Overhead Transmission...

How do you define ...

2009-10-07T02:20:00.012+05:30

Last year on 15th August, in a sudden bout of irrational exuberance (maybe it was the freedom in the air) I bought a book called "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas Hofstadter. One look at the name and you know it's way out of your league (at least my league). Heck, even the author's name is hard to pronounce. And it's big. I mean BIG. Bigger than Tannenbaum's Computer Networks!!

Wait, it's not over yet. The name of the book comes from mathematician Kurt Gödel (and his various works, mainly the Incompleteness Theorems), artist M. C. Escher (and his various surreal and bizarre artwork), and composer J. S. Bach (aaand his music, what else!).

So mathematics. Set theory, number theory, logic and etc and etc and etc. Rejected.

Western. Classical. Music. Scale, key, sonata, fugue (!), point, counterpoint... phew... Rejected.

Art. Hmmmm... Drawings and paintings of figures and buildings and structures. Albeit not your usual drawing, but still drawings. I can live with that.

So that's how my journey in that big and scary world of GEB started. Selective reading. When its skimming the surface it is OK. Certain parts makes sense. And you are delighted with the occasional insight when you happen to catch them. When it goes too deep into theorems or fugues (whatever that is), just jump to the next chapter.

Now you will wonder why on earth somebody will write a book on a mathematician, a musician and an artist. Well, GEB actually a book on logic and intelligence. and it touches the subject of A.I. at the end. To do that he takes help of various devices, namely those works which I mentioned. But also, other mind-bogglingly diverse things. Zen Koans, and poems and puzzles (of course), ancient Greek paradoxes and what not are used to show what a weird thing our mind is. The basic idea is to analyze our thought process, and recognize the very very complex things goes inside our thinking, which is just ordinary and taken-for-ranted when we do not notice. But if you want to define it, or formalize it, make a rule/formula/theory out of it... all hell breaks lose.

Does our mind have to have a theory? Yes, if you think of us as rational beings taking intelligent decisions based on the problems given to us. At least most of the time (emotions and other 'irrational' things like love etc is kept out of picture). It has to follow a logic. A pattern. And if there is a logic, it should be representable. By means of equations, matrices, algorithm, C/C++... whatever.

But, how our mind works, how we perceive and communicate even simple and ordinary events and objects, is complex to the core. Something which is seemingly organised and structured like language, becomes a huge task to feed into a machine.

GEB shows these things with little stories and ongoing dialogues between a few 'odd' characters. For example, the tale of a dog and a bone separated by a fence is used to describe problem solving and a related topic of problem reduction. Tommy can see the bone but can't cross the fence. So he runs to the fence and start barking, maybe jumping around a bit. Jimmy is a more intelligent dog, who runs along the fence, finds an opening few meters away and bingo, gets the prize.

You see in physical sense, path taken by Jimmy is a longer path, but in an abstract so-called 'problem-space' it is the shortest (maybe only) path. If we represent the locations by nodes, the direct path between starting node and 'bone-node' is infinite, and the path Jimmy takes, start-node to opening-in-fence-node to bone-node is of a finite value say x+y. The key is to imagine this abstract space and then calculate the paths (there can be two openings in the fence and then you need to see which opening is near, x+y or w+z).

We do this every time. To go from 2nd floor to ground floor, we don't go the nearest window and jump (unless you are Rajnikant). We find the nearest staircase, walk down, again walk little bit left or right and reach the target. Our mind creates a complicated graph of nodes and paths and corresponding distances immediately. Things become more complex when you need to go from Jayanagar to Hebbal at 6 pm on a Thursday. Lots of paths and nodes and variables, including everchanging one-ways and road-blocks for Namma Metro!

So, how do you 'define' a problem is the first and toughest step. Computers (i.e. programs) are good at calculating inside a given problem-space. But to break down a given real-life problem into abstract (and mathematical) notations is difficult. And of course many at times the first break-down may not be correct. We go along the way and realize this is going nowhere. We sit back and look at the whole thing from top and find a new approach (remember trigonometry problems in +2?). Sometimes that requires going a few steps back and starting once again.

GEB describes this birds-eye-view state as I-mode ('I' for intelligent), where you take stop what you were doing, have a look at the path taken so far and try to see where you will end up in this way. Whereas solving the problem step-by-step in a predetermined way is M-mode ('M' for mechanical). We constantly switch between these modes.

In general, we human beings are good at looking at things/events from a distance, finding a pattern and realities there is something wrong or right (or just simply strange) with it. Maybe we are reaching the same place again and again. Maybe there is a shortcut. Recognizing there is a 'sameness' in apparently dissimilar events which we haven't notice before. Is there a better approach hidden nearby... The whole history of invention and discoveries are based on these basic methods. The key point here is to see the pattern, to realize the sameness. Can you teach that to a computer. To find the pattern...

But then, how do you define 'sameness'?

It is an ever growing list of "How do you define ...". Big brains at big places are breaking their big heads on these things. Just to get grasp of nothing but ourselves. We know 'it', we do 'it', but how... exactly how do we do it!! GEB does not give an answer but describes the problems and complexities related to the job.

So far I have read around 20% of the book (in a whole year). Don't ask about understanding (5%?). As I told, it's way out of my league. But you find gems here and there which makes you wonder about what is going inside this thick skull of ours. My arduous journey continues and will go on for very long time.

In any case, what's the use of spending 500/- plus for a book and finishing it in two weeks! GEB will stay for long in the currently-reading list. Really long. And that's not a bad thing in my book... :)

[Pics courtesy Wikipedia]

Quizas Quizas Quizas

2009-08-24T22:56:00.004+05:30

I wanted to write something on the films for some times. I am downloading and watching films left-right-and-center, taking full advantage of a real broadband connection. But the eternal question looms, write on what and what to write...

And then I came across Baradwaj Rangan's latest in-between-review piece. I just saw the accompanying picture and the name of the director given at the end, I knew I had to see this. Afraid it might spoil the fun, i skipped the article altogether (which is BTW, great as always, I read it later). One necessary announcement here: Baradwaj Rangan is the bestest film-critic in our country right now. Period.

Now, where was I... Yes, the film. It is "In the Mood for Love" by Wong Kar Wai. I have heard a lot about Wong Kar Wai and saw his very famous "Chungking Express" a month before. Misfit, quirky characters, old music, love and loneliness and of course Wai's signature frames with stylistic light and color. Me likes. One look at the scene and you know it has to be Wai. You'll know what I mean when you see his films.

Music plays a very significant part in Wai's films. I can not imagine Chungking Express without "California Dreamin" playing in loud volume in the background and whenever I hear the song I can see Faye playing with aeroplane inside the aquarium.

Anyway, I was going in a tangent about something else, whereas I wanted to talk about "In the Mood for Love". Now what to say about that? Will it suffice to say that this is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen?

Frankly speaking it is very difficult to describe this film. It is a story set in sixties Hong Kong, where Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow, along with their respective spouses, rent rooms in opposite flats (Wai likes tiny apartments and narrow staircases... maybe in confined spaces, we feel closer to his characters). Their paths cross time and again as they deal with their lonely lives, suspicious of their partner's infidelity. But they can't fall in love with each other. As Chow tells, "We are not like them", and in short that's what the film is. Of not falling in love. Or is it the opposite...

What makes more difficult to describe this film, is its beauty... almost like poetry on camera, which is, as the cliche goes 'seen to be believed'. How can a simple walk down the steps can become magical with use of slow motion and music? How do you describe the sadness captured in the slow patterns of white cigarette smoke? How on earth background score can elevate a simple sequence into masterpiece?

"In the Mood for Love" is nothing if you remove the music. Be it the melancholic theme music (youtube link) or earnest but sad Quizas Quizas Quizas (which means "Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps"), it seems the script is written for the music, not the other way around.

