My name is "Humanity"

Watched 'My name is Khan' ..

Not a sad story .. in fact the film was inspirational, uplifting and heart rending .. Primarily a story of a good man who has a picture of an ideal world differentiated by just two kinds of people .. good and bad .. and who wants to live in a world with good people around him ..

But I believe life is beyond good and bad .. Good and bad is only an individual perspective .. and this differentiation is rarely a solution ..

I was more moved by the effort put in by Rizwan to make his family, friends and well wishers happy ..

Whats in a name .. sometimes in the name of religion, caste, god, man kills humanity everyday .. My definition of Terrorism: Anyone or Anything that tries to supress or kill Humanity ..

Oscars

Know its a little late but congratulations to the Slumdog team for winning the Oscars and pretty much every award ceremony the last few days. Congratulations must ideally go to the maddest city on earth Bombay for this and its resilient people. Although it is just a movie it does capture some of that spirit and madness of typical India. Also, even though many hindi films have been similar, if not better, and the success of Slumdog Millionaire is mostly based on the fact that it was directed and produced by a foreigner, it is great that it happened and people like Rahman got their dues and recognition on the global stage.

Beautiful Sunday Morning

Today is a Sunday...woke up pretty early...walked for close to two hours...all the time was dreaming about.....and being a diplomat...and yes saw the sunrise :) ...on the way back, called mummy...asked if I should buy some chicken and vegetables...she said yes...so bought chicken and onions. Came home...and then...the first thing she did was made me sit on the sofa in the hall and with a lemon tookout my 'nazar' and then did the same thing with red chillis and salt. She believes i am under the influence of a evil spell and this practice of taking out the effects of the evil spell or nazar by waving the lemon or the chillis and salt over my head three times would make me overcome the evil powers. This is also one of the many devised ways in the Indian culture to overcoming evil powers.

Mummy said she spoke to rani while I was walking. Rakesh has come to detroit to spend the weekend with her. They are getting married on 26 April at home here in India. They are both happy with the date and are looking forward to the wedding...and so are we. Hope they have the best of everything in life :)

Then switched on the laptop while having tea... checked my mails... and then read this quote on one of the webpages. It is one of my favorite quotes, if not the most, by Leo Tolstoy -

If you want to be happy, be.

I also think its true when they say happiness is a state of mind. I wish it were that easy.. but it is so true :)

Late Night

Tried sleeping but... :) Just finished the chapter 'Theory of consumer behaviour'. But why am I studying economics.

A good quote by Thomas Edison "If we did things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves."

Yes trying to astound myself :)

In the End

Today was a relatively good day. Paid the Electricity bill. 'Visited' office :) ...the CFO had some clarifications in the financial model but was busy to take time out and discuss with me. The discussion is now postponed to tomorrow Sunday, yup Sunday. Returned home tired in the afternoon, tired of driving :), only to see the main door locked. Mummy and Guddu went shopping...the usual stuff...clothes and jewellery. Made me wait for an hour. When they returned, i happened to watch the last 5 minutes of 'New Police Story', the Jackie Chan movie. The last scene in the movie is Jackie Chan and a kid sitting and talking. Background...The kid's father was killed by the police while he was trying to steal food for his son, and Jackie Chan happens to be a police officer on the scene (but did not kill the father). He then sees the kid crying over his fathers body and tries to help him. After this scene, they show him talking to the kid and he then says something very simple yet profound and meaningful, "Life is all about unexpected turns and events. Sad things happen." at this point in time I thought he's gonna say something really deep and complicated. But he says, "But we should forget about the past and be good". Yup, simple and meaningful. This last line made my day.

Then walked to the colony in the evening, we purchased a pipe to water the tennis court, its become dry, uneven and dusty. Watered the tennis court with the pipe and then played badminton. Had pani puri on the way home, then had dinner at home and am now blogging while listening to music. The song 'In the End' by Linkin Park somehow fits perfectly as my story :)

Marasim

Am working from home today and as usual am listening to music while finalising the equity model for CtrlS. Happened to come across this song from an album called 'Marasim' by Gulzar.

Something struck me real hard while listening to this. The small narration (prologue) at the start of the song is real class. Did a quick google search and here is the output.

Marasim means 'relation' and the song 'Mujhko Bhi Tarkeeb Sikha De yaar julahe' is about a wistful look at relationships. About the transience of relationships. Here are the 'out of the world' lyrics.

Mujhko Bhi Tarkeeb Sikha De Yaar Julahe
अकसर तुझको देखा है कि ताना बुनते
जब कोई तागा टूट गया या खत्म हुआ
फिर से बांध के
और सिरा कोई जोड़ के उसमे
आगे बुनने लगते हो
तेरे इस ताने में लेकिन
इक भी गांठ गिरह बुन्तर की
देख नहीं सकता कोई
मैनें तो एक बार बुना था एक ही रिश्ता
लेकिन उसकी सारी गिराहें
साफ नजर आती हैं मेरे यार जुलाहे

Guess if anything can beat these great lyrics.

Random Thought

Life is to short to wake up in the morning, with regrets. Love people who treat you right, forget the ones who don't and believe that everything, yes EVERYTHING, happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it and if it changes your life, let it. Nobody said it would be easy...