First of all, it should be loaded and locked. Seriously, how can you load it once it is locked? But then again, English is as weird as a language can get, so I won't mind. Now here's the scenario: I have to shift my room, luggage and everything else from the fourth floor to the ground floor. And this is what happens, when there are too many locks. The story of three locks:
Lock 1: Owned by the hostel management, for the room no. 40, which was allotted to me newly.
Lock 2: Owned by me, for the room no. 396, the room which i was occupying.
Lock 3: Owned by Mahesh, for the room no. 44, of which a copy I was given. Coz let's face it, I lived in that room more than Mahesh.
Now the problem is to shift all the luggage from room 396, to room 40, using room 44 as a buffer, all by yourself, while ensuring that every room is locked when you are not in it. And of course, the end result should be that Lock 1 is given back to the hostel management, Lock 2 is now on room 40, and Lock 3 is still safe with you during all this ruckus. Oh and I forgot to mention, the luggage consisted of 7 fully loaded containers, ranging from as small as a dust bin to as big as a mountaineer's haversack. So you need to also ensure that you don't get too worn out while running up and down the stairs (yes stairs, you won't find lifts in Universities here...) while still having enough energy to carry that load.
So yes, i finally was able to juggle mattresses and buckets all the way down four floors, through cramped staircases, only to realise I forgot the keys to Lock 1 somewhere. :D typical me. Easy solution, use room 44 as the buffer, coz I wouldn't be losing the keys to Locks 2 and 3 in a hurry. And then retrace my steps to find that missing key, and resume the algorithm. I guess this is what they call a lock-step process. How I wish these transactions (or atleast the luggage) were atomic!
By the end, I had to whip out yet another lock, coz I had to lock room 4o, while handing over Lock 1. If everybody was as crazy as me, I guess we'd all be automatons, devoid of feelings and consideration for the poor readers of such nonsensical blogs. But then where's the fun, if you knew they didn't have feelings either?
June 29, 2007
June 28, 2007
My latest obsession
ViManga (link: http://www.vimanga.ru ) is a huge online collection of many mangas. Some of them pretty good, but then again, they might not interest everybody... (<_<) Do visit this site, if you're interested in manga at all...
Regret
I've done a lot of things till now that i'm not exactly proud of. But given a second chance, I'd probably have done the exact same things over again. Which gets me thinking about the choices a person makes. And the choices that make the person. Are my choices a direct consequence of who I am, my inner self, the Jungian psyche (more on Jungian stereotypes later...)? Or am I the result of the decisions that I have made? Do we have a choice in all this at all? It gets very confusing sometimes, when people talk about destiny. It's all very romantic to think that there's this superpower that governs your life, and that you'll eventually end up becoming the same thing no matter what you do. But that would defeat the purpose of living, doesn't it? On the other hand, what about things that happen in which you have no choice at all? Like natural disasters. Or or bolts out of the blue. Is there an answer to all this? We do make decisions and stick to our choices without thinking about all this stuff, and of course it's all a lot easier to do it that way. But what if you do realize one day, that beyond all doubt, there is this destiny or fate which governs your entire life. Will that stop you from making choices? On the other hand, there you go, a normal person thinking about normal things, making decisions and choices based on rationale and the current circumstances, and you actually end up becoming nothing. Will that give you as much satisfaction, of being safe and secure, as opposed to what you would have become if you were an irrational impulsive freak obsessively following your own passions? And what if you don't end up safe and secure after all, even though you've made the correct (according to you) decisions all your life?
Should we be even thinking about all this stuff? The Vedas give an easy solution to all this:
basically saying that one should not think about the consequences of the action, but should perform one's duty. Then what is our duty? Oh no.. don't start that now. Go read the Bhagavad Gita (also available in your local language by now) and see if you understand the concept of कर्म, loosely put, "duty" in English.
So why am I quoting Scriptures here? Because I'd like to believe that age-old wisdom has been passed down to us, in the form of Scriptures (not only the Gita, Scriptures in all religions...), and that if you know how to search for it, all the answers lie in these Scriptures. Hell, even Schrodinger's concept of Quantum Mechanics is supposed to be influenced by them. In the meanwhile, before we understand what it means to read the Scriptures, we better do whatever we need to survive. It's a shame that Humanity, is simultaneously the cause and the effect of such wisdom. Or abstract thought. Call it whatever you wish. Humans will be humans, they will breed evil and seek evil for all time, until the fear of Final Judgement looms really large and inevitable. Until then, that's all folks!
