83: Good Movie But a Missed Opportunity

 

I read in news that the movie 83 was not doing good in terms of revenues as audiences were not flocking to the theatres. Hence, I took the risk and booked ticket for next day and watched it in a theater. This was my first movie in a theater since last year’s pandemic. Like most boys born in 1980s, I had grownup being a Kapil Dev fan and for the first time a movie about him was made, so I wanted it to do it well commercially too. And I am a big Ranveer Singh fan, so there were two compelling reasons to take the risk.

Now, about the movie. Having watched its promos and songs, I went into the theater expecting it to be a Kapil Dev ‘biopic’. But it turned out to be a historical drama only about World Cup Cricket 1983. It was difficult to digest this fact which we start noticing after spending some time through the movie. Whenever Ranveer Singh comes on the screen, he leaves in a few minutes and we are left wishing for his more screen-time. It happens again and again and till the movie ends. It feels like director Kabir Khan or the movie makers took sadistic pleasures in disappointing the fans of both Kapil Dev and Ranveer Singh. Ranveer Singh looked totally transformed physically. His physic, body language, speech, everything was totally changed for this movie. He did so much work to transform himself for this movie, but the movie does nothing to match the content with his intent.

The movie tried to give us a wholesome drama around the WC 1983. How our players were poor, struggling, not famous and how they did the “David kills Goliath” by defeating West Indies and winning the World Cup. Fine, but this could have been covered in last 60 minutes of the movie. Now, I can also understand that the movie tried to do justice with each of the 11 players who were in the WC team and this is really commendable. But, we did not go to the theater to know the story of each of those 11 players. We are fine with 50% of screen-time given to others, but remaining 50% should be about Kapil Dev. But it seemed as if the movie makers were really bent on giving a “fair chance” to each team member. And this killed the magic that this movie could have given to us by making the movie a bit more about Kapil Dev than about World Cup. I think other viewers would agree with me on this.

Apart from Ranveer Singh, Pankaj Tripathi as Manager, PR Man Singh, has done a great job. It was in fact Pankaj Tripathi who made us glued all through the movie and not Ranveer Singh. Then I really liked Tahir Raj Bhasin as Sunil Gavaskar; as he has done a really great job. Apart from Ranveer Singh, I felt only Tahir who tried to reflect some of the aura of the great Cricket star he was playing. Fourth place comes to Krishnamachari Srikkanth who has been given tremendous footage in the movie, for creating comic scenes. And Jatin Sarna as Yashpal Sharma was also very good. In fact I liked Yashpal Sharma after watching this movie, while earlier I did not know much about him.

Boman Irani as Farokh Engineer was an unnecessary character. Use of Indira Gandhi’s character and the way it was shown that she used Cricket as a trick for communal peace looked like a “cheap trick”. I wonder how the movie makers wasted screen time on such unnecessary characters. If they had given even 20 more minutes to Kapil Dev’s character, the movie won’t have to struggle at the box office to begin with and I won’t need to risk my life to support commercial cinema.

All said and done, I would categorize 83 as a “near-miss” and will expect some other movie maker to do true justice to Kapil Dev’s character. Use Ranveer Singh again, if possible. I remember earlier once movies about famous personalities like Bhagat Singh used to be made, 3-4 movie makers would compete with each other to make their movie on the same subject. But this time, no one else is seen and Kabir Khan was the sole flag-bearer who did well to disappoint Kapil Dev fans. I shall long to wait for a proper movie to be made on Kapil Dev.

Origins of Superstition

While arranging household items, I came across many old pictures of gods and a statue of Hanuman ji which was broken at one place but glued back in home. I had to immerse (visarjan) Diwali’s Lakshmi ji Ganesh ji idols too, so I thought about immersing the above old items in the river too. I knew that it was not auspicious to keep broken idols at home, so I found courage to identify and pack such items in a cartoon.

Now a day, government does not allow people to throw puja items directly in rivers, and we have to keep such things in trash bins kept near river-banks. Although we suspect that municipal workers must be finally dumping such items in God knows what places; but what options do we have? I naturally hesitated in immersing such religious items, convincing myself that there is no harm in keeping these in some corner at home. But I remembered that these are lying idle for many years, and “how long” do I plan to keep these? Until these become fossils? So, somehow I gathered courage and collected all such items in a cartoon and kept it in a bag, and planned to go to the river bank next morning to immerse those.

But, seems God had other plans. Next morning, it was raining. I thought I would go in the evening, but it kept raining whole day. I thought I would go next day, but even it was raining next whole day! After 2 days, the rains stopped, but the roads were wet and hence I decided not to go until weather is dry again. After a few weeks, once again I gathered courage and picked up the cartoon and went to the riverbank on foot (since it is only about 2 kilometers from home). To my surprise, there were no trash bins to be found! Municipality guys were cleaning and painting the whole area and hence they would have removed the trash bins made for puja items. I noticed that no one else had dumped any puja items anywhere. Disappointed, I returned home with everything I had taken with me to submerge.

