Thought Shots

I enjoyed watching Ridley Scott's film, 'A Good Year'. The protagonist in the movie is Max Skinner (played by Russell Crowe). The guy is a banker and starts off with the motto, "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." As a kid, he cheats his uncle Henry in a game of chess for a checkmate. And gets all fussy losing a game of cricket or even tennis. Uncle Henry tells him, “Y ou'll come to see that a man learns nothing from winning. The act of losing, however, can elicit great wisdom. Not least of which is, uh... how much more enjoyable it is to win. It's inevitable to lose now and again. The trick is not to make a habit of it." I think that was quite a fair advice. What I liked about the film 'A Good Year' was just how beautifully it teaches one about the simple pleasures of life. So, you have a guy like Maximilian who thinks that a holiday is worse than death. About himself he says, “I am a banker. I have no imagination.”

I have been thinking lately about how, as human beings, we are so interdependent on each other emotionally. Of course, I don’t like the very idea of dependence. Being dependent emotionally, intellectually or in any other way. It limits our happiness. And puts someone else in charge of how we feel. But I can’t help but feel that sometimes, it happens even when we don’t want it to happen. Matthew. D. Liberman recently wrote a book called ‘Social: Why Our Brains are Wired to Connect’ in which he talked about how human beings feel pain at separation from a loved one almost at the same level or scale as we do when we are physically hurt. Not for nothing do we hear of people turning alcoholic, diseased and even destroyed when they are abandoned or left by someone close to them. Literature and life are both full of such examples. And the one example that comes to mind is that of the fictional character called Devdas. The man goes on a spree of self-destruction when his beloved Paro leaves

I don't remember the last time I missed a Republic Day Parade on the national t.v. My entire family follows this event religiously. And I think that there is a purpose in that. The ceremony held for this day is perhaps the best way to show gratitude to the uncountable number of people who gave up their lives and personal peace to be of service to the nation. One such man honored today was K. P. Babu, an Andhra Pradesh Cop, who died fighting maoists. He was conferred the Ashok Chakra, the highest peacetime gallantry award, posthumously by the President. I feel a lot of gratitude in my heart for him and the many other soldiers who fight, most often in obscurity, and stake their lives so that we may live secure and protected. India is very fortunate to have such an army. It has loyally served the nation with integrity and honor since the very beginning. Part of the flora and fauna of the Republic Day celebration are the tableaus from the different states that walk the Rajpath on t

Films can really move you at times. I saw one such film earlier in the morning today. One that I had been planning to watch for years now. The movie name: Gran Torino. A Clint Eastwood film. It's about an angry old Korean war veteran named Walt Kowalski (played by Eastwood himself) living in the part of Detroit which is populated with poor Asian community and infested with local gang bangers. The recently widowed soldier lives angry at the world and alienated from his children. Children, who he feels, are only after his property. There is one more thing, though, that everybody seems to want from him and that is his Gran Torino. A sleek old American car that he has had since the 70s.  Walt's young neighbor, Thao , is pressured by his cousin into stealing Walt's prized 1972 Ford Gran Torino  for his initiation into a gang. Walt thwarts the theft and later develops a relationship with the boy and his family. Walt's next door neighbors are Hmong people of the Korean Hil