My trip from Boston to San Jose couple of days ago had another
highlight. American Airlines was screening a movie called “October Sky”
and since I was confident that I will complete reading Grapevine(by David Balter)
quickly, I chose to watch the movie. What a good decision it was! I was
proud of myself. Sometimes I do make good decisions altough Kavitha (my
wife) says that it is just statistics in play
October Skyky is a true story of Homer Hickam, a young student from a
town where all the people are employees of a coal mine. Homer (the
protaganist) gets interested in building rockets after watching Sputnik
(the russian space shuttle) and getting inspired by Ms.Riley (his
teacher). The rest of the movie is a brilliant depiction of what all he
has to go through when he starts to chase his passion and dreams. While
he gets support from a few people, most people think that it is a
ridiculous idea and wants him to give up.

Homer Hickam is currently a NASA engineer training astronauts for space shuttle missions.

A movie worth watching for sure!

Shawshank Redemption has been one of my favorite movies for a long time.

Here’s my take:

The protagonist in Shawshank Redemption
is an amazing person and he was willing to wait a few years (working
silently) to finally achieve his objectives. Most professionals today
have an opposite attitude. They want instant results and instant
success. Unfortunately, life does not operate that way

I posted about this characteristic in the Distinguish Yourself series under the title “Think long term”

The protagonist completely redefines the meaning of the word “persistence”.

I was speaking with Seth Gottlieb this morning who shares the same opinion about the movie. Here’s Seth’s take on the movie: