Naadodi

Even gods get back spasms

2010-05-09T18:43:00.002-04:00

The missus and I went to see Mark Knopfler. I'd been gushing about the concert to her for a while now. Kogi Kaishakunin had rounded up tickets for a few of us last year. However, due to a pressing engagement (something about riding a white mare in the footsteps of dawn) KK was quite unable to make it. The others were basically lazy bums.

Thus it came to pass that it was just the missus and I in a row of empty seats. The day had started pretty miserably for me (I was in my car 6 hours before I got to work and then another hour and a half's drive before I got home). The traffic demons were clearly in the mood for mischief. So, we finally got to the theater a little late, for the last two songs of the opening band, Pieta Brown and a dude in a white cowboy hat. It was just a 2 person show. Pieta on vocals and guitar and cowboy dude on guitar. It was quite pleasant actually, kinda bluesy.

Then, of course, it was time for the main show. The Man himself. And he was sitting on a chair this time. Turns out he had a back spasm of some sort. Couldn't really bend or move. Having had some experience in the area, I know how much that sucks. But, except for the fact that someone had to help him with the guitars and off the stage, you couldn't tell. It was all there. The chilled out guitaring, the Sultans of Swing, the Romeo and Juliet, the Coyote, the Brothers in Arms, the So Far Away, the Sailing to Philadelphia, Telegraph Road, and finished up quite nicely with Piper to the End. The cool thing about Knopfler is that he doesn't make a big deal about his old or his new music, like certain artists. There's no 'ohh, the audience want me to play So Far Away again? I've grown so much since then'. Oh no, he plays it, everyone sings along, has fun and that's that.

I have lost track of the number of times I have said it, and will say it in the future too. The guy is way too cool. Effortless mastery, relaxed presence and spectacular skill. Quite predictably, I have been on a youtube binge of knopfler. The thing is, the guy hasn't lost a bit of his skill. Just seems to keep going from strength to strength. There's so much variety in his music and just what he chooses to sing about.

I am basically waiting for the next chance to see him in concert :-)

A new Curd-rice kayaker

2009-06-02T13:50:00.013-04:00

..where there is neither curd-rice, nor kayaking. and our valiant protoganists are set upon by wild-animals and come through unscathed...

Frequent readers of this blog (all the two of you) would know that on occasion, I do enjoy a bit of kayaking and camping. All of my kayak-camping has happened on the Delaware river. It's not an accident. It's well-served by canoe outfitters, the water is not risky or high, paddle-in campsites are easily available and it's not too far.

S. had been kayaking once before, never been camping or canoeing. So, it was with a mixture of anticipation and 'I hope this dude knows what the hell is doing' that she agreed to the plan.

We got to the outfitter's only at 4pm, having decided to go camping at 12:30, and with a brief detour to get some frozen parathas and chutney for dinner. It was decided to do the 16 mile trip from the Bushkill access to the Delaware Water Gap. We put in at 5:00 pm.

It was a pleasant evening. The river was high and somewhat fast, so we didn't have to paddle too hard. The campsites came on pretty fast, in less than an hour. We pulled in to a camp site and setup camp in an hour or so, while it was still light. This is something of a record for me, thus far having setup a tent only after the sun had gone down completely. Somehow, I always seem to be late getting to the campsites :) We hauled the canoe up the somewhat steep bank just in case the river rose at night and took the canoe with it.

Made chai, Setup the tent, collected some wood, got a fire going and had dinner (parathas and coriander chutney) by 9. Turned in by 10. Something about the cold (it had turned much colder than the balmy 75, probably down to 50-45) that makes you want to curl up and go to sleep. Made sure what remained of our food (fruits) was in the canoe, which was across the fire from us.

I was woken up maybe around 1 am by S., with a whispered 'hey there's something out there'. Sure enough, there was the distinct sound of something rustling through the plastic cover in the canoe. Hmm. Discretion being the better part of valour, and cowardliness the better part of discretion and we decided not to challenge this interloper to our campsite. We couldn't quite make out what it was, and it didn't really sound like a big animal. So, we figured, if it wanted some fruits, hey, athithi devo bhava and all that sort of thing. The sounds stopped after a few minutes. Then, much later, around daybreak, there was the sound of deer walking around the campsite. We woke up in the morning to find deer hoofprints around the campsite, I could see where it had bedded down for the night. The deer had chewed up our apples. So much for breakfast.

Made some more tea/coffee (of course, I say made coffee/dinner, but it was the S. who took care of the cooking bit. I suppose there are some benefits to marriage :)). We were on the river in short order, rolling down the river.

Now, the section a few miles before the Smithfield Beach takeout is really annoying. The river is nice and wide, so, it runs slow. And the winds blow straight upstream. This makes for pretty slow going. On the other hand, it did give me some time to take some photos.

We took about an hour's break at Smithfield, to umm, perform ablutions. Then, on it was to the Water Gap. The Delaware Water Gap is this massive gap in the mountains through which the river travels. It's got some very nice steep cliffs. Very pretty. But to get to it, we had to go through some more wide, slow and wind-against-the-face type paddling, until we crossed the Shawnee Island. After that, things get pretty reasonable, though still slow. The boredom was telling on S. a bit at this point. Right around this time, I caught sight of a bald eagle. It was a nice specimen and the photo does not really do it justice.

As soon as you cross Shawnee, there are these bridge pillars (which always bring to my mind Rauros from middle earth, despite being absolutely nothing like that). Once you get to this point, the river picks up speed, and there are some riffles to give some excitement. It's a bit more fun in a kayak, since you get splashed, but, the canoe does keep you and yours dry :)

Before we knew it, we were at the takeout at the water gap, famished, bedraggled, but happy.

In all, an interesting trip, a good way to get S. involved in this whole outdoors business. Delaware river is rather good for people just trying out multi-day trips and canoe camping. The plus is that the river is friendly with hardly any rapids. The minus is the flip side of the same feature, the river is wide, and slow, and in stretches can get on people's nerves.

As it turned out, we did have curd-rice after all, but after we got home..

Bushi no Ichibun (Love and Honour)

2009-03-21T09:05:00.006-04:00

This is the third movie in Yoji Yamada's series of samurai movies. The other two being Twilight Samurai and The Hidden Blade .

In Love and Honour, Shinnojo a young samurai, who is the official taster for the daimyo is blinded after eating poisoned food. This puts him at the threat of losing his stipend and driving him into penury. His family pressures his wife Kayo to try and convince a high official who she has a passing acquaintance with to intercede on his behalf. The movie deals with the repurcussions of that action.

The movie follows in the style and tone of the other two. The focus is on the couple and their relationship. Shinnojo, like the protoganists of the other two movies, is not terribly enamoured with the samurai lifestyle. He would like to open a school so that children of all castes, not just samurai can learn swordsmanship.

Even though the three movies have no story arc joining them, they are stylistically connected. They all follow lives of "ordinary" samurai, and focus on their relationships. They are not about pomp and ceremony, like say Ran, or Throne of Blood or swashbucklers like Yojimbo or Sanjuro. The heroes are undemonstrative anti-Mifunes and there are no scenery-chewing histrionics.

The movies are shot with great care and adhere to using authentic period clothing, utensils and activities. The director composes some shots like photographs. Just letting it linger for a few more moments than might be considered strictly necessary. There are scenes (like Iguchi Seibei eating breakfast before going out for the day) which are again, not really required for the story but really adds to the mood. The movies and the heroes project a feeling of quiet and calm. The music is pretty good and really goes along with the action.

I guess it is pretty obvious by now that I utterly enjoyed all the movies. I very highly recommend them.

Chandrayaan lands

2008-11-15T10:48:00.000-05:00

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16043-indian-probe-lands-on-moons-surface.html

Kumble Retires

2008-11-05T13:48:00.001-05:00

The other man on the podium

2008-10-17T11:26:00.002-04:00

During the Mexico Olympics in 1978, two black US athletes protested racial inequality. I had seen that picture before. What I didn't know was that the third guy in the picture, a white australian, had joined in the protest and paid a personal and professional price for it. Very brave.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7674157.stm

Knopfler in Philadephia

2008-08-17T11:02:00.004-04:00

Back in the day, when I was still a lad in school, when Azharuddin was captain, Kapil Dev was still playing for India, I was introduced to the music of Mark Knopfler. I was a complete tyro when it came to the music scene. Much of my musical knowledge came from my infinitely more sophisticated buddy ND. One day, he decided to share his wisdom with me, and show me the way of Knopfler. Said he : 'See da, normally no, in songs, the guy will sing and there will be some guitar solo maybe in the middle. But, in Dire Straits, you have long guitar solos in the beginning, sometimes in the middle and the end too. This guy is god da. But some of those songs are very long da.'.

So, with that stirring recommendation, I went out and bought my first ever tape: Dire Straits Love Over Gold. I was immediately taken in by the songs, and this attraction continued through college, listening to 'Money for Nothing and Walk of Life' in Ra42's then-new-and-cool discman and right through to the present day.

So, two years ago, when Kogi Kaishakunin asked me if I was interested in checking out Mark Knopfler's concert in philly, I jumped at the chance. We had nosebleed seats, but the concert rocked. This year, however, we had seats in the orchestra section with the stage no more than 20 meters away. The concert was in support of his album Kill to get Crimson.

It was with much anticipation that I went to this concert and my expectations were more than satisfied. Mark Knopfler has such a chilled out attitude, he looks and acts more like a friendly uncle than the musical god that he is. Totally understated presence, lyrics that seem to be more spoken than sung and absolutely virtuosic guitar playing. It's really as though he decided to generally chill out with some friends and play some music and oh, look, there's an audience watching too!

All the usual Dire Straits favorites were there, Telegraph Road, Romeo and Juliet, Brothers in Arms, along with his solo album work and songs from Kill to get Crimson.

I have since checked out his interviews online. The guy is clearly quite personable, thoughtful and has quite a sense of self-deprecating humour. Like Kogi said, the guy has mellowed out just the right way as he aged :)

In conclusion, Knopfler is a legend in our times, and I guess, I should be thankful to Mr. ND for introducing me to Dire Straits all those years ago, in his house in Chennai :)

Thoughts on Tax Day

2008-04-18T16:00:00.000-04:00

To Be or Not To Be

2007-12-20T09:51:00.001-05:00

Chennai Superstars

2007-12-03T00:39:00.000-05:00

Stalingrad

2007-10-26T15:30:00.000-04:00

This is a german movie about the Battle of Stalingrad. It's main focus is on a group of german soldiers and their trials through the battle. The Battle of Stalingrad is one of those things that's so huge in scale that numbers no longer make sense. The battle lasted six months, there were 1.5 million casualties on both sides and the germans suffered a decisive defeat. The battle was fought with utmost brutality by both sides.

The movie does not follow the larger strategic aspects of this battle, and just focuses on the platoon. It's realistic and probably one of the few movies I have seen that portrays the german soldiers as individuals.

Indian World Champ

2007-10-01T09:30:00.001-04:00

Not cricket :)
Vishwanathan Anand has won the World Chess Championship.
http://ia.rediff.com/sports/2007/sep/30chess.htm

Ditto

2007-09-29T23:36:00.000-04:00

It's a Korean movie about two students who start talking to each other across a gap of 20 years through HAM radios. It's basically a melodrama. It's rather nicely taken, if a little sentimental.

Downfall

2007-06-17T12:23:00.000-04:00

This is a german flick depicting the last days of Adolf Hitler in his Berlin bunker. The story is told from the perspective of Hitler's personal secretary. It's based partly on the memoirs of Traudl Jung. This movie caught some flack for humanising Hitler. The movie shows him being really nice to his secretaries, the Goebbel's children and a few others. I suppose the protestors were against any attempt to show Hitler in a remotely positive light. While I am sympathetic to their feelings, I think they are wrong. Demonising (or deifying) historical characters keeps us from properly understanding history. Hitler was most definitely human, as was Gandhi.

Coming back to the movie, it quite starkly describes the last dying gasps of Berlin as the soviets inexhorably grind their way towards it. There's escapism, delusion and sardonic acceptance of reality all in equal measure. It's hard not to wonder at the german army top brass who, knowing full well that they were lost stayed loyal to their leader. Was it servility? Were their protestations of loyalty to their oaths real? Was it fatalism? I suppose it is hard to know.

In all, an interesting movie, recommended for all who are interested in the history of this period.

Mozhi

2007-06-03T10:06:00.000-04:00

It's got Prithviraj, Jyothika, Swarnamalya and Prakashraj playing the main roles. Prithviraj and Prakashraj play Karthik and Viji. Karthik sees and falls in love with Archana, a deaf-mute girl played by Jyothika. Things happen.
This movie is brought alive by Prakashraj's easy humour and his interaction with Prithviraj. Their interaction is portrayed quite nicely. Jyothika's acting has been applauded in this movie. I thought it was a bit overwrought. Swarnamalya plays Jyothika's friend : a nice, undemanding role played appropriately. They all live in the same apartment complex and the other characters in the complex were played decently.
I checked out the soundtrack too, and it's surprisingly decent ( we fast forwarded through the songs in the movie :-) ).
In all, a good movie.

One fine afternoon in Africa

2007-05-23T08:06:00.000-04:00

The London Lion

2007-05-15T15:50:00.001-04:00

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=452820&in_page_id=1

Hot Fuzz

2007-05-14T03:17:00.000-04:00

Watched this flick in Boston after a nice kayak trip on the Charles.
Brilliant escapist fun, from the same people who made Shaun of the Dead. Highly recommend it.
Cop gets posted to a middle-of-nowhere village in england which hasn't had a single crime in 20 years. Obviously things don't stay as quiet any longer.

Rangoon

2007-05-06T12:48:00.000-04:00

Rangoon is a Burmese Restaurant in Philadelphia. Burmese food seems to have a fascinating mix of chinese, thai and Indian influences.

I had the firecracker lentil fritter (which is almost identical to desi masala vadai), thousand layer cake with vatana dip (which looks and tastes like a parotta with yellow dal curry) and a monsoon vegetable. I found the flavoring quite nicely balanced and light.

I would rate it a definite try :-)

Cool Design ideas

2007-05-02T19:49:00.000-04:00

Here is a collection of simple, cool design ideas that are making a difference across the world.

A very bearable lightness of being

2007-04-08T13:56:00.000-04:00

When I went to California for the christmas break, we went on a glider plane ride. I had never done anything similar.
Basically, a glider is a plane without an engine :-) It is towed to a few thousand feet (3000 in this case). Then, it is up to the pilot to soar. The pilots try to catch a thermal (columns of air rising from the ground), and stay soaring for as long as possible). Just like the eagles. In theory, at least.

As we waited our turns, we watched other gliders land and take off. A glider (or a light plane that towed them) would land every so often. Against the backdrop of the mountain, the landing was a beautiful sight. The gliders especially, seem to hang in the air forever and touch down ever so gently.
Finally, it was my turn to go. Being towed by a plane was definitely a novel experience. When the tow cable was released, the pilot banked right and there was that feeling in the stomach as we dropped a couple of hundred feet. Then, he decided that he would find a thermal at a nearby cliff (the air blows on the hill and rises up vertically along the side). Now, he did a couple of turns, which in retrospect probably were not really that steep, but made me really nervous :-) I had my camera on the plane, so took a few shots which calmed me down somewhat.

Then, the pilot got the brilliant idea that maybe we could pop the canopy and I would get better shots. Rriight. The plane was flying at about 50 mph, and the outside temps were about 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit. I was so cold, I was barely functional. A blast of wind at that speed and temperature is not really conducive to coherent thought, speech or photography :-)

Once we levelled out, he let me fly the plane for a little bit. The controls of the glider are pretty basic. A stick and 2 pedals. The stick controls which way the plane spins or pitches. The pedals controls the left/right rudder. That's it. When you turn the plane, you don't just use the rudder, you also want to use the ailerons to bank the plane. It makes it more stable (similar to how banking the road for a turn makes it easier). I had to find out, so I tried turning without banking the plane. Yes folks, it is true. you do need to bank the plane :). I tried a couple of turns very gingerly since I seem to suffer from this notion that banking the plane will somehow make it fall out of the sky :-)

Then, just as I was getting comfortable with the whole thing, it was time to land.

I decided that this concept needed more exploration. When I got back, I looked around for gliding clubs and found one. Since I expressed interest in joining the club, the instructor agreed to take me up a couple of times. And so, on a very wintry april weekend, I went to the Morgantown airport.

I rather enjoyed the two rides that I took. It was a good day with strong updrafts and a strong wind. The instructor/pilot was very good about explaining what he was doing (like shallower turns when turning into the wind, steeper turns when turning with the wind behind us). He let me have the controls for a bit. It was definitely a more interesting ride since I was being instructed on what I was doing. He kept me quite alert by asking me orient myself constantly. I guess it is more important in a crowded suburban area rather than over a bit of california desert. It's not like you can afford to get lost because there would be absolutely nowhere to land :-)

Gliding is definitely an enjoyable experience. Except for a small sound of the wind coming in through a little ventilation port (and the instructor's voice of course), there is absolute silence. Just the lonely impulse of delight etc etc.
Once I relaxed, and stopped bracing my legs against the glider walls, I enjoyed myself quite a bit. So, I guess I have one more thing to do and learn :-)

The Expert Mind

2007-04-07T11:08:00.000-04:00

A very interesting article here on what goes into making an expert.

Here's to the Thespians

2007-04-01T12:15:00.000-04:00

300 has raised quite a few hackles, with many people complaining that the story is historically incorrect. That is quite true. It has also caught a lot of flak for its portayal of Persians. For some reason, Darius looks hispanic, most of his generals look african, his immortals all look like mutants of some sort. Now, portraying the enemy as a monster has a long history and it works within the context of the comic and the picture. But people who claim that the Iranian outrage at the portrayal are is somehow misplaced are making a pretty disingenous argument. Artistic expression is sacred and must be protected, but it is also an indicator of opinions and feelings of said artist.

Anyway, this post is not about the portrayal of persians. It's about the greeks themselves.

Anyone who is familiar with the history of the Greeks and the Spartans should know that the Spartans were hardly the way the movie portrayed them. As a small sidenote, a few decades after the battle at thermopylae, the spartans would crush the greeks with help from the Persians.

The spartan society was a fascist one with a small group of 'full spartans' lording it over the other strata. At the bottom were the helots who were nothing more than serfs. The bits in the movie about killing the substandard babies and the brutal training of children are all true. They had a brutal secret service that would kill any of the lower strata that acted up.

The rest of the Greek states had citizen-soldiers who fought when called upon. The Spartans were soldiers full-time. The state was about the army. The state was the army. The spartan phalanx was feared and rightly so. Thanks to iron discipline and tough training, they were unbreakable. The Spartan phalanx, if you ignore the kind of society that went into making it, was just way too cool. I suppose I am extremely ambivalent about them. I really admire their discipline, training and courage. But I am not too hot on their society.

When the decision was made to stop the Persians at pass of Thermopylae, the Spartans, 300 of them led the army, made up of volunteers from different Greek states, numbering 4000. There is no doubt that the other greeks were heartened to have the spartans with them, and the spartans must have led by example.

Then, when the greeks were betrayed (by a local goatherd, incidentally, not a former spartan) the spartans chose to stay, for one of the most celebrated last stands in history and it is for this that they are rightly famous. But, what everyone seems to ignore is that the spartans were not the only greeks to stand there to the end. The Thespians also stayed. They were citizen soldiers from the city of Thespiae , worshippers of Eros and the Muses. These must have been just normal guys, not professional soldiers like the spartans. What made them stay? Courage? Desperation? Inspiration? Awareness that they were participants in a momentous occasion?

The Spartans exchanged cloaks and shields with them, as they all prepared for the final battle. They clearly thought of the Thespians as one of them. This, to me, is the real inspiring story.

300

2007-03-28T09:11:00.000-04:00

This is a very faithful reproduction of Frank Miller's 300 comic. The comic depicts, the greek stand at the pass of thermopylae against the invading persian army. It is beautifully made, and is very true to the comic. The action is beautifully choreographed. The Spartans are suitably be-six-packed. The Persian forces die by the thousands etc etc. The fight choreography and cinematography are just brilliant. I believe the actors and the extras trained really hard to make it all happen and it shows.
True to the comic, the plotline, dialogue and character development are threadbare. But then again, one doesn't go to see this movie to see a deep human-interest story. The movie delivers what it promises, and that's it.
As a telling of the Battle of Thermopylae, Gates of Fire is a much better story. I hope they make it into a movie.
There has been controversies surrounding this movie about the way the persians were depicted. That is quite understandable. The movie is not true to the events of history at all. But more on that, later..

Letters from Iwo Jima

2007-03-07T09:11:00.000-05:00

This movie, also directed by Clint Eastwood is the companion piece, to Flags of our Fathers. It tells the stories of the Japanese defending Iwo Jima. The movie is almost completely in japanese. The pace, the lighting and the acting conspire to take us into the lives of the doomed defenders. The movie is based on real events and real people, which makes it all the more poignant. It is hard to tell that Clint Eastwood directed both this and Flags of our Fathers. FooF is a pretty good movie, but this one, in my opinion, is much better. Clint Eastwood seems to have captured the essence of the somber, japanese style. The movie is probably the best I have seen in this year so far.

World Cup Cricket

2007-03-01T09:15:00.000-05:00

Well, the world cup is here again. It's the last chance for Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Kumble to win. Frankly, I am not very hopeful. Especially, after the last time, when the bowling and the batting collapsed like a house of cards in face of the Aussie onslaught. And this team isn't nearly as tight as last time's. Well, I guess we will find out..

Awesome ad, though. In case anyone's wondering, the song's in konkani.

Running shoes and running injuries

2007-02-24T08:22:00.000-05:00

Check out this post.

