Why Read Horoscopes?

Some Chinese Horsocope!
Courtesy: AndWat on Flickr | License: CC BY 2.0

Life is a box of chocolates, we never know what we get!

Well I don't believe in horoscopes (lest they promise me good things, that chick of my choice, a Porsche 911 (wouldn't mind a Suzuki Swift or Chevorlet Beat), but still I read them. Why? Entertainment, timepass (got enough of it... ...a lot of time is with me.) and yup why not appreciate the efforts of some people putting excellent effort in creating such fluent and nice master-pieces of literary work. No harm in going through daily horoscope coloumns of magazines and web-magazines (my favourite - Shine by Yahoo, specially when you know that you will forget it in next 10 minutes.

Here are two days of horoscopes for Piscean people and am pleased to see the efforts put by the people in co-relating the two days...

Jan 18' 2010

Try to take care of yourself today -- you have exactly the right energy to give yourself almost anything you need, and you've been plenty attentive to others lately! Make a move and see what happens.

Still got those tissues handy? Well, you've got one more day of sniffling to get through, so you'd better be sure you're all stocked up. The stars are turning up the volume on your already tender heart. It's like walking around wearing a t-shirt that says 'Can't Stop Feeling.' You can't change your feelings, but you can take precautions. Like wearing a second layer to protect against the cold, so to speak. Protect yourself. Get out your emotional long underwear.

Jan 19' 2010

Even before your coffee, you've got plenty of good energy today. Make the most of it -- you know you can do almost anything you want! Create a situation that suits you better than yesterday.

Prepare yourself for a flood -- a flood of emotions, that is. You're quite ready to talk about that certain issue that's had you baffled for a while now -- but are your dear ones ready to hear it? Better warn them before you get going, because getting you to stop will be next to impossible. Fasten your seatbelt. It could be a bumpy ride. But it certainly won't be a boring one.

3 Idiots - A Pragmatic Approach

Image courtesy : antwerpenR on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

Through this post I am not trying to be critical of anything depicted in the movie or any particular view. I just want to bring to focus an alternative view, which I consider must be highlighted and brought to the light, and surely it is not entertaining but intriguing!

The flick talks of changing education system, but does it serves the purpose to make comedy of an existing system to promote another one which actually does not exist, or better say does good at individual level only (I for one practice that free-spirited approach to life, speak what's on your mind, do what you want, live by mood, don't follow any rules), you simply cannot ask others to jump with you into the mad race, at the most you can tell them the good and bad. At institutional or organizational level the idea of grading still serves the purpose, how else you want an external observer to grade you? In the movie a person decides to 'help' others achieve their dreams "photograph and become engineer", clinching from them the experience of working for themselves.

Even I too don't like practical and feasible approaches because they are not easy-going and are intensive and painful but then they are sustainable. Why not they show in the movies the true struggle paths one should follow (ask Aamir if he didn't struggle to reach this stature where he can just make one flick a year and share his concerns about society and get people applauding to his excellent skills at delivering babies on a college TT table!) and not some elusive dreams. Why don't they people tell that in true sense hard-work got no substitute, because there are no, or very few limited edition Renchos in the real world to help you out of your own fears, inabilities to communicate your views properly and take those essential steps to visualise your dreams. You are the one with wholesome control of your life, losses and gains being part and parcel of a good life game.

The movie does not highlights the problems actually occurring to the youth and generally mocks things like economic consideration or probably the movie still takes a 15 year older approach to education system, which used to be insensitive. In my opinion need is to make schools and friends to act as true support system for each other and help youngsters brave their career choice decisions at the very time of joining colleges, sometime or probably many time convincing parents to the core. What the movie does is, giving a point-of-view of situation from a successful group of people overlooking the things that situations are not actually so rude in colleges and institutions. I don't know, but I must say pseudo-sympathetic approach sells but to me it fails Aamir's social cause philosophy of recent years.

As Guddu speaks teacher-student relationships have been given a nice treatment. Ego clashes, to the extent of forcing one to commit suicide is just disgusting to look into. We essentially need to stem these problems and it has roots somewhere deeper, probably where parents come into play. Or shall a whole genre rebel?

