This is the recommended movie of the week.
I had this movie on my system for a long long time but could only watch it yesterday.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a wonderful movie not because it entertains us but more so that it explores the subtle realities that surround each and every culture.
The plot synopsis from wikipedia
"
The movie is centered on Toula, a Greek-American woman , who falls in love with a non-Greek American, Ian Miller . The movie also examines the protagonist's relationship with her family, with their cultural heritage and value system, which is sometimes rocky but ends with mutual appreciation.
"
Now my point. The movie is great great entertainment. Typical candy romance. Just multi-flavoured.
One of the most beautiful moments in the movie comes when Toula has some doubts on whether it could work. Because though her family managed to accept the to be groom, still she knew a tradition is
"Listen Tula my village saw many wars. Turkish, German. They all made a mess. But my mother said we are lucky. We are lucky to be alive. And I thought we are not lucky to be alive. We are not lucky when they are telling us where we should live, what we should eat.
Nobody , has that right.
And then I see you.And I see Adena and Nichol(siblings of Toula). We came here for you. So you could live. We gave you a life so you could live it."
Its a very liberating statement and the movie ends on a happy note sometime later.
A lot of fun is poked at the oddities of Greek culture in the movie but its just for fun.
A must watch. Even if one has to rent the DVD.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Terror in my Name?
A terror cell has recently been busted in Bangalore, the Silicon-Valley of India(no, it has nothing to do with certain implants in strategic areas). With the arrest of an MBBS student last month followed by an engineer working for a software firm, it appears now even educated Indian Muslims are in danger of radical indoctrination.
An idiot and a misguided fool makes life difficult for the rest of us. No one can deny that terrorism in the name of Islam is a big problem , not only for the world community, but even more so for Islam itself. But Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. Its the ideologies of terror who derive inspiration from Islam that are creating all the trouble. There is a simple reason why the argument that the Quran or Islam is the cause of terrorism is fallacious. There are a billion plus Muslims in the world. If even ten percent were involved in terrorism , streets would be bathed in blood.
Terrorism like most other things is a political weapon. Other than the Palestine cause there was no other movements which could be labelled terrorists for much of the twentieth century. Then came the Soviets who attacked USSR and suddenly radical Islam seemed to be a new weapon against communism for those in power. So the Mujahideen were funded , trained and armed to take on the Soviet army. The funds did not come from Muslim countries. They came from the west.Paradox aint it. And they did win. The deserts of Afghanistan still contain the bodies of thousands of Soviet soldiers. They died as pawns fighting a war that was just a game between two superpowers. 2000 soldiers are still missing in action nearly 25 years after the war ended.
These mujahideen after the win had nowhere to go . So they migrated to every hotzone possible.
Pakistan used terrorism as a political weapon to spread insurgencies in various parts of India especially Punjab and Kashmir. The 20 year militancy has killed over 20000 people in Kashmir itself.
Many people claim terrorism is in Islam is in the name of Muslims itself. And so moderates must stand up and protest. However much mainstream muslims try to distant themselves from the fringe elements, it is seemingly not enough.
They do not accept the fact that things are being done within the community in many places. Also Islam is not all that homogenous a religion as many would like to beleive it. There are sects and there are ideologies and Islam varies from country to country.
Things could always be better. But the fact remains Islam has no united leadership. In India itself since independence there has been no tall Muslim leader.So whatever changes are being made are being done in rather trying circumstances.
So find the fringe elements and prosecute them as law allows. But don't go overboard and make the average Muslim feel humiliated and threatened. No one wins if the authorities lose the battle of hearts and minds.
The reason is simple . Islam teaches loyalty to both the religion and state. Both of these loyalties go hand in hand. The loyalty to the state is a powerful force. So the police and investigating teams must be sensitive enough not to make innocents question their loyalties. Also a lot of people and organizations are trying to reform Islam, improve the levels of education , encourage dialog etc. Don't suspect these organizations because they work with muslims.
