Finally Investing!!

I have been a strong believer of the fact that for our country to develop and be a part of the real main stage( we are still not in there) we gotta be independent of the rest of the world on things concerning our economy. Yeah, I agree that we can never be 100% independent but we can be a lot more than where we stand today. These days we read so much of stuff about India and its influence on other nations. But that is not enough for us to keep going in this world. What we really need is a lot more, a lot more from its people i.e we Indians. Let me start off with my concept and perception about this entire event happening.

For any nation in the present world the most important thing that it requires is a sound and safe economy. A not so volatile, regularly expanding economy. And when we talk about economy a lot of other statistics comes into our mind, doesn't it? It is such a basic term with loads of stuffs involved making it a lot more complex in real-time. A country's economy is such a dynamic thing, all that we need to do to understand the complexity is think of the money we spend in a month. Right from day one of the month, analyze every penny that we spend. This is a matter of thousands or may be lakhs in certain exceptional cases but this small calculation can make us go mad, isn't it? That is cause we end up spending on a heap of stuffs ourselves. Now think of this nation which has a population of more than 1.2 billion and still growing. Complexity at its worst, added to that is all the taxes that the government collects. Great. Am not blaming the government a bit in this, just that the tax factor came into my mind.

So every one will have his/her own perception on how we can individually contribute to our economy and save it from the clutches of many foreigners who are earning more than an average Indian and taking advantage of our growing economy than any of us do. It really sounds so unfortunate, your country is developing and your people are still below the poverty line while some billionaire from some foreign country makes all the money and you have nothing. The worst thing here is to see the governments inability to reach those people, the ones who work in those humongous infrastructure projects, the ones who are squeezed for every penny they get and squeezed even more for the ones that they are never paid, the ones who have no other options but to live on the pavements and who are regularly run over by some millionaire in his expensive four-wheeler(usually a merc), the ones who die of poverty, the ones who can never even dream of going to school and studying. I am not blaming those foreign nationals, they are always in the lok out for opportunities and very true that India gives them a whole lot of opportunities and they are here. But I blame the government, there inability, the corruption, the lack of commitment to anything.

I actually thought of writing about something else and all these stuffs came in so thought will pen them down as well, if you are wondering the relevance of the above fact. But let it be, its the truth and something that we should work on. For our nation to develop it has to bring that down-trodden group from down there to a better stage or India will never reach where it wants to be. As i said in one of my earlier posts India is not really the urban life and its people, but majority of India is still in the back stage in its very rural form and remaining just the same for over decades now. But how do we change all these, its like all the governments are used to isolating them, the deprived and that is when all these organizations like the ULFA and the Maoists originated. Now its again becoming more deviated. lol

How can this end? The government must fund the development of the villages and remore interiors of the country, make stricter norms on the education of young children and its should have a free education scheme for all these deprived irrespective of their age. Mr. Kapil Sibal did bring in this issue in parliment but i wonder how far they are committed to it. For a country which at an average spends more than 1 trillion(1,00,000 crores) on its military(its way too less when compared to many other nations especially China and US), it must be able to spend the same or a little more on the even more important issues like these. And I believe every Indian has the right to ask this question to them, for we have one of the highest taxing system and we have been living over it without questioning it a bit. For if all these taxed money is used properly we would have been at a lot better stage than where we are now. Believe me though China is developing it lacks that unity which is required for growth, India has that edge over China but it never puts anything to the best of use.

Whats the result? The shiv sena, the Telungana, the ULFA etc etc.. The list goes like this. Why is it that these people want a separate state, set aside the shiv sena they need a separate nation i guess(****ers). According to them they are isolated, in the Telungana except for Hyderbad and Secondarabad most of the other parts of Telungana have been under isolation for over 4 decades now. Same is the case with ULFA. If the goverment could do some justice to them then these organizations wouldn't be there and life would have been lot more peaceful, a lot of money saved. And now, its just the opposite. How is all this related to being independent? Well let me put it this way, every human being uses less than 3% of his brain and the rest 97% is unused. The same is the case here, we are using less than 10% of our potential, the rest 90% is dormant and that is why this drift and over dependency.

