Finding Vivian Maier

Sometimes people may ask these questions to you regarding the non-official or part-time work which you are doing.

• Who is going to read it?
• Who is going to watch it?
• How can it make a difference?

The above questions does make one ponder, but some people do things which they feel like doing even though they are sure that it will not bring fame, money etc...

A Facebook status, a tweet or a blog post may seem to be worthless and merely a time waste but those small things in the long run do make a difference, same is the case with the photographs of unknown Vivian Maier who was recently discovered and stunned the photographic lovers all over the world. Finding Vivian Maier is a film which tracks the history of mysterious woman Vivian Maier. I wont say its a must watch documentary but definitely a good one.

The Hunt

Thomas Vinterberg's "The Hunt" is not an easy film to watch. The narration of the film is simple and straight like its title but it’s the furtive layers of storytelling which makes it one of the best films of 2013 and a contender for the Oscars.

The story is about the kindergarten worker who is wrongly accused of licentious actions with the children of kindergarten. "The Hunt" had some very uncomfortable questions for me, it seems simple but has a bunch of questions hunting you.

Alfred Hitchock is a master, he knows how to shoot a scene to bring the maximum effect to it. Hitchcock's "Wrong Man" distantly has a similar theme where a guy is wrongly accused of committing a crime, Hitchcock brings all the minute emotions of thrill, the viewer would have some default sympathy for Henry Fonda. But, “The Hunt” hardly brings the emotions of thrill but it efficaciously accumulates the emotions of compassion and the hard sense of feeling for the tragic events which had to be faced by Lucas played by Mads Mikkelsen.

Jim Emerson referring to Paul Thomas Anderson's film "The Master" wrote:

"Just because we notice something in a film doesn't mean it has to be intentional; the important thing is that it's there. It's the work we respond to, because that's all we have; we can never know the intentions behind it for certain -- and maybe the artist doesn't, either. That's the way humans are wired."

You may refer to this quote to the first line of this post where i said: "The Hunt" is not an easy film to watch

When I realized that it is a curse to be a middle class Indian

I do not look like this guy, it is just for illustration & page thumbnail

Over two decades ago, my parents and some family friends bought land on the outskirts of the city. The land remained untouched for years until a few years ago when numerous property developers showed interest in buying the land. We were curious as to why so many parties were interested in buying at the same time, but eventually, nothing happened. 

After a few months, the government announced one of the biggest construction projects in the state, and we realized why so many parties had expressed interest in buying our land. Due to our financial obligations and my unfinished engineering degree, we wanted to sell the land, but none of the parties who had approached us initially came forward to buy the land at the last minute.

When the government released the initial plan for the project, we discovered that our land would fall under the project, and the market value of the land was lost. We were disappointed, but we had no other choice but to accept the compensation rate that would be given by the government.

Later, we heard that the government had changed the plan, and some lands that were initially part of the project were no longer included. We made inquiries and found that our land was still part of the project area.

Why i write and what makes me write

I am a lazy guy, not even 2 out of 10 posts which i want to write make into my blog, but i do get some energy and responsibility to blog once in a while and the credit goes to Arun Shourie.

Just because "The Only Fatherland" of these theoreticians has collapsed, just because that collapse has taken the theory down with it does not mean that they have been rendered harmless. Their claims are hollowed, they have nothing to say, but they still control large parts of our academia and a very large part of media, certainly the media in English. Therefore, at every opportunity they must be confronted with what has become known about the regimes they had held up to us as exemplars. They must be confronted with and requested to explain what they were writing till just six years ago. The lie they repeat should not be shrugged off just because it is the same old lie: it must be nailed with evidence - each time, and as many times as it is repeated. As must every half-truth by which they seek to once again inveigle us into looking away.
~ Eminent Historians

Forget Greek, what about the Indian Tragedy?

“It’s the real Greek Tragedy” claimed my Left-Liberal friend after hearing the Greece Election Results. The phrase “The Greek Tragedy” is generously used by our Indian journalists and I am quite sure that 9 out of 10 journalists using the phrase have no idea what that actually means. With my limited knowledge of Economics and very little knowledge of Greek Mythology, I surprisingly find very less similarities of the Greece Economic Crisis and the ‘The Greek Tragedy’.

Its  one of my guilty pleasures to include Nietzsche whenever and wherever I can, in this case – I drag Nietzsche and elevate him to a different level, many may feel that it is quite unnecessary, but guilty pleasures hardly take care of others opinions.

“But, at this juncture, when the will is most imperiled, art approaches, as a redeeming and healing enchantress; she alone may transform these horrible reflections on the terror and absurdity of existence into representations with which man may live. These are the representation of the sublime as the artistic conquest of the awful, and of the comic as the artistic release from the nausea of the absurd. The satyric chorus of the dithyramb is the saving device of Greek art."

The Curious case of Censorship

I take no responsibility whatsoever for any so called obnoxious feelings which may arise while reading this post. 18+ only. Reading Blogs is injurious to Cerebrum.

