Friday, December 31, 2004
To B or not to B...
"To be or not to be, that's the question" as Shakespeare said in Hamlet. But I begin to wonder, is it really a question? I mean, look at the construction - it so clearly is not a question. Granted that Shakespeare was a genius of words, and so maybe he could take the liberty to say that it is indeed a question. But does that allow us to say the same thing? We are not anywhere near The Bard and so, I beg to differ with him that it is a question. It could become a proper question when we add some other words to it - like "to be or not to be what?" Once that is established, we can think of "how to be or not to be 'that whatever'?" Then we can think of "when to be and when not to be 'that'?" and so on and so forth if you get what I'm trying to drive at. Anyway, that is not the topic of my post today. It has to do with the B-verbs that come to my mind soon as I see that phrase...
Let us first dispense with the obvious... "To be or not to be"... well, I seem to have talked in much detail (much of it useless) about this one. But, I got some more to add... First of all, how do you decide "what" to be or not be? I say, go with your gut on that one. Well, I could go on and on about each of the question listed above, and then some more, but basically the gist of it all is: follow your instinct, as bad as it may be.
Then comes "to blog or not to blog".... well, for me, the solution to that would (obviously) be to blog. But, there are so many things that affect one's blogging that it is not so straight-forward as my solution seems. Living in the hectic world that we do, people find it difficult to do something as easy as lazing off. Now, in this scenario, how can one expect others to do something as intellectually taxing as blogging? Intellectually taxing not because you have to write funny, witty stuff or anything, but because you have to go through stuff like what I am writing now so that others may also read what you write. Well, I hope you do get the picture. On a more serious and practical note, blogging is the first thing that people cut back on when they are pressed for time...
Then comes "to booze or not to booze"... well, once again, there are a lot of factors affecting this decision. Firstly there are all the problems one might (being from a pretty conservative Indian family) face. Then there are the detractors who try dissuading people from boozing (I still can't figure out why). Most important I think is the financial and social constraints imposed on one, which are entirely out of one's control. I mean, apart from a few exceptions, I guess no one would prefer drinking alone. So, if you are in a company of teetotalers, well, what can you do but not booze? Anyway, there is so much more that can be said on this topic - I mean, all the "what", "how", "when", etc., questions pop up... and I am sure no one (including me) has the patience to sift through all those questions.
The last one I thought of, while writing this piece is another question that might already have popped up in your mind - "to beat up the person who wrote this or not to beat up the person who wrote this"... Personally, I would suggest restraint, and if that doesn't work, I would remind you of the "long arm of the law"... but then since my opinion "could" be biased, well, again, go with your instinct - I say that fearlessly 'cause I am sure none of you would take the trouble of coming all the way here to beat me up...
Post-Script: Well, if any of you can think of any more B-verbs that can be added, please feel free to suggest them to me... would help keep me writing such nonsensical stuff when I don't have anything else to post...
Sunday, December 26, 2004
Merry Christmas
Snow... well, it seems such an exciting prospect when you are watching your first snow... all the playing around, all the snowballs and all... nice and exciting.... the first time u see snow, especially when it just partially covers the grass around, it is beautiful. But then, you tend to be hit by the practical aspects of the snow, which are almost always painful, as it becomes a regular feature. OK, I am speaking here as if I've been seeing snow for a long time indeed, but well, the little snow I've seen is enough to have pained me already.... too damn cold outside, very slippery to walk anywhere... just too much bother for all the nice things it might bring....
The only redeeming factor I see in the snow is that this allows me to laze away - nay, not just allows me, almost forces me to laziness... and that for me is very very important. So I guess I would end saying "good ol' snow"...
Monday, December 20, 2004
Books to Movies
Many movies we see are made from books - novels mainly, biographies, comics and so on... I have always felt that the book is a lot better medium than the film is, though a film doesn't demand the same investment of time and money that a book does. However, reading a good book always leaves a much deeper impression than watching a good movie does. And it is a much better way to spend one's time I feel. I have seen my share of movies based on books. Most left me feeling that the book was a better experience than the movie was. I guess its because a book allows u to understand and visualize every aspect of any scene rather than impose something on your mind like a film does. Maybe there's more - I am sure there is. Just can't put it into words I guess. Anyway, there come from time to time some movies which are almost as enjoyable as the book itself. Here are some I feel are as good as the books themselves.