A recent study has showed that India has one of the richest oil reserves in the world and this was found recently because till now the government never permitted the private companies to explore for oil and now when they explored they understood that India have been spending billions for something they never had to. Same is the case with then Indian stock market(actually this had to be the actual topic of this post but it just expanded lol). Indians contribute less than 10% when it comes to the investment in the stock markets(mainly BSE and NSE) and the rest 90% is the foreign investors who in a way are driving our markets, if they buy we have a bull run and when they sell the bear comes in. I hate this entire idea, someone else coming to our house and guiding us and this is where i feel we need to work a lot harder. I never meant to say that we should kick them off but just that work on increasing our influence rather than count on their moves. Better right, if not completely drive your vehicle you can atleast switch the gears.

This thought made me understand then importance of investing, though whatever I invest is absolutely nothing compared to theirs but it makes a difference atleast in my view point. I believe its the same with everyone, we end up spending lot of money unnecessarily why don't we contribute a little of that to the growth of our nation is what we should think. That can make a lot of difference in our lives, in the present world investment is the need of the hour. My dad taught me the initial lessons of investment, he started investing when he was some 21 just when he got a job. He never made anything out of investment cause his investments were on probability and it never worked. Most of the companies he invested in back then shut down and so its been a major loss but he never regretted :). But I want to be a cautious investor cause that works better and both ways.

I would probably stop with this. This post has been quite confusing but let it be this way now. Better. India is confused now and so am I. :D. And if you believe what I believe then do start investing a little of whatever you get. If you don't know how it works then google it and see. Its not complicated, very easy. Get yourself a pancard first, this again can be googled and found. Investments could start from 500Rs also, its al upto you. I started with 5000, you can get an online account and trade yourself. Initially start with a low sum learn about the markets then invest more. A good investment can give you good returns and helps you do your bit for India.

I hope this post makes atleast 1 person to think about it. :)

Jai Hind! :)

Movies… Talkies… and now Smellies!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*/Cinemakaran thats how he calls himself. And thats what he is trying to be, a cinema personnel. We now each other for some 3 years or so and we have had a wonderful time together. Sajeesh ettan came here as a student and now he is a lecturer. He has experienced the highs and lows of life, but am sure he is set to achieve great heights. This article is something he wants to work on. Its feels great to host his article in here. I conclude by wishing him the very best in all aspects of his life.*/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have you ever felt cinema is handicapped when it comes to projecting reality? Is cinema lacking something? Give a thought to it. If your answer is ‘NO’, you are wrong! What about Smell?

Didn’t you ever feel the need for smell in cinemas? If a fragrance of love was incorporated with the ‘I am flying’ sequence in James Cameroon’s “Titanic”, wouldn’t it have been more awesome? With the spectacular cinematography and amazing music in the background, a pleasant fragrance of love would have given an extremely romantic experience for the sequence. 

With the sight and sound making cinema a realistic way of representing life, there was always one thing that cinema lacked; the power of Smell. If smell can be incorporated to cinema, it will have the real 3 dimensional experience with the 3 ‘S’ operating, i.e., Sight, Sound & Smell!

 Smell in Cinema

 Smell is one of those sensory experiences which are strongly associated to human memories. It brings back the memories of places and people. It is also associated with spirituality since divine odors are an important ingredient of most of the spiritual practices. Taste buds also work only due to the existence of smell. Recent researches have also proved that the smell can be used to induce certain feelings like nostalgia, fear, romance etc.

 

Once smell was considered least important. In fact smell was ignored and left in the trash in an era dominated by the computers and electronics. But the sense of smell is now considered as one of the means by which visual media’s delineating effects can be mitigated.

