You are wrong there, Sire!

Just today, one of my faculties, in the dying stages of his class, was giving out not just a terrible analogy, but a very ignorant one. His analogy went something like, “Just like the Narendra Modi’s government has brought about the decrease in petrol price, your engineering exposure too should make you less stupid (or more grown up)”, which was in reference to one of my friends making a ruckus while the guy was taking attendance.

Well, don’t judge him on this analogy, because more often than not he makes sense in his class, and he makes an effort to make them interesting too. But this analogy right here, made me wonder. If somebody who is as educated, even though not in political sciences but in engineering, as him, could have such an ignorant grasp of the reality, then surely, there must be many more? Certainly the ones who put up duck faces and click selfies all day, and still participate to argue about the political order in debates with friends, acting like the condescending Sheldon Coopers? Well these stereotypes are everywhere.  

Anyway, I am not trying to belittle the ‘Good Governance’, here, all I am trying to say is to give credit when the credit is due, or in this case, the opposite!

The phenomenal fall in petrol price over the last few months has got nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the new government’s governance, but rather is a continuum of the global fall in the oil prices. Global Fall!

While there are a few reasons that led to the global fall in petrol price, but the simplest reason being a classic case of Supply and Demand, where the demand is far too less than the supply.

*United States domestic production has nearly doubled over the last six years, pushing out oil imports that need to find another home. Saudi, Nigerian and Algerian oil that once found a home in the United States is suddenly competing for Asian markets, and the producers are forced to drop prices.

On the demand side, the economies of Europe and developing countries are weakening and vehicles are becoming more energy-efficient. So demand for fuel is lagging a bit (SOURCED OUT from Times of India)*

You can read that entire article here:(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/Oil-prices-at-5-year-low-What-is-behind-the-drop/articleshow/45866129.cms?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=TOI)

Sometimes, it is not about knowing the right reasons, but about ruling out the wrong reasons. And I think, in today’s world, it has become increasingly necessary for us, voters, to be at the top of our game. We cannot let our guard down, and let ourselves be drowned in our own puddle of ignorance, however briefly it might seem. 

The Imitation Game

With Imitation Game, Benedict Cumberbatch has made sure that he will be remembered for more than his role as Sherlock. And more importantly, he has thrown in a performance here that makes sure Mr. Alan Turing will be remembered and deservedly so.

Alan Turing was a Cambridge mathematician who was instrumental in inventing a machine that could break the code of Enigma, a communication device used by the Germans in WWII to contact its naval bases and authorize surprise attacks on the allies.

And Imitation Game is an epic tribute to Mr. Alan Turing, whose war files have been kept classified for more than 50 years, and was, only as recently as 2013, posthumously honored by the Queen. The movie does extremely well to not just restrict it to the veiled heroics of an unsung hero during war time, but shows glimpses into the man’s personal life, that leaves the viewer in an emotional upheaval.

Mr. Alan Turing in 1951

The movie remains deeply engaging throughout, and those canny dialogues make sure that there is not a single dull moment in the film. The movie has its share of light hearted moments which sheds more perspective into the personality of Mr. Turing. While certain elements of the films are fictional, those could be accounted for the cinematic freedom that is essential for these films to make them commercially viable, and enjoyable.

Other than the performances, the movie’s high points are certainly the screenplay and the music score, and the men behind it, Graham Moore and Alexander Desplat have been rightfully rewarded with nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original score for the academy awards respectively. All in all, the movie has bagged 8 Oscar nominations including nominations for Best Picture and Best Direction, and after watching the film, one couldn’t agree less.

Benedict Comberbatch is simply outstanding, and The Imitation Game is a classic film. I would definitely recommend this and you, most certainly, wouldn’t be disappointed.

World Cup 2015: Darkest of the dark horses

England has experienced almost everything in the past year, except of course winning (Nope, a Test series win against India doesn’t count, because almost anybody could do it). And with the kind of challenges England has in 2015, things look all set to go terribly down south. Except.

Except that England has finally done what it should have done long ago: Sacking Cook from ODI captaincy and the team. While it is tough to ascertain things from a television set, that man surely took the London climate, of being wet and miserable, all around with the ODI outfit.

So the same team, minus Cook, looks altogether different, now. While many cricket experts do acknowledge this, they have most certainly, written off the English Team from the world cup. And they are fair to do so, because their new captain, Eoin Morgan, is struggling for his own form and he has hardly captained the English team on more than 10 occasions. And he certainly does not look like a MS Dhoni to learn it on the job. (Don’t forget the ’07 T20 world cup fellas, an inexperienced captain, did lift it)

But when we dig deeper than what the face value of this team offers, there is promise, potential and most certainly, the hunger. In Ian Bell, they have a Rohit Sharma, who is more likely to fail than succeed but on his day, has the potential to take the game away from the opponent. And in Moeen Ali, they have surfaced an opener who is willing to take his risks and set the scorers straight, and add to it his off spinners, he surprisingly, becomes one of the most valuable players of this team.

