2010 so far

Nine months into the year and the following has been achieved.

Books:

1. Die Trying, Lee Child
2. Between the Assassinations, Aravind Adiga
3. Four past midnight, Stephen King
4. The Magic Finger, Roald Dahl
5. My name is Red, Orhan Pamuk
6. Next, Michael Crichton
7. The New Human Revolution Volume 1, Daisaku Ikeda
8. The Immortals of Meluha, Amish
9. The Reincarnationist, M J Rose
10. Tripwire, Lee Child
11. The Prestige, Christopher Priest
12. Black Out, Lisa Unger
13. Dubai, Jim Krane
14. Raiders from the North, Alex Rutherford
15. Gang Leader for a Day, Sudhir Venkatesh
16. A Prisoner of Birth, Jeffrey Archer
17. The Visitor, Lee Child
18. Towards Zero, Agatha Christie
19. The New Human Revolution Volume 2, Daisaku Ikeda

Movies:

1. Sherlock Holmes
2. Ishqiya
3. Rann
4. My name is Khan
5. Karthik calling Karthik
6. Insomnia
7. Speed Racer
8. LSD
9. Pirates of the Silicon Valley
10. Death of a President
11. Shutter Island
12. It's complicated
13. District 9
14. All the rivers run
15. Robin Hood
16. Kites
17. Up in the air
18. PS: I love you
19. Rajneeti
20. Raavan
21. Sex and the city 2
22. Shrek Forever
23. Natarang
24. Mission Impossible
25. Good Fellas
26. Harishchandrachi Factory
27. Mission Impossible 2
28. Mission Impossible 3
29. I hate luv storys
30. Seven Samurai
31. Inception
32. Sin Nombre
33. Once upon a time in Mumbai
34. The Bear
35. Aisha
36. Following
37. Waterworld
38. Wall-E
39. Count of Monte Cristo
40. Doubt
41. Hangover
42. The Blind Side
43. Nights in Rodanthe
44. Cast Away
45. Little Miss Sunshine
46. Cleopatra
47. Funny Games
48. Dabangg
49. Babel

TV:

1. Dirty Sexy Money, Season 1
2. Prison break, Season 4
3. Desperate Housewives, Season 5
4. The Shield, Season 1
5. Heroes, Season 3
6. Lost, Season 6
7. Dirty Sexy Money, Season 2
8. The Shield, Season 2
9. The Shield, Season 3
10. The Shield, Season 4
11. 24, Season 8
12. The Shield, Season 5
13. Mad Men, Season 3

The following is in progress.

Books:

1. The New Human Revolution Volume 3, Daisaku Ikeda
2. Five Queen's Road, Sorayya Khan

TV:

1. The Shield, Season 6
2. The Tudors, Season 1

Magic Carpet

Everyone has a magic carpet
You can use it in the air to soar
But if you just look a little closely
You'll find it nailed down to the floor

Busy? Lazy? Bit of both?

I have been absent from this space for four days. It's nothing remarkable in itself. I have had long spells of absence earlier. But when I was consistent for over two weeks and then absent for four days, it gets noticed.

Why was I absent? A mixture of being busy and being lazy. Contradictory I know. But that's what happens with everything you resolve to do and end up not doing. Daily life keeps us busy. And the grind of daily life makes us lazy in whatever spare time we have to do what we should do.

But once you just kick yourself to get back into it, it is not really such an ordeal.

I should do the same for the following:
1. Gym
2. Guitar
3. Sketching

As of now though, I am still in the avoidance phase for all of these.

Truth well told

I'm watching the third season of Mad Men. For those who don't know, it is a TV series about a hot-shot advertising creative director in an agency on Madison Avenue in the early sixties.

The guy is Don Draper. And his life is perfect. Looks like a million bucks, always dapper, has a mind that's razor sharp, acclaimed and respected for his work, women swooning all over him, the perfect family in the perfect suburban house. In short, his life is picture perfect. But he's a troubled guy. So troubled in fact, that he has several affairs, is always acerbic to the point of being terrorising, and has a general disdain for humanity wherever he goes. He has an empty life and he tries to fill it up with emptier trappings of success and intellectual affairs.

The real reason for this is that his life is a complete lie. In fact, even his identity is assumed. So he's a walking example of a falsely propped up reality.

I am sure the makers of the serial thought him up as a metaphor for advertising itself. David Ogilvy defined it as 'Truth well told'. But the basic premise of advertising is that while telling the truth well, you have to lie by omission or commission. Everything must be picture-perfect beautiful, but at the core of it all, there is an ugly falsehood or the ugly truth, depending on the way you choose to look at it.

The sixties were the height of the American dominance in the world market. As Draper says, 'The average American today has a lifestyle, which only kings in most of the world can dream of'. On the back of this prosperity, the advertising industry was booming. Brands were taking birth, being built and becoming legendary. And advertising was respected and held in awe for creating brands - for its ability to create something out of almost nothing.

