Seven Years in Tibet-Synopsis

Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian climber, heads out from his home land, leaving an 'expecting' wife, to hoist the national flag on the peak of Nanga Parbat and thanks to Adolf Hitler returns only after 12 years, that too without conquering the feat. But he brings back home something more valuable and cherishable.

When I started this movie first thing I did was scold my friend to bring such a boring and slow movie but then I realised this was brought by me from somewhere I dont remember. Then I started scolding the 'unknown' source. But I continued only to watch Danny Denzongpa, an Indian Actor, to work along with Brad Pitt. As the movie continued I was feeling what Harrer would have felt. Until half of the movie I didnot know that this was a true story.

He was captured before he could climb the whole of the Nanga Parbat as the Second World War had started and the then British Government of India took the climbers as prisoners of war for steping into their soil. He had spent two years in a Dehradun jail where he received divorce notice from his wife through post. The scene where he jumps on barbed wire to break it and burst out his sadness is one of the great scenes in the movie. With the help of a fellow climber, Peter Aufschnaiter, who later on becomes his good friend, he escapes the prison. Both of them land into Tibet and enters the mysterious city of Lhasa where still a child, the 14th Dalai Lama was given the knowledge of religion. Dalai Lama used to watch the people through a telescope and this is where he sees the only two foreigners ever to put foot in the forbidden city. He liked the 'yellow' hair of Harrer observed him everyday. Meanwhile Harrer and Peter meet the only cloth designer and tailor in the city and both fall in love with her. But Pema falls for Peter and Harrer is alone again. So he writes to his son. And then the War ends and all seems to be going good for Harrer as he prepares to travel back home. But one night he recieves a letter saying, "You are not my father, so stop writing letters to me." Everything ends again. The next morning he receives another letter from a kid, the Dalai Lama, showing his interests to meet Harrer.

Harrer meets the Dalai Lama and becomes his tutor, teaching him almost anything. And his seven years of stay in tibet finds him a very good friend in the Dalai Lama. He returns back to Austria to meet his son, just before the Communist Chinese capture of tibet and the Dalai Lama becoming the leader of the government-in-exile of Tibet. Tibet still remains under China and the Dalai Lama lives in India still fighting for the liberation of Tibet.

Harrer went on to conquer many mountains after that along with his son and died in 2006 at the age of 93.

This is a movie made in great detail and brings out very strong human emotions to life.

You hate when the chinese commander makes the statement, "Religion is poison."
You get inspired when the Dalai Lama preaches, "If some problem can be solved, its unnecessary to worry about it and if some problem cannot be solved then it is useless to worry about it."

Later on I went to Wiki pages to study about Tibet and its history and got to know about the Dalai Lamas (Gurus) and that every Dalai Lama is a reincarnation of his predecessor. Although I dont believe in reincarnation, yet it is fascinating to study about it.

It is unfortunate that this world makes the most peace loving people, who cares so as not to hurt even an earthworm, enter into war and struggle.

With a hope that Tibet will be liberated soon.

Fantastic Contraption

It is 3:53 AM in the morning and I am starting to write this blog with a blank mind.

My friend is sound sleep. He is lying on his bed in a "Hands-up" position as if his delivery manager has put a gun on his head and with his mouth open. Aghhh. Guess his manager forgot to tape his mouth.

I have just completed two of my work from my checklist and still have five left. Dont mistake me to be a lazy guy or someone who cannot finish his work on time, its just I work at night.

Its 4.03 Am now.

After scratching my head for three minutes I thought why not inform you people of good, brainy, online physics game called Fantastic Contraption. For those who know it already, can skim/skip this post.

The basic goal of this game is to move an object (in pink, can be of any size or shape) from a blue area to a pink area using wheels and rods. Like moving a ball in a bucket.

You have a clockwise yellow wheels, Anti-clockwise purple wheels and stationary, unpowered blue wheel. These move when connected by a rod to its center only the blue wheel needs a push or a pull from any source.

