CAT & MOUSE

Mukund was on the terrace studying for his Science test. His face was a picture of concentration, eyes fixed on the book he had in his hands. He was reclined on the terrace wall facing the small entrance to the wide open area, which had been his favourite study area since his childhood. He would walk about, book in hand, loudly repeating the concepts, willing his mind to memorise the contents.

This terrace was special for him for another reason. One had to climb a set of pegs fixed in the wall to reach the terrace, almost like climbing a vertical face of a cliff. This made it difficult for his mother to come and check on him to see what he was up to. When someone managed to climb the pegs, their head used to come up first, giving Mukund ample time to do what needed to be done to put up a good face.

Mukund looked up from his book to the opening to the terrace. No one had come up yet. He went back to his novel which was well concealed within his science book. The story was at a very gripping stage. He was in the middle of “The Black arrow”, the recent novel he had borrowed from his school library. He was allowed to borrow one book every week. Mukund had always felt that this was an unfair rule. He usually finished his book on the same day that he borrowed it and had to wait an entire week to return and get a new book. Today he had been fascinated by this book by Robert Louis Stevenson and after reading the synopsis, decided to read it.

The book was at a crucial stage. He was at a scene where the protagonist shot a black arrow into the room. Mukund removed the science book that had provided the cover for his clandestine operation. “Only for a short while”, Mukund told himself as he rested the book more comfortably in his hands. Mukund was holding his breath reading rapidly. The sun had almost set and light was diminishing every minute. Suddenly, he thought he saw a movement near the entrance to the terrace. Yet, he could not tear away from the dramatic scene unveiling between the covers of his book. He reluctantly closed the book and looked. The problems of getting caught were worse than the ache of not finishing the book. He can always get back to the scene later. He walked slowly to the entrance and looked down at the pegs that led to the terrace. And he saw the pony tail of his sister disappearing fast into the house. He instantly knew what had happened.

Since it was difficult for his mother to climb the steep set of pegs, she never used to come up. But his little sister, Malini, had no such constraints. She had the habit of sneaking on him and running off to his mother ratting him out if he was not studying. Today had been one such case. He was caught. He had been very careful all this while, and the moment he had taken his science book off, he had been caught. He mumbled something in irritation and started rapidly climbing down to catch his sister.

He knew the ritual. She would run, he would chase her and cajole, bribe and finally threaten his sister not not rat him out. Despite all that, she would start off with an impish smile on her face..”Ammmaaa…Do you know what Mukund was doing on the terrace?…” His mother would not be interested. But Malini would press on..”There was a new story book with him…”. Usually, his mother would not worry about it. She had inculcated his habit of reading books. However, she never took it lightly if Mukund was reading novels when he must be studying. Especially, with a science test the next day.

Today was different. Mukund came to an abrupt stop when he entered the house. Malini was standing there sombrely looking at him. Malini was 4 years younger to Mukund, but she knew when she was in control of a situation. 

“I heard you had an important science test tomorrow”, she started. Mukund just walked past her. “Yes, I just finished studying for it” he responded.

“The cover of the book did not look like your science book”, she ventured. Mukund turned around to face her.

“You keep this with you. Don’t go blabbing about all of this to Amma”. His voice was menacing, but Malini could hear the anxiety in it. She smiled.

“I need something from you. That new ink pen that you got the other day. I like it”

Mukund was relieved. The usual demand would be for chocolate bars. He would have saved a few from whenever some relative dropped by and gifted them. Malini used to gobble her bar within a day. Mukund used to eat small pieces of the bar everyday. That way it would last longer. 

“Sure, why not. I have other pens.” He said gruffly and started walking downstairs to the living area.

“Aannnd..The remaining chocolate that you have in the fridge..”

Mukund closed his eyes. There it was. He was not in the mood for this negotiation. He turned towards her. “Have the entire thing in the fridge..But you better keep your side of the deal..” he warned again.

“Done” Malini replied.

The rest of the evening went about without any mention of the events earlier that day.

