Happy New Year!!

Hi everyone.Here's wishing you all a happy and prosperous new year!!yaaaaaayy!!Come on say it aloud.Don't worry about who's around you.Its time to party!!!

This year is a big year to me as it is to everyone of my patient readers.And this year is particularly important to me cos there are lots of work left for me to do and lots to witness and lots to gain and lose and lots to be happy about.

I'll tell you why this year is particularly important for me.Let me start with the events that are coming.

• First, there is the great one's birthday coming up on pongal.Alright?
• Secondly, my results for the recent 5th semester exams that I have attempted recently and brooded much about in my past posts, will arrive.Guess great news awaits.
• Then there are one or two companies( Verizon and/or Virtusa ) which will be up for placements in the month of March( or so thats what people in my college say ).My fingers are already crossed.Hope I don't show up for the interviews with crossed fingers in front of them!
• Then there are much loved, greeted, lauded and wonderful exams for the 6th semester.
• Then there will be campus recruitments all throughout May, June, July and so on and so forth( i.e. till our placement co-ordinators convince companies that still people studying at SSN can do no harm for them, if not good ).So if Verizon and/or Virtusa let me off, then other companies will be queueing up to get a glimpse of me.But come on, I cannot satisfy all my fans; only one will get my autograph.Talk about being a celebrity, ooof!!
• Somewhere during August( if things go the right way ), I should be writing GRE and be notching up a good score.I am GREedy!!
• Then by there are various events like Saarang, Landmark quiz, College day and probably fresher's party and so on and so forth.
• Finally, there are PJs to keep up with; without any reduction in quality and will keep them coming right throughout the year.

So with so many events and schedules all queued up, this is going to be perhaps a year that would necessarily decide the forthcoming years in my life.And I hope that in this year, more people will get bugged and suffer with intoxication from reading my blogs.God bless you all, and bless me too!

Schindler's List

If there is one movie that has captured the intimidation and inhumanity of the Nazis and the sufferings faced by the Jews in totality that leaves you in shock, resentment towards the Nazis and extreme sympathy towards the Jews, it is - Schindler's List.

Today Venki dropped in along with two DVDs, one being Schindler's List and the other being History of the world Part I .The former has left a lasting impression on my psyche.This post will be about that.

The movie was released in 1993 directed by the one and only Steven Spielberg and bagged 7 oscars which include Best Picture and Best Director.The screenplay is wonderful according to me and is by Steven Zaillian.The movie is almost entirely shot in black and white with just two or three scenes in colour.

The actors are simply splendid in their performance and are totally within the skin of the characters they portray.Liam Neeson plays the role of Oskar Schindler with great poise, charm, elegance and flair.Ben Kingsley , who already made a deep impact in our hearts with his portrayal of Gandhi in the 1982 flick once again proves his endowment in the role of Ithzak Stern.The performance of Ralph Fiennes as the ruthless SS officer Amon Goth is simply superb.He really makes you think that you wanna kick his @$$.Apart from these main roles there are many people whose acting and commitment to perfecting this movie are beyond words.There are scenes I still wouldn't wonder in my wildest dreams that were shot unimaginably accurate.All of what we have heard about the extermnation of Jews might have not conjured up an effective image in our minds as this movie poses.This movie isn't definitely for the eat-the-popcorn-enjoy-the-movie crowd.It needs to be watched with patience and a place where you wouldn't have to explain much for some sexually explicit scenes, a few harmless and ineffective calling 'fuck' dialogues and scenes with real-life violence, which of course is what takes us into the petrified scenario.

The movie runs for 3 hours and 15 minutes, I guess approximately and hence requires lot of patience and a friend who can tell you from time to time the past events during the WW2 and patiently explain dialogues when you turn to him with an expression of "uhh..??" and pause the movie.Alright lets get to the story.

