Hope We Must

Hope is a very beautiful word.  And as beautiful the word is, it is equally important at the same time. Some might say that they don’t believe in just hoping something and rather work hard to get things done for them. But somewhere in our unconscious mind and the innermost plates of our hearts, we keep hope. Hope that everything would be good and get even better. And this hope sustains us throughout our lives, though all the ends.

This is hope which makes us believe in ourselves, our deeds, our destiny, our karma and our work. It’s the hope for better results that we even try to work for the desired results. Without hope there won’t be any desire to work and achieve anything. It’s hope which keeps our sprits alive when life hits on the head with a brick.

It was the hope of finding the new lands which propelled Christopher Columbus to sail into the never ending ocean. And we all know that he ended with the discovery of Americas. When Martin Luther King, Junior said ‘I have a Dream’, what he actually had was hope that the African Americans would also get the same rights as the Whites. All the major revolutions, which resulted in some significant changes like the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution or any other for that matter, were centred around the hope to bring the changes.  It nothing other than hope which is keeping the entire world in equilibrium when the economy seems to be in a gloomy state.  

We need hope in every walk and every aspect of our lives. In fact, we need hope to live every second of our lives. Is it not the hope of waking up the next day which allows us to have a peaceful sleep? Can anyone sleep with content for even a minute if he or she doesn’t have the hope of witnessing the sunrise next morning? With hundreds of people being killed every day in road mishaps, rail accidents and flight crashes, is it not the hope of reaching the destination safely which encourages us to undertake a new journey? And it’s the hope to get back to his home and family in the mind and heart of a soldier which keeps him from running away from the warfront during the difficult and heart breaking conditions he encounters.

To sum it all, we need hope to move each small step in the journey of life. Cheers to the beauty and completeness which ‘Hope’ adds to our lives!!

I Am What I Am - But Are You?

Once a friend of mine told me about how he was upset for he couldn’t achieve a bit of what he wanted to while his peers got more than what they had expected. And this is what I told him:

Yaar tu apne aap ko unse kyon compare karta hai? Agar un se compare karne k baad tu decide karta hai ki tujhe kya milna chahiye to at the end of the day kya tu wahi person hai, agar tujhe wo mil bhi jaye jo tu chahta hai?

(Why do you compare yourself with your peers or your friends? If you decide on what you want after comparing yourself with them, will you remain the same person, as you were before, once you achieve what you had decided to get?)

All of us would agree to the fact that we all love ourselves and respect ourselves a lot. So how can we do such a big injustice to ourselves by letting ourselves go away from our individuality? How can we decide upon our likes after looking at the others? It’s our individuality which makes us unique and one of our kind. So how can we loose our individuality to achieve success? And that success too is in conventional terms, and not the way we visualise success to be.

Sometimes it is really hard to make out a niche following our hearts but those are the times when we need to believe in ourselves and stand by what we are. We can’t change what our heart truly desires and this truthfulness of heart decides what or who we are. As written by Novoneel Chakravorthy in one of his blog posts (http://nbconline.blogspot.com/2009/04/coordinates.html):

You may like the star just above your head or the one in the right or to the left perhaps but you got no right to question why the star to the left is in the left. I believe the point of our living is to find the coordinates where we know we belong and respect it irrespective of whatever difficulties or humiliation we encounter.

We clearly have to stand by what we are or what we want to do with our life without comparing ourselves with others. Everyone is different with a different view towards life, towards career or towards success. Then why does everyone need to move on the same predetermined path in the pursuit of success? And will that pursuit of success will really be the ‘pursuit of happiness’?

The other day Satya (http://satyavyas.wordpress.com/ ) told me not to give CAT 09 if I had no reason to give it. So TRUE!! Why is it necessary for every IITian to sit for CAT or GRE or IAS? Only because this is the trend and this is what everyone does and hence, it becomes our ‘birth duty’ to do it?

Even if one qualifies some exam of this kind (without knowing the reason for writing the exam even) by forcing himself very hard, won’t the success give a momentary happiness only?

