Being artificially tough is easy - being genuinely witty and diplomatic is tough [COMPACTIDEA]

It seems that the perfect example to illustrate this point is Nikki Haley's behavior and her statements at the UN [UNGA, UNSC]. She seems like that kind of a person who has suddenly been put in a very high position for which she isn't qualified, and in order to be taken seriously, she has artificially adopted a very harsh, rude, tough, and undiplomatic behavior [lest she be ridiculed for not knowing diplomacy or for being too "soft", and lest she lose her job because of this]. What she doesn't know is that she's rapidly spending her political capital. Soon everyone around her - Americans and non-Americans - will get desensitized to her repeated/repetitive rhetoric and after that she won't be taken seriously.

Putting up a fake tough face is very easy. It's being genuinely humorous, witty and diplomatic that's tough. She thoroughly lacks any of these.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim could have been politically targeted - just a possibility [COMPACTIDEA]

This is just to float a possibility. This isn't as far-fetched as it might seem at first. Politics and judiciary are quite intermingled in India. What seems like something on the surface could very well be different inside. It's possible [but not necessarily likely] that Gurmeet Ram Rahim was targeted for political reasons - unknown to us at this point - by those in power. And there's no better tool in the world to instantly defame and demonize a man in this world than to pay a few women who then cry out about having being raped [apparently it's easy to find and employ such women]. This tool to tame and jail a man is so effective that it's used the world over. Again, this isn't to declare that he's necessarily innocent. This is more to float an alternative possibility.

Kriti Sanon has a masculine face [COMPACTIDEA]

I think if photos of her face are fed to a software program and the degree of its closeness to typical male faces is calculated objectively, the algorithm will find that Kriti Sanon's face is closer to the face of a boy/guy than that of regular, more feminine girls. The structure, the shape, etc., seems like those of guys, it appears to me.

Madhur Bhandarkar has gone totally out of his mind, or maybe he's just busy getting casting couch [COMPACTIDEA]

Watched Indu Sarkar last night. There were only about 8-10 people in the entire PVR hall for this movie [including three of us], and it was the opening weekend. We couldn't tolerate the movie beyond the interval and left. Indu Sarkar thus became only the second movie ever which I paid for but left without finishing. Madhur Bhandarkar seems to have lost his mind completely. This movie is so shitty that I don't even want to spend much time describing how bad it is. If there was only one copy left of this movie in the entire world, I would shift+delete it in a second, since there's no lasting artistic or cultural value of this piece of trash to mankind. This is the second time Bhandarkar has pissed me - the previous time was with Calendar Girls, a movie I slept through. Even Bhandarkar himself seems to dislike Calendar Girls, since he didn't mention its name in the trailer of Indu Sarkar. Talking of Calendar Girls, it seems that Mr. Bhandarkar made that movie only to get casting couch favors from several low-grade, low-paid struggling actresses at once. The same could be said this time of Kirti Kulhari as well. Maybe Bhandarkar has decided that he is done making the type and quality of movies that he used it, and that he has earned enough, and that he now only wants to spray that money around on struggling actresses and models to get all sorts of obvious favors.

Sridevi is overhyped - it was the her of yesterday that was the real Sridevi [COMPACTIDEA]

Watched MOM and concluded that all this hype around Sridevi in MOM is nonsense. Sridevi's acting in MOM wasn't good - bland and without proper expressions. It's quite safe to say that it was the Sridevi of yesterday which was far better than this Sridevi of today [when evaluating as an actress]. Any random actress could've done what she did in MOM.

I can't believe it that I had forgotten that there are rubber balls too for playing cricket [COMPACTIDEA]

Guess it has been quite many years since I played cricket, or perhaps it has been many years since I was a small child. Maybe both. It was a bit of a strong surprise for me a few days ago when I saw a rubber ball - most likely after 10-15 years - and realized that there are rubber balls too for playing cricket. How could I forget this? I, who as a kid had collected so many abandoned/lost balls of all sorts from playgrounds, roads and elsewhere? I had forgotten the rubber ball?

Anyway. When I was small, I remember there were 4 types of cricket balls:

1. "Cosco" ball. We used to call it Cosco, but it was really tennis ball. The softest.
2. Rubber ball. Heavier and harder than Cosco ball, but still very gentle.
3. Leather ball [red leather or white leather]. Heavy and very hard too.
4. "Corak" ball. Sort of a white stone. Heavy and hard like a stone. Quite dangerous.