Any way now the good things. I like the portrayal of characters. Aamir looks a true young-adult, unbelievable to find some 40 something so fitting in a 20 year old's role. The guy called Silencer beats many hands down, probably an implacable character. Truly fond of Mr. Boman Irani, I want that bird's nest and the whole getup he wears in his first interaction with students, just perfect check shirt, spectacles and coat. Madhavan and Joshi are excellent bits, superb punches added to the comedy! Baba on scooty is something so true and sacred that hardly people speak it out on the face. Cinematography dimensions extended to levels excellent. Shooting of north-Indian terrain is appalling, Shimla, Manali and Ladakh. Just awesome to find a dirt-clad Volvo running on exclusively Indian terrain. And yup purple windows on white facades of Cannaught Place give me another colour scheme to toy with....

My Favourite Song!

My favourite song? Never been able to decide, listen to all kind of music, fluctuating moods make me go for fluctuating choices! Yet one song that has caught my fancy for a very long period of time is "Tanha Dil, Tanha Safar". Its a song by Shantanu Mukherjee, popularly known as Shaan. Lyrics are just awesome, but like most things I like it also is a complete presentation, just spell bounding in all respects, the video of song has a nice blend of student-teacher relationship, attraction is unavoidable, friendship portrayed nicely, passion for a hobby (music) depicted brilliantly. Like the Christian backdrop attached to the whole thing and it is just mesmerising to see a loner walking on a beautiful tree-lined street, while browsing the memories of times gone by.

Haven't listened to it in a long time. May be need it, I should try and reconnect with the good things in my life.

Avial Is The Daddy!

Image courtesy : code poet on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

Hmm, I found the daddy! In my last post, I missed some points that I wished to write about Avial, this Kerala born rock band, and so I continue today! The whole day with nothing much to do I was listening to rock music and downloading the stuff, probably this is my way of acknowledging that they do good work!

Well what I missed yesterday? I missed what I can term as spontaneous visual imagery (even I am yet to figure out what that actually is, but it sounds pretty cool and hip to many tech maniacs out there)! So here I go, I see a Tarzan like athletic personality jumping across the stage grinding its hips to tunes of rock music. A lungi clad bald entertainer enthrals the crowds as the chaotic stage fade into serene backwaters of Kerala. He makes mic subject of his attention while he performs some sort of pole dance and my mind suggests me alternatives ranging from metro handles to trees in lagoons in the state of Kerala. In more wilder fantasies I visualise him circling traffic signals at mind-boggling speeds. Soon a Chinese add-on joins him and the imagery now features a dragon to complete the scene, with background music having slight tones of land of Chowmein!

Oh the guy seems to be putting a lot of energy in keeping the whole band going and he definitely succeeds! This was the first year of the event and if it continues to happen on more occasions I promise myself more delightful treats of this kind and wonder if they would be jumping into the crowd itself in their coming performances...

Who's Your Daddy?

Malayalam rock band 'Avial' performing during South Asian Band Festival at Purana Qila, New Delhi.
Image Courtesy : Manik

Well certainly not me! And anyways this post is about something not related to any of ours' ancestry! Its about eye-candies, cult bands, youth and urban enthral, zest and thrills and well those beautiful drills. Its about people, nothing personal, nothing emotional but what looks on the outside!

So here we are in a new Delhi Metro coach, heading towards Pragati Maidan. Me and Piyush catch up a chat that revolves around Telangana, tri-furcation of UP and Greater Delhi! And other topics include the greyish environment of new metro coaches, yellow lights suck, sickening like tuberculosis but information panels are better and trains are less noisy.

Certainly at this evening our destination is not Pragati Maidan and we wish to reach Purana Qila, to check out some groovy performances by some amateur and established bands of the Indian subcontinent! Well the event is called South Asian Band Festival and we are eager to find out who is the daddy of Bhutanese band named 'Who's Your Daddy'.