Oskar Schindler, is a German businessman who has not had great success with his business in Germany.He comes to Poland during WW2 to cash in the opportunity of getting cheap labour from the Jews, who are otherwise headed to concentration camps and killed on some pretext.He somehow gets to convince a few rich Jewish men for investment in his new venture of producing vessels for the army, where in return he promises to get them a few vessels and also a little money.This Schindler manages to pull off with the help of another Jewish businessman named Ithzak Stern.So he goes about setting up his business and starts the production with over 1000 Jews.In fact, it is Ithzak Stren who runs the business for Schindler, who manages the cash flow and the profits.In the meanwhile, the heartless SS officer Amon Goth who portrays the sadism of the Nazis gives commands to his men to exterminate the Jews and so the cold-blooded killings start where many hapless die.The movie captures these events and emotions amongst the people very vividly.



As a result of this Schindler's workers are all separated and organised into various groups for the mass killings, and so the production stops.Schindler, the clever businessman he is, befriends Amon Goth and reaches a settlement where he pays millions of Reichmarks for around 1100 Jewish workers, all of whom are in a list of workers prepared by him and Ithzak Stern.Schindler succeeds in getting them all together at his hometown in Czecheslovakia, where the production is that of artilleries, for the namesake.He manages to give the army its required artillery, which he arranges from elsewhere and protects his workers for the next seven months with the money he has.By then it is 1945, where the war comes to an end with the Allied forces closing in on Germany and asking them to piss off.Schindler bids goodbye to his people with great regret that he could have saved atleast a few more by selling his car and his Nazi gold pin.This scene is really touching and emotionally stirring.

The movie features a little girl whose orange dress alone is highlighted in orange colour in the otherwise black and white movie.This is the beauty of Spielberg.At first, when Schindler witnesses this lone, innocent girl who moves alone in the milling crowd and goes into a house for refuge without anybody's notice, it stirs a certain guilt within him.The second time Schindler witnesses the dead body of the girl, is when his humane spirit is rekindled.Spielberg proves his forte here with the inclusion of the 'girl in orange dress', in order to show the change in shades of Schindler from a pure businessman to a benevolent and protective philanthropist.

When Schindler departs from his hometown in order to flee from the Soviet army he is presented with a ring made in gold by the Jews as a mark of respect and gratitude, which bears the following quote, that also captures the true essence of the man in Schindler -

Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.

Earthquack!

Everyone among us must have had earth-shattering experiences when our results were being announced, be it whatever standard/semester.And we must have done ground-breaking work in our labs in the name of practical classes, through which we must have invited thorough sulking from fellow students and haplsess teachers, who could only vow that we never got near the average in the mains.So what is it that we all share, that even mother earth splits, unable to withstand??( could it be paragraphs like this? )Hmmmm.....lets hope to find out.

My memories of earth-shattering experiences are just enough to merit mentioning and would perhaps lead to further calamities nature has to offer.But my memories of earthquakes - real earthquakes as in Japan where you get to experience the real shaking, are existent but not evident.Shocked?Apalled?.......Definitely not?If yes you can move on to the next paragraph.

I have a reason when I put in a phrase such as "existent but not evident".Apart from being hi-fi, unfathomable and incongrous it is well - innocuous.( No I am not reading Barron's ).I can explain why.During January 26, 2001, there was a terrible quake in Gujarat which claimed lives of hundreds of innocent and not so innocent people and well school exams were postponed.Guess even college exams were.There was money collected in the name of 'Relief Fund', and they even made the collection in my school.Its a different matter altogether, as to whether all of it went to the needy.Well, back then I was doing my eleventh standard.I also contributed some money, I guess.See thats why I can talk about it.

So after the hue and cry of earthqukae in Gujarat, our very own Chennai got one, the epicentre being located off the Pondicherry coast or something, during September 26, 2001, when I was busy(don't know for what reason ) in twelfth standard.

I was cycling along with my friend Sanjay to Johnson's chemistry tuition.Since we were cycling or talking while cycling or due to some reason, we never felt the tremor.Sanjay in fact asked me to wait somewhere for some reason, but I disagreed and as a result we didn't get to shake it baby!

