Saturday, August 09, 2008

Forget the movies, guys!

Go get a DVD of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony.

This is THE opening ceremony that you can be proud of, just for watching it!

London! You have the un-enviable task of just matching what happened today, leave alone bettering it!

The culture, colour, concept... it was simply breath-taking.

I do not want to use any more superlatives on this most positive event that I have witnessed. (Oops, could not help it!)

The OC showed what China, or rather FOCUS, can do. It showed a China which is so eager to show the world what it is capable of; how stereo-typed the world's view has been on China...

Now don't even start on all the things about human rights, righteousness etc. There is only one pope in this world and everybody else only preaches! Bush wants Indians to go hungry, Clinton says that India & China are cleaning up the natural resources and polluting like nobody's business, the whole of Europe is condescending towards Asia - and then Rajnikanth eats his words in public just for a few rupees of profit from a lousy movie... aargh!

Bertie: Jeeves, what is the word that has a hippo in it, that means that one does not practice what one preaches?
Jeeves: Hypocritical, Sir?
Bertie: Ho, hum! Jeeves.

Just go out and enjoy the spectacle that China has arranged for you.

Tail-piece: Li Ning's trapeze act to light the Olympic flame was as imaginative as all the other parts of the OC. But still he is only the third best in my list of best flame lighting...

#2 2006 Doha Asiad flame lighted by that great horseman, who climbed so many steep steps mounted on his thoroughbred - the commentator almost had a heart-attack describing that thrilling moment (Arabic is actually a very pleasing language!)

And, the #1 is...

1992 Barcelona Olympics flame lighting, when that intrepid archer lighted the flame with the help of a lighted-arrow accurately shot from his ancient bow! And we as viewers almost had a heart-attack, watching that! (Spanish is probably the most emotive language after Italian and Telugu!)

Phew!!!

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Have not seen...

...Kuselan and hence no reviews yet.

Thanks for all those who were looking forward to the review.
Comments ranged from "I am disappointed with your blog; where is the review?" to "We have decided to wait for your review before watching the movie"... Touched folks...

டேய்! அடங்குடா! ரொம்ப ஃபிலிமாக இருக்கு!

Having said all these, hope to watch it this weekend...
Until then...

Friday, August 01, 2008

Legs or not...

Read this post a few minutes back...

Naresh in Google

Definitely impressive. Chicken soup to the soul in the morning :-)

'When one door closes, God opens another door somewhere else!'

Cynics will always say that he would not have reached this far, if he did not have the problems that he faced.

But then what are cynics for - to make you think 'zara hatke', perhaps?

Would the following have happened, if he was normal?

(a) JC waiving his fees off
(b) Hospital taking care of his college fees
(c) Sundar paying his hostel fees
(d) Institute providing lifts, ramps, powered-wheel-chairs etc.

In his own words, he would have ended up as a farmer in Godavari district! The moral is: It takes some calamity for people to recognize the human inside them. Why wait for that calamity? What is important is the ability to help out under normal circumstances.

No use just to write cheques, only when there is an earthquake or a typhoon or what not. That is what we call as 'band-aid patch' in software parlance. The root cause has not been addressed (another software jargon). It is easy to give money and apply Tiger Balm to the tattered soul.

Ask yourself: Do you have the 'help-under-normal-circumstances' gene activated in your DNA?