We all want to watch good movies , no one wants to waste 2-2.5 hrs of their precious time in causes they dont identify with ... How do we know a movie is a good , decent / watchable movie before watching it ???
Word of mouth from People Like Us , who would possibly share similar tastes is more or less accurate way .. but how easily is this information available , how will we ever get recco from friends for all movies we want to watch ... so what are the other indicators of how good a movie is ?
One friend of mine goes by the logic of Box Office verdict .. he and several others like him watch movies which are success at BO ... "If a movie has grossed so much that means people have enjoyed it and movie watching public are no fools , if millions have watched the movie then it SHOULD be good" , that is their formula.
A lot of people follow this simple rule of equating how good the movie is with its Box-Office collection ... im not saying its necessarily a wrong thing , they could be right on lots of occasions and this is a pretty simple and infact a very easy rule to judge whether to watch a movie or not.
But on the flipside this has more to do with the tendency of 'herd mentality' and this is not really connected to what the movie really is ... its more to do with what majority 'think' the movie is ... my guess is that majority of these people go to these because others are going !!! Newspapers these days are full of huge Ads declaring the biggest opening ever ... But does that necessarily mean a good movie ... if a movie has made huge amount in the opening day its because of advance booking made by people who have no clue about the actual content / quality of the movie ... the movie could well be a very badly made one but if it has enough 'star power' and is publicized well it will be declared a hit based on its revenues from first couple of days.
So in effect lots of people watch the movie because they think it might be good and lots more follow because the first lot went to see it ... whether the movie is really good or not doesn't matter much here ... its merely the numbers that matter !!!
These days its been a trend for movies to be declared super hit or mega hit after opening weekend , every movie seems to make 50-60 crores in a matter of couple of days ... no one really knows what happens truly , but i guess no producer will admit that his movie tanked big time ! what follows during the weekend after some big budget movies are released would be that well known critics give it a proper appraisal and give it a rating it deserves. But who is deciding things after reading reviews in newspaper on Sunday ?! by Sunday the same movie would have been declared ultra mega hit with some mind boggling figures also quoted and public gets really confused and ends up watching it and also bad mouthing it later while at the same time contributing to it becoming a hit all the same !!!
This is exactly why i believe movie viewing is more personal experience and when we watch a movie we should be watching the movie to enjoy the movie , not simply because it made $ 300 mn world wide ! We are not getting any money for watching something which had record opening .. so how does the money it makes really matter ? I believe in going by what is in the movie and trying to understand why the movie should be watched and why it could be a good experience for me ...
How to exactly identify and come up with what movies to watch n avoid is obviously not easy at all , will explore some of the options i use in the next post
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Monday, July 06, 2009
Return of The King !
The greatest ever Grand Slam final ?
No it was never supposed to be ...
That was last year , when the challenger had finally come of age and had toppled the established order ... Today it was supposed to be the match that would establish ' The Return of the King'
Roger Federer in his quest for 'G.O.A.T' status was waiting to add that one more Grand Slam to make it 15 and go past Pete Sampras and Wimbledon Centre Court was the perfect place for the feat. It couldn't have been scripted better than this !
After his superb win in Rolland Garros , Wimbledon esp after Nadal withdrew was supposed to be a mere formality and entire media was only focusing on Roger. The result seemed to be a foregone conclusion for most people add to this a gallery of famous names in the Royal Box – Pete Sampras, Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver - the legends of the game - were watching, ready to grace the occasion when history was to be made ... You couldn't be faulted if you thought Roddick was there just to make up the numbers ...
But the final was something totally unexpected ... Andy Roddick came from no where with a vastly improved game and great hunger for the crown and almost pulled it off !
What a match ... When Federer came back from 2-6 in the 2nd set tiebreaker , saving 4 set points it looked like the momentum had swung especially when he took 3rd set. But Roddick wasn't quite done , he fought and fought really hard.
