harimohan paruvu

Music - Kenny G and the Romance of the Saxophone

2012-02-01T20:42:00.000-08:00

For all of us musical philistines the first sound of the saxophone is very seductive. This is the kind of soft, romantic music one hears in the soft hallways of five star hotels, of air conditioned places, the sound that seems to belong to sunsets and beaches and so on. It was truly exotic to hear that sound.

So when I first heard 'Songbird' by Kenny G in the later 80s, it was truly an awesome experience. I had heard this music before, many times, its a popular piece of music and I was so glad that I finally discovered the maker of this wonderful piece of music. I tarted connecting the music, the instrument and the wonderful mood it evoked. I bought myself many Kenny G cassettes and loved listening to all of them but the 'Songbird' remains an all time favorite. In isolation, with dim lights, a drink in hand, leaning back against the wall and letting the music seep in. Or with the kind of company that equally enjoyed the music in isolation. 'Songbird' filled many moments of isolation with peace, romance and love. For that, a huge thanks to Kenny G. A link to the video of the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlfnedlb7iU

Why Dhoni Must Remain As Captain

2012-01-31T22:11:00.000-08:00

The ongoing call for sacking Dhoni as captain in Tests is a reaction that we have often seen and heard. Many of our ex-cricketers, fans and so called experts come to the fore the moment the Indian side loses a few Tests and calls for older players to be dropped and radical changes made all over. Some people want the entire system to be changed, some want the captain changed, so want the sponsor changed - some change must be made to appease them. I do not understand these knee jerk reactions from these people.

An Extraordinary Leader
Considering the fact that Dhoni has been the only Indian captain who has won two World Cups, in the T20 and 50 over format, won an amazing number of matches in various formats of the game, taken the team to leading position in all formats of the game, and has proven his calm and composure in winning games for almost all the sides he has played for, there is no doubt that he is an extraordinary talent as a captain, a leader. To lead a side that is packed with several battle scarred seniors, the Tendulkars, Sehwags, Dravids, Laxmans and many more, and bring them all to rise above their own issues and contribute to the team's good calls for great man management skill. It is a rare talent and one that must be nurtured.

Man Manager Par Excellence - Belief in Self and Team
Dhoni may not be technically the most astute captain. He may not be the best strategically, even tactically. His field placements sometimes bewilder everyone. His choice of bowling changes also. But what he has in ample measure is belief that he and his team can pull it off in any situation. This one factor more than makes up for all his other shortcomings. He strides around as if he knows exactly what is going to happen and dares the opponent to go out and get that victory if he so badly wants it. He throws the ball to the Rainas, the Yuvrajs, the Joginder Sharmas and the Jakatis and they all bowl like champions. Half the side gone and some young upstart like a Kohli stands up. The youngsters and the senior players are given the space, the confidence, the responsibility and they all perform. They never appear under pressure. That is his one quality that makes him far superior than any technically better qualified, strategically superior player, because Dhoni can pull it off on the field, in the heat of the moment, while all else can only justify later what went wrong in flowery words.

Others Don't Compare
To me the others don't compare as captaincy material. Tendulkar is too intense and puts immense pressure on his players. It is only recently that he is letting go and letting them be. Sehwag leaves it too much to the players to figure it out for themselves which will never work in a big match like the World Cup final or semi final or a quarter final even when the players look to the captain to hold their belief. Dravid is too caught up in his own game, his own insecurities to rally all the others around him - he believes in doing his job well and anything beyond that adds to the burden on his shoulders. Laxman is also in the Sehwag mould, though in a less abrasive manner I'd suspect, more leaning to the Azhar style of captaincy that at this level everyone should know what they are doing - something I never subscribed to because at every level there are players who need to be told. The only one who comes close to matching Dhoni is the intense, fiercely competitive Kohli, who knows his own mind and more importantly knows what he wants - to win. Yuvraj's captaincy has been exposed in the IPL.

Needs Support
Dhoni is a young man. These players play under tremendous pressure of not just the games but hectic schedules that drain them a lot. They require a lot of support in terms of mentoring. Something that Gary Kirsten did so effectively. If there is a problem with the team it must be shared by the supposedly expert support staff because this is almost the same team that did the country proud just a few months ago,. Two series down and we already want long standing changes including sacking all the seniors, all the rarest talent and replace them. With whom?

Coach and Support Staff to Blame
To me the problem lies not with the players. They have become defensive and that reflects their mindset. Now this is an area that the Coach and the many support staff need to figure out and get it right. Duncan Fletcher is the one to gun for if he is not able to get it right. Player fatigue, fear, confused mindset - it all shows in the players performance. The support staff needs to pull up their socks and get their act right - make the atmosphere conducive for the players to perform at their best. I have not heard a word yet from Duncan Fletcher and I'd like to hear his take.

Don't Kill the Talent, Support It
Dhoni is not the only one in the team. Agreed we have lost two series and in bad fashion but that does not mean we replace and kill whatever talent we have. Captaincy is also a confidence issue. by constantly pulling out the plant and examining its roots we will kill it. Let it grow, let it find its space. See if something can be done to help the team find a better atmosphere. I have not heard a single creative, supportive, value added suggestion by our so-called experts except go back to lamenting the bad system, arrogant players etc. Come on guys back off. Dhoni is still your best bet in all formats for the next three years, until the Kohli's are ready. Give him the support, examine the support system, examine the hectic schedules they play in and let them be. Is there some kind of a counseling or brainstorming session that the captain can go to in his off days and meet some experts at the NCA? Or is this an are no one knows anything about? Can't something be done to ease this tremendous strain from the young man's shoulders?
It's time to nurture and support. To see if there is someway he can find out what he did right and what is going wrong. In any case Dhoni is still too fresh off some amazing wins to be written off so early. I'd trade these two series losses for the World Cup win anyday.

A Nation That Is Happy With the Mediocre

But I'd like to see more constructive stuff coming out from these ex-cricketers who have not achieved an iota of what Dhoni has. As a nation we are always in a hurry to bring down anything that is progressive. We can't seem to wait to stop all progress, call for changes that will make us regress many years. Clearly we are comfortable with the mediocre, with the non-achievers, because they make us comfortable. They do not show us our own mediocrity. So when an icon shows signs of weakness, we are in a hurry to tear them down and beat them down so they never get up.

To me Dhoni is still doing a good job. Fire the Coach for non-performance and get a new one if you have to fore someone.

The Color of Paradise - Movie Review

2012-01-30T09:57:00.000-08:00

Stunning.
This is a movie that has been on my desk for months together now. Sagar had given me this DVD along with a bunch of other Irani films but for some reason I postponed watching it. When I saw it today, I could not but help wondering at the film making ability of the Iranian film makers, Majid Majidi, in particular. To take a simple theme and play it upon your heart strings so well, so deeply - its the work of a master. Never will forget this movie, ever.

'The Color of Paradise' is the story of a blind boy Muhammad who studies in a school for the blind in Teheran. On the vacation break all parents come to take their children except his father who comes late, reluctantly. Muhammad knows his father does not love him and feels that he is a burden to his father. The scene when he runs to his father and says 'I thought you would not come' had me - and I cried. The duo go to their village where his two sisters and granny live on a farm. Muhammad's father Hashem now wants to marry again (his first wife is dead) and starts the proceedings with a girl's family around. Meanwhile Muhammad is having a great time with his sisters and his granny and even goes to their school and impresses everyone with his knowledge and skill with Braille. But Hashem is ashamed of his blind son and thinks it might impede his marriage plans, and one day when the granny is away, takes his son to a blind carpenter and leaves him there. When Hashem returns he finds his mother is leaving him; she dies eventually, worrying more about her weak son and less about her blind grandson. Her death is seen as ominous by the future in laws and they call of the marriage. Hashem brings the boy back but on the way back home the boy and the horse he is sitting on, fall into the river. Hashem waits for a moment, not sure if he wants to rescue the boy who is drowning but finally decides to save his son. But it may have been too late. Never have I prayed more that the last scene would show some sign of life in the lifeless boy's body. And for making a movie like this, Majid Majidi, I salute you.

This movie killed me. I cannot even try to describe the emotions that it took me on in its simple story, in man's quest to find love from those who somehow refuse to give it to them. The blind boy, his father, his granny, his sisters, his teachers - that is about the entire cast. The movie is shot so well that it does appear to be paradise, every shot is so visually arresting that it sinks into you. But the story in itself went deep into my heart and my soul and I felt for the blind boy and his wanting to be with his sisters, his granny, wanting his father's love. It seems so pointless, so sad, to want love, to feel equal. to want to try so hard to be like so many others. Majid Majidi, take a bow. Muhammad and Hashem and this movie will remain forever with me. Truly master class. If I could think of one story like this, in its simplicity, in its human drama, I'd consider it a huge achievement. And if you have not seen this movie don't even think twice, watch it. You've seen nothing if you haven't seen this.

Horrible Bosses - Movie Review

2012-01-30T05:40:00.000-08:00

Watched this zany movie and laughed like hell. It's a story idea that is so hilarious that you wonder why no one thought of it before. It's about three guys who have horrible bosses and how they decide that their lives are going to be better off without them. So they decide to eliminate the bosses.

One of the bosses is Kevin Spacey, boss to Jason Bateman, is a self promoting, sadistic mad man, Colin Farrell, boss to Jason Sudeikis, is another who is a sexed out dope head who thinks he is a Kung Fu champ and the third is the super hot dentist Jennifer Aniston, boss to Charlie Day, who is sexually harassing him. Now their first attempt at finding a hit man ends up with them finding a guy who specialises in wet work. Only after he comes over with a full bladder do they understand what wet work he specialises in. They end up paying him 200 dollars though. And then they walk into a black bar looking to hire a hit man and find Jamie Foxx, a.k.a. M.F. Jones (yes, you got it right!) who agrees to do their job for thirty grand and then reduces it to five grand. He finally tells them he will not do the job but he will be their murder consultant. He advises them to kill each other's bosses so they don't get caught.

As the three gentlemen go about trying to get a fix on their bosses, they are involved in a series of capers that end with Kevin Spacey shooting Colin Farell, suspecting him of having an affair with his wife. Jennifer Aniston is taken care of by some slick photography by M.F.Jones and it all ends well for the three with all three bosses taken care of. I loved it and will watch it again.

Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You - Marcus Chown

2012-01-30T05:30:00.000-08:00

Or so I thought when I picked up this book (Quantum Physics Cannot Hurt You, Penguin Books, Marcus Chown, Rs. 450) to read. At 158 pages it did not look like it could harm me really so I plodded on hoping to be able to be better off on subjects such as the Theory of Relativity, Gravity, Quantum Theory, Atoms and so on. But sadly, despite the chatty language Marcus uses, the Quantum Theory whizzed past and I gave up. I do not think I can speak with any authority on it yet which has more to do with my capabilities than Marcus Chown's. Clearly I am not yet ready for Quantum Theory.

What got me to try this book was the cover which looked like a 'Quantum Theory for Dummies' one. But they really must have had some more evolved dummies in mind. The back cover is very interesting though and hooks you. Stuff like 'the entire human race would fit in the volume of a sugar cube' (that's how empty we are), 'we age faster at the top of the building than at the bottom' and 'every breath we take contains an atom breathed out by Marilyn Monroe', does make you want to figure out how and why but save the first, the other two are still gobbledegook for me. It is not very comforting to think that we are breathing in atoms breathed by dead people however attractive they may be.

But I am a better man still, for having read the book. I understand the small world or 'Small Things', a world that lives in these atoms that make up everything in the Universe a little better, the world of the 'Big Things' such as the planets the Universe and why they behave the way they do. Again, it reiterated to me that Einstein's genius, his creativity, has much to do with courage. He would apply the grandest of his thoughts to the Universe, beyond what one could conceive and that to me is interesting. It does show that to create something path shattering you need lots of courage, even to think. That's what creativity is about, it looks like.

The Paradoxes of Life - The Resist-Persist Paradox

2012-01-28T21:13:00.000-08:00

This is something I read in a book - perhaps in Louise Hay's 'You Can Heal Your Life'. What you resist, persists.

So the thing you don't want the most, the thing you resist the most, will always follow you. Never leave you. Until you stop resisting it.

Accept it and it goes away. Simple as that. Flies, mosquitoes, people, situations - accept.
Don't resist.

The Paradoxes of Life - The Silence Paradox

2012-01-28T21:09:00.000-08:00

It is the silence that communicates far more than words - in all things that matter.

Silence shows up this paradox wonderfully. Try remaining silent and stop communicating with words for a while. It shows how much we speak unnecessarily and without any meaning or purpose.

One thing I noticed was that while adults speak around in circles and ask redundant questions in spite of the silence, children do a fantastic job of communication.

To communicate more, be aware of the gaps.

Story Idea - The Losers

2012-01-28T05:25:00.000-08:00

This is the story of a bunch of forty five year old losers. Their marriages are on the rocks, their careers are the pits, they are perpetually broke and they have nothing but hot air between them. One of them is always scheming on how to get rich quick and has some of the most fantastic schemes that are just one step away. One of them has given up on life and is always throwing a dampener on things. One of them is always thinking of the good old days and is always stuck in the past. The last one is the narrator and he is the one who has a small job and seems quite happy with his life.

One day while dreaming up ways to spend the fortune that comes their way they actually do come across a fortune. How the four losers get rid of the entire fortune in a period of 24 hours and are back to square one and doing what they love doing best, talk about getting rich, is the rest of the story. Lots of gaps to fill but it could turn out interesting.

My Friend Pinto - Movie Review

2012-01-27T05:19:00.000-08:00

Promo looked interesting but the movie was not half as interesting. As the title gives it away, it is about Pinto - friend of the world, (has to be Mumbai or Goa, leaning to Goa, yes, you are right!). Pinto is a guy who lives in Goa with his mother and upon the demise of his mother is sent to meet his hen pecked friend in Mumbai for some reason best known to the Father (church Father type). Anyway Pinto quotes extensively from his mother's teachings, most of which are taught by all mothers, but Pinto takes these usually to-be-taken-with-a-pinch-of-salt teachings very seriously and looks like that is about the only education he has ever had. Anyway Pinto is a cross between Forrest Gump and Charlie Chaplin and some others surely, and the movie is a cross between Kabhi Haan KabhI Naa, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and so many long titled movies and we stumble along with him, hoping that somewhere the punch line will drop in. But the movie sails by and the punch line sails by too and we are all looking amusedly, waiting to be amused, when the movie ends.

Pinto 'is played by Pratiek Babbar with a wide eyed, wondrous look in his eyes of someone who understands nothing of how this world functions it seems. The movie begins with this Pinto coming to Mumbai, meeting his friend, messing up his marital peace, friend and wife getting stuck in traffic jam where they sort of their marital discord and do almost everything except have babies. Meanwhile Pinto lands in a neighbour's house, meets two warring lovers, befriends a Don, makes friends with Don's girlfriend, gives gyaan to a taxi driver's gambling nephew and does all sorts of stuff. There is a dead body, two dumb and dumber types with glasses and all, a woman who is saved from being sold off to the bad bad world, a grand dance at New Year and all ends well.

Not soon enough for me though. It kind of made me sick because it just had no energy going forward, just one cute scene to another, one cliched theme to another. Highly avoidable even on the reduced rates on satellite television. Catch up on sleep or meditate. Or even better start working on your Income Tax papers. Way more interesting.

The Paradoxes of Life - The Helping Paradox

2012-01-25T07:10:00.000-08:00

To help others, you must first help yourself.

Too many people out there are full of great intentions of helping society, humanity and the less privileged, but with no clue of how to help themselves to begin with. In fact one might appreciate this better when one tries to help oneself and finds that it appears to be a difficult question to answer. It will require much honesty and much clarity and love to address that issue.

In most cases it is the self that needs help first - from you. Once you take care of your 'self' you will find both the depth, the security and the patience to help others in a way that truly benefits them.

Yourself first. And after being fully sated, you will find it easy to share. To give.

The Norway Issue - Cultures That Are Worlds Apart

2012-01-25T02:52:00.000-08:00

The recent news item about the Norwegian authorities taking away a three year old boy and a five month old girl, siblings, from their Indian expatriate parents who are working in that country exposes how, despite all the talk about the world becoming a village, we are all essentially entire worlds away in terms of cultural understanding. Some of the evidence that the Child Welfare authorities have put forth in their defence for seizing the babies and putting them and their parents through unimaginable trauma (its is traumatic to even hear about such a thing) are things that are common in any Indian home. For a three year old son to sleep with his father, for parents to feed their children with their fingers, for not having appropriate toys for their ages, (for being jerky and awkward in movements?) for having hit the boy once - the children have been taken away and will be kept in foster homes until they are 18, by which time they would have grown into complete strangers to each other and their parents. As a concession, the authorities have followed some equally twisted logic and granted the parents three hours of time thrice every year separately with their children. What such a thing should do to the kids I cannot conceive - make them more secure and loving citizens? This has to be the cruellest thing I have ever heard. I really feel for the young parents and hope that this unfortunate issue is resolved soon.

For those of you who do not understand the Indian culture here are some eye openers then. We eat with our hands and the normal way of feeding young children here is to feed them with the fingers. An entire population of 1.25 billion has survived this kind of an upbringing and is doing okay. In Indian homes it is common for children to sleep with their parents until they grow to be much older than three, until three, almost every child sleeps with their parents here. In many homes where there is a space constraint, the entire family sleeps together in one room - and it could mean more than one family. Things work out just fine still. In India children play with anything they can lay their hands on - there are no soft edged toys with big red letters and figures warning the infants not to swallow them or eat them or not to use them to shoot people down - here. They play with rags, with sticks, with wooden toys, with plastic toys, kitchen utensils, mud, anything. What is appropriate for them is what they enjoy playing with. Rarely does anything go wrong. They do not swallow, do not eat and even if they do, they survive. And they do grow up fine, with a sense of humour, a sense of right and wrong - and not a sense of deep righteousness which cannot tolerate another point of view, another culture. That deep sense of misplaced righteousness is the reason why we have such strong cultural gulfs, why people cannot accept other cultures today.

For young mothers who are coping with young children and a new culture, sleepless nights and all the attendant problems of child rearing or infant rearing included, the perfect responses to authorities looking to take away the children may not be forthcoming. And that I suspect is at the root of everything, the mother's responses, must have been alien, causing her to be bracketed as 'unfit' to rear her own children. In India there is generally help in the form of parents and maids and children grow up quite well, hale and hearty, in the heat and dust, dirt and anger. In India it is not a crime to slap a child (not beat him or her senseless of course, but the occasional slap is part of our culture) and it is not done to inflict trauma. Most of us have grown up with the occasional whack on the side of the head and we are not the worse for it. What would be traumatic really, is if someone took the child away citing these reasons, and separated it from its parents when it is three or worse, five months old, for the next eighteen years.

The West has always missed the forest for the trees in this aspect. There is too much technique, too much logic and too little heart when it comes to dealing with children. All this stuff of 'protecting' the children could cause more harm than anything else. I'd advise them to come to India and see how children grow up here, including the ones born to the poorest of the poor, the ones they love to show in 'India' shots of slums, villages etc. The children may not have much of the above mentioned facilities, but most grow up as secure, well rounded citizens who have the capacity to laugh, to love and to help. Almost all Indians of whom you may have heard of, have grown up in the circumstances mentioned above.

Children who grow up with a sense of isolation could well turn to other forms of expressing their dark emotions, something that we hear of often these days in terms of shootouts in schools and such in the West. Ironically, yesterday, there was a byte from Oprah Winfrey who spoke about how wonderful it was that Abhishek Bachchan still lived with his parents. I am glad the Bachchans live in India and not elsewhere - they might have been sent off to all sorts of institutions under the guise of protecting them. Come to think of it, I am glad that I live in India, where the heart still rules the mind.

The Peaceful Warrior - Movie Review

2012-01-25T00:49:00.000-08:00

This 2006 movie is based on the book by the same name, by Dan Millman, an athlete, gymnast, author and speaker based in the US, and is largely autobiographical. It is about the struggle of Dan Millman as a college student to make it higher in the world of gymnastics. He knows he is good but he is still trying to find that elusive something that makes him feel in control. In one such restless bout, he goes off for a jog early in the morning and bumps into an old man at a service station. The conversation with the old man who speaks with amazing clarity on issues that Dan is confused about, coupled with the speed, agility and gravity defying moves, make Dan want to meet him more and more. The old man, whom he fondly calls Socrates, teaches Dan slowly the process of being the 'Peaceful Warrior' where one has to conquer the war on the inside.

The young gymnast does not understand the old man's ways at all and gives up many times. Once he quits and goes back to his old ways of partying, philandering and it is then that he has an accident that shatters his leg and puts even his ability to walk, under a cloud. The old man comes to him and asks Dan to train for his gymnastic dreams, without any attachment. Dan slowly but surely understands the way of the 'Peaceful Warrior' and makes an unlikely comeback into the gymnastic team.

"Being in the present moment", "being the move", "knowing the three things in life - paradox, humour and change", "the journey being more important than the destination", "the pursuit of excellence without attachment to the reward", "that there are no ordinary moments", and many more such concepts and thoughts are discussed by the guru and his protege. Another protege is shown, a girl, with whom the young gymnast appears to fall in love but that thread is left unresolved.

'The Peaceful Warrior' is an interesting movie with several quotes that one can use in one's pursuit of excellence. Especially in hard demanding times, when there is doubt and fear, the movie's dialogues do breathe in much inspiration. Most of the stuff is what we have heard before but that does not make them any less impactful. Certainly worth a watch for anyone.

On the negative side, a rather irritating side at that, the movie tends to tell all and show nothing. Everything is said by the guru and his protege in conversations, nothing shown. The guru's amazing speed etc is not on evidence anywhere except in one scene, in the rest of the movie he is plodding around slowly. Almost every concept that Socrates tries to tell the young man is discussed and not shown through practice which makes it a rather lazy way of telling the story. It would have been far more interesting if they had found ways of showing how those concepts are realised through practice rather than simple showing the boy coming in through windows, doors, and adopting such needlessly cute tactics. But despite all that, worth a watch, because there is some stuff that makes you introspect and can help.

Sachin Tendulkar's Burden - How to Get the 100th 100

2012-01-24T05:56:00.000-08:00

As he draws closer to the hundredth hundred, the burden on Sachin Tendulkar is clearly showing. It is no mean feat, a first of its kind, and would naturally weigh heavily on his mind each time he prepares for the next match, the next inning. Without doubt he would visualise the achievement, the applause, his own actions, his reactions later and all this clutter would add heavily to his burden. After a couple of decades of playing in a certain manner, preparing and implementing his strategies on bowling sides all these years, it is time now for Tendulkar to perhaps rethink his preparation. To perhaps lighten up a little and go back to enjoying the game. The century will come, if he does not get in the way which he is right now.

For starters- to turn all his preparation upside down - he could just forget about the hundredth hundred. (And that goes for the team as well.) He could make it all a big joke and get on with his game. He could just go and enjoy every moment of the game he loves so much. And as he gets closer to his hundred, it is important for him to just stay intensely in the moment, and not ahead of the moment i.e. the hundred. It will come when he is ready for it and right now, in his tense manner, he is not. He must do what he probably believed in all these years, that the game is bigger and that he must allow it to happen - not control it fully. Control, true control, comes when you let go.

It is another record and one that could be broken as all records are sometime or the other. It is easier to be happy and to continue doing what gives the most happiness to him - playing the game. If the pitch is any indication to go with, his big chance is in this Test and I suspect that if he just lightens up a bit, he could do it right here.

Well Done Rajasthan - Fantastic Job

2012-01-23T21:41:00.000-08:00

This has nothing to do with the Rajasthan police or the Rajasthan government's methods at keeping Rusdie away but more to do with its Ranji Trophy cricket team. Rajasthan was way down in the order of states who were likely to win the Ranji Trophy for several years and when they won it last year, there was much delight and surprise. But to win in twice in a row shows that they have perfected a process that is worth emulating by other smaller states, most of which seem to have no self-belief, no conviction. In fact why just the smaller states, even bigger states such as Mumbai, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal can do well to take a leaf of out of the Rajasthan method.

The Rajasthan team is not one that evokes fear in the opponent's minds. It has some former players, ageing certainly, like Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Aakash Chopra, and several rookie players that no one has heard of. But they play to their strengths and they play hard. The way they started off against Tamil Nadu on the first day, in Tamil Nadu's homeground, was itself the kind of a start that would have sent alarm bells ringing for the sheer display of will, of desire to win. For all of the first day, the two openers, Vineet Saxena and Aakash Chopra, batted resolutely, giving a glimpse of the purpose, grit and resilience the team was made up of. The start itself would have made the opponent's wonder at how seriously the Raasthan players took this campaign, the pride that went into it, and that would have won more than half the battle. Compare that kind of resolute batting with the across the line shots that the TN batsmen played and you know the mental framework of both sides.

Kanitkar and Chopra did their job, the professionals from Maharashtra and Delhi, but the local lads Vineet Saxena, Bisht, Rituraj, Pankaj Singh and every other player came up with heart warming performances. It has been a show where there are no stars - everyone played for the team. Surely everyone must have backed one another, stoked the desire in one another to wrap their hands once again on the Trophy, followed the basics well and helped one another out. I do wish Aakash Chopra, a writer of considerable talent himself, writes about his experiences with the Rajasthan cricket team, which could be an eye opener for many team related activities.

Congrats Rajasthan and well done!

Shagird - Movie Review

2012-01-22T04:48:00.000-08:00

This was a surprise by Tigmanshu Dhulia. I had never heard of this movie and only watched it because Sagar recommended it to me. 'Shagird' has some shades of a Hollywood movie of a bad cop and his good assistant cop but goes beyond that in its adaptation. In the end, quite entertaining, with a few twists and turns that surprise you.

