Sandy's top 10 movie picks

 Hi friends!

This is the first of my series of 'Sandy's top 10 picks' blog series. Recently I have been on the internet searching for suggestions for a product and then going through product reviews. Many would list down top picks and some would write about the top 3 pros and cons. This gave me an idea to write down about my top picks in different categories. I start off with the movies section with this post - 

1. Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa - 1994 - Starring Shahrukh Khan (Sunil). This is a story about Sunil who likes music and is part of a band that performs in Goa. The family tries to force him to study and doesn't approve much of his musical talent. From IMDB - "A dreamer falls for a girl who is in love with someone else and tries to create a rift between her and the man she loves."

Recently I saw an old interview of Shahrukh Khan and he mentioned this is his favorite movie too. The lesson he learned from the movie - it is okay to be confused and not have complete clarity at times. Every person has some values and beliefs which makes them unique but not better than anyone else. So Just like our belief, others have their own and no one is better than the other.

2. Pyaar kiya toh darna kya - 1998 - This is comedy + Love. As a kid, I loved the movie for the fun part as well as the songs. The most inspiring part of the movie is the effort taken by Suraj (Salman Khan) to win over Muskaan (Kajol) and her brother. The struggles are real and inspire one to fall true love at all costs.

Ths song - O O Jaane Jaane - and the para - 

Mera Khaab Mere Khayaloon Ki Rani

Kisi Din Banegi Humari Kahani

Ye Kasam Maine Li

Pyaar Mein Ek Din

Meri Jaan Tujhe Hai Paana

Sapnoo Mein Roz Aaye

Aa Zindagi Mein Aa Na

O O Jaane Jaana

Dhoondhe Tujhe Deewana

Sapnoo Mein Roz Aaye

Aa Zindagi Mein Aa Na Sanam

3. Rab ne bana di jodi - 2008 - There is a lot of controversy about the main plot - that how come the wife didn't recognize the husband when he shaved off the mustache. Some of my friends came to my rescue and explained that in Superman also something similar happens. This movie also casts my favorite actor and actress and that is another reason for this being a special one.

The cinematography is just amazing and so are the songs. The movie teaches that - Haule Haule love ho jayega. On one side Suroi goes through a lot of hard work to make Taani happy but refuses to change to get Taani's love. Another aspect that movie covers well is the forces of nature. Suri and Taani get the same number (21 - my birthdate) and then they pair up as a dancing couple.

Time to move onto some motivational and inspiring movies - 

4. Jo Jeeta wohi Sikandar - 1992 - This movie is just so motivating - Hard work and dedication can make you champ - it doesn't matter where you are in the present moment. Also, as the title suggests - at the end what matters is - who Won, who is the Champ?

This movie is my Marathon movie - I watch it a night before my marathon run. This never disappoints and it always lifts up my spirit. The movie helps me remember the reason why I started running and the importance to finish the 42 km run. In the end, the one crossing the line matters.

5. Kung Fu Panda - 2008 - I am not sure if I should even write about this. This is just AWESOME. The punch lines leave a long-lasting impact on me whenever I see it. This is both for kids and adults. I always learn something new about myself whenever I watch this. This again tells us that you just need to believe and work hard and you can achieve the impossible.

The noodle dream - I keep getting coding dreams :P

There is no secret ingredient - for anything to be special we just need to believe that it is special.

There is no good and bad news - there is just news.

The list just goes on. Do watch it if you haven't yet.

6. Rocky Balboa - 4 - 1985 - This movie again shows how you can conquer the impossible, that is not the beauty of the movie for me. The beauty lies in the journey. In the previous part of the movie, Rocky loses his coach and it showcases how he cope up with that. In this part, he loses his friend and former champion Apollo. Apollo died in a match with Draco and Rocky accepts to fight Draco.

His support system is almost gone and the hardest blow comes when his wife doesn't support him and she is sure that Rocky would die - calling it a suicide mission. In spite of all this Rocky goes ahead and chooses the most non-conventional way of training. To achieve something you haven't before, you need to train differently than before and train harder.

Rocky tries to convince his wife to let him fight  - "Oh, Adrian. Adrian always tells the truth. No maybe I can't win. Maybe the only thing I can do is just take everything he's got. But to beat me he's gonna have to kill me, and to kill me he's gotta have the guts to stand in front of me, and to do that he's gotta be willin to die himself. I don't know if he's ready to do that. I don't know. I don't know."

7. Men of honor - 2000 - Not sure how many of you have watched this. The film was directed by George Tillman Jr. It is inspired by the true story of Master Chief Petty Officer Carl Brashear, the first African American master diver in the United States Navy.

This movie has some great punch lines too - 

Jo: Why do you want this so badly?

Carl Brashear: Because they said I couldn't have it

“The Navy Diver is not a fighting man, he is a salvage expert. If it is lost underwater, he finds it. If it's sunk, he brings it up. If it's in the way, he moves it. If he's lucky, he will die young, 200 feet beneath the waves, for that is the closest he'll ever get to being a hero.”

Beware what you wish for cookie

8. Planes - Fire and rescue - 2014 - A Pixar movie and part two of planes -  about a plane that used to be a racer and was a world champion. This is an animated movie where Cars, Planes, etc speak and tell their story. The plane's engine is damaged and can never race again. The only hope for the plane's survival is to join the fire and rescue team. This is an inspiring story of how a champion finds meaning and purpose in life after an early retirement from the sport. It is really good for kids. It teaches about friendship, hard work, and caring about others.

9. Golmaal - 1979 - Life is not only about race and Love. It should be filled with humor and fun too. Golmaal the old one is my all-time favorite in this category. It is just funny and you can watch it over and over again.

10. Hera Pheri - 2000 - Yeh baborao ka style Hai !!!

Some of the movies that missed by list just by a whisker - 
1. Dil to pagal hai
2. Kuch kuch hota hai
3. No entry
4. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
5. Karate Kid

I hope you like it. Would like to hear about your comments and feedback on the blog content. My next post would be on top 10 (auto)Biographies. Till then go and re-watch your favorite movie.

Top 10 (Auto)Biographies pick - sandys-top-10-autobiographies-pick.html

Top 10 Chocolate pick - sandys-top-10-chocolate-picks

PS - all the pics are taken from IMDB

print("Hello World") - the most useful function

print("POST STARTED")

 print("Hello World") - I am sure 90% of you would have started your coding journey with this statement. I often goTo - "google.com" to check if the internet is working or not and to check if a language is properly installed or not - I use print("Hello World"). Don't forget you use a variant of print() to get your files printed on a hard copy.

Let us remove the world and focus on print - every language has this function. You don't even need to install additional packages to run this command. There are different circumstances where you will use print(). If you are developing automation - it makes sense to write a log file this can be easily achieved using print() (some languages require you to use write()). While executing a process on the console - the print() can help us track if the script is taking correct inputs or not. The same can be used to add messages to the popup window and make the codes more interactive.

I use print() primarily for debugging the script and secondarily for logging status. I just can't imagine having to debug a script without a print(). In the past couple of years, I worked on a Linux environment which had no dedicated display. The only way to see the script status was the console window. This is when I started exploring print command even more. I start off with adding a print command before and after a function call. This helps me to drill down on the function which is creating the issue. I would then divide the function (which is causing an error) into 3-4 blocks and add print commands at each break. Then I would go to a particular section in a function and I keep drilling down till I find the main issue causing line.

When drilling down to a particular line in code I would add print commands like - 

print("Entering function editFile")

print("editFile function finished")

print("Line 1.1")

print("line 1.2")

.
.
.
.

This might seem a bit crude but it always works for me. Then comes the interesting part and the most useful feature of print(). no matter what you give as an argument to print command - it will print it most of the time. You pass on the variable value to see what while is getting assigned a variable while the script is running. You can easily combine string and variable values.

print("Value of i = "+ $i)

Then, be it the matrix, array, vector, string, or even an entire file - you can simply print it without worrying much about the syntax. Let me speak a bit about print in python specifically. You give different object types in print and it will format it accordingly before printing. This just enhances readability by leaps and bounds. You read a CSV file and say print and it will highlight the column names for you and display the data as if you are seeing an excel sheet. you give it a 1-D array and it will print it in one row. You give 3-D array and it selects the best possible view to show the data.

The words may not seem to do the justice to the usefulness of the print() but once you start coding you will appreciate it. For the users using automation and checking the log files - remember the pains and efforts someone took to write a print statement in their code to make the end process user friendly. I would love to hear about your take on the print().

print("POST ENDED")

A decade of transition

 Yesterday I went to a showroom to buy a second AC for my house and that is when I realized how much life and things around it have changed in a decade. In this digital world, a trend. social movement or a hashtag spreads faster than the forest fire. Recent trending is #BlackLivesMatter. Few others in recent times were #metoo, kiki challenge, ice bucket challenge, black and white photo, 10-year challenge, etc. So the 10-year challenge - in this we were to upload our recent pic along with a pic 10 year back. Preferable with same people/environment. Back then I didn't take the challenge too seriously and didn't search my gallery for the past memories. Yesterday, something hit me and I took a break from everything to reflect back on my life now and 10-12 years back.

