Wednesday, October 31, 2012

~ Prancing Horse: Patience, Passion, Performance ~



Yes, you read it right - Patience, Passion, Performance.  Those 3 Ps in the order is what it takes to deliver a Prancing Horse on the road. Actually those three adjectives are related to the people who work at Ferrari factory to produce the ultimate super car.

Loved the documentary on Ferrari by NGC under Ultimate Factories. It's more than a year old, July 2011 to be precise. It documents the various stages of the birth of Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano.


Tuesday, October 30, 2012

~ SEAL Team Six ~

A month ago I finished reading No Easy Day - The Autobiography of a Navy SEAL. Enjoyed reading the first hand accounts of the eventful night and the preparation that the SEALs go through.

Since it is an biopic, the book starts from the author's childhood goal of becoming a SEAL, the journey and the culmination after the OBL killing. Gives a common man a glimpse into the elaborate & much disciplined elite unit. Even though the names of many individuals are pseudo, the events gives an insight into how things work at the HIGHEST levels of power corridor - The Whitehouse. As the author puts it, the decision making goes through a lot of red-tape before getting a green signal despite elaborate planning & training.

The amount of research carried out by various analysts and how it was processed to finally conclude 100% accuracy of the HVT is very crucial to the Operation Geronimo. The secrecy thats maintained throughout the operation from various quarters within the army, till the execution,  is a major achievement for those who planned.

Enjoyed reading it. Looking forward to this one

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

~ Good over evil ~



We have all heard stories of Navratri and Dasara. Each have their own symbolic significance, but the social significance is completely lost in the ritualistic world. The tenth day which is referred to as Vijayadashami is the victorious day when Rama killed the Ten-headed demon king Ravana.

In the current world, if we mortals apply this principle of overcoming the evils of oneself.  Am sure we would transform as better individuals. It's a tough task for sure. I feel the hardest battle is always with oneself than with others. If thats understood then the world would be a better place for all.

Peace!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

~ Petrol | Food | Beer ~


The Vince brothers along with 6 others travelled 40 countries on bikes by themselves without any support. Their daily concerns were only - Petrol | Food | Beer, unless any other concerns occurred. This reminds me of the movies which I came across yesterday One crazy ride & Riding solo to the top of the world.

Hopefully, I get sometime over the weekend to watch them. Post that I can figure out which one of them is better :)

Update: 20 Oct 2012

Finished watching One Crazy Ride. As Gaurav Jani sums it up, craziness is in human mind and spirit, but not at the physical level. Once in a while we need to indulge in something that is crazy. Loved the documentary of 5 friends & their adventurous journey to the remote Eastern part of India - Arunachal Pradesh.

Update: 26 Oct 2012

Watched 'Riding solo to the top of the world'. Unlike the previous Crazy Ride, this one captures the journey of Gaurav Jani and his interaction with the nomads in Ladakh. After watching the documentary all I can say is that the hardships encountered by the Changpa nomads is much more than what we urban mortals experience. Jani takes a note of the belongings of the nomads. Their entire belongings apart from the livestock is very limited.

After watching the solo ride, don't know what to expect from the ride by Vince brothers for Petrol, Food & Beer ;)

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

~ Holy Cow ~


If someone narrated me Indian mythology with creativity and depth as of Anirudh Sainath then I wouldn't miss a single day reading them.




I came across the Artist Anirudh Sainath this Sep 19th during Ganesh Chathurthi via Nita's post on FB. When I first came across the Ancient History Album of Molee Art page, this is what I had to say then

Spellbound by the art & narration. Check out Brahma & read the description. Am sure if mythology is narrated with the best special effects then the movies - Avatar, Prometheus, Matrix, etc. would dwarf with the amount of science that existed way back. Thanks! Nita for today's wall post., discovered another artist :)



~ Parashurama ~

Today Holy Cow entertainment posted another work of art, on Parashurama - which is from Anirudh. As always I was impressed with the amount of reading & research that has been carried out by Anirudh to come up with his own interpretation & narrate the story. Am totally enthralled by the attention to details in all of his characters.

For Non-Believers, the mythology might be work of fiction during that era. Even if the content is taken as fiction, you will be impressed with the amount of knowledge, science & logic, possessed by those who wrote the texts. The works by Issac Asimov, be it Foundation Series or Robot Series may look dwarfed when compared to the texts of that time. In no way is Asimov's works any less {one should read it}. 

