OK Kanmani

 

Bakwaas Movie.

 

Today's Hindu has finally published a review of the movie from the point of view of more sensible viewers:

 

O Kadhal Kanmani, the latest Mani Ratnam film, is the buzzword now. The film has triggered off a discussion on relationships, live-in and marriage among the youth. The lead pair looked adorable. The visual language was fresh. But something was missing in the story that tackles a modern-day relationship. Aadhi and Tara, the lead pair in the film, decide to go against the nuptials and explore a living-together relationship. Though the theme is fresh, many youngsters feel let down with the way it has been handled by the director.

“Mani Ratnam lacks conviction about live-in relationships,” says Athul Domichen, a media professional from Calicut. According to the 25-year-old, the director has taken an easy way out. “ The lead pair who does not believe in marriage decide to get hitched when they have to split ways to pursue their ambitions.” Aadhi (played by Dulquer Salmaan) is represented as the quintessential metro man who avoids commitment. And so is Tara (Nithya Menen), who comes from a broken family. “I am not against marriage. But then it should not be used as an adhesive to keep two people together. Can’t a relationship sustain with trust and patience too?” asks Athul.

Manasa Ramakrishnan feels the commitment phobia part was overdone. She thinks the film stereotyped youth as anti-marriage. The 25-year-old school teacher from Bangalore adds that the film portrayed marriage as a tough deal. “It is not. It is about companionship. Life can be a lot more organised in marriage and fun too. The movie complicated these aspects unnecessarily. ”

Like any other Mani Ratnam film, this one too comes with classy frames and groovy music. But then, the pretty frames killed the drama and made the story look unrealistic. For instance, a supposedly shady lodge, where Tara and Aadhi spend a night together, is so tastefully designed that it almost looks like an art studio. “The sets were too glossy. The apartment looked unreal. It killed the flavour of romance for me,” says Athul.

In the film, everything is breezy for Tara and Aadhi. Chithra Dhara, a student from English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, wonders if the Indian society is as accepting about living together as picturised in the movie. “The couple hardly faces any kind of moral policing, which is the case with young lovers in the country. Except for one scene, where Tara is interrogated by Aadhi’s relative, they had it easy. It came across as a shallow rom-com .”

Deepti Sreeram, a journalist from New Delhi, believes the film showcased convenient ideas of romance. “As a generation, we are socially independent. But, when it comes to choices pertaining to our partners, we are still not free. Many couples, who live in with their partners, are plagued by financial insecurities and safety issues. They do not even have a space to get physically intimate. The film left all these issues unexplored and conveniently shut us off from reality.”

At one point in the film Aadhi leaves the city without informing Tara, and she is worried. And her friend warns her not to turn possessive and behave like a wife. Many find this aspect a twisted depiction of a live-in relationship. Sindhu Jose, a research scholar from Hyderabad, feels “Live-in might not involve marriage. But then the lovers would want to lead a life together. There is an emotional bonding. It is as complex as a marital relationship. I expected a more nuanced take on the subject from a director like Mani Ratnam.”

Also, Aadhi and Tara seem to be living in a bubble. The world around them is filled with well-wishing uncles, sweet maamis and progressive friends.

In fact, all it takes Tara to convince Aadhi’s landlord for the live-in is belt out a Carnatic music bhajan! Everything fell into place a little too easy, says Deepti. “I missed the intense, risky love portrayed in films like Raavan and Dil Se. Here, both the girl and boy belong to the same class, caste, religion, and their life has no challenges. The movie seems to be hinting that the old generation is okay with us falling in love and even living together so long as we keep these yardsticks in mind!”

Android Studio Problems

 

I got a few days holiday, and I thought I planned on learning and picking up on the new Android Studio IDE which was released in December last year, and maybe develop an app. I had attended a two day beginner's workshop at DroidCon 2013, and had learnt quickly the basics of Android app development. Since then, I lost my projects and code to a hard-drive crash. The new Android Studio looked easier to learn. Or so I thought.

For a beginner, Android Studio sucks. It is too complex a development platform. Before one can start developing apps, one has to first play and win the rpg-game "Installing and Settingup  Android Studio". I have tried and failed for two days to get the basic setup up and running, I think this is because I have multiple installations of Java on my machine. After installation, the studio.exe can be launched, but it tries to connect and download the latest SDK. I had downloaded the bundled version, but looks like it does not have the SDK itself, just the IDE. And…don't get me started on gradle. I wish there was a way to turn it off and do things the way it was done on Eclipse.

Google, if you want to welcome more developers to your platform, you will have to make things easier. Experienced Android developers may not have issues in picking up the new studio. But beginners like me will be lost.