The sense of smell is poised to break free from many of its assumed delineation. The mystery of how smell works, for instance, has defied scientific understanding for centuries. However with the award of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine to Neuroscientists Richard Axel and Linda.B.Buck, the basic code by which scents are perceived and cognitively processed seems to be on the verge being   cracked (Nobel Prize Org. 2004)

Smell and Cinema is not a quite new concept. In fact attempts to incorporate smell to cinema dates back to 1916; even before sound was introduced! It was S.L.Rothafel, the owner of a film theater in Forest City, Pennsylvania who deluged the audience of a rose bowl game newsreel in the scent of rose oil. He dipped cotton in rose scent and held it in front of an electric fan, there by suffusing the theater with floral fragrance. But soon, a new fad hit the moviegoers; Sound. The technology that would one day be known as Smell-O-Vision was lost in noise!

 

Hans Laube and Smell-O-Vision

Later on, Hans Laube was excited by the idea of smell in cinema. He invented Scent-O-Vision, a system that released scents connected to individual scents in movie theaters, and debuted it at the 1939 New York’s World Fair. The basic concept involved a projectionist manually releasing various scent vials at specific points in a movie, such as the scent of flowers during a romantic scene or the smell of gun smoke during a shoot-out. The original Scentovision system failed to catch on for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the substantial amount of conflicting fragrances which eventually filled the theater.

Scent of Mystery

For years, the technology was forgotten. But it was re-introduced in 1960’s in the mystery film aptly titled as “The Scent of Mystery”. Laube perfected his technology into a “Smell Brain”; a series of perfume bottles with scents that were released into the theater automatically as the film threaded through the projector. The process was called Smell-O-Vision.

Ads for the film read, “First they moved (1895)! Then they talked (1927)! Now they Smell (1960)! Scent track was incorporated on the film itself to trigger odors, analogue to a sound track. The release of the odors was synchronized with specific audio visual events in the film. Several of the film’s most prominent clues were set to be conveyed by the Smell Brain.

Even though the idea got a positive buzz before the release, the experiment was a flop. In fact Times Magazine’s (2000) Reader Poll has selected it as one of the ‘Top 100 Worst Ideas of all Time’!

Even though smell was synchronized with the audio visual content, its immediacy was restrained by the slow diffusion of scent, especially in a large theater space. Audience members in the balcony found the smells delivered to them several seconds delayed; the entire system was olfactory out of sync. Other parts of the theater barely got the smells.

Release of one scent to another was not instantaneous and had to be carefully managed to avoid odorific confusion which was not desired. Subsequent removal of the smell also had to be carried out to avoid the uneasiness created by the odor in the atmosphere. This also was not possible. Smell-O-Vision was temporarily snuffed out.

 There was also another attempt to mix smell with cinema. The process was called “Aromarama” which dispersed smell through AC with Freon gas. An Italian travel feature about China, “Beyond the Great Wall” (1958) came with this technology whose tagline read “You Must Breathe it to Believe it”!

 All these attempts during that era can be related to the frantic efforts taken by the film makers to retain the cinema audience from Television. Certain techniques like 3D, Cinerama etc never caught on like Smell-O-Vision. But still cinema survived with spectacular viewing experience rendered to the audience. Thanks to Cinemascope and 70mm technologies.

Odorama

The idea of smell kept on exciting film makers through the years. Modern attempts at reviving Smell-O-vision were undertaken by John Waters when he released his film ‘Polyster’ in 1982. He handed over ‘Scratch and Sniff’ cards to the viewers and they were asked to smell it during specific scenes.

The ‘Scratch and Sniff’ cards had some 8-10 spots which were numbered. The audience had to scratch and sniff each spot when that particular number appears on the screen. This turned out to be quite popular and more fool proof. When the MTV re-aired the film in 1992, they handed out the “Scratch and Sniff” cards at convenient stores.

Smell in Gadget Age

 

In the gadget age Smell-O-Vision lives on. Digiscents inc. is developing the ismell personal scent synthesizer; a device that will let smells be transmitted through the internet scent synthesizer can be compared to the desktop speakers.

In Cinema, the Collin Farell starrer “The New World” which was released in Japan in April 2006 tried to bring back the essence of smelling cinema. The film which was released in certain theaters in Japan had an internet based fragrance system. The movie goers were exposed to various scents to heighten their sense of joy, love, sadness etc during key scenes.

