Movie review : Summer Wars

Summer wars or Sama Wozu as it is called in Japanese is an animated Sci-fi movie which is essentially serves as a cautionary tale warning us not to lose touch with real world while exploring virtual (online ) world. Technology can be a boon or bane depending on its usage , the movie explores this theme. Made by the same guys who made the lovely "The Girl who leapt through time" , this one also has some neat animation and some impressive sequences of virtual world.

The story begins in Tokyo where two geeks are working as part-time support staff for Óz' the virtual world similar to Second life where users can create avatars and can live just like real world interacting with other users without barriers like language and with much more freedom and choices. In a scenario almost similar to where we are all headed in real world today with facebook and twitter replacing most of the real social interactions , people interact more and more through Óz' even for work. During the summer break , Kenji one of the geekish math wizards who is a little awkward socially is invited by most attractive girl in their school , Natsuki , to take up a summer job at her family house outside city . That summer is her grandmother's 90th birthday. Her grandmother is a powerful figure hailing from a rich and highly regarded dynasty , so a massive celebration is planned and a huge extended family arrive at the palatial house. Setting is similar to most Indian movies ! After arriving at the house Kenji is shocked when Natsuki announces that his job is to play her boy-friend for a week to make her Grandmother happy. The extended family features a lot of lovable and eccentric characters.

Then one fine day , Kenji gets a text message on his phone with what he thinks is a math puzzle . He works the whole night and manages to crack it and to his horror discovers later next day that the puzzle he solved helped someone crack the security code and hack into the virtual world 'Oz' . The person who hacked into Oz uses Kenji's id to carry out attacks and starts stealing many other ids and suddenly the brilliant online virtual world collapses . As the news spreads Kenji is painted as villain and is thrown out of the house and is taken to police station. En-route they realize that the whole city is in chaos as hacker has stolen ids of virtually everyone who matter , the traffic lights are not working , water hydrants go off , emergency services go haywire and almost all essential services are affected and life comes to stand-still in real world.

They return back to the house and Kenji tries to make amends using his math wizardry and almost wrests the control back but is rebuffed at the last minute by the all powerful hacking program. Then the entire family pitches in to support the attempt to strike back at the hacker and restore normalcy to the world. It is a the good old tale of family uniting to save the society , there are a few clichéd plot elements like most of the people who matter in the battle including the good and bad guys all being under the same roof , family disputes / love triangle.

However it was refreshing to see the same old story placed in a 'sci-fi' set-up , being an anime movie helps a lot as animation makes it possible to convey a lot of things which would taken really huge budgets to make in normal movies. In spite of being slightly predictable the movie has its heart in right place and its tough not to like it ! The romance between lead pair blossoms gradually and its also coming of age tale of the youngsters. More than anything it functions as a cautionary tale for todays generation who is getting lost in virtual world and is appeal to also pay attention to real world and family

Its not just a game !

Sport is an indicator of the state of nation , it reflects the character of nation and represents the aspiration of its people , that is the reason why lot of importance is placed of sporting victories . Also the reason why people follow their national team with great fervor and corporate houses invest so much money in these events and in sport-stars.

60 odd years ago 2 nations were created at the end of colonial rule and both have taken their own unique route . Cricket field is very good indicator of the way India and Pakistan have fared and performed in the world stage. This should also answer the question of skeptics as to why is the nation so much obsessed with this game called cricket !

Indian cricket team traditionally was always good on paper with stylish players and spin wizards , but never quite managed to translate that potential into victories in world stage and were perfect representation of an under performing nation growing at 'Hindu rate of growth' whose economy stagnated with corruption , excessive protectionism and regulations , while other smaller 'Asian Tiger' countries leaped ahead in the first five decades of self rule.

Pakistan was also going through similar phase as India , a nation with lot of potential but never quite managing to put it across when it mattered , just like its cricket team which could be world beaters one day , challenging any nation and fold up meekly the next day.

At the start of this decade , Indian economy slowly started 'shining' , the growth really picked up and India was recognized as an emerging power by the world over the next few years . With steady growth of more than 6% over last couple of decades , India which is now the 4th largest economy is one of the fastest growing economies in the world

At the same time the cricket team under Sourav Ganguly and later under Rahul Dravid started challenging all major powers both at home and away on consistent basis. They started managing test wins in most of the major tours abroad , gradually improved that to series wins in Eng , Pak , WI , NZ and finally leading to No:1 ranking in tests with a win in T2o WC also in between ... Nation also firmly established itself in the world stage by opening up its economy resulting in a stable domestic market . The success of IPL is an example of the economic might of India , the amount of money it has been able to pour into the game and the way it has been able to attract cream of world cricket is sign of strength of its local economy and the belief of all investors in the potential for growth in the country.

