Globe 360- The World beyond the Obvious

Snapshot: Mayakkam Enna

2011-11-28T22:31:00.001+05:30

It has always been a romantic idea, in Tamilcinema, to have a group of guys and girls growing up together from childhood;Unaware, as they want us to believe, of their sexes in relation to each otheras they grow together. So when asupposedly sophisticated filmmaker like Selvaraghavan decides to place his protagonistin a similar milieu, you expect him to traverse beyond that liberal fantasy-inan Indian context- and add an extra dimension to the characters in the group.Sadly, he disappoints! It is merely used as a placeholder to reinforce thetraits of his seemingly uncultured protagonist devoid of parentalnurturing.

Selva’s obsession with gloom is telling throughoutthe movie. The tension between Dhanush and Richa, from the scene when theyfirst meet and the subsequent scenes when the uneasiness plays out between the two are all setin dark; the darkness is beautifully used as a veil to hide the tension from everybodyother than two vulnerable people. So even the conspicuous silence in the midstof their physical presence and the glances passed at each other without any fruitfulconversation (other than the blatant insults traded between each other) helpsbuild the tension. Clearly the tension isn’t sold as the commonly over abusedfeeling -“Love”. It isn’t sold as what it is-‘Sexual tension’- either. It is unwiseto not play this tendency out visibly, I think. Showing restraint,surprisingly, Selva?(Perhaps!)

Looking at Richa, the female lead, you get thefeeling that she has no more than a single expression in her stock of emotions.Often, she looks as though she stares; her pupils seem lost in those huge eyeballs and aligned like thevisual alignment of two horses tied to a cart; her nostrils flared up, and theupper and the lower halves of her lips glued together ,as if she is reluctanteven to let a whisper sneak out of her mouth. However, that slackness in showingher emotions successfully conveys, for the most part, what it wants to convey-anger,envy, and her luring invitation to Dhanush.

But, while you expect her to pass a smile or evena warm expression, when her conversation with Dhanush turns less than hostile, shebecomes predictable. In one of the most beautiful scenes in the movie whenDhanush meets her in a bus stop you finally get to see the glue, holding herlips together, starting to thin out (But pity that the cinematographerdisappoints with a side faced shot throughout the scene!). And a veryunconvincing kiss is exchanged between the two in the same scene; a sort of‘plastic kiss’ characteristic of Indian cinema in general. Restraint in all thewrong places!

Halfway through the movie, you sort of get thefeeling that the director is suffering from 'attention deficit syndrome'. Episodesare picked and dropped at will. Like the conversation with a 5 year old, whowhile making an engaging conversation with an adult suddenly drops the topicand moves on to something else. For the conversation becomes too big for hercapacity to not breach her concentration. When Dhanush’s friend, Sundar,discovers Dhanush’s interest towards his lady love and vice versa, you halfexpect the drama to wind up comically in few scenes- switching from theirpersisting bitterness between the two to Dhanush happily tying the knot around the girl. Andjust when you forebode a ‘happily ever after’ scenario, you are put through anexcruciating episode of an alcoholic in self-destructive mode.

I wonder why Selva chose to caricaturize the ‘rolemodel’ of Dhanush. Extrapolating the idea of fame and success (enjoyed byDhanush’s role model, supposedly an internationally acclaimed photographer) to merelyarrogance, greed and a sense of superiority exposes criminal laziness incharting the lead characters. Also, in the scene where we discover Dhanush’s sister’sinterest for his friend Sundar, you tend to think that the director could havedropped subtle cues of such an interest earlier in the film (Or did I misssomething?).

In another revealing scene in the movie, Dhanush’sfriend makes sexual advances towards Richa (Dhanush’s wife) under the pretextof helping her cope with her grief. While the sexual advance he makes towards herhas an entirely logical premise (setting aside the question of morality), aseven Richa explains very sensibly in the same scene, what is illogical is hisvituperative remarks on his childhood friend Dhanush. Even if we are to believethat his animal instincts superseded his morality, that doesn’t explain why someonewould want his friend-with whom he had practically grown up with from childhood,be thrown into a mental asylum for a fleeting moment of 'pleasure'.

In one of the most poignant scenes Dhanush istold that photography is not his cup of tea from the very man he idolizes themost; like a sledgehammer beating him to pulp. The scene that follows capturesbeautifully the fragility of his self doubt. He seeks recognition of his talentfrom an old lady for a photograph he has taken of her. The lady has probably neverseen a photograph in her life. You cant help but empathize with the struggling photographer at that moment.

Why does a lady have to put up with analcoholic, irresponsible husband to help him scale his dreams, while she endures insilence the physical and mental trauma inflicted on her? Is it that a womanshould always play second fiddle to a man, forever picking the stones in his pathto success? A microcosmic view of the deep seated male chauvinism in our society exposing its disgusting best!

In the scene where Dhanush wins the most covetedaward in the field of Photography, while his friends erupt in joy back home, hispregnant wife sits silently in the couch,like a dormant volcano, not showing visibly the erupting emotion brewing inside her. It is that moment when you want to scream toyourself - “Why didn’t Selva just stick to what he does best- capture theintensity of emotion of a moment without words, sentences and conversation-instead of promulgating lofty ideas like passion and creativity ?”.

Selvaraghavan could have easily done justice to hisoriginal title – “Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam”. Sadly, he doesn't!

Muzzling the Heretics

2011-09-11T03:34:00.000+05:30

'Another Brick in the Wall'

“Look at this picture I had drawn”-she mumbled with great enthusiasm, as if she was Picasso incarnate. She, I amsure, had no idea that she had just created a piece of 'art'. For she is just afive year old who had dutifully drawn a house placed in the middle of a lushgarden, purely as an academic exercise, unaware consciously of the joy of ignitingthe creative realm of the brain. Thepicture looked like a cheap rip off of a snapshot from Clint Eastwood’s abandonedhouse from ‘Unforg iven’ . I am certain that she isn’t a fan ofwestern cow boy movies to have drawn inspiration from the movie. Looking at thehouse in the picture, I asked- “Ok. There is the door. There is the window.There is the pathway leading to the house. Why do I not see a TV inside thehouse?” Flummoxed and annoyed, likeanybody would be at a self selected critic, she said smugly “That is how itshould be PERIOD”

I was curious and a little disappointed,not because a five year old has got the perspective of a house in her drawingright but because she was taught to draw a ‘perfect house’ like any ill fated andboring student of ‘Engineering drawing’ would be taught to draw. This tendencyto impregnate the idea of ‘singularperfection’, on the custodians of creativity, in something as fluid as art isextremely odious and reprehensible. Mountingartificial boundaries on the creative thought process of kids is a majorpreoccupation of our paternalistic school system. In the name of ‘standardisation’ and streamliningthought process in kids, aesthetic sensation has been steamrolled to tailorconventional belief systems. Creative imagination in kids, hence, is in a freefall from its peak in kindergarten to a point of no return in high school. Thisentire act of tyrannising creative thought process is packaged and delivered,all under the garb of what is popularly known as ……“Education”.

Schools as theological seminaries

In more ways, Schools have startedto resemble the functioning of an organized religion; faith masquerading as rules,priests as teachers, theological seminaries as classrooms and scripturesas text books. It is sacrilegious evento question the traditional norms of the school. For example, why should achild be made to chant cryptic verbal patterns (“prayer” in popular parlance) withmetronomic precision in a totally obscure language like Sanskrit? Like the plasticbird popping out of wall clocks every hour to please its masters. Why doschools have to act as agents of faith lobbying for the verses in religiousscriptures? Why should religion be the normative source to derive ‘values’ to be passed on to fledglingminds?

Schools in their quest to establish authority and in enforcing theirhighest virtue of ‘discipline’, manage to cull ‘critical thinking’ and ‘reasoning’-so vital to development of thought process. Theresult is the twofold production of a group of young minds resorting to sycophancywhenever they need to get things done and the other a group with unswerving submissionto officialdom;like the dead vending machines in railway stations bearing thepunches and abuses of its transient masters. The larger societal implicationsof this ugly disease need barely to be expounded further here.

Restraining Moral Imagination

Ostracising Heretics

This mode of functioning of schools has thus successfullymanaged to perpetrate a form of structural violence, over the years, on the verycultural fabric of our society. Tyrannising the thought process, at an earlyage, thus stifles the growth of moral imagination. Hence it naturally entails that a majoritywill no longer question the existing first order assumptions and beliefs. The result isthe prevalence of a society with the equilibrium slanted heavily in favour of conventionalthought and the will of the majority; with the majority self selecting itself tobe the sole arbiter of ‘legitimate opinion’. The onus and the burden of establishing eventhe existence of an equilibrium in the huge spectrum of opinion thus lies in the hands of a minority; preciselythe reason why we even need to expend time to argue that gays or lesbians haveevery right to be part of the society as the heterosexuals; also precisely thereason why our society hasn’t yet realized that selling women like cattle’s tomen for money- under the garb of ‘dowry’- is nothing short of barbarism.

Tradition, in such a society, becomes so sacrosanct that rationalthought and deductive reasoning are mortgaged for conventional thought and retrograde first order cultural assumptions. The majority, consciously unaware, thus work tirelesslytowards a predefined common agenda- which is derived mostly from dubious sources like tradition,culture and religion- under the belief of serving the needs of the self. Afertile ground is hence laid out for fostering cultural prisoners- chained forever to the tyranny of prevailing popularopinion.

Sometime back a friend made a wry remark to me that- “it’s not always bad to be a conformist”;and by implication that, at times, it’s good to be a conformist. Whileconceding the merit in the remark, I believe, we need more heretics just to assertthe presence of equilibrium in the long continuum of thought and opinion, letalone asserting the possibility of the presence of a legit opinion at the other endof the spectrum. And, I believe, there is no better breeding ground than schoolsfor heretics to thrive. The time for structural reform in schools is ‘now’.

‘I am Krishna’, or so they say !

2011-07-25T02:36:00.008+05:30

'I am Krishna'

When you decide to base your entire movie on an English prototype, why not show some grace, and honor your source of inspiration with few seconds of screen space? Is it because of the deliberate urge, by the director, to pass off the movie, to an overwhelming majority of people, as a product of his cerebral torment? Or is it the larger Tamil or Indian culture to claim credit, wittingly or unwittingly, for what is not yours?
I marvel at the freedom that directors take when they decide to script socially incompetent characters, stretching their limits of moral superiority - looking down at such characters (and the larger cohort they represent) as nothing more than objects of comic relief. Very much like the amusement derived out of watching animals in a zoo. A grown up, with a capability of a five year old, can be made to act out, very reasonably, like a five year old. But showing the protagonist in the opening shot lying on the floor, squirming, with the most awkward leg twist (a pose hard to enact for any sane person or so our subconscious has been trained or told to believe) should make any well meaning person climb the effing wall. And what’s with that incessant clapping every now and then! Five year old's do that, seriously?
It’s quite obvious that when the makers set out to create this movie, they wanted to make an all out emotionally manipulative work. Why then distract the plot by charting austere, diabolically cunning villains working on a conspiracy to defeat the good, when you can simply weave a kitschy drama with just the goody normal characters? Google 'Karan Johar' for further details.
Another reservation about the movie- a fact which the director has quite comfortably chosen to overlook in his quest for manipulative glory- is his unwillingness to put on screen, objectively, as to why the protagonist should or should not be deemed fit to parent his daughter. If the protagonist really is or isn’t capable of fathering the child, is for us (viewers) to decide for ourselves. The director may be thought, based on his whims, he could hold our hands firm and trudge the road of reason and pragmatism. Only that he was so subsumed in enacting a cop-chasing thief like action drama around the court, in the latter half, that he forgot to reason out, to the protagonists and to the court of law, the intricacies of the future of a complex father-daughter relationship.
Were those supposedly adult jokes played on the protagonist really funny that they had to be used over and over again? And the “intha kaalathu ponunga elam apdithan. Yaaru ariva paakuraanga”-(brides these days are such that they don’t care about brains) - remark was misogynistic and in very cheap taste.
If you are trying to wax poetic on screen, why not prolong the shot to let the moment to sink in rather than indulge in a mad rush to move on to the next frame. Case in point is the scene where the protagonist and his friends walk down a chequered road, holding balloons up in the air, waving chaotically in a gentle breeze.
Whatever the parallel they were suggesting between YG Mahendran-Anushka and Vikram-Nila, I just didn’t get the drift. What did I miss, anyone? Or, was there not any drift to miss in the first place ?
A wealthy woman, with an extremely understanding father, chooses of all people a mentally challenged person to marry and procreate and the director thinks that is an episode not worth exploring. For people who have sat through internal assessments in colleges, copying verbatim from the god (at least for the duration of that test) behind them, this error of omission should be quite understandable. “Don’t ask, don’t talk, just copy” is the rule of the game there and with minor modifications, that rule can be retrofitted perfectly in the context of this movie, to make sense of this blatant error of omission. I wish not to expound further; the lesser said the better here.
The protagonist offers money to the shop keeper for the shoe he’s bought for his daughter and finds himself short of cash and the shopkeeper-“aathifying tea in an empty shop”- is terribly pissed off and spouts abuses at a group of people mentally incapable of doing even simple math. Very plausible counter-reaction from the shopkeeper, innit? But not certainly in a planet I live in.
'I am Krishna' ? Afraid not. 'I am doofus' ? Most certainly.

