THE WAIT ENDS

The interminable wait is almost over! A wait that lasted for over two years! But then there is also a grieving feeling within me that this will be the last time I wait. Yes! You guessed it right. This post is all about HARRY POTTER. I do not know whether to feel sad or to feel happy. For I know that most of the questions will be answered in the last book (which if you do not know is due in 10 days). But after this, I will not have to wait for another book. I will not have the enthusiasm and curiosity on what exactly will be happening in the next book. May be I will wait for the movies, and believe me, even though the movies are great, they do not take you into that magical world as the books do. And in fact most of those who are reading this post will probably belittle me as being a Potter fanatic or a “freak”. Who cares? Preordering the book months ago on amazon, trying to write my own fic, and talking over phone and wasting money basically discussing on what will happen in the last book, reviewing the movie etc…might be heights of joblessness. Stuff which I think I will miss after a couple of weeks. Hope the book betters the previous one which was the darkest till then! Never before in my life have I waited with such curiosity and expectation. It will be fun when people who have not even read the books try criticizing the author and the millions of fans. Of all, it will be really fun when my friends who do not follow the series try to pull my leg! From being a guy who thought Harry Potter was crap to a guy who adores the books, the transition has been remarkable. All over a course of 3 months! Now it has come to a point where I would have read each book a minimum of 4 times. Again, I changed two of my best friends. Two people who laughed at me for reading these books, have now themselves gone to pre-order them. People who ridicule me will always be there! That is what makes this wait all the more fun. Potter has cast a spell on me too. And I am happy to be under the influence of potteromania.

Sivaji right thaan...

Disclaimer: Might be more than biased at times!

Hmm...after what seemed to be an eternity, I finally was able to watch Sivaji...Even though it was around a week after the actual release date, I was sort of excited. Reason being our very own thalaivar. Of course I am a big fan of Shankar's movies.

So after a drive of around one hour we reach the theatre and the excitement amongst those waiting to get in was palpable. For some of us it was the first time that we were watching SIVAJI. For some it was the second time! I had gone for this movie trying to be as neutral as possible and yet could not help but be biased for the fact that the three people whose work in movies gets me going were involved in this case..Shankar, Rehman and finally our dear thalaivar...So what is Sivaji all about? The story and funda involved in this movie is no big deal. Rooting out corruption which in this case turns out to be Black Money and try to do good for the society. A story of good wins evil! Now then,do not raise your eyebrows and look at me like that. We have seen so many such stories which are un-real life like. Yet what really sets this movie apart from others is our thalaivars style and acting. And I do not need to mention the awesome sets and good music. These people have gone out of their way with the sets for the songs. The creativity that brings these kinds of sets has to be appreciated. Another point worth mentioning is the fact that Rajni seems to have put a conscious effort in his dancing. Man do I need to talk about Shriya? She is a siren! A bomb! Some said that the action stunts where overboard...Some say that they were so larger than real life like! I say that, if I can watch 2 and a half hours of Mr. Jack Sparrow fighting on a ship in a storm, or 2 hours of Mr. Peter Parker fighting the evil goons, then I can also manage to get through thalaivar's style and his action! Just trying to be fair here...:) Some said that these action scenes were copied from Matrix etc etc...I say, if they do provide me with 3 hours of rocking entertainment, I do not mind the copied action scenes. And yeah Vivek's comic timing and dialogue delivery has to be appreciated. Suman, playing a sexy, suave and sophisticated baddie does very well. A decent background score to support everything. So overall total paisa vasool. As I was coming out of the theatre I just could not stop smiling. Now about the hype and hoopla concerning this movie, it is the duty of the producers and the distributors to hype it up. They need the movie to run strong and run long. It is not the mistake of the media that they hype the movie so much. They need something to feed upon. They are kind of parasites. But why is it that the viewers of these channels fall for the hype, and expect magic from movie makers? And in all fairness to the movie makers, they have done an awesome job in trying to live upto the expectations. As I said, 3 and a half hours of breathtaking entertainment. I do not mind that considering the fact that most of the recent movies that I have seen, requires a human beings concentration. Thats not what I wanted when I went to see thalaivar in action. I would rather prefer this kind of entertainment every now and then, even if the story at times does have its loopholes. Just as we need to try all kinds of food, one has to watch all kinds of movies. Overall do not miss the movie for two factors:

1. Awesome entertainment

2. Thalaivar's style.

Once again thalaivar has done it and the cash registers all over the world are ringing, and everyone involved with the movie is laughing right to the last cent, paisa...that it is going to make...

SIVAJI RIGHTO RIGHT

Spirituality and byond!

Walk I did along the path

Walk I did along the path in front of the temple

Scores of people praying to the almighty

Some asked for wealth

Some asked for health

And here I was confused…wealth or health?

