Breezy October

This rainy season has been worst I have ever seen (not to mention I have seen just 22 rainy seasons). Mumbai had very bad flood situation and almost all the districts in Maharashtra are poured with more than average rains. Till September last week rain had not stopped (at least in Pune). We can expect a large drop in temperature in winter and it may lead to cold winds.
But that is not why October is going to be breezy.


I have waited long for Ubuntu's next release 5.10. This will be third release of Ubuntu I will be using and it has become my primary and only operating system at home.
Don't be surprised that I dumped Windows an year ago, tired of seeing all those BSODs and taking care of unwanted guests a.k.a. viruses and worms.

I am extremely happy about the way GNU/Linux is blended in a usable distribution by Ubuntu developers/maintainers. The Ubuntu community is growing continuously and the distro is at the top at distrowatch leaving Mandriva, SUSE, Fedora far behind.
And if you are KDE lover (read as 'GNOME hater') then also you have no reason to be unhappy with Ubuntu because sister project KUbuntu delivers same distro with KDE as default desktop environment. I will surely like to try Edubuntu (set to release sometime this month) which is being made for classroom use. The package list looks good. So if you know any school or college in India that would love to try it then let me know. May be I could help.

Since all the releases are code named Breezy Badger, the October is going to be real breezy.

Simply superb - Iqbal

Yesterday, I saw a movie 'Iqbal'. One more reason to admire Nagesh Kukunoor. After seeing 'Hyderabad Blues', 'Rockford' & 'Teen Deewarein' (all being directed by Nagesh), I was sure going to watch 'Iqbal'. The only question was when and where (theatre or TV/VCD).

And now that I have seen it, here is what I think about it.

A simple story of a deaf and dumb boy who makes to Indian cricket team, against all odds. Only 6 main characters. The boy, his sister, his mother, his father, his master who never made to national team in his time and an academy coach who is more interested in business than emotions. Each character as simple as it can be, and each performance as good as it can be.

Shreyas Talpade is really good as deaf-dumb boy and not to mention Shweta Prasaad is highly talented child actress. And no doubt about Naseerudding Shah. I have yet to find a role of his where he didn't actually fit in.
I think Shahrukh Khan should see this movie again and again for rest of his life to learn at least some acting.

Highly recommended movie. And make a point to watch it in theatre, don't watch it on TV. It is really worth it.
I hope it gets some good awards. (Perhaps you heard it wrong if you think Filmfare awards. I was talking about National awards)

This morning I saw an add for 'Salaam Namaste'. It said 'Yash Chopra's biggest Musical Entertainer'. I was just wondering how can they claim it to be biggest entertainer before even releasing the movie. And why is it just musical entertainer? Is it because these days all the Chopra camp movies only contain goodie-goodie looking sweet people living in large houses and singing a good song every now and then?
I am sure I don't want to go to theatre to just listen good songs. I can always hear cassette.

When can we expect movies like 'Iqbal', 'Teen Deewarein' or 'Ab Tak Chhappan' from Chopra productions?

Partner

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(Translation for those who don't understand Marathi)

Read 'Partner' by V. P. Kale. One more addition to list of good books.
There is a difference between P. L. Deshpande & V. P. Kale, also there is one similarity.

Stories by P. L. are based on pure harmless humour. The characters seem very familiar. It feels like we have met them.

Stories by V. P. are based on events in day today life. There is less humour and more harsh truth. The pains of characters are really true. It feels like 'this can happen to me'.

Both have one similarity. Both make the characters really live.

I was lucky to hear V. P. in college annual gathering. 'Baap' and 'Gargi Parasnis' stories were really good.
Planning to buy books 'Sakhi' & 'Vapurza' soon.

50 years back

'Sakal' (my favorite Marathi newspaper) has a section titled 'Pannas Varshanpurvi' (50 years back) which contains one significant news each from India and world 50 years back.

Yesterday I read that 50 years ago some congress leaders were proposing a united Maharashtra state that consisted then provinces Mumbai & Saurashtra and remaining region that forms Maharashta today. In short it was combination of today's Maharastra & Gujraath.

Majority of leaders opposed to it saying that it contradicted with Congress' principle of 'States based on languages'. I didn't know that Maharashtra state was planned 6 years in advance (Maharashtra got its today's form in 1961).

If it had happened then perhaps today's Mehtas and Patils would have been distant cousins. Or there would have been no difference between Gujraathi Joshi and Marathi Joshi.

But is there a slightest possibility that Godhra or Malegaon riots would have been avoided?
I don't know, because I don't understand what really divides a group of people, what really creates hate instead of love.

Perhaps as said in Matrix Trilogy, I don't understand past my choice.

Perhaps I don't want to understand.

Struggle

5th of July was my first day of second year at my company. It has been one year. One great year.

But I notice that some of my friends are still struggling to get a satisfactory (in terms of money) job.

Not that I never had to struggle in my life. I am always struggling on health front. I have always struggled on academic front since I was out of my school. I had struggled to get admission for electronics subject in junior college. I had struggled to get free seat in engineering. I struggled to clear IIT-JEE. I failed every time.
I have struggled to pass in subjects of engineering. 73 was the highest score I saw in my four years of engineering (that too in first year itself, and I never crossed 65 again). My friends used to scold me that I didn't study properly.
And although I was pretty sure that I would have to struggle really hard for my first job (due to my average marks being less than normally expected), it was perhaps the easiest thing that happened in my life.

