Anjali - We Criticise Even When We Do Not Speak

'So Anjali,' I said as we were driving to her school. 'Today I decided I will not criticise anyone.'
She looked at me.

We both saw a taxi driver drive through a red light. I pursed my lips in jest. She knows that the traffic brings out the worst critic in me.

She looked at me and said 'You can criticise without saying a word also you know.'

I was stumped. How did she figure that out?

'How?' I asked. 'How do you sense that?'

'We can make out from their eyes, their body language, something...that we know they are judging us, criticising us. We can feel it.'

'Yes,' I agreed. 'I wonder why we do that though. Perhaps criticising others makes us feel better in comparison.'

Anjali was not too concerned about the why. It was enough that we do that.

The Star - Movie Review

Cannot have a cuter way of telling a biblical story. Wonderful! One to watch again.

My Article in the Sunday HANS - Silence Kills

Silence Kills!
http://epaper.thehansindia.com/1548794/SUNDAY-HANS/Sunday-Hans#page/13/1

The Old Man and His Pineapples

The moment I saw him standing peacefully at his cart slicing his pineapples without a care about the world I knew I would buy a pineapple from him. Not some slices. A whole one. No bargaining. I just wanted to do business with him. The old Muslim man continued slicing away and putting sliced pineapple slices into small plastic covers.

I went to the bank and returned. He was still at his job. People came randomly. One knew him well enough to pick up a packet and start eating. A youngster bought a packet for an old beggar woman. Things happened without any negotiation. He continued on his job. I asked him to give me a whole pineapple. He finished what he was doing and then started my job.

It was this deep purpose of what he was doing that caught me. He was not selling anything. He was just being himself. He was just at peace with himself. If he sold one or a hundred it would not matter. And since it did not matter, it drew people to him. It was amazing how many got drawn to him.

One is the peace. Another is his purpose. Thirdly he did not push anything - he merely did his work and allowed. He created a secure space for others to step in. For someone like me who thinks several times before I buy anything, to decide so clearly was amazing.

It made sense what the zen masters say. You just have to be and not try too hard and the world will come to you. It is when you grab that it slips away. Tim Galleway says in his book 'The Inner Game of Work' that sales happen when you stepped back and gave the buyer space.

The old man is a zen master.  

Paris, Texas - Movie Review

Wonderful. Slow. Real pain in human relationships. Deeply impactful.

Anjali - Thoughtfulness and Care

It was a joke. There are some jokes we cannot stop ourselves from laughing uncontrollably. Anjali is one of the few who shares such crazy laughter with me. I love the way she laughs so wholeheartedly like a gurgling brook. Anyway we were talking about her badminton classes which she was slowly getting out of. She said she did not want t play doubles (perhaps a fallout of her partner hitting her on her head recently - a pretty bad bump resulting). I joked saying that she should probably play doubles by herself with racquets in both hands and going whirr. The visual was unexpectedly funny and we went off into paroxysms of laughter, one that we could not control for a long time.

While laughing uncontrollably I found her patting me on my back and calming me down. She did this a couple of times and I finally asked her what she was doing when I stopped laughing.

'Well, you were getting a little excited,' she said. 'So I thought I would calm you down.'

That's a lot more thoughtfulness and care than I see from most. Good to see the young lady thought her old man needed a hand.

'It's funny how when we laugh so hard the sound stops coming,' she observed quickly, allowing me to recover. The slow curtain. Very thoughtful again.

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold - Movie

Brilliant economy. Taut. Dramatic irony.