All hail !!!! the Moor of Venice

The Moor of venice .... Othello , brilliant movie ... Ajay Devgan as Othello is the silent presence in the movie and Saif Ali Khan ( Langda Thyagi ) as Iago is too brilliant for words... he carries the role so well that at sometimes you feel like throttling him but then thats what he is supposed to do. Kudos to Saif .. Vivek Oberoi has a passing presence in the film and Konkona Sen Sharma as Langda...'s wife portrays the village belle wedded to an outlaw perfectly. Bipasha is a passing presence and Kareena Kapoor has played desdemona well....

Naseeruddin Shah is the typical politician running things from Jail and one who works his caste votes and can get elected anytime...
My only lament was that some of the movie was in Bhojpuri and took some time for the average Tamil Brahmin to understand , but then there was Virdee and some repetitions of dialogues required....
The climax is heart rending and the movie is brilliant and the songs are just too good... a must watch for any shakespearean and movie critic... Langda... is what acting should be ...

My 0.02

Chennaizombie

How do you price a book?

A great paradox .... how do you price a book ? while you have some books which quote at something like 95/- and some paperbacks which quote at 400 plus rupees.
I don't get it , a paperback is meant to make the book reachable to more people and more so from the fact that the hardbound edition has made some money and the paperback is either meant to recover whatever money is required and or increase subscription.

Some of the major contributors to this are ;
1. Author's royalty ( or sometimes a flat fee for the same )
2. Publisher's brand / premium
3. hardbound / paperback...

Here the noble thought of making the book accessible to a wider population is lost ... you have books by a few authors which are way to expensive to the average man and in some cases the academic population - the student is left out of the equation. I do agree libraries are there for this but there too with regard to works of fiction / non fiction become unreacheable to many.

I just saw some paperbacks of thomas friedman and krugman etc which have about 500 pages quoting at somewhere in the range of 400 rupees , I would rather call it a glorified hardbound rather than a paperback. This in turn leads many ( including me ) to either look for the book online or scrounge the various back streets of bangalore for the same at a fraction of the cost.
Books which are supposedly good but by an author not well known are allso priced similarly ... especially management books ( maybe I too should write a book!!! ) and then after investing a considerable sum on the same , find the book below standards leading more to the street sellers.
I do release that book publishers also have to cut trees and pay a lot of people starting from the typesetter to the copywriter... but then it becomes a question of who should sacrifice for the sake of literacy... the author ? the publisher ? the book seller ?....

Chennaizombie

Books and Life

Getting pretty bored with life.... nothing to do other than stare at girls and feel bad later... but what the heck , thats me. I felt that I was the one feeling like that but seems like my friends are not pretty far either.
I have a friend in Singapore who does some research in Analog Electronics etc and is waiting for a chance to get out of Singapore.
Same could be said about my dear friend Kini who has got tired of the sand and the camels in Oman ( cause there's nothing ellse there!!!)
Virdee.... no idea , looks like he is trying to become a surd after so long and before he forgot what a surd was....
Mike... he too is settling down...
Arun Subs... as usual ... nothing new...
and me ... sinking deepped and deeper into books. A llong list of books to kill time...
Arundhati Roy - Algebra of Infinite Justice... anyone who is following the Narmada Bachao Andolan and the book which essentially is a collection of political essays by her please do read it and then you will know the politics behind dams , people rehabilitiation and greed. Beautifully written book and would almost convert you into a socialist / non capitalist. The writing is very similar to Amartya Sen and is lucid and very well written.
Another book is called "Born Confused" by a first time writer called "Tanuja Desai hidier" nice one , only thing is that the first 150 to 200 pages are boring and the book picks up after that.
now its back to Ernest hemmingway and "Farewell to Arms" - beautifully written as usually and yet to complete it.
If you are into non fiction - go through - "Midnight in the garden of good and evil" and "Bridges of Madison County" the latter would make anyone wish they were photographers as well.

And till I get something new to do ... like work should revive the blog and continue what I do now - stare at girls and read books!!!

Poor little bad guy

I'm reminded of richie rich when I write this but would like to make an exception - never been rich so the term poor little rich guyu does not apply. To make a distinction - Bad guy.... sort of Oxymoron...
Was reading my friend Kini's blog on family - not literate enough in HTML to put the tag - its ritzkini.blogspot.com - kinds reminded me of my cousins... but then to narrate my story would be called plagiarism...

Kahaani mein twist - To start with - Tam Bram - not a care in the world - bought up in esteemed brahmin traditions - and would relate better to Thayir Saatham than Pizza - not that I complained - Thayir Saatham became a cannot live without food for me and again not complaining.

Now - Burgers - Alcohol - whoa - where did the Tam Bram go ? but again not that I complain!!!!