Avan Ivan: A few thoughts...

2011-06-18T19:32:00.011+05:30

Not many auteur's in Tamil cinema, I believe, can dictate the terms and conditions on the kind of armor that their fans must wear,as a measure of caution before a movie, to protect them from celluloid shrapnel skewering their equanimity, as BALA. So entering into the theatre, to watch a movie of his is tantamount, metaphorically, to savages (or audiences, as proclaimed to be) witnessing beasts and wild animals thrown to gladiators in an amphitheatre, fighting for death. The modalities of voyeurism, therefore, are worked out beforehand in mind to expect death as the inevitable outcome of this form of entertainment.
Just when you thought, you had the characters and the general milieu of the Madurai genre movies figured out, after a barrage of them released in recent years, Bala sprouts like an artist from a distant planet, populating his art with grey men & women suffused over a social fabric that is not shy of transgressing the contours of morality, which most of us, I presume, may find hard to fathom.
The film is non-metrical, very much like his other movies. There are no contraption of events, each triggering the next, to culminate at a climactic point. For the most part, the film traverses along a single fabric revealing its frayed threads, leaving a single knot halfway to make ends meet finally- to let the audience know when to leave the dank room and to carry with them what is popularly known as post-movie impact. How much of an impact- if there is any such thing- Bala has cast on us at the end of this movie is an open question !
Vishal as Walter, a thief by descent and a Kalaignan (artist) by choice, is sketched with impeccable detail. His feminine physical language, accrued as a result of his longing for his artistic greatness has been interlaced beautifully, yet quite paradoxically, with a dormant beast inside him, brewing to swoop down on the predator at the mere sight of distress to his family.
Arya, trying to enact the Surya of Pithamagan as a scruffy, degenerate thief and his accomplice - a pot bellied 12-year-old-looking pranskter (understatement perhaps ?)- make for great agent-provocateurs, mocking and irritating people at will; placing bravado above all else and enticing trouble wherever they are. No doubt, these two have carried the burden of humour,for the most part, that Bala was overtly suggesting to enact as the genre of this movie.
¨Highness¨, played by GM Kumar, as a jameendar stripped of all his paternal wealth, looks and plays his part of a spoiled drunk man, without a day job, quite well. Gautham Menon, could perhaps, take cue from the scripting of the character Highness- inspiring his two proteges undergoing mid-life crisis to wreck their life as bad as his- and ponder over on how he could have scripted a similar father inspiring son story, plausibly, in Vaaranam Aayiram.
There is the sense that Bala, in his directorial career has reached a point, where the curve has started to straighten out, devoid of any sporadic spikes of the unexpected; like the cuisine of a well established eat out, where any new dish that you are going to experiment is obviously going to be great, but yet made by the same chef within his narrow confines of greatness. There isn't any avant garde plot sequence or genre in his movies, anymore. Though i don't think thats a bad thing per se.
Vintage Bala is at work here, in Avan Ivan, with his characteristic undercurrent of dark humour, poking fun at evangelists, hugely paid actors and even Rajapakse !
But i sensed a great degree of sychophancy in maketing Surya as a philanthropist with a saintly glow. Completely off mark and sadly there was no humility in Suryas defense of the allegations of self-promotion-while-engaging-in-philanthropy, even though his defense sounded close to convincing. But Bala stooping low to promote individual agendas in his movie, despite them being noble, is not quite expected from him !
The fringe characters, like the inspector, the belligerent swear-words-spouting moms of Arya and Vishal, are sketched quite interestingly. Sample this : a newly appointed inspector, a soon to be a D.S.P, invites the criminals-past and present- in town for ´kari soru´ (feast) just to plead and request them to promise, before god, not to sabotage his career aspirations. All this happens in a premise of normality, without any comic overtones; like a group of people assembling to eat in a marriage. It is just that, here, drunk criminals and thugs are hosted to a feast by their very own predator to be. Yeah, only in a distant world, that we are so unaware and yet that is so real, populated with grey men and women by BALA !

An affair with Chaos

2011-06-06T20:49:00.031+05:30

The average human body weighs somewhere between 60-75 kilos. The majority of this mass is made of simple and everyday elements like carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. The costliest elements in the human body would be iron, sulfur, phosphorous and zinc. So on an average, the material required to build a human body would cost a few thousand rupees, had it not been for its grand complicated design. Now the fascinating question is, how did these elements blend together in a near perfect fashion to form perhaps the most complicated organisms ever to walk on earth? The same question can also be asked of other creatures that walk, fly, swim and live on this planet. How do so simple elements combine to produce such thriving diversity?

The answer to this question would sound obvious. Evolution. Charles Darwin in his book The Origin of Species published in the year 1859 put forth the idea of natural selection and evolution, where in complex organisms that thrive in this planet today evolved from less complex and seemingly simple organisms over the course of millions and millions of years. The idea of evolution was a landmark proposal in the field of science. Like Galileo disproving the geocentric theory, like Relativity putting an end to the absoluteness of time and space of Newtonian mechanisms, Darwin’s theory would challenge the fundamental foundations of religion, that God had created life. This had deeply disturbed creationists because they for one had believed that this is one realm where science would not exert its influence. However, Creationists were not convinced. Galileo disproving the geocentric theory was one thing (at least evidence to contradict that was available in real time), but proposing that men had evolved from apes was another. These events take place on a cosmic scale and therefore apart from indirect evidence there was no real time proof to substantiate the claim. Creationists had found their kryptonite.

Or at least they thought they had. For the time being.

The proof to substantiate evolution would come over the course of the next hundred years through various forms.

The Big Bang theory proposed that 14 billion years ago a dense ball of gas had condensed on itself due to gravity and exploded to form the universe. Much to the dismay of Science, this idea had captured the imagination of Creationists more than it did for scientists because the theory ended up asking more questions that it answered like where did the dense cloud of gas come from in the first place. How did order come from chaos? The Big Bang theory also left lot of room for things like Heaven and Hell. Furthermore the fact that all the laws of physics break down at the instant of the Big Bang means that its impossible to find out what happened before the Big Bang with the current laws of physics. Ergo leaving room for God.

For a while it seemed impossible to answer these questions. Scientists were confident that the answer to these questions would be found soon. Creationists were having an early Christmas. Their celebrations however wouldn’t last long.

The solution to morphogenesis would play a key part in this. Morphogenesis is the biological process that causes an organism to take shape. In the human embryo at first, all the cells are identical. During the later stages, the cells start clumping together and become different from each other. How do identical cells that started off similar, without any thought or central coordination, differentiate and become distinct? These questions made morphogenesis a puzzling concept. That is until 1951 when a brilliant mathematician by the name of Alan Turing published a paper on the mathematical explanation for the chemical basis of morphogenesis. The paper explains as to how local chemical reactions and diffusion can cause non-uniformity to arise (like in the case of an embryo) from a naturally homogenous system without any thought or central coordination.

However, the idea was not widely embraced at the time. In fact most scientists at the time were hostile to the idea. The idea that randomness could give rise to order very naturally without any external influence ran against their view on science. The reason: Deterministic Predictability.

Ever since Newtonian times, scientists had thought of the universe as a giant complicated machine and that if one knew the initial laws with which it was configured with, then it would be possible to predict the state of the universe at any point of time. One such law was Newton’s law of Gravity, which can be used to describe the motion of celestial bodies in space. In short scientists believed then that if the laws of physics were applied to the universe with precise, accurate data, then the universe could be reduced to what we call today ‘a simulation software’. This idea was called Deterministic Predictability.

Keeping this in mind, Turing’s idea seemed absurd. The only way for Turing’s theory to hold would be for Newtonian Mechanics to fail and thereby also the dream of Deterministic Predictability.

In 1960,however, an accidental discovery by a mathematician and meteorologist, Edward Lorenz would plunge a dagger right through the heart of this dream: Chaos.

Like most of the scientists of his time, he too believed that knowing the initial conditions of a system would help predict its state at any point of time. Hence Lorenz had set out to find out mathematical equations that would help predict weather patterns. However when Lorenz had written down equations to predict the flow of air currents, he found out that they did not do what they were intended to. Far from it, it made absolutely no useful prediction whatsoever. Lorenz had found out that in spite of the initial conditions being known, the slightest minute differences that cannot be measured in the starting condition can cause a system to deviate further and further from what it was intended to do as it progresses step-by-step. Or Sensitive dependence on initial conditions. Lorenz had captured the gravity of this in the landmark talk he gave “Does the flap of a butterflies wings in Brazil, set off a tornado in Texas?” thus giving rise to the famous phrase that would become a part of our everyday lives, The Butterfly Effect.

The Butterfly Effect, soon, started turning up everywhere. Unpredictability was intricately built into every system that trying to predict an outcome based on initial conditions would lead to chaos. Chaos is hardwired into all laws of physics. As Chaos started tearing down the very fabric of the Newtonian Dream, scientists started seeing Turing’s theory in a more favorable light. Moreover, they found out that there was a deep symbiotic relationship between order and Chaos. That order leads to chaos. And that, that very same chaos would create order. Chaos and Order were simply two different faces of the same coin.

The question though is how can order feed chaos and vice versa?

The answer to the question is simple. Feedback.

The scientist who brought understanding to this concept is Benoit Mandelbrot through what is known as Fractal(Mandelbrot was also the one who coined the term Fractal). Shown below is what looks like a very simple Fractal.

But the closer you see the picture, the more detail you see.

And each shape within the set contains a large number of smaller shapes like the one that you saw in the first picture.

The entire pattern that you have seen above is what is famously known as the Mandelbrot set. And all this complexity stems from a very simple equation: z=z²+c. The property of the equation that creates the Mandelbrot Set is what was previously mentioned as feedback. Like a loop, each output becomes the input for the next iteration and each input feeds the next output and so on to infinity.

This means that a simple mathematical equation can create a pattern of incomprehensible complexity. And an important property of this set is that the fundamental shape that produces this pattern, looks similar at all scales. To top it all, the Mandelbrot set is man made, named after the person who invented it.

When we see such complexity in nature, we think that it could not have formed on its own. That behind complex systems and patterns must be equally complicated and intricate rules and that these rules will be hard to discern the more complex the system gets. Yet the Mandelbrot set with all its complexity sprang out of a very simple mathematical equation.

The implications this had on evolution was profound. It substantiates Evolution’s claim that Nature had tediously over the course of billions of years, used simple microscopic organisms as templates and combined them in different complex ways to find out what works and what doesn’t and built on that. It’s a completely unconscious process with no central coordination. Proof of this claim can be seen everywhere in nature. Our blood vessels are organized like fractals. The human lungs look very similar to the shape of a tree, branching off continuously into smaller and smaller braches in order to increase the surface area of absorption so that more amount of oxygen can be absorbed with a lesser volume. The branches of tress and the way rivers branch off look very similar. Both in turn look like they were built from a simple ‘Y’ stacked on top of each other. This concept might sound hard for many to grapple. But the claims of evolution are very simple here. The simple rule here is survival of the fittest through constant replication. The feedback comes from the environment that favors the mutation that are best suited for the organism to survive. And the result, ever increasing complexity!

And that’s the essence of this article. That complex systems can spring out of simple laws. That life can be built upon simple microscopic organisms as the base the same way Mandelbrot pattern arises from a simple mathematical equation.

Chaos is living testimony to evolution. The uncertainty and the unpredictability that we see in our everyday life is proof enough that something as complicated as life can be built on simple quantifiable physical laws.

Birds-eye View: 127 Hours

2011-02-03T01:25:00.008+05:30

Movies based on true events – harrowing accounts in particular- are most often burdened with onerous responsibilities. Apart from the need to be true to original event, they face the ethical dilemma of the extent of dramatizing a distressing event. Over-dramatizing the event runs the risk of fabricating hollow heroes out of thin air and hence being manipulative. Muting the intensity of the event, on the other hand, would evoke less interest on the original account. Danny Boyle, has walked this tight rope pretty much successfully by his subdued handling of the movie- resisting the urge to over-dramatize- and yet bringing the vivacity and energy into the frame when required.

127 Hours is based on the story of 'Aron Ralston', a mountain climber, whose life is jinxed by a boulder while ‘canyoneering’ in the wilderness of Utah. With very little inventory- a cheap Chinese pen knife, a rope, little food and a video camera- at hand, he faces extremely tough choices for survival.

Aron Ralston is portrayed as someone who revels in being independent, impulsive and adventurous. Without discrediting his self grit and determination to survive, there is more emphasis, quite unusually, on the ‘human connect’- his longing for his family whom he so ignored all his life- which helps him see past the 127 hours. Danny Boyle is least bothered about us- the lesser mortals who are bound to cringe in unease, when he chooses to portray graphic visuals of a hostile Chinese pen knife- under the guise of saving him- discovering and puncturing the bloody tracts of the limb of Aron Ralston. The comic interludes – Aron Ralston’s delusions, especially the ‘Scooby Doo’ behind him in the dark, the radio show that he mimics mocking his own recklessness, and his filming of his supposedly ‘last few hours’ with a video camera, etc – lets some steam off an otherwise intense survival drama. Rahman’s pulsating music kindles passion and vigour - so essential for a movie that underscores ‘heroic triumph’.

Aron Ralston is not made out to be a super hero; he is just as human as we all are. Only that he had a lot- and hell of a lot- of courage to do what he did to survive.

