God's Debris : from the mind that made Dilbert

Few are the times when something that you have thought of gets reflected in someone else's creation. The coincidence of views bring a unique kind of happiness. I had written a blog on Reincarnation and science (click here), where I tried to understand what reincarnation is from a scientific logical thinking, well the book that I read today was absolutely entirely viewing everything in a similar light.

God's Debris comes from the man who I think has given one of the best management books of our times - The Dilbert Principle. His style of writing is as simple as the way he has written the Dilbert . This book too like Dilbert tries to cover everything in its entirety. The book gives a solid philosophical point of view, that might interest the reader as he keeps on moving from one page to other. The book has been written in the form of dialogues, which reminds me of nothing else but Plato and Aristotle.

Scott Adams comes up with a philosophical piece that in its content, as is noticed by critics, has been strongly influenced by the Hindu scirputres, vedantas and the concepts of Karma, Avtaar etc. are seen throughout the book. Making a philosophical note, based on culturally different scriptures, and making it concise and understandable for everyone is no small feat. The book precisely achieves that and more.

Philosophical Questions that the book discusses

In a very simple manner, Adams has depicted a dialogue between an Old man and a young to list down and talk of those hunderds of things that we keep thinking of. who are we? who is god? does god exist or is it just a concept? what controls our mind? what is soul? who governs our actions? Do we have a free will? Are we more important then rocks, rivers, plants as living beings? how should one's life be? what is awareness? The list of questions that he has asked and that he has answered in his own way is definitely interesting.

The concept behind the book was something that impressed me the most.

What Adams say in one of the most important chapters of the book is, what / who is God?

• God is the at a very tiny level the dust that makes all of us, the very fundamental elemenatary piece of being and
• God is also the probablity that governs the world

At the very first glance considering god as nothing but dust and probability sounds absolutely absurd but a detailed dialogue on it makes us think in a line that we might not have thought before. Its the very improbable situation of getting hit by a lightening for example that keeps our life running. It is the high probability of living. There are odds and the way we need to live the life is to support the odds that goes for common good.

Concept of God's Debris

For an Omnipresent, Omnipotent God, who knows the future and the past, who knows his decisions and the aftermath of his actions, who knows everything that is there to know, who can do anything that he wishes to, who can create, who can change, there are no major challenges.

The only curiousity / challenge that he could have is to know what would his creation be if he is not there. It is this self destruction that god has imposed on himself creating the universe with his fragment (an idea of big bang). In that sense we are all God's Debris. And it is this debris that is coming together to form him again and hence the motto of our life should be to live a life that aids the creation of GOD.

Concept of Awareness

At the end of the book, Adams tries to put forward a concept of Awareness that could help us deal with the philosophical and worldly issues in a better manner.

The basic idea for the book is that the mind creates delusion, delusion to tackle the things unknown. Delusion to explain the unexplained. We consider most of the information that comes to us as true as it comes from sources which we believe are factually correct. we never question our assumptions. These assumptions that our minds construe creates delusion. Our minds hence is nothing but a delusion generator. Delusions help in simplifying things and understand the practicality, hence they are important and useful. Only important thing about awareness is hence to know the delusions for the way they are.

He hence divides people into 5 levels of awareness : From the very basic level of just being aware about our existence to the Avtaar level where we figure out our delusion generating machine correctly. And it is the Avtaar level where the main purpose of being is to serve. One can be equally useful being in each level and there is no inherent superiority of a layer on the other. Lower level brings happiness and higher level brings disenchantment.

Based on these above concepts the book discusses various social issues and understanding of these issues. Some of the things discussed with the above concepts and coming to logically understand the concepts are Free will and the concept of its existence, Science as we know it, the concept of soul, mind and ideas that we have, Reincarnation UFOs and GOD -all are but a concept, God's motivation, God's debris and its physics, Skeptics disease - irrational thinking, Understanding the concepts of light, concept of ESP, will power, Understanding actions required in living life the way it has to be lived and so on.

