you doing the same and time passes a lot better. Happy people radiate a field around them that draws others to them who want to share in their happiness. We all have come across people who have been through all sorts of problems in life and yet they have not stopped laughing or smiling. These people are examples to follow and they prove that even in their difficult times they have not given up hope or given up on life.
Happiness comes from acceptance of your situation or your surroundings. It comes from counting the blessings around you and believe me each one of us has plenty of blessings if we care to count them. The gift of health, the gift of families, the gift of friends, the list is endless. And if we are amongst those who have had more than their share of sadness in life, there are still things that make you have another go at life. It is a matter of finding something that will make you feel good about yourself and doing it.
Being healthy makes a person happy so learn to cultivate good health. This means eating less junk food, exercising not only the body but also the mind and entertaining good thoughts. The mind, body and soul work together as a unit so try and keep all three healthy and motivated. Being anxious and stressed does not promote happiness so try and rid yourself of emotions like these that drain the mind and the body. Seek help to get you on the road to good health
Learning new skills and exploring new subjects expands the mind and if it enhances a career then the satisfaction will relate to happiness. Self development makes a person feel good about themselves so do not let yourself stagnate but keep evolving. Life can be an exciting journey with so much that one can do and achieve at every stage, young or old.
To be loved gives a lot of happiness but to get this love you have to give it too. Do not hesitate to show your love to those that matter the most and caring to those that need it the most. Happiness also comes from giving to those not as fortunate as you.
The irony of life is that happiness lies in the simplest things of life and it does not have to cost a penny. Wouldn't it be sad then if we spent our lives not being happy and making everyone else around unhappy as well?
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." (Oscar Wilde)
Care to live..
When does life really begin?
Is it when the first fluttering beats of the primitive heart of a fetus start, or when the child is pushed from the womb into the world?
Does it all actually start at the moment of conception when the egg and sperm meet and mix their genetic code together to create a new being.
Who can say really. No one knows because no one is sure of when life truely begins.
There are many out there who say an unborn child isn't really a person, or even alive because it can not sustain it's own life.
If this were true, then no one is a real person until they are living on their own away from their parents. When you stop and really think about this, without listening to the arguments about when life starts or if something is considered alive until a certain time, you would be suprised at what you may find.
When the primitive heart of a tiny fetus starts to beat for the first time, it is then that it starts to actually survive on its own, apart from its mother.
Though at this time, most mothers-to-be don't know they are mothers yet, they begin to change their attitude to a more gentle caring way and doing what they can to protect the tiny life inside them in many different ways. Its that life growing inside them that started those mothering instincts.
Its those instincts that protect it from harm until it is able to survive outside the womb and until it can live apart from its mother later in life. Even beyond that point, any mother will protect her young from everything she can.
I'm not a scientist, a theologist, or even a doctor. I am just an average woman with a child of her own. From the moment I felt those first flutterings of life within me and heard my child's beating heart for the first time, all thanks to modern technology, I have thought about when life truely began.
No matter what, from the very beginning when the egg and sperm meet, it is a living breathing human being. Sometimes, the life can not go beyond a few weeks inside the mother, but its still alive, until it can not go any longer.
There are times, when that life has to be ended, in such cases, it is still sad, but if the mother is to live, then it has to be done. There are other times, when frankly, it is best because there are other problems such as a tumor which is eating away at the child little by little.
It doesn't change the fact the child had to die, but at least, it had a small chance and brought just a little happiness into the mother's life.
So, when does life really begin? I don't know, but when ever it does, its all well worth keeping it going, for the rewards are more than what anyone truely deserves.
Is it when the first fluttering beats of the primitive heart of a fetus start, or when the child is pushed from the womb into the world?
Does it all actually start at the moment of conception when the egg and sperm meet and mix their genetic code together to create a new being.
Who can say really. No one knows because no one is sure of when life truely begins.
There are many out there who say an unborn child isn't really a person, or even alive because it can not sustain it's own life.
If this were true, then no one is a real person until they are living on their own away from their parents. When you stop and really think about this, without listening to the arguments about when life starts or if something is considered alive until a certain time, you would be suprised at what you may find.
When the primitive heart of a tiny fetus starts to beat for the first time, it is then that it starts to actually survive on its own, apart from its mother.
Though at this time, most mothers-to-be don't know they are mothers yet, they begin to change their attitude to a more gentle caring way and doing what they can to protect the tiny life inside them in many different ways. Its that life growing inside them that started those mothering instincts.
Its those instincts that protect it from harm until it is able to survive outside the womb and until it can live apart from its mother later in life. Even beyond that point, any mother will protect her young from everything she can.
