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...

Why am I here???

Well, I have always been a guy with a cool head.. never worrying about anything.. having a positive outlook to everything in life.. But there is one question.. One question that constantly comes to my mind and resides in it as though it is a permanent resident and a temporary visitor... No marks for guessing the question.... I have read books on the evolution of mankind... have seen movies as well... some say that God created Adam and Eve... Some say that microorganisms upgraded their versions to become become as sophisticated as a human body... But I have always believed in one thing. A reason. A reason for everything in this world. Well, this is not a tip-off from any Sci-Fi English movie flick. It is the thought at the center of my universe. my brain. (no wonder my universe is microsized... A thought spot occuring in any point of my brain can be deemed to be the centre, owing to the size of my brain). Well. Am starting to deviate from the topic. But u ppl have to excuse me since this is my first original blog.. I hope to deviate from the topic more and more in my subsequent blogs... Coming back to the point. A reason for everything. It is an assumption. A hypothesis, which we have thrust upon ourselves, and which we believe is right. The reason why a cactus bore thorns is to protect itself against the environment. The reason why a porcupine shoots its arrows has been attributed to its self-defence mechanism. So, analogous to that, there should be a reason for me (and you) to be born on this universe. What is the reason? Some say "Salvation". If u dont realize urself, u will take birth again in this universe... again and again, until u reach the stage of salvation. But many a times, I have wondered whether it is the ultimate happiness or a mere mask... there are many things in the universe that is explainable. many things that are experienced by many, and yet unexplainable through words. But this is something that is not a readily available experience, and the so-called yogis can't explain it through words.... Well, again... what is the reason for the creator to put me on this planet earth in a place which we ourselves have drawn boundaries around and called it Chennai, and in chennai, we ourselves have drawn another interior boundary in another boundary and named it our Home? What have I come to achieve? What is my goal? Well, assuming that God is the CEO of the universe, and he employs humans to get some work of Him done, He would make sure that He saps the work from me. Obviously, this is what is happening in many companies. U are made to work, day and night and day... So, if God wants something to be done abt this, he will do it. So, why worry? But thats the idlist thought on the topic. The optimist thinks, "Well, I have been sent to the Earth on some purpose. Even if I dont know the purpose, I will strive hard to find it out, and do good to mankind, so that God will give me atleast 6/10 marks for my life." The pessimist thinks "Bah." Sadly, in this world, there is no perfect optimist or a perfect pessimist... The world is deviod of perfection. Who will make it perfect?? Maybe, thats the purpose of life... or maybe not!!! Because, we are then acting against nature. Nature wants no one to be perfect. So, if we think of making ourselves perfect, it is against the will of Mother Nature. Sometimes, personifying something will attract attention and respect towards itself. But finally... my point is that.. Man knows the purpose of his life... He doesnt realize that he knows. But finally after finally, please dont heave a sigh of frustration after reading this blog... read the title of my blog page... Everything I type indeed is Instantaneous Nonsense. Wait.. not everything! Since I will become perfectly Instantaneously nonsensical, which is again against the whims of Nature. So, as a great man once said... Absorb the Good and reject the Bad......

Captain Vijayakanth in and as TENNIS THIRUNAVUKKARASU

Sania Mirza has slipped from her world ranking of 99 to 133, and the Olympics are less than 2 months away. She approaches the Indian Tennis Association for help to find somebody to coach her to win the Olympics gold medal. The President of the association tells her there is only one man to help her …CAPTAIN THIRUNAVUKKARASU…the long forgotten Indian tennis star. Captain now lives in a small village called Arasampatti with his wife, Trisha and cow, Meenatchi. He lives a quiet, contented life looking after his farm with his wife.

zzzzz flashback to when Captain was a young student in his college, jollu uttufying behind trisha. One day, one of the students in the college, who incidentally is also behind trisha, challenges Captain to a game of tennis to decide who is the real hero. Trisha loves Captain and cajoles him into practicing hard for tennis so that he can beat the villain and show who is who. Not only that, trisha tells Captain that, he must not only conquer this frontier but also win a GOLD MEDAL for INDIA in the Olympics. With all this in mind, Captain practices hard and defeats the villain (that’s pretty simple for captain actually). During the practice sessions there is a song with trisha in a mini-mini-skirt and captain playing with tennis balls. As you all know captain is so naughty so he plays around…err, u get the drift…

Captain then goes onto the Olympics. One secret of Captain’s success is that he drinks his cow Meenatchi’s milk everyday. So captain takes special permission to take the cow along, so that he can win the Gold Medal. He milks Meenatchi between every change over and drinks it. Captain breezes through the initial rounds and meets John Mcenroe in the final.

