Hyding n Seeking2005-06-26T12:21:50+00:00lifetype-1.2.12_r7211http://blogs.fullhyderabad.com/rss.php?blogId=32&profile=atomCopyright (c) JustaLittleUnwelltag:blogs.fullhyderabad.com,2005-06-26:1889Oka manchi coffee lanti cinema!2005-06-26T12:21:50+05:30Let me start by saying that i'm very particular about the taste of my coffee - it should have the right amount of milk, sugar and the coffee extract of right strength / concentration, and the ...JustaLittleUnwell
Movies
Let me start by saying that i'm very particular about the taste of my coffee - it should have the right amount of milk, sugar and the coffee extract of right strength / concentration, and the right aroma from the coffee beans used. I'm not so choosy about tea, and i'm more open to accepting it in all its forms - with / without masala, light / dark, less / more sugar, with / without milk...... you got the picture. Having said the above, I had the opportunity to watch this movie which claims to be the equivalent of a good coffee. I know i'm terribly late, as the movie was probably released a few centuries ago. But still - i reserve the right to let the world know what I think of the movie. So, here goes......
The movie auspiciously starts off with a fatal accident as a result of which the leading lady Rupa is orphaned. The purpose of this accident seems to be to drag on the movie for a few more reels in the end. Otherwise, how will they give us a few more moments of suspense? While we sit on the edge of our seats wondering if the girl is going to accept or reject her lover, she is presented with the sorry state of an insane old man, but for which, the 'independent woman' might have as well rejected her lover, despite all the humiliation he went through to win her love. Some 'independence', that!
The orphaned girl grows up into a multi-talented (music, gardening......), pretty, sensuous, charitable and more importantly, an 'independent' woman. And promptly falls in love with a mama's boy, learns that he's one, cancels her wedding with him in the nick of the moment, and breaks into a rain dance. Before that, our hero had already made the entry. He happens to be the son of the drunken driver who caused the initial accident and who then turned insane out of excessive guilt. For some inexplicable reason, the girl's aunt thinks this offender's presence is required at the wedding (which gets cancelled) and sends him an invitation. So the insane old man turns up for the wedding along with his son, who witnesses the cancellation of the wedding. At this, he decides that the girl is his perfect match, wants to go all out to woo her and comes to stay in the girl's out-house with the help of her aunt (who again for some inexplicable reason, wants to help him in his quest). Then starts the story of his constant humiliation at the hands of the 'independent' heroine. And he seems to love it.
Something about the man: he's the weakest and most helpless charecterisation of any hero i've ever seen in any movie. He's dumb, he's clumsy, he lacks any notion of self-respect........ and always has this look of a school boy who hasn't done his homework and fearing his teacher's retribution. He has a penchant for waiting outdoors all night for his lady love, who is preoccupied indoors either with her former lover or with herself.
He'll absent-mindedly soil her duppatta or caress her cheeks or comment to his friend about her rear-end, only to be scolded and intimidated by her in public. About his scooter driving skills, the less said the better. An important role he plays in her life: shooing off stray dogs (includes former lovers - but in this case, his efforts go unappreciated) while she walks about. And who's he? A business magnate pursuing higher education abroad. Nice mix of qualities and qualifications!
I would also like to point out certain visuals that reinforce the image of how things should be (in a feel-good world). The hero steps on her feet by mistake in a dance hall, and they return to their table. Then the sensitive and considerate being in him prompts him to go down on his knees, and take her feet and massage them, in public, if I may mention. And the hero was supposed to be cross with her at that moment. Likewise, the hero has to pillion ride behind his lady on her scooter. But she wouldn't allow him to sit like everyone does. He has to sit sideways, like how lady pillion riders used to sit in the olden days (and even now when they're in a sari). He's heckled by everyone on the road for travelling with her like this. But heck, he gets to travel with her, and is there anything better than that?
Then the important scene where the lady proposes to him (yeah, you read it right). I personally have no objection as to who does it, but the manner in which it is done. She raves on and on about her feelings towards him(till your ears cant take it anymore), and so, he has to be with her (whether you like it or not, dear). Hurray! The plot is coming to an end! I guess what would have mattered (to the movie, it's loyal audience etc.) is her articulation of her feelings towards the guy, more than once (once to him, and once to his mom). Apparently his feelings aren't that important and need no explicit statement. An apt celebration of her independence indeed.
