Tag: lakshya

  • A lot can happen over coffee

    Part 2 of last week’s post. Contrary to what the title might suggest, this has nothing to do with Coffee Day. Well, almost.

    I waited outside Fresco’s for the next meeting and this caught my eye. Coffee, destinations and experiences.

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTYh6OSnAIY

    And just as I finish erm, shooting the above, she zooms in and after parking the car, chides me for not responding to her first wave from inside the car, until I point out to her that from where I stood, I could barely make out that its her inside the car. I also tell her that it might be unwise to wave at people of the opposite gender when one’s unsure… I was meeting her after a few months, and was yet again, struck by the precociousness. She’d called me to discuss a website idea of hers. She is all of 22, and has a knack of making me feel ancient, though unwittingly. We agree that the place demands that we concentrate solely on the chocolate desserts, but then we compensate by (me) arguing that the Oreo’s cream in her pastry was just wasting space that should’ve been taken by more chocolate. I pointed out my unadulterated ‘Chocolate Demise’.

    I ask her about her new idea, and out comes the story that its happening thanks to the money made from another business of hers, that’s apparently quite a success. She informs me that the idea for the first business came about from an earlier meeting we’d had. She explained, and when I heard it, I felt like a favourite character of mine – Forrest Gump!! Meanwhile, her book is already with the agent, she tells me its been 5 months, and maybe its time to check out another agent. I tell her that’s a hell of a lot of things to be doing at 22. She finds it worrisome that she might be trying out too many avenues, too many side lanes, which might take her focus off the main road, and i tell her about the number of posts I have written about the paths not taken. After we’re through with our chat, I tell her that I’m very happy for her, the way she’s handling her life, and not to stop.

    I wondered about the stuff I’d been doing when I was 22. One week later, I watch ‘Wake Up Sid’. (I Saw, Puked, in case you like anagrams)  After the movie I tweet,

    Clipboard02

    Dil Chahta Hai was released in 2001. I was 23 then, close enough to 22 when one looks back now. Not then, of course.  Business management and beach bumming. There’s no comparison. 🙂

    A thought on WUS vs Lakshya before we move on.  Both are ‘coming of age’ movies, and that’s where the comparison ends, for me. Lakshya had an individual who got himself something to focus on, Sid just becomes relatively more mature. Movies work differently for different people, in fact I identified more with Lakshya than Sid, but to me, the comparison itself is perhaps unfair, because it means equating coming of age to focus. In my book, they are not the same.

    Though WUS did remind me of DCH, it was another comparison that gave me food for thought. Konkona plays someone who’s older than Ranbir, by about 5 years. She comes to Mumbai, focused about what she wants to do. Ranbir is barely trying to figure out what he wants to do. Two different approaches to life.

    I wondered if the age difference explained it, or was it the individual character, or their different circumstances. In many posts, I have explored each of the three separately. I have wondered whether today’s generation has many more choices than I had, and whether that’s the reason why I am constantly thinking about roads not traveled. I have wondered whether people are just made differently, in terms of aggression, risk taking mentality etc. I have wondered about how one’s circumstances, and the people one is surrounded with, influence one’s destiny. I have even wondered  about the combination – whether society has changed and has helped the young of today by giving them freedom to experiment, to make their own responses to choices, and thus made them smarter along the way, and helped them build confidence.

    And then i remember the coffee choices I’d seen as I stood in front of Fresco’s. Choices have always been there, maybe lesser, but there. I could have the coffee on the roadside or inside the CCD. They’re completely different experiences, and any judgment of one being better or worse than the other is simply a matter of perspective, based on time, person, place and so on. It perhaps isn’t even about the journey, its about how  one sees the journey, and what one wants to make out of it. 🙂

    until next time, ennui anyone? 🙂

  • Keep Walking

    A long time back, almost 4 years ago, after seeing Farhan Akhtar’s Lakshya, I’d written about meaning, and purpose, and its relevance in an individual’s life. I guess, as I moved on in life, and feared that time is running out for something, the search for this purpose became more frantic, until I tried to see it in everything that happened to me, and around me. I tried to look at what others were doing, trying to find some parameter of reference. But even if it did exist, it doesn’t seem to be easy to find, and that’s a despairing thought.

    And then, sometime back, this wonderful person shared these lines with me

    “For years, copying other people,
    I tried to know myself.
    From within, I couldn’t decide what to do.
    Unable to see, I heard my name being called.
    Then I walked outside.”
    …… Rumi

    And then, I found some more food for thought in Hermann Hesse’ “Siddhartha”. A conversation about searching and finding and the difference between the two approaches. Yes, these seem to be two different approaches, and I thought one was the result of the other. 🙂

    Searching means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.

    When a person searches for something, even something that he defines as a purpose, he focuses on that so much that he is usually oblivious of everything else. It becomes an obsession.

