2009

Yet another year coming to an end and yet more to come! Slightly looking back, it’s very surprising that all those days have gone in a jiffy. This is end of a turbulent year all over the world and also beginning for an end of decade. My wishes to you all for the coming year give you happiness, prosperity, all your wishes & dreams coming true. Rock on…HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Religion

I feel and put it hard when I think about this topic. Not only my views are different from my family members on religion but I think there needs to be a change at least with the next generation. Any religion is a package of rituals, customs and habits which promotes happiness and well being at daily level. Mostly it compromises of customs which are devised some thousands years back for well being. My pondering is, they were devised long back and today is not like that day. Does everything devised then make relevance now? Does it not need upgrades or changes or customizations according to the changing world? If it cannot be customized to promote happiness why are they customs then?

It is evident that people who got to think and do these; the so called religious heads float organizations and make money out of it. People don’t even think what and why they do when it comes to religion. They just blindly follow. There are few who do everything against the religion and still propagate it. Every religion at a base level tries to promote love, share, care, peace and togetherness among people. Are these propagated and followed properly? Then who are those and where should the change happen?

I have been encountering religion based discussions for the past months and all these thoughts keep hovering on my mind. Yesterday I read this piece of story in TOI. I think this is how it should be. An excerpt of it here and please read the full story on http://tinyurl.com/yfojghe

"A few months into my pregnancy, we had decided that we would not give our child any religious identity"

“We are not against religion, but who are we to choose a religion on our baby's behalf? We will expose him to the values of different faiths and cultures, and when he grows up he will be free to follow any faith—or none if he wishes.”

Strong in their decision the couple had a fight with the local municipal office for leaving the religion field empty in the birth certificate form.

"Are you ashamed of your Hindu identity? Why don't you want your child to be known as a Hindu?" an officer asked her rudely. She shot back that while she was proud of her Hindu roots, she was not a practicing Hindu. "Why in a democratic, secular country can't parents take a decision like not giving any religion to their children?" she asked the officer.

Unconvinced, the officer cited a technical problem and passed the matter on to a higher official who understood their plea but still cited the technical problem that the system cannot accept if the religion field is left empty. There were four choices on the form—Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Others.

The mother did not want any of them for her child, as even Others required them to identify the sect or community. She argued with the officer some more and finally agreed on Others, but without any identification. "Others is just to facilitate the generation of the certificate. We know our child has no religion" she says.

Now, this is called a change. There is always a first time for every time. I am sure there are lots of couples wanting to do the same, but pressured on by peers and society. It definitely needs huge courage to face this nation choosing to be a liberal.

“But it's just the beginning of the several hurdles which are bound to crop up ahead—at the time of school admission or securing a passport for the child, for instance. We are prepared for those battles too" says the mother determinedly.

Citing a technical problem is a lame excuse here. How big deal is it to change it or include a “Liberal” field in the form? Orkut has the option of choosing an option “Spiritual but not Religious”. Why not our own municipal corporations have it? Where should the change start from??

Mistakes in my life

Robin Sharma’s blog posts get updated to me automatically as and when he writes. (Pls don’t ask me how. It’s a top secret!). His latest post was on mistakes. Reading that I started remembering all those I had done in my life so far and remembered the one from which I had learned which any teacher or book could teach. It happened in my work place and it’s something which the industry would have never seen so far. I wonder how I missed to share it here. I have to!

I was working in a private FM station. For those FM channels the only source of revenue was through the ads they get everyday. It means the revenue generated from ads is used for other expenses like salary, maintenance, marketing etc etc. There was an advertiser who was very difficult to crack and the sales executive won an exclusive campaign which was only for 5 days from them after some 1.5 yrs of follow up. My job was to schedule those ads according to the agreement signed and create a playlist for the entire day and send it to transmission. Ours was an 11 station network spreading upto 45 stations nationally. All 11 stations would be booking a schedule for every station.

As weekends are holidays, on Friday the schedule for next 3 days would be uploaded to for transmission altogether. One Friday as I was tired I decided to come on a Saturday and upload the schedule for Sunday and Monday. I came, did all the work, finalized the playlist but somewhere out of my mind, I missed to upload the playlist to transmission.

No advertisements were scheduled for transmission for 2 days and the day passed as well. The schedule included the most sought after campaign of that respectable advertiser as well. The whole day, the channel was getting aired without any advertisements on air. I realized it on Monday early morning and rushed to office and somehow managed for that day but the previous day was gone. I had already missed one particular schedule like this but this was for one full day which had advertisements from across the country and this exclusive campaign with us.