Afterlife, the concept, is a basic need of mankind [COMPACTIDEA]

"Gone forever" [or "lost forever"] is too hurtful a realization. Mankind needs the concept of afterlife in order to reduce the hurt of death of a loved one. It makes one feel - even if falsely - that the lost one is still alive, even if elsewhere. It lowers the pain of the immense loss by assuring one that the person has only separated, but "is still there", somewhere. It allows one to continue wishing good for the departed soul. It allows one to continue "speaking" to the gone person, even if only in one's mind. It would be too difficult to live with the knowledge that with the funeral pyre, everything that comprised one's loved one - body and mind/personality - is gone, and gone forever. Too hurtful. Hence mankind created the concepts of afterlife, next life, and so on.

Philosophical - most people end up at one of those cremation grounds which they had attended all their lives [COMPACTIDEA]

This feels saddening and philosophical. But then death is sad and philosophical. People attend cremation grounds throughout their lives, for the cremation of colleagues, friends, associates, relatives, etc. Does anyone ever think or realize that one day, upon one's death, one is going to end up and burn into ashes at one of these same grounds? This mere thought can send chills through one's body.

OTHER TAGS= FUNERAL

Kittens and puppies are so lovely - with them you escape this artificial world and get close to pure nature for some time [COMPACTIDEA]

Recently saw a newborn kitten. Such innocence. Such a small, innocent baby. No bad feelings in him. Pure innocence. No jealousy or greed or other nasty things. Only softness and tenderness. You can escape the same old daily routine for some time by playing with or by simply watching newborn kittens or puppies. No more phone calls, material dispatch, machine breakdowns, payments, crowded roads, horns, polluted air, hot weather, data backups, disk shredding, door locking and so on. Nothing. Pure nature. Pure peace.

Some a-holes keep calling you even when you're on another call and they know this [COMPACTIDEA]

You're talking to someone on your phone, and a 'call-in-call' comes from someone else. So far everything is normal. This third fellow cuts his call but then calls you again, fully aware that you're talking to someone on another call [he can obviously hear 'call waiting' tone on his phone]. Then he calls you yet again. And again. And again. He calls so many times that he disturbs and irritates you, and makes you feel that it might/must be something urgent. You're forced to stop your ongoing phone call and call this third person, and it turns out that this wasn't about something urgent, but was a normal, routine call. You grumble and ask yourself, what's the problem in this fellow's life that he wants you to disconnect your ongoing call and attend to him first. Such an asshole. And there are many such shitpots around. I get calls from some such buttholes every few days.

Baahubali 2: The Conclusion is so good, yet there are some flaws [COMPACTIDEA]

• The background score during some key scenes was far more inspiring in the first part than in The Conclusion. Thoroughly missed, as it would've made several scenes in the second part more touching.
• Last scene felt dragged. Fight wasn't as impressive as the fight in the first part. This was overloaded with special effects, and the overload showed. Overload itself wouldn't have been bad had the effects seemed real. At several moments the special effects just seem artificial/fake. Further, there were several unnecessary slow-motion scenes which felt bad rather than good. Overall, the fight failed to create goosebumps. The excessive use of VFX in this last fight shows the filkmaker's intention of making this scene the grand conclusion, but it doesn't live up to the mark.
• More generally and simplistically speaking [though simplistic distillations can't properly capture the fine nuances], while the second half of the first part was better, it was the first half of the second part that was better.
• The voice [in Hindi] given to Mahendra Baahubali is significantly worse compared to the excellent, authoritative voice [in Hindi] given to Amarendra Baahubali. Mahendra Baahubali, thus, fails to inspire whenever he speaks. The difference is clear and it shows.
• Mahendra Baahubali's haircut is shorter compared to the long and flowing hair of Amarendra Baahubali. Moustache and beard too are different. The net effect is that Mahendra looks childish while Amarendra looks like an invincible king. The difference, once again, is clear. Looks, after all, can make a very significant difference in how we perceive someone/something.
• It's [quite] hard to be believe and somewhat frustrating to watch Sivagami take bad and hasty decision after decision. One can't stop asking oneself if this is the same Sivagami who had announced [in the first part] that Amarendra Baahubali would be the new king, despite he not having killed [technically] the leader of the enemy? Her string of bad decisions and bad actions lead to the eventual death/killing of Amarendra Baahubali and other chaos.
• While Avantika/Avanthika had a meaningful role in the first part, and she did contribute meaningfully to the movie, she had a laughable "role", if any, in the second part. Which is a shame.