It’s difficult to follow our heart when everyone seems to follow a well defined path which looks easy and simple. And at times, we might have to face hardships and mockery from people around us. But those who achieve greatness do so only because they, during some point of their lives, stay hungry and stay foolish.

If we want to make difference in our lives and in the world around us, we will have to travel on the less travelled path. And only on this less travelled path lies success in the true meaning of the term, a chance for full personal growth and true happiness for the soul.

Nice Drama Emraan!!

India is a land of celebrities. Not only because there are too many of them but also because they dominate the minds of the common people. They are looked upon with awe by the masses in the country. And their words are like Brahma’s (The Creator God) verdict. The country rotates about what they say and so do our administrative system and the never stopping outspoken media. And the funniest part is that most of the celebrities are celebrities not because they achieved greatness in their work, but due to the reason that they were born to some hotshot parents or uncles or some other kins.

One such celebrity is Emraan Hashmi. Had it not been for his uncle Mahesh Bhatt, he would have never been known to the celebrity starved Indian junta. And had it not been for the unnecessary kisses in his movies, he would never have been a star. Funny, isn’t it? A person with no real actual acting talent is one of the well –known actors in the leading movie industry of the world. But that happens in India many times and we can talk about in details later. And more importantly, the Indian people who look at two lovers, kissing on road, in disgust love this guy who enjoys kissing in all his films.

But even a serial killer gets bored committing murders exactly the same way every day. And so was the case with our Emraan Bhai Sahab. Like every other normal person, he too needed a change from his regular kissing life, a new story to ride the minds of the people, and to come in the limelight. And for this, all he needed to do was to speak something about religion or race or cate or language in this hyper sensitive country of ours. The rest was to be taken care by the news-starved media.

Belonging to a minority community, it was easy for him to choose the ‘religion route’.  And he did exactly the same. After all, what is his fault when generating a lot of reaction and attention is a child’s play in this country?

He was denied a house in Pali Hill and he blamed the owner and the housing society for being communal in not letting him buy it. But little did he care to think about the reasons for which the owners didn’t want to sell the flat.  Anyway, why should he have thought about anything? He wanted limelight and he got it. Thanks to our ‘extra-free’ media!!

A question comes to my mind when I think of what Emraan did. Should I sue the tailor (who is a Muslim) in our hostel every time he says no to me, on the grounds of religion? Some of the temples in our country prohibit the entry of non Hindus and so is the case with some of the mosques, which allow only Muslims inside. Does it mean that we take the Pundit or the Imam in such places to the court? Or, for that matter, should I sue every autowallah  (auto- rickshaw driver), if he refuses to take me to some place for some reason or the other?

Emraan should have realised that he is at a position where generating such statements may have caused severe communal tension in the country. He should have been modest in his behaviour. He should have thought before he said anything. He should have remembered that it’s because of the love given by about 800 million Hindus of the country that his voice was able to create a buzz in a single ear in the country even.

And now when the issue got more attention and more reaction than he wanted, he is withdrawing his statement saying that there had been a miscommunication.

Mr Emraan, what do you think of yourself? You can say anything which generates so much of reaction among the masses and then simply walk away throwing it all on a miscommunication. Do you think a celebrity should do this? Doesn’t a celebrity, who is loved by so many, have to understand what to speak and what not? But what you did was quite opposite of what a celebrity should have done. May be because you are not a real celebrity. You needed the presence of your uncle (Mahesh Bhatt) in the industry to become a star. You never had to try that hard to create an impact in the minds and hearts of the people. And perhaps that’s why you couldn’t learn the proper way to conduct yourself when you reached a certain height.

May God give you some wisdom!! Amen!!

Love Aaj Kal – 3 Stars

With the beautiful music of the movie released quite a while before the release of the movie, Love Aaj Kal was one of the most awaited films of the year. Even I tried my best to watch it as soon as possible. But the movie finally ended up being an ordinary Bollywood type love story with some jabardasti (forcefully) added modernism and a lot of non-natural acting.

From the very first scene, Saif Ali Khan has looked very confused while portraying a modern young man. Deepika Padukone too was only able to deliver the dialogues without adding any emotional touch to them.

