Rest-Ing in Peace

Maha-Navya

Once in a while out of our mundane life and among us we see a talent which in itself is divine. A talent which from far seems ordinary but when someone put you in same circumstances only then you will be able to truly understand the extra ordinary talent.

What can be such talent? And what can be such circumstances? Well, imagine you are in a cab which is running full capacity in delhi’s heat where temperature is easily 40 degree if not more, ofcourse there lots of bumps and gaddas on road and on top of it there is NO AC in cab. Yaa that’s right that how W***O employees travel. I don’t think hell could be any worse. Its just take 2 hours each side to commute. And if some one can nap peacefully in this hell like situation .. well that’s a divine talent.

I am not talking about weak nap in which you are aware what going on around you but a hard and strong nap in which you sleep like as if you had  a full bottle of whisky and after that not any amount of heat, bumps or smell can wake her up. I have seen that divine talent with my own eyes in none other than Navya a collegue of mine in W***O. She sleep like any thing and her sleeping way in cab is inspiration to all of guys and especially our Netas and ministers who know they will go to hell.

I got a chance to speak to Navya about this divine talent of hers. “It started in school.. when I use to sleep in classes all the time” she giggles. “But it was only in MBA it become truly a challenge because faculty (who thinks they were clever that me) use to catch me sleeping and warned me.”. she said with eyes of a revolutionary. It was then she decided that she will become a napping expert that is she will be able to sleep any where any time and for any amount of time. Well then did she manage to sleep in those MBA lectures? “Of course I did.” She exclaimed. “I stared wearing tainted specs. So faculty never was able to catch me sleeping in class” she said proudly.

Similarly when she stated in w****o cabs, she took up the challenge to sleep in a hell like situation. She was able to develop two different of sleeping in W***O Cabs:

OPEN Mouth Technique:  To tackle unbearable heat she sleeps with open mouth with her neck resting on top of seat support. “This helps in tackling with heat as more air goes inside lungs which balance the temperature with outside.”. You must be wondering what if a flies or mosquitoes go in? Well Navya is so clever to already develop a solution for the problem. “I don’t brush my teeths in morning and eat some onions. So, bad breath keep flies and mosquitoes away.” She confesses the bitter (and smelly) truth with honesty.

Ok fine she is able to manage heat and flys and mosquitoes problem. But then what about bumps and all tha gaddhas on roads? There comes in the second technique:

The Jerking head: It is a technique where her head keep on jerking every second. What happens is when head keep jerking by itself (one jerk per second) it does not realize when the actual bumps come and make head jerks because head is get used to jerking which becomes part of sleep. Isint this insanely genius?

What next by such a genius. The Jerking head make your neck very strong. So she is writing a book for the criminals on how to make their neck strong to that they will not die even if they get hanged. Wow a grand cause, I will say.

Also Buddhist monks invited her teach them on how to nap under extreame circumstances. Welll as they say there is a Buddha in everyone. I will say there is a Navya in every one (atleast in every W***O employee)

The Unbreakable Chan

The Unbreakable Chan

Every one must have heard the story of that ANT who after repeated efforts got success in climbing that wall. That a great story but when I have to motivate myself or someone I just give example of Jackie Chan. The example is one of his movies Rumble in Brox, where he was attempting to do a stunt; in first attempt he failed, he got back on his feat and made a second attempt, well.. he failed again and get back on his feat. But in the third attempt.. neither he succeeded in executing the stunt properly nor getting  back on his feat because he fractured his ankle. He was rushed to the hospital and got a big giant plaster on his feat. So did he quit? NO! He resumed the shooting after a couple of days and to hide the plaster he wore a fake shoe over the plaster and kept shooting the easier scenes. Even after doing so much he could have dropped that scene from script or used a body double any other trick to finish that stunt but again, NO!. After he recovered from the injury he himself executed that stunt and perfectly this time. I guess there is definitely more motivation in this story then state of the art ANT story. Because here, the ANT just doesn’t fall but he injured himself severely but still did not quit.

This was not one time. This happens in every Jackie Chan movie. In his every movie, for almost every stunt he suffers from minor or major injuries but he never quit he always execute his own stunt himself no matter what he faces. That’s why Jackie is one person I (and I am sure many) idealized when it come to honest hard and persistent effort.

Bruce Lee with Jackie Chan

No one made Jackie what he is today. He did not have any God Father or any contacts in film business. No one really helped him, he earned everything he got. He started as a stunt man and body double. He was an extra ordinary stunt man! Even when he was doing stunts or being body double for some other actors he always tried to do something different and spectacular. He always put in more effort then he was asked to. One famous example is, in one stunt none other than Bruce Lee had to kick him and he was supposed to throw himself at a wall behind him, to every one’s surprise including Bruce Lee he threw himself so hard at a wall and got hit so bad that Bruce Lee himself rushed and asked him if he is ok.

It was because of his impressive stunt work only he started to get work of stunt coordinator, stunt director and then actor’s work. He literally climbed the ladder of success step by step. Even after he started to act and got some lead roles in movies he did not taste real success. He tasted real success when he developed his own style or brand  of comic action. Application of comedy in his easy looking dangerous stunts made him this biggest action star of the world.