Criticism

A book that tries to cover everything definitely would have flaws that are evident. There were a few things that I noticed and thought could have been written better in the book :

• The later part of the book, especially the last 3-4 chapters seems to be unconnected to the things that Adams discsses in the earlier chapter. The social usefulness of awareness is defined and discsussed well, but its connection to God's Debris is not entirely explained.
• At few times the sentences explaining the concepts become too long and complex to understand.
• Lastly, It would have been great if Adams would have kept a dialogue on how can we with our understanding of probability and God's existence make a difference. The concept of fear, knowledge, rationalism, Goodness all could have been discussed in a little more detail.

Overall, the book comes out to be simply fantastic and it according to me is must read for any one who wants to delve a little in developing his own philosophy. The book will question you, move you make you think and wonder, make you rejoice in appreciating something you knew. It makes a great read which does not drag and keeps the point up in less than 150 pages. A definte 3.5* for the book from my side.

Free E-Book: To download the free E-book of "God's debris" please click here. I am not sure which site it is and whether or not it is a legally free copy but it does have a PDF for the book.

The Agony and The Ecstasy : A Book Review and an Essay on Michelangelo

Let me first accept, that this might turn out to be a long post. I have almost lived Michelangelo's life in the last couple of months as I read this book. Would not like to edit any thought that is coming to me about this book.

Beauteous art, borught with us from heaven,
will conquer nature; so divine a power
Belongs to him who strives with every nerve.

If I was made for art, from childhood given
A Prey for burning beauty to devour,
I blame the mistress I was born to serve.
-Mihcelangelo Buonarroti

He strived with every nerve, he served with every nerve and he rejoiced his creation in ecstasy through the years of agony he suffered with his every nerve. The story of Michelangelo is as interesting a read as his life must have been. Michelangelo said "Life is but to suffer, to work", a self induced agony of living a life that he knew was bringing the best moments the arts he traded in ever saw. The book takes you through the life of the great master of art and makes you live the moments which made him create the works he did. The book achieves a rare feat of exploring an artist's mind, without writing any critical essay on the work of art he creates. The book, though written in 1961 makes you feel that the book is a live account of Michelangelo's life, the way he lived it, 500 years back. This makes "The Agony and The Ecstasy" a phenomenal book.

Author : Irving Stone

A small research on the author of the book, Irving Stone, would make you realize the reason behind the success of creating such an Epic from a life which was illustrious in all sense. Irving Stone had a real love for art which shows both in the list of the books he has written and also in the book when he describes the creation of Michelangelo at every point.

"The Agony and The Ecstasy" is his second celebrated book after "The Lust for Life" (which was a biographical novella on Vincent Van Gogh). A note worthy appreciation that you feel after the reading the book has to be the fact that 95% of the long bibilography for this book is written in Italian and not English. Irving Stone followed the path of Michelangelo to create this masterpiece. This American writer, stayed in Italy for years , translated innumerable Italian documents (especially the 495 letters written by michelangelo), worked as an apprentice to a Sculptor Charles de Tolany to understand what goes through the mind of marble carver when he is making his sculpture, all this to write a masterpiece on life of a great master. Irving stone has also been awarded with many honorary awards for this by the Italian government.

A little criticism (which I am not sure if I am qualified enough to write)

The book moves through each phase each year of life of Michelangelo detailing the various events that were happening around in Rome and Florence as Michelangelo was spending the years creating his great work. The book details beautifully the first 60 years of Michelangelo's life, slowly unfolding the events of life, along with his sculptures, panting and poetry with a rare panache. It is the last 20 years that I am a little disappointed for. The last 20 years that made him dwell in to a trade which was not his through his life - Architechture, and which also details probably the most intense and greatest of his love - Vittoria Colona. Both the style of writing and detailing on his work on marble and painting, as well as his early love stories with Contessina Medici and Clarissa, seems to be a more interesting read.

Life of Michelangelo - as you live through the book

Stone has divided Michelangelo's life into Eleven chapters to make readers live each stage of his life come through in most intersting manner. Following is a small summary of what each phase is for for the Master's life.