The film never hurries around. Small small incidents, snippets of conversation and the languid pace. As if the time is stopped and the viewer is not much aware of the real time line, unless we are shown explicitly like "Hong Kong 1963". It's a film which never rushes even in its 90 min of length. It takes it time, makes you feel what they are feeling, the desperation, the sadness, the loneliness. It reminded me of Murakami's novels, the feeling of longing and slowing down the flow of time (although Murakami is totally surreal, almost in a parallel universe).

"In the Mood for Love" leaves you sad and silent for a long time after it ends, with the songs remaining inside your head. And believe me, it will go on for a long time.

A small film, with a small story, perfect for keeping inside your heart, maybe to revisit some time later.

Quizas quizas quizas...

The Giant at the Gate

2009-07-30T21:52:00.003+05:30

No this is not about the giant installed at Tokyo-bay. Rather it is about the the friendly neighborhood giant, entering the hallowed gardens, where the Gnu roams and FOSS grows...

Err... Sorry for the rather long and cheesy intro (sometimes I feel like those Aaj Tak reporters). I am talking about giants like Google entering the open source domains and what it means for open source.

First a disclaimer. I am not an expert in SW industry, not an activist fighting for open source, neither one of those extremely talented volunteers by whose code the juggernaut runs... My perspective is purely from an interested user point of view. You know, neither novice ("will it explode if I press enter?"), nor geek ("let's hack the kernel"), somewhere in-between ("registry edit to re-enable pen-drive in office computer") kinda user.

Let's talk about the open source software first. For a long time the open source community has raged a war against the big money corporations (read Microsoft), criticizing their monopolistic and unethical (read greedy and evil) practices. They have argued how software should be free (free as in free speech, not free beer).

Along the way, they have managed to create some really great products. Projects like Linux and Firefox are two most well known examples out of numerous ones. It is now possible to do almost anything (personal use or business use) using only free/open-source SW.

They have changed the mindset of lots and lots people. Being open source has become cool, something like going green. Heck, even MS has announced release of an online version of Office 2010 for free. Free! From Microsoft!! The community may not have been able to change the world as much as they wanted, but they have a made a big and tangible difference. And we are the beneficiaries of that change.

It would be wrong to assume these people as like-minded members some club of geeks coding for the progress of mankind. They have their differences. Disagreements and sometimes heated arguments are common. The topics can be anything: naming (Linux vs GNU/Linux), proposed feature (remove the menu bar in Firefox or not), implementations (move xyz from security framework and put it in memory management), exact licensing policy (GPL vs Creative Commons), and above everything the actual philosophy of the project (powerful and flexible vs lean and simple). You might have seen and/or experienced the problems in projects tightly managed by PMs and leads etc. Imagine the chaos in a project run by hundreds of volunteers across the globe with a handful of administrators. But amazingly still targets are achieved, products are released, bugs are fixed.

One of the major philosophy here is "where's the patch?". Which means if you think something is not to your liking then change it. Do it yourself and show how it should be done. But along with the obvious benefits, it causes indirect problems. Fragmentation. Nobody knows exactly how many flavors of UNIX (or Unix?) are available right now... BSD, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris and of course Linux with its children.

Well, Linux was a boon actually. Despite of its various distributions and packages, it slowly emerged as the flag-bearer of UNIX. Red Hat became the dominant player in the server side. For desktop we had to wait a bit longer. And then came Ubuntu, which is taking over the Linux-PC market. Maybe, just maybe, the time has come, when at least the home desktop market will embrace Linux, slowly but steadily.

Things are almost same in the browser market. Netscape may have been killed by IE. But its offspring Firefox started growing. Now Firefox commands some 20-25% market share, which was once 100% IE.

So good so far good.

The garden is blossoming. People are taking notice of it. More gardeners and also more visitors.

And then Google happened. And kept happening. Now we have a new giant in the field other than MS. But a different one. This once is friendly. The smiling kind. Kids like it. It even watered some of the trees (see Mozilla-Google partnership).

But enough of supporting and cheering. "Let's play" it said. So within a very short time we have the Chrome browser and Chrome OS (will be released next year). Both open source. Chrome OS is Linux-based and targeted to the desktop market.

Is it good? Now that Google is a competitor of Mozilla how long will it continue the funding? Do we really need another browser and another OS, when strong alternatives are already available. Of course they can be made stronger. And Google could help in that. Open source community will do a lot well with the full strength (financial and technical) of the giant behind it.

The criticism is louder for the OS. Many feel the best thing Google could have done is embracing Ubuntu wholeheartedly. Lots of people who never heard of UNIX or bothered about Linux will readily accept a Google promoted Ubuntu (Gubuntu anyone?).

There is also one more thought. How much mainstream (mass-market) you want to become? Let's face it. An Anurag Kashyap movie will never be as big as Karan Johar, so why try. Let's keep the niche market, get the film festival awards and imdb rating, along with a small amount of profit to keep everybody happy. But becoming big has its rewards. Everybody likes fame. Like Bollywood stars 'number one' is a medal all of us craves, irrespective of how many times you say "I don't believe in the number game".

Firefox is facing these choices. The original thought was FF will be lean, fast and secure browser. You want bells and whistles and the blinking lights? Install an extension (add-on in FF lingo). But the average user does not want to search for add-on. They don't know what an add-on is and they are not bothered. For them if the feature is there... good. Otherwise it sucks. You have to maintain a balance. And it's difficult. I have been crawling the Mozilla forums and threads for sometime, and you will be amazed to see the intense debate and conflicting opinions for almost every single topic ("If you do this, I will never use Firefox again" is very common).

What about Ubuntu? I have started using it. Just one week or so. It's good. Really good. And it's legally free. But it has usability issues (some of them just because we are too used to Windows). But installing new SW sometimes caues problems where you have enter some string in repository, update packege list, type some commands in terminal or worse you will get tar file which you need to unzip and compile and then install. I am still getting used to it.

And usability is one area where Google can really contribute. There is the fear that, in the long run Google will not adhere to the open source guidelines, they will try to favor their own products and services. In one word they will become the Big Brother where your life starts and ends with Google.

Nobody knows what the future will be. But I think if Google becomes too big to be comfortable we will see some new start up to come and dislodge the incumbent. That's how it has happened and that's the way the industry (I think others industries too) work. Today you buy any laptop and it will be with Vista, which means you are paying 3.5-5K (maybe more) for the price of OS. Getting one with free DOS is rare and while you do get pirated XP/Vista easily, using them in long run will cause more and more problems (updating, getting security patches, installing SW is becoming difficult). If five years down the line we see more and more computers with easy-to-use nominally-priced/free OS, where most of the SW works in open standards, where the user can pick and choose SW from a bunch of free and premium offerings it will be great.

I know it sounds too Utopian or idealistic. But definitely the Web has changed our lives. And it will continue to do so. At the end it is us who are building it, who are participating and who are getting the benefit. Who would have thought about it five years back? And this can happen everywhere.

I will wait and see if things get better. And till that time i have Firefox and Ubuntu. :) Anyway, I think this post is already too long. Thanks a lot if you have come so far reading this junk. Comments are welcome. I am sure you have something to say about browsers or OS or Google or anything you feel like. Just type it here.

Whose Song is This?

2009-03-27T23:40:00.001+05:30

A few months back, one Sunday morning, I was channel-surfing, and caught this documentary showing in NDTV (they have this Documentary@24X7 program aired every Sunday around 11 or so). The original name of the film was "Cia e tazi pesen ?" which means "Whose is this song ?" made by one Bulgarian lady named Adela Peeva. The documentary was in Bulgarian, subtitle was on.

Adela once heard one song being sung in some restaurant in Sophia, and her friends, who were all from different but neighboring countries, claimed the original song is from their country. Original song here means the original tune, because, in different versions the song has completely different lyrics, ranging from romantic to patriotic, of course in the language of that country. So our director became very interested and started her journey across the region to find out what is the actual origin of this song.

