My Story of a Cinema Going.

How many times have you gone to a theatre to watch a movie? I've gone plenty of times, and probably the list may well have been destroyed beyond recollection. But every now and then one of those movie-going-experience becomes different, memorable. Don't ask how they become memorable, it could be the rush-hush and adventures of getting the ticket, it could be the face of one beautiful girl you came across and it could also be for some disgusting incidents that took place. Here's my little story of going to a cinema some days back.

In this land where names sound more like that of a breaking of plates, getting to talk in English is rare. Even rarer is to watch an English movie in theatres and the rarest of incidents took place this December 1st. The movie My Name is Khan released in China.

Traditionally only 20 foreign language movies are permitted a release in China and this year My Name is Khan was one of those top 20 movies which makes it to the cinema halls in China, and stunningly, 10 months after its real release. The news of the release came out in the first week of November and we happened to know that Shahrukh Khan & Karan Johar would be there in Beijing for the premier of the movie in China. So our initial plans were to fly to Beijing to meet them. Fly to a city 1200 KM away, to meet an actor, and almost during our exam time. Plan dropped!

Then we came to know that the movie is releasing in two malls in Nanjing and we were again excited. Days passed by as exams came and swept us away. Someone had kept a remainder for the 30th of November, reminding the release of My Name is Khan and things were back in minds and plans were to be made again. Anxiousness was the ask of the day even though the movie had been watched a few days after its release in some cheap camera prints and later in crystal clear DVD's.

We will whistle when the titles roll. We will throw paper pieces when SRK makes the intro. We will shout; we will clap; we will create havocs.

Every Indian had a reason to be proud of because no movie of any other friends of ours had come here; none of those Pakistani/Nepali/Srilankan/Indonesian/African movies. God knows if all of them have even a film industry. So this positive energy continued from the classroom to the lunch hall and several friends from other campuses joined us too. The energy followed us through the metro trip to the place, and racing against time, we reached the hall at 2.45 PM and the show was supposed to start at 2.40.

Having reached the ticket counter, there was not many people enquiring or picking up tickets even though the mall had 9 theatres or so. We asked tickets for "My Name is Khan" which they didn't understand in the first go. So the geek among us who ate-drank-and-slept on Chinese language asked the lady in that language and she replied with a mouth full of flourish. "Wo de ming jiao ke an?" and the smile continued. That was incidentally the name of the movie in Chinese which translates to My Name is Khan literaly. So we shouted back "Yeah!!".

Suddenly her smile kind of disappeared and she asked the lady in the next counter, who seemed to know better English and the lady informed us. " Wo de ming jiao ke an mei you yinwen, shi zhong wen"

All our plans were broken down to pieces!! The damn movie was in Chinese and not Hindi/English. All the excitement and preparations only to see a Chinese poster of My Name is Khan.

Ashok Chakra. A Tribute to Mumbai 26/11.

Today, 26/11/2010 marks the 2^nd anniversary of one of the most horrifying incidents of Post-Independence India. Let us salute the brave souls who lost their lives fighting selflessly on the 3 black letter days in Mumbai and also pray for all of the deceased souls.

 

Click here for the full list of the deceased during the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Everyone will have a story to tell about this day, the date. My story of the Mumbai attacks goes on like this. On the night of 26^th Nov, 2008, I was chatting with a friend of mine from Mumbai. So while we were chatting, the news of a terrorist strike broke out and this friend was the one who told me about it. She rushed on to make a couple of phone calls to ensure the safety of her friends. I glanced across several websites to get to know the details and was incidentally relieved to find out it was not a bomb blast, which could really take away lots of lives instantly. Only after a while did I notice that the attack was even more dangerous and serious than a bomb blast. Live terrorists were shooting down innocent lives with machine guns in many crowded and landmark places of one of the most populous cities in the world. While this friend was chatting with me late in the night, she got a call and a moment or two later, returned to say her friend was also shot at the Taj Mahal Palace and went offline before I could offer a word of console.

