Rain in Hyderabad

It's been raining the past couple of days which is a nice change in weather. A drive around Tank Bund and Necklace Road gives a perspective of life in these Hyderabadi rains.

Rain!

On tank bund one witnessed crowds rushing in to immerse their Ganeshas. A few cranes were already in place handling the big Ganeshas. Many small Ganehsas were making their way - on push carts, in small autos, in cars. One can imagine how it would be on the 9th day.

I can smell the corn somewhere!

A drive around the Necklace Road warrants a stop at one of those nice lawns.

Isn't this fun?

Anjali was thrilled to walk around in the rain. And to strike an impromptu pose once in a while.

Steaming it up - perfect!

The bhutta chappies were around thankfully.  

Celebrity - Movie Review

Continuing the Woody Allen series on the rainy weekend, I saw 'Celebrity' last night. Woody stays out of the acting and that makes the movie a tad serious because he can make the most serious role funny. Anyway the irony of the situation, which is his trademark way of story telling comes through - the wannabe celebrity husband (Kenneth Brannagh) who leaves his school teacher wife (Judy Davis) in search of celebritydom through his novels, screenplays, meeting celebrities etc finds himself going nowhere while she becomes a celebrity as she takes her chances in life.

I remember another movie of Allen's (was it "You will meet a tall, dark, handsome stranger"?) that has a similar theme. Celebrity gives a peek into lives of celebrities and we see ageing celebrities, young studs, TV stars and so on and on with their quirks and madnesses and the lives they lead. But the story is about the estranged wife and husband who end up in lives they do not expect finally - he by struggling too hard and being dishonest and she by being open to life and taking her chances. Leonardo Dicaprio, Winona Ryder, Donald Trump. Melanie Griffith and a ton of others play either themselves or celebrity roles and pep the movie up.

Not his usual dose of humour but enough to keep it interesting.

Broadway Danny Rose - Movie Review

A bunch of comedians are discussing some of their peers over lunch and the discussion turns to Danny Rose. Danny did may things in his life and they all recount bits and parts until one of them tells them the big story no one knows about Danny. This is when Danny was a one man talent scout who has a penchant for picking complete losers and getting completely involved with them and their personal lives. They benefit form his excessive support, get over their low phase and typically leave him and move on to better things.

One such case is Lou, a has-been singer, trying to make a comeback. Danny gets fully involved in his personal life to the extent that he offers to act as the 'beard' or the boyfriend of Lou's new mistress Tina, so Lou's wife does not suspect anything fishy when Tina comes over. But Tina was once married to a mobster and another mobster is an ex-boyfriend of hers and the mob feels that Danny is the one who has taken Tina away. The mob wants to kill Danny. Tina helps Danny escape and they spend an exciting day together escaping, including wriggling out of a rope that binds them together. After all this trouble, Lou gets a better deal, leaves Danny. Tina however finds herself being attracted to Danny and his ways and comes back to him. It does appear that Danny finds recognition and fame too finally. Maybe one of his other losers makes it or he gets better at his work.

Woody Allen is perfect as Danny Rose, bumbling his way through his job. Mia Farrow is perfect as Tina. Woody puts in a shade of drama though, a tinge of hurt on his character, which one normally does not detect in his characters - they are thick skinned as hell normally. But it is packed with some sharply written lines and situations that come through so well only in Allen's movies.    

Trauma of facing Facebook posts

They creep on you most unexpectedly and before you even realise it, the images and stories get lodged in your mind and traumatise you. One such post traumatised me for days together (I don't think I am over it yet) and am now wary as hell to open the facebook page. Why do these people revel in sharing such gory stuff?

I am talking of the news that many people cannot wait to share with others on fb. Stuff that causes me to shudder includes posts of accidents, people getting eaten by sharks, lions and snakes, people whose hands are getting blown off by mobile chargers, people getting beheaded and one that I barely saw but which made me sick to the stomach, about some vague skin disease caused by some shampoo. I don't need to open the video, there is enough evidence already on the page of the gore without any warning, and before I scrolled past it hurriedly, it has already done the damage. I am not joking, the last one makes me not want to open my facebook page in a hurry. It was that sickening.

I normally take out these spreaders of such stuff from my friends list and escort them out of my life. I do wonder what it is that they wish to share with this carefully picked gore. What kind of stuff makes up their mind that they hunt for this information and share it with us as if we were waiting to see this stuff. In a social context certain things are fine being shared openly and some are not. But the present rule seems to be in favor of being as sensational as anything else to draw attention to oneself.

I suppose the one action to take is to gently remove oneself from the presence of those who betray these signs. What's surprising is that the most unlikely people surprise you with their appetite for gore.And I do wonder why facebook does not seem to have any policy for editing out gore and such stuff. If these images could do me this much distress, I wonder what might happen to the younger and the more impressionable.

Thought for the Day - Pursuit of dreams is like scoring centuries

I was intrigued to meet this lad the other day who was sceptical of dreams and goals. He just wanted to live and have a good time. I am all for this ideal state of existence, an almost Wodehousean ideal of friends, fun and clubs and I wish him luck in his pursuit. However he did ask me how he thinks he will benefit if he has a goal and there was some discussion.