The next day, Mukund was returning from school. His mind was in two places. One was in the scene from the novel. What had happened to the black arrow that was shot? He needed the closure desperately. On the other hand, he had made some silly mistakes in the science test that day and had lost marks. He knew no one really cared about these marks, it was just a regular test. Still, he was irritated with himself. He picked up his walking pace. He would now sit with a plate of tasty upma, which his mother would have prepared, and finish the book. He could have enjoyed the last pieces of chocolate he had kept in the fridge as well, but Malini had gobbled it up the previous evening. He had to do something about the surveillance on the terrace. Some early warning system perhaps. Something to tell him when someone was climbing the pegs. That’s a good idea. He could experiment it out over the weekend.

He reached home and quickly changed, washed up and went into the kitchen. His mother was preparing a plate of upma for him.

“How was the science test?” she asked.

“It was OK. I made some silly mistakes, but nothing much..” Mukund replied

His mother turned around to look at him. She was looking annoyed. 

“Do you know what I found on the terrace when I went there earlier today?” she asked

Mukund froze. In his hurry to stop Malini the previous evening, he had completely forgotten the novel that he had left on the terrace. It had been lying there all this while.

“If you had been concentrating on your science test, you would not have made those silly mistakes” She started.

Mukund knew what was in store. He was not going to finish the book today after all. He obediently listened to the lecture and promised not to repeat it again.

“Good..”His mother completed. Mukund took the plate of upma and walked to the balcony to finish his tiffin in peace.

“If Malini had not misplaced her socks and not asked for my help to look for it on the terrace, I would not have known about the book..” his mother continued.

That little imp. Mukund came back to the kitchen and placed his plate on the table and started walking towards the living area.

“What about your tiffin?” His mother called out. 

“It can wait” He shouted back. “There is something I need to discuss with Malini”

It was going to be a memorable evening.

THE END

To code or not to code

I have seen a lot of youngsters with this fear. I dont know if it merits a term along with other phobias, but certainly, it is way too unnecessary to have the fear in the first place.I am talking about the fear of programming. I am not sure about why people end up in this state, but I would surely pin point the basic education in Indian schools to be the culprit.
Whatever damage that might have been done till now doesnt matter. It is up to the person to come up to the knowledge and fact that it is what is needed for the future.

Let me see how a person starting his computer education in atypical Indian school progresses. He starts with the basic knowledge of what a computer is and what he can do with it. The second part mainly focusses on the different applications and their use cases. This learning goes on for another 2-3 years, after which the school deems him mature enough to move on to the basics of programming. Now, a dramatic change occurs. The whole learning class gets split into two groups. One which understands what really happenned and the other which has no clue about what was happenning. The first group does not have any problem as it steers its way through its course and ends up meeting its destiny. The second group totters through the courses without understanding what really was going on in those classes.

The story so far has been the most important reason for most of the young community shying away from the computing world, and letting themselves be satisfied with the normal uses of the computer Worse, some even enter the software development industry with this background.

All I wish to convey from this is that though our basics might be faulty, there is always a chance to jump back.For that I would like to remove the common myth of programming. People talk. They talk using a language. Both parties understand the language. Thus they communicate. Imagine that you wish to ask your computer to do something for you..That is what a computer is for right..To do things for you. And to ask it to do things for you, all you need is to communicate with it. How? you have languages. There is no need to immediately think of any specific contemporary computer language immediately. Before that the person needs to understand how computers understand what you say. Once that is through, you have a thousand ways to tell it what you want. This is programming!!! No difficulties.

Anyone with programming experience would be able to tell the joy of writing a computer program and the satisfaction of seeing it work. The more complex your requirement, the more your satisfaction. Why do you think people organize coding contests on the internet? The sheer joy of solving a problem is more than the joy of winning.

One evening at the movie theater

Are babies/toddlers cute? Please don't give a hasty reply. Consider the word cute in all the multitudinous scenarios that can have babies in them. Sleeping, eating, at the park, at the bottom of the dining table doing the usual thing that babies usually do especially when the dining table is used for the usual thing that dining tables are normally used for, at the theater...ah...There's the catch...Not very hasty now in giving the answer...Are we?