The technology was based on NTT Com's Fragrance Communication (Kaori Tsushin) system, which uses a special scent-emitting device programmed with information obtained via the Web. Scents were emitted into the theaters using devices placed under viewers' seats. The system was employed at one theater each in Tokyo and   Osaka.

The system downloads an aroma recipe and distribution schedule from an aroma-control server and stores the information in a LAN box, which can then be disconnected from the network and moved freely. The box is then connected to aroma-emitting devices placed under a number of seats in the theater. Each device contains six base oils, which are combined according to the recipes for specifically generated aromas. The LAN box controls the automatic release of these aromas during selected scenes of the movie.

Future Prospects

Research has shown that the human sense of smell can create stronger, more lasting impressions than sight, suggesting that smell has the potential to greatly heighten the intended effect of communication for diverse purposes. So, the idea of smell in cinema will never die. In fact it will get on to Television and of course internet too. And who knows, if we have more fool proof technologies, the entire structure of cinema might change just like sound changed the structure and story telling styles of silent movies.

There should be provision made to remove the scent as and when it is released to avoid the foul smell sticking on to the environment which inturn will create suffocation in the viewers. And there should be attempts to make the fragrance reach each and every member in the audience at the same time. If minor things like these are taken care off, in the digital age, as the mystery surrounding how the smell works has been almost clarified, there will be no looking back for the idea of  smell in cinema.

Cinema is always a novelty. Cinema has not reached the saturation level yet and it will never reach there! More and more newer things will come up to make the cinema exciting as ever. Let there be more efforts to make the cinemas smell in the coming years with the increased and better understanding of the Odors and how they work and transmit. This will make cinema a real 3 Dimensional visual experience!

 

                                       -------------------------------

SAJEESH RAJENDRAN

Faculty –DFM, SAE, India

 

 

Reference : The Smell culture Reader      Edited by Jim Orobnick (Berg Publishers)

                   http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/biosi/staffinfo/jacob/teaching/sensory/olfact1.html  

Gandiji... !!

Well it was the all important Gandhi Jayanthi on 2nd.Not much celebrations(for me) except that it was a holiday and i got a duplicate sim for my lost mobile, was trying to get the contacts back, busy messaging people and that's it.Oh yea,i forgot it was the day when the very much awaited(i very much did) smoking ban coming up.So we have another memorable Gandhi Jayanthi,if not for the celebrations the ban on public smoking is the need of the hour.

Firstly,let me talk about my knowledge of Gandhi till yesterday, frankly speaking i had developed a loathe on him over the years.I don't really know when was this cemented on me, but somewhere along my path i had abhorred him.I had thought of him as a traitor, a bad father and an unfit husband.I never tried to understand my mistake and that was when i asked Pappa(my dad) about Gandhi(i asked him yesterday,yeah so early i know).I had thought that Gandhi was the reason behind putting many of the extremists behind the bars and so hated him for that, i am a person who believes that non-violence is not the only reason behind our nation gaining the so called Independence one fine day.I forgot the fact that Gandhi was more dedicated to the cause of our nation than take care of his family.

Pappa told me about his greatness, but then again i didn't bother changing my thoughts on him.Just when he spoke of Gandhiji's strong desire to dismiss the congress right after independence, i felt bad on my part though my perception of the great man has nothing to do with anyone, i had made a big mistake myself by portraying a  good human being in a bad manner.He was indeed a great person and so i have taken up the task of trying to read his autobiography "My Experiences With Truth"(the malayalam version,"entae sathyaanweshana kadha").I have just started, seems to be an interesting book.

Now on the other issue,the ban on smoking in public places.I am happy, we always have a fight with my dad over this issue(he is a chain smoker).I am strictly against smoking in general and public smoking in particular.Finally someone out there heard my plea i suppose, my dad seemed all the more restless yesterday but somehow managed to calm himself down.Not just my dad most of my friends have also turn out to be regular smokers, they seize every opportunity given to them for smoking and it seems the reason behind their interest in smoking is that they don't fear death.And looking at people like my dad and others who smoke they have developed some kind of complex in them which persuades them to try smoking and ones they try , they never stop trying(i swear having had few fags myself i don't find any good reason to continue smoking).

