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CONSUMING THE SELF

Like the eye of a storm; The silence held, dripping like blood, Only a while it stayed. And then the silence was gone. It was torn apart, By a pack of wolves, So immense and horrific. Peace, in shreds. The blood dripping. He begged of them, They payed no heed. They howled and laughed, And carried away chunks Of his flesh, in their mouths, Red in greed, and malice H e heard his every cell Shriek in pain, H e was going to fall apart. He tried to choke his scream, He had killed his dream. Only for a while, He hit back at the beasts, And tried to flee. Then he picked them up His own body parts. He started eating them, Was he consuming himself ? H e had prayed to thee. Did you hear him ? Could you see ? Was he consuming himself ? Were those beasts inside him ? Or were they outside his existence ? To put himself together; H e had to consume the self. From beasts to angels They had transformed. None can consume himself, He had only consumed his ego.

The Nobel Lecture - Prof. Yunus

" ... the assumption that entrepreneurs are one-dimensional human beings, who are dedicated to one mission in their business lives − to maximize profit. This interpretation of capitalism insulates the entrepreneurs from all political, emotional, social, spiritual, environmental dimensions of their lives. This was done perhaps as a reasonable simplification, but it stripped away the very essentials of human life. Human beings are a wonderful creation embodied with limitless human qualities and capabilities. Our theoretical constructs should make room for the blossoming of those qualities, not assume them away. ... By defining "entrepreneur" in a broader way we can change the character of capitalism radically, and solve many of the unresolved social and economic problems within the scope of the free market. Let us suppose an entrepreneur, instead of having a single source of motivation (such as, maximizing profit), now has two sources of motivation, which are mutually e

Journal Entries - 2 more metros.

The best things about Delhi are its wide roads and smoke free vehicles running on CNG - pollution was very low and winter was just setting in. Reaching there on 4th Dec and after finishing off with VISA formalities at the US Embassy @ Chanakyapuri on 5th Dec, I headed to Connaught Place and did some bit of impulsive shopping. Had (junk) food at Nirula's and reached the airport to find the flight delayed by more than two hours (Jet). Bought a Tintin Collection of '3 books in 1' at the airport. A short trip ... Reached Howrah on 10th Dec, visited grandfather's place; he was hospitalized (AMRI Hospital, Gariahat) on 14th Dec - the day of a nation-wide CITU strike; as he had acute bronchial congestion and related medical complexities. Met up with all my cousins, maternal aunts and other relatives. Came back to Bangalore on 19th Dec.

Open Source Conference : FOSS.IN 2006

The CAT (for IIMs) did not go very well for me – made lots of mistakes – completely unknowingly. It all depends on the day of the exam – make or break happens – how much ever you prepare. I was at FOSS.IN 2006 (http://foss.in/2006) conference being held at the IISc, Bangalore; for the past two days. Java has been open sourced under GPL 2.0 – just as Sun did with OpenSolaris last year. They were one of the prime sponsors for the event along with Geodesic. There was this nice distro from National Research Centre & CDAC called BOSS, with 3D GNOME desktop and plug&play USB support – things which are becoming commonplace these days. There were people all over the place using their wi-fi enabled laptops, running Linux. Linux has definitely matured on the desktop but is yet to catch up with Mac OS, which MS Vista has been able to copy feature for feature. The UN Development Program had a stall too and discussions on bridging the digital divide, social aspects of OSS, localization in I

One of the best books I have read ...

The book I am currently reading is one of the best books I have read till date. It weaves a mellow tale so deftly, at once dreamy and languorous, yet fast paced and exciting: The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh . More links here & some reviews here.

