This is not a movie about 'Batman', this is a movie about 'Joker'. One of the best negative character portrayals in a film.

Dark Knight is probably one of the best, if not the best super-hero (no, super-villain) film to come out from Hollywood. One of the hard (if not an impossible) thing to do for a set of comic book created characters which were developed and produced (for public consumption) almost continuously for more than half a century is to retain their original mannerism, essence and intentions.

"Either die as a hero or live long enough to be the villain?",Similarly the comic characters gets rendered as mere cliches as the life time of the comic increase. What Christopher Nolan has achieved is to do a sensible rewind of all the unwanted and rather useless or nonsensical entities accumulated by transient trends and lack of attention (by readers and creators) and expand on the original blue-print. In my opinion this is a harder thing to do than to flesh out a new set of characters. For example, it is easier for me to imagine to be re-designing and arranging an apartment from scratch, rather than throwing of all the useless junk which you had accumulated over past years and working towards a coherent, functional and aesthetically pleasing look.



This movie might be one of the most sensible high budget Hollywood production I have seen in the recent past. And hey! It offers plenty of thrills and cool action sequences. However, as I said earlier, the highlight of the movie is none other than the Heath Ledger's portrayal of the "Joker" !

A very poignant tale with an extremely sensitive narrative.

1. Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_revoir,_les_enfants


2. Imdb entry: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092593/

If you could visit only one place in Alaska I'd suggest Homer in summer. It is not the guide-book or the celluloid Alaska that many are familiar with or expect to see. It is not noted for its In-to-the-Wild hostile tundra that would coldly snuff out McCandlesses. It is too warm for polar bears except those made in China and found in curio shops. It doesn't have enough magnetism to charm some Aurora Borealis(s) it's way. A winsome little fishing town pointing its geographical finger into the waters of Kachemak Bay, the only claim Homer makes is as 'the halibut fishing capital of the world'.

I have been smitten with Homer ever since I visited the first time. Please click here to read an account of the trip we made in 2004, serves as a good Homer primer if you are interested. Last weekend we ticked off one of the must-do-Alaskan things, fishing for Halibut in the high seas. Before you dismiss it as 'Bah, fishing!' let me tell you I am not a fishing enthusiast either. I have fished for salmon before and didn't find much pleasure in donning the waders and communing with a fishing rod for the better part of the day with zero results. Unless there is a salmon run(which is like Kumb Mela or the Carnival in Rio of the salmon kind) there is no guarantee that the rare masochistic salmon will choose your novice rod to impale itself upon. Unlike that, halibut fishing is a highly rewarding experience, it looks like no one returns empty handed from a halibut charter. If you have a heart strong enough to handle a few dead fish and bandwidth to justify your bravado,



Deckhand Tim readying the rod and the hook.
( Meet the keepers Davy Jones' Locker )

The science we know today is very limited. We do lot of quantitative stuff, lot of equations, graphs, blah blah... But we don't find truth! In my opinion, education should be directed towards truth. And the ultimate truth is God Himself. So, have a look at what you are studying and see if there is anyway to reach the ultimate truth.

Sciences are getting too specialized and most people study some bit of thing from here and there and pass exams and get a degree. Today's education is "job oriented" while the education which was practiced centuries ago was "knowledge oriented".

In India there were Ashrams where parents sent their children. They would grow under a "sage" - who is a highly learned person. He would teach them about life in general. I don't think they would have things like "recite all the alphabets" or "derive the escape velocity for a body on earth" etc. They used to learn - how to live, how to be a good person in life. They had excellent examples to learn from.

Today's education system is more like a "product". And students end up getting a wrong idea of "education". After a few generations, most people will stop understanding what real education is. Home schooling should be more popularized and the parents can show the child the wonderful nature around them. There are so many things one can learn from nature.

I was lucky enough to have discussions about these kind of issues with many people. Most recently, I got to know Dr. Murray S. Daw who is a Professor at Clemson University. We talked about various issues like this. He recommended a wonderful book to me - The Science Before Science: A Guide to Thinking in the 21st Century - "http://www.iapweb.org/science_before_science.html" Its a pretty complex book. I have spent hours reading a few pages!

This is my first summer in America. I like the American summer, its not very hot and sweaty. It makes me feel energetic and makes me feel like doing lots of outdoor activities. I have started to follow a good schedule for exercising and being at lab. I don't sit after 5 pm in the lab and I end up jogging or going to the gym everyday. That is pretty great.

And I am eating good breakfast, lunch and dinner. I actually take about an hour to pack/eat everyday. So that should be a pretty good diet.

I went on a few cycling trips on my ATB. Plan to do a few more before the fall semester starts. I did a camping trip at Jocassee lake with some of my friends and a boating and tubing (thats a new thing I found here)!

I have got an office finally - its at Riggs 11 in the basement. I am at the Micro Electronics Characterization Lab. Got some cool equipments in here. I am taking Bowling classes and a Six Sigma Quality course.

Don't know how long I will be able to follow a good time table. Once the fall semester starts, I will be running for classes and assignments and what not! Hope I can follow my schedule in a mini-way!