A random conversation and the conundrum of religion

For most of the regular office goers, Friday evening is often synonymous with eternal bliss. Whether that holds true for you or not, what do you reckon as the most interesting aspect of your office life? Is it the technical and managerial hurdles posed, for you to tackle, letting you challenge yourself, in the process? That sounds good, but now that your boss is not listening, you might as well tell the truth. Is it the lunch break?

I would like to give the random informal conversation, more credit than it generally gets. Those help you release stress, and make offices more bearable. I get to listen to, and participate in many, but I be a good listener and keep myself from interventions unless I feel strongly about making a point. That way, I get a great deal of new information, and more importantly, I don't let people know how stupid I am. Recently, I happened to barge into one.

A few colleagues were discussing how the corporate environment treats the employees only as resources and not as individuals with emotional, physical and sometimes even existential issues that each one might be going through. By the time I got myself a steaming filter coffee, discussion had taken a completely different path. Someone had mentioned a temple that was being built in one part of the city, and subsequently, places of religious worship, and religion itself, had come under the scanner.

“Do we really need more places of religious worship, that too in our cities, which are already smothered for space?"

Remarked someone.

“They could just plant trees in that piece of land. A green patch in the middle of a city is not a bad idea, considering the kind of summer we just had”

I put forth my point, in a typical armchair philosopher’s fashion, despite not having planted even a single tree in my life, so far.

“But do you think people will make it a priority to visit your green patch, without any persuasion, and deposit money in your boxes?”

“I guess we should. Taking care of the place should be a collective responsibility. The concept of donating money in favour of places of religious worship, is the same. We are actually contributing towards the maintenance and welfare of it even though modern man, has found the commercial benefits, just like anywhere else"

"If you want people to care about the so called green patch, and make them nurse trees and plants, the only way again would be to impart any kind of religious significance, on it."

At this point, my mind drifted away from the conversation, and I started thinking about religion, as a social institution. Organized religion has more to do with money, power and politics, has very less to do with spirituality, and if it has to stay in power, it should make more people follow.

By the time I started listening again, topic had moved on to the historical accuracy of a religious text. The debate had heated up. Having their religious faith questioned, is one situation when you get to find out how aggressive speakers your friends are. As arguments and counter arguments were flung incessantly, I started feeling that it could go on for ever. You could argue about belief and faith for days, and yet you will not be able to prove anything, unless God himself appears and tells you, and unless that happens, the whole act would be utterly meaningless. You never confront faith with logical reasoning, instead, you just learn to respect it, however absurd it sounds to you. Your own faith might be entirely different, but then you just keep it to yourself. Faith is like art. It’s value is only there in the eyes of those who can fathom it.

How religious faith influences human lives is a vast topic that needs to be discussed in much more depth. Even if we do, I don't know if we'll ever have any more clarity on it. That was the most up to which a coffee break discussion could go, but I got a lot from it, to brood over later.

What hurts most for Pakistan and so on

World Cup Cricket Chronicles 2015 - 2

(Want to know how it began? Read this)

India have begun the campaign with an emphatic win over their arch rivals, Pakistan. The contest was indeed, high voltage. It did provide the glimpses of drama and action that every India - Pakistan match promises, but the result had become obvious far too early in the game. 

Team India is going to take a whole lot of positives out of it. It's a breath of fresh air for them, after a series of defeats in the Australian soil, and a vortex of criticisms surrounding it. Now, this game has suddenly turned the tides. Or at least it looks so. Shikhar Dhawan, who was having a poor run, has come out of it and played a brilliant knock, just when the team desperately needed him to. The more re assuring factor is the way he played that innings. He looked composed, he was curbing his instincts, and he picked the right balls to score boundaries. Right from the start, he was announcing that he meant business. 

Kohli was as prodigious as he is always. His drives look poetic, his pulls look as solid as a brick wall. Raina did what he does best, by shifting the gears swiftly. And our bowling rose to the occasion, being within their limitations. Umesh Yadav generated good pace which would have been effective if not for the wayward line. Mohammed Shami ran in hard and bowled in good areas. 

On the other hand, Pakistan had them in trouble, right from the word go, or even before that. They made a mistake by handing over the keeping gloves to Umar Akmal rather than opting for a specialist keeper. None of their key players failed to fire when it mattered.

But for Pakistan, more than the fact that they lost it, it is about the way they lost. This Pakistan team had nothing to flaunt, nothing to boast of. It was a much weaker side compared their avatars in the previous world cups and the absence of Ajmal and Hafeez was just like rubbing salt to the wounds. 

