Blogpur: August 2006

Recursion

Thursday, August 24, 2006 by Blogpur

Saw this somewhere at my university. I thought it is quite brilliant!

To define recursion, we must first define recursion.

Back in the 1980's and previously India had grown up in the strict mould of the British stronghold. Hamilton Bridge was still Hamilton Bridge, Victoria Terminus was not Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Madras, Bombay, Calcutta, Quilon... You get the point. India has changed. India has embraced its own culture. Each state has decided to rename things to its respective language. India became more Indian as a result.

The overriding trend however has been this adoption of American culture, language and ethos. In rejecting western society in the form of England, Indians have embraced America completely. Some of this is indeed good, the rest is again degrading the culture and language. The English taught us the benefit of polished English, the Americans have taught us how to adulterise this language. "Realisation" has become "Realization", 28/2/2006 has become 2/28/2006. This was plainly evident in the recent Bombay train attacks which was instantly dubbed "7-11". What is this people? Why do we Indians need to affirm our own system through some foreign piece of crap? Why do we need to suck up to the Americans now?

The TV channel's in India are becoming so "wannabe" American, it's no longer the exception but the rule. Fashion is dictated by the Levi Jeans, even the use of "lakh" is slowly fading into obscurity. Why is it that every second movie that Bollywood pushes out have to be set in the USA? Is this some sort of effort to win over the Americans? Is it a realisation that our country is in the dumps? Is it some other psychokinetic related disease?

One could ask me, why are you concerned? I am concerned because firstly the culture is slowly being degraded in our cities and villages. Who practises Yoga in India? Very few. However, it is plainly obvious that the white's are taking our valuable knowledge and using it themselves, while Indians, especially the young crowd, find it neccesary to demean their own background. In today's India the young must wear Jeans, dress like they are western. Does one see people wearing salwars and sarees in the states? No. Of course, one could turn around and say to me that does one speak Hindi or Tamil or Kannada or Bengali in the US It's a case of using the west to get your job done, not for personal gratification and customer satisfaction.

If India becomes any more Americanised, no NOT Americanized, I see a case of personal identity loss. There could even be a "stolen generation" within India although there has been no ethnic cleansing. It's time. Time to revert. Time to stop dreaming things we are not. So let's all stop using Z the next time we write "organise". Next time you are going to put those pants on, consider the pyjama kurta. Next time you are about to about to say 7-11, think of the actual event, don't just refer to something so incredibly affecting with a reference to a date, and that too an Americanised reference to a date. It's just plain wrong.

India is going down the wrong path. The best India can be is Indian, not American or any other pseudoculturual crossover. India has a rich history and culture, let's not lose it to the west.

So with that, I wish you all a very happy Independence Day! Jai Hind!

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Batman Begins

Sunday, August 13, 2006 by Blogpur

Belated I know, Brilliant we all know. The Dark Knight is resurrected to a status he truly deserves. After the pathetic cinematic excursions in "Batman Forever" and "Batman and Robin" Christopher Nolan delivers the definitive Caped Crusader to the silver screen.

Going deep into the Batman ethos, Nolan chooses to explore the reasons Batman is why he is. What we receive is a stunning character sketch backed with extreme style from all concerned. None of this is campy, Nolan approaches the material with a deadly serious gravitas and restores Batman to the pantheon of great cinematic efforts. This is not only a great superhero film, not only a great summer action adventure film but also a stunning drama.

Christian Bale takes the role of both the tormented Bruce Wayne and Batman himself with utmost ease and displays a great attachment for bringing out the essence of one of the definitive superhero's of all time. Along with a splendid supporting cast which includes the likes of Michael Caine, Liam Neeson and Gary Oldman, Bale is able to play with the character but never taking him to the levels of camp. Injecting humour at the right moments and silence when required the actors make assured that this film has the right credentials when it comes to performance.

Nolan himself has had a wonderful time constructing Gotham city as almost a present Blade Runner-esque New York. The Dark Knight walks down the mean streets but in himself is never mean. Nolan's direction never wavers, with utmost dedication he seems to purposefully avoid each of the pratfalls of previous helmers and deliver a film that is both satisfying for its sheer entertainment value and mesmerising for its depiction of the protagonist. Nolan also averts heavy usage of CGI and instead brings out the best in live action sequences. The "tumbler" sequence for example was as inspired as it was stunning.

With Batman Begins, and more recently, Superman Returns the world's two most dignified and revered superheroes are back on firm cinematic ground. Judging from this effort, Batman has nowhere to go but up.

This is what we have all been waiting for, Batman is back.

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Ode to C

Wednesday, August 02, 2006 by Blogpur

May your signals all trap 
    May your references be bounded 
All memory aligned 
    Floats to ints rounded 

Remember ...

Non-zero is true
  ++ adds one
Arrays start with zero
  and, NULL is for none

For octal, use zero
  0x means hex
= will set
  == means test

use -> for a pointer
  a dot if its not
? : is confusing
  use them a lot

a.out is your program 
 there's no U in foobar 
and, char (*(*x())[])() is 
 a function returning a pointer 
 to an array of pointers to 
 functions returning char