Gadgets : No it is not a technology blog

Finally, without really trying to do it :), I now am a user of gadgets using all the 4 major OS - Ipod Touch (a prize from the client), Lava :) Android Tablet, Blackberry (office) and a windows phone. I got smarter by buying a phone this weekend (Lumia 520), which will phase out my age old treasured, Micromax Ezpad (red coloured QWERT phone :)) after more than 3 years. I still like that phone, just that had to buy something that has better sound quality. This also brings me back to a better "branded" product after a long time. Am a big fan of cheap androids, I still am. I think technology will change the way we consume information - though currently I feel we are lost in technology and it will take some time to find a path.

 

 

Think of it, what do you use your smart phone / gadget for ? I feel sad, when I see 4 people sitting on a restaurant table like a family and all having their heads in their mobiles. I also feel sad when I see that in buses (though I must agree I am no different in buses). Think of it, how our times for our "friends" have reduced in person, and has drastically increased on facebooks and whatsapp? confession : I am afraid of looking at the world with glasses made of social media(you know things like, what a location, this will make a perfect facebook pic). And I am scared of whatsapp, that was one of the reason I was shying away from smart phones. It is as addictive as angry birds and temple runs. I hope I am able to keep as much away from it as I can.

 

 

Will try and compare the 4 OS some other day, currently am happy. The best thing (and it doesnt sound right to pick this one up), that I thought the windows phone adds to my gadgets is a steamable music store :) which earlier ones were lacking. Listening to Dhoop from Ramleela, god bless Sanjay Leela Bhasali. I have loved his films and his kind of music. Now that i have digressed, let me add another update from the weekend. Finished shooting for "Nomen" (refer the blog before the previous one) - Very happy. Watching it on laptop, realized that there are a few shots very clearly amateurish, but that is fine - we are amateurs. And yes, Navratri is going fabulos.

Short Story : Blue Skies and Hot Chocolate Milk

Qtchi was more than an ally to me. May be he was my brother, I don’t know. The knife, that whooshed about an inch away from my ear, hit little Qtchi on his right eye. He screamed in pain. I wish they used bullets. I have heard bullets kill faster. He held my hand strongly, squeezing it. It was hard to see Qtchi twist and twirl on that slope of the mountain. Warm blood dripped from him eyes on my hand. He was the fifth from our troop getting hit today. Like most of the eight year old men in my troop, Qtchi did not die of the wound. So we had to leave him behind. I had his blood on my hands. The trek ahead was steep and the other gang could easily target us on the laid trail. I was leading my team. I looked down; behind the bushes I could see and count seventeen of them. My allies may be brothers, I don’t know. I thought of seventeen as a strange fearful number. Most of us would be dead by the time we are seventeen. Most of us surviving were in prime of our age, almost all were eight to ten years old. And we hoped of seeing the clear blue sky before our time came. The people up there, fighting us, am sure are also dreaming the same. But the mountains cannot feed us all. So we need to decide who lives.

The sky was burning red, as the sun was setting somewhere far away. Moons were never seen on these mountains; there always was a thick layer of smoke. During the day, sky changed colors from grey to burning red, but nights were black; always. And before the night came we had to get past the post to reach the plateau,right near the middle of the mountain. They say, there is no smoke at the top of the mountain. Mornings are blue and nights are white by moon. They even talk of little twinkles of the stars, as if hundreds of new born babies are smiling at you from the sky. I wish I have a daughter, just like Dzti. She was the strongest of our group, before she caught fever.

We had to move on. I decided I will lead the troop through the rocks. At that time of the day, rocks cool down. All of us, dressed in nothing but belts, with knives hanging on our backs, had learned climbing over rocks. We were the children of mountains. Before it turned dark, we were rising on the other side of the post. Just a little push and all of us could catch the gang of those men, unaware. They were just four. I think your strength multiplies as you move up the mountain. All of us caught them unaware. It was four people to one. I knew the one who had hit Qtchi. I jumped over him. He would have been a year younger than I. His hairs smelled of death. He took out his knife and hit me on my hands. My blood was running over Qtchi’s. I ducked his blow and took him up by my shoulders. As soon as he went down, I found a big rock, and before he knew, his head was meshed into a pulp; For the pride of the troop; for the pride of the tribe.

They were soon cleared. We found a bag of leaves and some dried fruits infested with a few little worms. We were happy for getting the dinner. Eating our own brother’s never felt good.

And then the night fell. No one fights in the nights. That is the rule of the mountain. We had no one to fight today, but the top of the mountain was far off. For today, we had little but delicious meal and there was a hope of seeing the grey sky of the morning tomorrow, and the blue hopefully someday. We slept in the rock shelters; tired and worn out, covering our wounds with the soil.

