Rant 55: Diwali Delights

Realise this is probably a little late to be posting diwali pics but what the heck...

Now even though I'm not the biggest fan of crackers cos I think it's almost literally money going up in smoke...The Reach Out Club had organised a diwali celebration at the Twin House, a place for underprivileged kids ...managed to have some fun myself with the fooljhadis and the rockets and bombs...

enjoyed messing around with slow shutterspeed as usual, but realised its not so convenient to take really good shots without a tripod...still learnt loads about keeping the cam steady in really low light situations (thus far i was able to get away with shaky hands cos i had a tripod...damn you Mr. Goa Thief...!)

This one's one of my favourite shots. Completely captures the moment and the spirit of firing a rocket...I know i used to get a rush at the moment of lift off in my younger days...Hope this fires a memory or two for ya'll...oh and thats a budweiser bottle we used as a launch pad

Living it up with the kids of twin house...

cheers!

Rant 54: Animal care trust blog

Hi all,
the Animal Care Trust (Mangalore) has its very own blog up now. I had posted about this place back in August. If you want a glimpse of what the place is like you can check out the pics here.
Although this trust is probably not your state of the art facility when compared to say the ones in metros, it has one major characteristic that sets it apart.
While most major animal centres may put to sleep those that are deemed even remotely as unfit (even something like missing a leg), the centre here in fact takes on more "unfit" animals than the latter. Its safe to say, even injured animals deserve dignity in life (to quote Dr. Gregory House: "There's no dignity in dying, you only live with it!").
However, the facility does need a fair amount of revamping in terms of sanitation etc if it is to match up to the standards set by its metro counterparts.
So a formal request to all those who want to and are able to help, to contact the people behind this cause. and just so you know, they prefer kind rather than cash. If you know anything about dogs, cats etc, it won't be hard to figure some basic needs out (gunny bags to sleep on, belts, medicines etc).
The ACT blog is run by the members of the Reach Out Club. On the latter's blog you can also read about a recent pup rescue (of no less than 8!!) made on our very own office premises.

Rant 53: Diwali joy at Twin house

The most useful and satisfying Diwali ever spent.
celebrations courtesy ROC (The Reach Out Club)

Pics (taken by yours truly) and description on the following link
http://therocstars.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/little-diwali-of-smiles/   

Enjoy!

Rant 52: On the 7th day...Sheeba created Murudeshwar

A couple of weekends ago, we visited the scenic locale of Murudeswar. Situated around 3.5 hours away from Mangalore (by train) the visit required no more than a day, but was quite fulfilling despite it being a totally god-filled place and all. The structures were overwhelming and the beach was amazing. Lots of legends and myths to deal with, a whole lot of crowds, topped off with a relaxing dip in the sea... All in all, a great setting for shutter-buggery  ...(apologies for the bad formatting, the browser in this cyber cafe is screwed up...will rectify ASAP)

 

 

Rant 51: A new class of criminal

Every now and then, there just has to be that one movie that fucking blows you right out of your reality zone and pumps you so full of adrenaline that by the time you leave the theater you’ve already calculated how much you’ll have to cut back on daily expenses just so you can buy the collector’s edition DVD set of that particular film.
At this moment I can think of only two such movies (there may be more of course but I’m not going to make the effort to think all that hard now).
Inglourious Basterds is one such while The Dark Knight was the other.
(no I haven’t bought DVDs for either, but it would definitely be worth it…and someday, it will be for me)
No rewards for guessing why both these are so firmly entrenched in the mind of a not-so-hardcore-movie-buff like yours truly: THE VILLAIN.

I’m not going to waste words comparing Bollywood’s villainous characterizations with those of Hollywood. No sir! The gulf in class is very, very apparent.
What we can think about, is the difference between the villains in the afore mentioned films and those in other Hollywood films.

Heath Ledger bloody-well stole the show in The Dark Knight. Right from his little Magic trick at the beginning (Tadaaaaaa! It’s gone!!!) to his renditions of the tale of his scars (you wanna know how I got these scars?) to the absolutely mind-blowing WHY SO SERIOUSSS!
Scheming, smiling, laughing, terrorizing, haunting. Whatever -ing suffixed word you choose, fact remains, he was the kind of villain you literally wanted to get your hands on. Trust me, the more sadistic acts he committed, the more I wanted to strangle him. But no! something in the back of my brain wanted to see more depraved acts, more girls tied behind chairs over sticks of dynamite in a room full of gasoline cans, and more hospitals being blown up.
In other words, he was perhaps the personification of the very limits to which a man’s evil can reach. And like it or not, we all have a curiosity towards finding out what that limit is. The sad part is, we experience more satisfaction in realizing the limits of others rather than our own.
But back to the villains
Hans Lander.

