There is a nice blog here explaining the differences here.

You can find the movies I have seen on this link.

Here are the 5 movies I like the most, and The Shawshank Redemption, is not there on the list.

The movies are in no particular order.

Inglourious Basterds

I am a big fan of Quentin Tarantino, though I did not like the Kill Bill series. He according me is one of the best directors. It was a toss between Pulp Fiction and this movie for me, but I select this movie as I really like the Nazi-WWII theme. The best part of this movie were the charterers- the movie had very strong characters and each got their own space in the movie as it was well split into parts. The characters of Landa and Soshana were the best, but every other character was important and had its place in the storyline. The actors were brilliant too. I wanted this movie to win the Oscars in 2010, but sadly Hurt Locker won (I still do not know why).

Unforgiven

Another favorite director of mine is Clint Eastwood. Though I have not seen Million Dollar Baby yet, I have seen most the movies he has directed. I also think Invictus should be on the top 250 and could have been a better Oscar choice than Hurt Locker. The two of the best Clint Eastwood movies according to me are Unforgiven and Gran Torino, both the movies have Eastwood as the lead actor and director. Both the movies have Clint Eastwood as an old hero, who has take up arms for different causes. Gran Torino is set in modern times where as Unforgiven is based in the wild wild west, and it is the wild wild west where Clint Eastwood comes to his own. His portrayal of William Munny the old alcoholic outlaw who agrees for a last job to make some money, is outstanding. The films lead role is of a broken down guilty ex-outlaw and who does not portray the razzle and dazzle of the old western movies, well until the climax scene. I am a big fan of Eastwood’s. The wide range of movies he has made amazes me.

City of God

This Brazilian movie is in Portuguese , still it is one of my all time favorites. It is a movie about a locality (a slum) in Rio De Janerio. The story follows the life of a few kids who grow up differently, and the movie is seen through the eyes of one of the kids. The characters come alive in this movie, the climax is perhaps the best. It is one of the few movies in which everything in a scence , the streets, the chicken, the beach have significance and are beautifully depicted in a fast moving way. A must watch for sure.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Guy Ritchie Jason Statham- I am a fan. And perhaps their best movie too. I like all these English – Scottish – Irish movies in which people have beautiful accents. This movie is really fast paced, a good thrilling story line and an awesome lot of stereotypical characters e.g. The Russian and The Jew. I choose this movie above Snatch perhaps because I saw this one first. but both these movies are equally good and have this different kind of way to tell an insignificant story. An awesome entertainer.

Sin City

Frank Mullers Sin city, again the intertwined parts, awesome camera work. Black white scene with highlights in color, lipstick dress blood etc. Amazing and again a must watch.

Two other great movies would be In Bruges and Into the Wild which I did not write about.

The IMDB top 250 list is a very good guide to watch good movies. But there are a few movies which should not be on the list according to me

They are The Big Lebowski , Apocalypse Now, 2001 a Space Odyssey , Some Like it hot, and all the Indiana Jones movies.

But these arguments made sense back in 1989 when the book was written. But a lot of world changing processes have shaped the world since primarily – the Indian liberalization,  collapse of communism, rise of China. It can be inferred from these events that capitalism has emerged victorious and all aspects of life will be defined by free market rules in some form. What I am interested is how culture in specific language is being effected by this victory of capitalism.

One would see signs of this in India itself, after the world has been Bangalored, the BPO and IT industry which has spearheaded India’s economic revolution was based on the advantage that India had English speaking labor force. No one now debates weather we need to have English as a part of our education, it is an assumed wanted given our place in the global economy. To cope up with this challenge from India, China is training people in English at a frenetic rate.

I have generated this small map to have a look at this so called Language Imperialism:

The region in Blue are the English speaking nations of the world. You can make the rest out by the help of basic geography – there is Japan, China, India, the Portuguese speaking Portugal and Brazil, Mexico and the Euro zone countries Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

The language wise GDP of the world is as follows (calculated according to IMF 2009 report)

Now if we see that English is the market leader, the best bet to challenge this dominating position would be Japanese and German. Now these countries have for long have had a economy which has preserved their language and in turn developed the languages. China cannot be considered a market challenger because language in China itself is segmented, different regions speaking different languages and also because China is trying to copy the US, it is teaching its labor English, it is more of a follower.

India is a specific case as it definitely does not have one single language to challenge this position, Hindi came close to being the one if not for weakness shown by the Nehru government and the subsequent Dravidian movement of Tamil Nadu and India has the largest English speaking populace out of the native English speaking countries, therefore  India is not a challenger at all, it is almost a convert.

Now there are other language based economies, none of  them pose a serious threat.

Coming to the main point of this blog, because of the dominance in free markets of the English language, more and more economies will adopt English and English will become the global language apart from these there will be a lot of convert nations – a lot of them in Africa and Latin America, which will neglect their own language (also culture) and adopt English. We can see signs of this with the larger number of people learning English in most of the third world countries. English music is becoming popular again thanks to the market reasons, technology which is the biggest export of the English speaking world is making English more popular and acceptable.