Now the region we are talking about is known as the Balkans, comprising countries like Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, parts of Turkey, some not-so-known names like Macedonia, Albania and some known-for-wrong-reasons names like Bosnia and Kosovo. All these countries have shared histories, ethnic groups like Serbs, Slavs and Turks spread around the region, dominated by religions like Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholic Christianity and Islam. At some point of time or other all were ruled by Greeks and some other point they were part of the Turkish empire.

Unfortunately, people do not see this as some kind of beautiful cultural harmony among themselves. The recent history is full of wars, ethnic violence, genocide and border tensions. All of us heard about Bosnia and Kosovo.

All this made the documentary rather interesting. Which was just a song, became some kind of national pride especially when confronted with the claim that the neighbors say it is their song.

How can they!! We have heard this song in our childhood.

My great-great-grandmother knew this song.

Don't listen to those people. They are nothing but thieves. After looting our country, now they want to steal our culture too!!!

These were some of the reactions which Adela heard when she went to people with her tape-recorder. At times, the situation became really heated as you can imagine.

I found this trailer in youtube which gives you an idea what I am talking about. Have a look (or click here to view in youtube).

You can also see the full movie in Google Video (here).

In the end, the search remained inconclusive. There is no definite answer. But as you can guess, that was not the point. The point is people are much more closer to each other than they would like to believe.

As much as we hate some people or denounce their contribution, the fact remains, our culture, tradition, art, all are product of a collective effort and that makes it so rich. We fight endlessly on who created this and that, overlooking the beauty of the creation in the first place and how can we share it better among ourselves.

Now, the most interesting part (at least from my point of view). What really got me hooked to film, is that I have heard this tune before. In a Bengali song!! A very well-known at that. So now... it is my chance to claim this song...

If you are a bong and seen the trailer above, you must have guessed which song I'm talking about. It is "Shukno Patar Nupur Paye" by Kazi Nazrul Islam. Check out the song at youtube in this link. I had an mp3 from nazrul.org but the site is not opening anymore.

Although for bengalis, the name Nazrul does not need any introduction, others will do well to click the link. Nazrul can be termed as the most popular Bengali poet/song-writer after Tagore. Having a very large body of work (poetry, song, essay, novels), it is mainly his songs (known as Nazrul-Geeti) which have endured the test of time. Nazrul is known for introducing Arabic and Persian influence in his poetry and music. He is considered the pioneer in this regard.

We can guess, he picked up the tune for this particular song, during his posting in Karachi for the British-Indian Army, where he studied Persian (Farsi), met people from various countries, especially middle-east. Maybe some Turkish soldier sang this song one night at the camp-fire and Nazrul was hooked to the beautiful rhythm. We can only imagine.

So, along with Adela Peeva, I had my tiny part in this journey, which started in the mountains of Balkans and via Karachi, ended up in my doorstep. Who would've thought!! "Yeh duniya badi gol hai", that's what I can say at the end... :)

As usual, comments are welcome. And there is a new five-star-rating system below. So, if you are lazy to type a few words at least click some stars!

Crisis of credit

2009-03-11T21:15:00.001+05:30

Recession, recession, recession...Yes, we all know the world economy has gone belly up. MBA-types are calling up kirana stores and dhabas for "Work-for-food" schemes (Walmarts and Pizza Huts if you are in the 'Land of Opportunities'... boy, talk about misnomer!). And even that is not available. Sigh.

We also know the full story. How it happened. You know, all those Wall Street guys (MBA-type again!) lending money to people who should not get money and playing diwali-bumber-super-lotto with your and my money. And related crap. Lots and lots of jargons. Sub-prime, CDO, hedge fund, treasury bills, global-warming... wait not global-warming. Let's not bring Al Gore's into this now. Anyway, you get the idea.

Errr... Hmmm... Do we really know what those words mean? Nah. No chance. We can just throw them at regular intervals when appropriate opportunities arise. Something like company-goals-meetings and project-status-meetings! Effort variance and productivity curves and defect-density-in-sub-critical-tasks done in weekend late-nights. Nobody knows what those means (except the last one, which is suppsed to be very low, compared to normal tasks). But who cares. (Note to self: Too many jokes on MBA/managements).

Well, today I found a really wonderful video/infographics explaining the whole phenomena of how it started. Very cool animations. Great commentry. Makes you wonder at the grand complexity and at the same time the underlying simplicity of root cause. (Link courtsey the O'Reilly blog)

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Try this link in case the video doesn't show up.

So enjoy the video and crack some more jokes on Wall Street.

Will come back soon. Lots of things to write about but no time.

Till then, ciao.

Don't Mess with Barkha Dutt

2009-01-31T23:55:00.005+05:30

And what if you do? You might ask "What are you gonna do? Charge me with libel?" as Ms. Catherine Tramell did ask in Basic Instinct, when told not to smoke in the interrogation room, albeit with a puff of white smoke. What follows this is history, as they say. If you don't know this part of the story, I advise you rent the CD/DVD from the friendly neighborhood video store and get ready for some unexpected insights (pun intended). Whatever, leave Sharon Stone now and come back to our heroine here. Yes, I am talking about Ms. Dutt.

If you are not aware of the ongoing extreme anti-Barkha storm raging in Indian blogosphere, just give a search in Google blog search (or better click here).

What did she do to earn the wrath of the bloggers? Bloggers, as we know are rather harmless souls. Well, one poor soul named Chyetanya Kunte, gave his opinion about Barkha Dutt's coverage of 26/11 in his blog. Barkha and NDTV threatened him with legal action and made him withdraw his post (Google cache, scroll to very bottom) and publish an unconditional apology.

Desipundit is an aggregator of interesting indian blogs (it's great!) and they have two marathon posts linking all the major blogs commenting on this issue. Here and here.

Ms. Dutt was mainly enraged because, Kunte mentioned the allegation that she crossed the line while covering Kargil war and gave away Indian artillery positions (Kunte quoted it from in her wiki-article, which has now changed a little bit by now).

Funny thing is, our Navy chief Admiral Suresh Mehta shares the same opinion about her. Wonder why she has not threatened him with legal action so far!

It's funny when our media claims the right to criticize each and everybody and becomes so defensive while someone else do it to them. They cry about less government control, denies the necessity of censor and when blamed for irresponsible behavior during 26/11, they tell govt. hasn't made any rules. Like small children caught stealing sweet... "Nobody told me not to steal".

Also, this is not the first Barkha vs. Blogger clash. Last year (or in 2007) she did an episode of "We the People" on "Blogging in India". To quote GB,

In a 45 minute program that I felt squeezed in every journalistic no-no possible (sensationalism, poor research, blatant bias and lack of objectivity), the presenter, motivated no doubt by her antagonism towards blogs which she said had spread malicious rumors about her, presented “English language” blogs as exclusively frivolous “web graffiti” that are created to spread gossip, discuss people’s personal lives and to make confessions of a prurient kind.

Naturally, bloggers didn't take it well. And there were posts criticizing the show and how she conducted the show. Maybe it started at that time... Man she keeps grudges for long!

I wish she does an episode of her show based on this very topic and see what the people think about her. I know it's just a wish, still I would love to see her face. Will it show 'genuine' concern like always and "Oh my God.. I'm so sorry, aren't you angry/worried/grieved!!!" comments.

More than that I am apalled at the apathy and lack of understanding from NDTV, in a topic like this. A channel where they have a show called "Newsnet 2.0", and the website which is one of the most popular news sites among Indians, they should understand internet in general and blogs in particular is here to stay. It is a platform where people can talk freely, where nobody is spared, where people of any kind of background/interests can have a conversation (not chat shows with talking heads). And that's what make it so great. And mainstream media must learn how to live with that. The sooner the better for them.

