IA3, 13B and Holes.

After a long long time, I watched a Hindi film – 13B. I watched the first one third and was in fact impressed by the way the story was developing. But, as usual, just like most Hindi films, it didn’t fail to disappoint me. For the first 1/3 of the movie, I’d have given 8 out of 10.

But finally it ended up with some 3/10!  

Especially if I compare it with the last two movies I watched, the disappointment becomes stronger. Amelie and Ice Age 3 were my last two films.

We don’t see movies of normal people any more – do we? Nowadays, the characters are almost always super humans. If you are bored with that, then I’d suggest you to watch something in the class of Amelie – a film of normal, lovely characters.

Then of course Ice Age! :) It would suffice to say that I’ve decided to watch the first two parts after watching the third one.  

Lately, I have been travelling in Germany - a little more than usual. I always plan to read while travelling – but never manage to read because my mind enters a special state whenever I am in a moving vehicle. But as an exception to that, I managed to finish a book totally* while travelling.

When I found the book was kept on top of my bag, I didn’t even ask about it. I just put it in my bag because I knew that it if was recommended to me, I am supposed to simply like it without questioning. It turned out to be a nice book. :)

The book managed to make me read it without taking my eyes off, until the twilight was gone and it got dark inside the car. Holes – that’s the name of the book.

It started with a simple enough story of a teenager, then split into two stories running 100 years apart in time, but parallel in the book. Of course, it ends in a much predictable way. The narration calls for special attention. (Without worrying much about copyright, I shall reproduce some of it here.)

 

Here’s a good rule to remember about rattle snakes and scorpions: If you don’t bother them, they won’t bother you.

Usually.

Being bitten by a scorpion or even a rattlesnake is not the worst thing that can happen to you. You won’t die.

Usually.

But you don’t want to be bitten bye a yellow-spotted lizard. That’s the worst thing that can happen to you. You will die a slow and painful death.

Always.

Did the post turn out to be a little too long? Well, since I write after a long time I shall take the liberty to do so. Right?

Signing off, Sands.

PS: From where do you enjoy a film the best? The front rows in the theatre? or the back rows?

PPS: Does someone think that I should update my blog’s templates? Colours? Theme? Fonts? Anything at all?

Fun of Breaking

I have to start with a bit of rant. I don’t like the smell of cigarette / tobacco on my clothes. The ban on smoking inside buildings just didn’t work out and people are smoking in buildings.

I don’t smoke, but I don’t have a big problem if there is some smell of cigarette in the air.

But it gets on to your clothes. Now, tonight, my pullover, T-shirt and even my vest stinks of it.

The very same thing happened 12 days ago as well. That time I was in a car.

And if I didn’t mention it earlier, I hate it when parents of small kids smoke. There was a mom who made me really angry by smoking when she had her kid in her hand.

Now to the topic: A couple of months ago, I took an old cup and decided that it was time for it to be broken. I held it up in the air, in very strategic position and dropped it. It just broke into a million little pieces. And from my habit of breaking glasses/cups/etc., I had learned to enjoy the sight!

On Saturday, I took the nice place which I had, which had a small 3mm diameter discoloration on one edge. I just wanted to see if I was strong enough to break it by bending. Yes, I was! And I just broke a plate.

(what is with me and breaking porcelain stuff?)

Signing off,
Sands.

PS: I am sleepy and there could be many mistakes in the post. No proof reading.

Without Ceremony

Prologue

I am perhaps a man of very less original ideas, perhaps no original ideas at all. But as I have written earlier, ideas are somethings which very much attract me. Despite the fact that I am a bit stubborn and resist changes (like others), I am open to new ideas and in fact would embrace them the very moment I am convinced.

It is easy to influence me if you start with some fact/logic based argument and do it irrefutably.

Of course it would take a while before my disposition would be changed. (Let’s call it muscular memory or habit or addiction or anything – which needs constant and consistent care to get accustomed to the new idea)

The Matter

It seems to me that, during my battle against theism, I had bought too much stock on ‘evolution’, that I had started confusing ‘codes of evolution’ and ‘codes of morality’.

