Of Radios and Hockey Matches

Have you ever had a feeling that you are floating pleasantly..in the clouds, soaking the warm rays of sun.. in slow motion enjoying everything around and suddenly you are plummeted to the ground and slapped back to reality and your mind goes What the Duck!!!

I had the exact same feeling today morning while driving back home after my exercise routine. I was Chillaxing to the music of Guzarish, and the song being played was "Guzaarish Hai".  I was swinging and swaying and in general enjoying the slow tempo and well formed lyrics of the song, feeling all those wonderful feelings and that is when I hear a line totally out of sync with the mood and the flow of the song  and I wondered if it was written and composed by Anu Malik and it left me with that ugly feeling. It was as if the lyricist has run out of imagination by the time he reached that line and had to put some filler to finish it. I will not forgive him for that.

There was this other time when I was watching "Chak De India" (one of those movies where Sharukh doesn't bend backwards with his chest protruding,open arms, turning the head to a side, gives those dimple smiles, and the girl runs into him), during the world cup matches where the Jharkhand girl  "Soimoi Kerketa" doesn't know who to pass the ball and asks a senior player "Bindia Naik" to which the senior replies "Go and ask  your captain". I was like isn't she one of the best hockey player from her state and isn't that the reason she was chosen into the national team that would play for the world cup and has been trained to do so and she doesn't know who to pass the ball. I mean I see scenes in the movie where the coach,  Shahrukh Khan keeps juggling glasses, spoons, pens, sticks, virtually anything that he comes across obviously trying out different strategic moves, has he forgot to actually tell the team about those moves !!!.

Again in the same world cup matches the Punjab girl "Balbir Kaur" and the Jharkhand girl "Soimoi Kerketa" fail to understand the referee's warnings and these are the girls chosen for a national team to play for Hockey World Cup. Sign language and colour coded cards are used universally by the referees to overcome the language barrier and communicate effectively with all the players around the world. What was their coach Kabir Khan doing? Ohh right!! it is played by Sharukh Khan, and any role that he plays you see Sharukh Khan and the role itself shies away into the shades of his glorious personality. He was playing himself in coach Kabir Khan's role and was so busy being the "Gunda" of the team, shouting random dialogs, sending players out of the field and didn't realize that the games have referees and they follow some rules and guidelines and it is important for the team to learn them before going for the World Cup. Ohh my bad , it is the coach's responsibility and   Sharukh Khan was playing himself and not the coach's role so there you go, now wonder the players did not understand the referees.

It is matters like these that make these movies or songs fall short of what you would call a "Master Piece".

Now for those of you who would like to come back at me for criticizing Sharukh, trust me I was one of those people who sincerely wished that Sunny Deol should die and Juhi Chawla should fall in love with Sharukh in the movie Darr.

PS: On an unrelated note I hope Sanjay Leela Bhansali has enough sense not to send this film of his for Oscar nominations because the original film "The Sea Inside" has already won an academy award for "Best Foreign Language Film", and they would have second thoughts about giving the same award again to a copy of the film.

PSS: I just came to know that the director SLB is the music director too. No wonder, the genius of copy films ran out of imagination. I forgive you, we can't expect master pieces from you.

Blast from the Past

I sometimes feel that I use a lot of cliched expressions but again No Pain No Gain. I know that doesn't fit in this context I just had to use it. So the readers of my blog know that I initiated a diet and exercise program in the beginning of last year and I succeeded in losing a considerable amount of weight in six months. Then due to various reasons I could not continue it for a long time. I started the routine again this month which includes a strict diet and 8km walk in the park. There is a 4km track so i do two rounds of the track.

Last year I almost started jogging and was one of the fastest walkers by the time i stopped it. Now I started walking again and observed that almost everyone overtook me. Fifteen days into the routine and I have picked up enough speed to walk faster than most of the old men and women. Today I finished up my first round and started on the second round minding my business and not minding the people overtaking me.
At 1km mark a lady over took and I thought enough is enough and decided to over take her. So I increased my speed maintaining only a couple of feet distance. When I was comfortable with the speed i increased a bit and started reducing the distance at which point she noticed what i was trying to do and she increased her speed. Now that was a challenge I was willing to take and I increased my speed further and started maintaining a constant distance between me and her. I did not try to over take her since I was an experienced walker and knew that it is more of endurance rather than speeding up that will count by the time we finish the stretch. So I was pushing her all the way to increase her speed until she reached her threshold levels.
At 2.5km mark I observed that she was struggling to maintain her speed but refusing to give in. I decided to go for the kill and started gaining on her. At about 2.75km mark as I was overtaking her I felt someone slapped me right across my face and I could see my teacher from my school standing in front of me and saying "Aren't you ashamed... to compete with a girl!!!". I went into a momentary shock and the sudden turn of events slowed me down to my usual pace. I was blankly staring ahead and walking while those words kept on repeating in my mind.
The distance between me and her started to grow from a  few feet to few meters. By the time I reached 3.25km mark she gained about 50meters. Then my conscience slapped me hard back into reality and shouted  "No you are not ashamed... to compete with a girl, remember men and women are equal although women are more equal than men."I was still hesitant and my mind started reasoning with me, "Come on, you are dragging double her weight and even if you take off the 33% that is reserved for them you still are carrying more weight than her and she already has an advantage of about 60 meters. If you still think its not fair then well life isn't fair"
At that point I reached 3.5 km mark. With both my mind and conscience jolting me back to reality I started gaining speed  and by the time I reached 3.75km mark my walk turned into jogging and then into running with my eyes focused on the target. I overtook her and reached the 4km mark before she realized what was happening and with only couple of yards between us.
Now, I did not do a victory dance nor did I turn around to goad nor did I create a scene over it, I calmly walked away letting my victim silently succumb to her defeat. What can I say!!! When I am good, I am good but when I am bad, I am better!!!

