Author: manuscrypts

  • Legacy, Mastery, Success

    At Brain Pickings, that treasure trove of awesomeness, I found this quote attributed to Ray Bradbury on legacy, through a character in Fahrenheit 451:

    Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there.

    The subject of legacy keeps popping up here, and my understanding, especially since the last post has been that it is not something that one works towards, but happens as a (side) result of doing something that you love to do. In that sense, I would read between the lines above and add that ‘doing what you love to do’ as a prequel to the quote.

    One of the best posts I have recently read was Hugh MacLeod’s ‘On Mastery‘. I immediately riffed on it over at the other blog. It articulated things that I know for certain were muddled up somewhere in me, wanting to be told but finding words missing. He starts with trying to define success “Suc­cess”. What does it take to be suc­cess­ful, pros­perous, happy, have a sense of pur­pose etc?, separates it from the by products like fame and money and arrives at “It’s something that truly belongs to you”. For the master (as someone commented on the post) it’s more about the process than the product. Low key, known by a few, but masters in their chosen domain. “It’s something that truly belongs to you, always.”

    In the ever hyper world of real time media, micro-celebrities and experts, fame and money are many times the definitions of ‘success’, and though I do know at least a few people who have bucked that trend, it was heartening to read posts that told me that such thoughts weren’t really alien.

    There is an interesting article I read on the subject on HBR titled “You Are Not a Failure” which had an intriguing classification of  types of creativity — “conceptual” (in which a young person has a clear vision and executes it early, a la Picasso or Zuckerberg) and “experimental” (think Cezanne or Virginia Woolf, practicing and refining their craft over time and winning late-in-life success).

    Thanks to the deluge of information and opinions, it is ridiculously easy to give up on yourself and lose confidence. As Godin writes in “Do we have to pander?“, it is also easy to compromise, and then defend.   I think this is not just for greatness (people or things), but also holds true for personal belief systems and mores. And probably, at the very end, the perseverance really doesn’t achieve anything other than the satisfaction of setting one’s own definition of success and spending time and energy on it. But I have a feeling it’s worth it. A legacy in itself.

    until next time, this happens to be post #1000 here 🙂

  • Monkey Bar

    Bangalore’s first Gastropub has been a hot topic of discussions for quite a while now, so we thought we’d monkey around a bit too. We used the now standard replacement for Saturday dinners at ‘hot’ properties, and dropped in on a Sunday afternoon.

    In case you remember Taipan (no branches) on the Richmond Road – Wood Street junction, it’s gone! And Monkey stands in its place. The road is a one way and you’d have to approach it from the Brigade Road end or do a right-left-left from Richmond Road via Castle Street. The map is here. Parking on the street, so park where you get space, and don’t wait till you see the place!

    The place was packed when we got there, and we thought we’d have to wait, but we realised that if you dig deeper, you’re bound to be rewarded. The basement has, in addition to a few tables, a pool table and Foosball. The posters, a story continued from the dining area above, are quirky and fun and have advertisements, movies and so on. The soundtrack is awesome and every alternate song was a favourite – Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Free Fallin’, Iris, One of Us, and so on.

    It’s a gastropub, so we had reasons for looking forward to the food. The menu doesn’t disappoint, it’s completely about monkeying around with dishes, and those small plates, though they take it literally, ensures that you are spoilt for choice.

    There was a Tom Yum soup around, so we had to have the chicken version. Spicy, flavourful and a perfect appetiser. In terms of solid food, we started with the Chilli brain and the Tiger Beef. The brain dish consists if 3 cutlets, and if you’re really a spice fiend, you’d only be just okay with it. The ace in the sleeve though, is the bottle of Blair’s Jolokia on the table. From the time that D discovered it, our spice wants were taken care of. The Tiger Beef didn’t need any external help though, with chilli paste, galangal, lemon and peppers. The bowl was small, but this one is highly recommended.

     

    We debated whether we should try another starter, but in the end, the combination of burger + chocolate won out. The Brownie Cookie Shake reminded me of the Horlicks/Maltova chocolate versions, and was quite thick, though not as much as say, the Chocolate Room ones. The price is comparable, but the quantity is lesser. The MoBar burger, has bacon, so we pardoned the Rs.440 price tag. French fries come in a cone and the arrangement is quite cute. For desserts, we had the Chocolate XS Cake, though D wasn’t convinced of the flourless part. I was too busy gobbling it up and the ice cream with it. We’ll go back for some of those main course dishes that we simply must try out.

