Destiny and Choices

There must be a reason why I keep hearing things like, do not procrastinate, be disciplined , Be proactive and its ok, let go. People feel free, calm and productive if they let go some things, when they have done what they were supposed to do in time, when their mind is not preoccupied with stale thoughts.





Stale thoughts are rotten, they are the thoughts about the things you've been thinking about for quite sometime. I generally prefer to finish of the something I don't like to eat immediately somehow gulping of entire thing rather than letting it become old and mushy, squishy and non crispy state or whatever. Same things apply to thoughts, especially the ones with a deadline like assignment; they seem to develop more side effects as the expiry date gets closer and absolutely of no use or little use after expiry. Leaving things incomplete and unfinished leaves more of staleness within you. After a certain point you become sick you start stinking, a thick atmosphere develops around you which people tend to avoid.

Become aware of that staleness, just let go, meditate and be purified. You don't like staleness do you? Think fresh think rich, the quality of thoughts you float around with, become aware of it.....Freshen up Take a breath and start playing and loving again......

But to make a wine the grapes need to ferment right? Yeah sure, but you don't want to make a wine out or own mind do you?


So think fresh, eat fresh, please don't eat non-veg and keep dancing in the rain.....

jgd

I think everyone one of us have had this experience with someone or the other. Its a basic technique used generally by moms, girlfriends, boyfriends, etc. to punish you or to make you do something and many other such silly stuff which can be bought by silence. It is interesting however to wonder about the power silence has which sometimes threatening (words) or action wont have. Guruji is going to be in silence for navratri. His silence is going to convey something special to you. This navratri check on the positives that are created in you and do post it in the comments.........
For interest of general people let me make a few things clear. Guruji refers to H H Sri Sri Ravishankar. For every navratri people from all over the world visit our ashram(Art of living) in Bangalore to experience a phenomenal fest. Yagyas are performed in these 9 days of navratri for the benefit of the entire world. Sitting in one of these with thousands of people is an awesome out of the world experience......

An ordinary house wife becomes a sensation and a modern ambitious girl gets her inspiration, this story is about two of these ladies. It totally brings out the fact that no human is ordinary. I totally loved the character of Julia Child, every now and then I meet people like Julia in my life and I envy and wonder at the confidence they show and which makes them happy in whatever situations they are and sometimes get them to heights where very few hardworkers or even a smart worker are able to make it. The only part Julia was genius at was being innocent and loving. She loved whatever she did and did whatever she loved, carefree of the competition, stress, social obligations, never greedy and absolutely innocent the way she was, which I believe is the most efficient way to live a life.

Story: 6/10. Its biographical story. The low ranking is not to discourage anyone, but just to emphasise that its not so fairy tailish type of stories. Though the story is not what will make you enjoy the story, its the narration and acting and the characters that stand out.

Genre: Drama, Biographical, Slice of life

Acting: 10/10. Every actor is well placed and does the job very well, of course the character of Julia child stands out more than anyone and Meryl Streep has done a phenomenal job portraying Julia. I liked her acting even in Mamma Mia. it just shows that experience can’t get any better.

Direction: 9/10. One of the best biographical movies I’ve ever seen and the all credit go to the direction and the narration. The flow of events the, the editing are all awesome and just stick together too well though not logically.

Mood:”Slice of life”,”happy”

Character: 10/10. The fact that these were all real life characters just makes me want to give a higher ranking though I have to admit that mostly its due to the influence of the character of Julia Child.

Entertainment value: 8/10

Overall: 9/10

Roaming around the forest was the only pass time for Nickel who was a large black bear at the peak of its youth. He used to roam around the forest to find something interesting, though he never knew what he was searching for he kept on wandering through the forest. He ate when he was hungry, scratched the trees around when he wanted to stretch and slept under his favourite tree when he had done all the wandering he wanted to do.

One day while he was having a nice afternoon nap he sensed a strange odour in the air and heard sounds of someone approaching. The odour was very distinct but he knew it was coming from an animal the sounds of rubbing against bushes were unlike that of any other animals he knew in the wild would make. The sounds had a weird pattern and it seemed like the animal was lost since they were short bursts of sound. There wasn’t much sound at every possible foot the animal took which suggested that the animal was small but the sounds also came from branches of higher altitude suggesting that it was tall, naturally he took a cautious stance waiting for the confrontation with this strange animal which he had never heard or seen in his life. Slowly a figure in brown started to appear from the bushes and Nickel held its breath. The strange animal was looking behind, it hadn’t noticed Nickel and was looking everywhere and seemed to be lost. It was a very strange looking animal, it was tall and was using only two limbs to walk, its fur was very smooth as though some dry leaf like material sticking on its skin and then half of its limbs had very little black shinny hair, it seemed like it was suffering from some disease, It had long fingers like the monkeys and on one hand it was holding a stick. The animal didn’t look ferocious so Nickel relaxed a bit and started approaching it with curiosity. The animal slowly turned around and their eyes met. The animal immediately took a defensive stance pointing the tip of the stick him lowering its body a bit. Nickel was taken aback but he could clearly see that the animal was frozen with fear. He then carelessly walked towards his right to have a good view of the animal. But the animal was still trembling and kept pointing the stick at him. He was surprised that the animal didn’t run and for a long time didn’t make any conversation.

