Fleetwood Mac - Dreams...

Hi friends

Since this is my last blog day, I decided to just mention a song that I have learnt to love, and hear whenever I feel down and out. This song has a history behind it, a fact I knew the instant I heard it. I hear many songs, but I can feel this one.The song is "Dreams", which was originally sung by the band "Fleetwood Mac", and later adapted by "The Corrs", which is the version that most people have actually heard.

The members of "Fleetwood Mac" were experiencing emotional upheavals while recording the album, named "Rumours". The drummer was going through a divorce, the bass player was separating from his wife, the keyboard player. The guitarist and the songwriter (Nicks) were ending their eight-year relationship. "We had to go through this elaborate exercise of denial, keeping our personal feelings in one corner of the room while trying to be professional in the other", explained the guitarist.

As Nicks explained "I sat down on the bed with my keyboard in front of me. I found a drum pattern, switched my little cassette player on and wrote 'Dreams' in about 10 minutes. Right away I liked the fact that I was doing something with a dance beat, because that made it a little unusual for me".

“We had to go through this elaborate exercise of denial, keeping our personal feelings in one corner of the room while trying to be professional in the other", said the Guitarist. Inevitably, their true feelings surfaced in the lyrics of the songs they were writing — most notable “Dreams.”

By the time “Dreams” was released, Rumours was already a platinum album, and Nicks’s song soared to No. 1 on June 18, 1977, quickly establishing itself as her signature track. The song was the only U.S. number one hit for the group, and remains one of their best known songs. “Sometimes you can get tired of singing a certain song over and over again,” she says, “but I have never gone onstage, either with Fleetwood Mac or in my solo shows, without singing ‘Dreams’. I don’t think I could.”

The lyrics of the song are here below:

Now there you go again
You say you want your freedom
Who am I to keep you down...down
It's only right that you should
Play it the way that you feel it
But listen carefully to the sound
Of your loneliness
Like a heartbeat, drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering
What you had, And what you lost
Ooooh, say what you had, you know what you lost

Chorus:
Thunder only happens when it's raining
Players only love you when they're playing
They say, women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you'll know
You will know

Here I go again, I see the crystal visions
I keep my visions to myself, yeah
It's only me who wants to wrap around your dreams and
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
Dreams of Loneliness

Like a heartbeat, drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering
What you had, And what you lost
Oooh, says what you had, you know what you lost

Chorus:
Thunder only happens when it's raining
Players only love you when they're playing
They say, women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you'll know
You will know

Oh thunder only happens when it's raining
Players only love you when they're playing
They say, women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you'll know
You'll know
You will know
Oh oh oh you'll know

Ciao.

The End of Days...

Hi friends

As much as I hate to do this, and as much as my near-and-dear friends told me “Don’t do this man, just don’t”, it is with a heavy heart that I am stopping this blog for a minimum of 6 months effective from today. I may re-start this blog from September 2010 onwards, subject to many conditions. I have been asked “Why now?” by all those who knew about this in advance, and sadly I have no reply to that question even now. It is a drastic decision from my side, a very rash decision. But I just felt that it needed to be done.

No, the movie “Leader” did not inspire me to make such a drastic decision. I had made my decision around 16^th/17^th of January this year. I was at the peak of my depression then, and I just wanted to do something drastic. I started evaluating what went wrong with my life, and in that process realized that the most important thing to me (apart from my parents) was my blog. It was not something that was wrong, but it felt like it had got to me. Yes I was in love with my blog, and each of its 25 followers, and each of the 63 people who have made a useful/encouraging comment in it as of now (Yes I do keep track folks). Their names I have listed in this link here (with due messages for each of them) for everyone to see.

My blog has been a very integral part of my life for the last 3 years. I have lived a complete different life though it – I have argued with folks, received threats, and got nice reviews for it. Some days, the only thing that kept me blogging was the fact that some friends used to tell me – “Dude, when we feel bored we open and read your blog. Always something good to read in it”.

I never tried to market my blog – and honestly I am very poor at marketing things. But I was content with what I wrote, as I wrote mostly for myself. Seeing so many people relate to what I wrote made me a very happy man.

This blog was supposed to be a good CV point, and you are all responsible for making this my best CV point yet. Thank you all for your support.

I hope that by September, I would be a more sensible and less frustrated person than I am now.

P.S. I have started a book-review blog (Link here) that I will keep updating as and when I feel like it. It won’t be regular, nor would it be addictive.

Ciao.

Today, in you, I see a Leader...

