The Magic Moonlight Flower and other Enchanting Stories - Satyajit Ray

Four in all. 'Sujan Harbola, the Boy Who Spoke to Birds' being the story of a boy who spoke to birds and how he finally marries a princess. 'Gangaram's Lucky Stone' is a stone that changes Gangaram's life and he becomes very lucky and in the end he marries a princess. 'The Ogre and the Princess' is a story where Ratan is cursed to become an ogre and he uses his strength to overcome a monster and well- marries a princess. 'The Magic Moonlight Flower' is a story where the hero Kanai is battling against time and odds to save his father and in the process discovers a bigger cause and ends up saving everyone including his father. All stories with nice twists and turns, of ordinary boys who make their fortune with courage and intelligence and a little help from the world.

Most times they end up marrying princesses or in one story becoming a minister. Never stop dreaming.

Thought for the Day - Make The Music Connection!

This is one of the greatest insights I think I have had. A couple of decades ago (when I was considered a worse effect on impressionable minds than I am today) a friend of mine asked me to meet his 16 year old son who he thought was getting too rebellious for comfort. Now my friend was a conservative man and doted on his daughter who fell in line with his ideas. She dressed conservatively and did all things right as per his book. The boy was not.

Now I had no experience of doing anything with kids so I went with an open. I chatted with the boy and realised he was normal - I was like that when I was 15. He listened to rock music, did not want to spend time with his family, preferred being alone, did not like being questioned and certainly rebelled at any kind of control that was being forced on him. After a polite chat during which I made no connection I saw his music collection. I told him some of the music I liked and asked him to play his music. His eyes suddenly came alive. Not only did he play all his favorite music for the next half an hour, he even generously gave me his prized CDs which I know is a huge symbol of trust. I was surprised at the connection we made.

His younger sister saw what happened and as I stepped out of this boy's room she invited me to hers. She was in her 8th then perhaps. Her collection of music, which I thought would be mellow and soft, was harder than her brothers. If he was listening to Green Day she was listening to Iron Maiden. It was a repeat of what happened with the boy.

I thought about it and realised that words do not really convey as much about us and our feelings. More so when we are adolescents when hormones are raging and we are crossing over from being children to young adults. They do not know how to express themselves and they express themselves through their music. And if someone can actually even listen to their music without being judgmental, they feel understood. I have tried the same with all the young nephews and nieces of mine and they all relate to me best through the music we share.

But what was interesting was what happened recently. I visited Pune and met a ninety plus year old uncle. He was low on energy and actually talking about whether he would be alive the next visit etc. Since the air was heavy and morbid, I changed the topic and asked him what his number 1 song was. His eyes lit up and he said it was K.L. Saigal's song. His entire demeanour changed. I asked him if he wanted to listen to it. His eyes lit up again and he said yes. I played it on my mobile. He was so happy that he started to hum along. After a while I showed him how to play it on his mobile and left. As I reached home, I heard him call me. He had walked all the way because he had somehow lost the YouTube screen where the song was playing. It was incredible how the connection was built, how the energy changed.

Want to heal a relationship? Listen to that other person's music with him or her. That is their innermost feeling, their deepest truth. By sharing it, they are letting you in. Just listen. Be.

The Question Series - What Would You Be Without...?

The question is really this - what would be without all the things that you think make you what you are?

For example, all the wrong notions of what I am  that I have accumulated from birth - my family, my background, my community, my religion, my caste, my family's wealth, my looks, my country's status, my mental capacities, my emotional capacities, my education, my politics,....etc. Imagine if I were to remove the notions that came along with each of these frames that I added on to my life, frames that I judge my life experiences with.

I can see so much purity at the other end if I remove the frames, one by one. So much innocence and power. Can we remove the frames and see ourselves as we originally were?