The Saint, the Surfer, and the CEO

Update : This book is essential reading; especially the third portion regarding the conversations with the CEO. Makes a lot of sense in any professional sphere. Here is a lovely book that I am reading currently: ' The Saint, the Surfer, and the CEO: A Remarkable Story About Living Your Heart's Desires ' by Robin Sharma. Recommended for a quick read, though it repackages the eastern and western thoughts on self-realization, wisdom and series of thoughts/quotations it does elucidate on some surprising insights. Also contains a series of modern day tales/yarns through three persons that the protagonist meets to learn new lessons and heal his life's wounds. Those searching for answers or feeling a void, may get some useful pointers from this book by the personality development expert Robin Sharma. An engaging read ...

Brush Strokes - Excuse me, as I take up the brush ...

Well thats more like a cartoon, seriously I should be doing cartooning ;) Tried my hand at water colours after a loooong while - just to see the effect :) Was actually triggered by this cute kid right in front of my house, who was playing around with his toy pistol during Diwali ! Whether a cartoon or the simplest of watercolours whatever you feel, feedback welcommen ...

Questions I ponder over ...

Is religion a kind of psychological therapy and the rituals a method of social bonding/enhancing community feelings/ providing some peace of mind. Why is a belief system necessary, is it again a kind of psychological anchor - the god / divine entity. Were the rituals and the supposed high-handedness of Brahmins in the Hindu society of yore for exploiting or were they a very inquisitive, learned clan/set of people who got arrogant or was it a simple case of methods of maintaining self-confidence. Many of the customs may not make sense now - arguable; since some do have scientific moorings too. The good/evil aspect is reinforced by religion but can also lead to misinterpretations and rigid stereotypes - as I was watching in the deftly directed movie 'Munich' by Spielberg on the Jew/Muslim divide in the middle-east and the rampant intense hatred. Some theories are very abstract but help in explaining the unknown aspects of the universe - such as Advaita. At some point the scientif

Lessons from life & patterns of the mind

There are ways in which certain emotions get unnecessarily amplified. Prejudice, anger, jealousy and fear, to name a few. The more you dwell on associating these with specific people/events/situations, the more they seem to gain an upper hand; and only through a sudden wakeup call, such as an incident or a counter-experience are we jolted into awareness and realize how conceited or mistaken we might have been. A re-patterning of the mind, every once a while is absolutely necessary. Talking of patterns and networks of patterns in the mind and concentration, which, I was reading in Edward de Bono's book 'I Am Right, You Are Wrong' - one topic struck me; in one chapter he talks of attuning the mind to the current task, which tends to make completing or wading through it much more effective. For example, he says when you give the mind the signal 'look for people wearing red caps only, in the stadium' - the action of finding such specimens becomes much more easy, almost

THE PUJA DAYS

They came and went with great speed. At the durga puja this time, met up with old friends including some after a long while; now all spread far and wide across India, some busy with work, others with studies. Missed a few who had gone elsewhere, during the pujas. 4-5 days of the usual pujas, serving food (bhog), revelry & cultural activity, happened. Find more at the Jayamahal Puja blog , some pics here ( Soham's Flickr page ). To come out of the festive mood is a bit difficult. Shubho Bijoya to one and all, and let peace pervade.

'Samaja Varagamana'

I got the songs of the movie 'Morning Raga' from a colleague (Shashank). There is this song called 'Samaja Varagamana' (Raag Hindola ? Not sure I'd understand anyways). But the classical base and the western fusion effect (Music by Mani Sharma and Amit Heri) in the song makes one transcend the normal plane of existence. One of the best songs I have ever heard (may seem exaggerated but I have been listening to it in a loop for past three days) - it is just amazing. Sung by Gayathri the sudden shift in the melody to a high pitched tone adds to the ecstacy. Music I reiterate can be intoxicating ... !!! The song 'Mahaganapatim' by Bombay Jayashree is also good, most other fusion tracks from the movie, with a strong dose of Indian classical music (Carnatic mostly) are a treat to the ears. Currently reading: 'I Am Right You Are Wrong' by Edward de Bono.

The Jayamahal Durga Puja !!!

