Skyfall - Review in less than 100 words

I don't understand this new obsession the bond movie makers have in redefining 'James Bond'. First he lost his weapons and started fighting with bare hands(that was ok), then he lost the super cool cars(this was a bit sad), now he has lesser gadgets and has 'emotions' (this is plain stupid). Thanks to the hype all around about it being the 'best bond movie', Skyfall is boring, disappointing and a big let down. Yes it has its cool moments, but they are too few and spread too far.

Cheers,
--Badri--

The Atheistic Prayers!!!

I had told myself that I will blog when this happens again. The last two times I was disturbed but not disturbed enough to blog, the third time has given me the required push. Let me introduce you to the characters in this story

Mr.Y : My good friend; sworn atheist; reads-practices and advocates Richard Dawkins to everyone
Mrs.Y : Of course my friend's wife, also a sworn atheist, in fact they got married partly because they were impressed by the "atheistic characteristics" of each other.

Not that it matters much, but to set the background, they are both Brahmins, they defied(fought with) their parents and married in (what they thought was) the atheistic style - just signed at the registrars office, exchanged rings and organized a lavish dinner party for friends.

I argued with him a lot to make some concessions for his parents and get married at a temple or at least have a few prayers but he was adamant about upholding his atheistic freedom and argued it was because educated people like him and me give in to pressure from society that 'the myth' of 'organized' religion was getting stronger and 'hurting' so many.

5 years have passed since this argument, He settled in Toronto and we  have had multiple more arguments about religion, vedanta and stuff like that. He has always, always maintained that Dawkins is the smartest and that religion is the root cause of all evil. He even ridiculed me when I talked about prayer and stuff but in spite of all that  we have still remained good friends who agreed to disagree about religion.

Mrs. Y gave birth to a  baby gal recently and Mr.Y sent me an invite for the baby's ayushhomam and punyavachanam. (the prayer for long life of the baby and the naming ceremony respectively) . I 'smiled' and sent them my very best wishes. I would have stopped there and would have not written this blog. But he did a big mistake, one he shouldnt have done - he shared a video of the function with me.

You see , seeing him and his wife pray for the child's good health and long life, seeing them do all the prayers required for the ceremony so diligently, seeing them apply sacred ash on the child got me really disturbed. Normally it wouldn't have mattered cos that's what parents do when they have kids. But this couple who have always maintained that religious people are hypocrites, that religion is evil that there is no God and prayer is stupid and those who denied their parents the joy of having some prayers in their kids wedding - were now all pious when it came to their kid. They paid a good deal of money to fly their mothers to Toronto for the function, hired priests in Canada paying them in dollars for the function but have for years argued with me that spending on religion is foolish and a waste , especially when you can give that money to the poor and needy.

I guess the moral of the story is atheist or theist when people are scared about something( sometimes their kids well being) - they need God(or someone powerful who can support them).

I am not against people being atheistic, in fact in many ways atheism is good(more on that late). But what irks me off(confuses me, astonishes me)  is how people can so strongly, passionately argue about a topic for years and suddenly switch their allegiance overnight. Note: This is the third time so far in my life, when a sworn atheist friend of mine has religious done his kids punyavachanam.

Cheers,
--Badri--

Sorry idiot, I deserve to be slapped (a bit) too!!!

He was turning his bike a bit to the right, the indicator wasn't on, the lady who was his pillion was smiling and chatting with him. I was right behind him on the same road trying to turn left, I must have been riding by at about 40kmph.

 While thats not too much as such, on these small roads near my house , even 40kmph could be dangerous. I was aware of the risks but was trying to catch a cab driver who had overshot his mark (my house) and was going 'god knows where' really really fast.

 My Spidy sense was triggered (I watched "The Amazing Spiderman" last night, more on that later) , I knew I was going to crash into his bike , I breaked hard, the disc breaks in CBZ dint fail me, I stopped really really close to him . My old super smooth tires left a big black mark on the road(they are really old).

"Idiotttttt!!!" I shouted. "If you are turning right, switch on the damned indicator, you have a pillion who is not even wearing a helmet, had I crashed into you, she would have fallen into the gutter" (there was a gutter very close to where he was trying to turn)

"Sorry Sir, but I wasn't turning right" He said, extremely politely, "In fact I want to turn left, and I am just starting my bike from this point". He sounded genuine. "Yes sir, we want to turn left, in fact it was you who scared us by the heavy brakes" his wife/pillion rider chimed in.

"Morons, they deserve to be slapped", I said to myself and left the spot. 15 minutes later , after I calmed down from the stress I was going through. I saw the entire incident differently.

Although it all happened in less than a minute, From the end of the street(which wasn't too long) Just before he 'tried' to turn right, I had seen him remove his vehicle stand, I had noticed his pillion board the vehicle and had watched him losing his balance and shake a bit. But yet when I got angry and shouted at him I claimed that he was trying to turn right. May be I was the idiot........

Bottomline:
i) I realized that when things happen really fast and when I am stressed, I perceive things differently than they really are. I chose to see only one small part of the incident(his vehicle turning right) but left out the other vital parts (he actually lost balance and slightly turned right , without even realizing he was doing so)
ii) The couple were extremely humble, very soft spoken, that ashamed me and taught me a lesson. Even if the other guy is an idiot, if you are humble , you can diffuse the session and may be the other guy will realize his mistake
iii) 40 kmph is still very fast, I have to learn to drive slower in the lanes near my house.
To the couple who taught me lesson through their humility : Thanks and I am really Sorry!!!
--Badri--