What has happened to our Bollywood Heroes?

Last Saturday, I managed to catch the latest Farhan Akthar flick, Kartik Calling Kartik. And like all Farhan Akhtar movies this also got me thinking (A case in point - my blog on Luck By Chance). Well, I intend to make two observations here. The first one being that all the 3 Farhan Akhtar films that have released so far have English names & the second one is the point that I wish to make through this blog. I am really wondering what has happened to our Bollywood Heroes.

Time have changed & with time the way movies portray the main protagonist (aka Hero) has also changed. Gone are the days of masala movies, where a hero had to the macho man. He was the one who had to take care of his family, do the comedy stuff, woo the girl by running around trees & finally seek revenge from the villain for some reason or another. These days in most films, the story revolves round the vulnerabilities of the main protagonist. He is shown to be the one suffering from some ailment or the other. He is no longer macho any more. The Masala movie Bollywood Hero is dead. It is chic to be a Bollywood hero with a medical issue.

My medical knowledge seems to increasing after watching the numerous ailments that our heroes suffer from. Blindness, deafness, physical impairments still exist for heroes in movies, but the heroes now suffer from various other newer ailments, which were left untouched till now.

I would want to list down a few of the latest movies where our Hero is shown suffering with medical ailments:

• Kartik Calling Kartik : Farhan suffers from schizophrenia. He imagines that he is receives a call from himself when actually its the imported Japanese phone which does the trick in the movie.
• My Name is Khan: Shahrukh suffers from Asperger's syndrome - a form of autism. This ailment added extra layers to his character otherwise the film was a simple story in which the heroine's son dies & to seek redemption Shahrukh wants to meet the president.
• Paa: Amitabh suffers from Progeria - the ailment of growing old. This helped differentiate the film from the various others films based on child born out of wedlock.
• Ghajini: Aamir suffers from short term memory. It was a normal revenge story, but Aamir ailment made it different. But the end-result remains the same. He got his revenge.
• Koi Mil Gaya: Hrithik suffers from Autism. Jadoo did the magic here.

There are various other movies like Kyun Ki, Deewangee, Main Aisa hi Hoon, Tere Naam, Iqbal where the Hero's illness was the crux of the movie. And there is going to be many other movies in the future as well which will portray a vulnerable Hero (Hrithik is a paralegic whose Guzarish is to die). As long as the movie turns out to be good, I won't be missing the macho Bollywood Hero.

Three cheers to our special Bollywood Heroes !!!

Rahul's journey back ....

Rahul is leaving United States for good to return back to India. He is packing his bags, but finds it very difficult to put the things that he has accumulated over a period of more than 2 years in his luggage suitcases. The thought that crosses his mind is :" How do I fill 2 years of my life in these two luggages?"

His mind takes him back to the day when he is packing his bags to come to US. He had waited for three long years to realize this dream after having embarked into a career in Information Technology.By industry standards, he was late by atleast a year to go onsite. Each passing day prior to his confirmation for onsite, made him more desperate & frustrated. Now finally his prayers were answered & he was packing his bags.

Although the opportunity was beckoning on him, he was not happy. Inspite of the fact that his ambition was going to get fulfilled, he was sad. He knew he would miss his parents, his girlfriend, his friends, his regular life in India. But he really wanted to go. His parents tried their best to make him comfortable so that his journey to the US would be less painful. On the surface, they showed to Rahul that they were happy but deep inside their heart they were crying.

Rahul finally boards the plane that would take him to US. He touches American soil after nearly 24 hours from the time he left India. His dream awaits him. He is waiting to fulfill his destiny. This thought bring an enormous sense of passion for his work. He works his socks off for those 2 years and three months.

He realises that he has completely expended & exhausted himself. He has outgrown his dream. A job in United States doesn't excite him anymore. He wants to return back to India. It takes him another 2 months to convince his superiors to send him back to India. After all, who wants to let go of a such a hardworking soul.

Rahul feels immense amount of happiness for himself. He would be meeting his friends, his girlfriend, his friends. He would be meeting these important people in his life with whom he was only in contact over the phone after two and a half years. He feels that staying away from India for these years has made him more patriotic. He starts feeling proud of his country - a feeling which did not exist for him earlier.

