My friend gave me this DVD to watch. He said its a very good movie. I looked at the title credits and dint think much about it.
Today I started playing it while I had my dinner. To pass away my time - I dont like eating alone; so I had to have something playing atleast.
The movie is so simple and straight forward but so intense. After a while I was so engrossed in the movie, I was getting emotional along with it. I loved the movie!
Its a story about three Pakistani youngsters. How their lives change drastically - one gets influences, one is forced and the other gets in to trouble with no mistake of his.
How could a father cheat his own daughter, marry her off and force on to her what he doesnt want for himself either?
How could an educated and intelligent youngster be influenced by anyone and turn away from his family, career and life; and for what? - he doesnt even know!
And how ones life could be ruined for no mistake of his own - by racial profiling.
All in the name of God.
What happens to common sense all the while? How can anyone take rights over someone's life? Isnt it unfair? I have read a couple of books by Khalid Hosseini.
When I watch these movies or read this kind of books, I start feeling lucky. I know its the most absurd feeling someone could get.
No offense meant; but when I see some lives, I cant stop thinking how different my life would be, had I been born in another country. May be just in another home. and then you start realizing all the good things in your life. We always complain about such petty things and fight and get upset all the time. People fight over nothing; kill each other for nothing; die for nothing.
Being free is the biggest thing you can have in life. Thank you mom and dad; thank you God!
P.S: Dont miss the movie and certainly dont miss the music. Simply beautiful.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Live as if you will die tommorow
Live as if you will die tommorow.
How good/bad/correct is that? Would you be happy if you live in the present without worrying about the future?
I am not sure. For the past 4-5 months, I have followed this completely. It hasnt been a flowery path all through. Its difficult to not think about the future.
I had the most happy and memorable moments of my life during this period. But because I havent thought much about the future, I ended up hurt, sad and lost. I have lost friends and hurt the people who were so close to me.The feeling of guilt is so horrible to live with.
This principle has both sides to it. Good and Bad. May be thats how it was all supposed to be.
How good/bad/correct is that? Would you be happy if you live in the present without worrying about the future?
I am not sure. For the past 4-5 months, I have followed this completely. It hasnt been a flowery path all through. Its difficult to not think about the future.
I had the most happy and memorable moments of my life during this period. But because I havent thought much about the future, I ended up hurt, sad and lost. I have lost friends and hurt the people who were so close to me.The feeling of guilt is so horrible to live with.
This principle has both sides to it. Good and Bad. May be thats how it was all supposed to be.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Beneath the Canvas
Rajesh was new to orkut. So I added him as a friend. He browsed through my profile and we were talking about it on Monday morning - Apr 27th ’09.
He complimented me on my art and then asked a very startling question. The most sensible one I got in a long time.
He questioned me why I paint only objects. And I realized that it’s so true!!
At first, I dint know what to answer to this question. But it was the truth and that pushed me in to thinking so much about it. Why was I painting only objects? I thought about all the art that was posted on orkut. Then I was trying to recollect all that I ever drew or painted. They all confirm that. I have always been painting just one object. It seemed so silly! Yet true. I never really did any scenery work (Just one thing as far as I can remember. I was the scene of the railway gate near my college in tirupathi. I was sitting there with my friends and drew what I was seeing – without thinking much). And when I tried to think of a reason, I really couldn’t! There is no reason why I specifically choose to draw just one object and not a scene or a view.
May be, I just don’t have the perspective vision. I cannot give out the perspective of the complete scene to my painting. I will simply need to work on that. Work on how to project different things in respect to my object of focus. I hope its this simple. Just about my paintings.
But this also opens up a bigger revelation. Like in that movie I was watching a couple of days before - DCH; this was the observation from my paintings. This probably gives off an aspect of me.
May be I never look at things as a whole? I don’t look at the complete environment in which an object is. I show the object alone. This is a very important thing and I will need to work on this about myself. I shouldn’t look at a particular person or event. Every aspect in the environment has an affect on the object. There is a reason why someone or something behaves in a particular way. They behave so under the influence of various factors which could be known or unknown to me. One needs to look at the whole scenario before deciding or judging a person.
