fooled by randomness

“Fooled by randomness” by Nissim Nicholas Taleb is an interesting read. It tries to explain the role of chance in life, more through the example of market. In the course it speaks about probability, skewness, odd, expectation, mean vs. median- what not. The book is written in entertaining manner bringing lot of laugh and thinking. One may agree or disagree with the book, but surely it will make the reader to contemplate. A book can never change a person’s view of life on a single read. (That’s why I stay away from self guide and motivational genre.)But what, a worth a read, will do is resurfacing itself at several places showing how true it was. This book is worth a read.

Trying to explain what this book speaks is not an easy thing, but let me try to point out the ones that pops out after a week (Time is a good filter to remove the noise).

1. If we have sufficient number of monkeys knowing to hit typewriter, then there is a possibility one monkey might produce an Iliad, but it doesn’t mean it will make another epic. More the people, more the chance, the so called success to be a pure random event.

2. If there is an urn with 50 white and 50 red balls, more the red ball you take out less the chance of drawing a red ball on next draw. So in a way past history has a negative co relation in predicting future.

3. Whatever be the number of white swans you see, it is not sufficient to say all swans are white. It just need 1 black swan to say swan can be black.

4. Random thing can decide the outcome but not the way you see it or react to it. This is the important thing that made me to appreciate the book. Means, not the ends that matter. As Nissim says “The only article lady Fortuna has no control is your behavior”

felix qui potuit cognoscere causas

This weekend one of my friends is entering into wedlock. He was my room mate in my final year of college. Any friend's marriage is news to be elated and his marriage has more reasons to cherish. It’s a five years love journey hitting up a milestone a.k.a marriage. Before that they were close friends for four years. It is one of the classic college day’s stories where the love lying low in the waters' of friendship surface up under the sudden revelation of getting separated. Well five years gone by and now they enter into matrimony, I toast for their happy married life.

Love in all forms and colors happening around -who chose not declare the love as it won't culminate as marriage because of socio-family reasons, who declared it and withdrawn either not being able to fight up against those forces, or saying it was a wrong call, who declared and reached a milestone and then decided it is not what they thought and also the one who fit into the last line of the fairy tales we love to hear. It’s really a beautiful thing to see people in love, being in the room or conversing with them. Faces brimming with joy. Oh man… life is so beautiful through their eyes.

Love is too fickle. It takes a great skill and art to make it luminous. Sometimes in this journey love simply passes away as the fume that escapes from the candle. Love is a necessary thing. It’s the elixir; hope and reason. That's why most people fall in love in moments of solitude than while surrounded by clamor. It’s a momentary feel. If one dissects it, it will masquerade. In certain things ignorance is bliss and happy doesn't lie in knowing the things behind... The only way of being in love is madly in love.

I got this in email: Life ends when U stop dreaming, Hope ends when U stop believing, Love ends when U stop caring, Friendship ends when U stop sharing. I ask, "I care for my friends and don't 'u in love' share with your loved ones?”

weekend blues

When I don't know what I want to do, isn't better to do something to prove someone rather than brooding on what I want?

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During the moments of Saturday night, staring on gtalk looking for some one to pop up,sending "hi hru" , asking carefully chosen questions on location, climate, life, weekend plans, hearing and saying, 'my social life is becoming void.....", somewhere in my ear Tennyson screams loud, "'Tis better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all"

weekend

I write in this space only if I had something to write and the whole world conspires to say it. But now I am writing as I want to write something. Reason , you will find it 2 posts below. I am sitting in by med with laptop, in a place where it's name suggests it should be, in a room filled with heat waves, hoping someday I'll get my magic touch ...........


This weekend I watched three movies (well that's what I do on most weekends).Jaane tu ya Jaane na is a feel good movie on college day love. The movie started well. But as it progressed i could no longer be with the film. Things looked predictable. Later when I thought about it , the movie had all the things I used to enjoy. It was sweet, beautiful and romantic. I wonder I am hitting the age circle where I could no longer empathetic with a feel good college day romantic movie, where every one is as good as one wish and life is nothing but youthful exuberance. Am I getting romantically challenged?


children of heaven is an Iranian film, which revolves around 2 poor kids. The story: Ali miss his little sister shoe while bringing from repair shop. His mother is ill and his father is finding difficult to meet the ends with his salary. So he tells his sister not to tell to dad and they will workout themselves. The story then goes on about how they manage with the Ali's shoe and Ali's constant attempts to get her sister a new pair of shoe. The movie is filled with nothing but poverty , but there is no scene or dialogue of melodrama and most of the time movie moves through the eyes of the 2 kids. The way the story unfolds and the scene moves i felt the movie is more a poem than a movie. Romanticization of distress and poverty like 'life is beautiful', 'the barn'..


Rear window- 'the' Hitchcock movie. The hero is a famous photographer and he is in his room with his leg broken . He develops a habit of watching the adjacent houses through his rear window. By this he suspects a salesman living in apartment opposite to his house has killed his wife and what follows is told in an engaging manner.The way Hitchcock establishes each character and the indifference with which he builds the tension of the viewer, makes the movie a great watch.

Does Time makes it?