For Pakistan whose team was the dangerous floater of 80s and 90s , the next decade was not so memorable as they could not match their neighbor in consistency, despite occasional dominant performances like T20 WC win last year it has been more of lows than highs.
Similarly the country which allied with US in war on terror has been believed by many to be running with the hare and hunting with hounds. There has been a gradual destabilization as the extremist forces have started making in roads and govt struggling to maintain stability and peace.
As the cricket team changed captain after captain - they have recently named their 7th captain in last 3 years - nation also plunged through leadership crisis with Democracy being overthrown by dictatorship which was also collapsed leaving the nation without effective leadership as extremist forces continued to attack and the country getting world wide attention for trouble within . As the country is battling to overcome infighting , Pak team is also going through similar phase with senior players being removed/banned and several players reprimanded for damaging team discipline , with players coming in and going out constantly

In contrast India has had relatively stable rule with a functioning democracy and governments getting re-elected and Test team had captains enjoying long runs at helm.

Quick look at numbers confirms the same :

Indian test team had a success rate of 20% before 2000 and in the next decade(post 2000) it has improved to 35 % . The Win/Loss ratio was 0.65 earlier and it has improved almost 100% to 1.22 in the last decade.

For Pakistan team had fared better than India in previous decades , success rate was at 27% earlier had only marginally improved to 29% in the last decade. Win/Loss ratio has actually dropped by around 50% for them, with the drop being more in the last few years. For Pakistan economy which was model economy initially with its high growth rate in the first few decades , the last few years have mirrored the fortunes of their team with Balance of payment crisis and GDP growth rate dipping in the last few years.



Note : Economy stats pulled from wiki and cricket stats pulled from cricinfo - rough calculations only ; Cricket - Only test records considered in order to measure last 60 years performance. Results against Bangladesh and Zim have been omitted while preparing this statistics as 1) They were not playing test cricket that much before last decade 2) I don't personally believe they are Test class teams !

Book Review : What is the What ?

Honestly , it was the title which prompted me to pick up this book from Crossword bookstore ... Never judge a book by a cover they say , but most of the books i pick are based on hunch that they could be good by looking at their cover and what they say at the back of the cover !

What is the What - is an awe-inspiring story of struggles faced by a young orphaned boy named Achak from Sudan , who had to wade through a civil war affected homeland , walk for several months through difficult terrain , living on next to nothing , move through refugee camps across three countries to find a life of peace only to have it shattered and begin the journey all over again !

What makes this boy/man's story so special is because it is full of struggles against forces which have consistently tried to knock him out , shatter his spirit. But every single time he falls down , he still manages to pick up the pieces and get back on his feet and continue his journey. The story begins with young Achak living in his peaceful village as tensions slowly rise between Arabs and Christians in his land. It covers the journey of group of boys called 'Lost boys' who walk flee from the slaughter in their homelands to refugee camp in Ethiopia and later to Kenya . Before finally managing to reach USA . As it is told from point of view of young boy there are no political overtones and this is purely the story of how hatred/communal violence affects common men.

This real-life story of Achak Deng is truly inspirational stuff and is well worth a read for the courage it gives to every reader to face the challenges of life bravely and do whatever you can to improve your life and that of people around you. I picked up this book when I was going through slightly rough phase in my life , but my troubles seemed very trivial compared to challenges this boy had faced and reading this book improved my spirits considerably and made me look at myself differently and acknowledge how privileged we are growing up in a relatively secure environment. This is a book which tells us how follies of a few have damaged the lives of millions irreparably , but also offers hope that despite all the challenges where there is a will to succeed there is always a way

Wolf Totem - Book review

Wolf - is an animal with which humans had a very long and old connection right from stone ages where men were supposed to scavenge from Wolf kills. Their strength,agility, teamwork - hunting packs with defined territories and communicating through howls makes them one of the best predators in any condition and hence most feared opponents for men ; precisely the reason they have been ruthlessly hunted and pushed to wilderness. But these qualities also make them an enemy men revere , right from Native Americans to Grasslanders in Mongolia , wolf is a much respected foe and part of their traditions. It is said that in Europe as men began settle down and clear forests for large scale farming wolf was a big scourge attacking livestock , this led to tales connecting Wolf with Satan , leading to massive hunts to wipe out wolf population. Our perception of wolf is likely to be influenced by the biased view of farmers who saw them as enemies and much of popular literature (tales of werewolves) and culture backs this view.