The strange thing was that I like the personality assessment and graphology kind of stuff and constantly try to learn little things like that. I try to decipher traits from others writing, actions, drawings and talk. But I wasn’t able to realize such an obvious trait in my own paintings! This also shows how less we look at ourselves while we are always busy with everyone around.
Ok... now after all this talk, you will want to look at my orkut gallery. Won’t you? ;-)
http://www.orkut.com/Main#Album.aspx?uid=11266396456800096487&aid=1
He complimented me on my art and then asked a very startling question. The most sensible one I got in a long time.
He questioned me why I paint only objects. And I realized that it’s so true!!
At first, I dint know what to answer to this question. But it was the truth and that pushed me in to thinking so much about it. Why was I painting only objects? I thought about all the art that was posted on orkut. Then I was trying to recollect all that I ever drew or painted. They all confirm that. I have always been painting just one object. It seemed so silly! Yet true. I never really did any scenery work (Just one thing as far as I can remember. I was the scene of the railway gate near my college in tirupathi. I was sitting there with my friends and drew what I was seeing – without thinking much). And when I tried to think of a reason, I really couldn’t! There is no reason why I specifically choose to draw just one object and not a scene or a view.
May be, I just don’t have the perspective vision. I cannot give out the perspective of the complete scene to my painting. I will simply need to work on that. Work on how to project different things in respect to my object of focus. I hope its this simple. Just about my paintings.
But this also opens up a bigger revelation. Like in that movie I was watching a couple of days before - DCH; this was the observation from my paintings. This probably gives off an aspect of me.
May be I never look at things as a whole? I don’t look at the complete environment in which an object is. I show the object alone. This is a very important thing and I will need to work on this about myself. I shouldn’t look at a particular person or event. Every aspect in the environment has an affect on the object. There is a reason why someone or something behaves in a particular way. They behave so under the influence of various factors which could be known or unknown to me. One needs to look at the whole scenario before deciding or judging a person.
The strange thing was that I like the personality assessment and graphology kind of stuff and constantly try to learn little things like that. I try to decipher traits from others writing, actions, drawings and talk. But I wasn’t able to realize such an obvious trait in my own paintings! This also shows how less we look at ourselves while we are always busy with everyone around.
Ok... now after all this talk, you will want to look at my orkut gallery. Won’t you? ;-)
http://www.orkut.com/Main#Album.aspx?uid=11266396456800096487&aid=1
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Name-sense
This incident took place a long time ago. I was working with xyz as a network engineer then.
I had to visit this client for some network issue and drove down to their office.
This was post 9/11 and the security in all the buildings in New York was at an all time high.
Any visitor had to register his name and other details before he can enter the building and he would get a receipt with the details.
So I stood in the queue to get that done. I was in a hurry and was waiting impatiently to get through this. There was a white lady sitting at the counter. She was middle aged with glasses perched on her nose and seemed to be the no-nonsense type.
Finally it was my turn and she said ‘hello’ asked my name.
I replied “Raj Kumar”.
“What?” she asked again.
“Raj is the first name. And last name is Kumar”
“Can you spell it for me?”
“R as in Romeo, A as in Alpha, J as in Juliet and Kumar is the last name”
She looked at me and scribbled it down on the receipt.
But she was smiling as she did so.
I was little puzzled but I was in a hurry. I grabbed the receipt and ran towards the elevator.
Once into the elevator, I got curious about why she was smiling.
So I fished the receipt out of my pocket to find out. I looked at it and couldn’t help laughing!
This is how she wrote my name: “Romeo And Juliet Kumar” :-D
P.S.: A true life incident. Courtesy: Rajesh
I had to visit this client for some network issue and drove down to their office.
This was post 9/11 and the security in all the buildings in New York was at an all time high.
Any visitor had to register his name and other details before he can enter the building and he would get a receipt with the details.
So I stood in the queue to get that done. I was in a hurry and was waiting impatiently to get through this. There was a white lady sitting at the counter. She was middle aged with glasses perched on her nose and seemed to be the no-nonsense type.