Update : This post found a place in Blogbharti. Blogbharti is another aggregator of indian blogs like Desipundit. :D

The Loser

2009-01-03T00:30:00.000+05:30

When does a character becomes a metaphor? A 'tag', which you can put on people you know and say he has become 'so-on-so'. They become such an identifiable but at the same time larger-than-life persona, they create a category of their own. Take for an instance James Bond. Do we need to ever attempt to describe what a 007 is. No. Never. And that's why he is so popular. Year after year they'll make films starring Bond and people will run to the theater. Another example is superman.

There is one thing common among these guys. They are heroes. Heroes with generous amount of out-of-the-world power, be it simply raw strength or deadly gadgets. With that you add charisma and cool quotient. You know... tall, fair, handsome... etc etc. And most importantly, they have been a long lasting character on paper before coming to the screen. Their charm is not created in one day.

But, what about being similar long-lasting, memorable character just by being the biggest loser... A character who has become another tag, another adjective, being used in everyday language, with abandon.

Yes I'm talking about Devdas. Sounds familiar? Yes. We all know Devdas. He is one character created for the eponymous novel back in 1917. Novel was a success (but then, everything from the pen of Sharat Chatujjey was a success). After nine films in Bengali, Hindi, Assamese and Tamil, most of us know what are the characteristics to label one as Devdas. And none of them can be termed as heroic or ideal or anything similar. He is one guy who is famous for losing it. Losing it all. Albeit losing it in style. You know that dialog? "Haar ke jeetnewalo ko..." Yeah that one. No wonder SRK was the latest avatar of Devdas!

And guess what. He is back. No, not SRK (come on, he is always there, if not in this, then the next channel). As you may have guessed I am talking about the coming-soon Dev.D (statutory warning: link not for minors). Lets start with a quote from the director himself.

Abhay told me he had an idea, a story. I said ,”OK tell me”. He narrated me a story of a stripper in a LA strip club and a guy who is attracted to her. The guy had a back story, an unrealized love story. After he narrated the whole story, he asked me guess what is it. I couldn’t. He then told me it is Devdas. I looked at him. I never thought before that moment, that Devdas could be retold like that. That was where Dev.D was born.

Read the full thing here. And you can catch the trailer in youtube. Man, I love the term "emosanal atyachaar". :)

Whatever, this post is not 'bout the film, but the character. What is there which has made him so memorable and popular. Whenever I think 'loser' is the word comes to my mind.

Is it the romanticism, killing yourself for that 'one luv' idea which attracts us.

I don't know. Maybe its not just pyaar-ishq-mohabbat. It is the self-destruction. We love fools. Fools for a cause. Any damn cause. Because we all are fools.

Fools who make mistakes, take the wrong turn, get hit by the truck of fate when they were looking at the opposite direction. It hurts. And for a moment it feels nothing is worth anymore. So what's the point of trying. Let it slide.

Off course being the sensible and wise types we come back to our senses. For sometime things look only black and white. After some time (which can be very long) things start falling into places.

Think about those soldiers you saw in the WWII film. End of battle, no ammunition, completely surrounded by enemy forces. Surrender is the only option. And there will be one guy who'll take a knife and run into the bullet-rain, shouting "Hail Hitler" or "God save the queen" depending on the film. In a second there will be so many holes in his body it is almost semi-transparent.

What about the guy next to him. He also takes the knife. Take a step ahead. And then he stops. He knows it is worthless. He can't die like fool. He puts it down and surrenders. He knows he has done the right thing. But there will be that feeling biting inside him.

"I wish I could do that..."

And that's why we love Devdas. He did it. What we could not think of doing. People talk about the one love and life is worthless if they don't get it. But we know that's bullshit. Only a fool will do that. Well, Devdas was a fool and he died a fool. He had the guts to show the finger to the world. Of course being son of a zamindar helps. Having great actors portraying you on screen helps.

And that is my friend is the ever-lasting charm of being 'The Loser'. You have to be the biggest of all. And the masses will adore you, making you the Martyr-of-Mohabbat. And lots of broken hearted young souls will stop shaving and run to the pub to contribute for Vijay Mallya's next sportscar or IPL team!

So cheers to Devdas (he will like that). He showed being a loser is cool sometimes if you can do it right.

May his soul rest in peace.

Amen.

Me iz bak

2008-12-08T23:15:00.001+05:30

Yes, It's me again. After a fairly long time, though I doubt if anybody did miss me. Whatever. No need of bothering with excuses, except the really genuine one. My laptop has stopped being disturbed from its self-induced coma. Again. So it is surfing from office and cyber café. I don't think my manager reads this blog. But my lead does (sometimes), but being a avid blogger and netizen himself, I'm sure he'll forgive me (Sandeep-san, I am counting on you :).

Whatever, let's come to the point. I mean my post. We all know what is the biggest news right now. We have seen the terrors and horrors with bulging eyes, endless shifting between the national news channels and/or refreshing the websites. Almost in an infinite loop.

Check NDTV, oh it's Barkha again chasing some poor survivor just out of Trident,

OK, go to CNN-IBN, Sagarika Ghosh in her weired accent trying hard to make sense what is happening (sounding like Arun Lal in an IPL match in the process... "It's a SIX... Yes, it's a HUGE six... He has managed to score six runs of the last ball.."). Change channel.

Good, Times Now. Exclusive telecast of the NSG operation at Nariman House. They are preparing for the final assault on the terrorists. OK. Back to NDTV...

(Nothing much to say about the other channels. See it here)

Sigh. Finally it's over. We are now busy with the usual blame-game, talk-shows, Mahesh Bhatt-Shobha De-Shabana Azmi crowd giving their expert opinions, candlelight-march and what not. I don't have much to say in this regard. Being a true software engineer used to copy-pasting code, I'll link to my not-so-old-post. Things haven't changed much. Yeah, it's bigger, scarier, more international (after all some white-skins have died this time). But the end result is yet to be out. We are waiting.

And still amidst this high volatge, out-of-Warner-Brothers'-latest-summer-flick type drama, where the daredevils from NSG, ATS and hotel staffs have won our hearts, our politicians came into the fore. And they showed, the species called Indian politician is not be under-estimated. At any cost. In any situation. So what if they have failed miserably in securing the lives of the people of our country. They can give statements. Statements which are so bizarre, you forget about the sorry state of this nation. It becomes a black-comedy. Or, maybe 'comedy of errors' is a better term. Read this one from the funnyman of Chennai, and have a laugh at ourselves (yes, we elect these people).

And yes. One more thing. After having 3 whole days of 24/7 live telecast and soaring TRPs, media, i.e. the news channels are being questioned for their apparent lack of sensitivity and restraint. Look at Barkha Dutt's answer to these questions and one beautiful article from The Telegraph.

So... what is the point of typing these things again, you might ask. After all you have more-or-less same thoughts in your mind, and hearing the same thing from every corner. Well. Nothing. Zilch. Zero. It's just that this my rant-box and I have nowhere else to express my rants. So thanks for going through this. Comments, any comments, rants, links, insights, on this event (historical as some people are saying) are welcome. Please feel free.

Btw, If anybody is wondering about the apparent lack of grammer and spelling in the post-title, check this. You might skip some of the links in this link-infested post, but don't miss this.

:)

KTHXBYE.

Memories and Play Things

2008-10-19T11:23:00.006+05:30

It's good to be home. More so if it's Pujo. And more so if you meet old friends. Endless addas. Taking stock of each others lives. Looking back at those days. You know, those were the best days of my life... oh yeah...

Memories...

After a long time I read some fiction. First it was the Bengali Pujo-specials.

Then I read Norwegian Wood by Murakami. I had one PDF of this novel in my laptop for a long time. Never felt like opening it.

Till last week. And finished it in one sitting. 12 to 5. A.M. Yes. It was worth.

And there is this small piece which struck me.

"

True, given time enough, I can remember her face. I start joining images...