The Censor B***d has always been a puzzle to me for its acts, for filmmakers it’s a devil and for viewers it’s a soft target. Passion of a filmmaker can only be understood by filmmakers, the infatuation for movies can only be explained by movie-buffs and the burden of social responsibility for making our society cleaner and evil-free can only be understood by them.

Let’s go back into History. Freedom of Expression was a risky business for all the governments and Indira Gandhi was petrified by it, suppressing the freedom of Expression by Govt is nothing new but the suppression of it by institutions is the most dangerous practice. The inception of such ideas with respect to our country points to our Desi Comrades – The curriculum in history text books is the best example, where Karl Marx is suffocated in 42 lines and their own Swami Vivekananda is liberated in 2 lines.

Pran, Kishore Kumar etc… were some celebrities who verbally opposed the emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi and the result of it is the discrimination and suppression of speech adopted by the govt. A song in which he praises Vajpayee, Morarji Desai, Advani and Jayaprakash Narayan was banned. In those days, Doordarshan was the only channel and the government planned to keep the common man in their homes by telecasting the film ‘Bobby’ but the people found the speeches of Jayaprakash Narayan more captivating. Let’s get back to the Censor B***d.

"మానవ వలయాలు"

మానవ సంభంధాలు విష వలయాలు,
నీటి బుడగ అంటారు కాని జీవితపు అంతాలు అవి,
ఎక్కడో  వర్షించే మేఘం ఓ నీటి బిందువైతే,
వేల బిందువుల కలయిక ఓ నీటి ప్రవాహమై ముంచెత్తుతుంది.

ఓ ఎడారిలోని ఇసుకరేణువు నీవై ఈ ప్రపంచంలో అడుగిడి,
అనంత రేణువుల్లో అర్థంకాని అంతుబట్టని ఓరాయివిమాత్రమే,
నీ ప్రక్కనున్న ఇసుక రాళ్ళతో పోల్చుకోని తేడాతెలియక తికమక పడతావు,
ఏముంది తేడా, నీలాంటి మరో రాయితో కలిసిన జీవనయానం నీది.

ఆది అంతం లేని ఈ ప్రపంచ పోకడలో పొంతన లేని కోరికలతో,
తీరని ఆశలతో తీర్చలేని భాధలు తనివితీరా అనుభవిస్తూ,
కర్మ అని సర్దుకుని కాసేపు, విధిని వెక్కిరించి కాసేపు, నీ తప్పేంలేదని నవ్వుకుంటావు,
అద్దంలో కనపడేది నీ మొహమే, కాదా? నీ పరిస్థితికి అద్దం నీ మొహమే, కాదా?

అన్నింటికి భాద్యుడివి నువ్వు నీలాంటి నీవాళ్ళు,
నువ్వు నీవాళ్ళు ఏర్పరుచుకున్న విషవలయాలు,
అవే మానవ వలయాలు, ఆశల విలయాలు, ఆగని ప్రళయాలు!!


-- మీ సాయి కార్తీక్

Do not CRY for Steve Jobs

I am not against people who speak ill of the dead, every human has the right to speak ill of the dead. The fearless independent magazine Tehelka has a mind-blowing article on Steve Jobs, after his death. As always Tehelka has produced a gem of an article and I don’t have enough time to churn nectar from that brilliant article, I just give a tagline to it - #iSuck

Look at the above heartbreaking picture, don’t you feel ashamed if you are one of the tasteless people who cried for Steve Jobs or one of the brainless tweeters who tweeted with the hash tag #iSad or one of pseudo geeks who feel that Steve Jobs was a revolutionary. The picture may break your heart into infinite pieces and makes you repent for the mistake you have committed which is crying for Steve jobs for his death.

We have never shown solidarity, sympathy and pity to all these people who are dying every day. Let me suggest some ablutions which will help you in cleansing your sins.

Tollywoodization

It was during those days, when single screen theaters were blushing with every new release. I bunked the NDA exam, yes NDA (National Defence Academy entrance exam) and decided to watch a film, i went to 'Sandhya' theater at RTC Cross Roads to watch 'Venky'. I was shocked to see the rush for tickets and was compelled to watch a ******* patriotic film in 'Sapthagiri'. I primarily remember this incident for couple of reasons.
1- For the first time in my life, i decided to bunk the exam and watch a film.
2- I had a passion to join in Armed Forces but even then i bunked the exam due to small intermediate trauma.

The rise of multiplexes, a polished face for our Hi-Tech cosmopolitan hyderabad. There was a fear that the days of single screens are numbered and the popular telugu cinema is gonna die, i was thrilled when i heard such discussions for my own reasons. Many friends did not miss their chance to take a sarcastic dig a UNpopular films, they said "Time has come for telugu film-goers to carry a torchlight when they enter the multiplex, as its hard to see critically acclaimed films"

Multiplexes did have an impact, many film lovers now have the chance to watch hollywood films on the same day of release as that of USA, animated movies made a positive impression, unearthed genres were introduced etc...,. but apart there are some other changes like buying a 5 rupees samosa for 30 rupees, boys are now more tormented with their girl friends as the size of popcorn buckets(yes, now we call buckets) are increased from some size to XXL or king size or whatever, seriously why do u need a popcorn while watching a film?. Now telugu families who visit multiplexes talk only in english with their kids even though they are well versed in telugu. The new gen  kids are now addicted to junk food and parents don't mind spending money even though its damn costly, as it is multiplex culture.