Am impatient and not willing to wait for that free shuttle to the venue and make Piyush walk about 500 metres, giving excuses like I need to check out new architectural and civil improvements and yup the new fashion trends, wish to know what the chicks are wearing these days and what delight is thrown to our eyes! Going by my observations I am certain that all 'nice-looking-girls' are short on thing called brain as they 'tag along' with those stupid looking asses who are certainly short on IQ as well as money! Another 200 metres and now am sure it is not the girl but her attire that grabs our attention, thanks Mr, Miss or Mrs Designer at that Gucci/Puma/Hi-Design workshop for making these nymphs certain eye-candies! Oh, I like those straights but probably the curls are much better! A minute please, am a good guy and so I should not look at her (...good guys are supposed to stay aloof of girls, unless needed to extreme. They certainly ought not tag along with a girl, they rarely do actually...)!

Sorry! We were supposed to talk about the Band Fest! We get off the bus (yup we took it after walking through some 3 or 4 signals.), we are at the venue! Accustomed to being frisked, we do not care where and what they touch these days! But I actually hate it when someone toys with that lovely mobile in my jacket's pocket! Let it be. The lighting is nice at the monument and the great but 'long-before' dead Pandavas are not fortunate enough to enjoy Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy perform for them in their own establishment!

As we walk towards the stage, we learn that the crowd is bigger than we expected and is mostly the youth from Delhi University. I acknowledge that Chinkies rock in this city. Every 1 in 20 is lighting up a puff and so there is no point arguing that the honourable Supreme Court, just beside the fort, doesn't like it when young people reduce the surface area of their alveolar sacks! Anyhow am getting used to it and now-a-days it seems more of an added effect to the lighting at the occasion.

Ahem! Here is this band, 1974 AD, performing live in front of us! We like their performance, it is rock after all! Those spikes, overcoats and Nepali syllable all get them our attentions and we learn that we are too dork not knowing how to speak Nepali, everyone around did! I tried to click this guy from Sikkim but my Nokia has limits! As they sing their last song they tell us about their ideology and I agree with it. I too stand for 'positive pride', 'identity', 'national chauvinism'. Their always is a revolution when their is a red flag, know history? Anyways "Nepali Ho."

Nepalese were good but I love Malayalese! The Mallu rock band from Trivandrum (capital of God's Own Country) stole my heart. They call  themselves 'Avial' and were conceived in the First City (New Delhi) only! I can still visualise the bald lead vocalist shake his hips in that 'Lungi' and white figure-hugging shirt! the athlete would jump around the stage like Tarzan while making us utter "Tak Tak Ta Re Tak Ta Re Tak Dimi Tak Ho! Tak Ta Re Taro..." They would add Chinese zing to their act by bringing to us this feline called Naomi from China on the stage! Awesome dudes!

I am not much impressed by Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy's performance. They do their usual thing, and the Bollywood stuff only. Saving grace being "Rock On". Nothing new and out of a studio environment it was not worth it. Certainly their story of a hero dying being shot in the head, while in the bed (added by me) was tasteless and made half the audience flee (not certain if they were more interested in reaching homes or saving themselves the torture these people were turning up to be!)

I and Piyush walk the talk back to the metro station, time is not an issue with both of us and nice to catch glimpses of 4.5*2 lanes of asphalt while glowing bus shelters dot the scene! High hung halogens make day of the night and some red blinkers in distance tell you to beware! Paved and clean pathways are delight and you feel like spending time there only. Hmm, it is only for people to decide whether they like the forts or the steel cage high-rises! I love both and I love them together!

A performace by Avial on Youtube

A performace by 1974 AD on Youtube

Language No Bar

Recently some funny things are happening to me! I feel I am able to understand everything, language doesn't matter! Things started with music German 'Du Hast' banged my head for months. Foo would sometime share with me Marathi folklores and the bong music supplied by Debz is difficult to match. Haryanvi and many more Indian crudes are irresistible. Numerous films in alien tongues followed before I found this Gaelic thing called 'Scaliwag' on my room-mates Philips GoGear and as I come back to home a french maniac would make me listen to -

 A distinct work in French, you would definitely need no lyrics to understand it!

I myself am finding it very much fun to enjoy Punjabi Pop by Aman Hayer, Punjabi MC and likes. Morning radio is very much English and Hindi and my new found interest in Monica Belluci makes me think of learning Italian a bit. And not to mention but a boy called Enrique Iglesias introduced me to Spanish tongue and holds my romantic imaginations till date. Shakira would gravitate her hips to Latin tunes and I am equally pleased to listen to Phillipino.

