Sunday, November 29, 2009

Electronic lyrics

Now, my head is spinning
At the back of my mind, I think I'm winning
I was somebody falling for one who was not
Somebody tired of dreaming
Now its already dawning that this time I've got
Someone who won't leave me feeling...
Disappointed, once more
Disillusioned, encore
I think I love you, for sure
So you're not disappointing at all

Not a bad song..... courtesy Electronic...

Far from the Madding Crowd (1998)

Thomas Hardy's well known novel was watched by me yesterday evening. It took a whole 3 hrs and 15 mins while Bathsheba (What kind of name is that?) Everdene kept three men dangling trying to decide whom was best fit to marry her.

Everyone knows that Gabriele was the best suitor. Boldwood was too old and Troy too reckless and cavalier. Too big an ego. I still can't understand why he would be so angry if a pretty young thing like Fanny Robin kept him waiting at the altar. For god's sakes man, there are a million churches.

The book shows both city and rural life quite well. The adaptation version I saw was quite engrossing, and way better than many films I've seen recently. I liked the fact that Bathsheba was so fiercely independent - and that Thomas Hardy showed how difficult it was for a young woman to be accepted in society as capable of dealing in business matters. I think that this whole novel could also be considered as a feminist novel.

This story too ranks in the greatest love stories list of all time. I've written a post on this as well. See http://socialartist-mysteriesoftheworld.blogspot.com/2009/11/heathcliff-and-cathy.html. Bathsheba finally does come to her senses in the end. But she sure does take a long time to do it!!

My Life in Ruins and Public Enemy

Two movies I saw recently -

The first was My Life in Ruins (2009) about a depressed travel guide who finally finds her way. It was a cutsie wootsie story and I liked it. I like Nia Vardalos. Even though it wasn't all there - it was lovely to see glimpses of Greece. One can only imagine just how beautiful the country would be.

Public Enemy (2009) was a major let down. Do not watch it. It has a superb cast including Johnny Depp, Christian Bale), but nothing much else. It tells the story about how the FBI brings down John Dillinger, a notorious bank robber who only steals from the banks, not the customers (like isn't that the same thing?). There is a disturbing scene when the agents beat up a female. Not done at all.

Less than MRP

There exists a concept in India called the MRP - Maximum Retail Price. Shop keepers are not supposed to exceed this amount while charging their customers for the item they're purchasing. It's posted on all products - so no one feels cheated.

Now I don't know the margins people make on what they sell. But a pretty fair indication for software and hardware products for computers is in Nehru Place - located in South Delhi. Now I spent a good part of my weekend at Nehru Place buying a router for our Internet. The old router got corrupted (I don't know how).

Now something that retails for Rs 1950 MRP we got for Rs 1450 at Nehru Place. Amazing right? I often wonder at just how high the margins for electronic goods really are.

Just imagine.

So even though this is not really a mystery of the world - one can actually construe it as one.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Iran seizes Nobel laureat's medal

Shirin Ebadi, a peace rights lawyer in Iran, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 by the Nobel Foundation based in Norway.

Today I read that it had been seized by the Iranian authorities in an effort to curb "activities that they found against the state."

I have no issues with government rule of law. I do have a problem if your basic rights are curtailed.

What does it mean when a symbol is taken away? Do you think that just by taking away a medal, the authorities will accomplish much?

They say she has not paid the taxes due on her prize money (which Ibadi claims is exempt under Iranian law). Maybe because she is the only Iranian to have received the Nobel Peace Prize, the authorities may just amend the law with retrospective effect and impose a 300% penalty on the tax sought to be evaded so that they can get her good.

"Truth can not be suppressed and always is the ultimate victor. So, we should tread on the righteous path." - Yajur Veda

"Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with deeper fangs than freedom never endangered" - Marcus Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC)

Pity they still live in Medieval times, though the world has clearly moved on.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Powerful people in the world today

