Of Charm and Likeability

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I first came to know of Susan Boyle (47 yr old British singing sensation) through a news article in CNN. I wondered what drove people in the millions to see this video and wanted to see for myself. With all the cinematic editing and music score, it really was a thrilling video to watch. Not to mention the hopeless recessionary times. Following through, I watched several video clips of Britain's Got Talent on YouTube and sort of got addicted to the show. This post is about one recurring pattern I observed on the show.

Certain participants evoked enormous applause and affection from the audience. Even the ever-so-nasty Simon Cowell couldnt help but heap praise on them. Frankly, I too cheered along (stupid me sitting on my bed watching a 2 yr old video clip) for them and sincerely wished for each one to win or atleast make it big later on. I checked out every finalist of the 2007, 08 and 09 show to see if their lives had improved and mostly it had :)

Coming to the actual point of this post, how do certain people exude natural charm and likeability? It is understandable when you are talking to someone in person or over the phone. They might listen better, show interest, tone, body language, etc. But when it is such a big auditorium and the figure is just barely visible, leave alone facial expression, how are people able to identify with such "good" participants? This extends to other folks on YouTube channels (charlieissocoollike, for eg). I dont know what s about this charlie guy, but I just feel he must be a really nice dude. Given my always-thinking-why mind, I am not able to just let it be and enjoy these things. I need to know how and why :\ Your opinions and comments are most welcome.

Just in case you are interested to know, I really rooted for George Sampson, Andrew Johnston, Strike, eScala, 2Grand, Susan Boyle and some more who dont come to mind right now. In contrast, I wasnt that much into 2008's finalist Suleman (the michael jackson dancer) or Damon Scott (the monkey puppet guy) even. Before I m mistaken, I did not "dislike" them; their acts were really enjoyable. I just didnt root for them as much, thats all.

Why do people procrastinate

Yep, thats something I ve really wanted to know. Why exactly do we put off doing things that we very well know in our rational mind that are important and plain need to be done? I ve wondered about this for quite some time now and researched it extensively on the internet. However, everytime I came across the same drivel - organize your activities, manage your time, prioritize, visualize, blah blah.. After reading such articles, we usually make mental notes to follow and promptly forget it at first opportunity. Put simply, such pointers dont really help folks like me who ve put off things for over quarter of a century*. The problem must lie deeper. You know it does.

Not one to lose hope (and with no lack of time), I ploughed on till I saw light at the end of the tunnel. And I found it :D Days back, I came across an article that probed the real depths of this phenomenon and gave a very satisfactory and complete answer (to me) as to why we procrastinate. Now how can I keep such knowledge within without bursting out; hence this post. Friends, this post is not to ask your opinions/ideas on why we put off doing stuff (I ve read enough drivel on the topic already, thank you); but to actually *let you know* why. Enjoy the article. Bless the author.

www.counseling.caltech.edu/articles/procrastination.html

*Mom, I ll finish the feeding bottle later?
Also note clever use of the term "century" to make you readers visualize a looong period of time. he..he..

What's in the mind??

woes of a whiny grad student

"It sometimes happens, even in the best of families, that a baby is born. This is not necessarily cause for alarm. The important thing is to keep your wits about you and borrow some money. "

at about the time when kim jung was trying out something with his nuclear arsenal with destruction and madness in his mind, i was born, a warm december afternoon, in a hospital in madras, with people scaring me with their big eyes, big hands, big faces and their big dreams and big expectations of me. somehow, i overcame the first obstacle. I managed to breathe. Till this day, some people who are faced with dire poverty, or who live under extremely hostile environments of bombs would agree with me, that this was the biggest mistake ever.

#1 do not blame anything or anyone for what you are right now. you are a victim of your own actions, and if you cannot take responsibility, too bad. there are people who have to live through nightmares everyday, your life is not exactly like helen keller or suu kyi like.