Pakistan have always been a good bowling side. They used to have at least two genuine fast bowlers who could bowl at high speeds consistently. They would always create apprehensions in the opposition's minds, even before going into the game. Well, this bowling attack was nothing like it. Wahab Riaz hit good speeds in his second spell and curbed the run flow in the death, but he was no match for the greats they have had in the past. 

Batting looked thin, crumbling like a piece of paper, in front of just an average Indian bowling. Misbah was the only one who looked solid but there was no scope for solitary heroics. Their fielding was also below par.  

Pakistan lost the game, but more hurtful than that is the psychological hit that they have taken. Their team has nothing menacing. They couldn't even bring in the fight. This could prove very difficult for them, while Ireland and Zimbabwe would be eagerly waiting to convert the slips from the major teams into their gains.  

As for India, I would say, this game is more of a reminder on what work needs to be done, as we progress. Lots of improvement is needed in the bowling department, and the performance against Pakistan could give us a deceptive picture. Death batting needs to improve, that is, we desperately need Dhoni to find some form. 

Now, for the conclusion, I have a question. How different would this game have been if it was on a green top? 

We had very short square boundaries yesterday. What if the game was played on a bigger ground where the boundaries were pushed back to 90 meters?

Do you think the result would have been any of different in any of the above cases? Let me know.      

A preview of sorts, may be?

World Cup Cricket Chronicles 2015 - 1

(Want to know how it began? Read this)

It's game on, already.

New Zealand and Australia have done justice to their favorites tag, in their opening matches and the high voltage clash between India and Pakistan is set to start in a couple of hours.

As for the Indian Team, there are two options in this world cup. If they want to come home without stones being pelted at them, they either have to beat Pakistan in the first match or have to win the world cup. Beaten by Pakistan could end up making the fans go mad, which I believe, can be neutralized by nothing but bringing the cup home. But things aren't that bright for us.

People say, we have a very weak bowling attack. I strongly disagree. We don't have a bowling attack at all. And as for all all rounders, we do have Binny and Jadeja. The best thing about Binny is that his front teeth will remind you of the egg headed Brazilian footballer, Ronaldo. Jadeja has got a back up in the team, as Axar Patel. They are practically the same thing. 

They might not comply to the generally accepted criteria to be considered as all rounders. An all rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well in both batting and bowling. But in India, whoever can somehow manage to do both are called as all rounders. 

Anyhow, I expect Australia, South Africa and New Zealand to make great progress in this tournament. My prediction is that any one from these will win it too. But People are all going to get shocked at the presentation after the final, because there won't be a world cup to be given to the winners. BCCI would have already bought it. 

Let the best team win!   

World Cup Cricket Chronicles 2015 - The beginning.

Writing has always been fun for me, however lame the content that I created was. I have always been a prose person, but there were different types of writing that highly appealed to me. I write non fiction articles infrequently, with rare success at getting published. But fiction writing always seemed to be the greatest challenge, and hence, the most exciting. Writing in English and Malayalam is something that I have enjoyed equally. Writing screenplays is what I love most, even though all that I have written in that category are a couple of good for nothing things, which as of now, are lying in my bookshelf in the form of a bunch of dusty loose sheets of paper.

So apart from all these, there is something that I have always wanted to do. Sports writing. I have tried it once in a while, but not as much as I would have wanted to. (I think this one which got published in The Hindu might be the best that I wrote).

So, here's the deal.

The cricket world cup is here, and it is a sport that I have been following right from my childhood. So I think, I should write. Witnessing the mega sports events like Olympics, Commonwealth games or the Cricket or Football World cups and writing about it has been always a dream. 

That is exactly what I want to do. I am going to watch as much as cricket possible (On television, of course), during this world cup, and I am going to write as much as possible about it, here.

Generally, when I get an idea to write to something, I keep it in my mind, think about it during all the free time. When I am sure I've got enough of it, I write a rough draft and then leave it for two days. Then re write it once or twice. That's how I write most of the blog posts, and the other stuff that I have published. And generally, my first draft is just crap. And after all this, whatever I create never end up as Booker prize worthy stuff. But this time around, it's all going to be spontaneous. I will try to write as much as possible during the course of this world cup. So, the quality of each post might be really, really bad.

Other than this, there are a few points that I want to put across in the beginning itself.

What I write could end up as crow shit. (I think I already conveyed that, but just emphasizing)

I might swear and use some indecent language

I might try to be funny at times. But I have never been spontaneous with humor. So the jokes might fall flat.