The fifth set was an amazing effort as the two players hung on and battled like Gladiators ( Russell Crowe who was part of the crowd would have agreed!) . I always thought tie-break for 5th set was not proper , but today after watching both these players giving their best ... struggling to stay afloat until mistake of one decided the winner , I think we are better off with tie-breakers , would save players from exhaustion and would be kinder to spectators with weak hearts !
Congrats again Roger ! its been such a treat to just watch him play , i think he totally deserves the World No:1 ranking and G.O.A.T status now , what a comeback for him after he was totally written off exactly an year ago by many after a defeat in a similarly grueling 5 set marathon . The icing on cake would be an US Open win by defeating Nadal in the final !!!
While i feel so great about Roger winning , feel sad for Roddick though especially after the way he played in this final , yet another Goran ?! Hope he is also able to script a fairly tale comeback
No it was never supposed to be ...
That was last year , when the challenger had finally come of age and had toppled the established order ... Today it was supposed to be the match that would establish ' The Return of the King'
Roger Federer in his quest for 'G.O.A.T' status was waiting to add that one more Grand Slam to make it 15 and go past Pete Sampras and Wimbledon Centre Court was the perfect place for the feat. It couldn't have been scripted better than this !
After his superb win in Rolland Garros , Wimbledon esp after Nadal withdrew was supposed to be a mere formality and entire media was only focusing on Roger. The result seemed to be a foregone conclusion for most people add to this a gallery of famous names in the Royal Box – Pete Sampras, Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver - the legends of the game - were watching, ready to grace the occasion when history was to be made ... You couldn't be faulted if you thought Roddick was there just to make up the numbers ...
But the final was something totally unexpected ... Andy Roddick came from no where with a vastly improved game and great hunger for the crown and almost pulled it off !
What a match ... When Federer came back from 2-6 in the 2nd set tiebreaker , saving 4 set points it looked like the momentum had swung especially when he took 3rd set. But Roddick wasn't quite done , he fought and fought really hard.
The fifth set was an amazing effort as the two players hung on and battled like Gladiators ( Russell Crowe who was part of the crowd would have agreed!) . I always thought tie-break for 5th set was not proper , but today after watching both these players giving their best ... struggling to stay afloat until mistake of one decided the winner , I think we are better off with tie-breakers , would save players from exhaustion and would be kinder to spectators with weak hearts !
Congrats again Roger ! its been such a treat to just watch him play , i think he totally deserves the World No:1 ranking and G.O.A.T status now , what a comeback for him after he was totally written off exactly an year ago by many after a defeat in a similarly grueling 5 set marathon . The icing on cake would be an US Open win by defeating Nadal in the final !!!
While i feel so great about Roger winning , feel sad for Roddick though especially after the way he played in this final , yet another Goran ?! Hope he is also able to script a fairly tale comeback
Friday, June 26, 2009
Television ga ga 2.0
Before i pick up from where i stopped in the previous post , let me tell you about this incredible site called -' Paleofuture ', this site has ideas of future predicted by various 'experts' in previous century in 1920's , 30's , 40's etc of world 50 yrs henceforth . Needless to say most of the so called experts got it wrong. Which just proves nobody is qualified enough to make accurate predictions about the future . So i guess i can easily stick my neck out and make a prediction for future without much worry !
Why are we always visualizing all these home entertainment ideas with TV in the centre ?
So what i feel is when convergence arrives , TV will not survive . Internet revolution has touched us all and Computers have managed to integrate themselves into our lives and has managed to enter a huge number of homes and the growth in the coming years is expected to shoot up exponentially .
Now why will people continue to back TV as the central medium in a convergent era , its fairly obvious that the mantle will be passed onto Computer (with a wide LCD screen if u may ) DVD player/ set top box might become redundant
I guess its bound to happen sooner or later ... now ubiquitous television set will get replaced by its more powerful nerdy cousin which can not only display visual images but can also do processing and various other activities.