"if people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is because they do not understand how complicated life is..."-john von neumann

the next few years are a blur. i can hardly remember a single thing. i must have done some idiotic things, which, thankfully have not been retained in my memory, which is an extraordinary feat-my mind is capable of remembering all the useless, tiring and painful memories, and discarding the good ones.

and then diana died, pokemon released and created a frenzy in 1997, when i was drowning in my own inability failing to take stock of my poor mathematical ability, plummeting to the lower rungs of the scary grade list. what does this tell us? comparison takes us nowhere. and it took me there in no time, when i couldnt look my friend in the eye, because my performance was dismal and he was looking like a max planck or galileo. with passing time,my math skills became as unpredictable as dhoni, and in the end, it crashed finally over a span of two years,slowly, steadily.and that is when they decided to have the board exams.

#2 stop that incessant worrying. nobody cares. not even you would care in a few years from now.

"some persons are very decisive when it comes to avoiding decisions..."

i had to make a decision-if you sucked at mathematics, had no talent for arts, were capable of documenting everything, you had to be an engineer, after being dumbed down by an unbelievable crass method of rote learning in your high school.(squarely blaming tamil nadu for my inability to understand partial differentials.)

but no, a decision was difficult because i was young. so, my parents did the right thing, put me in a school indifferent to its pupils,(better than the previous one though), and the vice versa.

#3 sometimes you have to take tough decisions. maybe they might not work out, but that doesn't mean you should give up on it completely.

"what is the difference between a banker and a large pizza? a large pizza can feed a family of four"

somehow, i managed to go through the engineering drudgery, and survived. and then, i made a decision- to quit a perfectly good job in a very decent company, probably in design, going on to design better things; to go to america, without support, in a market that was squirming and choking at the hands of bankers, to the midwest, where the manufacturing sector had completely died a inglorious death.

#4 you make mistakes in your life all the time. move on, its not worth brooding over it. live it, and make peace with yourself.

"all the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams"

and now what?where are going with all this? i keep thinking about the next crash in the stock market, or the time when unemployment is going to cross the triple or the four digit mark.(i think it already has...). my research is routine. so just how many people come up with breakthrough research every other day? we always think of life in purely binary terms. its much more fuzzy than that, in that it has states in between these too(two, pardon the pun)! i was amazed when i was listening to the song "ithu oru ponmaalai pozhudhu" yesterday. i was translated to a land where the song's meaning was everything i could see.

வான மகள் நானுகிறாள், வேறு உடை, பூணுகிறாள்...

ஒரு நாள் உலகம் நீதி பெரும், திரு நாள் நிகழும் சேதி தரும்...

ஆயிரம் நிறங்கள் ஜாலமிடும், ராத்திரி வாசலில் கோலமிடும்....

#5 all we care about in life are too much to handle, when the simple things that we can handle and cherish, we dont care at all!

take care! cheers.

(p.s:i admit without a trace of shame-i stole all quotes from the net.)

why data collection is important

% of iitians areawise.

every year, i am told by an iit professor, there are 10 lakh students appearing for a JEE exam. there are a total of 5000 seats in all the IIT's put together. what are the odds for a student to get in?

5000/1000000, or more precisely, 1 in every 2000. what is the population of three streets put together in madras? probably 1 kid can make it to the IIT's from the one half of kodambakkam. what about the coaching classes? if we consider their success rates, and update the probability, the student who doesnt have the advantage of coaching and who is mediocre, and relies completely on his effort is almost out of contention.(exceptions.)

what is the number of people missing a train by a couple of seconds because of a crowd? lets say a train can accomodate 500 people, at any given time, at the rate of 60 passengers to a 8 car rake train.(very conservative). for every station, lets say there are 20 people boarding, and 10 people getting down. what happens now? assuming the time for detrain of one passenger is 1 second, and the time for boarding is 1 second, and it is a perfect world with perfect order, and the train stops for 25 seconds, there is a possibility that 5 people may not make it. and that multiplied by 8. 40, out of a total of 160 people. 25%!

this is why we need to improve our models. why is this model crude? it does not take into account irrational behavior, nor does it account of lack of order. everything is assumed, even if we have the data for all passengers getting in, or getting out, which could be any one of the million probability distributions. (or completely empirical for that matter).

