The last place you will have Memorable Moments in Life - OFFICE

Yup, most of us dread going to office, but way back in 2006 I used to go a lil early to office. Office was fun, filled with like minded crackpots but of course we did work  :-)

Here are some moments of that life:

Imagine coming in for the day and you find this ... what tha .....

When you have creative / loony co-workers, this is what happens..... they said a storm had hit my desk...

Ha Ha ... very NOT funny.

Me at my desk, actually on my desk and for the record I was indeed working.

A friend, he too was working :-)

Another friend...... he was supposed to be working.

Three men crowded in front of one monitor, now what can be that interesting ? :-) Advantages of working for a stock photo agency.......loads of images of beautiful women to gawk at..... all part of official work of course. After the pic the count went back to Four men crowded in front of the monitor :-)

Loving Work......and we never had any technical issues [pun intended] :-)

Time Zones: Hazards of working in an MNC

Ain't this TEAM WORK or what?
Team outing to a resort and our van got stuck, we the "gentlemen" got out valiantly and did this. I'm in the middle acting as if I'm pushing hard :-)

The next pic is of "Smuggler Sumod" :-)

Actually the guy had his new laptop delivered to our office and he was happily taking it home. Unfortunate for him that I was there in the cab. I took this pic and titled it smuggler sumod. I emailed it to all my friends saying smuggler caught red handed stealing stuff from office..... lol.

BTW Thanks Sumod for commenting for this post ...Toiiiiiinnnnnng [it's a sound we make at office when someone makes a mistake or if something goes wrong :-)]

At one point or the other we all become crazy :-)

No No... this was not everyday or every weekend.... but CHEERS for those who made it memorable.

Pradeep

PS: I have more quirky images but couldn't upload as I might have to get a lota permissions :-)

Memorable Moments: Colorful Kerala

One of the most beautiful places in the world. I have traveled quiet a lot across Kerala and was lucky enough to have a camera at these beautiful moments.

Alappuzha or Alleppey:

Alappuzha:

Kovalam:

Alappuzha:

Kovalam:

Cochin:

Alappuzha: 

Wayanad:

Alappuzha:

Wayanad: And here I am at one of those serene locales. This is a candid image of myself, talking over the phone to someone special :-)

I still have a lot of places to cover and hope to discover more of Exotic Kerala.

Cheers

Pradeep

Memorable Moments: The Great Fishing Trip

My brother and I with one of our cousins went for a fishing trip. There was a pond nearby our home, back in Kerala my Native place. It was one of the most beautiful settings for fishing, I started taking some pics and here are some moments of the greatest fishing trip ever.

After hours and hours of excitement and fun we finally got lucky :-)

We made our triumphant return with the days catch.
Cheers
Pradeep

An Image - Experiments

This image was taken at Kovalam [Kerala] way back in 2006. Some of my friends were running towards the sea and voila!!!! a superb frame presented for me to capture.
The first one is the original and the rest are my experiments, thanks to Photoshop :-)
Cheers
Pradeep

JFK – Directed by Oliver Stone

I've already seen this movie many times, saw it again today. One of the most POWERFUL movies I have ever seen. The story is about the alleged conspiracy and cover-up in JFK’s assassination. Oliver Stone has made a classic, such a controversial subject which made a killing at the box office.

It had 8 academy award nominations and won 2 for Best Cinematography [Robert Richardson] and Editing [Joe Hutshing & Pietro Scalia]. Yes, the first thing one notice when we watch this film is the slick editing style and superb visuals which are pretty hard for this subject. This engages the viewer right into the period the story is set in.  The cast has some of the biggies from Hollywood; Kevin Costner is perfect as Jim Garrison the district attorney. The other actor whose performances always had an impact on me is Joe Pesci. David Ferrie is another powerful character in his career.  

The movie raises a lot of questions about JFK’s murder. One can’t help but wonder about the many loose ends with the warren commission’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing JFK. Also the famous Magic Bullet theory, how does someone sell such a bull crap story is beyond my belief.

As a movie JFK is a stupendous effort and a must watch for all movie lovers.

Cheers

Pradeep

My Beliefs

My Beliefs: Subject to change when required :-) very rarely does that happen.


EGO: 
My Ego is as Big as yours, if you have None so do I.


HELP / FORGIVE:
Help and Forgive people who understand its meaning and value.


RESPECT:
Never beg or demand respect, earn it.


RESPONSIBILITY:
Stop whining about others responsibilities :-) be responsible for your thoughts and actions. People might start copying you and that can be a good thing.