I'm not a scientist, a theologist, or even a doctor. I am just an average woman with a child of her own. From the moment I felt those first flutterings of life within me and heard my child's beating heart for the first time, all thanks to modern technology, I have thought about when life truely began.
No matter what, from the very beginning when the egg and sperm meet, it is a living breathing human being. Sometimes, the life can not go beyond a few weeks inside the mother, but its still alive, until it can not go any longer.
There are times, when that life has to be ended, in such cases, it is still sad, but if the mother is to live, then it has to be done. There are other times, when frankly, it is best because there are other problems such as a tumor which is eating away at the child little by little.
It doesn't change the fact the child had to die, but at least, it had a small chance and brought just a little happiness into the mother's life.
So, when does life really begin? I don't know, but when ever it does, its all well worth keeping it going, for the rewards are more than what anyone truely deserves.
Friday, March 26, 2010
When you saw god very close.....
I literally felt him and saw him too. He was wearing specs. Slim well maintained physique. He spoke in Telugu to me, a language I cherish talking in eventhough I am a Tamilian. He walked with a smile always and an easy manner which is comforting.
I am talking about Dr. A.V.Ganesh Kumar, of Hiranandani Hospital, Mumbai who established the Cardiac Department 6 years ago in Mumbai.
My mother had this peculiar issue of a Diabetic combined with a very high Blood Pressure. She is 72. She was panting whenever she took even a short walks. Dr. Vishal Chopra a fine young man who was treating her for Diabetics felt she should undergo 2D echo and ECG tests which showed certain abonormality.
The real topic is - my mother went through Coronery Angiography and while the process was on we have to carry on with Angioplasty as well. At first, it was scary. Anything to do with heart is always scary. The comfort we felt dealing with Dr. Ganesh Kumar is amazing.
His process of handholding a patient is simple. He talks straight.
When I saw my mother getting discharged the next day I felt a sigh of relief.
I realised I saw god in him ... that too very close.
I am talking about Dr. A.V.Ganesh Kumar, of Hiranandani Hospital, Mumbai who established the Cardiac Department 6 years ago in Mumbai.
My mother had this peculiar issue of a Diabetic combined with a very high Blood Pressure. She is 72. She was panting whenever she took even a short walks. Dr. Vishal Chopra a fine young man who was treating her for Diabetics felt she should undergo 2D echo and ECG tests which showed certain abonormality.
The real topic is - my mother went through Coronery Angiography and while the process was on we have to carry on with Angioplasty as well. At first, it was scary. Anything to do with heart is always scary. The comfort we felt dealing with Dr. Ganesh Kumar is amazing.
His process of handholding a patient is simple. He talks straight.
When I saw my mother getting discharged the next day I felt a sigh of relief.
I realised I saw god in him ... that too very close.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Can there be an alternative to Value based systems
I am not a puritan. So don't get me wrong. I am not a preacher either. So do not look for words of wisdom in my writing.
I am not what you think I am and I am what I am and what I want to be. So a question I want to pose to the learned minds, friends, family and the likes of such people who hold a very high and esteemed positions as a heads of family, heads of places of worship, heads of institutions, law makers, politicians and mostly to those narrow minded politicians who sees an opportunity to molest a woman in a Pub in Karnataka in the name of up keeping the social standards of our society. What do you think should we do about the so called deminishing value systems in our society. Whom will you make responsible.
Twenty year olds from Mumbai and Jumrithaliya co exists in the same society which marvels the reel divas like Deepika Padukone (She was particularly gyrating to Rakhi Sawant like standards in the IPL opening ceremony is a different issue) and these youth who are of the same age group, graduate in commerce, look at Deepika like divas with different eyes. And they are the same gender, youth who will be responsible to drive this country to the next level of growth. One will own the changing mindset of the youth in Inid and the other will defend the values. I dont know. Its clearly a demarkated social standards. In values. In systems. In outlook.
2025 will see India as the leading nations dominating the eligible workforce in the world. Every 6th human being on earth is said to be an Indian. Where are we heading?
I pariticularly enjoyed going through some of the works of Jk and more specifically the one which I reproducing below:-
"Can love be divided into the sacred and the profane, the human and the divine, or is there only love? Is love of the one and not of the many? If I say,`I love you', does that exclude the love of the other? Is love personal or impersonal? Moral or immoral? Family or non-family? If you love mankind can you love the particular? Is love sentiment? Is love emotion? Is love pleasure and desire? All these questions indicate, don't they, that we have ideas about love, ideas about what it should or should not be, a pattern or a code developed by the culture in which we live.