I got shocked in my spine and my boss was almost devastated hearing it. It was one day salary for all the employees took a toll because of my silly mistake. I got a severe bash from boss.

I was out of the world. My confidence in myself was negative. I decided to quit but did not have the guts because that job came to me after a struggle of some 1.5 yrs for money. Yet, I did not want to continue as I had no confidence. I was a hopeless guy and felt I was fit for nothing. I went to my head and the conversation started. I was almost choked of losing a job myself.

Me: Sir
Boss: Come In
Me: Sir, Im sorry for my mistake
Head: Your sorry won’t reverse what had happened
Me: I understand it Sir. I have lost my confidence in myself and I have decided to quit. But I need a job, so pls let me know if I can work in some other department at least as an intern.
Head: Take the seat. Sit down
(He offered me a glass of water)
Head: How old are you?
Me: 23 Sir
(After a short pause)
Head: “You are just 23! At this age you are bound to make 100 mistakes. You have just done 2 now. There are still 98 to get done. My advice to you is to not repeat the same mistake again and again. Quitting is not a make up; it’s escaping from the responsibility. You are honest that you admitted your mistake and it’s the good thing about you. Now, go on and carry on with your work. I will manage with what went wrong.”

Speechless, there were no words coming out of my mouth, not even a thank you. I went to my seat and the whole atmosphere had changed top down. I don’t know whether it was a fresh lease of confidence in me or something or anything else. But, the burden in me was away. I decided to continue in the same job. I quit the company after 2 years; I was handling revenues for 3 different business units. People who wanted me to quit were made shut and continue their work.

What happened here was that, this gentleman taught me a lesson for life. I still and will follow it. I do mistakes but don’t repeat them. However I’m have professionally grown now, it’s because of this gentleman Mr. Subbu, at present working as Marketing Head, Marg Constructions, Chennai. Sir, whether you read this or not, I thank you and I feel good now for taking that advice and I shall follow it for sure.

Most of our lives are full of mistakes. We are not taught what to do right at every situation and cannot be taught also because every situation changes. Life is not programmed and it’s not smooth. But, there are few qualities when we abide by it, makes our life smooth. Forget, forgive, share, care, love, support and stand by. This gentleman displayed all these qualities on me. I follow the same. I don’t remember what people have done on me. I don’t want to keep them in mind too. You guys try it out too.

“Mistakes when taken on a right way by forgetting and forgiving give us an opportunity to build more awareness and understanding and gain precious experience. Experience that will help us do, feel and be even better.” says Robin Sharma.

Runaway and Vanishing Brides

Runaway bride is a class movie made brilliantly with wonderful performances from Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. It’s a story of a reporter Ike who sets on to make a fact based report of a girl Maggie, who has a history of fleeing away from her fiancés. Finally Ike and Maggie fall in for each other and the wedding is set. On the bridal march, Maggie backs and flees leaving Ike. The reason was not that she felt Ike as the wrong person but she dislikes the big fat weddings. She then comes back and opens her mind to Ike.

“I love you, Homer Eisenhower Graham. Will you marry me?

[Maggie sits down, clears her throat]
I guarantee there'll be tough times. I guarantee that at some point, one or both of us is going to want get out…

But I also guarantee… [starts to cry] … that if I don't ask you to be mine, I'll regret it for the rest of my life. Because I know in my heart... you're the only one for me.”

Wow! That was the touching moment of the movie. Way back in our daily life, every failed guy wants to hear the same from their sweethearts and the sweethearts too fail to see the whole picture around them both. I think forgetting, forgiving, changing themselves for better, commitment, understanding, care are all very much essential than the initial spark of love because these are the traits which keep the love burning bright at every stage. Both the partners got to have it for each other. We live in a fast paced world, gone are the days of Mills and Boons romance. And I keep pondering this: Afterall, life is once, who will not wish to live with the loved one thick and thin changing themselves for better!.

Well I guess I went off the topic for sometime! :)

Vanishing bride is a novel I have started with. It’s a very old novel and I have just finished few pages of it. Not a bad read though. Just an coincidence that both the movie and book are about brides in it and deals with relationships.

LOL

Joke of the year 2009 is here.

Cobbler gets Rs 2 lakh as electricity bill for just using one bulb for 3 hrs per day. Check out http://tiny.cc/nLsJW

It was a beautiful morning today. I saw a young father who would just be a school pass out, teaching his first standard son his lessons. The way he was teaching was impressive. The father read out loud the sentence from the book, translated and explained the son about what it meant. The little boy was listening so carefully to his father.

