Why do all Aliens look alike?
I have seen many science fiction movies. I love them. Specially if they have some extraterrestrial life forms. Most of such movies show the ‘First Contact’ made between humans and so called Aliens. Yesterday I watched District 9. I liked the movie. But I still did not get what I hoped.
I just have one complaint against all Alien movies. ‘Why do all Aliens look alike?’ I just can’t understand it. Take Mars Attacks, Independence Day, District 9. In all those movies, all Aliens look similar.
Most of the movies show that Aliens are much more powerful than humans both in terms of intelligence and physical power. Why can’t we depict Aliens in such a way where every alien looks different, like humans do.
Even our (Corrupt) politicians, who have no humanity left in them, look different. So why can’t the Aliens?
Irony of a Blog Post
We all like to blog, don’t we. Especially the hard core bloggers amongst us. We blog about anything that we want to share with the world. Stories, pictures, videos, life experiences, both good and bad. Some of us also write about the social issues that exist in our country. Politics and prejudice are amongst our top favourites.
What I also find interesting is the curiosity an upcoming festival generates. Whenever a festival is a day or two away, the blog sphere is flooded with posts related to the festival. Large number of posts are the ones where the author shares his/her experiences about the festival. But by and large, most of the blog posts are trying to spread awareness about the festival. On such occasions every other blogger is trying to do his/her best to educated other people, spreading awareness as I said. For example, when Holi is around, we warn others not to use colours that have harmful chemicals mixed with them. Not to waste water. Celebrate a Dry Holi and so on.
I wanted to do the same. Diwali is a day away. I wanted to say that on this Diwali, ‘Do the New.’ Avoid crackers that pollute. Celebrate a Green Diwali, Turn down the noise, etc etc.
But then I thought, What’s the point. Most of you who would be reading this post would already be doing the same. Lets face it. If you are educated enough and savvy enough to read and browse blogs on the internet, I would hope that you would be sane enough not to do the things I just mentioned.
Digg it. I browse the internet. I read blogs. Like me other persons, even if they don’t write blogs themselves, but are savvy enough to read blogs, are sane enough to do the right things. They are already aware of the hazards of not doing the correct things on festivals.
So towards whom is a blog post intended. Who is the target audience for a blog post of such nature that spread awareness. Other bloggers? I would hope that bloggers reading such posts are already aware of what needs to be done.
Who else is left. People who browse the internet but have never come across the concept of blogging. There is a fair amount of such people. They could be the target audience. But what are the chances of such people getting redirected to your blog. Slim. Such persons will only get to your blog if they are searching for the right information. And if they are searching for the right information, they are already half aware.
That I thought is the Irony of blog posts of such nature. It does not reach its target audience. The people who reads such blog posts either know what needs to be done or at least have a general idea. Such blog posts can only make the half aware people fully aware. The real audience is the one that never uses internet i.e the one that will never reach your blog post.
Do you agree with me? Of course not. Christ, what was I thinking. Now I don’t agree with that point of view myself. I just highlighted the point because some blogger might feel the same way. To be frank, I had the same thought. I thought what’s the point in writing when you are not able to reach to the masses. But then I realized that if a blog post can educate a single person, that in itself makes the difference. Because that one person can in turn educate 4 other persons and that can start a chain reaction.
So don’t stop blogging even if you think that no one is going to read it. If you have something nice to share, please do. And if you read something interesting, share it with others.
And by the way, have a safe and green Diwali. And as Ranbir Kapoor says in his new Ad, Do something that you have nerver done before. This Diwali, turn down the Noise 
Swim at North Pole
Mere mortals like me can only share videos of ice glaciers melting away due to global warming. Lewis Pugh had other idea. He did a swim across the North Pole just to indicate to the world that a place that should be frozen over, has now melted. He shares his experiences at TED. Video below -
Another Idea Worth Spreading at TED.com
The Hangover – Part 2
Continued from part-1.
