Hum Log - ep 2 "awaken"

we are simpletons, we indians. we are intelligent, but we use our intelligence to mostly sit in a group and crib about whats wrong with the world, whats beyond the universe and of course whats happening in the neighbour's house.now don't imagine mahatma gandhi,subhash chandra bose et al, i'm talking about the common man...hum log...what we lack most and which makes a hell lot of difference is ATTITUDE..you don't need a PhD in comparative social studies to figure that..just watch an india australia cricket match...while an indian batsman, in a crunch situation, looks to defend every ball; the first thing, an australian, even a tailender, would do is ,maybe, step out and hit the bowler for a six and dominate him...thats ATTITUDE and it has very little to do with skill...we've all seen Irfan Pathan's devastating form in the ongoing indo-srilanka series...its attitude dominating there!..a devil may care attitude, coz he has nothing to lose if he gets out for a duck...his reputation remains the same..but that cannot be said of sachin,dravid,yuvraj,kaif...they are burdened by expectations and that gets to them more often than not...the australians don't seem to have such mental issues...just watch gilchrist playing for that matter..absolute abandon! and that's why he's able to play like he does...its very difficult to have such a mental frame..and thats why i say its genetic...or from a different perspective, socially induced...

Afterthoughts:
we are an 'unsure of ourself' race..maybe we became so as a result of british domination...we look down upon ourselves and look up to the west...because our society brainwashes us to do so...because, in a way, its true...but don't forget that our histories are different...our generation is more confident, but we are yet to bravely look everyone else square in the eye...that day will come and it will come soon...and then there is no stopping India...All of us should do our bit to make the future generation of india confident..we have one of the best cultures to fall back on, we are among the most intelligent races in the world, we are globally acknowledged as a peace loving nation...we have what it takes.
..Be proud to be an indian,Be proud to be yourself.

hot cocoa psychology

i was having my morning cup of hot chocolate when i was reminded of the innumerable ocassions when authors have extolled the combo of a hot drink on a cold/rainy morning...i went on to relate it to the feeling you have when u'r all warm and cozy in your seat,looking out of the window of a car/train at a wintry morning..its a very nice feeling, very romantic too!..nothing like it, if there is someone to cuddle up with under a thick blanket and watch dew drops condensing on the window pane......well,aside for the romantic touch, my point revolves around the human thought process. the pleasure we derive in such an environment is not as much as from being warm than from experiencing the contradiction....just imagine, would you feel as happy if you are in a closed room all warm and cozy....definitely no! knowing that you're warm, while seeing that everything around you is in the cold, gives a kind of ego boost and that is what makes us happy. So childish is the human mind!

Hum Log - ep 1

i closely observed a man yesterday..... for the record, i'm as straight as a lamp post ,but, i was in a lift and moulded aluminium cannot sustain my interest for long. Fortunately, my senses were treated to an interesting, though commonplace phenomenon... That is the beauty of places like lifts, long, slow queues, deserted bus stops.. you tend to realise the things that are so in your face, yet normally unnoticed...So, this person here, let me name him Mr x, rushes into the lift on the 13th floor. He looks to be in his mid 40s and has the airs of a managerial position. The lift starts to move down. Within a few seconds, Mr x gets a call on his cellphone. what transpires is interesting.

Mr x: hello
other end:
Mr x: tell me tell me.
other end:
Mr x: go back go back.
other end:
Mr x: fine fine.
other end:
Mr x: ok ok.
other end:
Mr x: ya.

and Mr x hangs up.

Didn't it strike you as odd that he repeats almost every word that he speaks. Yes! but then it doesn't strike you when you yourself do it..i'm taking the liberty to call this the lift effect..anyways the point is, whatever be the psychology behind it, isn't it wierd to sound like that?

The reason as per first thought is to explain urgency of some kind or to assert importance to. But i believe, in certain contexts, its also a case of low self esteem. i.e, the person is subconsciously convinced that people will not pay attention to him/her and hence involuntarily repeats himself

its all blah...basically. the observation was interesting. needed some inferences to lend support...

Being Big B

Amitabh Bachchan is taken ill and the entertainment industry suffers a loss of 120 odd crores of Rupees.Just as the first impression registered is the power of this great man, similarly is the thought that goes towards the people at the receiving end of these losses. I'm very poor in finance, so i don't know if producers are really affected by such ocurrances, but if they are, it must be a really risky proposition. Set aside for a moment the initial risk associated with launching a production venture. That is valid for everything. But to be vulnerable even when your production is a success; thats scary. Taking the instance of KBC2, probably a week of shooting has been postponed now.So many losses immediately come into the picture: studio rental, man-force compensation, participant's boarding/lodging..and lots more that i'm unaware of. On the non-monetary front, pressure of production deadlines, pressure from advertisers and the nity gritty...
Baseline..Amitabh Bachchan cannot afford to have a stomach upset. Henceforth, every time he sneezes, the producers of KBC and of the zillion movies that he's a part of, will miss a beat

movies huh!

