So America is in the thick of political hoo-haa with the DNC happening in Boston all week(7/26- 7/29). The Republicans will have their big gala at NYC in a few weeks. If you were to believe the 24 hr cable news channels, it would seem that the world has come to a standstill and the only event happening on our planet is the race for the top govt post of the USA- the President, of course. 70 odd people killed in a violent bomb attack in Baghdad barely recieved more than 5 seconds of a mention.
I do not have too much of a recollection about these Conventions in the year 2000. I was very much in this country since August of that year. Aaah! now i get it. we did not have the TV at home. damn the idiot box!
But 4 years is a long time and my senses have matured ( I hope so!). And to no surprise the take home message still remains : Politics is the same game played all over the globe. Color, race, gender, nationality, sexual preferences - nothing, nothing matters when it comes to political behavior. I wont be the first person making an observation that " politics is a human trait, we all indulge in some form of it". Just that some run for public posts while some of us pursue the more trivial versions of it.
But i must admit that being a non-voting legal resident of this country gives me some kind of a devilish, sometimes even sadistic, power to observe the happenings here and yet not be too perturbed. maybe it is because i am not voting, so my opinion doesnt count. But then it doesnt stop me from commenting. does it? Or maybe it is because i have grown up learning to see through the seemingly glorious speeches delivered by all and sundry at the drop of a hat. There is one word to describe the latter emotion: disenchanted.
Ok, so lets stick with the alien theory for now. Assume that i still believe in the good will that politicians like to seem to dissipate(actually i have not lost hope in the political process yet, and thats a fact, mind you!!)
So Monday at Boston was all CLINTON. That man has the gift to impress. He came he spoke and he won hearts. One just did'nt want him to stop. Kerry owes him quite a bit for that booster. If Clinton says it , it sounds genuine, but if anybody else says it then its like " oh he's (or she's) just playing politics". And honestly, I was not as impressed with John Edwards who spoke wednesday as i was with Bill. Bill captivates his audience. Its a spell. I am curious to know if there are numbers which say how many of the GOPers voted for Bill just hearing him speak. I am darn sure many did.
Admittedly, I have been glued to the cable news channels all this week with MSNBC getting most of my eyeballs. CNN had its perch too close to the floor and I thought it was too noisy down there. And then Wolf or Judy never seem to want to ruffle a few feathers. Boring. Period. I occassionally tripped across to FOX just when it got a lil too sugary on MSNBC, if you know what i mean.
John Edwards makes funny tongue movements. And he pronounces the word "values" in a quirkily odd way. Those are the highlights I got out of his address on wednesday. Content wise, he was to the tee. But something tells me he is overdoing his "charm thing" and that seems "plastic" to me. He sure must have been a great trial lawyer. But nothing beat good ole' Clinton. Maybe Edwards may get there someday on the public speech scale.
I am curious. How much is actually banking on the "performances" at these conventions, in terms of election prospects? Many commentators devoted a lot of their time and energy trying to deconstruct the "personality" issues in this election. "this is the biggest speech of his life", " he better stick to under 55 minutes" , " he would do better if he kept that smile on his face while speaking" and so on. So does that mean that we, the public have made this into one hollywood (or bollywood) extravaganza. Why do I get this feeling that some among us have actually decided to choose our next leader(s) based on his or her looks and demeanour. Mind you, I am not saying that it doesnt count. Case in point being Clinton himself. But after all these speakers just get about 20 or 30 minutes to strut their stuff. Why are some of us holding them to the test for that little brief moment of time? I sincerely hope I am wrong when I say that voters make their decision based on how Kerry or Bush or whoever spoke or "performed" at a particular rally. Isnt it much more than just your hairstyle or the shape of your head?
So much has gone into the whole "image" concept, that it surely has spawned a whole new industry out there, pundits advising the people in the limelight to smile like this, wave their hand this way, button up the shirt and what not.
Isnt this phenomenon a love child of OUR fascination for all things perfect and clean and OUR ever receeding patience to give others a second chance?
Or are there other parents involved as well?
We as a consumer nation have voraciously demanded the very finest. Cut to the tee, sparkled till it blinds us, not a speck, everything in order, never a smirk, not a rough word: these are just a few of the demands WE have placed on public personalities. So it is market logic that these very people who we expect so much of behave to our tastes. Many a time we are bowled over by the sheen and the gloss of it all. Content doesnt matter as much as the cover. A well packaged nominee for president is "cool". Dean tripped on himself and that clip of him howling on stage was played endlessly on the media and that more or less sealed his fate. Like I read somewhere: " Dated Dean, Married Kerry". Apt!
Even after Kerry's address to the DNC on thursday (which I thought was extremely well delivered and hit the right notes), some senior guests on MSNBC were arguing/ discussing stuff like "how Kerry had to finish in 50 minutes instead of more" and so on (their reasoning being that the networks would have not kept airing Kerry if he had crossed 11 pm EDT). It required a visibly bemused Tom Brokaw to end the spat by saying that nothing like that would have happened and that Kerry would have gotten coverage until his last lines on that stage. How simple. Content was discussed only much later (after commercial breaks) on the shows. Even Chris Matthews was obsessed with how Kerry "performed" and so on. Give me a break, rather give Kerry a few.
Well, the channels are playing to the galleries (that would be you and me and such), and boy, wasnt I looking out for one little tiny glitch, a slip of the tongue, an error, a misstep, a mispronunciation, a guffaw. The more the image gurus try to perfect the person in the limelight, the more people like me want to catch them off-guard. How perverted, you may say. But hey, its all so hunky dory up there, I wonder are they human or programmed fail-safe robots? It gets quite boring when they all flash that whitened set of teeth, wear the crispiest of clothes and seem to do it all, know it all and distribute "hope" and "help" by the placard. So much for "perfection fatigue".
So its all boils down to the classic " chicken and egg" story. Nobody can quite agree on what came first: the impatient , perfection seeking viewer, the headline hungry news channels or the highly made-over clear skinned, well scrubbed candy sweet candidate.
All in all it was a great TV week for me, having watched so many hours of the DNC coverage. Quite a powerhouse that was: the Clintons, Gore, Fmr. prez Carter, old man Kennedy, Dean, the Libermans , Jesse Jackson and from the media: Tim Russert, Brokaw, Chris M, Blitzer, the Crossfire gang and the ever nagging O'Reilly. Did i miss mentioning Black Eyed Pea, Ben Affleck, M Moore, Natalie Portman and the suave Kevin Bacon.
They say the DNC was not the only thing that happened in Boston. 100s of other parties , debates , gatherings and mini conventions happened all over the city and that I think is the winning outcome : the ability to have dialogue. In fact the DNC was a well rehearsed show, pretty predictable and highly boring other than for the star speakers. Pity that for a person like me in far-away salt lake that is all the networks covered all day. Sigh.
