Seeking Perfection

Whatever we do, we all tend seek perfection in it. To me a perfect life is too boring. It takes away the element of thrill and surprise.

In software we usually plan for the requirement and handle the exceptions. Planning everything is firstly very difficult and secondly takes the essential zeal from life. It is these minute imperfections that sustains life, keeps it interesting. Liking something or someone wholly is to accept their goods and bads as a package.

If everyone is perfect, world turns too unidimensional. Imagine a world where you know all about the future, there are accurate weather forecast for next 5 years, everyone knows everything about the share market, currencies, surprise gifts, death etc - too drab for me. As human as it is, to seek the elusive is in our bloods. We always try to optimize, become more perfect than what we are.

I believe He left us intensionally imperfect - to foster relationships, to work in tandem, reach out and bridge the gaps. May be we are meant to be perfect when Imperfect - complementary and contradictory.... MAN I am really sleepy...

Prabu Deva

Pretty successful director and actor in Telugu and Tamil. But his dance was something we all miss these days. That too when u see choreography he did for Hrithik's "Main Aisa Kyun Hoon" - think he would have been ever more famous as a dancer/choreographer.










For those who haven't seen his Tamil/Telugu movies, his fight sequences as fluid and wonderful as his dances.

Funny article

Was doing a study on ancient Indian weapons used in combat. Came across this article. Incredibly funny and interesting. Talks about pandavas having missiles more advanced than todays US and Russian missiles :)

Also than nuke weapons, vimanas (flying cars), aliens and UFOs involved in mahabaratha. Amazingly funny -lol

Cine Music - Progressive decay

I am an avid listener of Indian film music - mostly Hindi and Tamil with occasional Mallu and Punjabi.

My observation is that the melody part of music is dwindling. Starting from the days of Burmans till today, background music has taken the foreground and the melody is becoming progressively difficult to find. Instruments and technology, instead of augmenting the tone and meaning of the song, tend to be more dominating and commercialized.

This is not to undermine any great music director of todays. They do produce some of the most melodious songs of today. But if I should compare Rahman and Ilayaraja, I should confess that Raja's songs are better. Same goes when you comparing KV Mahadevan or Ramamoorty-Viswanathan to Ilayaraja. It is like wine - the older it gets, better it tastes.

I still have the craze for latest songs etc, but nothing compares to the older ones. I believe I am not alone when I say that - what we hear when WE are young has much more lasting impact...

Half Sciences and Whole Hoaxes

Many pseudo scientific practices are still widely followed and accepted today. These entities tend to use a lot of scientific calculations etc to come up with a result which is not very consistent or accurate

Astrology (allied subjects like horoscopes, palmistry, clairvoyance, FenShui/Vaasthu), Homeopathy, Signature Analysis, concept of destiny or fate, Gem stones giving special benefits, some forms of psychology.... These are just costly placebos for real problems that are within our mind. Result don't have any reproducibility, accuracy or relevance. Following or not following these things religiously affects your psychological state more than anything else.

Lot of times these things give us the confidence to overcome our problem - which in itself is good. But getting conditioned to these items, causes a very bad dependency. When things go good, our belief is reinforced so much - that when things go bad, we stop our efforts - hide behind these things and blame planets or fate. Again as any controversial subject, believers are eager to prove that the results instead of explaining the basis for arriving at them.

The North-South Divide

Any country that I have seen, there are a few common differences between the northern part and the southern part. I have first hand experience of these in India, US and UK, have read similar facts about other big countries like Russia, China and Japan. Don't know if these are just my observations - or if there are some theories to explain this already

• North is usually more industrially developed than south
• Generally all the major economic hubs are towards the north
• South is more conservative and traditional.
• Southern languages has a very heavy accent and tonal modulation than north (Cantonese, Malayalam, Southern slang in US and UK)
  
• Food is more spicy and greasy in the south than North (China - Szechuan, India - andra, Chettinadu, America - steak from any southern state)
  
• People from north have a kind of sophistication and openness in thought - In contrast people from south are more clever(fickle) and closed
• Art forms are generally better matured and preserved in South than North.
• Martial art - most southern styles (in India, China, Thailand and Korea) are predominantly fist based whereas the northern styles involve lot of footwork, high kicks and flying kicks etc.

Metros are usually exceptions, as they team with people from every part of the country.