Above all, even after all this build up, I might end up without writing even one piece. It happens with me. I always over promise and under deliver.

So here it begins. Or at least I hope so!

Happiness and hardship of losing a smartphone

As my thoughts were getting entangled in the anger, disappointment and the
agony of losing my phone, I slowly opened my eyes into the realization that
my phone was getting smarter and smarter in the past years, while I was
heading exactly the opposite way. I couldn't remember any of the contact
numbers, my social media passwords, not even my bank account details. My
phone had it all. I could only sit and sulk in pain.

Cursing myself for getting into that crowded bus, which eventually led to
the pick pocketing of my phone, slowly gave way for the attempts to figure
the extent of my loss. No matter however hard I was trying to believe that
I could easily manage without it, my mind wouldn't just budge.

When I looked back, it was hard to believe that a small rectangular gadget
had a ubiquitous influence on my life. I was starting to feel disconnected
from the world, without it. The feeling that a whole lot of information was
evading me, kept on lingering in my mind. I terribly missed the
conversations in the group chatting applications, the frequent social media
updates, and the live bits of news and current affairs. The heinous
monsters from temple run made guest appearances in my nightmares.

Days passed by, and I recuperated from the emotional snub, gradually. Even
more importantly, I started not to miss my phone anymore and also, started
enjoying the extra little time that I had everyday, which, otherwise would
have been spent on poking the phone. I could watch TV, read for some time,
or even go for a jog in the morning. The tendency to look at the phone
while eating, died out slowly, and I started enjoying and appreciating the
food even more. Conversations never got interrupted with the sudden burst
of a ringtone, and life, altogether seemed better. I put brakes to my
research on which phone to buy, and started thinking, why I needed a
smartphone, in the first place.

All this, was not even the best part of having lost the phone. I discovered
how I could use it as an excuse on numerous occasions. I forgot friends'
birthdays and escaped the firing line, by giving a melancholy description
of how I lost the calendar events, with the phone.

I didn't have to remember anything anymore, I could always give an excuse
that I didn't have my reminder lists with me. Whenever I went out with
friends, I always got to be there in each of the photos taken, because I
didn't have a camera phone, and so I never had to take one myself.

The absurdity of my excuses crept up several levels and I started blaming
almost everything upon not having the phone. I hid my incompetence and
carelessness, and enthusiastically bluffed how a smartphone could solve all
of my issues. I vouched that I would get one very soon, while laughing
inside, thinking that I was never going to do it.

One day, when I was coming out of a movie hall in one of the prominent
shopping malls in the city, I saw one phone being displayed there. I had a
look at the specifications. Having a look was never going to hurt. It had
great a configuration, and some really cool features. It was then, that the
most enticing advantage of losing a smartphone, struck me. You could get a
new one!

From that day, it was all poking, and less of everything else, once again.

Culinary misadventures

Note :-  About the same topic as that of the last post. Might even have a couple of common points, what to do, that's all I felt writing about.


Being in your early or mid twenties and staying away from home, in a city, for work or for studies is probably one of the most decisive phases of your life. For most people, it’s the time when you start realizing, or at least start contemplating about where you want to head, and which waters you want to tread. Besides that, it could also be the time when you start having a serious stint in the kitchen. 

While I had started living in Chennai, eating out was a very convenient option. But later on, I started missing home food more and more, and trying out the different hotels and the roadside eateries, that Chennai is pretty abundant of, didn’t seem good enough. So I decided to test my culinary skills, in case there was any. Needless to mention, everything went catastrophically wrong, in the early days.

Cooking is an art. A unique vision on how the work of art will turn out to be in the end, is what separates an artist, from the others. Similarly, a good cook will have a vision on what kind of an experience the food is going to be, in the end; a quality that I completely lacked. My mind was always expectant of the impending doom, as I cooked. But the cooking maneuvers, or rather, misadventures, did teach me a few things.

During the early days, I used to order pizza, after I had messed things up in the kitchen. But soon enough, I learned that my cooking will never improve, and my confidence that I will never cook anything edible, grew manifold. So I would order pizza and then start cooking, so that by the time the disaster was complete, pizza would have got delivered.

As days passed by, I managed to develop a common procedure, to cook almost all of the vegetables, using only the essential ingredients. And by essential ingredients, I mean the things that are absolutely necessary to make it edible. For example, if you are going to prepare carrot fry, you can do without curry leaves or mustard seeds, but not without carrot, unless you are the people from my office cafeteria. There, they have these delicious meat rolls which, even if you dissect and examine, won’t be able to find any trace of meat. Also, I remember a hotel in my hometown, where you can consider yourself extremely lucky if your curd vada has either curd or vada. 