Finally i find a good reason (i have other reasons too) to support this government, this ban on smoking might have affected the predictions of our Finance Minister Mr.Chidambaram(ever since his waiver on the farmers loans,its not that the waiver was not good but it was not executed well , i criticize his work), he might be working of compensating the tax income from the sales of cigarettes and other tobacco containing stuffs.I would be a relieved citizen if this ban on smoking sustains and would be an even happier citizen if this ban is further modified in regulating the sales of these products.This can definitely increase the quality of our citizens.

(PS:- For those of you who smoke, guys (now a days even girls) just imagine your state of mind before you started to smoke, you would have definitely been a healthier person then.And Health is wealth.)

Stay Hunger,stay foolish!

Well the topic of discussion might just seem to an aberration,and many of you might have just heard of this saying.It was quoted by Mr.Steve Jobs,CEO,Apple.For those of who,who are no mug with apple they are the ones who created the modern personal computer-macintosh(a very good invention) and the latest i-pod(the phenomenal music player) and even many more.I respect him a lot and he needs to be respected,for his contribution to this world.Without him the modern day PC's wouldn't have been so user friendly.So i am here to say few things about this topic of mine i mean stay hungry,stay foolish.

Now the reason why i have chosen such a topic.Its easy.Not many people understands what it means and it being my orkut caption they have named me the hungry and foolish man(i have no regrets though).Neither are they going to feed me(with food or knowledge) nor are they going to teach me(no offense).And the other reason,i had a comment on my last blog which said my posts sound some unhappiness in them.So here i am a little away from my thoughts of my wonderful nation and on the path of being a motivator for many out there.Please do read on because whatever i am going to say next is true,contradictions are very much welcome.

Stay Hungry,are you thinking of food now?If so being hungry doesn't mean being hungry for food rather it just asks you to be hungry for more knowledge,more creativity.It is just asking us to never stop going forward in life.If you still didn't understand(i suppose my readers are a crowd who think and so i need not explain it further but still),just take the case of the best names in business or computers or whatever.I consider the example of Microsoft.They started with the MS-Dos and now we have the Vista as the back-bone of the computing world.Had Microsoft and Mr.Gates stayed with the same MS-Dos format,we wouldn't have been here using the all new Graphical User Interface( a more technical term)Systems.So what is actually behind them being so successful,they never stopped innovating,they never stopped thinking and they were always on the hunt for a better system.In short they stayed hungry and they are the best now.So if you dream big,stay hungry.If you don't dream big,then start dreaming today,but don't just stop with dreaming do work towards realizing them and using your potential,will anyone want to waste their potential???

Stay Foolish,let me start of with the meaning of the word foolish,it means-Having or revealing stupidity.So was Mr.Jobs asking us to be stupid?Even i did wonder.But then i thought over it also.According to me,education is a wrong way of conveying the right message,annoyed?But it is.We are taught to think in the way they want us to,we are taught to think but in the wrong way.For development what we need to do is think,but think different,think independent.People around you may name you foolish,but then as long as you know your cause why bother?They name you foolish because you are different,and they can never be you.So just stay foolish.Now let me give a real life example,i hope most of you might have heard of Ramanujan(1729 is called Ramanujan's no.) the great mathematician,the first time he published his works even the better mathematicians then had termed him foolish and stupid,but then after few years Ramanujan made them turn their heads around for their comments.Even the Greek scholar Archimedes was being foolish when he ran nude around the town shouting Eureka after a certain discovery of his.

So finally i just repeat what i said,stay hungry stay foolish.Because if not for your sake,the world badly needs your potential to be a better place tomorrow.So be hungry for innovations and creativity and be foolish enough to think crazy,the world is crazy then why not its people???

(PS-If it didn't make any sense then please move on,i will keep trying till it makes sense.Excuse if i screwed up your valuable time,thank God that it just got over,i could have been a bigger bugger(means make a mess off,for those who ends up looking at a dictionary beacause there are varied meanings)you are lucky today.)