Talking Beyond Time ~ The WeChat Way

One fine evening as the newbies on the Bollywood block, Parineeti Chopra and  Varun Dhawan  croon the famous Rajesh Khanna and Asha Parekh song from the yesteryears. I take notice.

 Is it one more mundane, yawning addition to the ever growing list of “Official” remakes hitting the silver screen every week? No, it’s a commercial for a new chat app “WeChat”. 

A new chat app, seriously!! In a day, I wake up to messages, and PINGS!! in BBM and am thoroughly entertained by jokes, creative messages in WHATSAPP. Skype gives me company during the boring office hours and finally I end the day with Viber. Do I need one more?

But the chatting bug in me is hard to be satiated. So I do download the latest offering in the ceaseless list of Chatter Apps. WeChat is cool, and what makes it stand out from the rest are some new, innovative, cute emoticons. It can be registered with both your phone number and a user id, which means I can log in to the same account from my blackberry and an iPod too, unlike Whatsapp. Video chatting and the best part, Voice chatting. Yes, from now on, I don’t have to type in to send across a message, I can just, Say it!!

I am now part of the WeChat family, but who are the “We” in my family. Whom can I add? Friends? Celebrities? Sportsmen?  Can I add dead people? I don’t want to see Dead People, not looking for that kinda Sixth Sense, but surely would like to hear or talk to them. What about a human personification of things I like. I ruminate over the fact that with the advent of smart phones and WeChat like applications, so much has changed in the field of communication. Why don’t I add people from the past and the present and ask them how they communicate with their friends. So I Look Around, Yes one more feature of WeChat to find new friends.

Emperor Shah Jahan, a fascinating prospect indeed, chatting to a dead Mughal, the emperor who built the Taj Mahal. 

Me: Salaam Alaikum! Shahenshah, welcome to WeChat

Shah Jahan: Wa Alaikum Salaam, great to feel alive after ages.

Me: Zille Ilahi, how did you communicate in your era ?

Shah Jahan:  My Pigeon, Shaheen was my cupid, she helped me to woo my begum, Mumtaz. She also brought peace with the Maharajas of the West.
Me: What do you think of WeChat?

Shah Jahan : Subhanallah!! Anything that brings love has my support.  

That was very romantic from the great Mughal, felt like saying Jahanpanah tussi great ho!!! 

After The Great Mughal, I search for other greats of the bygone era,  and find a senior, early 20^th century British Admiral. A British officer, sounds interesting, I add him up.

Admiral (in a coarse voice): This is Admiral John Walkin. I lost my life in the services of King George. Awarded the Victoria Cross, for my heroic valor aboard the Royal Navy fleet. Who is this on the other line? Over!!

Me: Already on a back foot, I timidly reply, “Sir this is Tatha, I wanted to know in those days, how did you communicate with your friends and family from far of lands?”

Admiral:  Friends!!! We were perennially at war, Son! We had no time for friends. With fellow officers we did communicate in Morse Code. The best and the most secure mode of communication, helped us in winning many a battle against the German and the French Navy. Over!

Me: Sir, what do you think about WeChat?

Admiral: WeChat!! This is atrocious!! A blemish on the youth of the 21^st century!! An utter waste of youthful vigor and energy. This is not the world for me, Over and Out!! Beep beep..beep beep beep…beep..

Oops, that wasn’t a good conversation; he must have been a hard task master. A lover of the beeps. What now? A friend request!! Gajodhar Chacha!

Me: Hello Gajodhar Chacha, how are you? 

Gajodhar Chacha: Kaise ho beta!! Sab kushal mangal hai na??

Me: Haan Chacha, aap bataye, aap chachi ko, ya apke doston ko sandesa kaise pahuchate the?

Gajodhar Chacha: Humare Zamaane Mein, phone to thi nahi, to hum chithiyan likha karte the beta

Me: Aapne chatting ke barein mein suna hain chacha?

As I wait for an answer, here comes one more friend request, Its Mr Alexander Graham Bell. Wow!! Surely I need to chat to the greatest of inventors, that of the Telephone.

Me: Sir, thank you for adding me as your friend in WeChat.

Mr Bell: It’s nice to hear from the eager minds of today.

Me: Sir, your invention has changed the world. Telephone has revolutionized our lives and we can’t think of a day without our mobile phones. We can safely say, applications like WeChat are here because of your invention.

Mr Bell: The utility of telephone has been accentuated by the other inventions of the last century. Mobile technology gave a whole new dimension to the telephone. Don’t forget to thank Mr Martin Cooper, the pioneer in wireless technology. Nice to talk to you lad, have a good day.

