Ra.One Review – makes me want a “Raw” One

As most of you know, I usually don’t watch Hindi movies in the theaters. And even more, I had made it a point not to watch a Shah Rukh Khan movie. But with Ra.One, I decided to make an exception, for the only reason that Thalaivar Rajnikanth appears in it for one scene. I will get to that scene somewhere later in the review.

In my humble opinion, Ra.One is 

What happens when candle light passes through a glass of water?

A smiley is formed on the table!



This was observed during the great dinner I had at Residency Towers' Crown Restaurant.

Random Observation # 044

As mentioned earlier, I am suffering from a severe cold this week. What I observed now is that the growth of my finger nails has been noticeably slower than usual. I usually have to cut them every 4-5 days, but this whole week I didn't really feel the need to cut them. In fact, I cut them this morning (after more than a week) only out of habit rather than a need.

So, the scientific portion of my brain tells me that there is a direct correlation between a nasal cold and nail growth.

Indian Moon Mission - Chandrayaan

Lost in the midst of all the hoopla over the Economic Meltdown, “Hindu Terrorism”, Obama’s victory, Somali pirates, retirement of Indian Cricketers, Sri Lankan Tamil issue and my dear friend Nilu’s incessant courtship of his fiancee before his wedding on 20th November, is one of India’s greatest achievements in the realm of science – The Moon Mission or Chandrayaan.

I don’t want to go into the delightful statistics surrounding the success of this mission from India; one can find all that here. There was only one question lingering in my mind – WHY?

For a nation with a significant percentage of people living below the poverty line, I was really wondering about the need to spend more than Rs.375 Crore to launch a satellite to the moon. An interesting answer to that question is here.

As a resident of Chennai I fully understand how Electricity starved we are and clearly appreciate the fact that if Chennai were to get steady electricity, we need help from outside the earth. But what about the millions of people in India who are literally starved? There are so many who don’t even have access to potable drinking water? What about the countless farmers committing suicide across the country?

I feel that the funds used for the Moon Mission could have been used to fuel the next Green Revolution. It could have been used to develop indigenous Reverse Osmosis Plants to solve the water problem in many coastal cities. It can be used to build reservoir systems to regulate the availability of water and even generate power from these reservoirs. Or the funds could even be used towards mass production of medicines.

Maybe I don’t fully understand the significance of this scientific achievement. Pretty much like how I don’t really appreciate the Particle Collider experiment too.

Having said all that, I must still acknowledge the folks at ISRO (not that they are waiting for my approval) who have definitely done something that they can be proud of. And as all of them talked about, the day when they send an Indian to the moon is not really very far away.

Talking of the man on the moon, how can I not refresh the memory of my dear readers with this mega மொக்கை:

கே: சாதாரண மனிதனுக்கும் Neil Armstrong-க்கும் என்ன வித்யாசம்?
ப: சாதாரண மனிதன் ஒண்ணுக்கும் ரெண்டுக்கும் தான் போவான், ஆனா Neil Armstrong மூணுக்கே போயிருக்கான்!!!

Random Observation # 040

Everyone is talking about an increase in cases of over-weight or obese people in the human race.
Everyone is also talking about an increase in Global warming.

Going with basic laws of Physics we all know that cold contracts and heat expands.

Increased Global Warming only means that the heat has increased. Which means things start expanding. That's probably why obesity is also on the increase in the human race.

Hair and temperature

By now, you all know how the scientist in me lies dormant and itches to reach out to the common folk to enlighten their normal living.

So here's my next discovery.

I find that many friends of mine are actually thick skinned. What I mean to say is that, they cant stand the normal weather of cities like Chennai and feel more comfortable in the cooler climes of say a hill station.

Whenever we travel in the same car, they want the blower at near max speed, whereas I want it at near lowest speed. I invariably tend to push the vents towards them in such cases.

From what they tell me, I kinda get the impression that they have the A/C running like for nearly 11 months a year. The balance one month is probably the equivalent of the power cuts that happen.