Political dishonesty and Social silence

2011-01-09T19:31:00.008+05:30

This is a very “generic” piece which I wrote on the topic- “Crisis of confidence over politicians and the system as it works today”- for a magazine, only to find my submission past the due date.

Making a mockery of Indian Identity & Politics.
Cartoon Courtesy- "THE OUTLOOK".

Invoking the term ‘Politics’ or ‘Politicians’ from the cerebral cortex of an Indian brain, across the social or economic continuum of the Indian society, would evoke an unsurprising impulsive response characterized by a certain smugness, condescension and a sense of ignominy- the sense that entails when a self-appointed elite meets the subaltern. Politics in India, inter alia, is the abode of the corrupt, the dishonest, the incompetent and the morally bankrupt. There are indeed honest, capable and self-effacing politicians, albeit the breed is few and far between in contemporary Indian politics.

Any profession necessitates the need to be successful and our moral obligations demand the success to culminate through fair means. Success in politics, however, can be accomplished only at the expense of being expedient or blindfolded - the latter being the case for a right man in the wrong place; political success mandates the need to mortgage political honesty.

Politics is essentially a business. The sooner we come to terms with that reality the better can be our response to obliterate the malaise plaguing Indian politics. As Mr.M.J.Akbar has brilliantly put forth in a recent piece in India Today magazine -“The existentialist dilemma before Indian democracy is stark: it cannot co-exist with financial honesty. It does not matter if you are personally incorruptible; you have to be institutionally corrupt in order to engage in the business of democracy. The moral code of elections is uncomplicated: Don't ask. Don't tell. And for God's sake don't get caught.”

A nation resting on the foundation of scams.
Cartoon Courtesy- "THE OUTLOOK"

Panic alarms have been triggered and public discourse on Indian politics escalated- without necessarily an increase in the quality of the discourse, to hitherto unseen levels over the last few months in the light of a string of scams that shocked the nation. That begs the question of the reason for our deliberate indifference and inaction over the years on critical issues of corruption and public accountability. Where not politicians flagrantly flouting norms and relentlessly engaging in acts of corruption before? Or is it that they had a saintly glow over their heads a year back? Our reactions to scams and issues of corruption and accountability have always been knee-jerk in the immediate aftermath of an expose, deriving voyeuristic pleasures out of fruitless CBI raids on fraudsters, followed by a complete ‘social silence’.

The ingrained idea of believing in acceptable levels of corruption and moral fudging, and societal complacency has wrecked havoc to the very system that we have toiled hard for years to build. Our public institutions are tottering under excessive bureaucracy, with bottlenecks masquerading as rules, cronyism working under the guise of public policy and excessive procedures that drives the common man as far away from the system as possible.

Social ineptitude and Silence.
Cartoon Courtesy- "THE OUTLOOK"

We have largely been ineffective in tapping the huge potential of our democratic system. Our unabated and blind faith in putting back to office un-delivering and incapable politicians, every five years by means of elections, has inspired confidence on those kleptocrats to continue to fill their coffers unashamed at the cost of ignoring development and public welfare- the very reason for which they were elected in their first place. Our reluctance and intransigence as a society to exercise our fundamental right of free speech, and peaceful dissent, except in times of imminent and explicit transgressions, has rendered our institutions largely ineffective and weak to bring about any meaningful development. A legislature working (non-functioning would be rather apt in the current context) without much goal or purpose, acting as a mere ceremonial pillar of our democracy, isn’t helping our cause either.

It is time for us to move beyond our self contentment and complacency over the achievements and success stories of the last fifty three years of our democracy. A totally cynical and pessimistic approach wouldn’t help either, for it only breeds more distrust and contempt on our system. Only a critical and awakened civil society continuously striving for and demanding excellence can fast-track change and development.

World Cup Selection Woes

2010-12-11T11:55:00.004+05:30

If “Kiwi molesting” was an Olympic sport, we could have easily gone past Latvia or Slovenia in the medals table in 2008 summer Olympics, which by any scale would have been the greatest moment of pride and success for India in global sport. We wouldn’t have had to rely on a certain ISI tennis prodigy or a misspelled version of her name, to win a medal for India.

Parthiv doing a Jhonty.

The recently concluded India-NZ series sends an array of mixed signals to the elite, intelligent and esteemed panel of wise men, who will pick the team for the World cup. They will eventually settle down with the usual suspects for the final 15, is anybody’s guess. They, however, shouldn’t tread the beaten track and there are lot many signals emanating from the just concluded series suggesting why.

It is ironical that the wise men would eventually pick a captain, with a negligible success rate, over someone like Gambir with a stupendous success rate of 100%, winning all the 5 matches that he has captained, to lead the World Cup team. How so naïve and foolish to dismiss the idea of having the most successful captain in Indian cricket history to lead the World cup team without any contention?

Where there is success, there is envy.
Amul, getting it all wrong on Parthiv.

And there’s another reason why the wise men should not stick to the same captain or even to have him in the team simply because of the fact that he can guard the wickets. With an average of 109 in the just concluded series, the ever-young and prodigal Parthiv Patel, carrying a huge load of experience by being already a part of one World Cup, can rightly be considered to replace the existing “out of form” wicket keeper. And there is a lot more elegance in the “Helicopter shot” of Parthiv than that of the current captain. The fact that it is his sole scoring option is a different issue altogether. Getting to the crux of the idea, as to why Parthiv should be in the final 11, it is because of his uncanny ability as an opener to score quick runs in the initial overs. Trusting an old guy, who has hardly played any one day cricket for the past one year, to open the innings would be the pinnacle of stupidity. Fans of “You know who”, move aside please!

Ravindra Sobers Jadeja and his accomplice.

Yusuf pathan’s knock of 123* in the 4^th Odi, could well turn out to be the most crucial factor as to why India is probably not going to lift the World cup. And here is why. Yusuf could endanger the critical “all purpose” 7^th player slot by denying the slot to the “all purpose” Ravindra Sobers Jadeja. I must earnestly confess that I am short of adjectives to describe him. Having been patiently grooming him for quite some years now and to abandon him suddenly would be a serious folly, for which we will have to regret in 2019 or 2023 World Cup; a serious blow to the fundamentals of our “grooming” theory and an assault on our cricketing culture. That said, Ravindra Sobers Jadeja is no ordinary “all purpose” player. He eventually finds his way into any squad.

I have always admired MRF for making the right investment choices in cricket. Be it investing on the “conqueror” or the “wizard” or the other old guy with a dubious fan base. The one currently wielding the MRF willow is facing an existential threat because of the lack of opportunity to showcase his skills in the absence of any IPL season before the World Cup. Perhaps, flying Gayathri Reddy and some skimpily clad cheerleaders to the forthcoming South Africa series, could just deceive him into playing the innings that can fetch him a spot in the World cup final 11.

The ball is now on the Wise men’s court. They need to do a “A Raja”. Selecting players by “Auction”, based on popular perception, would be an act of sheer folly. Falling for that conventional bait would cost us the World cup that has evaded us so long. Time is now for “crony selectionism” and dubious choice making.

“Wise men! Do you read me?”

India's Independence: A long forgotten story

2010-08-14T20:15:00.007+05:30

At the stroke of midnight, on the 15th of August 2010, India would have completed 63 years of independence. And this 63 year long run, though not a complete success, is a success of sorts nevertheless considering the turmoil it has gone through.

Members of India's first Cabinet

The world recognizes India as a democratic country, being 7th largest in terms of geographical area and the second most populous in the world with a population of around 1.15 billion. While these are solid facts that can be picked up from any website, the true picture of India, however is far from it.

Quoting the words of Sir John Strachey, a member of the Governor Generals Council in India during the British Raj, “Scotland is more like Spain than Bengal is like the Punjab”. You could perhaps travel to two different European nations, and would not find as many differences and contrasting features as you will between two states in India! Thanks to its diversity, not only in terms of geography, but also languages, castes, dialects, religions, race and economic divisions. To tag this nation as being simply “diverse” is an understatement. And to stereotype or generalize the citizens of this country is nothing but a gross error in judgement.

To us, this nation India is not a country, but a world unto itself. I am not speaking figuratively here. And neither is the above statement a result of Indian propaganda. Travelling down history’s dusty and bumpy road would perhaps give a better picture why.

A century ago, there was no Indian nation or country. People never thought one would exist in the near future either. Even prior to independence, the India that we know today was not fully conceived, for when the British left the subcontinent, they left behind two newly created countries: India and Pakistan and around 500 other small ‘countries’ (or princely states precisely speaking). Some of these small ‘countries’ like Kashmir and Hyderabad were as big as a large European nation, while others were a tiny collection of a dozen or so small villages. Each of these princely states was ruled by a Maharaja. And as the formal date for the withdrawal of British troops from India loomed ahead, the rulers of these states were forced to make a tough decision: accede with either of their two neighboring nations, India or Pakistan. Tough because some of these states had a majority Hindu population, but was ruled by a Muslim king. For instance, the state of Bhopal, which lay in central India. Or a Hindu king with a majority Muslim population. Like Jammu and Kashmir. A bizarre case was that of the state of Jodhpur, which, ruled by a Hindu king with a majority Hindu population decided at the last moment to accede with Pakistan! The situation was further complicated by some of the rulers negligence towards their subjects. All they cared for was grandeur, power, the wealth and riches that came with their title. The administration and other stately affairs were taken care of by their more efficient Dewans or chief ministers. So caught up in their greed for power and wealth, some of them actually decided to claim independence and cede with neither India nor Pakistan, like the state of Travancore for instance. Religion and corruption of the rulers not being the only reason, a third factor that acted sometime singly or in tandem, was that of geographical location. The state of Junagadh is one such example. It was cut off on three sides by Hindu states or more precisely speaking, by India (All these Hindu states decided to accede with India before the declaration of independence). However, on the 14th of August 1947, the Nawab of Junagadh decided to accede to Pakistan. Geographically, this demand made no sense even though legally, it was allowed to do so.

The then leaders of this country Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhai Patel successfully managed to navigate these issues (except for Jammu and Kashmir) and establish an independent India. But not without paying a terrible price. The price paid was the millions of lives lost during the bloody civil war that ensued as an aftermath of the partition. Like a storm destroying everything in its wake, the civil war took the lives of tens of thousands of people, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs alike. Some sources put the toll of the partition violence at an estimated 1 million; some scholars have suggested the figure could be to 2 million. With so much blood spilt, people hardly believed that India could continue to exist as a nation, let alone being democratic and secular. Hence the rise of India over the past decades was met mixed views and emotions. Leaders and patriots glad with each passing day, yet scared, while others like the secessionists or insurgents (Maoists and Naxals for instance) anticipating with baited breath that this country might one day fall like a pack of cards.

Yet this country, has managed to beat all odds and survive together as a nation, while its neighbor Pakistan to this day still remains in turmoil and continues to spiral into a deep abyss of religious fundamentalism and violence, one which India has more than successfully managed to navigate given its vast diversity in religion.

India is like a vivid kaleidoscope of colors displayed in the plumage of a peacock. A painting with over a billion colors and terrains, with each color so contrasting and each terrain so beautiful that it would snatch the breath of many a Vincis and Picassos. A beautiful painting but with a tear filled melancholy heard throughout the background.

How has this painting changed over the past six decades? A few smudges here and there, indicating the large population’s willingness to put aside religious and caste based differences. The sad melancholy, however, can still be heard. While communal violence has decreased drastically to a few sporadic incidents, they have given way to wide spread insurgency in some places. The economy of this country has boomed. India is today the 5th largest economy in the world. While the rest of the world took a beating during the recession, India managed to grow at a rate of 6% per annum. Yet poverty is still widespread in many parts. An estimated 300 million still remain below the poverty line. Corruption is still rampant. But for a country with epics the likes of Ramayana and Mahabharata that stretches on for decades, developments and reforms will take place slowly and there is no point in pushing them.

Apart from these changes, for the major part, the painting still remains the same, validating the claim that India is still a world unto itself.

The reason why I chose this title is because, we Indians seem to have a very short memory. Especially when it comes to matters concerning state. We quickly seem to have forgotten what this nation has undergone, the price it has paid to reach where we are now. In fact we are so forgetful that on the day of independence, people had completely forgotten that they were actually hailing from different countries the previous day, yet started celebrating like as though India existed all along these past centuries! The riots and communal violence that flooded the streets the past few months did nothing to dampen their spirits. The father of this nation, Mahatma Gandhi, perhaps the only realizing this, chose to mark 15th August 1947 as a day of mourning rather than independence.

Nevertheless, being an Indian, I thought it was worth reminding a part of the history of this great nation, which perhaps the larger population must have so easily forgotten.

References:

"India after Gandhi" by Ramachandra Guha

Shashi Tharoor: Why nations should pursue "soft" power

Islamic States and the repercussions of their denial

2010-08-08T18:09:00.013+05:30

The Middle East, technologically behind the rest of the world and ridden with poverty and Islamic fundamentalism, is perhaps the bloodiest and most volatile region in the entire map of this planet. The situation is further complicated by the Israel-Palestine conflict. USA has been a close ally of Israel ever since it proved its worth during the 6 day war and has been using it ever since as a strategic asset to monitor the Middle East. The US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan has further worsened the scenario and hence denied peace to a region that has not known anything but war for centuries!