He realises that the days that he spent away from home, although might have helped in accumulating dollars & improve his bank-balance, but emotionally he feels that he has lost big time. It would have been better if I would have stayed back in India with my parents, my girlfriend, my friends, relatives, he wonders. If given another chance to relocate back to US, he makes up his mind that he wont go again.

So finally, he boards the flight back to India from JFK Airport. He sleeps through the entire flight duration. Now the flight is about to land in the Mumbai airport. But Rahul is still sleeping. There come a screeching sound of the plane's landing. Rahul gets up from his slumber all of a sudden. Its an alarm bell which is ringing. He hears his mother shouting at the top of her voice, "Rahul get up fast, your flight for US is in another 3 hours, hurry up !!!!".

Rahul realizes that he was dreaming. A dream which makes him realize the importance of many things in life. He decides that he wont take the flight to US. He prefers to stay back in India.

"Sare Jahan se accha, Hindustan hamara ... "

Back after a Big Break

Hey All,
I am finally back to blogging after a long break of nearly a year. Few things motivated me to restart blogging. Someone very recently after reading my blogs told me that a person like me aspiring to write stories keeps on writing only real life experiences.

That was completely true. It got me thinking. I started thinking about a concept which I could expand into a story. The eureka moment finally came during the Business Ethics lecture today. It bored me so much during the lecture that I started thinking about a line that came up during a discussion that I was having with a friend few days back.

With each passing second the amount of boredom kept on increasing & I found my story which revolved around that particular line. Finally, I managed to complete my story a few seconds before the lecture ended.

It is a story with a twist which I plan to put up tomorrow on this blog. Got few of my classmates to read the story & they liked it. I hope that those who read the story on my blog will also like it. So get set for my kahani main twist series. :)

Expectations

Life is so constructed that an event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.

When I try to think of the things that have happened to/with me in the past, I find this above mentioned quote by Charlotte Bronte so true. This made me wonder why I have so many expectations from so many things & so many people in life. More often than not, things don’t match up to my expectations & it leads to disappointments & sadness in my life.

But is it really possible for a normal human being to not have any expectations in life? Is it possible to do things because they have to be done & we shouldn’t expect something in return for it? Or is it that we always tend to have over expectations? Or should we expect the worst for ourselves, so that when something better happens, then we feel happy about it?

Yesterday was any eye-opener for me where I could say that I managed to find the answers to the questions that I have jotted down above to a certain extent. There were primarily three events to which I was really looking forward to yesterday. For each of the three events, I had different sort of expectations. I had no hopes with the one, neutral with the other & was pretty upbeat regarding the last. But none of the events matched the expectations that I had set for each of them. The only thing that remains to be seen is whether I am really able to learn something out of it & utilize those learning’s to handle a situation in a better manner in the future.

The first event was something related to a grave mistake that I had committed the previous day in the office. I can’t really disclose the event for obvious reasons here, but I had done something which was against the rules. And to add to that, it was an embarrassment of the highest order for me. I was expecting the worst outcome possible. My friends gave me assurances that nothing of that sort would happen & I would successfully get out of the trouble that I had put myself into due to negligence on my part.
Finally, the things that my friends had said came out to be true & thankfully my expectations did not materialize. Learning: Expect the worst for yourself, have no hopes, when things turn out fine, get overjoyed. :)

The second event was the annual day event that was to be held in my college. I was to receive an award for coming second in my batch. The last time I had achieved an award for academic excellence was way back in school, if I remember correctly in my 7th standard. I was eagerly looking forward to relieve those happy moments from school & get nostalgic all over again. But at the same time, I was not in the best of the moods due to the things that were taking place in office. So this really neutralized my feelings about the evening & I wasn’t going with any expectations for the annual day. But what an evening it turned out to be!!! After receiving the award from the Director of the college & watching the performances, all of us students came on the dance floor & set it on fire. I am a person with two left feet. But when the atmosphere is so rocking, one can’t help but just enter the fray. I have never ever danced so much all my life. I can’t really tell that I was dancing, it was rowdiness of the highest order, but I did manage to shake all parts of my body. I never thought I would shake my hips the way I did on Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie :). I am really going to cherish this evening for a pretty long time in my life. Learning: Do what you are supposed to do & don’t have any expectations. Something good will happen on its own.