Sometimes, I used to call my mother, in order to ask for instructions. The conversation would go something like this.

“Amma, I have 350 grams of ladies finger, two onions and one tomato in the pan. How much salt should I add?”

“One and a half spoons”

“Okay”

I add one and a half spoons of salt, and later on, realize that the spoon that I am using is much larger than what we have at home, and probably I have added enough salt to shoot up my blood pressure to soaring levels.

“What about chili powder?”

“Which variety of Chili powder are you using? Is it Kashmiri?”

“I don’t know. Does it matter?”

“Yes. Can you check?”

I have already put the chili powder in a can and thrown the cover away, so I frantically search the trash to find the cover, while my dish continues to get cooked. I take out the trash once in a long while, so I am quite sure of finding the cover.  I find it finally, but by that time, whatever I had in the pan has already burnt, and there is no need to add anything to the lumps of carbon, anyway.  

As I try to gobble up whatever has been cooked, I think of my mother. I think of how she used to prepare breakfast, prepare lunch, pack it for my school, and then go to work by 10. That’s probably your story too. Remember how your mother used to cook something different and tasty, everyday. Have you ever thrown out the lunch that your mother had packed? Think of that.

 Try not to cry.

Now, cry all you want.

Food for thought

I swirled on the living room couch, listening to the pleasant sound of a heavy monsoon rain. The tiny water droplets that rushed in through the window and lingered in the air, made me shiver. I kept swapping between the sports channels in TV, not stopping with anything for too long.

The aroma of ghee melting on top of a frying Dosa, on the pan, spread in the air. My mother knew that I was too lazy, even to get up and have my breakfast.  So, after some time, she brought me a plate, with a golden brown color, crispy Dosa rolled and kept at one end, and some onion chutney, which is nothing but a well ground mixture of fried onion, red chilies and tomatoes, next to it. I began to drool, as she brought me the plate.  The first piece of Dosa, dipped in the spicy chutney, went into my mouth, soon enough. 

I settled onto a channel, where a live telecast of an old cricket match was going on. In between, I took a sip of the hot filter coffee that mother had placed on the small table, next to the couch.

Bliss.

But not anymore. The society brings upon hundreds of restrictions on you, some of which are, hardly even fair, and the most exasperating among them is that, nobody will pay you, unless you work.  So, eventually I had to move away from home, first for my education, and then, for a job. The food that mother used to cook, became something that I could enjoy, only once in a long while.

The first thing that I learned, after moving to a city was that, the food doesn’t cook on its own.  Looked like, it took a lot of effort to create something that is edible, let alone, tasty. Often, I would make phone calls, asking for instructions.

 'Amma, how many whistles does the cooker blow before the rice gets cooked?'
 
'Four. You have poured enough water with the rice, right?'
 
'Ugh.  Was I supposed to add water, with the rice? But anyways, water is not an essential 
ingredient, is it? I’m sure it’s not going to alter the taste, much. By the way, who the hell is smoking, in my room?'


Practice makes things better, if not perfect, and so did my cooking. I did a permutation and combination of the chilly, turmeric, coriander and masala powders, everyday. Random vegetables cut up and cooked with all these ingredients, I proudly called them dishes. I was always willing to gobble up almost anything.


After my brave maneuvers in the kitchen for more than a year, what I realized was that, cooking is more or less of an art. An artist possesses an inner vision of how the creation will look or feel like, once it is finished. The same is the quality that a good cook possesses, and of course, the same was what I completely lacked.


Cooking, whenever I do it, gives me a sense of independence. I don’t depend on anyone else, at least to cook my own food. We, as a modern society, always tend to slip into a consumer culture, and fall into the fallacy that everything that we need for consumption, will always be readily available for buying. Living in a country where the national food security bill didn’t escape from getting stranded in the political quagmire, ensuring our own food security is something that each individual should be concerned about. Cooking on our own, could be the first step to that.


The infrastructure development is going exponential, but, what we often forget is that, unless someone cultivates, we don’t eat. To have our own fruits and vegetables grown in our own yard, may be, that’s how we should see ourselves in the future.

Now, that is some free advice, to the world, from me.


It’s dinner time. I am hungry.


Where is the nearest pizza shop?

The festival of inner light

I stood on the terrace and looked around. The sky was getting lit up in different colors. Different shades with golden tinge got mixed up, in the black palette, as the incessant bursting sounds announced the intensity of the joyous celebrations. Enthusiasm was in the air.

