Fall Colors...

Fall colors at my place are a rarity of sorts.. not quite a climate where in any part of the year the trees are willing to shed their green covers...but very rarely you will see a couple of trees like this. Shot this picture on one hot October afternoon near our apartment complex.

Somehow when it comes to climate, my vote has always been to India - no matter whether its humid or polluted, I have always felt great back home. Here with all cars and cleanliness, I dont feel that so. This India trip, it was pouring cats and dogs in Chennai - flooding after long time - I would have gotten headache just for not having got an hair cut here. But over there in India, even with my unkempt hair and going around in the flooded street with my crocs, havent had the slight pinch of illness.

You only miss something when are you not near it. India is great.

Iqbal - takes a hatrick !!!

I thought of making the title "hits a sixer" but then the movie "IQBAL" is about a bowler. Hence the hatrick in the title...

Recently I and my wife watched the movie "Iqbal" after a friend's recommendation and borrowing his DVD itself. It was very refreshing.

The movie is about a poor village boy, illiterate, deaf and dumb, but with incredible innate cricketing talent and desire to make it to the top. In spite of various obstacles, he teams with a local village drunk (amazing effort by Nasseruddin Shah), defies the odds and makes it all the way.

What caught our attention is -

• Just six main characters - in fact, a significant role is played by non-humans as well. Our own revered Kapil Paaji appears in the end to give a finishing touch. I felt 20yrs younger seeing my boyhood role model - the Haryana Hurricane.


• No stupid songs, no unnecessary scenes or dances, no masala, nothing cinematic at all.


• Amazing contribution by the cast - other than naseeruddin shah and girish karnad, no big names, which helps us see them as the character themselves.
  


• Inspiring music and pleasing cinematography which gels seamlessly with the story.

Though one cannot help thinking about Lagaan, this movie is markedly different from that. In fact, the only parallels I have seen are some sub-standard american movies about futball/baseball coach making a talented youngster great etc etc. But this movie stands apart with its simplistic yet powerful approach, sensible dialogues, great performances and non-cinematic approach. Subhash Ghai surely deserves praise that too long after I had branded him as show-man kind after the likes of Taal and Kalnayak .

I have to dedicate a paragraph to Naseeruddin Shah - role-defining performance of a cricketer-turned-drunkard. His eagerness in trying to convey a cricketing tip to Iqbal but being forced to wait for his sister's sign language translation - the expression/body language in that one scene - makes him a legend. He is an unsung talent deprived of his true credit by the masala world.

I never thought I would post a movie review in my blog. But it deserves it. My rating - "I would just say I ended up buying my friend's DVD itself immediately for my collection". BTW, the DVD quality is great, in particular audio fidelity. Please do NOT watch this movie for free online at least rent it. I am surprised this movie that got released in 2005 dint cross my radar till now. Better late than never.

Attached Photo is that of my own DVD from my D40. Had that Indian cricket-y blue color that was really cool.

Afraid to say out loud...

The current economic crisis because of credit markets freeze and housing downturn has helped me see some big picture here. Here with I have compiled some facts- these are stuff which everyone knows are true but afraid to say out loud or admit publicly ...

1. Capitalism can be made to look as bad as socialism if "worked" properly (read subprime, extreme deregulation etc).
2. Regulation or Government control is not always bad as capitalistic propaganda poses it to be.
3. Whatever creative euphemism you may come up with, interference of Fed Reserve in today's financial crisis and its bailout of institutions (read 700B $) is government interference - is socialistic.
4. No matter what, every system being put in place gives rise to an (un)imaginative evil-twin which can screw up that very system - be it trade unions (in communism) or wall-street-hawks (in capitalism).
5. People who accept the capitalistic propaganda (free market, deregulation etc etc) are none the wiser (or in other ways, equally naive ) compared to people who accepted communist propaganda. The only difference lies in who gets to milk the system and how long it takes before the crowd wakes up to it.

Now the most important ones - the fundamentals.

• Any form of economy ever put in place is conceived or will be conceived essentially by a human brain(s) and by law of nature, another human brain, either now or later, can hack it to its advantage.
• With the above said vulnerability, the life time of any flavor of economy is only as long as the components of the same (people, nations, banks etc) RESPECT and FOLLOW the norms of it, not in letters but in SPIRIT.
• A fail-safe economy can be put in place only by a creature superior to human beings by which time we will have bigger problems than interest rates and free market. (an off-shoot something said by Morgan/Goldstein here )

Attached pic is dedicated to the innocent citizens of either a communist or capitalist society who still believe in the system and play by the rules in spirit. The pic is that of my kid's toy taken at our patio with Nikon D40 in Manual exposure and manual focus. One of my first few tries with manual operations on D40.