After these two failed attempts to submerge religious items, a thought lingered in my mind that may be God does not want me to submerge those items. Any of those items, pictures or idols might have a spiritual power and it does not want to “leave” my home. I even felt ashamed of trying to get rid of those items.

Therefore, I have finally made up my mind and kept the cartoon with all these items somewhere near the home temple. I know it is ‘superstition’, and while I try to be rational and not superstitious most of the time, after two failed attempts, I do not have courage to take those out to submerge again. May God forgives me for trying to do something without His consent.

- Rahul Tiwary

The Restaurant Revisited

 

Earlier, I had written about a restaurant and its owner who was struggling to cope up with plummeted sales due to Covid crisis. I was touched and had offered optimism that things would change after Diwali. That indeed came true as customers flocked to his restaurant after Diwali.

I visited the restaurant a couple of times recently. The place was totally packed, and the restaurant owner was on his toes both times. It was difficult to get a vacant table now. And when I got my order, I was shocked to find that both quality and quantity had reduced drastically!

When a restaurant is overcrowded, it is expected that the service quality would reduce. But in this case, he had hired a new guy to cater to increased customer footfalls and hence service quality had become better. The new waiter was giving menu cards to customers, which no one did earlier. The restaurant owner was now giving receipts to people and also serving home delivery orders. But the food quantity had reduced for the same price. And even food was prepared in a rushed manner and was not enjoyable like before. It seemed as if the restaurant owner was now trying to cover all the losses he had made in past months by reducing the quality and quantity both. Since customers were flocking to his restaurant, sales was no longer a challenge and hence he could afford to cut a few corners this way to make some extra bucks.

The other day I saw a guy coming up to talk to the cook directly; and the restaurant owner asked him not to approach the cook directly. The guy took offense and simply walked out. Perhaps he had got used to seeing vacant restaurant and hence had developed a habit of directly talking to the cook. Now that the restaurant was packed, his extra movements looked wrong and hence the restaurant owner would have objected to his ways, even at the cost of losing the customer.

Due to the problem with food, I could not feel as happy about the complete turnaround of the restaurant as I would have felt otherwise. I remembered the old times till a few months ago when the restaurant was almost vacant and hence it felt good to sit and enjoy the food in a quite environment. The food was also better since the cooks were not in a rush. I could also have a chat with the restaurant owner, or observe things around the restaurant, because things were at a slow pace. 

Now that the restaurant was minting money, my whole customer experience became a run through the crowd and hence I have been avoiding visiting the restaurant in the recent past. And that is unfortunate because I really liked the restaurant.

And today, when I looked at the restaurant owner and smiled, he did not even acknowledge me. Perhaps he did not notice me; or perhaps in the changed scenario, I had become just a part of the crowd for him. And that was like life making a full circle, and tragic in its own insignificant way. 

- Rahul Tiwary

Why I deleted Netflix App

 

There are times when you know something would happen a certain way; you still do it; and it does happen exactly that way. I am reminded of this phenomenon with regard to my Netflix experience.

I had got Netflix access free of cost due to my mobile plan. I was not using it for many months fearing I would get addicted to watching movies that way and would waste lots of time. I love watching movies and before Netflix, I used to watch one movie in the evening on TV, if a good movie was on air. I feared that unrestricted 24/7 access to movies would spoil me. After a few months, I happened to install the App to watch something. And then, the binge began. I often watched 2-3 movies daily and it felt like a paradise. I justified all the time spent by saying to myself that it was only temporary. I knew I had fallen into the movie addition trap, exactly what I had feared in the beginning. In the end, one fine day a week back, I uninstalled Netflix. I also uninstalled Hotstar because I never watched anything on it except IPL which is long over.

A week without Netflix felt just as fine. Now I wonder how I was able to take 4-5 hours a day out of my daily schedule just for Netflix. I wonder how I am so naturally able to adopt to life without Netflix or spending days without movies, since I have not yet subscribed to movie channels on TV too. How can humans be so flexible. Addition is expected to want us to go back, but after one year of complete binge-watching movies, and abruptly ending it, it seems I didn’t mind it at all!

Although I am still not able to believe how I ended Netflix so easily, I am happy to get rid of it. I had stopped reading books and newspapers and quitting movies must be good for my eyes too. Life without Netflix appears as good or bad. And I also feel I was right in the beginning about not starting Netflix, because in last one year I must have wasted a few months of time in hypothetical and far away world of fiction.

I think the wakeup call for me was the realization that due to movies (and Twitter), all the world’s negativity and filth is getting into my mind which I did not deserve. There was 180 degrees of difference between my real life, my real self, and what I was exposing my mind to, due to Twitter and Netflix. So, I am happy that I have ended it and not going back.

Happy to be living in the real world.  

