Fairytales or Reality???!!!

Cinderella and her magic pumpkin, jack and the beanstalk, Ugly duckling's transformation, Snow-white's seven dwarfs... The happily ever after stories... Every kid all over the world is fed with the same - with a nice helping of their local flavour. Girls are expected to sigh and wait for their prince to come... sing songs till he does... play with birds and animals... look at flowers... and dream away... or sit piteously in the dungeon locked up by the evil step mom till prince charming comes along. Those girls hardly ever do anything else... (Which is why I love Disney's Mulan best of all... she wants to do something... goes and fights for her beliefs instead of waiting for some guy to come along singing a ballad!) The prince charming will come along in his own sweet time... Love at first sights...then comes fighting the evil (what ever form it takes). Sweep the princess off her feet... and happily ever after. For unfortunate people ugly or poor... magic is right around the corner to bless them with a happily ever after for being ever so good! So being good is rewarded and Bad people are punished... That is what kindergarten and most of school life ever teaches you.

As I grew older my fairy tales changed... they became schoolgirls at boarding school with strong wonderful friendships to add beauty to life. Then came the girls in Montgomery’s tales... girls with strong minds who make wonderful nests at home and where family and friends dominate everything in the world. Where it is good good good all around... Even Austen and Alcott don't venture any where near reality. The most they say is how ever bad things get... it will always always get better. Ups and downs are part of life. But there is always a silver lining to every black cloud. Even Harry always fights the evil and there is the hope of a better tomorrow. The worst in life glossed over by strong friendships and love. LOTR I feel comes close... Because by feeling the knife in his body, Frodo shows that every experience of life marks you forever. You are never the same again.

Though they all teach that there is something to learn from every experience, they forget to add a footnote to say that you also leave something behind. You shall not pass through life without being branded by every low and every high and the in betweens... This is what you have to learn for yourself. Fine I know books and movies and stories are for entertainment only... There are biographies to read if you want to know the reality in life. But by the time you get old enough to read them and digest it you are thrown on to the highway of life. Nothing is fair, not everything is good and nice. Evil doesn't always loose. There are no rewards for being good apart from a peaceful night's sleep... but at the same time I doubt if evil is punished with sleeplessness because they don’t know they are the evil ones, so they most often get away with it all. They are the ones who get everything in the world and have great lives. I refuse to accept that they have down moments - they might get lonely, they 'ought' to be guilty, they 'ought' to be awake always with a prickly conscience. BUT... they don’t know the good things in life so they don’t miss them anyway. My mom still says they will get the worst of it. BUT I think otherwise... I sometimes envy those people who get away with everything... BUT I have never wanted to be them. I am happy with what I am... COZ whatever it is... it is all ME!

It is time to stop living in dreams and fairy tales... the only dreams in life worth dreaming - says the world today - is to get ahead, get successful, grow, aim for heights... Move over enlightenment, fine arts, love for nature, the need to help around... Get successful and be something in this world to do all that. Prove that you can get it all before you scoff at it. There is no place for just being nice good and happy and living life enjoying the ride... Push the ride... test its limits... get into the stream and keep running. Never ever pause for a second and think what is happening. You haven't got time for such things anymore. Life is cruel and life is harsh - Yup Ayn Rand you might be the only one who got it right... without glossing it over with metaphors. No one promised you a happy safe ride where everything is the way you wanted it to be... but stop dishing out stories that make you discontent in life. Stop the Alchemist who says that if you want something really bad... the whole world contrives to help you get it. Shake Richard Bach and tell him that reality is not what you imagine... not everything in your life is there 'coz you got it there. That is not how it works... LIFE IS... you just have to make the most of it. Don't ever expect to get off unchanged when the ride is over... Just hope you will be able to recognise yourself when you look down at yourself when you have to leave...

Patriotism the Bollywood way...

Patriotism and Hindi motion pictures have always gone hand in hand. We all heard of the days when the national anthem was played at the end of every movie. Every year there is at least one movie that keeps the patriotic spirit in us alive. From the black n white chronicles of the freedom struggle to the hep ultra modern youth transforming into freedom struggle revolutionaries… the movies have always kept up with the changing times and have pricked the patriotic conscience in us – if only for the 3 hrs that we are utterly alone in a dark hall full of people, who are experiencing the same. I wonder why the spirit dies down once the curtains are drawn and the lights are switched on, and we find ourselves once again a part of a crowd.

