A small village with postcard image type layouts and roads. There is a statue at one end of the road, there is a school at one area, there is a market, a temple a court office, bazaar street, railway station and all the basic infrastructure that was available in any mid-size town of Pre-independent India. No, I’m not describing in general about any other town. I’m referring to the famous non-existent town of India called as MALGUDI. This town was supposed to exist in the Madras state with proximity to Mysore state. And the creator of this imaginative town is none other than R.K Narayan. I must say he is the best English writer that India has produced. The simplicity, fluency, creativeness, imagination that he has got is amazing. Malgudi has featured in many of his novels like “Swami and his friends”, “Vendor of sweets” etc. He created a imaginative town to describe his stories.

Just the basic description about the town will make us imagine the complex things such as its layout, how does it look, how are the people there etc. This is not with reference to just the town of Malgudi. This is the case with any place which you might have not visited but just heard the detailed description of it. Now imagine that you are an actor or director or in general working in film industry. If some one asks you to direct a movie, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Let me tell the most common question that strikes to you – “how am I going to recreate that village?”. Now let’s see why you will face this question. When you read the novel, you will realize that nothing in detail is described about the town. Whenever required, a few lines are mentioned about a particular lane or area or a landmark. Readers will have their own idea about the visual of the town. And the author of the novel would have his own imagination. Those who have read the book will have high expectation when they watch the movie. Keeping all this in mind, you are required to deliver the movie which can meet all these expectations.

Sounds scary right? But there was a person in Kannada movie industry who never cared about hardships. They were his day to day activity. We can somehow think about making a movie on the RKN novel by creating a huge set of Malgudi town. But this god-gifted actor made a Tele serial out of the novel!!!!! This was about 30 years ago when TV was a luxury item owned by only a few privileged people. When only one channel had monopoly in the Media business. When there was hardly any entertaining programs aired on the channel. All of a sudden a tele serial started which became huge hit with the Indian population. Even to this day, you can hear some mobile ringtones of this serial’s title song – Malgudi Days. The serial has created a special space for itself in India’s Television History. And it has got a special space in my heart and mind.

Usually I never write in this journalistic style of praising anything with all-known and coomonly used words/lines. But I felt its worth to make that effort which is my own way of expressing gratitude to this master piece made by a great soul – Shankar Nag. There will be no other person who can match to this great actor’s capability. His untimely death is seriously a big loss for Indian cinema and Television.

I had recently went on a three day trip with my cousins and friend to Dandeli. It was an awesome trip to deep jungles. The food and staff of the lodge, the trek, the scenery, the animals and birds in jungle, the leech bite etc was indeed a memorable experience for me. On the way back from trip, in train I had made a resolution that the first thing that I will do after reaching home was to write a blog about this trip. And as usual I didn’t get a chance to write a blog since I was too lazy or because of lack of interest in writing these days. But nevertheless, the oath was not erased frm my mind and I knew I would write nothing else but this trip experience first when I sit to write a blog. But in meantime I almost completed reading another novel of RKN, and in this novel also he had taken Malgudi town as place of his story. So finally when I sat down to write a blog today, I was not able to control the inner urge to pay the tribute due to the two great personalities of India, one from literature and the other from entertainment. And finally this came out.

I guess each one of us are gifted with one or other thing. But we fail to recognize that or may be we don’t get a chance to dig out that. Why I think this is because, if I see the Malgudi days serial, or if I read any novel of RKN, I get to think like “hmm yeah rite we can do like this…” There is a solution for anything, but patience is required to get that solution. A trait inside any person also requires patience to be found out. Most of the times we don’t get a solution because we back out at a time when we have almost reached the point. I wish more and more people are able to identify their special gift given by god and more and more RKN and SHankar Nag come up.

Life ishtene??

There was a “Mass Hit” song recently churned out by an all-lucky director cum lyricist of kannada movie, Yograj Bhat, which has punch line “life ishtene”. How silly. In what angle we can say that? Life ishtene means life is nothing but as simple as this. I wish it would have been like that.

There is a home in front of the BMTC depot in my locality. When I look at that house it strikes to me that god might have played that toy game of kids – plastic-building-blocks, since it looks closely packed series of homes in that line of govt staff qrts. I just pass thru that home. Nothing special than that. My mom also passes thru. Infact every one has to pass thru that home since it’s at the side of the road. Life ishtene?? Nopes. Its not. I might fail to observe anything apart from homes stacked neatly in that line, some others might notice only the vehicles parked inside or outside, some might take a sneak-view inside.

