The Delusion Of Being...

 

 

So we all know now that Sean Penn won the Academy Award for the Best Actor in a Leading role this year, but I’d like to write about another nominee who I thought deserved to get it that is Mickey Rourke for his exemplary performance as Randy "The Ram" Robinson in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler.

The Wrestler is a drama about an aging professional wrestler, Randy "The Ram" Robinson, decades past his prime, who now barely gets by working small wrestling shows and as a part-time grocery store employee. As he faces health problems that may end his wrestling career for good, he attempts to come to terms with his life outside the ring: by working full time at the grocery store, trying to reconcile with the daughter he abandoned in childhood and forming a closer bond with a stripper he has romantic feelings for. He struggles with his new life and an offer of a high-profile rematch with his 1980s arch-nemesis, The Ayatollah, which may be his ticket back to stardom.

The story at onset seems like the stuff any other sports/drama movie is made of. You sense, with somewhat of a dread, where all this is headed; but whatever The Wrestler is, you feel pretty sure it isn’t Rocky. The movie gives us a portrait of a man who has screwed up his life, and makes us resigned to the idea that we’re going to have to watch him screw up what’s left of it. While other films and film makers fail to see the obvious glory and resurrection of a fallen idol, Aronofsky does no such thing. He drags us through the pain, quiet heartbreak and dubious noisy triumphs as Ram steels himself and his buffed but disintegrating body for an ill-advised, delusional return to the wrestling ring. And grueling, gladiatorial rematches that many will find difficult not to cringe through, but will likely be too captivated by the sheer, if at times gigantic grit and determination of this insistent loser.

The real star of the enterprise is undoubtedly Mickey Rourke. The manner in which he embraces and delivers an excruciating performance so full of misery and mutilation because it's the sole source of remaining dignity and public admiration for this fiercely dedicated glutton for punishment, Rourke, is nothing less than extraordinary. And by the time he's taken us through the self-inflicted mind-numbing ordeals to the barbaric procedures of professional wrestling involving applied barbed wire, staple guns, ashcan bashing, bug spray and coronaries, one is pretty much vicariously beat.

Then there's also a tender and sad sidebar as Ram bares his bruised heart to an aging pole dancer (Marisa Tomei) at a local strip joint.  As Aronofsky keeps us on our toes wondering whether she's the real deal or stringing the infatuated lonely guy along, we're just as clueless. Tomei performs with great élan bringing an alarming sense of alacrity and frankness to her role providing the perfect foil for Rourke’s tormented and bruised psyche.

If anything, The Wrestler exposes the troublesome psychological, let alone physical damage of often destructive notions of masculinity in this culture of instant gratification that seep out of all those superhero fantasies crowding the screens. And at the same time adding to that list of survival essentials - food and shelter - the necessity of basic dignity and self-respect, even at a potentially fatal cost.

What adds to it all is the similarities between Rourke  and his character. Apparently drawing from his own life as a recognized actor who at the peak of his professional career made some disastrous choices (turning down roles such as Tom Cruise’s in Rain Man and many more) and entering the professional boxing arena in 1991 to  subsequently retire in 1995. His own personal graph almost mirrors the character he plays which adds so much more to the already poignant and powerhouse of a performance.

To sum up, the first thing that came to my mind after the movie was if Rourke doesn't grab an Oscar, there is no justice on this planet, simply for crushing the collective audience soul with the often wordless torment of this abrasive but brutally wounded creature.

 

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

-Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip

 

Accepting the fact that everyone makes mistakes is easier said than done. Everyone of us is taught our whole lives NOT to make mistakes and have often been trained or re-enforced negatively when a mistake is made. Perfection seems to be the target of most people in their work, relationships,and life. But we all know that’s not how life functions. We all know that we are bound to trip up sometime or the other. Even then most of us live in this continual fear of screwing up instead of focusing on doing things right to the best of our judgment.

We often misinterpret our errors as being weak. That is a MISTAKE. We as human beings are fallible and the sooner we understand it the calmer and less-frenzied we’ll be. I mean what’s the point of running after some imaginary ideal notion of how everything should be done. After all we should things as per what we think is right and wrong, not on some outdated society-defined-it-like-this-so-we-will-blindly-follow-it-without-even-racking-our-brains-sorta philosophy.