“Thanks to the infidels!” That’s what the Jihadists and Islamic fundamentalists would say. Or “Thanks to the Americans!” That’s what the rest of the Islamic population would claim. Little does the Islamic world realize that “it” has been one of the major reasons for the ensuing bloodbath and violence in the region.

State of Affairs in Palestine (Photo: Gnuckx )

While to most Muslims, this previous statement might sound outrageous, the truth behind it is rather simple and reaches back as far as 632 AD to the death of Prophet Mohammed.With the death of the Prophet in 632 AD, the entire Muslim community was divided into two as to who must lead the Muslim world from there on.One of them, the Shia’s, were of the opinion that only a descendant of the Prophet will be knowledgeable and fit enough to interpret the Holy Quran and hence lead the Muslim world. The other group, the Sunni’s, however felt that the Quran can be read and interpreted by any trained scholar with a thorough knowledge of Arabic, the history of Islam and the Arabic world. Hence, they believed that the next leader or Caliph can be decided by a popular vote and need not be a direct descendent of the Prophet. This difference of opinion led to a civil war and to this day is the reason of a huge rift in the Islamic Community. For instance, the big players today in the Middle East affairs are Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq and Iran. Saudi Arabia and Jordan are a majority Sunni community. Iraq and Iran on the other hand, are a majority Shia community (Saddam Hussein however was a Sunni Muslim). The difference of religious opinions between these communities, in their respective nations has prevented them from uniting under a common banner to fight the injustice happening in Palestine.

The difference of opinion in the Islamic community notwithstanding, another severe issue that has posed as a constant serious threat to the Middle East peace dialogue is the insecurity of the family of Saud and their power hungry neighbors which in the first place, led to the US monopoly over oil resources in the country.

Mural on "Peace in the Middle East"

(Photo: Michael Ramallah )

The country, which we today know as Saudi Arabia, was founded in the year 1926 by Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. After the discovery of oil and the formation of ARAMCO, the Saudi King feared that his kingdom would be encircled by the neighboring countries Iraq and Jordan which was then ruled by the Hashemite who are direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (Jordan to this day is still ruled by the Hashemite, their ruler being King Abdullah who is a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad). Fearing a Hashemite invasion, King Saud forged an alliance with the US under which Saudi will provide continuous oil supply to the US under the condition that they provide them military support under the event of a Hashemite or any foreign invasion.

The scenario today has however changed. Hashemite invasion is not a threat anymore to the ruling Saud family. Iraq is under US rule and Jordan is an ally of USA and will not dare attack Saudi. The real threat today, ironically, is their long time friend and ally, the United States of America because oil is what keeps the thousands of US forces and military bases all the around the world functioning. In case of an oil embargo by the Saudi government, like the one in 1970, US forces will not hesitate to invade Saudi Arabia, because oil, to the US government, is a national security issue, especially under current circumstances what with two wars being fought.

Hence, any move by Saudi Arabia that undermines the US authority in the region would lead to diplomatic clashes followed by a US invasion of the country. The Sheikhs don’t want that to happen. The people don’t want that to happen. Understandably so. And this is not only the case in Saudi, but also other wealthy Middle Eastern countries.

So the question now is what must they do? Confront USA? That would lead to nothing but even more bloodshed and would prove to be unproductive. What the people of these countries wish to do is their matter of internal policy. But these people must remember that they are bound morally and ethically to the people they claim are their “brothers” who live in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even if they do not have the fire power to confront a nation like the USA, they must at least own up to their part in all this politics and not scream from the roof tops like as though all hell breaks loose from USA or “infidels” in the language of the Jihadists and the fundamentalists.

Khap Panchayats: Of Honor, Retributive Justice and Murder

2010-07-13T18:00:00.004+05:30

How do we percieve a society that endorses and perpetuates killing of young men and women for choosing a partner of their choice or to put it in the other way, refusing to conform to the medieval and retrograde beliefs-upheld in the name of tradition? This medieval brand of killing, practiced by Khap Panchayats in India, reeks of danger and catastrophe to the freedom of the society as a whole. The light of the recent events of killings in the name of “Honour” necessitates the need to find ways to obliterate this horror out of our social edifice.

In India, the term “Khap” essentially means, in the geographical sense, a group of villages. The Khap Panchayats are supposedly the justice delivery systems comprising of village elders and grouped on the basis of their caste and community. These Khap Panchayats behold the power to pass judgments or diktats that are capable of ostracizing individuals and families, if they decide to transgress the norms and traditions of the Khap. Khap Panchayats are common in Rajasthan, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, parts of Punjab and Bihar. The particular practice of the Khaps in contention here is the prohibition of same gotra (clan) marriages between young men and women, living within a same Khap. This practice, dating back to 14th century, is based on the belief that men and women of the same gotra are considered as “siblings”, since they are believed to be the offspring’s of the same parental ancestor. Men and women, in the same village are barred from marrying each other and the rule extends to even the sub castes within a Khap. This rule, not to mention, falls outside the ambit of the Indian constitution or the Hindu Marriage act of 1956, wherein marriages are prohibited only between sapinda’s. Based on the act – “Two persons are said to be sapinda’s to each other if one is a lineal ascendant of the other within the limits of sapinda relationship, or if they have a common lineal ascendant who is within the limits of sapinda relationship with reference to each of them.”

The Khap Panchayats are thus refusing the right of an individual to marry a person of his/her choice and passing diktats to kill them for their supposed act of “dishonor” is reminiscent of the barbaric acts of the medieval age. The term “Honor” attached to human butchery is intriguing, not just because it is ironic but because it panders to place societal norms over individual rights; tradition over personal freedom and despotism over democracy. Lobbyists of “tradition” need to come to terms with the fact that “traditions” evolve with the changing aspirations and needs of the society and so to suffuse them with obscurantism for vested political interests deserves the harshest punishment in the criminal jurisprudence. These lobbyists are also known for their devious acts of skewing scientific facts to fit their theories. Gotra’s, have their origins not from the birth of people, but from their gurus they followed. So the claims of carrying a common parental gene is baseless, since we know for a fact that people of different communities and khaps could have followed the same guru and thus descended with the same gotra, that they are known now. The major subtext or the underlying reason for this practice is the age old tendency of the khaps to augment society of their ilk by forcing people to marry outside their clan, thus increasing their community multifold.

So what then is the way out? When the laws of the land are in conflict with beliefs and practices of the society, there are ideally two ways out. One is to enact laws based on deliberations that shape our course of future actions, i.e. the dichotomy of using the law both as a deterrent and as tool to promulgate social values. The other way is to consider laws as tools that merely reflect our beliefs, i.e. by conforming to the idea of reforming the society by means of imparting education and values and thereby gradually obliterating the social malaise. In case of “Honour killings”, the first course of action is the urgent need of the hour simply for the reason that only a powerful judiciary can take the challenge of stopping this egregious practice of the Khaps, which otherwise enjoy huge “political patronage” because of the vote bank they come along with. In this respect, the initiative by the Government of India to consider making amendments to the Indian penal code to bring honour killings under the definition of murder is a step in the right direction. Also the proposals to make amendments to the Indian Evidence Act, wherein the onus is on the Khap Panchayats to prove their innocence, as opposed to the norm -“innocent until proven guilty”, will go a long way in removing this ugly blot out of our social edifice.

Laws can kick start the process of putting an efficient monitoring and deterrent system in place but ingrained medieval beliefs can achieve true transformation in the long run, only by means of imparting values and education. The urban ilk too is not free from guilt and barbarism. Anachronistic practices like “dowry” and “forced marriages” are prevalent even today and that such acts are endorsed even by young men and women is an appalling and gloomy state of affairs. Traditions are meant to uphold values and promote well being in a society. With changing times, if those traditions are found to cross the contour- threatening the very existence of the society they are meant to protect, we should not dither to make amends to protect the social fabric. Retributive justice by means of killing, in whatever name they are called or carried out, is tantamount to barbarism and has to be immediately done away with.

Ravanan review

2010-06-21T16:33:00.002+05:30

“Manirat(h)nam”- a name that befits a man adept in weaving visual metaphorical splendour’s - looms large over this modern day interpretation of Ramayana. Ravanan, however is an anomaly to the Maniratnam meets movies with protagonist’s having references drawn from real life (e.g Nayagan, Kannathil Muthamittal, Iruvar) or epic (e.g Thalapathy), that we are used to from him. The drama (events) of the original epic is fetched and fit more or less unaltered into this three hour visual fanfare, but the bottom line that the he draws with his narrative is idiosyncratic, contrary to how we perceive the Ramayana.

Not a mind bending plot by any means, Raavanan is the story of a cop Dev (Ram) who is after the ‘supposedly’ detestable thug, Veeraya(Ravanan) who abducts his adorable wife Raghini(Sita). Set in a tribal dwelling region, the director draws obvious references to the pervasive Tribal-State conflict happening hitherto in the Indian political milieu - a socio-political feature that we have been witnessing in his movies since the days of Nayagan and Roja. Raavanan, a metaphor for the modern day Maoist (supposedly “evil”), revolts against the establishment (supposedly “good”) for the persecution of his tribe- forms the subtext of the movie, which is also where the director deviates from his chosen parallel. What constitutes and defines “good” or “bad” is dealt abstractly with the lead characters Raavanan and Dev, leaving it to the viewer to interpret it in the contemporary context, as he/she sees it.

Any cinematographer’s lens will be deliriously excited to capture the celestially beautiful, hitherto unseen locations in Raavanan. Now imagine, the lens of Santosh Sivan fit to the armory- the result is explosive. The visuals of Raavanan are reminiscent of Santosh sivan’s previous works: “Theeviravathi” and “Before the rains”- critically acclaimed for their visual opulence. However, the cinematography, at several junctures, loots the scenes totally, leaving a little option for the radicalized eye to penetrate beyond the locations into the characters.

Suhasini Maniratnam’s dialogues of self-worth and dignity prove sharp and powerful at several places, especially when Raghini asserts her courage and might over the all evil and powerful Veeraya and when Raavanan emphasies how powerful and better he is than the so called “god” during his conversation with Raghini, in front of the gargantuan statue lying on the silent stream. Raavanan is not bereft of the amusing sub plot characterizations and minor encounters that we usually associate with Maniratnam. The chemistry between Veeraya and her sister, played by Priyamani, provides for the fun and pace of the latter half of the movie. If the movie has lost on one front badly, it’s the lack of depth in the portrayal of the character “Dev”. Raavanan has plenty for the connoisseurs in the form of metaphors spoken through the lens, like in Alaipayuthey for e.g. when the marriage between Karthik and Shakti is set in darkness in the temple-as opposed to brighter tints that we associate with the mood of a marriage, extrapolating the idea of a marriage occurring without parental consent (“Thirutu kalyanam”- as popularly known). In Raavanan, when the supposedly “evil” Raavanan is introduced- as a silhouette of a man with sunlight blazing around him, it presents an irony to what we perceive as “Bad”. The irony extends to the introduction of “Dev” in a dark and gloomy atmosphere. The non-linear narrative helps the subtext, by bringing the idea of how we react first without considering the cause that triggered it.

So what does “Raavanan” mean to the audience as the end credits roll by? A devout Maniratnam fan is a tad disappointed behind his mask of awe; a Ramayana buff can smirk in pride for her/his obvious plot discoveries; for the rest, cognitive dissonance sinks in.

College: Deciphering the journey

2010-04-30T16:42:00.006+05:30

With dreams rocketing to the sky, with a million doubts stationed above the head, entering into a college equates itself to the feeling that one has when she/he is just about to go on a roller-coaster ride; an experience no different for a nerd to a typical college made student. It is the time when reality refuses to seep through the brain, masked by all those fantasies painted by cinema about the new league.

All surreal preconceptions soon travel the myth-reality gradient path and the discovery is often different from that thought to be. First year of college is a time when all the gift wrapped doubts are waiting to be tore open to show its pleasant, ugly and boring expressions. It is the dawn of the time when the sun rises to see your eyes wide shut beneath several layers of laziness floating in a fresh air of freedom. The new air pushes one into a maze of endless attitudes, and the road taken eventually will determine whether he/she looks good or ugly under the lens of the system, friends, family and the Nazi styled society (The fuhrer's legacy isn’t dead!). The battle begins even before your retinas can seize the scenario and trust me, the Hector’s, the Achilles’ are only limited stock commodities in the campus arena. Reality starts to set in and everything seems so dramatic and hyper-real; cell phones, debit cards are the new gods of worship. Every single movie released is treated on par with a product of Nolan or Spielberg and guaranteed a visit to the screens; when even Marconi will be made proud of for putting his invention “radio” to the maximum use; when irrational jingoism in the name of sport is at its zenith; when self-centric actions begin to fade into oblivion and parochial attitudes are trashed.

Just when people begin to find their feet on the ground, the Earth would be found gasping for its breath after completing one revolution round the sun. People start to get accustom
ed to each other- knowing and finding peers of same or different wavelength, which perhaps is the most challenging and deciding parameter of what an “experience memory” will reveal four years later. Clocks are the most “unsympathetic” objects in college – they freeze when the sound waves within the walls of a room is filled with pathetic technical jargon and move faster than light when there are smiles, mock , and fun around in the air- which happens by default when there is a gang of jobless undergrads around. When you think you know the people around you fairly well, the clock at that exact moment mercilessly shifts the last digit of the year by a factor of three and you find yourself in the final year of college.

