The New Age

It's not a new concept that we live in the New Age. But do we ever stop to think about what that actually means? Do we pause at times and wonder how much the world changes with the passing day?

It is an amazing thought, for example, to realize that everything we see around us today--from shacks to skyscrapers, from skateboards to airbuses, from pencils to computers--comes from nature. Every atom we see transformed into giants of technology existed once as a molecule in the ground, the water, or the air. We are, quite literally, a remixed version of history.

While humans are the lords of evolution, do we realize that we have caused the evolution of our species to stop? We have stopped before we can reach the pinnacle. Will we start to evolve again in the face of a new stress? Will we adapt to, say, global warming? What would have happened if we never started food-production and never created medicine? What if only the fittest survived? Would I be here today then? Would you?

The society that is now ruled by institutions--by laws and documents, by science and invention, by education and jobs--is the descendant of a society of hunters and gatherers. I wonder, were they happier then us? Did they have, in the true sense, innocent's bliss? Once our goal was survival, what is our goal now?

Anyway, what started off my pondering on the subject was this amazing Youtube video someone shared on Facebook. Researched by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman, The Progression of Information Technology (2008):

Assassin's Creed 2

For those of us who can hardly wait until the Assassin returns, here is something to make is worse. :)



Lesson of the day: never taunt the Assassin.

Here is a game-play walk-through:


Another lesson of the day: somethings are worth the wait.

Music Videos to Cherish

If I was fearless and had lots of money at my disposal, I'd be a movie-director, just like I've written somewhere on my profile. But what I want more than to make a full-length movie is to create videos for songs that I love, more so Hindi songs than any other.

The moment when Bombay Talkies changed into Bollywood was probably the same moment when Maroon velvet movie direction slowly started to mutate into Pink plastic. Somehow, the music seems to have adapted better. As a person who not only appreciates the beat, but also the lyric, I have a hard time watching music videos that have nothing whatsoever to do with the song. I will refrain from pointing out some of these songs (only to list them off in another post in the probable future), but I would like to share some of the videos that do touch my heart.

I hope this to be the first of many posts to come where I will embed a video that just popped into my head. For this reason, I won't worry too much about the fact that I can't remember more than just a couple of videos right now. Most of these are just my favorite songs with videos that match the quality of the music. If there are any suggestions, just let me know. :)

I'll start with a video that is still fresh in the memories of almost everyone who enjoys Indian cinema, and a composition made by a man who is known to even those who aren't very familiar with Indian music. An emperor who seeks to understand the magnetism of Krishna, for whom his queen sings with such devotion. He is drawn by her voice to the moment when he sees her face for the first time, the same moment perhaps, that he falls in love with her. How can I not love this video?
~
man mohana, from Jodhaa Akbar (2008)
singer: Bela Shinde, music director: AR Rahman, lyricist: Javed Akhtar
actors: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan, movie director: Ashutosh Gowariker


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Next, a song sung by a man whose voice, quite literally, has the power to stop me in my tracks, only to hear it more completely. She listens to a composition made only for her, by a man who is not her husband. He is the object of temptation in the absence of prying eyes. Mmmm... justice was done to this song.
~
chal chal mere sang sang, from Artitva (2000)
singer: Sukhwinder Singh, music director: Sukhwinder Singh, lyricist: Shrirang Godbole
actors: Tabu and Monish Bahl, movie director: Mahesh Manjrekar


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Lastly, a song that is probably forgotten by most of us. A woman consoles her lover when he feels that he has come short. Innocent's bliss, so perfect.
~
sona nahi na sahi, from One 2 Ka 4 (2001)
singers: Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan, music director: AR Rahman, lyricist: Majrooh Sultanpuri
actors: Juhi Chawla and Shah Rukh Khan, movie director: Shashilal Nair



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Mayfair Family Tree

I just finished reading the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, and I couldn't have loved an author more. The thing that most surprised me about Anne Rice was that her attention to detail failed to make me want to drop the book. I am usually a skipper, I hardly read all the words in a book. But if there is a book on the words of which I doted, it was The Witching Hour. Lasher was the least captivating of the trio and took me the most time to get through, but Taltos was finished before I realized that I am getting through the book faster that the last two.

Still, I can only retain so many details. To keep track of the family members would have been a chore if I had not began to make little diagrams of who belonged where on a scrap piece of paper. One thing led to another, and I now have a full-fleshed Mayfair Family Tree documented by the help of MS Publisher.

A JPEG image of it can be found at my DeviantArt gallery. If you are as obsessed about the Mayfairs as I, and note omissions or mistakes in the tree, please let me know. More about the series can be found on our very trusty Wikipedia.