I for one feel that its only by failing do we really learn, because its when the things that you do blow up in your face, that you really try to think of alternatives. Otherwise we’ll just continue to live our non-descript lives in our own little comfy shells without ever trying out ANYTHING different. On the other hand we all should make decisions that have some risk, (not to be confused with false bravado), where mistakes are likely to happen. This is common in doing anything new and especially in things outside your comfort zone . You obviously don’t need to go looking to make mistakes, but putting yourself in new circumstances and trying out new things will inevitably lead to making mistakes.

I’ve had numerous fiascos (more than I sometimes wish!), and of course one feels crappy for a while but then to let that feeling of self-depreciation become a permanent handicap to trying to out anything even slightly out of the routine will render life completely mundane and pointless. And the funny thing about it is that when we look back at our bloopers, more often than not they turn out to be so-not wasting one’s time over!

I guess what I am trying to say is that its when we leave the fear of falling that we truly begin to live (I know that sounds corny but its true!). We should always be ready to trip once in a while, take it in our stride and not to fret over it too much. Yes, I have made a ton of mistakes but then I have gained a crap load of knowledge from all of my errors. The thing we gotta keep in mind is not to make the same mistake twice. That would just make us plain ol’ stoopid [:P]  

 

Cinema is truth at twenty-four frames a second.

- Jean-Luc Godard

 

They say some films have the power change lives. I always found that to be a highly exaggerated romantic notion until I saw American Beauty. Ever since I saw it for the first time (and several times after that), it has left a deep impression on my psyche forcing me self-reflect and take stock of my life. Don’t get me wrong, its not one of those dark and depressing films which just stress on what all is wrong with the world and the people that inhabit it etc. Instead its more along the lines of a black comedy/drama which interlaces the somber points with humour and the most basic human idiosyncrasies.

The film centers around Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) who is suffering a mid-life crisis that affects the lives of his family, which is made up of his super bitch of a wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) and rebelling daughter Jane (Thora Birch), who hates him. By the time American Beauty begins, the happy days are already over. Dad is cynical and depressed. Mom is burning herself out in her quest to be a professional success. And their daughter is lost, lonely, neglected, and she knows it. “I need a father that’s a role model,” she complains to her boyfriend Ricky (Peter Gallagher). She’s right. Her father, Lester Burnham, is a bitter jerk, hardened by days at the office, embittered by a marriage gone sour, and lusting after high school girls.  The fantastic thing about the film is even though all the characters so far from each other are on a common conquest. They all are in search of some or the other form of beauty and that is the central theme of the film. That beauty is to be found literally everywhere, even amidst immorality and deep suffering. The film is an artwork that invite you to see the whole world as art and grounds this aesthetic perspective in a dysfunctional American family set-up. American Beauty, like all great art, is a teacher. It teaches that moral ugliness can be part of something that is beautiful on the whole.

The real genius of the enterprise lies in looking beyond the very obvious flaws of human nature and delving deep into their concealed fears, insecurities, hopes, dreams and aspirations. It doesn’t portray its characters as some bullshitty imaginary people who are perfect in every sense and lead immaculate lives. Instead it revels in their imperfections because that’s how people are in real life. When an audience can relate to something, it is more likely to effect them. So realism, for me, has always meant something I could envision happening in the 'real' world. Movies are there to play on our emotions, and thus all tools with be used to achieve this task. We are meant to feel happy with the central character when he gets the girl, glad when he kills the villain, and sad when the villain comes back. The more real it seems, the more effective it is.

All the characters though haunted by their own personal demons are looking for happiness and the the definition of what it means to them is vastly different from each other. Happiness is slamming a plate of asparagus against the wall. It's telling your boss to shove it and making a vow to set to improving the way you look naked. Happiness, as illustrated by Kevin Spacey in American Beauty, is submitting to even the most trivial of your urges, if only for a little while. It's about lifting a middle finger to an all-too-oppressive society and smashing the prisons we build for ourselves.

Above all, American Beauty is about finding peace and a sense of wonder in the least likely of places, such as your inner torment or, failing, or perhaps even a floating plastic bag!

