Something about Nothing

No one knows where he was born, or for that matter when he was born. He was a drifter, wandered hither and thither, found solace almost everywhere. Some people just ignored him; some people embraced him. He never complained. He was like an amoeba, after each brief rest, he would be divided - but the world requires only the fittest. Not all the amoebae survived. Darwin killed some with his famous “Survival of the Fittest” theory.

With great regret I announce the demise of the tag Rakesh and Utkarsh were playing with. Utkarsh made the mistake of tagging Maddy, and Rakesh the mistake of tagging Jayaram - two people who blog rarely, if at all. The other person to be tagged is me who has decided to write down this obituary.

Rest in peace O’ not-so-dear Tag!

Earth Car by Honda F1 Team. Looks beautiful [Source: Rediff]

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Technorati: Formula1, Honda, Earth Car, Video

Courtesy: Hugh Macleod of gapingvoid

It is true, there is more money in boredom…. Sigh

It is 10:20 and I am still stuck in the morning rush hour. In the past fifteen minutes I have crawled past MyHome Apartments, then Wipro, and now I am waiting in front of Cyber Tower. Surrounded by similar people, all techies, yet everyone unique. The number plates in front of me read like the map of India; there is a MH-12 (Pune), there are MP-09 (Indore) & MP-04 (Bhopal), there is a TN number, a UP number, a PY (Pondicherry/Punjab?), a GJ-01 (that would be Ahmedabad, or Gandhinagar?), I am on a CG-04 (Raipur) bike, and of course numerous AP numbers.

A small break in the crowd and I move ahead a bike-length. I am beside an auto, when a horde of eunuchs pounces on the people in the auto. The guy sitting near the entrance is nervous as hell, he is blabbering something but it is apparent he is scared. The other two guys are not paying any attention, one is staring straight ahead, and the other one has his gaze fixed on the sky oblivious to the racket surrounding them. The eunuchs have found their prey, the nervous guy is being hounded, he wants to bolt but his escape route is blocked. A twenty changes hands, and the eunuchs move on to the next auto.

Another break in the traffic, another bike-length traversed, and I am astride a car. I really pity the guys in cars. If on bike I take so long to negotiate this jam, what would be the state of people in cars?! One good thing about the traffic jams in Hyderabad is that there is no incessant honking. The horn is used sparingly, making the traffic jam not totally unbearable.

The signal turns green; I head on towards my destination. A bike runs parallel to me for few seconds, the rider smiles, shouts his thanks - I had pointed to the un-retracted side stand few minutes back - and breaks my reverie. I gear myself for the long day ahead, mentally preparing for work. I am all ready, but for one thing - a cup of hot cappuccino.

A week at home was well spent in eating, sleeping, watching TV, and reading books. My parents tried to shame me into exercising pointing at my growing potbelly, par kya kare moti chamri hain…

Coming back to the topic of the post, I am talking about the movies that are made on any book. I have read the whole Harry Potter series, and I have watched all the movies - none of the movies do any justice to the respective book. I agree that the Harry Potter books are voluminous, and trying to stuff all that information in a 150-minute movie is a stiff task. But it has happened many times, that friends who have not read the books, while watching the movie are unable to follow the sequence of events. For all these movies, I read the books first - none of the movies were up to the expectations.

The case was opposite for Jurassic Park, I had watched the movie long before I read the book; and I loved the movie. Now on reading the book I feel cheated. So many things have been completely ignored - the breeding grounds and the nests of Velociraptors, their attempt at migration; and the end was totally different. But I cannot complain here, Michael Crichton himself has written the screenplay. Another movie that disappointed me badly was Timeline, I thought it was one of the better sci-fi books, but the movie was really bad.

One movie that does justification to the book is Godfather. The book is awesome, and so is the movie. No subplots, no small details have been ignored. Both, the book and the movie are works of genius. I have not read Lord of the Rings, so cannot comment on that.

I think the authors would be getting mixed feelings when anyone approaches them for movie rights. On one hand it is a great compliment that your book is deemed worthy of making a movie on, but on the other hand the screenplay may turn out to be totally different from what is their in book.

Technorati: Books, Movies, Godfather, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Timeline