Just caught a glimpse of Solar Eclipse from my office (using good old techniques of reflection and computer monitor shades)…It was an awesome sight! Though I can’t guess how much percent sun was covered, it was amazing to see a crescent out of Sun J
Outside it is bit dark. The best part is that I don’t see any traffic on the Bannerghatta road!
Note: Spoilers inside, read it at your own risk
Before going to the main theme of this post, I would wish to reveal why I am interested (or rather curious) about the 3 Idiots – Five Point someone debate. First, I have read FPS and I really enjoyed it, mainly because of the way I could connect it with my college days. The simple style of writing and the interesting twists in the story made it a very good read for the common man. Second, 3 Idiots was shot in my college campus (IIM-B) and I have seen the trio (Aamir, Maddy and Sharman) several times. I have even seen Aamir, Chetan Bhagat and Raju Hirani together in the campus ( I wish I had that photo today, I am sure it would have come up in the media). One of my current professors (Prof. Raghunath) even makes a brief guest appearance!
After having seen all the debates on TV and other media regarding the issue of rightful ownership of “3 Idiots” story, I was curious to watch the movie and managed to get tickets for Sunday afternoon show (had to book it 3 days in advance). After watching the movie, I feel that
a) The movie is significantly different from Chetan Bhagat’s book “Five point someone”(FPS)
b) The story and screenplay definitely belongs to Abhijit Joshi and Raju Hirani. Except for the concept of 3 friends in Engineering college, ragging, stealing question paper, there is no similarity between the book and movie.
Above all, the fundamental concept behind the book and movie is drastically different. The FPS book talks about “What one should not do in IIT”, whereas the theme of the movie is “Excellence in education”. Even if Mr.Bhagat claims that the idea of 3 friends in college, ragging, stealing paper are his, haven’t we seen such things in cinema before? For that matter, Raju Hirani’s earlier film “Munnbhai MBBS” even featured a similar ragging scene. I am not convinced with the claim of “70% similar to book”. Some key points in the movie such as Chathur Ramalingam’s bet, Rancho’s original identity, “The” speech, “Follow your passion” twist (for Farhan and Raju) are all fantastic twists which doesn’t figure in the book. Don’t even try comparing the book and the movie!
Chetan’s problem is that his credit did not appear in the beginning titles and was pushed to the end of the movie . In fact, most multiplexes don’t even screen the end credits to save time. Since there is a legal contract which he has signed, he should have probably been cautious about this issue, if he really cared about the location of his credit. But should that really hurt you Mr.Bhagat? You are the “India’s most widely read English author”, you have a fan following of your own and I am sure that you have lot more good stuff in you! Five point someone is an excellent book and your fans want it to be remembered only for Five point someone and not for 3 Idiots controversy. Even without this controversy, the media was writing that 3 Idiots was based on Five point someone, so that connection has been inherently established. I humbly feel that just by placing your name in the beginning of titles won’t make much difference.
If you haven’t read the FPS book, go ahead and read it. If you haven’t seen the movie, go and watch it. I am sure you will like both!
p.s: I also watched Avatar-3D, it is awesome! But as my wife rightly said, had it been in 2D, it wouldn’t have run for so long in India J
Last few years, it has almost become a custom for me to go for a short trip outside Bangalore, during Christmas time. Until last year, I used to go out for trips with the usual suspects RSAS (comprising of myself, Goldfather, Kasri, RL, Gethu…). This time, I went to Goa with my wife during the Christmas holidays! Not much has changed in Goa between my last trip in 2003 and this trip. We stayed at Palolem, a beach village in South Goa, which was made famous by the movie “The Bourne Supremacy” starring Matt Damon. Apart from visiting the usual tourist places in Goa, we spent a whole day on the beach, swimming and floating on water! It was so good to live a couple of days without thinking of space and time (yeah! I hardly used my watch there). Though Palolem is far off from the tourist attractions in North Goa, if you are planning a second trip to Goa, I strongly recommend a stay at Palolem beach! We also went for a short boat trip to Butterfly island, which probably had the shortest beach in the world! The best thing is that the weather was awesome during our visit, it was bit cloudy and wasn’t too cold.
Coming to the Goan people, almost everybody here speaks all South Indian languages! Though we were lucky to get a good driver, who didn’t rip us off with high fares, we could see that the foreigners were being taken for a ride (just like in all places!). I was told that this time, the foreign crowd is less in Goa and during peak seasons, they would have 4 times as much crowd as in this season. During their golden days, vendors sold tender coconuts for about $10 each (approx. Rs 500 now per drink!).
On the way back to Airport, while everyone else were anxious to reach the Airport on time, I was eagerly awaiting to cross the gates of “BITS Pilani – Goa” Campus. I was delighted to catch a glimpse of entrance as well as the campus. The campus looked really different from the one where I studied! I don’t know if there is a purposeful strategy by the BITS management to locate its campuses far off from any big city (But I assume that the guys in Goa campus will have bikes to head to the beaches every weekend).