For I could not take my eyes off

Of a young girl in tattered clothes

Motherless, foodless, yet I talk of spirituality

People talk of recitations, people talk of piligrimages.

What they do not talk of is of helping the poor

People talk of cars, people talk of dollars

What they do not talk of are the needy

Perhaps they themselves are needy

Of the cars and the dollars!

Walk I did along the path.

Wonder did I on whether my 1 rupee

Will make the difference

For a young kid whose asset was

A rupee till that day!

But what I did see behind me

Brought tears to the kids eyes

For there were people

Beyond my eyesight could penetrate

Standing behind me

Waiting for me to move on!

Satisfied I walked back..

Knowing that the kid had a penny worth a meal!

Force I cannot to others to do what I did

But suggest I can to help the poor

For that is the true path to spirituality

Not uttering recitations or visiting temples

Help the needy…

God will help you when you need…

The true path towards spirituality

Is by helping humanity

Moments

When the lightning streaks across the grey sky

Brightening the gloomy skies

It is for moments like these that I care to live

When the drops of rain pour from the dark sky

And just as each drop falls on my face

Cleansing and purifying my soul

It is for moments like these that I care to live

As I wake up every day

To the bright sunshine across the bay

And the water in the bay gleaming like gold

It is for moments like these that I care to live

As I wake up every day

To the chirping of birds in the adjacent woods

Music it forms never heard before

It is for moments like these that I care to live

As I succeed every day

Only to fail the very next

For one teaches you the value of other

It is for moments like these that I care to live

As I sit and sip my tea

Chit chatting with my friends

When I hear the ringing laugh of them

It is for moments like these that I care to live

Just as every night when darkness engulfs

Only for me to search in pitch black

For the source of light from far off

It is for moments like these that I care to live.

A different attempt!!!

I am going to try something different while blogging for the first time…Two parts in a same blog. Two totally different issues! But trying to deal in the same blog! And yes you guessed it write. This sort of idea stuck me from the trend in Bollywood where people are starting a trend of multiple stories in a single movie.

PART I

Headlines Today

Here is a small part of what is increasingly becoming a part of the daily news being broadcasted on TV by the various channels.

Newsreader: Namaskaar, main Sandhya Shrivastav aaj ke chatpati aur taaza khabar lekar aayee hoon. Sabse pehle Surkhiyaan…

1. Baghdad mein aaj Id ke din ek sau dus logon ki hathyaa…

2. Bharat me sabheen vidhyalai me 75 phisadhi aarakshan kee aayojnaa aur thodi hi dino me parliament me pesh kiyaa jaayega, keh rahein apne Shishu shiksha mantra…

3. Kolkota me apne pradaan manthri ji ek samaaroh me Infosys ki ek nayi office ki udghaatan ki hai. Lekin pehle hi din sabhi karamchaari strike ke kaaran kaam pe nahi aaye…

4. “Main 2011 ke vishw cup me bhaaratiy team ki captaanee karma chahtha hoon…” Sachin Tendulkar ki sansani interview…

5. Bollywood me shaadi karne ke liye agli number kiski?

These are the ingredients of what in essence has become a clichéd recipe called DAILY NEWS. Everything tastes the same but with different names. What a cliché! Where has the media come to? And I suppose most of us do enjoy these sorts of news write ups. What is a life without a bit of gossip about the big celebrities?

PART II

Ramblings of a bored soul!

A couple of days back I was having a discussion with my friend on a certain topic – Independence. Now I am not talking about the August 15 or July 4. Occasionally if other people have to adjust in order to accommodate me, I do hate it. Even if those people are my family! It sort of makes me feel dependent on them. And that is something I want to avoid. Call it my ego, or whatever. And the reply that I got from my friend was, “Would you adjust your lifestyle to accommodate some changes?” And of course without thinking I did answer yes. I totally did not understand the direction of the conversation…Forget the rest…it went over my head. What I essentially mean is that I can manage things on my own and I do not need a third a person to change their lifestyle to humor me. This was what happened when I went to meet a relative of mine recently. A similar example to this is when I talk with my parents. When we pursue a master’s degree in a country that is freaking costly, always takes its toll financially. And most of our parents bear it admirably at least the initial part of it. But then most of us do manage our finances and are well off as we settle in. But then I get irritated sickeningly when people ask me whether I am well off and am able to manage the finances etc. Especially if people keep asking the same thing again and again every week! I appreciate the concern, but common when will people let go of me? Don’t they know that I would be on their doorstep if I need any help? That is the extent of change in me. Another change I have been noting in me is that I am beginning to give up on others very easily. Again it is a sort of, “It is your decision. Not mine! So do what you want and do not repent what you have done later.” Even amongst people who are really close to me I am sort of becoming nonchalant towards them. I do not know why. I like people who do things because of their interest in them. I hate people who do certain things just in order to please someone. I like people owning up to responsibilities. I like people who learn to accept mistakes. I end it here. Friends and foes will once again ridicule what has been written, or find something wrong with what has been written. But if people do understand that owning up to responsibilities and accepting mistakes in once life is not the easiest thing to do in life, they would understand what I mean.