On the other end of the spectrum I found many others who dream of stuff that I am sure would seem rather out of reach or plain frivolous, and perhaps driven by media and the aspirations it creates. Nothing much in a jet, a Rolls, a travel round the world, villa, money in the bank, island to say that it is a goal one would want to strive for. It cannot be the purpose one would want to live for solely and they can only be consequences of activity in another area.

In which case one needs to go beyond the consequence and identify the action, the choice of actions that will fetch them these goals. Here I'd say that achieving dreams is a bit like scoring centuries in cricket. Let me explain why and how.

As an ideal, batsmen wish to live a life where they will never get out. Now this may not be the case in reality but he will pursue the ideal. How he chooses to achieve the ideal, how much he is willing to risk in his pursuit defines his approach to life. The lower the risk, the higher the reward here. The pursuit of large scores needs one to be patient, to build on sound basics and in keeping out risk.

A batsman who has always been struggling with a score of fifty cannot aspire for a double or triple hundred right away. Something in his preparation indicates that he is not ready yet. This however does not mean that he cannot aspire for it - everyone should. It is only when one challenges to go beyond oneself that life gets interesting.

So having aspired for that triple hundred or a six hundred (since Lara has achieved a 500) the batsman who is struggling with scoring a fifty needs to get real. Why am I not able to get a fifty is the next question? Which part of my preparation needs work? Who can help me? If he or she is aware and works at the game and pushes the score to a seventy next game, he or she is on the path.

By now he would be aware that scoring big and on call requires certain things. It requires sound knowledge of basic skills. It requires one to analyse the skills enough to self-correct. It requires enough purposeful practice and self-analysis. It requires a detailed study of how to push beyond the next barrier. And then it requires a good look at ones performance. All this will get the person to think of how to get into the state of zero-error, high return and performance irrespective of conditions. Certainly the person is a much better equipped person than she has been for all this thought.

Having done this, the first thing the person realises is that one must achieve a basic promise. What is the basic promise that one can deliver? A fifty? Fine get that first as many times as you can and then improve on it slowly. With time we realise that we are getting better at it. Hundreds follow, and the more ambitious get more double hundreds. Some spill into the triple hundred arena. And so on. The biggest dreams come by as one pursues the dream of fulfilling the basic promise of the fifty well. One fine day it unlocks itself. It rewards the serious practitioner,

The big dreams then come by as a product of getting the basic promise right. The basic promise is a goal - be it a process goal or an achievement goal. A goal it remains. The good news is that in many cases when we involve ourselves deeply in our pursuit of the goals and process, the higher purpose strikes us and lifts us into those white fluffy clouds we never imagined we could ride on.

It does require proof of that commitment, purpose, concentration and work before it happens though.

Thought for the Day - Quality of Prayer

It is Ganesh Chaturthi and I was praying to Lord Ganesha. Almost immediately  got a gift. As soon as I began praying I detected an element of conditionality to my prayer. I will pray and you give. There was no true devotion, no true surrender. It was based on a bargain that Lord Ganesha would protect me and clear all my obstacles if I prayed to him on this day.

It was nothing close to prayer.

I wondered how the concept would work if one inserted the idea that one is a god-particle and hence the same one is asking for boons and the same god-likeness is fulfilling them. One is fulfilling them oneself. My prayer would be to the god within me to take care of me. How would my approach be then if god was not some far away object but within me?

In such a case I need to be more aware in my prayer. I need to be aware of the god-self in me as I pray. I need to be fully present, completely focused. I need to be far more trusting, devoted and have complete faith. I would need to be in a state of total surrender where I say - 'God, I surrender to you and you take care of the rest. I will trust that you will take care and give me what is best for me.'

Such an approach would require a grounding in oneself. It would require me to evolve in self-love in recognition of this divinity within. My entire approach to this god within me would be one where I have steadily grown in my admiration for this god within to the extent that I am grateful for all that I have.

To offer prayers is to completely surrender. It struck me today that one cannot do it from a place of ego even in the slightest bit. There may be an idol out there but can you practice the emotion of total surrender each time. One must bow down, kill all ego, touch the forehead to the ground and know that one is nothing. When one can surrender fully, one can let one's god-self flow through. There can be no obstacles then. Life becomes a celebration.

A lesson learned.

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion - Movie Review

I love this movie. It's one of the most romantic movies I have ever seen. I like the chemistry between Helen Hunt and Woody Allen and the way their romance builds in starts and spurts and the amazing way it ends. Superb stuff. Made me want to meet Helen Hunt.

C.W. Briggs (Woody Allen) is an insurance investigator. He hates the new efficiency expert Betty Ann Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt) because they do not see eye to eye in many matters. Hunt thinks he is a fake, cowardly measly chap and Briggs thinks she is too cold and bossy. The two get picked by a magician in a hotel for a hypnotic trick in a hotel. But what the magician really does is hypnotise them both with a password which programs them to obey him. He later calls CW and hypnotises him with the password to obey his command and commit robberies on their clients because CW has all the details. CW has no recollection of what happens whatsoever after the deed is done, but leaves a big trail. The investigators on the case find evidence against CW, who doubts Fitzgerald and sneaks into her apartment. Turns out that she is having an affair with her married boss who is not ready to leave his wife. CW saves a suicidal Fitzgerald and from there on till the end one finds a totally whacky and brilliantly choreographed film that ends with CW proposing to a Fitzgerald who is about to take off with the boss. Fitzgerald pretends that she is under hypnotic trance when she is really not. Ah, lovely.

Watch.