In a lot of ways, the India of today is the same. Our confidence and optimism gives us a feeling of being absolutely invincible. Consumerism is at an all time high and only growing. Reports are rife about how India's middle-class is earning more and spending more. The numbers of the poor are declining and we are all headed to a Utopian world at breakneck speed.

It's a pity that advertising has degenerated to being a supplier industry rather than a knowledge industry. But nevertheless, it does play a vital role in the scheme of things.

I also am from the same industry. I too believe in brands - not just as a part of my work, but also as a buyer of them. I believe that showcasing a brand helps me project who I am. I have completely bought into this propped up reality that I help create and also partake in.

Life is really good.


PS: Incidentally, Mad Men has one of the most amazing title sequences I've ever seen. The only one that I don't fast-forward for every episode. Here it is:

Memories of Baba

1. Inculcating the love of reading by buying me my first Amar Chitra Kathas.
2. Drawing pictures for me to guess.
3. Getting his head massaged by me while watching Chhayageet.
4. House keys tied to his Brahmin string.
5. Getting dropped to school in a BEST bus making an unscheduled stop for us in between two bus-stops.
6. Playing Scrabble.
7. Dozing while watching the news.
8. Taking the pain to travel to Andheri just to help me with my studies.
9. Writing poetry.
10. Making tea in the morning.

He is now 88 and has fractured his hip. Bed-ridden and weak but his vital organs are all well. I don't know if he will walk again or even get off the bed. I don't know what to pray for him. Just peace and happiness I guess.

Nothing much

Just a lazy Sunday. Typically nothing achieved except a two-hour nap in the afternoon.

The week looms up ahead.

Analyse this

There are some things that make me a prude and a priss. And maybe yet another five-letter word starting with PR.

I don't like any timepiece that doesn't work. I can't stand clocks that show the wrong time. Sometimes at signals I can see dashboard clocks in other cars which are showing Sydney time. How can people live with that?

I don't like messy desks. They paralyze me. My desk is generally so spotlessly free that if I'm not at my seat, people would think no one even sits there. Most often they think that even while I'm sitting there anyway.

I can't imagine changing my profile picture on Facebook or my blog. How can people keep doing that with amazing regularity? In fact, I don't even have a picture of myself as my profile picture. It's just my signature and I don't see any reason for having it changed at all.

I can't handle books that are not covered. I can't stand anybody else covering my books. They just mess it up and then the book doesn't feel like it's mine anymore. Several times I've returned borrowed books after covering them and most times that hasn't even been noticed. Doesn't matter.

I don't like to miss a single frame in a movie. Not even the logo formations of Fox or Warner Bros or Universal or whoever. I have to be in my seat and ready before the lights dim. And I hate people who come in late and spoil it for others.

I have to straighten every picture-frame. If it is off-centre or tilted, it's enough to spoil my day. I even start getting a headache in some time. Also, I dislike typographical errors intensely.

Looks like I've given a lot of material to anyone wanting to psychoanalyse me.

The Good Son

Quite a few people have called me a good son. Only because I pick up my father from his dialysis sessions at the hospital every Monday and Thursday, on my way back from work.

This makes me really wonder. Is it such a big deal to do that? What if I would have had to go for dialysis when I was, say, ten years old? He would have been around 42 then. I would have been like how he is today - a little worried, a little scared and a lot dependent. He would have been like how I am today - strong, capable and mobile. He wouldn't have asked me to fend for myself - go by a rick and come back on my own fighting all the potholes.

He would have surely done his best to ease my pain. Being a father now, I can imagine myself dying everyday, if my child has to go through something like this. He would have died everyday for me too. Always wishing that he could somehow take my suffering upon himself.

I don't feel that way about him. I don't die everyday because he has to go through this trauma. I worry. I am concerned. I care. I love. But this is nowhere close to what it would be if it were to be reversed.

I am just a son. But he's a good father.

Feminism

Had a huge debate on feminism. Not feminity, feminism.

The need to clarify that was because, most people think anti-feminists are male chauvinists. I am not. I truly respect women. I think they can and do a lot more than men can ever do. Apart from the intellectual capabilities that they have, they also most often portray a certain sensitivity, which most of my race do not. They can be, and most often are, more than equal to men in every way.

So I am fully pro-feminity. But I am still anti-feminism. Feminism - that can be described as the cultural movement of women for equal rights.

I was coming from the point of view that there is an inherent, fundamental paradox in the feminist argument. When a party has to protest for equality, isn't that an admission of just the opposite? Even more so, when the movement transcends from being about getting rights for women to being about men bashing. And it most often does go there.