But my mom has different experience. That one home is different. My mom passes thru that home just like others. Yes, she has to pass thru since she uses that road to go to the milk dairy in evening everyday. But life is not ishtene. Atleast she doesn’t want it to be like that. Because walking thru that road is just not ishtene for her.

The other day I was going to jogging to HAL park, BAU. I went thru the twin apartment and reached the backside of the compound gate which led to the open play ground of the school. Suddenly I felt I forgot something. What? I looked around and parallely touched all over my body with my hands. Ah! Got it. Ipod. I forgot to plug it to my ears yet. Ok, I took out and was about to plug the earphones to my ears when suddenly 100’s of dogs barking sound hit my hears. I checked the Pod, no it was still not switched on. I lifted my head to see that a group of street dogs are barking at me. Huh. What for? I dint give a shit to it and turned back and took another way to park. Ok that’s it. Next day I again used the same route. This time instead of dogs staring at me, I stared at them, albeit without barking. That’s all. Life ishtene there for me.

But no, it was not like that for my mom. Life ishtene is for all others who pass thru that road, they all belong to one common category of ppl (its ppl, not animal, please underline it) “strangers”, provided that they don’t stay in any of the home their in that stack.

There is a small kid in our neighbours home. Less than 3 years old, he has only one occupation - To go to any home of his choice in our lane, go to kitchen, ask for food, eat and come back to pavilion. If he comes to our home, he stands infront of our tall double door fridge, points his right hand forefinger in diagonally upwards direction towards the freezer door of the fridge and says “chocki”. I wonder if Ambedkar came back to earth into his childhood using a time machine borrowed from Indra, since his posture is photocopy of any other Ambedkar statue in india. I tried giving a small book for him to hold in his left hand so that I can take a snap. But he is not interested in anything than the business for which he came to our House – to grab the chocki and eat it. Life ishtene for him I felt.

Of recently, if my body has got any vitamins or proteins of green leaf vegetable, the credit has to go to that home. Because it is just not any other home to my mom. Yes. Because there is an aged lady there. The height of the compound gate of that home and that old lady’s height match so perfectly that she leans over it with the help of her under shoulders effortlessly. Its 5.30 Pm, and my mom passes thru that road. This aged lady – like a grandma gives smile to my mom for which my mom also acknowledges. There might have been some unknown bond between them; they talk to each other too as if they know each other from a long time. Yes, that is why its not as “just another home” for my mom. The grandma of that home has got extended member in her life now. There is plenty of “vaali” – a green leaf vegetable growing in small garden in front of her home. We like that a lot. The grandma waits for my mom to give it to her once a week as and when it grows. If its not there, just BAU conversation will be there. But never its ishtene. For two unknowns souls, to gel together so well, there must be definitely something more than ishtene in life.

I know, everyone who reads this will ask me one question now. Why so many unwanted examples in between which are no way connected to what I wanted to say about that home. Hold on, life is not ishtene ok.

Khosla ka Ghosla is one movie which will always find place in my list of top 10 movies. When I watched the movie for the first time, I couldn’t believe that such a movie can be really made. I don’t know how to give the feelings of my mind the shape of words here. I was left gaping after watching the movie that “my god, such a different kind of hindi movie”. No big stars, no huge budget, no songs – all the ingredients that has become almost compulsory for a movie to be even recognized (let alone to be box office hit).

The other movie which I can say tops my list is “shawshank redemption”. First thing that I realized after watching the movie was that I did not stop watching the movie halfway since it was too slow moving. For days, I was immersed in only two thoughts. The first one which I just told. The second one was thinking about the idea of the protagonist in the movie. An exceptional movie which will tell how important is it to have patience and planning in life.

I love watching movies like any others. But the only difference in me is that I like to watch only realistic movies. The movies which will be close to reality. I really wonder what is the use of watching a movie where a girl falls in love with boy or vice versa – a few hiccups in their love story – and happy ending where the girl and boy marry happily for rest of their life(well I don’t guarantee the last part). I just get angry on myself if I sit to watch such kind of movies. We know it is not practical and still we watch it for what reason I don’t understand. Instead the movies where the sentiments are potrayed, where it is shown that how hard the life is and how a person should be, will be so useful and interesting to watch. Anupam kher’s son in the KKG movie is a IIT grad who wants to go to US where he just got a job offer. He wants to help his middle class family of Delhi(where middle class is treated on par with BPL class). But his dad is interested in buying a plot in south delhi, in which he wants to construct a modest house with separate rooms for each of his 3 children. He wants to do this since he has a regret that he couldn’t do it for his children when it was needed – i.e when they were studying. But none of his children really want their dad to take such pain. They respect him so much. When the father hears about his IIT grad son’s plan to fly oversees, he is so sad. Sad that his plans to build a new home is late but happy that his son’s career is taking off. The storyline of the movie hardly says all these. But a critic like me will not miss these essences which can be observed only if we watch the movie keenly. I like the movie for these embedded meanings which are not told explicitly but needs to be understood by intelligence, by making use of grey cells. I guess I had written a blog post earlier also about my taste of movies and this might have some things repeated. But I wrote this mainly to discuss my fascination for KKG movie.