Ending on an optimistic note, I should mention that such exercises in democracy and liberty is what keeps me going. Yes, it cost them 95 million USD to host this circus, but then whats 95 milli for a ticket that just among the 2 of them could easily be wroth about half a billi.
May the best candidate win. My choice (I cannot cast a vote yet) is Kerry. Make sure you vote for him as well.
Friday, July 30, 2004
Saturday, June 26, 2004
made for today's 'instant' consumptions
Fahrenheit 911 openeed to packed cinema houses all over the country this last friday..and to the surprise of some, even Salt Lake's theaters saw endless queues. Me and Sachin managed to get 2nd row seats at the 5:30 matinee at Broadway. Wow, it almost felt like ole days in India when standing in a Q to enter a cinema was the norm. only this time the people were relatively quiet almost as if we were in Q to enter a morgue or something like that.
Ok, so I am not at all a big fan of GW Bush, no doubt about that, atleast in the current circumstances. so with all my exposure and readings and past leanings, i was pretty much ready to accept what Michael Moore (MM) was going to offer in the 2 hr film. my curiosity was more with regards to the way he was going to go about making his case, the cinematic effects and his editing skills ( Bowling for Columbine struck a chord and i could never resist another film by MM).
The movie is essentially a cut and paste job with MM's narration all along the way. there are also one on one interviews with certain individuals ( democratic lawmakers, obviously none GOP) and then there's Mrs Lipscomb's experience. But the remarkable aspect is the slick editing. never did it feel like a scratchy job. Amazing footage, well chosen for this film and some can do more damage than the other. If you already have the no-no's for GW, you wont find anything sparklingly new here. I guess i had already assumed that GW was of doubtable character, particularly when it came to his BIg Oil connections and Cheney running the show.
It was entertainment value for me, nothing shocking, nothing out of the blue.
Its like this for me: once i had already decided that Bush was no good, all such anti-bush information was just making me say 'i told u so'.
But apart from the take-home message from tht film, I am curious about the effects the film can have on public opinion given that it is an election year and a tight one at that. The whole place is so drastically skewed at for or anti Bush. Kerry doesnt get that kind of ardent hatred that Bush manages to generate at the twitch of his nose. One thing I feel , in a kind of a sad way, is that today our capacity for memory is getting to be more and more short term. In that, we are so ready for today's headlines that we easily forget or atleast tend to forget most of the past days' top news. So MM's film may just be that , at its worst. It is sure to create more than just a buzz for the next few weeks ( its already the top grossing film of this weekend, inspite of its limited release). Ok say it will do so for a month maybe two. that still leaves a couple of months before people exercise their votes in November.
So, am i scared that F911 will hardly matter? hell no. it sure will, but the 'phenomenon' that it is today will be reduced to a whimper come October. And that is a sad commentary on our crazily fast paced lives of today. Maybe I didnt get too turned on by the film, but i hope there is an audience that was not as cynical about Bush (before viewing F911) as me. Maybe the film moved them from their pro-Bush stances. the very stance that MM also talks about in his film, pointing to things like ' they want us to live in fear, so that they can go to war...'
The bombardment of news (or their version of it) on today's US 24-hr channels has made me always seeking the next big thing. news items that would have been considered sacrilege a few years ago, hardly itches anybody today. I (or shall i say we) have become hard hearted and hard to please. the media channels keep trying their best to impress me that they have the latest breaking news, this that, so many killed, this scandal that scandal, but alas i am not satisfied. i wont stop short of anything but spectacularly out of this world. i am an insatiable consumer and its just become a part of my personality: i want more of everything, better of the most: better income, cleaner air, wider airline seats, longer holidays, unlimited TV, endless miles of roads etc etc and now also endless 'breaking (or path breaking) news.
a case in point is in the movie: the first part is totally devoted to presenting MM's research on the Bushes' particularly cordial relations with the oily saudis, even the Bin Ladens. But this was already out in the news media in bits earlier. so those startling scenes and evidence that MM presented were hardly head-turning for me. it was like" oh, i must have heard about it on MSNBC or something like that earlier....c,mon MM, i wont be satisfied unless u actually show me footage of father Bush literally shaking hands with the father of all terrorists - Osama. "
yea, its come to that. i am in constant search for the next best thing, in news just as in online deals for an iPod.
so that is what is painful, at the end of it all. I think MM should have released his movie in bits , like an episode each month until November and then the last one should have had something outstanding: maybe Osama's (or Saddam's) pic with Jr. Bush himself. Ok now that is wishful thinking and i know i am being too demanding as a simple 5 $ paying memeber of the audience. But, this is where we are leading to. we as a society have hardened up to simple assasinations and terror attacks. it takes atleast 100 plus lives lost to shake us up and mind you, that too for just the period it keeps flashing on the news channels. the moment the next J Lo wedding gets annouced, in one stroke of the camera, we tune outr brains to that, so many of us in that process conveniently forget those killed a few minutes ago. there is too much going on with us , too much going on Tv, the news papers ,here there, too much for us to have the luxury to ponder , take a step back , think , assess, rethink, opinionate, address, follow-up or even research it. The assumption is that somebody wouyld have done a good job of checking on the facts before it was presented to us. and somebody actually might have been doing so too. of ocurse there are the black sheep, but that is a small %.
again , the agony of this post is due to the suspicion i have that MM's F911 will not get Bush out of the office as easily as i would have liked it to be. But then i am told that it doesnt need only MM to do his job at revealing some shady past info about the Bushes. there will be numerous other reasons as to why the people of this country may not vote for GW anymore. Afterll, its an election of many issues. MM did his part on convincing many that the war was a Bush conspiracy irrespective of whther 911 happened or not. 911 just emboldened GWs white house to push the case, successfully.
oh how i wish, MM would have released this film later in the year and slam dunked the election for the democrats. alas, i guess he too was eager to strut his stuff to the world as soon as he finished the film. cannot blame him. it definitely is not on him to make or break the election, although the radical somewhere in me would like it that way. knock knock, Amit, the world is not made or broken in hollywood or any other film city. it is much more complicated that this. i may be convinced (more than before) that Bush created reasons to go to war with Iraq, but everybody is not me, and i do not want everybody to be me, that diversity of thought is what makes democracy what it is today. MM can only make a film, it is you and me who go to the polls to cast our choices to decide if his GWB or JFK is the next president of the US. FOX tries to convince us that all is hunky dory with the US's invasion of iraq, CNN is ambivalent, so is MSNBC, the NY times doesnt like the govt, the WSJ adores the GOP, Utah is 80% republican, MM is 100% anti-Bush. variety, my dear is the spice of life. live it love it, but when it come to the polls, think about it.