Some positives: music, the dialogues are easy to follow (for someone who's not 'into' telugu movies), and some welcome deviations from movie-making traditions like absense of fights, dramatizing, hero-worship (well, here it would've defeated the objective) etc. It's a sad day for women when their emancipation / independence has to come at the cost of their men's intelligence and self-respect. The coffee's yucky!
(In case you are wondering, the title of this movie is 'Anand', which was released sometime ago)
tag:blogs.fullhyderabad.com,2005-02-26:1553Broad-banned2005-02-26T11:25:35+05:30 Happiness is short-lived, they say. Never realized it could be so true.
So here I was, having successfully negotiated a 'broadband' package out of my ISP for a lesser monthly subscription. I ...JustaLittleUnwell
General
Happiness is short-lived, they say. Never realized it could be so true.
So here I was, having successfully negotiated a 'broadband' package out of my ISP for a lesser monthly subscription. I busily researched on what all I could do with my additional capability.
First and the easiest was to tune into obscure radio stations on the Net, which streamed their sonic chunks at 128kbps or more. Sat and patiently bookmarked them - 'Delicious agony', 'Aural moon', 'Chronix Aggression', 'Death FM' (expands to Death Fucking Metal), 'Radio Teen Taal' - a sample listing to give an idea. Happily spent a week listening to them almost 24/7. I downloaded plugins which will put my comp to sleep once i've slept (and streaming 128kbps until then), and wake me up with the radio stn of my choice at the destined time. If you are reminded of the word 'abuse', I wouldn't blame you.
I wasnt satisfied with this. I wanted to setup my own radio station and stream my mp3 playlist to others over the Net. After hours and days of further research, I figure out a way to do that. More plugins / DSPs (Oddcast/Shoutcast), streaming server software (IceCast/Shoutcast) thrown in to make it merrier. My legacy system complained and I was in no mood to pay attention. Thankfully, my connection would not play ball, and my ISP had ensured that I dont entertain such fantasies by blocking all TCP connections. (Let's just say that a 'TCP connection' is as important for hosting a service, as a bridegroom is for a wedding)
So I was sulking and posting my rants on web forums (there are other fanatics too, pls believe me). These forums were real eye-openers. Folks talked about the 1 GB download limit (even i'm aware of it, so what?) and how they exceeded it in one night of being online. Exceeded it in one night? But pray, how?
This got me to introspect on my own usage and made me realize how my stupid streams @128kbps were consuming almost an MB /minute. I was entitled for only 1000 such minutes / month, while I was playing them almost all my waking hours. Downloads in excess would cost me Rs.1.50 / MB (or per minute, as I was using it). Once this realization set in, I respectfully turned off the streams and switched on my CD player instead. <brag>As someone having one of the best musical collections in Hyderabad,</brag> I do not need streams from obscure sources over the Net, to satiate me. Needless to mention, I shelved all ambitions of becoming an online DJ.
As they say, with great speeds come great responsibility. (Excuse me, Spiderman).
tag:blogs.fullhyderabad.com,2005-01-22:1425Trigger your passion2005-01-22T22:23:03+05:30 I would've named this 'The Art of Living' if not for the more popular discipline going by that name about which I have no idea. Still, 'passion' captures the essence of what I want to say. 'Art' ...JustaLittleUnwell
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I would've named this 'The Art of Living' if not for the more popular discipline going by that name about which I have no idea. Still, 'passion' captures the essence of what I want to say. 'Art' and 'passion' go together - you can't have the former if you don't have the latter.
Thanks to a book i've been reading of late, i'm inclined to look at everything through the prism of 'art' (and the view I get is colorful, I should say). How would it be if everything we do becomes a work of art? A 'piece de resistance' or a 'magnum opus'? It wouldnt be very bad, I guess. The most mundane activity of our life could become a very interesting preoccupation, if approached with an artistic mindset. And there's no telling what the outcome would be. I would expect it to be of a path-breaking nature, if not more.
