Tales of A Tall Guy

 



Everyone has high expectations from the tall guy as he walks on the streets people keep looking up to him, which makes him happy from inside.

He is always susceptible to head injuries especially when he is getting down from the BEST buses (of which he got hit many times) and also while entering & exiting his building premises. The tall guy can also hurt himself when he enters houses with lower ceilings and the fan is going in circles and has to make sure that he does not raise his hands.

The tall guy is very easy to find when the meeting point is in crowded places. All one has to do is look up and there he is standing tall. He also has no difficulty in finding people in such crowds. The tall guy is smiling now.

The world is not kind to him as he has to struggle with his day to day routines be it with chairs which are shorter than his knee length, has to cramp his legs when in the backseat of cars and also been used as a height measuring scale for others.

Come rain or shine, the weather always plays tyrant with him. The sun rays often find its way to fall on him making him sweat, while others stand behind as if he is a big tree providing shade. During the rains, no matter what the tall guy carries to protect himself from the rains, he always finds his pants wet. Being tall helped him during the day when Bombay was flooded; the water was up to his waist height!!

The tall guy struggles to find a girl who is taller as he is. All he could see is pretty faces in small sizes :( Finds hard to maintain relationships with them as they keep looking up to him and he keeps looking down causing a sprain in his neck. Should he carry a small stool with him when he goes on the date next time? He is wondering what couple would they resemble when he gets married, the Amitabh-Jaya or Abhishek-Aishwarya?

People keep asking the tall guy about his secrets of him being so tall. All he would say is that it is in his genes :)

He would always find people trying to bring him down to their levels when he visits the hair saloon and has to lower himself in the chair. He even finds people trying to reach his level when they try to keep their arm on his shoulders.

He has a hard time finding variety for his shoes as getting shoes of his size are not available everywhere.

The tall guy always stands out, be it a group photo, meeting or get together. Even his attempts to hide himself to take a small nap or work on the small drawing etched on his notepad fails miserably. At times he finds others trying to hide behind his back but he has nowhere to go :(

Even the bed in which he sleeps is small, his feet keeps dangling out.....
 

Unwanted

Bharat never thought he would be seeing this day in his life. He was lying on one of the beds of the old age homes. He lay awake in the endless night wondering how he ended up here.

His own daughter Veena had thrown him out of his house saying that she could not afford to take care of him anymore and that she had her own children to take care off. Her husband had left her and it was him who brought back her to his place and encouraged to work.

Finding himself on the streets he called up his only son Vijay who had settled abroad who suggested that he better take shelter in the old age homes. Not once did he say that he would try to resolve the issue or that he could stay with him.

With the help of his friends, he found himself a place to sleep at night in one of the old age homes. Though retired, the 63 year old decided to take up an accountant’s job to fend for himself.

As he closed his eyes, tears kept flowing down through his face as he tried to sleep with troubled thoughts haunting him…

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This story is actually based on a news piece that I came across. This is just one of the realities of our lives where when people get old they are thrown out on the streets by their children or left at old age homes as they cannot or don’t want to take care of them. No section of the society is untouched by this phenomenon.

What I fail to understand is what prompts this decision even when they are aware that it’s wrong and how they go on to justify it. Parents go on to make sure that their child gets the best of everything they could provide, so what changes the relationship between the children and parents when they grow up?

My best guess is that as children get more involved into their lives they tend to become detached to parents who are less involved. Then they just start treating them like any individual they come across without giving a thought what they had done for them (Their normal justification would be, they are suppose to do that).

My question is what should a parent do to make sure that they are taken care of in their old age? The problem is that at most times one can not do anything about it. Coz when one is raising a child that is not the question that haunts them, its only when they reach a stage in their life where the tables are turned and the children need to take care of the parents, that they come to know how successful they were as parents.

At the most, parents can make sure that they make a will and do not disclose about it any other member of the family and avoid transferring properties in the names of their child if the children don’t treat their parents properly.

What such adults do forget is one day they are going to finding themselves in the same situation and who knows they could find themselves at the mercy of their own children…

The Review

I saw the TV premier of the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”. There has been a lot of controversy involved around this movie especially the way India has been depicted and the debate brought on by an actor’s blog. Also wanted to watch Frieda Pinto’s acting whether she is good enough to share the limelight with Hollywood stars.

When the movie first released, I hardly felt the need to watch it somehow I had the feeling that the movie was not that good. So ever after winning 8 Oscar awards, I still did not change my mind on watching this movie. When I saw the promos of it being aired on the television, I made sure I watch it to find out the truth whether it deserves the hype or not.

Here is my verdict. The movie failed to make an impression on me and I am glad that I did not go to the theatre. The story of an underdog who goes on to become a millionaire, if one has watched closely enough it is a typical Bollywood dished out movie with a Hollywood style of finishing to add to the overall taste (just like a pinch of salt perhaps).

I am thinking of catching up with the other nominated movies to know how this movie went to win the Oscars. There were heavy contenders as far as I know from the story plot. I am wondering how a movie goes on to win a Best Picture or Best Director award without any members of the cast being nominated for their roles while this was not the case for the other movies nominated under the same categories.

There is no denying in one fact though, the word “Slumdog” will be used as a racial slur against Indians. Regarding the debate that has been brought by the actor’s blog if one has watched enough Bollywood movies; they would realize that the common man is no more part of the Indian society. Most of the movies would show the actor hailing from a rich family and they live in palatial houses, which most of the Indians can only dream of buying. Where is the Amol Palekar who represented the common man? Somehow I have this feeling of him getting replaced by Abhay Deol (with the exception of certain movies). Something that is close to reality and people could relate to. Why is that Hollywood movies tend to be closer to reality whereas ours far away from it?

The movie showed the life of the people who we choose to remain ignorant about. I liked the Taj Mahal scene the most where Mumtaz was said to have died in a road accident. I don’t believe the movie is good enough to win the Oscars; somehow my interpretation of a movie winning an Oscar would be based on how the movie moved one in a certain way and the feeling remaining in the end or making one think even after it had ended. This movie fails to do so.

Frieda Pinto is hardly there on the screen. A 5-10 min role which makes it hard to tell about her acting abilities. I hope she is good enough to get signed by Hollywood. I also hope that she is aware that this won’t last long that coz not many Indians or for that matter Asians do not have things going for them. One’s looks matter a lot. No doubt Ben Kingsley (real name Krishna Pandit Bhanji) who played Gandhi had a longer stint coz no one could not make out, that he was of Indian origin and not white as he is mistaken. Bend It Like Beckham is a good example, the lead star Parminder Nagda got overshadowed by Kiera Knightly who had a small role and went to working in big budget movies. As for Dev Patel, he seemed to carry just one expression through out the movie.

In the end, the real winners were the slum children who played the main characters childhood coz there lives have been transformed in a big way and hope that they are able to make the best out of it and stay on top of whatever comes their way.

I am proud of A.R. Rehman and Resul Pookutty for making India proud :D