Of the end of two contrasting legacies

Dennis Ritchie's death did not make a big news as that of Steve Jobs's. This is a perfect example of how our thoughts and beliefs are strongly governed by what we see or what we are made to see. We cannot compare these two geniuses as they were like apple and orange. Unlike Jobs, who was a college dropout, Ritchie was Ph.D, a Harvard University grad with degrees in Physics and Applied Mathematics. And instead of the gleaming Silicon Valley, he worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories. And Dennis developed "C" programming language without which I doubt there would be any android, iPhone, iMac, smart phones and all these beautifully crafted devices. Ritchie never sought/had the public's eye but his contributions and legacy in the computer world played a key role - including that of Apple's success. Contrastingly, Jobs was never an engineer. He democratize technology, bringing it out from the realms of geeks and engineers and programmers to common people in the form of iPod, iPhone, iMac and iPad. While Ritchie would have liked a quiet exit like that of a "C" program that would execute quickly without much flair printing "Goodbye World!" on the console, on the other hand, Jobs would have preferred a crisp, clear goodbye message that would pop up with a soft touch. RIP.


PS:- So, whenever you see an iPhone or an iMac, please remember that Dennis Ritchie is the other man standing with Steve Jobs residing in these devices.

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(500) days of Summer

(500) days of Summer is for all those out there who have given their heart to the loved ones only to find out later that their soul is also gone along with. The narrator rightly said that it is not a love story but a story about love. So guys, next time when you give your heart make sure you keep your soul. And don't forget that there are plenty of other fish in the sea.


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On a helping note, never thought that removing some dust from the radiator inside the laptop could fix the problem of overheating leading to shutting down. Google has come to my rescue once again. Thanks a ton!!

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Of Chanakya's Chant

Ashwin Sanghi has this knack of getting the best out of Chanakya's much acclaimed qualities. Chanakya was a shrewd, cunning, calculating, wily and sharp brahmin who had architect the rise of the Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta. He spins these qualities in two parallel threads in the novel. One thread runs in the present day and the second thread runs 2300 years back.There are quite a number of quotes in apt quantities which make the novel a wonderful food for thoughts. Definitely, a powerful read.

PS:- I won't be surprise if someday "Chanakya's Chant" is made into a movie. I was wondering whether the present day writers write novels thinking of movies in mind. Perhaps. Chanakya definitely would.

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Why is it that many beautiful things lost its charm when we grew up? A very simple explanation can be that we tend to lose our innocence with time. We tend to miss those simple pleasures due to the influence of our experience and unnecessary thinking leading to missing the real ingredients in life.

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"Delhi Belly" definitely caught the audience unaware with the very first scene of the movie. The makers claim that the movie has something indian-ness about it. Maybe they were talking about the showing of butt and uttering $#### every alternate scenes. I loved and enjoyed "Pyar ka Punchnama" much more which is quite near to the reality.

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Stanley Ka Dabba

"Stanley Ka Dabba" takes you to your school days when life was all about homework, teachers, friends, pranks and of course, the lunch box. Amol Gupte (the director ), this time gets his due credit and shows that you can hit success without the casting of superstars ( like Aamir Khan ) and with a low budget. You will appreciate the way he has portrait the characters especially the teachers. You can relate them to your childhood teachers - the khadoos Hindi teacher (played by Amol himself), the science teacher always limiting herself to the curriculum, and then there is this beautiful English teacher (Divya Dutta) who encourage the students for every good work. Haven't we met all these teachers when we were in our schools ? Without complexity, the story revolves around the lunch boxes (dabba) bought to the school by the students. The climax can catch you unaware, so be ready.It is indeed a refreshing watch.And make sure you go with an empty stomach !!

"Life bahut simple hai. Gol- Gol mat Bol"

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Sometimes you just wanted to live in the story never wanting to return to the world you belong to. "Big Fish" is one such story where you wanted to believe more in the fantasy than the reality. A seamless display of storytelling from Tim Burton about the protagonist "Edward Bloom" who keeps telling the story of his life time and again in a way that he can only narrate.

"Have you ever heard a joke so many times you've forgotten why it's funny? And then you hear it again and suddenly it's new. You remember why you loved it in the first place. "

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No wonder why India falters in every Olympics. The 34th National Games is currently going on in Jharkhand. Sportsmen from all over the country are competing in 36 different disciplines of sports and yet there are no news in the air about them. Its quite ironic that people keep track of the New Zealand v/s Kenya 's World cup result but not many are aware that Richa Sharma has just bagged 11 Gold medals in swimming. Or for that matter, a tiny north-eastern state of Manipur is currently in the 2nd position just below the Services. I bet these athletes put the same hard-work if not more as that of our esteemed cricketers. Yet, they struggle to get attention even after hauling Gold medals after another. Is the worth of these medals lesser than that of the 'six' that the cricketers hit? I doubt.

Currently reading "The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga". I loved the way the book is being written - raw and sharp.

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