Already this is slowly happening around us , some of my friends no longer watch TV they download their favorite programs on laptop and watch at their convenience without any commercial breaks in between to bother them ! In last 2 years i have watched 5 TV series but i didn't watch any of them on TV. I had downloaded the episodes and had watched it on my laptop whenever i was free. A friend of mine recently told me he had set up his house with all electronic gadgets except TV which he felt was not needed at all if you have a broadband connection. Yes he sure misses the odd live sporting action , but then most of the other stuff can be viewed with internet , live online feed for sporting action also wont be so difficult i guess. Life without conventional TV doesn't seem all that difficult !
This is fairly easy prediction to make , one of the harbingers of this new wave is 'you tube' . the day wont be far when there is a channel on your tv/computer which allows you to search and watch videos you want - movies/ songs / concerts / college fests / video shot by a friend , or any random stuff ! Given the way reality shows dominate the programming in normal tv channels of today , going forward we would have more and more content featuring ordinary people , prepared by users , circulated among groups ... reality TV driven by us / featuring us .!
In short we might move from 'Broadcast' where channels create stuff they think people want to see and beam it to everyone , to an era of 'Multicast' , in which we move away from one size fits all idea of Television channels , idea would be to simultaneously make many things available and user is given much more power to choose what he/she wants to view.
Come to think of it the most popular videos could be the ones shot by people like you and me wont it be funny it were to be a song like "Television Ga Ga" or even a "Internet killed the Video star"
Why are we always visualizing all these home entertainment ideas with TV in the centre ?
So what i feel is when convergence arrives , TV will not survive . Internet revolution has touched us all and Computers have managed to integrate themselves into our lives and has managed to enter a huge number of homes and the growth in the coming years is expected to shoot up exponentially .
Now why will people continue to back TV as the central medium in a convergent era , its fairly obvious that the mantle will be passed onto Computer (with a wide LCD screen if u may ) DVD player/ set top box might become redundant
I guess its bound to happen sooner or later ... now ubiquitous television set will get replaced by its more powerful nerdy cousin which can not only display visual images but can also do processing and various other activities.
Already this is slowly happening around us , some of my friends no longer watch TV they download their favorite programs on laptop and watch at their convenience without any commercial breaks in between to bother them ! In last 2 years i have watched 5 TV series but i didn't watch any of them on TV. I had downloaded the episodes and had watched it on my laptop whenever i was free. A friend of mine recently told me he had set up his house with all electronic gadgets except TV which he felt was not needed at all if you have a broadband connection. Yes he sure misses the odd live sporting action , but then most of the other stuff can be viewed with internet , live online feed for sporting action also wont be so difficult i guess. Life without conventional TV doesn't seem all that difficult !
This is fairly easy prediction to make , one of the harbingers of this new wave is 'you tube' . the day wont be far when there is a channel on your tv/computer which allows you to search and watch videos you want - movies/ songs / concerts / college fests / video shot by a friend , or any random stuff ! Given the way reality shows dominate the programming in normal tv channels of today , going forward we would have more and more content featuring ordinary people , prepared by users , circulated among groups ... reality TV driven by us / featuring us .!
In short we might move from 'Broadcast' where channels create stuff they think people want to see and beam it to everyone , to an era of 'Multicast' , in which we move away from one size fits all idea of Television channels , idea would be to simultaneously make many things available and user is given much more power to choose what he/she wants to view.
Come to think of it the most popular videos could be the ones shot by people like you and me wont it be funny it were to be a song like "Television Ga Ga" or even a "Internet killed the Video star"
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Television ga ga !
Im a trivia lover and since childhood was an avid quizzer , so would start with a piece of trivia which is in a way relevant to this post -"Video Killed the radio star" was the first video to be aired in MTV in North America and it was about singer whose career was cut short by television.
This refers to the changes in Home entertainment industry in 1960's ... till about 50's radio was the medium and voice was everything , when TV arrived it changed the whole game .
