Tweets on my updates !!!

                   

                        The cafeteria in my university was buzzing with students,holding a sense of excitement and anxiety that was infectious. Most of them were glued to sleek apple products and their fingers caressing the screen of the smart phones. The coke can and the carton of noddles were left waiting, while the students were happily confronting with their gadgets. Cafeteria which was once laden with gossips and giggles have been draped with occasional murmurs. This scenario could be seen in most countries where people call themselves as tech savvy. 

                          Researchers are quite paranoid about global warming and some lethal virus that is likely to wipe out mankind in future. On the other hand I wonder what happens when a mystical force sucks in all these gadgets into its vortex, or seizes Mr.Goggle and its allies. Few weeks back, due to a fire breakout in a telecom unit in Australia, people experienced chaos without internet. So it's more likely to occur, when we would be forced to smile at our neighbors, after ages.

                         In an age, where the levels of comfort have soared high with the aid of machines, people find it hard or annoying to use their cognizance. We need apps and maps to find out the shortest and quickest route to our nearest McDonald; reminders to keep tab of our folks birthdays and anniversaries. When was the last time we used our grey cells to calculate our monthly bills without relying on the calculator. I might sound eccentric or weird in today's context,but that's how most of our forefathers lived for centuries.

                           The most superior race of the planet is now under a curse and being held as slaves under the hands of binary codes (0 &1). With the plight of social networking sites creeping in our living rooms, where the dad hits like to his daughter's hangout photo. The most sickening thing is when I found some relationships being broken based on some trivial updates by him/her. It drives me crazy when my cousin sends me a friend request, masking her real age which is 14.

                            There is no point in pointing fingers either at Mark Zuckerberg or the Twitter guy; it is we, who have pushed ourselves to this paranoid world,updating every single minute on how we feel. The fear of being left alone seems to have engulfed us, leaving us to follow every schmuck in Twitter. This malignancy has struck the chords of children basking them in ignorance and perturbation. The idiot box and XBOX 360 have kept them in their couches. I wonder if they would ever find out, there's something called playground and sun outside.

                           As quoted by the famous environmentalist David Attenborough, children will soon discover on how plants grow and what animals eat. The lack of real world knowledge makes them more susceptible to believe in the information entrusted by the internet and the media community. Today's kids spend time talking to Dora and fighting in Call of Duty warfare. My childhood has been adorned with fables from my granny and I'm not sure if  I could pass this legacy to my future generations.

                            I wish there was an apocalypse that would bring about an end to this techno wizardry and utter madness. An era where we could walk with our loved ones without the vibrations from our phone; a time frame where we can enjoy the hot shower and delicious breakfast, without an update of what we are up to; a journey where there are no ridiculous emails listing jobs on how to earn $589 per hour. At the end of the day, life is all about cherishing little things and saving those precious moments as souvenirs. 

                       

PS: If you don't care about the above stuff, share this and like it :D

Cinema - Now and then

            A small piece of glass which was ground to a particular geometry made revolutions. When this glass piece called lens was touched by light, it ended up in producing miracles. The miracle has bent our minds and teased the lobes of our brain. This magical affair between them (lens and light) has evolved through ages in producing visual treats in the name of CINEMA. This enthrallment has gripped people in the past in their seats; contrarily it had brought them to their edges or even made them to run away.

 The first motion cinema (actually second one, earlier one was a kissing scene by a couple, which aroused several controversies) was that of a train approaching a station, when it was screened, the whole crowd fled the theatre assuming a real train was approaching.That’s how cinema made an everlasting impact in the pristine minds of people. The cinema which broke my silence when, “Superstar gets his chewing gum in a stylish manner; Batman hisses to Bane, “..then you ll have my permission to die” or when the magnificent yellow bumblebee transforms into a monstrous roaring Camaro.       

  

            Cinema means a lot to me. Watching a movie in a theatre was always like a picnic, with my mom packing snacks in a pouch and getting to the movie halls an hour before, to avoid disappointments of house full sign. Watching the giant hoardings painted (nowadays they come in flux, which I loathe) in bright colors, with our villains at the legs of our super hero. The days are still fresh like a cream that floats in my cappuccino or speaking in a desi manner, fried cashews that adorns my mom’s payasam!!!

