We:The Anti-Socials

There is a new movie coming up that has a theme slightly different from the others.The movie is called “Nishabd” which means “Without Words” and the tagline is-Some love stories are never meant to be understood.Actually,I am going to go see the movie tonight as my exams have finally ended.

The point is that there has been a lot of chitter chatter over the theme of the movie.It features a 60 year old man falling in love with an 18 year old girl.The guy is being played by veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan and the girl is being played by newcomer Jiah Khan.I think it is a wonderful theme and would love to see how it’s been portrayed.Agreed it is a little bizarre and you don’t see these things happening everyday but they can happen.After all,a guy who’s 60 doesn’t lose his heart and love even if he’s not well physically.Sadly though,the Indian audience can’t seem to understand this.Cases have been filed against the movie saying that it’s not socially correct and they aren’t going to let it get released in some parts of the country.There was a debate going on on CNN-IBN and Amitabh was answering everyone’s questions about why he decided to take up the role.He said one thing really nice that he doesn’t have any problems portraying these roles if people can look at it in a psychological way and not a physical one but sadly enough,people can’t understand something so deep it seems.Amitabh has always played challenging characters.He’s been in love with a widow,a prostitute even.He’s kissed his blind student(read Rani Mukerjee) in Black.He’s also done a sexy Sam in “Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna” where he,being 60 goes around with a new girl everyday and calls them by days because he can’t even remember their names!

Kabhi Alvida bombed at the box office too interestingly and this was also because a conservative Indian audience couldn’t understand extra marital affairs.I think the directors are doing a good job by portraying things like these and it’s now upto the people that they wake up and stop being all that conservative because it isn’t doing them a world of good anyway.

Update-So,I did go and see the movie yesterday and I thought it was excellent.Everyone especially Amitabh acted really well.The new girl Jiah Khan may not be exactly pretty but she knows very well how to carry herself,she’s done a good job.I thought the story was excellent even though half of the cinema hall couldn’t understand and were just sitting their hooting at the intimate scenes and dialogues.I just fail to understand why people in here don’t give a damn about the actually good movies and simply just go seeing the useless comedies sometimes.I’d give this one a 4 and a half on 5.Good movie.

Sorry guys…decided to steal another post!

My usual habit when I get up is not to eat until break in school, in which case I buy myself something to eat. Today, someone managed to bombard me whilst I was at the till and got me to buy them something.

One of my friends was standing by the door and I went up to say hi to her, the then another girl comes up and begs for money to buy food. I ignore her and before I know it, my friend goes “You’re so selfish.” That makes me stare at her and rather pissed off. I mean at the end of the day it’s me who is always buying people food. Not her, for we know that if we even ask we have to pay her back. She then carries on ranting and says “You are useless; you never help me with my speech and drama when I ask.” Now I’m standing there extremely mad. For this is the girl, when I asked for help to do stuff getting rebuffed every time. The key thing example being the business cards for our young enterprise company and the posters for our latest product which I have been stuck doing because no one wants to learn how to use damn publisher (and which is her job). I decided it wasn’t worth my breath arguing with her and just walked away. The question is what do I do now? Do I carry on being friends with her? Or should I just walk away?

Okay….this is going to be mainly a book review since I really want to tell everyone about it and also I thought it was very sad.

Title of the book: The Elephant Man

Written by: Christine Sparks

Is there a film version?: Yes

Title: The Elephant Man

Produced by: Paramount.

Some of you may look at the title and go…wait a second, I’ve heard that before and you might have. However there I’ve realised quite a few of the Elephant Man around, but the person I am referring to is known also as Joseph Merrick.

Let me give you a bit of a back ground to him.

Joseph Merrick was born to Mary Jane Merrick and Joseph Rockley Merrick, he had a younger brother and sister. In an autobiographical note which appeared on the reverse side of his ‘Freak Show’ pamphlet, Merrick mentions that his deformity began developing when at the age of five. His mother died when he was 11. According to family accounts, she too was “crippled.” His father remarried, but his stepmother did not want the younger Joseph. Forced to earn a living by selling haberdashery on the street, Joseph was harassed constantly by local children. When the then young Joseph Merrick could no longer take the lashing of his stepmother’s tongue at his inadequacy to take in a profit, he left home.