If you are fascinated by Indian Mythology or Art then do check out the Ancient History Album and subscribe to Molee Art. Am sure you won't be disappointed.

Image copyright held by Anirudh Sainath.

Sunday, October 07, 2012

~ Fire never dies ~


The documentary on West Indies cricket is a tribute to all the players & the people of the island nations who went through a lot of struggle to achieve social equality. 


The documentary is called 'Fire in Babylon'. It covers the journey of the West Indies cricket from the 70s till mid 80s. Suffering a ruthless defeat at the hands of Australia in 1975, sent Clive Llyod in search of the fast bowling talent across the Caribbean. Once Mr Lloyd had established the bowling attack - Rowe, Roberts, Garner & Croft. From then on there seemed to be no looking back for the West Indies Cricket team.





Sadly, the visiting Indian team were the ones who faced the mighty fast bowling attack. Indians just could not handle the pace & walked out by surrendering the game. 

England were the next to face the fiery attack with lot of injuries. Tony Greig, the English batsman, had an unforgettable *Grovelling* series :P

When the Windies visited Australians in 1979, they were taunted with visuals from the previous series. Those visuals only strengthened West Indies resolve to achieve victory. Australians for the first time had the taste of fast bowling & bodyline length, 4 years ago. Australians were getting used to the adage "What you give is what you get" :) 

While the W.I were visiting England in 1985, the English press politicised the West Indian bowling attack as 'Terror' who were more interested in hurting players than playing cricket. Despite all the change in rules to resist the West Indian bowling attack. The West Indies 'Black Washed' the English Cricket team 5-0. Could not have got any better than the 'Slaves beating the Masters' at their own game in their own backyard. 

The documentary is an eye-opener on how sports has played a key role in uniting the people of island nations & stand for their rights. They over came the harsh social inequalities of that time - RACISM. As the man says 'Test cricket is the test of character of an individual for 5 days'. The domination of Test Cricket from West Indies is just mind boggling. From Feb 1980 till Feb 1995, for 15 years the West Indies haven't lost a Test Series. Yes, 15 years. No other sporting team in any discipline has ever dominated a sport like that.

After watching the documentary, if I look at the cricket crazy nation in India. We do not come close to what the West Indies team have gone through and what they have achieved. Agreed that the times, tactics & rules have changed when compared to what it was in the 70s and now. The overrated Indian cricketers & frenzied fans in India should watch this documentary.

~ Little aren't little ~


I came across this quote about 'Little Things' just now & remembered the post I wrote earlier this week ;)
the little things? the little moments? they aren’t little
 - jon kabat zinn

Friday, October 05, 2012

~ Season of music festivals ~

The Great Indian OctoberFest 2012, Bangalore 12-14 Oct. 8th Edition seems to have a good line-up of artist. View the artists line: PDF | HTML | Atom | RSS

The Artists am looking forward to - Taalavattam, Shaair & Func, Advaita, Soulmate, Indian Ocean, Agam, Papon & East India Company,Benny Dayal with 'GROOVE #3',Children of Bodom,Shankar Tucker (T),Raghu Dixit Project

Well the color codes represents the artists performing on 12, 13 & 14 respectively. Take a look @ the HTML or PDF.

Slayer in Bangalore on 20 Oct 2012 | Rock in India

Santana performing in the city on 26 Oct 2012 | Vladivar Rock in India

Gojira & host of other artists performing 15 Dec 2012 | Indian Metal Fest

If you are an EDM fan then Above & Beyond are in town on the 10th Nov

Thursday, October 04, 2012

~ Little things ~

If little things can bring change to someone's life, then continue to do more such deeds. Such an effort in itself is a BIG step in life. 

Few minutes ago my colleague gave an update regarding the boy whom we helped last year.

"Just wanted to let you all know that the boy whom we helped last year has recovered from his ailment. 

Another few more months of treatment and he will be back to normal life. 

He just celebrated his 6th year birthday last week. 

Much appreciated help from all of you and keep up the good work. The boy's parents wanted to express their heartfelt thanks to SourceN."

This news brought smile. Feel I should indulge in such random act of kindness :)

~ Only Music ~



India's alternative/rock music scene had never been in the main stream till the last decade. Over the years many musicians / bands have got a lot of well deserved support from sponsors as well as fans.

