Continuing the series, here is a set of a few more photos which constitute the set of my random clicks:

I guess I had shaky hands when I took this photo

We were returning home from a party one night and this is just one of the many photos I tried to take while the car was still moving at quite some speed. No, I wasn’t driving.

"Blowing out the sunshine"

Taking in all the light after pointing my camera directly at the sun, I shifted focus to the watch tower and stripped the image of all its colour. It was very dusty that day which caused the sun to dull out like that.

Park Palace Hotel, Sheikh Zayed Road

This building neighbours our office building, and I particularly liked the subtle glow from behind the building on that particular day. I wish we had more overcast conditions in Dubai.

Just had a good night's sleep

Pigeons usually take refuge over this old cupboard located in our balcony. They usually fly off the instant they see any of us around. This guy didn’t feel threatened at all.

We have two land line phone connections at home, one of which blanked out on us a few days ago. There was no dial-tone and whoever called that number would get a busy tone. All the phone bills were settled, and we even switched the two phones thinking that there might be a possibility that something went wrong with the instruments. There wasn’t. It was the phone line. This only meant one thing – we had to make the dreaded phone call to etisalat.

If you’ve lived in UAE long enough, you would have at least read/heard about the infamous customer service provided by etisalat. People I know have waited months for simple technical issues that took a whole of five minutes to solve. People have complained about receiving generic responses to a variety of problems. The stories are endless.

Running out of all options, I dialed the three digit number and expected to be on hold for about 15 minutes before I got routed to one of the customer service representatives. Not wanting to get bored, I decided I’d make some tea while I’m on hold. So, I follow the computer wizard on the phone and press a combination of keys before they please me with some etisalat music while I wait. The numbing music.

I decide now would be a good time to switch to the loudspeaker mode on the phone while I go make tea. That didn’t happen. Before I could even press the combination to switch modes, my call was answered. Yes, in a miraculous four seconds. THAT was my hold time. I couldn’t help but smile. After the customer service representative introduced himself to me, the first words I uttered were “wow, that was quick”. To not sound rude, I apologised and without a pause narrated the problem.

I already knew what response I would get – “we’ll send a technician over to check for the problem, sir”. That didn’t happen. I was asked the problematic telephone number and then put on hold for a few seconds. Then the representative informs me that due to a fault caused during maintenance, the phone line lost connection which has now been reset and should be active in no more than five minutes. Yeah, as if it will be THAT easy.

Just in case the reset did not work, I was given a complaint number which I was to reference when I call back to report the problem. I thanked the representative and hung up. I decided to head to the kitchen and finally get around to making tea, after which I would check whether the problem was really resolved or not. Just to measure my luck with etisalat that day, I decided to pick up the phone just to see if the problem could be resolved before the five minute timeline.

I head over to the phone expecting no dial-tone, but that didn’t happen either. It worked. It just worked. The whole process of resolving the issue didn’t take more than two minutes. I was impressed. I felt special. I was so impressed, I wanted to call back and register how happy I was with the service. That didn’t happen. I just couldn’t get through to a representative this time around (or maybe I was too impatient to wait more than a few minutes). Did I just jinx myself? Nonetheless, I decide to email them.

Has etisalat finally started to listen to its customers? I can’t be the judge of that after just one experience in such a long time. But I hope they continue this streak. Oh, and I finally didn’t get around to making tea.

Much like my previous post, I’m starting a series of blog posts about people I would like to meet. There is no specific dimension of people that would be listed, but I’m guessing most of these would be celebrities (though I’ll try not to make that the norm). In each of my posts, I’ll provide a short description of who that person is and state the reason why I would like to meet them. Who knows, some day I might follow-up with a blog post after actually meeting someone on my list. And who better to kick start the series than Quentin Tarantino?

Quentin Tarantino

Tarantino is the reason I want to get into film-making, or at least one of the reasons. His sheer passion for cinema has always transitioned into the movies he makes. Now, I am not saying that he is the best writer/directer there is. I’ve not seen enough cinema to even come close to judging that, but Quentin sure is a legend. A legend who respects and honours other cinematic greats.

Of all the interviews I’ve watched, I have never seen Quentin speak his mind entirely. He always has that extra bit of information which he can never seem to impart because there just isn’t enough time. That is why I want to meet him. The knowledge I would gain in conversation with him of even a few minutes would be massive, to say the least. And it’s not just the interviews. His movies not only create classic cinema but constantly reference them too. You get transported back into this completely different era even though the movie might be set within a modern environment.

He is just fearless when it comes to film-making. He doesn’t bother about market trends or what might sell. He knows his niche and he continues producing for them. I am glad (and proud) to be one of his followers. I have so many questions I would like to ask of Quentin and I know that when I do actually meet him (which is highly unlikely, I might add) I’d be absolutely speechless and behave like a little kid with a sugar-rush.

