Tag keeps my blog alive

I must be perhaps the only quarterly blogger on the blogosphere, but lack of time (and more so inspiration) compels this periodicity upon me.

So when R tagged me, I thought it was a good occasion to make my presence felt before it is christmas (literally!)

So, presenting my laundry list of - "5 Things You Don't Know About Me":

1. I shampoo my hair everyday. (Even at high altitudes in sub-human conditions, what say G? ;))
2. The only association with physical sports in my lifetime has been being the “Sports Head Girl” in the middle school (the ‘important’ tasks I did in that capacity ensured I didn’t have much running around to do)
3. I kinda thought that the world is flat till a friend with a sailor boyfriend asked me where exactly I thought the ship went from one edge of the map. (to think of it, I could have preceded Friedman, if it wasn’t for literal minded friends)
4. I am connected to 36,314,846 people through 131 friends on orkut
5. No.1 entry on my Christmas wish list – the aliens take away orkut (and to keep some company, some of its inhabitants as well)

I am not sure if tagging happens at your space, but as my gesture of "sweet friendship", I pass it on you Sandeep :)

I Revel in Pretension

I wish to talk and have nothing to say
a little uneasy I am, with my current state of
nagging thoughtlessness

Just how much out of touch with self, is illustrated through
this pathetic attempt at verse,
(and an effort in vain to imitate a friend)
resisting hard, my typical style of “bitter poetry”
(the kind seeking authenticity by rhyming it with a lavatory)

Wondering all this while whether a talk about Afzal Guru,
will grant the right pretension of a social conscience
Or casual musings about the coming India vs. Australia match
may convey better my “non girly” extra curricular interests

Or if it is more entertainingly absurd, to talk about how
yesterday, I earnestly read the “Female Eunuch”
and with equal solemnity perused through web pages
revealing Victoria’s Secrets
aspiring through all this chatter for the “cool” incongruity of
being (or aleast being called!) a feminist sexist

Or if I can talk about my thoughts at the launch of a new TV show
Though attempting a Don Quixotic bravado at even
verbalising the thought to do so
(I bloody well know that - ‘Big Brother’ is ALWAYS watching)

Rambling till this far, I feel a sense of pride in retaining consistence
in lack of economy of words and
the originally assured thought recession
(a keen eye may also spot a delightful faithfulness to
unoriginality in theme as well as the language)

I know not, however, how to end this charade...

Tired as I am, of my own silly word play
And keen to be in bed, I ask for bit of a leeway
To drop mid-way the experiment and
Stick to the formulae

“I revel in pretension”
let that be the name of my first claim to poetic
notoriety or as I imagine – eminence and fame

Across the border fire

Was just amusing myself this weekend with the ironies of the contrasting nature of fire of the two presidents..

CLICK

It seemed nearly million years since I saw a movie at a cinema hall. It is ironic that I managed one recently, only during a brief "enforced leisure" break where the choice of the film was decided by whatever was available in the time slot. Given that, am quite glad that I fairly enjoyed the film.

While the group was neatly divided among those who couldn't stand the film and ones who adored it, it was damn intriguing how different people with fairly similar backgrounds and functioning out of a similar environment react in such sharply different manner to similar stuff .One set found it unbearably flippant while the other swore they saw the strongest possible message.

Coming to the film that we watched, "Click", I think beneath and within the comedy there was a message (yes I do belong to the latter set :) ) particularly significant, given our present lifestyles. While we are caught up in the blind race for success, we overlook and forget all that was originally important to us, we start looking at that job of ours which was just a "means" as the "end all" of everything. We abuse our bodies with the most junky food and keep imagining that all the "struggle" we are going through will lead up to that perfect life that we want. Except that in life unlike economics books, "all things are [never] constant". While it sounds morosely preachy when I put it in the above words, that is where the film works so well. For it so effortlessly conveys the mad rush of life where there is no time to pause and ponder.

The other thing I enjoyed about the film was its use of fantasy. One often likes to imagine how good life will be if things happened EXACTLY as we wanted, if we could fast-forward all the unpleasant things such as sickness, traffic, arguments etc. The film shows the horror of such a perfect life and what a blessed thing ordinary life is. It takes literally the metaphor of a remote-control and shows how the protagonist Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) finds himself empowered with the choice to "control" the events in his life. So while he can pause, fast-forward or rewind his life as he wants and avoid the tedious fights or sex with his wife, life becomes hell when the remote auto programmes itself based on his behaviour pattern. If he has been fast forwarding taking shower or sex then it automatically goes on that mode, now without his wishing it so. The film of course drafts a drastic scenario where his wife divorces him for another man, his son like him thriving on junk becomes grossly overweight, he himself given his food habits has a stroke and then diagnosed with cancer and while his dream of being the most successful architect comes true, it comes with a heavy price. As a culmination of a life of decadence, he is shown dying having learnt his lessons, albeit a little too late.

Almost in a bollywood style farce at the end , Michael gets a second chance to make amends - to his wife, children and life and play the "family comes first" ideal man which is a little cheezy. What is nice though is that it gives a similar sense of comfort to the audience, that they needn't take their lives to such drastic end, that they can learn their lessons and start being sensitive to their environment.