    The service is helpful, but don’t expect an eat-and-dash experience. It is laid back, and by design. The food does take time to appear, but is usually worth it. With the charges and taxes, the bill came to just over Rs.1650. Drop in for a menu that’s completely different from what you get elsewhere in Beantown. Eat, drink and if in the mood, play ball downstairs. 🙂

    Monkey Bar, 14/1 Krishna Manere, Wood Street, Ashok Nagar Phone: 080 41116878/9

  • The Age of Reasoning…

    Lay in drafts for over 2.5 years, waiting for its time. Saw it, and decided there was a reason to post it now, though I couldn’t see it. 🙂

    An interesting discussion over coffee – of why I couldn’t blow away the Bangalore Metro bridge if I so desired. No, neither smoking, nor alcohol is allowed in that cafe. 🙂 We discussed how much we really wanted things to happen, our priorities, of visualising the end result, whether it happens whether or not we work for it and so on.

    And somewhere in between,  it struck me that I was being pulled in two directions, or rather two ways in which I approach situations –

    Everything happens for a reason.

    Everything happens for a reasoning.

    Ignoring the rationalising, I have always been doing the latter, though I have always been pulled towards the former. But I wonder, are they mutually exclusive? And then I remembered a post from years back –  “Keep Walking“. Can ‘searching’ and ‘finding’ find parallels in reason and reasoning, or in religion and science, or in faith and logic?

    The entire line of thought is perhaps a stepping stone to a more basic question of how much of what happens to me is in my control. All? None? Somewhere in between? 🙂 And while on that, I couldn’t help remember that great line SwB wrote in his new year post sometime back. “When you decide to take charge of your own destiny you better be damn sure you’re up to the job.” The answer, I think, is right there. 🙂

    until next time, …”and I guess that’s why they call him the Blues” 🙂

  • Bear with me, Mother – Memoirs and Stories

    MT Vasudevan Nair

    “Bear with me, mother” is a collection of memoirs and short stories from arguably the finest writer that Kerala has ever produced – MT Vasudevan Nair. The book has 16 memoir pieces and half that number of stories.

    Though its against the flow of the book, it might be a good idea to read the stories before the memoirs. This is because many of the stories have a touch of autobiography/ reality in them, and it might take away a little from the stories of you read them second.

    The memoirs work amazingly well because it takes the reader back in time. Even for a Keralite like me, it seemed like a different culture. Temple festivals replete with folk arts, ten days of Onam celebrations, communities which hadn’t split into religion based factions all point to a Kerala that was markedly different, and this was only a few decades back. The change is visible in geography too, as the author agonises over the fate that befell the Nila river.

    The author walks the journey of his life with us, with anecdotes from his school and college life as well as his early working days. In them, we can see many characters that made it to his fictional works too.

    The stories offer excellent glimpses of the author’s craft, and works like ‘The Soul of Darkness’ will stay with you for a long time. In yet others like ‘Firecrackers’, ‘Karkitakam’, and ‘Elder Sister: Oppol’ we see the world through the eyes of an innocent child. It is amazing how even in the translation, I could imagine what the original Malayalam words must have been and marvel at the wordcraft.

  • Rise!

    It is difficult to make the last part of a trilogy when the first two have set sky-high expectations and one managed to create a larger than life character that would probably have to be one of the best in films, ever, if not THE best. But it had to me made, and 99% would like it. And there would be a 1% hating it – either because they hate crowds, or because their stance would stand out amidst the idol worship. This also includes the .01% for whom this film – objectively and for genuine reasons known to them – didn’t work. I haven’t seen any reviews in this category yet.

    So this is just a thank you note to Nolan and his team, for scripting a trilogy that took Batman out of the “Holy atomic pile, Batman!” and the more recent caricature versions to a status deserving of years of comics. For making an intelligent movie with neat hat tips to earlier villains. For wonderful visuals that let me ignore the small doses of incredulousness in the plot. For providing an awesome closure even while throwing a line of hope.

    But most importantly, for putting together a perspective on morality and the idea of justice, pursuing these themes consistently across the three movies, using characters with different worldviews, backgrounds and thinking as well as modern issues such as economic crisis and terrorism to add layers to it – the affluent Wayne/Batman can afford a moral compass and changes his path from revenge to justice, Selena/Catwoman doesn’t have that luxury but also seeks a more just balance, Bane is radical and seeks an entire wipe out, the Joker was unpredictable with seemingly no plans except chaos and showing the moral decline of society – even the white knight Harvey Dent, Ra’s-Al-Ghul abhors any sort of weakness in the delivery of justice. All have their own notions of justice, fairness and the institutions of society, institutions we have chosen but whose tools have been subverted, whose rules we try to live by have slowly become unfair and shackles those who desire justice. And thus, for the idea of the Batman as a symbol for those good people who restore our faith in humanity with their actions – “Anyone can be a hero. Even a man who put a coat around a young boy’s shoulders to let him know the world hadn’t ended”, and as an ideal.

    until next time, thus spake a fanboy 🙂

    Bonus read: Nolan’s goodbye letter to Batman