Who would have thought a clip from one of Rajnikanth’s forgettable movies would cross two million views same week the upstart company that hosts this very clip gets acquired by Google for a billion $ and a half.
What is more scary? Thavakalai (read, midget) break-dancing like no one’s business. Or, who is gonna get the next $1B .. and, for what idea?
It has been a while since I did anything on this site much less post some vetti stuff. Personally, I would call this silence of the deafening kind!
A colleague of mine once remarked to me that when following up with some one who has been very unresponsive try sending an e-mail with a short text, something like the silence is deafening followed by a smiley face.
You might be pleasantly surprised by the response you get!
At my work, we recently localized a sales simulation module for a customer into twelve different languages. When one of my team members was discussing the pros and cons of translating (read, localizing) content into so many languages, especially in this day of globalization, universal data and rearchitected Rosetta Stones, I got reminded of a famous quote by former German Chancellor Willie Brandt, “If I am selling to you, I must speak English. But if you are selling to me, dann mussen Sie sprechen Deutsch.” (then you must speak German). Well, this one still holds as TRUE as ever!
Bourne-again Damon’s supremacy is unquestionable in the screen adaptation of the *next* story, Bourne Supremacy, from the Robert Ludlum series. Well, we are in sequel times (read attack of the sequels). My geek compadres, I am not referring to SQL, pronounced sequel, Server. So hold your horses before you start off on a tirade on how we never did leave Oracle and DB2 to be even thinking about SQL, much less declaring present times as belonging to it. I digress but then again I promise that it will not be for the last time!
In a marketing effort to distance the movie from the sequel bandwagon, some reports have it that Universal has apparently positioned Supremacy as the *next* story in the Jason Bourne series (a la James Bond) and not as Jason Bourne – Part Duex. Indications so far have been that the opening weekend will gross more than $30M. So it only remains to be seen how many times beyond Ultimatum will Jason (sorry, Damon) be Bourne again.
Coming to the movie itself, the short – unless you are a can’t-wait-born-in-6-months-types, save this one for a DVD rental from your favorite store. That said, you will enjoy it more with a home theatre system and the company of vetti friends you used to hang out with in your undergraduate college.
The long can be broken down into the good, the bad, and the proverbial ugly.
The good – Jason Bourne wanders in der stadt playing cat-and-mouse with Dubya’s Intelligence Agency, aka CIA, without the help of James Bond-ean gadgets or Lord of the Rings-like special effects. From Goa to Napoli to Muenchen to Amsterdam (the movie does if not Bourne) to Berlin to Moscow to New York. If nothing, it is a visual delight and personally, a flash back for me, including my stay in room #476 at the Westin Grand. Though don’t ask me how close it is to 245, where Agent Landy stays in the movie. And then, there is Goa – shown in tropical and vibrant Indian colors. The scene, where the Maruti Gypsy is pulled out of the river with a crowded bridge in the background panorama, is especially remarkable – visually. Lastly, we have the car chase – Hyundai on Gypsy, in India. I was relieved that there were no Amritrajes driving auto-rickshaws!
The bad – Franke Potente and Julia Stiles are wasted. Joan Allen’s Agent Landy mouths clichés and is as predictable as the release of the *next* story after this one from the Jason Bourne series. Brian Cox and Karl Urban as the US and Russian bad boy, respectively, are adequate and mark their class attendance. Matt Damon does barely enough to collect his paycheck in the scenes where he wakes up after one of his recurring nightmares, as with all the scenes where he mopes the loss of Franke Potente’s Marie.
The ugly – Action scenes, particularly the fist-and-legs combat in Muenchen and the car chase, Lada Zhiguli on Mercedez, in Moscow. If the intent was B-grade blurry-cannot-hold-the-camera-steady visual delirium then there can be no further discussion on this subject. On a personal note, it is unfortunate that I have not had a chance to visit Goa yet, of all the staedten shown in this Bourne thriller .. a situation that needs to be addressed at the earliest!
Quote of the Day: “Italy is celebrating what could be its first woman prime minister… albeit, prime minister of India,” said the BBC.
… higher & costlier! There used to be a time when the dollar (USD) went a long way when travelling in Europe. Not anymore, evidentally, as we found out during our recent vacation in Deutschland and Italia. A triple whammy, if you will, and how so you might ask?
Firstly, the dollar is weaker than ever, viz., the near-parity days that I remember from early 2002 is a distant memory and lucky you are if you get around 76E to a 100Bucks.
Secondly, it appeared, at least in Germany, that they have retained the sale prices for items that used to cost up to 10DM but just changed the currency to Euros. There I was at my favourite Crepe stand at the head of KoenigStrasse in liebe Stuttgart with the missus, all ready to get as many crepes that my pocket change would allow and that which I thought would carry us through the rest of the day, when I was told, “Funf Euro Funfzig, Bitte!” for a couple of simple “Butter, Salz und Pfeffer crepes mit roasted Swiebelen und Krauter” … BAAAM! Thats when it hit me and I almost gasped, “You’ve got to be kidding me … aber das kostet nuer Funf D’Mark Funzip Pfennig in 2002, was passiert??” As much salivating as I had been doing in anticipation of what I had not had in over 2 years, I almost choked in Quixotic style upon letting out the gasp but recovered miraculously enough and in time to give the missus a “Fear not, what do they take me for .. a german tourist? ha, not this one, ma’am! Bring ‘em on .. I have things under control” look. At least, I thought I did! Reluctantly, reach out I did for my valet, pull out a 10E note, and gave it to the crepe vendor, even as he was ready with the balance change already. I tried to rationalize it as, “Think about the upside. On the way back, perhaps, my pocket change might even cover the cost of the crepes!”