Finally it was my turn and she said ‘hello’ asked my name.
I replied “Raj Kumar”.
“What?” she asked again.
“Raj is the first name. And last name is Kumar”
“Can you spell it for me?”
“R as in Romeo, A as in Alpha, J as in Juliet and Kumar is the last name”
She looked at me and scribbled it down on the receipt.
But she was smiling as she did so.
I was little puzzled but I was in a hurry. I grabbed the receipt and ran towards the elevator.
Once into the elevator, I got curious about why she was smiling.
So I fished the receipt out of my pocket to find out. I looked at it and couldn’t help laughing!
This is how she wrote my name: “Romeo And Juliet Kumar” :-D
P.S.: A true life incident. Courtesy: Rajesh
Sunday, December 21, 2008
A Happening Sunday
Foreword: This post is dated Oct26th 2008. Thanks to my laziness, it is being posted so late! Sorry abt that.
A Happening Sunday:
I woke up late and lazily stretched myself and checked the time...10:00AM!!
It was a Sunday. I jolted out of my bed and started searching frantically for my little device. There I found it! Innocently lying under my pillow. I quickly checked and saw that there were 10 missed calls and a message... I knew they were from my family back in India.. they called me up to tell me the news.. and I was sleeping like a log! How could I do this?? I cursed myself!
I quickly opened up to read the message. I dint read it fully. I was looking for the word I wanted to know so desperately for soo long. There it is... “DAUGHTER”
There was a sudden disappointment L I wanted a boy! I slowly started to realize the sweetness of that. A lil’ girl in our home. The angel of joy! My sister delivered a baby girl! The first in our home.. I couldn’t contain myself. I felt soo happy...I wanted to see the baby. I called up and talked to everyone. Both, the mother and the baby are doing fine. Everyone had come to see the baby. I was one of the last ones to wish my sis. Everyone one wanted to describe the baby to me. I wanted to hear her crying atleast..
My mom put the phone next to her and we waited. The baby refused to cry! We tried and tried and finally she blurted out something..wat ever it was, it was sooo sweet!
Now I was soo happy and wanted to tell this to everyone.. So I called up a couple of my friends..shared the good news..
And the clock showed me its 11AM by then.. I was running late for our event today..the Indian meal cooking day. J
My American friends Margaret and Mel loved Indian food and so wanted to see and learn how Indian food is made. So we were to get-together in Margaret’s home to cook, learn and have fun. So I called her up immediately, told her the good news and the ‘late’ news. She offered to pick me up to save time. I had to take all the Indian spices and things and I haven’t even packed that.
I gathered whatever I could lay my hands on and ended up with huge baggage - fortunately she came to pick me up. We picked up a few things at the store and hurried towards her home where Mel was eagerly waiting of us.
This time, Ivy, her cat, let me hold her and played a lot with me though Cleo was her usual self -watchful. Mel had something for us. A desktop calendar made from one of his recent projects. Mel is an artist and a photographer. It was lovely. He explained about his subject, a beautiful home.
I was all set and he also wanted to surprise us with one of their family recipe – apple crisp.
So then we started our loooong process..cutting, cooking, chatting and learning.
We had so much fun.. I learned about the diff types of apples, his childhood, the family recipe, his recent Russia trip and Margaret’s stories.
They learned with interest and awe about the pressure cooker, the spices of India, our cooking ingredients etc. They were so surprised by the way we do the ‘tadka’ in our curries. I realized how different we all were but still had lots in common. So true!
It was 7Pm by the time we were ready with everything-tomato rice, raita, chicken curry, naan, daal, potato fry, sambar, rice and the yummy dessert. We sat down to eat. We toasted to our international friendship and the beauty of it. May that live long!
They toasted to my family - the new set of parents and grand parents. They liked what I cooked and enjoyed it very much (atleast they said so! :D). Margaret was in tears when she ate the chicken curry – it was too spicy for her!
Then Mel wanted to read us parts of his draft version book .This was a new experience. Rarely does it happen that an author would read out a draft version of his book to you! It was so nice of him.