Ok, so I am not at all a big fan of GW Bush, no doubt about that, atleast in the current circumstances. so with all my exposure and readings and past leanings, i was pretty much ready to accept what Michael Moore (MM) was going to offer in the 2 hr film. my curiosity was more with regards to the way he was going to go about making his case, the cinematic effects and his editing skills ( Bowling for Columbine struck a chord and i could never resist another film by MM).
The movie is essentially a cut and paste job with MM's narration all along the way. there are also one on one interviews with certain individuals ( democratic lawmakers, obviously none GOP) and then there's Mrs Lipscomb's experience. But the remarkable aspect is the slick editing. never did it feel like a scratchy job. Amazing footage, well chosen for this film and some can do more damage than the other. If you already have the no-no's for GW, you wont find anything sparklingly new here. I guess i had already assumed that GW was of doubtable character, particularly when it came to his BIg Oil connections and Cheney running the show.
It was entertainment value for me, nothing shocking, nothing out of the blue.
Its like this for me: once i had already decided that Bush was no good, all such anti-bush information was just making me say 'i told u so'.
But apart from the take-home message from tht film, I am curious about the effects the film can have on public opinion given that it is an election year and a tight one at that. The whole place is so drastically skewed at for or anti Bush. Kerry doesnt get that kind of ardent hatred that Bush manages to generate at the twitch of his nose. One thing I feel , in a kind of a sad way, is that today our capacity for memory is getting to be more and more short term. In that, we are so ready for today's headlines that we easily forget or atleast tend to forget most of the past days' top news. So MM's film may just be that , at its worst. It is sure to create more than just a buzz for the next few weeks ( its already the top grossing film of this weekend, inspite of its limited release). Ok say it will do so for a month maybe two. that still leaves a couple of months before people exercise their votes in November.
So, am i scared that F911 will hardly matter? hell no. it sure will, but the 'phenomenon' that it is today will be reduced to a whimper come October. And that is a sad commentary on our crazily fast paced lives of today. Maybe I didnt get too turned on by the film, but i hope there is an audience that was not as cynical about Bush (before viewing F911) as me. Maybe the film moved them from their pro-Bush stances. the very stance that MM also talks about in his film, pointing to things like ' they want us to live in fear, so that they can go to war...'
The bombardment of news (or their version of it) on today's US 24-hr channels has made me always seeking the next big thing. news items that would have been considered sacrilege a few years ago, hardly itches anybody today. I (or shall i say we) have become hard hearted and hard to please. the media channels keep trying their best to impress me that they have the latest breaking news, this that, so many killed, this scandal that scandal, but alas i am not satisfied. i wont stop short of anything but spectacularly out of this world. i am an insatiable consumer and its just become a part of my personality: i want more of everything, better of the most: better income, cleaner air, wider airline seats, longer holidays, unlimited TV, endless miles of roads etc etc and now also endless 'breaking (or path breaking) news.
a case in point is in the movie: the first part is totally devoted to presenting MM's research on the Bushes' particularly cordial relations with the oily saudis, even the Bin Ladens. But this was already out in the news media in bits earlier. so those startling scenes and evidence that MM presented were hardly head-turning for me. it was like" oh, i must have heard about it on MSNBC or something like that earlier....c,mon MM, i wont be satisfied unless u actually show me footage of father Bush literally shaking hands with the father of all terrorists - Osama. "
yea, its come to that. i am in constant search for the next best thing, in news just as in online deals for an iPod.
so that is what is painful, at the end of it all. I think MM should have released his movie in bits , like an episode each month until November and then the last one should have had something outstanding: maybe Osama's (or Saddam's) pic with Jr. Bush himself. Ok now that is wishful thinking and i know i am being too demanding as a simple 5 $ paying memeber of the audience. But, this is where we are leading to. we as a society have hardened up to simple assasinations and terror attacks. it takes atleast 100 plus lives lost to shake us up and mind you, that too for just the period it keeps flashing on the news channels. the moment the next J Lo wedding gets annouced, in one stroke of the camera, we tune outr brains to that, so many of us in that process conveniently forget those killed a few minutes ago. there is too much going on with us , too much going on Tv, the news papers ,here there, too much for us to have the luxury to ponder , take a step back , think , assess, rethink, opinionate, address, follow-up or even research it. The assumption is that somebody wouyld have done a good job of checking on the facts before it was presented to us. and somebody actually might have been doing so too. of ocurse there are the black sheep, but that is a small %.
again , the agony of this post is due to the suspicion i have that MM's F911 will not get Bush out of the office as easily as i would have liked it to be. But then i am told that it doesnt need only MM to do his job at revealing some shady past info about the Bushes. there will be numerous other reasons as to why the people of this country may not vote for GW anymore. Afterll, its an election of many issues. MM did his part on convincing many that the war was a Bush conspiracy irrespective of whther 911 happened or not. 911 just emboldened GWs white house to push the case, successfully.
oh how i wish, MM would have released this film later in the year and slam dunked the election for the democrats. alas, i guess he too was eager to strut his stuff to the world as soon as he finished the film. cannot blame him. it definitely is not on him to make or break the election, although the radical somewhere in me would like it that way. knock knock, Amit, the world is not made or broken in hollywood or any other film city. it is much more complicated that this. i may be convinced (more than before) that Bush created reasons to go to war with Iraq, but everybody is not me, and i do not want everybody to be me, that diversity of thought is what makes democracy what it is today. MM can only make a film, it is you and me who go to the polls to cast our choices to decide if his GWB or JFK is the next president of the US. FOX tries to convince us that all is hunky dory with the US's invasion of iraq, CNN is ambivalent, so is MSNBC, the NY times doesnt like the govt, the WSJ adores the GOP, Utah is 80% republican, MM is 100% anti-Bush. variety, my dear is the spice of life. live it love it, but when it come to the polls, think about it.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Sunday, June 20, 2004
flawed like all of us (Hum-Tum)
so me and piyush agreed to shell out 6 bucks apiece to watch the new bollywood flick - Hum Tum being screened just for a single show at Tower on 9th and 9th. the concept of watching a regular hindi movie on the big screen has always enchanted me and many a time i have caught myself falling in love with that concept rather than the actual movie itself. i even tend to praise the movie, just based on the experience i would have had being among 100s others all sitting with our focus trained towards the rectangular screen ahead of us, yet each of us in our own world and thoughts interpreting the scenes in our own personal sense. but inspite of that individulaity, all of us share that common social 'event' feeling, all of us gathered to watch something surreal, hoping for it to educate us, charm us, hypnotise us or even put us off maybe.
