Film review: Mausam

I am not a good cook and made many overcooked meals but the latest is by Pankaj Kapoor. Mausam is really a movie where the romance gets overcooked. Along with being a romantic movie, too many tag of events like babri masjid demolition , godhra riots, etc without giving proper time to assimilate them has made this movie a bag of semi optimised evolution.

The start is very refreshing with the village backdrop of punjab and shahid (harry) being the village smart boy, the boy next door and the pack leader of his gang. Similarly refreshing is Aditi (rajjo) , harry's secret admirer and the secret love of one of harry's friend. The initial comic reliefs in the form of "chirchiri tai" also make people laugh. Sonam (Ayat) makes a quiet entry and soon enough mute love affair between sonam and shahid starts. Both of them having a scarred past have their own set of nightmares. When shahid finally decides what to do with sonam, she with her family had to leave for scotland which takes us 7 years forward. Once again the love story takes another start with shahid being the squadron leader in indian air force. But this time also when shahid decides to finally ask for sonam's hand, Kargil war happens and we have to move forward again. At this time many of us will feel if this love story is going a bit far stretched.

The overall plot may have been great if the subplots were not that dread, particularly those after sonam goes to scotland. Many times she comes back for shahid not finding any clue of him, Shahid going to meet sonam and finding her house locked, the constraint pains of sonam and many more. There was a mystery moment also where the binocular had red stains on it. Many may think of it as blood stain which may be revealed later on but that doesn't happen.

Acting wise, shahid did a good job as the village smart boy. But in his later part as the squadron leader he became too self serious with a plywood-stiff performance. Sonam's character was never allowed to grow in the film except for her fears of the past and traumas of the present. It is a real waste of a talent here. But most of the praise goes for Aditi for her character of Rajjo, who genuinely passes as secret admirer becoming jilted lover who loves shahid even after her marriage and wants to jump off the train to elope with him.

The music is good and light but the action sequences are the worst. One of the eyesore were the fight sequences in kargil. Our film industry has developed so much but the quality of those fight sequences were of prehistoric era. The film tries to launch several times with the regular masala moments but fails overall. A complete failure for pankaj kapoor as the director of a love story gone haywire because of under-communication between the prime couple. The most original romantic moment being the scene where shahid and sonam exchanges names on pieces of papers. 

I would give 2 stars out of 5 for this movie and i hope pankaj kapoor will make a better one next time.

Is "ON LIVE" the future of video games???

According to a news, the "cloud" gaming technology, backed by telecoms giant BT, will allow users to play high profile releases like ASSASSINS CREED and DUES EX instantly on tablets and televisions without buying the titles on discs. Users of "ONLIVE" can currently choose from 150 games. The revolutionary service could pave the way for the best selling titles like CALL OF THE DUTY franchise to be playable within seconds on an iPad rather than paying $61.72 for the console version. Those who adopted ONLIVE early can purchase their first game for just $1.54, while another deal allows users to play over 100 games for $10.79 a month.

It makes high performance gaming as accessible as streaming video, with unique social features such as watching thousands of people play games live with voice chat and facebook integration. BT are offering 3 months free and unlimited access to a play pack of new and old titles, from DEUS EX to BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM for existing subscribers. Titles used on ONLIVE run using the service's data hub, with video compression technology being used to deliver top end games straight into the home.

The broadband dependent service is currently only available in usa and uk, as the wireless speeds vary more across the continent. ONLIVE has been available in USA for 15 months with initial reports suggesting that there has been very little down time since its launch in the UK.

But does this mean that it is the future of gaming and the consoles like XBOX 360 and ps3 will disappear in future ??? ...  Most of the gaming experts have stopped short of confirming that the service could be the future of gaming.

My thoughts:

ONLIVE sounded too good to be true as a service, and why not as you can get a handful of free "old" games to play when you sign up, but if you want to play anything new of even up-to 1 year old then you will have to pay up-to your neck. For example DEUS EX - $53.99 (high street price is around $46.27), SPACE MARINE - $53.99 (this is currently $12.33 brand new in amazon). The only real bargain appeared to be Colin McCrae 3 which was listed as $6.16. However when you click it, it will show up as $6.16 for a 3 day trial and if you want permanently it will cost $61.70

ONLIVE is a good start, but the concept needs a bit more development. Games are pretty poor in graphics compared to their PC and console counterparts, and the games are limited to sub 720pixel resolutions. And there is no price saving at all compared to their PC versions.

