Hell no, I am not a Beatles fan. Or at least was not until I saw the movie Across the Universe. The entire movie is scripted in such a fashion that atleast one Beatles song would be applicable in that scenario. The movie talks about how an irishman comes to New York searching for a meaning to his life, falls in love with his best friends sister, only to loose her to the revolution. And then how love conquers all bringing the two people together. In the middle it meanders between the Flower Power of the sixties and the seventies, to protesting against the Vietnam war, to facing the horrors of the war, psychedelic music and love.

The movie is a refreshing concept with around 60% of it being songs of Beatles and the like. What I am trying to say that its not like a conventional movie … at one point of time I was thinking … ye kya ho raha hain. But it cleans out nice in the end and love conquers all. You know what?? That’s the third english romantic musical that I have seen in the last month. All of them being good hits on IMDB. This one is a 7.7. Definitely a sign that film goers have started warming up to musicals and romance. The good vs. evil formula seems to have gone out, and now its love wins all.

Would it not be cool to have the songs which go on in the background … I get by with a lil help from my friends … I love you yeah! yeah! yeah! … I am walrus! Koo-koo-kachu … what’s your song?

Are the modern sales guys really selling to us what we need? Or are they selling to us what they want to sell?

A couple of years back I had applied for a silver credit card (this was when I was a student). The card (Citibank) was good enough for me to use during my student days. And the great part about it was that my father booted the bill!! Once the job had started, the card was no longer needed, and soon it expired. I applied for one more credit card, to my chagrin, this time Citibank never responded. No issues, ye nahi to koi aur sahi … so saying, I got another card.

Now, some months back, they sent me a renewed credit card – an exact replica of my expired card … with my student photo as well (I was so “thin” back then!). This time around I feel no need for one more credit card; its almost equivalent to one more headache. Who has got time for paying those pesky monthly bills which always crop up when your bank account is doing the balancing act of the century (SideNote – bank balance is an oxymoron!!)

So, I tell them that I have no need for a card, can they destroy the card? Sadly, they advise me that the paperwork involved will be too much for them and for me. I believe them like a dimwit, and now I am still carrying my student credit card. I have no intention of using it. Upto this part, I am fine with it.

For the past week or so, everyday I recieve a call from our friendly next door Citibank salesguy intimating me that I have been selected for upgrading my card to an International Gold card (as if!!). I tell him that I am not interested in increasing my credit limit, every time. Still the calls keep on coming. Are they really listening or are they simply following through motions? If they are doing the later, then why bother with the futile exercise?

They have a saying – The acorn does not fall far from the oak … but what about the acorn, it also wants to grow big and strong like the oak … does it get that chance?

This movie, is very much like that. It is about one such young and talented singer (Amruta Subhash), who is the daughter of an acclaimed classical singer (played by Reema Lagoo). The daughter feels that she never gets her own credit, since all people attribute her talent to her mother. Eventually, the daughter throws away a ready made career planned by her mother to walk on a path of her own. A song of her own. It also showcases a mother’s love for her daughter fraught with the pain of seeing a good disciple throwing away success and glory for a foolhardy cause.

I identify with this plot a lot. I hail from a family of doctors. My parents also wanted me to take up medicine as my choice of profession, I dont say I did not try. I did, but lets just say that Maths came much more easily to me than Biology. My father is a double gold medalist (MBBS finals and MD finals), and that too from the top medical college in Mumbai. How can one surpass this if I am to remain in the field of medicine. Even today my sister is know as Dr. Ajinkya’s daughter, although she is MD, Pathology and a brilliant histopathologist herself. Had I been a doctor, I would have struggled trying to prove to myself that I am as good as my father … if not better. And that’s precisely how Amruta’s character would have felt.

With an 8.0 rating, it was a sure shot plan for this evening. And with such a star studded star cast like De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Pete O’Toole … I kind of expected a lot out of this movie and frankly speaking I was kind of let down.I dont know, maybe its just me … but I feel it could do a bit more. Claire Danes and Pfieffer could have put in a little bit more … but that’s the way I feel.

Had I gone to the movie without any preconceived notions, then I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Well … De Niro’s role is enough for the paisa vasool factor. In fact, now that I think back, the casting is the one factor which has pulled the movie into the higher ratings. Its a fantasy movie that takes place in a magical land of Stormhold, which just so happens to share a “wall” with England. Beyond the wall in Stormhold, lies a whole different world of magic, wizardry and fantasy.

Of lightning bolts that can be sold, of flying pirate ships, of unicorns and of course of witches. Enter Pfeiffer, who plays the evil sorceress poised to take Claire Dane’s heart for her eternal youth. Original plot … indeed.

There is a hopeless romantic within all of us. Its there within me, I endear it. This movie appeals to that silly person who likes the entire love-conquers-all concept. That is why it is liked by people of all ages.

The fastest I have surfed is when I was alone on the campus (during a brief stay in summers) at Planet-I. It was a glorious 2mbps speed. And it rocked! All you want at a click of a button. Even when the campus was in full swing, with 300 odd participants surfing the internet, the net was still at a decent pace. This is India we are talking, where people still pay a big premium for connectivity.

Last week, one of my room-mate informs me that in UK, they are working on this new technology thats going to shoot the transfer rates beyond imagination. Just imagine, what would you do with transfer rates of 100mbps!! All data you want is completely accessible and available to you within seconds. An entire movie within seconds … infact, the individual user’s need for a personal storage drive just might go down. This combined with the fact that many websites are now showing a conceptual web-OS … like Desktop2 or Fanbox. Also, many SMEs are now opting for the Software As a Service (SaaS) model, where in the firm does not have to invest in the licensing cost of any software, but would rather pay a periodical amount for that service.

You could in fact, cut costs by having an hosted ERP, Google Docs, a web OS and dumb terminals hooked up to a hosted storage server all on the internet. Your capital expenditures go down, but the variable expenditures might go up. If the opportunity cost of your capex beats your opex, then you definitely have a winner here.

Think about an individual user, all media content available … on a pay per usage basis of course. For gamers, there is the WWW as your LAN … talk about one huge LAN party.

It does change your perspective on connectivity and storage doesn’t it?