Mashed bananas, pyar and shopping....

It is the end of a particularly awesome weekend. And after a long time. Started off mildly with a visit to Landmark where I ended up reading HP7 instead of  looking at new books (I have been re-reading the series, ‘coz I had forgotten most of the finer details), but at least that helped my wallet a little. Anyway, watched a play yesterday evening after a long time, and 2 movies today- all of them were a real laugh! Ended it with Anand Bhavan coffee- so I really can’t ask for more.
Now for the stuff I watched. 
 
Butter and Mashed Banana: 
VERY GOOD play. It is really long since I saw one, the last I saw in B’lore was “Night of January 16th” and though I love the story, it was good-but-not-very-good. This time Rangashankara was full (never seen it like that before) and that only served to increase my expectations. Fortunately, I was not disappointed. The play is a satire about freedom of expression in India. The dialogues are amazing, and the actors did a great job. Each of them seemed carved for the role, and I liked many of their theatre techniques (Expressions, use of music, use of dance, almost everything). Thing is drama is something that not too many people watch, so you might think that this is only good for regular theatre enthusiasts. But no, not at all. Anyone who has watched a movie and heard a Beep where there should be some slang that anybody could have guessed, can watch this play and completely relate to it. Coming to think of it, even anyone who has ever used a dictionary can go watch this play :)
And that was the beauty of it. It was hilarious enough for the common man and creative enough for the serious art critic. I hate to tell out plots, so that is all I will mention, but I strongly strongly recommend you to watch it. There are 2 shows in Mumbai on Tuesday and Wednesday, and two more shows at Whitefield next weekend. If you have an hour, and haven’t seen a play in a while, it is a must-go. Actually, even if you have never seen a play at all, it is a must-go!
 
Pyaar ka Punch-nama: 
This was a lighter movie, and was mostly comedy revolving around relationships. I expected the feminist in me to come out saying “that is not how women are” and “this is so chauvinistic” etc. But actually I didn’t. There were so many dialogues in the movie and so many situations which I could relate to real-life behavior of women I know, so I had to admit the movie was right about portrayals. Women ARE demanding, and women ARE confused. Not all of them. Not at all times. Not to the same extent. But then, women are all that. And more. It might be because of the way society views them, or because of the way they are brought up; it might be because “Man's love is of man's life a thing apart, 'Tis a woman's whole existence”* or it might be because of natural selection but then women really are like that. (I know I must be the only jerk to think of evolution after watching Pyar ka Punch-nama, but I completely blame Dawkins for that- he has driven that angle too much into my head :( ). Anyway, I even came up with couple of theories about why women are the way they are and what men/women can do about this, but I am not gonna trouble you with all that.
Let me just say it was a good movie to watch, and hilarious. It is still on theaters, so if you want a good laugh, it is quite worth the money to go watch this one. (By the way, if you are taking your girlfriend, be sure to warn her that it is just for fun and surely she is special and ‘definitely’ not like the girls portrayed in it ;) :P)
 
Coas:
Confessions of a shopaholic- a movie I have seen at least twice already, second time only for Hugh, but he really suits the serious boss role. But I still liked watching it today. Shopaholism is quite an alien feeling to me, though I think B’lore is infecting me a little with it. But then, this movie always reminds me of why the “fish crisis” (fiscal crisis) happened in the first place, and why Indian parents are right about a lot of things, like teaching their children the value of money. Otherwise, nothing particularly great about the movie, but if you like shopping (and more so, if you are a girl) it is a must-watch.
 

So, that’s it. And to round up my list of recommendations- it will be very much worth the 15 bucks to finish this up with Anand Bhavan coffee, the way I did. :)

*That's by Byron in Don Juan. I hadn't read Don Juan until I wrote this article and was surprised to find it had so many wonderful lines (Including truth is stranger than fiction!) and also some great analysis of men and women. Find the original here.

The Artist

Though this comes on a relevant date, this is not related to M.F.Hussain at all! I was thinking of something and merely found the artist to be a very good metaphor...