A brand new blog for The Jayamahal Durga Puja !!! The Jayamahal Durga Puja is held at the Jayamahal Ladies Club grounds off Nandidurg Main Road , Jayamahal, Bangalore (close to Cantonment area) . THIS YEAR - From Sep 27 – Oct 02 , 2006. Visit us to feel the essence of bengali culture, traditions, food and live the festive Pujo spirit right here at Bangalore !!! Updates coming soon on schedule of events etc ... DO LINK TO THE SITE from your blogs/websites etc. And pass it on to your bong-mates (read bengali friends/colleagues/neighbours/girlfriends ;) etc) http://jayamahaldurgapuja.blogspot.com/ AND ALL THOSE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING ... BE THERE TO IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE DEVOTION & RICH CULTURAL HERITAGE from the Sep 27 – Oct 02 , 2006

Unconscious Affection

A short story:

God of the people.

Ganesha (in Sanskrit) = Gana (People) + Eshwaraa (God) : God of the people Let me see if I have the facts (basically the myth) right ... Ganesh is the son (intelligent and very clever) of Shiva and Parvati. For the appearance part, the story goes like this (this tale has two variants): Goddess Parvati asks her brother Shani-deva to see her son, Ganesh and even after his refusals he is forced to view him, which results in the severing of his head. Goddess Parvati goes to take bath and sets Ganesha as guard, who refuses Shiva into the place wherein in anger Shiva slices off his head. Later as a replacement, the felled Airavata's head is used or something of the sort ... Interestingly, this makes me think about how varied our folklores and religious mythologies are ... Like Ganesha is the Siddhidaayakaa - the bestower of success ! He has two wives (Siddhi and Buddhi - Success and Wisdom) - not sure if everyone agrees with this line of thought. However the symbolism attached to these

A genius passes away ...

After a bad day at work, was coming back home; it was past 9 pm, and the cabbie was playing Radio City 91 FM. It was so atrocious with western music especially hip-hop and all those irritating new-age techno forms of music, that I got a severe headache. Indian music is so much better ...... As soon I reached home, I found Doordarshan was playing a documentary on Ustad Bismillah Khan, who I had heard in the afternoon, had passed away. What brilliant music, those sweet strains of shehnai, godly, as if speaking a language of its own. And then those sudden variations - so melodious. Cannot describe the sheer joy, trying to keep track of those talas etc, my headache had vanished; I was so intoxicated in the Ustad's magical spell. The intoxication through music is so high, why do people even think of alcohol ??? A genius (Bharat Ratna, 2001) passed away yesterday. A short history here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismillah_Khan

Three Books.

I cannot describe the joy of reading 'The Argumentative Indian' which I am reading since months; ever so slowly as if savouring a delicious dish, bit by bit; but in one of his essay which I am currently reading, he seems to be repeating very common sense things about gender disparity, class hierarchies and their economic effects – that may seem so much mundane for us Indians. Amartya Sen, the economist comes across as more of an analytical mind capable of deconstructing complex issues into social theories and economic ideas. On the other hand is the economist, Jeffrey Sachs who is an activist non-parallel, the father of the UN Milennium Development Goals with the goal of ending poverty or atleast having mission statements to reduce it to acceptable levels by 2015; which is indeed commendable. With the extensive consultancy and economic turnarounds that he has been able to demonstrate in countries such as Bolivia, Poland etc, which is a part of the other book I am also curre

The Bigot Repents

The bigot repents after a fit of violence in a frenzy of anger and retribution, mad rage and bigotry, ill-will and blind fundamentalism ...