With the rise of internet users and multiplex culture, we have so called film critics and the mushroom growth of telugu websites on telugu cinema which constantly give us gyan and provide some masala stuff in parallel. The way in which fans of one hero abuse the other hero is a very common is social networking sites, they compare the hero introductory scenes, dialogues, etc.,. these make me laugh and i very much acknowledge the humor produced from these senseless altercations even though it is not intentional. Sometimes, the greatness of a film is measured by the highest amount spent for a black ticket on the first day.

So, how many film critics do we have? many of you might come out with a combined number of tata sumos used by B.Gopal and V.V.Vinayak in their films -- but i am asking for film critics who understands the art of film making, i would say the number would be less than the number of heroines in Telugu Film Industry who can speak normal telugu if not good telugu. There is a new trend emerging, its the business of film ratings. A good film may get a good rating from these popular websites, but there is not guarantee that a bad film will get a bad rating, it all depends on the ______, you know what i am talking about, you can fill the blank.

What do you think of a guy who comes with newspaper pieces stuffed in his pockets and throws them on the multiplex screen when the hero is introduced in the film? I always pondered about the excitement of such fans,   how can these guys go crazy and dance before cinema theaters?, why do they spend so much money for cut-outs of their film heros?, the huge garlands for those cut-outs? and what not. I never felt like doing these things, i do not shout or whistle in the theater, is this a defect in me? lack of tollywood harmones? Anyway, i do have my own idiosyncrasies, for example - Jessie wore 15 beautiful sarees in 'Ye Maya Chesave'.

Friedrich Nietzsche on Communism/Socialism

A man’s political inclination is based on a series of experiences and expectations from the society and the idea of political thought is an instant reaction from the brain to counter/support the arguments made on the particular situation. A man’s political philosophy cannot be limited to his personal good but it has to be extended to a society in which he has his own goals to achieve and make a political statement which has its implications beyond his reach and would impact other generation. The Next–Gen impact is not accidental to the political philosophy, but a conscious decision and decisive perception of the man who intends to spread it irrespective of time and geography.

The question of ‘morals and politics’, ‘ethics and politics’, ‘greed and politics’, ‘humanity and politics’, ‘Development and politics’ and ‘Barmecidal and Politics’ are sophomoric arguments in context of active players. Politics is almost a necessity of mankind. The power of Power in the political arena is underrated; it is the driving force behind frenzy political activity. Politics is a path for the quest for power and man’s ‘Will to Power’ should not be ignored in this process.

An anarchist’s propriety should be scrutinized in a society and his scorn for politics cannot be just based on his claims of evil in politics. The sacred texts, mythology and society has very much proven that anarchism is no less evil that bad politics but a greater evil than shoddy politics. Ayn Rand has edifying views about anarchism ….

“Anarchy, as a political concept, is a naive floating abstraction. A society without an organized government would be at the mercy of the first criminal who came along and who would precipitate it into the chaos of gang warfare. But the possibility of human immorality is not the only objection to anarchy, even a society whose every member was fully rational and faultlessly moral, could not function in a state of anarchy, it is the need of objective laws and of an arbiter for honest disagreements among men that necessitates the establishment of a government. “[1]

In a democracy and particularly in a developing country, the debate of the role of state is vehemently argued by Left, Right and Centre. The left has always presented its simple solution which goes smooth with its ideology, the Centre as always has never made a their stand clear and the Right has its own dilemma in having a rigid opinion about the role of state in the life of an individual and in society. Is it politically possible for an Authoritarian state with limited control? Can such a government exist in a democracy? Is it practically possible to accommodate such a scenario? Does it pass political Rectitude?

Friedrich Nietzsche was not in favor of Democracy. He equates Democracy with Christianity “The democratic movement is the heir to Christianity” [2] and waylays Socrates and Plato by asking , “How could the most beautiful growth of antiquity, Plato, contract such a disease? Did the wicked Socrates corrupt him after all? Could Socrates have been the corrupter of youth after all? And did he deserve his hemlock?” [3]

Sigmund Freud’s praise for Nietzsche is obvious in its recognition of Nietzsche’s philosophical finesse and Freud’s theories have often exposed the Marxist grotesqueness. Sigmund Freud declared that Nietzsche is “a philosopher whose guesses and intuitions often agree in the most astonishing way with the laborious findings of psychoanalysis.” I reference Sigmund Freud to make a strong base to support Nietzsche’s Political Philosophy which is often criticized for the lack of political-ness in it and it’s often said that Friedrich Nietzsche’s works do not reflect the true politics and it’s a misadventure, but his political philosophy has made me feel the other way and I am glad to say that he was one of best political philosopher and an underrated one.