But it was in early 80s that TV became popular in our country , Doordarshan ruled the roost in 80s . We watched what they deemed fit and whatever time they chose . Infact for a long time many activities in life revolved around the timings of our favorite programs on TV. For instance 8pm in the evening meant English news on DD national . Wednesday evenings had Chitrahaar and in late 80s every Sunday at 9:30 am all activities used to come to halt across the country as religious epics used to be beamed on Natl Television !
But thankfully in early 90s before cable era ushered in unimaginable variety for the viewer and spawned a whole new industry. Late 90s brought a flurry of news channels soon they were beaming news 24x7 , democracy received another major boost !
In a few years public started getting more and more involved with the content that was being provided , shows like KBC set the dice rolling as it required public participation over phone and later through sms. Inspite of having charismatic and popular icons from acting world as hosts these shows were hit because of the involvement of 'aam junta' and the vibes shared between the host and the participants who the viewers felt could have been one of them.
This gave away to more and more game shows/ reality shows involving public , but again very minuscule proportion of the population managed to make it on screen . Along with the popularity of TV in Indian middle class , other electronic gadgets also started making their entry. The one with the biggest impact was mobile phones and in no time most of middle class Indians had a phone in their hand.
Next masterstroke from TV was to draw these people to participate in the shows , instead of a celebrity judge deciding which contestant stays in the show / gets booted out , general public were given the chance. Suddenly the ordinary viewer who was enthralled by all that was happening in this wonderful box started feeling important , now he had the chance to decide and control the show.
We have slowly moved on to era of user centric content ( a la Web 2.0 if you will )
Last couple of years has seen a whole new industry called Digital home entertainment sweep into households. Now the Indian television viewer has lot more options as a famous movie star tells during a service provider's Ads , he can pause live action , attend those phone calls , can be nice to relatives , can entertain guests , need not tussle with wife over remote without feeling he will miss the match/ she will miss the serial . The digital set top box with hard disk solves all the problems.
The next revolution slated to hit homes is called IPTV , we will have what is called Triple play.
Let me pause here as the aim behind this post was to talk about change that is happening in home entertainment ; So whats gonna happen next ?
(to be contd in another post)
This refers to the changes in Home entertainment industry in 1960's ... till about 50's radio was the medium and voice was everything , when TV arrived it changed the whole game .
But it was in early 80s that TV became popular in our country , Doordarshan ruled the roost in 80s . We watched what they deemed fit and whatever time they chose . Infact for a long time many activities in life revolved around the timings of our favorite programs on TV. For instance 8pm in the evening meant English news on DD national . Wednesday evenings had Chitrahaar and in late 80s every Sunday at 9:30 am all activities used to come to halt across the country as religious epics used to be beamed on Natl Television !
But thankfully in early 90s before cable era ushered in unimaginable variety for the viewer and spawned a whole new industry. Late 90s brought a flurry of news channels soon they were beaming news 24x7 , democracy received another major boost !
In a few years public started getting more and more involved with the content that was being provided , shows like KBC set the dice rolling as it required public participation over phone and later through sms. Inspite of having charismatic and popular icons from acting world as hosts these shows were hit because of the involvement of 'aam junta' and the vibes shared between the host and the participants who the viewers felt could have been one of them.
This gave away to more and more game shows/ reality shows involving public , but again very minuscule proportion of the population managed to make it on screen . Along with the popularity of TV in Indian middle class , other electronic gadgets also started making their entry. The one with the biggest impact was mobile phones and in no time most of middle class Indians had a phone in their hand.
Next masterstroke from TV was to draw these people to participate in the shows , instead of a celebrity judge deciding which contestant stays in the show / gets booted out , general public were given the chance. Suddenly the ordinary viewer who was enthralled by all that was happening in this wonderful box started feeling important , now he had the chance to decide and control the show.
