Thought Shots

I always look forward to watching Aamir Khan's films. Not that I don't like the other Khans but it's just that with Aamir's movies, you can be sure that you won't be disappointed for having made that walk to a theatre near you. To say that his latest movie PK led upto the expectation I had would be an understatement. It didn't cease to surprise with its various metaphors, conflicts and storyturns. I found the character of PK (played by Aamir Khan) to be a necessary oddity that is needed in the kind of world we live in. Oddities, by nature, are odd in our definition of things. We have become so conditioned to our way of life that anyone who questions its fundamentals is rejected as drunk (as this character is in this film) or mental. Whether it is listening to a Baba who advises people to have aaloo-tikki to cure their life problems or a bunch of lunatics who take down innocent lives in the name of guarding their religions. As PK rightly says to "Tapsvi&

Exodus: Gods and King was a delight to watch. Every minute of it was spectacular and engaging. It's a unique take on the Biblical tale of Moses and gives us a fresh perspective of the epic saga which is quite different from Cecille De Mille's classic, The Ten Commandments . Moses (played by Christian Bale) isn't seen performing magic tricks like conjuring up snakes or ripping the ocean from between, he is calm, clever and quite believable. Ramesses II (played by Joel Edgerton), though powerful, has been depicted as having trouble sleeping. Ramasses fears a catastrophe might befall his family at any moment. Which results in his waking up in the middle of the night to restlessly check if his child is still breathing or if his wife's heart is still beating. On the other hand, Moses eventually finds salvation in going back home to his wife and family after having rescued his people from the Pharoah's evil reach. The movie shows how things come together to help us m

Ketan Mehta has created a magnum opus through his film 'Rang Rasia'. The film has touched upon topics that are relevant to our world even now. 'In the nude, whatever is not beautiful is obscene'. That, I think, is the first thing the movie has portrayed and done so elegantly. A truth that. for having been misunderstood, has caused a stir from time to time even in the contemporary world. Be it Hussain's art or Verma's himself. The lady muse, Sugandha, tells the advocating fighting against Verma in the court, "He made a goddess out of a lady such as myself whereas you made me a prostitue." I think that Sugandha's act of suicide towards the end of the movie was like an act of murder at the hand of the society of nothing less than art itself. Ravi rushes madly into the room to find Sugandha hanging from the room glowing like a divine figure. Almost as if Urvashi herself were ascending to heaven. The movie depicts the greatness of art in a rare wa

I have just finished watching Dawn of the Planet of the Apes . It is, by far, the best movie I have seen so far this year. It is very metaphorical in nature. And it touches on many issues ranging from what is power-lust to what constitutes inhumanity. All of this happens with one ape as a protagonist, Caesar. The strong-willed leader of the apes. He leads his kind with wit and vision. He talks and unlike most of today's leaders, he talks sense and nothing else. What I was most impressed by in the film was the depiction of how hunger for power can lead one to unimaginable extents. Koba, the jealous ape in the pack, doesn't like Caesar's efforts to bond with the human-kind. When all his dissuasion fails to convince Caesar to turn back from helping humans. He decides to kill Caesar and take over the power among them himself. He makes the humans seem responsible for shooting Caesar. Caesar is proclaimed dead. But, as we see later, he isn't. What is interesting to see

Once in a while, I come across articles in magazines that are a total revelation. But I will be cautious before I say that about the article I am going to talk about. And it is because the article talked about rules so simple that they are almost self-evident. And perhaps which is why it reminded me of what Sherlock Holmes said, "It is so overt, it is covert." And Gandhi who said, "It is the simple things that catch your breath." By the way, the article was titled Rules of the Career Game and was based on the debut book by Sumit D Chowdhury Rules of the Game . Something I have always believed in is valuing what we do. The article cited Naina Lal Kidwai, a hotshot Padma Shri awardee, who says that there are two groups of people: one who have an immense awareness of what they want to do with their lives, where they are headed and so forth. And a second and more inferior class of people who believe that adding consequence to what they do will be someone else'