The legend of Bhagat Singh (one of the half a dozen similar chronicles to hit the silver screen at once) made Bhagat the unsung hero of the freedom struggle. Bhagat dreams of an India where “har dharam, har mazhab, har zyaat ke log ek hi aasmaan ke neechein suraksha ki neend so sakein. Aur wahi hoga sahi maine mein azaad Bharat. Sunehara Bharat… Hamara Bharat.” Rang De Basanti - a better box office hit, also a favourite among all the youth of today is more about caring for the country. It reinvented the spirit of the freedom struggle and made us feel that there was a Bhagat Singh hidden inside each of us. Lage raho Munna Bhai – another re-invention… this time the father of our nation went live on the FM. Taking up his principles and blending them with the mood of the our times - “Gandhigiri” became the new age mantra for non-violence. Chak de India – also patriotic in its own way… captured the spirit of patriotism that sports are always associated with them; reviving India’s interest in its national game. Lagaan – cricket and patriotism… the perfect mix! In Swades Mohan Bhargava gives up a dream job in the dream land, to work for the betterment of the home land… Swades deals with the new age patriotism. It gives a kind of solution to what can be done now. Halla Bol – another patriotic movie, which talks about integrity and standing up for what’s right; about taking responsibility to change the system that has gone wrong. Yuva another movie of the same kind, but the solution is different – urging the intelligentia to become a part of the political system.

Cinema is a very powerful medium in our country. It evokes passion in our country like nothing else (except cricket) does. But my question is why do we wait for a movie to come and tell us what is right and what ought to be done? And why is the effect so short lived? Every national holiday we sit and spend a short while wondering about patriotism – again thanks to the media which keeps flashing it up at our conscience. Shouldn’t patriotism be something more deep routed and permanent? Something that we should be proud of wearing up our sleeve? and not something that opens our eyes in dark theatres…There are a million ways to show our love for the nation. The simplest thing is to feel that it is yours. It is your very own wonderful beautiful nation… MY India, YOUR India, OUR India. It is your home. Take care of it as you would your own dwelling. Keep it clean, keep things in order, follow the law – they are just a small courtesy towards your neighbours sharing the same dwelling; help one another; raise your voice against injustice; take responsibility for changing what’s wrong. Take responsibility – ‘coz if you won’t do it who will? It is up to each and every one of us to keep our India shining. If it doesn’t – the fault lies within each one of us…

Take responsibility. “koi desh perfect nahi hota. Use perfect banana padta hai” n “… zimmedaari uthao use badal ne ki”. You can make a difference – for a better tomorrow – for you and for every one else on this beautiful piece of earth we call home – India.

Anosmia...

The 5 senses... Sight, Sound, Touch, Smell and Taste... I never realised how much a part of life they really are untill I lost one of them... ANOSMIA... One the funniest problem to be suffering from. A depressing but none the less funny one...

I can't smell... "not at all??? not even a leetle bit??? are you serious???" - ya, ya, ya... I am serious!!! I dont recall ever reading a story or watching a movie in which some one looses their sense of smell, not even in a comic!!! Now that I think of it... Are there people who cant taste??? Have to check that up. ANOSMIA - now thats a word that doesnt come up on the GRE wordlists...

I was reading a book today in which the author was describing a place and was talking about the smell of rotting pages of old books. Then I began to wonder how incomplete the description of any place is without describing the fragnances or odours. It was only recently that it hit me that I travelled across europe without any idea of what it smells like! I have been living for the last 8 months with anosmic memories. All my memories of the last 8 months (for sure... I donno when I really lost the sensation of smell actuallyyy) dont have any smell associated with them.

To be sure it is a very convenient problem to have sometimes... I can live aparently any where on earth - as someone pointed it out to me yesterday. I walk across anywhere without holding my breath or crinking up my nose. But... when you are actually making biryani and someone else comes in from another room to tell you that the aroma is great!!! Its not that great feeling - trust me! 

I remember many of the smells... people ask me how??? (rather laugh at that tooo :P) but I do remember some of my most favourite smells... and not so favourite ones too! I figured that I probably could eat papaya now that I cant smell it, but then I realised that I can still recollect the smell... :) so memory is still intact!!! 

My doc says he cant figure out why I lost the sensation of smell... I should get it back some day just like that. Another doc says I should keep checking for smell (huh???!!!). Most of my friends go into peals of laughter when ever they remember it... and if I am in a mood to laugh too, I join in - in thinkin up all the things that i can do now without any problem. But then again... I know I am missing out on something very important in life... I wish i could get it back... But I have quite given up on it!!!