Life is filled with boring tasks. One set of boring tasks after another. In due course, even once pleasureable moments such as eating a tasty meal or having a romantic date become nothing more than 'tasks'. Can we become more dispassionate than this? The more conditioned we become, the more we resemble the Pavlovian dogs - giving out standard responses to given stimuli.
But the good news is that it doesnt have to be this way. The best thing about humans is that they are inconsistent, by nature. Though considered undesirable by some, it's this inconsistency that differentiates us from the output-as-a-function-of-input machines. Our outputs are a function of our thoughts, which could be as varied as the patterns in a kaleidoscope. While the discipline of science attempts to bring out predictable results and emphasizes on the repeatability of outcomes, 'art' has no such hang ups. The more variety the better. From the above, it is evident that we humans are artists by nature, whereas we're conditioned to lead our lives like scientists - standardization of processes, procedures, rule-books, 'dos n donts' and so on.
How do we put 'art' back into our lives? I dunno. Probably by taking a fresh look, not biased by our past experiences. Being sensitive to the situation and assessing it with the 'current' state of mind (coz in the past, your mind probably might've told you that the whole situation sucks) and being passionate. When you're passionate about something, you love and respect it. You want the best things to happen to it. You become a slave or a subordinate before the cause (it doesnt necessarily have to be a noble one. I once had a cause of fixing a faulty cistern). You pay attention to every little aspect, and fine-tune your responses to those minor details. You work at it patiently coz you've got all the time for it, and your creative side takes over. What you would've thought was a chore becomes a passion, and once you're done, you'll (hopefully) have a work of art before you.
With the above line of thought, I find it amusing that we like to call ourselves a Master of Engineering / Science / Medicine / Business Administration and so on, coz it seems to me that the real indication of competency is when someone considers him/herself to be a slave or subordinate of his/her mission, and gives his/her everything to it.
tag:blogs.fullhyderabad.com,2005-01-09:1357We, the media2005-01-09T13:46:54+05:30 The bloggers, or the 'Citizen Journalists' - as the world likes to call them, have been of much help in the aftermath of the huge tidal waves that hit the shores. The SEA-EAT blog (scary ...JustaLittleUnwell
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The bloggers, or the 'Citizen Journalists' - as the world likes to call them, have been of much help in the aftermath of the huge tidal waves that hit the shores. The SEA-EAT blog (scary acronym) must have helped thousands if not millions with information updates and most importantly, on how to help. That Google - the most popular search engine on the net, has linked it from its home page, should indicate how useful a resource the SEA-EAT has been and continues to be, in bringing together the kind hearts of the world.
There are so many lesser known blogs that are offering first-person / eye-witness accounts of the event and its aftermath, and there are others by persons who have gone out to the affected areas and are reporting first-hand, what they see and experience. Some blogs that I found useful:
India Uncut: A blog by Amit Verma, a Mumbai based journalist, who is touring the affected areas in TN along with Rediff's Dilip D'Souza - who also blogs about the tour in his Death Ends Fun . It is interesting to read both the blogs and compare, to observe how the same story gets narrated in two different ways. I found Amit's account to be more sincere, as DD's secular/liberal ideology that keeps showing up dilutes his credibility a bit. Nevertheless, both the reports, laced with their opinions/views, offer an interesting read that is more insightful than what one can hope to get from a newspaper or a news channel (that has to 'break' every 5 minutes).
Phuket Tsunami: An awesome account of the minutes leading to the disaster and its aftermath, by Rick - an executive with HP-Asia Pacific who moved into the disaster locale minutes before the tragedy struck and was witness to all the gruesome scenes unfolding before him for days together. As he writes, he confesses feeling guilty about it, as he did not suffer any loss, but was only there to see the heart-rending scenes. A comment in response: "Keep writing, Rick. Writing is dealing". So true!
Chiens Sans Frontiers: Translates to 'Dogs without boundaries', the CSF blog is maintained by a team of journos touring the affected regions. The accounts from Nicobar highlighting the administration apathy that prevails there are quite disturbing. We do have a lot of communities / regions in the country that did not have cultural links with the mainstream Indian populace, but are now a part of us due to various historic events. If these regions continue to be treated like 'colonies' by an imperial centre, we may see many more separatist movements. It is amazing how we do not have a clear picture on the real situation in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (the Indian territory most impacted by the tsunami) - despite being a democracy and having a 'free press' for the last over 60 years.