The Godfather: A god-damn great book, and an equally great movie. The book made me an instant fan of Mario Puzo, and the movie got me to become a fan of Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, and mainly Marlon Brando. I don't know if any change in the cast or the crew of the movie would have led to the same effect that the movie has now. I mean, even after so many years, it is still a much-admired classic. I don't need to praise the book and I am sure that whatever I can say would be sadly insufficient.
Jurassic Park: A great read which makes the readers really imagine the mighty dinosaurs as they once roamed the earth. The movie was just as I had imagined it should be, and not just me, all my friends also feel the same. One of the few sci-fi movies which seems likely to happen - and I think that's what makes a sci-fi movie good.
Lord of the Rings: All three movies. I think that LOTR's the best book I've read. The vision of Tolkein is just too awe-inspiring. And the movies all gave out the same aura that the books project. Each character in the movie is fleshed out in a very faithful manner, and I think it is a really difficult task to not have taken any cinematic liberties and yet maintain the same effect as the book does. I am sure everyone who has seen the movie and read the book is just impressed by the look and feel of Gollum in the movie - the hardest character to portray on screen.
Besides these, there are of course some other movies which are damn good, but somehow, they're not just the same as the book itself. Watch "The Client" or "The Pelican Brief" and then read them, and I am sure you'd be much more impressed by the books than by the movies, as good as they are. One movie I am waiting for is HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy, though I don't really know if the makers can pull it off... Here's hoping that they are able to make the movie as good as the books were...
Friday, December 17, 2004
The DPS issue... what the hell's happening?
IIT student held for selling DPS sex clip
I came across this news article while going through Rediff. I haven't yet begun reading all the news sites from India, like many people I came to know in the US do. Maybe some day, but that's not what this post is about. Well, the headline sure seems interesting, doesn't it? So I followed the link, and read thruogh the article. After that, I just Googled to see what the clip was all about... Well, many newspapers did throw in a lot of information about the clip, how it got distributed in the first place... well, for all I know, it could be complete misinformation. But I am really pissed at what I read.
A young couple, a very young couple in fact, have sex or maybe it was just the foreplay, but well, that doesn't matter much either. They record the scene "just for fun". The girl ditches the guy after sometime, and the guy starts peddling the clip to his friends for an amount that's still vague: some sites put it at Rs. 100, and some for lesser still. As can be expected, it spreads through almost all the MMS-enabled phones in Delhi, spreads farther through the whole country. Someone copies it onto a CD and the CD sells... some other guy gets it, puts it on Baazee.com and predictably gets caught. And now people like me who wonder what the hell was happening to a couple of kids in their 11th standard, we get to see many discussion forums, and other mundane places on the big WWW bashing the girl, like its all her fault.
That was what I gathered from all the sites I could pull up from Google. What the hell is happening here? Agreed, the kids were wrong in having sex - I still don't know if they did have sex or not - I mean, they're too young to be doing any of the fooling around allegedly on the tape. Now, I haven't seen the tape, and I wouldn't care to either... But here we have people calling the girl a whore and what not... Why? Simply 'cause she thought it wasn't working out with the guy and broke up with him? I don't get it... And no one's even talking about the guy. A really great guy he is, isn't he? I mean, I wonder if he would have sold the clip to anyone if his face were in it! A cheap and sorry chap who couldn't bear a girl dumping him.
Now, many people do it... hell, everyone does it, everyone HAS to be doing it... look at the population! And here is a girl who's being victimized for something which isn't such a big deal! OK, I once again state that what she did was wrong, for her age... but is it so big that she has to live with enforced guilt and shame all her life? The girl was supposedly a brilliant student - one bright future ruined. And the guy gets to go free... no one seems to be blaming him for what happened, when I strongly feel that he is the only guilty party. Some DPS students have even given out the names of the guy and the girl, what the hell were they thinking? Hemant Chugh or something is the guy's name, and I wouldn't take the girl's name here. I feel that more than enough has been said about her, most of it against her! I want to speak about the guy now... What kind of a loser is it who harbors such a grudge against an ex-girlfriend that he has to go about hawking clips like this? I can only imagine what kind of a man this boy would grow up into. Why the hell should he be let go scot-free? OK OK he was also expelled from the school - well, he deserved it, and I think that that's not enough for him.