He was annoyed, not able to make out anything out of this encounter and was no more interested in this animal and decided to chase the animal away. In situations like these Nickel would usually charge towards any animal for a short distance to scare it away. So he made a half hearted effort to chase the animal away by performing a slow lazy dash, He thought that it would run away but then it started trembling in fear and did something that scared and startled him like hell. The animal made a very sharp and loud sound loud as thunder, it was the first time he had heard such a noise. He noticed that the animal also jerked very sharply and it seemed like the stick was making the noise. Scared out of its wits for a while now Nickel took threatening stance, his head lowered, rear legs ready to spring he began roaring to tell the animal that it was serious now. It didn’t have any effect on the animal which was still frozen and trembling with fear and was now making noises like a baby animal which is cornered and out of breath. It wasn’t threatening like an adult would even in this stage and its trembling grew more with every roar. Now Nickel had lost it and began to charge for real, his heartbeat was increasing rapidly and half way through he was again met with the annoying sharp and loud as hell noise which made him very confused and scared. He paused for a fraction of a second, made up his mind, and then he dashed with all his energy like his life was on the line.

There are many reasons why I had kept avoiding seeing this movie for a long time one of them being it’s a Nazi movie. I’m amazed that when it comes to making a Hollywood war movie they seemed to be too overwhelmed by the stories and plots of the Nazi wars, and why not when the whole history of mankind is, but I’m now saturated with these. And I didn’t waste much time once I came to know that it’s a Quentin Tarantino movie, regretted avoiding it for a long time when I saw Brad Pitt was starring and pretty soon concluded that I should have kept my distance for some more time since it turned out to be as boring as I expected from a movie with such plot. The movie however scores good points but not without some disappointments which can be overlooked without much effort. There is not much to be experienced from the plot but some drama sequences are out of the world. I won’t be looking forward to another of this guy’s movie which attempts to recreate “Kill Bill’s” magic especially in such a plot, I welcome variety.

Story/Plot:7/10. Its work of fiction set in Nazi war times. A simple story but the power of a Tarantino movie lies in the direction. The fiction comes nowhere near to the legendary truth. Personally I think the plot suffers from precision a lot of times like low security for Hitler and poor depiction of Hitler though he is not a main character. In most of the Nazi movies I’ve seen Hitler stays in-door in a gloomy environment unlike in this movie.

Genre: Drama, Thriller.

Acting: 8/10. Mixed reaction. The German detective was mind blowing. The Inglourious basterds were a bit of disappointment mainly due to Brad Pitt who is in a role of an army commander and defenitly seems very soft spoken for a character of army commander he acts more like a strategist.

Direction: 9/10. Trademark Tarantino direction. Kill Bill is my all time favourite and Tarantino uses the same format so it seemed monotonous and boring right from the start (the cowboy style music).

Mood:”Suspense”,

Character:10/10. The scenes of German detective were the best and requires place in history of film making as the best depiction of a detective ever. The characters of German detective and the girl cinema owner are my favourite and are simply intriguing.

Entertainment value: 7/10. Kill Bill scores 10/10 in this but this movie doesn’t do as expected in this regard when compared.

Overall:8/10.

When you think of wars, these are the situations that give us a good idea of what humans are. Almost every part of being a human makes itself visible and discernable, emotion are not surreal any more, feelings not hidden, and the will power shining forth which can move any human soul. War starts by greed carried out by anger and ends always in realisation that love is the only driving factor for everything. War photography embodies the mad, crazy youth part of the parcel. I just happened to see a BBC documentary video called “Vietnam war unseen”, supposed to be for Americans to show the war from the eyes of Vietnam side, from the Vietnam War photographers to be precise.
The documentary shows a Tim from each side of American side and Tim from Vietnam side with some other Vietnamese war photographers who took part in what Americans call Vietnam war and what Vietnamese call the American war and the shattering contrast between the two. Both Tim’s were war photographers and both were adrenaline junkies but with stark difference in their motives. One was having a mad party abroad and the other was trying to keep up the national spirit as soldier and as a responsibility.

It’s thanks to these people that the realisation lasts for long. They do the job of preserving these moments that makes us realise that human will can surpass any situation, nothing is impossible. The Vietnamese used to build a series of underground tunnels to survive the bombing raids by American b52 bombers. All by using primitive tools and their own muscles and will. In these tunnels contained a world of its own again exemplifying the human nature of making the best of the situation. Here the mothers raised their babies the wives cooked and the family members sang songs. But how could these stills be taken in dark underground tunnel with a camera with no flash? Who would have thought that the bullet used to take life would come handy for preserving it and that the gunpowder in a bullet can be burned to give flash. This particular photographer wanted to inspire the country by taking picture of beauty surrounded by war came up with this solution which again made me marvel at human ingenuity. When this photographer came back to the village where the survivors from those tunnels lived after 50 years you can imagine the warm reaction from both sides. He gifted them these photographs, essentially their youth back to them. One of these Vietnamese war photographers was recalling that with the one lens camera they had he had no choice but to be in the line of fire unlike their American counterpart.

It made me think whether a war is really needed to make humans realise this awesome power they have, if only we had a huge army in every country with the same spirit to solve social problem currently plaguing the world and when will I start to make this a reality in my life. Would anybody commit suicide if they knew they had such potential in them? Will the minor poverty problem exist if the major part of the world just realised their will instead of complaining? Well I’m already set to go in this path and hope I don’t fall into a war like situation before I gather courage.