So to go into the question of what love is we must first ideals and ideologies of what it should or should not be. To divide anything into what should be and what is, is the most deceptive way of dealing with life"
I am involved with his work in a sense, it appeals to me more than anyting else appealed to me. I felt compelled to read it again and reproduce it again in my blog after watching a disastorous commercial of a mobile phone service provider in India.
Typical story of a grown up boy ( I refuse to call him man) with a average looking girl ( I dont want to recognise her as woman as well) making out in a restaurant and suddenly the boys sets his eyes on a seductive girl who is alone in the bar( sexy and inviting looks could be the right looks, however worried about those puritans who is celeberating their victory over 33% woman's bill might crucify me) and says to his girl
" You don't love me anymore" She responds after a initial shock " yes".
They they shake hand " Friends" " Friends". There comes the Indianised movie making. The boy moves to the seductive girl and while exiting turns and looks at his ex - and the commercial shows her busy already with another boy.
And this commercial is done in the interest of promoting a mobile telephony services. I am sure the ones who created it clearly targetted those uncertain young minds and advocated to opt for changing tariff plans.
I watched this commercial along with my thirteen year old daughter. It amused her. She was laughing. My wife didnt react. I was to laugh at it too. But could'nt.
Do I consider this. When you are in love and wake up the next day morning and realise you are actually not in love - should you walk out. I suppose thats the standards we are advocating isnt it. Do I need to worry about it. Not really I guess.
Is it changing times? I suppose not? Its probably perversion. We are getting conditioned to the idea of try it if not give it up. Fine by me. You might find something better.
Are'nt we progressing. Freedom of speach. Expression. Whatever it is.
When I tried talk about it some one around me summarised it with one sentence:-
" You are stuck with middle age syndrom. Keep moving"
I am. What about you.
I am not what you think I am and I am what I am and what I want to be. So a question I want to pose to the learned minds, friends, family and the likes of such people who hold a very high and esteemed positions as a heads of family, heads of places of worship, heads of institutions, law makers, politicians and mostly to those narrow minded politicians who sees an opportunity to molest a woman in a Pub in Karnataka in the name of up keeping the social standards of our society. What do you think should we do about the so called deminishing value systems in our society. Whom will you make responsible.
Twenty year olds from Mumbai and Jumrithaliya co exists in the same society which marvels the reel divas like Deepika Padukone (She was particularly gyrating to Rakhi Sawant like standards in the IPL opening ceremony is a different issue) and these youth who are of the same age group, graduate in commerce, look at Deepika like divas with different eyes. And they are the same gender, youth who will be responsible to drive this country to the next level of growth. One will own the changing mindset of the youth in Inid and the other will defend the values. I dont know. Its clearly a demarkated social standards. In values. In systems. In outlook.
2025 will see India as the leading nations dominating the eligible workforce in the world. Every 6th human being on earth is said to be an Indian. Where are we heading?
I pariticularly enjoyed going through some of the works of Jk and more specifically the one which I reproducing below:-
"Can love be divided into the sacred and the profane, the human and the divine, or is there only love? Is love of the one and not of the many? If I say,`I love you', does that exclude the love of the other? Is love personal or impersonal? Moral or immoral? Family or non-family? If you love mankind can you love the particular? Is love sentiment? Is love emotion? Is love pleasure and desire? All these questions indicate, don't they, that we have ideas about love, ideas about what it should or should not be, a pattern or a code developed by the culture in which we live.
So to go into the question of what love is we must first ideals and ideologies of what it should or should not be. To divide anything into what should be and what is, is the most deceptive way of dealing with life"
I am involved with his work in a sense, it appeals to me more than anyting else appealed to me. I felt compelled to read it again and reproduce it again in my blog after watching a disastorous commercial of a mobile phone service provider in India.
Typical story of a grown up boy ( I refuse to call him man) with a average looking girl ( I dont want to recognise her as woman as well) making out in a restaurant and suddenly the boys sets his eyes on a seductive girl who is alone in the bar( sexy and inviting looks could be the right looks, however worried about those puritans who is celeberating their victory over 33% woman's bill might crucify me) and says to his girl
" You don't love me anymore" She responds after a initial shock " yes".
They they shake hand " Friends" " Friends". There comes the Indianised movie making. The boy moves to the seductive girl and while exiting turns and looks at his ex - and the commercial shows her busy already with another boy.
And this commercial is done in the interest of promoting a mobile telephony services. I am sure the ones who created it clearly targetted those uncertain young minds and advocated to opt for changing tariff plans.