He cursed his dial-up connection that kept him from looking at the movie plot. If he knew that the movie contains pervasive language amongst other things and is set in Vegas, he would never have selected the movie, especially for a occasion like this. He felt he had to do something but had no idea. Having no idea what to say to her, he started concentrating on the movie.
The movie was hilarious. Of that, there was no doubt. In the movie, four guys travel to Las-Vegas for a bachelor party as one of them is getting married the next day. Three of the gays wake up to find their soon to be weeded friend missing along with their memory from last night. They now need to find their friend and get him to their home town in time for the wedding.
A waiter came to their seats and asked if they would like to order something as there will be no intermission in the movie. Before he could turn to her, there was a stark reply from her, ‘No.’ The waiter left before he could place in his order.
He had no other option but to concentrate on the movie. He did not have any courage to speak to her. He again looked at her from the corner of this eye. Her face did not reflect any emotion. It seemed to him that she is also concentrating on the movie. Then suddenly, he heard her laugh! He looked at her and he could see that she was now enjoying the movie. ‘She is liking it!’, he remarked to himself. ‘Aren’t you enjoying the movie’, she said as she saw his dumbfounded face.
He could feel the weight lifted off his shoulders. He found himself smiling as the movie neared its end. It was a really nice story and everybody in the theater seemed to enjoy it. The movie ended and they got out and walked towards the parking lot. ‘I had a wonderful time. Thanks for taking me to such a movie’, she said looking at him. ‘At least it was like those double meaning Bollywood flicks’, she continued. He could not believe his luck. He never thought that she would accept the movie. But he still pondered about his response. Should he say , ‘Yeah, I really enjoyed it’, or should he say,’ I am sorry but I did not know there were such scenes in the movie’ and save his backside. He decided to take his chance and went in with the first option. He was relived as his response did not spark off a negative reaction.
He dropped her off at her house and said, ‘Don’t let my movie choice keep you from coming for another movie with me.’ She gave him a smile and said, ‘I will come to a movie if its rating on imdb is good and the plot looks appeling.’ He thought he did not hear her correctly. ‘You knew about the movie? Why didn’t you say anything before’, he said looking surprised. ‘Yeah, I checked it on imdb when you were on the way to pick me up. I would have turned you back if the movie plot didn’t look promising.’
Not finding anything else to say and knowing that only option left in front of him was to take her leave, he said, ‘Let’s catch up again sometime. I had a really good time. I hope you have had the same as well.’ She gave him an assuring smile and went inside her house.
He drove off thinking that he had had a narrow escape. He thanked heavens for everything. He was feeling very happy now. A smile broke onto his face. His Hangover was over.
The Hangover – Part 1
He hoped that it would be an ice breaking first date. A thought of dinner after the movie had crossed his mind, but knowing that it would be to much to ask for, he stuck to his original plan of going for the 4:30 PM show.
He hoped to impress her by taking her to an Hollywood movie rather than a cheesy Bollywood flick having double meaning dialogs. There was only one English movie playing in the city, The Hangover. He only knew that it was a comedy, and his dial-up connection failed him to keep him from checking the movie plot at imdb. As he had no time, he knew that he was taking a risk. It could go either way.
‘It is any good’, she asked after hearing the movie name. ‘What’s it about’, the next question came before he could answer the previous one. His heart skipped a beat and in trying to appear calm on the surface, he could only mutter, ‘its a comedy.’ ‘OK. Pick me up in half an hour’, she said and hung up the phone.
They took their seats in the movie hall just in time to catch some advertisements of local products that never seem to exist outside the movie hall. A quick comment on one such ad made her giggle. He realized that she was as nervous as he was. He had to get rid of the nervous energy that existed between them. He hoped that the movie will do that, but as soon as he saw that the movie was rated as ‘A’ (which is equivalent to a rating ‘R’ here in India), he knew that he was in for a ride.