Years of planning and setting goals for life starting from kindergarten, culminates to this exact point when they must be materialized; when failure is not an option and future “lifelines” are believed to be ostensibly non-existent; when hopes and fears of the genetically associated people are higher than your highest GPA. Amidst the fears of what life looks beyond the boundaries of the
time in college, the jobless undergrads don’t give up in what they do best- sleeping with eyes wide open, swearing without even an ounce of guilt, mocking friends incessantly, confusing even the automated bank machines on what the minimum balance amount is, waking up to start the day by late afternoon, letting the laptop batteries literally to melt out of heat, looking at the dictionary to check what the word “PROJECT” means, and making sure the online status never changes from “veti”. A great paradox presents itself at this crucial juncture. There is the willingness to be stagnant and to cling on to this most exquisite chapter of life, but the pragmatic domain of the brain knows that the unsympathetic clocks will simply refuse to stop working. However, this challenge also presents itself the opportunity to register great moments in the short time to follow in the “experience memory”.

The enigma called “College” presents a world for four years without defining or letting us predict the start and finish points, just as this author is flummoxed to paint in words totally about this complex chapter of life. Any chapter that begins flips eventually towards the last page, but the experience reading the pages defines how the pages will be bookmarked in the memory. A new chapter and a new journey awaits!

Secret in their Eyes

2010-02-27T17:57:00.004+05:30

Why are birthdays, New Years, Mothers days,Valentines days, etc celebrated? How good and fair are the popularly conceived usual suspects- 1) Excuse to be happy ? 2) The claim that these days are nothing but brilliantly marketed products of the capitalists, seizing the moment to bait us into blind and frenzied 'consumerists'? Both these two usual “suspects” are too hollow, i believe, to be completely true. But there was this one 'suspect' that trespassed my cerebral cortex, when I was trying to convince myself that “I have been right all along about the stupidity of celebrating these days”. That 'suspect' is to life what “Laxman” is to Indian cricket. The subconscious mind craves for it and thrives on it badly but the conscious just isn’t overwhelmed to appreciate its existence.

So what made this one 'suspect' stand out, in my mind, among the crowd of distorted and aimless trespassers? Let me illustrate, with the help of an incident, by rewinding back to the year 1996. The number “1996” is so structured that anybody I know would tell me “1996” is the year of the Cricket world cup.Magnifying to that exact subplot, the “1996 cricket world cup” resonates one thing mutually among billions of cricket buffs in India - the moving frames of a weeping flashy left hander-“Kambli”, for reasons the world knows. A billion brain cells in unison chose that exact moment to be etched in them, forever, never again a different image of the year to be overwritten. The billion souls were all along looking for a 'reference' so intense and choking, that they refused to register that 1996 was also the year of revival of a game, so greatly worshipped, when one of the modern day greats- “Jayasurya” showed what a “Power” play really means, bringing ODI's to the fore of cricket entertainment. Yet disappointment was given precedence over elation, despair over jubilation, to act as the 'reference' for that year.

These 'references' acts as the accomplice to the 'suspect'; takes care that the events are made significant, even though how insignificant or stupid they may be (very much like the triviality of a weeping Kambli) - the reason why even looking, after years, at the name board of a school you hated so much, spills poetry; creates a moving gallery of vivid insignificant (insignificant in their original activity) but significant pictures of a phase of life. Ironically, insignificance is treasured and revisited more than the significant events. The 'classic' moments (whatever that means !) are the ones that are incomplete- the moments that let “time” assume different directions to feed its purpose at a given point of time. A complete puzzle isn’t sexy enough to appeal to the aesthetics of the 'accomplice'(the references), though it is loved in theory. The process of piecing together the different parts of the puzzle exemplifies value and beauty more than the complete puzzle, which stimulates only the non-creative and the bored.

I am pretty convinced that it is that one suspect called “Memories” that plays the most pivotal chapter in the pages of those life cells that have an extra sense. Every new second pushes its previous second to history only to realize that it is pushed again too by the one following it. So ignoring the “now” to cast imprint on the “future second” is a futile exercise that leaves nothing but an empty bag of “memories”. Leave some trails of insignificant moments in the path of your life pages to follow years later; to watch it take beautiful and unexpected “imaginary” courses; to feel excited, happy, furious, hurt, (add every emotion in the book) and above all ,to keep the puzzle still alive and kicking. Let insignificance prevail !

Mr.C.G.P.A: How he decoded the “Intelligence matrix”

2009-08-20T21:03:00.010+05:30

50+ subjects, infinite assessments, more than a thousand hours of lecture; It’s only human or Indian (as in their “spirit”) to expect a guy (the fairer sex is out of contention here for some obvious reasons) to master all the trades of Maxwell, Franklin, Newton, Tesla, Einstein, (an endless list), in four years. As simple as that! Not to forget the demigods Nagrath, Gaonkar, Bakshi(The undisputed Jack of all trades), Bimbhra, Sawhney, Grewal, etc- without whom colleges around India would topple clockwise with a phase shift of 90° . The journey doesn’t end here. In fact it has not even started yet. The journey is defined only in terms of CGPA.

The invention of CGPA has perplexed researchers and even people like Duckworth and Lewis, Geoffrey Boycott &his Granny for its amazing capability to measure the electrical knowledge cells in an EEE student’s brain or electronic knowledge cells in an ECE student. Ditch fun, creativity, freedom and the vision to think beyond the stuff printed in paper. The world for four years starts and ends in “CGPA”. It starts with respect from fellow brains and ends at the notice board where the fate is sealed by companies offering campus recruitments based on the magic letters “CGPA”. The good, the bad and the ugly are magnified easily with these four letters. Of course the bad and the ugly have no place in this world !

The Holy Grail of Intelligence

The “A” word (Ar*e*r) is the veto power hidden in every professors book. Play the game by the rules of his book or expect the veto power to be enforced. You are always under the scanner unless you are a member of the Security Council (No, not the first benchers!). Be prepared to shed light from your teeth every time Mr. (or Mrs.) Hitler cracks something even better than Chaplin. Any exhibition of common sense is strictly prohibited. Mr. Hitler is always right. So any freedom of expression will only result in the enforcement of the “A” word. After all, it is the duty of Hitler to help us unfold the magic trait called “Discipline”.

Human brain’s intellectual capacity has indeed evolved and grown over the years. Thanks to our brilliant educationalists for their amazing ideas and infusion of those ideas into the education system. What was virtually impossible to Einstein or Newton or our very own Aryabhatta is a piece of cake today for a college student. Can an Einstein or Newton learn fifty different subjects (each an ocean in its own respect) in just four years? Yes, it sounds funny. How can I expect guys who dropped out of fifth grade to do such a mammoth task? But the highly evolved brains of today can do that with ease. Mr. Copernicus learnt all his life just the single fact that “Sun is at the centre of the solar system”. No offense to him, but he doesn’t know about the nuclear fusion reaction happening inside the sun or the fact that the longest solar eclipse of the 21^st century would happen in 2009. Neither does he have a good C.G.P.A to certify his level of intelligence. I am sure he would never fit in a Hitler’s book. He could have befriended only the “A” word for all four years in college had he existed today. Lucky him!

A few days back my friend said “I learnt 26 letters in my first year of school. To the contrary I have learnt just the two letters “BE” for the last four years.” Funny, isn’t it?

Now switch off the lights, touch your heart and tell me, was that funny?

IPL: Common sense not their cup of Tea?

2009-04-22T18:41:00.000+05:30

The biggest cricketing league is back again this summer after lots of setbacks and controversies. Not to mention the recent sensation created by the Fake IPL Player. Within just a few days into the league, it has raised questions of common sense asscoiated with the league.

1. When IPL was launched last summer, it was intended to polarize the country into different teams localized to a city/state, a model which is not new for sporting leagues and events across the globe. The franchise owners of the IPL teams, self proclaiming to be lovers of the game, have lost a touch of common sense in equating business with the love for the game among the Indian crowd. Take for instance, Chennai fans, known to be the best behaved and a passionate cricket loving crowd is yet to see any honest attachment of their Super-kings team with their home city “Chennai”. CSK fans are made to witness a promo of their own team in Hindi- “Enna Koduma Saravanan ithu!” (Sorry,Chennai jargon).

Most IPL teams have failed to capture the essence of their own backyard. Sorry, but does that make any sense considering the theme of the league?

2. Sony Max back in 2003 World Cup introduced a female host on screen, for a cricket analysis show with absolutely no knowledge of the game, as a ploy to attract more women towards the game (or was it meant otherwise?). Needless to say the kind of reaction and attention that female anchor generated, irrespective of all ages. The channel is back again this IPL season, with cricket analysts who analyze the matches most of the time in HINDI. If this was again their ploy to increase their viewer base, then I won’t be surprised to see their analysts speaking in Tamil or Kannada or Telugu or Bengali during CSK, RCB or KKR matches in the future. And why is Arun Lal, a distinguished unlucky commentator for Indian matches, known for his English fluency while commentating, analyzing the game in Hindi? Sorry but did I hear an echo prompting “NO COMMON SENSE”.

3. Lalit Modi, the proud chairman and the brain behind the successful league may have caught attention for his dramatic management skills in making IPL possible in a short interval in South Africa. If an event of this magnitude can be set in a different country in just a few weeks, what prevented him from letting Pakistan players to play in the league? Preventing the players to play on grounds of time surpassed in announcing the final list of team players sounds absurd and is a mockery to the professional standards set by Modi himself in conducting the league.

4. The PAGE 3 IPL owners, are making more news than the Wisden listed top cricketers for reasons which makes lesser sense than saying Mr.Lalu Prasad will be the next Prime Minister of India .

KKR has a owner who doesnt mind a foreign coach bossing his team and eventually ousting his captain,a man who is a demigod to their home city;Sacked from captaincy not on the grounds of performance or ability to lead the team but because of some extra terrestrial theories of their so called successful coach.

RCB owner Mallya has no doubt raised eyebrows with his highest bid for Pietersen in the recent IPL auction. What went unnoticed was the exchange of Zaheer khan to Mumbai for the Bangalore lad Uthappa. And does this decision make any cricketing sense? Why would anybody trade one among the best contemporary bowlers of a “Batsman’s game” to a mediocre batsman. If it was because, he is a home lad, then I doubt whether even cricket fans from Banglore would agree to that.

A celebrity team owner ("Big sister") on conversation with their team pace bowler commented- “I hope you spin the ball better this time around!”. Sorry, but it hurts now to be a purist of the game after hearing such comments from people who talk absolutely no sense on the game of Cricket. Thanks to IPL for giving them this platform.

IPL may have succeeded in stealing the show biz from Political parties this election season, but I doubt it has displayed any better sense than election manifestos or promises of Indian political parties.

Demystifying Naan Kadavul

2009-04-15T22:46:00.000+05:30

~ I read this excellent writeup about the much talked about movie "Naan Kadavul". Thanks to Arvind.~

Naan Kadavul is a guided tour of the largely unknown world of aghori sadhus and beggars. From a bird's eye view, the two tales would appear largely disjoint and one might get an impression that there is not much in common between the two groups. But, there is actually a strong connection between beggars and aghori sadhus - only that Bala has played it subtle. Both aghoris and beggars belong to the same fictional seventh world. In a way, aghoris are beggars too, only that they chose their destiny. Bala has scripted a few scenes to convey this - the scene where a police constable mistakes Rudran for a beggar when he gets cocaine crazy. There are also sequences where the 'poli-samiyargal' talk about Rudran in the same breadth as beggars. While beggars are depicted as slave workers, Aghoris consider them to be super natural. Naan Kadavul is a tale of two extreme groups belonging to the same dark world. It serves as a meeting point of the contrasting lives of Rudran and Hamsavalli.

Naan Kadavul believes that there is No God in the Seventh World. Bala has emphasized this belief throughout the tour in the form of various scenes and dialogues with a tinge of dark humour. A lot of the explicit content has been censored. Jesus and Buddha were supposed to be present as spectators in the scenes where the beggars get beaten up by Rudran & Co. The Gods of the world were supposed to be present when Hamsavalli begs Rudran for death. The objective was to take a dig at ALL religions. However, the censor board had other thoughts. To stress the point further, the physically disabled beggars were in the costumes of Lord Sivan, Parvathi and Murugan. This is a subtle way of saying that the gods of the world that we are in, are nothing more than handicapped helpless people in the seventh world. This is brilliant character sketching and symbolism from Bala. The beggars who never go inside the temple, however, consider the 'Mangandi sami', who is a beggar himself, as their God. Another way of saying that if there is any God in the seventh world, he has to be a beggar too. The character of Hamsavalli is sketched in a way to convey that in the dark world, even the people who initially believe in god would eventually be forced by their situation to give up their belief. She surrenders to a nun and gets converted to christianity but eventually Thandavan manages to *buy* her. This puts her in a miserable situation and she loses her faith in god and believes that only Rudran can relieve her from this world of misery. She conveys this to Rudran when she gets to meet him and her belief (or the lack of it) is conveyed to us by the dialogue where she accuses that no god cared for her miseries.

