Well, for want of a better title I chose this !
Gajabhuja in Sanskrit means the trunk of an elephant !
So, in short, the title means big/huge fundas !! :-)
26 June 2009
Michael Jackson is Dead
I still remember it as if it was yesterday. My father bought ever the first ever cassette player to my home. It was 1993. Along with that cassette player came the tape "Dangerous". That was probably the first ever English song that I listened to in my home. I can off hand recall the lyrics of the song "Why you wanna trip on me" and "Dangerous" and "Keep it in the closet". I can tell you off hand the lyrics of all those songs.
Well, for most of us who grew up in 80's and 90's Michael Jackson was *the* pop icon. Heck, when I was in school, there was a senior who was so fond of Michael Jackson, that she was nicknamed Jayanthi Jackson, where Jayanthi was her real name.
Michael Jackosn is dead. Rest in peace whacko Jacko. For all that has been said and done, you did revolutionize the entire pop music industry.
Birthday wishes to King Illayaraja and Manirathnam. While I still think that Manirathnam is an over rated director, there cannot be any kind of argument to the fact that there is only one Illayaraja.
Of course, I am quite sure that this movie cannot be seen in Theaters in India. There would be too many censorship issues. In fact, a original VCD of Jackie Brown was pathetic to watch because of too many words being blocked out.
So, time to ask someone returning from abroad for a copy !
Now that Prabakharan is dead, a vast majority of politicians in TamilNadu are left without a poll plank and a election meeting rhetoric.
While I am maintaining a neutral stand on the whole issue, in my opinion, LTTE lost whatever international support and political backing they could get with the assassination of their targets outside the Sri Lankan soil. The first was the murder of ERPLF leader Padmanabha in Madras and the second, of Rajiv Gandhi, once again near Madras.
Fighting for your cause using terror or peace is one thing, assassinating your opponents outside your soil is another thing. These two do not mix. This is amply evident from the last few days of the war between Sri Lankan army and LTTE. I did not see any international committee or country trying to step in and stop the fighting. While many might argue that the LTTE was betrayed by India, that kind of an argument fails to pass muster.
The Tamil minority population in Sri Lanka may have suffered at the hands of the Sinhalese majority. However, it is indeed pitiful that they became a collateral in the war between LTTE and the Sri Lankan army, with either sides playing a blame game.
If history taught us anything, it did teach us that as long as you choose a sword to fight for your cause, that cause never gets fulfilled. However, there are two shining examples of what can be achieved when you choose the opposite path for your cause, Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.
There is a Samurai saying I remember reading somewhere: "History of any war is written after the battle has been fought", meaning, any history of a war is the account of the man who stands living after the war.
Go here to know more about Black July and the real history behind the war. A more neutral account is up here.
Much to the shock and awe of most of us watching IPL, I think Royal Challengers Bangalore is going to win this edition of IPL. As for Chennai Super Kings, well, as long as Nitini warms their benches, it is going to be a tough ask for them.
I have my simple reasoning for this. Two years ago I bought my Nikon D40 DSLR from them. Till today, I get a book catalog from them, through international mail. While many, why even I would argue that this constitutes waste of paper, on a different level, I think this is their way of saying "We remember you". No prizes for guessing the store I have been recommending to all my friends out there who want to get good stuff. It is B&H photo video store.
I never expected government behemoths like LIC of India to take the online route quite seriously. Paying the premium of my policy was a breeze. Good. The best thing is that I need not go to the branch and pay it.
Taken in tholpetty wildlife sanctuary. I was so excited on seeing it just around 10ft away from me. My SLR kept focusing on the leaves and bushes in front of it that I could not get a good shot.
10 Years of Matrix Movie - The Matrix Revolutions explained
This is the third part of three part series that aims to explain the all time classic movie - Matrix.
Standard disclaimer is that I did not write this series and I received this from a friend of mine quite sometime ago.
Shyam
The Matrix Revolutions
When Neo awakens in the Mobile Ave subway station of the Trainman he meets the programs Rama Kandra, his wife Kamala and their daughter Sati. Rama and his wife aren't just programs like the Merovingian and Persephone, but machines from the real world plugged into the Matrix. Machines can jack in. This was touched upon in Peter Chung's wonderful Animatrix short "Matriculated." They often plug in and take the guise of humans to insure the operation of the system. From their studies of humans and the previous Reloads of the system many machine have grown to love. Together Rama and Kamala created offspring, a program in the form of their daughter. But Sati serves no purpose and if they don't send her away she will be deleted by the machines. So they made a deal with the Merovingian for Sati to live with the Oracle. This act touches Neo who realizes that the machines are not evil but as capable of love as humans are.
Neo doesn't have his powers because he's not in the Matrix and his software cannot interact with this form of limbo. The Merovingian hoped this would happen because he too knew that Neo would walk out on the Architect. He knew of Neo's attachment to Trinity because his wife Persephone told him. The Merovingian himself is an interesting character, representing Hades, God of the Underworld "a trafficker of information." You see the machines have allowed the Merovingian's secret society to exist because he is harmless and can be called upon for all the dirty little secrets and information they need, ultimately helping the system work. It's possible he may be a previous One or was one of the first malfunctioning rogue programs. Think of it as the FBI calling on the help of organized crime once in a while. He's allowed to have his safe haven for rogue programs such as the Trainman and the Twins and control of many programmer access points (back doors) so long as he doesn't threaten the system. The machines must definitely share a relationship with him otherwise he would not have encountered Neo's predecessors or survived a Matrix Reload.