CHANGE: Be it.


INTELLIGENCE: 
Consider everyone to be smarter than you and your intelligence will grow automatically.


FAILURE:
Failures will never bog you down when you prepare for the worst.

ANGER:

Anger is most potent and effective only when it's under control.

GOD:
I am one and so are you, from Tamizh Movie: Anbe Sivam - Love is God [Title says it all]


FRIEND:
One who is never afraid of speaking his/her mind and who is always there in your good and bad times.  Beware of people who ACT as friends.

cheers
pradeep

Ma Fav Musicals

No 5: Oliver! [1968]

No 4: Grease [1978]

No 3: The Sound Of Music [1965]

No 2: Hello, Dolly! [1969]

No 1: Sigin' In The Rain [1952]

Cheers

Pradeep

Nature's Canvas: SKY

I've lived in two beach cities, Chennai and Trivandrum. The sunrise and sunset in Kerala are truly a treat to watch. We can loose ourselves in the myriad colors and tones. Sky - one of Nature's beautiful canvases.

Alappuzha:

Cheers

Pradeep

Musings: OXYMORON

OXYMORON is a very interesting word. It basically denotes contradictions, we come across so many Oxymoron's in our lives with respect to quotes, experiences, issues and most importantly people.

These are some of THE BEST Oxymoronic lines that I have come across :-)

"Change is the only Constant"

I love the above statement, its pure logic. I have always wondered if there are things that don't change. Now I do know that there are only very few things in life that do not change at all :-) and it can be common to all or it can vary from person to person.

"Marry or choose the one who loves you, not the one whom you love"

Is it only for me that this doesn't makes sense :-) what if the person who loves you reads this quote, now that would be counter productive. If everyone starts following this then we all would just wait  for someone to love us till death.

"I'm really Sorry for everything but I have no Regrets"

This is by far the most Oxymoronic dialogue I have ever heard in my life. I'm not going to elaborate why, as this is so.. so.. elementary. Hope no one beats this one :-)

I was so WRONG :-)... someone just beat the above statement by proving to me that it does not limit to  just mere statements and a person can eat, live, breathe and glow with OXYMORON personified. 

Cheers 

Pradeep

K PAX – Directed by Iain Softley

I haven’t watched a science fiction movie this interesting which doesn’t have crazy special effects or adrenaline pumping action sequences. Movies like these are a rarity; the strength of this film lies purely in the story, screenplay and the superb performances by the two lead actors. The lead character is the patient Prot who is played by the great Kevin Spacey. This guy is one of my idols, who can forget his performances in The Usual Suspects and American Beauty. K Pax is another masterpiece in his illustrious career. He plays Prot, a guy who claims to be an alien who is brought to the Manhattan Psychiatric Center.

I haven’t heard much about Jeff Bridges until he won the Best Actor Oscar for Crazy Heart. He has done an amazing job as Mark Powell, the psychologist. He is a sane man who starts questioning his beliefs and reality while treating his patient; his character is so interesting that the viewer also gets entangled with his questions and search for truth.

I never write too much about the story line because I don’t like to spoil it for others. So as usual for this one: A patient claiming to be an alien and a doctor is trying to help him - Sounds like a simple story but at the end of the movie the viewer has to come to his own conclusion, is he really an alien or is he just another lunatic?     

One of the best scenes in this movie is when Mark Powell hypnotizes Prot to dig into his past. Kevin Spacey goes from playing a kid to a teen and switches back to the present with such ease; one can’t help but gasp in awe at his mind blowing performance.

Cheers

Pradeep

MOON – Directed By Duncan Jones

We all have seen Sci Fi flicks with lot of action, CGI, Robotics, crazy plots etc… but Moon is a Beautiful Sci Fi flick as the setting is breathtaking. The story is set on Moon, that’s pretty obvious but with only one main character who is isolated. We have seen other movies on similar lines namely Cast Away and I Am Legend. Sam Rockwell has done an excellent job as the Astronaut Sam Bell who is on a three year stint on the moon base. His tenure is getting over in 2 weeks and he waits eagerly to get back to earth. Half an hour into the movie I was actually bored, the narrative was extremely slow for my liking. The only thing that kept me from stopping the movie was the beautiful sequences where they show the moon’s surface. Sets and visual effects are top notch. Once the plot gets interesting I was pulled right back into the movie. Background score is intriguing which adds to the suspense. It would have made a huge difference if they had increased the pace for the second half of the movie.

