Too old!

Is it growing up or is it already seen it all? Or is it that I am turning dumb over time? My yesterdays visit to Museum of Science in Boston left me with all these questions.

Why did I go there at first place? I don’t know. May be it is because this is one of the “to do” things in Boston and secondly it is free for MathWorkers. Ok, so now I land up there and see these “cool stuff”. A straight rod if rotated at an angle and at a radius form a centre doesn’t really form a straight line surface but a hyperboloid. Randomly falling balls in a series of vertical columns will form a Gaussian distribution. Definitely, these are not Kiddo stuff, but still I was not at all excited. Oh and then there was a spark generator and there were birds and the usual conversation of energy demos. Probably all I liked in the theater was the Rattle snake and I attempted speaking in Parseltongue with no real effect whatsoever. This definitely proves that it is not the “growing up” that has bored me.

The second reason can be overexposeure. The excellent “Science City” and “Birla Science Museum” in Kolkata or “Raman Science Center” in Nagpur or Vishveshwaraiyah Science Museum in Bangalore. I think I have overdone it. But if it is just loss of curiosity, then there were many things in here that were not there in the 3 above mentioned places and vice versa.

That really leaves me with the third option. Am I getting dumb or rather detached from these technology and science? Wow, so encouraging for my company whose motto is “Accelerating the pace of Science and Technology”!!

To my defense, this is what I have to say: At the exhibit hall named “Evolution of Computer”, all of us literally ran in the other direction.

What is worse is after coming back home, I logged into bhejafry.net and started watching IIFA 08. Needless to say I was enjoying it. Whether it was over enthusiasm of the Bachchan family in the event because Big B is the ambassador or be it the Gorgeous Urmila taking stage after so long. Loved it lots.

And this scares me even more. Such indifference to technology and such attention to the old timers like Urmila, makes me feel ashamed when I scold Maa and Baba for not learning how to e-mail or sms. Where will I be? I will still be driving my 2008 accord when my kids willl be traveling at light speed in their solar powered mini copters and communicate with people through the chips embedded in shape of earrings and pierced in lips and ears. They will read the video books. For example, now JKR would be able to not only pen or voice record her thoughts on Harry Potter but actually store what she visualized in her mind. She can also do revisions on the “video thoughts” just like one would do to the manuscript. Oh and she could transmit emotions too through these video books.

Well, this is the whackiest I can think of happening in the next 15 years and this is not all that whacky either. On second thoughts, am I being too realistic here? Haha, this is what a true engineer should be. Curtail your imagination and do what is needed. Well, now I am happy. :)

Book review: 3 Mistakes of My Life

You can also read Advay's review here.

When writing about Chetan Bhagat, we should always remember that we are not expecting a 'Da Vinci Code' from him. We expect him to connect with the middle and upper class educated youth (thankfully, there is negligible difference amongst them nowadays). What's the %? Someone told me it's around 20% who are middle or up. Youth will be 50% of that, so let's say 10%. Well, he does write for them. For the people aged 17-30. And yes, he does it well.

Five Point Someone was much more hilarious, but there was nothing new in the story, just over dramatized version of our own life. Midnight at call center had a very poor ending though the buildup was nice. However, The 3 mistakes of my life is a better attempt. The language usage was improved and the story though was nothing out of the box, had a certain sweetness in it.

What I found most commendable is the delicate balance he maintained in the book about cricket, religion and politics. Certainly, these 3 are the most discussed thing in India and he maintained a good balance without tending to go towards cricket much more which would have been an easier path.

What I really liked was the way he portrayed the cause of Gujarat Riots, the father of a dead boy brainwashed by drinks carries on the riots while the biggies watch silently. This was by far the most neutral account of Gujarat Riots i have heard. Reminds me of 2 different versions of the riots I have heard before:
1) The hindus inside the carriages lit themselves, just for an opportunity to create riots. Give me a break.

2) The other and only true ( first person report) I had heard about this entire riots is by one of my gujju friends. His mom had a difficult time going out after the riots as she had to make sure that she wore all possible golden jewels and a big red bindi on her head showing that she is a Hindu. Well, not bad proposition for a woman to be saved from riots. What say?

Anyway, another thing that impresses me about Chetan is his ability to discuss on god. In the last book as well as this, god came very naturally and in a nice way without any particular religious belief. This impresses me so much because I can see a slight dilema even in JKR. generally in magical books where good and bad come up so easily, god and devils come in the same breath, but JKR has avoided it. Is it her mastery or her cowardice? Well, Chetan did manage it well and that I think is most commendable.

Movies I like

One can categorize movie watchers into the following groups:

The one who like the Action/ Sci Fi, in short, fast paced movies with no brainer or something so technically advanced that they can get totally immersed and actually love the so called scientific concepts in the movie.

There is another class which likes the Oscar movies with intense drama and deep thought provoking theme.

There is the widest class which like any movie with a great star cast, lots of style, lots of romance angle even if it is action (Spidey 2) and which are generally hit even before they release.

I fall in class 3. But somehow there is sometimes a thin line between category 1 and category 3. An example will be the recent Iron Man or the National Treasure 2. For the same reasons mentioned above, I chose to go for both of these. But I was disappointed.

Or was I? Actually not. I was motivated. Motivated to watch more of “Tanananananaaa… Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham” kind of movies where Shahrukh stammers, Amitabh gives well punctuated but long dialog deliveries and the heroines do a virtual fashion show with Manish Malhotra clothes. Off late, Kabhi khushi kabhi gham has become a benchmark for me. It lies in the critical region below which any movie can become unwatchable. Example: Veer Zaara, KANK, Tara Rum Pum, Aaja Nachle. Movies which barely cross it on the other side will be No Entry, Laaga Chunari mein daag, Om shanti om and even bhootnaath.

Amongst the English ones, I guess such a movie will be “The Departed”. It lies in the better side of the movies but for English movie, the criteria are totally different. There has to be a good story, because if there is no good story, I will again rather watch des ki movie…tanaanaaanaana….with loads of songs and dances.

You might be wondering why “The Departed”, its because it has all the factors I consider important : An A1 star cast, a wonderful story and not so sci fi-ish. However where it fails is the use of swear words. I can understand, to give the true picture, you do need to be realistic, use the language of the people. But then you also have to keep in mind that movie is a mass medium, and however common in lingo, swear words can never be good and should be consciously avoided. A classic example of such a movie will be “Omkara” which had to have some bad words, but they were kept to the minimum required.

Now the interesting comparison. Movies above and below “The Departed”. The ones that are bad : Iron Man, National Treasure 2, Oceans 12, Pirates 3, Beowulf etc etc. Movies better: All HPs ( the best story in the world), Atonement, Oceans 11 and 13, Spidey 2, Lions for lambs, Charlie Wilson’s war etc.

Hehhe, again a post so full of me comes to an end. I know this will end up with no comments. But I can’t stop myself from copying Bachi Karkaria at this stage. Bachi always quotes a certain Alec Smart ( Interestingly, when wikied, Smart Alc refers to a person who is regarded as obnoxiously self-assertive and an impudent person. Anyway, so here we go:

Alec Smart says “ I started enjoying Rajnikanth movies from the day I saw ‘The Transporter’”