Tibet's problems - a different perspective

This is a Pakistani think tank's article about the issues in Tibet. Interesting read - though we can only speculate about the facts.

Falling In Love(s)

Have you ever felt attracted to more than one person at the same time? and did not want discount either?

Love is blind. So let one love/lover be blind about the existence of the other.. whats wrong with that? (No I am not a jerk - read on..) . If you have enough love and time to share (and for guys - enough money to spare), why not love more than one person at the same time??

Some people consider monogamy as being with one person for life, others put it as being with only one person at any given time - formally breaking up before starting next relationship, the third category is what we are discussing.

This idea does sound repulsive. But I have seen sh*t like this happen to some 2-3 of my acquaintances (both guys and gals). Liking each one for certain qualities in them. I could never digest this idea - they sounded like sl*ts and male-sl*ts. Since love itself is an abstract illogical concept for me, may be I will never understand this!

Chanakya - The Genius

An important personality who has affected my thinking so comprehensively. Exponent of the religious texts, pioneer in economics, brilliant in political science and diplomacy, established one of the earliest universities for advanced studies in political science,...

He is a figure who can be compared to Sun Tzu of China or Machiavelli or Europe. Revolutionary ideas, gutsy strategies, clarity of thought and action, amazing tactician. He was poor Brahman with nothing but brains and guts who went on to create and ensure sustenance of an entire dynasty. Most of his ideas regarding politics and economics still holds good till date.

He was so good that there are some from south India who claims he was from Kerala/TamilNadu.

He was instrumental in his country surviving the Greek invasion of Alexander the Great, scoped Indian history throughout his lifetime and produced many successful students who carried his legacy forward long after his death. There was a wonderful serial on Door Darshan about Chanakya's life history. Dont miss it if you get a chance - even if you are not too interested in the character, you will hear a Hindi which is unsullied by urdu, persian, arabic etc.

Are We Animal Enough?

On one side we still see controlled violence everywhere - our very animal of instincts. On the other side we are typically moving away from the animal part of ourselves.

Starting from video games, sports, martial arts, capital punishment to military violence, we see some form of controlled aggression everywhere. Some kind of violence warranted legal and acceptable. How much ever civilized we call ourselves, the most carnal of the human instincts never subside - need for sex and violence. May be there are not meant to be! Even the most pacific of people have the necessity to express these feelings if they have to be healthy.

On the other side, with increasing dependence on technology, we are moving farther, faster than before from the natural world. Just imagine if you can survive a week left alone in a jungle with dangerous predators. We are used to getting fruits and milk in plastic packings, off the shelves of supermarkets. How did they land up there? Nobody cares. We started specializing so much that none of us have the entire set of skills to survive. We don't know to make our own food, clothes or home. Human infants are the most helpless - unable to walk for one full year - whereas some animals start running within moments of their birth. Just imagine one day of your life without plastics, metal, concrete or glass...

We are turning slaves to technology and material around us. Losing our survivability in the name of civilization. May be it is a swinging pendulum, currently moving towards one extreme...

I do not know what the third world war will be fought with, but the fourth world war will be fought with sticks and stones - Albert Einstein

Hail India

Reversal of economic exploitation - Check this out
Feels good to see stats like this :) though the government will be giving more than half of that as defense spending back to US.

Another attempt - God Vs Science

Hope you enjoy this

Intuition or Luck?

I have this close relative of mine. Everyone who know him says he has a unique level of intuition. It may not be the biggest things in life. For example, if a phone rings, he would know who is calling without picking it up more than 80% of the time. Same with letters and guests coming home that day, meeting someone just in time, etc.,

Something that I have noticed is that, what we see and hear, unconsciously gets registered in our brains - though we don't want to remember it. When something relative to that happens, your brain automatically corroborates and thinks a step ahead. We can call this intuition or luck or God. Everyone of us have a bit of this innate ability. But in this person's case, the hit-rate or % success is way above average.

There is a myth that people who are good at heart for a long enough time, acquire this kind of "gifts"!! I am not so easily impressed by myths. But personally I feel that people good-at-heart don't waste their brain contemplating. Much of the noise is reduced - they don't have much enemies, no suspicious thoughts, no alerts/dangers. In general more positive and optimistic people. Probably they are able to absorb information better - their sub-conscious brains are much more capable. Taking leave with a couple of quotes from some smart-asses

Trust your hunches. They're usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level. ~Dr. Joyce Brothers
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. - Seneca, Roman dramatist

Differences

We humans are great at finding patterns in anything that we sense. I think evolution made us this way - to differentiate than to integrate. Yet another way to say you are not like me, well, not exactly.

