Pyaasa

Earlier this month, I had blogged about a movie I had considered to be the Best Hindi Movie. It isn't so any more. Thanks to Pyaasa.

"Mere Samne Se Hata Lo Yeh Duniya
Tumhari Hai Tum Hi Sambhalo Yeh Duniya
Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaaye, To Kya Hai?"

"Mujhe shikayat hai samaj ki us danche se jo insaan se uski insaaniyat cheen leta hai, matlab ke liye apne bhai ko begaana bana deta hai, dost ko dushman banata hai. Mujhe shikayat hai us tehzeeb se, us sanskriti se jahaan murdon ko puja jaata hai aur zinda insaan ko pairontale raunta jaata hai; jahaan kisiki dukh-dard pe do aasoon bahaana bujdali samjha jaata hai, jhukke milna ek kamzori samjha jaata hai. Aise maahaul mein mujhe kabhi shanthi nahin milegi. Isiliye mein door ja raha hoon."

Nanri hai, DD.

Music

Listening to a song that is many decades old, I realise that the most powerful instrument at the hands of a music director is silence. The technological advancements in these past decades dont make that much of a difference, do they?

Another related thought that had occured to me a few weeks ago: Temple bells are awesome. They produce the loudest silence I've ever heard.

Kavithai

Oru kavithai ezhutha ninaithen.
Kadarkariyil amarnthu maele paarthen
Parpala natchathirangal therinthana.
Yeno kavithai mattum theriyavillai...

Interesting?!

Realised today that most of the tamil/hindi films whose songs I love have one common characteristic. There are quite a few songs from each of these movies that compete for the second best song of the movie. I would've imagined that the contest would be for the best song, but this formula seems to work out in most movies I recall. But now that I've written this down, I wonder if it was that non-obvious after all.

Note: This post was a result of listening to Pudhupettai songs in the same order for the umpteenth time.

P.S:

Virupathil konjam, varuthathil konjam
Ithu thaane vaazhkai motham, ithilenna vesham?

(c) na. muthukumar

Yethanai kodi kanneer manmithu vizhinthirukkum
Athanai kanda pinnum boomi ingu poo pookum.

(C) na. muthukumar

Did you think the mood in these lines was optimistic? Think again.

Kavithai ezhuthinaalthaan kavingyana?
Kavithai ezhuthinaal mattum kavingyana?

Unnai sirikkavaikka kurangaanaan
Nee azhumpothu thol koduthu aaruthal sonaan
Avan azhugaiyil yaar enna seythaar?

How would you respond

...if you were told September 11 happened because the world's top terrorist was believed to be holed up in the WTC?

...to this then?

And think about this as well - Protocol I, Article 85, Sections 3 & 5 of the Geneva Convention state that:

"In addition to the grave breaches defined in Article 11, the following acts shall be regarded as grave breaches of this Protocol, when committed wilfully, in violation of the relevant provisions of this Protocol, and causing death or serious injury to body or health: (a) making the civilian population or individual civilians the object of attack; (b) launching an indiscriminate attack affecting the civilian population or civilian objects in the knowledge that such attack will cause excessive loss of life, injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects, as defined in Article 57, paragraph 2 (a)(iii); (c) launching an attack against works or installations containing dangerous forces in the knowledge that such attack will cause excessive loss of life, injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects, as defined in Article 57, paragraph 2 (a)(iii); (d) making non-defended localities and demilitarized zones the object of attack; (e) making a person the object of attack in the knowledge that he is hors de combat; (f) the perfidious use, in violation of Article 37, of the distinctive emblem of the red cross, red crescent or red lion and sun or of other protective signs recognized by the Conventions or this Protocol." (Emphasis added)

"Without prejudice to the application of the Conventions and of this Protocol, grave breaches of these instruments shall be regarded as war crimes."

Update: The Acorn does what it does best.

Ulagathin oram nindru athanaiyum paathiruppom
Nadappavai naadagamendru naamum sernthu nadithiruppom
Pala mugangal vendum seri maatikolvom
Pala thiruppam theriyum athil thirumbikolvom
Kathai mudiyum pokil athai mudithukolvom
Maru piravi venduma...?

