Old boys club

Take a group of kids who came of age in the eighties and went to school together in Bangalore with each one of them having developed his own profile and interests.What binds them together are shared interests in cricket and reminiscences from "those days". Not to mention a high cerebral quotient and very strong opinions. Take them to be in a state of voluminous communication via emails. Some of these emails tend to be brief, some long enough to put a PhD thesis to shame. Some are clear, sharp clinical analyses. Some long flights of verbose fantasy. The topics of these discussions tend to be as wide a range as one could possibly fathom. Or probably not. Sample these:
Cricket; Rajan Bala; Gundappa Vishvanath; Phantom; Mandrake; derivatives; stocks; bonds; Iraq war; Rahul Dravid; Kannada literature; Steven Covey; U R Ananthamurthy; S L Byrappa; B.R Ambedkar; Dalits; Manmohan singh; Thomas Friedman; some of the chicks from college (too many to mention here); IPL; Tintin; Asterix; Hedge funds; 529s; Jargon from our college days; katte (a meeting; talking; idling place we had there); Young Engineers -- Dos and Don'ts; Infosys; Microfinance; N R Narayanamurthy; Satyajit Ray; Tennis ball cricket; Kannada Poetry recital; Kannada litterateurs Kuvempu, Shivaram Karanth, KS Narasimha Swamy, G. Adiga, Nissar Ahmed, C. Kambar, PuTiNa, Siddalingaiah, GS Sivarudrappa, N S Lakshminarayana Bhatta, BR Lakshman Rao , HS Venkatesha Murthy;

start ups; venture capital; Chicago Business School; Karnataka Cricket; Vijayakrishna; Keki Tarapore; economic recession; China, Vijaya high school (Bangalore)

. This is but a sampling of the sweep of discussions. This group represents a group from my college -- BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore. I bring this up because ever since I have been engaged with this team I have never ceased to wonder what life can do to a group of kids who started their journey together with a set of shared values. As a school kid I used to read a column in Deccan Herald that had eminent seniors comment on what life taught them. I did not quite appreciate it then. I do now, as a forty +. If child is the father of man then life certainly bastardizes him as he goes along. It is quite fascinating to reflect on what one was, what one is and what one would be! It is said that a good work of literature always starts out as something and metamorphoses into something else as it goes along surprising both the creator and the reader. Going by that each one of us is a great literary work!
Oh, By The Way, our self given name to our email distribution list is techincal_11 (Spelling error on purpose).

On Indian Cinema: Is ShahRukh Khan right?

Recently I remember watching a Shah Rukh Khan interview where he points out to the fact that India is probably the only country where Hollywood films don't take a good opening. Now let's examine this: Is this a badge of pride or is this a pointer to a fault line to the way we make cinema, view cinema and our general sensibility to the twentieth century's greatest entertainment medium?
Cinema in India is primarily packaged to sell. So in that sense the 'sale' proposition initiates the making of a film. Not unlike the manufacture of a car (for example). Naturally the next step would be to start infusing elements into this product -- an item song (touch screen dashboard), a few romantic songs shot in exotic locales (voice enabled built in GPS), a saleable star (aerodynamic design)...so on. You get the drift of what I am trying to say here. The product once completed is released to the market and based on how it is consumed, it is labelled as sucessful or not so successful. What's wrong with this, one might ask? Well there is nothing wrong if you are "making" a product. Films are supposed to be "created" not "made". It is an art form that is meant to entertain, engage and enhance people who experience it. Ask anybody from KJo to Vishal Bharadwaj, they all want to create works that will endure over time. Art and Artists always crave for works that last. That can only happen if a creative work starts with a creative idea, insight or a concept. In films that happens only when you have a well written script. The Indian film industry (I mainly mean the Hindi film industry, I don't like the word Bollywood) might be changing a bit these days but it is still not enough. There is still the formula based product manufacturing concept that has our audiences weaned, just like children on candies, so that any healthy films don't get received well in India. Not that all Hollywood films are good, but their approach to film making is still the bench mark. We are yet to produce an Orson Welles or a Steven Spielberg.

Milana Deepavali 2010 - I had a great time, did you?

I almost reacted with ennui the request to host the Milwaukee Milana Kannada Koota's Deepavali Celebrations. But then I accepted. I had a great time hosting the event with Anu and we had a fabulous audience! We had fun every moment of the event. On hind sight I am glad I accepted. Well what do I know...hindsight is 20 / 20. Thanks to Sarita for making the offer and Anu for agreeing to anchor with me. Some Videos for my Milana friends to enjoy. Not that others can't, but then they may not care. This has the Committee introduction and our opener.