Our obsession with pattern recognition has not stopped with classification of elements, plants, animals, objects. We went further to create divisions in the name of religion, castes, sub-caste, sub-sub-castes, lingo, economic status, Ideas and so on. Why do you think we need continuously segregate ourselves? Doesn't this go against the basic theory that man is a social animal?

Since all the pagan gods of Egypt, Zoroastrian, Indo-Aryan and Greece were not sufficient, Christ established Christianity, Mohammad established Islam. Checkpoint 1: were they united among their individual groups now? No. Christians had further sub classifications like protestants, catholics. Muslims have the Shiites, Sunnies and likewise. Don't even think about Hinduism - it has thousands of such classifications, entire trees with more nodes and branches than the binomial tree. Buddha preached that there is no God, for that, they made him a God - again there is subdivision which considers him god and the other sect considers him human. Checkpoint 2: Alright, now that all these subdivisions are created, are they happy?

No way. Do you: earn as much as me? have a Similar lifestyle? act as mature? share the ideals and values? Communist/Capitalist/Feminist/Chauvinist......? . Checkpoint 3: Never ending list of question - till you find yourself different from a person next to you. May be we are happy to be unique - OR - May be because we love problem solving, and being together reduces these problems. Ignoring the initial flair for socializing, perhaps we are not so social......

Explaining a Joke

The essential elements of humor is timing and surprise. Have you ever met someone who needs a detailed explanation to understand a joke?

By the time you finish explaining it, you would lost any sense of humor associated with it. Right then the other person will start laughing. That time all you can manage is a wry smile. I can understand the very small kids and senile old people not catching the jokes of today. But the dumb lot in-between these two are exquisite, humorous :)

It is generally said that humor is expression of a superiority complex (characters in the joke do something stupid, shameful that you will never wanna do). In that respect these people whom you are explaining the jokes, become you future joke!

Kaziranga - Tiger attack

For those who havent seen it yet.. That jump certainly looks effortless!

The Nuke Deal

Neither side is open about the pain points or catch phrases. There is opposition to US-India nuke deal in both countries. Read this

Meetings will CPI(M) in India are in last stages - may be a few suitcases from Congress will do the trick (if Russia or China is not paying them more)

Update from The Hindu. And another article of how much US is willing to stretch.

Next - Michael Crichton

It is a sci-fi novel about genetics. I dint like the novel as much. One para caught my attention - about adults still showing child like behavior due to some gene (Technical definition -psychological neoteny). Here it is:

Charlton thinks this may be adaptive. "A child-like flexibility of attitudes, behaviors and knowledge" may be useful in navigating the increased instability of the modern world, he says, where people are more likely to change jobs, learn new skills, move to new places. But this comes at a cost of "short attention-span, frenetic novelty seeking, ever shorter cycles of arbitration, fashion, and... a pervasive emotional and spiritual shallowness". He added that modern people "lack a profundity of character which seemed commoner in the past."

Nice line of thought - sounds more scientific than fictional. How true do you think this is? if true, Is it good or bad? Are we all behaving more like kids than adults?

LAVI model

This is a small model of the canceled Israeli LAVI aircraft project. Of course the original would not have been this good.. enjoy!!

My friend and I

We use to get people into this argumentative mode.

That too when some one is vehemently supporting/opposing something, we will team up and argue that the exact opposite is true. We don't have an affinity to the "other" side... but just to spice up the argument and keep it going.

It will be fun when the other person is all serious trying to convince you about the validity of his points. We too may agree inside - but.., . If it gets too logical we will try to divert the focus laterally - or look for mis-formed sentences/words etc. The idea is that two minds can think faster than one - asymmetric warfare!.

The bigger the group, the better. Even passive listeners have the tendency to join the dominant side. With some amount of practice, you will hit the same frequency - you will intuitively know what your partners line of though is. Open mind, lateral thinking and qualities of a total Jerk - are all that you need. Try responsibly ;)

Pat on the back

Acknowledgment and a few words describing how good a person or her/his action is.