Change

Change, one word that most people dread, especially the ones who are content with the comfort and warmth of their own shells. I read a quote somewhere that goes along the lines of  "There are only two facts, Birth and Death, everything else is fiction".There is one more fact that remains constant between birth and death, and that is Change. Change is inevitable just like the other two facts.

There was a time, when the term "Change" used to bother me only when paying utility bills  and buying tickets in a city bus. The moment you show up with a note of higher denomination they go into a shock of dread and terror as if they have seen a hoard of zombies rushing towards them and their heads involuntarily turn sideways alternatively while chanting the mantra "No Change" repeatedly.

While most people dread change, there are some who want change, no, not the beggars, the politicians. However the former ones are a lot more successful in getting the change they wanted. Let me rephrase Politicians promise change, Obama did, Chiranjeevi did. That is all that they did. There are some who have actually made statements, as if the mere utterance of that statement itself will bring the change. Need Proof!! the famous "गरीबी हटाओ" translated to "Remove Poverty" from our very own Iron Lady of India. No matter how many times she shouted that out in the meetings the bloody poverty still remains.

Apart from these politicians who promise or talk about bringing change there are people who are working with all the passion to bring change to this world we are living in, trying to make it a better place for everybody. They are working on many issues we are facing today. There are people trying to save various species of animals, there are people trying to save forests, reduce pollution, reduce poverty and hunger issues etc. There are places that have completely banned the usage of plastic, the shops are encouraging customers to use the bio degradable bags (actually they are trying to make money out of selling these bags). With all these happening did the world become a better place?? No, not yet. Will it become a better place somewhere in the near future?? I seriously doubt it.

One of the reasons being any change that happens quickly tends to wear out quickly and for a change to leave a long lasting impact it has to be slow and steady. Another reason is that while working at bringing the change we need to change the root cause of all these problems.

Today I see people with total disregard to others and the world except themselves, their kin and their home. A simple example, a person however well educated he/she maybe, will cut through traffic , violate traffic rules, jump traffic signals, drive wrong way and cause inconvenience and sometimes accidents, because all he/she can think of is reaching the place they want to no matter what the circumstances are and whatever the consequences might be. There are people who support this kind of attitude and back it up with lame excuses and twisted theories.

Although violating traffic rules might not be one of the issues that is most concerning, I am talking about the mind set the attitude, the thought process of that person who can't think or act beyond his own existence.I personally believe that before trying to change anything else, one should try and change the very sinews of their mind and the minds of those around. it is the thought process of the people that has to be changed. Again trying to change the mind set of a person is almost impossible because I also believe that once a person is moulded and has formed a perspective of the world, it is difficult to convince otherwise. People are receptive to change only if it works out for them in a way that will benefit them.

Without changing this mindset of people, no matter how hard we try, the world will still be in the same rut that it is today. I believe that the best way to bring about this change is to cultivate the right things from the child hood as part of education. Show by example to them the joy of sharing, the virtue of being kind, courteous  and respectful to each other, to think over and beyond themselves, help them see the bigger picture of how the earth is our home and every single act of ours directly or indirectly affects the earth in either a favourable or adverse way, let them experience the pleasures in preserving the nature's balance and living in harmony with the nature around them. This change will be slow, it will take generations but I am sure that it will last.

Snakes Scarabs and Monkeys

I was always a big fan of Spielberg movies and thus I happened to watch "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom" albeit a bit late. It starts in China, then crosses Himalayas and Indy lands in India and then the story begins. There were scenes in the movie that were shockingly amusing and enlightening.

1. All the people in India except Amrish Puri and the guy who is sacrificed and a few guards, speak Sinhala, spoken by Sinhalese a.k.a people of Sri Lanka.

2. Indian Maha Rajas Dinner feast involves assorted snake salad, eye ball soup (the actual eye balls, not the Halloween eyeball soup), Roasted scarabs for main course and chilled monkey brain for dessert. Now I wonder where in the hell did he get hold of these MajaRaja meals recipes that we have kept hidden for ages.. damn!!!


There are other amusing things about the movie but hey.... its just a movie