and then the happenings at such a gathering of people from the subcontinent is always an experience in culture studies for me. it indeed stands apart from the experiences i have had when watching hollywood movies at the common megaplexes. it is the culture - the stuff that comes with it - language, beahviors, mannerisms, food habits, dressing habits ( altho tht keeps varying with the median age of the audience on a given day), skin tones, body structures, hair color, eye color, car brands ( yea!) , movie tastes etc etc that i can relate to more. the more i attend such events while being in a foreign land ( ive been in salt lake city for the past 4 yrs now) , the more i learn about myself. i dont want to make an effort at classifying peoples based on race or nationality or any other such point. i just want to observe and get amazed each time. it is intriguing when sometimes i end up being able to predict certain mannerisms or actions of such a crowd, but i still would never generalise. and i have seen instances that have always surpirsed me ,pleasantly. thank god for that. else my social behavior classes would have come to a boring end long time ago. it is such an evolving process, this observation routine of mine. it is not judgement, mind you. i am in no position to do that, for that matter none of us are. yes, many of us do so for our personal database, so to say, but it very much ends at that for me. nobody cares for wht i think and i am no fool to go about announcing what would be on my mind either. so why spend valuable time and energy doing something so futile? might as well revel in the rare ocassion of being with so many people from your native land rather than try and stand away and keep smirking at their little traits. afterall, i am there to havea good time. period.
ok, digressing from the title or what i intended to say is a very simple folly i committ each time. by now i guess you would have percieved the randomness of my thinking. ok ok back to the movie.
simple story line with just a handful of characters, each of whom is beautifully potrayed by the alloted actor/actress. essentially a romance, a love story and a sentimental one at that. but before i get into more detials, im itching to give away the most striking ( for me) aspect of the film: rani mukherjee's ( the central heroine) character. i am dead sure the director and the writer( im afraid its kunal kohli who did both jobs) had a clear and precise character in mind. and reassuringly, the beauty of the final product is that the essence of that lady has been potrayed just about perfect, a combination of excellent acting my rani and good screenplay aka translation of ideas onto screen.
i wont go about narrating the story here but for me there were a few take home messages: some production notes, some emotinal ones, a few lessons in understanding women ( pheww, the list is long and i have more to go), movie moments that strike a chord and so on
to me rhea ( rani's character) comes across as a level headed indian woman, leaning on the conservative ( ok, now this is on my personal scale and i may be wrong but its such a subjective topic that its easy to get bogegd down in that). she comes from a well to do family and also has in the course of the movie a seemingly stable and auccessful career. and ya, she also seems to have found the perfect match for her: a decent loving educated and well to do man. she apparently chose him to be her beau. which means that he fit into her idea of a husband and vice versa. rhea is weaker than most would like her to be. she doesnt take unwanted risks and treads on a cautious path with her principles guiding ehr along. she would never digress too much , all in all she would always give herself a realty check. also she is slightly old world in the sense that although she is highly opinionated and can get her work done as well as protect herself, she expects the man to make the moves, atleast 7 out of 10 times, if not always. she doesnt seem to be the one who picks up from her past and moves along quite soon. no need to i would say. yet, when she starts building trust in the otherwise casanova karan (saif) , it is her slow moves towards him that are striking. ya she isnt that broad minded and is searching for a very particular breed of men, but then im confident there are millions out there who are like her. when it comes to choosing her life partner, she is like a testing center. she, internally, has observed and judged karan under so many circumstances ( many of which the bloke isnt even aware of) that after a while she places him up there and even goes as far as dreaming or visualising him as her life partner. although in this movie the karan character is not sure of his feelings towards her ( atleast in the life partner sense) , she having put so much into it ( in her head) , has become fragile and gets easily shattered at the first hint of a rejection from her love object. she isnt sure, she is cautious, she cannot find herself to live happily again, she expects the guy to make the move, she runs away the moment she sees rejection, she is nervous when the truth is right in front, she likes self pity, and ya she cries too. these apsects of her character make her just more humane.
wow, i myself am wondering as to the details im going into about just another movie. but then seldom do such movies happen where-in the roles played are of the more perceptible human kinds. saif's character is another story ( or blog) altogether, but i wont get into that.
just as a note, i am tempted to add that many of the ideas i put in the earlier paragraphs of as to why rhea was like that, what rhea did, what was her thinking etc etc are simply outpourings from a personal view point as well. lets just say i have had certain people in my life who in some way showed traits that rhea did. so in a way it was a perfect potrayal of certain aspects of certain individuals and the near perfect potrayal just drove some hitherto unsorted points home.
maybe the next time i get into something serious , i shall be in a better position to appreciate where the woman is coming from, why she is saying the things she does say.
alrite, i worte a lot here. so much for a 3 hour bollywood masala. but some moments and roles played on the silver screen are worht so much more than just being there. Rhea is definitely up there for me - among shahrukh in kabhi ha kabhi na, amitabh in namak haraam, rajesh khanna in safar, manisha koirala in 'bombay', madhuri in HAHK, the list can go on....
and then the happenings at such a gathering of people from the subcontinent is always an experience in culture studies for me. it indeed stands apart from the experiences i have had when watching hollywood movies at the common megaplexes. it is the culture - the stuff that comes with it - language, beahviors, mannerisms, food habits, dressing habits ( altho tht keeps varying with the median age of the audience on a given day), skin tones, body structures, hair color, eye color, car brands ( yea!) , movie tastes etc etc that i can relate to more. the more i attend such events while being in a foreign land ( ive been in salt lake city for the past 4 yrs now) , the more i learn about myself. i dont want to make an effort at classifying peoples based on race or nationality or any other such point. i just want to observe and get amazed each time. it is intriguing when sometimes i end up being able to predict certain mannerisms or actions of such a crowd, but i still would never generalise. and i have seen instances that have always surpirsed me ,pleasantly. thank god for that. else my social behavior classes would have come to a boring end long time ago. it is such an evolving process, this observation routine of mine. it is not judgement, mind you. i am in no position to do that, for that matter none of us are. yes, many of us do so for our personal database, so to say, but it very much ends at that for me. nobody cares for wht i think and i am no fool to go about announcing what would be on my mind either. so why spend valuable time and energy doing something so futile? might as well revel in the rare ocassion of being with so many people from your native land rather than try and stand away and keep smirking at their little traits. afterall, i am there to havea good time. period.
ok, digressing from the title or what i intended to say is a very simple folly i committ each time. by now i guess you would have percieved the randomness of my thinking. ok ok back to the movie.
simple story line with just a handful of characters, each of whom is beautifully potrayed by the alloted actor/actress. essentially a romance, a love story and a sentimental one at that. but before i get into more detials, im itching to give away the most striking ( for me) aspect of the film: rani mukherjee's ( the central heroine) character. i am dead sure the director and the writer( im afraid its kunal kohli who did both jobs) had a clear and precise character in mind. and reassuringly, the beauty of the final product is that the essence of that lady has been potrayed just about perfect, a combination of excellent acting my rani and good screenplay aka translation of ideas onto screen.
