Two movies to look forward, for environment protection theme.....

Two movies I could think of, when it comes to recommending for environment engineering students, especially, for those who are looking for case studies on EIA - Environmental Impact Assessment. These both movies are based on actual events.

Erin Brockovich, 2000, is made in documentary style, with enough drama, brilliantly directed by Steven Soderbergh. A Civil Action, is a drama film, equally brilliant. One of the best performances by John Travolta.

Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich. Brilliant performance.

imdb links for both movies......

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195685/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120633/

 I am not saying much. Please watch these movies…..!

  

Himanshu (Arjun ) Padhya

Lethal Weapon, the TV series, 2016 - Riggs and Murtaugh return after thirty years, Riggs steals hearts.....

This is the review of 2016 TV series, ‘Lethal Weapon’, that is based on the movie with same name, that was released in 1987, starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, playing suicidal cop Martin Riggs and about to retire roger Murtaugh.

If you are young, who have not seen these movies, well, you will have to see these movies first, to enjoy this latest TV series.

It is always difficult for TV series based on movies. Unlike fresh series, these series have to maintain that flow and feeling of the original movie or series, and at the same time, it must be done in an interesting manner…..often, while doing so, the writers concentrate so much on ‘doing the same thing differently’ , that a good work ends with poor ratings.

Lethal Weapon 2016, The TV series....fresh, promising!

The movie, ‘Lethal Weapon’ came in 1987. Followed by three more. The series ended with fourth movie in 1998. Brilliantly directed by Richard Donner.

Mel Gibson, wonderfully played the suicidal cop, in the 1987 movie. The brave cop, Martin Riggs, with ‘Lethal’ death wish was the soul of the movie. Without Martin Riggs, the movie would have been just another buddy cop movie. Danny Glover was also very good as Murtaugh, but that is not the issue here.

Before I write anything further, an interesting sidebar…. Remember ‘Sadak’? Starring Sanay Dutt? It was major hit back when it was released and was one of the highest grossing movie of that year…..I am sure you all vividly remember the scene where suicidal Sanju puts the gun in his mouth, and tries to kill himself….Well, the entire scene was taken from 87 movie.

There were other scenes, directly copied or ‘inspired’ from LW, in Sadak…..

The point is, that LW 1987was a very good movie with powerful performance from Gibson as suicidal Martin Riggs…..recreating the same magic was a tough challenge.

As I begin watching the first episode of this latest TV series, the only thing I was excited about was who is playing Martin Riggs…..and weather the actor, known or unknown would be able to create that magic that Gibson created in 87.

Clayne  Crawford, who plays Riggs, does it. He does it wonderfully in fact. You would wanna see next episode just to see more of him. His job was tough, as he had to overcome an already established, successful character, played by a very powerful actor.

Which is good news. We will now have one really good cop series, with many episodes and hopefully many seasons. Damon Wayans is good as Roger Murtaugh, but in pilot episode, his wife Trish’s character is stronger.

It is long way, for him, and for entire series. I have seen good series ending after a single season of thirteen episodes. Let us hope that does not happen to this one…..

Himanshu (Arjun) Padhya

'Sha Po Lang' aka 'Killzone' 2005 - One more reason to love Sammo and Donnie Yen......

If you are tired of watching those extended gun fights and exploding smoke….here is something for a change…..

Forget those Chinese martial art movies of 80s, set in rural background, with martial artists fighting in some style inspired by monkey, snake, tiger or something else…..those were good movies, but here is the movie, that takes the Chinese martial art movies to a different level….

Everyone, who have seen good number of movies, knows about Sammo Hung. He is no unknown name. From an American TV series to acting parallel to Jackie Chan in his movies, Sammo in undeniably a big name in Hong Kong and Chinese movies…..not only a good actor and a fight choreographer, Sammo is also a very good director….

‘Sha Po Lang’ is about a cop, who joins an already existing group of cops, in Hong Kong, who are fighting their battle against the villain, Wong Po, played by Sammo himself.