This makes a pretty convincing argument for why the highly supportive, high-tech athletic shoes can actually contribute to injuries. In brief, the knee-leg-foot structures are built to sense and absorb the impact of activities like running. By lying to them about the actual impact (by absorbing it), the shoes actually make the body pound harder on the joints. If you run barefoot and/or with minimal protection to the sole, you will be a whole lot better off, since you will let the body do what it does.By protecting something that is designed to take impact, we are actually weakening it.
Some very interesting studies have been quoted, the most obvious of which is that barefeet cultures seldom report the kind of foot problems that are common in shoe wearing cultures.

Flags of our Fathers

2007-02-13T09:29:00.000-05:00

One of the most iconic pictures from WW II was the raising of the US flag at Iwo Jima. (The other cool flag raising picture from the same war, in my opinion was from Berlin.) It's a technically brilliant photograph which really captures the feeling victory. The government saw this as a chance to raise money for the war bonds. So, the three survivors from the flag raising were taken back to the US and feted and treated as heroes.

The movie is a story of the photograph and the three men. It is told in a non-linear manner through the recollections of the different people involved in the photograph. I wouldn't call it an anti-war or a pro-war movie. It seeks to tell a very real story of what happened during the war.

It has been directed by Clint Eastwood and co-produced by Speilberg. I really enjoyed it and look forward to the companion movie, Letters from Iwo Jima, also by Clint Eastwood.

Banlieue 13

2007-01-08T23:55:00.000-05:00

One brother trying to rescue his sister. One honest cop trying to follow orders. One psychotic villain with a nuke. This could pretty much be the plot for a desi flick :-)
Banlieue (District) 13 is set in the near future in France where all the 'tough' neighbourhoods have been cordoned off by high-walls and barbed wire. The cop has to break into one of these (District 13) to try and deal with the nuke. He needs the help of Leito (the aforementioned brother) to help him get in.
This movie has stunning action scenes featuring parkour. Parkour is an urban art form, the artist tries to move from point A to point B in the most efficient manner possible. So, 20 foot jumps, full speed runs, diving right through ventilators that don't seem quite big enough for a man and the like are common. These guys (both the heros are accomplished parkour practitioners. One of them was a originator) literally flow through buildings, roads, corridors, rooms and other assorted obstacles without the slightest pause. It's balletic in grace. Brilliant stuff.
In all, a very good movie. Simple plot. Fantastic action.

Man against man

2007-01-06T19:22:00.000-05:00

After I saw No-Man's land, I decided to look up on genocides. It's seriously depressing. Here's the list of genocides since 1915 according to the wikipedia. Mind you, by limiting it to the post-1900 period, we have knocked off all the people that the europeans took out as part of their colonialism, 'bringing the light of civilization to the illiterate races', 'spreading the word of God' and 'manifest destiny' trip around the world. Also ignored are what the islamic empires, the timurids, the mongols and other assorted world-conquerors did. This is just what happened in the 'enlightened', 'modern' age.

The wikipedia list also ignores cases like the Partition of India (atleast half a million dead, 14 million displaced). It was not a genocide by definition. If we take into account the any number of non-combatant killed in riots, disturbances, terrorism (or freedom-fighting, if you belong to the other side), state-oppression(or internal-security actions, if you belong to the other side), we come up with a huge number of non-combatants killed on a very regular basis.

Reading this list is truly mindboggling. Like the Rwandan genocide : 937000 people were killed in a 100 days, meaning that about 10000 people were killed every day. Most of these killings accomplished by machetes.

Also depressing is how few of the perpetrators actually pay the price. The bottom-line, apparently, is that if you don't lose a war, you will be ok. If you are on the 'right' side of real-politik, you will be ok. Saddam Hussein was using weapons supplied by the US, UK and European countries for his campaign against the Kurds. The Turks have never had to answer for the Armenian Genocide.

What I find most astonishing and scary is the apparent mundanity of the perpetrators. I guess it would feel better if these were some kind of alien creatures. We could disassociate our species from this behaviour. But that is not the case. It looks like while we as a species are capable of great feats, great science, arts and achievements, we are also perfectly capable of great arts of cruelty and extermination.

No-Man's Land

2007-01-05T22:16:00.000-05:00

No-Man's Land is a movie set in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the Bosnian War. The focus of the story is on two soldiers from opposite sides who find themselves stuck in a trench in no-man's land.
The Bosnian war was the vicious aftermath of the demise of communism in Yugoslavia. The fighting was vicious, with massacres and the longest siege of a city(Sarajevo by the Serbians) since World War 2. The UN and the NATO were largely useless. They were in the country for humanitarian purposes and were hamstrung by rules and regulations. They were mute spectators to civilian massacres, were taken advantage of by both sides and sometimes taken hostage. In all, not their shining hour.
The Bosnian War (and Rwanda and Darfur and any number of other major and minor conflicts) really makes one wonder about human nature. People who have been living in relative peace split in ethnic lines(and religious lines in the case of Darfur). Suddenly, it's as if the previous coexistence was a mirage and the animal nature of man has asserted itself. Actually, it is hard to call it 'animal nature'. Animals don't seem to indulge in the kind of intraspecies violence and hatred that humans seem to slip into all too easily. It is as though this thing we call civilization is a poor, and ill-fitting mask.
Anyhow, back to the movie, the UN forces are represented by a french sergeant who wants to do something ('There can be no neutrality while witnessing a murder', he says) and his do-nothing bosses. The french sergeant's is a brief, but well etched role.
The movie is very well made. It makes its point without being preachy. Even though it is a serious movie, there are some very nice touches of humour. In all, a good movie.

Casino Royale

2007-01-04T00:54:00.000-05:00

Casino Royale is probably the most enjoyable James Bond I have seen in a while.
This is a little different from the other James Bond flicks in that Bond finds himself frequently outclassed and manages to pull through only by grit and luck. Bond is also considerably less 'cool' and more bitter. No tossing bon-mots as he dispatches bad guys left, right and center. This Bond has to work hard for his kills :-) Oh, and no cool gadgets either. The non-gadget thing is no big loss really, in my opinion.
There's a cool Parkour sequence in the beginning of the movie. It is as good as everyone is raving about. It's kind of funny watching the bad guy (one of the founders of Parkour, Sebastien Foucan) gliding around the construction site effortlessly while Bond lumbers after him. Mind you, Darrel Craig is not exactly Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now, but Sebastiean makes him look like a beached whale in comparison :)
The ending was somewhat unsatisfying and contrived, leaving too many loose ends.
In all, a pretty ok movie.

Apocalpyse Now

2006-12-17T21:49:00.000-05:00

Youtube is a wonderful thing.

Ride of the Valkyries

Smell of Napalm in the morning

This one was too cool to pass up.

2006-12-14T22:26:00.000-05:00

Low tech solution saves dolphins
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/12/14/china.dolphins.ap/index.html

DWIM

2006-12-14T08:13:00.000-05:00

Or Do What I Mean.
A language that cuts through the complexity of the modern programming environments. A panacea, if there ever was one..
Sayeth the wikipedia..

All DWIM programs take the following form:

DWIM

When executed, the program does what the user wants it to do, without any restrictions. How it does has never been defined.

In response to Mr. Sumir Sharma

2006-11-17T00:07:00.001-05:00

Mr. Sumir Sharma is a lecturer from Ludhiana and has posted an extremely detailed comment in my previous post on The Last Mughal. He has a very nice history blog. He has some interesting perspectives on historical research and pedagogy.
This is in response to his comments. I have some more questions for him which arose from his comments on my post.
You say,
“So, when Zafar joined the Sepoys, it was the british that were mutinying against their masters, not the indians. I think it's really ironic that the british should consistently refer to the events as the Mutiny of 1857 :-)”
Well, Well. However, I will suggest that the domination of the East India company should be studied from Allahabad Treaty of 1765 onwards. Under Subsidiary Alliances, it was the elite group of the Indian society, which had surrendered India to them. Hence, by virtue of being the winners, the East India Company was ruling over India. Another best example is annexation of Sindh and Punjab. I hope you know that what the British officer said while annexing Sindh. He claimed that it was the finnest piece of rascality but they had done it. On the other hand, annexation of Punjab can never be justified. But only argument which can be used is that it was the prize won by the winner in Anglo Sikh war.

My comments were made in response to the sanctimony of the British when it comes to talking about or dealing with their imperial past. We lost, they won. To the victor go the spoils. That's the way of the world. What irritates me is how the british act as though they were somehow morally justified in their actions :-)

Only comment that can be made is that there is touch nationalistic urges in your statement. Somewhere, it is your country and your region (the region of Cholas, Pandya and Cheras) which are alive. You may be away from home but your heart is here. You will be surprised to know that it is a recent trend that the rule of Cheras and Cholas are being reinterpreted on a model which had been build around the history of some tribes in South part of Africa. The success of Cholas and the imperialistic activities are being under rated under that new interpretation.
That is an interesting statement. I don't understand it though. What do you mean when you say that Chola and Chera history is being reinterpreted in an African model. Like you have said elsewhere, shouldn't indian history be interepreted in an indian model?

But, I am unable to understand in spite of the teacher and student of history, that how this middle class theory had been build to gain the independence. My reading of history is taking me to a different direction. Middle Class and rise of Nationalism with Middle Class theories never appeal to me. The problem is that we have always picked western model as frame of reference to evaluate the Indian history. Similarly, the Marxist interpretation and the Grimansci model to interpret on the basis of fight for hegemony between the classes have also not cut ice with me.
What are the basic assumptions of these models and why don't you like them? I am not familiar with any of them.

You say,
“The history of the 1857 rebellion is taught very superficially in school.”

You are quite right. I would like to direct your attention to some of posts in my sumir-history blog. Actually there is a need of rewriting the Indian history. Kindly check the following posts wherein I have dilated on this issue in different contexts:
http://sumir-history.blogspot.com/2006/08/need-of-rewriting-gandhian-era.html
http://sumir-history.blogspot.com/2006/09/latest-last-mughal-is-arriving-in.html
http://sumir-history.blogspot.com/2006/09/using-historiography-to-emphasis.html
I did read these posts. It is quite interesting. I have thought quite a bit about Jinnah, Gandhi, Nehru and their role in creating Pakistan. We definitely need to reevaluate our near-term history. However, I think that as nations, neither we nor Pakistan is in a level of self-confidence where we can look at the historical basis for our creation dispassionately. I doubt if that will even happen in our lifetimes.
Which rolls me into your post about separating ideology from hitoriography. Again, I can do nothing but agree, with the caveat that what one believes in will color everything that one does. It is quite irritating though, to have to dig through ideology to find a couple of nuggets of truth.

“Apparently, Delhi was undergoing a cultural renaissance under him. He also seems to have been made in the mold of Dara Shikoh rather than Aurangzeb. He was a lover of the arts, a sufi, a pretty good poet himself and treated hindus and muslims equally.”
You have reached an established conclusion. I would like to direct your attention to a book of Muzaffar Alam “The Crisis of Empire in Mughal North India (Awadh and the Punjab 1707-1748) and second book by Ishrat Haq titled “Glimpses of Mughal Culture”. Ishrat Haq had treaded a new path wherein she had tried to study of the cultural changes as taking place through the poetry of the period by five major poets of the 18th century. She had also traced the similar changes in 19th century. You may enjoy reading the British Paramountancy by R. C. Majumdar. He has been able to bring out some more effective conclusions. It is really ironical that he was not given much recognition after the D. D. Kosambi and than later Marxist lot dominated this field.
I will try to track these books down.

You have read,
“The siege of Delhi, as it were, was actually carried out by gujjar tribesmen who looted anyone that entered or left the city, effectively choking the city out.”
Well R. C. Majumdar had never identified them with any particular group. Secondly, if you know, that such conclusions about Mewatis (Jats) had angered the particular community in India recently.
I can imagine that would happen. I don't think it is necessary, though. Different communities in India behaved differently during the rebellion, but it should not be a reason to question their current patriotism. Sikhs, would be one example.

No doubt, it was a strong contention of R. C. Majumdar that the event of 1857 should never be called the first war of independence. He had traced a regular theme in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1764, then inVellore Mutiny in 1806, then in Barrackpore Mutiny in 1824 and finally the 1844 mutiny and Afghan Mutiny during Anglo Afghan War.
I would agree. It was not exactly a national war. But it wasn't exactly a mutiny either.

Basic thing is reinterpretation is required. A set of concepts has to be framed which describe the events in Indian continent on the basis of the facts as they were there. The problem is that we have never been able to shed the edifice which J Mills constructed on the Indian history.
I agree with your concept that we need to reinterpret our history. However, who is J Mills and what did he do?

Now, when as a nation, we are finding our place in the community of nations, we find that we already have that vital force which makes us a nation. Go to America and live among them. You sense and feel that it something American spirit which are their strength. It is not racialism. That is only one shade. But there is totally a different existence and that is American Spirit. Here I would like to direct you attention to the following post.
http://sumir-history.blogspot.com/2006/08/conspiracy-history-in-india-case-of.html
http://sumir-history.blogspot.com/2006/08/looking-at-indian-history-through.html
http://sumir-history.blogspot.com/2006/07/quasi-mutiny-of-1824-by-47-native.html
http://sumir-history.blogspot.com/2006/06/bindee-tiwari.html
I read these posts. I can do nothing but agree with your sentiments. Especially the ones at the end of the Bindee Tiwari posts (incidentally, the Last Mughal refers to that incident too). I don't know why we buy into the concept that there was no idea of India till the British came. In our epics and poems (even Tamil poems from the Sangam age), the idea that the peninsula all the way up to the himalayas is one land is expressed. Mind you, political contiguity eluded us unless there were really powerful kings who could bring the land under their sway. There has always been, in my opinion, the idea of a cultural unity across the country.
Your other remark that we should respect the fact that there were violent responses to British rule is also well taken. While I think that non-violent resistance was unique and had a lot of (possibly unintended) good effects on the country as a whole, denying our inherent militant nature will only lead to a sort of national schizophrenia :-) I think that part of the reason why Rang De Basanti was so wildly popular was that it focussed on a chapter of our struggle for Independence that was unabashedly militant. That and it was a good flick :-)

You have read,
“The sepoys violently changed the prevailing order in Delhi by riding in from Meerut and killing every single christian they could find.”
Well, I have not the read the book. It is now in the market. When I will visit my regular book store, I hope that I would get a copy of it there. I have read in the interview of Darlymple as given to BBC that he had located sources from it was learnt that the Indian converts to Christianity were the main target. Well, It is definitely a new finding as far as my knowledge goes. In case of Tribal revolts, we have been studying that when such revolt took place then the immediate oppressors, whether they were money lenders, or Gora Babu or Gumastas of British company, they became their target of their anger. I think that there had never been anti-Christian riots as such. It is something which has been observed in recent times only. But anyhow, I think I should first look into the book. I believe that your present review is immediate reaction after reading the book. I will like to suggest you that History is an Art, a Science and literature; all three combined to make the writing of history. The literature aspect of history writing is a feature which play wonders as well mischief if an artist of words wields the pen. But I am not convinced that this anti-Christian feature was there in 1857.
I was merely reporting what I read in the book. I think it is conceivable though.

Now do not bring in the social reformers in it. I think the criticism of Keshav Chander Sen is wrong. Similarly the aversion to the activities of Pandita Ramabai is also not justified. All these features had to been to re examined.
I just looked them up on wikipedia:-) Why was Keshav Chandra Sen criticized? What is their bearing on what the sepoys might have done?

The Christians activists were here since the days of Portuguese. Even there is a theory that it is here since the days of Saint Peters. But, this feature of killing Christian agenda is something which requires some established proofs. One or two reference and then to declare it a history will turn out to be a Bad history.
Once again, I will do nothing but agree.
“Apparently the extent to which the first-generation british had integrated themselves into indian society is not stressed by the indians or the british”

Well I am also surprised. We have been reading the quotation of Thomas Roe which totally contradicts it. No doubt, there were people like William Jones, Charles Wilkins, H. H. Willson, John Princep, the people at short lived Wellesley School or as they are know are the Orientalists. They were attracted to Indian literature. They were impressed and influenced by it. Macaulay had just given sweeping statements.
Just so I understand, the earlier guys were favorably impressed by Indian literature and the later guys like Macaulay were pretty much of the opinion that Indian literature and culture was trash?

Even there are doubts about the contexts in which he had written those lines. But, absorption in social and cultural tradition – it is something which I would also like to study. Well there is a book by Thompson titled “Other Side of the Medal”, in which he had written some thing similar to it. However, that was about the sympathy and some extent an affinity of some British people with Indian way of life. Well in present day India, there is Ruskin Bond and Tom Alter who will be happy reading such theories. However, English gone native seems to be a new theory.
Right. You should read the other book by William Dalrymple called White Mughals. I haven't read it myself, but I believe it focusses on the Englishmen-gone-native.

You have read,
“At this point, the East India Company had made the move of invading and occupying Avadh, a rich indian state that was also home to many of its sepoys. Avadh was a friendly state to the British. This sent out a loud message to other states in India that your disposition towards the british didn't matter to them, they would take you over anyway.”

Well this is an established theory. However, I will like to draw your attention to my one of my another post. I hope you can read Hindi. It is given below.
http://sumir-history.blogspot.com/2005/10/real-authors-of-annexation.html
http://sumir-history.blogspot.com/2005/10/doctrine-of-lapse-cause-of-uprising-of.html
My hindi reading speed is quite slow, but I will be sure to plough through these.

You have read,
“In others, like Delhi, it was certainly a religious war.”

Well, it is a sweeping statement. Was there “Manifest Destiny theory” more in operation than other urges. I will suggest that you must read the following post by Prof. R. K. Khanna.
http://rkkhanna.blogspot.com/2006/08/uprising-in-1857_03.html

You have commented that
“The british response took on an extremely religious overtone.”

It is a new theory. It requires further examination.

Anyhow, finally, you have done a great job. The book in question has been released in India also. I will definitely read it at the earliest. However, the interview of the author to BBC had definitely biased the judgement. Secondly, it is again the same old story that a foreigner comes to India, finds some untouched paper, picks them and write a book out of them and then we Indians start reacting to it. We in India, do not have it in us to do it first. We wait others to come and make us to react against him. Then the contents of our reaction are then projected as our statement. If any of us try to take initiative, first comes the discouragement and the second problem is always the funding which can be obtained only if you have the right networking.

I picked up the book in Chennai, actually. I agree that I would like to see more Indian writers of Indian history come forward. As for the book, it is not as dry as my review might have made it seem. It actually reads like a novel with a lot f discussion and descriptions of characters that played a role and the bystanders. I look forward to your opinions after you read the book.

I also just read your post on the sources for 1857, I will follow up on those.

Madai Thiranthu

2006-11-14T07:39:00.000-05:00

The Last Mughal - 2- The Sepoys and the British

2006-11-12T18:31:00.000-05:00

Continuing from the previous post..

So, we have a weak, ineffectual, but a rather nice king, a population representing a rather interesting hindu-muslim culture..

The sepoys violently changed the prevailing order in Delhi by riding in from Meerut and killing every single christian they could find. It is interesting that none of the europeans who had converted to islam (of which there were many) were touched. To properly understand the sepoys' motivations, we must see what the british, their employers had been doing.

When we say 'The British', we of course, mean The British East India Company, which was one of the earliest MNCs. Imagine, if you will, Pepsico, or Microsoft, running a country with the only motive being their bottomline. That's essentially what the BEC was doing to India (and Sri Lanka and Burma) with the marked lack of empathy that is the defining characteristic of a Corporation(then, as now).

The British East India Company had got their foothold in hindustan (bengal, bihar, UP and MP) by obtaining the mughal's permission to collect taxes on their behalf. As the mughal power waned, and it had been waning for a while now, two other kingdoms had become powerful, the Marathas and the Sikhs. As 1857 rolled by, the british had defeated both, and were on the path towards ruling India. Their main tool was the native army, which was recruited from hindus and muslims (especially from the groups that the british considered 'martial races) and trained in the european way. The initial group of the british interacted with the indians on quite convival terms. The officers fraternized with the troops, became quite fluent in local languages and aware of local customs. Many of them acquired indian wives and lived rather indian lives (complete with separate harems for their hindu and muslim wives :-) ). Many of these british were fluent in indian languages and some were actually accomplished poets in those languages. This was news to me. Apparently the extent to which the first-generation british had integrated themselves into indian society is not stressed by the indians or the british :-) When the revolt exploded, this would save some of their sons and daughters as former servants and soldiers of these men saved their children from certain death. The sepoys of the old-style officers also permitted their officers and their families to escape, out of loyalty.

As more and more british started coming in, this stopped and a divide grew between the british and the men they commanded. They looked upon the older group who had 'gone native' with horror and derision. The new class of british that came in were also quite religious and saw in India a vast opportunity to 'reform' the 'natives' of their superstitions and convert the country to the 'One True Faith' of christianity. The 'natives' who had their own 'One True Faith's didn't take very kindly to it and this was to become one of the biggest reasons for the revolt. This extreme religiousity also ensured that the British were particularly insensitive to the sepoys' concerns about the greased cartridges which became the proximate cause of the revolt.

At this point, the East India Company had made the move of invading and occupying Avadh, a rich indian state that was also home to many of its sepoys. Avadh was a friendly state to the British. This sent out a loud message to other states in India that your disposition towards the british didn't matter to them, they would take you over anyway. It also inflamed the sepoys who had to aid in the takeover of their own state by the foreigner.

The british were also the de facto power in Delhi and had a say in who would be the next mughal emperor. They were also plotting to eliminate the Mughal line and move the survivors out of Delhi. In this, they had the collusion of Bahadur Shah's favorite wife and other courtiers.

The revolt, thus, had different complexions in different parts of the country. In some places (like in Jhansi), it was against the attempted land-grabs of the british. In others, like Delhi, it was certainly a religious war.