It was the Diwali night.

Most of my friends made it home to join their loved ones and add more color and vigor to the festivity. The happiness of being together manifolds the beauty of any celebration, and it isn't any different with Diwali. I was dejected that I couldn't do the same, but I was getting to know how Chennai, my second home, looked and felt during the special day, and I did feel a pinch of the excitement that was flowing all around.

According to the most popular legend, Diwali is associated with the killing of Narakasura. It is the festival of lights, and it also is the time to worship Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity. So we celebrate, illuminating our houses, and a plethora of firecrackers go off, adding to the fun.

But sometimes, we get lost in the bells and whistles, don’t we? Rarely do we think that the festival of lights symbolizes the knowledge of your inner light. As we remember the story of Krishna slaying the vicious Asura, we should look for our inner demons, and slay them, so that we emerge as better people. Darkness is driven out of everywhere on this day, but our inner darkness also has to be driven away.

So, enjoy the day to the fullest, but, in the end, do take some time out, away from everything, for introspection. Without that, everything else would be pointless. Let this also be the celebration of a personal achievement, of having found ways to make ourselves better and eventually, make all of our co existence, better and more beautiful. 

Change, as I see it

As the bumpy auto rickshaw ride took me closer to my home, I gazed around, and kept noticing the striking dissimilarities between what I was seeing, and what that place used to be, a few years back. It was my once in three months homecoming, from Chennai, to the village in Kerala, where had I spent the first fifteen years of my life. I usually develop an inexplicable emotional nexus with places, but quite ironically, that never happened with the village where I was born and brought up.

“This place looks different, ma”

I exclaimed.

“Look who is being nostalgic now”

My mother’s reply was sarcastic, and I knew exactly why. She was also born and brought up in the same village, and we often discussed the evolutionary voyage of that place. She had told me how different, life used to be, during her childhood.  

“There was a muddy walkway, in the place of this road”

She points to the road, sounding dispirited. She goes on and talks about how agriculture was the main source of income for everyone, the enthusiasm and warmth that floated around during the celebrations of Onam and Vishu, how families were huge, how buffaloes, cows, goats and chicken were all considered to be members if it, and so on. And then, she tells me that everything started changing since people got enticed with the opportunities that cities offered. She reminisces that there was one lone buffalo left in our house, after we sold everything else, and I get the pun, only when she adds that, that buffalo, went on to study engineering, and lives in Chennai now.

I was of the opinion that, if you live in a place long enough, you would eventually develop an attachment with it, and when you see things change, you feel a pinch of sorrow.  So I put across my point pugnaciously, and try to snub her by saying that, there is nothing special in what a person feels for the surroundings that he or she lives in.

“Just look at the way people celebrate our festivals, these days. It was all about cherishing togetherness. But not anymore.”

She retaliates saying that it’s not the change, but the way things change, is what she finds admonishing.  All I can do is to accuse it all on the inability of the older generation to adapt.

But now, as I look around, I realize that, I too have started to miss the way things used to be. There were very few buses in our route, and we used to tell as a joke that, once that bus passes, you can sleep on the road, till it returns after two hours.  But now, the sound of motor vehicles lingers in the air, incessantly. The sprawling paddy fields, which also used to serve as our makeshift cricket grounds after harvesting, are all cut into different plots, and houses are rising, everywhere. The local primary school, has started English medium classes also. And the first three star hotel of our area has started functioning, in the nearest town.  

If you ask me, I wouldn't really be able to tell you, which all of these are to be welcomed, and which all are not to be. The infrastructure development and the better living conditions can be considered as a sign of the economic development of our country, and let us hope that it is the augury of a brighter tomorrow that awaits us. Our culture and lifestyle need not remain the same forever, but the essence and soul of it should. It is important to remain true to what we really are, and to sustain our inner virtues. ‘How exactly?’ is a question that is left to each one of us.  

Am I a little late here?

The blog has been dormant for a while and there have been multiple reasons like the latest socio political developments around the world and an appalling fall in the rate of monsoon in a bitter gourd shaped state in the southern part of India. I haven’t been watching too many movies, reading too many (Or even any) books for the last couple of months, which accounts for the absence of reviews. ‘Dark knight rises’ was the last English movie that I watched in theatre, and I did write a review for that. As I used to do with all of my movie reviews, I immediately sent it out to ‘The Hindu’, annoyed by the constant requests of the editor. But, by some unexpected turn of events, it didn’t get published. The editors had found it really hard to manage the e mails that flooded their inbox, after my previous reviews were published, and now, they are not going to publish movie reviews other than the ones by their own critics. Fair decision. But by the time I learnt that, one week had passed, so I didn’t feel like putting up the review here, because a movie review should never be that late.