Jiang Rong's 'Wolf Totem' offers a radically different view of this animal , the book is set somewhere in 1960s in Inner Mongolia during Cultural revolution in China. This book is tale of a young Beijing student sent to live in harsh countryside as punishment . Book describes life of nomadic Mongolians , their traditions and rituals and paints a fascinating picture of wolf , which is feared , hunted yet highly respected by the local mongol grasslanders. For them Wolf is their biggest enemy , but they also understand the crucial role wolf plays in maintaining the balance of Eco-system by keeping the population of other inhabitants of grassland in control and ensuring that land remains green and natural balance is maintained. Those men understood their role in their tug of war with wolves which ensured that Mongols and their animals remained very tough and combative and they in turn by hunting wolves , without wiping them out maintained this balance. The book beautifully describes some fascinating battles between wolves and men , where lot of strategy is employed by both parties and paints wolves as a very sharp thinkers , who carefully assess the situation , plan and execute their attacks to perfection.

The protagonists (Chinese students) wholeheartedly adopt the customs and practices of traditional mongols , earning respect of locals and gaining acceptance. But their relations take a turn when the students adopt and try to raise wolf cub in captivity wanting to understand more about nature of wolves and understand the Wolf totem. The students form a great bond with the cub , but realize gradually that it can never be raised in confinement , the fate of the once wild wolf cub raised under chains in a way is a metaphor for how man has taken control of nature.

A beautiful and serene pastureland which sustains wide variety of flora and fauna has managed to maintain itself and to provide for people living there for ten thousand years. But ever increasing of population of China means farmers from plains have to look elsewhere for food leading to a battle of traditional nomadic herders with modern agrarian society seeking to get more out of the land . At the same time the clashes between man vs nature led by their finest guardians - the Wolves keep happening , the arrival of increasing numbers of men from plains of China along with arrival of modern weapons threatens to totally tilt this delicate balance and send things spiraling out of control. This book describes the cost nature has to bear to support the progress and advance of human race , through the lives of these herdsmen it proposes how we could have lived in harmony with nature. The consequences of human progress on the whole eco-system of Inner Mongolia is a great read and it is something people anywhere in the world should be able to relate to.

A Curious Case Indeed !

In 2008 there was this wonderful movie made by David Fincher called "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" , based on a short story of same name by F.Scott Fitzgerald. The movie was about titular character who was born as 70 year old and aged in reverse . Curiously as he grew older (age-wise) , Benjamin Button kept getting better , fitter , energetic and younger. Age is one those concepts which we always love to challenge as it dictates what we can/should do , it creates an invisible boundary or box limiting the roles to be played during that period of life. Hence the concept of being able to defy and move opposite to age and what it entails is a very fascinating subject.

Of late in India , there seems to be a 'Benjamin Button' effect going around , clock seems to be running in reverse all over. First there was this case of country's biggest ever superstar actor who is in late 60s , sending the clock for toss and playing a 12 year old kid suffering from progeria. While it could definitely be said that Mr.Bachchan fitted the role to perfection and nailed it with his portrayal , same unfortunately cannot be said about another blockbuster movie which hit the screen earlier this year. The movie has a title which in a way proclaimed what it expected the audience to be ! It had an actor in mid 40s and two other actor in 30s hoodwinking concepts of age and playing college kids who challenge education system with glee and with great commercial success ! The movie in spite of strange choice of age-defying actors did work thanks to the basic ideas espoused by the movie and its good presentation . Credit is also due to the actors for having put in effort to ensure they somewhat fit the bill. The concept has been such a huge success that this month in India there has been a spate of Ads on TV starring these actors with one of them reprising a college boy role again in a series of Ads for a telecom operator .The other actor , the super star , amazingly continues to play yet another age-defying role this time of a young son leaving family for first time to big city for his first job (!) , promising to stay in touch with his parents and also his college going girlfriend through his cellphone ! If this is not enough the 3rd actor , who is from South India , appears in an ad for a bathing soap whose USP is that it helps hide age and makes you look much much younger !!!