Even in the past, we had that lone Baghdad blogger reporting from the scene during Iraq war. Obviously, he was no match for the media muscle and the 'embedded journalists' of the 'Civilized West', but was nevertheless widely read by people of the world, who wanted more than the media spin that was being churned out. And dating back to the World war II days, we had 16 years old Anne Frank, who documented in her diaries the scale of injustice perpetrated by the Nazis and their holocaust. She probably did (though using manual methods) what the tsunami bloggers do today and what the lone Baghdad blogger did - state the citizen's position, be the voice of the commoner. For that, she should probably be honoured as the World's First Citizen Journalist.
So what is it that makes the bloggers tick? Maybe the fact that there are so many of them (us?) offering a range of persepectives on a given event, giving a reader a wholistic view of a given situation? Maybe because a blogger is not supervised / censored / edited by a diligent administration / media bosses, resulting in a more spontaneous response? Maybe because a blogger has no compulsions to comply with, that his/her output personifies 'freedom of expression'? Whatever it be, the tsunami showed the usefulness of such a large community of contributors - when all other channels of information failed the public. The government sources relayed what they wanted the people to hear, the TV channels were busy grinding their political / ideological axes, while catering to their corporate ad-spenders........... and it was left to the blogging community to report to the world, the happenings from a lay-person's persepective.
tag:blogs.fullhyderabad.com,2004-08-26:829Unpalatable verbizations2004-08-26T09:38:45+05:30
"Do you tennis?" asked the painted wall advertisement, and I shifted uncomfortably. Not because I 'did not tennis', but because such an onslaught on the language was too much to handle at the ...JustaLittleUnwell
General
"Do you tennis?" asked the painted wall advertisement, and I shifted uncomfortably. Not because I 'did not tennis', but because such an onslaught on the language was too much to handle at the end of a tiring work-day. It did not appear to come from an ignorant / illiterate source, in which case, it would have deserved all my sympathy. It appeared more like a half-baked attempt at creative sloganeering - and hence sucked big time.
By the way, let's give full marks to the Indian intelligence for doing a copy-cat job of the more widespread "Do you Yahoo?" line. In the original case, I can hazard a guess on the motivation for coming up with such a blasphemy. Google was becoming more popular and people even verbized it with all that talk about 'googling' their searches, similar to how 'xeroxing' became the norm. Alarmed by this development, Yahoo must have urgently wanted to insert its name into the English vocabulary and must have hoped that people will start 'Yahoo'-ing their mails and 'Yahoo' with their online buddies, after getting badgered with the "Do you Yahoo" line. Though that was not to be, at least the motive is understandable. Coming to our local version, I'm clueless as to what the advertizer hoped to achieve by verbizing 'tennis' (reduce his advertising expenses? 'Play' sounds such a tyrannically long word, taking up unwanted space and time - to paint, to read, to comprehend......... Best option - knock it off).
I shudder to think of the outcome of such attacks on the language. The advertiser, knowingly or otherwise, has spawned a generation of youngsters who will 'banner' their creative lines, 'computer' them, 'web' them, 'book' them and what not. And even before we realize, our lives may look like this: get up in the morning, 'Hindu' / 'DC' / 'NDTV' for a while, 'Kellogg' and 'Nescafe' to see us through till lunch time (while simultaneously 'Pink Floyd'ing / 'Slayer'ing), 'Yamaha' / 'Honda' our way to the office, 'Johnson' upto the right floor, IBM / HP thru' the working hours, 'Pizza Hut' / 'Subway' in between, 'Barista' for some time in the evening with friends, 'Lifestyle' a bit, 'Visa' our purchases............damn. Can we put a full stop to this kind of creativity before the world becomes an Alzheimer's paradise?
tag:blogs.fullhyderabad.com,2004-08-13:764Music for the mind2004-08-13T12:44:18+05:30
OK, when I say music, i'm only referring to Rock and its derivatives...... and probably forerunners......... and probably siblings....... and probably counterparts..... (guitar-based genres is ...JustaLittleUnwell
General
OK, when I say music, i'm only referring to Rock and its derivatives...... and probably forerunners......... and probably siblings....... and probably counterparts..... (guitar-based genres is what i mean) All the Hip-hop, Hindustani, Carnatic, Indipop, film music fans please excuse :) You've got wonderful stuff going there, but I've not taken them up for my current dissection.