Thirdly, spending budgets are not what they used to be from the good ol’ greedy days of the new economy. No, I am not referring to corporate budgets though truer words about them would be impossible to find presently. But am referring to that of the Average Joe Kudimagan (Tamil for Citizen).
To quote a phrase that I loathe, “this is not rocket science .. doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this one out .. or whatever blah + rocket science + whatever blah”.
Saw this somewhere: “Choose work you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”. I think the wise guy that actually said this is Confucius. Now, any sequitors on whether I presently work or not will be responded to with studied silence ;=)
Summer of 2001, I visited my colleague and friend Karoly in Gödölö (Click here to see some pictures), which is about 45 minutes drive from Budapest, in Hungary. Primarily a University town – mostly agricultural studies, I believe, Gödölö is home to the famous Schloss (castle) Gödölö. History records this castle as a gift from the Hungarian Parliament to Empress Maria-Theresia on the occasion of the reconciliation between Austria and Hungary. Maria-Theresia, affectionately called Sisi, was to the Austria-Hungary empire what Queen Victoria was to the British, with the notable difference of the former being MOTHER.
Two things I will remember most about Gödölö:
First, there is a statue of a horseman in front of one of the main University buildings. Nothing spectacular or distinctly remarkable about this statue. For the most part, it is garbed in bird droppings, grime, dirt, and what have you (not). However, one part of the statue that is still resplendent is the testicle area of the horse .. yup, shiny nice eggs. Karoly, self-appointed tour guide for my visit, told me that it was a tradition for girl students to touch the eggs prior to major examinations as a good luck begetting tradition. The shine, in contrast to the texture of the rest of the body of the statue, did seem to indicate that they were one lucky pair of eggs and were touched a plenty!!!
Second, as we were walking the streets of Gödölö, I could not believe my ears at what I thought I heard was playing at one of the cafes. It was very moving instrumental music, could it be Bollywood circa 1995? Could it? Naaa, … Nicht Moeglish! Here I was, parading the streets as the Alien Guest du Jour of this small town in Hungary, causing a lot of close encounters of the curious kind, and yet suddenly made to feel not so alien by this very familiar music playing in the most unfamiliar of places. This very familiar music ephemerally swiped the surroundings null and void and filled me with the kind of chimera that could only be described as a sum of feeling all at the same time – pride, nostalgia, appreciation, empathy, and belonged. It is the theme music, composed by A.R.Rahman, of the Bollywood blockbuster movie – Bombay, that I am referring to. Certainly, one of the few surreal moments I have had as a wandering nomad.
Listen to Bombay film’s theme music:
To conclude the story above, Karoly checked with the guy at the cafe how (where) he got this song (from) … he had no clue but conjectured that the owner got it from a visiting (indian?) student. We said köszönöm (kussy, if shortened) – Thanks in Hungarian, and walked on …
Kavignar Vaali, a 20th century Tamil poet wrote, “Kann pona pok.kile, Kaal po.galama” (Should the legs go all places that the eyes can see?). Ignoring the philosophical meaning of this verse and taking it literally for what it is, alas, the internet has made sure that what the eyes can see is limitless or limited only to what Google can see (guess, both are same anyways). As a consequence, the legs lust to wander the roads less (read, not) traveled, so much so that the motto is the slightly modified Robert Frost gem, “And, miles to wander before I sleep, ..” and not the Vaali Vari (verse) or a Vaa.liba Veri (youthful lust) … er, a Volley Ball, what?
Under wander lust, you can find travelogues from some of my trips on the roads more or less traveled!
Pronounced vet.tea pay.tchu, the phrase is from my native language, Tamil, but its relevance and existence is universal. Translated, it roughly amounts to *Worthless Banter*, which I am sure most of us are guilty of some of the times, some of us most of the times, and a select few almost all the time.
Without further qualification, be advised that thou shalt enter this section at your own peril to be at the receiving end of some mind-numbingly worthless banter.
inderSTADT and jambajaar are online monikers of this blog's primary author, Bala Gopalan. Bala is a Hi-Tech Entrepreneur, who is passionate about Travel Photography, Movies & Music, World History, chit.ambaram, Mechanical Timepieces, Cloud Computing and Web Presence Management. Note: postings on this site are thoughts and opinions of Bala and do not necessarily represent the position of his employers, past or present. You can connect with Bala through the following channels:
For lovers of Indian Music, do visit dhanyasy.org, a website on Carnatic Music by Dhanya Subramanian. A website maintained by Bala Gopalan.
.. a blur of my lens moment!