An article by my guru H H Sri Sri Ravishankar about women. It really makes a lot of sense. I also think women leadership is a key factor to world peace.


A woman has the capacity to be an excellent peacemaker because it is natural for her to relate from the heart

Women have both gentleness and strength. Indian scriptures place tremendous amount of power in women. In fact, the primordial energy known as Shakti which is the life force behind the whole creation is feminine. That is why our scriptures honour women as the highest aspect of divinity - the Aadhya Shakti.

Women bring together the finest aspects of society; the ability to create and the transformational ability to make a difference in society. Women bring us to the planet and teach us how to live. A mother is our first guru, our first teacher. Women teach us our first behaviour, our first steps in life. Women also have a great role to play in society. She can be a strong peacemaker - at home, in the community, in society and in the world. Women can glue differences and bring people of diverse nature together - she does it in her home all the time!

In this fast pace of life, we need to balance our inner peace, beauty and ethical values with the external challenges we face, and women have it in them to do it. These qualities are inherent in a woman.

A woman has the capacity to be an excellent peacemaker because it is quite natural for her to relate from the level of the heart. The biggest strengths of a woman are her emotions, feelings, motivation and inspiration. Men can inspire to fight but women inspire to unite. There are more wars in the world today because there is a lack of feminine leadership to unite people, overcome differences and bring home to us the purpose we are all born for! In todays war-torn world, we need women to come to the forefront and take more responsibility, without getting stressed.

Today, we need to ensure that women in our country are literate. When women are well educated and well informed they can take more responsibility, bring about that positive change and can make any project successful.

A woman by nature is multi-talented and multi-faceted. Usually people think women are emotional but the fact is, women are also great intellectual geniuses and excel in planning and execution. You see any department headed by a woman; chances are that department is much ahead of others.

Women are the backbone of any society. The role of women in the development of a society is of utmost importance. In fact, it is the only criterion that determines whether a society is strong and harmonious or not. Also, a corruption-free society can only emerge where women are given due regard, respect and importance.

Given the wealth that is inherent in them, it is very important for women all over the world to sit together and see what they can do to make this world more stress- and violence-free. Women need not wait to be given power. They automatically have it. Unfortunately, most of the feminine movements today are demanding rights. What and from whom are they demanding? They are asking from an empty bowl! Women already have equal rights. They simply have to assert their rights! They dont have to go and ask somebody, it is all there for them!

A woman is a born leader. She has the potential to bring prosperity, happiness and joy to this world. Its up to her to make it happen.

DNA, 7th March, 2010

H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

Crappy ending, a lot of plot holes, pathetic attempt to make a rural underworld movie and even more pathetic attempt to portray Vidya Balan as a bitch, on top of that “A” rating for a kissing seen and foul language. Well an ‘A’ rating and Vidya Balan in it who wouldn’t buy it, but to rely entirely on it and keeping the story and direction neglected surely made the movie suck big time. It might have earned big bucks on the box office but it is very unsettling. Nasserrudin shah, Vidya Balan have totally been wasted, though I have to give credit of showing Arshad Warsi in this kind new and serious role where he does a great job. Vidya Balan just stands out in the whole rural backdrop, she doesn’t farly resemble a village folk. The story would have worked fine enough in a modern setting with may be Kareena playing the role. Nasserrudin Shah as usual at his best but as said before he is not used to the max. You might want to watch this movie to catch Vidya Balan in this new not so complete and shady form, she looks as stunning as she did in “Pareenita”. This movie might actually work for most of the crowd, but for a serious movie goer and critique of this genre like me or a great Vidya Balan fan this might want to watch the movie just to see how much improvement is needed for a movie like this and to appreciate a masterpiece like “Omkara”.

Story/Plot:6/10.some spoilers-(Illicit relationship, revenge, stupid motives, suspense, clever)

Genre: Drama, suspense, thriller

Acting: 7/10(mainly because not enough research was done on characters and the direction.).

Direction: 6/10.(I don’t understand why does an ugly old villain’s wife’s voice have to be so daamn sexy. Sorry for being a perfectionist, I have picked a small mistake so that it doesn’t spoil).

Mood:”Suspense”

Character: 5/10-I can’t imagine a character that to of a rural girl to end up like this or may be its not explored in depth.

Entertainment value: 7/10

Overall: 6/10

Finally I managed to condense this epic 3hrs lecture into a 3 part post. Guys please congratulate me.
Part1-http://yespluschennai.blogspot.com/2009/11/boman-irani-actor-photographer-part-1.html
Part2-http://yespluschennai.blogspot.com/2009/12/boman-irani-actor-photographer-part2.html

For the entire time no one dared to leave the auditorium. Once a girl started to rise and immediately Boman asked "where are you going?" before she could reply, "No" "Sit" came the answer. There where a lot of 'Mamus'(boys) and a very few 'Mamis'(4girls is all he could see) in the crowd so he wasn't going to let a 'Mami' slip out. Soon he came to regret his decision when she eventually told him that it was to set up the collar mic. He made sure she came on the stage to put the mic on(he didn't like the idea anyways and stuck to the traditional one) by putting up an act(away from the mic stand,signal-can you hear me.crowd-no). A guy dared to get up and leave when Boman stopped him, he let him go giving reason that he was a "mamu" anyways(I don't think anyone got up after that). It was like asking a friend "abey sunn na thodi der ke liye"(hey dude sit and listen for some time).