Book 1 : The Studio : This part of the biography, is about the early years of Michelangelo Buonarotti. It describes how Michelangelo lived with his family, his father Lodovico who did not like art as profession, his step mother Lucrezia who has treated him like her own son, his grandmother who supported Michelangelo in all his confusions. This book is about Michelangelos first brush with art of painting at the Ghirlandaio's Studio. His fascination and experiments with painting. Michelangelo's childhood beautifully flows with introduction of some of the very best of renaissance artists. At Ghirlandaio's , he met Grannici with whom he was to share a life long friendship. The book also depicts his relationship with his brother Buonarroto with the stone cutters Topolino, who were like a second family to him throughout his life. Most importantly the book details development of Michelangelo's passion for art and his hard work.

Book 2 : The Sculpture Garden : The sculpture garden of the first family of Florence, Medici, was the place where Michelangelo was to put the foundation of his career. Here he meets his enemy Torrigiani as a fellow sculptor for the first time, he meets the first love of his lfe, the one who would influence his feelings of heart till his death - Contessina, daughter of the great Lorenzo Medici, Il Magnifico who exposed michelangelo to the world, so that he can be a learned man. The Book introduces Michelangelo to Lorenzo whose philosophies Michelangelo inherited for his life and Bertoldo from whom he learned sculpture.

Book 3 : The Palace : With Lorenzo insisting Michelangelo's company, he shifts to live with the Medici's in the Palace with a closer learning of the art from Bertoldo. The Plato four formed by the four of the greatest thinker of his time, stimulates his mind, makes him think about philosophy, spiritualism and religion and the purpose of each. They teach his the art of Poetry, which he had kept with him till the very end of his life. He with his christian beliefs had a mind that visualized the beauty of the world inthe most Pagan Greek point of view. If people thinks in the language they speak, Michelangelo started thinking in the language of art from the palace.

Book 4 : The Flight : This book marks the rise of rebellious Savanarola, death of Lorenzo, and growing need of michelangelo to understand the anatomy of human body to sculpt it and to paint it. Michelangelo approaches Prior Bichhelini for help him through his spiritual dilemmas. He dissects later the dead bodies, in the dark of night, without telling that to the world to understand how the human body is inside the skin. It is a treacherous path through blood and muscles that made him the master of understanding the anatomy of human body. He had to flee to Bologna, where in the political background of conspiracies of Piero, he meets mistress of Aldovrandi, Clarissa, the second love of his life. A love that consumed him as much as sculpture in a passionate embrace of expressions.

Book 5 : The City : This book takes Michelangelo to Rome, which becomes home for his second part of life. Rome marred with plague and a corrupt papacy, brings michelangelo closer to the pope as well as his art. This phase of his life makes him work the most as his fames spreads across Europe. He travels places sculpts bachhus and st proculus and other impotant works of his during this period. He meets clarissa again only to make her realize that Sculpture is what he loves the most and nothing else could fit in his life well. But this time marks one of the most beautiful of the sculptures he created - The Pieta. His Pieta was like one that never had been created. It becomes the only sculpture on which he carves his grieved by the confusion of its creator.

Book 6 : The Giant : Book 6 takes us through the part of creation of The Giant - David, the most remarkable and famous of Michelangelo's work. It is this time when he interacts with the best of the renaisance artist with pride, with envy, with emapthy and with respect at different times. His interactions with Leonardo da vinci, Raphael and others who happened to be his contemporaries are interestingly portrayed. The Giant brought about the good things that Florence had seen, marking the silencing of the political turmoil. People used to quote David's installation as a milestone in time, quoting contracts and writings with dates like "4 months after the giant" . His interactions with his friends, Jacopo Galli, Sangallo and others are interesting too. His interactions with Doni for the painting of the holy family made him worldly wise.

Book 7: The Pope : The encounters that Michelangelo had with Pope Julius II are one of the best documented and intersting portion of his life (so intersting that a movie was made out of this chapter of the book starring Charlton Heston). Michelangelo argues, gives up, fights, confronts the pope as he goes on creating the best of his work in times of pope Julius II. The most important of his work in this time was the paintings on Sistine chapel, which he first though was "Not his trade". His work for tomb of Pope Julius II and its commission is also one of the event that Michelangelo had to suffer from for next 30 years of his life.