Chris Woakes performance could be crucial to this English team

And in Joe root, Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara, they have got the class acts and cool heads that could guide the team through the tricky situations. And in Alex hales and Chris Woakes (as allrounders), and Jos Bulter (as keeper), they have got the men to give out killer punches. Though they lack the experience, they are reputed, established, T20 players, who could take bowling attacks apart on their day. The biggest advantage that these three would certainly enjoy this world cup, is the freedom. The freedom that comes along with absolutely no pressure of expectations.

And in Stuart Broad, they have got the senior who could calm the nerves of his bowling attack. While it remains to be seen if Jimmy Anderson makes it to the XI, Chris Jordan himself hasn’t been doing too badly. In Stuart Broad, Chris Jordan, Chris Woakes, and Ravi Bopara, they have the seam bowling attack that could certainly be containing, and on their day, even lethal. And in Tredwell and Ali, they have got the spin attack that could tie things down from one end.

England seems to have the perfect balance that a few other big ticket teams lack. They have more than one seam bowling allrounder and one batsman who could spin. They have more than two destructive batsmen, and more than two class acts. If the experience factor and other off-the-field controversies are put aside, this team certainly looks like an ODI outfit that could go all the way this world cup. England could well be your secret bet.   

If History has taught us one thing in the game of cricket, then it is that, experience and statistics don’t matter in World Cups. Kapil’s Devils did it in 1983, MSD did it in ’07, and now can Eoin Morgan and this English Team do it? Only time will tell. 

You Are Probably Getting Robbed There

We Indians have got our own ‘little’ problems stretching from the form of Indian cricket team to the bad roads in our neighborhood. While as much as we enjoy to point them out, criticize, and cry, we are also pretty well endowed not to bat an eye of acknowledgment to anyone or anything (or any government) when something counter-nauseating happens to a larger mass (Not to one individual, mind you. We are very patriotic and proud that way), like the fact that road accidents in our city have decreased significantly in the last year, or that the petrol price has decreased considerably in the past few months (whatever be the reason, it has decreased for gods sake!!)

So, upholding that proud tradition, I would like to completely ignore the positive aspects of my previous line and cry about something else that has bothered me.

Dishonesty. In general. And the ones at petrol bunks in particular.

While dishonesty about our new look or shirt or dress is quite welcome, it is not so much the case when we are trading our Gandhian notes for services.  What I am about to say might sound familiar if you have a two or four wheeler (or even a three) and if you take that out to your nearest petrol bunk for refilling. If it doesn’t sound familiar, well, it is all the more reason to continue reading this.

So, has it ever happened that after refilling your tank with some amount at a petrol bunk, you notice the pointer on the petrol indicator just lying there, lazily dwelling the pits instead of springing up?

You know that you did not fill it with such a less amount that it wouldn’t have made a difference to the pointer. You wonder if the indicator is malfunctioning but that too would seem relatively less plausible after a while. You might then suddenly remember reading about the recent crackdown on petrol bunks, and wonder if it was a classic case of tampered dispenser unit, but those raids pertained to dispensing a shortage of hardly few milliliters. And also, you might be just too proud to believe that you were taken for a ride. So you pass it off.

OR else, you are not ‘too’ proud and relatively sensible, and slowly come to the striking, sinking realization that you have paid tax for your lack of attentiveness (or for the over dose of shyness/innocence) by just getting robbed, swiftly and efficiently.

While this happened to me once, a while ago, when I was too naïve to think of the world otherwise ( and also when I had just started using a two wheeler), I am now a self taught expert on recognizing the rampant conning at petrol bunks and would hence like to pass on this knowledge to other ‘once-me’ beings out there.

So how can one get robbed at petrol bunks?
Simple. You pay for innocence.

And how does this happen?

By the three common attention diversion tricks that ‘they’ employ:

Trick 1 You are poor at math or too stupid:

You say “bhayya ‘500’”

He has listened, and you know it. He takes the fuel dispenser, pumps out 200/- petrol and stops. He acts cool, and puts his hand forward to take money, and you are puzzled as you said ‘500’ and not ‘200’. And you convey the same.