- Rahul Tiwary

Outgrowing Things

 

I had stopped using Facebook about a year back. After years of using it, I had started feeling uninterested in it. It did not make sense anymore. I logged into Facebook yesterday in order to reach out to someone whose phone number I did not have. When I scrolled through the ‘timeline’, I saw a college friend still posting his own pictures as if celebrating himself. He has been doing this for 10 years now; is he not supposed to quit at some point? Another friend still posts her family pictures. A few celebrities I followed, were still posting their own pictures. It seems everyone on Facebook is doing “self-love”, but needs to show one’s pictures to others, in order to get validated. What kind of absurdity it is? If one is doing “self-love” (as the practice of self-respect and care is called), why does one need to give daily updates to others?

A few days back, I deactivated my casual Twitter account too, because it was eating up lot of my time and it also filled me with negativity whenever I logged in and saw others’ tweets. I decided that enough was enough.

I have not been posting anything on LinkedIn since long time. Once upon a time, I was an active user and I also used to write articles. Later on, I deleted all my articles (my blog was the right place for it anyway). Yesterday, I checked LinkedIn and people are writing loads of idiotic stuff and getting thousands of likes and interactions. Social media is becoming a mad world. Someone had a bad experience with a bank, so he wrote a big post declaring that the bank had lost it. Lot of people post useless stuff no one should care about, but surprisingly lot many people go and write comments on such posts!

It seems everyone is suffering from huge insecurity and would get an anxiety attack unless others see their social media posts and validate them. It had taken time for me but I had come to the stage when I did not care to show my presence by writing and sharing unsolicited stuff on social media. I had seen that many others were ‘there’ before me; when they did not ‘need’ social media for any kind of validation. I had seen that they were much more at peace in their life and it felt a sign of self-confidence too. I could not be like them when I tried. So, I took my own time but gradually I reached there. I was going to reach there anyway, because I have seen that I am a man of varied interests and I need variety to ‘tickle’ my brain. I can’t read same subject for whole life, or do the same thing for decades. And I am glad that I reached a stage when I do not need any social media.

I know that I am still writing blogs. That is mainly because I love writing and I do want to continue that. But, sometimes I have even felt like quitting it. I will wait for the time when I shall be able to ‘outgrow’ even blogging.

- Rahul Tiwary

Some Movies - IV

 

‘Sherlock’ (2010) TV Series: Great detective stories set in a modern era. Some stories are too dramatic, perhaps when makers tried to appeal to the TV audience. Great series for Sherlock fans.

‘Sooryavanshi’ (2021): Good film but it tried too hard to convince how Indian Muslims are nice and hence the political content overshadowed entertainment portion and bored. Loved the comedy at its end. Can be watched.

‘The Crime' (2015): a Polish TV series, with help of subtitles. Brilliant one, liked it.

‘Shetland’ (2013): Amazing series of crime/detective stories.

'Playing with fire' (2019): a John Cena comedy film. A very heart-warming one; gets into all-time favorite list.

'Ungli' (2014): Watching it now, I realized that this movie was made in an era when anti-corruption was a major agenda in Indian politics. This movie has a surprisingly high number of popular cast, with major role with Imran Hasmi. An average movie.

'Power of the dog' (2021): A brilliant film with a chilling plot. Benedict Cumberbatch played it so well that I can imagine even Brad Pitt could have done  only similar job in this role. 

Songs from Satyameva Jayate 2

 

Recently, Satyamev Jayate-2 was released in theatres. This is a patriotic movie. I have not watched it, but I liked its promos and songs. I have collected below videos of its songs at one place:

Jann Gann Mann: This song has redefined the list of most popular patriotic songs our movies gave us. I found this song even better than AR Rahman’s creation. It is really wonderful how our film and music industry has been giving us one gem after another of great patriotic songs. 

Maa Sheravali: At the same time, some movies still give us wonderful religious songs too. In older days cinema, we used to have this trend and now this is not as frequent. Hence, it was great to find this beautiful song in this movie. Jai Maa Sheravali. 

Meri Zindagi Hai Tu: A beautiful melodious song:

Kusu Kusu: The ‘item song’: 

Tenu Lahanga: Perhaps the most popular song which makes you start dancing: 

Thank you T-Series and Satyamev Jayate makers.

Song: Kalle Kalle (From "Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui")

 

I liked this song very much, so thought to share:

Wynk music:

Kalle Kalle (From "Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui") Song Online - Kalle Kalle (From "Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui") mp3 song download | Wynk

Youtube:

Kalle Kalle Lyrical | Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui |Ayushmann K, Vaani K |Sachin-Jigar Ft. Priya Saraiya - YouTube

Book on Death and Near Death Simulation

 

Earlier this year, I read a book named ‘Death’. Yes, you heard it right! Check Death Book - (sadhguru.org) for more. In this book, Sadhguru (Shri Jagadish Vasudev) presents a comprehensive analysis of everything about death. He attends to common questions like what is life, why are we here on earth, what exactly is death, what happens after death, how should relatives behave after death, do death related rituals help, and what to do and what not to do about those. He heavily draws ideas from Hinduism as well as common social practices and concepts in India or abroad. A few pointers from the book would include Sadhguru’s good explanation about why cremation is better than other forms of dead body disposal like burial.