It takes time, though, for Naoko's face to appear. And as the years have passed, the time has grown longer. The sad truth is that what I could recall in 5 seconds all too soon needed 10, then 30, then a full minute - like shadows lengthening at dusk. Someday, I suppose, the shadows will be swallowed up in darkness. There is no way around it.
...

"

I liked the imagery of lengthening shadows and fading memory. And the inevitable darkness which lies ahead. Well, liked is the wrong word. I was saddened by it. Maybe this is what will happen to our memories.

Memories which are sweet and that's why sad. Someday they won't make you smile and cry like today.

But there are another type of memories. Like small wooden splinters.

We had a small storeroom in our backyard (we still have), filled with many uselful and useless things. There were lots of wood-pieces. Flats. planks, plys. I used to play with them. Short wooden planks. Breaks easily. And small wooden splinters (very small, 5-6 mm) used to get stuck inside the skin of my palm. It was a pretty routine affair.

First it pains a lot. Then it subsidies and a dull ache remains.

Until Mom notices and takes it out with a safety-pin.

Time has gone by. We have grown old, and came far. We play with different things. But still things break. And splinters remain. Big and small. Some come out easily. But some remain. Stuck inside. Somewhere deep.

Embedded.

Safety-pins can't reach there.

At first it pains. Aches. Then it reduces. Slowly. You stop noticing it.

You have got used to it now. It's still there. Under your skin. Stuck in the flesh beneath.

Maybe bones.

Now it pains only when you touch it.

And you like the pain.

Memories...

If You Insist...

2008-09-28T01:32:00.004+05:30

No description is required for this. Just check out the video.

Yeah that's John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin with Pakistan's PM Mr. Asif Ali Zardari. In case you missed some words here is the transcript.

Zardari: “You are even more gorgeous than you are on the [inaudible].”
Palin: “You are so nice. Thank you.”
Z: “Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you.”
[A Zardari aide tells the two to shake hands again for the cameras.]
P: “I’m supposed to pose again.”
Z: “If he’s insisting, I might hug.”
...

Hilarious... Benazir Bhutto must be turning in her grave. God bless Pakistan.

If you want to know what happened afterwords, read this. :)

Deja Vu

2008-09-15T00:29:00.013+05:30

May 13, July 25, July 26, September 14. All in 2008. Sounds familiar? Well these are the dates of major bomb blasts in our country in this year. I won't put the number of people killed and injured or the amount of damage done. Because whether it is one bomb or a serial blast, low-intensity or high-intensity it does not matter. Even if one person has lost her life or limb it is the same. It is an act of terror. With the sole aim of taking some innocent lives and creating panic. I don't know what kind of political or ideological point is scored by blowing up common men on road. I doubt if it really serves ant purpose whatsoever. India has lots of common people to spare, 110 crore of them. So we are pretty much used to it. We see the news for 20 minutes, murmur some curse words and switch to our daily dose of reality shows and bollywood item numbers. Sleep. Go to office. Exchange our views about the state of nation.

"8 blasts... can you believe? These scoundrels should be hanged from the lamp posts".
"Yeah man... psychopaths..."
"By the way, how's the market today..."
"300 plus... Good na? Did you see Chelsea versus City"
...
...

Yeah that's how it is. We have become immune. There are much more pressing matters for our politicians to discuss. Should forest land be given to Amarnath Yatra Committee or Jaya Bachchan should speak Marathi in promotional events... you know. Important topics...

Back to square one, aren’t we? Same scenario, same arguments and same results. Even the word déjà vu sounds familiar… A few hours back “We The People” was going on NDTV, with Arun Jaitly and Abhishek Singhvi in guest’s chairs. I was curious to see the blame-game and what argument they place. And just as expected BJP has found their argument in anti-terror laws like POTA/TADA which Cong opposes and Cong is harping about a Federal Anti-Terror agency which is not possible because of opposition from BJP-ruled govts (according to Singvi). Same story as we know...

I don’t have much knowledge about Indian penal code and exactly how much power is given to a law will make it a fascist law, prone for misuse. I think the line is blurred as always. But don’t we know all anti-crime laws can be misused this way or that way? Aren’t we aware that law-enforcing agencies can and sometimes do misuse their powers, be it the Army (technically not a law enforcing agency) or the Police? Does that mean we won’t have those agencies/forces or we won’t have stringent laws to tackle crimes? In an ideal world we don’t need an Army, but we know the world we live in is not ideal. I think we need a complete overhaul with the security agencies beginning with an Central Anti-Terror agency. From Kargil to Parliament attack to these blasts we can see our intelligence capability is non-existent or ineffective at best. The time has come where the need of a strong body with strong laws outweighs the danger of potential misuse. It’s just not worth to sit back and argue about pros and cons. How much blood can we shed? Till when?

Do we realize these people who are doing this ghastly acts are not even bothered. They are doing it at will. When they want, where they want. Sending emails before the countdown to proclaim their superiority over the nation and its administration. It is like people bully the weak kid in school just to show that they can. No political or economic gain. Just to throw stone and laugh. This is where we are now. All we can do is watch in horror. Shake our head in disbelief. Sigh and get on with our lives. And pray tomorrow it's not me or someone I know. I am thankful to Christopher Nolan for how he showed Joker in the latest Batman film. I mentioned about this in a previous post and say it again here. Global terrorism and its projection as we are seeing in India does not need any reason, any justification. There can not be any rationalization. Only a psychologically demented person can do this and take pride in it. Words are not enough to condemn this and words mean nothing. We need some action. Some tough decisions. Soon. It is already late.

Having said so much, I’m pretty much sure we will not see any action. None. Blame-game? Yes. Endless debate? Yes. One more blast in Hyderabad/Kolkata/Pune/Lucknow? Very much possible. Another post in blog from where I can copy-paste from this post… Did anyone say 'déjà vu' ?

P.S: Most of this post is cross-posted from the comment I made in Greatbong's blog. After putting my comment I could not resist to share my rant in my blog.

P.P.S: See this not-so-old post from Greatbong (again) to witness the sad and comical aspects of this continuing tragedy.

Dream On!

2008-09-03T01:28:00.013+05:30

I think you can guess the title has something to do with last week's release "Rock On". There are host of jokes/pjs going around, based on the film's name. The idea is simple. Random word + 'On' = PJ! This one from MTV Tickr goes like this,

Question: What would have been the name if the movie was based on girl bands?
Answer: Frock On!!

I know, I know, bad PJ... But that's the fun... :D

Anyway, the topic of this post is not pun on Hindi film titles. But it has

somethong to do with the said film. I have not seen the film yet, but what I have heard/read so far, it's a very good. Definitely worth a dekho. Maybe I'll catch sometime next week (badly screwed up in work for this week :( ). By this time you must have known the theme/storyline of the film, so I'm not going to waste screen space for that (if not, try this and choose one). It's about doing what you want do do in life and pursuing that dream. I saw this post on the film in PFC and really liked the way the writer has identified with the film. But, why I'm talking so much about a film I haven't watched yet? Because, very recently I came accross this ad in adoholik.com, and I wanted to post about it...

The caption tells "Put your skills to better use". Got the connection? There are some lucky people who are doing what they want to do. And some are not. Stuck somewhere else. And of course there are some who are not even sure what they want. Confused souls (I'm one among this category). And I really liked this advertisement. Other than being a fabulous piece of sketch, I saw something very familiar in it, a pert of me to be precise... Maybe, just maybe, someday I'll stop being an engineer and then be... Well, I don't know... something else. Till then, Dream On....