Now for some serious time benders - in the field of sport. This years' IPL has just proved that age is just another statistic which can be bandied about during pre-match analysis and discussions , but out there on the cricket field it hardly matters. The so called veterans of the game , who were supposed to be on their last leg and were being nudged out by media decided that this is the time to roar back . Sachin Tendulkar has never batted so well ; In international cricket in the last few months He has played some stupendous innings and in IPL that form seems to be continuing He can hardly put a foot wrong of late . Kallis seems to have struck the form of his life and in the initial matches no one could even get him out . Vaas rocked the party right from start of season with a clutch of wickets . Hayden put many youngsters to shade with his experimental Mongoose bat , rest of the veteran gang - Murali , Kumble , Dada , Gilchrist , Warne are all having a ball this season and seem to be more competitive than most youngsters. And the buzz is that Brian Lara is planning to come back and is widely believed to be in contention for a place in one of the new franchisees , with Kemp and Martyn also playing (and heck with Michael Schumacher behind the wheels of a F1 car ) one could be excused if there was a confusion on which decade we are in !

What has happened to world suddenly i wonder , the clock seems to be turned back somehow ! What next i wonder ?!

No Country for bowlers

It was a hot March evening - about middle of last decade - me and my roomie were casually watching cricket on TV and saw Ricky Ponting demolish South Africans in style with a brilliant knock and lead Australia to an unbelievable 434 in 50 overs ... tht was quite a score at that time . But when South Africans began the chase , we knew that this was something special and we sat through entire 50 overs not able to believe what we were witnessing , it was a run feast - yes . Bowlers were getting slaughtered - yes . But it was fun to watch and was good cricket . South Africa pulled off an amazing win in the end in what is even now billed as one of the greatest games in ODI cricket , and no total was safe after that in ODIs. After 2005 esp , we have seen a run glut in ODIs with scores of 300+ being commonplace . Somewhere during middle of last decade , when the attendence started dropping for cricket matches a new crisper format was created called T20 . Matches getting over within 3.5 hours , just 20 overs per team but with runs scored almost at twice the pace of ODI cricket !

With advent of T20 , batsmen started getting more creative with just a few overs to play they started taking more risks and changed the whole mindset of building an innings and consequently opened up whole new ways to score runs . Reverse sweeps , scoop shots , switch hits started getting employed and if that was not enough stricter rules for wides , Free-hits for front-foot no-balls meant that noose tightened further for bowlers. Stats-wise last few years have been the worst time ever in cricket for bowlers , never have their clan been thrashed around so much , in the era of T20 an economy rate of 6 runs per over is a luxury and is celebrated as achievement . Its not only in T20 but in ODIs and test cricket too batsmen have started thriving , scoring runs at fast clip.
It would seem like they have been liberated from some curse which had for generations held them back and had controlled their ability to attack and decimate their rivals the bowlers , their seemed to some natural order of things , balance of nature which allowed batsmen to prevail in most contests , but always allowed bowlers to comeback strongly call shots too on many occasions and stamp their authority enough to ensure there was always a contest between bat and ball ... but something seems to have snapped during late 2000s , never before have bowlers appeared so clueless as a tribe (of course there are a few practitioners who still conjure up magic , but they are a rare breed indeed) ... it could be the emergence of subcontinent where tracks are bowlers graveyard , but that is just one factor ... matches all over the world in last few years have produced high scores ... T20 cricket as I mentioned earlier must have played its part too in increasing the appetite of batsmen. How else do we explain Indian test team successfully chasing a near 400 4th innings target to win a test match on final day !

Experts have mentioned that this is not an overnight phenomenon and this is something which has been happening over the years with batsmen getting benefit of good protective gear , better bats , smaller grounds , stricter laws which reduce scope for bodily harm and ensure bowlers bowl in a channel where batsmen can if they play properly - hit the ball , docile pitches , sheer workload which burns out most bowlers have all played a part in slowly titling the balance more and more away from bowlers. I think these might be the set of reasons which has caused this imbalance in the game between the two traditional opponents ... But the tipping factor to me is that match in 2006 when the myth of an impossible to chase target was demolished !

But is it all over for the bowlers ? Have they been reduced to pathetic losers who need to scratch and bite the cricket ball on sly to manage to compete with batsmen ? Are they mere accompaniment pieces to batting armies , playing support roles to batsmen ?

The prognosis doesn't look very good at the moment for bowling , but there are still a breed of fighters left the ones who deliver precise yorkers , ones who bowl with genuine pace , ones who manage beat the batsmen with their flight and variations. But they are a diminishing tribe , for the sake of the game lets hope they prosper and come up with newer tricks in their sleeve to restore the balance. This IPL did suggest that even though it is show of batting might ... there are guys who can 'swing' or spin the match away with the ball too ... even in matches where 200 runs are scored in 18 overs .. 2 tight overs in the end turned a possible record chase into a close fight ... however bowlers need to move away from playing supporting role by just stemming the flow of runs and its time they asserted their might with new innovative wicket taking deliveries!