I would watch Moon again just for it’s visual effects and Sam Rockwell’s performance, come to think of it there is nothing else to see in this movie :-)

Cheers

Pradeep

DISTRICT 9 – Directed by Neill Blomkamp

No big Actors, Director or Production House. The only famous name is Peter Jackson who produced this masterpiece. Yes, this one is way better than some of the big budget blockbuster Sci-Fi crap we have seen. This is Neill Blomkamp’s first outing and the movie had 4 Oscar nominations.

The story is about an extraterrestrial race which comes to earth and how they are forced to settle in the slums of South Africa. The government is as usual trying to acquire the alien weapons technology and do crazy experiments on the aliens. I don’t understand why there always seems to be only one government or agency involved in movies which has a world event like aliens coming to earth, as if the rest of the world doesn’t care or exist at all. Also the alien weaponry looks really funny. We can ignore these negatives as there are loads of positives which made this movie a huge success. The protagonist is not your typical buffed up action hero; he is just an average family man.  In the end we end up rooting for the aliens, now how many movies have we had that.

The movie is initially in documentary style but later switches mode with some crazy camera work. Due to the style of presentation this movie looks very real, the documentary style makes you feel as if watching live coverage on a news channel.

A thorough entertainer, watch out for Neill Blomkamp – this guy is going places.

Cheers

Pradeep

WORK LIFE

As a person who has around 4 years of experience working in a corporate environment, I can say with 100 percent conviction that people management is an ART.

I had dealt with all kinds of people, worked with some really naive / dumb to extremely brilliant / smart assess. Now don’t take that naive = dumb, I meant both kinds of people. I always consider myself to be dumb in a lot of things, so being dumb is nothing to be ashamed off. I try to be honest about my opinions and I never get scared that I might offend others. Now for all the people who have worked with me please don’t take it in the wrong sense, people who know me well will know my respect for them. For those who don’t, please don’t assume things and my opinions doesn't matter anyways.

I know I might be wrong and others can always prove me wrong. But it takes some effort to do that and I often find people not ready to talk about difficult issues. When you ask a difficult question it’s easier to avoid or sidestep it than voicing your true opinion. Very few people are brave enough to say what they actually think.

Say out of 10 people if 8 are saying you are good with your work and relations and only 2 have problems with you, then overall you are a success at what you do. You cannot satisfy everybody. The 2 are a minority and most probably the problem is not with you. Of-course you try to sort things out with the 2, if that doesn’t work then you just carry on minding your own business. I have done this and it worked most of the times. Sometimes even your good intentions can be misinterpreted as bad. 

e.g. – I know this guy who used to work his ass off, everybody loved him for his dedication and honesty. But he still had his differences with his managers and he became a troublemaker for some. I told him not to slog so much. Only slog when it matters, eventually he too agreed to my point when he got screwed :-)   

"Difference of opinion" is a given in any work space, it’s how you deal with it which matters.

e.g. – I used to fight with my manager on a lot of issues, of course I have utmost respect for him and that was the reason I made an effort to fight or express my strong disagreements on issues. No matter how many disagreements we had my manager understood my intentions so we always tried to workout solutions. He is still a very good friend, a well wisher and an excellent critic.

The few people, whom I don’t respect at all screw up themselves without any outside help. Now that is also an art I suppose.   

Cheers

Pradeep

12 MONKEYS – Directed by Terry Gilliam

CRAZY, CRAZY, CRAZY all the way….. Wait a sec, I’m not crazy but this movie might make you one :-) its such a layered, complicated story. One might have to watch this movie multiple times to grasp every little detail and if you blink you will miss something. A movie which has two Hollywood greats Bruce Willis & Brad Pitt - can’t go wrong.

“The story goes from present to past but its future to past and present to us the viewer but not for the lead character James Cole played by Bruce Willis ” :-) Now to understand this sentence is same as understanding the movie, you will eventually. The movie was released in 1995. I first watched it many years ago; saw it again today and it still surprises me. Bruce Willis plays a different kind of hero who is vulnerable and tough at the same time, he has given a kick ass performance.

Brad Pitt – now what can I say about him, whatever character he chooses to play this guy makes it look COOOOOOOOL. He plays a loony character and it can’t get any loonier than this. One of his best performances ever and he was nominated for an academy award in the best supporting actor category.

One gripe about the movie is that I found it a bit too long. For a movie were the world is at danger and Billions of people dying I missed a sense of urgency in the later half of the movie. But its one of those movies which will Psych you out. Dunno if everybody will like it because the viewer really has to concentrate as it’s not a simple story.

Cheers

Pradeep