World Cup 2015 - India beats West Indies

I have some catching up to do with the World Cup matches. India beat the West Indies last week but not too convincingly. MSD kept his head and guided India home else The West Indies bowled well enough to cause an upset. India needed a bit of a jolt and they got it.

The wicket was bouncy. It was evident from the first over when Dwayne Smith tried to pull and miscued twice. Now on a wicket like this you back off, get the singles and look to punish loose balls. But no, Smith had to keep trying to hit the ball and got out. Gayle refused to take singles and finally perished to a pull shot - after a catch was put down. I mean, it looked so amateurish, so bull headed. Its our way or none at all! Come on guys, you have been playing at the top level for so long. Anyway the innings folded up poorly mainly due to many bad shots and it was only due to young Jason Holder's fifty that they reached a half decent total.

Now when they bowled, India struggled too. Once again one has to take into account the way the batsmen tried to handle the bounce of the wicket. We slipped into a precarious position and it was only thanks to Dhoni and Ashwin keeping their wits about that India got home.

Overall India showed more signs of wanting to win, more intent. West Indies showed less purpose, less intent and paid the price. They make so many basic errors when things are not going their way, so little application, that you wonder how they will win at all. Anyway that's a problem they have to sort out.

The Connection Between Radical Forgiveness and the Growth Mindset

These are brilliant thoughts - Radical Forgiveness and the Growth Mindset. While Radical Forgiveness may appear to be in the spiritual space (and thereby not so much to do with us practical and material people), the Growth Mindset gives us a clear approach to live a life of purpose and growth. They appear far removed from each other at first glance, but I find that they are indeed quite closely connected in their thought.

Radical Forgiveness - Gratitude Dissolves Bad Energy and Creates Good Spaces 
Radical Forgiveness is a tool developed by Colin Tipping that uses gratitude as a way to dissipate negative energy. If there are patterns that create negative spaces in your life,  they make you look at those life situations as 'bad' thereby creating a downward spiral of negative thoughts. This is conventional thinking. That's why Radical Forgiveness is radical - it makes you look at the circumstances gratefully, as tools that are aiding your growth, spiritual or otherwise, and by being grateful, you cannot hold the same bad energy about them. You cannot be grateful and angry or resentful at the same time can you? Its a wonderfully devious way of breaking this bad energy shield and allowing good energy in your space that can really propel your growth materially, relationships wise etc.

Growth Mindset - Grateful to Obstacles as Opportunities for Growth
Growth Mindset is a path breaking theory by Carol Dweck as mentioned in her book 'Mindset'. In this book she says people fall into two types of mindsets - the fixed and growth mindsets. Fixed mindset people look at all signs of trouble of obstacles as avoidable and therefore they tend to take easier options (which inhibits their growth). They plateau early. Growth mindset people look at obstacles or hardships as opportunities for growth and learning. They do not look at them with resentment and find excuses or blame them. They are grateful for the tough challenges because they allow them to grow, to learn. By being grateful to the opportunity to grow and taking tougher challenges and working harder and consistently, growth mindset people fulfill their potential.

The key in both approaches is the approach. That of gratitude - which is the game changer in our lives. In both approaches, hardships and tough circumstances are seen as opportunities that have come their way. They opportunities to learn. So they say yes to them gratefully and get down to work. In Radical forgiveness, the tool has an almost immediate effect upon feeling gratitude - the  energy quality improves and enables flow. In Growth Mindset too, the commitment to growth keeps the energy in good space and allows faster growth. Both need you to say yes, to identify patterns and to want to overcome them. Both lead to a life of authentic, purposeful, passionate living.

The bottom line is clear - all kinds of 'bad' stuff and people - actually present opportunities for growth. If we can change our approach and see them as such, we can move ahead. Else we can stay stuck and let the downward spiral lead us down into the hole.

We can choose now. Choose gratitude to the negative. It breaks down bad energy to good and keeps you focussed. It makes things easier. Thanks Carol Dweck and Colin Tipping.

A Moment of Bliss - The Perfect Feedback

When you write, you have an idea you wish to convey to the reader. Sometimes the idea gets lost due to bad writing, bad reading? and / or some other factors. But the one thing that I have always cherished is the kind of feedback that makes you go YES, that's exactly what I hoped would be the takeaway for the reader. One such brilliant moment happened the other day when I got a mail from my friend Srini Raju. 

Raju and I worked in Bharath Petroleum way back in the 1990s. He loved his cricket and when I saw him bowl faster than me and more penetratively with a tennis ball, I knew he was a serious talent who never got its opportunities. If he had pursued the game, and got the right exposure, Raju would certainly have reached a high standard of the game. 

After a two decade hiatus he came back into my life when he visited Hyderabad last year. Now a very successful professional,  Director of a large petroleum company in the Middle East. We met and I gave him my books.

This is what he had to say after he read 'The Men Within' in a mail he sent me last week.