After we heard about the quake on reaching Johnson's chemistry tuition centre, Sanjay, by now started throwing curses at me for not having halted, and as a result not having experienced the quake.Well, I too was disappointed as I didn't get to experience it either.Guess these days the youth just wanna shake, they don't understand the seriousness associated with a quake.Hmmm...I'll have somehing done about that.

My tryst with earthquakes did not end just there.Just yesterday, 26 December 2004, when in my 3rd year/6th semester ( I have the habit of mentioning of my current position whenever I mention the date of an earthquake ), at around 5:30 A.M. or so an earthquake occured.As you guessed it, I didn't experience that either.I was happily slumbering in my bed dreaming of......err...let us leave that for a while.

So from all these earthquakes I have learnt one thing,.....two things to be precise - expect it on 26th of any month and expect not to experience any.Expect the unexpected!

My deep regrets and condolences to all those who had to lose their lives due to the earthquake and its aftermath.This post is not intended to kindle any resentment amongst fellow readers.It is just the view of an earthquake from the writer's point of view.And for all those still wondering why I wrote all this, the line below the blog title 'The A Factor' would suffice enough explanation.

Farce of the year - 2004

The past two days have not been the unforgottable days of my life or anything as such.But I should mention that I felt really happy during these two days as all our classes were called off.

I was into the "Workshop" and it all started pretty late in that grand auditorium, the only thing thats worth admiring at SSN.And for all those of you who are wondering as to what SSN is, I'll give you just one chance to guess( Yes, I am strict! ).It is not that novel by Tom Clancy.See I gave you a clue and you still are scratching your head.What a pity.But I wouldn't blame you for your ignorance, thats not your fault.Alright I'll save my face before you go into guessing anything still fictious.It is the college in which I study.Don't laugh.Please don't.It is supposed to be the best engineering college in the city( out of the city actually ) and it doesn't stand for integrity, discipline, excellence in education, achievement or anything in particular.It stands for 'Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar'.Anyways thats it with today's trivia.

So the Workshop started in that grandiose auditorium with about 449 students( I wonder if so many attended ) and some teachers and technicians.The students were all in a jubiliant mood as they couldn't believe that the principal had agreed upon something so unlawful and rubbish - two days of no classes in view of the Workshop to be conducted.So the auditorium was of all whistles, noise and absolute fun totally under the sun and in A/C.Then after some such time arrived the distinguished guests - the trainers ( thats how they were referred to in the inaugaral speech atleast ).One of these guys was cricketer Sadagopan Ramesh's brother, Sadagopan Rajesh.The leader of their team was one geeky bespectacled guy named Mukundan, who had completed his M.S. in the US and had worked at AT & T Bell Labs( Wowww!! ).Good job for a man as young as he was to be here in SSN.The team of trainers were from an instituition or should we say a group named - Rhythm TEC.

After all the haranguing speech and flash presentation, we were asked to go to our respective places as predirected by the GD ma'am Priyadharshini( but thats not the exact name of the position she holds in our college, but for convenience I shall refer to it as "GD ma'am" ).So I was herded into Room No.5, a room behind the auditorium( which I didn't know existed, till that day ), with dimensions near to 300 X 200 cms.To my delight, the room was scarcely filled with around 45 to 50 students.Now picture that.It was like a concentartion camp.I was fearing that there might be a stampede when lunch would be announced.

So the moderator or one of the "trainers" came into that room and right away began dividing the people present into groups of 15, I guess.That group did contain one very special person - me.We were then given badges that would sport a some number.To my delight, I had badge no. 14, which incidentally is my date of birth.So my mind started working out all silly conclusions.The first topic of the first GD conducted in Room No.5(1 + 4 = 5, now am I that lucky, or that imaginative?? ), was - Cellphones have lost their charm, are they a wanted nuisance?

