The Guru

     I am writing this post a day after Gurupournima, a day earmarked for offering gratitude unto the Guru. This day is celebrated specially by spiritual and religious organizations.

 

     The word ‘Guru’ is widely misused / misinterpreted. According to Hinduism, ‘Guru’ is the one who guides disciple and leads him unto liberation. He is one evolved soul, who is in constant mission of enlightening the lives of others. H.H. Dr. Athavale, the founder of Sanatan Sanstha, a spiritual organisation, explains the importance of the Guru and Gurupournima the following way

.

 Gurupournima is the day to worship the Guru and to express complete gratitude for what we have received and have been receiving from Him. On this day, remembering the great Guru-disciple tradition, seekers from all faculties who represent the Sanatan Hindu culture and who preserve the Guru-disciple tradition worship the Guru. The Guru-disciple tradition is a gift of Sanatan Hindu culture to the world. The tradition is at the core of the system of imparting of knowledge and learning, in which the relationship of the one who imparts knowledge and the one who receives it are exemplary. The knowledge-giver does not shoulder the responsibility of imparting knowledge only, but also teaching the seeker life values. Here, the one who absorbs knowledge is not a student who learns for the sake of livelihood only, but is a seeker who learns with the aim of development of his knowledge. In our culture the concept of ‘knowledge’ is related to attainment of God. It is called the ‘Supreme Knowledge’, because only those who have the authority to do so - the Gurus - impart this knowledge! Words fail to describe the grandeur of a culture that boasts of worship of such a glorious Guru-disciple tradition!

    

     So the Guru occupies utmost position in a disciple’s life. But some uncivilized minds have made mockery of the ‘Guru’ principle. Daisy von Scherler Mayer directed movie The Guru (2002 released) is one such example. This movie creates wide misconception in the minds of people and should never be accepted. The latest hollywood movie The Love Guru (2008 released) starring Mike Myers is another example. It grossly denigrates the Guru principle. An online campaign is active against this movie and you can voice your opinion here. We in the land where we worship Guru, should come together and condemn such unpardonable acts.

The Alchemist

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it

 

     This is one of my favourite quotes from the book. The alchemist is a novel by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. The book is about chasing dreams and realizing them. It was a nice read. The book evokes a sort of positive feeling and guides how one should realize his dream. This is narrated using a story of a Shepherd boy, Santiago, who undertakes a journey to pyramids in order to realize his dream.

 

     The book speaks about ‘Omens’ throughout which are the gestures of God. When one is on the path of realizing his dream, God helps him by showing signs. Santiago reads these omens, such as rolling out of the stones Urim and Thummin from his pocket when he was robbed and left moneyless, in desert he studies the flight of the hawks and infers about the threat in the future. ‘The Language of the world’ is something which the book refers very often. It is the language which the world speaks. It is the language the sheep speaks to look for food and water; the Camels speak to the desert and so on. Every object in this world communicates using this language.

 

     The principles of Alchemy come somewhere in the middle of the book. In the mid way through his jouerny, boy meets Alchemist who guides him for the remaining of the journey. The book also refers to ‘The philosopher’s stone’ which transforms any metal into gold and ‘The Elixir of life’ which can cure any illness. Alchemists posses these.

 

     The book is written using a simple language. But i did find some philosophical parts hard to understand. I am considering reading the book a second time to get some more insights. If not anyone, at least Paulo Coelho has realized his dream by writing this book!

 

Maktub !  

 

Why do u kill the already dead?

 

I want to ask the above question to the newspaper and television media. The recent episode of death of Padmapriya, the wife of udupi MLA Raghupati Bhat is depicted by the media in a very poor light. First it was announced that she is kidnapped. Then they told that the police tracked her in Kolar, which God knows whether was true. Later she was found dead in an apartment in Delhi. She was also shown having relationship with Atul, a childhood friend of Raghupati Bhat. The media sells a new story everyday and the issue is blown out of proportion. I really doubt whether all the news related to the incident has any proof.  

Similar was the case of Arushi’s murder. Initially servant Hemraj was the suspect who was found dead the next day. There were even reports that the 14 year old girl had relationship with the 35+ year old servant, which I believe is utter nonsense. Next day, her father was arrested, with charges of dual murder. I again don’t understand how a father can kill his own daughter.

 

Our police dept. has done a splendid job in the above two cases. They were clueless since day one, and are acting as if culprits themselves should come and surrender. If any dept. is in need of training, then our police dept. stands first. They are always known for their heroic acts of punishing the innocent and let go of the criminals. Just like shown in movies, they always reach the crime spot at the end.

 

Our beloved Ekta kapoor is not far behind. To add fuel to the fire, she has brought in Arushi’s case in her daily soaps. This is something totally unacceptable. Please don’t promote the mockery of the deceased. I want to ask these people, ‘Why do u kill the already dead?’

 

(Photo courtesy: rediff.com, cbsnews.com)

Ana Ivanovic wins her first Grand Slam Title!