That day, like all good dreams, a dream followed the hard day’s work. I was asleep. Deep asleep I think when I saw the orange sky of the morning turn blue. The cool air of land was blowing through the balcony. I took a deep breath to take in the fresh green smell of the morning. I was thirty two in my dreams; An age we would never see. I saw a grown-up Dzti coming from the room inside, joining me in the balcony. And with her was a man of my age, or was he me? He looked just like me. Grown up Dzti was shouting at me for not getting ready in time. She mentioned we will miss our bus to office, if I don’t go to the bathroom now. Offices and bathrooms are the stuff of folklore. I remember my parents bathed me once near that thin stream of river. The water was slush there. But like all good dreams, the shower was warm and the glass of chocolate milk was hot. I wish the dreams last longer than life.

 

Promises To myself - Indulgent rant

Every once in a while I write such a post. A post that is more like a reminder and promise to myself for things that are yet to be done. So yes there are many things happnening around and I am awfully inspired for last 2 days, ever since I have slightly recovered from my 3 week long coughing and sleeping. And it reminds me that I was doing quite a few things and need to finish it. Restarting a thing that you left, while you were full of energy is very difficult. It is just too difficult to reach that state of mind, and it is all them ore difficult to start without having that state of mind. So here are the things incomplete that I need to finish :

1. Short Film: It is called Nomen. Here is the poster :

it is a thriller set in a different time and place. We have been making this film for zero budget taking care of the quality of the film. I hope it turns out to be watchable. This is my first DSLR film and have worked really hard on various aspects of it, to make it work. Hopefully , the next one I make will have both a good budget and a better / faster execution. We have almost completed the shooting, except a couple of scenes. Partly the editing is done and am in middle of it. Dubbing is also done 50% for the 2 lead characters. The biggest challenge for the film is to manage colors. We shot with a 550d and Halogen lights. And anyone who has attended a marraige knows that Halogen makes normal people look jaundiced and burnt. While the look we wanted for the film was more "cold and bluish"... so we tweaked camera settings accordingly. Which has gone to one extreme in that sense and hence the color gives up the pixes at times. I hope I have been able to manage to cover that big difficulty, by the end of it. It will take one more month atleast for me to finish it.

2. Writing songs and poems

With a couple of friends of mine had started making some songs. One of them is a signer and another the music director. Made a couple of song before Nomen started, hopefully will get back to it. I hope that by end of the year, we are able to record 4-5 songs and can put it together

3. Short Story Collection

This has been on my list for last 4 years. 2010 I had thought that I finished this. Then I got it professionally critiqued. I realized that there is a long way to go. Have been reading recently and for long, a lot about art and craft of writing. I restarted writing my short story collection. I hope someday am able to finish it and someone is ready to buy it. I had approached many agents with my first version of the book in 2011, now need to get this out some way by next year.

4. Novel

Everyone who writes dreams of this. I have been dreaming a story since the time I finished the first draft of the book mentioned above. I know the plot, it requires a lot of research. Did some of it, but could never really be confident about the research. Recently have been reading Gujarati books and the more I read it, the more I feel I should write this in Gujarati. Dont know when I will start it , but this is one more thing in the list of promises I made to myself.

5. PGDFCS and the courses like that

What the heck is this? It is Post graduate Diploma in Folklore and Culture Studies. Started it with complete joy and excitement in Jan 2012, out of 5 modules have only finished 1. THere is a lot to read, lot of assignments to be done, and the term papers and projects as well. I somehow remembered that I need to do it by Jan 2014 and hence was desperate and had put it as PRiority 1 before everythng else. Now yesterday while checking my form details I realized I can give exams till Dec 2015 :):) .... So this too I hope will happen. Recently discovered Coursera.org and edX.org. If you are keen on learning things, please please please visit these sites and choose a course and pursue it. I will do some course in history and film studies

Did I say I have not been able to do my ECP certification and am not sure if I am going to plan for it :).... let us see.

P.S.

I havent seen The GOOD ROAD, but I wish this starts a streak of GUjarati Indie films. Gujarati film industry has been dying for years. People produce films to get grants of 10-15Lakhs and then make the same stuff again and again. I hope this film promotes good cinema in Gujarat and I hope someday I have a Gujarati Story to tell.