It must be remembered that the terrorist philosophies are just those -philosophies. Indian Islam in particular has a lot of emphasis on tolerance and cohesiveness of humans as a race. It's Sufism.
In the end I say one thing. When a terrorist act occurs, punish the offenders. Know the fact I don't support violence.
Because the terrorist were terrorists.
The violence wasn't in my name. Because I never gave them the power. Ever.
An idiot and a misguided fool makes life difficult for the rest of us. No one can deny that terrorism in the name of Islam is a big problem , not only for the world community, but even more so for Islam itself. But Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. Its the ideologies of terror who derive inspiration from Islam that are creating all the trouble. There is a simple reason why the argument that the Quran or Islam is the cause of terrorism is fallacious. There are a billion plus Muslims in the world. If even ten percent were involved in terrorism , streets would be bathed in blood.
Terrorism like most other things is a political weapon. Other than the Palestine cause there was no other movements which could be labelled terrorists for much of the twentieth century. Then came the Soviets who attacked USSR and suddenly radical Islam seemed to be a new weapon against communism for those in power. So the Mujahideen were funded , trained and armed to take on the Soviet army. The funds did not come from Muslim countries. They came from the west.Paradox aint it. And they did win. The deserts of Afghanistan still contain the bodies of thousands of Soviet soldiers. They died as pawns fighting a war that was just a game between two superpowers. 2000 soldiers are still missing in action nearly 25 years after the war ended.
These mujahideen after the win had nowhere to go . So they migrated to every hotzone possible.
Pakistan used terrorism as a political weapon to spread insurgencies in various parts of India especially Punjab and Kashmir. The 20 year militancy has killed over 20000 people in Kashmir itself.
Many people claim terrorism is in Islam is in the name of Muslims itself. And so moderates must stand up and protest. However much mainstream muslims try to distant themselves from the fringe elements, it is seemingly not enough.
They do not accept the fact that things are being done within the community in many places. Also Islam is not all that homogenous a religion as many would like to beleive it. There are sects and there are ideologies and Islam varies from country to country.
Things could always be better. But the fact remains Islam has no united leadership. In India itself since independence there has been no tall Muslim leader.So whatever changes are being made are being done in rather trying circumstances.
So find the fringe elements and prosecute them as law allows. But don't go overboard and make the average Muslim feel humiliated and threatened. No one wins if the authorities lose the battle of hearts and minds.
The reason is simple . Islam teaches loyalty to both the religion and state. Both of these loyalties go hand in hand. The loyalty to the state is a powerful force. So the police and investigating teams must be sensitive enough not to make innocents question their loyalties. Also a lot of people and organizations are trying to reform Islam, improve the levels of education , encourage dialog etc. Don't suspect these organizations because they work with muslims.
It must be remembered that the terrorist philosophies are just those -philosophies. Indian Islam in particular has a lot of emphasis on tolerance and cohesiveness of humans as a race. It's Sufism.
In the end I say one thing. When a terrorist act occurs, punish the offenders. Know the fact I don't support violence.
Because the terrorist were terrorists.
The violence wasn't in my name. Because I never gave them the power. Ever.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Two great great videos
The best wedding dance EVER. You gotta see this. Lovely idea.
The next has to be the video of the year. Iwatched the whole video and I actually cried. Anyway all the text that follows has been taken from, whoisthemonkey.com . Please read the article because that will help you in understanding it all
Three cheers for Dick Hoyt. May Allah give everyone the courage to be such patient parents.
ENJOY
| WhoIsTheMonkey.com |
The next has to be the video of the year. Iwatched the whole video and I actually cried. Anyway all the text that follows has been taken from, whoisthemonkey.com . Please read the article because that will help you in understanding it all
[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly] I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay For their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.
But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.
Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back Mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. Makes Taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life. This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick Was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him Brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him And his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an Institution.''
But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes Followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the Engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was Anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.''