Piece of cake.Such a cliched topic, and rightly so enlisted under the EASY group of topics which was for starters.I didn't want to give up on any GD and just went through with my way.I was talking too much, intending to create a complex amongst my peers and the first round went well, with totally 6 people expressing their views.Towards the end of that round, the moderator gave away many tips and pointed out many inadequacies, one of them about being too talkative with a thought that you are leading and making your point well in the discussion, which of course was not be done.Alright one over, lets move on.Now after that the other groups had their GDs, topics of which were all too easy as well.

The MEDIUM group of topics gave us a shocker - Can we get a new India by eradicating bribery? Now wasn't that supposed to come under the EASY group.Who cares after all.I went on reeling the methods in which we can abolish bribery, each one being solid but never answering the question posed in the topic for discussion.Thank god, no one pointed out the flaw, and that included the moderator who was giving credits to me this time!! I was so brilliantly mesmerizing with those points - that was an anomaly in the system, considering that I am usually credited for all my fiascos till now.

The COMPLEX round now gave way to a topic that I happened to discuss with my Venki over the phone during one of our many meaningless conversations - Capitalism or communism, which is good for India's economy? Thanks to Venki and my memory, I managed to make my points look original.After all I am not that dumb.For those of you out their wondering how I exactly discussed the topic with Venki, let me tell you I just asked him the exact definition of Capitalism and Communism which he gladly did explain, the rest was my talent - total build up!! Though the conclusion wasn't in favour of me, I somehow managed to make it look as though I had made my points well.So that was it, 3 GDs and I was done with day 1.

Day 2 saw some funny incidents, most of which I won't forget atleast for sometime to come.We were all now waiting outside the Sports complex for the necessary moderators to arrive.I was busy reading 'The Da Vinci Code' for sometime, after which I began to notice that people around were not that fond with my business.So I closed the book and was chatting with the guys till the "trainers" arrived.

The session was about 'Stress Management' and we were managing stress seeing powerpoint presentations for sometime.Later on there was this test for how good our attention was, which was true revelation all by itself.In this game you had to position your hands in front of your chest as though you were holding a box, that is with the palms facing each other.When the Master would say 'rat' you had to shorten the distance between your palms, and when he'd say 'cat' you had to widen it.God, that game was THE game that tested level of attention, it seems.For all you people eager to know, as you guessed it, I got out early.Anyways after that, we did a couple of meditation techniques, during which our guys at the back were chuckling, giggling, guffawing with odd sounds, which surely did bring so much mirth in every soul that was closing its eyes.

So after the Stress managed well, and after the lunch we were back in the auditorium again, this time for our 'Mock Interview' session which really made a mockery out of me.The "trainers" handling this came way too late and were giving thoroughly boring lectures about facing the interview.They had split us into groups of 8 and gave each group some task associated with the interviewing process.After our discussion, someone from each group will have to present their group's ideas.Wait, I didn't go up there to represent my group, as I am a bit clever with these things.Some girl from our group went and presented our amazing ideas, well.I should make a mention of a god named Shyamal Rao , who represented his group, went out to the middle without a paper and just began giving an amazingly clear and smooth speech.I was awed like the 90 others in the auditorium.The reason I say he is a god, is not only because of that speech, but because of the person he was.I don't have enough space to fit in details about anecdotes and stories realated to him right here.I guess those who know him, know him well.

Then towards the end, we were asked to quickly prepare resumes.Everyone handed over their resumes, and then came the blow.The guy initially said it was just to check the attendance.After having made the collection, the two of them sorted out the resumes and picked out two resumes very carefully.Then into the mic - "Who is Arun?" Shit!

