Amusing Species called “Women”

As Shakta Advaita, our ancient epic quotes, the Divine Mother took form and bestowed her healing touch in the wombs of females of all species. It’s also believed that femininity of woman can not exist without her power or Shakti which is considered as a metaphor for the womanhood. She is also called Prakriti, as she balances out the male aspect of God or Purusha. Since ancient times, our literature and cultural beliefs had been using these pious expressions for women. But the legend of womanhood remained faded until recent past. Concept of a woman our grand parents possess completely contravenes the way we perceive her today. A woman in the past was a subset of her husband’s life, subdued with almost no individuality. Expenditure in her wedding and then her inability to be dependable later in their old age made her parents consider her a liability. She mutely accepted her ruin enslaving herself first of her father, then her husband and later on her son. But in the recent times, to the displeasure of social hypocrites, women have started objectifying this Shakti in a way never seen before.

Today’s woman is unwilling to relinquish her career which she tends to keep ahead of having kids. But it’ll be wrong to render this tendency as selfish because somewhere, it’s at the back of her mind that today, when world is more competitive and expensive than ever, continuous flow of money is needed to raise a child. That’s why; often she doesn’t budge while making uncomfortable decisions that bars her from having quality time with her loved ones. She is ambitious today and dreams big, and yet is conscious that men become insecure and don’t like it if she becomes too demanding, or if she learns faster than them. As mother, as wife, as daughter; she always tries to understand what is expected of her and endeavors to give her best. Even at work, I find stark difference when I work with women as compared to men. I find them more tolerant, considerate, patient and at times more organized.

Cooking had always been the domain of women. But when the passion for cooking rather than the love for the family becomes the driving reason for experimentation with food, then it becomes cumbersome for men to eat “the things” and still appreciate them. Said that, it becomes still more cumbersome when they have to tolerate “the aftermath” of such meals. Be that as it may, women love to cook and watch their beloved slurp new dishes. That’s why today, at the end of their day which is full of fight and struggle; even though women expect that their husbands should help them out, they never hesitate cooking for a family. Partly because of their unending love for them. Partly because of their far-sighted understanding that if a member is naturally better than the other in something, it’s wise to lead rather than to have an argument.

Of course they overdo few things. Being unmarried, I’m not very closely aware of the dynamic behavior of women who are at times more complex than quantum mechanics which even the likes of Niels Bohr once feared. But going by my experience with my mother, cousins; women are very very particular about the orderliness at home. They may occasionally shout at men for being messy and ask them to co-operate, but they take ownership of household duties. Perhaps that’s why there are housewives and no househusbands.

Shopping is something that a lot of women can’t do without. I mean, it’s not very unusual for them to feel that they can’t do without a dress/sandals/crockery etc they saw the earlier day. When I asked many women on this, they politely refused this and few even quoted Warren Buffet and his “spend-only-for-your-needs” philosophy. My respect for this lord of money has shot up like never before. If he keeps influencing these big-time shopaholics, I’ll certainly save on my pocket in the future. Said all, if you carefully analyze, you’ll find that very few items actually belong to our enthusiastic shoppers and most are for family and house. Be it renovation, furniture or utilities for family members; they never leave any stone unturned to translate a house bounded by walls into a home bounded by a thread of love and happiness. No wonder they are called homemakers.

All those involved in the conceptualization of the K-series soaps where those wealthy, dumb, cruel and lame creatures wear unearned expensive clothes and paint everything over their head and pass all the leisure time in dirty games, should be sued for portraying women so unjustifiably awful. Women are very much cost and time conscious. Many working women feel empowered enough to be able to support or even run the family. And most married women prefer to utilize their time for constructive activities and also own up the financial responsibilities in their own capacities. At home I’d never seen my mom resting for a jiffy after having a dreadful and tiring day. Our family had seen some tough financial times in the past, though dad never let those worries passed on to us. Today everything is well-off and kids are settled, still she refuses to spend for comfort and handles all the household duties, though maids can be afforded. Even today, there are swaying bargains while purchasing vegetables for a week and persistence advices passed on to children on saving.

Women are funny! In my company, while guys can be often seen fuddling with engineering tool box on shop floor, women can be seen carrying “colorful tool box” that they use very artistically in front of mirror! They need umbrellas to shed themselves from pitiless sun, which they often throw away in the rain. They follow Egyptian tradition of mummying themselves when they go out in the wind. The subjects like kaamvali bai, some girl seen somewhere with someone, recipes, clothes etc are enough for their discussions for hours. The wardrobe full of clothes is never enough for them. And they are convinced that God has created hair for experimentation only. In all, they are extremely conscious of the way they exhibit themselves. At the same time, they think that their endeavor of refurbishing themselves deserves unconditional acceptance and admiration. While we men laugh it out at their excessive insistence on appearance, we forget that cleanliness and beauty are nothing but the physical forms of purity.

There are few Masakkalis too. They appear very animated, conversational, untested and frantically expressive. They do away with facade, are completely genuine and natural in their behavior and hence at times easy to deal with. They mumble a song while working and celebrate tiny accomplishments. Many times I get a feeling that rationality in their thought process reaches only up to a point and from there, prejudices and emotions take over. But when I start unearthing their minds, the intellectual facets start blurring which eventually get clearer and clearer. Then I think: Is this innocence because of the fact that they never got a raw deal? But then I’ve seen many grown-up and mature women who’ve been at highly responsible positions in corporate world where one is consistently assessed and tested. Still they are so calm and balanced. Then I realize, women stay unaffected in most of uncomfortable situations because they don’t fall prey to the terrible evil called ego. Moreover, obligingly, with their soothing and gallant existence, they fill the emotional emptiness and gaps created by hardheaded and egoistic ideologies of men. Sometimes I think that as rationalists and lords of diplomacy, men might be good in describing what life is or how to live it. But in many ways these Masakkalis teach them how to be life.

What can one be fond of passionately? Exercise, cricket, WWE, movies, Video Games? Na! Here also women stump me by their amusing choices. They like gardening. They like sharing quality time with parents/friends. Many of them like painting or even dancing!

Women do reserve some time for themselves and their hobbies. But unlike their mad and crazy spouses, they do it in full knowledge of the fact that unless they are satisfied and contented as an individual they can’t give a quality time to the family.

This is the prodigy of a woman. A woman who tries hard to be a part of happiness of her husband. Who strives hard to nurture the relationship she regards the most. Who is cultured, prudent and in the attempts to give her best becomes sloppy and vulnerable at times; but acts tough against all odds to take care of her husband. All this and in return, seeks only his understanding, his concern and just wants him to care for her sensitivities. Can’t he afford this for so much?

Be that as it may, it’s because of women that the world has become interesting, beautiful and better place to live in.

Independence in Modern World

Independence! By and large, this word implies self-government of an autonomous nation by representatives of its population. But in this article, I note my observations on relevance of independence today for an adult as he balances his work life and personal life so that he can resolve conflicts early by recognizing the opposite forces he experiences in his thoughts and actions. This tricky sentence will definitely make sense if you reach the end by reading thoroughly!

Detachment:

Some wise head has said, “To be detached is wisdom. To be attached is folly.” Detachment is actually independence from the need to hold on to possessions, family, people. This is a very subtle but important concept.