While watching Jackie Chan movie one will definitely say “WOW” and will give him respect for his stunts and for his famous action comedy. But I bet respect for him will multiplies many fold watching  out take or bloopers shown in closing credits of his movies. There they show all the injuries he faced while doing the stunts. Most of the time stunt takes many retakes to get it right and many times it causes serious injuries. In fact there is lots of material available in internet just on his injuries.

Jackie Chan

Jackie’s whole life story is an inspiration. From terrible poverty he rose to such an ever lasting success and fame all by his hard work. At times I heard people saying that success comes at cost of others by fooling them or by deceiving some body and things like that. But when I think about Jackie Chan and his story I can say that success comes by honest hard and persistent effort, that’s how Jackie Chan got it, isn’t it ?

HABIT To WASTE – Our contribution to Global Warming

Global Warming

If we ask ourselves 5 things we do to help our selves with Global Warming and if we exclude “Just Talking”, I know most of us will find it difficult to list even one thing. Am I wrong? Let’s try then, list 5 things you are doing to help with Global Warming, really try it!! So…How long is your list? I am not writing this blog to list the reasons and consequences of Global Warming I think we all know that but my intention is to make ourselves ask us what we are doing to prevent it.

I think we are very “Privileged ” in the sense that we are educated, we went to good schools, colleges, there are so many opportunities and possibilities for us to make our life better and we have every facility which people of so called developed nations have. So according to Indian standards, where we have 22 % of people still below poverty line and more than 25% of people still illiterate, we are quite “Privileged ”, aren’t we?

If even we the “Privileged ” ones act so reluctant toward the problem which whole world is facing; even if we close our senses and repudiate the fact that we are actually running out of time to save our planet then who is going to help us. It’s not some thing that will take care of itself; we cannot and should not take nature and our planet for granted.

One very simple thing which is a big problem and that can only be looked or solved at individual level is Habit to Waste . If we carefully analyze an average day and list down how many times we forget or just ignored to turn off lights, computer, Air conditioner and many more appliances then I am very sure that numbers on our list will be quite significant and certainly bigger that list of things we do to prevent Global Warming. This assessment is based on my personal observations

I am part IT industry and my office is like most of office these days where we have hundreds of employees and every one has a workstation which resided in a cube or bay. I often see people going on breaks and lock their computer because of security issues but I hardly see any one turning the monitor off I mean why we ignore that that will save our environment some carbon. What more frightful is that people just refuse to turn their computer off before leaving for the day; they just again “Lock” their computers. They let the computer running for 16 hours (24-8 Working hours) unnecessarily, that means 2/3 of the day. This is something which we, a large part of society do daily. If you just do some basis math and see if we our computers run for 16 hours daily then they run for 5670 hours (16*360) in a year.

The question is why we have this Habit to Waste , why don’t we at least turn off our monitors or computers when not needed. Do we find the “Shut Down” or “Start Up” so long that we does not care to dump tones of carbon in our environment and put this whole human kind in danger? Aren’t we the ones who should be struggling to save our planet and not reluctantly contributing in its destruction? I think that is least we and anyone can do, that is STOP contribution in destruction of our planet.

I know many people will ignore this message and continue to waste energy and hence contributing in our planet destruction. And to them I like to say there is nothing to proud of part of a problem which can kill all of us one day.

Sylvester Stallone’s – Rocky (A Tribute)

Rocky

In 1976 when a movie featuring (not starring as he was no star that time) Sylvester Stallone was released no one would have imagined it not just another movie but its beginning of a saga, a saga which will span over next 30 years, a saga which will inspire generations to come, a saga that will make Sylvester Stallone immortal, the saga which we all know by name “Rocky”, “Rocky Balboba”. There are many reasons to remember “Rocky”, it is not possible for me (at least) to list all them down but I will attempt pay my tribute to “Rocky” and hence it’s soul and creator Sylvester Stallone through this blog.

Rocky Poster

As a kid I always saw poster of “Rocky”, a sturdy guy in boxing attire with those magnificent muscles which shines in sweet sweat of success and with all those injuries on his face which made him look victorious. Rocky movie are usually world famous because of classic training sequences filmed of none other than Sylvester Stallone. Running hard, pumping iron, innovative (but tough) exercises, flexing those more than perfect biceps , working on those 8 packs; who does not want to be like that ? Rocky was one of the reasons which started the revolution of body building all over the world, which will never fade. Even today, after all these year you will see Rocky posters in many Gyms, people using those training sequences as motivational videos, even today Stallone is looked as “A God” for body builders and athletes all over the world.

An Ordinary Person

I always knew Rocky is a legend but earlier I thought of him as a Hunk, someone who is invincible, some one for whom victory is for granted, I thought of him as some one like James Bond or Super Man or something. But only when I watched Rocky movies I realized how different he was, I noticed something which made Rocky out stand all those other Hollywood Super Hero(s). There was something in him that no other hero or character has. Rocky was no Hunk but he was like a regular guy who was no where near perfect, who faces struggle in his day to day like, who get scared at times, who make mistakes, who got beaten, whose life throw challenges to him and tries to bow him down. But then why Rocky was a hero? Because he always chose to fight back ..Always!!

