Reflections from the pensieve

I live in a strange world

Religion
where believing that others' religious sentiments are inferior to one's own

where bombs and guns are a medium of salvation and where innocent people are killed in the name of God

where logic is inferior to religious thoughts

where going to church is more important than actually following the Bible

where GOD is an instrument of his own followers


Life
where following your dreams is considered a cardinal sin

where doing what you believe is going against some people's likes and in the end becomes going against the world

where one who was shunned before for their thoughts are welcomed like kin by the same folks

where money decides who's whose friend

where women are adored as Goddesses but treated as slaves otherwise

where all principles of life are restricted to books 

where people who are supposed to protect something / someone are responsible for destroying it

where the worst enemy is in fact your best friend

where one's destiny is determined by their caste, creed, looks rather than their actual potential

where first impression is the last impression

where we make sure a disabled person feels they are not normal especially by sympathizing with them

where parents think all their children have to do is fulfill those wishes which they couldnt achieve




Love and marriage
where looks are the first and mostly the only criteria for marriage

where marriage is decided by relatives

where a guy and a girl from same religion but different castes cant spend their life together

where the best relations are made with those whom you may have met a few days back

Politics
where a low IQ, incumbent, goon is chosen to rule you

where people spend their time watching TV when they should be choosing who ll lead them

where a country which speaks of peace and stability has the highest number of nukes, is one of the biggest exporters of weapons, and has been instrumental in many wars

where speech is free but comes at a huge price sometimes at your own risk

I live in a strange world and wonder
how much more stranger
have I to become to survive
in this strange world

Avatar was favorite to win the Best Picture at the 82nd Academy Awards, I did my petty predictions and the only one which went awry was this. <<see my predictions here>> Going by the Golden Globes where Avatar swept off all the awards, it was a pleasant surprise for many who saw Hurt Locker walking away with the Oscar statuette at the 82nd Academy Awards. Many of Avatar fans considered Hurt Locker a win cause it was a Women's day and hence Oscars made history by giving it to a woman, blah Oscar date for this year would have been arrived at long long back and they wouldnt have been sure that Hurt Locker would make it to the final list, a more fitting movie would have killed it chances, only that none came except for Avatar. So what made Avatar the highest blockbuster ever in the world loose out to one of the lowest box office collectors The Hurt Locker.
The reasons
a) Avatar is not a war story, any war story believe me has a big mileage. Avatar has a war ingredient but it is fantasy, Hurt Locker is about a real day to day death situations that American forces face in Iraq. Normal people sentiments go with the war heroes, go with the army and hence any movie based on war has higher chances to win an Oscar than others, having said this people simply didn't go to the plexes / theatres to watch a war movie. Strange!!! and yet it walks away with the Oscars.

b) Avatar as I said before is fantasy, its animation and not many animated movies have made it to the final list before. The only one to make it was Beauty and the Beast. Hurt Locker by far was very very close to reality or rather lets say was reality only. So as my good friend Minoy said he would rather look at a more human film winning the Oscar than an animated one. Avatar was an animation movie yet not entirely one of them.

c) Avatar does not have a strong story behind it. Many people have accused Avatar of being no different than Dances with Wolves, FernGully: The Last Rainforest and Pocahontas. So without a good story its chances diminished

Having given all these reasons you might be wondering why in the earth did I choose Avatar above Hurt Locker. First of all this category win came as a shocker to me, I didnt expect Avatar to not win even a single major award. I was prejudiced and rather confident that the Oscar jury would be biased towards Avatar, that said without doubt Avatar was a marvel and I went 3 times to watch it in a theatre. Avatar was a treat to watch, had I missed Avatar at a theatre I would have repented but I cant say the same for the Hurt Locker. Hurt Locker was tense unlike Avatar, kept me on the edge of my seat, never gave me a chance to look aside apart from the screen lest I miss some earth shattering scene. Avatar was technically and visually best, but best picture goes to a movie which scores 10 in all departments. Hurt Locker wasnt marvellous as Avatar but was strong very strong in its story, screenplay, action and acting, and direction something where I cant rate Avatar 10 on all fronts viz a viz the Hurt Locker. I can go watch Avatar again for its technicality and superb execution but I cant say the same for Hurt Locker, cause you wont feel the same tension gripping you afterwards, you know what's coming at you.

