ExpertDabbler

Now, you would associate Blake with Firefox, prodigious coding skills, celebrity status (he is 20 now) and a stand-out student in Stanford. Turns out Blake is a also writer with fabulous sense of humor. Check it out here for yourself.

I am going to use Firefox as a default browser from now on. He promises freedom from spyware. That’s quite something. The only problem - reading Tamil blogs. If only they fix that issue in FF, I would remain devoted to Blake and co for ever. I heard Blake has planned a start-up. I also heard he interned for Netscape when he was 14.

I could not help but imagine the plight of an Indian student of comparable age and intelligence. If only someone half as good as Blake had been in India, he would’ve been lectured on the need to get high marks in std X and later XII, ideas about reservation, discrimination blah blah. By the time he reaches 18 he would’ve resigned to do something ’safe’ and better find a ‘high paying job’ in an ‘MNC’. To hell with innovation.

If at all some scientists and engineers have achieved something in India, it is in spite of the education system and not because of it.

I personally knew someone who was an original thinker in his college days, someone who I thought would do some path breaking research. But then, India and its academicians taught him a serious lesson. He is now happy doing some silly coding for one of those MNCs.

And our university chancellors are keen on banning cell phones in their campuses. I don’t know what next. Maybe something like a grill to separate boys and girls in the class room. Of course all will be done so that ‘maanavargal gavanam sidharadhu’.
Sigh.

I want to ask all these folks one thing. When these vice-chancellors did their schooling, there were no cell phones to distract their ‘gavanam’ right? How come they still turned out to be idiots like this?

Vazhga our education system, Vazhga outsourcing.

This is in continuation of my adulation for Thavamai Thavamirundhu. I thought i should make a special mention of its cinematographer M S Prabhu. I was very impressed by Prabhu’s cinematography in this. The lighting, the camera movements and the frame compositions were just perfect for the script. Yet it was so subtle and understated. Like totally drawing you in to the movie without even trying anything smart.

I remember he did a fantastic job in Kamal’s Mahanadhi.
He does not feature much in the newspaper interviews and so not many might be aware of his work. I think he is one of the very best but not really hi-profile cinematographers in the business.