We want to be right and always have strong opinions and beliefs about what’s fair in various situations and feel the need to correct people not realizing that perceptions differ and people feel differently about the same thing. At any given point of time, we can have opinions; but we should be independent of need for their acceptance by others. You can continue to be Mr. Right who can’t be understood by anyone. Or, by developing a little empathy, you can convey your understanding and appreciation of someone’s point of view. There is a better chance that he may listen to your point and you can progress to a consensus by finding some common ground. Else, you can always disagree in peace and still enjoy his uniqueness.

Of course there are more dimensions to a firm position one takes in an argument. I’ve had an experience of being pulled down and ridiculed many times by influential people who didn’t budge from their opinions. But on retrospection, I realized that those were the efforts to see that when I’m pushed to the edge, whether I get immediately give in or stay firm on my point. Whether I provide more data or repeat the same things in loud voice. When it comes to bigheads, while it’s important not to get overawed by their position; with open mind we can always listen to their viewpoints, analyze new data, consider their experience and then stay firm or modify our opinions. After all, change is fundamental to growth and without growth we are dead in terms of generation of ideas and fair judgment.

The attachment with family is very delicate subject and it arises from the need to own people we care for. Kahlil Gibran guides us on this in The Prophet:

Your children are not your children…

They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you…

And though they are with you, they belong not to you.

Metaphorically, children here refers to all the people we care for... parents, friends, relatives, colleagues etc. The last line of poem is intuitive and suggests that you can always enjoy bonding in your relationships with people but you should be independent of need of others reciprocating it. I’m from a typical Marathi middle class family where people are conditioned to “keep investing” in relationships. That was right yesterday. Not today. At times my mom finds it difficult to accept the fact that modern souls are overloaded and she may not see the same concern from nephews and nieces she has seen growing since they were babies. Then I try to counsel her to invest in relationships unconditionally and smartly, until she points out that I’m full of emotional emptiness(!).

You also can’t expect same degree of maturity and understanding from people. It happened with me. I thought I had a good rapport with someone I knew since we used to get along well. But few tough talks didn’t go down well with that person and I received the feedback from somewhere else. Gosh! Being an engineer, I can say that equations are easier to manage than people. They are predictable and have solution!

We all have our own views of achievement. And when our loved ones have to make important decisions, we can always help them by sharing our thoughts and making the facts more visible. But it’s wise to let them choose. This way, not only will they welcome your involvement again but also will feel content and more responsible for their choices. By putting a certain degree of autonomy on them, we not only are detached from need of love and affection from our loved ones but also give them room to grow as individuals and not the copies of us. Love and affection then thrives on mutual respect thus generated.

In the rat race of modern world, most of us want to be perfect to get approval from others. Very few want to be perfect because of the high standards they set for themselves. Either way, people thrive to improve their self image. Few are so desperate with their ambitious careers that they compromise with their family time or even on having kids. They are in fact conditioned to win over themselves! Here, we should appreciate that winning and losing are merely life experiences to learn from. You blow your horns on your victories or sulk in failures, either way you isolate yourself. It’s the need to be perfect that makes you put a lot at stake on winning. After toiling hard, if you can’t relax and feel content, then the battle is really not worth it.

I always idolize Roger Federer for the way he carries himself on the court. Nothing ever bugs this guy’s smile. A true performer is not unconcerned with results but is detached from them. He sets high standards which are way beyond anyone’s expectations; but he is flexible, relaxed, thinks on his feet and concentrates on the current moment to give his best. His natural charm and candor finds an expression in his performance. He learns from his mistakes but always is at peace with himself. Useless emotions are thus replaced by constructive thoughts and actions. Only detachment gives this power!

Power of Knowledge:

Pursuit of power had long since seen the battles fought at the cost of countless lives. Today, knowledge is at par with power in deciding one’s position. For relatively young people like me, pursuit for knowledge is driven by sheer joy of discovery and unalloyed pleasure I find in making contribution to the organization. But you shouldn’t be plagued by Analysis Paralysis where you are driven by the need to feed the intellect continuously with data and analysis. Actions and thoughts should go in parallel. Finally, knowledge has to transform into a saleable technology so that not only people grow but organization also generates revenue.

It’s a pity if a sole purpose of acquisition of knowledge is to gain power over others and to feed one’s vanity. I happened to ask a very senior person once why we have lot of documents on “know-how” but not on “know-why.” He said though there are many organizations that ensure that knowledge gets documented, people are insecure in sharing it for the fear of losing an edge over others. Of course, I’m not pointing at professional consultants and intellectual property cells of organizations. There, knowledge itself is revenue than a means to generate revenue. Point is, position and prestige will naturally come to you as people realize your worth and ability. But if you are always driven by the need of position and prestige that comes with knowledge and not help others with it, you soon loose people. At the end, position is ephemeral and doesn’t remain always. What remains is a bunch of people who grew with you and the contribution they have made because of you!

Emotions and feelings:

In the modern world, as we are progressing, our actions are governed by intellect and not by emotions and instincts as they were earlier. In fact today, people who are driven by emotions are rather considered weak. Warren Bennis sums it up in On becoming a leader very nicely: “Nothing is truly yours until you understand it. Not even yourself. Emotions are raw, unadulterated truth. But if you don’t know why you are happy or anxious, the truth is useless.” Technically, mind generates emotions and feelings as a collective response based on past memories and fulfillment of desires. It’ll be interesting to note that all your negative responses like anger, happiness, and pain actually stem from immature qualities like greed, envy, ego making you weak. Said all, for whatever its worth, it’s not wise to suppress mind. A mind free from need to satisfy clouding emotions can do wonders in guiding intellect. I wish I knew this when I was fighting with my vulnerability in my initial period of work life while handling few of my tough assignments. Negative emotions are your path to be stronger because they arise when you are hit badly at your weaknesses. Once you understand that, you can always work on these weaknesses objectively. Nevertheless, for all the difficult situations, your intellect can still decide rational response based on discrimination, analysis and fair judgment. And that’s why you should put intellect on a driving seat instead of mind.

Emotions are often demanding but add richness and meaning to life. Once in a while, in the full knowledge of your actions, it’s fair to fall for their demands without reservations. Little insanity always spices up life. It’s okay to freak out in malls on whole weekends; though you don’t have anything to shop but so much to see (Hail bachelors!). Or to get lost in that piece of heavenly music you adore, forgetting everything else. Or to buy an ipod you loved though wallet says there is gonna be a drought. Even highly intellectual and successful people are surprisingly warm and even childlike (not childish) in their enthusiasm towards living life to the full. Finally, emotions are not good or bad. It’s the way you allow them to feel their need is the key in deciding their usefulness.

A modern adult is contended, free from pretensions of inferiority or superiority. He meets situations head-on without offending people, understanding feelings and limitations realistically. He is secure; neither seeks power over others nor is threatened by it. He appreciates others’ success and is patient for his rewards. He listens to people but draws his own conclusions. He doesn’t suppress spontaneity, fear change or repeat mistakes. He is independent of anything that weakens him.

He is ready to exploit his full potential and yet to live life…fully!

-OJ

That CGG - My Ameteur Poem

That CGG…
Just the one in my mind, there …
Finds ‘em all turned over & over…

That CGG…
And they all are kids wanting more…
But she reigns with the veto, a statement & all over…

That CGG…
An avowal, for all who put on being loyal…
A Moral Fiber, I abide by, forever…

That CGG…
A zeal, an ardor, a fervor…
And you, just a devotion…

That CGG…
Thought, imagining, musing, reminiscence…
She is here, there, everywhere…

Hail CGG…
See me just the once & oblige…
It’s better to die with memories…
Than to live with dreams…

Arundhati Roy lashing out American Capitalism

In 1997, Arundhati Roy won Booker prize for her first novel "The God Of Small Things."
In 2004, she was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize.

