Chasing Satiation

There was once a time, really long ago, where a blackberry and an apple were still recognized as fruits. Not gadget companies. There was also that time when people didn't judge you by what you wore and what phone you had. There was also that blissful time when Abercrombie, Aero and Armani didn't exist. But that time is over. Gone. Finished. Now, people do judge you by what you wear and what phone you have. But that doesn't always have to be a bad thing. Not when you have other things to keep your rep up. And that's what really matters. Yes, having a blackberry may make you feel on top of the world for a week but can you compare that to the feeling when after 3 months of working hard, getting up in the morning and running you get the gold medal in a marathon and you hear from your friends that they are proud of you and they are happy for you? You're never going to get that if you wear a skimpy dress from DKNY. And that pride is better than "whatta hottie!". Yes, watching everyone around you getting a BlackBerry can be hard, every second poster being of a Curve or a Torch can make you look down at your Nokia and say what the hell but if you bother for just one second to look outside the shiny and tempting walls of that phone then you'll see that the world has more problems than a PDA. If you help an old man just by keeping the elevator door open for him then you can change lives in just the smallest of ways and that's really what's going to keep you satisfied. I haven't experienced that level of fulfillment yet, but I'm on my way. Hope it helps; I have my fingers crossed.

Chasing Excellence

Every once in a while, you come across a person who seems to be perfect. In every front. Academically, sportswise,socially and ethically. Everyone wants to be like them. Become the person who everyone loves. But what makes those admired people perfect? They'd probably attribute it to their "parents, teachers and friends" like modest likeable souls but I think its more than that. Parents, teachers and freinds can only inspire you. The excellence you achieve is all because of what you do. The hardwork you put in, the etiquette you observe, the brilliance you work towards bringing out. So you might say that your parents, teachers and friends are responsible for your excellence but the truth is, that its all you. Because if it was really them, you would be mediocre. To some people, excellence is defined by prizes and awards. But sometimes you just get those because someone out there loves you, and doesn't want you to be embarrased. Does that mean that your excellent? No, it doesn't. Just clarifying for the people who think it does. So then what really is excellence? That's actually a question that is difficult to understand and answer. Through visualization I think that everyone I know will answer this question differently. Here and there people will have the same answers but the majority will be different. I think that excellence is who you are, not who you have to be. I think that having the ability to work for what you think is correct despite the cynical and unwilling world which tries to force you to do otherwise is excellence. No one says it better than Aristotle,"We are what we repeatedly do; excellence therefore, is not an act but a habit."

Chasing God

I remember that as a child, my parents weren't really all that religious. Hints of that were given to me when I noticed that my mother didn't do karvachauth like other mothers or they didn't have havans or pujas as often as my other friends. But they did believe in God. They believed that he was there within all of us, and he always would be. Therefore, I was familiar with the basic sanskrit shlokas and was taught that whenever I needed him, he would always be there. But then, as I grew older, I started questioning the existence of this supposed supernatural being. Really, who was he? How was everyone so sure that he was there? Scientifically its impossible that heaven even exists. More over, when I did pray to him, nothing special happened. However, other people believe that he is there. Latest reports prove that even science has now got no other explantion for the happening of the big bang except that some celestial being out there helped it happen. This theory thus gave birth to the "God Particle". Then other people see God in other ways. He is in control of the world and everything that happens in it. And the expediant given for the bad and unfortunate things that happen is that he is teaching us a lesson. God may be the answer to everyone's worries. It would be so easy just to put all your problems in one person's lap, knowing that no matter how many you load on him he will take the weight without complaint or discomfort. But I believe differently. I believe that it is a matter of opinion whether he is there or not. With all due respect I don't feel any different or purer when I enter a holy place. The atmosphere doesn't swallow me up or calm me. It could be because I'm somewhat of an amateur rebel and don't want to be calm. But all the same I don't revel in the glory of his supposed presence in a gurudwara or temple.
But this is about belief. And I can't change anyone else's; I don't want to either.

