Business and Blessings

Often people think that business is about money. I thought so too. But there are a few that are not just about making money.

We all know that a good restaurant makes 100% profit. But look at the other side: you feed people what they like and when they are hungry, and get paid for it. If you feed a hungry man, you get blessings. So shouldnt restaurant business give you more blessings than say, software business?

There are a few others, jobs mostly-- teaching is one. Ever wondered where your school teacher who taught you logic would be right now? You often remember your teachers than the manager who gave you the pay check in your second organization, dont you?

I tell my current manager that if I were to start something, I will teach people to become good designers. I have been dolling out fish for a long time now. "Teach 'em to fish, aint that the right thing to do?". But I always come back to the restaurant business. May be I want those blessings. Or may be I just love food.

Cast Away meets Jaws

Open Water: A couple on vacation goes for a scuba dive in open waters, along with a bunch of other tourists. They get left behind, unnoticed. And drift into the ocean and are lost. The movie has no other characters and is entirely shot in the ocean. It isn't as elaborate as Cast Away, or dramatic as Jaws, but is stark, realistic, simple, and brilliant!!

M for Maggi

Casino Royale is being claimed as the "Batman Begins" of 007 movies. Going back in time, rediscovering the early stages of the career of the agent. It does have more emotions than the last 5 of them put together, and Daniel Craig proves lot of people wrong with his acting - this Bond at least show some signs of heart. The hairy chest is missing as some one said, but he is near perfect.

But for a normal fan, lots of things are missing: the gadgets, the chases, the sidekicks, the dames, the theme music - *all* of it. All of it. Screenplay is pretty boring and loose for its story line (which itself isn't very compelling), and even worse than those ones that didn't have any. But action sequences are more raw, and you have to see to believe. As usual, the opening stunt (5/5), and the one on the stairs stand out.

But at the end, you don't leave the theater in awe like after Batman Begins, where also the hero was dissected and explored through the action sequences. First day first show is expensive, add to that the caramel corns, and the what-ness of the movie made me cancel the dinner plans and settle for a pack of Maggi. M was good.

(The world say 4.5/5, I say 3/5)

Creativity & Education

Gordon MacKensie, the former creative director at Hallmark Cards used to visit public schools to talk about art.

When he asks kindergartners, "How many of you are artists?" all the children raise their hands. Among first graders, a third of the hands no longer go up. Half of the second graders raise their hands. By fifth grade, no hands go up.

In six years, school has managed to beat the creativity out of its pupils.

Life takes over

My friend, newly married, didn't know how to accomodate cooking into their life. They both hadn't cooked in their lives, were both working, had to travel 45 minutes to work (in different directions), hated hotel or packet food, and on top of these, it was an arranged marriage. Suddenly they had too much to handle, but you have to eat, right? So they sat down just a few days after marriage to figure out a plan.

The husband had an early morning shift at the factory and had to leave before 7AM to work, she an hour later. So they decided to get up around 5 in the morning and cook for the day. For a few days, both of them did. The husband would chop vegetables and the wife would cook.

But the early morning cooking, the day's work, the travels and romantic evenings were taking a toll on them. Getting up at 5AM was tough. And then you had to work. By the second week, the husband became an observer in the process, by thrid, only extended moral support from the bedroom. Guilty, he found another solution.

He would chop the vegetables after dinner and keep it in the fridge. So, he didn't have to get up. Voila! He slept well, without feeling guilty of not taking part in the now 5:45AM process. But not for long. With the wife getting up everyday, he feared that his extended sleep might affect the romance.

So he suggested the best solution -- cook at night and refrigerate it! The mornings were normal again, hence the days and the nights. Smiles were back on their faces.

An year later they moved closer to one of the work places and saved some more time. Come home for dinner, he would call up and say. All the well set plans went for a toss when they decided to have a baby. It was a new plan all over again - life does take over!

“They never fail”

A colleague - in California - took his son for kindergarten admission. While enquiring, he was a little alarmed to find that the boy has to give a test. The woman who manages admissions assured him that it is a basic test to figure out if they can handle school. He wasn't convinced and wanted to know the details.