Overhead Transmission Finding Unexpected Receptions

2008-08-25T00:35:00.011+05:30

I explained my rationale behind the name of my blog here and little did I know that it will provide me material for one more post. After you create blog you'll constantly check the visit count, if any comment is posted, if your blog is coming in Google search. In Google blogsearch it does appear, but normal search... no chance. Give "Overhead Transmission" and you get hundreds of sites about transmission lines, high-voltage power transmission and etc etc. Or so I thought. Looks like things have changed. Yesterday I was checking the visitor details (Yes, I can see your ISP, approx location, time of visits and things like that... no credit card details yet, but I am working on it). I saw some visits from Google search pages and guess what? This blog is now at #9 in the google results for Overhead Transmission!!! And what takes the cake is, it is now #1 when you select pages from India. I don't know till when it will last, but I am grinning like anything till that time. :D

I am sure some visitors in this blog came looking for a very different kind of overhead transmission and were disappointed at the quality of transmission found here. Aplogies guys. This is just my blog. Though I read some stuff about transmission lines and all but that was long long long ago. And if you happen to read the same post about naming of this blog, you will know I don't remember a single word about those lines. To use a bad pun, I can say "It was nothing but overhead transmission". But thanks anyway for visiting.

Now this was about people who was searching for some technical term (maybe students), but imagine the disappointment of the guy who came to this post of mine when he was looking for this. All I can do is pray for speedy recovery of your condition. And thanks for visiting!

And now I will go into more bizarre categories. Looks like this blog features at the very top when somebody searches for, hold your breath, Tranny Blogspot!!! What the eff!! Did you say that? Well I did, when I saw this amazing result. For those who doesn't know 'tranny' is a slang used for a transgender person. Naturally the presence of my blog in that search result, raises interesting questions about this blog's author, which is me. And I am pretty sure those who are searching for tranny blogspot in net are not doing it for their final year thesis on "Representaion of transgender community in blogosphere". If you are not getting what I'm saying, just search 'tranny' in any engine and you'll know. But before you jump the gun and start wild speculations about my profession also,
one sober fact. Tranny also means transformer, transistor radio and automobile transmission among other things. Says who? Dear wiki, who else. Check out yourself. Which does explain the situation to my relief.

Well... What can I say. Web search is not a perfect technology. It is evolving, just like the World Wide Web is evolving. And it is not possible to provide search results which provide exactly what you what all the time. We are so used to Google's brilliance we take things for granted. Just try using some other search engine for one day and you will see the difference. And till it becomes perfect (if at all it does someday) we'll keep getting these wacky results to write blogs on them... So in the end it is Google whom we should all thank. :)

Let's Talk Filmi - II

2008-08-21T01:55:00.008+05:30

As I told in my last post that a great film is which surpasses its basic premise and promise. Normally we know what to expect from a movie. We know the cast, and you know what the story is based on (you know... boy meets girl in South Bombay college or honest cop cleaning out the system or just a situational comedy with married man with their escapades etc etc). If the film fulfills our expectation we call it a good film. If it fulfills all your wishes without any apparent flaws then it's a real good one. Maybe an excellent one. For example say Chak De India. It's one of the best films of last year. Exceptionally well made, great acting, realistic portrayal. Doesn't let you complaint at any point. Stays true to its promise. It deserves all the accolades it got. No doubt about it.

But then some films go beyond that promise. You get what you should get and then you get a little more. Which stays with you. You can come back to it again after a long time and it will not lose its appeal. In English I can name Shawshank Redemption before any other films. It is my all time favorite film. Somehow it crosses all your expectations and touches that point. On the first glance it is a very simple film. It's a prison drama. That's all. We see Andy's life in prison, his struggle, other inmates and everything. It got the most pleasing ending which makes you happy. You know, 'poetic justice', win of good over evil etc etc. But still Shawsank Redemption is not just that. The name has become synonymous with hope. It teaches you something. Things about life. 'Inspirational' is the most oft quoted word used to describe this film. And it is a film which was not successful in the box office. Well, greatness doesn't demand people will recognize it then and there. But ultimately they will.

There is this short film made by Vishal Bharadwaj. It's on AIDS, made for a campaign called AIDS Jaago. Total four films were made, by Mira Nair, Farhan Akhtar, Santosh Sivan and Vishal Bharadwaj. It is on a given topic. We know all about AIDS (at least we like to think we know). A short film, some twenty minutes in length. Supposed to give some gyan, dos-and-don'ts etc. We know it all. And still this film packs a punch. Vishal manages to make a film within such a predictable and short frame beautiful. And at the end it does not remain only about AIDS. It shows great painters can create memorable art even with small canvas. Witness yourself.

Blood Brothers (Part 1)

Blood Brothers (Part 2)

Let me know your thought about this film. Or any film for that matter. Just share your opinion. Thanks and Ciao...

Let's Talk Filmi...

2008-08-20T01:00:00.007+05:30

A post after a really long time… Yeah, reaaaally long time. Reasons are many. Pressure at work, blogger’s block (what to write), and mainly my laziness. I am very good at delaying things, putting it down to do it tomorrow and in the end not doing it at all. To do it day after day smoothly without feeling guilty is an art which is perfected over the years and I have almost reached the pinnacle. Almost, because I am still struggling a little with the ‘feeling guilty’ part.

Also was busy catching up with some great movies of old, not so old and recent times. The oldest one is from 1957 and the most recent one is one released last month (yes, it is The Dark Knight). And as I told these are great movies. Great in their own way. Themes are different. So are the techniques and narration style. But one thing is common between them. Somewhere these films go beyond their basic premise, their genre (like action, drama, thriller etc), their settings (urban/non-urban, indoor/outdoor), and projects some questions which are fundamental and timeless. Today’s post is about these films.

First thing first, this is not a review. And I’m not going to list details, plus points minus points of them and give rating of 4 out of 5 etc. No. It is just a few words about them. If you have seen them please share your thoughts. If not, try to watch if you feel interested from my ramblings. Let’s start with the senior most of all.

12 Angry Men:
It is one of those very few films which I call one-room film. In fact there is only one film that I have seen which has similar setting (more about that later). And one room does not mean some people talking in a room and viewers are then shown those things they are talking about. I mean flashback or something. No sir. Here these people just talk in that room and you will be there with them for the full length of the film. The camera remains there. That's all. The film is based on the concept of 'reasonable doubt' in case of justice. The criminal laws in civilized societies are based on the promise that 'no innocent man should be punished' and 'if there is a reasonable doubt in the judge/jury's mind that the convict might be not guilty, then he can not/should not be punished'. Note the keyword is reasonable doubt and there is no concrete definition of that. A wonderful concept supported by a tight script, and great acting. #10 in IMDB top #250.

The Dark Knight:
Now, this is one very very recent film. And one which is hyped to the core. Is it that great? Well, yes and no. It is the best comic-to-film adaptation. No doubt about that. Christopher Nolan has taken this film and the batman franchise to a different level.

I think, this movie will change the way superhero films made in Hollywood, just like “The Godfather” changed mob films and “Saving Private Ryan” changed war films. And that’s some achievement.

Having said that it still doesn’t come in the all time great/classic list or maybe it does (it's too early to judge it). There are themes touched in this film, which given more time and effort could have taken the film to the hallowed list, but those themes were touched and hinted upon. Not dug into. No offense to Nolan. It is a summer blockbuster after all and he has to please everyone including batman fans and earn millions worldwide. He did it and he did in his own style. And it surely demands a second watch (I am waiting for one more sitting, with the DVD) to keep aside the suspense and brilliant stunts and delve deep into the dialogues and story. There are metaphors and allusions to post 9/11 world spread in the film and the more you think about it, more you can connect the dots. It is a world where violence is the first option, it is given. Where the evil does not need any backstory any justification. It is evil. Period. Obviously there are talks of a tormented childhood, but we know that doesn't mean nothing. Injustice suffered in the past can never be justification for spilling blood of innocents. Sounds familiar?

And then there is Heath Ledger… That guy is mad. Nolan has just let him lose in the screen and Ledger lapped up the footage given to him. With glee. Just look at the scene where Joker enjoys the wind in his face out of a car window. You can tell how much he is enjoying the anarchy and chaos created by his devilish mind. What a character! And yes it is #3 in IMDB Top 250 (yes, it is overrated, but that is another story).