some other interesting things that we can model: infiltration of terrorists on the borders, number of people missing from an area, correlation of garbage density and flu, suicide rates and living index...

an example of exaggeration:

how much can you save if you dont brush your teeth twice, and do it only once? a standard toothpaste has 150 mg of toothpaste. and, every use takes around 1.5 to 2 g. so, for a day, its 3g.(lets say it is 1.5 g). now, at this rate, it is possible the toothpaste tube lasts for 50 days. but, what happens when you do it only once? 3 months and 10 days. in terms of savings, that is half of what you would have to spend. so, for 100 years, the amount of money you would spend(at Rs 30 per tube) would have been reduced from Rs 21000 to Rs 10500. now, whoever told you that brushing twice was healthy, was clearly not aware of this!(a stray idea just to emphasize data manipulation to absurdity).

now that, is nonsense! blowing it out of proportion to make the numbers seem significant is an extreme exercise that can only addle the weak.

what does this post really mean? that we have to careful about data. and also, that i am jobless in the middle of the fall quarter, during which i managed to get my hands on outliers.

cheers!

Tamils need excellent soft skills

Why suddenly you may ask? It is not a sudden topic though. I have been observing that we, the Tamils, generally tend to neglect soft skills. I don't want to make any comparison in this topic. But I want to make sure that we understand the veracity of the problem and react to it. Why are the soft skills very important in Tamils case? Yes, it is as important as hard skills. Most Tamils tend to take pride in their mother tongue which is a laudable act because we want to preserve our language and pass it on to the next generation but this pride is self destructive in some sense.

This is the right time that all Tamils should embrace English and master it because it will pave ways for us to improve our communication with other Indians and also with the International community. Communication skills are the most important skill in the business arena. If we are good at the skills i.e. particularly English, we can build business relationships with many people and also spread Tamil as a business language. This will help Tamil survive forever with minimal effort.

I may be wrong in pointing out that we lack soft skills, so I would like to invite active participation in debating on this topic. I think we should once again rekindle our language learning spirits. Btw, I understand soft skills is not only the Language ability but there are lots more to it.

Please read this!!!!!!!!

Hi spotalks readers,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8299780.stm

This is the most inspiring story I have ever read in my life. This guy deserve more than respect if you have enough money try to donate some to his noble cause.

Thanks

Sathiya

the five sacred pillars

1: leaving a friend high and dry when he is alone.

when a friend is down, it falls on you to stay by him, and mock him and make fun of his state, until he is revolted and slaps you in the face, or does something equally damaging.(guard your groin though). why? there are no laws, but there is something called trust. a friend is hurt, and he may choose to be miserable, but it falls upon you to ruin his misery and make him worse, and lighten his problems by making the whole problem absurd. reductio ad absurdum.

2: parents, the universe itself

they might complain, say the awkward things at the wrong time, be completely ignorant of the present day trends, and yes, might be unaware of internet. but that they should never become obsolete in the lives of their children, and vice versa. it is a very sincere but fragile bond, very sensitive, yet too beautiful.

3: girl. the girl

lives of men revolve around women. But for a women, there wouldnt have been the trojan wars, or the great mahabaratha or the ramayana. it is simple things that people fail to understand in a relationship that causes a rift, and tugs at the core of a lasting bond. relationships are illusions, but very strong ones that they can appear more than real. finally, it must be remembered, "hell hath no fury like a women scorned". watch out.

4. mentor. a beacon light

not the teacher, but the guide. there is a ocean of a difference between the two. a person who can understand us and make us understand is different from the one who wants us to understand because he is getting paid. he can be a butcher, as much as a investment banker; it is only when he/she spots the talent and tries to nurture it, instead of smothering it, we find a mentor.

