2024. Hindi.
Tabu, Kareena and Kriti Sanon are air hostesses in a sinking airline (with a prosperous promoter). They have their own secrets and beliefs and indulge in a bit of smuggling until they decide to turn the tables and rob the greedy promoter and get him arrested.
Fun and racy dialogues. Good casting and acting by the three ladies. Watchable.
It is easily the best part of my year - teaching Arts Management to the students of the Department of Dance, SN College, University of Hyderabad. It has been 10 years now perhaps and I still feel that it is fully worth my time and effort. And when the students do something special to recognise and acknowledge my effort, it feels like it was doubly worth it.
Last Monday being the last day of my course we would up early. I gave them all some individual feedback. After which, I got a plethora of wonderful gifts - Madhavi gave me a bookmark made by her young daughter Sahasra who is studying in her 7th class in Rishi Valley, Renu gave me a chocolate and the entire class wrote little notes of appreciation and feedback complete with smileys and funny faces. Aditi even made her note like a book - with comments on the blurb as well!
Here's the class of 2024. Minus a few absentees.
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| Standing in foreground L to R - Vismaya, Madhavi, Brishti, Archiesmathy, Chandana, Pavithra, Aditi, Renu Back row L to R - Anupama, Adhisha, Sagarika, Prof Anuradha, Me, Reshma, Anusree |
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| The bookmark - Madhavi's daughter Sahasra |
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| Renu and the chocolate |
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| Madhavi handing me the folder with all the messages and two pens! |
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| Pavithra |
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| Renu |
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| Anupama |
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| Archiesmathy |
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| Vismaya |
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| Brishti |
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| Reshma |
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| Adhirsha |
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| Chandana |
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| Madhavi |
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| Anusree |
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| Sagarika |
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| Aditi |
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| Me and Brishti |
In a situation where both concerned feel they are right, we end up with no resolution. Even the thought that 'both' are right doe snot fully convey the message.
What then?
To realise that we have somehow been responsible in creating the situation is the first step. So the question - what have I done to contribute to this must be asked of oneself. Fine, someone is cheating me, betraying me, treating me badly, not understanding me - but what have I done to contribute to this? Have I in some way pushed them away to behave the way they did? That's the first step to opening up a possibility of taking responsibility.
Beyond that comes empathy.
Can one put oneself in the other person's shoes and try to understand how they would have felt? Simply reverse the position, get into their shoes and come from their perspective. Maybe there could be some empathy too.
They say if we let go of our need to be right and make the other wrong, there will be no conflict. But beyond both being right, lies taking responsibility for the situation and then if one can, even empathising with the other.
All's well and that ends well.
2024. English.
Chanced upon this beautiful film by chance on Netflix and loved it. I am sucker for sports drama anyday and for underdog stories and what could be a more underdog story than a 'Homeless World Cup'. The Homeless World Cup is an annual world football event run by the Association which hopes to eradicate homelessness by associating with football. Co founded in 2011 by Mel Young and Harald Schmeid it hopes to advocate a solution for homelessness.
The story is fictional - about a homeless English team being put together by a thoughtful manager who had managed big teams earlier. The story takes off like a shot and jumps right in. It is a short version of soccer with five players. England has in its ranks a refugee from Syria (I think), a heroin addict on rehab, a man who gambled away his life and ended up on the roads, someone who was an orphan and our protagonist Vinny who has the past of a star in the making who loses it all.
Thea Sharrock ties it all up beautifully - everyone gets the chance and break they deserve. Can't ask for anything more. Watch it. Nice feel good stuff.
V. Raghunathan is an academic who taught for twenty years at the IIM, A and hen worked in ING Vysya Bank as a top manager. He is also the largest collector of locks or something to that effect. Anyway, he applies game theory to Indian situations and tries to understand why we are the way we are. I am not sure if he gave any solutions but certainly he shares many pointers where the better way might help. If anyone cares to listen.
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The key thing is to understand the characteristics we Indians normally exhibit which come sup for consideration. These 12 characteristics are
1) Low trustworthiness
2) Being privately smart and publicly dumb
3) Fatalist outlook
4) Being too intelligent for our own good
5) Abysmal sense of public hygiene
6) Lack of self-regulation and sense of fairness
7) Reluctance to penalise wrong conduct in others
8) Mistaking talk for action
9) Deep rooted corruption and a flair for free riding
10) Inability to follow or implement systems
11) A sense of self-worth that is massaged only we have the 'authority' to break rules
12) Propensity to look for loopholes in laws
A nice example that stays with us is what we do in traffic. At a signal we don't trust the others to follow rules so we break them first. When we get stuck in traffic due to our own stupidity like going wrong side - we actually think we are being 'smart' by saving fuel when we actually are pretty dumb in terms of the bigger danger and loss to us if we get into an accident. We have a fatalist outlook to authorities (especially when it suits us - and that means when we are not required to take any action).
When we go wrong side or go through a red light, we think we are being too intelligent but as we know we are not. Public hygiene is low - accepted - and so are number of usable toilets. Lack of self-regulation and a sense of fairness do not fit in with us because we have this huge sense of entitlement (do you know who I am?). We will not penalise wrong conduct in others simply because it would mean taking a stand, dealing with some social work - we would rather suffer the consequences than do any extra bit for society's good.
Totally know that we as a people mistake talk for action - and actually make no connection between talk and action - if a person says one thing and behaves exactly in the opposite way people are fine. Anything free is fine, and anything can be handled - accident by kid? get a driver to take the rap. murder by kid? buy and threaten witnesses.Most times the cops act on behalf of the perpetrators. Our whole idea is to find loopholes so we do not follow or implement systems.
Enough said, we Indians are like Raghunathan says low on self-regulation and always looking to find ways to break or bend the rules and quick to defect - if one guy is breaking the law we quickly join him. I did not pay much attention to the examples he stated - Veerappan's dilemma, the prisoner's dilemma and so on - but got enough from them to understand that it does not take much to realise that if we follow a system we will all benefit. But we all want to benefit first, and perhaps at the cost of the others and in the process lose - but hey, that's fine by us.
There is no ego in the now.
It can only exist in the past and the future. So if we can stay in the perfect now there will be no drama, no fear, no distress etc etc.
The now is child-like spontaneity.
1982. Hindi. Amitabh. Hema.
Educate Anjali about movies we saw in our childhood is turning out to be an education for me. I don't remember liking it as much then as I did now. The movie takes off like a shot from scene one, and sustains it till the end. Amitabh is brilliant in his 'liver khtaba ho jata hai' scene. Those guys really knew how to make films and engage and entertain the audience. Great fun, great music and good acting all around.
Can watch it anytime!