Well, there are some more films from my list to blog about... but it is already late. One more hectic day at office is waiting. So, ciao...

Serious Statistics Can Also Be Fun... Seriously...

2008-06-20T00:40:00.010+05:30

How many of you like statistics? Serious statistic. Not who got how many DLF Maximum Sixes awards type of stuff... I am talking about rows and columns of numbers, tables, matrices. Things you put into plots and graphs, make presentations. Not many of you, I guess. Unless you're one of those MBA types, who thinks the second best invention in the history of mankind is MS Excel (the first one obviously is the MBA degree). And when I tell serious data, I'm talking about things like child mortality rate, per-capita GDP and wealth distribution in sub-Saharan Africa. Sounds scary, isn't it? Fear not my beloved readers. Today I show you something which will change your perception towards statistics. Well, it changed mine.

In Hans Rosling's words…

"...few people will appreciate the music if I just show them the notes. Most of us need to listen to the music to understand how beautiful it is. But often that's how we present statistics; we just show the notes we don't play the music."

And unlike other so-called experts he didn't stop after giving a quotable quote to put in your blog, he played the music.

Hans Rosling is a world renowned health expert and medical scientist. He also studied statistics. But today all over the cyberworld he is now known as the-guy-who-showed-stats-can-be-fun, by his now-legendary presentation given in TED 2006. Watch the video posted below to experience it.

This one presentation tells us so many things about our world, which can not be achieved by hundred articles. The best thing is anyone can try his/her hand in this kind of magic with data. Just go to this link where Rosling has provided the software and database for everyone. It opens an amazing window to the world, where you can pick and choose different parameters for both the axes and just play around. The plethora of options given is extensive to say the least. Try it out. You won't regret.

After the introduction and showing what real data with correct presentation can do, Rosling came back to TED 2007 with more. His topic this time was simple and ambitious. To show people that "The Seemingly Impossible is Possible", poverty is not something which can not be cured. Watch the amazing presentation. And by any chance don't miss the end. It packs a surprise which can be best described as "jaw-dropping".

He's one cool dude, no doubt about it. And you know what, he did his study in Public Health from St. John's Medical College in namma Bengaluru. :)

Cricket + TV + Haircut = Disaster

2008-05-19T00:09:00.017+05:30

One should not keep TV in a salon. At least it should not be seen from the place where they are cutting your hair. And if these two things can not be achieved at least make sure they do not put IPL when you visit the salon. Well better don't go to salon when matches are going on. Why? Because if you're in the salon, sitting for that long-overdue haircut, and match is going on, and Jaysurya is on a rampage, and the the guy who is cutting your hair has his eyes glued into the TV, and you are giving him company mouthing oohs and aahs and "what a shot", things can go wrong. Very wrong. Very very wrong...

After the oohs and aahs, when we came back to the task in hand (his hand, my head) the damage was done. See the accompanying picture to see the effect.

Ooops... Sorry. Wrong picture. Here you are...

Yeah... What to do. At least he didn't cut my ears! BTW, it's not a bad haircut if you think about global warming. Also I'll save a lot of shampoos. And lot of time also, no combing etc... Also it's more aerodynamic. Well, I could go on and on praising my new haircut. None of them make sense.

Only good thing is, it's hair. It'll grow. Think about the same thing while tooth extraction at the dentist's. Or tattooing. Or body piercing. I know I'm lucky...

One small request at the end. If you are a regular reader of this blog and want to keep updated about new posts, you can subscribe to it. Check the sidebar for subscription. My preference is Google Reader. Thank you.

Sardar Harbhajan 'Ewing'

2008-05-08T00:27:00.016+05:30

I know what you are thinking. When did Bhajji changed his name? Desperate attempt to purge his sins (and Singh!) or just a disguise to fool the authority and play in IPL? Nope... Nothing of that sort actually. The fact is after the 'Slapgate' fiasco, Mumbai Indians suddenly found their lost feet, won back-to-back three (yes, three!!) matches, two of them against Shane's Royals and Veeru's Devils. They even made Shaun Pollock look like an inspiring captain! I know, I know, it's too early to tell but they are playing as a team for the first time in the tournament. Now, you'll tell it just 'smells like team spirit' and maybe you are correct. But I just couldn't resist to propose my great idea at this point. Well not mine actually, there are several blogs and experts thinking in the same line... Still I just love to see the 'I-told-you-first' smile in my mirror.

After so much useless build-up let's come to the point. We are talking about 'Ewing Theory' here. Now what on earth is that? Distant cousin of Swing Theory, being practised by Ashish Nehra? Again wrong. Ewing Theory is the a well known theory in sports-world (mainly in US) made famous by noted sports journalist Bill Simmons. According to Wikipedia,

Ewing Theory, the brainchild of reader Dave Cirilli and named after Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks. Ewing's Knicks seemed to play better when he was hurt or in foul trouble. In 1998-99, the Knicks made the NBA Finals after Ewing sustained an Achilles' tendon injury.

Bill describes his theory here in detail, though the examples are from Major League and NBA and all those Yankee sports, so it become kinda boring people like me who thinks World Series is Border-Gavaskar Trophy. For your benefit the main criterion to qualify for the theory is given here:

A star athlete receives an inordinate amount of media attention and fan interest, and yet his teams never win anything substantial with him.
That same athlete leaves his team (either by injury, trade, retirement or ban in our case) -- and both the media and fans immediately write off the team for the following season.

So does it qualify our scenario as an example of Ewing Theory? Well for one thing, Bhajji was the biggest star in Mumbai's playing eleven and there was a view that after the controversy it's only downhill for them, as shown in Buchannon's comment. I think so far it fits the frame. Let's see where it goes. No doubt it's a very interesting theory. The funny thing is I am sure there are plenty of examples of Ewing Theory in cricket, but I can't remember any at this moment. Do post a comment if you can remember any...

All in all things have spiced up quite well. IPL is almost halfway through, still not possible to choose four semi-finalists convincingly. You can have your predictions just like everybody else. I will only say Picture abhi bhi baki hai mere dost... :)

God Bless Mano-Ranjan and Their Family!!!

2008-04-21T22:41:00.009+05:30

It is the baap, dada and pardada of all manoranjan and boy, it rocks... Yes, I'm talking about the IPL (check the ad here). With all the whoopla and hype and stars from bollywood and international cricket coming together it was meant to be. Still I had some niggling doubt. Will the players give their 110% as they give when they play for the country? Will the fans be that much passionate when their city plays against another? We know when Arsenal play United or Barca plays Real, the players give their best, and fans don't take it any less than a war, a prestige-war, but a war nonetheless...

Came and went April 18th and all my doubts have been put to rest. I'll start with the opening match. Bangalore plays Kolkata and being a bong in Bangalore, it was a lifetime opportunity. So me and my friends all geared up and reached the stadium at 6 P.M. dot. And it's already full!! So we pushed and shoved and squeezed ourselves into the steps. Not a bad view, but we couldn't see the screen from there. What to do… (Note to self: Next time you go to see a cricket match reach at least 2 hour early).

Anyway the opening ceremony started. I won't bore you with the details. In one word, it was just great. The dancers, performers, acrobats, music and last but not the least the fireworks... It was simply awesome.

So the firework ends, the game starts and it is fireworks again! This time it's on the pitch, fired by Brendon McCullum!! If you don't believe, ask Rahul Dravid and Co., if they weren't seeing stars... All in all I was enjoying it tremendously. After all I was routing for Kolkata, and McCullum just went on and on and on, like a one-man-army. He is special, no doubt about it. 158* in 73 balls is a rare innings even in T20 standards. I think he'll play some 4-5 matches in IPL and then he has to join his national team. Sigh...