This review may contain spoilers

Hi friends

Today I went and saw the movie "Leader". To be honest, I had no idea it was directed by Mr. Sekhar Kammula (till I saw the credits), the man who gave the world movies such as "Dollar Dreams", "Anand" and "Happy Days". This was his 4th movie that I could see, and I would like to mention this for the record - So far not a single SK movie that I have seen has disappointed me. And I am proud to admit that.

IdleBrain has give this movie a rating of 3 on 5, a gross underestimation in my view. I am honestly surprized that inspite of such a good review (just read the review at IdleBrain.com), this site gave the movie just 3 on 5! Honestly, I felt that this movie deserves a clear 4 on 5. The story was simply extraordinary.

Brief Summary: The current CM of the state dies, leaving the seat open to be claimed by a near-relative. Meanwhile the CM's son comes back from the US (Ph.D from Harvard at the age of 25) and deicdes to fulfil his father's last wish of his own son becoming the CM. He manipulates and plays his own politics, with the final aim of cleaning up the system and making all public money available for public use. He fights the system on his own, realizing his own faults and shortcomings in the process. His guilt finally overcomes him and the drastic action he takes at the end is the crux of the entire story - the transformation phase.

At the core of the whole movie lies the difference between the leader and a politician. The realization that he is no more a politician than any of the others around him is where the movie actually starts (which is nearly at the end). If the movie has to send a message, it did the moment the hero made the drastic decision towards the last 15 minutes of the movie. I am specifically trying to avoid making any reference to what he did, because that changed the whole story for me. Do see the movie for just the last 20 minutes - although the last 10 minutes of the movie was poorly directed (I really don't know why directors hit their own foot with a sledgehammer at the most crucial moments). It changed the whole game, and made the politician a leader.

Some of the scenes were beautifully crafted - the one where he talks to the father of the girl who was raped and murdered & the one where he decides to becomes the CM and plans on how to do it really blew me away! The scene where one of the MLAs talks about the "free-rice" scheme shows a true picture of the current situation in AP. The distrust that people have in politicians and the realization of the son that his own father had to become corrupt due to the system were shown beautifully. 

"Rann" showed us the truth, and "Leader" shows us what could be the reality. Although IdleBrain called this movie "Idealistic", I felt that what the hero did could be done. He fought the system by being a part of the system. He hated doing so (every day he remembered what he did and how to undo anything wrong that he did), but did it, because he had a larger good in his mind. This movie does not have a single fight scene, and not one song-and-dance sequence. This movie does not call for a "mass-revolution" to bring about change, like most other movies in its genre/storyline. It does not make tall-claims of how a leader should/shouldn't be. The hero himself is torn by what he has seen and done, and knows when he is at wrong. But he remembers the bigger objective and always keeps that in mind. 

The hero has a very commanding voice. It added power to the movie, and to his own character. However, the movie will be remembered more for the story than its acting, which was neatly paced. The rest of the cast play their part very well - especially the roles of Ali (played by Harsha Vardhan) and the Peddanana role played by Kota Srinivasa Rao. The only blot here could be the role of the heroines,which was frankly very limited, even by Tollywood standards. 

I can go on and on about this movie. It was an eye-opener, a message of hope, a symbol of youth power and of belief in oneself. Do see it, now or some other time. And let me know if it made you feel any different than what I felt. I usually try to discuss how a movie impacted or what I learnt from it. But I have realized that some emotions can never be translated or penned own into words. They remain with you forever.

P.S. The title of this post is the English-translation of the words of the Chief Secretary of the CM after he makes his drastic decision.

Ciao.

Japan is to Asia what Germany is to Europe (And Aamir Khan)

Hi friends

One of my batchmates @ NIT Kurukshetra from Kerala is one awesome chap. He calls me up atleast once every 1-2 months, and gives me gyaan! A lot of gyaan! Listening to him makes you more aware of the world than you have ever been before! The best thing - he is never drunk when giving this gyaan :) Just think how much more one could learn if he were actually drunk.

Anyways, he called me up a few days ago (I remembered that I still have his number stored in my mobile - can't forget some chaps I guess) with another dose of his monthly gyaan. And it was awesome as usual. We talked about many issues (well, he talked and I mostly listened), and here are some nice theories that he postulated on two issues. I will refer to him as PJ (just a short form of his name and not meant to be taken as a pun in any way)

1. Japan is to Asia what Germany is to Europe

PJ postulated that Japanese and Germans are very similar in their attitudes w.r.t. the rest of the people in their continents i.e. Japan:Asia as Germany:Europe. Some of his points of argument were as follows:

1. Sense of Humour: How many jokes have you heard that involve either the Japanese or the Germans? Compared to that, how many jokes have you heard involving the French or the Italians or the Chinese or us Indians? I hope you get my point. The Japanese and the Germans do not see the funny side to anything. They are the "point-wise people" i.e. very practical in their attitude.