It was just the usual weekend at the nearby cinema and everything is just perfect. But as Neo would probably say, "perfect" is just a word. Just as all perfect things come to a grinding crash, this evening was no exception. In came a young couple with a small ticking device called a b-a-b-i-e. One may wonder what a b-a-b-i-e would do in a cinema. I had the very same doubt. I also had a hazy vision of the future of this seemingly entertaining evening and hoped that what I had in mind wouldn't happen.

All was smooth. The hero came, did some...stuff...and then the rest of the cast came and did their stuff and all were happy. And then it happened. The hero was about to deliver some heavy duty punch dialogue and pounce on his adversary when..."waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaahhhhhh" went the b-a-b-i-e...Not cute at all...Imagine this. Pin drop silence, and then in the middle of this, a high pitched squeal. OK, nothing that bad. It was just a baby. And just behind me..of all the people..Not shabby at all. It was just a toddler. It knew nothing about being silent and watching the movie in a theater. It would slowly learn it when it grows older. And the movie continued. Again the trumpet went off. "Somebody muzzle that small loud speaker". All kinds of questions pounded in my head. What kind of debilitated couple would think of bringing  a kid to see a movie which I believe they are quite sure the kid would make no sense of? OK, I assumed that they wished to watch the movie. Very funny. Why not play with the kid and pass time at home? My thoughts were cut short by another loud squeal. I suddenly realized that the movie was still running and I had missed some really juicy scenes. I had to do something. I made the pretense of turning around and giving an irritated look. Luckily for me, the father took the hint and to the relief of the whole crowd, took the bawling b-a-b-i-e out.

And after a few this and that, the movie ended. My first thought was to take a closer look at the geniuses who brought that b-a-b-i-e to the show. They had escaped!

Seriously, are babies cute? I would say, only when sleeping, when trying to be cute, when posing for photographs (the photographer sure won't agree with me), in the park all dressed up looking like a colourful slightly bigger than normal football, while sleeping (needs a re mention) and...I think thats it. If there are people who disagree, I would suggest they take a day off and be with one of those man-cubs for one whole day. I had the pleasure of being with one for one whole hour and I have been driven to write this post, which I am sure would cause a lot of resentment around. Anyway, A word of advise...If ever..ever you spot one of these b-a-b-i-e in a cinema hall in a movie that you really wish to watch, forget it....your evening is already ruined.

Clash of the Titan and?

There is always something to spoil movies about Greek mythology - Troy, 300 to name two of the latest ones. And one thing that always happens is that the story is twisted to suit the modern day whatever-crap-the-hero-does-is-awesome story line that sells. The latest in line, Clash of the Titans, wanted to merge all kinds of Greek stories in one, add a bit of romance (no kissing though...Sam Worthington should be disappointed...Anyway, the audience sure was...) and have some nauseatingly clichéd “punch” dialogues here and there.

The title says clash of the titans...But the whole story involved only one titan till the end...As such a titan that defeated the original titans (no mention of them after the introduction). Anyone who had been an ardent reader of Greek mythology in their pre-teens and teens and those who had played Microsoft studio’s (pretty decent) Age of mythology and its (pretty decent) Titans expansion pack would be disappointed with this movie. Why? It missed that extra kick that is usually there around Greek stories. The Gorgon medusa (The word gorgon was not in the movie though) was made pretty looking, but at least they stuck to the description of her hair of snakes. Her un-cuttable-head part was missed out. Her being one of three sisters was missed out. For those really wanting to know more about the actual mythological story of Perseus and the Gorgon medusa, just pick up a book from any school library, or refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusa if you failed to find any such library thing in Stavromula Beta.

As I said, the movie does not involve “Titans” as the title suggests. There is just a brief peek at the Kraken which qualifies for a titan. But it comes and does a few things with its tentacly appendages and then our hero does his usual lame stuff to kill (kill, destroy, vanquish...whatever) it. There is no Titan vs. Titan high power graphic stunts involved, much to the disappointment of the aforementioned fans.

The Greek gods were shown in very poor light; some scenes were even funny where Zeus teaches a king a lesson by doing the king’s wife.  Sam Worthington as Perseus doesn’t talk much...Just shouts here and there and rushes into things. There is a scene where he tries to make some heroic speech and ends up creating juicy stuff for a spoof movie (which is a sure thing. But wouldn’t be as funny as "Meet the Spartans" which had a lot of fodder in the original movie.)

