Life Needs a New Gear

I have always wondered the part luck has played in my life. In almost every part of my life, I have got my best share. I have got wonderful things in life. But some people might say, all good things come to an end........ Well, I just never believed in this statement, since whatever good thing ended, brought with it another good thing so far in my life, that made me look up to my life with eagerness and enthusiasm.

A car with fuel is expected to run out of it once it travels miles... If the car travels with more power, generally the fuel lasts only a little time... I really hope that the analogy of the car being my life and the fuel being my good luck, doesnt turn out to be true. Infact, I have had great luck in almost everything that I have done in the past, that I have not learnt much of how life is on the rougher side of the road. In fact, I have been happy that my life has so far been a smooth ride all along... All along, until the first signs of practicality and the "law of averages" struck me. Applying for 11 universities and getting rejected by the first 10 of it is indeed a frustrating time for anyone. It was indeed the same situation that I was at... But suddenly, after all that mental weakness of not able to get an admit into a university, lady luck learned to smile again, and the last ever university that I was waiting for an admit, finally sent me an email, choosing to accept me as a student.

I should have taken it as a sign and and should have compensated the waning luck with hard work. I was about to sample the rough side of life, and it was always there as an impending danger. But since I came so close to change tracks at that time, I have been feeling that I might change track one day and sample the thorny, muddy roads.....

The wicked spirit of failure is smiling back at me now. The smile that it has, is not its own, but stolen from me, and here I stand, like a man, dumbfounded and forgotten how to speak, except that the object of interest is not speech, but smile....

I would not want to discuss the reason behind this, as it might sound trivial and a "matter of time" problem to most of you, but it is one of those things that I expected to happen spontaneously. I had always thought that if there was someone, its got to be me. But now, that doesnt seem to happen. I have started to believe that my recipe for success has changed. Now, it tastes a little sour... This isnt the taste of success.. So, what ingredients are missing? Am I the same man now?

I have always admired at my ability to lift myself up even in the worst of situations. I know that all I want at this moment is just more commitment, hard work and sincerity. It is something that I should strive hard for, which I have not done knowingly in my life so far, and so all this is alien to me. My mind says that this is a passing phase, but my heart refuses to buy it.

So, here comes the judgement months... Just some time ago, it was 'years'. Now it is 'months'. Time doesnt want to wait for me. Time is slowly running out and I need to manouver my car to the smoother side of the road. And, as I always say, there is always a brighter tomorrow. A better tomorrow. A tomorrow where life takes new wings and frustration and failure take the corner table, rather than being the chief attraction.. All I know is that I won't get it without some effort from my side. I am ready to put that effort.. Am just lazy enough to put it off. I will push myself harder. I will take an oath. I will do everything that needs to put me on the right track.

I will be waiting for that day. Waiting with open arms, to embrace that day and to welcome the forthcoming days.

State of my Country???

"India is my country.... All Indians are my brothers and sisters... I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage... I shall strive to be worthy of it............."

I am not really sure how many Indians remember these lines... To be honest, I had to rack my brains to quote these lines. I thought of googling for India+pledge, but that would defeat the whole purpose of this post...

I have had many arguments with my friends, my family regarding the service that one requires to do for one's own country. I have always believed and still believe that the best gift an Indian can give India is himself/herself. My friend keeps on saying, "NRI Investments are the backbone of the Indian economy"... I have always felt that this is not a statement that the NRIs should be proud of, but this is one line on which the whole country should be ashamed of. India should be served by Indians... Indians who are in India..

Ofcourse, there are a multitude of factors which hinders the return of Indians to India. It is easy to state the measures to be taken to make India better by carrying India away from wherever she is now. As many revolutionaries have suggested, many movies have had as their punch line, it is a pathetic, yet true state of affairs that we Indians have learnt to adjust with our surroundings and live with whatever we get. Why pathetic? Because we are not in harmony with the good... We are all accomplices to whatever is happening out here.

I am definitely not here to moan about the wrongs in my country. I am just a simple soul who wants to make sure everything is alright. I do agree that I don't have a dozen plans up my sleeve and I am definitely not here to begin a political party or to join hands with a student organization to help my nation. I just want to be me and still be Mother India's loved child... Mother India should love me just like how my mother loves me. I definitely need not be a great revolutionary or a scientist or a leader or anything else. If I be good to my mother, she will love me more. That is exactly what is expected out of every Indian...

We have all had it in us to live a life of greatness. We all have it in us, it is just that it is lost among all other thoughts and feelings. One can easily say that a day will come when we will regain our glory. Just like all these politicians. But mere reciting these lines is never going to help. It is the people who need to change. Change towards the good. Upgrade themselves...

What irked me the most during the recent times, is the elections in Tamil Nadu. Or rather, the election campaigning. Just because one bloke is cribbing about the other's inefficiency, it doesnt make him efficient. The frustration crept up slowly as television channels began to side with the political parties. Of course.. won't they?? They start to show how their governing the state can bring all the harmony in the world... And start to crib endlessly about the other... The last straw came when I happened to see the election campaign by the parties. That is when I realized that more than the politicians, it is the people who need to change. There was such a huge crowd in the campaigning areas... I am definitely not sure why these lazy idiots are here in the first place... Atleast 30% of them are college students, who have their own books to study... Many many householders - men and women alike - setting aside all the household work they need to complete... To top it all, the election party was supplying free lunch and water for all the people who had attended the campaign meeting.... and, what was conveyed to them in the meeting??? "Vote for us... She is a killer... We are the best..." What good is all this?? What are the people doing??

I am definitely sure that beneath all these barren patches, there is greenery... but hold on.. there is just a small living plant... It is only us who can water it and let it grow into a big tree and make other trees come up...

We need to be a good citizen of our country..

It is never too late to act....

Jai Hind.

too lazy to blog........

Hmm... I created this blog in an attempt to jot down my ideas atleast once a week. But I am too lazy to do that. Atleast by typing that I am too lazy, hopefully I will start blogging in full swing...

Rang De Basanti -- One GOOD movie

Well, I am not going to write any review for the movie, as to what happened and what is the sequence of events in the movie.. Infact, even if I watch a movie two times back to back, I can not remember the scene sequence in the movie. Am not telling that RDB changed it all, but RDB is fresh in my memory for all the reasons that it should be.

Firstly, kudos to the director. What an excellent movie after quite some time!!! I am sick of movies like "no entry", "garam masala" etc which are great in the box office... Infact, one of these two movies (I donno which) is a remake of a Tamil flop movie and a malayalam hit movie... Ofcourse, these kind of movies are required to lighten the mood, but many directors are getting carried away nowadays and feel that only these kind of movies are good money-machines. In that regard, I appreciate the director of RDB for providing a quality movie unmindful of whether it will be a commercial hit or not. Thankfully for him, the movie is a hit.

Well, coming back to the plusses of the movie in my opinion, I found the lyrics in the songs to be extremely good. Especially in the khoon chala song.. The wordings need special mention. What makes me say this first, is that I had listened to the songs over and over again in my 6 hours long flight journeys between Phoenix and Louisville and 2 hour breaks at the Chicago airport, that I grew a great liking for them.

Second thing what I admired is the way the actors took up their roles.. Siddharth looked like a hero for once... Maddy's role was a lot more than a guest role... Am sure that if it were a Sanjay Dutt or a sunil shetty, it would have impacted a lot lesser. The choice of characters is really good.

Hmm.. so, thats my part of comments...