Extracts from a Diary

The Man Who Saved The World Vasily Arkhipov. That’s a man often credited, without exaggeration, for saving the world. On 27th Oct 1962, at the peak of Cuban Missile Crisis and during the Cold War between US and USSR, the two nations came closest to a nuclear war, and were averted due to the actions of Arkhipov. Vasily Arkhipov was a senior officer in the Soviet nuclear submarines at the time. The year before, in July 1961, while he was onboard a Soviet (nuclear-powered and nuclear-equipped) submarine doing some tests near Greenland, it developed a major radiation leak. The radio communication broke down too, and the crew had to devise a solution at that time on their own. They did. At the cost of major radiation exposure to all 139 crew members, with 22 of them dying within 2 years. There’s definitely a thrilling movie, if not a Chernobyl like series, in there somewhere. On 27th Oct 1962, Arkhipov was in another nuclear submarine (B-59), hidden well below somewhere in the Caribbean. Me...

I had planned to write on another topic, but a recent experience proved far more compelling. Personal Context Yesterday, the wife, her parents, and I had gone for a musical theatrical play – Humare Ram ft Ashutosh Rana and Rahull Bhuchar ( link to BookMyShow listing of it; may expire in future). The wife and I had booked the tickets mostly hoping that the parents would enjoy it. And, generally expecting a great performance from Ashutosh Rana, who was playing Ravan. Myths, Biases, and a Misunderstood Ram Few disclaimers are in order – I’ve been an agnostic + atheist since mid-teens and between Mahabharat and Ramayan, I’ve always been a bigger admirer of Mahabharat. And so it goes between Shri Krishna and Shri Ram. I have not read the reputed translations of these epics but mostly relying on pop-culture and TV adaptations, I’ve found the Ramayan’s narrative fairly straight-forward as against the layered narrative of Mahabharat. The use of grey characters with different (and changing) m...

(Courtesy: Zeitgeist Films; distributors of the movie) I normally don't do reviews. I can't pin down my reasons for the same. It's probably a mixture of the fact that it takes an 'inspired' (no, not in the sense Hindi film industry/reviewers use it) movie to inspire me to think about a movie enough. And, it takes more than that to inspire enough to write something about it. It might be something to do with my need for pushing a certain movie (which, in turn, can be broken down but I would rather care not to, at this point), or something to do with sparking off a thought. Or, something that effects me emotionally. I felt Chaitanya Tamhane's debut movie, Court (trailer here , synopsis here ), achieved those and more. It had its issues. The biggest of them all being, essentially, this tendency of characters to just generally stare at blankness while driving/walking/existing. And, 'slowness' (or my need, as a viewer, for the movie to just 'get o...

I sometimes put to unsuspecting friends at random house parties, the question of the most impactful book/movie/life experience they've been through. Making a list longer than of 2 elements is a painful task. So, I don't really mean to thank the 3 individuals who tagged me on facebook to make a list of 10 most impactful books, 10 impactful most music, and 20 of most impacting hindi movies but it got me thinking for a good period to come up with a half-arsed list. So, guess that's a good thing and I should be thankful. I thought I'll put it up as a facebook note or something. Realisation struck: i) Too much random attention whoring ii) I should revive my blog! So, here it goes then:  Books   Books that I read voluntarily (which rules out all the acad books) and left a lasting impact or shaped me in some way, ordered by when I read them (first). Super Commando Dhruv & Tintin : Among the first comics I read and loved. I wouldn't blame it on them, th...