"I wanted to share one event with you.. I read your book ( I rarely read novels ) and it inspired me

to take up captaincy. I retired from Cricket captaincy almost a decade ago. I just wanted to be a 

senior contributor to the team.

We have an annual cricket championship in our company (400 people) and we form 4 teams

including management, staff, workers and cleaners etc..We play league and the top two teams play finals ( T20 ).

We played the tournament this year as well.

After initial selections etc, I got the weakest team and your book really inspired to me take this as a leadership lesson and implement it.

You won't believe it, we won the cup to everyone's surprise. I am not saying that this would always

happen, but I am sure leadership and teamwork is critical and you nailed it in your book. - Srini Raju' 

This is the perfect ratification. It is also a moment of pure bliss. Thanks Raju for sharing.

Nice pics - Link to pics of what photographers do to take perfect shots

Breathtaking - but that's what passion can make you do.
https://iso.500px.com/21-photographers-doing-whatever-it-takes-to-get-the-perfect-shot/

And Then One Day - Naseeruddin Shah

This is one of the few hard cover books I bought. They are expensive. I did hear good things about the book and also had an ulterior motive which never worked out. But I felt compelled to read it after I bought it which is a good sign for any book.

Penguin, 316 p, Rs. 699

'And Then One Day' is a memoir, so one gets a glimpse into Naseeruddin Shah's life, as it went along slightly parallel to our growing up days, always connecting with him in his efforts, and always loving his self-effacing mannerisms. So this was what happened during 'Masoom', or during N'ishant' or 'Sparsh'. The memoir is perhaps as honest as it can get and one only hopes that there are no regrets for having said what he felt about people and their work. I don't think I'd have said half the things he did if I ever wrote a memoir and perhaps that's one reason why this book scores.

With some people you get a feeling that they are from a certain place. I always identified him with Delhi (Chasme Buddoor?) but also thought he had some Parsi background (looks like one). So it was a bit of a surprise that he comes from a well-off family with a large estate where hunting etc was practiced (he was pretty good at skinning the birds and animals he says). He went to fine convent schools and was exposed to theatre and cinema there, and somehow found his calling. He did badly at academics and had issues regarding that with his father. Plays etc apart he ran away to Mumbai when he was 16, was 'rescued' by a relative of Dilip Kumar, lived in the great man's house for a week, and was shunted back to his hometown. From there to Aligarh Muslim University, NSD, FTII and so on.

Naseeruddin Shah was pretty popular with the girls and wore his heart on his sleeve. He got married very early to a lady of Pakistani roots and has a child from her who now lives with him. But then he moved on quickly from there, to others. He is particularly severe on himself in these periods when he saw less and less of his wife and child and more of other women. .

What interested me most was his approach to his work, something that comes up in his NSD days. The feeling that he was weak on diction made him work on his habit of speaking nasally. He talks about how only failures in the profession came to teach at the NSD and they had nothing to teach simply because they did not know their job (the importance of a good teacher!). He talks of how the belief that 'some can act and others can't', held sway at the NSD then (a mindset issue). And that 'great acting just happens'. He laments the fact that there was no structure and words like 'talent', 'inspiration', 'involvement' were tossed about without actual stuff being shown or taught on how to deliver through proper preparation.

The inflection point comes at NSD in the final year, when he watches his friend Om Puri, someone who puts in a lot of effort to prepare for his performances, pull off a role in a Kabuki play with consummate ease. Naseeruddin Shah is disappointed at not getting the role but he also admits that as he watched Om Puri perform, he realised that he could not have pulled it off the way Om Puri did. He observes how Om Puri had 'quietly persevered in self-improvement through the time he had been at the NSD'. Naseer realises when he watches the performance that there 'was no magic formula involved'. He had been 'so astoundingly good because he had gone for broke and expended every ounce of his energy in his preparation'. Great words on the virtues of preparation.

In another play directed by Srilata Swaminathan Naseer recounts how he had 'contributed nothing but has also mistrusted the faith she had in him and messed up an opportunity to explore a new and exciting way to approach acting'. 

To quote him as he prepared for a big play - 'I had by this time been converted to Om's approach and way of working, or rather I was compelled to adopt both, considering the nature of the role in The Lesson. Without burning the midnight oil I could see that this time I wouldn't be able to even memorise the lines, there were so many. So for the first time in my life I found myself walking early without being compelled to and doing what was expected of me The results that this kind of application produce were not long in coming. Most exhilaratingly of all, for the first time, I felt I was in complete control of what I was doing onstage.'

On learning the craft.
'The tumid conviction when I entered NSD that I knew it all and was going there to finally start plying my trade had deflated completely towards the end of my stay. My first attempt at working hard had yielded results. I began to suspect there was something more to this acting business that I knew, but hadn't a clue what it was, nor where or how to learn it. The stint at drama school gave me immense confidence in strutting the stage but had not really taught me the nuts and bolts of the job and I could see it was high time I tried coming to grips with those.' 

