Surrender

This poem is written on the context that Lord Shiva gets impressed by the incessant focus and hard work of a very knowledgeable and scientific man and gives him Darshan in his dream.

Fig: Meditating Shiva created by Bing AI (Prompt: create a meditating image of Hindu god Shiva on mount kailash. His disciples are saints, monsters, bulls and common people. They are in a worshipping pose towards him. Shiva is in a meditating state.)

My curiosity and the will to know,
Made me question, reason and question the flow.
Driven by logic, I debate with the divine;
He answers patiently just before 03:59.

Oh! I find him calm, serene and yogic,

His aura is beyond human logic,

I have my doubts and knowledge clouts my mind;

I ask him, where do you live and how do I find?

Giving me a look of aplomb;

While his devotees prop out of a catacomb,

He tells me gently, "I will answer your questions."

Suddenly, my heart is filled with mixed emotions.

He returns to a meditating state -

I don't know, why it feels he has no date.

He opened his eyes and spoke, "OM" -

My mind got inundated with pathway to freedom.

The voice trickled down my spine;

Healing my nerves, blood vessels and the dynastic line.

The answers have come, I don't need to ask;

I surrender, Sensei - unto you, I bask and task.

Anand Bora

Review of "Hereditary"

Hereditary comes across a movie which should be on your list if you are a Horror movie lover. I am writing this piece so you know already that I love horror movies a lot. To put into perspective, I have already watched 55 from Top 100 horror movies list from IMDB which would be close to 5500 hours of my life. 😀

Getting back to the movie, I watched this 2018 movie on Prime Video recently and it was really good in terms of concealing the antagonist or the demon in this case. Just after finishing the movie, I felt that I had watched an amalgamation of the “Wicker Man”, The Holy Mountain and a tincture of “The Shining”. If you read about those movies or watch them, you will realise what I am talking about.

I want to talk about the BEST parts in the movie which are really good and worth mentioning.

The SOUND DESIGN - Oh! I love the Sound Design in this movie. Very few horror movies bring out the right music to compliment the scenes of the movies. Lewis Goldstein and Tom Ryan have done a splendid job on this project. The sound design is eerie, contemporary, tribal and creepy, all at the same time. I really enjoyed it on the IEMs I used to watch the movie.

The SCRIPT - A very novel approach to horror movie making by mixing a lot of ingredients like paganism, slasher effects, brute force and dreams/nightmares. The unpredictability of people being killed is an icing on the cake and adds a modern and novel approach. There are occasions where the script brings out the emotional part of the characters within a family in a brutal way which is justified by the actors with all its merit. Bonus points on the miniature art concept and connecting it to real life. A scene which shows how the mother laments the death of her child by re-creating the miniature version of her accident, must be a brain child of a genius and vastly experienced writer. The suspense of hiding the main antagonist is also brilliant and the scriptwriter has done a tremendous job here.

The ACTING - All the Actors are Fantabulous. I think this is the first movie of Toni Collette which I have seen and I am already a Fan. She delivers emotions on the screen like a rainbow formed with mercury, transitioning effortlessly from one emotion to the other. Gabriel Brianne and Alex Wolf have been tremendous. This movie must have re-defined Alex’s career and he is on his way to do much larger projects. But one actor whose name I don’t know creates an impact in just one scene with his gaze (pictured below). Although, he comes for another single scene later in the movie too.

The EDITING, COLOR GRADING, SFX and all major aspects of filmmaking are top notch. They keep the audience hooked with the streamlined storytelling.

Needless to say, there are blips which they should have looked at. The VFX at places seems very outdated. For example, the scene when Annie’s jacket catches fire, the fire seems fake to normal eyes. Some decapitation scenes and bodies look glaringly artificial. Color grading at some places during the climax is too dark. They show a lot of symbols in the movie but there is almost no explanation of them. They seem purely referential which in a way shows that the director wants people to make assumptions. They don’t mention how the actual possession happened, only the means are shown. Probably, that can be an inspiration for another movie 😀

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and it is definitely part of my all time horror movies to watch out for. After the movie, I tried to recall which movie might have been the creepiest I saw and the immediate answer was “Rosemary’s Baby”. Again, that is purely a personal choice and it won’t be fair to limit my answer to just one movie.