Bigger Challenges

In every Rocky movie rocky faces a new challenge essentially a boxing match. Apart for his training sequences what inspires the most was his honesty, Rocky did know how good or how bad he is, he doesn’t care about money, he doesn’t care about fame, he doesn’t even care about winning. In his word he just want to “Go the distance” that is he just want to stand there till the end, he just want to give his best. And every time against all odds he did make it till the end and surprised every one. Another lovable trait of Rocky was that that he never shows any attitude which fighters with those big muscles are known for; he is hard in ring but same time very compassionate. He never says or tries to cut down the person, he never showoff or make aggressive promises he just say “I will try”, “I will try”. And it’s all about that “Trying”.

Rocky Farewell

Even is the last “Rocky” movie the 60 Year old “Rocky” want to fight one last time. Fight is against the current Boxing Champion, it was fight which might cost him his life, “Rocky” did not get any initial support from any one in beginning, but he faced all that came in his way just to fight this last battle. And again against all odds he went the distance. It was a perfect farewell for this legendary character, who after fight just walked away without even caring about the result and though officially he did not declared winner by referee but unofficially declared winner by each and every soul in crowd who were applauding and chanting his name and he walked away out of stadium accepting it all in gratitude.

I read some where “Success it not a destination but a journey” that’s the true essence of Rocky (movies). Rocky is one character which will always be remembered as fighter and survivor who never backed down in his life. In the end I just want to Thank (a million times) to Sylvester Stallone who not just created a character or a movie franchise but (almost) a person who inspired and continues to inspire many. Thank you Sir !!

se”X” Factor

SEX Factor

“Some people might have come to see the movie because of presence of SEX……” this is snippet of statement given by Dibakar Banerjee, Director of  Love Sex aur Dhoka in an interview.He essentially agreed that though he did not intend SEX (MMS Scandal) scene to attract audience in movie but it might still had. This blog is not about Dibakar Banerjee or  Love Sex aur Dhoka (which I liked but not because of Sex Scene) but about a factor and its importance in today’s cinema, the factor is SEX Factor.

I often see the posters of B or C grade movies on road side, in which some out of shape girl with too flashy make up tries to look “HOT” and “Expose” their fat legs or fake boobs. Titles of these movies always give indication of high “SEX Factor” in them. I could not help laughing at titles like “Patli Kamar Lambae Baal”, “Meri Bholi Padosen”, “Buddha Kae Jawaan Armaan”. I always felt pity at these movies; I feel what people are willing to sell today, what kind of cheapness these movies are instilling in society? And, after I watched that interview, it made me think how different our segment of society, or A grade movies are?

Not long ago when Kareena Kapoor got “Size Zero” to do a“Bikini Scene” it created insane hype, Malika Sherawat shot to fame (just) by doing  so called “HOT” Scenes, aren’t actors like Emraan Hashmi are famous (only) for doing “Kissing” scenes for which he earned the title of “Serial Kisser” and even some film critics call it their “Specialization”. Even, Hollywood films are not so different in this department; in fact they are many steps ahead. Today we don’t feel surprised when an actress bares her chest or ass on big screen. I must mention a famous sit com called “Sex and The City” in which female protagonists have sex with new man in almost every episode (of course with consent of men) and this sit com is incredibly successful. What do these facts suggest? Is Sex is an influential factor in our “A” List Movies? Is it is deliberately infused to publicize movies?

Another side of this question is how different rather how similar our “A” list films are then those “B” and “C” grade films. Think about certain aspects. Let’s start with Motive, Motive of film makers of both groups of films. What’s the Motive? Well, Motive is essentially Money! And if SEX Factor is helping then, why not? Next think about Content, what’s the Content they try to present? More or less its same, I mean certain parts of female body. So, I don’t find them very different. Differences seems to be in terms of packaging or presentation like “A” list movies got better or so called “Size Zero” bodies, famous stars, big budget, better publicity etc etc. But then, you eat chicken in Five Star hotel or in a local Dhaba (restro), chicken is still chicken, It might just be cooked or presented differently isn’t?

My point to draw above comparison and to write this blog is why today’s film makers have to rely on SEX Factor to make a movie. Why cannot they rely on their Story and Creativity to make a movie? For example look at the recent Hit “Three Idiots” what made that movie so successful? Neither did Kareena sport a bikini nor any “HOT” Scene. Then, what made it successful? I guess its Story and Creativity.

So, film makers who don’t have talent in term of good story, who don’t have creativity and capability (but unfortunately the opportunity) they rely on SEX Factor to make a movie. Hey!! I think I just discovered an interesting equation “SEX Factor in a movie” is inversely proportional to “Talent in Film Makers”

“SEX Factor in a Movie” = 1 / “Talent in Film Makers”

What Say guys??