Been AWOL from the blog!

I recently came across this word "awol" that interested me, because I'd have never guessed that this was a grammatically correct word. Yes, this is a proper English word which actually means 'Absent WithOut Leave'.

Through a quick research ably assisted by our very own Dr. Google, here is what I found out: This American word traces its origin back to the 1860s, during the times of the Civil War. The phrase 'absent without leave' was used to designate those who were gone for a relatively short time, as opposed to permanent deserters. In the Army of the Confederacy, such a soldier was punished by being draped with a sign bearing the initials "A.W.O.L." to signify his crime, that is, being absent without leave! Humorously contrived attributions of the letters in the subsequent World Wars included "A Wolf On the Loose" and "After Women Or Liquor"! (source: http://www.answers.com/).

Quite interesting, considering that a phrase was turned into an acronym, which eventually became an english word on its own. English, for sure is a funny & tolerant language!

Wii and me

Nintendo's Wii (pronounced like the English word 'we') gaming console is an absolutely revolutionary concept. Barely 2 years after its launch, it has already outdone its competitors Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation (PS) who were ruling the roost until then. Nintendo has a long history in the gaming space (who can forget Super Mario Bros.!), and it has rightly reclaimed its long lost position.

While Xbox and PS stand out with their high-defintion graphics as the USP, Wii scores with its wireless motion sensor that gives a surrealistic first-person playing experience. The design of the Wii wireless remote allows users to control the game using physical gestures as well as traditional button presses. A tennis serve using the Wii remote launches the tennis ball off in the right direction at the correct angle; or a forward jab of the arm delivers a punch in the face of the opponent in the Boxing game. The only trade-off here is the above-average quality of video & graphics. But one can rest assured that the fun of a first-person gaming experience more than makes up for this shortcoming.

I picked up this console during my trip to the US last year. My clear favorite is "Wii-Play Tennis"; I also liked the BWii - 'Battalion Wars 2', an action-RTS (Real Time Strategy) hybrid, which offers some amazing game play. I am yet to try out the newly released 'Wii-Fit' add-on, which is the latest rage in the Wii arena - a good balance of yoga, fitness and gaming fun. I would strongly recommend this gaming console for people of all age groups, with just a little interest in gaming; this also brings about a perfect family gaming experience in the multiplayer mode.

Though Wii is yet to be launched in India, I've come across stores that sell imported pieces, predominatly from the UAE (though at a hefty premium - Rs.20,000+ in India vs $250 in the US, for just the console). A word of caution - there is a region-compatibility issue between the console and the game CDs, i.e. if you buy a Wii Console made for the US market, it would only support the game CDs made for the same geography, so CDs made for UAE/Europe wouldn't be compatabile.

Book - 'The 3 Mistakes of my Life'

I recently bought Chetan Bhagat's third book 'The 3 Mistakes of my life'. The author is already a sensation in the Indian readers circle with both his earlier books being well received; they are also in the process of being adapted into Bollywood movies. The book's blurb claims that he has become the 'biggest-selling English-language novelist in India's history'!

Chetan Bhagat is no literary genius. However, he has a very interesting and humorous writing style that instantly strikes a chord with the Indian masses. The plots revolve around general topics that evince interest in the urban readers - college life, call centres, cricket and the like. Rupa & Co, the publisher has tactically priced all the 3 books at Rs.95 making them easily affordable for the middle class target audience.

And now here’s my take on the books. I would rank them in the same order as their publishing:

• The first book 'Five Point Someone' was just magical and mindblowing - recreating the typical college backbencher's story in a very humorous way.
  
• The second book 'One night at the call centre' did retain some of the freshness and creative writing style of the author, though it had an unrealistic plot towards the end – what with the ‘divine’ intervention and movie-plot like settling-the-score with the corporate bosses.
  
• This final book 'The 3 mistakes of my life' has a more serious story and touches upon some of the core issues in today's society, wherein the author presents a contemporary view of cricket, business and politics. However, the book largely misses the trademark humorous writing which we’ve come to expect from the author. This is tantamount to casting Jim Carrey in a serious plot with a tragic ending!

Missing the characteristic punch, the book was largely a lackadaisical read. The book also has a very filmi plot, probably a side-effect of the author getting into mainstream Bollywood screenplay writing! Here’s hoping that Chetan Bhagat’s future books revolve around his characteristic style of writing and recreate the freshness and magic seen in his first book.

Dawn of a new Sport!

Amongst all achievements of George W Bush during his tenure as the US President, the most ‘impactful’ & unforgettable one would definitely be his contribution towards conception of a brand new sport– yes, the fine art of ‘shoe-throwing’!! I’d say the credit entirely goes to Bush as opposed to Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi Journalist who can be conferred the distinction of being the first-ever participant!

It is hardly 2 months since its inception on 15 Dec 2008, and we’ve already had 2 more high profile games; the targets – Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and the Israeli Ambassador Benny Dagan (in Sweden). Unlike other high-profile sports that have a gestation period before they reach the shores of India, this one has already arrived here; and the target - Kerala’s CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan (in Kerala)!

In an uncanny similarity, all the participant’s missiles have missed their respective targets. Apparently here are some ‘ground’ rules for this sport – a) participant must use something worn on the feet as a missile, (even a chappal would qualify), b) mouth a slogan for posterity, something that would ring-on even after the arrests are made. One must wait to see how this sport would evolve with time and how popular it would get. But the prospects sure look promising!

