The Terminal

I watched this movie called, "The Terminal" today. Should have done this long back as this is a Steven Spielberg + Tom Hanks Combo. But as someone says, its never too late to do the right thing. I luckily spotted the DVD at Ankur's place after a sumptuous meal.

Overall, the movie is wonderful. There were moments in the movie when I just wanted it to get over as I could not see the trouble Tom Hanks finds himself in. He plays the role of an individual who is exceptionally skilled, wants to help others and fears the idea of being dishonest. Not many people I know have even one of these three qualities. Some of the scenes are beautiful like the one where Tom Hanks takes Catherine Zeta Jones for dinner. His interactions with this immigration officer also beautifully shot. I fell in love with them. Those of you who have not seen this movie must watch it.For it is an epitome of how beautiful human beings can be. All of us would die to be this character played by Tom Hanks. He is loved by everyone in airport where he is stuck for more than 9 months.

Steven Spielberg has shown similar qualities of human beings in Schindler's List, Empire of Sun among many other movies.

Taking the spirit of this movie forward, If we were all to aim for bringing smile on the face of one person around us, we would have done humanity a great favor. I know few such people and I am in love with them.

Simple Pleasures of Life....

I could not resist writing this. While most of the people I talk to around me, I find them to be restless and perhaps not happy (Me certainly included). I found two occassions when I find myself at complete ease and happy.

- the first one being the time for Chai, early morning at around 0630 AM. My friend called this Morning Bliss when I told her about this pleasure. While I do not make Chai myself (I guess the event would not make me that happy then) I usually go out and have a chai at some chai wala or a restaurant in the mornings. I must confess I love this moment of the day.

- the second one being, listening to Abhilasha Venkata Chellum in the TV Program, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Singing Superstar in Yr 2010. She is an embodiment of what perfection can do to human mind. She has brought me more happiness than perhaps anything else I have done this year.
Somebody else who had similar impact on me in the past is again a singer from Zee TV' Sa Re Ga Ma Pa in Yr 2005. Nihira Joshi then had the same impact on me.
For those of you who want to listen to Abhilasha, visit the following link.
http://srgmpss.zeetv.com/abhilasha-venkata-chellum/videos/sa-re-ga-ma-pa-singing-superstar-sep-11-episode-abhilasha-performs.html

God Bless Abhilasha, Nihira and of course the Chai wala....

Hope all you find your own small pleasures in life...

How Long can we do the same?

How long can one do the same thing continously? This question hit me while was watching this Program called Left, Right & Centre on NDTV 24/7. The host of the show Nidhi Razdan is one of my favourites and I can discuss why in a separate blog. But I wondered how she could host shows on weekly basis which had very similar content, not technically but the arguments presented are similar.
Its not just her, If you look at most of us, we do the same thing every day. We start our the day the same way perhaps, the continue with the usual routine of emails, food, gossip etc
A bit of search in newspapers revealed this behavior further. Indian National Congress has picked up the point of Right Wing Terror in their National Meeting. BJP has strongly denied any such possibility and instead accused Congress of doing this to divert the attention from corruption charges. Does it sound familiar? I bet it does. We have been listening to same arguments for such long time in politics that It does not bother me whether I am following news or not. Even Maths allow for discontinuities wherein we should see some shift in behavioral patterns. I enjoyed the points Arun Shourie made ( Read through the interview given to Shekar Gupta in Walk The Talk at http://www.indianexpress.com/) not because they revealed too much but because he said something which was different from usual party line. What we need is perhaps not a lot of honesty, integrity etc from our politicians but a commitment that at least 10% of time they would talk more based on the merit of the issue.
However moving out of politics, we need to inculcate this behavior in our lives as well. We should aim to spend a little (a little) bit of time daily on things beyond the usual. I must confess I am not good at this but would try in future. Don't give the same arguments when posed with a challenge, issue by others. Do not ask for the same options when asked for what would you like to eat? Perhaps when you want to you buy some shirts etc for yourself try completely different colours.
Try being a little different....I guess it will feel good.....This should hopefully reflect in the way our society (which we constitute) would start behaving.

Aalasyam Amrutham Visham

Somebody very famously said, "Aalasyam Amrutham Visham" which is supposed to mean If one does not do what he is supposed to do when needed, he is bound to loose. The more used Hindi version is "Ab Pachtane se kya faida Jab Chidiya Chug Gayi Khet".

Looking at both these sayings, I realize two things instantly.
(a) We need to be focussed on not just doing the right things but right things at right time.
(b) Its important that one capitalizes on all the opportunities in terms of timing one gets because these are beyond the control of the individual.

My personal experience has been that while these sayings very clearly explain why I may have lost on few (quite a few) things in Life, I am not sure If It would change the way I would go about my life in future. Its due to a phenomena which I exemplify & is called "Laziness". Its not that I am lazy all the way, I believe If I set out to achieve something I give my 100% most of the time but I most of the time do not choose to set myself for anything meaningful. Someone said the same to me recently and I realized it is so obviously true. I have suddenly realized that all this needs to change but again let me see where I get to from here. I am not very hopeful because of my past record in this space.