Anyway, Kolkata innings was superb (at least for me), and it was time for the Challengers. In came Rahul Dravid and Wassim Jaffer. Well, you just can't chase 223 in 120 balls with this opening pair. And they didn't. Dravid in a very un-dravidian style tried to slog a inswing, almost-yorker-length delivery from Ishant Sharma in the 2nd over and as a result saw his leg stump flying. It all went downhill from that moment. Although I was happy with a Riders' win, I came to watch a cricket match, not a one sided (actually one manned) thrashing. It was almost pathetic and the crowd soon lost interest when the wickets started falling. More attention was paid to the cheer leaders (Vijay Mallya sure knows how to choose his babes). Even they got bored very soon as no boundary was coming. Heck, the batsmen couldn't even connect and when they did, it was nick to the slips. That too, in bowling of Agarkar, the worst purchase of SRK I must say (hopefully he won't be in playing eleven when Umar Gul joins the team). Whatever, after 8 wickets down, my friends (all of them proud and disappointed Kannadigas) decided to leave to avoid the end-rush and I followed suit (I am completely dependent on them for transport).

All in all a spectacular opening act somewhat marred by absolutely-non-competitive game. Still it was great. We shouted, danced (from hip-hop to bhangra), sang, boo-ed (BCCI president, who else), chanted (Sachin's name when he came to sign that pledge or whatever), ogled (you-know-what), passed silly wisecracks and was home by 12-12:30. Not bad for a Friday evening I guess.

Yes, IPL is here to stay. Three cheers for IPL…

Latest results: On Saturday, Chennai Super Kings defeated everyone-and-his-uncle's favorite Kings XI Punjab, thanks to Mr. Cricket. On Sunday, Riders won a thrilling low-scoring game on a very un-T20 pitch against another favorite Deccan Chargers, this time thanks to Mr. Cricket's younger bro. And, to the relief of all my friends and neighbor, Challengers won against Mumbai, in another thrilling but not-low-scoring (166 is not that high scoring in T20 standards), this time thanks to Kallis and Boucher. Surely inclusion of Chanderpaul has helped a lot (but I still think Dravid is not the right person to open the innings). Today it is the minnow Rajasthan Royals winning against Punjab. Tough luck Ms. Zinta, looks like having Yuvi and Lee is not enough. Anyway, the tournament has just started and it will definitely get better as it progresses with more and more unexpected results. And that is T20 all about. Bring it on…

(Belated) Happy April Fools' Day to me...

2008-04-06T22:06:00.011+05:30

Think about it... It is 6 days gone after 1st April and I got tricked by Google/Blogger!!!

After a long-long time i came to put a new post and first thing I did was to check any news from Blogger.com. So I go to this news-post and get mad at first try, click back-button in browser, again the same stupid song in Youtube and then it dawned on me...

I have been April-fooled, by Google... that news-post was published on April 1, 2008.

The funny thing is just days before I was explaining to one of my friend about Google's famous (and infamous) April-Fool pranks. Forwarded some links to her to give some example. In fact I kept my eye open on the D-day, so I don't fall into one those traps. Checked Google sites many times all day, checked Google's job sites. Nothing... Just a tame "yogurt" logo in Orkut...

But the surprise was waiting quietly. Like a seasoned predator it waited till the prey let down his guard and is most unsuspecting, it pounced. And got me.

In a serious note, April Fool hoaxes not just about good fun and laughter. These kind of things help to keep the buzz about Google always going. For a company like Google, which makes money showing advertisements, like any media company (think MTV), being in the talk (or chat or mail) of its users is a must.

In the end I should add, whatever may be the reason behind, all kudos to Google to provide a situation like this to laugh at yourself and life in general. These guys know how to have fun and share it, how to make people happy and profit from it... No wonder they always come at the top at Best Employer surveys!

Keep it up Google.

[You'll find more about Google's hoaxes in this link]

Inspiration Hunting…

2008-03-17T23:50:00.009+05:30

Some nights back (I think last Firday), I was as usual surfing late in the night, my friend Mr. Geek pinged and asked what I'm doing online at this hour (completely ignoring the fact that he himself is online). Well, I told I'm just browsing (and googling and wiki-ing) and looking for any good topic or material to put in my beloved blog, in short looking for some inspiration. So Mr. Geek told to continue my "Inspiration Hunting" and logged of. This got me thinkin'. Inspiration Hunting??? Not bad, huh… I'm sure Anu Malik, Abbas-Mastan, Pritam and all the creative geniuses of bollywood will find this phrase very inspiring.

Now here is one result of my 'hunting'.

I was following a post in DilbertBlog about a poor fellow caught in some intimate act (and indecent by some account) with a vacuum cleaner. Life sucks… yeah right!

Well, I was following the news article and found one more piece of gem.

And in 1993, Karl Watkins, an electrician, was jailed for having sex with pavements in Redditch, Worcs.

Sex with pavements!!! Pavements!!! Yup, you read it right… Must be some horny pavement. But one thing for sure, Mr. Watkins is a genius. I am not able to even think how he did it. And they jail him. How cruel. Screw them. Or better strap them on the pavements and make them suffer. Then they'll understand...

What’s in a name…?

2008-03-12T18:34:00.015+05:30

Or rather behind a name. The point is, naming your blog is not as simple as it sounds (assuming you don’t want to name your blog as Sachin’s Diary or Rahul’s Journal or something similar). First of all you think of a name which describes your blog, it should be something humorous (to prove you have a great sense of humour), and it has to be a little hatke.

So after enough pondering, scratching various body parts, searching dictionaries and wiki-ing you fix upon a name which has all the necessary quality. Then you google the name and find out there are already five poor sods who have named their blog exactly the same (excluding ten other blogs which has titles 90% similar, differing in one word or so). Obviously they have stolen your name by some unfair means and created their blog before you. So much for being hatke...

So you repeat the process all over again. And again. And so on… till you find that untouched, unused, unthought name you were looking for.

I told it’s not simple. And no way quick. And one word of caution to any wannabe blogger, try to stay clear of words like Random, Mind, Thought etc. There are hell lot of blog-titles with these words and their permutations and combinations (incidentally all of these words are present in the title of my favourite blog RTDM).

But, after so much of hullabaloo, I am rather pleased with my choice.

I remembered, once upon a time when I was a student in some engineering college (yeah, engineering and I passed too), and the lectures used to pass by without bothering to venture into our brains (Oh those golden days)...

"If you give a discreet-time signal to a linear time-invariant system and take the z-transform, the stability of the system…"

Yawn… (I told you, those were the golden days). Anyway, the above phenomenon is termed as Overhead Transmission. And assuming that enlightened souls are never the majority in any community including the blog readers, I expect similar fate of my posts.

So this is the story behind naming of my blog.

P.S. It’s a bit out of the topic, but as the post is about names, I think the name of the Mumbai IPL team is the most unimaginative in recent times. What’s your take on this?

Genesis

2008-03-12T00:15:00.012+05:30

Everything starts somewhere at some point of time. So this is the beginning of my blog Overhead Transmission.

This is where I'll put down my raves and rants (in which none of my fellow human beings are remotely interested) with this hope, that there are some enlightened souls who appreciate a good thing when they see one.

This blog will contain thoughtful observations about those babes who never give a second look towards my direction (that is if they gave a first look at the first place) and chosen expletives for those managers who give a first, second and third look every single time I discuss something non-technical or non-official with my co-workers.

This blog will contain my oh-so-valuable comments about important decisions taken by our Prime Minister and criticism of all the unimportant decisions taken by the Perpetual Morons in my company. Most of the time it will be of the latter category.

What did you say? You care a fig for these priceless gems? Remember I mentioned specifically about enlightened souls.

So ladies and gentlemen... wait... that's so uncool.

OK, start again. One...Two...Three...

Guys and gals (that's better), thanks for tuning to Overhead Transmission, I am The Transmitter welcome you all in my blog-station. Comment links are open. Please post your suggestions and criticisms, flowers and brickbats.

Now how was that?