Amarendra

Mahendra

Philosophical feeling looking at how tiny and worthless Earth looks from Saturn [COMPACTIDEA]

It's a strange, choking feeling seeing how our Earth looks from Saturn. You almost feel like crying. An unremarkable dot of light, like so many others. Yet we on our planet know what all - so so much - is going on here. There's life and not just any life but intelligent life. So much development. So much chaos and warfare. From there's it's just a simple, quiet blip of light. Events here don't reach there. It's dark, quiet and cold out there. So vast is this Universe. So very vast that our brains can't really comprehend its vastness. The entirety of what all comprises the Earth is reduced to how we see a grain of sand here. Seems like we're in someone else's video game!

Update [8-Jan-19]: Pale Blue Dot. Truly breathtaking.

I have little respect for people who cut phone calls [COMPACTIDEA]

All of us cut [or have to cut] incoming phone calls sometimes. But some people cut calls too frequently. And it feels very rude. Are you guys so busy? All the time? Not really. No one is. Then what are you trying to show [if anything] by giving the busy tone so often? I myself, as far as possible, pick all/most incoming calls and tell the caller that I'll give a call back as soon as possible. Picking call - even if only to say that I'll call back - is a much more warm and respectful action from the perspective of the person who calls us.

That a-hole who uses Mail.Ru app but can't spell an email address correctly [COMPACTIDEA]

Such wannabe losers bore and irritate me. This is about an accountant in someone else's firm who I told to email me some documents. Despite telling him properly that the email ID is luxmisteel@..., he emailed the documents to lakshmistee@.... A typical a-hole since he assumed that it must be "lakshmi" and can't be "luxmi". A bigger a-hole if he knows the firm name and yet writes "stee" in the address. And the biggest a-hole when he insisted that he mailed the documents to the correct address and that he hadn't got any "delivery failure" message. Later I made him forward that previously sent email to my personal address, and noticed that he uses Mail.Ru email app. What a wannabe loser. Using an exotic Russian email program and failed with a simple email address? Indeed a shit-hole.

On the ongoing destruction of Hindi language in India by English, and by despicable Indians

Examples showing how English is replacing Hindi manywhere, and is also getting mixed with Hindi, thus adulterating/polluting Hindi.

• This blog and my other blogs. All in English. Why? Hindi language computer keyboard isn't widespread. Reason is basically habit.
• The Ghazi Attack movie. More here.
• The song "Haseeno Ka Deewana" in the movie Kaabil is in Hindi, but why are Hrithik, Urvashi, and others speaking exclusively in English when describing the making of this song? Who are they trying to impress? Does it lower their status if they speak in English? Further, in the lyrical version of this song, why are all the lyrics written in English? This is a Hindi song and can't Indians who understand spoken Hindi also understand written Hindi?

Update [23-Apr-17]: Whoever SOB has created/written this ad has carelessly mixed English words with Hindi text. Examples include "refreshing", "hectic", "lifestyle", "fresh", "taste", "body", "hydrate", etc. Further, this is an ad in a Hindi newspaper. Why is there English text here ["100% Tender", "No Added Sugar", etc.]? Lastly, why is the product packaging in English alone? Are we still a colony of Britain?

Update [23-Apr-17]: Hindi movie posters have almost completely omitted the use of Hindi and Urdu languages. Everything these days is written as if everyone understands English, and as if we're now an English nation. So it was good to see the use of at least some Hindi in this recent wallpaper of a new movie.

Update [18-May-17]: Why do medicines have text written in only English? Can everyone read English? What about those crores of who are poor and couldn't get to learn the language of the British?

Update [12-Jun-17]: More examples of careless usage of English words in Hindi newspapers.

Update [18-Jun-17]: Two examples for the replacement of several Hindi versions of otherwise English words by English words. For 'America', earlier Hindi newspapers used to write "अमरीका" [Amreeka], but now newspapers lazily write "अमेरिका" [America]. Similarly with "मचीनों" getting replaced by "मशीन्स".

Update [1-Jul-17, 5-Jul-17]: More.

Update [13-Sep-17]: Looking at the image below, it seems that there are some black sheep at various newspapers. It's these dirty sheep which uses English words in Hindi newspapers. Others seem to be doing fine.

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Update [7-Sep-18]: The 2018 Bollywood movie Stree has tried to prioritize Hindi over English, which is a good thing. Text, dialogs, etc., are more Hindi than other contemporary movies, although not completely in Hindi, probably for "practical" reasons. Nonetheless, a good step.

Update [Oct'18]: More and more direct English being used in Hindi newspapers - what a shame!

Update [30-Nov-18]: Indian government regularly sends unsolicited spam emails with no option to unsubscribe. But that isn't the point. The Hindi used in their emails isn't chaste. Which a shame. It says 'train' instead of 'railgaadi'. And so on.