Forbes magazine has recently taken out a list of the world's most powerful people. Interestingly enough, because there are 6.7 billion people in the world today, the list was reduced to 67 individuals only.
I am attaching the top 10 in the list as reported on http://weeksupdate.com/2009/11/obama-tops-worlds-most-powerful-list.html:
1. US President Barack Obama
2. Chinese President Hu Jintao
3. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
4. US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke
5. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page
6. Carlos Slim, chief executive of Mexico's Telmex
7. Rupert Murdoch, chairman of media group News Corp.
8. Michael T. Duke, chief executive of Wal-Mart stores
9. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz
10. Bill Gates, co-chairman, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The list makes for interesting reading. Our Indian PM, Sh Manmohan Singh, was at no. 36 followed by Osama Bin Laden at no. 37. The only other person on the list with an Indian connection was Dawood Ibrahim, who was quoted to be the head of the "Mumbai-based crime syndicate". He was at no. 50.
Mom's favourite, Oprah was at no. 45, and the Dalai Lama at no. 39.
I think that it's sometimes scary that people who spread hope and good will are put in the same list as mass murderers and terrorists. There is something quite eerie about that. Can good exist without evil alongside?
There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.
KURT VONNEGUT, JR., The Sirens of Titan
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
EDMUND BURKE

The small man thinks that small acts of goodness are of no benefit, and does not do them; and that small deeds of evil do no harm, and does not refrain from them. Hence, his wickedness becomes so great that it cannot be concealed, and his guilt so great that it cannot be pardoned.
CONFUCIUS, The Wisdom of Confucius

Sunday, November 22, 2009

A weekend well spent

Delhi was bustling with activity this weekend - but that is a wrong statement to make actually.


Delhi is always bustling with activity. But this weekend, I am happy to report, that I was part of the activity in my NCR.


The Saturday started off with a trip to the International Trade Fair at Pragati Maidan. We arrived early - around 11, grabbed our tickets (barely took more than 5 mins) and entered the grounds. Good thing too - because that place was going to get even more packed!! I read an article on the Times of India website that said that "the rush on Saturday was unprecedented"!


Maximum rush was at the International stalls - where me and my Mom had also gone. We picked up quite a bit at the Pakistani, Turkey, Vietnam and Thailand stalls. The nazar bandis at the Turkey stall were very very popular.

My Mom calls them Nazar bandis - they're actually called the Nazar Boncuk Charm (or evil eye bead) - which is actually supposed to be an "eye". It is a small bead - usually of blue colour, in which is embedded a little eye looking circle. It is supposed to keep you safe and ward off evil intentions and spirits. I read that they're always put on little babies to protect them from evil.

Why blue though? Why not yellow or red or pink?

Well, actually if you think about it, Turkey is located in a part of the world where there isn't much water. So blue being the colour of water signifies something that is valuable. Plus water is essential for all life.

What astounded me was finding out that they evil eye beads predate the dawn of the Christian era. References have apparently been found on Sumerian clay tablets. In Madhubani art as well, there is a depiction of a one-eyed lady that will protect the home from the evil eye. I myself have drawn such an image.

After that, my husband and I saw a movie, while eating a whole lot of popcorn. The next day was also busy, as I had a lunch date with old friends followed by a nice refreshing walk in the picturesque Lodhi Gardens of Delhi. Very very awesome weekend overall!!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Think Positive and an excerpt from "Da Vinci Koda"

From TOI's 20.11.2009 edition Sacred Space
(Cuz I really liked the quotations today and will also paste the article in my diary)

Waters from many rivers continually flow into the ocean but the ocean never overfills. In a like manner, desires and attachments constantly flow into the mind of the Illuminated One, but he, like the Ocean, in its deepest depths, is totally still and never disturbed.
- Bhagawad Gita, 2.70

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realise there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
- Lao Tzu

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
- Marcus Aurelius

If you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience.
- Swami Vivekananda

Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will.
- Norman Vincent Peale

The law of attraction says that like attracts like, and when you think and feel what you want to attract on the inside, the law will use people, circumstances and events to magnetise what you want.
- Rhonda Byrne

From the same newspaper on 20.11.2009 by Jug Suraiya commenting on cash deposits in Da Vinci Koda in his piece, Jugular Vein

"Take just one instance in the Koda case. A henchman of Jharkhand's ex-CM Madhu Koda is said to have paid Rs 640 crore into an nationalised bank. Let alone Rs 640 crore, you try putting in Rs 64000 cash into any bank, nationalised, non-nationalised, or piggy, and the IT heavies will jump on you with hob nailed boots and take you off scremaing to the dungeons to confess under pain of torture of being repeatedly read out Article 17, sub-clause 15(B) of the Income Tax Act 1951 as to just how in hell or hawala you got your filthy little hands on all that moolah, all 64,000 smackers worth of it."