It’s just not literary romanticism or a political manifestation or an antipathy towards a political class, it’s a view of an individual with his bionic grasp of society and man as it pivotal element in shaping the future of the society. As always, man is a superman – his strong belief that man is something has to be surpassed is not rhetoric, but an actual postulation of the animal instinct which is hidden deep inside a man.

“‘Why so hard?’ the kitchen coal once said to the diamond. ‘After all, are we not close kin?’
Why so soft? O my brothers, thus I ask you: are you not after all my brothers?” [4]

Friedrich Nietzsche on Communism/Socialism:- 

“When the exceptional man handles the mediocre man with more delicate fingers than he applies to himself or to his equals, this is not merely kindness of heart—it is simply his duty… . Whom do I hate most heartily among the rabbles of today? The rabble of Socialists, the apostles to the Chandala, who undermine the workingman’s instincts, his pleasure, his feeling of contentment with his petty existence—who make him envious and teach him revenge… . Wrong never lies in unequal rights; it lies in the assertion of “equal” rights… . What is bad? But I have already answered: all that proceeds from weakness, from envy, from revenge. The anarchist and the Christian have the same ancestry… .”[5]

“A question of power, not justice. For men who always consider the higher usefulness of a matter, socialism, if it really is the uprising against their oppressors of people oppressed and kept down for thousands of years, poses no problem of justice (with the ludicrous, weak question: “How far should one yield to its demands?”), but only a problem of power ( “To what extent can one use its demands?”). So it is like a natural power-steam, for example-which is either forced by man, as a god of machines, into his service, or, when there are mistakes in the machine (that is, errors of human calculation in its construction), wrecks itself and the human with it. To solve that question of power, one must know how strong socialism is, and in which of its modifications it can still be used as a mighty lever within the current political power game; in some circumstances one would even have to do everything possible to strengthen it. With every great force (even the most dangerous), humanity must think how to make it into a tool of its own intentions.

Socialism gains a right only when the two powers, the representatives of the old and new, seem to have come to war, but then both parties prudently calculate how they may preserve themselves to best advantage, and this results in their desire for a treaty. No justice without a treaty. Until now, however, there has been neither war in the indicated territory, nor treaties, and thus no rights, and no “ought” either.”[6]     .

“Socialism in respect to its means. Socialism is the visionary younger brother of an almost decrepit despotism, whose heir it wants to be. Thus its efforts are reactionary in the deepest sense. For it desires a wealth of executive power, as only despotism had it; indeed, it outdoes everything in the past by striving for the downright destruction of the individual, which it sees as an unjustified luxury of nature, and which it intends to improve into an expedient organ of the community. Socialism crops up in the vicinity of all excessive displays of power because of its relation to it, like the typical old socialist Plato, at the court of the Sicilian tyrant;11 it desires (and in certain circumstances, furthers) the Caesarean power state of this century, because, as we said, it would like to be its heir. But even this inheritance would not suffice for its purposes; it needs the most submissive subjugation of all citizens to the absolute state, the like of which has never existed. And since it cannot even count any longer on the old religious piety towards the state, having rather always to work automatically to eliminate piety (because it works on the elimination of all existing states), it can only hope to exist here and there for short periods of time by means of the most extreme terrorism. Therefore, it secretly prepares for reigns of terror, and drives the word “justice” like a nail into the heads of the semi-educated masses, to rob them completely of their reason (after this reason has already suffered a great deal from its semieducation), and to give them a good conscience for the evil game that they are supposed to play. Socialism can serve as a rather brutal and forceful way to teach the danger of all accumulations of state power, and to that extent instill one with distrust of the state itself. When its rough voice chimes in with the battle cry “As much state as possible,” it will at first make the cry noisier than ever; but soon the opposite cry will be heard with strength the greater: ‘As little state as possible.’”[7]


“It is a lie! Creators were they who created peoples, and hung a faith and a love over them: thus they served life. Destroyers, are they who lay snares for many, and call it the state: they hang a sword and a hundred cravings over them. Where there is still a people, there the state is not understood, but hated as the evil eye, and as sin against laws and customs. This sign I give unto you: every people speaketh its language of good and evil: this its neighbour understandeth not. Its language hath it devised for itself in laws and customs. But the state lieth in all languages of good and evil; and whatever it saith it lieth; and whatever it hath it hath stolen. False is everything in it; with stolen teeth it biteth, the biting one. False are even its bowels.”[8]