Now coming back to his bio. Much detail wasn't told about how actually he got into acting but, he told us that he was approached by the son of his photographer friend(also a parsi) to make the movie "Being Cyrus". He was pushed into theater profession(as he was shy) and was very well received by all. His role in a play called "Roshini" won many hearts. He acted in various plays, but what caught the eye of the producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra was a home made film of the play "I'm not Bajirao". Apparently for no reason the crew members of the play decided to make the film and it took almost a year to edit the film which was taken from a handheld camera, this made its way to Vidhu Vinod Chopra and he approached Boman Irani with a check in hand to sign him up the "Munnai bhai MBBS" for the role of Dr. J. Astatna, even though Vidhu ji wasn't sure about when the movie was going to be made. Even though he was offered a check before any formal contract, Boman was reluctant to do the role of the doctor who was laughing all the time. He found the character stupid and was no convinced at all. He had already done small roles in many movies, but had no idea how much impact this role would make on the his audience. As the last resort Vidhu ji requested Boman to listen to the story from Rajkumar Hirani, the director. Boman reluctantly accepted and went to meet up with Rajkumar Hirani and now Rajkumar ji began narrating the story to him. As rajkumar ji narrated the story Boman shared he laughed and cried and throughly enjoyed the story, he had no choice but to accept, but he still wasn't convinced with the laughing character. Later he reluctantly accepted but did justice to the character.

As told in the previous post the actor who was being groomed for 6 months for the main role was Vivek Oberoi, but in the one month to the starting of the shooting he backed out and switched to the Ram Gopal Verma's movie "Company", the main comedian and side kick role was also abandoned by a famous actor 15 days before the shooting. Actors like "Shah Rukh Khan", "Hrithik Roshan", "Saif Ali Khan" where approached but to no avail and finally when Sanjay Dutt came to the picture and it was seen as a good idea. Now remained the role of the side kick, when Arshad Warsi was approached to act he was also reluctant about acting as a side kick, he completely disliked the name 'kujali' for the charector but eventually accepted the offer and suggested the name of the character to be changed to 'circuit'. Now the film crew and cast were assembled finally, but the cast had major lack of superstars. Gracy Singh was the only person who could be called so. Sanjay didn't have any hit since about 8 years and Boman and Arshad were somewhat new faces. He shared a funny incident that happened during the making of the movie- apparently Gracy Singh was very straight forward and used head straight back to home after finishing up shooting(I guess it must be hard on the new actors to get used to the harsh shooting schedule), so after a promotional function it seems Sanjay shared with Boman "Aaj pheli bar mere ko hello boli"(its the first time she said hello to me).

Boman was very disappointed with the film, it wasn't a hit and when he went to a theater to watch it for himself he found out that the theater was half empty. But Vidhu ji was very excited about the movie. Boman found it as a harsh joke when Vidhu ji shared his excitement about the film doing good. When Boman asked why he was so excited when the movie wasn't doing so well Vidhu ji replied "hit hai, sab log hass rahe hai"("its a hit, every one is laughing and enjoying it"). It seems that it was the only thing that matters to him. Slowly by word of mouth the film became famous and more and more people were watching it, and now when he went to a theater he was mobbed and people weren't letting him go, whereas the first time he went people didn't even recognise him. So that's how Boman gained a unique place in millions of heart.

He shared that he found something in the mail that the organiser of the lecture Nithin sent him that made him come here and was grateful for what Chennai had given him. Nithin wasn't very good at talking in public but he always smiled and went with what he had to do though he blabbered and stammered a bit. Boman made sure that we all learn from his tenacity. In the end of the overtime lecture he made us say three words-"Thank you Nithin". I was proud that I was thoughtful enough to thank him out aloud even before Boman made us all do it. I guess I'm similar to him in some way, my college isn't going that well anyways hope my life makes a good story. And that's what Boman blessed us all of, he blessed that we become the kind of people who are going to share there story in a lecture like this. During the Questions and Answer session too he showed the influence of his humble background and his level of experience. There are always some people who are excited and ask questions which are sometimes obvious, not so interesting for the people around and when people used to boo at them Boman gently took care that the speaker isn't uncomfortable and that the crowd listen to what he/she had to say.

The session wasn't going to end this way, a guy asked him to sing, it seemed that Boman was a good singer and sung before. I thought yeah every hobby of a celebrity is so glorified even though they are not that good(sometimes people think- "oh big deal, I can do better"), I wasn't prepared for what was going to come. Boman shared that its just his hobby and he doesn't actually sing(see just as I thought), Then he began singing a song(the song where many international singers with Michael Jackson are singing one by one, as a part of some fundraising event. I'm really sorry I don't know the song). I was mesmerised by his voice, it was awesome and I found that his heavy bass voice he uses to speak doesn't give us any clue of what his beautiful part of voice is. He also mimicked the voices of the singer who originally sang it and I was left awestruck.

There are many things that I have forgotten from the lecture, there somethings I didn't understand, but every bit of it was worth listening to and pondering over. Hope you make your life into a good story too.

