Inspiring Movie: Million Dollar Arm

Yesterday we watched Million Dollar Arm and enjoyed a lot. Based on a true story and set largely in India, it is a story of success amid adversities. It is the story of two poor boys in India whose lives change when an American comes searching for talent. I also confess that I was expecting the foreign producers to have some negative portrayal of India but it did not happen. Some episodes were too touching. We wondered how foreign film makers were able to capture the essence of Indian mind and culture so well; while our own Bollywood is bringing out most typical movies without a soul. Its punchline: "Sometimes to win you have to change the game."

Book: The Only Financial Planning Book that you will ever need by Amar Pandit

A very successful friend recommended this book to me. The title of this book sounded too promising and fliping a few pages in the store made me very much interested; so I brought this home. It is published by Network18 publications (CNBC TV18). The book tries to cover as many aspects of financial planning as possible. Amar Pandit writes in a very simple and lucid manner and I am sure all readers will benefit from this book. Only if you have already read many books on financial planning then you will find less new points to discover. Still the book is very good. I highly recommend this book to all. 

Besan Laddus and My Need to be Right

Discovered a pack of 'Besan Laddus' lying on the dining table. As if to encourage my temptations further the pack was already unsealed. I started by tasting one laddu, and the next ones started testing my capacity. But I made sure not to touch the last piece. When wife came in, I proudly announced that I had left one laddu for her. This process repeated itself every time a pack of sweets was found on the dining table. I noticed that even after doing this theft, I was keeping a moral high ground focusing on the fact that I controlled my temptation and sacrificed the last piece of sweet for wife. Not sure if it was ethical or unethical but I think it can be called creative for sure. So the eaten laddus satisfied my taste buds and the last one standing satisfied my need to be morally right. Perhaps this is why it is so difficult to differentiate between good and bad, true and false, ethical and unethical, because we are partially all?

Heard Hrithik and Sussanne Roshan’s news

It is said that when God gives us a lot, he also keeps something away from us; perhaps the idea is not to allow perfection so easily. Great achievers had some fallacies or the others. This is why in India since childhood when we pray, we ask for apart from other things, “santosh” (content). Scriptures are full of verses which say that richest person is one who has content; poorest who is unsatisfied even after being king. But it is so hard to practice! We humans are still fighting against the vices thousands years ago our Rishis tried to fight.  All the material progress can be wiped out by one act of nature; but are we growing within? 

When I Sold Laddus

Our school used to celebrate ‘fun fair’ on every Republic Day. We used to sell its tickets in the neighborhood and then ran stalls selling sweets and games. One year our Principal also gave me the opportunity to sell. Perhaps my qualification was my personality which suited it most; so he declared “Rahul will sell laddoos”! I got a tray of laddoos to keep company for the whole day while my friends enjoyed being vagabonds as usual. It did not help either that the Bundi Laddoos were of immensely tempting color and aroma and I always had a sweet tooth. Though I found it surprising that not many came to buy so lovely laddoos which cost Re 1 each. By evening, since the sales were low, I had to eat some of those and keep the money in my collection box out of my own pocket money. With regretful heart, I returned the remaining laddoos in the tray and explained the accounting of sales to the Principal. I think it is always better to be customers than salesmen; especially if the items of sale are so delicious…

(Childhood memories...)

Supporting Narendra Modi!

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We live in a country where a young boy who once had to sell tea to passengers in trains along with his father could grow up and become the Prime Minister, using his hard work, honestly and talent; despite big empires and international forces working against him. The day Narendra Modi becomes our PM, we shall prove that "the Indian dream" works; our democratic system works (no matter how hard some leaders try to break it into pieces); and no matter how much some leaders complain and crib, we have plenty of reasons to be proud of!

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Thought about Narendra Modi coming to UP from Gujarat and an interesting observation came to mind. Lord Krishna was born in Mathura (in present day UP). Lord Krishna left UP and settled in Dwarka (in present day Gujarat) making it his capital. So the "UP-Gujarat connection" appears to be very old; Modi is only refreshing it!

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Giving and Receiving it While Debating

Someone wondered why people who are seeing putting hard truths even at the cost of hurting others personally, take it otherwise and are offended when they are at the receiving end. If they expect others to take it, why can’t they themselves take it without getting offended?  