The test is simple, she described -- kids have to remember some numbers in a given order, build some blocks as asked, answer some simple questions about home and parents, a small bunch of tasks. That sounded like too much for a 3 year old to handle. What if the chap fails? How will he take it? What about the impact of failure on his tiny mind?

She said that the boys will have to go through a preparatory session. Wait a second. Boys? So what about the girls? Well, she said, I have been here for 8 years, and not a single girl failed to do the bunch of tasks. In multi-tasking, they never fail.

Cooking Tips

Did you know that adding a pinch of sugar while frying onions make them brown faster? Or that turmeric stains can be removed by rubbing orange peel on them? Or to remove the strange odour from cooked cabbage, all you need to do is add a slice of bread while cooking? (And remove it afterwards)

I am yet to try these, but I realized that reading "home" mags can be enlightening at times. Of course, discard tips like buy large eggs so that you can use one for two kids. Which mother would want to do that? But adding a spoon of milk into egg while you beat *does* make the omelet fluffy.

Blind Motor Works?

Seen the latest Honda CR-V? I wish I never did. It looks horrifying. If you see one, you will also pray that you never had. (Hence the absence of links or images here).

Call me old fashioned. But if this is where the future-proof cars are headed, I should rather grab the current - dated, they say - Adventure before FIAT puts eyebrows and bangles on it. Come on, is there anyone who prefers the looks of a 2005 Bangled Beamer (banged is much like it) to a 1998 or a 2002? Probably it was a bright summer day and the bean counter folks were wearing dark shades when they looked at it. Blind Motor Works?

Empty Roads

Reports say that the roads in Bangalore (and Pune) are empty this week.

In Pune, I could get parking at Ozone, on a Sunday evening. Something that I didn't dare attempt in 2 years! No traffic jams on any roads, peak or non-peak hours. It was surreal. Proof that outsiders are infesting these places (I am no insider, BTW).

And in a separate report, there is unbelievable traffic on the Mumbai roads. Now you know whom to catch if your city is bulging at its seams!

A pretty good bake

Just chanced upon Layer Cake. It was the peculiar title that got me interested. Director's name was familiar, but not quite. Then I recalled, Matthew Vaughn is the guy who produces Guy's movies.

Impressive debut, I say. Story revolves around a drug middleman (Daniel Craig), who is planning to wind up his operations after one last big score, but things go wrong. Warning: very English. You may need to turn on the subtitles to catch some dialogue. But very very slick.

Addiction

When one goes, the other comes in. It's interesting and offers some exercise, but not so exciting. Let's see how long this one lasts.

Should you “lage raho”?

I watched Lage Raho Munnabhai after reading all the "go see, must watch, excellent, better than the first" reviews everywhere. And its near miss of Oscar ticket on papers.

It was no where near the MBBS. The first 3 songs were identical, they were over directed. And the first half was so slow. Movie didn't have good characterisation, but for the Munna - Circuit relation. Vidya was wasted, so are the scores of others. Many characters were invisible in some scenes. Some pivotal logic - like Lucky's daughter realising dad's mistake so late considering the media coverage of the fight - lacked it.

Yes, it is a decent/good movie, but not anywhere near the just-missed-the-oscar-must-watch category.

On writing well

Franklin D. Roosevelt was given a memo to sign on the blackout order of 1942:

Such preparations shall be made as will completely obscure all Federal buildings and non-Federal buildings occupied by the Federal government during an air raid for any period of time from visibility by reason of internal or external illumination.

"Tell them," Roosevelt said, "that in buildings where they have to keep the work going to put something across the windows."

Simplify, simplify.

I am back

Some bot was indexing determinus and overloading the server which forced my hosts to shut my site down. The first incident was in May 2006! Sounds like a long time, and it *is*. Anyways, I am back. I had even made a graphic to post when I get back online :-)

Being …what?

Saif's performance is rather meek in Being Cyrus, and I cannot understand why this is being claimed as path breaking performance of his career (His best so far was in Ek Haseena Thi). Yes, it is different from the normal fair, some characters are well developed but the direction was just OK. Dimple's character was utter chaos, not controlled at all. Irani's role was a little stretched, while Naseer's wasn't developed well.