Now what do we call him? I doubt if you can call him scheming on the same plane as the Joker. He was simply caught up in a situation where he had to do his duty, no matter that he did in a stretched out fashion, taking his time with every "kill". His every action/dialogue belying his actual purpose. Perhaps he differed from the Joker with respect to being overly meticulous. Size up the target, lure it into a false sense of security, put on a mask of ignorance, feign an interest in sidebar conversations and finally…attack to eliminate. The funny part was, even though most of his actual actions might be termed "evil" how far was it from the inhumanity meted out by the basterds in their quest to kill as many NAZIs as possible. Again, a good representation of all the evil we thought was only in fantasies.
Another notable difference between the two stalwarts was the manner in which they were finally apprehended. While the Joker was probably laughing all the way to jail, Lander proved that when the barrel is pointed in the wrong direction, attitudes change.
Other aspects of inglourious basterds that were amazing:-
1) Deviation from history: killing off the NAZI high command, including Hitler, Bormann and Goering. I completely expected at least the top three to survive by some miracle.
2) Blood and gore: normally I’m not big fan of these, but the overhead, shot early on, in the movie of a NAZIs head being smashed literally to pulp with a baseball bat sparked a minor fascination that was only topped by the repeated pumping of bullets, towards the end, into Hitler’s lifeless body by the basterds.
3) The fact that it wasn’t just Hans Lander who stole the show (as opposed to the Joker). Every single actor had a definite share of the stealing. Maybe a little less for Brad Pitt due to his over-the-top-fake southern drawl.
With all due respect to both actors, I still consider the Joker portrayal as a winner between the two. Maybe it’s because the Joker didn’t have a ‘thousand-year Reich’ behind him for leverage or maybe because he did those evil, crazy things not for money…but (as Alfred the Butler puts it) "just to watch the world burn"
The world (of films) needed a new class of criminal, and they are here.

Rant 50: The nights Temple-ar

(warning) Since this post is related to temples (and I hate going to those places)...there will be a few puns ...some bad...others worse...

So Dusshera is pretty big here, well...isn't it anywhere in India? Unfortunately, the bigger the festival the more extravagant the pointlessness gets...
and nowhere is this extravagance more evident than good old conservative Mangalore. the streets are decked up with lights as if the whole city is getting married in one single week, crackers breaking your sleep and the ever musical, drum-beat, breaking your mental peace when you least expect it...
back at the temple, the lights were bright, the decorations over-the-top, the statues more muscular than Arnie in his umpteen Terminator films (even those of female deities)
'Shri Gokarnatha Kshetra'.
Inaugurated by the late Rajiv Gandhi (in the year of his death...did somebody say coincidence?? or maybe irony?) this temple complex boasts many huge buildings and structures dedicated to many of the million "multi-tasking" gods of the Hindu religion...
here lie the blessed pics (see what I did there?)

When the lights go on...there stands the gateway to heaven


Temple...hai! nazar na lag jaaye

Random female goddess...awww! and doesn't HE look cute in purple?

All hail the great god Shiva.....and NOW........Lets PARTYYYYYYY!!!!!!

a sea of madness...

Ok this is some real graphic stuff...adult supervision is advised!!


We've got the lord in our hearts...err...Cellphones

Rant 49: If Truth be told...

• South Park is not even half as funny on VH1 with all the "good" stuff either bleeped out or (worse!) completely cut-out (as much as bootlegged copies)
• Procrastination levels in a person are directly proportional to the number of dishes / clothes that are craving his/her attention at home.
• Work sentiment in the office is directly proportional to the Internet Bandwidth available there.
• Friends will always have an opinion on your behaviour/ thoughts/ on what you say… but will mostly spill it out in front of other friends when they want to look cool…(only) very rarely will they let it out to you.
• Musical preferences cannot be imposed upon someone, nor should you be held socially accountable for them.
• The Air Conditioning in the office will always seem to get worse (read: colder) just when you think it’s at the right temperature.
• A bad cricket team will always lose, no matter how many "informed" individuals cram themselves in front of a 14" TV and scream instructions.

MFL