I am going to try again from office, first downloading just the IDE (because the bundle is a joke), and use the faster connection from office to get the SDK. Hopefully, things will be faster.

Dependency on Smartphones

 

 

 

Hacker spaces , or lack of.

Its a pity that there are not many HackerSpaces in Bangalore.

https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/India

N R Narayana Murthy - biography - Ritu Singh

 

Generally I do not read biographies, even the ones which are recommended of famous, successful people. That's because these books always go into a praising mode, highlighting every good decision and milestone achieved by its subject person, and hiding away the bad decisions and mistakes. Its specially worse for autobiographies, where the author might delve into a self praising monologue at times. The most used word in such a book would be the single letter word: 'I'. Its always 'I' did this, 'I' did that. 'I' fought, 'I' persisted and 'I' succeeded.

So it was with a little doubt that I chanced upon a small paperback biography of NRN, retailing for less than 100 Rs/-. I was surprised no one mentioned this to me, surely much more has been written about people who have achieved just 1% of NRN's success. So , off I went, and finished the book in 2 hours. (Yep, my old speed reading skills are still with me.)

 

I couldn't help write something about this book, and it's enviable genius subject. The book itself is written in the simplest english you could find, with no big words to show off the author's control over grammar. There is a little flashback-style to it, NRN's childhood days are covered only from the third chapter onwards..but most of the book is in chronological order. The last two chapters are about Infoys and the Infosys foundation, and I felt it was more like an advertisement than part of the memoir. But the book covers NRN's life from this childhood days till until he stepped down as CEO, and some more. There are some rare pictures from various stages of his life. Kids are gonna love this  ! not to mention the target audience - young twenty something Indians looking for inspiration.

What I could infer:

1: NRN is highly intelligent. There is no denying his brilliant mind allowed him to grasp things others would overlook. He was smart enough to get selected for IIT. Twice !. And then, he went to work over there. There is a part in the book where NRN felt that his life and work at Patni was too slow, and he wanted to speed up. There is a school of thought that brilliant people are generally more successful, but nothing has been concluded.

2: Hard work. NRN proved time and again that there was no substitute for hard work. The book makes it very clear that he worked well into the night, and weekends and holidays in his initial struggle at Infosys often having to neglect his personal life as well. This was one reason why he didn't want his wife to work at Infosys, because he didn't want his family to be neglected. The other, was that he is a man of principles, and didn't want it to look like nepotism.

3: Save. Save whatever you can. During the first years at Infosys, the Murthys kept a strong watch on what they did with their earnings. 1980's India was just getting liberalized, money was hard to come by. The book makes it clear that the Murthy's saved whatever they could, without wasting anything on luxuries. The first office setup was in their spare bedroom !Sudha Murthy used to walk 4 kms to her office, it is mentioned in the book. And the women used to cook for their colleagues.  And they did not have even have a TV at home for a long time. (But then, all they could watch was Doordarshan, right ?). NRN used to meet his clients on bi-cycles and scooters ! Nowadays, just to show off, vendors will rent out cars when they go on client visits. Saving was an important reason why Infosys survived. And grew. The credit-card swiping, expensive-smartphone wielding youngsters of today would never understand the meaning of this simple 4 letter word- save- and how much it can change your life.  NRN and Infy only began spending when the company turned profitable, and only went public long after that. There is something evergreen to be learned here.

4. Values. He is a man of principles. And words like honesty and integrity were more than just words for him. NRN did not simply want to deliver something to his customers, he wanted to build relationships. When he and his six colleagues left Patni, they never poached any clients. And when they faced beurocratic issues in India, they chose to persist and wait. The book says they used to make a lot of phone calls from a public phone, because they did not have a phone of their own ! And when they travelled abroad, they tried to save every nickle and dime, so that that money could be re-purposed positively for the company.  NRN still travells in business class.

Having said all this, it is sad that Infosys, the company built upon such strong core values, is no longer that place.  Yes, they have a huge campus. They provide facilities to their employees no other Indian company can boast of. But the workforce itself is bloated. Today in a typical project, only 10% of the team members work. And they do about 90% of the total work. The rest are simply on the team for billing purposes. Attrition rates are high. They way they judge and select talent is skewed. This year they gave their employees their lowest ever hike, according to the papers. Of the seven founding members, except NRN, all have turned into millionaires with other business interests. NRN was called back to the company when management failed in leading the company positively.

Looks like the management at Infosys is the one who was to read this book. They have to know where they came from.  And for anyone dreaming of starting up a billion dollar enterprise.