Ending up in the Leicester Union workhouse not once but twice, Joseph was unemployable for the better part of his life. On August 29, 1884, he took a job as a sideshow attraction where he was treated decently and made a large sum for the time; it amounted to around fifty pounds. (To get an idea of the sum, a pound could support a three-person family for a week, if used frugally.) At one point during his sideshow career, Merrick was exhibited in the back of an empty shop on Mile End Road in London, where he was seen by the physician Frederick Treves (later knighted). As Treves recalled decades later in his memoirs, he gave Merrick one of his calling cards in the event that Merrick would be willing to submit to medical examination. The two men then went their separate ways. When sideshows were outlawed in the United Kingdom in 1886, Merrick traveled to Belgium to find work. There, he was mistreated and ultimately abandoned by a showman.

After making his way back to London, Merrick unintentionally became the cause of a disturbance in Liverpool Street train station. Suffering from a severe bronchial infection and hampered by his deformities, Merrick was only barely able to speak coherently. However, he had carefully retained the calling card of Frederick Treves, who was duly summoned by the authorities. In his role as physician at London Hospital, Treves enabled Merrick to be given a permanent home at the hospital. There, he thrived.

He became something of a celebrity in Victorian high society, eventually becoming a favourite of Queen Victoria. Treves later commented that Merrick always wanted, even after living at the hospital, to go to a hospital for the blind so that he could find a woman there who would not be frightened of his appearance.

In his later years, he found some solace in writing, composing both prose and poetry.

In the summer of 1887 he spent some weeks vacationing at the Fawsley Hall estate, Northamptonshire. Special measures were made for his journey, and he was forced to travel in a carriage with blinds drawn to avoid drawing attention. He greatly enjoyed his time away from urban London, made many new friends and collected wild flowers to take with him back to London. He visited again in 1888 and 1889.

He was cared for at the hospital until his death at the age of 27 on April 11, 1890 from suffocation while sleeping, which was apparently accidental. Joseph, unable to sleep horizontally due to the weight of his head, may have tried to do so in this instance in an attempt to imitate normal behaviour.

Merrick’s preserved skeleton was previously on display at the Royal London Hospital. While his remains can no longer be seen by the public, there is a small museum mostly centered around his life and has a few items from his past.

Thanks to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Merrick

Now to the book.

I found this book rather…captivating. I guess is the best word to use. It’s one of those books, when you started reading, you couldn’t put down and in the end forced me to go to bed at 1am. However what it did cause me to do was start crying. This could have been due to my mind being highly strung and the story made it worse.

Sparks really does explore the life of Merrick. Most of his history is not very well know and so she doesn’t hesitate to plug in the gaps with added touches of the imagination here and there.

One scene I remember very well is when Treves comes to the rescue of Merrick. Merrick is under care of his owner Bytes who becomes angry that Joseph is no longer a source of income and beats him near to death. Treves is summoned and works out what has happened before bringing him to the hospital. Here you feel every emotion that the movie would want you to feel, you can picture the images as you would on screen and you sit there appalled wondering how one person can treat another in such away.

The interesting thing about this book is later Treves starts to undergo these emotions and you connect with him, wanting to feel sorry for Joseph but in the end seeing him as a friend and when he’s brutally treated in Belgium you desperately hope he goes back home to Treves.

The story does follow real life events like the ones I mentioned in his background and is flowing till the end. In the end when he dies, you get to see the final few moments of his death and you realise, though he may be intelligent, he still thinks and sees the world as a small child would. A fact shown by his trip to the theatre to see Puss in Boots.

The main idea I wanted to bring out through by reviewing this book is that not all of us are forced into our anti social ways. We have nothing physical stopping us like Joseph Merrick. We have a choice. Experience shapes people, experience makes us who we are and we sit and learn through them. There is nothing stopping us from making that bound into being a social person. It requires a change in habit, for example not putting ourselves down. For even trying to be the slightest bit social could bring about a big change in our lives. Just one smile or just one hello to someone could change the way people perceive us. We might be perceived when we smile as some freaky stranger or ideally the other person might smile back and think “Isn’t he or she pretty”. Even at a party trying to talk to someone might bring a new change in your life. Next thing you know you could liking s/he and before you know it, you’ve got a date with her the next day.

I’m not condemning being anti social but I found that just trying to be the least bit social makes people think the better of me. They can see me trying to make the effort and though many times I do get rebutted, I keep trying. For if you don’t keep trying, you won’t get far in life.