I read this quote somewhere:
"God won't give me anything I can't handle. I wish god didn't trust me that much".
I think God had given me enough things I couldn't handle. So at the end he gave me exactly what I wanted.


Now I feel like I am in my second year of my new college. College of life.
Everything is same as it was when I completed my first year of college, except one thing. I have lost more friends that I made.

Struggle, you have to do, to keep your friends close to you.

Style sense

Some people have a great sense of style (out of box). They usually create things/arts that are visually appealing.

When a group of such people come together then they form something like Sony.

I have no doubt about performance of Sony products. At the same time their products are really stylish.

It is hard to find a Sony product that doesn't stand different from other products in same category.
It is hard to find a Sony product that won't tempt you into giving away the extra money they ask for.
It is hard to find a Sony product that is not visually appealing.

Sony has won my heart at least in this respect over others. By now I have at my home a TV, a DVD player, a Walkman, PC Speakers, headphones all made by Sony.
Perhaps I am now looking forward to buying a Sony music system for my own car (when I buy it) or a home theatre system for my own house (again, when I buy it).

I wish Sony made cars and houses.

Courage

A man was sitting in a chair watching installation of a new machine in his factory. His companion was a dog, a full-grown German Shepherd with height about half of that man and wait about 40 kg.

When it was time to leave the man asked a boy to take the dog away. The boy tried to pull away the dog with the chain tied to his neck.
The dog was ill. It became furious with this action. It went mad.

The dog unexpectedly attacked the man. It went out of control.
The dog was thirsty for the man's throat. The man was fighting with the dog for more than 15 minutes. Nobody dared to come to rescue him.

Finally the man managed to put his left hand in the mouth of the dog. Finally the man managed to save his throat.
He then grabbed the chain and somehow brought the dog under control.

The man received number of wounds on his both hands, legs, stomach.

The man is in his early fifties. His name is 'Ravi', synonym for sun. One that stands high, above all.
He is my uncle. My mother's brother.

I didn't see the incident but just heard about it. I am not sure what I would have done in such situation.

After all, it takes courage ...
... to take 20 injections in one single day.
... to fight a German Shepherd bare handed.
... to put your hand in mouth of a mad dog to save your throat.

Legality & Morality

A conversation started in the elevator yesterday.

Moreshwar: "I paid for the music in the form of cassette tapes. So I can convert the tapes to mp3 for my personal use."
Onkar: "mp3 is patented format. You are supposed to pay royalty for using it. Use ogg instead."
Shrivallabh: "Any sort of unauthorized copying or reproduction of music in cassette tapes is prohibited"

Assuming that
- Mp3 patent is valid in India.
- There is no law in India to enforce what Shrivallabh says.

Moreshwar is legally as well as morally wrong.
Onkar is legally correct but morally wrong.
Shrivallabh is legally as well as morally correct.


What is your opinion?
What would you choose?

Tombstone

There are few movies based on real life stories and there are very few out of them that are impressive (according to me). I must say Tombstone was really impressive considering the fact that I didn't know anything about this real life story.

When I read the line on DVD, "Every town has a story. Tombstone has a legend", I wasn't very sure about what I was going to watch.

The time of story is in 1880s when Tombstone is a newly established town in Arizona. The town is threatened by outlaws Johnny Ringo, Billy Clanton, Ike Clanton and their gang known as 'The Cowboys'. The movie starts with a mass killing at a Spanish wedding.

Retired lawman Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) comes to Tombstone with his wife, brothers Virgil (Sam Elliott) and Morgan (Bill Paxton) and their wives. He is soon followed by his friend and doctor turned gambler Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer). Wyatt is interested in making some money and moving on. But it seems it wasn't his destiny.

One night drunken Billy Clanton kills old town Marshal in a gun fight. Wyatt Earp presents Bill in court but he is released due to lack of evidence. This is the time when Virgil and Morgan take charge and put notices about restrictions on carrying guns in town. Wyatt is not very keen about getting involved. He tells Virgil and Morgan, "Once I engaged in a fight. A man was killed and I killed him. You don't even know how it feels to kill a man." Wyatt knows where it is leading and it only ends with death and devastation. This incidence is followed by the famous gun fight at OK Corral square and eventually some bloodshed. The Cowboys soon cold-bloodedly murder Morgon and cripple Virgil.

Wyatt then decides to leave the town. But Johnny Ringo is interested in ending this at once. He sends Stillwell and Ike Clanton to Railway Station to kill Earp brothers. But Wyatt is ready for them and kills Stillwell. This scene I liked particularly. At the start of movie in mass killing when Cowboys kill a Spanish priest he says something in Spanish before dying. Jonny Ringo explains that he was referring to Bible, "A man will come soon and hell will follow him".
When Wyatt kills Stillwell, Ike drops his gun and begs for his life. Wyatt says to him, "Tell him I am coming. I AM COMING AND HELL IS COMING WITH ME"

Wyatt then takes his revenge and finishes the Cowboys gang. Jonny Ringo, supposed to be fastest gunman, throws Wyatt a challenge for one on one fight. Doc Holliday replaces Wyatt without his knowledge and then you find that Jonny is not fast enough to beat Doc.

The movie though made in 1993 has a fresh look. Almost every character in movie is played perfectly. Kurt Russell is damn good. I also liked Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday. According to what I read at IMDB, out of 8 movies related to this story, Tombstone stands above all (as it sticks to reality).