Clash of the kings

Second book in  "Song of ice and fire" by R.R. Martin. I found the first book interesting, and this one gripping. The war was initiated in the first and battles started in the second.

Personally I liked this book because, unlike other war stories, it didn't confine itself to strategies of war or how many got slyed etc etc. Author talked on how lords hated wars and how they tried to strike the peace. And how equations of society change in the time of war.

My favorite catcher , Tyrion Lannister, has bigger role than in the previous. I am happy for that. I really liked the way author portrayed the character of boy-king, for who ruling a kingdom is more of executing his wishes than looking after people.

The book has all the elements which made me to flip through pages. Love, betrayal, morals, magic , dragons and a story line which we can't predict. What else we need in a fantasy novel?

Ever since Shastri ...

One has to wonder politics from view point of general wisdom people get. For example, resignation of an official or a minister.

Whenever a terrible incident happens we naturally assume that it's because of the person in charge and removing from his will undo the bad. Since L.B.Shastri resigned taking responsibility for a train accident, the act of offering resignation became the proof to integrity of the person.

Ok , Shastri resigned and got personal glory as a man of integration. Now, let's talk facts. Was it because of his mistake the accident happened? Is it the job of railway minister to check if rails are joined properly and all nuts n bolts are tight? Was it not his job to do an enquiry , learn the lesson , and make sure that the employees who are responsible are punished? Or initiate a mechanism which reduces such accidents? His resignation added glory to him but added nothing to ministry of railway.

If every official resigned for the mistake of subordinates, in every office , the authority would change for every few days which leads to chaos.

" people elected me to take responsibility, not to run away from it" said Lalu Yadav when asked to follow the foot steps of Shastri after a train accident in his tenure. He might be corrupt, but he got it right. Imagine, every doctor leaving the profession after he failed to save a patient. Imagine every kid leaving education after he failed in the examination.

In the name of integrity, can we ask the army personnel to resign when we lose a war? What would have happened if every  independence fighter stopped fighting in the first battle he lose? Could India won the cricket world cup if Dhoni had resigned after losing a match?

Take the case of Nirbhaya gang rape, after which Delhi police mooted  policy to have women's wing in every police station and to have an emergency line for girls. Integrity is one factor administrators should have. But that's not all, they should be learners who refuse to do the same mistake twice and go-getters.

My photography

Economics of Ugadi.

Yesterday I.e on Ugadi, I started off to Rythubazar to get a mango which is not ripe for the preparation of ugadi chutney. There were many hawkers on the way selling mangoes and mango leaves.

I felt happy and went to them. To my surprise, I found neem flowers
for sale. I live in outskirts and there were many neem trees in our locality. Flowers of neem are available in plenty and there is no need for people to buy them. But people are buying them. So, I was wrong about availability of neem flowers in my area.Then I realized, my area is developed and trees were chopped. I knew it , but I never really cared.

Because of lack of trees, people were forced to buy things which are naturally available to them previously.  But the same so called development created business opportunity for the nearby villagers. They are getting profited. So, is development  a bad thing or a good thing?

Similar kind of scenario can be observed near industrial areas too. Govt gives land to an industry, like SEZ. Companies gather there, they recruit people. once people are coming to that area, the local business picks up. There will be tea shops, dhabas and  puncture shops. Soon the house rents go high, which helps the locals to get more money, real estate develops as people starts pouring in. Next, the area will be filled with labor huts, steel n cement shops. After completion of two or three apartments, there will be a Green Bawarchi, chicken centers, vegetable markets , mobile recharge shops, kirana and general stores, medical and pan shops.

With in two or three years, there will be schools, bars and restaurants , internet center, a nursing home, an auto stand. And all these small businesses are run mostly by locals who have nothing to do before the SEZ.

The problem is people inherently believe in zero-sum game. And we naturally tend to believe that if somebody is getting  profits means his neighbor is at loss.

My photography

Been experimenting on photography, since I got 8MP mobile. These are some  pics I liked.

Low budget films, Short movies & Plays.

Better than high budget movies, I am beginning to like artistic, offbeat low budget movies. Let me be very clear,  I am not talking about shakeela movies.

Recently I watched the "swamy ra ra", "Tere bin laden" , " The president is coming" and "pizza". I liked everyone of them. What's not to like?

Unlike in high budget movies, where , it's the stardom of the actors which pulls the audience to the theaters, where best movie is the one with highest budget and popularity of the movie is decided by number of theaters it was released.  I always believed that, unless the fans watch the many times it's impossible for any movie to stay in theaters for that long. So, to trick the fans into movies many times and producers choose the stars with high stardom. Sadly, in India, stardom can also be achieved by belonging to a particular cast or by being offspring of a star. OK, I think I am going off the topic here.

I started liking low budgets movies, plays and short movies on YouTube, because they are not shy of experimentation. Their producers are more art lovers than business men. It's the response of critics they seek, not news paper pieces thrown at the screen. They don't aim at 200 days , 150 theaters. Without so called macho nature of heroes with heavy dialogs, item songs or compulsory fights resembling Bruce Lee fights, dumb characterization of heroines and most of all , dedicated comedians, plays seems to be fine. At least I get to see different story lines.

Predictability always kills art. Short movies don't have to bother about it, nor plays. Some low budget movies like " pilla zameendar" have predictable climax, but screen play compensates that.

Anyway, once I have moved from main stream art, the whole world of art started parading before me. Before that I am not aware of " La makaan" at Hyderabad which encourages young artists, now , I am a regular visitor there. I am watching old Hollywood movies, dubbed movies on world movies, modern plays. In other words, now I am that boring guy who watches  art movies.  I am enjoying this new change.

The killing Truth !

Truth is like the fire which burns us to the core , says the telugu proverb.  For me the hard truth has two facets .

One is like a big boulder which pins us down. May be after some time, we learn to carry it and move forward, though it controls our pace. When the boulder is on the shoulder it's so hard to move and even a small elevation in the path or small hurdle might depress us. The stronger the man the faster he moves forward with it. If the person is weak, he is dead beneath it.

Another personality of hard truth is that of a spear. We knew the truth, but when it is explicitly stated by others, it becomes a spear which cuts through our body. The other person need not be the enemy even a stranger with knowledge of truth can slay us.

Unless, we have the shield of arrogance or acceptance of truth, it's tough to survive the spear attack.

Missing Orkut !

People might laugh at me, but I shall stand to my opinion. I actually miss Orkut. Not that scrap count, ratings etc etc, but I am missing communities.

I made few good friends through orkut communities. I think that's best way to make friends. Normally, we meet people , after a long chat we might find out their likes and dislikes. If we share common interests with them, then we get closr. Its time consuming.

In Orkut, we join  a community, so we meet people whose interests concur with us, so the probability finding the people with whom we can hang out is much more. And the discussions which happen in threads are so informative.  And the communities a person joins gives us an idea of his personality.

Seriously, I miss Orkut communities. I hope people ditch Facebook and participate more on
Communities of Google plus.