Even at work, they complain about the lack of A/C whilst I think that its just about right. And I used to have a roomie who used to set the temperature to like 55 or 60 F and I would be freezing in some 30 minutes.

So, I finally started to analyse why some people have such a need for cooler temperatures when I don't.

My stand is simple. I live in a part of the world where it is perpetually hot. And not to forget, quite sultry too. And this is not like a recent phenomenon that can be attributed to Global Warming.

Next, my parents too have lived here for many many years. So have their parents and their parents and so on. So, basically, the weather gene in my system, is tuned more for warmer climates than colder ones.

But then, wont that be true for my other friends as well? It actually is.

So, whats the differentiator? What is it that those guys have that I don't? Think... think.... Yes, that's it. Its HAIR. And evolution of course.

I want you to refresh your memory and bring back all those pictures/drawings of the homo sapiens or the neanderthals etc. What is it that you can distinctly recollect. All of them had lots and lots of body hair.

You might attribute it to the lack of Gillette or BIC in those days, but even after human beings started making tools, invented the wheel etc., they never let go of their body hair.

Over the ages however, as man started evolving, he displayed one vital difference compared to his ancestors. He started losing hair.

So, not having much body hair is a sure sign of evolution. I am not a very hairy person. In fact, till date, my facial hair really doesn't go smoothly and there is still some barren real estate on my cheek.

If I take the sample of people I know, who prefer colder temperatures, they are relatively hair-ier than me.

My inference then is simple: The more hair a person has, more he can withstand colder climates and probably prefers it. Compare the Polar bear versus the Grizzly bear versus the normal bear. Definitely the Polar bear has more fur than a Grizzly which in turn has more fur than the "karadi".

To me, this in turn substantiates Darwin's theory of evolution - Survival of the fittest. I cannot live in a hot environment and have so much hair. Its counter-productive.

In fact, my adaptation is better than all the others to my environment. I am not carrying over any useless gene code from my fore-fore-fore-fathers till date.

And on a lighter note, whenever we talk of aliens, the picture that is presented is predominantly that of a specimen without hair. And we all think that aliens are more evolved than us and have far more intelligence.

In conclusion, people have this preference for colder or warmer temperatures purely based on how hairy they are. And in turn, the more body hair a person has, it only means a slower evolution and adaptation!!!

You think I should patent this finding of mine?

Scientific temperament

You may not believe it, but there is a scientist sleeping inside me. Every so often, he wakes up and makes his presence felt. He then resumes his duties.

I have discussed some of these to my car pool gang and instantly got the tag of Harry Potter (equating my scientific theories to the yarns spun by Rowling).

So, I will start off with a couple of the pearls of wisdom that I have brought forth and have been ridiculed at by the people who don't know anything!!!

1. Whenever you get a small bruise on your body and a little blood oozes (or drains depending on the accident) out, you will see that after a day or so, that area has distinct brown colored covering. If you rub those, they disintegrate and fall down.
My theory is that this brown colored thingy is actually rust. Why?
Blood has iron. Now due to the injury, blood is exposed to air. What happens when iron gets exposed to air - rust gets formed.
Same thing happens with humans too.

2. Especially during summer time, you might find some early morning clouds on the eastern horizon. You might start thinking that it would rain. But alas, within a short time from sunrise, all the clouds are gone. Why do these clouds disappear?
My theory is that when the sun comes out, it starts evaporating the water in the cloud and so there is no more cloud at that place!

3. Continuing on clouds, I asked a couple of people yesterday one question - Is the falling of rain due to Physics or Chemistry.
The popular and unanimous vote was that the rain was falling due to chemistry.
My content was that its due to Physics. What would happen if earth didn't have this much of a gravitational pull? Would the water droplets be able to fall down to earth, or would they be just floating around somewhere?

Each of these pearls are only samples of the kind of questions that are there n my mind. I will continue to post on this as and when I get my next brainwave.