Dreaming without an alarm in Bombay

I've been wanting to blog for quite a while now. Much has happened in my life and there has been a dramatic turnaround of sorts. Wasn't getting time of sorts to get around to doing it and was also a feeling a touch awkward about blogging about stuff that I hadn't told people as such. Anyways, here goes some long overdue blogging.

Life update in short - I have bid good bye to software engineering, EMC Corp (where I interned for six months) and Bangalore. Presently I'm in Bombay and working as a content writer at www.pagalguy.com which is one of India's top MBA preparation sites and is host to the largest online community of MBA related folks.

Detailed update for the blogosphere - While I was interning at EMC in Bangalore I had trotted over to Bombay for a week's trial at PG. (I haven't heard of any other company which has this trial deal. Probably it's only possible at a start-up but after having gone through it I can say that such a system should be there at other companies especially for people in their twenties. I'm sure if software biggies had a trial period and other choices were available for lost engineers then most of them wouldn't join a software firm!) Anyhow, the trial was fun. pagalguy.com is a startup and there are all of ten full-time employees at this company. After having undergone a six month stint at a 'good' company like EMC Corp, it's truly refreshing to work at a place where people talk normally, play music occasionally, don't meet just for the bloody heck of it and ya are basically chilled out but serious about work.

When I was considering making this career switch, a lot of people simply got flabbergasted that I was considering something like a full-time content writing job after having gone through four years of I.T. engineering. Well, if I had got through IIM A and decided to take up an MBA or gone for Jamia Milia Islamia for mass communication then I don't think many people would've bothered asking me, "So Harsh, do you feel that your engineering degree has been a waste?" I mean, give me a break for Christ's sake. I would love to have a discussion about the function of education as regards work. No problems with that but with straight jacketed thinking? Oh yes! People just seem to think on different lines. Their whole deal is, the entire world bitches about work life, just works for the money at the end of the month, 'learns' to start liking jobs (a touch of arranged marriage ideology here?) and here you're thinking of a considerable pay compromise to go for this vague ass content writing job at this unheard of company (for people who don't know the web and MBA market in India) in BOMBAY! "How will you manage there? It's sooo expensive there man! Difficult to survive there.." Thanks for the advice folks. Think I know myself well enough to know what I should do and dare I say, I can manage in this "mean city" which I've kind of fallen in love with. More about Bombay, the life, work and people I see in this city in future posts.

As for the title, I generally trot over to work at around eleven. No need to set an alarm. Also manage to go for a jog in the morning. Oh, and this is a foot in the door which leads to a lot of things methinks.

Me or whatever the heck 'me' actually means?

I'm quite interested in sun signs, astrology and the intricacies that govern human interactions. Don't know much about graphology but it seems to be quite an interesting way of psyche analysis. I firmly believe that the way in which a person writes can shed a lot of light about the person's character and individuality. Well, graphology attempts to investigate a person's nature through his handwriting. Fair enough, isn't it? (Though I dunno how much time people spend writing on paper these days. Probably some day, we might have some science of analysing the way in which a person types!) I stumbled upon this. People often say ,"I'm not this. I'm not that! Blah blah blah.. I'm just me". That does sound gassy and vague to me. What I do get is every person has a certain essence or core which is difficult to put in so many words. This handwriting analysis does seem to have summed me up at a certain level. Not much in it that I disagree with. Maybe I'm biased. Maybe.. What do you say?

Harsh is moderately outgoing. His emotions are stirred by sympathy and heart rendering stories. In fact, he can be kind, friendly, affectionate and considerate of others. He has the ability to put himself into the other person's shoes.

Harsh will be somewhat moody, with highs and lows. Sometimes he will be happy, the next day he might be sad. He has the unique ability to get along equally well with what psychology calls introverts and extroverts. This is because he is in between. Psychology calls Harsh an ambivert. He understands the needs of both types. Although they get along, he will not tolerate anyone that is too "far out." He doesn't sway too far one way or the other.

When convincing him to buy a product or an idea, a heart rendering story could mean a great deal to him. He puts himself in the same situation as the person in the story, yet he will not buy anything that seems overly impractical or illogical. Harsh is an expressive person. He outwardly shows his emotions. He may even show traces of tears when hearing a sad story.

Harsh is a "middle-of-the-roader," politically as well as logically. He weighs both sides of an issue, sits on the fence, and then will decide when he finally has to. He basically doesn't relate to any far out ideas and usually won't go to the extreme on any issue.

People that write their letters in an average height and average size are moderate in their ability to interact socially. According to the data input, Harsh doesn't write too large or too small, indicating a balanced ability to be social and interact with others.

Harsh will demand respect and will expect others to treat him with honor and dignity. Harsh believes in his ideas and will expect other people to also respect them. He has a lot of pride.

Harsh will be candid and direct when expressing his opinion. He will tell them what he thinks if they ask for it, whether they like it or not. So, if they don't really want his opinion, don't ask for it!

In reference to Harsh's mental abilities, he has a very investigating and creating mind. He investigates projects rapidly because he is curious about many things. He gets involved in many projects that seem good at the beginning, but he soon must slow down and look at all the angles. He probably gets too many things going at once. When Harsh slows down, then he becomes more creative than before. Since it takes time to be creative, he must slow down to do it. He then decides what projects he has time to finish. Thus he finishes at a slower pace than when he started the project.

