The Common Man

I was watching Rab Ne Bana De Jodi the other day and was struck by the way the wife describes her husband in it. She says – “My husband is a nice person, just that there is a commonness about him, the way he walks, he talks, he thinks – everything is like that of an aam aadmi”


Aam Aadmi – the common man. Did you know that “the common man is actually R K laxman’s creation. The cute old fuddy duddy with his stick and bag observing those around him and being unobserved himself. This guy came into existence in the comic strip “You said it” in Times of India in the 50’s and he struck a chord. Across generations we like this guy, empathize with him and generally we have a wry smile on our faces when we read the strip.

Cut!! So whats a common man? Why is he/she common? Coz he depicts the average population, everything about him/her is average, nothing too great or outstanding. The general majority of us fall into that category. I know I am special to my parents and among close friends, but I am still average. I don’t make heads turn when I walk neither do I make people faint with admiration when I speak. Indeed very rarely have I addressed a group of more than 10 people, if any, and held them spell bound. Not that I don’t dream of such things.


So then what is it that would make me NOT AVERAGE, NOT COMMON?


Well wealth would. The easiest possible way is amass hordes of money coz with money comes confidence and that stagger of knowing I am wearing branded clothes, driving around imported cars, talking to the who’s-who, having people to do my bidding. I am a cut above the rest, or at least quite a few of the average-ers. Hmm….so with wealth comes confidence and making people sit up and notice…….. so then why the wealth to have confidence…..could I not take a short cut and directly go to the wealth and get people to sit up and notice me?


Well, wealth gives me the power to back my words, to do things. So then there’s Power too in the equation. Oh yeah I shouldn’t forget intellect aka shrewdness. Without the capability of playing life like one would play chess, placing pawns and trying out strategies I would be a rich powerful dud translated that means super fast way to doom. Boy that’s a lot of powerful ingredients – confidence, power and intellect……looks like a lot of work and playing some hard ball too……hmm……


So what’s wrong in being a common man? He/She doesn’t turn heads or make people sit up and notice, but he /she lives a decent life, tries not to hurt anyone in the process, takes care of his loved ones, enjoys his/her moments of happiness, befriends other commoners, keeps faith, takes care of old parents, takes care of children…….ambitious to the extent that it doesn’t rock the boat too much.


We may not be outstanding, but hey we are NICE. In a world increasingly filled with violence, borders hardening and terrorism increasing, perhaps we are not a bad lot to be. Yes we may be meek, we may be more bothered by rising rents, EMI’s and telephone bills than peace talks between nations, but hey we make the world go round.

A Fun Trip

Well August 15th came and went and I am glad this year we had no untoward incidents. Indeed an anti-climax and one for which I am grateful. And i instead of cringing with anxiety in front of the TV decided to do something different this year....... :) My friend and his wife came down during that weekend and i took them to see an Athirapally waterfall which is around an hours drive from my place. It was crowded as hell since it was a holiday weekend, yet there is something so infinitely soothing about nature that just puts you into a good mood! The water was clear and quiet abundant due to the recent rains, and although my friends fell in love with the falls I was pretty nonchalant about it since I had been there like umpteen times. What I did fall in love with or simply adore about the trip was that on the way back somewhere in between the winding down road of that small hill the driver found us a quiet place to have our lunch. Mum had packed "Pathiri" (rice roti's) and curry for lunch. The place had a small clear stream with water up to 3 inches above our ankles and grassy bank.....that was heaven. You know it had been so long since i had been on a picnic......mostly in the trips I had been doing till recently, my friends and i have invariably always decided on eating at some road side stalls rather than pack lunches from home...... It was simple food, but for me, that day that place it tasted like delicious morsels from heaven. The next day we went to this place called Palayoor next to Guruvayur which is where St. Thomas first converted people to Christianity. It is claimed as the first point of entry for Christianity. “First Christian Church in India” – wikipedia.org. The place is undergoing this metamorphosis into an international pilgrimage and I wager that in years to come this will become a huge tourist destination too. St Thomas is said to have first de-embarked at Kodungallur, which he somehow didn’t find a suitable place so then he chose Palayoor as his next point. Here he saw some resident Kerala Brahmins (Namboodhiri’s) do the suryanamaskar after bathing in the pond and he challenged them to make the Hindu God accept the water they were offering. They couldn’t do that so they challenged St. Thomas back, seems he offered water which was then suspended in air for a minute before disappearing entirely. The Namboodhiri’s decided to embrace Christianity after that. What’s different about this church is that since the initial believers were from Hinduism there are quite a few things in the church which you will not normally find in other churches, like the church built has diya’s used in temples and even the practice of Thulabharam (offering your equal weight of some food particle/ flowers to god) still continues to exist in this Church. There is a huge museum built there as well, in the name of St. Thomas. This is the same St. Thomas who achieved martyrdom in Madras and in whose name you have St. Thomas Mount there.