i wont go about narrating the story here but for me there were a few take home messages: some production notes, some emotinal ones, a few lessons in understanding women ( pheww, the list is long and i have more to go), movie moments that strike a chord and so on
to me rhea ( rani's character) comes across as a level headed indian woman, leaning on the conservative ( ok, now this is on my personal scale and i may be wrong but its such a subjective topic that its easy to get bogegd down in that). she comes from a well to do family and also has in the course of the movie a seemingly stable and auccessful career. and ya, she also seems to have found the perfect match for her: a decent loving educated and well to do man. she apparently chose him to be her beau. which means that he fit into her idea of a husband and vice versa. rhea is weaker than most would like her to be. she doesnt take unwanted risks and treads on a cautious path with her principles guiding ehr along. she would never digress too much , all in all she would always give herself a realty check. also she is slightly old world in the sense that although she is highly opinionated and can get her work done as well as protect herself, she expects the man to make the moves, atleast 7 out of 10 times, if not always. she doesnt seem to be the one who picks up from her past and moves along quite soon. no need to i would say. yet, when she starts building trust in the otherwise casanova karan (saif) , it is her slow moves towards him that are striking. ya she isnt that broad minded and is searching for a very particular breed of men, but then im confident there are millions out there who are like her. when it comes to choosing her life partner, she is like a testing center. she, internally, has observed and judged karan under so many circumstances ( many of which the bloke isnt even aware of) that after a while she places him up there and even goes as far as dreaming or visualising him as her life partner. although in this movie the karan character is not sure of his feelings towards her ( atleast in the life partner sense) , she having put so much into it ( in her head) , has become fragile and gets easily shattered at the first hint of a rejection from her love object. she isnt sure, she is cautious, she cannot find herself to live happily again, she expects the guy to make the move, she runs away the moment she sees rejection, she is nervous when the truth is right in front, she likes self pity, and ya she cries too. these apsects of her character make her just more humane.
wow, i myself am wondering as to the details im going into about just another movie. but then seldom do such movies happen where-in the roles played are of the more perceptible human kinds. saif's character is another story ( or blog) altogether, but i wont get into that.
just as a note, i am tempted to add that many of the ideas i put in the earlier paragraphs of as to why rhea was like that, what rhea did, what was her thinking etc etc are simply outpourings from a personal view point as well. lets just say i have had certain people in my life who in some way showed traits that rhea did. so in a way it was a perfect potrayal of certain aspects of certain individuals and the near perfect potrayal just drove some hitherto unsorted points home.
maybe the next time i get into something serious , i shall be in a better position to appreciate where the woman is coming from, why she is saying the things she does say.
alrite, i worte a lot here. so much for a 3 hour bollywood masala. but some moments and roles played on the silver screen are worht so much more than just being there. Rhea is definitely up there for me - among shahrukh in kabhi ha kabhi na, amitabh in namak haraam, rajesh khanna in safar, manisha koirala in 'bombay', madhuri in HAHK, the list can go on....
Friday, June 11, 2004
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Mile 0: Extreme left - the ADJ
random as they are, i decided to put some ideas ( the ones hovering in my brain lately) down in words and what better place than here. at this very point in time im updating my CV. to get myself employed :the non-academic kind of jobs.
but a lot of recent reading and conversing has thrown up mutliple issues with respect to my socio-political leanings (w.r.t current economic/environmental systems). and i swear..they change by the season. the constant factor has been my liberal attitude in thoughts and even some action.
the basis for this effort of course is disappointment or shall we say disgust at what is out there right now. i dont have enough knowledge to take on or fathom each and every veiwpoint or ideology prevalant today. as of now i am no expert in socialism, capitalism or any other 'ism'. all i know is that neither of them in their entireity is getting us any better .
i have never (yet) given myself completely to any single group or ideology..simply because im the eternal sceptic in search of that utopian state where there are more like me (god save this planet before that happens ;) ). well, let me not digress or delve into my Aquarian traits in this blog :)
let me start at what i call : the left end of my spectrum: 'the anti-development junkie' or easier : The ADJ
...now thats a curious term, but i confess that i do lean towards that during certain debates and thought processes. ok, so the basis for that position, as i see, is a linear cause and effect thing, somewhat like this:
Development, in the manner as we use it today, is more often economic in character than otherwise. the way systems have been set up today, it is obvious that economic development means more money, means more buying power, means more production to satisfy that buying power(demand), means more consumption of natural resources for that increased production, means faster depletion of those resources(many resources we use today are non-renewable), means larger probabilities of calamities (global warming is an example), means quicker destruction of balanced ecosystems (pollution of air water soil is expected with any industrial process), means faster extinction of species , means wider gaps between the haves and have nots (the richer will always ensure uninterrupted supply of resources for themselves, even if it means going to war) and so on. ok , so it is a bad outlook. alarming, dangerous, etc etc. it doesnt need too much of a creative thinker to script out the multiple possibilities of such a future. but hang on. i stil feel that is the extreme point of view. it is a position taken by me only when im highly emotional about the issue.
so a typical ADJ would argue that one has to limit if not totally avoid development. it translates into lesser production. that means lesser consumption, that means even lesser demand. if ther is no demand why would anybody invest in 'production' ? the resources would not be depleted as rapidly as they would have if we had contiued the 'production' rate as earlier. lesser pollution would result, lesser ill effects and hence lesser calamities.
ok, i know i have missed chunks of stages in between. im sounding romantic, but the harsh truth is that lesser production means lesser jobs. lesser need for innovation, lesser need for science, lesser jobs means more people not having work to do. it misses the whole point on which todays systems are built on.i dont get it. maybe imnot that gifted to think of what would happen instead of the present 'i pay for goods, u make a profit' system. the extremes among the ADJs need to convince me that they have an alternative.
if i sit down (like right now) and try and rationalise the thoughts, im overwhelmed with the sight of boons of the very same 'development' my earlier arguements so meticulously tried to make a villian of. simple things in life are at our beck and call today because they were 'produced'. the keyboard keys my fingers are tapping on right now came from some synthetic plastic that was mass produced in a factory somewhere in asia using resources like crude extracts, stabilisers and other chemicals, each of which eventually , in being produced, consumed 'irreversibly' a small part of our earth's depleting resources. and then to look at the economics of it all, the 'production' generated a job for a worker or two, he or she earned a wage, that wage paid for purchasing other goods in addition to basics like food clothing shelter. wow, how intricate the system is. it also shows how deep we are into it. getting in came easy, will getting out be as simple?
for one, i agree that the world as it is today is neck deep into a capitalist economy mode. money is the ultimate answer to 99 out of 100 questions for most of us . production is development, development is wealth, wealth is happiness (ya, unfortunately it is). Admittedly, the CV i am constructing is to get me into a higher paying job so that i could travel to places i always wanted to and maybe buy my first car, a laptop, eat out more often, and what not. 'production' is inevitable if i have to be able to do all that i want.