I don't know about the originality quotient of the film (heard its copied from "It's a Wonderful Life") yet in its own right, its interesting as an urban satire. While technology gives us the false sense of "control", it lulls our need to use our own judgement and can easily make us a prisoner of the predictable patterns of our own creation. Also it reaffirms faith in the cycle of good and bad and shows how utterly horrible it would be if eveything was "perfect" because THAT is very elusive.

In my personal scheme of things, the movie was a good comic reprieve from all assignments . As Morty, the angel says in the film:

..."because sometimes nice guys need a break" ;)

ChangeThis

I have been planning to speak about this link forever now. While I quite enjoy reading upon the subject of new media that alongside new technologies is rapidly metamorphosing the world that we live in, I find a lot of stuff either too tedious or technical.

ChangeThis in that respect is very refreshing. Acting as a springboard for new ideas, it provides the convenient format of a manifesto (as opposed to the dissertations that existed in the Stone Age ) in order to argue out a case.

Created by a team of five interns in 2004, "on a mission to spread important ideas and change minds", it carries manifestoes among others, by popular marketing/business writers as Seth Godin, Tom Peters, Malcolm Gladwell and Guy Kawasaki.

From blogging, Web 2:0, creativity, entreprenurship to self-improvement, youth marketing and environment- the gamut of issues that are discussed is just immense.Originally I had planned to review the two manifestoes that I recently read on Open Source marketing and on TalentMyth (Are Smart People Overrated?) but perhaps I will do that in subsequent posts.

For now, I think as the self-touted guardian priest of logic :) , I just feel glad to see a format that facilitates different thoughts, that states that if you do not agree to what is being said, then instead of fretting and fuming to be the victim of a partisan world, why not put together a case for yourself. "Stick to the testable and the logical and see if you can get your alternative point of view to spread". I quite like the simple sentence with which they sum up why a person may not like a certain manifesto:

"...you might be upset just because you disagree with the conclusions. But if the thought process is right, if the arguments are sound, if the facts are correct but bother you , perhaps the problem isn't with the manifesto - it may just be the discomfort people feel when challenged to change."

Always the last to know..

Ahem, am so completely embaressed having discovered being tagged first time ever, EXACTLY a month after!! As a rather drab post some zillion years back would indicate, I have been completely off the blogosphere. Look carefully and perhaps you may find cues for the absentia :)

I am thinking about • Reading Nietzsche's - On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense
I said • The converse about "muck" holds true as well : It starts getting used to you as go along
I want • To be able to tie my own saree (or wait never have to tie a saree again!)
I wish • I could format (sigh: been on my wish list for past 7 lives)
I hear • The sound of the copier
I wonder • Is it me or is it me
I regret • Not having had sex education (damn I shouldn't have pretended I understood all those jokes :) )
I can't • For the life of me figure out roads/routes
I am • 1% figment of my reality, rest of my imagination
I dance • Only when I am faced with "tragedy of mankind" ;)
I sing • After 8 in office, the song "Nowhere Man"
I need • To eat a well-made cheese omelette (ahem, hope relevant party doesen't miss the hint)
I cry • At the drop of a hat, a skullcap or a beret
I make • Long "to do" lists
I write • "Quagmirish" stuff
I confuse • Bodywash with shampoo post-work
I miss • Night-long therapeutic bitching sessions
I will • Attend a course on film-appreciation
I should try • To make ash-eshtyle excel for "Financial Management"

Speaking of excel sheets and "FM", let me pass on the tag to Ms. Aishwarya Rao

Dear Dan, Yours truly may have proved to be anything but a "stalwart", but can assure that it has been righfully passed to the one more deserving of that sobriquet :)

"Brilliant Dreams"

Since there seems little time these days for scouting independently on the web, perusing through links placed on community groups seems a convenient option. So, as I was on a similar amusement trip, I came across this fairly interesting article on "Twelve Famous Dreams - Creativity and famous discoveries from dreams". (Conspicuous by absence was John Keats ,"Kubla Khan", but I guess its debatable whether our guy was skunked or in a dream!)

The interesting part came when I reached the end of the article and realised that the story was a quasi-advertorial for the most unimaginable product - A Dream Pill!!

Since then, I have discovered they have a proper website and this is how it reads:

Brilliant Dreams is the #1 selling, scientifically backed dream aid. Based on FDA Approved natural extracts, Brilliant Dreams makes dreams clear and vivid, promotes lucid dreaming, and improves sleep & memory!
Think of it as a DRAMATIC BOOST to your DREAM PHASE every night!

Master Lucid Dreaming
Turn Sleep into Nightly Adventures
Improve Dream Recall and Memory
Induce Intense Erotic Dreams
Dramatically Boost Creativity and Inspiration
Apply Dream Interpretation for Personal Growth

In a typical lifetime we spend over six years dreaming. Don't waste that time!.. use it for creative inspiration, lucid dreaming, personal growth, pleasure, success conditioning, improved memory and more! You will wake feeling refreshed and energized with a clear recollection of your dreams

By Jove, the marketers do get creative by the day. I wish though, they soon introduce a pill to enhance day dreaming. Sometimes the "challenges" at workplace, demand a little "extra" than just natural talent :)