Nana Patekar is the bad encounter cop in Crime Branch who makes deals left right and centre and makes pots of corrupt money for himself and his bosses, a Minister. To his corrupt team of cops joins a new recruit, Mohit Ahlawat, (was Recruit the movie I am looking for) fresh wish morals and idealogies, and there is seesaw between the two. Mohit cannot understand the trigger happy ways in which Nana kills off people, makes money etc and Nana though initially suspicious of how this rookie got a prime posting as this, believes him when the rookie saves his life a couple of times. But then the rookie's girl friend, journalist Rimi Sen gets kidnapped and there is talk of terrorists and all that being released along with a dreaded gangster. The gangster and the terrorists are released and then killed off by Nana who is also planning a double cross of the Minister. He realises too late that there was a bigger game plan behind after some interesting twists and turns in which almost everyone dies.

One of those thrillers that entertains without too much engagement from you, with perhaps a couple of loose ends, or rather slack at some places. A decent watch overall, with a story where some thought has gone in to surprise the viewer a couple of times. Funny how it came and went and I never heard of it.

The Rushdie Episode - Do We Ban a Thought or the Person?

2012-01-21T22:51:00.000-08:00

It is interesting to see all the drama that is going on at the Jaipur Literary Festival about Salman Rushdie's coming to attend the festival, the famed assassination plot, the claim that the assassination plot was a ruse planted by the Rajasthan police to keep Rushdie (and therefore controversy) away, the readings from the banned book of Salman Rushdie's 'Satanic Verses' (which earned him the famous fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, the first of the many fatwas I had heard since) and now subsequent clamour for arrest of the authors who read from the book, prosecution of the Litfest organisers or the authors for hurting religious sentiments and so on. For all those liberal voices who have come out in favour of Salman Rushdie (what are they in favour of, lifting the ban?), there are also conservative voices, especially from the big boss of Indian fiction, Chetan Bhagat who has said that such banned books and banned authors should not be made into 'heroes'. More fuel for the fire surely.

But what is interesting to me is this - do we ban the book or the person who wrote it? Do we ban the thought or the person who thought that thought? Can the person come and visit (suparis and fatwas notwithstanding) as long as one thought of his is banned? When the person comes, does he bring his thought along with him or does he leave that thought behind? How does one ban an idea, a thought? If Salman Rushdie, the person where the thought originated from, is free to walk in the country, and is not banned, can the thought be banned? The book cannot enter India but Salman Rushdie can. It is a curious case to me that the person is treated as separate from the idea.

Since publishing of books is a collaborative process, are all others in the process banned too? Not really - because the ban it appears to me covers only the idea, the book. I read somewhere that much of this furore has to do with the UP elections and the Muslim vote.

The world will move on - Rushdie or not. For all his perceived faults the winner of the Booker of Bookers, an Indian by birth, is an exceptional writer, a rare talent, and no one would deny that. It is even more interesting to know that while M.F. Hussain, another Indian of rare talent, has been hounded out of the country by Hindu fundamentalists and lived abroad and died there in his later years, Salman Rushdie could well be facing an almost similar fate, being banned by the Muslims.

But I still wonder, in these times of the internet especially, how anyone can ban an idea.

10 Words that only a Hyderabadi will understand

2012-01-21T05:55:00.000-08:00

Having been asked to discuss a theme called 'Salaam Hyderabad' recently I have been thinking ever since about what is the true test for a Hyderabadi. Here is a preliminary list of words that I will put up and to which we can keep adding along the way - of things that only Hyderabadis understand the meaning of.

1) Kaiku
This is an invitation to engage in a long discussion on anything because one can keep saying Kaiku for ever and at one point the other person will have no answer. Roughly translated it means 'But why?' but its only a rough translation. Only a Hyderabadi will not take this seriously and launch into giving answers forever.

2) Parson
Technically means 'day before' or 'day after' but this is a time frame that extends from three days to about ten years and more and no Hyderabadi ever takes this literally. 'Parson hi mila bhai' could mean a few months or years ago.

3) Cutaan marna
This is a Hyderabadi expression for those who maro 'cuts' on their motorbikes i.e. weave through traffic in a zig zag manner.

4) Pauna
A milky version of chai available only in Irani cafes.

5) Potti patana/ lighting maarna
Potti patana was made famous by Amitabh in his song in one of his movies as he tries to patao Hema Malini. This process is also called 'lighting maarna', a term that only Hyderabadi would understand. The person who maros lighting is called a 'lighter'.

6) Abich aatu
Technically means 'I will come just now' but as with 'Parson' it could be his polite manner of saying he is going away to the USA for ever. In all likelihood you will next meet that person after many many decades.

7) Darkhari
This is a Hyderabadi term for a 'dada' or a 'don'. And from it comes words such as 'darkhari pana' which means doing things that 'darkharis' do.

8) Latkor
No meaning exists for this word that I know of. It means something completely below par, detestable. Like 'latkor kaaman kaiku kar reyaaron'

9) Chillar
A close relative of latkor, 'chillar' is of a lesser intensity than 'latkor' and more acceptable version of something downright cheap.

10) Sarak gaya
Hyderabadi for having lost it. Or a noun that explains it all - 'birak'.

Next, some of those things that Hyderabadis like to eat in their Irani cafes.

The Monk, the Moor & Moses Ben Jalloun - Saeed Akhtar Mirza

2012-01-20T20:38:00.000-08:00

I bought this book entirely on the basis of what I heard at Saaed Mirza's talk with Mohana Krishna Indraganti and Vijay Kumar at the Hyderabad Literary Festival. Impressed by Saeed Mirza's views on many things I wanted to see what this book was all about, bought one, got it signed and got down to reading it.

'The Monk, The Moor & Moses Ben Jalloun' (Harper Collins, Rs.450, 247 p) is a novel, thinly veiled as one, which deals with the western world's gradual cover up, and at times downright plagiarisation, of the original work done by the Islamic civilisation in the periods 800 to 1300 A.D. or thereabouts on practcially everything - astronomy, medicine, mathematics, music, art, literature, science, chemistry, alchemy, architecture and what not. The novel starts with four students of English Literature in a University in the USA - an Indian, an African, an American and an Arab - who are studying Dante's 'Divine Comedy' in their class. Omar puts forward some material that he has found in the 'Book of Ascent' which shows similarities between what Dante wrote and what has been written much earlier in the Islamic civilisation, a hint of plagiarisation. Though the Professor does not take him seriously, the four friends decide to follow up the thought and get together to make up a 'House of Wisdom', a weekly meeting place for the four, where these issues are researched and presented.

The basis for Omar's theory of the Islamic civilisation's contribution comes from a small document in his possession, a diary of one of his ancestors who lived in the 12th century. The diary has details of conversations between a Christian monk, a well-read Islamic Moor and the Arab, Omar's ancestor, as they get together to translate some important documents. The four students read from these diaries and understand what went on on those times, through the recorded conversations.A third string is fitted in, of the Islamic scholar Abu Rehan in the 900 A.D.'s and his student Rehana. Abu Rehan's work in Mathematics, Astronomy, Science and many other subjects, his contemporaries, Ibn al-Haythan, Ibn Sina, Musa al-Khwarizmi, and their work in medicine, surgery, fractions, laws and a host of other subjects are an astounding body of work.

Using all three strings (and a fourth, a soliloquy) to propel the story forward, Saeed Mirza, with amazing research that is condensed brilliantly and fictionalised for the average non-academic reader, tells the story of how the West has over the years taken credit for much of what has been already discovered by the Islamic civilisation, the Hindi civilisation, the Sumerian civilisation. He talks of how Persia and other Islamic states were hubs of these 'Houses of Wisdom' where scholars from Hind and many other places congregated. He convincingly tells the story of how Islamic scholars had a wonderful period of creativity where they polished and fine tuned many theories and subjects already being propounded in the East. A period which somehow faded later on.

It is a fantastic tale. Saeed Mirza's research is amazing and the devices he uses to tell his tale are wonderful. He tells these three parallel stories from different periods of times, and gets the main message across clearly - that the Islamic civilisation is not one of barbarians, is not one that needs to be civilised, but actually was way ahead of other civilisations, particularly the West, which systematically destroyed, plagiarised and covered up its contribution. In many ways it is a tale of how the Orient and the Middle East has always focussed on creating, on knowledge, while the West has been actively involved in marketing them, something which it still does.

I had no problem with the fact that Saeed Mirza spoke through the characters, his research coming across in long paras of dialogue because it was interesting and was all contained in 247 pages. Would it have been better as a non-fiction book? It might have needed more research, more seriousness, would have entered far more needless debates, and would have reached far fewer people, which would not have served the purpose of instigating a thought - which I suspect is the purpose behind this book. With an intriguing title like 'The Monk, the Moor and Moses Ben Jalloun' the book is certain to have a great readership, of serious readers. There is tons of content, of intelligent thought and I loved the idea of a 'House of Wisdom'.

Saeed Mirza once delves half-heartedly into making the characters come alive as people, with a love affair between Linda and Omar, which for all reasons could have been avoided as well, but what the hell, it does no harm to have some romance. More so since the message gets across crystal clear, and this could very well be the start of a debate, a questioning, a start of many such works on the contribution of the Indian civilisation as well, and a setting right of what the world has been led to believe. Great job Saeed Mirza, for bringing out such a deviously woven novel to tell the story of an advanced civilisation that did not get its due.

Paradoxes of Life - The Friend-Enemy Paradox

2012-01-19T07:06:00.000-08:00

The ones who love you the most could be your greatest blocks to growth. They stop you, strangle you, suffocate you, blackmail you constantly with their sympathy, fears, doubts, needless sacrifice and 'love'. They are the real enemies one needs to watch out for. The ones who stop your growth with their limitations and their 'love'.

The ones who hate you the most and cause you great harm - who cause irritation and resentment, humiliation and criticism, anger and revenge - they are your greatest vehicles of learning. They hit you on the head and make you realise, make you purposeful and drive all your energies towards making something better out of you. They are your angels of growth.

Thought for the Day - The Heart and Mind Connection

2012-01-19T06:29:00.000-08:00

This is a thought that comes from the 'Memory Paradox' earlier, where I worried about how our memory was being transferred to gadgets, leaving us completely devoid of memory, and then, feeling. With gadgets taking over our original thinking, I am more than convinced that we have been reduced to being people with a lot of backup memory - that we carry in our hands, pockets, bags etc. Now this current thought explores the connection between heart and mind (with memory playing a crucial part in the drama of course) - a thought that always intrigued me.

When the mind is kept active, or 'actively inactive' as gadgets tend to make it, I suspect we find no space for reflection, for original thought, for feeling. This active inaction, could lower the amount of 'feeling', which is the space of the heart, and also the space where original thought grows from. So we could be looking at a whole lot of people 'busy' with gadgets, but who have no experience with real feeling (all feelings have been reduced to pressing a 'like' or a 'love' button, which can be done with superficial engagement). This could also explain why when the real feeling kicks in, due to a real experience, people cannot handle it anymore and are killing themselves for the smallest of reasons. The over engagement with the mind, and underused heart is at the root of this.

The changing of a relationship status on facebook to 'single' is the reason for many heartbreaks in this superficial world of the 'mind'. In a real world of the 'heart', it would require the person to face the other and tell him or her why he/she chooses to end the relationships - a decidedly traumatic and emotionally draining experience. Even if one had to write a letter to explain it, the feeling, emotion or heart element would come into play. But clicking a button?

The more superficial our world becomes, the more superficial and mediocre stuff we will create. And since all of us are products of this backup memory generation, we will know nothing better than to clap at the mediocrity on display. Where people use words and emotion without knowing what it is to experience them fully - merely read a book on 'how to', see a few movie scenes and say 'hey that seems to work so let's copy that', and then make up everything - from software programs to music to movies to writing - and beat our chests about how wonderfully successful we have been in marketing it to the tastes of the audience.

To me the true test of the work of the heart, the original thought, is in its longevity. Would it be remembered for its feeling, its thought - and influence viewers, creators and readers many years later? To me it would be in exploring the parts of us that remain hidden and bring our feelings that we hide. The great classics do that - they make us feel noble, happy, sad and all that. They make us feel better, as people, even if we had always felt lesser than others, and leave behind a taste of that noble, 'real' feeling. They do not simply aim for greatness by making us relatively happy, by mocking at those who are lesser than us.

It's time for creating some space for the feelings, for the heart. Space between us and these gadgets that are as clingy as some shallow and dishonest relationships can be in the name of 'love'. A love that seems to thrive on physical contact and always possessing. Having all the bytes, without experiencing the making of even one.

More heart then, more space to feel, and to create. More time with oneself. So we can create. A gadget-free day could make us all realise this connection between the mind and heart. And bring hearts closer. Life closer.

Paradoxes of Life - The Memory Paradox

2012-01-18T07:36:00.000-08:00

This is inspired by something Saeed Mirza said at the HLF about our memory being threatened by gadgets. And so it is, the bigger the memory of the gadget, the smaller the memory in your head is going to get. Phone numbers are a good place to start, we don't remember even five. And the more memory you have the more videos, songs, games, numbers, messages, pictures you carry - but you don't have the time to see them, enjoy them, remember them, respond to them, write to them, feel for them. nothing you have storage all over, have stuff in it, but you cannot do anything with it almost!

The more memory your gadget has then, the less your memory is going to be taxed. The less effort you make at prioritising things in life, about deciding what is important to you and keeping them close to your heart. Imagine if we were to throw away the mobile, or even have a no mobile day, a no computer day, a no gadget day. A no gadget week.

Life would slow down, and we'd remember at least one thing. That we are alive. And that it is wonderful to be alive.

Hyderabad Literary Festival - Day 3

2012-01-18T07:29:00.000-08:00

And for the third day in a row I landed up at the picturesque Taramati Baradari - the drive and the place seduced me as much as the HLF. Vinod took another day off and we drove together and walked into a wonderful session - Vijayasree in conversation with Suniti Namjoshi. Suniti is a writer and poet who quit her IAS and went back to her first love, English literature, many years ago. She spoke wonderfully with great lucidity, clarity and insight. Mark Tully could not make it but there was a session on adapting to India where Gillian Wright and Robert Bohm spoke, part of which I missed. And then readings from new English fiction from an all girl gang - Srilata Rao, Swati Chawla, Sagarika Chakraboorty (whose book I reviewed earlier, and who read very well at the reading), Sudha Balagopal and Priti Aisola of Hyderabad. I stayed back after lunch to hear a fine reading by The Little Theatre group which paid tribute to Indira Goswami, Arun Kolatkar and Vaclav Havel. Many school and college students attended and it was fun to have them around. i was happy to see Aparna, my friend Ranjani's daughter, and she apparently won prizes in poetry and story writing! Wonderful.

I would have liked to stay on more and be around to clap at the valedictory but had to return early. Fantastic work done by GSP Rao, T. Vijay Kumar and their band of volunteers, young and old. I certainly do see this festival growing and becoming much larger for many reasons. Good work then, team HLF, and a pat on the back for all concerned. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, made a few new friends, and am sure so did many others.

The Hyderabad Literary Festival - Day 2 belongs to Saeed Mirza

2012-01-17T18:20:00.000-08:00

I was wondering if I should drive all the way to Taramati Baradari yesterday morning again, alone, as Vinod went back to work at the Disaster Management cell, but the first session of the day was too tempting to ignore. A conversation with Saeed Mirza, the maker of many wonderful movies and more importantly the TV serial 'Nukkad', with Mohana Krishna Indraganti, director of 'Golconda High School', 'Ashta Chamma' and 'Grahanam,' and Vijay Kumar of Muse India. It was exhilarating stuff and the best session at the HLF so far for me.

Much of what Saeed Mirza spoke was the result of some fine issues raised by Mohana Krishna and Vijay Kumar. Saaed Mirza spoke clearly that he would like to speak as a writer here, since his second book 'The Monk, the Moor and Moses Ben Jalloun' which is just published by Harper Collins is out. He said that he felt that the cinematic medium could not contain all of his ideas and he needed more space, which he felt the novel allowed him. He spoke of how mediocrity ruled the day today and how we put everything on a pedestal and genuflect before everything - the novelist, the film star. He would rather be concerned with ideas than mere promotion of mediocre stuff. I agree.

The West he says has its own ideas of civilisation and was trying to push these ideas to us, which we unfortunately are lapping up. He was unhappy with the 'civilisation of Islam', of the idea of fundamentalism, and more importantly of the colonisation of the mind. He felt that war is a western concept, in current circumstances, and it was being thrust on us, the people of the world and worse, we are buying into it.

Interestingly, he said that all the games, gadgets and stuff that everyone is lapping up today are aimed at shortening or reducing our memory. And when our memory is shortened we forget our history, our uniquenesss, our identity. Speaking vociferously against the concept of democracy that was being advocated and followed, he says we are far away from that concept and will take many years to reach there.

He also poked fun at how snobbish we were, as Indians, how smug, as a nation, happy in the thought of India Shining and that of an impending superpower. 'Can you imagine how we will behave if we do become a superpower?' he asked. 'We will be genuflecting before all that is higher and kicking all that is below us.'

While on the subject of the West dictating terms and ideas to us he recommended the book 'Orientalism' by Edward Saeed. 'We've been had,' he said. 'And that is the first thing you realise once you read that book'. To Mohan's comment that the filmmaker must 'fight the audiences as well' he mentioned how when he was in Cannes for 'Albert Pinto to Gussa Kyon Aata Hain' he saw a promo of Superman on a plane, a stunt that cost four times what it cost for him to make his movie. We must fight them he says, from here. He debunks all the institutions of Nobel Prize, Cannes and says that there is nothing sacrosanct there that we need to ape shamelessly. In fact one must keep experimenting and pushing the envelope, even within the framework that is set already. While sipping tea later he was chatting with us and I asked him whether this phase of mediocrity will ever be pushed over, and he said it would be - but it will be after much violence. When the priest ad the businessman get together, it is a dangerous sign he said.

I love the kind of passion that remains in Saeed Mirza, and people like him, and would like to retain such passion myself. So impressive was he that I got a copy of the hardback of 'The Monk, the Moor and Moses Ben Jalloun' at a princely price of Rs. 380 and got it signed by him. He was most gracious and signed it for me. I forget now the questions that Vijay and Mohana Krishna asked exactly but they did a fine job and kept it going wonderfully. A case for having the right kind of moderators to make sessions come alive.

Iceboys in Bellbottoms - Krishna Shastri Devulapalli

2012-01-17T18:10:00.000-08:00

I was at the book launch of this book in the Park a few months ago with Raja and Vinod but we somehow postponed buying a copy of this book for reasons unknown. It was a different kind of a launch with an irreverent and funny trailer at the beginning, that was followed by the novelist being engaged in a discussion and a reading of a few pieces from the book. Krishna displayed his funny bone in ample measure that day, his constant stream of wisecracks flowed effortlessly, a lifetime of practice behind it surely, of not letting go of an opportunity to rip open the slightest of opportunities and in many occasions, as I later discovered, creating humour where none existed. I enjoyed his reading on the bit about Saikumar's entry into their household and his singing talent, a piece that brought much laughter and cheer into the gloom. We need more Krishna's in this world.

When I met him again at the Hyderabad Literary Festival a couple of days ago, I remedied my earlier fault and got myself a copy, which was graciously gifted by Chitra, his wife, who insisted that I do not buy the copy, and signed by him for me. It has a fascinating cover (designed by Krishna himself, who also draws, designs and illustrates apart form writing novels and film scripts) and that sets the tone for the book really, along with the highly intriguing title of 'Iceboys in Bell bottoms'. Bell bottoms set the time frame, the seventies, a time I am familiar with.

'Iceboys..' is the story of the growing up years of Gopi as he survives his dysfunctional family, his unwittingly dangerous friends and their games, the many unknown visitors to their house and Gopi's own imagination and experiences. Gopi's grandfather Meghamala (who becomes CG for the rest of the novel, the family abbreviation for the literal translation of Meghamala in Telugu which goes as Cloud Garland) is a famous Telugu film personality, a poet, lyricist who is a celebrity in his own right, and he takes to encouraging all kinds of talent from Andhra Pradesh that latches on to him to promote them in the film industry. Gopi's own father has been deprived of an education by CG who believed that there could be no better education than hanging out with him and helping him out. So Gopi's father educates himself while hanging out and helping his famous father and collects a large library of American magazines and becomes the resident expert on all things American, especially Hollywood, before branching out into a world of art, business of greeting cards and a love for the horse races. Gopi's mother is a rebel, the lone voice that fights CG and she has a penchant for watching as many noon shows as she can, roll on the floor when she finds anything funny and so on. Gopi's two sisters, Lalli (older) and Kavi (younger) and a grandmother who enjoys eating her food, complete the main characters in the household. There are many characters that flit in and out, Saikumar the singer being one, Jhansi the aspiring singer who 'brought breasts to their house', Dr. Sarathi the nutcase doctor who experiments on the family with his magic medicine i.e. industrial-strength steroids, Buster their highly sexed dog, the family of Renu aunty, CG's adopted daughter, and her deviant lot of children, Dodo, Sachu and the lot. As Gopi discovers the world of 'Iceboys', the localised version of 'I Spy' and then later on, bell bottoms, his life moves on in a hilarious roller coaster of experiences, of characters like Pistol Rangarao, the detective novel writer, his friends in school Deshbush (Debashish), Ramki and others and somehow survives his first encounters with love, sex, drink and growing up in the Chennai of the seventies.

'Iceboys in Bellbottoms' is hilarious. Krishna's imagination and creation of situations is something that comes naturally to him and the funny situations come quick and fast, line after line. Spend a few minutes with him and you know that he can do this all day. Undoubtedly one of the funniest voices in Indian English fiction, Krishna looks at life perhaps as the illustrator does, the cartoonist does, and has this wonderful ability to make those cartoons up in words, when he writes. His powers of articulation of what he sees in every situation, his use of language, his obviously well-stacked experiences from various fields, will serve him well as he writes more books and explores larger landscapes, funny or unfunny. What interested me was the slowing down on the frenzied life of Gopi as the book drew to a close, the seriousness that grips his life, and the change in mood and emotion from the funny to sombre, as Krishna slowly and expertly pulled on the brakes and ended the book without a lurch. Akin to a silken smooth landing in an airplane.

In my opinion that holds a lot of promise because he is equally comfortable with the slapstick, wisecracking world as he is with a world that explores other emotions of guilt, love, loss. To shift so easily is, I think, a hallmark of a writer with much promise and Krishna, if he sticks to writing novels, busy as he is with many other creative pursuits, can write the whole range, and well. Humour to me is the top of the pile and if one can pull of something like this, he can pull off anything else. Apart from Sidin Vadikut of the 'Dork' series, I find few Indian writers who can write really funny stories and there is much we can laugh about in India, ourselves and our lives, our volume, our diversity, our aspirations. Krishna has a wide and unexplored field ahead of him, more so as he can write confidently about everything - the toilet going habits of Indians to scratching publicly to all the obnoxious things we do - and I do hope that he writes many more funny books, and whatever books he would like to write. I'd definitely buy them.

Well done, Krishna, and take a bow. Here's wishing this wonderful book and its many endearing characters, a great journey into the hearts and minds of many readers. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I suspect, I will read it a few more times. Highly recommended to anyone who is looking for good humour writing in Indian Writing in English. Fabulous debut.

A Calendar Too Crowded - Sagarika Chakraborty

2012-01-17T00:39:00.000-08:00

'A Calendar Too Crowded' (189 p, Rs. 295, Niyogi Books) is a book of short stories and poems written by the multi-faceted Sagarika Chakraborty, a student of ISB. Hyderabad. Sagarika is a lawyer, presents papers on corporate governance and such complicated matters all over the world, writes, is a creative artist and salsa dancer and studies at the highly demanding course at ISB. The book is featured to be launched in one of the sessions at the Hyderabad Literary Festivals and there is a reading from it too.

The book is divided into the months, January to December, each month highlighting days that are dedicated to issues concerning women. Sagarika launches head on into a cause she believes in - women and the circumstances that appear to rule their lives, sometimes imposed by society and sometimes by themselves, sometimes overtly and sometimes covertly. Each story has a nameless protagonist and the circumstance she is trapped in. There are a few poems as well.

So the stories go - of the prejudices the girl child suffers from the womb to her death, of mothers consumed by their motherhood and losing themselves and their children, widows who are blamed for their husband's death, modern mothers who live life as a reaction to their mothers' lives than a choice of their own, of the caste system and untouchability, of sexual harassment, of prostitutes and their children who aspire to have a life, of women who give birth to girls, of reactions to the death of a forward 'club going girl' who is gang raped, the angst of a born again Draupadi who finds the hypocricy of society unbearably backward, of malnutrition and mothers who have to work for a living, the adopted girl child and her frustration, of quiet women achievers, of geriatric mothers who find love in old age homes, dowry harassment and so on.

Sagarika writes well. She has all the basic qualities of a good writer. She knows and uses the language well, has a flair for writing, writes with conviction and with credibility. She has a vivid imagination, feels deeply for her characters and does her research thoroughly. Her voice is distinct and there is no pretence, and she tells the stories simply - straight from the heart. It is evident that this is an issue that bothers her much, and one hopes that she has been able to rest some of these demons, these doubts and frustrations at these injustices, after writing the book. For one so young, she would hardly be in her mid twenties I'd think, she impressed me with her knowledge and research into mythology, the many references to the Mahabharatha, and more, spanning into the plight of Tibetan refugees. What struck me as most impressive, was her ability to get into the lives of these women and sound so convincing. To think like a mother, a violated refugee, an old woman in an old age home, a prostitute's daughter, a daughter-in-law in an old fashioned household and so many more characters would have been difficult for a college going young girl, unless one has met such women or read about them extensively. Even if you did, it still drains a lot out of you to visualise, feel for them and write it all down.