Happy Viewing!

There are only two things that parents in India think their kids can't get enough of - food and studies. So its not surprising that education is taken pretty seriously over here. I mean for a long time it has been the only gateway to what is known as a "good life".

So despite the emphasis (bordering on coercion) on studies, its kinda surprising (even shocking) to see the dismal state of education in our nation. From the absolute importance of rote learning, to the pathetic teaching standards, and the complete breakdown of teacher-student interaction (to name a few ailments), there are problems aplenty that plague the system. Lets take a bottom-up approach to the problem. From the minute you enter the school system, the importance of mugging up anything and everything is stamped upon your psyche, defying any sense of logic or rationale whatsoever. What can one expect out of such a system but dignified robots? Even at the secondary level things don't get any better. There's just no difference in the way the different streams are taught. Whether its the sciences, commerce, humanities its all the same. But the ranking order among them is widely prevalent. Choice among them is governed not by where the interest lies but by the trivial notion as to what makes more sense in terms of future security. Even at the higher education level, our universities fare no better. You don't need to be rocket scientist to figure out that graduation should include more than just run of the mill assignments, and exams which test no analytical skills but what one has been able to mug up a few days before.

One may wonder if there's so much that ails the system why isn't anyone making a big hue and cry about it? The answer to that is pretty simple, what everyone wants at the end of this "academic" hell ride is a "secure future" which basically implies a fatass package which is seen as the ultimate in life to be considered "successful". Its only thing we seem to care about. Instead of thinking about what one wants top do in life and then working towards it we take the reverse approach. People think just because we have BPOs, NRIs like Sabeer Bhatia, Vinod Dham, LN Mittal etc, the rest of the world values our abilities. But what we must realize is that these examples are few and far in between. In any case most of the Indians working abroad are working for foreign companies and not as entrepreneurs. They are basically EMPLOYEES and not EMPLOYERS.

One may say we've had a few people who have defied the norm and emerged path-breaking. Yes, we had. M. S. Swaminathan who made India self reliant in food grains, Dr. Varghese Kurien who is the father of Amul milk movement, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam who dared to build missiles for India, Pt. Ravishankar who is the ambassador of the Indian music to the world. Such people though in small numbers, were always there. But they are not the products of this education system. This system did not teach them how to become innovators or entrepreneurs or artists. Had it done so, they would have been millions in numbers. These people were inspired themselves. To some of them, their education may have given the technical know-how (though it is hardly conceivable), but not the dream or the inspiration needed. It is education which should inspire one to become something one really wants to. Education should make you free, should make you experiment and it should make you ask uncomfortable questions. Ultimately, it should make you realize what you are, which sadly our system doesn't.

"I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two
years."
Sam Kinison

Its that time of the year again, when the daily mail consists mainly beefy envelopes of wedding invitations. When “festivity” seems to be in the air and everyone even remotely related is partaking in the this magnificent event known as an “Indian Wedding”.

Don’t get me wrong here, people get married all over the world. But no where do they do it like we do it in India. The search for a suitable partner, followed by match-making, the billion pre-marriage rituals and customs that follow (ohk…maybe not a billion :P), which ultimately culminate in the probably the grandest spectacle on earth, the actual marriage ceremony!

I attended two such marriages last weekend back to back and it made me realize that if one cares to look beneath the surface of this meticulous and back-breaking exercise, it’s actually darn funny. I mean in a world where the need for marriage is itself a matter of debate, no one gives two hoots about it here. For us its the ONLY logical end of adult life which everyone must reach if they have to be accepted as an “honourable” member of the society and the seriousness with they are conducted bears a testament to this fact.

If anyone has any doubts if the recent global economic meltdown will have any effect in India they should just attend a wedding in India. The world maybe going ballistic with a new multi-billion dollar MNC going bankrupt everyday but that doesn’t seem to have upset our jolly good revelry in any way . In fact if anyone could be forgiven for mistaking us to be the most prosperous nation the world after seeing this vulgar and utterly useless display of wealth.

