Fiction : Heart,Outside

There you are. Right in front of me and I cant hold you.

It felt like a zillion years and it felt like yesterday when I saw the love in your eyes for me.

Now you are simply someone else’s.

You arent even looking at me, as though I am something that didnt exist.

But it isnt your fault, I ceased to exist for you.

I left you and moved on.

Still a look of recognition would suffice. Something in you must remind you of me.Maybe a vibe, my smile, my smell.

How soft your hug felt or how breezy my kisses were the last time we were together.

Or the tear across my heart when you walked away from me into someone else’s arms.

After all you were in me. That feeling had been nauseous but really good.

I am glad I was invited to this party to rejoice in your glory, but I still feel pangs of green for the one you love today.

I just gulp my wine and think over the past years. Its been so long but the feeling of attachment is there.

I wish I had never signed those papers.

I wish I was your mother and not her. Congrats, on your graduation,son.

The Keating Case

There is this part in FountainHead where Peter Keating gets his colleague Davis to leave the company by constantly taking over his work and asking him to concentrate on his love life. Gradually the seniors begin to trust Keating’s drafts and Davis is sidelined. He gets another job outside the company with the help of Keating. Keating gets closer to his goal of being the Chief Architect of Francon Heyer and Davis is happy that he gets a job where he can concentrate on his romance and his work too.

For a long time after I read this part of the story I wondered if it was right. Thats those in society with the power to influence others should control and manipulate others in a way thats beneficial to them. Of course the argument is that both the parties were happy and that Davis was someone who was looking for something different. Is competition removal really the way things should be? Even if the above section of the story is ethical –and on the face of it, its no crime to give someone what they want and profit at the same time–then are we supporting monopolising of one entity?Wasnt Keating trying to monopolise his way to the top?

Its just a part of a larger picture and eventually Keating and those of his type will face competition at a level where they wont be able to remove it, but does it justify the brainwashing and the manipulation?

Which means if a terrorist  influences a naive educated man to join his revolutionary cult in the hope of attaining heaven, is it wrong? What  if an army influences a naive educated man to join a country’s forces for the sake of patriotism and national honour?

One may say that in case of terrorism the motive is to kill people, but in the Keating picture the motive is to make money and move ahead. 

So essentially actions are classified as per their consequences? A lie that causes cheating is ok, but a murder is not. A manipulation that diverts a man’s goals is fine, but indoctrination is not?

Confessions of a Shopaholic

 

What does one do when you see a movie about shopping and credit card debt in times of recession? Take a deep breath, relax and enjoy the shoes,bags,coats,gloves,sweaters with a bunch of spunky girls for free!!

The movie is an adaptation of the bestselling novel–of the same name– by Sophie Kinsella.Since I havent read the book,I read the credits beforehand and saw the name of Jerry Bruckheimer as the producer. Jerry Bruckheimer has done some fab work–CSI(there is a full spread billboard ad of CSI in the movie when the lead character walks down a busy New York street and the remaining ads could be of upcoming movies from his production house),Deja-VU,G-Force–and he can safely add another filmy feather in his overstuffed cap with this one.

The movie is largely about Rebecca Bloomwood(played by Isla Fisher) and her urge to shop everytime she passes a departmental store. It is also about her large credit card debt and how she is trying to escape from the Debt Collecting Agent. In some ways its a humourous and moral attempt to explain to audiences how they many of us get into debt and how its important to go back to the ways of our parents and save money for the rainy day.

The movie starts with a narration by Rebecca,about how she keeps falling into the trap of shopping for things she doesnt need. She tries to make it as a financial journalist in ‘Successful Savings’–a financial magazine,with dreams of climbing the ‘ladder’ and writing for a fashion magazine–Allette. From then on the movie goes into a funny ride of her mishaps at her new office and her desparate attempts to hide her debt problem from the handsome but stiff editor of the magazine–Luke Brandon.

The movie is filled with predictable funny moments and the wonder dressing of Patricia Field–Costume Designer for Ugly Betty,Sex and the City,Cashmere Mafia and the likes. She does a great job with Isla Fisher and every costume is done really well(look out for the shoes that Rebecca’s nemesis Suzi wears in her entry scene…actually look out for all the shoes).There is just one full frame that captures Kristin Scott Thomas‘s(playing Allette Naylor in the movie) acting talent and she doesnt disappoint the viewers(Look out for her blue beaded necklace !).

Its a movie that may be a rather ‘pink’ reminder of the times we are in and how our urges to not save and have steady cash has led us to this recession. Thankfully it doesnt get preachy about debt crisis and self-help.Other than that its a funky movie to see with your female friends. If you are a guy show this movie to your girl and better still buy some of the stuff showcased in the movie for her!

Just Wondering : I have never understood why chick-lit novels and movies are centered around fashion magazine journalists and media and advertising related professionals. I think most women in the scientific and financial fields also have a pink girlie side to them.But yes, thats another post,another day!

 Your mother and I think that if the American economy can be billions in debt and still survive, so can you.–Rebecca’s dad (when he finds out about her debt crisis)

Two Minutes Over Baghdad by Amos Perlmutter,Michael Handel,Uri-Bar Joseph

 

Two Minutes Over Baghdad

 

 

 

There is a lot of small talk going around about the way Israel has attacked the Gaza Strip and the murder of innocents that followed. I call it ‘small talk’ because its easy to take a stand that is morally right, based on the reports of the media that are streaming in. What is difficult to notice and is usually called ‘propagandist’ is how easily Hamas got elected and how very conveniently  did they place their defence capabilities near schools and hospitals. Of course the Hamas versus Israel is just one of the battles that Israel has fought with its neighbours. 