I was selected for the honour of being interviewed in front of the 90 odd people.So having no choice, but to face it, I went to center and I was dutifully handed the mic.I was seated there in front of the crowd, wishing that my mother would wake me up with a jerk.But no, this wasn't going to go that way.I was sitting in the interviewer's chair, with my body leaning forwards, raring to run on hearing the gun shot.No gun shot.The guy instead started shooting his first question - "Tell me about yourself".I started reeling something about myself like I was reasonable, practical.He then went on to ask subsequent questions all of which were inspired from my previous answers.But I was sounding monotonic as I wasn't interested a bit, but that somehow didn't inspire him to stop asking questions.And finally - "Do you have any questions?" to which I replied "Aaah....no not anything in particular." There I was actually thinking of asking him "Are you done with embarassing me?Are you happy atleast now, you @#00$%^&?"

So I was done with that, but I was not going to be left just like that.Atleast the interviewers thought so, and after due consideration they were generous enough to ask questions to the witnesses and had their opinions, all to their heart's content.These guys unfailingly pointed out my ready-steady-go position, my monotonic voice, my initial nervousness and what not all in public.And finally this farce ended! I was only too happy to get out of the auditorium and then be back in for the valedictory to see my "trainers" get honoured.Overall, these were to tw(o)o tiring days, that has left me with material enough to put in this blog.oooof!!

The day after( wards off ) tomorrow??

I feel too perplexed from the differences arising between two days - Sunday and Monday.Apart from their spellings, the earlier day was a testament to the fact that there was scope for mirth and what today's youth refer to as fun.

Ananth, Venki and myself met up at Chennai's favourite hangout - Spencer Plaza.

We guys decided to go to the only place where it is meaningful to spend time in Spencer Plaza which is the famous Landmark.As usual we went to the books section and started skimming through various new arrivals as well as old ones.It is perhaps, right to say that we three shared this favourite pass time.Ofcourse, most visitors to Landmark do the same - Searching for something unknown which when they would see they would know.
The first book that caught my eye was 'The unauthorised guide to the da vinci code'(I guess the title was something like that, not too sure anyway).There were certain things I hadn't seen such as The Louvre museum, Saint Sulpice Church, Madonna of the rocks and so on.Then I moved on to another book and then another and so on.There was one more interesting book that is worth mentioning whose title went something like - 'Events that shook the world' which had pictures from very important events in world history and subsequent explanations.

After being at Landmark for about three hours we decided to nibble something at 'Calcutta chaat corner' where I had a mouth-watering pani poori and then a sweet kachori chaat.We then once again went inside Landmark, this time only to find ourselves in the gaming section.I must admit that I don't have much of a craze for computer games as my computer is very cooperative with respect to supporting most of the specifications which computer games specify these days.But Ananth and Venki were all game.

These two guys then in a maniacal rush for some computer game raised the idea of going to Richie Street, which lies only a little away from Spencer's.Somehow this idea didn't seem very good to me.But the guys wanted to get to Richie Street so urgently, as though the nearest lavatory was open only there.So I cooperated with their plan and all three of us set off on foot to Richie Street.

Guess what? Richie Street's most shops were closed as it was a Sunday.

By now I was mad at these guys for getting me to come all the way from Spencer's.Now on the way back to the bus stand someone amongst those two suggested we get in to 'The Higginbothams', which I don't quite remember as to who.So we got into this legendry book shop and let ourselves wander through.After about 20 minutes I gave up and was feeling very tired (due to lack of sleep early in the morning).So I prestigiously took a seat on the stairway and showed the white flag.After another 20 minutes the guys finally considered my plea and we walked out.

By now I must admit that I was somewhat restless and was behaving quite odd with PJs of the poorest kind.Somehow after bidding goodbyes to my friends I got back to being sane.Then I took a bus and came home and dozed off.

The day was all nice and fun except for my weariness which as I mentioned earlier was due to lack of sleep.I guess my friends had fun too.Atleast if not fun, we were occupied and had found a nice way of whiling away our time, after a long time.

But today was all different.Today my fu***n*(ny!) college reopened and as expected it got me all bugged up.Just imagine professors writing the subject code on the board followed by the name of the subject.I mean, is it really necessary to write the subject code? And I felt like a helpless MR who was listnening to lecture, with no reaction other than a stare at the professor's pupil, deep into the abyss, realizing my existence as a victim of the new university order(new world order??).But then there were other professors who were gracious enough to just write the subject code, title and then leave us to do our own work.