He smiles. Makes eye contact, covers you up from the digital indicator of the petrol dispenser and says “Did you say 500? I heard it as 200”. And casually laughs (or can frown too, depends on the style of actor), and walks back almost whispering, in a way that you just hear it, but are not sure of what he said exactly, “I am putting it to zero, see” (it, here, means the digital indicator of the fuel dispenser unit)

And he doesn’t actually let you see it as he takes two steps directly in the direction of your field of vision and you are too shy to bend your neck and look at the indicator, or too kind to insult an unknown  random person’s honesty. Hence unable to recognize the obvious, you just end up putting your faith on the brighter side of human race. He pumps the petrol, clears your view of the indicator after about few seconds and shows you the indicator approaching 300/- mark.

But what he in fact does is, to just continue from the 200/- mark but fill it slowly from 200 to 300 in those few seconds, and then speed it up as it approaches the 300/- mark just as he clears the view for you, fooling you by acting as if he has started over from zero. This is expert stuff. Even though it is easy to recognize this immediately as the time taken to fill 300 rs worth of petrol is different from that of 100/-, one cannot confront now, thanks to self doubt.

This trick can be carried out for other denominations of say 250 (where they break at 50/- mark and continue from that and stop at 200, feigning a simple “initial 50+ final 200= total 250”) or at any other denomination depending on the gullibility of the customer and the talent of the one dispensing. 

2: The Card Trick

Just as you say “500” or “200” or even “100”

Gullible-me

He would make eye contact, and say, “cash or card?” (seriously card for 100 bucks?)

You would say “cash”.

And he would stare down right into your eyes as if you have spoken something blasphemous, and say “there is a 5% cashback on so and so card”, all the while going back to the dispenser unit and acting like setting it to zero and coming back to stick it into your fuel tank.

He continues blabbering about the card for a few more seconds if you have failed to break the eye contact and starts dispensing the petrol, and before you realize it, he has swiftly continued dispensing the petrol from where he left off with the last customer and NOT from ‘zero’.

And if you do move or break the eye contact, or refuse to make eye contact before he dispels the petrol, he would either set it to zero beforehand or give a sheepish grin and set it back to zero the second time acting as if the indicator was strangely acting of its own accord.

3: Give me some money

This seems to be a newly developed trick where two guys con. One handles the dispenser, one the money. The guy collecting the money is the key here as he asks the money from you, simultaneously as the other one is busy adjusting the dispenser indicator (acting as if setting the indicator to zero, but in fact he just leaves it unchanged from where the previous customer had left) and sticking the dispenser into your fuel tank.

And at this moment, if you are not attentive and are busy taking out notes from your wallet, then god bless! Extra paying time!

So, all these tricks are relatively easy to fend off, if only, one is neither too innocent nor stupid.

Considering my roots, I would like to conclude this “the engineering” way.

Hence,

Precautions:

1.       Do not fall into the initial trap of making eye contact. Be attentive and make sure the indicator of the dispenser unit is set to ‘zero’.

2.       Don’t be shy. Speak out. Confront.

3.       Don’t wear your dim wit hats

4.       Attention is key

5.       Pay only after you fill the tank with petrol.

Source: Friends and live observations.

Thanks! And Peace out!

PS: Special Thanks to all those who have found and read this post through indiblogger! ^_^ 

Guardians Of the Galaxy

"A bunch of A-holes"

First things first, Guardians of the Galaxy is fun. Ultimate 122 minutes of fun. It basically has everything that you want from a Marvel film- action, comedy, story, more action and more comedy (and for Indians, yes, there is also emotion).

Guardians of the Galaxy takes us deeper into the Marvel universe with this interesting plot and new set of characters- who are going to garner huge fan base after this one (I myself have got two new favorites Groot and Rocket). They have got a bit of the loveable Jack Sparrowish attitude that hugely works for them in their favor.

Bradley Cooper voicing over for Rocket and Vin Diesel for Groot- the only big names of this film- do an amazing job. And so does Chris Pratt playing ‘Star Lord’ (yes Star Lord, we have now heard about you) or simply, Peter Quill. Chris has surely got the right dance moves for the right tracks (as would be evident if you see the film).

The director, James Gunn, who I and many others have never heard of before, does well to make us remember his name with this film. He holds the movie together by bringing all the departments to punch over and above the expectations placed on them.

Like Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy too relies, and rightfully so, on comedy that will leave you in splits many times right through the film. Marvel seems to have perfected the art of blending comedy into action so well that they are outdoing themselves with each film. So Kudos to the creative team that works for Marvel- the writers, the directors and of course, the actors- for creating few of the best action/comedy movies in recent times.

And special mention to the soundtrack and Editing work! Oh My God! “Awsome mix Vol.1” is the star! The soundtrack plays at all the rights times, accompanied with editing that cuts through from one scene to another with such an immaculate comic timing that you would wonder if Tony Stark is the editor of the film.