"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a Lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed Him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his Head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the School organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want To do that.''
Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran More than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he Tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore For two weeks.''
That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, It felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''
And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly Shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a Single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few Years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then They found a way to get into the race Officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the Qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''
How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he Was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick Tried.
Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud Getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you Think?
Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with A cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best Time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world Record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to Be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the Time.
``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a Mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries Was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' One doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.
``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''
Three cheers for Dick Hoyt. May Allah give everyone the courage to be such patient parents.
ENJOY
Saturday, February 23, 2008
R.I.P. MBA aspirations 07-08
Khatam hui dastaan-e-mohabbat ,mil gaya dil ko qaraar,
Kal jo padi uspe padi uspe nazar, laut aayi vohi bechaini hai.
Well my M.B.A. aspirations or the attempts at getting to an MBA school have ended for now. That's the bad news.
The good news is now I am going to take up one of the offers I have. Hurray ab to paise kamaaye jaayegein. I have still not decided which company to take but I still have the time.
Anyway my MBA journey began in January last year when I made that MBA decision. So to prepare for the CAT(Common Admission Test) , I took up coaching at IMS institute. I had weekend classes, six hours a week. I am not sure how much I studied but those were the days.
There was a very simple reason why? In my batch out of 30 people nearly 14 were from my college. With a ban on bikes in my college we used to go by buses to the place nearly 14 km away.
On Saturdays we had evening seven to nine batch which used to stretch till nine-thirty. It normally used to take one hour each way of travelling time. On the way back public transport used to become scarce and as a group of three or five we used to have dinner together.
Fun times.
Anyway I think I never really took MBA very seriously and it showed in the results.
The complacency factor set in and when I look back I cant see a lot of hard work being put in the field. Luck is a nice thing but luck is just that-'luck'.
Anyway beyond it in the end I started to doubt if I could make it . And that was the beginning of the end.
In the end my overall CAT percentile was 97.96. Considering nearly 250,000 people appear for the CAT it was not abad score. But not good enough for me. I did though get a 99.91 in english, which is great.
With my CAT score I could get a lot of good colleges but not the creme da creme.
The second test I gave was entrance to F.M.S.
Out of nearly 60,000 people who appear for the test only 60 get the final calls. I guess the luck ran out. Yesterday the results for F.M.S. came and I could feel the end of a year of miserly efforts. But it was still an end.
Anyway I do have a call from I.M.T. Ghaziabad which is at times rated among the top ten colleges of India which I should convert. But I want better so I shall let it go.
Another year , another place, another test. My times shall come.
IIM's main aaa raha hoon.
Kal jo padi uspe padi uspe nazar, laut aayi vohi bechaini hai.
Well my M.B.A. aspirations or the attempts at getting to an MBA school have ended for now. That's the bad news.
The good news is now I am going to take up one of the offers I have. Hurray ab to paise kamaaye jaayegein. I have still not decided which company to take but I still have the time.
Anyway my MBA journey began in January last year when I made that MBA decision. So to prepare for the CAT(Common Admission Test) , I took up coaching at IMS institute. I had weekend classes, six hours a week. I am not sure how much I studied but those were the days.
There was a very simple reason why? In my batch out of 30 people nearly 14 were from my college. With a ban on bikes in my college we used to go by buses to the place nearly 14 km away.
On Saturdays we had evening seven to nine batch which used to stretch till nine-thirty. It normally used to take one hour each way of travelling time. On the way back public transport used to become scarce and as a group of three or five we used to have dinner together.
Fun times.
Anyway I think I never really took MBA very seriously and it showed in the results.
The complacency factor set in and when I look back I cant see a lot of hard work being put in the field. Luck is a nice thing but luck is just that-'luck'.
Anyway beyond it in the end I started to doubt if I could make it . And that was the beginning of the end.
In the end my overall CAT percentile was 97.96. Considering nearly 250,000 people appear for the CAT it was not abad score. But not good enough for me. I did though get a 99.91 in english, which is great.