 

      I would be glad to see the above headines in newspapers tomorrow. The Serbian babe has very good chances of winning the French Open title today. A year back, she had raised eyebrows by reaching finals of French Open, but eventually lost to Henin. And now Henin is retired, and other strong opponent Sharapova is out, chances are bright for Ana to clinch the title.   

    Ana Ivanovic, 20, is a rare combination of beauty and talent. It’s a treat to watch her on court. She displayed splendid performance in Australian Open this year reaching the grand slam finals, where she lost to Sharapova. Hope todays match fetches Ana her first Grand Slam title. All the best Ana!    

(Photo Courtesy : www.anaivanovic.com )

Update : Ana wins French Open. Yayy . Congrats Ana! You deserved this victory.

Book Review : The 3 mistakes of my life

    Oops! I did a mistake by reading this book. That was my nth mistake in life (Of course n being a positive integer and much greater than 0). Okay! Jokes apart, this is the third book by Chetan Bhagat, who is back to India now and has dedicated the book ‘to the country, which called him back’.

 

    The 3 mistakes of my life is a story of three best friends (sounds familier isn’t it?) based in Ahmedabad. Govind is the narrator of the story. He is a born businessman and dreams of owning a big business someday. He is in love with Vidhya, who happens to be the sister of one of his best friend Ishaan. Ishaan is very passionate guy who loves cricket. He was the best cricket player in his school and aspired to be in Indian Cricket team. But he performs badly in the selections and thus ends up getting rejected. His parents want him to join Army, which he hates. Govind’s other friend is Omi, who is the son of a priest of a local temple. Omi doesn’t know what to do in his life, but he doesn’t want to continue his father’s profession. So he sticks around with his friends. Then there is Ali, a young boy who is a gifted cricketer, but is more interested in playing marbles. Ishaan spots him and starts coaching him with a hope to see him in Indian Cricket team one day.

 

     The book starts very well giving a detailed description of each character. Chetan’s style of narration has definitely improved since his first book FPS . Half way through the book, it gets dull, and at the end the climax part sucks. Lot of communal violence is brought in, and it was really a pain reading the final few chapters. I hope Chetan comes up with science fiction novels in future.

Movie Review : Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

    This is the fourth movie in the Indiana Jones sequel, released nearly 2 decades after ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’, which by far was the best of the lots. And if you liked last three, u will definitely go and watch this one without bothering about the reviews and ratings.

 

    The movie is a treat for Indiana Jones fans like me. But compared with the last three, this one falls a bit short. The movie is somewhat slow in the first half an hour. But later, Indiana Jones gets into what he is well known for, "deciphering coded instructions with his witty knowledge to explore the mysterious, of course with lots of adventure".

 

    Jones sets off in the search for the crystal skull which is believed to have special powers. In the process, Jones survives a nuclear blast, comes out from quick sand using snake as a rope, and survives the 3 drops from the waterfall. So the only thing you can expect in this movie is adventure, adventure and only adventure.

 

    The surprise element is a bit lacking. And the plots and sequences look pretty predictable. Overall it is a nice movie but has failed slightly to keep up the expectations from a typical Indiana Jones. Steven Spielberg has given a decent movie, and Harrison Ford who is 64, has done a great job as Indy.

 

My rating - 3.5/5

An Inconvenient Truth

     We are now in the 21^st century. We have computers at our desk, which perform complex tasks in milliseconds. We have cell phones which enables us to communicate with our dear ones thousand miles away. We have internet which has virtually shrunk the whole world into a single entity. We have fast cars, latest gadgets, and what not to make our lives comfortable. We have technically advanced!

 

     Everyday, each of us work in a direction to make human life more comfortable. Every new invention is targeted to reduce the human effort in some way or other. Just imagine the days, when there were no computers, no radio/televisions, no electricity, and no automobiles. We just wonder how people would be living then.

 

     The industrial revolution has brought in drastic changes in the lifestyle of people. But wait! In the process of making life comfortable, are we neglecting something? Yes. We have ignored our environment. We have ignored our world. The same world where we are living. The very same world which provided us with the resources such as water, air, climate for our survival. All our technological advancements have adversely impacted our nature. And when the nature cant take it anymore, none of us can face its wrath.

 

     This post is inspired by the documentary film ‘An Inconvenient Truth ’ which addresses the issues of global warming. The film highlights the major contributors to Global warming and its effects which can be found here . The film ends with a positive note, giving a few simple but effective steps to check global warming which can be found here .

 

     I believe that we can save our world if each of us contributes. But what stops us from following these simple steps? The below phrase explains it very well.    

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his non understanding it"  – Upton Sinclair.