The most famous one is the Six Day War. The next in that category would be the destruction of the Iraqi Nuclear Plant. And post the elections in Israel, there wil be heightened talk of a second attack on the Iranian nuclear reactor. 

7the June 1981 –the first time in modern history a nation had made a preemptive strike on a nuclear facility and succeeded. It remains the only successful strike by a nation on  another nation and surprisingly, one that involved meticulous planning,impeccable secrecy and looming elections.

‘Two Minutes Over Baghdad’ is a definitive account of Operation Opera from the point of view of those that carried out this attack. The authors–Amos Perlmutter, Michael Handel,Uri- Bar Joseph, have done a remarkable in collecting evidence and presenting it to us in a way that is easily understandable by a lay reader. Its not a full-length military novel, rather its divided into parts , the preparation and fears–as early as 1950s, the attack itself and the repercussions. What authors tell us is the detailed military preparation that went on before the attack–something that is textbook material in military schools like the Six Day War–the number of people that knew about the attack,a total of five,and Israel’s fear of the holocaust.

Indeed this book illustrates what it is like to live in a neighbourhood where countries have ‘wiping out Israel’ as a part of their constitution. And to think that the Iraqi nuclear program was under the control of Saddam Hussein. The Osirak nuclear reactor was attacked by Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, but its complete destruction took place during the bombing by the Israelis. The book also talks about how the missiles and planes were to be chosen. The planes had to be able to fly at a low range, should have enough capacity to fly 350 miles and back without refuelling and should be able to attack without detecting. All this should happen without any collateral damage and without any pilot being in the custody of Iraq. 

When you read the book, you realise that almost every Israeli family–including that of PM Menachem Begin– has been through the trauma of the holocaust or that of Anti-Semitic strife. PM Begin took Saddam’s Anti-Zionist threats seriously and tried to negotiate with the French Government to try and stop the transfer of nuclear technology. When that didnt work out, he developed a plan to wipe out the reactor itself. The book also talks about the brilliance of the then Minister of Agriculture, Ariel Sharon, who provided inputs for the nuclear attack and was a firm supporter of the attack. 

Post the attack, the world took a position against Israel,as did the US. The opposition condemned the attack because it was too close to the polls and Begin’s party–the Likud party– was trailing. However if the opposition,led by Shimon Peres, were to have been in power, there is every reason to believe that they would have carried out the attack too. 

The victory was hailed by Israel and Begin’s party came to power again with Ariel Sharon as the Defence Minister. 

The book is a detailed non-fiction account that gets over in under two hours. The writing is not heavy and is easy to understand. Its not a biased book that aims to sway the reader towards the Israeli point of view,rather it maintains a neutral position and shows both the positives and negatives of the attack. What is a constant throughout the book is a nation and its government’s need to stay alive. So much so that PM Begin had to proclaim “ On no account shall we permit an enemy to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against the people of Israel.” This came to be known as the Begin doctrine.

It is a good background read before the next Israeli elections. There is enough material to suggest there this time there will be an attack on the Iranian nuclear reactor. And the government that comes to power will pursue that goal doggedly. In all, after you read the book you will realise that apart from the usual media channel we have a lot of other sources of information that give us the other side of the story. The other side may or may not be right, but as a spectator, with the right to form a judgement it becomes important that we have all information.

The Amazon link for the book is here. It retails for $49.95.

At Landmark(Mumbai), with the current conversion rates, it will retail for around Rs.250. It will have to be ordered.

The Pale Blue Dot

 

 

 

A video that I saw a long time back and want to share. It reminds us about how small we are as individuals and how miniscule are actions are in the larger scheme of things. 

The speech is reproduced here : 

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

Farhan Akhtar in the Girls Loo?

Imagine walking into the ladies washroom and finding Farhan Akhtar inside? Very very creative and cheeky marketing campaign! Saw this in the loo at Fun Cinemas and couldnt resist taking a pic! Its pasted on the side walls, though I wonder why it wasnt placed behind the door.

10 things you didnt know about me!

A friend told me do one of those tag posts that do the rounds among bloggers and their friends. Since most of my friends are bloggers and blogger-friends are now good friends there was never any need to succumb to that menace.

However the tag posts hold a lot of surprises for me and there are many talented and lazy writers who need to get back on their feet. So I will start the process!

My friend told me to do the ’10 random things most people dont know about me’ and here they are in no particular order: 

1. I have an aim to drive every vehicle in the world–trailer,rickshaw-both auto and cycle,aeroplane,military tank and a lot more. 

2. I love roller coasters and adventure sports. I can ride in roller coasters for hours on end till it becomes a health hazard. 

3. I am an over-optimist and this attitude works for me.

4. I am very very private and dont like people prying around my life. I guard my personal life like a fortress.

5. I dont drink, smoke or do drugs. Things like aimless long walks, conversations, spending hours in a bookstore give me a high.

6. I love dance and music and I hope to learn all forms of both someday. For now, I am content with Latin and Ballroom.

7. My favourite job in the world-which I will end up doing someday-is hosting a travel show.

8. I love writing letters. Its cute, cosy and very very real as opposed to email.

9. Every year on my birthday, I get a new haircut. Its my way of rejuvenating and I have tried almost every style in the book.

10. I want to go to Drass, stand in the middle of the mountains and scream and run my heart out. 

I will tag and spread the silly virus. Robin, Shipra, Mayank, Nithya, Aarabi, Lakshmi – you guys are tagged! Rise and shine and detag yourself!