What's also interesting to note are the wide variety of bemusing characters one meets at a wedding. From the distant uncle who seems to have it all figured out and just can stop pointing out all he thinks you are doing are wrong with your life to the aunt who’ll just keep reminding how tall you’ve grown since she last saw you/ you maybe the next one on the altar/ how much her son earns blah blah (you get the drift, don’t you? ). Its bemusing to the point of being hilarious because at the end you realize that they were giving that free advice in all seriousness!

But at the end you can’t help but wonder does this tamasha really necessary? I mean marriage has just been reduced to a lousy form of social sanction nowadays. So why spend all that money, time and energy is a such a tedious procedure that has basically become redundant? I guess its up to individual discretion at the end. But then I can’t call them completely useless because it did give me something to write about!

After the prolonged delay of seventeen years and millions of dollars that must've gone into it, Guns N' Roses' sixth studio album, Chinese Democracy, has finally arrived. Pity those who bet on actual democray making it to China before singer Axl Rose (the band's sole remaining original member) allowed this project to see the light of day [:P]

For those who don't know them (if any), here's a quick recap. Guns N' Roses or GnR as we know them, is an American hard rock band, formed in California in 1985. The band, led by frontman and co-founder Axl Rose, has released six studio albums, two EPs and one live album during their career.

Guns N' Roses has sold an estimated 100 million albums worldwide, including over 42 million in the United States. The band's 1987 debut album Appetite for Destruction sold in excess of 28 million copies and reached number one on the United States Billboard 200 in addition to being the second highest selling debut album of all time. The 1991 albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II debuted on the two highest spots on the Billboard 200 and have sold a combined 14 million copies in the United States alone. After over a decade of work, the band released their follow-up album, Chinese Democracy, in 2008 (though only a sole member of the original line-up remained i.e. Rose).

Therefore it comes as no surprise that Chinese Democracy was one of the most anticipated records of this year or any year for that matter. A whole generation of rock lovin' fellas like me have literally grown up on Guns N' Roses. It has been the definitive version of what rock means for the better of late 80s and early 90s. The band's unique sound which can be at best described as a fusion of heavy metal, punk rock, blues and good old rock n' roll has won them fans world over. From the legendary riffs spawned by the sheer genius guitaring of Slash to the inspirational song-writing and vocals of Axl Rose, it was brilliance personified.

Fans have long complained about Guns N' Roses still existing in the absence of Slash, Izzy, and even Duff, partially out of their talents, partially out of their iconography, and partially because there's no evidence Axl was an auteur figure who could work without his supporting cast. Judging from the personnel involved in the making of Chinese Democracy-- there were 18 musicians in all, not including orchestra players or the more than 30 who provided engineering and ProTools assistance- it may be more appropriate now to think of Guns N' Roses as a free-floating creative project.

So the question on everyone's mind was, will the new record live up to the massive expectations? And the verdict? Well, its a mixed bag to say the least. Gone are the days of pulse thumping guitar riffs or the soul searching vocals. What comes across is the Axl Rose's leaning towards electronica and pre-fabricated sound. In a lotta ways its not the Guns N' Roses we know. Initially, it's exciting to hear modern rock rendered in such operatic largess, but the album ultimately proves inconsequential, a middle-aged symphony to nowhere.

But amongst the debris of this album what rises like a phoenix is the sheer prodigious talent that Axl Rose still possesses. The talent which has not been diminished by his on-stage antics, drug abuse or (in)famously gigantic and self-destructive ego. Rose is obstinate as ever even at 46, jeering at how meek music has become in his prolonged absence: ''You talk too much/You say I do/Difference is nobody cares about you.'' he brags on ''Sorry.'' Whatever you may think of him, he's the last of his kind. The larger than life kind of individuals who have the power to baffle as well as stun people with the enormity of their art.

Many believe that if it wasn't the greatest album ever released, it would be seen as a complete failure. Chinese Democracy needed to be a spectacle-- something that either validated its tortuous breeding process or a disaster so horribly criticized it would somehow validate Rose as a misunderstood genius. It turns out to be neither and seems like somewhat of a letdown save for Rose's comeback.

