Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi

Hazaron khwahishen aisi

Ke har khwahish pe dum nikle

Bahut nikle mere armaan

Lekin fir bhi kam nikle....

These immortal lines of Ghalib, describe one of the fundamental aspects of our existence - the millions of wishes we possess is life. Right from the moment we acquire knowledge of our being, and it happens very quickly than we might think it to be, we wish for something or the other. A two year old develops what psychology would call as ego boundaries, and among others has wants.

Moral science in school, I wonder if they still have it in the curriculum and if so with what level of effectiveness, taught us to be content. The chapter titled ‘contentment’ portrayed a wealthy never-ever-satisfied person to be suffering whereas the poorer as happier. Did such lesson ever contain the child’s want and wishes?

The real rat-race infested world then made shards of such theories and instilled in the youth the need, the desire, the thousands wishes. And each one more important than other.

We are constantly living in a world where being not competitive is looked down upon, is frowned upon. But competition or no competition the sum total of our actions all lead to one single direction in the end and that is achieving maximum possible of the millions of wishes.

Two meals per day, clothes to wear in winter, clean drinking water, school education, a cycle, a mobile phone, a jeans, an i pad, a laptop, a car, a house, vacations abroad, education abroad, any of these could qualify to be a basic need, a wish, for people across all spectrums of life. But then the ladder of it is endless.

As humans will we be ever content? We are probably not designed to be content. Is the whole meaning of life to strive for these? And it is not just about the material wishes. Emotional wishes would far outweigh the list of material wants.

There is no solution to these issues and neither do I intend to seek them. It is meant to cause rumination about what do we intend to do. For as humans it is near impossible to fulfil that many wishes at the end of which one could say – well yes, that is it, I am happy.

Nikalna khuld se aadam ka sunte aye hain lekin

Bahut beaabru ho kar tere kooche se hum nikle

(The disgrace of Adam having to leave paradise (khuld) we have all heard of; Greater was the disgrace with which I exited your streets

A different interpretation for the second line: In the ways of the world, for if we decimate our whole being to attain these million wishes, it is bound not to happen)

Movie Review - Agneepath

Agneepath, the iconic poem by Harivansh Rai Bachchan was an apt title for the Amitabh Bachchan starrer movie which won accolades and obtained a cult status. It was a movie of the era of 90's, where the protagonist is wronged-as-a-child, driven by revenge, assumes grey shade and is all powerful harbinger of striking back the balance.

Remaking Agneepath by Karan Johar, whose father produced the original one, was a gamble. For remaking iconic cult movies of the bygone era is a gamble on any day. But the gamble has paid off. Whether you go to the theater with the original Agneepath at the back of your mind, or with fresh eyes, Karan Malhotra's Agneepath will definitely amaze you.

Lets begin with the fault lines first. The things that could have given the movie a higher pedestal would be a little stronger plot and better editing. There were a little more than required loopholes in the plot, be it Vijay going to Mandwa and getting beaten up or the assasination of gaitonde angle or the Rauf Lala vs Kaancha sub plot and a few. Better editing could have done away with those moments which were not able to hold the attention of the crowd. Item number was not necessary but the song rights bought from Ajay-Atul had somewhere to be used by Karan Johar.

The pros of the movie: acting, acting and acting. The star cast was perfect. Hrithik's portrayal of a troubled child growing into an youth filled with revenge is spot on. He does not shuttle between emotions of happiness and darkness. The does-not-want-to-but-have-to emotion has been showcased by Hrithik spot on. His looks have been perfectly presented. the child hrithik who has recieved a lot of screen time has done an amazing job too.

But the man who matches the protagonists performance is the khalnayak of bollywood, Sanju baba. Menacingly villanous with out of the league looks has worked for him. Most of his dialogues, if not all, are delivered with negativity oozing of it. Kaancha seth is the villain that bollywood has seen after a very long time.

