Tuesday, October 2, 2012

What More?


Much to my dismay, I continue to be bothered by unsatisfied people around me. They seam to loathe life even though it may seem for others that everything is going fine for them. They can’t be stopped when they complain about their lives, their fate, their bank balances, their bosses, their over achieving cousins, the employers, and this list is endless. This is a new phenomenon that I believe that people typically acquire in their twenties. I do not remember meeting any cribber during my early childhood, middle school and college. This bunch of bugs has suddenly cropped out in the last few years since I started working in the corporate sector.

The typical talking point of this unhappy lot is the high real estate prices, unco-operative bosses (read ‘bosses who don’t fall for honey talk’), NRI cousins, IIT/IIM cousins/friends, rich classy friends met at the hobby class/foreign language class, frequent globe trotting friends and so on.

Take the example of a guy who is making a cool six figure sum, drives a posh four wheeler, resides in an elite location in a fancy apartment and is married to a woman he loves…and he is only 28. It seems like everything is going well for him. Alas, all is not rosy as he says. He thinks he deserves a higher position in the organisation, drive a better four wheeler, a bigger house and his matter of choice of his lady remains ambiguous. What prompts him for such greed/desire to succeed/ resounding unhappiness/constant bickering remains a mystery.

Far from this maddening environment, I leave office perplexed my state of being. As I walk towards the bus stop where I hop on to my way home, I cross a subzi mandi (vegetable market). It caters to the middle and low class folk of the surrounding locality and does not present a very appealing ambience to the visual or olfactory senses. However it reminds me of my childhood in Madurai town which was then laced with open drainages and rampant vegetable/fruit shops. Another common point in the two scenes is the loose cow/bullock/ox that sways around in the road unaware of any chaos. All these things have a peculiar smell and sound that I still remember and am reminded of when I cross that vicinity.

Somewhere deep within, it (the walk though the stinky market) strikes a bell that reminds me of my past, and the paths that I have tread. It helps me to be grounded and stay close to reality. It obviates vanity and lets me enjoy the strides that I have made due to God’s abundant grace on me.

Friday, April 20, 2012

The paths not taken..

Dear Lord Jesus Christ,
What happened to the paths that I could not take?
Where were they leading and where did they go?
What was in them,
that disappeared in untold folklore?
anticipation and dreams filled the forthcoming yore..
When the hour of the path passed by,
The sweat of labor was flowing high,
I was wishing them to smile, embrace drew nigh
To take me far to an engaging fore,
The material chase with mirages galore,
myopic movement, acrid race,
they all fizzled out in painful haze..

Dear Lord says,
Poor dreamer you are , poorer schemer,
juvenile planner and   unimaginative lover of life..
The paths you took have been bigger, bigger than the dreams,
Green and blue, beautiful,
divine sweeps of fine and full air,
concieved, planned and executed by Myeslf..

Dear Lord Jesus Christ,
Who am I to bother about the paths to take..
Your Holy spirit moves me in my existense..
In all happiness,
I must praise You,
For my blessing of being carefree 

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Questions of some differently abled social beings

  • Why does having to be a social animal be so difficult for some?
  • Why are the odds stacked against some and little or none against their detractors?
  • Why do the people who have access to the most vulnerable areas of a human mind often the ones who also like to hit them the hardest ?
  • Why don't some people ever learn to guard their vulnerabilities?
  • Why don't some people have vulnerabilities?
  • Where does justice hide?

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Ek Deewana tha


The major drawback of the movie is the communication/understanding gap between the director and his audience. This story was originally conceived by a Tamil speaking/thinking director (Gautam Menon) for a Tamil audience. It did exceedingly well in TN and carried over to Telugu Nadu with an equal measure of appreciation.

Having lived in both sides of India, I appreciate the difference of thought in the masses; The Southerners are an obsessive lot and pay a hell lot of importance to words such as *love* and *emotion*. The northerners are a more practical (slightly more on a relative scale) lot in the love front and they term affections of this magnitude as ‘obsession’.

The story may be based in Mumbai, but Juhu can never be Anna Nagar culturally. An Anna Nagar guy falling for an Ernakulam girl was believable and this Juhu guy doing the same looked abnormal and *typically obsessive*. A Kerala girl in Mumbai falling for a *vella* guy would look improbable for the people in the northern half of our country. I can hear a few of my Punjabi buddies taking my case on that point.

Gautam Menon has missed the trick by failing to draw a original Mumbaikar. A original Mumbaiya guy falling for a Ernakulam mallu in his own original way and style would have made an interesting watch. After two memorable outings in Tamil and Telugu, Gautam Menon falls in this Bollywood venture.

Other low points:

• Lyrics, they lacked the punch that was there in the Tamil version. Javed Aktar’s dismal run continues. He has failed to substantiate words suitable enough to carry people into the worlds of their imagination, to be able to connect with the characters in the feeling of pain, joy, despair, helplessness, confusion
• The characterisation was weak. The role of a friend which stood out in the Tamil version was lacking in terms of strength of characterisation. The UP bhaiyya just did not leave an impression as a guy we meet in our day to day life.

The highs:

• The music, AR Rahman delivers yet again….melodious numbers which were betrayed by lack of support from the lyrics department.
• The photography was brilliant and a delight to the eyes.
• Gautam menon does have an eye for beautiful women and excels in capturing and displaying them in full measure. Trisha (the best of the lot _first in class advantage), Samantha and Amy Jackson are women who will linger in the mind of the Indian audience , particularly the corporate kind.