Jgd
Puneeth Raj

I was seeing an apocalypse movie for the first time in a theater may be that's why i was totally taken aback by the destruction showed in the first half, or maybe I'm not really well suited for violence, but it was awesome and if you plan to watch this movie then watching it in a theater is good idea unless you are like my mom who had her eyes shut completely scared out of her wits.

The first half gives you an impression that its just another "end of the world" movie, a family running around to survive the cataclysm, few presidential speeches about bravery etc. Soon it changed into something mind boggling and awesome which truly leaves your mouth wide open. Almost all the important and unexpected twists where saved for the ending part. overall its an amazing and a must see movie.

My rank- 8/10. Must watch.

Imdb rank- 6.2/10.

Runtime-158 minutes

Genre-Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Story- 8/10- the story was fine but feel like the it was worlds end, most people were cool with it and only thing they all cared was saving their own lives. I think its obvious to contemplate, but that aspect was missing. There's no way people could be so cool about worlds end. I think that's inherent to the story, something the author should work on. the most interesting part is about what all things could go wrong rather than the worlds end itself. Makes you think- I really liked the solution to the worlds end but its not a very good one I believe. I think I spoiled this part for you guys who haven't seen it yet.

Acting-7/10- Typical but did a good job.

Direction and screenplay- 8/10. Somehow the chaos part of it wasn't captured very well.

Action-8/10- nothing out of ordinary as compared to present technology. Looking forward to give the 9/10 to "Avatar".

Sound-8/10- it turns boring hearing the same sounds of tremors again and again but that's only in the first half nevertheless it had awesome sound effects.

Enjoyment-9/10. After all that's what the movies are for.
So don't miss it.

Boman Irani has a very simple personality with lot of depth and innocence. You could tell by spending a little while with him that he is very down to earth (something not very typical of celebs). Even though he was amidst his fans who loved him like mad, he didn’t give any hint of taking their love for granted. In fact he was more interested in making useful contribution to their life. He disclosed that now that he is an overnight success he is afraid of getting into comfort zone and concerned about taking this power of controlling people’s emotions by his acting for granted. A lot of celebrities might show that they are very humble and love their fans by giving special attention to some people- like a hug to disabled or mentally retarded person, but the hug that Boman gave to the mike technician on stage for staying on his toes to set right the collar microphone can truly be called as ‘Jaadu ki jappi’ (magical hug). In fact he said that we had a lot to learn from him. He believed that a good observer is a good actor and that one must observe peoples body language and eyes rather than listen to what they are saying. Words can mean something and expressions quite different. How did he develop this observant and deep personality?- well thanks to his uneventful childhood he developed strong observation skills and an advice by Naseeruddin Shah when Boman was still a shopkeeper who used to sell potato chips for living. He once happened to express his regret of not joining an acting school to the bollywood legendary actor and on which the actor deciphered that acting school wasn’t necessary to learn acting and that he could learn a lot by observing people around him while he was in his shop. So how did he get into this potato selling business? Let’s continue the story of Boman Irani.

He spoke to the manager of Taj mahal hotel and it was I guess pretty easy to get a waiter's job without any special qualification in such a posh hotel in those days, so he made it through with some juggling with words. He started to work as a waiter there and while he was talking about it his heart as he was also reminded of the tyranny that took place on the 26/11/2009, when the terrorist attacked the royal monument. He knew every nook and corner of that hotel. His stay in Taj was not very long- he was destined to achieve more than he could imagine at that point of time. His mother got bedridden and responsibility of his family business fell upon him (not the Ambani type inheritance.). He was to take care of the chips store owned by his family. And So equipped with a vest (better to call it banyan and also lungi with it maybe), a huge bowl filled with boiling oil, a huge metal fry scoop, a room small enough to for both the man and the machine (the stove and the bowl) he started his career as a small young budding maker of potato chips, the heat and antique ambiance of the room was a bonus.

In the wild the males of every species make some flashy moves and sounds, basically to attract female junta and to show that they are extremely gorgeous looking males ready to mate, and the females are generally automatically release pheromones when they are ready. In human world the only difference is both males and females flash signals at each other and that every human being has a different way of doing it (generally referred to as ‘style’). So Mr. Chipswala (chips vendor) also had some flashy tricks up his sleeves (but of course even though the vests are sleeveless) suited for his profession. Well these tricks might have been enough for Rajnikanth to make an impression on a director when he was a conductor (as the rumor goes). But it had a different purpose in case of Boman Irani. He had no idea that his juggling tricks were working one girl who was destined to be his wife. "My wife was silly enough to fall for those tricks" he says. She contributed significantly in increasing the weight the beggar round the corner in few months (obviously buying chips every day was suspicious, it has to dispose of somehow). So this is how they both ended up in love and got married. He became a father in a year’s time. Now another desire of his started to take place in his heart. He was amused by photography and now when he wanted to take pictures of his cute baby he finally bought a high end SLR camera.

Now that he had bought a camera his hands were itching to take shots, and he began by taking pictures of children playing cricket. He became quite famous with moms of that area (-yeah! That’s the way he put it- pervy old….well he says he’s not that old, though he may act like daddys of beautiful maidens of bollywood and gets to all the tightest daddy hugs from all heroines- this also as told by him. But actually he was just trying to be funny, which worked quit well.). These moms wanted to see pictures of their boys performing drives, hitting boundaries and sixes, and they would pay him for that. He bought new equipment every time he had enough money from this hobby. In his neighborhood he had a friend who was in advertising and seeing these photos he was advised to develop his talent to pro level and was given the contact of person named Vasudevan and his son Venkatesh who had a studio in Madras (back then studios were very rare even in Mumbai). So he set out to develop the finesse in photography for another 6months (but finished in 5moths).

