Ambigrams
Opening Mood: Lunch time!
Opening Song: None
For the past couple of days, I have been crazy about Ambigram. So much that I haven’t checked my mails nor have thought about some of the outstanding todo items in my list.
It all started with Pradeep telling me about tattoos and what would be a good design for one. It struck me then, that an Ambigram would make an excellent choice for a tattoo owing to it’s symmetric nature. I had first read about Ambigrams in Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons” and at that time, I thought, well, may be one needs to be an artist to draw one of these.
But no! When Pradeep said that it would be difficult to ambigrammize some of our names, I somehow wanted to prove him wrong! And the result, two night outs worth of time spent doing nothing but trying to arrange shapes so that they appear symmetric along the horizontal axis. Of every name I could think of! The last time I forgot about everything and spent night outs doing crazy things such as these was way back in 3rd year engineering, trying to come up with Anagrams of words 
Anyway, here are a few ambigrams that I made. There are more, but they need fine tuning, and as an how I get time to fine tune them, I will be uploading them here. Below each picture, you’ll find what they mean, just in case the symbols are too cryptic. Well, it’s also a way of fooling your mind. Once you know what the Symbol means, your mind will be compelled to see it that way 
All these ambigrams were made using GIMP, the GNU image manipulation program.
Copyrights?! Well, Open Source philosophy applies here too. I grant you complete rights to use them, improve upon them, and if you like the improvement/enhancement, share them with others
GAUTHAM
——————————————————————————————————————————————–
KEVIN
——————————————————————————————————————————————–
MILI
——————————————————————————————————————————————–
SATHYA
——————————————————————————————————————————————–
SAPNA
——————————————————————————————————————————————–
RACHITA
——————————————————————————————————————————————–
And this one. This one is an Asymmetric Ambigram. In the sense that it has two names in the same figure. There’s another asymmetric ambigram that I have made, but it needs legal clearance before it can be posted 
CHIRAG
… And when you turn this around, it looks like this:
LEENA
——————————————————————————————————————————————–
Comments, feedback much appreciated. So do drop a message
Also, if you have seen some really nice Ambigrams elsewhere, do share them/pointers to them here.
Closing Song: None.
Closing Mood: Lazy Sunday Afternoon
Black and White
Opening Mood: Good Morning Bangalore!
Opening Song: Lakshya - Title track
Saw Subhash Ghai’s movie Black and White yesterday. If not anything, I must say it is a th0ught provoking and a brave attempt by the man who has been known to make only potboiler commercial cinema.
WARNING!: Possible spoiler ahead!
The movie is about a young Fidayeen who comes to Delhi with a mission to blow up the Red fort on the occasion of Independence day. And how is plans his attack, the people he encounters, the clash of ideologies and finally the decision that he makes. Anil Kapoor portrays Rajan Mathur, a resident of Chandni Chowk, and a professor of Urdu at Zakir Hussain college. New comer Anurag Sinha portrays Numair Qazi, the Fidayeen.
The movie begins with a slow pace, introducing the characters, and setting up the premise. It is in the second half that we see the real characteristics coming out. The ruthlessness with which Numair is ready to execute people whom he believes do not follow Islam is really shocking. One wonders what could have made a young man like that to become a fanatic, who knows nothing in life but upholding his interpretation of Quran.
There were a couple of really hard hitting sequences in the movie. The scene where Numair goes to an MLA to ask for a Independence day Pass and finds that Hindu and Muslim youth leaders offering bribe to the MLA to get some private favors and making it clear that the rivalry is purely political. This was followed by a scene where Numair’s cousin, who owns a travel agency, trying to sell a Hindu Pilgrimage package to a customer with pthe passion that Numair simply couldn’t identify with. He concludes that the Muslims in this country have sold out. When his cousin tries to explain him the concept of “customer is the king”, he tries to attack the cousin, asking him “What right do you have to call yourself a mussalman? And if you cannot be a mussalman, what right do you have to live?” This sequence where he openly displayed his fundamental nature, did shock me for a second.
It takes the murder of Rajan Mathur’s wife, Roma Mathur played by Shefali Shah, by Numair’s accomplices, and Rajan’s mature reaction to it, that forces Numair to rethink his ideologies. Inside the Red Fort, just before he plans to execute the attack, he senses the first speck of doubt about his actions and decides to abort the mission. And subsequently asks the question, “What is the right way of Jehaad? What’s greater in Jihaad? Killing and Dying? Destroying or Saving? If it is saving, what is it that we are saving ?”
Throughout the movie, Numair’s ideology was that of a single minded Fidayeen, who would not deviate from his mission, and never question his ideologies. He was a man, for whom following the Quran was the only way of life. So the abrupt change of heart inside the Red Fort does come as a bit of surprise. That in my opinion is the only problem with the movie. However, one could argue, that these thoughts were taking birth in his mind right from the moment he encountered the different types of Muslims than the ones he was used to in his native country, and Rajan’s reaction and comments inside the Red Fort only triggered the freeing of these thoughts. If this was the case, I feel it could have been portrayed a bit better.
Nevertheless, it is an honest attempt. I would suggest you go watch it
Closing Song: Main Jahaan Rahoon - Namaste London.
Closing Mood: Hungry for breakfast!