The plot is non-existent till half way into the movie and you begin to wonder if the movie is going anywhere. I think what let the movie down is the pace of dialogue delivery and hence the storyline. You have to put them together later to figure out stuff, esp. the fact that this is a thriller/mystery. That too only when the murders happen, out of the blue.

I would call it a good attempt, but quite boring. Exact opposite to Rang De Basanti, which was quite a bad attempt, but wasn't boring. But both movies leave you with, "oh? so? what?" at the end. I would still give it a 3/5, just for the background score.

About.GIF

About me:
Did computers when it was "Oh, so hot, Sinoj", loved architecture and then went on to do master in design. Smitten by graphic design, did my bit through the rise and fall of www, got interested in usability, and that's where I am right now.

Interests:
Automobiles, Architecture, Gadgets, Home Theatre, Movies, Music, Poetry, Script writing, Typography, Watches

Movies:
Pulp Fiction, Silence of the Lambs, Shawshank Redemption, Heat, American Beauty, Memento, Thelma & Louise, Duel, Traffic, Run Lola Run, Matrix, Platoon, Terminator 2, Godfather

Music:
Scorpions, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Buddha Bar, Cafe Del Mar, Soundtracks

Books:
I dont read much, though I like works of Eliot, Plath, Dahl, Padmarajan and at some point of time, Archer and Forsyth. The only repeat read has been Catcher in the Rye

Equality

But seriously, ATMs are bringing about a revolution in society. Consider this – at ICICI’s air conditioned fancy office with English speaking help desk officers, the lower class people do not get equal treatment if at all they walk in. At an ATM, it doesn’t matter whether you are a rag picker or one who doesn’t understand English, you get the exact same treatment that is given to the saab who lands in a Merc. You are a customer and you get the same respect regardless of what you wear or talk.

As I said, there is a big revolution happening out here in how people define ATMs. For some it is a vault where they can deposit their daily wages at the end of the day. No more ‘alcoholic-husband-takes-all-the-savings’ scenario. And people are taking note — there is a move (and research) in Karnataka to pack ATMs with soiled notes, so that villagers are more comfortable and identify with it. There are studies going on about how to reduce the procedure for depositing money, so that people have to write the least number of words.

People take technology for granted, but for some it is giving a new life altogether.

Home from the sky

It used to be exciting to look out of the window when you land or take off. I still remember the red tips of the Golden Gate bridge emerging out of the thick white fog like the two horns of a holy cow on the banks of Ganges. That was a special memory, but in recent times, the generic 'from-sky-views' arent that exciting. Why bother, when one can check them out, not as a glance, but in detail on Google Earth?

Wisdom

Unni wrote: Trust in Allah, but tie your camel. This is the first lesson when you are in unfamiliar deserts so that the camel doesn't walk away when you are asleep.

Anger Hibernation

Why isn't there a medicine that can induce hibernation (or some ways of slowing down a person, by voice/movement) when the person gets angry? 90% of the human induced 'disasters' would not happen then. The "count 1-10 before you act" is a good self heal solution, but someone or something needs to induce that act.

Easy Words

"She asked the driver to park under the gulmohar tree and waited at the portico. Silence and jasmine petals fallen off young girls' hairdos, lay embraced on the steps that lead to the verandah. The evening sun and the shadows gave finishing touches to her face" *

Divine. The writer may be a sheer romantic here, but I have no other words to describe Padmarajan's work. I have not read anything as poetic a prose as above, including works of Sylvia Plath. If Plath and Eliot (primarly poets, which Padmarajan is not) were highly imaginative in expression, they were not as simple. It is like classical music vs light music. Mass appeal, but still pure.

There was a lot of 'pop' in Padmarajan's creations which was ideal for films. And was eventually used by filmmakers. He wrote 36 scripts in 15 years (and directed 18 of them). Almost as fast as Fassbinder. But not all classics, nor did they have innovative cinematic techniques. But they all had a compelling feature - simple poetic story telling. In my opinion, truly, art for the masses.

I have tried narrating some of his films to people who weren't really aware of the social/regional contexts. But the fact that they absorbed it completely is a sign of 'universality' of his themes.