i still havent come to terms ( atleast havent explained completely) with my position on the extremity : " the ADJ" . it is an extreme point of view, and i have never been able to relate myself to anything extreme . but wait, it is crucial that we have among us persons who are ONLY of that extreme opinion. i say that simply because in the madly paced world we live today, it is easy to ignore little things, little ideas, lesser known movements. we have gotten used to being fed information via sources who afterall are run and managed by humans just like us.
an extreme left leaning liberal typically is 'green' in character and he/she doesnt shy away from protesting (sometimes, violently) the managers of 'development'. case in point is the hordes of protestors outside every 'world economic forum'/ G8/ 'WTO' summit.maybe i am scared to go out and mingle with them, maybe my social and financial standing today holds me abck from throwing myself into that crusade. but when i actually consider doing so, i feel its not simply those 'standings' of the earlier sentence that are holding me from participating with the ADJs. apart from my abhorrence for extremities, i believe that pragmatism is required along with sincere communication. that just translates into being open to talk to the ADJs rather than shunning them altogether.
talk to them, read their literature, argue with them, maybe i may get some to rationaise, maybe they might convince me otherwise., who knows? i doint know becuase i havent done that yet, but i have every little intention of doing that. dont ask me when. who knows, all that i said about ADJs and the positions ( i think ) they assume may not be factual. im an outsider still, so theres a bright chance that my take on their view points may be flawed. anyways, in all these words i think ive tried to distance myself from the extreme "ADJ" position.
and i stand by that.
but they shouldnt be ignored. we may just not know what we are heading for unless few among them keep setting off alarms time and again. they do it peacefully, sometimes clumsily, at times violently ( burning a lot full of SUVS), but in all they are trying to communicate. and i for one, will listen to what they have to say. bright ideas are never short in every human. going back to that romantic thought of a 'saner' world ( in the environmental sense), ideally, i would want an ADJ to come up with an offshoot, if not a complete alternate, to the way out lives are lived today. keep those brains working and please please do not resort to violence, say what you want where you want but peace first!
moving rightward along my imaginary spectrum of views, i shall discuss, confess, emote, argue about the less radical views in my next blog. so long.
but a lot of recent reading and conversing has thrown up mutliple issues with respect to my socio-political leanings (w.r.t current economic/environmental systems). and i swear..they change by the season. the constant factor has been my liberal attitude in thoughts and even some action.
the basis for this effort of course is disappointment or shall we say disgust at what is out there right now. i dont have enough knowledge to take on or fathom each and every veiwpoint or ideology prevalant today. as of now i am no expert in socialism, capitalism or any other 'ism'. all i know is that neither of them in their entireity is getting us any better .
i have never (yet) given myself completely to any single group or ideology..simply because im the eternal sceptic in search of that utopian state where there are more like me (god save this planet before that happens ;) ). well, let me not digress or delve into my Aquarian traits in this blog :)
let me start at what i call : the left end of my spectrum: 'the anti-development junkie' or easier : The ADJ
...now thats a curious term, but i confess that i do lean towards that during certain debates and thought processes. ok, so the basis for that position, as i see, is a linear cause and effect thing, somewhat like this:
Development, in the manner as we use it today, is more often economic in character than otherwise. the way systems have been set up today, it is obvious that economic development means more money, means more buying power, means more production to satisfy that buying power(demand), means more consumption of natural resources for that increased production, means faster depletion of those resources(many resources we use today are non-renewable), means larger probabilities of calamities (global warming is an example), means quicker destruction of balanced ecosystems (pollution of air water soil is expected with any industrial process), means faster extinction of species , means wider gaps between the haves and have nots (the richer will always ensure uninterrupted supply of resources for themselves, even if it means going to war) and so on. ok , so it is a bad outlook. alarming, dangerous, etc etc. it doesnt need too much of a creative thinker to script out the multiple possibilities of such a future. but hang on. i stil feel that is the extreme point of view. it is a position taken by me only when im highly emotional about the issue.
so a typical ADJ would argue that one has to limit if not totally avoid development. it translates into lesser production. that means lesser consumption, that means even lesser demand. if ther is no demand why would anybody invest in 'production' ? the resources would not be depleted as rapidly as they would have if we had contiued the 'production' rate as earlier. lesser pollution would result, lesser ill effects and hence lesser calamities.
ok, i know i have missed chunks of stages in between. im sounding romantic, but the harsh truth is that lesser production means lesser jobs. lesser need for innovation, lesser need for science, lesser jobs means more people not having work to do. it misses the whole point on which todays systems are built on.i dont get it. maybe imnot that gifted to think of what would happen instead of the present 'i pay for goods, u make a profit' system. the extremes among the ADJs need to convince me that they have an alternative.
if i sit down (like right now) and try and rationalise the thoughts, im overwhelmed with the sight of boons of the very same 'development' my earlier arguements so meticulously tried to make a villian of. simple things in life are at our beck and call today because they were 'produced'. the keyboard keys my fingers are tapping on right now came from some synthetic plastic that was mass produced in a factory somewhere in asia using resources like crude extracts, stabilisers and other chemicals, each of which eventually , in being produced, consumed 'irreversibly' a small part of our earth's depleting resources. and then to look at the economics of it all, the 'production' generated a job for a worker or two, he or she earned a wage, that wage paid for purchasing other goods in addition to basics like food clothing shelter. wow, how intricate the system is. it also shows how deep we are into it. getting in came easy, will getting out be as simple?
for one, i agree that the world as it is today is neck deep into a capitalist economy mode. money is the ultimate answer to 99 out of 100 questions for most of us . production is development, development is wealth, wealth is happiness (ya, unfortunately it is). Admittedly, the CV i am constructing is to get me into a higher paying job so that i could travel to places i always wanted to and maybe buy my first car, a laptop, eat out more often, and what not. 'production' is inevitable if i have to be able to do all that i want.
i still havent come to terms ( atleast havent explained completely) with my position on the extremity : " the ADJ" . it is an extreme point of view, and i have never been able to relate myself to anything extreme . but wait, it is crucial that we have among us persons who are ONLY of that extreme opinion. i say that simply because in the madly paced world we live today, it is easy to ignore little things, little ideas, lesser known movements. we have gotten used to being fed information via sources who afterall are run and managed by humans just like us.
an extreme left leaning liberal typically is 'green' in character and he/she doesnt shy away from protesting (sometimes, violently) the managers of 'development'. case in point is the hordes of protestors outside every 'world economic forum'/ G8/ 'WTO' summit.maybe i am scared to go out and mingle with them, maybe my social and financial standing today holds me abck from throwing myself into that crusade. but when i actually consider doing so, i feel its not simply those 'standings' of the earlier sentence that are holding me from participating with the ADJs. apart from my abhorrence for extremities, i believe that pragmatism is required along with sincere communication. that just translates into being open to talk to the ADJs rather than shunning them altogether.
