Some Touching Old Movies

Wishing Merry Christmas

In our last call before client (from a western country) went on year-end vacations I wished her Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance. She said, "Well I do not celebrate Christmas. But thank you." What was my reaction? First reaction was of surprise. But what was I surprised at? I think I was surprised at her frankness, honesty and speaking straight. Now is that something alien in our country? If you wish someone in India "Merry Christmas", and one replies, "I do not celebrate Christmas", I guess you won't judge the person kindly. But if we judge the statement factually and impartially, there is nothing wrong in it. Very often we find people in Western countries open, frank and honest about whatever they do or don't do. In India we beat around the bush. We call it composite culture may be to envelop our insecurities into something of higher purpose as a form of justification. Is it our politeness, accommodating nature, tolerance or conformism and lack of confidence in our individuality which make us not frank and honest about what we do or don't do? I think it is just our lack of thought... I think we are a rushed society with no time to think... 

And btw, Merry Christmas in advance :)

© Rahul

The Madness of King George III

King George III of Britain ruled for 60 years (1760-1820), longer than any other King of Britain, and is considered good king by many historians. George III was very popular in the masses. He was the only British king who did not take a mistress and remained loyal to his only wife (the king and queen had 15 children - 9 sons and 6 daughters). He spent large part of his personal money on art and charity. He was devout to religion and prayed for hours. For most part he acted like a constitutional monarch supporting the initiatives of parliament though also playing power politics. Early in his reign, Britain defeated France and became dominant power in North America and India. Afterwards Americans battled their freedom and became a nation which caused great frustration to him. Later in his life, King George III suffered from some illness which affected his mental balance. 

The movie 'The Madness of King George' shows some of the realities which he had to face even after being a king. When the king goes ill, doctors try methods like bleeding and blistering him as a cure. When he appears mad, he is pushed to ground and sat over by servants, chained in a chair to restrain him, isolated in a castle, and he is treated like any old rag on the street - but perhaps as a method of treatment. His son tries to capture power and the parliamentarians openly ridicule him as a lunatic. 

It shows how life is unfair in a way; how life is a great leveler; how people respect your position and not really you; how relationships change when situation changes...

© Rahul

God Speaks

I looked at God as if asking why there was so much pain and misery in this world? It appeared God did not say anything. But He was looking back at me. I got the answer - God wants us to solve all problems. Who says God does not speak? It is us who have forgotten His language!

Some Wonderful Movies

The Terminal

The Santa Clause

Problem Child

Evan Almighty

Stella (1990)

Saving Mr. Banks

Mary Poppins

Everything we see is a perspective

Some months back I posted this pic on facebook. I got so many 'likes'. I loved this image because of three reasons: 1. Wisdom in its quote, 2. I am a big fan of Russell Crowe 3. In my wildest fantasies sometimes I fashion myself as a warrior :) But blinded by these reasons, I did not notice what was there on Russell Crowe's shoulders :) Many months afterwards when I realized that there was a dead animal on his shoulders, I said Yuk!!! I wanted to be a warrior but not one who carried dead foxes and wolves on his shoulders! Because after all "What we do in life echoes in eternity"! So I searched for his image without a dead animal on his shoulders. And I don't find one... So what is the message? I see it as a dead animal, he saw it as utility. Marcus Aurelius said, "Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."

Perspectives

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." - Albert Einstein

"Do good and feel good. Do bad and feel bad. It is that simple."

#Society: Who is Anti-Women?

Saw some random posts on facebook, where women wrote anti-men posts and got 100+ likes (it's sure way to get fame). But I think I subscribe to an old practical wisdom which says that "women are women's worst enemies". Let us discuss some of the most serious problems women protest about.

Dowry: if you observe, most serious and adamant dowry demands come from mothers-in-law and not from fathers of the grooms (fathers being worldly wise demand it when they know the other party can pay while mothers are often ruthless and merciless on such matters); women's celebrated infatuation towards gold and jewelry is also a reason why dowry system continues to live. Women rule the house - is a widely known fact. But since mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law fight for power, the later suffer in the beginning while the former suffer in the last days. Some families don't educate their daughters beyond a limit - because girls become too 'demanding' and insist on 'equal' match ('equal' boy means 10 times wealthier), which poor families find difficult to court. Solution - women should stop looking at potential grooms as 'ticket to good days' and should accept them as 'human beings' who got feelings. It is the mothers who treat their sons preferentially, like feeding them better, since they believe boys have to do more work. Such differential upbringing makes boys respect girls less. The fact is that most fathers love their daughters more than they love their sons. (Many mothers love their sons more than daughters.) Most brothers will go to any extent to protect their sisters. (Most sisters will side with their husbands than with their brothers when time comes.) A husband even ignores parents many times to support wife. (Many times wives treat husbands merely as cash-cows) But what do men get in return? Loads of abuses. From women, who have to complain since it makes them feel great; and from men, who have to be biased towards women in order to appear unbiased towards women.