Yesterday morning, as I opened Hindu Magazine, I found an article, which was a response to another one published in August. There was a subsequent reply by the author of the first article as well. The hot debate was about nothing, but the ‘Dark knight rises’. Damn! This movie is still being discussed. So why I can’t I put my review as well, in the blog?

First of all, I will provide the links of those two articles, which, I found, to be very interesting. Here is the first article, and here is the response.

I personally feel that, the allegations of Dark knight rises lacking the right political implications is void, because you can never thrust the responsibility of conveying the right ideas upon an artist. The greatest success, for an artist is when his/her work is being appreciated, discussed and digested by maximum number of people. Christopher Nolan could do that, with the story of a comic hero.

So, here comes my review, which is, a very small note, on how excited I was, about the movie. I am a Christopher Nolan fanboy, and especially a huge fan of the Dark Knight series, so it is possible that I have missed out on all the down sides, if any.

Again, all of this doesn’t matter because the readership of my blog is that huge.

Begins. Falls. Rises. Goosebumps!

Trilogy. Prodigy.

Movie : The dark knight rises

Cast : Christial Bale, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gorden Lewitt, Tom Hardy

Expectations, is a double sided sword. It could be an inspiration to go the extra distance, and sometimes, it could burden you, and even beak you down. This applies for films, too. Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark knight rises’, which was hailed as the ‘Most awaited movie of this generation’ arrived last week, amidst the skyrocketed expectations of the movie lovers. As the Villain of the film, ‘Bane’, tells in a memorable dialogue, ‘There cannot be true despair without hope’. But the makers of the film have delivered a piece of cinematic brilliance, which meets our hopes, and saves us all, from falling into the pit of despair.

It has been eight years since the Batman has vanished, after taking the responsibility of Harvy Dent’s vicious acts. Organized crime has been pushed into oblivion and the people of Gotham are having a peaceful time. But as Bane arrives, spreading chaos and fear, Batman has to come back. He has to revamp his spirits, to stand up to the stronger enemy.

There is so much to appreciate in this film, that it obscures the mind on what to mention and what not to. It’s superbly directed, and very well cinematographed. The cast has done well, without anybody falling short of the mark. The adrenaline pumping action sequences are as good as it can ever get. But the film has much more to offer, that the scintillating fights. The emotional depth of the film has to be attributed to the writers. They have created a soulful story, which depicts the inner battle of an individual, while leaving a room for all the thrills and frills.

The movie lacked a villain as good as the Joker, and you cannot be without getting reminded of Heath Ledger’s mystifying performance, as Tom Hardy walks around, as the masked villain. The film, as a whole, doesn’t reach up to ‘The dark knight’, but having a too good predecessor can hardly be a fault.

Bottomline : Worthy culmination of the legendary trilogy. Must watch. Just decide how many times.

When the screen comes alive

Modes of communication is the backbone of our existence as a society, and it has been decades since cinema has evolved as one of them. It has been communicating countless emotions and ideas  that transcends the visuals, and the poetry on screen has flabbergasted us, many a times. Modern cinema has evolved into a form of expression, which can touch your heart, burnish your spirits and revamp your thoughts through the depiction of stories and events.

There are no clear cut rules ragarding the ingredients of good cinema. However, in general, we can say that, it should be a slice of life. According to the legendary director, Alfred Hitchcock, cinema is life, after you take the dull part out. But this doesn’t defy the role of the unrealistic or surreal elements. It only means that, the audience should, in some way, relate the journey of the characters, to some or other aspect of our existence. There are several examples for the not so real elements in cinema, offering us deep insights into life. Christopher Nolan’s Batman series is about the existential crisis and the subsequent struggle of a superhero. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the rings is a fantasy about the battle between good and evil, depicted with the help of stunning visuals. Woody Allen’s Oscar winning ‘Midnight in Paris’ uses an illogical and inexplicable time travel in the story, and still ends up being an excellent film, which tells a lot about human nature and the soul of a city. 

The intricacies that we can relate to life, woven somewhere inside, is what makes all these films special. The most excellent movies are made, usually, using the common things that we see, in life, as raw material.