A lot of the technical terms are English and have no word for it in the importing country. “Internet” and “Computer” are a few such terms. Rapid usage of English in India has stunted the growth of other languages in India – the word “internet” cannot be written as it is pronounced in Hindi but still it is adopted into Hindi than having a new word for it. The area “Lower Parel” in Bombay is Lower Parel written in Hindi, why cant there be a term for it in Hindi may be like  “Nichla Parel”. This might not be the case only in India, there a lot of  countries which will be converted in the future and then we will have a lot of “Zombie languages” -  languages in which small talk can be made but it becomes inadequate as the technicality and complexity of the subject increases. I would consider a lot of regional Indian languages in that category, they either have to borrow from Hindi or English to fulfill their deficiencies.

The safer languages are the ones with the challengers, Japanese and German, the languages with lower GDP will go first. Ultimately in the free market of the world I believe even Japanese and German will give up.

This seems to be great proposition for English as it will be borrowing a lot from the languages it tends to wipe out, and in the way becoming the truly global language.

So the conclusion can be capitalism causes imperialism in many indirect ways.

Please comment.

Visiting all of them is one of the things I want to do in my life. [check the few things I want to do in this list].

Here is a map of all the heritage sites: [map]

The following are the spots I have already visited and below are the ones I have to visit.

Visited:

• Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus)
• Churches and Convents of Goa
• Elephanta Caves
• Group of Monuments at Hampi
• Khajuraho Group of Monuments
• Ajanta Caves
• Ellora Caves

Not Visited

• Agra Fort
• Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi
• Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park
• Fatehpur Sikri
• Great Living Chola Temples
• Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram
• Group of Monuments at Pattadakal (
• Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi
• Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya
• Mountain Railways of India
• Qutb Minar and its Monuments, Delhi
• Red Fort Complex
• Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka
• Sun Temple, Konârak
• Taj Mahal
• Kaziranga National Park
• Keoladeo National Park
• Manas Wildlife Sanctuary
• Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks
• Sundarbans National Park

I realize five is a very small number and I have to increase my travelling rate.

Post away how many you guys have visited.

A few links:

Wikipedia What is a world heritage site?

PS: Just changed it after my visit to Ajanta and Ellora

• It is very difficult to get vegetarian food anywhere. Lot of the people consider chicken to be vegetarian and Beef non vegetarian, even the Hindus do not seem to have an issue with beef.
• During December January you will find a lot of people clad in black dhotis, it is the annual Sabrimala festival and lot of them head to Sabrimala and Kerala and they stop in a lot of tourist places en-route.
• The water is always pink in colour and hot at all places
• Every one tells distances in meters, if you ask some one for directions instead of the usual go ahead a bit and take a left, they will say go 100m ahead and take a left. This was weird at first but a lot helpful once you get a hang of it
• You can manage with tamil if you do not know Malayalam
• You get alcohol in government shops and there are a very few of them. Bars are fewer in number too compared to Karnataka. But Beer is very cheap a bottle of Kingfisher costing only Rs 50.
• Kerala Parota and apam are awesome and not to be missed

Find the route map for the trip here

1) Dev D

Anurag Kashyaps rendition of Devdas proclaims the maturity of Indian cinema. It also reflects the maturity levels of Indian audience where the Hero always keeps rolling a joint or snorting cocaine. The movies main strengths were great performances from its lead actors and dialogues which were very much similar to those used in daily life. The music in itself was a great hit. I believe one of the greatest Hindi movies,

2) 3 Idiots

Though the topic could have been dealt with maturity the director chose not to and he achieved a great film according to his strong points. The aim was to make an entertainer and an entertainer this movie is. The performance was great by all three actors although the roles were not demanding like Dev D. It is the dialogues where this film scores and the dialogues are funny witty and mainly non slapstick. It is one of the rare non govinda genre comedy movie. Based on 5 point some one , this movie does not aim to carry any social message and is an all and all out entertainer.

3) Gulaal

Again a gem from Anurag Kashyap, the strength of this movie are its characters, the performance might not do justice for such great characters. The dialogues are crisp and inspiring. The character of Bana and Ranasa are greatly delineated. Another gripping aspect of this film is the way the songs are a part of the story line. The lyrics are great and the music is good. Piyush Mishra has added another dimension to this movie with Songs like “aarambh” and “Yaar Maula”. The intensity of each scene makes this film stand out.

4) Kaminey

Kaaminey is a very well shot movie with good camera work and a gripping screen play. The actors are mediocre and the roles were easy too. It was just a mixture of story line and shooting which made this movie a hit. If not for Vishal Bharadwaj there are very few directors who could have made Kaminey into what it is. Vishal Bhardwaj has carved good side roles like Bhope Bhau and the Bengalis who look believable and do much more than just augment the lead actors. The side roles have an impact on the story line. The music is apt and supports the movie well.