The match is going really close and Mcenroe is winning. Then trisha who is in the stands, starts singing “mannava unakku enda mcenroe va potti, nee jeyicha enikki rathiri lootti…….” then Captain brings out Meenatchi and milks her and drinks it all in one gulp, spilling most of it on his chest (the cameraman focuses on his chest and the girls in the crowd faint at the sight of Captain’s powerful muscles). Now that Captain is refreshed he goes back and beats the shit out of Mcenroe. Mcenroe who isn’t used to being beaten, badmouths Captain. Captain, never one to miss out on an opportunity for a dialog, looks at Mcenroe with his steely eyes, gives him one of his special nakkal smiles and says “enda Thirunavukkarasu-kku aruvalum veesa theriyum, tennis racquet-um veesa theriyum. Naan oru missan (mission) la vandurukken, edula nee enna da, ongappan vanda kooda, enna thadukka mudiyadhu.” He wins easily and during the presentation ceremony talks about how he trained hard for his success and thanks his ‘thai mannu’, trisha and Meenatchi. He comes back to India to a hero’s welcome, but Captain does not want glory and fame, so he goes and settles in the small village and manages the farm. There he and trisha live happily singing a couple of songs now and then.

zzzzz Present….. Sania finds her way to Arasampatti and convinces Captain to coach her so that she can win the Olympic Gold Medal. Trisha is reluctant, but Captain is adamant that India must be win a gold medal and the only chance is Sania and Sania’s only hope is CAPTAIN. Captain then trains Sania and puts all his effort into it. He even tells her that she can win if she drinks Meenatchi’s milk. Meenatchi, though very old now, still produces milk so that Sania can win the Gold medal (After all, Meenatchi is an Indian cow).

The Olympics comes and Sania, Captain and Meenatchi travel to London where the Olympics are being held. Sania being Captain’s student breezes through the initial rounds and meets Serena Williams in the finals. Sania gets injured in between and is limping her way through the match with difficulty. Captain is cool as usual. He goes to milk Meenatchi so that Sania can regain her energy. But the villains have given her an injection to stop her from giving milk. In fact, Meenatchi is almost dead. If only they knew who they were up against they wouldn’t have done it. But anyway, Captain starts on the family song and Meenatchi gets up and gives milk. Sania who is now recharged, goes back and starts playing amazing tennis. The linesman makes a wrong call. Odane namma Captain enters the scene “oru chinna tennis ball, line-a thandudha thandalaya nnu ozhunga solla mudiyalaye, anga oru periya Line of Control-a thaandi theevaravathinga varaanga. Kashmir-la rathriyum pagalum uyirukku anjama natta kappatharaanga enga nattin veerargal. adunaala daan, enikki naanga olymbics la vandu epdi tennis adarom. Anda tyagigala nenacchu paaru, onnoda velaiya nee ozhunga seyya mudiyum” (kanna pinna senti daan, but Captain cant resist talking about Pakistani theevaravadhis)

Sania continues to play and suddenly Meenatchi dies. Sania becomes heartbroken and starts losing. Captain cannot do anything. Sania tries her very best. Its match point for Serena and Sania breaks her leg. The aspirations and hopes of a billion Indians and millions of Tamillans are at stake. Appo namba Captain takes a brave decision .... To play in the place of Sania. But how can he play, he is old and tired and moreover he does not have Meenatchi milk.. Then Trisha comes to rescue. She says "Mama, ungalukkage, naan speciala nethikku yaarukkum teriyama, Meenatchi paal oru bottle vechiriken, inthaanga". Captain is moved by Trisha's gesture.

So he drinks the last drop of Meenatchi paal, and enters the kalam to standing ovation of thousands of people. But, it is not over yet, Pakistani theeviravaatigal, are still following our Captain trying to sabotage his plans. So there fire 2 shots hits our Captain in his hand and on his leg. Blood is gushing out of Captains hand and legs, his eyes are red as usual. Medic team arrives at the scene, but our Captain refuses any help. He gets up, finally and the crowd is cheering loudly. Trisha is crying. Meenatchi maadu somehow comes back to life(no one knows how, its
coz of Captains dedication to tamil). He gets up and serves , but Serena returns really well, and Captain misses it and falls. Serena is celebrating her win, when our Captain gets up, chases the ball just before it touches the ground and hits it with all his force. The ball goes out of the court and the umpire is about to declare a win for Serena, and amazingly enough it boomerangs back and lands on the line. Our Captain saves India's maanam, and says "en uyir , en udal ellam tamilke, tamil vaazhga , tamil valarga....."