But then Sagarika has chosen the difficult route. In a world where selling chicklit is easy, something which she could easily have written given her age, her ISB days and her considerable writing talent, she chooses to write stark, difficult stories that force the reader to think, to look at oneself. She raises difficult questions that are easier shoved under the carpet. Once she chose this path it was always going to be difficult to find ways of telling these stories differently and making them deliver the message and the desired impact. But that is a choice well-made and I laud her for that - for not having taken the easy route and written a romance set in the ISB for which many top publishers would have queued up for. After all, there is a market for those kind of books - a vacuous market that one need not pander to, even if it is a large sized one!

The book is intense and drains the reader as well. They are real stories and one can only read helplessly, hoping that the women find their own peace, their own path out of this hole. Sagarika writes powerfully and conveys her point more than adequately and I think she would be a champion fighter for women's rights and causes. I do hope she puts her education, her prowess as a writer, her training as a lawyer and her passion and create something that would provide some direction and help to all the women who suffer namelessly in our societies and homes. I read somewhere that she is compiling some kind of a handbook for awareness about citizen's right and responsibilities - one that is badly needed as most of us don't know either.

On the negatives side of the book, I think the voices get too shrill and rant and rave sometimes. But then, since Sagarika chose to tell the stories through nameless characters, she could not tell this in any other way without making the same impact (and also perhaps, the stories themselves get into your system and you want to look away). I feel strongly that had she put in characters, fictional even, and told the stories through them, it would have left haunting memories. The characters would have brought in a lot of depth, would have told the story themselves and then the voice would have been theirs, different, clear and separate from the author's. They would have brought in their own stories, more facets to themselves.

The stories, powerful as they are already, would have been far more impactful had they had characters and dialogue. In the one story where there are shades of characters, the one of Ammi and Chupki who write letters to one another, this point comes across clearly - the characters can never be forgotten and that story to me, is easily the one I will never forget of this lot, because it aids me visually, gives me a character and a name to hold on to.

But Sagarika is young, and is a far more accomplished writer than I would ever have been at that age and am sure she will produce many more fine pieces of writing in what appears to me a very promising writing career. Good luck Sagarika. I have learnt much for reading your book and I am sure many women would find inspiration to remedy their lives or think differently after reading your book. Hopefully men as well. Here's wishing you and 'A Calendar Too Crowded' great success.

Another Heart Warming Incident

2012-01-16T19:14:00.000-08:00

Anjali wanted to fly a kite this Sankrathi and we were planning to buy one for her. The winter being one of the coldest in Hyderabad in recent years, we both got out of our house for a stroll on the Sankranthi day afternoon, towards the nearby park next door. There we found that our highly security conscious colony society had locked up the gate to the sand pit area with a brand new lock, probably fearing that the young kids from the slums who sometimes come to play there may just steal all the sand! Or worse, they may get some happiness! But since those kids never use any entrance and are adept at scaling all the walls in the world, this lock is for law abiding citizens who seek permissions.

Anyway, as we walked back out there were two young boys, one about 14 and the other 8, dressed out in traditional clothes, blowing the flute-like instrument they go with for Sankranthi, along with their gangireddu, and collect alms. The younger of them had just picked up a kite that was lying on the road, and the moment they saw Anjali, the elder one took it from his younger brother and gave it to her without a thought. When Anjali whispered a feeble 'Thank You' the older of the boys said distinctly 'Welcome' and walked on, his back erect, his head held high. Probably going to school. They were both exactly that age when kite flying is the most fun for boys and it was a good kite in good condition. For them to give it to a little kid without batting an eyelid was wonderful, just as the manner in which they accepted the thanks and walked off. It was a noble and kind act and they did not stop by for more than a second and disappeared around the corner.

I am more than convinced that such acts of kindness and nobility only exist in those who know that real joy lies in thinking of what the act means to others, more than what its loss means to them. Most times I see such acts coming from people for whom what they are giving up means a lot - they truly know its value - just as they know the value of what it means to the recipient of their kindness (the poor and the needy). On the other hand many people who can afford things hold on to their precious little, even things they do not need, and behave in such an ungracious manner that it sickens the soul (the middle class and the upper class).

There is little we need to live by, and if we can simply find the value, the true spirit of giving, it will enrich our existence and of those around us, so much more. Those two kids were giving much more than they were taking that day. Somewhere, in our hearts, we need to find that spot where those kids are coming from.

The Hyderabad Literary Festival - 2nd Edition

2012-01-16T07:46:00.000-08:00

The 2nd edition of the Hyderabad Literary Festival kicked off today at the picturesque locale of Taramati Baradari, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, a small distance from the historical Golconda Fort. Legend is that the king could hear the songs sung by Taramati while sitting in the Fort, an acoustic miracle, one of the many that the architects of the Deccani Kings came up with. This edition of the Hyderabad Literary Festival brought in names such as Gulzar, Saeed Mirza, Adil Jussawala, Kiran Nagarkar, Jaishree Mishra, Indu Sunderesan. Amish Tripathi, Dileep Jhaveri, Mark Tully, Meena Alexander, Aminudddin Khan, Kartika of Harper Collins and many more. From Hyderabad there were Sachidananda Mohanty, Hoshang Merchant, Mohana Krishna Indraganti, Sridala Swamy, Priti Aisola, Shankar Melkote and others.

Taramati Baradari

Vinod took a day off from his usually busy schedules and we planned to meet at Minerva at 830 am, grab some breakfast and ride to the venue. We were joined by Rasana Atreya, who is making strong progress as a novelist - her debut novel 'To tell a thousand Lies' has been shortlisted for the prestigious Tibor Jones Award for unpublished manuscripts and is one among six, and is also being lapped up by major publishing houses in India - and we all drove out on a relatively traffic free Monday to the destination. We marvelled at the place, attended the inaugural presided over by the Principal Secretary Chandana Khan, with Pavan K. Varma, diplomat and prolific writer as Chief Guest and Gulzar as the Guest of Honour. After the inaugural we went off to a panel discussion moderated by Meena Alexander where the panelists were Vamsee Juluri, Kishan Sastry Devulapalli (both hailing from families with a rich background in Telugu film industry) and yours truly. We spoke of Hyderabad, as the theme was 'Salaam Hyderabad', read from our works then proceeded to attend a talk with Kiran Nagarkar.

Lunch and then I roamed about and bought a couple of books while Vinod attended a translation session, and then we all met for an interesting session with Amish Tripathi, Jaishree Mishra and Indu Sundaresan. Some awards and by then I was ready to go but the indefatigable Vinod wanted to stay on. We finally decided to head back after a brief walk up to the dance hall which offered spectacular views of the sunset.

It was great fun all day specially being in the company of Krishna Sastry and his lovely wife Chitra, Vinod, Vamsee, Sheel, Sreenath, Vijay, Giri, Vijay, Dr. Suryaprakash Rao and his wife, and many others. Vinod, Raja and I had attended the book launch of Krishna's debut book published by Harper Collins, 'Ice Boys in Bell Bottoms' at The Park Hyderabad. It did sound very funny from what I had heard at the launch and .now having met Krishna, I am waiting to read the book quickly. Chitra is also writing her first novel. We all had a good time hanging out together and I suspect the day would have really dull without Krishna and Chitra for company. They gifted me a copy of Krishna's book and I gifted them copies of mine.

There were many young faces which added to the festive mood. The location was brilliant. It was a perfect day and the evening had more promises to come - a jazz concert followed by dinner in the lawns. Vinod and I missed it with a heavy heart and drove back, hoping to go back again sometime in the next couple of days. G.S.P. Rao and Vijay Kumar and the team at Muse India, great work and a fine start. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. More to come in the next couple of days.

Thought for the Day - Health and Responsibility

2012-01-14T21:10:00.000-08:00

I might have jotted this down somewhere earlier but this time, its with a new awareness. In all areas of our life there are a few that we deal with responsibility and some that we do not. Typically the ones we deal with responsibility work for us because we go back and sort them out ourselves - they are 'our' problems, not 'theirs'. The ones where we takes less responsibility are those that don't work, have someone else to blame, and cause much tension. The moment we catch ourselves say 'Oh God, why me?' or 'It's all because of her/him/that /this' we are headed for trouble. That helpless feeling where nothing is in our control. Fear sets in and we panic.

Nothing exemplifies this more than the area of health for me. I had started running to the doctor and frightening myself with all sorts of dangerous probabilities until I realised how easily the symptom - a niggle here, a quiver there, a twitch here - disappeared soon after paying the doctor's consultation fee. So the last time I had a niggle, a cough, a bad throat, I held myself back (it's cheaper). I started doing the things that the body needed, rest, warmth, comfort and a healing environment - and miracle of miracles, the bad throat, the dangerous twitches disappeared pretty soon. No massive doses of antibiotics, no scary possibilities, tests and so on. This small experiment gave me much confidence and the nest time I had a small twicth i held myself back. Once again, it disappeared a day after. A small home remedy, some rest and a feeling of I'll deal with it.

I re-realised that the body has a powerful healing system. All it needs is a little faith from us, a little support. (I am talking here of issues that are being played in the mind, of course, not serious ailments or conditions for which one needs to rush to the doctor.) But with minor issues, I'd say, step back, take responsibility for the body. It is something you have created in your body and you can rectify it. Visualising the healing of that part of the body helps, being kind and gentle towards it helps, and most importantly not going into panic mode helps. You can handle it (a wonderful lesson from Susan Jeffers in her book 'Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway' where she mentions that the biggest fear is that we cannot handle things). Most times it's this I-can't-handle-whatever-this-is panic that starts the chain of fearing everything. Step back and it will almost always be healed. Handle your body with care, love and a sense of responsibility.

I think it should be the same approach with anything or anyone we know. If the body shows a sign of discomfort we must slow down instantly and listen to it, tell it that you will support it and handle it. Then the body goes into its own healing mode knowing that you support it. But if we instantly say I can't handle you like this and I will rush you to a doctor in panic, it will feel lost and unsupported. Imagine if our child comes with a small discomfort and we go into panic, or if a team member comes with a personal problem or if a friend or family member shows signs of distress and we refer them to someone else and panic We cannot treat people that way to get them to give their best for us, nor can we treat our body that way.We need to be patient, supportive and caring. Most of all, we need to take responsibility for it. For all that goes on in our life. It will normally handle it by itself, it we show some faith in it.

Paradoxes of Life - To Get, Give Up

2012-01-14T08:08:00.000-08:00

To get, you must learn to give it up. You give it your best shot, feel it, want it, burn for it - and then - give it up. And then you get it.

As long as you want it, it will elude you. It will tease you but stay out of your reach. And when you give it up, it will come to you.

It's an Ad mad World - Old Idea, New Idea

2012-01-14T03:56:00.000-08:00

This one irritates the heck out of me. First this guy asks the elderly guy if he can use his phone, then turns him down because he finds his phone rather old, and then becomes completely offensive to the extent of even feigning to hit him at the end. What's with you mate? It tops the list of irritating ads these days for me for its sheer offensive content, and the pandering to the 'youth' segment even if it means you behave like a lout with someone old enough to be your Dad. Come on guys, you can do better than that.

So the story goes of a miserly son of a gun who is generally filching calls off other people's phones. He asks an elderly gentleman if he can use his phone. But it appears that our ero does not want to use the phone to make calls and receive calls which is pretty 'old'. He'd rather fly to Mars on it you see. And he makes all sorts of faces at the old man's phone before flashing his own phone. Now if you had one already, why do you need another guy's phone? Then he shows the old man some sneak peeks on his new phone and gets back at him with some classic lines and cheap stunts. Not funny at all. Even if someone said that the old man was offensive when he says 'main paise nahin loonga' - I'd say this guy deserved it for the faces he makes when he sees the phone. To push his phone under the old man's face and repeat 'main paise nahin loonga' is not funny.

This idea that the youth is all wonderfully connected, tech savvy and rude to old people is all fine. What we don't need is middle aged actors going about behaving like college kids in an effort to make the youth think its too goddam cool. To me this ad goes to the bottom of the pile for its totally unctuous and offensive tone.

Creators - Paul Johnson

2012-01-13T22:38:00.000-08:00

'Creators' by Paul Johnson (Harper Perennial, 287 p) is an insight into the lives of 17 creators chosen by the author. It was a nice quick read and I got a glimpse into some of these creators of which I knew very little. Johnson begins by analysing creative courage - of how everyone can be creative in their chosen field and how it can be brought out to make life more fulfilling. he also talks of how creativity requires enormous courage to be constantly original.

Johnson begins with Chaucer, the English writer who wrote 'Canterbury Tales' sometime in the 14th century. Then we have Durer the painter, Shakespheare the English playwright, Sebastian Bach the musician, Turner from England and Hokusai from Japan, both painters, Jane Austen the novelist, Pugin and Viollet-le-Duc, architects, Victor Hugo, the French writer, Mark Twain the American writer, Tiffany the American glassmaker, T.S. Eliot the poet, Balenciaga and Dior from the fashion world, Picasso the artist and Walt Disney from the movies. They are all extraordinary characters and it is fascinating to see how they worked, created and lived.

Most of the above have a large body of work save a few like Jane Austen who died early, at forty one, having written only six novels. They range from the multi-millionaires such as Picasso, Tiffany, Turner, Hugo and others while the Hokusai's and Bach's were hard up. Some received recognition in their lifetime while some did not. Some chased their fame and coveted it like Hugo, while some remained in the background, happy working and creating. But what comes across strongly is that all of them almost created with a mad frenzy, an enormous amount of work. Be it words, paintings, drawings, sketches, ideas, dresses, designs, movies - all of them worked as if they were possessed. The painters Turner and Hokusai painted almost from an age of three to their death, in their eighties, almost with no break. They were all extremely hardworking, had a great eagerness to learn from multiple disciplines (they met and created with experts from other disciplines as well) and most were also self-taught. They all had a passion to be the best in their business, loved the process of creating and kept at it for hours and hours.

I think there is a point to be taken there - creativity gets honed as we create more and more. As with ideas that we get when we write more and more, so it is with anything, the more we produce the more ideas we get. All these creators support that thought with their huge volume of work, which was their beginning and their end as well. One cannot create or wait for creativity to strike at an opportune moment to produce the great work. To create itself means 'work' - to produce. We must make the mind a fertile place that is favorable for the growth of new ideas, by coming up with ideas and more ideas, by exploring them, bringing them out. If anything Paul Johnson's book emphasised to me that creation is all about that single minded focus on doing what one can do well.

'Creators' also delves into their personal lives, their sexual preferences, their vanity and nobility, their fragility and their strength. Some were noble, some cruel, some generous, some tight fisted. They came from all sorts of backgrounds, some had no education, no training, no money - but they created and spoke through their creations that remain till today. One can read it without much involvement and get a glimpse into the lives of some masters.

Dhobi Ghat - Movie Review

2012-01-12T22:09:00.000-08:00

Watched 'Dhobi Ghat' last night. It has a different take on Mumbai and had a few moments when it drew me into it. And for a first time director I think its pretty well-made. It is visually appealing, is unhurried, explores new nooks and corners of Mumbai and its UP-Bihar-rest of India connection, traverses the class divide from the highest to the lowest. But overall I found it unconvincing simply because I never bought the story of the two rich people, the investment banker (though she does a really good job) and the artist (reliable and somehow almost muted to the extent of looking like he is gagged). The story of Yasmin is what drags you in and to some extent the story of the dhobi, rat killer, aspiring film actor, Munna (Pratiek).

I don't know why Kiran Rao chose the name 'Dhobi Ghat' but anyway, the story is about a rich investment banker from New york down in Mumbai with her rich real estate tycoon Parsi parents on a sabbatical. I assume she was doing some photo-project on livelihoods in India. She meets an artist Arun (Aamir Khan) who is not comfortable with people, with anything in fact. We come to know he has recently been divorced, and that his wife lives in Australia with their six year old son. The two (artist and investment banker) somehow land up in bed at the artist's house that night, though I saw no signs of amour in the artist, and the girl did not appear highly sexed either. Anyway they wake up the next day and we find a 40-45 year old artist apologising to the investment banker who is actually telling him that she found the experience really enjoyable. His apology seems to bring up some bad memories in her and she storms out of the house, offended, for god-knows-what. To me that scene was the most unconvincing and perhaps needless as well. Why sleep when you don't want to? Why apologise? Why get offended?

Anyway they get on.And then they meet Mumbai's only dhobi Pratiek. This is another loose end because no dhobi can take on more than a single building's loads in Mumbai and even that's a bit too much. But here is this guy traversing all over the town and doing dhobi services for Arun and investment banker and also throwing in some extra services for one more rich, fat, middle class madam. For some reason the investment banker drags the dhobi to be her guide to livelihoods in Mumbai and he shows her the dhobi ghat where she takes pictures. They also see some movies, drink chai at home, takes him on drives in her cars and leads him on big time. Her work is never shown, her motives are unclear. Is she in love? Is she doing her project and needs him for that? Is she using him to get to the do-it-first- and-then-apologise artist Arun? Anyway she shoots Munna's portfolio for his movie chance and gives him prints. Meanwhile she is also taking pictures of the apologetic artist surreptitiously for reasons best known to her.

But the best part of the movie are the three videos made by Yasmin Noor, a girl from UP who comes to Mumbai after her marriage. She makes the videos to send to her younger brother Imran in her village. But by the end of the third video the chirpy and happy Yasmin finds that her husband is in fact already married and is a shady customer in reality and decides to kill herself. She is brilliant, her voice haunting, the lines given to her the best. 'I can tell the sea all my secrets, and it will keep them safe from me' or something to that effect. Anyway her tapes lie with the artist who realises that Yasmin had killed herself in the very room he is sitting and he instantly changes houses. I mean, people die everywhere but you don't change houses so often do you?The movie ends with the investment banker finding the dhobi by chance, hugging him and telling him to keep in touch and call. It is apparent that she wants to get the artist and not the dhobi now. The jealous dhobi does not give her the address of the artist but later, after she leaves, has a change of heart and follows her rather dangerously (why did he not call on her phone and tell her?) and gives her the address of the artist. She is grateful and sheds a tear and that ends it all.

I'd have liked the artist to have gone after the girl Yasmin and I would have liked to know more of her. Perhaps even a bit more of the dhobi and his dreams. Some resolution of their lives. Even if it meant that the investment banker and the artist get together for that cause and fall in love in their unconvincing manner. For me somehow Kiran Rao stopped short of taking this story to where I wanted it to go. By not following Yasmin, and by not really helping the dhobi, the artist and the investment banker show themselves as hollow people. The least they could have, if they were so moved by the plight of these two characters. It all ends as it does in real life. In all likelihood the artist and the investment banker will meet, sleep together and go their separate ways. The dhobi will do what he does best, wash clothes and kill rats (why?).

It had many possibilities this movie and I am disappointed that it did not choose a more courageous path. Still it gets into your system through its visuals, its pace and perhaps a connect to the two stories that I really liked. For Kiran Rao then, a more than decent debut, and hopefully the evolution of what appears to be a promising career as a sensitive, subtle director. As she gains more confidence I think she will make some fine movies.

Among the performances Yasmin takes the cake, she is brilliant with her voice and her eyes and with almost no movement but in front of the video camera, she draws you into her story. Pratiek is good, I loved the way he walked when he comes with the ironed clothes and the way he opens the bundle and takes out the clothes (I did not much like the comfort with which he sits in the backseat of the Audi though). Aamir is gagged and has little chance to express. Investment banker Shai, Monica Dogra, the American singer-actor, who has a role in Rock On, is the presenter for Dewarists, and who has her hown rock band in Mumbai, is pretty confident and good. One of those quiet evening, late afternoon views.

Climbing Mount Jadcherla

2012-01-12T01:01:00.000-08:00

This has been a long pending expedition planned by the original Chris Columbus, Koni himself. A hillock near the town of Jadcherla, a distance of about 80 kms from Hyderabad, has been the object of his affections for many a year and he has been enticing the rest of us to climb this magnificent hill. We made many half-hearted attempts earlier, and once even went halfway (to the hillock), but we finally did it. And wished we had planned the climb a few years ago.

The ride to Jadcherla is smooth on the magnificent Hyderabad - Bangalore highway. We passed one toll booth, paid the to-and-fro fare of Rs. 74 and followed the signs until we happened upon the turn to Jadcherla. The big hillock with the flat top is the one, a tree and some small temple like structures can possibly be seen. We wound our way through some small colonies with narrow roads and reached the base.

The climb is steep. It took us less than half and hour, but it does take a bit out of you if you are not doing some exercise. Kiran, topping the fitness levels these days, easily running the 30 kms in good times, easily reached the top, followed closely by Vardha,, who is easily doing the 21 kms run these days. Non-sportsmen both twenty years ago.

Then went Koni, who is into walking five to ten kms a day on given days and one blessed abundantly with good health. I followed him wheezing and panting and sweating and I was followed by Ranjan, likewise.

The time was pretty good, the view worth the climb.

There is a small temple in a cave, a dirty well full of water. We saw the views, sat on the boulders and took in the large flat landscape that stretched across the horizon. The usual mad banter that only childhood friends can share and then we threaded our way back after an hour or so.

It was four p.m. when we stopped at a dhaba for some snacks and beer, at Hillridge for some late lunch and finally at Koni's office for a final drink to celebrate the achievement.

Notes to be made, need much more fitness, lose weight, exercise more, do more outdoors, laugh more.

Anjali - The First Home Grown Tomato

2012-01-12T00:42:00.000-08:00

After almost three months of caring for and watering the saplings gifted by the energetic Dr. Suryaprakash Rao garu and his band of merry men, Anjali and I, co-partners in this venture, saw the first of the many green tomatoes turn red. Her joy at seeing the heatlhy-looking tomato was immense and she quickly walked across and plucked it before I could utter a word.

The brinjals are still not showing any signs though there is some progress on the potato front. Exciting times ahead.

Memento - Movie Review

2012-01-12T00:30:00.000-08:00

Ever since I saw 'Inception' I've become a fan of Christopher Nolan's films. II saw 'The Prestige' later and was impressed by what I saw. I also knew that 'Ghajini' had the same elements that Nolan's 'Memento' had, of short term memory loss and a plot of revenge and seeing the original was always at the back of my mind. 'Memento' is one of those movies that treads a path for the first time (at least as for me) and thereby expands my world. All else behind it will only make small improvements.

'Memento' is the story if a young insurance executive, Leonard Shelby, who suffers short term memory loss (i.e. he cannot store any new memories), after a violent attack on him and his wife. In this condition he forgets even the beginning of a long conversation, faces, names, numbers everything. However he remembers everything clearly up to the accident, including all the skills he had on his job as an insurance investigator and the last thing he remembers clearly, the murder of his wife who had also been raped by the murderers. He remembers two intruders while all evidence collected by the police points at one intruder, the one whom Leonard kills in the attack, and the case is closed. But not for Leonard who has to battle the haunting memory of his wife's death, the infuriating handicap of his memory loss, and find the real killer in a world that is out to use his condition to its gain. In a cold blooded, calculated and organised manner where he makes notes, sifts for facts that he tattooes onto himself, , clicks pictures to remind him of his car, his hotel, his friends etc, Leonard follows the kills the killer - John G.

The fantastic thing is that the entire movie is shown in reverse. (In fact the hotel front desk manager tells him that Leonard's life is in reverse - he knows what he wants to do next but has no idea what happened before, unlike most of us who know what happened before but have no clue about what happens next!) The first shot is the last shot, of Leonard killing John G, and then it goes backwards scene by scene, unravelling the events that led to his finding John G. These backward going scenes are interspersed by a black and white conversations of Leonard over the phone about his condition, how he is going about it and a person named Sammy Jankis whom Leonard had investigated. Ironically Sammy gets the same short term loss condition which Leonard disallows in the insurance claim believing it to be reversible - an error that leads to Jankis's wife's death. As we understand the guilt that Leaonard carries of misunderstanding of Jankis's condition and his wife's intentions, her death and how he learnt from Jankis's own condition (all available from long term memory), we also slide back in the real story. Leonard meets Natalie who gives him the clinching lead about the real John G and he finally kills him. But not before realising that the real John G had been using him to kill his adversaries, as did others like Natalie.

To me its the audacity of thought that Nolan brings to cinema that is amazingly refreshing. he uses guilt and forgiveness, vengeance and other extreme emotions to drive his characters, paints them into a corner and lets loose from there in a manner we can barely think possible. To tell it all in the first shot and unravel it as we go backward, making each moment count for the viewer, making the viewer involved totally in figuring out what happened without losing connect is the work of a master. I wanted a few questions answered and sat back watching it all again for a good part of an hour. I probably will watch it again. A must watch.

The Connection Between Creativity and Love

2012-01-10T04:02:00.000-08:00

That we love to do certain things is known. That when we love doing certain things they do not appear to be 'hard' is also known. That doing things with love can make life a lot more easier and purposeful is also known. But the question that remains is this. How do I love something that I really do not love? A job for instance - of accounting, of sweeping, of coding, of studying, of practicing, of running. How can I force myself to love?

The key is to apply the mind to whatever you are doing i.e. look at it creatively and strive to improve on it. Is there a better way of doing this? Is there my way of doing this? Can I make this chore into something else? Once your thought comes in, normally brought by an element of pride (I will make this the best job ever), creativity flows. Once the mind, the creative element is involved, all work becomes a passion. From studying to practising to working, everything takes on an urgency, a sense of purpose, a pride. Only the best works then.

Funnily even in matters of the heart. As Prof. Higgins finds out in 'My Fair Lady', once you put your mind into something (read as improving something), you slowly introduc your heart to it. And then God save you.