Should we be even thinking about all this stuff? The Vedas give an easy solution to all this:
कर्मण्यॆवाधिकारस्ते माफलॆषु कदाचन
karmaNyEvaadhikaaraste maa phalEShu kadaacana
basically saying that one should not think about the consequences of the action, but should perform one's duty. Then what is our duty? Oh no.. don't start that now. Go read the Bhagavad Gita (also available in your local language by now) and see if you understand the concept of कर्म, loosely put, "duty" in English.
So why am I quoting Scriptures here? Because I'd like to believe that age-old wisdom has been passed down to us, in the form of Scriptures (not only the Gita, Scriptures in all religions...), and that if you know how to search for it, all the answers lie in these Scriptures. Hell, even Schrodinger's concept of Quantum Mechanics is supposed to be influenced by them. In the meanwhile, before we understand what it means to read the Scriptures, we better do whatever we need to survive. It's a shame that Humanity, is simultaneously the cause and the effect of such wisdom. Or abstract thought. Call it whatever you wish. Humans will be humans, they will breed evil and seek evil for all time, until the fear of Final Judgement looms really large and inevitable. Until then, that's all folks!
June 23, 2007
Three cheers for the Trinity!!!
Abso-i'm so awed i don't have the words to put it right-lutely awesome!
the Trinity:
Scorcese, DeNiro, and Pesci.
Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Casino.
Just thought i'd mention them again, coz i just finished seeing Casino. You'd think you know how a typical Scorcese movie would look like, especially one that stars DeNiro and Pesci. And then you see one of these movies, and you get amazed all over again! The three movies are in three different eras: 1980, 1990, and 1995 respectively, and you'd think that should account for something. I mean maintaining that sort of chemistry over 15 years? No words.
the Trinity:
Scorcese, DeNiro, and Pesci.
Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Casino.
Just thought i'd mention them again, coz i just finished seeing Casino. You'd think you know how a typical Scorcese movie would look like, especially one that stars DeNiro and Pesci. And then you see one of these movies, and you get amazed all over again! The three movies are in three different eras: 1980, 1990, and 1995 respectively, and you'd think that should account for something. I mean maintaining that sort of chemistry over 15 years? No words.
June 11, 2007
The Fountain
"Darren Aronofsky is a genius" seems to be the general opinion, from what few reviews i've read on the net. When I saw the movie "The Fountain", I couldn't get past the first few minutes without interruption. I couldn't understand what the movie was about, although I was certainly awed. And intrigued. I had to look up imdb to see what the movie was about, to convince myself to sit through the movie. And that was when I realized Darren Aronofsky, the director, was also the one who wrote and directed Requiem for a Dream. And Pi. That in itself was enough to convince me.
Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, Fountain of Youth, eternal life, Mayan creation legends, cancer, disease, death, fight for survival, medical experiments on monkeys, animal rights, space travel, bubbles, reincarnation, schizophrenia, yoga, the Lotus Position, Spanish Inquisition, treasure hunt, astronomy, the Xibulba nebula, yeast cultures, co-dependence, eternal quest. Some of the things that figure in the movie. And oh, by the way, there were no computer-based CG effects used, the awesome depiction of stars and nebulae was done by micro-photography of yeast cultures. And this is only what you see. What is meant to be understood, after seeing it, is still a mystery. Even after seeing the whole movie I still couldn't understand what the movie was about, except that it ended. And somehow, I was fulfilled. In Aronofsky's own words, "it's very much like a Rubik's cube, where you can solve it in several different ways, but ultimately there's only one solution at the end".
Open to interpretation. That's what I like about some movies, like the hindi one I saw the other day, "Life in a Metro". Seems to me that involving the audience, in the movie and its interpretations rather than in creating plot twists and story arcs, (such as taking online polls of what kind of story the public wants --- ouch!) is an integral part of critical success.
Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, Fountain of Youth, eternal life, Mayan creation legends, cancer, disease, death, fight for survival, medical experiments on monkeys, animal rights, space travel, bubbles, reincarnation, schizophrenia, yoga, the Lotus Position, Spanish Inquisition, treasure hunt, astronomy, the Xibulba nebula, yeast cultures, co-dependence, eternal quest. Some of the things that figure in the movie. And oh, by the way, there were no computer-based CG effects used, the awesome depiction of stars and nebulae was done by micro-photography of yeast cultures. And this is only what you see. What is meant to be understood, after seeing it, is still a mystery. Even after seeing the whole movie I still couldn't understand what the movie was about, except that it ended. And somehow, I was fulfilled. In Aronofsky's own words, "it's very much like a Rubik's cube, where you can solve it in several different ways, but ultimately there's only one solution at the end".
Open to interpretation. That's what I like about some movies, like the hindi one I saw the other day, "Life in a Metro". Seems to me that involving the audience, in the movie and its interpretations rather than in creating plot twists and story arcs, (such as taking online polls of what kind of story the public wants --- ouch!) is an integral part of critical success.
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