2. Product Marketing: They are two of the most brilliant manufacturing giants in the world, yet they do not carry the tag of "the best marketed products" at all. Just think about it - Aston Martin, Ferrari, Fiat and Rolls-Royce have a brand image, a very distinct brand image, although they do not certainly make the best cars. BMW and Mercedes-Benz do make some of the best cars ever, but they are the best technologically, and not exactly practical for public usage. I have also heard of the dismal state of the customer service centres of BMW. From the Japanese side, we have our very own "Sony" - which can easily rival and even beat Apple ant time. But in our minds, more often than not, Apple steals the mind share more than Sony ever did.

3. Food: How many times have you heard of specialty Japanese / German cuisine, as compared to; say Chinese / French / Italian / Thai? For them, food is something they need to eat and serve, and not for marketing it around the world.

4. The God Syndrome: The Germans (Eg: Nazis) and the Japanese suffer from the “I am God” psychology – it’s not a generalization, but history has shown that to be true.

2. Aamir Khan's movies are all the same

PJ says that most of AKs movies revolve around a similar funda in a broader sense - You don’t see the repetitiveness because of gap in timing – comes every 2 years.

Ghulam: Man starts small, grows to become big in his own way. All people opposed to him, but eventually they like him.

Raja Hindustani: Man starts small. All main people opposed to him, but eventually they like him.

Taare Zameen Par: The limelight shifted on the kid, but Aamir tries to steal the limelight (I was also like you as a kid, and look where I am now)

3 Idiots: Small-town man, big ideas; Head of the college hates him, finally loves him.

I know this is too less to generalize, but most of his movies carry very similar themes. I felt the same. But it's the case with most Hindi movies, just that with Aamir, it becomes more pronounced.

Ciao for now. Enough for today :)

SRK, MNIK and Indian security...

"When terror hit Mumbai, the Indian elite community was blowing with anger because they were affected. Abhi saale sab chup karke baithe hue hain Pune ke baad".

Hi friends

This statement, made by a friend of mine in a chat, got me thinking about this whole SRK, Shiv Sena and Pune blasts' issue. I rarely think about such issues, because I really have no views of my own on things I do not think about at all. After all, what SRK said was just a publicity stunt aimed at promoting his movie, right? And so was the reply given by the Sena and other anti-Pakistan activists in India, right?

I think simple, I hate complications in life. Hence two very simple points certainly came to my mind after thinking about this for a while.

1. What I wrote about the elite in a previous unrelated post made more sense seeing the practical visible situation in India.

2. The security apparatus in India may / may-not suck, but the lethargy of the Indian Security System is appalling. If they can provide security to so many theatres, I think they can also provide similar security to main city centres and other areas especially the ones that tourists frequent.

Let me elaborate:

1. The point that really hits my mind is the indifference shown by the elite towards anything that does not involve them at all. I know this is how they have reached the pinnacle of their careers (atleast most of them), but the common man expects something from them.

I think if everyone understands the principle of "Giving back to the society", there would be no need for Communism or Socialism, as these concepts talk about the greater good. If the elite start thinking of ways to contribute back as much as possible, the world would be a much better place and the greater good will finally happen.

2. Truly speaking, SRK works up a lot of magic. He can get villages to light up using just a tank-full of water (Swades), or in this case - one threat and the entire theatres get full security. Can't we have atleast 50% of that security in other areas on other normal days? Is it too much to ask? (P.S. I have nothing against SRK - he is a great actor and a down-to-earth guy, a very recent revelation). Do we need to be so reactive in nature?

Indians have always been reactive. We happily suffered under the British, waging our lone small battles. And we needed a dhoti-wearing baldy to come and tell us - "What the f**k are you doing? Don't you see what is happening to you and what they are doing to you?" They asked him - "What can we do?" And he gave them the mantra we still follow today - "That's the beauty of it - Don't do anything. But let them know you are suffering. The guilt will drive them away". Now as we moved on, we became so much of a passive reactionary race that we see the problem, and say to ourselves - "I see you coming. But you are so far away - so I will wait. When you come close, I will strike".

Reactive is what the common man is. Hence we elect our representatives to be the proactive people and fight it out on our behalf, to identify our problems and give us the solutions. But they are more interested in saving their arses rather than yours or mine.

Ciao for now.