The Loser

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

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

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...

Dream On!

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....

Cricket + TV + Haircut = Disaster

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...

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

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]