Harry Potter And the Half Blood Prince-Review

Spoilers Ahead!

Last week Hp 6 movie got released and I should admit after the fifth I was not very keen on watching it.But it got good reviews from all critics and think rottentomaotes gave it a 90% rating. So I thought it was worth checking out.

Saw the movie day before and I came out of the theatre quite confused I should say.

The movie has some excellent visual effects especially the scene in the pensive and the opening sequence when death eaters go on a rampage through London.But the scene where snape gives narcissa the unbreakable vow has been wasted.It was a scene with a lot of potential for some drama. Another scene which could have been done well is the scene wgere hp uses sectusempra on draco.But on the whole the special effects works pretty good for the movie.The acting especially of the three leads is what works for the movie.There seems to be good chemistry and understanding between the three. Ginny also plays her part well.

Where hp fails is in the fact that the script is way off the book at times.I can understand certain omissions from the book due to time constraints but adding news twists and turns to the plots is not very accepatable. Rowling is probably not the best author in the world but at the end of the day she she is the one who wrote harry potter and noone can do a better job than her.

The scene where bellatrix comes to destroy “The burrow” though thrilling doesn’t add much to the movie. The kiss between harry potter and ginny would have had more impact had it been done as in the book instead in the room of requirement with no one around.But the sequence between Lavender and Ron has been shot well.The movies humongous failure is in its climax.The visual effects are good in the scenes especially in the cave but there are big misses in the screenplay as there are no refernces about the inferi and there seems to be no communication between Dumbledore and Harry. The movies crowning movement could have been the fight between Dumbledore , Harry and the death eaters but those scenes are wasted with harry just looking on as Snape comes and mumbles something to kill Dumbledore.You don’t feel the enormity of the situation. And after all this Dumbledore should have been given a proper funeral sadly all you are left with a less than 100 student long with Mcgonall pointing their wands to the sky.

I would end saying this movie is the best so far but could have been a lot better.

Article 377

Its been a long time since a new post…. So i just thought this time around i would write about something different…

Article 377 or section 377 of the Indian penal code was drafted in 1860 149 years ago by Lord Macaulay which criminalized consensual adult sex between the same sex.. It treated it as a cardinal sin. So why am I writing about a law made 149 years ago because on July 2 nd 2009 through a landmark judgment the Delhi high court has ruled that article 377 is against the constitution of India which says  citizens have equal opportunity and is equal before the law..

So what does this mean for us the young,, for 90% of us its probably laughing matter but for 10% of the Indian population that is around a whopping 100 million people this is a time of celebration. There will be various discussions about this judgment lot of people for it and lot of people against it. So what do I think about it? Personally it doesn’t affect me and I wouldn’t have usually written a post about homosexuality but yesterday I was watching a discussion on a national news channel… A gentleman was saying legal sing homosexuality will degrade the family system of India.. A representative of a community was under the impression that homosexuality is not something u r born with but according to him it is developed.. I quote “ When a boy or a girl is attending a camp or stays in a hostel without any contact with the other sex homosexual thoughts develop in them and we believe that its can be removed by counseling”

Both of these statements might seem logical at first especially the latter one but think about it  how does being gay degrade the Indian family system and when fathers are raping their own daughters can there be any more degradation than that and the thing about spreading of homosexuality.. is homosexuality a disease.. it isn’t a disease its something u r born with… A study shows  10% of human population is gay so obviously its not someones’s choice but something u r born with.  And to the next theory about how people turn gay.. I don’t think if I am put with hundred other guys for a year I ll have sex with one of them.. I d rather play with myself (cheeky term heh :d)….. same way a gay guy wont turn straight if he  s put with 100 girls…

But whatever change in law takes place until our society becomes open to change and to accept people the way they are, u can’t call it progress. But Indians are not known for their openness.. just the whopping sales of fairness creams shows to what extent the discrimination is there in our society even on flimsy grounds such as colour and if my memory is right there was one Hindi soap about this discrimination..

But to be fair to the authorities there has been no use of this article 377 in the past 20 years and so the judgement has given a legal support but social support is still far away…..

In later news the church has decided to appeal against the verdict in the supreme court but its understood the govt wont go for further appeal… lets hope this is a new beginning and end of discrimination of gay community in India but I have a sinking feeling that’s not gonna happen, I hope, I really do that I am wrong….

S3 Starts with a bang.

Our college, being ranked among the best in the country owes that credit to some of the unparalleled teaching geniuses working among the staff. It was always noted and said many a time that MOST of our teachers were just out of the world beings, one’s who could just come to class and teach entire subjects at a stretch without anything as little as a glimpse into the text books. The following might tell you why.

