A cookie for the happy man !

As the day goes by, sometimes I wonder.... I wonder when or what makes a man truly happy ? Is he happy when he gets what he wants? Is he happy when he gets the recognition he thinks he deserves? Is he happy when he is the leader of all ? When all subjects bow to his command ? Does wealth and prosperity really bring the kind of happiness that we assume it would ? Truth to be told, after more than a quarter of a century of my existence, I have come to believe that none of them can bring true happiness. Happiness is a state of mind and doesn't need any trigger. We as individuals determine if we are happy or not. Chasing down a dream and for that matter even achieving it wont make us happy, it just makes us empty. Makes us crave for more. True happiness is the one which we can experience without any trigger, without any precondition, without any strings attached. And for those of you who think you a are happy this way, heres a cookie from me, wishing I would one day become that happy man !

Ipad2 is here finally !

learning java

Hi,

Been a long time since I updated. Life has been going on so far. BTW, just wanted to put in here that I've started to learn Java. Kinda self educating myself whenever I can spare time at home. But the hill to climb is pretty steep. Its not that I don't know anything about oo programming. Being a CS graduate, I'm quite well versed in them, but what I'm out of touch is with the lang itself. And Java has grown so vast in the past years, its hard to keep up. Anyway, I've no intention of taking up any SCJP, my intention is to only learn as much needed to code on android platform. Let us see how it goes....wish me luck, and wish that I don't give up along the way.

Old "might" turn out to be gold !

Life has been really dragging lately. After playing Mafia II and The Witcher, I don't feel like playing anything else. Watched some movies though - Dabgangg, SALT and Aisha. Dabangg was pretty average, but nice time pass. SALT was totally awesome. Aisha was quite decent.

Now coming to the topic title, I wonder what made Dabangg click in the first place? For us southies, the movie is nothing new, its a rehash of any other regular movie with the hero fighting off more baddies in ways that would put iron man to shame. So whats new about this that made it click ? In my opinion, the simplicity of the movie worked in its favor greatly. The movie is never pretentious and doesn't take itself too seriously. Its like the director told the people, "hey, I'm gonna make a movie with a bare minimum story, over the top action, catchy songs and some humor thrown in to keep you from getting bored, I'm neither making it to get any awards, or put my name in the hall of fame. The only guarantee is that it'll be entertaining and not bore you".

I would take a movie like Dabangg anyday over the pretentious nonsense thats churned out by most of the high budget production houses. I would enjoy a movie with Indian characters, Indian cities, Indian setting dealing or showcasing Indian problems instead of showing us the false, bloated, stinky rich, ultra luxurious setting of the west. Don't take me wrong, I'm totally up for movies shot in the west, DDLJ did it, Kal ho na ho did it, and both managed to pull it off very well. But to make a movie in the western setting just for the sake of it is pretty annoying, more so, when every other movie tries to do the same stuff. An ultra rich swanky NRI hunk is sad because his marriage is in shambles or his love is lost. Booo and boring !

I'm sort of glad that Dabgangg was a hit. For one, it brought back the bollywood to its root - which is India. And two, it showed that you don't need a big banner or a controversial topic or in-your-face marketing to make a movie hit. All you need is to understand your audience and make movies for them.

Here's to wishing there comes a Dabgangg 2 , before I log off. Catch you later.

Random Tidbits

Hello random reader, there's no power in my house, so having nothing better to do than ramble on random topics.
Games:
I've almost completed 'The Witcher'. I'm in the epilogue fight with this creature called 'Zogyl' and stuck there. The game has turned out to be a lot more tougher than I had anticipated, especially after chapter V. Taking down the human enemies is pretty easy, but there're hardly any, and most of the enemies from Chapter V are mutants or monsters. And they sting and hit fast, and geralt stands like a mute spectator. Ah, so much for levelling up and being a badass witcher ! Anyway, the story is pretty average, but the gameplay is what's keeping me from leaving this game. Also, the lore is pretty awesome. You actually feel like you are living in those times, the towns are designed beautifully and the NPC walking on the streets make some interesting remarks. Anyway, more in the upcoming review once I complete the game.
Movies:
I hardly watched anything new these days. Last I watched was 'Shutter Island'. Its quite good, but nothing fantastic. A bit over-rated I would say. I wanted to watch 'Peepli Live' so much, but I just can't get time. There's still a whole big hollywood backlog - 'The Losers', 'The expendables', 'A-Team', 'Prince of Persia' , thats just from the top of the list. If I start adding the inconspicous and criticially acclaimed but not mass marketed movies, it'll continue to grow.
Other stuff:
I've started driving by Car to my office, which means, no more soaking in Bangalore rain. It adds the additional burden of having to sit through traffic jams for hours, compared to a two-wheeler. In a two wheeler, you could just zip/zap/zoom and cut across most 4 wheelers, mocking them, sniggering as you squeeze to the front. In a car, you sit and curse at the two wheeler who just whizzed past you ! But overall, I would prefer a Car on a rainy day over a two wheeler. It has also helped me keep up with some of the latest bollywood/kannada songs.
Inception Review:
I've been waiting for Inception 6-8 months before the movie released in India. Christopher Nolan is one of the most talented directors out there (watch memento) and a new sci-fi big budget , DiCaprio starring movie , what could go wrong ? And indeed its true. There's nothing wrong with the movie. Its as perfect a sci fi movie can get.
The premise of the movie is a bit 'above the head'. DiCaprio specializes in a rare skill, which has him enter people's mind, hacking their dreams and stealing their secrets for his employers. One of his vicitims offers him a new job - 'inception', which is basically the opposite of the what DiCaprio does - planting an idea into someone's mind. And what follows is a maze of brilliant CGI imagery, psychological games, some amazing stunts, car chases and what not. You can think of the wildest possible idea, and the movie gets wierder than that. Insipte of its complicated plot , the movie holds your attention, mainly because of the excellent narration. You sit on the edge of your seat, waiting to see how the movie unfolds as you are transported into the surreal world of dreams. I literally shouted 'shit' when the cinemas halted the movie for an interval.
DiCaprio walks away with the acting honors in the role of a 'psychological spy' with a troubled past. Overall the hero of the movie is the script and of course - 'Christopher Nolan' for daring to attempt such a movie and walking away with applause. Its pretty difficult to make a movie like this, more than the CGI stunts, its hard to get the concepts across to an audience. And Nolan succeeds very well in this regard.
I would rate the movie - 9.5/10. The 0.5 deducted for not providing a proper closure confusing the audience. Go and watch the movie if you like immersing yourself in a surreal world for a couple of hours. Good chances are you are gonna ask yourself at the end of it - 'Is this a dream?'

Oh, the power is back....so see you later. Let me go slay that big monster in 'The Witcher', and you go back to whatever you are doing. See ya....

Change of plans !

OK, my plans of finishing up my backlog isn't exactly going as per the plans. There were quite some distractions in between. First, I stumbled across this game called 'Alpha Protocol', which took quite a lot of my time. And then, my wife's incessant watching of her daily soaps kept me away from my TV, leaving me with very little time to play on my xbox 360. So I could only complete the first act of Red Dead Redemption. But no worries, I've stumbled across another super duper awesome game - 'The Witcher' on PC. Although I had heard quite a lot about this game, never got around to really playing it. And now, I just don't feel like playing any other game. Its a damn addictive RPG. More on that in another post, on another day.

Cheers !

Hello Penguin !

Booyah ! Just installed ubuntu 10.04 LTS on my system. It feels so nice to be back to "root" - pun intended ;) But I'm still struggling to turn on the advance visual effects and java 5 sdk. More later....