5) Paa

The movie is great just because of amazing direction by Balki. The story line had loopholes but Amitabh Bacchans acting does not let you notice it much. Vidya Balan comes out as an actress and not as a navel showing dancing lass (aka Katrina). Abhishek Bacchan did a very average job. The songs were very well shot and the director captures the intensity of the scenes by altering the location from greens to grey rooms. The music from illayraja is refreshingly different from the techno heavy music of these days. The music supports the movie very well. Balki and Amithabh Bachan share a very good chemistry also visible in Cheeni Kum.

The movies which missed out on this list but deserve a mention are Delhi 6, Whats your Rashee. I did not like Wake Up Sid, and did not watch De Dan Dhana Dhan. Kurban was good but did not have any thing extra and was run of the mill.

As soon as you get into the taxi, the taxi driver asks you if you have change for Rs 1000. If you give him two 500 Rs. notes, and in one glance he changes them for two 100 Rs notes. and starts quarreling with you that you gave only two-hundered’s for his 1000 Rs note. For a new comer to Bombay and some with some lack of confidence usually ends up paying the additional 800 bucks. Now the way to fend off this is to fight off with the taxi driver till what ever limits he goes to and create a fuss and call more people. Be ready to even call the cops.

But prevention is always better than cure so in a Mumbai taxi never pay anything until you reach your destination.

A set of Sardarji taxi drivers who operate around Dadar are the most dangerous of the lot. Also a point to note is all the area south of Dadar is only served by taxis and not autos. So if you get down at Victoria Terminus (or Bombay Central ) or at Dadar then you would have to take a taxi and hence be extra careful.

I had this experience yesterday  at the Dadar station and hence I thought I would blog it to update others.

The basic concept each user has a profile on a tv, or on a smart box (tata sky etc but they are really not smart). Each program has certain tags associated with it. As a user watches a program, the tags associated with him will be stored in some sort of database for the user. Over time this will provide a data set of what the user likes to watch at what time, and the smart box can suggest what to watch at that current time of the day.

The catch the content provider should also provide tags or metadata about the show or the system should be able to access some portal over the internet to get the tags. But plugging in internet to the system is unwanted, so all the content providers and cable connection operators should come up with an open standard, TVXml, so that the user has the option of installing third party applications. Also the device should have enough memory and processing, right now the set top boxes are embedded devices, but perform the above said functions they need some Flash memory as well, to store user data.

I do not know how feasible this is but I would definitely like this feature.

Meanwhile the customer care daily gave me the answer that they have delivered the laptop to Blue dart the carriers, and there is some problem at their side. They also told that they have sent an escalated request to Blue dart. They gave me this answer for at least a week. By this time, the stipulated delivery time of 2 weeks was over.

My sales representative also stopped picking up my calls at that point. Only after a lot of begging and threatening the Customer Care was my laptop delivered after 15 working days.

This was a very painful experience, after paying for the laptop I had to wrestle the call centre and the Dell bureaucracy to get my laptop delivered. To cover up Dell gave some arbitrary reasons that my pin code was wrong where as I had provided the correct pin – code.

Pathetic service from Dell.

At this juncture I asked him what about Prabhakaran, he plainly said Prabhakaran has escaped with his close group of supporters and claims by the Lankan Army reports are nothing but propaganda. I pushed him a bit more on how can he be confident on the fact that Prabhakaran is alive, and he gave me a quick grin and said that he knew a lot of people in Lanka and no one believes he is dead, well I was surprised that Vellupillai Prabhakaran had such an indefatigable image in the minds of the people.

I asked him does he not sympathize with the Tamilians of Sri Lanka, and he said that the Tamils were big headed people (he himself was a tamil), who do not respect the other people. He gave me an example saying that in the small Sri Lankan community in Berlin, Tamils never spoke to any Non Tamils whereas the  Singhalese (the other ethnic group of Sri Lanka) people spoke to everyone and were very accommodating. He himself while growing up in Sri Lanka had a lot of Singhalese friends and not many Tamil friends.

As the conversation headed towards India, and I explained to him saying that India is growing economy and a very vibrant place ( I have got used to doing this as the Europeans have a portrait of India as a very poor third world country where millions starve without food). He just slashed me down by saying in India the things are fast and fun, in the west (he referred to Europe) the things are slow but effective.

Our conversation got more and more lively but I had to get down at my bus stop and wished him good bye may be for ever, as I do not have his name or contact.

I was delighted to know a lot about my neighboring country what the people think there, how they feel about India. I got to know that you get a better picture of the nation by speaking to some one from there than from some news articles. I was surprised to meet a Sri Lankan who did not sympathize with the LTTE, who did not like the attitude of the Tamils, who thought Prabhakaran was a terrorist and is still alive.

I guess this is a post for me to remember this conversation.