Naan Kadavul, for the most part, revolves around the life of beggars - the citizens of the seventh world. One may get a feeling that the film spends way too much time here. But, this is where the film remains honest to its intentions. The dark world is symbolically represented by the underground facility of Thandavan. The first few scenes in their story provide enough detail on their miseries and establishes the various characters. Once we get acquainted with them, we get to see their lighter side as well and enjoy the dark humour. There are a lot of small sub plots scripted as well. The objective behind the detail is to drive the message that the beggars, in spite of not having much control on their life, still manage to lead a happy life . In spite of their own miseries, they care for each other's sufferings and live like a happy family. And Bala wanted to clear the general misconception that the beggars have a soft corner for people who give alms to them. Beyond a point, they are not concerned much about the money and as shown in various sequences, they derive their humor by mocking at the people who visit the temple. The characters dressed like gods, mocking and laughing loud at the people visiting the temple is symbolic to Gods mocking at their superstitious beliefs.

Naan Kadavul is anything but judgemental. It doesn't preach atheism nor does it say that it is better to die than to lead a miserable life. It leaves the judgemental part to its audience. As a movie in its true ART form, Naan Kadavul choses to show the lives of two contrasting groups of people * as is*, goes one step higher by establishing a strong connection between the groups symbolically and stops there - true to its intent.

Article Source

The Madoff Scandal

2008-12-26T18:54:00.001+05:30

Mother Economy not content with the bankruptcy of multi-billion dollar banks in the U.S, has unleashed the latest scandal to hit an already staggering Wall Street. Madoff’s Hedge Fund Scandal. Bernard L. Madoff, the former chairmen of the Nasdaq Stock Market, ran a hedge fund that turned out to be a fraudulent Ponzi’s scheme that racked up to $50 billion. The ripples of the scandal are already being felt with banking giants HSBC holdings of Britain and Santander of Spain losing $1 billion and $3 billion each.

Other major victims are Royal Bank of Scotland Group losing $595 million, hedge fund Man Group losing up to $360 million, France's BNP Paribas losing $466.9 million and Japan's Nomura Holdings losing $302 million.

Another major player who lost money in the scheme is the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia), the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund which has indirectly invested up to $400 million with Madoff through Fairfield Sentry. Speaking of which, Fairfield Sentry, a part of Fairfield Greenwich Group is the single largest loser of this scandal, has invested $7.3 billion solely in Madoff.

The list doesn’t stop here. It goes on with other victims being charity groups, small time investment managers and real estate groups. As of the latest update, a French investor Thierry de la Villehuchet, the co-founder of Access International which had invested €1.5 billion into Bernard Madoff’s fraud-hit scheme was found dead in his New York office afraid his clients might turn against him in court.

The scandal couldn’t have come at a worse time what with U.S on the verge of a recession and Wall Street giants looking towards a bleak future because of a financial crisis which experts believe might be the worst ever since the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

Now, let’s skip the sad, dull part of the scam and take a look at the interesting part of it.
To begin with, let’s take a look at hedge funds.

When the economy of a nation does good, the prices of stocks in the stock market goes up and they call it a “bull market”. When the economy goes down, so does the prices of the stocks and they call the market a “bear market”. People generally buy shares in a bear market or bull market and sell it in a bull market. Investors generally panic and sell shares during a bear market to stave off any further damage. This is a wrong strategy. You can buy more shares in a bear market for lower prices than you can in a bull market. The best thing to do in these circumstances is wait and see how the market turns up and then decide what to do. For instance, companies like Reliance Industries limited generally perform consistently well until and unless during a financial crisis like the one we have right now. Selling off shares of these companies during a bear market is big mistake. On the other hand, it would be wiser to buy more shares of such companies in a bear market, since it would be cheaper than normal, and then wait for the stock market to go up (It most certainly will. A stock market can fall only so much! Even if it does, it will rebound in a few months, except if there is a financial crisis like the one we have right now in which case it will take a year or two!) and then sell it.

The bull and bear market places a lot of restriction while trading in a stock market. People generally tend to trade only when the stock market does well. What if you want to make money even if the economy is failing?

Hedge fund is the solution. Hedge fund is like betting. There are two basic positions in hedging: going long and going short.

Going long: It is the strategy of buying an asset in the hope that the asset price will rise. For instance, let’s say person enters into a contract to purchase 50 shares of a company, say Microsoft for 10 $ each. Thus, the contract would have a price of $500. The strategy in this is to wait for the share price to go up and then sell the contract early for a profit. Let’s say for instance the market value goes up by 3 $ a share. The value of the contract goes from $500 to $650. The person can sell the contract early thereby making a profit of $150.

Going short: Let’s take the Microsoft example. For instance, a person enters into a contract to sell 50 shares of Microsoft for $10 each. The strategy in this is to sell the borrowed shares immediately, wait for the share market to fall and buy back the shares again for a lower price. The hedge fund manager must immediately sell the shares for $500.If the share price of Microsoft falls down by $3 a share, the fund manager can later buy the 10 shares back for just $350 thereby making a profit of $150.

The problem is you never know for sure if the stock market will fall or rise. Let’s say you enter into a contract for going long. Taking the Microsoft example into account, if the shares prices fall instead of rising, then you end up selling a contract for less money than it's actually worth. Let’s say the share price rises to $8, and then you end up getting $400 for a contract worth $500 thereby incurring a loss of $100!

This is why hedge fund is considered to be very risky. When it comes to dealing with shares in thousands and millions, the loss incurred can be staggering because of why hedge fund managers are paid very high.

Apart from going short and going long, there are many other strategies in hedge fund like, Convertible Arbitrage, Emerging Markets, Dedicated Short, Event Driven (Special Situation), Fixed Income Arbitrage, Global Macro, Managed Futures and Fund of Funds.

This is what Bernard L. Madoff’s hedge fund was all about. At least, this is what he said it was while it turned out to be a giant fraudulent Ponzi’s scheme all the while!

What actually happens in a Ponzi scheme is that that the schemer pays of the capital and returns of investors from the investment of other investors! Confused? It’s quite simple. You must have heard of people say “..Do you want to earn money in a very easy way? Minimum investment and maximum returns? Just sit at home and earn money? Then my scheme is the solution!" The moment you hear this, you can be 100 % sure that the schemer is fraud and you will never get your investment back.

Let’s say you invest. Looking at you, a lot of other people will also do so. You might (If the schemer is happy with his initial set of investors then you might not even get your first installment because he has already absconded with the money) get your capital back with returns. You will then be tempted to invest more and seeing how wonderful the scheme is you will recommend the scheme to your friends too who will also be tempted to invest. This is when the actual fraud kicks in. The money earned from one investment will be used to pay back the returns of another investor. In simple words, the money is just being rotated among the investors. Investment from new investors will be used to pay back returns and capitals of old investors. The scheme will be exposed when investors stop getting their returns. And when does this happen? When there are no new investors.

A scheme similar to this is the Pyramid Scheme.

Madoff’s scheme was a typical Ponzi’s scheme. And it is the most successful and high racked fraudulent scheme ever. The reason why Madoff was able to pull it off was perhaps because of the fact that he was the former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market and was able to win the trust of people easily using that as leverage.

What ever the case, it most certainly isn't "MERRY" Chritmas for Wall Street. While everyone in the U.S were hoping Santa would shower them with gifts that might help resurrect the ailing economy, this was totally uncalled for. The impact of this scandal is already being felt, but the full scale consequence is yet to be seen.

Digg it!

Reference:
Howstuffworks
Timesonline
Gulfnews
KhaleejTimes
Google

"THE" Atom Smasher

2008-11-28T18:27:00.001+05:30

The Large Hadron Collider or LHC created quite a big wave when the first proton beams were circulated successfully on the 10^th September 2008. Scientists and people in the science community were joyous while religious heads decried this breakthrough in science claiming it to be anti-religious. And as usual there is always a faction of people clinging on to superstitious beliefs claiming the world is going to end when remarkable breakthroughs like this happen. While a well circulated rumor that the experiments in the LHC will cause black holes that will swallow up the earth struck fear at the heart of many others. (It is true that black holes WILL be created, but they are unstable and will disintegrate immediately). Leaving all these mixed human emotions behind, let’s see what the LHC is all about.

The Large Hadron Collider is not the first of its kind of atom smasher (or particle accelerator). We have linear particle accelerators like Stanford Linear Accelerator, SLAC, which is 3 km (2 miles) long or cyclic particle accelerators called cyclotrons like the one invented by Ernest O. Lawrence.

Then what is so special about the LHC?

100 meters below ground with a circumference of 27 kilometer, the 8 Billion Dollar beast of a machine called the Large Hadron Collider is the most ambitious and the most powerful accelerator of the present day world.The LHC steers proton beams upto 99.99% the speed of light using super magnets cooled upto -271.25 degrees Celsius. The LHC is a more superior version of a normal particle accelerator like the way an electron microscope is to a normal microscope. A particle accelerator is used to accelerate particles to high speed and and make them collide. The ensuing debris is then studied to understand the fundamental building block of particles. The LHC is special in the sense that it is the most powerful particle accelerator ever built and can accelerate particles to very high speed(upto 99.99% of the speed of light) and energy levels. Moreover, the LHC will be just powerful enough to detect even the faintest of particles and energy fields (gravitons and dark energy being one of them. Hopefully!)while other particle accelerators don't have the sufficient energy levels to do the same.

What purpose does the LHC serve?

There are many riddles and mysteries regarding the universe and its creation. Scientists hope to solve these mysteries using the LHC. Some of the many riddles are given below.

The Big Bang Riddles: One of the most widely accepted theories for the creation of the universe is the Big Bang Theory. Though widely accepted, the theory is not devoid of ambiguities. While it explains some of the questions about the universe as to why is the universe expanding and not static, the theory in itself leads to a number of other riddles. Such as why is the universe homogeneous, what is the shape of space-time, if the universe is expanding and not static, why is the cosmological constant* (denoted by the Greek sign Lambda)proposed by Einstein not zero, what exists outside the universe and many other such questions. Scientists hope to re-create some of the initial moments of the Big Bang in hopes of finding clues as to why the universe is the way it is today. And they are proposing to use the LHC for this purpose.

The Anti-Matter Problem: If the universe was created from a singularity why is there more matter than anti-matter? Fortunately for us, certain conditions during the initial moments of the universe helped create more matter than anti-matter. What are those conditions? What helped create those conditions? Though a part of the Big Bang riddle, scientists hope to resolve this problem by observing (or creating) anti-matter during LHC events.

The God Particle: the Higgs Boson is a hypothetical particle considered to be the reason or in precise terms “the interacting particle” (the concept might sound somewhat similar to graviton, the interacting particle necessary for gravity, well, it is!) why matter has mass. The Higgs Mechanism states that there might be an interacting particle and a corresponding mediating force that explains why matter has mass. Since mass is everything (without which there will be “nothing”) they call this particle the God Particle. Scientists hope to find some traces of the Higgs Bosons in the LHC.

Theory of Quantum Gravity: Scientists are hoping to achieve a solution for the Theory of Everything or the Grand Unification Theory or the Theory of Quantum Gravity. On one hand we have the General Theory of Relativity that explains space-time continuum and one of the fundamental forces of nature: gravity. And on the other, we have a Quantum theory that explains the other three forces, namely the electromagnetic force, the weak force and the strong force. While these two theories are consistent in their own way, when scientists try to unify them, they end up with nothing but gibberish. Why is gravity such a pain? The fact that it is 10⁴⁰times weaker than electromagnetic force makes it hard to detect. And if you can’t see something, then naturally, it also becomes impossible to understand its behavior. Scientists are hoping that the LHC might be just powerful enough to detect some traces of gravity or gravitons that are the interacting particles with the necessary mediating force for gravity. In short, scientists are trying to realize their long lost dream for a theory of everything.

Dark Matter: Our understanding of the universe reveals that what we see accounts for only 4 percent of all the matter that exist. Scientists predict that there should be “something” more to the universe than what we can observe. And this so called something is dark matter. Using indirect methods like observing the motion of celestial bodies and X-rays detection, scientists have assumed the existence of dark matter and an accompanying force called the dark energy. Experts hope that events in the LHC might support this theory or otherwise lead to an alternative theory.

Apart from this, there are a slew of theories scientists hope to confirm like the string theory that proposes that the universe is not confined to 3 dimensional Euclidian spaces, but is multidimensional and that the fundamental building block of the universe is not particle but strings. Then we have a theory called super symmetry which can be added to the list of theories experts hope to confirm.

The best part (for those who are interested in science) is that the list doesn’t end here. Even if these theories are confirmed, they would in turn lead to another door with loads of other questions and mysteries waiting to be solved and so on unto a “possible infinite loop”.

Whether these mysteries will be solved or not, only time can tell. Speaking of time, this is another of the many mysteries scientists hope to solve.

And speaking of a “possible infinite loop”, I see that we have already entered into one!

*Einstein proposed the cosmological constant by making changes to his field equations in order to arrive at a the concept of a static universe. Though Hubble's observation later disproved the concept of a static universe, it did nothing to make Lambda zero! A part of general theory of relativity, Lambda still proves to be a major hurdle in the big bang theory.

References :
1.Howstuffworks
2.Wikipedia
3."Faster than the speed of light" by Joao Mageuijo

Image Courtesy : Getty Images

5 Reasons This Depression Really Is Going To Be Fun !

2008-10-21T00:19:00.002+05:30

I read this interesting article written by Mr.Moe in another site.

We're not even officially in a recession, and already the culture czars over at New York

have dubbed the economic crisis precipitated by our financial system's collapse The Greatest Depression! Such hyperbole, I know! So what makes the tag feel so goddamn right? Other than the fact that I think it is really great I don't have to write about subprime celebrities anymore? I

found five things that are basically all the same thing and formed a little listicle!