The third event was as such not an event at all. It was basically about making the plan for a future event. The planning for this thing started about 3-4 days before yesterday. I was talking to a friend about this particular thing to make it happen. There were too many deliberations & discussions that were taking place. I particularly moved back & forth many times on the things that were decided. Ultimately, I managed to spoil the entire thing due to my egoistic attitude. Actually, I was over-expecting or rather expecting things which I actually don’t deserve at this point of time or never will in the future. Learning: Don’t have over-expectations, especially when the outcome of things is dependent on others. It is also very important to empathize with the other person & not get angry or upset when things don’t go your way.

This brings me to the end of my post. I hope that I am able to retain all the learning’s from yesterday. There is one big event that is coming up for me in the next few days: my 4th semester examinations. At this moment, I am not prepared at all for it. But I hope to prepare & give my best. I will go in with zero expectations & hopefully something good will come out of it. All my readers wish me luck. :)

Till the next time.. tc.

Luck By Chance Moments

It has been more than a month since I posted last. I really did not feel like blogging all this while as too many things occupied my mind & still continue to do so. Getting to resolve them has proved to be a tough ask so far & I realize this with each passing day. But at last better sense has prevailed upon me & I have understood that it’s no use getting entangled with issues, over which I don’t have any control. The best thing for me to do is let the things happen on their own accord & I react to the situation as & when required.

Few weeks back, I managed to catch the movie Luck By Chance. This film made me ask myself the question about what does luck by chance actually means? Is it that you get lucky by chance or coincidence? Or is it that you take a chance & work hard for a certain thing & you are lucky enough to achieve it? I am still clueless & I would really appreciate if others are also able to send me their interpretations of the meaning of luck by chance.

I would like to believe that all of us at some point of time must have gone through certain experiences in our respective lives which we can term as our luck by chance moments. After lending deep thought in that direction, I can gladly state that for me many things which have given direction to my life & helped me move ahead in my life, were all luck by chance moments. I aspired for a few things, but they didn’t happen at that particular point of time. But when they did, I least expected it to take place. The suddenness of such a moment really surprised me. To put it straight, these moments are nothing short of a Miracle. I will share one such miraculous career-defining moment that has come instantly to my mind.

After having graduated in Production Engineering in late 2002, I was trying my best to get a job in a good company, be it in manufacturing or in IT like many of my batch mates had already done. In the interim, I had tried out a few jobs, but they were not really what I actually wanted to do. Despite all my best efforts I was still struggling to get that one big opening that would do wonders for me. I had applied to umpteen job openings in many job sites during the first six months of 2003, but none seemed to work out for me. I was completely distraught, frustrated & had become very pessimistic about my life after all this (those who know me would like to believe that I am still the same, but that’s not true though).

Then one fine day, in December 2003 (I don’t remember the actual date, but it was the last week of the year), nobody was there at home & I was on the ground floor & just starting to climb the staircase to get back home. I heard a phone which was ringing somewhere, & with each step that I took, I realized that it’s my phone which was ringing. I was able to unlock the door & pick up the receiver just in the nick of time (it was probably the last ring on which I picked up the receiver). It was a call from Patni Computers. I had applied for a job in the company about six months before this call. It was a Saturday & they asked me to come for the selection procedure the very next day on Sunday. I somehow managed to crack the tests, group discussions & the various interviews. Finally & thankfully, I had landed the job that I wanted ever so desperately.

When I think about this, I still wonder what would have happened if I had not taken the call? Would they have bothered to call back again? Would I have still made it in IT? I guess it was a call directly from God for me (in true Chetan Bhagat style) & probably he would have answers to all these questions. That particular moment of my taking the call is most definitely a luck by chance moment for me.

There are many more such luck by chance moments that I have experienced which I would have liked to share but I will keep them for some other time. Also, I am hoping that I become a part of many such miraculous luck by chance moments in the future as well & those act as a panacea to all my problems. :)

Till the next time … take care.

PS: I have observed that I usually end all my posts, hoping for something good to happen. Well, this just goes to show that I am such a die-hard optimist. :)

Trip to Water Kingdom

Sometimes in your life a day comes when you experience a wonderful feeling where everything goes according to what you had planned or even better & you just hope that the day should never end & should keep going on & on like a Duracell battery :). After a pretty long time, I went through similar emotions on Saturday 17th January when I completed my first ever trip to Water Kingdom.

