Ek Achi Adat

"The hardest job kids face today is learning

good manners without seeing any"

— Fred Astaire

Have you recently seen the new promo of the new Ramayan being broadcasted on NDTV imagine. Here is an excerpt below of one of the ads that was aired:

A child is shown singing and dancing to the "A Ganpat" song in front of the guest and his parents. It shows its parents embrassed by the song he chose to dance on. Then the line comes of teaching good manners to your kids. One can do that by watching Ramayan — Ek Achi Adat.

or

Imagine when a girl parent comes to inquire about her kid at her friends house and she blabbers "Bhag gayi hogi kisi ladke ke saath, kya kare jawani ka garam khoon hai na, koi baat nahi subah tak aa jaegi"

I really liked the way the creators of this ad made their point and kind of made me think about what the todays kids were seeing on the television. In a way they are right that today the television industry has become a victim of running after TRPs than to provide some quality entertainment. Everyone will admit that this is the dark age of television which is devoid of the meaningful serials (except for a meagre few). The reality shows that are shown are a turn-off with each channel have more than one reality show running. On top of that you will seeing them indulging in cat-fights to promote the shows. One of the reasons the saas-bahu serials are so popular because almost all the viewers are housewives. I happened to ask some people who used to watch such shows, one of the common replies that I came across that there was nothing else to watch!!!

Gone are the days when there were serials which we could watch as a family. There was something new to learn from it. This reminds me of my growing days when there serials like Nukkad, Fauji, Circus, Rajani, Yeh Jo hai Zindagi, Bangei Apni Baat, Just Mohabbat and others to name a few. Yes who can forget the Ramayan & Mahabharat. They were the best (I don't believe in remaking of movies/serials/songs which were a hit, but the Ramayan that is aired now is not that bad). They were the serials based on "real" people who had to handle difficult situations, fighting for your rights and the trauma of growing up :).

Nowadays, whenever I see any serial, the only thing that comes across that somewhere someone is plotting against each other. Have people stoop so low or the creative minds are out of ideas to churn out such trash. No wonder the Ramayan ad hits the wall pointing that there is hardly any serials today which a family can sit and watch together and with the kids learning from them.

Hope someone read this and make an attempt to change the current scenario of the serials that are being aired.

Gandhigiri

“War seems to be part of the history of humanity. As we look at the situation of our planet in the past, countries, regions and even villages were economically independent of one another. Under those circumstances, the destruction of our enemy might have been a victory for us. There was a a relevance to violence and war. However, today we are so interdependent that the concept of war has become out dated. When we face problems or disagreements today, we have to arrive at solutions through dialogue. Dialogue is the only appropriate method. One-sided victory is no longer relevant. We must work to resolve conflicts in a spirit of reconciliation and always keep in mind the interests of others. We cannot destroy our neighbors! We cannot ignore their interests! Doing so would ultimately cause us to suffer. I therefore think that the concept of violence is now unsuitable. Nonviolence is the appropriate method.”

— Dalai Lama

Recently “Lage Raho Munnabhai” won the National Award for Best Popular Movie for the year. If you think about it, the movie belonged to a different genre all together. The movie brought back something from the past that we had forgotten about. It repackaged it and named it “Gandhigiri”.

The movie theme was based on Gandhigiri. The way they highlighted the use of Gandhi’s ideals was commendable. A lot of credit for this goes to the writers Raju Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra & Dr. Abhijat Joshi who happened to come up with such a good movie with a social message.

We all seem to have forgotten the “Mahatma” the Father of our Nation who seem non-existent in our today’s life. Except that we see his face on the hundred rupee note, his statues in parks and portraits in government’ offices under which officials take bribes.

His teachings of non-violence seems to have lost in history, as we stood ground to more than 50 years of independence of a country he fought for and died. The country now is in turmoil of corruption and violence. The movie happened to have brought back the Gandhi to life as people started to read more about his teachings and resorting to Gandhigiri.

The movie has its moments where a pensioner has to strip himself to get the government official to approve the grant of his pension fund as he does not have enough money to give bribe to him. Then there was this scene where a boy happened to lost all his father’s money and was contemplating suicide. Telling the truth to his father takes a lot of courage.

After the movie was released, there was news of people taking up Gandhigiri all around the country. There was news that flowers were being sent to the HRD minister Arjun Singh who seemed to be hell-bend on increasing the reservation quotas in IIT, IIMs where merit should be given a priority. Around 2000 debt-stricken farmers in India’s cotton growing Vidarbha region resorted to protest with flowers pursuing a bank to disperse loans.

Gandhigiri seems to be a hit with the youngsters who seemed intrigued with his teachings and simple living. You will find that there over 840 communities created on the Orkut site for Gandhigiri. If that is not enough, one can also do a search on google to find websites formed to spread the Gandhigiri and the teachings of the Bapu.

It is really fascinating to see how a movie can have its effect on the people. Let’s hope that this helps in eradicating the corruption and violence which has become rampant in the Mahatma’s nation. For now,

“GANDHIGIRI ROCKS”

Feeling Trapped

"I have always liked it, it is still my favorite book.
I do not like my writing,

but I like this book...

I wish I like my own writing more, but like all of us,
I am trapped inside my own skin"

— William Goldman

There are times when you have a lot to say but you cannot express it. You want to do things in a certain way, but you end up doing things differently something you don't enjoy. The way you think from inside is different from the way you act outside. You do everything and still no one takes notice of it except when you make mistakes. You have lot of anger vent up inside and don't know how to deal with it. Things don't work your way even when you end up doing the right things.

You are made to wonder what you did wrong when everything you did was right. You make things happen for others to have good memories for the rest of their lives, but no one does the same for you. You have been good to people, but when its their turn to help you out, they are quick to turn their back on you. No body wants to recognize you, making you feel like a loner. Though they want your help when in a catch-22 situation.

Still you take everything in your stride. You want to enjoy the gifts of life. You feel, you are surrounded by wrong people and want to change them. Even if you try, you can not do much about it. as they end up being the only source of a "company" to go out with (if you don't want to go alone).

Life takes it's toll and you begin to think where all this is leading up to. Will I be able to live my life the way I want to? Fulfill my dreams and goals?

There are no answers here, its for each one of us to find it out.