Once the revolt started, the sepoys killed their officers and promptly marched on Delhi. They went to Bahadur Shah and asked him to lead them. He was not willing in the beginning, but as he began to see the possibility of maintaining his line, he agreed. So, now, you had a group of sepoys, predomninantly hindu, not just accepting, but demanding that the mughal emperor lead them.

Though he was the titular head, there was no one who could actually provide leadership. None of the sepoys had an experience of leading more than hundred, since the officer class had all been european. As mentioned previously, the court was working against itself. If there had been a strong leader, he(or she) would have been able to weld the sepoy regiments into an army. That was not to be. For a long time, the sepoys outnumbered and outgunned the british but couldn't defeat them just because they had no one who could maneuver them like an army. Instead, they charged the british in battalions and were promptly crushed. What they lacked was not courage or weaponry, but leadership. The first shot at some kind of unified leadership came when Bakht Khan of the Bareilly Brigade marched in and tried to bring some kind of leadership and order. But ego-clashes amongst other leaders of the sepoys quickly put paid to that hope.

The fact that the sepoys had killed all europeans had the effect of making the british bloodthirsty for revenge. Breathless tales of how the women had been raped and killed spread. The fact of the matter was that not one woman had been raped (they had all been killed though, so I guess it is small comfort). They saw their role as 'delivering God's justice on the heathens'. The british response took on an extremely religious overtone. The british felt that they had been betrayed by the indians to whom they were trying to bring culture and civilization and by God, they were going to shed some blood to show who was boss. This essentially made it a religious war. With christianity on one side and the hindus and muslims on the other.

Of all the conquering peoples, the british must be truly unique for their consistent stand that all of it was done for the benefit of the conquered. I am sure that when Genghis Khan was building his tower of skulls, or the Romans, were destroying Carthage, selling its inhabitants to slavery and sowing salt in the land (so nothing would grow there) weren't saying to their victims 'But why did you resist us? All we were trying to do was bring you culture!'. The british on the other hand, saw it as their God given duty to 'civilize' their colonies. It permitted them to do really horrific things self-righteously.

For instance, when the british re-took Delhi, they killed indiscriminately, men, women and children. On the march to Delhi, locals were randomly executed. Thousands of the citizens of delhi were killed out-of-hand, regardless of whether they had helped the sepoys or the english. The british used short-ropes for hanging the indians (if you hang someone with a long-rope, it is the fall and neck-snap that kills. A short rope kills slowly by strangulation.). Remember the ones who collaborated with the british? They didn't get much of a better deal. The city was looted, and about eighty percent of Red Fort destroyed. All this, of course, to civilize the heathens. But, I digress.

To get back to the story, once the british got their wits together, they disarmed all native troops that seemed rebellious, and hired auxiliaries from amongst the sikhs and the pathans and marched on Delhi. The british also had a superb spy system which they used to great effect. It is in this time that characters like Hodson and Nicholson made their name (for great brutality and courage). The actions of some (like Theo Metcalfe who was known for his indiscriminate hanging of indians) disgusted even the british.

The looting, the mismanagement and the choking of Delhi by the gujjar tribesmen caused severe supply problems for the sepoy army and they started slipping out of the city. When the british finally stormed the city, there were not many left (Bakht Khan had slipped away with his army to Lucknow). Once in Delhi, the british wreaked a tremendous revenge, extinguished the line of the Mughals and sent Zafar into exile to Rangoon. The only reason his life was spared was because Hodson had promised Zinat Mahal, his wife that his life would be spared in exchange for her cooperation during the rebellion. After the rebellion, the muslims were treated much worse than the hindus were (since the british saw this as an attempt by the muslim mughals to reassert themselves) which laid the foundation for their alienation from the hindus and the eventual partition. This also comprehensively destroyed the Delhi Renaissance that was occurring under Zafar.

Dalrymple details all this, and brings to life all these characters and more. Like I mentioned previously, this gives great insight into the causes of the revolt. Was it a religious war? Was it a war waged by hindus and muslims to restore the mughals to power? Was it a mutiny? Was it a war by the indians against an encroaching foreign power? The answer is all of the above. It was not exactly a war of independence as claimed by V.D. Savarkar. It was not exactly the matter of a mutiny, as claimed by the british.

We need more such looks at indian history that focus on the facts and not on the political, social or religious leanings of the historian. Also, we tend to idolize leaders and events. It is understandable because we are emotionally invested in it. Unfortunately that prevents us from cold-bloodedly examining our history and learning from it. This book, perhaps because it is not written by an Indian, steers clear of that, and we get to see what everyone does. Actually, it is not completely fair to say that Dalrymple is emotionally disconnected. He obviously loves Delhi and this book is in a way an elegy to the Delhi that was. A cosmopolitan, polished place where hindus, muslims and christians, indians and europeans hung out, went shopping in bazaars, wrote and listened to poetry, watched courtesans dance, ate at roadisde fastfood joints and had a generally wonderful time. Until History intervened.

The Last Mughal - By William Dalrymple

2006-11-10T22:09:00.000-05:00

This book covers the events of 1857 from the persepective of the decaying Mughal court, the citizens of Delhi and the englishmen who used to live in pre-revolt Delhi and those that 'took' the city. The old Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, is the focal point of the book.

When William Dalrymple was researching this book, he discovered a veritable treasure trove of documents dating from this period. He has used them to reconstruct the events in Delhi prior to, during and after the 1857 Rebellion. The history of the 1857 rebellion is taught very superficially in school. There's mangal pandey, a passing mention made of Bahadur Shah and the rest of the list is devoted to the The Rani of Jhansi, Tatya Tope and Nana Sahib. This book focusses only on Delhi and the events there and brings to light some very interesting facts. The siege of delhi really had five parties to it, The Mughal court, the citizens of Delhi, the sepoys, the English and the oppurtunists, like the gujjar tribesmen.

Here's one thing we should get out of the way first. The British had started by getting the permission of the Mughals to levy tax on their behalf in Bengal, which made them vassals of the Mughals. So, when Zafar joined the Sepoys, it was the british that were mutinying against their masters, not the indians. I think it's really ironic that the british should consistently refer to the events as the Mutiny of 1857 :-)

The book really gave me some insight into Zafar. Apparently, Delhi was undergoing a cultural renaissance under him. He also seems to have been made in the mold of Dara Shikoh rather than Aurangzeb. He was a lover of the arts, a sufi, a pretty good poet himself and treated hindus and muslims equally. In fact, at the risk of alienating the extremist muslims, he forbade the killing of cows in Delhi. Unfortunately, by the time the revolt rolled around, he was eighty two years old and not in very good shape to provide strong leadership. His court was divided and in effect, there was no one in Mughal Delhi who could weld this group of sepoys into a single coherent force. If there had been someone in Delhi who actually knew how to lead an army and understood logistics, it was one of Bahadur Shah's sons, Mirwaiz Mughal, but he was being constantly undermined by other courtiers and Zafar's own wife and minister who were in touch with the british. One faction backed the sepoys and their rebellion while another was in touch with the British with the fond hope that when the rebellion was crushed they would be put in power. They acted as spies and effectively undermined Bahadur Shah's already enfeebled leadership. One of them, Hakim Ahsanallah Khan even convinced him not to prevent the killing of the british women and men who were under his protection, which was later to become the excuse for the wholesale reprisal by the british. This particularly egregious traitor was also responsible for convincing the emperor not to leave Delhi with Bakht Khan when all seemed lost, and then later guiding the British to him,

The siege of Delhi, as it were, was actually carried out by gujjar tribesmen who looted anyone that entered or left the city, effectively choking the city out. Once the sepoys entered and all civic control was lost, the criminal element in the city promptly went on a looting spree, and caused quite a lot of damage before some measure of control was reasserted.

The citizens of Delhi were the hapless group stuck in the middle. Life in Delhi before the revolt was a syncretic mix of hindu and muslim culture. Ghalib, when asked, responded that he was half-muslim. Asked to explain, he said 'I don't eat pork, but I drink wine.'. That about epitmoizes the Delhiites of that time. They were unflinching in their faith that theirs was the best city, their language the most cultured, their food the tastiest, their culture the finest. I guess little has changed :-) There was a regular newspaper in town, which reported right through the rebellion, of which, all copies have survived. There were courtesans' mansions, places where poets could gather and all-night mushairas (poetry symposium) were held, fast-food joints, bazaars and quite a nice night-life.

When the rebellion started, the delhiites were mostly pro-sepoy. But mismanagement of the sepoys and the subsequent looting caused them great suffering. They complained to Bahadur Shah, but there was little that he could do. There was a faction in the city (just like in the palace) that was pro-british, which helped them by spying and reporting on the activities. But none of this helped the populace when the British finally took the city.

The Sepoys and the British, next..

10 foot Marijuana plants

2006-10-12T23:23:00.000-04:00

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/10/12/canada.troops.marijuana.reut/index.html

Canadian are encountering forests of marijuana which the taliban are using for cover. They try to burn them away until they figure out that when the plants do burn, they are having ill-effects on the troops downwind :-)

I wonder what the Taliban in the marijuana forests thought about it...

Bulla Ki Jaana

2006-10-08T22:36:00.000-04:00

This is an awesome song by Rabbi Shergill.
Here's a link to the song and here are the lyrics

The song was written by Baba Bulle Shah, a sufi mystic. The times of Bulle Shah(1680-1750) were quite tumultous for Punjab and India being the years during and just after the rule of Aurangzeb (1658-1707). This period saw the overextending of the Mughal Empire and the extremist islamic rule under Aurangzeb, who was a hyper-traditional sunni muslim unlike Shah Jahan, Jehangir and Akbar who were much more tolerant.

Bulle Shah's poetry is very humanistic, in keeping with the Sufi traditions (in another poem, he says 'Destroy the temple and the mosque, but do not break a lovelorn heart, for God lives there'). He apparently disliked religious extremism and the undue authority wielded by the mullahs.

The rest of Rabbi's album is quite cool. Not run-of-the-mill desi-pop. Here's a rediff article on him.

Chandni Bar

2006-10-01T11:37:00.000-04:00

This Madhur Bhandarkar movie is about the life of dancing girls at the beer bars in Bombay. The story follows the life of Mumtaz, a girl from UP(played by Tabu). Her parents get killed in a religious riot and comes to Bombay with her uncle to make a living. She is forced to start working as a dancing girl in a bar. The movie follows the ups and downs (mostly downs) of her life, her desperation to ensure that atleast her children avoid her fate and move up in life.

The story is told against the canvas of life in the bombay underworld. The corruption in the system is shown in a very matter-of-fact manner. It's depressing because you know it's real and a thousand similar stories are probably going on right now.

All the actors have played their parts very well. Tabu as Mumtaz and Atul Kulkarni as Potiya Sawant, a gangster stand out with their brilliant performances.

This is definitely not a feelgood movie, but certainly worth watching.

The Hidden Blade

2006-09-06T09:19:00.000-04:00

This movie called Kakushin Ken Oni No Tsune in Japanese. It's directed by Yoji Yamada who also directed Twilight Samurai.

The movies are both based on the novels of Shuuhei Fujisawa. I have not been able to find out much about the author, except indirectly. It seems that he wrote his novels all focussing on a certain time period (late Edo or early Meiji Restoration era of Japan) and the stories focussed on the regular samurai's life.

The heros of Twilight Samurai and The Hidden Blade are not the scenery chewing, loud samurai characters like the ones typically portrayed by Toshiro Mifune. They are quiet and reserved. Living lives of quiet determination. Stoic, not fatalistic.

From checking out the making-of and the interviews of Yoji Yamada, he's clearly taken by this era. Great care has been taken to reproduce the period 'look' like clothing, utensils and houses. He has a affinity for some really cool shots which look like paintings brought to life (eg. Woman under a tree on the foreground, the sea shore in the far distance). He also 'holds' scenes effectively and lets the silence tell the story.

Silent Blade's main character is Katagiri Munezo, who's a low-level samurai. The movie revolves around him, his friends and his family. As in Twilight Samurai, we can hear the echoes of history. The clan has requested an instructor from Edo to come in and teach them to use artillery and drill them in modern european military training.

This movie has some interesting continuity with Twilight Samurai. The same actor who played Seibei's servant plays Munezo's servant and has the same name in the movie. Munezo's teacher is again a Toda Sensei.

I really liked the interactions between the characters and the kind of quiet heroism portrayed in the movie. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and would highly recommend it.

Taranaa-e-Hind

2006-08-15T21:27:00.000-04:00

Also known as Saare Jahan Se Achcha :-)
This was created by Allama Mohammad Iqbal, in 1904/1905. Curiously, Iqbal became one of the proponents of the creation of a separate muslim state which became Pakistan. That was definitely news to me.

For whatever reason, we are taught only a small subset of the lines. The entire song is so much longer and in some parts, cooler.

kuch bāt he kih hastī, miṭati nahīn hamārī
sadiyon rahā he dushman, daur-e-zamān hamārā
Something is in us, that preserves us, that keeps us ever-smiling
Though the fates and chances of the world have ever tried to break us

:-)

Check out the full article at wikipedia.

Saare Jahan Se Achcha

sāre jahān se acchā hindostān hamārā
ham bulbulain hai is ki, yeh gulsitān hamārā
Our India is the finest Country on this planet earth
This is our garden abode, we are nightingales of mirth

ghurbat men hon agar ham, rahta hai dil vatan men
samjho vahīn hamen bhī, dil hain jahān hamārā
Though in foreign lands we may reside, with our motherland our hearts abide
Our spirit remains with thee, where our hearts exist

parbat voh sab se ūncā, hamsāya āsmān ka
voh santari hamārā, voh pāsbān hamārā
That mountain most high; neighbor to the skies
It is our sentinel; it is our protector

godi men kheltī hain is ki hazaaron nadiyā
gulshan hai jin ke dum se, rashk-e-janān hamārā
A thousand rivers play in its lap,
Gardens they sustain, the envy of the heavens is ours

aye āb, raud, ganga, voh din hen yād tujhko
utarā tire kināre, jab kārvān hamārā
O water of the mighty flow of the Ganga, do you remember the day
When on your banks, our caravan had landed

maz'hab nahīn sikhātā āpas men bayr rakhnā
hindi hai ham, vatan hai hindostān hamārā
Faith does not teach us to harbour grudges between us
We are all Indians and India is our homeland

yūnān-o-misr-o-romā, sab miṭ gaye jahān se
ab tak magar he bāqi, nām-o-nishān hamārā
Greece, Egypt and Rome are lost, now only memories
But our civilization remains; it has stood the test of time

iqbal ko'ī meharam, apnā nahīn jahān main
m'alūm kya kisī ko, dard-e-nihān hamārā
Iqbal! Is there no soul that could
Understand the pain in thy heart?

Stuff they didn't teach me at school 1 : Azimullah Khan Yusufzai

2006-08-10T09:23:00.000-04:00

When I started reading up on Indian history, I realised that there were great many interesting things that we have never been exposed to in school. I have decided to post some such interesting tidbits. Maybe, I was asleep in class and just do not remember being taught these things :-)

For instance, Azimullah Khan Yusufzai.

Azimullah was a poor muslim boy, who ended up at a school run by the british. There he learned French and English. He then became secretary to Nana Sahib.

Nana Sahib was the adopted son of the Peshwa who had been exiled to the kingdom of Oudh by the british. Since he was the adopted son, the british cut off his pension under the Doctrine of Lapse, which decreed that if the landowner died without a male heir, the lands would pass to the East India Company. He deputed Azimullah Khan to go to London to plead his case with the crown. Azimullah went there, charmed the upper crust (met Charles Dickens, the queen etc), was appalled by the conditions in London (the slums were worst than the worst that India had to offer, he thought) and on the way back came through Constantinople. There he saw the british getting a bloody nose at the Crimean War. He realised that the British wouldn't be able to fight both wars, if India rose in revolt.

When he got back, he told Nana Sahib 'Why beg for a pension when you can fight and regain your crown?'. He started publishing leaflets against the East India Company and started mobilizing the royalty against the british. He escaped with Nana Sahib when the revolt was suppressed and was never found. While we hear about Tatya Tope (Nana Sahib's general), we don't hear a thing about his secretary who was the big motivators behind the scenes.

Thinking about it, maybe the sepoys' mutiny which started off the whole thing probably came at a bad time for Azimullah. Maybe things started rolling before he could get orchestrate a proper rebelliob. He had to know that if the Sikhs backed the british, the rebellion had little chance of success, so perhaps he was trying to get the buy-in from them too. Perhaps the events overtook him. Of course, I am just speculating at this point.

I think they should have made the movie 'The Rising" about Azimullah Khan, not Mangal Pandey :-)

Hiking the Burroughs Range

2006-08-06T13:01:00.000-04:00

This is supposed to be the toughest day-hike in the Catskills. It hits three peaks (Wittenburg(3790ft), Cornell(3870) and Slide(4180). It's part of the Devil's Path. It's a 9.7 mile hike.

KD and I planned this over the week and hit it last Sunday. KD found it here. It's a great site, with trail descriptions, topo maps and altitude profiles.

Here's a quick summary.

Start : 11:30
Wittenburg : 1:55
Leave Wittenburg : 2:25
Cornell : 3:00
Base of Slide :3:45
Top of Slide :4:35
End of Hike :6:00

We actually left Jersey City at 8:15 am (a minor miracle in and of itself) , got to the end-point of the hike (The Slide Mt parking lot) at 10:30 and dropped one car off there. We got to the Woodland Valley parking lot 11:00 ish. The distance is about 22 miles between these two points. We started hiking around 11:15 am, but went on a completely different trail :-)

Soon, we found the Burroughs Range Trail. It's behind the camp sites, crossing a little bridge across a creek. We started at 11:30 AM.

The first section to the top of Mt. Wittenberg was largely uneventful. It climbed steadily all the way through to the top. We reached the top at 1:55.

A brief digression is apropos here, I think..

In a past life, long time ago, I lived in Bombay for 9 months. When you live there, you can't but notice how much life revolves around the local trains. Brilliant network. Mostly trustworthy. Always crowded. The geography of Bombay makes these trains an indispensable part of travel. Bombayites(who are the very salt of the earth, mind you. A more nice, polite, hospitable folk you will be hard-pressed to find.) are used to this 'running-for-the-train' thing since wee toddlerhood. Now, what this means is that even if they are, say, walking in a park, they tend to walk like they are trying to catch a train.

Now, I am from Madras. We tend to amble where others trot, trot where others gallop and by and large prefer to rest in the shade of a tree rather than go anywhere. In other words, we display a marked lack of hurry. Must be the heat.The upshot of all this is that when one hikes with KD, one must be prepared to walk really really fast. And if one is from Madras, one must be really be prepared to be pushed hard. And pushed hard I was :-)

So, when one looks at the times posted here, one must correct for BSG (Bombay(Brihanmumbai, if you will) Standard Gait).

The view from Mt. Wittenburg is pretty nice. The ledge drops off almost vertically. There are nice views of the Ashokan reservoir. From the edge, I could see buzzards wheeling below. For some random reason, I really like seeing these birds from above.

After a break of about 30 minutes, we headed towards Mt. Cornell. Getting to Cornell involved some small-time rock-climbing to clear ledges. We got to Cornell at 3:00 PM.

Cornell didn't offer much a view, except for a view of Slide. From Cornell, you can see the trail drop down to a ridge which goes straight to Slide which looms like a wall. It gives a nice preview of what lies ahead :-) The ridge is at about 3000 ft and then, in half-a-mile, climbs to the top of Slide (at 4180 ft).

We got to the base at 3:45 PM. The last section had a combination of rock-climbing (or rock-scrambling, if you are me :-) ), ladders, and steep trails. After all, we did have to climb 1000 ft in under half-mile. The last 10 minutes just about killed me. Showed me up. Brought me to a near standstill. Massacred me etc.

In any case, we reached the top of Slide at 4:35 PM.

There's a big rock-ledge with a plaque honoring John Burroughs after whom this trail is named. We met a couple there who told us that there was a much better lookout point just 30 yards from where we were down the trail.

So, KD and I set off, found nothing and before we knew it, we were on the trail that leads down from Slide. We think they just wanted to be rid of us.

The hike down was pretty straightforward and we were down by 6:00 PM. We had covered 9.5 miles in 6.5 hours with a half-hour break. Not too bad. Correcting for BSG, as always.

It was a good, hard hike. I much recommend it. The weather stayed good. The temperature was in the high-seventies, with not-too-bad humidity.

I would very much like to do an overnighter here maybe even a multi-nighter doing the entire Devil's Path. Let's see how that pans out.

Lessons from Mt. Carrigain

2006-08-02T08:57:00.000-04:00

As mentioned previously, this was very much a seat-of-the-pants thing. Ideally, more research should have been done on equipment. Or maybe not. I would have spent a lot of time browsing, and maybe have ended up buying the same things :-)
One interesting thing I discovered after I got back from the hike was the concept of ultra-light backpacking. http://www.ultralightbackpacker.com/

-Boots
I bought a pair of Merrell Pulse II. Light, waterproof. I could walk through muck and water without getting any water inside. Also, light and comfy. Highly recommended

- Hiking Socks
I used to consider these an affectation. Not so much anymore. There were times when I waded through water, wrung the socks and put them back on, kept going. They were dry in a short time. Can't do these with standard cotton socks.
Take extras.

- Packs and packing
I had bought my pack on a whim, but lucked out. It's one of the lighter packs (at about 4 pounds). My whole backpack, including food, water, tent etc, weighed in at 31 pounds. If I had bought one of the heavier packs by mistake (like one of those 12 pound monstrosities), I would have been lugging nearly 25 percent more weight. By the end of the trip, it shows :-)
Also, the loads on the pack should be distributed so that it stays close to your body and doesn't pull away from your center of gravity. The best place to put the heavy stuff is at the bottom where they have thoughtfully provided loops :-)

- Reading up on backpacking.
Haven't done it, should have done it :-) I am sure that many things that I found out, people already have..