Even though there has been steady flow of International artists who have been visiting Bangalore regularly. I have had a terrible experience last October during India's F1 debut. I had the taste of bad event management by a reputed Bangalore-based company. Am not sure if the crowd was partly to be blamed for the entire fiasco. But DNA ensured that Metallica gave no excuses when it came to performing on their home turf.

I definitely will not get over the not-so-memorable {F1-Metallica} Delhi trip. The trigger for this post is the young & energetic company, which am sure, will take the music festivals to a whole different level. The intent & attitude of this young company where music is the primary focus and the fans being the next. 

"One reason for NH7 Weekender’s success is its meticulous planning. “We literally made a list of all thechutiya things that happen at an event—we will not do it,” Nair explained. “It was a very big list—we wrote down about 70-80 points, saying these are the little, little things because we knew everything.” Work on the 2012 edition had already begun in January and yet, Nair claimed, they were a month behind schedule.

Knowing what not to do has come in large part from the fact that the OML team has spent considerable time, money, energy and air miles attending music festivals across the world. When I met Talwar, he’d just returned from a jazz festival in Turkey. Dhruv Jagasia, the man who executes Weekender on the ground, attended events in Glastonbury and Edinburgh—just to observe how mammoth festivals like these can be pulled off without glitches. “We’re the only chuts in India who start asking for permissions a year in advance,” Nair said.

As odd as it may sound, Nair’s manic obsession with an incident-free Weekender represents a break from convention in the history of music events held in India. Concertgoers are all too familiar with stories of shows being cancelled at the last minute. The much-hyped Metallica concert in Gurgaon last year is a recent prominent example. An hour before the show began, DNA Networks, the organisers who are 20-year-old veterans of the business, announced that it had been postponed by a day. An estimated 20,000 people rioted in response, smashing LED screens, sound consoles and drum kits; their anger was stoked by a lack of water and the long hours of waiting, which had only ended in betrayal. That night, Nair was in the lobby of Taj Mahal Hotel on Mansingh Road in New Delhi, supervising Lady Gaga’s press meetings ahead of her concert two days later. As he received updates about the fiasco, he reacted with calm incredulity. “It was a bit like Noam Chomsky watching the invasion of Iraq begin,” said Raghu Karnad, the former editor of the Time Out Delhi magazine, who was with him that evening. It’s a sharp contrast to the OML-organised concert held in Gurgaon in early 2011, featuring the electronic dance group Prodigy. An attendee told me that security guards handed out bottles of water to fans who had been standing for six hours and couldn’t get off the grounds.

Nair blames organisers in India for mishaps at events. They don’t apply for necessary permissions in time and frequently sell more tickets than the venue’s capacity. But he also attributes it to a culture in India where, he said, “people who pay money for concerts are not treated as consumers, we’re treated as wallets. Look at religious events abroad—there will be fucking production with huge sound, light… even evangelism will be done with fucking great production. Here, you go to a Baba Ramdev event, there’ll be 30,000 people on the ground with no toilets provided. There’s a general attitude that people can be taken for granted.”


Am sure that we will have some good festivals in the coming years. Wish Bangalore will be a regular destination on their timelines.

Am talking about the Only Much Louder (OML). The same people who were behind The Dewarists, MTV Sound Tripping, NH7 Weekender. I discovered that they had produced all those shows, after reading a well reported piece on Caravan - When the loud get going. It's a lengthy piece worth reading.

Move over DNA, OML is here now :) 

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

~ Character ~

A man's character isn't built in one day, it metamorphosis over time. The transformation isn't magical or by sorcery, rather conscious application of oneself in carrying out an action. Bringing awareness to your daily activities would make a lot of difference to how we deal with nuances of life.

The same can be applied to running a company as well. The trigger for this post, is another good writeup by Cap Watkins.

"Today, more than ever, the character of your company matters. With every decision you make, every feature you prioritize and de-prioritize you’re telling users who you are and what you value. Is your company one that prioritizes internal processes and hierarchy over shipping products? Is it one that puts shipping something over shipping later? Or do you take pride in regular, major releases even if they temporarily confuse and infuriate your users? All companies, including yours, develop patterns like these, both good and bad. Look back and honestly evaluate those patterns and see how they hold up against who you want your company to be."

For further reading, visit here.