After wading through slush and fan fury, I managed to get within 40 feet of the stage, or so I claim. A couple of Indian bands played initially and one of them was booed off the stage, providing wholesome entertainment to the audience!  Biffy Clyro, a good ol’ Scottish rock band opened for Metallica with an hour’s performance and that got us into groove.

Another highlight of the evening was the band’s security guy who looked like a smaller version of Hugo from LOST. His constant refrain was “Safety First”, a phrase that would eventually become the evening’s tagline! After a lot of attempts, he managed to herd the pumped up fans away from the barricades but the whole exercise was downright hilarious.

When Metallica finally appeared on stage, they were met with a thundering response from the crowd and they opened with Creeping Death from Ride the Lightning. The fever and the frenzy of the fans translated into poor audio and video quality of the recordings done using a mobile phone. Anyone who watched the Sofia Big 4 Metallica concert would have been able to predict the order of songs and For Whom the Bell Tolls followed Creeping Death and it was a simply splendid bass opening from Rob Trujillo.

The pyro work on stage was magnificent, especially for Fuel. All the pictures and videos posted here were taken on my 5 megapixel mobile phone camera, so the quality speaks for itself.

James and the gang made sure all the popular numbers were played and as usual Rob came up with a scintillating display of acrobatics. Two spells of rain during the pre-show didn’t deter anyone there and vendors selling beverages outside the venue had a field day after the show. Kirk performed a solo as a prelude to Nothing Else Matters and predictably, that was the song that evoked the maximum response from the crowd.

As far as I could see, most of the people who were a pick’s throw away from the stage, were engineers or engineers-to-be. Could it be the word metal? The band performed a cover of Diamond Head’s Am I Evil, albeit alone, as opposed to the Big 4 performance in Sofia alongside Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer. Man what a moment that was!

When I walked out of the arena after the show, I actually pinched myself to check if the concert really happened because this is the first time in India for Metallica and considering what happened in Delhi, we had our fingers crossed! (A French couple was actually pleading with the people to comply with Mr Safety First’s instructions to make sure that Bangalore didn’t turn out to be an encore of Delhi!) That I didn’t find any mode of transportation at 2300 hrs is a different issue but somehow I made it back to my room in Hosur at half past midnight, muddy footprints in tow.

As is the case with any blogger who has a small but erudite following, I have also found it a bit challenging to come up with an inspired post. But perpetual boredom has got to nag you right? I convinced myself that what I write is good, and decided to proceed. I would also refer you to my earlier post on writing and the facets that make up the whole process. This is on similar lines, although I will describe exactly what I did to dispel my own doubts.

As the title may suggest, the emphasis is on casualness bordering on nonchalance but with a tinge of earnestness. It is important to not reflect on one’s work over and over again for the simple reason that any reflection or retrospection will only result in your believing that your work is codswallop. (This is a word I’ve wanted to use for a long time ever since I heard Hagrid say it).

It is enough if your writing makes sense to you. Well, that kind of ruins the whole idea of a blog, doesn’t it? Okay to you and to your target audience. On the subject of inspiration, I believe that following a few good blogs always helps. It is however important to stick to one’s own distinctive style. And by that, I mean a kind of language and sentence pattern with which one is comfortable. And as Sheldon says, one can get beaten up simply by referring to oneself as one!

Some folks are into the practice of jotting down personal stuff in a diary or a journal. It may be therapeutic, or completely driven by boredom. While some may feel comfortable posting their musings online, I maintain that those are for personal recollection at a later age.

And again, there is the question of selecting the right topic, which, believe me is not as easy as it sounds. Writing is, after all, a continuous process and our thoughts become more refined as the days go by and therefore, it is a bit of a challenge to concentrate on a particular topic and write on it within a specific timeframe.

To counter the effects of what one might call a writer’s block, it is better to write on multiple topics at the same time. I was in Trichy last week and as I was surveying the town’s landscape from the balcony of my hotel room, I suddenly had this inspiration to write something on travel. Alas, I didn’t have any physical tools at my disposal to record my thoughts. But my memory is not that bad. That post is also in the works and when I complete it, you can find it here. And that brings me to the conclusion part of a blog post. It is often said that a captivating introduction and a convincing conclusion can make any article, blog or essay look good. Sounds corny, doesn’t it?

I prefer to write no discernible conclusion, for, writing is a process that has no end, and of course, who doesn’t love a little mystery?