            Movies and my dad are so inseparable; I wonder how many movies we had seen. I still remember the day when he took me to “Jurassic park” movie.  The moment T-Rex (Tyrannosaurs) came on the huge screen; my mouth was wide open in disbelief and fingers gripping my dad’s arms tightly.Tears ebbed in my eyes, when the little girl Anjali dies in Maniratnam’s epic “Anjali”. I still doubt, if they make movies which has equal dosage of enjoyment and emotional elements.

            There was a period getting a ticket to our superstar flick was next to impossible, but now we have transformed through ages. We have moved towards “no queues, no worries”; with one touch flick we have the tickets delivered to our mobiles using apps and tech savvy stuffs. We have passed through Edison’s Kinetoscope to 3D stereoscopic fusion camera. The technology has jumped leaps and bounds in making movies that can teleport us to different world.

            Iconic directors believed in the art of storytelling using very little techniques. This art was mastered by Akira Kurosowa, Steven Spielberg and a very few (sorry if I had missed your favorite). The art is being slowly tarnished by the new age directors with technological wizardry. We now have movies that believed more in its 3D content and viral advertising propaganda. “Avengers” was a classic example of former and latter entities. The technological evolution and the art of storytelling haven’t been progressing at the same pace. The technological complexity seems to under play the narration or convey the message which it was supposed to.

Christopher Nolan could be the find of this decade perhaps; he has the craft of utilizing the technology to tease our grey matter and produce a cinematic excellence. Such craftiness was seen in Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo”, the film that made the best use of 3D (next to avatar).  Some make movies for the sheer joy; they have for movies, like Tarantino. There could be no concrete plot but still the way each characters are etched , will make us sit through this pleasurable ride.

This discussion has its own boundaries within Hollywood, so it’s trivial to extend the debate with Indian or regional cinema. To some extent I should be happy that we still love to narrate or hear stories, just like a kid who loves to hear it from his/her granny. It’s a pity that Indian cinema is often reflected by Bollywood’s Khans and sensuous heroines. Every major film festival (Cannes, Toronto etc.) often have Indian celebrities as models for their vogue, we aren’t identified as film makers.

The country that is making films for the past 100 years has no dearth of talents. It fails to recognize them or it is biased to one particular section. FFI (Film Federation of India) recommends one film each year to Academy Awards (Oscars!!!), in that manner our ticket to Oscars was Barfi (a Hindi movie). I appreciate the pool of films from different languages, but still can’t they find the best. Bengali movies are aesthetics of true art and not to forget the South Indian films especially Tamil movies. At the end of the day, few cinematic excellence gets the reward it deserved (Aranya kandam- National Award-Debut Director)

This could sound as an elegy to the fading quality and failed recognition of true cinema. The celluloid world is looking down the barrel, with its major investors filing bankruptcy (Eastman Kodak). The transition towards digital era couldn’t be much debated due to crisis engulfing even most big companies. This has pushed us into a new era of independent and innovative film makers.

This new age has thrown its doors open for aspiring film makers to make intelligent films at shoe string budgets. The films that can wield technology to explore the creative land and evoke an emotion. The films have evolved to pro-filmic color and anamorphic dimensions, If this progression of technology continues leaving behind the quality, we would be left with popcorn entertainment and 3D glasses to shunt piracy

“The cinema began with a passionate, physical relationship between celluloid and the artists and craftsmen and technicians who handled it, manipulated it, and came to know it the way a lover comes to know every inch of the body of the beloved. No matter where the cinema goes, we cannot afford to lose sight of its beginnings.”- Martin Scorsese

Courtesy:

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/10/cinema-breakthroughs-busts/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_film

http://www.imdb.com/

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/cinema.html#R5mZ8tlXMg7B7gWl.99

Seeds of attitude

If you could read this, then certainly the doomsday and Mayans calendar have been stuffed in trash cans. I m pretty much sure that either the Mayans misplaced their pencil to draft the calendar for 2013 or lost count after 3500! In either way, all the hype and unwanted chaos have ended in a sullen mood. But still the bad omen as predicted by Mayans left a scar in the faces of mankind by the ugly rape incident in Delhi. By now, every scum on the planet is ready to pour in their suggestions; on how the victim should have acted with six atrocious men or what was she doing with a guy at such late hours?

In the shoes of a feminist, there were protests rocking the nation on how to handle such sexual atrocities. Half the women in the country were ready to chop of men’s privates or send their heads to guillotine. On the flip side, many things go unnoticed either due to our ignorance or due to our attitude. Capital punishment or castrating an individual cannot put an end to all this dysfunctional behavior in men. A common misnomer, stringent punishments can eradicate social evil. Ironically it could damage the social fabric of a civilization.