Book 8 : The Medici : The Medici's again took prominence as a family as the pope after Julius, Leo was a Medici that Michelangelo had known for years. Under his papacy and the rule of cardinals from the Medici family he was to start work on Medici chapel. This marked his tribute to Il Magnifico. His interaction with the signoria (governing committee) of florence too happened in the meanwhile. But the most important part of his life in this phase was the years he spent at Carrara to excavate and chose the best marbles for his work.

Book 9 : The War : His unfinished works on Moses and the 4 captives, his work on the other commissions that he had recieved, Medici Chapel all went into a back burner as Florence faced a war in which Michelangelo comes out to play one of the most important roles in developing the defence. He created the defense around the fortified Florence and was appreciated for the work on it, but a few traitors made Florence lose the war and Michelangelo had to flee for safety.

Book 10 : Love : The later part of Michelangelo's life made him introduce himself to two of the people who loved him the most and admired him equally. Tomasso his apprentice and Vittoria Colona, who herself was a very celebrated and revered writer. The platonic relationship that Michelangelo shared with Vittoria was one of the most important part of his life. He was feeling the energy being poured into to himself as he lived this loved 60s and 70s of his life creating some of the architectural wonders, which too was not his trade.

Book 11 : The Dome : The last phase of michelangelo's 80s went creating architecture that still brings glory and pride across Rome. He had been appointed as the chief architect of St. Peter's Bassilica which he had envisioned along with Sangallo while facing Bramante in times of Pope Julius II. He wanted to create a place which would survive the flow of time and will be a marvel in itself. The Dome of St. Peter's basillica a 335 ft. giant structure talks of the great visionary and his architectural flari. As he dies in the arms of Tomasa, the reader wishes only that he could have lived a little more and could have created the Magic of his art for a few more years.

The Review of the book, which i would like to end here, is of one of the very best books I have ever read. If I were to rate it, nothing less than 4.5* is what I think this book deserves. But with Review does not end my post, If we talk about the book without the works of the master himself, it will mean little. So here is a small snapshot of what Michelangelo built in his life time.

Michelangelo : The Mater Artist

The entire life of Michelangelo was marked with passion for his work and with ups and downs of an artist's world who was concerned only with his trade and nothing else. He had excelled as a Sculptor, as a painter, as a poet and as an architect in his life. Here is a small view of his works as he did in the 90 years of his life. The sheer magnitude of this collections make you think, how did he achieve it in just 90 years !!

Michelangelo the Sculptor

Battle of Centaurs (1492) was one of his first try while working on Marble.

Tondo Taddei, crucifix and Madonna on the stairs were of his early creations :

The Pieta is one of his best work in Marble. The idea of keeping the face of virgin mary young, as she was pure and the purity cannot be withered by age, was what moved me the most while reading the book. Pieta is defintiely a master piece.

Bachhus, St. Proculus, St. Protionious were the next masterpieces that he created at Bologna and Rome.

Then came the Giant David which did not just defeat Goliath but it also stood at 18ft, as a mark of identity for both Florence and Michel angelo.

Michelangelo had spent most of his life, which you can count in decades, carving sculpture for tombs. Both the tomb of Pope Julius II and the tomb of Lorenzo Medici shows the best scupture talent that the world has ever seen.

Tomb of Pope Julius II

Tomb of Lorenzo Medici

Following is a snapshot of other great works in Marble from the best of the Sculptor the world has ever seen :

Michelangelo - The painter

As a painter the two of the most beautiful paintings that Michelangelo ever created can be found at the same place, in the sistine chapel. The ceiling of sistine chaple with the frescos of genesis and the walls with last judgement day are absolute master pieces.

The details of each of the painting on sistine chapel is very difficult to discuss over here, but every single inch of this ceiling claims to be part of a painting that has inspired generations. The most remarkable being the image of god giving life to Adam. The whole cieling is full of such masterstrokes.

The Last Judgement too is an enormous painting spread across the 40ft wall of the sistine chapel. The hundreds of figures, the way they were created, awaits the decision for going to hell or heaven.



Following is a look at other important paintings of Michelangelo.

Michelangelo - The Architect

Here you can see the grandeur and details that visionary conceived in making structures that has truly transcended the centuries.