There are two types of rod for connecting the wheels. One Blue Water Rod and Other Solid Wood Rods. Water rods have the ability to pass thru other rods and doesnot have the abitlity to stop or hold the target object. Solid Rods cannot pass thru any other object.

There are 21 Freeware levels in the game that can be played online. Obviously the difficulty of the levels increase by each level. Full version of the game can be bought for $10 and it has option of creating our own custom made levels.

After you complete each level you get a chance to see the contraptions made by other users and believe me they are very nice and always better than ours. :)

Play this game to get a hang of it and you will not leave it until you complete all the 21 levels.

I have played it for a whole day in office without doing work. (Shhhh....)

My favourite levels are Tube and Unpossible.

I faced difficulty in Four Walls and Awash. (My friend Vamshi helped me complete this).

So here is the link.. http://fantasticcontraption.com/

Its 4:29 AM now and it started raining. I will go to sleep now, have to meet a guy at 8 45 in the morning.

Enjoy!!!

All About Hussain: Two Knights and A Queen

Two Knights and A Queen

The school was done for the day and all students left except a few who stayed back for “extra hour” of study. Our Head Mistress took an extra effort to head these few students who took an extra effort to study and learn. My sister and Kiran’s sister were in the same class and who were taking this tuitions. Kiran and I too stayed with them. That day as soon as the tuition started and Madam entered the class both of us stood and said, “Madam, we don’t have any homework today.”

“Oh, ok. Not even to study anything?”

“Anh, we have a hindi poem to read,” said Kiran.

“Ok, study then, and then recite it out to me, Aloud! Without seeing!”

We wanted to go out and play but the poem was not too hard to learn it by heart. We quickly recited the poem to her and hesitatingly asked her, “Madam, Can we go out and play?”

She smiled and said, “Ok, But don’t go outside the school.”

We ran out of the class as two happy souls, who had nothing to worry about except the fact that the tuition was only for an hour and after that we cannot play. We first had a race to reach the sports room first and when we reached there we really laughed out loud without worrying about who had won the race. We ran back again, but as we reached to the door of the class Madam was in, we suddenly started walking for the fear that Madam would call us back again. As we moved ahead and she couldn’t see us, we started running again. We ran back.

Just then I saw “Choti Madam” (Younger Madam) coming from opposite direction. She was the daughter to our Principal and we seldom see her in our school. I asked Kiran to stop and said, “Kiran, Choti Madam is coming. What to do? We would have to wish her!!”

“What to do?” asked Kiran. We both were afraid to even wish her. I said, “Idea! When she comes we will start tying our shoe lace and pretend we didn’t see her.”

It was a small corridor where she came walking and as soon as she entered the corridor we both sat down in opposite directions of the corridor facing each other, bend our heads and opened our shoe lace and started tying them. We were tying it slowly as she walked between the two of us. When I saw her walk completely past us I raised my head and saw Kiran who was smiling. We both saw her enter the classroom to meet our Madam. We quickly ran into other room and started giggling. We then started to search other classrooms if any student has forgotten anything.

Another fifteen minutes of our search operation got us an eraser which Kiran allowed me to keep on a condition that we both will use it equally. Everything was going fine until we saw Choti Madam coming back from the room. What were we supposed to do this time to avoid wishing her? We quickly saw each other’s face and unanimously came to a conclusion without talking to each other.

We suddenly sat down in opposite direction facing each other to tie the lace of the other shoe.

I am alone

I am alone,
In this dark small cabin,
Weeping and waiting,
For my family outside,
To walk away from me.
I am not,
They should worry about,
But themselves.
They are not,
I should worry about,
But myself.
They still can,
Choose and act,
I only can,
Stay still.
They will come back,
To my place,
Through different paths,
They will move,
From my place,
To different paths,
So will I.
All will meet,
Yet Everybody,
Will be Alone.