This much awaited & anticipated picnic to Water Kingdom(WK) was more than two months in the making & kept getting postponed due to various reasons. Initially when this trip was planned I wasn’t supposed to be a part of it but as they say in Hindi, “daane daane pe likha hai khaane waale ka naam”, a similar thing happened with me as well. In my case it was “Water Kingdom ke ticket pe likha hai picnic jaane waale ka naam” :).

This picnic to a very large extent was the handiwork of the Sheppies & ably supported by a dedicated band of their followers (all my office-mates who come to office taking a specific shuttle from the local railway station to office). It would be a bit too tedious on my part to explain who & what the Sheppies are all about (would take an entire new post (wink)) & also how I fitted into this group, even though I don’t take the aforesaid shuttle, I would just say that for once, I was the right man, to be at the right place & at the right time :).

We were all supposed to meet at Borivali station at 10 am & from there proceed to Gorai, where a ferry would take us to WK. Initially about 12-14 people were supposed to come, but ultimately it was only in the destiny of eight of us to have the time of our lives :).

We stepped on the island at about noon thanks largely due to a few of our fellow picnickers who had their watches set on some other time rather than the Indian Standard time (wink). But once we entered the premises of WK, every thing was forgotten. A toy train dropped us right in front of the main entrance of Water Kingdom. We wasted no time in buying the tickets (though, in hindsight should have bought the passport which gives you the chance to visit thrice a year at a throwaway price) & then changed to our nylon clothing which is a must in WK.

So finally we all were in Asia’s largest theme Water Park & about to experience the magic of the place. WK is set amidst an exotic jungle complete with sculptures of various animals, ruins & exotic vegetation. The first thing we set our eyes was the Wet Atlantic. It is said to be the world biggest wave pool which has water cannons across the entire cross-section of the pool & then there are artificial waves as well that are created at periodic interval. There are fountains as well around the wave pool for those wishing to venture in the shallow sections of the pool. This is also the area where one would encounter many couples sharing many romantic & pleasurable moments much to the amusement of singles like me (wink).

After spending a few minutes in the wave pool we headed straight to Misphisly Hill. This is the area which has many thrilling rides. We started with Humunga Kowabunga & Rushing Gushing. For both these rides you have to cross your legs, put your hands beneath you head & then lie on your back & surrender yourself to the law of gravity. The first one has a steeper fall while the second one has a few angular drops on the way. My heart was in my mouth when I saw the spectacle of the people taking the rides. I was feeling pretty scared to try it at first, but ultimately gave in to the wishes of my fellow mates. I said a silent prayer to God & Alvida (just in case) to my friends, before jumping down in the aforesaid position. Thankfully, I survived. These near-death experiences last for a few seconds & then ultimately you feel relieved to be alive & kicking. After you have done it for the first time, the fear subsides & then you feel much more confident next time round as your adrenaline starts pumping & you yearn for more of it.

After these two rides, the other rides that we tried out were the Black Demon, Rafia-Fafia & Bobble-Boggie. Compared to the earlier two rides, I found these rides to be very easy & not at all scary. You get this feeling more so because in these rides you have to use a float & the rides are within a cylindrical structure as well. So the fear of tipping over the edge does not enter your mind. We did these rides a few times & then headed next to the Wave Pool.

This time round, we had our first encounter with the artificial waves. As the pool becomes progressively deeper & goes to a maximum depth of about 6 feet, things can get a bit difficult for those who don’t know swimming & on top of that if you have hydrophobia, then the best you can do is lean against a supporting wall & watch your mates have the time of their lives in the pool. That’s exactly what I did :(.

We then headed to the Aquadrome. This is the place where you need to put your dancing shoes (well not exactly, you still dance bare-footed) & get your feet moving to the music put by the resident DJ. There are sprinklers on the roof as well as on the floor which make you feel that you are doing a rain dance. Some of the dances that I saw been performed by my fellow mates was quite a revelation & I really enjoyed watching them enjoy the rainy ambience. The only negative aspect of the Aquadrome is that floor gets quite slippery at times & when you are too engrossed in your dancing you might slip. One of us did take a fall but resumed dancing with greater enthusiasm & gusto. Way to go!! There were no such issues for me though, as I stood out like a sore thumb here as well due to my two left feet. Hopefully some day, will rectify this.