Some people are of the opinion that every citizen of the free world should have a say in electing the president of the United States of America. This is primarily based on the notion that in such a unipolar world any change in the America has a snowball effect in the rest of the world, and its not that preposterous an assumption too (the recent recession in the American economy being a prime example). So it can be safely said that whenever Uncle Sam sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold!

So when America goes to polls on the fourth of November, the only question on everyone's mind is who is going to be the next occupant of the White House. Is it going to be Vietnam War Veteran and former PoW, the 72 years old John McCain or the Harvard Law School and Columbia University graduate, 47 years old senator from Illinois, Barrack Obama ?

Whatever be the result, this presidential election has been historic in more than one ways. I mean after 9/11 who could have ever imagined that a man who goes by the name of Barrack Hussein Obama would be the front runner in the 2008 presidential race! In no other country on the planet is there more scrutiny and such fierce competition to get elected. Not only do the candidates have to fight with candidates from the rival party, as the Obama-Hilary face off showed us that the fight to win one's own party's nomination is no less intense indeed! Thereafter the the candidates are put through a grueling series of presidential debates, door to door canvassing, cross country campaigns etc. to finally emerge victorious. They are grilled on a wide range of issues which affect the American people in specific and the world in general.

If pre-election surveys are any indication then Senator Obama is going to be the next President of the United States (POTUS). Although the race was neck to neck till early September the recent meltdown in the economy has ironically helped Obama surpass McCain in all opinion polls, with leads ranging from one per cent (AP/GFK) to an unassailable eleven per cent (ABC News/Washington Post). Even the national average corroborates the fact by putting him ahead by 5.7 per cent. A deficit that's wide enough for most Americans to start believing that they are on the brink of electing the first African-American (read black) president in their nation's history. The general belief among them is that he'll be their messiah who'll lead them from the hellish reign of the Bush administration to a new Democratic tomorrow.

So is the result a foregone conclusion then, as it seems Sen. Obama has both the numbers and the general support of the people to back his bid? I would say NO. And the reasons for my stance are multiple.

Firstly we must understand some vital nuances of the way in which the President is elected in the United States. The most important thing is that the he/she is not elected directly by the people but by an electoral college, which is basically constituted by a group of electors. On Election Day, voters in each state, by casting their votes for the President, actually choose the quota of electors who will vote for the voter's preferred candidate. Secondly there's always a possibility that a candidate may poll more votes and yet lose (has happened thrice already)! Like in 2000, when George W. Bush won some states with slender margins and lost a few heavily. Thus he had the electors in bag but not the popular vote. Third and the last but the most important of all is, Hypocrisy. Despite all the right noises being made about how they are comfortable with electing a black man with a Muslim middle name to the office of the president and race being a complete non-issue in this election etc etc, its all nothing but hogwash. Deep down inside like the rest of us, Americans are basically hypocrites. They may give all the right soundbites but historically have been known to be extreme xenophobes. Despite questions about his age, the policy on Iraq, the ridiculous choice for vice-president (Sarah Palin) and the gap between him and Obama, what could work in McCain's favour, is his military career, international affairs experience and most importantly his American-ness. After all Americans would definitely feel more comfortable under a more American sounding John Sidney McCain rather than a Barrack Hussein Obama.

Although it will definitely feel amiss to not choose a winner, I'd rather leave that to the American people as a Litmus test to whether they can see beyond their tinted vision and really vote for change. In spite of what actually happens one things certain though, its only in America that you can win and.......still lose!

For the uninitiated, Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name "Majesty" by John Myung (bassist) , John Petrucci (guitarist, chief lyricist) and Mike Portnoy (drummer), while they attended music college in Boston, before they dropped out to continue as a full fledged band. The present line-up after a series of changes also includes James LaBrie (lead singer) and Jordan Rudess (keyboardist).

Dream Theater has become successful in the progressive metal genre in spite of the decline in popularity of the genre as a whole. Although the band has only had a handful of successful hits ("Pull Me Under" is the band's only notable radio hit yet), they have a dedicated fan following. The band is well known for the technical superiority of its band members who have won many accolades from experts. Dream Theater's members have collaborated with many other notable musicians.