More I learn of her, more I see the signs of an Indian version of Ayn Rand in making! Ayn Rand slashed the communist dictatorship of Russia. Arundhati Roy lashes out the capitalistic dictatorship of America.

Significantly, both women have the same initials!

Below is given the gist of her ever famous documentary: "We" (http://www.weroy.org/)

Fiction and non-fiction are only different techniques of story telling. Fiction dances out of you and the non-fiction is wrenched out by the broken aching road I wake up to, every morning. My writing is not about nations or histories. It’s about the paranoia and ruthlessness of power. About the physics of power that foresees the genocide when too much power is concentrated at the hands of a nation, a corporation or an individual.

Anti Americanism is into the process of being consented into an ideology. But to call some one an anti-American or for that matter, anti -Indian or anti-Timbaktooan is not just racist. It’s a failure of imagination. An inability to see the world in terms, other than those the establishments have set out for you. I’m taken aback by the fact that how many people think that opposing the war in Afghanistan amounts to supporting terrorism or voting for Taliban. If you can be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you can be told what to say or think.

Each person who has lost his loved ones surely knows deeply that no war, no active revenge, no bombs dropped on loved ones of others can blunt the edges of their pain. A war can’t avenge for those who have died. War is only a brute of desecration of their memories.

Yet another war, this time on Iraq, by scenically manipulating people’s grief by packaging it for TV serials sponsored by corporations selling detergents and shoes is to cheapen and devalue the grief. This is a vulgar dismay of the business of grief. The commerce of grief. The pillaging of most private human feelings for political purpose. It’s not clever enough a subject to speak of from public platform. But what I want you to see is a loss, grief, failure, brokenness, numbness, uncertainty, fear, the death of feeling, the death of dreaming and the absolutely relentless, endless, habitual unfairness of the world.

On September 1973 in Chile, General Pinochet overthrew a democratically elected government into CIA backed crew. Thousands and many more were killed in public executions, torture chambers and concentration camps. The dead were buried in mine shafts and unmarked graves. “In United States, we are sympathetic to what you are doing in Chile. We wish your government well” US conveyed, knowing the involvement of CIA in massacre. For 17 years, people lived in the dread of sudden knock on the door in midnight. Those of us who’d known a life in democracy can hardly imagine what an absolute loss of freedom in dictatorship means. It’s not only those who General Pinochet murdered but also the lives he stole from the living must be accounted for.

Winston Churchill said of the Palestinians: “I do not agree that a dog in a palace has a final right to the palace even he may have remained there for very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit there is a great wrong done to Palestinians by the fact that a stronger, higher grade, worldly wise race has come and taken their place.” Palestine ceased to exist except in the minds and hearts of its natives, who became refugees. It is still considered illegally occupied. People never know when their homes will be demolished, when their children will be shot, when they’ll be allowed to go the market to buy medicine and food.

Donald Rumsfield said that his mission in the war against the terrorism is to persuade the world that Americans must be allowed to continue their way of life. When the maddened king stamps his foot, slaves tremble in their quarters. So standing here to death, it’s hard for me to say this that the American way of life is simply not sustainable. Because it doesn’t acknowledge that there is a world beyond America.

Fortunately, power has a shelf life. When the time comes, may be this mighty empire will, like others before, overreach itself and implode from within. It looks as though the structural cracks have already appeared. As the war on terror casts its net wider and wider, America’s corporate heart is hemorrhaging. Given all this endless, empty chatter of officials about democracy, freedom of speech and transparency, today the world is run by the three most secretive institutions in the word:

1) The International Monitory Fund (IMF)
2) The World Bank
3) The World Trade Organization (WTO)

All three in turn are dominated by US. The decisions are made in secret. The people who head them are appointed behind the closed doors. Nobody really knows anything about them; their politics, their beliefs, their intentions. Nobody said they can make decisions on our behalf. A world run by a handful of greedy bankers and CEOs who nobody elected. Soviet style communism (Russia) failed not because it was intrinsically evil, but because it was flawed. It allowed too few people to use up too much power. American capitalism will fail for the same reason. Both are edifices constructed by human intelligence, undone by human nature. Perhaps the things will become worse and then better.

-Arundhati Roy in “We”, the documentary.

Krishna- Emblem of Fresh and Successful Life

We’d been loving and worshiping Lord Krishna all our lives but this affection has borne more out of religious aspects than practical ones. And at the same time, our unconditional fondness for this Lord places him at such a height that we deny any opportunity to learn from him by having a stand like “He is Lord Krishna, invincible”. I used word him and not Him, because in this writ, I’m going to explore all the qualities of this magnificent personality that epics have gifted us as a normal person. A man, unlike his fellow Karna, looked at each problem as an opportunity, moving past any scars left by past demonstrating us an enlightening life. It’s this life if we could understand at our level; we can learn a lot in order to become a better person, not only spiritually but also practically.

Leadership:

Krishna epitomizes today’s objectivistic view that says “Value can’t enslave you if it’s acceptable by choice”. All the choices he made had Plan-Act-Improvise process at their core. He always employed his foresight to plan things, his assertive aggression to act on it and the analysis of useful information that he gathered from his sources to improvise. His administrative skills, flexibility, foresight and a positive approach to face the challenges being vulnerable at times- all qualities are indicative of a good leader. At the same time, if we have a close look at his life, we’ll realize that he also followed the phases of a successful leadership by being an achiever in his young days, gathering a wisdom that he shared later in the form of Gita, and later as mentor to Pandavas, devising strategies to defy the depraved criminals being a kingmaker. He guided them not only on their path but also on thoughts. While he was powerful, he was humble. While he was aggressive, he wasn’t impatient. He was ideologist but at the same time was a good diplomat. But more than anything else, while working in teams, he always had a vision: “Leadership is not how much you ‘weigh’ against others. It’s about how much you are making a positive difference.”

Empowerment:

Who mentored Krishna? Who was his guardian? No answers will come from even the religious barons as Krishna knew the significance of the word Empowerment. In all situations, roles and while dealing with people, he always employed his own carefully invented strategies and tricks that have over the period of time he validated by experiment and thoughts. He had his independent thought process that weighed choices and once he had decided on a choice, he would go ahead employing aggression at one time or diplomacy at other as needed and hence he couldn’t be influenced by powerful people. In Jack Welch’s language (Former CEO, GE), he was a leader for all time, all situations, all objectives and all people with a Link-Listen-Learn-Lead strategy. His habit of appreciating a good work and his presenting the same before the crowd with same fervor always helped his fellow men to elevate and empower themselves to accept more responsibilities. From these strivers were borne some of leaders that made a difference.