Superstitions in modern world !

We were getting ready to catch the latest movie on Friday evening , i was at a friend's place waiting for him to get ready. Just 20 min to go for the movie , he was searching for his car keys and finally when he found it and when we were about to get out , i sneezed ! Had this nasty cold for last couple of days and had been sneezing throughout evening , nothing different in the way i sneezed this time . However my friend seemed to have a different opinion , he stared hard at me then inexplicably instead of following me out of the house and locking it , he went back and sat on the sofa ! 19 min to go for movie ... i was really surprised and asked him whats going on ? He said "you sneezed" ... then added "they say when someone sneezes before you go out for something , its not good sign , you should sneeze again or we need to wait for a couple of minutes " . Now suddenly i was the guilty party , in spite of not misplacing keys and despite being ready much before time , by this act of sneezing i had delayed our departure and now i suddenly realized that he actually expected me to sneeze again to ward of the evil ! i told him to stop this nonsense and marched him out ... though he came , it still nagged me this behavior came from a guy raised in city ! News channels / newspapers report about a lot of superstitions and medieval practices followed in rural hinterlands , but incident above made me look around in urban India for superstitions.

Of course harmless ones like believing that our cricket team will win the match if we continue sitting in the same position on our sofa is amusing and charming you could say. But there several annoying ones as well where the particular practice must have had some relevance when our ancestors initiated the practice , but following them in today's age without thinking whether it is relevant or not is foolish IMO

Some practices actually make a lot of sense and probably because they didn't have any scientific basis to support the belief , some religious explanation was provided to ensure that people follow that practice . The belief in astrology is another perplexing thing , sun-sign and stuff are really harmless obsessions . What really astonishes me is that lot of educated youngsters think astrology is a science ! The fact that college educated youngsters confuse Astrology with Astronomy is a sad reflection of our education system !

Recent solar eclipse was another reality check on the superstitious urban India , plethora of e-mails started floating around ( driven by older generation who have become net-savvy of late ! ) advising everyone the dos and don't s of eclipse. I got a mail from someone telling me what Hindu's should do to ward off eclipse evils , including the mantras to be recited. Mail also mentioned that no food should be consumed during eclipse( 11am to 3:30 pm on that day) and we should take bath as soon as eclipse is over before doing any activity . Quick search online tells us that there is no scientific basis for this , according to scientific community solar eclipse is a brilliant celestial event , however care should be taken not to view the sun directly during the event. I wrote back with links mentioning that as far as i know we need to avoid looking at sun otherwise we should do fine. I got a mail back saying , Sun releases harmful rays which pollute the food and will cause stomach upset if food is consumed during 11am - 3 pm when eclipse had occurred. The person suggested waiting till 3pm and then consuming the food . My further questions like - "wont the food prepared during the day contain these so called 'harmful rays' " ? Wont the raw materials get hit by radiation ? Wont entire food in the world get tainted that way , should we stop eating forever ? - did not elicit any response ! Although someone else suggested adding Tulsi leaf is a sure-fire way to get rid of all the 'germs' and radiations !!!
I tried to reason with another person who endorsed the contents of mail that by not consuming food during proper time we will actually be causing indigestion and stomach upset . I got a reply that such a thing wont happen as it is ok to consume Milk , biscuits etc during eclipse , we should not eat proper meal that's all ! I was totally stumped and did not have any response to offer for such gems of wisdom ... and these are the answers i got from educated , working professionals !

Its very amusing yet sad all the same , as people are sullying our glorious tradition and culture by blindly following practices . Im not saying everything we do is stupid or meaningless , there must have been precise reasons for each and every cultural / religious practice and belief . For eg , wrt solar eclipse , our wise ancestors would have probably understood this problem and had through religious myths ensured that people avoid looking at sun and even stepping out during eclipse , as a precautionary measure they would have ensured we don't perform any activity during that time.
In today's world thanks to scientific advancement , we are in a much better position to know things and instead of trying to understand why we are doing something , people still believe in blindly trusting the wisdom of ancestors. Knowledge is a continuous process and every generation owes it to next generation to keep finding out things and improving the knowledge of how and why things happen . But somewhere down the line the purpose of the whole thing seems to be lost with regards to our traditions , questioning them gets you branded as non-conformist rebel and as arrogant youngster ! Its really frustrating when people , even educated people, living in urban India working as software engineers follow these ancient beliefs without really thinking