We have slowly moved on to era of user centric content ( a la Web 2.0 if you will )
Last couple of years has seen a whole new industry called Digital home entertainment sweep into households. Now the Indian television viewer has lot more options as a famous movie star tells during a service provider's Ads , he can pause live action , attend those phone calls , can be nice to relatives , can entertain guests , need not tussle with wife over remote without feeling he will miss the match/ she will miss the serial . The digital set top box with hard disk solves all the problems.
The next revolution slated to hit homes is called IPTV , we will have what is called Triple play.
Let me pause here as the aim behind this post was to talk about change that is happening in home entertainment ; So whats gonna happen next ?
(to be contd in another post)
Friday, April 17, 2009
The early morning Jog
Its morning , im jogging ... its taken some time to get adjusted to life here in a new city - Mumbai ... everything about this life/new job is so different ... My interests/activities has also changed a lot over the years , sometimes I wonder if i have changed totally as a person as i hardly feel a connect with the kind of life i was leading a few years back ... earlier i used to read a lot after getting back from work ... these days im always online chatting/reading blogs , watching movies/TV series on laptop ... for sometime i thought there was no connect with the life i used to lead and i had moved into some other dimension altogether like in the plots of some of my favourite Superhero cartoons or like Neo at start of Matrix Revolutions. That was until i started my early morning jog ...
These days i go for a jog in the morning in a park nearby and mostly i am all alone early in the morning and while running alone my thoughts get sucked into a nostalgic whirlpool , my mind wanders off into the past ... My memory jogs back to the days when two young lads in Coimbatore had finished their engineering college and decided that they needed some exercise as months of sitting at home and awaiting for joining letter/job was taking its toll .. the Two of us used to go to a huge ground/stadium in an University near our place ... we used to jog in the athletics track in the stadium which was empty during summer ... i can still vividly remember the cry of peacocks and sights of the hills in the backdrop of the stadium , athletes training in one corner , while we do the rounds cracking occasional jokes , discussing cricket sitting in the shade of a tree after jogging ... i keep running while looking at my watch , there is still no one here in this park today.
Its early morning in Bangalore and 2 super energetic roomies drag their thin roomie out of bed and i reluctantly trudge along and we go for morning jog in the parks of JP Nagar ... the air is so fresh and pure , the place is full of people doing exercise, jogging , oldies out for a walk and catching up with old friends in park benches , laughter therapy sessions ... the place is so full of energy and activity early in the morning as i keep running trying to catch up with my roomies ... Occasionally a sound of Lorry passing by or car honking reminds me that im still jogging alone here in this park , i look at the time just 10 mins up ... i spot an old man wearing t-shirt and formal trousers with sports shoe doing brisk walk ... i keep running
Three of us at office decide to hit the gym and all of us being lazy bones - we call each other early in the morning over phone to ensure we all turn up in the gym and we ensure that the one who misses gym is taunted the whole day . Its morning at Infy Bangalore and three friends are running on the treadmill ... we trade an occasional joke in the middle of it and pass comments on the latest chick to hit the gym , we compare notes on the exercises we are gonna perform that day and how much of 'muscle building' has happened ... i keep running the sun has come up and its getting really sweaty , even mornings in Mumbai are hot ! no wonder there are only a few people in this park ... I keep running its been 20 mins , there is a strange sound somewhere nearby , i stretch my arms ...
The two young lads are again running in Coimbatore in the same picturesque university ground ... they are back jogging together here after 5 long years , but little seems to have changed , the track looks the same , there are athletes practicing in a corner, the peacocks are still abundant , the lads still share the same camaraderie , crack the same old jokes ,talk about the same old stuff and run ... I slow down , the hot Mumbai sun has emerged and is making its presence felt, im sweating a lot , again i hear a strange sound ,look around don't see anything , i stretch my arms .