So my independence day went in me utilizing my freedom and also exploring what our India is so great for, its natural fauna and its abundant and diverse culture. Jai Hind :)

August 15th! Independence Day! A holiday! A day where in today’s India, we are free to die at the hands of an unknown terrorist for his/her religious or financial or fanatic cause! My initial thoughts as this day approaches are usually on the lines of – “ Do Not Travel. Avoid crowded places and try to stay out of Metro’s” And after each August 15th I heave a sigh of relief – “phew escaped!”

Through the day itself I invariably keep scanning the channels to check if a blast has occurred or not, where have we been hit? I know its not just me either, I know the entire nation is gripped with the same thoughts, we may miss our national flag hoisting or even forget to stand up in respect for our national anthem but seldom do we allow ourselves to miss the grotesque details of mindless violence unleashed in our country on OUR DAY!

I am scared, I am concerned and I bloody well identify with Nasureedin Shah’s character in the movie “A Wednesday”. Where do we stop this? How do we get it stopped? Exercising my voting rights, ensuring awareness displaces ignorance or getting into the citizen police act all helps and contributes to save ourselves and our country but it feels like a drop of water against the red ocean of terrorism.

Intelligent society says as “Love” is the only vaccine for HIV so too is it the only vaccine for terrorism. But I am no Buddha to smile in the face of uncalled for anger and violence. I react with a mind filled with impotent fury and then get even more frustrated when I realize that my reactions don’t count.

It’s at times like this that I wish technological advancements had been restricted to only the field of medical science. After all without bombs and nuclear weapons we wouldn’t have been able to kill so many of us at one go huh?

Amidst all these thoughts I await Independence Day. May my country’s flag fly high and proudly with no blood shed to stain it. Jai Hind!

The Romance in Fragrances

A perfume has 3 notes - the head, the heart and the base. The head note is what you initially smell, the first impression, the heart note is what lingers and pervades your senses and the base note is what you are finally left with.......Astounding!!!! i never knew there was such romance to perfumes.....!!!

To me a perfume means nothing more than something to mask your body odor and that’s a nasty way of looking at it, I confess. Perfumes conjure up well groomed images, persons with manicured hands, attired to the occasion...... the final touch that lends the right "AAH" factor. And I truly envy those sorts; they seem ethereal and confident, as if they could handle anything that comes their way. I know i know.....don’t judge a book by its cover and blah blah......but hey what’s wrong in having an attractive cover?!!!

I’ve never been able to identify perfumes, fragrances….indeed it took me a long while to discover the existence of Eau de Cologne, Par fume extracts, Eau de Perfume, deodorants and what not…..But hey I am not a lost cause all together, I do know the basics…..perfume is meant not to be sprayed on but to be dabbed on your pulse points…the base of your neck, behind your ears, wrists, where the body emits heat and the perfume rises up around you mingling with your own body scent (or odor!). As the famous Coco Chanel quote goes - ''Wear perfume wherever you want to be kissed'' Lovely isn’t it?