Update [14-Oct-19]: Even if this rumored 1,000 rupee note [received on WhatsApp] is fake, it's troubling and insulting to India that the currency note has English above Hindi, and also that some text is only in English.

Update [20-Apr-20]: ICMR letterhead, though not perfect, is still better. Hindi on top, in bigger font than English.

Update [5.6.22]. One of the worst pseudo-Hindi ads to appear in a Hindi newspaper. Not only are they diluting, corrupting and harming the Hindi language, but they're also indirectly suggesting that "old" clothing should be thrown out in favor of "bold" clothes, thus silently attacking traditional Indian clothing too.

New bullshit drama is going on - everyone is writing using hashtags - as if everything is a punch line! [COMPACTIDEA]

First people went mad using the shortened SMS language. Now these sheep are going crazy with hashtags. As if adding a hashtag to their shitty words makes those worthy and important. Low life scum people.

Normally, it would be "More Indian than you think.". But because of this new fad, this new hashtag-fever, everything is "hashtagified"!

The feel comes from knowing and realizing that you're physically there (and being there), and not just because of the quality of the view

A related idea about the mental effect of physically being in a remote geographic location.

Is this place/view of Mars by itself more beautiful than similar places/views on Earth? No. It's more beautiful because we know it's Mars. If we're told that it's Earth, it'll immediately become "ordinary". Similarly, standing at this place, one person is told that it's Earth and the other told it's Mars. The Mars guy will get a great feeling knowing that he's on Mars. The Earth guy will get good - but not great - feeling.

The idea is that the same place/view becomes much more interesting when we realize that we are physically standing at that remote, far-off place, even if the raw quality of the view isn't so good.

Another example. Standing in the middle of a desert in the UAE and standing in a desert in Rajasthan. The deserts look identical, but when you're [an Indian] standing in the UAE desert, there's this exciting, exotic feeling that you're standing in this remote part of the world, the Arab world. Not so exciting back home at Rajasthan, even if the views are identical. Conversely, for a non-Indian, India might feel exotic and exciting.

Two [related] generalizations that can be derived from this:

1. "Being there" and realizing that "I'm there" creates the excitement, even if the view isn't as spectacular.
2. A good thing in someone's else hands/land will usually feel more exciting/exotic/attractive than a good/great thing in one's own hands/land. So if I am A and I own X1 and there's a B and he owns an equivalent X2, then it's possible/likely that I'll find X2 more attractive/exotic [than X1] while B will similarly find X1 more exciting/luring than X2, merely because they're "remote" and "different" for both A and B.

What's wrong with Indian girls and women - why this ever-increasing sluttism and whorism? [COMPACTIDEA]

Earlier we used to see such shameless nudity only from Western females. Now Indian females are copying the same sluttish/whorish Western outfits, packed under the monikers "bold", "choice", "individuality", "freedom", and "empowerment". This is none of these, and it is especially not the very positive word "bold". It's cheap, distasteful, obscene, not beautiful at all, very sluttish and whorish, not in line with our culture and traditions, and instead massively devalues and objectifies these very girls/women. Indian females have steadily gone from off-shoulder to ultra-deep back [or backless] to ultra-deep chest/front to openly displaying their bikinis to now even openly displaying the bra or forgoing it altogether. It's a slippery slope with seemingly no end, except that unlike the number system, there are no negative numbers here and complete nudity is the final zero where things halt and you can't go any further down the shithole [however, if there were negative numbers here, it's certain that the even-attention-hungry Indian females would gladly and swiftly go down there too].

Do these women have no shame left? Or it it the eons-old cat-competition between females which causes them to shamelessly shed more and more of their clothes? To what low will they sink before people become desensitized enough to not reward them with a glance even when they're standing fully naked and begging for attention even more desperately?

Update [22-May-17]: Sonam Kapoor at Cannes.

Update [3-Jun-17]: Jasmin Bhasin [link].

Update [18-Jun-17]: https://www.instagram.com/p/BVCQFpJhu6z/

 

Update [25-Jun-17]: Nia Sharma

Update [27-Jun-17]: Priyanka Chopra. She's one of the biggest ***** in India, and has likely made a significant contribution to making sluttism the new normal.

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Nov'17: 47 year old Gauri Khan exposing cheaply without any shame whatsoever.

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Nov'17: Even A-list stars like Sonam Kapoor seem desperate to expose like B-grade actresses! She isn't beautiful. She's getting attention and coverage only because she's undressing herself.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba8dU8phinu/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba_PjgZB3no/

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