Involve the mind somehow, get it to look at whatever it is that is boring you, creatively, and it suddenly transforms into something wonderful. A livelihood for some, a new energy for all those around, but mostly a life of contentment.

Thought for the Day - Wealth and Creativity

2012-01-10T03:53:00.000-08:00

The amount of time put into work is not commensurate to the return unless an equal amount of thought goes into converting the work into money. Mere work will remain work and earn wages, the most uncreative form of making money, but if one puts thought into converting work into money and multiplying it, then money starts gathering an energy, of creation. Money is a product of creativity, which in itself is a product of courage.

So the hard worker works for wages, with no thought. The smart worker works to maximise return on the work put in, often by expanding resources. It is the application of creative thought that is all the difference.

Thought for the Day - What Makes Us Laugh

2012-01-09T22:18:00.000-08:00

They say that the highest form of creativity is to crack a joke. To make up a joke or to write or do something that makes people laugh is an amazing ability that few have. But what is it about a joke that makes us laugh either 'with' or 'at'? Looking back on things that made me laugh - cartoons, stories, jokes, people, movies - it would appear to me that there are certain elements that comprise of this act of making others laugh.

- The ability to surprise and constantly do something that is not expected is certainly one that makes for laughter (all the great jokes).

- Stretching any emotion to the limit, sometimes inappropriately, makes us laugh. Crying, laughing, anger, or any of the other emotions when pushed beyond a limit makes people laugh.

- Shouting at others, invectives (Captain Haddock), beating up people (Tom and Jerry and all other cartoons)

- Stupidity, overt or innocent, certainly makes for a good laugh especially if the person lands in the spot after the act of stupidity.

- A tangle of errors, that seem completely unintentional and puts the person in trouble is certainly worth a laugh 9Comedy of errors, Chupke, Chupke).

- In writing, the comparison or the use of a simile of something serious with something perhaps outrageously ridiculous could make you laugh (Wodehouse, Dave Barry).

- Characters with traits that people can relate to, traits that lead them to behave in a fashion that is expected brings on some smiles.

- Self-deprecatory stuff also brings on the smiles.

- Seemingly unrelated connections to topics does make for laughs.

- Situations where you know the character is headed for trouble, and where the character does not seem to know that he or she is, and is in fact trying to cover up, makes for laughs.

- Complete honesty is funny. Perhaps the funniest when written or shown.

- Naivete, complexity, villainy, innocence - anything pushed to the limit is funny.

- Razor sharp repartee that shuts up people, crudity included, seems to make people laugh.

- Complete idiocy also makes people laugh.

These are some situations I could think of. But going by the above, which may be only some, it appears that at the lower end or the baser end, we tend to laugh at others misfortunes, troubles, handicaps, at their beating beaten up, being abused, being troubled. Its funny, but it is so, that rarely do we laugh 'at' or 'with' happy people - more with troubled ones. On a higher end, we may have to create a subtle sense of humour that works on wordplay, on wit and repartee, but again leading to one upmanship of one over the other.

But the laughter does cleanse the heart and makes life so much better to have the jokes, the people who can evoke laughter, the see movies that make you roll in the aisles, tears down your face. I would love to do that everyday if I could.

Paradoxes of Life - The Emptiness Paradox

2012-01-09T01:29:00.000-08:00

What we think is full is really empty. Be it space, or our own mind, the feeling that we are appreciating great content is an illusion because all there is, in such works, is space. Just as they say that we are 99.99% nothingness though we all feel that we are full of something, so is the densest material in the world - full of nothingness.

In great music they say, the spaces are more important than the sounds. In great dialogue, the pauses say more than the words. In cricket, the extra moment sends the ball racing to the fence faster, not steely muscle. In dance, the extra moment, adds grace and transforms it into something else. So it is in any thing in life. From work to relationships, from dance to cricket, from children to adults, from lecturing to teaching, from plants to animals, from arts to science - spaces are almost everything. Spaces aid their growth, make them great.

The less we say, the more effective. The tighter the idea, the clearer it is. And the more space it gives for the readers, viewers to develop a relationship with the idea.

Less, is more. Full, is nothing.

Between Tears and Laughter - Mulk Raj Anand

2012-01-08T23:08:00.000-08:00

I was gifted this book by Shobhs way back in 1997, a slim volume of 130 pages, priced at Rs. 45. It is a collection of short stories by Mulk Raj Anand whose writing career spanned from the 1930s to the 1980s. I read his 1935 classic 'The Untouchable' last year and became a huge fan of his, so when I found this unread book in my collection I quickly picked it up. I am glad I did not read it earlier - I would not have appreciated its content then.

There are 21 stories in all and they are all short, as short stories should be unlike some which are pretty much like novels. Some of the stories I did not understand (I have the same problem with some poems) but some were more direct and my style. But what hit me was the themes he chose to write his stories - the pratice of Sati in a world of Chitrahaar and Stardust where the young widow of a doctor with aspirations to become a nurse is burnt alive, the stories that revolved around untouchability and the fate of the young characters - often beaten till death, the stoning to death of a blind bard whose only crime was that he was blind and sang well and thereby earned more than the other beggars, of a young mother whose bowl is stolen so she cannot feed her young, of Buddha and of monks, of an insane child sacrifice which is accorded permission by the village, of a young untouchable who turns to Buddhism and who seeks to become the Buddha himself, of pension for prostitutes, of the way war affects us and our children, of the way religion is used by some to promote their interests. In small stories, Mulk Raj Anand lays bare all that the Indian society has been guilty of doing and perpetuating on its weakest and most vulnerable sections - the women, children, handicapped, the untouchables and even animals, as in how Moti the dog is killed and how a buffalo is left to die.

Mulk Raj Anand in a hard hitting style that one expects from him and no less, shows all that and more in his simple method of story telling without dramatising the scenes. They are potent enough as they are even if reported. It is written as it is, whether the father sacrifices his own daughter, or children of dead army soldiers playing war games shoot one of their gang accidentally, or the sati, or the untouchable boys murder because he ate a carrot - the horror sinks into the reader later and I guess, will remain forever, as it might with me. For those who wish to read about where we came from, this book offers a quick review. As always I am left wondering at the wonderful job Mulk Raj Anand has done in penning them down as they were so we could always carry our history with us, and learn from it. The stupidest thing would be to ignore it. Among my big regrets would be not meeting him in his lifetime - he died in Pune in 2004 - a time when was frequenting Pune often. But he has left enough of his legacy and I propose now to get my hands on his other books as well.

Ra One - Movie Review

2012-01-08T03:21:00.000-08:00

After everyone had finished blasting Ra One and I had absolutely no further expectations from it, I watched Ra One the other day thanks to the die hard Shahrukh fan at home, and hey, watched it fully. The key, like many say, is to have no expectations and things don't look so bad after all. I guess it works for everything in life, including ourselves. Like Tendulkar and his 100 for instance.

Ra One's creator is the geeky Shekhar Subramaniam with curly hair and curd and Maggi noodles, a game creator. As in normal fashion the geek gets the beauty and he gets Kareena or rather Sonia and between them they manage a small Prateek, about 12 years old I'd guess, considering his knowledge of contraceptives etc. Obviously he got his father's brains because Sonia is dumb enough to pronounce Konjem, Konjem as Condom, condom, which is probably a Freudian slip from her. Perfect match those two.

Anyway Shekhar is trying to impress his son and makes a new game for his Mallya kind of a boss. He makes a game with a villain who is surely scary to look at and a hero who looks like himself. There is some complex business of hearts in Ra One and G One that I did not quite get except that one is red and another blue and they are critical to kill anyone - just like humans you know. When the game is launched the Ra One, a real badass if there ever was, morphs into the Korean game creator and seeks Prateek who whips his backside in the first game. Ra One now wants to kill Prateek if that is the last thing he will do, even if he has to come out of the game. Now that is what happens when you give geeks all the big projects.

Anyway Ra One kills non-violent, curd eater Shekhar (surprising how the face-matching software did not work at that point) but its a relief because it gets the bore out of the way and in his place we now get a butt pinching, sex crazed (not really) robot or something like that (Shahrukh in his regular avatar, gay jokes, nose leak jokes and all) which has stepped out of the game and into the life of Sonia and Prateek to save them from Ra One who has also stepped out. While they are all dancing to the tunes of Chammak Challo where Kareena did some wonderful work with her arms and hands, Ra One has followed them across the earth in the shape of a bald Arjun Rampal who was a model on a billboard. Who is in the game now with both these characters out is the question, and all the creators dead? There is one left, the self effacing Shahana Goswami but all she does is have tea with Sonia and goes home. Perhaps she got fired for being on this disastrous and dangerous project. I'd have arrested her.

Before we get into a weird story of humans falling in love with robots, which they seem to be headed for, Ra one arrives and challenges G One. Prateek helps a bit, and in the end Ra One is killed, G One is killed, the Mallya lookalike is killed. But wait, these game characters might just come back thanks to that heart stopping logic so we have G One sitting on a chimney looking around like a meanie Cat Man. Now, isn't your job in the game young man? What are you doing sitting on a chimney as a deluded super hero with blue sparks? I found the sci fi effects fair enough and the game looked interesting. But the train stunt was a bore - you can't have him run along the train for five minutes, sometime on the top, sometime on the side, sometime inside, sometime outside and finally stop it. If it took you from Bandra to CST to get to the front of the train, then in all likelihood it was Lord Ganesha who stopped the train and not G One. Bro you got to check out the Rajini stunt in his Robot. And, what was that Delnaz shot about?

Anyway I thought it had promise and a plot that had potential. Somewhere after the first attack by Ra One in London, the film stopped being interesting and it was dull all the way. Perhaps because we know for a fact that G One would always be around to counter Ra One - even though he fancies his chances at 0.01% (again he almost terminates Ra One in the first encounter - funny). After that we only have to put up with his jokes, his attempts at romancing Sonia which seem better than what the geek did and wait for the inevitable showdown. Also we know that there will be no blue sparks flying between the two so that's another bore. Now if there was a Sonia lookalike robot in the game, there would have been more fun. Why did Shahrukh not think of that? Instead of dialogues like 'now I know that there are angels'.

Was it a film for children? Only twelve to fourteen year olds I'd think because the younger ones would get scared at the Ra One fellow. Even I got scared, at not just Ra One, but many other things as well. Kareena as Sonia looked most desirable. But all else falls flat gently. Shahrukh does not look like a super hero to me despite the costume. I did get confused as to whether the two game characters will stay in the game or step out - are they real? But when you stop caring if they are, that is a sign of disconnect I guess. Need to worry about those. Sometimes I feel these movies would do better without all the hype. Hype should only be to the extent of the content that you have. Or am I old fashioned? These days, its the exact opposite. But I did not shut it off, watched it all and thought it could have been slightly better handled in the second half. You know, more between the hero and villain, than the hero and someone else's wife.

Why is Sharukh failing and Salman clicking? My theory is that Shahrukh is heading out northwards to the stars while Salman is going southwards and getting more earthy. Maybe an earthy role Shahrukh, paan spitting and all? Worth a try.

Women - The Real Dalits of the World

2012-01-07T22:19:00.000-08:00

I read Kalpana Sharma's fine article 'On wearing 'Obscene' Clothes' in The Hindu today and decided to voice myself as well, on this issue. She does wonderful work Kalpana Sharma and I am an unabashed fan of her writing.

Going by what I have seen and heard in my life it would be a fair conclusion for me - that women are the real dalits of the world. (According to Wikipedia, the word "Dalit" comes from the Sanskrit, and means "ground", "suppressed", "crushed", or "broken to pieces".) They have been abused, kept backward, taken advantage of, used by men forever. And if the trend of the erudite statements by the DGP of AP Police and the Minister in Karnataka are anything to go by, will continue to be in that position (for those not aware of their statements, they have been saying that women are dressing more provocatively and thereby inviting rape or something to that effect). There is much talk of empowerment of women in all spheres, their education, financial independence, freedom of expression, equal opportunity et al but it remains that at the heart of society, it is a deep rooted thought that women always have to play second fiddle.

Sadly there are many who share the DGPs and the Minister's views and are not as vocal about saying it out loud like these two brave men (who have crossed over from the line of bravery to the other side by talking to our overactive press about their views). Several educated men (I know education is no sign of any intellectual progress) also feel strongly that the woman's space is in the kitchen, the bedroom, to clean up, to spawn children and keep the husband happy. Almost everything in their sphere is related to how the woman is able or not able to keep them happy. All blame is on the woman, for everything, including not being able to conceive. To this day!

Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on which side one is, we are in a transition period. Women have jobs, are expressing their choices, are proving themselves better which is the worst scenario for man. Women have always made men feel insecure with their inherent strength, wisdom, patience and beauty and I always felt that women did hold back all these centuries because they are the more secure of the genders. But now that they are also competing and exercising choices and giving it back, man's insecurities only increase that much more. Now I cannot handle this, he says, you cannot look beautiful or attractive, you cannot wear these clothes, you cannot step out of the house. If you do that I cannot protect you. As if man was solely responsible for protecting women all this while. If the woman served no other purpose for man, they would have been exterminated by now.

One to one, women have more b*lls than men and that is a given. From their birth women are constantly challenged with new environments, situations while men sit in the pampered comfort of their homes. Man may be physically stronger but that is about it. Men cannot handle women, especially an attractive one. Especially alone. And the biggest insult for men happens to be about their manhood - talk of being insecure.

My guess is that the transition period will shortly go the other way when women might just call the shots. There might come one day when women in power might ask men to lock up their rather easily excitable and blameless and innocent parts, and any transgressions may result in corrective surgeries. I would like to see how the men would like to react to such a situation when they are policed by women and their transgressions dealt with in pretty much the same manner.

You cannot go and rob the ice cream van just because it is advertising itself and say that it looked really good and therefore was robbed and its the fault of the ice cream for looking so good. It is called a robbery and is punishable. Now if the DGP and the Minister are against all these distractions I am sure they can find many more things that they could focus their immense power, wisdom and energy on to make a difference. It is their job to allow the ice cream man to advertise, make the ice cream look good and get on with his life. It is their job to tell the robbers that they cannot rob anything because they liked it - not side with them. Not merely tell the ice cream man that his ice cream was too attractive and he is likely to get robbed. We all know that. What we don't understand is why these guys are getting paid.

Forget the slutwalk girls, its time for a kick-where-it-hurts campaign.

Alvin and the Chipmunks 3 - Movie Review

2012-01-07T07:53:00.000-08:00

Watched this (thankfully not in 3D) at Prasad's with Anjali. Loved it. Its sassy, spunky and filled with fun, dance and music. I haven't seen the previous two but one need not, to enjoy this bunch of chipmunks and their father, a human who adopts them, Dave.

Now the chipmunks (delightful animated characters - Alvin, Simon, Theodore, Jeanette, Eleanor and Brittany) are in the world of humans and they are all headed for vacation on board a cruise ship. Alvin is always upto some mischief and he gets Dave into trouble with the captain. A salsa competition between the chipmunk stars and some hot salsa dancers, and some more fun on board, before all the chipmunks fly off on a kite due to a misfired adventure orchestrated by Alvin. How Dave and Ian, their old friend and foe, chase the chipmunks to rescue them and how they land up on an island, meet Zoe the bounty hunter, and how they all escape wiser and older after that, is the story. I loved the way Simon becomes Simone and that character is simply out of the world - I could watch him all day. All in all, I had a lot of fun and even Anjali gave the movie a thumbs up. Songs, dance, music, fun.

Better than Puss in Boots in my opinion. Worth a watch.

Story Idea - Cell Phone Attackers (or Married to the Mob)

2012-01-07T01:47:00.000-08:00

This is more in the Jaws meets Sixth Sense genre. The story starts with a lot of mischief going on in people with their mobiles playing a lot of mischief. SMSs, calls, MMS clips going from the wrong person to the wrong persons all over the place and sending the world into a tizzy. The leaders of nations find themselves caught in compromising talks, quotes and acts and there is a threat of a global war with all this going on. At every level there is disharmony, banking getting busted, economies going crashing, private info out in public space, discontent as marriages are breaking up, business alliances busting up, education going topsy turvy.

Puzzled by the fact that almost everyone has been affected a mobile phone software expert (our hero) starts wondering why the mobiles could suddenly go so awry. He comes up with the answer soon enough, the mobile space has been taken over by aliens and they are using the mobiles to start controlling us. They are using mobiles as a drug and getting us addicted to them so much that we cannot live our lives without them, and once they have captured almost everyone in their net, they plan to use the mobiles to zap us out of existence. Humans versus mobiles, the race begins. How can we save ourselves? Or rather as most people of this generation would be more worried about this question - how can we save our mobiles? From identifying races that have been entirely untouched by mobiles, to understanding the depth to which we have committed our lives to mobiles, the story can keep us teetering on the edge of world war, a humans versus aliens story, a humans versus technology story and finally, a human understanding of overdependence on gadgets that seem to take over our lives.

I can think of many wonderful ways in which my mobile or anyone's mobile can play mischief if it starts thinking diabolically. I can think of many apps as well that will make this more interesting. Then the mobile can actually cause physical harm later on - imagine it slapping the user, of tweaking the ear, or making screechy sounds. Juicy stuff for someone like me who is rather tech challenged and who looks at mobiles as if they are little monsters anyway. But it would be great if it could get some of these kids who are stuck on their mobile phones all the time off it for a while, just as Jaws kept many of us away from water those days.

PS. Got a better idea (this is added as an afterthought). What if all the networks and all get corrupted and go haywire, before just slamming shut. We won't remember a single number, most names, have no one to sms, call. I mean that mobile could just drive you nuts by sending wrong messages, giving missed calls, redirecting calls. Man, it could be a scary movie.

Chillar Party - Movie Review

2012-01-07T01:23:00.000-08:00

The movies for 2012 started on a good note as well with Chillar Party, a movie I wanted to watch in the theatres but could not. It is a fun story of children in a society in Mumbai called Chandan Nagar and how they go about saving their friend and his dog.

Set in a lovely colony or society as they are called in Mumbai, the Chillar party gang consists entirely of a young boys of about 8-12 years I'd guess. They play cricket, ride around on their bikes, sit in an old unused shed and generally do all that little kids do. Its a nice gang as well with nicknames such as Akram, Panauti, Encyclopedia, Jhangiya, Second hand, Silencer and so on. They lose all their cricket matches to their neighbouring oversized cricket team and have a problem with a society dog that relieves itself on their cricket pitch everyday. Just as they are wishing they had no dogs in their life comes a young boy Fatka to replace the man who cleans the society cars, with his dog, a mongrel named Bhidu. The Chillar Party does not like the idea of another dog in the society and to all sorts of things to get rid of dog and owner. But they give up finally and even become friends when Fatka and Bhidu help them beat their oversized enemy cricket team. Danger lurks when Minister Bhide comes to the colony and his PA is atatcked by Bhidu. Bhide starts a campaihn against unlicensed dogs and says that all dogs that have no NOCs from their societies will be captured, Bhidu is one of them as the society members do not sign. How the Chillar Party fights tooth and nail for Fatka and Bhidu is the rest of the story.

I saw that as usual the reviewers have been very conservative in their reviews and have stuck to the 3-4 star band which is safe. Also it is the kind of a movie where they can express their expertise on the newcomers freely and dissect everything technically, something which they do not when big star movies come out. Chillar Party definitely has more going for it than 4 stars, which is the least it should get. It may not be the most earth shattering of themes, but to tell a simple story honestly and simply, is more the need of the hour these days when nothing we see on the screen seems to make sense except for the guys who are raking the cash home. Fine performances by the kids, a delightful story, some wonderful lessons for everyone concerned, specially children who are bound to watch the movie, and many more lessons for adults who tend to forget their lessons as they grow old (a dialogue in the movie says so). Great honest effort by Nitesh Tiwari and Vikas Bahl, and a must watch for everyone, big and small.

Marcel Proust - Quotes

2012-01-06T21:33:00.000-08:00

Some quotes from Proust.

A powerful idea communicates some of its strength to him who challenges it.

A woman one loves rarely suffices for all our needs, so we deceive her with another whom we do not love.

All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last.

As long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost and science can never regress.

Every reader finds himself. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself.

Everything great in the world comes from neurotics. They alone have founded our religions and composed our masterpieces.

Habit is a second nature which prevents us from knowing the first, of which it has neither the cruelties nor the enchantments.

Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind.

Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible.

If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time.

If only for the sake of elegance, I try to remain morally pure.

Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.

In a separation it is the one who is not really in love who says the more tender things.

In theory one is aware that the earth revolves, but in practice one does not perceive it, the ground upon which one treads seems not to move, and one can live undisturbed. So it is with Time in one's life.

It is in moments of illness that we are compelled to recognize that we live not alone but chained to a creature of a different kingdom, whole worlds apart, who has no knowledge of us and by whom it is impossible to make ourselves understood: our body.

It is not because other people are dead that our affection for them grows faint, it is because we ourselves are dying.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

Let us leave pretty women to men devoid of imagination.

Lies are essential to humanity. They are perhaps as important as the pursuit of pleasure and moreover are dictated by that pursuit.

Like many intellectuals, he was incapable of saying a simple thing in a simple way.

Love is a reciprocal torture.

Love is space and time measured by the heart.

No exile at the South Pole or on the summit of Mont Blanc separates us more effectively from others than the practice of a hidden vice.

Only through art can we emerge from ourselves and know what another person sees.

People can have many different kinds of pleasure. The real one is that for which they will forsake the others.

People wish to learn to swim and at the same time to keep one foot on the ground.

The bonds that unite another person to our self exist only in our mind.

The charms of the passing woman are generally in direct proportion to the swiftness of her passing.

The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

The time at our disposal each day is elastic; the passions we feel dilate it, those that inspire us shrink it, and habit fills it.

The world was not created once and for all time for each of us individually. There are added to it in the course of our life things of which we have never had any suspicion.

There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.

There is no man, however wise, who has not at some period of his youth said things, or lived in a way the consciousness of which is so unpleasant to him in later life that he would gladly, if he could, expunge it from his memory.

Those whose suffering is due to love are, as we say of certain invalids, their own physicians.

Three-quarters of the sicknesses of intelligent people come from their intelligence. They need at least a doctor who can understand this sickness.

Time passes, and little by little everything that we have spoken in falsehood becomes true.

Time, which changes people, does not alter the image we have retained of them.

We are able to find everything in our memory, which is like a dispensary or chemical laboratory in which chance steers our hand sometimes to a soothing drug and sometimes to a dangerous poison.

We are healed from suffering only by experiencing it to the full.

We become moral when we are unhappy.

We do not succeed in changing things according to our desire, but gradually our desire changes.

We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.

We must never be afraid to go too far, for truth lies beyond.

What a profound significance small things assume when the woman we love conceals them from us.

For each illness that doctors cure with medicine, they provoke ten in healthy people by inoculating them with the virus that is a thousand times more powerful than any microbe: the idea that one is ill.

Desire makes everything blossom; possession makes everything wither and fade.

(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/marcel_proust_3.html)

Truth is a point of view about things.

The Proust Questionnaire - My responses

2012-01-06T21:16:00.000-08:00

Apparently Proust believed that it is our duty to know ourselves better before we start to know others. The questionnaire aims to do so. I suppose one might as well take a shot at it and fill it out.

WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST FEAR?
Of being found out.

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT STATE OF MIND?
Fragmented. Too many thoughts in too many directions.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE OCCUPATION?(WAY OF SPENDING TIME)
Worrying.

WHAT HISTORICAL FIGURE DO YOU MOST IDENTIFY WITH?
Karna of the Mahabharatha.

WHICH LIVING PERSON DO YOU MOST ADMIRE?
Can't think of anyone. Dhoni comes closest.

WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE FICTIONAL HERO?
Karna

WHO ARE YOUR REAL-LIFE HEROES?
Gandhi, Dhoni, Woody Allen, Dev Anand.

WHAT IS YOUR MOST TREASURED POSSESSION?
My sense of integrity

WHEN AND WHERE WERE YOU HAPPIEST?
When my daughter Anjali was born. Also when I am doing something I like.

WHAT IS YOUR MOST OBVIOUS CHARACTERISTIC?
Inflexibility.And a sense of equanimity that others seem to perceive.

WHAT IS THE TRAIT YOU MOST DEPLORE (HATE) IN YOURSELF?
Taking myself too seriously to the extent of thinking that the world works because of me. I despise this trait because it places too much burden on me which tires me.

WHAT IS THE TRAIT YOU MOST DEPLORE IN OTHERS?
An obvious fakeness that they seem to believe in. Also the fact that they take themselves too seriously.

WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST EXTRAVAGANCE?
Buying myself a 50 inch tv.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE JOURNEY?
Almost all road journeys, in the company of friends, family and happy people.

WHAT DO YOU MOST DISLIKE ABOUT YOUR APPEARANCE?
My graying hair, these days.

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST OVER-RATED VIRTUE?
Generosity.

ON WHAT OCCASION DO YOU LIE?
When I think it might not be found, at least until a later time.

WHICH WORDS OR PHRASES DO YOU MOST OVER-USE?
'I think...'

IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT YOURSELF, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Stop taking myself too seriously and just be. Act more, think less.

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT?
Filling out a questionnaire like this in public space.

WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO LIVE?
On a hill by the sea, on a mountain.

WHAT IS THE QUALITY YOU MOST ADMIRE IN A MAN?
A happy disposition.

WHAT IS THE QUALITY YOU MOST ADMIRE IN A WOMAN?
An element of mischief and fun.

WHAT IS IT YOU MOST DISLIKE?
An obvious overestimation of oneself.