Image source: Google’s LIFE photo archive

I like photography. I am not a professional photographer, but more of a hobbyist. I do not even own professional photography gear (yet). But I like taking photos and reading about photography. Like many hobbyists, I have little idea of how to frame a proper picture and end up taking a ton of random photos. Now it might seem irrational, but I thought it would be a good idea to display the collection of some of those “random” photos on my blog. If you notice the post has a #1 in the title, which means that this post will not be the end of it all. In fact, I have gone as far as filing it under a separate category rather than just checking it under Photography. So here’s some that I thought would be interesting to begin with:

No pigeons on the rooftop dropping doo-doos

So we usually witness a huge group of pigeons gather on the rooftop of our building and drop their doo-doos all over our balcony. This was my attempt at documenting a few of them in their act, but as you can see, they decided not to invade that day. I still went ahead with clicking the photo because I thought it made for an interesting photo.

Clearly does not like its personal space being invaded

My friend’s cousin sister was gifted this guinea pig (named Sam). This particular one would absolutely freeze when anyone got too close.

All clouds and no rain

This was taken in late December 2008. One of those days when there was heavy cloud cover but no rain. This photo is of the mosque just adjecent to our building. I was too lazy to edit that building in the bottom-left corner.

It is hard not coming across these while travelling in Dubai

Adding to the millions of “cranes in Dubai” photos. I have nothing more to add.

Inspiration, sometimes, comes from sources which one least expects. Sometimes, we explore the external world in hopes of running into some form of inspiration and fail. How I was inspired to write a script? I do not know. I do not know because there wasn’t just one thing that convinced me to write. It might be difficult for me to pinpoint the igniting force… but that is unimportant.

All I know is that I am inspired to write a script. I am working on the synopsis and have not yet decided the overall theme/genre yet. As soon as my initial draft of the synopsis is complete, I will share it on this blog so that you can view each update live (through the magic of Google Docs). I intend to assign a deadline this time around because I lost focus without a proper plan previously (when I tried to write a script). Losing focus not only introduced a lot of inefficiencies in crafting my script, but I somehow lost interest and had to scrap the whole idea because of the distance that was created.

Initially, I thought of going back to my maiden idea, but had to decide against it because it just didn’t seem that personal to me anymore. Because of the distance I have managed to bring in between me and that initial idea, I would scratch many surfaces and just waste time with it.

I will publish a separate page on this blog in a few months which will detail my progress with the script and will provide access to read the work as and when I update it. I just hope I don’t get off-tracked again.

I’ve got reasons to stay, and I’ve got reasons to go. I wish I had the option of looking into magic sauce and discovering how my life would turn out if I select one of my two options – of going or staying.

Here I am listening to “Smile Like You Mean It” by The Killers and my mind is drifting into a complete different topic altogether. But before I make this post about a random rumble, my “going” or “staying” refers to me either going to India/elsewhere to study/work or stay in Dubai and play it safe. I just realised that if I do indeed discover the magic sauce that would let me look into my future, it would just make everything very ordinary. I don’t want ordinary. I don’t want a roller-coaster of a life either (who does?), but it has to be based on that template. There’s no running away.

I’m not even sure if now is the right time to make this decision. Maybe its playing on my mind now more than ever is because I’ve seen a few people around me make the decision already. It just all seems very rushed, and at the same time, I feel like I’ve wasted a lot of time already.

Maybe I should just suck it up and make a decision already. I’ve talked about this to a bunch of people who just end up confusing me all the more. Granted, they made suggestions on the facts given to them, they’re not mind readers after all, but it didn’t work out for me.

I’ve made a similar post previously. Just goes to show how bad I am at making decisions.

Decisions decisions. I need directions.

The fallen. Here to stay?

I walk by this dead tree branch every day since it has been lying stationery in one spot of our office parking lot for more than a year now. The spot was actually reserved to house lavish bushes, but instead has become the resting ground for rejected trees and trash.

This morning a bunch of pigeons decided to convert our balcony into a war ground. Everyday, we draw out a big bowl of pigeon food and watch as the birds feast all day long. Today, however, the events unfolded differently.

This is before the rest of them joined in to initiate the battle

Apparently, a huge flock of birds decided to fill their beaks together today. Now, even though our balcony is large enough, it didn’t seem enough for these bunch of birds. Never have they had to resort to pecking at each other to create some personal space in the past. But with today’s increased population, that’s exactly what they decided to do. Without a moment’s notice, the bigger birds decided to ram their beaks into whoever was near to clear up space for themselves. I’m not sure if pigeons display gang behaviour or not; but it seemed like every bird was for themselves.

All of this was happening before my very eyes. I was peacefully watching TV when I heard low thumping sounds coming from the other side of the balcony window. I quickly went over to investigate. Usually, when I step close to the window, these birds fly away; but they were preoccupied in their little “battle” to even notice me today. It was surreal. I didn’t know if I should interfere and break apart this quarrel or just stand there and mind my own business. I decided to do the latter and click some photos until I noticed what was happening down below.

The remains from the battle

We have artificial grass laid down on our balcony floor which was showered by pigeon feather that was falling off the bodies of the birds as a result of all this mad pecking. It didn’t take much time for me to realise that it would be a pain getting all of this feather off the carpet. That’s when I swung open my balcony door and without having to do anything more, the birds flew away with a loud flutter. The photo above is just one of the little feather pieces stuck to the carpet. My balcony is currently littered with thousands of this stuff. Now I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow morning.