Which reminds me….well yeah I like the romantic part of perfume and fragrances but then the business side of it got me curious, who are the top selling perfume companies in the world……well for one its called the fragrance and flavor industry and I discovered names that I had never heard of before like….GIVAUDAN, SYMRISE, IFF, TAKASAGO, FIRMENICH….. well Givaudan leads the pack is what I could make out from the net and they are headquartered in Switzerland with an all over the world presence but then the names didn’t strike a chord with me…..so I thought let me then read up on Chanel itself and I discovered Chanel No. 5 - “The company estimates that a bottle is sold worldwide every 30 seconds”

A perfume that was introduced in 1921 and is termed as a legendary scent…… my noses started twitching (pun intended!) While the history of how this perfume came about is interesting to read it, I liked the fact that I was able to uncover the three notes of this successful fragrance so lemme share that bit of info with you - Chanel No. 5 is classified as a floral-aldehyde. Its top notes include ylang ylang, neroli and synthetic long chain aldehydes such as 2-methylundecanal; its mid notes may rose and jasmine; and its base notes sandalwood, vetiver and vanilla.

Well, I guess its time to wonder about the scents and see if I can make myself a well groomed person too…..never too late for a make over I think, what say?

Musings

Amazing isn’t it how places and weather makes a difference in the way we react. Imagine waking up every day drenched in sweat, which is more than likely how you would wake up in Chennai minus air-conditioning!! With a start like that, no day seems worth smiling for. You wake up with a scowl and then listlessly move yourself till the first cup of caffeine is downed. My brother says that’s why he likes Bangalore so much, coz you at least wake up with a smile after a refreshing night of sleep in a mild weathered environment. So I guess weather makes a lot of difference to our temperaments!! But then I also realize that when I am in my hometown in kerala even when the place is hotter than Chennai these days (blame it on global warming!) I still wake up in sweat and yet with a smile!! So that got me thinking!!! Its not just the weather that makes a difference, eh? I kind of zeroed in on COMFORT factor. Comfort is not just with respect to your body but also when the mind is at peace ……….so what’s being at peace….? Peace to me is a state of mind where fear and stress are absent. I find it when I am laughing over a particularly hilarious joke, book or movie ….i find it when I am moved by a lovely melody……. I find it when I go to the temple and pray….. It’s not long lasting but its there with me through different moments of each day. Today, I went to the local supermarket here at my hometown and the cashier goofed up on the billing, had I been in Chennai I would have at the very minimum given an irritated glance and at the very maximum blasted the lady for wasting my time. But I am not in Chennai, I am in laid back Trichur, and what do we do here, we smile at the person encouragingly and say that’s okay, do it again!! And you come out of the supermarket feeling good. Why can’t I do that in Chennai?!! Coz the place is not built like that? Am I not being a hypocrite by dishing out two behaviors for the same situation just coz am at two different places? So what’s the deal here? The deal is the pace…… in a slow paced environment you really don’t need to rush off and do something so you can spend a few extra minutes and its not gonna cost you anything…….in a fast paced environment you need to get out of the supermarket and then rush home before you get caught in the traffic (and still manage to reach 30 mins late) and then cook dinner and go for a walk and talk to your family and prepare for office next day and….and ….and…..aaaaaagghhhhhh !!!! no wonder you get pissed off at the slightest instances. So weather, comfort, peace and pace…… hmmm…. That’s a bit hard to get altogether huh? J Recently I heard of a movie Benjamin Franklin where the protagonist starts life as an old man and then progresses to age reversely. I like that concept, in fact I need to watch that movie. My good friend Anup has told me over and over again that I was born old and that with my character I should have been born in the BC’s or AD’s. These days at home, when I sit with my parents and the only task I have is to drop dad at office in the morning and then in the evening take out dad for a walk; I simply wonder if perhaps Anup’s right after all!! I like this slow paced life where my biggest worry is if the garden was watered or not!! Perhaps as in the movie I too shall age reversely, wouldn’t it be jolly good fun if in my 60’s I would develop a habit of going dancing!!! Hahaha