Talk about Stance -- 2

Continued from previous post -

The Volte-face ....

• Senator McStupid initially stood for off-shore drilling but after realizing that its not going to fly with the energy prices of these days, is making hue and cry for off-shore drilling now a days.
• Obama was putting his weight behind ethanol fuel (influenced by his state's interests which produces corn a lot) and now after seeing food prices particularly corn skyrocketing because of corn used for ethanol than food, has softened his stance a bit.
  

Other related stuff -

• Obama site has a clear explanation of his tax policy and even sports a calculator that estimates your tax savings per his plan. McCain site has empty statements and heck it still talks about tax breaks to corporations under the now infamous adage of "wealth will trickle down the food chain". Talk about propaganda and brain-washing by communists in old days, looks like folks in USA are already brain programmed to think that capitalism of this sort will work. Capitalism is all about money/profits. Why would a capitalist in right mind want to pass on the wealth to his lowermost workers - be it wealth from business or tax benefits. While I feel the walstreet weasels should be summarily executed by hanging them publicly in Wall Street itself(like in middle east), people like McStupid still feel its meaningful to keep feeding the greedy.

Talk about Stance

One thing I learnt from my life in USA is - information is abundant but do your due diligence to find out the truth - American media is a stellar example. Even in the lame case of addressing a head of state, the so called neutral NPR (National Public Radio) sometimes refers to leaders of non-friendly states (read Russia, Cuba) as mere dictators, autocrats etc. Back home in India, we have arch rival Pakistan which has had its share of general-turned-dictators but never once I have heard them being referred to in mean terms by any Indian media no matter what trouble they cause across our borders. It has always been the official designation no matter how they gained it. Atleast the government owned media was like this.

Coming back to USA - recently I was surprised at the way CNN is covering the presidential campaign. While I liken CNN to India's Rediff in making news sensational etc., out of habit I still check it out regularly. The electoral map, other factual stuffs about the presidential race are great. Till last week, the major exposure and articles etc were all about Obama. But after the third debate, increasingly I see a leaning towards the right from CNN. I watched the third debate. While Obama was calm, collected and had substantial plans/answers to most questions, McCain, at best, was a whiner with vacuous political statements. If at all anything, even people with pea brains should be voting for Obama. CNN's stance of leaning towards right, if at all an indicator of nation's pulse, is nothing but dangerous. I was only reminded of Rajinikanth's stump speech way back in 1995. Applying it today's case would be - "If USA opts for McCain, only God can save USA". We all know Rajini's stance after the stump speech turned out to be a comedy of sorts. Lets see how USA votes. Forget about everything, I just dont want another war monger leading a super power and thats what McCain exactly is.

Today's pic - the different colored chilli peppers - taken in Pike Place Market in Seattle is dedicated to politicians like John McStupid - with their varied colored tongues/stance. In particular to McCain's statement just after Obama said he wont increase taxes for 95% of citizens - "Senator Obama is planning to increase taxes in this financial crisis and last time when Hoover did the same thing, a depression ensued" - I think his right ear was fractured by vietcongs else he would have heard what Obama said just a min ago. Senator McCain, you are not President Bush, but you are worse than that..

Okay, why am I, a non US citizen so concerned. The last time we had a stupid lead this super power, we ended up making the whole mid-east an unsafe place and ended up in financial crisis as well for rest of the world. Just a humane concern for the world thats all...

The enigma that is Photography

For the better part of my life so far, photography has always had its enigmatic grip over my imagination - I remember when it used to be a luxury to have a pic taken let alone own a camera, all the way to cameras with once-unimaginable-features becoming a commodity.

• I still remember the B&W photos of school anniversaries that my parents used to buy for me paying Rs.10 per print (way back in early '80s). They still cherish them - of course, its fruits of their labor of parenting.
• Then my (our) first camera, the mystical, Snapper 35 which had the bare minimums needed for taking a picture. Mind you, the camera itself was only Rs.135 or so (circa 1987). I still remember the Bruce Lee sticker that I pasted on top of the lens cover.
• Then the learning began, the first B&W roll we got for the camera. After coming back from a trip, I couldnt suppress my curiosity to look at the results that I actually opened the back door of the camera to see if the film has captured images correctly. I was expecting to see a negative roll there with pics but to my horror, learned later that you are not supposed to expose the film until its developed inside a dark room. Whole roll lost !! Surprisingly, father was not mad at me..
  
