Oscar Movies

Happy New Year Guys!

There's been a lot happening lately around the world. Hope you all heralded in 2013 close to friends and family. Had a well spent vacation with all the get-togethers and its getting harder to spring back from inertia mode.

Watched lots of movies this time. They ranged from being amazing to visually appealing to disturbing or evoking intense emotions. I'm sticking to the ones nominated for Oscars.

Life of Pi - the most visually appealing movie I've seen. Just beautiful. You drink in the scenes. Richard Parker is magnificent. highly recommend watching the movie.

Argo - loved this movie. Historical/biographical but commercial movie. Had all elements of action/suspense/humour. True story. Watched it twice. Definitely recommended.

Zero Dark Thirty - more of a documentary. Watchable. Too much hype around the movie.

Anna Karenina - beautiful costumes. Keira Knightley and Jude Law portrayed their characters really well. A bit depressing, but captures most elements of the book (more depressing). If you loved the movie, I recommend reading the book.

Django Unchained - was too gory (usual Tarantino style) but Jackson and Leo were a different league altogether. Not exactly an easy movie to watch - but Tarantino fans might love this one.

Hitchcock - did not come up in the Oscars, but one that I enjoyed. It's actually a movie about how Alfred Hitchcock makes the movie Psycho, and his relationship with wife Alma. Anthony Hopkins does a wonderful job as Hitchcock.

The Flowers of War - it's a movie about the Nanking massacre with Christian Bale as the lead actor. Being a huge fan of Bale, I expected something remarkable. A bit disappointed with the plot, since they try to bring in romance in such a serious story. I found the movie very disturbing (it's in the league of some of the NC-17 movies - equally disturbing!)

Note to self: watch Lincoln soon, too many good reviews.

Anyways, 2012 had some pretty good movies which are definitely worth watching - Oscars or not!

The Water Droplets

The best moments in life are like water droplets. Once you start paying attention to the smaller details, you see the water droplets falling from the partially closed tap. One of the sayings on the page of my favourite author Paulo Coelho, always brings me back to things that actually matter:
"Life is Short, break the rules, FORGIVE quickly, KISS slowly, LOVE truly, LAUGH uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you SMILE. "

A normal day is like water gushing from a tap, there are no particular moments you remember. You need a change, when you see your life as a journey from one weekend to another (yes, that boring high paying job which you ache to quit).
 It is so easy to say this, but truly difficult to follow. The time to enjoy life is now, not tomorrow, not that vacation  you have been planning. If everyday we can do one thing that makes our heart smile, we have a droplet when we close the tap at the end of the day. It does not have to take an hour, even ten minutes of watching the sunset with your best friend would do. It has become even harder to do this thanks to the "virtually connected" world we live in.

The water droplets are relative. What one person sees as a droplet, might not be the same for another person. Social media like facebook can muddle our thoughts and confuse our perspective of happiness. I feel liberated to say that my facebook usage has reduced to a bare minimum (yes, I think it is right to say I was a facebook addict).

Life is finally back to those droplets that matter, made up with people we care about. Have a nice day folks. Hope you see the droplets that make up the flowing water.

The Small Awesome Things

I was watching this TED video by Neil Pasricha (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajKMkIXN1eg) about how there are so many things that make our life awesome.

Only 3 A's are required to make it awesome: attitude, awareness, and authenticity. It's a beautiful and inspiring TED talk. Encourage all of you to watch it, and you should take a look at his blog too.
It's about 1000 Awesome things that are small things which gives us pleasure for a split second or more.

There is so much positiveness in that blog. On the same note, I was wondering about another website most of us visit when we are bogged by non-awesome things. The "F my Life or FML" website where people say about their everyday misadventures, and others have a good laugh. Both of these websites have something in common -- we have a few laughs, but they rely on two different concepts. The first one (1000 Awesome things) focus on the truly small and good things, while the FML website focuses on the small misadventures people have had in the past. Anyways, everything said, the best way to recharge is by being with family and friends.

Signing off, Have an awesome week ahead guys!

Do we really want to know?

Scenario: Late Night Thoughts
Inspiration in bits and pieces: *Onky and Fred

So, I have heard that when people really figure out what they want to do in life, it's true bliss. But, do we really want to know what we want to do in life? Isn't the uncertainty, the bursts of happiness, the understanding of small things and everything that comes with it what constitutes a wholesome life?

Maybe, if you really find out what you are supposed to do, life's no longer interesting. You have to give a shot at stuff, try different things. I have tried small ones and yes, it is hard initially but later on it gives this huge experience, that you probably would never get if you were so hell bent on sticking to a master plan.

Sometimes, when you see people, you know they are meant to do what they are doing, since they do it so well. But, really that does not mean that's what they are supposed to do. Take a break, try something else. Why should life be so serious? I strongly believe this train of thought stems from moving to Canada and the influence of some of my labmates (truly admire their decision process). I have heard of investment bankers who completely change from what they are doing 18 hours a day to doing labour work like plumbing. If it helps clear the mind and do something satisfying, it's totally worth the 'risk'. Yes, there will be the sceptical looks and the nagging feeling. I don't think I would do something like that, because while ibanking is software development for me, I do not know what's the analogy of plumbing for me!

It takes truck loads of courage to do something like this, but it should be fun and probably scary initially. Might be not right, but yes, you tried something different.

Similar thing goes with the small things... which is what I decided to start with. Yes, I am scared of the uncertainty. Wish me luck, I am sure I'll need it!

*Pseudo names are used, yes these people are called by these names.
F uses Fred when he wants to order pizza and people find it easier to to pronounce Fred rather than his original name.
Onky was called that by his college mates at NIT Trichy.

P.S: Just saw this video on TED. Something along similar lines, trying smaller things for 30 days.

http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days.html