I often become subject of fun for my friends for being such a psycho when it comes to watch movies. I think a lot before agreeing to come and watch a movie in theatre. They keep answers ready for my usual set of questions – is it really worth watching? Is it not jst another stupid love story? Etc…. They scold me saying movies should be watched to have a break from reality and not to suffer more by seeing more of it in big screen and also paying for it. But at the end they frown at themselves saying they were able to bend so many decisions of mine except this one. But this is not my decision. This is… ? I don’t know of any such English word to answer that.. but certainly it is not decision.

“Employee saftey is our first priority. Hence please exercise caution while traveling to and from office.
In case if the office shuttle is not plying. Make your own transport to reach office.”
The mail in one of the software company to their employees on whether to come to the work the next day or not since it was the day of the historical verdict on Ayodhya. The first line is clearly for getting the employee friendliness certificate. The 2nd line was for us to remind us that we are paid to come and work and not to sit at home. Fair enough for the MNC which cares about the money and not about the resources of one particular nation where it has got its branch.
Am I socialist?
That is natural for anyone to brand me after the first two lines. The company has shown the consideration for our nation and came here and set up the office here giving us the employement. Is it fair enough for us to complain now and say that MNC wont understand our sentiment? Well, they didn’t even force us to join their company.
At 2pm the manager comes and announces that we are free to leave. What it means? If anything happens to employee after 2pm, company is not officially responsible!! “Mannnnn its such a low level management game. They never care.” I’m not supposed to say. Company has washed off its hands now. It’s a company. It’s a corporate. Its decision is taken at management level headed by bunch of elite and experienced managers. My voice is not audible to even the fine hairs inside their ears. What will I do? I just need to absorb it. I joined the company. I am getting paid. The problem is in my nation. The reaction is that of my inner self which feels it is cheated. But the action is to be taken by the conscious mind which cannot stop looking at the reaction of inner self. It has to think forward and arrange for my safety. Because I’m alone. Corprate is not alone.

A bunch of young and fresh from college friends. Even the P of politics didn’t dare to come near them. The energy of youth ness had kept that in bay. Life is nothing but enjoyment. The ill-fated Mig 21 plane which their patriotic friend was flying meets with fatal accident and the young pilot completes his journey of life on earth. Defence minister wants to save his face, his decision to still retain the outdated line of fighter planes in the force and hence gives out a blunt statement – “Technology of the plane is not out dated. Youngsters who join the force should keep their energy in control and should be careful in flying”. Two lines of statement boil up the blood in everyone in the gang. Defence min is eliminated in filmi style. Bunch of youth are killed by Army after being branded as terrorist.

Democracy is again comparable to MNC. Our voice will never reach the babus. We are just aam-junta. I’m aam junta. I’m available at their mercy. Police is there to protect the babus. I’ve only god who will ask me to be patient. If I react, I will again script one more story as above. I carry out a peacefull protest. Just to make the public understand that it was not the fault of my friend, it was the fault of plane. But the minister is scared of facing the truth and orders lathi charge. I will be chased and beaten. But I cant help. I’m alone. Democracy is not alone.

A compound wall collapses on the school girl and she dies instantly. The contractor walks away with no penalty. The contractor is part of legislature of democracy now after he won the corporation elections. Police will protect him. I’m alone. I can just see her dying. I can just read about the reports in paper. Paper will write on first day. They will write on 2nd day. But the public is not interested to read it daily. They have their own problems. So paper will stop writing on 3 day. I cant do anything because I’m alone. Democracy is not alone.

What is right? What is wrong? Who am I? No matter what happens, life is how it should be. Whatever has to happen will happen. What should not happen will not…. May be. Just take a look around. A small gadget which we call as mobile can be used to call almost anyone in world at any corner. Some one claims it is their invention. But why is it working? Some force is there. The same force is making us to live. To lead the life. We think we are living. But we are made to live. When I was born, I dint had the teeth also. It grew by itself. I didn’t control it. Yes. Life is just an inception. Beautiful flower grows on a tree. We say it grew. But if we are growing up, we say we are living the life. Its of no use to cry that something is lost. To think that we are cheated. Its just the part of the force which is making us to live.