I watched this commercial along with my thirteen year old daughter. It amused her. She was laughing. My wife didnt react. I was to laugh at it too. But could'nt.
Do I consider this. When you are in love and wake up the next day morning and realise you are actually not in love - should you walk out. I suppose thats the standards we are advocating isnt it. Do I need to worry about it. Not really I guess.
Is it changing times? I suppose not? Its probably perversion. We are getting conditioned to the idea of try it if not give it up. Fine by me. You might find something better.
Are'nt we progressing. Freedom of speach. Expression. Whatever it is.
When I tried talk about it some one around me summarised it with one sentence:-
" You are stuck with middle age syndrom. Keep moving"
I am. What about you.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Its easy to live life if your creative skills are sharpened...
When people work together, such as in businesses, organizations or families, they are more productive and successful when they are clear about their intentions or goals, and can manifest positive attitudes and communicate well.
Inadequate communication skills and poor relationships are costly to businesses and are personally detrimental. They waste time and energy, reduce connection, cooperation, collaboration and commitment, and hence impair creativity, productivity, happiness and satisfaction.
Most of us can benefit from revisiting or further developing the mindset and the skills that facilitate successful communication and collaboration. I suggest a step is find a coach.
I am of the opinion the best coach a parent can get ( few are lucky like me) is to watch their little ones very closely. The attention they give for each detailing they pick up on their way to growing up - for we grown ups might sound amusing and sometime hilarious.
Don't to do that. There is a message for we grown ups here. They leverage the knowledge around them when they grow up. Watch out for their body language, usage of verbal tones, subtle softness they force on you by constantly approaching you for a pat, how panicky they get when you disapprove anything what they do or achieve - the lesson is my dear grown ups they are treating you as their coach through which they develop themselves. By sheer observation one learns. By continued interaction one sharpens. When the toddlers step out of the coziness of home they learn things from the external environments. They learn few things which you would have never taught them. But they learn.
With children you communicate, coach and be there always when they need them. With fellow human beings its easier. You show a little gesture, watch out for the pay outs. Its amazing.
Don't restrict yourself just because you are a grown up and you need to wear that cap of forced "I am suppose to know it all" attitude. Never you will learn everything in one life time. Engage and communicate at least you will get branded as stupid. But you will never be less creative.
Cheers,
Inadequate communication skills and poor relationships are costly to businesses and are personally detrimental. They waste time and energy, reduce connection, cooperation, collaboration and commitment, and hence impair creativity, productivity, happiness and satisfaction.
Most of us can benefit from revisiting or further developing the mindset and the skills that facilitate successful communication and collaboration. I suggest a step is find a coach.
I am of the opinion the best coach a parent can get ( few are lucky like me) is to watch their little ones very closely. The attention they give for each detailing they pick up on their way to growing up - for we grown ups might sound amusing and sometime hilarious.
Don't to do that. There is a message for we grown ups here. They leverage the knowledge around them when they grow up. Watch out for their body language, usage of verbal tones, subtle softness they force on you by constantly approaching you for a pat, how panicky they get when you disapprove anything what they do or achieve - the lesson is my dear grown ups they are treating you as their coach through which they develop themselves. By sheer observation one learns. By continued interaction one sharpens. When the toddlers step out of the coziness of home they learn things from the external environments. They learn few things which you would have never taught them. But they learn.
With children you communicate, coach and be there always when they need them. With fellow human beings its easier. You show a little gesture, watch out for the pay outs. Its amazing.
Don't restrict yourself just because you are a grown up and you need to wear that cap of forced "I am suppose to know it all" attitude. Never you will learn everything in one life time. Engage and communicate at least you will get branded as stupid. But you will never be less creative.
Cheers,
Probably yes..
"The Conception of chance enters into the very first steps of scientific activity in virtue of the fact that no observation is absolutely correct. I think chance is a more fundamental conception than causality; for whether in a concrete case, a cuase - effect relation holds or not can only be judged by applying the laws of chance to the observation."
MAX Born
In ordinary speech we have large number of words and phrases that attempt to express our opinion of our degrees of confidence. We say on the law of large numbers, we realize now that intimate and significant relation between the probabilities of events and the frequency with which such events occur in long runs of trials. The undeniable existence of such a relation has led mathematician to attempt to develop theories which start out with the frequency of definition of probabilities, rather than with a necessarily artificial " equally probably" definition. But this turns out to be rough going also. You cannot speak accurately of the experimental value of a long run frequency, for in mathematics the phrase long run implies going on forever; and no one has ever, or can ever, perform a actual experiment which goes on forever. Therefore, some dodge must be introduced which in essence asks you to accept the "theoretical" long range frequencies. But if you are going to swallow that, perhaps you would as soon swallow "equally probably events.".
