Anand & Raghu

Anand and Raghu are the two quintessential larger than life characters ever created in the history of Hindi cinema and courtesy and encomium to the late timeless superstar Shri Rajesh Khanna who exhibited enormous acting ability while playing these characters on the silver screen. I must also revere Late Sri Hrishikesh Mukherjee who created the two flawless magical characters and molded them with utmost exquisiteness thereby creating two masterpiece of visual art viz Anand and Bawarchi.

While one romanced with death and taught us to live beyond the fear of death, the other restructured the pillars of a broken house and transformed it into a home. Anand believed in having a big life rather than a long one and Raghu attempted to rejuvenate the family affection and togetherness. They both depicted nothing new but simple things like sharing, spreading happiness and making an effort to be the reason for someone’s smile. The interesting thing is that the pain with the death of Anand was the same as that with the parting of Raghu from the Sharma family. They stand in parallel in their effort of restoring the emotions of life

Every time I watch the two characters, an ambience of vivacity and positivity surrounds me. They somehow soften my skeptical mind and enable to see the beauty of life in small things. They push me to introspection and prompt me to defuse all squabbles that are affecting my life without much of a reason. They instigate me to transform from a stolid being to an emotive one. They make me cry out of their goodness. I fall for the characters every time I see them on screen. I am sure everybody experiences the same flare of positive vehemence.

Anand and Raghu in real do not symbolize a human but a way of life. They try to imbibe in us the outlook to realize the colors beyond the despair and complexities of life. I wonder whether people like Anand and Raghu exist in real. They are the epitome of bonhomie. When I look back there have been moments when I have experienced traces of both in others, sometimes in complete strangers. The truth is that there exists an Anand and a Raghu in all of us. It is just our haplessness that we have suppressed them. We think we are more practical when we refrain from such simplicity and innocence. We are so much lost in our personal growth that we ignore and doubt the love, affection and generosity provided by our kin or folks. It is however a matter of complete choice to alive anand and raghu in our cognition. I wish things was that easy as I am writing and we could contemplate such a change and rejoice life like Anand and Raghu. 

My Prized Possession

The earliest memory of you is lying on either side of mamma in a blanket and fighting for two things. First your side is full in blanket while mine is in scanty and second that mamma loves me more than you. Another recollection is that of going to school on the two-wheeler with papa and you holding me from the back.

Growing up with you was not at all sweet and never easy!! You set difficult academic heights, did exceptionally well in everything you ventured, drawing, painting, spelling bee, games or sports. The double promotion is nursery to the rank one holder in mental math quizzes to school topper in 10^th to NTSE accolades. In addition to the above you made fun of my poor mathematic ability. You irritated me and fought with me for minute things. You plotted against my expensive gifted pens, my dinosaurs printed blanket, my new study table and many other things which I can not remember now. There were only three days in the whole year when you were very generous to me; my birthday, rakhi, and bhai dooj. And then there was one golden day called your birthday when your love was evident in every form. You were an angel on that red letter day. You would try to make me feel super special as others were busy making you feel special. These were the only days when I need not require being alert from your pranks and plottingJ. On several occasions I had to use your old textbooks which I hated the most on a superficial manner but felt gifted from inside. You were always the bossy one, I think you still are! Actually I always thought you were the smartest. So I secretly copied you in every way, whether food habits, reading style etc.    

When you left after your 10^th, I never thought you were away from home. My belief was supported by the physical distance. I mean your were just few hours away. It was kind of relief in fact, no more regular fights and disturbance. I finally had the space and authority over things. No more complexes from your presence. But when you left for your college, it was really hard. You were going miles away to a different land altogether. It was huge complication to whether be happy for your new endeavors or get sad for your long absence from home. It also marked the end of childhood days. You transformed from an irritating elder brother who would secretly take full care and shower his love on his younger sister to a boring reserved guardian pampering with too much affection and care. 

