This is the first part of three movie reviews I am going to put up and they concern 3 absolute classics

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
*ing Peter o'Toole, Alec Guinness, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn
Director : David Lean

I had heard of this movie for a long time and even asked my dad on a couple of occasions if he had seen it. But he had said it was a boring movie and he did not like it so much. But the movie buff that I am, I did not take his word and luckily spotted a discounted DVD of this film at Best Buy.

What I saw was an absolute spectacle. This movie, directed by that great British director, David Lean is breathtaking in scale and scope ranging from its wide angle cinematography to its enchanting background music. Technically, the film is just plain fantastic for 1962. Coming to the story, it talks about the life of Lt. T.E. Lawrence a real-life lieutenant assigned to Arabia to assist a Prince and evaluate the Arab’s chances to revolt against the Turks. But instead of assessing, he takes matters into his own hands, and organizes an Arab army to fight against their oppressors. Slowly he unites all warring factions and illiterate Arab tribes into one potent fighting force. It talks about his conflicted loyalties between his motherland and being the leader of the Arabs.

In short the movie is an autobiographical account from T.E Lawrence’s writings. It runs over 3 hours and as with most autobiographical movies, things move slow, certain scenes play on the viewer’s patience and make the proceedings boring. But there is enough brilliance in the scenes to not let take your eyes off from it. Peter O’Toole in his first major role does an okayish job. I wished they had selected a much more powerful actor but O’Toole it seems, looked remarkably similar to the real Lawrence. Supporting cast includes Alec Guinness, Omar Sharif and Anthony Quinn out of which Quinn is just amazing as Auda Abu Tayi, the leader of the tribe.

The mesmerizing locales capturing the harsh landscape of the Middle East, the stupendous music, the fantastic script are all reason enough to watch this classic. But top of all is the character study of an enigmatic personality whose only message was that with unity even the stiffest challenges can be overcome.

‘Por qué estás tan enojado? Por qué estás de mal humor?’ asks Jose a man who runs a pizza shop on 45th Street NY. His question is addressed to a man with an apron and holding a mop ‘Qué decir? Se trata de la recession.’ The bespectacled man replies with an air of resignation   

Last week we had a meeting about plant updates about our largest plant at Welcome, NC. It included talking about all those terms we had heard in school days, quality control, six sigma etc. Then the boss moved on to machines speaking about the latest ones they plan to acquire or had already done so. Once again we went through the usual but one particular one caught my attention, which uptil then, had been unblinkingly focused on the large tray of donuts, bagels and muffins that the sweet cafeteria lady had wheeled in.

My boss was worried about increasing capacity and efficiency on the floor, I was more concerned about my colleagues decreasing capacity on the tray. That’s when he mentioned robotic welder. Now, anyone who has done engineering school in the disciplines of metallurgy and similar fields, would know how difficult it is to get a tidy weld the first time. I had tried my hand at both welding and soldering electronic components to printed circuit boards. The end result looked like somebody had thrusted a spanner in MF Hussain’s hand and had told him to fix his car assuming it was Madhuri Dixit. Needless to say the circuit board had fat blobs of metal all over the place. The lab technician ran after me with his high voltage stun gun(wonder why he keeps that) threatening to solder me to the wall to which I replied that I had a high melting temperature so was not good soldering material.

What I am getting at, can you imagine the amount of precision these monstrous things called robotic welders would require. I would go wow, just look at how far technology has reached. We can be assured of more consistent welds, higher speeds and productivity and obviously that leads to lower costs. But then what about “us”? Sure you need a CNC operator but…..

‘One robotic welder will replace four welders’ the Boss said, even as from the corner of my eye I saw Mr. Kenny replacing the pastry on the tray with an empty space. Are we really making ourselves redundant that one morning we wake up and see that there is no reason for us to get out of bed except to grab food ? Hmmm…

I just moved into my new place last night and by the time all things were done it was past 11 p.m. Suddenly I realized I did not have any milk, bread and my bag of potato chips. Yes, this my diet, just underlines the horrors of living alone. (Hint: Women, I am single and almost entirely eligible). All stores are closed obviously. But I realize there is a 24 hr Pathmark nearby. So I hop into my car and drive straight to it. After doing my shopping, I arrive at the checkout and what do I see, all counters have been abandoned. I get a little scare thinking even the doors might be locked and I have to spend the night in the supermarket but then it is open 24 hrs isn't it?.