Balance:

His skills in interpersonal relationships were absolutely impeccable. In today’s life, where in the peer pressure, everyone runs the rat-race being another unwanted rat in the race. Mind is floored with silence when one thinks, really how much he is loved by people in even a circle of close relationships. We keep fighting with the four evils-Ego, envy, anger and fear- created by our own mind from which Krishna seemed far distant and hence he was always ready to savor life. He never knew of depression. He always balanced these two states of mind-Materialism and asceticism with equal ease and agility. He floated big responsibilities but never forgot to enjoy very small pleasures in his mates, food, solving puzzles and playing flute. At the same time, he never was controlled by these pleasures; presenting the world a new definition of spirituality. Krishna balanced a triangle of social time, professional time and his own individual time. He never broke his brain into pieces over time, relationships and demanding mind. He knew that diamond is just a piece of coal that did better under pressure. He always entered roles and situation effortlessly, enacted his role with calm mind and deserted the plot at right time with agility leaving all concerned an opportunity to learn. It’s this compartmentalization in his life that had always helped him balance his work and life really well.

Efficacy:

The reason why he was convincing and invincible was mostly because he had been clear in his objectives knowing exactly what he wanted. At the same time he used the right blend of confidence and self-esteem to uplift himself from emotional calamities. And he always employed sense and logic instead of power and fear to influence people which made him more acceptable and effective. While he enjoyed his life fully, his mind would always work subconsciously on future and challenges.

Krishna asked the same question as the Joker asked in “The Dark Knight”, “Why so serious?” Because he understood that seriousness is only a shade of ego and ignorance from which wise men are far distant. Wise men are always joyous, celebrating life. In fact, all the religious groups are coming up with new definition of worship which is: “Celebration is a form of worship”. Ritual is not needed. But celebration is. Dance itself is enough; it need not be offered to God. Song itself is enough; it need not be offered to a God. Pouring of heart is important for the communion than the rituals!

History has proved that with a man, “Reach exceeds the Grasp”. In today’s fast, demanding and uninterrupted world, if everyone tries to become Krishna at individual level, the happiness and content that was a characteristic of Ayodhya would never desert our nation.

Bollywood Versus Hollywood

Yeah, I see your giggling face with a right blend of sarcasm and humor in that smile, after seeing this title. By and large, though I never approve of any comparison as I believe when you compare something you are insulting its uniqueness, at few occasions comparisons are handy at setting benchmarks. Here, I use word “versus” to render how differently these two worlds function as well as how they can learn from each other.

Bollywood as we all know had always found its opulence in emotions. From art of RK to sensitive intellection of Ray. From ahead-of-times valor of Shantaram to romantic world of Ghai. From glamorous tadka of Johars and Yashraj to poetic world of Bhansali. Everywhere you’ll see emotions being practiced over and again. Revenge, humor, patriotism, courage, sacrifice and yes, how can one forget that? Love! You’ll see some of all of these used sparingly everywhere.

India had long been bestowed with many gifted actors. RK, Devanand, Dharamendra, Rajesh, Rishi, Bacchan, Dilip and a few new-fangled like Aamir, Akshay, Kamal all portray a mammoth talent that had never let their takers starve of towering performances. I mean I loved the way Dharm Paaji and Amitabh made us laugh through practical jokes in Chupke Chupke. While the same duo defined a new era of thrillers through Sholay which was later blatantly disparaged by RGV’s AAG as people said it was a sequel of the former. Then came the crazy uncertainty of Amol Palekar in Golmal and the pragmatic Rajesh in the Bawarchi who philosophized the life though his simplistic existence. The women like Hema, Rekha, Dimple were no less in having their own portfolio of acting skills as well as splendor steal breath of the audience. And when I adjust the lens of my telescope to make it a binocular for time, I see the burning Aamir of Sarfarosh, Lagan, RDB, Taare. The conviction with which this guy goes in any role is just stupendous. I heard for Ghajini, he has shaved his head. The bottom-line is not to act like a character. But to feel being it, breathe like it, live like it in front of camera. Ahshay had been good as a flamboyant khiladi earlier. But later on, films like Namaste London are making him more convincing. Ajay Devgan and Akshaye Khanna are also the able inclusions for our list. I mean Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Vijaypath, Company, Zakhm… Really the remarkable films, having the talented Ajay glowing. While DCH and recent Aaja Nachle had me believe strongly that in Akshaye, we have the most underrated actor in the film fraternity. Few omissions for the sake of space to be pardoned. But as expiation for all those die hard SRK fans, whom I excluded knowingly, I’m ready to have him in the list too just if they take pains to read the writ through to the end! I think save Swades and Chakde, SRK had always been SRK in all his movies, with merely his name changed to that of character. He hardly had been a character he needed to be. Darsheel Safary, the hugely talented cutie from Taare.., though it’s too early to judge him on one film, I believe has everything in him to join the list. It was shocking and hard to believe when I saw the naughty, confident and sharp Darsheel in his interviews as against patient hardworking and poised Ishan in Taare. God, this kid has guts and he knows it. But thanks to the award ceremonies, he has to wait for a while to get the recognition he is due.

When it comes to films, Andaz Apna Apna, Swades, Lagaan, Chak Dey and the recent Taare Zameen Par are my favorite, with Taare being the most riveting film I’d ever seen.

The list and the explanations can go on and on. But if one goes deeper in analyzing things, many frail links can be surfaced. While the music has been one of the most integral and beautiful facet of Hindi Cinema, the overuse of the same has really been annoying to the serious and intellectual viewer. Those love songs, for instance, contributing nothing to the plot, gave a breakthrough to all those trees and foreign locales hanging in the background when our hero and heroine wandered singing and dancing. I heard of story of an NRI who saw a typical Hindi movie for the first time. He wondered after seeing the movie that the last moment the couple was in their house somehow trying to make the both ends touch, if not meet (I mean they were very poor. Explanation is necessary seeing at the supposed absurdity suggested by the phrase used!) , and suddenly they are at different picturesque places with their clothes changing every half minute and the music pouring in from the sky helping them sing and dance at a smooth pace. I mean it was difficult for that rational and intellectual poor fellow to digest the fact that to enjoy a Hindi cinema, you’ve to assume, forget and forgive lot many things unlike Hollywood flicks where each scene and move has a very carefully crafted strategy and reasons. Said all, the elixir of the melody made available to a common man by veterans like RD Burman and A R Rehman had always made the lives and moments of billions more enlightened and happy. The harvest of the good Indian music is really like a national treasure for us. Believe it or not, only as a tribute to all those music architects, I decided to buy my brand new N70 Music Edition, though the price had been taxing. Eventually I possess it by my side every time and everywhere so that after a hectic time, I always have asylum in the harmony of the music that helps me connect to my inner self and nature. Ultimately, if you can connect to these two, He is not far away.

Variety is there. But you have to search for it. Really, it’s very hard to find a “different” film these days. The film with vulgar and aphrodisiac contents replaced by a sound script and riveting story and an unfeigned character going at his own pace. Now here Hollywood comes handy. I happened to saw few small-scale movies like Election, Crossroads, Bring it on… where the stories were really simple but the characters really honest. They all had their own realistic fights in life. They had to step ahead in the face of uncertainty being vulnerable. Few of them were larger-than-lifely brave for their mammoth tasks. Few were not as brave. But they understood that the bravest thing you do when you don’t “feel” brave is to profess courage and act accordingly. It was really touching to see even school kids shown confronting their own problems and making their own decisions, having support of their pure friendship.

