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...

"For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something", said Steve Jobs.  Well, today is the 31st of December which is neither the last day of your nor my life but is certainly the last day of the year 2013. And how stubbornly we are bent on celebrating it? The people I came across in the streets of Delhi today looked more cheerful than they ever have. They were doing things that really mattered. Spending time with family, friends, having that 'me' time and so forth. I think that's what the knowledge of the last day does to people. It sort of liberates them from the urgent to the important, helps them to get a bigger vision on things instead of getting caught up in the thick of thin things. They seemed to have let go of all the t...

Some stories never get old. I think that Martin's Day , a film directed by Alan Gibson, is one such story. It's about a captive named Martin Steckart (played by Richard Harris) who escapes out of prison and abducts a boy also named Martin (played by Justin Henry) to keep the police away. The two Martins form an unlikely friendship as they get away from their respective prisons (the old Martin's freedom from the police cell and the young Martin's freedom from the prison of his uncaring mom and inattentive step-dad). In a scene from the film, the lieutenant in charge of catching Martin Steckart dead or alive, asks Dr. Mennen, "How come they are having such a great time and we are not?" And the doctor (played by Lindsay Wagner) answers, "Because it's our job to put them back in (the prison)." And out of the prison the two Martins are! In their stay away from a rule based world, they rob a service station, hold a toy truck in transit, hijack a t...

I have just finished reading The Beauty Diet by Shonali Sabherwal. The philosophy behind the book is that though diet provides nutrition, it can also make one look good by "helping weight-loss, getting a proportionate body, making your skin glow and your hair and eyes shine". And who wouldn't want that, right? So, I am writing this one to share with you some of Shonali's tips that I have found helpful and easily applicable. First up, Shonali talks about going local. So when we go veggie shopping, the thing that we all can be blamed for (most of all me) is buying easily available packaged stuffs from your neighboring Safal outlet or the SuperMarket. Shonali says that one should rather go for buying from the sellers of veggies on rickety carts or the Sabji stalls where the veggies are all fresh and certainly far fresher than the packaged stuff that may have travelled far and wide struggling with death and disease just to reach our hands. Secondly, go traditional....