There is an interesting scene in the 2010 movie, 'The Karate Kid' where the young Dre asks Mr. Han if he could teach him how to control other people and Mr. Han replies saying, "There is only one person you need to control (yourself)." The first step towards changing the world is changing ourselves. Mother Teresa said, "If everyone cleaned their doorstep, the whole world would be clean." It is a cynical world at times and we often find ourselves mirroring its cynical actions. On July 10 this year, Obama had this to say about cynicism, "Cynicism didn't win a war or put a man on the moon." We find faults with others' conduct and way of being. The one person whose behaviour we overlook, however,  is our own. Let's start focusing on that because that is from where all the results in our life will flow. I love this phrase coined by Stephen. R. Covey, 'circle of influence'. Our behaviour is the one thing that is in our circle o

Working without a thought for results. Seems tough, doesn't it? And yet it seems to me more and more everyday that this is perhaps the only way to be in action. Sure, we want justice done to the effort we put in. But is it really in our control? I don't quiet think so. As a matter of fact, the best things that have come to me in life have come unexpected, unasked for and undesired. They have simply come. And when I have found myself desperately wanting to get something, it has eluded me. Even though there was no let up in my endeavour towards reaching that goal. But this thinking questions the validity of keeping targets. No one can deny the significance of being clear about what one wants. But is it possible that we can have targets and yet not obsess about them? Is it possible that we don't torture ourselves worrying about how far we still are from our desired goals? What makes failure most frustrating is all the time we know we have spent stressing over how to avoid it

We all like to believe that we can do anything. That anything is possible and so forth. But there are some things which we have to, no matter how much we may want otherwise, accept as unalterable truths. We try to live in denial, of course. But that hardly is the solution. We need to face the reality as it is if we are to live in peace. It is too short a life to be spent in regret over things that are unattainable. The serenity prayer is: “God give me strength to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” And it is not a defeatist philosophy. It is what I would call a philosophy that is rationally optimistic. Accept the things that you cannot change. It takes a lot of strength to do that. And not every one of us can gather that strength. One has to be brave enough to see things as they are and not paint one’s own rosy picture. A rosy picture that is nothing more than an illusion of the mind. Not that illu

Sometimes we find it difficult to remain optimistic. We question our efforts because the grim reality stares us hard in the face. The kind of reality that is in complete contradiction to what we had envisioned. And for once, doubt creeps in with its dark shadow of despair. A little motivation goes a long way in such moments. I have heard some of Obama’s speeches and the one thing I have found consistent in all of them is hope. He gives you hope. No wonder then that he titled his autobiography, The Audacity of Hope . On the eve of the Boston marathon bombings, he said at a prayer meeting to the people of Boston, “... what the perpetrators of such senseless violence -- these small, stunted individuals who would destroy instead of build, and think somehow that makes them important -- that’s what they don’t understand.  Our faith in each other, our love for each other, our love for country, our common creed that cuts across whatever superficial differences there may be -- that is o

Being the captain of the Indian Cricket Team is no picnic. As the captain of Team India, one carries on his shoulders the Himalayan weight of a billion people’s expectations. In the past, only very few Indian players could handle this job effectively. And leave alone improving the team’s performance, some of them saw even their own performance deteriorate. Instances include the likes of Gavaskar, Azharuddin, Tendulkar and Dravid. But change is constant and there are always exceptions. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is one such exception. The man has broken the jinx which had infected the indian captaincy for ages. Not only has he led India to two Cricket World Cup victories and the Number One Test Ranking in International cricket but Dhoni himself is considered to be one of the world’s best batsmen. What are the lessons that we can learn from him? Firstly, Dhoni has the advantage of being acceptable and relatable to all class of players in the team. He doesn’t carry with him that air

I love the song, "Ram Chahe Leela" from the film Ram-Leela. The song basically asks that if two people love each other, how is it anybody else's business. Good question! The sad part is that whenever a Ram loves Leela or a Leela loves Ram, the world around them does seem to think that they have at least some business in whatever is going on between them. Take for example any love story from history, ‘Romeo-Juliett’, ‘Heer-Ranjha’, ‘Laila-Majnu’. In all these cases, you would find the world acting against the lovers. Causing one roadblock after another. Almost as if they want them to part from each other. As if their happiness makes them drown in unhappiness. Now, I don’t know why that happens. Perhaps, it is because most people in the world haven’t been lucky enough to find their best half, and so they cannot stand the sight of someone having found theirs. Or perhaps, the world is too imperfect to let a perfect love story prevail. Perhaps, that’s why Devdas couldn’