I start slowing down and shift to brisk walking , the well paved concrete path in the part that im running on seems so familiar , as i walk around the park , my thoughts deposit me somewhere esle , the scenery changes , im wading through the neat concrete pavement however around me there are blocks of similar looking apartments ... its hot and i continue walking the scenery has changed im a road which seems to be placed in Shire and not in this world , its so green and there is grass all around on one side of the road is a slope full of grass leading to dense growth of trees and on the other side and huge and beautiful houses, i half expect to meet hobbits ... im on Canterbury Road in Singapore , i slow down in my walk
Im covered with sweat ... i hear some strange sound near my ears ... did i overdo my workout ? Whats going on ? whats the strange sound , now its getting real louder , its so close by ...
I wake up in a pool of sweat , the power seems to have gone for quite a while . Its so hot inside the room ... i realize my cellphone alarm had been snoozed a couple of times ... damn i didn't get up early to go for a run in the park like i have been planning to ... i again slowly drift into sleep , before finally getting up when the never tiring alarm tries yet again to wake me up !
PS: I finally managed to defeat the tendency to press the snooze button and keep on sleeping and im actually going for morning jogs (atleast i did it 3 times last couple of weeks ! )
These days i go for a jog in the morning in a park nearby and mostly i am all alone early in the morning and while running alone my thoughts get sucked into a nostalgic whirlpool , my mind wanders off into the past ... My memory jogs back to the days when two young lads in Coimbatore had finished their engineering college and decided that they needed some exercise as months of sitting at home and awaiting for joining letter/job was taking its toll .. the Two of us used to go to a huge ground/stadium in an University near our place ... we used to jog in the athletics track in the stadium which was empty during summer ... i can still vividly remember the cry of peacocks and sights of the hills in the backdrop of the stadium , athletes training in one corner , while we do the rounds cracking occasional jokes , discussing cricket sitting in the shade of a tree after jogging ... i keep running while looking at my watch , there is still no one here in this park today.
Its early morning in Bangalore and 2 super energetic roomies drag their thin roomie out of bed and i reluctantly trudge along and we go for morning jog in the parks of JP Nagar ... the air is so fresh and pure , the place is full of people doing exercise, jogging , oldies out for a walk and catching up with old friends in park benches , laughter therapy sessions ... the place is so full of energy and activity early in the morning as i keep running trying to catch up with my roomies ... Occasionally a sound of Lorry passing by or car honking reminds me that im still jogging alone here in this park , i look at the time just 10 mins up ... i spot an old man wearing t-shirt and formal trousers with sports shoe doing brisk walk ... i keep running
Three of us at office decide to hit the gym and all of us being lazy bones - we call each other early in the morning over phone to ensure we all turn up in the gym and we ensure that the one who misses gym is taunted the whole day . Its morning at Infy Bangalore and three friends are running on the treadmill ... we trade an occasional joke in the middle of it and pass comments on the latest chick to hit the gym , we compare notes on the exercises we are gonna perform that day and how much of 'muscle building' has happened ... i keep running the sun has come up and its getting really sweaty , even mornings in Mumbai are hot ! no wonder there are only a few people in this park ... I keep running its been 20 mins , there is a strange sound somewhere nearby , i stretch my arms ...
The two young lads are again running in Coimbatore in the same picturesque university ground ... they are back jogging together here after 5 long years , but little seems to have changed , the track looks the same , there are athletes practicing in a corner, the peacocks are still abundant , the lads still share the same camaraderie , crack the same old jokes ,talk about the same old stuff and run ... I slow down , the hot Mumbai sun has emerged and is making its presence felt, im sweating a lot , again i hear a strange sound ,look around don't see anything , i stretch my arms .
I start slowing down and shift to brisk walking , the well paved concrete path in the part that im running on seems so familiar , as i walk around the park , my thoughts deposit me somewhere esle , the scenery changes , im wading through the neat concrete pavement however around me there are blocks of similar looking apartments ... its hot and i continue walking the scenery has changed im a road which seems to be placed in Shire and not in this world , its so green and there is grass all around on one side of the road is a slope full of grass leading to dense growth of trees and on the other side and huge and beautiful houses, i half expect to meet hobbits ... im on Canterbury Road in Singapore , i slow down in my walk
Im covered with sweat ... i hear some strange sound near my ears ... did i overdo my workout ? Whats going on ? whats the strange sound , now its getting real louder , its so close by ...