“As little State as possible! All political and economic matters are not of such great value that they ought to be dealt with by the most talented minds: such a waste of intellect is at bottom worse than any state of distress. These matters are and ever will be the province of smaller minds and others than the smaller minds should not be at the service of this workshop: it would be better to let the machinery work itself to pieces again! Yet as matters stand at the present time when not only do all people believe that they must know all about it day by day but wish likewise to be always busy about it and in so doing neglect their own work. it is a great and ridiculous mistake. The price that has to be paid for the “public safety “is far too high and what is maddest of all we effect the very opposite of “public safety” a fact which our own dear century has undertaken to prove as if this had never been proved before! To make society secure against thieves and fire and to render it thoroughly fit for all kinds of trade and traffic and to transform the State in a good and evil sense into a kind of Providence—these aims are low mediocre and not by any means indispensable; and we should not seek to attain them by the aid of the highest means and instruments which exist—means which we should reserve precisely for our highest and rarest aims! Our age, however much it may chatter about economy is in fact wasteful: it wastes spirit the most precious thing of all.”[9]

“The stupidity — at bottom, the degeneration of instinct, which is today the cause of all stupidities — is that there is a labor question at all. Certain things one does not question: that is the first imperative of instinct. I simply cannot see what one proposes to do with the European worker now that one has made a question of him. He is far too well off not to ask for more and more, not to ask more immodestly. In the end, he has numbers on his side. The hope is gone forever that a modest and self-sufficient kind of man, a Chinese type, might here develop as a class: and there would have been reason in that, it would almost have been a necessity. But what was done? Everything to nip in the bud even the preconditions for this: the instincts by virtue of which the worker becomes possible as a class, possible in his own eyes, have been destroyed through and through with the most irresponsible thoughtlessness. The worker was qualified for military service, granted the right to organize and to vote: is it any wonder that the worker today experiences his own existence as distressing — morally speaking, as an injustice? But what is wanted? I ask once more. If one wants an end, one must also want the means: if one wants slaves, then one is a fool if one educates them to be masters.” [10]

References:
1. Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand.
2. Beyond Good and Evil
3. Twilight of the Idols
4. Thus Spoke Zarathustra
5. The Antichrist
6. Human, All Too Human
7. Human, All Too Human
8. Thus Spoke Zarathustra
9. The Dawn
10. Twilight of the Idols

Most of the works of Friedrich Nietzsche are in Public Domain.

Happy Women's Day

Deepa Mehta’s film ‘WATER’ starts with the mention of text from the ‘Manusmriti’ which is slightly edited.

By violating her duty towards her husband, a wife is disgraced in this world, after death she enters the womb of a jackal, and is tormented by diseases of her sin.

Today on the ‘Women’s Day’ I had an informal chat with an upcoming Marxist-Feminist activist. In the small little chat she was expressing her frustration against Indian culture as she felt that it is unfair to women and her descent disapproval of Hinduism in context of women could not be ignored by me.

Manusmriti was written in 200 BC when people preferred to count the years backwards and when many civilizations around the world weren’t even born. The intriguing part of our great Indian feminists is their strict reference to the negatives of Manusmriti towards women and constantly trying to snub the good parts of Manusmriti towards women.

For decades Women under the name of Feminism have deceived their real cause for emancipation and will continue to do it. Even philosophers have been consciously misinterpreted to suit the assertive statements of Feminists. Friedrich Nietzsche, the great 19th century philosopher, who still attracts the 21st century folks, was also misinterpreted for his views on women. The problem with Nietzsche’s philosophy is his blunt frankness which makes people hard to comprehend the real meaning behind his thoughts on women, his references towards women are often funny, sarcastic and also stunning.

Nietzsche in his masterpiece ‘Beyond Good and Evil’ starts with

Suppose that truth is a woman – and why not? Aren’t there reasons for suspecting that all philosophers, to the extent that they have been dogmatists, have not really understood women? That the grotesque seriousness of their approach towards the truth and the clumsy advances they have made so far are unsuitable ways of pressing their suit with a woman? What is certain is that she has spurned them – leaving dogmatism of all types standing sad and discouraged.

It can be quite possible that the hatred towards Nietzsche by Marxists-Feminists is due his love and admiration for Manu Smrithi and Upanishads.

Ayn Rand, perhaps one of the rare species of women which many of our feminists try to bash for her Anti-Feminist views has been deliberately misunderstood as the time in which she gained popularity for her works coincided with the feminist uprising. She was verbally attacked by feminists in reference to her novel ‘The Fountainhead’ where Dominique Francon was raped(According to our great Feminists) and her views on a women sitting in the White House. Strangely, the same feminists who are critique of Ayn Rand’s works do not respond when referred to works of Nobel laureate ‘Rabindranth Tagore'.

The imprudent philosophy called Marxism was not inclined to Feminism in the early stages, but later as time passed and the evil of Marxism has spread to considerable parts of this globe it evolved to be a manufacturing factory of Women-less souls. Women, who felt that their gender has been strangled by Men got infatuated to the baseless theory of ‘Equality’ by Karl Marx and thus led to the destruction of the real causes.

Recently a small incident narrated by a friend just refreshed my gray cells, he told the religious conversions happening in his village.

Women are asked to ditch their present religion and are advised to get converted as their religion provides freedom to women, unlike the other religion where women are subjected to harassment for centuries and does not allow modernity in women’s life.