I have been listening to a couple of speeches lately. And yes, they are speeches by some of the great leaders both from the present and the past. Hearing these speeches, one is swept away by the depth of conviction in these people’s messages and the substance of their speeches' content. Let me start by saying something about Martin Luther King’s speech, ‘I have a dream’. Considered by many to be the greatest speech of all time, the speech tells you exactly why King was one of the greatest Americans and social rights activists who ever lived. The speech is as old as 51 years but when you play it even now, it echoes around you. King spoke in this speech like a lion. A lion hungry for making change happen. And boy, did he roar! When you listen to speeches nowadays, there are only very few people that you can say are entirely genuine in their delivery. You can’t trust if most of them really mean what they say. And you would take a while to trust them. And to follow them in wh

We all have relationships that have been allowed to suffer over the years. All we do is allow that suffering to fester. Cold wars begin, fault finding starts, arguments ensue and finally we decide to walk out of it. And sometimes, that is perhaps the best thing to do. Because, maybe we need our space at that time. But can we continue to let that relationship suffer for the rest of our lives? The interesting thing is that no matter how much we try to forget about such things, we don't. At the back of our mind, we know that there is someone out there with whom things have not really worked out. We try to console ourselves, of course, by pointing out why it couldn't and how it is the other person and not us who was responsible for the same. But the truth is that there is left a hole somewhere in our heart because we have allowed hate to take over love in our relationship with someone.  The irony of our life is that there can be hatred only where there is love. Hatred is th

I am fascinated by people's faces. All kinds of them. They give you a glimpse into the person. They may be saying something but meaning something else. They may be projecting something but being something else. But the faces, they give it away. I am particularly taken by the face that tells you that the person before you is half-dead. Expressionless, almost. Like a stone or a boulder. Lifeless in some way. It tells me that whatever it is the person is doing in his life, s/he needs to rethink it. Because it sure isn't something that they seem to be enjoying doing. And perhaps what is missing is a purpose. What you may also call a meaning in their lives. Living because living is all you can do. Almost like you have been forced to do it. At least that's what those expressionless expressions tell me. I have to say that I almost feel scared to see such faces. I pray to God that  I don't, at any point in my day, look like that. So, when I catch myself in the mirror looking

I have been thinking about writing on this topic for a while now. Somehow, couldn't get around to it very well. But here I am, while it's still dawn and dreary outside my home window, ready to finally finish this piece. The subject is about the connection we feel with some people in our lives. There is a song by Avicil 'Wake me up' in which a young girl with her younger sister finds herself alienated in a community because she feels totally disconnected from the people there. One fine day, she gets on her horse and rides her way to the city where she meets people of her kind and there she takes her sister to live. And when her younger sister asks, “Where are we going?”, the young girl answers, “Somewhere we belong”. In a scene from the film 'Good Will Hunting', Will (played by Matt Damon) is asked by his doctor Sean (played by Robin Williams) if he has a soul mate. Will asks him back, “Define that”. Sean answers, “Someone you can relate to, someone who

Just seen the film 'The Citizen'. The movie relates the struggles immigrants have to often go through in the United States despite being good samaritans. At the center of the story is Ibrahim Jarrah (played by Khaled El Nabawy), who arrives in the US on the 10th of September and becomes caught up in a post-9/11 world that he and everybody were least prepared for. He is detained without any cause and kept in prison for six months. He gets released eventually, free from all charges, but does so after having suffered much at the hands of the government. The movie brings to light the panicked reaction that the Bush administration gave after the September 11 attacks and the negative consequences that had to be born by innocent people like Jarrah. Every Middle Eastern, South East Asian or bearded immigrant was begun to be considered a terrorist. They were imprisoned for no reason, deported to unknown places and no record of their arrest was made. The people were, literally, made

I have been reading Salman Rushdie's memoir, 'Joseph Anton'. In it, Rushdie has described his life before, after and during the 'The Satanic Verses' crisis when Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini had issued a Fatwa of his death for his "blasphemous" writing. In the book, Salman uses a courtly urdu word, 'Farishta'. He was referring, of course, to Gabriel who handed down the message of God to the Prophet. I couldn't but think that we all have our own Gabriels. These Gabriels may not be winged in the real world but they surely give us wings. Taylor Swift talks about this in her song 'Better Off' when she says, "We drive around town in a rusty old truck/Somehow it feels like we're flying". And we don't have to have a PHD Degree to be able to recognize these Farishtas. Perhaps, bells would start to ring in your head or things would seem brighter and more colored. But you would know it when they are before you