The clincher argument where I lost the debate was when the point about women in the third-world countries was brought up. Where would they be without the feminist movement? Having thought about it, I still feel that their lot hasn't really improved despite that. On the other hand, in a country like the United States, feminism has found a way out in making sure that the Obama government has employed women in all the key government posts. So we have a new-age Mandal Commission here, where people will get posts based on their sex, more than their merit.

That is the biggest fly in the feminist ointment. When masses come together in a movement, there is no scope for rationality. And the movement ultimately gets into various different agendas that had nothing to do with their main manifesto that they began with.

The best perspective on feminism which I have come across and I fully endorse is by Ayn Rand. To quote Nathaniel Branden, a former protege and lover of hers, "A feminism that sees woman at her best, as a heroic figure, will find support and validation in Rand's writings. A feminism that defines woman as victim and man as her evil oppressor will see Rand as the enemy."

Who better than Ayn Rand to give the best perspective on women?

Ten truly random thoughts

1. I play better Minesweeper if I start at the top left corner of the minefield.
2. Sacking somebody is not the most pleasant of things that you can do.
3. I am hovering somewhere between fully fit and fully unfit and that is not a nice feeling.
4. Little Miss Sunshine is a cute movie about a family of losers.
5. Can't wait to start the sixth season of The Shield.
6. I am running out of memory on my phone.
7. When people act like they need space, they probably mean the opposite.
8. Thanks to the Ganpati festival, I can hear three different loudspeakers from three different rooms in my house.
9. Rome (the TV series) is probably a million times better than Cleopatra (the Liz Taylor movie).
10. I need to clean up my inbox.

Everybody Hurts

Surfed a lot on YouTube today. Came across some very old music videos which I had seen growing old way back in the early nineties.

Over time, the music changed and so did the habits. There is hardly any time these days to sit back and keep watching MTV for songs that you love. But most importantly, the videos themselves are not a patch of what they used to be.

Take for example, Everybody Hurts by REM. What a song! And what an amazing video! Shot in a typical traffic jam with hundreds of cars and thousands of people stuck. And as the song progresses, the camera slowly romances the pain and angst on the faces of various people. All this with supers of what their thoughts are when stuck there. Till the time when they all just abandon their cars and start walking freely on the road. A superb metaphor of life, the baggages we carry and how stuck we are with nowhere to go.

There was a time when the music video was an art form in itself. Am not really sure if that still holds true.

A sort of homecoming

I've been consciously avoiding listening to too much of Mark's music. That's what forced me to get into Alanis Morissette, U2, Neil Diamond, Gilbert O'Sullivan, UB40, Cat Stevens, Osibisa and Bob Dylan over the last few days. It was good. Rediscovered a lot of music, long forgotten. Was also amazed at how easily all the lyrics flowed back even of the songs that one hasn't heard for maybe over a decade or so.

Then came a day when it was too much to decide what to listen to. That's when I set the iPhone to 'all songs' and started playing them alphabetically and began the drive to work.

And then it happened. Some three or four songs down, came the song, 'All that matters' from the album Shangri-La. And it was all that mattered. Because that's when I realized what is meant by a sense of homecoming.

" "

One thing I believe in: say nothing if you've got nothing to say.

Lazy day

Did nothing but watch seven episodes of Shield today. Cold's been getting worse. And using that pretext to do nothing else.

Feeling a little heavy headed with too much TV now. Good night world.

Coldy head

Have a bad cold today.
Stuffed nose.
Hurting throat.
Heavy head.

But I'm still going for a school reunion.

Some notes and reminders to myself

You start too many sentences with 'And' and 'But'.
Eat lesser.
Keep changing the genres of books, TV and films you pick up.
Pick up the guitar again.
Smile more.
Look a little beyond the obvious with every person.
Likewise, with every situation.
Sandra Bullock is cute but not too much as a blonde.
Don't buy any more books or DVDs till you're done with what you already have.
No matter how tempting the bookshop sales are.
Joining the gym is worth sacrificing some sleep.
Everything works out eventually.

Alas, it's Alanis

Yesterday, while chatting with a friend, Alanis Morissette came into the conversation. Incidentally just a couple of days ago, while updating my music library I had rediscovered her music and put it in my iPhone.

This morning I heard Jagged Little Pill while coming to work. And I was amazed at how amazing her music is. The lyrics especially are extremely heartfelt. She really is one jagged little pill.

Every song of hers is a catharsis. She's obviously had a lot of men in her life and looks like none of the relationships worked out. And every song brings this out in various aspects.

I believe her following albums are a lot more mellow. Hope she's found some much needed love in her life.

On sad endings and justice at the end of it all

Had a big discussion with a friend about a film script that he's written. Frankly I was quite honoured and flattered that he sought my opinion about his work. Probably he takes my film reviews quite seriously.

Anyway, coming back to the script. It is fabulous. There is a lot of pathos in the storyline and it can really make a wonderfully sensitive film. However, the one thing sorely lacking in it was a sense of justice in the end.