I often feel that we were puppets dancing to the tunes of media and raise slogans due to the placebo administered by our society. During most occasions we fail to address issues which are quite unprecedented. The brutality experienced by the Tamil women in Sri Lanka was one such example to our malignant behavior. The war crimes of island nation went haywire in most western channels depicting the heinous crime of the century, but still no protests or candle marches were made condemning such intolerance.

 I felt ashamed that none of my politicians (or me!) had spines to march towards the Red Fort and raise their voices for greater good. This apathy of mine could be attributed towards all those who neglected the sisters and brothers of Sri Lanka. Having said all this, I was a mute spectator with a “teek hai” attitude. There’s a proverb ‘being penny wise and pound foolish’ which clearly applies to all of us. Let me narrate an incident which could substantiate my allegations.

“On a sunny day with people thronging in my area, my mom and I were busy negotiating a deal with a local vendor. The sun battered us, but still we were bargaining for ten odd minutes to save five rupees.  Finally, triumph and pride were basking my mom’s face, at the cost of saving 5 rupees and getting few rotten apples!!!”

Few weeks after that incident we purchased a SONY 40 inch LED TV at the cost of 55K, printed on the tag with no discounts or bargain. In another such occasion I was standing in a queue at a KFC outlet, waiting to swipe my plastic card for getting the wings of a chicken, not to forget the extra 14.5 % service tax. This is our attitude; we do things that catch attention or to trifle the society. The society that has taught us skills, to cajole acts pompously.  

Few days back when the government passed the bill allowing FDI (Foreign Direct Investments- except the expansion, I knew nothing about it!!!) in retail sector, there was a hue and cry from all merchants of our country. This move could be disastrous from the perspective of a common man, but still, we were not ready to shell out five bucks to my fellow countrymen (apple vendor). Despite that, we raise our voice to protect the interests of such commoner.

When Kasab, the notorious criminal was captured, we did nothing, but to watch the government spending more than crore rupees every day to keep him safe. No one knocked the residence of Ms.Sonia ji or Mr Prime Minister to question the death of 167 people. What shall we call this? Stupidity or did we misplace our senses? Every now and then sexual harassment continues in places which were once considered safe.

So far the country has executed 70 odd capital punishments, going by which we should have been a crime free country. The need lies in redemption of our existing human attitude. The systems of nuclear family and fables from our grannies have been scrapped. Our streets have more juveniles than piled garbage; wealth could be churned out from such garbage if counseling is appreciated, stressing the need for behavioral science.

By now you must thinking; the author has an aversion towards his country, in lieu with his latest developments.  I don’t want to add a blatant lie, by passing a comment “Proud to be Indian”. These thoughts could be an uprising in each one of us; why are we like this? Shall we not try to act consciously and speak from our heart? The question is out everywhere, but the answers lie within us. Man has evolved continuously sending back centuries, but the nature has remained the same. It never acquired the self fish attitude of ours, contrary it still served us selflessly with bright sunshine and blissful rainbows.

sshhhhh.. Keep Quiet !!!

This is an article that could get me arrested, if I didn’t chose proper words. The words of my hatred or anguish need to be spilled or fabricated like a sugar coated capsule. Many incidents in the last couple of months have queued up swarming for their right to express. Renowned cartoonist for his sarcastic cartoons against political parties, motorcycle maker’s advertisement depicting a particular caste in South India and now two girls for commenting on Bal Thackerey’ s  death in a facebook. The government was ready to pull its socks to put them behind the bars.

According to article 19(1), freedom of expression states that "everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference" with restrictions on different bases. These bases include Security of the State, decency, public order, defamation, integrity of state etc. So the law says that everyone can express his/her ideas at their free will. It’s like asking us to make a coffee, without coffee powder and the best part is government is ready to give coffee maker as a freebie. That’s how laws work in our country.

On Independence Day, the President and the Prime Minister talks about the freedom. The freedom and the rights, that needs to be cherished and exercised to its core. The first thought that springs up my mind, “you must be joking!!!” OMG! I have made enough mockery to screw my life for the next 3 years in prison. As an outraged individual and being battered at free will, I m left with a Hobson’s choice.

