Two old movies

We had some good rainfalls in Delhi during the weekend. I watched two old movies in the weekend: Do Bigha Zamin and Around the World in 80 Days. Both of these were made in 1950s. Do Bigha Zamin depics the struggle of a poor village farmer who has to save his land from the greedy zamindaar. It is one of the classics from Bimol Roy. Around the World in 80 days is adaptation of Jules Verne's novel with the same name. It was awarded 5 oscars .

I'm soooooooooo scared!

Last two days I was hiding in a bunker out-of-fear. Last Friday was Friday the 13th. I woke up and heard that every FM radio was discussing that it was not a good day. I heard the same thing from some friends too. Then yesterday was Saturday with amavasya (the new moon). Saturday is considered inauspicious; amavasya too is considered inauspicious. Yesterday it was a combo deal of inauspiciousness! News channels were showing programs talking to astrologers and discussing how bad was the day. Now tell me how could I lead a normal life in such bad times. So I decided to hide myself in a bunker away from all the evils. I've just come of the bunker and decided to write about the last two bad days in this blog. I'm soooooo happy to survive two consecutive bad days (that came in combo deals).

Jokes apart, I don't know why people in 21st century too believe in these superstitions. Media too helps in spreading these. Media should in fact create awareness that these are wrong. But rationalism has probably no market value. What drives the market is sensationalism.

Using 'i' as first person in place of 'I'

Have you read the articles that Shashi Tharoor has been writing in the Sunday Times these days? He has been recently writing on the US Presidential elections in the editorial page.

I've observed one thing in his articles. He uses 'i' in place of 'I' as first person whenever he has to use this in the middle of a sentence. (He uses 'I' if the sentence begins with it). Is it a new style? Is it some form of humble way of saying 'I'?

(Sometime I too don't feel good to use lot of 'I's in sentences. Many times I prefer to use 'we', specially if I'm working in a team.)

I discussed this in our lunch table group. (I'll write about our lunch table group sometime later in this blog). Yamini, one of the members of the group, googled on the humility front and found some interesting argument and counterargument to the same in a blog. I'm copying her findings below:

Someone wrote:
Personally i use small i's as a sign of humility...

Corey writes...
I think you will find only a very small part of the world will actually understand that a small "i" is a sign of humility - I know I didn't until just now. Most will just consider it a typo or a misunderstanding of convention, on your part.

Another response:

I don't consider the use of a small 'i' to be a sign of humility. As it breaks the convention in written English, it is actually a sign of a lack of humility, as it draws attention to the writer .