300 - the movie: More than just a movie.

What would you do to protect your people, your land, your queen from an invasion which is destined to destroy you? What would you do when you have only 300 men against a hundred thousand? What would you choose between running away to see your love one last time and standing firm knowing it would be the last time you'll ever stand in your life?

You need courage to answer those questions. You need an unshakable character, a mind without a hint of any doubt or disbelief, you need to have passion for your country and you need to be mad as mad can be. That was what King Leonidas was. Plus a lot more. He led his group of 300 brave warriors against an apparently endless army led by the Persian Emperor Xerxes who tried to conquer Greece.

One of the things I didn't mention above about Leonidas is that he was very intelligent as well. He had a very good plan to hold the Persian army back. He planned to hold the enemy at a mountain pass, which made it a whole new game where numbers didn't matter at all. If it was not for a stupid Greek who led Xerxes through a 'back-door', Leonidas would have had a much better chance of winning the war. But nevertheless, his story of glory was an inspiration to the entire Greek army and an year later, after many battles, the Greek defeated the Persians in the Battle of Plataea.

Well, so much for history. Now, a not so well known fact about this piece of history is that there have been a couple of movies made on it some time ago. But the latest one is actually based on Frank Miller's graphic novel "300". There are so many things about this movie which I really liked- its screenplay, choreography, direction, acting, dialogs, the backdrops, the sets, even the color of the print !! All of this made the movie more authentic and realistic. I do understand that most of the scenes were a direct copy from the novel, and when I say direct, I mean direct, without any modification! It makes sense- why do you want to do something else, when the graphics in the novel are so appealing and so perfect?



Gerard Butler, who played King Leonidas, was a wonderful fit- he had the charm, the strength, the shape and all that it takes to play the mighty Spartan king.





There wasn't a second throughout the movie that I did not enjoy. I just loved the movie - start to finish, every second of it. Well done Zack (Snyder)!

Few of my favorite scenes from the movie:

The Spartans look at the dead 'pinned' to an old tree. the 'Immortals' butchered harmless villagers without any mercy and....



Leonidas personally delivers his answer to the Persian Messenger. This is when the fun begins and the King says "THIS IS SPARTA!"

The Persians were no match for the mighty Spartans. They simply fell off, very literally, into the sea.

Tokyo - Electronics, Japanese, sooo Tokyo...Awesome !

It was my first trip abroad and it was a 10 day official visit to meet our folks in Tokyo. I flew Singapore Airlines along with two of my colleagues with an hour's halt at Chengi, Singapore. The flight to Singapore was a little tiresome as we were flying during the night time and struggling to catch some sleep. The flight from Chengi to Narita airport in Tokyo was slightly better, though a bit longer (~6 hours) as I was spending my time playing Chess with other passengers(and yes, I won all the games) :-)

Well, anyways, we landed at Narita, exchanged some currency and then took the Airport Limo to the Cerulean Tower Hotel, Shibuya. It cost us 3000 Japanese Yen each and it was hour's drive from Narita. The hotel was wonderful, but slightly expensive. We had a corporate discount though :-) ...we stayed in a Tatami Room for one night before moving back to regular suites. It was simply a wonderful way to experience the Japanese culture.

For someone coming from a third world nation, it was really nice and surprising to see a city with one of the highest densities of population so neat and clean - It is very well maintained, very highly organized and probably one of the best planned cities. Not to mention, the cars - I think I saw almost every damn label which is available out there !! All in just about 10 days !! It is also probably the most technically advanced cities in the world. Almost everything is automated - even some take away counters in some places - All unmanned !

Now, coming to the place where I stayed - Shibuya - apparently one of the best 'hang-out' places for young people and a very posh and a stylish district - many shopping malls, lots of young girls and short skirts :-) The entire city is just so amazing - always filled with life, so beautiful, so simple yet very complicated underneath. Our hotel, The Cerulean Tower, is one of the biggest structures in that area and it made our lives easier in finding our way back - whenever we headed out and lost our way back, we would simply look for the tower amongst the sky scrapers and keep walking towards it :-)

The only issue - food. If I were someone who would love sea food, I would have never come back from that place. But as fate is not without a sense of humor, I turn out to be as good as a vegetarian....duh. For several reasons, I never tasted anything other than chicken apart from my vegetarian dishes. But, there are some cool Italian restaurants like "T.G.I.Fridays"(and boy I swear on my computer we had a feast here!) and "Allen's Pizza Place" (sorry its not the actual name, but we all call it that since apparently one of our colleague likes that place) and then there are some restaurants based on the sub-continent of Asia - Japanese versions of Indian cuisines :-) ...but in general, it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, and the food also was very healthy and tasty....yay!! but mostly, we lived on KFC and Wendy's :-|

It was a tight schedule and we had only one weekend and we spent the whole weekend in Tokyo's "Electric City" - Akihabara. It was 190Yen away from our Hotel via the JR Line or the "Green line"(one of Tokyo's major Railway Companies). The photo on the side is that of a "notice/info" display of the many you will find in the local trains there..telling us how long it will take us to reach a particular place and blah blah blah...(we were travelling from Shibuya to Akihabara) Trust me, the whole damn place was simply filled with electronic stuff - if there is ever a heaven for gadget freaks, this has to be it. You'll find everything and anything thats related to electronics - from tiny digital meters to huge HD TVs, from PSPs to XBOX 360s, from computer spares to the coolest laptops, from east to west, from north to south. Anyone going to Tokyo, this is a "must visit" place.

Check out some of the pics that I took there :-)

The transportation in Tokyo was upto its reputation - Automated, well organized, well planned and connecting almost every small place within.

But, what amazed me more than anything else in Tokyo - its people. They were simply just wonderful, just like all my colleagues out there. They always looked as if they were part of a synchronized play or something. The crowd on the streets at the crossings was so chaotic yet so symmetric, in such a hurry yet so polite and gentle, so reserved yet so helpful. We were able to find hardly a few people who could understand English, let alone speak the language. They just didn't have the need to depend on any English speaking nation. The country was self-made. They all looked so proud of their place.

It is so difficult for me to believe that a country which was shattered by WWII is now one of the biggest economic powers of the world, especially after seeing the place first-hand. And when I think of it all, I realize that its not the government that actually makes all of this happen, but its a country's own citizens who can turn dreams into realities and have the power to shapre their country's future and fortune. If I had to define Tokyo, I'd end up using adjectives/adverbs such as vibrant, lively, advanced, rooted in their culture, polite, independent, organized, well planned and the likes :-)

In all, it was an experience I'll remember for a long time. All of this would not have been possible if it were not for my colleagues in Tokyo. They are amazing people. Wonderful hosts. Great colleagues. ...and I'm sure I'll visit Tokyo at least one more time in this life. I'd love to.

Some of the pics from my trip to tokyo - http://picasaweb.google.com/cipherskull/tokyotimes