Days back I had written my perspective on my Goals in life, my career in Wake up. I was confused on what I was doing, when will I realize my dreams, have I overgrown the age to realize them, can I still make it? All these questions created and do create a ruckus in my head whenever I think about it. Is it only me who has these thoughts, are there others who think about when is the right time to do something that one really likes doing, today , one year after, some day, never? I stumbled upon this blog of Sam Greenspan <> which revealed 11 people who made a career changing move in their 30's. 30 might sound a bit old for many who might never take up the challenge at this age, they would rather start at 25 or early 20's. In India 30's means you are married settled with a kid or two and are looking at buying a house or other stuff which means no more risk taking. People are content at 30's, but in this writeup the author takes the example of 11 people who did a U turn at 30's. Read it as an inspiration if you intend to do something later and are confused when should I start. Also m linking a colleagues reflection on When is the right time.

1. Sylvester Stallone, deli counter attendant. After getting no career traction as an actor in his 20s, Stallone attacked his 30s like any 5'3 man should: He wrote a movie where he was an all-American hero with unbelievable success in sports.
   
   That movie was "Rocky"... he banged out the "Rocky" screenplay in three days, in between working at a deli counter and as a movie theater usher... and it launched his career with an Academy Award for Best Picture.
   
2. Andrea Bocelli, lawyer. He'd loved music and singing his whole life... but didn't really see (no pun intended) it as a career possibility. So, after school, he got a law degree at the University of Pisa. At age 30 he was working as a lawyer and moonlighting in a piano bar for fun and extra cash. He didn't catch a break as a singer until 1992, at age 34.
   
3. Martha Stewart, stockbroker. When she was 30, Martha Stewart was a stockbroker, no doubt learning all about finance and the ethics involved therein. Two years later she and her husband purchased a beat-down farmhouse in Connecticut... she led the restoration... transitioned into a domestic lifestyle... and parlayed that into her evil, evil career.
   
4. Mao Tse-Tung, elementary school principal. At age 30, Mao was involved in communism... he was a young star of the Chinese Communist Party... but didn't realize it could be a career. (Probably didn't see communism as being very lucrative...?)
   
   Instead, he was working as the principal of an elementary school. Where, no doubt, hall passes were decadent. Four years later he started a communist group that eventually became the Red Army and put him in power.
   
5. Julia Child, government spy. Absolutely the wrong career. At age 30, Child wasn't cooking... she was working for the U.S. government as a spy. She went on clandestine missions to China and Sri Lanka (which, at the time, was called Ceylon) to get intelligence documents to agents in the field. She didn't enter cooking school until age 36.
   
   How it took until now to make a movie about her life (it comes out in like a week, with Meryl Streep) is mind blowing. They made a movie about the life of MC Hammer. They made a sitcom out of the Geico cavemen. I mean... someone bought the rights to make a movie out of "Where's Waldo?" You're telling me Waldo's more interesting than female spy-turned-TV cooking superstar? It's "Alias" meets "Top Chef"! Just because Waldo traveled to a bunch of exotic places where he managed to mingle with lots of other people wearing deceptive red-and-white striped shirts doesn't make him movie-worthy.
   
6. James Joyce, singing. By 30, Joyce was writing... just not getting published. So to make ends meet he reviewed books, taught and, weirdly, made a lot of money thanks to his gorgeous tenor singing voice. (He was also a raging alcoholic, which isn't financially lucrative until you become an author and can parlay those drunken antics into stories. Ask Hemingway. Or James Frey, sort of.)
   
   Joyce finally got his first book, "Dubliners", published at age 32, which launched his career as, arguably, one of the most successful authors of all time.
   
   So I've decided to co-opt his style and will write the next point on this list completely in the manner of James Joyce.
   
7. Colonel Sanders, tons of blue collar jobs. When yes Harland Sanders was turning 30 yes he was still yes switching from one yes career yes to yes another yes: Steamboat pilot (yes!), insurance salesman (yes!), farmer (yes!), railroad fireman (yes!), gigolo (no!). He didn't yes start cooking chicken until he was 40 yes and yes, yes, yes didn't start franchising until, yes, age 65.
   