Sammo and Donnie - The Villain and the Cop. Both are equally impressive.

Donnie yen, wonderfully plays the quiet type cop, who tries to fit in the group…..while he has no major role in first half of the movie, right after the half time, the entire movie becomes his, and Sammo’s.

last action scene. Simple police baton, turned into a deadly weapon against knife...must see.

Action scenes are bloody, messy, and not for a faint of heart. But if you can deal with lot of blood on the screen, you can definitely admire the fresh choreography of action scenes. Perfect fight timing between Donnie Yen and Wu Jing in the end action sequence are worth. Wu Jing leaves a mark, which is an achievement considering presence of Yen and Sammo….Fighting only with a police baton, Donnie Yen, is one of the many reasons to see this movie.

A squeal of this movie is already released, and is also good. but for some reason, this movie, has something that makes you remember this one for a long time, and will be your one of all time favs. surely.

Himanshu (Arjun ) Padhya

Plagiarism – Tezaab and The Untouchables……

“The only difference between a Bollywood story writer and a common person like you and me, is that he has seen exactly one more Hollywood movie than you…which one? The one he copies, and makes movie for you to see…..”

It took me the hard way to realize this fact.

I am a big Bollywood fan. Even after these incidences, I still am. While talking to the people from other countries, western countries, in those days, I was always eager to share the good Bollywood movies with them…wanted to prove that our movies are also as good as theirs….

To my astonishment, I never received even an affirmative node. I went on wondering….

Tezaab came in 1988. The famous action scene, with cradle going down the stairs and Anil Kapoor chasing it, was something we all had never seen before….we saw it with ‘awe’….opened eyes….and saw it again and again….why would we not? It was a great movie, great music, directed by the famous director who gave us ‘Ankush’…..

Fast forward to 1992. Those were the days of LDs. Not CDs. One generation before CDs, there were LDs. And one day, I caught this movie. The Untouchables. And the famous action scene on steps…..

One hand, I was happy to see this wonderful action movie that was going to remain my favourite for the rest of my life….on other hand, there was this feeling of being cheated….I would recall again and again how many time I had discussed this great movie with friends and cousins from western countries…..they must have been laughing…..and I suddenly realized why there was not even a affirmative node…..

The copy was at such level that even the expressions of the female, whose baby goes down the steps in the cradle were same…..later on, after the internet, I would come to know that The Untouchables, was exactly one year before Tezaab, 1987….

 This is true everywhere. Every work of art or research must have one thing. The prime requirement is originality. Originality accounts and in most of the world, let it be movies or art or research, it is the only one thing that matters…..!

Himanshu (Arjun) Padhya

That smiley face outside home.......

This picture was taken in 2013 probably…was buried deep in my drive somewhere until I found it a couple of days back…I remembered taking it, but the way I see it today, after three years, is completely different.

Of course, it is something special. Those vines outside my home on a tree, took a round shape, and those leaves, were positioned so, that from a distance it looked exactly like a smiling face, hanging in the air….smiling at you…..

Every morning I would see this. This shape, stayed for almost a month…..it took me two weeks to see that it had grown into a smiley like thing….another week to realize that it would not remain there forever, and to take a picture….

And it did go away. How, I don’t know…when, I have absolutely no idea….but today, I am glad that I took that time of one minute to get my mobile and click this picture. The thing, that was once a daily routine, looks like a dream today…

I am sure this was some kind of sign. And if one tries, one can write a long philosophical note on this…but I guess that is not what this is about….this is about how we see our surroundings and our world….small signs are everywhere I guess….telling us, talking to us, giving us clues….clues to smile…find life out of routine mess….and the funny thing is that we realize those signs only after they are gone, and keep on thinking, rethinking, about what would have happened if we had known those signs, and did something then….

Well, I could only say, let’s all keep on looking for the signs….

