Dev D in Everyone of US

I watched the movie a month back, the Anurag Kashyap’s version of Devdas and it kind of intrigued me in many ways. This also happens to be the first time that I liked a movie based on the famous Devdas character on whom numerous movies have been made.

I could never understand the fascination of the movie industry with Devdas who only annoyed me as he was the only one who was responsible for pushing away his love and then making himself suffer in pain and still when love came in the form of Chanda he choose to make himself suffer over love.

Watching Dev D, I observed something in Devdas that we would often find in ourselves but we may not realize. Though the suffering here was of his own making but there are times when we find ourselves in pain when life’s plan does not goes accordingly with our plan.

How does one react if the love of their life with whom they planned to spend rest of the life left them for someone else, an unexpected twist of fate that leaves you scarred mentally/emotionally and times when things did not went your way when you were expecting it highly?

It’s hard to hold back emotions during these times and act sensibly. How should one overcome the trauma that one is going through inside while on the surface everything seems fine?

As Dev D goes into his drinking binge and drugs, one could see how he shows no signs of overcoming his heart ache. Pain can give one such a high that soon one finds comfort in them and one does not want it to be over with.

I guess we all have our such moments (may be not to such an extent) where we wont let the pain go away and choose to move on. Dev D represents that.

P.S: I liked the way the movie ended with Dev D moving on with Chanda...

I happened to have mention Paro by mistake, Thanks Adisha for clearing it out :)

My Interpretation of GOD

“People break down into two groups:

When they experience something lucky, group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them.

Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance, I'm sure the people in group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation is a fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear.

Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope.

See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky?”

— Mel Gibson in the movie Signs

When somebody shows blind faith in GOD, it really makes me wonder from where he/she had so much belief when they have not even see him.

Growing up, I was one of the early ones who found himself praying and doing “aarti” every morning before going to school. I guess for me it was a kind of a friendship where I talked to GOD and he listened and I hoped that he will be there when I need him.

Life changed and I wondered why GOD whom I considered my friend choose to do nothing. I stopped talking to him but that did not mean that I did not visited his place, my family did not know about our fight.

I would find myself intrigued looking at the faces of people around me who seemed so lost in his devotion during aarti in temple. I wondered what makes them different when we were listening to the same aarti.

I was done with my days of doing the “aarti” and was of the opinion that one does not need GOD if they are going after what they needed and work for it. After all the only reason we pray to him so that he could take care of us. If we are able to take care of ourselves then do we need him?

During this “phase” I tried to understand the origin of GOD. I came to the conclusion of one possibility that GOD could be man-made so that we could believe in a higher form of life that would take care of us and protect us when we need him. The books of GOD written by ancient men who were great novel writers and knew how to keep their readers interested for ages.

I believe GOD represents the “hope” that we look for when we lose ourselves to the circumstances/situations of our lives.

Believing in him gives us the courage that we can overcome this “difficult phase”. The truth is when we believe in GOD, we actually believe in ourselves which gives us the strength to face the “difficult situation” before us.

In a way GOD is inside every one of us waiting to be discovered when our trials put us to test.

P.S.: This post was on my mind for a very long time, the right words never came in and just a few days back, I found myself flowing with everything right that I needed to complete this.

The Old Man

As I was growing up and was surrounded by problems, I wished there was someone who would listen and make me understand what I don’t.

I always had a picture in my mind of an old man in a park giving me advice on how to deal with one’s problems and teach me how to deal with it. Sadly it just remained a picture in my mind. The old man whom I was looking for never came.

The irony of asking someone to give you advice is that they will give you their take on the situation instead of telling how to deal with it.

I think the picture is a vision from the future where the old man is none other than me who is listening and making others understand about their situations while he has no one to listen to him as he sits alone on one of the benches in the park…

I Don't Know

Has it ever happen to you that people who were academically backwards then you are doing much better than you are. People whom you thought never deserved to be promoted actually got promoted, while you are waiting to be promoted. People who get into the limelight by doing something little, while you have been slogging hard to get rewarded.

Comparisons are never a good thing and there is no way one can compare individuals coming from different backgrounds and environment. Still, one cannot resist them when we see people who move a long way ahead and you find yourself still struggling to make a place for yourself.

I often found myself stump when I tried to understand how they happen. Was luck a big factor for their success or they did something that you did not. If you have any answers do let me know...

Change Please

I was sitting on the sofa when I realized that I did not have enough change to pay for the auto by which I will be travelling. I asked my aunt if she had a change of a 100 rupee note, she told me point blank that she did not, did not even bother to check if there was one. Thankfully my cousin came to the rescue, who had enough of them.

This is one of the quirks you will often find in people who would never let go of their change even if they have enough of it. They might not have a valid reason but still they wont budge in giving to someone else, holding on to it tightly as if someone has asked to give them everything they had.

It kind of reminds me of the paradigm slideshow (click on the link for the slideshow) where the monkeys would not climb the ladder even when they don’t get the water treatment. Guess we, humans have a long way to go!!