Now, about those that started all these discussion forums and all about this incident. The majority I have been through seem to categorize the girl as some kind of a cheap whore, and other names I wouldn't bother mentioning here... WHY??? just because she didn't think it's wrong to make out with her boyfriend? Bloody hell, I am sure that if these people were old enough, they'd be knocking up their girlfriends as well... and they go about calling others names! And then after calling her names they ask "Anyone know where I can get the clip on the NET?" Heights of hypocrisy!!! And then there are these moralists who downright slam the girl for doing this, and think the guy is OK. Grow out of the middle ages people! Whether you accept it or not, pre-marital sex has been happening in India and will continue to happen. So why all this hue and cry? Oh yeah, there were even those who said the guy and girl should get married after what has happened!!! They wouldn't have fucking known "whatever has happened" if the guy was even a half-way decent man. Now, why should the girl marry this guy after he betrayed her like this? Where's the sense in that?
Well, this has been a long post already... I guess I should end it already... only one thing to say in parting - please shed the hypocrisy, and realise that if anyone's to blame, its the guy, and not the poor girl...
PS: I almost forgot - I don't know where to get the clip, so please DO NOT leave any comments here asking if I know where you can get the clip; and if anyone knows it, shut the fuck up, I don't care.
Update: Warrant issued against schoolboy. Finally!! He may get out on a technicality of being a juvenile, but well, something's being done... our authorities ain't that bad afterall...
Monday, December 13, 2004
The Internet's a great place... one is bombarded by so much information, mostly of the kind that is not useful to many. Now, with the excess amount of information, we are also getting a lot more space to store ths stuff in... Just look at the amount of storage space you have on the leading free email providers. Yahoo! gives 100MB, and is one of the lowest inbox spaces now I think; MSN Hotmail also rolled up its sleeves and got into the inbox-space war and is now offering 200MB; Rediff and GMail give 1GB each... and people like me having accounts in all four have somewhere near 2.3GB of space in which to store their correspondances, and also the many many email forwards we get. I don't remember the last time I cleared my inbox in any of the accounts. I was just wondering about this, and looked up my Yahoo! inbox, and found that I still had some way old attachments which I would have deleted immediately in the old days. And, I also have this blog, which gives me almost unlimited space (practically) in which to save these mostly useless ramblings of mine... well, am enjoying it all the way....
American Football: well, what can I say about this game? People here are just crazy about it. I may not be too quick on the uptake, but I still don't get the game. I mean, I understand the rules a bit, and all that, but well, guess I am too much of a soccer man to be too interested in this "football" where all the passing and playing is done by holding the ball in the hands. Why the hell do they call it "football"? Can someone please give me a convincing reply? Anyway, at OSU as in everywhere else in the States, football is big, and has been much more so since OSU won the National Champions title in 2002. This season was, simply put, bad. But well, the team had all these reasons like almost all of the defense graduating last year and stuff. Anyway, we have this BIG rivalry with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, referred to only as "the University Up North" - believe me, its really huge, the rivalry I mean, 101 years old. The only comparision I can think of in sporting terms is the India-Pakistan or the erstwhile England-Australia rivalries in cricket. Whatever happens in the rest of the season, beating the Wolverines (the team from up-north) is all that matters. And that's exactly what happened this year - the OSU Buckeyes beat the Michigan Wolverines - and all is well with the world! Go Bucks!!!
Why do some friendships go bad? Long-time friends also get estranged, and no, I am not just talking about the distances involved - all the distance thing is no longer a big deal in keeping in touch. Differences of opinion do exist, and they have always been there in any friendship. So, why do these differences become important all of a sudden? What catalyzes the flash-point? Well, can't think of an answer now... will have to think about it... so goodbye till then...
Update: I totally forgot... MS Subbalakshmi passed away yesterday... awesome singer, and really one of the greats... really sad thing... isn't it?