Himanshu (Arjun) Padhya

Philosophy of a 'stained sleeve'.....

I did not believe in signs. Even today I am not sure if I do. But lately, over a period of past couple of years, I have begun to understand them……

Driving on a sunny afternoon today, suddenly I observed multiple stains on the sleeve of my new white shirt….before I could react with some anger, they disappeared….

In no time I realized that those stains were not real. They only looked real. It was the shadow of some water drops on my windscreen when in Sun….those drops, on my sleeve remained for some seconds until I took a turn on the road, changing the direction…..and they appeared again when I took next turn….

And I am not sure if there is some deep philosophy or some sign in this….not a déjà vu sort of feel…but these virtual stains on the shirt, do resemble to some of our problems of issues…they are virtual…not real….not there…they remain because you are not changing the direction…they are there because of those water drops somewhere else…

What a way to realize a simple philosophy….!

Himanshu (Arjun) Padhya

NIRMAAN 2016......Preparations are at the fullest......

Those, who are contributing, will remember and cherish these moments for a lifetime. This time, is not going to come back.....make the most of it. Make memories....good ones.

Those, who are still waiting to join, you don't know what you are missing.....Join the hands.....

Team,

NIRMAAN 2016

'NIRMAAN 2016' - Team, Civil Department, SCET Celebrates Technofest.....!

This post, I am sharing here, with intent to inform all students, and others who wish to know about NIRMAAN 2016.

‘NIRMAAN’ is the annual technofestival of Civil Engineering Department, SCET. A department full of enthusiastic students and equally enthusiastic faculties.

Every year, our department celebrates its technofestival, under the name of NIRMAAN, which started in 2014. This, is its third year of continuous celebration.

The main event poster, is below with information of faculty conveners and student tech heads.

Main Event Poster

Posters for individual events….

If you wish to download Hi Resolution version of these images, please use the link below, to access the shared folder….

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B58d0kFm2AHvcUhpdlBySFZyVTA?usp=sharing

Using this link you can download everything you wish to know about NIRMAAN 2016, including the flyers and rules and regulations for the events, individually.

This is our event. Event of our department. We are proud Civil Engineers, and as your teacher, we all wish, that each one of you will take part and contribute.

Yes, you will get points for these activities, to be included in 100 Activity Points.

For

Team, Civil Department,

Prof Minakshi Vaghani

Prof Ankita Parmar

Student techno Heads

Uday Anghan

Jeet Donga

Himanshu (Arjun) Padhya

Beginning with Ganeshji....

For days, after I started contributing in resilience blog, I was thinking of keeping my own blog. A virtual place where I wish to share my ideas on my favorite subject…philosophy, movies, stories…..

It was not happening, and I had absolutely no idea why….for days I went on looking for proper image to be the face of the blog…but could not find any….

And then came, Ganeshji….and just like that, during one short drive of city, I found what I was looking for to begin the blog…..

Ganeshji, Shreeji, Lambodar, Ekdant, Vakratund…..Ganpatibappa has countless names. He has countless forms. And I am not talking about the variety of statues that we put…..sometimes, he is a little boy, looking for laddus, and teasing us…sometimes, departed father we miss….and sometimes, he is your friend, whose presence only is sufficient….one cannot ask for more.

Two days to go before ‘Ganesh Chaturthi’, but our city has already started the celebration of bringing Ganpatibapa home….the roads generally deserted are full of traffic and streets are full of people. 

As we were driving by on one such road, I saw this boy, selling Ganesh statues, sitting right in the center of all the statues for sale….and no, I  did not see God in him…..he was not some angel secretly blessing us…..he was just a boy, trying to sell some statues and earn some money….

But the way he was sitting with all those statues, protected with blessing from not one, but many God, on that road full of vehicles and noise, there was something special about him. Something was special about that moment. I could feel connected to some greater, more powerful, more positive force through that face….

Well, what could better to begin your blog with?

Himanshu (Arjun) Padhya