How many of us really make it a point to give these small words of appreciation? It may be nothing for you, but means a lot for the receiver. The corollary is evident - just imagine how pissed off you are when someone doesn't give a good grade in school or an appraisal in job. A little pat on the back, a smile and a "good job" is what everyone craves for. Unlike praise and appreciation, money and position lose their motivating effect half way.

I feel that fear is the culprit. The assumption that appreciating someone is self-demeaning or gives an "easily-impressed" stamp for you, is common. This makes it difficult to say something critical about the same person - when they do something bad. "Why is it necessary? she/he just did her/his job" is another argument. Machines do their job. Humans need proof that their effort made a difference to someone.

Any alternate views?

Sensationalization

This is about the sad state of Indian news media.

Hope you all remember the incident of Gere kissing Shilpa on stage. News like this will be a tit-bit news in tabloids in other countries. In India, it was the headlines in major news papers for days together. Protests by womens rights groups and the activists. For what? a women who is getting paid in lakhs to get kissed by a different actor in every movie? For god-sake there are more real life problems for women - try fighting for that. (I will stop before someone brands me anti-feminist)

News is no more reporting of facts. It is the medias interpretation of events and their own opinion about it. Every news paper, channel is owned by some political party or religious groups. Every bit of news is carefully twisted to make a dent on the readers mind - reinforcing their propaganda.

I can understand small time players publishing all juicy gossips and tit-bits to increase their minute sales figures. But really good channels like ndtv are finding it hard to fight competition from petties like the Aaj-thaks and the CNN-IBNs. They have also started including more talk shows and opinion debates etc. Sad thing is this must get worse before it can get any better.

At least one news channel or paper should stand against sensationalizing and commercializing news and set a new standard through the quality of facts reported. Else our news will be as crooked as our politicians!

Marriage - The Reality

When you are too late, reality hits you hard. Hints of desperation manifests itself to be way too obvious. Your selection criteria relaxes because you selection pool size decreases.

"Any learning process become tougher, before it becomes easier"

From our early formative ages, we are given tougher problems to crack, which bring out best in us. Well, I see marriage as the next logical step in this. The concept of compromise, patience, sharing and adjustment are defining virtues of a successful marriage. These virtues are not natural to us and have to be learnt. Moreover, the concept provides sense of responsibility and ownership which infuses great self-confidence.  Thought that you have your spouse(man/wife) supporting you at all times gives you the necessary cushion to take bigger strides in life.

In India, marriage is a social necessity. This may be unique to India, but it is one country where we decide to live with and love one person for the rest of our lives. Raising a family, living together with kids, kids taking care of aged parents - brilliantly thought out concepts. Families knit with the fine threads of relationships. Relationships, family and community take precedence over an individual's wish. This is in sharp contrast to the west which places emphasis on the individual importance & freedom of choice.

There are some "goods" to marriage. So why all this hue and cry? Answer is simple - thats the best you can do about it. Everyone talks about it at a certain age and eventually 99% succumb (still think u r part of that 1%?? just wait and watch). Enough time passes, you will realize how much you need long term physical and emotional dependence.

Marriage - The Transformation

Things changed, hence the realization. Now you are in your mid-late twenties

There will be one year in everybody's life where lot of your friends get married. Suddenly you feel like you are left out - lagging in the race. You still hold your inhibitions towards marriage, but your outlook changes dramatically. You confused, not knowing why logical people, friends whom you have known for years are suddenly acting illogical !! But the fact remains that you sense the loneliness  - need to belong and be cared and talked to. Socially, married men have their own circles which you are eager to get into.

As a friend put it, its only the journey which interests us, no the destination. Out thinking changes from looking at marriage as the gates of hellfire to journey into the unknown. The inquisitive part takes over - every one of my friends are married, sure it cant be that bad - let me try it. Still you are not sure if it is good, but curiosity takes over control. There is a new found urgency in improving flirting and dating skills. More active girl/guy search and a hint of desperation creeping in.

Part 3 - The Reality....................... coming up soon.

Marriage - The Ideology

Marriage? Hell no !!