By Sha….yes I know this is probably very bad, but I didn’t quite know how to connect the messy strands of my mind together.

I’m sorry to say this but frankly I’m not very happy with the way things have been going on in here.So we’re in for some updates which would take place throughout March as soon as I finish my exams.

Some of the major things that need work are:-

1. The Template.Sorry to say but I’m just not happy with the way Quentin works.It’s too huge and rather unprofessional and therefore it has to go.We will use Freshy and I’m already working on a new header.

2. Hits.Since we aren’t “exactly” getting any hits what so ever,we need to do things to make the blog popular.Therefore we will now have Technorati Tags and Digg This buttons with every post which I will manually insert into every post so you guys don’t have to worry about that part.

3. Buttons/Banners.In another attempt to make us popular,I’ll make us brand new buttons/banners which can be used on our blogs and in our signatures on various forums because quite frankly,people don’t really click on the links on our blogs unless they’re something special and attract them.

4. More Writers.Now this is where you guys i.e. the other writers have to work.Please ask some of your friends to join because the more the people,more the posts and more the quality.Please make sure they’re a bit creative and good at english because once they’ve become members,I wouldn’t want to have to ask them to leave.

Thanking You,
Yours sincerely,
Ish
The Administrator,
We:The Anti-Socials.

Dated:February 25,2007.

Update:- Because the header is all ready,we’re shifting to Freshy right away so we can get a feel of how it works.

Yo Ash,I’m sorry I’m gonna steal your day but doing this post was absolutely essential even though it doesn’t have anything to do with being an Anti-Social.

Warning-I was way too happy at the time of writing this post so it may contain some material which is unsuitable for children,people with heart,blood pressure diseases and especially for those who are against swearing.Parental Discretion is advised.

Yes,Ladies and Gentlemen,Boys and Girls,India has finally won the Hero Honda Cup 2007 which was a 4 ODI Match series between India and Sri Lanka.The first match was washed out,Sri Lanka won the second one by 5 runs,India won the third one by 5 wickets and today was the final which was held at Vizag(Vishakhapatnam).Now,I’m gonna go into more detail.

India were coming into the match without master blaster Sachin Tendulkar.The stage was set and the ground was looking beautiful.India decided to bowl first and interestingly,they’ve bowled first in all the three matches that were played.Sri Lanka got off to a solid start and scored 43 runs without loss.They then lost 4 wickets in quick succession and then came on Chamara Silva who was to give Sri Lanka a respectable total.It was his first one-day international and he played really well.At one point it was looking like Sri Lanka wouldn’t even reach 200 but Silva helped them through.He scored 107 runs of 107 balls and was the highest scorer of the match.He had important partnership with Farveez Maharoof and Sri Lanka recovered towards the end and scored a respectable 259.

India had to win this match and Sehwag HAD to score if he wanted to keep Rahul Dravid’s faith in him.Sehwag and Ganguly came on to open but Ganguly was not feeling well and went back in the very first over.In his place came Robin Uthappa who played really well and scored 52 runs before giving away a silly catch to Sanath Jayasuriya.Sehwag on the other end was playing carefully and was well set in his 30’s.Then came on Dinesh Karthick who went for just 1 run after getting caught and bowled by Dilhara Fernando.Finally,Sourav Ganguly who has been in excellent for all through the series came on and India looked set with both Sehwag and Ganguly playing some exhilarating cricket.Sehwag then got run out in the most jacka$$ manner possible.After driving away to third man,he was going towards the non-strikers end slowly because there was only one run to take.He never realized that the through had reached wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara who showed awesome presence of mind and directly hit the non strikers end’s wickets and Sehwag got his fat a$$ run out in the most embarrasing way.He scored 46.I thought India would lose after that but then Yuvraj Singh came on and the rest is history.He and Ganguly had an extremely important match winning partnership and for the first time,I saw Ganguly hitting 3 sixes in a match.Yuvraj hit the ball beautifully and got 95 runs of just 80 something balls.Farveez Maharoof must have had the most terrible over of his life when Yuvraj was on strike and India needed 19 runs to win.Yuvraj first hit 2 fours in a row,then a huge six of a full toss and finally 2 more fours to finish the match there and then.India won by 7 wickets and won the series 2-1.