That was an experience of a life time, such a great man and yet so humble.

I look into the other open chats, still no message from Gajodhar Chacha.  Its late, may be time for one more chat, with a girl preferably. I Look Around again and find a certain Miss Pooja, with a typical teenager pose as a profile pic

Me: Hi Wassup!!

Pooja: Hey There, How’s you. WeChat is so coooool na, Awwwww I just love it yaa, I can make new friends everyday..blah blah blah..

Duhh, such a sissy, I can’t listen to such crap so late in the night, need to doze off. Gajodhar Chacha too must have slept long back. 

WeChat will surely be the next “In” thing. With voice and video chats and add to that, the group chat facility, will make chatting really interesting. Till then happy WeChat ting Anyone, Anywhere!.

For more information on WeChat, follow the link

http://www.youtube.com/user/WeChatIndia?feature=chclk

Credit Crisis

A visual representation of the Credit Crisis that almost cost us our jobs. The year 2009 was the year of recession and you could hear it everywhere, from the rickshaw wallas to the CEOs. This video shows the root cause of the slump affecting the globe

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Tryst with Music - I

Lately i have been listening to a lot of theme music from English movies which I have either downloaded or got from other music enthusiasts. I would like to share a few of my favourite ones with the details of each. Most of them are basically movie themes and for music lovers this should be a treat.I will also try to match the music to the scene of the movie so that its easier to relate to and enjoy. All the following is also available for download here.

P.S the embedded code works in Chrome, Firefox and not IE, as IE sucks. Please use Chrome or Firefox

Title : Apertura

Movie : The Motorcycle Diaries

Composer : Gustavo Santaolalla

There is something about Spanish music that excites me and none better than this for the movie, The Motorcycle Diaries. This track is played when Alberto and Ernesto(Che) travel from Buenos Aires to Miramar to meet Ernesto's gal Chichina just before they embark on their historic journey.

Title : Forrest Gump Suite

Movie : Forrest Gump

Composer : Alan Silverstri

What can one say more about this movie. Each and every scene is a treat so is the music. This suite is a collection of all the music starting from the first scene involving the flying feather to his(Forrest's) run across America.

Title : Scent of a Woman(Main title)

Movie : Scent of a Woman

Composer : Thomas Newman

There are some good movies and some great movies. Scent of a Woman is one such great movie. The music adds to the essence of the story. This title track can be heard whenever the school is shown.

Title : Love Theme

Movie : The Godfather

Composer : Nino Rota

Is there anyone out there who doesn't just love the movie The Godfather. If you are one of the millions who adore this Francis Ford Copolla master piece, then you must love this theme too. The most soulful theme of all time

Title : Welcome Chris

Movie : The Pursuit of Happyness

Composer : Andrea Guerra

You cant help but wipe out the tears from your eyes, as Chris Gardner wipes out his in the last scene from the movie, Pursuit of Happyness. This track is played when Chris is offered a job at Dean Witter after a grueling six months training. After having lived through his pain, his sorrows, his frustrations, several lump in the throat moments , this scene truely defines happiness in its foremost glory.

Title : Kabul Calling

Movie : The Kite Runner

Composer : Alberto Iglesias

This is one such rare occasion where i felt the movie was better than the book on which it was based. Of course that may be because I saw the movie before reading the novel. This is the title track, played while the erstwhile 1980s Kabul was scened.

Title : Summer of 42(Main title)

Movie : Summer of 42

Composer : Michel Legrand

I didn't like this movie much, but the music is an Academy Winning effort and surely one of my favourite.

Title : Title Theme

Movie : Braveheart

Composer : James Horner

This movie or this theme needs no introduction. This music can only remind you of the Bigpipes and the Scottish country side and the single and double malts

Title : Hatikvah_(The_Hope)

Movie : Munich

Composer : John Williams

This is basically the national anthem of Israel. Used in the movie Munich at the end titles. This particular theme has also been shamelessly copied by our very own Anu Malik for the song 'Mera mulk mera desh' from the movie Dil Jaale.

Title : Rose

Movie : Titanic

Composer : James Horner

Another classic from James Horner, and even this theme needs no further description.

Title : Theme

Movie : Chariots of Fire

Composer : Vangalis

I was very young when i had heard this theme for the first time. This was used as a theme for one of the 80s Olympics .

