One of life's unrequited questions

Having seen the latest episode of House M.D, it brought up a very curious question. The existence of God. It is a topic of vast ideologies and oft misplaced faith. It is a question, however, that has survived the vagaries of the many centuries and remains, to this date, unanswered. And perhaps, for a long time to come, will remain so. There are many different viewpoints and many varied beliefs. But, in my opinion, that is what it is - belief.

Yes, nobody can prove that God exists. Conversely, nobody can prove that He doesn't either. There are many documentaries that discuss religion and how so many religions have so much in common etc. Personally, I do not believe in religion, but I do believe that there is a higher power, some higher authority. It is inexplicable scientifically. But that is where a little bit of faith, or belief, plays a big role.

A very common argument with most people on this question is that if God does exist, and if he is this all-powerful, all-knowing being, why do people get sick or die? Why do bad things happen in this world? In my opinion, this "higher power" is not another being. It is just a way of instilling self-belief in people and giving them the faith that is necessary to get themselves out of difficult situations. We all feel that much safer and secure if we believe that there is someone taking care of us and keeping an eye over us.

It gives us a sense of self-confidence, especially in tumultuous times, to make it through the darker parts of our life. That is precisely why the whole concept of God has always been about belief and faith. It is belief and faith in yourself, not some other being. This is just my opinion, and I may be wrong, but, as this post has been about, I believe this.

Well, on another note, exam week has started and more or less, come to an end. With four done and just one more to go, this marks the ending of yet another semester. Time really does fly when you least want it to. I can almost remember every detail of New Year's day of 2010 (including losing my phone!) and it's nearly time for 2011 already! But well, thats how life rumbles on and like most others, I'm just hoping to get through this semester.

These final year exams have been a different experience altogether. With none of the tension derived from lofty expectations, these exams didn't even feel like a usual exam week. Yes, there were the same old night-outs. And there was a certain amount of studying done. But the difference was, the previous years we studied to get grades. If we wanted an 8, we studied for a 9 and so on. This time was different. This time, it was all about getting through. Anyway, like all other final years, the last but one is done and the final semester is here and surely, we're going to make it one to remember.

P.S - Please excuse the dryness of this post. There has been a caffeinical disaster in college and that has left me with no coffee in over two days!

Facebook me?

The Social Network. I was finally able to catch the movie this evening after hearing a lot about it. Luckily, it lived up to every word said about the movie. A superb movie in all departments - short, gripping, intense and neatly done. But above all, it is an extremely inspiring movie. The first idea that comes across one's head as the title credits roll is - so, how am I going to make my ₨45.23 ($1) billion?

The movie is based on the true story of the origins of the popular networking site, facebook.com. From a website started on the computer of a 19 year old Harvard undergraduate student, it now garners more hits in a day than even Google. With over 500 million users and nearly a billion dollars in revenue, it is easily one of the biggest success stories of the new millenium. And at just 24, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder, became the youngest billionaire ever.

Overwhelming facts, the above tend to be. But it also shows you that you don't necessarily need to have a crazily innovative, novel idea to start a company. All you need is for your product to sell, and sell well. When Facebook shot to fame, there was already Orkut, MySpace and Friendster doing reasonably well. Facebook wasn't exactly a novel idea but what they did, they did well. They were clean, relatively ad-free and catered to the adolescent population.

Coming back to the movie, the screenplay was absolutely outstanding. Aaron Sorkins has done an outstanding job when it comes to writing the screenplay for the movie. It keeps you gripped throughout and there is not a point in the movie when your attention isn't captured in its entirety. The dialogues are simply outstanding. One that still remains in memory, not only for its delivery, but for its sheer simplicity - "The internet isn't written in pencil, Mark. It's written in ink."

All in all, a very neatly done movie. An evening well spent, definitely. And even while walking out the theatre, the characters were deeply etched in my mind. And the one question that still remains in my mind - how am I going to make my ₨2,939.93 ($65) million. Now, I am going to get to work to answer that question!

The Man from Earth

After hearing rave reviews, I finally got down to watching 'The Man from Earth' today. Its a very interesting movie with a novel concept. What if, hypothetically, there was a man who survived the Stone ages, the Medieval ages and continues to live in the Modern age. This brings up a plethora of possibilities. Would he still be a caveman? Would he be able to communicate with anyone else in any humanly understandable way? Such are the questions brought up by the movie. Answers too, albeit hypothetical ones they may be.

To put it briefly, the movie is about a man who is actually 14,000 years old and may actually be a cro-magnon. It is an extremely low budget movie. It required only ₨8,804,316.96 ($200,000) to produce. The screenplay was written by Jerome Bixby on his deathbed. It is pretty riveting work for a man about to die. For any man, in fact. The underlying notion through the movie is that even though the protagonist's story is so incredulous, there is absolutely no way to either prove he's right or prove he's wrong. This just arouses added interest, not only in the other characters of the movie, but in all the viewers to know more about John Oldman.

Yes, thats right. The 14,000 year old protagonist is called John 'Oldman'. A very creative pun, indeed. This movie makes you think. What if you could live so long? Would you want that in the first place? Would you want to remain alive while those around you continue to die? Or can you detach yourself enough to enjoy living through all the phases of our planet? These are difficult questions to answer, but definitely worth many a conversation! All in all, a very enamouring and captivating movie. A must-watch for any movie buff and a really good evening for all others. My rating - 85/100.