WHAT DO YOU VALUE MOST IN YOUR FRIENDS?
Openness to let me be the way I am.

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO DIE?
Peacefully.

IF YOU WERE TO DIE AND COME BACK AS A PERSON OR AN ANIMAL, WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WOULD BE?
Pass.

IF YOU COULD CHOOSE AN OBJECT TO COME BACK AS, WHAT WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
A mirror. So I could watch people be themselves, admire themselves.

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO (WORDS YOU LIVE BY OR THAT MEAN A LOT TO YOU)?
To stick to what I believe in, even if it may not be in agreement with what others think or which may not make others happy.

WHO HAS BEEN THE GREATEST INFLUENCE ON YOU?
My parents, though much of it, unconsciously.

Nothing as insightful as Marcel was even at 13 or at 20. But this is it.
http://www.angelfire.com/ms/chseng2/proust.html

The Proust Questionnaire

2012-01-06T20:37:00.000-08:00

The Proust Questionnaire is based on two questionnaires that Marcel Proust filled out - one when he was 13, another when he was 20.

At age 13, Proust answered the following questions.
* What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
To be separated from Mama
* Where would you like to live?
In the country of the Ideal, or, rather, of my ideal
* What is your idea of earthly happiness?
To live in contact with those I love, with the beauties of nature, with a quantity of books and music, and to have, within easy distance, a French theater
* To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
To a life deprived of the works of genius
* Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
Those of romance and poetry, those who are the expression of an ideal rather than an imitation of the real
* Who are your favorite characters in history?
A mixture of Socrates, Pericles, Mahomet, Pliny the Younger and Augustin Thierry
* Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
A woman of genius leading an ordinary life
* Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Those who are more than women without ceasing to be womanly; everything that is tender, poetic, pure and in every way beautiful
* Your favorite painter?
Meissonier
* Your favorite musician?
Mozart
* The quality you most admire in a man?
Intelligence, moral sense
* The quality you most admire in a woman?
Gentleness, naturalness, intelligence
* Your favorite virtue?
All virtues that are not limited to a sect: the universal virtues
* Your favorite occupation?
Reading, dreaming, and writing verse
* Who would you have liked to be?
Since the question does not arise, I prefer not to answer it. All the same, I should very much have liked to be Pliny the Younger.

Marcel in his twenties,
* Your most marked characteristic?
A craving to be loved, or, to be more precise, to be caressed and spoiled rather than to be admired
* The quality you most like in a man?
Feminine charm
* The quality you most like in a woman?
A man's virtues, and frankness in friendship
* What do you most value in your friends?
Tenderness - provided they possess a physical charm which makes their tenderness worth having
* What is your principle defect?
Lack of understanding; weakness of will
* What is your favorite occupation?
Loving
* What is your dream of happiness?
Not, I fear, a very elevated one. I really haven't the courage to say what it is, and if I did I should probably destroy it by the mere fact of putting it into words.
* What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
Never to have known my mother or my grandmother
* What would you like to be?
Myself - as those whom I admire would like me to be
* In what country would you like to live?
One where certain things that I want would be realized - and where feelings of tenderness would always be reciprocated. [Proust's underlining]
* What is your favorite color?
Beauty lies not in colors but in thier harmony
* What is your favorite flower?
Hers - but apart from that, all
* What is your favorite bird?
The swallow
* Who are your favorite prose writers?
At the moment, Anatole France and Pierre Loti
* Who are your favoite poets?
Baudelaire and Alfred de Vigny
* Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Hamlet
* Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Phedre (crossed out) Berenice
* Who are your favorite composers?
Beethoven, Wagner, Shuhmann
* Who are your favorite painters?
Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt
* Who are your heroes in real life?
Monsieur Darlu, Monsieur Boutroux (professors)
* Who are your favorite heroines of history?
Cleopatra
* What are your favorite names?
I only have one at a time
* What is it you most dislike?
My own worst qualities
* What historical figures do you most despise?
I am not sufficiently educated to say
* What event in military history do you most admire?
My own enlistment as a volunteer!
* What reform do you most admire?
(no response)
* What natural gift would you most like to possess?
Will power and irresistible charm
* How would you like to die?
A better man than I am, and much beloved
* What is your present state of mind?
Annoyance at having to think about myself in order to answer these questions
* To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Those that I understand
* What is your motto?
I prefer not to say, for fear it might bring me bad luck.
(From http://www.chick.net/proust/question.html)

How Proust can change your life – Alain de Botton

2012-01-06T20:31:00.000-08:00

And the New Year gets of to a brilliant start with this most unlikely of books. 'How Proust Can Change Your Life' is a book unlike any I have ever read. I have never read any of Marcel Proust’s work and I doubt if I ever will though I did happen upon a few of his famous quotes. But to read a book called ‘How Proust can change your life’ was an experience I never ever expected.

Alain de Botton uses a fine, easy-to-read-language that is full of energy and wonder, as he talks of Proust’s work ‘In Search of Lost Time’. For a while I wondered if he was making it all up, going by the pictures and the way it was written – the chapters are titled as follows: How to love life today (what if death comes calling today, readjust your priorities), How to read for yourself (knowing yourself through books), How to take your time, How to suffer successfully (being happy with one’s ailments and not forever blaming), How to express your emotions, How to be a good friend, How to open your eyes (to view all with the same wonder, not to look for the mistakes), How to be happy in love and How to put books down. De Botton quotes Proust from many sources and many of his friends and acquaintances as well.

Written in an engaging and even funny manner De Botton’s book analyses many of Proust’s positions on subjects wide ranging as the above. The thoughts are so fine and subtle that I failed to register them in my mind after one reading and require that I read the book again – it can easily be read again. I tried to recount what the book was about to someone and nothing came to mind! The pictures help, apparently that is how de Botton’s books are, illustrated. A second read surely for people like me who are ignorant of the ways of both Proust and De Botton. For those who are wondering whether they should read or not, I'd certainly recommend it. It is a totally different experience in how things can be done, books written and to that extent surely, can change your life.

Marcel Proust (1871-1922), the object of this book was a French novelist, essayist and critic. Son of a doctor, Proust was a sickly child, prone to asthmatic attacks. He was also a closet homosexual who apparently was one of the first in his times to write openly about homosexuality in his works. The Proust questionnaire which is now being administered by the Hindu on many celebrities revives the spirit of Proust in today’s world often to some quirky replies by the thinkers of our times.

Alain De Botton, a Swiss writer, television presenter and entrepreneur, has already written ten bestsellers – one novel (Essays in Love) and nine non-fiction (Consolations of Philosophy, Architecture of Happiness, among others) – a lot for someone who is in his early forties, has a school in London ‘The School of Life’ that approaches education differently, has an architecture project called ‘Living Architecture’ to build innovative houses for the general public and is an honorary member of the Royal Institute of British Architetcs. However he is not an architect by training as I noticed in his profile but has a Masters degree in philosophy and comes from a wealthy family, his father being a banker who has left behind a Trust of some 200 million. I am amazed at De Botton's energy and at the many things he is already doing.

There is an interesting talk of Botton on TED talks, youtube. Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtSE4rglxbY

Thought for the Day - Follow the One Thought

2012-01-03T18:50:00.000-08:00

I always find my dithering between two or more thoughts. It happens like this. I start with one thought for eg. let me go to x. And then I sabotage the perfectly good first thought with another thought which says, why not take y also to meet x. And when y comes up with another option, and it becomes a lot more complicated as probably z gets added. Now I have three thoughts, each pulling me in different directions with different intensities. Normally I put my original thought last, and give more priority to the other two thoughts because of an unnecessary responsibility I dragged on to myself. It causes me (the one who originally proposed the first thought a slight heartburn at the thought of me, the one who brought in y and z, and sabotaged it, getting all that importance) and well, there's a lot of unnecessary drama going on. Get the drift?

I specialise in the above method of dithering, dilly dallying and putting myself last and I am surprised it took me this long to get this thought out. Anyway the New Year resolution and one I think I could adopt for the rest of my life now, is to choose between the options quickly, stay with that 'one thought' for good or bad (which will instantly make me take more responsibility for it because now its mine, and therefore should be a better choice as well!). It should make me more peaceful, less resentful and most importantly force me to take my decisions faster and better as well. I can see some people heaving a sigh of relief already.

One thought then in all I do. More on this as I see the results.

The Shatabdi Express - Pune Hyderabad

2012-01-02T10:29:00.000-08:00

For all those traveling from Pune to Hyderabad and the other way round, the Indian Railways has introduced the Shatabdi Express which is a nice option to try. The first big thing about this train is that it covers the distance is 8 hours as opposed to the regular 12-13 hours or more. The second thing is that its a day train and starts at Pune at 550 am and reaches Secunderabad at 150 pm, turns around, starts at Secunderabad at 250 pm and reaches Pune at 1115 pm. It is air conditioned and has a chair car facility, since it is a day journey, i.e. no berths. The regular chair car has 3 and 2 chairs which is a bit cramped with all the luggage and not much space for it, while the first class has a more spacious 2 and 2 chair arrangement which is far more comfortable. The Shatabdi is a fair enough option to explore if the timings fit in. The food and beverages are included in the fare and add some excitement to the journey.

The regular chair car disoriented me a bit as everything is slightly out of alignment, as if everything in the coach has been given to some trainee carpenters, workmen - the trays, the seats, the paneling, and almost everything looks a bit fragile and off alignment. It is amazing at how it looks, like some scene out of 'Inception' with many things at angles that one would not expect.

The food and stuff came on time and that was a saving grace - generally okay. The service of the IRCTC staff has all good intentions though it may not be top class. The coaches have plugpoints for those who wish to use their laptops or charge their mobile phones at every seating station. I'd recommend the first class though its double the price of the regular chair car for the simple reason that it is more spacious and fr less crowded. I suddenly see this train as a wonderful option to travel to Pune now and hope to make more trips in the coming months.

If - Poem by Rudyard Kipling

2012-01-01T04:25:00.000-08:00

Young Hemant Sehgal shared this classic poem with me - 'If' by Rudyard kipling.

'If' by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

Fantastic stuff.

Hemant also sent me a profile of Rudyard Kipling, a concise version of which is reproduced here.

'If' first appeared in his collection 'Rewards and Fairies' in 1909. Lines from the poem appear over the player's entrance to Wimbledon's Centre Court. Rudyard Kipling's life was largely tragic, starved of love and attention and sent away by his parents; beaten and abused by his foster mother; and he was a failure at a public school which sought to develop qualities that were alien to him. In later life the deaths of two of his children also affected Kipling deeply.

Rudyard Kipling achieved fame quickly but he turned down many honours offered to him including a knighthood, Poet Laureate and the Order of Merit. However ,in 1907 he accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The poem is highly inspirational.

Paradoxes of Life - The Getting Principle

2011-12-31T21:13:00.000-08:00

To get, we need to give. The more you give, the more you get. Goes without saying that if you give with the sole intent of getting, you are not giving but trying to cheat and in such cases you will not get.

Give, and you get. A smile, knowledge, timely support, help, a phone call, a gift, a small gesture that shows you are really giving.

New year Resolutions

2011-12-31T01:17:00.000-08:00

To do more out of comfort zone things, starting today.

To break the pattern as much as I can.

To do things I want to do without thinking too much about it.

To plant a tree a month at least.

To grow the kitchen garden with Anjali's help.

To work on health with more focus, responsibility.

To get back to running 5 kms by the end of the year.

To write more, 6 self help books to start with.

To get the Misfit published.

To write a script, or two.

To give more.

To laugh more.

To write the structure for a funny book.

To read a lot more good books, the classics.

To watch movies, a lot more classics.

To travel and see Kanyakumari, Coorg, Agra, Khajuraho, New Delhi.

To learn to cook.

To learn to swim.

2011 - The Year That Was

2011-12-30T17:45:00.000-08:00

Some 'YESSS' moments of 2011.

The movie 'Golconda High School', based on my first novel 'The Men Within' was released. I loved it.

I visited the Himalayas for the first time and was awed by the sight. I also visited Haridwar and Rishikesh, Dehradun, Mussoorie and a few other nearby places.

I met some interesting people - Ruskin Bond the writer, Srini Alluri the cyclist and the social worker who cycled from London to Srinagar for humanity, Patrick San Francisco the healer from Goa who is a doctor who heals through universal energy, Suryprakash Rao who brings a lot of passion into his social work concerning food, books and health.

I wrote 468 blog posts which is an improvement over last year. I started writing out my ideas, thoughts, paradoxes and writing the blog has helped me grow in many ways. It has made me more expressive, made me do certain things that I would not have and also placed on me a pleasurable responsibility of writing for those who care to read my blog.

I read 40 odd books including some tomes I have forever been putting off. Glad to have read Roots, Untouchable, A Fine Balance - all dealing with oppression. I discovered fantastic writers like Rohinton Mistry, Steinbeck, Namita Devidayal, Manohar Malgoankar, Raja Rao, Haley.

I watched over 80 movies, most of them thanks to Sagar who shared his collection with an open heart. In those I was amazed at the movies made of the World War era - Schindler's List, Kanal, Ashes and Diamonds and delved into history once again to see what we have done as a human race. The Irani movies, 15 of which I watched opened up a new world for me where they made movies fearlessly. The classics from Kurosawa, Woody Allen, Kubrick and others were fascinating to watch.

I rediscovered the joy of going to music concerts - this time alone - and enjoyed the 'Metallica' experience. Plan to go to as many concerts as I can.

Amar and I did a first, of doing a workshop in Telugu for workmen, and I was pleasantly surprised at my own capability to converse fluently in Telugu and make my points emphatically.

I got my 'Misfit' out once again and went at it with an intent to get it going this time. Two visits to Bangalore, endless hours on it, and I think I am just about there now, with a manuscript that is 98% done and sent off to Keerti for her comments last evening.

I interviewed some interesting people - Keerti Ramachandra, my editor, Suresh Reddy, friend and businessman, Ruskin Bond the writer, Suryaprakash Rao the doctor and social worker, Srini Alluri, idealistic entrepreneur, social worker and cyclist and Anjali who gave me the perspective of life as seen by a four year old.

I understood the meaning of taking responsibility for my health and I think it has made a difference already.

There were a few talks and workshops, seminars and conferences, panel discussions and so on.

I owe much thanks to Ramaraju and the team at Gap Miners who are my constant source of inspiration. Sagar for his movies. Raja, Shobha, Harsha and Vinod for their books. Keerti, Anita Nair for their support on my literary pursuit. Amar for keeping the corporate workshops flag flying. Vidyuth for keeping my cricketing side alive by letting me loose on his Under 16 and Under 22 wards. The Hindu, MRF, XSEED, Sloka and to all those who invited me to speak and participate in events big and small. My family at Hyderabad and Pune for their support and for keeping me grounded, my brother and sisters for being there unconditionally, nieces and nephews for all the wonderful perspectives they bring.

My wonderful set of friends who make me laugh and cry with their stupidity - Koni for keeping me laughing when I find nothing to laugh about in the world, Ranjan with whom I enjoyed the Himalayan sojourn, Sanjay with whom I visited Mahabaleshwar, Topper who made me laugh uncontrollably in Hubli, Don, Kiran, Mama, Madhav who keeps me on my toes on the blog every once in a while, Naresh who is always in touch, Vinod for our coffee outings, Vandana and Ramesh, Rajesh and Nisha for being wonderful hosts, and all other friends who call and share things with me with a trust that make this life that much more blessed. All those who read the blog and share your views, ASR, Raja, Ranjani, Satish and others. Shobha for keeping the faith on this journey and Anjali for making me wonder and showing me the joy of unconditional love. I think I can use this blog as the acknowledgement in the next book.

More as I remember through the day.

2011 - The Year In Movies

2011-12-30T10:56:00.000-08:00

The year had to be dominated by movies beginning as it was with Golconda High School in January, a movie which I saw some 18 times in the theatre with many friends and family and enjoyed it each time. Sagar has been instrumental thereon in feeding me a wonderful list of movies for home viewing and I saw many classics, world cinema and mainly Irani movies. Of the 80 odd movies I viewed this past year, over a third must be Sagar's contribution. Thanks Sagar for the wonderful education.

In February I saw Amelia, 300, 400 Blows, Turtles Can fly, M, Leila, Annie Hall, No One Killed Jessica, Phas gaye Obama, Bounty Hunter and Invictus.

In March I saw Red Beard, King's Speech, High and Low, Pickpocket, The Fighter, Band Baja Barrat, Tees Maar Khan and Ala Modalaindi.

In April I saw Vicky Christina in Barcelona, Udaan and in May I saw Stanley ka dabba, Small time Crooks, Cinema Paradiso, Cinderella Man, The Mirror, Babel, Shor In the City.

In June it was Terror by Night, The Sound of Music, Rashomon, Kung Fu Panda 2, Two English Girls, Baran, Not one less, Silence, Schindler's List, Rangam.

July was Coffee and Cigarettes, Mighty Aphropdite, Delhi Belly, Midnight Cowboy, Fairy Tale, Inglorious Basterds, Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara, Social Network.

In August it was Ray, Z, Osama, Kanal, Fireworks Wednesday, Close Up, Hidden Half, Kandahar, Sabah and Blackboards.

September I saw the White Balloon, Hamoun, Cirlce, Marooned in Iraq, Falling in Love, Dog Day Afternoon.

In October I saw Winnie the Pooh, Taste of Cherry, Glengary Glenross, The Cyclist, Deer Hunter, Dookudu, The Great Debaters,and Ashes and Diamonds.

In November I saw Rockstar, Infernal Affairs, The Other Man, Norwegian Wood, Sreeramarajyam and Camera Buff.

In December I saw Blow Up, Puss in Boots, Man of Marble, Aarakshan and Shashank's Redemption.

I loved the Irani movies, Polih movies, Cinema Paradiso, the Chinese movie 'Not one less', Infernal Affairs, Z, M, Ray, Schindler's List, The Great Debaters and so many more. In the theaters I liked Zindagi Milegi, Golconda High School, Rockstar, Stanley ka dabba, Shor in the City, No One Killed Jessica. The ones that disappointed were Tees Maar Khan, Puss in Boots and Terror in the night. I have some more wonderful movies that Sagar gave me to watch and it promises to be a fine start to 2012 in the movie section surely.

2011 - The Year in Books

2011-12-30T10:11:00.000-08:00

I managed to read more books this year. The count stands a little over 40 I think. The good thing was that after many years I read many of those fat intimidating books and liked most of them. You can't beat the classics for good writing.

In January I read 'The World of Nagaraj' by R.K. Narayan. In February 'The English Teacher' by RKN, and 'The Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell. In March I read a lot of Ruskin Bond, six or seven books of his including 'The Room on the Roof', Landour Days', 'Roads to Mussoorie', Vagrants of the Valley', 'A Handful of Nuts' and 'A Season of Ghosts', 'The Case of the Exploding Mangoes' and 'The Counsel of Strangers'. April, I read 'The Untouchable', ' The Winner Stands Alone'. 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' 'Woody Allen on Woody Allen' and 'Zorba the Greek'. In May I read 'The Choice', 'Kanthapura', 'Going Places - Cricketers from small towns in India' and the 'Concise 33 Strategies of War'. In June it was 'The Music Room', 'The Mafia Queens of Mumbai', A Fine Balance', 'Waiting for the Mahatma', 'Our Trees Still Grow In Dehra' and 'Mojo'. July brought 'Think and Grow Rich', 'The Winning Way'. 'The Immortals of Meluha', 'Chanakya's Chant' and a book by Ruth Rendell. August I read 'False Impression' by Jeffrey Archer. September was a month when I did not complete a single book. October I read 'Such a Long Journey', 'The Popcorn Essayists', 'Lose Your Weight, Don't Lose Your Mind', 'Revolution 2020' 'The Book of 5 Rings' and 'The Grapes of Wrath'. November was for 'Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway' and 'Roots'.
In December I read 'Sea of Poppies'.

My top 10 for the year are Roots, The Grapes of Wrath, Zorba the Greek, A Fine Balance, The Untouchable, The Music Room, The Case of the Exploding Mangoes, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Kanthapura and Such a Long Journey. The ones that disappointed most were The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho, False Impression by Jeffrey Archer, Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh and The World of Nagaraj by RKN.

In non fiction my top 5 would be Outliers, the Concise 33 Strategies of War, Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway and Going Places - Small Town Cricketers from India. The shelf is full right now and I look forward to reading some more good books in 2012.

The Paradoxes of Life - The Forgiveness Paradox

2011-12-30T06:44:00.000-08:00

The paradox of forgiveness is that the one you are finding most difficult to forgive in your life, the one who has hurt you the most, is the one who has actually taken trouble to help you in your growth. When you learn the lessons from the experience and see the perpetrator as the one who is helping your growth, forgiveness enters, resentment dissolves and love and peace can find space.

This concept is explained wonderfully well by Colin Tipping in his book 'Radical Forgiveness'.

Paradoxes of Life - The Success Paradox

2011-12-30T06:31:00.000-08:00

Success is seen as something that comes easily to some people. But the paradox of success is that it is clearly borne out of failure. The more number of failures you have had, the more likely are you to succeed. Failure requires you to act, to try and to face success or failure. The more you act the more you are likely to fail, and the more you are likely to succeed. There is no other route to success other than failure.

Successful people are seen as those who have lived perfectly and never failed. Nothing can be further than truth. They fail everyday - see the sports pages, the business pages, the technology pages. But they learn from the failure and come back the next day and sometimes fail again, until they succeed. In fact failure is seen as a necessary step to make the grade in certain teams. Anyone who says he has succeeded without ever failing, is lying.

The more you fail, the more you are likely to succeed.

Paradoxes of Life - The Money Paradox

2011-12-30T06:17:00.000-08:00

It does appear that the most money is with the people who have a lot of time to do everything else (go on holidays, wake up late, watch movies, shop, go to beaches in short do things they enjoy doing). They do things they love and seem to enjoy spending it on themselves. For those who believe that making money is working so hard that you drop off, this may seem a paradox, but that is the way it is.

The richest people are doing things they love - playing, painting, building. The only thing is that they are working at doing and creating something they love. All those who are working 'hard' i.e. doing work they hate all the time are putting in the same hours or more at work, doing things they don't love, and not making any money.

Money seems to go where there is joy - of receiving it and spending it. Find the joy and the money follows. Spend it, use it joyfully, play with it, and it comes back to you. Hate what you are doing and you can kiss your money goodbye.

The Paradoxes of Life - The Love Paradox

2011-12-30T01:32:00.000-08:00

Life is full of paradoxes and one believes by now that the paradox is the rule. Let me examine some of these paradoxes. Love, in this blog.

Love, in its basic form, urges one to possess at any cost. But love, in its evolved form, is about loving enough, greatly and unconditionally, to let go. Unless you have reached a stage when you love the person enough to let go, to grow and find a greater space, you do not love that person. You only love your perception of love.

This to me is the paradox of love. To get it, you must let it go.

Match Referees in Parliament Required

2011-12-29T20:47:00.000-08:00

I saw Virat Kohli (not a parliamentarian) stop for the briefest of moments after his plumb leg before decision, before walking away in India's match against Australia yesterday, and Ian Chappell, noted that his momentary hesitation could invite a call to the match referees room (most likely for a talk on behaving in a manner against the spirit of the game). A bigger transgression results in fines and penalties, the code of which has been written down.

Now to the Parliament. I read this morning about how a Parliamentarian from the RJD, who did not agree with the now defunct Lokpal Bill, tore up the copy of the Bill (which is amongst the most polite forms of protest in the respected house). Parliamentarians have been known to use more forceful behavior, from physical actions to abusive language, and have zeroed down to certain unparliamentary acts to express their assent or dissent. In assemblies around the country we see elected representatives use bad language, beat each other up, throw furniture, tear up clothes as well.

Why are they allowed to get away with all this? Do they not have a code governing their behavior? Are they allowed to do anything since they are in the Parliament? Our children and youth watch this, and probably believe that these people are elected representatives and this behavior is accepted. Nothing can be more unparliamentary than not letting the Parliament function.

Maybe we could think of match referees to govern the behavior of elected representatives as well. A code that has fines and penalties, and suggests correctional courses, effective communication courses, manners and etiquette courses, duties and responsibilities courses as required. Or if there is one already, to put it to use. Mr. Sharad Pawar who knows the ways of the ICC and the team of cricketers, Azahruddin, Kirti Azad, Novjyot Singh Siddhu, and cricket lovers such as Shashi Tharoor, who are all in the Parliament, can be put together to constitute the committee to share their expertise.

Boxing Day Business - Not a Good Idea for Indian Cricket or for India

2011-12-29T20:30:00.000-08:00

The more I think of it the more I am convinced that this Boxing Day business is not a good idea for Indian cricket. It sounds as ominous as the Friday finals in Sharjah had been against Pakistan when they were capable of getting 12 runs in a ball if required.

Firstly the name itself sounds ominous - Boxing Day match. Secondly, the Aussies come all charged up with good vibes from Christmas at home and get into the act of sorting things out, even if we take the best team out there (I suspect, some divine play at work). Third reason for not having the Boxing Day punch up is that it starts the year on a low for our Indian team and it takes a while for them to get out of the sad start. It not only reflects in its performance during the year, it has a cascading effect for a billion Indians as well who look more to the Indian cricket team's fortunes than to the economic indicators for signs of growth. This dull start by the team and the people could consequently affect all our plans of taking over the world soon (which could be a conspiracy against us by jealous neighbours).

Time BCCI started flexing its muscles again and putting up a fight for no Boxing Day matches as it involves not just cricket but the future of our country as well. And there is also a case to get some divine intervention in and fix up games on all important Indian festivals - and we have plenty - to examine this theory of the role god plays in cricket.