There are times when you ask yourself why am I here what am I doing here?, what am I doing here- that’s usually when you find yourself lacking a goal and motivation, but for Boman Irani the reason was slightly different. He didn't mind staying in a dharamshala(dormitory) of a fire temple(he is a Parsi) but what almost petrified him out of his wits was the gentle and usually harmless, and gracefully crawling creatures- the lizards, which were swarming and thriving on the ceiling of the dorm. He more than happy to run into his school days friend when he was offered to have a dinner with them one day and to his great relief was also offered to stay. He didn't care to go to bring his luggage back at that time thanks to the wonderful and gentle reptiles.

This is the first time he felt the presence of a person who had found his inner calling (the whole talk was about it). Vasudevan let him use the studio to his contentment. After 5 months when the time came for him to depart Boman asked Vasudevan the amount he owes to him for which Vasudevan gently denied, he said "I have helped you learn. Why do you want measure it in money?” His memories here was one of the reasons that made him come to Chennai. And if anyone knows this shop in TTK road or T.nagar Chennai (of course the rechristened Madras) or know them, then please tells them that Boman wanted to send his word of regards to them.

He came back from Madras and an opportunity presented itself to him in the form of an international boxing tournament. He went to the manager and requested him to make him the official photographer of this event. He rudely denied Boman’s request saying that he didn't have any qualifications or previous experience for becoming the official photographer of an event of this then how could he let him just be. Boman left after seeing that this person has a good reason, but within few minutes he went back and offered to become his assistant for free and told him that he would do anything he said. Boman had found that this person is one of those who had found their inner calling. On seeing this kind of a reaction from Boman the manager offered him a chance to prove his talent. He asked him to take few pictures of a boxing match and show him. In those days boxing events were very rare, Boman managed to find out about a local boxing match and decided to get to work. When he came back to the manager to show the pictures the manager told him that the pictures were very good. The manager had the letter of appointment already typed in and already had decided to appoint him as the official photographer, if Boman had slacked and given up he wouldn't have had this opportunity. Later during the matches the team of Netherlands wanted to have three special pictures of their player to be taken in black and white. Initially he thought that since he was working for the manager how and wanted to take pictures for him how could he take two at the same time and thought of refusing the offer. But after consoling from the manager he accepted. When the time came to discuss about the payment, since he did not know the rates he cleverly and disguised his ignorance by using the word "the usual", and so the deal was set. The match began and then as promised he took three excellent shots of the Netherlands boxer in black and white while a knockout on opponent, the team won that match. He enquired about the international charges form one of the photographer friends and came to know that he could be paid around $60 for each photograph. He was happy since he was earning even more by taking just three photos than from photographing for the whole event. In those days the pictures were sent via a scanning machine and it took about 4 hrs to complete the process (he was proud of that technology back then). So in the afternoon at 2:00 he was expecting the photos to be sent. Next day morning 4 he woke up to a call, it was from the manager of the Netherlands team. He came to know that the photos still hadn't reached them. He became furious and called to the post office and came to know from the attendant that the machine had broken down. This was the first time the lack of professionalism in India would cause so much pain to him. He immediately took his bike, went to the office and slipped past the sleeping guard and finally came to attendant. Poor fellow now admits that the machine was packed and kept to be delivered to a ministers meeting and it would take at least a week for it to come back. Infuriated by the utter lack of concern for a commoner's needs, the poor attender was made the target of his rage and was speech on integrity of India and patriotism and more (he remembers this is where he was most authentic on every word he said). After hearing so much the attender consoled him and said that he could have done something but he didn't know how to operate the machine. But he brought down the machine unpacked it and both of them now sat to figure out how to use the machine. The machine on the other hand was utterly un-user-friendly.
Somehow they both managed to send the photos. When Boman came back home exhausted at 8:00 AM, he received a call from Netherlands that the photos had been received. The time came for finalizing the payment but Boman still insisted that he preferred the ‘usual ‘, little did he know what usual actually meant for them. ”So 300$” came the reply, Boman was happy that he was getting more,” So total 900$, please collect it from your manager”, almost out of breath and after a little while he replied (mouth already wide open I guess) “OK”. He got the check from his manager and now finally Boman felt like calling himself a photographer with all his heart. He could never afford to take his family out for a nice holiday, they had gone to Ooty once and had stayed in a small lodge (a lot of broken things, around), but now he was satisfied that he could give his family things which had always dreamt of. A month later he received a letter from Netherlands and was surprised to find a check of another 900$, thinking that there has been some mistake he immediately made a call to Netherlands (using the old noisy trunk call). The Netherlands manager clarified that there has been no mistake and the amount was for the ‘reuse’ of the photographs. Boman learned a very important lesson from this, something which a person in his position would appreciate and realize very well. The Netherlands manager was under no obligation to pay Boman, since he wouldn’t know about it anyway but this act deeply inspired him. He learned the importance of ethics, something very rare in India. He kept on receiving checks(with reducing amount) for a while.

The next part will reveal how he got into Bollywood and became an overnight success. I’ll leave with some Tidbits- The person who was actually being considered for the role of Munna bhai was Vivek Oberoi- the whole hall were relieved that it didn’t happen.