Visionary Dream

Sounds as it may,
The dream makes a noise;
The grey matter and the signals-
The manifestation is far from advice.

The layers of my dream;
Is it a vision or a hallucination?
Or a 'deja vu' from life.
It's a world of emancipation.

Time is perplexed in the dream,
Space unwinds to infinity.
The dimensions converge and diverge concurrently,
A platform of happiness and adversity.

The 'focused' dream with open eyes;
The vision of a 'logical' life.
The fog between the real and the imaginary -
Your mind is caught in a strife.

Semantics flow in the river of imagination;
The iteration in a dream is a 'fractal'.
My friend, your physical self is your Karma -
Create a dream and you are immortal.

-Anand Bora

A decade of writing, sharing and learning

It’s been a decade since I have been writing in public. It all started in the computer lab of college where in I thought of placing my thoughts on the newly launched application of Google, the Blogger. Interestingly, it ticked the right areas of my brain and I started to share my thoughts, my ideologies, my creations, my writings and my feelings on a public platform.

This post I would like to be nostalgic and would like to talk about the posts I have written in yester years and are close to my heart. The first - My philosophy. I know most of the people would think me as a pessimistic person after reading that post. But believe me, after encountering Death couple of times in my life, I have realized that she is the most intriguing entity one can talk about. The most fascinating part would be that she cleanses the world. I have written about her here as well.

As I moved on, I started to share my poetry and my artistic creations. I really don’t know how it helped me but being an introvert at that point in time, it was a convenient way of expressing myself. I am a free soul and I have always been so. A bird like creature devoid of gluttony, pain and mirth equally of the cruel world. A bird travels far and wide. I have done so too. It reminds me of one of the train travels and the poem I wrote - Travelling in Diversity.

The emotional side of me can be seen here. But, I have come a long way since then. I have become so tough that my Karma has become my life. Karma reminds me of creativity in me. Long back I did a painting session with Vasundhara Das and instantaneously, I jotted down a poem which came straight from my subconscious.

One of the foremost poems I wrote was on the importance of color BLACK. The rhyming of that poem still makes me curious about that color. It really does. Moving on, I would love to share couple of poems which are really close to my heart - “The road that was” and “Talking to the rain”.

I am a nationalist and it really hurts me to see my country in a dilapidated state. I keep writing on my country and issues occasionally. Here, I talk about the degrading Indian culture in a subtle but evocative fashion. I have always tried be on the right end to make reforms in my surroundings but things never went my way.

My love for Math becomes clear when you look into these posts here, here and here. But there are many more which I am very lazy to give links to.

The blog does contain few short stories, couple of whom are “The Leaf” and “Meal of Death”. Incidentally, I had mailed ‘The leaf’ to many of my friends who gave constructive reviews which cleansed my writing skills in due course.

The other interesting posts which you’ll find are the posts on Ambigrams. There are many interesting ones. But my personal favorite is the equation of Theory of Relativity.

Apart from these, my blog contains many odds and ends which I have been sharing in not so regular basis. My logo for the Rupee competition made it to the final 17 but couldn't make it to the final list. Then there are few blog awards which blogger friends shared over the internet. There are few reviews based on my vast movie knowledge experience as I am a huge movie buff.

Finally, I would say that it has been an experience to write. I think writing runs in my nerves as I never have to think before writing anything. It just flows when I have a pen in my hand. I want to confess something though. In my higher secondary, I got poor marks in English whereas in Secondary and College, I ended up with excellent scores. In the exam of higher secondary, I wrote fluently but I used some exaggerating adjectives throughout the paper. Then I realized, that we must feed a person only as much as his hunger. On a final note, I would like you to read these two poems - “Love - an artist’s edition” and “Google as a person”.

Anand Bora

Marriage or no marriage

Please don’t get offended by the dialogues of the characters and what they say as I don’t mean them. Even I respect the characters and am their devotee.

This is a small write up which came to my mind just this morning. Following is a fictional dialogue between Lord Krishna, Lord Hanuman and the Roman god of love, Cupid.