From there we headed to the Adventure Amazonia section of the water park. This is the place where there are some amazing rides where one can go rafting on the rapid rivers. There is also a ride called What-a-coaster. For this ride, you have to climb about 5 floors to the top from where the ride starts. Then you take a mat which you need to put on a platform & lie on your stomach, keep your chin up & cross your legs. It is of great importance to hold on to the handles that are there on the mat. After you make yourself ready in this position, the platform gets raised & you are dropped from such a height. There are many curves along the way & since you are now completely dependent on your gravitational force, you feel a churning taking place in your stomach & many times as well you feel that you are not touching the floor of the slope. At the end of it, you get an amazing feeling when you turn your head & see from where you started. One more good thing about this ride is that at least 6 people can take this ride simultaneously as there are six platforms. I got a tremendous high from this ride, as each time I managed to beat the remaining people who where with me on this ride :).

We then tried out the rafting rivers rides namely the Elephant Safari & Rock-n-Roll Safari. We start from the same point but then on the way you choose one of the two paths. There are single & double floats which are available to take these rides. The rides are quite bumpy all the way & it is very important to sit properly on the floats else it is our backsides that have to bore the maximum brunt of our mistakes (wink). We tried these rides with both the single & double floats & tried to hold each others hands throughout the safari rides. That was quite an experience!!!

At about 3 in the afternoon, we headed to have lunch. This lunch was courtesy one of the Sheppies. A big thank you to her!!! While some chose the veg. lunch thali the others got pau-bhaji. Some of us just gorged on the gulab-jamuns which we received for free thanks to incessant bargaining from the other Sheppy, which simply exasperated the kiosk-owner & forced him to give it to us for free :). Man, we all should learn the art of bargaining from her!!!

After lunch, we headed to the lazy river. You need to just sit on the float & enjoy the journey as the water pushes you ahead. This is the most ideal place to come after you are done with your lunch. A word of caution: just make sure no one is over-turning your float from behind & putting you in the water :). Once you are inside the water, it is a bit difficult to get back on the float on your own. In my case, the one who pushed me in the water, helped me get back on the float as well, so all bhul-chuk maaf (wink).

Since we had completed all the rides before, we went back to all the places all over again. We did all the rides umpteen number of times to our heart’s content till about 6.30 pm.

Finally, the time had come to capture the memories of this trip. So the camera came out & all of us posed along side the many animal structurse, all around the park. I took a special fascination to a water mermaid sculpture & posed with her at least thrice. Don’t ask me the reason (wink).

Before we left the park, there was a karaoke player at the exit. Some of us tried singing to the music been played on the player. While some scored a perfect 100, one even manage an even perfect score – zero (wink). I also tried my hand at singing & realized that I am much better than a bathroom singer. I had a score of around 85 & could have scored a 100 as well if not for the ice-cream which I had just before singing. It really affected my singing to such an extent that the pitch of my voice & lower notes of the song were not falling in place (wink).

We stepped back on the ferry to return to the Gorai creek. I was back home after about 12 hours from when I had started for this trip. To conclude, this has been one amazing trip & hope that my future experiences also turn out to be as great as this one was. Till the next time.. tc..

All that really matters.......

I got to hear a great love song today. I always like soft & slow numbers, this one fits the bill completely. Liked it a lot. Have been listening to it repeatedly since the past hour an hour. It is by Richie Sambora. I hadn't heard about him before. Thanks to Wikipedia, came to know that he is the lead guitarist of the band Bon Jovi. This song is from the album Undiscovered Soul which he did as a solo artist. Thought about sharing the lyrics with you all. Hope everyone likes it.

When I look at you
you're beautiful
there comes a time in someone's life
when you find things that matter
and every time we touch
the love runs deep
we realize it's our to keep
and that's all that really matters.

You'll always be my sweet addiction
in this life my saving grace
you're all that really matters
you know it's true
ain't no me without you.
When you're in the dark
baby don't despair
I'm just a spark away
I will be there
and that's all that matters.

You'll always be my sweet addiction
in this life my saving grace
you're all that really matters
you know it's true
ain't no me without you.
We'll share our lives together
yes our flame burns on forever
and at the final curtain call
we can say we did it all.

You'll always be my sweet addiction
in this life my saving grace
you're all that really matters
you know it's true
ain't no me without you.
And when we turns to dust
and we fly away
there'll be a light stil burning bright
and that's all that really matters