In the airport, we also came across Sreesanth, the Indian cricketer famous for his dancing capabilities or rather infamous for “Bhajji Slapgate”. Thankfully, he didn’t show any residual symptoms of Swine flu J
We landed in Bangalore on Dec 31st evening. While I was driving back home, I tried to think of my 2010 New Year resolutions and sadly, I couldn’t think of anything! So I guess I will keep 2010 free of any resolutions and take it up in 2011 ;)
Wishing you all a wonderful 2010!
Sometime in 2001, on a rainy Sunday afternoon in Pilani, I wandered in the hostel corridors and landed in my friend’s room. The rain outside had made that day very special in that part of the country, which is known for its arid weather. Me and my friend decided to watch a movie and started sifting through the CD’s that were around. My friend picked up a movie CD with a weird name “Shawshank Redemption” (well, if you removed the ‘w’ in the first word of the title, it became the name of many kannada folks in our college J ). Once the movie started, we were able to confirm the fact that the first word was definitely not a typo error on the CD cover. Little did I know of the impact that the great movie featuring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman would have on me. Though some of my friends didn’t like the slow pace of the movie and actually “missed” the ending(!), I watched it couple of times for the sheer performance of the crew and the powerful dialogues.
Fast forward to 2009. A rainy Sunday afternoon in the silicon valley of India, which is quite common in the second half of the year. After a great lunch, me and my wife decided that it was time for a good movie and just when we switched on the television, “Shawshank Redemption” had just started on one of the channels! The movie still had the same charm, even though I had seen it many times during my college days. I highly recommend this movie to anyone asking me for a movie recommendation! It is very hard to pick a best scene from this movie. One of my favorites has to be this:
Andy (Tim Robbins) is just out of 1 month in solitary confinement, after playing Mozart in the public sound system inside the prison. During lunch time, an interesting conversation happens between Andy and Red (Morgan Freeman):
Someone: How did you manage a month?
Andy: I had Mr. Mozart to keep me company...[points and taps his head.] It was in here. [gestures over his heart] And in here. That's the beauty of music. They can't get that from you. Haven't you ever felt that way about music?
Red: Well... I played a mean harmonica as a younger man. Lost interest in it, though. Didn't make too much sense in here.
Andy: No, here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so you don't forget.
Red: Forget?
Andy: That there are places in the world that aren't made out of stone. That there's... there's something inside that they can't get to; that they can't touch. It's yours.
Red: What are you talking about?
Andy: Hope.
It just struck me that Chetan Bhagat has a liking for having numbers on his book title, notice the pattern
· Five point someone (movie version: 3 Idiots)
· One night at the call center
· Three mistakes of my life
· Two states
So can we expect “four” in his next book title?
Note: I just finished reading “Two States” (a typical CB style, bollywood oriented book). I could empathize with CB on a lot of aspects mentioned in the story, though I (or rather we) didn’t have to struggle that hard for our marriageJ
Yesterday, just before noon, I started losing my voice! Yes, due to the severe cold I had last week, my voice gradually started becoming a whisper and finally it was reduced to just some whistles, whoosh sounds and cough. All through the day I had great difficulty communicating with my wife, using just whistles, nods, hand gestures and whoosh sounds. Somehow, It reminded me of R2D2 speak! Today, my condition is slightly better, but I got used to communicating like R2D2 J
I discovered that this condition was called Laryngitis. Hopefully, I get better by tomorrow, right on time for conducting the training at my office!
I watched “Wake up Sid” in theater last weekend. The movie goes at such a slow pace, that gives the Sony TV mega serials a run for their money! After the movie got over, one can see the multiplex owners giving a wakeup call to the audience, most of whom were in deep slumber. Except for some good performance by Ranbir, excellent music and cinematography, there is nothing worthy to talk about in the movie.
P.S: Had they shown Ranbir using a Canon instead of Nikon, I might have considered writing one or two good points about this movie ;)
Of late, my journey to my hometown is becoming very interesting. Almost every trip to my hometown in the last six months has provided me with some remarkable experience. During the last trip, as we were waiting in the lounge, we happened to see a eve teaser in action. Of all the women in the hall, he chose to tease a women police officer in mufti! The rest, as they say, was history. We witnessed some of the finest action scenes by the police officer, bringing back memories of Vijayashanthi movies of the 90’s. But this time, me and my wife had an equally exciting train journey.
It all started when a group of eunuchs entered the train and started asking for money. Having experienced this situation before, during my college days, near Nagpur and Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway stations, I was unperturbed. But after sometime, the eunuch’s turned violent and started hitting the passengers! My wife, who didn’t expect this situation in train, got scared and forced me to give a 10 rupee note to a eunuch so that they leave the place. After the incident, we thought we can sleep in peace, but we didn’t know that the worst was yet to come!