I wake up in a pool of sweat , the power seems to have gone for quite a while . Its so hot inside the room ... i realize my cellphone alarm had been snoozed a couple of times ... damn i didn't get up early to go for a run in the park like i have been planning to ... i again slowly drift into sleep , before finally getting up when the never tiring alarm tries yet again to wake me up !
PS: I finally managed to defeat the tendency to press the snooze button and keep on sleeping and im actually going for morning jogs (atleast i did it 3 times last couple of weeks ! )
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Broken Spell !
Right from ancient times , when human beings learned to communicate with each other , spelling was very important to the language. It was one of those vital things which ensured we communicated what we wanted to communicate correctly. We have always given utmost importance to getting this part right . Right from early stages of education in schools a huge stress has been given to spelling , in my school the teachers used to punish spelling mistakes by docking 0.5 marks for each error. An answer sheet with all words spelled correctly was the sign of an intelligent and well educated kid who will achieve something in life !
The main reason why i started writing this is because of a few things i noticed over last few months. In office we had to write a letter in normal paper with pen for some purpose and a friend of mine started writing and he couldnt write a single sentence without making spelling mistake ! "I always type on MS-Word dude", he told me , "it always corrects my spelling mistakes , i just need to supply the alphabets in somewhat correct order".
This was bound to happen to most of us who were working with computers for quite a while , only when he spelled it out i realized it !
I was surprised by his remark but still felt that such things wont happen people like me who were very good in English language since school days. However recently a friend of mine spotted 2-3 spelling mistakes in a mail i sent to him ( i don't run spell check on personal mails as we use words from Indian languages in it ! ) and then i realized that this spell-check dependency had affected me too !
Now this guy has a really good command over the language still i could spot a mistake in the mail he wrote me informing me about my spelling errors (these were not typos as they got repeated couple of times ) . Now i realise a lot of us will not able to spell 100% accurately like how we
used to do 6-7 yrs back when we did not use computers.
But the more i think about it , more i realize that knowing the exact spelling is no longer required in today's world , the computer is here to help you with it ! I guess the brain has realized this and no longer cares too much about getting the proper spelling of all the words typed !!!
The language purists will surely disagree and the schooling system will not drop its attitude towards getting spelling right , which i think is fair. But deep inside me im kinda convinced just like how my brain/subconscious mind felt while typing .. it no longer matters :)
The other day when Spelling Bee contest was getting aired on the TV , i simply changed the channel ... i really don't see the point of remembering such complicated spell(ing)s ... after all we are just Muggles !
The main reason why i started writing this is because of a few things i noticed over last few months. In office we had to write a letter in normal paper with pen for some purpose and a friend of mine started writing and he couldnt write a single sentence without making spelling mistake ! "I always type on MS-Word dude", he told me , "it always corrects my spelling mistakes , i just need to supply the alphabets in somewhat correct order".
This was bound to happen to most of us who were working with computers for quite a while , only when he spelled it out i realized it !
I was surprised by his remark but still felt that such things wont happen people like me who were very good in English language since school days. However recently a friend of mine spotted 2-3 spelling mistakes in a mail i sent to him ( i don't run spell check on personal mails as we use words from Indian languages in it ! ) and then i realized that this spell-check dependency had affected me too !
Now this guy has a really good command over the language still i could spot a mistake in the mail he wrote me informing me about my spelling errors (these were not typos as they got repeated couple of times ) . Now i realise a lot of us will not able to spell 100% accurately like how we
used to do 6-7 yrs back when we did not use computers.
