A Tribute To An Economist
Mrs. Usha Balachandran taught me the brilliant subject that is Economics in Grades 11 and 12. Ma’am was always on top of her game, from explaining convoluted concepts of DMRS to lecturing us on morality and on the principles of life. But what separates her from the rest is that she is a true entertainer of her own sorts. Her one-liners would crack up the entire classroom even at its deadliest hour, and a subsequent little chuckle from ma’am would convert the heated class-discussion into a light-hearted rapport. We enjoyed Economics, and besides all the fun, Mrs Balachandran worked hard for us and drove us to do well. The amount of reference material we received was overwhelming, but what mattered to us was that she would have us fried if we didn’t perform. Believe me, a threat like that works. Thank you Ma’am for everything. =)
The Modern High Economics Boys Batch of 2006-07 will never forget:
“You will deal with me, not Amartya Sen.” – Mrs Balachandran
“Comb your hair properly and everything will be in place.” – Mrs Balachandran to Aaron Gomes for his incomplete work.
“One swallow does not make a summer.” – Mrs Balachandran
“You like to be seen even in the dark, as light bulbs.” – Mrs Balachandran to Zafar Bava, Akshay Mehta and Amir who returned late to class as they were busy handling the lights and sound in the school auditorium.
“It’s good to be Malabari sometimes.” – Mrs Balachandran
“Your respect does not add feathers to my hat, I don’t wear one.” – Mrs Balachandran to us, after punishing us, despite our efforts to reconcile.
“When I said 2 minutes work, I did not mean 1 minute, 30 seconds!” – Mrs Balachandran to Zafar Bava, holding up his inadequate homework.
“Don’t clean your eraser on my school wall.” – Mrs Balachandran to Mansoor Ali Khan on 7th of September, 2006.
“I have such a vast ocean in front of me, I don’t know how I am going to cover it.” – Mrs Balachandran commenting on our 2nd term portion.
“You are a new player to the game, unlike all the seasoned professionals.” – Mrs Balachandran to Abhinav Sinha for not completing his homework for the first time.
“Economics is maths.” – Mrs Balachandran, when we were about to begin the chapter on Statistics.
“You are drowning and pulling me down with you.” – Mrs Balachandran to Sunny Rajput when he received low marks in his Economics exam.
“Guesstimates” – Mrs Balachandran’s word to describe something even more inaccurate than estimates.
“I thought peeping was a bad habit.” – Mrs Balachandran when Dr. Khan interrupted the class to point out that Harendra Kapur was sleeping.
"If the marks are there, I can weave, I can spin…” Mrs Balachandran on recommendation letters.
“If you have thrown it out, I will throw you out.” – Mrs Balachandran to Ameya Chatim when he told Ma’am that he had thrown out his Holiday Homework.
“Don’t stab him from the back, stab him face on!” Mrs Balachandran to Arnav Jhunjhunwala for pinching Nawaz Kazi from behind.
“Take IT for instance, hardware is no where.” Mrs Balachandran talking about international trade.
“If we don’t do this, then the Government of India won’t earn any money.” – Mrs Balachandran to us, when she was explaining ‘Sources of Revenue’ to us.
“No one’s going to become an actor on Broadway. If you become, I will cut my right ear off.” – Mrs Balachandran (obviously, when she was furious) to Harendra Kapur when he was not paying attention in class.
Harry you need to get back to Ma’am on that last one. By the way, please note that the quotes quoted above are very accurate. Tejas, Unmukt and I made a note of them in class, behind my notebook, since the day they started amusing us. Ahh, I’ll miss our Eco classes. Not now, not yet, but soon.
P.S. The “India” post can wait, and umm, Superman is the coolest superhero ever.
A Live Crash-Course on the NBA
I am admittedly a little blogstipated. It’s just that I don’t want to rant about how everyone is leaving, and how I am supposedly “lonely” and all that rot. So I choose to blog about NBA Live 07.
Firstly, it is highly weird to see any computer game besides the Fifa franchise or the PES franchise installed on my computer, but the reason why this NBA game has successfully fought its way into my Godly-awesome computer is that I know two shits about the NBA, i.e. nothing about the NBA.