I had previously read about concepts and practices in Hinduism from many sources including many sadhus and from Ramakrishna Mission and Vivekananda’s writings. After reading this book on death from Sadhguru, I largely agree with what he said, if I match it from my previous reading from other sources on Hinduism. I have also found that Sadhguru’s writing style is unique and perhaps he connects with 21^st century generation readers in a better manner as compared to older writings by other religious organizations. I also noticed that near the end of this book, Sadhguru tells about some ritual services his organization Isha Foundation offers in Bengaluru. It does sound a bit like undercover marketing for his organization, but it is not done excessively and hence it is ok.

I noticed one unique lesson from this book which was about how Sadhguru explained that the “moments before death” are very important. He said that even a criminal can die in a better manner and it can help his soul, as compared to a good man who can die in a bad manner and it would cause problems for his soul. As far as I remember, since it has been many months since I read the book, he talked against the practice of gathering whole family or doing make the death a big event. A peaceful death in solitude may be better. I think he gave example of elephants, that when they have to die due to old age or any reason, they choose an isolated spot and just wait there till they die. He said that even animals know how to die in grace, while many people make a big fuss before dying, making entire family gather, cry, or plead to God to stop them from dying. And this harms their soul rather than helping in any manner.

Now, after some time since reading this book, I was very sick, my body and especially legs were paining immensely, and it was nighttime. I don’t remember if I had taken medicine or not, since it was day-1, but I was in immense pain for a few hours and in desperation, I wished to God to take me away to relieve me from the pain. I was in this state for some time and then I questioned myself about what I had just wished. So, for some time questions and answers happened within my head. I asked myself if I was really serious to ask God to take me away since it was a serious thing. I got the answer that I was serious about it. I did not see any great value in continuing anyway, so I thought what’s wrong in now than later. Next, I asked myself if I wished anything before I died. My mind brought pictures of my kids before me, but apart from that I did not really have any specific wish. I questioned myself if I would not like to think about all material wealth I had, if I was really willing to part with all those, did not I have any wishes to do before I died? I realized at that moment all material things did not matter to me at all and I did not care what happened to all my money after I died, neither did I wish to do anything with it before my death. Now, this was a very important realization, because at the time of death of Sushant Singh, we all had questioned about how he could die if he had amassed so much wealth. I realized that at the moments before our death, material wealth does not really matter to us. At that time, somehow, we are ‘detached’ from most of the things which matter to us during rest of the time. It felt that once one is ready to go, nothing else matters. I did not have any regrets, no wishes, nothing. I was simply ready to go.  

I had quickly recovered in a few days and those moments of death ‘simulation’ felt distant afterwards. I did not think much about that day later on, nor did I get any similar feelings afterwards. But I wanted to write it down for my blog, so I am finally doing it today.

-

Why I Cancelled My Amazon Prime Subscription

Recently, I let my Amazon Prime subscription lapse. Amazon had it coming. My reasons were as follows:

1. Quite sometime ago, I noticed that everything I wanted to buy on Amazon, was being sold on Flipkart at Rs 100 less.
2. I already had Flipkart Plus membership which also offered free delivery
3. I already had Netflix for movies and Netflix is 10 times better than Amazon Prime Videos
4. For music, I am already using Airtel Wynk free music app
5. With Covid restrictions gone, physical shopping has started and I needed online shopping very ness now

Therefore, Amazon Prime membership had become a non-essential overhead and it made more sense to let it go.

Good bye, Amazon Prime!

- Rahul Tiwary

If India had boycotted Pak match, it could have won T20 World Cup

 

Indian Cricket team has defeated New Zealand 3:0 in T20 series. It clearly shows the class and form of Indian Cricket team. The series was conducted only a few days after T20 World Cup was over. What does this series and India’s excellent performance in it tells about India’s bad performance in T20 World Cup?

I think it tells that India's defeat from NW during T20 WC was only because of morale issue since it had lost from Pak team in first match. It is a sane argument that if India had boycotted Pak match, it could have won World Cup.

India was best team predicted to win T20 World Cup. Still, its first match was with Pakistan. As per the maths, India did not need to win against Pakistan to be able to qualify for Semi Finals. Even if it boycotted that match and won against NZ, it would have gone to Semi Finals. Therefore, India could have afforded to boycott that match, protesting against Pakistan sponsored terrorism. But, team management did not boycott.