So there it is, another semester repeating itself in its own mundane way with different subjects.
I was jittering after a long time today, when the news about the placement workshop that was scheduled for this weekend, was being announced.The realization dawned on me that it was for real that companies would be coming to the college to test and recruit(hopefully) this playful and lazy student - me!!The announcement was also coupled with taunting conditions like "Remember!You should not have any arrears."Statements like that and others hit me and once again got my brain working on the odds of clearing the papers attempted in the recent exams.

The placement workshop it seems is all about making you well equipped in areas like - GD, personal interview(PI) and stress management.Added to that there was this news that you'd be videographed during the mock personal interview and the results would be played to the cordially invited guests like other students and your mistakes rectified in public.Is that really necessary?Playing the video in public would be injurious and any damn moron can identify his obvious mistakes.But fate it seems would rub more salt and would make you feel for the way you gave your mock(ery fun for all) interview.

Anyways with way things are going I guess I would be informing Peter Vidal that tough days are ahead for all Capris(since it includes me).If those predictions go well, we'll have a successful astrologer in the making, if not, we'll have a not-so-good software programmer programming his way to glory, whatever that might be.God save us all and me(now isn't that twice....but I need it desparately).

Trrrrinngg Trrrrinnggg......

Well now readers of this blog are going to have an impression that I am a movie critic and that I can't be creative enough to write on something new and special.If you think so, then you are right.I just saw the movie 'Phone Booth' and since now I am bored thinking what to do next, I planned to blog on the movie I just saw.Isn't that excuse fair enough?

The reason why I am so desparate about watching movies now, is that the past four weeks have been dehumanizing preparing and writing those semester exams, and never before have I felt so tense during the entire tenure of those exams.It has left an indelible impression on me.If you think I am fussing a lot, ask my pals and you'll know why I am pissed off.And if you thought I am unnecessarily being mad about watching movies, I'll just tip you with an exciting news - My college re-opens on Monday, thats one day after today!!! These university guys are all upto some great religious deed.Are we being austere here or what?? Now thats the same question I am planning to ask the "authorities" at Anna University.Anyway lets stop the crap right away and get to the movie.

'Phone Booth' had me wired to my seat and I thought the movie was too short - 1 hour and 20 minutes.But then with a storyline like that it was the maximum anyone could do to keep it interesting.Yes, keep it interesting by keeping it short.The movie is not a drag.It kept me live all because of the DVD player.Why I point fingers to the DVD is because I would have lost interest if I would have watched the movie without subtitles.'The Caller' who is not in the picture had a clear accent that was easy to follow, but the others were way too off for my keenness to keep up with.

The story is about a publicist named 'Stuart Something' or simply 'Stu'( as he's known for a major part of the movie ) played by Collin Farell, who is netted on to a call in a phone booth in some street in New York.The reason he can't leave that call is because he's being threatened by a caller or 'The Caller' who asks him to do various things and wrings a confession from Stu( I hope you'd appreciate the pun there ) on condition of his life or the lives of his loved ones.This is all the story is about -two men, an unlikely conversation between them over a phone in a phone booth in New York.Thats it! Given a storyline like that I would run away, yell and go mad.May be few dialogues I could think and make up a movie.But would it be interesting?? Now thats what the movie challenges to affect upon you.The storyline is thin, but there is absolute talent displayed in crafting it into a nice movie - which is interestingly interesting.



Now in that movie, if there is a little offbeat entertainment its those hookers trying to bother Stu and definitely Radha Mitchell( I think she was born in India ) who is Stu's wife, who looks pretty good, great in fact for a wife.Now I might sound cheap, but if you are an Indian male living in Chennai you'll empathize with me.Another figure, or simply to say beau in the movie is the ravishing Katie Holmes, who looks absolutley stunning and is aptly named 'Pam' in the movie, though she is no contention to "Pam".Forest Whitaker does a 'good cop' role which ain't so great as to be discussed.