I’ve always had this belief that the best of anyone comes out when in troubled times. I have fond memories how people unite in face of troubled times. Back in Sainik School while in the 9^th class, we used to be the junior-most in the house, inferior to the 10^th, 11^th & the 12^th guys. So facing the rigorous punishments on a day to day basis, what really happens is that it unites each one of the sufferers into one, one big nutshell. Mumbaikars found the same strength in the troubled times and they showed their courage and determination by going to their respective works from the very next day. By doing so, they had given out a clear message to the perpetuators of the attack that nothing can hinder the spirits of the people of Mumbai and the citizens of India.

Two years have gone and the lone captured terrorist Ajmal Kasab is still alive. Several leads have been found, but no real action has been taken against the real organizers of the crime. Heaven knows what, ‘Dossiers’ have been exchanged between the Indian & Pakistani governments and even the Media doesn’t have a count of it. The country has been spending crores of money to keep Ajmal Kasab alive, on his safety and security, but honestly, does that man deserve all these?

I can’t help myself not to criticize the judicial system of our nation. A person who killed 166 innocent people with machine guns; who as per the court waged war against the country, why in the hell is he alive still? I don’t know if many are aware of this, but SI Tukaram Omble sacrificed his own life while trying to arrest Kasab alive. This is an excerpt from Wikipedia.

Baudankar says that Assistant Sub Inspector Tukaram Omble was hit by the bullets as he was the first to charge towards Kasab and his associate armed with just a stick. "All those who were with Omble survived as he stood like a shield," adds Kadam. "When we saw that Omble was not letting go of the terrorist's gun, we knew we could not let his sacrifice go in vain. He held on and we completed his unfinished task," his colleague Sanjay Govilkar said.

It’s nothing like the news of a death sentence for Kasab makes any change in my life or gives me a high, but it’s that the life and sacrifice of brave men like SI Omble goes down the lane worthless in the present situation. The loop-holes in our Judiciary that keeps him alive even today are almost making fun of the sacrifices of those valiant officers. Lets hope the perpetuators of the attack gets caught, and soon the whole of terrorism gets wiped away from the face of our planet.

26/11 is now a part of history and bullet holes on the walls and the scars in the hearts of Mumbaikars shall remain forever. The least we can do is to be better citizens of this vibrant nation. For a nation which has had to face many unfortunate challenges like the terrorist attacks, cross-border insurgency and interior Naxalism, it’s a shame that our politicians are adding on to the woes by stupid scams and scandals, which becomes bigger & filthier every next time.

The Ashok Chakra is an Indian military decoration awarded for valor, courageous action or self-sacrifice away from the battlefield, during peace time. 15 Police men and 2 NSG commandos lost their lives encountering terrorists. Officers Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar, Ashok Kamte and Tukaram Ombale and 2 NSG commando’s Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan & Havildar Gajendar Singh were awarded Ashok Chakra for their sacrifices. We salute one and all of them.

Image Courtesy - Flickr

Lessons to learn!! From the 18th Century London to 21st Century Delhi.

I now recollect that day when I read news of India winning the bid to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games, at Delhi. I don’t quite remember when this was, but I do remember to have felt awed at the thought of India hosting a mega event much like the Olympics, if not as big. Fast forward days, months & years, being at the juncture we are in right now, the awe has for long given way to anger, frustration and pity-ness towards the organizers who are responsible for all the current mess. There have been enough of filthy living areas, shameful corruption and the shocking failures to newly constructed structures like the bridge adjoining to the stadium.

I don’t think there is anything at all, that I can add about the already messed up event, all I can is wish and hope for a decent event which brings about at least a smile on the faces of those Indian and foreign athletes at the end of the 11 day ‘supposed-to-be-mega-event’. What I intend to spread by this post is a warning to the mega cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata & Chennai (the list doesn’t end here, just naming a few), and this would be a right time to work on it, I guess!

I recently found a friend of mine sharing a link in Twitter which was about the Top 10 filthy cities in the world and shockingly Mumbai headed the list. Delhi’s filthiness doesn’t require an explanation and the dirty environment in Chennai near the railway station and under the bridges, a few to name, is something I have seen quite a dozen times. Kolkata, the 4^th Indian metropolis, I have heard ain’t much different too.

