I have always been told human race is superior to other creatures on the earth, because they have got a brain which is more advanced than any other species and they understand and feel emotions better than any other living being. Well, I always believed it; but when I look around and see the way people behave I seriously doubt what we have been taught all our lives. First most of the time we do what we are being asked to do by our elders at home, by our boss at work, by our celebrity cricketers and actors, by our politicians, by our news channels. The list is endless. The amazing thing is, we don't tend to use our brains before doing any of those things.
The other fact that disturbs me much is that we always show extreme emotions to everything. We don't know any middle way. There is no grey, we either see black or white. Sachin is a great batsman, we start calling him God. Rajnikanth does good in some of his movies, we start calling him God too. Suresh Raina does well in five innings and we start seeing next Sachin in him. India fails to win a series, we start throwing stones at the houses of the same cricketers who we were worshiping couple of series back. Someone marries against our wish, we kill them. Someone refers Mumbai as Bombay, we stone their offices.
Why do we always behave in such fashion? I hope to find an answer to this question and a solution to this problem some day.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Pyar Impossible
After a lot of days from its release I finally managed to watch the much awaited Yashraj films' product re-re-re(don't remember how many)launching the home grown talent Uday also playing a new role of a script writer proving his extreme talent in various aspects of film making. Then there was another home grown talent directing the film, making it a complete family film. Trailers projected it as a beauty and the geek love story, Uday Chopra obviously playing the geek and beauty naturally played by Priyanka Chopra.
The movie opens with a college setting with Abhay (Uday) telling us that he is infatuated towards Alisha (Priyanka), who doesn't even know Abhay exists. No time is wasted here because just after a song, we are shown Abhay saving a drunk Alisha from drowning and then Alisha taken away by her father. Many years after, Abhay meets Sidhu (Dino) an investor interested in Abhay's brilliant idea of an operating system UNITY. Well actually the idea is actually crap but probably nobody dares tell that to him considering he is producer's son (may be the same thing happened with the script too). By the way Sidhu also thinks that idea is so brilliant that he steals the source code (referred as program files in the movie for the benefit of the ignorant audience, so thoughtful of the Uday and Jugal) of the OS on a pen drive.
Abhay realizes about this theft when an Indian software company, who he tries to sell his idea tells him that another company in Singapore is coming up with an OS on the same concept with an innovative name UNIFY. (we have to admire the information network of the Indian information technology company, because we are shown that Sid hadn't yet finalized the deal with the Singapore company). Abhay on his dad's advice and encouragement decides to go to Singapore to confront the thief and get what is rightfully his.
On reaching Singapore, he realizes that Alisha is also there working as a PR executive in the same company and he suddenly almost forgets about his mission and takes a new mission of winning his lost love. How he does it? Well, by playing a nanny to her 6-7 year old spoiled daughter, who is an expert in harassing her nanny. Movie starts getting sillier and sillier from this point onwards leading to one of the silliest climax ever seen. I know I am being a bit sadist here, but since I have been through it, I would want you to watch the movie to know the details.
None of the actors in the movie impressed with their acting talent. Only watchable thing in the movie was Priyanka, that too only in the few minutes of college scenes, not because of her acting though. Looks like Uday wrote the script when he was 7, or may be he has stolen it from some 7 year old. In the end, it looks like another disaster from Yashraj camp.
The movie opens with a college setting with Abhay (Uday) telling us that he is infatuated towards Alisha (Priyanka), who doesn't even know Abhay exists. No time is wasted here because just after a song, we are shown Abhay saving a drunk Alisha from drowning and then Alisha taken away by her father. Many years after, Abhay meets Sidhu (Dino) an investor interested in Abhay's brilliant idea of an operating system UNITY. Well actually the idea is actually crap but probably nobody dares tell that to him considering he is producer's son (may be the same thing happened with the script too). By the way Sidhu also thinks that idea is so brilliant that he steals the source code (referred as program files in the movie for the benefit of the ignorant audience, so thoughtful of the Uday and Jugal) of the OS on a pen drive.