Today life has changed so much. I get the positive feeling that it is all for the best. You have taken care of me in umpteen ways. You try hard to make my life as comfortable as possible even though staying so far. You make me feel stronger whenever I am low. You show the immense confidence in me that I would land up very high in my career. You actively participate in my decisions and offer wise suggestion. It feels so good when you recharge my phone with larger value within minutes on just one say or order Dominos or something else from Jabong, flipkart etc on one call. You are rigid on me travelling by air only etc. It is reveling when you offer me the leg pieces without a grief or when you regularly prepared chicken, brought chocolates, ice creams and took me for shopping when I was staying with you for a while in Mumbai.

When I look back, I recollect that for the last 22 years you have been more than an exceptional brother. When young you never bored me with lectures to do better like other people but set live examples to follow and improve. You imbibed in me the process of self learning and introspection. You have always motivated in your own unique shuttle ways. You are not really a good teacher considering your expectation of high stimulus from the protégé in the subject but whatever topic you taught, I did excel in it. I also remember the day you gave me your mobile phone even when you equally liked it. You were of immense support when I was giving interviews for my first job. The truth is you believe in me more than I believe in myself and so in future for every high in my career, you would be the sole proprietor

There are so many such moments when you made me feel larger than life. You in real make me feel secured in every walk of my life. It is difficult to thank God for the amazing prize showered upon me when born. You are my prized possession. I am so privileged to have you as my elder brother.

       

the five letter magic word

In our effort of a picture perfect life we often encounter with this five letter magic word sorry. Our reaction to the word varies to the mood we are into or the repercussion caused by the mistake. We are angry, ruthless, disappointed and in the rarest condition forgiving at the person who did the mistake. The intent of sorry is to express the regret of not matching the set expectations. It is in real the courtesy shown by the delinquent after going astray. It is tragic that we return the courtesy in most times in an unfair way. Although this magic word is exchanged from both ends howbeit we dismiss it like platitude when it is excerpted by others without realizing our frequency of usage.

Sorry has now a day become an indispensable tool in dealing with our life. It is true that we are human not flawless machines and so mistakes are prone to ensue. The aspect to keep in mind is that when we say sorry the intent should remain afore said. We should be honest with ourselves and mean it. Sorry is an expression of trust and not an excuse and so we should never misuse it.  Sometimes sorry cannot redeem the disturbance caused in both tangible and intangible form and so we should never take it as granted. Sorry is an attempt of redemption. We should therefore never retreat it. When others mistake this courteous gesture as a cloak to cover the irresponsible actions, it is not our fault but the misfortune of the others.  

In a super hit movie the protagonist says that to do a mistake is easy, getting angry at others over a mistake is also easy but to apologize by accepting our mistakes requires a lot of courage. That is really true and such an effort does not go in vain. We do receive forgiveness for our slipup. 

Deep down the memory lanes....

Deep down the memory lanes

is still alive those golden days 

when the life was not so hard

it was all about joy and no pain

Good Mornings had the Disney date

afternoon was for eat, sleep or play

outdoor evening was huge delight

long stories were meant for night.

Rivers flowing across the hills

scenic rainbow in the behind

birds, trees, huts and woods

our little canvas had all inside

The stars twinkled in the eyes 

the sun was always very kind

splash in water was so much fun

the strong winds were also fine

Life has changed so much I feel

one doubt at everything one see

the pressure to carry all the time

a fake smile & a calculative mind

I wish things change as it used to be

no more greed for winning everything

an optimist heart and an open mind

love and laughter in sync with me. 

Education..the foothill of prosperity

Food, clothing and shelter are considered as the basic needs required for surviving in a civilized society. The Maslow’s hierarchy of physiological needs includes food, love, shelter and the choice to mate as the survival needs. There are several other theories also that elucidate the basic requirements of human beings. The significant note is that most of these theories omit education as the fundamental need for survival.

What is education? Well it can be defined in numerous ways. The best definition as per my knowledge and understanding is that by Mahatma Gandhi. He says, “Education is an all round development of the best in the human’s body, mind and soul”. Education draws out the best in us. It is education that makes us realize what we are and what we can become. It brings the confidence in us to act and put an opinion Education helps us in identifying and then relating to the outer world. It facilitates in addressing all our needs and procuring them. We become self sufficient and self dependent. It makes us a free human at last. 