As I sit before TV, very less occasionally these days a few channels will throw me with exceptionally well crafted media in Japanese, Korean, Cantish, German and more.

Freshers' Bash

Image courtesy : *Muhammad* on Flickr, check usage terms before using the image.

Well long time since last post! Its the way you find it in India. You are in alien city familiarizing with new ways and your institution's computer center is in the process of renovation and cyber cafe owners' would allow you use the PC without an identity proof, for you may turn out to be a serial bomber who came to city to ruin its peace and chose to disguise as some architecture student. Anyhow a lot to share. Would start with the latest buzz as the older experiences lie in the yellow pages of my rough notebooks! September 02' 2008, freshers' party was organized for us in the central lawns of the college campus. We all turned up well in time, primarily for the purpose of checking out those beautiful girls dressed in all sorts of formal, casual and well good looking attires. And to our pleasure there was a plenty of those, well compared to what we generally hear of engineering institutions situation is quite heartening in MNIT Jaipur. Soon the formal proceedings started with the arrival of dignitaries that included Dean, Director and other highly placed persons . By the time most of us had settled on seats arranged for the purpose, of course late-comers had to stand through the program though they had privilege of dancing to the tunes. By the time the formal speeches were over many of us were feeling great to be the part of this institution and the facilities and opportunities thrown to us. The real rocking show was open once the Director of institution left the place after welcoming the new-comers and ensuring them of a lot of things including safety from ragging, exposure to newer facilities and opportunities and all those formal wordings! The stage performances included dances, solo and group band performances , some stand-alone performances and more such fun stuff which was largely applauded in general. The performances were nice given the positive outlook they couraged to face a crowd of about 1000 and fared very nice. Though some disappointments were there as some tried to catch the light without any performance! The food made the party a hit with hostlers, who are pretty aware of being denied a food good to taste, who cares for the nutrition if taste is not an ingredient. Well the party was over and it is time for something that most dread, the real ragging - after all the director declared that we are no longer starangers to the institute and we should be "interacting" more with our seniors, hmm sorry our "respected boses". While I was enjoying my dinner a fellow asked me to join him to meet the seniors once under the flood lights that sprayed the whole lawns. Well I will I said and I did. As I made my way to meet the seniors, a group of them surrounded me and tried to infuse little fear. But I tried to remain indifferent though a bit confused of what will happen next. One of them joined me and we walked towards hostel talking on topics like my name, place, hobbies. Soon he was to the topic, he wished me top wear formals which I refused to wear once again. His repeated persuasions were not able to change my mind or probably my ego didn't let me give in. Probably it would be killing my self-esteem if I give in and go for formals. May be I am wrong in choice but the road less taken is always full of uncertainties and some unique rewards, slaps or some special privilege! Lets wait and look out for the rewards that come my way but standing stubborn is my way!

Fuccha in Jaipur

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August 07' 2008, The day broke at 8:15. Daily morning routine followed and I tried to achieve 9:00 am deadline, so as to have some free time before 10:00 am morning class. Wanted to check out Orkut scraps, mails and browse the net before the hectic schedule that was going to follow. The hour past more in circumventing the blocked paths and learning more proxy techniques for a more happy net experience in the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Jaipur, as we had to plan for the future! The mathematics class was more than enough to disillusion even most determined student and the 11 am English lecture marred the day as grammar is something that I don't like to study and wish English was merely limited to expression and "feeling", and the same goes for any other language also. The lunch break is always short as the 1/2 hour walk to and from hostels eats into the 1 hour break. Worse is that morning's boring classes make me confuse a Thursday for Friday and I follow wrong schedule and end up cutting short a 3 hour basic design session into 2 hour class. The photography lecture of last hour of academic session of the day was fun as I could have a little nap amidst the boring talk a 3rd year senior shared with us, but what proved to be quite interesting was invitation by our photography instructor to join him at a photo exhibit at KK Art Gallery on Prithvi Raj Marg in Jaipur. We were pleased to go out of institute's walls, sort of jail during initial months of the year, at least for the fucchas, for obvious reasons of ragging! Anyhow we binged upon the opportunity and packed into an auto, 9 in 1 and reached the destination, half hour spent admiring or rather finding flaws in the 25-30 odd photographs. While leaving, we were pleased to fill in the guest cum comment book, our attendance for the day! We, a group of 5; 3 boys and 2 girls walked into Crossword, a book. While I and this girl from Pilani were interested in finding something interesting, other 3 tried to make us walk out at the earliest. Out of the showroom we walked across the road into a roadside nook-and-corner restaurant and ordered Chowmein and some fast food along with soft-drinks, not familiar enough to share beer and no experience of the stuff yet! The food was quite fine but the heavy and boring discussions about mass-bunk and nays and ayes following it virtually divided the united class into anti and pro bunk sects. The hopeless discussion made me gulp down a whole 500 ml bottle of Coke, knowing that it contains pesticide it was brave, or may be I was just trying to make a style statement, the Sir-Utha-K-Piyo style! Brushing aside the topic somehow, we grabbed auto back to NIT, 10 in 1 this time, rapid population growth may be at fault! But the compromise saved us bucks at 10 per head it is and OK deal. The evening in hostels passed over calls, SMSs, reading the new novel (...am modifying into a critic!), music on FM and the stuff of the sort!