What started off as an exercise or an attempt to shake myself out of a sopor eventually turned into a kind of guide for me and possibly for others to start pecking away at the keyboard and in some cases, the pen, once again.

Across the starry sky

As the metal bird flies by,

A ray of darkness hides alone,

Like a wormy little black hole.

It casts its eye around,

Luring the unwary hound,

A loud clap of thunder,

And the hound is torn asunder.

A speck so tiny,

Yet its pull so mighty,

Don’t yeh use a torch,

It ain’t a soldier’s march!

A neighbor crawls slowly,

Basking in stolen glory,

When the sun comes out,

He’s a loser in this bout.

I’ll post the next part of the ‘poem’ soon.

I ‘grade’ a writer based on two important criteria.

One: A writer’s work should be on a topic that is interesting to both the reader and the writer himself.

Two: A writer’s work should generally not be time specific. In other words, if I were to read this piece after ten years, it should still make sense.

I recently happened to come across an old piece of mine when I was sifting the spam from the regular mails in my inbox. Only when I saw that article did I remember that I had actually written such an article. It was written when I was in my twelfth grade. Most of my friends would call me ‘Relativity’ because I was obsessed with the Theory of Relativity and would expatiate for hours on the theory and its philosophical implications. This led me to write a small article on the theory’s ability to predict the future. This was purely a logic-driven article and had no mathematical backing whatsoever.

Anyway, when I read that article again after nearly four years, I laughed like never before! At that point of time, I realized that I had failed to meet both criteria (specified above). Even after that, I didn’t realize my folly. I still believe I am a good writer (sarcasm intended).

I now know what my mistakes were. I had used too many technical terms and more importantly, I was never terse. I will include excerpts from that article here so that you can also take a look. I am sure you would agree with me that my writing at that point of time was imbecilic, to say the least. You don’t have to read through the entire article to arrive at this conclusion!

The worst part is that I had emailed this article to thirty odd friends of mine. Needless to say, the reception was lukewarm, if I may exaggerate. Excerpts from the original article titled “Relativistic Perceptions”

Warning: From this point onward, reading isn’t mandatory and you have only yourself to blame if your brain is addled.

RELATIVISTIC PERCEPTIONS

“I assure you that this article has nothing to do with complex differential equations, tensors or advanced quantum theory. It may be seemingly astrological, but one can call it scientific astrology. The objective is to effectively combine relativity and future, i.e. prophesying the future using the postulates of the General Theory of Relativity. ”

I go on for another two paragraphs about velocity, frames of reference and the laws of physics.

“Consider the diagram below.

The diagram can be divided into four parts, or rather four regions, viz.

The part above P, below P,  P , and the region surrounding the cone.

Region 1 is called the future light cone of an event. P is the present. 2 is the past light cone. 3 is the region outside the light cone. Now, a future light cone is the set of all events that are going to happen in the future (of P).

Similarly, a past light cone is the set of all events in the past of P.

Now, according to general relativity, region 1 depends fully on P. What one does in the present will definitely have an impact on the future. Similarly, deeds in the past would have had an impact on the future.

This philosophical idea was not new to the world in 1905, but relativity was the first theory to explain it scientifically.

Therefore, if one knows what is happening at some particular time in the region within the past light cone, once can predict what will happen at P, the present and in the future.

Invariably, these predictions are never accurate. The Law of Nature prevails.

If one can go back in time, the role of nature and destiny is lost. But, even if one can’t predict exactly when trouble is approaching, he can easily know the time when his life would be ominous, at least with three-fourth accuracy. Another postulate of the theory says that time is different for different observers.

One can’t know the events that had happened before his time. The fact that what one does now will impact the future is appealing and reiterates righteousness.

All events happening in the universe are interwoven into the fabric of space-time and when one does something, it leaves an impression on the fabric. The future is altered. Life is changed.

Finally the concept of ‘absolute relativity’ shall be dealt with. The word by itself is oxymoronic. An ‘absolute’ entity is one that does not depend upon anything else,

Relative to Mr. X, you may be a good person. But, relative to Mr. Y, you may be worse. Relativity abolishes the concept of absoluteness.

Nothing can be considered as absolute in the universe, except maybe the theory itself.

Hence, one can conclude that life is absolutely relative and highly uncertain. ”

I have only one question that I would like to ask myself I ever go back in time. “What on earth were you thinking?”

I know I haven’t been concise in this post either. I will try next time!