Targetting women for religious conversion is a clever idea and can be a good case study for Harvard University. Coming to the point, women has been seen as a inferior in the religion which the above conversionist was referring but does one know about the harassements and humiliation which women faced in other religions?. The amount of freedom which Hinduism offers to living being cannot be equated to any religion and the core essence of Hindusim is the development of an individual. Like the words ‘Secularism’ and ‘Liberalism’ even the word ‘Modernity’ is seriously molested. What is modernity? Just a FCUK T-Shirt or a Levis Jeans or a Fastrack Sunglass or visiting 21+ Pubs define the modernity of Indian women?

On this women’s day I spotted a interesting situation, the female colleagues in our office celebrated Women’s Day-- female colleagues who usually wear Saris and chudidhars for office came in Jeans and who usally wear jeans and other western outfits came in Saris, this is a perfect snapshot of Feminism.

I don’t recommend Manusmriti, I don’t stop anyone from being converted to a different religion, I am not against women wearing any outfits, if men can enjoy alcohol so can women and I don’t force my opinion on others. Just one question to all women- What did you achieve in the name of ‘Feminism’.

Anyway. Happy Women’s Day. Even though, it doesn’t make any sense to me.

One year in Chennai

On 22nd December 2009, i was about to leave to Chennai in the 2 tier AC of Charminar Express, it was Hyderabad Winter and we still preferred to go by AC coach, as the money would be reimbursed by the company. I had very minute excitement in crossing the borders of Telugu land.

Chennai Central:

Train reached its destination, my friend and i will be escorted to the outskirts of Chennai with the help of my friend's friend. I came out of Chennai Central and took a good look at the Chennai Central railway station, the telugu films of pre-1990 era came into my mind, as Madras was the base for telugu films too.

I was struggling to carry my luggage, somehow reached 'Park Town' station, got into the local train, got down at 'Thiruvanmiyur' railway station. I was still struggling to carry my luggage, suddenly from no where there were 4 auto drivers obstructing us from moving forward, my friend's friend was saying 'Venda' .. 'Venda' .. to them, yes 'Venda' is my first tamil word. At last with the help of some good bargaining tactics a MoU was struck between the auto driver and my friend's friend. We got down at Sholinganallur, I know that non-tamil guys find the name 'Sholinganallur' as a tongue twister, my friend's friend made it easy by breaking the word into his own etymology. He said "Its simple yaar, first pronounce 'Shoe'.. then 'Linga'…then 'Nellore', now combine them and pronounce it." My friend was quick and was able to pronounce it at the first attempt and it took 3 attempts for me to get it right.

After couple of days we completed the joining formalities, staying as a Paying Guest in a 3 bedroom apartment and found a hotel which serves Tiffin’s located at Sholinganallur junction.

Dosa:

I ordered a Dosa, the Dosa was big in length, chutney was served and the hotel worker was about to pour hot sambar on the dosa, I reacted quickly and said NO, he gave back a serious look as though I have committed Blasphemy, and when I was reluctantly asking him for more chutney to complete my dosa and he was reluctantly serving chutney.

FYI: Telugu guys eat a lot of Chutney

Summer:

There are 3 seasons in Chennai, I don’t know about the rest of Tamil Nadu but for a Hyderabadi guy like me, the seasons are Hot, Hotter and Hottest. The January climate of Chennai was making me sweat a lot and I was already missing the Hyderabadi Winter. At first it was horrible for me, later I wasn’t complaining much and after that I got used to it.

I was now moderately adjusted to Chennai, one thing I could find is that there isn’t any Hanuman and Vishnu temples, this observation compelled me to read the history of Aryan-Dravidian divide. Everyone was talking about Saravana stores and I with my roommates decided to visit the Saravana stores at T.Nagar. I was shocked to see the rush in Saravana stores, I could only think of suffocation and nothing else until I left the Saravana stores. I admire people who shop for the whole day in Saravana stores. On my way back I find a Vishnu and Shiva temple.

Note: Scientifically it’s proven that there is no Aryan-Dravidian divide.

Cinema:

Maayajaal was the nearest Cinema Theater for us, and it is the biggest multiplex in India, I wouldn’t comment about the interiors of Maayajaal even though it’s owned by a political family. One thing which I will remember forever is the day when I watched ‘Ye Maaya Chesave’ in the second row from the screen in Maayajaal.

Marina Beach:

If you have read Chetan bhagat’s ‘Two States’ then you would know the Marina Beach, the book has elevated my expectations about the beach as Ananya Swaminathan refers to it as the biggest beach, but I was totally disappointed when I visited the Marina Beach due to the crowd and the beach was clearly struggling to adjust with the pollution.It has been one year and I am still living in Chennai without much complaints. Lets see how the future is gonna be.

Marina Beach

Trivia: I was in Chennai when I saw Sachin Tendulkar scoring 200* agsinst South Africa.

Update: I miss Chennai :(

Krishna doesn't share food!

One of my colleague has a complaint on me, she repeatedly used to say that 'You have a bad habit of not sharing food with your collegues and friends'. I was a bit surprised with that statement, she was partially correct, i dont share food but its not true with all the food items which i eat, i would readily grant the whole plate if it is made from Dondakaya or Bendakaya.