"I just got a job and started earning some money. Why would I have to sacrifice my freedom this early? why cant it wait till i enjoy the world with my hard earned money?"
- Any Indian guy/gal in early twenties

It is a fact that average age of marriage for men and women are on the rise. People don't want to get committed. The general idea is that as long as you have not chosen to live with someone, you still have the choice to choose. This is true even for semi-committed relationships like boyfriends/girlfriends and the engaged couples. The natural tendency is to veer away from the relationship. I personally feel that the more time you spend will someone when uncommitted, the more chance of differences and eventually a breakup.

However, at this age, you tend to be an idealist. What immediately strikes you is that you see people around who are married for a long time and having troubles. For some it may somebody close in the family like a brother or parents themselves. But I can assure you, things change...

Part 2 - The Transformation.......... coming up

Marriage

Thought of doing a series on present trends in marriage.. coming up soon

Two good movies

I hate to write movie reviews. But these two movies I saw lately really makes me do just that. Both were party based on or inspired by true life incidents.

Into the Wild - Amazingly introspective movie. One guy whose parents are fighting all the time. He has an affectionate sister who is also equally unhappy. He sheds all his responsibilities and property to embark on a journey to Alaska - by walk, hiking etc. He finds lot of really good people on the way - an affectionate of couples, a con, a beautiful girl, an old man etc. With each one of them he finds a special bond. But shrugs off all those relationships for reaching his goal. He reaches his destination only to find that - hate and selfishness can only take you so far.

In The Valley of Elah - One determined and loving father (retired military cop) of a soldier in Iraq takes upon himself the investigation of the brutal murder of his son. It is not a usual detective story. The depth in characterization, the brutality of the crime, fact that is it his second son and he already lost his first for the country - somethings to look for. Again, this is not some cheap thriller but a deeply emotional drama. But you will surely get some kick from the actual story itself - which is very rare achievement for a drama.

Contradicting Proverbs :)

All good things come to those who wait. BUT Time and tide wait for no man.

The pen is mightier than the sword. BUT Actions speak louder than words.

Wise men think alike. BUT Fools seldom differ.

The best things in life are free. BUT There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Slow and steady wins the race. BUT Time waits for no man.

Look before you leap. BUT Strike while the iron is hot.

Do it well, or not at all. BUT Half a loaf is better than none.

Birds of a feather flock together. BUT Opposites attract.

Don’t cross your bridges before you come to them BUT Forewarned is forearmed.

Doubt is the beginning of wisdom. BUT Faith will move mountains.

Great starts make great finishes. BUT It ain’t over ’till it’s over.

Practice makes perfect. BUT All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Silence is golden. BUT The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

You’re never too old to learn. BUT You can’t teach an old dog new tricks

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. BUT One man’s meat is another man’s poison.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. BUT Out of sight, out of mind.

Too many cooks spoil the broth. BUT Many hands make light work.

Hold fast to the words of your ancestors. BUT Wise men make proverbs and fools repeat them.

Lacking space here. Some more are listed here and here

Software Developer - a Poem

Tried to fit the last word of one line with the first word of the next inside a stanza :)

Software is the new craze
Craze that brings you money
Money is what veils a daze
Daze that makes life funny

Countless hours of writing code
Code and their test cases
Case of donuts coffee too
Too less time that face us

Forget friends and forget fun
Fun is whats for a manager
Manger, smooth talks with pun
Pun that spoils your mood under

Wasting the prime part of life
Life that has so much more
More of pain and stress and the like
Like it or not makes you sore

Pleasure or Pressure?

How many of us really like the work we do? This question is to any one from a developing country with a lot of competition.

What we wish to do becomes at the most, our hobby and at the worst, a forgotten aspiration. There is always some talent which is natural and innate in everyone. This may be very meager in terms of commercial value or as a career choice. But you would be naturally better than most and little more effort makes you the best. Most important thing is your fun quotient. You don't feel putting in 10 hours straight as an effort but as sheer fun !

There is unfortunately a divide in developing and developed nations here. Things are more conducive in developed nations. Whatever is that you like to do - 1. Pays you sufficiently and 2. Doesn't create a social prejudice.
This is not the case with developing economies - first, you have to cut the competition, be good at what everyone is doing. Once you get a minimum monetary security, you get some time for other things. You are frowned upon by the society if you don't fit "their" stereo type.

Very few get to do what we like for a living. Others actually start getting used to it. But wishes come back to haunt you with their occasional flash-backs...