Money Tree

Money is a big issue in this world. This realisation had dawned on me around the time when I was 11 years old, when the influence of brands and boys came into being. Large stocks of dresses, shirts and skirts were bought every year from the exclusive stores of Zara, Abercrombie and Hollister in London, Hong Kong and the States. By the time we reached thirteen, Armani belts, shirts and even dresses were being flaunted by various nepotistic kids of our grade. But the real question that should be asked is whether they really know the value of the apparel they don so frivolously, and everyday at that. Growing up in a world where everything comes to us at the click of fingers, money has never really been an issue that crosses our minds often. The highest order of problems that we can have are around the concepts of popularity, acceptability, friends, and studies. It is only the children who actually go through some level of a comparatively tough life that actually understand what happens when the only thing that could go wrong in your life is not that you don't feel like every single person loves you every minute of every day. It's often that people say that money is not the most important thing in the world. That, strictly speaking, is not entirely true. Yes, maybe there are other things that one might come up with to overshadow money, but then you can look at it in this way: If money's eternal nemesis is supposedly happiness, then just like two people who have a love and hate relationship; they are the same. These two are fine without each other; they can survive, however they are at their best when they are around the other. Both can function, but they depend on each other's presence for the best outcome.
Money is often said to be man's greatest yet deadliest creation. Holding true to it's word, it can either make a man noteworthy or narcissistic. It's often that people say that a man's greatness should not be measured by his wealth but by his merit. Hearing it, it all sounds very deep, but in reality, it's just another idealistic statement. For in our world, a man's worth is more often than not, actually measured by his wealth. Non-controversially speaking again, the pronounced statement above has been generalized. In the end of the day, money is really a notable part of your life and is definitely creditable for playing a major role in moulding and shaping it into what it is today.

A Riddle to Remember

I've written a lot of reviews on movies and books and frankly I think that maybe review writing is my strongest point in English. But there's one kind of review that I've never written and I've been wanting to, for some time now. Let's play a game of charades. You are the guesser, and I'm the actor. Your aim? Guess what this review is about.
A little girl entered her kinder garden class with a smile on her face reminiscent to that of her grandmother and watched as her to- be classmates held on to their parents' hands with small fingers begging them through their tears not to let go. Her parents were proud of their little sweetheart, the brave child who was guaranteed to be a brilliant girl whe she grew up. Three years later her academic reports indicated that she was a promising girl with only two drawbacks ; she wouldn't stop talking and she wasn't living up to her full potential. Acknowledging the fact, yet partially ignoring it, her parents began to look for the girl's strengths and began working on those. She did well in the next two years, a popular little girl with friends, decent marks, a proficiency certificate in English and a budding reputation as a brilliant actress. But maybe that got to her head, and her living dream shattered. With competitive rivals challenging her on the theatre front, and her academic grades going down she realised that she was going to have to work to get it back, a thought which she throughly despised. She had lived her entire life thinking that everything in it was for granted. But as money and attitude came into being, she understood that it wasn't. Her parents had worked hard for their money and even though they had earned a lot, it just wasn't enough to compete with her nepotistic classmates. Then came her first teenage year, a year where everything should be meticulous and systematically planned. A new chapter in life where everything calls for desperate measures. And it did. A new fight broke out everyday. She started trusting her friends more than her parents. Her values and ethical niceties crashed and fell to the ground around her. She never felt the need to tell her parents anything as she had a mere three years back. She became an amateur rebel and although she knew that whatever her parents did was for her own good, she didn't truly believe in any of it. Everyday she heard the same thing, she was tired of it all but she knew that she wouldn't be able to get them to understand, for everytime she tried she would start crying and as if like a chain reaction so would her mother. How could she put into words that she needed to feel wanted within the social circle, she needed to feel wanted, without making it sound dumb and superficial? But one day then she realised that talking to somebody abouit it helped. Anybody. Something she hadn't believed had helped her. Helped her become free, letting her fly and enjoy herself for the first time in what had seemed like forever. She looked around her, loving everyone twice as much as she had before.