My apprehensions about life outside Delhi are changing now, it is more of a life out of the cage now, well life on your own! Pros and cons are there but look on the brighter side and you will find pretty girls everywhere (boys for girls!). Just joking, actually such cheesy comments make your writings worth reading and popular! NIT is the place to be, but SPA final application results are still pending... Things are in pipeline, soon it will again be lack or access of resources governing the future course of my ambitions!

Bigmouth Radio

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9:45 pm, dinner is over and I venture out for my night walk! Headphones on, listening to FM on my phone. The evening had passed in chatrooms and in maintaining website. Am in an ecstatic mood by daily standards, and overjoyed at the music being played on the radio. In Delhi I have vast choice of 10 stations suiting all kind of tastes. Starting at 1 I browse through all 10 one by one and again and again as I garner some kind of fetish for the button on the headset wire. Past melodies to Punjabi hip-hop, English hip shakers and some discussions on a "women" radio station, which must be having a larger male audience, about bad state of sports in India all go good with me on this particular day. I choose tu murmurr along the fast music ignoring what the others strolling around would think. during rounds I notice those regular girls in the park, but today there was a "newbie" too. Anyways leaving the diversions as I move along, dancing in a somewhat wacky fashion an old uncle notice me and being overjoyed walk past me at a speed nearly considered to be running. He could not stop himself from grinning at my weird acts while looking straight at my face. I obviously a bit taken aback try to be in control of the things by smiling back generously. Unlike some normal day I take about 8-10 rounds of the park before leaving for the house and feel what the life would have been without radio, which accompanies us almost everywhere due to its poratbility. The media is one old age thing high on my list, simply cause of its reach and innovativeness.