It is 2250 BC and three aforesaid Lords coincidentally meet beside the Hari river in the Hindukush mountains. The battle of Mahabharata is over and Krishna as usual is moving around the world to relieve the people of their pain and sorrow. Hanuman, by his nature, keeps roaming in the search of more knowledge and wisdom. Cupid is the only lord who came down to that place unexpected.

All the three are happy to meet and they engage in a conversation. Being Gods, they recognize each other in no time.

[Note: Krishna is the most romantic lord and has been married the most number of times in Indian mythology. Hanuman has never had an affair. Cupid is the god of erotic LOVE and beauty]

Hanuman (thinking): WTF! Lord Krishna and Lord Cupid at the this place. I should show my reverence and move out as soon as possible.

Hanuman: Greetings Lords.

Cupid and Krishna: Greetings Hanuman.

Hanuman: How come we meet here? Lord Krishna, you must knowing about this situation beforehand, isn't it?

Krishna: Hanuman, I don't stop things from happening and occurances always take place at their own time.

Cupid: I was fed up with the Italian eroticism and thought of going out to a cool and spiritual place. Hindukush happens to be the closest one.

Krishna: Anyways, Hanuman what brings you to such a serene and romantic place? Are you searching for your partner?

Hanuman: Oh.. no my lord. You know that I have taken an oath to live a bachelor's life. How can I even think of such a situation.

Krishna: Thats true! But haven't you ever thought of marriage?

Hanuman: I have never thought about it. My purpose in life doesn't go hand in hand with the marriage thingy.

Cupid: But why are you so much against marriage?

Hanuman: I'm not against it. It's just that, it is not my purpose. I would never see women with those intentions.

Cupid (thinking): Damn! If people start thinking like him, I would cease to have a purpose. After all, I sow the seed for the growth of human geneology.

Krishna: Hanuman, its true for you. But marriage is a beautiful bond. Just look at me, I'm a vastly experienced person. I married 84000 times and still I'm a very happy person.

Hanuman: But lord, how do you tackle all your wives? After all, you are still in human form?

Cupid: Yes, lord Krishna, even I can't think about a person who has so many wives and still happy. (thinking – Lord is a SUPER Human. You need special powers to maintain so many wives)

Hanuman: I have one more question O lord! How do you understand women? I think that is the most tricky and difficult part?

Krishna: Hahaha. A very difficult question and I think I'm not the right person to answer that one.

Hanuman: I'm bemused. How is it that you cannot answer that question my lord?

Krishna: I can. But it's just that you won't understand.

Cupid: Very true.

Hanuman: I insist.

Krishna: What should I say? Discontent, passionate, fragile, caring, insecure, tough, reserved. Those are the few words describing her. With "FEW", I mean few. As women cannot be mapped onto words. They are so unpredictable that even they don't understand their nature. They want to flow as a river but at the same time, they want to be restricted by a dam. They want to be like the wind, but simultaneously, they want to be silent. They are ambitious more than the word "AMBITION" but still they want to have a lowly and happy life. They want to be loved but still their ego surpasses their feelings. They want to have all the materialistic happiness of the world and surprisingly, they want to be religious and happy with utmost peace of mind. You would be surprised to know that every girl dreams of a perfect husband even if she has lots of imperfections.

Cupid: (Grinning) Yes. Love. That's what I inspire.

Hanuman: Too complex to digest.

Krishna: Hahahaha.. Quite natural.

Hanuman: So why should a man with a clear mind marry a woman even when he knows that she is so complex. I mean he can remain like me.

Krishna: It's the NATURE, Hanuman. For the nature to survive and flourish, reproduction is a must activity. Since the onset of life, the growth of humanity has taken place due to the unison of a man and a woman. As man became civilized, he brought the concept of marriage and hence, people marry.

Cupid: Interesting. Since the time I have been around, marriage was not necessary. Only "LOVE" was. :P

Hanuman: Civilized! That's a tough word. Are woman civilized?

Krishna: Better ask Cupid. Hahahaha..

Cupid: (ashamed)

Krishna: On a serious note. Yes, women are civilized. And, I think its their nature. They are meant to do so. If they aren't then no family would be bound to a family. They would be they greatest cause of disintegration of a family and consequently, a civilization.

Hanuman: That's a good point.

Krishna: I have given lots of explanations. What do you say now about Marriage?