Without education we are always at the mercy of others. We have fewer opportunities, limited choices and almost no say in our own welfare and development. Life remains stagnant with no growth. Another laidback is that an uneducated person would hardly put effort to educate his or her children. Thus it ensures another generation suffering with fewer opportunities, limited choices and almost no say as a result. The democratic system of government is in fact superficial in such a situation. A democracy is successful only when the people are educated and are aware and confident of their rights. A democracy cannot expect responsible citizens if it is devoid of education  

An uneducated person is therefore a burden on himself, his family, his society and his country. So it is the responsibility of all the four to make sure that none of us is left behind from it. However the conventional mode of education starts at a young age and so it is the duty of the family, society and country to ensure that no child is left uneducated. We are a fortunate nation as our government has realized the above and granted Right to free and compulsory Education as the fundamental right. As per RTE Act every government school would provide free and compulsory education to all its students and every private school will make certain that 25% of its seat is filled by children from poor section under no fee scheme. We also have a strong law against child labor. Thus the country has done its duty by laying down strong laws to ensure an educated nation. The same needs to be done by the society and the family. We as responsible society need to raise our voice against the workplaces that employ children as cheap source of labor and devoid them from education. We need to work really hard to bridge this huge gap of educated and uneducated class that persists in India and hinder our development measures.

Education has the capacity to rejuvenate mankind. It is fundamental demand and should not be compromised. We need to amend our theories which ignore the path to education which in turn is the foothill to prosperity.

City life... a fresh revise!!!

The mechanized metro life leaves us with little liberty to act as per our will. The five minute delay in waking up results in either improper intake of food or sometimes no breakfast at all. An extra minute with the newspaper in the morning and we miss our scheduled bus and are sure shot late for work. In reality we daily witness a defined time to eat, pray, love, work and sleep. Life has become so watertight that even a minute laxity holds a capacity to disturb our eco system. The little buffer that some of us are able to have is also completely on the mercy of others.  Less people in the queue at bus stop, appropriate change with the ticker counter guy, no traffic jams and good mood of the boss at work are some of the many.  Interestingly we all assume that the whole setup is normal and succumb to this preset world by choice

The above is not the story of only weekdays. Weekends are sometimes worst than that. Things are mechanized there too. A random plan of dinner on weekends is simply out of question. Every chosen restaurant requires a ample waiting. Malls are jam-packed, multiplexes are houseful without a prior booking and parking area is endless. The worst is the heavy traffic which all has to encounter no matter what. 

So in this fast running metro life where every breath is measured and every second counts and also costs it is really a difficult job to enjoy life in a conventional way. Everyday is a huge struggle to find our own space and a peace of mind. There is the constant fear of not in pace with this world. Mobile phones, internet apps, facebook timeline, twitter updates etc have just added so much pressure in our every day life.  Everything has become E-oriented: E-mail, E-cards, E-shopping, E-books etc. We in fact live dual life altogether: the happening E-life and the not so happening real life. 

It is said that life has a unique attribute that we somehow find an alternative to every hurdle of our life in an innate way.  So friends lets find an alternative to this too and start having a life out of this robot life. We cannot change everything but can amend some. A small change can bring out huge differences. Let us start by making some real connections instead of the electronic one, let us talk in person instead of electronic chatting. Let us at least try to break free from this mechanized world. Let us earn 10% less and live 20% more. Let us not fear from planning a vacation with folks or taking a small break. Why not start enjoying a new hobby.  It is not late yet, it is just the beginning. Lets not be slaves of our future needs, let us be the master of today.  We must make this new generation realize that having 100 friends on facebook means nothing if we don’t have the 10 memorable moments of enjoyment spent together. Let us give time to our loved ones instead of just complains and frustration. Come on people stop pleasing your boss for a while and start greeting your kith and kin with smile. 

Let us walk in the grass and dance in the rain.

Let us give fear a damn and start living again.