Destiny

“A book turned into a film is like a daughter given away in marriage and the film is like a son-in-law. A wise man never says a bad thing about his son in law” said Sanker Mujherji a famous Bengali writer whose books were adapted by Satyajit Ray. Slum Dog Millionaire, the most written about, talked about movie of recent times, feels just that a daughter given away in marriage. The location, crew, sets, actors……all Indians, the winner of Golden Globe awards and having ten oscar nominations. Feels good except for a annoying twinge of a thought that keeps popping up, is it due to a white man being at the helm of affairs? :( There have definitely been more hard hitting movies than this one which Indian Cinema can lay claim too but not any which have awards of this status to back up this claim. But to give credit where it is due, the movie is a wonderfully woven tale, with the answers to each question that leads the hero to being a “millionaire” being shown as a phase in his life. The visual feast that’s offered in the beginning of the movie when the children run with the police close on their heels is amazing. The shots come in from aerial and ground view and it’s done amazingly well. That one chase sets the ground for the tale to be told. I personally fell in love with the last scene where the question is a double edged sword – “What is the name of the third musketeer?” A question that holds a world of meaning to the hero…. :)The cynic in me, however, just can’t digest the fact that everything was for love. Especially when a penniless Jamal suggested running away to Latika only to be turned down due to economic reasons, has the very same Latika frantically running to him once he is on “THE SHOW” with a good chance of winning. And of course the question that baffles me..........how could it be that a child at a tender age forms a strong attachment which would then have him searching the red light area of Mumbai in his pre teens to recover her? Help her escape from the red light area with the aid of a pistol and a trigger happy brother and then relinquish her to the brother.....and then years later still have the "STRONG ATTACHMENT" in place......so much so that he goes on to be a millionaire just for her....... D. Its written Destiny the mother of all unanswered questions!! The ultimate Indian paradox :)

Poetic justice

"Poetic justice - Think: "What comes around goes around." In its purest form, poetic justice is when one character plots to undermine another and then ends up caught in his own trap" - quoted from contemporarylit.about.com

I watched a movie titled Cycle recently and it sort of touched me in its simplicity and presentation. The movie is based on the theme of Poetic Justice, where a honest god fearing man is cheated out of his life long savings by the villain within the first ten minutes itself. What ensues is one and half hours of different characters being woven into the plot, how the money at the end returns to the man and his family and the villain falls prey to the same situation the honest man had faced.

In an era of Matrix's, Aniyan's, Ghajini, etc its so nice to be able to watch a simple movie where surprise surprise, the end is the most predictable one and not something that had the outer realms woven in or the CIA involved and god knows what....... :)

I kinda miss those Amol Palekar Movies where the stories were simple, and the subtleties of dialogue were the highlight. Simple scenes where offering tea to a guest at home, didnt involve the "Bahu or Saas" wearing designer bindi's and saree's :)

There was a movie during my college days which was based on a revolutionary son and a traditional father and their intellectual clashes. At the peak of the movie, the son demands for his child to be returned to him as he doesn't want the grand-child to grow up with the constricted traditional thoughts of the father. The father turns back at that moment and tells the son " But i never demanded that my son be the replica of me, i always gave him a freedom to choose, in thought and in action." The irony of the situation, touched many among the audience then.

Well, it was a lovely change to watch a movie which very like all my first story books, all the fairy tales where everything is black and white - Good meets good and at the end evil shall be destroyed......

Laugh like there is no tommorow

The earlier two posts also talk about new beginnings and well two is about as far as i got in the past 3 months time!!!! However, today on New Year's Day i just couldnt let the day pass by without a note in my long forgotten blog!!

Just a few musings today, i used to think of new year as a big deal, but then now with time it feels like just another day. So many occassions which previously meant an excuse to party and get together now all seem to be bogus hall mark created occasions. While my parents would like to believe that i am finally getting sensible, i hate this line of thinking, coz it makes me feel old and cynical!!! Whats wrong in finding an excuse to laugh and make merry?!! but these days it feels like bah humbug!!!!

Growing old aint aching bones and longer pages in your medical report, its when you start frowning more and smiling less. Youth is laughing like there is no tommorow and that is a bloody exhilirating feeling, just laughing..... no cost and yet priceless!!

Well my new year resolution is to be silly!! Sounds stupid eh? well i guess it does but thats what i want to do. I yearn for that giddiness that comes with abandoning yourself to silly laughter and although i cant create it at will, i shall try to create more opportunities for myself to be like that....what say??