Confusing--- then you are probably on the right track. Is it stimulating then you are confused. Is it assertive then you are probably intelligent. If it sounds outright rubbish - you are probably right.
Cheers.
MAX Born
In ordinary speech we have large number of words and phrases that attempt to express our opinion of our degrees of confidence. We say on the law of large numbers, we realize now that intimate and significant relation between the probabilities of events and the frequency with which such events occur in long runs of trials. The undeniable existence of such a relation has led mathematician to attempt to develop theories which start out with the frequency of definition of probabilities, rather than with a necessarily artificial " equally probably" definition. But this turns out to be rough going also. You cannot speak accurately of the experimental value of a long run frequency, for in mathematics the phrase long run implies going on forever; and no one has ever, or can ever, perform a actual experiment which goes on forever. Therefore, some dodge must be introduced which in essence asks you to accept the "theoretical" long range frequencies. But if you are going to swallow that, perhaps you would as soon swallow "equally probably events.".
Confusing--- then you are probably on the right track. Is it stimulating then you are confused. Is it assertive then you are probably intelligent. If it sounds outright rubbish - you are probably right.
Cheers.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Sometimes looking deeper into out past is better than anything else
Off late - to be precise ever since I started reading Dan Brown's latest novel ( I actually bought it in September 09 but started reading in the flight returning from Hongkong only yesterday is a different story) my mind is racing back and forth admiring so many things which India has offered and forgotten - by the very own guardians of the so called culture beyond the dilapidated believes and values. The spectrum of universe is so deep - its proven every decade an invention by human kind is beaten in the coming decade by the same race which claimed that the inventions of human race see no end for its quest of invention. If I am sounding confused or confusing, that's the way it has to be presented and no other manner it can be presented.
Noetic theory or noëtics is a branch of metaphysical philosophy concerned with the study of mind and intuition, and its relationship with the divine intellect. Among its principal purposes is to study the effects of perceptions, beliefs, and intention with respect to human consciousness.
Noetic theory or noëtics is a branch of metaphysical philosophy concerned with the study of mind and intuition, and its relationship with the divine intellect. Among its principal purposes is to study the effects of perceptions, beliefs, and intention with respect to human consciousness.
The theory of noetics centers around the idea that the human mind is capable of affecting or even doing work to the physical world. It is suggested that thought and spirit are not in fact imaginary, but Bose or photon based. Meaning essentially that the mind can be quantified by formulae which describe quantum materials such as light. This is a radical conclusion where many people think thoughts are weightless. Just as gravity affects all matter, so do thoughts to an apparent lesser degree. Psychokinesis, more often called telekinesis, is concerned with the direct influence of mind on matter.
Noetics is often viewed as a completely unscientific field, based on nothing more than misguided spirituality and philosophical hand-waving.
Many people believe in and study the effect of thoughts on the physical world, from health effects to throwing dice. Though skepticism surrounds this field of science, ground-breaking research aims to both quantify and make known the power of the human mind. It won a special highlight in the Dan Brown book, The Lost Symbol, where noetics were a central theme.
I urge every Indian to read this book.
The power of thinking....
The mind is very powerful. it creates 'reality' in a sense, because what we think determines what we can and can't see or do. If we 'put our minds to it' we can overcome many obstacles, including physical ones. It is the belief that the mind is more powerful than the body. Specifically, mind over matter refers to controlling pain that you may or may not be experiencing, such as holding your hand under extremely hot water and feeling no pain. Science investigates the sending and receiving messages without the usual human senses and the manipulation of random events by sheer will.For the human sense of race is so strong that it convinces us of reality even ...... secure floating buns without trouble—an instance of sheer intelligence. ...Among the most marvelous, most frightening and certainly most unbelievable possibilities suggested by psychic folklore is that human beings may be able to exert an observable influence upon the physical world -- simply through the power of conscious intention; or unconscious intention, or; by some accounts, through the assistance of spiritual intelligences; or as a result of a mysterious principle known as synchronicity.
Man appears as created, that is, as the one who, in the midst of the "world," received the other man as a gift. Later we will have to make precisely this dimension of the gift the subject of a deep analysis in order to understand also the meaning of the human body in its rightful extent.
Man appears as created, that is, as the one who, in the midst of the "world," received the other man as a gift. Later we will have to make precisely this dimension of the gift the subject of a deep analysis in order to understand also the meaning of the human body in its rightful extent.
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