In general the laws of our constitution have more loop holes than in fishing net. When we analyze the salient features, it is heartening and painful to say that laws were framed to soothe different levels of our society. Our constitution has framed laws to exercise our right to express and to treat subjects with iron fist in case of blasphemy.     

On the other hand let’s look at the flip side of the coin. Human nature tends to control things by acting on its vulnerability and milked the benefits for it’s worth. This is where derogatory remarks against women or race occurs leading to a barbaric ritual. Everyone will have a license to pass comments on anyone they like. If your boss wants us to prepare a presentation, we can pass a comment, “F*** u!” In reply he or she can say “my pleasure, your place or mine”.

A country with more than 1.2 billion people with diverse ethnicity and culture, it is next to impossible to frame rules without any lacunae. I feel pity for those trying to solve these never ending problems. The wheels of change seem to move at snail’s pace, showing least interest to dethrone the devils lying in our backyard.

If you want a solution, that could throw us some light on how laws work in our country, watch the guy who walks on a tight rope. If we walk straight without balancing on our sides, we are likely to fall in the sea of sorrow. On the other hand, if we can master the trick of balancing (switching sides) we can make home.

PS: I express my sincere apologies (Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. President), if I had hurt the sentiments in the event of exercising my freedom of expression.

Education = $

It was one such Sunday afternoon, after a heavy lunch in Barbeque Nation; I didn’t have many options to pick. The weather outside wasn’t so pleasing, scorching sun made me uneasy. To my surprise I found a flux welcoming me to a speech delivered by an educational expert (most importantly in an air conditioned hall). It was a large hall with a flocking crowd, lined up for a motivational speech. The crowd had a unique mixture of students and parents. Once the guy in a navy blue tuxedo (Expert!!!) stepped in, there was a thunderous applause.

In a flick, lights went off, to turn on the LCD projector, thrusting a bright image on the giant screen erupted. To my surprise, all I could see was a three letter word ‘RTE’. Very few in the audience were able to come up with the correct expansion for the abbreviated word. Right to Education entitles free and compulsory education for the children of our country. With my palms resting my face and my eyelids are pretty eager to come down. To my horror, they have already met once and next in queue were my grey cells.

It could be an agonizing lecture, but still had some salient features that left me thinking and ashamed. It was wise to discuss those excerpts of the expert here. Most information has been provided as if the expert speaks to us.

"The laws were perfectly penned to provide quality education. Unfortunately they work only in papers; a child can define the word ‘EDUCATION’, but he or she never appreciates this entity. There a gap between the expert committee that frames the syllabus and the schools that tries to teach. Once I happen to watch a vendor, who was crushing canes for making juice, I didn’t find much difference between the vendor and the schools that exist now.

Recent TV interviews left me shattered; schools have started luring toppers from other schools by kind and cash. Schools have become more of concentration camps (during world wars), channeled with n number of tests and personal agony. It’s more of a sin to talk about games in residential schools and most of them have scrapped grounds, paving way for some more slaves (in the name of students).

The current curriculum is a perfect foil for a disrupted life; a life that needs a recipe of games, watching cartoons, tantrums and a bit of sheepishness and all this becomes a distant dream or Neanderthal. The routine packed with special classes and extra special classes are emotionally draining, every now and then someone giving extra tips on how and when to study???

Every week there’s a always a bloke trying to put all the pessimistic attitudes in us, by giving us a picture of current percentages for engineering (98%) and medicine (99.99%).  After all this hue and cry, lost adolescence and joy of schooling, some (in fact many) shell out lakhs for a seat in a professional college. It’s more of a pride that takes centre stage, to see ourselves or our child in an engineering or medical college.

During the first day of my college, there was a self introduction session, to break the ice. Very few were able to make a proper introduction about themselves. I was forced to seek help from my fellow mate, to introduce myself. This could be a funny situation, on the flip side it portrays the inability to define who we are.

My biology teacher often makes this statement with a half smile, “  after 12 years of schooling in a English medium, can u write a letter without mistakes??? “ I still find it difficult to write a letter without errors; often my letter has all tenses shuffling across. To err is human and to forgive is divine; but to all my errors, my educational system is the perfect alibi. The new jargon should be perhaps, “educational systems have ruined me”."

I don’t want to make you furious by adding my suggestions or ideas. I m no expert dressed in blazers, with sarcastic jokes to keep the crowd alive but I appreciate where I stand now. I have the desired cognizance to address the crude reality and adroit fantasy. My phone buzzed with a forward, making me smile “Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance”.