Michelangelo - The Poet

Looking at around 300 poetries that Michelangelo wrote and produced in his 90 years would be near impossible task and I would close this tribute of mine to Michelangelo with his own words.

How can that be, lady, whilch all men learn

by long experience? Shapes that seem alive,

wrought in hard mountain marble, will survive,

their maker, whom the years to dust

His work has truly survived all test the time had to put on to it.

Shaurya : Movie Review

The Review will soon be up on http://www.planetbollywood.com/ .
"Shaurya - Courage to make right... Right" , a movie from the director of "kuch meetha ho jaye", definitely did not raise any expectation from my side when I first saw the promo. And hence It defintely outlives the expectations I carried in the movie hall. Movie is about " Shaurya", about valor and its interpretation.

The issue
What is right? Who decides it? How can we classify people? Who draws the line that says you are different than what I am? What should happen to people who stand by and support things that they consider right? Everyone has a view point but how right is someone's right that makes some one else bleed hatred? The story had a premise that takes you through these and many such issues in backdrop of Army affairs. It talks about power and the corruption of character it brings along, It talks of friendship and the space to have opposite views within it, It talks of duties and courage to do what is right.

Joydeep Sarkar, Samar Khan and Aparna Malhotra comes up with a story that has a lot to say. But the problem is Movies are a visual medium, you can't easily decode what a person is thinking by looking at his face, you cannot be very obvious in posing the questions that you want to pose through your story. And that is where the writers get the film wrong. Story needs to be backed by an equally strong screenplay, which in my thought was not the strength of this movie. Unfolding of events for the movie are little too slow, little too straight, a little too obviously done.

The Story

Coming to the Story, it is about Captain Javed Khan's (Deepak Dobriyal) Court Martial Trial for killing a fellow senior of Rajputana Rifles.

The Trial is fought by two best friends, who have two different views in the way they take life. Major Siddhant Choudhary (Rahul Bose) the defense lawyer is very happy-go-lucky person with least interest in fighting the case and Major Akaash Kapoor (Javed Jaafri), a serious army lawyer and the best friend of Siddhant. The trial takes them to the tense and disturbed valleys of LOC and to Srinagar. The story revolves around Siddhant who matures as a person as during the trial he converts himself in to a person who is trying to uncover the truth behind the entire episode.

Brigadier Rudra Pratap Singh (Kay Kay Menon) plays nemesis to Siddhant. Pratap is an fearless, arrogant, confident, intimidating army officer, who knows what he is doing and has a judgemental view on the communal issues. He is a Goliath to be fought and our David, Sidhhant takes the challenge.

Every confrontation that he has with Pratap, brings humiliation which makes him tough. He fights with himself and his nemesis to unearth the truth, in which he is helped by Kavya (Minisha lamba), a journalist whom he starts falling for, and Kavya's assistant Subhendu. Getting Javed to speak for himself, knowing how he has been for all the past years from his mother (Seema Biswas), knowing how the person he killed was from his wife(Amrita Rao) are all done in a cliched not so inspiring fashion. The movie ends with an emotional outburst from Pratap that gets him caught.

Performances

First things first, I think the true superlative performance for the movie comes from Kay Kay Menon. He lifts the movie and his character to a different level. His is the best etched character and he plays it with with a great finesse. Even in a rather unbelievable climax, he pulls of the scene with his sheer brilliance. It is one of the finest piece that we have got from the actor.

Rahul Bose is good and the role fits him well. You can see that with every passing movie, he is a more mature actor. Javed Jaffri does his role fine which did not have many shades to it. Minisha Lamba, Seema Biswas, Amrita Rao, the ladies who look like unnecessary details of the movie performs their part honestly and if they had not acted their parts well, it would have become sore to our eyes. Deepak Dobriyal, with little dialogues and a small but important role shines.

The music (by Adnan Sami) of the movie is just about OK. "Koi Arzoo..." is the only hummable song of the lot. The point of view of writers I guess is very well recited Javed Akhtar's poem by Shahrukh Khan in the Album. It reminds me of another classic from Javed Saab "Mere dushman, Mere Bhai Mere Humsaye...". Javed saab too sounds repetitive in other songs.

