Horizons - Filled with Hope

This is the highest partnership for the third wicket, screams [insert-the-name-of-your-favourite-commentator-here]; and it gets me all excited...

.. for India against [insert-name-of-opponent-team-here], he continues ..

“Oh well, that's still good”, I say to myself ..

On this ground.. By now I feel the excitement draining ..

...

under Dhoni's captaincy ... WHAT??..

since P Chidambaram took over the Home Ministry from you-know-who (hey, wasn't this soon after 26/11?)!!!

And I scoff at those cricket statisticians who can make even the most mediocre achievement seem like a “record”.

Then I tell myself: But isn't this what life is all about? Making the best of each situation – seeing it from an optimistic viewpoint?

And then I answer the question myself: Not Always. Many-a-time, I try to find solace in fabricated so-called-positive-sides of the matter when in fact, none exist. Why should I try to falsely convince myself that a situation has a sunny side to it? Who am I kidding and WHY? This is more harmful than a purely pessimistic dissection of the issue at hand!

I conclude with a quote that I came across in Rashmi Bansal's book, Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish. It quotes Anand Halve of chlorophyll:

“Define your Do's and Don'ts before you start. Post-facto, any act can be justified”.

Just watched “Wake Up Sid” today. Really liked the movie. I'll keep the review short in order to concentrate on the introspection (rather, interpretation).

The Movie

“Wake Up Sid” is about two people who appear to be poles apart. Sid (Ranbir Kapoor) is the son of a rich businessman in Mumbai. In the beginning he seems to be a happy-go-lucky guy, but you soon realize that this is at a much higher level – he's completely irresponsible, is a failure at college, and cannot even stick to the job his dad offers him at their business for more than a week. Aisha (Konkona Sen), on the other hand, is a mature, independent-minded lady who has come to Mumbai from Kolkata with a goal in mind.

The movie is about the friendship between these two; but does it eventually turn into love? Let me leave the story at that to avoid spoilers .. uh . .am I too late? :)

What I liked

... about the movie is the fresh approach to a not-so-different story. The story and the main characters have been handled in a way that made me identify with them. I kept comparing myself with Sid first and with Aisha next (c'mon .. comparison is inevitable), trying to decide in what way I am better than each; and what I would like to learn from each. Acting is good; and I fell in love with Konkona all over again(*blush*) :D To top it all, there's no unnecessary kissing scenes and the sex quotient of the movie is like zero (Just for the record: I'm not against kissing or love-making scenes in movies .. just that now-a-days there's overkill and these are used even when not relevant thus diluting the main theme of the movies!)

Interpretation

When I was watching the first half, I spent the entire time just enjoying the movie. The college life, the small moments of comedy. Only during the second half did I realize that the movie is trying to put across a point. Although the contrast between the characters is brought out very well, I felt that each character had some elements of the other. For example, I felt in some scenes that Sid demonstrated remarkable maturity. Aisha, on the other hand, sometimes acted like the very baby that she accused Sid of being.

And near the end of the film, it suddenly occurred to me that this film is not really a love story! I actually concluded what exactly the film is trying to impress on me; and I concur with it too. To put it in short, the “Wake Up Sid” is telling me “Everyone needs to change and become mature as time goes by, everyone needs to have a goal in life and all that; but one also needs to slow down every now and then to take in the simple pleasures of life, to become an irresponsible and care-free baby again!” Cheers to that thought.