He has the best of two kinds of minds. One is the quick investigating mind. The other is the creative mind. His mind thinks quick and rapidly in the investigative mode. He can learn quicker, investigate more, and think faster. Harsh can then switch into his low gear. When he is in the slower mode, he can be creative, remember longer and stack facts in a logical manner. He is more logical this way and can climb mental mountains with a much better grip.

Harsh is a practical person whose goals are planned, practical, and down to earth. This is typical of people with normal healthy self-esteem. He needs to visualize the end of a project before he starts. he finds joy in anticipation and planning. Notice that I said he plans everything he is going to do, that doesn't necessarily mean things go as planned. Harsh basically feels good about himself. He has a positive self-esteem which contributes to his success. He feels he has the ability to achieve anything he sets his mind to. However, he sets his goals using practicality-- not too "out of reach". He has enough self-confidence to leave a bad situation, yet, he will not take great risks, as they relate to his goals. A good esteem is one key to a happy life. Although there is room for improvement in the confidence catagery, his self-perception is better than average.

Harsh is sarcastic. This is a defense mechanism designed to protect his ego when he feels hurt. He pokes people harder than he gets poked. These sarcastic remarks can be very funny. They can also be harsh, bitter, and caustic at the same time.

Harsh has a healthy imagination and displays a fair amount of trust. He lets new people into his circle of friends. He uses his imagination to understand new ideas, things, and people.

You smiling by any chance? Thinking that this slippery bugger has finally been nailed?? Well, leave your thoughts, take the test and share with me the beautiful dirt that it polishes and presents to you :-)

Unravelling the science of cinema contd

Aaahh.. It's been a while since I blogged. It's not as if nothing much has been happening. Quite the contrary in fact! Lots of stuff happening and lots will be shared on this platform. Less time to kill these days and I'm quite liking the glimpses of the world that's awaiting for me. Cryptic? Maybe. Interesting? Oh yes! Details? All in good time :-)

I didn't share all the interesting things that were discussed at the film appreciation workshop in my last post. As I promised, I have come back to pen down more thoughts from that memorable weekend. Here goes.

In the last post I spoke about the issue of form and content. On the first day of the workshop we were shown a film which was shot somewhere in Africa. South Africa if I'm not mistaken. The film was a story involving a dog, a black boy and a white man. The scene which will stick in my head for a while happens in the first few minutes of the film. The dog is in a sack, the white man beats the sack and orders the boy (who is his slave) to open the sack. The boy protests, "The dog will think that I beat him!" His master refuses to budge and forces him to open the sack. I won't get into the details of the story but it was a touching story of the man ordering the boy and the dog being in a sense slave to the boy. However, because of that incident the dog nurses a hatred for the boy. The white man has tampered with the dog's reality. I was quite impressed with the film. Left me savouring the fact that I had just seen a very powerful film. It was through the discussion that I understood what the filmmaker had aimed to portray. It wasn't a tiff between two people over a pet. Far from it! It was a film about the colonisation of Africa. The metaphors and parallels that can be drawn by way of film is simply amazing!

Prof. Hari Haran also waltzed us through the opening scene of Ray's classic, Charulata. It's an eight minute long scene and even though I don't know much about cinema, I wouldn't be surprised if it's considered to be one of the best examples of Indian film making. It's a scene with very little dialogue. Charulata is the story of a rich housewife who is lonely but is extremely curious about the world. The opening scene ends with an amazingly powerful shot in which Charulata looks at her husband who's standing a foot away from her. She looks at him through binoculars! And when Hari Haran dissected the scene, it was just so clear what kind of a superlative film maker Satyajit Ray was. To give you an example to illustrate this, Charulata is based on Tagore's novel called Nastanirh. Charulata means "The lonely wife" and Nastanirh means "The broken nest". In brief, the book and film are quite different. In this scene, Charulta goes up to her bookshelf and stands there cooing "Bankim, Bankim" while picking out a book by Bankim Chatterjee. This is Ray signaling that he's not going with Tagore. Exquisite, isn't it?

There were a few short films that were screened at this workshop. A wonderful wonderful short film shown was 'Maestro'. I don't know how easily available it is but my word, it's an absolute must watch! It's an animated film and has this character having every move of his being programmed by an unknown gadget. He comes through as being a powerful person who has each and every need of his attended to. There is a subtle circular motion that is present during the film. And this character is going through a routine which seems as if he's been doing for a long long time. The film ends with this character emerging out of a grandfather clock as the cuckoo! A cuckoo is a 'Maestro'?! ("Each one of us is a king!",Akshay Kumar at the AAIFA awards promoting his film "Sinngh is Kinng")

How does one know that the villain in a movie is the bad guy? Is it the way he looks? The way he talks? His family or his upbringing? Is there a science behind it? Yes, by all means. He is the person whose actions cannot be explained by a motive. Think about it. If you were to know that the 'villain' is killing everything in sight of him because of things that he saw when he was a harmless two year old, would you brand him as villain/bad guy?

Why is it that Hollywood produces so much better scripts that Indian movies? More than 90% of Hollywood's films are based on novels. And in India, it simply doesn't pay to write. Simple. Another point of difference is the fact that Hollywood movies are either out and out musicals or have no song and dance routines. Why?! According to Hari Haran it's purely because of commercial reasons. Hollywood forged ahead with the music video industry while India didn't. Quite an objective analysis, isn't it?

I think that's about it from this wonderful weekend! Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and if you made it through both the posts from beginning to end then I'd like to bump into you someday. We just might become friends, if we aren't already ;-)