Macbeth - Roman Polanski (1971)

Roman Polanski is the guy behind 'The Pianist'. It is in many ways similar to 'The Pianist', or more correctly 'The Pianist' is in many ways similar to it. Both stories are essentially tragic. Dark, haunting, moving. The original script has been preserved, but it is suprisingly watchable.

All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!

Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
Not so happy, yet much happier.
Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.

For those who don't know the story, Macbeth and Banquo come across three witches while riding back after battle, who tell them a prophesy. What I find interesting is that destruction is guised in the veneer of success. Macbeth becomes the Thane of Cawdor soon after. In celebration, the King comes to Macbeth's castle.

Stars hide your fires,
Yet not light see my black and deep desires.

With these eerie, haunting lines Macbeth goes in to kill King Duncan. After killing the King, Macbeth develops an elaborate plot to shift the blame. This is soon followed by the famous scene where the blood refuses to wash of Macbeth's hands. Regrets creeps in.

If we shall fail,
We fail.
But screw your courage to the sticking place
And we shall not fail

Lady Macbeth, plays the devils advocate and prods him on, much against his will. She seems to have a much keener sense of strategy than Macbeth. She realizes that he does not have the ruthlessness needed to become King.

Things without remedy should be without regard
What is done is done.

Rationalizing his act. Macbeth comes off as a tool in Lady Macbeths hand. He repeatedly says Duncan is a good man, a man that doesn't deserve to be murdered. So, Lady Macbeth tries to get him off the path of remorse.

We have scorched the snake but not killed it

The latter part of the prophesy hits Macbeth, he will become King, but his children will not. Sometime I feel his desire to fight against the prophesy, makes it come true even more. When he decides to murder Banquo, little does he realize that it makes Banquo's son want revenge. This gets me thinking, when someone says ' You always get it right' or ' You are going to end up as nothing', are they actually stating facts, or do they end up becoming self-fulfilling statements and hence facts.

Life is but a walking shadow
Poor player struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more
It is a tale told by idiots
Full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing

Disillusionment after a delusional Lady Macbeth kills herself. It is weird that though Lady Macbeth is the proponent of most of the plot and comes off as lilly faced and stone-hearted, she is actually the one most affected. The movie becomes increasingly dark and macabre towards the end.

I begin to be a weary of the sun
And wish the state of the world
Were now undone

Duncan is dead. Banquo is dead. Lady Macbeth is dead. His friends have deserted him. He is all alone in his castle. Regret. But 'tis too late.

PS: I know I have missed out a lot of the plot - the moving woods, Macduff....In my defense, I initially just wanted to put up some quotes from Macbeth, and then ended up writing a small explanation for each, and then ended up tracing out the story. Watch the movie, it's well worth it. There is also an adaptation of 'The Merchant of Venice' that is out, with Al Pacino playing the role of Shylock. Has anyone seen it?

Ramani and his theory of money

Over the last couple of years income in India has skyrocketed. I remeber, when entering college, the highest paying job for a 20 something on the market was one of these FMCG companies, which paid about 4-5 lakhs. Even that was considered quite high, most managers would have been happy to make 10-15k a month. Today, the job market is flooded. So much money and jobs floating around with the the BPOs, IT companies, and big MNCs. Most of the employees in these companies are young, have little responsibilities and well willing to spend their money. So there have been all kinds of retail chains and stores that have cropped up over the last few years ! Economic growth.
Is it really? The numbers look great, but there are some interesting points. If, you look at the US, they speak of economic growth, and how per capita income has gone up over the last few years. Do you know that the country that this country also has the lowest per capita savings in world. Most of the popultation is highly indebted and survives on credit cards. Isn't this paradoxical? No it's not! One does not speak of per capita savings, because one cannot!
Lets have a kutti model economy. There are 10 people and 1000 rupees. One person cooks, the other cleans clothes, the other repairs machinery and so on. Each charges for his services. Lets assume, no one is willing to spend, and each would rather do all the work himself. So, each person keeps 100 rupees and there is no exchange of money. But, lets assume the start paying each other's for services, so there is a rotation of money. The more each produces and consumes, the more the rotation and more the per-capita-income, but lesser the saving!! The more money you have, the less money you actually have! Isn't it weird, you earn the most, when you are least willing to keep what you earn!
Another point I have to make, this so called purchasing power of the consumer. Today you earn 5 lakhs a year, when you would have earned 50k 10 years back. You can afford a car, TV and all the other amenities of modern life. Yes, you have greater purchasing power, but it's only for commodites with an 'unlimited' supply, i.e. can be produced. And most things that can be produced are relatively peripheral needs! Unlike what all the adverts tell you, life isn't really that better.
Lets go back to our old example, 1o men and 1000 rupees. Lets assume that one of them gets hold of a bar of chocolate. He wants to sell it and make a profit. He will sell it to the maximum bidder! It is relative. Thus, if everyone has a lot of money, it really doesn't matter. The one with the maximum money always gets the chocolate (assuming he is not allergic to it or something). Thus, the price of commodites naturally shifts up so it remains to be affordable only to a specific percentage of the population.
This basically means that, just because you earn 10 times as much as your father did, you are probably are going to be no better off when it comes to buying a house, eating at a restaurant or doing a lot of other things! The housing market has exploded, they say it is impossible to buy a house today. No, it isn't impossible to buy a house today, it has always been impossible to buy a house. Just because you earn more, as long as you earn less than someone else, that someone can afford it and not you!
What about the other intangible quantity whose supply is limited - respect, admiration, fame! The top 0.1% percent of the population is probably held in awe (or envy!) by the remaining 99.9%. Thus, if you want to be famous, it doesn't matter how good you are in absolute terms, but how you are relative to the population!
As Ayn Rand says, life is not designed to be fair! Actually, it is eminently fair, you get what you deserve, not what you need! What you deserve is relative to what everyone else deserves, and hence intrinsically competitive. No matter how much humanity progresses, certain things have been and will be accessible only to a specific percentage of the population. Natural selection you see!