Few of the films that I really liked reckon Click, The Independence Day, In pursuit of happiness, Jurrasic Park, The Abyss, Forest Gump, Troy and yes, all movies starring Elisha Cuthbert! Why? You know, one has to make exceptions for special people no? So I say all her movies are unconditionally beautiful. Jokes apart, to tell you the truth, I’m not a very regular viewer of the English movies. So few of the finest movies in Hollywood would have escaped me. But being a descent observer that I believe I am, I can share my thoughts on account of whatever I could absorb. Actually I started viewing English movies seriously at the twilight of my college days. Much of the blame can be of the reputation the English movies have created in the minds of people in India. I mean, a child spotted seeing movies on English channel is supposed to be looking for “something” that was not “ethical” according to parents. I hope you understood the meanings of these two highlighted words. And often, this “something” was really embarrassing while enjoying movie with family or even when you are enjoying the good plot and suddenly “it” starts and your dad props up from somewhere. I also was having no different prejudice until I started seeing some really quality stuff in Hollywood. But now I hunt for it. Seriously.

English movies are all giant. In terms of their budget, concept and portrayal. You just look at Titanic and wonder how they would have managed all that disaster that looked so obvious. You see Matrix Trilogy and exclaim “Wow” at the whole concept. The hugeness of Lord of the Rings literally blinded us. And the best part of it is that it looked all real. The power of silence was explained by The Abyss of John Cameron. I shivered when I saw the actor going down, down in the dark abyss of an ocean. And then, rested on back with the support of rock, he sees the alien. He shakes hand with him and then travels to the kingdom of aliens. Gosh! What a dizzying feeling it was! It was shown with such intensity that I had to switch the channel. Any receptive viewer will never forget it. Michael Clayton appealed me after I saw the originality in the character portrayed by George Clooney. I never had seen Brad Pitt in action. But his Achilles in Troy left me astounded with his conviction and ease with which he was under the skin of the warrior.

In all, the Hollywood presents the stuff that can be savored after deep and sincere involvement. Whilst, relatively, Bollywood movies had been easy and slow and often superficial. Well the reason is not that we don’t have people who can do more intense and serious stuff. But the fact that there are very few who’ll really appreciate and accept such different project. So they’re obviously skewed to produce what sells. Complicated but good movies like 16 December, Chocolate and Khoya Khoya Chand can rarely find any audience. Because people don’t understand, rather don’t wish to understand the stuff. After a hectic week and at a price of Rs. 180 a ticket in multiplex, people prefer to invest their time with family in some masala movie which can cater to all members as moderate comprehension is required. Even at times, I’d like to see some gorgeous actress performing at her best instead of the tense horrifying action of Hollywood that leaves you out of breath. It’s natural.

If you take a dig at the psychology of west and India, one cultural difference stands out. I’ve observed that western people find pleasure in adrenalin out rush like in loud music concerts, partying or adventures. Whilst Indians have long since found Shastria Sangeet, Bhajans, cultural festivals and social gatherings as stress busters. They prefer being calm and peaceful and getting excited for them is like loosing balance. This might be the reason that most of the characters in our movies are more human. I’ve always found a liveliness and freshness in our actors commendable as against the expressionless inhuman and complicated Hollyhood heroes.

Whatever it may be, lemme tell you, after seeing two intense Hollywood films in a row in a day, I can not digest third. I get fed up. But then instead of saying they are bad, I’ll say I’m not an audience for such movies.

The Lighter Moments

Do you always find yourself sickly sweet & primed by some kind of emotion driving you crazy? Mind you, that may be anything. Worry, ambition, happiness, stress, frustration, impatience. While you walk, is it the fact that your eyes are seeing things, but nothing gets registered in brain as it is awfully busy processing at full capacity analyzing the things you choose to think on? If yes, then you are the member of the HMWS club. I mean Heavy Mind & Wounded Soul club. A mind & a soul overloaded by unnecessary thoughts & convictions that borrow significant part of your personal power, leaving you stressed, exhausted & forlorn.

We all, consciously or subconsciously, do add weight to our moments. Let’s see how we can draw out some mass out of them to make them lighter & hence easy to bear & more savory.

An example to cite on. My own. I really didn’t think I was capable of scribbling few lines on paper (Or shall I say strike my PC keyboard?). One clear day, I summoned the valor to start on & slashed few lines of my first ever writ. But then on, owing to versatile décor of English, the goal post shifted from putting on thoughts towards presenting good language. That’s why; the stuff I had presented earlier required a lot of effort. Effort in putting it together all the chaos inside, in the consciously measured words. Flow of thoughts was there. But drive kept shifting more towards keeping language difficult & hence impressive than conveying thoughts (The things we take time to understand impress us, no?). Over a period of time, as a sane thinker I realized this & decided to make it all a bit lighter, easier & hence human, henceforth. The spontaneity of ideas should indeed be dealt with the spontaneous words one can recall at that moment. And they never can be those toughies! So there I was, a simple dude, going about the world around him with the simplicity that he considers one of his bestowed virtues. My first conscious effort towards making the moments lighter for the writer inside me!

One of the most prevailing things that make mind vulnerable to the misery is refusal to acceptance. Acceptance of defeat & truth. This usually happens with people when they try to deny things as they always watch the world from the eyes of what they perceive themselves to be & not through clear, open eyes. So whenever they face failure, they stumble. Because they consider every option on the earth acceptable save defeat. They deny reality & choose to think it doesn’t exist or it’s not that grave, just like the poor little cat closing its eyes while slurping the milk. They try to wipe out the reality, unaware that they are getting wiped out by reality. Life is full of uncomfortable situations & you can’t avoid them. The pull of them is stalwart. Strong enough to make the moments still heavier. Instead, if these failures are seen in a light of opportunity to learn where you can cobble together, they can just be the blows to shape you to the perfection. Occasional confessions made with sporting approach are perfectly normal. Indeed, to walk tall & unperturbed while the hammer is on, you need to show a great deal of courage. But that’s the price of perfection when you choose to trade with your fate demanding the life of your choice.

Hesitate to compromise? Yeah, I’d like to hear honest answer. That is, Yes! This is another inflexibility of a man. I would like to share one personal experience. In my organization, as a part of HR initiative, exercise sessions are arranged where employees participate to get groomed in various management practices. In one of the sessions, we formed four teams which were regarded as four dummy companies which were to compete globally to acquire the customers. All four were given Rs. 1 crore each & they could use the money for dealing with other companies for customer it has. One full hour of chaotic bargains, dealings and negotiations was over. Results were put on. And to dismay of all, everyone seemed to be left with lesser money, fewer choices & struck business. This all happened because everyone was primed with only one motive. To win & beat the other. But in this, the need to acquire the customers was overlooked. When chances seemed deem to win, everyone was putting efforts to see how the other can’t get what he wants. There was a chance when two teams could have compromised & one could have won while other could still have earned some customers. That way, we could have had a winner & runner up. But the latter company saw to it that former didn’t get the customers of its choice. Result? Both lost. This is a classic case of what happens in professional rivalry. And seeing today’s competitive life, we fall to this predisposition to move ahead as well as keep others behind, adding weight to the moments we have in our hands. As I propose, if the need is given a priority, such a competition becomes an attempt to trade best effort & excel rather than keeping the opponents down.

What’s the common thread binding the people close to each other? Relationships. Man likes to socialize & everyone is of course keen to build & nurture relationships with others to form his close circle of buddies. Friends with whom laughs & tears can be shared together. In doing so, everyone invests in something called as “Favor Bank” where he himself has an account. He deposits favors to others’ account in the bank & withdraws favors from those accounts when he needs. But at times, this investment fails to earn dividends. We help our friend in need but when it comes to pay off, he simply denies or dithers to lend a hand. Still keeps demanding occasionally. Now a common individual, with all his kindness, finds it difficult to refrain from aiding. But each time he obliges his friend, the feeling of being robbed keeps harassing him. Time gains weight. Life gets loaded. Solution to this problem lies in your calculated sternness to his demands. If he is told how unfair his claims had been, in clear but compassionate tone of voice, perhaps he may learn this facet of his behavior which he was unaware of in the light of your discussion. And if Mr. Demander continues to bug you, say “No” & walk out of commitments. After all, even a relationship is a give-and-take deal.