Leads me to a different track all together from where I started from - have to polish my blogging skills - coming back to family - Kini forgive me if some of it sounds familiar - but like in the movies - ' Naan Solvatthellam unmai , unmaiyai thavira vaer ethuvum illai'

A family of about 7 cousins and we all grew up about 5 minutes from each others homes - of course there was the age difference but still the windowpanes and shins breaking still applied. Other than that there was the friend circle where had our adventures and used to drive people wild with something or the other - and especially Diwali was a time of high alert for the entire Khandaan!!!
*wild is to be construed as something that kids do and not as adults , I would like to make that classification right away to avoid misconceptions!! Like how wild do yu think a Tam Bram can get - not much by any means of imagination

Also suddenly you realize your moral fibre and go calling on your cousins- Kini it happens - atleast your calling rates are cheaper!!! I ran out of money calling up from Seattle and now its come down that I am back in India.

Anyway I think I lost track of what I wanted to say - better compose it in a separate post and sen it out later- till then I have a business requirement to document and that unfortunately pays for my food and this does not!!

Chennaizombie

One Night @ the call center

Amazing book by Chetan Bhagat. Some things are super cool but I am not too sure at the end if he was referring to 'God' as a factor which makes people buy his books by reading the paperback or merely refers to 'God' as your internal voice.

Also some of the people you can relate to but am not too sure if you have to be working at a call center to be able to relate to one of them.

This might sound too religious / altruistic but the book was kinda nice and makes you think about listening to yourself.... but does everyone else ? and how should one react to the inner voice?

Sort of book review and kinds bored at work and hence the blogs....

Chennaizombie

To BE or not to BE

This is the question going on in the minds of scores of students in Chennai. But I would blame the AICTE for the same. How were these colleges allowed to participate in the counselling if they were not AICTE approved.

Questions the AICTE has to answer:
1. How did they suddenly realize after 4 years that these colleges did not have AICTE approval ? - did the supreme being come in the AICTE CHairman's dreams and asked him to act on it?
2. How did they turn a blind eye to this for 4 years?
3. What about the students who have passed out of these 'DEEMED' universities for the past 4 years ? those who hold good jobs , those who have gone for higher studies?

Questions the college management should answer:
1. How did they get their feet into the counselling?
2. Parties involved - politicians , ministers .. the list I am sure will go on...

Questions the government should answer:
1. What was the education ministry doing - plucking berries? and sitting pretty?
2. The government being the same when deemed university status was given , the usual conspiracy theory of the previous government did this will not hold.
3. With elections expected soon - what are they going to do ?
4. Will there be any legislation against such offenders - both the AICTE and the college management?

Ultimately it is the students who stand to lose , the solution arrived at will most likely be a temporary one and also will not be a satisfactory one I am sure.

I agree that I too passed out of a 'Madras University' college about 4 years ago - thankfully I should say.
Hard time especially for the students in their final year.

Chennaizombie

All roads lead to ruin

Roads .... where are they ? some claim that they will be done only after the elections , some claim that the roads were good before the rains... In Chennai my till date opinion was that it was better than Bangalore - but now I see arterial roads non existent and key roads leading out of the city nothing more than dirt tracks..

Especially the poonamalle high road and EVR Salai - one would need an SUV for driving there. Mercedes listening ? you could do a test drive here and that would make you a lot of customers. I personally do not mind offering my time for testing for free though. I do something good for the country now and then , let it be through testing the chennai roads!!

Other than that most roads are half full with parked vehicles and roadside vendors - I know election is approaching and you cannot make enemies with anyone but is it correct ?

I do not know if I would vote ( If I can come from Bangalore for the same...)
Virdee if you are listening , you could use my fundamental right anyway since the voters list is so screwed up.

Chennaizombie

People in Glass Houses should not throw stones

HEHE QUITE TRUE .. Life in Saint Gobain is muck like a glass house but of course with 800 tonnes of glass being produced everyday in the same facility , I would love to have some stones....

Or the least I could do is throw my laptop into the furnace and claim that I cannot be of any use to this project and go back!!!! just kidding ... I would never do that to my laptop but the other half remains...

Bad timings - wake up at 5 in the morning and reach back at 9:30 in the night leaves time for nothing and that makes jack a dull boy and of course nothing to do but type away when someone else asks the questions and I am dutifully minuting the meeting @#@#%$@ which means that I am a glorified Stenographer. And to top it if no one thinks you are to be used in the project - reminds you of Stanley Ipkiss and the doormat phrase.

But thats what it is going to be for another 2 months and maybe this is not my cup of teas... oops coffee , I am in Chennai!!!

Chennaizombie

Thai manne vanakkam

Back on Indian soil and it feels great. Good food , bird watching etc etc...

The Seattle Space Needle

Finally got to visit the space needle.. Somewhat looks like a tall water tank but nice thing... considering it was built in 1962 or 67 .for more
The Space Needle


The Space Needle 

Chennaizombie

BTW if you are wondering about the skies .. thats the way it is all trhough and it was a dry and bright day byb Seattle standards....