1. Because money is overrated!
We know this. We know it so well. And just to prove it we pay billions of dollars to science to prove it to us, year after year after year. And yet. As a society we totally live and die (no not really, we just act like we live and die!) by the tiny nuances of the trajectory of the aggregate of all the flows of all that money, as if it Really Totally Matters. We do this, obviously, because

we're obsessed with making comparisons — am I at least doing as well as last year? Am I really smarter than his last girlfriend? Shouldn't I buy a house now that all my friends are doing it? — because it is just so much easier than the Is This Bringing Me Joy question that seems so totally sappy and sentimental we find it to be a hilarious joke when some little Third World country like Bhutan pragmatically invents a Gross National Happiness Index because no one actually thought of that first. But as the Times reminds us today:"Research has shown a significant level of depression, for example, among lottery winners. Other research has shown that above a household income of $50,000, there is little or no correlation between income and happiness."

2. Because It is already making New York funner!

Nick wanted me to point out that the Great Depression was good or some industries — electrical engineering, film — that are maybe more worthwhile and exciting than the freaking stock market, but that brings me to a larger point. On Saturday I got this email from a friend who is a specialist on the New York Stock Exchange:

"Last week was one of the most exciting weeks of my life. I think traders who had previously taken psychedelics had an unfair advantage. "

Which kind of neatly underscores an important truth of this city: we are here for the "action." We are not here for the riches or because Guiliani made it so tidy and safe and Singaporean like our relatives always annoyingly assume when we so graciously leave it to endure family gatherings. I mean, if our relatives ever visited us they would know that New York is still

fundamentally gross, and THAT'S SORT OF WHY WE'RE HERE. It is fucked up, but we chose to live among the tenements and the rats and all that once-proud peeling buckling infrastructure and all those whiffs of strangers' body odor because something about it makes us feel alive, even as the constant unquenchable thirst for that feeling also exposes the parts of our insides that we're slowly choking to death. But look! The New York Observer reports people are actually talking to strangers on the subway again. It's a paradox, and creative destruction, and possibly sector rotation — so the action leaves the Street for a little while, it will return in some gross new neighborhood the haters will instantly hate just as much. In the meantime, it's like that time all the power went out! Everyone loved that, remember? Oh and remember the subway strike? People loved that too. Shit, they probably secretly loved the cholera epidemic. Moral of story: we love that the economy is as fucked-up as we are. Like, there is a reason they call it "depression" duh!

3. Because Haters are tired of Hating!

I am not such a hater that I did not find it touching how right after 9/11 the Two Americas united to declare War On Haters. Petey Pablo penned that patriotic remix of his "North Carolina" song and Ja Rule and Kid Rock hung out together at some military base, etc. etc. Fast forward seven years, and the New York Times brings us the amusing news that Sarah Palin actually refers to her critics as "haters." This nonsense rapper concept reached all the way out to Alaska! Can we kill it now? It turns out yes! Because the very next week, following comparisons of the professional stock market haters known as shorts to terrorists and homicide bombers, the SEC actually outlawed short-selling! It outlawed hate. You would think this action would have gotten more hate from the shorts, but I have a theory: Haters really like nothing more that to be put out of their Hating-Ass Misery, at least for a few weeks. (Remember 9/11?) And this way they got to be proven right in the process, which is really all they care about. In any case, the Depression will sort of force Hateration Nation to acknowledge the symbiotic nature of its relationship with the Plutocrats, Jocks, Preachers, Republicans, Bloviating Public Intellectuals, Venture Capitalists and Self-Help Gurus that Make This Country "Great" and vice versa. Fittingly, this grudging detente was prophesied by the rapper Maino in the remix to his song Hi Hater.
4. Because everyone feels a lot better about capitalism now that Warren Buffet is the guy who will be making another few billion dollars profiting off its near-collapse!

If you are a capitalist, Warren Buffet was your hero when you were, like, eight. By the time you started your first private equity internship or whatever you were more like "Ah, Buffet, sentimental old sucker, making his money the hard way like that." Why? Because Warren Buffet made $62 billion over a six decade career investing in real companies over the Very Long Term, and that is just so unnecessary when you can make like at least a billion dollars in like a year just by taking a 20% fee on some money you got from rich folks plus a whole lot more money you got to borrow from banks at superlow rates, and throwing all that into some algorithm whereby the money makes a gazillion trades a day on some supercomplex financial instruments made up by bankers who got bored of collecting fees splitting up and re-packaging the weary pieces of the American economy and in any case, now you somehow make a half penny on the dollar every time some ratio goes below pi and none of it requires any entanglements with companies that actually produce stuff at all (thank god because that would be awkward.) Well, putting all that money through all that pointless action was not for Warren Buffet. Not because he worries about detachment from labor or any of that Marxist crap, but because it actually did just seem so pointless. (Buffet once said of gold: "It gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.") Anyhow, so all this madness goes on for a few decades, generates a little "liquidity crisis" and suddenly Goldman Sachs has to become a real bank, which basically means the Smartest Richest Most Elite Motherfuckers on Wall Street are forced to sit acknowledge the existence of the Actual Economy. Put a wonkier way: Exchange Value, Meet Use Value! And Buffet sees that investors are worried about this, but he knows it's a good plan for the Long Term everyone laughed at him for caring about, so he plows $5 billion into it at supergood terms and suddenly everyone's like, "Damn, that Buffet, he really is pretty smart." And smart turns out not to be incompatible with good!

5. Because there is a reason they call it the "Dismal" Science!

At some point the economists of America got sick of no one listening to their earnest well-intentioned prescriptions for making globalization not so shitty, so they launched a hostile takeover of psychology and wrote ninety different books full of highly detailed "analyses" of why people do the things they do. The message of these books was generally: "Hey, Starbucks Is Smart And Other Crazy Ideas!" These books became bestsellers because in times like these there is a huge market for books that state true facts without being totally depressing or resorting to "self-help," which is to say they basically amounted to self-help, which is to say they kind of dumbed down the profession. Well, here is a true fact: last week chief Freakonomist Steve Levitt made the following admission on his own damn Freakonomics blog:

"As an economist, I am supposed to have something intelligent to say about the current financial crisis. To be honest, however, I haven’t got the foggiest idea what this all means."

Anyway, the point is, the fiftieth anniversary of The Affluent Society came and went and no economist managed to write a more relevant book about the economy. Although the Affluent Society author John Kenneth Gabraith's son James is apparently trying to do that now!

Related article

The Bankrupt Brothers

2008-10-17T16:03:00.002+05:30

"Economic crunch, Lehman Brothers bankrupt, global economic recession, stock markets falling, strong dollar, weak rupee, subprime mortgage crisis, 700 billion dollar bail-out plan, land value at an all time low, feds interest rates cuts...."

These are the words that have been dominating the news for more than a month. So what exactly happened? Why is the bankruptcy of the Lehman brothers so important in all this? How did it all begin?

Greed! And how did this help fuel such a havoc?

It all started with this phrase “Subprime Lending”. Banks have a basis on which to lend loans to customers. They simply don’t start giving away loans. They have a scale called a “credit score”. A credit score is something like an evaluation system used by banks to determine if a customer is eligible for a loan. It depends on the customers salary, the amount of loan he’s opted for and also his punctuality in paying off debts when he uses his credit cards and many other such factors.

People with a low credit score, fall under the so called “Subprime”category. Customers in this category are called “Subprime Borrowers”. The bank which lends money to them is called “Subprime Lender”. Lending money to people in this category is always a risk because of their financial status and people in this category generally don’t have a valid mortgage. Banks generally refrain from lending money to customers in this category until and unless they have a valid mortgage like a house, land or any other type of asset. In the event that the customer doesn’t pay of his debt, the bank will acquire the mortgaged property(the process of which is called foreclosure) which is standard procedure.

What happened in the USA is called “Subprime Mortgage Crisis”. Banks like Lehman Brothers wanting to increase their market potential started cashing in on the people falling under the Subprime Category. What did they do for this?

What generally happens when you go to a bank to opt for a loan? You submit your salary certificate, bank statements to prove your financial stability and other documents required to make you eligible for the loan. And yes, most important of all, mortgage. After this, the bank verifies your documents to see if you are eligible for the loan.

This is standard procedure.This time, banks in the U.S however had different plans. Banks loaned money to people in the subprime category to buy property and they used that property as Mortgage!!! The lender can live in the property except that he will be paying the money he borrowed from the bank as rent back to the bank itself. The rent when summed up over a period of time would be equal to the total money borrowed along with the interest.

Americans have this sentiment for "owning a house!!". This sentiment was used as the spearhead for the banks new strategy.

Borrowers were excited by this new scheme, because, they can get easy access to loans, own a house, live in it and all they have to do for this is pay an increased rent. Isn't that simple??!!!

But in this excitement, they failed to read the clauses that are involved in issuing the loan. The scenario is somewhat similar to computer users ignoring the Disclaimer statement issued by the developer of a program. Have we ever read it ?

And banks, in their excitement of pushing their market forward, started issuing loans indefinitely.Banks used a lot of twisted strategy to push loans in the subprime category. Little did they know that their plans will backfire.

People who could pay back their loans did pay them back. What about the others? The banks started acquiring their property of those who could not pay back their debts on time. This wouldn’t have been so bad if the number of people who paid back their loans was high. Unfortunately, it was the other way round.

What happened in the end was too many foreclosures. The banks had properties more than what they could muster. Land value started dipping because of demand and supply ratio. So even though bank acquired the mortgaged properties, the value of the acquired properties was low. This resulted in a loss leading to bankruptcy.

Apart from Lehman Brothers, many other banks which adopted similar strategies faced the same fate. An important point to note is that Lehman Brothers already knew this. Afraid of going public with the facts, they just maintained that they were stable, which is something common in the economic world. What happened after this was a chain reaction seen often in stock markets. Seeing the bankruptcy of Lehman brothers, people panicked and started selling their shares fearing similar scenarios in other major organizations. Thus, the world wide economic crunch happened.

What I have written down is a lot less than what actually happened. There’s lot more to it. I had to force myself to cut down many of the contents in order to make it short. Hope its informative!!

What's your say on this crisis ?

Hey ram !

2008-10-02T21:44:00.001+05:30

"Hey Ram...!!" Perhaps the last words of Gandhi, is now being recited by almost every Indian, hoping to be saved by God against bombs, bloodshed and religious violence. Little do we know that we ourselves are the reason for all this chaos!!!

It was evening and the sun was low on the sky, its last rays desperately trying to ward of the ensuing darkness. Finally overpowered, the sun set, plunging the streets in darkness and along with it, a handful of youngsters sitting in the streets, having a heated discussion after a hectic match of cricket. The topic this time was the recent bomb blast in Agartala which killed 2 and injured over a hundred.

This one was amongst the many discussions which today's youngsters have which has a lot of meaning and patriotism in it, but unfortunately no effect on the society or on the nation due to their inability to inspire people on a large scale.

Perhaps one of the boys did realize this, for he said "What effect is this argument going to have? Its not like this nation is going to listen us speak and turn on a new leaf." The others looked at the boy with a mixture of approval and resentment. Approval at the fact that what the boy said was right, resentment that their country was going no where, thanks to the religious fundamentalists, foolish citizens who could be manipulated as easily as a bunch of 6 year olds and most of all, irresponsible politicians who hold the position of power but do nothing to change the fate of the nation.
Finally, as an end note, one of the boys cursed loudly and said"Had it not been for those Britishers, our country wouldn't be in this plight!! Damn them!!"

Most of them, no, not most of them, almost everyone puts the blame for Hindu-Muslim enmity in India on the Britishers and their accursed East India Company. However, Britishers and their Divide and Rule Policy are far from the main reason for the ongoing crisis.

So how did it all begin?

While all the history books use Divide and Rule policy by the Brits as a scapegoat for Hindu-Muslim enmity, that alone is not the reason. While the Brits did employ it to weaken us and thereby rule us efficiently for almost 3 centuries, the very foundation for our disunity was laid long before the Brits had arrived on Indian waters.

The reason for the enmity, quite ironically is we ourselves and our superstitious beliefs. How so?
It all begins with the concept of untouchability in Hinduism and the venture of the Mughals into India.

According to Hinduism, Lord Brahma created Brahmins from his head, Kshatriyas from his biceps, Vaishyas from his stomach and Shudras from his feet. While the Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas enjoyed a decent civil life, the Shudras were doomed for a life of slavery and misery just because they were of a lower caste. While this injustice was going on for almost eons, the entry of Mughals into India changed the scenario to a great extent.

Along with the Mughals came Islam into India. While many embraced Islam wholeheartedly, there were others who converted to save themselves of the tax levied on non-Muslims by the Mughals. Apart from these two, , there was another category of people who converted to save themselves of the injustice that came along for being a low caste Hindu. I am, obviously speaking about the so called Shudras. Islam with its philosophy of equality and justice for all caught the eyes of many Shudras. The Mughal period in India saw the conversion of a lot of Shudras and many others even of the upper caste to Islam.

While the Shudras saw the Mughal as their saviors, the Hindus saw them as thieves for STEALING people from their religion, sowing perhaps one of the first seeds of disunity.

The Mughals did help a lot to save the cause of the Shudras. They were the saviors of the Shudras.

Or, were they ?