The movie started and after some initial scenes, his fears were confirmed. The movie was a comedy but not of the sort that he hoped for. From the corner of his eye he observed that she had looked at him once after the initial scene but he had no courage to look at her. This throat went dry. ‘Will you have a Pepsi’, he asked hoping to break this new ice that had formed between them. She just shook her head in denial without saying a word. His Hangover had started.
Wright Words
Success. Four flights Thursday morning. All against Twenty One mile wind. Started from level with engine power alone. Average speed through the air Thirty-One miles. Longest Fifty-Nine seconds. Inform Press. Home Christmas.
Any guesses as to what the words above indicate? The hint is in the title of the post. Don’t Google them. The image below shows where are these words copied from.
I started reading “MAYDAY” by “Thomas H Block” and these were the first words I read. I was mesmerized for a moment. These word came from a telegram that Martin Wright (the father of Wright brothers who invented the Airplane) got on December 17, 1903. The telegram explains the first successful flight made by the Wright brothers. Inspirational.
Will the Real Superstar Please Stand Up?
I was at a traffic signal waiting for the light to turn Green.The traffic was considerably less due to a public holiday. And to my surprise most of the other persons were complying with the traffic rules. In our city the unwritten rule is that if its a holiday or the traffic is less, then you should not wait for the signal to turn Green, you just…Drive on.
As I was waiting for the light, I overheard two persons standing besides me. “You can watch that movie twice or even thrice”, the passenger said. “Yeah. The hero has turned into a Superstar with this performance”, the driver chipped in. They were talking about a new movie that has hit the screens this week. It being generally believed that the hero has become a Superstar with his performance. In this role, he had to pronounce ‘S’ as ‘F’. For example, he pronounces ‘Awesome’ as ‘Awefome’.
Then I realized the the this craze (pronouncing ‘S’ as ‘F’) has hit most of the movie loving audiences. All of them use the same technique while chatting with friends, in chat rooms on Internet and sometimes even in their offices. It just goes to show how big of an impact a Hero or Superstar has on our society.
As the signal turned green and I started driving, I remembered the Intel Ad. “Our Superstars are different from your Superstars”, it said. The Ad featured the creator of USB device. And then I realized that we do not follow the Superstars of other fields with the same zest as we follow our Film Superstars. Hell, we don’t even know the Superstars that change our lives everyday, let alone follow them.
As I realized this, I kept going back to the Intel Ad. The Ad had suddenly acquired a whole new meaning. In just few words, they had hit the nail right on the head.
I reached home and since it was a holiday, I had made up my mind to watch TV throughout the day. I turned it on and the first thing I saw that one of our biggest Film Superstar was detained by the authorities at Newark Airport for questioning. He was held for almost two hours. The news showed the reaction of our politicians and general public. All of them were enraged at the incident. They were reacting as if one of their own family member was detained. The actor in question was not pleased one bit. His followers were fuming. The news kept running throughout the afternoon on one or the other news channel. Again an example of how much we follow our Film Superstars.
A similar incident took place few days back, when one of our Real Superstar and former President was detained at an Airport. He is known as the Missile Man of India though only a few would be knowing this, but most of us would even know the nicknames of our Film Superstars.
Our Real Superstars have another quality. They do not mind if they are being treated like a normal person. We did not hear our Missile Man utter a word when he was frisked at the Airport. Nor did that particular event get so much air time on our news channels.
Finally, the public holiday that I was taking about turns out to be our Independence Day. Its a day to remember some of the real heroes. But how did we celebrate our 62nd Independence Day? By watching movies of our favourite Film Superstars. Awefome.
11th August, 2052
11th August, 2052. I completed my 70th revolution around the sun a week ago. (And If I can borrow a line from Harper Lee) Enough years have gone by to enable me to look back on them.
I count myself lucky to have made it this far. I somehow survived the great depression from 2008 to 2015. Lucky also to have survived the great Swine Flu scare in 2009-2010.