The Non-Veg Factor

It really struck me odd that a girl prefers to stop eating non-vegetarian food just because her lover belongs to a vegetarian family. While the same is not true for the male who eats non-veg and marries one who does not.

He is either expected to eat outside or order them instead of giving the trouble to his wife who does not eat them. So why is a girl, who eats non-veg prefers to stop eating them when the male does not do so?

I know two such people who gave up eating non-veg as they were getting married into a family which considers eating non-veg unholy. One of them simply loved non-veg, she used to tell how they tasted and how her Mom makes the best prawns dish.

I was surprised when I saw her skipping the non-veg dish and taking everything vegetarian. Later I came to know that she is trying to give up non-veg for the sake of her boyfriend whom she plans to get married.

My contention is why does a girl thinks that just because she is getting married into a family which is vegetarian she should give up her habit of eating non-veg? Would the guy had done the same? The answer is a 99 percent “NO”.

Instead of giving up completely on Non-veg, she could have just avoided eating non-veg at her in-laws house and could have them outside or whenever she visits her mother’s place. If her partner understands, I am sure he would allow that after all she has grown up eating them and such habits die a very painful death!!

It amazes me the kind of “small” sacrifices a girl makes just to keep her boyfriend appease. No wonder people end up doing silly things when they are in love.

I had a small encounter on the same issue with her boyfriend when we were on a picnic and before all this took place. He was standing behind me in our self-service style dinner. As I carried the plate with two empty bowls and filled with a few of every dish that was being kept there. I happened to have put the non-veg dish into one of the bowls and as I moved forward to take the vegetarian dish in the other bowl, her boyfriend standing behind me made sure to tell me that I take care that I do not touch the spoon to the bowl.

At that very moment, I realized what he meant and the only thought that came to my mind was how can an educated man speak like an illiterate!!

So, Gals (who love their non-veg food), beware if you are looking for a relationship or are into one with a veggie boyfriend, take care of the “Non-Veg” factor or else you might end up losing your taste buds for the non-veg food you loved so badly :)))

That Sheepish Smile :)

I had a bite of the sweet, which was too sweet brought by my sister from Rajkot. I turned towards her and said that don’t eat too much as it is too sweet and not good for her health.

I asked her if she had any and slowly the fingers went up like a victory sign with a sheepish smile on her face.

Tagged: What are You Emotional About

Got tagged by IHM, a few weeks back on what are you emotional about.

Usually, I am a cool headed person, don't lose my cool easily. Here is my list which I consider my emotional atyachar :)))

I. Been in situations where you are completely dependant on others and they don’t really care about how you end up

II. When deserving people have to struggle hard to get the success, while the undeserving ones have it easy.

III. When people try to influence their religious beliefs on others in the name of HELP. If you are religious no problem, but why do you want to influence others in the name of the “God”? If you want to help, help!!!

IV. People who keep talking their life sucks and want their lives to be transformed without any efforts. They need to understand that only they have the power to do so. Cribbing about it does not help.

V. At God, sometimes I even wonder if there is one. There are more complaints than prayers.

VI. Being educated does not guarantee that people will have a higher conscience and be an asset to the society. They are no better than illiterates if they don’t have any moral beliefs. Look at some of the educated political leaders who talk nonsense if you want examples.

VII. At Bosses who show their dumbness by asking for explanation for everything. Sometimes they are even aware of the situation and still act silly!! I have long list here :)))

VIII. With people who speak nonsense even after umpteen attempts fail to make them understand that what they are doing is not right...

IX. People who acts as saviors of the Indian culture, really don't know anything about the "Indian" culture. They keep forgetting this is where the Kama Sutra originated and in the name of protecting Indian culture, they are actually enforcing their own interpretation of the Indian culture on the people. People are smart enough and aware about the culture, so leave them alone!!

X. Government. They really suck. No matter which parties comes in power they make sure that the cases against their politicians gets trashed or make sure the truth never comes out. No one is really interested in looking after the welfare of people, if it was not for the voting which gets them in power. They seem too busy to fill their own pockets than to look after the needs of the people.

Opportunities in Life

I don’t remember the last time, I let go an opportunity which would either mean additional responsibilities or doing something I never did before and that it would help me move forward…

These opportunities have been an important part of my life as I kept gaining knowledge on a lot of issues, with a mind like mine I came pretty close to understand how things work and what acts as a barrier to implement a simple solution.

Though I do admit that even after capitalizing on my opportunities, I hardly found myself moving the direction that I wanted to, but I do believe that every thing has a timing and things don't happen before that. So I am waiting and preparing myself for my time to come.

Just a few weeks back, I found myself in a situation which looked liked a big task ahead but I think it was the right opportunity for me to learn something that I should have long back. Had no choice to say “No” as everything depended on me, so went ahead with worry reflecting on my forehead :))

As the work progressed, I got the hang of it and finally when the major work was carried out, I was there praying to God that everything goes fine and it did. I was on a high that night.

It felt just GREAT!!!