So my colleague tells this to her friend and her friend asks "Is Krishna the only offspring?" and she was spot on, and what made her ask this question (conclusion?) . The theory which she told is that the Only son/daughter are not used to sharing food in their childhood as they dont have any brothers or sisters to share. May be she is right but i would not agree to such an allegation because i do share food with others. So what made my colleague to make such a statement? She has seen me couple of times for not allowing my friends to share my  Ice-Cream and thus she had made a opinion on me.

I still dont get how others share their Ice-Creams and Chocolates. If i share my ice-creams or choclocates i feel that i havent eaten it at all. I admire people who share their Ice-Creams and Chocolates with their friends and colleagues.

3 years down

Its been 3 years … I still remember the day, around 2000 candidates appeared for the first round to get selected into this IT company which was held in my college itself, somehow cleared the first round, and somehow cleared the Technical Round where the interviewer was asking random questions from UNIX, Operating Systems, C, JAVA, Database etc.. , I really don’t know what I was answering …the subject mentioned were part of my Computer Engineering Curriculum but as you know… who gives a damn about studies when you are swimming in the pool of engineering life?.. After the technical round I was allowed to enter the HR round… Krishna Rao Pasupuleti with all the wisdom which he gained by his engineering days FAKES almost every reply to the questions asked by HR. I came out of the room which was like an oven for me as the Q and A with the HR were deciding my career; it was around 10:30 pm ….Yet to have my dinner, dragged myself into the cafeteria, had some food and was roaming in my college campus, security guards warned me not to roam in the campus as even snakes talk a walk at that time. I went to the Ganesh Temple which was recently built and I was thinking “What IF I screw this one too? ..It would be a HATTRICK..3 in a row” …. Slept on the marble floor of the temple till 2:30 am and something woke me up… results are announced at 3:00 am. I am selected to work with this IT giant.

--------Fast forward---------

My Engineering is completed. The joyful days are over.

Here comes the uninvited guest Recession, some call it as the worst financial crisis after the great depression. Thanks to the U.S.A and its clients, the Indian IT Industry receives a Mohammed Ali punch. We were totally bewildered … I didn't tell you that we are yet to hear about an another IT company which is going to make news …yes …the SATYAM Scam. Suddenly the Software Industry which is full of shine to outsiders now seems to be a black hole to many. Guys like me who have no other choice other than to join the company and earn bucks to fill the stomachs are in –(Cloud 9). Everyday I was asking the same question ‘What is my future? Why the hell did I choose Computer Engineering?’…

A confession (not exactly a confession..) tasted C2H5OH and Nicotine for the first time.


-----Days get passed--------

By the way…i still have the same passion, love, craze for movies which I had in my engineering days...in fact my love for movies multiplied, i was literally watching 3 movies every day...let's call them as Morning, Matinee and Second Shows. Now ORKUT is my Ex-lover, Dating FACEBOOK & flirting with TWITTER. After flirting with TWITTER I felt that it was not for me and left it. Movies, Movies and Movies are my world, now almost officially movies are my life. Middle class life is not an easy one, now I have to search for a job till I get a call from my company. Attended 15 interviews to find a job in BPO filed, there were 2 things common in all the 15 interviews which I attended, 1) I was rejected in all the interviews. 2) I was rejected in Voice/Accent round . The BPO trials were a learning experience for me…It didn’t make me improve my English language but it made me feel that I would never try to improve my English…come what may.

Being a movie-buff I read a lot about news related to films. Never liked the Telugu Cinema websites for various reasons…I accidentally find a place where all the film lovers meet … it www.passionforcinema.com.. It took me 4 articles to be an author at PFC, came to know about OZ, his real name is Pankaj (was very much impressed by his blog, which is not active now), and WB, real name is Ranga (Used to call me from Australia just to talk with me on Telugu films) and had a lot of fun at PFC-Club. To be frank I was a very bad writer and it is very much reflected in articles which I wrote. Journey with PFC was good and there was break to this journey to some reasons which I don’t want to disclose here. In the mean time I used to meet Satish Kasetty garu, talking with him increased my knowledge on films, his views on films were a bit different from mine, met some Assistant Directors, Editors, writers who live in Krishna Nagar, these guys are very hard working people, Shiva is one of them, he took me into Annapoorna Studios, it was my first time. I hope Shiva gets a break as a director very soon…. Ram Gopal Varma and Aamir Khan were actively blogging. Aamir was talking about some dog and Ram Gopal Varma says that we all are dogs.

26/11 happened. Ram Gopal Varma is seen in Taj and Vilas Rao is fired by Madamji, etc.. etc… we never learned from our mistakes. Indian Journalists and Media were practicing true spirit of journalism as always. The largest democracy in the world goes to polls and I am witnessing the whole tamasha on TV. Chiranjeevi enters politics, Chandra Babu brings Jr.NTR and Balayya for the TDP campaigns, YSR brings Supers Star Krishna and Krishna tries to bring Mahesh Babu. Mahesh Babu says ‘I don’t know the difference between MP and a MLA’. YSR is back to power, I was preparing myself to my state to be renamed to ‘Rajiv Pradesh’ the media said Singh is King (really?). Rahul Gandhi is close to 40 but media still says that he is young, Sachin is 36 and the media says that he is old.