- Trip planning
Now, we did very little of it and lucked out. Just a little bit of trip planning saves a lot of time and headache. For instance, if we had planned this trip the previous night instead of at the EMS store on the evening, we could have saved close to 3 hours of day-light hiking time. As it was, we started researching hikes at 2:00 pm, chose one at 3:30 and read up on the hike on the way there :-)

- Fires
Be sure to make a fire-ring or use pre-existing ones. If you do plan to make a fire, the fire-logs (like the ones used in fireplaces) make it a lot easier. Easy to start the fire, doesn't smoke, no burning embers to deal with.
Be sure to carry matches/lighter too, obviously :-)

- Waste and the disposal thereof
Get atleast 200 ft from the trail, campsites and water sources( remember that trails curve. 200 ft from the place you started might not quite be 200 ft from another point on the trail :-)
). Dig a hole six inches deep, do your thing, mix it up with the dirt (with a stick), bury it. Don't bury the toilet paper, though, apparently doesn't quite decompose as fast.
http://www.ehow.com/how_1785_relieve-yourself-woods.html

- Straps, ropes.
These help. Take spares.

- Bugspray
Do not forget it. Or you will pay :-)

- Flashlight
Obviously one needs it. I would suggest that one be taken even if the hike is not planned to last into the evening.

Mt. Carrigain - 3 : Quick summary

2006-08-01T00:16:00.000-04:00

Day 1.
8:08 - 10:00 PM.
Signal ridge trail to the junction of Carrigain notch trail - 1.7 miles.
Setup Camp.

Day 2.
Broke camp at 8:45 am
8:45-12:08
Signal Ridge Trail to the top of the mountain 3.3 miles 3200 ft.

12:40 pm- 1:14 pm
Cross Signal Ridge to the Peak.

1:30 pm-4:23 pm
Desolation Trail 1.9 miles (2500 ft.)
Start at 1:30 pm
Bottom at 4:23 pm

4:23 pm-8:41 pm
Carrigain Notch Trail - To Signal Ridge Trail 5.6 miles
Small 1500 ft rise and fall in the middle of the trail.

Total distance 13.5 miles.
Total time 13 hours (1 hour the first night and 12 hours the second day).

This loop offers everything. Long steep climbs, stream crossings, marshland type trails and tons of mosquitos. There are not many people on the trails, especially the loop from Desolation through Carrigain Notch. Most people just do a up-and-back on signal ridge.

Overnighter at Mt. Carrigain - 2

2006-07-28T00:46:00.000-04:00

As soon as we setup the campsite, we set about starting a fire and had dinner (bread and cheese). The woods had by now become quite dark by now. This is probably the best part of camping : The dark woods, the quiet night and the crackling fire. I think that a night in the woods like this really reduces life to its bare essentials.

There were a lot of insects around. As we watched, some insects flew straight into the fire. Some of them would throw themselves into the fire, get singed, fall out, and then jump in again. It was a display of bloody-minded attraction to their own death.

After the fire died, we turned in.

The next morning, we broke camp at 8:45 and started hiking again.

By now, I had re-tied the tent to the bottom of the bag, like-so.

This makes a huge difference to how the weight gets distributed. You basically want the weight to rest on your hips with the shoulder straps providing just enough to keep the bag aligned with the body. A well-balanced load almost feels like it doesn't exist.

The Signal Ridge Trail just climbs. Non-stop. In about 3.3 miles, it climbs about 3000 ft. We did this section in about 4 hours, with generous breaks. Including one to address a sudden call of nature. I cannot sufficiently stress the coolness of having a kukri (or any other kind of machete ) handy. in situations like that It cuts you a path away from the trail. It digs the hole for you. It lets you close the hole. It helps you fight, kill and then skin black bears that get too fiesty. Truly an utility tool. Also, kukris look cool :-)

Remember how those folks had told us about the bugs? Well, both of us had left our bugsprays at the car. So, no protection and the bugs were attempting to eat us alive. Fortunately, once we climbed about 1000 ft, the insects stopped bothering us.

The view from the top was brilliant. We could see many of the White Mountains peaks. Mt. Washington's peak was somewhat obscured by clouds. We took a long lunch break here.

We walked the final stretch of the signal ridge trail (which is actually on a ridge) to the top, which we reached at about 1:15 PM.

There is an old firetower on top of Mt. Carrigain which gives some really spectacular views of the White Mountains.

After another break on top of the tower, we decided to start heading down. The plan was to take Desolation Trail, till it meets up with Carrigain Notch Trail and follow it back to the start of Signal Ridge Trail and thence to the parking lot.

We started down Desolation at 1:30. Desolation Trail is most aptly named. It drops steeply losing 2500 ft in 1.9 miles. It is also not as regularly maintained. There were many places where there were fallen trees and the like across the trail. The trail itself seemed to be more a water-runoff than a trail proper :-) It was quite the hike going down the trail. We also took a couple of breaks where we did some impromptu trail maintenance, chopping down saplings that had fallen across the trail. These 1.9 miles took us close to 3:00 hours and we got to the bottom by 4:30.

From here on, it was just going to be a walk-in-the-park to get back, or so we thought.

The last stretch goes along many little streams that crisscross this area. It's almost like hiking through a marsh. Which meant mosquitos. Now, our lack of bugspray really affected us. The only thing I remember of the next 4 hours of hiking (4.9 miles to the signal ridge trail and another 1.7 to the parking lot) is mosquitos. They were relentless, we swatted them away and they still kept coming. The back of my neck just pockmarked with mosquito bites. I think we did our part in the great circle of life that day. Killing many, feeding even more :-)

The last stretch was just a grind. It was mostly flat, except for a sudden rise to about 1500 ft where the Carrigain Notch rises between Mt. Carrigain and Vose Spur. We got to the parking lot by 8:30 pm. The last section was quite challenging because we had mentally decided that the hike was 'done' once we got to the bottom of Desolation. So, the last stretch seemed to drag on and on. Also, the constant irritation of the biting mosquitos and other insects really took their toll. That will teach us not to forget the bug spray :-)

Overnighter at Mt. Carrigain 1

2006-07-24T07:52:00.000-04:00

Mt. Carrigain is a 4680 ft mountain in the White Mountains area of New Hampshire. Our plan was to do an overnighter on a loop-trail at this mountain, over two days on the Fourth of July weekend.

A Plan... :-)

It all started Friday when I stumbled into EMS outfitters. I needed a nice pair of hiking boots. I have always had trouble with them. I have ended each hike with hurting feet. Well, they had a sale on, and in addition to the boots, I also bought a backpack and a rain-slicker. I have low sales resistance :-)

I was at Ra42's in Boston Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon, we strolled over to the local Eastern Mountain Sports to look up possible hiking trails and pick up some more gear. It might be noticed that we have a pretty laid back attitude to trip planning and timing. Lazy as I am, Ra42 is worse and in all, we end up doing things at the last minute. It's definitely not a good idea. While we manage to pull off decent trips, just a small delta increase in planning can definitely have big changes in the overall trip experience.

I was initially not keen on hiking in New Hampshire. The trails have been overcrowded and once, when I made it to the top of a hill, there was an entire troupe of interpretative dancers performing to some faux native american music. Another hill, was crowded to the point where it was more like Central Park rather than a hill. Not my idea of a good hike :-)

Howeverm by the time we were going over the trail maps at the EMS store, The White Mountains were the only choice. So, we chose a trail that was in the Northern side of NH after having been assured by the EMS guy that 'There will be very few people up there'. After perusing a '100 Hikes in the White Mountains' guidebook, we decided that Mt. Carrigain (in the Pemigawasset wilderness area) would provide the right combination of isolation (my requirement) and a loop-trail (Ra42's requirement).

So, at long last, having stocked up on our camp-food (bread, cheese and 3 apples) we finally showed up at the parking lot at 8:00 pm. We decided to do a clockwise hike (Up the Signal Ridge trail, down Desolation Trail and Carrigain Notch trail back. For whatever reason, we assumed that the Desolation Trail was an easy hike. And we would soon be proved wrong. As we were getting ready, we met up with two hikers who were leaving the trail who had done the same clockwise hike and told us that they had done it in about 9 hours or so. They also said 'Oh, there are going to be a lot of mosquitos on the way, but I am sure that you already knew that.' Well, we didn't, but we'd brought along bugspray. We would have occasion to remember those words...

Finally, at 8:30 PM, bags all packed up, bugspray on, we finally hit the trail.

Ideally, I should have read up on backpacking and I didn't. Now, I had packed my tent incorrectly. You will observe that the tent (the blue thing) is packed vertically on the backpack. This is a Bad Idea. What happens is that the tent 'pulls back' and stresses the shoulder and neck. In about 45 minutes, I was starting to seriously wonder if this whole backpacking thing was a good idea.

We hiked till we got to Carrigain Notch Trail. This is about 1.7 miles and we covered it in about an hour. This of course meant that we had to set up camp in near-complete darkness. I don't think I have ever once setup camp in daylight :-) We had the tent up quickly. Practice does make perfect. :-)

Signal Ridge, Desolation, mosquitos and parvaane. In the next post ..

Nirvana in a mushroom

2006-07-12T14:34:00.000-04:00

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/07/10/psychedelic.research.ap/index.html

Firefly and Serenity

2006-05-29T14:19:00.000-04:00

Firefly was a TV series that got cancelled after one season on Fox and Serenity is a movie that takes off from where the series stopped.

Firefly follows the adventures and misadventures of the space freighter Serenity and its crew led by Captain Malcolm Reynolds. It takes place in a future universe where humans have colonised a remote galaxy with many habitable moons and planets. The writ of the ruling Alliance doesn't run very well in the remote outer planets where Serenity's crew ply most of their illegal trade. The remote planets are portrayed with a wild-west feel, with run-down bars, brothels, local tough-guys and whatnot. The series has a mixture of western and space-faring adventure feel to it that is very appealing.

Captain Reynolds is very much an updated Hans Solo, pirate-with-a-heart-of-gold kind of guy. The rest of the crewmembers are also portrayed very well. Some of the characters are almost cliched but they are well written and well acted so it actually works out very well.

The series has a general upbeat feel to it, in a old-fashioned swashbuckling action-adventure kind of way. I very much enjoyed it.

The movie takes off six months from the last episode and is as good as the series episodes.

The series (and the movie) did not do as well, which is a good reason why one must not make popular reception the sole metric for choosing a movie. They have however, managed to pick up a cult following and I hope they do well in the DVD market.

Da Vinci Code

2006-05-17T23:35:00.000-04:00

I found out today that the government is considering banning the movie in India. Ostensibly it's because it may hurt the feelings of a certain minority. This is ridiculous. Hum Aapke Hain Kaun hurt the feelings of a certain minority (namely me). So, did they ban it? Now, I am fairly certain that the movie is going to suck and I have no intentions of watching it, but I think that it will be a lesser of an insult on the moviegoer's intelligence than HAHK ever was.

Furthermore, no one is making the Catholics or Protestants or Muslims or Hindus go watch the movie. If it's that offensive, the offended parties can make their opinions known by not showing up for the movie. That will probably be a good thing too. As mentioned previously, I think that the movie is going to suck. Tom Hanks is going to do his earnest-guy-stuck-in-impossible-situations bit, which is starting to wear a bit thin. The cool puzzles that made the book so interesting are going to fall flat in the movie. But, I digress.

I sometimes think that this oversensitivity has to do more with the 'what will other people say' attitude that most of us Indians exhibit. The first reason for doing or not doing something is not whether it's moral or immoral, correct or incorrect but 'what will other people say'. This hamstrings people at an individual level and seems to hamstring the government too.

Freedom of expression takes precedence over hurt feelings.

Parineeta

2006-04-14T02:02:00.000-04:00

This is a movie based on Sarat Chandra Chattopadya's novel of the same name. It stars Saif Ali Khan and Vidya Balan. I really enjoyed the movie. The story is excellent and the screenplay is good. The acting, especially by Saif Ali Khan and Vidya Balan is just brilliant.

The story is set in 1962 in Calcutta and all the dramatis personae are well-to-do Bengalis. This has given the filmmakers the opportunity to indulge in some really cool goodlooking retro sets and dresses. This has been done without the kind of ostentation displayed in other movies like Devdas. In all, the effect is very good.

The story revolves around Navin (Saif) and Lolita(Vidya), two childhood friends and neighbours. Saif is the son of a rich businessman and Lolita an orphan, who lives next door. The script emphasises crisp writing over long speeches and is really effective. All the characters are well fleshed out and well acted, so one is really taken into the movie.

This has to be Saif Ali Khan's best performance. Vidya Balan is pitch perfect playing Lolita. She has expressive eyes that she uses to good effect. I hope that she gets to do more roles that do her justice.

The rest of the cast is quite adequate with Sanjay Dutt playing a decent role for a change.

Star Wars - The Clone Wars - I

2006-03-27T22:19:00.000-05:00

The Clone Wars is a series of animated shorts that describes the time between the prequels 2 and 3. Essentially, the time when the jedi and the forces of the republic (i.e., the Clone Army) battle the Sith and the droid armies.

The only decent thing about the prequels is the fact that they have a decent overarching story (The fall of a presumably democratic repulic and the rise of an authoritarian empire in its place). Other than that the prequels have inconsistent storytelling, have a bad screenplay, are poorly directed and quite badly acted. I think that the only reason those movies made so much money is that the original star wars leave such a powerful impression on our memories that we are willing to overlook (or rationalise) the bad aspects of the prequels.

Anyway, the good thing about the Clone Wars is that they are not directed by George Lucas. These started of as a set of three minute animated movies made by The Cartoon Network. The first DVD of Clone Wars contains the first twenty three minute shorts.

So, how are they?

The whole thing is a bunch of set-piece battles and fights. The series is setup like a superhero comic with the jedi playing the superheros. I do not have any issue with that :-) Many sequences are clearly anime influenced. I really enjoyed the fights. There's some storyline, I guess, but it does not get in the way of the action :-)

Well, basically, many different Jedi are fighting in many different planets. Dooku and Sidious are cooking upo trouble for Anakin, Yoda is fighting someplace, Two jedi knight women are attacked at a secret jedi cave-place by robots, Kit Fisto is fighting underwater on Mon Calamari, Anakin and Obi-Wan lead an assault on some other planet, Mace Windu is leading an attack on some other place and is showing why he is a badass and finally, General Greivous really messes up some jedi knight's day. That's the whole story.

One thing I never have understood though. You have a massively advanced civilization. Droids, clone armies, super-powerful jedis, laser fire technology and whatnot. But, apparently, their idea of fighting is to line up their troops opposite each other on some convenient plain and have them march at each other whilst shooting their weapons and may the best army win old-chap. Apparently, there's no concept of manoever. The only exception is the ARC troopers (these are the only guys apparently in either side short of the jedi who know that if they are shot at, they should duck :-)).

Other than that, the whole sequnce is quite nicely animated. Lots of eye-candy. While all the sequences were nicely done, some were stand-out.

In all, I rather enjoyed it.

When the Last Sword is Drawn

2006-03-08T02:11:00.000-05:00

This is a japanese movie starring Kiichi Nakai and Koichi Sato. It's called Mibu Gishi Den in Japanese.

It starts off in Meiji era Japan and with an old man taking his grandson to a doctor. A photograph at the doctor's place triggers his memories. Between his and the doctor's recollections, we hear the story of Yoshimura Kanichiro.

Much of the story that is told is set in an interesting period of Japanese history, called Bakumatsu (1853-1869). After 1600 CE, when Tokugawa Ieyasu became the unquestioned Shogun (military overlord) of Japan, the succeeding Tokugawa shoguns became increasingly insular and froze Japan in time, strictly ordering the society and controlling the access to foreign trade. They managed to rule unopposed for the next 250 years. So, when the American Commodore Matthew Perry came with his warships in 1853 to force them to open ports for trade, the Japanese simply did not have the technology to resist. This caused a major upheaval in Japanese society and led to the overthrow of the Shogunate and the establishment of the emperor as the sole titular head of Japan.

Obviously the Shoguns did not go away quietly, and there was a lot of bloodshed. There were pro and anti-Shogunate militias who fought each other. There were a lot of political assasinations. This period threw up some very interesting characters, one of who were the Shinsengumi, a pro-Shogun militia. The Shinsengumi had quite a few strong and famous swordsmen among their number. The Shinsengumi are respected even now as tragic heros and are admired for their fortitude and courage. The Shinsengumi had strict rules for its members, hard training and a hard selection process. If any rules were broken, the offender was ordered to commit seppuku.

Saito Hajime was one of their leaders. He was one of the few of the Shinsengumi to actually survive the period, and went on to become a police officer in modern Japan.

The old man in the beginning of the picture is Saito Hajime. It is this militia that Yoshimura joins.

The doctor and Saito Hajime obviously have different views and different pieces of the story, but the movie stitches these narratives together very nicely. I found it a touch too melodramatic at some places, but it does not detract from the movie.

The sword fights are just awesome. Quite fast and very furious :)

I liked all the characters, but especially Saito Hajime. Koichi Sato played him with cool aplomb. He initially comes across as a cold-hearted murderer but by the end of the movie, I found myself cheering for him. He is just way too cool in a sardonic, the-only-reason-I-am-not-killing-everyone-around-me-is-because-I-don't-feel-like-it-right-now kind of way :-)

Another aspect I really liked was the way the friendships between different characters were portrayed.

This movie reminded me a lot of Twilight Samurai. They are both set in the same time-period, deal with very similar issues (following one's duty, common people being compelled by the ebb and flow of history etc) and the storytelling styles are also quite similar.

In all, I highly recommend it.

Mylapore

2006-02-27T22:09:00.000-05:00

This is a pretty cool site about the social history of Mylapore.
http://my-mylapore.blogspot.com/
Mylapore is really old (dating back to atleast the 1 st Century CE). It is associated with Thiruvalluvar (the author of the Thirukkural), St. Thomas (one of the 12 apostles), is supposed to have preached here.
This particular site doesn't quite reach back that far, but has information starting from the turn of the 20th century. Pretty fascinating stuff.

(poetry==programming)?Perhaps:Perhaps;

2006-02-14T21:29:00.000-05:00

This is in reference to the post on eclair-turing. I was going to write a comment on Naresh's post, but it grew too long.

Now, the gist of the post is as follows
- good programming is about succintness (maximum bang for the buck)
- good poetry is about succintness
- Good metaphors make for more expressive writing
- Good programming paradigms (metaphors for computers :) ) make for more expressive coding.
- Therefore poetry==programming.

It is very well written and backed up with sources. I really enjoyed reading it. But the more I think about it, the less sure I am that it's correct.

All the characteristics of good poetry quoted there are characteristics of good prose too. Low signal-to-noise ration and maximum expressiveness are as much a characteristic of good prose, as of poetry. These things are not poetry's exclusive province. Indeed, they are characteristics of good communication in any medium.

For example..
Peccavi.
(what General Charles Napier said after the conquest of Sind. (Peccavi means 'I have sinned'.)). The Gettysburg Address
The Last Question, by Asimov

None of these has anything more or less than is required. They are expressive, informative and beautiful. They are compact and have intense unity. But, they cannot be called poetry, unless we seriously stretch the meaning of poetry. We can't just say 'Any good collection of sentences is poetry', can we now?':)

So, what then, sets poetry apart?

The most concise way to convey the message of Charge of the Light Brigade is not the poem, but to say 'The Light Brigade was asked to charge the artillery. Even though the soldiers knew that they were going to die for no reason, they followed the order and got shot to bits.' Two sentences, tell you the whole story. Succint. Gets the information across.

But something is missing isn't there? What's missing is the emotional content. The Charge of the Light Brigade is about hopeless courage. It's not about telling you what happened at the Battle of Baclava. That poem stands for any conflict, anywhere where men throw their lives away for a mistake. It is as valid for the 13th Hussars as it is for the millions of lives that Stalin threw away in human wave attacks against the Germans.

Poetry is not about communicating a thought or an idea. It's about communicating an emotion. A poet seeks to make you feel what he feels. That's why our response to poetry is visceral, rather than cerebral.

We would not seek directions to the airport in verse. On the other hand the feeling of separation can be most beautifully expressed in song.

Good poetry is not just a play in words. It has soul. It is romantic in the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance definition of classical and romantic.

Emotional content is what sets poetry apart.

Which brings us to programming..

Programming is a cerebral process. A program is a way of executing an idea or a concept. It is not concerned with the writer's (or the reader's) emotions. It is a 'classical' thing. Its raison-d'etre is utility.

So, where then, one might ask, is the place for art in programming? Is it possible for code to be beautiful? Am I a troglodyte who enjoys destroying other people's joy in writing code? The answers would be yes, yes and no.

Software is not poetry. If I must look for an analogue, I would look into architecture and civil engineering. It's like building a bridge, for example. A bridge can be beautiful, but it's primary purpose is utility, not beauty. A program takes it to the extreme. Its beauty is utility. Beauty here is a piece of code that does the mostest with the leastest.

Isn't that true of poetry also? Of course it is. And prose, and music, and photography, and any other art form. All art seeks to harmoniously interplay the elements to obtain maximum bang for the buck.

Programming is one such art. Poetry is one another such art. Other than the fact that they are art forms, there is not much in common between them.

I really like this post because other than the conclusion (programming==poetry) , the rest of the post is absolutely spot-on. More powerful programming paradigms do make programming more expressive. we must, as programmers, focus on low signal-to-noise ratio. More powerful tools make for better programs.

But these similarities are because both programming and poetry are arts, not because programming==poetry.

Rang De Basanti

2006-02-10T10:41:00.000-05:00

I watched this movie last weekend.

It's a well-written and well made movie.
In case you have been living under a rock and don't know anything about it..