Other performances list is toped by Rishi Kapoor, the man knows what roles to pick, and deliver them in style. Rauf Lala, the kohl eyed goon is both a visual and auditory delight. The female characters are more or less not important to the plot and hence their screen presence is limited. Priyanka Chopras character was used to bring the little bit of white shade to the primarily grey shade movie.

Agneepath will probably not go down well with the younger generation who have not grown on movies of 90's and place practicality before larger than life movies. If one sees it in that perspective it is bound to fail, because gone are the days when the hero takes on the villain single handedly after being stabbed five times. This movie takes you back to those days.

All that makes the new Agneepath (no comparison to the Al Pacino (in Scarface) inspired Amitabh Bachchan in the original (and one of my top favorite movies) work for the audience who still can watch a little mindless bollywood action. The movie has its many moments of high, especially in the vulnerable yet determined eys of Vijay and cold mischeivous eyes of Kaancha. The movie is certainly one-time watch, but a good one at that.

For the sheer acting prowess by Hrithik, Sanjay Dutt and Rishi Kapoor: 7 out of 10.

Three years in service

12^th of January,2012 marks three years of my working in Kasturba Medical College International Center as a Lecturer in the department of Biochemistry and Genetics. Well, does it call for an evaluation of these years, in terms of achievements and failures? Does it require introspection about the journey until now? Does it demand celebration to mark an anniversary? Does it bring out drawing boards to plan the year ahead? Or does it manifest a down-the-memory lane journey with reminiscences of noteworthy and not so noteworthy events?

Just as I write the above options, I realise I could do with it that I do in my job all the time, make a multiple choice question out of it! Well that would then be a flawed question because there is one option, the last one, missing. “All of the above”.

Evaluation and more importantly self evaluation is a very difficult task. We generally tend to be either too harsh on ourselves or too lenient. Evaluation thus is rarely just. To simply put the evaluative process to rest it would suffice to say that the last year of job was balanced in number of positive and negative achievements. Yes, I say negative achievements because even though an event turns out to be negative, the derivation of the moral from the event could and in all certainly usually does prove to be handy in the future.

Introspection is and should be a constant process ideally. But we like doing it only on certain occasions. And topping the chart of occasions are anniversaries. Introspections about a job position are funny exercises sometimes. You may find yourself at one time the right man in the right place, a more deserving employee, a filled-with-ideas person who isn’t in a right environment, and the ever encompassing I-could-have-been-in-a-much-better-place feeling. It is hard to be content, but with minor disappointments, I feel I am pretty content.

The word sthitapragya means one who doesn’t get too happy in happiness or too sad in sadness. Buddha was sthitapragya. I have always been moved by that philosophy, an easy to sound but difficult to practice philosophy. We usually end up doing one thing more than the other. Though I have never believed in celebrations of occasions, I increasingly begin to feel it is important, even if not for yourself for people around you. If it beats the above mentioned philosophy, so be it.

The time I began writing this essay, the same time I got into a debate with a friend regarding the dictum ‘live each day as if it were your last’. I told him that I do not believe in this concept for if it were so; would we work so hard, save money for future, take immaculate care of our health, plan, plan and plan? Of what grand use will all these come to? We have been wired to plan for the future, however philosophically foolish it might be. Complexity in life is an ever increasing process and thus in the need-to-do list gets added more items and more humongous ones at that.

Down-the-memory-lane is a journey that gets tiresome as years pass by. Is it because we get bored or too tired or both of them? The vivid memory of when something is new continues until it has become old. But then the job of teaching has a remarkable feature which has always attracted me and that is there is newness in every semester, every year. The new students bring with them new challenges, new psychology, new interpersonal skills and new experiences. And that is just the running water that gathers no moss. Given that fact, a year of select incidences would warrant another essay.

It had escaped me that today marks end of another year in IC as we and everyone popularly calls it. Complacency I guess. While the first anniversary is always special, no matter what, the second one is much awaited for permanency in the job. When both of them are achieved it probably leaves the third not so keenly to be looking forward to. But that is an excuse. Whether it is three years or thirty years, every arriving of this date will be cherished, celebrated and counted.