• Till 1995, flash was a luxury to have. Bought a HotShot flash for Rs.400 around 1995 for my cousin sister's marriage. Shot two full color rolls of Konica. Results were marginal at best with camera being bulky with the weight of flash and flash recycle time in today's metrics was snail-pace at best.
• College days of mine got captured in 9 albums - thanks mostly to my friends whose camera we used. Deepam color lab in Trichy was a regular stop during our final year city getaways.
• Back in Bangalore, I had to borrow my friend's camera (with an inbuilt flash this time) for my Father's shastiabthapoorthi. The qwest for camera with attached flash began. I was able to purchase one - Kyocera - directly from the electronics districts of Akhihabara in Tokyo (May2000) - 4000 Yen. Father was really happy to see that. But unfortunately we dint use that camera much myself even though the camera is still functional.
  
• Times changed - Digital camera captured the imagination after finishing MS. Bought the first digital P&S - Canon A70 (June 2004). One of the best cameras of its kind and time. It withstood all the rough usage and trips and took over 5500+ pics - some of them very good. This camera saw my marriage and my son's birth. Its LCD got flaky around August 2008 and paved the way for the first digital SLR. Canon repaired this at no cost and is still alive and kicking as if new.
• Nikon D40 - the best selling light weight digital SLR. Like this toy. Learning a lot with it as we speak. 2000+ actuations in mere two months.
  

Attached pic above of the "bee in the flower" taken with Nikon D40 at Olympic National Park. Aperture Priority with 18mm focal length. Had to really stoop down to the bee to get maximum bookeh. Some PP in Picasa.

Whats next - probably a prime lens or a wide angle lens that too only when my budget opens in early 2010 with approval of you-know-who....

The only picture of the Snapper35 that I was able to find on the net is here.

Seattle

My first trip to Seattle was in 2004 with 3 of my friends. Ever since, Seattle area has captured my imagination in more ways than one. Starting with Microsoft, Seattle is home to lot of good/reputed brand names - Starbucks, Amazon, Costco, Washington Mutual (not any more as we speak) - all these from a surprisingly unassuming and template neighbourhood of Seattle.

I made my second trip to this area this time as a family man with a kid recently for the 2008 labour day weekend. My first trip photos taken in the Olympic Rain forests area had enchanted my wife to a great extent. Hence we decided to spend a lot of time there in our trip.

We spent around 2 and half days outside of Seattle metro - in snowqualmie falls (half day) and in Olympics (2 full days - Lake Quinault, Hoh rain forest, Hurricane ridge and Sol Duc Falls). Attached pic is one from Sol Duc Falls. Labor day time frame is amazing in Seattle. Literally no rain for a place known for rainfall though the beauty created by rain during rest of the year still lingers there for one to see. I returned the raincoats we had bought for the trip !!! My wife put a quarantine on us visiting Mt. Rainier after I told her that its a volcano...I should have held it off till we reached the mount. But her cheer was short lived as she was literrally alarmed by all the tsunami warnings posted along 101 highway in the olympic area near the shores :-) Anyways, we got to see Mt Rainer in pristine glory from Space Needle and also from the highways across the lake Union if I am right. I was a bit saddened by some deforestation in Olympic area though there were claims of trees being replanted in equal amounts.

Visited our friend VRSridharan at Kirkland. Good trip overall and timely that too since I had just got my Nikon D40 a month ago. All pics in this blog that I took are from that. Would definitely visit this place again if I get a chance.

Why my son will make an excellent Fed Reserve Chief !!!

I desired to have my first blog post to have the picture of my son. Finally material presented itself that helped me achieve this that too using my fav topic of economics. With 2008 being an year of economic turmoil and all such stuffs, this post could not have come at a more opportune time. So here we go . . .

My rudimentary understanding of macro economics tells me about how the symbolic "interest rate" aka short-term lending rate steers the economy in the right direction. Typically in an economic downturn, the "Fed Reserve chief" tweaks the rate lower to stimulate the economy by making cheap credit available. As an when the economy picks up momentum, he/she tweaks it bit higher to keep a check on the exuberant economy from creating bubbles and also keeping tab on the inflation.

Folks, here I present, why my son, who is 2yrs old to date, is well qualified for the post of the Fed Chief, in my observation. For the past couple of months I have been noting his uncanny ability to keep my wife's emotions in check by changing his behavior. When she is very exuberant ("booming economy"), he ("Fed chief") suddenly becomes moody, less talkative, less active or even catches cold from nowhere ("increasing interest rate") and brings down my wife's cheers to normalcy ("economy stabilizes"). On the other hand, once she has landed or even down to the extent of worrying too much ("economic slow down"), he shifts gears and becomes very active, talkative, running around cheerfully, jumping on bed ("lowering interest rate") which brings my wife back to normalcy ("economy stabilizes") again. To complete the analogy, needless to mention, we all know the economy loves the Fed Chief and looks forward to him no matter we are in a downturn or a boom :-)