One of my friends who, until now had not interest whatsoever in football (weird, isn’t he/she?) suddenly found himself/herself drawn to the game. This left me wondering as to what the reason behind this could be. Well, international football matches are not played as often as cricket matches. In one way, football and cricket have one ‘striking’ difference: in the former, domestic leagues are more popular, while in the latter, international matches overshadow domestic games.

With the advent of the IPL, society’s perception of both football and cricket has changed. The IPL has no doubt increased viewership, but it has also drastically increased the frustration levels of wounded souls like my own, not to mention the reduction in activity for the other part of an individual, the body. Now, the entertainment industry has a new component that is pronounced as ‘cricket’, but is spelt ‘C-O-M-M-E-R-C-I-A-L-I-Z-A-T-I-O-N’.

In my opinion, all the above reasons have made people turn to football as an alternative ‘passion’. In this case, ‘people’ includes only the hoi polloi and not football fanatics, like some of my friends are, and I myself am. In football, there are no commercial breaks every four minutes, no ‘strategic time breaks’, and definitely no ‘miked-up’ player who is perennially jobless so as to engage the commentators in a stirring conversation with wonderful insights on the ‘charged-up crowd’ and the ‘electric atmosphere’.

(Note to self: You seem to be using the ‘quotes’ way too often. See, you did it again!)

From a layman’s point of view, football seems to be the easiest sport to follow. There are no complicated rules in football like the lbw in cricket (especially when you are six and you have Ravi Shastri offering his opinion in his not-so-drone-like voice). The rules are fairly straightforward. Don’t use your hands when the ball is in play!

Some of the fanatics mentioned above are also avid footballers themselves. These people may argue that rules like offside are difficult to adhere to once you start playing the game. Touché. I agree with you one hundred percent. As a person who has been both a footballer and a referee at competitive levels (semi-competitive, at the very least), I speak from experience. It is really difficult to spot an offside offence when your linesmen are underpaid and take puff-breaks every two minutes! However, watching football, per se isn’t all that bad, that is, if you can withstand the extremely annoying vuvuzela horn at this year’s World Cup!

Sadly, the same cannot be said of other sports (or games, whatever you prefer to call them, ignoring Hemingway’s bullfighter comment).  I personally find it hard to follow American football (or rugby for that matter), baseball and golf. Although I can figure out the basics by myself, I cannot understand the scoring patterns and other complicated stuff without external help. Sometimes, you just want to think of the whole effort as an exercise in futility.

An elderly gentleman, who happens to be related, once visited my residence. If my memory serves me right, it was during the 2001 Formula 1 season. Mika Hakkinen, who was leading, suddenly had a clutch problem on the last lap and had to leave the race. I was elated because Michael Schumacher won the race.

This gentleman caught me jumping with joy and seemed to think I was a little insane, though I don’t blame him one bit. I explained myself and tried to enlighten him on the nuances of motor racing. He made only one statement; call it a repartee or a punch-in-the-face, but it left me stunned. He said and I quote “All this sounds great, but don’t you think these people are wasting money and fuel just because a bunch of lunatics want to show off their craziness by travelling at breakneck speeds?”

I was rendered speechless and somewhat offended by his naiveté and lack of understanding, but thinking of it now, it makes complete sense. I still follow Formula 1, but it makes me think every time. Just another random point that I wanted to make, although I have no idea why I did that.

For those of you who have become frustrated after reading this long piece of ‘work’, I have something that might have a good sunniness quotient. I have recently been inspired by the “Doppelganger series” on Cricinfo’s Page 2 site (ironic, isn’t it, considering all the abuse the cricket has had to face in this post) and I have tried to find some similar looking celebrities by myself. From now on, I’ll try to fit in a doppelganger post along with every blog post that I make.

Later.

Ryan Giggs from Manchester United, Mike Dirnt from Green Day, and maybe on some level, D J Qualls, who played Sheldon Cooper’s cousin Leopold in The Big Bang Theory.

(Hey, don’t blame me if you can’t spot the similarity!)