Aha

Love is a weird phenomenon. High as a kite without the consumption of any narcotic substances. I feel it accomplishes an interesting biological phenomenon - almost unconditional attachment. I don't understand why this is necessary - anyone with a rudimentary understanding of business will tell you that underperforming assets should be either made profitable or sold off. Why does a woman need to support her son even if he was responsible for slitting the throats of assorted strangers? Before, you are visited by strange imaginings of me, let me get to the juice, or the rasam as the case is.
So there is this city...
Where the airport looks like a scene from a WWII movie.
Where the auto drivers rip you off.
Where the roads resemble disasters waiting to happen. No wait disasters that have already happened.
Where the coffee places don't have wireless internet. (Bah! What has the world come to I say!!)
etc. etc.
But, you just have to keep coming back for more. Like it is with Madras for me.

There are few things that beat cloudy weather with light rain, a hot cuppa of coffee and the Hindu. Actually, one of those few things is reading the matrimonial section. Here is one I came across:
"IYER Tanjore US, MS, H1B, California, Clean Habits seeks (select adjectives from Slim, Beautiful, Homely,..) Girl with GRE/TOEFL Scores above ..."
So, looks like the application process is going real professional. My BPD (Bussiness Plan of the Day) - How about coming with a (e)M(p)T(y) (MarriageabiliTy) test? This test will take into account all possible factors and develop normed scores on features such as beauty, intelligence, personality, and honesty. With this will follow standardization of the marriage industry. The goal of every self-righteous man, woman and child should be too maximize their (e)M(p)T(y) ness. While we are at it, I guess I should make clear my specific requirements:
1. A good understanding of stochastic differential equations and ITO integrals. Understanding of some of the standard models in the fixed income domain is preferable.
2. Should also know the fundamental approach to stock analysis.
This would help us come up with original trading strategies and increase leveraging of our joint positions in the financial industry. In the long term, there exist good market opportunities for larger ventures.

I've been Tagged

My second tag.

7 things that i plan to do and will do:
1.) volunteer for a year with an aid organization
2.) travel to Chile, Brazil, Egypt, Ethopia and Iran
3.) succeed at what i set out to do
4.) learn more about art,literature and music.
5.) be more sensitive/understanding to people and situations
6.) not sweat the small stuff. not let people/minor situations ruin my day.
7.) Oh well..you know what this is..:D..

7 things that i can do and like doing:
1.) math!
2.) be adventurous and resourceful!
3.) have intelligent discussions
4.) learn quickly and be good at any sport
5.) be good to ppl i like (hint: Micheal Corleone)
6.) write! be silly, whimsical and irreverant.
7.) do my work and have my fun (without one affecting the other!)

7 things i can't do:
1.) talk to/appear to like someone I don't like. be fake
2.) do something that doesn't interest me.
3.) speak geek. remember model numbers of gizmos and discuss their random features. if it works je suis happy.
4.) not lose something every 3 weeks
5.) dance/sing
6.) write neatly
7.) do nothing ( I don't understand why you will want to be on an island paradise, you will be bored in a week!)

7 words i use often:
1.) Well, the funda is....
2.) Otha....
3.) Basically....
4.) What?!..
5.) Seri seri..
6.) Nothing much..
7.) F*** ( and it's variants)

7 things i like to eat/drink
1.) Onion sambhar + Vendekka Curry
2.) Lasagna
3.) Shawerma/Falafel
4.) Onion rings
5.) Coffee
6.) Nice wine/beer
7.) Chinese food with chopsticks

7 people I am going to tag:
Due to the public outrage that has resulted from my blashphemy, I shall take this tag down with me. I think a lot of people are going to be very happy.