The Namesake

Having read Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer winning short story collection, 'The Interpreter of Maladies'; which was a well crafted kaleidoscope on NRI lives, their emotions, circumstances and events I took up The Namesake with great expectations. The prose itself is very descriptive and starts off by delving into the life of an NRI couple in United States, a professor at MIT, Ashoke Ganguli and his wife Ashima. Soon the focus shifts to their son Gogol – the strange name is after the famous Russian writer Nikolai Gogol and the background behind this name forms a bedrock for the entire narrative and the disconnected life of the protagonist. How Gogol is frustrated with the name, wants to change it and finally gets to know the reason behind the name; as he grows up, comes of age and moves into the profession of an architect going through many transitions, relationships and many ups and downs of life. The story revolves around various events in the lives of the members of this partic

Engrossed

LARGER VERSION HERE .

Drowning - A sketch

First sketch after a long long time ...

The unthinkable happens ...

No one is infallible. The champions were vanquished as if benumbed under some spell of that wizard Zidane and the blistering speed of Henry or were they haunted by memories of 1998 finals ? They were no match, not able to come-back after they went down 1-0 in the 57th minute. I went back to sleep in absolute silence after the match. The South Americans now with the exit of both Argentina and Brazil must be in deep mourning - I expected these two to meet in the finals. Current mood: Slightly dazed.

Argentina's Self Goal

Argentine coach made a big blunder when he substituted Riquelme and Crespo. It cost them in the penalty shootouts. And then the better goalkeeper getting injured and having to be replaced with the substitute goalie was a double blow; third and final blow : Messi was hidden away by Pekerman somewhere... Argentina had greater possession and were playing much better, attacking football. German keeper Lehmann also will need to be given credit for blocking off the penalties. The other match seemed to have gone one-sided with Italy winning 3-0. Will watch both the matches today. Want England to lose ... Portugal are a better team. And hooray for Brazil - Viva Brazil !!!

GOAAAAAAAL

HERE IS AN ARTICLE I HAD WRITTEN SOME DAYS BACK, ON THE SPIRIT OF WORLD CUP FOOTBALL ... By the way, the first 'round of 16' match had Germany on a roll with 2 goals by Lucas Podolsky, the second one being especially cleverly setup by Klose. The Swedish side seemed totally lost, even missing a penality at such a crucial juncture ...

'My Name is Red' by Orhan Pamuk

A book that starts with the statement 'I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well' promises to be a thrilling murder mystery right from the onset, but what makes the book even more exciting, is the exotic setting of this turkish novel. Set in Istanbul during the sixteenth century, the book looks into the politics, philosophy, artistry and lives of miniaturists. The best of the miniaturists there, under a master painter are set upon the task of creating a book of paintings, by the Ottoman emperor. As the work is proceeding, one of the miniaturists gets murdered and a pall of suspicion mires the religious leaders, fellow painters and others, even as the reason or motive behind the murder remains shrouded in the numerous alternatives. The dichotomy between the newer western style and the eastern form prevalent from the time of the great masters creates a complex political scene, that is handled in such an elegant manner by the author that it never gets jarring o

Portugal beat Iran 2:0

(Source: fifaworldcup.com ) Lots of visible talent in this Portuguese side - Ronaldo, Miguel, Deko and Figo. The 21-year old namesake of the more illustrous Ronaldo from Brazil is currently doing much better and seems to possess skills for some amazing footwork and a speed to match - a player to look out for. The shot from Deko that went into the goal like a bullet from a distance of some 30 feet in the 63rd minute and the 80th minute penallty success by Ronaldo helped beat the Iranians. But not without some good offence from the Iran team, they have a clutch of good players and had chances aplenty some so close to a goal, that it is sad that they could not convert. The players from the nation in conflict would be going back home after their next match with Angola.

Day 3 - Holland Win ...

(Source: fifaworldcup.com) A rather tame match between Holland and Serbia; except for Robben's master skills (he plays chess too I believe), which made the solitary goal possible thus giving Holland their first win. Both sides attacked often, but could not convert their chances, definitely more entertaining and aggressive than yesterday's England-Paraguay match.

Day 2 - Lacklustre England - Superb Trinidad ...