talk to them, read their literature, argue with them, maybe i may get some to rationaise, maybe they might convince me otherwise., who knows? i doint know becuase i havent done that yet, but i have every little intention of doing that. dont ask me when. who knows, all that i said about ADJs and the positions ( i think ) they assume may not be factual. im an outsider still, so theres a bright chance that my take on their view points may be flawed. anyways, in all these words i think ive tried to distance myself from the extreme "ADJ" position.
and i stand by that.
but they shouldnt be ignored. we may just not know what we are heading for unless few among them keep setting off alarms time and again. they do it peacefully, sometimes clumsily, at times violently ( burning a lot full of SUVS), but in all they are trying to communicate. and i for one, will listen to what they have to say. bright ideas are never short in every human. going back to that romantic thought of a 'saner' world ( in the environmental sense), ideally, i would want an ADJ to come up with an offshoot, if not a complete alternate, to the way out lives are lived today. keep those brains working and please please do not resort to violence, say what you want where you want but peace first!
moving rightward along my imaginary spectrum of views, i shall discuss, confess, emote, argue about the less radical views in my next blog. so long.
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
that week is here
Spring weather continues to keep the days warm and nights cool. wow, we have really been treated with some memorable weeks of near perfect conditions. atleast, the kinds i like. dawn brings new rays of light and Yolanda's phone call woke me up, still overdosed from the 2 days of pure fun and no work ( can u believe the cheek?). she had wonderful things to say. Thank you my dear friend. i really am blessed to have met you.
so with that sprightly start (albeit a little late), the work day started. then jeri emails with even better sounding words ...yea..i save a neat 800 odd $$ as i qualified for the summer tuiton benefit.yipeee...
Bonnie got all of us mini Koalas..from Oz...she of course spoke as the resident expert of marsupials and their habits...wow, that lady has some knowledge about almost everything under the sky and beoynd.
Finally, we get MCR to work for us and she plots out stuff on MATLAB, that were just a treat to watch. another 10 pages of solid info can now go into my thesis.
in all that happiness and feeling of achievement and contentment (trust me to be convinced ASAP) i rushed home to have dosas courtesy last afternoon's potluck..shashi n niti had filled our tummies with masala dosas..we also had sambaar, chutni and gajar halwa and then chai n pakodas..yummm it all was..
so today too the junta was there and we had another round of dosas..yumm yumm
all of us then drove down to CPlaza and had gellato ice creams...man, im seeming to want more of such large group kind of fun , just as i realise its all going to not remain the same for too long...Heku's got that job offfer fron Intel India at Blore...he;s a dude..he deserved that offer.. good luck bro, u make me proud. and then gita is to leave for OR on tuesday. and then i really am not sure where i will be...
oh ok, let me not get into all my theories of despair and sadness associated with separations..
its 2 in the morning..i have to finish this part of my powerpoint for thursday..another long day awaits ahead
catch u then
ughh..why did Agassi have to exit so early?
so with that sprightly start (albeit a little late), the work day started. then jeri emails with even better sounding words ...yea..i save a neat 800 odd $$ as i qualified for the summer tuiton benefit.yipeee...
Bonnie got all of us mini Koalas..from Oz...she of course spoke as the resident expert of marsupials and their habits...wow, that lady has some knowledge about almost everything under the sky and beoynd.
Finally, we get MCR to work for us and she plots out stuff on MATLAB, that were just a treat to watch. another 10 pages of solid info can now go into my thesis.
in all that happiness and feeling of achievement and contentment (trust me to be convinced ASAP) i rushed home to have dosas courtesy last afternoon's potluck..shashi n niti had filled our tummies with masala dosas..we also had sambaar, chutni and gajar halwa and then chai n pakodas..yummm it all was..
so today too the junta was there and we had another round of dosas..yumm yumm
all of us then drove down to CPlaza and had gellato ice creams...man, im seeming to want more of such large group kind of fun , just as i realise its all going to not remain the same for too long...Heku's got that job offfer fron Intel India at Blore...he;s a dude..he deserved that offer.. good luck bro, u make me proud. and then gita is to leave for OR on tuesday. and then i really am not sure where i will be...
oh ok, let me not get into all my theories of despair and sadness associated with separations..
its 2 in the morning..i have to finish this part of my powerpoint for thursday..another long day awaits ahead
catch u then
ughh..why did Agassi have to exit so early?
Saturday, May 22, 2004
the lull before the storm?
so i turn in a fairly decent draft of my thesis to JSL a whole 73 pages including figures and what not. that was friday afternoon. holding those freshly printed pages felt somewhat like a new parent holds his/ her first born. gues the effort showed somewhere finaly. oh well, lets not cross the bridge before we even get to it. but what the heck, i said, i should treat myself to some long-term (u know the 8 hour kinds) sleep. never quite did that until friday night anyways. had a brief political discussions sesion with Rich in the afternoon, this time it was about the seven sins that humans can ( or do) commit. lust sloth greed gluttony pride anger envy (not necesarily in any order). SUV (or rather SUV driver) bashing is never far especially since both of us have sarcasm to dole out for free , ALWAYS!
he's the Green party peace activist, need i say more? a revolutionary of sorts, i admire his courage to speak out against whatever he thinks to be unfair. ok, back to the topic. so friday night ( and evening - a brief 3 -hr nap from 6 to 9pm) led to saturday's sloth. lunch time just rolls by on such days . hung around with pals at an 'all u can eat' chinese place. didnt quite do justice as i normally do, maybe it was the food ( or the lack of it in the containers) that put me off. each hour i kept pinching myself, dude, u havent defended ure thing succesfully yet, so why this 'ahh! i need a break' attitude? just looked around to find that each one on that lunch table had not any deadline as pressing as mine ( thursday at 10 !) and yet i seemed the most at place with no hurry whatsover. maybe it is the lull b4 the storm, hope it just doesnt blow me away....hee hee
so got back and eventually got to emrl 201..wunder how many more days i can work there? did some extempo fotography of the flower beds close to the library on my way up to the labs.
anyways, now i feel rested enough, if ever that was my reason for slacking away for the past 36 hours now. now i got to read eatough et al's take on PM pollution along the wasatch front, they of course were well endowed to carry out numerous experiments unlike us.
during my brief honemoon, i also managed to read the usual big names in indian media TOI, I-express. some good stuff wrt our new PM.