When we look at Indian cinema, in the same perspective, things are very interestingly poised. People in different regions of our coutry speak different languages, and we have different film industries for each. If we were a country with a single language and culture, our film industry would have been much bigger, with a huge audience, which would have created a room for bigger budgets, and more effort behind each film. The biggest film industry in our country, Bollywood, does not represent our films as a whole, and there are several well made films coming out, in the regional languages. But the bigger audience ensures that Hindi films do better business.

We have a fairly big group of audience for the mindless comedies, logicless hero centric action films, and cliched romantic movies. But apart from all those, which of course, succeed in the business part, do we see enough life on our big screen?

Rather than bits and pieces from their films, what we need to take up from Hollywood, is the way, they adapt true stories and books, into movies. We have seen how smart screenwriting creates a story out of events as simple as a King’s fight to speak without stammering (King’s speech), a grave and mundane book on the economics of baseball (Moneyball), and an unproven theory about who actually was behind Shakespear’s works (Anonymous). We too, have plenty of stories happening all around us, and there are a lot of books, worth being adapted, in our literature. 

 Cinema is an art form, in which, creativiy plays the pivotal role. It assumes it’s mellifluous best, when it draws inspiration from life and literature, and whole lot of creative vision acts on it. That is exactly what we need to see more often, on screen.    

The final showdown

This was typed out after I watched the final of Euro cup 2012. 

More than three weeks of football extravaganza came to a conclusion with Sunday’s final, after which, Spain had the last laugh. They became the first team to retain the European champions title, and to win three major titles, consecutively. The final between Italy and Spain was not the best of games of Euro 2012, and it was one sided, but still, it was worth watching. And I had to watch it. How was the question.

Living in a rented house, without television, in Chennai, is very hard. Especially during the time of such sporting events. This is the place where televisions get given away for free, by politicians. When you think of that, you feel worse. So, I put a status message in facebook, hoping that someone with a huge LCD TV would invite me over to their room. The status message was as follows.

I am so desperate to watch the Euro cup final and I don’t have a television in my room. Anybody from Chennai OMR region, with a TV, ready to accommodate me for Sunday night? I am not as scary and ugly as the profile picture looks, I don’t make much noise, but I do utter very insightful coments during the match.

And it worked. One of my friends asked me to come over. There were a dozen of us, watching the match, there, which consisted of people with various degrees of football knowledge. So, we had lots of interesting comments pouring in, during the match. Someone suggested that Pirlo should have kicked the ball with ball with less power and more swing, someone else, commented on the technical errors in Spain’s strategy, and somebody, even wondered whether David Villa was named after the apartment that his parents were living in, while he was born.

The match started evenly, and in the first half, both teams had their chances. While Casillas stood like a rock in front of the Italians, Spain, netted the ball twice, to announce their supremacy. Second half started with both the teams unleashing a flurry of attacks, but soon enough, Italy got reduced to ten men, and the rest was just a formality. Spain’s game was not in their mellifluous best, but still, their deft passing was a treat to watch.

Certain degree of success can come with the help of luck, but to climb the mountain of success, and to be a there for a while, takes a lot of talent and effort. That’s what the Spaniards are doing, at the moment. Congratulations to the Spain football team, and all those who supported them. Especially to Gerard Pique’s girlfriend, whose hip never lies.

If you know what I mean.  

Resolution revolution

More than five decades of freedom, and the future of our country looks bright. India is all set to become the next superpower. There are worrying concerns too, but when you look close enough, everything augurs well for us. For example, recently, there was a hype over the insane amount of public money that our president had spent on foreign tours, during her reign for the last four and a half years. But, I am sure she was trying to convey the precious message, ‘Use your opportunities to the fullest’ to the underachieving common citizens of our country, by doing so. That is what inspiring leadership is.

But more than that, the biggest asset that we have, is the vibrant and ubiquitous youth, which, unlike before, is highly aware, concerned and involved in the intricate matters which help us to build a better India. In the current times, as you can see, the whole of our youth, is focused on a matter of utmost national importance, that is, Indian premier league, with special attention paid towards the cheerleaders, along with a couple of team owners. I am sure, something good, will turn out, from this.

When we refer to youth, as a whole, each and every individual, including me, is a part of it. When we make a remark on the youth, ultimately, it boils down, to each and every individual. The evolution of youth, or even the society as a whole, starts with the evolution of each of us.

How does an individual evolve? Sometimes, we evolve unconsciously. Some other times, it’s our deliberate decisions which change ourselves. The persistence of an individual, to such decisions, is what makes the difference. After my first semester in college, I decided to change myself, and study properly, from the next. As a result of my exemplary persistence, I ended up making the same decision at the end of each semester, till there were no semesters left. When do people, most commonly, take such decisions?