    That really does not mean neglecting every responsibility. But it does mean that I do not automatically categorise experiences as good/bad, useful/not useful etc and be done with it. A mindset change from searching to finding will allow me to look at an experience as just that, and to treat it with more calmness. As one of my favourite tees says, “Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling”

    I guess we all know it, we just need reminders ever so often, because we set goals which we think will ensure happiness… movie this weekend, vacation next month, party tonight…but are we really conscious about the  transient nature of that goal? I’m not going to stop any of it (except for the partying, I never did that anyway:) ), but I will be conscious of its relevance.. and irrelevance  🙂

    until next time, destination nowhere

  • A Generation Awakens

    Well, Mr. Mehra, if the editing was slightly slicker, they wouldnt have fallen asleep in the first place.. hmm, yes, that might have been a bit unkind, but those overboard reviews did irritate me.. and so, no review, but an argument on the thought process behind the movie..( yes, i am making an effort to be intellectual..hehe)
    while i do not dispute the fact that an attempt has been made to create an awareness in the minds of today’s youth, perhaps the similarities of the azad-bismil-bhagat singh scenario and the occurences in the current times are too strong a stretch of imagination…the nation’s freedom was something that each individual would feel strongly about, but today, so many generations have been moulded to the ‘adjust’ mentality towards corruption, nepotism, and the casual way to administering a country that it is too difficult to pull them back colletively..how many of us would not pay a bribe in this day, this era IS about convenience and what money can do for you… and therefore it is an issue that has to be addressed at an individual level..will this movie make you do that.. it didnt make me..to paraphrase what madhavan said in the movie, if you want to make a difference join the police,the army, the IAS, politics and live your ideals..
    in my mind the movie that made a better impact was farhan akhtar’s lakshya.. it was a casual selfish individual’s journey towards becoming a heroic soldier, and somewhere along the way, his realisation that there was more to the world than just him – society, nation and his responsibilities to them…that movie didnt work at the box office, so perhaps mr.mehra is right after all in trying to arouse the fervour in his own way…
    until next time, nothing can awaken those pretending to be asleep….

  • Word’s Worth

    i will not be getting poetic….yes, thank god…:)…. this is more to do with a movie i saw last weekend.. “The word is Lakshya”, so is the movie… Farhan Akhtar, i think, is using emotions he felt during different phases of his life, in his movies, and that increases the ‘reality effect’… i am not good at reviews, so i’ll just say its definitely worth a watch…
    Hrihik Roshan’s internal conflicts made me think of the concept of an individual’s ‘lakshya’…. that which manifests  itself in different forms, from answers to uncles’/aunts’ questions of “what do you want to be when you grow up”, to the “career objective” in the resume…and that which propels us to do a whole lot of things , some for good/ some for worse?..and is it, finally, worth all that we do for it… so whats the word’s worth?
    the needs that mom and dad gave up so that the child got the best education, the agony of learning the multiplication tables, playing time spent in studying (or made to spend studying..hehe) to retain the first rank in class, the heartache when one realises that music/dumb charades/quizzing/scrabbles/monopoly/cricket are not viewed upon as conventional viable careers or rather , the heartache when one decides to be conventional, having to change ‘lakshya’ at some point of time, disappointing loved ones when one decides to do an unconventional thing for once, playing mindgames and having mindgames played on you in the corporate world, pressure tactics from above and to below so that dadlines are met, losing friends and family because of time constraints, losing friends and family and not being able to be there even to say goodbye…..
    and then, after all the gains and losses, judging yourself and wondering what is true joy- having a happy family, being able to see smiling people, sharing the smile with them, dying when their thoughts about you die; or appearing on the cover of “Time’, being the role model for millions, and perhaps a legend, and therefore almost immortal……or something in between, and whether an in-between state is possible … wondering whether you had it in you and you let it go…wondering whether you had a ‘lakshya’ or not, ever…..and wondering whether it mattered…ever..
    and thinking that floyd had rightly sung, albeit in a different context “And did you exchange , A walk on part in the war, For a lead role in a cage? “…also thinking that you thought the same kinda lines, but floyd is famous and you are not…hehe… and wondering how much the word is worth and how much is worth the word……..
    and wondering if this should do for

    manuscrypts trivia
    a quote
    “Galaxies…numerous, like the grains of sand on a seashore…yet our vanity reigns supreme ! ” ~ Unknown
    and seen
    In a Laundromat:AUTOMATIC WASHING MACHINES: PLEASE REMOVE ALL YOUR CLOTHES WHEN THE LIGHT GOES OUT.
    Notice in a farmer’s field:THE FARMER ALLOWS WALKERS TO CROSS THE FIELD FOR FREE, BUT THE BULL CHARGES.