Death of the Individual?

There are several occasions where I have found myself desperately searching for a hero/model/ideal to look upto. Perfectly normal I guess. Everyone does.

What pisses me off is that fact that I know too many people who deify these role models to such an extent that they mould their frame of mind and attenuate their thought process to blend into that image. They stop thinking. They only believe. A belief that while some actions are justified, others can never be forgiven. They look at people as sets of properties/talents/resources. Those who fit in the image of their demi-gods(or themselves) are the ones they will consider discussing their borrowed thoughts with. "Stereotype and Reject" is their motto. Their points of view are suddenly facts and those of others are fiction.

The level of arroganceof the slave/god here surpasses any ordinary sense of superiority. These guys have a constant snicker going on inside represented by a perpetual smirk on their face. Bah!

I've come close to becoming 'these' people on several occasions and maybe I have. But each such occurrence makes me even more resolute about my convictions.

Well I do have a few words for these suckers : Get a life. Form opinions. Don't borrow them. Noone is perfect. And you definitely are NOT. At the same time, just because someone is not your ideal, he is NOT just another loser capable of nothing. Avoid being so predictable. If something impresses you, be inspired.. don't fuckin try to copy!!

I Duddit!

Abandoning the idea of writing a seemingly hortatory but rebarbative travelogue on my recent trip to Dandelli with my friends, I'd just like to say that this trip helped me immensely by giving me a much needed break from the SSDD routine. Awesome trip. Great Company. Feeling much better now.I feel good :D

Check out the pics here.

But before you leave, do read this poem that flashed my mind while staring at two pairs of fiery feline eyes probing us at night with only a 100 meters of forest ground seperating us..

The Tiger

TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

-William Blake

Chuck Norris

Amar had passed on this link . I died laughing for the next half hour!! These are amazing one-liners about Chuck Norris.

My personal favourites:

One time in an airport a guy accidently called Chuck Norris "Chick Norris". He explained it was an honest mistake and apologized profusely. Chuck accepted his apology and politely signed an autograph. Nine months later, the guy's wife gave birth to a bearded baby. The guy knew exactly what had happened, and blames nobody but himself.

Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know when Chuck Norris is going to kill you.

If at first you don't succeed, you are obviously not Chuck Norris.

At birth, Chuck Norris came out feet first so he could roundhouse kick the doctor in the face. Nobody delivers Chuck Norris but Chuck Norris.

New Look!

Finally learnt a bit of html editing and changed the blog template. I think it looks too bloody sexy! :)
The text is a bit tough to read but i've seen worse.
Comments please... any tweaks you think would make it look better....

The full circle (Arbit)

Aamir Khan. Narmada dam. Deforestation. Trees. Sandalwood. Kannada Film Industry. Rajkumar. Veerappan. Sandalwood. Deforestation. Forest. Black Buck. Salman Khan. Andaz Apna Apna. “RajKumar” Santoshi. Khakee. Aishwarya. Salman Khan. Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Ajay Devgan. Kajol. DDLJ. Shahrukh. Pepsi TV. Priyanka Chopra. Blackmail. Sunil Shetty. Khel. Jadeja. Ganguly. Nagma. Baagi. Salman Khan.

Freedom Forever

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

Style. Something the Wachoski brothers have mastered in the process of the making of The Matrix trilogy. Attitude. Something Hugo Weaving has fine-tuned and carried over from the deadly Agent Smith to the deadlier V. Revolution. A never-say-die theme that has been resurrected after decimation into a million Che T-shirts by other albeit less compelling media and events. Together, it is poetry.

Let us remember the 5^th of November.

Guy Fawkes had attempted to blow up the British Parliament on the 5th of November, 1605. He failed. More than 430 years later, Britain, the new global Superpower has been turned into a totalitarian regime under the insane High Chancellor Sutler. Natalie Portman of the Star Wars fame, plays Evey Hammond, an assistant in the government controlled BTN Television Network. She is rescued by V, a stranger in a Guy Fawkes mask, in an incident at night when she is accosted by unfriendly ‘fingermen’. He provides her with the introduction given above and shows her the perfectly orchestrated destruction of the Old Bailey building.

He goes on with his saga of destruction letting people know who he is and what he wants to do. Slowly the story behind V and his dark painful past uncovers as he settles old scores in poetic elan leaving behind a Scarlet Rose as a symbol of his presence.

In a recorded tape which he broadcasts to the entire London, he urges them to join him in his revolution and lets everyone know that in the coming year, on the 5^th of November, the British Parliament would be blown up. The rest of the movie is how he goes about executing a perfectly laid out plan, in between which, a struggle between ideologies, within everyone, is explored beautifully. There is a breathtaking scene with dominos falling in the shape of V when Inspector Finch realises that ‘somehow, it was all connected’.

A revolution without a dancing is a revolution not worth having.

The dialogue is exceptional. Shakespeare and Voltaire are heard in numerous places in the movie. V is not just an extraordinarily strong man blinded with hate, he is a master cook and loves listening to classical music and definitely knows how to dance. He sure is well read with all the classics and other tomes found in his ‘Shadow gallery’.

Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.

I haven’t seen Rang De Basanti. But I believe there are more differences between the two than anything remotely similar like the idea of revolution. V is darker. Way darker. It is about oppression, revenge, tyranny and against all these, the element of hope. Sure, there are unbelievable parts here. But wait! This is based on a comic! And I believe that such issues should not be considered worth an argument just like radioactive spiders were not questioned in Spiderman.

There are several ideas in V that are highly relavent like the influence of media on the common man and its manipulation by people in power. The principle of peace, which is lost in the trials and tribulations of the oppressed. A feeling called vengeance, which is the by-product of never ending hate. The fact that no matter how scarred one gets, there is still something human. The idea of revolution, and placing this idea above everything else.

V for Vendetta is beautiful. Brilliant. Classy. Watch it.