Abhay realizes about this theft when an Indian software company, who he tries to sell his idea tells him that another company in Singapore is coming up with an OS on the same concept with an innovative name UNIFY. (we have to admire the information network of the Indian information technology company, because we are shown that Sid hadn't yet finalized the deal with the Singapore company). Abhay on his dad's advice and encouragement decides to go to Singapore to confront the thief and get what is rightfully his.
On reaching Singapore, he realizes that Alisha is also there working as a PR executive in the same company and he suddenly almost forgets about his mission and takes a new mission of winning his lost love. How he does it? Well, by playing a nanny to her 6-7 year old spoiled daughter, who is an expert in harassing her nanny. Movie starts getting sillier and sillier from this point onwards leading to one of the silliest climax ever seen. I know I am being a bit sadist here, but since I have been through it, I would want you to watch the movie to know the details.
None of the actors in the movie impressed with their acting talent. Only watchable thing in the movie was Priyanka, that too only in the few minutes of college scenes, not because of her acting though. Looks like Uday wrote the script when he was 7, or may be he has stolen it from some 7 year old. In the end, it looks like another disaster from Yashraj camp.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Eklavya: Not the movie
Continuing from the thoughts in my previous post, another thing which is crippling the creativity among us is we only learn what we have been taught, without using our intelligence. Irony is, we are also taught that we have a wonderful analytical brain unmatched in any other living species. Don't know who to blame, the education system, which is fit to produce only clerks, the society, where we have always been taught it's not polite to question your elders or ourselves, who chose to believe whatever we have been taught and decided not to question.
I have asked this question to many people in recent past, what is the most important thing you learn from the Eklavya story that has been told to us plenty of times as a kid and probably as a grown up too. The usual answers I got are, respect your teacher, if you respect your teacher you can even learn from his statue etc. Some who probably don't understand the question answer, what Dronachaya did was not right and not ethical, Eklavya should not have given in to Drona's demands.
Well, I think the most important thing we learn from the Eklavya story is that, in order to achieve anything the most important thing is the intent to achieve it and and honest effort towards the same. If you have the right intent, you can achieve whatever you want despite not getting the desired environment and support. In order to do so you will be innovative and discover something of your own, which you probably would have never achieved had you given the desired environment and the intent was missing.
Think for once, had Dronacharya accepted Eklavya as a student, all Eklavya would have learned was what Arjun learned. But with the right intent and right effort, he learned some things that he could have never learned, had Dronacharya actually been his teacher (remember the barking dog incident, that took even Drona by surprise).
I am not saying that this is the best and the only interpretation. I am just requesting you all to start thinking beyond what you have been taught and start questioning.
PS: I believe that any literature that we read has been written from the point of view of the author and sometimes has been modified from the point of view of the editor, translator or compiler and but it is written assuming that whoever reads it is an intelligent person and will derive his meaning out of it using the gifted brain he has got.
I have asked this question to many people in recent past, what is the most important thing you learn from the Eklavya story that has been told to us plenty of times as a kid and probably as a grown up too. The usual answers I got are, respect your teacher, if you respect your teacher you can even learn from his statue etc. Some who probably don't understand the question answer, what Dronachaya did was not right and not ethical, Eklavya should not have given in to Drona's demands.
Well, I think the most important thing we learn from the Eklavya story is that, in order to achieve anything the most important thing is the intent to achieve it and and honest effort towards the same. If you have the right intent, you can achieve whatever you want despite not getting the desired environment and support. In order to do so you will be innovative and discover something of your own, which you probably would have never achieved had you given the desired environment and the intent was missing.
Think for once, had Dronacharya accepted Eklavya as a student, all Eklavya would have learned was what Arjun learned. But with the right intent and right effort, he learned some things that he could have never learned, had Dronacharya actually been his teacher (remember the barking dog incident, that took even Drona by surprise).
I am not saying that this is the best and the only interpretation. I am just requesting you all to start thinking beyond what you have been taught and start questioning.
PS: I believe that any literature that we read has been written from the point of view of the author and sometimes has been modified from the point of view of the editor, translator or compiler and but it is written assuming that whoever reads it is an intelligent person and will derive his meaning out of it using the gifted brain he has got.
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