This was indeed a confidence booster for the World Cup and Dravid and his men seem to be looking good.Australia on the other hand had their worst ever defeat at the hands of New Zealand.Australia scored a dismal 144 runs and New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming played an excellent knock and Australia lost by 10 wickets,their worst ever defeat.

I know you won’t be very happy with the result Sha,but for once you can celebrate India’s win with Ron and Viktor Krum/Hagrid.

That’s all.Adios.And yea,before I forget again,this is Ish

Ok,this is Freshy with the old header.If it looks fine to you,we’ll use this with a new header which I’ll make soon.

Otherwise,we’ll use Quentin because I don’t fancy Tarski a lot.

Update-Ok this is Quentin now,give me your final comments on this.

Frankly,after having used this theme for some months now,I think it pretty much sucks at a number of things.The major reason that makes me want to change it is the paragraph alignment problem.I don’t really fancy the sidebar being at the bottom either.

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I don’t know if we should change it or not because I just love the way the header looks with this one.Of course we can make a new header after all.So I’m asking you,my fellow anti-socials if we should change themes.

Part 1:Century
If you just manage to scroll down to the bottom of the page,you’ll notice that Anti-Socials has completed it’s 100 visits within a period of around a month and a half and this makes me pretty happy because it’s a good start.I’d like to thank all my co-writers namely Ash(Geek Wrestler),Sha,Cat(not posted yet) and Ruhi(not posted yet).I just hope we keep up the good work and can have more writers and readers in the future.Inshallah!-As Shah Rukh Khan would say.

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Part 2:Valentines Day
This day is very exciting for some,and very ordinary for the others.I as you can very easily guess am one of the people for which this day does not have any special significance mostly because they don’t go after girls giving them gifts and are too boring for that thing called “Love”.Cupid probably just doesn’t want to waste his love arrows and precious time on people like us.We don’t complaint much either.Anyway,for those who are actually in Love and for whom this day is important(read roadside romeo’s and flirts),I wish you a very happy Valentines day and hope you can have who ever you want as your valentine.Oh and I almost forgot,if you want to gift your valentine a CD of the perfect love songs,please contact me here and I’ll make you the CD’s for a minimal charge.Offer valid till my interest in doing it lasts.

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Part 3:Back to the topic
This is the main part of the post but is coming in the end because it is the most boring too.It’s been two weeks of our Dear Geek Wrestler telling us ways to do anti-social things with our mobile phones but this week I’m coming back to our theme i.e. reasons for us being anti-socials.

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This time I’ll talk about the internet,a big saviour for us anti-socials.Just yesterday I got a short text message(SMS) from my friend which said that “Ok,goodnight.And let me think of Jesleen now,Lol!” Jesleen is a chick who comes at our tuition classes and this friend of mine fancies her.He has talked to her over Orkut and Yahoo! Messenger but never in real life.If you look at them as such,they are strangers but in reality,they know each other very well and talk almost daily.Now,if the internet and messenger didn’t exist,he would have gone to her and talked in real life but he finds it convenient this way.This is a very common phenomenon now,I’ve had my classmates brag about friends they have made overseas thanks to messengers and chatrooms whether it be Yahoo,MSN,AOL or anything for that matter.My point is that if they can make friends like that,why can’t they do so in real life? They are the same person but in the real situation,they are too scared because the society doesn’t allow,secondly they think she might not like them and make fun and thirdly it’s her friends,she never goes anywhere alone,not even the toilet! So basically,they can’t muster up the courage to confront her and strike a conversation but over the internet,it’s pretty easy. But are conversations and friends made over the internet as real as actual friends are? I say yes,because if today,I’m asked to go meet all my online friends,I’d be really happy and would do everything for them,that I would for a real friend.So basically I don’t think there’s anything wrong with ‘online’ friends and if you have a lot of good ones,you should consider yourself lucky! Atleast,I do consider myself lucky to have people who just joined this blog as writers because I asked them to.They might not be like me but still they joined and are writing in here.Thanks guys,I’m thankful to God that you are my friends.