Aarakshan - Movie Review

2011-12-27T09:25:00.000-08:00

'Aarakshan' starts with the reservation debate and goes off into many things related to education and society that in the end I got confused a bit. With a fine star cast that includes Amitabh Bachchan as the principled Principal of a reputed college, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Pratiek Babbar and others, and direction by Prakash Jha, I expected more fire and a deeper look at the reservation issue. But to compensate, the film does touch on many other issues which do provoke a thought and I hope someone from the Education department had a look at it seriously, pen and paper in hand.

On the face of it the story is about a reputed college, its idealistic Principal, his daughter, Deepika who has no meaningful role really, an ex-student who is a Dalit, Saif, a current student who is not a Dalit, a coaching centre don, Manoj Bajpai, and an Education Minister. What starts as a small skirmish between the reserved and non-reserved sections, represented by Saif and Pratiek, slowly degenerates into how the coaching mafia, in collusion with the Education Ministry, commercialise the system. The Principal is booted out of the college for his pro-reservation stand, his house taken over due to some complex transaction I did not get, and people everywhere are shouting at him for his pro-reservation stand. With no support from anyone, the Principal starts teaching students for free, something he is good at. Anyway all ends well though there are too many loose ends. The story itself flows and there are no complaints really except that certain things don't seem to fit in. But when you want to say so many things it gets difficult I guess. But to the extent that it has brought the debate out into the theatres, Aarakshan deserves praise.

My problem lies more with the story and the characters. Saif is brilliant as the Dalit junior lecturer. Amitabh perfect for the Principal role and Manoj Bajpai as bankable as ever. Deepika was a waste and it’s not clear why she and Saif and Pratiek are friends - Saif is a lecturer and these two are students. We also don’t know Amitabh’s take on her relationship with Saif, and even Saif’s take for that matter. Amitabh's character also has its flaws, of being inflexible to the point of being unforgiving. His dismissals of Saif and Pratiek, were unconvincing, just as their shunning of him, their respected teacher, was not convincing. Either he is not that great as they built him up because people keep interrupting him and talking back to him at every point. The way he gets duped by his friend's sons is not very convincing either. How everyone turns against him is not convincing either, he is a respected person in the society, and for his remarks on reservation, there is no reason for everyone to turn against him. His own students, the bank manager, his student's old brother, the police inspector, no one seems to treat him with any respect. Save the milkman. Does not speak of a great man to me.

I liked the idea of an Indian Teaching Service. But when he has the opportunity of training teachers to counter the bane of coaching classes, Amitabh decides instead to teach all by himself, for hours and hours until he falls off in fatigue. Is it being egotistic or stupid but he refuses help from his penitent students and struggles on alone. I'd have preferred to see him take the Indian teaching Service route, develop teachers who can contribute, bring in his wide network on students into it and be more participatory, forgiving and resourceful, instead of being a teacher who has no idea of the outside world. How he does not know of his Vice Principal's coaching class scam is another mystery. I'd have liked a better resolution of the debate of reservation as well instead of leaving it to dry after everyone has had their say. 'Aarakshan' stops just short of taking a stand on many things. But it is highly watchable certainly, for some fine performances by Amitabh, Saif and Manoj Bajpai, and for providing a lot more entertainment than most movies do these days. The nitpicking was because I have a high regard for Jha and because he could have done more with the main subject.

The Theory of Earning Your 'Likes'

2011-12-25T20:41:00.000-08:00

I sometimes get a request to like something or someone of facebook and I oblige most times. You cannot turn an earnest request down, can you? Though there many not be anything too 'likeable' about whatever it was, it will warrant a 'like' on facebook as long as it is not completely detestable and abhorrent.

It is a big thing apparently to be liked by many people, even if you don't know who they are, if they don't know who you are and so on. Please like. So I believe from friends of mine who are in the business of making companies and products bigger than they really are, by getting many people to 'like' things.

I don't think its a good idea to flippantly use like on facebook anymore and I refuse to indulge in any more liking from my side when it is not the case really. Any like or love has to be earned and not sought after, pushed down someone's throat (with a gun to their head sometimes). If people are more careful with their likes, its possible that we could get some good stuff - because then whoever wants to be liked, would really put some effort into it. Movies, products, services, books.

I was talking to a friend of mine who runs a business and their main concern right now is to get more likes from people, than to actually deliver the service. I suppose seeing all these thousands of 'likes' will make people go to the site to see what is so likeable about it, but what is on the site has to have good content for people to come back and use it. More effort should be on improving the content and providing serious value than on collecting pointless likes.

It seems to work in the same way with movies and with other creative forms as well these days. Movies from big production houses, big stars, are made with a lot of hoopla and promotion and there are people going overboard liking them, and it could pretty much mislead the makers into believing that they have made a good movie or written a great book or done something well when it is not the case. There is just not enough thought in making the content, products or services that it warrants a 'like' really.

Its time everyone went back to asking the basic question - why are we doing this. Unless a large number of people really like the product or service after experiencing it (and not by clicking on an icon without knowing what it is) that product has not worked hard enough to earn the respect, the liking of people. So whatever it is, whichever side you are on, be sure that the likes have to be earned. Else its just a fake number - like the people we see in political rallies. Sometime soon the Emperor's New Clothes will be shown for what they really are.

Freedom to Use Mobiles as Jukeboxes

2011-12-24T16:46:00.000-08:00

One thing I observed in travels by public transport recently is the increasing dependence on the mobile for entertainment, which as I hear, will go on increasing to a level where the mobile will take over all our bodily functions as well. Right now most people cannot function without the ear phones plugged into their ears and the mobile playing their favorite songs, FM stations and in rare cases indulging in actual conversations. Sometimes people are so involved in their mobiles that they either run over people or get run over by buses or trains, the drivers of which, might be listening to their ear phones as well. (My theory is that the mobiles are the real aliens who have infiltrated our lives and have entered into a conspiracy with some traitors to make the human race separate from one another while promising to make them closer. And we, as always, have fallen for what looks like a good bargain and sold our everything.)

My problem is not so much with the ones whom we have lost already, i.e. the ones who are always with earphones plugged into their ears as a permanent attachment. They are gone. But the ones who have discovered the power of the mobile and the vast number of songs it can accommodate, a feature which they feel the general public should also know of, hear and enjoy. They are driven by purely humanitarian motives and wish development of the society and turn up the volume to max when in buses, trains or public places, holding their mobiles in their hands, and enjoying the music visibly, as they share with family, friends and others.

Unfortunately, these mobiles serve as the neighbourhood pandal whcih plays loud music for no reason at times when you wish a lot of rest and irritate you no end that you think of acts of terror to end it all right then. To make matters worse others also, inspired by the music on the mobiles, feel inclined to show off the features and loudness in their mobiles and they start playing their music too in the restricted space of public areas, like say buses or trains. No one can tell them to shut them off or to plug it, at appropriate places, ears in this case, and they all sit combatively, mobiles in hand, moving their heads to the beat, forcing themselves to have a good time even if it means annihilating the people in the coach who have asked them to shut it off.

Please aliens, take this feature of a loud music player away and provide ear phones that are attached to the mobile phone itself so we can plug their ears with the ear phones (some super glue should do it) and save ourselves the agony. We hope that it is not asking for too much. And for all those who feel that it is their right to play their horrid music loudly at all public places (and look on as if you have composed and sung the songs yourself), please realise that we are not envying you. We are conspiring how to throw you off the bus or the train.

Vidya Balan and the Dirty Picture

2011-12-22T22:53:00.000-08:00

I saw a news item today about a complaint filed against Vidya Balan for posing for obscene pictures on the promos of the movie 'Dirty Picture'. Vidya Balan plays the lead character of an actress, a character based on the yesteryear South artiste, Silk Smitha, who was a dancer and played several vampish roles in her time. The movie has received positive reviews and Vidya Balan was unanimously applauded for her performance.

Such complaints only highlight the hypocricy of our society, especially the male segment's, a society where we hear of all kinds of atrocities on women day and night and raise not a word against it in condemnation, a society where male audiences lap up all sorts of raunchy stuff on television and the big screen, porn on the internet, a society that created and made and ended the life of Silk Smitha and many more. A walk around the city will show far more objectionable posters and material, in the papers, magazines, theatres, cyber cafes, and if one has the courage to see, a lot more objectionable stuff going on in our neighbourhoods, inside seemingly respectable homes. Hints, insinuations, language, looks, leers, passes, lewd jokes, everything is passable. But then a poster of a movie, certified by the authorities, one that certainly falls within the band going by what we have seen, causes much unrest and furore to the sensitive male Indian and forces a complaint, a case, a hearing and valuable loss of public time and money.

Why would this poster, among so many more, attract the attention and why would it be so objectionable? Why would not a poster of Salman khan without his shirt be objectionable to women? Or men? And all this in a society where men are most comfortable pissing in the public, changing their clothes in public, exposing themselves in public places without a care, scratching themselves, walking around in all sorts of undress and generally behaving like animals.

It is because this poster will grab the headlines, ensure everyone's fifteen minutes of fame and who knows, perhaps some leverage at the end of it all. And in all these exchanges, there have been many more such cases, it is always the women artistes who get the raw end of the deal, as if they did something against what the script has asked, what the society has dictated, what the authorities have laid down. Perhaps it is time we asked ourselves if all this was necessary, and to what end are such complaints aimed at. To me such complaints reek of opportunism, male chauvinism and an attitude that says males can still do and get away with whatever they want. It is time to introspect.

Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh

2011-12-21T07:10:00.000-08:00

I started on 'Sea of Poppies' because I bought Amitav Ghosh's second book of the trilogy, 'The River of Smoke' first, a signed copy at his Hyderabad book launch, and then thought I'd rather go by in order. The size of both books is daunting and as Ghosh says, he likes to write like that, large landscapes, and does a wonderful job as well. He is one of the finest Indian writers and one that I admire greatly for his craftsmanship.

'Sea of Poppies' is set sometime in the days of the British Raj, in the pre Opium war era, in Calcutta and around, and is the story of a slave ship 'Ibis' that has been bought by a British businessman from America to Calcutta to transport coolies from India to Mauritius to work on plantations. The story is the many people who come together on board the Ibis - Zachary, the first mate who is of white-black origin, his crew of lascars headed by Serang Ali, Deeti, the high caste woman from a village in Bihar whose husband, an opium addict working in an opium factory dies and is escapes when forced to commit sati, Kalua, her low caste saviour and second husband, Burnham, the owner of the ship and the foster father of Paulette who is the love interest of Zachary, Jodu the fiesty half brother of Paulette, Neel Halder, the Raja of Rashkali, who is sent to jail and banished for 7 years to Maritius for forgery and Baboo Nob Kissin, the gomusta of the Burnham empire. For many different reasons all these people and more come out of their backstories and step on the Ibis as it heads to Mauritius. There are many secrets, hidden motives, fights and romances as the book ends mid sea.

Amitav Ghosh writes impeccably, his language is beautiful and his research astounding (the ships, the times, the cultures, the opium factories, the tides, all in great detail) . He is a craftsman who knows his work well, an expert, and he goes about chiseling every character, every voice distinctly. I was amazed at the distinct voice that he gave each character, from Mr. Doughty to Serang Ali, Neel to Elokeshi, Deeti to Baboo Nob Kissin, Zachary to Crowle, Paulette to Jodu. Its simply superb as he speaks through these characters, never once stepping out of the character. And there are so many characters! His research as always is solid and highly detailed, and the book could very well be a document that could be studied by academics.

The negatives (and a big one for me) was that the story did not fly for me until the last hundred pages when the action hots up considerably. I plodded through the first 400 pages and felt cheated at the end when the red hot action is cut off half way through, after such a long wait. I also felt that certain characters have had a long presence in the first part of the book, Serang Ali and Doughty, to name two, and they fade away completely in the second. I found the Raja of Rashkali's fate rather hard to believe, that he is so easily chained, imprisoned and packed off to Mauritius and I found Baboo Nob Kissin's character not very believable. Where the Zacharys, Crowles, Serang Alis, Doughtys and Deetis come alive as if they were true life characters, some characters like the above mentioned have chinks and for some, their motives are not clear. My problem with Amitav Ghosh, in 'Hungry Tide' and 'The Sea Of Poppies' specially, has been that the characters don't seem to feel. They are there, perfectly chiseled and everything in its place, except that they are like robots. Something plasticky about them.

The action on the deck in the last few pages is fast and furious, almost like a film, and the novel suddenly turns into a rapid page turner and you want to know what happened next (even if certain parts look contrived and not so credible again, the killings specially) but it moves so well that it does not matter. Coming right after two other tomes that I read recently, 'Roots' and 'The Grapes of Wrath' Ghosh's 'Sea of Poppies' plodded about, did not get me involved with the characters enough for me to worry about their fate and left me feeling disappointed on the whole in that context, even more so, as I have such high expectations from Ghosh. Some missing dimension. Perhaps 'The River of Smoke' will address my concerns.

The Buddha on the Highest Welfare

2011-12-20T19:53:00.000-08:00

I met young Hemant Sehgal the other day, an ardent practitioner of vipassana meditation and a seeker who goes far and wide to seek. He was kind enough to give me three lectures by Sayagyi U Ba Khin on 'What Buddhism Is'. From those articles and lectures I found this interesting - Buddha on the highest welfare, among other things. Thanks Hemant.

The Buddha on the Highest Welfare:

"Avoidance of fools,
the company of the wise,
honor where honor is due -
this is the highest welfare.

A suitable place of abode,
the merit of good deeds,
right aspirations for oneself -
this is the highest welfare.

Great learning and skill,
well-mastered discipline,
well-spoken words -
this is the highest welfare.

Serving one's parents,
caring for spouse and children,
a peaceful occupation -
this is the highest welfare.

Generosity, a life of Dhamma,
caring for relatives,
blameless deeds -
this is the highest welfare.

Ceasing and shunning evil,
refraining from intoxicants,
vigilance in the Dhamma -
this is the highest welfare.

respectfulness, humility,
contentment, gratitude,
listening to the Dhamma at the proper time -
this is the highest welfare.

Forbearance, accepting guidance,
beholding saintly people,
discussion of the Dhamma at the proper time -
this is the highest welfare.

Ardent practice, a life of purity,
witnessing the Noble Truths,
experiencing nibbana -
this is the highest welfare.

When faced with the vicissitudes of life,
one's mind is unshaken,
sorrowless, stainless, secure -
this is the highest welfare.

Having acted in this way,
everywhere invincible,
they go everywhere safely,
this is the highest welfare."

(The Dhamma, the truth taught by the Buddha, is uncovered gradually through sustained practice. The Buddha made clear many times that Awakening does not occur like a bolt out of the blue to the untrained and unprepared mind. Rather, it culminates a long journey of many stages.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/)

Writing 'The Misfit' - 'Showing' the Core Point of Each Chapter

2011-12-19T20:10:00.000-08:00

For the past few days I have been struggling to get a move on while editing the nth version of 'The Misfit'. Just when it seems that it has fallen into place, I read it one more time and it feels all wrong. I go back to it again and it stretches, kicks and pulls in all directions like a child who is not wearing comfortable clothes. 'Come on,' I say. 'they look good on you.' But its not about looking good pal, its about whether it is comfortable. If I get the flow right the tone is wrong, if I get the Point of View the tenses go awry and if I get it all right I seem to be missing the core point of the chapter. I find myself wondering how much longer it will take me to figure out this business of writing.

One of the things about the 'show' and 'tell' business, I think (still have not applied it enough to comment authoritatively) is that the core points in the chapter that I want to get across must be 'shown' for greater effect. It may be that everything cannot be shown sometimes, and we may have to tell certain things, but the points that you wish to remain etched in the readers mind for future reference, the one that remain with him, must be 'shown'.

I cannot say how much the 'show' business improves details and depths. If I had just 'told' that 'Aditya and Meghna walked around the beautiful path' it may not have the same effect as in Aditya 'showing' and Meghna conversing as they walked. 'Let's take that path shall we?' said Aditya. Meghna looked at the small cycle trail that led into the dark woods, with overgrown grass and wild flowers on either side. 'Looks like a lonely road to take. But is it safe?' Meghna asked. 'Yes,' said Aditya. 'Why else would I take you there? I'd like to show you something you'd really love. Trust me.' Meghna smiled and nodded. The images are completely different.

There are many small details about the two characters that come out, many paths, personality traits, dynamics and possibilities they seem to present that 'showing' brings out. As long as it is true to the main emotion and theme, 'showing' stays and enriches the narrative. I will share more when I try to as I go along this journey.

One important thing about 'show' is that it lets the reader discover the fine nuances through the characters and need not rely on the writer to influence them. After all the reader is intelligent enough to decide whether the path is beautiful, whether X is a good person and whether Y is a gullible one. The beginning of a romance, a murder, love or revenge, it all begins here. So as with any good communicator, it is best that the writer gets out of the way and let the characters take over the business.

Talk at Sloka Waldorf

2011-12-17T19:01:00.000-08:00

I was invited by Shankar and Lakshmi Chelluri for an interaction with the tenth class students at Sloka Waldorf school yesterday, as part of their effort to expose the children to various careers. It was an informal meeting and we all sat around in a nursery class with cute nursery size chairs which somehow was an apt place to talk of something like this, the seeding of ideas to think of their lives. Maybe, one should keep doing things like changing the environment so it creates a different perspective in itself - have board room meetings in nursery classes or cricket dressing rooms, have school lectures in board rooms!

At their age there is really no pressure, seemingly, to choose careers already. So I hoped to prod some thought towards what they might want to do, really, honestly. I shared my life as an example so they know the motives why I did what I did. They listened intently and shared willingly their aspirations to become doctors, engineers (which surprisingly topped the list), designers (interior, automobile, fashion), software professionals, culinary experts, environmental scientists, hotel management and so on. They also had singers among them, cooks, artists, formula one races, and several other skills that they shared, somewhat hesitantly, and there's more there if one delved longer I am sure.

We discussed how to choose careers that are aligned with what one can do best and what one loves doing, the equal opportunity that everyone has to pursue and excel in their own chosen areas, the importance of giving their best to their line of education and becoming the expert so it aligns back to the track they originally were meant to be in. We discussed the need to be honest in choosing for oneself their chosen area (not to impress others or get influenced by them), the ease with which one finds excellence when one does something one loves, the need for effort and work that goes towards understanding and creating one's body of work, the need for clarity as to why one has chosen the career one wants, the importance of trying and failing to learn and succeed. And perhaps some more. Due credit to the children for listening intently and sharing and interacting.

Once again I found, as I always do with children that age, a high degree of idealism, of wanting to do something for the society, of wanting to contribute for the betterment of the world and that is something that is very clear. This is a spirit I feel that needs to be nurtured and protected even, from the cynicism that seems to creep in later years. The need for a mentor, a guide is sorely lacking after schools let children go out to the colleges, and this is something of a concern, a gap that needs to be fulfilled.

As they are right now, they are all equipped with all they need to become what they want, with the best of intentions, with all their potential. They merely need to continue to believe in their ideals, be honest with themselves and have the courage to see what they wish to become despite all the noise around them. Good luck all of you kids and wishing you a wonderful journey to achieve all you want in life. Thanks Shankar and Lakshmi for providing the opportunity and Ms. Chitra, their teacher for having such sessions and sparing time for being with us.

Sloka school, belongs to the Education Renaissance Trust, a non-profit organization, and has adopted the Steiner Waldorf method, a proven alternate method of education in vogue for over 90 years. Steiner education is centered around Anthroposophy (knowledge of the human being), is multi dimensional and appeals to the child as a whole- to the hand, the heart, the intellect and foster cultural, moral and spiritual values.

Thought for the Day - Space and Exposure, Lessons from Tomato, Brinjal Plants

2011-12-16T20:44:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I was given a few saplings of tomato and brinjal plants by the well intentioned and energetic Suryaprakash Rao of HRG, as part of his vision (one of the many activities he undertakes for the betterment of the world) to have more people grow stuff at home. We brought the saplings home and with great pomp Anjali and I planted them, watered them and watched them grow.

A month later I realised the mistake I committed. The brinjal plant close to the wall was definitely much smaller in size than the one that got a longer dose of sunshine. The same with the tomato plant. I also realised that the tomato plants were growing bigger and faster, making space a constraint, and worse the brinjal plants would have less sun and less space now. I felt bad that the brinjal plants had to suffer thus to teach an amateur farmer like me. But there was not much I could do about it except put it down to learning.

It is by watching the plants that I realised how important space and exposure to the right light are important for growth. The same is true for anyone, more so, children and the young, who all start with the same potential when they come into the world. But then some amateur gardener comes along and crowds them all up, keeps them in the shadow from light, and their growth gets stunted.

In another interesting development, a tomato plant close to the wall, stunted when compared to the other two, took its time to catch the sunlight. It was exactly half the size of the other two in the initial days. It continued growing at that pace until there came a time when the sunlight caught the top of this plant over the wall, and then there was no looking back. Now its taller than the other two, has more tomatoes. It hung in there, at its own pace and made its own opportunity to be the star today.

I am convinced that this is all they need, plants and children, space and exposure to the right light. Teachers and parents may need to take care to shine that light on those who are in the shadow and allow them the space to think originally, differently and to make mistakes and learn. All they need is support from them, the teachers and parents, and they will certainly bloom to their potential.

Golconda High School in Rediff's Top 5 Telugu films of 2011

2011-12-14T23:23:00.000-08:00

I was pleasantly surprised to find this list, first alerted to it by my good friend Masood from the USA, and then Sagar on facebook. It is really a fine compilation of movies that went against the flow, had good stories and were made honestly and with good intentions.

http://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-show/slide-show-1-south-top-telugu-films-of-2011/20111213.htm

Brave stuff Radhika Rajamani for putting up such a compilation, and much needed. As for the team of GHS, you can take pride in making it.

While at this I must recount an incident that happened last weekend. I was invited to a function to give away prizes for some sports activities in a colony and met a young father whose eight year old was interested in cricket. After talking about this and that, coaching and schools etc, the father told me about the time when their family had gone to watch GHS. After the movie the father asked the son who had gone very quiet, if he liked the movie. The eight year old said 'This movie has changed my life nanna.' The shocked father said that after that, the youngster, who had till then been playing both cricket and football, shifted all his energies to cricket. I think I can understand what went on in that kid's mind. I wrote 'The Men Within' to fill that gap in Indian stories and GHS would have filled that gap in Telugu movies, all comparisons and technical discussions apart.

Movies like 'Enter the Dragon', 'Rocky' (and later on 'Cool Runnings' for me), were stuff that inspired many of my generation to take up sports. 'Lagaan' and 'Chak De' would have done their bit in their time. I always tell Mohana Krishna Indraganti, the director of GHS, that for young children who have not been exposed to such movies (and who can see them without instantly jumping to compare with other similar movies like adults do) GHS would certainly have a deep impact. It will remain with them as some of the movies of our age did, irrespective of how well they did or not. And these movies can take pride in using the medium well.

Writing 'The Misfit' - Read it Aloud Stupid!

2011-12-14T05:44:00.000-08:00

One thing that any one who is writing a work of fiction (or any writing in fact) needs to do before showing the work to someone else is to 'read the script' out loud. You cannot imagine how many glitches get evened out when doing this seemingly simple method of getting the flow and language right.

I used this tool while doing up the last two novels, normally did it in the last parts, but when I gave the manuscript of 'The Misfit' to Keerti this time I must confess I had not done it. So when I am rewriting and editing the manuscript now I can see how bad the construction of sentences is at times, how much it interferes with the flow and how easily it can be corrected by doing using this simple tool of reading aloud. Keerti mentioned it in her list of pointers to writers and I cannot tell you how important his is.

Anyone who wishes to improve on their reading and writing, and I see many students who want to do that, this is a great tool. First read out stuff from good sources, good novels, newspapers, magazines etc so you get a feel of the sentence construction, use of grammar etc. And then read out what you have written aloud, so you know where it is sounding off key. It will improve the writing tremendously. This is an absolute must before it goes off your desk into someone else's hands. And aloud means aloud, not under your breath or in your mind.

As I realised it now - read it aloud stupid!

The Derek Redmond Olympic Race - Motivational Stuff

2011-12-13T17:08:00.000-08:00

Manoj Tiwari, the promising young Indian batsman, who has long languished in the reserves seized his chance with both hands by scoring a hundred against the West Indies a couple of days ago, when he got his shot at number 3. For too long Manoj played low down in the order in the short version of the game and battled on gamely for the team's cause, but never made enough runs to prove to himself and his mates what he is capable of. His hundred came at a good time and showed how he persevered through all these years. Reading his interview yesterday where he mentioned he was inspired by Derek Redmond's Olympic story of 1992, I revisited one of those wonderful moments sports brings out in people.

The Redmond story is all over the net. Redmond was a British 400 m runner who won gold medals for 4x400 m relay at the Commonwealth games, European Championships and the World Championships. But the moment he gave to the world, to Tiwari and all of us, was at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona when he tore his hamstring while running the 400 m. Down on the track as if he was 'shot', Redmond got up and hobbled through the pain barrier on one leg almost and completed almost a full lap that remained to a standing ovation. It is an act that is remembered by the Celebrate Humanity series of the International Olympic Committee, in VISA's commercial for the Olympic spirit and Nike's courage series.

