Ashutosh Nilkanth's Blog

A presentation from HTC Starting, a web-based business seminar, highlights the top trends in 2008 for web-based startups. With the iPhone (and similar smartphones) in the wide, the mobile space looks quite bright.

Brad, who practices Zen Buddhism and writes about it as well, has a very interesting experience to share:

People long for big thrills. Peak experiences. Some people come to Zen expecting that Enlightenment will be the Ultimate Peak Experience. The Mother of All Peak Experiences.

But real enlightenment is the most ordinary of the ordinary. Once I had an amazing vision. I saw myself transported through time and space. Millions, no, billions, trillions, Godzillions of years passed. Not figuratively, but literally. Whizzed by. I found myself at the very rim of time and space, a vast giant being composed of the living minds and bodies of every thing that ever was. It was an incredibly moving experience. Exhilarating. I was high for weeks. Finally I told Nishijima Sensei about it . He said it was nonsense. Just my imagination. I can’t tell you how that made me feel. Imagination? This was as real an experience as any I’ve ever had. I just about cried.

Later on that day I was eating a tangerine. I noticed how incredibly lovely a thing it was. So delicate. So amazingly orange. So very tasty. So I told Nishijima about that. That experience, he said, was enlightenment.

Brad also wrote about the basic philosophy of Zen Buddhism summed up in one page.

The latest monster film, Cloverfield (IMDB), has drawn a massive buzz online. This film will not leave you with a middle-ground, so you’ll either hate it, or you’ll love it.

We saw Cloverfield last weekend, and for a moment it felt as if I’m the only person in the theatre who liked it. The visualization of the film sank into my mind, and as I read more about its backdrop, I now feel like a self-confessed Cloverfield fan. Without spoiling it for anyone who hasn’t seen the film yet, I’ll just say that it can be loosely called a cross between Godzilla and Blair Witch Project. However, its unlike any other monster film I’ve ever seen. The whole first-person amateur camerawork and the extraordinary special effects adds a lot to the cinematic ambience.

When I watched Cloverfield, I was left with questions, which can easily make a curious mind give up completely on the screenplay. But the unanswered juicy bits of this film, lie not on the theater screen, but on the web. See, even before the film was out in theaters, a very creative online viral campaign was underway to promote the film. There are actual (although fictitious) web sites related to some organizations in the movie, there are active MySpace pages of the characters, and a whole lot of guesswork going on among the fans.

The “clues” found online make the plot even more interesting. Its like a game, with the fans speculating about the larger plot of the film every time they uncover a new clue. And it won’t be surprising if J.J. Abrams (who’s also associated with Lost and Alias) announces a sequel or a prequel to the film.

For satisfying your curiosity around the plot of the film, checkout (*SPOILERS*) the article at Geeks of Doom, this forum post at IMDB (and this one too), and the site CloverfieldClues.com.

I can’t say yet, but Shyamalan’s upcoming flick titled The Happening might be interesting as well.

Noting that cricket is one of the great things that bind the Commonwealth nations together, British PM Gordon Brown has hinted that Sachin Tendulkar, one of the great cricketers of the world, should be bestowed with knighthood. That will surely be a very honourable feather in the cap for the Little Master Blaster.

Arthouse style films, specially shorts and micro-movies, have been one of my keen interests for the past few years. This creative medium of depicting and sharing a personal view in a public forum is a challenge, and a delight to watch.

The other day, I stumbled upon a short film, that was quite inspiring for its visual and conceptual splendour. Directed by Octavi Segarra from Spain, the short film called Versus, abstractly maneuvers through the high’s and low’s of a relationship between a couple. It has no dialogues, but the screenplay and the sound scheme has done good justice. The film might have some minor technical flaws here & there, but its simple and sensuous visage creates a good impression!

The making of Versus is also an educational addon (although the narration is in Spanish).

My buddy Gautam, and I have been contemplating a short-film project for a while, but this year we will deliver, at a small scale to start with. We are working on a few ideas, and from there we’ll start with the script and production arrangements. Our product will be raw and amateur, but more than anything, we want to enjoy the experiment.