India has been a place of diseases, even when the name and the viruses or bacteria’s causing it keeps changing, the end result have always been the same, wide spread panic and uncontrollable deaths. There has been the Chikungunya, the Dengue fever, the Rat fever, and the more recent H1N1 influenza. London has a story to tell us, let’s check what it is.

London as we know it is one of the best cities in the world and UK has set high standards as a nation for others to follow. I am sure one of those things that attracts anyone about London, either in the pictures or videos or movies, is the mere beauty of the places and the cleanliness and hygiene in the environment. This is the London we know off now, the world knows of now. There was a stage when thousands and ten-thousands died every year in each British city as a result of epidemics like Small Pox, Cholera, Tuberculosis and even fevers like Typhoid. Several websites point out that around 80000 people were killed by TB alone in the 18th and 19th century and other diseases were as dangerous too. Poverty was the most basic problem and unhygienic conditions and polluted & sewaged water bodies like the mighty River Thames, all contributed to these age old tragedies. It was then that the Europeans learnt of the necessity of a clean environment and the dangers a shabby place can cause. Since then, there has been no looking back and it has contributed to what we see as one of the cleanliest & wanna-be places in this planet earth.

To read further about the 18th Century London – Click Here.

Most Indian states receive huge rainfall every year and the Indian cities like Mumbai & Delhi are no exceptions. This year Delhi received the highest rainfall in 35 years and there is no real stopping for the flood water. I am sure almost everyone knows the adverse effects the waste water causes like the un-controllable breeding of mosquitoes, which are responsible for almost all these deadly fevers. W aste water is just an example and the list of those pollutants and wastes shall go on forever if I start naming them.

The current condition in present India may not be as bad as the old UK, but it must be remembered that it won’t take long for a epidemic to spread across a nation and considering the billion plus population, there can never be a bigger tragedy. As Prevention is always better than Cure; a few cautious steps won’t do us any harm, and is in fact the need & necessity of the hour.

It would be the best step forward to take a couple of lessons out of the London experience, and make efforts to clean our city as we do in our homes. Constructing big buildings and express roads do improve the outlook of any city and nation, but it must be remembered and understood that the form stating India as a developed nation cannot be submitted when the “Hygiene & Clean Environment” box remains unticked.

Commonwealth Games is sure to have taught us a lesson, and i wish this is the right time to re-construct our nation, for the sake of the billion people who take pride even at the thought of being an Indian.

My Camera Speaks II : World Expo 2010 Unveiled

I am sure I messed up with the trust of my readers by faking an experience from a live football match, with out actually entering the stadium, but then this time is real and genuine and you wouldn’t want to miss this one.

The World Expo 2010 is a 6 month long carnival at Shanghai – China, one of the major economic centers of the world. Over 190 countries and 50 international companies have pavilions, which is also the largest World's Fair site ever at 5.28 square km. The exhibition which is to end in over a month’s time is expected to attracted around 70-100 million ( 7-10 crores ) visitors, the largest for a single event ever. An astounding 3 Lakhs visitors are told to be visiting the expo-site every single day.

These are some of the pictures from the Expo-site.

…At the entrance of the Shanghai World Expo Site…

…The Tricolor…

 

…The Long Queue, nearly 300,000 people pass through these queues every day…

…The pride of China, Chinese Pavilion ( two views )…

…This one’s a Chinese Cultural Pavilion ( my personal favorite from the site!)…

…The Expo Axis…

 

…Three outstanding buildings in Shanghai, as seen from Expo site, (left to right) the Oriental Pearl tower, the Jinmao Tower (11th tallest in world) & the Shanghai World Financial Center ( 3rd tallest in world)…

…Country Pavilions…

…Australia & Finland…

   

…Greece & Sweden…

…Iceland & Ukraine…

…Canada & United Kingdom…

…South Africa & Argentina…

…Inside the African Pavilion…

…The Lupu Bridge, adjacent to Expo site…

     

…The China Aviation Pavilion… 

These photos are entirely clicked by either me, or on me. Please do not copy any with out my consent.

Further photos from the trip & a detailed report about Expo & Indian Pavilion shall follow. Please subscribe to my blog, to receive alerts on my blog updates. (Check back at the right side – top, to subscribe)

Happy Engineer’s Day! A Tribute.