P.P.S

I am sure if you have read any of my earlier blogs like this, you would have realized by now, that I am pathetic in finishing things. Damn! I should control my wishes and dreams

 

Song - in Raag Raamdaasi Malhaar

A Friend's group is creating a fusion song (Jazz + Indian Classical) and they had a bandish with them (written from olden times) for which they wanted to extend in further antaras. wrote a few lines for them today. Writing on a tune and music felt awesome :). Lines given to me were :

 

 

छाए बदरा कारे कारे,

उमड़ घूमड़ घन, गरजत बरसत,

ऐसे में जियरा घबराए,

aur antara

 

रुत अंधियारी, बिजरी चमके,

पवन करे, सन सन नन नन नन,

ऐसे में जियरा घबराएं,

My lines adding to this :

 

 

मधुर सी बानी, गीत सुनाएं,

पैजन छन छन छननन छननन,

नित नित व्याकुल, मन अकुलायें,

 

फुल-कुसुम सी, महके काया,

मन भ्रमर सा, गन गन गननन,

भीनी माटी, मधु बिखराएं,

 

याद मल्हार सी, बन कर बरसे

पल पल छल कर, थल पर जल भर

कैसे ना जियरा भर आये ,

आस गिलहरी, भागी जाएँ

जमघट जमघट, सरपट सरपट,

कैसे संग जियरा रह पाए,

 

प्रेम जो बरसा, भीगी आँखें

तर-ब-तर तर, तर-ब-तर तर,

कैसे जी, सुखा रह जाए,

अमृत धारा, बहती जाए,

सरित सुधा भर, कल कल कल कल,

कैसे नैया पार ना आये,

भगवन बन कर, मेरे तेरे,

जाएँ बरखा, बन बन जन जन,

पतित पावन बन रह जाएँ,

05 अबोध - 05 Sep 2013

नूर, हूर, प्यार सी,
आ रही थी दूर से,
थियटरों की रोशनी,
आँख में भरे हुए,

जिसको थी तलाशती,
हाथ में वो हाथ था,
सपने थे बुने हुए,
और उमर का साथ था,
बाप की वो आस थी,
दीप माँ की राह का,
गाँव से शहर तलक
वो बनी थी रास्ता ,

रात की भुजाओं पे,
साँप सा लिपट गया,
धीर चाँदनी की लौ,
राख से उलट गया,
देव दानवों का भी,
था कहर पिघल गया,
हड़बड़हाटों का सब,
था ज़हर निगल गया,
रोष भर वो आदमी,
आदमी रहा नहीं,
काम-भोग-आग से,
भूख में बदल गया,

एक अबोध को कहीं,
नोच नोच खा गया,
रास्तो पे मोम का,
फिर गुबार छा गया,

बाप चैन पा सके,
दोपहर ना रात को,
दो सज़ा के निर्भया,
और ना कोई नाम हो,

चिथडो को नोच कर,
भोंक धार सी कहीं,
खून से लिखा था ज्यों,
नाम भारती कहीं,

और समाज वृद्ध सा,
शांत जैसे बुध्ध सा,
गीत गा रहा कहीं,
भूल जा रहा कहीं,
न्याय से यूँ हार कर,
खुद को खुद से मार कर,

कहें सब तो अच्छा है,
अभी तो वो बच्चा है

 

Things I am reading

03 September 2013

Read 3 very interesting articles on EDGE.ORG, one of my favoritest website. And would like to put the crux of the 3 articles here for all to appreciate.

1. Moral Tribes - Though the topic name was "deep pragmatism", I am naming it on a book written by the author (Joshua Greene). Here are the 2 broad ideas that he discusses.

You are a group of ten people. Everyone has 2 rupees. Everyone can pull in money in the pull, as much as he wants, the pooled money will be doubled and redistributed amongst everyone equally. You are free to keep as much money as you want out of the 2 rupees? So will you give your 2 rupees. The ethical dilemma here is about individual good vs. group's good. If you keep your 2 rupees to yourself, and everyone else gives there, you are bound to benefit more without having to take a risk.

ANother situation is, if you have a child drowning infront of view, will you spoil your 500$ suit to save the child. Answer is for sure Yes. And then there is a situation in some remote country in Africa where a child or 2 can be saved iwth that 500$, will you give the money? answer is may be? ... reason he sites is , our moral instincts are bound by our surroundings / groups. It becomes us vs. them.

So he talks of 2 issues " Tragedy of commons" and "Tragedy of common sense morality"

2. Chinese Eugenics: this is one of the responses as a part of "what you should be worried of ?" Eugenics is an idea of discouraging reproduction of people with genetic defects and promoting reproduction in "better" of the breed. China is one of the biggest study centers for genomic studies. And there is a lot happening there, as the author puts :

Chinese propaganda urges couples to have children "later, longer, fewer, better"—at a later age, with a longer interval between birth, resulting in fewer children of higher quality. With the 1995 Maternal and Infant Health Law (known as the Eugenic Law until Western opposition forced a name change), China forbade people carrying heritable mental or physical disorders from marrying, and promoted mass prenatal ultrasound testing for birth defects. Deng also encouraged assortative mating through promoting urbanization and higher education, so bright, hard-working young people could meet each other more easily, increasing the proportion of children who would be at the upper extremes of intelligence and conscientiousness.