Sue is a british filmmaker whose grandfather used to be a jailer in India during the british rule. She has been reading his diaries about the Indian revolutionaries and desperately wants to make a movie about them. The corporation she works for refuses to pay for it (they say 'Do something on Gandhi, it's more saleable' :) ). She comes to India anyway, hooks up with Sonia(Soha Ali Khan), her Indian contact, and tries to make the movie. She ends up meeting Sonia's buddies, and they all decide to help her make the movie.
The rest of the story is about how the movie is made and how subsequent events affect all of them.

I really liked the way the characters were portrayed. Their interactions were unforced and natural, in a manner reminiscent of Dil Chahta Hai. Folks might have issues with how the story unfolds, but I really can't talk about it without giving away the plot of the movie. I thought the movie was a little slack towards the middle, but not by much.

The music was nice, as was the cinematography. There were some really nice shots. Except maybe one song, none of them felt forced. I liked Rang De Basanti and Roobaroo. I also really liked Lalkaar. It's inspired by Ram Prasad Bismil's Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna.
Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna Hamare Dil Mein Hai
Dekhna hai Zor Kitna Bazu-E-Qatil Mein Hai.
The yearning for sacrifice is in our hearts
We want to test our enemies strength.
Here's the complete poem..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarfaroshi_Ki_Tamanna

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

HERE BE SPOILERS. DONT READ IF YOU DONT WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN THE MOVIE

- This is the angry-young-man movie updated for the current generation. Very intelligently done, but it is at heart, about a bunch of guys getting upset with the system and killing people they feel are responsible. The story is inspired by the death of Abhijit Gadgil in a MIG-21 crash.

- I thought that the conversations the characters had were pretty well written. I can really relate to their rootlessness and lack of inspiration. When I read history I also feel 'Damn, they did so much, what have I done?' and wonder if I will be able to do something phenomenal if I am put in a situation like that. Would I also be willing to just die if I had been born in the 1930s? So, while I don't approve of the character's action, I can understand them doing it.

- Atul Kulkarni's character was my favorite. His initial enmity to Sonia's gang of friends and his later friendship are all very nicely done. I liked the way he recited Sarfaroshi Ki Tamnna and said 'You won't get your Bismil from these guys'. When I was in college, I had an opportunity to talk with many BJP/RSS sympathisers. While some were just insane (let's kill all the muslims!), some were honestly concerned by what they felt was an attack on hindu tradition. That made, for me atleast, his character more believable.

- I liked the way they juxtaposed the 'Documentary' with 'present-day' happenings.

- There were some really nice throw-away shots, like the one where the friends are having a good time, and Siddharth's character is standing away from the group smoking and the one where Atul Kulkarni's character is admiring a Sikh guy's talwar.

iDeo

2006-01-20T23:12:00.000-05:00

It would be something of an understatement to say that iPods have made a splash. They are everywhere. And it seems to me that they are not exactly feature rich for their price. Things that come standard in an iriver (FM reception, for instance) need an extra attachment on an iPod. And I don't like the way they store the music. They are really cool though.

Some folks, I have noticed, wear one all the time. Which, by the way, is perfectly ok by me. I must confess however, that I find it a little strange to see guys wear it even in the toilet. I suppose they feel separated from the very music of the spheres if they are forced to remove the earplugs for even one instant.

Anyway, I was mentioning this at a post-prandial discussion after a most satisfying meal of masala dosas at Chez KD, when one of the assembled suggested a perfectly valid reason for this. He opined that these guys are clearly trying to drown out the inevitable noises made by the other users of said facility. Clearly, the man had thought about this long and hard.

Ah, but what of the assault on the nose, the inevitable side-effect of the aforementioned noises? Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, the iDeo(TM). What it is, is a small dispenser of room freshener attached to your iPod. It will dispense just enough, every so often. Just turn it on while on the Ceramic Throne. Your nose will thank you for it.

I was going to call it iLoo, but I see the name is alreay taken.

Angels and Demons

2006-01-08T23:44:00.000-05:00

I finally read this book by Dan Brown.
Apparently, it was written before The Da Vinci Code.
Well, what can I say. If you read one, you read them all :)
- Robert Langdon. Check.
- Beautiful, talented heroine. Check.
- Slightly deranged, hyper-assasin. Check.
- Secret that potentially threatens the Roman Catholic Church. Check.
- Cool clues that really challenge the good Doctor and his love-interest. Check.
- Mortal peril for the aforementioned Doctor and babe. Check.
- Ending that avoids disturbing the status quo. Check.

It is not a bad book mind you. It has some really cool moments. Nice read.

Of bajjis and blogs

2006-01-08T23:12:00.000-05:00

My cousin Dhurvaasan pointed me to his blog.
http://raadikadai.blogspot.com/

Every college seems to have it's raadi-equivalents where students could go and have their late-night fix of food, tea and much arattai. An apt site for 'A feast of reason and the flow of soul.', if there ever was one. A place that fulfilled the same role that the Forum did for the Romans or the Agora for the Greeks.

After reading his post on the mirchi bajjis, I got an irrestible urge to have bajjis and tea.
So, I made bajjis and some piping hot adrak-ka-chai.

I raise my cup of tea to toast The Raadi kadai :-)

Living in the Past - Network Analysis

2005-11-19T20:07:00.000-05:00

I am sometimes accused of living in the past, of talking a lot about the college days and have been told 'Dude, those days will never come back.'. Heck I knowthat. That's why I talk about them. Or I'd be living them, right?

I learnt a lot of useless things in Manipal. Like how the Babcock and Wilcox Boiler works. I am glad to say that I don't remember how it works at all now. Clearly, those neurons have been put to better use. I learnt useful stuff too, which I have since forgotten. I could tell every production motorcycle in those days (and there were only a few back then) just by the engine note (my hostel room overlooked the street).

But something that has never been forgotten is Network Analysis.

Third sem was a lot of fun. Many visits to the beaches, many movies, many books(The Hitchhiker's Guide, most notably), many late night discussions, riding ra42s bicycle around the hostel corridor to see who could get the best time, listening to borrowed tapes on borrowed stereos. This was the semester of pinks' scooty, hikes in the country side and also Network analysis.

Network Analysis was a mass-ordi paper. Ordi basically means that you got < 35 out of 100 on that paper. You would have to take the paper again next year and it would show on record. Mass ordi paper means, well, lots of people got ordis in that paper. We knew all this going into the third semester.

Me and my buddy ra42 figured, hey, we know volts law (something about how i1r1=i2r2 or some such thing, I have forgotten). Everything else is going to be a derivation of that. I mean, how much more complicated could networks get, right?:-) So, well, almost everyone else is panicking. People are taking extra tuition, they are busting their butts studying and we are discussing concepts like 'What makes a joke funny?' (The answer btw is that most good jokes employ paradigm shifts to create humor. You think something is going to happen, but something else does.) . Much time was spent discussing Ayn Rand, The Importance of Having a Value System, Does God Exist?, Do God Need to Exist, The Hitchhiker's Guide, Yes Primeminister, The Relative Merits of Actresses, The Relative Merits (or the lack thereof) of our collegemates, Dire Straits, Doors, Pink Floyd etc etc, in no specific order. Just your basic college hostel education.

So, exam time rolls by, it's the night before the test. We figure we better do something about the test. The very air crackles with electricity and tension. Everyone is tensed, everyone is studying hard. You can practically smell the fear in the air. We trek up to Boxer's hostel room and ask him for help (we don't have notes, we barely know the syllabus). Boxer asks us a few questions. When we dont know the answers, he gives us a look reserved for condemned men, and says 'You guys have no chance tomorrow. This is what I am going to do. I will show you a few problems, learn them well and hope they show up in the test.' We studied most of the night that night.

The next morning, I awoke, showered, shaved, got to the exam hall. Right outside the hall, Sammy told me the solution to yet another problem. We all went in, wrote the test. Sammy's problem was there. Many of Boxer's problems were there. I passed, as did Ra42. We had survived!

Believe it or not, this is one of the biggest things I remember from my time in Manipal. It's not like cooler things didn't happen. Of course they did. But, for some reason, Network Analysis, like Wordsworth's Daffodils stands out in my Manipal memory. In a way it was not so good. It reinforced the general 'Chalta Hai' attitude.

Maybe if we had got a sharp rap at this juncture(like getting marks I really deserved:-)), I would have been a more serious guy, who filed his tax returns on time, who didn't wait till the last moment to get his car inspected, who booked tickets well in advance of his trips etc etc. But, well, it didn't happen, did it?

To Live (Huozhe)

2005-10-25T02:52:00.000-04:00

This is a chinese movie by Yimou Zhang and stars You Ge and Li Gong.

The movie starts in early 1940s in China and spans a period of 20 years or so. It follows the life of Xu Fugui and his wife Xu Jiazhen. Fugui is a gambler and is steadily spending his family fortune by gambling it away. He ignores his pregnant wife and his daughter. Unable to take this, his wife leaves him. He loses his family's house and his father dies, unable to bear the insult. His wife returns to him and he starts rebuilding his life from scratch. The movie follows the life of their family though the period of some twenty years or so. The story is told in the backdrop of the great upheavals in China at that time : The communist revolution, Mao's Great Leap Forward etc. The film is also a commentary on the pressure on people to conform. Everyone is afraid to seem 'not revolutionary enough' or 'not communist enough' or 'too capitalist'.

The film manages to show all this without being terribly obvious about it. The focus is always on the Xu family and these epic events that happen around them are just the canvas on which the picture is drawn. So, we get a sense of how 'big' things affect 'little' people.

I was really impressed with the way the characters were portrayed. Li Gong is simply brilliant as Xu Jiazhen. She's just too beautiful and has an expressive face. You Ge has done a really nice role as Xu Fugui.

The script is poignant without being maudlin. It's not depressing throughout, even though depressing things happen. There are happy times and sad times, just like in any family. I really liked the lack of heavy handedness in the script. The feelings are expressed subtly and without overt melodrama. In that, the movie reminded me of Twilight Samurai. After a while, you really start identifying with all the characters.

In all, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. The movie has a real 'asian' feel to it.

I really wish that Indian moviemakers would make movies like this, instead of pumping out maudlin "family" melodramas like Baghban.

The Rising - Mangal Pandey

2005-08-18T22:15:00.000-04:00

Aamir Khan plays Mangal Pandey, who is one of the iconic figures in the First War of Independence (or the Sepoy Mutiny, if you prefer the British version). Very little is known of him.

British accounts of his actions indicate that he merely had a bad day at work. Apparently, he shot his officer, injured another and then tried to commit suicide. A plight that many present day officegoers afflicted with pointy-haired bosses no doubt identify with.

I don't think that this reading of history is correct. It ignores the societal conditions and the support that the rebellion got. These things don't happen in a vacuum. The East India company though its many actions had managed to rile up the population, the princes and the army. One of the proximate causes was that the new cartridges for the rifles was coated with the grease of pig and cow fat. Since the army consisted of high-caste hindus and muslims, this managed to offend both their sensibilities. Some officers

In any case, Mangal Pandey's actions were one of the earliest incidents of the War of 1857. The Army of Bengal of the British East India company revolted. Many princes joined the revolt. They managed to take over Delhi and installed Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal King, as the ruler. The British were initially taken aback by the sudden turn of events. They maanged to recover, and with the help of fresh regiments from Britain and other native regiments who had stayed loyal managed to ultimately roll back the tide. While it lasted, the war was a bloody and cruel affair. At the end of the War, the British government took over the direct rule of India from the East India Company.

The movie has tried to stay as close as possible to historic events. Not much is known of Mangal Pandey, so they have given him a back story. They have created a fictional character called William Gordon who is saved by Mangal in Afghanistan and becomes his friend. When the issue of greased cartridges comes up in Mangal's regiment, Gordon is told by his superiors that there is no animal fat in the cartridges and he announces that to his regiment. Mangal volunteers to fire the gun so that his friend will not lose face. Later, when it becomes clear that the cartridges did have animal fat on them, it creates a rift in their friendship.

I really liked the way that the character of William Gordon was developed and played. The easy camaraderie between him and Mangal(including a wrestling match at the akhara), his personal distrust of the company, his basic decency(he rescues a girl from sati) and his anguish at having unknowingly betrayed his friend are all portrayed very well.

Aamir Khan plays Mangal well. I really wish they had spent some more time developing his character rather than wasting time with two pointless songs. One was an 'item' number and another a 'holi' song. As it happens, one day Mangal is a sepoy in a regiment, and the next, he becomes a leader of the revolt chatting up Azimullah and Tatya Tope.

Azimullah is an interesting character. He was the prime minister to Nana Sahib, an Indian ruler. When the British East India company refused Nana Sahib succession under the Doctrine of Lapse, he sent Azimullah to Britain to plead his case. Azimullah was fluent in English and apparently something of a charmer. But he failed his mission. On the way back, he came via Constantinople and visited the site of the Crimean War. He observed that the British were not invincible and were currently taking a beating. He was one of the instigators of the War since he wanted to strike while the British were still recovering. Of course, none of this is shown in the movie, probably to save time to show the stupid Holi song.

Rani Mukherji plays Aamir Khan's love interest and is basically wasted in that role. I didn't think that love story was needed. I found the romance between William Gordon and Jwala (the girl he rescues) to be much more interesting.

The movie has played a lot of attention to recreating history and have largely succeeded. The period costumes and architecture look great. They have also used stories about the revolt intelligently (lower caste sweeper mocking soldiers for biting greased cartridges, prostitutes mocking soldiers for being slaves of the british, Gordon saying 'If you have a tradition of burning widows, I have a tradition of killing murderers'(this is a paraphrase of the quotes attributed to Lord Napier in the same context) ), if a little out of context. They have also taken liberties with the stories and characters, but I thought that was perfectly ok.

There are also interesting devices they have used to move the story along. Like there are these bunch of guys who hang around, smoke hookas and talk and they are used to tell us stuff like how the British have intrduced Telegraph. Gordon talks about how the East India Company is buying opium in India and selling it in China (which caused the Opium Wars, where the Indian sepys fought). The caste system prevalent at that time is shown as is an attempted Sati. These go a long way towards providing some depth for the movie.

In all, I liked the movie. They have basically made a historical movie while still abiding by the bollywood formula. I wish they had freed themselves of that adherence, but that's just me.

Fitness takes six minutes a week

2005-06-09T00:21:00.000-04:00

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/06/06/sprint.training/

Of course, this is total nonsense. If six minutes a week was all it took to get fit, we could just devote one minute a day, six days a week to working out, and take Sunday off.

This report is a pretty good example of people taking research and interpreting the results really badly.

They have taken 16 people, 8 of whom have done nothing, and 8 of whom have worked out. Of the sixteen, the eight who worked out showed improvements over the eight who didn't. Well, we don't need research to show that any kind of working out is better than not working out at all.

The workout they are talking about is interval sprints, which by the way is a very good way of improving your stamina. When you do long bouts of cardio, your body adapts really quickly to the routines and you start getting diminishing returns both in terms of weight loss and also in terms of endurance gains. That is why you see many people in the gym running and biking on the machines and not seeming to get very far fitnes wise. Your body will sooner or later figure out the efficient way of doing these activities.

What happens in interval sprints is that you do short bursts (say 30 seconds) of the workout (biking/running/whatever) at very high intensity (hence sprint), and then recover by doing the same activity at a lower intensity. So, for instance, if you were to apply this to running, a typical routine would look like this
jog : 90 seconds
sprint : 30 seconds
jog : 90 seconds
sprint : 30 seconds
jog : 90 seconds
sprint : 30 seconds
jog : 90 seconds
sprint : 30 seconds

This whole workout woud total only 8 minutes but packs quite a punch. The sprints kill you, and the jogs ensure that you cannot just stop. This sort of workout really shocks your body and forces it to perform. This leads to positive improvements in your stamina and overall fitness.

Now, the researchers have had the subjects do four 30 second sprints followed by 4 minute recovery times. The writer of the article has added up the sprint times for each day (2 minutes), multiplied that by 3 (since they workout 3 times a week) and come up with the magic time of six minutes of working out per week.

But, when you do four 30-second sprints, with four minutes of recovery, in reality, you are working out for 18 minutes, and done 3 times a week, comes to 54 minutes per week, which is nine times the time that the article claims.

Mind you, I think that interval sprints are great to improve stamina and get fit. They are my preferred mode of cardio (when I do cardio, that is :-) ). I find that these sprints really challenge me and keep me from getting bored. After all, running on the treadmill for 25-30 minutes does get old fast.

But, I think that this article is grossly misleading in terms of what it promises. If you want to do interval training, you better be willing to devote more than six minutes a week for your fitness regimen.

Return of the Sith

2005-06-07T01:34:00.000-04:00

I finally saw Return of the Sith. Saw it on an giant screen no less. I figured if I was getting shafted, I would get shafted big :-)

What people say is true. It's certainly better than The Phantom Menace and the Attack of the Clones. But those movies have set the bar so low that crossing it is no big deal.

Ok, so did I enjoy it? I rather enjoyed the action scenes. As long as no one was talking or was trying to justify their actions, the movie was cool. Some of the scenes were just brilliant. For instance, Yoda walks in a room, two arbit guys point some thingamajigs at him, Yoda carelessly waves his hand, slams them into the wall and they collapse in a heap. Cool scenes like this are few and far between, but they are there.

The plot is hopelessly riddled with holes. The Jedi are super-kickass-fighters, apparently, but they seem to die pretty tamely. Oh, some separatists have taken our chancellor prisoner. Ok, we will send two people to rescue him. How about sending a few more? Maybe they were too busy meditating or teaching Yoda grammar or something.

I found the conversion of Anakin into the dark side particularly unconvincing.

Join the Dark Side
No
Join the Dark Side
No
Join the Dark Side
Oh, ok.

C'mon!

The supposed reason that Anakin flirts with the dark side is to keep his babe from dying at childbirth.You can't tell me that a princess of a realm can't command enough resources to make sure that her pregnancy is safe. Yeah, we got light-sabers,faster-than-light-travel, battle cruisers, cool levitational tech, but, no, we still lose women tochild-birth. Oh, I am getting premonitions that my wife's going to die of childbirth, I would consult her ob-gyn specialist, not try to figure out how to revive her *after* she dies.

This is a pity because Anakin's conversion is the pivotal point of the whole movie. And it looks so weak thanks to the build-up (or the lack thereof). Having just had a hand in Mace Windu's death (hand, get it?), Anakin was pretty much screwed at that point. He could either surrender to the Jedi council, commit suicide or join Palpy at his little taking-over-the-galaxy scheme. The story was never built up to the point where his reasons for his actions were made clear.

If his joining the dark side was to protect Padme, then, why didn't he kill himself when he was told she was dead? Clearly, he must have felt that the Sith had something going for them, other than a nebulous promise to be able to create life. If they had built up the story properly, the viewers would have atleast felt that his conversion was genuine.

Would it have killed Georgie boy to have a few minutes where the Palpatine says 'this is why I think the Sith rock and the Jedi suck'? Clearly, that time was spent on showing some pointless CGI thingummy.

Oh, and the few times that people actually talk, you cringe. Especially the scenes where Anakin and Padme talk. Oh man! That sucked.

The pity of it all is that the prequels actually havea cool story arc. It's about how a republic is perverted into an empire by manufacturing a war. The senator has played his cards brilliantly,played both sides against each other, used the natural impatience that people have with the process of democracy to destroy democracy itself. Interesting story. There's no such backbone to the original series.

But, the execution of this story has been pathetic.

When you step back and look at it, you can see that this had what it took to be a true masterpiece. Pathetic screenplay, poor direction and acting has ensured that it will never happen. The devil is indeed in the details :-) Like, Psmith says so often.. For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, "It might have been."

So, what's the point?

2005-05-08T23:57:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking about fitness, weight-loss, eating right, and other matters allied to 'healthy living'. Ultimately, What's the point? What are we shooting for?

So, you go to the gym, workout hard, eat right. What the heck are you getting? So, you are stronger and fitter. Does it matter?

Physical capacity has no bearing on our lives. We move around in motorized vehicles(with power steering, power brakes and power windows where possible), have sedentary jobs and very few of us raft down the mighty Amazon on theweekends. No grizzlies to fight. No rampaging hordes of barbarians to keep from the door.

Clearly, we have no *real* need to be fit. Let us examine the usual reasons given for being fit.

It makes you feel better about yourself :
Does it really? Working out hurts. You sweat, you stink. Then,you go home all cramped up and tired. Your muscles hurt. Overwork and you get hurt. Run too much and your knees get injured. It's like some kind of weird masochistic ritual.

It is going to make you live longer:
Does that really matter? Let's say working out adds 10 years to your life. Is it going to let us live our 20s all overagain? No way. The ten years are going to be added to the *end* of our lives. From where I stand, it makes no difference if I die when I am 90 or when I am 100.I am going to be a tired, grouchy old man, with most of my friends dead and with irritating relatives to put up with.
What's more, after you cross a certain age, it is diseases that you can do nothing about that get you. So, even the living-longer claim is really dodgy.

It is going to let you do more:
That's not even true. Unless you are into solitary pastimes, your activities are going to be decided by your group of friends. By definition, then, you are only going to participate in things that the majority of your friends can participate in. So, in essence, there's no advantage to being fitter than average.

So, folks, we might as well go with the flow. Eat everything. Don't work out. Why bother.

India Vs. Australia Part 2

2005-04-08T09:29:00.000-04:00

The Indian women's cricket team has just defeated New Zealand and made it to the finals of the Women's World Cup.
http://specials.rediff.com/cricket/2005/apr/08cric1.htm
Apparently, we were struggling at 38 for 2 in the 14th over till the captain Mithali Raj slammed an unbeaten 91 off 104 balls.
Our adversaries in the finals are the Aussies. Once more.

The last time India met Australia at a World Cup Final would of course be the 2003 (men's) World Cup when Australia thoroughly kicked our ass. They first slammed our bowling around the park (359 in 50 overs) and then proceeded on to a 129 run victory. It was traumatizing to watch, to say the least.