Winding back about two months, I saw a teaser trailer on MTV and instantly knew the movie would at most gather a cult following (me included) and wash out soon. These kind of movies appeal to me a lot because they’re stripped free of most commercial money raking techniques and they display excellent sense of movie-making as a complete package. I’m glad I was not entirely spot-on.

But before I begin any further, let me lay down the plot very briefly. The content of Rock On!! highlights emotions, solidarity, egoism and passion for the most part. The plot follows the lives of four friends who have united their individual talents to form a rock band simply called “Magik”. They kick off their hopes of stardom and achievement when they win a local battle-of-the-bands sort of thing and earn themselves a studio album complete with a music video sponsored by a big-shot music producer. But this also brings about the start of their problems because the contract injects egoism into the whole concoction and that is what stems the whole premise of the movie.

To be honest, I never thought the movie had the potential to be a box-office success in India because it was a product that was not highly demanded by the Indian movie-viewing audience. These are the type of movies that make up the bottom portion of the commercial success list, but gain top marks when it comes to critical acclaim (mostly). After viewing the first trailer, I was certain the fate of the movie would be not different; but I was glad to be proved wrong. Surprisingly, the Indian audiences welcomed and appreciated the movie. So, following is a list of things which made me admire the movie a lot:

Storyline
Despite being strong, the storyline was fresh and original; which is more like a luxury good because most of the material that currently pose as a script are nothing but recycled cliches, which apparently the audience is not bored of watching yet (Note: Keep in mind that I am specifically referring to the Indian Film Industry). Therefore, the blame cannot be thrown on the movie-makers entirely because in the end they’re simply supplying what their consumers are demanding. But, we also have to shine some spotlight at the product here. This is not something people buy as a necessity, it’s something they look for to fill in as entertainment and the movie-makers should not spoil the equation by throwing gunk out there with the sole intention of raking in as much profit as possible. They should take it upon themselves to contribute some creativity to the industry and not convert the glamorous Indian Film Industry into a commodity producing plant. Wow, I deterred away from my point completely here. So, I’m not going to sit and type out the entire plot to explain how good it is because this is not a review but a mere explanation of why I think movies like these deserve recognition for actually providing something to the industry rather than being another cog that produces profit.

Marketing
Drifting away from the regular marketing (or promotional) strategies, the movie was conveyed through with much subtlety. Recently, the trend of movie characters showing up on reality shows as guest judges has become the norm; I’m glad this did not apply to Rock On!! Rather, keeping with the story, the music was promoted very elegantly. Let me explain. The actors in the movie who formed the band actually scheduled a few live rock performances in a few Indian states to really drive the message to their target market rather than blatantly targeting each segment of the audience in hopes to convert non-rock music listeners. In a way, they produced a niche product for the niche (rock music listeners) in India. A brave move.

The Characters
Another aspect that is highly lacking in many Indian movies (which eventually have gone on to be huge commercial winners) is character development. Rock On!! focused the right amount on each character to bring in some depth to them and the movie. This really set the mood early on because the viewers really want to understand the motives behind the character’s actions rather than just following their story for what it is. Of course, there are always exceptions to this rule, but they should be backed by a very solid reason rather than keeping that end open and expecting the viewers to accept it.

Soundtrack
Music is very important to Indian movies. Roughly 15% of movies released into the Indian Film market do not have an original soundtrack. I’m not going to type down the whole soundtrack market strategy down, and will probably save that for a post later on. Moving on, the concept of the storyline can be applied here because many Indian music directors have been infamous for lifting music from elsewhere and selling it as their own. That being said, the soundtrack for Rock On!! was literally spot on. Shankar Ehsan Loy have been responsible for releasing a plethora of songs each year and while I’m not a very big fan of theirs, I have to admit, I really fell in love with the songs from this movie to say the least. Furthermore, the manner in which the songs were delivered in the movie could not have been better either. It is something you really would have to see to experience. In every sense, it was truly “magical”.

I might be missing a few points of detail in this article, but I’ve basically summed up what the strongest points of the movie were, in my opinion. As you might have noticed, I have not gone into much detail by shining light on the direction or action because I did not want to write a movie review and many number of articles circulating the internet currently do that much better than I could. But I really want to mention I enjoyed watching the amazing performances displayed by all the actors and was highly impressed (and inspired) by Farhan Akhtar. We definitely need more movies like these to raise the bar.

Woah! I just felt a minor tremor while writing up a report at work. I assumed all the thinking for the report got me dizzy because I’ve been working on it since morning — but it was in fact a tremor.

Gulfnews has confirmed that the epicenter of the quake was 43 meters west of Qishm Island. Almost everyone in our office rushed out of the building and before I could think of evacuating myself, I saw all of them dragging themselves back in. They were probably expecting the rest of the day to be called off or something — actually, even I was expecting something similar. Oh, and why I didn’t evacuate myself is a long story which I’m not gonna bother typing down now. I’m still laughing at my friends who were frantically pushing the blame for the tremor on the Large Hadron Collider testing that began today.

At least my few lazy co-workers who were busy snoozing on their desks will get some work done now.