Cupid (intervenes): I think he agrees. After all, he's also got balls.

Hanuman: As for me, I would like to be away from such a complexity. It is good to respect her but one should remember that a woman has been a cause for major destructions in history. But agreeing to your point of view, I support the concept of marriage when a man and a woman are compatible to each other. Even a 10% variation would lead to disintegration and unsuccessful marriage and life. But I'll always stand by the saying, "One should do his own work." A woman should never forget her work even if she's doing man's work and the same goes for the man.

Krishna: Hanuman, you already know the meanings of "MARRIAGE". I hope the world knows about it.

Hanuman: Thanks my lord, Adieu!

Some books to read

Infinity and the Mind by Rudy Rucker

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Leonardo Da Vinci - By Martin Kemp

Love

Another mathematical poem!
Do you find the STRANGE LOOP?

Incidently I came across this quote by Bertrand Russell - "To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead."

Peace

Thought!

Purpose of Life--
Differentiate grief;
Integrate happiness!

Unfinished work

If you have an unfinished work, you should come back from hell to complete it.

[Note: The space in Heaven got filled up with the onset of Kaliyuga almost 5000 years back]

:P

IRON MAN

"When will the IRON MAN inside the comman man rise to the occasion. When will we realize our responsibilities. When will we (the common man) realize our powers. Vote for the right people and get rid of the CHALTA HAI attitude?" This is the first thought which comes to my mind when I think about the heinous acts of terrorism which took place at Mumbai recently (continues as I write this post). The IRON MAN of India, Late Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel would be rather ashamed of the situation India is in these days. This situation is not because of the politicians but because of the people of India and the Indian society.

We talk about racism, regionalism, castism and all kinds of CRAP dividing the society. And yes, we follow it bindfolded. Isn't it true. Yes it is. At all levels of society, we follow the dividing policy which somehow has crept into our society. I wonder should we blame Britishers for our current pathetic condition? Not at all. In the last so many years, we still are trying to bind and divide ourselves at the same time. Ironical and disturbing?

How is it that a small group of people can disturb the peace and harmony of a huge country like India? How is it that the element of fear keeps overcoming the feeling of integrity and values of the nation? How is it that time and again we fall on our knees and start begging at false shadows of Satan aka terrorists? How is it that we come under the impression of some cynic politicians and start dividing the country on the basis of the part of the country we have come from? The North Indians, the South Indians, the West Indians, the East Indians and what not? Aren't we weak? Yes we are.

I appreciate the resilience of Mumbai at this moment. The spirit of Mumbai has always been of the highest level. But still I want to ask a question? Those people who say that Mumbai is only for Maharashtrians, where are they now in these difficult times? Are those dying solely natives of Mumbai? Are those brave rescuers only Mumbaikars? They are human beings first and then Indians and then anything else.

One of my friends Sameer messaged me, "We are a bunch of castrated males!", Aren't we?, "We are in a matrix the same one.. situation controlling us rather than we controlling the situation."
Another actor friend, Manish, who has worked in the movie, "A Wednesday", messaged, "I think 'A WEDNESDAY' should release twice or thrice every year to make people understand their responsibilities and to avoid terrorism. As the reason for terrorism is nothing but the reflection of the fear within the population."

These are comments which have come out of fear, hatred, anger and sympathy. This is just the reflection of what is going on inside the mind and heart of an average Indian. This common man should realize his misdoings and start afresh. He is responsible for all that has been done and will be in the future. Any country is built by the common man and the unfortunate part is that when such incidents happen, the common man has to bear the brunt of it. This is ridiculous as well as saddening.

How is it that any religion allows killing of innocent human beings? If it does, then it is the most unfortunate thing I've ever heard. The religion of humanity is the greatest religion and will continue to do so until the apocalypse. It is just that realization which is stopping the common man to take actions. When he does so, things will start to change. We will change. Our world will change.

I hope, the IRON MAN inside every human being ascends to counter these barbaric acts and people for establishing a civilized society and a better world to live.

Please read KK's view here. He has written an outstanding post on the situation.

Inevitability

This is the translation of the chorus part of a famous Bollywood song.