The movie posters say “From the hero of Avatar” which in itself gives out a message saying “We are promoting this movie with the success story of another hit movie. The hero of the other hit movie is in this movie. So it is worth watching”. There are two veteran actors apart from the “hero of avatar” in the cast- Liam Neeson as Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as Hades who have done justice to their roles which is absolutely not the reason to watch this movie according to the promoters. Not to forget Gemma Atherton from Quantum of Solace who does a good job looking cute.

The graphics was really done well with face transformations done with flair. As such, the movie is a visual treat, but lacks that extra punch to back it. Surely a onetime watch for those who wish to spend their weekend in an air-conditioned theatre to avoid the inexplicably bizarre power cuts in an equally bizarre city.

An exquisite comeback

Welcome back Disney!!!!
I recently had a chance to visit the video library after a very long time and I was pleasantly surprised to see "The princess and the frog" in the newbie list. I wondered as to what made the library dig out something from their archives and display it in the newbie section. But then, as I always did, I took a look at the synopsis and whoa...This was a new movie..Disney had a traditional animation movie out when the biggies were making Avatars and UPs and Ratatouilles. No, this wouldn't stand a chance.


Something in me suddenly projected images of Simba and Mufasa from I dont know somewhere in the deepest recesses of my mind and I had the sudden urge to see what this movie was made of. Well, here I am.

I have no words to praise the movie enough. Disney, Hats off to you. I was tapping my feet to the jazz and the music, and I just didn't know where those 100 minutes went. The characters were awesome and as usual, the female characters were made really cute and outstandingly beautiful. The villain..my my, He had the eerinesss of Zafar and the sheer cunning of Scar. But more of him later. The characters' faces tell us what the character is-Cute but spoilt or Cute and Cinderella-ic or the role model father, everything was exactly what they were supposed to be. Something last seen in Lilo and Stitch, the cute comedy, was back. And there was something Pixar-ish about the whole making-you-cry-with-sentiment aspect of the story. On the whole it was a whoooo ride for a good 100 minutes.

The story is not what I thought it was initially as what I thought was totally restricted to my days of drooling over fairy tales. The story has been delightfully twisted and turned to make us wonder where we were going and then just when you thought everything was all clear, something pleasantly surprising springs up to tells you...Not yet..but Almost.

The story is about a young waitress Tiana whose dream is to realize her father's dream of a restuarant with all the fancies that a young lady of her age would dream of. But, as it would have it, she has no money and no way to get enough of it. Add to it, a spoilt but devoted childhood friend, Charlotte, of a rich and pampering father whose dreams are of marrying the charming Prince Naveen. Now, pull out of this Naveen the usual prince Charming and add to him a few spoons of Emperor Kuzko and remove all the money and you got yourself a dumb and arrogant prince, just what is needed to fill the gap. Now, this prince gets into a teeny tiny conversation with a local Shadow man, Facillier, who turns him into a frog and his assistant into the prince using voodoo. Now, this Facillier has the thing with all the baddies of the "other side", who provide him with shadow minions to do his deeds - A pleasant change from the actual wicked witch. And then, the prince meets Tiana thinking her to be a princess and convinces her to kiss him and bam..She turns into a frog. Now, that must be wierd..Not at all the way things should go..But then, all this happens in the first 20 minutes of the story, so we still have a lot of storying and singing and jazzing to do. 
They both go in search of Mama Odi, the friendly and feisty witch who would be able to help them get back their human forms. In their journey, they are aided by a jazz loving Alligator, a star loving firefly and a few other smaller but cute creatures. I dont wish to spoil the story by relating all the mid movie thrills but as it would have it, Tiana and the Prince fall in love. The movie progresses with their adventures in the bogs and comes to the climax with the final showdown with the villain of which I would not disclose much, but just say, remember Alladin?


And then we have yet another surprise in the end, before the Happily ever after, but then by then you are already smiling away with a few drops of I-don't-know in your eyes and humming "I just cant wait to be king".


On the whole, a great comeback by Disney and for all those who loved the Disney movies of the 90's this is a treat of a lifetime.