(Trinidad and Tobago players Dwight Yorke, Shaka Hislop and Dennis Lawrence celebrate claiming a point from their opening 2006 FIFA World Cup™ match against Sweden. The contest finished 0-0. PHOTO / ARIS MESSINIS; Copyright: AFP) The English team was so tactless, except one or two moves by Beckham, the self/own goal by Paraguay in the fourth minute carried England through to a 1:0 victory - dismal match. The next match was real good, people had written off Trinidad & Tobago and expected a drubbing, but I had my doubts about T&T - which turned out to be a very capable side, they held off the Swedes to a goalless draw. The Trinidad goalkeeper (Shaka Hislop) is marvellous, with some five or six brilliant saves which would have otherwise been sure goals. As usual did not have the energy left for the 3rd match, which seemed to have been an entertaining one (Argentina vs Ivory Coast).

Here comes the Football season.

(Image source: fifaworldcup.com ) Wow ! What a way to kickoff the World Cup 2006, the opening match between Germany and Costa Rica was an absolute treat with each of those six goals. The last German goal was a stunner having been struck from such a long distance, leaving the goalie dazed and staring unbelievably, after the unsuccessful dive towards his left. The first goal too was a beauty - the superb curl from the left by the German Lahm, the ball striking the post and slipping inside, in a flash. The Costa-Ricans were never fully out of the game and attacked well, however both sides seemed to have weak defences. The ball seems very very light these days - would love to play with such a ball - if I get a chance; reminded of those days when I was the striker + captain, in school (12th std to be precise - you have to believe me, locate and ask my classmates if you don't). Was too tired to catch the next one between the Poles and Ecuador at 12:30 am. The kind of interest and energy

The Da Vinci Code

(Image Source: RogerEbert.com) I was wondering, is this the same Tom Hanks that I saw in 'The Terminal' ? He acts cold in the role of an expert symbologist Robert Langdon and yet tries to act funny at times - never manages to connect to the audience. The acting from Audrey Tautou (playing Sophie Nevue) is better, more natural and the person who plays Captain Fasche has on display a controlled emotion througout. Ian McKellen playing 'Leigh Teabing' tries to portray the quintessential British expert and succeeds only to an extent with his quirky and loud dialogue delivery. The person playing Silas the albino is pretty convincing. Overall the movie is fine - essentially a step by step representation of the book; it is able to capture the essence of the story, Certain chase sequences are marvellous and a sprinkling of humourous scenes and the glimpses of famous paintings and the Louvre museum, make for an enjoyable one time viewing. The conspiracy theory and the events poin

INDIA'S IDENTITY

A question was raised by my good friend Naveen a few days back: "I have always had this question. Did India even exist before the advent of the Europeans? Geographically at one point of time the entire Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanisthan was India and even more before that. There has been no dynasty that has been in absolute power nor there has been a defined geographical boundary to India until the britons took over. Even after their taking over, we were a big chunk of land divided and ruled by Nawabs, Rajas etc. So when we refer to India before independence what are we referring to?" At that point of time I had tended to accept the general idea that this question presupposes. However I was not fully convinced by what he had said and decided to investigate. On reading the same book further as also looking back on points that I had missed earlier, I find convincing evidence against the line of thought raised by the question. Discussed in the book in much more detail (read

Of words & signals.

The past three days saw a book fair at the workplace, thousands of books on a wide range of topics were on sale. There were discussions, a lecture and a quiz on reading habits and allied topics. There was a strange case of a person who asked a puzzling question - he says he is addicted to buying the best books, but is not able to proceed after reading a few pages; and many other cases and questions that the panel tried to address. Bought a few books from the 'Fountainhead' stall at the fair. I am having some trouble with the external Dlink dial-up modem (DFM-562E++ - V.92). KPPP is recognizing the modem - but on querying all the parameters are coming back as empty. Upto last sunday it was working fine on Mandrake Linux 10.2 Community. I am hoping the modem has not conked out. My internal modem works fine on Windows 98 - which I am using currently. Windows 98 shows the modem but on trying to query, says it did not respond and says it could be an interrupt issue.

