Friday, November 24, 2006

A Babel-y experience …

I’d seen the movie Babel around a week ago here in Warsaw. I liked the movie … but it was more fun watching it here ! So first I’d talk about the experience and then the movie.

All Hollywood movies are played with polish subtitles in Warsaw (of course .. why wouldn’t they ?). But that was a slight problem for the only English speaking audience. 10 minutes in the movie, I was looking at my friend like we’d just spent 16 zlotys on lessons in a language whose name also we didn’t know ! 20 minutes into the movie … the lessons had turned multi ethnic and multi lingual ! 30 minutes into the movie .. it was a freakin’ global village in front of us and we were missing Arthur Dent to squeeze a Babel fish into our ear ! Halfway through the movie, we’d given up on one of our senses and were focusing only on visual contemplation.

Around 70-80 % of the movie happens to be either in Moroccan or Mexican or Japanese (I think). Only the rest in English. Now if I’d watch it back in India it would obviously not be a problem coz I’d have English subtitles. Here it was another story.

But the funny thing was … actually more surprising than being funny … that we still understood the whole movie ! And we didn’t just understand it … we loved it ! Call it great direction or acting or both … but even without understanding what’s being said, you could easily feel what the characters were going through !

Ofcourse there was still one point in the movie when we got extremely frustrated when a mute girl is using sign language … and there were still Polish subtitles !!! I mean c’mon !!!

Now to the movie. The message was very clear … but my interpretation was a little different. No matter who you are, whichever part of the world you may belong to, whichever culture or language … you are human. You feel like any other human. You struggle like any other human. And it was brought out beautifully in the movie. The best part I liked was the music and the photography. The background score, especially the guitar was simply touching.

My favorite scene in the movie is towards the end when they show the helicopter flying into the village from below … and the music … it’s like angles gliding down.

Anywayz, thanks to the movie we have another word of ‘mananamanana’ (a bit cryptic) or for situations when you meet someone / some people and you don’t understand the language … Babel ! :)

Shit Happens…

One of the things common amongst all cultures (of my generation) that I noticed was the increasing clarity and therefore, humour on religion or popular ideologies. The following descriptions of various religions/ ideologies was given to me by Jack (his real polish name is beyond me) over some sheesha. Here are some of the ones I liked/ understood. If you Google on this you’d probably find more …

TAOISM : Shit Happens

CONFUCIANISM : Confucious say, “Shit Happens”

ZEN : What is the sound of shit happening ?

ISLAM : If shit happens , take a hostage.

COMMUNISM : Equal shit happens to all people.

CATHOLICISM : Shit happens because you are bad.

RIGHT – WING PROTESTANTISM : Let this shit happen to someone else.

JUDAISM : Why does shit always happen to us ?

ATHEISM : I don’t believe this shit !

EXISTENTIALISM : Shit doesn’t happen … shit IS !

BUDDISM : Shit happens, but pay no heed.

HINDUISM : This shit has happened before.

OBJECTIVISM : Our shit is good for you.

REAGANISM : Don’t move .. the shit will trickle down.

RASTAFARIANISM : Let’s smoke this shit ! :)

Disclaimer : My own view of religions, the one I was inherited in and the one I adopted later on … are also included in this list. This is merely a compilation from a bigger list. If I have missed out your religion and you feel offended by it … well shit happens ! If I have missed out your religion and you are happy about it … don’t worry … sooner or later … shit happens ! If I have included your religion and you feel offended by it … well read the subject line again ! You may think your religion may deserve more respect than others but I don’t. Besides, any religion should have a big enough heart to take some humour !!!

Back online ???

The posting activity by the author of this blog has been … well to say the least … very confused ! Random posts have appeared and then later removed for absolutely mystic reasons.
The author would not like to apologise for that … only acknowledge it. :)

The author would further like to add that normal activity and senses are returning and so would the posting. This is due to the following two reasons in order of importance:

1. The author feels much better now … happier if you must.
2. The author’s blog appears as the third link on Google when queried for the author’s name and he strongly feels he should do something about it. :)

-End of transmission-

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Budddddday post !

well it's my birthday eve ... so i was just trying to recall all the birtdays I could remember. I was ... and still am quite shocked !
Out of the 22 such apparently 'most important days' that have passed, i could just remember 2 !!!
Ok let's discount the first 2-3 buddays on the reason that I was probably too young to understand and remember them. But after that ... there is no reason that I shouldn't have !

The first one that I remember happened sometime when i was around 10 (See ... i don't even remember the date !!!). There was a kiddy birthday party at our house. There were lots of little kids. We all had them cone shaped birthday hats. We played musical chairs. Then I cut the cake and everyone sang them birthday songs. Then we all ate some cake and chips and patties and had some coke. I recieved lots of gifts ... but I don't remember any of them. Then i gave them return gifts and they all went back home by 10.

The second one was last year. It was in MDI. It's the sweetest birthday that I'll remember for the rest of my life probably.

Well this year there's nothing much to look forward to. It'll be the usual. SSDD.

I don't get it what's the big deal about birthdays anyway ! It's just any other day. I don't even remember being born ... I was just told I was born this day ! Just an excuse to party though :) But out here in Poland even that's a commodity !

Anywayz ... happy birthday to me ;)

Monday, November 20, 2006

Wake me up when september ends ...

I thought I'd start embedding some videos i've been making here in Poland. To start off with it, here's a little test.



It's one of my old favorites ... just discovered it again on youtube.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Freebird ...

Recieved a mail a couple of days back ... this is what it said.

If i leave here tomorrow
Would you still remember me ?
For I must be travelling on, now
'Cause there's too many places, I've gotta see

But if I stayed here with you, girl,
Things just couldn't be the same.
'Cause I'm as free as a bird now,
And this bird you cannot change.
Lord knows, I can't change.

Bye, Bye, babe it's been sweet love.
Though this feeling I can't change.
But please don't take it so badly,
'Cause lord knows I'm to blame.

But if I stayed here with you girl,
Things just couldn't be the same.
Cause I'm as free as a bird now,
and this bird you'll never change.
And this bird you cannot change.
Lord knows, I can't change.
Lord help me, I can't change.

Live version here and album version here

Friday, November 03, 2006

Vampires and Warewolves

A couple of days ago i was introduced to the Monsters Game 4 by a source I do not seem to remember right now. I seems like a really interesting online game.

You choose to be either a vampire or a warewolf. You have certain attributes such as strength, agility, defense, stamina, etc. You have to earn gold coins to do anything either by working in the graveyard or by raiding a town of innocent victims or you can loot them by attacking a warewolf.

I was introduced to strategy games by Red Alert (see previous posts) and I instantly fell in love with them. The fact that it's a battle of grey cells rather than hand-eye coordination appealed to me the most. It basically gives me more people to challenge ;).

The game's pretty appealing at first. But just like Red Alert ... it turned out to be a simple game of numbers. Once you figure out the investment in a move, it's possible payback and the variable risk, the game turns black and white. It being a browser game is much more simpler than Red Alert. So the novelty or the mystery of the game is already lost for me. All that remains is probably the ego of being on top. Which'll take no less than a year I suppose.

If anyone's interested in checking it out ... here's the link.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Carpe Diem

Was forwarded this quote by monkey today ... really liked it ...
It's from Dead Poet's Society .. I guess I need to watch that movie ;)

They're not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - - Carpe - - hear it? - - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.