I thought (and still think) that “Dabaang” has all the necessary ingredients that goes to the making of a B grade Indian movie. Yet it is one of the biggest all time hits of the country. Keeps me thinking….is it all about marketing???
…Or am I not able to appreciate stuff which others perceive “interesting”.
With due respect to the sentiments of the people who were busy celebrating the Ganesh immersion celebrations on the already choked roads of Mumbai, I keep thinking about the patient who was inside the screeching ambulance. The ambulance searched for avenues to beat the choked roads already blocked by the celebrating devotees and the mighty Ganesh idols, but met with little success. The blowing siren and the flickering light on the top of the ambulance turned out to be absolutely helpless.
I keep thinking about the unknown patient who was inside that ambulance on the day of Ganesh immersion. Did the Lord ensure that he survived? I hope so…
I have rarely seen gratitude to the extent I saw that night when I handed over a 100 rupees note to a taxi driver who dropped me home. The meter showed around 30 rupees less and the driver searched his pocket to pay me back the change. I said him to keep the change and moved out.
The driver looked as if he had never been happy in his life. He had a face which probably never experienced the happiness to smile.
But as he was steering his taxi back, he waved at me and thanked me. I could feel it in his voice…the sense of thankfulness. Difficult to believe the worth of thirty rupees sometimes.
In a busy morning during office hours cool down and relax on our seat…and…listen to the myriad of voices humming around. Hear the finance people talking about the investments, hear the legal people talking about the liabilities….hear the HR team discussing employee motivation programs and hear the business development people discussing how to win over the hearts of the clients….
It’s amazing to catch all the voices together from a distance….some underlining how to increase returns and others emphasizing on how to reduce risks.
The risk – return balance game is probably the most important enabler of corporate feel.
We always have the choice to take a different path and move away from the difficulties of the current state. In the event, we don’t exercise this choice, does that mean that our net subconscious satisfaction level in our current state is positive? Somewhere within, we are satisfied…happy with the ways things are moving? Probably yes….
(With reference to living a life in Mumbai…..)
What is the most sought after skill in life?
My views on this have been changing with time. When I was a student I was given to the understanding that being academically brilliant is the most important skill in life. When I joined job, industry veterans informed me that academic brilliance has very little to do with industry. According to them (not sure how many of them really mean it), infinite capacity to work hard is the most sought after skill in life. A closer look convinced me that while hard work is important, it need not be a skill. Now, as I am 29 years into life, I realize the importance of one particular skill i.e.“being able to communicate”.
Be it workplace or be it home, be it with family or be it with clients and colleagues, one skill stands out and that is ability to communicate. By communication, I don’t mean garrulousness or talkativeness. Communication is more into conveying our thoughts and understanding of an issue to another person. It can be as silent as a nod, it can be as warm as a hug, it can be as sweet as a smile. It can be anything which gives us a genuine chance to connect with another person and vice versa. Communication is not a unidirectional flow. It’s about understanding and being understood.
It’s not easy to communicate effectively. It demands patience, experience, mutual respect and more importantly regular self training.
Some mails I have received in the recent past bear strong linkages with my engineering days….new news pouring in from my old friends….So much has changed in the lives of the bunch of teenagers who shared a common wing in the hostel.
A is the new dad in the group.
M got married to an American classmate with whom he shared common PhD courses.
B is busy scanning girls from Orissa. Finally completed his post doc and is ready for marriage
D is still single and probably plans to remain the same for some more time.
C, after a long stay in US, plans to return back to India and is evaluating MBA options in India.
Nice little mails….cann’t help a smile while reading them…
What is happening to people in this city? Is it the space and time constraints and the severe lack of resources and amenities which are responsible in driving the so called “gentlemen” and “ladies” to such frenzied levels? In the co-operative societies or in the local trains or while driving on the roads, I have witnessed instances when people display a frenzied sense of zero tolerance. People in their apartments are almost on the warfront because of some minor parking issue. Boxing, judo and karate activities are quite common in the local trains. Belligerence is the pervasive attitude on the roads with every vehicle driver assuming that everyone/everything in the world except him/her is stationary. And these are the people who look well educated and well groomed.
The number of local trains is not enough to cater to the needs of ever-soaring influx of people into the city. Apartment builders, in their aspirations to suck out the maximum from the buyers, have raised disastrous structures wherein the occupants staying in these buildings will have perennial and eternal sources of problems to deal with. Roads are not enough to accommodate the rising number of vehicles registered in the city. Government is doing something… but that doesn’t seem to be enough. To add to the woes, time is such a rare commodity.
I am not complaining against certain people or rather against how people behave under certain situations, nor am I a cynic. I am just wondering how living under extreme pressure makes sophisticated and well educated people behave with such degraded levels of immaturity.
(I admire this city…for all the excitement it provides. I respect the people in this city for what they go through to survive here….I have myself experienced unmatched human kindness and support in this city but yet certain experiences are not so pleasant and today’s post mirrors this frustration.)
Some silent achievements of my childhood which never got their due:
….when I learned to ride a cycle…and finally fell into a rain water filled pit along with the cycle
….when I stood before the whole school and delivered a speech….on children’s day
….when I won my first prize in school....in a fancy dress competition
….when I made my first real friendship
….when I read my first story and enjoyed the experience
….when I motivated other kids to complain against a particular teacher to the principal