By the way, I will be alone till evening today. My family had gone on a trip/picnic. The definition of a picnic has changed from when I was still a teenager. Today my family will be seeing earth from outer space. They will fly over the Ganges (Which has not yet dried out), The Taj-Mahal (Which used to be White, but now has turned Grey), Great Wall of China (which is still standing strong) and the Great Pyramids (They are not going anywhere, are they).
I missed out on the trip but I am not complaining. I am looking forward to watch a clash between Manchester United and Liverpool. By the way, I am still in Indore, India. When I switch on my 3D TV, I will almost feel as if I have a front row seat at Old Trafford. The first 3D television service was tested in 2009. Seems way back now. Now a days, the quality of audio and video is so real, you are all but sitting in the stadium itself. What? Don’t believe me? Click here.
I feel thirsty. I go to our portable water filter. The filters are so advance that they convert the waste/garbage/undrinkable water into 100% pure water. They are needed by each family now a days as the water supply takes place every 15 days. Unlike the 20th century, we don’t have enough water in our rivers today. These water filters have turned out to be one of the greatest inventions of the 21st century. They boil the Undrinkable water so that the actual water content evaporates. Then they cool the water vapors to get pure water. The entire process consumes less electricity then a hair drier and the machine is portable. They have solved the water problem just like that. Seems too good to be true doesn’t it.
Its raining outside and I feel like eating Hot Corns. I go to the roof of my house to pick up some of the ripe looking corns from my own corn field on my roof. Don’t laugh. All of us have small fields on our roofs. Not a lot space is left on earth for crop fields. The agricultural technology is so advanced that it enables us to grow crops on our small roofs. Believe it.
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Lets come back to the present shall we. 11th August, 2009. I think we will be experiencing all the above things mentioned above in our lifetimes. The future looks great or worse depending upon your point of view. Now let’s cast an eye on some of the things that we will not be having in the future.
First an endangered species of cat family, the Tiger. Our next generation will see the tiger only in the text books and other literature alongside the Dinosaurs and Human Being as the most dangerous species ever to walk the earth.
Tiger, resting after breakfast at Kanha National Park
We also have most of our glaciers melting down due to global warming. Just have a look at the video below to see the reality. I don’t think we will have many glaciers left in 50 years time.
So the future looks promising and at the same time, it looks bleak. What do you think? Have your say by dropping in a comment.
What’s in the Name?
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Those were the words that “Shakespeare” gave to “Juliet” in the play “Romeo and Juliet”.
So What’s in the name. Nothing. It might be true everywhere else in the world, but not in India. In India, we love to play the Blame Game over Names. Sometimes this game is played with so much intensity that the actual thing takes a back seat.
About a month back, the Bandra-Worli Sea Link was inaugurated. All the attention should have been on the marvelous piece of engineering that was in front of us. But what did we get. A name controversy. Some said it should be named after Veer Savarkar and some said it should be named after Rajiv Gandhi. So what was supposed to be symbol of emerging India had turned into tug or war between our politicians. But politicians are not the only ones that create such controversies. Although they do hold a lion’s share in the matter. There are other groups as well.
Recently I was at a dance party. The DJ was playing a big hit from a yet to be released film “Kaminey”. The song in question was “Dhan Tana”. One of the lines in the song didn’t go well with one business community. They said that the line painted them in bad light. I would bet my bottom dollar that if a member from the same community was there at the dance party, he would have danced his socks off. The director was quick in putting the fire out with an icy comment. “First ban all the literature books that are decorated with comments on that specific business community, only then we will ban the song”, he remarked. So the controversy that threatened to blow out of proportions was snubbed. But a controversy none the less.
The list is endless. International Airports of Hydrabad and Mohali have been plagued by the same disease. Also some of our major cities have been proposed for name changes. Follow this link for more information. I think all hell will break loose if the proposed changes go ahead.
So What’s in the name? Well in India…Everything.