And do yourself a favor and visit his website and check out his amazing photographs at http://www.bomanirani.com/bi_port.htm

Today we had an Extra Mural lecture(EML) in IIT. EML's are exactly like what they sound - basically talks given by eminent personalities. There have been talks from Medha Patkar, Gopal krishana(Deccan air ceo) and a lot more.
So this time it was Boman Irani. While I was thinking what better to do while there was a power cut for the whole day in IIT this opportunity landed at the right time, and I'm glad to have attended the talk(as opposed to the imminent dozing of). So though I was bored and went to the venue 15mins early(very rare phenomena-must be recorded in the history), I couldn't find a seat and had to sit down in the path way. This tradition of overflowing auditorium is quite old in IIT and speakers are overwhelmed by this overflowing enthusiasm of IIT(These guys don't want to miss any chance like this even if they have to stand for 2 Hrs). Boman Irani was no exception- this was the first thing he talked about-he was moved by our response and mentioned that he was obliged to share rare authentic scenes from his life with us different from that available for media and the mass.

Well it started of quite rudely with some people shouting 'mamu' and 'subah ho gayi mamu' etc. He was a humable person who didn't mind it as much as I did. His jokes especially the pervy ones weren't as interesting and stimulating as his adventurous life was. Throughout the session he showed that he was one of most humblest of speakers or celebrity one could have been touched by.

The talk was about finding the inner calling and this is roughly how it goes. Boman Irani was, in his childhood a very shy and quite kind of boy. His father had passed away before he was born and so he was surrounded by mostly women relatives(not the Priyanka Chopra type- he makes it clear) due to which he had developed a phobia towards male presence. With a speech problem of pronunciation of 's' word(made an 's' few s's long) and his phobia towards people, he greatly lacked confidence during his childhood. He was denied admission to school when he was asked to tell the name of the animal in a photo(a horse). He was very scared and hurt to pronounce the word since it had an 's' in it. Boman was dyslexic- he jovially quotes that he had seen Amir Khan's 'Taare Zameen Par' so he knew what was dyslexia was. He hated to be called a 'duffer' which was used constantly by his aunt to refer his dyslexia(she didn't know the technical term dyslexia)- she used to taunt him(with concern)'tu itna duffer kyun hai'(meaning why are you such a duffer). He had faced all problems that a dyslexic person would have faced. Being meek in studies he scored low while he was in school and college. He used to about 5 red mark out of 7 subjects that is. He managed to get through the rest by the leniency of his teachers(grace marks).
Looking back he is neither proud of it nor regrets it.

Not being able to qualify for anything he studied for he decided to become a waiter. So he approached the Taj Mahal Hotel(the one that was attacked by terrorists.) for a job. Did he get the job what happens next? still marriage is left and acting. wait for my next post.

Not in order

1. Devil May Cry3- Awesome brutal and tough game you would love to play. Not bloody but allows you to move and get involved every moment. You can try variety of moves and awesome boss battles. A lot of skill needed and reflexes tested in harder levels. Just imagine this game had to be republished just because it was too tough to play. Easier mode available in a newer version called special edition. A lot of variety in close combat with intricate detail. The game doesn't get over in one try. You have so many unlockables that you have to play in every level and you'll be more than excited to do so.

2. Devil May Cry4- An master piece, awesome graphics and involves also a luck factor in some stages the outcome is different every time and not guessable. Superb close combat moves lot of slashers just like its predecessor but more improved and lively including the interface. Absolute fun to play.

3. Diablo- An old game- I like the gameplay and the character development and the spells. You need to have strategy and variety to take on the boss and tougher combination of rivals.

4. Age of empires 2- The most awesome war strategy game with nice and historic story line. You'll need a lot of movement to beat this game. And when you start playing it on lan with other people battles are decided in moments. Quite easy to beat the game if you are good with keyboard and mouse. But the fun is when you play it on lan with teams.

5. Rise of Nation- Like AOE but more variety and options if you like AOE then you'll definitely like this. You can start with nation and eventually move on to conquer the whole world making allies and defeating hostile nations. Awesome experience.

6. Counter Strike- Its all about tactics, reflexes and skills when it come this game and its one of the best game to be played on lan. Its meant to be played on lan. Straight forward and simple absolutely likable. Appeals from beginners to pros. One of the most addictive games. Theres no end to it when you start online.

7. Return to the castle Wolfenstein- The trend setter for first person shoot out game. I haven't played any game that is so simple yet so fun. The story is Involving and original- none can come close to the story line of this game.

8. Warcraft 3- With an involving fantasy story and awesome character development its one the most addictive games available. A war strategy game in which you get to play both good and evil. Even more addictive is the World of Warcraft the Massively multiplayer Online role playing game which I haven't played yet- just afraid that its going to drag me like no other game.

9. Fighting force- A simple close combat game. One of the earlier games I played. Not very famous beat'em up genre game. May not appeal to present generation gamers. Its even harder to find it.

10. Midnight club 2- From the makers of GTA. Set in various locations at stages namely Los Angeles, Pris and Tokyo it is one the toughest game I have played and just stuck at the final level. The beginning is fun. The development is good with various techniques acquired. Not easy like NFS. Even a small scratch on the car can send you to last place. The opponents are tough emphasis on the skill but graphics and detail are also very good. A must play for all those in racing games. Street racing with not serious police intervention but the opponent can tick you of.

