Friday, April 06, 2007

A spurt of sensibility

Those of you who follow this blog with regularity(now there's a minority, anyone at Sachar committee listening?) will know of my previous writings on how I have tried to keep myself in a steady job. I have mentioned the initial days, where a bewildering rush of orders threw me off my guard every day, forcing me to lag behind, only to be bailed out by a patient trainer, and often ending up every day, tired, exhausted and seriously questioning my choice of career.

It's been close to three months since I joined the new job, and for the first time, I am beginning to feel like I am up to the task. The strange thing is, that this realisation, this quiet confidence, and this faith in one's ability seemed to appear out of nowhere. Somewhere along the line, I ceased to count the various milestones, the benchmarks I had set out for myself that reminded me what was lacking in my efforts. Gradually, the apprehension evaporated, and the kernel of doubt dissipated. And I became aware of these things only in the last few days, realising that the story had changed for me even further back than I expected. I had finally developed the capacity to play as a part of a team, and not be a shackle anymore, to keep up the pace, and develop that strange synaptic network that every professional kitchen has. All of this had taken place gradually over the past month or so, but I realised it over the last week itself...Ability is achieved not in a single leap, but tiny, immeasurable shuffles.

Still, I have issues. I do manage to do some pretty stupid things sometimes, but not as much as to be a cause of concern. Nothing unredeemable. Verbal communication with my Hispanic brethren is still dicey, but functional. I do end up feeling useless and worthless at times, but with every beep of an incoming order, who has the time to think of one's piffling emotions?!? Come on, man! Vamos! let's go! Get that order out the window! go! go! go!

Overall, this has been an important lesson for me. Going into a new organization is tough, and you need to be very patient and hard-working in order to get to the level you want to be at, even though it may not be the top of the game. Having a good training environment is equally important, and there will be people who will help you, and those who will spurn you. You have to show your worth, and get their respect. A year ago, this would have certainly meant all sorts of showboating to me, and there was quite a bit of it going on in those heady days at Maurya. Everybody was into it, the sycophancy, the showing-off, and the recklessness...It needs no mention that in the fiefdom that was Maurya, this sort of thing worked. I did manage to sober down a bit and learn a few things from here and there in my 5-month training period, but imagine all that I could have done if I was less of an asshole, if we were all lesser assholes. And it still means the same thing to most young people setting out for their first contact with the real world. We kids are all so reckless...and stupid.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

gore never looked so good

This week, on my day off, I decided to go and see the new film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic(pun intended) novel- 300.

300 tells the tale of the battle of the legendary Spartan king Leonidas against the world-conquering Xerxes in 480 B.C.E, at the battle of Thermopylae. Leonidas, after being given the chance to submit to Xerxes, goes off with 300 of his best men to hold off an entire army, something that they manage to do, despite being killed in the end(save one last man)

End of history lesson. Those who have seen the earlier Frank Miller work, 'Sin City' in its motion picture rendition, will certainly enjoy this veritable blood-spattered-bone-crushing-spleen-puncturing-kill em' all let-god-sort-em-out movie. Of course, there is an unrealistic amount of sytlised violence, but, it looks SO awesome, you cannot help but smile at every bloody thrust of sword or spear, regard in awe every decapitation, and laugh with joy as another one of Xerxes's minions get disemboweled. And that is just about all there is to it, save for the de-facto sex scene and the rudiments of the story that try to hold the movie together. If violence was fashionable, this would be the haute-couture version.

Critically, the movie lends itself to overtly stylised depictions of history, to an extent that it could be deemed un-authentic. To a politically correct person, the movie is subtly racist, as the predominantly black and Asian looking Persian army is drubbed by an all-white group of 300 men. Xerxes himself is depicted as a dark, tall, bald, bling-loaded black man, which Xerxes was certainly not. The armies of Xerxes are also outfitted with distinctly Arab-influenced costumes, and their behaviour is also modeled on popular perceptions of Arabs in America. To a gay man, the interaction between the 300 spartans would seem very 'Gay'. A militarized 'Brokeback Mountain' , if you will. (in fact, homosexuality was an accepted choice in ancient Greece)

cinematically, the movie is in the same league as the eye-candy directed by Zhang Yimou, 'Hero', being a special-effects loaded, visually stunning masterpiece. the only difference is, that 'Hero' had a storyline, even if it was a somewhat cue-and-rewind storyline. The novel itself is purely narrative, with no side dish stories going along with the basic plot. The movie somehow, managed to add in the story of the Spartan Queen's tribulations, as well as the now-compulsory sex scene. Why?

nonetheless, a good way to spend the afternoon.

Go see it!

Sunday, April 01, 2007

switching over from the dark side


So you guys may be wondering why I have not posted in such a while...well, maybe not.

The truth is, I've been experimenting with the laptop. Not as much as opening up the case and messing about with the innards, but trying out alternatives to what has come to be the most used piece of software ever written. Microsoft Windows.

Yes, dear friends, there is an alternative to buying an operating system for (but not worth) $300.
I am speaking of LINUX, the free, independent, and public domain operating system based on the UNIX operating system.

Linux thrives on a vibrant community of developers who create their own versions, rather, distributions of linux, the most popular of which is undoubtedly ubuntu. Cast aside your fears, your apprehensions and your Microsoft dependency, and embrace the GNU/GPL domain.

There is an aura of mystery that clouds linux, something about being difficult to use, install, and maintain. Something inherently Nerdy or Geeky, something that needs expert control. And that is part of the charm. it was very easy to install, and set up, once I read about the system and understood its principles. It was wonderful to see it boot, and present me with its simple, yet highly customisable KDE/Gnome interface. It came with neat bundled applications. It was challenging to get the wireless networking going, and it was even more challenging to get my Windows file system into ubuntu. It compels you to explore, tinker, and learn. And it is bewilderingly fast.

of course, I was smart enough to install what is called a Boot Loader, and keep the ability to boot both ubuntu and Windows...it will be some time before I can wean myself off it completely, but Windows has its benefits.

But, damn, linux is so cool...