Now I have decided to head to States, Austin-Texas to be precise, to take up Sport Management as my undergrad degree. Yeah I love sport, and sport fascinates me bla bla, but two sports that I genuinely hate are American Football and Baseball. I can’t pinpoint any reason, and yeah you can screw me on my stubborn-ness, but keeping all that aside, this hatred of mine needs to change. My brain needs to sprout a new leaf that will embrace these “sports”, one being a wrestling-wannabe of Rugby, and the other just a mockery of throw-your-bat-Cricket. Basketball, on the other hand, - I play it. I don’t love it, but I am somewhat starting to like it, thanks to NBA Live 07.
NBA, in general, is energy personified. Players running up and down the court, flying towards the hoop and dunking their buttuties off, is quite a sight. The fakes, the moves, and the crowd’s grooves, makes the sport seem so fun. The commentators make it even better - bloody good, they are. Ask Tejas. The spirit is glaringly overflowing, and there is this distant equality among the teams. Yes, there are the usual favorites and the supreme teams, but it’s almost like every team seems to have half a chance of upsetting the giants. Good shit, quite contrary to Cricket. Upsetting India doesn’t count, they suck. Oh wow, that’s something to blog about. Later.
NBA Live 07 succeeds in bringing out all the above facts. It transcends NBA 2003 that Aaron Gomes possesses, and brings you freakishly close to the NBA atmosphere. Wow, that was friggin’ formal. Anyway I enjoy playing it, because firstly, I get to know more about the NBA so I can enter the States as an informed chappie, and secondly, because Tracy McGrady kicks ass.
Oh, now since I have somewhat taken a liking for the NBA, I need to have a favorite team, right? Now you can’t just start supporting a team, there is always something that draws you to a particular team, and unfortunately you need to wait for that. I haven’t watched much of NBA, but I know I am going to Texas. Houston Rockets are from Texas, so yeah, it kinda adds up to: “Anish, support them”. Also, Yao Ming is tall, and Asian, like me. For all American readers, I am Indian, and India is a part of Asia, so that makes me an Asian, even though I don’t have chinky eyes. Sheesh.
Anyway to conclude this random post, if you want to learn more about a particular sport, play its computer game. It suddenly becomes a lot easier and can be a bucketful of fun. Next on my list are Madden 07 and the latest release of Triple Play. Maybe I’ll review those too, actually no, I am not that blogstipated.
P.S. I know my next post. Sneak peak: The Cricket World Cup is boring… =P. Sorry Bharath.
Niche - WK002
This is an advert made by us [Redial Entertainment] for a store called "Niche". This shop will sell art-related goods such as canvases and sketches, body art ("henna"), accessories, etc at the Young Entrepreneur Competition that is going to be held in Reef Mall, Dubai from the 3rd to the 5th of April. Special paintings done by the students of the Dubai Center For Special Needs will also be up on sale, and all proceeds from the sale of these paintings will go to Dubai Center For Special Needs.
Visit their website @: www.niche-intheworldofcreativity.piczo.com
This is Redial Entertainment's newest project, and we really enjoyed doing it. It was completely shot by us, and Romit's back is living proof. [see below]
To shoot at a height parallel to ground, with the camera perpendicular to its usual position, we came up with what I would call the "Redial-Ninety-Degree" setup. We piled 2 tables on top of each other, and our famed camera man, Romit, then took the honour of holding the tripod parallel to the ground at a particular height (as shown in the picture) for the whole of 7 minutes. Romit died. Almost, but that hero did hold on well.
Yes the girls took only 7 minutes to paint, or well "doodle", the final picture, with ferocious instructions being shouted from us directors. Anyway, we really enjoyed making this video, and are proud of what we have achieved. Yes, there is scope for improvement, but there always is. Anyway, let's hope it's the first of many.
P.S. Good luck to Niche!
Weird Times
School finally feels done with, and somehow I am glad it’s over. I don’t feel like studying or like giving any shitty exam, and the best part about it is that I don’t have too. The most I would want to do at school is sit there, laugh, talk and do nothing else. No more politics, no more excessive competitiveness and no more classroom chemistry. Yeah I will miss the football stuff, and the nostalgic stuff, and the class madness, and Mr Mudassir, but not now, not yet. Later, maybe.
