Goodreads.com announced the Reading Challenge for 2011. It is an interesting concept and, has the requisite bells and whistles around allowing widgets that display how much of the challenge is being achieved. Since every individual member gets to choose a number ie. the challenge, it is good fun. I see a couple of folks on my friends list putting up their challenges.

I toyed with the idea of putting up a number. And, enough dilly-dallying later I think this isn't something that suits my way of doing things. There are a couple of reasons and, I'll try to put them out in some unordered fashion.

• I don't read books with a net number of books per year to be read in mind. Which is why my book reading pattern,trends and habits are unusual. An example could be the fascination with one specific author and, the need to end up reading a large part of his/her works.
• The statistics don't lend themselves to any sort of challenge. In this specific month, I've ended up reading 16 books (new) with a bunch of re-reads thrown in here and there. This isn't going to be the number every month. And, even if I say that I do around 8 books for the remaining 11 months, I'd have gone through a 104 new books. Umm... I don't think that's going to happen. Last year, as per the stats, I read 41 new books. So clearly, there is a wide variation - the difference between projected and actual being more than double the actual.
• On the Goodreads bookshelf I tend to put in everything I read. So, that actually is a bit of a 'cheating'. For example, books by Sherry Turkle. Technically, that's neither fiction, nor non-fiction and, it shouldn't be sitting there on the bookshelf. But I do end up slipping these in because the shelves are then a real representation of what I've read.

So, that's more or less the list of things that's putting me off taking up a challenge. 

I read about the plan via a tweet. And, good ol' me is excited. There has been far too much talk about this and that, too many departments within the governments and, too large chunks of grants disbursed to make this happen. Nothing much has happened. If, a collective of interested people willing to invest some of their time get together then this is amazingly simple to achieve.

In perspective, look at what a single person who had interest and passion could do. Or, what a group of folks are continuing to do.

The problem that a 'crowd-sourcing' effort can overcome is the heavy requirement on OCR. The last time I checked, IndicOCR pieces that are available return an accuracy of just 80%. It sounds nice but in reality it is awkward.

Consider this - a 100 page book would have just around 80 pages correctly optically scanned. Most of the target books would be around the 180-200 page mark. That's a whopping 40 pages of incorrect data and, that requires increased focus on proof-reading. The alternative to the effort is based on the 'labor is cheap' concept. In other words, employ enough folks to actually key in the book. Input has become reasonably easy in recent times - there are keyboard layouts for Indian langauges both on the distribution and, there are web-based applications too. It may not 'scale' but it could work. Long time back, this was attempted in collaboration with an NGO who were keen on using this opportunity to teach less-privileged folks to learn how to work with computers and, Linux ! It was painstaking but it was worth it.

Either way, I am game for this. I think I can put my name forward to proof-read at least half a dozen books for Bengali this year. And, I know just the person to suggest titles (besides the fact that archive.org does have some surprising out-of-copyright books scanned and stored)

Those interested need to follow these twitter handles. And, please also pass this idea around so that interested folks start gathering.

This could also have been called "Why multiplexes aren't really the places you should go to watch and enjoy movies" but we'll keep that for later. Meanwhile, here's fresh from Dhobi Ghaat (Mumbai Diaries).

Once a couple of friends which also included me did a marathon session of movie watching at a Cinema Club. Being a late hour and, taxis being conspicuously absent from the streets we started walking. Which also resulted in a lot of snarky and sometimes interesting comments. One of them was that it wouldn't be a decade from that day when the volume of "hatkey" movies would be such that the category of these movies would cease to exist. Watching Dhobi Ghaat brought that comment right into the foreground. Five years ago, there wouldn't be financing to produce this movie. And, ten years ago, the audience wouldn't have been around to accept this at a movie theatre.

The movie is languid, refreshing and, as many have remarked - inconclusive. Among other things that's one of the nicest things about it. Happys the endings isn't what movie making is about. The preparation around the movie begins when there's the reasonably tight shot of a working taking a beedi-break against the backdrop of Mumbai - with the skyscrapers and the groundscrapers visible together. And, the slight yellow tinge of the sun tinting the clouds just that much. The wonderful and studied effort that goes into making a movie around this concept is on display throughout the frames and more or less in every frame - the smaller details about production pieces, the language and, the light. Of course, the fact that Bombay/Mumbai forms an integral 'character' in the movie itself is something that takes getting used to. The other part of course is that the characters and their motivations do not require lengthy build-ups and explanations - they 'happen'. For example, Monica Dogra's character roams around Mumbai with Prateik's character Munna snapping pictures (oh ! how I wish that the DVD comes with the prints of them !) and thereafter gets into a luxury sedan to return to her surroundings. No explanation needed. That happens. Letting the audience ask themselves questions and, try to answer them is a good thing. As also putting them right inside the continuing lives of the characters - no cut-to-past or, no lengthy dream-about-future time wasters in this movie. The story behaves like the camera just sneaked into their lives and recorded. Even in the segments that include the video-letters.

There are subtle moments that are interesting. Aamir Khan's slightly nervous neck muscle stiffness or, Kriti Malhotra's upbeat voice being suddenly downcast and restricted hand-movements (the constant sound of her bangles stop). The crescendos of the music (and, the street noise increasing during the last scene) or, the slight sound effect of the rushing wind when the train goes past Prateik's shanty or, even Tennyson's Brook. It isn't a single watch movie. The various aspects of the craft do come together (and, thus it generally means that hours have gone in making that happen) and this requires a DVD to re-watch. Aamir Khan is Aamir Khan - studied and nearly perfect. Monica Dogra is charming. Prateik Babbar is good because he picks up and runs with a role far removed from his mileau and does a pitch perfect job of it. Kriti Malhotra is probably going to be talked about because she lets her eyes talk a lot more than herself. That's an excellent job.

I don't really agree that the problem with the film is the lack of a story. I think the problem with the film is that it tries too hard to be excellent. And, that kills it in not letting have loose ends. The other part of course is the English/Hindi nature of the movie. I ended up, unfortunately enough, watching a Hindi only version. Whosoever wrote the Hindi dialogues (which are originally in English) for Monica Dogra's character never really probably got the actor mouthing them before going to dubbing. Stitled and absurdly ill-placed with an accent that doesn't stay at one place at all.

And now, we return to our regular multiplex rant.

I've often said that the multiplexes unleash the boors in us. Disposable income meets plush interiors and what you get is a group of folks who not only jar their own cinema experience (or, perhaps they enjoy that) but mess it up for others. Today it was a group who were absolutely interested in intimate scenes between Aamir and Monica. And, the lack of them on-screen as well as the subsequent (admittedly stilted conversation) led to quite absurdly trashy comments being passed around. Which continued each time their characters interacted or, even Prateik's character interacted with Monica's. And of course, the coarse and somewhat vulgar laughter that punctuated the nervous reaction of Aamir's character when the full realization of the video-messages hit him. All this at a 1415 show at E-Square Kharadi which was around 40% full for a Aamir Khan movie does tell something.