Answer to the posed question above : Life

Success.

Watching the Indian team win a gold in an athletics event isn't something that we see everyday. Hell, it isn't even something we see every 10 years. Which is why I would as of today I would count myself as one of the luckiest people in the world, someone who got to enjoy being proud of a country because of something they did which wasn't developing, it was developed. Running with the some of the world's fastest runners whose genes caused them to run like lightning, we ran our best and beat them. Botswana and Nigeria may be fast but we were mercurial. People have always classified India as one nation which is still an adolescent, in other words it is okay if we make mistakes. But yesterday we proved them wrong. Running in our home ground we made history,telling everyone that we are morphing. Change is a great thing. And with it everything becomes different. Everything changes from something as small as a leaf, to something as big as a country. It's our time to change now; from a third-world country, to a developing nation to a fully fledged, respected, superpower. This is our WEEK OF CHANGE.

Dangerous Minds

An ex-marine. A new teacher. A driving, inspirational force. Louanne Johnson. She is new to the world of teaching so when she is assigned a group of smart but tough inner-city students, she finds it rather overwhelming. However she manages to get their attention by coming to school the next day in a leather jacket and teaching them karate; but when she tries reverting to the given curriculum, she is thwarted as the class goes back to its noisy and unconventional state. But determined Louanne doesn’t give up; when the conventional methods fail to teach them anything, she crosses the line. Using candy bars and Bob Dylan she tries to reach out to her students; trying to inspire them, understand them and make them realize their full potential. But she is dealing with dangerous minds…will they let her get across to them or will they just treat her like they treated the others?

Dangerous Minds is a riveting and inspirational movie that I would encourage everybody to watch. Based on the bestselling autobiography ‘My Posse Does Not Do Homework’ by Louanne Johnson and directed by filmmaker John Smith, it is lead by Golden Globe winner Michelle Pfeiffer as Louanne Johnson and a star cast as her class of obnoxious but intelligent students. There are many lessons to be learnt from this movie; it shows you how one can reach into even the toughest looking people because everyone has a mutual enemy- fear; and if you can help conquer that then the person will trust you. But if there is one specific thing that this movie teaches you about, it’s choice. Louanne teaches her students that everyone has a choice. I feel that the most powerful line of the entire film is that “Everyone has a choice. You have a choice; when you are getting on that school bus, you are making a choice. You are choosing to get educated here rather than do what the other people your age are doing- selling drugs, booze, etc. Everyone in this classroom has made that choice. There are no victims present here.” This line changed the thinking of her students and subsequently the audience as well.

Dangerous Minds has an emotional as well as inspirational feel to it and the characters are overflowing with charisma and punk. I agree rules are there to help us but sometimes they just have to be defied.

Doctors: The World of Ultimate Medicine

Barney Livingston. Laura Castellano. Bennett Landsmann. Seth Lazarus. These are the doctors. Renowned author Erich Segal’s book follows the lives of the Harvard Medical School’s batch of ’62. Their innocence as young children which allowed them to freely probe their minds for a suitable profession as adults. Incidents as adolescents which struck them as inexcusable and which they vowed to change. Their laid back years in college which they made the most of, knowing they would be the last carefree years of their life. The late hours of working into the night, feverishly memorizing Biochemistry formulas and studying slides of carcinoma under borrowed microscopes or dissecting cadavers in Med School and finally the joy of being handed a degree which officially proclaimed them as fully fledged doctors; the novel is heartbreaking, witty, inspiring, gripping and utterly real.

Barney: A compassionate and trustworthy person Barney has always been a source of confession and advice. All his life people have treated him as unqualified “shrink” and it is this that encourages him to become a psychiatrist. But he soon realizes that the most desperate of all are his fellow doctors themselves.