Ok, coming back to my narrow definiton of music - well, it's not that narrow, if you know what I mean - you've got Classical rock, Modern rock (this avoids the 70s, 90s kinda terminology), Jazz, Blues, Country, Reggae, Metal (you're asking which one?), Alternative / grunge (are they same or different?) - quite a spectrum, I should say. Btw, I deliberately left out one genre in the above sentence which is the topic of this post *a gong goes out* - Progressive Rock.
Kids world over had fun making music - they made really wonderful stuff. But then they were becoming too sweet and innocent and romantic for the real world to take in anymore and their time was running out. Enter the bad guys and their loud music. They convinced everyone that the only sensible thing to do was to destroy. And destroy they did - the ear drums of their listeners, their own vocal cords, sometimes their musical instruments, and even their on-stage reputation. While this was going on, another breed of musicians were obsessed with intellectual improvisations and were producing music that was too perfect, too boring, and too uneventful.
Luckily some mature adults were still left to restore sanity. They were producing good entertaining music and they enjoyed a loyal fan following too. The music they produced can be broadly termed 'Progressive rock' which combined elements of symphony, rock, folk and jazz, thereby making it entertaining as well as intellectual, with elements of tradition and nostalgia thrown in. I came across some Internet sources on Prog Rock and realized that some of my favorite bands are Progressive rock bands. More important, I came to know of some bands which are exemplars in this genre and i'm totally into them these days.
Before I go into specific bands, I wish to ramble on about the charecteristics of this music - high pitched vocals (ok, not always), unpredictable sonic movements of the instruments - be it the strings or the percussions - which could have a halucinatory effect on the listener ('psychedelic rock' is an alternate name given to this genre), complex arrangements and rhythmic structures that throw a challenge to your power of understanding music, "unheard of" sounds to add to the unpredictability - made using highly customized instruments / techniques, melody or pleasantness of music - you generally don't hear screams or growls or jarring noises - but most important of all, virtuostic playing by all the musicians - they need to be highly talented to be playing progressive music. No wonder we have some of the best guitarists, best bassists, best keyboardists and best drummers in the world playing for progressive rock bands (please read this sentance again in case you weren't paying attention). And the length - this is not a genre for people with short attention spans - So no 3-minute numbers. You get to experience a song for at least 7 minutes or more - the time needed for all the musicians to realize their potential and get a sense of accomplishment. Well, there could be exceptions when the bands had to please their labels.
Some progressive rock bands that need no introduction - Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull and Queen. These are household names and I wouldn't go further describing them. Some other interesting prog bands are: Rush (divine drumming), Wishbone Ash (twin attack of two-parts guitaring), Queensryche (one of the best vocals i've heard), Kansas, Yes, King Crimson, Genesis (which had Phil Collins as their drummer / vocalist).... But the 'Metallica' of the genre would have to be Dream Theater. Their guitarist (forgot the name) is an inspiration to many a budding guitarist. Listening to their songs is an experience that transports you across many worlds. Then the bands which had their roots in Jazz, but produced what's called 'fusion', which is in any case Progressive Rock from the sound of it: Mahavishnu Orchestra (fronted by guitar god John McLaughlin), Weather Report (which had Bass ace Jaco Pastorius among others - if you havent tripped on his solos, you havent lived life to the fullest), Return to Forever (Chick Corea, Al Di Meola - the divine powers of the world)....... Indian band Mother Jane is walking its baby steps in this genre and a few numbers I heard of theirs are good. Apparently, their album was a sell out in places like Bangalore.