Yes!

New year resolutions. More than a quarter into this year, let us give it some thought. What came out of those over promising things? Did they actually revolutionize our lives as we had expected? Do you even remember yours?

According to Wikipedia, a study suggests that 80% of the New year resolutions fail and we have seen it happening also. But what if we were all able to stick to our resolutions? Our lives would have changed, at least in small magnitudes. This is where some expert advice comes in handy. Let me explain to you, how I managed an amazing success rate of 100%, in my resolutions. The most important thing is not to be stubborn, and to take pragmatic workarounds, when the going gets tough.

My first and most important resolution was to start saving some money for the future, rather than spending it all on movies and hanging out with friends. And I did save some money in the first month. It surely was an achievement, and I had to celebrate my achievements, with my friends. I did, and eventually ended up spending more money than what I had saved. In our country, we get to know the fiscal planning through a budget, but do we have a clue how it all gets spent, or to which all pockets a share goes? So, I set apart some money as savings, which was good enough, and didn’t really have to care where it went after that.    

My second resolution was not to drink and smoke anymore. That was a tough one, but I found a way around. When we say ‘Don’t drink and drive’, does that mean you should never drink and you should never drive? No. It just means you should not do both at the same time. So, now, I don’t drink and smoke together, I just do them separately, at separate times. So, I don’t drink and smoke, anymore. That is somewhat the 

deceptive way a political rhetoric works, but it serves the purpose.

As you can see, a successful New year resolution is something, as rare as our prime minister opening his mouth. But when you have the right approach, and well thought our strategies, it doesn’t look as difficult as it is. Hope you all have learned the piece of wisdom that I shared. Now, I should get back to work, so that I can contribute in my own way, for the nation’s future.

What is the IPL score, man? Did I miss anything? 

Review the reviews

Recently, two of my movie reviews got published in Hindu NXG. So the purpose of this post is, to share the links of those reviews, and also, to bore you to death, by praising myself, and by describing the appreciations  that I received from a large number of people. These people, even include, Aravind Adiga’s watchman’s uncle and one guy who has seen, Jaideep Sahni , once, from a distance of hundred meters. But besides all that, I also received an overwhelming lack of response from the mass readers, which was very encouraging. 

Find the links below.

Puss in Boots

Sherlock Homes : A Game of shadows

Moneyball

Due to the huge volume of appreciations, I am not able to share all of those here. Will just share two, in the form of conversations.  

Conversation #1

The following exchange of words took place between myself and my Dad. I would refuse to disclose what percentage of the following is truth, and what all things, I made up. 

D : What is that paper that you were showing to your Mom?

Me : Er.. I got a movie review published in ‘The Hindu’

D : Oh really? Good. Which movie did you review?

Me : ‘Puss in Boots’ and, um,..

D :  What? ‘Puss in Boots’? Is that the movie name?

Me :  Yea, It’s an animation movie, actually. A prequel to the ‘Shrek’ series.

D : You wrote the review for a cartoon movie? You still watch cartoon movies?

Me : Er.. not exactly a cartoon movie. This movie isn’t for kids.

I tried to explain how good a movie series Shrek was, how Puss accompanied Shrek in all the adventures, how Shrek could kill fishes with his fart and all that. But he didn’t seem very impressed.

D : Okay. Whatever. Did you get paid for it?

Me : Um, not exactly. But yea, I got this coupon to go to this Spa and salon.

D : Spa? Wow. Doesn’t that sound awesome! Don’t talk about this to anyone and embarrass yourself.

Me : Ugh. Umm.

Conversation #2

I decided get the response from one of my friends, and mailed him the link. I was sure that he wouldn’t have seen it, because him, reading a newspaper, was as rare as a sensible ShahRukh Khan movie.

Me : Dude, did you check that link?

Him : The one you had mailed? Yea, I did.

Me : yea, exactly. What do you say?

I held my breath and prepared myself to bask in the incessant flow of appreciations.

Him : The Chick isn’t so good, man. Why did you send that link?

Me : What? What the #@*% are you talking about?

In the Puss in Boots review page, there was an advertisement (which has changed now) which featured a good looking female model. And he thought that I sent the link for that. 

 I replied, in a calm voice. My reply, mostly, involved his ancestors.

There are some other, exciting reader responses as well. Can’t post them here, since blogger 
hasn’t got an option to upload physical objects, hurled with fairly good power.

That’s all, for now. Ciao!