As they say, your past success or failures are enemies of your future achievements. This because the past life increases our inertia, obviating us from being what we are capable of becoming. James in “The Zahir” of Paulo Cohelo felt the same way. He discovered he was destined to be a writer. But started off being a lyric & ended up being a successful celeb in his field. But then, he kept on hesitating strongly to write a book. Since he knew that as he was a bright spark as lyric, people will use his fame as a barometer for his writing as well. And if they find it not worth the effort, he would have been defeated not as a writer but as an achiever. Which of course is not acceptable. Upon persuasion of his wife, he decides to write a book finally. Eventually it hits the bestseller list & then starts his journey as a celeb writer. Time passes adding eminence to his name. And after being on top of the world, again at some heavier moment, when an article in some magazine is asked of him, the same inertia haunts him again refraining him from being the best writer he was. We meet the same indecision when we are challenged or asked to do something different that demands courage, effort & an inevitable change. Affected, often we accept the challenge emotionally, unprepared, and end up under doing to our ability. Result? A disastrous conclusion. Or we push the responsibility to some later moment or avoid it completely for being on a safer side, bearing the load of the moment, unable to dispose of the hopelessness. Our writer opts a funny way to let go of his past. He starts telling true story of his past to one of his companions & soon starts feeling dropped off. Space gets emptied after he escorted all the false dignity, ego & frustration out of his mind. He then fills this space with positive thoughts, commitments & dreams. And after a period of time, realizes that he is now capable of enjoying each day of life as if there were no tomorrow. And most important of all, he gets rid of the bug, called fear of unknown & uncertainty. The time becomes as light as a feather.

Everybody has his own ideas of heroic in human being. Somebody he adores, appreciates & respects. We are very conscious of the way we present ourselves, aren’t we? That’s because we constantly try to find the reflection of that heroic in our projected image that we sport when we are amongst people and are seen, judged & weighed. But this makes the real person inside you hide behind the layers of secrecy, semblance or arrogance. You are guarded because you are afraid that you can be seen through, exposing your weaknesses. Each moment you live, you borrow & put on something that is not yours. This only makes you unstable, anxious & worse- unreal. This pretension may even lead to a point when you loved ones start moving away. And an invitation to HMSW club is there at you door! I thing being original is the right to way to exist as only then you are comfortable and sure of yourself. You are at ease with the things that happen to you & give up taking life a way too seriously. And then, as Spencer Johnson describes, you learn to laugh at the blunders you made & start moving with your cheese wherever it moves, to have it & eat it too!

As Robin Sharma in “A Saint, a Surfer & a CEO” describes, your journey ahead, towards discovering yourself is not to be what you think you should be but what you had been as a kid, as a unique individual. When you start off in the journey to rediscover yourself, a regular dosage of courage & willingness to bring about positive change only help make your moments lighter & you start enjoying the adventure. And when you have voyaged ahead in your life being a ship in a stormy sea, you enthuse to find the new, strong & happy you. Because then you realize that ship is safe at the shore. But that’s not where she is meant to be. And striding out the way into ocean not only assisted her in seeing the new things, but also taught her to fight the odds out of her troubles & fights.

Corporate World & My Life

Even today I evoke the day 21^st July, 2006 when I, for the first time, stepped in L&T, with a sense of change in the way I looked towards world. The day of my transformation from a young amateur enthusiast into a responsible aristocratic professional. It was the same me, yet with a distant sense of detachment from childhood. Still somewhere, the hesitation was there that I should not care for this small change. I was poised. I turned back. I saw the choices I made & the share of my conscience in these choices as opposed to the pull of my parents. I saw the contradictions & they grew as I looked back with different set of questions.

But the stage was set. The induction program went on & we got acquainted with the versatile & giant domains of the organization through the talks of veteran who lived their work for an average of 25 years. All their authority was beaming in the chic style in which they carried themselves. Thorough understanding of business & bottomless knowledge of the products. And to add to this, the passion that radiated through their eyes. It was all new & fascinating for me.

We were all thrilled to listen that most of them joined L&T as GETs. And when they revealed how they rose to their current positions, giggles made one round through entire audi. I don’t mean bribes & dowries. But the fact is that a candidate has to put an excellent performance for about 16 whole years to rise to a DGM level. I’m sure they should have been given a daily dose of some good adhesive in the market. (Read Fevicol. Its tagline resembles the resilience of these people)

Seven days of doctrine concluded to flood us by information. Few of us learned that short but frequent naps surely increase endurance power & help keep one fresh. The departments were allotted to candidates according to strict statistical practices of random number theory! I was allotted PDP & later on subsequently, the design department in it. Thus started my corporate life which dished out hoards of lessons for me.

In my view corporate is a synergy. Synergy of all those sincere efforts put at individual levels by men driven by passion to fulfill the mission of organization, steered by the vision of its leader. This synergy has speed & purpose. It takes a form of a vector, that I call C-vector (C for corporate!) which has a magnitude & definite direction. We, the Young Turks with all the gusto & energy in the world, constitute the magnitude of this vector. But energy if accumulated may explode & hence needs to be channelized. Here comes the role of those clued-up seniors which show us the alleyway to march on! So seniors & juniors come together to form a prevailing force to move the industry & hence economy & hence nation.

Competence, willingness & commitment are always related in fragile sets of scales as to how one performs. But as they say, no matter how good an actor may be, if he has not understood his role fully, he keeps under doing to his ability & is misunderstood at times as a bad actor. Because he can’t identify his one area of expertise & keeps trying is hands at many places. He needs some grooming on these three grounds as well as time for his growth. And more than that, the answer to the question, “What went wrong?” But when people scrutinize the treatment of their superiors, they can’t stand the humiliation, often feel the beating undeserved & start living agony. Rationality in their thoughts goes upto certain point & from that point, convictions take over to take a form of alive force. For some, this force is directed towards the world in the form of aggression. For some, towards themselves, killing them. Leaders are those who make their fellowmen aware of this force within themselves... in right ways…at right times. They avoid the depravity for their men, when they look down after having listened things…in loud voice…that seems less commanding…more insulting…

Expertise in C-world strictly demands the wisdom that only comes through experience. The experience of having mistaken while the things are given a try. Gone are the days when you excel in a subject by reading books of scholars & start putting it all down on a paper. Here, you need to be resourceful, multi-talented & practical to apply your knowledge in demanding situations & should be able to deliver results in time. “I tried my best Sir” can’t be an excuse when things go off beam. You are hired to do your job & not to do your best!