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

Finally, an Ayn Rand. I was disappointed to say the least because it is exposition all the way. Extreme characters, illogical and inconsistent behaviors, too little action and too much talk. It's what an intelligent communicator (like a masala film maker or a clever politician) would do to shock and awe and get away. I am not impressed with one character in the book - Roark, Dominique, Wynand, Toohey, Mallory, Francon, Keating, Catherine...none. They are full of themselves and cannot see beyond their nose. Their motives are vague...in fact they do not seem to have any motive except to self destruct.

Keating was probably consistent till the end. But as architects they all appear shallow - Ayn Rand could not convince me that she knew her architecture well. All characters are one dimensional and remain like that.

My favorite memory of Ayn Rand from college was this though. I never read her books, and was frankly intimidated by the size of the book and perhaps her reputation as well. I sometimes wonder how I would have been if I read her books in college or if I'd got influenced by communist ideologies then. But for someone who knew nothing of Ayn Rand I remembering hazarding a guess at the favorite author of one rebellious junior who had just joined college, Sarita. My first guess was Ayn Rand and she was surprised that it was so obvious. But she was a good egg, Sarita, with her own mind, so I can give that to Ms. Rand.

So looks like I know Ayn Rand more than I know myself and perhaps do identify a lot with her characters - so much that I do not like them. I liked Roark's way of doing things initially - it fits in with Simon Sinek's 'Start with Why'. There were parts where I felt like I knew Roark well. There were parts when I could understand Dominique's love for Roark. But overall I found them all boring beyond a point. I thought Toohey was overrated and Keating too obvious. She also forgot Catherine conveniently for most part. For a while I thought all three would live together - the way Wynand falls in love with Roark.

I did like the line - 'Love is all about exception-making' - Wynand. Also would like to read Roark's long speech in the end again that probably is what the book is all about. It's so long that one is sure that Ayn Rand must have been like that. In love with her own voice and her own thoughts.

Now to read Atlas Shrugged but after a while. Need a break from Ms. Rand.

Loveless - Movie

Lovely insight into the state of lovelessness and its tragedy. Disturbing. Engaging.

Thought for the Day - How to Be Happy and Optimistic Like I Was In College

For many years I was bothered by this question - how was I happier in college despite having far less than I have today? How did I feel I could change the world? How dd I feel that everything was possible?

And more importantly, as I grew older, why do I feel less and less like that? I loved that spirit. I struggled with this question for twenty five years.

It suddenly struck me the other day - a rather simplistic answer - that in college, the future is full of hope and possibilities. Whereas as we grow older, hope diminishes and possibilities decrease. We create our own logic of why things can happen or cannot and resign ourselves. Until there comes a time when we cannot do anything but sit in our chair.

Now, we may or may not be able to do anything with boundless hope and endless possibilities in our mind - in college or after - but for me that feeling was like a drug. So I decided to adopt that feeling again. I look at this margin of my life which was slowly getting smaller and darker and knocked it wide open.

The right margin is now like the big blue sky, open and endless. Full of hope. Ah, what a feeling! And with this feeling clutched deep in my heart and mind, I will live out the rest of my life.

Like a college kid with no limitations, no fears. Just wild hope. And all possibilities.

Thought for the Day - Flow!

I remember a friend of mine reminding me in a heated argument - 'So what do you know about flow?'
Fact is that I do not nor do I claim to know. It's something that seems so far away, a state that I might not even get a whiff of. But my friend had a problem with the fact that I could even think of these themes and act like I knew of them.

Until the other day when I was dealing with a question that bothered me. It bothered me enough to bring everything to a halt. That's when I realised that when I get bothered, flow seems to get affected. Or is it the other way around - when flow gets affected, I get bothered.

I thought about it. (These days I try to use symbols to retain the thought) Then I thought that if I could find a visual representation of flow, it could help regain my composure quicker. So I visualised energy flowing all around me in circle - vertical (better symbolism) and saw the flowing energy. It kind of seemed to unlock my stuck space in a way and I could move on easier.

Don;t know anything about flow still. Just that it seems to work for me, this idea. Of visualising flow. I think I made a dent.