 

Happy Engineer’s day to you mate~!

I know you are quite confused as like, ‘there is a day for the engineers too?’

Yeah dude, there is one and it is today. The 15th of September is regarded as the Engineers Day in India, as a tribute to one of the first and finest engineers India has produced, Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. Today is his 150th b’day and let us, with all the pride, wish our fellow engineers a Happy Engineers day.

When i accidently came across this piece of knowledge, that of today being the Engineer’s Day, i knew nothing about him except his name, courtesy the Visvesvaraya Science & Technology Museum, Bangalore. Google and wikipedia helped me expand my knowledge of this great man and here are a few lines about him, a tribute.

Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was born on 15th of Sept 1860, 150 years prior to today, at Muddenahalli village in the present day Karnataka. He earned his B.A. from the Madras University in 1881 and later completed civil engineering from College of Science, Pune. Upon graduating he took up some tedious projects under PWD & Indian Irrigation Commission. Visvesvaraya achieved celebrity status when he designed a flood protection system to protect the city of Hyderabad from floods. He was also very much responsible for the Krishna Raja Sagar Dam across River Cauvery in Mysore & upon completion, it was the biggest reservoir in Asia.

Upon retirement as an engineer, he was made the Diwan of Mysore and he was made the Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire by the British, for his invaluable contributions to the public. Sir Visvesvaraya was conferred with the honorary membership of the international Institution of Civil Engineers ( London based ), a fellowship of the Indian Institute of Science ( Bangalore based ) and several other honorary doctorates. He also received Indian Republic's highest honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955. He passed away on the 14th of April, 1962 in Bangalore. A true marvel who had lived for over 100 years.

I remember this true legend on his 150th birth day and i wish everyone a Happy Engineer’s Day!

Engineers are the ones who create this nation, structurally. Respect & support them.

The Most Shocking Photo of the Decade or a Master Fake?!

This picture was one among those 19 that i received today as a forward and the subject read “Rarest of rare pictures”. I didn’t spend much time on it at the first go declaring it instantly a Fake! But then i came back to this photo and watched it closely. There were certain things about this picture that caught my eye and i searched about it for sometime wanting to prove it a fake out on all equations. Here i am presenting those things i found out.





First let me explain this picture thoroughly.
The picture is of a tourist posing for a photo on the top floor of one of those World Trade Center buildings that collapsed on 11th September 2001. If you look closely you will find in the right bottom that the date is in fact 09-11-01. Now if your eyes are to trust, this photo must be clicked seconds before that plane crashed onto the same World Trade Center building.


I will present the things i found out here. The ones supporting the genuinity and the ones that could oppose it. I used the theory of contradiction here and tried to prove this is a fake. So lets take this step by step!


Point One
So the 1st thing i did was to check if place in question is the top of World Trade Center or not. A No to this question will put an end to this whole debate. For that i searched “top of world trade center” in Google Images. I was shocked to see that the railings in the image resembled the railings at the top of the World Trade Center or for now lets call it the “Watch Deck” of the WTC. Here I am including 2 photos to prove it looks alike the railings of the World Trade Center.
 

  Now you will accept railings seen in the photo of our question is indeed similar to that of the real World Trade Center that collapsed on 11th Sept 2001. You will also notice that all the pictures are apparently at the same height. This just furthur strengthens the case because you can have the same railings for other buildings as well but you don’t have buildings as tall as this everywhere.
So now its evident that the picture is that of the top of the World Trade Center beyond all doubts.


Point Two
At the right bottom of the picture you can quite clearly see the date which says 09-11-01. I am not an expert on these Photoshop’s but i have heard its not possible or its tough to re-create or edit the date shown in a picture. As i said i don’t know how to use this Photoshop and this thing is something i have heard.


Point Three
Now let us postmortem the aircraft that seems to be approaching the building. I  will say that’s exactly the aircraft that crashed onto the building. Wondering how?