i particularly liked when SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR (A secular triumph after all )asked if it was possible for an american arab to get to a top position in the US govt..he was maybe trying to comapre the case of how sikhs were just 20 yrs ago the target of some vicious and horrible backlash in some parts of the country after Mrs G's assasination. and the then Congress wasnt all that uninvoled in that sad episode.
also chindanand mentioned here (From feel good to feel better ): a quote from a US daily : "While more than 100,000 American and other troops were splashing around Iraq ostensibly to create a democracy...a Hindu-Muslim nation of more than one billion people was actually committing democracy."
just renews some faith, not that i had lost it , mind u!
just more pleased to be an indian when people come up and ask about the elections and its nevr expected results.
he's the Green party peace activist, need i say more? a revolutionary of sorts, i admire his courage to speak out against whatever he thinks to be unfair. ok, back to the topic. so friday night ( and evening - a brief 3 -hr nap from 6 to 9pm) led to saturday's sloth. lunch time just rolls by on such days . hung around with pals at an 'all u can eat' chinese place. didnt quite do justice as i normally do, maybe it was the food ( or the lack of it in the containers) that put me off. each hour i kept pinching myself, dude, u havent defended ure thing succesfully yet, so why this 'ahh! i need a break' attitude? just looked around to find that each one on that lunch table had not any deadline as pressing as mine ( thursday at 10 !) and yet i seemed the most at place with no hurry whatsover. maybe it is the lull b4 the storm, hope it just doesnt blow me away....hee hee
so got back and eventually got to emrl 201..wunder how many more days i can work there? did some extempo fotography of the flower beds close to the library on my way up to the labs.
anyways, now i feel rested enough, if ever that was my reason for slacking away for the past 36 hours now. now i got to read eatough et al's take on PM pollution along the wasatch front, they of course were well endowed to carry out numerous experiments unlike us.
during my brief honemoon, i also managed to read the usual big names in indian media TOI, I-express. some good stuff wrt our new PM.
i particularly liked when SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR (A secular triumph after all )asked if it was possible for an american arab to get to a top position in the US govt..he was maybe trying to comapre the case of how sikhs were just 20 yrs ago the target of some vicious and horrible backlash in some parts of the country after Mrs G's assasination. and the then Congress wasnt all that uninvoled in that sad episode.
also chindanand mentioned here (From feel good to feel better ): a quote from a US daily : "While more than 100,000 American and other troops were splashing around Iraq ostensibly to create a democracy...a Hindu-Muslim nation of more than one billion people was actually committing democracy."
just renews some faith, not that i had lost it , mind u!
just more pleased to be an indian when people come up and ask about the elections and its nevr expected results.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
smells like green spirit
so prasanna comes knocking to discuss the developments what with Sonia refusing the PM's post. he believes it is a wise move on her part and that leaves her on a higher moral ground than before. As always, when we get together to chant politics, one topic leads to the other and this time it led to lunch and coffee as well! he, somewhat like me, still has to develop a recurring ideology of his own. I admit ot being left of center and liberal to go with it, but do not discount capitalism altogether as well. prasanna went on to narrate how he has gotten into reading about the history of india and how religions have made their way to waht they are today. so that should be interesting as to what he makes of that string of thought. passionate as he is, and i apprecaite that in him a lot, he suggested we (him me and Minal, for starters) should seriously give a thought at forming a more oragnised platform to address the multitude of concerns (education, environment, poverty, and more) which we always end up discussing about anyways. some more excahnge of ideas led to him proposing that we could maybe focus on the plight of national parks in India. Wow! that spelt action to me. those treasures of our land deserve more than they are being treated to nowadays. Quickly i started to formulate an action plan and he chipped in with his plans (or intended plans) . man, i love such a passionate jugalbandi of ideas. I am really keen on following this up with him and Minal. its a project I am so willing to dive into. already my mind is buzzing with ideas from marketing to simple web-searches to even documentation. thers going to be tons to work on. so for now,( given that I am 8 days away from my masters thesis defense (yea!) and other commitments) we shall meet the 1st weekend in June to kick off our efforts. i see a lot of fun in doing this. ok more on my ideas for our project in later posts. back to PCA on MATLAB now. tch tch.
A TEXT from Chirag
yipeee...i know its too early for me, but never did manage to sit up late last nite working on that yellowstone data. that means today is a looong day, well everyday has been so for the past month now.
and a great news to start the day. in fact thats what woke me up. i get a text message from Chirag, saying he's got a B1 visa to come to the US. man, that rocks! he definitely was at it all this while...good dividends eventaully!. welcome aboard Chirag. but he never mentioned when and where. should call him up someday..that is if he still uses tht cell ## of his. now on to breakfast and then the 9:24 to the engineering building.
and a great news to start the day. in fact thats what woke me up. i get a text message from Chirag, saying he's got a B1 visa to come to the US. man, that rocks! he definitely was at it all this while...good dividends eventaully!. welcome aboard Chirag. but he never mentioned when and where. should call him up someday..that is if he still uses tht cell ## of his. now on to breakfast and then the 9:24 to the engineering building.
Spring in Salt Lake
. looking south east from the socce field...now that the kind of weather is what i am really missing ..pity that i cannot stay outdoors for longer than just clicking this snap.
Monday, May 17, 2004
those first steps
i had to start somewhere, so here goes.
credits are due to the deserving. Antara Datta. she doesnt know me, of course neither do I know her. i got into this blogger mode of mine because i happened to land at her blogspot at:
Indian Politics
not too sure what my blogspot will list each time, but politics will feature for sure. and then why are you reading all this anyways? dont you have better to do?
ok, so i shudnt be too sarcastic right at the beginning. dont mean to piss people away.
me defends my master's thesis in a week and few days and its so like me to get into blogging right when i shuld not be thinking of anyhting other than mass spectra from air particles collected during last summer's wildfires here in Utah.
someday i shall detail the work, for the ones who care to bother.
ok, back to chapter 5 on MS word. somebody said to me yesterday: " why didnt u use Latex for typing your work?" a tad too late now na?
for the ones like me who peek into others personal webpages, here's mine:
my homepage
so long
credits are due to the deserving. Antara Datta. she doesnt know me, of course neither do I know her. i got into this blogger mode of mine because i happened to land at her blogspot at:
Indian Politics
not too sure what my blogspot will list each time, but politics will feature for sure. and then why are you reading all this anyways? dont you have better to do?
ok, so i shudnt be too sarcastic right at the beginning. dont mean to piss people away.
me defends my master's thesis in a week and few days and its so like me to get into blogging right when i shuld not be thinking of anyhting other than mass spectra from air particles collected during last summer's wildfires here in Utah.
someday i shall detail the work, for the ones who care to bother.
ok, back to chapter 5 on MS word. somebody said to me yesterday: " why didnt u use Latex for typing your work?" a tad too late now na?
for the ones like me who peek into others personal webpages, here's mine:
my homepage
so long
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