Coming away from that sight, the clouds began to pour. The sky was grey, roads were black. There was this chillness in the breeze and a slight drizzle. Absolutely romantic weather! I never minded getting drenched and started to drive. Driving in that climate was itself romantic. 25 kms, non stop rain, chill breeze, rain drops hitting my hand sharp were bliss. I enjoyed the drive although I got drenched. I don’t mind if I get any disease or even death for that matter. That particular moment was great. And, its not that I don’t care about tomorrow. I do have a wish, a dream…

ஒரே கனா என் வாழ்விலே... அதை நெஞ்சினில் வைத்திருக்கேன்

கனா மெய்யாகும் நாள் வரை உயிர் கையில் வைத்திருப்பேன்

வானே என் மேலே சாய்ந்தாலுமே நான் மீண்டு தாங்குவேன்

நீ என்னை கொஞ்சம் கொஞ்சினால் நிலாவை வாங்குவேன்

it means

I have a dream of my life which I hold in my heart

I shall hold on my breathe till the dream comes true

I shall withhold even when the sky breaks on me

And a little love from you will make me scale the sky...

Sorry if the transaltion is not exactly correct. These lines are from the movie Guru and they mean a lot.

Feast of love

I watched this movie for the second time. The story is intricate and how people are when love spells on them. It’s about 3 different couples. One who are seniors having lost their son, a young couple in their 20’s starting their life and another in their 30’s.

As it’s titled the story is about how love intervenes in their lives. Bradley’s partner breaks away and goes on to have a relationship with another woman. Oscar meets Chloe in the coffee shop he works eye to eye. Harry is a good friend to both Bradley and Oscar. The story moves on as seen from the eyes of Harry.

Bradley in desperate need for love goes for the next relationship immediately and falls wrongly for Diana who had got just separated from her ex. Unlucky again, the relationship breaks and Diana goes on to lives with her ex. Bradley is a hopeless, dejected guy. After a chat with Harry, he goes on to his kitchen, takes a knife and cuts his thumb and calls the doctor to admit himself and tells her that he required that physical pain equal to how it pains him emotionally.

And he is lucky, Margaret, the doctor and Bradley get together. It’s the marriage ceremony of the young couple Oscar and Chloe, Bradley and Margaret see each other eye to eye and Margaret tells him looking out of the window “an unusual man, an innocent man, an open-hearted man. Someone who has given tremendous love, but never had it returned, not in the way he deserves”. He had found his true love.

Oscar and Chloe get married and Chloe gets pregnant. Bradley, Diana, Harry all become friends living in the same locality. Love made them all united and there is a peaceful living. They play rugby an evening. Suddenly, Oscar crashes down and loses his life. Believe me, that was a sad part of the movie. A young guy with a loving wife who is about to deliver loses his life. While everyone was happy for their life and of Oscar and Chloe, this sweetheart is left devastated. It was a heartbreak which you would have never imagined. In life, yes, there are many who would have never imagined how it is.

The movie doesn’t end there. There is a conversation between Harry and Bradley which tells what real love is. Bradley tells, “Chloe knew everything what was going to happen for Oscar. And she didn't run away. She didn't crawl into a hole. She found them a house, she threw away her birth control, and she married him”. That’s a braveness that Chloe had. She loved Oscar more than anything and lived with him for the time knowing he is going to die.

Bradley’s and Chloe’s character are to be noted. It made me think. Not only has this movie made me think about the painful and blissful feeling of love. It definitely transforms people. Talking down practically out from the movies, I have seen people who have broke their lives and people who have stood up and lived their lives.

One of my friends wrote beautifully “It is not that you never want to love whole-heartedly, it’s just that it takes a particular someone who loves you deep enough to break down this wall around the heart and pull you out…”(yeah she is a expressive writer). This is what required for anyone who has broken or got broke. My pondering is why not it should be the same person with whom you broke with?? How can it not happen when it can be worked out and started afresh leaving behind the past?? Afterall, life is once, who will not wish to live with the loved one thick and thin changing themselves for better!

Butterfly on a Wheel

Butterfly on a Wheel is the movie that grabbed my attention recently. This no nonsense and no bloody crime drama which has a twist in the end showcase what it means when it occurs to you. A brilliant performance from Pierce Brosnan and Gerard Butler, this movie showcases what and how it is to experience pain, get lost and shattered. Its about lives and somehow it meant a lot.

Writing on it more will make you numb to enjoy the movie. Just renta DVD and watch it without reading the reviews, come back and comment here.