But the nagging suspicion that I had been kidding myself was fuelled by watching Om's steady growth from being a modest insecure wallflower into an actor and person of considerable assurance. I, though, was exactly the same arrogant loudmouth I had been when I joined NSD, had found nothing new, had learnt nothing in three years...I being incapable of that kind of genuine humility (as Om had) had frittered away the time... If I wanted to survive as an actor I had to bring more than just competence and cleverness to the table and I suspected that I didn't have very much than those. It was time to learn the job.'

The aspect of how to improvise, to respond to stimulus spontaneously as shown through the class of Roshan Taneja hits home. In FTII he had to throw characterisation out of the window. In a scene they had to know where they were coming from and going where. He remembers how Roshan Taneja looked at him and said - some of you have a lot to unlearn. 'The elusive word 'method' was beginning to reveal itself at last. The thought that the craft can be deconstructed, the process uncovered and replicated instead of waiting for a 'good day' or for 'luck' was something that Stanislavsky tried to bring. Now, for me this was exhilarating stuff because this is stuff that they discuss in the Mindset by Carol Dweck, in the route to becoming an expert and all such important documents. It makes as much or more sense to the artists.

His growth as an actor soon showed up in opportunities that came by his way. Nishant was his first film. He says he received the most valuable piece of advise regarding film acting he has ever received from Shyam Benegal - "The camera is the eye of everyone watching the film". But success did not follow him instantly. He was rejected as a newsreader for Doordarshan.

I liked his approach to looking for work. 'I knew that the only way work would generate itself would be if I grabbed every opportunity I got and wrung it out till it screamed for mercy. Work would come only if I could demonstrably deliver the goods.' 

His friendship that soured with Jaspal, his relationship with Om Puri (that episode with Anupam Kher is one of the best I have seen on TV), experiments with drugs, his dalliances at Falkland Road, his love and marriage with Ratna Pathak, Kulbushan Karbanda's snoring, his not-so-complimentary views on Sholay, and his adaptation to the Hindi film industry complete the story.

His search to get his craft right comes through as the greatest part of the story to me, and I think I was looking for that only. Thankfully he has dealt with it in great detail and honesty. His relationship with his father, his family, his romances etc are all written honestly and wittily and show many dimensions of a man whom I would always relate to as the character in Chashme Buddoor. Then you realise that those were mere roles and that this person has his own story, his strong likes and dislikes and one gets a bit wary of the construct we have created. Naseeruddin Shah is unforgiving, ruthlessly honest and believes that what he has embarked on is right. Of course, many times he has in retrospect said that he had been wrong. But the intensity of his conviction on where he stands, his views on people, relationships etc dulled the sheen off my illusion of him. However, it did deepen my respect for him as a person.

I cannot help thinking what I would have done if I'd read this book when I was twenty. I think I'd have approached both women and drugs differently. But in retrospect, maybe the timing of the book is better for me. Would I recommend it. Emphatically yes. Specially for all learners, whatever they are doing.

All The King's Men - Movie Review

The 1949 classic is based on a Pulitzer prize winning novel of the same name. The story is that of a small town idealist, a good samaritan, who wishes to do good to society. Being one of them, a naive and innocent chap with only good intentions and commitment to lead a change, Willie Stark sets off on his journey. Its a bit like watching Arvind Kejriwal and AAP - the idealists trying to take on seasoned politicians. Only here with Arvind Kejriwal the story has just begun and he can watch out for the pitfalls.

But the path is not easy and it takes its toll on Willie. He compromises on his path and though he is able to fool the public, finds that he is losing respect and love at home. Told from the eyes of an idealistic journalist the story takes many twists and turns - love, loss - but holds true to a linear narrative. But its packed with stuff - you can't help but stay riveted to the screen. Powerful writing. I can't forget the story just like I won't be able to forget a similar movie called 'Mr.Smith goes to Washington' also about a rookie politician.

Lovely piece of work. Why can't they make movies like that? Simple, direct and clear. And great storytelling. They are not joking when they say its a great motion picture.

Flirting With Disaster - Movie Review

Why I have this movie with me and where I got it from I don't know but on the third attempt, it got off. I mean until then, I could not figure out what it was really about and stopped it some 20 minutes into the show. But then there's Ben Stiller and some kids and adoptions etc so I guessed it must be funny. However, one must note, I never laughed even once in the movie.

Ben Stiller has neurotic parents who adopted him. He is neurotic too, has a neurotic wife and a child. Ben wants to find his real parents and the adoption agency seems to have zeroed in on them. They send an attractive but dumb researcher along to help the young couple along in their endeavour. So we meet wrong parents, meet people who attract and distract the couple and finally find the parents who are - neurotic, drug addicts and all sorts of stuff. Throw in a couple of gay cops and we have it all.

Certainly flirting with disaster if you're watching this one.