Zootopia- what I like about this 3D animated movie

I saw Zootopia twice, first with grandkids and then with better-half.

I feel the movie is a bit over the top for kids, unless they are already thinking of career choices and how to make the world a better place for everyone. And whatever your age, if you like crisp dialogue, great 3D animation (especially trains speeding amok), the American Urban Dream, and some wild adventure, you are going to fall in love with this movie.

Many hot buttons of popularity are pressed nonchalantly by Disney Studios:

1. The hero is a young, tiny, girl rabbit, Officer Judy Hopps who doen't blink when she says, "It's called a hustle, sweetheart!", with a boldness and courage belying her social stereotype-imposed self-image and dimunitive size. She pairs up with a wily, well-networked, fox who's on the bend after having been a bit of a vagabond himself. The two make a delightful pair as they take on the notorious complications of a complex urban world full of wheels within wheels of good, bad, lazy, and ugly bits all mixed up nicely. 
2. You do have spoofs of famous movie moments.
3. You have, to boot, Shakira herself appearing as a sexy gazelle, singing and dancing her way into every bison and leopard heart.
4. Animals who think, act, speak human, no, make it American dreamer, all the time.

Go watch it. and tell me what you think!

Aam Neta

These are interesting times. Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party have formed the government in India's capital state of Delhi within a year of coming into existence. They are coming to terms with governance, and converting the energy of intellectual and moral values into action. The people are going to help them succeed as much as possible, as AAP hold out a hope like nobody else has done since the days of Gandhi.

Then there is Modi and his BJP.  BJP is a party rooted in the past, not your Freedom Fighter past like Congress but India's ancient Hindu past, which stands for pride, excellence and high values. In reality though. It is another party supported largely by traders and businessmen. BJP has never really tried to look squeaky clean. But Modi is different. He is known for his track record of growth in Gujarat, firm principles, a kind of intolerance which may in fact stand for strength to some people. He has not been accused of corruption even by his enemies, which is saying a lot for a hard-core Indian politician.

There is no need to discuss the Congress, as it is living in the past, trying to make an ageing and underperforming cricket team with no ideas or coaches to win a cricket match against two strongly led and popular teams.

Now the interesting bit. Modi and BJP seem really afraid of Aam Aadmi party. They are hell bent on proving them fakes and stooges of the Congress. Does that make sense? To me it does not. I cannot imagine a party like BJP unable to deal with a third reality. That shows some senility indeed!

Now let us come to what India wants. India wants growth, development and opportunity for all. Most Indians believe that if they get opportunities, they will succeed. Why the AAP is winning is because they are saying that the average Indian is NOT WINNING because the match is fixed. And that will get a ready echo in everyone's heart because the entire Indian society is created on inequality and nepotism.

SO AAP is a party supported by people who feel helpless and cheated. But once a country starts growing, this sense of despair will slowly give rise to a confidence, like I have seen in Singapore . The only two qualities that are timeless and will help AAP continue winning is their values of CLEAN AND HUMBLE.

What if BJP, instead of fighting the fight against clean governance and equal opportunity, also rides the SAME TWO PRINCIPLES AND THEN BRINGS IN PROVEN LEADERSHIP!!!????

So AAP = CLEAN+HUMBLE+HOPEFUL

BJP can be AAP+ LEADERSHIP.

WHY NOT!!!!!?????? IT JUST COMPLETES THE SENTENCE.

So BJP has to go back to basics and stop fighting AAP.

Unless BJP is so deeply corrupt and sick that they do NOT HOPE to be convincing as a clean and good party for the future.

IF BJP AND AAP WORK TOGETHER.......

What should AAP DO!? Become and remain the best choice for leading the mega cities of India like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai....let them become growth centres spreading the wave of excellence and growth. Not rotting slums. Growth centres run well and cleanly in our star cities will trigger good governance and growth focus in the large populous states of India 

and at the centre, let it be run by BJP. They will also drive foreign trade, defense, commerce and home. They will generate nationwide energies for growth building around the city centres.

When two good qualities are in confrontation, it is a sad situation. Why can't someone be  good and strong!? Like the two wings of a Brahmani kite!?

Modi talks of how new-age India can tap opportunity.

Several months ago I shared here the impressive speech of the Singapore PM about the development of that island nation. Now I share the pitch delivered extempore by Narendra Modi, India's new-age leader, who has just started his fourth term of leadership of India's most exciting development model state Gujarat.

So what are the different buttons an Indian leader can push compared to Singapore PM talking of development?

Skills. 65 percent of Indians are less than 35 years of age and can be the new-age superpower when properly skilled..mentions 1000 skills.

Scale. Modi talks of double digit agri growth, 80% milk yield increase, and looking to become the supplier to the global economy rather than being Walmart's biggest customer.

Speed. When governance makes things happen, becoming a catalyst of enterprise.

Watch this video,you're sure to be inspired:

Time: Steve Jobs, Technology's Great Reinventor

 

"You put soul into technology. Thank you, Steve!"

I bought my first Apple iPod Nano with Nike Sensor kit at their wonderful store on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago 7 years ago. It increased the joy of walking to music, urging me to achieve greater distance and speed, as I walked listening to my beautiful music collection.
I managed to get an iPhone in Sydney a year before it was officially launched there. These products and the iPad I write this on, add a spark to my everyday.
My tribute to Steve Jobs: "You put soul into technology. Thank you, Steve!"
Without adding religious overtones, I can compare what Steve did to technology to the event of Brahmopadesha which makes a man twice born, adding a soul to his body, so he can begin his journey towards liberation. So I really like the Time title "reinventor".

Steve Jobs The Time article link

Wednesday, Oct. 05, 2011
Technology's Great Reinventor: Steve Jobs (1955-2011)
By Harry McCracken
Steve Jobs, whose death was announced on Wednesday night, wasn't a computer scientist. He had no training as a hardware engineer or an industrial designer. The businesses that Apple entered under his leadership — from personal computers to MP3 players to smartphones — all existed before the company got there.
But with astonishing regularity, Jobs did something that few people accomplish even once: he reinvented entire industries. He did it with ones that were new, like PCs, and he did it with ones that were old, such as music. And his pace only accelerated over the years.
He was the most celebrated, successful business executive of his generation, yet he flouted many basic tenets of business wisdom. (Like his hero and soulmate, Polaroid founder Edwin Land, he refused to conduct focus groups and other research that might tell him want his customers wanted.) In his many public appearances as the head of a large public corporation, he rarely sounded like one. He introduced the first Macintosh by quoting Bob Dylan, and took to saying that Apple sat "at the intersection of the liberal arts and technology." (See photos of the long and extraordinary career of Steve Jobs.)

Brilliant PM of a brilliant country