One of my batchmates @ NIT Kurukshetra from Kerala is one awesome chap. He calls me up atleast once every 1-2 months, and gives me gyaan! A lot of gyaan! Listening to him makes you more aware of the world than you have ever been before! The best thing - he is never drunk when giving this gyaan :) Just think how much more one could learn if he were actually drunk.
Anyways, he called me up a few days ago (I remembered that I still have his number stored in my mobile - can't forget some chaps I guess) with another dose of his monthly gyaan. And it was awesome as usual. We talked about many issues (well, he talked and I mostly listened), and here are some nice theories that he postulated on two issues. I will refer to him as PJ (just a short form of his name and not meant to be taken as a pun in any way)
1. Japan is to Asia what Germany is to Europe
PJ postulated that Japanese and Germans are very similar in their attitudes w.r.t. the rest of the people in their continents i.e. Japan:Asia as Germany:Europe. Some of his points of argument were as follows:
1. Sense of Humour: How many jokes have you heard that involve either the Japanese or the Germans? Compared to that, how many jokes have you heard involving the French or the Italians or the Chinese or us Indians? I hope you get my point. The Japanese and the Germans do not see the funny side to anything. They are the "point-wise people" i.e. very practical in their attitude.
2. Product Marketing: They are two of the most brilliant manufacturing giants in the world, yet they do not carry the tag of "the best marketed products" at all. Just think about it - Aston Martin, Ferrari, Fiat and Rolls-Royce have a brand image, a very distinct brand image, although they do not certainly make the best cars. BMW and Mercedes-Benz do make some of the best cars ever, but they are the best technologically, and not exactly practical for public usage. I have also heard of the dismal state of the customer service centres of BMW. From the Japanese side, we have our very own "Sony" - which can easily rival and even beat Apple ant time. But in our minds, more often than not, Apple steals the mind share more than Sony ever did.
3. Food: How many times have you heard of specialty Japanese / German cuisine, as compared to; say Chinese / French / Italian / Thai? For them, food is something they need to eat and serve, and not for marketing it around the world.
4. The God Syndrome: The Germans (Eg: Nazis) and the Japanese suffer from the “I am God” psychology – it’s not a generalization, but history has shown that to be true.
2. Aamir Khan's movies are all the same
PJ says that most of AKs movies revolve around a similar funda in a broader sense - You don’t see the repetitiveness because of gap in timing – comes every 2 years.
Ghulam: Man starts small, grows to become big in his own way. All people opposed to him, but eventually they like him.
Raja Hindustani: Man starts small. All main people opposed to him, but eventually they like him.
Taare Zameen Par: The limelight shifted on the kid, but Aamir tries to steal the limelight (I was also like you as a kid, and look where I am now)
3 Idiots: Small-town man, big ideas; Head of the college hates him, finally loves him.
I know this is too less to generalize, but most of his movies carry very similar themes. I felt the same. But it's the case with most Hindi movies, just that with Aamir, it becomes more pronounced.
Ciao for now. Enough for today :)
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