Keeping aside their obvious brilliance, I must confess that the first time I ever listened to Dream Theater I didn't like it much despite being an avid follower of rock and metal. But when I gave it a second listen after a couple of months when friend recommended their recently launched greatest hits album, Greatest Hit (...and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs), I was totally hooked. From "As I Am" to "Peruvian Skies" to "Hollow Years" and the ilk, it was sheer brilliance all the way. So I got listening to their previous work and it was the same reaction all over again.

At the center of Dream Theater’s prog-metal whirlpool is composer, chief lyricist, co-producer, and guitarist extraordinaire John Petrucci. Listening to Petrucci play is similar to witnessing an epic artwork being created. The ideas expressed are his alone, but the sources—Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen etc —are well cited. It was no surprise then, when Petrucci was summoned by Satriani to be part of the annual G3 collective and has since been named as the third player on the G3 tour six times, more than any other invited guitarist.

Mike Portnoy is not less accomplished himself. Known for his drumming prowess, Portnoy has won 23 awards from the Modern Drummer Magazine and has also been writing a substantial amount of Dream Theater's lyrics. He is the second youngest person (after Neil Peart) to be inducted into the Modern Drummer''s Hall of Fame (at 37 years of age).

As for what "progressive metal" actually means, it can be best summed by what once Petrucci said in an interview.

"First off, there are no boundaries in this style. Within any given song, you can change direction any which way you want. You can have a jazz section, a ragtime breakdown, and then a full-on metal assault. Also, the songs tend to be longer, because you can be more creative with arrangements. You don’t have to stick to a strictly verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus format. There’s also a more intense musicality. Everyone’s musical ability is used to the fullest."

So, what can one expect from these guys in the future? Well only they have the exact answer but what I think (and hope) is that they keep churning out stuff similar in theme and treatment to what earned them a worldwide cult following that bought several million of the band’s CDs and DVDs at a time when they were still mainly an underground phenomenon.


(Fact and figures courtesy of Wikipedia)

Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good.
-Soren Kierkegaard

I couldn't agree more! For centuries idleness and its followers have been discriminated against. From being called sluggish, indolent, lazy, slothful and the like to being treated as the scumbags of the society, Idle Inc. [:P] has taken enough enough shit. Maybe now's the time to take an alternate view to the whole phenomenon. Its time to ask some earth-shattering questions. Is "idleness" really that sinister its made out to be or does it have some conceivable use too (this blog being an apt example). If Mr. Kierkegaard, the prolific 19th century Danish philosopher and theologian said the opening lines of this post, he must have his reasons. So lets take a look the confessions of an idle, shall we?

First and foremost lets try and define work. According to Bertrand Russell: "Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid. The second kind is capable of indefinite extension: there are not only those who give orders, but those who give advice as to what orders should be given."

If that doesn't make any sense, let me simplify it for you. Not all work is good and nor all the the time spent doing nothing a total waste. I mean what good is the work, if you don't get the time to savour its fruits? The real problem lies in the fact that we let our lives be governed by too many illogical and impractical rules without ever giving a thought to the purpose they serve. And the facet is that most of these rules are sort of inherited from our peers when we should be making our own rules which are complementary to each one of us as individuals. One of my favorite lines in a movie ever was the opening dialogue to the 1996 British cult film Trainspotting:

"Choose a Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments............ But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?"

Leaving apart the part about dope, the reality is what we think is the time spent in "work" is just spent in emulating what others have done instead of carving out new paths. Being idle gives you the time to think about what you need to do to make your time on this planet more productive.

I would argue not only that early rising is totally unnatural but also that lying in bed half awake - sleep researchers call this state "hypnagogic" - is positively beneficial to health and happiness. A good morning doze of half an hour or more can, for example, help you to prepare mentally for the problems and tasks ahead. As to how on earth going early to bed could automatically guarantee riches and happiness, I suppose nothing can be proved, but I guess I'd rather find it out myself than half-blindly ape what others think is "right".

Greatness and late rising are natural bedfellows. Late rising is for the independent of mind, the individual who refuses to become a slave to work, money, ambition. In his youth, the great poet of loafing, Walt Whitman, would arrive at the offices of the newspaper where he worked at around 11.30am, and leave at 12.30 for a two-hour lunch break. Another hour's work after lunch and then it was time to hit the town. But then at the same time it should be noted that what worked for him may or may not give the same results when you or I try it. So its better to try out what we think is apt for us rather than acting like mere sheep in a herd.