"I am Groot"

Marvel is well and truly on a roll. If there is a formula to make super hero movies with right bits of everything in them, then Marvel seems to have nailed it. Watch this film with your friends or family over the weekend, just to wind off, and you would be thoroughly entertained.  

Finally, ‘I am Groot’  ‘I am Groooot’ ‘I am Groot’ (Translation: As original as superhero movies can get. Don’t miss this one!) 

A Simple Promise

From shock to grim hope, from grim hope to anger, from anger to more anger, and from more anger to much much much more anger, from that much anger to the unfruitful (or fruitful) sojourn for justice, and from that, may be, acceptance. May be not. Not for everyone, definitely.

That journey from shock to acceptance, that for most of us, is the toughest journey. It varies. Some of us take dwindling paths that envelope us, some of us set out on a lifeboats trying to cross the Atlantic, and some of us roll dead down on the slope from top to the bottom of a mountain.

But somewhere, in between or after that journey, we crave for justice. Because we deserve it. At least my friends do.

We want justice, because we believe in the fact that "everything" could have been avoided, if only those responsible were 'responsible' enough (Am I pointing at the dam officials who failed to give a siren? or the HP government who could not put a single caution board? Yes).

And as this craving for justice rages on, I am duly aware of the beautiful system that would hear our plight. Its not that I don't believe in it (as a matter of fact, I don't), it's just that Justice is something that is served rather very cold and in less quantity in India. (Remember Uphaar Cinema fire? Read this: http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/uphaar-fire-victims-kin-demand-law-to-hasten-justice-540863 )

And I wonder. "Who are the people that we are really fighting against?"

Aren't we fighting a Cinema Manager? A construction engineer? A regular middle class dam official (or high end one)? An operator of a Siren? an officer in charge of patrol? Or even official(s) of the state government? 

Are these people, not one among us? Oh wait! sorry, "Were" this people not one among us once upon a time? Haven't time and ill disguised education took them from "one of us" to "one of them", "Convicts", "irresponsible humans who do not weigh any value to human life"?

Well, we know. They were, definitely (and hopefully), once, one of us: A student.  

Is it too much to ask this from each one of us?

In a similar way, I am pretty sure that students of today, would have their share of education, success and money and go on to become a manager or an engineer, or an official, or a public servant for some government. We could very well "be" in some of 'their' shoes in time.

And it is then, when few of us really make it to those places, that we have to remember what it takes to be on the wrong side of someone else being irresponsible, what it takes to feel helpless, what it takes to crave for justice. If we just promise to be careful and responsible in whatever we do tomorrow, wherever we are, however we are, we are delivering justice, we are at least avoiding someone else's cry for justice.

It is about us being true to ourselves each and every day. It is about avoiding this. It is about putting value to human life. It is about upholding our 'duty'. It is all about remembering this moment, and our friends.
It is about us making a simple promise today: We will never be one of them.  

Take care.

#JusticeForThe24     

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Bryan Singer finally returns to directing a ‘X-Men’ film with Days of Future Past. And with duds like ‘Superman Returns’ in his kitty since X2, fans would have been a bit little skeptic with this one. But with ‘First Class’ and ‘Wolverine’ reviving the X-Men franchise, huge expectations hardly left any room for further skepticism. And to be fair, the film had time travel and superheroes, it couldn't go wrong!

And thankfully, it doesn’t.

Days of future past acting as a sequel to both ‘First Class’ and the forgettable ‘Last Stand’, comes in with a simple, but extremely well written story. With the plot being predictable within the first fifteen minutes into the movie, the film rides on some engaging screenplay and powerful performances from the actors, and rarely does one witness both the aspects clicking so well for a superhero film.

The ‘Past’ enjoys the bulk of screen time, and rightfully so, considering the tremendous success that ‘First Class’ enjoyed. Hence, it leaves ample opportunity for James Mcavoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence to kick off from where they left as Charles, Eric and Raven. With the addition of Hugh Jackman, as Logan, to their band, things could only get better.

The film is packed with right amount of action sequences and humor. And when you have Logan around, you sure got some cheesy one-liners here and there. With the sides of Professor X, Magneto, and Mystique at the verge of rising through within their younger selves, the film makes you connect with the characters at an emotional level, pushing this film higher in terms of substance.

The cinematography too was perfect, capturing 1973 and apocalyptic future brilliantly well. Background score does well to intensify the action scenes and the whole movie in general. Days of future, it seems could do no wrong in any department.

The film has some great moments, and does not falter in its story at any point, putting this film into a separate league of high rated Super hero cult hits. If ‘First Class’ set a high benchmark for the X-men Franchise, ‘Days of Future Past’ does well to raise it further. Do not miss this one.