-----Days get passed--------

I am back on twitter, deleted the only tweet and posted my first tweet ‘Back to Twitter’, the special journey has started, now Twitter is my new crush, met a lot of interesting people .. Celebrities on twitter were growing like mushrooms, met a lot of hyderabadis and attended the Tweetup meets which were held on the weekends. Good things for me is that I found few movie-buffs like me, even though i met many people through i would like to mention Vemana and Hemanth as we used to meet regularly and they were film lovers like me, I liked their passion for films, Hemanth occasionally used to talk about the last days which he is spending in SATYAM, Vemana is tech geek and movie-buff like me, he doesnt like Woody Allen though… Now Vemana, Hemanth and I planned to do something which was related to movies….nothing concrete was happening due to some reasons… I am asked by my company to report at Chennai for training.

End of Part 1.

The Poster

Roughly its been around 5 years, i was waiting for the bus at the Narayanaguda Bus Stop.Five years back almost every evening (except Sunday) i used to wait to catch a bus and somehow try to enter into the overcrowded buses.After a long gap i am waiting at the Narayaguda Bus Stop,it was nostalgic even though i never enjoyed my Intermediate Life.

I am waiting at the bus stop,taking few to and fro steps,then i turn back and find a film poster of "Adavi Manushulu Andala Kanyalu" literal English translation gives (Forest people and beautiful women). I looked at the poster,turned away and was waiting for the bus...

It was 8:30 pm of the Friday evening and everyone is eagerly waiting to get back to their houses.I suddenly noticed a thing,every guy who is passing me was looking at the poster. Now my brain which doesn't have any useful work to do comes with a brilliant idea,i decided to count the number of people who look at the poster out of 10 people who pass me.I stood near the poster and took a pic (The one which you have seen ...). Out of the first 10 people 8 of them look at the poster, remaining two were a 70 year old man and a 10+ kid.Second round of counting leads to this result,10 out of 10 people look at the poster and in the third round of counting 9 people look at the poster.

You might be wondering what the heck? shouldn't people look at the poster? .... Its obvious that everyone's eyes will get attracted to this poster for whatever reasons.. Actually i was observing people who are looking at it with a different angle and the reactions of some people ...

• Three construction workers stare at this poster for 10 minutes and decided to go the second show and they weren't shy to look at the poster and were making some comments which i would skip here...
• A 25+ yrs guy comes and looks at the poster and turns away, he looks at me and then he turns to his right to wait for the bus.. after 2 minutes he turns back and looks at the poster,he turns away and is waiting for the bus... again he turns back .... this continued for 4 times.
• A man who is around 45 comes to the bus stop and looks at the poster, he is angry, he talks to himself, i can sense his frustration.
• Another man who is around 45 looks at the poster and abruptly says to me "This is how youth are spoiled, why do they stick such posters in public places?"
• A group of intermediate guys came to the bus stop and looked at it, each of them was trying to look at the poster without the knowledge of the other, this continued for 5 minutes.
• A family came to bus the bus stop,the husband looked at the poster and then turned his eyes away from it,even his wife accidentally looked at the poster and his kid who was around 10 years was looking at the poster and was trying to tear the poster,his father call his son and demands "Don't move,stay here". Now the kid asks his mother "What is the name written on the poster?" .. his mother asks him to shut up his mouth ...
• A boy and a girl who are around 25yrs came to the stop, the guy looks at the poster and after a second he turns his eyes away, the guy wants to look at the poster but he is not free as he is thinking of his girl friend (presumably), he somehow looks at the poster for 3 times with great difficulty without the knowledge of his girl friend.
• Two guys who look like local young gunda's came to the bus stop and started talking about the film poster.One guy compared it with the previous films which he has seen and spelled some obnoxious statements, the second guy takes it as a prestige issue and talks much more about the other films and the discussion between them leads to the heroines of Tollywood.
• There is a footpath tailor near the bus stop, he talks about the people who look at the posters attached on the bus stop walls with his friend, he curses everyone who stops and looks at the poster, "Saley sab log yeha kade rehte hain..aur postera ko dekthe hain..."

The whole 40 minutes was some sought of psychoanalysis and character reading , on how people of different ages think of a particular thing.Actually it was some fun and good information for me.By the way i did miss many buses for my silly research.

--Everyone who read this post will be dying to ask "Why did you look at the poster? etc.. etc.."

--I accidentally looked at the poster, i felt that the woman in the poster was 'Angelina Jolie', so i looked at the poster for the second time and confirmed myself that it wasn't Angelina Jolie, again looked at the poster to find the name of the film and at last found the name "Adavi Manushulu Andala Kanyalu"

CHENNAI ......

My favorite