So gamers.... the "GAME ON" for ONLIVE to replace your consoles is still a distant dream and for players in India I will say "DREAM ON"

Assam betrayed again: Indo - bangla land deal

Assam or "Asama " in sanskrit mean peerless or unequalled and by signing this indo-bangladesh land swap deal, tarun gogoi , the chief minister of assam has proved again that he is peerless when it comes to selling the mother land. Whats more interesting is that the other person involved in this deal is the prime minister Dr. manmohan singh, a "selected" representative in rajya sabha from assam. I have used the term selected because he was never able to get into the parliament by winning general elections, where a common man votes.

Assam has been the neglected child of india for a very long time. Whether it was the chinese aggression , or the royalty of assam tea or assam oil. But never in the past have the people of assam been betrayed like this land swap deal. 

Assam has a history of discontent with bangladesh. In 1978 the member of the Lok Sabha, Hiralal Patwari, died necessitating a by-election in the Mangaldoi Lok Sabha Constituency. During the process of the election it was noticed that the electorate had grown phenomenally. AASU demanded that the elections be postponed till the names of foreign nationals are deleted from the electoral rolls, and the Assam Agitation was born. The Assam Agitation (or Assam Movement) was a popular movement against undocumented migrants in Assam between 1979 and 1985. It is regarded as one of the most vibrant democratic mass movements of independent India. The movement, led by All Assam Students Union and the 'All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad', set an agitational program to compel the government to identify and expel the illegal immigrants. The agitational programs were largely non-violent, but there were incidents of acute violence, like the Nellie massacre. The agitational program ended in 1985 following the Assam Accord that was signed between the agitation leaders and the Government of India. Although the accord brought an end to the agitation its implementation faced several lacuna and it remained a "Pyrrhic" accord till date.

In the present scenario, the resources of assam are being horrendously depleted by the govt of india without giving proper royalty to the state. Adding to the problem is the immigration from bangladesh which has risen exponentially over the past decade. More and more bangladeshi people are coming to assam usurping its resources and making the native population bereft of what is naturally their. Coming to the details of the land swap deal, in Palakhal area India gave “74.5 acres,” and in Boraibari “193 acres”. The explanation given is that these areas were never in our grasp and none of the residents are indians. But what govt of india failed to explain is why inspite of being in our possession people of india could never go to these places and when was the census taken which states that all these people are from bangladesh. Does this mean that if due to some reason some border village in gujrat or rajasthan are fully resided by pakistani people we will give away that area to pakistan. To be more precise why don't we give POK to pakistan and rename it "Azad kashmir", a term they like to use.

Not going far in history, the teesta river agreement between india and bangladesh saw major changes in between the initial and the final draft. Mamta bannerjee vehemently opposed a draft which was against the interest of the people of west bengal and govt of india bowed down to her. But in case of asssam, it was the land the most valuable resource in the earth and still our chief minister couldn't see the adversity in this deal. The future of assam looks bleak and if the youths don't combine their strengths and fight for the right of assam, the likes of tarun gogoi and others will sell it in no time. I would like to end this with a few lines from bhupen hazarika

"Kunuba kapurukhok purukh koribole Jyoti Prasandu je nai
Axom morile aamiu morim buli koboloi swahidu nai
Aaji ambika girir siyarok hejare haathe kaame nobarup dibo
Aajir axomiyai xangram nokorile axomote bhogoniya hobo"

It happens only in delhi

Delhi is full of surprises and it delivers them to you at many unexpected moments. Yesterday I was in 12- 9pm shift and when I reached home at around 11:30 pm, the electricity had dozed off. So I just took a nice shower and was waiting in my balcony for the electricity to come. It was then when I noticed the young couple and their 3-year-old daughter standing in their balcony just opposite to my next-door neighbour's house. At the first glance there was nothing unusual about them, just another family waiting in their balcony for the electricity to come.

