All isn't well

3 Idiots is a refreshingly good movie. In the last three-four years, good hindi movies have become as rare as Harbhajan Singh taking a wicket. That added to the joy of watching it.

But really, unlike most others, I found no reason to go ga-ga over the movie. A few points kept coming to my mind while and after watching the movie:

1. Why cast Aamir Khan in the lead role? Here's a guy, who twenty-one years ago arrived on the scene with Papa Kehte hai, playing a third year college student. The same guy, twenty-one years later, plays a first year engineering student! Thats not only hard to digest, but it also shows. Aamir Khan looks old, not 45 but definitely not 18! The same goes with Madhavan. Why couldn't younger guys be cast in these roles? Why do we not trust the younger generation of actors to deliver? I'm not a big fan of Ranbir Kapoor but he could have fit well in the lead role. Someone like Shreyas Talpade (the guy from Iqbal) would have been a great fit for Madhavan's role.

2. Why do bollywood film makers feel the need to make a movie three hour long? The movie could have been done and dusted with in two and a half hours. People, atleast I, would have gone home happier. All WAS well, until interval. But the plot was lost in the second half with the inclusion of a lot of unnecessary crap that included a lecture on "how to have babies delivered" and over use of "all is well" mantra. Un-realism in movies is fine. But when the extent goes as far as three college students helping get a baby delivered or for that matter two "techies" not being in touch with their close friend for five years in the internet era, it only makes you laugh in desperation.

3. There were so many repetitions from Munnabhai and Lage Raho: The same ragging stunts, only medical college replaced by engineering college, Asthana replaced by Virus and Jadu kee jhappi replaced by all is well. Sometimes, all this makes one feel that coming up with a hit bollywood movie isn't that difficult: Cast a famous actor, have jokes similar to previously hit movies and there you go.

Overall, the movie was good. But only considering the lot of totally crap movies that had come out in the last four-five months. During the interval, we were rating the movie as high as a 4.5/5. But the second half was no better than a 2.5/5. The rest is pure math.

Give me some sunshine .....

Saari umra hum
Mar mar ke jee liye
Ek pal to ab humein
Jeene do
Jeene do

Na na na….Na na na….Na na na….Na na nana na….

Give me some sunshine
Give me some rain
Give me another chance
I wanna grow up once again
.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t533PJnDMKg
.........
playing in an infinite loop these days ....... I hope the movie lives up to the expectations :)

Happy Halloween

It was halloween yesterday. And the day brought with it memories of celebrations in the last couple of years, and school life in general. Oh how much do I miss those days! As I was standing in that queue yesterday at Chipotle to have my free burrito, the thought was I want to go back. Go back to school. And the irony was that kal chipotle khaake pet hee nahi bhara ..... probably something was missing!

Browsed through some pictures, in memory of some fond memories......some things just can't be expressed in words!

Ofcourse, not all's lost. With a decent horror movie, attempts to participate in the party by means of face painting, and good food and banter, the day turned out to be fun :)

Super Summer

It has been a great summer. Was thinking of what all I did on weekends, after my thesis defense on the 8th of June and here's what I could compile:

20th-21st June: Milford Lake Picnic

22nd June : Left Kansas for good, flew to Philly

27th-28th June: Washington DC, Baltimore
4th-6th July : Niagara
11th-12th July : New York City
18th-19th July: Philly darshan
25th-26th July: Atlantic City & NJ coastline
1st-2nd August: Pocono Mountains

7th August: Flew to Seattle.

8th-9th August: Snowqualmie Falls
15th-16th August: House Shifting + Cricket
22nd-23rd August: Cricket + Microsoft Ganpati
29th-30th August: Franklin Falls
4th-5th Sept: Olympic National Park, Boeing FOF museum
11th-12th Sept: St. Helens
19th-20th Sept: Rainier
25th-26th Sept: Lake Tapps + Space Needle
3rd-4th Oct: Golder Garden, Alkai beach
10th-11th Oct: Carne Mountain, Leavenworth
17th-18th Oct: Diwali in Philly

Take that for utilization of weekends :).
Indeed, has been a very fun filled summer. All prepared now to endure a harsh winter, the next 4 months are going to be crucial.

Laptops and I

In the last couple of years, Laptops and I have not gone well together. In fact, we've not just gone together. For the records, I haven't owned a laptop for the last two years almost. Why do I not have a laptop, why do I not buy one, and how I survive without one are questions I face often. But the questions had been on the rise recently, both amongst friends as well as at work, and that just made me think more about my quest with laptops.

Back in 2005, I was very happy to get a brand new thinkpad T42, from IBM. For the next 2 years, I was quite addicted and even emotionally attached to it. So much so that felt very sad while returning it back to IBM when my time there was up. Soon after, on landing in the US, I purchased another thinkpad, this time a T61. Used it through the first sem of my masters and I was very happy with it.