Generally, learning a musical instrument is one of those things that cannot be done with a do-it-yourself kit. I had a guitar at home and wanted to play the instrument so badly that I even bought books like “Guitar for Dummies”, “Exercises to help you learn the Guitar” and so on. Only after trying to properly hold the guitar did I realize that I needed help from other sources as well. I still wasn’t ready to approach a tutor because I had little time to “spare”. When every tangible source fails you, the first thing that you should do is rush to the Google homepage. I did the same and found some really good sites. I started learning the chords and other routine stuff, but I still couldn’t switch between them easily. As any engineering student would know, when all the above mentioned sources fail you, your last (or in some cases, first) stop is YouTube. I made the mistake of clicking on a link just because it had the name ‘Joe Satriani’ in it. He was talking about licks, riffs and power chords and produced some kind of music on his guitar that can only be described as wondrous. My initial enthusiasm and excitement waned quicker than a three-inch wax candle. This wasn’t what I signed up for. When you see these people playing difficult notes, you seldom think about the effort that they would have put into perfecting the art of playing.

After this self-learning fiasco, I learned one thing. I hate to use this hackneyed expression, but I have to. ‘Constant practice takes you closer to perfection’. I learned another thing. Playing an instrument is quite similar to typing. When you start off, you don’t know where the keys are and you make a mess trying to type quickly. The same thing happens when you start playing a musical instrument. We may not be familiar with the basics of the instrument, yet we want to see head-banging in our concerts! Once you know where the keys are, it is only a matter of time before you start typing with your eyes closed. Playing a musical instrument is tantamount to typing on a typewriter, not on a keyboard. There are no “Backspace” keys. If you’ve got one note wrong, you have to start over from the beginning. This time, you will be careful and will try to avoid the mistakes that you made earlier.

Now that I have learnt my lesson, I am off to find a tutor.

Later.

Take Friends for instance. It has been the quintessential comedy show ever since it first went on air in 1994. Although all the six main characters are equally likeable, Chandler Bing stands out. The character, portrayed by Matthew Perry, redefines comedy and is blessed with an impeccable sense of timing. Be it any situation; Chandler can break the tension with a funny one-liner, however somber the situation is.

The title of this piece is misleading, some might say. It is supposed to be about a person with a split personality. But it isn’t. It is about two people from seemingly different backgrounds, but who have a lot in common. The other person that I am talking about is obviously Sheldon Cooper (played by Jim Parsons), from The Big Bang Theory, another hugely popular sitcom. Dr Cooper, as other ‘lesser’ minds address him, is a person who is a psychology student’s  Bermuda Triangle. There seems to be no plausible explanation at hand to account for his unnatural behavior and his one-of-a-kind-ness. I even read on one blog that Sheldon may have Asperger’s Syndrome which may explain why he is uncomfortable at social gatherings. However, Sheldon does not seem to possess those characteristics that a person with Asperger’s normally would (like Shah Rukh did in My Name Is Khan).

If I were to say that Chandler and Sheldon share a lot of traits and behave in a similar fashion in some situations, most people would scoff at me. However, there are certain characteristics that you cannot ignore. Both Sheldon and Chandler are afraid of dogs, but seem to like cats! Both of them are adept at wordplay and pun that can make the audience laugh very easily, although Sheldon does not do it intentionally. Both of them make feeble attempts at social conversation but fail miserably. There is a child inside each of the two characters. This side of the character is seen in Sheldon’s love for comic books, science fiction movies and his attachment to his grandmother. Chandler likes to play with mundane stuff like balloons and likes video games too. But the most significant point of similarity is that people just love watching them on-screen!

Then again, there are certain differences between the two characters that are stark. Sheldon’s definition of recreation is similar to that of Ross (a puzzle maybe?), while Chandler likes to engage himself in outdoor activities (racquetball) and watches television shows, like a normal person. The biggest difference however is that Chandler has low self-esteem while Sheldon is outright supercilious. Again, these traits are those that make us laugh until we cry. And yeah..both of them are very emotional characters. Bazinga! Sheldon isn’t!

The bottom-line is, these idiosyncrasies make these characters the crowd-pleasers that they are. Sheldon’s tangerine malapropism, though not intended, shows just how much thought has gone into the script, timing and line delivery. Both Perry and Parsons are excellent comedians who outshine the other actors on their respective shows with little effort. Sometimes, they do quibble like this post does, but they at least make the viewers laugh! Thanks to these two, the word ‘sarcasm’ has acquired an extra dimension!

As a person who has watched many a movie, I sometimes laugh at myself for having seen some movies that are so bad that the English language does not have enough “non swear” words to describe them. This list of movies that you should stay clear of is exhaustive, but some of them top the list. For example, “Following” was Chris Nolan’s first attempt at direction. Fortunately for many of us, the movie is only about 70 minutes long. I made the mistake of watching it right after I saw movies like Insomnia, The Dark Knight and The Prestige. The story supposedly describes a writer’s life. Ten minutes into the movie, Nolan loses the plot and the actors seem to relish looking at one another for no reason!