“Employee saftey is our first priority. Hence please exercise caution while traveling to and from office.
In case if the office shuttle is not plying. Make your own transport to reach office.”
The mail in one of the software company to their employees on whether to come to the work the next day or not since it was the day of the historical verdict on Ayodhya. The first line is clearly for getting the employee friendliness certificate. The 2nd line was for us to remind us that we are paid to come and work and not to sit at home. Fair enough for the MNC which cares about the money and not about the resources of one particular nation where it has got its branch.
Am I socialist?
That is natural for anyone to brand me after the first two lines. The company has shown the consideration for our nation and came here and set up the office here giving us the employement. Is it fair enough for us to complain now and say that MNC wont understand our sentiment? Well, they didn’t even force us to join their company.
At 2pm the manager comes and announces that we are free to leave. What it means? If anything happens to employee after 2pm, company is not officially responsible!! “Mannnnn its such a low level management game. They never care.” I’m not supposed to say. Company has washed off its hands now. It’s a company. It’s a corporate. Its decision is taken at management level headed by bunch of elite and experienced managers. My voice is not audible to even the fine hairs inside their ears. What will I do? I just need to absorb it. I joined the company. I am getting paid. The problem is in my nation. The reaction is that of my inner self which feels it is cheated. But the action is to be taken by the conscious mind which cannot stop looking at the reaction of inner self. It has to think forward and arrange for my safety. Because I’m alone. Corprate is not alone.

A bunch of young and fresh from college friends. Even the P of politics didn’t dare to come near them. The energy of youth ness had kept that in bay. Life is nothing but enjoyment. The ill-fated Mig 21 plane which their patriotic friend was flying meets with fatal accident and the young pilot completes his journey of life on earth. Defence minister wants to save his face, his decision to still retain the outdated line of fighter planes in the force and hence gives out a blunt statement – “Technology of the plane is not out dated. Youngsters who join the force should keep their energy in control and should be careful in flying”. Two lines of statement boil up the blood in everyone in the gang. Defence min is eliminated in filmi style. Bunch of youth are killed by Army after being branded as terrorist.

Democracy is again comparable to MNC. Our voice will never reach the babus. We are just aam-junta. I’m aam junta. I’m available at their mercy. Police is there to protect the babus. I’ve only god who will ask me to be patient. If I react, I will again script one more story as above. I carry out a peacefull protest. Just to make the public understand that it was not the fault of my friend, it was the fault of plane. But the minister is scared of facing the truth and orders lathi charge. I will be chased and beaten. But I cant help. I’m alone. Democracy is not alone.

A compound wall collapses on the school girl and she dies instantly. The contractor walks away with no penalty. The contractor is part of legislature of democracy now after he won the corporation elections. Police will protect him. I’m alone. I can just see her dying. I can just read about the reports in paper. Paper will write on first day. They will write on 2nd day. But the public is not interested to read it daily. They have their own problems. So paper will stop writing on 3 day. I cant do anything because I’m alone. Democracy is not alone.

What is right? What is wrong? Who am I? No matter what happens, life is how it should be. Whatever has to happen will happen. What should not happen will not…. May be. Just take a look around. A small gadget which we call as mobile can be used to call almost anyone in world at any corner. Some one claims it is their invention. But why is it working? Some force is there. The same force is making us to live. To lead the life. We think we are living. But we are made to live. When I was born, I dint had the teeth also. It grew by itself. I didn’t control it. Yes. Life is just an inception. Beautiful flower grows on a tree. We say it grew. But if we are growing up, we say we are living the life. Its of no use to cry that something is lost. To think that we are cheated. Its just the part of the force which is making us to live.

Days are really hectic at office. Don’t want to list down the problems and fill up this blog page.

I just finished one more round of call with client team at 7.PM. The call started at 5.30 PM. I missed my break-time time pass. By the time the call ended I was totally famished. My mind stopped working. I was fed up of speaking English. Have been writing so many mails recently that I dint even wanted to write this blog. But some experience drove me to make exception.

At around 7.15pm I came out to breakout area. The house keeper guy was washing the floor over there. I being a long timer in my office, all the security gaurds and house keepers know me very well that I’m a kanndiga and hence talk to me whenever I come across. I asked that guy why he is washing the floor so early since it was not ever 8pm. That guy replied “Its Friday na sir, will leave early. Tomorrow being sat, duty time starts a bit late”. I asked what is his duty hours “ Weekday its morning 7 to eve 9. and weekends its 8am to 5pm” (I’m not sure whether the timings are right, but have seen them working for long hours though). I was shocked. We always think that our problem is the only biggest problem in world. A glance around will prove us wrong by giving so many examples. Well, though this didn’t motivate me for the day, I will remember this lesson for sure.