I hope the women's team avenges that defeat :-)

Sunday River, the addendum

2005-03-22T07:31:00.000-05:00

I was driving yesterday and thinking about the skiing trip to Sunday river. There's one thing I forgot to add to my blog.

So, Friday night, when we had finished our first day of skiing, we went out, had dinner. By now, it was snowing pretty heavily. As we came back to our condo, I found that there was a lot of snow on the parking lot and the parking lot had big open spaces. It was time to put the car into some spins..

Basically, what you do is to pick up some speed (not too much, maybe 5-10 mph), and then you turn the wheel and pull the handbrake. The car goes into a nice spin. You know, just like in the movies. Atleast that's the theory. Since the snow removes a lot of the friction, it can be pulled off at lower speeds.

When I told the folks what I planned to try, KD and LR said 'good luck' and left the car :-)

So, I found a empty section of the parking lot, and proceeded to put the theory to the test.
Well, it works. Nice, little spins (since I wasn't going to try high speeds). Fun feeling though. Exactly the kind of feeling you don't want in the highway :-)

Children, if you plan to try this at home, please, please, make sure that the parking lot (or wherever it is that you are trying this out), is empty. No other people nearby, no cars, no telephone poles, no nothing. Exercise your judgement. There's absolutely nothing you can do to control the car (except maybe drop the handbrake and try to regain control) once you are in the spin. Don't do anything stupid.

Sunday River Skiing

2005-03-17T03:41:00.000-05:00

I had not done much skiing before this year (three afternoons' worth, three years ago). I was always a little worried that my knees would get injured. Seeing people in casts at work every skiing season did little to change my opinion.

This season, my friends (KD, SD and LR) convinced me to try skiing again with the eloquent argument 'What are you, chicken?'. Of course, now they claim that they didn't say anything of that sort. Apparently, all they did was to point out that skiing was a fun outdoor activity that a guy like me would enjoy and that my fears of knee injury were misplaced. I guess recollections of events vary.

Suffice it to say that peer pressure is not always a bad thing.

I skied for the first time in Wachusett Mountain in Boston, spending about three hours on the beginner slope there. I hasten to add that I use the word skiing in the loosest of ways. All I remembered was that I was supposed to make a wedge as I came down. Towards the end of the day, I thought I was doing ok.

The second time was with KD, SD and LR at Mountain Creek. One look at my 'skiing' and they basically said 'Stay here on the beginner slope, work your technique' and that's what I did all day. The slopes on mountain creek look like Ranganathan Street on a busy Saturday evening. Just way too many people. It's great for practicing control, though :-)

Of course, I enjoyed it all so much that I put in an order for skis, boots and poles. Sports Authority had a 40% off sale on all these, and I figured I would make the money back in a few trips. So, when we went to Sunday River in Maine the next weekend, I was all ready with my gear.

Sunday River is a cool ski resort with six mountains with multiple beginner, intermediate and advanced slopes. We rented a slope-side condo and the price included lift tickets and lessons for two days. In all, it worked out to a pretty reasonable price. We made it there late Thursday night. The plan was to get up early on Friday and start skiing at 9:00 am.

As it happened (and it happens often), we got up at 9:00, started skiing at 11:00. Once we got on the slopes wanderlust gripped SD. He just wanted to ski every slope that he could. Of course, this enthusiasm was infectious. The way the trails are set up, you can go from hill to hill on long traverses. These don't have much of a slope. So, we'd do a green trail a couple of times, then, the next time up, get on one of the traverses, go to the next mountain, do the green trails there and so on. We started with the left-most hill (which was easiest) and worked our way right. Towards the end, of course, the greens were more challenging. The last two we did (Dream Maker and Lollapalooza) were the toughest green trails on the hill.

Now, ideally, for a skier like me(i.e. novice with no clue), the best thing to do is to go across the slope, left to right, then, turn, come back right to left and so on. This traversing of the slope ensures that regardless of the slope, you never pick up too much speed. Of course, you start in a wedge, but the longer your traverses are, the wedge disappears and your skis start getting parallel. That's the first step to developing the proper skiing technique, apparently.

As I got more exhausted, all I was doing was pretty much going down straight, picking up lots of speed, and wedging like crazy in an attempt to slow down. Of course, I thought I was still traversing. Exhaustion can do that sort of thing to your mind. Ideally, I should have stayed on a simple beginner slope and worked my technique. But I was having so much fun hopping the hills with the rest of the gang that I just went with the flow.

Lollapalooza was a harsh mistress, to quote SD, with steep icy sections. And, coming down Lollapalooza, I had a mighty fall. I lost one ski, briefly attempted one-legged skiing and finished with a face plant on the snow. I had landed in one of the icier sections and I could barely get up because my ski boots kept slipping out from under me. Putting my skis back on was an adventure all unto itself. LR stayed with me the whole time, helping me get my things together, and making sure I got back on my skis. I owe her one.

At long last, we were done for the day and did a few long traverses (Kansas, Lower Lazy River, Road Runner) to get back to the condo. I was beat. I was tired, I was hungry. A brief digression on the hunger part...

KD, SD and LR believe in ascetic skiing. They neither eat nor drink when they ski. They look down upon anyone who is weak enough to succumb to the temptations of the flesh while on the slopes :-). No doubt this pleases the Skiing Gods who then bestow their blessings. I have no clue how they manage it. Me, I finished off my ration of four granola bars and an apple and an entire bottle of water in the course of the five hours of skiing.

After we got back, I spent some time in the jacuzzi, which really relaxed my aching muscles. We then went out and had a big, nice dinner. Oh yeah, by this time, it had started snowing too. We chilled out after the dinner, listening to some music, indulging in some pleasant conversation, mostly about how cool the day's skiing had been and how great the next day's skiing was going to be. There were brief digressions on 80s Hindi movies, Rock and Roll and other assorted trivia. It had been a great day and every one felt really good. Nothing like a hard physical workout, followed by a hot jacuzzi and lots of good food to put one in a mellow mood :-)

The next day, we woke up to find that there had been nearly a foot of snow overnight, and we just couldn't wait to start skiing. I was quite pleased with Friday's skiing, so I figured that I would just ski for four hours or so and just chill out at the restaurant the rest of the time.

When we hit the slopes, we were surprised by the quality of the snow. Fresh Powder! The feeling was just great. Of course, it was continuously snowing (sometimes at 2 inches an hour) for the whole day. The snow kept many people off the roads and hence the slopes presumably. So, the resort wasn't as crowded as it might have been on a Saturday.

The heavy snow also meant that the skiing conditions were way different than the first day. For one, the snow slowed me down to such an extent that I felt confident enough to try a fairly easy Intermediate slope. More on the snow a little later.

In the meanwhile, LR lost her way, and managed to run a black diamond. So, KD and SD decided to run that black diamond with her one more time. While these folks were playing with the Blacks and the Blues, I decided to go check out my favorite traverse, the Three Mile. It was a fairly long run, and I met the rest of the gang at South Base.

Here, I discovered that I had a free lesson as part of the package and decided to take it. I was dead-tired by this point and figured that a nice quiet lesson would be a good way of topping the trip off. Well, as it happened, the lesson involved us doing Dream Maker two more times and a fairly steep Intermediate slope called Escapade. While my plans of an easy, chilled out afternoon were shot to bits, the lesson really helped. Deadly Dave, our instructor, had us focusing on specific things. I picked up a couple of concepts (making sure that the head stayed level, dealing with bumps etc) that really helped me. After the lesson, I ran Dream Maker a couple more times, just to make sure I had absorbed the lesson well.

Well, remember how I had planned on a easy half-day of skiing? By the time all this was done, and I was making my way back to the condo (another run of long traverses across the mountains), it was 4:00 pm. I had skied the entire day. My muscles were burning . We packed up, and drove to Boston to some hot Thai food on Madurai Avenue. The drive in the snow (it snowed non-stop) was fairly uneventful but for a skid while merging into 95 near Boston. Heh, suffice it to say that what's fun on the slopes is not fun on the road.

Boston, well, was Boston. Friends, Food, the usual bit.

In all, this trip was fantastic. Just the first day was paisa vasool. I really enjoyed the quiet runs with very few people to share the hill with.

The second day just blew my mind. The heavy snow muffled every sound, and on the lesser used trails, all you could hear was the snow falling. I stopped at many places to just enjoy the quiet(like Robert Frost stopping by the woods on a snowy afternoon :-) ). Skiing in that deep fresh snow was such a great feeling, though. All you hear is the whisper of the skis on the snow. More a swish than the usual crunch. Oh, and the deep snow 'gives' so much, it is almost like you are weightless. Like you are swimming. Or flying even. Like water on glass. Man, it was such a great feeling, I still feel good thinking about it! Even the times I fell, it felt like falling on a giant white bed.

I think I am spoiled for life :-) I doubt if I will ever be lucky enough to get snow like that again..

Anyway, that's how it all came out. I know this is a pretty long winded post, but hey, I had to get it all in :-)

If you made it this far, people, take my word for it, if you get a chance, try skiing. It's great, cool and awesome. If you are worried about injuries, well, as long as your bindings are set right, you won't have problems. If you live in a place that gets snow, well, there's no better way to pass the otherwise dreary winter months. Heh, Good luck then, and more powder to you :-)

The Parable of the Procrastinator

2005-01-20T10:18:00.000-05:00

Long ago, in a kingdom far-far away..

There was this guy who was going to be executed. The reasons aren't important.
Before being executed, he says 'I would like to speak to the king, I have important news for him.'
So, they take him to the king and the king asks him what is this important news.
He says 'King, give me one year and I will teach your horse to fly.'
The king is intrigued and gives him one year's time.

The prisoner's buddy asks him 'Hey, you have no clue how to make a horse fly, why did you tell him that?'
The prisoner says 'Friend, many things can happen in a year. I might die, the king might die, and for all you know, the horse might fly!'.

Johnny Sokko and the Giant Robot

2005-01-16T22:05:00.000-05:00

When I was in fifth standard (and that was a long time ago), there was this really cool Japanese series on Doordarshan called Giant Robot (Actually, the series was called Johnny Sokko and his amazing Flying Robot but, when you are nine years old, these details don't matter).

It was all about this kid called Johnny Sokko who has this huge Robot. He would flip open his watch and speak to the robot and the robot would pretty much do anything he asked. The Robot was huge (like multi-story building huge).

Johnny belonged to organization called Unicorn. Their job was to fight this evil monster-king-thingy from outerspace who has a whole bunch of monsters at his beck and call. Every week, he would send one of these monsters up against the city. The monsters would break a couple of buildings, terrorize the neighborhood, Unicorn would be alerted and Johnny Sokko, his buddy and the Giant Robot would land up, defeat the monster, and peace would reign until the next week.

The Robot, could fly, thanks to the rocket booster in its back. He had a pretty impressive arsenal of weaponry. Missiles that would pop out of his fingers, heat rays from his eyes and so on and so forth. He would also, if the circumstance warranted, engage the monster in hand-to-hand (or tentacle, as the case may be) combat. Each monster would have a specific strong-point (cool rhino like horns, tentacles, heat-ray) and would mess up Giant Robot. Then of course, Giant Robot would gain the upper-hand (and/or Johnny would figure out what to do to defeat the monster).

I thought it was the coolest thing. I would be deeply upset if I couldn't watch it. Of course, my buddies and I would discuss each episode to its minutest detail. The Giant Robot would do a series of calisthenics before he could access his weaponry (right hand to chest, left hand to chest, and out come the heat rays!). We of course had that stuff memorized. When you are nine years old, these details matter. Then the series got over.

Fast-forward six years... I was in twelfth grade. They were showing Giant Robot again on Doordarshan. I made sure I watched it. And, man!, was it disappointing. The special effects sucked, the buildings were so clearly made out of cardboard, the monsters were badly animated rubber puppets, it was badly dubbed and the stroyline sucked. I could not believe that it was the same series that had so captivated me long ago. The next day, at school, a friend of mine said 'I can't believe I used to cry if I missed watching this serial.'.

You know, sometimes, growing up just sucks.

Manmadan

2005-01-02T22:26:00.000-05:00

Long ago, when we were kids, this guy called T.Rajendar used to make Tamil movies. He was (and continues to be) a short, extremely hairy guy. People used to love him. I never could understand why. I guess it is one of those things like Visu movies.

Visu was this guy who used to make really involved family dramas which usually involved daughters-in-law being really evil to parents-in-law(and/or vice versa). Severely boring for most of us kids, but our parents loved that stuff. Here's one guy's take on Visu. http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~sundar/tp/visu.html . I consider Visu movies to be the direct forebears of the TV serials with names like 'Marumagal'(daughter-in-law), 'Amma'(mother), 'Pakkathu Veetu Mangatha'(Mangatha the neighbour) etc and hold him personally responsible for the subsequent loss in our society's collective IQ. But, I digress.

Back to T.Rajendar. I really don't remember what the movies were about. He used to act, direct, sing songs, compose the music, do the camera work, work the clapper, get a cup of cutting chai for the heroine and do everything else that goes into making the movies. His big thing was alliterative dialogues. He would say stuff like 'Neenga vanthirunthinga Five, Ippo Ungalukku ellam Good Bye' before beating up the (five) henchmen of the heroine's father/brother/other evil male relative. And the audience would all cheer.

There was a time when he ruled the roost in the Tamil Nadu movie industry. That is not saying much. Ramarajan too ruled the roost once. But, that is a topic for another day.. Suffice it to say.. de gustibus et coloribus non disputandum est, or in English 'There aint no accounting for taste'.

T.Rajendar's son, Silambarasan (who used to act in his dad's movies under the nom-de-guerre of Chimpu) is now all grown up and this movie is his first in the leading role.

First, the story. The hero is Manmadan, a serial killer who preys upon 'loose' women. Apparently, he hangs out at bars, discos, coffee shops, Book shops and other such places. He chooses his victim, seduces her (to confirm her general lack of morals, presumably) and proceeds to kill her. The heroine is a 'nice' girl who falls in love with the hero. She sees him with one of the victims, reports him to the cops. Hero tells the cops a story about having a deranged twin who is doing all the killings. Story checks out, cops release him, heroine apologizes, Hero ditches her and in a last tete-a-tete with the audience tells us that it was indeed he that was doing the killings to avenge the death of his deranged twin brother who committed suicide because a babe ditched him.

Now, this is not a bad story. The movie, on the other hand, is quite bad. Silambarasan labors under the misapprehension that he is some kind of real actor. This finds expression in long, pointless monologues. He thinks he is showing major emotion. He comes off looking like a petulant kid who has had his lollipop taken from him. The fact that the story calls for the serial killer target women is used as an excuse for extremely loud song-and-dance sequences that involve skimpily dressed starlets. Needless to state, S fancies himself a dancer too(I think he is taking this competition-with-father thing a bit too far).

The movie is pretty unbelievable, starting from the way he disposes of the bodies, the way the cops buy his story and pretty much everything else. I found the bits with the victims to be particularly juvenile.
A sample sequence goes like this
Victim 'I am wearing revealing clothes, so I am clearly cheating on my boyfriend.'.
Serial Killer 'I knew it, you fox you'
V 'I find you unbearably attractive.'
SK 'All righty, I am going to take you to a remote area and kill you. Oh, wait, we haven't had a song in the last five minutes, so we will first dance to a bad song and then I will kill you.'
V 'Whatever'

Audience 'Err, what?'

The dialogue is cliched, the songs are boring, the acting is sub-par and the movie pretty much sucks all around. I guess that means this movie is going to become a hit and we are going to be subjected to more of Silambarasan in the future.

There was exactly five minutes of entertainment for me in the movie, and that was the song En Aasai Mythiliye. I must confess I rather enjoyed the song.

I got roped into watching this movie on the night show during my latest trip to India. Two of my cousins are terribly in love with the movie (De gustibus etc etc) and they dragged three more of us to watch the movie. Suffice it to say that the three of us will probably never let them forget it.

Veer Zaara, a review from India

2004-12-03T01:21:00.000-05:00

I watched Veer Zaara recently. It is sort of like DDLJ, except the guy in Indian, the babe is pakistani and they run around Punjab instead of running around Europe.
Here be spoilers..

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;

Oh, wait, that's Romeo and Juliet. Veer Zaara is totally, completely, utterly different from every other love story ever created, of course.

Movie starts in Pakistan.

Rani Mukerji is a lawyer who wants to free Shah Rukh Khan who is an Indian prisoner in jail. SRK initially refuses to talk to her, then realises that he has a soft-spot for good looking pakistani women and opens up...
zoinzoinzoin, Flashback.
22 years ago..

SRK is a squadron leader of a rescue 'copter squadron in the IAF. He sings a song.

Preity Zinta is a babe in Lahore. She sings a song. Everyone in Pakistan sings and it rains all the time. The ones that dont sing speak in an impenetrable punjabi accent.

PZ's grandma dies and requests (before dying of course) that her ashes be immersed in Punjab. PZ hops over to India, gets in a bus accident, is rescued by SRK and who then proceeds to help her immerse the ashes.
Everyone in India sings and those that don't speak in an impenetrable punjabi accent. PZ makes deep observation (during the course of a song) that 'your country is just like mine'. You bet! Both countries love ridiculous bollywood movies and both countries want kashmir.

SRK takes PZ to his ancestral home where we discover that Amitabh Bacchan and Hemamalini are his foster parents. A&H live in the same house that was used for Pardes. Again, everyone sings and dances. A gives some advice to SRK involving women and bicycles which totally escaped me (the theater had a really bad sound system and there was that punjabi accent again). Oh, and SRK is all over Preity all the time, of course.

SRK goes to drop off Preity at the train station where her fiance has come over to pick her up. Preity had forgotten to tell him anything about the engagement. In Tamil, we call it 'giving alva'. In Hindi, it is called KLPD. I guess it is hard to introduce that topic in the middle of all the singing and dancing. SRK wishes her the best of luck.

After going back, PZ decides that she loves SRK more than her fiance. SRK gets the news, goes to Pakistan and they embrace at a durgah in the rain in front of the two families. In case you were wondering, there is a song going on in the background, since, as we all know by now, everyone in Pakistan sings.

PZ's dad faints, Pz's mom comes to SRK and asks him to leave her daughter alone, because her dad would surely die if she were to marry SRK. SRK obliges, tells PZ something about duty and asks her to marry the fiance. Then, on his way back, the fiance gets SRK arrested and puts him behind bars on trumped up charges.
zoinzoinzoin.
Present day.

Does Rani manage to free SRK? Will the lovers unite? Do we care?The answers are yes, yes, and no.

The morals of the story are

- Everyone in Pakistan sings, everyone in India sings. Therefore we are alike.
- If you plan to declare your undying love to a girl before her marriage, it is advisable to do it out of sight of her fiance and his family.

A river trip report from last year..

2004-11-21T10:43:00.000-05:00

Yeh, un dinon ki baath hai..

This is something that happened in the Summer of 2003. It was a fine summer weekend. Pleasant weather. I got up Saturday morning feeling full of energy, all ready to go out and do great deeds. I reflected that I had really not worked out hard throughout the week. Maybe I would go for a nice long run to make up for it. I then had a heavy brunch and slept off watching Shahenshah on TV.

Woke up 4:30 ish, decided to go have a pleasant hour's paddle on the Schuylkill River. I had discovered a couple of weeks previously that the Schuylkill flowed right past Phoenixville and that the section was boatable. There is a canal that parallels the river so one could paddle down the river, get on the canal and paddle up. The canal, apparently was a quiet, slow-flowing body of water. No need to take drinking water.. Just a little hour's paddle.. Max two hours paddle..http://www.schuylkillcanal.com/about/index.html

So, I got up to the river, got all dressed for paddling, got on the river 5:30-ish and proceeded to have a pleasant paddle down. There were some little riffles where the water got a bit faster. The river consists of slow sections interspersed with places where the river was constricted due to maybe a fallen tree or just natural features. The water was a little faster here with riffles. This little detail would prove vitally important later.

Well, about an hour down, no sign of canal. The river was getting distinctly more pushy. I decided to take a right channel to get past a fairly small looking island. That little island ended up being fairly long. And beautiful. Deer suddenly running up the banks, clearly disturbed by this strange half-man, on a boat. Blue herons taking off in the most stately manner. I was pretty much all alone on the river. No places renting boats along the banks. Just a few houses and mostly woods on this section. I was vaguely thinking about the line 'Just a lonely impulse of delight' (http://www.bartleby.com/148/3.html).

My poetic reverie was interrupted when I reached the end of the island and found that the main stream (the left channel) of the river was flowing quite fast and there was what seemed to be 2 feet drop on the river on the left side which I had bypassed by paddling the right-hand channel. By now, of course, it was nearly an hour into the paddle. The canal had to have appeared by now.

Now, that didnt bode well. I figured I would go downstream some more. The canal had to show up. As backup I decided to call up my friends and ask them to come downstream and give me a ride upstream. No one seemsed to be around to pick up their phone. By now, it is nearly 6:45. Upon enquiring with a couple of fishermen I discovered that I was way-way downstream of where I was supposed to be.

Now, I had to paddle upstream all the way. Or give up and try to get to a road and hitch a ride. I figured that going upstream couldnt be all *that* bad. After all, I had paddled slightly more than an hour. I had another hour's sunshine and anyway, if the water got too swift or shallow, I could always get out and carry the boat.

So, up the river I went and it was something. At the island I had passed earlier you about, the water was too low for my paddle to get enough 'bite'. While it doesnt matter too much if you are going downstream, it is the most important thing if you are going upstream :-)

Well, I got off, and started dragging the boat along. Pretty soon, I was wading through thigh-deep water. Where the water was shallow enough to get on, there was not enough purchase for the paddle and where I could have paddled, I couldn't get on. Finally, I found a place which was shallow enough to get on, deep enough to paddle out of. And that is how it went to get out of the island.