A man entered the coach, with forehead full of holy ash(vibuthi), with a briefcase in one hand and a bottle of liquor on the other! He kept his briefcase on a seat, opened it and took out a black coat. Only then we realized that he was the Train Ticket Examiner for our Coach! He struggled to stand steady (even while the train was stationary) and was uttering “philosophy” of life, as expected from a person in high ‘spirits’. He even misbehaved with a woman in the train, but the strangest thing was that the woman didn’t react. It seems that the TTE was her boss in the office (possible she was also a railway employee) and he has promised her a free travel to Chennai. Once his nuisance in the form of words and actions became unbearable, everyone realized something had to be done. Myself and another passenger started looking for a Railway protection force (RPF) constable, but to our utter dismay, we didn’t find even a single police after searching through about 5 compartments within the train. Luckily, we happened to catch hold of another TTE and explained him the situation. He rushed to our compartment, but by then, another infuriated passenger had called up the police, MLA and city DCP and was demanding justice to the Kannadigas! He warned the drunk TTE that the Railway station was in his constituency and if required he can fire him for his conduct. A round of talks happened between the passengers and the new TTE and he promised to check the other tickets. By then, our old TTE had reached the state of Nirvana and was fast asleep. By then, I looked at my watch. It was 2.30 AM in the morning and I hadn’t slept a bit!
Just as I was about to sleep, a cold breeze entered the train and I started shivering. As I got up to see the reason behind this sudden drop in temperature, I noticed that there were a group of hooligans, who have opened the train door for want of some fresh air. Me and another passenger in the coach, went up to them, and told them that we badly needed a sleep after seeing so many events till that time in that journey. They finally agreed to close the door and after that I got back to sleep.
Next day, as the train touched the outskirts of my hometown, I was glad to see heavy rain. I got down and went to the rest room to freshen up. As I opened the rest room door, there was smoke all over. I then realized that someone, who had been inside the rest room before me, must have smoked couple of cigarettes. I closed the door and did the ‘needful’. As I opened the door to come out, I saw a RPF constable waiting outside! He asked me for my ID card and ticket. When asked for the reason, he promptly told me that smoking inside the train was offence and I had used the restroom for smoking! I denied the allegation, but the constable wasn’t satisfied. He said that I have to take a nicotine test to prove myself. I told that if that’s the only way, I am ready for that. He immediately called up someone over phone to tell about his ‘catch’. Once he put down his phone, I started laughing loudly! He asked for the reason and I told that the journey was proving to be very interesting as the time progressed and I can’t wait to see it end. Luckily, my wife just looked behind from her seat, to see me having a ‘casual chat’ with the policeman J She came over near the train door and asked about the situation. The policeman enquired if I am really saying the truth that I don’t smoke. She glanced at me with a “I got your ear” look, and then confirmed that I am indeed a non-smoker. The policeman then let me off and then called up his buddy to tell this: “Hello, Andha marwadi paiyan pogai pidikka maatanam, adhanala vittuten” [“That Marwari guy doesn’t smoke it seems, so I let him off”].
On hearing that statement, I couldn’t stop laughing! After reaching home, I headed towards the mirror just to verify if I really looked like a Marwari J
Sometimes, it really surprises me how the so called “professionals” don’t prepare enough before the delivery of their services. Recently, I happened to attend a soft skills training. The instructor, who is supposed to have about 10 years training experience, came with absolutely no preparation! To begin with, he didn’t even have an agenda for the day. All the participants were left wondering what is gonna come up all through the day. The workshop didn’t even have a case study or a role play, which is commonly found in other soft skills training sessions. The presentation slides were so poorly made; being a big fan of Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte, my blood boiled seeing the way the presentation was made. In fact, most of the material for the training came from a popular management book (to hell with copyrights!). Finally, the instructor’s intention was clear when he announced that the training was over at sharp 5.30 PM. The participants were left wondering why they attended this training at all!
My last blog entry was during my B-school term break (after fourth term) and here comes the next post during the fifth term break. Sometimes, blogging appears to be too difficult. Between last term break and this term break, a lot of things have happened. I have moved to my own house, did a lot of shopping/planning for the movement to new house, completed my first set of electives at B-school, experimented with some new technology at work, managed to read 2 books and watch couple of movies! I have also stopped jogging, photography (doing typical “home function” shoots), listening to music (I used to carry my Zen player all the time earlier) and of course, blogging J! But this time, I am going to attribute my lack of blogging to BSNL folks, who haven’t shifted my connection from my old home to new home.
Let me see how it goes this time. Just like I have a Google reader panel in this blog, where you can view some of the interesting things I find on the net, I might add a “Twitter” panel in which I can tweet my “bulb” thoughts. I just hope I get better at time management!