Though the story has shades of 'Scream' and some other psychotic thriller, which I can't quite recall as of now, it keeps you engaged, when you have your college re-opening one day later.The movie has a lot of 'fu**' and 'fu**er' and 'fu**ing' words in its dialogues, for which you might be stared at by your mom( like I was ), if you are watching it in your home.My suggestion would be, that you either put the volume down or obliterate the word( 'cos you know when its coming due to the subtitles...thank god! ) with say something effective like the fart, or avoid all the trouble and go to your friend's house and put him in trouble.

I'll leave you with some thought for the day -

You hear a phone ring, and it could be anyone.But a ringing phone has to be answered, doesn't it?.......Doesn't it?

The Un-Usual Suspects

The movie 'The Usual Suspects' , is of much great acclaim among my friends circle, and most of them had to offer comments like "Ammazzinggg movie da machaan" or "You are useless da if you haven't seen it till now".These comments and much more are held copyrighted by my friends - KR, Ananth and others.

So one day I went to KR's house and in a spree of CD-writing activity I also burned one CD for 'The Usual Suspects'.I had this movie in my computer, in addition to 'The Shawshank Redemption' and 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'.

Strangely I had somehow gotten to watch 'TSR' and 'ESOTSM'.(I, infact watched 'TSR' around four times and 'ESOTSM' once, the latter of which I downloaded.).But, with 'The Usual Suspects' I had some problem.It was a jinx! Every time I would begin to watch this movie, I would be interrupted by my mother( for carrying out some daily chores ) or by my brother ( again for some stupid reason ) and sometimes by the call of nature ( which ain't so stupid reason ) after which I would get distracted from the routine for all those obvious 'stupid' and 'not so stupid' reasons.So every time I would get to watch the first 10 minutes and thats it!!!

So yesterday at around 9:00 P.M. IST ,I decided to break the jinx. I took a vow as to not get disturbed this time, come whatever!I remember my friends saying that the first 10 minutes of the movie is what you will understand at the end or that you'll have to watch the first 10 minutes again in order to gain complete perspective.But to me things didn't go that way.So I was watching the first 10 minutes of the movie for the fifth time I guess.Effectively 40 minutes spent more than what was required for a person seeing the movie for the first time.

So I watched the movie.Yup, I watched it and it was "simply ammmaazzzinnngg movie da machaan".A brilliant plot, an impeccable screenplay, a gripping storyline, a direction beyond description, a most befitting cast and above all 1 hour and 45 minutes of complete excitement - thats 'The Usual Suspects' for you.

The story is about five criminals who get together in a police line-up and subsequently make other plans after their release.How they go about with their lives wherein they pull off a couple of hot-shot encounters and their attempt to make money out of a drug deal by doing the job for a mysterious person known as 'Kaiser Sose' are not the only things you will witness, but much more.


Kevin Spacey in his role as 'Kint' is the best actor out of the lot, clearly without any debate, so much so that this role won Spacey his first oscar as 'Best Supporting Actor'.Apart from him Benicio del Toro is also exremely funny in his role as 'Fenster'.Also Stephen Baldwin in his role as 'McManus' is amazingly humourous when in the police line-up he is made to say a line which goes like this - "Hand me the keys, you fucking cock-sucker!" He is Fenster's partner in crime.Gabriel Byrne as 'Dean Keaton' and Kevin Pollak as 'Hockney' are the other criminals in the gang of five, who have also acted out their roles well.Pete Postlethwaite as the intriguing 'Kobayashi' with his amazingly clear accent and Chazz Palminterri as 'Dave Kujan', the interrogating officer belonging to the US customs are the other notable actors who play pivotal roles in this movie.In the end, I must say indeed one of the most amazing screenplays I have ever seen, which is by Christopher McQuarrie and god-level direction by Bryan Singer.This movie simply goes into my all-time favourite movies list.