Once on the main-stream, of course, it was a matter of slogging through the slow sections and trying find the little eddies that would help me get past the faster riffles. Occasional getting out of the boat and pushing it along the river. At places, I was in waist deep moving water. It ended up being a total body work out :-).

Oh, also, by this time, the sun was setting and the moon was rising. Beautiful. The sun was making the water take on a really beautiful shade of pinkish red. After sometime, the sun set and the moon was out in all its glory. Just beautiful. The last hour, I paddled purely by the light of the moon.

While it was really beautiful, I had to be really careful not run my boat into an unfriendly tree that had fallen across the river. Going up the last riffle was really really interesting since I had to paddle largely by feel.

At long last, sore and aching, I reached my put-in point. And discovered that I couldn't figure out where exactly I had left my car. I had left my waterproof light at home :-) I had actually paddled further upstream of the place where I had parked my car. Sometime now, my friend called up to find out why I had called :-)

Now, finally having reached back, and feeling pretty good about myself, I stepped out of the boat and promptly fell on my ass in the muddy slushy water and got properly dunked. It was not even knee deep. My cellphone got fully immersed and gave up its ghost.

Upon chatting with some fishermen, I discovered that the canal doesnt join the river as such. It runs parallel to the canal. I should have taken out and portaged across to the canal. Clearly, I should have read the website more carefully :-)

While it took me about an hour to get downstream, it took nearly 3 to get upstream. I was really fortunate too. If it hadn't been for the fact that the river is quite sluggish, I wouldnt even have made it up. Well, I have learnt my lessons. I always carry my torchlight and water. And, I make sure I know exactly what I am going to do :-)

I also learnt that paddling in the moonlight is a really really cool experience :-) I did the entire section (the river+portage+canal) this year with a friend of mine on a moonlit night.

The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell

2004-10-29T02:24:00.000-04:00

This is an Arthurian trilogy by Bernard Cornwell. The three books are The Winter King, Enemy of God and Excalibur.

I came across this book when I was reading about the recently released movie King Arthur (yeah, the one with Keira Knightley in a leather bikini playing Guinevere). Apparently no one is quite sure if King Arthur was a real person on whom the adventures are based or if he is just fiction. The earliest Arthurian tales come from the Welsh. They speak of a great warrior who fought the invading Saxons so well that the saxon invasion was temporarily stopped.

The story of Arthur and his brave warriors adopted by the bards during the middle ages. This is where we see concepts like The Round Table, Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot love triangle, Knights embarking on quests, knights displaying chivalry(a concept by which you seek to defend women against all men but yourself), knights following a code of honour even unto death, knights being good christians and all other spiffy stuff.

I am given to understand that the womenfolk of the early middle ages pretty much paid for such stories to be made up in the hope that the menfolk, who were brutal knights who bathed maybe a couple of times in their lives, and who spent time swinging huge implements capable of causing much blunt trauma at each other and pretty much everyone else who came in their way, would take up these ideals. Ok, I am being more than a little facetious :-)

Suffice it to say that most of the stories of King Arthur that we know today are latter-day additions by French and English authors and were written to appeal to a medieval sensibility.

Bernard Cornwell takes a different tack. He sets the tale in the early sixth century AD. The Roman empire has withdrawn from Britain, leaving behind a group of states which are constantly jockeying for power. The saxons (a germanic people) are invading from mainland Europe but the Britons (the present-day Welsh) are not in any way united enough to put up a common resistance.

The tale is told from the perspective of Derfel Cadarn, who is now a monk in a monastery but was once a warrior. He had fought alongside Arthur until the end. Derfel, the narrator, is a son of a Saxon slave who is brought up by Merlin. The story, revolves around him and we get to see his childhood, his training and his battles. At the beginning of the book, Derfel is an old monk and he has a constant visitor, the queen of the realm who wants to know all about Arthur and his wonderful band of warriors. Derfel, having been one of them, tells her the stories. So, we see the entire tale in flash-back.

The Arthur in this book is a warrior and an able leader of his men. His one great weakness is an irrational belief in the goodness of other people. All he wants is a little farmhouse where he can hang out with Guinevere and raise cattle. Alas for him, he is too good a warrior not to attract attention and the people around him a bit too jealous and ambitious. He comes across as a good man, who tries his best to keep his promises.

He lives in troubled times, however. Merlin is trying to put together the thirteen treasures of Britain so that he can summon the Old Gods of Britain. Every king and chieftain is trying to figure out how to defeat the others. All the while, two Saxon chieftains, Aelle and Cedric are trying to take over Britain, whilst simultaneously fighting each other. All the usual characters from Arthurian tales are present, Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin, Galahad , Lancelot etc. There are, however, no women in lakes distributing swords nor does Merlin conjure up thunderbolts.

What we have instead is a fascinating description of how the Britons lived. We get a glimpse into the politics and religions of the time. The battles are very well written with vivid descriptions of the tactics and the action. I rather like the sword-and-shield-adventure genre but this book rises above that. The story told in the book covers nearly 60 years but one never gets the feeling that the book is slow. As an aside, since the book covers such a large time-span, the author lets us see how the legend is already starting to develop. So, what was to Derfel a near defeat has now been sung into song by bards and now the people believe that it was a briliant victory. Of course, Derfel knows what the real deal was with the Round-Table, but no one wants to listen to him, least of all the queen. People want the glamour and 'spin' has a long history :-)

The author has done a good job of incorporating the Arthurian tales into a semi-historical setting. One can see that a lot of work has gone into historical research of late fifth century Britain.

In all, while it is not exactly Lord of the Rings, it is a great read if you are looking for a nice adventure.

Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown

2004-09-28T22:24:00.000-04:00

I very recently read this book.

If you are among the one or two that haven't yet read the book, the story revolves around Robert Langdon, a symbologist from Harvard and Sophie Neveu, a French Cryptographer. Robert Langdon is woken up in the middle of the night while on a trip to Paris to be told that the curator of the Louvre museum has been killed and the police need his help to solve the crime.
There, he meets with a beautiful French cryptographer, Sophie Neveu. I wonder if there will ever be a female heroine in a novel who is not beautiful. You know, why couldn't have Sophie Neveu been a plain looking French cryptographer? Makes no difference to the story. But, I digress..

Anyway, the dying curator has left enough clues that Sophie and Robert alone can crack because a. Robert Langdon knows a lot of historic symbology b. Sophie knows a lot of cryptography. The novel then develops into a rollicking adventure involving a lot of history about The Holy Grail, early Christianity, shadowy secret societies like the Priory of Sion, extreme religious groups like The Opus Dei and a mysterious villain known only as The Teacher.

The author, through his characters, takes a lot of shots at the catholic church and present-day Christian religious dogma. He feels that the history of Jesus of Nazareth has been thoroughly distorted by the church to further its own patriarchical agenda.

This book caused a flurry of reactions in the popular press, at least in the US. Refutations, refutations of the refutations etc. Lots of dust :-)

Without going into the facts behind the book, I felt that it was a good book, with taut storytelling, remniscent of Ludlum at his best. I really liked the way that history was woven into the story through the means of the symbologist and the historian. Quite cool and interesting history too!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

A bit predictable, I could figure out who The Teacher was and that Sophie was of the Merovingian line.

I also felt that the book copped out in a big way. So he knows where the grail is, but he wont do anything about it. YEAH RIGHT!. If the author (and Langdon) feel so strongly about the Church putting down the feminine side, why not release the docs and make the church pay for its transgressions? This whole bit about 'The Grail is attractive only because it is hidden' was, in my opinion, a major cop-out.

Also,that bit about 'But the feminine is being slowly given prominence as we realised what damage has been wrought by the masculine so why bother releasing the grail documents' is also wishy washy crap.

If a religion is subverting the teachings of its founder, and you have the means to expose it, you certainly should. To me, that's a no-brainer.Let us say that Moses, Jesus and Mohammed followers of ahimsa and the whole of the bible and quran had been written by their followers who were grinding their own axes and you could prove this incontrovertibly, wouldn't you do it?Just think how much it will change life.

Twilight Samurai

2004-09-10T01:57:00.000-04:00

This movie tells the story of Iguchi Seibei, a low ranking samurai through the remniscences of his daughter.

The movie is set in 19th century Japan, in the declining years of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Once the Tokugawas became the Shoguns in the 17th century, they froze the status of all the people (so, a farmer couldnt become a warrior, the warrior couldnt go back to becoming a farmer etc) with the Samurai (the warrior class) on the top. They also managed to do what no one else had been able to do in Japanese history up to that point, which was to impose a peace that held for nearly 250 years. The clans were no longer permitted to war upon each other, and indeed, even private duels were frowned upon. So, the samurai we see in this movie are not the warriors of the Sengoku Jidai period (like in Kagemusha, Ran or Seven Samurai), but admininstrators, managers, clerks and politicians.

This is not a 'standard' samurai movie. If you come in looking for guys dressed in period armour swinging swords and spears at each other, you will be disappointed. Twilight Samurai moves at a more deliberate pace. The grand events of the time(the rebellion by the Choshu Clan, the loosening grip of the Shogunate, food shortages causing starvation deaths) serve more as a background rather than being the main story.

I was really impressed with the tone of the movie and the marvelously restrained acting of the leads. Apparently this movie was a mega-hit in japan and the Japanese really identified with Seibei. I do not blame them. Hiroyuki Sanada has played this role to perfection. He's the same actor who played the tough-guy samurai Ujio who beats up Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai.

Iguchi Seibei is a poor samurai whose wife has just died after a long illness. Her illness and funeral have left him deep in debt. He has to support his two daughters and his senile mother on a meager income. He hurries back home after work every day to do the daily chores and works in the night to make little insect cages to supplement his income.

Despite all these stresses, he goes about his life doing what needs to be done without complaint. He is a conscientious and caring father. In all, he leads a contented life, and asks for no more than to be able to continue living that way.

Then, one day, he meets his childhood friend Tomoe... I will let you, gentle reader, to discover what happens next.

Idlis on the Beach

2004-08-20T03:25:00.000-04:00

It all started with a email sent to a friend of mine. I hadnt met him in ages and pretty soon it was decided that we would meet on a weekend and go to the beach.

Despite the fact that I love the beach, I hadnt been to one all this year. With the summer quickly drawing to a close I was getting desperate. My previous beach trip in this country had been something of a dampener with one friend deciding that he would enjoy the beach sleeping in the car and another rolling up in a blanket and reading a book, leaving me to play in the waves all by myself.

I drove up to Jersey City with two kayaks, my Mongoose, trusty companion of many a trip and a borrowed Ocean Kayak Frenzy. We had decided to go to Sandy Hook National Park in New Jersey. The idea was to try the Frenzy on the waves and then take out both kayaks on the Bay.

Well, the appointed day started kind of cloudy and cool. Exactly not the beach kind of day :-) Undaunted, we all set out for the beach. My friend and his family (wife, brother, and his parents) and I.

One of the cool thing about having parents along is that good food is ensured. This time, it was chutney sandwiches and idlies. A little note on the idlies first. These were not just idlies. These were nicely coated with molagapodi and nallennai(gingelly oil). This has to be the absolute apex of idlies. Mouthwatering spicy stuff.

Anyway, we went to the beach and promptly launched the Frenzy. As the 'senior' kayaker, I got the privilege of giving it the first shot :-). The waves were really gentle and the sun was playing hide-and-seek with the clouds. I took the kayak out for a little bit and returned, thereby convincing the assembled populace that the kayak was safe :-)

We played around for a bit in the water and discovered that while the water was not too cold, the cool wind made it a little uncomfortable after leaving the water.

Paddling in the sea was a new experience for me, though I didnt venture too far from the shore. The waves were gentle and it was more a bobbing sensation as opposed to the kind of working over that the rapids on a whitewater river give. Even only a short distance from the shore, the only sounds you can hear are the waves (and the occasional motorboat). When I went a little further out to sea, I could see the New York City skyline and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. All very picturesque especially when the sun came out of the clouds. I even got to go and 'rescue' a little kid's beach toy which had been blown offshore by the winds :-). The last time I went out, there was a wind blowing from the shore. I 'rode' that wind out to get the furthest I ever did from the shore. I noticed that the wind was getting a bit stronger and the sea a little more choppy. Getting back was interesting, since the wind was still there, but not really hard.

After a while more friends from Boston showed up and with vegetable puffs from Hot Breads. We all had another 'go' on the kayak, desultorily played some soccer and decided to head back.

As a bonus we all went to the beach again the next day, in Manasquan this time. The waves were a little bigger and gave us a little more of a working-over :-)

In all, my first beach trip of the year was really good. Hopefully, I should get to do a little more of this before winter

Vande Mataram - by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

2004-08-15T01:16:00.000-04:00

Happy Independence Day, Fellow Indians
This was the part of a play called Anand Math written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee(1838-1894). The sanskrit song is in italics.

The version of this song I like the best is the Revival from A.R.Rehman's Vande Mataram album.

Vande Mataram

Sujalam Suphalam
richly-watered, richly-fruited
Malayaja sheetalam
cool with the winds of the south,
Shasyashyamalam
dark with the crops of the harvests,
Mataram
The Mother!

Shubhrajyothsna pulakitayaminim
Her nights rejoicing in the glory of the moonlight
Phullakusumita dramadala shobinim
her lands clothed beautifully with her trees in flowering bloom
Suhasinim sumadhura bhashinim
sweet of laughter, sweet of speech
Sukhadam varadam mataram
giver of bliss, giver of boons, the Mother
Vande mataram
I bow to thee, Mother.

an ode to idlis

2004-08-13T14:37:00.000-04:00

This is an essay I got by email ages ago.
It is basically a love letter to idlis.

What makes this essay so cool is that the idli is really common-place. It's probably the most common breakfast in a Tamil home. It is only after I went off to college that I realised how rare and precious a good idli is. Many restaurants really screw up their idlis. Once you start travelling towards the North of India, idlies start becoming scarce or are these really hard white rocks you can throw at passing mongrels.

I have no idea who the author is or where it is from. But whoever he or she is, my kudos!

The Ultimate Guide to Idli Heaven

I refer not to the restaurant two-per-head felt cut-outs, stranded on a steel plate next to a puddle of chutney. I'm talking about the genuine home-made product.

Here it comes, with the expert flick of the wrist scooped from the mould, toppling like a tipsy full moon onto the waiting banana leaf where it quivers, puffing out little spurts of steam after its exertions. Here comes one more, and another. Quick! While it is still within its gauzy wrap of steam, the idli must be anointed. Leave to the kaffirs such blunders as ghee. The only true unguent is the oil of the sesame seed - clear, red gold, aromatic and just a soupcon of it, drizzled while the idli is still breathless so that it seeps in, leaving no trace on the palpitant skin. There are still some pleasures to be savoured before you bite into the idli. Inhale. The first hot rush of steam has left the air vaporous with the aroma of rice, subtle, yet substantial. This is not the avid rush of Basmati that cavorts over all other flavours. It is an odour, simple, pristine, on par with that of water cooled in earthenware. Breathe it, it is the grain of life.

At the first lungful you will detect the sharp, sweet, festive aroma of sesame. If you don't, that oil is no good. Sesame oil is to the flavour of rice what butter is to bread - it enhances, but never dominates. Heretics who anoint their idlis with ghee will smell only ghee. These subtleties are lost on them. The oil of sesame must be used with great reticence, not sloshed about like olive oil, soaking the idli like a post-office sponge. (The purist will not acknowledge sesame: gingelly oil is what it should be called). At the second whiff you will discover a green aftertang of banana leaf. The leaf's first protest was lost in steam. This is the merest whimper of green, but it lingers into the first mouthful.

Those idlis are still very hot. Test them. Touch them. Naturally, with your fingers. Good food must be caressed, not impaled. And before you touch, look. The perfect idli is white, biconvex and stippled with tiny pores still breathing steam. If it slithers and collapses on the leaf, it is a failed idli: it will be sticky, dense and unleavened.

The other sort is just as bad. The rampant idli stands solid and spherical, with a predisposition to roll. It has not pores, but pits and craters. It doesn't have an aroma. It simply smells sour. It has the consistency of wet cottonwool when hot and that of a loofah when cold. If it must be eaten, do it quickly, and use a fork. It is probably a restaurant idli and deserves to be impaled.
The first mouthful must be hot, but not so hot as to blister the tongue. Coffee will accomplish that later. The first idli is never tasted. Before you have time to think, it's gone. Halfway through the second, judgement returns. The tongue feels the teasing fizz of the idlis's delicate pores before it yields to its softness. The teeth hang around, de trop.

Which brings me to accompaniments. Chutneys, all 10 ghastly restaurant varieties, ought to be anathema in the kitchen, but they've sneaked in somehow. I'm no chutney connoisseur, so let me pass on to "milagai podi," a spicy, aromatic, crunchy gravel of chillies, roast dals and a hint of asafetida. Build a little volcano of this next to your idli. With your little finger, dent its peak. Now fill the crater with sesame oil, dab the idli in it, and bite. Your tongue will be lava, and you can now model for Dali's Exploding Head, even if you're no angel. Of course, tamer versions abound.

On restaurant menus, idli-sambar is a compound word. Here is a warning - not just any sambar should do. The only sambar fit for the idli is made with onions, and not any old bulb, either - only baby onions, tiny pearls, their sweetness almost liquid within their ammoniacal hearts will do. The gravy must be smooth, never slimy, tart, but not sour, and just fiery enough to be grateful for the exploding sweetness of onions against the teeth. Sesame oil loses out with onion sambar. Nothing but ghee will do here, the home-made stuff, of course, dabbed on before the sambar engulfs the idli.

I wonder if there is anybody anywhere in this country who has never tasted an idli. Idlis are ubiquitous, easily masticated, digested and absorbed, nutritious, addictive and have practically no side effects. Toddlers and patients rejoice in them. Hostelites thrive on them. Office goers welcome them as relief from the many varieties of deep fried protozoa that conspire against leave encashment. For though chutney and sambar are often guilty, the idli can seldom be indicted.

Idlis have a sense of occasion. There is the Deepavali idli of childhood eaten at 6am, when the stomach cringes. You have been up since 4am. Now the oil bath, the sulphurous fog of crackers, the stiff new clothes, all combine to make the eye-lids droop and the head ache. The Deepavali idli tastes different because of all these things and because of its proximity to Mysore paak and mixture and other goodies that the heart craves, but the stomach rebels against at this hour. Only the idli will do.

Wedding breakfasts these days are austere. In my childhood they were orgies of gluttony. Idli was still the entree, big flying saucers awash with chutney or sambar. But they were crowded out by a steaming mound of pongal and avial, crisp vadais, rava kesari or badam halva, jilebi, and a glass of badam kheer. The timid gulped coffee, gobbled their idlis and fled before the pongal came on. Breakfast had barely cleared the gullet before you were hauled back for lunch.
There are idlis and idlis. My father remembers from his childhood in Chdambaram, 60 years ago, tiny idlis the size of a quarter anna coin. With two annas in hand, he would be sent out for this holiday treat to a homely little shack called Chaitanya Hotel. He would stagger home clutching a banana leaf bolster that held at least 50 of these tiny idlis. To this day, my father insists they had a flavour all their own.

The idli is a true cosmopolite. It is only in Chennai that there is a curfew on idlis after 10 am. Idlis are breakfast, you are severely told. But other, more frivolous sorts can be had, any time. My mother recalls her first sight of Kanjivaram idli, brought home as prasadam from the temple. To the five-year-old it looked exactly like the full moon, the size of a dinner plate and misty with ghee, speckled with crunchy golden cashewnuts and crisp peppercorns. The secular version is less fulsome, but still rich, textured, indigestible, and not the easiest of things to cook. You can eat prasadam-sized wedges, that's all.

Then there are the bye-blows, and we must be kind to them - rava idli and semiya idli. Rice has refused to acknowledge these, semolina and vermicelli have blundered in. They are both worthy, I'm sure, but they are not idlis.

Finally, there is the ultimate picnic meal - the stuffed idli. It's one up on the masala dosai because it doesn't wilt. It's easy to eat, no accompaniments are necessary, it's delicious when cold, and leaves no litter. Simply bite into one and find out.

Bon appetit!

The Fiery Fledgeling - A poem by Subrahmanya Bharathi

2004-08-12T00:58:00.000-04:00

Bharathiyar was born Subrahmanian in December 11, 1882. He proved a child prodigy and
was given the title Bharathi (another name for Saraswati, the Goddess of learning). He fulfilled his early promise. He was a prolific poet and a firebrand. He quite naturally joined the freedom movement and was the editor of many nationalist magazines. He wrote many poems that exude a strong nationalist sense. Quite unfortunately for India and Tamilnadu, he died young after an accident with a temple elephant.Here is a link with the details of his life.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5180/barathi.html

He was a firebrand with strong opinions on freedom from the British, social equality and women's equality. He was also a keen observer of the human condition and many of his poems mocked the mores of the day. One of his poems states 'People swoon over romantic love in stories but stamp out the same kind of love in their own homes.'.

He covered a wide range in his poems. The themes covered include nationalism, Tamil, religion, history, love, social conditions, women's rights and nature. He was a very proud man, proud of his country and proud of his language. This feeling comes through in his poems. In one of his poems, he says 'Bharatha naadu paarkellam thilakam/ neer athan puthalvar, in-ninaivagatraatheer' (India is the jewel of the world/ You are its children, never forget!'). In another he says 'Senthamizh naadenum pothinile/inba then vanthu paayuthu kaathinile' ('When someone mentions TamilNadu, it is as honey to my ears').

He wanted to inspire Indians to stand up for themselves and realise their potential. In this respect, he reminds me greatly of Swami Vivekananda. I think it is a great loss that he died when he did.

