Category Archives: 1-By Laksh

All these articles are from Laksh’s desk

1-By Laksh, ET, Movies

Groundhog Day

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Consider this story idea for a moment.

A guy named Phil works as a weatherman in a local news channel. He hates everyone and everything around him and understandably gets it back in equal measures. Just when you thought he was beyond redemption, a strange thing happens to him. The calendar seems to stage a protest.. and stops suddenly on a single day. He then relives the same day again and again..

If Steven Spielberg got hold of this story idea, he might have made it into a period film with loads of EFX. He might have summoned the best of the Hollywood stars to power the story. Mm.. the end result might have taken the box-office by storm. Or go the ‘Terminal’ route, where even the most dependable Tom Hanks and the gorgeous-even-after-marriage Catherine Zeta Jones fail to rescue a sagging script.

Luckily for all of us, Harold Ramis (co-writer/director) treads a different path.

He weaves an endearing tale against the Pittsburgh-Punxsutawney backdrop with the ‘Groundhog Day’ as the annual fest. Having done that he casts Bill Murray (as Phil) and Andie MacDowell (as Phil’s love interest) irrespective of their box-office potential. Then, he gets the script rocking with a set of small town characters that are uncomplicated and full of life. The net result is a hilarious movie in which Phil battles every day with the same characters and different results.. yet appears the same, as he starts all over again. 🙂

Here is an interesting comparison between ‘The Terminal’ and ‘Groundhog Day’. Both tell the story of middle aged, persona non grata kind, who are stuck in a new world. The characters Phil and Victor lead ‘in-the-transit’ kind of life waiting for the circumstances to change. Both fall in love with beautiful women way beyond their league. So where does the difference sets in? It’s in their characterization and what they seem to be. Victor comes across as a too good a guy to be real, while Phil is frail enough to pass off as normal guy. Hence Phil’s journey becomes more appealing while that of Victor appears like a fallen angel trying to get back to heaven.

Mm.. let’s come back to ‘Groundhog Day’.

The film follows a simple three-act structure-the problem, the struggle and the solution. The first act is pretty conventional. It establishes Phil as the smirking, ever-ready-to-pass-a-snide-remark type and the ‘Groundhog Day’ holding him as a prisoner. In the second act, the storywriters try something different, and bring in an under current of philosophy. Here Phil is made to reach out to others and in the process, realize his follies. Once the selfishness is replaced by compassion, Phil finds his spell vanishes in the third act, and wakes up besides his true love on a brand new day. And the end titles roll to the song of ‘Almost like being in love’ by inimitable Nat ‘King’ Cole.

While Phil’s struggle makes you laugh, as the story goes by, you tend to sympathize with him. Bill Murray, not even for once, lets you take your eyes off him and he mouths quite a many witty rejoinders. And, you stay connected with him and can’t miss the transformation on his face from a smirk to a genuine smile. Infact, his portrayal of Phil is one of his best performances till date.

‘Groundhog Day’ continues to enthrall the audiences all over, even after its first release more than a decade back (1993). Infact, it has become synonymous with ‘a recurring happening not to one’s liking’. And no wonder, recently South African cricket captain Graeme Smith compared his role as captain to that of the film Groundhog Day, leaving him jaded, along the lines of the frequency in which the two sides have been playing each other over the last few months.

But Graeme Smith might not mind to relive the filmi ‘Groundhog Day’ experience again and again like so many others all over the world.

1-By Laksh, Books, Etc., Management

‘Panchatantra’ and its worldly wisdom

The Panchatantra is a collection of Indian fables, each fable taking the style of an allegory.The original text in Sanskrit is a mixture of prose and verse, with the stories contained in one of five frame stories. The introduction, which acts as an encompassing frame for the entire work, attributes the tales to a learned Brahmin called Vishnu Sharma, who used these stories to teach worldly wisdom to the three uninterested and dull-witted sons of a king.

Panchatantra means “five tantras” or ‘Five formulas’ and is divided into five sections of stories– “Loss of Friends,” “Winning of Friends,” “Crows and Owls,” “Loss of Gains,” and “Ill-considered Action.”  The Panchatantra may have been written down as early as the second century BC, and numerous versions spread to Persia in the sixth century and to Europe during the middle ages. A German version in 1481, for example, was one of the earliest printed books.

Vishnu Sharma crafts a new world with the help of animal characters to create interest among his disciples and then uses a serialised, story-within-story approach to sustain it. He presents the means to achieve the the worldly wealth and pleasures. He extols the value of the worldly things unlike other fables like Jatakas.

But given the Hindu tradition of Kaama-Artha-Dharma-Mokasha (Desire, Money, Dharma and Salvation), and the to-be-king background of his disciples, he achives his goal in helping them to put their feet firmly first in the materialistic plane, thus laying the basic foundation for the young disciples to make their way up.

Written centuries ago and that too for youngsters, suprisingly, this book offers a lot to even to the grown ups in terms of understanding the human nature.

If you do not have the patience to read one of its English translations, you could always feast on the numerous Amar Chitra Katha comics.

Related links
Wikipedia
 Panchantantra by Penguin
 Amar Chitra Katha

1-By Laksh, Enterprise, IT

Al Capone and Business Intelligence

If you saw the movie ‘The Untouchables’ one thing that strikes
you about Mr.Al Capone, apart from his base ball bat, is his
penchant for data about his business, ala business intelligence.

In the movie, he begins his day with a hot breakfast served
along with a newspaper(historic data) and a ledger
statement (transaction data). He lights a cigar if the news is
to his liking and flashes a smile, and when it is not, it is time
to thump a few skulls in the next board room meeting. Infact,
Brian De Palma shot the most elaborate board-room-violence
scene ever and Robert De Neiro does not disappoint with his
base ball bat.

This isn’t an article about mastering the art of violence, so,
let’s come back to business intelligence. Let’s talk about data
and the accuracy of it.

One of the big challenges of a business intelligence system is
the collection of data and the authenticity of the same. What if
you crunched the wrong data or worse still, acted on the same.
In the case of Al Capone, it would have been simple, his bat talks
and one of his cronies bites the dust, and the law enforcement
force would rejoice. But in a business scenario, it’s different. It
could result in a loss of a reputation that has been built over the
years painstakingly.

So how to ensure data accuracy and integrity?

1) Make the data entry simple, with mostly numeric type, at the
worker/field level. Capture what you ‘must’ at field level, and
what you ‘should’ as you move up the organization.

2) ‘Time freeze’ the data entry at all levels. Link performance
appraisal to data reporting

3) Data should lead to action at all levels. No available data?
Production halts.

4) Remove redundancy. Capture data only once.

5) Common lingo for internal reporting. Put in place performance
measures based Reporting.

A good business intelligence software should provide all of the
above. And when you have such a solution, there is no need to
spill blood like Al Capone…infact, all business violence could
be pre-empted, in a Minority Reportesque way:-)