Wandering Thoughts

• The farther one seems to be from happiness, the more he tends to write (fairly personal observation)
• Within my astonishing normalcy, lies the traces of my undeniable insanity.

Keeping a Secret

Sometimes when you stumble upon a truth which is so secret that it can make or break someone's life (or at least change it for better or for worse), what do you do ? As a social animal your first impulse is to share it with someone in confidence, consoling yourself that you can ask the other person to keep it to himself and not tell it to anyone. In this simple way, we pass on our burden to someone else, though knowing fully well that secret if told to someone else will always reach even further, like water which always finds a way to leak.

Or you can simply choose to ignore it and move on with life as you were going to. Sometimes people deserve to keep their secrets to themselves, and one should respect that. Easier said than done, but it seems to me a nobler choice, and what are we if we don't try to be noble once in while ?

Well, you know the answer.

Stay Beautiful.
Amitabh

Musings

When you are really sad, you appreciate people who just stay quiet and let you cry your heart out.

Take a bow to Imtiaz Ali

Somewhere deep within all of us is an innate desire to transcend ourselves, to be more than what we are and what we can be, to grow beyond and merge ourselves into something all pervasive. Sometimes we do realize this wish as well, though rarely and in fleeting moments.In my life, I have had these experiences as well, those sudden bursts of brilliant fecundity (or creativity) which makes you do things which makes you wonder later, if it was only you who did that or felt that. No matter how old I become, I will remember those moments with vivid clarity, like the time when I wrote something or the time when I took that brilliant catch or the time when sang that song or the time when I read that passage.
Despite of my fairly routine existence I cherish and strive for these moments hungarily. But I guess this phase of my life, I am getting used to becoming a bore and cynical. Very few things impress me and even if they do, it fizzles out.
Hence I want to write about the movie Rockstar right away, till I am still in awe, till I am still itching to write something. Once you sleep on such things, you never know if you feel the same way when you wake up in the morning.
Rockstar is basically a love story expectedly from Imtiaz Ali. But more than that it is about an artist's journey to find within himself a part which will transcend him into a realm of his craft which every artist want but seldom reach. He would reach there eventually but through the painful route of a heartbreak. In my opinion, heartbreak is nothing but a plot device, it could have been anything, death of someone, terminal disease of the rockstar (our hero feels doomed for having none of these :) ) but then a love story is a love story. Nothing tugs our heart like love of two good looking people :D.
Nargis Fakhri is all that she needs to be, beautiful and pristine, the unblemished portrait of a woman which can inspire a Janardhan Jakhar to become a Jordan. Ranbir Kapoor is also all that he needs to be and probably much more. In a role of a lifetime, he delivers the goods and proves his worth as the touted 'next big thing'. In my humble opinion, he already is with an enviable body of work in such a short time. His contemporaries are far behind.
Though I will always believe that Swades is A R Rahman's best work, he needs no praise from someone like me. The music is superb and if there ever would be a real life "Jordan" in India, he would have some benchmark to cross. Saada haq is as good a rock track as can be and I have already listened to Kun Faaya Kun and Tum Ho for hours in loop. And then there is "Nadan Parindey". Sample these verse from the song :
कागा रे, कागा रे, मोरी इतनी अरज तोसे
कागा रे, कागा रे, मोरी इतनी अरज तोसे
चुन चुन खइयो मांस |
अरे जिया रे,
खइयो ना दो नैना मोरे,
खइयो ना दो नैना मोरे
पिया के मिलन की आस ||
But more than anyone else, this movie belongs to Imtiaz Ali, the director with the vision to create this magnum opus. He deftly moves through a non-linear timeline displaying his control of the craft and the medium. Rockstar works because it has something to say (simply put, it has a story). It may not be entirely new , but every single frame of the movie is immensely watchable and thanks to Imtiaz Ali for that.
To sum it up, I loved the movie and would recommend it very highly to anyone who like watching movies.
If you have read this note so far, put a comment below (I only humbly request), what is it, that makes you feel more ? (apart from when you stand on the weighing machine of course :P).
If you know, you will do alright. Even if you don't, you are alive and will know eventually.
All the best.
Stay Beautiful (Courtsey:Orkut)
Amitabh

Aham Uvacha

Don't work, play, be hated and many other ordinarily non-sensical things start making sense when a famous celebrity starts giving gyaan on the life. He / She will tell you precisely how your life is going to turn out (no surprises there, we are all going down the drain :P ). Nonetheless, they also know what you need to do so that it doesn't go that way (and you become what they are or achieve what they have).

Of course, they won't say it directly, they would wrap it in nice package (humour preferrably) and then deliver it to you. So , here you are graduating or whatever, when you get the newsflash. Dude (or Dudette) !!! whatever you have been doing so far, just wasn't right, you got it all wrong ( and I am talking about the normal people, who have been worrying to do well in life, for those that aforementioned event actually matters, exceptions are always there).

They will turn everything that you held dear in life so far on its head and tell you to do exactly opposite. This will be done with catchy, attention grabbing phrases (like, stay foolish or Don't work and yeda yeda). You will be intrigued at first, enthused next and confused two days after the ceremony is over. This is typically the time it takes for one get over the hangover of life changing motivational speech.

No, not for a moment I am saying it is wrong for one to chase one's dream, however as a rational being our actions needs to have a ground of sound logic beneath them. Sachin is not Sachin only because he loved to play cricket, he is what he is because of his talent, discipline, perseverance, sheer hard work, suitable guidance and let's admit it, a fair amount of luck as well.

So here is my advice to all of these cool people out there (entitled enough to give cool speeches), yes we need to do something we love doing, yes that would be the best way to succeed, yes it will bring us the true happiness that everyone yearns for and yes it would be the coolest thing to happen in life. But give us some credit, we had thought about it, even tried a little bit. First of all it was difficult to decide on one thing we love enough to sacrifice the ordinary pleasure / stability in our life, for a lot of us, the choice was between a good life or bad life (only in very materialistic terms, never had the luxury of thinking about spritual satisfaction ). Our worries were our parents' aspirations, our own financial stability in life (we don't get unemployment allowance as big as a decent salary in India, Oh..sorry we don't get any at all) and most of all to provide for our families and also have access to things which give us pleasure / satisfaction. Hence given our considerations (numerous as they were), we chose to pick a job / career which will pay enough to ensure that I can buy inspirational books about people who can given cool speeches after I have taken care of our basic needs. We know it is not our calling or destiny or whatever you cool people call it, but it works for us. It gives me time & money to appreciate the music I so love, the hobbies I wanna pursue, to take care of my loved ones and at the same time do something which I love doing. At the end of day, I choose to work because it can help me to do a lot of things I wanna do.

Who said works needs to be the whole and soul of who I am ? I am much more. I always was and I always will be.