No one needs an explanation about why sexism and racism are bad. Aren’t the gender inequality and racist thoughts the products of evolution? Does that make them moral? I don’t think so.

I know/knew that everything which is a product of evolution is not necessarily good. But I found it hard to find the trade-off between moral values and the system on which it applies – both being the products of the same process.

Finally, I have figured out that the same values which say sexism and racism are bad, are telling that speciesism is bad too. Shouldn’t all species be considered equal if we say all humans be considered equal, despite their inequalities? I guess yes.

(Hard to explain in simple words here, but you do get the gist. Don’t you?)

My first thought about ‘speciesism’ was while reading the selfish gene. I hadn’t taken it so seriously. And I had be fluctuating between the moral values based on logic and actions based on utilitarianism for quite some time. Finally I got some ‘food for thought’ which nailed down the confusion.

As a result, I have come to accept that “all animals are to be considered equal”. To be considered equal doesn’t want dogs be given voting rights, or cows be given education. It is mainly about avoiding unnecessarily induced pain. A long discussion is not in the scope of this entry.

From “all Indians are my brothers and sisters”, I was educated to the single world concept – by my dad and my Malayalam teacher of 7th grade. Now after a long time, I just decided to widen my view of world. Simple!

So, what is my point?

My point is that I have become a vegetarian. (Technically, a Lacto-ovo-vegetarian : who eats no flesh, but consumes dairy and egg products).

It is regrettable that it took me so long to even start thinking in this direction. But again it is good that it is never too late.

Thanks to the ones helped me. Thanks to all the food for thought. Thanks to the milestones which showed the way for my train of thoughts.

Signing off, Sands.

Roots, Burning Ship and a Classic.

I wasn’t reading any book for the past few weeks. I cannot pinpoint and say why, but for various reasons. Perhaps I had been reading one or two small things in blogs or Wikipedia, to keep myself updated with some stuff. Anyway, after having not read any book for a couple of weeks, I wasn’t feeling good.

And I picked up that Malayalam book which I had wanted to read but never managed to – “Verukal” (means Roots). It was read totally in a journey (half in train and the rest in a car).

There wasn’t anything which I didn’t/couldn’t expect in that book. Even the final decision of the protagonist was so obvious. Still it made a very good read – with a bit of comedy here and there; also striking the chords of some serious emotions; and of course the strengths and weaknesses of relationships. And anyway, I like his books (Except for a single one I couldn’t stand for more than 25 pages)

And then it was my attempt to finish “Predictably irrational” – of course a good book, in the similar lines of Freakonomics. And that is the very vice of it. So many case studies and examples and anecdotes and etc. etc. Pretty good, but sometimes a bit like beating around the bush.

Haven’t you had the feeling in classes that, even after you have totally understood the point, the lecturer/teacher would go on explaining it for the benefit of others and then you lose the connection and get lost in something else (eg. doodling). That is what is happening with this book. 

(The simile in the above paragraph is actually my ORIGINAL idea from years ago, even though I heard the very same ‘lecturer-beats-around-the-bush, I-get-bored’ thing from one of my readers recently and smiled – about similarity of thoughts.)

And I am still at page 125.

Finally, I picked “The Great Gatsby” yesterday and finished it. Even though I cannot put it in the group of my top books, I say I liked it. There is something which I want to put here for the benefit of my readers. (One could totally avoid to read the excerpts. But they are very good).

"He smiled understandingly--much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favour. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey."

I very much liked this very passage. Another small thing I very much loved was this:

Everyone suspects himself/herself* of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people I know.

Later in the book, the following conversation makes the above mentioned sentence more beautiful.

She: I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride.

He: I’m thirty, I am five years too old to lie to myself and call it an honour.

Well, I am twenty seven; two years too old to lie to myself and call it an honour. :)

So, that’s all for today’s post. The burning ship would take a whole post and wait for that one. :)

Signing off, Sands.

* : Added herself for political correctness and for clarity! :)