Recently Watched Movies

I watched the following movies recently:-

V for Vendetta --- Touching--- After watching this movie i felt the pain of tyranny right under my a**. The dialogues were state of the art. Wachowski brothers truly rock after their Matrix. The one most effective sequence of the movie is when "V" imprisons "Evy" under the disguise of government and make her feel the pain of imprisonment is one of the best scenes ever. Some of the dialogues are:

"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people".

"Remember, Remember the 5th of November, the gun-powder treason .... "

My Cousin Vinny --- Funny to the core --- Long time has passed since i watched a comedy. This movie is entire situational comedy and unlike many of the sarcastic and girl comedies which try very hard to make you laugh, this movie is something different. Joe Pesci rocks. I liked his performance is "Good Fellas", but i didn't think he is quite an actor.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape --- What more i want? Two of my favorite lead actors -- Johnny Depp and LDC in the same movie. That's mind-blowing. But LDC outperforms Depp as an abnormal kid. Never seen such a sentimental movie from hollywood which churns out movies like "Pulp Fiction", "Fight Club" etc...

Lessons from Dad

Finally, placements -- the much anticipated mega event arriving in a fortnight. On the week before the eve of placements, i resolve to blog again. I am not well-versed with the essence of blogging. I am yet to discover the pleasure when we look back to our blogs and relish those sweet moments. So from now onwards i decided to blog the good and leave the rest. Now what is determination?

I am so curious to realise and apply this very principle because i never had it. People with determination face even the worst times with a smile on their cheek. What is it? How do we acquire it? I have been Smeagling out there for a while to discover "my precious" determination.

As proclaimed above, determination is not unachievable like "my precious". Determination can be acquired through will power and discipline. Will power is a necessary condition but not sufficient without discipline. So what is discipline?

Discipline is nothing but making a timetable and following it. Of course, the timetable shouldn't be unreasonable. Will Power only comes through desire. A strong desire for a thing often fuels your will power. In this concern, let's take Smeagle as an example. His untarnished determination to acquire the "precious" is unforgettable.

These are the lessons taught by my dad in a 1 hour long phone conversation. I thought to blog them because someone may actually understand them and implement them.

A Bit PhiloSopHicaL

JEEVAN VIDYA: When i first heard about it, i presumed it to be applicable only for people who are elderly and matured. I framed a picture that it is too philosophical.

But after his excellency Dr. Abdul Kalam addressing Jeevan Vidya in his Independence Day message opened new doors of curiosity. I heard many people gossiping about Jeevan Vidya. Some said it is boring while others said it is a futile attempt. There are others who murmered that it is an altogether wrong path through which people are forced to walk. Many people also regarded it as a way of punishing culprits.

Why do some people think negative all the time? Why don't we think positive? These are the questions pondering over my thoughts for a long time. I personally did not attend Jeevan Vidya but i can quote some axioms which may prove that jeevan vidya is a good way of learning life. I put them as follows:-

Firstly, people who preach Jeevan Vidya viz. professors and preachers are elder than us. They have witnessed a lot of life than we do. They know the hurdles in life. When they are confidently preaching that jeevan vidya can teach how to live, why can't we believe them. Why do most people deliberately negate as if it is a punishment? I don't find any answer for these questions.

Secondly, most of us(by 'us' i mean people in the world or else for that matter people in india) do not lead a life of quality. Recent statistics envisage the facts about happiness among people of various countries. People of Denmark are rated to be happiest. India ranks very low according to them .

Quality of life in a country depends on many factors such as economy, crime rate etc. But i feel it also depends on ourselves. We can make our life happier. Happier doesn't mean watching a movie or touring an island. Happiness is everywhere. For instance, if we work hard and design a system which is used by people and when people praise the person who designed that system, then we feel immense happiness. Quality of life is a vital trait required for life to be happy. Jeevan Vidya teaches how to improve quality of life and how to lead life. Then why not learn it?

By emphasising on quality of life, i can not define what it means. It may be setting up goals for future as written by Dr. Kamal or tackling family problems(which i hardly came across) etc. Of course, discipline also consists in quality of life factor.

Are we disciplined? I do not know about you but i am definitely not upto the mark. I don't wake up at a pre-meditated time. I hardly accomplish half of my daily tasks, though i work hard when the deadline arrives. Most of us are like me. We need jeevan vidya which can help us through the issues of discipline, food habits and quality of life, we say.

The point is jeevan vidya is not a compulsion but it is useful if we can understand it's value. People critisizing jeevan vidya without knowing the finer nuances of it is very unfortunate. I am proud of my institute that a human values program conducted in our university caught the eye of his excellency President of india.

My Inferences about World War II

World War II...
This has been my favorite subject of late. I am fascinated to learn about it. My sources of information include 10th standard NCERT textbooks, though i haven't learned much from them. I was really moved by the way Spielberg depicted the lives of people of occupied Poland. They were besiezed of their fortunes and forced to live in a ghetto(a closed area). Later many were sent to concentration camps. I saw a picture of a person tormented in a concentration camp in my 10th standard textbook. It was horrible. I could never imagine even in my wildest dreams a person in such a dismal condition.

There are many movies which presented their perspectives on world war II. But i was even more fascinated to learn about the world war II in the words of a person who witnessed it(though not directly but through newspapers). He is my grandfather and he is 81 now. He told me a great deal about Stalingrad war and how germans were defeated in that war. He also told me about Stalin, the dictator who acted despotic for the well being of his nation.

Stalin is a great man in a sense that he worked to glorify his country. He never eyed any foreign land unlike Hitler. His policies are communism and socialism. They are very effective but they have their trade-offs. Communism expects every individual to work for the government without expecting salary in return. Instead the government would provide all the amenities to the citizen. He/She shouldn't be owning any kind of assets or fortunes. There is no corporate in this system. Though communism played in vital role in carving USSR as the world's super power, it didn't sustain. People are selfish. No matter who and where they are. Everyone would wish to possess something. This human psychology built the corporate. This corporate ultimately led to the death of USSR. After the breaking up of USSR all the statues and idols of Stalin were destroyed. People hated Stalin but didn't recognise his role in carving USSR into a super power.

These were the memoirs of my grandfather during and after the II World War.

Harrowing Experience

It is really frustrating. Much more harrowing and painful than 'Requiem for a Dream'. That's how i can describe my situation at this moment. I am so disturbed by the performance of the network that i wanna break my monitor into pieces and shoot all those f**kin bastards who are responsible for the death of millions of jews in the II world war (including Hitler).

After a long session of 'time waste' , finally i am here with the good old blogger. Blogger doesn't seem to be sucking these days. The time now is 3:10 AM and i am still awake while most of my wing mates are asleep as early as 12. Life sucks these days and this LAN makes life more miserable. There is nothing to cheer about. These evils are sucking big time :-

1. LAN
2. BTP dilemma
3. firefox
4. orkut
5. Frequent "This page could not be loaded" error.

HEll!!! hell!!! is what i can describe my life.

I wasted at least 1 week for setting up a good blog. Guess how frustrating it is. At last i zeroed in on this one. Hope at least i dwell with this one for a long time.