Secondly, India started its game against Pakistan with a “take the knee” gesture to support violent protests which happened in the USA. This political gesture was not needed even before our players had put their feet on the ground of their World Cup campaign. The players should have only “winning” on their mind when they entered a game, not any political agenda. Someone must question the team management which made our Cricket team act like political agents making a political gesture making use of a Sports event!

Now, think about the reasons the BCCI gave for not boycotting our match with Pak. If you say that Sports did not have anything to do with politics and Sports and politics were two isolated matters, why was our team made to "take the knee" to support a political movement of another country? Is it not hypocritical? It is clear that our Cricket team was made to support a political cause, but just a foreign cause and not our cause. What can be more illogical and hypocritical than this? Why should our Cricket team stand and make gesture for political cause of another country, but not do anything for political cause of our country? Why should not the human rights violations in Pak occupied Kashmir and thousands of people harmed and affected by Pak sponsored terrorism matter, but an American political movement matter in the eyes of BCCI? I am really surprised that government has not taken any action on this matter. 

To summarize, I think that India’s loss against NZ in T20 WC was only due to morale issue after losing against Pakistan for the first time in World Cup history; and our loss could have been avoided. This exit from World Cup is going to haunt Indian team for some time and I think we only have a political leadership of BCCI to blame for missing this T20 World Cup despite being the best team. 

- Rahul Tiwary

Some Movies - III

'A California Christmas' (2020). It is a beautiful rom-com movie. Felt like a typical Bollywood movie too. 

'Father Christmas Is Back' (2021), a comedy and family drama. Nice one. 

'Colonia' (2015), a historical thriller film about of the 1973 Chilean military coup and a cult in the South of Chile which did human rights abuses. Good movie but disturbing plot, so skipped half. 

'Eye for an Eye' (2019) (Spanish: Quien a hierro mata), a crime thriller film. Good but sickening violent movie. Also shows how rich and famous people can be killed by a mere "nurse" if admitted to hospital. 

'The Intruder' (2019), a psycho thriller film. Brilliant one. 

'Red Notice' (2021). Entertaining but useless action comedy. Until Dwayne Johnson is on the screen, we know what we are watching is not real :) 

‘1922’ (1997). Watched half of this movie which was a horror film. Liked it till I and then the movie tried to create horror using "rats" and it looked silly enough and hence I dropped it at the right time. 

'The Woman in the Window' (2021), a crime thriller. Great movie. Except the typical Hollywood racial bias: good husband and good cop were African-American while bad husband and serial killer were White male. 

'Last Christmas' (2019). Tried to watch it. I was supposed to like Emilia Clarke despite her over-acting and eyebrows; Henry Golding just because he was Asian and this movie just because it was rom-com, but I had to quit it by half to save me from torture. 

'22 July' (2018) a film about the 2011 Norway attacks. These were carried out by Anders Behring Breivik, a far-right man, to protest against Europe's multiculturalism policy and increasing role of Islam. Good movie. 

'Family' (2019) which is about a workaholic woman who had to look after her niece for a week, which changes her life. Great one. 

'The Laundromat' (2019), a movie around Panama Papers, and how shell corporations are used at tax heavens. Good one. 

'Richard Jewell' (2019) based on the life of a righteous security guard wrongly accused by FBI for Centennial Olympic Park bombing of 1996. Directed by Clint Eastwood, this touching movie is a masterpiece. 

'The Angel' (2018), a movie based on Ashraf Marwan, a double agent who tricked Israel and enabled Egypt to wage a surprise attack on Israel. Great movie. 

'Nowhere to Run' (1993), a typical action film. Van Damme at his best. 

'The Resistance Banker' (2018). It is a Dutch World War II period drama film based on the life of banker Walraven van Hall who financed the Dutch resistance during the war. Good movie. 

'Isn't It Romantic' (2019). Good comedy. 

'Small Crimes' (2017). Did not like plot which messed up while trying to get all the characters killed. There should be a silver line somewhere; and parents killing sons is not a brave moment. 

'Unknown' (2011). Great movie; Liam Neeson's after all. There may be dozens of such movies where Liam Neeson is shown firefighting in stressful situations to save the day, and all come out great. 

'The Pledge' (2001). A brilliant one; Jack Nicholson's movie after all. But then, the ending was too unreal and sad. He should not have made that pledge to that religious woman. Example of how over-religious people harm others. 

'Venom' (2018). I do not like supernatural movies, but I was able to tolerate this one. Partly because I like #TomHardy and partly because I liked the story. 

'Blind Intersections' (2012), an Arabic film covering sad story of a poor exploited boy whose life is destroyed because of lack of family. This is a Lebanese movie and well made. 

'Gloria Bell' (2018) and did not like it. Fine for one episode of a sop; but nothing like a movie. 

‘Mystic River’ (2003). A brilliant movie. Directed by Clint Eastwood after all. 

‘A Simple Favour’ (2018). Very good plot but I did not like the endingSmiling face with open mouth. If they made the ending a bit dark, it would have been a masterpiece. 