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Bonus Topic-India VS Sri Lanka cricket match
Yea,the match is going on and I saw the score sometime back on god damn Doordarshan which is showing the match with a seven minute lag.Where the heck is that channel called “Neo Sports” huh? Anyway,India one the toss and elected to bowl.We were doing pretty well till the 20 overs with Sreesanth doing a good job taking two wickets.I didn’t see the match after that and when I switched on the Television again to see the score,Sri Lanka had scored 250+ runs and India were batting at 143-3 with Sehwag and Ganguly on strike and 25 overs remaining.A guy called Malinga was bowling and man,his bowling action is terrible,it looks like he’s gonna hit you with stones! And his hair were pathetic too-they were golden on the sides and white and slightly long on the back.Imagine all that hair on a rather wheatish face and you’ll get what I mean. Basically,the match can still pretty much go anyone’s way.Let’s see who wins and let’s see if Sehwag manages to score any runs.It’s Ron Vs Hermione.

Update-Sri Lanka beats India by 5 runs. **** (yes,that was a bad word)

And I almost forgot again,It’s me-Ish

Top Ten Anti-Social uses for your phone -

1) Gaming - If you have a Sony Ericsson I’d highly recommend you get Worms Forts: Under Siege and Gauntlet [if not preloaded] for hours of fun even in the Amazons! Nokia folks have loads to choose but I’d heavily recommend the Prince of Persia games.

2) IMing - If you have GPRS access, IMing can be fun! Get a decent App from the many available for Instant Messenger heaven on your fingertips.

3) Photography - Bring that photographer/pornographer out and shoot. With most phones coming with decent camera’s its a good time to turn an amateur photographer.

4) Music - Just trash those iPods and get a Walkman / N series music phone. Ultimate music paradise. I’m currently using a W550i and it sure as hell beats the iPod in every way possible except for storage space!

6) Videos - With PMP’s the rage, this feature is now available with all bells and whistles on your phone. If you use a Nokia, get SmartMovie player to play videos. Sony folks are stuck with 3GPP but hey music beats video any time!

7) Blogging - Ever heard of MoBlogging? If not, just use a sledgehammer to make yourself go back to sleep. Nuff said/

MMS - Here’s a neat little trick, if you’re shopping in Singapore with your wife in Britain. If you don’t know which color/style shoes she prefers, just whip out your phone, grab a pic and MMS it to her for final approval. She’d be mighty pleased you got the right thing for once! [Although it removes the "Surprise" factor]

9) GPS - Get yourself a decent GPS navigation application to track the spot you are having some fantastic time with the local ladies on a virtual Globe. [Remind yourself to send that location to family before the local boys eat you out!]

10) Organise - Organise yourself with alarms and what not. For a neat little treat in this category check out my last post on Oprius.

Remember the Anti-Social Motto for using phones - “We shalt not call, even if death calls at the door!”

Geek Wrestler aka Ashish C.

Yeah,I hate rumours bigtime,especially when they’re about me and absolutely baseless.Now,most guys would like being rumors spread about them being linked to a girl but not when the girl isn’t exactly pretty and she’s memorized the whole god damn mathematics book by heart!

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It’s been happening for something around 2 months now but only in the last 10 days or so I’ve started paying attention to it.You know how we guys function,spreading rumors about this guy being after that girl and so on.It seems that they’ve taken on me now and have been spreading rumors that I’m after this girl from my class and that I’m mad after her.I’ve confronted them a number of times but it doesn’t work.As far as I know,this rumor was started by my best friend just because I hadn’t given him a CD or something and I’ve also heard that he keeps saying shit to the other guys when I’m absent.People are generally of the opinion that boys don’t gossip but well,they do and a lot at that.So gradually the rumor spread and now if I say anything to anyone,I get the same line thrown back at me..”How’s blah? Have you made out with her?” and all sorts of bullcrap.It gets aggravated because I don’t have any girlfriend and am rather shy and don’t say all sorts of shit when they trouble me.Just yesterday,this huge guy who was fooled into having a text-message based affair with a guy posing as a girl said the same crap to me when I talked a little rudely to him.I added fuel to these rumors too somehow because I ended up at the same math coaching as this girl does and they’ve never stopped saying shit after that.I think she knows it too because rumors travel pretty fast in our class and sometimes even to the other classes.I’ve had people from other sections turn up and ask me,”Dude are you really after her? She’s not even good-looking and way too studious.” The worst part is that her dad is a teacher in the school and if he comes to know of any of this shit,I’ll be expelled from the school for doing absolutely nothing!

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Now,I’m just sitting and hoping that these rumors will subside if I don’t pay attention.I’ve stopped going to that math coaching even.I’m just hoping they’ll find some better topic to gossip and rumor about.

The End.

(The source of all this shit is…ISH)