I’ll miss my friends. Everyone’s leaving, but everyone’s also getting overly close, and it almost seems as if it's all happening at the wrong time. As in, why now? This could have happened a little earlier. It’s almost like the thought of separation is bringing us closer. Damn? Oh and “love is” literally “in the air”, everywhere except around my air, that is. And that’s good and all, but then it’s time for friggin’ separation and that sucks. Tejas said three somewhat final goodbyes yesterday, and I would have to do the same, soon. And it’s just that I feel really weird. I am so close to my friends, all of them in some way or the other, but how close? What’s gonna happen a few years down the line? Yeah we will be in touch thanks to Facebook and shit, but will I see them again? How close am I really to them?
Loads of friggin’ questions, and yeah this post does border lame, and people would probably go, “it’s life, deal with it, idiot!” But I don’t know, it’s just a weird time. When life gets comfortable, starting a new one almost seems wrong. But I am looking forward to University too, so well, that adds to the list of confusing thoughts. And then, random people have kinda started entering into my life, which is again, weird, but cool. Redial Entertainment and driving and football and other fun stuff makes for exciting times, but separation and departures makes everything a little emotional, and when you add the two feelings, it just gets plain weird.
P.S. Yesternight, Shak Rukh Uncle and Dhiru Dada blew the lights outta me.
Memoirs of ISC 2007 – Economics!
There are times when the subject you think you like, you just can't hate enough. Studying it is initially impossible, and the “14 days” that you have for its preparation almost go to waste. Well 12 of the 14 were economic-less for me. The other 2 days were just long. Eco, rather “ISC Economics”, in general, is long, and it can be repetitive, and long, and more repetitive. And when the rest of the world is done with their exams, there is this automatic 'make-yourself-more-miserable' process that initiates itself. I cursed Economics, I cursed Sethi & Andrews, I cursed ISC - argh. But then I spoke to my fellow Eco buddies, and none of them were studying either. That’s when things changed a little. I started to feel good. =) And so did they. It’s an exchange - suffer together, and the suffering turns to self-mockery and painless laughter, and then you suddenly don’t give a shit. So you abuse and bemuse, you laugh at yourself when you should actually cry, but you revel in how you are not the only idiot not studying for a crucial, ISC board exam.
That’s how I felt before I gave my Economics exam. But things change…
I slept for seven hours during the night before Eco and that’s a little record in its own way. Now extra sleep means extra hyper-ness, so I apologize to everyone around me that morning for anything inappropriate. Not good, but it was my (our) last exam and I just couldn’t wait to be done with it.
Mrs. Balachandran was there, with a new hair-do, handling the boys, and Dr Murthy was also there (somewhere) handling the girls. There is this brilliant competitiveness between the two, and the way they bolster their herd is admirable – pushes us only harder. So basically they were up to their answering-doubts best. Unmukt had to make sure that he asked ma’am the weirdest of things to freak everyone around him, and Aaron was as supremely confident as ever. Romit had lost hope in everything Eco-related and had reached “eco-saturation” point. Harry’s hair was still annoying the hell outta me, but he was revising his lines for his play that was going to be held that evening for “Great Ghai”, and Eco seemed ‘low-priority’ for him. Tejas was lost in love, somewhat.
Our Economics exam was held in the gym, thanks to Ghai. But it didn’t make that big a difference. Anyway, after loads of last minute chaos-that-should-have-been-constructive-revision and a Tony-Joe-at-his-funny-best prayer, we finally got our papers. A quick glance at the paper, and we all knew that it was going to be a good paper, but a friggin’ long one. It was most definitely both. I hate writing Eco papers, because there is a constant race against time and there is not much time to think. 3 hours of writing leaves you with painful fingers and a not-very-tidy paper. Anyway it was a little different this time, I enjoyed writing the paper. Maybe the 7 hours of sleep allowed my pen to coordinate with my head. Brilliant.
6 months of freedom, loads of fun, loads of Redial Entertainment and loads of Football – that’s what the end of the paper meant, and it signaled joy unconfined! =) What adds to the ecstasy is a good paper and Eco was awesome. Except, well, actually, the compensation of employees answer is 140 – I don’t care what anyone else says – the text book says so. Anyway it’s all good. Unmukt is getting 100 and so are a lot of girls, I think. Though Ankita didn't attempt 6 marks or something [ask Unmukt for the details and his girl-theories]. Aaron is gonna struggle with a 95 – it’s okay Aaron, shit happens. Romit and Tejas and Harry all had a good paper. Harry is looking at the nineties - respect. Dusty has become a little fat, and I’m loving Neil’s longish hair.
