Hi,

I am sure if you follow cricket you must have heard about Bhajji-Symonds racist row. It got me all confused. I just did not understand the term "racist". So, as I often do when I am confused, I googled. And surely google gave me some definitions for the word. Here is one of them :

racist

adjective
1. based on racial intolerance; "racist remarks"
2. discriminatory especially on the basis of race or religion

noun
1. a person with a prejudiced belief that one race is superior to others


Now, Mr. Singh allegedly called Mr. Symonds a "big monkey". If atall it is true, does it mean that Mr. Singh thinks that all the people in Mr. Symond's community are inferior? Is it possible to hate just a person and not the entire community? If a person abuses another person, does it mean that he hates the entire community? Is there a difference between abuse and racial abuse? Is there something like a context to a word or does every word have a fixed, rock-solid meaning? If you call someone a monkey, are you a racist?

These are some of the questions even Google could not answer. If you know the answer, please let me know.

I think what we need here is common sense and not laws. For same reason, dynamically typed programming languages, in the right hands, are almost always more flexible than statically typed programming languages.

Yours Sincerely,

Labels: Cricket

Hi,

Last night around 8 o'clock I asked one of my colleagues if he wanted to go for Rambo and he said why not now? I said, why not?! So we saw it last night itself.


It was a trip down the memory lane. I was remembering old Rambo movies rather than concentrating on this one. This one is also ok but old ones were better. There were couple of "Rambo" moments, for example, the arrow-bow thing and last machine gun fight. But it got over soon. I was waiting for the "knife" but it never happened. Also, the dogs were so harmless. And I wish Rambo would have killed the chasers one by one rather than in one big boom.

But, as this was my fisrt Rambo movie on the big screen, I enjoyed it. Its good but it could have been better. All said and done, I am happy with the booms, slashes, blood and gore. :)

Yours Sincerely,

Labels: Movies

Hi,

A couple of days ago (right after they announced Oscar Nominees) I saw Juno and was amazed how it got nominated for best picture. There was a time when Gandhi was nominated and Dances with Wolves was nominated. But Juno?? It's a decent movie but best picture?? Something has gone seriously wrong here. Ellen Page is nominated for best actress. That's fine. She has done a good job. But she was better in Hard Candy. She is going to win atleast 3 oscars by the time she finishes her career. Mark my words.

The movie is about teenage pregnancy. If there is an example of a movie which cannot be remade in Bollywood for next 100 years, it would be this one. The attitude of parents, friends and in general the world towards this 16 year old pregnant girl looked so casual to my Indian mentality that it felt unreal. Maybe it IS unreal. Who knows?

Anyways, you can call this one a decent movie, a chick flick, a feel-good movie or whatever you want but this isn't a bad movie and isn't best picture material for sure.

Yours Sincerely,

Labels: Movies

Hi,

Yesterday I was going through this blog as if it was written by some unknown stranger from a different galaxy altogether. And funny thing is I found it pretty interesting. This stranger could write and he was kinda good at it. I felt bad that this person just stopped blogging and wondered what made him stop. I tried to get in touch with him and after some time I found him.

I had a nice little chat with him. This is how it went.

"So? What happened?"
"What do you mean what happened?"
"I mean why did you stop? You were interesting.. atleast to me"
"Oh thanks."
"No really!"
"Ok. Since I think that you meant it when you said it was interesting, I am going to tell you what happened"
I was all ears. I waited for some time.. but he did not say anything.
"Well?"
"Exactly!"
"huh?"
"Yes. This is what happened. I could not think about anything to say. There was nothing happening around that sounded interesting. This went on for a long time and eventually I got bored with my own blog."
"Well.. But how was it different from the times when you used to post and post a lot"
"Come to think of it, it was not very different. I used write about boring stuff anyway."
"But it still sounded interesting?"
"Yes, somehow"
"So actually, it was you who got boring and not the world?"
"Umm.. Maybe"
"What changed you?"
"Actually.. I am still the same person. Nothing has changed.. much"
"So?"
"I think I should give it a try.. lets see how it goes"
"That's the spirit!!!"
"Thanks buddy!"
"No problem! Hope to see some cool posts from you from now on"
"You bet!"

And you know what?? He really started posting again!! Am I good at convincing people or Am I too good at it?! :)

Yours Sincerely,