Title : Exorcist Theme

Movie : Exorcist

Composer : Mike Oldfield

I feel this track doesn't go well with the movie and its theme but never the less its one of my fav tracks and has been my ringtone for a long long time. Viju Shah used it for 'Gupt' soundtracks

Title : Honor Him

Movie : Gladiator

Composer : Hans Zimmer

After the death of Maximus Decimus Meridius in the colosseum, Lucilla the queen urged the people of Rome to honor him as their own. This track was played in the background.

Title : Archer and Solomon hike

Movie : Blood Diamond

Composer : James Newton Howard

I just loved this movie and with it the soundtracks. This particular track was used when Archer and Solomon were trekking through the jungles in search of Solomons son and the hidden diamond

Title : A Kaleidoscope Of Mathematics

Movie : Beautiful Mind

Composer : James Horner

The beauty of this movie has been accentuated by the performances of its lead pair and its music. This track is the title track of the movie and also played when John Nash resumes his studies at princeton.

And Tatha survives....

What’s Your Name? Will this person be able to pronounce my name? or How do I pronounce my name so that he understands?. These questions usually sends shivers down my spine and the reason for this is simple. My name is TATHAGATA and if you took some time to pronounce it, I don’t blame you.

Shakespeare was so wrong when he quoted the lines ‘ What’s in a Name’ in his masterpiece play ‘Romeo and Juliet’. I can tell from my personal experience that a lot depends on a name. I was born on ‘Budh Purnima’ , so my parents named me after the enlightened one, not Gautam or Siddharth but Tathagata. I guess a lot of thought process goes into naming a child in a Bong family just like choosing the fish delicacy for the day. Another famous Bong, the so called management guru, Arindam Chaudhuri also named his son, Che Kabir. Che after the revolutionary, Che Guevara and Kabir after Sant Kabir, he hopes his son will bring revolution in a peaceful way. A commendable thought I must say. For the child, though the idea or the thought behind his name makes no sense and he is as far from it as currently I m from moksha, nirvana or enlightenment. As a result the poor name faces the brunt and has to undergo a lot of torture in many forms.

My first exposure to public life started with my schooling. The Head mistress of the primary school ‘Step By Step’ typed my name in the register as TATAGOTA. Of course I have no memory of this particular balatkar of my name but my sister uses this as a tool to admonish me whenever I try to make a mockery of her name. It is as weird as mine or I may say it was, since she changed her name officially. A long name as mine also comes with its share of short forms. My school buddies came up with TUTS. Luckily now I must say it was ‘U’ and not ‘I’. The other nick name Tatha though, has stuck with me faithfully through thick and thin and that helped me pass through most of school and college days without much fuss until Chennai occurred to me.

The most difficult time for me came while I was in Chennai for a year or so for my first job. People from the southernmost state of India usually have the habit of adding an ‘H’ after a ‘T’. So Sangeeta becomes Sangeetha, Parvati becomes Parvathy and Tathagata becomes Thathagatha. And to make it worst they usually pronounce ‘H’ something like HACH, I can’t write and explain how my name was finally pronounced. I also avoided introducing myself as Tatha, as in Tamil, Tatha means an old man or grandfather something like that, and being in my early twenties I wouldn’t like to be called old. The final nail on my coffin was when a Pan Card agent goofed up and the name on my PAN CARD came as TATHALATA. That was it and I made my way to Mumbai and for a brief time in the States. My stay there too had its share of memories w.r.t my name. A particular client used to address me as TATA and often enquired whether I was somehow related to the people with the famous last name. Being in the service industry , clients are usually Mai Baaps so I dared not to rebuke him. And a headache was to spell my name to a customer representative over phone like T for ‘Texas’ A for ‘Arizona’ T….which used to go on and on. But the best part during my stay there was my machine user id, which was the first letter of the first name and the entire last name, so my user id was TROY. This little part of my life, this small part is called HAPPYNESS. So I proudly Brad Pitt like, introduced myself as TROY while sipping a cup of coffee at Star Bucks.

I also make conscious efforts in pronouncing my name based on whom I am addressing. If the person is a bong, I usually pronounce it as TOTHAGOTO, they usually get it first time. Or if he is from any of the hindi speaking states, the name becomes TATHAGAT. One question I always expect from the other side and that is WHAT? And when the unexpected occurs, like a compliment , i end up liking the person and hold him in high esteem. Just the other day someone comes to me and tells me he saw my name in the mailing list and he googled out the meaning. That felt good, my weathered soul told me here is an educated man.

But at the end of the day, trying to look at the positive side, my name also comes with its share of advantages. Once a person is able to pronounce it, he usually never forgets me. I thank my parents that my name isn't ChironjeeLal or ChampakLal. And i love the short form of my name Tatha which is as faithful as ever and it has survived.