Down the Memory Lane

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Whole day on the Mall and now we are sitting in a restaurant in Shimla. Its quite evening but we are supposed to have early dinner as we are heading back to Delhi after a 8 day camp. Will not be discussing the camp at this moment as I believe that journeys themselves are far more interesting then destinations and this particular journey has a special place in my memories. At restaurant we were advised by our teachers to avoid going for binge eating as on way down the hills it may not be a good appetite but as always we are tempted by the sight of delicious food. We eat plateful and hop on to the bus, this one is a semi-deluxe unlike the Volvo we had arrived to the place in. And fortunately eat had windows that opened. I grab the seat on the last row just beside window and don't allow my friends to go for the window seat, even though they tried to persuade me in every possible manner. On the seat next to me sat a friend of mine, this girl is the one with whom we have shared a large part of our school life and have enjoyed very much. In some 30 minutes bus makes its initial moves while we all are chatting looking out of the window, some shutterbugs are interested in grabbing every possible second and preserving them so to be looked back in the future. As of me am very much trying to be happy as I know that the following day will be difficult to past because of some post travel pangs. The memories are hard to get around with and a feeling of something being lost captures you. Looking out of window I am feeling a bit uncomfortable now, the excess food, delicacies are proving to be troublesome. I ask my friend to allow me to open a little more window as I would be needing it very soon, but she seems uninterested. I warn her of the "consequences" but to no avail. the bus moves down the hills and paths that curve like some snake entwined to bark of a tree. My troubles grow and it is uncontrollable now so I go on vomit, and unfortunately a lot of the stuff falls on window rather going out of it. thankfully it is not on me and just a seat is wasted. I have no other option but to vacate the seat and go for some other options. Meanwhile I try to make her accept that its her fault but moreover not wishing to blame her. In hurry I throw my jacket out of the bus window, partially to grab some eyeballs, as it is human nature to try to be in limelight. Now I fumble the racks on the top of bus and get my bag. Use it as bedding and I have to spend whole night sitting in the bus's corridor. I miss those scenes out of the bus's window but thankfully in the bus there is a lot to check out. Many are still not able to sleep and busy in various activities. The guy who was sitting beside me seems to be troubled lot as he has to sit beside the shit! The other on the second last seat is busy listening to music on his walkman. Some are toying around with mobile phones and others are chatting in whispering mode! A senior is pleased to get a head massage from a senior girl! While for some am an amusement as they are consoling me by repeatedly offering help and other stuffs and asking questions like, "Why did you throw your jacket?". Night passes quite slowly and our teacher came to check twice or thrice in the mean time, and every time I had to wake up as I was lying in the corridor! Morning around 5, the sun has started to shine in distance on the Grand Trunk road. Those who had slept early are out of sleep now and are busy waking up others and speculating how much more time before we would reach the ISBT. The bus is rapidly traversing the distance and pesky smell at a landfill hints that we are in Delhi now. We start gathering various belongings. In 15 minutes, as we are saved from the usual traffic jams at the bypass, we are at ISBT. Off the bus we are collecting our baggages and helping others reach for theirs. Sir asks us to check out for conveyance back to home. And I decide to go for an auto ride with two girls who lived nearby. We get Rs. 100 as travel allowance but the rickshaw ride cost only 80 bucks. So we save 20. In the way we decide to use the money to have an ice-cream party, but the idea does not materialises actually and the Rs 20 remain with me as am the last one to get off the auto andhave to pay the bill...

The party is due and I will be more than happy to go for it, even if I have to pay the interests on the money!

The King Khan

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Shah Rukh Khan, i.e. the SRK or the King Khan is the name of the mega personality that virtually rules the Bollywood . The guy rocks bollywood. He simply mesmerises by his acting skills. The diversity of roles he has played through his acting carrrer in last two decades simply leave us speechless. Innocent youngster in Chamatkaar (1992), an aspiring engineer in Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman (1992) showcasing problems and troubles , revengeful son in Baazigar (1993), simple young in Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (1993), passionate lover in Darr (1993), sheer romantic in Dil Wale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), great romantic portrails in Dill To Pagal Hai (1997) and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) an eternal lover in Devdaas (2002), superb performance in remake of Don (2006). Started career from TV shows like Fauji (1988) and is now ruling the Bollywood, The Delhi guy defines rules in his own ways, has an exclusive sense of humour and mind-blowing stage presence. He has managed to rule hearts while doing commercial cinema. Lately he started choosing roles according to his age and now his performances have striked chord with public. Last year Chak De India (2007) and Om Shanti Om (2007) were excellent performances. His performances of early years are breath-taking and leave you in pools of positive thoughts.

I Pass Time

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I always liked fun flicks. In tense times films in any case are best pass time. Since my childhood days I have been a great fan of all time best "feel good" movies like "Khoobsurat", "Golmaal", "Chupke Chupke", "Milli", "Bawarchi", "Munnabhai MBBS", " Lage Raho Munnabhai", "Malamaal Weekly", "Hungama", "Hulchul", "Hera Pheri", "Rang De Basanti", "Khosla Ka Ghosla", "Garam Masala" etc. The obvious reason being the flow and fun way of life shown in these movies provide you an optimistic outlook towards life and you forget all your pains, at least for a short period of time. Many a time I think if there were not these movies life would have been much tougher. These movies make you think good and thus induce a new creativeness in your being, which is far more better than being a lamenting soul worth nothing! These flicks help regain lost confidence and thereby let a person be more worthy in life.