Danger : Keep Away

Keep away from this restaurant at Airport Road called 'Royal Orchid' somewhere in the interior opposite The Leela Palace. Had gone for an official dinner to 'Limelight' @ 'Royal Orchid' on Friday, 5th May, had non-veg food and other stuff, but seems food is served stale and contaminated. God knows what they do - cooking up left over food ? Terrible. Friday night and Saturday whole day was a cycle of tremendous torment almost torture due to bacterial diarhhoea, watery motions and vomittings. I'll leave out the graphic details ... Things are better after the antibiotics and pain killers. But the point is it has to definitely be the food served at that restaurant, as even the doc I consulted confirmed. Currently reading 'My Name Is Red' by Orhan Pamuk, excellent translation from the Turkish novel, which seems to be part murder mystery, part reflections on art and philosophy and much more. Hardly 30 odd pages into this 500+ page book.

Its the trust factor, stupid.

The self needs to be conquered first in order to conquer anything else. This has been the recurrent theme from ancient times, which is reiterated in all modern management books too. However too much focus on the self can be devastating as also the cause of anxiety, depression and much else. There comes a time when a particular idea or attitude becomes so inherent in a person that he is unable to see things in any other way. The manner in which a person interacts with people around him is also a direct consequence of the passive or dynamic nature of that person. Trust becomes an inevitable part of any interaction. Trust is largely a result of the perception that the subjects in question, develop among themselves. There may be an air of mistrust when interacting with some people, that I have observed sometimes even after repeated conversations. May be an attitudinal issue or a general feeling of mistrust or plain boredom or tiredness with either of the persons. Also aloofness can b

Quote Unquote

Shamit's Quote for the day: If you are always frequency hopping how can you expect to be friends with anyone having the same wavelength ? [ Only books probably come close ... ;-) ]

Thought Stream : Indians, Matinee Idols & Ego

Reading 'The Argumentative Indian'; here Amartya Sen talks about the scepticism and dialogic traditions of Indians from ancient times, including the inherent rational inqiry in the Vedas about god, the ideals in Gita as also the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata by giving anecdotes and instances from these parables that highlight this questioning attitude. Opposing views in these epics are not totally banished, and as he says 'an argument that refuses to die out definitely remains alive, only to come back into life'. In the essay that I am presently reading he has refuted the isolationist and narrow-minded approach that the so-called Hindutva movement (namely BJP, RSS etc) wants to portray. Also discussed are the selective history propagated by changing the school syllabi to demonify the Moghuls and the tendency of the fundamentalist forces to mix up the Vedic and Indus valley civilizations as one, including creating fraudulent scholarly works to prove the same. He states

Mental Angioplasty

Like clogged pipes, sometimes the mind gets clogged, unable to do anything productive outside the banal sphere of what is termed 'work'. Whether that very work is responsible for this or the pursuit of too many other interests, I do not know. Not being capable of concentrating and focussing on what you would like to do can be irritating. For example it has been some time since I have written something interesting; apart from blog posts that you get to read or some other junk or some very formal article that I was forced to write due to prior obligations. How will I justify that? Probably I need to keep a little book that some people suggest for writers as if as a surrogate for the biological memory - which can be used to jot down ideas as and when they come to mind. Ideas do come and go; but to expand it into a story or sustaining the idea to a larger form of a book requires tremendous patience and dedicating ample amounts of time. With a life which demands priority in other ar

A bengali movie today ...