You can watch it on youtube at this link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFKpZnok10s

Going through the pain barrier is a story every sportsman is aware of. One remembers Anil Kumble, a fighter if there was one, playing a test match and bowling with his jaw strapped up against the West Indies (and getting Brian Lara out!), Viv Richards batting on one leg and scoring a big hundred and carrying his team to victory, Shivlal Yadav batting with a fractured foot and saving a match for India against Australia, Dean Jones fighting cramps and heat exhaustion and batting through vomiting and getting a double hundred at Chennai - there are I am sure many more inspirational stories out there. A torn hamstring goes off with a twang, like the string in a bow breaking, and you feel all loose and cannot stand. I have had this experience while playing an Inter University game for Osmania in 1991. Thankfully Redmond's spirit was around and I hobbled through and completed my quota because we were short of bowlers (also got a wicket), once again in Mumbai during the Times Shield Championships for IDBI versus Bharat Petroleum (this time 3 wickets and a catch, all hobbling on one leg). We lost the first game and won the second. But at that moment, something seizes you, the big stage, the fact that you are perhaps letting the team down and handicapping it by going out and leaving hem to play with ten. Suffice to say that in both games my skippers asked me if I could stand on the ground and bowl from two steps, that is all.

For Redmond to have the hamstring break at that speed must have been something else. In the video he says he thought he had been 'shot'. Derek Redmond's story does not fully end there. After an injury ridden career in athletics, a couple of years after the Barcelona event, Redmond was told by a surgeon that he would not be able to run or play any sport for his country again. Redmond who had given up athletics turned his attention to other sports and represented the Great Britain basketball team, a photo of which he sent to the surgeon (so much for doctors). He also played professional rugby with the intention of representing his country and also raced motorcycles in the Endurance Championship. Apparently he also completes a Rubik's cube on stage during his motivational speeches to show that nothing is impossible. Currently he gives motivational speeches around the world.

Story idea - The Messy Messengers Mess

2011-12-12T08:53:00.000-08:00

This is the story of two estranged lovers who cannot meet one another for some reason - let's say since they stay in different places and their parents are opposed to this. Also they are pretty rich!

The girl gets a male messenger to convey her messages to her lover without arousing any suspicion to others. The man also hires a female messenger to help convey his messages to his woman. All is well so far!

The problem starts when the four of them get tangled in a mess thanks to some miscommunication by the messengers. A message meant for someone reaches someone else. Lies are told, cover ups arranged but to no avail. By the time the mess is unravelled, all equations in the tangle are changed!

The idea of course is to develop it along as a comedy of errors. With romance and drama already in, this could be an interesting story to develop. On the other hand, what I started with was a romance where the female messenger falls in love with her subject and the other tw, the spurned woman and her male messenger seek revenge!

Remya and Vineetha - Icons of Professionalism, Tragic Heroes of the Day

2011-12-11T20:59:00.000-08:00

Kerala's nursing community has always been known for its dedication, service and commitment to the process of tending to the sick and ailing. Over the years they have fine tuned the art of nursing and brought a high level code of ethics and professionalism to this delicate art that needs compassion, patience, knowledge and immense energy. Their work stands out in every way and they are shining examples of what excellence in a profession is all about.

In a time and age when ethics and professionalism are seen as archaic words, two twenty year old nurses, Remya and Vineetha, showed exemplary commitment to their job by sacrificing their all to rescue their patients caught in the fire at AMRI Hospital, Kolkata. To have saved eight out of nine and to go back into the hell of smoke and fire, knowing fully well that they might not return, is stuff made up of the highest levels of professionalism, stuff that we all can stand up and salute. And i believe that what Remya and Vineetha displayed is not a momentary spark of courage, they showed their preparation for this eventuality in their thought, their attitude to service and to others. A product of their culture, their education and upbringing.

The soldiers do it, the nurses do it. If nothing else, we all need to do our jobs with the same commitment and pride, the same spirit and the same high standards of professionalism. It is not about the money we get paid, it is about what we bring to the job that is important. But still, if after being trained and educated, we do not have a basic understanding of what we are expected to do as professionals, we can hang our heads in shame. Leaders, politicians, doctors, engineers, lawyers, clerks, teachers...we all need to learn from this and take a leaf out of the book f these two girls. Bring their attitude to the world and our world will be a much better,less cynical place. For me, who struggles to come up with examples to cite the level of professionalism that we can go to, the two heroes from Kerala will always remain as shining examples I shall take in all my future workshops.

In a recent discussion, where I expressed concern over falling standards of the spirit of humanity, best exemplified in people ignoring those hurt in accidents or lying by the road, a well-read colleague who runs a school said that their students are taught not to touch the injured and are instead taught to call 108, the ambulance service. So we will have a whole generation of 108 callers, not one who will help or offer water even. In direct opposition of this I met a worker of a factory who attended a workshop recently and he said that when he sees anyone hurt, he begs and borrows money to take them to hospital. He goes to court cases, suffers losses of pay but he says he will always help an injured person.

In terms of humanitarian help our society is clearly divided. At the top the rich who will not get their hands dirty and will call 108 or even try and get out of the situation quietly. A waste of time, unnecessary complications! If they are owners of the hospitals etc they will convert all safety processes into areas of revenue generation such as a pharmacy etc and try to keep patient safety last and their brand flying first. This class is driven by greed and self-protection and nothing else. We can expect no help from them. If anyone has an example here, do share. It would help.

Next comes the middle class who stays at the site only long enough to rescue their own. They are a confused lot and have no time for the others. As long as we are safe we are okay.

And then at the bottom comes the ones who to me are the only ones who still have humanity left in them, the poor, who are the first to risk everything in such times. They think not of time lost, of money lost, of their one pair of clothes wasted by blood, of court cases - they only think of the suffering of another human and their duty to them. They think not of the caste, community, the rich or the poor, they just dive in as the locals of the area adjoining AMRI did to help patients. I read the story of a young man Shankar who rescued several people at the AMRI and who had to be joined in an ICU himself for breathing in noxious gases. I think he survived. Unlike Remya and Vineetha.

It is time for some introspection at a time when increasingly the greedy are finding themselves behind bars for flouting rules. We all need to introspect and think of the values we carry to our daily lives as well, to what we are showing our children as examples. If you expect someone to do that extra bit for you and your family members, you better start doing something yourself. And for reminding us through your heroic act, Remya and Vineetha, you will, along with all those unsung carriers of the torch of humanity and ethics and professionalism, will always remain deeply etched in our hearts and memories.

Man of Marble - Movie Review

2011-12-11T18:07:00.000-08:00

'Man of Marble' is a 1976 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda (of 'Kanal' and 'Ashes and Diamonds' fame) about a fictional over-achiever brick layer who becomes a hero in the building of a town near Krakow. How the myth of Birkut was made and broken down, as symbolised by the bringing down of his marble statue, is what the movie is about.

The film shows the making of the myth of Birkut through the eyes of a young film maker Agnieszka, who traces the rise and fall of the bricklayer through old footage, archives, interviews which are not easy to obtain. She is tailed by her film crew and is constantly in and out of studios watching old clippings of Birkut (much of the movie is shown through black and white documentaries as she tries to recreate what happened). Birkut is propped as an achiever, filmed and complimented, becomes a hero, statues put up. But as Birkut becomes to voice his opinion the myth behind his creation is slowly brought down by the system, his hands are made ineffective so he does not work again and his marble statue which was a symbol of over achievement brought down and with it public memory of Birkut.

Birkut's over achieving work of laying thousands of bricks in a shift is based on the socialist idea of Stakhanovite movement where workers competed to over achieve in their areas of work in Russia - the inspiration being Aleksei Stakhanov who mined 102 tons of coal in a shift in 1935 and set a record. The Stakhanovite movement was allegedly propaganda to inspire other workers.

I would have never known of the Stakhanovite movement if not for this movie which shows how such myths were created through propaganda. Allegations against the movement are that the star workers were provided better tools and conditions and that the figures were rigged sometimes. At the peak of that movement industries had competitions during the week to have sudden spurts of activity. Creating such myths and bringing them down was done in a calculated manner and most toed the line of the myth that had become larger than themselves. It is a very interesting film made in an even more interesting manner with the documentaries, the slow unravelling of the mystery that Birkut was and his personal life. Fantastic stuff!

Thought for the Day - Smiles Indicate Opportunities, Scowls Indicate Closed Minds

2011-12-11T04:36:00.000-08:00

To know more of our outlook to life we could look at how we look at the world. Literally. Do we look at it with a smile or with a frown. How do you greet people or strangers - with smiles or frowns?

A smile would indicate an openness to explore the world. An openness that is open to opportunity. An attitude that says I trust the world and I trust myself to handle whatever comes my way.

(Artwork by Anjali)

If we sport a scowl or a frown perpetually it could indicate that we are not open to the world. We are closed to life. We will only take in what we want, at our terms. We are closed to life as it comes and with it all the opportunities and excitement it brings.

A smile is normally accompanied by an openness to look at the world in the eye, to speak or hear. A frown or a scowl would indicate a tendency to look at one's own feet and if we look at others, with a hostility that says clearly - Keep Off!

Watch how you look at the world. For fun, new experiences, growth and opportunities a smiley approach helps. For boredom, resentment, anger, a sense of persecution and lost opportunities, the scowl works perfectly. Check out your approach!

Thought for the Day - What Picture Have we Painted for Our World?

2011-12-10T01:21:00.000-08:00

The test is simple. How do you view life around you? With joy? Adventure? Happiness? Love? Or is it with Fear? Disillusionment? Disappointment? Anger? Apathy? Ask yourself what your perception of the world around you is and it could give you a fair clue of what you have prepared yourself for all these years. If its fear (for example) or love, then, it is really something you have brought yourself to believe. That the world is truly a place worth fearing or loving as the case maybe. On the other hand, if you believe the world is unfair (or an abundant place), you could be looking at a world that is exactly like that. The key is this - you always find what you are looking for.

If I catch myself looking disinterestedly at the world, I realise that it is something that I have been thinking and believing for some time now. That the world is a dull place, a boring unfair place, one that I have no fun in. I can continue to look for the same thing to repeat itself and I will certainly find it.

Or I can quickly realise what damage I have done to my world view and repair it. How? By looking for what I would like to find. Happiness, joy, love, treasure, abundance etc. If I start changing the way I look at the world, or more simply, if I start looking for different things, I will find them. Once again, we always find what we look for. If you are looking for a needle of trouble in a haystack, you will find it surely and never even see the haystack!

These view points of ours about our world are our own and we can control them. We are given an empty canvas and asked to paint what we want. And that is what we see. A beautiful picture will not emerge if we have been painting with no interest, no passion, no enthusiasm, no joy! As in a painting, the world view we have, is a result of a process too. It comes after an effort. So what we are seeking in our world is a result of our effort to make it that way - good or bad. We have painted it, prepared it, and are now looking at it. No one but us is responsible for the world we have created.

But the good news is that this painting is something we can wipe off. The good God has given us an opportunity to create what we want (he is indeed kind) so we can start erasing what we have painted and then paint a new picture that we want to see. This will take a while. We need a clear visualisation of what we want, the right colours first. Then we have to wipe away what we had created earlier and start on a fresh slate sometimes (or we can merely fine tune parts of what we have), but its all in our hands. As long as we are alive we can keep creating the masterpiece we want, the world we want, so we can see it. The pictures are only in our fearless imagination, the colours are but in our thoughts. See them, feel them, create it all, the picture, the colours, the music. In a while (the time it takes us to completely see the detail you want in your life lovingly), you will see the world view changing to one where there is opportunity all around, love and joy, enthusiasm and laughter and all those nice things in life.

All the tools are with everyone of us. It is now only a matter of whether we really want a better painting. Whether we have the guts to create the painting we want.

Wilbur Smith in Hyderabad

2011-12-09T08:42:00.000-08:00

When I heard from Vinod (and later Sheila) that Wilbur Smith the famous adventure novelist who has been writing bestselling novels since the time we were in school, was coming to Hyderabad on a book tour to promote his new book 'Those in peril' my first thought was to call Vardha. Of all my friends Vardha was a die hard fan of Wilbur Smith from his early days and despite his many exhortations I never got down to reading his books. But anyone who has written 33 novels in a writing career spread over 47 years and is a bestselling novelist world over, and specially someone who is as big a name as Wilbur Smith cannot be given a miss. Vinod and I planned to go but he dropped off and I did as well, until a last minute call from Vardha made me change course and I landed up at Landmark, Somajiguda.

Koni had predicted a crowd of 5000 - he was that awed by the publicity around the man! I told him that 100-300 would be the size for an author here (the largest I saw was perhaps around 400 for Amitav Ghosh and certainly Chetan Bhagat would ahve drawn more). True enough there were about a 100 die hard readers. I walked in when he was already speaking so I got some parts of his speech where he recounted several incidents in his career as a writer. From the funny ones when he was hauled up for speeding by an English cop (when British police are extremely polite you know you are in big trouble) who also told Mr. Smith that he had arranged a cell next to that of Jeffrey Archer's in jail, to that of a man who posed to be a close friend of Wilbur Smith and even promised to get an autographed copy from him to Wilbur Smith himself, to the Aussie kid who had his leg amputated after a train accident and who found hope after reading about a similar incident in the Courtney series of Smith, to his pen friend from Texas who died and was buried with all the books of Wilbur Smith, to his loss of illusion about movies made from his novels, to the writer who signed his books in an empty bookstore knowing that the bookstore would then not send it back to the publisher, he spoke of several incidents in his career as a writer. He was full of fun, self-deprecating humour and great to listen to.

When the questions were to be asked the usual hands went up. 90% of the people who ask questions in such meet-the-author sessions are of a special breed. You know the questions. The keen bio-observer - 'In that book, I felt that there was an autobiographical element. Do you agree?'. Then the ignoramus - 'I never read any of your books, what do you write, how long do you take to write. I will start reading today.'. Then the culture enhancer - 'Namaste. In India namaste means blah blah. I have never read any books but you seem to be the sort who seemed to want to know what a namaste meant so here I am.' The keen student 'Do you write fiction or non-fiction?' The euphoric clappers who clap at everything the man does or says. Then the inevitable one about writer's block, the one about whether he did all the things he writes about, when he writes and with what he writes, then another about movie deals. The one question that made sense to me was of a young woman who asked what his advise would be for young aspiring writers. Smith cautioned that it is hard work and needs lots of discipline and that it is a lonely work with no motivation at all from anyone. But he said that it was a wonderful way of living a life if one liked writing and had a talent for it.

He signed copies, the readers were asked to queue up. I got a signed copy of 'Those in Peril' thanks to Sheila who said she would get it for me. Vardha got his copy of 'Asegai' a hard bound, signed by the author. Wilbur Smith, son of a cattle rancher from South Africa, who grew up on 25000 acres of the ranch with the farm hands, who always showed a penchant for writing despite trying his hand as a tax consultant after becoming a Chartered Accountant, whose first book was published in 1964 at age 33, who married four times, now to a lady 39 years his junior and settled in London, came across as a man who had his feet firmly on the ground, a sign of someone who wears his greatness lightly on his shoulders. I wish I could have stayed longer and actually met him which would have made it nice but I was already late to pick up Anjali so I rushed away. 33 books in a lifetime is a life lived with a clear purpose. Wow - now that would be a good number to get to - another 31 to go!

Puss in Boots - Movie Review

2011-12-08T08:34:00.000-08:00

I had promised Anjali that we'd watch 'Puss in Boots' today. She in turn invited her cousin Shaurya and her aunt Mythily as well and we all went off to Prasad's IMAX for a 6 O clock show. The show we went to was only on the big screen so the tickets were a hefty 250 bucks apiece but if one has to watch a movie like 'Puss in boots' in 3D, its best this way.

'Puss in Boots' is the macho cat who is great with his sword (he gives serious competition to Rajnikanth in style). But this cat is amazing. He is also an outlaw. While looking to steal magic beans (of the Jack and bean stalk fame) from the evil Jack and Jill, he bumps into another stylish kitty, this one a skillful girl, Kitty Soft Paws, who matches Puss move for move. Her only disadvantage is that she has no claws (hence soft paws). Kitty's friend Humpty Alexander Dumpty, the egg, arrives on the scene and there is a backstory of how Puss and Humpty Dumpty grew up in an orphanage and were brother-like until Puss was betrayed by Humpty Dumpty and is now an outlaw for no fault of his. Anyway the three make up, steal the magic beans, grow the beanstalk, go to the castle in the sky, find the goose the lays the golden eggs and slide down to give the bounty to their town San Ricardo. However all's not well as Puss finds out that Humpty Dupty has once again betrayed him in his quest for revenge against Puss. Even Kitty is with him just as Jack and Jill are.

Puss is packed off to jail where he meets Jack of the beanstalk fame who is now a rather old man. Jack however warns Puss of the danger the town faces as the big goose Terror from the castle in the sky is indeed the golden goose's mother and she would come looking for her child. All hell breaks loose as the giant mother goose arrives but not before Puss saves the town with a little help from Humpty Dumpty, a reformed egg now, and Kitty who always loved him. The two cats evade the spears and swords as they run away together. Puss is now a hero in the eyes of his town.

It is cute. Puss is fabulous. Kitty and Humpty Dumpty as well. Visually very appealing. And there are the witty one liners that fly from all characters easily. What it lacks is the depth of a Kung Fu Panda. It is quite happy to stay at that level and entertain on a visual and a rather superfluous level. No complaints with the movie and its money well spent as Puss and Kitty take the audience on a super ride with their antics. I enjoyed it!

Story idea - The Anniversary

2011-12-08T00:54:00.000-08:00

On every anniversary of his meeting his love, a young man, seeks out the girl of his affections across the world and proposes to her in many new ways to woo her to him. For the rest of the year he disappears and builds his life and business but for that one day, his birthday, and also the day she spurns his first proposal, he goes to meet his love and proposes to her.

He meets her without fail for twenty five years and one year he does not meet her on the anniversary. That sets the girl thinking. She has always told him that her life was something else when in reality it was not (need to build a back story). Now the girl sets out to find what happened to the man who wooed her for twenty five years without any response from her. In her journey she uncovers the truth behind that person.

I really like the idea of someone coming up like clockwork on every anniversary, proposing in a different and creative manner each time, in a nice way so that it brings a smile to one's face, just to say that someone is still waiting. I also like the prospect of the role reversal. Needs some work though.

Learnings from the Workshop

2011-12-07T07:59:00.000-08:00

This is something I learnt from the workshop that concluded today, where Amar and I had an opportunity to deal with slightly senior workmen. Firstly, the paperwork needs to come down - number of handouts to be halved. Secondly, the writing work could be made more fun by designing the same material differently, in a fun manner. Also, combining the handouts to be examined. Thirdly, the concepts to be clearly separated and one clear point made in each exercise - no overlapping. Each concept to be presented in a simple, clear manner. Fourthly, each concept is best understood if it is demonstrated with an example first. Easier to convey the message and also easier for them to work on their exercises.

All points - of giving one's best, of recognising, nurturing and encouraging the champion inside each one of us, constantly pushing to give 100%, knowing that nothing goes waste, knowing that all effort certainly comes in good, putting 100% in one area that none likes to enjoy the fruits of the effort, importance of planning, of action, of belief, of learning to handle discomfort, of knowing strengths, of knowing how to work on weaknesses, of fulfilling the gap - got across well. There was a bit of confusion in a few handouts and that can be sorted out.

The feedback was good and heartwarming. Certainly a difference has been made to the 25 participants, something I genuinely felt as I saw the look n their eyes and heard their feedback. Job well done!

Old Achievers - Some interesting stuff

2011-12-06T09:07:00.000-08:00

I was talking to a slightly older bunch of participants at a workshop today and was amazed at the lack of energy they displayed at the thought of reinventing themselves or even of looking at some dreams. The common refrain was that 'we are too old, why do we need to do this?' They were all around 45-50 and they were all too old for even thinking!

Coming home I saw for a brief while the exit of Tony, the trucker, from Masterchef US and he is 52 and seriously thinking of changing his career from trucking to cooking. I googled old achievers and here's some stuff I found on the net which I hope is authentic. Some interesting stuff about old achievers.

- Helen Keller (blind at nineteen months old and deaf soon after)wrote a book "Teacher" at 73, which was published two years later, and died at 88.
- Miguel Cevantes wrote Don Quixote when he was almost 70 years old
- John Milton wrote Paradise Regained when he was 63
- Noah Webster wrote his dictionary at 70
- Benjamin Franklin helped frame the US Constitution at 81
- Alfred Tennyson published the memorable poem Crossing The Bar at 83
- Michelangelo painted some of his Masterpieces in his late 80s
- Galileo made his greatest discovery when he was 73
- Thomas Edison worked in his laboratory at 83
- Arturo Toscanini conducted an orchestra at 87
- Mark Twain wrote "Eve's Diary" and "The $30,000 Bequest" at 71
- Titian painted his great work "The Battle of Lepanto" at 95 and his "Last Supper" at 99
(http://cristina327.hubpages.com/hub/Blooming-In--The--Golden--Years)
And on another website I found this.

- Oldest person to climb Mt Everest (male) Katsusuke Yanagisawa (Japan, b. 20 March 1936), a former school teacher, who summited from the north side of the world's tallest mountain with team Himex on 22 May 2007, aged 71 years 63 days.

- Oldest Tandem Parachute Jump (Female) Estrid Geertsen (Denmark, b. August 1, 1904) made a tandem parachute jump on September 30, 2004 from an altitude of 4,000 m (13,100 ft) over Roskilde, Demark, at the age of 100 years 60 days.

- Oldest person to complete a marathon (male) Fauja Singh, in Toronto on October 17, 2011. At age 100, he finished in 8.25.18.

- Oldest person to ski to both Poles Norbert H. Kern (Germany, b. 26 July 1940) who skied to the South Pole on 18 January 2007 and the North Pole on 27 April 2007 when he was 66 years 275 days old.
(http://smileinseconds.blogspot.com/2010/04/old-achievers.html)

Now to print this and go back to class tomorrow!.. It's never too late to dream and to achieve. Like George Burns said 'you don't get old as long as you are working.'

Thought for the Day - The Relationship Between Our Health and Our Support Systems

2011-12-05T08:29:00.000-08:00

Looking at the number of health crises that are going on around me, some imagined and some real (but mostly psychosomatic in my opinion which is probably a bigger problem than the real thing) I cannot help think that it has much to do with us as an individual in relation to society around us. We have gradually, over a period of the last twenty years or so, drifted away from our support systems - our family, our friends, our neighbours and communities - and are drifting by ourselves in the high seas with no anchor.

We have all, in the new world order, in our new economies, in our new avatars, come to deceive ourselves into thinking that we are really capable of handling it all by ourselves. That we do not need any kind of a support system. This sudden lack of a support system, this lack of a place to communicate, to feel supported has suddenly gone away and in the place of real people like family and friends, we have insurance companies, helplines, doctors, facebook and google to make us feel like we are taken care of but what actually scares us to death and stresses the hell out of everyone. No wonder everyone is grappling with serious lifestyle disorders at forty.

The truth as I see it is just that. Families have fragmented. There are few families that can claim to have the kind of a bonding and support system as things used to be twenty years ago. Then fathers were authority figures and they could decide on any problem in the household. mothers for the soft advise. Now old parents have no say over anything almost - except babysitting. Friends are now all about facebook friends to whom we only have to show a cool, nice, happening part of ourselves. You cannot show them your fears, your worries, you cannot share things you want to with them over a quiet walk, or a sleepover, or a game. When was the last time we had heart to heart talks with our 'real' friends and talked and laughed and shared.

Parents and relations are wonderful sources of wisdom and knowledge. They can help if given a chance, by just being there. All we need is people to be around us, to call, to meet, to talk. Friends are the greatest stress busters one can have. Instead of bottling up or having a life full of fake friends, one can go and talk to some real friends.

Everyone has an off day, everyone feels low. No one is always happy and cool and happening. So get real and get back to getting your support systems in place. Get the family behind you, your valuable support systems, your parents, your brothers and sisters, your aunts and uncles, your cousins - even though you think it may not look cool. Get your friends together, the 'real' ones, behind you.

But it means investing your time and showing that you genuinely care and will back them just as they back you. Articulate it to your friends and family that you need their support and that they can count on your support too. Life will suddenly have amazing possibilities, you have so many people to share with and life does not look so bad at all. When you have your whole support system behind you believe me, it will look really cool than many 'likes' and idiotic 'comments'.

Walk into any slum and see how strong knit they are together. You cannot break them. They know they are in it together and stand by one another. Communities are that way. Start building those little friendships with your neighbours. Send them prasad, invite them for a cup of tea. Have friends over for dinner. Wish people on their birthdays and anniversaries. Send flowers, call, write, be nice. Living in a society means that you do the small things well - you are polite, mannered and follow basic etiquette - like greeting people, asking after them and their families, playing the host. You will need to give to get and in almost all cases what you give is what you get. You behave badly and people ignore you. Why would they waste time on you and put up with you. But you show that you care for people and are there for them, they will normally be there for you.

Get real. Start practicing that smile and get rid of that constant frown. Be nice to people and support them. Ask them for support when you need it. We are all here together and together we can make a huge difference to each one of us. And I am sure most health problems disappear as you laugh more, meet more people and share a lot more. You will certainly feel more supported as you get a chance to express yourself, ask for help and volunteer help. Worth trying. As for me, I am hitting the address book right now. All for one and one for all!

Story Idea - The Team

2011-12-04T22:33:00.000-08:00

Man gets a letter from an old team mate (perhaps a cricket team). Letter has some information which makes sense only to him, like a clue, which he has to fill in a jigsaw puzzle that is given alongwith, and a place and a time in the future. Curious the man gets to the appointed place and time and finds a couple more of his friends, rather team mates, from a cricket team that played together thirty years ago. They have similar notes - a time and a place and one incident in their life that fits into the jigsaw. As they wait they are joined by a few more. Comparing the notes, they realise that their old team mate is dead and he is apparently try to give them a clue to his death. Most land up, they have to find and motivate a couple and one or two are not traceable.