PS: Thanks for the pic and a more apt title for my blog http://www.1-funny-quotes.com/the-education-system-is-financially-crippling.html

March 8

Before you complete reading this article, a woman is sexually harassed by their beloved brother or charred by their in laws somewhere in our country. God’s beautiful creation’s still mauled by her surroundings. Most of the crimes seem to go unnoticed or we tend to falter to all these occurrences. Certain scientific facts suggest that women are weaker sex, I don’t agree with this, ironically events portray their vulnerability. Many could attribute this towards chauvinistic attitude, never mind but still the bitter truth needs to be spilled.

Women undergo several transitions in their life experiencing trauma and being battered at free will. She can essay any role with ease; as a caring mother, loving wife, naughty sister or your charming girlfriend, all these under one roof without any disorders. But still I complain “they are damn selfish”. In every chapter she sacrifices herself for the plight of others with a tag of disgrace, just like Goddess Seetha or Virgin Mary.

There has been humpty number of organizations to raise voice against women harassment and to support their empowerment, but very few showcase their problems. These organizations are driven by factors like money, publicity etc. It’s no wonder that when we talk about women empowerment, images of Kiran bedi and Latika Saran seem to cloud our minds, but there are many who wage battles with their daily chores to win wars.

We are more inclined to things that are driven by fantasy and glamour, we raise hue and cry when Sania Mirza moves her ATP ranking towards top 50, but we don’t share the same space for child abuse or flesh trade. Having said this, UN report indicates for every 46 minutes a girl is trafficked in our country. Celebrity’s marriage and vogue keeps us in bay over the graving problem that has left many young women depressed.

According to NCRB, 1 in every 2 women faces domestic violence either psychologically or physically. We have several NGO’s and women self groups organizing events on paper and filling their accounts in Cayman Islands. On the other hand we don’t appreciate things that are happening around us. We spend a fortune in bio/autobiographies of Sunita Williams and Indira Nooyi but we neglect unwritten sagas in our life.

In spite of all tiffs with our sister, she will still shed tears when we’re hurt; our granny’s who love to tell stories umpteen number of times; the better half who keeps tab about the diet of her partner; or the caring mother who relocates her pelvic bones to bring us to this planet, with a staggering pain, she manages a smile. We fail to acknowledge the valiant efforts of these women. Let’s strive to salute these unsung legends on this blissful occasion-March 8 Happy Women’s Day.

Look who's patriotic !!!!

Very few things can be as thrilling as watching a movie in a cinema hall!After a long week's tiring routine, I was awaiting for this.In spite of me arriving early to the cinema hall, I could find a serpent queue for getting the tickets, cursed myself for not booking in advance!!!!! Contrary to all expectations, I managed to get one.
By now, the hall was buzzing with crowd. people were annoyed by the security measures,probably they frisked us better than our airports and railway stations.
In advent of multiplexes, the luxury level has shored up along with the ticket price.One can see the state of art infrastructure & traditional methods becoming obsolete.Each screen was furnished in different theme!!!
Tinge of excitement crept me,with the maroon theme along with an aroma perfume.Little children were jumping in joy once they saw the 'SMURFS' hoarding;a guy was ,making a brief foray to appease his girl;a bunch of pranksters trying all means to seek the crowds attention.No place on earth can give you all the emotions together.Finally it was time to enter the hall!!!
It was pitch black inside with LEDs guiding us. We even had someone to help us to our seats.There was a series of silk saree commercials lined up to test your patience.Finally, we had a censor certificate coming alive on the screen for our NATIONAL ANTHEM.
Despite asking us to raise fro it , no one in the hall did (it includes myself ). The best part is it was performed by a group of physically challenged , sorry !!! differently abled children.The entire performance was set in a slight sepia tone with a small school girl running down to join her school's morning prayer.It was a stunning performance from them,which literally made me raise from my seat.By now,half the theater was murmuring the anthem.
To be frank, it was not the patriotic feeling that made me raise.I felt totally embarrassed.We are stepping on to our 65 th year of independence ,we exchange messages; post on walls; tweet every second;never forget to put a dumb update on facebook.. but we fail to pay the least respect our nation deserves.

PS: the entire theater was on the feet when the hero's name appeared on the screen with extra special effects !!!!!