The Fountainhead and other things

Cover of The Fountainhead

Finally have got hang of twitter (or so I think). Its nice for some content discovery, chila chalu flirting and knowing what is around. The Indian Political Scene is full of surprises. Just when I thought it cant get bad than this, they surprise me and come up with something more mind-numbing. Self-evaluation and self-respect seems to be words alien to Indian-political personnel. 

As, such, I avoid commenting on things/people untill I feel I have reliable information to make a decision. As such, I hear people scream about things after having few facts, and feel a bit amused. For me, it has been always diffficult to criticize anyone until there is no possibility to avoid it. I mostly try to be happy with/around things/people I like. So, why should be this space any different. Let me talk about something which I liked a lot.

The book (yeah, m not called bookbluff for nothing) is called 'The Fountainhead' and its written by Ayn Rand. Was introduced to it during the last year of under-graduation exam. We had a viva during one of the practical exams. Me and my college crush, were having viva together. The professor who was taking the viva and us 3 shared common passion for reading. The questions during viva drifted from science to literature. One of the questions that our Prof. Dr. Vyas asked us was have we read The Fountainhead. I said no. My crush S said yes ( I still think that is one of the reason she got more mark than me and topped the university). We discussed the book for quite a bit of time. This lead me to buy one and read it. 

The book was amazing. Didn't agree to entire Philosophy of Ayn Rand, but liked parts of it. It describes selfishness as a virtue. The thing I liked most about the book was the character of Howard Roark, the Hero. He was sure of what he wanted to do since childhood Do what you like. Be a master of what you do. Do things you own way. Don't give a damm about what people/world say. (come to think of, I am not the perfect disciple, at 27  yrs and some months, still not sure what I want to do with life). 

The book is sort of a magnifying glass. There are some simple things which are not acceptable in society or considered anti-human. One such is selfishness. What book does is tries to take the things to extreme and shows a society/characters which are self-less and poses it against the ones with selfish and brilliant. 

There is one particular dialogue which I still remember after 4 years. Howard is asked by the anti-hero (forgot his name), what he (Howard) thinks about him. Howard says, but I don't think about you. 

The book was awesome. Its quite a long book, and by the time I completed it, I was under its spell. Tried some of the things mentioned in the book, and was immediately hated by people around me. It was then I realized that how difficult it is to be a minority. One has to drop one's intelligence to the level of majority or become Howard Roark. 

Dr. Strangelove

Dr. Strangelove

Based on a book, red aleart, the movie is one of the best that I have watched. Have hearad a lot about Stanley Kubrick, but this is the first time that I have watched one of this movie. To be frank, when I read about the movie, was not much impressed due to it's 'strange' title: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

This is one of the 'dark comedies' which I watched during the dark one and half month. The entire film is full of sarcasm, but one of the dialogue, which stood out for me most was when USpresident says, 'gentlemen you can't fight in here, this is the war room'. The direction is awesome. But most desirably, the script treatment is one of the best. One of the most memorable scence for me was when the pilot, Mr. Kong, dropping hydrogen bomb on Russia is unable to open the back of plane for dropping the bomb due to system failure. He manually does it. And while the bomb is dropped, he is sticking on to it, as it is being dropped, his face joyus with euphoria. He is happy that he is sacrificing his life for the country. Only if he knew the full context, he would not have been happy. Made me think, only if fools were not ignorant of their foolishness, many disasters would have been avoided. But again, if fools were not ignorant of their foolishness, may be they would not have been fools (except atleast for Duryodhan, whose one quote I seem to have read somewhere, which meant, 'its not that I am not aware that I am not doing the right things, its just that it is not able to do the right thing' or something to that effect).

After watching movie, when I read that Peter Sellers played three roles in the movie, I was really surprised. 

One more quote from the movie:  Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap! 

Happy birthday Baxibabu..

I think Mr. HS is responsible for me remembering birthdays of all my friends and fav persons. Today is the bday of Chandrakant Baxi, one of my favorite columnist (not so much of his books though) I like his blunt style of writing and his control of language. He is widely read and like the quotations that he used to put at the end of his articles. Sad that he is no more.

To kill a mocking bird...

Just read on yahoo home page that today is the golden jubilee of the publication of one of my favourite book, To kill a mocking bird, by Harper Lee.

It is set during the civil rights movement in America. The 'Hero' of the book is a lawyer of a small town, Mr. Atticus Finch. Who is a single parent of two children,  Scout and Jem. The story is told by the little girl, Scout.  Atticus is a man of principle and is appointed to defend a black man, who is charged with the molesting of a white woman. Later the book was made in to a movie by the same name, which won Gregory Peck (the original Dev Anand, and one of my fav actors) the Oscar for best actor in lead character (its one of the rare books, whose movie adaptation was equally good, but again, I haven't seen many such movies).

What I liked most about the book was the character of Atticus (I hope to be like him some day!!!). In the entire book, Atticus rarely speaks with anger and never hits anyone. He does not do any stuff which a hero is used to do. But still, his character grows on you, primarily with his conduct. I also liked how the innocent children show maturity as the book progresses. What was also touching to me was how Jem and Scout have their respect for Atticus grow during sort period of time (isnt to be respected and loved by innocence the greatest stamp of success ?) is . It was while reading this book that I realized that in the end, what matters is how the people whom you work with and your family see you.

I remember how much pain I took to find this book. As such, getting a English book was difficult in Gujarat. My college library had only two stacks of english novels, and most of them were in multiple copies, so effectively not many titles. Hence I tried to read this book on computer, which I hated and gave up. I finally found the book in Delhi, when we were on college tour. On seeing this book I was so excited that my friend K. thought I was either too much drunk or gone insane. The bad luck dosent end here. I was reading book while coming back to Gujarat. Even thought we were travelling by college bus, it was similar to state transport vehicle. I had put the book on the upper shelf while talking with friends and someone was trying to see it and it slips through the upper shelf and fell out of window. So, I was left without reading the ending for a long long time. Finally I found a copy of the book in ahemdabad crossword and was able to read it completely. But man, it was worth the wait.

If you are planning to read the book, don't read this paragraph. After reading the book I felt what if Atticus had won the case. Would book have been such a huge success then. Some how i have a feeling that people even though remember the great successes, the great failures are also quite remembered and treasured by them, albeit more dearly.