It also appears that Seraph may have worked for the Merovingian but I suspect their previous encounter was due to the fact that Seraph was the previous One. When Neo fights him in the Teahouse they match each other's every move to a standstill. Seraph does this to be sure Neo is the One. Also notice how when Seraph first shows up at Club Hel in "Revolutions" one of the bouncers says "Look, it's Wingless." or something like that. He's referring to the fact that Seraph is now an Angel with no wings having given up his power to Reload the Matrix just as Neo was supposed to.
Let's talk about the relationship between Neo and Agent Smith. The Oracle tells Neo that Smith has become his opposite, his negative. A result of the equation trying to balance itself out. Why did Neo jump into Smith to destroy him at the end of the original film? Neo probably doesn't know why himself, but I suspect that he was drawn to him like a magnet. As soon as Neo discovered his powers he did this act. It appears that Smith was supposed to be Neo's opposite all along. When Smith interrogated Morpheus in the original film he confessed that he "wanted out of this zoo." He was already growing too human and was on the path to becoming Neo's negative. He wanted to be disconnected from the system as evident when he takes out his earpiece during the interrogation. Smith's fellow agents are surprised to see his ear piece removed (Agent Brown: "What are you doing?") and if they suspected Smith's true feelings they may have sent him back to the source for deletion from the system since he was malfunctioning. Neo was drawn to jumping into Smith because the equation was trying to balance itself. The replicating program from the cookie may have copied on to him as well.
Now that Smith is reborn like Neo with some of his code written on to him he doesn't want to just be deleted from the system but shut down the system and everything else. His hatred for mankind is now equaled by his hatred for his machine creators. If Neo is the positive side of the equation then Smith is the negative with the desire to destroy everything. "I want what you want Mr. Anderson. I want everything." When Neo is blinded by Agent Smith in Bane's body he gets a grip of how connected to the machines he really is and can see them for what they really are.
Neo knows that Smith has grown out of control and the machines can't delete him from the system. Having assimilated everyone in the Matrix, including the Oracle, Smith threatens the system, the minds plugged in and the machine world itself. The machines will lose their crops or powers source and eventually the virus that is Smith will infect them as well. To prove to the machines that peace can be reached with their creators, the human race, Neo makes a deal that if he can defeat Smith, a compromise will be reached. He needs their help to jack in because he still hasn't mastered the ability to do it alone. Only after battling it out with Smith does Neo realizes that the solution is simple. Smith tells Neo during the final moments "What a minute, I've seen this before. You were laying right there and I was standing here. And I say, everything that has a beginning has an end Neo. Wait, what did I say?" The answer is it isn't Smith who's saying this but the Oracle who Smith assimilated. When Smith assimilated the Oracle in her kitchen he laughed hysterically because he saw her vision of him defeating Neo. He would finally accomplish what he couldn't for so long and had made him so bitter: the destruction of the One. Smith has treated Neo with much disdain and never actually called him Neo. Smith is puzzled and scared because someone is speaking through him. The Oracle spoke this phrase to Neo before and what she was referring to was the war. It would end whether both sided survived or not. If Neo is +1 the positive side of the equation and Smith is -1 the negative side then when they are added together the sum is zero, which is what Neo does when he allows Smith to assimilate him. By doing so he has effectively opened a backdoor for the machines to delete Smith from the system through him. The machines are affected by Neo's sacrifice and decide to recall their attacking army from Zion, ending the war and carrying out the Oracle's plan.
A truce has been made but as the Architect indicates to the Oracle it may be a temporary one. Mankind has a habit of sh**ting where they eat and the Oracle will have to become a mediator between man and machine to ensure that they work together to rebuild the Earth, un-scorch the skies and live in peace. How long will it last? "As long as it can," the Oracle says. The first step has been made, the rest is up to man and machine. Even though the Oracle can predict the outcome of variables or events she didn't see all of this happening as she tells Seraph. But thanks to Neo and his dedication, "I believed." "For what it's worth, you've made a believer out of me."
10 Years of Matrix Movie - The Matrix Reloaded explained
This is the second part of three part series that aims to explain the all time classic movie - Matrix.
Standard disclaimer is that I did not write this series and I received this from a friend of mine quite sometime ago.
Shyam
The Matrix Reloaded
In part two of the story the machines have found Zion and are seeking it out for destruction. The human threat has grown too large and the cycle must end so that it may begin again. The Architect (whose been watching Neo on his TV screens from day one) knows that the Oracle is guiding Neo to the source and that the prime program will be temporarily re-inserted again to reload the matrix for a sixth time. What they don't know is that the Oracle has a plan for Neo to choose differently. When the Oracle meets with Neo again she offers him candy. Perhaps another upgrade to his program. She also knows that Trinity will end up in danger and Neo will choose her over Reloading the Matrix. She's also aware that Neo's interaction with the Architect will upgrade his implants and his program enabling him to stop those sentinels at the film's conclusion and temporarily touch the power of the source. He's not ready yet and for the meantime will discover that he's gained the ability to separate his mind from his body and jack himself in on his own.
"The true tragedy of a routinely spent life is that its wastefulness does not become apparent till it is too late." Amitava Ghosh in his book "Hungry Tide"