Not sure if we have many proggers here. I wish we have many more in Hyderabad - i'm not getting the records I want coz there aren't many takers here. May the proggers multiply - not biologically, but through baptizations :)
tag:blogs.fullhyderabad.com,2004-08-11:742Equal opportunity2004-08-11T00:58:55+05:30JustaLittleUnwell
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tag:blogs.fullhyderabad.com,2004-08-09:731WYSIWYG2004-08-09T22:35:06+05:30
While you're breaking your head wondering which commonly used sentence does this abbreviation stand for (in the league of LOLs, ROTFLMAOs, AFAICRs and ASAPs), let me just gather my thoughts on ...JustaLittleUnwell
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While you're breaking your head wondering which commonly used sentence does this abbreviation stand for (in the league of LOLs, ROTFLMAOs, AFAICRs and ASAPs), let me just gather my thoughts on what exactly I wanted to say under this heading.
Ok, it's about 'vision' - the ability to 'see'. Not just the present, but also the future (and more of the latter). No, not predicting it, but seeing it. Knowing exactly how you want it to be, including the finer details. Like looking at a picture, carefully observing all its elements. Once you've seen it well enough, you know what to aspire for. You get an idea on the quantum of effort required to reach that destination that you've defined for yourself so clearly. Seeing is believing. The more you see it, the more you believe in your image of the future. See it when you are awake, see it when you are asleep (Dream on!).
Incidentally, the abbreviation in the title stands for 'What You See Is What You Get'. It's more of an IT / technical jargon pertaining to Graphical User Interface (GUI) design tools. Trust me to give it a philosophical spin. (Btw, the FH blogs Editor is unfortunately not WYSIWYG and I had to do HTML formatting to make this post.)
I see what I want, i'll keep seeing it day in and day out........... and yes, i'll get it someday. (couldn't help adding that self-motivational bit)
tag:blogs.fullhyderabad.com,2004-07-24:593The capture of Secunderabad2004-07-24T23:41:32+05:30
No, this is not a history lesson :)
Last November, I went around Secunderabad clicking pictures with a borrowed Nokia 3650. Now, I'm going public with the outcome of that exercise ...JustaLittleUnwell
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No, this is not a history lesson :)
Last November, I went around Secunderabad clicking pictures with a borrowed Nokia 3650. Now, I'm going public with the outcome of that exercise :) The pics are hosted here and my personal favorite among them would be the one below, coz of the contrast in colors:
tag:blogs.fullhyderabad.com,2004-07-21:573The big O2004-07-21T08:44:42+05:30
I've got nothing more to loose(n)!! Not my purse strings coz there ain't much in it, anyway. Not my morals too, I suppose............. not that i'm a very upright person, but I prefer safety, ...JustaLittleUnwell
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I've got nothing more to loose(n)!! Not my purse strings coz there ain't much in it, anyway. Not my morals too, I suppose............. not that i'm a very upright person, but I prefer safety, more than anything else. Not my belt definitely..... it has to be in its tightest position, considering my purse and its scarce contents. Maybe I need to loose my sanity, so that the things around me don't affect me much.
I've always been a looser. Loose contacts make me loose contacts - exactly when someone on the Net who I think is interesting reciprocates interest, the loose connection takes over and I end up loosing all my patience. At other times, a slew of viruses are let loose on my PC (they say you need to watch out for these things before deciding to visit those sites) and I loose all my valuable files, including those downloaded (instructional) video clips.
I hate all the loose things. Loose change....... not good for anything unless you have amassed a real pile - even then, people look up and down if you do decide to use your stockpile to pay for anything. What a way to loose respect! Loose remarks......... i've made a lot of them only to end up loosing the love of my near and dear ones. Loose motion....... well! no further explanations!! Loose nuts........ especially those on the two wheels of your two wheeler. You could be loosing your life coz of some nuts, like it almost happened to me once. Luckily, there was a temple in the vicinity and divine mercy showered on me, preventing the inevitable (a God-fearing mechanic's explanation, not mine) Loose clothes......... never trusted their wearers - the popes, the priests, the nuns, the swamis, the mullas, the sants, the babas, the monks. Ain't it funny that they all dress similarly? They successfully made me loose faith in God and religion.
I better stop and don't loose any further time and sleep writing this blog........
Disclaimer: No pun intended at the expense of some of my favorite bloggers :D