As I said earlier, I haven't read anything like that before or after Padmarajan (He died at 45 in 1991 during the screening of his 18th film). It would be nearly impossible to write like Padmarajan. The casualness and lightness of his writing is the most moving and the most difficult to achieve. As they say, "It is easy to be difficult. But difficult to be easy"

* Nakshathrangale Kaaval, 1971.

Mother Sitting

My sister is having a baby, and I am in Kerala. And I am to stay home as my BIL will have to take leave from work later. Now, the rule is that I am not allowed to go farther than 15 minutes away from home. So I am kind of finishing all the small stuff that I never had time for earlier. Such as reading old novels, scripts, catching up on Mallu movies of the last 2-3 years, migrating the tsunami response project to wordpress and eating!! I will write about some, soon. (The wait is still on. The baby is expected today. Fingers crossed. God bless.)

Hits and Misses

Crash winning a few including the best picture. I didn't expect it, as academy prefers 'sagas' than stories. For me Brokeback wasn't a great movie. For example, replace one guy with a girl and the movie becomes pretty ordinary. Success of storytelling is in making you want to watch the movie over and over again, Brokeback definitely doesn't fall into that category. But with Crash, I can watch it 10 times in a row. But I still didn't expect it to win the best picture. And Crash also got the best screenplay. Like Sideways, I love an underdog winning.

But for a few disappointments -- Matt not winning for Crash, or Felicity not getting the best actress for Transamerica being the top ones -- everything went as expected. All special effects & sounds to King Kong, Camera & Art to Geisha. Hoffman's speech as Best actor was stupid, and Resse was so silly and childish. The best speech was by the guys who made March of the Penguins, and Director of Tsotsi, best foreign language film.

I am disappointed that Felicity didn't win the best actress. I had predicted that though Felicity should, the one thing that could go against her is that it was a woman who played the role of woman trapped in a male body. But looking at the other nominees I was fairly sure that she would. Resse of all the people?? Come on.

One thing I always wanted to ask -- What did George Clooney do in Syrianna to win the best supporting actor? Yes, his facial expressions when his nails were being plucked out were good - LOL - but seriously, did I miss something in that movie that made him win the Oscar and the Globe? I am disappointed that Matt didn't win for Crash, but I am more disappointed that Clooney won.

Another disappointment (little too old to mention) was that Begin the Beguine didn't even get a nomination for best song (and they nominated only 3 songs this year). I thought Sheryl Crow was outstanding in that song. And who wins it? 3-6 Mafia for a rap song. Ha, give me a break. Dont they have an exclusive category at the Grammy's?

Latest News

15000 atheists in London rioted after a blank sheet of paper was found on a cartoonist's desk.

Cricketer of the year

Harsha lists the top performers in cricket for 2005, the summary is as below:

ANDREW FLINTOFF
709 runs, 68 wickets, an unmatched sporting spirit

SHANE WARNE
40 wickets in the Ashes series, when his life was falling apart around him

RICKY PONTING
1443 runs, 6 centuries. Currently the world's best batsman

BRIAN LARA
1110 runs at 65.29, five centuries. 36 years young

MUTTIAH MURALITHARAN
Destroys and rebuilds. On the field: 52 wickets in 8 matches. Off it: 220 houses built for tsunami-affected

TATENDA TAIBU
607 runs in losing causes but his best shot has always been in speaking his mind

And the/your winner is?

Who said it?

Sehwag's mind is uncluttered while he bats. I have heard this from Nassir Hussain, Ravi Shastri, Wasim Akram and now, Harsha Bhogle. I think I first heard it from Akram. Who thought of it first? Any idea?

Closing Remarks

The most common closing lines that I have seen/heard/read in media are "Only time will tell" and "The rest is history". I read both of these statements in today's TOI. I remember reading them 10 years ago as well. Do these writers always have to go back to the same damn thing? Over and over again? Cant there be a better phrase to use in such situations?

Guys, please note

Overheard in a Men's show on TV - the top 3 things that women look for in a man in the first meeting are (in no particular order, I hope): shoes, watch and fingernails.