In Spring 2008, I had to surrender the laptop. That time, it was unthinkable for me to live without one. How will I do my homeworks without it? How about orkut, facebook, movies, music? My assignments and entertainment would suffer, I thought. Decided, I would buy a new laptop soon. For some reason I got a little too busy and was not able to order one for a few days. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months and the sem got over. It was unbelievable that I'd spent one semeter without a laptop.
What was more unbelievable to me was that it ended up being the best 4-5 months in my life. In terms of work, I was amazingly efficient. A kind of discipline had set into my routine, something that had always been missing earlier. Spent most of my time in department. What would I do going home without a laptop? So used to go home only for lunch, dinner and the night sleep. The extra time spent in the department helped. People: Friends and acquaintances, kept getting bemused about me not having a laptop. The difficulty associated with coming to lab in cold/heat/rain soon became a motivation, that spurred me to do even better in my work. It was because of these factors that I was really able to successfully juggle with a lot of things going on in my life then. In terms of entertainment, I never missed my lappy: Movies/music/mails were taken care of in labs. Being in lab also meant I never felt alone. Thankfully, the "working in lab" syndrome caught up with a lot of other friends as well even though they had their laptops and it turned out that the lab became one awesome "adda". Quite amazing those days were.

Looking back, I feel thrilled about having successfully completed masters in "Computer" science without a computer of my own. Back in IBM days, we'd discussed about the prospect of making an attempt to live without cell phones. Not sure if I can manage that, but living without laptop has been one step in rebellion to prove that we really don't need these gadgets to make our lives better. Its all in our mind really when we think we "cant" do something, "cant" live without something. Ofcourse we can, nothing is impossible if we give it a wholehearted try. And simple is sweet. Our life can be much better if we can keep it a little simple, technology-free and reduce dependency on these gadgets. Probably, that's the point I have been trying to drive through in the last two years!!

Ofcourse, things are a little different now that I've stated working. But they say never change a winning formula :). So here I am, still hitting an old fashioned metal keyboard and staring into a 22 inch monitor to type this in. Recently, I'd started thinking once again of buying my fav IBM thinkpad. But as it turns out, now I won't need to. More on that later :)

Random Thoughts

- Feels great to be a full time in a company. Difference between being an intern and being a full timer is huge! Internship is like an ODI where the time to prove yourself is limited. You've constantly got to be on your toes. One quite over, one wicket at the right/wrong time can change the course of the game. Full time position, on the other hand, is like a test match. You can take as much time as you want .... and the biggest advantage is even if you don't do well, you can always play for a draw :)

- So who says test cricket is tougher than ODI's and T20's! I think its completely the other way round: T20 is much tougher than ODI's which in turn are harder than tests. Now if internship corresponds to ODI and Full time corresponds to test, what does T20 correspond to? Interviews :)

- And that explains why the oldies don't like T20's and think its child's play. In their times, afterall, interviews were never so hard ..... so their thoughts that any Raina, Pathan or Rohit can play T20's well. Interviews of the modern times have got very critical and tough, so T20 is not easy by any means. For the oldies, sustaining for a longer period was hard then. The mantra now is live fast and play hard!

- I'm starting to get in love with this city. Not just for its scenic snowcaps, well planned landscapes, and disciplined public transportation. But mostly because for the first time in life I think I'm in a place where almost every single individual belongs where he/she deserves to be. Bloating of IT industry in India, and for that matter even in the US, have always concerned, sometimes even disappointed, me. In that regard feels great to be among individuals almost all of whom have worked very hard to be here, who in every respect have earned their place here and who deserve to be here.

- The place sometimes feels to be too perfect, almost like a utopia. It feels like a mega developed, clean Pune with all un-wanted things/people removed. Mahabaleshwar seems to be replaced by Rainier, Khadakwasla by Snowqualmie, Kokan coast replaced by the Pacific! The people, the food joints all seem familiar, just like back home.In short, a better home away from home.

- In short, life's great here. Cannot ask for anything more really, but I'm still not happy. Why? missing bayko!

Sc-air-y

I have always felt scared of flying. It didn't need me to watch Final Destination or Air Crsh Investigation series to catch that fear. Its just been there forever since my maiden flight, I remember, which was about 20 years back.

And I keep thinking why do I scare it? An airplane and a computer are two inventions that keep amazing me even today. To be quiet honest, I don't think I completely understand their technology. I am still awed by how a 100,000 kg (or is that less) thing lifts itself off the ground, let alone staying up there. But with that awe comes fear. Combination of hardware, in this case the airplane, and software is almost magic to me and magic can fail sometimes.
What can you do when/if this magic fails on you? Nothing, absolutely nothing. The Air France crash a couple of months back and the AP CM's chopper crash yesterday left me feeling very wierd. I thrive in believing that you are responsible for whatever happens to you. Hate being in situations where my fate is not in my hands. Those few hours in the plane are the times when our fate is not in our hands. And then, it doesn't matter if you're a VVIP or you're flying even the world's best airline. Your fate depends on weather, technology, and two unknown persons. You have to just accept, whatever happens, as your destiny. So the news of AP CM's crash was frightening, shocking and hugely disappointing. It provided a reminder of how cruel and uncertain destiny can be .... without even giving you a chance to reflect or introspect on it.

But as much as one feels grieved about the mishap, what follows in the country is definitely not encouraging: Seven days of mourning followed by a detailed investigation of the crash!!! Its hard to believe that people have time to keep crying for a week! Who pays for the loses? And the investigation seems to be an even bigger farce. "Don't hit a cliff if you are flying a plane" would probably be the conclustion! The committee would have chai-biscuit and talk about how big a tragedy it was. Is it worth spending money on the investigation then ... we all know the cause of the accident!
But its disappointing that some things never change, we would just not learn to bite the bullet and move on.

In addition, it seems there is a new disease in India. Unbelievable as it seems, 140+ people have died off shock, after the chopper crash news announcement. That number is more than the number of swine flu deaths, worse even this "flu" has no cure!