‘Army Of Thieves’ (2021) which is based on bank robberies. Good one but could have been better. 

'Dhamaka' (2021) is movie of the decade! Have not seen such a brilliant and realistic thriller in long time! It is better than even Hollywood thrillers! Hats off to extraordinary Kartik Aryan for his acting too

'Holiday in the Wild' (2019), about a recently divorced woman who finds purpose of life in taking care of wild elephants during a holiday trip to Africa. Very nice movie. 

'Smoke & Mirrors' (2016) (Spanish: El hombre de las mil caras), a Spanish thriller film using subtitles. Found it really brilliant suspenseful movie. 

- Rahul Tiwary

The Restaurant Owner

 

I was sitting in a restaurant and after a while I noticed that the owner at his desk was speaking to someone on phone in an unusual way. When I paid attention, I understood that he was talking to some bank employee who was asking him about the loan EMIs which he had stopped paying. It was getting into an endless talk, and then the restaurant owner said that if the bank guy did not stop calling him, he would commit suic*de. I was shocked and after a while when I went to make the payment, I asked him about the phone call. He told me the whole story.

He told me that he had bought a flat just 2 months on home-loan before the Corona outbreak and Lockdown. After the lockdown, business was destroyed while he still had to pay rent of his shop, pay salaries to his employees who were working there, and still had to pay EMIs of his home loan. Even after a year, business was still not like before and hence his finances had gone for a toss. He had taken a few other loans to cover liabilities and now he had several loans with not enough monthly income to pay the EMIs. So, he had stopped paying EMIs over last few months and would pay along with penalties only when he can afford to pay. He said he blocked any bank person who called him on phone, and now he got only few calls whenever the bank guys all using a new number.

I realized the mess our country is going through due to the Covid crisis. I also thought that the bank agent’s job would also be on threat. If a lot of borrowers do not repay their loans, the bank employees will lose their jobs and the bank will get bankrupt. So, the problem being faced was a “systematic” problem.

If he closes his restaurant, jobs of 4-5 of his employees will also be lost. That is how economic crisis works. Things are all related with each other.

I also realized that men like the restaurant owner are under lot of stress. Perhaps his family does not know about the kind of stress he is under. His children would perhaps never understand, no matter what. His family and relatives will judge him harshly if he tells them about his financial problems. So, perhaps he would be suffering all alone and it was sad.

There are no easy solution to many problems. While I could empathize with him, I could not do much. But I suggested him not to argue with loan recovery agents, but just tell them that he would repay the loans very soon and end the conversation. I told him that it was only a matter of time before economy gets back to pre-Covid days, and he has to bear with it for a few more months.

Since that day, there has not been any repeat of this incident. But when I look at him, and empty seats in his restaurant, I feel a bit sad every time.

- Rahul Tiwary

Song: Think for a Minute by The Housemartins

Found this beautiful song for the first time: 

Think for a Minute

The Housemartins

Something's going on, a change is taking place

Children smiling in the street have gone without a trace

This street used to be full, it used to make me smile

And now it seems that everyone is walking single file

 

And many bow their heads in shame

That used to hold them high

And those that used to say hello

Simply pass you by

 

Think for a minute, stop for a minute

Think for a minute, stop for a minute

 

I always said it could, they never though it would

The people look so pitiful, I'm thinking that it should

And now it's almost here, now it's on it's way

I can't help saying told you so and have a nice final day

 

And nothing I could say

Could ever make them see the light

Now apathy is happy that

It won without a fight

 

Think for a minute, stop for a minute

Think for a minute, stop for a minute

 

And many hang their heads in shame that used to hold them high

And those that used to say hello simply pass you by

 

Think for a minute, stop for a minute

Think for a minute, stop for a minute

 

Songwriters: Heaton Paul David, Cullimore Stan Ian Peter

Chopsticks (film) - a Hidden Gem

I happened to watch ‘Chopsticks’ (2019) which is a Netflix film. I got to see Abhay Deol after a long time and he has given a great performance in this. But the showstopper has been Mithila Palkar, who has given a stunning performance in this movie. I got to see her first time on screen through this movie. The movie is directed by Sachin Yardi and it has come out so very well.

The humor, the timing, the funny moments, and the touching moments are captured very well. You are going to stop breathing at the touching moments in the movie which are absolutely heart-warming.

Although this movie is categorized as ‘comedy’, I think this is a good movie with an effective nationalistic and social message too.

The movie starts with Nirma (Mithila Palkar) taking a group of Chinese tourists to visit Mumbai slums. At the end of the trip, she makes a statement to impress them saying, “This is the only place in the world which makes more counterfeit items than China”. The Chinese nationals are startled and Nirma soon realizes her mistake. In next scene, we found that Nirma is buying her new car. And at that moment, you would get to realize how this movie is showing another side of India effectively: brave working women having created their legitimate status in society; and fighting each day to sustain it.