My Love...

Some four lines in my previous post really spiced the blog up I guess. Everyone has taken a guess. A couple of guesses where close enough. A couple, wayward…and some to the point of hopelessness. So who is the person? Well, for all those who expected the name of some beautiful chic looking babe, you guys are wrong. To be frank even though I do feel lonely occasionally that does not mean am looking for some dream girl. I was talking about…Some friends of mine though came close enough telling that I would have been interested in books. To be exact the answer is not even “books”. My fascination towards Image Processing kept on growing over the past few months. And a few days back when I was playing games on Play Station J and also a formula 1 game on my room mates’ laptop, I was really impressed by how good the virtual world that these people create is. The resemblance between the real world and these virtual worlds was spot on. And to create such a virtual world, you require knowledge on something called Computer Vision which in turn brings us back to Image Processing. One makes use of the other. That is how these two fields work. It did not require a couple of games on the Computer to make me realize that the people designing these kinds of stuff are gods in their respective fields. But it did hit me hard when I realized that the field in which I was working would ultimately yield such stuff. In the animation and graphics that most of us are impressed with in the movies, especially when the modern day technology brings out virtual impossibilities in the real world, on to the reel world, I was awestruck. So this love of mine developed over the past four months. Though it was there in front of my eyes right from my younger days when I was playing games on the Computer, it is only that the pea brain has finally realized what can be done. And I hope that I can maintain this love of mine for the rest of my life. I do sincerely hope that whatever is this thing between us, it develops into something more beautiful. I want to be one of the best in this field. At times when I used to be bogged down, starting to work on some new project and assignment and obtaining the desired results kept me going. I am not boasting and neither is this the place to do so. But I am speaking out the truth. I am not surprised that I have been always impressed with these sorts of virtual worlds and now ultimately fate has landed me on the doorstep to this wonderful technology. Let me see how far I can go in this field, and how successful I will be…It’s more of a question on how much effort I am willing to put in. And I think I am more than capable of giving my 100%.

Me, myself and Viswajith

Finally after a long time I sit down to write a blog. Something that I have not done for more than 4 months now and my fingers where itching to get back to the keyboard to get something written again. So why did I stop writing? No idea! Why did I start writing again? No idea again! But I definitely was sick of seeing the same old posts again and again on my blog! Hmm…Now that I start writing again, it feels good, to be frank it feels great. So what do I write now that I started writing again? Am sorry to keep repeating but the answer would be “No idea!” once again…J
Over these past three-four months I have noticed that I am a bad loser. I failed in a couple of interviews. And whoa, there we go, instead of a cheerful guy, sits a guy whose temper is fraying just above the boiling point. The next day, I achieve something, which stands way above my other achievements in life. Now, the guy is over the moon, and he shows his arrogance, struts around the place as if he is the boss. This might be part and parcel of any human. What happened next was even weirder for me! I call and speak some of my friends. The immediate next day I have a cause for complain that it’s me who calls all the time and not them. But a few days later I realize that I was not being fair in my judgment. A massive ego…The first downfall of mine…Semester started going downhill without me even realizing it. I believe this was a direct result of my over confidence… Finally losing trust in everyone…From my friends to very nearly my family…Right them despite the best efforts of some of my friends asking me on what was wrong I did not know on what to explain. It was more sort of eating me from the inside. A stupid ego! Why should I care if some one does not call me? I have enough friends of mine here…Another thing that I did notice was that I was increasingly looking forward to what the other people would comment about me and believe it or not I only expected something positive. It was as if, “If you have something negative to tell about me, then you better shut up, I know myself better…” The laughable part about this entire episode is what I call the play station thingy. Playing games using play station, and the most childish behavior was feeling bad about losing to a friend of mine. And someone at this stage did point out that I had an ego elephant size.
So is that all that sums up these past four months of mine? Nope…I am a bad loser agreed. But I hate losing. I hate giving up. I am restless when I fall short. Studies gone bad? Well I gave it my everything. Losing trust? It would help me in growing up and being all the more independent. Friends not calling me? My phone bill would be low and I need not spend a lot of money on it. In fact I now know who the most important people in my life are. And the best part of this entire semester is I fell in love. I fell head over heels in love. I am passionate about my love. And I am interested in pursuing the relationship big time. This love of mine was their always through out the entire period I was in trouble. This love helped me cross those troubled waters. This love of mine was my savior. I could look up to her for help any time from now on. She is my escape route. And I know that if I am really passionate about this love of mine, she will stay with me forever. No points for guessing who it is…But the answer would be provided in my next post…You people have to wait and watch…Until then adios…