Thursday, October 20, 2005

Mythology can be fun. Finally!

Finally. A good reason to break silence :)

Found these two awesome animation films on the web today.

One on Sita. Presenting Sitayana, by the very talented Nina Paley.



Check out the animation here. This is really hilarious. Sita and Rama are this hot couple, singing and dancing around trees (Yes, I know. It totally reminds me of a million other Bollywood movies:) ). This should help you get over the scars Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan left on all of us, a whole generation of Indians.

And another, on Hanuman. A full motion picture, by Sahara One. Details here. A review from Rediff.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Ignorance is not bliss


What you don't know can hurt you, only you won't know it.

- bumper sticker

Friday, October 07, 2005

Corridors, Acquaintances and Turning Invisible

Its 5pm and I need my sugar fix. A dark chocolate cookie with chocolate chips, from the cafe. I can imagine the soft chocolate chips melt in my mouth, as I chew on the cookie. mmmph. Life - can wait. So can work, unanswered emails, and the rest.

I quietly make my way to the cafe. Passing through the long corridor. The long corridor that seperates me from my cookie. These long, lonely corridors. Cubicles to right of them, cubicles to the left of them and lets not forget, cubicles to the front of them!

And I see this acquaintance, making his way through the same path. Only he starts at the other end. He sees me and I see him. But, we both know, it will take 10 seconds for us to pass each other. Those critical 10 seconds, where you cannot look at each other, or heaven forbid, smile at each other. Sadly we have nothing else to look at or cannot even look busy. Its 5pm on a friday evening, we both know, the only starting point and destination is the cafe or your cube. Not a meeting room, not the lab, ok, may be, the printer...

We walk on, with a brave face (no smile, no eye contact). For 10 whole seconds, we are both invisible. We walk on, aware and conscious of the other person. But never once acknowledge the other's presence. Then, we are about 5 feet away. He smiles and says, "Hi!" and I smile back. And we have crossed each others path one more time. And boom! like magic, we are visible again. And, we walk on.

Why should just looking at someone - for 10 seconds, be so uncomfortable? What makes us look away? What do we fear? That one of us, might learn some deep dark secret about the other, by just looking at each other?

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

what poetry? - II

Bumper Sticker Poetry!

Google poetry reminded me of this Israel hip hop group - Hadag Nahash. Who gained popularity with their - Sticker Song.

(please note, they were touring last year, in the US of A, so this poster has last year's dates.)

"The group's name literally means "Snakefish" (dag=fish, nachash=snake), but it is also a Hebrew pun. In Israel, people who have only recently gotten their driver's licences place a tag on their back window with the words "Nahag Chadash" ("new driver"). The name "HaDag Nahash" therefore indicates the group's ambitions, as a voice for the youth in Israel."

"One of their most famous hits is "Shirat Hasticker" (known as "The Sticker Song" in English), written by Israeli novelist David Grossman. The lines in the song are all direct quotes or plays on slogans that actually appeared at some time on bumper stickers in Israel, but the unique collage of opposing political slogans juxtaposed against apolotical slogans, parodies and so forth creates an angry irony." (Wikipedia, of course!)

From their (translated) lyrics:

"Wipe Out, Kill, Deport, Exile,
Exterminate, Extradite, Death Penalty NO FEAR!
Destroy, Eradicate, Overthrow, Mop Up
Everything for You, Friend!"

what poetry? - I

Google Poetry!

Found interesting 'poetry' last night, while listening to Salman Rushdie talk about his new book.

Ladies and Gentlemen, introducing - Google Poetry. (note: you will need real player to hear this. Will post the transcript, when it becomes available. Anyway, its always nice hearing good Danish accented English). The poet, Pejk Malinovsk, reads his creations in the audio clip.

How does Pejk create this poetry? He types in a set of words in google and creates his poem from the search results he gets. For instance, I looked for "I wish I could" and here is my poem.

I wish I could

I wish I could
have been there,
I wish I could
but I can't.

I wish I could
shimmy (like my sister Kate),
I wish I could
fly (like Superman).

I wish I could
read for the 1st time all over again,
I wish I could
do more ...

I wish I could
go back home,
I wish I could
remember you.

What is yours?