Five Point Someone : Book Review

     What actually got me to this book was the hype around it. The book was released in 2004 and remained as the bestseller till 2007. That was enough for me to grab a copy and start reading. May be I m very late in reading the book. I should admit that, to quite an extent, the book lived up to my expectation. Chetan Bhagat (IIT+IIM), the author, has the ability to narrate the story in a very lucid manner. The book has around 270 pages and can be completed within half a day. And once you start reading this book, I m sure you will not stop until you finish - all at one go J

 

     The story is that of three friends who join for Mechanical Engineering at IIT, Delhi. Hari is the narrator of the story. He often finds Viva terrible and lands up in soup as he is not able to answer the questions in spite of knowing the correct answers. He falls in love with Neha, the daughter of HOD of Mechanical Dept. Ryan is a tall, handsome and smart guy who hates mugging. He is innovative in nature. He often comes up with new designs in class but is pushed to follow the conventional designs by the professors. He gradually starts hating professors and stops attending classes. Then there is Alok, who comes from a very poor financial background. He aspires to become an artist, but then decides to study hard and join IIT so that he can get a good job in future and support his family. His father is not well and is undergoing treatment for paralysis and his mother is the only earning member.

 

     Ryan, who finds IIT curriculum uninteresting, decides to break the whole system. He finds it useless to mug up five to six courses a semester. He comes up with new strategy - Co-operate to Dominate. Hari and Alok become followers of Ryan and soon they start spending most of their time boozing, fagging and watching movies. When things go out of control, they decide to steal the question paper from HOD’s room and end up getting caught. Their life is in a total mess now. How do they come out of that situation? That’s the climax of the story.

 

     The title ‘Five Point Someone’ indicates the relative grading system in IITs. Five pointers are the worst performers in the class and are generally ignored by all the professors. The incidents, the characters, the plot everything is described very well. The book explains ‘What not to do at IIT’. Ironically you will find those ‘not to do’ things interesting. Overall it was a nice read. I am looking forward to read ‘The 3 mistakes of my life’.

Mussanje Maathu : Movie Review (Kannada)

    It was quite sometime since I watched a movie in theatre. So I referred TOI ratings for movies released during the week, and to my surprise Mussanje Maathu (Kannada), had scored over Jannat (Hindi) and Chronicles of Narnia (English). The TOI rated it 4/5, meaning very good. So I decided to give it a try.

 

    The movie cast includes Sudeep, Ramya and Anuprabhakar. In the first scene, Sudeep meets Ramya in a train (remember Jab We Met?). But quite opposite to Jab We Met, the heroine is in a state of depression here and hero tries to console her. The JWM similarity ends there.

 

    Sudeep is an RJ at Radio Mirchi and ‘Mussanje Maathu’ is a show run by him in the evenings where depressed call him up & share their problems (remember Lage Raho Munnabhai?). So expect lot of sentimental sequences in the movie. The movie runs slow at times and Sudeep fails to impress like Sunjay Dutt in Lage Raho. The script is to blame here.

 

    I am not going to disclose further story. Mahesh, the director of the movie has done a decent work in his directorial debut. The storyline is good. Sudeep is superb in his role. The only drawback is that the emotional scenes, which are in plenty, could have been handled in a much better way.

 

My rating – 3/5 (Average)

Shah Rukh, Shah Rukh Everywhere!

Have you tried counting how many times you have a glimpse of Shah Rukh Khan everyday? Start your day reading newspaper – he is there promoting his band KKR or spreading the smile with Sunfeast! If somehow he gets missed there, Bollywood section is sure to bring him in. On your way to work/study, you can’t avoid seeing him on hoardings of Nokia / Airtel. And these make sure you don’t miss them – at the traffic signals, the underways and alike. Off you go to shop and lo! He’s there on the wrappers as one of a brand’s ambassador.

 

Then you decide to catch up with a program on the TV in the evening, It’s no wonder that he appears in every second commercial these days. Here is a list of commercials Shah Rukh can be currently seen in, with his quotes.

 

1. Nokia – Dus saal se mera sathi (?!), Hamaara Nokia.
2. Sunfeast – He can be seen in the ad cooking biscuits.
3. Airtel – Garv se bolo, Hello !
4. HP Compaq Presario - Yeh Hui Na Baat
5. Belmonte – Welcome to the Belmonte academy of style.
6. Dish TV – Thoda aur wish Karo ! Dish Karo !
7. Hyundai i10 – Don’t just follow, Catch the i.
8. Pepsi – He is portraying a dumb and funny character here being the brother of Deepika Padukone. This one is my favourites among the lot  .
9. Videocon – Match On, toh Videocon .
10. Emami Fair and Handsome – He is shown helping a guy, to look handsome.
11. Navratna Cool Talc - Duniya Ka Sabse Chhota AC.

 

And now you take up for some cricket action in IPL, then our King Khan can be seen there too cheering for his team Kolkata Knight Riders. And by chance if u decided to watch a reality show, our SRK is anchoring on Star Plus for “Kya Aap Panchvi Paas se Tez Hain”! But this time, the IPL ruins the show’s TRP. Now Shah Rukh is in a fix. Will he want people to watch his ‘Paanchvi Paas’ or IPL ? Shah Rukh vs Shah Rukh, mind it!. May be he wants people to choose IPL over ‘Paanchvi Paas’ since his money is invested there.

 

By the way I haven’t mentioned his movie presence anywhere in this post. So willingly or not, having to see Shah Rukh so many times in a day, aren’t we taking slightly an extra dose of Shah Rukh everyday ?