At her workplace, Nirma has mostly female colleagues. Even her boss is a female. And she is a “toxic” boss, very clearly showing that in toxic work environment, even women employees contribute to make it toxic. Nirma’s other female colleagues make sexist comment on her, while her lady manager schools her for not being good at “English”. Nirma is punished for being middle class by being given less lucrative assignments while her posh high class colleagues get plum assignments to work on. The magic of this film is that it makes subtle comments on work culture without being preachy.

Coming back to the car, Nirma is shown as using her phone while driving, which is typically a bad habit most Indians practice. Then, she is shown to be superstitious about the car’s number plate. She is shown to have put a Guru ji’s picture on the car too, for “safety”. Alas, much to her horror, the car is stolen.

The manner in which the car is stolen is so funny and yet so realistic. At this point, we very well realize that the movie shows very “realistic” events in such a different manner that those appear novel.

Now, Abhay Deol appears on the scene. Abhay being a big star deserved a big entry. And what kind of entry does he get? Nirma climbs the stairs of an under-construction building which is in pathetic shape, removes a wooden sheet, to find Abhay cooking in a swanky nice kitchen. Yes, the movie shows Abhay’s masculinity by showing him cooking comfortably, almost in a style. As it turns out, he is a chef by hobby, while being a conman by profession. Abhay Deol is named “Artist”.

The movie shows both Mithila and Abhay getting impressed with each other and developing a bond. But it never shows any romantic relation or any dramatic scene, which is completely great. Real people do not fall in love even if they are impressed by someone from opposite gender, and the movie is so realistic in this. Near its end though, Nirma tells him in Chinese language that “you are a fool”, which he does not understand, pointing to the fact that perhaps she wanted them to keep in touch in future, while he, being a typical male did not get it.

Now, the comedy part is very impressive too. There is this gangster Faiyaaz Bhai, played by Vijay Raaz so very well, in his legendary “Kauwa Biryani” style. Faiyaaz has got a big goat named “Bahubali” for fights and at one point while he is celebrating the goat’s birthday and he noticed that the cooks have prepared mutton biryani for the feast, he slaps the contractor saying, “How would Bahubali feel, seeing his someone from his own clan being slaughtered for food?” It was hilarious. The rest of the story and how Nirma gets her car back is also very entertaining.

There is one more scene which stands out. A politician is causing traffic jam as he and his supporters are making a band play music in public. Abhay Deol walks to a band member and bribes him to make him play the national anthem. After the national anthem is played, the whole atmosphere is changed; and the politician and his supporters call off their celebration. Hats off to whoever wrote this part of script.

I really enjoyed this movie and if you have not watched it, please search for “Chopsticks” on Netflix.

And yes, in the last scene of the movie, Nirma gives up trying to eat with Chopsticks and teaches Chinese people to each with hand instead. I told you, this is a sensible ‘nationalistic’ movie.

Here are some of the scenes from the movie along with my 'unnecessary commentary': 

When Nirma is taking a big group of Chinese tourists to visit a Mumbai slum, two guys make this comment. One wonders why so many foreigners are visiting their slum these days. The other guy tells him that the movie Slumdog Millionaire is to be blamed. Then, the first guys tells that “is picture banana wale ko “phat ke” maarna chahiye”. The second one agrees by saying, “Litaa litaa kar”. Hilarious. 

This is the epic scene where Nirma makes the “more counterfeit products than China” statement. Here, she almost reminds me of Raj Kapoor making that “Mera joota hai Japani” song. She even has a cap on her head. 

Nirma explains why her parents gave her this name. 

Abhay Deol makes a stunning entry. A macho man who cooks. 

Artist gives a lesson to Nirma “for life”, telling her that “there is always a way, if there is a will”. 

Finally, the coming of age scene where Nirma gathers enough courage and quits her job, her toxic manager and that abusive, toxic workplace. 

- Rahul Tiwary

Mahatma Gandhi on 'Online Hate'

 

I am a big fan of Mahatma Gandhi, and I was wondering if Gandhi ji would be alive today, what would he speak about “online hate”. Online hate is something which may be looked at as a “spin off” of plain vanilla hatred. I collected some of the quotes attributed to Gandhi ji in order to capture what he could have said on this topic. Hope you like these.