In the end I'd like to end with the words of Anton Chekhov, Russian short-story and playwright, considered to be one of the greatest short-story writers in world literature :

"Life does not agree with philosophy: There is no happiness that is not idleness, and only what is useless is pleasurable."

Happy idling away!

First of all apologies for being M.I.A. for a few weeks (damn you frickin' mid-sems). Now that the formalities are out of the way, here's a new post.

I would like to make it clear from the very onset that I am one of those who firmly believe in the adage, "I don't believe in GOD, I believe in Al Pacino". So when it was finalized that that Pacino is going to team up up with the almost (if not equally) talented Robert De Niro, cinema aficionados across the planet waited in bated breath for Righteous Kill.

The reason for the above is the absolute brilliance of the two leads. Robert De Niro is often regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time, and has also been called one of the most enigmatic. He is noted for his method acting portrayals of conflicted, troubled characters - as well as gangsters - and for his enduring collaboration with director Martin Scorsese.

Al Pacino on the other hand, is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors of all time. He is well known for his roles as Michael Corleone in the The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Carlito Brigante in the 1993 film Carlito's Way, Frank Serpico in Serpico, and Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1992 after being nominated 7 times beforehand for various roles.

Righteous Kill would seem, on the surface, to be the movie a lot of people have been waiting for. Although stars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino were both in The Godfather Part II, they shared no scenes together. They did share the same space in Heat, but only for a memorable face-off. Now they team up for an an entire movie - a cop thriller at that. It should be the stuff cinematic fantasies are made up of. Shouldn't it?

As I sat in the theater watching the drama unfold, the thing that shocked me most was how the movie felt like some cheap straight-to-DVD thriller. The production values - from cinematography to editing to musical score, you name it - barely make the cut. What's needed to make a film like this work is, some sense of coherence and internal logic, which it absolutely lacks. What makes things even worse (if that was possible), is the fact that you can guess the killer's true identity a good thirty minutes before the movie ends, which can never augur well for a flick of this genre.

I'm not saying this was the worst movie ever to have been made, but definitely was a poorly executed and very predictable thriller that could have been done with average actors. Both the screen legends are above these sort of shoddy scripts which do no justice to their talent and charisma. If there's anything that marginally redeems Righteous Kill, it's the pairing of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. This does not represent the best work from either of them but isn't half bad also. Both deliver gritty performances but there's only that little that you can do with such a substandard product.

People are going to expect a lot more from such formidable match-up than Righteous Kill can ever hope to give. Putting these two actors in a film, promises something hard-hitting and maybe even unforgettable. But it fails miserably (sigh!). But the thing that ultimately sealed it for me, was the fact that the longer the movie went on, the more I disliked it.

Pray!

Go through your phone book, call people and ask them to drive you to the airport. The ones who will drive you are your true friends. The rest aren't bad people; they're just acquaintances.

- Jay Leno

Well I am not sure how many of us can claim to have such friends in this age when most of our lives have been divided into two distinct components, the “real” and the “virtual”, with the latter dominating in most cases. And thus can be explained the phenomenal rise of the social networking websites. Almost everyone one knows is on them. Sadly for enthusiasts of the English language words like “facebooking” and “orkutting” (wtf?) have become common parlance. So are these sites really the villains they are so often made out to be? Let’s see.

Well the incident dates back to early August. It was my cousin’s birthday. Since he puts up in the hostel of the engineering institute he studies in, he was not at home (or so I thought). So I tried his cell phone, which was not reachable. So I sat wondering on how to do this unseemly task of wishing him on his special day. So here’s a brief timeline of what happened.

9^th August, 2008

10:30 am: I am at my wits end after having exhausted all possible options to contact him.

3:30 pm: I suddenly have a brainwave (the possibility of which happening is smaller than a sighting of Halley’s comet). So I log into my Facebook account and search for him (hadn’t even done that as of yet). So I find him without breaking into much of a sweat because he has a pretty uncommon name (my appreciation for his parents grows many fold). Then I add him up hoping he checks his account today (fingers crossed).