There, that sums up my ISC Board Examination experience. Oh, just for the “Who-Will-Top-odds” bit, I heard that Bio was awesome, and Computer Applications was not happening, though Ali is still somehow getting 100. So that adds to my final odds tally [check P.S.]
I really don’t know how to end this post and this whole "ISC Memoirs". Maybe I need to write a closure-type thing. Let’s see.
P.S. And the final odds are in. The investment window will stay open till the results come out, so invest away!
Shayaan: 3:1
Shrivats: 2:1
Bharath: 3:1
Unmukt: 2.5:1
Govind: 3:1
Ali: 1:1
Tejas: 7080090 x 10^903 x infinity:1
300
Okay, I have not been as excited as I was to see this movie for a long time. The trailers of 300 were just mind-blowingly awesome. Also, the TIME article and the hype around its “beauty” made me very inclined to watching it. So I did. It is pretty darn good.
Romit accompanied me for this one, and he was habitually three minutes late. Just before the movie began, we saw a very inspiring Coca Cola advert, and wondered whether we could ever create anything like it. We also found the trailer for “The Number 23” highly intriguing and noted that Ali just to watch that movie for all it's devil-ness.
Finally the movie began, with our hopes as high as Mount Everest. The introduction of the movie was brilliant, but then it swept into this half-dull phase, where it became semi-Bollywood-ish. There was an over-use of “stirring music”, and too much drama for my liking. But that phase passed very quickly. The movie beautifully switched into brilliant gear. With hair-tearing action scenes and the gut-wrenching voice of King Leonidas, time flew by, and we were stuck onto every inch of muscle-movement. Beyond the action, the mental build of a Spartan fascinated me. Their ability to laugh at death and embrace it as the highest token of honour is a little extreme, but the sheer devotion, unity and courage that the Spartans depict is inspiring in its own little way. Their faith in their King and the principled nature of their leader earn the audiences love almost instantaneously.
It has a decent story line - the fearless 300 warriors of Sparta against thousands of soldiers of the Persian empire in the great battle of Thermopylae. The 300 warriors are on the brink of pulling off a historic victory, until they get betrayed and meet heir downfall. But their sacrifice inspires the rest of Greece to stow away the Persians. Yeah I did put it all together in 4 lines, but you would be going to see the movie is for it's visual effects, its effective story-telling, and it's brilliant directing, and not for some complex story line.
The movie, however, lacks realism, but then it is not meant to be a “Saving Private Ryan” either. As TIME rightly put it, 300 is beautiful and is meant to be so. It has beautiful virtual sets, with excellent costumes and hair-raising sound effects. The amount of post-production work put into this film is laudable and the whole concept of it being shot completely in front of a green screen makes it a technological milestone in film-making. In addition to that, the photography and the direction of some of the shots is beyond brilliant. The script is also decent, and the acting is above average. Gerard Butler, who acts as “King Leonidas”, gives a powerful performance, but nobody else is noteworthy.
If you have seen the movie, you will call me an old fart for framing the movie “beautiful”, because its one of the most gruesome movies ever to hit the screens. It’s 18+ and rightly so, because well it’s like a “pornaction” film due to the explicit blood-spilling. There are more than enough head-cutting-offs and enough blood to fill a river. In one scene, an ‘Immortal’ (one of the enemy soldiers) cuts of the Spartan army’s Captain’s son’s head, the head spins into the air, and its oesophagus and trachea are visible from underneath, as it lands onto the ground. The head-less body stays put, and then suddenly falls. With blood oozing out, the body and its head are seen together, lying motionless on the ground. Fine, this movie may not compete with Hannibal and the other gruesome movies on the "disgusting" scale, but it has its fair share of eye-poking, disgusting creatures, blood and death. There are times where you will just want to look away or clutch your seat with sheer disgust. Romit is currently being haunted by all the head-cutting action. He can’t seem to get those images out of his head. So yeah it’s not a beautiful film in totality, but is the epitome of beautiful film-making.
Overall, this movie is a must-watch-in-theatre types, though the extra-sensitive and the blood-phobic people will not enjoy it. And please, don’t take your girlfriend for this one.
P.S. I would give it a 7 on 10 because I don’t think it comes close to Gladiator. Why Gladiator? Because it’s one of my all-time favourites and is partially comparable to 300.