Fear

What do you sell in a developed economy? People have the capacity to buy everything. When there is too less or too much of supply, people don't want company. Reason to be united as a nation disappears.So demand of what, can keep unity going? Creating a sense of fear, and keeping it up.

A perception of an ever looming threat. If this idea is brought by people, selling them guns, selling reasons to start wars, selling more security equipment, cameras, more television programs based on violence and danger etc becomes easy. Every time you watch TV or read a news paper, you feel insecure. Suddenly a new door is opened to selling more unnecessary products.On a national level - machines to find anthrax, expenditure to destroy afghan terror camps and Iraq WMDs, new weapon programs, surveillance, satellites, more violent TV show and not to mention the crime news coverage!

Selling ideas of new and more dangerous diseases (saw a commercial about restless-feet-disorder - keep shaking your foot? you should be sick). And coming up with costly medications for the same. Selling sickness is easy - keep suggesting symptoms, till they start feeling they have one.. Then there is the fear of fat. We decided to change our food (costs money but fast) than our lifestyles(costs time but free). Of course current lifestyle has totally isolated daily activities from physical workouts. A quick and dirty fix? replacing all that is natural on the shelf by engineered products. Ultimately we are paying for the extra research and marketing cost. Ever see an adjective-less product? lowfat-milk, seedless-fruit, zero calorie-coke..

Remember its your money going into all these beautiful adjectives...!!

How Crap Sells

Sure you would have notices all these "How to" books. How to be a manager in 24 hours, 7 habits of the highly successful, How to make friends, How to loose 10 pounds in 1 month etc. The list includes a lot of exotic things like music, painting, cooking, gardening,sports. Some self-demeaning series are "The complete Idiots guide to..." and the "Dummy's". When you pick up such a book, you invariably accept that you are an idiot or a dummy - it is not about the subject matter or author - if YOU are dumb, a book can never make a difference.

How can people invest in all these books? I know something about art-forms and they can not be learnt with a book. Period. IMO Management, Self-improvement, Leadership, making friends are arts. I doubt if even people who write these books follow their own methods. But when you read them, it seems like the most logical and eternal truth.

Let me tell you something - sounding logical is very easy, formulating a working logic work and making it really work is the tougher part. For example, how do you rob a bank?
1. Become invisible, 2. Walk In, 3. Load your bags with cash 4. Make the bag invisible too 5. Walk out  6. Become Visible
100% logical as long are you can make it work. This is how generic and vague that the how-to books are.

Another interesting twist that these books have is their fan base. People using it will start canvassing for it. Of course there are some books which give you real tips for improvement, but they are so rare, that is is difficult to isolate it amoung all the psycho-babble. The authors own opinion and prejudice is the cause of failure. So just read these things as you read story books. Lesser your expectations, you will have lesser disappointment. My advice, write a similar book yourself and turn filthy rich.

Taking pills - Chris Rock

US health industry is dicovering newer diseases every day and coming up with pills. Hilarious video - but ther is some truth to it..

Who needs a war?

I was reading a Tolstoy article on patriotism. So, Who really needs a war? The common man does not. The sense of a community and cooperation is strongest at an individuals level. But the fate of countries lay in the hands of a powerful few. Most of the times the soldier on the field does not even comprehend the reasons for killing people across the line. I believe the only differences are their language and uniform..

Tolstoy's view - nations formed to establish peace and to do that, they need to war; and patriotism is their key to enslaving the minds of people. My opinion - From a point of view of the man holding the gun and facing the enemy, only thing that matters - to survive. He has a family he needs to get back to, and he will anything to stay alive. At this initial level, it is your animal instincts over your rational. After seeing the damage, our brains start thinking and we do stop... eventually.

Wars have enable countries to jump start their economies (US, Japan, France..). US after 1930's economic trough, entered the WWII to propel its economy. Another thing is the sustenance of wars. If you look at Vietnam, Afghanistan and now Iraq, the idea is to continuously keep it going so that you can keep allocating funds, making new weapons, paying troops - all of them keep your economy going. Ultimately the individual's life become dispensable and what matters is that few people are satisfied with general outcome. Does it sound like Japanese imperialism or German Nazism? well you think about it..

Some Fine lines

Some fine lines...

Genius and Insanity
Trust and Faith
Bravery and Stupidity
Patriotism and Blind Ego
Love and obsession
Working the law and breaking the law
Freedom struggle and Terrorism