But the more i think about it , more i realize that knowing the exact spelling is no longer required in today's world , the computer is here to help you with it ! I guess the brain has realized this and no longer cares too much about getting the proper spelling of all the words typed !!!
The language purists will surely disagree and the schooling system will not drop its attitude towards getting spelling right , which i think is fair. But deep inside me im kinda convinced just like how my brain/subconscious mind felt while typing .. it no longer matters :)
The other day when Spelling Bee contest was getting aired on the TV , i simply changed the channel ... i really don't see the point of remembering such complicated spell(ing)s ... after all we are just Muggles !
Saturday, March 28, 2009
education-system-when-will-change-come - part 3 : This is how !
I started thinking about the education system when i saw this :
Xo laptop - the $100 laptop developed for school children in third world countries
There is a non-profit arm of the company i work for and they are responsible for spreading OLPC movement in India
Now this is not a plug for my company/OLPC movement .. though i admire both for their efforts.
It was quite an interesting experience to know that children in a school in remote area in Maharashtra were doing their learning in school with laptops and were doing pretty well and enjoying it !
This is about the idea of each school going child owning a laptop and doing his/her work on it ... wont it totally revolutionize the education scene in the country ?
We all agree current education system is not enough , there are 2 main problems currently as i see it.
First is the spread of education and access to it. Second one is the quality of the education provided. Usage of technology would be the solution which would address both these problems.
Once education system embraces technology , it could provide a much better education to children and also would widen its reach.
The whole concept of education will change with laptops/internet entering and digitizing classrooms , the current model of a single person imparting knowledge to 60-70 students in a cramped room, students not getting enough attention , students losing interest/dropping out etc can be significantly reduced.
Schools will once again become places which encourage 'learning' , the teacher becomes more of a facilitator or a mentor who helps the children explore the world through computer and influences their interpretation of what they see/read about.
Since our future is a result of what happens in today's classrooms , its time we stopped making incremental changes to system and take a quantum leap.
If we can build Rs. 1 lac car then cheap and effective laptops will not be difficult for our nation and dream of every school child learning through a low-cost laptop doesn't seem such a wild idea
In case you have doubts whether the children in rural areas/lower strata will learn how to use computers , take a look at OLPC site or at the famous Hole in a Wall project - which gave the idea to writer of the book which became the famous 'Slumdog Millionaire' movie !
Xo laptop - the $100 laptop developed for school children in third world countries
There is a non-profit arm of the company i work for and they are responsible for spreading OLPC movement in India
Now this is not a plug for my company/OLPC movement .. though i admire both for their efforts.
It was quite an interesting experience to know that children in a school in remote area in Maharashtra were doing their learning in school with laptops and were doing pretty well and enjoying it !
This is about the idea of each school going child owning a laptop and doing his/her work on it ... wont it totally revolutionize the education scene in the country ?
We all agree current education system is not enough , there are 2 main problems currently as i see it.
First is the spread of education and access to it. Second one is the quality of the education provided. Usage of technology would be the solution which would address both these problems.
Once education system embraces technology , it could provide a much better education to children and also would widen its reach.
The whole concept of education will change with laptops/internet entering and digitizing classrooms , the current model of a single person imparting knowledge to 60-70 students in a cramped room, students not getting enough attention , students losing interest/dropping out etc can be significantly reduced.
Schools will once again become places which encourage 'learning' , the teacher becomes more of a facilitator or a mentor who helps the children explore the world through computer and influences their interpretation of what they see/read about.
Since our future is a result of what happens in today's classrooms , its time we stopped making incremental changes to system and take a quantum leap.
If we can build Rs. 1 lac car then cheap and effective laptops will not be difficult for our nation and dream of every school child learning through a low-cost laptop doesn't seem such a wild idea
In case you have doubts whether the children in rural areas/lower strata will learn how to use computers , take a look at OLPC site or at the famous Hole in a Wall project - which gave the idea to writer of the book which became the famous 'Slumdog Millionaire' movie !
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