I find his poetry to be beautiful and inspirational. Many of his songs have been adopted for movies. Manathiluruthi vendum from Sindhu Bhairavi and Kaakkai Siraginile from Ezhaavathu Manithan are two examples of beautiful songs nicely adapted for movies.

The poem that I have translated here is a little offbeat poem.

Akkini-kunju

Akkini kunjondru kanden
Athai angoru kaattilor ponthidai vaithen
Venthu thaninthathu kaadu!
Thazhal veerathil kunjendrum moopendrum undo?
Thatharikita Thatharikita Thithom

The Fiery Fledgeling

I found a fiery fledgeling
I placed it in a forest hollow
The forest burned to ashes!
Is age a factor in fieriness?
Thatharikita Thatharikita Thithom

It is simple poem. The phrase akkini-kunju brings to mind a fledgeling that is made of fire. The poet found a fiery fledgeling, tried to protect it by placing it in a tree hollow. However, the fledgeling burnt the forest down :-)

I wonder what was the inspiration for the poem. Is he referring to unintended consequences? He tried to protect something that needed no protection and ended up burning an entire forest down. Is it an admonition not to underestimate anyone? Is he telling us not to nurture things that might destroy us? Had he just heard about the myth of the Phoenix which is born from its own ashes? I suppose we will never know.

To me, it is a slightly enigmatic and humorous poem.

Thiruvilayadal Redux

2004-08-06T00:40:00.000-04:00

This is a recent email exchange on a mailing list with my college buddies. To really enjoy this, ofcourse, you need to have watched Thiruvilayadal. Thiruvilayadal was a very famous Tamil movie in our childhood days when Sivaji ruled the roost. Thiruvilayadal literally means divine play. It consists of many episodes where Shiva comes to TN and mixes it up with the local folk. It used to be shown quite often on TV. The days when Doordarshan was the only game in town.

Basically, in the episode that is being referenced inthe email exchange, the pandyan king gets a doubt. So,he announces 'Does women's hair have a natural fragrance or is it a result of revlon shampoo? 1000 gold coins to anyone who can tell me'. Clearly Pandyan kings of the sangam age had too much time (and money) on theirhands.

A poor poet called Darumi, played by Nagesh, wants the money. This is probably one of Nagesh's best comic turns. He displays the pathos of being apoor poet with such humor.. Anyway, Nagesh is a poet of limited talent and goes and cries his frustrations out loud in the temple. Lord Shiva (Sivaji plays this role with his usual aplomb, overacting, rolling eyes,twirling moustache etc), comes to him in form of a poet and gives him a poem which says something to the effect that 'yeah, of course, women's hair has natural fragrance.'

The chief poet of the pandyan court, called Nakkeeran says 'dude, that is so wrong, did you write thatcrap?' at which point Darumi goes back to the templeand cries. Shiva comes to the court to argue his case and as the ultimate rebuttal says 'agree with me or be burned'. Nakkeeran says 'Smoke me if you will, but mistake's amistake'. All very dramatic, much is lost in the translation. You can see where Tamils' tendency towards stubborn argument reaches back intothe mists of history. Apparently, they dont think too much of going against gods on a matter of principle.

Anyway, Shiva burns him without much ado. Later, after much prayer by the Pandyan king Shiva says 'ha ha, just kidding, Nakkeeran was right afterall' and restores him to mint condition.
This retelling doesnt include all the overacting, pure tamil and special effects that went into the movie.

Nor does this email exchange. Basically, this all started after a typical evening conversation at a friends place 'Macha, why dont Tamil movies have Tamil women in them?'. This rapidly escalated into a email question posted to our entire group.

Does this seem terribly inane? If so, just dont bother and move on. This is *my* blog after all :-)

To: ******@somegroups.com From: "M" <>
Subject: [thattiko] yen? kyon? why?
Folks,
Don't disregard this message. If you do then your DVD players might never work, your cable TV will flicker all the time and your PS2 player might just spontaneously combust.
Folks, this is a crucial time when all Tamil countrymen and women need to rethink where Tamil cinema isgoing. In particular R and I had a discussion (in the presence of GVK and S)about why Tamil movies don't cast tamilian females instead go with naarthies (north of Madras anyway).
I first thought... hmm color. Tamilians are usuallydarker than naarthies. We are color obsessed people.Our matrimonial section usually says something like"Want a **fair**, God fearing, rich (optional, can be compensated by extremely fair complexion and vice-versa) traditional, professional girl.". Evenwhen we go to a marriage, mamis say "Ponnu chekkachevernu mahalakshmi maadiri irukka". (Where people see Mahalakshmi is still a mystery to me).
But then the two tamil babes that I know of (Simran and Sneha) don't have a very fair complexion.

I don't think figure is important. All our babes are fat or moderately fat.

The only reason I can think of is the mystery surrounding non-native people. Take for example ourfavorite hero James Bond. He usually has a Russian chick or a spanish babe ... He hardly sleeps with a babe who speaks British English. But I don'tunderstand that completely either. The way hip people speak in Madras (you know those people who feel embarassed to call it Chennai) talk, they could befrom Mars!
Anyway, enadu sandehathai theerpavarukku aayiram porkaasu vazhangappadum.
-M
From: K<> Date:
Subject: Re: [thattiko] yen? kyon? why?
IKKU***KU AKKU*** PACHAI

To:*******@somegroups.com From: "R" <>
Re: [thattiko] yen? kyon? why?
With apologies to Nagesh and Thiruvilayadal..
> Anyway, enadu sandehathai theerpavarukku aayiram porkaasu vazhangappadum.

Scene : Madurai, but this looks suspiciously like Mass Ave, Arlington Heights, MA..
Big Fat dude, beating a drum from the first floor and announcing 'Naattu Makkalukkor Narcheithi. Madurai Pandiyaarasanin santhegathai theerthuvaippavargalukku aayiramporkaasugal!'
We see a small lean guy screaming at the big dude fromthe bottom. This is Darumi, an impoverished local progr^h^h^h^h poet. He has been wandering around sight-adichufying when he came upon this announcement.
'Aayiram porkaasugala? Enna pa kelvi ithu? Antha Arasanukku appadi enna santhegamam?'
(At this point, it is better to kick in the English dubbing. Sangam era Tamil is hard to understand. Thedubbing techniques arent advanced enough at thispoint, so at some points, the lip movements might notsynch with what is being said. Occasionally, the system fails completely, and we slip back to the vernacular.We apologize for the inconvenience.. Now, getting backto the story..)
Darumi : 'Dude, so, what does the king want to know?'
BFD: 'He wants to know why Tamil movies seldom use Tamil actresses. If you know the answer, you can tell him and get your 1000 bucks..'
Darumi : 'Do you know the answer?'
BFD: 'Macha, if I knew the answer, do you think Iwould be shouting myself hoarse?'
Darumi 'Ayyo, Ayyo, Aayiram dollarache, Aayriamdollarache. Ayyo, I could buy a laptop on ebay, Icould get myself a canon digital SLR, I could maybework up the confidence to ask that cool chinese babeout for a date. illa illa, enakku illa enakku illa'..

Darumi goes to the temple.Cries out his desperation and frustration. 'Kadavule, Only you can help me'.

God shows up in form of a uber-geek. slightly torn blue jeans pants, kurta, glasses etc. He has this really condescending grin plastered on his face. Just one look and you want to haul off at him. This particular avtar went to IIT so, well, if you did beat him up, it would be a good thing.. However, Darumi is a pacifist.
Darumi : Nee yaru man?
Uber-Geek : Me, I am just a wandering film afficiando.Why, only yesterday, I was watching this cool movie called Italian for Beginners, you must watch it sometime.
Darumi : Watha. Vanthuttan. En man, you also listened to that announcement and are here to pick up that 1000 bucks that the Pandian king is offering,right? My thalaiezhuthu.
UG : 'So, what does your king want to know'

Darumi's ego is pricked by this newcomer's presumption. He never liked IIT dudes anyway. He decides to test his knowledge.
Darumi : 'What always goes together?'
UG : 'Aiswarya Rai and Beauty'
Darumi : 'What is never together?'
UG : 'Abhishek Bacchan and a hit movie'
and so on and so forth, touching upon various things, Does Madhuri Dixit dance better than Ash (yes)? Is Preity's smile made better by the dimple in her cheek(of course)? Is Rajini the coolest hero ever(yes)?

At long last, Darumi is convinced that the Geek can answer his question. And he puts it to him 'So, tellme kind sir, why do Tamil movies predominantly use non-Tamil actresses?'
UG meditated for a while and told him, 'dude, I can tell you, but you wont like it. Back in the day, when acting actually mattered, Tamil babes ruled the roost at home and even assaulted bollywood.But alas, those days are far gone. These days, the only role that the actreses have is to look good.Their acting just doesnt matter anymore.
So, working back from this, one must reach the inevitable conclusion that Tamil women just dont look as good on average and that is the reason why women from other states are able to take over Kollywood heroine roles. I mean, you went to college, right? Tell me, how many of the acknowldged 'babes' in your college were Tamil? Not many right? QED'
'Now, if you run back to your king and tell him this,you are going to get your head chopped off for your pains. So, you'd be better off asking that chinese babe out for a date. Better watch a couple of chinese movies before you go, and it will give you soemthingto talk about. '
Darumi heeded his advice, watched 'Spring, Summer,Autumn' took the girl out for a date and everyone lived happily ever after.
----------------------Subham--------------------------
To: *********@somegroups.com From: "M" <>
Subject: [thattiko] porchuvaiyila porutchuvayila?

That was funny! Here is the continuation in the Raja'scourt.
Darumi: par vende emmai paar vende
King: Alright ... go on...
Darumi: Tamilnaatin selviyar are boring
Tamil makkal are very daring
Thats why other state's babes are fairing
Also ikkarai** akkarai** better feeling

Chief Poet Nakeeran: Inda paatil kurai irukkiradu ...
And then ultimately the God in the form of a nerd comes to the court.
Nakeeran: Your song is screwed up dude!
God: In the syntax or in the semantics?
Nakeeran: If its in the syntax it can be forgiven. The problem is with the semantics. The college you went was Manipal. First of all the number of women is very small and the test of tamil babes in Manipal is a statistically insignificant test.
God: Oooohhhh ... aaahhhh (anger)... You are accusing the person who wrote the compiler and the OS. How dare you judge me (Oops Hollywood crept in). May you always suffer with Windows and never move to Linux or anyother OS.
Now the whole court is stunned and asks the God for mercy. God smiles and says he does this to all frustrated Windows users and pardons(!) everyone.

Finally Darumi gets a free upgrade on his OS (fromWindows 98 to Windows 98 service pack 2) and goes homehappy.
-M

Kogi Kaishakunin's blog

2004-07-18T11:28:00.000-04:00

This blog has been started by my friend and a few of his buddies.
ramarama.blogspot.com
The first post is about the Mary Chapin Carpenter concert in Philadelphia.

Kogi Kaishakunin, in case you are wondering, is the official name of the Shogun's executioner in the Lone Wolf and Cub movie series. The movies are based on a manga series of the same name. The story evolves around the adventures of a high-ranking samurai who turns assasin. These are set in the early Edo period of Japanese history, just after the Tokugawa shogunate has taken control of Japan. Ogami Itto, the main character, used to be the official executioner for the Shogun till he was framed on charges of treason and kicked out. Now, he roams around the countryside, a hitman for hire, with his little kid Daigoro (the original Japanese title says 'Child and Expertise for Hire'). The movies feature some cool swordsmanship and interesting plotlines. They are dubbed in English and sold as Shogun's Assasin which Mudra Rakshasa assures me are absolutely horrible. We all prefer to listen to the dialogues in the native tongue and read the subtitles, I guess. Dubbing always leaves something to be desired. Of course, he is also the guy who once watched an entire Chinese movie without subtitles or dubbing (and he doesnt understand a word). But I digress.

I have not read the manga, but Kogi Kaishakunin (one of the authors of the aforementioned blog), assures me that they are cool. Kind of funny that the guy who calls himself Kogi Kaishakunin should accuse me of wanting to play with swords rather than go to a concert:-)

The Origin of the Curd-Rice Kayakers

2004-06-30T09:47:00.000-04:00

Check out the trip reports for the first Curd-rice kayaker's trip.

Yet Another Delaware River Trip

2004-06-24T02:33:00.000-04:00

I went on a day-trip on the Delaware River from Upper Black Eddy to Lumberville. There is a trip report up on the Curd-Rice Kayakers' Webpage.

A Delaware River Trip

2004-06-16T01:14:00.000-04:00

This Memorial Day weekend, I went on a kayak camping trip on the Delaware River. Here's a pretty decent trip report by Mudra Rakshasa.

I am the guy referred to as Sambar :-)

It was pretty cool prepping for the trip. The trip to EMS was most enlightening. I found that you could get sleeping bags that fit in a cylinder about 8 inches by 4 inches and indeed I did get one. My kayak is not a rec or expedition type kayak, so the smaller I can get things, the better. I found a waterproof flashlight with an LED in the place of a conventional bulb. It actually works completely immersed (I checked :-) ). It also is supposed to provide 800 hrs of light. One can get it in Walmart.

As the trip report suggests, I was pretty keen on making it to the Delaware Water Gap proper. The four mile stretch before the Smithfield beach take-out (which is about 8 miles upriver of the Water Gap take-out) killed all interest. The water was flat and the wind was against us. The sun was hight. These 'dead' conditions tend to sap the paddler's strength and enthu. Oh well. Next time :-)

Another interesting aspect of the trip was that the temperature plummetted in the night. It was 75-80 degrees in the day. After sunset, the temperature quickly dropped to the high thirties. This cold nixed Mudra Rakhsasa's plans of a midnight swim. He had done it last year, with just the moonlight and my flashlight for illumination. This year, well, we just couldnt wait to hit the bed. This cold probably contributed to the generally unsettled sleep that everyone had.

In all, the trip and its aftermath (which involved having pizzas for dinner on the shoulder of the freeway, another story entirely) was thoroughly appreciated by all concerned, especially the two who had never been camping before (my cousin and his friend).

Daughters' Lament, A poem from the Purananooru

2004-06-13T01:21:00.000-04:00

The Purananooru is a set of four hundred Tamil Poems dating from the Sangam Age (300 BC to 300 AD). Puram means external and nanooru four hundred. These poems are devoted to life in general. Agam(internal) poetry deals with love, relationships, family and the such-like.

As general reference points, in 380 BC, Plato was writing his Republic and the future Roman Empire was still a small republic in Southern Italy. The Mauryan Empire was established 324 BC. Alexander fought Porus at Jhelum in 326 BC. The inhabitants of what would later be known as the British isles were probably holding meetings to decide whether it was time to come down from the trees :-)

In this time, South India was ruled by chieftains and kings. The three main ruling dynasties, the Cheras, the Chozhas and the Pandyas had already been established. These kings spent a lot of time fighting each other and on occasion going North to fight someone else(atleast one king was known as Imayavaramban : he whose boundary is the Himalayas). A perusal of recent history will show that little has changed in modern Tamil Nadu :-)

The Tamil Sangams were meetings (similar to conventions of today) for the poets of that age. The Sangam era refers to the third Sangam which was hosted by the Pandyas.

The first one was supposedly held 10000 BC and the sage Agastya is supposed to have been the person presiding over it. Agastya also is popularly held to be the first one to codify the Tamil language. This might be more legend than history.

I have not been able to figure out when the second Tamil sangam was held. The book Tolkappiyam, which is a book of grammar dates from this era. Incidentally, this is supposed to be the earliest grammar book.

Purananooru is only one of the books to come out of the third Sangam**. It is a collection of poems by different poets. The poems cover a broad swath of topics.

Most of the poems are dedications to different kings and chieftains. The poets would sing praises of the king and the king would reward them suitably. The kings got their names and deeds immortalised in song and the poets got food and gifts.

Other poems deal with the courage of warriors in battle, the sorrow of grieving mothers or wives and general thoughts of poets on life, the Universe and Everything.

In all, the poems give us a glimpse into the lives of the people. Courage was highly respected (mothers ask to hear if their sons died with a wound in the back or in the chest). High moral values were stressed (A poem says, 'Regardless of the land, Where men are good, life will be good.'). As was charity (Another poem says 'They that give food, give life'). There are poems that celebrate nature and agriculture.

Other poems are a more general reflection on life. There is a poem saying words to the effect that the poet would love to live free like the deer, but unfortunately, his relations are tying him down to a family life. The famous line Yaathum Oore, Yavarum Kelir (All cities are our own, All people are our relatives) by the poet Kanian Poonguntranaar is also in this collection*.

Paari was a king who lived in the sangam age. He was the king of Parambu country. I dont know where that area is in present-day Tamil Nadu. He was considered one of the seven great 'vallal's. I am not sure what the exact translation for vallal is. Basically, any one who gives away a lot in charity is considered a vallal. I suppose one might say 'philanthropist' or 'charitable person', but it still loses something in the translation.

Paari is the subject of many poems written by the poet Kapilar (who also seems to have been his friend) who praises him and his bountiful land. Paari was destroyed by his rival kings, an occupational hazard in those days. This poem was written by his daughters lamenting his death.

Attrai Thingal Avvennilavil
Enthaium KondOm, Nam kundrum pirar koLaar

Ittrai thingal Ivvenilavil
Vendru eri murasin Venthar em
Kundrum Kondaar; yaam enthayum ilame

Last Full Moon
We had our father, we had our hill
This Full Moon
Kings play the drums of victory
They have our hill, We have lost our father.**

This poem conveys a deep sense of loss with haiku-like brevity.

The daughters seem to have accepted that defeat and death are as much a part of a kingly life as victory. They don't express hatred towards the victorious kings. They are just lamenting the loss of their father and their home.

PS. The attentive reader will notice that the phrase attrai thingal, avvennilavil is used in the song Narumugaiye Narumugaiye (from the Tamil movie Iruvar) written by the poet Vairamuthu.

* Yaathum Oore's claim to fame is that it is the first line in a song in the movie Ninaithale Inikkum, with Kamal and Rajini playing members of a disco band touring Malaysia. Incidentally, there is a song called Ennadi Meenakshi which also starts with a couple of lines from a Bharathiyar poem (Vaarthai Thavarivittai, Kannama). It's kind of sad that one must get introduced to Tamil poetry like this, but, I digress.

**Translation, as close as I can make it.
Attrai Thingal - last month(thingal=month)
Av ven nilavil - in the full moon (ven nilavu=full moon),
enthaium kondOm - We had our father (enthai=our father) kondOm (we had)
Nam Kundrum pirar kolaar - Others didnt have our hill

Ittrai Thingal - this month
Iv Ven nilavil - in this full moon

Vendru eri murasin venthar - The kings whose victorius drums sound
Vendru eri murasu (Drums(murasu) of victory(vendru eri)
kundrum kondaar - they have our hill
yaam enthaiyum ilame - We have lost our father (ilame = dont have/lost).

*** The others are Nattrinai, Kurunthogai, Ainkurunooru, Pathitrupathu, Paripaadal, Kalitthogai and Aganaanooru.

Ulysess, by Alfred Lord Tennyson(1809-1892)

2004-06-11T00:31:00.000-04:00

This has become one of my favorite poems. The more I think about it, the more I like it.
Here's a link.
http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/britlit/tenn/ulysses.htm

Ulysses, by Alfred Lord Tennyson(1809-1892)

>
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
>
In this first stanza, we can see that this is not the young Ulysses but a much older one, who is not very happy with his lot. He feels that his subjects take him for granted.

Ulysses was gone from his country (Ithaca) for twenty years. While his fellow warriors might see him as a brave, resourceful leader, the people who stayed home might not see him that way. This is reinforced in the next few lines.

>
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vest the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers;
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
>

Ulysses looks back on his life. He was a man amongst men. A trusted, cunning warrior and a beloved leader of men. In the plains of Troy, he lived and walked with the greatest Greeks of his age. What a feeling that must have been! To know that you are in the presence and indeed are one of the greatest of your time. He has travelled a lot and has seen much. All this has left a mark on him, as can be expected.
For such a man to have to rule people that 'hoard and sleep and know not me' must have been trying.

>
I am part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
>
This is a most eloquent description of Wanderlust.

>
As tho' to breath were life. Life piled on life
Were all to little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
>
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
>

The last three lines are really beautiful. Here, the purpose of the poem is finally revealed. Ulysses wishes to leave his kingdom and to travel again. Travel, for its own sake.

>
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle-
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
>
Ulysses abdicates in favor of his son. And, soon, we see what his plans for the future are.

>
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me-
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads-
>
Ulysses' love and pride for his men shows through clearly here. He has assembled those that remain of his old crew to go on a final voyage, and apparently, all his buddies are here. These men are clearly not among those that are referred to in the first stance as 'That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.' That description of his subjects is contrasted with the description of his mariners 'that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me'. Now we know why he prefers his mariners to his subjects.

>
you and I are old;
Old age had yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
>

Ulysses acknowledges that his fellow adventurers are old and weak, but is determined to do something worthy of their past 'Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods'!

>
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
>
>
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
>

Ulysses and his men know that they might never return. Indeed the tone of the poem suggests that they don't wish to return. They want an end worthy of their lives. Not for them a death on the sick-bed.

>
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in the old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal-temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
>
These lines are so moving. A fitting finish to a beautiful poem.

I love the fact that Ulysses is not crying about the times past. He looks back, not with longing, but with pride. He knows that he (and his men) have accomplished great deed that will live on forever, long after they themselves are gone. He has fulfiled his duty as a king and his successor is ready.

All that he wishes to do now is to go forth again with his friends. He does not seek to recapture his youth, but to accomplish something worthy of his greatness. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world'!

Ulysses wants to travel. He is tired of the repetetiveness of his life. He wants to feed his wanderlust, knowing full well that it can never be slaked. He seeks adventure, purely for its own sake, not for any other motive. 'To follow Knowledge like a sinking star, beyond the utmost bound of human thought'.