For people who are going to watch the movie for the first time please don't go about waching the first 10 minutes for about 5 times or more trying to beat the '50 minute record' that I set up before watching this movie as you will be left less intrigued after the movie and will not watch the first 10 minutes again.I lost the fun on that account I must say.But this movie is definitely worth watching and I am already banging my head as to why I didn't watch it earlier( completely! ).

I'll leave you with my favourite dialogue from the movie which goes something like this if I remember right -

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was in making the world believe he didn't exist."

...And then there were none

Its official - the long awaited end has come - my exams are over!

The reason I am saying this with much stress and importance, coupled with satisfaction and joy( see thats engg language ) is because they have totally drained all of my human nature in remaining sane.I still remember days during the past three weeks when I used to sit to crap in my toilet thinking and talking to myself about what I should finish and that I can do such-and-such a thing easily and that such-and-such things would take more time to finish.If you thought I was exaggerating, you can very well think so; the truth being that I really did.Anyways now I have all the time in the world to think otherwise.So whats the consequence? - I can now crap without a worry in the world!( May be thats why I started to blog??!! )

I was thinking as to how really one deserves this engineering degree.As for most of us, we really don't learn anything new.Even if we did learn something according to the syllabus, in most cases they were not really going into our heads.Its true that we do understand some of it though, but not all of it.Any honest engineering student( studying under Anna University guidelines ) would say so.So at the end of four years our graduation certificate should read something like this -

"This is to certify that Mr./Miss. So-and-so has been awarded the B.E./B.Tech degree in the discipline of some field for his/her successful cramming and reproduction during the academic/epidemic period 2002-2006"

Well ofcourse this certificate would hold good for most of us if not all; sparing the very few truly interested and intelligent of the lot.Anyways, so be it.

Now after that haranguing discussion( for fellow Anna Univ folks )since you are feeling kafkaesque, let me tell you why I started to blog and how my blogs would be.The reason I started to blog was because I thought this is an excellent media through which I am given my own space to express my own thoughts and get them published however crappy they might seem.There is no one to tell you that -"Hey I thought that line was bad, so cut that crap.Okay?" or "Your article wasn't that good so we don't get that published.Try writing something else.".Well, in any case, here, I can publish whatever I feel and express my emotion to a great deal, and theres no one stopping me from doing so! Sounds arrogant? Allright, I'll tell you the truth about why I blog.It is something analogous to this dialogue from 'The Simpons' which goes like this -

Marge: Homer, it's the thought that counts. The moral of this story is a good deed is its own reward.
Bart: Hey, we got a reward. The head is cool.
Marge: Well then... I guess the moral is no good deed goes unrewarded.
Homer: Wait a minute. If I hadn't written that nasty letter, we wouldn't've gotten anything.
Marge: Well... then I guess the moral is the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Lisa: Perhaps there is no moral to this story.
Homer: Exactly! It's just a bunch of stuff that happened.
Marge: But it certainly was a memorable few days.
Homer: Amen to that!

Well by now you would have understood why I blog.

That point being cleared, let me tell you certain things that the reader will have to bear in his/her mind while reading these inklings( though I'd love to personally call 'em 'thinkilings' ) is that my blogs may not produce any excitement in any sense or anything new or exceptional.For those looking for such a criterion I strongly recommend - http://annauniv.edu. Moreover, I cannot promise to be too original either.Some of those "thoughts" published here might have very well been plagiarized, but I am not responsible for that either.Why? Thats because me and my brain often contradict each other and all that is here is an outcome of that contradiction.This contradiction is best summed up by another quote from 'The Simpsons' which goes like this -

Homer Simpson -All right, brain, you don't like me, and I don't like you, but let's just get me through this, and I can get back to killing you with beer.

All right thats it for now.I am tired and will give you time to think about reading my next post.Till then -
Enjoy & Think!