Cinematography by Carlos Catalan is one of the best part of the movie. He shows the fear of the valley and beauty of it both with great flair. Dialogues are beautiful in parts, especially the ones given to Kay Kay which he acts equally beautifully.

And now coming to the culprits for the movie, the first one that I can think of is Editing by Sanjeeb Datta. The movie could have easily been trimmed by half an hour. It gets so slow at times that you just want to get a nap in between. And then lastly and most importantly, all goods and bads of a film goes to its director. Ofcourse, Samar Khan has made a film which is a lot better than his previous one, but he still makes the disastrous mistakes of the movie not being as good as such a topic could have made it. Firstly, The story could have been unfolded with more twists and turns. Secondly, he spends a lot of time, developing each character which is fine in a way and then rushes into an unbelievable climax. A character that is so intelligent and shrewd just lets himself in in the emotional surge. If not Kay Kay Menon, there would have been more bricks Samar Khan's way.

Overall, the movie has a message that should be heard and a director who needs to improve.

2.5* is all it gets for falling in to mediocrity of details.

Rosogullas Never Tasted Sweeter : Brand Equity Quiz 2008 (Pune Region)

Well it was the big Brand Equity Quiz again. Last year Abha and I had gone to attend the BEQ regional finals for Pune region and boy!! what charm did the winning team have. I think they were the best team we had seen on stage and they immediately became our favourites. The team was from Savoir Faire, Goa. Abha has been a fan of the team for the last whole year. But 2nd April was all the more interesting with this years Pune edition of Brand equity quiz.

I had been preparing with Abha (well for those who dont know yet, she is my wife) for some time and had been ducking most of the Business related questions she kept asking for all of the month of March on dinner table, at morning breakfast and during our romantic drives on Pune roads. I also kept trying for the whole period to ask her questions that she might not answer (though most of the times I failed).

Coming back to 2nd April, here we were, half an hour early at the venue, not at a surprise to see, Savoir Faire, the persistent team and the Boat club quizzers, all out there. Me and my partner Siddharth, were hopeful but unprepared :), abha and her partner Ramanathan were also hopeful but a lot more geared up for the day. Initially before Derek O Brien came for the final quizzing, there was an elimination round conducted by Andrew Scolt. It ranged from questions like "Nirma's initial price in rs./kg" to "which is the famous Biryani house in Hyderabad?" , from History to Alcohol, from Cricket to Michael Jackson, From stock exchanges to Grapes named after ministers..... A well conducted elimination round.

Well as expected My team could not survive the elimination round itself, and i went back in the crowd sitting next to my parents and cousin. But Abha's team survived and it was a winning streak from there on for the team I cheered till end (it was absolutely weird to cheer 2 teams, the other being Infosys' Gaurav and Manish who came third). They were leading most of the times outperforming the champions Savoir Faire, it was a stunning performance from TCS (Abha and Ramanathan are from TCS Pune) as the game went in to a last round as both the teams were crawling 5 points with every question not losing to the other.

The whole game went on to the last question, "K.C. Das is credited for invention of what?", both the teams were at 70, and I knew that Abha's team had to go for it, a great quizzing effort made lady luck smile on them with the last question pertaining to kolkata (both Ramanathan and Abha have stayed long in kolkata), to press the buzzer and answer "Rosogulla". Derek in a classic Derek Style, didnot announce the winner till the last moment of prize distribution ceremony, making me and my family as tense as Savoir Faire Team's family. But at the end Rosogullas from TCS survived the Konkani trail blazers.

Well, it was a great feeling of pride when her name was announced, as I could feel her reaching for things that she has always wished for. Definitely brought a little tear in my eyes. Made me remember the time exactly a year back when the event was Lanmark Quiz in Pune and Derek had appreciated her for giving an audience answer. This is what I had written for her then ...

http://jkpcblogs.blogspot.com/2007/01/girl-with-visibly-large-ear-rings.html

An ET report on the same can be found at : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ET_Cetera/TCS_beats_Savoir_Faire_in_Pune_BE_Quiz/articleshow/2924217.cms