We started the third semester two months ago. And like always, we have new teachers, and new subjects. One of these dealt with heat transfers and stuff, which a mere mortal like me still finds pretty hard to comprehend. I was trying to study it for the series exam tomorrow. And then this incident flashed on my mind. Since I’ve already officially given up hopes of passing the exam, I thought I’d just come here and put this much down, hoping to give life to my wheezing, dying blog.

So where was I. Ah yes, Heat transfer.

So this Sir. Let us call him Mr. X.(For the sake of mine sessional marks in the unlikely event of him coming across this post). So Mr. X is teaching us about heat. I’m as usuall nodding off in class(so are many more people); my upper torso on the verge of falling over- thanks to another late night the day before, wasting time fruitlessly online. And it happened before I could control it.

YAAAAAAAAWNNNNNNNNNNN

Mr. X: “ Ellarum enthade oru ksheenam pole, orakkam thane” (Why is everyone so sleepy?)

Some wiseguy: “Sir this is a BIT boring”.

Mr. X:

This might be boring. Let me make the class a bit more interesting. Let us talk about wider topics. <loads of blah blah>. Anyone know what re-entry is?”

Another wise guy: “Term used for when a space vehicle returns to the atmosphere”

Mr X: “ Correct!. Now the speed at which the vehicle returns is approximately 20 thousand miles per hour. Due to the friction with air, that generates a heat of kakkathollayiram into ten raised to 5 joules per centimetre”

*Class sits up straight. People are definitely getting interested*

Mr X Continues:

“So proper heat insulation is mandatory for the space vehicle. NASA has developed different substances for that. Example, silica tiles.

VSSC il insulation tiles research chaiyunan oru main character njan anu (I’m one of the main people doing research about this at VSSC)

We have developed a new material and tested it for heat resistance and then we plotted a graph.

This is the graph I got *Draws a graph*

And this is the graph NASA got for their material *Draws a strikingly similar graph*

Iee subject ile RANDU international paper ente peril anu. Njan ezhutiyata. Ente peru google chaitu nokiya kaanam (Two international papers in this subject are by me. You can get it be googling my name)

*explodes*Basically njan ithrem valia oru sambhavam anu

Ah ente classilanoda neeyokke kedanu orangune ? ninakonum naanam illeda.

Itoke bhayankara interesting anu.. itonum arinjodate neeyonum orukaalatum pass akan ponila. Gonam pidikathilla

Alla pinne”

(Basically I rock. And how dare you sleep in MY class. Shameless creatures. This is an interesting topic. Without knowing all this, you will never pass anything.. be damned)

Audience: “blink blink”

-A.M.D.G.

LOBA AGM-08

The LOBA, AGM(Annual General body meeting) took place on the 17th of August as planned. The venue was the Subramonium hall of Trivandrum club. The function was attended by Rev. Fr Varghese Anikuzhy- principal, Loyola school, Fr.Joseph Edassery- Vice principal, Loyola school, Fr. Pius Vachaparambil-Rector, Loyola Institutions and Fr Toby and Fr. Biju- the new jesuit teachers from Loyola.

This years AGM recorded one of the lowest attendances in recent times with the tally hitting just 78, and hitting  near 100 with family included. As always everyone has a different reason as to why the attendance was low and this time it was blamed on the Kerala University exams which keeps the college students in Trivandrum busy.

Fr. Anikuzhy and Fr. Vachaparambil spoke on why we needed to take care to see that these functions are taken a bit more seriously and why every member should take upon themselves to make it a success. Mr. Pradeep Kumar, an ancient old boy, in his umpteenth role as a speaker at a LOBA function stressed on the importance of the same and went on to say about relating with other jesuit alumni associations. Fr. Edassery continued on this note and went on into detail about the jesuit connections all over the world.Fr. Edassery followed this up by announcing the office bearers for the next year. Mr. Arun George was chosen as the President. Syam Nath S(ie. ME) was elected to be secretary. Mr. Manu Cyriac was chosen as the treasurer whilst Mr. Ashik S. Kalam became one of the two joint secretaries.

This was followed by cultural events, which included a few dance items by the children of some OBA members, who are presently studying in the school, and playing of the piano by an old boy(I forgot his name ). The audience then went on to have a well prepared seven course dinner before leaving the venue.

***
From the recent 10 years batches, we had former school leader Krishnachandran (98)( and a few of his friends) and School leader, Arun Mohan (2005) attending the ceremony.