It was only after a few uneventful minutes that the gentleman pulled the lady inside the room and locked it. If one could say that to be a strange development, what was more astounding was the fact that they had left their 3 year old daughter outside in the balcony. The little girl was first dumbstruck at the chain of events and didn't know what to do. It was just then that sounds of the gentleman beating the lady filled the atmosphere and was followed by the screams of the lady. From time to time I could also hear the gentleman using his collection of adjectives quite common for the people of Delhi like MC, BC, MKC, BKL, etc. 

The little girl in the balcony got panicked to hear all this and started crying and was begging her parents to let her come inside, which of course had no effect on her father. After a few uneventful moments, suddenly the cries of pain and fear by the lady turned into cries of ecstasy. By the time I could understand the change, the husband was yelling at his top voice. "Saali aaj to mein le lunga (today i will have you). Bahut nakhre dikhatihai aaj kal (you show lots of tantrums now a days)." After that what might have followed inside the closed room can be aptly termed as the "call of kamdev (Aphrodite)".

After almost 10 minutes the balcony door opened and the lady barged outside, hastily rearranging her gown, and gave two slaps to the already terrified little girl. A few moments later the gentleman also came outside and yelled a few of his well versed adjectives to the little girl and her mother. It was just then that electricity showed mercy on us and the couple along with the little girl went inside and locked the door. Hoping for some more dramatic events I waited in my balcony for a few more minutes when I heard my next door neighbour telling his wife how the gentleman opposite to their house utilised the electricity cut. Hearing that I knew that my quota of surprises for the day was over and it was time for me to go to sleep. Lying in my bed with ac on, I was thinking about the agony and horror felt by the little girl and the insensitivity of my neighbours towards her. It just reinforced my belief - "It happens only in Delhi."

The flipside of being the best

Group consultations are always believed to be the best process for problem solving in organisations as it results in a wide range of solutions than most individuals can design on their own. These solutions are not only better than those of the average group member but also then the groups best problem solver working alone. 

Most of the time a leader - who, by virtue of greater experience or wisdom or skill, is deemed the ablest problem solver of the group- fails to ask for inputs from the team members. Equally dangerous, members of the team often relinquish problem-solving part to the leader and fail to provide him/her important input.

Result: 

Suboptimal solutions, bad choices, wrong directions and avoidable errors

Why not go alone:

• The lone problem solver can't match the diversity of knowledge and perspectives of a multi-person unit that includes him.
• The solution seeker who goes alone loses another advantage - the power of parallel processing. Whereas a cooperating unit can decentralize the many sub-tasks among its members. This reduces the time spent on the effort and the mental fatigue

Watson and Crick:

They were the winners of noble prize for revealing the double-helix structure of DNA. James Watson in his interview revealed that it was due to their dual efforts that they were able to solve the problem ahead of highly accomplished rival researchers. According to Watson the smartest of the lot was Rosalind Franklin, a British scientist working in Paris at that time. Watson commented, "She was so intelligent that she rarely sought advice. If you're the brightest person in the room, you're in trouble."

Captain-do-it-all:

It refers to the tendency of a leader to assume all responsibility and also the tendency of the team members to opt out of responsibilities that are truly theirs. Examples are regularly found in multi piloted aircraft where the captain takes wrong decisions.

I find it very true even in the television channels where the prime responsibility is taken by a person although there are many to take some load off from him. He looks after the tiny nit-bits of every dept and is in a constant frenzy state. His assistants also find it to their liking and siphon off from their due responsibilities. As a result disaster happens and all get the razor's edge.

Solution:

Leaders must collaborate unfailingly with the team members to arrive at a solution. Some of you may think this will risk the poor outcome of the decision of the committee. But the recommendation here is not to employ vote taking while making hard business decisions. The final decision is for the leader to take. That's what they get paid for.

Thus the leader must make the commitment that, even though many recommendations may not be followed, each is important for arriving at - what we used to say in microeconomics class - Pareto optimal solution

Bibliography:

• "Managing for excellence" by David Bradford and Allan Cohen 
• "The discipline of getting things done" by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
• "The curse of a superstar CEO" by Rakesh Khurana