Death - It is required for living
Death - What kind of dependency has it become?
Death - Time stops when it comes
Death - Takes the breath away in her arms
Death - Only the path changes
Death - A new era begins
Death - Thats when you understand the give and take
Death - You get a fountain of earnings

First Time

Hmm.. I was pondering that when was the first time I did my first complete artwork. Hah! I was an interesting incident which I would like to share with my readers.
The first complete work was the painting of Lord Krishna done by sketch pens. I may be 10 years old. So why did I do it? That is an important point. At that time, I had never taken a training or learnt any form of art.
It so happened that one of my aunts had come all the way from Nepal to adopt a child at my native, Ranchi. There were lots of complications in the adoption process but somehow she could manage to do that. Moreover, her child fell seriously ill. The doctors said that there were very little chances of his survival. But I think the belief of my Grandma saved him. My mother took very good care of the child like her own son. After a week of serious illness, the child was outta danger. We all were so happy. My aunt was about to leave the city. That day, I thought of gifting her the Krishna.
So I sat down and started making the portrait of the Lord. It turned out to be beautiful.
Finally, she took both the Krishnas home. May be that Krishna is still helping me hone my skills.
I should tell my readers that I have never taken any formal training in ART but for some short courses in my childhood. It's very innate.I just feel happy doing these things, so I do it.
:-)

Life! What a riddle?

My name is Anand and I am a very big fan of the movie ANAND.
I have written about the movie earlier also. You can find it here.
So, I wrote translation of another song of this movie. Though the translation
is not so good still it conveys what it is supposed to.

Life! What a riddle?
She makes you laugh sometimes, and sometimes you cry.

Sometimes you see - your heart remains numb.
It keeps following the dreams;
But one day this traveler of dreams,
Goes beyond the dreams somewhere.
Life! What a riddle?

People have adorned familial ties;
They bore the highs and lows of the life together,
One day they choose silence,
And head towards some place all alone.

Life! What a riddle?

Google as a person

Hahaha.. :D
Imagine GOOGLE as a person. I wrote a poem on it. ;-)

In the sea of variegated information,
People hunt for relevancy.
'Google' comes as an angel;
Crisp findings with 'timely' efficiency.

He is the jack of all trades;
Mathematical reasoning is his base.
Digital parchments exposed to the world,
Crawling like Spiderman is one of his phase.

His presence - inevitable at the 'nodes',
EXTRACTS even the abyss; he is a shrewd detective.
A razzmatazz of the 'binary' dimension.
A scientific and logical philosopher - yet creative.

His guile has numerous angles;
Contributing to cognition, creation and money,
The 'clicks' wand makes him a wizard;
He has all the solutions like the 'Bugs Bunny'.

I'm stupefied by this 'Internet' revelation;
This 'sginal' guy has an 'universal' attitude.
A paean for this scientific phenomenon is not enough;
Integration of humanity - his platitude.

Anand Bora

Rat Race

Ever wondered of doing something different from what the world is doing?
Getting out of the RAT RACE?

Think BIG!

Many of the people who know me ask me to do MBA.
Hmm.. A good thought..

When I look back, I see, I have around 10 years of on field business.
When I had to study, I was involved in business.
I got trained under a person who rose from RAGS to riches.

I know all the intricacies of business in practical. But still, I don't feel like writing about it.

It's surreal that I am not using my knowledge in business.

Why?
Coz something inside me says "THINK BIG!"

I'm a lover of INEVITABILITY

I am a lover of the INEVITABILITY - DEATH.
Sounds weird. Isn't it? It sounds weird to me too.

But that's the truth.

I am always so pessimistic about Life as I think that life can leave you any moment. So there is no assurance of the next moment coming your way.

This ideology got a boost recently when I came to know the last sermon of the Great Ravana.

His last words were:
"Enmity gives birth to anger. Anger gives birth to EGO and EGO gives birth to Self Destruction. The person who remembers his death all time would not feel the pain at the time of his Death."
Isn't that thoughtful?

Then what is the purpose of LIFE?
That's a good question.

How many people among us know the purpose of their life? I guess, not even 10%.
People come into this world. They live their infancy, their adolescence and their youth. This is the time when they should know the PURPOSE. But most of us don't realize that purpose. We fall into the rat race. We think about doing all kinds of things we can. We study and pursue degrees like Engineering, MBA etc.