Just to correct, there is no Income Tax Act 1951. What he is referring to is Income Tax Act 1961. Further, there is no Article 17, sub-clause 15(B) in this Act. There is a section 17, but it does not have 15 subsections.

It was a funny piece in any case.

Heathcliff and Cathy

Man, I know it's been a long time - but I have never read Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Nor have I seen the movie. So even I was surprised when I downloaded the recent miniseries and watched it on my laptop.

It is a sad sad sad story about a love that can only be described as unresolved, which destroyed all that were in contact with Heathcliff and Cathy. Emily Bronte wrote the novel in the 19th century and it was published in 1847 under the pseudonym of Ellis Bell.

I really liked it and I will read the novel as well. You feel for Cathy and Heathcliff - and wish you could just tell them what to do!! It is an amazing novel and Tom Hardy, who played Heathcliff in the miniseries, was just spectacular.

I came across a story on http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/aug/10/books.booksnews which talked about the greatest love story of all time and was surprised (but not astounded) to find Wuthering Heights at no. 1 position. Now I have a theory that the best love stories are always where they never get together (Gone with the Wind, Romeo and Juliet etc). So let's test this hypothesis with the list of top 20 novels given in the website. Now some novels I have not read so if a person who is reading this blog can please offer their own comments on the novels I don't know about, I'd be much obliged.

1 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë, 1847 Don't get together
2 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen, 1813 Get together
3 Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare, 1597 Don't get together
4 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë, 1847 Get together
5 Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell, 1936 Don't get together
6 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje, 1992 Don't get together
7 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier, 1938 Don't know, haven't read yet
8 Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak, 1957 Don't get together
9 Lady Chatterley's Lover DH Lawrence, 1928 Don't know, haven't read yet
10 Far from The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy, 1874 Don't know, haven't read yet
11 = My Fair Lady Alan Jay Lerner, 1956 Get together
The African Queen CS Forester, 1935 Don't know, haven't read yet
13 The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald, 1925 Don't know, haven't read yet
14 Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen, 1811 Get together
15 = The Way We Were Arthur Laurents, 1972 Don't know, haven't read yet
War and Peace Leo Tolstoy, 1865 Don't know, haven't read yet
17 Frenchman's Creek Daphne du Maurier, 1942 Don't know, haven't read yet
18 Persuasion Jane Austen, 1818 Get together
19 Take a Girl Like You Kingsley Amis, 1960 Don't know, haven't read yet
20 Daniel Deronda George Eliot, 1876 Don't know, haven't read yet

I don't know about you, but I like happy endings.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The Big Bang Theory

Georges Lemaître proposed what came to be known as the Big Bang Theory - that our whole universe came into existence after a huge explosion in the cosmics.

But that's not what I'm going to write about.

I love this television series called The Big Bang Theory, which I watch on megavideo.com off and on. It's just so funny!! There are five main characters in it - Sheldon, Leonard, Penny, Howard and Raj. All of them are scientists, except Penny who is a waitress and not that bright.

One of the funniest television shows I've seen!!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

The Great Mughals

I know I know. I haven't been reading my novels and books and I haven't posted anything on my books blog for a long time. I've been busy.

But I did remember something that I've been wanting to do for a long time. I keep forgetting my Indian history, so I thought I'd do a bit of a refresher course here on one of my blog entries.
Great Mughal era lasted from and the main rulers were as follows:

Humayun (1508-1556) buried at Delhi, India
Akbar (1542-1605) buried at Sikandra, near Agra, UP, India
Jehangir (1569-1627) buried at Shahdara Bagh in Lahore, Pakistan
Shah Jahan (1592-1666) buried at Agra, UP, India
Aurangzeb (1618-1707) buried at Aurangabad (Khultabad), Maharashtra, India

I've been to the tombs of emperors Humayun, Akbar and Shah Jahan. Emperor Aurangzeb's tomb I was near, but I couldn't visit since the time had elapsed and it had fallen dark. I saw the Ajanta and Ellora caves nearby. What surprised me was Aurangzeb's ambition. It could not have been an easy task trying to capture the Deccan area.