11. Mortal Combat-One of the earlier games I played. Its all about moves and fatalities with hundreds of moves you'll never get bored of this game. One of the trend setters in its genre.

*The games I Want to play*
-Ninja Gaiden- similar to DMC.
-SIMS- I don't know whether I'll like it or not. It doesn't seems very exciting now. Though very famous.
-Bioshock- for concept and gameplay.
-Wolfenstein 2009.
-Final fantasy series.
-Crysis.
-NFS shift
- Witcher - famous for roleplaying and decisions you take have consequences.
-Elder Scroll- Famous I didn't like the gameplay though, when i saw in youtube.
-Prototype- for its gameplay.
-Transformers- Just curious, if the movie had some much of awesome moves will i be able find it in the game. Just having an intuition that it might have a lot of variety.


*The games I have played and not in the above list*

Max Payne 1 and 2 - got head ache. Very dark. The protagonist is depressed.
IGI 1 and 2 - nice to play- sneak attacks.
NFS Underground, Carbon, Most wanted superb graphics and awesome handling.
Batman Arkhman Asylum- known as the best super hero game.
Command and conquer red alert - had heard a lot but found nothing special. I like RON and AOE
House of dead- bang bang bang clicth'k
Halo-1- just some alien invasion type game with not so good weapons.

I'm looking for a game with revolutionary gameplay and story that makes sense. Something that is made with a lot of care for self-satisfaction aimed at perfection or newness or art, with creativity, rather than the market and yet has become known and acknowledged. Most blood gore and violence games have stereotypical approach like aliens invasions etc., they don't have any good new concept behind they just follow the market with slight difference in story and weapons.
I absolutely hate how they project minions in a horror game and aliens like their only purpose is to be ugly. Instead of actually projecting a proper human face- which is difficult(all those wind and hair effect) they can actually create a fictional being which is easier to model and animate.

I want to create a game, a martial arts game with close combat with or without weapons. The user Should be able to develop the character rather the limited options available in a game like level ups. The character should be able to tweak his reflex time, power of the move, precision of the move, even the motion of the move. The funda is once he fights an enemy he must be able to figure out the openings,the power of his move, the timing, the motion etc and tweak himself so that he will be able to counter him. Similar thing is done in DMC4 with Dante's character. He was able change from escapist to defensive and aggressive or adept at using guns. I want a game where even the motion of the moves should be designed by user. Some constraints can be placed so that when he need speed the power reduces or when power of the move is more the time of the move is reduced. And a befitting story which has ultimate outcome same but various path to be taken.

There are three kinds of load that can be applied on a material and there are a number of loads applied in a human being.

Tension-Applied in axial direction pulling the material apart. Tension when time is very less and you need to do more- you sweat it out. When you are studying for exams. An object yields under tension, then hardens and under tension of greater magnitude eventually fails. A human yields under tension with so many worries pulling you around and he/she just does what life dumps on. Fear and confusion builds up in tension leading to suicidal tendencies.

Compression- Applied in the axial direction pressing the material. When someone is pressurised due expectations placed on him or when he is bearing the load of something. Under compression an object's volume reduces usually hardens due to increase in density. A human under pressure from parents, job, society etc., gets dense in the mind, the head starts to ache, he wont be able to think anything creative, its very hard for him/her to open up their mind to new concepts. Anger builds up.

Shear- Applied in tangential direction to the face of the object. Distractions caused by his own emotions. Under shear an object tends to flow or deform. A human gives up to his feeling of lust and greed. this the easiest way to yield a man. All attachments, the complying to friends move a person to do unproductive things even though its not intelligent.

Under fatigue loading a material fails even if the load is small, it brings down their life expectancy. Humans and randomly loaded all through their life, stress can suck out humans strength. If the material is brittle it can crack easily no mater how hard it is, high ductility is also not desirable its has to be engineered properly.

Materials are intelligently manufactured through subjecting them to various processes involving controlled heating, cooling, application of pressure, extruding. They are machined, welded, molded, formed into various shapes for various applications. materials can be assembled intelligently in a system to to get the desired function.
But the nature is the best designer it builds from from atomic level and hence a perfect product is born according to that environment. Every living thing evolves, learns becomes better. But nature doesn't prefer a particular species, organism, color or shape. It just uses the best material and design possible for a particular purpose without any prejudice or preference.

Man is brought up by the society to fulfill its needs. He is force-fed to behave in a certain manner. Materials have limited reaction but humans have the ability to adapt. He engineers himself to suit the situation- but this is just a bad way to treat himself. He hardens, sometimes kills his own dream, commits crime, breaks down when not needed.Everything that can happen to a material can happen to him. Man designs not for the good of all, he designs for himself, society and he is insensitive, doesn't care about anything else unless it involves him. Nature makes him realise. The ecosystem created by man called the society is filled with chaos and is not in balance. He aims for linear growth and doesn't realise that in nature everything goes in a circle.

Man knows the loads applied on him, he knows its not good for him but still continues to yield, harden and fail without direction. He can act like water when he wants or even air and but also has the strength of iron. He is the best material designed by nature. I wonder why this science of self or spirituality is not taken seriously, isn't education supposed to teach us that. That would be very intelligent, don't you think?