5.faith?

what are we doing? why should we do this? is there something that keeps us going? why do we fail to understand? or is this not understanding, or that is this not a failure? what is what? what is why? when do we understand what we should understand? and what are we supposed to understand? when do we stop asking questions? when do we stop looking for answers?

none of these questions make sense to the larger section of people.(you question again, do you not-what about the remaining section?) but something seems to be like the air, guiding us through this tragi-comedy of life, a farce so dull and insipid, and at times so inspiring and magical, at times educating and mellowing, at times over burdening with pride and ego, at times absurd and meaningless, and at times over powering and catechiztic, a contradiction of values, unpredictable and ultimately absolute.

Fear

The most feared word according to me is obviously fear. I listen to "Anniyan" songs, the hero says he never proposed to his ladylove because of the fear of rejection. We tend not to attempt certain things because we fear, we may not able to succeed. We go to an interview hall having fear in our mind that we may not succeed. That fear in our mind actually deteriorate our performance than enhance it. Fear of failure convinces us not to try certain things which are considered to be risky.

Every knowledgeable person definitely know that investing in stock markets would fetch enough returns to sustain their life but they choose not to invest in markets fearing that stocks or investments may go bust. People may possess good interpersonal skills but they may be afraid of speaking to larger audience so they never succeed as good orators.

The fear of failure actually abandons people from experimenting with new ideas. Imagine that you have a wonderful idea which can be commercialized but you think too much or fear that the venture may fail. In that case, you wouldn't put in your full effort to make the venture successful because your brain is not totally convinced that you can succeed. So, fear actually kills your brilliant idea. I certainly think, the mind which is free of fear would achieve lot more than feared mind.

Talent Search

I always like to encourage people who are talented but doesn't have enough avenues to showcase their talents. Reality shows are picking up in India because it showcase the talents of normal people. There are instant celebrities from reality shows. One such celebrity is Susan Boyle who sang in Britain's got talented. The whole world was amazed by her talent but the world have spotted it only at her age of 47. She would have contributed a lot to music if she would have been spotted earlier.

I have a friend in NTU who can sing extremely well. She is a very mature singer according to me. I want her talent to be appreciated by the bloggers and also readers of this blog. I have posted the song she has sang. I hope readers of this blog will like. I hope to see some critics, hopefully positive ): I have re posted the video because the quality was not good previously. I hope it is now better.

Rogers - India Skeptic

Have you heard of Jim Rogers? The guy has who traveled the whole world in motorcycle and made it to the Guinness record. He also wears so many hats, used to be a professor at Columbia Business School, co founder of Quantum Funds along with George Soros. Besides that he made headlines in American television for moving to Asian city. He currently resides in Singapore. The reason behind his movement, he considers the future in Asia rather in America or Europe. So his daughter is learning mandarin to prepare for future.

But he is only betting on china and also published a book called “A Bull in China”, not India he remains skeptical of India’s growth and considers India’s growth will broke up in next 30 to 40 years. Shocked? He has reasons for spotting this trend. He claims India’s bureaucracy is legendary (which everyone knows). India is reluctant to privatize lot of things which badly needs reform. One of things is obviously education when there is a huge chunk of population which is very young. So, He claims reluctance among Indian Governments in reforms will break the sub continent and lose the economic race.

He obviously saying the obvious but he forgot to mention, Indian entrepreneurial talent which no other country in Asia actually has. India business elites are one among the top in the world. Though India has so many bureaucratic problems, it is able to produce 70 – 80 billionaires. Just contemplate if Indian government strenuously work to improve Governance, Indians will see so many millionaires and zero poverty in India. So India can beat the skepticism of Rogers and other likeminded people. Hope, Indian government realizes this faster before it is too late.

Watch this video

This guy has amazing talent, watch out his videos on youtube I bet you will be mesmerized by his performance.

Know the rules of game (gethu.com)

Do you know we are in the midst of deep recession? I hope every soul knows about it but something unnoticeable is happening around the world. If you’re a middle class you may sometimes think how come the number of BMW or Mercedes Benz keeps increasing in this slump? In America, federal government has thrown money at all the banks that are responsible for this worst financial crisis. Other governments around the world also have doled out millions of dollars or yen or euro or so on. But I don’t really perceive whether the current economic crisis has recovered especially the labor market where most want recovery.