The dessert was simply divine! I haven’t had such a good dessert in a long time.
We were all stuffed by 8PM. Margaret announced I couldn’t go home alone and she should drop me there. We wished each other good night and drove back.
This was a very good day for me.. a happy and happening day!
A Happening Sunday:
I woke up late and lazily stretched myself and checked the time...10:00AM!!
It was a Sunday. I jolted out of my bed and started searching frantically for my little device. There I found it! Innocently lying under my pillow. I quickly checked and saw that there were 10 missed calls and a message... I knew they were from my family back in India.. they called me up to tell me the news.. and I was sleeping like a log! How could I do this?? I cursed myself!
I quickly opened up to read the message. I dint read it fully. I was looking for the word I wanted to know so desperately for soo long. There it is... “DAUGHTER”
There was a sudden disappointment L I wanted a boy! I slowly started to realize the sweetness of that. A lil’ girl in our home. The angel of joy! My sister delivered a baby girl! The first in our home.. I couldn’t contain myself. I felt soo happy...I wanted to see the baby. I called up and talked to everyone. Both, the mother and the baby are doing fine. Everyone had come to see the baby. I was one of the last ones to wish my sis. Everyone one wanted to describe the baby to me. I wanted to hear her crying atleast..
My mom put the phone next to her and we waited. The baby refused to cry! We tried and tried and finally she blurted out something..wat ever it was, it was sooo sweet!
Now I was soo happy and wanted to tell this to everyone.. So I called up a couple of my friends..shared the good news..
And the clock showed me its 11AM by then.. I was running late for our event today..the Indian meal cooking day. J
My American friends Margaret and Mel loved Indian food and so wanted to see and learn how Indian food is made. So we were to get-together in Margaret’s home to cook, learn and have fun. So I called her up immediately, told her the good news and the ‘late’ news. She offered to pick me up to save time. I had to take all the Indian spices and things and I haven’t even packed that.
I gathered whatever I could lay my hands on and ended up with huge baggage - fortunately she came to pick me up. We picked up a few things at the store and hurried towards her home where Mel was eagerly waiting of us.
This time, Ivy, her cat, let me hold her and played a lot with me though Cleo was her usual self -watchful. Mel had something for us. A desktop calendar made from one of his recent projects. Mel is an artist and a photographer. It was lovely. He explained about his subject, a beautiful home.
I was all set and he also wanted to surprise us with one of their family recipe – apple crisp.
So then we started our loooong process..cutting, cooking, chatting and learning.
We had so much fun.. I learned about the diff types of apples, his childhood, the family recipe, his recent Russia trip and Margaret’s stories.
They learned with interest and awe about the pressure cooker, the spices of India, our cooking ingredients etc. They were so surprised by the way we do the ‘tadka’ in our curries. I realized how different we all were but still had lots in common. So true!
It was 7Pm by the time we were ready with everything-tomato rice, raita, chicken curry, naan, daal, potato fry, sambar, rice and the yummy dessert. We sat down to eat. We toasted to our international friendship and the beauty of it. May that live long!
They toasted to my family - the new set of parents and grand parents. They liked what I cooked and enjoyed it very much (atleast they said so! :D). Margaret was in tears when she ate the chicken curry – it was too spicy for her!
Then Mel wanted to read us parts of his draft version book .This was a new experience. Rarely does it happen that an author would read out a draft version of his book to you! It was so nice of him.
The dessert was simply divine! I haven’t had such a good dessert in a long time.
We were all stuffed by 8PM. Margaret announced I couldn’t go home alone and she should drop me there. We wished each other good night and drove back.
This was a very good day for me.. a happy and happening day!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
My first Blog
So finally finally after aa loooong time I have created my own blog!
I have been thinking of this for a while now, quite a while actually, but have been too busy(lazy infact!) to do this till NOW.
So here we go! Welcome to the junk box :D!
I have been thinking of this for a while now, quite a while actually, but have been too busy(lazy infact!) to do this till NOW.
So here we go! Welcome to the junk box :D!
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