But again I ask, do we know the purpose?

I think NO. Only at the time of DEATH, a person realizes what he was supposed to do. I appreciate those people who have realized the purpose beforehand and they walk on that path irrespective of the results. Kudos to them.

Hmm.. what more should I write?
People would be asking me about the purpose of my life. To tell frankly, I know the purpose and I'm walking on that path. I know, I have responsibilities, I don't have money to make a better living, I am struggling. But the most important part is I know the purpose of my LIFE.

I thank my deity, my goddess MAA KAALI for helping me to know my path and purpose.
:-)

I'm frustrated

I have never wanted to write about my life at my work place because it has always been boring and frustrating. But I'm forced to write today about it. I don't get any chance to innovate and apply my mind. I call myself an engineer and the pathetic software industry doesn't even give me chance to do the basics of what an engineer must do.

That's weird. Isn't it? Yes it is. But that is the truth.

The basic of computer science is basic Math. The truth is people would find it hard many times to implement basic math in the Indian IT industry. I don't want to talk much about the industry and its process. I want to throw light on one of the surreal experiences I had, recently. It has been 2 years in the industry and I never had a team. I have been working all alone without any team. The so called team members are sitting far away and they never gave any help of any kind. I have a senior at work place that unfortunately speaking, gets agog at my questions most of the times.

I encountered a problem during the development of an application. I restructured the practical problem into a theoretical question of basic math with 3 unknown variables. I could have solved this scenario by using algebra but the best way would have been to use probability as estimation of one of the variables could be done on runtime by some analysis. I am a bit cranky with probability. So I asked my senior to help me out. Instantaneously, his face got pale. He seemed helpless and his answer was, "I don't know." I asked him that whether he can inquire in the office about the same. He said, "It is highly unlikely that anybody would know probability in depth." Finally, I solved the problem using algebra and algorithmic techniques. I derived a formula and implemented that in the program.
But, I was very frustrated.

That incident makes me laugh at myself. I expect my seniors to be more intelligent than me. I expect them to be a better engineer than me.
Sadly though, that is not the case.

Another Blogger's Meet

I attended yet another meet of Bangalore Bloggers on Saturday.
This time, the meet was heavily influenced with discussions which
I guess, were not very relevant in the context.

I know, that people would be against me.
But my point is, as a blogger we should be more open
and should support feelings like freedom of expression, which
in itself is self explanatory.

Nobody wants to be tied down. The issue of the discussion was
- Flooding the Blogaloreans mailing list with unnecessary mails.

The question was - "How to decide the demarkation line between
necessary and unnecessary?" I guess this question has only one
answer which can be decided by the individual himself.
Belonging to a community, the individual is responsible for what
he/she does.

The debate may go on...

Anyways, on my part, I never found any issue with what happened.
This may be because, I am a very strong supporter of Freedom of
Expressions & Thoughts. I am never bothered about the way it is
done.

Apart from this, I enjoyed a lot during the meet.
Played a game called KODA which was taught by Vinu
on the spot. Also, had some nice chat with Prayank.

Overall, the meet was productive and sensible.

Working Anniversary

I have been suffering from illness since last 20 days or so.
Hence, I wasn't even able to update my blog.

Anyways, I completed one year in the company on 4th of September.
To be true, I do not feel anything. It's because whatever projects
I have been involved in, have been very boring but for a conceptualization
project (obviously a futuristic one). Overall, a monotonous experience.
But I did learn a lot, though I did it myself both on telecommunications
and web domain.

There have been two persons (both top Technology persons from IITs) in the company
who have been most impressive. The sad part is I could not learn under them for
long time as I had to move to Bangalore from New Delhi. So I thought
of mailing to one of them and also show him some of my recent works.

I got a reply -

"You are incredible ... as always ... "

and lots of such stuff and suggestions.

I was also once appreciated by the CEO of one company as

"You can be an asset to any company."

But all this does not mean much to me.
After  all, I am doing uninteresting work which I am
trying to make into an interesting one. More so, I think
my knowledge and my skills, both reside only in the alcoves
of my mind.

When would I get the chance to unleash my ideas?
May be sometime.

Anand Bora