(C) Naa. Muthukumar

Realised on googling that I've liked quite a few of Muthukumar's songs - from Kaadhal, Kaadhal Kondaen and 7GRC. Of course, there is one particular song of his that I dislike esp because of the lyrics, but I guess he can be forgiven for that one error.

Sleep

Sleep intoxicates.
Sleep sobers.
Well, life is life.

Dreamz unlimited...

There is an American Dream. What is the Indian Dream?

Before typing out this post, I wondered if such a dream is required. I was reminded of this that I read a couple of days ago: "In dreams begins responsibility" - Yeats.

Prime numbers (C) BBC. (Link via Nilu)

A couple of days ago, I realised cracking Sudoku was not all that enjoyable anymore. Here's why:

Human brain seems to operate at two levels. There is a computer-ish brain that follows set logical rules. At a higher level, there is a pattern recognizer (PR) at work. The PR part of the brain passes sets the logical rules for the computer to carry out. Quite often, the PR works at an unconscious/sub-conscious level. In my case I realised that while solving a sudoku, I was actually following a set of rules without consciously coming up with them. In hindsight, I had formed these rules by a combination of pattern-recognition and brute force. But now that I've become conscious of the rules, solving a Sudoku is nothing more than running an algorithm through another set of input data. The joy of solving the Sudoku was in the using the pattern-recognizer part of the brain. But now that is gone forever - or at least until I try solving a Sudoku that is tougher than the ones I usually solve (and hence would require some more activity on the part of my PR).

I had posted the above as a comment here. It seems to make sense on its own, and hence am reproducing it.

IAF doing a Shiv Sena?

If government bodies dont trust the Censor board (constituted and empowered by the same government) to do a good job, isnt this a good enough reason to shut the Censor board down?

While CNN-IBN is no different from NDTV in many aspects, there is one difference. NDTV does not have Karan Thapar. A sample:

President Musharraf: Yes, there has to be a division. We are not talking about giving independence to Kashmir. That is not acceptable to either India or Pakistan.

Now if only someone would educate Pervez on Pakistan's position wrt Kashmir.

I did something today. Even a couple of years ago, I wouldn't have imagined doing such a thing. This got me thinking if the then-me is the same me as the now-me. Is there a me? Or are there many me's? As has become often nowadays, I was left with more questions than answers. And no, I dont see that as a negative.

Auditors and regulation

The financial auditing system provides a decent mechanism to regulate the financial reporting of companies. Interesting that such an instance exists of a state-less distributed regulation system that does seem to work - at least better than one can expect from state regulators. Three questions I'd like answered:

1. Is there any other instance of such a regulation system?
2. Why cant this work in other areas that require regulation? (For eg, I dont see the state regulating building construction efficiently or effectively)
3. How did this financial auditing system come into being?

Ae Babu Moshai...

"Zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahin"
"Ek mara nahin, aur doosra marne ke liye paida ho gaya "
"Maanta hoon ki zindagi ki taakat maut se zyaada badi hai. Lekin yeh zindagi kya maut se badtar nahin? College se degree lete hue zindagi ko bachane ki kasam kaayi thi. Aur aisa lag raha hai jaise kadam-kadam par maut ko zinda rakhne ki koshish kar raha hoon"
"Aap achanak naaraaz kyo ho gaye? Oh! Samjha. Aap mujhpe nahin, apne aap pe naaraaz hain. Kyonki mera ilaaj nahin ho sakta na - isliye."
"Maut ke dar se agar zinda rahna chod diye, to maut kise kahte hain?"
"Bhagwan se tumhara sukh nahin, shanthi chaahti hoon"
"Hairaan hoon ki - wo maut pe has raha tha, ya zindagi pe?"

Go watch the movie now.

Outsourcing

"I read somewhere that Bangalore has the largest call centre concentration in the world; and an American friend told a small and appreciative audience that India is commonly seen as the next power in IT and related services.

Alang happens to be Asia's biggest shipbreaking yard. At its peak, about 60,000 Indians worked here. In the 25 or so years since the first ship was torn apart in Alang, has India ever been acclaimed as the next power in shipbreaking? If my American friend had said that to the audience yesterday, would they have been as appreciative?"

Now read these: 1, 2 and 3.

Funny people

These 2 words explain all that happens in the human world.