8. Michael Jordan, baseball player At age 30, Michael Jordan was the biggest star in the world, had just led the Chicago Bulls to three straight NBA championships... and promptly quit to become a minor league baseball later.
   
   This remains one of the most suspicious moves any celebrity has made in our lifetimes. If this happened today, the Internet would actually blow up with people debating the real reason why Jordan quit. The NBA secretly suspended him for gambling but couldn't afford to admit he'd gambled on their games? Scottie Pippen took photos of him having gay sex with Bill Wennington and threatened to blackmail Jordan unless he stepped away? He killed a man? It's all equally plausible (especially the Wennington thing).
   
   Anyway, I included this on the list because it shows that even Michael Jordan was still searching for the right career at age 30.
   
9. Rodney Dangerfield, aluminum siding salesman. He started doing stand-up at age 19... then gave up on it in his mid-20s.. He started working as an acrobatic diver (true... and wow, I never realized that was the influence for the Triple Lindy)... and then as an aluminum siding salesman. He didn't start getting back into comedy until he was 40.
   
10. Harrison Ford, carpenter. When Ford was 30, he starred in "American Graffiti"... which was a huge hit. But he got paid a pittance for acting in it, decided he was never going to make it as an actor, and quit the business to get back into the more financially dependable world of construction.
    
    Four years later, he met up with George Lucas again (for those who don't know, Lucas directed "Graffiti") and Lucas cast him as Han Solo.
    
11. Jesus, carpenter. At age 30, Jesus finally stopped doing carpentry and started performing miracles. See, Harrison Ford and Jesus have more in common than you'd think.

Source: http://www.11points.com/Personal/11_Famous_People_Who_Were_in_the_Completely_Wrong_Career_at_Age_30   

The nominees for the best Directing are:

And the Oscar goes to:
Kathryn Bigelow

For bringing the “on the edge” lives of the soldiers to reality, for a brilliant execution of a tense subject, for portraying the story of a human being who’s addicted to what he’s so effectively. If Avatar stood apart in the Oscar nominations with 9 category nominations The Hurt Locker was close to its heels with 9 nominations as well.
• Actor in a Leading Role
• Cinematography
• Directing
• Film Editing
• Music (Original Score)
• Best Picture
• Sound Editing
• Sound Mixing
• Writing (Original Screenplay)

The news just in Kathryn won the 2010 Directors Guild Awards. She is giving tough competition to James Cameron who may well win the statuette in the end (Oscars are notorious to be heavily biased). Well if Kathryn wins the Oscar for the best Directing she becomes the first woman to win this award. Hurt Locker has got rave reviews from critics all over the world. With the base of Iraq invasion Kathryn presents a tense story of a bomb disposal squad, where death is biting at their heels every second. They wait every second in tension counting the days to go back home and so are you, one year would these 3 go back home alive, 3 months would they go back alive, 3 days would they go back alive. Such is the drama and emotion that Kathryn has weaved in the Hurt Locker. Cameron won the covetous best direction award in Golden Globes and Kathryn won it in Bafta, one waits to see what would happen in the Oscars. Cameron is no wonder amazing in Avatar, but Avatar is just a technology marvel, it’s not a reality, there are no scenes where you are at the edge of your seat and by far its predictable but same can’t be said about the Hurt Locker, you are tensed as the characters, you cannot predict its ending (some may and I won’t debate with them period), and the story is much much strong than what is there in Avatar. Speaking about others, Lee Daniels I won’t consider him in contest with the biggies, Quentin gets a solid chance at the award with his WWII fantasy flick (I simply loved the direction in Inglourious Basterds) and Jason Reitman for presenting a simple yet complex story of a isolated busy man. Quentin was amazing with his movie, and he has been awarded in many independent guilds for his direction in this movie, I mean who can better make a simple conversation into a tense murderous plot, or who can get the hated Hitler murdered by a spray of bullets, who can get your ears ringing with the plundering sound of the baseball bat, has to be Quentin. Many claim that Quentin has a good chance of winning it, sigh if only Avatar and Hurt Locker not released, he would have made the cut. But maybe who knows……