As they piece together the mystery that the man has knitted together so delicately that no one would be able to decipher it by themselves they realise that their old team mate dies because of a bigger conspiracy, an opponent so dangerous that he could kill. Now that they know the secret all of them are also in danger and their only hope is to find the killer before he finds them. The only problem is that the killer could be one of them!
Howzzat!

Blowup - Movie Review

2011-12-04T07:41:00.000-08:00

And after a long time I watched 'Blowup', Michelangelo Antonio's first English movie made in 1966. The first thing that strikes you is that the movie is a shorter or rather a short story version of the 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron' bit when the photographers Vinod and Sudhir find a murder in the background of one of their photographs; they check out the park and find the body but when they return its not there anymore. All this is there in 'Blowup' and the story pretty much ends there unlike 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron' which had a lot more story attached to this idea. Apparently even 'Blowup' was made from a short story.

'Blowup's is made in a very stylish manner and that is what hits you. It starts with a photographer coming out of a place called the doss house, an impoverished place of stay for men it seemed like, where he'd gone to take some pics. He is a fashion photographer, good at his job, but bored and eccentric too. He is sick of women and fashion and takes off to click some pics in the middle of a particularly frustrating photo shoot to visit an antique shop. Strolling behind the shop he clicks a couple frolicking in the lawns. But the women spots him wants the pictures back and he refuses. She tracks him down, goes to all lengths to get the roll back. The photographer gives her the wrong roll, intrigued by her interest and develops the roll. He finds a murder that was set up in the background, even an indication of a body in a highly grainy shot and he goes back to verify that night. He finds the body but when he goes back the next day its gone. In the meanwhile someone has ransacked his studio and all pictures and negatives are gone except the grainy one. The woman in the pictures, a stunning Vanessa Redgrave, has apparently set up the murder of her older friend but he has nothing to prove it.

'Blowup' goes at a pace that is surprisingly its own, lingering at stops and places that are of importance to the protagonist but not to us - the night club, the shop, the party and so on - but it still holds you in. It leaves you abruptly, leaving you to resolve the ending. Very stylish and sophisticated and demands much from the viewer. No wonder 'Blowup' is highly acclaimed - it is a stunning, bold piece of film making. One to watch.

Dev Anand - A Life of Purpose

2011-12-03T20:01:00.000-08:00

If I had to mention one person who epitomises a life lived with purpose, it is Dev Anand. Though I must confess that I am not a huge fan of the actor, I simply loved his attitude to work. In fact I am one of the biggest fans of his when it comes to how one can make meaning around one's own life.

After some wonderful movies early on in his career Dev Anand made several movies which the audiences felt were out of sync. Most of his later movies were bad flops. But that did not deter him and he kept making movies till the end. Now that is the kind of a passion, purpose and commitment that I admire, that I would like to have myself. To continue doing what you can best express yourself through, irrespective of what the world feels, and to do it until you die is what to me a life lived fully is about. And Dev Anand who made his debut in 1946 in Hum Ek Hain and was a superstar with Ziddi in 1947, gave a lot more meaning to Indian cinema, to professionalism, to the spirit of a champion by his life by doing what he wanted for over six decades.

Thank you Dev saab for showing the way and I hope to imbibe this way, this purpose in my life. Now, for a Dev saab festival to celebrate the man!

Two Heart Warming Incidents

2011-12-02T08:52:00.000-08:00

I was witness to two heart warming incidents yesterday which gave me some fine pointers on how to go about with my life. The first incident involved a painfully thin, old auto rickshaw walla who looked like he did not have a proper meal for a while, nor even good business. He appeared to have slept off the afternoon heat in his auto and just got off when he saw us, Anjali, Chimu and I, walking towards the park near our house. Hearing Anjali talking nineteen to dozen loudly, he started bobbing his head at her in tune with her talk, a huge smile on his face that appeared to light up the entire street. Anjali stopped talking and smiled back at him. And at that moment I wondered how few of us smile, laugh at the world. The higher we go in life's ladder the lesser we smile, from our heart. We smile fake smiles, laugh fake laughter. That man's smile is clearly etched in my mind and I think I do not need much if I have a smile in my heart like that. I am sure he must be having a lot more hardships than many of us who sport a grumpy face and behave like we have the world on our shoulders. He reminded me to smile at small things and stop taking myself so seriously.

The other incident was that of a small boy, perhaps nine years old. He was walking barefoot on the road, hands in his pocket. He was obviously working somewhere as manual labour from the looks of it and I'd guess he would not have had more than ten rupees in his pocket max. As he was walking he suddenly stopped and turned. I wondered why he stopped. He walked back a few steps and stopped near a crippled beggar who sat on his board with wheels. And to my amazement, the young kid dipped into his pocket and puled out some money and gave it to him without even counting it. He looked a trifle embarrassed, perhaps at the small amount he gave the man, or even at the thought that he considered himself on the giving side. And then he walked away, having given away half or even the full amount of what he owned in the world. I don't know if I can ever be as large hearted as that boy but he will always remind me to share with those who need. If he can give and be confident that he can earn it back, I am sure I can.

Thank you both my friends for teaching me valuable life lessons and may the good God give you all you desire.

Thought for the Day - Responsibility and Its Burden

2011-12-01T20:31:00.000-08:00

The burden of responsibility! Ah how it weighs on us. How dramatic it sounds. How much we take on ourselves. How much do we have to do alone? But what is this burden we are taking on ourselves? Why is responsibility a burden? Is it not a way of life? And how much are we supposed to take on as our share of responsibility?

That I think is the key - the one that causes stress, the causes health issues, that wears people down, that makes and breaks people. How much responsibility should I take?

Before that a look at what responsibility is. In its basic form, responsibility is a word. A thought. An attitude. That is all.

But sadly, it also gives the one who takes it on a sense of importance. One 'feels' responsible and that in itself makes one feel burdened by the thought. But is that it? Does the word, the thought, the attitude bear you down because you wish to feel dramatically overloaded by your own thought?

To me there are two aspects to this responsibility business. Firstly, the thought. As a thought it can extend to anything that one can imagine. While some people (leaders for example) appear to take on the responsibility for all of mankind and still appear happy and fine, others feel burdened even by the responsibility for themselves and their family. The thought is itself highly disturbing to them that they are responsible. It is then what we let that thought of responsibility do to us that matters.

The other aspect is the physical aspect to this responsibility. What we 'do' about it. Some could do nothing but feel burdened by the mere thought, others could be just doing and that itself reduces the burden and allows them to take more responsibility. Fearless action is a sure way to handle this.

Responsibility becomes a burden and causes stress only when you think you must always 'do' more than what you can. One can only take responsibility for one's actions and that is as much one can do. Anything more is in the realm of other people's responsibility and that of God's. To do then, to the extent one can, is the right way of responsibility. Not to stop taking action because one feels that it is all too much!

Also I feel that to think there is always more to do is nothing but merely increasing the drama. By giving yourself the bigger gap and moping about it, you only give yourself more importance as having carried more burden. But who cares? It is the one who has the least burden that moves fastest, that feel light and has a smile on his face all the time. He is the one who is in reality 'doing' more for himself and others! So there is a good case to drop the burden right now! Drop all imaginary and futuristic burdens right now. You are free of all responsibilities!

Our responsibility is only for the moment and no more. There is no point in piling up baggage out of the responsibility for all the years down the line and feeling crushed by it, feeling fearful of it. It is but our job to handle each moment responsibly - in this case - to handle each moment with responsible action and not irresponsible thoughts of doom and despair!

To put it simply (I am getting a feeling that I might have complicated things a bit): responsibility is only limited to your action that moment, the word, the gesture and the thought for that moment. All your grand intentions and dramas that cannot be fitted into acts, words, gestures, thoughts can be dropped instantly.

Essentially drop whatever you are doing that you are doing out of a sense of responsibility, a sense of obligation (be irresponsible to the sense of being responsible). Live intuitively and you will see that you are living more responsibly than you lived while being 'responsible'. You would take care of yourself, others as well and go about feeling light in the head, heart and shoulder. Drop it all now and see the difference. I am going to do it. Right now!

Story Idea - True Friend

2011-12-01T09:28:00.000-08:00

This is the story of a group of friends. They have a great life together and when one of them dies after an accident, after a time spent in hospital reduced to a vegetable. They meet at his funeral and make a pact. That if anyone is incapacitated, the others would find a way to kill him off and reduce his or her suffering. They sign a paper to this effect.

As luck would have it the one who proposes the pact, suffers an accident and is paralysed head down. The dilemma when they all meet is, do we kill him off or do we let him continue as a vegetable. One of the friends wants to honour the pact because he loves his friend truly and does not want to see him this way. He agonises over their friend's condition and it does appear that he is truly convinced that his friend would be better off dead, as their other friend was.

The wife, a part of the group, does not want the husband killed as she believes that he still has a chance unlike the other guy. The group is undecided. When they talk to the injured person they see nothing but terror in his eyes as he knows what they are all discussing.

It is clear that one of them wants him dead. But is it merely for the love of his friend that he wants to kill him off? Was the accident a real accident or was there more? What does the incapacitated man know that he is facing death? (Possible resolutions - affair between accident victim's wife and the guy who wants him killed. Or, a suspicion that he pulled the plug on the first friend which makes his friend want to avenge him.) Kind of corny but a B grade material nonetheless.

Flash Mob at CST - Sheer Joy to Watch

2011-11-30T21:44:00.000-08:00

The above picture is of the flash mob dance at the CST on November 11, 2011. To see the video check on the youtube link given below and you know what joy a free flowing expression gives to everyone. It's amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyt16efRrBo

And then there are more at this link, the best one to me being the one on 'Do re me'.

http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/videos-dubai-airport-rocks-to-the-flash-mob-2011-11-08-1.427308

In a world where expression is muted, is not heard, it is increasingly important that we revive the arts and humanities. We need the dance, the song, the sheer joy of expression that takes our lives to a higher level. This like Shobha said to me while watching the video "is what we need to bring back to our lives". I could not agree more! I could do with such joy everyday, every moment.

I love the joy and spontaneity with which these youngsters gave expression to themselves, to the times, to the world we live in. I saw the interview with the lead dancer and she said it was choreographed and practiced hard. I am amazed at the CST officials and all those involved at giving them permissions and actually making it happen at 5 p.m. at CST which is unbelievable. After the terror attack CST, one of the busiest places in India, needed something like this to cleanse it of those memories. For all those who participated and made it happen well done all and a big thank you for showing us what was missing in our lives.

Camera Buff - Movie Review

2011-11-30T07:49:00.000-08:00

This is a 1979 Polish film by Kieslowski, about an amateur camera buff. Filip Mosz, a worker in the purchasing department of a factory in a small town in Poland, buys a camera to film his new born daughter. His life seems happy now with his wife, the daughter and his hobby of making videos and films. But when his boss asks him to shoot the celebration of the company's anniversary, Mosz finds that his films now offer bigger possibilities. The short film, 'Anniversary', wins third prize at a festival and Mosz is inspired to make more movies and give expression to his new found hobby.

He however fails to see the distress his wife goes through at his obsession with his camera work and films, the new people he meets including some attractive cinephiles, his touring and she leaves. His boss is not happy with a picture he makes about the oldest factory worker, while the worker himself is moved by what he sees. Even as his work starts getting recognition, Mosz realises that his friends are getting sacked because of a film he made that exposed the corruption in the system, his family has left and his creative expression really has no voice in that space. He exposes his third, passionately made film without showing it to the judges and symbolically turns the camera on himself at the end, perhaps introspectively.

Mosz desire for creative expression is captured brilliantly and the insecurities of those around him as he starts loving his camera as well. How an individual's right to expression can be stifled in societies cannot be shown better I felt as Mosz if made answerable to everything he shoots. With no support at home nor outside, Mosz would have given up his camera pretty soon after. I recommend watching it, if one gets a chance.

Story Idea - Dead Man Live Man

2011-11-30T02:52:00.000-08:00

This is a story of two people who land up to find some solace, maybe at a sanitorium of sorts. One is a young man who wants to commit suicide and the other is an old man who is terminally ill but desperately wants to live. The young man finds that the old man desperately wants to live to ensure that his wife and kids are taken care of, his things settled, and would do anything to live. The old man finds out that the young man has almost nothing wrong with his life and is committing suicide simply because he failed his exams and his girlfriend has ditched him. They spend a night together where they talk.

The old man tells the young man how he would do anything to get the young man's life, the one he was willingly throwing away, without knowing its value. The young man is interested and wants to know what the value of his life is. That starts the old man on his story of love and hate, of longing and parting, of beginnings and ends, of passion and deceit. He tells the youngster he will fund his family if he could find a way for the old man to live. (Here I am thinking we could have an angel of death joining them who has the power to switch their life spans if they wanted.) But as they tell each other their stories, would they really want to switch?

By day break, the old man understands that his life is over and he must move on, and the young man understands that he must face his life with more optimism. Dustin Hoffman as the old man and someone appropriate as the young man!

Thought for the Day - The Meaning of Success

2011-11-29T19:11:00.000-08:00

'Success' - is the standard answer for what one is searching for in life. Especially when one is out of college, or still young, this one word seems like magic. 'Success' depicts to us a frequency where we can tune into wealth, fame, power, endless travel, beautiful people, the high life. Pretty much all the things we see in movies and glossies and ads are accessible with this one word 'success'. When I speak to students sometimes I ask them this question about what they would like to get out of their MBAs and other degrees and most give me this magic word 'success'.

But 'success' is a loosely defined word. It becomes what you think it is. It could be the multi storey building or a small plot of farmland with cattle. It becomes imperative to think of what it means to us, honestly. Surprisingly most do not seem to have very hard opinions of 'success'. Some money, a reasonably good job, starting a business, travel across the world, some cars, maybe a private jet...and somewhere here the steam runs out. So I make it mandatory to define what success means to each one and then it becomes clear that our concepts of 'success' have been borrowed from all else. So what do we want really?

Not for everyone enjoys earning and piling up money. Not everyone likes the spotlight. Not everyone likes endless travel. Not everyone is comfortable with high end stuff. Not everyone likes jobs that are highly demanding and responsible. Not everyone wants houses all over the place. Most in fact have modest dreams, of small houses close to nature, of starting a school, of spending time with family, of small family trips and gatherings, of friends, of small business ideas doing well and offering sustenance and a form of expression. They would like a happy family, a healthy life, a hobby they enjoy, a job or business that pays well enough, a house at some point etc. Few have ambitious plans and the energy to drive them.

To me success is about using all you have, your time and energy, to express yourselves the best. That would seem vague, but what I am saying is that if you pursued a particular skill that you have chosen to develop, academic or artistic, have figured out that your spirit seems to merge somehow when you do that, when you 'know you are good at it', then, by giving your best shot at it, you would most often find all that 'success' means coming to you. To say it simply, as an accountant or a salesman or an IT pro or a businessman or a musician or a player or a coach or whatever, if you keep at it because you love it for long enough, constantly seeking improvement in small measures, you are bound to travel the world, to make your money, to earn your fame and improve your self-esteem as an expert in your area of choice. It gives an identity, one that you are proud of. That to me is success, doing what you love, for a long enough time to be the expert at it and leveraging it to gain all else you wish materially.

The big question often is how does one find what one enjoys doing for such a long period of time, for the rest of your life. Look back into your life and find out what you loved doing, what you got praised for, what you spent most of your time doing, and then you will see that nothing has gone waste. It is easy to see. If it is not, close your eyes, ask yourselves what you would love to do the most for the rest of your life, and then do it with all your heart and mind, devoting time and energy to it, with awareness and without fear of consequences. People have built amazingly successful careers out of fried chicken, retailing, fashion, shoes, education....whatever. The only thing is that they have been passionate about being the best. It was never about following what others did, it was always about doing what you think is best, even if it means taking the foot off the gas pedal and slowing down, going to small towns, taking time of, but doing things out of choice.

Being passionate does bring you accolades. Being the best can give you deep satisfaction and the admiration of peers. That is ruled by the heart. On the other side is the mind. The one that urges a balance between immense awareness and flights of creation - the one that can ground you really when it comes to signing the contracts. This is the key. You must be able to put a worth on yourself, to market yourself in the terms of exchange, money. You must see ways of marrying commerce to your talent. It is the job of the mind. And anyone can do it. It is merely telling yourself to knock out the ego, the sham of being 'good' and 'gracious'. Like Ray Charles, one of the best blues musicians ever and an astute businessman would say, 'use the country bumpkin innocence' to get what he wants. He'd play the fool but he'd always ask for the moon. No one will take the responsibility to market your skill so find your way to do it.

'Success' then comes in two parts and one must take responsibility for both. To do what one wants really requires passion and that is a function of the heart, and to use it as a means of exchange one must be aware to opportunity, and that is a function of the mind. When they both come together, 'success' brings true contentment and becomes meaningful not just to the individual, but to society at large too. Teachers who can think of schools, thinkers who can take ideas out, artists who can showcase and protect culture, leaders who can make a difference, anything is possible if our idea of 'success' gets clearer in our head.

The Inox Experience

2011-11-29T08:30:00.000-08:00

Went to view a movie at the Inox theatre in GVK One today with my four year old. She has just got the basic story of Ramayana and was keen to watch 'Srirama Rajyam'. So we both went to see the movie.

The ticket counter is outside the mall, but we could not park there for the ticket as the hundred or so security guys waved us away towards the parking. I could not do any stunt like hopping out and buying the ticket in a tick either. Anyway we passed by two sleepy bomb checkers who somehow let us through and then having realised their blunder came charging behind our car, banging on the dicky et al. I stopped and realised that they had forgotten to do their check at the appropriate time and wished to do so. We then went round and round in a circular ramp to a well organised parking lot. They have three levels so it is important that one remembers which level you are on else you may have to search all three!

From the parking to the lobby we took one lift. From the lobby we walked out to the front of the building, bought the tickets, got frisked and searched again, and returned into the building. We took another set of elevators and went up to level 3. From there we had to walk around to one side and after another thorough frisk and check we were let into the movie watching area. The screens were spread all over and we went searching for ours. Since there was some time we bought the most expensive french fries ad pop corn we'd ever bought - Rs. 65 for 100 gms he said!

All excited we got into the theatre and found our seats. Anjali could not sit in hers because the seat was so wound up that it would not settle down under her 4 year olds weight. She preferred to sit on me. And then began the show. First they played the trailer of a gory, violent movie which must have scared all the children to death. The sound was extremely loud, the visuals bloody. Thankfully it got over and then the movie started. For some reason the Inox guys could not get the sound right. It was way too loud even for me. Anjali sat through most of the time with her ears covered with her hands. The entire spectacle was intimidating and I was glad when Anjali started making her escape pleas 45 minutes into the show. Come on guys, get your act right. You charge 150 bucks a ticket and promise a great movie experience and then you assault our senses till the senses scream to run away, or get numbed, or scare little kids so they go away. Can't you guys get it right, basic things at least, like the audio?

We exited soon enough and encountered another child who was being coaxed back into the theatre. As we went out, we found a chap who held on to a chain to stop people from exiting early. I told him we would like to leave. He confirmed that I would not return and then insisted on collecting my tickets. I asked him why - I had paid 150 bucks and at least deserved a receipt, my part of the ticket, a souvenir. He told me that in the world of Inox, if you decide to leave the premises, you can never return, for that show. Once you exit, you are banished until you get another ticket and enter their portals again! So you give up your proof of having been at that show, your receipt and go away. 'Rules sir,' he said. Fair enough.

We walked around the periphery and got back to the elevator somehow. It took us to the lobby where we had to get off and then we walked to another elevator that took us to the parking. At the parking we shelled out 20 bucks and exited.

Would I be rushing back to see movies here? I doubt it.

Norwegian Wood - Movie Review

2011-11-28T11:21:00.000-08:00

This is a movie based on Haruki Murakami's novel of the same name (and one that I have gifted to Parth but I have not read yet myself). My experience with Murakami so far is that it is difficult to capture his imagination in ours; so only a brave director must have attempted this. Murakami goes into spaces we can never imagine and it was definitely interesting to see a movie based on his novel. Another interesting thing is Murakami's love for western music, of the 60s to the 80s, which comes across in his novels and here he is, with a novel based on the famous song by the Beatles 'Norwegian Wood' which incidentally has sitar as a major instrument in it.

The movie is about Vatanabe, whose good friend Kidzuki, has a girl friend Naoko. Now Kidzuki and Naoko have grown up since they were three, and Vatanabe knows Kidzuki for a long time too. They grow up to be teens when Kidzuki for some reason commits suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. Vatanabe goes off to Tokyo to study and work, more as an escape. One day he meets Naoko and they end up celebrating her 20th birthday by sleeping together. Vatanabe discovers she is a virgin and is surprised that she and Kidzuki never had sex. Naoko then disappears. Vatanabe meets her in her sanitorium, a place for the disturbed, and meets her cigarette smoking friend Reiko, the one who plays 'Norwegian Wood' and sings it in English. In Tokyo he meets Midori, a girl who seems to like him. He also has a friend Nagasawa who has many girlfriends and who has no real commitments to anyone except himself - someone Vatanabe cannot understand. Naoko goes deeper into her depression and commits suicide. Midori leaves Vatanabe because she feels Naoko's shadow in Vatanabe. And to top it all, Reiko comes to meet Vatanabe and ends up sleeping with him. In a parting line Nagasawa tells Vatanabe never to waste time feeling sorry for himself - a fine piece of advise I thouhgt. Midori makes up with Vatanabe in the end.

The cinematography of the film was stunning. Each frame was like some masterpiece, a visual treat for me. The cast did a fine job. The movie itself had a haunting quality to it, which is wonderful since Murakami's novels bring that same feeling. To capture the angst of twenty somethings caught in questions such as love, sex, relationships, friendships in an honest manner was something that I found interesting. Most times youngsters are shown as idiots in movies, or rather one dimensional characters, and it is wonderful to see a real side to people who dare to explore themselves deeper. This movie belongs to the 60s or the 70s, I felt. But I would love to see a Hindi or regional movie that explores these questions deeper, that confusion that youth have honestly. For once please show some intelligence in the youth as well. As fro 'Norwegian Wood' watch it. It borders on the depressive but it is like no movie you'd have seen before.

TV Shows And Us

2011-11-26T23:10:00.000-08:00

Watched a few television shows on and off recently. One that I liked because it amazed me that a cookery competition could be interesting was Masterchef Australia. I liked the way the judges were, they way they handled the contestants and the respect they gave each one as an individual even when they flouted rules etc. It was an interestingly packaged contest and I enjoyed it. I also find and appreciate the way food is made and served these days.

But the Indian Masterchef gave me a lot of stress. The judges were like headmasters and were constantly threatening the contestants by their superior position and knowledge. In fact one episode when I watched a rather elderly contestant get all hassled with their constant goading and severe reprimands was quite stressful to watch and I walked off before I got a heart attack (that contestant looked like he was having one surely). I am not a big fan of this show. The judges need to tone down, treat the contestants more respectfully and be less in the face.

What I do watch with a sense of amazement is the Big Boss which houses all the dysfunctional people in the world. From rapists, to dacoits, to murderers, to the most ill behaved and ill brought up people in the world, we get to see the worst sides of everyone there. And I pity them, the audience, the makers of this show for making this show and for parading human nature at its possible worst emanating from a bunch of ill equipped people to handle that. I wonder where it will go, this show and the thought behind it.

But one channel that I doff my hat off (if I had one that is) is Ceebeebies, the kids channel of BBC which makes such wonderfully educative and participative content for kids that it has just taken over the mindspace of Anjali my 4 year old from the Cartoon networks and Pogos. Instead of the kiddy violence and cartoon stories which add nothing, Ceebeebies, has them learn, dance, move, do things and I wonder how they can do that. How does this channel make kids so interested in watching an educative program at the cost of cartoons like Tom and Jerry. Definitely kids know what is best for them, a lot more than adults. Maybe Ceebeebies should have some programs for adults too!

The Other Man - Movie review

2011-11-26T08:16:00.000-08:00

'The Other Man' is a movie that deals with a husband (Liam Neeson as Peter) who finds out that his wife (Laura Linney as Lisa) has had an affair during their 25 year marriage of which he knew nothing about. The Cambridge based couple, he a software engineer and she a shoe designer, are successful but do not seem to have too much time for each other. They have a daughter Abigail who is now moving in with her impoverished musician boy friend, George. Obviously Peter has certain inflexible ideas about life, about people which are not shared by his wife and daughter.

But Peter gets little clues of his wife's infidelity after her death and he tracks down the person to Milan, a place where she went often on her business. He finds the person Rafe (Antonio Banderas) and knows him well enough to play chess with him and for Rafe to tell him all about the most beautiful woman in the world and how much he loved her and how much she did. Peter keeps his anger under control and his vengeance and plays the lover by getting access to his wife's emails, her phone (daughter does that). Peter also discovers that Rafe is not the refined, cosmopolitan businessman as he projects himself, but a janitor with no money. Peter sets up Rafe through emails, funds his trip to a place where Rafe thinks Lisa is coming. There Peter breaks the truth about Lisa to Rafe who tells Peter how his own coldness drove Lisa to Rafe. Rafe is disgusted with Peter.

Peter does however go to a party thrown by Rafe in London in honour of Lisa. And one finds that perhaps Lisa has succeeded in changing her inflexible husband's views to life by leaking her secret to him after her death. Peter accepts people easier, Rafe and George for starters, as people and one can only guess that his life would have been a lot easier.

It is a nice, layered movie and one that I enjoyed thoroughly. Sensitive and subtly made with wonderful performances from all of the cast specially Neeson, Banderas, Linney and the daughter, Romola Garai. It would probably interest a mature audience and I suspect youngsters might lose the subtly made point of the wife's torment at seeing her beloved husband be in a self trapped prison and how she finds her escape, and how she plots his escape as well.