More on Shamu!

Earlier, in this post about Shamu, I mentioned how it irritates me that the Sea World people are scamming us all by calling all their whales Shamu - as if we dumb people wouldn't realize that they're all not the same freakin' animal.

Alternately though, there are other perspectives on Shamu. For instance, here's an article titled "What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage" by Amy Sutherland about how our beloved Sea World scamster helped her manage her partner better. This is a good read for the ladies (insight into ways in which you could tame that gorilla who lives and sleeps with you), and also for the men (insight into how "that gentle thang" will find some way to get you to always jump thru' hoops while you're thinking you're really showing her who's boss!).

It's funny and yet - quite scary.

2 kinds

People love categorizing things. Easier to manage - things are if they're categorized. And as far as categorizing people is concerned - for most of us it's usually categorizing people into 2 kinds. The types differ. There's good or evil, right or wrong, black or white, rich or poor, capitalist or communist, with you or against you. Stuff. All appropriate in some context or situation

Increasingly though for me, there are just two kinds of people. Those who are (1) honest to themselves, and (2) those who aren't. And while I don't (quite ironically) know where I belong, I sure know where I want to.

I can't really think of any way to tell for sure who belongs to which category. Mainly because that categorization is so completely internal. I know would like to belong to category 1. Heck, I think we all should aspire to be in category 1. But I also know that I am not really that honest to myself. I know sometimes being honest to oneself is depressing. Especially when you realize that you're not as virtuous as you believe yourself to be.

But if you really want to start categorizing others as honest to themselves or dishonest to themselves, then you're missing the point somewhat - as I am. Finding out who you are is basically a self-test, and failing it means that you obviously have a lot of work to do internally.

And while I don't really think there's a definite sign that tells you who you are in this context at least, I am starting to think that one way to start off on that path is having an awareness or understanding of a sense of irony. Particularly the ironies in your own life. And if you can't see the irony of how things have turned out for you - you've really really really missed the point all this while.

Common Man and friend at Worli sea-face, Mumbai

(pic courtesy: www.mid-day.com, photographer: Mukesh Parpiani)

Wonder what they're both thinking about. But, I am sure R.K. Laxman's "Common Man" is enjoying the boy's company too. As he stands there taking in the spectacle of the crashing waters of the Arabian Sea, the ebb and flow of the tides, boats and ships in the distance, the approaching monsoon clouds, and the setting sun every evening. Forever lost in contemplation.

Rise and Shine!

( pic courtesy: http://www.nowrunning.com )

Just finished watching "Gangster" by Anurag Basu, starring Shiney Ahuja, Kangna Ranaut and Emraan Hashmi. The only reason I watched this movie was for Shiney. He has a first name of which I'd normally be mocking by now. Except that I am sold to his acting skills - have been since Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi. And that really means that I don't really care what he calls himself. He acts and acts well. And that's all we should really care about.

Of course, I was hardly expecting another Hazaaron... All I was hoping out of Gangster was - perhaps a decent performance by Shiney, some good music, and that would be it. Not offensively bad. Not crazy good either.

Instead, I got to see a very good debut by newcomer Kangna Ranaut, and solid direction by Basu that paid attention to detail while ensuring the the movie itself worked as a whole. All that was a surprise, and a very pleasant one I might add, to me. Hashmi's presence was also not a major irritant (although his entire angle appeared the weakest link in the relatively tight script). Gangster, unlike several of those sleazy, un-original, "inspired" flicks recently churned out by the Bhatt camp (and Bollywood in general), pays a whole lot of attention to studying and exploring the relationships between its principal characters in some depth, particularly the one between the gangster Shiney and his moll Kangna. It was more than a pleasant surprise that the movie turned out to be well-crafted, even with the cursory skin show and a Hashmi lip-locking scene.

How totally unlike recent movies from the Bhatt camp! Which begs the question - which movie was it inspired by? It couldn't actually be an original story, could it? Abhishek Bandekar at efilmcritic raises the same question in this review of the movie.

And finally, how good was Shiney in this movie you ask? Well - he was good. Very, very good. And what's more, Gangster was well-worth it. Surprised? So was I. So was I.

Smoking pot again (3)?

Once, when I was much much younger (and that was a long long time ago), as a birthday gift I received a small wooden wall-hanging on which was inscribed, "The smallest good deed is better than the greatest good intention." I don't really know if the person gifting me that plaque was trying to pass on some kind of a subtle message to me or something. Maybe it was a message of some sort. I dunno. But it took me a long time to figure out the significance and the implication of the entire statement.

Such words of wisdom come from pretty much everywhere - from stuff people once wrote and from stuff wise people from our past once said (or were reported to have once said), or even from pop culture, or from the word on the street. Many of them are so commonplace that we don't even have to say them in their entirety anymore. Its enough to say, "Hey, you know what - if it ain't broke..."

Several times though words of wisdom like the one I started this piece with start to sound terribly cliched. Especially when you start using them when you can't really come up with something original but still want to sound at least pseudo-meaningful. In fact, people blurt out cliches frequently in order to pretend to be wise and offer meaningful advice ("You must look into your heart to find the real truth!" and other such pearls.)

And I don't really know if wise words start sounding like cliches because people who use it are unable to think original, or because our generation is far more skeptical and distrusting of any information that comes our way. Everything starts to sound like some amalgamation of cliches, and ultimately just empty rhetoric. With all the mis-information that is out there in the guise of fact, I wouldn't blame our generation really.

But as the saying, apt for circumspect folks like me, goes, "Even a stopped clock shows the right time twice a day!" What it means in this context is that even the worst cliches are sometimes frustratingly apt. Most of the time, how you perceive "words of wisdom" is really a function of the space-time continuum - i.e. a matter of being at the right place at the right time. And if you are in a situation with your defences down and vulnerable to a cliche-attack, a well-aimed cliche might just hit home. And fit just right.

Just like the horoscope you happen to read on one of your more introspective afternoons. Or the preacher you meet on one of your depressed and (more) depraved days. Or the fortune cookie you crack open after a romantic meal (and not add "In bed" or "And then you die!" to whatever the fortune in it says). Or the affirmation that new age gurus give you validation and affirmation addicts in the guise of leading you on to the path of better living. Or the song you hear on the radio when you're driving home pondering over the status of your relationship with your love ("Free! Free! Set them free!")

And maybe, just maybe, just as a stopped clock showing the right time twice a day, as opposed to other quantifiable (or not) instances of time when it doesn't, the cliche that hits home may just so happen to make far more sense to you than anything original you can come up with. Skepticism may just be a convenient way to excuse ourselves from the business of accountability - which is probably how words of wisdom became cliches in the first place.

"Just because it's a cliche - doesn't always mean it's bullsh#t!"

P.S. New look prompted by BrijWhiz who still remains the pioneer - as always!