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Hate the sin, love the sinner. - Mahatma Gandhi

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Retaliation is counter-poison and poison breeds more poison. The nectar of Love alone can destroy the poison of hate. - Mahatma Gandhi

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If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed, but hate these things in yourself, not in another. - Mahatma Gandhi

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The world is weary of hate. - Mahatma Gandhi

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Hatred can be overcome only by love. - Mahatma Gandhi

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God is Light, not darkness. God is Love, not hate. God is truth, not untruth. God alone is great. - Mahatma Gandhi

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My personal religion peremptorily forbids me to hate anybody. - Mahatma Gandhi

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Harshness is conquered by gentleness, hatred by love, lethargy by zeal and darkness by light. -Mahatma Gandhi

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I would rather drown myself in the waters of the Sabarmati than harbour hate or animosity in my heart. - Mahatma Gandhi

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True ahimsa should mean a complete freedom from ill-will and anger and hate and an overflowing love for all. - Mahatma Gandhi

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I may fight the British ruler, but I do not hate the English or their language. In fact, I appreciate their literary treasures. - Mahatma Gandhi

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It is no non-violence if we merely love those that love us. It is non-violence only when we love those that hate us. - Mahatma Gandhi

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One may detest the wickedness of a brother without hating him. - Mahatma Gandhi

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- Rahul Tiwary

Is there a larger conspiracy behind anti-Hindu Advertisements?

 

These days, we are witnessing mass online protests against one commercial Ad after another, other what appears to be anti-Hindu content. FabIndia is latest example, where the company aired an Ad appealing to Muslims on the occasion of Diwali and people were immediately offended by it. Before that Myntra and Tanishq are other recent examples which created outrage.

On the surface, people are wondering why so many companies are showing Ads which are especially against Hindu culture. There is no similar attempt to hurt feelings of other religions and Hindus are specifically the target. My views on this are as follows.

If we notice which companies are making such “risky” Ads, we can notice that mostly big multinational or national corporations are making such ads, not small or medium size companies. Most Advertisements try to do sales promotion for companies’ products and services. These are part of marketing campaigns over which big companies spend crores of rupees. If a company gives a discount which happens during Diwali sales and puts advertisement, it will increase sales only during the “season”. So, what most big companies are trying to do is to shape “customer behavior permanently” through these Ad campaigns! Think about it and it will keep getting clearer.

A few years ago, most companies and products in India were local or national. Since 1990s, lot of MNCs came to India. Plus, there are many foreign Ad Agencies working in India too. The MNCs found local Indian culture, which was predominately Hindu culture, “different”. Traditional Indian culture did not encourage the over-commercial, materialistic, transactional, impulsive shopping experiences. Indians were looking for mainly permanent solutions rather than things which need to be replaced every few years (this is why Japanese products became too popular in India, before American brands arrived). So, these companies, instead of molding their products and services totally for the local culture, decided to change the behavior patter of Indian consumers. They heavily relied on mass media campaigns and advertisements for this purpose.

Many people have noticed that TV Ads do not show Hindu women wearing “bindi” anymore. It is simply because if they show women wearing Bindi, it sends a “traditional” impression in the minds of viewers, and hence customers are not encouraged to do impulsive shopping. Hence the TV Ads essentially show women in Western attire, doing shopping, bullying their husbands, or doing things what traditionally men do, in order to trigger modern, liberated impressions in customers, which could promote generous, impulsive shopping in female customers.

And when it comes to promote such commercial culture, all companies are on the “same side”, because it is in their common interest to change customer behaviour towards materialism and excessive, impulsive buying. Also, most businesses are inter-connected these days and higher sales in one business can also increase sales in other sectors.

Therefore, I think the larger battle we are witnessing is to “change customer behavior permanently”, “make them more Western in thinking and decision making”, “get them out of traditional culture which discourages spending”, and the likes. These companies are trying to tell us that we have got “one life” and hence we need to enjoy that "one chance of human life" by buying their products and services which at the end of the day means transferring our money from our bank accounts into their pockets ASAP. That is the ultimate purpose of all these Ads. So, I think that these Ads do not specifically want to hurt Hindu feelings, but are ending up doing it because the Hindu culture is coming in their way. 

What FabIndia probably tried to do was to "differentiate" itself among the minds of Muslim customers, making use of the Diwali festival. During Diwali time, all companies and brands appeal the festival driven customers, who are predominantly Hindu, although Diwali has a secular side too. If we look at marketing campaigns of most brands, they make use of symbols of Diya, Shri Ganesha or pictures of Goddess Lakshmi too. What perhaps FabIndia tried to do was to try to stand out of the crowd, and appeal to Muslims by giving their campaign a different look. If it worked, perhaps FabIndia would have got sales from Muslim customers during Diwali, which could be seen as a "win" for marketing team, right? They took a "risk" and it backfired because customers still see Diwali as a Hindu festival and were not happy with any company tampering their experience. 

I think it would be more sensible for all companies' future growth to understand the local culture and try to interwind their product and services with the local culture, instead of confronting it. Brands like Cadbury already succeeded in doing it many years ago, when it tried to make people buy and gift chocolates along with Diwali sweets on the festive occasion. Cadbury did not call sweets "regressive" or try to make those who buy sweets appear inferior. It did not offend, and hence it was more successful. 

As a bottom line, I would want that companies and brands should show better sensibility by not hurting local Hindu culture and rather make use of local cultural nuances to their advantage.

- Rahul Tiwary