But at times, being new-fangled puts you in uncomfortable & unpleasant situations. And I tell you, you are not prepared for that. Sometimes you hear a language you had never been used to. And at times, while “listening” from you boss, you realize – Oh, that also is my responsibility! I remember the days, and nights, that I burned because I felt I was not putting up my best simply because I couldn’t grasp the scope of my work & responsibility as opposed to what has been my past life-academic as well as personal. Expectation minus rewards is equal to burnout. And perhaps, this burnout was severe in my case as I had never been used to the petty treatment & always had been competent at whatever I undertook since I had been a kid. Exceptions are there-couple of semesters in Engg, when first rate performance deserted my result card. Yes, life has wider dimensions than good figures. Nevertheless, that taught me to accept failures. And I could summon courage to confront these failures because I could find some good friends, that I was starved of, since my 10^th. The guys that pulled me out of a “Vicious Circle”!

Pressures are inseparable facet of C-world which is a brutal form of expectation that crops up whenever a human resource is exploited. This is because everything you do here is a cost that pays off only when your product starts selling & earning dividends for its people. This cost is characterized by money & time. When my boss drops by me for a tete a tete , he expects not only the project plan, schedule & strategy but also the man hours & outlay for the activities. He often comes with this very interesting equation: Progress is equal to Innovation upon Time! Yeah, quite out of the box. To grow, innovate or be fast! No alternative. If one is not able to cope with it, at times he falls into the loop of anxiety, fear & restlessness, collectively causing him stress. He can avoid this if he puts intellect & not emotion on the driving seat & understands his role completely, prioritizes the to-do’s accordingly & separates performance from ego at work place. Most importantly, he should keep his individuality intact by salting away some time for himself, for things he loves to do-sports, hobbies, entertainment- and people he cares & loves the most.

Confidence, Courage & Conviction! The values I always worshipped. Together, they comprise a moral fiber of an individual for his endeavor not only as an employee but also as a living being. But it’s a transgression if he deceives himself by putting up a show of semblance just to satisfy his very human need, gratification. I’ve seen people raising their voices like anything in meetings just to be heard & recognized. But when it comes to taking a decision, they dither to say “Put it on my name chap! I take the responsibility”, choosing neither the leadership nor the subordination. In crisis, the damage control tags on but people continue tossing arguments just to sound “I’m not to blame” instead of, “Let’s come together guys & solve the problem”.

Indeed, exceptions are there. Few exalted top dogs do dare to step out of their comfort zone, sell decisions, command respect & escort their men to the fore. They are the men who expect nothing of nature without trading their best efforts. They are the sole hope & drive for the industry.

The two G’s that keep us moving? Gossip & Girls. And later play an important role in composing & spreading the gossip. It has been proved scientifically that few chuckles of gossiping help relieve people of stress & work pressure. Be it a pretty new girl making rounds in the department or a story of how one poor fellow was hauled over the coal by boss who deems every person under him as mixture of imbecile & enemy; the chat goes on, freshening the loaded lives. The favorite subject? HR policies. When this issue crops up, everybody becomes so charged up that only the clock can stop them. Breakfast or Tea without such a tiny round table conference sounds insipid & incomplete. Few use sarcasm to generate humor. Few open up with their problems to get dropped off. Others just savor the stuff, pleased with the thought-Hey, I’m not alone!

This is corporate, the C-world, where experience is the only teacher & where you spend most of the active time of your life. If you learn to live in present, exploiting each moment with sincere urge to learn & produce, still manage to savor the joy that comes your way, the work & life can just be fun!

The Influential Men

Have you met a kind of person who turns you into a passive listener when you talk with him; yet, when you finish, you don’t feel like being dominated but won & guided? Who runs into you when you challenge him but you end up taking his arguments as preaching & not offence. Who hurls the pure laughter on some occasional joke- which more often than not he only cracks- that confirms that fun in the event is thoroughly savored as it’s mean to be. Who keeps his face & tone expressionless no matter whether he goes through obliteration or achievement. Who throws himself completely into the task in hand when he starts doing things & leads from the front in whatever he does. Who often chooses to step out of his comfort zone to be a ship in the everlasting ocean-be it stormy or serene- far away from the shore; still envisages as if he owns the sea. Who is seen enjoying each moment of his life with the purest joy; commanding a pleasure he knows, he owns & deserves.

Yes?

Then you had had the chance of meeting one of those superlative men on earth. The men with fierce clarity in their minds, demanding firmness in their decisions, decisive authority in their voices & brilliant radiance in their eyes. That’s why when you have a rare chance to have a yak with such a person, your eyes are held by his; going deep into your conscience to unearth your mind. And you sense the distant feeling that some way or the other you are answerable to this man & to the laws of ethics he has created. Influence, as they call it!

The opulence of the world is hoarded in the men like these. They produce more than they consume to add value to commodities they create through their work.

I hadn’t had the privilege of meeting such people many times but whatever opportunities I had; they shelled out giving some imperative revelations. The revelations that render the verity that the suffering they are given by the world is the exact antithesis of the peace & serenity seen on their face.

It’s said that the greatness is a product of pain. And the pain comes from the sacrifice of the dearest. Be it a thing, feeling, emotion or person. These men are used to bearing this pain so effortlessly that we wonder from where they summon the strength to continue moving ahead in tough times, unaffected by the agony in life. Such is their epitome; that the belongings they renounce appear not their needs but the things in need of them!

I find these barons very good at taking uncomfortable decisions in quick time. And they do it in full knowledge of the purpose of their actions & the consequences of the same. This needs deserting some things for the well being in long run They sacrifice the gratification as the first cost of solving problem, emotion as the first cost of learning lesson & desire as the first cost of core competence, their greatest tool. Thus so because they know the basic rule: “Never expect anything of nature without trading your best effort in return. Earn your need. Pay for it.” And they know that these forfeits are the price for the life they will, the grand finale which eventually justifies the fights they summoned for these sacrifices.

In the end, when the battle is won with a great deal of endeavor put in, they are left with the perpetual feeling of triumph: “I’ve paid enough to win the world! I’ve earned enough to move the world!!”

They walk tall. Always. Through the grave of human ethics. Through the depravity of poor bastards pulling their leg. Through the battles with mean, fought on no moral grounds. Through the semblance of corrupt, coward minds who throw the weight around while talking aloud, but turn the face other way around in the need of action, taking neither lead nor subordination. They stand all these. And never refrain from fight.

How do they do it? And more importantly, why?

I think what forbids a productive mind the best it can put up, is the weakening feeling that comes in different forms. As fear. As anger. As despair. As hatred. As complacency. But the factor that affects most is guilt. The guilt of not having abided by the moral code that has a wider acceptance. But the powerful people are devoid of this feeling as they live by their own rules for, as I mentioned, they act in full acknowledgment of their actions & the reasons that justify the same. They are the guiltless people. Strongest on earth. And hence show the integrity to give justice to their pursuit- to transform this world into their world. The world with peace & pure happiness. They are seen fighting & winning in all these scenarios.

At times they try to live on the edge as if they love every moment of insanity. Because they understand that those who think the edge is not enough, take too much space & world always runs short of space. After all what’s life without a little game?…a little risk?…a little adventure?

Often I find them completely starved of emotion. But a few acquaintances showed me that they are as human as a common man, having highest regard & attachment for the things they value. But this indifference to emotion requires an effort not to reveal those expressions on face & body language. The effort that borrows some part of their everlasting, unlimited strength.

Finally, the usual symptom of a great man is his integrity & courage to go against the mass flow denying the established system. Now all those giggling faces would ask why oppose the code of the junta? I’d just care to give the lines which one of my friends utters many times:

“Those who swim against the flow of river don’t do so because they want to discern themselves from the rest. They do so because they know that their goals are at the other side”

That’s all.

-Om.