Potentially, the results would allow all Chinese couples to maximize the intelligence of their offspring by selecting among their own fertilized eggs for the one or two that include the highest likelihood of the highest intelligence. Given the Mendelian genetic lottery, the kids produced by any one couple typically differ by 5 to 15 IQ points. So this method of "preimplantation embryo selection" might allow IQ within every Chinese family to increase by 5 to 15 IQ points per generation. After a couple of generations, it would be game over for Western global competitiveness.

3. Technology and Innovation as a National Development Strategy : A monologue by a scientist David Sengeh from Sierra Leone. The author is a 3d printing student and talks about how innovation and technology - the process of setting it up as a thought process in the minds of people, should be a national development strategy rather than borrowing the technology from one place ot another. THe problems and issues in Sierra leone he says would be different from that in USA. So even if you give Sierra Leone billions of dollars , creating a Silicon valley there might not be possible. Every country should identify their problems and promote entreprenuers who wants to solve problems, is his line of argument

 

Book Review - Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott and Story Structure by William Bernhardt

In my endeavor to learn to write better, I have been reading. So there are a few books that I have bought on writing and a few books, that I hope will turn out to be enriching reads that inspire me to write more. Would like to share my thoughts and write about 2 books that I read recently – books that talk about how to write better.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

I started reading about writing with “Art of Fiction” by John Gardner. The book is absolutely textbook like. 50-60 pages into it I really felt that I need to read something that can inspire me in not-so-heavy way. While reading multiple articles had come across suggestions on this book, and everyone who read it swore by it. While reading “Dongri To Dubai”, in acknowledgement, I saw the writer crediting Anne Lamott for inspiring him. So I bought and read the book. It really is a very inspiring book on writing.

 

“Bird by Bird” empathizes with your agonies and ecstasies and makes a writer feel like human being. It is funny and enlightening both at a time. The author has divided the book in 5 parts – Writing, Writing Frame of Mind, Help along the way, Publication and other reasons to write and the last class. And it breezes through most of it. She even reminds that if you want a literary exposition on writing, John Gardner has done a much better work in his books. Here are some of the things that I liked in her suggestions:

 

·         Get started – get everything you have in your mind down. Write down and then fix up.

 

·         Take a Polaroid view of your writing, taking a small 1 inch frame and see what you have to write through it. Take every little paragraph or event as a short assignment.

 

·         Don’t try to be perfect and it is ok even if you write a shitty first draft. She goes on to stay then when you put down everything on paper i.e. when you write 5 pages to arrive at 5 lines, you will appreciate how beautiful the subconscious is, how it will bring out things from your mind that you knew not existed.

 

·         Then she talks of how to use characters to develop plots. In a beautiful line she says – “My characters know who they are , and what happens to them, where they will go and what they are capable of doing, but the need me to write it down for them, because their handwriting is so bad”

 

·         She talks of observing people –how they talk, how they look and so on. And she mentions a great line here as well “You must learn about people from people and not from books”. I think that is the only way writers can remain sane.

 

·         The book then goes through the set designs, false starts, plot treatments, having a point of view, morality , on looking at others and getting jealous , on the incessant blabbering of mind which she calls Radio station KFKD.

She goes on and gives us the tips that have helped her. I particularly liked the chapter on jealousy. Especially while you see the books around in the best sellers JJ. Some lines that she quotes from other writers are remarkable like “ I get up. I walk. I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing”.

 

She then moves on discussing the little aides that writers can use, like an index cards or talking to people who would know the stuff you are writing about, and forming writing groups and finding someone whom you can share your drafts with. And before ending she talks of how important it is to find your voice and write for the sake of writing and not for publication, as publication will not make you wiser or better, writing will.

Overall, the book is highly recommended for people who want to write and want to get some tips on. It is not a text book and will not tell you any formula to get things done, but it will motivate you.

So go on, be brave, form a schedule, be disciplined and start writing. J

Story Structure – The key to successful fiction – By William Bernhardt

To start with it is a short 100 pager which is strikingly different from “Bird by Bird”. It is a tips and tricks kind of short book, suggesting importance of structure and how to approach structure of the story before you start writing you novel. It gives exactly the steps on how to structure the 3 acts and how to create relate an inciting incident that can take you to a logical climax. How to consider each scene, put it all together, outline and climax. It talks about how classical story telling is using this structure for ages and how it is not a formula. The book doesn’t talk about plot. It just talks on structure and gives you some handy tools and exercises to help you structuring and understanding structure, in case you are struggling with it.

It is an ordinary book. But if you are struggling with something specific, you might find something here, that you will be able to use for a lifetime.

P.S: Next books to be read - Elements of Style by WIlliam Stunk and Art of Fiction by John Gardner. ALong with short stories from Poe and Lovecraft and Tolstoy. Slowly we will do it - Bird by bird.

P.P.S. : Participated in Tata crucible last week. Performed really bad. Wife won the tata track in Pune.