In the middle of this economic crisis there were so many controversial issues like AIG bonus, lax regulation, climate change, carbon cap and trade, G8, G20 and all other things. But yesterday, Goldman Sachs, an investment banks reported bumper profit and send shock waves across the world saying that they have set aside $11.5bn for compensation, it seems each employee will receive 400K of 29,400 total employees. That’s an enormous pay package when most ordinary people don’t have money to buy food.

I was discussing with my professor who did his undergraduate at IIT, Madras and post graduate and PH.D degree from George tech, USA about the passion of students on studies. To much of my surprise he said students in his batch hardly studied because they understood where the easy money is available when reached IITs. Of course it is banking and financial services, so more than half the batch prepared for IIM CAT. To make humungous money, don’t study hard, just know the rules of game. Improve your soft skills!

Know Why huge rush for Banking Jobs?

Goldman sachs yesterday reported bumper profits and they announced compensation of $11.36 bn compensation for its employees. OMG! Now we can understand why there is a huge rush for MBA and financial jobs. This is the prime reasons. I don't know what the hell they do there to earn so much. I hope we can also master those skills to earn such a hefty pay or do we need to be priviliged? I don't know the answers. click here

Hilarious!

watch this video you will know Why US hegemony is deteriorating. I feel sad for that girl though she is frigging beauty.

Entourage - Returning for men's pleasure

My favorite TV show undoubtedly is "Entourage" for several reasons. It has a unique spice to attract any men on the planet earth. It was on hiatus for quiet month. Now, it is back with a bang in season 6. The show returns on HBO this Sunday, July 12 with episode "Drive". I hope it will have the same spice or spicier than previous seasons.
The character I like the most is Ari Gold, I wish he does the same miracles in the season 6 as well.

How poverty is measured?

Alright! if someone ask you to carry out a small project on measuring poverty. How do you do so? I presume most people will go for the average earning per day but in India its different. Have a look at this link you may learn further mathematics http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/how-many-indians-are-poor/

Discrimination in Indian Education

Indian elites in United States of America and other developed countries has made India so proud because of their achievements but if you really look into their background most of the people hail from India’s prestigious IITs and IIMs and also from privileged backgrounds. It is a case to analysis since India is a developing country which wants to rise to level of developed nations. Before having the aspirations to compete with developed nations we need to fundamentally overhaul our education system. It is a need of an hour because China which is also in the developing league has better system of education and playing field for all the students is almost flat.

China’s education system is centralized mean to say there is only one existence of board and common university entrance examination. Such a scenario is almost non existence in any Indian states especially in southern states. To paint a big picture we have CBSE, ICSE, State Board, Anglo Indian, GCE, etc. and list goes on. This is not to ridicule the system in place but the complexity involved in providing one of the most basic amenities to its citizens. The quality of education provided in each board differs considering and there is an informal ranking in place for students to select their board if they want to score high grades. That’s said, we are not imparting the true education to the child’s brain rather just making a choice. Why are so many boards? Why there is significant difference in the quality of education? Likewise lots of questions pops in any young ignited minds.

If any nongovernmental organization does survey in our elite IITs and IIMs to find out their true backgrounds i.e. their board of education, income status (true status), urbanite or rural. It is safe to assume that more 95% would definitely hail from urban upper middle or rich class and also from either CBSE or ICSE board. This is not to brand CBSE or ICSE board is the best but it is reality we need to concede. Why is this scenario? Does it mean rural students don’t have brains to compete? If we look below the surface we know the hard truth that those boards are highly priced. At the same time, urbanites (upper middle class) have better opportunity to train in expensive coaching class than rural students who basically lacks those infrastructures. Aren’t we denying rights to our citizens?

