Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

Watched the new Fantastic 4 movie over the weekend and had watched Superman last week. I loved both the movies and am super happy that we have finally moved away from making everything dark & gritty. A lot of movies were made/rebooted into these dark/gritty reboots and while some of them were good movies I prefer watching the more light hearted versions. For example, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I loved most was the 80’s cartoon version and the 90’s movies where they are goofing off and still fighting crime. The reboots (both the cartoons and the movies) were recast to a darker version taking the fun out of it.

Some movies or characters can survive being recast as dark such as Batman which always has a darker tone (except for the 60s’ TV show but others don’t work that well. Superman is one such character, he is supposed to embody hope and optimism but the last few movies had a darker tone and were definitely not hopeful. So it was good to watch a lighthearted and hopeful movie instead of the now standard brooding hero. A bunch of whiners (the usual suspects) are upset that Superman is hopeful and a story that says basic human kindness is a value. So they are calling the movie ‘woke’ and calling for a boycott.

Superman is in its third weekend in theaters and currently the highest-grossing superhero film of 2025 with a box-office earnings of $472.4 million globally as of now. So the whiners are falling over backwards to call the movie a flop but the numbers and the ratings just don’t support them at all.

Rex Huppke wrote a fantastic article about the movie that goes into more details on why some folks hate the movie because the character is the champion of the oppressed and also known as the world biggest boyscout.

I loved the portrayal of Lex Luthor in the movie and feel that this is the best iteration of the character followed by the one in smallvile and then Lex from the ‘Superman & Lois’ series. The absolute pettiness of his jealousy comes through fantastically on screen and you can see how Lex just doesn’t care about anything other than taking Superman out even if it means destroying the world. The rest of the support cast was quite good as well and acted brilliantly. The story was a bit light on substance but the acting and I guess you can call it the heart of the story compensated for it quite well.

Coming to the The Fantastic 4 movie, it was a fun watch as well. Thankfully it wasn’t yet another origin story though they did cover their origins in the first few mins of the movie and then got to the more interesting part of the show. Galactus was imposing and scary in the movie. Johnny storm kept true to the character and goofed around as always but had hidden depths and strength which made an interesting contrast. I loved the fact that Sue storm was portrayed so well and actually shown to be powerful in her own right instead of being there just for eye candy with limited action while the other 3 did most of the work to address the threats they are facing.

Can’t give more details without spoilers so I will just say this: go watch the movie. It is a fun romp and do stay for the post credits scene as it is awesome.

Well this is all for now. Will post more later.

– Suramya

Nowadays it feels like people are waiting for an excuse to get upset and angry about things. No matter how innocent or harmless the activity is, you can be sure that there is someone out there ready to feel outraged by it. Earlier this week a video was posted where a foreign client visiting the India office was greeted with a dance performance and then invited to join the dance.

This is something that is a lot of fun and something different for the visiting client to remember the visit by. I have been part of international visits to clients and have hosts clients and counterparts in India over the years and what I can tell you is that most people would love to experience something traditional during their visit. Earlier this year we had a person from our US office visiting and this was during the festival season so there were a lot of decorations like rangoli etc and traditional dances as well. They loved experiencing that and told everyone how they loved being able to experience the traditional celebrations.

Similarly, when I visit my counterpart offices or clients in other countries I ask them to take me to local / traditional places so that I can experience the non-touristy life in that country. While I have never been welcomed with a dance performance, I did get to see the local teams performing in the anniversary celebrations and it was a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, as I said earlier people are ready to be outraged by the smallest thing as that is what the social media algorithm rewards with more views. The video of the dance was posted online with the following caption:

“India should stop chaprification of corporate offices. This is so pathetic to see Indian girls dancing in office and welcoming a foreign client and the bechara (poor) client also forced to dance. Such showcasing will only make other countries feel Indian offices are casual and not worthy of serious work.”

I have worked in companies across 3 continents (and offices in 6 continents) and I can say based on my experience that no company is going to judge you for the work based on if you have welcomed a client with a dance or not. They judge you on the deliverables and timely completion of tasks. I have attended cultural events in US offices, France, UK and nowhere did I feel that the company was not serious about work.

If you ask me if I would have participated in a dance welcome then the answer is no because I am a bad dancer and to conscious about how I dance to do it. But as long as the participation was voluntary for the employees this is harmless fun and something memorable for the client. In Hawaii visitors are welcomed with a garland and dance, so that should also be cancelled correct? What about the time where New Zealand MP’s staged a haka over a controversial proposed law? Is that also unprofessional and does that make the NZ parliament ‘casual and not worthy of serious work’ ?

Too many people in India think that the only way to make us look professional is to copy the western culture and behavior. That is the key reason behind this ‘outrage’ and we need to get over it. We have a rich & beautiful culture and we should be proud of it.

Source: Employees welcome client to office with dance performance. Video sparks outrage

– Suramya

I really hate all the gatekeeping that people do to make themselves feel better about their crappy life. The following image showed up in my feed and it talks about finding ‘if they truly are car enthusiasts or not’. I mean what the hell. An enthusiast is someone who is enthusiastic about something. You don’t need to pass an exam to be considered an ‘enthusiast’.

Best way to find out if your “car friends” are really ‘car people’… Show them this, their response and how long it takes for them to realise will let you know if they truly are car enthusiasts or not.

This happens in all areas and its usually men who will do this to exclude folks they deem not worthy to join their special little group. A few days ago I saw a post on one of the tech forums (didn’t take a screenshot) that asked if someone called SQL S.Q.L instead of Seequel did they know what they were talking about and if you would trust them with your database. I would trust them but will probably think twice about trusting the person who asked this question with my code/database.

A while ago I was on a call with a group of American devs talking to a group of British devs and the discussion was about changing the configuring router configuration for network optimization. The brits kept talking about changing the rooter (the British pronunciation) config. After the call ended of the of guys in the office (American) went something like: “All that is well and good but what on earth is a rooter that they kept talking about”. (The Americans pronounce it as rou-ter) Which I found to be hilarious. Gaurang keeps making fun of my pronunciation because I tend to use the US version rather than the British one that he uses.

But that doesn’t mean that the folks on call calling it a rooter didn’t know what they were talking about. If I can’t identify the image above it doesn’t mean that I am not an enthusiast, I might be more interested in car tires or performance numbers or whatever. Now if they had put this as something like using this as a test for identifying good candidates while hiring it would be a different story (still not the best way but definitely better)

Stop gatekeeping folks. You are pushing out people who like the same things you do just not in the same way or detail.

– Suramya