I say 12 years because 2008 - was a big year for me. I got admitted to an Engineering college and moved to a new house. 2008 was also the year when terrorist strike Mumbai - Taj, CST, Trident hotel. 2010-2020 is 10 years and this can be equally divided into college and professional life. from 2010 - 5 years were spent in college and the next 5 years in Mahindra. As usual, let me drill down to some important areas of my life worth highlighting.

Health is Wealth - 

2010 - I was in the 3rd yeard of Engineering and health was ok. I was just about healthy but not involved in many outdoor activities. I used to play occasionally with my building friends and I also went to join for a year. Then there was a break for a year and finally, I was in heaven - IIT Bombay. There is a different level of energy there - acads, sports, extracurricular - etc. After a year I picked up running to improve my fitness and gradually my stamina increased. It took me three more years of training to complete my first full marathon. Even in my wildest dream, I wouldn't have imagined running a marathon, let alone a sub-5-hour marathon. Things were good and I had never been fitter. In Chennai, I used to go for a 60-80 km long cycle ride every weekend. In past years, I have reduced my running and cycling distance. This year particular has been tough to be disciplined and I have gained some extra pounds around my waist.

Bumsonsaddle - Cycling - 

2008 when I moved to a new house, I left my old cycle back. In Engineering there was no time or need for me to cycle. In 2012 I moved to IIT and I bought my first geared cycle there. It was a decent 18 gear hybrid cycle. IIT B has many ups and down - in acad and on roads - so the gear was necessary. 2015 - I moved to Chennai for work and in 2016 I bought my first road bike. I used it to commute to the office too since the office was only 4 km away. Main purpose of a road bike was to prepare for triathlon and also stay fit. It was no geared but helped me get used to the posture of the road bike and I learn how to maintain your own road bike. In 2017 I bought my first geared road bike and it was so light and fast. So the point of the cycle is just to highlight how a simple thing like cycle changed its shape over the 10 last 10 years. I mean we don't plan that in the next 10 years I will have three cycles or I will run a marathon and then give up on it. Who does that?

My residency -

2008 - New house. I got to enjoy it for relatively less time. In 2012 I got into IIT B and then it was part-time home and part-time hostel. It was quite fun though, enjoying the best of both the worlds. Then the biggest game-changer was my placement in Mahindra and Mahindra. Again - something I never imagined - I never imagined I would be moving out of Mumbai for work or for anything else. I have learned one thing in the last decade - A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it. I changed a couple of flats there. All were spacious three BHK. The area is some 50 km away from the main city and so it was easy to build spacious houses. It was the first time I moved out of my comfort zone and it wasn't easy for a couple of months. Thanks to my batchmates and flatmates there - they made the transition less painful.

Pocket Money - Stipend - Salary ---

Those were the days in school I used to get pocket money for a month. I used to use that for my fun stuff and at times save some for parents' birthday or anniversary. Never knew how easy or tough it is to earn and save money. There was no government eating into my share of pocket money. Then again IIT - I was a research assistant and got a good amount of stipend. I remember buying a pen and purse for my parents with my first stipend. This continued for three years. There was a stipend hike in between and my the end of my IIT term my stipend was 15k/month. 2015 - Mahindra and got my first paycheck - I can't express in words the moment I received my first salary. 2015 - 2018/19 I was more into spending mode. Its been just over a month I moved to a savings mode.

Bike - Car --

Just a couple of more topics and I will wrap up. In 2010 we had a TVS scoot and that too it wasn't put to much use. In Mumbai, the main mode of transport is the train and the bus. There was no need of buying a car as such and that is how things went on. Then in 2015 I bought Activa - first powered vehicle I bought from my earnings. I bought it for my birthday and gifted it to my parents. It is not being used much. In 5 years it has covered less than 4000 km. I mentioned earlier that I used the cycle to commute to the office but there was an urge to buy a car. Just a sudden urge. Also, I wanted to make I feel good that I can buy whatever I want with the salary I get. I bought Alto 800 in 2018 and that was the starting point of my weight increase :P

We're going to Ibiza -

2012 was the first time I traveled by air - this was for IIT Kharagpur interview round. Next was when I moved to Chennai and since then I have traveled numerous times. I was also lucky to have got the opportunity to travel to Malaysia, the UK, and 5 other countries in Europe in the last 3 years. Let me not go into the details here.

The Air-Conditioner --

In 2010 there was no AC in my house. In fact, didn't feel the necessity back then. Yesterday when I went to buy the second one it just hit me how long I have come from a decade back. I started my blog in 2010 - another decade.

Post in the comments about your biggest 10 year change.

Similar Post -

Dreams do come True

150 km in 15 days - running

A letter to 20 year old me