With my CAT score I could get a lot of good colleges but not the creme da creme.
The second test I gave was entrance to F.M.S.
Out of nearly 60,000 people who appear for the test only 60 get the final calls. I guess the luck ran out. Yesterday the results for F.M.S. came and I could feel the end of a year of miserly efforts. But it was still an end.
Anyway I do have a call from I.M.T. Ghaziabad which is at times rated among the top ten colleges of India which I should convert. But I want better so I shall let it go.
Another year , another place, another test. My times shall come.
IIM's main aaa raha hoon.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
OpenID at work in blogger और टाइपिंग इन हिन्दी
I must say that the blogger team is innovating at the speed of light. Just days after they rolled out support for Hindi and other languages, now people can use accounts of other sites to post comments.
The interoperability is a really good thing as while the popularity of blogs continue to rise there is great competition among the different to both retain and attract customers. However few serious bloggers continually blog at more than one site so it becomes inconvenient for them to comment on other site blogs without registering for the site.
Anyway four sites are available now, the most imp of which has to be wordpress. But missing is technocrati.
It is listed under open id and is a good option for people who hate posting anonymously.
I also like the hind option और अब मैं हिन्दी में लिखना की कोशिश करोंगा ।
इंग्लिश से hindi transliteration is good, perhaps inspired by the the SMS lingo where all languages use the english alphabet.
The only trouble is that the मत्रिये i.e. the vowel sounds are not correct. The funny thing is hindi हिन्दी is itself spelt wrong.
That or my hindi has gone to the dogs.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
I have never been able to survive a musical but this is the first time I actually enjoyed one.
Yes Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a rather enjoyable movie. It deals with the dark side of human emotion. Its a dark dark movie but its that kind of movie which makes one deeply think. Sweeney Todd has been wronged but can one find sympathy for a mass murderer/
After being sent away by the corrupt Judge Turpin, Sweeney Todd or Benjamin Barker as he was earlier known returns to London with the help of a sailor, Anthony Hope. He returns only to find his wife dead and his daughter in the hands of the evil Judge Turpin. He opens a barber shop above Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pie Shop, where she sells "the worst pies in London." With the help of Mrs. Lovett, Todd means to rid London of the corrupt aristocracy, and also get his revenge on judge Turpin. There is an evil evil twist as to how the bodies of the victims are disposed of.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Watson, they got it all wrong
The Archbishop of Cantebury, Dr. Rowan William's has recently released a statement supporting the introduction of Sharia courts for muslims in UK, saying they should not have to choose between cultural and state loyalty.
I have great respect for the Archbishop but I believe in this case he has managed to misread the whole situation. Muslims dont want Sharia courts, they don't yearn for an Islamic state in their deams; they only desire to be treated as normals , to merge in the crowd and live on.
Courts on the basis of religion are not the solution. What about the doubters and people whose faiths are shaky?
Steps like these will only add to the sense of alarm and straight-jacket people into stereotypes.
Thats a fact.
Emphasize on secular education, mutual respect rather than religion. Moves like these will only strengthen the far right and the Islamaphobic tendencies prevalent in many people.
The full report
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7233337.stm
I have great respect for the Archbishop but I believe in this case he has managed to misread the whole situation. Muslims dont want Sharia courts, they don't yearn for an Islamic state in their deams; they only desire to be treated as normals , to merge in the crowd and live on.
Courts on the basis of religion are not the solution. What about the doubters and people whose faiths are shaky?
Steps like these will only add to the sense of alarm and straight-jacket people into stereotypes.
Thats a fact.
Emphasize on secular education, mutual respect rather than religion. Moves like these will only strengthen the far right and the Islamaphobic tendencies prevalent in many people.
The full report
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7233337.stm
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Andaman Trip
One of the pics from my trip to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In the background is a setting sun on Radhenagar Beach at Havelock Islands . Almost looks like a wallpaper.
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