I think it is not about "truth" per se. There are people who choose to put their opinion bluntly (not all opinions can be called true/false, so I think key is that they share their opinion which they know may not be liked). When it comes to receiving feedback, they may not agree with the other person who is trying to give blunt feedback to them; and they get angry because they take it personally and feel insulting. Their anger is understandable and I don't think it is hypocritical if you are thinking it as, since while sharing rude opinion they know that the other person will get angry. Getting angry is a common way people react to rude personal comments and in such case both parties are getting angry, so it becomes a game. Just like badminton or tennis; both players hit the other hard; and if one is not hitting hard it is considered weakness rather than being gentle.

I think comparison with games is good way to understand it. Arguing and debating is king of "game", literally and figuratively. I myself play such "game" at times :) I think when I am playing it, even if my comment may hurt the other person, I am not personal. Means it does not matter who the other person is, at the heat of argument I would still say what I wanted to say, strongly/bluntly. Just like when we are playing the game, it is not that we are "personally" trying to defeat the other person. The other player can be just anyone and we shall play at our best. And when it comes to receiving it :), we take it in the same sportsperson's attitude. After a few weeks we should ideally forget who was exactly the person, who said what. So we should be debating with a person for months/years all on different topics without agreeing much, but we seldom quit :) Because it is a game...

An Encounter

It is not regular that we encounter a policeman in our daily lives. That day was one for a change. As the policeman settled himself down on a seat of the bus I was also travelling in, I decided to have a good look at him. He had boarded the bus carrying a long barrelled heavy gun and a leather bag with some items hidden in it. His uniform indicated that he should be from the lower ranks, perhaps a hawaldar. His body was rugged but strong; skin tanned and made coarse by the elements; and his hand bore marks of several cuts and bruises from the past. Somehow that brought respect in my heart for him. His cap fitted his gradually balding head very well, which he adjusted once in a while perhaps as a little self-indulgence he could afford. Act two began when his cell-phone rang. To my surprise, it was a touch-phone which he preserved well in a leather case. As he answered his phone there was something that was not sailing smooth. He was holding and speaking in his cell-phone as if one spoke on a Walkie-talkie! With one hand he held his heavy gun tight while with the other he struggled to manoeuvre his touch-screen cell-phone like a walkie-talkie. I could notice the other two men sitting behind him busy controlling their chuckles. After a while the object of my distraction, our policeman, reached his destination and left to get down. The other two men smiled looking at each other. It was interesting that men who perhaps knew nothing about guns could laugh at one who knew how to fire and shoot but won’t know how to handle a cell-phone! Oh man! Men and their machines…

Yippee Noodles!

I used to wonder if some Indian Brand can give challenge to Maggi (from Swiss Nestle). Now I find Yippee very good. It tastes amazing and unique; noodles do not break at all and everything appears like a winning brand! I think another success from the house of ITC!

Thoughts: Financial Vs Emotional Cheating

A person cheats another one in relationship and yet people don’t judge him or brand him cheater or dishonest. On the other hand if someone cheats another one financially, the person is readily branded cheater or dishonest by society. Is it that society has become so much materialistic? Is it materialism at display in such different treatment of emotional cheating Vs financial cheating?

I think people have not become so much materialistic but they have become skeptic  Even people who are very honest and ethical in personal life, when asked to talk or share opinion about honesty and ethics, may speak negatively or may avoid talking about it, or think of other aspects (e.g. financial as you said), because of skepticism…

So I am in a bus and an old lady is fighting with the conductor, telling that she does not have money to reach the destination but please allow since she has no other means to go. I see the scene but decide not to help the lady with a 20 or 50 rupee note. One person watching this can say that this is materialism’s victory over emotions (since I did not pay and old lady) but actual reason can be different (I doubting whether she was genuinely poor or faking it). Since no one can be sure about others emotions (people fake it most of the time), we ignore giving emotional responses. As a spectator, we can never know who actually cheated in any relationship; it may be that only one side of the coin was visible to us. So we tend to ignore and not judge people by their responses to emotions. On financial matters, it is easy to judge and hence we can call people dishonest easily…