I feel, every story must have justice at the end of it all. This does not mean that it has to be a happy ending. Even if it is a tragedy and all the good guys have to die in the end, the audience must feel a sense of rightness when they do. Futile endings only leave you with a feeling of being cheated. Somewhere, that is the essential difference between fiction and reality. Don't we all want to escape the futility of life to some extent, when we willingly suspend disbelief and accept a false reality for a finite time?

In the course of my discussions with my scriptwriter friend, we discussed several tragic film endings. One was of Rang De Basanti. Though all the good guys die in the end, they do manage to get their message across to the entire nation before dying. That allows one to extrapolate the story and understand that ultimately justice was served. They didn't die in vain.

Another realisation that came to me, which had eluded me so far, was why I didn't like the movie, 'The Bicycle Thieves'. The Vittorio De Sica masterpiece, which actually inspired even Satyajit Ray to make films, has been a bone of contention between me and a lot of other film lovers. The reason why I instinctively disliked the film (though it is absolutely amazing in the way it portrays emotions and every other aspect of film-making) is that the ending leaves you feeling futile. It is the same way one feels when one sees children begging at signals. A feeling of helplessness at the way the world is, leading to denial and repression of those emotions. This leads to you feeling that it was pointless spending that money, and more importantly time, on that piece of work. I realise that this futility is what depresses the audience more than just a tragic ending. And no one wants to spend good money to get depressed.

Talking of endings, the best ending of a movie ever according to me is of Children of Heaven. I would rate this movie as my number one movie of all time. The end is extremely paradoxical and yet so right. It would be a pity to give away the movie and the ending in a post. But whoever reads this, must watch that movie to know what I'm trying to say.

I hope my scriptwriter friend makes a fabulous movie and it is a huge success - commercially and with the critics. And I hope that I managed to somewhere play some small part in it.

Slipped up

Was just too busy yesterday to blog. So will make up for it with two posts today. This is the first of those.

The day off

Shouldn't I be exempt from writing today? It is Sunday after all. But let's see... I did eat. So there's no reason why I shouldn't post a line.

Didn't do much today. Watched a slow, boring movie called Doubt. Stars Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Brilliant performances - one wouldn't have expected less from a stellar cast like that. But a little too slow and pretentious.

Have to read a script written by a friend. He's been waiting for feedback for the whole week. Must finish it tonight.

The next week awaits. It will be fabulous.

Day four. Still going strong.

What do people generally blog about?

Sometimes about views on their areas of interest. These could be serious or not-so-serious.

Sometimes it could be to vent out emotions. These are almost always serious. Because, when life is generally going good, there's not much to vent.

Sometimes it is nonsense.

For me this is another way of getting some discipline in life. I like to blog. It would be a pity if I lose it just out of laziness. Most of the times, I feel I might not have anything worthwhile to write about. But since I've resolved 'No day without a line', I find that once I start typing, it does start making sense and more often than not, I do find something worthwhile to write about.

A little update: Finished Season 8 of 24. Jack Bauer has saved the world three times over in a single day. And like always, with a great personal price to pay. But despite that, it really is quite watchable. I like the way his character has been etched out. Though a little incredible at times, it does have a lot of shades and one can identify with his angsts and sorrows.

Also finished the fourth Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child. Again an incredible character but hugely readable. He is Rambo and Sherlock Holmes rolled into one. I like the writing style and the plot. His novels also give out some interesting trivia tidbits.

Have picked up 'The Pixar Touch'. Really looking forward to reading that one. Firstly, it is a Steve Jobs venture. And secondly, they have made some of the most amazing examples of what creativity, art and technology can bring together. Wish I could work there.

There. Have just belted out a few hundred words. Turned out this post has been about nonsense at the end of it all.

But I wrote today. That's what matters.

Today

Today was about:

Being productive.
Getting into arguments
Fun.
Fulfilling.
Catching up.
Moving on.
Balancing.
Discussing books and movies.
A long meaningful conversation.
A meaningless talk.
New DVDs.
No Facebook.
Cracking two presentations well.
Staying unaffected.
Rising above.

Sound-check

When a tree falls in the middle of a dense jungle and no one hears it, then does it make a sound?

I re-started posting random thoughts and this was the first random thought that came to mind. I was wondering if anyone ever watches this space anymore. So it really wouldn't make any difference right?

But apparently, there was a camper in the woods when the tree fell. The camper probably heard a slight rustle and felt a little breeze from the tree falling. And probably just looked up and took notice.

Thanks for that, camper.

No day without a line

This is what I thought today when I told myself that I must re-start this space. The whole day just came and went in flurry of activity and the resolution was almost broken even before it was started getting implemented. Nevertheless, here we are and here's the first of what's hopefully going to be a long line of posts.