The Mughals desire to convert the Shudras did not stem from their sense of justice or pity. It was just their zeal for Islam, to convert more and more non-Muslims. While their hidden agenda can be forgiven by taking into account the fact that they did help a lot of Shudras, they were however very biased against the non-Muslims. This is evident from their unforgivable act of destroying and demolishing a lot of Hindu temples only to push forward their own religion. They levied a series of arduous taxes on non-Muslims, indirectly forcing many to convert to Islam, and worsening the lives of those who refused to. Quite ironically these policies of theirs are against the principles of Islam. Their zeal for religion however did well to blind them.

All these incidents and many others slowly started poisoning the relationship between Hindus and Muslims.

They say that the best way for a Muslim to anger a Hindu is to force a cow past his house to a slaughter house. And the best way for a Hindu to anger a Muslim is by chanting bajans during the Muslims call for prayer.

These seeds of disunity were growing in the hearts of Muslims and Hindus alike for centuries. All the Brits had to do was SEE these seeds, and provoke them to unprecedented growth. They just had to tickle a mountain filled with lava to explosion.

The sad part of this is that we somehow dug our own graves centuries ago to doom without even realizing we did by letting all these feelings of disunity and anger linger within us.

We still fail to see who the real perpetrators are. Even if we do, we won't acknowledge our part in all this and the saddest part is that, until and unless we do, things will not turn around.

The worst part is, all this was and is being done for the sake of a God none of us has seen, or even knows exists; all this for the sake of a God we claim is all powerful and almighty.

How so stupid of us?! And how so ironical ?

Digg Story

The Great Wall

2008-10-02T17:10:00.000+05:30

- "Have you ever stopped by a “Wall” and admired its beauty?"

- "Ever strained your brain cells to think what a “Wall” is capable of?"

- "Ever knocked a “Wall” to test its strength?"

If not, then read on. This article muses on the life of a Wall; not just about the “Wall” made of bricks and cement but about the “Great wall of Indian cricket”, made of strength, patience, perseverance and determination.

“It is unnoticed”- People walk by it and never care to acknowledge what it has given them. “It is uncared” – A wall if damaged, is uncared for, and no effort is made to repair it; smiling back with its broken limbs, it never fails in its duty. Its services are ignored and forgotten all the time. As its counterparts evolve and age, the “Wall”- still young, renders its services without any compromise or remuneration. It stands by time and keeps challenging whatever tries to knock it down.

The Wall is made not just with bricks and cement but is composed of strength and determination- that it can stand ground against any forces and never falters without a fight. It is patient and never bored by its “one of a kind” nature. Unrelenting, still patiently delivers without any companion to rely on.

People stumble upon the Wall, not to admire it but to see the “Posters” glued to it. The posters keep changing with time, but the Wall remains entrenched without inching even a step forward. The Wall uncaring about shadowing its own self assists in bonding the “Posters” to it; never tears open the posters, to publicize itself.

The Wall has to face hard stones and harsh treatment time and again. Whether it rains or snows the Wall keeps silencing people who question its ability to stand against the nature. In fact, the Wall strengthens more with time and evolves with crisis.

The Wall is not deceived by its superficial surroundings. The fancy looking, fragile structures in its neighborhood, grabbing the eyeballs, doesn’t bother it and it keeps strengthening itself. As time unfolds, the remains of the fancy structures are nowhere to be seen, but the Wall stands tall and unshaken even then.

Just as the “The Great Wall of China”, which is the only structure seen from above the Earth(or so they say), this “Great Wall of Indian Cricket” will occupy a unique place in history; The Wall uncaring about its own achievements, keeps guarding the house, unknowing that history has etched its name among the greatest guardians ever. As they say “Old soldiers never die, they fade away”, "The Wall", will never crumble but will fade into the horizon of time.

God Prefers Atheists

2008-10-01T12:15:00.001+05:30

Is there god ? If you think there is one, let you know that, God prefers an Atheist to a theist.

Which side are you in ?

Why are we Cricket crazy?

2008-09-28T01:21:00.001+05:30

A Sunday afternoon, with the sun overhead radiating scorching heat, beads of perspiration trickling down like a river from the face, focusing sharply, the kid without even battling his eyelid, watches the bowler charging towards the other end and without the slightest hesitation, re-shifts his position slightly and moves his back foot and blocks the ball- a demonstration of a perfect defensive shot. This sight is a very common phenomenon in every street in

India-

a nation so obsessed and crazy about the sport “Cricket”.

The game doesn't have its roots in

India

, nor it’s the national sport of

India

. Yet the word “Cricket” rings a bell in all the minds of this country; There’s never a primetime news in Tv channels without Cricket being a part of it; Not a single playground in the evening without a share of bat and ball in the field. The sport is simple to start off. All it requires is a bat and a ball, few people and very less space. Cricket is not physically demanding either. One can afford to rest whenever he feels like, just by walking into the territory of the field where the batsman rarely hits. The game is stylish, even a kid can prove a point to a grown up by hitting a perfect cover drive, without spending an ounce of energy. And there is also the advantage of running back home after having batted for hours, without bowling.

The game offers different kinds of tasks at a time, i.e. it requires a guy to bowl, one to field, one to keep behind the wickets and one to bat. It’s the mixture of these activities all at a same time which makes this game appealing and suitable for anyone to fit into the task they are good at.

Another major phenomenon responsible for the madness about the game is- “The Sachin phenomenon”. The man has solely occupied sporting columns in newspapers for almost two decades now and the frenzy hasn’t died out yet. Breaking every barrier possible, triggering a new record with every run he makes, the man has not just been a legendary cricketer but also a great 'youth icon' inspiring millions. He is one big factor responsible for a lot of kids taking to cricket. Youngsters have begun to tag them as a part of the brand- “Sachin fan” and this feeling drives and keeps them holding to the game. No wonder, it’s the dream of any youngster to aspire to achieve the fame and success that he has accumulated. Lack of any other sporting greats emerging from other sports (or the lack of media coverage of them) is another factor which couldn’t drive people away from Cricket or perhaps drive people towards other games.

The rise of Indian cricket came at a time of the emergence of popularity of the media in the country. This confluence proved vital in radiating the madness that the game produced. Recycling even a worthless story on Cricket is a common feature among Indian media. Dhoni’s hair-style means more to the media, than a lone warrior cycling around the country to spread the message of planting more trees to save the dying Earth. Like it or not, the country is informed of every off-the-field detail about the game.

This article is not an attempt to analyze how to drive people away from this game, but a raw analysis of the reason for the madness generated by this sport, by a mad and crazy Cricket fan !

Is Sachin the greatest cricketer ?

2008-09-27T20:56:00.000+05:30

~This article was written by Ajith Kumar (Moderator of Sachin Tendulkar fans community,Orkut). This is one of my favourite articles on Sachin. ~

"Mirror Mirror answer me. Is Sachin the greatest ?"

Comments by ex cricketers; media furious over sachin; doubts among his loyal supporters; what is his future? and what is the future of indian cricket without sachin ?

Ya, I stood before a honest Mirror and asked the mirror, "Is there still some magic left in his bat" ?

The mirror told me..
A 15 year kid was booed and asked to go and drink milk by 1000s of paki supporters, but the kid replied by hitting 4 sixes of, the all time best spin wizard abdul quadir..

The mirror immediately added that, it is not just history even two months back when every one was criticising him for not hitting a match winning hundred he hit a 100 of 76 balls, which proves that he has lot of fuel in him..

I asked the MIRROR is Sachin blocking the entry of some youngsters ?
The mirror told me, well even in the recently concluded ranji trophy, sachin was the only composed batsman in both the teams to destroy the best bowling attack of that season, who else can replace him? who has played better than him in the domestic circuit?

I then asked the MIRROR is Lara better than Sachin today ?

The mirror told me, " noway".. Sachin still want to open and control the proceedings unlike lara who comes in at 3rd, 4th or 5th down to escape the new ball and to play out the 5th and 6th bowler of the opposition.. and there is not a single match winning innings of lara for the past two years, and the MIRROR asked me if i can name a odi match winning

innings or lara.

I then asked the MIRROR who is the greatest Indian cricketer ?
The mirror answered me.. "I dont know about the greatest indian cricketer", but I can tell you about the greatest player to play this game ever and his name is Sachin Tendulkar..

I asked the MIRROR why?

The mirror replied, when a country was completely deprived of economic, intellectual, natural and sporting wealth. And when half the gold of our country was given to the world bank for loan and when india was considered as a third world nation and when we indians lacked confidence even to keep our heads high.. when the whole nation was craving for a reason to be proud of.. and when even a fourth position in olympics (PT usha) was considered as a great achievement and a thing to cherish.. a star arose.. sorry a SUN arose.. a 15 year old kid made the indians proud...

Proved that world records can be created even by indians.. he not only changed the indian cricket single handedly.. he changed the outlook of indians single handedly..
Indians were no more losers.. they too can achieve.. he inspired a generation and many more generations to come..
The cricketers of the same team who are elder to him now (Rahul dravid) got inspired form that kid..

And that kid carried the burdens in his shoulders to make a millions to smile. So, He is the greatest sporting personality ever.

I then asked the MIRROR is he not earning a lot and is he not spending a lot of time in advertisements ?

The mirror replied me, well a CEO who is carrying the burden and responsibility of a company is paid a lot, should a person who is carrying the responsibility of a whole nation, not be paid heavily?

Moreover, knowing his responsiblities he has never used his star status to do wrong things, When UBgroup approached him with a heavy amount he simply refused to do an ad for king fisher mineral water.

He is earning a lot and unlike Mr. Steve waugh(taking nothing away from his deeds) he does a lot of things without media hypes for orphans, people with cancer and eye problems.. should such a person not earn more.. Mr. Laloo who has criticised the cricketers and has earned in billions by corruption can he not earn money by his hard work??

I then asked the MIRROR, so wat is wrong ?
The mirror answered me, i am not a magical mirror to tell you future. But i am a honest mirror, I dont know what lies ahead, but without sachin cricket will become just like another sport, you can produce world champions, record breakers and heroes but nobody can inspire a nation for 18 years like what the master has done.

I then asked the MIRROR, What about the criticism of former players ?

The mirror answered me, They are doing their duty sincerely and we should not blame them, the media want them to write and pays them so in return the media should earn so they write against the most popular hero so that the program, newspaper or electronic article will be seen by many. They are earning money and fame for themselves and their employers, nothing wrong in that.

I asked the MIRROR, so what is wrong?
The mirror answered me, you stupid, unloyal, shameless, heartless, senseless and brainless idiot.. you enjoyed his batting for nearly two decades and boasted about him and his cricket for nearly two decades and after a two match failure you ditch him and ask for his retirement and believe in those critics than believing in the master. So all the mistake is in your side..

He opened for india and took india single handedly for semi finals and then to finals and against his wish he was brought down the order and both times india failed even to qualify for further rounds.. and you blame him for everything.

It also added that "I dont want to reply to people with short term memory loss like you. good bye".

And ALAS! the mirror became dumb.. and i could not talk to it anymore..

Sakarakatti Movie Review

2008-09-27T12:58:00.001+05:30

Sometimes in life your instincts disappoints you, and yes this time around my instincts didnt just disappoint me,but almost got me killed. Inspired from my rebirth, i was so curious to write this review to cherish the mission of saving the world !

This movie will make your adrenaline glands pump like never before and you will see the real "you" showing all forms of emotion in the course of the movie. The director of the movie has tried to achieve that whatever it takes !

The initial scenes of the movie showing the childhood of the hero and his friends will make you ask "What the hell, when is the story gonna start?". Offcourse the director offers you a starter in the mean time,the "Elay" song.

Soon the story begins to unfold. Next five minutes the director captures the conversation between the hero and the friends, very natural and non-cinema like !! Does it ring a bell to you ? It did to me. I don't mean now to say that it was inspired by the very real conversation that happens in Tarantino's "Reservoir dogs". Forget it ! The very next scene, the hero happens to meet the heroine (first heroine) accidentally. Like a twist to the tale, the hero falls in love at first sight, which is something very new to tamil cinema if not to Indian cinema.

Yet to recover from the beautiful sight of the heroine, the hero tells his love fable to his friends, who ignore it completely. The very next moment, the hero sees the heroine entering his own classroom and the plot is now wide open for the audience to speculate whats gonna happen next.

To everyones surprise, the hero encounters with another girl(second heroine) who happens to be his own cousin. The second heroine falls for the hero. In the meantime, the first heroine accepts the hero's proposal and they fall in love. From there on, its the battle between the first and the second heroine to get the hero.

A triangular love story told in a fashion like never before and it left the audience shouting like hell in every frame. There were moments during the movie,when the whole crowd got on from their seats and said "Bravo man,bravo". The director has carved each frame of the movie with perfection and had a tag of uniqueness in every scene. For e.g, the hero speaks like as if he has landed straight from the U.S and guess what, he happens to be graduated from a corporation school according to the plot. That says it all, the heights of uniquess and the thinking skills applied by the director. The CG for the songs are out of the world, matching or infact bettering the likes of Matrix or Jurassic park.

The director has unlocked a new door for the world to see, on how a movie should be made and inspires Tamil cinema industry as a whole. Watch out for this guy, who to me seems as a "Stanley kubrick" meets "nolan" type !!

Bottom line : "Dare to watch this movie"

Rating : I dont want to have a battle with "Godfather" or "Dark Knight" fans by rating this masterpiece !