For cheating in general, from personal experiences I see seldom a person cheats another twice financially. One can take legal recourse or break the friendship with that person forever. Now on emotional cheating or personal cheating etc, we never know why the person cheated in the first place. Was it a revenge for some other cheating received? Even if the person cheated, the other person may decide neither to take legal action nor to break off the relationship forever, because of various reasons like dependency or need. So as a society or community or observing individuals, we can seldom be sure what cooked up, what led to what, and even if we are sure that A cheated B, there is high probability that A may not cheat C or D (or us) since each relationship by their nature are unique . Since it is very difficult to judge relationships, in general we don’t call people honest/dishonest by how a particular relationship turns or ends… If one cheated another financially, one, it is easy to prove and be sure about, and second since financial transactions are not really unique like each relationship, we may decide to label a person as a fraud or cheater with confidence…

E.g. a person has piled up credits in his grocery bills. If I am a medical shop owner, I would know that the person is very much likely to default on medical bills also and hence I won’t sell anything to him on credit. But a friend fighting with another friend and being insensitive towards him, does not lead me to also breaking off with him fearing the same to happen with me. I can be cautionary but since his ability to hurt me is also decided by my ability to react, or his actions are guided by other person’s actions, I may not feel threatened. Financial transactions are give OR take. Relationships are give AND take. So both are very different…

Movies and Moments

‘Queen’

The movie ‘Queen’ is a great entertainer, though we went to watch it thinking it to be a ‘family movie’ while it had so many ‘dirty’ segments that we felt let down many times. We had observed that so many people in the theatre had taken their kids and entire families to watch the movies, perhaps under the same impression seeing promos and many of them would have felt embarrassed. Nevertheless it had many touching moments; if I recall some of those:

- Rani (Kangana’s character) was depressed but when she found company of three other guys who had more unfortunate life events behind them, due to relativity she thought her life was not that miserable. It gave her strength to cope up.

- At the very beginning of the movie, its touchiest part came when Vijay told Rani that he could not marry her. Rani’s reaction to this news was a big test for Kangana Ranaut and she came out very impressive in her acting. In fact this movie should be remembered as a great show of acting skills and charisma of Kangana Ranaut. She was very good at it and this may be one of the very few Bollywood mass movies where lead actor is a female.

- Rani left for Paris and Amsterdam all alone and managed it well. But she was fortunate to have come across good people otherwise her adventure could have gone horrid. In that sense, the movie was not leaving a very good message. Though the transformation of Rani from one who obeys always to everyone (her honest statement sums it well: “tell me one person whoever in this world to whom I have not agreed and obeyed always”) to the one who is able to take her own decisions was truly liberating. In this sense, the movie was putting up a very valid case and example.

- Rani’s ultimate rejection of her fiancé and boyfriend Vijay after he tried to come back in her life was on the surface disappointing but I think Vijay deserved it. It was interesting how he was thinking Rani of not being his equal status, while in two weeks Rani had outgrown him. Near the end of the story, Rani was more forward thinking and liberated person than Vijay who was appearing as a boring damp shrub. Another interesting phenomenon was when Vijay got a high paying job how he changed colours yet at his core he had kept his previous philosophies. Rani on the other hand had truly grown up with experiences…

Return to Paradise

I watched this 1998 movie only recently on TV and was immensely touched by it. I read that this is a remake of a French film ‘Force majeure’ released in 1989. Nevertheless I think this movie; its story and all the performances remain one on the best I have ever seen.

Three boys had great fun holidaying in Malaysia and unknowingly did a small mistake of losing a rented bicycle and are caught for keeping drugs (though this part they did not do unknowingly). Two of them return to the US while one remains in the beautiful iland country which appeared like paradise to them and is to be executed for the crime in Islam dominated country. The other two went on with their lives but in a dramatic manner are told about their friend’s situation and given option to share the blame and tolerate tough prison for at least two years in order to save the life of their third colleague. Their reactions, psychology, thought processes and working of the mind is very well captured. It is irony that one of the two who agreed first to take the blame and go to prison backs out first and one who never wanted to, keeps his promise due to his own reasons.

It was also very interesting how the guy they were going to save tells them that he won’t have returned to save his friends, if he was in their place! His faith in God and his disbelief in God’s presence due to painful prison life were also very touching. It was also an irony that the guy hanged for the crime was the ‘best’ person and a good human being and responsible citizen amongst the three.

This is such an excellent movie which touches our soul and no viewer would remain unmoved watching it… 

Happy Holi to everyone!

Happy Holi to everyone!