Sometimes movies on television can be a valuable means of generating thoughts; though most often it acts as a medium of unidirectional communication stifling the thought process in its wake. Was watching a bengali movie on ETV Bangla called 'Chayasurya' literally translating to 'shadowed-sun'. The story is of a bohemian girl who grows up in a well to do household in Calcutta where she has a sister who is her exact opposite. She is of a dark complexion, naughty and always with a 'dont care' attitude. Also she repeatedly seems to fail in examinations, becoming a cause of great ire for her parents and relatives because of her ways - playing around cricket with the boys on the street and giving studies a damn. As she grows up and becomes notorious for her ways, with unkempt hair and an indifferent attitude; the story portrays the difference in how the family treats her as against her docile and good-mannerdly sister; however the movie doesnt fall into the trap of ov

A right mix ...

You are what you think. That is so true. How much of what you are, should be externally demonstrated ? What about hidden feelings or latent talents ? I get the point that the world understands what is demonstrated, but that can seem so irritating sometimes; as if I am playing to a crowd and all the world's a stage ! What about changing attitudes - it gets affected by this 'visible is right' - a faulty system of judgement, as this can make someone pretend or act out, even though he/she may not be what he is projecting, or doesn't like what he is supposed to be; but needs to fit into the circumstances. Its a clear tradeoff between choice and circumstances along with societal demands that decides what one does or achieves, atleast in most 'normal' cases. But true achievers are not a subset of the 'normal' or is there an overlap ? There is no straight-jacketing achievers, however the trend is interlinked with 'wealth' someone possesses. I am not sayi

'Never Let Me Go' by Kazuo Ishiguro

One of the books that I was very excited about reading, and which did not disappoint me. The book with its melancholy and mellow narrative makes a story on a difficult scientific topic, completely believable, by its sheer depth. It starts off as a first person account by the protagonist, Kathy who is now about to enter a crucial phase of her life and as she starts to tell her story the narrative shifts to her school days, when they were growing up in a special school at a remote corner of England, Hailsham – that becomes a leitmotif for their struggle in life. The story revolves around her classmates and their interactions with the teachers at the school – how they get to know the reasons for their existence, the boundaries within which they will need to lead all their lives and their coming of age. As they grow; their angst, tensions, passions and quarrels among close friends makes for an interesting read. New relevant terms and meanings are introduced without being jarring. The book

Rang De Basanti

Finally watched 'Rang De Basanti' at Rex, yesterday evening. There are sparks of brilliance at times, unconventional too, but the movie tries to fit things in place that at times seems artificial, almost laughable. Especially the parts on killing people and violence are a bit too far fetched. The cinematography and screenplay is very innovative ... Some scenes are thrilling, like the one in which Amir Khan plays the role of Azad and escapes from the Ram Lila grounds in a motorcycle. There are some pathetic comparisons too, like when the character of DJ and Sue are kissing and the scene cuts to a part of the documentary where the freedom fighters are on a fast unto death. Certain dialogues, captions and narrative from the diary do evoke patriotism. The tenor is so comic even when the protagonists have occupied the AIR studios. The humour spoils the mood towards the end. Probably I knew some parts of the story and hence was critical of things, as I expected something better. Howe

LAMP - Open Source Experiments

LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl) configuration on OpenSUSE Linux 10.0. Here is some useful information : The configuration files are in /etc/apache2/ I had to create an empty file named include.conf in /etc/apache2/sysconfig.d Else 'httpd2 -k start' (the way you need to start the daemon) was giving an error. HTML files and other stuff like images go by default into : /srv/www/htdocs CGI files in /srv/www/cgi-bin Also did some experimentation with 'mysql' based on info that I had got from the LFY magazine. First installed the mysql server. Then the following commands to craete and update databases. linux:~ # mysqladmin -u root -p XXXXX linux:~ # mysql -u root -p Enter password: Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g. Your MySQL connection id is 2 to server version: 4.1.8-standard mysql> create database testdb; Query OK, 1 row affected (0.17 sec) mysql> show databases -> -> ; +----------+ Database +----------+ mysql test testdb tmp +----

From 'Shame' to 'Light'

What a book 'Lajja' is; I don't know if you will get the same effect if you read the translated work. But I enjoyed it, even though it repeatedly stresses the injustice meted out to the Hindus in Bangladesh with statistics and facts after facts; the narration and the climax is just too good. Read very few books with this kind of ending except Marquez's A Hundred Years Of Solitude. Nasrin has a knack of keeping you interested through each page and making the reader feel the pathos, sorrow and angst of the characters, except when she is rattling the facts in a non stop stream. Also read the poem 'Lead me to the light' .