There are several Cinderella stories happening in India but those come to limelight when that kid usually comes to the city. Two years back there was a guy from village who worked part time in food courts and cinema theatre to fund his IAS coaching in Chennai and he cleared IAS exam in his third attempt. If we made available the same facility in his district capital or big town nearer his village, he wouldn’t have come to Chennai in first place to toil himself day and night. There are several untold stories which are often digested in the half stomach of rural students coming to cities to succeed in their academia. Most students don’t succeed because they have poor fundamentals inculcated by rural schools, not enough money to finance their coaching and culture shock in cities. To add fuel to the fire, urban students often mistreat their rural students instead of helping them.

Infosys founder Narayana Murthy once remarked in an interview, there are two Indias one is the urban India with all the information and facilities to compete with the globe; other is the rural India which is shattered in hope and live in despair. That is true case of the education provided to the students of Indian villages and towns. Aren’t they citizens of India who has to treated equally? There are still caste discriminations prevalent in Indian educations. There are several stories which are reported as well as unreported in the media that a lower caste child is mistreated by teacher or peers. China on the other hand differs in this fundamental right of a citizen. Though it is a communist country, it has provided a same education to all students no big difference in board, only difference which naturally occurs in any case is that urban students has more exposure than rural students.

Our former president A.P.J Abdul Kalam and so many distinguished people hail from villages. We need to understand that was the time when there was no big difference between Rameshwaram (Kalam’s Home town) and Ranchi. But globalization has changed the platform; there are visible inequities in cities and towns now. Kalam himself is afraid that “Will there be any Kalam from villages in next decades?” The situation persist in India says an obvious “NO”. We need to reverse this, we the people of India have to act not the politicians. We should rise up to challenge and protest to petition the Indian government to overhaul or revamp the badly hit education sector. There should be only one board of education. We need to have common entrance examinations throughout India. Multi entrance examinations have increased corruption in private institutions. Urban India has to stop the apathy in not acting to save our citizens who are not getting same education like them. We need a change like how Barack Obama has campaigned!

Is Kumari Mayawati a real dalits messiah?

Kumari Mayawati is the current chief minister of one of India’s most poorest and backward states and also she hails from lower rung of Hindu caste ladder. It is a rejoicing moment for dalits when she was elected as chief minister of India’s most populous state. It is worth noting that dalits were suppressed class of rigid Hindu casteism once they were known as “untouchables”. They did menial jobs which are considered impure, dirty by the upper caste Hindus. When they observe a leader from that caste climbing to the top rung of political ladder, it is an obvious moment of joy. But that moment of joy did not last longer when they witness their lifestyle has not been improved by same political hero.

Recently, India’s Supreme Court has asked Kumari Mayawati to justify spending an estimated $425m in public money to erect statues of herself, her political mentor Kanshi Ram and erudite Ambedkar. This public litigation was presented to the supreme court by two lawyers one namely Ravi Kant urged the court to order central bureau of investigation to investigate the misuse of public development funds on monuments to falsely glorify chief minister’s image. The concerns of lawyers include Uttar Pradesh which is one of the poorest states with some of its highest rates of infant mortality and maternal mortality must first address those some pressing problems.

Mayawati claims that all these monuments built will increase the self confidence of dalits but educated elites (from dalits) claim that only good quality education to dalits will truly increase self confidence. She has been fiercely criticized for one of the projects which cover 130 acres which have employed about 25,000 mostly out of state workers. All these workers live like refugees in their home country sleeping in tattered, makeshift tents, spending scorching days carving stone under elephants, like something out of a medieval tableau. This public interest lawsuit adds to the legal woes faced by Ms Mayawati who is already under investigation for her huge wealth accumulation through unknown channels and also a case of corruption in development of areas near Taj Mahal dating back to her earlier stint as chief minister. She has constantly denied any wrong doing and defended her building spree.

Lok Sabha elections results were setback to Ms Mayawati who dreamed of becoming prime minister of India. Before the election, Mayawati’s BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) was touted to win at least 40 parliamentary seats but election results revealed it has won only 21 seats. Ms Mayawati is widely known for her autocratic style and fierce temper didn’t win votes from her core constituency which suggested her self- aggrandizing projects were alienating herself from voters. Repercussions of her projects are clearly visible and voter’s true concerns are exposed in form of grievances in the election results.