This years AGM cannot be claimed to be a big success. However, I am not selected as the Secretary. A post I did decline at first but which was thrusted on me.(Ah well, I think only i voted against me ). I want to give it my best shot in the coming year. I want to make a difference. I want to rekindle the spirit of the association. These are dreams. But as Dr.  Kalam said, you have to start dreaming. Only then you can turn those into reality. Today, im wishing that we could bring about a change in the Association. Perhaps we can work together and change it such that one day the AGM will at least be attended by scores more.

For starters,
I think that a lot of potential audience did not turn out today just because they didn’t know about the function(Some told me so). We are trying to start an SMS alert system for the old boys- for we/I think that more people check their SMs’s than emails or posts. For starters i wish you people would just register for the alerts. Alerts will be send only on occassion which might run into 3-4 a year.
Please click HERE to join the list.

Taking charge as secretary, I want to start being a bit more interactive with the members. Can’t you tell me how to start? Can’t you people take a bittttttt of an interest and at least suggest some measures. Suggest some ways to make our programmes more attractive. Anything?

Also, Anyone who is willing to volunteer to be in charge of the LOBA website please contact me at getmesyam@gmail.com.

I need your suggestions and support. If you could please do that, i’d be very greatful

Thanks.
Expecting many replies
Syam Nath S.
Secretary.
LOBA

-AMDG

LOBA – AGM

Yes, I’m back and hopefully for good. The short break I took wasn’t so short. I got too busy with Semester exams and stuff. And before that my computer crashed. Anyway, now that I’ve finally opened this notepad I will write something I wanted to for a long time now.

****

The LOBA, Annual General body Meeting-hereafter referred to as the AGM- is set to happen this year on the 17^th of August. Most years we have the AGM at the Loyola campus. However, on a rather old old boy pointing out that the best AGM’s ever to be held were held at Trivandrum club, the venue this year has been shifted to the Trivandrum club. This venue is also more suitable for a family gathering, as it is not so far as Loyola is from the city. The programme will begin at 5:30 in the evening and go on till 9 or 9:30.

Last year, when I had joined LOBA, I then itself got “appointed” as the joint secretary(grr id like to know who did that). And I used to think it was pretty easy running the show. On the way I’ve heard criticisms of how the committee functions. I thought maybe its just a talk, and maybe we’ll pull out a spectacular show at the back to school programme. With DP being the chief guest, a large audience was expected. Thinking along those lines, the committee arranged for large amounts of food, which turned out to be a mistake as only 120 people turned up. Now 120, is a normal attendance for an AGM. But as like every year, we overestimate the number and order huge quantities of food, causing a financial loss to the committee.

*****************************************

(on a personal note)

Why I like the OBA.

When I left school I was kind of sad, just like every other classmate. Sad because we knew that we are leaving the happiest days of our lives behind us, because we knew, like every other kid leaving that place, that life wont be the same again. They may say that college would be a happier place, it is SO happening, etc, but I’m sure that all the Loyolites agree with me that they pleasure we find in the company of a Loyolite gang is unsurpassed.

And most of the gang says they’ve found good company there. So have I, but I still think that I’ve found better company by joining up as the LOBA joint secy, than joining college. People two times my age have given me better companionship than those in class.

I’ve found friends from every branch of the Loyola family tree. And what wonderful people they are. I’m always proud to say that I know people from the very first batch of Loyola. Isn’t that what the OBA is all about? Knowing people and keeping in touch ? Myself, I am a social animal (as a teacher told me at school once). I love making new friends.

I’ve noticed that, once you are in that gang, whenever you need a help, be it anything in life, you will always know the right people to ask. We have contacts- important contacts- from every field imaginable. I’ve always felt that whenever ive wanted to know about something etc, I’ve always knew where to turn to. Is 2 hours of your time at a nice venue too much to pay for that?

To The Critics:

I’ve felt many times that many people do not agree with the way LOBA functions. It is easy for them to criticise. Many people do not realise that a handful of people spill cash out of their own pockets to run meetings etc. Never is a rupee touched from the fund that we have as deposit. Every time a loss was incurred at the AGM or any other programme; someone had taken up that cost. It costs them a lot of money, time and energy to organize something like this. It is just too sad to see that not many people realize it. I know there are many, who will turn up for the occasions, not for the grandeur of it, but just because they want to relive their school lives, meet old friends. This is a request that as many of you as possible try to make it to the place and help recreate the school days we soo miss. I really hope that many more people feel that way this time and try to make it there on the 17^th of August.