Then an attendant comes out of nowhere to my rescue and says "Sir, you will have to use the self checkout scanner"
'But, I haven't used one before," I say looking at the short man with distrust.
'It is easy, just follow the instructions'

So I go and as soon as I am within 2 feet of it, a sprightly voice surprises me definitely not one you expect to hear at almost midnight.
'Welcome, to the Pathmark self checkout.' the voice from the machine says. From the sound of it, I think it belongs to a young lady, a beautiful one at that(Hint: the sort of woman I am looking for) ). 'Place item with bar code on scanner' the voice continues
I did what she or rather "it" told me to do and whoa one by one everything was scanned. 'That was quick' I thought. I was half hoping to have a bar code inscribed on me so that even I would be priced which would be pretty cheap going by the rate at which I am going in the marriage market. (Hint: Yes, I am sounding desperate for a wife I know).

Oh yeah so where was I , yes self checkout is pretty neat. I will try that again next time. Oh the wonders of automation. I wish some automated machine would also choose my spouse for me according to set criteria. Do I need a self-checkout then?(Hint: how many hints you need you dumb females?)

27th March 1994, Eden Park Auckland, New Zealand vs India. NZ wins the toss and decide to bat. With some brilliant team bowling effort, New Zealand get bundled out for a paltry 142. In the absence of Navjot Sidhu, captain Azhar decides to send a 20 year old boy to open. I get a shock suddenly, not from seeing the dimunitive batsman but from my elder sister who starts screaming madly
'Its him, its him,' she yells jumping up and down in front of the TV.
'So?' I said. 'He has never opened, wonder what he'll do now'
'Just shut up okay. he is the best.' my sister said who has as much idea about cricket as my mother has about computers. Both just stare emptily at the screen and get excited by any sort of movement on it.
So I did just that, started to watch the match in silence and expected the boy-man to get out anytime to the likes of Danny Morrison and Chris Pringle, probably bounced out or to some swinging delivery since he was not a natural opener. I was always repelled by the fact that why is this young fella being given so much attention, labelled "wonder boy", touted to be a legend even before he has earned his stripes to become a good batsman. Admitedly I had not seen too much cricket myself to be convinced of the little man's ability so I had my doubts.

82 runs and 49 balls later, all those doubts were not only laid to rest but were ground to dust as the legend they called Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar decimated the kiwi bowlers as if they were chickens in a butchery with shots so breathtaking that only a genius could have executed them. And mind you this was before the Jayasuriya days. It was an audacious assault from this rough untested diamond. I was a convert and have followed almost each and every innings of his till date. (My sister did lose interest in the game and fell from grace and started worshipping SRK :))

All that and more came flooding back yesterday when the Little Master played one more knock of calculated and ruthless proportions to register a magnificent 163 at Christchurch almost 15 years to the day he had announced his arrival. If only for stomach cramps, he would have perhaps become the first man to make a double hundred in one dayers.

He was a wonder boy then but is the Master now. Hope he never retires. :)

I was listening to the FM and the presenter had invited Kapil Dev over for his comment on the Lahore attacks. And Kapil paaji was in ever so anti BCCI mode again. But his comment on the Lahore incident took the cake. This is what he had to say

'We have to find some solution to this situation and find the good things in Pakistan and uplift them for all to see'

For all the sympathy I have for Pakistani cricket but this was a joke. As if he was interested in the upliftment of the masses in the first place. Talk about vested interests. Apparently ICL has more viewers in Pak than India and perhaps that reminded Kapil Dev that uplifting bank balances would be a better idea. We'll see Paki cricket later (if and when that happens now)

Its barely been a week since the Mumbai police filed a chargesheet against Kasab and other perpetrators behind the November 26 attacks, the terrorists are at it again. This time they targeted my favorite game. It was past midnight here and I was watching Sehwag going hammer and tongs against the Kiwis, when the news filtered in that the Sri Lankan team had been attacked in Lahore. It was shocking and I did not feel like watching the game anymore. All those thoughts about sportsmen will not be attacked seemed hollow and baseless as the Indian government's claims on providing security to our major cities.

NDTV went as far to report that perhaps this attack was meant to be for the Indian team who were scheduled to tour but fortunately canceled it. This was frightening itself and I am just shuddering at the thought of what if the Indian players were on that bus. Just imagine a bruise to SRT(revered as God by certain people) would have perhaps brought out unequivocal cries of war with our neighbors.

Just wishing a speedy recovery to all Sri Lankan players and officials affected by this cowardly act . I leave you with this excellent article on rediff - http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2009/mar/03prem-panicker-sri-lanka-team-attacked-in-pakistan.htm

As I type this, I read that the IPL is in doubt as well. Damn!!