Category: opinions

Personal opinion about culture, movies, books.

  • “Commenting for better reach”

    “Commenting for better reach”

    I am writing from a place of privilege, providence, and a pedestal of good fortune but I just feel sad when I open LinkedIn nowadays. The feed is full of people writing about their untimely exit from their jobs due to the ongoing pandemic. I am not an expert to give any advice to people who were working till March/April but not working anymore. The times are unprecedented and until we get a fully functional vaccine, chances of normalcy are bleak. So, we must keep trying, is all I can say.

    However, I do have a word or two for Freshers who had job offers but they haven’t been called to report yet, or even if they hadn’t, they were ready to enter the professional arena this year but things have gone upside down, for no fault of their own. I do have empathy with them as I was in the same boat around 2008. I don’t want to mince words but the reality is simple: this time is worse than that time. I have stated this earlier on this blog too that I had 2 Job Offers when I graduated as a Computer Science Engineer. Thanks to the 2008 recession which did all it could to crush my confidence, I had to wait 21 months to get a proper job I preferred. Again being lucky, I got back the job offer in March 2010 from the same company which had sent me a regret letter before imploding due to a financial crisis of their own in early 2009.

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  • Happy Hindi Diwas

    Happy Hindi Diwas

    Sigh! Yes, this post is in English, I know that. Another special day. Yay!

    Hindi Diwas was made for the promotion of the Hindi Language in 1953. On this day, CBSE Schools organize Hindi speech contests, government offices across India (including Southern India) tell their staff to use Hindi as much as possible in the official communication, and people try to fake-smile and follow along for a day. Obviously, when something becomes a part of Government Policy, there is a good chance of people not following it.

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  • Fitting it like Tetris

    Fitting it like Tetris

    There’s a nice mini-series of a Documentary on Netflix called: High Score. The premise of ‘High Score’ is the evolution of video games from the 80s until very recently.

    Among other things, the game Tetris is discussed extensively in it. 90’s kids would remember how addictive the game was. The aim was to arrange the falling pieces into their place. Sometimes, they won’t fit logically anywhere and one has to wait for another piece to fall which would fit somewhere and get you some relief and a good score. The game might go on for very long and there might be a period that your out-of-the-place piece will be stuck there with no end in sight while you slowly move towards ‘Game Over’.

    https://giphy.com/gifs/tetris-denyse-mitterhofer-dmitterhofer-f7STAwvEml1eIf0FEq
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  • Fancy Vs Ordinary

    Fancy Vs Ordinary

    I have a few potted plants in my balcony. I am not a gardening-is-my-hobby-person but I do tend to them once a day, nurture them occasionally by adding some manure and place them in whatever sun we get. They give a nice ambiance to the small space. There’s nothing better than waking up and observing their growth, isn’t it! Especially since lockdown, this has become a regular practice.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CCQSmh4Bz5X/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
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  • MeMe; So I recently read: The Selfish Gene

    MeMe; So I recently read: The Selfish Gene

    Richard Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist. I mean he is British and he studies biology across the world. He has written several books and is a well-known name. He is also quite an outspoken Atheist who has said a lot about how religion has ruined the world for bad. He was also featured in one of the South Park’s most-mind-maddening episode “Go God Go” (not available legally to be viewed anymore, probably). But he is also known to be the inventor of the important word in this world at the moment:

    Meme

    An idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture

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  • F U News

    F U News

    Before you bring down your wrath on me, see the picture of a cute puppy to calm down and pacify yourself.

    Photo by Joel J. Martínez on Unsplash

    If your nostrils are still flaring, eyes are still red with anger, blood pressure is higher than your patriotic josh, stay away from the TV News and see these pictures to actually be at peace: https://twitter.com/dog_rates

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  • So I recently watched: Dark

    So I recently watched: Dark

    Sit down first. This might come as a shocker. I know many people who have watched won’t believe. But hear me out. *crescendo builds*

    I understood Dark.

    Dark is Netflix’s first German-language original series. It is not a horror show and the name is totally misleading. It is actually a family show. It is not my place to spoil it for you but I am going to only share my opinion about it below.

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  • No Words, really!

    No Words, really!

    Yesterday in India, 90,000 Covid-19 positive cases were recorded. That makes India the country with the 2nd highest number of cases in the world. We read the stat counter for Active Cases, Recovered, and Deceased, on a daily basis. All these numbers, figures, and statistics seem to be just ‘distant news’ for us till the time you hear about someone close enough that you realize the gravity of the situation.

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  • Sorry and Thank you!

    Sorry and Thank you!

    No sorry, no thank you in friendship

    – Prem

    The golden lines were said by Salman Khan in the movie ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ to Bhagyashree whom he fancied as his girlfriend and then his wife (important because of Rajshri!). That ruined the basic courtesy people had got left in them till that point and since then it has only declined further.

    Call me a mood-spoiler but I am not necessarily a big fan of special days for special things. Today for instance is ‘Michchhāmi Dukkaḍaṃ (मिच्छामि दुक्कडम्)’, a Jainism related day on which people ask for forgiveness for any kind of unintentional or intentional misdeeds they might or might not have committed. Same way, there’s Thanksgiving in the US. It is intended to be thankful and shows gratitude to others.

    Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

    As we know, people are mightly clever as they may think that saying sorry for one day gives them the right to be a nuisance on other days. (As they say after partaking 1000 rats, the cat went on pilgrimage.) Anyways nowadays Sneezing is capital punishment but if I sneeze and then say sorry to the other person, who is currently busy in sanitizing herself or himself (and reporting me to authorities), will my sorry even matter?

    Photo by Pro Church Media on Unsplash

    Or saying Thank you for trivial things like keeping the door open for the person coming behind you (which is considered a big deal). That’s so basic that if not done, that should itself call for name-calling bluntly. The other day, kids were playing Badminton outside my apartment and the shuttlecock fell into my balcony. I gave it back to them instantly but then they went on with their business without Thank You. For an instant, I was almost about to thank then instead for not shouting “Uncle, can you please throw the cock back?”. Then there’s money involved too. The gravity of thanks for gifts received also depends on how heavy the gift is and how big the box is. But where will this confusing monstrosity end? Till we have special days for special things, this won’t change.

    That’s all! Thank you for reading. Sorry for making you read.

  • So I recently watched: The Big Bang Theory

    So I recently watched: The Big Bang Theory

    That’s my spot!

    You might say, so what’s the big deal in that? But the only deal is that I had stopped watching it after its 5th or 6th season because of forced laughter track and not so funny jokes, and had moved over to grittier shows involving 4 even nerdier and crazier boys (i.e. South Park).

    But I resumed it after a gap of over 5 years and finally finished watching all the remaining seasons of the 12 seasons show.

    I returned to TBBT as it was still the good old sitcom and it revolved around somethings I find interesting as a fellow nerd;

    1. Science (mostly physics because other sciences are boring)
    2. Comics / Superheroes
    3. A little eccentricity or awkwardness which comes out either like arrogance or creepiness, relatable right!
    4. The intrinsic desire to Mansplain things
    5. Creating such lists

    TBBT was the first English TV show I watched which opened a box of so much other consumable content I used to find off-putting. It had many factors which most Engineering graduates would find relatable.

    Despite all the tropes, if you stick with the show, it turns out to be the good old TV comedy which you can go back to.