One fine day i decided to update my profile on orkut. After having done that, i focussed my thoughts on the difficulties i faced while doing so. well, for one, i didn't have a definite answer to the music,books and movies fields,especially the movies, so much so, that i left it as it was filled in. i think i did a fair job of defining my kind of music. But i reckon, its difficult with movies. there are so many good movies and so many categories if you try to sort them.

At one end you have SWORDFISH, where if you're observant, you might just get the gist of the movie in the last frame. the level of satisfaction that such movies provide, of course, when u're able to figure out the proceedings is awesome.

At the diametrically opposite end, you have A WALK TO REMEMBER. Beautifully played out emotions and an adorable mandy moore. In the same league is NOTTING HILL. Each time i catch a glimpse of it on TV, i end up watching till the end.

At another corner of the ring (double pun intended) we have the ROCKY series.Now thats what you should watch and 'eye of the tiger' is what you should listen to before an exam.You just can't categorize movies like this one here.

For pure genius of conception and technical perfection, we have the MATRIX TRILOGY.

Now what do i say about movies like THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, FULL METAL JACKET and FORREST GUMP?

Full metal jacket reminds me of the armed forces and i recall AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN; powerful dialogues,powerful emotions, powerful performance. Tom cruise transports me to THE LAST SAMURAI, beautiful for its melancholy yet aggressive feel. the samurai leads me to RONIN, which features one of the best car chase sequences in the history of hollywood. talk of cars and the adrenaline rush is immediate..TOO FAST TOO FURIOUS, for the car sequences alone, mind you!...a temporary blank drawn, i shift to A BEAUTIFUL MIND, no elaborations needed and Russel Crowe effortlessly takes me to GLADIATOR, with one of my favourite dialogues ever. I am not a war movie fan, but gladiator stands out..from gladiator, lets move on to.....ah! SCENT OF A WOMAN. Al Pacino all the way! He also reminds me of SCARFACE, for the initial 20 minutes., scarface to devils advocate to keanu reeves to.. but of course SPEED1, awesome movie..speed reminds me of the tube and tube reminds me of PREDATOR2, another great concept...from there to hmm, ALIENS..to jurassic park to sam neill to national treasure to nicholas cage to hoo haa, CONAIR!..moving on to face off to john travolta to BROKEN ARROW, mighty good! to OCEANS 11 to ENTRAPMENT to ITALIAN JOB and all great con movies...charlize theron reminds me of trapped which reminds me of the road accident which inevitably takes me to FINAL DESTINATION 1 & 2; ultimate conceptualization is what you get here...its all coming like a flood now..the cube,saw(not in bold cause they're worth seeing once),...i shift gears to comedy and immediately its jim carrey all over the place..BRUCE ALMIGHTY, ACE VENTURA,MASK...tough competition from MRS DOUBTFIRE and the emotional comedy of PATCH ADAMS to the action comedy of RUSH HOUR to jackie chan and lo and behold POLICE STORY,FRENCH CONNECTION, and many others , dunno remmember their names..jackie chan to the baap of martial arts...ENTER THE DRAGON,FIST OF FURY, THE BOSS...going back to rush hour and taking of in the direction of will smith's style of comedy, its MEN IN BLACK to ENEMY OF THE STATE...to harrison ford to air force one to mmm....enough.its never ending
Now i think u can understand my dilemna!

need for speed

it was one of those trips which for once and ever confirmed the fact that i love travelling by bus..for any overnight journey, henceforth, i'll prefer a bus to a train...lemme elaborate my convictions in this regard...i love adventure of any kind...and unadulterated adventure is what you get when u're travelling in a volvo at over 100km/hr all the while looking for 'prey' to overtake....catching up on them...tailgating them with a revving engine and lunging sidewards and ahead as soon as the oncoming vehicle has passed..its a treat! pure bliss!..to stress on my behaviour let me add that i abandoned my push back seat in the a/c cabin on my journey home to sit on a foldable seat in the drivers cabin talking about the vehicle and enjoying the mile munching. the vovlo happened on the return journey. but the to journey wasn't bad at all..it was a rip off on a vovlo but not bad at all...an ashok leyland product with a 7 speed gearbox and fuel efficiency of 4 km/ltr....now thats awesome when u consider that the volvo gives u at most 2.5 km to the litre..the gear box, i'm unaware of, but while a volvo costs anywhere around 50 lakhs, this baby is yours for 35...well, the volvo's price is not unjustified, it sure is a class apart when it comes to pickup...even this baby can't match that...all in all i had a great ride to and fro..the best part, however, was that the owners had the decency to not label it a VOLVO or a VALVO...