As you all know that the World Trade Center or the WTC consists of two towers. The North Tower and the South Tower. The North tower was hit 1st at 8.46 AM and the South Tower at 9.03 AM. So if you are to believe this picture, you will have to assume that he was standing atop the North Tower, because once the North Tower was hit, this man posing for a picture atop the South Tower is even out of question. Now you know that the North Tower was hit at 8.46 AM, but you have no details about the aircraft. So i searched Wikipedia for those and found out that it was a Boeing 767 aircraft flown by American Airlines. Now you might want to see how a Boeing 767 flown by American Airlines looks like.


Now go back to the picture in question and you will see that the livery or the outer look of the aircraft matches, so does the model of the aircraft. Boeing 767 is a twin engine flight and so is the flight in the picture that we are talking about.


Now its evident the flight in the question is same as in the real incident.


Point Four
If you notice the way sunrise is falling over him, its coming from one of the sides and not from directly over his head. The way and the depth of the shadow falling over his face shows that its either quite early in the morning or a its quite later in the evening. The crash on the 1st building happened at 8.46 AM and the shadows falling over supports it.


These are the four points i found out supporting the genuinity of the picture. Now lets see what goes against this picture!!


Point One
I searched for the average temperatures of New York during the mid Septembers every year. I found out from Wikipedia that it ranges around 60-75 degrees Fahrenheit  or around 16-24 degrees Celsius. Considering it was quite a sunny day, i would like to assume that it would have been around 23 degrees. So what doubts me is what makes him wear a jacket with fur on such a warm day. If what i see is right, it has a hood with fur and he wears another black banyan inside which surely wouldn't have been my choice on such a warm day.


Point Two
Now as you see the aircraft is quite near to him and the building. Don’t tell me he didn’t know that there was an aircraft behind his butt. If he didn’t see it because he is not facing the aircraft he is sure to hear it with two aircraft engines roaring just meters away from him. And I am pretty sure there was another guy with him, the guy who must have taken this picture. At least he should have seen it. Or else you will have to assume the worst case that the guy who took was blind and both these guys were completely deaf to miss such a flight! Or incase they saw this flight, they wouldn’t have been there posing for a photo, they would be thinking how to save themselves. Or being optimists their thoughts could have been that of some random pilots showing off their piloting skills in front of the Epic Twin Towers and they could have been taking this rare photo to show and boast of to their friends. Or else they could have been sure of their fate and this crazy guy would have wanted his picture to live forever provided the memory card survived.


As you see numerous theorems could be proved and disproved and points noted. What if i wasted my 2-3 hours on yet another fake image? If it’s a fake, it’s a well created fake image by an expert with some senses.  Or what if this really is a genuine image?? How did it survive when the big towers fall apart and thousands lost their lives?? We will just have to assume that out of fear the camera fall out of their hands and the memory card was found undamaged among the debris. We will have to believe that it survived to tell a tale. The tale of a tragedy!


Do you have the answers for all these?? Feel free to throw in your comments and thoughts!!

The Importance of Understanding History.

The word “History” brings to me thoughts fresh from those Harappa & Mohen-je-Daro related history classes, and i am pretty sure you must have cursed your history teachers then. But that’s not all what history is about. You have a history! Your friend and your friendship with him has a history. Your family has a history so does your society and even your collage/office. Your mobile phone, your i-pod, your computer, your pen, the paper you write on, the bulb that lightens your room, the chair you sit on, so on and so forth everything has a history quite unique to itself.

History is anything that could have happened in the past and here past means even the second that has just ticked by. The dot/full stop that had just passed by your eyes a moment ago is also history. So what’s the importance of this history? The importance of understanding ones own countries or societies history is important to better understand the cultural rites and rituals, the social sentiments and even the character of the people. Understanding your past reveals the mistakes and the good deeds you have done in the pasts and that’s a learning curve for your future. The importance of history of a gadget or a mechanism leads to better understand the situation or environment that lead to its creation and you can work on those to make it a better product. Studying the history of an organization reveals how things are done there and how it has reached its current position.   

As my field of interest and expertise i try to watch many of those aircraft crash investigations to understand what minor negligence's could have led to many a catastrophic accidents. Life is always an evolution and you might want to collect all about yesterday to your subconscious mind that you atleast don’t end up repeating a mistake once committed.