Laura: A blonde with ironically both beauty and brains, Laura has since the age of sixteen been a target of affection for boys. But not Barney. He was different. He was her best friend, though the only one. For becoming a female doctor is difficult. Being a woman in a man’s profession, especially something like Medicine is a dream that can quickly turn into a nightmare…

Bennett: A lone black among whites Bennett has chosen a difficult profession to find success in. Being glared at by racist patients all the time isn’t something that is tolerated by everyone. But Bennett has lived with this prejudice his entire life and isn’t going to give in to it right now. But his biggest challenge will be to choose whether a single impulsive act is going to end his career as a gifted surgeon or not.

Seth: A young doctorate prodigy, Seth has the mind and body of an ideal physician. But even a doctor has secrets. Seth knows firsthand how a tragic illness can have a colossal effect on a family. His own brother was deprived of a proper life when his brain was damaged in a car accident, paralyzing him and causing him to live life dead. Seth vows to change the pain that was inflicted upon his family watching Howie lie invalid on a bed. Yet Seth will face a controversial choice: to use his skills as a brilliant physician to either save a life or take it.

Doctors is a must read for everyone. It is a true insight into the unknown world of doctors and (quoting Larry King, USA Today) is a page turner all the way.

Where The Wild Things Are

No one understood him.They were too busy wrapped up in their own lives to care.He was a little eight year old boy who just wanted a world of his own; a world that he was the king of and his subjects all loved him and he made everyone happy and they all lived happily ever after. And he got just that. Or so he thought.When Max runs away from home one stormy night after getting yelled at by his mother and dressed in a wolf costume, he has no idea where he is going. Sailing his boat on the turbulent waves he finally reaches an island where he sees lights twinkling in the distance.Confused, weary yet curious, he moves towards them.Through the shadows he sees six big, monstrous creatures and it is here that we are introduced to the six protagonists of the movie; appearing to be in some sort of an argument. Carol, the largest one is smashing into a large ball like structure and Max has a sudden urge to join him, which he does, making the Wild Things (Carol, Ira, Judith, Alexander, Douglas, and K.W) wonder where he has come from and they contemplate eating him. However with a spurt of imagination he tells everyone that he is a king who has magical powers. This prompts the Wild Things to make him their king. Max is overjoyed at the prospect and promises to make them all happy. His first command as 'king' is "Let the wild rumpus start!" This is a good start to his rule but slowly he begins to realize that everyone isn't happy as he had planned. He tries to make amends by talking to the Wild Things and hearing about their problems but it doesn't help everyone, considering Carol is still upset. Max then realizes what his mother has to go through everyday with his tantrums and he decides to leave the island and go back home. The Wild Things all gather around him to see him off and they all stand together for one last howl with each other. Where The Wild Things Are is a magical, amazing, visually astonishing film directed by filmmaker Spike Jonze and starring Max Records as Max and an ensemble cast as the Wild Things. It has one numerous awards and grossed 99.7 million in the box office. The movie has been co-produced by Tom Hanks's production company and is based on the celebrated classic of the same name written by Maurice Sendak. Where The Wild Things Are is a movie that ha attracted audiences of all age groups simply because of childlike imagination and innocence, the demure way in which Max goes about doing things and the callow way the Wild Things respond. The film really does capture the joy and "rumpus" of a place that is known to us as childhood. You know you really can't say no to watching this...as someone once said, "There's a Wild Thing in all of us!"