Though the plot is set up in London but where in this world people break up so happily that they actually end up giving a party? And to add to that, even after break up, they remain the closest person for each other. Ridiculous!! Looks break up is a child’s play and people play this game whenever they are bored and guess the producers in Bollywood think that the Indian audience is ready to eat anything they serve. Moreover, Saif is portrayed as a guy who doesn’t believe in love and this guy couldn’t move on without his ex-girlfriend when the two are apart.

And the appearance of Rishi Kapoor is again made to look very unnatural. And why does Saif entertain a person who is telling a love story to him, an age old Indian love story, while he doesn’t believe in the existence of love.

And now, going back to the 1965 story, when Rishi Kapoor (actually played by Saif) was in love......here again, Saif is quite unable to give the look and tashan (style) of a true sardar. And guess what, while the guy acts like a loafer and follows the girl everywhere the girl falls in love with the guy instead of being angry. And then there comes the normal Bollywood drama of the girl going away from the guy and the guy following her to places, the girl getting married to some other person and the brave ‘man’ steals her away while half of the wedding is already done.

And in present times, Rishi Kapoor tries to persuade modern Saif about how true and sacred his love was and how has the meaning of the word changed in the present times. And since for Bollywood, old is always gold even if it looks like coal, Saif has to come round and he gradually starts realising his love for his ex Deepika.

There are many more glitches present in the movie:

• Deepika realises her love for Saif after they have been separated for two years and she is with Rahul Khanna for one year.
• This realisation happens the very next day she is married.
• Rahul Khanna behaves as if nothing has happened when Deepika leaves her on the very next day of their wedding.

As I write this, the gross income for the movie is soaring. Maybe because people expected the movie to be as good as the songs. But since the revenue is expected to go much higher, I can only say that anything sells in Bollywood these days, at least the success of movies like Kambakkth Ishq and Singh is King suggests so.

3 out of 5 stars from my side!! 

Seize the Day

If life gives you a lemon, make a lemonade!!

Sounds so nice but so Utopian, isn’t it? Well, it certainly does sound a bit ideal but it’s not as one comes to think about it more seriously. It’s quite true that we may feel defeated and not energetic enough to get up again with the same enthusiasm but still, there are certain things we can draw energy from, certain things we can do which won’t ever let us feel that we couldn’t do it. And all it requires it to have a look at the life from some other perspective, to have a non confirming attitude towards victory or defeat, success or failure.

To start with, I would like to mention a small experience of mine yesterday morning. I got a bit late for the swimming lessons today morning and since the slots are limited and it was Saturday, I was just unable to make it. I say just because I was the first one in the queue when the entry closed. What a bad luck!! And what a mood off for the entire day!! So how did I have a different view for my bad luck today morning??

Well, I took as an opportunity to run around the LBS Stadium. And believe me, I was not less pleased after the running session when I came back to my room. No regrets for not been able to go to swimmingJ. Had I not decided to run instead of swimming, in all probabilities, I would not have been happy and would have given the kind of start to a weekend which nobody wants to.

Though this was a small incident but the same can be applied to the biggest problems and worries of life. Sometimes, despite our hard work and labour, we don’t get what we want and this is when is the time to think in a different way so that we don’t feel defeated or lost.

Is it always possible to think in a different way? I mean does life offer us those many options? Some would promptly say, “Come On!! There are only a few who get one option after another”. But I would say that all we need to sit down, relax and start thinking with a slightly different mindset. To illustrate this, I would like to quote a simple example from the classic movie ‘Dead Poets’ Society’, where John Keating (played by the actor Robin Williams) asks his students to stand on the teacher’s table and have a look at the classroom. And all this was done to make them view the classroom in a different manner. So, if viewing a room from a different height can give a different idea about the scenario, why can't thinking from some other angle do the same?

If we talk in terms of social psychology, there is a term called ‘mental set’ which is ‘the temporary readiness to perceive, think or act in a particular way’.  And mental set is quite a big obstruction in the process of problem solving.

So, all we need to do is to come out of our mental set, have a different and positive take on most of the things in life and finally ‘Seize the Day’.