Slumdog Country ???

With the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire' sweeping the Golden Globe awards and picking up 10 Oscar nominations, I walked in to watch this movie with high levels of curiosity (& some amount of pride) . But how disgusting an experience it turned out to be! In summary: Here's a British studio dishing out a movie for the global audience on the sorry state of affairs in a country that has nothing but poverty, filth, violence and lawlessness - what better choice than India??

Unlike popular assumption, this is not a rags-to-riches story. And it is definitely not the struggle of a great dream born in the slums. The story is of a boy perpetually in search of his girl and how his destiny ultimately 'takes' him to her. Everything else just forms part of the backdrop - slums & the accompaniment, and the millionaire TV show. It is quite obvious that global stereotyped image of India being a country of beggars and snake-charmers has been conveniently used and extended.

The director goes the whole hog to paint a grim picture of the country and in the process nothing is left out - impoverished state of the slums, riots and man-slaughter, horrendous exploitation of children, prostitution, systematic duping of foreign tourists, youth as gangsters and excesses by policemen. One cannot deny the existence of these vices, but this is just one of the faces of the society. The movie conveniently ignores or fails to focus on the other progressive areas. Perhaps, it was seen as hazardous to the storyline, background and global perception?

In this backdrop, all the recognition & awards world-over would only serve to worsen this. It would not just popularize the movie, but also strongly reinforce this negative stereotype. Its time we realized the damage being done?

Alexander-The Movie: Review

I’ve wanted to make this post for about 6 months now; anyway better now than never! Immediately after I had completed the Alexander tri-series tome by Valerio Massimo Manfredi, I was all charged up to watch the theatrical version of the story to see the whole lot of characters come alive – Alexander, Philip, Parmenio, Hephastion and Bucephalas.

I promptly picked up the DVD of Alexander (2004) and drummed up all expectations of an out-of-the-world experience. Perhaps, this was one of the reasons for the whole thing turning out to be damp squib. Overall, the movie was largely forgettable having done total injustice to inarguably one of the world’s best military generals. Here go my review (read complaints):

The Cast:
While Colin Farrell had done justice to his role as Alexander, Brad Pitt would have just been brilliant. Considering his exploits on-screen in the movie ‘Troy’, he could have fitted in the role to the ‘T’. Brad Pitt has played the legendary Achilles, who also turns out to be Alexander’s real-life hero which is an added plus. Angelina Jolie as ‘Queen Olympia’ and Anthony Hopkins as ‘Old Ptolmey’ are other classic cases of wasted talent!

Lopsided focus:
It is just unpardonable that the movie tends to zip past Alexander’s achievements and tends to brood too much on his not-so-illustrious periods. The movie creates a strong thread of negativity: right from the blatant reference to homosexuality, to execution of Philotas & Parmenion, to showcasing his temperamental nature at the Hydaspes the focus throughout the movie is on Alexander’s misgivings. This kind of an approach is understandable if the movie had been titled say, ‘The fallacies of Alexander’ or ‘Alexander: The human side’. I’m sure such an approach wouldn’t have managed to create even a peripheral interest in the subject. But then, why mislead the viewers and set wrong expectations? People expect glorification of a legend and projection of the super-human traits of a leader who was considered a Demi-God by even his contemporaries.

Missing Battles & Events:
There are several historic events/battles in Alexander’s history that aren’t recreated or at best just made a passing reference to. This includes Alexander’s tutelage under Aristotle at Pella, Battle of Chaeronea, Undoing of the Gordian Knot, Battle of Granicus & Siege of Tyre. These omissions apart, the movie doesn’t bring out Alexander’s out-of-the-box-thinking, the ingenious use of Phalanx as a fighting unit, unconventional military tactics and his strategies to unify the conquered lands. The only saving grace of the movie is the vivid portrayal of the crucial Battle of Gaugamela.

Here’s hoping that some movie studio would come forward to truly recreate the magic and aura surrounding Alexander’s life, yet again!

M-commerce: Are we ready?

'Move over e-commerce, the time of m-commerce has come..', or so claim the technology gurus. The past month I've been receiving a series of promo messages on my mobile. Some of them go like this:

"Download BookMyShow's mobile application. Use the following pin and get Rs. 100 off on your movie tickets."
"Kotak Mtrade Contest: Enable MTrade application and login atleast 5 times & win exciting prizes."
"Book your air tickets between 15 to 20 March through our mobile application and get a flat discount on all tickets booked in this period."

There is a great deal of push from companies cutting across services to get the customers accustomed to m-commerce. This seems to make business sense given the fact that all these companies stand to gain from a medium that is much more closer to the customer and literally at his/her fingertips. After all, the mobile gaming and mobile application markets are touted as the next big thing in India. So, GPRS services and mobile-commerce are the logical next steps.

However, in a stage where even Internet commerce is not fool-proof and hasn't got the complete buy-in from the Indian customer, will m-commerce cut ice with the targetted segment? When one looks at the percentage of GPRS-compatible mobile phones sold in the market and the maturity of GPRS services, it becomes obvious that this clearly is a market with a long gestation period. In my opinion, m-commerce needs more customer-education and assurance at this stage, for the small base segment thats existent today, before one can jump onto the promos bandwagon.