Democracy is defined as Government of the people, by the people and for the people. Ms Mayawati has tweaked the definition to state “Government of the people, by one leader and for glorifying the leader’s image”. It is high time that she should realize there are millions of people in her state without food to eat, cloths to wear and a place to live. She should not spurn the business leaders, the World Bank and foreign secretaries who are willing to provide helping hands to the people in despair. A good political leader is one whom the people always remember is through his or her deeds.

If Mayawati really wants to uplift the impoverished dalits who are still living in the bottom of economic pyramid then she has to stop her building binge and focus on the understanding of their problems. Though problems are clearly known to any layman but there is a complexity in solving those problems. Often poor governance in Uttar Pradesh is blamed for the large swath of people living under below the poverty line. She needs to improve the governance before laying fantastic highways and other infrastructural developments for businesses. Only inclusive growth in Uttar Pradesh can solve the long standing problems of dalits. For that to happen, Mayawati should shun her ego and step up!

Good Will Hunting

This article was published on "Theviewspaper" and link is http://theviewspaper.net/good-will-hunting/
Good Will Hunting was released on 1997 and it was a box office hit, also won two Oscars for best actor in supporting role – Robin Williams, best writing – Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The movie has very inspirational plot and one of the best performances on the screen by actors. Will Hunting (Matt Damon) has gifted prodigy who can solve any mathematical problem by intuition and also memorize facts. But he works as a janitor at MIT and lives alone in shattered apartment in an impoverished South Boston neighborhood. Will was abused in the childhood so he turns his self loathing for sabotaging his personal and professional lives.

This troubled teenage boy solves a difficult graduate math problem that Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard), a Fields Medalist wrote on a board to challenge his students, hoping some of his students will solve problem by end of the semester. Students accidently see the problem solved and approaches Lambeau to find who that genius is. Apparently none says that they solved the problem. Puzzled Prof Lambeau puts another problem which took him and his colleagues two years to solve. Lambeau suspects Will vandalizing the board but much to his surprise, he solved that problem. Prof Lambeau tracks Will who was confronting the law due to his assault on the police officer and some youth. He comes to a deal with Will that Will has to work for him and also consult therapist for his psychological problems otherwise Will won’t be rescued from going to Jail. Will accepts deal but he gives frustrating trouble to the all five therapist who consulted him so they go away.

Lambeau visits psychologist Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), his old friend and fellow MIT classmate who grew up in the same neighborhood as Will thinking that he may connect with Will. Sean forgives Will’s caustic behavior and tells him lot of personal stories to connect with him. Meanwhile, Will meets Skylar (Minnie Driver) at bar near Harvard University and eventually falls in love with her. Sean encourages Will to have objective look at his life and consider job interviews arranged by Lambeau. Skylar also love Will , ask him to move to California where she is going to pursue Med School. Will goes to a dilemma whether to choose the job offers or go with Skylar. Meanwhile his best buddy Chuckie (Ben Affleck) wants Will not to squander the best gift God has given to him.

At this critical juncture Will disclose to Sean that he was abused as a child, to console Will Sean says “Its not your fault”. Will realizes his mistakes and chose to go to California to see Skylar to start a new beginning. This movie is remarkably inspiring to all losers as well as normal people. If we scratch the surface of this movie, we see a human trying figure “who he is”. The screenplay of this movie is very tight; we will never lose a focus or move from the seat. Some people may not digest the profanity in the film but apart from that this film is a clean chit.

The best scene in the move is where one of Will’s friend hits on a girl and get embarrassed by Harvard Phony but Will matches his wits with that guy. There should be a special mention about Robin Williams who acted as Sean Maguire, he acted stupendously super in the movie and it is guaranteed that we may be blown away by his skills. The picturization of MIT and other places is also awesome and thanks to the cinematographer Jean Yves Escoffier. The man behind the success of this movie is obviously the director Mr. Gus Van Sant. His shrewd skills for the clarity in the film brought real colors to the characters. Everyone will definitely love Cinderella stories so this film is no exception.