The running cities & restless lives!

Yes. So life is not about only good meals, your emotional & physical needs be dealt with intent; and the people you heed & like, always around.

It’s only the segment of those woven, worked out jiffies, that abides by your basic wants, food, cotton, shelter. Yes this is Mumbai. Totally budged off owing to the catch-22 quandaries people face to make both ends meet, some how!

At times Mumbaikars are blamed of being agile to trade everything. Almost everything. Right from the products & services that we are inured to; to some we hardly could have thought of, had we never heard of before! Health, love, faith, fear, humor, entertainment, sympathy… all of them are drawn in the business they do it really well. And this intensity of their being involved really comes from the struggle they submit themselves to. Just like corporate world, peer pressure & rat race coerce them to come up with such commerce, though the stakes are overseen by bread & shelter rather than profit & share holder value.

Life counts its own while & proceeds. Pressure creeps in. Finally the bell peals. Frustration tiptoes and finds its way out, often through the violence & destruction. It pulls people’s socks up to untie the fiery thought-jamboree & we see people blighting innocent lives with murders, thefts, riots, protests, underworld fights & scandals. And the list goeth on, endlessly…

The issues that top any sensible list of grounds of this mayhem will, by and large, reckon competition, colossal trend following in education & career fronts, high stakes/risks & stress that draws closer later, over gluttonous politics & corruption.

Today, take any talent; people want it to lend a hand for some recognition, they may dig up airing it. Say singing. No one likes to be Pundit Bhimsen Joshi to get completely immersed in music & raise it to the greater heights as well as to savor the untouched levels of happiness & satisfaction. Or Kishore Kumar who sang for his ardor & it became his life, which later, eventually became a glorious emblem of Indian musical history. Instead, they want to be Abhijeet Sawant, craving for one crore like he had, fame & luxuries he enjoys today. And to get hold of it all, they are ready to submit themselves to the cut throat competition they have to put up with. Stakes are high with the massive participation. Rest & comforts start steering clear of our lives. We become parched of creativity & peace as well.

Whilst professions like management, Engineering, Medical field have the defined ways of exploitation of talent. They come up with good money, recognition & guarantee warranted by security. So masses are predisposed to get into them, diverting all the intellectual traffic to very few spaces, where again the competencies raise their bar making it difficult for a contender to even get into the competition! Those who fail to make it, get sought after by frustration. Those who make into it, start their restless ride, often full of emotions at peak levels. Minds start getting irked, once again.

And that sullied politics, with its never ending greed, is always all set to pilfer national wealth; to make rich richer, poor poorer. The gap adds to between two parties. Similarly it finds its presence at lower levels of administration of government bodies. Fights start waving in the social life of common man. A local form of this greed shapes up into corruption, complicating the proceedings. Again, no place for simple happy life!

And many such things can be alluded to. Indeed it’s a chaos. Solution needs to be eyed out to make our lives better, fruitful & happy. Some asceticism in attitudes, balanced ways of addressing the desires & practices like meditation & exercise can truly change the way we perceive ourselves. We will become more peaceful, contented & pleased at all levels of consciousness & all phases of our lifetime. Whilst, defining more ways of exploitation of talents can help spread the population accordingly, to avoid crowding and in result, the severe competition can be curbed to some extent. After all, most of the things we always keep running after are volatile. Habitually they vanish even as we start savoring them!

So next time, whenever you see a piece of cake in front of you in the form of opportunities, breathe easy & think again! There are better ways & places to find pleasure in. That too, nearby!!

After all there are things we know & things we don’t. In between there are doors!

As I look into grave of my past!

My life has brought me to this moment of clarity, where time slows down, and I choose to look back, to see myself. But it's like looking down into the grave of your past. In that, I am reborn.

The past is a gaping hole. You'll end up running in circles until you fall back into the same hole you were trying to escape from, only the hole has grown deeper. No matter how long you spent to climb it out, you can still fall down in an instant.

You can't run from your past. The more you run, the deeper, more terrible it grows behind you. Its edges yawn at your heels going out of style. Your only chance is to turn around and face it. And you hear an echo, an old monster snapping eyes open in the depths of your brain. Closing eyes forces you to look at the darkness inside.

You see choices you made, you didn't know. It's like a puzzle, like a broken mirror. As you piece it together, you cut yourself. Your image keeps shifting. You die. You live. You're remade.

You ask. Why me? What if? It's not that you were wrong. It's that you always look back with different set of questions...

I’m feeling elation. But it came with the fears that the past evils have arisen up to come along, together, for a ride.

I had lain in the bottom of hole long enough.

It’s time to change.
To escape.

To be free to be myself!

-Omkar Joshi.
(With the inputs from the life of Max Payne!)

Understand the antithesis in life!

Summon up some epoch in your life where the lots of options were killing you for you had to take the decisions positively & all of them were full of those coveted figments you derived as a liking of what your choice would have conferred on you. A lot of forethought goes in the accepted wisdom & eventually you get left with some of them. Still damn decision is to be made. You find yourself trapped in the things you ought to do & you want to do.

This is the scenario we face being human beings subjected to our own dominant desires we have imposed on ourselves being rational logicists. We have certain longings, the absence of which is something we can never put up with. We always mean a worthwhile exploitation of our assets. Be it intellectual, physical, emotional or financial. It’s greed. We all understand it & then these desires never give up asking for more. Let’s explore these ideas further in relation with the dialogue we sight at every jiffy when it comes to settle on any of different options we have.

Mostly the arguments we submit ourselves to this tête-à-tête with our mind are generally led by either of these two, obligation & need. Obligations are put in the picture with the value system we carry. Of course this value system is augmented & becomes rich as we walk along with all liabilities, step up & down with life, see different things & people & add to this experience with our own thoughts owing to beliefs we follow. While the needs we possess unearth the odds of happiness & comfort. And believe it or not, they look like the best negations to each other but are associated with the person in a fragile set of scales.

Here is the catch!

Obligations make us to come to terms with the things expected from us, to live with respect & esteem. Our inner self is in the driver’s seat there with a good cargo space of subconscious mind, all this system I précis as a soul. Whilst, needs mean to our comforts & the gratification the conscious mind demands often. I attribute this to our body. Our body & soul are constantly educating themselves in terms of what they want & keep asking some things while moving on, which eventually turn into our needs & obligations.

We love to be content with our needs but hate to care for obligations. But at times we fail to identify with our obligations being some way or the other the needs of people we love, like, live with or care about. All the others benefited are also doing something for others! While our needs are also associated with the obligations of others.

We should understand that the best fairness to this antithesis stems from the situational & objective assessment of the scenario & then the most logical decision follows to delight the people involved.

In short, it’s needed to find a trade off between the wants of body & soul and reaching on the agreement over the issue, to the extent that this duo get submerged to look like a single piece, ethics as we call it!

So next time when you decide not to exercise just to provide body a comfy time, give your soul a head start & work a bit harder that day because it’s always going to shell out. Whilst, going for a lecture, if you meet YOUR GIRL in front of you in the corridor, just whack the silence & let her know what she is for you. Some words, thoughts get exchanged & you beat the distance. You know what those moments mean to you. There is no point in going for those routine classes when your heart is beating for her…

And after all who is going to decide what’s right & what’s wrong? Future. And you can’t see it while taking decisions! So it’s better to rely on the inner voice at times knowing that almighty is always with us. Probably that inner voice is He talking from within! Who knows?