Manoj ‘Night’ Shyamalan has given us some great movies like The Sixth Sense and Signs (not particularly good, but better than the others). With “The Happening”, he fell off the ladder of fame and plunged into bitter waters. The movie however was very entertaining because of its inherent ludicrousness and absurdity. A guy throws himself off the top of a building because he had smelled the air a couple of minutes ago. People kill themselves in ways that are novel and innovative. If you had seen the movie in a multiplex, you would have noticed the boom mikes on the top of every frame. So much for good editing. The ending is a real humdinger.

“Citizen Kane” finds a place on every ‘top movie’ list on the Internet Movie database (imdb). It is supposed to be ground breaking and Orson Welles is hailed as the pioneer of innovative cinematography in modern cinema. That may very well be the only good thing about the movie. You can explore the real world of boredom and absurdity if you watch this movie. The refrain that you hear throughout the movie is ‘Rosebud’. It will not make any sense until you watch the movie. Or after you watch it.  At the end of the movie, you would want to kill yourself. If not, you are either a ‘braveheart’ or you have already seen movies like “The Darjeeling Limited”. It ranks right down there with “Ocean’s Twelve”.  We certainly didn’t expect Soderbergh to make a sequel to ‘Asinine Adventures’!

The list is not complete without movies like Harrison Ford’s “Firewall” and Darren Aronofsky’s “Pi”. While the former takes you along on a repugnant and nauseating ride, the latter transports you into the mind of a mathematician (quite literally) with electric drills, electronic chips and an insect that looks pretty much like a housefly but isn’t.

I have not included shoddy movies made by obscure directors. The movies listed above have the potential to induce revulsion in you. Watch at your own risk. If you actually like any of these movies, please tell me why I am wrong.

I haven’t read too many authors, but John Grisham’s works have always enthralled me. Starting from “A Time To Kill”, to the non-fictional “The Innocent Man”, he has effectively combined law and fiction.

His latest work, ‘The Associate’, now being made into a motion picture with Shia LaBeouf in the title role, bears conspicuous similarities, to Grisham’s earlier work “The Firm”. Wiretaps, round-the-clock surveillance,blackmail :  You name it; it’s there.

Nevertheless, the effect is amazing. I have to use the critic’s cliche ‘A compelling storyteller’ to describe Grisham, and ‘A page-turner’ to describe ‘The Associate’.

The story starts off with the title character Kyle McAvoy,tailed by a stranger after a basketball game. The stranger and his ‘gang’ drop a bombshell on Kyle, with knowledge of the latter’s past, knowledge that could potentially destroy Kyle’s personal life, and his career. Kyle has no choice, but to accept the conditions set forth by the ‘gang leader’, and from then on, Kyle cannot go back.He has to spy on his own firm, from within.

As the story progresses, Grisham infuses into the reader’s mind a sense of anticipation. At some places, it’s just deja vu. The tension is palpable, but there’s no real action, atleast not to the degree that ‘The Firm’ had. The legalese is minimal, and this makes this book an interesting read for everyone.

‘The Associate’ also provides an intriguing insight into the  humdrum life of a big-firm lawyer. The protagonist begins to understand life, and the fact that money comes with a hefty price tag. He has little sleep, and little variation from the Quotidian life.If one should say that Grisham falters,it is true with respect to the ending. I found the ending quite different from his other works and, quite blunt too.But hey, that’s just my opinion.I would recommend this book to everyone,especially people who haven’t read Grisham before. Many of my friends have found Grisham boring, but only after reading a complete legal thriller. One should read a couple of his non-legal books, like ‘Playing for Pizza’, before trying out works like ‘The Rainmaker’. One book that everyone should definitely avoid is ‘A Painted House’. All other books are real good ones.

Happy Reading!

After months of  muddiness and deliberation, I finally decided to take the plunge into this world.

As I started, I was faced with this usual writer’s block. Somehow, I just collected my ‘thoughts’ and typed away.

With a keyboard that cannot separate one word from another quite easily, I consider this post  a spectaular accomplishment!

In the future,  I shall endeavor to put up more “interesting” pieces , and as I sign off, I know of one person who would be shaking his/her head, after seeing this post.