He was a cruel yet pragmatic ruler. His ambition to the throne and tenacity to defeat kept him alive. He died at the age of 89 years, which is remarkable; particularly considering the life expectancy back then.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Manu Sharma and Drag Me to Hell

Well, I saw a horror movie yesterday which was very scary, and I read something in today's paper which was equally scary. Sometimes I think that reality is stranger than fiction. Today I think that reality is definitely scarier than fiction.

Manu Sharma is the convicted killer of Jessica Lal, a case in India that got a lot of media attention after Manu Sharma killed Jessica Lal in cold blood because she refused to serve him an alcoholic beverage at their local club. In a rage he killed her in front of eye witnesses and fled the scene.

The police found it difficult to piece together a case as many of the witnesses turned hostile and the murder weapon was never recovered. Thanks to civil society though, the case was kept alive and a few months back Manu Sharma was given life imprisonment for the heinous crime.

So why am I writing about this?

Well apparently there are some laws in this country that allow a convicted felon like Manu Sharma to take bail -- to ostensibly take care of his ailing mother. Now, why a person facing life imprisonment should be allowed such a liberty, I just cannot fathom. And that it is a facility allowed to all prisoners is just scary. To think, I may be sitting in some cinema hall and the guy next to me could be out on bail for a life term.

That makes no sense whatsoever.

Oh yes, and I'm not far off with that cinema scenario. Manu Sharma was found loitering around at a night club in Delhi yesterday. Needless to say that today's press publicity will surely create a damper on his mood; and hopefully send him back to prison, where a person who is supposed to be serving a life imprisonment sentence, belongs.

Oh yes, and the role of our legislators. Really, they should rethink loopholes like this. It is unfair and dangerous; It makes a mockery of the efforts of the police who helped convict the criminal; It is a sham and devalues human life. One cannot even imagine what the family of the victim must be going through at this point of time.

You do the crime, you should do the time.

And what if there are laws like this? Our chief minister has gone on record to say that there was no special circumstance by which Manu Sharma got this privilege. It is extended to all prisoners.

In response, I can only say: RETHINK THE LAW.

Just because something IS, doesn't mean that it SHOULD BE.

I think that if politicians focused on actual issues rather than fighting over what language the oath was administered in while being sworn in, there would be more progress in this country.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

The new NGMA, This is it and a new Sci Fi

Okay, so I had a really nice weekend.

I decided to go and catch the exhibit at the National Gallery of Modern Art of the paintings flown in from the Victoria and Albert Museum called "Indian Life and Landscape by Western Artists". It was a cool exhibit - some of the scenes were beautiful and it was amazing that there was so much detail in some of the works. Plus, NGMA has been totally redone and has new wings so I recommend that everyone who is in Delhi should now go and see the current exhibit and the new wings showing the permanent exhibits.

We also went and saw Michael Jackson's documentary cum musical called "This is It". It was sad to see him so thin and emaciated. But he did look like he was enjoying himself; and after all, he was the King of Pop. Music was his life.

I just wish he'd taken better care of himself.

Last but not least, I saw an amazing movie which I recommend 100% called "Moon". It is starring Sam Rockwell and it is amazing. You figure out most of it through the film; but it is a good watch nonetheless. I give it a 5/5.

Rottentomatoes.com gave it an 89%. Go see it if you haven't!!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

I love you Beth Cooper (2009)

Beth Cooper is the cool girl in school and on the day of their graduation, the class valedictorian professes his undying love for her. What ensues is a helter skelter of comedic runaway scenes, some silly moments and an overall okay movie.

I didn't mind it so much. It was actually quite tragic at some points. Kids leaving the safety of their homes, the last few moments in high school, an exercise in self belief and self worth....

What was there not to like? It could have been made into a mini series on television I thought; a sort of cute take on Reality Bites.

It didn't do too well at the Box Office though.

My verdict: 3/5. And definitely worth watching once on DVD.

I've decided to start writing the capital of a country (and other facts) that I keep forgetting at the bottom of my blogs to keep up with my GK. So today's capital is of TANZANIA which is DODOMA. The most well known city though is DAR ES SALAAM, which is well known. A portmanteau of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, it is home to Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak at 4600 m.