The Wings of Time

Time flies. Literally. As if it has wings; big, wide wings which soar through the years...The morning dawned with the cries of a baby being born. Her cries pierced the air and her relatives waiting outside, took their first full breath since the previous night. Then the entire world was covered with the wings of time without anyone knowing; down below the baby's family was rejoicing over her birth and at the other end of the world a a man led a funeral procession to a cemetery. Then the great wings lifted and the baby was four years old, her round face glowing, her brown eyes big as she saw the present her father had bought for her,commemorating her birthday... And now she was eight, a big girl who had won her first medal and was showing to it to her parents , content with the pride that shone on their faces and thinking that no one on the planet could be happier than her at that moment, not knowing that a million children out there were having that same thought as her at the same time. Then the wings flew over the planet once more and the shrill cries of a baby once again punctured the air while yet another funeral procession laboriously made its way up the winding streets of Britain to one one of the hundred cemeteries there. Then time moved on and the girl who had once been a baby was fighting with her parents about a phone showing her entrance to adolescence...Her face was wet with tears a decade later and so was her mother's as she made her way into the car which would take her to her husband's home. She relived every memory and cursed time,time and again for taking away her childhood so fast and for flying at that unmeasurable speed that it had flown. As she was thinking she realized that though time had flown fast it had taught her a lot of things, things that she wouldn't have learnt, had time gone any slower. And as time's wings once again flew over the world and blessed another household while cursing another one, she found that time was something inevitable and she could do nothing about it. The following spring the now young woman set about writing a book, a book that she would later title 'The Wings of Time'.

House in the Hills

22nd February,2020

I opened the door,revealing the small, brightly lit living room behind it.The gleaming white walls proudly showed off the antique pictures hanging on them, while lingering on the furniture was my mother's unique choice of design.The gleaming wooden flooring was reflecting the light thrown from the small crystal chandelier dangling dangerously from the ceiling-a gift from my insistent uncle who had been bent upon giving something so exquisite for my parent's 25th marriage anniversary.The oakwood staircase adjacent to the room, led up to the tastefully furnished bedroom which my parents would soon call their own.And behind a sliding door was my father's heaven-A shiny new drum kit lay there waiting, waiting to be played and waiting to steal someone's heart away which it was going to do, only too soon...... A little door opened into a large balcony already filled with dozens of blooming flowers- geraniums, dahlias, chrysanthemums, marigolds and blue orchids, to name a few.Their beckoning faces peered at you as if inviting you to join them in their dance as they celebrated the good weather.The kitchen was the only truly modernized part of the house,with its special burner, coffee maker,multi-level juice blender and other hi-tech gadgets such as the fore mentioned.The dining table consisted of a intricately carved cabinet, a dozen family photographs, a red antique lamp and an 19th century table. The back door spilled onto a tiny private garden,with its freshly mown grass giving it a lovely look.The bees and butterflies hovered lazily over the bright flowers basking in the warmth of the sun.

The sun was bright and warm and shining, but not as bright as my mother's face when she saw her new home,or as warm as the hug my father gave me when he saw his surprise or as shining my face became when I saw the joy I had given to them;the happiness radiating off their faces made me feel like I never had before.They give you their heart and you give them their wish-A House in the Hills, and me flourishing in life.....I guess it was a dream come true!

The Dead Poet's Society

You know when a day goes well, you just feel like ending it with doing something memorable....Today couldn't have been a better day to apply that theory. Winning against red in the basketball games had been a complete pushover with the entire class predicting the end result but getting sixteen on twenty in the math class test couldn't even have been attributed to a premonition.The rest of the day passed in a blur and since the next day was a holiday I asked my father whether we could spent the evening watching a good movie.There are times where you ask for something but get more than you wanted back.This was one of those desirable times.In my case it came in the form of a movie called the 'Dead Poet's Society'.It was introduced to me as one of the best movies my dad had ever seen and that coming from him, itself gave an immense positive outlook to the classic from the start.Directed by Oscar winning director Peter Wier, it is an outstanding movie with an intricately woven plot, a unique storyline and an appropriate and well-chosen ensemble cast.The movie is based on a young teacher who introduces his class of well-bred, highly disciplined boys to a new way of learning- something I'd like to call the dead poet's way of learning which eventually leads to the reforming of the dead poet's society which had been formed by this same alumni teacher during his school days and had been abolished by the board of the school even then.Explaining all the little plots without giving away the secret will be tough for an amateur like me,so I guess you're just going to have to watch it....

This spell-binding directorial debut takes you through all the little, yet important details of a youngster's life,capturing it in as real a way as possible.This is definitely a must-see and believe me, I'm looking you straight in your eye when I say that you've probably never seen or will ever see a movie quite like this again.