10:15 pm: As I log in to my inbox expectantly my a huge wave of relief sweeps over me as I receive the mail that he has confirmed me as a friend [:D]. As quickly as my fingers can type I wish him by posting on his wall (just made it).

11:30 pm: I catch him online and tell him of my adventures [:P] of the day and all that I had to do to wish him. So he listens to me and then says, “Why didn’t you just come downstairs and meet. I was at home today” (He puts up just a floor below me). And I was left speechless!

So that was that. And the world was never as small as it seemed. I guess sometimes its best to do things the old fashioned way.

All hail Mark Zuckerberg!

I have been observing a very strange phenomenon for the past few months. Wherever I go, whether it’s the Metro , a mall, a park, or any public place for that matter, I find people carrying a copy of The 3 Mistakes of My Life, the latest from the best selling yuppie Indian author Chetan Bhagat. You may wonder why do I call it strange? After all reading books is by and large a healthy habit. It is, agreed, but one also has to acknowledge the fact that in a country like ours the only kind of books people (especially students) are encouraged to read are the academic kinds. Therefore you could call it a welcome change too.

Now if you have been following the critical response to the three books he’s written you would’ve observed that its largely been unfavourable. The literary critics have lambasted him left, right and center. They’ve called his writing unbelievably amateurish, his grammar elementary and his subject matter pedestrian, to say the least.

Well leaving that aside for a moment lets looks at some hard facts. He is by far India's best selling author in English. His book, Five Point Someone has achieved an unparalleled cult status among the youth. The second one, One Night@ The Call Centre is all set to be major motion picture and the third one is on the top of the popularity charts (yet again).

Seems like a paradox, doesn't it? What secret code has this IIT-D and IIM-A alumnus cracked that has changed the face of Indian writng in English forever? Although i don't claim to have THE answer, I do have some of my own reasons which might justify this trend.

The unique thing about Chetan Bhagat is that all those points on which he has been criticized have turned out to be the very reason his runaway success. From the almost prose like elementary English which everyone can understand, to the affordability of his books (each at a flat rate of Rs. 95) have contributed immensely to his success. In him the youth see an Icon who writes for them and in the kind of language they understand and not as a pretentious snot focusing on a non-descript minority. That's why they back him to the hilt.

See I am nowhere close to being a fan of his style, but then that, like the critics opinion of him, is irrelevant. He may never be as accomplished a writer as Frederick Forsyth, Jeffrey Archer,Mario Puzo,Paulo Coelho and other international favourites. Hell, his style of writing not even be as suave as many of the accomplished Indian authors in English like Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth, Vikram Chandra,V.S. Naipaul etc. but then he doesn't really have to worry about these comparisons because at the end public opinion is not swayed by literary snob value. Its all about what they can identify with....

Happy Reading !

So here I am, sitting on a fine Friday night, contemplating in all seriousness on how my time can be utilized in a more judicious sense (which rarely ever happens). And then I suddenly awaken to my pseudo sense of guilt (whose origins can probably be traced back to my incorrigible leaning towards procrastination). I recall having thought of starting a blog many moons ago, among the million other things that I promise myself each single day of my existence on this planet. So to cut to the chase, I finally kick started the proceedings in all earnestness only to be stuck wondering about the very reason I am doing this.

Why do I want to write a blog anyways? Is it because I have too many things running through my mind? Or is it because I need people’s validation for my thoughts and opinions? Or can it be the insane amount of free time engineering offers me that I got drawn to it :D? Well the truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle of all this. It could be due to all of the above or none of them. But then is that really important? I have no clue, but what I do know is that I am doing this to sort of simplify the systematic chaos (due apologies to Dream Theater, awesome album guys, by the way) that exists in me and my milieu.

So what are the posts going to be like? Hmmm, to be real honest with you, I am just as clueless as you! The only characteristics that all of them will share are that they are going to be completely indiscriminate, forthright, opinionated, at times sarcastic, to say the least. And most important of all, will offer a glimpse into the random mosaic that is me. Off I go now hoping for an illuminating experience further. So, if you have been, thanks for reading….

Cheers!