He stood, brush in hand, pondering. Again.
A dash of yellow on the cheek,
but even then the complexion was not right.
A tad darker, a tad lighter, it went on like the monkey fable.
And yet, that image in his mind, shining clearer than ever. Tantalizing.
With each brush stroke he knew what was wrong,
But correct this one, and the right eye’s hazel is too strong.
Search as he may, for the ideal in the real,
it could never be as perfect as in the mind.
Maybe that inconspicuous yet irritating flaw
was what made reality real, and he had to give up;
Maybe his mind's ability to imagine it was the true masterpiece 
And he had to merely appreciate himself;
Or maybe it was both perfect and possible. And he was to go on searching after all...

Perspective

Statutory Warning: This post is actually the result of one small MOSFET in TH-1 fluttering its gate- followed by a lot of chaos theory. It is weird, incomplete and random. Author not responsible for any brain damage. Or any other damage, like your company falling down 100 points on the market, because all of you are lost in deep thought after reading!

Warning (2)- If you clicked on the link for gate, and found the wrong one: I told ya, this post is random. Chaotic. Now don't start.

Perspective. It is one of my favorite words in English. (Most of you might have heard me say my standard "depends on your point of view" or "depends on what you want from it".)

I think sometimes that almost everything is a matter of perspective. No reality. Only shifting points of view and manifestations.

I remember the times in college when I realized there were a lot of things I had never even thought about while I was still at home, and suddenly they seemed weird from an outsider's point of view. And I keep claiming that my perspective has widened. Yet, when I say the "Indian junta is like this only", all I know of it are the few people I have met- maybe a 1000 odd. And we writers think we can talk about "mankind in general". Funny, huh?

Each time I think of the Big Bang and Big Crunch and Evolution (Ya. Selfish Gene remains on the list of posts "coming soon") and Bose-Einstein Condensates and Bhagavata Purana and F plasmids and DX 11 and 22nm , I am awestruck. 

Maybe because "the sound perception of an ant does not include thunder"

Maybe in reality, each universe is just a giant petri-plate we are on and someone is just testing us all in a big lab. And after thinking of that, all of religion, politics, movies, small fights, pj forwards, technology look minuscule. Insignificant.

And yet again, when I look at my weekly status reports and deadlines and quarterly plans,  nothing seems as important as hitting those targets. And I just can't help getting excited about the 3-d transistor. Until I remember the petri-plate, that is.

And I continue to wonder, what is the point of it all........

P.S: Actually, I changed my mind. Perspective, I mean. I can't help getting excited about the 3-d transistor. Even after the petri-plate! Maybe, that excitement IS the point of it all.....
P.S 2: I didn't know that I would write about the 3-d transistor thing when I started the article. The TH-1 and the 3-d tsr are unrelated. :P

To live, not To survive

I have wanted to write on a lot of things in the last month. And somehow, it got postponed. There are always higher and higher priority things in my To-do list and I am falling into that abyss of endless working on things that are important but don’t make me happy. To be honest, almost throughout my life the things I considered important were also the things that made me happy. (For eg: studying. I enjoyed learning more than most activities, however much fellow students cribbed about it. I really loved the feeling I got after learning a new concept or acquiring a new skill- and the good part was these were the things I defined as important in my life.) But now, I am in a paradoxical situation. The things that are defined as important in my life today are not the things that seem to make me happy. They probably promised to make me happy when I started on them, but time has proven me wrong. 

Love is in the air...

It is the season of roses and heart shaped candies and chocolates and teddy bears ... And MRIs. The last? Maybe not yet, but MRI might just be your most sought after Valentine thing in the future. (For those of you who know me really well, I hope you saw something like this coming :P Magnetic Resonance Imaging instead of mushy dialogues :P)
 
Actually I read “this” article sometime in December, and had been thinking of blogging about it for long. But you know how I get stuck with one thing or the other never get around to writing. However, with Feb 14 around the corner, I thought what better time to write about love.. 
 
So basically, this article is about a guy who just participated in a neuroimaging experiment related to how exactly he loves his wife. And how do you find that out? They take images of his brain while he is thinking about his wife (he is shown pics of her to create that scenario) and they see which parts of the brain are more active when he does so. For a comparative study he is also shown the photo of Angelina Jolie (he gets to choose who) and in between both there is a neutral face (which bores him) to cleanse the brain activity.