- Rahul

(All personal opinion based on observations - no claim to be holier than your opinion :) 

Uber Banned in India for Right Reasons

In India, because we were ruled by corrupt parties/politicians in the past, we developed an attitude which said, "if govt has done something, it must be wrong." This theory explains why as soon as we heard about any decision made by govt, our first reaction was, "it is wrong". After recent crime in Delhi by its driver, govt banned Uber. Since Delhi is under central control, opposition got chance to target BJP/Modi govt over it. But if we care to read the news, Uber was banned for right reasons.

Uber does not even have a call center. No emergency number passengers can contact. Also no police verification for drivers. No permit for rent-a-cab. Uber also violated RBI's guidelines on its payment service. The only problem is that it was not banned before and banned only after something horrible happened.

Delhi is too important a place for Govt not to be knowing about this service. They should have banned it from the beginning until it complied with the rules. And we should thank govt for taking actions like these - if govt continues like this, all companies will become responsible in maintaining safety services for us. This ban shows, that govt is decisive, it took big decision to ban companies because of one incident of rape. In the past what was govt's attitude? "It is only one case", "it is exceptional case" etc etc..  and now? We shall ban a company if they fail in maintaining safety features for women. We should note this change in attitude by the govt and we should appreciate it.

And if we think that only a poor and uneducated country banned it in one state - we should know that others like Spain have done it too for same reasons:

Uber banned in Spain & Thailand, sued in Portland, hassled in Rio

On Tuesday, both Thailand and Spain banned Uber. You know the drill by now: The company’s drivers don’t have taxi permits and/or insurance, and the authorities have had an earful from furious cab drivers who do have to pay for such things. Yesterday it was authorities in Delhi that told the firm to stop operating locally, after an Uber driver allegedly raped a passenger. Meanwhile, the cities of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and Portland, Oregon, have also told the firm to stay off the roads (via police complaint and lawsuit respectively), and an Uber driver in San Francisco has been charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for driving over and killing a six-year-old girl.

https://gigaom.com/2014/12/09/uber-banned-in-spain-thailand-sued-in-portland-hassled-in-rio/

Also at: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30395093

Also, I wonder why we (people like us) also did not notice the potential threat. Many people in our office were using this service; they were giving away some code to get Rs 300 discount on Uber app; no one thought that absence of an emergency number or even a call center could be security threat... Uber's marketing was so strong that people did not doubt it or expected anything wrong from Uber's part.. Media was busy writing articles about Uber's Mercs and BMWs and at the most about its payment service which saved customers' credit card numbers (as if we did not want to burn calories in swiping our cards every time). If this is to indicate, we must do safety audit in many other sectors and services too...

Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal and do not reflect views of any organization author is associated with. 

Grandpa and the Kid

Saw an old man carrying his small grandchild in his arms while they returned from a temple. Perhaps from a Shiva temple as the child had mark of white bhabhut on its forehead. Ever wondered what a kid would learn by visiting temples? A child does not know about gods, bhakti, karma, religion, or anything! I think the idea is to do indirect teaching. We don't learn most of the things we are taught (otherwise all of us would be Einsteins) and we learn most of the things not taught to us (like all the bad things mothers complain about). So let the child learn indirectly by observing what we are doing.

Now this is scary from the point of view of those parents who think the kid is too small to learn anything and hence they could do anything in its presence! Like arguing, watching excessive TV, smoking, or being lazy!

If the kid is watching you - you have to be worthy of being watched by an innocent cute kid!

© Rahul

Image below just for a change; credits mentioned:

Anatomy of a dream

This morning I saw a dream - that I am an Indian soldier on the run while some Pakistani rangers are chasing me. It is happening in the snow clad mountains... I know that it is Wednesday. I have been running since Monday and in the dream I know that I have to run till Friday. So I am running; trying to outsmart the enemies.

Now, this Monday-Friday schedule indicates that in the dream Pakistani rangers must be work-related stress/challenges and I must be waiting for the weekend so as to avoid those. It should be mountains because running is tough there and it must be snow because in the morning my blanket must be off and I must be feeling cold in reality while sleeping.

Anatomy of a dream :)

© Rahul

Annie Menni Talk

“Hello, Rabbit,” he said, “is that you?”

"Let’s pretend it isn’t,” said Rabbit, “and see what happens.”

― A.A. Milne, Winnie The Pooh

"Did you ever walk into a room and forget why you walked in? I think that is how dogs spend their lives."

― Sue Murphy

“What's your name,' Coraline asked the cat. 'Look, I'm Coraline. Okay?'

'Cats don't have names,' it said.

'No?' said Coraline.

'No,' said the cat. 'Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.”

― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

“Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.”

― Christopher Hitchens, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever

“Women speak because they wish to speak, whereas a man speaks only when driven to speak by something outside himself - like, for instance, he can't find any clean socks.”

― Jean Kerr

Future

Some rich people made mansions and big strong buildings, so that their future generations could rent those to film-makers to shoot some pathetic horror movies in those; or convert those into hotels so that any Tom and Peter on earth who could afford a few bucks could eat, drink and pee in those for a few days... Point is - you never know what future has in store for all you achieve through so much hard work and money...