Poetic Injustice

Of unfulfilled duties, And unearned rights, Of worthless works, And stupid fights. Of loveless affairs, And heartless flings, Of remorseless apologies, And unattached strings. Of untrue lines, And mindless talks, Of late realizations, And retrospective walks. Of unleashed potential, And an unachieved dream... Poetic Injustice - A collaborative blog of poesy ... Nakul , Shreyas and yours truly. More on the history behind this initiative on Shreyas's blog.

Ajantrik

Dramatic and full of exaggeration, yet a very sentimental, realistic and good movie; just watched 'Ajantrik' ( Pathetic Fallacy or The Unmechanical ) by Ritwik Ghatak , which I have borrowed. The movie speaks about the attachment of a taxi driver Bimal (played by Kali Banerjee) to his old classic style car, which he calls by name. The car is in a dismal state, it is in shambles yet does its work, reaches the place where it is supposed to and in time. The movie revolves around a few scenes about the travels in the car and the driver's love for his car - he has no one else except for the car whch is his lifemate and a small boy who is his neighbour. Midway in the movie the car breaks down. He brings it back home, to the ridicule of his neighbours and vows to get it back to life. He spends all his money to repair it; everyone suggests he sell it off, but he works on it day and night relentlessly and finally makes it run again. As soon as he starts climbing a slope, th

Ganashatru

What an excellent movie. No frills, no pretense, no exaggeration, thought-provoking and leaving decisions on the viewer, meaning taking the audience to be intelligent. Ganashatru (An Enemy of the People) by Satyajit Ray is a movie that portrays the lack of principles in those who are actually supposed to be conscious and responsible for the good of the people, especially people in the press and the administration i.e. the government machinery. The story starts with Dr Ashok Gupta (played by Soumitra Chatterjee - Satyajit Ray's favourite) getting a series of patients suffering from a specific kind of jaundice, in Chandipur hospital, where he practices. On sending samples of the water to Calcutta labs, the doctor is able to ascertain the contamination of water, as the results suggest. He wants to publish the findings. His brother (played by Dhritiman Chatterjee) the municipal chairman is opposed to this, as he does not want to bring disrepute to Chandipur, and has helped in building

Some bengali reading ...

Currently reading the bengali novel 'Lajja' by Taslima Nasrin , that was banned by the Bangladesh government and a fatwa was issued against her . Set in Bangladesh, it speaks about the communal frenzy and retaliation against the Hindu community in Bangladesh, after the Babri Masjid was demolished in India, through the eyes of the members of a particular Hindu family. Some info on Nasrin here: [1] , [2] My speed of reading bengali has really come down, need to read more.

Imperialism Again

A new form of covert imperialism is being gradually unleashed by the USA. It is in the name of democracy, that the US government indiscriminately uses its military might to establish and dislodge governments, at will and is quite unrepentant about it. What is disgusting is that these open displays of human rights violations and use of force are easily ignored in India. Probably we are indeed doing the right thing by making use of their money and power to develop ourselves or is it ? However we cannot be blind to the security concerns that are inherent. We need to guard ourselves against the betrayal that the US government is capable of. We are establishing joint military co-operation with that country, which may be dangerous if not totally foolish. Especially the ultra-liberal Manmohan Singh government may be playing like puppets in the hands of the US and other world bodies controlled by the US, such as the World Bank etc. The Prime Minister was immature enough to criticize Vajpa