Cup-holders, anyone?

Do you know what women look for as the top (buying) feature in a vehicle? According to a survey done by GM in the US, it is the number of cup-holders. The more the cup-holders, the more they want to buy the car. And the reason stated was safety, when traveling with kids. Airbags and crumble zones didnt even appear in the top 10 features!?

A friend wants to sell his almost new mobile phone that he bought for his wife because she wants to buy a clam-shell model. First of all, I can't understand how he can buy something for her without asking her what she wants. Anyways, that got me thinking of why women prefer clam-shell models.

IMO, the clam-shell mobile, provides (a feel of) more privacy. It's like, "Why expose my screen to anyone?" It could also be that women see the entire activity of opening it, answering it, and closing it, is a form of 'real' closure to a conversation.

But it may not be entirely related to the x-factor. For anything that they do, human beings look for the "feel" of safety, if not safety. One big reason why Ford Explorer with 80 accidental deaths per million vehicles outsells Camry which has only 40 deaths/million. You will see more men in an Explorer, so we cant deduce a theory here.

But the cup-holder thing is true. It is a fact that more Camrys are bought by women than men, and it has 8 cup-holders! Touche.

680/0 declared

Indian bowlers looked helpless when Pakistan scored 650+ runs at 4.5 run per over. Especially when Afridi and Akmal were toying with the bowling during their partnership of 170 runs off 21 overs! And they said it demoralized the Indian players. Well, did it?

I didnt see any trace of it as India piled up 400+ runs at 5.5 runs per over without losing a *single* wicket! Sehwag is closing in on his record score and I hope my prediction when the Indian innings started (of him scoring 270) is proved wrong and he goes on to bat the whole of the last day. That is sufficient for him to break all the existing batting records. And the intermittent rains are giving him sufficient rest. It is all working in our favor. So Veeru, go for it.

IMO, this make shift opening partnership has already defined the series. Oh, just so we won't forget, the highest ever opening score is just 10 runs away. I am seeing 680/0 declared on the wall.

PS: Guess who is taking the most bathroom breaks in Lahore? Ganguly. He is probably crying his heart out for refusing to open the innings.

Excuse or Reason?

Many friends ask me why my car is 'so' dirty these days. Here is my typical answer, "It is very cold in the morning and it’s tough to get up early. And so I reach the office late. I don’t get a proper parking space at the office, and I end up parking outside the office in the open. And around 4PM, kids going back home from school, pass through this open space. When my car was clean, they would pick up stones or coins to write things on it. But when it is dirty/dusty, they tend to use their fingers to write on it (They just like to see their names written). So I end up having a cleaner car in the overall perspective."

Retrievr

http://labs.systemone.at/retrievr/

Sketch an image in the box provided on the left of the page, and Retrievr will fetch images from Flickr that matches your sketch!! Truly amazing. (Hint: Use different colors, and try to keep it simpler. After all it is a program you know)

Even more interesting is the way the logo and visual treatment match with that of Flickr. Yes, they use the Yahoo provided APIs to swing it. But with such a closely tied up hash, Yahoo has no choice but to buy them.

Localized Promotions

I am not sure if any Puneite would agree to the title of this post. This is about some ads that I came across in the local editions/newsletters last week.

One, from a lifestyle store called F-cube, said, "This cube has more than 6 dimensions" and the other was for an apartment complex which as one of its USP said, "Gymnasium with equipments".

TransAMERICA

The film captures the life of a transsexual who is awaiting his operation to become a woman. A forgotten story from the past (his son from a 'lesbian' relation in his neighborhood) comes back to his life. He has to take care of the past before becoming a woman, which takes him on a trip across America with his son.

Rarely do such movies - simple story telling, what I call the European craft- come out of the US (see my post below). It is one of the more sensitive movies that I have seen in quite some time.

Felicity Huffman should get a nomination for best actress (yes, it a woman who portrayed the role of Stanley/Bree, which takes away some of the chances of a nomination, but she was GOOD - full marks)

It's Duncan Tucker's first film, and though the ending was mildly disappointing, for me it is a truly amazing debut. (9/10)