It is the first day after summer holidays. Classes are bustling with noises. Students are in their new class room. Guys, who are lucky enough to maintain their coterie, are making up for all the talks missed during summer. The air is filled with narrations of truth and fantasies. In the room full of fun and hope there sits a guy in the last bench more introvert with an eye that doesn't conceal he is not part of the party. He is staring through the window. Some sit next to him. They know he was retained in that class. They whisper among themselves as if to not distract him. As hours progress someone calls him: " anna". He starts to talk reluctantly. They give respect and asks him on the new teachers, how to cajole or dodge them. He catches the widening eyes of them as he answers. The new superiority brings smile to his lips and an proud to his eyes. Deep inside, he may even enjoy his failure, for what it gives now. Or is it just his soul found a way to condone its failures? Even if he fails next year its just matter of few hours of gloom, till someone in the class calls him , "anna.."

It's just a matter of time to start saying, "Honestly dear, I don't give a damn..."

on writing

It is high time since I wrote on what I am reading. The primary reason nothing triggered me to write about it. It doesn't mean I ended up in wrong books. Most of them were either competitive or good, but not lingering enough. I read the recent best selling authors earlier works or consecutive works of same author. The first book impresses me and the second one started to show patterns. The only book I didn't finish and left in middle (actually I didn't read even one tenth :) )is Umberto Eco's Baudolino. the book is not compelling enough and also I had some other things to do. I am planning to read The Name of the Rose or Foucault's Pendulum.

The latest reading is 'on Writing' by Stephen King.Through the book Stephen King speaks to the reader about his life instances which groomed him as writer, what he did and how he did? Then he speaks more about what a potential writer shall do and lastly what writing is all about. The greatest strength about the book is it never becomes didactic. The important things he repeats are :
1. Write in active not in passive
2. Avoid adverb
3. Read a LOT and write a LOT. Do them with discipline
4. Don't wait for big story. Keep writing , the story and magical touch will come.
5. Don't bother on symbolism, theme, style , plot bla blas.. first tell the story.. allow the story to grow on its own. It will chose its own theme , style etc..on the course. On a subconscious level you will be telling what you want to tell.
6. Give a break, get back to story now bring in all you needed(theme, allusion etc..) and make sure to reduce the word count at least by 10%.
7. Give to your ideal reader. Get feedback and harness it.

The book is an interesting and must read for any one who thinks about writing.

Dasavatharam

I am on phone. She knew I have been to Dasavtharam and I have admiration for Kamal.
How is Dasavatharam?
mmm... Its Ok..
Not good?
Not like that.. but most of the people who came with me didn't like it...
Hi.. tell me whether you liked it or not?

We go to a theatre and film starts. It may make us to think, laugh or cry (sometimes to look into watch). But ultimately what matters is does it engross us? It is immaterial what happened before, under what conditions its coming out. But on other side when a man ventures into what have not been done and have passion and love for what he does and veers of the target or miscalculates it , it still needs some applause, at least some pat in back. That's why I don't have an simple yes or no for that question .

On almost every frames there is a technical brilliance. Most of the shots have more than 1 Kamal on the screen and between them there is a visible physical difference. And for the first time in a Tamil film, technology is not on face and blends into movie. Unless we sit and and think it never strikes how much graphics, camera etc... has gone into that shot. Will it work out commercially? I don't know, because , if you want to sell it you should have it bold and italicized (It was not surprising when I hear why this movie consumed so much of money? )

Graphics hovers between 'too good' to 'bad' in several places. But considering the fact what it was trying to replicate the graphics was good. Makeup also follows the path of graphics. There is "balramnaidu" for us to praise the make up and also "kalif ulla" to leave a bad taste.

Kamals' acting notched up few new territories. As the face is plastered with dough, he shows all the difference just with the eyes and body language. Let it be villain or the old lady in the climax or the balram naidu or kalif ulla- infront of the hospital or rangaraja nambi, Kamal soars high .

Dialogues were good. It looks as if written by Sujatha and Crazy Mohan. There is no ingenuity except Kamal's speech in Nehru stadium. But dialogues are good, rib tickling, thought provoking and also witty.

Now the big question. The question what every one means when they ask how is a movie? : " What is the story and how is it told? ". I saw an NDTV interview in which Kamal rated himself less for acting and proclaimed, he is one of the best in industry when it comes to script writing. If one has to validate that statement only with Dasavatharam, (there are movies which makes me to to nod for what he said), I wonder what he means by screenplay. To start with he has a wafer thin story, hero wants to destroy a bio weapon (a vial) and the villain want to have it. Well Gilli too had a story of cat and mouse chase. But the difference is in the way it was told. Here everything happens by coincidence (chaos or 'Gods plan' depends on what controls your thoughts-is it Science or God ). But for a screenplay it never works , for a simple reason, no one does anything and everything is under the control of probability which never engages the viewer and pushes him to backseat.

That is the reason why even if one of the best things happened in Tamil film industry , the 12th century sequence, losses all it charms when a viewer asks why is it needed in the film. First comes need then the presentation , but Kamal got it topsy -turvy. Whatever crossed his mind found a place in the movie. I wondered why there is a jail riot in virumandi, why so much talk like a radio drama in Anbe Sivam and now I wonder why there is Dasavatharam ?

If we look into most of the Kamal interviews there will be a agony and a pain of the man who has to fight for everything he has to do. He always says he don't want to waste time for the question if he is ahead of time. May be he feels he has lot to tell and clock is ticking. I am never good in public pulse . More often my feel for a film and commercial results where in opposite direction. If Dasavtharam becomes commercially hit, I will be more than happy for the fact that 'HE' deserves a success though not for this but for all the anbe sivam,aalavandhan and virumandi's. But the better the quicker if he understands the boundary of "too much".