When I was going through my older posts in blog, I found some of them to be revealing so much about my personal life!! This thought flashed me since now many of my close friends and relatives have kind of started reading my blog regularly. I started off as anonymous in this Vast world of Blogosphere, enjoyed the every bit of freedom and anonymity it offered me, and now I am thinking whether it is time for me to start a new link to write about personal stuff.

But then I think what is the need to hide something from some one? Why cant we lead a transparent life? Recently I got chance to read a couple of books written by Sudha Murthy. We all know the entrepreneur cum philanthropist Sudha Murthy. We know her success and achievements. But her books gave me an opportunity to know more about her life, her past, the journey to the history of Infosys. Given her busy life, she has still time for doing the things which she loves to do. Let it be writing, travel etc. The book “Old Man and his God” - a collection of short stories from her own life is jst simple but marvelous. Her philanthropic works has taught her so many things. The important of them being helping the poor. She writes about the examples in her life where poor people, who she helped through her foundation, blame her saying how had hearted she is for just giving 50% of the amount they ask for. But she supports her decision with so many examples she has come across. No matter whoever it is, money given for free never creates the sense of value that comes had you earned it by yourself. You just end up saying, why only this much why not more? In my case, I never over pity on any beggar or small aged kids working as servants anywhere. Why should I? I might be having comparatively more money than them but that doesn’t mean that I should give some tips out of pity to them. Life is same for any one. I too get paid for doing work everyday and not for free. I have my own loads of tensions and stress and those people their own. Only difference is the kind of work environment or the payment that we get, but finally at the end of the day if we equate it with various factors of our life, we end up getting the same. When I got my vehicle washed in service station, I paid the washing fee to the small guy who washed it. He immediately asked “Sir, give me something for coffe”. Though his looks invokes pity, I didn’t just show off by paying him immediately. Why should we allow ourselves to be taken for granted? We don’t get money free of cost. When I go to get a small thing repaired in my vehicle, the showroom worker stands there expecting for tips. Why do we always need to give tips for no reason? IF they are really worth of getting that, I pay it without even slight provocation from them. The bottomline is simple, money comes with a tag – i.e effort.

Her book can help anyone to understand the complexity of life. How difficult it is to lead a life once you are out of your college completing the graduation. The Society starts looking at you with all its eyes. Choosing a career is as important as any other basic need of life. The society has high tendency to respect people with established life. IF you are not working in a bank, software industry, or few other respectful employment safe havens, you are just ignored like any non-existing creature. Recently I just saw a program in NDTV good times where a guy who is bike enthusiast was talking about his life and his passion. He earns money through various jobs like counseling, translation works etc. He didn’t had a job with fixed source of income. But still the work he was doing, he was enjoying it a lot. His fav pastime is long rides on his bike. He goes to different corners of the country in his life partner – bike. He loves the god. He says it is such a beautiful world around you. Everything which you look, feel and touch is God’s creation. There are so many things you can learn looking at it. I was truly happy with his life and the way he was living it to the fullest. I discussed it with one of my friend at workplace. She told why cant you also try something interesting like him. Though I agreed with her, I was quick in letting her know about the Indian Society. IF you don’t have fixed source of income, even your pet dog might run away from your home out of the fear of facing hungry days. She laughed and immediately agreed with me. Sometimes, out the stress in our work, we always tend to think that what we see outside is smooth and the life is just cake walk over there. But we forget that each one has his own destiny. When I started writing short stories, and when my friends and relatives appreciated my writing skills, I was excited. I thot may be if the need comes, I can pursue this as my alternative career. Things became clear to me only after I went deeper and deeper into my new found craze. When I started writing longer stories, I found how hard it is. The flow, grammar, content, everything had to be taken care. At some times, I started spending more time than usual on writing the stories and then it striked me how wrong I was for having taken things to be so simple. It actually hampered my flow a lot. I spent so much time thinking that I lost interest in writing. I learnt my lesson. I gave a break for myself and returned now after a significant pause. Each one of us has our own destiny. Only patience can help us to realise that and takes us there. Decisions taken without proper analysis can be disastrous. In my case, though I never had any intention to try out my career here, was happy to learn this lesson without paying any cost. Whenever my mind wanders away thinking the life is greener on the other side, I remember this lesson and apply more thought on whatever I think.